The Hungover

[Skippy]

Sparkling lights drown the room in color and make your eyes spin or is that from the alcohol? Your heart is pounding to the rhythm of the music, the dancing, the laughter, all of it. There’s movement all around you, the floor feels like it’s making you dance. Your feet can’t find purchase yet you still manage to stand. The party is overwhelming to your senses. Exhilarating! You find yourself forgetting the time and not caring. You hope it keeps going. The lights, the drinks, the dancing the laughter.
Lights. Drinks. Dancing. Laughter.
Li_hts. Drin_s. D_nci_g. La_gh_er.
_i_hts. D_in_s. D_n_i__. La__h_er.
_i_h_s. D___s. __n____. L_____er.
____________________________
Everything goes black.

6th of Harvest Moon, 9990th Year of Champion’s Peace.

6:13 AM, Outskirts of Lurelin Village.

Mirai groaned as consciousness came back to her in waves. What happened last night? She briefly recalled flashes of a party of some sort but after a certain point, everything was a blank. Light shining against her eyelids prompted her to open them, an action she instantly regretted as she was immediately greeted by the blinding light of the early morning sun shining through the palm trees. Wait… Why was she asleep outside? She was staying at the inn not camping-

Panic surged through her and she sat up despite her aching head. Experience taught her that waking up in unfamiliar places meant one of two things:
Possibility A: Potion experiment gone wrong.
Possibility B: Someone just mugged her.

When she checked her pockets, her wallet was still there much to her relief. However, that relief was quickly replaced with distress when she realized something incredibly important was missing. Her twin waterskins, the large ones she carried on her hips, were nowhere to be found. Their contents, while fake, were still valuable to potential customers. Her entire product was gone. In their place was something that was definitely not hers.

It was a trumpet.

Why in the name of all the holy deities did she have a (very expensive looking) trumpet?! Did she steal it? Was someone looking for it? Was she going to get arrested?!

“WHAT?!” Her frustration finally burst and she screeched. The combined hangover and panic caused nausea to bubble into her stomach and she shot to her feet. From her new vantage point she could see she wasn’t the only one in this predicament. Three others were passed out nearby. They had all been sleeping in a tiny clearing between a cluster of palm trees right outside of the village. She could see the sun rising over the buildings, some fisherman leaving their homes to catch an early morning haul. Overall a beautiful scene soiled by four hungover idiots sleeping on the ground. Mirai would have loved to just ditch the group and go on a rampage finding her precious waterskins, but her immediate concern was toward her stomach.

“Get up! GET UP!” Mirari screamed again as she ran, tripping over her own feet as she went to empty the contents of her stomach behind a tree. Well, it sucked, but she felt a little bit better afterward. With her panic calming, her mind also was able to reason that, if they had all been at the same party last night then maybe one of them saw what happened to her waterskins. It'd be best to stick together for now. Who knows, they might even know where this trumpet came from. Satisfied with that logic, Mirai stumbled out from behind the tree to look over the others. She narrowed her eyes at them and with as tough a face she could muster said, “Do any of you remember what the hell happened last night?”

[AwesomeNova]

While she woke up, the sun shined sickeningly bright in full force. Ketalo shut her eyes halfway and covered them with a wing, the head hurting more from the sun. As her eyes adjusted to the sunlight’s intensity, she slowly uncovered her eyes, then unopened them. Sitting up from the grass, sloshing her stomach around, she looked around at her surroundings. The palm leaves swayed to the wind, the children ran around an played, a short Rito squawked before running to the tree, Xavier and one other person laid near Ketalo, and her bag sat beside her.

Why was she outside next to two other people? She had an inn to stay at. Why was her bag with her? It should be at the inn, sitting safely on her bed. She tried to retrace her steps, remember what happened on that night, but she got nothing. She remembered meeting up with Xavier, nothing else.

She turned to Xavier and shook him. Instead of waking him, he tossed and turned and frowned. She shook him again, and after getting no response other than a frown, she grabbed her bag. It tumbled in her wings harder than usual. Did someone went into her bag? She opened it. Its contents fell onto the ground. Her archeological tools were gone, and in their place was a hair brush, a gaudy, golden, diamond-encrusted hair brush. The shine flared up her headache, and her headache flared up her nausea.

Where the hell did this brush come from? She couldn’t have stolen it. She wouldn’t do that, right? And where are her tools? Did someone stole them?

The small Rito [Mirai] came back, saying something to her. She grabbed the notebook and pencil that fell from her bag and handed them to the Rito, before making the HSL sign for “deaf.” She should know what it means, Ketalo assumed.

[Painted Wolf]

Xavier was first pulled from his unconscious slumber as he became aware of the various stones and twigs pressing into his back, and secondly by the throbbing ache set just behind his eyes which seemed to worsen every time he moved. The air was fresher than what he would've expected from his bedroom, which added a touch of confusion to the part of his mind trying to wake up, but for the most part he was content for now to stay in that not-quite-awake place where one might be able to fall back into a proper sleep if they tried hard enough. Maybe if he managed that, he could stay asleep until the headache went away...

"WHAT?!"

He flinched at the sudden volume of the shout, but instead of opening his eyes and waking up Xavier rolled over onto his shoulder and brought his hands up to cover his face with his feathers. The single shout apparently wasn't enough of an attack on his throbbing head though, and the owner of the voice proceeded to shout a few more clipped words before...oh. Well, at least the sound of retching was quieter, but he wasn't a fan of how his own stomach did a small flip in sympathy. Then someone started shaking his shoulder; Xavier shook his head at whoever was trying to rustle him awake and curled up a bit more. He groaned uncomfortably, but it would've just sounded like a lengthy sigh. At least whoever was shaking him gave up quickly enough, but at that point Xavier had lost any hope of falling back asleep. So instead he braced himself with another deep breath and begrudgingly pushed himself up into a seated position.

He opened his eyes, then shut them again quickly as the light seemed to cut right into his brain, then opened one and squinted open the other to try and adjust them slowly. He took the clearing in with a quick glance, noticed Ketalo on one side of him, and another mildly-familiar face bent over by a tree who he guessed quickly enough was probably the source of the previous shouting. That was all well and good but...where were they? He couldn't remember anything from the previous night after...the party. Xavier buried his face in his hands again with another sigh as he vaguely recalled the night before; he'd gone to the party as a hired musician, but then at some point...someone had convinced him to take a break? Or...that's as far as he could guess. He couldn't properly remember anything past arriving to the place, not even setting up with his-

Xavier dropped his hands to the ground suddenly and cast a wide-eyed look around the clearing once more. He scrambled quickly to his feet and looked around again, ignoring the throbbing in his head momentarily, and then stepped over to some (vomit-free) bushes to look behind them, under them, anywhere for his violin. Of course it was no-where to be seen. He stopped searching and stood at the edge of the clearing, looking over towards the others there but more staring into space than looking at them. Half-panting now in a mild panic, Xavier took the moment to 'take inventory.' He wasn't wearing his travel things, but the casual outfit he wore did have a belt with a zipper for storage; his notepad and writing pencil were in there, along with his reading lenses (still unbroken, by some miracle), and a wallet with some rupees. Xavier furrowed his eyebrows in confusion as he came across one other item though - a key ring, with a small collection of heavy skeleton-style keys attached. He normally did have some keys for his room in Castle town but these were certainly not them (and anyway, he'd stashed those in his violin case).

His entire moment of panic-and-inventory hadn't taken too long, and Xavier had been looking down at the keys when Mirai stumbled back towards them and asked if anyone remembered anything. He looked over towards her at the question and shook his head in answer, then tucked the keys back into his belt pocket and fished out his own notebook just as Ketalo was trying to hand one towards Mirai. Xavier squinted his eyes thoughtfully towards Ketalo for a moment, because of course he knew her but how she'd ended up here was a blank to him. It was too bad he couldn't have woken up with Kyleen randomly nearby as well, at least then someone could translate easier for the other rito.

He wrote a note in answer to Mirai as quickly as he could while still keeping it legible, then tore the paper out and took the few steps towards her to pass it over for her to read. "I have NO clue," it read. "I barely remember past after arriving at the party." He couldn't even remember taking his first drink, which spoke to how strong whatever he did drink had been. Or...maybe just how much.

After he'd handed Mirai the note he'd turned his attention to Ketalo, giving her a brief tap on the shoulder to get her attention. "Do you remember anything?" he relayed the question to her in Sign. "The party? How we ended up here? Anything?"

[goddessnerd]

Ah sleep. What a wonderful thing it was. Just getting into bed and snuggling up in the blankets. That was not the feeling she experienced upon becoming conscious again. No their was a beaming light in her eyes. “Dad five more minutes uh”. She felt..........sand? Wait what the!?!. She sprang you almost immediately. One of her more natural reactions. Oh no. Oh no no no. Where the hylia was she!?! And why was she on a beach?!? Oh this was not good especially with her regular cloths.

Kids are roaming around with out a care and besides her she noticed a bracelet covered in topazs. Did she steal this? As she looked around and low and behold some more people in her position and low and behold ketalo. Good old ketalo. Wait why was she here? “Hey ketalo?” she finally got off her butt. “Do any of you remember what the hell happened last night?” The other rito asked. Was she really the only sheikah here. Damm. “Honestly no idea. If I’m being honest wait-“

She noticed a particular amount of weight in her pouch was gone. She was quick to go through it. Her glasses and one of her Zora scales was gone. Where was it? “Hey guys hate to alarm you but my glasses and one of my royal Zora scales is gone. As in it’s nowhere in my bag.” she was quick to scribble it down in her notebook on one of the pages specific for this kinda scenario. She didn’t want to complicate the sentence for her death friend. This was going to be a adventure she could already tell.

[Skippy]

As the others came to their senses Mirai took the opportunity to inspect them… Nope. None of their faces were really stirring up any real memories for her. She vaguely recalled meeting them during the party, but what exactly happened was nothing but a drunken haze.

She stared a little bit dumbly at the notepad and Ketalo’s HSL not immediately understanding what she was even doing. What, was this some kind of spell? Was Mirai going to magically find all of her thoughts transcribed into the paper or something? It took her brain a few moments to catch up. Oh. She was deaf.

Before she could put the pencil to paper to scrawl out a frantic messy demand to know what the hell was going on, a somewhat familiar face stepped in to sign at the other woman. Where has she seen him before? She remembered him from the party, but she could have sworn they had met earlier than that. Ugh, her brain felt like a fried egg. She read his response on the notebook and sighed at the lack of an explanation. The Sheikah was clueless too. Strike three. They were all doomed.

“Yeah I think we’re all missing something, lady.” Mirai massaged her temples to try to ease the headache pounding at her skull, “So, it looks like we’re all in the same boat. Which means… Maybe we traveled as a group? That’s good. That means people might have seen what happened to us, and a party that big was bound to have gained lots of attention... Or maybe there’s a clue on our things? Some of these items look expensive, and typically people like to customize their expensive stuff, right? Right? Er, could you relay that to her?” The last part was directed toward Xavier as she gestured at Ketalo, “Sorry, but it’d be easier than writing it all out. We should all be on the same page if we’re going to figure this out. Speaking of being on the same page. Names. I don’t remember any of yours. I’m Mirai and I… Feel another wave of nausea coming on. Gimme a sec.”

She quickly excused herself to go lean against another tree, taking deep breaths and trying to stave off the queasy feeling in her stomach.

If Ketalo chooses to inspect the hairbrush she will notice someone’s - presumably the owner’s - initials engraved in the handle. The letters J.R. written in beautiful cursive. But… Who’s J.R.? Perhaps someone in town knows?

[AwesomeNova]

A tap of her shoulder alerted Ketalo. She turned to Xavier, the one who tapped her shoulder. “Do you remember anything?”he signed. “The party? How we ended up here? Anything?”

She went through the memories of last night again. “All I remember is meeting you last night.” One thing at a time, she picked up an item, the first aid kit, that fell from her bag and put it back. She stopped to sign. “Do you remember what happened last night?” She got no definitive answer, just one like hers.

Ketalo turned to where Xavier looked, the Rito woman talking to the group as a whole. Her stiff beak move as she talked. It moved up and down, never flexing like real lips. What was she saying? Could anyone translate? Though most were well-meaning, too many people leave her out of or forget to include her in conversations—or let her know about important information. The shorter Rito woman gestured to her, and Xavier translated what she has said. Instead of writing in Ketalo’s notebook, Mirai, as she called herself, spoke instead because it would be easier to communicate to the whole group. The group must have arrived at the party together, a big party meant people saw the group, and the items in particular were expensive.

Before Ketalo could introduce herself, Mirai hurried to a palm tree and leaned against it, the movement of her rib cage as she took deep breaths. Ketalo turned to her stuff on the ground. She picked up her notebook and pencil and put it in her bag. She grabbed the hairbrush, her headache worsening from staring at its bright sparkling. On the handle, the initials “J.R.” was engraved. She tapped the shoulders of Xavier and Cora. “I think I found a clue.” She pointed to the engraving. “Whoever had these initials must be here.”

———————
Attached to the key ring, all the keys have a white skull with black eye sockets, all except one. The key with the black skull shined a onyx luster, and the bit of the key stood out as older than the more modern bits of the white-skulled keys.

[Painted Wolf]

At Ketalo's response, Xavier shook his head to her question and shrugged, then signed in reply. "I don't even remember meeting up with you," he admitted. He'd looked over to Mirai then as well, and given her another shake of his head if she'd still been waiting to hear if Ketalo remembered anything.

The final member of their haphazard party woke up, and Xavier looked over as she joined the conversation. Apparently the girl knew Ketalo as well; maybe she and Ketalo had gone to the party together? Not that any of them seemed to remember the previous night enough to confirm that theory. When she mentioned that she was missing items as well, followed by Mirai's comment that they were all missing something, he nodded with a puff of a sigh to confirm that he was in the same boat. It was possible that he had enough rupee saved up to buy another instrument if he needed to, but he was rather attached to the one he already had, and the case it was in had been custom made for traveling.

He pushed the worried thoughts aside as Mirai started thinking out loud, and looked back over to her as he listened to the train of thought. 'right? Right? Er...' Xavier nodded, both in agreement and in answer to Mirai, and lifted a hand to get Ketalo's attention; he relayed what Mirai had been saying already, and would continue to translate any of the group's conversation for Ketalo from then on. The two of them would already have to be speaking through writing, at least chatting would be faster if Ketalo didn't also have to read everything.

Xavier's eyebrows knit together and he grimaced slightly in empathy as Mirai had to turn away to be sick again, and he felt his own stomach tumbled slightly with the same empathy. As uncomfortable as his own pounding headache was, he found himself grateful that he hadn't felt sick enough to vomit from the hangover. While Mirai was tending to her stomach, Xavier wrote another response down. "Her name's Ketalo. I'm Xavier, we met once at the Prom. Festival," it read; he held it for Mirai to read first, since the bit about the Promenade was meant for her, but if the other girl [Cora] looked to see what he wrote he would have let her read it as well.

Mirai's comment about finding clues on the items they each had was a sound idea; Xavier had already put the keys he'd found in his belt pocket, but Ketalo got their attention when she noticed something written on her item. He nodded in agreement, and flipped his notebook to a new page with the intention to relay what she'd said to the others. [NOTE, if Cora would go ahead and fill Mirai in on what Ketalo is saying, Xavier wouldn't bother writing it out as well.] He considered the initials for a moment, but couldn't come up with anything on his own; after a moment he wrote down another quick note. "We can focus on one mystery at a time," it said. "Not sure of any J.R.'s - maybe we should go back to Pep's and start there?" Heading back to the start of their unfortunate journey made the most sense to him.

[goddessnerd]

She had to admit they were in quite the pickle. But a formal introduction might help East the confusion. “My name is Cora and this is ketalo. We’re apart of the ARI. And I’m gonna be honest I have no idea what happened last night. “
whatever was given to her was strong. Strong enough to have her lose her Royal Zora scale. That wasn’t good. Not good at all whatsoever. Why did this always happen to her?

The damm thing costed half her saving and if she lost it to some fool trying to sell it without knowing what it even is then it would be a huge slap in the face to her.
She wasn’t made of rupees. Sadly enough that was the reality of being under payed sometimes. Ketalo seemed to have her own lead. Initials engraved right on it. “And it seems my compatriot has found a clue.” Now that’s why they were in the ARI. Finding those small details got them their jobs in the first place.

“We can focus on one mystery at a time, Not sure of any J.R.'s - maybe we should go back to Pep's and start there?" Xavier asked getting Cora’s attention quite fast. “I don’t even remember getting a drink but maybe a actual lead might get us somewhere then just standing here and counting our sorrows.” She could honestly hope that the situation didn’t get worse. Like much worse. Like that time she spilled acid through her paperwork worse.

[Skippy]

With introductions out of the way and a vague plan of action forming, Mirai’s panic started to wind down. After Xavier's introduction though, she got a little bit nervous. He had bought a potion. Usually, customers who see her again after buying a potion aren't exactly happy. He, however, seemed pretty calm, or maybe that was just the hangover talking. Nevertheless, this only contributed to her rising urgency to get her stuff and leave town. She just hoped whoever had her waterskins wasn’t stupid enough to drink what was inside.

"O-Oh, right I remember you now. Small world, haha... Nice to see you again," She rubbed the back of her neck, "Anyway, going back to where this whole thing started sounds like a solid plan. Maybe someone saw where we were going, or maybe this mysterious J.R. was at the party last night. Let's hurry though. I wanna get my stuff back and get back on the road."

Once everyone was done getting their bearings, it was off to the party venue. The town was still in the middle of waking up. Locals were opening their windows to welcome the fresh early morning air. Shopkeepers were getting ready for a busy day of work. The smell of someone cooking breakfast wafted through the air as the quartet tried to retrace their steps. Mirai was on the lookout for any familiar faces from the party as they walked through the streets, but her memories were so hazy there was no way she’d recognize any faces if she saw them.

However, that didn’t mean people weren’t going to recognize her. As the Peppa Palace came into view, the sound of a man poorly singing met anyone who was unfortunate enough to be nearby. It was clear that he was intoxicated with something to a certain extent. He sat, slumped over against a fence, bottle in his hand, and a scruffy scarf wrapped around his neck. Anyone with a nose could smell the pungent smell of alcohol that Mirai swore was coming from his sweat.

“Heeeey! The wild gang has returned! YEAAAAAH!” The man said, raising his bottle high. “You guys just totally vanished last night where’ve you been? You mi- hic! - missed what’s-his-name jump off the-”

“Wait, you recognize us?!” Mirai practically flung herself at him, grabbing his by the shoulders and shaking him with a strength that betrayed he tiny size, “WHERE’S MY STUFF HOBO-MAN?!”

“Whoa, whoa, there lil’ lady. I don’t know nothin’ about no stuff. I was chattin’ it up with ya’ll before you got spirited away or.. Somethin’...” He took a long sip of his drink. “Totally.”

[AwesomeNova]

After discussing the evidence with the rest, Ketalo went to the village along side the group, right next to Xavier. The initials “J.R.” still lingering in her mind. Who was this person, and did they took her archeological tools, Xavier’s violin, or anyone’s stuff? Within the town, she looked around at the surrounding area and the faces around town. She tried diving through her memories, searching for something to grab from last night, but a drunken fog smothered it out of her head.

Another concern came. Communication from the rest of the group to her was sorted out. Xavier would translate spoken Hylian to HSL more accurately than lip reading. However, communication from her to the rest wasn’t. She could write notes to them, especially if they were short, but the amount of time wasted on writing and reading long notes hinders in-depth communication, and it did on several occasions. Speaking would solve that issue, but how would they react to her voice? Xavier and Cora heard it and reacted just fine, but how would Mirai react? With indifference? With cruel mockery? With a look?

Ketalo breathed in to calm herself, to Keep it together. She had used her voice before around other people. She should not let anxieties get under her skin. Instead of breathing fresh air, she coughed out a mouthful of the most obnoxious smell of alcohol in the area. She looked at its source, a man limp on a fence with a bottle of booze in hand. As the man’s lips moved, her eyes picked out the phrase “wild gang.” Oh Hylia above, what the hell did she do last night? Ketalo jumped when Mirai grabbed him and shook him like a hurricane shaking a tree. The man spoke some more, Ketalo catching the words “no stuff.”

“What happened? What did we do last night?” she said to the man with her voice.

[Painted Wolf]

The town was calmly waking up to an average day as their group went through town; it was almost enough to make Xavier feel as though their group was out of place among the mundane morning. Normally the smell of freshly cooked breakfast would be something to look forward to, but today it just made Xavier feel dangerously empathetic to Mirai's previous meet-and-greet with the tree. Xavier heard the man singing even before Peppa Palace came into view, and he grimaced at the sound of it. It wasn't just his headache making the sound unbearable, but the way that the drunk was absolutely butchering any semblance of a melody that the song might have possessed. As their group came close enough for the man to spot them, Xavier sent up a silent prayer to Hylia that anything he'd played in the lost hours of the night had never sounded so awful.

Xavier squinted one eye incredulously at the nickname that the man addressed them with, and exchanged a cringey glance with Ketalo when he translated the words for her in Sign. Mirai was quick to jump on the fact that he recognized them, and even Ketalo seemed willing to put aside her unease with speaking to make communication easier. They both seemed so eager to get answers that they asked very clipped questions though, and Xavier let out a short puff of a sigh as he took in the man's very drunken state. He resolved to try writing his own questions, but...wasn't entirely convinced the man would be able to read anything when he was quite so sloshed. Xavier took his reading lenses off the front of his shirt and slipped them on, just to make sure his writing was extra legible, and then wrote a few questions of his own down on his notepad.

He held them out for the man to read first, but if it became clear that the man couldn't read anything in his current state Xavier would shrug dejectedly and send a questioning look towards Cora and Mirai in hopes that they'd help out. His note read, "We seem to have lost most of the night's memories, and have quite the puzzle to piece together. Did you see where we might have gone after the party? Or, do you know anyone with the initials 'J.R.'?"

[goddessnerd]

She had to admit she could tell their was a little tension between all of them. Oddly enough it was like a sixth sense to her at this point. Social situations like this honestly we’re not her favorite. You probably wouldn’t be able to tell her distain did them at a eyes glance. Now what part of her last night thought it would be good to drink was beyond her. Stupid brain. Why do you do the things you do? Honestly it’s comical how many times stuff like this happens. She was supposed to be a scientist not a drunk.

The entire town seemed to wake up with a familiar feeling. Reminded her of home. A little too much. Some people were trying to clean up some messes some weren’t. Food was getting made to fill the needy stomachs of all those who needed it. Honestly food would be great right now. She was guessing she only had a few drinks but nothing with it. That would certainly explain it. But she certainly wasn’t experiencing major hangover symptoms. She wasn’t stopping every 10 minutes to barf so that was a relief.

They finally got to the peppa palace and got one of the weirdest welcomes she had ever experienced “Heeeey! The wild gang has returned! YEAAAAAH!” wait, wild gang? Everyone seemed to be weirded out well. Mirai seemed to demand answers for the previous night’s event but he really didn’t answer. “He’s heavily intoxicated possibly suffering a hangover from just this morning,however we might get some answers if we try and poke at him a bit. Something tells me he has answers but us to drunk to say anything.”

[Skippy]

The drunk man blinked at everyone's questions before he grinned.

“Ah, you guys don’t ‘member me then? HAHA figured that would be the case. I think Peppa spiked the drinks with something extra strong last night. I barely ‘member anything m’self but it’d be hard to forget you... Just- Just so we’re, uh, all on the same page the name’s Brody.” The newly dubbed Brody took a long sip from the bottle in his hands, the contents of which were dangerously low.

“Oh great, we publicly humiliated ourselves.” Mirai put a hand to her face, now wondering if anybody in town recognized their faces while they had been passing through. She hadn’t heard any snickers or jeers but that didn’t settle her nerves.

“You kiddin’ me? You guys were awesome!” Brody laughed and shakily got to his feet, using the fence for support. “This lil’ lady right here?” He gestured at Mirai who tried to hide her shame by putting her other hand to her face, “She knows how to dance! But, uh, letssee… Oooh right.” He snapped his fingers - or at least tried to - then pointed at Ketalo, “I don’t know any J.R.’s but I did see you guys leave. You got real excited about… A rock right outside the house or something?” He did a hand gesture that was meant to be the HSL sign for ‘rock’ but due to his drunken state it was very sloppy, “You were pokin’ it ‘n shit. Then some tourist lady came running up to you all excited like and dragged you off. She had a fuckin’ goblin with her… At least I think it was a goblin. Maybe he was Hylian. I dunno. What I do know is I didn’t see you for the rest of the night, which is a shame because ya’ll were real fun to party with.”

Mirai took a deep breath to prevent her mental screaming from becoming out-loud screaming before removing her hands from her face. “So what you’re saying is, Ketalo here thought she found something cool outside. Started messing with it. And then a tourist with some goblin man just… came up to her and dragged her off? And we followed?”

“Yup!” Brody drank the last drops of liquid from his bottle. “I’m also pretty sure one of you drank perfume- no wait that was someone else… Or was it-?”

“DON’T-” Mirai held a hand up to stop him, “- in the name of all things good and holy say anymore please.”

[AwesomeNova]

After the group threw many questions at the him, the man spoke. Ketalo turned her head to Xavier’s translation, to Brody, and repeat. His introduced himself as Brody, and with a gulp of alcohol, he mention how everyone in the group were ‘hard to forget.’ Ketalo looked around her, at the people in the village, and fidgeted with her clothes. She had thought this party was contained in the house, all of the booze-induced antics stuck inside the house, but it all leaked out of the building and towards the locals. “Oh no...” she signed. Brody dispelled most of her embarrassment, as he called them ‘awesome.’ Ketalo let go of her clothes.

Brody pointed at her and gave her information, along with some...HSL... Although Brody did know some sign, it was awful. For one sign, his flopping hand smacked against the side of his other hand. The closest meaning of it was the Gerudo HSL slang of stone lodged in an hourglass, keeping the sand from falling to the bottom—constipation. Ketalo looked at Xavier’s translation. It was actually rock. Brody had nothing on “J.R.,’ but he said she took interest in a rock, a tourist and a goblin dragged her off, and the rest of the group followed them. Out of all the thing her drunk ass poke at, why a rock?

She mused, “If they dragged me off, they must’ve took my tools.” She thought over the rock and turned to the group. “We might need to look at the rock and the area around it. There may be something there.” She faced Brody. “One more question, where did they go?”

[Painted Wolf]

After having asked his question of the man with his note, Xavier looked over to Cora when she speculated out loud. He smirked slightly and quirked one eyebrow at her assessment, glancing back towards the man as he did so. You can't suffer from a hangover if you never stop being drunk, he thought, but didn't see the merit in writing it down with everything else going on. Anyway it seemed they were about to get some more answers as the man - apparently Brody - started talking again.

Despite the unfortunate situation (and the dully throbbing headache that was still lingering), hearing that their quartet had apparently been such fun was admittedly lifting his spirits a bit. Brody's laughter and admiration of Mirai's dancing pulled another smile from the edge of Xavier's beak (more 'genuine warmth' than the amused smirk he'd given to Cora's previous comment), which he directed towards Mirai when she tried to hide her face with her hand.

The comment about Ketalo getting excited over a rock earned another smile from him, and he paused in the quick translations he was doing for a moment to Sign an aside at Ketalo, "Excited about a rock? Sounds about right for you," in a playful tease towards his friend. Then he'd caught sight of Brody's haphazard Signing; his eyebrows lifted at the choice of 'phrasing,' and he laughed - visibly guffawing at the unfortunate word choice, even if it wouldn't be audible laughter. Of course he saw Ketalo looking towards him and waiting for what was actually being said then, and translated appropriately.

The next part about Ketalo getting dragged off was a bit of a surprise twist in the story, though. With Brody's commentary after Mirai's question, Xavier tilted his head curiously at the 'perfume' bit, and lifted his notepad up to write something down just as Mirai interrupted the man. He held it up for Mirai to read, " 'Perfume'? One of your brews?" Of course he still wasn't 100% on what sort of potions she'd been selling back at the Promenade, except that whatever he'd purchased had given a certain moblin he'd encountered quite the oddity of a hearing issue.

He nodded in response to Ketalo's suggestion, still genuinely grateful that she'd opted to put forth the extra effort to talk verbally so he wouldn't have to translate in both directions. "Your tools might just be near the rock, too, if you were trying to 'study' it," he wrote onto his notepad, and held it up for her to read. (He'd considered just Signing in reply to her, but didn't want to cut Mirai or Cora out of 'hearing' his response entirely.)

[goddessnerd]

Brody was definitely drunk out of his mind as he talked. Their was no denying it. Like at all. He spoke more bubbly than ever while telling his little tail about the events that transpired in the previous night. He seemed to know it best for beat. However their was one detail she was curious about. Who this tourist lady was and why did she drag ketalo? However her friend seemed to have the same musings as well. Glad to see the two of them were clearly thinking straight.

She honestly wanted to slap Brody for even allowing this to happen at his party. He did realize he got to ARI scientists drunk right? Honestly it baffled her how he wasn’t locked up or had died of some misfortune. This man truly was a miracle. Xavier’s little comment on ketalo’s fascination with a specific rock did come of a little strange to her. Hadn’t he ever realized the divine beasts came from the ground? Literally the rock underneath their very feet? Jeez,nobody appreciated the small things.

However she had to agree with him on the assumption her tools were their near the rock.” Agreeing with Xavier On this one, we have to find your stuff or we might never get this little mystery solved.” she was also quick to scribble it down so her feathered friend could understand. But the tourist lady was still of some concern. Who was she and more importantly did she have any connection to more of the missing objects. This is starting to become way stranger than she thought.

[Skippy]

“I don’t sell perfume. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if Peppa had some perfume or cologne lying around in his party bungalow for these kinds of occasions. Someone mistaking a fancy glass bottle for an alcoholic drink wouldn’t surprise me.” Mirai replied to Xavier with a heavy sigh. “Trust me if someone had drunk one of my potions, we’d no doubt notice the effects.”

Brody chuckled and put his bottle down, doing his best to suppress a hiccup.
“Yeah Peppa’s parties are wild! You never know what’s going to happen next. That’s why I go all the time. A-Anyways, I think the rock is just over there in the front yard of Peppa’s place? I dunno nothing about rocks but that one looked pretty ordinary to me.” He waved a hand around, “The tourist lady dragged you off over toward the inn I think? I mean, where else are tourists gonna stay? Heh. She mentioned something about wanting you to look at something. At least I think that’s what she said. It was kind of hard to hear over the music. She seemed excited and all smiles so I doubt it was anything bad.”

“And we all followed?” Mirai asked with arms crossed.

“Yuuuup!”

“So Ketalo mistook a normal rock for something, a tourist and her goblin-man saw her, dragged her off in excitement, and we all left the party to go to the inn.”

Brody snapped his fingers, “Bingo.”

“Did Ketalo still have her tools with her when we left?”

“Yeah, the tools were the whole reason the tourist came to talk to her I think. She kept pointing at them.”

"Did we all have our stuff when we left the party? Did you see me with two big waterskins?"

Brody merely shrugged. Mirai made a frustrated noise. So he didn't even know if the others still had all their stuff or not?! The possibility of them losing their stuff while still at the party was still open and she really didn't like that. She wanted to SCREAM, but didn't want to publicly humiliate herself any further. She felt her headache get a little bit worse.

Mirai took a deep breath, gathered her thoughts, and then turned to the others. “So it looks like we know where we ended up after we left Peppa’s place. I think we should head to the inn as soon as possible.”

[AwesomeNova]

Ketalo frowned when Xavier teased her for fixating on that rock, unamused. Her frown turned to a tiny smile. Though she didn’t find it funny, Xavier was trying to lighten the mood, lift her spirits where she lost her tools, maybe forever. She listened to Mirai through Xavier’s ears and his fluent signing. Xavier asked if said perfume was one of her potions, and the shorter Rito woman mentioned lacking surprise over someone mistaking a fancy bottle for alcohol. She told Xavier that her potion’s effects would be seen if they drank it. She had potions. Huh. Did she brew them? Probably. Ketalo made a mental note for Mirai.

Brody gave three pieces of information. One, from poking the rock to following the lady, Ketalo had her tools on her, two, the tourist lady dragged her off towards the inn, and three, the lady sought after Ketalo for her tools to look at something. The first piece struck down the possibility of her tools being near the rock, so they must be at or past the inn like the second piece implied. For the third piece, why did the lady wanted a drunk Ketalo to examine an item or artifact? Was it because of her tools? Ketalo would’ve been too drunk to examine anything.

Hylia wouldn’t make searching for them that easy. All Ketalo had was a lead guiding her to the inn. Mirai didn’t have any lead, her frustration emanating from her, Ketalo felt that frustration. Mirai turned to the group, telling them to go to the inn. “I don’t think my tools would be in the inn, but you’re right,” Ketalo said. “We should head there and check. Just to be sure.”

[Painted Wolf]

Judging from Brody's story, their group had probably already been pretty noticeably drunk by the time they'd followed Ketalo out to the rock. So Xavier had to wonder, just what kind of state of mind had this woman been in, that she would have thought Ketalo was in any sort of mind to properly take a look at something with her tools? It seemed like such a ridiculous conclusion that Xavier's head started to hurt again. Then Mirai asked about their things, and Xavier looked quickly over at Brody to hear his response. No good though, Brody had no idea one way or the other if they'd had their things. Xavier supposed that made sense...it wasn't as if the guy knew what things they'd each lost, anyway.

At least Mirai had managed to pull the important part of the story out from the man - they'd all followed when Ketalo had been dragged away, so at least they hadn't split up. That at least made it easier to figure out where to go next. Xavier nodded in agreement when Mirai said they should head to the Inn next. Ketalo seemed uncertain that her things would be there, but she didn't seem to be against heading to check it out otherwise. In lieu of writing or signing anything in true response, Xavier gave the three girls a thumbs up in agreement and then headed towards the Inn with their haphazard quartet.

When they arrived at the Inn Xaver found himself looking up at the windows of the building and once again trying to recall anything of the night before. He wouldn't have been planning on staying at Peppa's place after the party, but...he couldn't recall having booked a room anywhere for the night. Even if there were any other Inns in the area, this one was clearly the closest, so maybe...this would've been a destination, even without the woman dragging Ketalo here? He'd squinted his eyes slightly in thought as he'd mulled over the possibility, and as the others came to a stop outside the Inn Xavier lifted his notepad and scribbled a quick thought on it for the three girls to read. "Any one of us might've tried to get a room here for the night, after the party. Even if we can't find that woman, it might be worth asking around anyway."

[goddessnerd]

The entire thing sounded like it was coming from a mystery novel to be honest. And it bothered her severely. This lady clearly knew about ketalos job which really wasn’t good to begin with considering ARI staff normally did things through closed doors,well normally. Brodys story did bring up a interesting detail however,they were already drunk. Did someone get them drunk to rob them blind? Was it the lady in question? Gods really could only really pray this got resolved soon.

Now the inn was a lead they had to follow up on. And Mira I had a good suggestion to even just go their to see if they could find anything. Did they get rooms? Did someone get them rooms? Notes were swimming in her head,she had to write these down. She was careful to title it ‘the drunk incident’ she could only really pray purah or Robbie or for dins sake impa didn’t see it. She knew they looked in their when they had to understand her ramblings but is something she really wanted to not relive in the long run. Though the only one who would really know would be ketalo which was better than nothing.

The inn was a cozy little place which made sense. She did notice a few glass bottles laying around which were probably from the party. Xavier was one to bring up a point "Any one of us might've tried to get a room here for the night, after the party. Even if we can't find that woman, it might be worth asking around anyway." He had a really good point. Then a idea was quick to get in her head. Rupees,she would have had to spend rupees to get a room. 20 at least. Her hand was quick dig through the little pocket. “Ok so if we stayed here one of would have payed right? Well I for certainly didn’t considering I still have 200 left in my savings pocket meaning I for one never paid but maybe someone else paid for us to get rooms?” Throwing it out their was honestly better then nothing.

[Skippy]

Brody waved the group goodbye with a slurred, “Good luck, folks!” in which Mirai responded with a half-hearted wave before leaving him behind. She tried to keep her head down as they made their way to the nearest inn. Since it was a popular vacation town, there were a couple, but it only made sense that the nearest one to Peppa’s was the location that Brody was talking about. Once there, the others started debating whether or not one of their party had a room here.

“If you want to ask the clerk, go ahead, but I know it definitely wasn’t me. I usually camp out.” Mirai shrugged, “But first let’s ask about Ketalo’s stuff.”

The tiny rito pushed the door open, which was accompanied by a cheery “ding-a-ling!” of a little bell. A woman built like a short and stout teapot popped up behind the counter.

“G’mornin! How can I help you-?” She asked with a smile that Mirai couldn’t help to think was really forced. Her eyes lit up with recognition and her smile grew from a fake one into an amused grin. “OH! Hello again! Glad you folks are alright!”

Mirai wasn’t sure if she should be happy or filled with dread that the innkeeper apparently recognized them. “Uh, good morning ma’am. So I know this is going to sound strange, but, when we were here last night were we with one of your current guests?”

“Oh it’s not strange at all, cutie, I took one look at you folks and knew you came directly from Peppa’s. We get a lot of tired partiers here.” She waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, “As for your question, yes! Ya’ll came in with two of my guests. Jessica Roule and her husband. I felt so bad because Ms. Roule was apparently talking your ears off, not like it seemed that any of you were paying attention though. That woman can chatter on till the end of time I tell ya. I’m not even sure if she realized ya’ll were drunk! Not a lot going on upstairs, that Ms. Roule.” All of this was said with a good-natured smile and ended with the innkeep swirling a finger in the air next to her temple with a wink. “I believe she’s still upstairs in the Red Room with her husband.”

Mirai gave a huge sigh. They had caught up with the woman and goblin-man from last night, then. That means more answers. “Thank you, so much.” She turned to the others, “I’ll run upstairs and go find their room. If you guys want to ask the innkeep your questions, go right ahead. I don’t want to waste any time.” With that, she turned to venture upstairs.

[AwesomeNova]

Ketalo read Xavier’s message from his notebook. He guessed at least one person in the group got a room in the inn after the party, while Cora countered it, since the amount of ripped in her wallet stayed at 200 rupees? (Did she read her lips right?) She added that someone else might’ve paid for all of their rooms. Ketalo doubted that. She dug through her memories again to confirm if she got her room. “I think I got a room for myself,” she said. “Yeah, I did. Before the party started.”

Mirai opened the door, and the group walked through the door and into the inn. Ketalo briefly looked around the lobby, the rooms familiar to her. Yes, she definitely got a room here. Her line of sight landed on the woman behind the desk. The woman made a fake smile and said one of many stock greetings. When the woman laid eyes on them, her fake smile turned into a grin. “Hello again! Glad you folks are alright!” Did she recognize Ketalo and the group? What more did she do last night? Well, answering Mirai’s question, the woman at the desk said the group came with the lady who dragged off Ketalo, Jessica Roule, and her husband.

Jessica Roule. J.R....

Ketalo took off her bag form her back, pulled out the gaudy, sparkling brush, and looked at the initials engraved into the handle. That was J.R.? Her? So she must have Ketalo’s tools. Ketalo turned to the group, except for Mirai who went to the Red Room. “So this must be her brush. I’d better give this back to her after Mirai comes back.” She turned to the woman behind the desk, while having Xavier in her line of sight. “What’s my room? I forgot.”

The woman turned the pages to the book in front of her. “You’re in the Blue Room, ma’am.”

“Okay, thank you.”

[Painted Wolf]

Even though it had been him to suggest that any one of them might've gotten a room, Mirai's comment about her usually camping out also felt familiar; he hadn't originally intended on staying in the area after playing at the party anyway, and considering all- or, most of his things were still on his person, he figured he probably hadn't gotten a room either. Still, Xavier figured he'd check at the desk, just to rule it out.

They were met with another ever-brightening smile when the woman took in the sight of them, and despite their situation Xavier found himself smiling back in response. If nothing else, at least it seemed they'd brought some amusement to the people they'd stumbled into the previous night, instead of just making a fool of themselves. Most of her story seemed to follow the same score that Brody's had, of course with some new details, and it seemed that the woman they were looking for was still checked in. He nodded to Mirai when she said she was going ahead to find Ms. Roule, and then stepped up to the desk to quickly write a note asking the woman if he'd gotten a room as well. Unsurprisingly, he had not; Xavier shrugged, and Signed a quick thank you (with a friendly nod, in case the Sign went unrecognized), then turned to head up the stairs in the direction Mirai had gone. He figured Ketalo and Cora would either catch up or wait for them at the front desk, but Xavier was rather curious to hear whatever addition to the story Jessica Roule had for himself.

Meanwhile, back at the desk, the teapot woman seemed to remember something just after answering Ketalo's question about her room. "Oh!" she chimed, and lifted a hand to wave at the two girls and get their attention before they ran off. "Miss- I'm sorry, I've forgotten your name," she pointed at Cora. "A woman came by earlier this morning looking for you. I tried to take a message but she seemed...rather upset. It was difficult to keep up. She laughed, the sound of it was nervous or awkward or both, and rifled through some papers on her desk before finally lifting one up in triumph. "Here we are! She said to 'Tell Miss Rin' that she wasn't sure what you thought you were planning with her daughter, but that she wouldn't stand for 'such tricks' and whatever 'hustle of a trade' you were hoping to achieve, she would 'put a swift end to it.'" Her eyes skimmed over whatever she'd written; she gave another nervous chuckle and then put the paper down and looked up at Cora.

"Well, I wrote a bit more than I needed, I think - it goes on that way for awhile. But, it sounded as though she was hoping to catch up with you today, before either of you left town. I'm afraid I don't know where she's staying, and she.." another brief glance to her note. "..regrettably forgot to leave any contact information." The woman waved her hand as if to wave away any trouble, and offered Cora and Ketalo an optimistic smile. "But it's such a small town here, I'm sure you'll manage to find her - especially if you're still out and about in town!" The woman seemed to have to attend to something else then, and she moved to fiddle with something behind the counter - at least until someone else spoke to her again.

[goddessnerd]

Cora was unsettled by how all this was going. That goodbye was a thing of uncertainty in the best and the worst sense considering the circumstances and how this entire thing was going. If they really stayed at the inn she could only hope their were no more mix ups. Like she really hoped this wasn’t going be a mixup that lasted a month. If the godess could see this entire thing she would be shaking her head.

“G’mornin! How can I help you-? OH! Hello again! Glad you folks are alright!” The receptionists seemed to get why they were their right away. Mirai was quick to ask the question on everyone’s minds but they did get directions to a room. They did get a name But then the receptionist was quick to point out someone was indeed looking for her. For her? And then the mention of a trade made her cheeks go red. “Excuse me?? Who the in the love of nayru does she think I am?? I didn’t even know her daughter up to that point!” In infuriated her. Her daughter pulled her over like a dog then her mother was barking at her.

"Well, I wrote a bit more than I needed, I think - it goes on that way for awhile. But, it sounded as though she was hoping to catch up with you today, before either of you left town. I'm afraid I don't know where she's staying, and she regrettably forgot to leave any contact information.“ Then how was she expecting this to play out? "But it's such a small town here, I'm sure you'll manage to find her - especially if you're still out and about in town!" She just put her face in her hands and sighed. “Ok we need to find those two and explain to that woman that you can’t just drag a member of ARI staff around like a dog. Because from my understanding that exactly what happened and a really want to give her a peace of my mind.”

[Skippy]

Luckily the red room wasn’t very hard to find. Each of the rooms was assigned a specific color instead of a number. That seemed to be the running gimmick of the place, anyway. She didn’t notice Xavier follow up the stairs behind her until she did a double-take to check a door she thought looked red, only to find it was maroon. After a few more close-to-but-not-quite colors, Mirai noticed a blood-red door with carefully painted swirling black patterns at the end of the hall.

“That must be it.” She pointed it out to Xavier and made her way over. Mirai lifted a hand to knock but hesitated a moment when suddenly a very large racket from the other side could be heard. A woman’s frantic voice had initiated a frenzied dialogue with a man’s nasally voice in a tone that sounded as if he were trying to placate her. It was impossible to make out what either was saying due to the door that separated them from the supposed argument. “Damn it, now what?” Mirai muttered and raised her hand once more to knock-

Only for the door to swing open at that moment.

A man, who didn’t even come eye-to-eye with Mirai, opened the door calling something back to the woman deeper inside the room. He hadn’t been paying attention and failed to dodge Mirai’s feathery fist accidentally swinging down onto his bald head.

“Ow!” The man flinched and took a few steps backward, rubbing the spot where Mirai’s fist knocked on his noggin. Mirai made a semi-horrified squeak and froze up, taking in all the social awkwardness she had just initiated.

“-AND WHILE YOU’RE IN TOWN PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU FIND ME SOME NEW PERFUME! AND--! PIMBLEY?! ARE YOU LISTENING?!” A tall dark-haired Hylian woman came from around the corner. She was dressed in an elegant yellow sun-dress and white sun hat, two pairs of shoes dangling from both of her hands as if she had been debating which pair to wear. She scanned the room with a pout before locating “Pimbley” at the door… Along with Mirai and Xavier standing there; Mirai frantically trying to stutter out her apologies and questions at the same time. “YOU!” Mirai went stiff again with a little “eep!” “I remember you! You were with the appraiser last night! Oh, what was her name? Keetee? Chatlo- NO- Cheeto! It was Cheeto! It was Cheeto, right Pimbley?”

“The young lass from last night was named Ketalo, dear.” The short man replied with a sigh before turning to face them. “I’m so sorry about all this trouble. I know why you’re both here. She sent you over to fetch her tools, correct? She left them here last night.”

“Yes! It was the most curious thing!” The woman, Jessica, said as she had gone back to trying on shoes, “You’d think an appraiser would need their tools to- you know- appraise something! Maybe she’s just that good? IS she that good? You’re all friends, you should know-!”

“Anyway,” Pimbley cut in as his wife continued to talk in the background, “I’ll go fetch them. Ms. Ketalo is here correct?”

“Uh, y-yeah she’s downstairs.” Mirai’s head was spinning a little at the turn the whole conversation took.

“Very well, I’ll go and grab them now. Terribly sorry for the trouble.” With that Pimbley ran into the other room and returned with a bag of well-kept archeology tools. Mirai just looked up and shrugged at Xavier, deeply relieved the situation didn’t get any weirder. The group of four descended back downstairs, Jessica going on about appraisals and precious stones the entire way, the noise was starting to make Mirai’s headache worst.

“Found them and the tools…” Mirai groaned.

“CHEETO!” Jessica exclaimed happily.
“Ketalo, dear.” Pimbly muttered and sighed a greeting and an apology to her in HSL.
“It is so GOOD to see you again, darling! How are you? You seemed ill last night...”