[A/T]Inside 15 (Read First Post)

[Rebonack]

Current events:
-The ACRO Empire has been expanding beyond the City walls through buying allegiance with aid and military conquest alike. The City is divided over these actions.
-Giant bugs have been reported around the city. They've thus far caused extensive property damage and some loss of life.
-A number of supernatural storms have torn up and completely repaired parts of Inside, people included. However, a few are reported missing...

Rules and locations in the spoiler. Please Spoiler any fan service written in this thread. Thank you.
All standard forum rules apply here, as do the godmodding rules generally agreed upon on this sub-forum.

This thread is for urban shenanigans as Outside is for wilderness shenanigans. It's generally a good idea to mark your PC's location with a [Location] tag at the top of your post so that other players using the thread will know where you are.

This thread is open for use by everyone. Feel free to make up locations within or even man a booth at the open market place. Please be respectful of other people's locations and refrain from blowing them up with an orbital laser strike or something.

There are NPCs all over the place, being a city and all. They are free to be used, abused, blown up, or turned into brain-hungry undead at your desecration. Please be responsible with your NPC use and clean up after you're done.

Above all else, be nice and have fun. That's the point of FFRP after all.

About the various 'Zones'. The Blue zone is near the center of the city. Yellow is the area near the city walls. Null is the area between. Red is the area within the Crime Infested Slums.

An Important Note Since it Keeps Coming Up

Inside is part of BOTH Acro AND Town. Inside is a city situated right in the middle of The Nexus, a crossroads between all possible worlds, realities, universes, and ice cream flavors. You can get TO Inside from just about anywhere and to just about anywhere FROM Inside.

ACRO and Town are just two of many worlds that touch The Nexus, and thus Inside. Posters from all FFRP settings are welcome here.

Locations

Market Streets (Main Street all the way through the city)
If you wan to man a booth here with a PC or a named NPC just drop me a PM and a description and I'll add it.
Buying Stuff
Normal, run of the mill things like cheese and lumber and horses can be purchased with previous metals. But if you want rare or magical objects a heap of gold just isn't going to cut it. You'll either need to barter with other magical objects or pay with enchanting reagents. Enchanting reagents are special substances that can't be magically poofed into existence and happen to be important in the creation of enchanted objects, casting of spells, and other such magicy things.

Enchanting reagents can be just about anything, ranging from special metals (mithril, orahalcum, adamantine), distillations of alignments (good, evil, law, chaos, funky, square), pure elements, souls or even essences of an abstract concept (nature, hope, malice, pineappleness). Feel free to use your imagination. But keep in mind that enchanting reagents are something that should be collected IC rather than something you assume you have.

Booths and NPCs
Steve the Smoothie Sultan: portly little man with a snazzy turban, he owns a slushy cart that he pushes around Inside
Vincent the Cheesemaker: a young, dashing looking man who looks like he would rather be swashbuckling. He owns a booth that sells cheese. Go figure.
Tex the Scholar: Own a yurt near the fountain in the city square. Collects, copies, and sells rare books and scrolls. Occasionally gives out quests to acquire new books for him.
Ivan's Inchanted Imports: A balding man with a pet squirrel and a terrible Italian accent, Ivan deals in enchanted objects. He doesn't accept precious metals, though he will take trades and enchanting reagents.
Twoflower the Druid: A seller of herbs, mushrooms, and other products of the forest, Twoflower is your standard tree hugging wild-shaping hippie. Really don't like aberrations.
Jernaldo the Baker: The portly man wears a white apron and a chef hat that seems to stretch off out of sight. One of those thin mustaches, too. He's a bit crazy, but sells the best pastries and trail rations around.

As soon as one passes through the city gates the previously serene sense of wonderment at the distant, lofty mountains and flashing sea is replaced with urban bustle. Carts rattle over flagstones, jostling goods and rider alike as children dart through the streets deeply engaged in a game of Adventurer. Horses and cattle clop down the streets, being led to auction yards or stables or open field or adventure. Merchants and shoppers alike meander through the streets on important and unspoken business while in the distance a clear bell chimes, summoning devotees to the Sanctuary Fortress for worship.

And the booths. Booths everywhere

Booths nestled all along the wide main road house both wares and those selling them, each of which is calling to each passerby, extolling the quality and rarity of his or her goods. Some haggle over prices while other exchange coins.

Clothing and exotic fabrics. Masterful weapons and armor. Pungent smelling spices from the far west. Fruits, grains, and vegetables local and from afar. Jewels in which dance the light of the stars. Scrolls upon which are scribed elder secretes and mysteries forgotten by time (if the owner of the booth is to be believed). Maps promising certain riches to those who follow them.

If it can be desired by the hearts of mortals and paid for with gold, then one’s chance of finding it in the Market Streets is rather sound.


Barkhouse Bestiary (Null Zone)

Odd that the building had seemed to simply spring up overnight. Even stranger is the fact that is has somehow managed to grow over at ACROville as well. Things like that happen all the time in Nexus though, so perhaps not. Or... perhaps so...

You see, when a building pops up over night in Nexus it is usually not there one moment and then there the next. Those who happened to be wandering about during the wee hours of the morning swear that they saw this odd structure growing out of the ground. Like a malformed tree maturing far faster than any tree has any business maturing. And like a tree the roof of the building sports a canopy of branches and leaves which several local birds have already taken up residence in.

The leaves are thick and broad, the bark a curious brick red color and as smooth as a paint finish. Said bark is peeling in several places, revealing younger mottled green bark below. Rather reminiscent of a madrone, really.

Despite the fact that the building is quite clearly a tree it is also quite clearly a building. A tree that has grown into a rather unnatural shape. Above the front door one will find a sign of bright yellow barkless wood which reads:



Off to the side is what one would assume to be a carved wolf of the same wood baying at the sign. Because tree puns are funny.

One will find that the door opens quit effortlessly into the roomy interior of the tree-house. Perhaps the first thing that might strike one as odd is how well lit it is inside, due both to window pains of transparent plant membranes as well as bioluminescent globes hanging from the ceiling. The whole building feels somewhat humid, though the temperature is quite comfortable for your average humanoid.

Also hanging here and there are wooden cages. More akin to old fashioned song-bird cages that the ugly boxish wire mesh variety. Some of the cages are empty. Others contain various animals, both fuzzy and not, which watch passersby with curious eyes.

Like the cages, in truth like the building as a whole, there really don't seem to be any corners to speak of. Only smooth organic curves in this place. Which makes the counter in the main room stand out a fair bit. But only because of its planed surface. It's certainly by no means square. Or even rectangular. Rather it curves and meanders around a fair bit in a very haphazard way.

Behind the counter is a perch. And on the perch is a rather odd bird painted with earth tones and a fair bit of blue. Should a customer have a message for the owner while he's out it will be more than happy to remember it for you. And if he happens to be in another room the bird will probably squawk until it gets his attention.

From the main room one will find three doors branching off to other chambers, all with similar furnishings and décor as the first. One seems to be packed with various supplies for the proper care of curious critters. Food and bedding and cages and the like. To the right one will find more varied critters as in the first main room, though the temperature here is a little warmer and the lighting slightly more dark. Also of note are a series of raised ponds which contain a plethora of colorful fish.

Yes. Even trout.

The final room is fairly large and packed to the gills with all fashion of truly bizarre plants. Many of which seem to be growing what could be assumed to be... equipment. Rope. Individual pieces of armor, pauldrons and bracers mostly. Pendants. And other less identifiable things. At one wall of the chamber is another pond with a smallish waterfall running out above it. And basking on a rock at the edge of the pond is a three foot long salamander. The amphibian, not the elemental. Near it is a sign which reads:



On the second floor of the tree house is Avatar's workshop and personal quarters, though the means by which this portion of the building is accessed isn't immediately clear. The quarters are rather plain and Spartan. The workshop seems cluttered with notes and cages, though there is some semblance of method to the madness.

In all a rather strange place, no doubt. A strange place that sells custom magical beasts and living wondrous items. How very curious indeed. What an item that won't get fried by disjunction? Need a fire breathing guinea pig? Have you always thought that it would be useful to be resistant to petrifaction? Do you need some exploding seed pods? Then, fine customer, you have come to the right place! The proprietor even takes custom orders, though expect that such creatures will take a day or two to complete. After all, it isn't easy to build a living thing from the ground up.

So come in! Look around! Have your lycanthropy repressed and buy a monkey of healing to sit on your head!


Erin's Emporium (Yellow Zone)

Construction Gnomes have been hard at work renovating a small store along one of the various merchantile roads. Well, it was small. Now it's bigger on the inside.

And filled with every sort of weaponry imaginable, from across the multiverse. From blaster carbines to P-90s, surface-to-air missiles to ballistas, zats to nunchucks, they're all here.

Is that a siege crossbow sitting in the corner?


The Scrivener (L/P)
Just inside the front door are rows of bookshelves, featuring many a book, tome, and article filled with useful information. At first one would assume that this is just a bookstore, but, as the clerk behind the counter will cheerfully inform you, The Scrivener specializes in obtaining and researching information for a fee as well. On the second floor is Douglas' office, where one can hire him as a private investigator.

House of Oddities (L/P)

*squeak*
*squeak*
*squeak*
*squeak*
*squeak*

This man approaches an empty lot. Walking over, the man kneels down, setting his briefcase next to him. Opening it up, he leans far in, almost to the waist, before drawing himself back out again, holding a beaker of water in one hand and what appears to be a small model house in the other. Closing the briefcase, the Squeaky Shoes Man maneuvers to the center of the lot.

Placing the model down, he pours the water on it and then dashs back to his briefcase quickly. The model grows, slowly at first, then faster until soon, there stands a single story house. The paint was a hideous cat-puke green and peeling. Rust lined the porch railings and shutters were hanging on their sides. The windows were covered in dirt and dust. The man smiled and picked up his briefcase. Moving quickly to his new abode, the wooden steps gave a strained groan under his weight, but held. The door swings open with a screech and the man steps inside.

Some time later, the man comes out with a hammer and a wooden sign. Staking it in front of the house, somehow pushing it into pavement, the man nods, seemingly proud of his work and goes back inside. The sign reads as follows:



Those who walk up the ominously groaning steps and enter the shop/house will be greeted by an incredibly dusty room. Cobwebs lie all along the walls. Floorboards creak precariously. There even seems to be a hole or two in the floor. This place certainly seems unfit to live. To the right and towards the back of the room is another door that must lead further into the house.

In the middle of the room is a card table with one leg shorter than the others creating that annoying, impossible to remove, wobble. Sitting in a cheap folding metal chair facing the doorway is the Squeaky Shoes man. On top of the table is the briefcase.

Welcome to the House of Oddities. What is your flavor today?


Hestia Cyanide's Potions and Poisons (L/P)

The rumbling of cartwheels and the clippetty-clop of carthorses comes to a halt as the quaint little wagon comes to a halt in the empty lot. And I do mean quaint. About the size of a small room, the wagon seems comically tiny compared to the large twin carthorses that pull it, appearing too small for someone to live in, let alone hold a shop in. At least, until it expands. The wagon seems almost to explode as it enlarges, rooms and walls and chimneys and roofs popping and appearing until the wagon resembles a small, double-story, brightly painted cottage on wheels. The house sinks to the ground, wainscots lowering lowering to hide the wheels from view, until steps pop out from the bottom of the front door, coming to the floor, and a stable pops out from the side. A large creature, perhaps a troll, or maybe an ogre or a morlock or a bugbear, comes out the front door, herds the two carthorses into the stables (which, curiously, hold room for four), then returns inside, but not before hanging up a wooden sign proclaiming
Hestia Cyanide's
Potions and Poisons

in large white letters.


The inside of the shop is smoky and warm, with a sitting room at the front, consisting of a variety of mismatched comfy chairs arranged around a low-slung table, and a 'kitchen', if it can be called that, at the back, a chaotic arrangement of shelving containing a perplexing multitude of jars, vials and bottles, all facing inwards towards a giant cauldron (and a small stepladder, for Hestia is of the small sort).

The upstairs part of the store is out of bounds, for it is where Hestia lives and sleeps, when she is not at PEACE.

Shrine to Sart'Ran (Blue Zone)
Out in the main street, a stand is unfurling. It's quite an impressive stand. Out the front there's much black and white fabric hanging from beams, giving a very welcoming feel to the whole thing. There's no front counter, but rather an entrance to the tent in the back with several healing tools set on racks on the wall.

Out the front of this store is a kindly cleric. At first glance one may be fooled into thinking that he's old, but however they'd soon realise that it's actually quite a young cleric, although they may feel reassured by his robes, those of an experienced cleric.

His face is quite handsome, and his face is very kind, although at the moment there's a troubled look on his brow. Nevertheless, he'll greet any visitors with a happy smile, before leading them inside the tent.

Club 30's (Red Zone)
The club is presently in an uncertain state between leveled and not leveled.

A posh nightclub run by Jack, one of the area's businessmen. Ladies and gentlemen from all walks of life meet and mingle here, so long as they follow the formal dress code. The interior is set up in 50's modern-jazz style. There is a private VIP area for business dealings or couples who want to be away from prying eyes, a bar, and a raised stage. Live music is played nightly, currently fronted by Jack's girlfriend Layla, a pretty blonde elven girl.

Ghostbusters' Firehouse (L/P)
In the area of town called Kingsville, after the devastation caused by the White King to it, a old building, that was once a firehouse stands.

On the outside a sign sits above the large doors depicting a concerned looking ghost in the middle of a red-hashed 'no' symbol.

This is the Ghostbusters' Inside station, similar to the headquarters in New York, but with a few minor differences.

Only one ghostbuster is available here. But he's ready to take on any ghost-related problems at almost any time.

The Black Label (Yellow Zone)
In a room adjacent to Erin's Emporium, a new business has opened.

The store is lined with parts. Frames, slides, stocks, bolts, sights, scopes, barrels, hammers, grips, and various internal mechanisms are on shelves, in display cases, and laid out on tables. Other racks and cases hold complete firearms of every description and sort.

There are also stands and mock up of gun fighting rigs, body armor, and systems resembling the Land Warrior and Future Force Warrior programs.

In the back, you can see machinery of a varied sort. Lathes, drills, work benches with a variety of tools. This place has everything you need to create the perfect weapon for yourself, provided that you use guns.

That includes the gunsmith, Grigori Vanek, better known as Greg, sitting at his counter with his legs propped up, smoking a cigarette.

Signs out front and inside say:



The Misspelled Cemetary (Null Zone)
It's the rain that makes for the perfect atmosphere.

Since the party left the well lit cobbles lanes of the Market Streets the sky has opened up upon our intrepid band of adventurers with a vengeance. The wind howls through barren trees as the rain descends in sheets. The heavens are split by a ribbon of lightning and a roar of thunder.

A massive cast iron gate surrounds this place of once hallowed ground. Yes, hallowed once but no longer. The earth appears dead. Rotten. A phosphorescent green fog creeping along the ground. Misshapen fungus and molds clinging to crumbling monuments. Corpses exposed on the surface, half-eaten with decay.

The gate creeks open of its own accord as the party nears.

And above the gate, in rusted iron letters, reads:



MagMart (Blue Zone)
An absurd mash-up of K-Mart, Wall-Mart, Target, and every other vile retail chain, MagMart is staffed by an unswervingly loyal Magbots, lobotomized talking cats that are too brain-dead to know any better, several voodoo spirits, and a pickle jar that everyone insists is a sentient being that only communes with those who truly believe in it.

Here you can find everything from curtains to carpets, macaroni to monkeys on motorcycles, groceries to zombies. The staff is always happy to help (or else), and if you aren't entirely satisfied with your shopping experience, you can pay a small fee to watch the MagMart employee of your choosing get fired out the MagMart complimentary employee morale cannon.

Pontius' Custom Constructs (Null Zone)
The caravan of 6 wagons (I never said 3! Well, I did, but still.) arrives at a warehouse, previously for sale. The gnomes lead the golems and other constructs inside, and get to work. The warehouse has an open yard at the main entrance, and several golems, like crude figures of worked stone or wood, stand in the yard. A gnome wearing an apron over smart-yet-practical artesan's clothes and puts a sign up.


Pontius's Custom Constructs
Golems of Any Material* at Unbelievably Low Prices!!!**
You Won't Find a Golem, Gargoyle, Guardian or Homonculus Cheaper!!***
Come Now and Buy 1 Get 1 Full Price!!!****



*Flesh has an additional charge. **Define 'low'. ***Except at our competitors. ****Terms and conditions apply.

Sanctuary Fortress of Zoemaytare (Blue Zone)

Like so many other prominent buildings in Town, or not so prominent buildings for that matter, this place seemed to pop up out of nowhere over night.

Buildings are like mushrooms in Town. Probably spread via spores, too.

Regardless, here it is. A rather sizable campus marble hewn from the mountains some distance away. Carved and hauled here near the edge of the slums where they were no doubt assembled. Though... no one can quite place a finger on when this happened.

Though the buildings aren't of only cold hard stone, no. There are timbers as well. Not what one might expect, however. They seem almost organic. As though they had grown into place rather than being hewn.

Oddness aside, the temple is arranged in a rather interesting fashion. Several concentric wall and courtyards ending in a central temple.

The outer wall is lower than the rest, each tier of the temple built onto higher ground like a wedding cake. Each wall is topped with a roof supported on the inside by pillars, creating a sheltered walkway. The exact use of these porches depends on the section of the temple one happens to be in.

Anyone is allowed entry through the first wall and into the first court, the Court of Meeting. Beyond the second wall only worshipers of Zoemaytare are allowed admittance to the second court, the Court of the Blessed. Beyond the third wall only the priests are allowed, where they carry out holy rituals within the temple itself.

The Court of Meeting is dedicated to service of those the worshipers of Zoemaytare dwell among. Food is prepared for the hungry here and given out without expectation of recompense. Those without a place to lay their head are allowed to sleep within the porch. The grounds beyond the porch are devoted to a wondrous garden boasting vibrancy and spectacular color. This are is always comfortably warm and brimming with life. Wounds heal faster as the body is refreshed. Undead creatures will find that remaining here is decidedly uncomfortable.

The sky above the temple seems to be perpetually clear, filled with pleasant sunlight in the day and cloaked with gossamer stars at night. Benches are set up here and there, under trees with hanging branches and above fragrant shrubbery. A lively stream flows endlessly in a circuit about the Court, spilling into several larger pools and meandering up a small outcrop of stone before cascading back down the other side.

This section of the temple is tended by members of the faith. Not priests, though devote. They can be found tending the garden and serving warm food. When in service to the temple these devotees wear a white linen ephod bearing the symbol of a willow tree, ornately rendered in blue thread. They'll be more than happen to answer any questions. Priests tend to have stricter ceremonial garb, including a blue tunic and white robe in addition to the ephod.

Welcome, traveler. May you be more blessed when you leave than when you came.

New information that isn't readily noticeable at first glance at the temple will be added here.

The temple grounds are protected by a dampening field that blocks unauthorized teleporation and dimensional shifting. The place is something of a fortress after all. Being able to pop in and out at will would defeat the purpose.

Zoemaytare isn't a god of (fill in the black) but rather the patron and protector of her people. As such, her domain, if she even has one, is over all that her people do. The people in question are collectively known as the Zoeos, and this particular temple is their first major venture into Town. At present their stated goal is to set up trade relations and aid the city. This is ministered through the temple on account of the Zoeos government being a theocracy.

It just so happens that there's a dungeon under the temple, though the entrance to it is well hidden.

NPCs thus far:

Potentate of the temple: the head priest and administrator. He has yet to be seen 'on screen' though he has been referred to.

Regent Zachius: And elderly human with a coppery complexion and deep-set wrinkles, the sort of face one expects of a person who has spent a great deal of time in the sun smiling. He's a kind old fellow who is in charge of the Court of Meeting.

Regent Stephen: A younger human who smells rather distinctly of wolf. He's in charge of the dungeons of the temple and seems to be a rather caring and compassionate fellow. It's his job to bring the cases of prisoners before the Potentate.

Regent Thadeus: One of the priests who aids in minor upkeep in the temple proper. He usually isn't seen outside the temple and since his position doesn't put him in much contact with the common folk he tends to be somewhat aloof and judgmental. Also happens to be an elf. Those snooty elves!

Bognus Thundershield: a lay dwarf that operates the temple's teleporter, primarily from Trog's. Though people can be 'ported in from elsewhere as well. While it isn't commonly known, this device can send people over rather long distances, though it's somewhat inaccurate when doing so. Bognus is a bit gruff, though generally good natured. He speaks with a thick Scottish Dwarven accent.


R'lyay! (Beyond the Walls)
Something roils in the ocean off the coast of Town/inside. Something big is rising from the vast depths just off the coastal drop off. Rising, displacing water in high waves that sweep into the harbor, pounding ships and flooding over the docks. Seen from the sky, vast black shadow ascends from the ocean floor, growing larger and larger as it comes. Perhaps less than a quarter mile from the coast of town the first pointed jagged rocks break the water's surface.

Slowly but surely, towers of strange greenish stone rises from below the surface, stabbing upwards into the sky. The cyclopean ruins of a vast and ancient city breach the boundary between water and air. An island, miles across floats ponderously and unstoppably to the surface. As it settles into place offshore, water rushes from the city, flowing back into the ocean, leaving behind seaweed and slimy, green stonework. Almost as soon as the island has settle, waves of thick supernatural fog begin to emanate from its shores, obscuring its outline and making it impossible to observe clearly from the shore.

The City of [R’lyay!] sits offshore, inviting to adventurers who do not fear for their sanity. For now it simply exists, not interacting beyond its upsetting of the Inside harbor and shoreline.

First Bank of Inside (Blue Zone)
The premiere financial institution in the city, and also the top employer of non-evil Evil Outsiders in the tri-dimensional area.

Divinations (Yellow Zone)
Not far from the city walls is a small shop which opened up soon after the war with Felina. Over the door hangs a painted sign.


http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq40/happyturtle-avs/hamsa-1.jpg
Divinations

Inside the air smells of dead things - musty and unpleasant. Ghavrion, a rather plain young man is behind the counter. (PM Happyturtle to interact with Ghavrion)

http://public5.tektek.org/img/av/0912/d04/0830/db0f761.png

Trollfinger, Ironpick & Greencheek, Mining & Engineering (Blue Zone)
A run-down building near Trog's Tavern was bought by three goblin enterpreneurs with a large crew and now houses their mining and engineering company. Everyone who needs something dug, built, repaired or blown up is welcome.

The Steam Engine
Somewhere in the sprawling city place a biggish building pops into existence, fitting snugly between two other buildings. Three stories tall, the building is somewhat rustic in style, though clearly not old. Jutting dramatically from the walls of the building are giant cogs and gears which turn and grind ceaselessly, powered by some engine within. A large clock mounted in the center of the top floor wall displays the time, keeping perfect time. From a trio of large chimneys towards the back of the structure pours a continuous billow of steam which rises as a white column visible for miles. Mounted above the front door is a sign made of turning gears and clicking springs which reads:



Each letter is made of multiple pieces which turn and move according to the machinations running them, working so that the sign is always in motion but always readable as well.

If one passes through the front door, they would find themselves inside a warm and somewhat noisy workshop. The bottom floor is open, with a large central counter set towards the back. In the center of the room is a large spiral staircase which leads to the second floor. The walls of the main room are covered with all manner of conceivable clockwork mechanisms. Clocks and watches and automated devices for cooking and cleaning, tiny clockwork automatons which mull about tidying the floor and keeping springs wound, devices shaped like backpacks with odd spindly armatures jutting from them, and so much more. The wall itself is alive with motion as many of the machines click and clank, turning and spinning tiny dynamos, glinting crystal lenses and begging to be inspected. The wares are not limited to the walls, but also hang from the ceiling and rest on neatly ordered shelves. Beneath the constant skuttle of whirling gears is a powerful drone of machinery, invisible within the walls.

Should one proceed up the staircase they would find the second floor far less cluttered, though by no means lest interesting. On this floor is what appears to be a wide open space populated by large works in progress. Mechanical skeletons of almost bestial machines with dozens of legs or folded canvas wings sit about in varying states of construction. Commissions from high paying customers, unique each of them. Stacked along the back wall of the second floor is a long line of tall metal tanks with pressure gauges and pipes mounted on them. Most of them are full and ready to be hooked up to a completed machines to provide power to its steam driven systems.

The third floor of the building is accessed via a small door in the back which is securely locked and bolted, though there is no visible handle of lock anywhere on its flat surface.

Behind the building itself is a separate workshop, also securely locked and barred from unwanted entry. One one side of the small yard between it as the main shop is a towering steam engine, working furiously off a supply of coal shoveled in by automated arms mounted to it and driven by complex gears. The furnace seems responsible for supplying steam via massive pipes to both the workshop and the front store.

Though nobody is currently present, there is a small lever mounted next to the counter on the first floor, marked with a small sign:


The Temple of Dalachrech
The first room entered is a foyer. On the walls are red drapes with silver, two-tailed scorpions embroidered on to them, and next to the door is an ornate font. The granite font stands about waist height, and is a plinth with a bowl of unholy water. Winding around the font are carved centipedes. A door away from this chamber leads to the main prayer hall. This room also has drapes with the two-tailed scorpion device on the walls, and a red velvet carpet flanked by wooden pews leads to an altar at the far end. The altar is covered with red velvet, with a gold statue and red candles placed upon it. The statue depicts a demon with a centipede's body, a scorpion's tail with spinnerets next to the sting, a stag beetle's head and the claws of a praying mantis.

The title is a misnomer, of course. No doubt the moniker of this place was settled on after a brief conversation that started with, 'Wouldn't it be funny if...?'. But now the name has stuck.

But what is this place, you ask?

Quite simple.

This is the place between the others that isn't Outside. Now, not outside as in outdoors. That out-door market place is certainly outside. But it isn't Outside. It isn't nestled between the roaring waves of the sea and the ancient, decaying mountains. It isn't hidden in the wilds.

It's here.

In this city.

This urban center that has burst forth like a field of toad-stools after an autumn rain. This city that begun to grow as soon as the first place of business was planted outside the various ACRO organizations. Or... maybe it was here all along and no one noticed it?

It's a strange city, to be sure. Filled with all manner of people and places and dangers and wonders. One day a location may be an empty lot. The next a butcher shop. The next a lichen-choked cathedral long since abandoned. Nothing is static. All is in flux.

It had to have been here before. Right? People walked from the Taverna to the various Orgs all the time. So how would it have been missed? Perhaps it is now so much more real because it has been acknowledged.

So then, what is this place you ask?

Well my dear hypothetical inquirer, it is the urban counterpart of Outside. It is the inns and shops and streets and slums. The markets and the parks and the fountains and the city squares. It is the libraries and the places of worship and the dank sewer systems. It is all the urban locations that don't have a place to call their own.

Always wanted to crash through a fruit stand in a dramatic chase scene? Well now you can.

Beware the Cute Diseased Pigeons, however. While they may be adorable they are known carries of the deadly Vaporization Flu.

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

Some thinking. Then some writing.

"We had space flight. But we didn't do much with it. One major thing in our history kinda kicked our timeline in another direction, I guess. Quickly introduced something we weren't used to. Here, they call it magic. We just called them Abilities."

Brendan's House of Hobbies - Coming Soon
a/k/a Storefront

"Ah. Well, we had a major magical age in our past, but by my time it had died down to almost nothing for thousands of years, I'm not quite sure why..." Brendan explains.

[UncleWolf]

[Outside Trog's]

Commander Edijar nods. "One night, I was given a chance. A better one than the one where I had to survive off of what people would give me as charity. I was given a place to stay, food, water, health care and even educated." He sighs. "You don't know what it's like, finally given a real life instead of simply living as a dreg."

A guard's hand twitches, but is helped in her ability to resist by her modified gear, as well as her own elite training, and is able to keep herself from being influenced more than that. These units were some of the best, stories of Zee get around, and nothing but the elite would ever be sent to her.

[Draken]

[Outside Trog's]

Overmind is unamused by this unexpected resistance, and turns his attention to the remaining gathered citizens.

A new command is given, this time to riot, to throw rocks and any detritus they can find at the imperial guards, to shout against the arrest.

Why a few bolder ones might even try to rush in against the guards.

These are random NPCs, so Draken is now taking over as many as he can, which is an arbitrary number really.

[McBish]

[Outside Trog's]

Phoebe glares at the commander and it doesn't soften a bit. She knew what it was like. She stands here still wearing the clothes she wore when she slept outside in the cold alone and without help. She isn't even wearing shoes still. Zee was one of the people that helped her get off the streets, and gave her a job. And she isn't going to abandon her friend.

She steps up next to Zee ready to go with her.

((Off in like 20 minutes.))

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

"Ours started about 600 years before I was born. It's not anywhere near as varied and powerful as what's here. But, it was new to us when it came. And it wasn't a gradual introduction. It just happened."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

[Outside Trog's]

Talia sighs. She'll also hand the gauntlets to the man speaking to Zee, since he said they need to take them. She'll turn to Phoebe.

Until we know what all is going on, we should stay out of the way. Zee wants you to do that, Phoebe. I know you want to help her. I do, too. And this is how we can.

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

"Hmm." Brendan muses on that for a bit. "Did anybody explore the possibility of it being artifically induced?"

[Rebonack]

[Outside Trog's]

"It's good to know that a wandering monster didn't eat you. I was worried," Zee comments in a subtly chastising tone. Though the playful smile betrays the meaning behind it. The concern was quite real. And she's quite truly relieved.

"I'm glad this didn't result in any violence," she comments as she heads for the APC. "That would have made things quite a bit-"

And then the shouting starts.

And the rock throwing.

And the other forms of general unpleasantness.

"-worse... Phoebe! Get inside, now!" that doesn't sound like a request.

[Darkcomet]

[Outside Trog's]

That gunship that has been hovering in the air for a while now? It's descending to be more level with the roof of Trog's.

And... opening up on Overmind with its laser chaingun/rapid-fire laser. Misnomers blah blah blah. Since Draken said it'd be able to detect it 'n stuff in chat and described what it looked like, which pretty clearly means Karish. >.> Also I believe those things were seen when Boros attacked, too.

[Draken]

That's one lame description DC. Put more effort into it next time.

[Outside Trog's]

Overmind teleports out of the line of fire, allowing the weapon fire to shoot unhindered at the ceiling of Trog's Tavern... Hmm... Not a good sign for the patrons inside.

Overmind himself appears (invisible) in the middle of the gathered crowd, commanding them to form around him and conceal his buggy form.

[UncleWolf]

[Outside Trog's]

The man nods politely to Talia. "Thank you." He then gives Zee the smile. "It's nice to know you were concerned, but I assure you, no harm has come to me."

He heads towards the APC as well. Then the civilians start attacking and he lets out a curse. "This is what I was afraid of." He activates his radio. "All units, nonlethal force only. Deploy riot shields and stun batons. Sticky Foam will be used."

The elite guards form a tight rank and a small bar on each of their left arms expands into a fully 6 foot tall riot shield, lined with small shock node, only strong enough to stun, not kill. The thrown items do little against their armor, and those who rush are met by stun batons.

At the same time, the turret on the closer APC to the riot spins to them and unleashing a thick liquid on the crowd. When it touches the air, it starts expanding into a sticky foam to immobilize the people they hit.

Edijar lets out yet another curse as the airship opens fire. "Zee, get in the APC now. I have no control over the airship's actions, but I assure you, that commander will be seen to pay for this if he doesn't have a good reason."

[McBish]

Phoebe tries to grab a hold of Zee's arm shaking her head. I'm not going to leave you Zee. Though if Talia is quick enough she might be able to grab her and teleport her away since Phoebe's player needs to go to bed soon.

[Kenyon]

[Outside Trog's]

Just as the gunship attacks the roof of Trog's, an explosion of smoke billows near the entrance. The man in the gray coat who fell out earlier takes off from inside Trog's, and makes his way to the nearest alleyway.

[Draken]

[Outside Trog's]

Overmind takes notice of Kenyon's attempt at flight, and sends the imperial soldiers a much more convincing psionic suggestion now.

"Culprit attempting to escape. Lethal force. Standard."

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

Zel spends some time writing this one.

"We know where it came from. There were these two men, Ardwyn and Pryce. Both were equal in power. Ardwyn wanted to destroy the world. Pryce tried to stop him. The battle literally changed the face of the planet. Pryce wasn't able to kill Ardwyn. But, by putting his entire being into the final blow, he trapped Ardwyn. This released a lot of energy, which spread around the world, and settled into the surviving population. It also created the Base Spirits. One for each Base, which here would be called elements. Everybody has Abilities tied to one of the Bases. Mine's Kinetic."

((Actual events are slightly different. But that is how Zel knows them. Also, my character Zaydon, currently has the Spirits bound to him.))
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Outside Trog's]

Once the chaos breaks out, Talia goes to do just that. And they would teleport to Talia's room.

[Rebonack]

[Running into an APC]

Don't have to tell Zee twice.

Near as she can tell all these people are trying to save her. If she's out of the picture then hopefully they'll calm down. And she knows better than to try to reason with them. Reasoning with an angry mob never seems to work well.

So yeah.

Into the APC she goes!

Obviously she doesn't know anything about the alien bug or its psionic shenanigans.

Depending on whether or not Phoebe is 'ported away Zee will pull her into the APC with her as swiftly as she can.

...and frankly, Zee's amazingly swift when she needs to be.

[McBish]

Phoebe is teleported away though she looks sad as she sees Zee run for the APC the moment before she disappears. She is going to be angry at Talia once she undeadtimes.

[The Bushranger]

Storefront

Brendan listens intently...

Er...takes his time reading.

Then looks up. "That's certainly...well, fascinating. I'd love to hear more about your world. Hopefully Ash can help with the amulet thing..."

((And BR has to head to bed. 'Night!))

[Darkcomet]

[Outside Trog's]

Luckily, the gunship leveled with Trog's for the exact reason of not causing damage to it when it fired. There's a reason they didn't use the turbolasers. The roof escapes with little more than a few holes, and they don't exactly go down beyond the second floor.

The gunship pilot sends a transmission to the riot troopers on the ground, since they should have comlinks built-in to the helmets and all.

"Attention pacification squads. There is a bizarre giant tick believed to be of Karish nature at the center of the mob now using them as shields. It is likely what is causing this riot. It is detectable by thermal sensors. Over."

[KerfuffleMach2]

((Night BR!))

[Storefront]

Zel shrugs a little.

"As long as I don't go demon again, sure. Not like I'm doing much else."

[Gimliggamer]

[Near Trog's]

Danica calmly watches the proceedings in the shadows near Trog's. She is oblivious to the giant tick, but she does notice Kenyon escaping. She watches him to make sure he succeeds safely.

[UncleWolf]

[Outside Trog's]

Oh, yes, that really is a convincing suggestion. Anyone would love to chase after a single person rather than holding back dozens of rioters. But these are the elite. They have been trained to hold their line and not to follow idiotic orders or instincts such as turning their back to a bloodthirsty mob.

Really, its just common sense.

The Commander punches the button to seal up the APC and tosses Zee's gauntlets into the front seat. "Watch those. Standard Procedure." He pats the side of the door three times, letting the driver know he can leave when he gets the message from above. "You better be right, dammit. Or I'm coming after you." He pulls on his helmet, it's face a flat stainless steel. "All guards, go to Thermal Vision." He switches to do so and looks over the crowd.

The foam should be getting rather hard to resist by now, and the turret spins to fire deeper in the crowd.

[Draken]

Many of the things the humans call common sense fall short of the grasp of the alien mind.

Like why they didn't just shoot all of the rioters.

Overmind notices he will not be capable of hiding anymore, and blankets the area with a psychic static, likely disorienting all for a few brief seconds, to allow him a safe teleport.

[Kenyon]

[Near Trog's]
Kenyon successfully makes his way to the alleyway, with no damage to show for his sprint, save a clump of foam that got on his coat. Carefully peeling it off, he dumps the clump on the street, and disappears through the alleys behind Trog's.

[Recaiden]

Storefront
Then looks up. "That's certainly...well, fascinating. I'd love to hear more about your world. Hopefully Ash can help with the amulet thing..."


What phones are for. Since she'd never think to enter a storefront on her own.
[Outside Trog's]
Ashna is standing and watching the streets, trying to decide what she can do.

[Rebonack]

[Inside an APC]

Well.

Here she is.

Sitting inside the armored vehicle. If there's anyone else in the back guarding her she'll have at them cheerfully. And on the off chance they seem somewhat nervous she'll provide some assurance. "I'm not here to fight. You don't need to worry about me. My only beef is with your boss."

Seems she doesn't like Vyrn.

With a sigh Zee leans up against the wall, closing her eyes and... praying.

For the troops outside.

And for calmness and clarity among the rioters.

****

A potent calm begins to settle over the surroundings. Not godling magic by any means. Oh certainly not. But rather a simple peace without bottom or depth. May very well be enough to shatter the Overmind's psionic control.

[Darkcomet]

[Outside Trog's-Detention Center]

As the location tag indicates, the APC is going to take Zee to a detention center and unless he resists she'll be locked in...well, a jail cell, to put it bluntly.

Along the way Zee will probably note that the soldiers inside are still in riot gear and all that so it's hard to judge how they react to her. Still, they don't respond verbally.

Stupid faceless mooks.

Meanwhile, that gunship outside Trog's just left.

[UncleWolf]

[Outside Trog's]

The pacification units recover quickly from the confusion and pull their lines tighter, pulling back towards the remaining APC, as the turret continues with it's foam. "All squads, pull back and report in! Our job is done here."

Provided they face no more resistance, they climb into the vehicle and leave, heading to the same destination, albeit, a different route. The worst injury that the guards suffered was a sprained wrist.

[Rebonack]

[Detention Center]

Well there it is.

In a cell block. For how long?

Given that Vyrn is a despotic ruler with absolute power who no one seems interested in opposing?

Maybe forever.

Or until she leaves.

Whichever is first.

A few moments after being locked into the cell there's a twelve foot long hydra coiled up in there. Figures she may as well talk to herself if to no one else.

At least Lucas and Kenyon are still out there. And no doubt there will be plenty interested in what happened to her. First high-profile prisoner the Empire has taken.

[blackouttwo]

[Near Trog's]

Lucas teleports out of Trog's and enters the alleyways behind the tavern. Kenyon, you out here? He calls out, looking for the rifleman. He decides to conjure up a few psionic constructs to scout the alleyways ahead of him; Might be someone who isn't Kenyon waiting for him, after all.

[Recaiden]

[Near Trog's]
Ashna decides she might as well just ask about this Empire, and starts walking to find some NPCs on the street to do so.

[Artemis97]

[Streets]

Jericus groans as he adjusts the mental barriers in his mind and tries to sit up. The worst part about his seizures is that he never remembered what happens when he has them. He takes a cautious look around and sees the lava. "Please tell me I didn't do that..."

Andromeda stares in wide-eyed shock as the white lava flows around the three of them, and then recedes, leaving everything looking better than before. The sharp-eyed assassin does note, though, that a few people who were on the street before are missing now. Why were they, presumably, destroyed? Why were others left behind? Why had they been left untouched?

"No, Jericus. I don't think you did." She replies, sliding her las-pistol back into its holster. "Could it have been a miracle?" She asks the Tech-priest, a hint of awe in her voice.

[Hyozo]

[streets: May or may not be the same ones Jericus is on]

A mysterious shadow passes across the ground. Any observers would likely be shocked to realize that nothing seems to be casting the shadow. It moves, seemingly of it's own accord, from stall to stall, storefront to storefront, and street to street,occasionally letting out what some might interpret as gasps of amazement.

Onis-tas will wander through Inside, likely attracting a decent amount of attention from those not use to living shadows.

[Je dit Viola]

Market Streets

Oh, hey! Lookit who I forgot to put in the character registry along with my other ACRO characters!

It's a young lady, upper teens or low 20s, walking down the Market Streets. And, her Australian Blue Heeler, Macbeth, too.

Macbeth runs far ahead of Kitty, and swipes a large piece of meat from the Meat Stand. Then, making the owner chase him, runs down the street.

While the stand's left unattended, Kitty swipes a couple coins, and a hunk of food. Maybe she'll go unnoticed, hopefully. Because she's really hungry, and so is her dog.

Also, Museum robbery: *is waiting for Earl of Purple to come online*

[Earl of Purple]

Bank Robbery

Nephrim and the mind-controlled minion of hers will follow whoever leads. Probably the henchman. Nephrim is humming something, seems quite a cheerful tune, really.

[ThePhantom]

Some henchmen head for the area nearby the center room, while Gordon and the other henchmen head for the stairs.

"This is going to be easy."

[Je dit Viola]

Museum Robbing

Requiem gets out of the van, to follow Gordon down the stairs. "Don't say that, or you're going to get a dumb hero to show up," she warns.

[ThePhantom]

Museum Robbing

"Ha, that's a laugh. There's no heros going show up here. If one did, I'ld eat my hat."

At the top of the stairs, Gordon turns one way while the henchmen go another.
"Sir, its over here."

"Hi there."
Two guards are relaxing next to a pair of water fountains.

[Earl of Purple]

Bank Robbery

"If the hero is truely 'dumb', I'll be able to handle them. Mental compulsion is useful. Talking of mental compulsion, what is your name, minion?" Nephrim has her pistol out, and is holding her teddy, as well.
"My name is George, Master."
"Do you have any spare ammunition? I don't want to run out."
"Yes Master. Here you are, Master." So Nephrim now has several magazines in the rucksack and one in the pocket of her denim dress.

Then the new guards appear. "You two. Let us pass, give me all of your magazines and ammunition, and follow us. Also, tell me your names."

[Je dit Viola]

Stones Robbing

Hi, cuties, says Requiem to those guards (was that them who was talking?)

Long day? she asks innocently-enough, walking closer to them.

Unless, of course, that wasn't them who talked and my imagination's going insane.

[ThePhantom]

One of the guards obeys Nephrim.
"My name is Frank."
"Frank, what are you doing? Wait a minute..."

The noncontrolled guard looks confused.

[Earl of Purple]

Bank Robbery

Turning to the non-controlled guard, Nephrim (who's still appears to be an elven girl of eight or nine equivalent) "Frank is being a good boy and listening to a poor, lost elven girl. Will you listen to the poor lost elven girl? Or can Requiem harvest your soul?" There's a lot of compulsion; not as much as was used on George, but he may still obey Nephrim. If he's strong enough to resist, chances are he's a strong enough personality to have a decent soul.

[UncleWolf]

[Detention Center]

Well there it is.

In a cell block. For how long?

Given that Vyrn is a despotic ruler with absolute power who no one seems interested in opposing?

Maybe forever.

Or until she leaves.

Whichever is first.

A few moments after being locked into the cell there's a twelve foot long hydra coiled up in there. Figures she may as well talk to herself if to no one else.

At least Lucas and Kenyon are still out there. And no doubt there will be plenty interested in what happened to her. First high-profile prisoner the Empire has taken.

Zee will hear steel toed boots hitting the tile floors as they come closer. Eventually, she'll see a familiar armored figure stand in front of her cell. Commander Edijar takes off his helmet and gives Zee an apologetic look. "Sorry for the cell, I hope they didn't bother you too much here." He says as he starts flipping through a ring of keys. "You'll need to follow me. There are... things you need to see."

[Je dit Viola]

Robbery

Yeah, what she said, motions at Nephrim.

Except we won't hurt you, don't worry. She smirks, apparently those aren't among her definitions of 'hurt'.

[ThePhantom]

Robbery

Gordon fastpalms while Nephrim makes threats.

The guard pulls out his gun and his walktalky.
"We have"

Gordon fires his pistol at the walktalky, blowing it out of the guard's hand.

"Don't just stand there, move!"

[Inigo Montoya]

Andromeda stares in wide-eyed shock as the white lava flows around the three of them, and then recedes, leaving everything looking better than before. The sharp-eyed assassin does note, though, that a few people who were on the street before are missing now. Why were they, presumably, destroyed? Why were others left behind? Why had they been left untouched?

"No, Jericus. I don't think you did." She replies, sliding her las-pistol back into its holster. "Could it have been a miracle?" She asks the Tech-priest, a hint of awe in her voice.

Connie shrugs, trying to help Jericus up."Who knows? The Omnissiah works in strange ways."

[Je dit Viola]

Robbery

Right, she says.

Having recently lost her collection of souls, she has to be closer for this to work.

Requiem runs up to the guard, and shoots a black tendril, to wrap around his neck, and start to choke him so she can get close enough.

Once close enough, she reaches her hand towards him, to pull his energy and soul out. Unless he's something special or is warned enough to try to resist, it should be a cakewalk as his life is pulled to Requiem.

[Earl of Purple]

Bank Robbery

What was supposed to happen, was that the man's will would have been swamped and not been able to do any other. Obviously, that didn't work. "Frank, shoot him. He's threatening a defenceless girl. That's never a good thing." Nephrim's also pointing her pistol at Strong-Willed Guard, but she's hiding it behind her teddy.

[ThePhantom]

Museum Robbing

The guard falls to Requiem soul stealing as Frank shoots him. Gordon and the henchmen move on.

"He probaby spent a bit of time in the same room as what we're after, it is suppose to boost mental defenses. Now we have to move before the other guards figure out what's going on."

[Rebonack]

[Detention Center]

The hydra rises to her feet as the commander approaches, at once wondering whether it's a good thing or a bad thing that she's being let out right now. The cell was certainly dull for the most part. But whatever else they might have in mind...

She's seen what the Empire does to dissenters. And she had been planning a decapitation strike against their leader.

"We got a few cat-calls at first, but they shut up one they had a giant snake to look at instead," the middle head comments wryly.

"I sang songs to keep myself entertained!" Lefty cheers.

"What... kind of things...?" Righty asks hesitantly.

[Je dit Viola]

Robbing at the Museum

Mmm...she can feel the power starting to swim inside her again.
Mind you, it's not very much. But 5 souls is a whole lot larger than 4 souls.

After stepping around the guard (can't let blood get on her dress), she quickly follows Gordon and his henchies.

We almost there? she asks, keeping pace.

[Earl of Purple]

Museum Robbery

"I was unaware the gem was magical. George, your gun. I expect it back afterwards, however. Both of you, follow me." Now Nephrim is unarmed, at least apparantly. She still has two loyal minions and a rucksack which nobody's looked into yet. And a teddy bear, of course. At this point, if there's any sign of rebellion, Nephrim will flood their brains with more compulsion, as she will do every time she senses a bit of rebellion.

[ThePhantom]

Museum Robbery

"Well, we're here."

The group turns and corncer and right next to them is a door with two signs: danger, high volts and employees only.

Gordon opens the door.

"Now, who going to do the dangerous thing of cutting off the power?"

[Je dit Viola]

Museum Robbery

I might as well, says Requiem, stepping forward through the door. Since apparantly, the power's on the inside of that room.

Her black, all-encompassing soul armor starts to surround herself, as she walks in. It's electrical reistant enough, she thinks.

[ThePhantom]

Museum Robbery

Well, there are a number of large cables in here. Most of them connect to a fluse box, but not all of them.

[UncleWolf]

[Streets]

Jericus looks relieved at the news and accepts the help up. "Thanks." He brushes himself off and looks himself over. "Sorry for that. Now can we get some food?"


[Detention Center]

Edijar smiles a bit. "Please, change back. They won't whistle when I'm around." he finally finds the right key and opens the door. "As I said, no harm is going to come from you. I'm simply going to show you the other side of the coin. I just need you to be willing to be shown. I've put a lot at stake to settle this my way. I hope you're going to respect that."

[Earl of Purple]

Museum Robbery

"I am completely immune to electricity. There is no chance that it will harm me. Unless other energy is used, obviously. Whilst it would be amusing to watch your demise, you may yet be useful and I do not wish your new body to be damaged, Requiem." Nephrim will also attempt to enter the room, motioning Frank and George to stay behind.

[Je dit Viola]

Museum Robbery

Fine, be my guest, says the woman. She backs back out of the room, so that Nephrim can take care of it.

Man, being immune to electricity must be nice.

[Earl of Purple]

Museum Robbery

"Frank, George, your guns, please." Now armed, Nephrim will shoot the fuse box several times before morphing to the form of an orc child and using the increased strength to try and snap the wires. Yes, Nephrim is now a boy orc wearing a denim dress. If successful, Nephrim will turn back and hand the guns to her minions.

[Rebonack]

[Detention Center]

Maybe some of the doors will be too small for her to fit through? Or maybe not...

"Whatever you say," all three heads reply in perfect harmony moments before the hydra begins shifting back into a human shape. This isn't your usual 'Poof!' and she's something else. But rather it consists of all the excess tissue dissolving away in a rather bubbly fashion. Mostly due to massive amounts of hydrogen peroxide doing its thing.

Once she's done Zee's certainly human. But she's also damp and sticky and smelly from the dissolved flesh and bone.

Thankfully she has a hankie of Prestidigitation! Bought it at the Market Streets for just this reason, really.

With a command word and a bit of scrubbing the whole mess is gone!

Hooray!

The cloth is then stuck back into her pocket.

"Alright, let's see it then," and thus she'll follow.

[ThePhantom]

Museum Robbery

Well, that fuse box is taken out alright. The lights in the museum go off. The henchmen take out flashlights and turn them on.

"Okay then. So downstairs we go."

The group move back to the stairs.

[Je dit Viola]

Museum Robbery

Right.

Too bad Requiem can't see in the dark.

Resultingly, she has to closely follow the henchmen with the flashlights, and carefully go down the stairs, down to the gem they're going to take.

[Darkcomet]

((Would the Empire, by any chance, be able to notice the power outage? Being the government and all that. <.<))

[UncleWolf]

[Detention Center => Roof]

The Commander waits for Zee to arrange herself before leading her out of the cell room, passing off the keys to a guard before signing off his name. "Contrary to what you may believe, Zee, the Empire isn't evil. Sure, it's not the best system, hell, maybe not even a good system. But its something." Once he's done with the paperwork, he starts leading them up some stairs. Zee will see lots of guards. It seems they were warned that she was being let out.

[Earl of Purple]

Museum Robbery

"Don't forget your torches, George, Frank." With her minions with torches on, Nephrim resumes her humming. The tune is ethereal, and sounds old. If either have a familiarity with elves, they may recognise it as an old nursery rhyme of the elves. Given that it hasn't been used for nearly 5,000 years they might not.

[ThePhantom]

(That depends on how much they are motioring the power flow. After all, this is an old, little known museum, with not many things are the valued by anyone not a rock fanatic.)

The henchmen and Gordon reach the ground floor, just as one of the other henchmen that was down here is thrown across the room.

"Uh oh."

The henchmen point their flashlights where the the henchman was thrown from and see a rock golem heading their way.

"Shoot, they have rocks guarding the rocks."

[Je dit Viola]

Museum Robbery

Requiem tries not to snicker.

The black soul-armor finishes going around her, and she's completely covered by it now.

While wondering the best way to kill rocks, the whip forms in her hand. She doesn't have enough souls to go with a sword as well, just a dagger or a short sword.

[Earl of Purple]

Being Attacked by Pet Rocks = Museum Robbery

Frank and George start firing upon the golem as they retreat up the stairs. Nephrim, meanwhile, takes upon its true and natural form: That of a winged child. The denim dress is now open-backed, but Nephrim is also capable of flight. The demon will fly to the golem and search for some way to turn it off, its pearlescent eyes devoid of iris and pupil glow with a faint, white glow.

[ThePhantom]

Museum Robbery

While the henchmen and controlled guards fire on the golem, it charges up the stairs, knocking henchmen like bowling pins. Gordon back up the stairs as fast as he can.

"Pin it down! I got something that can take it out but it keeps moving I'll miss!"

The golem has no signs of how to activate it or deactivate it.

[Rebonack]

[Toward the Roof]

Leading Zee past guards. Lots of guards.

What does she do?

What do you think?

The rather bouncy woman waves at each and every one of them as she walks past. Just because it's one of her favorite things to do. At least one will probably wave back awkwardly.

"You know that the Empire is expanding beyond the city walls, don't you?" Zee inquires as she climbs the stairs. "Taking over towns and villages whether they want them to or not. Killing people that resist. How many innocents will the Empire have to murder before it's evil. Hundred? Thousands? Millions?"

[Je dit Viola]

Museum Robbery

That's a good plan. Pin it down.

Her weapons desolve again, to enforce her armor, because she won't be needing them.

After some quick (although mildly foolish) thinking, she decides to try to tackle its legs. Requiem runs, bending lower to get a lower center of mass, to try to knock it over. The armor will cushion herself from getting too knocked up.

Just before she gets there, she a lone tendril launches longways, to act as a tripwire for the golem, should she fail.

[Earl of Purple]

Museum Robbery

Nephrim moves to the head, using its demonic body to cover the golem's eyes. Nephrim should be OK, even if hit by bullets. Unless the bullets are silver. Unfortunately, I must Deadtime.

[ThePhantom]

Museum Robbery

The golem is falls down onto the stairs. Gordon takes out his railgun attachment and moves to fire it.

"Nephrim, get out of the way!"

The golem struggles to get back up, and get Nephrim off of its head.

(deadtime for me)

[Je dit Viola]

Museum Robbery

Even though her soul-armor absorbed most of it, she's still pretty shaken. You'd be too, after tackling a giant rock's foot.

She can't move out of the way just yet. I think the rock is partially on top of her.

Bye, both of you!

[UncleWolf]

[Roof]

On the roof is a helicopter waiting for them. "I can't say that there haven't been casualties, but I don't handle the military and I don't approve of their tactics. I handle infrastructure, and I regret those losses. But there has been very few, if any government takeovers that don't have any loss of life." He sighs and opens the helicopter door for the hydra. "Please, let me show you what most of us are actually doing." He looks tired, almost pleading.

[The Bushranger]

[Erin's Emporium]

Crissy is still busy selling to NPCs. She'd wonder why even the oldest stuff in the inventory is all shiny and new, but, being a blonde valley-girl half-elf, that would take up too much brainpower, so, she doesn't.

[The Bushranger]

((Night BR!))

[Storefront]

Zel shrugs a little.

"As long as I don't go demon again, sure. Not like I'm doing much else."

[Brendan's House of Hobbies, Coming Soon - Storefront]

"That could be a problem..."
Brendan sighs, then rubs his forehead.
"I'll be back in just a minute, OK?"
And he heads over to the phone hanging on the wall, and dials Ashna's number!

[blackouttwo]

[Erin's Emporium]

Well, well, well. Jimmy shows up, with a huge amount of gold, received from that one guy in the alley behind Trog's. Jimmy forgets his name. Wasn't important. Hey there, beautiful. Said I'd be back, didn't I? Jimmy smirks as he sets the gold down on the counter.

[Alleys behind Trog's]

Lucas shakes off deadtime and resumes his search for the (most likely) deadtimed Kenyon.

[Recaiden]

[Somewhat near Trog's]

What's this about dials? I guess the phone company must manage it all. "Hello Brendan. What do you need?" she asks. Because he never just calls to talk.

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

He needs to fix that...

"Er..."
Brendan blushes a bit, realising he needs to fix that.
"I was wondering where you were, actually. I was getting kinda worried..."

Well, he was!

[Recaiden]

[Streets]

"I was at work until a few moments ago. I've got an empire to destroy now, and I'm trying to find where they keep prisoners."
My time is up for now. Goodbye.

[Rebonack]

[Roof]

"Government takeover?" Zee repeats the word in a tone of utter disbelief. "That's quite a euphemism for out and out conquest and the slaughter of those that resist. Any good that Vyrn is doing doesn't matter one iota if he's going to use those that follow him as a cudgel to take over the lands surrounding this City and beyond. No amount of good can cover injustice. Crimes like his can't go unpunished. And maybe if he's gone someone who isn't an insane despot will take his place. All this-"

She motions at the various troops gather around, the building they're standing on top of.

"-isn't evil. But the man holding the reigns is. Someone in a position like his may not be worried about his sins finding him out. But he forgets who he's hoping to rule over."

A shake of the head now.

"I already know what most of the Empire's people do. I'm not blind to what they've done for this City. I've heard what they've done for a few of the villages that accepted Vyrn's rule. But it's appeasement. A carrot to keep down rebellion. And when that doesn't work the stick comes out. No... Vyrn has underestimated this place and how tolerant we are of tyrants, even those that feign benevolence."

She rubs her temples, obviously frustrated with all of this...

Then heads into the helecopter. "Alright... Show me what you've been doing."

[The Bushranger]

[Streets]

"Oh dear..." Brendan swallows. "Well...you be careful, alright? I love you, Ash."

His original reason for calling has been completely forgotten. :smalltongue:

(Aw, see ya later Rec!)

[Erin's Emporium]

Crissy looks up in surprise, then smiles broadly, blushing. "Hi! Welcome back...does this cover all of it?" she asks cheerfully.

[blackouttwo]

[Erin's Emporium]

Should do more than cover it. Seriously, there's gotta be at least a few hundred GPs in that bag, there. Plenty in there. You can keep a little bit of the change... He smirks as he starts pulling small handfuls of GPs out.

[Recaiden]

[Streets]

"It doesn't have to be done immediately. There's a slight chance the law will actually win out, and the prisoner will be fine either way. I just wanted to be prepared." To kill each and every one of them at the drop of a hat. And maybe Zee wouldn't be, but Ashna hasn't thought this all the way through.
"I love you too, Brendan." She even sounds smiley. "So why did you call?"

((Not back yet.))

[The Bushranger]

[Streets]

Good thing Brendan doesn't wear hats...

"Hm? Oh." Brendan blinks for a moment as his brain re-gears. "Well, I was wondering if you knew anything about removing demonic corruption from somebody?"

---

[EE]

Crissy blushes a little more. "You sure? I know money's tight for you and all..." She starts counting the gold, more for formality's sake than anything.

[blackouttwo]

[Erin's Emporium]

Jimmy smirks. He might look a bit sinister. Oh, I'm sure. You deserve it, for bein' so pretty and all. He reaches out and props up Crissy's chin again. I've got enough, I think, to last me a nice long while. His smirk stays in place, but suddenly stops looking so sinister. Weird.

[The Bushranger]

[EE]

Put more ranks in Sense Motive, Crissy.
Stop staring at the cute guy's face, Crissy...
:smallsigh::smalltongue:
"Awww. Thanks! You're sweet." The valley-girl half-elf giggles and goes to put the change into the register with a very happy smile.

[Recaiden]

[Streets]

"Some, yes. What type is it? Where shall I go find you?"

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

"Well...where are you now?" Brendan will give directions to the to-be-a-store place from wherever Ashna is. "And it's a magical amulet, I think, turned a girl into a dragon-thing."

[Recaiden]

[Streets]

"Near Trog's." She starts to follow the directions. "Okay. That sounds like a curse then."

[Je dit Viola]

Streets

Having successfully swiped a bag of coins and some meat to put in her starving belly (and her dog's, too), Kitty waits in a dark alley with her dog, shhh-ing him as the butcher and some law-enforcement officers (or were they vigilante? You can never tell with them) run past.

[The Bushranger]

[Streets]

"That's what I thought." Brendan sighs. "...it seems like it might cause headaches and dizziness, too."
:smalltongue:

[Recaiden]

[Streets]
"I suppose it could." Recaiden doesn't get the joke.
Ashna arrives at the abandoned storefront.
"How long has she had it?"

[blackouttwo]

Jimmy raises an eyebrow, smirk still in place. 'Sweet.' Right. The wastelander, who happens to be better at killing people with their own intestines than at anything related to a practical trade skill, or even knowing basic sciences or any math past basic multiplication, is 'sweet.' Crissy's brains probably need some kind of upgrade.

[The Bushranger]

[EE]

Remember. Blonde Valley Girl. :smalltongue:
Crissy is still counting, and finally nods and smiles up at Jimmy. "Is there anything else you need?"

---

[Storefront]

...it's understatment. "Side effects may include, headache, dizziness, demonic transformation..."

"I don't really know." Brendan's in the back of the empty storefront, but the door's unlocked. "A little while, I think..."

[Recaiden]

[Strorefront]
Oh. :smallredface:

"Okay. I think I can handle that." Ashna opens the door and walks through to the back, putting away the phone. "Although I might need to go get another singer..."

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

No worries! ^_^

Brendan blinks, then looks around with a grin. "You snuck up on me, love." Hanging up the store's phone, he waks over to hug Ashna tightly. "What's this about a singer?"


((Alas, I've gotta run, back later!))

[UncleWolf]

[Roof]

"Government takeover?" Zee repeats the word in a tone of utter disbelief. "That's quite a euphemism for out and out conquest and the slaughter of those that resist. Any good that Vyrn is doing doesn't matter one iota if he's going to use those that follow him as a cudgel to take over the lands surrounding this City and beyond. No amount of good can cover injustice. Crimes like his can't go unpunished. And maybe if he's gone someone who isn't an insane despot will take his place. All this-"

She motions at the various troops gather around, the building they're standing on top of.

"-isn't evil. But the man holding the reigns is. Someone in a position like his may not be worried about his sins finding him out. But he forgets who he's hoping to rule over."

A shake of the head now.

"I already know what most of the Empire's people do. I'm not blind to what they've done for this City. I've heard what they've done for a few of the villages that accepted Vyrn's rule. But it's appeasement. A carrot to keep down rebellion. And when that doesn't work the stick comes out. No... Vyrn has underestimated this place and how tolerant we are of tyrants, even those that feign benevolence."

She rubs her temples, obviously frustrated with all of this...

Then heads into the helecopter. "Alright... Show me what you've been doing."

The Commander is able to keep his face blank throughout her speech. He's heard it before, but sighs after the speech. "Look, I'm not going to fight or try to contradict what you say as some of it is true. BUT, as you also admit, we've done a lot of good as well. Your hatred for one man shouldn't spread to everyone involved, which you are." He enters the helicopter after her and puts on the seat straps.

The helicopter will lift off and start to head towards a village Outside.

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

:smallbiggrin: I'm just more used to overstatement.

"Couldn't you hear that I had arrived, dear?" She steps up to him and returns the hug.

"To get rid of the curse. Since we're in this universe, we won't need a tender, so I just need to get the pipe for the fire to play, actually."
She assumes everyone does magic via such songs and chants.

[blackouttwo]

Weeeell...I'd like to see if you've got some other things in stock. His smirk stays in place. Crissy doesn't seem to have removed his hand from her chin. And, do you know any good mechanics? Repairmen, maybe?

[Rebonack]

[Roof]

And thus Zee fiddles with her helicopter straps! Quite a bit, really. They're good for fiddling with. Especially since she hasn't ever dealt with a harness quite like one of these before...

...she might need someone to show her how to put the thing on. And as a matter of fact-

Zee coughs before asking the guard next to her, "Eeerr... How do you work one of these, exactly?"

Attention then goes back to the Commander, her head shaking slowly.

"I... think you might misunderstand. I don't think the Empire is bad as far as a humanitarian and police force go. I think those things are both good. By Deios... If Vyrn hadn't started calling all this an Empire I probably would have joined just like I did with the city's old police force. All of this... is a tool. It can be used to bind up wounds or make them. It can be used to protect or conquer. And it's hard for me to support a conqueror..."

Off to Outside!

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]



:smallbiggrin: I'm just more used to overstatement.

"Couldn't you hear that I had arrived, dear?" She steps up to him and returns the hug.

"To get rid of the curse. Since we're in this universe, we won't need a tender, so I just need to get the pipe for the fire to play, actually."
She assumes everyone does magic via such songs and chants.

"I was concentrating on the phone. Smiling, Brendan considers that explanation, before it dawns on him. "You use musical magic? That's...pretty cool."

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

Zel undeadtimes. She looks around a little and sees Ashna.

Ashna gets a piece of paper sent over to her from Zel.

"Hi, I'm Zel. You're Ashna, right?"

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

Brendan takes a guess as to the contents of the note. "Zel, this is Ashna. Ashna, meet Zel...she's the person I was telling you about..."

[Recaiden]

"Well, yeah. Do I look like a witch, to be doing otherwise?"

Ashna looks at the paper.
"Hello, Zel. I can't read this language, sorry. Brendan will have to interpret."

The fire seems to not want to approach Zel.

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

Brendan looks a little sheepish at that. "She was asking if you were Ashna, since I mentioned you...remind me to get you some study books on the language, OK?" he asks, smiling a little.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

Zel is slightly curious about Ashna's inability to understand her writing, but decides not to question it.

"So, what do I need to do?"

Zel eyes the fire a little. Mostly out of curiosity.

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

"Okay, I will." Ashna says. She wonders why Brendan mentioned her specifically.
"I'm guessing you can't speak for some reason. I'll need you be told as much as you know about how you got transformed, and concentrate, is all."

The fire is just a small fire where Ashna is standing. But the flames are fanning away from Zel, as if in a wind.

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

Brendan will translate as required!

And watches, looking a fair bit worried.

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

"Is something wrong, Brendan?" Ashna asks, noticing his look.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

Zel nods to Ashna, and after a few minutes, sends the response to Brendan.

"It all has to do with a cursed necklace I got a little while ago. It was made of silver, with an obsidian stone. Which is the same one that you can see fused to my chest here. Right after I put it on, I got transformed. I also wasn't the only one. I know of at least three others who were affected. Mizeri, DC, and Zee. We did find out who was responsible. But, it seems he is able to control us when he wants. He gives a command, we have no choice but to follow, no matter how much we resist. Seems he took of for his home dimension or something. Not sure why I can't talk, because the others can. But, its affected each of us differently. DC's is nowhere near as visible. Zee's seems to have taken over her personality more than me. And Mizeri has been able to mess with hers with some medicinal herbs. All that's actually affected of my is my looks, my abilities are stronger, my sense are enhanced, and that violence seems to let the demon part take control. Also, any silver around me glows."

Ashna and Brendan may notice any silver in the room glowing. Maybe.

Zel chooses to leave out the part where she attacked and ate an NPC.

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

"Hm? Oh, nothing's wrong, per se, it's just...I'm concerned for you," Brendan admits, blushing a little.

He then translates Zel's Wall of Text for Ashna. :smalltongue:


...probably a good idea to leave that part out, yes.

As he translates the tale, he looks more and more angry about it than concerned...

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

Ashna is confused. "Is there something wrong with me?"

She nods to Zel.
"Well, I can try to remove the curse. I'll need to meditate for a while to get the details of it, and Brendan, you'll need to keep up a chant for a while as part of the spell. But that should get you back to normal, or at least reduce the corruption a great deal."

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

Zel nods eagerly.

"Great! Anything you can do would be great!"

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

"No, nothing wrong...it's just part of the whole loving-you deal." Brendan's blushing now...

He nods in understanding about the chanting. "Anything in particular, or will anything do as long as it's music?"

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

"Oh, okay. Try not to so much; I'll be fine."
Ashna then shakes her head.
"No, there's a specific chant. Like this,"
*insert ominous pseudo-Latin chanting here* She repeats it until she thinks that he'll understand.

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

Aw, he can't chant the Imperial March now. :smalltongue:

Brendan, after about three tries, has it down well enough, most likely. "I think I've got it...it won't, like, explode or anything if I slip a line, will it?"

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

"No. We'd just have to redo a little part of ours. And you're not one of us, so you can't do anything with it, really."
Ashna holds out a left hand to Zel.
"Are you ready?"

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

Zel nods, then slowly moves her left hand to grab Ashna's. Slowly, because her hands are pretty much dragon claws now. And she doesn't want to seem any more threatening than she already does.

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

Brendan nods, and stands ready to do his part.

((Also, his player has to go to bed after his next post...))

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

Ashna closes her eyes, and the fire straightens out. The mithril of her ring starts glowing along with the silver. And she starts a chant, and will then once Brendan joins in move into a song that should have the desired effect, to the extent that 'Fuffle allows it to do anything.

((Goodnight, BR. 'See' you next week.))

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

And Brendan fills in his lines, managing not to flub them, when the time comes!

((See ya!))

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

After a moment, signs that it's working show. The wings start to shrink. Patches of skin start to show. She slowly shrinks to her normal height.

After a while, Zel looks almost like her normal self. Her clothes are kind of torn, but she'd be able to fix them. On the floor are some items that her demon form seems to have absorbed. Her knives, her bladed ring, the paper, the pen.

The stone is still fused to her chest. However, the white swirl on it doesn't move anymore.

It should become evident to Ashna now that her music will have no further effect on Zel.

Also, if her fire was avoiding Zel because of demon/evil reasons, then it should be fine now, as those are gone.
((Night BR!))

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

Those were indeed the reasons. It's just a normal magical fire now, not reticent.

Ashna stops chanting and motions for Brendan to do the same. She looks very tired, and her hand should slip out of Zel's.
"There."

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

Zel looks down at herself. Apart from the stone, she seems back to normal.

She coughs.

Th-thank you. Very much. Seriously. Her voice is a little hoarse. If there is anything, anything I can do for you, let me know.

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

You're...welcome. Sorry the ... stone is left. I'm no real exorcist.
She's talking rather quietly, and goes to sit down.
There's nothing she needs that she can think of.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

If needed, Zel will help her sit down.

You kidding? This is more than enough. I don't think I can thank you enough.

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

It would be needed.

"Then don't.". She smiles slightly at Zel.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

Zel smiles back.

So, are you okay then? Cause, if you don't mind... She holds up her left arm and uses her right hand to indicate the torn sleeve of her jacket. I think I'm gonna go get this fixed.

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

Ashna nods.

"I'll be alright. Just need to rest a little."

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

Zel nods.

Okay. Again, if you need me for anything, just let me know. I'm usually hanging at Trog's, so you should be able to find me there.

Then she does something that she pretty much never does.

She'll go to hug Ashna.

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

"Okay. I think I've seen you there."
Ashna is too tired to freak out like she usually would. She starts, but then just grits her teeth slightly and returns the hug. Barely.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Storefront]

Zel doesn't seem to notice Ashna not liking the hug. It's a short one, anyways. Like I said, Zel isn't one for hugging.

She picks up her stuff on the floor, waves goodbye, and heads out into the streets.

[Streets]

Once outside, Zel gives a yell of happiness. She's excited. She'll quickly head to Trog's, where she'll get a room and spend a while sleeping.

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

Ashna will be relieved that it was just a short hug, and most likely fall asleep.

And then later wake up, if allowed to.

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

Brendan is quietly sitting nearby, alternating between dozing off, himself, and watching over Ashna as she sleeps, not too obviously, but carefully, making sure nothing bothers her as she rests off her exhaustion.

[Recaiden]

[Storefront]

She finishes her rest and stands up from the chair, smiling. "Good Morning Brendan."

And then deadtimes for the weekend. Bye.

[The Bushranger]

[Storefront]

Brendan smiles back, a smile in his voice as well. "Good morning, Ash. Feeling better?"

The deadtime ooze is contagious!

((Aw. See ya next time!))

[Morty]

[Erin's Emporium]

Dorotha is working in her lab. Some empty bags covered in clay have been dumped into a trashcan behind the shop.

[The Bushranger]

[Erin's Emporium]


Weeeell...I'd like to see if you've got some other things in stock. His smirk stays in place. Crissy doesn't seem to have removed his hand from her chin. And, do you know any good mechanics? Repairmen, maybe?
Nope, but Crissy does finally pull back with a blush. "Well, we mostly do our repairs in-house, the DRDs are, like, good that way. But what else do you need? We carry, like, just about everything..."

DRDs, meanwhile, empty the trashcan!

[McBish]

[Streets]

Phoebe steps out of Trog's with her lute in hand. She looks around trying to figure out what to do now. She thinks about the hero in her book, and what he would do. She figures she needs to get some supplies, so she turns and heads to her old home.

Once she reaches a small alley she ducks down it heading to her hiding place. She goes behind some old boxes and digs through her stuff. She finds a long strand of twine and ties it around her waist as a belt at least some of it. The rest of it is used to make a strap for her lute, which goes on her back. The only other thing of value she can find is a wine bottle that she had filled with her home made dandelion wine. She takes it and ties it to her makeshift belt.

With that she says goodbye to her one time home, and get up to leave. She goes and starts to walk to the place where she knows Empire is, but she pauses on her way. She needs something, and she tries to think what it was. Then it comes to her. A hero needs a weapon something to help protect them from the bad guys. In the adventures of Rich Marlow, early on he got a magical sword that he learned to use to defeat his enemies.

She looks around and goes to the edge of the street underneath an old tree and picks up a fallen branch. She breaks off some or the odd branches till it is a nearly 3 and a half foot straight piece of wood. Not quite a magical sword, but better then nothing.

She sits down with her branch and starts to whisper to it, in a language long forgotten and hard to learn. I name thee sword, and you shall help protect me and those who I care for. She says quietly to it. And with that she tucks the stick into her belt as well. And so armed she heads off.

[Acro Empire building]

Phoebe, a young women approaches. She isn't dressed in armor, but rather a old faded pink skirt and overly large sweater. She walks without shoes, only socks, though she doesn't seem to notice any discomfort. She has a lute strapped to her back, and twine on her waist holding a stick much like a sheathed sword, and a bottle of wine tied there as well.

She is doing her best to look brave, but she is nervous, unsure of what is going to happen. She goes to approach any sort of guards she might see.

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ]

The guards seem to be on alert already, and Phoebe's approach does little to settle this. The guard she approaches has his pulse rifle at the ready, though not outright pointed at her yet. "State your business with the Empire or leave at once." The guard sounds almost like he knows what she's here for already, though. And most visitors don't get hostile responses like that.

They've probably been briefed on the situation with Zee, considering the apparent recognition of Phoebe.

[Gnrlshrimp]

Is it a bird...?

Is it a plane...?

Um, it's kind of both. Bird creations look weird. They're also pretty damn fast. Not supersonic or anything like that, that'd be a bit extreme. It's fast though...

It shoots over inside, slowing down as it approaches its target.

[Empire HQ]

The bird stops above the HQ and slowly drops down towards the ground, apparently aiming to land inside the outer wall.

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ-Inside the Walls]

The creation's sudden arrival prompts two squads of Acro-Imperial soldiers to head over, pulse rifles raised, but not firing. Instantly firing on the unidentified thing is a bit too panicky.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Inside the HQ Walls]

The bird creation doesn't do anything particularly threatening. It just lowers itself to within a few feet of the ground. It's dotted with strange, multicoloured rotating spheres. They're eyes...but they don't really look like eyes.

A hatch unfolds from the side and a ladder is lowered. A single creation climbs down. Any soldiers nearby may get a glimpse of the inside. It appears to be metal, with a few chairs visible...and several long tubes, throbbing slightly. The creature's equivalent of blood vessels, or near enough that it's easiest to compare them to that.

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ-Inside the Walls]

The soldiers continue to refrain from shooting and wait for the creation to make the first move, or so it seems. Move on already, Shrimp! :smalltongue:

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Empire HQ...and stuff]

((*mutter grumble* Patience, DC! I'm getting to it!))

I dunno, one of the soldiers might have decided to try and take the creation prisoner!

They usually seem quite willing to resort to violence over minor things :smalltongue:

Anyway, the creation steps away from the bird, which quickly closes its hatch and lifts off again. "Apologies about my method of arrival, I know you'd probably have preferred it if I knocked on the door first. But the bird is rather big, it would've been awkward to land in the streets outside. Anyway, I came here to inquire about joining."

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ-Inside the Walls]

One of the squad leaders mutters into a comlink about this, before responding to the creation. "The higher-ups are under the impression you want a different affiliation with the Empire than most." Read: Something that's not a typical squad leader.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[HQ!]

"Yes, you're quite right. After all, I have quite a lot to offer in terms of services...and manpower. I suspect that I'll need to talk directly with the higher ups to explain exactly what I want. It is quite complicated." The creation pauses, then frowns. That sounded vaguely insulting, and that most certainly was not intended. "I don't mean to insult you, I just suspect that what I intend to propose will require a decision from the higher ups anyway. My apologies."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Streets]

Xeni's still aimlessly wandering, sadly, not sure why he was brought back to this town. He can't fathom any particular reason. It's very...different, that's for sure. Less random maiming, he's noticed.


[Faded Keep]
"Is that...it is! Hahaha! Fate has shined on me this day! I could never have asked for anything better!"
Far off in his keep, the shade throws his scrying bowl across the room and cackles, running out into the hall to grab the nearest orange-robed figures.
"We have work to do."

[Streets]

Xeni frowns and abruptly stops, slamming into apparently solid air in front of him.
"Another ridiculous random encounter, I be-"
He blinks and quickly scrambles to the side right around when the air bursts into a thousand shards of glittery death, quickly spinning his cloak around himself to catch the shards away from his body.
This is not an entirely fool-proof plan, or even a particularly successful one, with multiple gashes already torn in his clothes and back.
"This is the Town I know..."

The orange figure standing in the alley across from him wasn't there a moment before, but it certainly is now, a long sword loosely grasped in it's left hand.
Xeni frowns and pulls his bow out of the air, from it's pocket space.
"Are you a renegade from Gen's brood? I can't imagine she'll appreciate thi-"
He is once more cut off, this time by an unseen force knocking him to the side, synced perfectly with the figures rushing forward, nothing more than unfeeling death planned for the mage.

Xeni, however, is not the typical "useless in close-quarters" mage. He is more than capable on his own.
He tucks into a roll to pull himself from the ground in a hurry and flicks aside the figure's first sword strike with the side of his bow, while kicking out at his opponents legs and muttering to himself.
Unfortunately, the figure still has a free arm, which it uses to seize Xeni's leg and jerk him off balance, then sweeping his other leg out from under him with one of its own.
He winces and finishes his mutterings, flinging a loud concussive blast directly into the figure's chest, sending it up and backwards, towards a nearby storefront.

It's entirely probable that people from several blocks around will hear that blast, it wasn't held back at all.


On a nearby roof, the green-eyed shade grins and watches as the figure quickly recovers itself and resumes giving Xeni more than a fair melee fight.
"I thought I'd never see you again..."

"Get back!"
Something in that final word was charged, and another concussive blast launches out of Xeni's hand, but this time with far less effect than it had previously had.
The figure merely holds a hand out to defend itself, yet suffers no ill effect. From a very specific angle, the air gleams, an impenetrable wall of raw force between them. A wall that is not restricted to one space, one that quickly rushes forward, taking Xeni with it, smashing him through the window of the house behind.

This fight is ending poorly, Xeni's been out of practice lately, only tutoring apprentices, not fighting wars.
He can already tell he needs to find an advantage, and he'll take the first one to come to mind. But first, he'll need one to come to mind.

[Lord Iames Osari]

[Xeni vs. Edict in the Streets]

Iames, off-duty, notices the magical discharges and heads over to investigate.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Rooftops]

A single winged creation has been scouting the area, satisfying the Prof's curiousity by having a look at what the empire have left to defend their main prize. After all, the rest of their territory is more or less insignificant in comparison to this huge city, sitting right on top of the Nexus.

But then, what does it see nearby?

It nearly drops out of the sky in surprise when it sees...Edict?

It quickly lands on a nearby rooftop, just in time to hear the Shade muttering to himself. "And I never thought I'd see you again!"

Meanwhile...

Remember the old Necromancer, Felix?

Well, he's currently walking through the and he too hears the loud noise from the blast. He [S]runs makes his way over there as fast as his old man bones will let him.

[Lord Magtok]

Somewhere in the general vicinity of Callaghan Group

Magtok and Elly should be stepping out of a portal right about now, outside that abhorrent corporation that's been trying to drive the cyborg's store out of business.

Oh, just remembered something, been meaning to tell you for a while now.

The you that got fired out that castle's cannon? She survived, crawled over to some cabin, got bit by a friendly wolf-man-thing, and now she's a sort of were-catgirl thingy now. I was thinking, if you want to re-absorb her or talk about stuff or whatever it is you do with the other ones, if anything at all, we could drop by later. It might finally clear up that deadtime there and give her something to actually do.

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ-Inside the Walls]

"How high up would you guess?" He's asking mostly since, with times as they've been, talking to a higher-up in-person would be... unlikely. Good thing the Empire's got hologram abuse.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Xeni vs. Edict Elders in the Streets]

At this point in his arrival, Iames will likely note that at least one building has a wall destroyed, several windows in surrounding buildings are blown-out, and little glittery shards of force are sticking out of a fair few surfaces.
Might even arrive in time to see the orange-robed figure climb into the broken building.

Meanwhile, inside said house, Xeni has carefully pulled himself up and run towards the back, looking for an exit and finding one fairly easily.
Thankfully, no one seems to be home and the layout was relatively simple.
He does his best to cope with the pain his left leg, suspecting more than a little bruise, and levitates himself up onto the roof above the door exit.
He mutters a little to himself and waits.

Iames (And likely Felix as well, if he's not particularly slow) will note another discharge, in the form of a rather large electrical storm suddenly spawning around the building, while Xeni scurries off down his rooftop away from the alley, only to run into yet another wall.

"Hellshellshellshells..."
The air is once more full of glittering death.


[Rooftop]

The shade Edict frowns a tad when he spies the electrical storm, but turns his gaze to winged creation.
"Well well well! This is my day. Is that you, Professor?"
Consider the shade distracted from the fight for the moment.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Streets]

Run, old man, run! As fast as your brittle bones will allow!

Yeah, Felix isn't there yet. He's fairly slow. His knee, in particular, appears to be playing up again.

...Damn that knee!

[Rooftop]

"Yes, Edict, yes it is! This is a rather pleasant surprise, it's delightful to see you again!" The creation folds its wings and walks over, offering its hand to shake. "Quite a pleasant surprise indeed! How are you?"

[Empire HQ]

And finally...

Good grief, there's a lot going on for Gnrlshrimp in Inside! Anyway, the creation frowns, "I am considering offering to bring all the creations I have present in this world into the empire. Essentially I am offering them a significant number of soldiers to add to their cause. Does that help at all? I am unfamiliar with the order of seniority..."

[Lord Iames Osari]

Iames flies up into the air toward the source of the magical discharges. "What's going on here?"

[EleventhHour]

[Somewhere Near CG]

"Ew. Bitten by a werewolf? Werecat? She's probably messed up... Can I... Skip meeting her, or something? Please?" Elle looks unhappy about meeting this freaky version of herself, and tries to distract Magtok to change the subject, "Look! Something breakable!" Yeah... that'll work.

[Draken]

[Somewhere Maggy and Elly, who are near CG]

From a nearby hiding spot, an unseen tracker keeps the pair under vigilant gaze.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Xeni/Elders Streets]

Directly at the source of the electrical storm, the building is faintly blackened, apparently having been hit with a massive blast of heat at the same time as the electricity.
Glittering shards of force line the rooftop next over, though Xeni is on the ground of the neighboring alley. It was the only way for him to avoid dying, in that situation.
Iames will probably see the orange-robed elder that is very clearly ignoring his question running along below towards the other alley. They seem a bit too focused to answer his questions or even care that he exists, for the moment. He isn't interfering in their work, so he doesn't exist, for now.

Xeni would happily answer and ask for help, rest assured.
If it wasn't for the fact that another elder is present trying to skewer him into the ground with it's sword, only barely dodged, with an ugly cut into his side to show for his efforts.
The mage quickly mutters and reappears ten feet down the alley, pulling out a wand from the air and sending a black beam out towards the elder, who merely slides under it and continues to it's rather unrelenting assault.

[Rooftop]

Edict offers the first non-malicious smile he's made in a long time as he steps out of the shadow to give the creation a semi-cheerful handshake.
I'm doing rather well, Professor. Presently trying to tie up some loose ends while a few elders finish their work out in the countryside.
Have you been keeping up your work while I was away?"

[Lord Magtok]

Somewhere Near CG

I was only wondering if you wanted to go. The whole were-thing scares the hell out of m-

Magtok looks about for breakable things, which might look to the hunter as if it's been detected and is being searched for. Too bad this isn't the case though, as Magtok probably could easily have found it if he wasn't looking for breakable things at the moment.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Rooftop]

"My work? Oh, oh yes! I've made one or two delightful improvements recently, and I've made a new kind of creation for the first time in quite a while. It's wonderful, a brilliant success. Although, I've had one or two worrying encounters as well. Losing parts of yourself isn't fun." Yeah, it hasn't all been sunshine and rainbows for the Professor. He's not going to mention the parts where he started arguing with himself though...

[Streets]

Felix stumbles to a halt as he almost passes by the alley where all the action is taking place. "Oh, um, do you need some help, sir?"

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ-Inside the Walls]

The squad leader takes a while to respond. "...you would probably need Emperor Vyrn himself for something that large in scale. I'm afraid you won't be able to meet him in person for security reasons, and he's not here at the moment anyhow. We do have a holocommunications room in the base, however."

[Lord Iames Osari]

[Xeni/Elders Streets]

Iames follows the elder, and when he recognizes Xeni, he fires a powerful blast of cold energy at the sword-wielding elder.

[Draken]

V near M & E

Not so much, the tracker has a very potent sense of hearing, and does understand com- whatever language Magtok and Elle speak.

It does ready its weapon, however, in the dark.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Xeni/Elders/Co Streets

We'll be instituting a silly diagram program to help keep track of Xeni and the elders.
......E
[] [] []
......X
[] [] []
The squares are houses, the X is the current location of Xeni and one of the elders. The E is the location of the other elder.


"Help, yes, please!"
Xeni very clearly needs help, since it looks like he's losing far more than he's gaining, with his attempts at sparring with the elder. Doesn't help when it almost casually twists his bow from his hands and pulls out a nasty shard of force to likely stab the mage with.
Fortunately, Iames' blast is completely unexpected by the elder and forces the thing to lose its concentration, losing both the force and tossing it to the side. Xeni quickly jumps back to the side, the other elder down the alleyway wasting no time in flinging a force spear of sorts in his direction, to keep him off balance.
He has enough free-space to at least use magic to keep bind his many gashes, which will help keep him from passing out sometime in the next few minutes. Maybe even start giving back a solid offense.


We will make new diagrams at the end of each post, for final positions. Es are teddies, with X being Xeni.
[] []E[]
......XE
[] [] []


[Rooftops]

"The excellent news, Professor. You shall have to show off your newest work to me, at some time. It always intrigued me. I pray you haven't lost anything important."
Somewhere at this point, Edict frowns and look past the creation, somewhere down towards the conflict.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Streets]

Felix nods. "Very well, just hold on for a little longer..." Felix mutters. The Three gems floating around the top of his shine brightly and spin rapidly...then dull and stop, hovering in place.

Felix's opening act is...

A little slow.

But then! An emerald fist, a ruby fist, and a sapphire fist, all covered in spikes, punch through the ground, followed by another trio of fists. The three gemstone earth elementals start to pull themselves out of the ground.

[Rooftops]

"Nothing too important yet. At least, I don't think I've lost anything important. I can only hope it stays that way." The creation turns and follows Edict's gaze, "Hmm...something going on down there?"

[HQ!]

"Yes, that's fine." The creation nods, "Go ahead and lead the way."

[Lord Iames Osari]

[Xeni]

Iames lands beside Xeni. "Do these things have any weaknesses?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[Xeni/Elders/Co Streets]

Xeni takes a deep breath and calls his bow back to his hand, right around when the street-Elder is pulling itself up from the ground.
"I can't think of any off the top of my head. Hit them enough and they still die, like everything else though. Disintegrate as often as you can."
Speaking of that, he growls and flicks a green bolt down the alley as that particular elder begins to throw another wall there way.
Strangely, the green bolt actually removes it from existence without much fanfare.

The street-Elder is distracted by the appearing elementals, sensing that the situation has suddenly become much more complicated. Strangely, it just runs straight at them, apparently hoping to leap on top of one of those and starting trying to beat it down with masses of force.

[] []E[]
......XE
[] [] []
Top E is the alley-Elder. The X is Xeni and Iames. The other E is perhaps the elder and elementals? Depends on where Felix is.


[Rooftop]

"My loose end is refusing to be tied."
The shade growls and places a hand of his face, mustering up the calm he needs to keep steady thought.

[Lord Iames Osari]

[Xeni/Elders/Co Streets]

"I can do that," Iames grins and aims a disintegrate at the other elder.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Rooftops]

The creation's eye sparks as it focuses in on the battle. It blinks slightly when it sees the old necromancer there. "I do believe I used that man as a puppet in one of my schemes some time ago. How odd that he should be here..." It frowns as it looks around at everyone involved in the fight. "Hrmm, do you require my assistance? And, ooh dear, is that Iames over there?"

[Street Fighting!]

Well, the ruby Elemental gets a nasty surprise when the Elder lands on its head. It groans, its knees buckling slightly as it gets smacked. The other two finish pulling themselves up and both swing spiky fists at the teddy, intending to knock it off their brother...well, not really a brother but, y'know.

Felix, meanwhile, has taken out several small pieces of bone and is muttering quietly. Whatever is the old man doing now?

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ-Inside the Walls]

The soldiers will lead the creation into the base, revealing that there is actually more to it than just the base Haven hangar dome and other areas-the hangar is there, yes, but there are areas outside it in the dome. Think of the hangar area as a ring, with a larger one around it representing a ring inside the building but not into the dome. There are several entrances into that dome, but the creation doesn't get to see Haven today, I'm afraid, being led into a room in the outer ring with a holoprojector on the ceiling, which quickly projects a hologram of Vyrn.

"We meet again. Professor Affidavit, wasn't it?"

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Empire HQ]

The creation looks...unimpressed. Oh sure, it's all big and shiny and expensive looking, but that's inevitable in any big base like this! "Ah, it's you...so you're the emperor. Interesting. Anyway, yes, Professor Affidavit. Honoured to meet you again, sir. Have you been told why I am here?"

[Artemis97]

[Streets]

Jericus looks relieved at the news and accepts the help up. "Thanks." He brushes himself off and looks himself over. "Sorry for that. Now can we get some food?"

"Yes, let's. I'm starving." Andromeda agrees, quickly.

[Inigo Montoya]

Connie nods, and dusts himself off. "Where do you want to eat? I'm starved."

[horngeek]

[Callagharn Group]

Magtok and Elly might see the security patrols, since they're presumably doing it at night. If they're doing this during the day, ignore the last paragraph.

They are all, without exception, extremely buff. Almost superhumanly so, in fact.

In addition, a few of them are MASSIVE, easily over seven feet tall. None of the big guys would win any beauty contests, though. In fact, they seem to be projecting an aura of 'we're ugly and mean to anyone who tries to break anything'. As noted before, the massive guards are only present if this is happening at night.

[UncleWolf]

Connie nods, and dusts himself off. "Where do you want to eat? I'm starved."

[Streets]

Jericus ponders for a few moments. "Hopefully someplace more upscale. I'm tired of cheap food right now."

[Je dit Viola]

[At the Dock]

A large ship flying a skull-and-bones flag sails towards the dock. A blonde curly-haired woman barks orders to the skeleton crew, as they arrive in the dock.

She ties a red bandana over her head, to match her black garb, and swings onto the dock. She glares at the approaching capitalistic man, who says, It costs twen...urk!

She just stabbed him through the stomach. Not deadly, though. I'm sure that's enough, she says. We'll only be staying just long enough.

The undead seamen, after carefully parking the ghost ship, climb off. Come on, boys. Anybody thirsty? A cheer - for blood.

[Rebonack]

[Docks]

From the shadows of a nearby warehouse the newcomers are watched with milky, glazed eyes peaking out from behind a black cloth mask... That happens to be moldered and eaten away at.

Those dead eyes narrow at the sight...

Their arch nemesis.

Ghost pirates!

Here? Ha! The Shambling Shadows won't stand for that!

With a groan and a puff of smoke the Zombie Ninja vanishes to warn the rest of his clan.

Meanwhile!

People seem to be minding their own business for the most part around the docks. Weird people show up all the time around here and the Ghost Pirates aren't buckling much swash just yet...

[Je dit Viola]

Docks

They're not ghost pirates. Well, the captain's not a ghost, at least. Some of the crew, though...can't be so sure.

The captain, whose name is Lucy, walks calmly down the street. She hasn't been here in so long. It feels nice, the wind in her hair, the smell of the bakery and fish...it's all so nice.

Her attitude stands out a lot compared to what's going on just behind her, travelling in a wake of destrution, vandalism, and other nefarious deeds. Like making babies cry and puppies run away.

Windows get smashed in ("It was an accident, I swear!") and goods get stolen ("Was this yours? Then why did you leave it within reach?") and people get hurt ("...No, I don't have an excuse here.")

Sadly, these aren't normal ghost pirates. They don't even know there's a zombie ninja crew. However, if someone decided to watch where they were going, from the rooftops, they would notice they seem to be heading in the general direction of the Open-Air Marketplace.

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ-Holocomm Room]

"I have, yes. An interesting proposal, to say the least, but I would prefer it if you explained it in more detail if possible. Simply having a mob of extra soldiers under someone else's control sounds more than a little like a double-edged sword." Vyrn is being cautious, it seems...

[Dock]

Guess who else saw the pirates' approach? An obvious pirate ship such as that certainly would've drawn the attention of certain powers. Especially considering the spy satellite up in SPACE. And the stabbing. Let's not forget the stabbing...then they started sacking everything.

An Acro-Imperial submarine launches a torpedo at the ghost ship's underside. Oh dear.

Meanwhile, two APCs and a gunship (which flies silently, so it might not get noticed unless you look up) are moving in to stop the pirates' advance! By getting in the way and firing machine guns (APCs) and a laser chaingun from the gunship (or rapid-fire pulse lasers as I am told would be a less misnomer-y name) on them if they try to continue past them. Whoo.

[Je dit Viola]

Dock

The ship gets hit by torpedoes. They blow up in a bang of fireworks, but seem to have done very little to the ship. Only some splintered shards.

Meanwhile, in the Streets

With so many of the pirates, it's hard to not notice the machines, eventually. And that's before they start shooting.

The First Mate, a gaunt yet strong man with a deck of playing cards was one of the ones who has seen this, and steps forward to talk with Cap'n Lucy. He points out and tells her.

All of you, keep on going! she commands, pointing forward. They'll keep on moving, stealing chickens and lollipops, regardless of being shot or not.

Lucy, however, slips down a side alley to take another street towards the marketplace - she has buisiness there.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Empire HQ]

The creation nods. Affidavit expected he wouldn't exactly be welcomed with open arms. After all, it could be a plot to destroy the empire from the inside.

It isn't...but it's easy to see how it the empire might fear something like that happening. "Of course, of course. I understand. However you don't need to worry about that. For starters, while I'm afraid there is no way to transfer complete control of my creations away from me, it is quite possible to bring someone into a sort of overseer position. They would be able to command the creations from afar, see through their eyes wherever they may be, that sort of thing. It would require someone with a relatively strong mind...but I'm sure I don't need to point out how advantageous it is to have entire squads directly linked with one mind. Communication takes mere fractions of a second..."

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ-Holocomm Room]

"...an interesting proposal, to say the least. How would you bring someone into an overseer position?" Vyrn-correctly, from what I've seen-is thinking of some kind of horrible surgical procedure or something like that. After all, he's talking to Professor Affidavit.

[Docks/Streets]

This ship is disturbingly resilient. A wooden ship shouldn't be that tough against torpedoes... Regardless, the sub continues bombarding it.

Meanwhile, the APCs move to set up a roadblock for some of the pirates, a squad of Acro-Imperial soldiers climbing out of each and firing on the pirates with pulse rifles. Yay, more guns.

That's two squads of seven guys each, incidentally. So pirates would now be getting shot at with 14 pulse rifles, two heavy (they're vehicle mounted for crying out loud) machine guns, and a laser chaingun/rapid-fire pulse laser from the gunship.

Pew pew.

[Je dit Viola]

Docks and Streets

After enough shots, a couple planks of wood seem to give in. Water rushes into the ship from the hull, but, oddly enough, the ship doesn't sink much. Only a couple inches, at most, so far. Some cannons seem to be looking around for the attacker, but it's hard to see submarines.

Most of the crew is on the streets, being shot at, though. Shot at a lot.

Some of the crew are more corporeal than others (skeletons, fleshy drowned victims, and so on), and they go down slightly easier than the mildly incorporeal ones.

The remaining ones seem to split up, half turning around in the chaos, and the other half running into a building, with its previous occupants forcefully ejected.

Market Streets

Lucy, the unarmed captain who looks quite alive, but still noticeably like a pirate, walks down the busy market bazaar.

She keeps on walking, until she gets to a jewelry shop. "Did you get my order?" she asks the owner.

"The necklace? Of course. It's...over here," he says, browsing his wares until he finds a cursed golden necklace. "Took forever to find. Might cost you extra."

"I paid you in advance. You won't get a cent more," she says in a threatening voice. He hands it over. "Nice doing buisiness with you."

[Lord Magtok]

MagMart

((Seeing as Marin never has anything to do and I feel kinda bad for her...))

Magtok strides into his shopping center, eying the lack of customers. Filled with simmering fear of losing this place to Callaghan Group, the cyborg puts on his best cold-hearted scowl, giving a few nasty glares towards his robotic employees as if this matter were somehow their fault, before turning towards the catgirl still stationed there.

Marin, I'm going to need you to slash prices on everything, make sure everyone is working diligently-

The tin man pulls out some doctored shipment records, which upon reading, suggest that Callaghan Group puts toxins in their products designed to hypnotize people into buying more, and that some of their clothes are made from dead babies.

-and send this to the Empire for me. Make sure they know you're not a catgirl, or at least not from Felinia, or you'll be shot on sight. Oh, and when that's done, if you could join NO and spy, steal, and act as a double-agent for me there, that'd be awesome.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Empire HQ-Holocomm Room]

"...an interesting proposal, to say the least. How would you bring someone into an overseer position?" Vyrn-correctly, from what I've seen-is thinking of some kind of horrible surgical procedure or something like that. After all, he's talking to Professor Affidavit.

"It's a relatively complex procedure. It involves making some simple adjustments to the subject's brain. Nothing damaging of course, but the process can be painful for a short while afterwards. However, I went through it and emerged unscathed, and a couple of other people have gone through it as well, both have been completely fine within an hour afterwards."

A lie, technically. That particular Magtok was dead within half an hour of the operation. But he would've recovered successfully if the Prof's aim was to bring him into the network. Still, no harm in a simple little lie like that!

"Hopefully you can take it as a sign of faith as well. Once the link is established, the "overseer" will be able to monitor all communications between creations. My own thoughts will not be accessible to him, but any orders I give to my creations will be easily detected. I feel the need to stress this point. What I am offering here is not something I would normally do in circumstances such as this, but I realise your need to maintain a high level of security."

[Earl of Purple]

Streets

There's a man lurching down the street. He's wearing a much repaired brown cloak, hiding his torso from view, but the left arm sticking out has stitches at the wrist, elbow and the base of all the fingers, which happen to be holding part of a head. The head is missing most of the right side, including part of the lower jaw, the right eye, and a significant portion of scalp. The held head's left eye is yellow, and occasionally blinks or moves. There's a possiblity the head in the guy's hand is his head, since there isn't one on his neck.

[Je dit Viola]

[MagMart]

(It's alright. I just pretend that she goes out and does stuff.
I love your avatar, by the way. It's so cool and pink.)

"So cut prices, give the Empire a visit, then do what I used to do?" she repeats, to make sure she has it down. Marin swishes her tail, as she scans down the papers now in her hand. Hmm...making babies out of clothes... using toxins to convince people to buy more. That sounds pretty smart, actually. She wouldn't be surprised if they really did do that.

"I'll get on that, right away, Magtok." The purple-haired catgirl gives a smirk, and slips the documents somewhere on her, so that she could even get it past most airport security.

Setting off to get the prices slashed, she asks, "Which way's the Empire's central base, again?" She knows, but would like a reminder, so she can do it faster.

[Artemis97]

[Streets]

Jericus ponders for a few moments. "Hopefully someplace more upscale. I'm tired of cheap food right now."

"That way looks like it's some wealthier neighborhoods. Let's see what we can find that way." Andromeda suggests, heading off in that direction

[Darkcomet]

[Docks/Streets]

The submarine continues blasting away at the ship. This will probably take a while. ...oh wait, is that another sub joining in?

Meanwhile, the forces on the streets are pretty much allowing the pirates to withdraw...

Mostly because of what those subs are doing.

The question now is... Can they still retreat properly with those subs shredding their ship?

[Empire HQ - Holocomm Room]

"Interesting... I could easily gather a few candidates for such a procedure." Vyrn is silent for a moment before continuing. "Would I be correct in assuming your base of operations is a flying castle of sorts?" He seems to know where Affidavit lives...

Bloody MagSat.

[Lord Magtok]

MagMart

It's the really tall building in the Blue Sector, the one down by-

Magtok provides the rest of the instructions on how to get there, which this player really can't be bothered to type up, lest it be considered Inside canon and become part of someone's silly idea to try to make a map of Inside.

-and remember, no getting shot up by the Empire, and don't give NO any reason to think you've anything to do with me. Oh wait, one more thing!

Magtok reaches into his pocket, and holds out a case holding what looks like a pair of perfectly ordinary contact lenses.

Kinda hard to spy if I don't have any means of getting info from you. If you wear these, I should be able to hear and see all that goes on.

I know it isn't the best of spy gadgets, and I was going to get them in glasses and sunglasses-form, so it'd bother eyes less and such, but the order got delayed with Callaghan's arrival in Inside. You'll just have to make do. If they break, just come shopping back here and pick up your increased wages while there. And...that's everything, I think. Good luck!

Assuming the small case was taken and Marin has no other questions, the cyborg will sink through the floor and telewarp away.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Empire HQ]

"My base of operations? For this place...yes...I suppose it is. Personally I prefer to think of it as my laboratory. I am not by nature a soldier, I am a scientist. However, having control of numerous creations has given me plenty of chances to command them effectively in battle. I suppose base of operations is an adequate term for it..."

[Je dit Viola]

Dock

The pirates, all save the captain (and the fallen), arrive at the ship. (The group that split up went a different direction, ending up there eventually also). Boom! It shakes with each hit.

Sails unfurl, getting ready to depart regardless of the submarine's torpedoes.

The ghastly wood appears to be weakening. Granted, it already looked weak to begin with, but that's not the point.

Due to the nature of the blond-haired captain, though, it does have some defences against submarines. It just took that long for them to arrive.

Underwater

The submarines may get a blip, no, three blips, on their radars, moving towards them and the pounding on the ship. One is a skeletal sea serpent, larger than a string of boats. A second is a swarm of ravenous sharks, with skin harder than stone and teeth that can tear through metal. The third is completely obscured by rustled up dirt and formed shadow, making it impossible to tell exactly what it is.

Maybe they'll save the pirate ship?

Streets, however, the Captain, Lucy, is back to the streets where the Empire's tanks and guns and everything else was.

She looks at the fallen crew. Glares - how dare they sleep on the job!

--Got Ninja'd by Magtok--
MagMart

Marin, who has taken the case and has no other questions, nods. Alright, then. Sounds grand.

After he leaves and all the prices have been cut down, she puts the contacts in her eyes, and heads off towards the Empire's HQ.

Which, I might as well put it in this post.

Heading towards Empire HQ

The purple-haired catgirl, Marin, is following Magtok's directions, carrying the case.

She has an obstaniously large pistol in a leg-holster.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Xeni/Elders/Co Streets]

This is a fortunate day for the ruby elemental, as it doesn't receive quite the beating the elder wishes to give it.
The combination disintegration/other-elementals' punches result in the creature being removed from the ruby elemental and tossed to the side.
It's not really looking to cheerful at that, coming to a rather firm realization that this fight has slipped beyond their easy control. Too many mages and minions.

This won't stop them from trying however, they were given their orders, and they will obey.
The elder from the alley continues rushing forward, casually blocking off a lightning bolt and taking to the air with the wings that have erupted from the back of it's robes.
The street-bound elder shakes off the weariness the initial disintegration beam caused (not to mention a rather sizable hold in it's robe, revealing nothing but masses of scales) and throws up a wall around itself, taking a moment to prepare something undoubtedly more dangerous than prior attacks.

Diagrams!
[] [] []
.....X..E
[] [] []
X continues to be where Xeni is, probably with Iames. The elder that was in the alley is flying above them. The E is the location of the tossed around street-elder. We imagined that the elementals were between the X and E.

[Rooftop]

"I would ask for help, but with the presence of Iames, I suspect the battle is already lost. They were not suitably prepared for such a situation. The presence of the elementals would not be so troubling if it didn't allow the other two to use their magicks so freely."
Edict is very...angry, at this development. He should have known better, he supposes. This is how this place works: unexpected interferences into everything.

[Lord Iames Osari]

[Xeni/Elders/Co Streets]

Iames leaps into the air to confront the flying elder sending shockwaves through the air to buffet his enemy on his way up.

[Inigo Montoya]

"That way looks like it's some wealthier neighborhoods. Let's see what we can find that way." Andromeda suggests, heading off in that direction

Connie follows, playing with the dial on his mask. He soon gets bored with this, and pulls out his bolter, examining it.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Xeni/Elders/Blah blah blah]

Felix stops muttering and throws the bones up into the sky. The bones glow brightly and hover there for a moment before shooting after the teddy in the sky. Felix then runs (not very quickly) over to Xeni and starts fiddling through his bag of bones, "Give me a moment, I know I've got a healing spell stored in one of these things."

The three elementals, meanwhile, charge at the teddy on the ground. The wall stops them in their tracks and they can do little but try and bash their way through it. Even if it doesn't work it may at least keep the teddy occupied for a while. The ruby elemental isn't looking to healthy, by the way. About half of its head is missing, revealing the dull rocks that make up most of its body. Only the outer layer is made of rubies...

[Rooftop]

"Hrmm, I see. I was unaware that any "gods" still lived in this place. Iames' presence is rather troubling. Still, at least he is the only one I've encountered so far, and considering the length of time I've been here now, it seems unlikely that many others are present. I could try and keep an eye on your target. Perhaps there will be some point in time where he is more vulnerable, and less likely to receive assistance."

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ - Holocomm Room]

"I will have someone and an escort sent over soon, then." Vyrn's hologram then vanishes, and the creation will be escorted outside provided it doesn't resist.

[Empire HQ-Outside]

Let's say this is from another side than the deadtimed Phoebe's approach. A guard spots Marin approaching and seems to tense up. Catpeople. Bad memories. And armed catpeople at that. "State your business with the Empire." He certainly sounds rather uncomfortable.

[Docks/Underwater]

The submarines...Well.

The submarines vanish. They've cloaked now. Underwater and cloaked, oh dear. Probably fleeing since they've been found. But something else is moving out of drydock now. The Blitz-a hovering light destroyer, flagship of the Empire's mostly-defensive naval forces-is moving out to block the ghost ship's path. Relevant link (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=7316828&postcount=359). It's not getting right up to the ship and blocking it, but it's going to maneuver to try and block its path.

No more shooting yet, though.

[Streets]

No tanks.

Just APCs, a gunship, and two squads that came out of those APCs.

One of the two APCs tries to drive past Captain Lucy, the other coming a bit closer but stopping again. The gunship hovers over the scene at low altitude, while the two squads move to guard the sides not covered by the APCs.

They're trying to box her in.

[Je dit Viola]

Outside Empire HQ

Good idea - different side.

I'm delivering something, that Magtok feels should be brought to your attention, says Marin, holding up the case with the falsified incriminating documents. She's hoping the name 'Magtok' sets her apart from the Reinholdt catpeople. She came here to Inside, in the middle of that war.

Dock

The pirates begin to set sail, without their captain. Bloody traitorous pirates.

Some of the canons wheel around and aim at the hovership, but they don't fire. That would just incite return fire from a more heavily-armed foe. The skeleton crew watches, waiting for the hover ship to make the first strike.

However, the ship's bow is spiked. A collision would be painful for the Empire's hovership.

And...the sea beasts are still underwater, completely unable to reach the hovership.

Streets

No tanks - that helps her odds.

She glares at her dead undead crew, and orders, "Get up, you lot." She kicks one with her foot, and they start to rise again.

The unarmed pirate captain stares down the high-tech machines, as her remaining crew becomes a giant meat shield.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Empire HQ]

Now why would the creation resist? It walks outside with out a fuss and heads off into Inside. Affidavit has some serious thinking to do. He is quite willing to serve the empire, and happy for them to have a link with his creations...

But they are still his creations. It'd be nice if he could think up a way to give orders to his creations in secret. It seems unlikely that he'll ever need to betray the empire, but there are some situations he can think of where following the empire's orders may not be completely beneficial...

Having an undetectable way to override any orders would be useful, that...and a scapegoat for the inevitable questioning that would follow.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Xeni/Elders/Co Streets]

One on one is where they excel, so the airborne elder is satisfied with just facing Iames.
Iames might become a bit grumpier with the arrangement.
It tucks it's wings in and curls up a little bit, to minimize buffeting from the shockwaves while allowing itself to fall. It'd be more like flying tag, if an invisible platform didn't appear underneath the elder a few feet down. From there, it appears to simply be waiting with its sword, watching Iames.

"Looks like we have a second, so take your time, just not too much."
Xeni doesn't want to be idle while he waits though, so he flings another bolt of disintegration energy out, this time at the top of the ground-elder's wall, so it doesn't hit the elementals.

For the ground elder, this is a mild inconvenience, so it will settle with (an attempt at) jumping on another elemental's head, where it will try to smack around with shards of force again. Seemed to work well last time.


Positions should be roughly the same, so no diagram here.

[Rooftop]

"He was perfectly vulnerable here! All alone in the streets! This. Should. Not. Have. Happened."
Yes...Edict is very angry, seemingly to a level disproportional to the situation.
"I'd appreciate observation, however. Perhaps he will wander into the wilderness, at some point...
Still calm. He can retain some calm.

[UncleWolf]

[Outside Trog's]

The students rush out of Trog's, scattering in all directions to take up arms and find recruits, but Enjolras simply goes to a nearby fountain, yelling his cause...

"Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!"

A crowd begins to gather...

Meanwhile...

A pair of students, by the names of Combeferre and Courfeyrac step up on a platform of their own...

"Will you join in our crusade?
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?"

The second raises his voice to be heard, louder than his brethren.

"Then join in the fight
That will give you the right to be free!"

As one their song can be heard around Inside...

Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

Elsewhere...

Feuilly, another student, climbs on the back of a friend as he calls out for allies...

"Will you give all you can give
So that our banner may advance
Some will fall and some will live
Will you stand up and take your chance?
The blood of the martyrs
Will water the streets of Inside!"


Once again, they raise their voices high...

"Do you hear the people sing?
Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start..."


"When tomorrow comes!" Yells Enjolras as he finishes his speech. "Come lads! Let us take up arms!"

Several young boys, barely in their teens, grin and talk excitedly among themselves, eager to join.

(Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6-5g78Nr6Q&feature=related) to the song)

[Darkcomet]

[Outside Empire HQ]

"Hold on." The guard fiddles with his helmet a bit to scan the briefcase with thermal sensors and x-rays. Of course the guard helmets would be modified for this sort of thing compared to the standard ones.

[Dock]

The sea-beasts becoming useless was the exact reason I used this thing. <.<

The Blitz fires a missile salvo-six missiles, two from each launcher-aiming to try and blow off the spiked bow. Or just the spikiness.

One of its double pulse cannons fires toward the ghost ship's sails, while the other fires on the bow to try and assist those missiles.

[Streets]

That's all rendered kinda moot with the gunship above, though.

The gunship fires a single turbolaser blast at the center of the undead pirate mob.

Suddenly this undead shield plan seems much less well thought out.

[Rebonack]

[At the Pretty Fountain]

Zee's in a dead run, heading for the sound of the singing. While she likes a musical number as much as the next person the nature of this particular number will probably attract some fairly unwanted attention. And as you might imagine unwanted attention is exactly what she doesn't want right now.

As soon as Enjolras is within view the barmaid of Trog's calls out, though certainly not in song.

"Stop! Do you have any idea what you're doing?" she's even waving her arms around a bit. "This isn't the way to do this! You won't accomplish anything!"

Aside from getting some people killed. She knows well enough how harmless these kids would be. But she also knows how brutal the Empire is.

"If you try to attack the Empire you'll be giving them just what they want. A chance to paint the people who resent their City being taken over by a murderous outsider as a bunch of fanatic zealots. This needs to be done carefully if we have any hope of succeeding."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Xeni etc etc]

Felix takes out a bone and mutters for a moment. It shines brightly as the stored spell within it activates. Healing magic...

Useful...

Anyway, it's not some incredibly powerful cure all spell, but it should help a bit.

Meanwhile...

Oh no! The emerald elemental has a teddy on its head now. The Sapphire one promptly launches itself at the Elder in an attempt to knock it off and smack it to the ground.

[Rooftop]

"The streets, Edict. The streets that, when seemingly empty, are filled with powerful individuals, always ready to defend truth and justice and all that crap." The creation spits in disgust. Sure, this place attracts people from all over the universe, and possibly several others, but why is it that there are so many creatures of such comparatively great power here?

Affidavit's own world, an entire planet, had only a mere handful of magic users, most of them weak and inexperienced. And here he is, watching a single old man who apparently possesses a wider range of magical abilities than batman has gadgets!

"A street is not isolated enough. As soon as he's anywhere quiet and secluded, we'll kill him. If needs be, I will quite happily sacrifice a few creations to keep any people who would dare interfere out of the way."

And then...the sound of music...of rebellion. "Hmm, sounds like the empire might have some problems to deal with soon. Apparently not everyone approves of their actions." The creation turns away from the fight, its attention fixed on one of the groups of people singing.

[Je dit Viola]

Outside the HQ

Inside the briefcase...is the documents that Magtok gave Marin. Not much else, I don't think. Not that I know of, so she could come on clear.

Dock

Well, at least the pirates can claim that they only fought back after being attacked first. Since most of their ship's blowing up.

All thirty of the cannons are aiming at the hovership, and all shoot at roughly the same time.

Their cannonballs, specifically created so that they explode like a two-ton ball that explode like dynamite, all are flying at the hovership. They've been shooting these things since before they died; they have pretty good aim.

((edited: Sorry! :smallredface:))

Streets

The undead crew left on the streets explode.

Lucy, who is at the periphrial, shouts, "Hey, don't blow up my crew! Do you know how long it took to find them after their last mutineering?!?"

[Earl of Purple]

Pretty Fountain

The man in chitin plate with a shield and a drawn morningstar arrives. "I'm with Zee on this one. Chaos is all very good, and I'd normally encourage it, but to take down Order you need either superior weaponry or superior planning. You have neither! I'm all for bringing down the government, and I'll support any that do, but please, can we discuss this somewhere privately? There's a place nearby that I doubt has any spies in, we can go there." This guy's not singing either, on account of the fact he can't. He can chant, and pray, but not sing.

[Lord Iames Osari]

[Xeni/Elders/Co Streets]

Fighting on a hovering platform is fine with with Iames, who darts at the sword-wielding Elder, aiming an open-handed slash at his throat.

[UncleWolf]

[At the Pretty Fountain]

Enjorlas laughs and scoffs at the two. "Now is the time for action! Now, join me and we can strike!" He raises a questioning eyebrow. "Or are you two cowards?" He jumps off the fountain and into the crowd of his supporters, ignoring the people trying to stop them. "Come on boys and girls! Let us take up arms and blockade Inside! It is the time for Glory!" They start to leave the two behind.

[Earl of Purple]

Streets

Before leading them to the place he had in mind, Terrowin of Xela's Howe, High Priest of Dalachrech and head of the local Church to the aforementioned deity, he Deadtimes as I have twenty minutes until tomorrow. Good night.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Xeni/Elders/Co Streets]

The airbound-elder is satisfied with Iames' approach, rather hoping he wouldn't hang back and try a magical bombardment.
More personal and entertaining this way.
It flicks its sword up for a simple parry, to give it enough time to duck down and aim a solid kick at Iames' knee. Obviously its hoping for something along the lines of crippling or off-balancing. Crippling is probably unlikely, in this fight, however.

The elder is quite content to have the Sapphire elemental try to take it off the Emerald one. It'll just skitter around the Sapphire one and do its best to force them into hitting each other. It's both comical and effective, usually!

"Your golems there are probably going to need help, and thanks."
Xeni rather hopes Iames can take his elder, so he'll be moving off towards the Elemental/ground-elder group. He'll need a clear shot before he can throw any magic, however...


Positions should be somewhat simple here, still no diagram.


[Rooftop]

"Losing two Vihn'les will be problematic, but I imagine more can be fashioned up."
Edict sighs, somewhat calmed by Affidavit. The Professor offers a good supply of reason, here.
That last bit might be more pressing in the long-run than Xeni, however.
"Empire? Is that the army I saw outside the town?"

[Rebonack]

[Following the Mob]

Zee sighs, gritting her teeth as she takes off after the others. The best she might be able to do is try to calm down the situation. Though, sadly, due to her rather low Wisdom score it doesn't occur to her that her presence might be attracting more people.

Stories have been circulating about how she was taken prisoner by the Empire. Some were pretty accurate, she was talking about assassinating Vyrn. Others are significantly more wild. Stories about picking up an Imperial APC that was about to run down a mob of peaceful protesters and hurl the thing away like a toy.

But that's the thing about stories after all. Can't always trust 'em.

As soon as people see that Zee seems to be involved with this movement they begin to follow, if only to see what the weird barmaid will do.

[Lord Magtok]

[Callagharn Group]

Magtok and Elly might see the security patrols, since they're presumably doing it at night. If they're doing this during the day, ignore the last paragraph.

They are all, without exception, extremely buff. Almost superhumanly so, in fact.

In addition, a few of them are MASSIVE, easily over seven feet tall. None of the big guys would win any beauty contests, though. In fact, they seem to be projecting an aura of 'we're ugly and mean to anyone who tries to break anything'. As noted before, the massive guards are only present if this is happening at night.

Callagharn Group

Unfortunately for the duo, they're going by night, as Magtok figured it'd be easier to avoid customer casualties. Those deaths would only serve to reduce MagMart business and screw things up for the cyborg.

So the hunter will probably find it easier to hunt, and the big ugly guards are glanced at by Magtok, who soon looks away and quietly complains about the dreadful effect their faces have on his poor, delicate eyes.

[McBish]

[Empire HQ]

The guards seem to be on alert already, and Phoebe's approach does little to settle this. The guard she approaches has his pulse rifle at the ready, though not outright pointed at her yet. "State your business with the Empire or leave at once." The guard sounds almost like he knows what she's here for already, though. And most visitors don't get hostile responses like that.

They've probably been briefed on the situation with Zee, considering the apparent recognition of Phoebe.

[Empire HQ]

I'm here to see Zee and make sure she is alright. She says trying her best to continue to sound and look brave.

[Lord Iames Osari]

[Xeni/Elders/Co Streets]


The airbound-elder is satisfied with Iames' approach, rather hoping he wouldn't hang back and try a magical bombardment.
More personal and entertaining this way.
It flicks its sword up for a simple parry, to give it enough time to duck down and aim a solid kick at Iames' knee. Obviously its hoping for something along the lines of crippling or off-balancing. Crippling is probably unlikely, in this fight, however.

Iames grabs onto the elder's sword and uses it as a pivot point to swing around behind the teddy and plant a knee in its back.

[UncleWolf]

[Streets]

Jericus nods and follows Andromeda with a slight smile. "As long as the place would give normal people headaches from looking at the bill."


[Streets rather far away from my other character]

Yes, more people flock to Enjorlas now that they see that Zee is supporting him, each one calling for arms. His brethren arrive with their own recruits, measuring a few dozen in total and Zee will see weapons being passed out, mostly rifles and pistols, but a few grenades as well. "Come on my brethren! Let us set up the barricade and take arms against this foul empire!" His voice is met with the cheers of dozens of young boys and girls.

They head towards Acro-Imperial HQ

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Xeni...and all that]
Felix watches the three elementals and sighs, "Whatever that thing is, it would seem it's just a bit too quick for them. Well, I have something that should be a bit quicker." The old necromancer takes out a flask of water and pours a little onto the floor.

More muttering...

And suddenly there's a rather large water golem there! It surges forward to assist the three elementals.

Said elementals are currently trying to knock the teddy off as it skitters around, but they're being careful not to smack each other, which makes it somewhat harder for them to actually hit the damn thing.

[Rooftop]

"Yes, most likely. The empire, for some reason, have suddenly started a phase of rapid expansion. Considering their current level of technology and the vast amount of resources they have at their disposal, I doubt they're after territory. I can only conclude that their intentions are to completely secure the Nexus and ensure that they have total control over it. A worrying prospect. They now have the capacity to invade countless worlds...and if my eyes are correct, some of the territory they've expanded into is located on the edge of some of these worlds."

[EleventhHour]

[CG Building]

Elle leans in close and turns away from the creepy guards, "So... Kill them?" She whispers consperitorially, sliding a hand inside her jacket, and pressing against his shoulder. "Or sneak past?"

[horngeek]

[Callagharn Group]

The guards also seem to be very well-equipped.

For example, night vision goggles, directional microphones...

Given this, would Maggy be detectable?

----

[Streets]

A japanese woman with a sheathed katana by her side steers clear of the growing mob.

[blackouttwo]

The mob of marauding teens is being observed by a Dead Sky operative...Who seems invisible. Odd, that.

He's standing on a nearby building as the teens pass, and reaches up to his radio. "Rebel elements are marching on Empire HQ. Orders?"

"Do not engage, or support, Empire or rebel elements, unless further orders are given. Hold position and observe, protocol Delta."

"Copy that."

[Rebonack]

[ACRO-Empire HQ]

If Zee had any sense at all she wouldn't be following these people. Because her presence is simply making the situation worse. But sadly Zee's prone to snap decision making and her drive to try to make things better gets the best of of her now and again.

Sort of like right now.

She breaks into a sprint, coming up in front of the growing mob. She faces them, holding her arms out to the side in a fairly universal 'stop' sort of fashion.

"This isn't right!" the barmaid calls out to those gathered. "This isn't the way to do this! There's going to be a rally at the City gate in the next few days. But there's no reason to be bringing weapons! We can defeat the Empire without firing a shot, we just have to show them that we're aren't afraid!"

[Darkcomet]

[Dock]

The Blitz moves oddly quickly-yay hovering and subsequent lack of water resistance-to evade, though the end of it gets blasted a fair bit. It's a really good thing nothing was on that helipad, as it looks rather unusable now. The ship fires another salvo of missiles at the ghost ship, aiming to blast the cannons into oblivion. This time there are nine missiles. The double pulse cannons open fire as well, though they're more just firing on the ghost ship.

The Blitz is moving at full speed so as to not get shot up, of course, and also increasing distance between itself and the ghost ship. Those two-ton balls might start falling short.

[Streets]

Captain Lucy is responded to with a hail of pulse rifle fire from the flanking squads.

[Empire HQ]

The guard sighs at Phoebe. "She was released while you were deadtimed. She's fine."

[McBish]

[Empire HQ]

Phoebe blinks a bit. Really? Oh OK. Sorry to bother you then. Thanks. She says turning to go, she seems to be heading in the direction of the large mob without realizing it.

[Je dit Viola]

Docks

The canons go the way of the sails - blasted to oblivion. Shards of wood fly away. The dead pirates seem to have no chance.

Luckily for them, the sea beasties can pull it still, away from the dangerous hovership, regardless of how beat-up it is. But, they only have six canons left to fire with.

So, they're getting pulled away.

Streets

Luckily, Lucy was still at the outskirts of they alley, so she could run in as cover.

She runs down the alley, away from the shooters, and slips into a backdoor of a building, still holding the cursed necklace in hand.

Why didn't she fight back? Because she's completely weaponless. And, even though she's friends with one of the Princes of Hell, she's still only human. She'd rather not die.

Empire HQ

I'm going to assume that Marin handed over the incriminating 'evidence' against the Callaghan Group?

[UncleWolf]

[Intersection in front of HQ]

The mob rushes past Zee and she'll feel someone try to shove a rifle into her arms. The people begin bursting into shops to grab things to block off the roads. Already people are tipping cars over, even a bus.

Enjorlas is in the thick of it, inspiring people with his charisma. Though, Wisdom appears to be his dump stat as well.

"You heard Zee! She said we can defeat them! All we have to do is show we aren't afraid!" Someone in the crowd yells and everyone works even quicker.

[horngeek]

The woman sighs, and moves towards ISF HQ quickly, trying to get ahead of the mob.

She's... very quick, so I doubt she'll have much difficulty.

[Draken]

Near Elle and Magtok

The Vindicator moves to a position from which it will be capable of reaching Elle and Magtok from behind and above, crawling down a wall with a long chitinous blade, covvered in jagged "teeth" and preparing to strike down at their necks, from behind.

And then doing it.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Xeni/Elders/Co]

Well, that's not very nice of Iames.
As is the case with the elders rather frequently, they are able to move rather fast when necessary. In this situation, it is quite willing to relinquish hold of its sword in order to leap forward, away from whatever attack it figured Iames was going to bring. Which was apparently a knee. Not as lethal as the sword it expected, but that's fine.
The elder's jump takes it off the platform, where its wings come out again to keep it aloft. At the same time, the platform explodes in a shower of force shards. Same trick they've tried again and again. Maybe this time it will actually cause some damage.

Xeni quickly moves out of the water golem's path, figuring it might actually be able to draw out the elder from the mass of elementals. He doesn't want to go in there, lest he get crushed himself.

The elder within that particular mass seems to be enjoying its little game of "tag", quite content to continue bouncing around between the elementals.
The new arrival doesn't really fit into the picture, so it gets a sword throw at it, for its efforts.
To be fair, the elders have never played around with anything but shadow elementals, they figure anything with substance is woundable with a sword, with some work.


[Rooftop]

Edict frowns and looks around at the city.
"Then this place is more organized than I last remember it. How did this empire take control?"

[Darkcomet]

[Empire HQ]

@Je Dit: Sure. Incidentally, Wolf said he'd control the Empire's reaction to the mob here, just so no one gets confused.

[Docks]

The Blitz starts bombarding the ghost ship with missiles and pulse cannon fire. Not much else to say, really. It'll probably get dragged away in tatters.

Moreso than now, anyway.

[Streets]

Lucy is allowed to escape, with the search party not managing to find her.

Because I feel I have been mean enough to Je Dit's undead pirates today.

[Lord Magtok]

CG Building

Yes, he would be, as he's not making any attempt to hide himself right at the moment. The streets belong to everyone, and while he doesn't trust a name like Callaharn Group to be entirely innocuous, he doubts they're going to make the first move and attack unprovoked.

Nightvision goggles, they'll see us and know something's up. Let's try a more ov-

You forget Maggy, you're not doing this alone, and Elly isn't quite as expendable as you are. Your usual gung-ho, maniacal charges into the fray aren't going to work here. Not until you get inside, anyways.

On second thought, this looks like it could be complicated. Not sure quite how to approach this, but going down in a hail of gunfire certainly isn't going to work.

Hmm...There's some MagTroops on standby. You're the one with the military background. Think we should we call in a diversion and sn-Glurk!

Magtok stops talking, because his throat just got hit with some sort of chitinous blade thingy.

And then stopped there. It's cut a few prosthetic bits and a great deal of flesh, but the cyborg isn't quite decapitated. Instead, he's merely in a lot of pain, quite unsteady, and very, very confused.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Xeni and so on]

The three elementals quickly separate so the water golem can actually get at the teddy. The water golem surges on, swinging a fist at the teddy, which shoots forward as it stretches away from the suddenly rather thin looking golem. Take that!

Felix seems to be concentrating on the golem, he's not paying too much attention to anything else. He slowly reaches into a bag and takes out some more sharp fragments of bone. His muttering is slow and quiet now, keeping a golem up through sheer willpower can be quite taxing.

[Rooftop]

"I don't know. Presumably, with the massive size of their army, they just walked in and took control. I don't know the details, all I know is that it'd be most unwise to resist them. They have a flying battleship up there somewhere. It's quite a sight when it attacks something."

[Je dit Viola]

Okay.

So, HQ, Marin, a catgirl, is starting to leave away from the Empire's Headquarters.

Out to Sea

You're right. It'll need some serious repairing after this. It gets dragged away, halfway sunken (only halfway?), and will probably need a new paint job.

Hidden in a Building

It's alright. Those undead pirates were murderous, mutinous, and vile, and Lucy didn't like them anyway.

Anyway, whoo-hoo! She's safe!

[Rebonack]

[Intersection in front of the HQ]

With a snarl Zee tosses the weapon aside. She isn't about to start shooting anyone. Why? Well... She wants to try to resolve this without violence if at all possible.

Like she had told the good Commander, others probably aren't going to be restrained as she is. Some people have decided that it's time to act. And so that's what they're going to do.

She kicks the gun sitting on the ground out of frustration.

A fat lot of good coming out here did, huh?

Blast...

Well... if nothing else it's obvious that there are more than a few people upset about the Empire's crimes.

[Lord Iames Osari]

[Xeni/Elders/Co]


Well, that's not very nice of Iames.
As is the case with the elders rather frequently, they are able to move rather fast when necessary. In this situation, it is quite willing to relinquish hold of its sword in order to leap forward, away from whatever attack it figured Iames was going to bring. Which was apparently a knee. Not as lethal as the sword it expected, but that's fine.
The elder's jump takes it off the platform, where its wings come out again to keep it aloft. At the same time, the platform explodes in a shower of force shards. Same trick they've tried again and again. Maybe this time it will actually cause some damage.

The force shards scratch Iames up fairly well, but he's still coming. He throws the sword at the Elder's back, telekinetically guiding it.

[UncleWolf]

[Intersection]

The lady with the sword will likely get to the HQ well ahead of the mob. Especially since the mob is staying at the Intersection.

Soon, cars are piled up with broken furniture, creating blockades several feet high and thick. The rebels start taking up firing positions with a few even aiming right at the HQ.

Marin and Phoebe will probably see the entire thing being set up.

[horngeek]

The lady stops just outside the HQ. Oh, dear... this is not good.

[Rebonack]

[Outside the HQ]

Zee huffs.

Then huffs again, fists clenching.

What's she doing? Why, she's getting ready to charge toward the HQ of course! Why is that? Well... she has a good idea of what's about to happen. And she just spotted Pheobe.

And that's exactly what she does. Charge, I mean. She takes off in a dead run toward the barricade, suddenly blurring out of view before flicking back in on the other side of the barrier, heading straight for the other Trog's employee. Should all go as planned she's grab the girl before veering off down a side-street.

Run Zee, run!

[Chaotic Bob]

[Xeni/Elders/Co]

Well that's exciting, not very often the elders deal with having blades thrown into their backs. Probably wouldn't have gone in very far, either, if it didn't have a good deal of telekinetic force behind it.
The day just got unpleasant for the airbound-elder, now that it has a sword sticking out of the place roughly where a human's stomach would be. Has to be more than a little painful.
However, the elders were not bred to just lean over and die, so it's going to keep going, even while it has a possibly fatal wound.
So! With that in mind, the creature growls and whirls around, latching a mound of force around the sword to work against further telekinetic movements. From there, it sends a small spray of shards at Iames while diving towards it's companion.
They have power in numbers.

The ground-elder has its own share of problems, owing to the fact that it's never seen a water golem before.
Which means it's not really expecting a massive fist to the face at a distance. Which also means that it will be flopping back a bit, with a good few bruises. It'll recover quickly enough, certainly, but now it's wary. A few experimental force spears are thrown at the elemental.

"There we go..."
And so Xeni begins to mutter to himself, taking some time for a mildly large-ish spell.


[Rooftop]

Edict frowns further and looks up to the sky.
"Do they have mages?"

[Je dit Viola]

HQ

Marin does see it gathering.

She slips down an alleyway, and onto the roof, running away from the building now. A gunfight is no good when you're not on either side, because you'll always lose.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Xeni/Elders/Something]

Ooh, force spears! Nasty. The golem shifts itself about and makes a few holes for the spears to fly through. Normally it wouldn't even bother with that, but these ones look weird...

Anyway, it rushes forward, attempting to surprise the Elder and...engulf it.

The three elementals, meanwhile, are sinking back into the ground and the three gems around Felix's staff are starting to brighten and spin again. Also, Felix has finished muttering and is throwing a handful of magically enhanced homing bone shards at the teddy on the ground.

[Rooftop]

"Mages? Not that I have seen, but it may just be that they haven't needed to use whatever spellcasters they may possess. Certainly, though, magic seems to be their weak point. Still, their numbers are huge. Even magic can only do so much."

[UncleWolf]

[HQ Entrance]
An Armored APC comes rolling through the gate and towards the Intersection. People who were at Trog's may recognize it as a Riot Dispersal one.


[Intersection]

Enjorlas grins when he sees them. "Get ready my Brethren. Soon we'll show our bravery!" Each member of the mob feels a slight tingle at the back of their mind, urged on by his presence. They follow his command.

[blackouttwo]

[Roof Near Intersection]

The cloaked Dead Sky mercenary is observing the chaos from another rooftop...Although, it might not even be the same one. They all sound alike. If anyone could see this guy, his armor would be orange, though, which would make him a common trooper. "Command, rebel elements are in position to open fire on Empire units. Empire is responding. Orders?"

"Hold position and do not engage either side. Secondary operation is underway on city outskirts. Repeat, do not engage."

"Understood." The Dead Sky mercenary resumes his observation.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Rooftop]

Edict sits on a small brick outcropping and thinks.
"They have technology that wasn't around last time I was here, so it would seem they come from a realm with less magic. This could be exploited. Numbers mean little."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Rooftop]

"Hmm? Numbers mean little? How so? They were only able to expand so rapidly because they have so many soldiers. By the looks of things, this main city is still rather well defended, but the area of territory they control has increased in size by a huge factor, and the whole place is littered with troops!" The creation frowns and stretches its wings, "And don't forget, with such power they could easily conscript a few more magic users into their ranks. Although...perhaps their emperor does not trust magic users?" It's the first explanation that occurs to Affidavit to explain this huge hole in their defenses. Surely in a place so full of magic the empire could've obtained a few spellcasters with ease?

[UncleWolf]

[Intersection]
Enjorlas stands behind the barricade and raises his voice high. "Come my comrades! Let us pledge ourselves to this resistance!" He begins the pledge, and the other soon follow."Now we pledge ourselves to hold this barricade..."

Let them come in their legions
and they will be met!
Have faith in yourselves
And don't be afraid
Let's give 'em a screwing
they'll never forget!
This is where it begins!
And if I should die
in the fight to be free
Where the fighting is hardest
There will I be!
Let them come if they dare!
We'll be there!

Commander Edijar holds his head in his hands in the APC. First the incident with Zee, now this? The two couldn't have been not related, especially since the cameras on the wall saw her. Even so, it looked like she was taking a person away from the mob, so this didn't seem her fault. Attaching his helmet, he steps out of the APC to take the radio for the amplifier, but ducks as a few of the rebels fire, narrowly missing him. He darts back into the APC and activates the internal mic.

"You of the barricade listen to this!
No one is coming to help you to fight!
You're on your own
You have no friends
Give up!
Give up your guns or die!"

Enjorlas snarls at the words and turns to the mob.

"D***, their warnings
D*** their lies!
They will see the people rise!"

The mob picks up his chant, utterly devoted to him.

"D***, their warnings
D*** their lies!
They will see the people rise!"

They open fire on the APC.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Rooftop]

It seems a smile has popped back onto Edict's face.
"With so many, it's probable that they won't be as prone to knowing all the faces. And if you take out the head, it creates that much more chaos, in the end.
Magic-users are the potential danger.
"Perhaps they actually see it as inferior."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Rooftops]

Take out the head?

Seriously? That's sounds incredibly risky. However, if the Prof managed to convince the emperor that he could provide far superior security systems...

Still, that's not something worth bothering with now. If Edict can think up a plan without involving the Prof, that'd be much better.

"Tsk. Sounds incredibly risky to me, Edict. I don't know, personally I think it'd be better to leave the empire as they are and simply form an alliance with them." After all it won't be long before any weaknesses are completely removed.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Rooftops]

It's that last part that demands speed, to strike while they're still getting their sea-legs, so to speak.
Not that it'll work, likely...but Edict likes to have goals.
"With their aggressive campaign outside the walls, I do believe that I may already be outside the terms of their alliance needs."

[EleventhHour]

Near CG

"Well..." She tilted her head curiously while he went on, considering the MagTroops. "I guess a distr-" She blinks, "MAGTOK!" Out come the guns, SMGs akimbo she tries to kick the cyborg out of the way, and assuming he moves, unloads on whatever just did that.