[Nexus] The Black Dragon's Den XIV

[Rebonack]

"I can do clothes," Zeek says, reaching into his pocket and pulling out an acorn.

That...

Umm.

How will that help?

"This is probably going to eat up all the cheatery I've got, but I figure it's for a good cause. Hopefully nothing actually threatening happens in the mean time," he mutters as he glances Jason up and down.

Then?

A pulse of light washes over his hands and he places the acorn straight against the floor. Where it starts growing. Into... a small oak tree? With a big papery looking orb on the top. That very rapidly begins drying out. Once it's all papery and brown Zeek rips it open and pulls out-!

A cotton outfit pretty similar to what Jason is wearing right now! Just reshaped to fit her newer, curvier body! There's even a pair of shoes in there! And under-garments! There's basically only one way Zeek could have gotten the measurements for all that stuff but there are probably more important things to worry about right now.

"Here, go try those on," he suggests. "And there's a creepy former guy in the bathroom trying to take pictures of himself. Just a warning."

[bc56]

Jason is surprised by the tree, and even more surprised when Zeek removes a full set of clothes from it. "You can only do that once? It seems pretty useful." She probably wouldn't have asked for it for herself, had she known what Zeek was going to do, but she can't take it back now. "That's all right. I'm a master at changing clothes without being noticed!" It's part of a superhero's job. Unfortunately, she's not familiar enough with this body or those clothes to get into them that way, so she instead retreats to the bathroom and attempts to sneak past the distracted highwaywoman to a stall where she can change in peace.

[Earl of Purple]

Fortunately for Jason, the highwaywoman is very distracted by his body and the complexities of his smartphone. It's really not working very well.

Benedict has started to draw a complex symbol with one hand. It's very tricky; Benedict's using his index finger mostly, leaving a trail of blue light behind it, whilst occasionally jabbing out his pinkie finger. It's a three-dimensional symbol, and requires a lot of concentration. His other hand has pulled out a glass sphere with a thunderstorm trapped inside it; the weather inside is still quite vigorous, with rampant thunder and lightning strikes, roiling black clouds and so on. This isn't what was in the bag; this was pulled out of an inside pocket.

Dame Nosewrinkle is just looking on, quite awed. Apparently what he's doing is quite impressive- though it certainly looks pretty complex.

[bc56]

Jason slips into a bathroom stall and begins stripping off her clothing. She pauses for a moment before putting the new clothes on. By doing so, she will be showing that she's up hope of a cure soon. She overcomes her hesitation and begins to get dressed.

A few minutes later, Jason emerges from the stall and the bathroom looking better and far more comfortable. Her new shirt and pants hug her figure more tightly while revealing less. Her bra took longer to put on than she'd have liked, but the support helps. Between the well fitting clothes and just being a woman for longer, she walks and moves around much more confidently and comfortably. She approaches Zeek carrying her old clothes. "Thanks! I feel a lot better now." Of course, good clothes and a confident demeanor come with a downside as well, which is that Jason possibly looks more attractive now, and might be at greater risk of spreading her curse to any non-infected patrons.

[Rebonack]

Jason will return to find Zeek messing with that clothing plant thing again.

He places his hands on it, causing it to grow shut again.

Then?

After thirty seconds or so he pulls out another set of clothing for another person.

Which!

Is really kinda super helpful.

Apparently Zeek is just one of those very helpful guys.

Or gals. Since he was a gal not too long ago. Or whatever the heck he actually is, since he said something about a natural form. Maye some kind of nature spirit? Nature spirits do stuff with seeds and things right?

He glances over his shoulder as he hands a set of clothing to a rather irritated looking half-orc.

"Feeling better with the new outfit?"

[bc56]

The clothes, of course, feel strange. They rest on Jason's body in ways she's not used to and call attention to the ways she's changed. Stranger still is the way that they are comfortable in spite of the strangeness. She does feel better. "I think so. Thank you." She surveys the operation in progress. "I was going to ask if you could do that for other people, but it looks like you can." Jason looks around. Those patrons who aren't yet transformed are wisely keeping their heads down, while the reactions of the transformed people run the gamut from confusion to rage. She should probably offer to assist. There must be something she can do. She hates being useless. "Do you need anything?"

[Earl of Purple]

Benedict is still working on his symbol, though the lightning strikes in the glass orb are occurring less frequently now.

The bronze-masked servant will stand up and approach Zeek, gesturing to the plant and then pointing at Benedict. As Benedict mentioned some age-related side-effect, the occultist isn't planning on changing back just yet. So another set of clothing would likely be appreciated. The servant reaches into a pocket and pulls out a dull grey iron coin, offering it to Zeek in 'payment'. Probably a bad idea to take it, since Benedict is distracted and can't say anything about what the coin might mean.

[Rebonack]

"Good, that's a start," Zeek replies with a kind smile as he hands off a set of clothing to another patron. "Making really complex stuff like this takes quite a bit out of me. I'm hoping we don't get embroiled in a violent crisis in the near future otherwise I'll be mostly limited to stern words."

That's a joke and not wholly true. Yezekiel is a rather formidable creature in her own right even if her allowance of reality-warping has already been consumed.

"If you want to help me pass this stuff out? I can... umm... Ah! There," he says, handing another set of clothing to Jason. Sitting on the middle of the clothing pile is a little wood square with a name and physical description written onto it. Which is... honestly pretty handy! "That should make it pretty easy to figure out what goes to who."

And then the manservant ambles over!

It's kind of creepy in Zeek's estimation.

Zeek glances over at the fellow working his magic, then back at the clothing. "Oh sure, one sec," he replies as he seals up the pod again and get its to building. The process, as always, will take a few minutes. "You don't seem like the very chatty sort."

The servant really doesn't. Then a coin is offered! A coin which it might be a bad idea to take? That sticks out like a red flag. Usually when people offer money to Zeek it doesn't come along with a caveat of DON'T TAKE THE MONEY!

"Oh no, don't worry about it," he says with a kind smile, reaching out to close the servant's fingers around the coin. "This is just one of my good deeds of the day. Helping people overcome adversity is kind of my thing."

Literally. Being involved in people overcoming adversity is literally Yezekiel's thing. It feeds her. She also thinks it's a nice thing to do.

[bc56]

Jason takes the bundle of clothes. "I don't think I'll be much help either, if that happens. My equipment is all at my workshop or headquarters, and my balance isn't right anymore." Her center of gravity has moved, and it makes walking more awkward. Fighting would be even worse like this. No matter how much martial arts she knows, she won't be able to use them effectively if she doesn't know her own body. She wanders away from Zeek with an unconscious sway in her hips, checks the label on the clothes again, and looks around for someone who matches that description. Once she spots them, she'll bring them the clothes, and go back to Zeek for another load.

[Earl of Purple]

Benedict can't interfere; he's still working on that very complex three-dimensional shape.

The servant with its bronze face-mask pockets the coin once again and carries the clothing over to Benedict, placing the pile upon the table.

[Halae]

Domhnall swears something unintelligible as he snatches his coat and takes off after the lady. As can be expected, he is very fast.
"Miss! Wait! I'm sorry I'm very bad with words!" he calls after her, quite ignoring the bird. He has no time for a screeching raptor right now. Not unless it can tell him what he's supposed to say. Things were always so much easier with Rhea...

"Oh god why is it ALWAYS RUNNING!" First there was that boulder in the temple with the skeletized dead god bleeding fire, then that surprisingly functional ruin full of malevolent clockwork gears, and now even in his retirement Corvin can't escape the running. At least this time he's running towards something and not away.

Still, two men running after a distraught lady spreading cursed changes in her wake could look a little dodgy. Corvin will summon up some of the magic he'd had left over from the bad old days that looked so good from the bottom of an empty glass. His image shifts from ill-fitting, quite strained and rumpled suit to official looking emergency gear. Not distinct enough to belong to any given organization, just looking enough like a generic first responder to make most people decide he must be official. And then having already lost time on the running lady and the quadrupedally gifted Domhnall who managed to fit a whole hoof into his mouth and still gallop out the door, Corvin takes off for the streets of Inside.

Quoth stays behind on one of the tables, the intangible bird cawwing its feathery butt off about its partner's hijinks.

Unfortunately, as she's already made it outside, Annabelle has quite effectively broken quarantine, and now the power of the curse is spreading to bystanders in the street. She herself isn't sobbing, but she is quite clearly crying as she runs along, avoiding other people. The pair chasing her will find that she has plenty of endurance, but not much in the way of coordination, impaired as she is. As a result, she falls right over when her legs catch on each other and she goes spilling to the ground against a shop, where her head collides with the brickwork, letting off a nasty 'CRACK' sound.

The good news? That wasn't a concussion sounding off. The bad news? That 'crack' was her nose splitting. Annabelle flops onto her back, dazed, inebriated, and now both in pain and kind of blinded by her now broken nose forcing her eyes to water. It means she's going nowhere fast at least, but it also kind of means her night has just managed to get even worse somehow.

Tobias the hawk makes a sound about as close to a sigh as you could probably get from his species of hawk as he lands next to Annabelle's piteous form. He lets out a low but piercing sound, and Annabelle says, her mixture of tears and broken nose making the words near unintelligible, "Today sucks."

[Rebonack]

"Well hopefully that won't happen then!" Zeek replies, his tone chipper. "We'll just play damage control for now."

And...

That's honestly exactly what Zeek will be doing for the foreseeable future.

Fixing clothes for cursed people and handing them out.

How kind.

He'll ALSO be sending a text message to Raril warning him about the curse gong around.

He's...

Really not sure how to avoid it, honestly.

The thing is pretty insidious. So unless Raril is up for some role-reversal in bed he had best be careful.

[Deathkeeper]

Domhnall approaches, rather unable to be quiet about it with the hard city streets and his hooves. He does slow down as he gets close to her.
”Oh, Miss. I’m so sorry. Please let me help with that.”
He does have a charm that can stem bleeding...and a scroll that can take care of poisons. It’s needlessly expensive but at this point he thinks that she really needs to be sober for the safety of everyone.

[bc56]

While Zeek is passing out clothes, Jason is content to help. Once enough people have new clothes to go with their new bodies, she offers to lead them through a simple exercise routine, mainly stretches and some jogging around the bar. That way, the afflicted can get used to their new shapes and clothing more quickly. She certainly finds it helps her.

[Slii Arhem]

Unfortunately, as she's already made it outside, Annabelle has quite effectively broken quarantine, and now the power of the curse is spreading to bystanders in the street. She herself isn't sobbing, but she is quite clearly crying as she runs along, avoiding other people. The pair chasing her will find that she has plenty of endurance, but not much in the way of coordination, impaired as she is. As a result, she falls right over when her legs catch on each other and she goes spilling to the ground against a shop, where her head collides with the brickwork, letting off a nasty 'CRACK' sound.

The good news? That wasn't a concussion sounding off. The bad news? That 'crack' was her nose splitting. Annabelle flops onto her back, dazed, inebriated, and now both in pain and kind of blinded by her now broken nose forcing her eyes to water. It means she's going nowhere fast at least, but it also kind of means her night has just managed to get even worse somehow.

Tobias the hawk makes a sound about as close to a sigh as you could probably get from his species of hawk as he lands next to Annabelle's piteous form. He lets out a low but piercing sound, and Annabelle says, her mixture of tears and broken nose making the words near unintelligible, "Today sucks."

Domhnall approaches, rather unable to be quiet about it with the hard city streets and his hooves. He does slow down as he gets close to her.
”Oh, Miss. I’m so sorry. Please let me help with that.”
He does have a charm that can stem bleeding...and a scroll that can take care of poisons. It’s needlessly expensive but at this point he thinks that she really needs to be sober for the safety of everyone.

"Agreed. Today blows big slimy chunks. Let's get you to a hospital where we can get you checked out for that injury and maybe even de-cursed. Think you can give her a ride, big man? I'm going to rustle us up some protection against her being ogled any more before this whole thing blows over." Not waiting for Domhnall to respond, considering he's already hovering and trying to help out, Corvin will duck into a little corner cafe to negotiate and/or steal himself a tablecloth depending on if anyone's looking when he walks in the door. Either way, he'll be back with it very quickly to drape over Annabelle like a cloak. Between the shapeless and gaudy nature of the cloth covering and her rather bloodied and scraped up face, it's doubtful anyone else will be directly effected by her curse, though of course plenty have already seen both her and at least one other escapee by now and it has to be spreading fast.

[Halae]

Annabelle is surprisingly willing to go with this. Maybe it's the headache, maybe it's the booze, maybe it's the bloody nose, but whatever it is, she's absolutely willing to just do what they ask her to as she's rolled up in the blanket. Tonight has been a thorough disaster on numerous levels, and she's now wallowing in despair about it. Her hawk watches passively; it seems he knows what direction this has gone in and is basically just done with this whole thing. He'll pick up Annabelle's glasses and land on her shoulder so that they're available when her eyes clear enough for her to see again.

[Deathkeeper]

Domhnall nods to Corvin. He sings a few magical words (his singing voice is frustratingly good) and Annabelle should find her bloodied face fixed up. And after burning the scroll he had tied into his gear belt, the alcohol in her blood might be neutralized as well.
”All right, that should take care of the blood. You should see a specialist about the curse, though.” he says gently.

[Slii Arhem]

Annabelle is surprisingly willing to go with this. Maybe it's the headache, maybe it's the booze, maybe it's the bloody nose, but whatever it is, she's absolutely willing to just do what they ask her to as she's rolled up in the blanket. Tonight has been a thorough disaster on numerous levels, and she's now wallowing in despair about it. Her hawk watches passively; it seems he knows what direction this has gone in and is basically just done with this whole thing. He'll pick up Annabelle's glasses and land on her shoulder so that they're available when her eyes clear enough for her to see again.

Domhnall nods to Corvin. He sings a few magical words (his singing voice is frustratingly good) and Annabelle should find her bloodied face fixed up. And after burning the scroll he had tied into his gear belt, the alcohol in her blood might be neutralized as well.
”All right, that should take care of the blood. You should see a specialist about the curse, though.” he says gently.

Corvin helps Annabelle up onto Domhnall's back with his permission, and covers them both with the sheet. It takes him a bit of effort to keep up with his companions in adversity even with Domhnall burdened as he is, but he makes the effort because he wants to keep up a constant, whispered conversation with Annabelle, "A day like this can certainly ruin things for you, but they can be overcome. I've had worse days than meeting a pretty lady and temporarily becoming one. And getting a kiss was quite the icing on an already sweet cake. A lot of people are now adjusting to new situations, and it's the fault of whatever spirit or djinn decided to curse you when you were already at a low point. I'll call my agent and have them call ahead to the nearest clinic so they can get a specialist to hand. He knows a few things about what I used to do, and I'm willing to blow a bit of my soft-earned cash on turning this day around for you, and this dashing gentleman who despite being a bit free with his words seems earnest in erasing any harm done as well." He raises his voice for the last sentence, even though he's sure Dom could hear the entire thing.

[Halae]

"Thank you," Annabelle says, her voice warbling through the weepiness and a little lisp-y due to the broken nose. She'll lean up against Domhnall's back, which may have the unfortunate side effect of getting the slime of blood and tears on him, but it's still nice to avoid some of the problems her inebriation/headache/nose-induced blindness/reckless behaviour could cause. Though, with Domhnall's spell, at least she's not bleeding any more and her drunkenness is starting to fade from her body. Unfortunately that part is still going to leave her feeling terrible, as the sudden onset of a hangover forms; this bumpy ride is going to be terrible.

[Deathkeeper]

Domhnall lets Annabelle on. Unfortunately, it is indeed going to be a bumpy ride.
”If you don’t mind, I’m going to keep my head down so I don’t get hit by the curse now that it’s going around. If you don’t mind leading.”
After all, Corvin has already recovered. With him leading they should be able to find this clinic without too much issue.