The Coffin Bean

[Ronan Aalto]

Eugh, great. Ronan settled in for a very very long wait. He'd long since mapped out his own strategy in his head, but it was difficult to plan if he didn't know what cards his opponent held.
First he had to get rid of that sheep... then mount an all out offensive on the opposition, then he had to challenge the oracle for the golden femur...
He looked up at Toralei and bit back a snide remark, he was starting to understand now why Kai had said he always won by forfeit. His opposition probably all died of boredom.
"Don't you have other recruits to bother?" He shooed the ginger werecat, the three of them were grating on his nerves and it showed.  

[Nero de Sphinx]

Nero entered the Coffin Bean through the back door. Griminem had volunfeared to drop him off after they went over the next week's recording schedule. Nero was going to provide a few verses to Bony G's new song and that would take up most of his after school schedule. He was going to get his bro-time in with Kai now while he had the chance.

Of course, seeing as Kai was deeply engrossed in a Spellbound game, that might not even be today.

Nero brightened as he spotted Layla at the counter. Well if one creative mind was too busy for him, there was a much more bootiful one waiting for a drink and a dose of Tall and Handsome (but not in a long term committed kind of way).

"I'll have what she's having with an extra shot of hexpresso, and a lemon-poppyscream muffin," Nero told Clawdeen as he walked up to the counter.  

[Bartleby Farnum]

Nero de Sphinx

Just outside of the window of the Coffin Bean, something golden and sparkly was hanging off of the rot-iron fence that surrounded the path leading to the door.

Something completely off-the-chain and perhaps even....eezy on the heezy.

It twisted in the slight breeze, reflecting the setting sun and attracting the eye of any monster that may possibly be attuned with a radar sense that was set to any and all things bling.  

[Nero de Sphinx]

Nero chatted amicably with Layla about the purity of self-directed art verses the need to sell oneself to the public to make money, whether commercialization lowered the value of your work and whether or not two gold dragon ghouls was pushing it on an album if your suit was gold too. Jinafire was willing to go along with the shoot so long as it was tasteful and Nero had a hard time seeing the line between "bling" and "blinding." Layla had a good eye for jewel tones, he valued he opinion.

"My concern," said Nero, "is that a black suit is going to look too 1999 and...."

He trailed off as something caught the corner of his eye. He'd been brushing it off for about two minutes but it was definitely there, a sun-colored sparkle outside the Coffin Bean's windows.

"Ummm...."

He couldn't remember what he was saying. He was talking about color theory and gold and now outside the window....that couldn't be, could it? Nero was predisposed, like all Sphinxes, to spot treasures. He'd proven a valuable assistant for his parents on digs, and his sense were telling him something blingy was out that door.

"Do you see that? I'll be back in a minute, I just have to go see...something..."

Layla nodded, "of course, we can resume when you return."

Nero trotted out the door, intent on finding this...whatever it was. He thought hopefully for a chain that no one wanted to claim, he could always use another chain.  

[Dashner Hawke]

Rorrim Rory Bludworth

"Hey, tell me more about school today. Even the boring parts! I want to know all about your classes!"

Dashner grabbed their food bags, and closed his eyes to try and recall what happened that day.

"Well... Lunch was interesting. Every monster there was either talking about what happened to either Lin McGearloch or Howleen."

Dashner then remembered that Rorrim probably didn't know what happened to Lin, as he was stuck at tombschooling.

"Lin was getting Gryff coffee, but then he threw it down and told Gryff to get his own coffee! Can you believe it?! He also quit Monster High to join the circus!"  

[Bartleby Farnum]

And right there, upon the fence, was a lengthy chain made of carefully crafted dwarf gold. It caught the light just perfectly, not just the light from the sky, but the lights from the Coffin Bean itself and the buildings around it.

A light that danced in Nero's own eyes.

Then, something else twinkled in Nero's eyes, causing him to turn his attention to the side as he scooped the aforementioned chain necklace from where it hung from the rot-iron fence.

As Nero neared it, he noticed a ballin' set of knuckle rings on the sidewalk. Those were followed by a crystal-studded nose barbell and a series of gold "Dolla Sign" earrings.

A few more steps, and those too were soon in Nero's claws.

That was when his eyes went down and just a few paces ahead was a golden bracelet that practically screamed bling! Then another piece f gold... and another... the trail of golden bling led down the path toward the alley, and Nero stopped fast.

"You quake my nerves and you rattle my brain
Too much love drives a bro insane!
You broke my will, oh what a shrill
Goodness gracious great balls of fire"

There, standing up against a sleek blood red convertible, a pair of dainty claws in stiletto heels ... moving up a gore-geous set of legs sleeked in a shimmering red gown slit up the thigh... and up a little higher was a svelt and buxom wererabbit posing seductively against her car.

Eyes only for Nero, she beckoned him forth with a wag of her foreclaw.

"Oh!" She exclaimed as she saw Nero round the bend, hands full of bling. "Thank goodness! Maybe you can help me, kind manster!" The breathless, hip-swaying ghoul sashayed over to Nero and invited him into the alley. "My name is Jess-ick-a. I drove here to get rid of some old things from my apartnment…And I need a big...strong...manster to help me get this furniture into the dumpster. Could you...possibly...help me?"  

[Nero de Sphinx]

Nero tried not to blink. If he blinked he might wake up and then he wouldn't have his hands full of bling and a sexy were-rabbit asking for his assistance lifting things. His abs involuntarily flexed under his shirt and she liquidly glided towards him. There wasn't a single hard angle on her, she was all smooth curves and breathless sighs.

When she was close enough that Nero could see little orange flames dashing about the highlights of her hair and the faint but definitely existent scent of Fright Diamonds by Elizabat Taylor he figured this was real.

"You'd be such a help to me," Jess-ick-a said in a voice that made Nero think instantly of dark chocolate and honey and being grounded.

Nero pulled himself back out of his reverie and straightened to his full impressive height. He'd been using what was left of his brain to concentrate on not letting his jaw drop, so he had to clear his throat before speaking.

"Miss, I would never leave such a lovely ghoul as you in need. Anything I can do for you I am at your service," he said, looking down into...her eyes.

He set the bling down neatly in a pile on the sidewalk before taking her hand in his, trying to flex his biceps so that even though he was wearing a shirt she could see the outline of his physique.

"Lead the way!"  

[Hagetha Mistie]

And notice she did!

How could any ghoul not notice such a studly hunk of bro-manster when he practiced the subtle art of flexing in such close proximity?

"Oooo!" She cooed as she ran her claw tips up Nero's impressive biceps. "I just knew that you'd be the right boo, no, the right manster to help me!"

She let go of his hand and walked ahead of him, his eyes following those hips swinging back and forth in such an outrageous manner. They arrived at a darkened alley where a large, iron gray dumpster was stationed. She approached it and grasped the lid and with a soft grunt, tried to lift it but was unsuccessful.

She turned to Nero and batted her lashes at him and winked.

"I guess I could use a claw with lifting the lid. I am sooo weak and in need. Would you mind?"

She took a few steps back as a confident Nero strutted up to the dumpster and with an easy lift, he heaved the lid up and over -- but as he did, a shovel emerged from beneath and flipped him up and right into the dumpster! The lid clanged shut over his head and the sides dropped down to reveal bars.

"Well. I have to admit..." The wererabbit cackled as a swirl of orangle light shimmered down her form to reveal her true visage, that of the morbidly rotund (and smelly) swamp witch Hagetha Mistie. "I had my doubts whether this little trap would work. You teenage boos are all the same!"

Slipping a large book and a wand from the many folds of her ratted dress, she pointed the wand at Nero and blew him a kiss before she recited from the book,

"By Mezmer's mind and mental powers
your will is mine for 24 hours!

You will leave your friends and to them declare
'Farewell, I belong to Cirque Sinistaire!'"

And from the point if her wand, the light flashed toward Nero...  

[Nero de Sphinx]

Nero rubbed the back of his head, gingerly feeling around to see if he's cracked his skull on the solid iron dumps-NO! Cage! This wasn't right! This was emphatically not how it went when this scenario went through his dreams.

He grasped the bars and looked for Jess-ick-a.

"HEY! What's going on here?!"

This time he could not keep his jaw from dropping as the stunning were-rabbit turned into an pile of moss and warts and cackles, just as stunning as before but now in the complete opposite direction. He recoiled, trying to inch away but only backed into the cage's bars. She was NOT sexy. What she was was chanting at him from an ancient looking book.

"What are you doing? Let m~"  

[Kai Merha]

Kai looked up from his cards.

"Was....was Nero just here?" He looked around, but his beastie was nowhere to be seen. Kai shrugged and went back to agonizing over his cards.

He was almost sure...just about...nearly there...maybe...  

[Ronan Aalto]

"Who?" Ronan glanced around, nope, no idea who Nero was. He shrugged and went back to idly tapping his fingers on the table and waiting for Kai to play a card already. He was starting to wish he'd bothered ordering something to eat, because this really was going to take all night wasn't it?  

[Nero de Sphinx]

Nero threw open the doors to the Coffin Bean and strode towards Layla.

"You know what? Who cares what the album cover looks like, music isn't that important."

Layla's jaw fell.

"Wh-what? But you ju~"

"School isn't either. Lin had the right idea."

Nero flexed his arms, his muscles freely rippling for all to see.

"I'm joining the circus!"

He kicked the door open and left. The door swung slowly shut behind him with a quiet little click that everyone heard in the stunned silence of the cafe.  

[Glen da West]

Every eye was on the door to the Coffin Bean, that Nero had just exited through.

First Lin, and now Nero!? What exactly was going on here!?

Glen was as stunned as everyone else as he watched the door for the inevitable return of Nero and punchline to this colossal joke. He casually dropped the Creepy Weepy Banshee card atop of Skelly's P.I.G. (Pretty Immense Gargoyle) card.

Skelly sat back up, having found his jaw bone that dropped due to Nero's pronouncement, and he looked down at the cards. He fit his jaw back on and groaned at th decisive defeat,

"Aw moan!"  

[Ronan Aalto]

Ronan stared after Nero, another one? What was this sudden appeal of the circus? Was this all some sort of elaborate prank or did teenagers genuinely find the bigtop cool all of a sudden?
He looked to Kai for some sort of explanation, or at least confirmation that what had just happened was as random and unusual as he felt it was.