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Adventures in the Golden Nexus and the Rest of the Multiverse, Arc 1

The door to an inn slams open as a battered lizardlike figure enters the area, muttering to himself in his native language about how off he feels.  Hobbling over the tiled floor and crashing at the bar, he gives off a sigh but situated himself in respect for the bartender, a grey wolf that stands on two legs and wears merch for a comic book the lizard hasn't even heard of.
"May I take your order, sir?" asked the Bartender.
In response, the lizard pressed a button on his chest, holding it.  What came out of his mouth was practically gibberish, but a synthesized voice that came from the button translated the message perfectly.
"I'll take two glasses of water," he said, "One's for my friend.  He should be right behind me."
"...Interesting choice," the wolf said, "But I'm not one to judge.  Two glasses of water, coming right up."

He began to pour the water from a tap.

His companion sits down next to him, with a tired expression. He is also a lizard person, but he lacks the translation device his friend has. His name is Fye, and he wears a soldier's uniform.

"Carbon based life drink water. I don't see why he had to be so rude."

____________
Meanwhile...
Iridus steps out of the dock. Its vacation starts today. It decides visit a famous Nexus city. Perhaps the Golden Nexus? It had a reasonably short Gateway Path.

"It's okay," the first one suggested as he caught the glass of water that was slid to him, "It's late and he must have had a long day."

"Yeah, I suppose we can relate."

Fye looked around.

He sighed and said, "Anyway, we should find a lead soon. Think we should ask around?"

________
Iridus decided to switch tense went to the gateway checkpoint after packing some belongings. This gateway would bring it back to Earth. Its home earth, anyway.
...

"Thank you sir. You have a nice day as well," it said as it proceeded through the gateway.

"In a few moments," Enso said, also looking around the inn as he sipped on his water, "I'm not in a rush.  I'm finishing this beverage first, then we can ask around."

Aster stepped out into the streets of the Golden Nexus, and took a look around. Coming here was something he'd wanted to do for a while now, and being on break he was planning to stay around for a week or so, but now that he was here... it was a little overwhelming.

He checked the tourism pamphlet he was holding. The map marked out a lot of places of interest, but he didn't really know where to start.

...Maybe I'll just walk around for now, he thought. I don't have to get to where I'm staying for a good few hours yet.

Fye took a sip of his water as well.
______
Iridus stepped out of the Gateway of the Golden Nexus. This one was exit only, and had to be guarded. Said guards were mechanical ones overseen by a wraith.

"Enjoy your stay," said the speaker by the gate.

The ocean of Deepest Black was by no means small or claustrophobic, but the facility and the submarines could become so, and the feeling of being trapped in a dark abyss between miles and miles of ice and rock could weigh heavily on researchers after a time. That was why it was important to take regular breaks from the place. It also stepped out onto the street, and nearly bumped into a human holding a tourism pamphlet.

It adopted the speech pattern of a robotic guard.
"Greetings." it addressed the stranger in a droning, but still somewhat firm monotone, "You are slightly obstructing movement out of this accessway. Please move."

After a few more sips, Enso sets his now empty glass of water down, along with a few credits.  "I hope this is okay," he said to the Bartender, who nodded at the lizardman.
"Thank you," he said, "Enjoy your stay at Katson inn."
"You're welcome," Enso said, standing up and letting go of his translator.  "I needed that.  Now where were we?"

Glen takes a step into the bar, before walking forward and stopping near the two salumen, at which point he begins to thoroughly scan through the menu.

Aster turned around, and was surprised to see a robot addressing him.
"O-oh, uh, sorry," he replied, stepping to the side. "Didn't realise I was in the way."
He took a second to look over the robot as well, and thought.
I haven't seen many of these kinds of machines around Toria... I feel like I should know which world they're from...

Fye shifts slightly away from the imposingly tall sharkperson who stopped near him.

"(We need to start our investigation. Now that I think about it, my earlier suggestion with asking around was pretty silly, but we can access data banks from different worlds from here.)"

Enso, after making brief eye contact with the vaguely sharkish being, walked up to him and raised one of his three-digit hands.  "Good evening," he said, "My name is Enso Domin. Do you..."
He quickly turned to Fye, who told him that asking around was pretty stupid.  Besides, Enso didn't want to get kicked out of an establishment on the first day in the Nexus anyway.
"Never mind, sir," he said, "Carry on.  ...So a library or something?"

"Uh, alrighty then," Glen says, going back to eyeing the menu.

"(That sounds good. I hope it's not out of custom to be curious about weapons in a library.)"
______________
Iridus switched back to its regular voice, which was much more natural and friendly. It liked pretending to be a stern guard. The persona amused it.
"It's alright. Have you been here before? I have a few times."

Aster was a bit startled by the sudden switch in voice. Oh, was it just... like, pretending to be more robotic than it is...?
"No, this is my first time," he replied. "I've wanted to come for a while, and this is the first time I've had a decent opportunity."

"If we play our cards right, we can just appear as curious tourists," Enso suggested, "Maybe we can ask around not for a weapon, but for a library."

"I see," Iridus said, "Well if you need a place to stay, you can sleep at the Katson Inn. They can set up their rooms to look like various different places so their guests are comfortable."

"Unless you live somewhere extreme, such as a volcano!" It added jovially.

With an afterthought, it asked, "Do you know what a volcano is?"
_____
"(That sounds good. Go on then!)"

Enso nodded at his comrade before glancing for the Goilen.  After a few moments, he shrugged it off, looking around the tables for someone to ask.  He figured someone knew, but didn't know how to ask without being a hinder to the entire room.

Aster just kinda stared blankly at Iridus for a moment.
"...Uh, thanks, I'll keep that in mind," he eventually said. "And, yes I do know what a volcano is, no I don't live in one. Not many do in Toria, as far as I know."
He checked his map again. The Katson Inn was marked on it: it didn't look too far away from where he was.

After twenty full seconds of thinking, Enso just realized there was probably a map in the general vicinity of the area.
"There has to be a map somewhere," he told Fye, walking back to the main lobby of the Inn.

Glen is still eyeing the menu. "You got anything light?" he asks the bartender.

-

"What's a volcano?" Dee suddenly butts into the conversation between Iridus and Aster, appearing from basically out of nowhere.

"It's a Nexus city. The people here live in all sorts of places. I currently live under a layer of ice thicker than the width of this city!... probably.- oh hello?" Iridus turned towards the newcomer, "Well... are you familar with mountains?"

Ninja'd!
___________
Fye looked around, and saw what looked like a massive rack of maps near the front desk of the inn.

He pointed towards it saying, "(There.)"

Aster looked at Dee, a little confused. Who is this...? he thought.
"Uh, a volcano is... well, I could go into a lot of detail, but basically it's a mountain that erupts lava every once in a while."
He turned back to Iridus. "So, back to what you were saying... Which world is that in? I don't think I've heard of anywhere like that before."

Katson Inn Bar

"Of course," said the Bartender, proceeding to list all the light beverages he knows about, clearly more knowledgeable about alcoholic beverages than I am.

Katson Inn Lobby

"Excellent," Enso said, taking the initiative to walk over to the counter and grabbing two maps.  He gave Fye one of the maps as he walked back and opened his own.  "If my English is right, it says the nearest Library is just 700 meters accross," he proceeded to tell Fye, "Which really isn't bad for a city this size at all."

Glen orders one of the beverages from the menu that seems familiar to him, clearly more knowledgeable about alcoholic beverages than I am too.

-

"Huh, I'd assume that something that rad wouldn't be out of my world... Alright."