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"Flea Market of the Multiverse"

Just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the Battledome, Ichor St. Markets is an expansive network of street stands run by folks who have found their way to the Battledome from every universe imaginable. The 'Domers come for the bloodshed, but these merchants come for the bloodthirsty customers.

They sell clothes, weapons, food, magical potions, advanced alien technology, broken iPods - some things may be unfamiliar to denizens of other realities, some may be more valuable to folks from one universe than another, but most of them will definitely not belong in your timeline.

Amble down the colorful, diverse, anachronistic Ichor Street and try not to think about paradoxes or contaminating other universes.

Between the hastily assembled street stands and peddlers, there were also many shamans or wizards offering services - priests and monks giving blessings or envious men and women contracting curses. Among them was Othien, offering healing and wisdom to passersby as a form of penance.

It had been a long while since he had last mingled; there weren't enough denizens of his forest home to be a "crowd" and the everyday folk there viewed him - as they viewed most of his goddess' closest followers - as a tattletale of a sort. The beings of this realm didn't recognize him as anything other than another combatant - if an eccentric-looking one.

Othien thought it was nice to visit a world in which the only thing off-putting about him was his eye. Perhaps social interaction wasn't his favorite activity, but this was the ideal form of it. There were folks much stranger than himself about.

Although the healing arts were not his specialty, this was one of his sacred duties. His goddess did not forbid the taking of life as strictly as others would, whether of animals or of sapients, but required equal giving back of it. This was his redemption for his acts in the Battledome.

As Othien finished up with a patient, he couldn't help but overhear the group of mercenaries from across the way. From his vantage point, he examined the decorated vehicle. He'd been out of the loop a while about happenings around the multiverse, and this would be a good a time as any to get informed. He knew he shouldn't have - that it might definitely cause him some trouble, walking up to a group of bounty hunters and ruffians - but his curiosity had been sparked, so to speak.

He placed his staff inside his tent and said some funny sounding words in a language that nobody used for anything other than spells anymore. (As he turned his back, the kid selling goblin fruits one stall down tried to take some of his stuff, but only came out with a nasty shock.)

Othien approached the mercs, cautiously keeping aware of each of them and the surrounding area, in case this did end up being as stupid as he figured it would be.

"Have an extra smoke?" he asked.

"Much appreciated, friend." Othien took a cigarette and lit it up with a spark. "It's been a long day."

He took a drag and leaned on his other arm on the counter a bit. He might have been surprised at how casually he could assume a different set of mannerisms from his own, but the truth was that he had felt at ease while lying for a while now.

"What're you playing, if you don't mind me asking?"

He wanted to ask what "Aeyghrus" was, but he thought he should hold off for a little while.

"Game sounds familiar," he said. "I'm Othi."

The goat comment made him cringe a little; he could empathize, having been called almost every name in the book.

"Great ink," Othien said, firmly shaking Ferris' hand with his own, and pointing to the peculiar tattoo with his other. "Where'd you get it?"

Othien nodded as Ferris spoke. Some of what he was saying sounded familiar, but some of it didn't make any sense.

"Just needed to get out some extra aggression; the missus has been riding me," he said, sure that what he was saying was probably as good as blasphemy. "She's a force of nature."

He couldn't let it rest, he really had to ask.

"Romans?" He said, trying to sound casual. "I think I must have visited your part of the multiverse once or twice. They still around or...?"

Visher stood at the entrance to the Market, arms crossed, staring up at the large walls of the Battledome in silence as it cast down a shadow. Him casting his own in his height. In his own world in thought.

...That is until something caught his eye at a nearby vendor's stall. A man was seemingly checking the wears, eyeing each piece... And quietly snatching a few here and there without notice. The vendor would notice only after he was gone. Visher, not only being one for making a scene, turned stepped towards said stall.

The man was about grab another trinket when Visher arrived behind him, looming over the man. "Two choices." He spoke. "Either put it back or pay for it." The man turned and flinched at the large man behind him suddenly. "Wha- Who the hell are you? I ain't done anything, and I ain't gotta pay for nothing." He then turned and pocketed the item, ignoring Visher. Who in turn grabbed the man and held him up by his collar. Visher sighed before speaking again. "I never said you'd pay with your useless money..." He then turned and threw the man across the path, spilling all the things he's stolen over the ground.

The stall vendor's and other passer-by's were shocked at what happened and stayed back as Visher drew his blade and pointed it at the man on the floor...

The dirdelks stopped playing, noticing the commotion across the way.

"Aw sweet! A fight!" Niri squeaked excitedly. The other two dirdelks lost interest in their game and bounded up on the truck to get a better view of what was going on.

"Oh! s**t! That big dude has a sword to his throat! Think he'll kill him?" Chunks asked.

"Should we break it up, you think?" Horndog asked, slightly concerned. <******** that noise. I'm not gonna try and stop that big ********! That blade he has probably weighs more than a goddamn Buick!" Chunks exclaimed.

"What's a Buick?" Niri wondered aloud.

Ferris noticed the crowd as well, but he was less interested in it than the dirdelks."Supposedly, old man Remus has come back to life and has sworn to destroy those who brought about the downfall of the empire." The merc laughed. "But I think that's just some old wives tale to scare kiddies, if you ask me."