[Nexus] Inside 39

[Gullara]

[Cursed Street]

Genevieve screeches. Random shadow wolf! It takes the witch a moment to react. Ack, what spell would be good? Panic! Panic! No action from her this post save for a few hasty steps back.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Red Zone

If you can trace magic, then sure. All I can do is move things.

Demon Queen floats the blades ring back towards her and checks for blood on it. If there is blood, she'll actually lick it off.

Odd.

[happyturtle]

Market Street

Market Street

Alysha thinks on this revelation for a moment.

I guess that kinda makes sense.

Then she looks at Lorraine.

Why are you worried about the moon?

"Er, menstrual cramps. They're really bad," Lorraine says. She isn't ready to just tell someone she just met that she's a werewolf! Especially when that person smells so bad.

"That's good [knowledge?]. If you want, we can [track?] you on the full moon. It may be better, however, to see if that entity is willing to further [tend?] you. Perhaps some kind of [exercises?] will help you switch between the [feral?] and [sentient?] mindsets."

The female is currently scanning various random passer-byes.

"I think it might be dangerous for you if you did that," Lorraine says. They had been able to handle a single wolf, but when she was with Wolfy, she would be running in a pack.

She keeps shaking her head and sniffing, and then she realizes... there's a freaking corpse standing next to her!

"You... you're not alive." she says to Alyssha. And her feral instincts are prickling. Dead things are for eating. But this dead thing smells poisoned.


Temple of Cunningham

[Temple of Cunningham]

Aleph twists her hands and looks down at her plate of pie. "I was told I don't have human status anymore. That's not a good thing where I come from. People who lose that usually aren't seen again."

[Temple of Cunningham]

Sophie scowls, clearly apalled. ...how can one lose human status? Either way, such barbarity doesn't hold here, so you have nothing to fear.

"Oh, that doesn't matter. There are lots of non-humans in the Nexus. Just don't kill or steal or hurt people, and Remnant won't bother you," Pastor Ellen says. She gets up and reaches for a cookie jar on a high shelf. When she pulls it down and opens it, it's full of gold and silver pieces, and she counts out a portion and offers it to Aleph. "How about you and Sister Sophie go do a bit of shopping, to help you get settled in? Perhaps at that new thread I've heard rumors about."

[Reinholdt]

[Animal Shelter/Temple of Bast]

Yuuuuup. That's totally what happened. <.<

The sphinxes are natural liars. Chione gives a feline shrug.

"I don't know any either. We're probably going to have to teach one of the sla- humans to make them, or find a metalworker somewhere."

[Animal Shelter/Temple of Bast]

"Oh there are plenty of metalworkers around here, I'm reasonably sure. I wonder if that weapons shop forges its own weapons."

Reinholdt isn't sure how Erin's does it.

[AmberVael]

[Abrajin's Library]

It is fairly easy to find the exit, and make his way out into the entrance of the library. Abrajin gives him a disgruntled grunt in acknowledgment, while the Warden nods. "I hope you found what you were looking for. Please return the books within a month, or contact us before that time is up to renew them."

If necessary, Xalicus can come to return/renew the books off screen. No one is going to mind.


[Temple of Cunningham]

"I don't know much about it. The government doesn't say much, but usually it results from dabbling with forbidden things. Like certain types of magic." Aleph explains to Sophie. Then, Ellen catches her entirely off guard by offering her gold and silver. They use this as money? Weirder yet, Aleph is being handed money by someone she doesn't even really know all that well?

It's probably easy to tell just how stunned Aleph is by this development.


[Cursed Street]

The spines fling through the shadow hound, leaving strange white streaks across its otherwise black surface. Snarling, it bounds forward and attempts to bite Amil with razor sharp teeth, honed to an incredibly narrow point that probably holds its edge through magic. I mean, this is a dog made of shadow.

Three more of the hounds form before the shadows fade from the statue. They begin advancing, growling at Genevieve and Amil.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Market Street

Alysha shifts uncomfortably a little at Lorraine's response. Oh...eh...sorry.

The Lorraine figures out the smell. Um...I guess...I'm a vampire. And vampires are unread. She shifts a little. But, I won't bite you! I actually carry bottles of Ichor Liquor to make sure I don't. She pats her canvas bag.

[Morty]

[Temple of Cunningham]

I'll be glad to accompany Aleph while shopping, Sophie declares, deciding not to pry into this whole "losing human status" business.

[Rebonack]

[Cursed Street]

One of the best things about fighting lunging animals is that it's really easy to predict their movements and attacks most of the time. When the dog leaps at Amil she digs her hooves into the ground before thrusting forward with her bone-saber, aiming to transfix the beast as it jumps on her.

Use it's own weight and momentum against it!

Regardless of the outcome of the attack Amil will probably get bit unless the creature is slain by having a sword rammed through its torso. Hopefully the weapon's psionic enhancement will help it be a bit more affective against the beasty!

Because damage reduction is a terrible thing!

"Oof!" goes Amil on account of the hound's weight.

[Gullara]

[Cursed Street]

"Uh..." The witch takes a few more steps away from the wolves. "Oh, I got it!" She points her wand at the wolves. "Baubillious! Baubillious! Baubillious!" Three balls of white light shoot out of the wand and fly at the wolves not yet fighting Amil.

[AmberVael]

[Cursed Street]

Shunk! Amil impales the shadow hound, and the white coloration begins slowly spreading out from the wound. Amil will notice that all of those areas are limp, but the black sections remain fully active and unwounded.

As such, the hound tries biting out a big junk of her shoulder, as its head is still quite active, and it did indeed manage to bite her.

The other three hounds shy and back up in the face of the light, but seem to gather themselves after a moment, stretching thin and strangely as they start moving past the orbs of light, slipping by them in flickers of shadow. Still, the light does seem to slow their passage, at least.

[The Alexandrian]

[Lester's Saloon]

Spoiler

Show

[Lester's Saloon]

*cough* *cough* *cough* makes the little Lizzard guy. Libaries where much cleaner and cause of his small body Mr. C isn't able to resist long.

When she sits down Mr. C will fall forward on the table now laying there passed out. Seems like he wasn't abe to put up.

Well, the man Percilia-prime was searching for ends up arriving and they have a "pleasant conversation," after which the man ends up telling Percilia-prime intel she so greatly desired.

Mr. C could awaken at any moment during this "nice, little conversation." If he does not awaken, at the end of it Percilia-prime will attempt to scoop him up in her hands and take him outside for a breath of fresh air!

-----
[Yellow Zone - VSWC]

Spoiler

Show

Yellow Zone - VSWC
"Nothing at all. Not a single thing."
His eye twitched.
I think we broke Dave....

Awww! Broken toys are no fun for Clarissa to play with! You can't break a toy that's already broken, after all.

"Yeah! That's right! There's no warning whatsoever! Isn't that great!"

These bouts of hunger only seem to set in when Clarissa hasn't fed on live prey for a fair amount of time. Seems that biomass can't sustain her for long all on its lonesome. She needs to absorb lifeforce to continue thriving and expanding her powers, an activity that requires absurd amounts of energy and has been one of her main objectives ever since she was "born" two or three weeks ago, though she is only now realizing that she was working towards that goal. Regular live feedings could delay these spells of intense hunger and ravenous feeding. They might even counteract them entirely!

Panther-Clarissa's eyelids suddenly snap shut. She looks as though she is cringing.

"How do you feel about children, Dave?"

Um... Is this really an appropriate time to be talking about children? I mean, that's totally unrealted to this conversation and- This is on topic, isn't it? This is about your most recent (as in it took place only a few minutes ago) spree, right? Please don't tell me that this is even remotely related to the issues with your current diet! You haven't developed a special fondness for the flesh of the young, have you! You're a great horrible monster aren't you, Clarissa? AREN'T YOU!

Let's pretend that Clarissa's inquiry was completely non sequitur and move on...

[Rebonack]

[Cursed Street]

Shoulder chunk?

Ouch!

That would really hurt!

As the fangs pierce through Amil's unusually tough skin she suddenly becomes translucent and quickly darts through the hound before aiming to ram her sword through the back of the creature's skull.

Splorch!

Oh.

And she's solid again. Sadly those silly trousers of hers only provide her with one use of that intangibility trick in any given encounter...

[PurityIcekiller]

[Abrajin's Library

"I will. Thanks." Xalicus nodded back at the Warden before heading back out into the streets to get completely lost again.

[Red Zone]

Kyinde didn't seem to care much about the blood-licking, which wasn't too surprising given her species and generally casual attitude. Her mind remained on the conversation.

"I never mentioned being able to trace magic, did I?" She shook her head. "We'd probably need someone with energy magic for that kind of thing. Preferably someone competent."

[Abrajin's Again]

Xalicus almost sneezed, and he wasn't sure why.

[Red Zone Again]

"Anyway, I thought we'd just run around until we found some clues. How about you? Any other ideas?"

[Gullara]

[Cursed Street]

That worked less well than she would have hoped. Ideas, think Genevieve! "Wingardium Leviosa!" She cries out and makes the proper motions with her wand. She's trying to levitate one of the wolves.

[Lost_Deep]

Market Street

"Er, menstrual cramps. They're really bad," Lorraine says. She isn't ready to just tell someone she just met that she's a werewolf! Especially when that person smells so bad.


"I think it might be dangerous for you if you did that," Lorraine says. They had been able to handle a single wolf, but when she was with Wolfy, she would be running in a pack.

She keeps shaking her head and sniffing, and then she realizes... there's a freaking corpse standing next to her!

"You... you're not alive." she says to Alyssha. And her feral instincts are prickling. Dead things are for eating. But this dead thing smells poisoned. Temple of Cunningham

Market Street

Alysha shifts uncomfortably a little at Lorraine's response. Oh...eh...sorry.

The Lorraine figures out the smell. Um...I guess...I'm a vampire. And vampires are unread. She shifts a little. But, I won't bite you! I actually carry bottles of Ichor Liquor to make sure I don't. She pats her canvas bag.

'Tom' shrugs
"I was intending one or the other, not [simultaneous?]."

then, vampire stuff!

..."what?"

'Jerry' turns from a small rock in the road "Vampire."

"What is that? It moves, but is dead... Some kind of [?virus?]?"

The word "virus" there was obviously a stretch for the translator. It came out less like "Meaning like 'virus'" and more like "meaning not entirely unlike 'virus'"

[KerfuffleMach2]

Red Zone

Demon Queen shrugs.

Sure. I can't think of anything else.

Other than killing these two, at least.

[Zefir]

[Lester's Saloon]

Mr. C won't wake up. So he got out there carryed by his boss. (Forgot to say that he is tottaly gomodable most time. He is still onyl 2-3 inch long which makes him fit in a pocket.)

*cough* *cough* *cough* He awakes Hurray. He looks around quiet confused.

"Eh, have I passed out befor we enter or are we leaving at the moment?"

[happyturtle]

Temple of Cunningham

[Temple of Cunningham]

"I don't know much about it. The government doesn't say much, but usually it results from dabbling with forbidden things. Like certain types of magic." Aleph explains to Sophie. Then, Ellen catches her entirely off guard by offering her gold and silver. They use this as money? Weirder yet, Aleph is being handed money by someone she doesn't even really know all that well?

It's probably easy to tell just how stunned Aleph is by this development.

[Temple of Cunningham]

I'll be glad to accompany Aleph while shopping, Sophie declares, deciding not to pry into this whole "losing human status" business.

"Off you go then! Have fun, girls!" And Pastor Ellen sends the two PCs off to have marvellous adventures together!


Market Street

Market Street

Alysha shifts uncomfortably a little at Lorraine's response. Oh...eh...sorry.

The Lorraine figures out the smell. Um...I guess...I'm a vampire. And vampires are unread. She shifts a little. But, I won't bite you! I actually carry bottles of Ichor Liquor to make sure I don't. She pats her canvas bag.

'Tom' shrugs
"I was intending one or the other, not [simultaneous?]."

then, vampire stuff!

..."what?"

'Jerry' turns from a small rock in the road "Vampire."

"What is that? It moves, but is dead... Some kind of [?virus?]?"

The word "virus" there was obviously a stretch for the translator. It came out less like "Meaning like 'virus'" and more like "meaning not entirely unlike 'virus'"

"I.. can't stay. I'm sorry." Lorraine says. She's in an unusual situation. A normal wolf would note that the vampire smells dead, and just investigate further. The smell itself wouldn't sicken it. A human would be sickened by the smell of decay, but wouldn't normally smell a vampire. Lorraine can both smell the vampire and be sickened by the scent.

So she turns upwind and moves away, through the Market Street crowds.

[TechnoScrabble]

[Market Street]

"Maybe not as a normal solider," Amil replies with a shake of her head, the movement betraying the fact that she still has weird tendrils for hair rather than, y'know. Hair. "Maybe as a baker. Or an assistant at a gun shop. Or a roofer. Or any number of things," Amil suggests.

After all, getting a job in the Nexus is as difficult as saying 'I work at [fill in the blank]' when asked about a job. Not all jobs have to be on-screen.

"I-"

She pauses suddenly and blinks, glancing around curiously at-

[Cursed Street]

"Oh geeze... I can't believe I started walking again without a goal in mind..." she grumbles under her breath. "Don't even recognize this part of the City."

"But that's just it, I don't know if I could LIVE with being so...normal..." Young looks around the new street, confused.

Red ZOne

The bogeys chuckle.
"Yep. Totally puppets."

[VampireRot]

[Null Zone]

((That's a good point, actually. Should I edit "Rot of AMEN" into "AMENite", maybe?))

Anatolij ducks under the bag and charges at Rot, knowing that time is of the essence and that they have to subdue the vampire quickly. He tries to intercept him on his way to the combat cleric, who yells: In the name of Svarog, stop! This is followed by an attempt at making Rot freeze in place under the burden of a holy judgement on his blasphemous self. If Anatolij manages to get to Rot, he'll slash at him with his cavalry sabre, which becomes super-heated. The trooper, meanwhile, moves to try and flank the vampire.

[Null Zone]

((If you wish. It doesn't particularly matter at this point, as I assume the cleric would be going along regardless of what threat they thought they were facing. ))

Rot shudders, feet firmly planting themselves on the ground when the cleric tells him to stop. However, the vampire gives him a particularly furious and evil look, that he probably can't see through the shadows, and with some effort moves his sword to block Anatolij's slash. Though the command has stopped him, the ancient vampire isn't completely subdued that easily. It helps that he thinks the name Svarog is a bit silly. He's quite rude like that.

"No! You stop! You be quiet!"

The vampire's savage words hold a bit of magical persuasion in them, probably not enough to keep a trained holy man silent, but hopefully enough to tongue-tie him long enough for Rot to kill them all/get away. He accentuates the words by swinging his sword at Anatolij's neck.

[Animal Shelter/Temple of Bast]

"Oh there are plenty of metalworkers around here, I'm reasonably sure. I wonder if that weapons shop forges its own weapons."

Reinholdt isn't sure how Erin's does it.

[Animal Shelter/Temple of Bast]

Chione gives a purr of amusement.

"We're not weaponizing the statues. Though that is a neat idea... I'm sure the Egyptians would've approved of cat statues that shot laser beams out of their eyes at pesky grave robbers."

Akila rolls her eyes.

"This is going to be a temple, not a tomb. We just need it to look a bit more like a temple and less like an animal shelter. A bit of gold leaf, some idols, and perhaps an altar or two will do. Fukayna, can you take one of the sla- er, worshipers and find some of that?"

The other cat looks reluctant to do any sort of work, but nods regardless and turns away to go visit some metalworkers or something. Luckily, the variety of shops that wind up in the Nexus means you can get almost anything you need somewhere Inside.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Market Street

Oh...um, okay...

Alysha seems slightly disappointed by this turn of events.

Red Zone

Demon Queen turns to face the bogeys, her face clearly showing her annoyance.

Both of you. Shut up. Now.

[TechnoScrabble]

Red ZOne

"Nah. We like the sound of our own voice," the bogeys stick their tongues out.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Red Zone

Demon Queen grits her teeth. And with a flick of her wrist, the blades ring moves to cut their tongues off.

[AmberVael]

[Temple of Cunningham]

"Thank you." Aleph manages to get out, waving at Ellen as she presumably leaves with Sophie, heading out into the general streets. "Do you know where a good store is?" She asks, looking up at Sophie, who, despite her shorter height, still manages to be noticeable taller than the younger and quite small sized Aleph.

[Mindfreak]

Yellow Zone - VSWC
"Children? They don't matter! Men, women, children, it all doesn't matter if you eat them!"
He has a crazy grin and his eye twitches again.

[Lost_Deep]

Market Street

"I.. can't stay. I'm sorry." Lorraine says. She's in an unusual situation. A normal wolf would note that the vampire smells dead, and just investigate further. The smell itself wouldn't sicken it. A human would be sickened by the smell of decay, but wouldn't normally smell a vampire. Lorraine can both smell the vampire and be sickened by the scent.

So she turns upwind and moves away, through the Market Street crowds.

Market Street

Oh...um, okay...

Alysha seems slightly disappointed by this turn of events.

After a moment, the male races after Lorraine. The female, however, is trying to get a good scan from Alysha. Psychic scan, power scan, A few other things like that. No magic scan, though.

[PurityIcekiller]

[Red Zone]

"A bit hasty, isn't that?"

Kyinde thought of trying to intercept the blades somehow, but decided it wouldn't be worth it. The bogeymen had been murderous and annoying, and Demon Queen probably didn't see any reason not to mutilate them. She might as well let her companion have her fun.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Market Street

Not a lot of power from Alysha herself.

But, the giant key she's holding seems to being radiating magical power.

[The Alexandrian]

[Yellow Zone - VSWC]

"Really?"

Clarissa shrieks. She is absolutely ecstatic, enraptured, and enthused! This is great! She could eat anyone she wanted without getting into any sort of trouble! She could go off and omnomnom whatever she craved whenever she desired now. This is great She could eat tall people and short people and mad people and sane people and big-boned people and thin-as-a-stick people and friendly people and unsociable people and psychotic people and psychiatrist people and doctor people and lawyer people and good people and evil people and, well, any people she wanted! She was free to live as she desired! It is almost like she is her own master instead of Dave! Did Clarissa mention how great this whole thing was, because it truly is really awesome!

Clarissa shoots Dave a toothy smile!

"I can eat anyone I want? Are you entirely sure?"

The resolution of this slaughterfest seemed way too good to Clarissa to be true! There is a moment where Clarissa just lies in her position on the ground in absolute, stunned silence.

"Really? I can even eat babies?"

Panther-Clarissa hauls herself to her feet, attempts to prance up to Dave, and attempts to rub her soft, sleek, oily fur against Dave's legs.

"Thanks, Dave! I love you so much! I love you more than...more than..."

Panther-Clarissa's "brow" furrows with confusion as she searches for an appropriate phrase to finish off her sentence with.

"...more than most people around here love life!"

And how! Clarissa is so happy that she married Dave! Dave was an extremely cool guy with a crazy grin and a twitching eye! Wait...

"Dave? I think there is something wrong with your eye...and face...and motorcycle. Do you need something? I could even get you a new motorcycle! A better one that doesn't speak!"

-----
[Lester's Saloon]

"We're departing. I'm glad to see that you're alright. You had me worried for a second there."

Percilia-prime sighs, clearly relieved. She looks somewhat out of sorts, what with that nasty bruise on her lower right arm and all.

[TechnoScrabble]

Red Zone

The bogeys are quick enough to pull their tongues in, and then stick them right back out!
"Bleeeeeggghh! Neener neener!"