Inside 60

[Rebonack]

http://i431.photobucket.com/albums/qq40/happyturtle-avs/avatars/insideflag2.png
Flag of Inside, flown over all Remnant and Government Installations

Current Events: Spooktober Spectacular! A giant Halloween Party is running for the young and young at heart all over Inside! Have some fun and get some free candy!

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?

Inside is everything within the City Walls. As opposed to Outside, which is everything without. This strange, whimsical city is the centre of a planar Nexus, a crossing point between all possible (and some impossible) worlds. One can find just about anything in this wondrous place, dreams that defy imagination and terrors that freeze the soul. People and whole places are regularly drawn into the Nexus, added to the chaotic melting pot of all realities.

The city is surrounded by defensive walls, with an artificially and accidentally created moat outside the walls, a moat that has been diverted into a river-channel for one many bodies of water flowing through Inside. A gap in the walls and a bridge allow for entrance into the city proper, the main gate opening up to welcome newcomers Inside.

Welcome, traveller, to the City of Inside. The only boundaries you find within are the bounds of your own imagination.


Rules


Rules

1:Please Spoiler any Fanservice in this thread! It is accepted that there will of course be some, and that romance and curtains happen. However, please be courteous to others and spoiler any scene that goes on for a little while, and if it reaches the point, curtain. This is so you can stay within forum rules, as well as letting those uninterested in the scene, pass by. Thank you. :smallsmile:

2:Godmodding is not permissible! As stated in the rules in the FFRP Central Thread, (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=166066), godmodding is generally not allowed without permission. If you're shaky on what might be, and what might not be godmodding, please follow the above link.

3:The DOOM-Shield. Inside is currently equipped with a techno-magic shield that mitigates "global" effects to a survivable level. This is to prevent anyone from simply killing all the NPCs, or affecting the entire city. For example, a plot that envelops the entire city in subarctic temperatures, will find that the cold isn't as bad as it should be, and survivable.

4:Remnant. Please remember when doing any plots or large events, that even though it has it's own thread, Remnant - the Inside Police Force and Army - is located in Inside, and may respond to events, or may be asked to respond to them.

4:All Inside-Wide/Nexus-Wide plots need to be brought up in OOC first! We all want to have the entire city be cast into a frozen wasteland from time to time, but such things need to be brought up in OOC first, to allow players plenty of warning, and so people don't feel like anything is being forced upon them that they don't want to RP.

5:Inside is not Space! Anything involving massive spaceships, meteors, satellites, Lasers From Space, and the like, do not belong in this thread. Few PCs have the ability to fight off an orbital bombardment, so it is considered unfair to be able to call down such things inside Inside. It can be assumed that the Doom Shield prevents such things from occurring. The place for these sorts of things should be in Outside, or another thread all together.

Zones and Streets
Zones:
In the Zone(s): The City of Inside is separated into three zones that represent the general threat level color coded for your convenience.

The Blue Zones are upper-class, well to do portions of Inside. You're pretty darn safe here.

The Grey Zones consists of the more traditionally urban parts of inside. Certainly no gated community, but it isn't immediately life threatening either.

The Red Zones represents the parts of the City that are degenerate, destitute, or downright dangerous. Sometimes all of the above. If you're poking around a Red Zone be ready to get jumped by Orks or ghouls or killer robots or something.

Streets:

Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Hodgepodge Street? The City of Inside also has a number of Streets. The Streets aren't a street in the literal sense, but rather portions of the City with a particular theme. While one can find anything anywhere in the City there are none the less areas were certain settings predominate. The Riftline monorail public transit system allows for quick and easy access between the many Streets of Inside, as well as take your PCs to other popular locations within the Nexus. Best of all it's fast and free!

If you have an idea for a Street feel free to suggest it in the OOC thread. :smallsmile:

Hodgepodge Street: The generically modern setting! Hodgepodge Street is perhaps the most plastic of the Streets, displaying a decent mix of all settings, though modern predominates. Generally speaking most locations without a Street name will be found here. The most commonly seen locations here are the Streets and the Slums. Occasionally The Rooftops if someone is feeling daring.

Steele Street: Need a Victorian location with all sorts of choking industrial pollution? Need an always-night urban landscape with superficial resemblance to 1800s London? Well Steel Street is by far the best place Inside to come down with Black Lung Disease! With spooky stinky fog, gross waterways, and the occasional murderer who may or may not be spring-heeled. Come for the fish and chips! Stay for the gritty atmosphere!

Arkham Street: Spanning 1920s-1930s style fantastic horror, Arkham Street is home of such spooky locations as Philip Memorial Library, the haunted Carter House, and Dunwich Park. Ah Arkham Street, where the clustering gambled roofs sway and sag above the attics where witches hid from the king's men in the dark olden days of Town. The Town is gone, but the witches are still here! And the monsters, and the cultists, and the regular folks just trying not to lose their minds.

Metropolis Square: It's Atom Age or Deco Punk or whatever you want to call it! 1930-50s era retro science fiction with ray guns and mad scientists and nuclear powered robots who just want to learn the meaning of love. This part of Inside is known for its slick hats, era cars, smooth jazz, a robotic workforce, and square-jawed heroes.

The Skyway: High up above the tops of the tallest skyscrapes one can find The Skyway! A high future urban cityscape of floating buildings of glass and chrome and steel and plastic. And a space port too, if you feel like leaving the planet for whatever reason. Think Jetsons with more foot paths. Riftline, of course, grants access to The Skyway to for those not blessed with flying cars.

Need some cyberpunk action? You got some cyberpunk action! The gritty future of cyber-criminals clashing against government and corporate forces! With cyborgs and hackers and stuff! Grungy urban sprawl, a decaying job market, and an oppressed underclass mark this area of Inside. Burnt Chromes Street is the distopian counter-point to The Skyway's more optimistic vision of what the future holds.

Market Street: Market Street is the ye olde portion of Inside, complete with bards, fools, open market places, and the occasional damsel in distress. While products of any age can be found in the sprawling street booths everything is done ye olde style-e. If you need a chase scene to crash through a fruit-cart this is the place to do it.

Deadwood Street: The wild, wild west. Located on the edge of Inside this is the western part of the city. And that means any kind of western. From spegetti to steampunk to magical. Whether you need to hang around a saloon, have a duel a high noon, or go riding off into the sunset Deadwood Street is your best bet.

PokéStreet: By popular demand! This one should be obvious enough. PokéCenters and PokéMarts and PokéGyms and PokéParks and PokéNarwhals and everything else Poké-related! Great place to visit if you feel like watching some adorable animals beat the tar out of each other. Just watch out for the tall grass. You never know what might be lurking in there.

Carousel Court: So much pony. Carousel Court contains the majority of the City's pony population as well as a healthy helping of non-pony quadrupedal sapient races. Ranging from quaint thatched roof cottages to the towering mane offices of Roseluck Agrifirm to the opulent stables of the well-to-do Carousel Court has it all. The sweet tooth of ponies is absolutely legendary around Inside and if you're looking for a sugary treat, Carousel Court is the place to visit.

Locations
The Red Zones (Player: Rebonack)
Just because here are some nice quick descriptions of the various Red Zones that see some degree of use. Or at least the ones that I'll run NPCs in if I get prodded at or notice someone's PC poking around there. I don't control everything in these locations and other people are free to run things here, just keep the Lethality level in mind. Anyone exploring one of the Red Zones will find caches of magical or technological trinkets to make the danger worth their while. The higher the lethality rating the better the loot!

The Slums: (Lethality Level Low) Accessed from Hodgepodge Street. The Slums are a generally urban area of decay and disrepair. It's a pretty good place to run into muggers, thugs, vampires, random monsters, and other generically nasty things. People live in squalor here, but no one can really figure out WHY since the rest of the City is available for habitation and has fewer flesh eating mildew patches.

The Sewers: (Lethality Level Low) Accessed from anywhere Inside. The adventure Sewers are not to be confused with the gross functional sewers. Where the former are huge underground tunnels filled with relatively clean flowing water, ghouls, oozes, rats, and treasure, the latter are just filled with poo. Some portions of the Sewers are infested with far worse creatures, but thankfully those nasty things have been dormant for a long time. Or so they say...

The Mispelled Cemetary: (Lethality Level Variable) Accessed form Market Street. The Mispelled Cemetary is fully of the restless spirits of the unded who have been ripped from there eternal rest due to the endless propagation of spelling errors on the Internet. The unded in the cemetary proper are pretty week, but catacombs below the cemetary can be accessed through the various crypts on the surface. The deeper into the catacombs ones travels the nastier the unded get. Beware the Eternal Bone Horrers.

Midnight Park: (Lethality Level Moderate) This place enshrines a patch of forest so thick that light never reaches the ground. The smallest trees are wider than most people are tall, and the largest are truly awe-inspiring. The forest floor is a maze of twisting roots, fallen branches, and decaying leaves. There is never a breath of wind among the massive trunks, and the atmosphere is oppressive with fear and gloom.

Or...

At least it used to be oppressive with fear and gloom. Fear and gloom are still around, but they aren't nearly as bad.

Foot paths have been cleared through the forest and lanterns hung up that glow with cool silvery white light to keep the feral shadows at a distance from anyone who decides to walk in the cool of the shadows. Undead creatures that stray too close to the magical lanterns will find themselves illuminated by incandescent sunlight until they retreat back to a safe distance. Signs have been set up admonishing visitors to stay on the paths and warning of the unspeakable doom that will probably befall them if they don't.

Shadows prowl the darkness, their red eyes glinting in the gloom and the air filled with their hungry whispers, though they're loath to approach the paths. There's the occasional bodak or feral vampire spawn lurking around in the park as well, but they tend to keep well away from the paths since those areas are mostly commonly patrolled by the park's custodians.

The custodians, of course, being Team Nightmære. It isn't at all uncommon to find patrols of nightmære shadelings poking about, chatting with visitors, maintaining the trails, or installing new equipment around the park to make visits by the living more pleasant.

The Dungeons of Doom: (Lethality Level Moderate) Accessed from the Sewers. The Dungeons of Doom consists of a seemingly endless descent of themed dungeon floors filled with generally silly monsters and puzzles. But don't let the silliness fool you, the place is plenty deadly if you get too careless. Remember to pay proper respects to giant marble busts of science fiction and fantasy authors that might block your path.

The Radiation Pit: (Lethality Level Moderate) Accessed from Metropolis Square. The Radiation Pit is exactly what it sounds like. A blasted crater full of radiation and the sorts of things you would expect to arise in 50's era films about radiation. So mostly giant irradiated arthropods. The danger here, aside from the radiation mutants, is mostly from environmental hazards. Make sure to pack plenty of Rad-Away.

Bombed Out Zone: (Lethality Level Moderate) Accessed from Hodgepodge Street. A ruined urban landscape of burned out cars, shattered skyscrapers, and crumbling overpasses. It is the site of an ongoing three way battle between zombies, killer robots, and aliens. Getting caught between the factions is pretty dangerous, but scavenging the remains after a battle can yield some great loot.

Black Goat Woods: (Lethality Level High) Accessed from Arkham Street. Black Goat Woods is a park full of awful eldritch abominations. If you go in un-warded you will almost certainly die a horrible death if you're fortunate. With proper warding by the Elder Sign this Red Zone is just dangerous and maddening rather than a complete death trap. If you need to collect some tomes of forbidden lore or repulsive idols try snooping around here. Just remember that Cthulhu eats 2d6 investigators per round.

Everfree Park: (Lethality Level High) Accessed from Carousel Court. This is a wilderness within the heart of the City that hates you and wants you to die. The laws of physics and magic shift here chaotically and without warning. Powerful monsters roam the trees hunting for anyone foolish enough to stumble in. Everything that exists in this park, even the very air you're breathing, is a malevolent force that seeks your destruction. Enter at your own risk.

Azik's Enchantments(Player: Harnel, Grey Zone)

Those in the area will hear a rumbling as the Nexus begins pulling in something larger than just a single person. Reality bends, and the shape of portal opens above a certain street corner. For a sickening moment, nothing happens, but then things start coming out of the portal - all of them are bricks, building up finally to a door and a roof, with tiny windows built in. There's even a large chimney sticking out of the center of this strange, conical building that begins puffing rainbow smoke almost immediately.

A creature steps out the front door, though many wouldn't consider it a creature - He is a warforged, a living golem. Covered in what appears to be adamantine plates, he looks up and down the street, his longcoat catching in the breeze. as it flutters, one can see a multitude of wands, schema, and scrolls all attached to several belts around his waist and upper legs. On his eyes he wears a pair of blue tinted shades, despite his lack of ears, and the metal orbs that serve as his eyes glow green behind these spectacles. He looks up and down the street. He doesn't seem to be particularly disturbed by the change in location, but he does take the time to call out, in a metallic voice:

"Azik's Enchantments is open for business! Come find a potion, a wand, a scroll to fit any need! We have spellbooks for beginners and experts! Weapons of all shapes and sizes, and armor unlike anything you've ever seen! Come find what you're looking for here!"

And then he heads back inside. So much work, so little time. Inside is as strange as outside, with magic trinkets lining the walls on shelves, but all behind the counter, to keep any stupid kid with the idea to steal something from doing so. You can find just about anything magical here, and that which you can't find, Azik the Warforged can make within a more than reasonable timeframe.

Emergency Bunkers

Eight bunker-like structures in a ring-like arrangement at about the midpoint between the walls (or the docks) and the center of the city have been completed.

The interior of each is rather dull, rather befitting a bunker, but there are underground areas beneath the visible bunkers. These are similarly dull and military-styled, but they also act as hospitals.

These are mostly designed with emergencies such as shelling in mind, and are usually closed.

Emergency Clinics
Like the bunkers the clinics are spread through-out the City and are equipped with technology akin to a modern emergency room. Since there's no magical healing available the speed of recovery is going to be noticeably lower than what is available at one of Inside's many temples. However their availability makes them absolutely vital in the application of life-saving care.

Erin's Emporium (Player: The Bushranger, Grey 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?

Evolution Industries Headquarters + Factories (Player: Darkcomet, Blue Zone)
The headquarters of the company known as Evolution Electronics and Power is a fairly standard-looking modern-day tower in appearance, not quite reaching the level of skyscraper.

The company owns a large factory nearby, used in production of its MACE units, and potentially other products, should it be desired.

The company also possesses a number of other factories around the city, used for production of weaponry and other military materiel.

Retail outlets for Evolution's products are scattered around the city.

Hastings and Sons Mortuary (player: Kid Kris, Grey Zone)
Near one of the older parts of the city sits a large and somewhat dour building of brick and mortar, built in the traditional sense, with a metal plaque by the door that reads (predictably enough):

Hastings and Sons
MORTUARY
For the preparation of the dearly departed.
And indeed, should one go in one should find all the trappings of a conventional mortuary, including several large visitation rooms, run by this guy:

http://public5.tektek.org/img/av/1008/d05/2213/715a669.png (http://tektek.org/avatar/38746382)
Though of course, usually without the zombie there.
In recent times however, the true business of the resident Mortician has branched into a more heretical bent, offering certain services to the living impaired (more commonly known as the foul Undead). These start at simple healings and flesh grafts (the flesh occasionally obtained 'legitimately', when a body comes in for cremation and the Mortician gives them an urn full of wood-ash, but usually corpses are obtained through donations from customers or good old fashioned grave-robbing). But services can also range into body part replacement and augmentation for the undead who wishes his creator had seen fight to give him a giant lobster claw or retractable venomous spines, or even full body/flesh reconstruction for the self-conscious lich (or lich in disguise, though making your new flesh look like someone else usually costs extra) or the zombie in his golden years. These customers usually come in through the back door, where there is a plaque listing the full list of services. Though of course some are brazen enough to come through the front door anyway.

((PM if you wish to interact with the Mortician, as Kid Kris may not always check the thread.))

MagMart (Player: Lord Magtok, 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.

Magnificus Theater (Player: ThePhantom, Red Zone)
This large theater is an attempt to bring culture to the city of the Inside. Plays are regularly show here, and if desired other events can be held here.

The walls of the theater are colored with three shades of blue in a wave pattern. Inside the theater are a pair of grand staircases, with the railing colored gold, while the stone of the stairs is white. The stage itself is one of the largest in the Nexus, carefully designed for the greatest enjoyment.

Rules: Please, no violence. If you must have some violent action in a theater, pm me first.

MERC Office (Player: Morty, Grey Zone)
The building that serves as MERC's de facto embassy in Inside is now open for business (though there is a separate MERC thread that serves as a meta location to post in). It's a large, newly constructed office building with a very no-nonsense look to it. Its purpose is to do business, not more and not less.

Once inside, the prospective licensed mercenaries will be confronted with a large hall lined with tables, behind which NPCs work at filing and cataloguing the people who arrive to receive their certificates. At least one actual MERC member is also usually on a shift in the building.

Sable Spire (Player: Darkcomet, Blue Zone)
A great, black-colored tower now stands at the highest point of the Skyway. Appearing mostly similar to a modern-day skyscraper, albeit more futuristic, reinforced, and armored. Upon close examination, some parts of the tower appear to conceal compartments of some sort, likely something along the lines of concealed defensive turrets. the top portion of the tower is rather different in appearance.

It appears as a truly massive hatch, similar to what one might see over a missile silo under normal circumstances.

This hatch opens into the landing area of the aerial aircraft carrier Sanctuary, the main asset of the Altaran Irregulars. Said landing area is set to act as an elevator, capable of moving up to the top of the tower or moving back down to conceal whatever is landed (usually the aforementioned carrier) under the heavily armored hatch.

The Spire, constructed by Remnant in an alliance with the Altaran Irregulars, is now a major base for the the latter, who currently act alongside Remnant in protecting the city. Their troops largely use the same equipment as Remnant's, but use the old Imperial black-and-navy color scheme to distinguish themselves.

The The Temperance Teahouse (Grey Zone) Owned by Artemis

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/1783/temperanceteahouse3xphde.png

http://www.valleyofisk.com/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/product_images/teahouse.jpg

In an old section of the city stands a wooden building of ancient construction. From inside comes the sound of good conversation and, occasionally, music being played. The scents of exotic teas, spices, and good foods drift out onto the street. along with the scents and sounds come an aura of peace and comfort. It's a nice place here, you could definitely stick around for a while, to escape the general madness of the city.

Two wings extend out from the main building. To the north (the right side as you face the tea house) is an extension of the main structure, still made of wood, the architecture is slightly different and more brightly colored, and also noticeably newer. The west side of the building is surrounded by a stone wall, enclosing a garden. The garden ends at a low stone building running the length of the west wall.

[Restaurant]Inside the restaurant is filled with tables and chairs, spread out across the dark hardwood floors. Thick wooden pillars support the second floor and the roof, their tops carved with geometric designs. At the north side of the restaurant is a long counter, surrounding an open kitchen. Steam and smoke drift up from the fires and the woks used for cooking. A shelf along the back wall is filled with dozens of tins, each containing a particular tea or herbal blend. Interspersed among them are tea kettles, each one used to brew a particular type of tea.

The center of the restaurant is open to the second floor. Stairs lead up to more seating on the second level, which looks down on the restaurant below over carved wooden balconies. The ceiling above the open space is painted with a mural of a golden dragon floating through the clouds and circling the sun.

Seats on the west side of the building go fast, as they offer the best view of the gardens. The south and east sides offer views of the bustling streets below. The north side of the second floor has no windows and sits above the kitchen, so it is often darker and smokier than the rest of the restaurant.

Menu[B]Drinks

Herbal Tea
Green Tea
Black Tea
White Tea
Yellow Tea
Red Tea
Blue Tea - Mentally stimulating.
Purple Tea - Very relaxing and slightly hallucinogenic.
Iced Tea - Served sweet or unsweet, with or without lemon.
Sake - Available chilled, heated, or at room temperature.
Lychee Wine - A rich sweet drink with a deep golden color. Pairs well with seafood. Served cold.

Food

Dim Sum
Sushi
Stir Fry - Served over rice or noodles
Noodles
Soup
Rice Cakes

Sweets

Ice Cream - Vanilla, Green Tea, Red Bean, and Mango flavoured.
Dragon's Beard Candy - A spun sugar similar to cotton candy.
Moon Cake - A dense sweet cake around a salted egg yolk "moon".
Sun Cake - A crunchy pastry filled with a sugary cream.
Tempura Fried Bananas - Served over ice cream.

[North Wing]The north wing of the restaurant is of newer construction. It is more brightly painted and more heavily decorated than the main restaurant. Two doorways on each floor lead to a U shaped hallway that runs through the north wing. Sliding paper screens from the inner walls, so that they can be slid aside and make the spaces much larger. The lower floor holds private rooms that can be reserved for larger parties or special meetings. These rooms typically have a long low table surrounded by cushions. The second floor rooms have more flexible floor plans. Most have tables and chairs, often used to host card or board games. A few can be rented out for sleeping quarters, but patrons are reminded that the walls are, literally, paper thin. Disruptive behaviour will have you evicted without a refund.

[Garden]The west wing of the tea house is a large garden surrounded by stone wall. A circular gate leads directly from the garden to the streets, as well as doors leading into the restaurant. The garden itself is carefully kept, trees and bushes trained and cut into pleasing shapes. Stone lanterns and statues decorate the garden. Two pools filled with koi fish sit diagonally from one another, connected together by a stream filled with river rocks. The sound of trickling water fills the garden. A winding path leads through the garden and over a low stone bridge. On the far side of the bridge, the path passes through another circular gate guarded by two stone dragons on plinths. the pair stare down at any visitors, questioning their intentions in passing through their gate.

Beyond the Dragon Gate the path becomes perfectly straight. On either side are large black stones surrounded by carefully raked white sand. The path passes under a red Torii gate before encountering the low stone building at the far side of the garden. The building runs the full length of the west wall and is open to the garden. Large prayer wheels line the opening and are turned by the breeze or visiting people. The walls within the building are heavily decorated and covered in hanging scrolls. At the centre of the building is a shrine, covered in candles. Behind it is a mural depicting scenes of a warrior, a golden dragon, and the sun. Sitting on the shrine a wooden statue of a warrior, sitting in meditation, his sword set aside. The wood is lacquered and carefully inlaid with delicate patterns in gold. From the statue emanates a strong aura of peace, which spreads throughout the entire property.

NPCsHideki - A large man with a red face and a long nose, he is most often found in the kitchen, cooking up tasty things.
Hanako - An older woman, her black hair streaked with grey. She is Hideki's wife and most often found behind the counter serving tea.
Sakura - A lovely young woman and the daughter of Hideki and Hanako. She acts as a waitress and sometimes plays music.


OOC: Please Read. Important information.
The Teahouse and garden are protected by an aura of non-violence. Violent acts cannot be committed here. You cannot attack another patron or do anything that would cause them bodily harm. Anyone who attempts it will find it extremely hard to convince themselves to do it. If a particularly willful person overcomes this compulsion, something in the environment will intervene, as if by seemingly random chance, to protect their victim as if by divine intervention. Because that's exactly what it is.

Needle and Thread (Blue Zone, Player: Artemis97)
On one side of a wide cobblestoned street is a small shop. The sign hanging over the door depicts a simple spool of thread, pierced by a needle. No words were included, as a courtesy to those who could not read, nor were they needed. It was clear from the merchandise displayed in the two large windows on either side of the door that this was a clothing boutique. The right side displayed the latest in women's fashions, dresses and skirts in unique designs, all detailed by hand with beading and embroidery. The left window showed men's clothing, from a beautifully tailored three piece suit, cut from expensive fabrics, to the very best in adventuring style, rugged and sturdy, clearly built to last.

Inside, racks and mannequins display more clothing, split down the middle between men's and women's fashions. The back wall held rolls of fabric, some plain, others with obviously magical properties. A large, three-sided mirror sits in the back corner, next to a small changing stall. On the other side is a small counter holding a cash register, behind that the door that led to a small workroom.

The Needle and Thread is a clothing shop specializing in custom tailoring and speciality designs. It is owned and operated by Lillith Rock, and the kindly fiendish woman can usually be found behind the counter, or working on orders in the back workroom.

Pontius' Custom Constructs (Player: Earl of Purple, Grey 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 artisan'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 (Player: Rebonack, 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 sizeable 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 worshippers 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 worshippers 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, traveller. 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.

The Statue of Vyrn (Blue Zone)
On a hill near Evergreen Gardens at an previously empty lot surrounded by spot lights now stands an over 300 feet tall (100 meters tall to be exact) mitharal statue of Emperor Vyrn. Whoever made it seems to have tried to come as close to his likeness as possible on a white mithral surface.
The emperor is dressed in his most most archetypical attire, one fist raised to the skies and another clutching a sword held against the ground. His face perfectly stoic as he overlooks Inside's harbor.
The statue is actually hollow and small groups of people are allowed to take the elevator up to be able to see the city from atop the statues head. Otherwise security is tight around the statue with a tall fence, guards and security cameras there to prevent people from defacing it.
At night the statue is still clearly visible thanks to the many spotlights illuminating it, still making it visible for anyone approaching the city, by day or night.

The Swordfish (Player: Ghar, Grey Zone)
A new shop has opened up in Market Street. The building is a simple affair. A brick building with a massive chimney that constantly billows smoke. On the inside a massive forge dominates the far wall from the entrance. All manner of smithing equipment is carefully placed around the large room that dominates most of the building. Lining the two side walls are many tools for his craft, while lining the far wall are the products of that craft.

Swords, swords of all shapes and sizes. Some brutally efficient, simple weapons and others pieces of art that are no less functional. Each and every sword is obviously the work of a master.

And the master is always present. A great robot moves around the room, always working and experimenting with its remarkable talent. The machine is a hulking, bronze coloured humanoid. The robot has a number of slides and doors, implying there's more to it than is immediately apparent. Finally, at its head is a glass dome, filled with water. Dominating the container is a great carp, as big as a man. It gazes at it's work with eyes that know little more than hate. Hate and its new inspiration.

Word travels quickly of this bizarre master swordsmith. Though it is quite fearsome, the quality of its blades are unmatched.

St. Guinevere's Sanatorium for Lunatics and Object Seekers (Player: Anyone, Gray Zone)
This insane asylum exists for people questing after Objects from the Holders Mythos. Anyone can run an Object quest, but please look at the community agreed guidelines first (http://tinyurl.com/5w42x5c) as it helps keep things consistent.

If you want to use the Sanatorium for other uses, feel free, but expect it to be a house of unspeakable horrors. :smalltongue:

The Temple of Dalachrech (Player: Earl of Purple, Grey Zone)
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.

Please PM Earl of Purple before entering this location.


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

Warwick Works (player: happyturtle, Grey Zone)
In the industrial area, a building is rented and has a new sign put out front.


W
Warwick Works

The building itself consists of a small office area in front and warehouses in back. There is no indication of what sort of business this is, but a certain cyborg with a satellite might recognize the logo and name.

Witch Which's Wish Shop (Grey, Player: Haruki-kun)

Welcome. If you have stepped into this store, it is because you have a wish.

The store is big, ancient and beautiful. It has a large garden with colourful flowers, a pond with fish and running water, and chirping birds. This is the outside of the store. The inside, however, is, to put it simply, gloomy. There’s burning candles and incense everywhere. From the hall where you enter you are led off into a side room with a low table and cushions around it. A tall, masked and unnamed stranger brings tea and snacks to the guests. The Witch sits opposite and rarely ever moves.

RULES (OOC):
This is a Wish shop. Your character will only enter this shop if he has a wish. Whether the wish is granted or not is a different issue.
Witch Which is in charge of the shop and will grant wishes to everyone who asks, regardless of intent or alignment, as long as the appropriate price is paid. Under certain conditions:

Condition one: Witch Which will not haggle. She couldn’t lower a price or overcharge even if she wanted to. A balance must be kept in order for the wish to be granted.

Condition two: When a Wish directly affects another player’s character in a way that would be considered godmodding, the other player must agree first.

Condition three: The Witch may not reject any wish unless the price is too high to be paid. Wishes to take a life or to destroy the world, for example, carry a price higher than anyone can pay. ANYONE.

Condition Four: The Witch will never engage in battle. Be glad. The Witch is the very definition of True Neutral.

Condition Five: The store is not hard to access; in fact, there’s a big sign outside and everything. However, the store’s grounds exist in a special separate dimension, protecting it from anything that could destroy it, up to and including plot.

Condition Six: Haruki-kun reserves the right to alter the conditions if he feels they’re causing problems such as godmodding or similar issues.

(Haruki-Kun wishes for a PM to be sent to him upon someone entering the shop so he knows about it.)

Inside's Defenses, Remnant, and The Council


Defenses

As stated above, the city of Inside is defended by the Walls, Moat and DOOM-Shield, but it is also defended by a more "mundane" force field that can be called upon in times of need, as well as a number of more conventional defensive capabilities, nearly all of which are manned and controlled by Remnant(Controlled for the most part by Wolfbane). These include things from Emergency Bunkers, Relief Stations, Anti-Aircraft Cannon, and the like.

Remnant

As stated before, Remnant is Inside's police force, army, and main defensive body. It is made up of the remains of what was once the Acronymian Empire, and consists of hundreds of men, women, and machines, both soldier and civilian, sacrificing their daily lives and time to make sure the city of Inside is relatively safe for it's citizens. There are Remnant Outposts all throughout the city, with the main HQ in Blue Zone, and less Outposts in Red Zone. These can be reached fairly easily, and allow people to report crimes, turn in criminals, collect bounties, and even ask to be recruited. Remnant controls most of Inside's defenses, but also controls Rapid Response Units capable of stopping fires, providing emergency medical aide, and even disaster relief to clean up debris and fix buildings and roads damaged by the day to day events of Inside.

Squads of Remnants patrol the streets "every so often" and should anyone need one, can interact with them (Please check in OOC upon doing so, however).

As a note, Low-Level Remnants can be Godmodded! They can be assumed to fight the fires that pop up, but can also be asked to provide basic information. This also means that they can be bribed for less well-known information such as someone's name and rank, or to look the other way for a small crime, such as theft. Anything more, please post in OOC in case there is something that needs clarified. The Remnants can be godmodded to be killed on occasion, but if it happens too fast, too often, one of the Remnant players may step in and RP it out. Once again, please post in OOC if you plan on killing a Remnant NPC.

What is NOT Godmoddable:

-Getting Security Codes
-Accessing Secure Areas
-Killing off more than one or two NPCs at a time, or killing a Named Remnant NPC/PC
-Stealing Identities
-Destroying Remnant facilities

It is not impossible for these to happen, but with proper warning provided to a Remnant player, it can be RP'd out and attempted. However, it should be noted that only Low-Ranking Remnants can be Godmodded in this way.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

ZAP! The electricity crackles back the way it came, encouraged back along the path from whence it came by Fortuna's weather magic. Up to the gun itself, where it goes back to the high-capacity capacitors ... which were already in the process of re-filling. The excess jumps loudly to a nearby fencepost sunk into the ground, but the agents drop the rifles and hop around in obvious pain from what little chose their higher-resistance pathway to earth.

Four agents clamber out of the ruined car, two of them bleeding from their ears and likely permanently deafened.

Beside her, Steven opens his eyes

These guys suck... *cough* dunno how they got my stuff, but in my bag is a remote...

he winces

It'll deactivate every PIE in a half mile radius. Use it, then turn 'em into roaches or something...

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Nick checks his HUD as he flies over the spot the distress call went out. Only about now did he even begin to slow. He's speeding fast enough that he has only a moment to take in the situation, that is, Fortuna shooting lightning bolts at some fellows who apparently still think that they're alive.
That's funny. They're funny.
Not wasting time to aim something, Nick reaches into his non-converted belt and tosses a frag grenade at the agents as he flies overhead. He keeps going, shifting back to human shape, sailing through the air to land squarely about twenty feet from Fortuna in a three-point landing, letting his armor's shock absorbers take the fall.

"Geneva, status? What are we fighting here?" he says simply, tucking himself into cover next to her and unslinging his rifle. He didn't even say hello!

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

Fortuna's HUD alerts her to Nick approaching and provides a little 'frag away' warning as the explosive sails toward the group of suits she had just tossed a lightning bolt at. She temporarily puts them out of her attention and prioritizes the ones who had piled out of the ruined vehicle.

"Dart guns with unknown chemical payload and electro-laser rifles," Fortuna rattles off as she lines up a shot on one of the car-group agents and squeezes off two shots from her absurdly large Gauss rifle, aiming at the agent's center of mass. The gun isn't nearly as loud as one might expecting a weapon that big to be, but the high velocity hollow-point Ferraro-magnetic spikes still pack a considerable whollop. "They were using shield generators earlier, but I think I burned them out."

Then she flexes her wings and begins flapping them!

A powerful gale picks up, strong enough to potentially check a person trying to walk into it. Firing low velocity weapons like darts into the stormy wind may prove to be a really irritating task.

She spares a reassuring smile down at Steve. "I'm more comfortable with my weather magic in a fight, it'll work just fine in the PIE field. If you can, crawl back under the car and take cover."

[Arkhosia]

[A Park in Inside]

And I bet you thought Caelynn was joking when she said the name began with a hyphen.

Caelynn waits on a bench under a vibrant green tree with a 1-year old Alexis in her arms.

[Lady Serpentine]

"You smacked my butt first, ma'am!" Jackalope insists indignantly, "And with lightning! If that ain't flirting, I dunno what is!"

"You want to get close, then? Go ahead. Come over here." She rolls her eyes, the car still pointed rather ominously at him as she waits to see what he does. Though she's not really expecting him to turn down her invitation, since she's rather sure he's not going to realize why she wants him closer.

[TechnoScrabble]

Mall Parking Lot

"As you wish!"

Jackalope slinks over, but as he does, another one appears, this one female! The two slide over to either side of the electric lass, both making the same goofy but adorable flirting face.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Maul Parking Lot]

The girl grins... And Jackalope may find himself dealing with a belly full of supercharged metal horns, since she bends over and tries headbutt to him as hard as she can as soon as he's within reach. He... May need to reconsider his 'flirt flirt hyperflirt I will only flirt' policy, here. At least when it comes to her. It seems she's very uninterested in him.

[TechnoScrabble]

Mall Parking Lot

Supernatural reaction time has never been quite so handy for Jackalope. Both jump back, the one being headbutted at reaching out to grab the girl by the shoulders and flip over her back and behind her. Weird, fleshy carapace grows over them, and over that grows a wax-covered, glassy green coating. Where visors would be on this bio-armour's helmet is instead a massive, unblinking eye.

"What the hell, lady?!" Jack demands.

"Yeah!" Jackie adds, "You don't just smack someone's /tushy/ and then try to kill them! "

[Lady Serpentine]

[Parking Lot of Mauling]

"Apparently, I do." She smirks as she twists aside, leaning back to avoid his grasp, then sending the car flying at the pair like a bullet - and herself sailing lightly back, landing about five cars down. "Now. Any other silly remarks to make? Or are we going to move directly into the next bit of fighting? This is a pretty good battlefield for me, you know..."

[TechnoScrabble]

Mall Parking Lot

Ghostly hands catch the car and gently set it back down. It belongs to someone, after all.

"I'm a lover, not a fighter! " Jack exclaims, a bit of panic in his voice as he backs up.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

And now Agent 183 is suddenly sporting two fashionable red holes in his chest! He looks at himself in shock and blinks, then is knocked down by the wind. The three agents who aren't busy bleeding to death scramble around the far side of the car, but then the car starts to rock and lift up slightly.

Agents 24 and 32 have miraculously failed to die yet, but they continue to be completely ineffective as they strain against the wind.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

"Understood." says Nick, all business. Dart guns can't penetrate his armor. Ones that can would probably be more bulky than a railgun, because you'd need a hell of a lot of force.

Nick pops up from cover, bringing John Duggan's rifle to his shoulder. He wonders if Fortuna knew it ignored wind? She seems to be good at getting info from nowhere. He's slightly disappointed the frag didn't do much, but he doesn't think he'll care once these idiots are toast. And with this thing's magazine, he won't have to take his eyes off them. And if he sees them, they're going to be sporting a new hole, probably in the head.

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

Forcing the bad guys behind cover certainly helps.

This is most certainly not the first time Fortuna has been ambushed by Raiders trying to kill her. These agents have really bitten off more than they can chew with this particular circumstance. If only they had the sense to grab one of those Star Trek style phasers they could have had Fortuna down on the first shot rather than simply upset with them.

She continues fanning her wings to keep the wind blowing and a counter offensive difficult. Her rifle goes back into her inventory spells as she cups her talons and begins gathering another pressure bomb. Due to the hurricane-force winds she's producing her attention is a bit divided at the moment, so prepping the barometric explosive is going to take a little longer than it did the first time. Without the shields around the agents or their vehicle a direct hit will likely be quite a bit more lethal than before.

"I'm arming an explosive. Try to keep them behind cover."

Fortuna's HUD continues highlighting the agents even behind their cover. At present she's keeping an eye out for any change in their behavior so she can react accordingly.

Reacting accordingly would probably amount to launching herself into the sky and finding a cloud to seed with magic for the purpose of lightning-stomping.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

Um... the grenade rolled under the car! Yeah, that's it... I totally didn't miss it :smallredface:

One of the agents ducking behind the car pops up and demonstrates why a phaser was useless by firing one with the characteristic Next Generation 'psssssssh' sound. The blazing orange beam slices through the air, and then quite simply ceases to be at the boundary of Steve's prototype PIE field, quite some distance from Fortuna. This also puts his head up above the car's cover.

Off to the side, 24 and 32 now do something quite odd: they duck to the ground and scuttle toward their targets. These two weren't all that far away to begin with and are rapidly getting uncomfortably close. (And Nick inexplicably didn't shoot at them yet :) )

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Oh? Well, let's fix that. Nick isn't going to shoot at the guy who apparently can't do any damage. And there's two guys apparently trying to get close to them? Yeah, those guys are going to get shot. Once. Twice. Three times. Wait, how many shots does this gun have?!
Nick's aim is very, very good by the way. And the rifle is a high enough caliber to hurt even if he isn't going for headshots. And he is.

[Lord Magtok]

[A Park in Inside]

And I bet you thought Caelynn was joking when she said the name began with a hyphen.

Caelynn waits on a bench under a vibrant green tree with a 1-year old Alexis in her arms.

Magtok approaches and coughs nervously. This is the mother and child he orchestrated a worldwide manhunt against, after all. Who could blame him for being a tad uncomfortable with the idea of meeting her again, after all of that nonsense failed to conjure forth any apocalypse worth stopping?

[Arkhosia]

Magtok approaches and coughs nervously. This is the mother and child he orchestrated a worldwide manhunt against, after all. Who could blame him for being a tad uncomfortable with the idea of meeting her again, after all of that nonsense failed to conjure forth any apocalypse worth stopping?

Caelynn grins, offering him a spot next to her in the bench.
Afternoon! It's been a while, so I thought it might be nice to chat and maybe reconcile!
Alexis, clad in a pink onesie is an average size 1 year old, her hair a shock of vivid yellow. Pink eyes look at Magtok nervously, as she clutches Caelynn closer.
Dada?
She asks. She's been asking that about pretty much everyone.

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

Looks like it's a good thing that Fortuna didn't shut down Steve's PIE unit, otherwise that phaser would have dropped Fortuna like a ton of bricks. Or more properly about eight hundred pounds of bricks. Maybe the agents weren't aware the newest version of the device can foil impossible sci-fi stuff now, too. Bet it would do a number on lightsabers. She casts a quick glance down at the recently darted scientist and begins shooing at him with one of her smaller pairs of wings as she moves to place herself between him and the incoming bad guys.

"Get back under the car as soon as you can move," she insists to Steve.

Also?

She keeps wing-flapping and air-gathering.

Come next post her barometric bomb will be ready to toss for suitably devastating effect.

Nick seems to be doing a good job of preventing the bad guys from approaching. Good thing they didn't have the sense to try flanking Fortuna and Nick. That would have made things a bit harder.

[Lord Magtok]

A Park in Inside

"It's looking at me with his eyes," Magtok remarks, scooting away from the baby towards the other end of the bench. Pink eyes like those creep the hell out of him.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

Steve slides himself under the car as far as he can reach

It has already been established that 24 and 32 aren't the brightest bulbs in the box to begin with, and they've had a rough time of it lately. Not that is matters so much anymore as agent 32 is shot twice in the head and is now convulsing on the ground rather than moving anymore.

24, however, was not hit sufficiently fatally. He reaches inside his jacket and then makes one final desperate lunge forward toward Nick. If Fortuna never read what happened at the temple the last time a DART agent had his hand inside their jacket, she might want to go find it - it may impact her next decision.

The three that were behind the car have ceased being behind the car and are running away in three rapidly diverging directions.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Damn, what a stubborn bastard. Nick can't bring his rifle to bear in close quarters, so instead he jumps back as far as he can in an instant (about four feet) and draws Faith, letting off three shots of the powerful .45-70 Gov't revolver in the moments he has.

[Gullara]

[The Statue of Vyrn]

Obriane blushes profoundly as she see Kitty appears upside down but doesn't seem to be able to revert her eyes. "Ummm.... a bit. It's very high!" She insists.

[The Statue of Vyrn]

"I guess you're right, it is pretty dang high." Kitty looks down at the ground far below. "Do you want me to come down?" She asks with a silly smile.


[Pokémon Center]

"Well I planed to catch something different. That was at least the reason I was in the forest." Vis replies. Indeed he planned to catch something at the mountain behind the forest.

[Pokémon Center]

"Well you should go back and give it a try. If you screw up you just gotta try again. It's the only way to do it." Becca declares. She puts her hand in her bag and pulls out a Pokeball. "Here, have this. Now you'll have two chances."

((I know we'd planned to do more in this scene, but I think we should wrap it up in the next couple posts. I'm trying to cut down on my scenes, and I think we've reached a good ending point.))

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

Unfortunately Fortuna's narration-reading powers tend to fall pretty short in serious situations. They work when working would be silly or funny, not when serious business needs to be thwarted. None the less, Fortuna really doesn't like the agent being near her special friend and would rather like him to go away.

Thankfully her VATS has recharged as is ready to be employed again.

She slips into the targeting spell and the world seems to slow around her as she queues up two attacks.

Right as Nick is leaping backwards, Fortuna gives her wings a single beat at the encroaching agent. The resulting blast of wind is far more focused than the one she was using to check the agents and screen their dart weapons a few moments prior. This wind blast is practically a pulse of concussive force powerful enough to lift a human off their feet and send them tumbling through the air like a rag-doll.

Her HUD provides a firing solution for her pressure-bomb and she lets it fly. The sizzling projectile goes sailing over the ruined car, boiling through the air until it lands right in the middle of the running bad guys and detonates. Considering the barometric bomb she just made has a kill radius of about twenty feet there's a pretty good chance that the agents won't survive.

Both attacks expended, the world snaps back to normal speed.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

Agent 24 continues to come toward Nick when the shots are fired. The trouble is that a DART field agent's suicide vest blows up when they let go of the trigger, and the pain of being shot hits just a fraction of a second before the blast of wind...

Two and a half kilograms of C4 explode in all its violent glory just before Fortuna blows the now icky vaporized human bits off into the distance.

The three running away people were not running in a clump, I said very distinctly three different directions :) Fortuna gets two of them, though, and they die horribly in a decent imitation of the now departed Agent 24. The third one is knocked down, but not mist-ified.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Nick gets caught in the explosion, dropping his gun and getting knocked back a good fifteen feet, landing heavily on his back. He woozily starts to get back up, his suit having absorbed most of the shock of the explosion and the heat, but he's going to have some heavily bruises, and definitely needs a moment or two to reorient himself.

[Arkhosia]

A Park in Inside

"It's looking at me with his eyes," Magtok remarks, scooting away from the baby towards the other end of the bench. Pink eyes like those creep the hell out of him.

Too bad it's not a very long bench.
No, Alexis. That's Magtok.
Magtok, please at least refer to Alexis as her or they. I understand why, but she's not going to cause any apocalypses.
Caelynn asks, slightly pleadingly.

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

Wuh oh explosives!

Fortuna isn't quite so close to the explosion, though she has a reflex reaction to bend the pressure wave around her. The whole Pressurefont family had that name for a reason, after all. The blast still knocks the draconequus over, dazing her, but she isn't particularly injured.

She gives a bit of a groan as she climbs back to her hooves and shakes her head.

"There's one left," she reports. "I'll chase him down just as soon as the ground stops spinning. We need someone to interrogate."

Catching the guy without his explosive vest going off might be tricky...

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

And agent 302 is already starting to stir... he's not doing a good job of it quite yet, but he'll be back to trying to escape very soon, assuming he doesn't just blow himself up.

[Lord Magtok]

A Park in Inside

"I know, I'm sorry, it's just...that was Reinholdt's eyes first. I didn't know she had those," Magtok admits, cringing. At least she's not encouraging the 'dada' thing, or else Magtok probably would've already run away screaming by now.

"So things have been going alright for you, then? I mean, after the rising from the dead thing, of course." Being a corpse isn't much fun at all, he imagines.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Nick staggers to his feet and retrieves his gun.
"I'll go if you do..." he says between heavy breaths. Ow, he's sore.

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

Fortuna takes to the air, moving to land about forty feet in front of the agent with her rifle at the ready.

Generally speaking someone needs to be within about twenty feet to reach someone before they can draw a weapon, so Fortuna is providing some extra breathing room for herself. She isn't pointing the rifle at the agent, not yet. You don't point at something until you're ready to shoot at it.

That's just good weapons discipline!

"Some answers would be nice," Fortuna says, amplifying her voice as best she can. "Why did you try to kill Steve and I?"

Those other two guards...

Human hearts just aren't meant to take that kind of shock. She wasn't able to save them.

But at least she was able to save someone.

[Arkhosia]

A Park in Inside

"I know, I'm sorry, it's just...that was Reinholdt's eyes first. I didn't know she had those," Magtok admits, cringing. At least she's not encouraging the 'dada' thing, or else Magtok probably would've already run away screaming by now.

"So things have been going alright for you, then? I mean, after the rising from the dead thing, of course." Being a corpse isn't much fun at all, he imagines.

Damn it, that would've been hilarious! The great Lord Magtok defeated by a baby and her mother!
I understand. Honestly, I think the beings that run this multiverse, or at least the one responsible for Alexis, were in an ******* kind of mood when her genes got selected. Anyways, it'd been fine on my end after the death thing. Mainly boring, but hey, raising a kid isn't nearly as exciting as working for VIGIL.
Caelynn replies as Alexis looks around the park at all the things!
A couple times in her reply, Caelynn is interrupted when a male being passes by, prompting Alexis to point and ask if they're her dad, only to be told no.

How does Alexis know they're male?
I dunno! :smallbiggrin:

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

The agent is in pretty bad shape... he's got a concussion and likely permanent brain damage.

Capture chaos anomaly. Kill Johnson.

Argh: he's still got the phaser! With the classic 'pssssssh' noise, he fires. He knows he can't aim and simply sweeps the orange beam in a wide and uncoordinated arc, stunning a number of gathered onlookers and maybe Fortuna.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Nick groans, but brings his revolver up and fires once, aiming at the phaser itself. Hard to fire that when it's got a gaping hole in the side!

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

When the phaser begins to rise Fortuna lifts her own rifle and squeezes off a shot aimed at the agent's center of mass. Her aim isn't exactly great, especially in moments of duress, but the sheer size of the projectile might make up for missing a heart-shot.

And then?

Well.

Depending on how Nick's shot goes she either gets stunned or not!

We'll have to wait and see what happens.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

I dunno... the Mythbusters had a really hard time shooting a pistol out of the hand of a motionless mannequin. Hitting something like that which is also in the process of being swung wildly? I really can't see it... Maybe if Nick had a VATS to help. The bullet is more likely to richocet off the pavement than intercept the phaser. Now given Nick was a way off, and the angle of reflection is equal to the angle of reflection... The last of the DART agents just got a decent size hole where his nose used to be, and is somewhat lacking the upper-back section of his head. But the beam probably still adds just a bit of insult to the injuries of the day and zaps Fortuna anyway.

But not until after she shoots him too. So... he's quite dead.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Ah, but you forget. Nick is a Fallout NPC. This means that he has not only unlimited reloads, but pinpoint accuracy greater than any PC could ever have, even with VATS.
Gosh enemies in Fallout can be annoying.
In all seriousness, knocking it out of his hand was not the goal, damaging it beyond repair was. Either way, doesn't matter, as now he's running to make sure Fortuna doesn't fall and hit the pavement post-stun. His suit should help him catch eight hundred pounds of dragon, but he has to get there first, and that requires running, but even shaken, he can do that!

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

Fortuna gets zapped and drops like a puppet with its strings cut.

She's stunned, Jim.

[Suburbs]

Jace's psychic tracking should work just fine on Fortuna, thankfully. Otherwise she would be pretty hard to follow. Especially when she begins blurring into a pink haze before-

-Discontinuity-

-teleporting.

And ending up in the exact same spot where they started. The shock is enough to cause Fortuna to momentarily forget about her previous sorrows. <Huh? What just happened? I was aiming somewhere else!>

<Haha, was that a dud, Forte?> Henry laughs, then immediacy seems to think better of it. <I mean, you're still cool. Everyone has a dud sometimes. Maybe we should sit down and talk about what Kellie said?>

The Mew's ears twitch at... sounds... Coming from somewhere! Fortuna sneaks over to some nearby shrubs and peers through them. On the other side she spies a pair of humans in dark grey uniforms setting up some peculiar looking spiky machines. Spiky machines with a bunch of pokeballs set into grooves running along its sides. "Alright, I think they're set up," grunt one says to grunt two. "Test it out."

Grunt 2 pulls a pokeball off his belt and hits the release button, but the usual pulse of red light gets sucked into the spiky machine and one of the balls installed in it lights up! Fortuna gives a little gasp at the realization that this machine is designed to steal pokemon from trainers! While she doesn't have much in the way of sympathy for trainers, this set up still seems pretty suspicious! Obviously these two are up to no good.

"Hey, did you hear that?" Unfortunately, the gasp is enough to draw their attention.

Without any time to flee and with the fear that the machine might intercept her teleport and imprison her, Fortuna does the next best thing.

She Transforms into a human. In this particular case, a early teen human girl with bright blue eyes, pink hair, and an absurdly pink outfit to go with it. She hugs Henry to her chest and begins scooting away.

"Ah ha!" Grunt 1 says as he vaults over the brush. "What have we here, huh? A snoop? You're in a lot of trouble now, kid."

"Stay back!" Fortuna yells, brandishing Henry at them. "He knows Tackle! We'll whollop you good!"

Both grunts laugh at the absurd threat.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

There is probably a somewhat comical image of a large, half-fuzzy dragon plopping down into the waiting arms of a normal human, completely bowling him over. It'll be quite the struggle to stand up and drag her back to that scientist guy she was talking to. Her vitals seem fine, so he's not worrying.
((Gonna assume I could go since everyone else is dead, Fen. Tell me if I'm wrong))

Suburbs

<Got a lock, Zebes. South, onwards!> shouts Jace over the din of the wind whipping past them.
<I don't like this, Boss. Can you gimme a boost?>
<You got it. Burst Mode engaging!> shouts Jace with a mad grin.
The Kells probably get a strong, powerful feeling as Jace's supportive aura engulfs the trio. Flames erupt around his ears, but Zebes trusts him not to singe his wings.
I wonder if the grunts will find it interesting, the glowing red star quickly approaching, coming into view as a dragon with a jet pack-like flame trail...

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

(( Yup. Everybody's kinda dead. ))

Steve is still hiding under the car, a little rattled from that last explosion and not feeling very well from the poison/antidote combination.

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

And thus Fortuna is dragged back over to the car and the woozy scientist.

...it's going to take her a little while to come to.

Maybe Nick can chat with Steve!

That'll be fun, right?

[Lost_Deep]

Suburbs

<Got a lock, Zebes. South, onwards!> shouts Jace over the din of the wind whipping past them.
<I don't like this, Boss. Can you gimme a boost?>
<You got it. Burst Mode engaging!> shouts Jace with a mad grin.
The Kells probably get a strong, powerful feeling as Jace's supportive aura engulfs the trio. Flames erupt around his ears, but Zebes trusts him not to singe his wings.
I wonder if the grunts will find it interesting, the glowing red star quickly approaching, coming into view as a dragon with a jet pack-like flame trail...

"Burst mode? What?"

"Okay, the idea that the chaos magic can retroactively change our memories is getting weirder fast," Kellform says with a frown. "I hope this wears off sooner instead of later."

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Nick carefully sets Fortuna down against the car, making sure to lay her down gently, especially her head. Don't want to bop that head after getting stunned.
"Uh, you okay under there?" he asks, crouching to get a look at Steve.

[Rebonack]

[Suburbs]

"Stay back! Or I'll..." Fortuna says as she manages to scramble back to her feet. Being unable to fly in human form is really annoying!

"Yeah? Or you'll what?" Grunt 1 sneers. "What are you going to do, kid? Fish slap me?"

Grunt 1 takes another step closer and gets smashed upside the head with Henry the shiny Magikarp. Henry used Tackle!

...sort of.

<Haha! That was an awesome Tackle, right Forte?> the fish asks.

"That was the best Tackle, Henry," Fortuna replies, cocking the Magikarp over her shoulder like a base-ball bat. "Keep up the good work."

Grunt 1 staggers back a few steps, rubbing his face and glowering at Fortuna. "You're in a heap of trouble now, kid. Scizor? Cut this runt down to size."

Then the spooky black spiky machine releases the pokemon it had sucked up, revealing a Scizor shrouded in a murky black aura! Uh oh, that's probably bad.

And as if that weren't bad enough, Grunt 2 snaps his pokeball into the machine and releases another foe! A Houndoom covered in the same miasma of darkness as the Scizor! "You can light her up, Houndoom. But we want the kid alive."

Fortuna gulps and takes a step back. This is getting serious...

The bad guys haven't noticed the approaching dragon yet...

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

Steve doesn't seem very happy

Are they gone?

[Deathkeeper]

Suburbs

Jace rolls his eyes. <Relax, it's just a reference.>

And on speeds Zebes! They come up on the scene, and he scowls at the two mean-looking humans and their nasty-looking pokemon. He'll have none of THAT, thank you very much!
Zebes transfers both of the Kells do his left arm's grip as he lands with a titanic BOOM! behind the grunt standing away from the machine. Before he has any time to turn around, Zebes aims a very restrained elbow to the back of his head, which can most likely knock him unconscious.

Park Park

"Well, they're gone in the sense that they're all dead..." says Nick, giving a weak chuckle at the bit of dark humor. Slumping to the ground, he opens one of his pockets on his belt and starts reloading Faith's chambers of the three shots he let off, discarding the empty casings.

[Lost_Deep]

Suburbs

"<This is slightly demeaning, but it's also awesome, so I don't even care,>" Kellia comments. She points at the Scisor, "<Bug/steel, kill it with fire!>" and the Houndoom, "<Fire/Dark, so psychic is useless and I think Houndoom sometimes absorbs fire attacks?>"

Kellform is quite happy to just watch for now.

[Lord Magtok]

Damn it, that would've been hilarious! The great Lord Magtok defeated by a baby and her mother!
I understand. Honestly, I think the beings that run this multiverse, or at least the one responsible for Alexis, were in an ******* kind of mood when her genes got selected. Anyways, it'd been fine on my end after the death thing. Mainly boring, but hey, raising a kid isn't nearly as exciting as working for VIGIL.
Caelynn replies as Alexis looks around the park at all the things!
A couple times in her reply, Caelynn is interrupted when a male being passes by, prompting Alexis to point and ask if they're her dad, only to be told no.

How does Alexis know they're male?
I dunno! :smallbiggrin:

"How long has she been doing that?" Magtok wonders. He imagines it could get very tiring, especially since the answer will almost certainly be the same every time. On top of that, even if Reinholdt came back, Magtok can't see that loathsome feline ever stepping in to raise any of these kids he's fathered. The cat wouldn't have had the kids in the first place if not for the guarantee that he'd never have to deal with them himself.

[Rebonack]

[Suburbs]

Klonk! Grunt 1 gets clobbered, though he rolls with the attack with a fairly surprising degree of agility. The man swears as pulls a black stick off his belt and extends it, aiming to jab Zebes in the belly and discharge a paralyzing current into him! "Scizor! New target! Take the Dragonite down!"

"Sci sci sci sci!" the metal mantis drones as it leaps at Zebes and aims to hammer him with its metal claws! Perhaps most disturbing about this is the fact that our heroes won't be picking up even a hint of pokemon talk from the bug, just aggressive animals noises.

Grunt 2 pulls his own shock-stick out and yells, "What are you waiting for, Houndoom? Toast her!"

The doomy-dog takes in a deep breath and, "DOOOOOOOM!" exhales a sheet of flames at Fortuna!

"Aaaaeeeeeew!" she cries, her human scream quickly giving way to a pokemon's squeal of pain. But she's not about to take that sitting down, no sir! A roiling blue sphere of aura comes rocketing out of the smoke and crashes into the Houndoom, sending it skidding across the ground. The dog begins rising to his feet again, only to get clobbered with a fish held within a Psyshock field.

The smoke clears to reveal Fortuna back in pokemon shape, hovering in mid-air with Henry floating next to her!

<We fight as one!>
<We fight as one!>

Grunt 2's eyes widen. "Holy **** she was a Mew!"

[Deathkeeper]

Suburbs

Zebes drops the Kells, trusting them to be capable of landing on their own. Zebes sidesteps to his right to dodge the thrust of the shock-stick, following up with a left hook to the Rocket's face. Meanwhile, Jace pops up from his familiar's shoulder, looking very, very ticked off.

He breathes in, and then glows with energy as he gives a terribly loud "TIIIIIII!"
The Scizor might find himself suddenly engulfed in vibrant blue flames. It's probably detrimental to its health. Zebes is prepared to dodge if he still comes through at them, although he might take a few hits as Jace takes a second to aim another hit and stop the stupid bug.
Kells, support Fortuna. We've got these fools. he Sends to them, sounding serious.

[Lost_Deep]

Suburbs

Kellform floats up, gets some height, and then tries to use water gun on the Houndoom.

Castform don't have many options.

"<Telepathy!>"

"<Yes, so?>"

So I can do that, too.

Kellia will try to reach into the mooks' minds, touch them, and then drop the bass. Forcing a bass-heavy and discordant tune into their brains, as mentally loud as she can get it to go. Have fun directing your Pokemon when your brain is full of screeching and needlessly heavy bass booming!

[Shadowcaller]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

The tests reveal that Clara's estrogen and pheromone levels are higher than normal, but otherwise the same.


Outside Chadwick's Temple

Arty shakes his head. "If nothing else, you can get him talking. I'll go find that entrance, I trust that you'll find something efficient to help." he says with an honest smile, and starts to walk off.
He doensn't feel quite that confident, but the god needs some reassuring.

Outside Chadwick's Temple

"Very well, but let me give you my blessing before you go. It might help you against Radu." Chadwick replies before he reaches up and if it's allowed, he will touch Arty's hoof and transfer his blessing to the centaur. This will make Arty strangely competent at any task he sets out to do even if he has no previously experience with it beforehand. "Good luck."

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

They're higher, but yet the same? :smalltongue:
I guess you mean that she's otherwise the same. "As I expected! Your hormone levels are higher! Are you comfortable with this Clara?" The doctor exclaims as he turns to look at her.

[The Statue of Vyrn]

"Yes!" Obriane exclaims. Kitty was crazy and silly! Though some part of her just wanted to laugh at it all but she didn't want to look even more awkward than she already did, standing here in a fright screaming at people.

[Rebonack]

[Suburbs]

The two Grunts clutch their ears, but then they start fiddling with some sort of fancy switching looking thing on their helmets! This distraction is enough to get Grunt 1 laid out by Zebes. That guy is totally out of commission. The second staggers over to the weird spiky machine and begins fiddling with it again.

As for the scizor, it gets blasted with the flames but completes its attack, following up with a second bullet punch at poor Zebes. The bug is in really bad shape right now. It probably won't be able to take another hit, let alone another hit like that one.

That poor Houndoom is in just as awful shape and the high-pressure water blasting him in the face really doesn't help at all. The doomy dog goes down like a ton of bricks.

With a brief respite, Fortuna causes an egg-shaped orb of light to coalesce in front of her before popping and flowing into her, healing up most of the damage she had suffered from the flame thrower attack. She's feeling a lot better! Maybe not quite one hundred percent, but still a lot better!

And Grunt 2?

Still fiddling with that machine. The machine that's now crackle with darkness while the human cackles with malevolent glee.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

Steve gingerly slides out from under the car, scraped, burned, bruised, and poisoned.

Thank you officer.

Then he sees Fortuna

Oh, no! Fortuna! Is she hurt?

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Nick shakes his head.
"She's been stunned by a phaser; she'll be fine in a few minutes. I'm no medic, but I've got a few supplies on me. Do you need anything? What were you two doing here, anyway? Who were those guys?"
Now that they're out of the fire, he can ask the non-critical questions.

Outside Chadwick's Temple

Arty nods. "Thank you, sir." he says, before trotting off to find this hidden entrance. He won't disappoint Chadwick! He can't afford to!

Suburbs

Zebes takes a hit! Zebes takes another hit, but the second time he catches the scizor's heavy pincer in one hand, bringing up his other into a mighty uppercut straight into its torso. Shoryuk I mean, Brick Break!

Meanwhile, Jace flutters off of Zebes and into the air. Welp, haven't a clue what that thing does, but it looks evil. Jace waves his hand about, and the Grunt might find itself being grabbed in a Psychic field, and then being tossed quite a distance away from the machine.

[Lost_Deep]

Suburbs

Kellia frowns. Why did these two just happen to have psychic inhibitors? Kellia frowns at that. And bugs as psychic resistant... as are steel types.

Magical leaf! She can-bugs and steel are resistant.

Kellia makes angry noises and fires a shadow ball at the Scisor, because apparently she can do that.

Meanwhile, the sun begins to beat down hard on the battlefield. Kell shifts into sun form.

"<Let's see if I can do this...>"

[Rebonack]

[Suburbs]

The punch and the shadow ball are just too much for the Scizor to take. Down he goes!

"Ha ha ha!" Grunt 2 laughs as the psychic attack fizzles when it comes into contact with him. "You stupid pokemon! The Dark Helmets of Team Helmet protect us from mental nonsense and provide a keen focus to us humans!"

Then he cranks the lever and the aura of gloom expands, sending tendrils of oily shadow expanding over the battle field! Our heroes might begin to feel their mental faculties slipping...

"But it makes pokemon mindless, aggressive, and best of all obedient!" Grunt 2 jeers. "Oooh, I can already smell the promotion for catching TWO legendary pokemon!" He's so busy gloating that he doesn't even have time to react before the Aura Sphere from Fortuna smashes into the machine, causing it to jitter and spark! "W-what? No! You stupid pokemon! It's overloading!"

<Everyone to me, quick!> Fortuna yells, doing her best to fight off the mental haze. <I'll get us out of here!>

[Deathkeeper]

Suburbs

Jace sticks out his tongue. Should have made it more durable! he mentally shouts, even though the grunt probably can't hear him.
Zebes grabs him, scooping up Kellia and CastKell if need be, and rushes over to Fortuna with the help of his wings for speed. Somehow. Jace's psychic nature and his bond with Zebes allows them to shrug off the effect to some degree as the two reinforce each other's proper mindset. Or at least what they think is proper.
Jace's helpful aura probably washes over Fortuna and Henry at that point. <Let's get the hell out of here!> squeaks Jace.

[Lost_Deep]

Suburbs

Kellform retorts by aiming a solar beam at the grunt's crotch. She will later claim that the choice of aim was due to the momentary mental effects on her and not purely spite.

She's not so sure of that herself.

But in any case, the pair of Kells will get scooped up, and certainly won't fight the teleportation!

[Rebonack]

[Suburbs]

Grunt 2's pants get set on fire.

Poor Grunt 2.

<Here we go!> Fortuna yells as the whole party begins flickering-

Right as the machine explodes.

Fortuna gives a cry of dismay, Henry a whoop of excitement, and the Grunt with a groan of pain since he got his groin set ablaze.

A roiling wave of shadow races over the whole city block, disturbing the dreams of those sleeping with visions of gloom and violence, but otherwise having no real effect. At least, not on the human population.

When the pulse of darkness ends our heroes are nowhere to be seen.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

They're higher, but yet the same? :smalltongue:
I guess you mean that she's otherwise the same. "As I expected! Your hormone levels are higher! Are you comfortable with this Clara?" The doctor exclaims as he turns to look at her.

Clara nods and smiles as she says, "Yeah, I'm fine. Better than ever, even. When can I make an appointment for the next transfusion?"

[Shadowcaller]

Outside Chadwick's Temple

Arty will find the back entrance eventually and with a push the door opens before him. The passage is small but should be large enough to accompany the centaur. He can smell the faint scent of smoke from the inside however, something he couldn't smell before.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

The doctor grins widely at her question. "We could make it now if you like. Your body is responding much better than expected to the treatment!"
This gets him a stare from the warforged, but it doesn't comment.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara smiles and says, "Really? Great! Let's do it!"

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty wrinkles his nose at the smell of smoke. He hadn't seen any smoke as he entered so he doubts Radu set the place ablaze. Still, he's getting a bad thing; better hurry.
Arty trots down the passage as quickly as he dares.

[Gullara]

[The Statue of Vyrn]

"Yes!" Obriane exclaims. Kitty was crazy and silly! Though some part of her just wanted to laugh at it all but she didn't want to look even more awkward than she already did, standing here in a fright screaming at people.

[The Statue of Vyrn]

Kitty laughs. "Okay, okay. Hold on." Kitty head bobs up and then the rest of her comes swinging down through the window! She lands gracefully, rising to her feet to face Obriane with a confident smile. It's almost as if she couldn't have easily plummeted to her death from this high up.

[Darkcomet]

[General]

After Evolution Industries' announcement of its split from VIGIL, a document entitled 'Bloody-Handed Mercy' begins distribution through various sources. In it, the former Watchtower and VIGIL leader details a number of acts he views as misguided or outright vile, including the sheltering of a particular past apocalypse enthusiast by GLoG and the protection Magtok gave him, and the brainwashing of various innocent victims by Magtok to protect himself from retaliation for his actions in defending the doom-cat.

DC calls for the total boycott of the League and MagCorp on these grounds, and for the removal of Magtok from the VIGIL Organization on grounds of having unrepentantly violated one of its founding organizations' core principles in defending what he describes as a known apocalypse threat. He cites that Magtok had actually gone and asked Watchtower to do it in the first place and in this act, betrayed them. Following this, he says, Magtok should ideally be brought to justice for his actions, the methods of which are, perhaps deliberately, left vague on the psychic's part. As for GLoG, he merely calls for a public condemnation of Reinholdt and his actions, stating that the League's crime is mainly one of extreme stupidity, and stupidity is hardly punishable with worse than that.

The distribution of the document is done in various media formats as well as printed form in order to spread it to as many people as possible.

A passage at the end of the document stands out.

'I am as complicit in the perpetuation of this apologism as any. I was once a member of GLoG, and I let Magtok into VIGIL in the name of increasing the power available to the group. But no longer shall politics get in the way of what is right. I will act on that, and not in the name of appeasing anyone, not Magtok, nor GLoG, nor even those at VIGIL that I still respect.

This game of excuses and betrayals has to end, and I have been a fool to excuse it as much as I have for so long.'

[Zefir]

[The Statue of Vyrn]

"I guess you're right, it is pretty dang high." Kitty looks down at the ground far below. "Do you want me to come down?" She asks with a silly smile.



[Pokémon Center]

"Well you should go back and give it a try. If you screw up you just gotta try again. It's the only way to do it." Becca declares. She puts her hand in her bag and pulls out a Pokeball. "Here, have this. Now you'll have two chances."

((I know we'd planned to do more in this scene, but I think we should wrap it up in the next couple posts. I'm trying to cut down on my scenes, and I think we've reached a good ending point.))

[Pokémon Center]

((I already thought this scene falls under the cutdown. Sad, now I don't know what to do with Vis since SelfRP cathing Pokemon is boring and I suck at it. I already thought off a way to split them and give my char a direction to go.))

"Oh cool, thanks." Vis says as he takes the pokeball. "I would have bought some, but you know there isn't a Shop in here." ((Assuming it's the first gens pokemon center. also this way he might be directed to mallside.

[Arkhosia]

"How long has she been doing that?" Magtok wonders. He imagines it could get very tiring, especially since the answer will almost certainly be the same every time. On top of that, even if Reinholdt came back, Magtok can't see that loathsome feline ever stepping in to raise any of these kids he's fathered. The cat wouldn't have had the kids in the first place if not for the guarantee that he'd never have to deal with them himself.

[COLOR=DARKORCHID]Ever since she learned of the word. She's trying to figure out what Dada is, I think. She's already learned it's not an object, though. Dang, was that tiring.

[Shadowcaller]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara smiles and says, "Really? Great! Let's do it!"


Chadwick's Temple

Arty wrinkles his nose at the smell of smoke. He hadn't seen any smoke as he entered so he doubts Radu set the place ablaze. Still, he's getting a bad thing; better hurry.
Arty trots down the passage as quickly as he dares.


[The Statue of Vyrn]

Kitty laughs. "Okay, okay. Hold on." Kitty head bobs up and then the rest of her comes swinging down through the window! She lands gracefully, rising to her feet to face Obriane with a confident smile. It's almost as if she couldn't have easily plummeted to her death from this high up.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara sure seemed excited about the prospect. "Greatness!" The doctor says with a wide grin as he once again turns to the warforged. "Give her the same dosage again, her body seem to adapt better than expected to the treatment."
"Very. Well." The warforged replies without protesting and has soon produced another syringe filled with fiend blood.
"Take the other arm this time!" He instructs as the nurse slowly inserts the needle and injects Clara. Let's see what changes that occur this time.

Chadwick's Temple

It's completely dark inside the passage as someone has neglected to lit the lanterns here. Arty have to attempt to navigate through it blindly (unless he has night vision? I got the impression your centaurs didn't have that though.) This will lead him into bumping into someone so the question about darkvision is important here!

[The Statue of Vyrn]

Obriane sigh in relief as Kitty lands safe and sound and attempts to give Kitty a hug. "Don't do that!" She exclaims out of shock with no real firmness behind her words. "You're gonna give me a scare!"

[Fenric]

Park Park



Nick shakes his head.
"She's been stunned by a phaser; she'll be fine in a few minutes. I'm no medic, but I've got a few supplies on me. Do you need anything? What were you two doing here, anyway? Who were those guys?"
Now that they're out of the fire, he can ask the non-critical questions.


Steve shakes his head and coughs weakly

We were studying physical dimensions and the interaction of Fortuna's chaos magic with the Portable Impossibility Excluder.

He gestures to a small, disk-shaped device lying on the ground and looking decidedly broken now.

From what she said, these suited goons had troubled her earlier when she was using this park's natural order in an attempt to modify her aura before she came to my lab with a salesman from Derrek Avery's.

Steve is a little fuzzy on the details of that part. Then again, he's feeling a little confused overall. He frowns and shakes his head

We came back with armed guards this time... but they came back and brought electrolasers. They shot me with a poison dart! And they have copies of my device! My lab hasn't made that many, and several of the older prototypes barely even work... they must have stolen the designs somehow.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

"She's got some pretty awful luck when it comes to fieldwork. At least last time she was in serious trouble she liked the resulting chain of events.
To be fair, as scary as being messed with by Libra could be, it did result in her ending up as more than friends with Nick, and she certainly seems to be happy as TGDOW.
Anyway, I can't help you when it comes to your corporate espionage. Do you have a safe place you can go that no one from work knows about? Geneva and I know a few if you don't. Especially since you should get those injuries looked at." he says, punching a code into his communicator to call a car.

Chadwick's Temple

Arty can't see better than a human in the dark, since I can't think of a reason why a centaur would. Minotaurs, sure, inhuman eyes and they live in mazes, but not centaurs. Still, Arty still remembers that little floating light spell, and he'll try using that to light his way.

[Gullara]

[Pokémon Center]

((I already thought this scene falls under the cutdown. Sad, now I don't know what to do with Vis since SelfRP cathing Pokemon is boring and I suck at it. I already thought off a way to split them and give my char a direction to go.))

"Oh cool, thanks." Vis says as he takes the pokeball. "I would have bought some, but you know there isn't a Shop in here." ((Assuming it's the first gens pokemon center. also this way he might be directed to mallside.

[Pokémon Center]

"No problem. Anyway, I gotta get going. Maybe I'll see you around sometime." Becca says. Unless he wants to delay her, she will soon leave the Pokemon Center and be on her way.


[The Statue of Vyrn]

Obriane sigh in relief as Kitty lands safe and sound and attempts to give Kitty a hug. "Don't do that!" She exclaims out of shock with no real firmness behind her words. "You're gonna give me a scare!"

[The Statue of Vyrn]

Kitty grins and hugs her back. "Oh don't be scared of that, I could do that in my sleep." She giggles and squeezes Obriane tightly. "You don't have to worry."

[Shadowcaller]

[The Statue of Vyrn]

Obriane blushes again, suddenly not sure what to do. Kitty probably able to feel the poor changeling's cheeks heating up. "Ehh... w-we should probably should get down on the ground again."

Chadwick's Temple

The light appears, revealing that Arty is looking right in the eyes of the woman from before. She blinks, temporarily blinded by the light as a shadow knife appears in her hand which she will attempt to stab the centaur in the gut with once her eyes adapted to the light.

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

Come on Arty, let me teach you a few moves! You'll thank me some day!
I'm a doctor. Who am I going to fight?
Let me just teach you two or three things about blocking knives. Just in case you ever get into a spot of trouble.

If Arty still was able to see his brother, he'd apologize to him. Arty's build is more lithe than bulky, but he does have some muscle behind him. His arm opposite the knife hand snakes out and grabs her by the wrist, holding it fast and likely keeping it from his gut. With his other he grabs an arrow from his quiver and tries to jab the possessed girl in the neck with its head. The arrow (which he primed when he drew it) delivers an electric shock like a taser!
That was Arty's only stun-arrow. He's so glad his father left him with a few of his goods when the Nexus took him in.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods and extends her other arm. The transfusion successfully kicks off another series of changes, once more punctuated by as series of groans and moans. The horns on Clara's head grow until they're about two inches long, her wings expand until they seem capable of lifting the lawyer, and a long, sinewy tail sprouts from her rear and wraps around one leg, and as the transformation finishes, Clara's tongue stretches out of her mouth a couple of feet and forks at the end, before retracting back into her mouth.

Once the second transformation finishes, Clara takes a deep breath and says, "Wow...That was a rush, for sure..."

[Shadowcaller]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

"Rush is a good word to describe it." The doctor replies with a wide grin. "Feeling any different Clara? The effects are taking hold pretty quickly. Not sure where you're gonna end up."

[Chadwick's Temple]

The possessed woman screams as the arrowhead pieces her neck and then seem to loose all muscle control before falling flat to the floor.
Well, it looks like Arty got this in the-
But suddenly a shadowy figure emerges from the woman's body and comes for Arty, attempting to enter his body.

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty has no time to react much, as he's caught completely by surprise at the shadow's appearance. He doesn't have any time to fumble for the holy water, so instead all he can do in the second or two he has is move the light a little bit forward and belt out a few notes of a random passage from the book Chadwick gave him. Nothing in particular, just one that stuck in his mind.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara licks her lips and spreads her wings, practicing with the new muscles, and says, "Oh, I feel different...I feel wonderful."

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

Steve shakes his head

No... not really. They know where I live, and my apartment's all I have, really.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Nick sighs. "Nah, if they've got you monitored they'll know where you live. Come on, I'll take you to a Temple Geneva and I visited a few times. They can give you two a once-over and hopefully those suited asshats won't risk upsetting a goddess just to get at you just yet."
Oh Nick, if only you knew...

After a few minutes, a Union skycar arrives, and Nick gestures for the man to enter it. If he does he'll start the laborous task of hauling the dragon into it. Oh boy she's heavy.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

Steve gives one last mournful look at the bodies of the two dead guards, then climbs into the skycar.

[Gullara]

[The Statue of Vyrn]

Obriane blushes again, suddenly not sure what to do. Kitty probably able to feel the poor changeling's cheeks heating up. "Ehh... w-we should probably should get down on the ground again."

[The Statue of Vyrn]

"Sure. Let's head to the market now. I bet there'll be something fun there." Kitty grabs hold of Obriane's hand and leads the way back to the elevator. They head down and out of the statue, off in the direction they say the market.

For now, though, the scene can fade to black as the two enjoy some more of the sights of the city.

[Lord Magtok]

Ever since she learned of the word. She's trying to figure out what Dada is, I think. She's already learned it's not an object, though. Dang, was that tiring.

Magtok frowns, and shakes his head. "You know, even if he ever does come back, he was never really the big responsibility type. He probably won't...you know." Raise his own daughter? You can say 'raise his own daughter,' Magtok. It's only four words; it's not that hard.

[Arkhosia]

Magtok frowns, and shakes his head. "You know, even if he ever does come back, he was never really the big responsibility type. He probably won't...you know." Raise his own daughter? You can say 'raise his own daughter,' Magtok. It's only four words; it's not that hard.

Ah well, it's not like I'm doing that bad alone, right?
Caelynn says. I think it's a bit of a question. She's new at parenting still!

[Zefir]

[Pokémon Center]

"No problem. Anyway, I gotta get going. Maybe I'll see you around sometime." Becca says. Unless he wants to delay her, she will soon leave the Pokemon Center and be on her way.



[The Statue of Vyrn]

Kitty grins and hugs her back. "Oh don't be scared of that, I could do that in my sleep." She giggles and squeezes Obriane tightly. "You don't have to worry."

[Pokémon Center]

"Yeah, see ya." Vis just says. He got no reason to stop her right now, even thought it would be much more fuin to go around with friends.

[Roaming through Inside]

After Becca left the Center, Vis takes a leave as well. Befor he can go and catch a Pokemon, he needs to gather some more equipment he thinks. at least a few more pokeballs would be nice. Let's see if he can find a shop or someone who knows about one.

[INTERACTION WANTED]

[braveheart]

Mechanus steps out from trog's tavern putting away the numerous glowing gems that his numerous automatons are bringing to him. He steps into the sunlight and looks around for Hugh. "Now where did he go?"

[Septimus Faber]

Mechanus steps out from trog's tavern putting away the numerous glowing gems that his numerous automatons are bringing to him. He steps into the sunlight and looks around for Hugh. "Now where did he go?"

[Steele Street]

Hey, I'm right here, says Hugh. Sorry about that. Deadtiming's annoying.

Anyway!

Here they are, in what is probably best described as the Industrial Quarter. Lots of foundries, and smoke, and smoking foundries, and sooty red brick walls. Also, plenty of forges. Lots of forges. All, unfortunately, in use.

Darn. I was really hoping there would be a spare one. Oh, well...

Suddenly, the space of wall between two of the forges appears to... stretch, in a way that defies both physics and common sense. It is as though the world retroactively decided that there should, after all, be another forge there. And so, apparently, there is. If Mechanus enters it, he will find that it contains all the tools and most of the materials he will need to complete his work.

Hugh looks vaguely surprised.

Oh, how convenient...

[braveheart]

"Umm... what just happened, I'm not going to complain, but what just happened? Mechanus walks into this mysterious forge that has appeared and examines it, finding that indeed it does have all the tools necessary to forge most metals.

[Septimus Faber]

((braveheart, could you use location tags? Thanks.))

[Steele Street]

Ah, well. I'm not entirely sure myself. I suspect the computer that is dreaming me just decided that there should be a forge there. Which is just as unsettling as it sounds, frankly. Hugh attempts a gesture to demonstrate the essential weirdness of the situation, but fails.

[braveheart]

[Steele Street]

Mechanus thinks for a moment before seeming to come to terms with it.
"OK, well I suppose that a lot of weird things must happen here in the Nexus."

[Lord Magtok]

A Park in Inside


Ah well, it's not like I'm doing that bad alone, right?
Caelynn says. I think it's a bit of a question. She's new at parenting still!

"Your kid is alive, healthy, and doesn't hate you. I think that's all you really need to have accomplished by this point in time," Magtok shrugs. He's had children, but they all skipped the really early babby years of development, so he doesn't really know a whole lot about the subject.

[Arkhosia]

A Park in Inside



"Your kid is alive, healthy, and doesn't hate you. I think that's all you really need to have accomplished by this point in time," Magtok shrugs. He's had children, but they all skipped the really early babby years of development, so he doesn't really know a whole lot about the subject.

Caelynn looks kinda relieved at this reassurance.
You know, I guess it's kinda our jobs, us parents, to worry incessantly despite all evidence to the contrary.
She comments as Alexis lies in her lap, sleeping contently in a curled up position. Of course, if Magtok is close enough, it may be that Alexis's cute little head is resting on his leg too.

[Shadowcaller]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty has no time to react much, as he's caught completely by surprise at the shadow's appearance. He doesn't have any time to fumble for the holy water, so instead all he can do in the second or two he has is move the light a little bit forward and belt out a few notes of a random passage from the book Chadwick gave him. Nothing in particular, just one that stuck in his mind.


[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara licks her lips and spreads her wings, practicing with the new muscles, and says, "Oh, I feel different...I feel wonderful."

Chadwick's Temple

Arty will feel an warm, almost erotic feeling spread through his body as the shadow seem to enter him. "You think those pathetic prayers are gonna do you any good? I'm going to make you rip her unconscious body to shreds while you watch." He can hear Radu whisper in his mind. "Then I will find any friends you might have and do the same to them and make you wear a necklace of their bones..."

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

"That's probably the hormones entering your body." The doctor explains before he starts to hum a bit. "Gotta do more tests, open your mouth again please." And so he will do another test similar from before to see what has changed.

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty does not pause his song. He casually walks over and retrieves his stun arrow, then pulls out one of his bottles of holy water, anointing his forehead and that of the woman's. He stows that in a pocket and moves over to the woman, picking her up and attempting to carry her out of the rest of the passage. He doesn't have enough room to perform the ritual of exorcism properly.
After you were stopped by Chadwick's tiny wisps even I could summon? You're only dangerous through trickery. What sort of demon uses 'gonna?' he mentally scoffs.

[Lord Magtok]

Caelynn looks kinda relieved at this reassurance.
You know, I guess it's kinda our jobs, us parents, to worry incessantly despite all evidence to the contrary.
She comments as Alexis lies in her lap, sleeping contently in a curled up position. Of course, if Magtok is close enough, it may be that Alexis's cute little head is resting on his leg too.

Magtok might not say or do anything about the baby head resting on him, but he's certainly screaming and writhing on the inside. Did Caelynn scoot closer when he wasn't looking? Was he going to point out something from up close and then completely forgot and didn't scoot back to his half of the bench before it was too late?

"I don't know about that. With the sole exception of the little girl on your lap, the evidence suggests I'm always justified in freaking out about every little thing," Magtok half-jokes. The Nexus can be murder on the nerves some days.

[Arkhosia]

Magtok might not say or do anything about the baby head resting on him, but he's certainly screaming and writhing on the inside. Did Caelynn scoot closer when he wasn't looking? Was he going to point out something from up close and then completely forgot and didn't scoot back to his half of the bench before it was too late?

"I don't know about that. With the sole exception of the little girl on your lap, the evidence suggests I'm always justified in freaking out about every little thing," Magtok half-jokes. The Nexus can be murder on the nerves some days.

Caelynn chuckles.
True. But I think we've gotten to the point that danger isn't so worrisome anymore. We've all adapted to the weirdness and danger, I think. It doesn't faze us anymore.
She replies.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

"That's probably the hormones entering your body." The doctor explains before he starts to hum a bit. "Gotta do more tests, open your mouth again please." And so he will do another test similar from before to see what has changed.

Clara allows another sample to be taken. The test this time reveals that her hormone levels have positively skyrocketed, and that several devilish compounds are in her system as well.

[Shadowcaller]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty does not pause his song. He casually walks over and retrieves his stun arrow, then pulls out one of his bottles of holy water, anointing his forehead and that of the woman's. He stows that in a pocket and moves over to the woman, picking her up and attempting to carry her out of the rest of the passage. He doesn't have enough room to perform the ritual of exorcism properly.
After you were stopped by Chadwick's tiny wisps even I could summon? You're only dangerous through trickery. What sort of demon uses 'gonna?' he mentally scoffs.


Clara allows another sample to be taken. The test this time reveals that her hormone levels have positively skyrocketed, and that several devilish compounds are in her system as well.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

The doctor raises an eyebrow at the results as he flies back to Clara. "Your hormone levels are off the charts Clara! You sure you're feeling okay? Since I think we might have to wait with the last injection."

Chadwick's Temple

He can hear the demon laugh back at him. "Perhaps, but I also took over a completely devoted priest and you're just a little initiate." It whispers as it attempts to stop him right in his walk by trying to taking control of his legs "Don't resist Arty, we're going to have so much fun you and I. You will learn to enjoy it, I promise."

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty continues his song uninterrupted. He finds his movements slowed, like sloshing through thick water, but he still presses onward.
Your kind of fun is taking a temple from Chadwick after he's not been sane again for a full week? You're very nearly taking candy from a baby. Absolutely pathetic. he mentally sneers.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods and says, "I'm feeling fine, really. Go ahead and give me the third injection."

[Shadowcaller]

Chadwick's Temple

Pathetic? I'm the lovable rebel underdog here Arty. This god you love so dearly is nothing but another tyrant responsible for countless of deaths. I'm not lying here. You could ask him yourself what happens to people in his world when they die. Now Radu focuses on only Arty's front legs to cause them to give out underneath him which should cause him to fall forward.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

"That could be dangerous Clara!" The doctor scratches his head. "As a professional I suggest you wait at least a day before you take the last dosage. The ultimate choice is yours but I advise caution."

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty has to shoot out an arm to steady himself against the wall as his front knees almost buckle.
Ah, thanks. I've been trying to collect a list of things to ask him about. Once we've sent you screaming back to whatever analogue to Hell you have, I'll be sure to do that.
By the way, your lines are getting rapidly worse. An underdog does not depose a god with insanity for a millennium only to strike again within a week of recovery. If he's responsible for deaths, they were a long time ago, and if they weren't, he wasn't exactly in any condition to be doing much of anything thanks to you. he sends, resolute.

[Lord Magtok]

Caelynn chuckles.
True. But I think we've gotten to the point that danger isn't so worrisome anymore. We've all adapted to the weirdness and danger, I think. It doesn't faze us anymore.
She replies.

"Speaking of danger, I think someone's going to try to arrest me soon. Would you move out of the way Alex so I can stand up and surrender myself to the authorities?" Magtok requests, scanning the trees for signs of a special ops team descending to shoot him full of darts and/or bludgeon him unconscious.

[Rebonack]

[A Park]

Well, there's that poorly disguised robot bird over there in that tree with cameras for eyes. It flaps its totally fake looking wings and says, "Bird sounds."

Pretty sure that isn't very convincing, robo-bird.

[Hattish Thing]

A Park in Inside

I can't say whether or not Magtok notices an Imperial Special Ops team, but he certainly doesn't notice a figure standing a while away, on a distant skyscraper. The man or woman is lying down, with a blanket that shimmers in the sunlight, obviously some sort of cloaking device. The tip of what must be a very long and rather thin firearm sticks out, just barely. The figure waits a period of three seconds before suddenly firing the advanced sniper rifle. It's nothing particularly fancy, and most powerful figures of the Nexus would probably just shrug it off. However, Magtok's back is to the gunman, and in a millisecond, there's a black and orange bullet flying straight through the air, intending to find it's mark.

The mark, unfortunately, happens to be the back of Magtok's head, most likely blasting straight through whatever metal might be there. It was a particularly well built weapon, after all.

[Darkcomet]

[A Park in Inside]

One thing to consider is that teleportation is much faster than trying to set up on top of a skyscraper and get a shot off with a sniper rifle.

Another is that sometimes, luck is just really bad.

Both of these are demonstrated as the Union's Vice Commander beams straight into the way of a sniper shot, taking it in the back of the head. Fortunately enough, she thought to come with the armor, and the shot is evidently blocked by a green energy shield that flares up and reveals itself upon impact.

"...Excuse me."

Within the Vice Commander's helmet, data pours over the HUD based on the impact angle, speed of the shot, information on nearby vantage points it could've come from, as a PAT-4 anti-materiel rifle materializes in her hands.

Calculations complete. Target locked.

Which is followed by her spinning around, and without even looking down the scope, firing the PAT-4 in the direction the sniper shot came from. The PAT-4, for the unfamiliar, is a Union anti-materiel weapon, a gauss rifle firing unique energized ammunition that penetrates the target and then explodes much like a miniature plasma or energy grenade.

[Arkhosia]

"Speaking of danger, I think someone's going to try to arrest me soon. Would you move out of the way Alex so I can stand up and surrender myself to the authorities?" Magtok requests, scanning the trees for signs of a special ops team descending to shoot him full of darts and/or bludgeon him unconscious.

Caelynn nods, finally noticing Alexis's proximity, moving the sleepy catgirl toddler.
I should probably go, just in case they are paranoid enough to mark me as some sort of accomplice or whatever. Good luck, and let's hope their plan doesn't involve using that gene thing unless you prepared for that.

And with that, Caelynn teleports away with Alexis!

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods and says, "A-Alright...I'll wait," as her tail subconsciously wraps around her left leg and she continues, "When should I come back for the third dose?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

"Just come back tomorrow at the same time and we'll see how you're doing and if anything changed." We can probably handwave all the wait time though. "You should try to note down any odd behavior you might be having."

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods and says, "Alright...See you tomorrow then." And, as she said, she appears the next day at the clinic waiting room.

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

That would be as opposed to A Park, where people are getting shot at a whole bunch with really big guns. People might end up getting shot at by really big guns here, too. But hopefully not.

Anywho!

Fortuna is flying at high altitude above the park! High altitude in this particular case really isn't super high. More like ten thousand feet or so. And she's peer waaaaay down at the park with a pair of binoculars to enhance her already fairly impressive vision. Mostly she wants to make sure that she isn't going to be diving right into the middle of a bunch of goons unawares.

Diving into the middle of a bunch of goons is usually pretty terrible.

Do you like goon diving?

I sure don't.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

There is a general lack of live goons. There are quite a few police, many feet of yellow streamer saying "Police Line - Do Not Cross", EMT workers working on cleaning up the mess, and two wreckers: one working on towing the ruined Town Car, the other removing Steve's car.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Nick flies in his squad car, although he waits for Fortuna to do much of anything before he gets out and does much.

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

Fortuna comes in for a landing a respectable distance from the scene and begins approaching at a measured pace. As she walks, she calls her friend over her PIPcolt. "The police are here, Nick. I'll probably need some arm-waving from you to get our gear back."

Yay for arm waving!

[Shadowcaller]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty has to shoot out an arm to steady himself against the wall as his front knees almost buckle.
Ah, thanks. I've been trying to collect a list of things to ask him about. Once we've sent you screaming back to whatever analogue to Hell you have, I'll be sure to do that.
By the way, your lines are getting rapidly worse. An underdog does not depose a god with insanity for a millennium only to strike again within a week of recovery. If he's responsible for deaths, they were a long time ago, and if they weren't, he wasn't exactly in any condition to be doing much of anything thanks to you. he sends, resolute.


[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods and says, "Alright...See you tomorrow then." And, as she said, she appears the next day at the clinic waiting room.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

She is once again meet by the warforged nurse. The place looks pretty empty this early so like last time there is no line. There is still personnel moving about around the corridors though. "Hello. How. Are. You? Feeling. Different?"

Chadwick's Temple¨

You don't understand Arty, you think gods just live forever? In our world they don't. Instead they feast upon the life of every mortal being of our world to remain alive. What you take as natural, ageing, doesn't exist in our world. It's the gods killing everything just to let themselves stay alive. This is the entire reason we demons exist, to rage against this injustice. That so many have to sacrifice themselves for so few. Radu explains as Arty is trying to stabilize himself.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods and smiles mischeviously as she says, "I feel better than ever...Though I don't think you're interested in hearing about what I did last night."

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty snorts, slowly getting moving again.
That's great for you. I'll tell you what. You go screaming back to Hell, and I'll ask Chadwick about your world's differences in basic science. I like that plan.

Park Park

"Alright."
Nick says, and parks the squad car. He'll get out and approach along with Fortuna. He'll use his helmet's HUD to scan the officer's faces, see if they match up with actual registered Remnant officers.

[Lord Magtok]

A Park in Inside

"I hope that wasn't anyone trying to help me," Magtok comments, putting his hands on his head and whirling around to try to see what's going on behind him. Someone tried to snipe somebody else, but judging by the Vice Commander's response and his own lack of corpseyness, it probably isn't a major concern for him right now.

[Hattish Thing]

Park

And so, it appears this mission wouldn't be as simple as expected. As the bullet of unpleasantness rockets towards the skyscraper, the figure blinks out of existence, a purple and green portal appearing around the place. It appears that Magtok and the good Commander were dealing with a teleporter of sorts, one clearly sent to kill. A few seconds pass by, and a second portal appears, this time in the sky above the park. This portal is wider than the previous, and a strange object begins to fall from it. It appears to be a giant statue of Magtok, it's head cut off from the shoulders. It's incredibly large, and will most likely squash those beneath it, possibly even killing them. To make matters worse, the head will only exist for a few seconds before exploding violently, probably due to the explosives rigged at the top. This will send shrapnel flying absolutely ever, in an attack meant to damage an entire area, a park specifically.

How dastardly!

[Darkcomet]

[Park]

N'alae looks up.

"Fvadt."

Then she grabs Magtok (insert attempts where appropriate) and beams them both the hell out before everything dies. She'll be taking them off tooo...

[Unknown Location]

What looks awfully like some dark room in a basement somewhere. Certainly doesn't look like a Union facility. She'll release Magtok and just look him in the face, utter disbelief clear despite the helmet obscuring her obsession, because that was just that crazy.

"Excuse me for being unprofessional, but what the **** was that about? That was not one of ours."

Unless of course Magtok does not in fact get beamed away, in which case he's gonna be on his own getting exploded, because she isn't going to test her own resilience on crushing and explosions.

[Lord Magtok]

Unknown Location

"Not mine, either. Nothing to gain from killing a single operative or team of operatives when I'm trying to go quietly. AMEN or Marcy, maybe." Magtok answers, keeping his hands on his head, so it's perfectly clear he's not attempting any sort of shenanigans.

[Hattish Thing]

Park

As the team vanishes with Magtok, the head of the fairly large statue explodes, taking out trees and causing incredibly damage to the park. However, all that will be left of the bomb will be pieces of shrapnel, and a crater where the pair once stood. The mission seemed to have failed, most unpleasant. The woman who's powers over portals had caused the chaos comes out of a hiding place, on an entirely different skyscraper than previous. With a swear, she stands up and looks behind her to see a familiar face. There's Caius Grayle, his face rather difficult to read. "That was a failure. Good try though. It seems we were just a bit too late to get a shot off at him. That's what we get for hiring new blood." He sighs a bit before she can respond. "It's really not my fault, that Union person just came out of nowhere! You can't expect me to predict the freakin' future." With a roll of his eyes, Caius frowns. "I really wish you wouldn't talk like that. Sounds thoroughly unprofessional, and remember, without our generous companion, neither of us would be anywhere, Gemma. I asked him to bring you into this, now don't disappoint him. I can forgive you, and I always will.

He won't."

And with that, the pair step into a portal summoned, and vanish from the scene.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

Yup. This looks to be a proper group of officers, not a DART subterfuge. They turn and are a little surprised to see Nick since they hadn't called for any backup.

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

"Hello!" Fortuna calls out to the officers milling around. "I was one of the people these goons attacked. They kicked it off with lethal force and we had to respond in kind."

She really isn't very sorry about having to do that.

"I can give a recount of the events if you need one? And I'm going to need to collect our equipment that got left here, quite a bit of it is rather sensitive and we really don't need any more of it being stolen."

[Darkcomet]

Unknown Location

"Not mine, either. Nothing to gain from killing a single operative or team of operatives when I'm trying to go quietly. AMEN or Marcy, maybe." Magtok answers, keeping his hands on his head, so it's perfectly clear he's not attempting any sort of shenanigans.

"As if this situation wasn't bad enough already, now we have someone trying to kill you, and willing to try to go through us to do it." N'alae sighs. "We will investigate that to the best of our ability. In the meantime, I don't suppose you have anything to say for yourself?"

She sounds very tired, more out of exasperation with the whole situation rather than physically.

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Nick nods.
"I was here, I can provide an official report of the incident to corroborate the story. Will that be enough?" he offers genially.

[Shadowcaller]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods and smiles mischeviously as she says, "I feel better than ever...Though I don't think you're interested in hearing about what I did last night."


Chadwick's Temple

Arty snorts, slowly getting moving again.
That's great for you. I'll tell you what. You go screaming back to Hell, and I'll ask Chadwick about your world's differences in basic science. I like that plan.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

"The. Doctor. Will." The warforged states simply as it leads her back to the same examination room once again. Soon she will be meet up by the same bat-like doctor. "Hello! How are you today Clara?!" He exclaims as he flies into the room. "I'm very curious what have happened since we meet. Are you feeling okay?"

Chadwick's Temple

And here I thought you could be reasoned with. Radu replies before Arty suddenly can feel the presence within him suddenly letting go as a great shadow emerges from within the centaur and flies away. Where it's hard to say, but it seems to be moving inside the temple again.

[Fenric]

[Park Park]

The sergeant in charge nods

Certainly, sir. That would make things quite a lot easier, as there weren't a lot of witnesses until you were already present, and quite a few of them were stunned and therefore of questionable reliability.

He turns to the officers who are busily gathering everything that can be found.

Release any equipment that Officer Nick needs, double-quick.

Everybody happily stops collecting stuff and stands around chatting. That's not exactly helpful, but they will let Nick and Fortuna take whatever they want.

[Lord Magtok]

"As if this situation wasn't bad enough already, now we have someone trying to kill you, and willing to try to go through us to do it." N'alae sighs. "We will investigate that to the best of our ability. In the meantime, I don't suppose you have anything to say for yourself?"

She sounds very tired, more out of exasperation with the whole situation rather than physically.

"I would like to get this over with as quickly as possible, re-open MagMart, and return to the status quo," Magtok answers, in an uncharacteristically brief manner.

[Rebonack]

[Park Park]

And now?

Now Fortuna is going to begin gathering equipment. Thankfully most of her stuff was far enough away from the fire fight that it avoided getting trashed. Especially the modular sequestering chamber. She had picked those units up at an old MoAS compound and she isn't sure if she would be able to replace them due to how difficult it is to get Equestrian magical gems in the Nexus.

She gathers up her own gear first, then does what she can to salvage Steve's stuff as well, including the most intact PIE unit she can find that had belonged to the goons.

And then?

She'll recount everything she remembers for the police regarding the incident, both the events leading up to it and the event itself. It should be pretty accurate thanks to her phenomenal memory. She'll also provide the police with contact information for herself and ask to be informed if they figure out who these people who tried to murder her were. Once that's all done? Well... then it'll be time to head back to the temple!

Yay temple!

[Deathkeeper]

Park Park

Nick won't be doing much, as his report-filings aren't usually done vocally. He'll simply go along with everything, and help where he's needed. Then back to the Temple indeed.

Chadwick's Temple

Arty frowns and keeps going inside, not sure of what to do and what he can do.

[Darkcomet]

[Unknown Location]

N'alae gives Magtok a look, obscured by the helmet though it may be. Dematerializing the PAT-4 she brought out earlier, she crosses her arms and glares. "I don't care for this situation, too many personal vendettas involved, but we are not going to make excuses for you. The one thing you have going for you is that your nature makes the enforcement rather unusual. As it always has, but you've about run out of goodwill this time. Some in the Nexus may forgive and forget depressingly easily, but we do not.

You tried to assassinate Remnant's commander.

You aided the resurgence of slavers by helping to create Skyside.

You constantly aided and made excuses for AMEN.

You kidnapped and brainwashed multiple innocent people to serve as your own shields, and nearly plunged the Nexus into a bloody war, to stop a man from trying to wipe out a past serial apocalyptor, when you put him up to it.

You are, by all indications, a sneaky, conniving, backstabbing opportunist who constantly expects everyone to make excuses for him, and pretends it's evil when they refuse, and yet, for some reason I can't fathom, people still inexplicably like you. With all that in mind, I just have one question now.

Why would we let you go right back to being able to meddle in our affairs, hurt our citizens, and act as if this somehow made you superior? You've survived this long because politics demanded it, but the Council and Vasquez out of the way, we will not tolerate your behavior any longer, even if the evidence we need is provided by a man with a blatant agenda. We're not going to kill you, or I would not have saved you, but unless you somehow overturn it, you're not going to be welcome anywhere in the Union ever again. Try to give me a reason we'd allow that, because I certainly can't think of one."

[Murkus]

[Red Zone - Trash]


Aiden gets slammed against broken pavement several times. Somehow, he manages to rip his sword from Susurrus's grasp in the midst of that. Whenever it's done trying to maul him, Aiden grins again, not looking much worse for wear. "Really, guy? You know how many monsters have tried the Ridley thing on me?"

I'm not sure Ridley actually did anything like that, but apparently Aiden is.

I think he may've slammed Samus into the floor in a few games, or maybe against walls as he flew around.

"What does it take to kill you?" Sus grinds, exasperated beyond belief. Susurrus is oblivious to pop culture references! While he's still got a good grip on Aiden, he takes the mouthy bastard in his hand and hurls him down the street, perhaps even through a wall or two if he doesn't correct himself beforehand.

[Devixer]

Red Zone - Trash

Aiden crashes through a wall, and then flips around to land on his feet. "Lot more than you've got, Trash Man," he says. His sword is back at its place against his shoulder, and he steps through the hole he just made. "What say we finish this? I feel like getting a smoothie."

[Lord Magtok]

Unknown Location

"Shutting down the MagMarts is the same thing as killing me. It's just a slower way of doing it," Magtok corrects N'alae, looking about his surroundings, trying to figure out where he is and if there's any way out of this room. It wouldn't surprise him if the Union had a underground room with no entrances or exits, with a mountain of teleblocks and secure passwords keeping anyone from entering or leaving without Vyrn's approval, but he still has to be sure. Knowledge is power; this sort of thing might come in handy later.

"I've changed my ways, besides. Everything you said about who I was is absolutely right, but it's no longer the man I am today. I've fought those very same slavers you mentioned, abandoned AMEN and recovered a hostage it'd taken, and did what I could to reconcile with Vasquez after that assassination attempt. I am doing everything in my power to put the past behind me and defend a world I once so gleefully lied to and exploited at my leisure." He takes his hands off the top of his head, since it's clear that this isn't that kind of an arrest, and begins pacing about the room, studying each wall as he goes along.

"There's nothing to gain from killing me, Vice Commander. If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

"The. Doctor. Will." The warforged states simply as it leads her back to the same examination room once again. Soon she will be meet up by the same bat-like doctor. "Hello! How are you today Clara?!" He exclaims as he flies into the room. "I'm very curious what have happened since we meet. Are you feeling okay?"

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara grins and says, "I'm feeling great, actually. Since I left...I kinda...Well, I've been feeling quite turned on, if you know what I mean."

[Shadowcaller]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty frowns and keeps going inside, not sure of what to do and what he can do.


[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara grins and says, "I'm feeling great, actually. Since I left...I kinda...Well, I've been feeling quite turned on, if you know what I mean."

Chadwick's Temple

On his way he meets one of Chadwick's wisps that starts following him along. There is no sign of the demon however, wherever it went, Arty can't see it.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

The doctor looks a bit concerned as he lands on the chair nearby. "That is quite a natural reaction with the blood you're infusing." He says with a nod. "But does this concern you Clara? Since there are drugs that could counter that effect. I'm just worried that the blood is effecting your judgement."

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty can't help but smile at the wisp. He doesn't think that the demon could trick him with light. Is that not its antithesis?
"Hello, there. Don't suppose you can hear me through this, can you sir?" he says out loud to it.

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Located startlingly close to the magi college, this nice little hole in the wall cafe is where Merissa decided to treat her friends the day after Tabitha went dream walking for the first time in quite a while. At first, she'd wanted to just have Isaac along to make it a date, but excluding Tabby when she might feel nervous and vulnerable is against the four-armed girl's better nature.

In her hands rests a book that she had to get special permission from the library to sign out a copy of, and a rather nice cup of hot cocoa that's got her spirits up. Her red hair has been done up in its usual wavy ponytail, bound by a strip of crisp white leather. She's wearing a bright yellow tank top over her now customary school dispensary bought sports bra, and a mild, brown, pleated skirt that goes to just above her knees. She's kicked off her sandals and is engrossed by words that, to anyone else, look like complete gibberish as she waits for the other two to arrive.

[Terumitsu]

[Junkyard Junktion]

...Or so the slightly rusted sign said after it's period of general neglect. One might say it added to the charm of the scrapyard were it not for the highly polished, nearly pristine sign below it that read 'Under New Management' in chrome lettering. The junkyard itself had a proclivity towards broken down or otherwise inoperable machines rather than true refuse although that did mean there was an array of not-quite mundane items scattered amongst the 'perfectly normal' items such as cars, refrigerators, old computers and electronics, decommissioned atomic 'Personal battery buddies' ('Guaranteed power for a lifetime of brilliance!'), and various kitchen appliances.

The new owner wasn't particularly fond of the name, truth be told, but brand loyalty was a thing and she would admit that at least it was catchy. "We're here." Riss said as the aircar set down outside the yard and potentially interrupting Sophia if the shifter had been in the middle of trying to discuss something. "Got the place surprisingly cheap though you can probably see the reason why." she said, motioning to a few signs of disrepair. "I want to turn it into a kind of recycling facility once I get the place cleaned up a bit although not just for raw materials." she said. It was to be expected, really, as her caliber of skill made a yard full of junk look like an untapped goldmine. Or at least untapped acres of legos, to be more truthful.

[Deathkeeper]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Well, that certainly is a name, isn't it?

Isaac arrives, in plain jeans and a white t-shirt with a navy blue horizontal stripe at chest level. His hair is as unkempt as ever, and his ears are as pointy as the day before. And he has his thin-rimmed glasses, as always.
"Good afternoon, Merissa. What forbidden lore are you flipping through today?" he asks cheerily. Despite the seriousness of his conversation with Tab he's kept good spirits all day. He's finding it easier to do that, and he's honestly pretty glad about it. Sweating about everything sucks.

[Lost_Deep]

La Debaucherie Cafe

"Hey" Tabitha walks over. She's looking okay. Loose T-shirt. Contacts instead of glasses (she keeps switching back and forth) and jeans. "Hi! Thanks for inviting me."

[Arkhosia]

[Junkyard Junktion]

...Or so the slightly rusted sign said after it's period of general neglect. One might say it added to the charm of the scrapyard were it not for the highly polished, nearly pristine sign below it that read 'Under New Management' in chrome lettering. The junkyard itself had a proclivity towards broken down or otherwise inoperable machines rather than true refuse although that did mean there was an array of not-quite mundane items scattered amongst the 'perfectly normal' items such as cars, refrigerators, old computers and electronics, decommissioned atomic 'Personal battery buddies' ('Guaranteed power for a lifetime of brilliance!'), and various kitchen appliances.

The new owner wasn't particularly fond of the name, truth be told, but brand loyalty was a thing and she would admit that at least it was catchy. "We're here." Riss said as the aircar set down outside the yard and potentially interrupting Sophia if the shifter had been in the middle of trying to discuss something. "Got the place surprisingly cheap though you can probably see the reason why." she said, motioning to a few signs of disrepair. "I want to turn it into a kind of recycling facility once I get the place cleaned up a bit although not just for raw materials." she said. It was to be expected, really, as her caliber of skill made a yard full of junk look like an untapped goldmine. Or at least untapped acres of legos, to be more truthful.

What if they're extremely unique legos? :P
Sophia will get out of the car along with Riss if she does, nodding.
I can see the usefulness. Not only do you have a source of miscellaneous materials, but you have a large amount of space that you could potentially use for many things, such as testing or storage.
She replies, looking upon the junkyard.
So, what exactly do you need to test or need my assistance for?
Sophia inquires.

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Well, that certainly is a name, isn't it?

Isaac arrives, in plain jeans and a white t-shirt with a navy blue horizontal stripe at chest level. His hair is as unkempt as ever, and his ears are as pointy as the day before. And he has his thin-rimmed glasses, as always.
"Good afternoon, Merissa. What forbidden lore are you flipping through today?" he asks cheerily. Despite the seriousness of his conversation with Tab he's kept good spirits all day. He's finding it easier to do that, and he's honestly pretty glad about it. Sweating about everything sucks.


La Debaucherie Cafe

"Hey" Tabitha walks over. She's looking okay. Loose T-shirt. Contacts instead of glasses (she keeps switching back and forth) and jeans. "Hi! Thanks for inviting me."

La Debaucherie Cafe

"Hey you guys!" Merissa stands up and gives Isaac her customary "we're out in public so this will have to do" hug. "It's actually a really neat read, but you two should order first. You buy the drink, and once you're finished you get a free meal. Just don't look too hard at your waiter." Oh dear, of course Merissa would choose a place based on its prices and not take into account the shenanigans theme that it follows.

The wait staff look perfectly normal from a distance, anyway. Just sensible attire and everyone following the same dress code... the exact same dress code. Everyone, no matter their gender or species, seems to have the same exact work uniform. Something's definitely off about it and it sounds like Merissa already knows what. A faint blush has developed on the bridge of her nose that she hopes she won't have to account for.

[Deathkeeper]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac raises an eyebrow. "Uh, okay." He raises a hand and tries to flag down a waiter or waitress. He'll just order a basic soft drink, maybe one with some fruit in it if he can. He's still a responsible minor!
Although darn it, why'd she have to tell him about the servers? Now he can't help but look when the person comes over, and their weirdly identical (but so far undescribed) dress code!

[Lost_Deep]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha will get some soda, and not stare.

If she really wants to know, she can look it up on the internet.

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac raises an eyebrow. "Uh, okay." He raises a hand and tries to flag down a waiter or waitress. He'll just order a basic soft drink, maybe one with some fruit in it if he can. He's still a responsible minor!
Although darn it, why'd she have to tell him about the servers? Now he can't help but look when the person comes over, and their weirdly identical (but so far undescribed) dress code!


La Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha will get some soda, and not stare.

If she really wants to know, she can look it up on the internet.

La Debaucherie Cafe

It doesn't take long for Isaac to figure out and likely see through what's going on. The sensible, generic uniforms are actually a mass illusion cast over the wait staff, who are otherwise entirely naked barring a small rune drawn somewhere on their bodies to perpetuate the rather flimsy magic.

Merissa buries her face in her upper hands as she notices Isaac staring at the tall, athletic orcish man who comes over to take their orders, "I really shouldn't have said anything. I made the same mistake when I first came in." It's easy enough to banish the image from your eyes, if not your brain, just by unfocusing them or looking away for a bit, but at least it's no worse than the gym showers for Isaac.

Their sodas will come in a bit, but they have time now to talk.

[Deathkeeper]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac shuts his eyes and shakes the image away. He was smart enough not to be looking straight ahead. He makes the drink order from the man with a polite smile. Oh, geez, no wonder this place gets business so close to the school. Teens and college students must love it.
"No problem at all. Would you like to start with anything, Tab?" he says, doing his best to just go with everything.

[Lost_Deep]

La Debaucherie Cafe

"Well... dreamwalking was interesting. Do either of you remember it?" Might as well ask that now.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods and says impatiently, "Yeah. But I'm not worried about it. I definitely don't want to be all drugged up. Can we just do the third transfusion?"

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac shuts his eyes and shakes the image away. He was smart enough not to be looking straight ahead. He makes the drink order from the man with a polite smile. Oh, geez, no wonder this place gets business so close to the school. Teens and college students must love it.
"No problem at all. Would you like to start with anything, Tab?" he says, doing his best to just go with everything.


La Debaucherie Cafe

"Well... dreamwalking was interesting. Do either of you remember it?" Might as well ask that now.

La Debaucherie Cafe

"Nope!" Merissa chirps as she slides her seat closer to Isaac. Possibly out of some misguided attempt to draw his attention away from the other serving staff, "That's nothing new though, you knew I never remember mine anyway. Did anything go on that I should be remembering though?" She looks tempted to go back to her book, but pays attention to Tabitha while wondering to herself what their free meal will be.

[Deathkeeper]

Le Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac shakes his head.
"I don't remember specifics. I just remember that we said a few hopeful things, a few sad things, and something got really serious for a bit. Nothing specific really, although I did wake up with a really bittersweet feeling." Isaac says, taking comfort in Merissa being there are really trying hard to ignore the not-actually-clothed staff.

[Murkus]

Red Zone - Trash

Aiden crashes through a wall, and then flips around to land on his feet. "Lot more than you've got, Trash Man," he says. His sword is back at its place against his shoulder, and he steps through the hole he just made. "What say we finish this? I feel like getting a smoothie."

Susurrus has no answer this time. He grips the edge of his street-rupture to hurls himself from it, legs spread forward and back as he takes to the air. Purple lightning follows behind him like the trail of a great dark comet, as does burning shards of refuse. He flies over the street in a swift arc, arms outstretched toward Aiden, too insane with fury to consider a prudent retreat.

[Lost_Deep]

Le Debaucherie Cafe

"Merissa... I want to talk about yours in private. It was... distressing, and I hope it was a one-off. As for yours, Isaac, it was a little short since I got there late. We talked some, you showed me around some... it was like a forest, but you called it a city once. We touched on the time you were an ant, and then I had this moment of self-doubt... In short, dream me is a bit of a ditz and more likely to give serious thought to passing notions." She had never noticed that before.

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Merissa peers at Tabitha, concerned, but not for herself, "Alright... wait, you were an ant once?" She looks over at Isaac, either having forgotten being told or perhaps she'd spaced out at the time, "That must have been really awful..." She can picture it in her head, shrinking is one of the worst parts of transmutation assignments to her, and shrinking that much is practically a full blown fear for her.

Meanwhile, an eyecatching waitress covered in symbolic tattoos serves their drinks and informs them that once they're done with those, they can have the complimentary meal. A bit of a strange deal, but perhaps it's just to give the chefs more time to cook, since they'd want to be doing so very carefully if they're all following the same uniform policy the wait staff are.

[Deathkeeper]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Oh boy, health inspectors would have a fit over that notion. At least the dress code doesn't stop them from washing their hands.
"Well, if you say that everything's fine..." says Isaac, but he's quickly interrupted as Merissa asks about what he'd prefer she didn't ask about. He blushes slightly.
"Um, yeah, I was a large ant for a while. By 'large' I mean a few centimeters tall instead of millimeters. My family blew a lot of money to get me restored, but I was like that for a solid month. It was uh, my third day back as a human when we met."

Isaac looks up and thanks the waitress, trying not to look too much with more concentration than he normally uses for pretty much anything, and goes back to the two girls at the table, sipping idly at the soda in an attempt to avoid some of the awkwardness of the scenario. To be fair, he'd much rather have attractive girls on the brain than his time as an insect, but Merissa might not be happy with it! Well, except for the thoughts about her, he's sure those are permitted.

"If we don't eat until we finish these, what do we drink with the meal?" he wonders out loud.

[Devixer]

Red Zone - Trash

Aiden grins and gets a running start before leaping right at Susurrus, following a similar arc. That grin only gets wider when he accompanies this leap with a slash from his sword. It's far from his flashiest move, but his strength and speed should get the job done. They can't all be Helm Splitters.

[Murkus]

[Red Zone - Trash]

If Aiden doesn't move out've the way somehow, Susurrus's superior weight may plow him into the street, but not before Aiden lands a crushing blow with the brutally large weapon of his. Whether Aiden lands beneath the beast or not, pummeled down, Sus roars a bloody roar and thrashes around on the cobblestones, the cloven halves of it's bony head tossed about raggedly. Horrible, stinking fluids leak from the severed eyes and other hexotechnical guts the beast possesses, splattered all about.

[Devixer]

Red Zone - Trash

Just after Aiden makes his strike, a circle of demonic runes materializes behind him. He kicks off of it, increasing his aerial speed just enough to get him behind Susurrus before they land. When he lands, he makes sure to land on one knee so that he can slowly stand up. He sheathes his sword and starts walking towards Susurrus. His hand starts to give off a dark glow.

[Murkus]

[Red Zone - Trash]

Susurrus hurls itself blindly to the left, vision failing, incapable of speech but for a rattling gurgle that penetrates the senses most uncomfortably. It lunges at shadows, leaking more brain-bile, limbs shuddering as it steadies itself weakly.

[Devixer]

Red Zone - Trash

"Just stay right there for me, Trash Man," Aiden says. He raises his glowing hand towards Susurrus, who may suddenly feel its very essence being drained from its body.

[Murkus]

[Red Zone - Trash]

This new and fascinating sensation is difficult to interpret when combined with violent sensory deprivation, but Susurrus begins to lose his hold on the patchwork body he's created. Violet light whiplashes out've Sus's joints and worms through the air toward Aiden.

[Devixer]

Red Zone - Trash

Aiden just keeps on grinning as he keeps pulling Sus's essence away from him. He can't help but wonder what kind of weapon he'll get this time around.

[Rebonack]

[Carousel Court - Nightmare Night Set Up]

Things are busy in Carousel Court.

Groups of equestrians, humans, and hobbits are all bustling about getting ready for the huge Nightmare Night celebration. It might not be considered strictly sane to be running such a celebration for a whole month, but the district's various sweets shops are bracing themselves for the influx of traffic. The goodies produced by the ponies are rather renown in the Nexus, and now they're going to have to get them prepped by the bushel!

Spooky decorations are being hung, festive streamers strung, and games are being assembled. A large group of ponies are busy setting up a stage for live music while a nearby human is puzzling through the mess of audio-system wires and doing his best to chase off any cord gremlins. Hay bales are getting tossed about, hey rides set up, the spooky pumpkin patch prepped, and a cornfield maze prepared courtesy of Roseluck Agrifirm is being stomped out.

And in the middle of it all?

Bubblegum Confetti is bouncing here and there, cheerfully calling out orders, lifting spirits, and making sure everyone is having fun even in the midst of all the hard work. She is, after all, Carousel Court's premier party pony. And that means making sure that the catering, set up, and general enjoyment having are all running smoothly.

She's in the zone. She's in her element! And she's probably going to cause at least one spontaneous musical party preparation montage to help speed things along.

Check back tomorrow! Because that's when the fun really starts!

[Lost_Deep]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha frowns. Crud, Isaac hadn't told Merissa and- "Sorry! I thought that... sorry." She takes her drink. "Merissa, yours was... I'll be honest, a little worrying. I try not to let dreams cloud my perception of someone, I know that my dreams are about as indicative to me as a random rock is, but I think I should tell you about it in private. It'd be fine for Isaac to be there if you're comfy with that, but..." She casually gestures at the public cafe.

[Terumitsu]

[Junkyard Junktion]


What if they're extremely unique legos? :P
Sophia will get out of the car along with Riss if she does, nodding.
I can see the usefulness. Not only do you have a source of miscellaneous materials, but you have a large amount of space that you could potentially use for many things, such as testing or storage.
She replies, looking upon the junkyard.
So, what exactly do you need to test or need my assistance for?
Sophia inquires.

"I felt a demonstration would be in order. You mentioned not being able to transform without a goal and I have one that, while particularly mundane, would yield more information than you might expect. Plus the place would be a bit more organized.." she said although the shifter might want to debate on just how organized one could get in a junkyard. "Do you see the pile of mostly vehicles over there?" she said, pointing to a relatively small cluster of crushed cars stacked on top of each other. "If you could move those over next to that concrete bunker-looking building next to the pile of aluminum scrap in as few trips as possible." she said. That should be simple enough of a command if she recalled the conditions correctly although this was more than just a test of physical prowess. Dexterity and some basic problem solving were included given how the path between the two locations was hardly a straight line... Unless one wanted to just plow through a few other collections of scrap in addition to a crane.

"Seeing how I've planned on having to spend quite a bit of time here on my own, I've already taken care of stocking up on sources of nourishment although this also means I've got plenty for you to refuel with should you require it after the task has been completed." she said. It was a bit of a drawn out way to say that she would be cooking for the shifter, yes, but putting it that way at least removed any connotations that might otherwise crop up when saying that directly.

[Shadowcaller]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty can't help but smile at the wisp. He doesn't think that the demon could trick him with light. Is that not its antithesis?
"Hello, there. Don't suppose you can hear me through this, can you sir?" he says out loud to it.


[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods and says impatiently, "Yeah. But I'm not worried about it. I definitely don't want to be all drugged up. Can we just do the third transfusion?"

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

The doctor hesitates for a moment. "Well... if that's what you really want I can't deny you it since it's all paid for." People could get sued for that sort of thing. "So just sit down then and let us take care of the last injection."

And if there is no protests she will be prepared and the warforged will inject her with the final dose of fiend blood and then await the changes that will occur.

Chadwick's Temple

"Have you seen Radu Arty? I can't seem to find the demon anywhere. I did find the mark it had left in the temple though. I'm afraid we will have to cleanse it..." He can hear Chadwick through the wisp.

But suddenly, as they approach the entrance, Arty can see something small fly straight out the entrance and take to the skies.

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

"I did see him. He attacked me with his host, but left after that failed and his words failed to coerce me." he says, indicating the woman he's carrying. But then flinches.
"Uh, what was that?" he asks.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods as the third transfusion takes place, and her final transformation begins. She twitches and thrashes, bouncing up and down on the chair as her eyes burn blue, fading to reveal that her pupils have become slitted and her sclera pitch black.

Clara screams and thrashes in pain as her form seems to melt, becoming protean, before reforming herself and, with a groan and a deep breath, Clara smiles and says, "Ahh...Is that it? I'm a devil now?"

[Arkhosia]

[Junkyard Junktion]



"I felt a demonstration would be in order. You mentioned not being able to transform without a goal and I have one that, while particularly mundane, would yield more information than you might expect. Plus the place would be a bit more organized.." she said although the shifter might want to debate on just how organized one could get in a junkyard. "Do you see the pile of mostly vehicles over there?" she said, pointing to a relatively small cluster of crushed cars stacked on top of each other. "If you could move those over next to that concrete bunker-looking building next to the pile of aluminum scrap in as few trips as possible." she said. That should be simple enough of a command if she recalled the conditions correctly although this was more than just a test of physical prowess. Dexterity and some basic problem solving were included given how the path between the two locations was hardly a straight line... Unless one wanted to just plow through a few other collections of scrap in addition to a crane.

"Seeing how I've planned on having to spend quite a bit of time here on my own, I've already taken care of stocking up on sources of nourishment although this also means I've got plenty for you to refuel with should you require it after the task has been completed." she said. It was a bit of a drawn out way to say that she would be cooking for the shifter, yes, but putting it that way at least removed any connotations that might otherwise crop up when saying that directly.

Junkyard Junktion

Pretty sure I can. You might want to step back a little, by the way. It's kind of dangerous to stand near to a transforming shifter.
Sophia replies. After Riss is at a safe distance, Sophia focuses, and transforms into her titan from.
She bites down upon her hand, and lightning flashes downwards and around her with a loud thunderclap. Steam erupt in a spiral, swirling like an upside down stationary tornado around her. The steam clears in a few minutes, revealing a 15 meter tall titan. Her skinless body is only covered with muscles, possessing an amazingly fit physique that matches Sophia's human body. Bone formations jut over her muscles, forming an appearance of armor upon her lower legs and kneecaps, her feet sheltered by the covering as well. Forearm guards, along with armor upon the hands, made out of bone, adorn her arms. Sophia's face, however, is what makes this entire visage truly frightening.
Bone forms a partial guard, covering her jaw and around her eyes. The titan's eyes are narrowed, with blazing blue irises, and Sophia's mouth is jagged, shaped like the Rogue titan's and without any lips.
Sophia steps forward, her footfalls shaking the earth slightly, and moves towards the cars.

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Oh boy, health inspectors would have a fit over that notion. At least the dress code doesn't stop them from washing their hands.
"Well, if you say that everything's fine..." says Isaac, but he's quickly interrupted as Merissa asks about what he'd prefer she didn't ask about. He blushes slightly.
"Um, yeah, I was a large ant for a while. By 'large' I mean a few centimeters tall instead of millimeters. My family blew a lot of money to get me restored, but I was like that for a solid month. It was uh, my third day back as a human when we met."

Isaac looks up and thanks the waitress, trying not to look too much with more concentration than he normally uses for pretty much anything, and goes back to the two girls at the table, sipping idly at the soda in an attempt to avoid some of the awkwardness of the scenario. To be fair, he'd much rather have attractive girls on the brain than his time as an insect, but Merissa might not be happy with it! Well, except for the thoughts about her, he's sure those are permitted.

"If we don't eat until we finish these, what do we drink with the meal?" he wonders out loud.


La Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha frowns. Crud, Isaac hadn't told Merissa and- "Sorry! I thought that... sorry." She takes her drink. "Merissa, yours was... I'll be honest, a little worrying. I try not to let dreams cloud my perception of someone, I know that my dreams are about as indicative to me as a random rock is, but I think I should tell you about it in private. It'd be fine for Isaac to be there if you're comfy with that, but..." She casually gestures at the public cafe.

La Debaucherie Cafe

Merissa's eyes light up and she flips open the book she'd brought, muttering to herself, "Bounded fields, bounded fieeeelds ahah!" She points at one portion of the illegible page and intones a few mouthed words that come out as anti-noise, killing all sound in a wave expanding out from her that suddenly stops in a circle, surrounding their table, "Wow, that one was super easy. Air won't vibrate past the edge of the field, so you can talk about it now if you like Tabby. I know it must have been pretty bad to spook you like this, but I think we should figure it out between us." Rather than keeping it from Isaac. As she thinks of him, she turns and places a hand over the back of his, trying to comfort him about the ant thing. She can't relate to the experience, but she can surely be sympathetic.

"It's probably water, or maybe you have to order another drink. It's a strange deal, but I heard that they have a quota to meet with the drink company that provides their beverages, so maybe it's to force people to buy one."

[Deathkeeper]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac shrugs, smiling at Merissa at the contact.
"If you want me around, that's fine. We can always stop if it's too personal." he says.
...
and then goes back to sipping his drink. He's one of the folks who really has trouble not drinking or eating something when it's placed right in front of them.

[Lost_Deep]

La Debaucherie Cafe

"Well, to start with, dream-you seemed to look down on waking you. And kept asking me, 'why do you always leave?' It... well, I'll start from the beginning."

And then Tabitha will tell the story of Merissa's dream. The parts that are impossible she explains as best as she can, but her memory is perfect and as thus she's 100 percent accurate about it. She'll stop at any point if either of them wants her to stop, especially Merissa.

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac shrugs, smiling at Merissa at the contact.
"If you want me around, that's fine. We can always stop if it's too personal." he says.
...
and then goes back to sipping his drink. He's one of the folks who really has trouble not drinking or eating something when it's placed right in front of them.


La Debaucherie Cafe

"Well, to start with, dream-you seemed to look down on waking you. And kept asking me, 'why do you always leave?' It... well, I'll start from the beginning."

And then Tabitha will tell the story of Merissa's dream. The parts that are impossible she explains as best as she can, but her memory is perfect and as thus she's 100 percent accurate about it. She'll stop at any point if either of them wants her to stop, especially Merissa.

La Debaucherie Cafe

"So my dream avatar doesn't like me because I don't remember anything she tells me, or anything that happens? And I still haven't figured out an answer to that question for myself... I don't know enough about this stuff, but the crazy, impossible stuff sounds like something that's meant to shock me, or you. What do you think Isaac?" What Isaac might think, should he keep his eyes on Merissa too long, is that she looks very fetching in the apparently nothing that she's currently wearing.

Because yes, of course he should have been more cautious about the drinks. The mild potion mixed into Isaac's is an inverse of the illusion that's on the waiters, and fills in the gaps in the person's vision with what they would imagine someone as naked, or what they actually look like as such if they're familiar with the person in the buff. Meanwhile, Tabitha hasn't yet suffered the effects of her regular soda, but beneath Merissa begins to shift comfortably in her seat after another sip of the hot cocoa, the warmth of the drink spreading out from her stomach pleasantly.

[Deathkeeper]

Le Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac thinks for a moment. "To be honest, I don't really know about some of this stuff. Most of it, really. I erm, did talk to your dad, though and well, he was talking about throwing around some crazy stuff. I mean, besides the fact of what his business is, well, he did say that, well, he was a djinni. And that he didn't tell you about that. Erm, it'd certainly explain the odd magic you inherited. And..." he trails off, as he started to look back down at Merissa as his thoughts come together, and things become apparent. Oh gods, not again. And after the incident when they were first changed by the wild magic, Isaac does know what Merissa looks like naked, even without assuming other scenes happened! Isaac immediately turns scarlet tries to avert his eyes, but he can't look at Tab, and everywhere else is suddenly nowhere to look either, in terms of the other patrons of the staff whose magic is currently being cancelled out. He settles on laying his forehead against the table.
"Next time we are not picking a place for value. I would highly recommend not continuing with those drinks." he says.
...honestly, it's really kind of funny, and he's really not upset about his own state to their eyes, especially if his clothes are actually still there to keep the wind out, but he can't look without being a bit of a pervert, now can he? If Merissa weren't here he'd probably have laughed. Maybe. But oh, when she is here it's just embarrassing.

[Murkus]

Red Zone - Trash

Aiden just keeps on grinning as he keeps pulling Sus's essence away from him. He can't help but wonder what kind of weapon he'll get this time around.

Susurrus batters trenches in the cobblestones, crushing swathes of street in his flinging. His tale whips out and snaps off a lamppost, his claws dig furrows, he enacts great violence on thin air. The motions slow, however, as Susurrus's essence gathers around Aiden. Then at last, with one attempted heave toward a nearby building, Sus's corpse is laid down onto the sidewalk with a thunderous crash, throwing up more rubble with his final lunge. His claws and legs lay stretched out behind him, tail twitching gently, fluids leaking from the dark shape of his head.

All that he is lingers now around Aiden, whirling gently, slumbering.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

It's the month of Spooktober!

Due to the diligent efforts of a small army of equestrians from Carousel Court, as well as like minded humans and hobbits, not only has Carousel Court been spooked up with spooky games and decorations, but the festivities have spilled over into many of the surrounding districts of Inside! Not one to be outdone by a bunch of ponies, many businesses have set out bowls of candy for the kidlings scampering about in costume and demanding sweet treats! There is, sadly, a pretty lacking supply of mass produced candy, though. The closing of MagMart has made that stuff rather difficult to acquire. But! That just means more business for Carousel Court's artisan confectioners, doesn't it?

Streamers of black and orange and yellow are strung about. Fake cotton spider-web and rubber spiders abound. Apple-bobbing tanks have popped up like mushrooms. Spooky music is played off stage by a live band whilst costumed children and adults do the monster mash! The cake walks have begun. Skeletons and ghosts hang from every window and tree all the while children dash about vying for the most praise for their costume and the best candy. A bit of a dispute amongst the youngsters which rhyme is better for acquiring the most goodies, but so far it's little more than a friendly competition.

Trick or treat~
Smell my feet~
Give me something good to eat!

Nightmare night~
What a fright~
Give me something sweet to bite!

Spooky lanterns depicting Nightmare Moon are hung from many a front porch, lightning the night with a creepy blue glow. The cornfield maze has been opened. The pumpkin launching giant slingshots have been readied. And everyone is having some spooky fun!

But watch out for Nightmare Moon! Remember to set aside some of your candy as an offering, otherwise she might just gobble you up!

[Lost_Deep]

Le Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha sips her own drink as the other two share their musings... and then Isaac acts oddly. Tabitha is worried and slightly confused, but puts the soda down.

Hopefully whatever is in the drink doesn't kick in after the sips she took in-between telling the story plus the sips from right now.

[Darkcomet]

Unknown Location

"Shutting down the MagMarts is the same thing as killing me. It's just a slower way of doing it," Magtok corrects N'alae, looking about his surroundings, trying to figure out where he is and if there's any way out of this room. It wouldn't surprise him if the Union had a underground room with no entrances or exits, with a mountain of teleblocks and secure passwords keeping anyone from entering or leaving without Vyrn's approval, but he still has to be sure. Knowledge is power; this sort of thing might come in handy later.

"I've changed my ways, besides. Everything you said about who I was is absolutely right, but it's no longer the man I am today. I've fought those very same slavers you mentioned, abandoned AMEN and recovered a hostage it'd taken, and did what I could to reconcile with Vasquez after that assassination attempt. I am doing everything in my power to put the past behind me and defend a world I once so gleefully lied to and exploited at my leisure." He takes his hands off the top of his head, since it's clear that this isn't that kind of an arrest, and begins pacing about the room, studying each wall as he goes along.

"There's nothing to gain from killing me, Vice Commander. If you strike me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

"If you have changed, then I'm sure you will understand why we err on the side of skepticism. Taking you at your word alone is not something we can do, considering how you've treated your allies and enemies alike before. But you are right about one thing." N'alae looks almost like she's about to beam out for a moment, getting surrounded by the column of light as before, but it seems she just got rid of the armor and traded it for her uniform. You know, better for conversation. It also might be a bit disarming, though she still has a holstered disruptor.

She sighs. "It is a death sentence. With your resources crippled, some are already rushing to take advantage of the situation, and without the means to keep your operations running, they will whittle you down until you're gone, and they clearly do not care who gets in the way. Personally, I don't care to effectively help anyone who tries to drop giant statues on me, but the High Commander will not let it go with no assurances of your change in outlook. We need something more than words, Magtok, and while I will consider any proposals you offer, it had better be good, for your own sake."

[Slii Arhem]

Le Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac thinks for a moment. "To be honest, I don't really know about some of this stuff. Most of it, really. I erm, did talk to your dad, though and well, he was talking about throwing around some crazy stuff. I mean, besides the fact of what his business is, well, he did say that, well, he was a djinni. And that he didn't tell you about that. Erm, it'd certainly explain the odd magic you inherited. And..." he trails off, as he started to look back down at Merissa as his thoughts come together, and things become apparent. Oh gods, not again. And after the incident when they were first changed by the wild magic, Isaac does know what Merissa looks like naked, even without assuming other scenes happened! Isaac immediately turns scarlet tries to avert his eyes, but he can't look at Tab, and everywhere else is suddenly nowhere to look either, in terms of the other patrons of the staff whose magic is currently being cancelled out. He settles on laying his forehead against the table.
"Next time we are not picking a place for value. I would highly recommend not continuing with those drinks." he says.
...honestly, it's really kind of funny, and he's really not upset about his own state to their eyes, especially if his clothes are actually still there to keep the wind out, but he can't look without being a bit of a pervert, now can he? If Merissa weren't here he'd probably have laughed. Maybe. But oh, when she is here it's just embarrassing.


Le Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha sips her own drink as the other two share their musings... and then Isaac acts oddly. Tabitha is worried and slightly confused, but puts the soda down.

Hopefully whatever is in the drink doesn't kick in after the sips she took in-between telling the story plus the sips from right now.

La Debaucherie Cafe

Merissa is confused, slightly alarmed, and doesn't know what to think about what Isaac said. She doubts he's lying to her, and doubts even more that her father would lie to him as he's always distressingly honest whenever they'd have the time to talk. Truthfully, he has never been a figure in her life, just the man who, in her mothers words, let her mother have a daughter.

Now she's not even sure what that means as she thinks back on it.

"I'm going to have to ask my mom about that. Sorry, but can we talk about something else right now? I don't think I want to crack into that particular puzzle so soon after finding out." Despite wilting a bit in her seat, Merissa is still feeling the warm glow from her stomach outwards, and it becomes evident what's happening to her because of her drink in a few moments as a rich, chocolatey hue passes over the skin on her shoulders and begins creeping down her arms and up her neck without her yet noticing. Her skin seems to smooth out too, taking on the texture of actual milk chocolate.

If Isaac sees it, his illusory image of her will update in real time, picturing a chocolate torso instead.

As for Tabitha, she's unfortunately out of luck as the soda's effect attempts to lighten her, making her feel bubbly and much less dense than before. In addition, it will slowly make it easier to press in her skin and pinch it, as if she was a person-shaped balloon. If the effect is strong enough with how much she drank and goes on long enough she could probably flatten an arm against the table entirely with her other hand.

Just as the effects are setting in, their meals arrive. All three of them are treated to the sight of savory pumpkin and carrot soup, pumpkin spiced whipped cream on top of pumpkin pie for desert, and a small side of cinnamon sprinkled pumpkin flesh baked until brown and served like a slice of watermelon.

Merissa buries her head in her hands, mimicking Isaac, "Damnit, I get it now. It's a Trick and Treat." Ugh, leave it to her to find the only cafe in Inside that runs its Halloween pranks super earlier.

[Deathkeeper]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac sits up a bit, shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, Merissa. I wasn't sure if I should tell you since it was so personal but in the end I thought you ought to know.
Uh, you have anything cheery to talk about, Tab!"
He says, doing his best not to ogle anyone. Nope, just look at something neutral. Like his meal. He gives it a quick sniff.
"Can you guys check these? We might as well eat them if they're safe and we've paid."

[Lost_Deep]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha frowns as she notices the effect. A few pinches and... no, she does not like this.

Then the meal comes out.

"But... I don't like pumpkin. I don't like pumpkin at all."

Spooktober Spectacular!

A human girl walks down the street looking around. She's a bit older than the others, a middle schooler, and as a result is avoiding a lot of the smaller kids. She's dressed up as an Egyptian, with the distinctive makeup, previously-golden hair dyed black, a red dress, an ankh necklace, and a hair ornament shaped like a throne.

Bella looks around. Dressing up in costumes AND free candy? This was an interesting holiday!

[Terumitsu]

Junkyard Junktion

Pretty sure I can. You might want to step back a little, by the way. It's kind of dangerous to stand near to a transforming shifter.
Sophia replies. After Riss is at a safe distance, Sophia focuses, and transforms into her titan from.
She bites down upon her hand, and lightning flashes downwards and around her with a loud thunderclap. Steam erupt in a spiral, swirling like an upside down stationary tornado around her. The steam clears in a few minutes, revealing a 15 meter tall titan. Her skinless body is only covered with muscles, possessing an amazingly fit physique that matches Sophia's human body. Bone formations jut over her muscles, forming an appearance of armor upon her lower legs and kneecaps, her feet sheltered by the covering as well. Forearm guards, along with armor upon the hands, made out of bone, adorn her arms. Sophia's face, however, is what makes this entire visage truly frightening.
Bone forms a partial guard, covering her jaw and around her eyes. The titan's eyes are narrowed, with blazing blue irises, and Sophia's mouth is jagged, shaped like the Rogue titan's and without any lips.
Sophia steps forward, her footfalls shaking the earth slightly, and moves towards the cars.

So that's a Titan. Looks like some kind of war-body... Though I have to say, it's certainly impressive to take in. While the shifter busied herself with the task set before her, Riss watched for the time being to observe not just what she did but how she did it; getting back into the aircar to circle around for a better view.

Really that was all she had in mind for this first exercise as while she felt confident that she had enough tools on hand to stop Sophia from causing harm to her person, attempting to surprise or agitate her to test her focus would probably leave more collateral damage than she really would care to deal with. At least there wasn't anything to outright prevent the shifter from accomplishing her task as far as the muse saw. It was an admittedly boring task but it was a good baseline to begin with.

Besides, it also meant that with all the energy that was likely consumed, it would be good practice on her part to test out a few recipes she had been meaning to try... Though hopefully It would match Sophia's palate...

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac sits up a bit, shaking his head.
"I'm sorry, Merissa. I wasn't sure if I should tell you since it was so personal but in the end I thought you ought to know.
Uh, you have anything cheery to talk about, Tab!"
He says, doing his best not to ogle anyone. Nope, just look at something neutral. Like his meal. He gives it a quick sniff.
"Can you guys check these? We might as well eat them if they're safe and we've paid."


La Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha frowns as she notices the effect. A few pinches and... no, she does not like this.

Then the meal comes out.

"But... I don't like pumpkin. I don't like pumpkin at all."


La Debaucherie Cafe

Merissa continues to be oblivious to her own changes, as they haven't reached her forearms yet and no one has said anything, "Ugh, this was an awful idea, I'm sorry you guys. Do you want to just go to the off campus and talk there? We can blow off some steam and fix this." The off campus is one of the most heavily neutralized school owned buildings that Zaff's allows students to practice in. It's across the street from the school grounds, and has anti-wards that prevent magical interference with any spells. It tends to be the best place for heavy spell practice, because it can't be harmed or altered by anything a student is capable of and doesn't have any lingering residue from alchemy or casting to mess things up.

It's also not part of Zafflebrod's ward schemes, for obvious reasons, so is the only building left in this dimension when the rest of the campus goes into heavy quarantine. A small office is stationed there to explain to concerned officials and parents why their children have stopped being in contact for a period of time.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

What's NOT to love about getting to dress up whilst being showered with free candy? And this isn't just your average everyday store bought heap of 'fun size' candy bars, either. With the recent closing of MagMart everyone wanting to stock up on sweets for Spooktober has been forced to try out the various professional confectioners, such as the ones that fill nearly every single corner of Carousel Court.

Think a Snickers is good?

How about a home made chocolate filled with perfectly gooey caramel, roasted peanuts, and nougat that dissolves at the touch of the tongue, causing an explosion of flavor flooding the senses. Each lovingly hand (hoof?) made and wrapped in foil. And that's just one example of the absolutely amazing candy that are to be found (for free!) in candy dishes around the City.

A gaggle of children in costume of mixed race go stampeding past Belle laughing and talking excitedly. "I heard someone saw Nightmare Moon three blocks over! If you find her and she scares you then she'll give you a HUGE piece of candy!"

Who doesn't love huge pieces of candy?

Another child is tugging her father along by the arm with one hand, a huge fluffy plushy unicorn clutched in the other. "Come on daddy! We need to win some more games to get more stuffed animals!" The kid is wearing an adorable little princess outfit with little fairy wings on the back.

[Deathkeeper]

La Debaucherie

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Nothing deals with stress better than flinging some spells at unsuspecting practice targets. But we do have to pay for these drinks. I might as well eat some of this while we wait."
And that plan will probably be followed unless someone tells him they're picking up magic from the food. He assumes that since no one did before they ping negative.

[Lost_Deep]

La Debaucherie

"Wait... let me check it first. Don't want to end up with you as a girl. I've heard of that happening."

Tabitha will cast a simple detection spell, and then give Isaac the greenlight if it's clean. She will not eat her own, she really doesn't like pumpkin flavor.

Spooktober Spectacular!

Bella will move around, trying a few of the candies. She shows a bias toward rich chocolate and peanuts, but does not seem to be as fond of caramel or fruit snacks. Of course, the details may vary depending on how exactly things are set up.

She doesn't really look for interaction, rather preferring to appreciate candy, decorations, and costumes.

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

All Tabitha detects is a minor spell on the food to keep it hot and alter the flavor. What Isaac will taste is his favorite kind of soup, baked veggie, pie, etc. It's not a particularly good example of those flavors, just a generic version of it supplied by his memory.

Of course, Merissa finally notices her predicament when she reaches for her pie, groaning in mild disgust, "Augh, you two couldn't have told me sooner that I was turning into..." She pokes at an elbow, "A chocolate golem? I just thought whatever my drink was doing to me was too subtle to notice." She's still not entirely certain what happened to Isaac, only that it must have involved his eyes. She huffs grumpily as her fingers are totally overtaken by the change that is already encroaching on her hairline, leaving her eyes as the only visible part of her face that isn't chocolatey.

She takes a bite of the pie anyway, "This doesn't taste like Pumpkin, Tabby. It's cherry pie in my mouth, they even got the texture right. Whoever they're hiring in the kitchen must be a wiz at illusions, they might even be a Zaff's alum."

[KerfuffleMach2]

Spooktober Spectacular!

Alysha enters the court, her eyes wide with excitement. She loved holidays. And this was one of her favorites.

Sure, it wasn't exactly the same as the Halloween she knew, but it was close enough. Free candy, parties, spooky theme. And, of course, the costumes.

Alysha decided to go as somebody she had actually met before. Didn't take too much work, really. Her skin was pale enough, what with her being a vampire and all. Just a little bit of makeup and the right clothes and she was set.

http://eidetictraces.files.wordpress.com/2010/03/halloween_084.jpg

Alysha wanders around, watching the kids play, trying some of the candy. Sure, she might be a little old for this. But that's okay. She loved it.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

Belle

Aaww... so she isn't interested in that plate of delicious smelling apple fritters? Perfectly friend and glazed, oozing with caramelized apple sugars...

The costumes are varied, of course, depending in part on the race of the wearer. A costume on an equestrian and a costume on a human look pretty different, after all! Costumes run the gamete from simple, cute, and childish to extravagantly designed and rather spooky! And one can't forget the folks who have decided to effectively Cosplay rather than simply dress up. And why not? Any kind of costume can be fun.

Anywho!

As Bella drifts from shop to shop, from booth to booth, from home to home, a pretty pastel blue and green earth pony mare with an image of peanut brittle on her flank flags the teen down. "Hey there little miss! That's a lovely costume you have. And such a lovely little human with such a lovely little costume deserves a wonderful treat!"

That said, she pushes her candy bowl toward Bella. Inside? A mixture of various confections wrapped in foil. The scent of chocolate and peanut butter will hit the girl's nose, a heavenly and heavy aroma. "I noticed you going after Chocolate Crisp's goodies, but I think you might like these even more."

Should Bella take one of the candies and unwrap it, she'll discover a ball of chocolate as big around as a silver dollar. And when she bites into it? Alternating layers of chocolate, peanut butter, and flaky, crisp pastry giving way to a gooey hot-fudge center. How does the hot fudge stay warm without melting the rest of the candy? Must be pony magic at work.

Alysha

Oh come now, just watching? That's not any fun! No one is ever too old for fun and games. And this festival has games galore! Rubber spider toss, bobbing for apples, pumpkin chucking, cake walks, and a plethora of other silly activities that wouldn't be out of place in a carnival. The only difference? Playing the games is free and results in tasty treats!

There are even a few booths giving away huge stuffed animals as prizes, if that little girl in a princess outfit lugging around a huge fluffy unicorn plush is any indication.

And really now, if Alysha is sampling the candy, what are her preferences? Because there's nothing here if not variety.

[Deathkeeper]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac glances over and groans.
"Chocolate?! Uh, sorry Merissa, I've been trying not to look. Uh, I'm sure if it lasted a while or was dangerous you could sue, so they probably didn't do that. That's just be dumb. I'm not comfortable enough with my transmutation to try to fix it, but maybe someone can back at the off campus." he offers.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Spooktacular

The devouring of the candy corn shall have to wait. The games have caught Alysha's attention.

The pumpkin chucking first, actually. She had never seen that before. It looked awesome.

Alysha will walk up to the person running that and give them a wave and a smile.

Hi! What is this, exactly? I mean, I can see it's all about throwing pumpkins. But, is there a target? Or are we just going for distance? And can we choose how to launch them?

[Lost_Deep]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha, a little bit hesitant, tries it. She dislikes pumpkin, but not to the point that she'll spit it out. It's just something that she isn't fond of.

Spooktober Spectacular!

Bella (Not the princess!) will say, "Oh, thank you," and try one. She smiles immediately. "This is delicious!" She finishes her sample. "What do you call it?"

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac glances over and groans.
"Chocolate?! Uh, sorry Merissa, I've been trying not to look. Uh, I'm sure if it lasted a while or was dangerous you could sue, so they probably didn't do that. That's just be dumb. I'm not comfortable enough with my transmutation to try to fix it, but maybe someone can back at the off campus." he offers.


La Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha, a little bit hesitant, tries it. She dislikes pumpkin, but not to the point that she'll spit it out. It's just something that she isn't fond of.

Spooktober Spectacular!

Bella (Not the princess!) will say, "Oh, thank you," and try one. She smiles immediately. "This is delicious!" She finishes her sample. "What do you call it?"

La Debaucherie Cafe

Merissa stands up, "It's probably a superficial change, we can just dispel it all once we get to the off campus. Come on." She starts to head for the door, tossing down her napkin over the meal, "I'm not going to eat here anymore, it's just not worth it if they're going to run stupid promotions." She'll wait outside for the other two though, if Isaac is intent on finishing it.

Tabitha's food tastes like her favorite type of that food, same as Isaac's. Unless she wants to willingly dispel that illusion and leave herself with the taste and texture of pumpkin in her mouth.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

Bella

The mare smiles back. "Well, I suppose they're peanut butter, hot fudge, brittle, and wafer bonbons. But I like to call them nuttyballs, they're my own secret recipe!" She gives another little nod to the bowl. "You can have another if you like! But don't grab too many, I need to make sure I have enough for all the colts and fillies running around tonight. Or you can try some brittle? Brittle is my specialty, and I'll say the peanut brittle coated in chocolate is awfully good."

Then she gestures with her nose across the street.

"If you feel a little more adventurous, try Bonbon's shop. Now that's a mare who knows her bonbons. Don't bother trying to ask her what kind of bonbon you're getting before you eat it. The surprise is half the fun!"

...oh.

Oh!

A bonbon is another name for those filled 'chocolates' isn't it?

Alysha

The fellow manning the giant pumpkin slingshots is a stallion in an elaborate armored Headless Horse costume, with spooky barding covered in pointy bits and scary, toothy faces. A curved hook extends up from his neck with a pumpkin-shaped lantern hanging from it, dangling about where someone's head should be. Creepy blue flames flicker inside the metal gourde.

"Wohohoho! Another player, hmm?" the Headless Horse replies. "You wish to try your luck?" He gestures at the giant slingshots set up to buckets of smallish pumpkins. In the distance targets on sheets of plywood have been set up. "Choose your pumpkin and try to hit yonder target to win a prize! But if you miss three times then you must pay with your head! Bwah ha ha ha!"

A beat.

"Not really. If you miss there's no problem. Pick a pumpkin and have some fun!"

[Arkhosia]

So that's a Titan. Looks like some kind of war-body... Though I have to say, it's certainly impressive to take in. While the shifter busied herself with the task set before her, Riss watched for the time being to observe not just what she did but how she did it; getting back into the aircar to circle around for a better view.

Really that was all she had in mind for this first exercise as while she felt confident that she had enough tools on hand to stop Sophia from causing harm to her person, attempting to surprise or agitate her to test her focus would probably leave more collateral damage than she really would care to deal with. At least there wasn't anything to outright prevent the shifter from accomplishing her task as far as the muse saw. It was an admittedly boring task but it was a good baseline to begin with.

Besides, it also meant that with all the energy that was likely consumed, it would be good practice on her part to test out a few recipes she had been meaning to try... Though hopefully It would match Sophia's palate...

Sophia moves speedily, striding across the earth to the cars. She grabs the topmost one, crushing the metal slightly under her fingers. She hefts it upon her shoulder, and strides to the pile. Sophia repeats this process, moving most of the cars over before she kneels down, exhaustion taking their toll.
Sophia emerges from her titan form, looking famished and tired.

[Deathkeeper]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac doesn't really want to be here for very long, but he wanted to eat something if they actually paid for something. He's perfectly happy to walk out now.
He even goes over and takes Merissa's hand, chocolate or not.
"Okay, so I may or may not see something absolutely terrible while I'm like this, so if I do I may or may not need to close my eyes and need you to guide me for a bit. So um, if you don't mind..." he says with a blush, still trying to make eye contact only or not look at her.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Spooktacular

Alysha grins and nods. Alright! Sounds like fun!

Then she grabs a pumpkin at random and loads it. Alysha pulls the slingshot pretty far back for a woman her size. She doesn't have much experience using slingshots, so the first shot misses. Went pretty far above the target. Hope there isn't too much behind the targets.

The second shot hits the plywood at least. Clips the top of it in a shower of pumpkin guts. But, she still didn't hit the target itself.

On the third shot, Alysha takes a lot longer to aim. It was her last shot, after all. And taking the time paid off. She blasted the target. Chunks of pumpkin went all over. Alysha jumps up and down a bit, cheering.

Yes! Got it!

[Lost_Deep]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha will eat a little, too, before deciding that she doesn't like the idea of illusory flavors and follows.

Spooktober Spectacular!

"I'll try the brittle, but I'll only have another nutty ball later, after other people have had a chance." She looks over at Bonbon's shop as she tries the brittle. she is feeling a little adventurous...

[Devixer]

Red Zone - Trash

In a few seconds, even that essence is gone as well. Though, it isn't exactly gone - rather, it's changed shape. Specifically, it's changed into the pair of gauntlets and matching boots that Aiden's wearing all of a sudden. He twists one of his hands around to get a better look at the weapon. The gauntlets and boots look like they're made of junk metal, composed almost entirely of rough-hewn edges and looking severely rusted. He grins and clenches his fist, as purple flame emanates from his new weapons. He looks back at Susurrus's corpse, then turns back. "Garbage truck should be by on Friday," he says. "Just sit tight 'til then."

[Slii Arhem]

La Debaucherie Cafe

Isaac doesn't really want to be here for very long, but he wanted to eat something if they actually paid for something. He's perfectly happy to walk out now.
He even goes over and takes Merissa's hand, chocolate or not.
"Okay, so I may or may not see something absolutely terrible while I'm like this, so if I do I may or may not need to close my eyes and need you to guide me for a bit. So um, if you don't mind..." he says with a blush, still trying to make eye contact only or not look at her.


La Debaucherie Cafe

Tabitha will eat a little, too, before deciding that she doesn't like the idea of illusory flavors and follows.

Spooktober Spectacular!

"I'll try the brittle, but I'll only have another nutty ball later, after other people have had a chance." She looks over at Bonbon's shop as she tries the brittle. she is feeling a little adventurous...

Zafflebrod's Off-Campus

Merissa looks at him oddly, but doesn't ask about what the drink did to him as she guides him across the street. It's probably something malicious like horror-vision.

That poor, naive girl.

The off campus facilities are essentially a giant warehouse with very little adorning the floor. There are boxes and pallets donated by construction companies for target practice and little else. Students are expected to bring their own supplies and tidy up their mess after they're done, but otherwise left alone to cut loose in whatever corner of the massive, open stone space they decide to use.

Merissa, now fully made of chocolate, is setting up to dispel herself and the other two, drawing from that new book she has with her, "It's full of archaic spells, and in the front cover is a cryptogram needed to translate them that I've been studying and turning into the basis for a translation spell for utilities class as a project. I don't know why, but I came back to the project after waking up today and finished it off. Might have had something to do with my dreams, since Tabby says they were pretty out there. Here we go... removing ongoing curses? Might be a bit strong, but it'd work." She's confident it would, in fact, as she looks more intently at the page.

[Deathkeeper]

Zaff's Off-Campus

Isaac manages to only gawk and gag a few times at all the poor souls he's being forced to view or risk crashing. Better Merissa never know, for what has been seen cannot be unseen.
Once they enter, Isaac gives Merissa space to cast her stuff, standing off to the side with his hands behind his back, awkwardly trying to keep his gaze in the direction of anywhere but at her.
This is awful. She doesn't even know, but he's far too responsible to gawk at her without her permission! Well, that's a lie. It's more that he knows that if he did she'd totally figure it out and have his head. And that would be no good.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

Alysha

Kapow!

Direct hit!

"Good job! Since you managed to hit the bullseye you get a prize!" the Headless Horse says as the spooky blue glow in his pumpkin head blazes all the brighter. A similar glow surrounds a nearby pumpkin pie and levitates it over to the vampire! "There you go, enjoy! Feel free to share the pie with friends, family, and even strangers out for a night of frightening fun. You never know what kind of amazing friendships might be sparked over a slice of pie."

Bella

The brittle is, unsurprisingly, rather delicious. The sweetness of the chocolate perfectly offsets the salty nuts.

And then?

Over to Bonbon's stand. The funny thing about many of the shops around Carousel Court is that they are, for the most part, the first floor of homes while the living quarters are on the second. It's like a bunch of cottage industries! That must just be the traditional way of setting things up for the equestrians. What a peculiar batch of people. Anywho! Bonbon is a cream colored mare with a rather striking curly cobalt and fuchsia mane who is, unsurprisingly, offering bonbons to the trick-or-treaters. The candies all come in dark chocolate with milk chocolate drizzle or milk chocolate with dark chocolate drizzle. The contents of the hollow chocolate shells are, of course, a complete mystery.

Near the stand a minty colored unicorn bard is playing a lyre whilst regaling a small crowd with spooky ballads from a wide range of various cultures. Seems she has been studying up on spooky harvest festival stories!

[5a Violista]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

A new girl comes! She's young, too, so that's why she's here instead of at the other Halloween Party. She's wearing a purple dress and tall purple boots. Her hair's black, with purple dyed at the end. Around her neck is a necklace of red gems. I suppose a picture (http://i1256.photobucket.com/albums/ii499/Mahonri_Violis/img-thing_zpsaae002b6.jpg) would help.

In her hands is a creepy smiling doll (http://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/thumb/5/53/354Banette_Dream.png/220px-354Banette_Dream.png) that's grey and has a zipper for a mouth. Luckily, it's not moving (like so many other creepy things on Halloween).

She skips down the street, looking at all the different shops and stores. Unfortunately, her shoes make absolutely no sound when they hit the ground, which is strange enough - but, then again, we have talking ponies and all sorts of magic slippers, so why should silent skipping be that weird? Actually, probably the weirdest thing is that she doesn't have a single trick-or-treat bag.

"Oh! Look at all those people over there!" she tells her doll.

No response.

"What do you think they're doing?"

No response.

"Oh, I agree." She nods. "I was just wondering what it was that they had there."

[KerfuffleMach2]

Spooktacular

Alysha beams as the pie is passed to her.

Awesome! Thank you!

The vampire will give him a quick hug before walking off, already working on one piece of pie.

As she walks, Alysha's attention is caught by a young girl in a purple dress holding a doll. She decides to greet this girl and walks up to her.

Hi! My name's Alysha. I like your dress. It's really pretty. Want a slice of pie? She offers the pumpkin pie in her hand, one slice already missing.

[Arkhosia]

Spooktacular

Caelynn is here, dressed up as everyone's favorite glasses-wearing titan slaying scientist!
Alexis is in her arms, dressed up as the ferocious tigger! Rawr!

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

Caelynn

How ferocious of a tiger are we talking here, relatively speaking? Because this is a pretty important bit of information. If we don't know how ferocious looking she is, how will we know how terrified we need to be?

Anywho!

The pair are here, but what are they doing?

Hunting for goodies? Checking out costumes? Looking for friends to socialize with? Checking out the festive games? Looking to plumb the depths of the cornfield maze?

Or maaaaybe-

A group of children dressed as Power Rangers go running past! "Hurry up! I heard they just opened the haunted house!"

Ooooh! A spooky haunted house!

[Arkhosia]

Caelynn
No, we're talking Tigger (http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dJFyz73MRcg).

Alexis is only a year old, so they're kinda just trying to find some fun to do while getting candy!
Also Caelynn is dressed up as this: http://shingekinokyojin.wikia.com/wiki/Hange_Zo%C3%AB

[5a Violista]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

"I've never had an orange pie before," she says in a deadpan tone. That's a yes, I suppose. Her hands don't make any move for the pie, though. They're too busy clutching the doll. Instead, her hair begins moving as if blown by the wind, towards the pie. I don't know exactly how it happens, but once the purple-tipped hair reaches and obscures the pie, another slice of it just disappears. Then, the wind dies down as quickly as it came. "It tastes good," she says in the same way.

Now that the pie's out of the way, she looks up and down Alysha's own costume, and replies in a much less impassive voice, "I like your stitches. My name's Alaine, but my friends call me Feufo." And by "friends" she means her doll. "But I think Feufo is a silly name. Every time I tell that to Jubaku, he laughs at me."

[Lord Magtok]

Undisclosed Location


She sighs. "It is a death sentence. With your resources crippled, some are already rushing to take advantage of the situation, and without the means to keep your operations running, they will whittle you down until you're gone, and they clearly do not care who gets in the way. Personally, I don't care to effectively help anyone who tries to drop giant statues on me, but the High Commander will not let it go with no assurances of your change in outlook. We need something more than words, Magtok, and while I will consider any proposals you offer, it had better be good, for your own sake."

Magtok seems suddenly very relieved. Ecstatic, even. They're taking proposals, instead of just firing out a verdict. The worst case scenario has passed us by; he can easily figure out a way out of this situation.

"All of this month's profits go to the victims, then. All of it. I'll live without October, though I might have to lie low for a while, and they'll get their restitution. When the people of the Nexus ask what you did to punish Magtok for his crimes, you can point towards his brief period of terror when a warrant was issued for his arrest, followed by a sizable lump of money paid out to those he hurt. I'll even let them think it was your idea, if you'd like."

Magtok allows himself a grin. Pfft, he was all worried about this like it was the end of the world, but it turns out he just needed to wait a couple of minutes and everything would be fine! His big stupid mouth can easily work out a deal that will sort this all out.

"Not that it changes anything, but those victims were going to die. All of them. Remember that terrorist attack when those people exploded stuff and tried to gas everybody? I think it was the day I visited Vasquez's mother, to try to goad Vyrn into jumping the gun and shooting first so I'd look justified if I had to do anything. Some nonsense like that. Anyways, the Magbots found some people who weren't going to live and there weren't rescue teams coming for them. Again, doesn't change anything, since I was taking advantage of an awful situation, and saving someone only to hurt them is still completely awful. Just thought you should know."

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober Spectacular]

Caelynn

After candy, are they?

Well!

It sure is a good thing that there's lots of candy to go around, isn't it? And not just candy! There are also pastries! And candied fruits! So the question must be asked, what kind of scrumptious delicacies will the pair be seeking? Chocolates? Fudge? Brittle? Bonbons? Ice cream? Cookies? Cakes? Pies? Custards? Taffy? Toffy? Exotic cakes of fruit? Drops? Lolipops? Gummies? Licorice? Fancy sodas? Portraits of themselves made with colorful spun sugar? Because if you can imagine it then someone here at Carousel Court almost certainly specializes in it.

Equestrians are rather renown for their sweet tooth, after all.

So what's it going to be, cosplayer and child?

What kind of candy are you seeking out?

Alaine and Alysha

The Headless Horse got a hug! Wasn't that nice? He waved at Alysha as she departed before being spooky at a middle aged human and his son, the two of them dressed up as Batman and Robin.

And then?

Pie sharing!

Pie sharing is one of the best ways to make friends. Especially with creepy girls holding creepy dolls. While they chat, a dwarf in a pretty spot-on Inspector Gadget costume goes flying past via his hat-mounted helecopter! Wow, some people really go all-out for Spooktober, don't they?

[KerfuffleMach2]

Spooktacular

Alysha watches Alaine's hair with wide eyes. It was awesome to watch. It's pumpkin pie. I love it.

When the dwarf goes by, Alysha giggles. She smiles at Alaine's compliment.

Aw, thanks! I painted them on myself.

Well, I won't call you that, then.

So, what do you wanna do?

[Shadowcaller]

Chadwick's Temple

"I did see him. He attacked me with his host, but left after that failed and his words failed to coerce me." he says, indicating the woman he's carrying. But then flinches.
"Uh, what was that?" he asks.


[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara nods as the third transfusion takes place, and her final transformation begins. She twitches and thrashes, bouncing up and down on the chair as her eyes burn blue, fading to reveal that her pupils have become slitted and her sclera pitch black.

Clara screams and thrashes in pain as her form seems to melt, becoming protean, before reforming herself and, with a groan and a deep breath, Clara smiles and says, "Ahh...Is that it? I'm a devil now?"

Chadwick's Temple

"What? What did you see?" Chadwick asks, apparently not having noticed the flying thing. If Arty looks closer he can see that it's some sort of metal bird, made from similar materials as Chadwick's current body. It flies over the channels of the temple quarter, never stopping to look back.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

The doctor nods slowly, as he looks over Clara's new form. The last dose didn't seem to have changed much besides her eyes. "How do you feel? You have changed quite a lot." He asks with a notebook in his hand.

[Terumitsu]

[Junkyard Junktion]

The muse frowned slightly at the result. Apparently exhaustion was another trigger to undo the transformation. Good to know and probably a safety feature to keep the subject from causing too much harm to themselves. Still, it would have been nice if the task could have been completed but that was generally just a nice secondary objective, all said.

Setting the aircar down next to the exhausted shifter, Riss popped open the door nearest to her as an invitation to get in. Hopefully Sophia didn't need anyone to carry her as the muse's qualms about physical contact would probably amount to her just finding some sort of cane or the like as a stand-in than actually picking her up. Once she was actually in the vehicle, though, the muse's first words would be: "You did well. What are your thoughts on beef curry?" Hopefully they were positive as that was what the muse would be making once they touched down back near the buildings. Sure it was a short enough way that could have been walked but the muse gauged that the shifter would probably feel a bit of resentment with how tired she appeared to be.

"Could you describe to me how you feel right now to the best of your ability?" she asked somewhat impassively. Best to get what she could now while the feeling was fresh. Even if it was something the shifter was used to, things could be glossed over when drawing from biological memory, after all.

[Arkhosia]

[Junkyard Junktion]

The muse frowned slightly at the result. Apparently exhaustion was another trigger to undo the transformation. Good to know and probably a safety feature to keep the subject from causing too much harm to themselves. Still, it would have been nice if the task could have been completed but that was generally just a nice secondary objective, all said.

Setting the aircar down next to the exhausted shifter, Riss popped open the door nearest to her as an invitation to get in. Hopefully Sophia didn't need anyone to carry her as the muse's qualms about physical contact would probably amount to her just finding some sort of cane or the like as a stand-in than actually picking her up. Once she was actually in the vehicle, though, the muse's first words would be: "You did well. What are your thoughts on beef curry?" Hopefully they were positive as that was what the muse would be making once they touched down back near the buildings. Sure it was a short enough way that could have been walked but the muse gauged that the shifter would probably feel a bit of resentment with how tired she appeared to be.

"Could you describe to me how you feel right now to the best of your ability?" she asked somewhat impassively. Best to get what she could now while the feeling was fresh. Even if it was something the shifter was used to, things could be glossed over when drawing from biological memory, after all.

Sophia tiredly climbers into the car, smiling.
Thanks. Never tried it, I'm afraid.
Exhausted and famished, honestly. Apologies, but I might have played it safe and stopped before I overdid it. I'm not sure. It's kinda subconscious.
She replies with an apologetic tone as she follows ot of the car.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]'

Clara smiles and says, "Mmmm...I feel amazing. Better than I ever have before." As she says this, she tries to look into the doctor's mind, curious as to what he thinks about her.

[5a Violista]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]
Alaine and Alysha

"We were looking for one of those haunted houses," Alaine says. "You know, the ones where you go in them and the lights are off and there's a fog machine and people dressed up as clowns and scientists and mirrors jump out and shout things and then someone comforts someone else by saying their name and then all the people in the haunted house know your name and then repeat it later through the house in whispers. You know, the really scary ones."

I haven't actually been in one of those for, like, forever. At least two years. I do remember making one with my older brother's help, in the basement of one of my cousins, for my younger siblings and cousins. They were more scared that we turned the lights off and were in the basement than any of the spooky noises we made, though.

"But," she says, looking around at all the candy and people dressed up, "we couldn't find any yet." She squeezes her doll again. If her doll were alive, it would now have suffocated from being squeezed too hard.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Spooktacular

Well, I haven't been in one. Ever.

Alysha grins. That sounds awesome! Let's go find one!

She'll offer her hand for Alaine to take, and then go search for one. There's bound to be at least one here, right?

[5a Violista]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

If Alaine tries to hold onto Alysha's hand, it means she'll have to let go of her doll with one of her hands! It's really a conundrum.

So, she lets go of the doll with one of the hands, so she can hold Alysha's hand. She still clutches the doll to herself, though, with the other hand. However, apparently it was acting up because she looks down at it and says, "Shut it, Jubaku."

So, off to find a scary spookhouse!

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

Alaine and Alysha

Finding the Haunted House shouldn't be too terrible difficult, mostly because someone was kind enough to put up signs and there's already a gaggle of children lining up for it.

No, seriously.

The place has a pretty big line. They're taking folks into the spooky haunted house in groups of six. And people are leaving the haunted house in groups of six, too! Usually via fleeing and screaming and laughing. That suggests that a fun (spooky) time is being had by all! Every few minutes the line lurches forward as the next group of participants heads through the spooky curtains and into, well, we may as well get a description of the place, huh?

It's a mansion.

A pretty big one, too. A huge Victorian mansion with dangling shingles and peeling paint. Its angles all seem crooked and leaning, almost as if the ancient looking building were actively looming over them. It's style of architecture really doesn't fit with Carousel Court at all. This certainly isn't anything like the brightly painted two story stucco villas with thatched roofs that predominate the district. Leaves one to wonder if the equestrians built it specifically for the party. Or maybe the Nexus just grabbed a spooky old mansion in time for Spooktober?

As well.

Alaine and Alysha are slowly moving toward the entrance. Wonder if they'll meet anyone else out here?

[KerfuffleMach2]

Spooktacular

Alysha gives a wide grin and points to the mansion.

There it is! And they did a good job of decorating it, huh? Looks pretty spooky to me.

Alysha will head for it, hopefully leading Alaine's to it as well.

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

"Some sort of bird? Can Radu make a body the way you did?" Arty asks, still thoroughly confused.

[Lost_Deep]

Zafflebrod's Off-Campus

Merissa looks at him oddly, but doesn't ask about what the drink did to him as she guides him across the street. It's probably something malicious like horror-vision.

That poor, naive girl.

The off campus facilities are essentially a giant warehouse with very little adorning the floor. There are boxes and pallets donated by construction companies for target practice and little else. Students are expected to bring their own supplies and tidy up their mess after they're done, but otherwise left alone to cut loose in whatever corner of the massive, open stone space they decide to use.

Merissa, now fully made of chocolate, is setting up to dispel herself and the other two, drawing from that new book she has with her, "It's full of archaic spells, and in the front cover is a cryptogram needed to translate them that I've been studying and turning into the basis for a translation spell for utilities class as a project. I don't know why, but I came back to the project after waking up today and finished it off. Might have had something to do with my dreams, since Tabby says they were pretty out there. Here we go... removing ongoing curses? Might be a bit strong, but it'd work." She's confident it would, in fact, as she looks more intently at the page.


Zaff's Off-Campus

Isaac manages to only gawk and gag a few times at all the poor souls he's being forced to view or risk crashing. Better Merissa never know, for what has been seen cannot be unseen.
Once they enter, Isaac gives Merissa space to cast her stuff, standing off to the side with his hands behind his back, awkwardly trying to keep his gaze in the direction of anywhere but at her.
This is awful. She doesn't even know, but he's far too responsible to gawk at her without her permission! Well, that's a lie. It's more that he knows that if he did she'd totally figure it out and have his head. And that would be no good.

"If you want to try it, go ahead," Tabitha says. She has her suspicions about Isaac's issue, but ultimately decides it's not worth worrying about, "But if you're worried I can likely try a basic dispel?"


[Spooktober Spectacular!]

Bella

The brittle is, unsurprisingly, rather delicious. The sweetness of the chocolate perfectly offsets the salty nuts.

And then?

Over to Bonbon's stand. The funny thing about many of the shops around Carousel Court is that they are, for the most part, the first floor of homes while the living quarters are on the second. It's like a bunch of cottage industries! That must just be the traditional way of setting things up for the equestrians. What a peculiar batch of people. Anywho! Bonbon is a cream colored mare with a rather striking curly cobalt and fuchsia mane who is, unsurprisingly, offering bonbons to the trick-or-treaters. The candies all come in dark chocolate with milk chocolate drizzle or milk chocolate with dark chocolate drizzle. The contents of the hollow chocolate shells are, of course, a complete mystery.

Near the stand a minty colored unicorn bard is playing a lyre whilst regaling a small crowd with spooky ballads from a wide range of various cultures. Seems she has been studying up on spooky harvest festival stories!

I know what you're thinking. No, Bella does not react unusually. The first thing she does is look at the bonbons, choose one of the dark chocolate balls, and bite it.

[5a Violista]

Spooktacular

Alysha gives a wide grin and points to the mansion.

There it is! And they did a good job of decorating it, huh? Looks pretty spooky to me.

Alysha will head for it, hopefully leading Alaine's to it as well.

[Spooktober Spectacular!]
Victorian Mansion

Of course Alaine is led to it; there's no reason yet to pull away her hand.

"It looks perfectly splendid," she says, using a word that I usually don't use in my normal speech. It's too bad the line is so long.

Guess they'll have to wait. Sure, it's a chance for someone else to join in their group of to-be six.

"I like how it's painted," Alaine says.

[Slii Arhem]

Zaff's Off-Campus

Isaac manages to only gawk and gag a few times at all the poor souls he's being forced to view or risk crashing. Better Merissa never know, for what has been seen cannot be unseen.
Once they enter, Isaac gives Merissa space to cast her stuff, standing off to the side with his hands behind his back, awkwardly trying to keep his gaze in the direction of anywhere but at her.
This is awful. She doesn't even know, but he's far too responsible to gawk at her without her permission! Well, that's a lie. It's more that he knows that if he did she'd totally figure it out and have his head. And that would be no good.



"If you want to try it, go ahead," Tabitha says. She has her suspicions about Isaac's issue, but ultimately decides it's not worth worrying about, "But if you're worried I can likely try a basic dispel?"



Zaff's Off-Campus

"No, it should be fine, it's just a bit of overkill to use it on a prank potion. And regular dispels usually don't work so well against potions, remember? Okay, so a three fourths crescent, points at the feet of the person having the curse removed, curse moves into the thickest part of the crescent. I can even have three symbols overlapping to do it all at once." She'll get to work, drawing the chalk crescents onto the concrete floor and tossing some coarse salt over each shoulder while standing one two of the six points.

"That's pretty much the ceremony, but now we should all do it together since the symbols are linked. I can say the words for all of us though. It's going to be exciting, trying out another old spell."

[Deathkeeper]

Zaff's Off-Campus

Isaac lets her go about her preparations, but he does have one question or two.
"Uh, if the curse moves to the other part of the crescent, what does it do then? And are you sure you should be modifying spells like that?I understand old spells can be a bit...rigid." he says, still trying to avoid looking at her too much. Come on, Isaac, discipline!

[Rebonack]

[DART Safehouse]

Or outside it, at least.

It's a perfectly normal looking residential building in a perfectly normal looking residential neighborhood surrounded by people who are probably perfectly normal. Or perfectly normal by Nexus standards, anyway. There are no bars on the windows. No armed guards. No agents in suits and sunglasses. Nothing that would suggest that anything at all out of the ordinary is going on here.

Bella will stop everyone before the house is even in sight.

"DART has monitoring equipment set up near all their safe houses. The plain clothes agents inside will be armed with dart guns. The sedative cocktail that we use is lethal to most humanoids," Bella quickly explains. "Wisteria should be the only child there, everyone else is a DART agent. Don't hesitate, because they won't."

DART agents are pretty awful people.

Bella was a pretty awful person. But even awful people can love their children.

~I can drop an invisibility spell over us,~ Sunder offers. ~It'll end the moment you attack someone, but that should get us close at least, right?~

Bella nods. "One of the PIE units would disrupt the spell, but those usually aren't turned on until after an attack has started," she replies. And then expands on that a bit for those who are thinking of pastries. "Portal impossibility exclude. It's a sort of technological anti-magic shell. Doctor Johnson developed them and DART has been using his designs."

[Darkcomet]

Undisclosed Location



Magtok seems suddenly very relieved. Ecstatic, even. They're taking proposals, instead of just firing out a verdict. The worst case scenario has passed us by; he can easily figure out a way out of this situation.

"All of this month's profits go to the victims, then. All of it. I'll live without October, though I might have to lie low for a while, and they'll get their restitution. When the people of the Nexus ask what you did to punish Magtok for his crimes, you can point towards his brief period of terror when a warrant was issued for his arrest, followed by a sizable lump of money paid out to those he hurt. I'll even let them think it was your idea, if you'd like."

Magtok allows himself a grin. Pfft, he was all worried about this like it was the end of the world, but it turns out he just needed to wait a couple of minutes and everything would be fine! His big stupid mouth can easily work out a deal that will sort this all out.

"Not that it changes anything, but those victims were going to die. All of them. Remember that terrorist attack when those people exploded stuff and tried to gas everybody? I think it was the day I visited Vasquez's mother, to try to goad Vyrn into jumping the gun and shooting first so I'd look justified if I had to do anything. Some nonsense like that. Anyways, the Magbots found some people who weren't going to live and there weren't rescue teams coming for them. Again, doesn't change anything, since I was taking advantage of an awful situation, and saving someone only to hurt them is still completely awful. Just thought you should know."

"I do remember that, and if you'll recall, I was there, pointing a gun at you," the Vice Commander deadpans. "Regardless, that is...a start. It'll certainly pay the therapists. Additionally, I will expect full reports on VIGIL activity within Union territory in the future, lest there be complications to either of our operations. While you might not want to tie VIGIL to us, the alternative involves a lot of unfortunate tensions as long as you remain in your leadership position there, now that we no longer have a major ally in the VIGIL leadership. Will that be a problem?" N'alae asks, in that not-really-asking sort of way.

It's hardly a question when you more or less have someone backed into a corner and are simply trying to act polite about the whole thing.

[Recaiden]

[DART Safehouse Approach]

"What would that anti-magic do to you?"
Tavlii slides to a stop behind the monstrosities, having skated along the ground rather quickly to keep up.
Readies on of their pale blocky energy guns.

This is really a Nai's job. They should keep one at the temple as a guard, for all the trouble that stems from that place.

[ThirdEmperor]

[Red Zone - Zombie Emporium]

There's a new sign in long lane of neon lights promising liquor, guns and comic books - in flickering green it spells out 'The Zombie Emporium'. It's a squat cement block of a building, with a new coat of eggshell white sloshes over the walls and the windows shaded. Could be any number of other buildings on the row, if it wasn't for the airstream trailer parked out front, bristling with anntennas and lightning rods, or the holding pen taking up the rest of the lot. Because inside, the Zombie Emporium's merchandise is on display. And as promised on the smaller sign hung on the door, they are indeed

- 100% Non-Humanoid or Sapient Parts -

They're hideous things, like undead minotaurs. Take a cow and rebuild it to walk like a man, grafting on muscle to the hindlegs and reinforcing them with steel until they're grotesquely out of proportion. Fix up the spine as well for that bipedal shamble, with more metal braces and more bolts to secure them. The hands are covered with thick red gloves, but they are hands, somehow, with four fingers and opposable thumbs just like any human's. The zombie cattle list soundlessly in their pens, shambling to the edges and back in a slow bounce between the walls.

Needless to say, the liquor, gun and comic stores nearby are none too fond of their new neighbor.

[Fenric]

DART Safehouse

Tsukiko listens carefully to the description, then frowns about the antimagic devices.

Those magic defeating devices will certainly complicate matters.

[Rebonack]

[Safehouse Approach]

"They might make us living while we're within them. And... they should suppress our magic?" Bella replies uncertainly.

Sunder gives a wing shrug. ~Antimagic shells don't stop pony magic. Least I've never run into one that does. It'll knock out the nightshade stuff, though. I should be able to bust 'em pretty easy, though. If I don't notice that we're in one, just give a yell and I'll smash it.~

Sunder's stuff-breaking ability is pretty darn useful in that regard. Though there's an unpleasant chance that sundering the field might cause it to blow up like a wild magic bomb rather than just overloading...

Of course, Sunder isn't aware of that!

They'll just have to find out first hand.

It'll be an adventure!

Sunder begins to cast Invisibility over the individual party members and once the baffle is set Bella begins sneaking toward the safehouse!

Sadly, pony hooves aren't exactly quiet. Thankfully there aren't any guards out front to hear the clip-clopping.

[Lord Magtok]

Undisclosed Location


"I do remember that, and if you'll recall, I was there, pointing a gun at you," the Vice Commander deadpans. "Regardless, that is...a start. It'll certainly pay the therapists. Additionally, I will expect full reports on VIGIL activity within Union territory in the future, lest there be complications to either of our operations. While you might not want to tie VIGIL to us, the alternative involves a lot of unfortunate tensions as long as you remain in your leadership position there, now that we no longer have a major ally in the VIGIL leadership. Will that be a problem?" N'alae asks, in that not-really-asking sort of way.

It's hardly a question when you more or less have someone backed into a corner and are simply trying to act polite about the whole thing.

"I'll talk to Cessie and Carrie, see what I can do." Magtok answers, already imagining a dozen or so excuses he could use to minimize the frequency he'd provide such reports, as well as the content within them. He consented to this arrest for the sake of his victims and the MagMarts, not for relations with the filthy empire and their totalitarian control of the city. :smallyuk:

"Are we done here?"

[Recaiden]

[Safehouse Approach]

"How convenient. In our world, shadows that go into an anti-magic field stop existing. I would be ready for it to; it stops things that are physical processes in our reality, if it doesn't correspond to theirs."
Speaking of, Tavlii needs to prepare for that as well. She'd probably get only one shot with their gun. Slug-throwers don't work in every physics system either. They should invest in some flamethrowers.
Wings curled up, skating turned off, bayonet attached, mind-instance disconnected.

Creep invisibly up towards the door. Could it be as easy as opening it?

[Darkcomet]

[Unknown Location]

N'alae nods to herself. Yes, this was working out fairly well. "Until I get confirmation on that, current orders will stand, but I'm sure you knew that already. In the meantime, rest assured that should we find out who tried to kill you before I interrupted, they will be treated as any other murderer. Worse, even, since they were foolish enough to try to catch me in the attack. Finally, should you need an exit, I am ready to assist, if you need it."

[Aric Kale]

[Red Zone - Zombie Emporium]

There's a new sign in long lane of neon lights promising liquor, guns and comic books - in flickering green it spells out 'The Zombie Emporium'. It's a squat cement block of a building, with a new coat of eggshell white sloshes over the walls and the windows shaded. Could be any number of other buildings on the row, if it wasn't for the airstream trailer parked out front, bristling with anntennas and lightning rods, or the holding pen taking up the rest of the lot. Because inside, the Zombie Emporium's merchandise is on display. And as promised on the smaller sign hung on the door, they are indeed

- 100% Non-Humanoid or Sapient Parts -

They're hideous things, like undead minotaurs. Take a cow and rebuild it to walk like a man, grafting on muscle to the hindlegs and reinforcing them with steel until they're grotesquely out of proportion. Fix up the spine as well for that bipedal shamble, with more metal braces and more bolts to secure them. The hands are covered with thick red gloves, but they are hands, somehow, with four fingers and opposable thumbs just like any human's. The zombie cattle list soundlessly in their pens, shambling to the edges and back in a slow bounce between the walls.

Needless to say, the liquor, gun and comic stores nearby are none too fond of their new neighbor.

Red Zone - Zombie Emporium

Here's a probable customer.
The figure floats up to the door, wraithlike. nothing can be seen beyond the black and gray cloak, which trails all the way to the ground. A quick glance behind the figure will prove that there is no trail, oddly enough.

The door opens before it, and a chilling voice calls forth. One might describe it as feminine...

What all do you have in stock, besides these cows?

A staff bangs against the ground, making sure that the cloaked figure is heard. The hand gripping the black iron rod is dark...too dark for a normal hand, with silver fingernails.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober Spectacular!]

Bella

A random bonbon is selected from the bowl, unwrapped, and eaten!

Inside?

A creamy, delectable, rich, fluffy chocolate mousse. When it comes to chocolates, chocolate covered chocolate is hard to beat.

Alaine and Alysha

Welp!

Looks like no one else is headed in. Alaine and Alysha will be joined by a group of four teens wearing what could probably be considered ninja turtle costumes. Just the masks, really. As in the little tie-on strips of colored cloth. They really aren't putting much effort into this. Sadly, that's all too common with the teens...

Unless they get really into it and do some awesome costplaying stuff! But these ones aren't.

A human guy wearing a pretty spot on Igor costume and holding a lantern limps up to the group of six and beckons toward them. "Come with me, and I will show you the terrors that await within..." he says in a perfectly nasally Igor voice.

[The Sewers]

"Ugh... this is the worst patrol in the whole City..." a gloomling batpony grumbles as she wings along through the tunnels, eyes like blazing embers in the darkness.

"Oh come on, Tenebra, it isn't that bad," a second gloomling of the same tribe laughs. She's trotting along the slick, scuzzy foot-path that flanks the subterranean flow of surprisingly clean water. "These are adventurer sewers. Not the sewer sewers. And that means they're just big fancy tunnels full of monsters, molds, treasure, and under-ground rivers."

"Yeah, well, you lived down here, Nyx," the other gloomy batpony shoots back. "You'll have to excuse me if I'm not quite so excited."

Nyx sticks her tongue out at her companion. "Yeah yeah, I used to be a rot-eating ghoul, rub it in. But this beats being a ghoul, easy! I can walk around up on the surface and no one will freak out! I wouldn't mind snacking on a few of my old ghoul acquaintances and converting them over to the pony-side. They're really missing out on this whole 'unliving' thing. Beats the pants off undead."

"I just like the open air back in Midnight Park more," Tenebra sighs. "But I guess batponies are well suited for the whole underground thing. If I could have picked I would have gone with pegasus."

"Pfbbbbt!" Nyx replies with a rather horse-y sputtering sound. "And miss out on cool stuff like shadow magic? Don't be-"

A loud plunk of a stone falling to the water echoes through the tunnels, causing both gloomlings to freeze in their tracks, ears pricked forward. The sploosh is followed by another, then by the distinct sound of claws scrabbling against stone.

"Trouble?" Tenebra asks.

"Trouble, probably. Let's go check it out," Nyx confirms. Darkness shrouds the two batponies, muffling their steps and obscuring them from even the sharpest of nightvision as they begin creeping toward the disturbance.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Spooktacular

Alysha's fangs show as her smile somehow becomes wider. One might think she was excited about this.

This is gonna be awesome!

The peppy vampire dressed as a rag doll happily goes to follow the man dressed as Igor.

Meanwhile, her player suddenly has a huge urge to watch "Young Frankenstein".

[Rebonack]

[Sewers ==> Below an Apartment Complex Basement]

One majorly useful application of shadow magic?

Applying it to one's hooves and using it not only to muffle sound, but also to creep along ceilings! And both Tenebra and Nyx are doing a whole lot of creeping right now. Creeping toward a hole in the ceiling. Claw marks mar the walls of the tunnel and a heap of bricks has been piled up in the water below. Normally they would probably be missed, but a pair of bloated, murky colored cadavers are crouching in the river, their heads barley discernible from the stones that surround them.

To normal dark vision they would have just looked like more rocks. But to the sonar of a batpony? They stand out all too easily. Nyx and Tenebra glance to each other, give a quick nod, and silently drop off the ceiling toward the water below.

The first of the drowned wights never even knew what hit it.

The two gloomlings land on either side of the monster with a splash and launch a buck at it, obliterating its head and much of the thing's torso in the process. The rest of its bloated, waterlogged body begins to decay into dark mist that flows into Nyx' eyes and mouth. Temporarily distracted by feeding, Nyx has trouble reacting to the other wight spewing an acidic torrent of brine at her! Thankfully Tenebra has no such issue and interposes herself, sweeping up a wing and thickening the darkness around herself into a near-solid shield that handily deflects the attack!

"Thanks for the save," Nyx calls before leap-frogging over Tenebra and giving her wings a snap, launching herself hooves first into the other wight and smashing it into the algae covered brick walls of the tunnel. The monster smashes a fist into her face, causing her head to snap to the side and one of her fangs to crack. The gloomling growls back, pins the wight to the wall with one hoof, and begins to repeatedly pummel it with the other. The undead monster can't stand up to the beating and succumbs, wisping away into black fog like the first, only to be consumed by Nyx.

"No fair, you got to eat both of them," Tenebra pouts.

"Urp..." Nyx grunts back as her stomach makes a violently awful gurgling sound. "Don't get jealous juuummmmpphuuuuUGGGGHHHPPPH!"

Now Nyx is vomiting liquid gloom all over the ground. Lots of it. Like... seriously. That's probably more than her total body volume. It's just keeps coming!

Tenebra's face contorts into a mask of revulsion. "Changed my mind. I'm okay with you eating both of them."

[Fenric]

[DART Safehouse]

Tsukiko briefly vanishes, then is replaced with an inky black fox the size of a German Shepard sporting nine fluffy black tails.

There, now the anti-magic will just pick this form as "real". Annoying... I haven't actually bitten anyone in six thousand years. I don't recall the taste of blood being particularly pleasant.

Let us get this done with.

And invisibility! Even large, her padded paws are utterly silent as she walks carefully to keep her claws from clicking.

[Rebonack]

[DART Safehouse]

"I'm not a shadow anymore..." Bella mutters.

It's true. She isn't!

Anywho.

Our heroes reach the safehouse without too much difficulty. Though now they're faced with the classic stumbling block to invisibility.

A closed door.

A pox upon closed doors!

Bella stands up on her hind hooves to peer in through one of the windows and into the living room. "I see two plain clothes agents," she says quietly. "They keep Wisteria in a room at the back of the house. If we come in through several locations at once, we should be able to take them all by surprise."

~Sounds good to me. You and Lady Zookiko head around back. The priest gal and me will take these goons,~ Sunder says. Now they have a plan! ~One minute, start counting, then we go in.~

Bella gives a nod that no one can see and hurries off to the back of the house. Tsukiko should have no trouble following the hoofprints she leaves behind in the grass.

[Red Zone Apartment Complex]

It almost makes you wonder why anyone lives in these death traps, doesn't it?

Awful urban planning aside, Nyx finally finishes barfing black goop everywhere and two new gloomlings arise! A crystal pony and an earth pony. The two recently re-created stallions look rather dazed. Which is understandable, really. They just got eaten and vomited back out again. "Umm... what just happened?" the gloomy earth pony asks.

Nyx holds up a hoof in a 'wait a seconds' sort of way as she continues huffing, trying to catch her breath. Once she finally manages to regain her composure she says, "I just did to you guys what wights do to living people. So welcome to Team Nightmaere! Woo, go us!" She claps her front hooves together in a show of team spirit!

Tenebra laughs at the scene and waves a triumphant hoof in the air. Gooooo Team Nightmaere!

"So it looks like something big is going down here," Nyx continues. "What's up?"

The two recently re-sired gloomlings share a glance before the earth pony speaks up again. "I was down here with my friend on a first level dungeon crawl when this huge mob of wights came sweeping through. They just totally flattened us, next thing we knew we were wights and we were helping dig out the ceiling there," he says, pointing at the hole just in case Nyx had missed it. "They told us to stay down here and keep watch while they went up there and ate everyone."

Well.

That sounds terrible.

Nyx and Tenebra exchange a look. "How long ago was this?"

"I don't know, maybe half an hour?" the earth pony replies.

"Fuuuuuuuudgesicles," Nyx... not really swears. "This is a big deal. You should fly off and find someone to warn about what's going on."

Tenebra wrinkles her nose. "Why me? I still want to make some spawn of my own and you already have two."

"Because they're under my command, they'll follow my orders better than yours," Nyx counters.

"We play rock paper scissors for it," Tenebra suggests. "Whoever loses goes for help."

"Fine."

"Fine."

The two mares narrow their eyes at each other. The gloomy earth pony opens his mouth and raises one hoof to interject.

"Rock-"
"Paper-"
"Scissors!" "Scissors!"

...they both still have hooves instead of hands.

"This was a stupid idea."

[Recaiden]

[DART Safehouse]

Tavlii nods and starts counting.
60...59...58...57....56...........3...2...1, open door, go in, shoot the first thing visible using the plasma rifle until it stops operating.

These are the things she will try.

[Terumitsu]

Sophia tiredly climbers into the car, smiling.
Thanks. Never tried it, I'm afraid.
Exhausted and famished, honestly. Apologies, but I might have played it safe and stopped before I overdid it. I'm not sure. It's kinda subconscious.
She replies with an apologetic tone as she follows ot of the car.

[Junkyard Junktion]

"No, that's understandable. Causing yourself harm when I want to run several tests would result in both of us having less than enjoyable results from this." she said, setting down the vehicle next to the bunker-esque constructions on the far end of the yard. "In any case, I've decided to add more potatoes to the recipie than you might otherwise be used to if you had been familiar. It's a good plant, nutritionally speaking. Or.. At least in terms of potassium as starches are not known to be reliably healthy for an extended period of time." she said, knowing full well that was restricted to those who were purely biological. Or.. At least those who were purely biological and wanted to remain within a specific range of body shape.

Popping open the glovebox, which appeared to be more of a miniature refridgerator than just a container for loose items, Riss pulled out two cans of chilled fruit juice and offered one to the shifter... Though this particular act of diplomacy might well be lost on Sophia given how little she likely knew of Riss or muses in general. "Here. Good vitamins in this. Hope you like mango." she said before getting out and leading the way to the building... Which would then be to something that looked like a mostly clean kitchen area where, unless the shifter had anything to talk about to pass the time, there would be a moment of quiet and recovery until she was served the curry in question with steamed rice on the side. It might be a bit spicy for her tastes but, then again, it might not. It would certainly make her feel warmer despite the rather pleasant weather, though.

[Fenric]

[DART Safehouse]

Tsukiko follows along behind Bella as silently as she can, fully intending to be a Korean-style fox the moment the door opens.

5... 4... 3... 2...

[Rebonack]

[DART Safehouse]

Time to go!

At the front, Sunder opts to just smash clean through the wall. Going through a wall is way more dramatic than using the door. One DART agent goes down screaming under a hail of plasma fire while the second is reaching for his dart pistol only to get entangled in a writhing nest of hooked gloom tendrils. Arms, necks, and mouth are all grabbed and constricted as motes of incandescent white light begins flowing up the tendrils and into Sunder. The agent wriggles against the nightmaere's grip, but this isn't a battle he can really win.

At the back door, Bella shoulder checks the barrier and sends it flying off its hinges. She charges straight at one of the two surprised looking agents in the kitchen, pivots on her front hooves, and smashes her hind hooves into his solar-plexus with a sickening crack. The force of the blow sends him rocketing across the room and into the wall, a trail of dark mist hanging in the air behind him.

The other agent pulls out his pistol and aims it at Bella!

[Looking For Help and Probably Interaction!]

It took a while for Nyx and Tenebra to find a game they could use to decide who was going for help and who was staying, and in the end it is Nyx who's flying low over the streets of Inside in search of someone to warn about the dreaded wight infestation! Because wights are pretty terrible.

[Red Zone Apartment Complex]

Which leaves Tenebra and the two recently sired gloomlings behind at the wight-infested complex. Tenebra carries the two new ponies up into the basement. They can't really climb the walls very easily with hooves, after all.

[Arkhosia]

[Junkyard Junktion]

"No, that's understandable. Causing yourself harm when I want to run several tests would result in both of us having less than enjoyable results from this." she said, setting down the vehicle next to the bunker-esque constructions on the far end of the yard. "In any case, I've decided to add more potatoes to the recipie than you might otherwise be used to if you had been familiar. It's a good plant, nutritionally speaking. Or.. At least in terms of potassium as starches are not known to be reliably healthy for an extended period of time." she said, knowing full well that was restricted to those who were purely biological. Or.. At least those who were purely biological and wanted to remain within a specific range of body shape.

Popping open the glovebox, which appeared to be more of a miniature refridgerator than just a container for loose items, Riss pulled out two cans of chilled fruit juice and offered one to the shifter... Though this particular act of diplomacy might well be lost on Sophia given how little she likely knew of Riss or muses in general. "Here. Good vitamins in this. Hope you like mango." she said before getting out and leading the way to the building... Which would then be to something that looked like a mostly clean kitchen area where, unless the shifter had anything to talk about to pass the time, there would be a moment of quiet and recovery until she was served the curry in question with steamed rice on the side. It might be a bit spicy for her tastes but, then again, it might not. It would certainly make her feel warmer despite the rather pleasant weather, though.

Right, and that'd be a problem. After all, the variable of condition would be altered. Thank you, by the way.
Sophia replies, devouring the food.
I remember back in the boot camp days, there was a girl named sasha. She was a rather quirky girl, and it seemed like she was perpetually hungry. She earned the nickname potato girl due to this, in fact. On the first day of boot camp, our Drill Sergeant hazed us in a line up. When he came to Sasha, she was eating a potato. He inquired why she was eating a potato, to which sasha replied that it was in the mess hall, lonely, so she was sheltering it in her stomach. When the drill sergeant asked why a potato, she replied, being frin the country and a bit clueless, replied with utterly naive kindheartedness that she was surprised that the drill Sargeant didn't know why people ate potatoes, and offered to share half with him. She was more distraught that she had to miss dinner than that she had to run towards the sun until it set.
Sophia shares as she eats.
Thank you for the refreshments by the way. Sorry for forgetting to thank you, I forget my manners sometimes.
She thanks, looking a bit embarrassed about this.

[Shadowcaller]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]'

Clara smiles and says, "Mmmm...I feel amazing. Better than I ever have before." As she says this, she tries to look into the doctor's mind, curious as to what he thinks about her.


Chadwick's Temple

"Some sort of bird? Can Radu make a body the way you did?" Arty asks, still thoroughly confused.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

He's mostly worried about her and is concerned about her treatment. But he can't say no to her requests. He looks to be about to say something when the whole building starts to rumble, all of the equipment nearly falling to the floor. "What-"

Then as suddenly as it started, it's gone. "What in the multiverse was that?"

Chadwick's Temple

"Blast it!" Chadwick exclaims. "That must have been the demon. It also explains how it entered the temple in the first place. These dolls aren't made though, they're crafted by special smiths. It's rare that demons have access to them though."

[Deathkeeper]

Chadwick's Temple

Arty looks back out at the bird, and then back to Chadwick.
"Well, it's not like we were planning on doing much besides driving him out anyway. How about we remove his presence from the place? You might want to help her. I don't know if the demon's presence in her caused any damage to her body or more spiritual aspects." he says, hopefully getting out of this area and into the temple proper soon.

[Rebonack]

[Red Zone Apartment Complex]

Basement

"Okay, before we go any further, I'm Tenebra," the gloomy batpony says. "My friend Nyx was the one who sired you. We all work for-"

"Our Mistress, Sunder," the earth pony replies, then blinks. "Huh. Is it weird that I know that?"

Tenebra grins back with a mouth full of fangs. "Not really. So who are you two? You'll just have a name sort of pop into your head. At least that's what happened to me and my other friends after Sunder saved us from being shadows."

The earth pony wrinkles his nose. "I'm... Stalwart Hoof. Huh..." he says, glancing back as an image of a pair of crossed hammers appears on his rump. "I was a first level paladin of Pelor before the wight swarm got me." He frowns slightly at that. "Pelor probably isn't very happy about me getting turned into an undead. Or... unliving. Or whatever I count as now?"

Stalwart's question is met with a laugh. "No, probably not. But I guess if he really cared that much he would have done something about it, right?" While the earth pony considers that question, Tenebra turns her attention to the other stallion. "What about you?"

"Smokey Quartz," he replies, speaking the name as if sampling its flavor. "I'm Smokey Quartz. I was a psion. A friend of Stalwart's. We were going to be great adventurers together. Famous," he gives a snort and a flick of his tail. "That didn't work out so well."

"Well, you two have got another shot at it. We're going to try to find anyone in here who's still alive and get them to safety," Tenebra says. "And we either dust or turn any wights we fight. Just remember, there's a limit of two each. Otherwise they'll be created outside of our Mistress' control. They won't know the rules and they might go feral and hurt someone. Understood?"

The other two gloomlings nod.

"Alright. Let's go save some people."