@Ome:  "Well, I would say I did that tonight." The first competitor, who spent a few minutes in your gut, remarks with good humor.  After that, it's a solid night at the diner - good food and good talk - the two aren't as unreasonable or pushy as they'd seemed at first - just boisterous.  And respectful, now that you've earned it.  Like a lot of people in their end of town and in the underground, reputation isn't respect; you gotta put yourself out there and let them learn up front why you deserve it; and these two, it becomes clear, already see you on the same level as their icons at the top of the fighting leagues.<br/><br/>@KavenBach:  "Bullshit." He groans.  "You're scalding yourself - the steam is making my feet sweat through the door." The handle creaks and he comes in, silhouetted on the shower curtain.  "And you forgot a towel in here.  Or rather, they did..." He shuffles out, out of the room, and comes back with one a minute or two later from the front desk, setting it on the rack.  And then flops.  He sits there, on the floor, back to the sink.  "I can feel the heat radiating from it.  Seriously, turn it down before I do... you'll ruin that perfect skin of yours." He says in the tone of a child that thinks it knows what's best for an adult.<br/><br/>@Chiro:  The professor takes another drought from his waterskin.  After about a half an hour down the cable, the cart, creaking in its descent, stops on a foothill slowly.  There is naught but a great anchor here holding the cable.  Beyond are fields and forests, brooks and beyond that, what seem to be hamlets and, somewhere far off, perhaps even a city?  The buildings stretch up majestically, just peaking over the horizon.  "This is it?  This is where magic and technology merge chaotically?" The professor calls out mockingly.  "Huh... well, where to?"