[Nexus] Inside 39

[Lady Serpentine]

[Grey Zone]

"True. Which means, depending on how you feel, it's either our first choice or our last."

She's pretty clearly joking, though, and starts heading that way.

[Beans]

[Grey Zone]
She hangs on and will be taken to the mall!

[Mindfreak]

Sidewalks
Alene does the same!

[Beans]

[Sidewalks]

Meddy wonders where the heck one finds a wedding planner anyway.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Grey Zone]

And so, to Mallside they go.

[Morty]

[Wolfy's Dance Studio]

Reelshka is here again. Much less nervous than last time, with her new spandex outfit in her bag.

[Mindfreak]

[Sidewalks]

Meddy wonders where the heck one finds a wedding planner anyway.

Sidewalks
After an hour of looking, Alene gives up.
"Do you know how to find a wedding planner?"

[Chaotic Bob]

(Sudden re-existence!)

Spoiler

Show

[Red Zone - Alley]

Well, it looks like this fight is just about over. Clarissa's form is nearly destroyed. Her leg pops off absurdly easily. Clarissa has lost her leg without putting up much of any sort of fight at all! It's a defense system markedly similar to that of a salamander when it's tail is latched onto. It merely releases the tail (or, in this case, the leg) to act as a distraction.

But Clarissa isn't really ready to die. She's not quite finished yet.

Clarissa hurls her arms backwards. They elongate into long strands of flesh, tendrils no less. They dart back into the shadows of the alleyway, plugging into two of the tentacle weapons that Clarissa has left untouched and charging up to this point.

Wiring. A direct uplink allowing Clarissa to command her miniature troopers with her mind still partitioned.

"If I'm going down, I'm taking you with me!"

The tentacles begin to attempt to fire tiny packets of membrane-bound liquids at Sally in quick succession. One tentacle-gun, stationed behind a pile of junk (both are, really, but along opposite walls of the alley), is rigged up to fire sacs of liquid nitrogen at Sally. The other attempts to fling an extremely volatile brew at her that might result in a small explosion when it is exposed to the air. The packets of liquid nitrogen come fast. The detonating-parcels fire with a few seconds delay between shots as it reloads itself in a suitably disgusting manner, circular pods coursing through the insides of the tendrils. Clarissa is praying that the liquid nitrogen will supercool Sally's metal inner workings. This might leave the metal compact and brittle, possibly making the effects of the explosive ammo more pronounced, if you will.

It is clear that Clarissa is suffering from this assault as well. She is in range of the projectile-launchers. She is pelted with a few rounds of ammo, being situated in such close proximity to Sally. She also likely is splashed with a couple droplets of whatever packets hit Sally, if any.

This probably results in Clarissa freezing solid and being blow to bits by her own arms (in every sense of the word), laughing maniacally until she suddenly passes out due to extreme energy expenditures under the effects of sloth.

As if that wasn't enough, Clarissa has a fail-deadly switch setup in her current form. When the systems sustaining this manifestation's life fail, this Clarissa will explode in a ball of extraordinary energy, likely consuming most things with a sixteen foot radius.

Of course, Sally has a good chance at escape, assuming she can find a chance to even consider it a midst all of the chaos being slung at her. The liquid nitrogen has rendered the goo anchoring her to the pavement completely ineffectual, freezing it solid. Frozen things are often easy to break. That was the basis of Clarissa's attack on Sally. It applies in reverse as well. That spear segment serving as a "jack" that might still be within Sally will no longer function if the area it is within collides with a single nitrogen pellet.

Clarissa hasn't stopped breathing yet; even if this puppet dies, Clarissa might live on through the five tentacles holding the alley. It won't be much of an existence for a loooong while, but she'll probably find just enough biomass in her possession to craft a half-dead form to return to Dave...eventually...if she is somehow lucky enough to make it out of this fray with her hide still half-attached by a sinew or two.

Hm, oh dear.
This looks to be a rather distressing situation, doesn't it?

Sally looks up, as the arms stretch off into the alley, tossing the removed leg off to the side somewhere.
Still stuck to the ground, for the moment, there's not a whole lot she can do to avoid the incoming attack.

Nothing more than crouching down and vaguely hoping to reduce the odds of being hit by whatever is likely to come.
Which is something she does have a slight advantage in, being the size of a little girl and all.
Arms up, over the head, rest of body obscured by her legs.

More acceptable to receive damage to the limbs, when impacted by high explosives and freeze agents, than the primary body and head.

The resulting, after much nitrogen and explosive application, is that the space where Sally had been stuck to the ground, is now rather empty.
There's a peculiar red smear, in the frozen and blown up wreckage of space.

Over there, there's a little thin rod of gray metal, slightly charred and rimed, but that appears to be it.

[The Alexandrian]

[Red Zone - Alley]

((Yay!))

Due to Sally's crouching, no part of Clarissa's battle body remains to detonate in what would be her absence of face. The leg might have been discarded, but crouching down brought the explosives' placement when they detonated quite close to Clarissa's battle corpse, reducing to nothing more than disgusting shards of shattered, icy flesh.

But Clarissa still exists. That is the only thing that matters to her right now. Her fleshy, projectile-launching tendrils detach from the walls and gather into a small mass of ooze off in the shadows of the alleyway before gradually emerging, slow as can be (due to physical damage and all but incapacitating AGONY!), slinking off to the discarded leg and reabsorbing it into the mass of cellular sludge.

If the rod doesn't draw attention to itself, it should be able to escape Clarissa's "scrupulous, keen gaze" easily enough. If it moves or is extremely otherworldly in and of itself, Clarissa may notice it. If she does happen to notice it, she will stare at it distrustfully for a moment before attempting to painfully and slowly nudge it with her blob-body.

Funny thing is, Clarrisa does not appear to only be wracked with PAIN! She appears to be on the verge of passing out. All she needs is a little push...

And that red smear is disturbing. Clarissa thought that Sally was some sort of robot! Robots don't...bleed?

[TechnoScrabble]

Red ZOne--> Underbed

If they can't avoid it, the pair will find themselves in a endless, shadowy wasteland.

[Lady Serpentine]

[EE]



"The store's dimension lock is fixed, but you can step outside and summon it there," Aeryn suggests.

Harina heads out.

It takes exactly as long as Harnel prefers, to give Jakus a chance to buy what he needs.

[Ashen Lilies]

235 Noir Lane

As Kal steps through the door, he might experience a sudden feeling of disorientation and possibly nausea, as if he had been spinning in circles. Considering he's an experienced assassin, he'll probably recognize it as the effects of walking through some kind of portal.

The front lobby is surprisingly spartan, a hexadecagonical room painted entirely in satin red. Twelve of the sixteen walls are bare except for a single portrait on each, each portrait depicting a different personage, all of them dressed similarly to the man who let Kal in. On the eastern and western walls, there are two doors, and the wall directly across from the entrance is mostly obscured by a spiral staircase right in front of it, leading up to the next floor.

The Overseer makes his way towards this staircase, circling around the stuffed owlbear in the center of the room, and waves for Kal to follow. Y'know, unless Kal has already started setting things on fire.

[235 Noir Lane]

No fires yet. Just him, holding that paper. He glances briefly around at the surprisingly mathematically accurate room, taking everything in, and follows.

[ThirdEmperor]

235 Scarlet Lane

Kal will be led up the spiral staircase to the second floor, which is exactly identical to the first, with the sole exception of the paintings on the walls depicting different scenes, and then up another flight of stairs to the top. As he journeys into the heart of the mansion though, Kal may well begin to notice that things are not quite right here. As he briefly passes through the second floor, he may well see one of the paintings blur for a fraction of a second, looking curiously like a door before reverting back to bring just a mural, and everything around him seems oddly insubstantial, fake. If he can see magic, then he'll also be able to tell the whole mansion is buzzing with arcane power, the entire place under some kind of illusion.

"Here we are sir. We look forward to doing business with you." The Overseer says, as they reach the top of the stairs and step onto a small landing, a single, ten foot tall mahogany door looming in front of them. Unless stopped, the short little man will begin scuttling back down the stairs, leaving Kal on his own.

[PurityIcekiller]

[Underbed]

Kyinde looked around, sniffed the air, and otherwise examined her surroundings. "It seems I've really underestimated things. Getting out of here will be a challenge." Among the situations she'd been in throughout her wanderings, this was new.

Since there didn't seem to be much of interest directly nearby, she beckoned to Demon Queen, ready to explore this new place partly to find a way out and partly just out of curiosity.

[Ashen Lilies]

[235 Scarlet/Noir Lane]

He cannot. But is sharp enough to notice something's up. Seemingly unperturbed, he simply stands where he's been left, watching the other man scuttle back downstairs, before starting his almost silent count once again.
"One..."

[KerfuffleMach2]

Underbed

Demon Queen doesn't like this at all.

She keeps her senses on alert. Especially her ability to sense motion.

Still in her demon form, she'll follow Kyinde, looking around as she goes.

[UncleWolf]

[Wolfy's Dance Studio]

Reelshka is here again. Much less nervous than last time, with her new spandex outfit in her bag.

Wolfy's Dance Studio

Wolfy is back in the studio, mixing the drink in the cooler for their breaks. When he looks up, he smiles. "It's great to see you again, Reelshka. I hope you don't mind that I got you the outfit. I thought it'd help."

[Morty]

[Wolfy's Dance Studio]

Reelshka smiles back, a little shyly. Oh, I loved it. It was a very nice surprise. Thank you.

[UncleWolf]

Wolfy's Dance Studio

Wolfy smiles, glad she hasn't asked a couple questions, and gestures at the bathroom. "You know you can change in there if you want. Today, we can start lessons for learning how to Tango."

[Morty]

[Wolfy's Dance Studio]

Reelshka nods. She has no idea what "tango" is, of course. Sounds suspiciously similar to the goblin word for a ladle, but that's probably coincidental.
I will. I'll be right back. She heads to the bathroom and emerges after a while, dressed in the suit she'd recieved from Wolfy.

[ThirdEmperor]

[235 Scarlet/Noir Lane]

He cannot. But is sharp enough to notice something's up. Seemingly unperturbed, he simply stands where he's been left, watching the other man scuttle back downstairs, before starting his almost silent count once again.
"One..."

((Oops. Meant to write Scarlet Manor, got confused and half-wrote Noir Lane instead))

Nothing happens. Kal is quite alone up on the landing, with no sound but the creaking of the stairs as the Overseer descends and the slow ticking of a clock, coming from somewhere beyond the door, and no light but what little illumination is cast by an old fashioned gas lamp on the wall.

[UncleWolf]

Wolfy's Dance Studio

Wolfy's interest is obvious as his ears perk up at the sight of her, and he can't help but smile, his tail wagging slightly. "You look wonderful." He tells her as he finishes hooking up a TV and VCR.

[Morty]

[Wolfy's Dance Studio]

Reelshka is flustered by the compliment, though not as much as the last time. She's not entirely comfortable wearing the bodysuit yet, though. She gives Wolfy a smile, flashing her sharp teeth this time.
Thank you. Will we be watching something today? She asks, looking at the TV.

[UncleWolf]

Wolfy's Dance Studio

"I figured it would be a good idea to watch videos of people dancing the Tango, to give you an idea." Wolfy tells her before taking a seat in a chair, gesturing at another for her. Once she takes a seat, he'll play the video.

[Morty]

[Wolfy's Dance Studio]

Reelshka watches with her eyes wide and her cheeks a bit flushed after the dance begins.
Oh wow. They move with such... grace. She has difficulty expressing her thoughts about it. It was like nothing she's ever seen.

[Ashen Lilies]

((Oops. Meant to write Scarlet Manor, got confused and half-wrote Noir Lane instead))

Nothing happens. Kal is quite alone up on the landing, with no sound but the creaking of the stairs as the Overseer descends and the slow ticking of a clock, coming from somewhere beyond the door, and no light but what little illumination is cast by an old fashioned gas lamp on the wall.

[Scarlet Manor]

Kal waits patiently. Any good assassin knows how to be patient, and Kal is a very good assassin. He keeps counting.

[UncleWolf]

[Wolfy's Dance Studio]

Reelshka watches with her eyes wide and her cheeks a bit flushed after the dance begins.
Oh wow. They move with such... grace. She has difficulty expressing her thoughts about it. It was like nothing she's ever seen.

Wolfy reaches over and gives her hand a squeeze. "And with some practice, you'll be able to do it too I bet." He promises.

[Morty]

[Wolfy's Dance Studio]

Reelshka's hand is squeezed, much to her surprise, but her thoughts are occupied by the vison of herself in the place of the woman from the video. Really? I never thought I'd ever do that. We should get to training then, I suppose.

[TechnoScrabble]

Grey Zone Park

The bee pirates advance slowly, snarling, buzzing, and YARRing, waving their swords about menacingly at the trio, hoping to scare them off...
That's a good number of cyborg bee pirates, there...

[KerfuffleMach2]

Grey Zone Park

Syra sighs.

Cyborg pirate bees...this place...

She'll look to the people with her.

Well? Ready?