The Tavern

"That's awfully paranoid of your world, how bad's your defense forces anyway?" asked Jennifer.

"Yeah, not to mention this place isn't in your world to begin with, none of these people will ever be able to set foot in your world, only go back to theirs, its how these places work," added Harry.

Then the man clutched his head, groaning in pain, sweating profusely.

Both Hardy's frowned but didn't move to do anything. They exchanged a look. Harry could clearly see Jennifer didn't trust this man any more than he did but...he could also see the slight glimmer of concern hidden in her eyes. After all, if the man was in genuine pain, they couldn't just ignore it. In the end they came to an unspoken agreement to wait for the situation to develop further.

James started crashing into tables and bumping into people, he tried to apologize but his voice was slurred and hard to make out, his face began to pale and he reached into his pocket to grab his phone with shaking hands. he dialed in a number, before collapsing on the ground.

Spoiler

I've been absent for a while, but technically, Greed has been spending this time having a little self-pity party and guzzling poison. I think it's about time they hopped back into the action.

Someone shoved against Greed's back and went stumbling away, fiddling with a phone before sprawling out on the ground, unconscious and feverish-looking. Greed's drink had been tipped over, and the bartender was hurrying to mop it up before it melted through the counter.

Greed was on him in a second - initially intending to chew him out for drunken misconduct - but instead they just scooped his phone out of his hand. Reparations for Greed's spilled drink.

They looked at it for half a beat before a wicked smirk flashed on their face. They could hang up. They pressed the call button instead.

Spoiler

Since James is out I'm going to be Andrew Watson for a bit. He's in charge of recording all the files of monsters and stuff into a computer. He's young about 16.

Andrew picked up the phone "hey James what's up? Got any new details on the case?"

"James is out right now," Greed said smoothly, "Who is this?"

Andrew frowned "and who might you be" he asked.

"That hardly matters," Greed waved him off, "I asked first."

"I'm Andrew" he said "I would love to get to know you better Miss um...Miss, but I have a lot of work to do. Is James OK? His stats say he's unconscious. Please make sure he doesn't die, he still owes me an ice-cream cone, 2 sodas and 5 bucks" Andrew says as he resumes typing on his computer.

Greed growled, "Call me 'miss' again and I'll make your life hell." The strings around him danced and swayed, tensing and pulling as Greed felt around for his lifeline. They'd taint it, twist it into something monstrous...

"I'm so, so, so sorry" Andrew apologized profusely, he meant it too. "I refer to everyone by miss or mister, I didn't know you didn't like it, is there something else I should refer to you by?"

Greed rolled their eyes. "Call me Greed."

Human. He was definitely, painfully human.

Andrew nodded "Greed, that's a sick name, I like it" he said. "So um...where is James?"

"Couldn't handle his liquor from the looks of it," Greed snickered. "James is his name?" Greed stepped over the unconscious form of the man in question and wandered back to the bar. They signaled the barkeep to replace that drink James had caused them to spill.

Andrew hesitated "um...Greed, he didn't drink anything, his stats show little signs of alcohol, deffinetely not enough to cause him to lose consciousness."

Harry and Jennifer exchanged looks. Greed had apparently decided to get involved again, coming out of whatever she had been doing drinking a load of poison.

Harry raised his eyebrows and Jennifer just shrugged and pointed towards James.

"Should we take him outside to resolve this?" asked Harry.

"Normally I would say yes but from what I can hear of that phone conversation, this is a little more serious," said Jennifer, "and I was listening because of course this could be a matter of security, not cause I was eavesdropping."

Harry winked. "Of course."

"Shall we talk to Greed then?" asked Harry.

"Potentially a good idea, the tone she's using suggests that she thinks of whoever is on the other side an inferior puny sort of person, and I'm assuming that's because she's potentially someone who might know where we actually are isn't just a tavern, so it might help," said Jennifer.

"Let's just go talk and find out," said Harry, moving towards Greed.

"Excuse me, Greed," said Harry, taking care to make enough noise as he walked up so they wouldn't be startled.

"We believe this guy is probably in trouble," said Jennifer, taking care to speak loudly enough for the person on the other end of the line to hear, hoping her plan worked.