Outside XII: We number things correctly.

[Artemis97]

[Countryside]

Raril closes his eyes and hangs his head. "So you know about that?" He asks in a whisper. "I... I should have told you... I'm sorry... I wasn't strong enough..." Even though he was speaking quietly, Zee could probably hear his voice cracking.

[Lex-Kat]

{Gersemi's Isle}

I... I.... Melody looks from Happy's Head, to Reinholdt. But..... She's lost for words.

[happyturtle]

[Gersemi's Isle]

"He promised to kill me. And once I was dead, he was right here. Trying to use you to replace Shepherd. Melody, I don't want him anywhere near you." Happy's ghost head says.

[EleventhHour]

[Falling... falling...]

Shoof! Jacket gone, she's in freefall, watching the trees grow toward her. She tumbles a little before evening out, another minute and she'd be flat... unless. Wooooosh! This was going to be her little surprise for Magtok, thier way to get down to the ground together. Little nylon wings extend from the backpack, before shuffling into a parachute. Whee. Too bad that jacket slowed you down, and it's probably not going to be a soft landing.

[Lex-Kat]

{Gersemi's Isle}

Melody takes an involuntary step away from Reinholdt. Reinholdt? There is a fresh tear in her eye.

[Rebonack]

[Countryside]

The Chimera sighs, shoulders slumping a bit. Bleh... what a mess. As if the present situation weren't bad enough Cauliflower had to show up posthumously and vomit his particular brand of depressing all over it.

Stupid lousy lich...

But she shakes that off.

And smiles in that goofy way she does, bumping her head up against Raril's hand. "Do not worry Master! I still love Master more than any other person in the whole wide world!" she rather abrutpyl cheers, havving fallen back into character. She even bounces up and down a bit in an overly playful way.

"I should carry you Master! Then Master will not have to walk! I am a good girl and good at carrying Master!"

[Reinholdt]

{Gersemi's Isle}

"And you promised to kill me!" Reinholdt's sadness turning around to anger as Happy suggests there's any possible way to replace Shepherd. He looks up to glare at her. "And while we're on the subject, why don't you tell Melody about how you tried to commit suicide, huh? Came to me and begged me to shoot you?!"

"But I didn't! I told you how Melody needed you and you went and committed suicide anyways! But despite my sins, your blood is not on my hands."

[happyturtle]

[Gersemi's Isle]

"Liar. I never promised to kill you, and I never tried to kill myself! I thought if I faced you directly you wouldn't have the guts to kill me to my face. And that maybe you might realize you were wrong and back off. But you came back and did it anyway. In my sleep, so I couldn't fight back. So I didn't even know it happened." Happy ghost says.

[Artemis97]

[Countryside]

Raril smirks a bit, unable to stay completely depressed with Zee being so bouncy. Part of him knew it was an act, though. But he needed to act, too. Every moment of every day, so long as he was around his family again. Never let his guard down. Never let them in. Never let them see the pain and the fear he was feeling.

"Alright, alright. But we can't go too far. Okay?" They'd hunt him dowen if they ran. Likely shoot her out of the sky and drag him back in chains. Else they'd murder them both and leave them to rot out here in the wilderness.

Despite the dark thoughts going through his mind, Raril put on a cheerful face and tries to climb up into the saddle. It was new, but he couldn't look surprised by it. He did appreciate it, though, remembering the rather terrifying experience hsi last flight with her had been.

[Lex-Kat]

{Gersemi's Isle}

Melody slowly backs away from the two. She isn't sure who to believe. Reinholdt, who was there when she needed someone to hold. Who she knows has a past, and has been trying to help him.

Or Momma, who was trying to protect Melody, but was crushing Reinholdt and setting back all the work she'd done.

Reinholdt had saved Jezebelle. Had brought her back to her daughters. Melody was sure he had a kind heart.

Momma had saved her against Alek. She had comforted her when he'd made her feel dirty and unloved.

It was all too confusing for her to handle. She turned and ran into the Cottage.

[Reinholdt]

[Gersemi's Isle]

"You swore to kill me back in GLoG! And if you didn't even know it happened, how can you say with such certainty it's my fault you're dead? Oh no. You weren't content feeding Shepherd to the zombies. You had to make my life a living hell too!! Dragging me from the Citadel, asking me to shoot you, sabotaging my friendships! Why can't you leave me be?!"

Reinholdt again tries to fly away, torn between being really, really pissed off and bawling his eyes out. He was too emotional right now to be rational or go after Melody to try and talk to her.

[happyturtle]

[Gersemi's Isle]

"You looked like Shepherd! I was swearing to kill him! And who else would kill me? Who else would have had any conceivable motive? And even if it wasn't you... you're hardly innocent. It isn't as if you haven't left countless other little girls crying for their lost mothers." He may be fleeing, but the ghost head doesn't seem to be left behind.

[Reinholdt]

[Gersemi's Isle]

"To kill the leader of GLoG? Geeze Happy. I have no idea. How about... anyone trying to make a name for themselves or having a grudge against your organization?"

"I didn't say I was innocent. I said your blood isn't on my hands. Now go away! You got what you wanted. Melody will never want to see me again. Just... just... go away..." Fly faster! Faster!

[Lord Magtok]

Valcano Minor

You should've stayed buried in that dumb shop of yours!

Magtok immediately leaps towards Harold Jones, intent on burying his entire biological hand into the man's throat by way of shapeshifting it into something a fair degree pointier.

[Rebonack]

[Countryside]

Zee thought it would be a good wedding gift. Nothing like putting her husband's mind at ease when they're out doing something she so thoroughly enjoys.

The Chimera stoops as the drow nears, allowing him to climb onto her back with greater ease. Raril might notice that the reins aren't connected to her mouth. Or even her head at all. Rather, they're connecting to a harness about her neck. Just something to hang onto rather than a tool to guide her with.

Though when Raril makes his request she droops a bit. "Aaww... I like going fast, Master..." the beast pouts slightly before falling into a trot, easily keeping pace with the lizard riders.

"Where are we going, Master? Are the skies there clear?"

Woah!

She spoke a sentence without using the word Master!

[Artemis97]

[Countryside]

"No. There is no sky there. No sun. No moon. No stars." Raril replies, somewhat sadly, his eyes turning skyward. "My home is a massive cavern, a dome of rock and earth that hangs high above the city. There is no sky... but there is room to fly, if you are careful." He explains, a hint of a smile returning to his face.

[happyturtle]

[Gersemi's Isle]

And Rein gets what he wants, as the ghost head fades from sight.

Given his general level of mental stability, though, it's entirely possible he'll keep seeing it.

[Reinholdt]

[Valcano Minor]

"Pisstachioss." With this random keyword, SSM's suitcase pops into his hands and barely blocks Magtok's attack, the top popping open to bop Magtok in the head, the opening facing SSM. No doubt he's trying to retrieve yet another object.

[Gersemi's Isle]

Reinholdt unstable enough to see ghosts of his sins past? Noooo...

He returns to the Glass Citadel. Where he breaks into fresh rounds of raving, screaming, breaking of things, talking to ghosts that aren't there, and crying in a corner by himself.

Broken cookies lie on the ground on the Isle.

[Rebonack]

[Countryside]

The Chimera wilts a bit at the mention of the lacking sky. Wings droop. Ears drop. Shoulders droop. She seems quite disappointed about that. Because she rather likes the sky.

And the sun. And the moon. And the stars.

Though when it's mentioned that she'll still be able to fly.

"How will I see, Master? If Master's home is under ground then it will be very dark. Does it smell nice there, Master? Is there wind in Master's home? I like wind. Wind is good."

She nods sagely at her proclamation.

...then leans over a bit toward one of the giant lizards and sniffs at it.

[Artemis97]

[Countryside]

Raril shakes his head again. "No. There is no wind, either. The climate is consistant. The only changes, that which we create ourselves. But we, too, resist change. My home is full of contradiction. A contrast of progress and stagnation." The drow was rambling a bit now, taking refuge in words, trying to escape his growing depression. Unfortunately his memories of home were not so pleasant.

The lizard hisses at Zee, and flicks its tail in her direction.

[Lord Magtok]

Valcano Minor

And the "Sssss thing". Like a snake. Who'd you think you were fooling?

After getting bopped, Magtok quickly tries to grasp at the sides of the suitcase and slide it off the mountain. With luck, most of SSM's stuff should go down with it.

[Rebonack]

[Countryside]

Is was the best of days, it was the worst of days...

Zee plods alongside the lizards, responding to the hissing by sticking her tongue out at the giant reptile. No doubt the significance of the action will be lost on it. But Zee still manages to wring some amusement out of the situation.

There's a lot on her mind...

Those children.

That Raril never spoke up ever since this happened.

Did... he not trust her? How did he think she would respond?

Hadn't he been magically compelled?

Hadn't he...?

The Chimera trots on toward the dark world below.

[EleventhHour]

[Cliffside]

Fortunately, Elle wasn't falling all the way to the ground, just tilting back around to crash into the cliff messily, shucking the flight-device and clinging madly for dear life. "...and back up..." Hand over hand, she climbs the edges.

[happyturtle]

[AuxMagCave]

Oh no! Crying Rugtoks! All with identical cuts on their arms. "Hush. Hush dears. I'll take care of you. Don't be afraid." Sunny says, trying to round them up and herd them towards the infirmary, her machine empathy trying to calm their cyborg parts. /It's safe. Sunny is here. MagSquid and Mainframe are here. Magtok will fix everything. You are safe. We will all protect you./

[Reinholdt]

Valcano Minor

"Hindssight iss 20-20. But no one ssusspected me until now and you know it." SSM gets a hold of a piece of blank paper before the suitcase goes flying out of hands and back down towards the ground again. If his eyes weren't covered by those shades, Magtok would see that he is rolling them.

"Pisstachioss." The suitcase is back in his hands, though closed. It's an artifact bounded to his being. Similar to what Yaza would create, though made far before Yaza showed up. Though I suppose if you broke his jaw, he wouldn't be able to retrieve it so easily.

"Would you like to ssee my magic trick?" SSM holds the paper up to his face, almost like a mask.

[Lord Magtok]

Valcano Minor

Only if you let me tell you how I got this sca-OWW!

Magtok had just been about to use a finger on his cybernetic hand to fire an emergency bullet through the paper and into SSM, though a sudden burst of inexplicable arm pain makes the shot go to the right of where Mag'd been aiming. It'll probably hit the right edge of the paper, but probably won't be hitting its intended target.

[Reinholdt]

Valcano Minor

And with the left edge of the paper shot through, Squeaky Shoes Man... turns sideways. And in the process, goes invisible!

Wait... no. The upper left side of his face is still there, floating. The singular oval glass shape of his glasses visible. It approaches and Magtok can hear a whoosh as the weight and size of a suitcase comes crashing towards his head.

If he rolls to one side or fall to it or something, he'll see that SSM has gone 2-D and is simply standing sideways. With a twisted exception of that part of his face that's still 3-D where Magtok ruined the magic.

[Artemis97]

[Countryside]

Slowly, gradually, the scenery changes. It becomes more regular, not the strange patchwork that surrounds the ever shifting Nexus. Now they were traveling through thick pine forests and rocky terrain. Strangely, the carriage is having no trouble at all, squeezing through gaps and over inclines it had no right traversing.

Soon, the precession reaches the mouth of a cave. It's a wide, low slash in the side of the hill. Vines and tree roots hung from the overhanging ledge, covering parts of the opening.

[Lord Magtok]

AuxMagCave

A clone telewarps in, and then shouts out as he plods forward towards the medical wing.

Taverna clone seeking medical aid! Inexplicable arm wou-

And then the MagTots go by, and the adult clone immediately shuts up and realizes there's something more important than his own wound to deal with. He can't afford to have these things psychologically scarred by this incident or grow up to be significantly different from the Magtokian norm, so he steps forward to help Sunny out. Children are, after all, our future.

Valcano Minor

I knew something was up when I tried to get that Shroud. Same for when you and the rest of the characters up and died all at once.

Magtok turns his head to allow his shiny half to absorb most of the impact, and slashes horizontally with a shape-shifted arm, hoping to cut somewhere just below the visible bit of face.

[The Bushranger]

[Gersemi's Isle]

{Gersemi's Isle- Barn}

Melody and the children will try to lay Quinn down on some hay. What is it? Melody asks politely, but then goes off to ensure that broken-legs mother, and soon-to-be mother are all right.

"Your mother. We're trying to bring her back, she wanted us to make sure you were safe..."

Quinn trails off as Melody leaves, and lays in the hay, hearing occasional shouting over the next little while, but too dazed to intervene.

Finally though, she stands, and, a little wobbly, goes to head out of the barn.