Inside 68: Dawn of a New Season (or two)

[5a Violista]

[Shapeshifter Investigation]

Harley, who currently only looks like a half-elf, has a serious moral dilemma.

...
Actually, it's not that hard. Any weapons she has currently hidden are all swords and daggers. No guns. The magic fireball necklace? She, unfortunately, forgot to bring it today: she didn't expect the place to erupt in fighting and monsters. Not to mention, there appear to be plenty of fireball- and flamethrower-using citizens around, probably causing all those fires around. And there's probably heroes all around. And since all of her weapons are currently hidden inside her own flesh...she wouldn't be able to remove those since she's a simple half-elf and only full-blooded elves can do flesh-shaping, obviously. And there's this elf here who is calling out for her.
If no heroes or flamethrower-toting citizens show up, she'll help fight that beast after talking to the elf, and who knows? she might be able to convince the elf to help.

...
Harley knows she'll definitely need the help, because all the fire and the screaming children is giving her some very distracting flashbacks of what happened to her own family. If she heads over there right now without any mental preparation, there's a good chance she'll actually just be a liability. She prays that the family has a back door or basement and some do-gooder is available to help distract the beast.

So, having justified her course of action, the shapeshifter woman pockets anything left in her hands and runs over to the smoker elf.

"Hey, do you know what's going on?" she asks the elf. "My bus took a wrong detour, and..."
She then points towards the beast. "...and can you do anything to stop that thing?"

[Rebonack]

[Understreets - Meat Tower]

Geeze.

This is a mess.

There hasn't been this big of a mess since... what?

That Day, probably?

Spotting a skinwalker get bowled over by a blast of water from a spontaneously rupturing fire hydrant, Morning cups her hooves above her head for a moment before lobbing a burning mass of glory down onto the momentarily disoriented monster. It shrieks and flails as it is consumed by flames utterly unconcerned about the fact that the horror is soaking wet.

"I'll admit, I usually don't have much of a plan," Morning replies. "Normally I just make things up as I go, which has generally worked out so far. I've got a few tricks left I could use, but nothing that would be able to wipe out all of these things at once. Or... at least nothing that wouldn't include the whole City as collateral damage."

Basically being a kaiju in disguise has both upsides and downsides.

Mostly downsides, in Morning Glory's estimation.

"I was planning on just picking off as many as I can from the air. And the people in the City are far from helpless."

She gestures as a pyrokinetic down in the street, causing everything nearby with too many mouths to spontaneously ignite due to subtle manipulation of frictional forces.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Arson Site] (definitely forgot to actually type this one into the bigger post)

The figure looks back at the flame-braving hero as he speaks.
This finally gives him a good look at their face, which is...unpleasant. It's all a mottled sort of purple, reminiscent of someone who was both severely abused and suffocated, while covered in numerous and rather ugly looking scars. Their eyes seem to indicate irritation, briefly, but are then replaced with a sort of mirthful glee matched by a crooked smile that creeps onto their face.
"Wait? Wait for what?"
Their voice sounds gravely, equally abused as their face looks, but still rather difficult to discern any sort of gender from.

[Shapeshifter Investigation]

Having some good mental justification for your decisions is always helpful. Especially if it involves turning your back on monsters trying to break into homes.

One way or the other, it seems to be a little quirk of a smile on that other elf's face, partially obscured though it may be by another puff of pink smoke.
"Yes, no it didn't, and yes but I won't."
A neat tidy little response to everything that just trickled its way out of Harley's mouth.
It seems very typically annoyingly-vague-and-self-important.

Not helped when she brushes past the possibility of explaining any of it further and goes straight to something else.
"How do you feel about low effort heroics?"

[Understreets - Meat Tower]

That wasn't entirely what Down was hoping for. Oh well, can't expect the weird shapeshifting alien dragon things to come up with all the answers.

Down ponders on that train of thought for a minute, while she waits for her latest abominable, flaming victim to stop thrashing so much and look more dead.
"Maybe we should try to organize them, then. They may not be helpless on their own, but they are still more vulnerable. We could try directing survivors elsewhere, or banding together the competently dangerous ones. So we wouldn't be the only mobile attack squad around here."
She doesn't think she really has much authority to start planning impromptu militias in the city, or that Princess Sunder would really approve of that, but...she also doesn't really care.

It's a plan for a horrible situation. Complainers can shove it.

[Rebonack]

[Understreets - Meat Tower]

Rarely has Zee ever had all the answers.

Except if the answer is 'do something heroic and hope for the best'.

Because if so, then she's got that answer in spades.

"That's actually a pretty good idea," Morning Glory replies as she blasts the thing Down had set on fire to help it die faster. She does a quick scan of the streets below, looking for a very particular type of person...

There.

A woman holding a completely unremarkable looking kitchen sponge. When the encroaching horrors vomit their rainbow sludge at her, she raises the sponge above her head and shouts something that makes Morning's bones rattle. The whole mess of magical carcinogen is siphoned into the little yellow rectangle and promptly vanishes. There comes a brief pulse of power from the sponge, followed by a wave of distorted air cascading from it toward the skinwalkers.

Where it passes?

They are erased.

Morning Glory tilts her wings and almost (but not quite) manages a graceful decent and landing. Way too much stumbling.

"Koom lo Rlyeh, Watcher!" the not-pegasus calls out. "May the Sunken City never rise!"

The woman turns toward Morning Glory and an interesting array of emotion crosses her face. First relief. Then confusion. Then dawning recognition followed by disgust. "You have no right to utter those words, abomination," the Watcher replies, holding her sponge threateningly.

"Maybe not, but I don't want to see my home die any more than you do," Morning Glory shoots back, glancing behind the woman at the cadre of frightened civilians she's protecting. "There's a pyrokinetic just up the street. He could use your help and two defenders will be able to help your friends more than one."

The woman glowers at the not-pegasus a few moments longer before motioning for the civilians to follow her.

Well!

That wasn't a very happy meeting, but it appears to have worked?

[5a Violista]

[Shapeshifter Investigation]

Oh, right.
Harley almost forgot that elves enjoy answering questions like this.
That's good, it could've potentially blown her cover if a half-elf didn't know such basic traits about elves like the way they answer questions and their tone of voice.

It takes her a moment to remember what questions she asked and in what order, but she then quickly makes sense of the alley-elf's answers "Oh.". Well, hopefully some hero or armed citizen shows up soon, then.

"Well, I'm not much of a hero," she says, then mentions her current cover: "just a low-level mercenary, but...yes, low-effort heroics is a good thing. I guess I'm okay with it, that's how most heroics should be."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Understreets - Meat Tower]

"Uh."
That was a thing? That she just witnessed?

Wow this city is messed up. Attacking monsters with a sponge and winning.
What a place.

It's enough to make a girl feel inadequate with her flamethrowers.
"...do you know a lot of sponge-paladins?"
Which is definitely what they're called now.
And this is definitely something that is worth the time for Down to weirdly focus on.

That flailing thing over there got a burning piano dropped on it anyway, so where's the emergency?

[Shapeshifter Investigation]

The quirked smile becomes a little larger, before the cigarette is plunked into it to free the elf's other hand.
She reaches back and pulls out a little bag that was hidden on her back. From which she pulls a plain-handled dagger in a stained-black glass sheath.
"The monsters' leader is looking for someone. Two someones, but only one of them matters right now.
Give this to her and you will save this city a much bigger catastrophe than the one behind you."

Because that makes sense. Little knives always solve apocalypses.

[Rebonack]

[Understreets - Meat Tower]

Technically she wasn't attacking it with the sponge.

The sponge was just a focus for Kothic magic. A Watcher could use most any imbued object as a focus, but using some kind of cleaning implement is traditional.

And what would society be without rules and traditions?

"Who, the Watcher?" Morning Glory asks as she blasts a skinwalker off the roof of a building. It HAD been in a low crouch getting ready to shoot her, but a nearby pipe had abruptly ruptured and sprayed the monster with scalding hot steam. Morning had noticed the flailing movement and taken the thing out with an easy pot-shot. "I don't really know any of them personally. They're kind of opposed to my existence on principle. Not big fans of angels and faeries. But they're mostly good people and they do their part to help protect the City from more esoteric threats. The chaos magic the skinwalkers run on make them a pretty prime target."

BUT THEN SUDDENLY a skinwalker leaps out of a window above our heroes!

Only to be spontaneously transformed into a plush sofa with nice floral pattern upholstery.

Morning darts out of the way of the falling couch, letting it smash into the street unimpeded. She eyes the ruined furniture suspiciously.

[5a Violista]

[Shapeshifter Investigation]

"Okay." That request sounds totally reasonable. "I'll do it."

She reaches out to grab the dagger and its sheath, with her ungloved left hand.
She does have a couple of questions, however. Like, what do these someones look like and how will she know when she finds the right one? Sure, Harley's already been looking for a skinwalker to talk with, but if all of them are are rampaging right now, how likely is it they'd calm down and politely discuss who they're looking for? Alternatively, she could capture one and then try to connect with their mind and read the signals and impulses it sends and try to interrogate them that way, but since they're also shapeshifters who can probably mutate others and infect flesh it sounds like it has the chance of backfiring if she doesn't prepare properly for it.

Harley manages to summarize most of her questions into one: "So, let's say I manage to get some of these skinwalkers to tell me who they're looking for. How will I know that I've found the right one?" she asks. Since, after all, they're looking for two people and all Harley knows so far is that the person she's looking for goes by 'her'. There's a lot of people around who go by that, by the way.

...She'll write this out in her "quest log" later.

[Earl of Purple]

Pontius' Custom Constructs- Skinwalker Invasion

The factory/shop has gone into lockdown, heavy shuttering dropping automatically when Pontius becomes aware of the threat. After he's seen what's going on- by looking out of the eyes of a gargoyle on the roof- the shuttering opens again and some golems walk out. About ten of them, all stone and mostly complete- three have only vague facial features, another has chunks of unpolished stone for hands and one is actually broken, their foot missing. None have been polished, and only one has a fully detailed Classical anatomy. They'll get to work grabbing people and herding them into the centre of a moving stone barricade, smashing and grinding skinwalkers underfoot. Pontius and some of his apprentices are directing them, and after they witness how effective a Trainer's collection of fire-types are, they are joined by other golems and constructs.

Incomplete wooden golems, scraps of wood crudely whittled into humanoid form, a wooden furniture and three straw-filled scarecrows are rapidly animated, doused in oil, set on fire and sent out to do battle, rapidly joined by paper aeroplanes that deliberately fly into the flames before serving as guided fire-arrows.

[Morty]

[Docks - Chaos]

Calm Reed regards the fiery beast coldly, before speaking.

"Accepting such gifts is unbecoming of a monk. The might of the Dragons and the teachings of my masters will carry me as they have before." She rolls her shoulders. "Now, those people need protection. Anyone who isn't helping Anika and Blanche is welcome to come along."

With that, she sets out for the fish market.

[Halae]

The Palace Fight

Luckily for most of the group, Emily had enough foresight to get in the way of the giant magitek beast. Unluckily for her, it seems to have some sort of knowledge of what her pose means as it reaches out with its lower hands in order to try and occupy her. If she doesn't catch them, it'll attempt to rip open her abdomen but if she does, then the two swords swing down to try and sever her right arm at her elbow.

That is of course unless Jacke's shovel is capable of getting in the way of one or both and of blocking a monomolecular blade.

As for Metalhead, he'll find the chest of the creature to be exposed as well as the joints of its legs being typical weak spots, but the former is blocked off by Emily's great bulk.
If he shoots at the latter, hopefully he's packing rounds that are capable of ripping apart reinforced metal.

And lucky for the catgirl, the android seems to finally finish booting up as she goes into a seizure before fianlly falling still. The glowing lines and core pulse gently, but after a few brief moments her chest begins to rise and fall in simulation of breathing. A few seconds later she even opens her stone-grey eyes tiredly. "Where..."

[The Palace Fight]

Emily is a good fighter. She knows how to fight multiple opponents with dangerous weapons at once. And that's... pretty much what this is, right?

She's not, however, fast enough to block everything the doom robot is doing. Jack helps; the shovel can get in the way of one of the strikes towards her abdomen. Emily steps in, to get closer to the robot, in an effort to try and spoil its other strikes; those upper blades are long and powerful, but they're, well, long. The key failing of a reach weapon is that when someone steps inside its reach, it greatly reduces its effective power. The "effective power" is still pretty bad, given these are monomolecular blades, but it should keep her body parts from being severed wholesale.

So, that still leaves three arms to stop or turn aside. Emily only has two hands. This means there's a sacrifice that needs to be made. She'll catch the lower arm that wasn't blocked by the shovel, holding it still. She'll also grapple one of the robot's upper arms, to hold that one steady and prevent herself from being completely perforated. This, unfortunately, leaves the other upper arm to finish its strike - Emily's positioning helps, as she's too close for it to go through one of her limbs, but instead, she gets the massive blade digging into her back. Blood flows freely across her her back from the large wound, the rear of her ribs slashed by the mechanical monstrosity.

But you don't win a fight by just defending, and Emily is on an adrenaline high. She opens her mouth with a roar that almost has physical force in itself, and her jaw clamps down on the arm that injured her; she has absolutely immense bite strength - enough to shear straight through steel, so the robot may well find itself losing an arm.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Sunny Side of the Moon?]

Corvus raises an eyebrow. Leave it to the Solars to find a new way to access even greater magic. And without any training, either! He grins at Sophie.

"Well, it sounds like you've gotten a start on handling your new power, at least. There are some martial arts that focus on defense as much as offense, if you're interested in those, or we can simply trade knowledge, if you'd like."

[Rebonack]

[The Docks]

Geneva halts mid-zip when she suddenly finds a dinosaur that is on fire looming over her.

Now, dinosaurs that are on fire aren't that weird, all things considered. At least when one hails from a world were dinosaurs which are on fire are a relatively common occurrence. Along with pigs that are on fire, birds that are on fire, monkeys that are on fire, camels that are on fire, and many many others.

No, what makes her halt isn't the oddness of the situation.

It's the sheer presence that the creature has.

Frankly, it's a bit intimidating.

But intimidating or not...

Geneva watches Calm Reed go sprinting off to the Fish Market. The monk didn't want to accept any help. She had her own ways of doing things. And, frankly, Geneva would usually be hesitant about accepting gifts from giant blazing dinosaurs. But given how out of control the situation is right now?

She'll take every advantage she can get.

The mew drifts up into the air to put herself on eye-level with Glavvy.

She's so...

Tiny.

But Glavvy will likely be able to feel intense waves of scarcely contained psionic power washing out from her. She keeps that power in check because she keeps her thoughts and emotions in check.

Losing control is dangerous. But maybe... cutting loose will help this time?

~I'll accept your help,~ Geneva sends. ~Savagery isn't typically how I accomplish things, but being adaptable is something I can do.~

[Morty]

[Sunny Side of the Moon?]

Sophie shrugs.

"I suppose it's worth investigating, at least. And I would definitely like to just find out more about Exalted in general, now that I am one." She rubs her chin. "How many others are there, actually? Can't be too many, given how powerful we seem to be."

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Sunny Side of the Moon?]

Corvus considers for a moment, before answering.

"That depends on your definition, and here in the Nexus, I truly couldn't tell you; you're the first I've crossed paths with. Back in Creation, there were, oh, two to three hundred Lunars I had heard of or met over the years, and there used to be more from the stories I've been told, but some were lost. Of the Solars, the stories say there were an equal measure of Solars to Lunars. However, there were two other types of Chosen in Creation: the Children of the Stars, and the Children of the Earth. The Chosen of the Maidens were least numerous, from the stories I was told, a Five-score Fellowship. The Dragonblooded, however, were great in number."

Corvus leans on a convenient bookshelf, and crosses his arms. "The power of the Celestial Chosen can't be passed on to the Chosen's offspring. Some spark, or touch of the Essence of the parent might remain, but the full power cannot be passed on. The Dragonblooded, however, are different. They are less powerful than we, but their power can be inherited, and awoken, if chance and lineage intersect."

[Lord Magtok]

Hodgepodge Street

"I'm going to be out for a few hours, Fi. There's something I need to take care of in Inside, alone. I need you to stay here and watch Romero for me, okay? Call VIGIL if I'm not back by seven; tell them to expect the worst."

Well, the worst hadn't quite happened, but Saint Lazarus came pretty goddamned close. She'd run all the way out here the minute she heard about the crisis. At least five of those shapeshifting freaks, three of them wearing faces she'd recognized. Nobody she knew well enough to identify by name, no face so familiar that it might still her blade at some critical moment in the heat of battle, thank gods. The things had taken, among so many others, that one neighbor from a few houses down, that jogger whose always route took him through here, and an elderly woman that Jenette wasn't sure why she found so vaguely familiar, until she realized there was a crossing guard uniform underneath all of that blood.

"Gods, you animals just don't know when to quit, do you?" she panted, exhaustion starting to sink into her bones as she glared daggers at Puke Skinwalker and his dad, Barf Laser. The tag-team duo were chasing some terror-stricken housecat down the street when she found them, trying to paint the poor thing with their nauseating projectiles. Disgusting on soooo many different levels, and yet another reason why Saint Lazarus was glad she didn't let Fidelia come along on this one. It wouldn't do to be tired, hungry, frustrated, wounded, and distracted right now, would it?

Quite unlike these two, the first three monsters had been nice enough to be acting on their own, allowing Saint Lazarus to beat them into a shallow puddle of blood without too much aggravation. There was some difficulty with the first one, some stupid clown with a horn and telekinetic powers, but there always is, whenever you're first learning how to kill something. For example, cutting off the head just gave her twice as many problems to worry about, with the idiot's noggin scurrying about like a particularly disgusting crab instead of lying dead on the street like a good decapitated head is supposed to do. She adjusted her strategy accordingly. She put her sword down and ripped a stop sign out of the sidewalk instead. Not the most ideal bludgeoning weapon, of course, but she made do. Intersection could bill her for the damages later.

"Oh, is that who I think it is in there? The little D'aubigny girl, all grown up?" One of the subhumans cackles with a mouth full of more tongues and teeth than is generally considered appropriate. It recognizes her how does it recognize her why does the thing recognize her?! The abomination that dared to speak her name has an entire arm shattered with one swipe of the concrete end of Jenette D'aubigny's improvised weapon, and then she brings it down on its head once, twice, and then a third time in her bestial fury. That won't kill it; these things are far too obnoxious to let a little thing like a crushed skull take them down, but it'll slow the thing down momentarily, give her a moment to-oh god she overextended the other one is pouncing and puking all over the place.

"What, you don't recognize me, Jenette? We went to elementary together, remember? Mrs. Caulfeld's class? I asked out your best friend in high school. That's my dad, with the bashed out brains there."

It's over. She can't best something like this in close-quarters. This one is going to peel open her armor like canned tuna and eat her from within. She's going to die here, again. This time there won't be any Jenette left to restrain the bloodlust of the monster she becomes, though. Some aberrant, disgusting thing is going to greet Fidelia when she opens the apartment door. It's going to eat her dog, Romero. It's going to eat Calm Reed. It'll try to eat all of VIGIL, and probably fail in the attempt, but before it gets to any of those places, it's going to start here in her hometown, and a corpse with her face on it is going to slide the spare house key out from under Mom's potted plants, unlock the door, and-


The Same Hodgepodge Street, Five Minutes Later

"Fi? Fi, it's me. I'm going to need you to meet me at the Riftline station," Saint Lazarus winces, but does her best to carry on. Trying to dial the buttons on a phone with your tongue wasn't exactly easy, but she's past that now, so the rest is just smooth sailing from here, right? "Brings snacks," she adds, code for grabbing something from the freezer full of the human remains that (usually) keep her monstrous appetite in check. Once those instructions have been passed along, she taps the red 'end call' button with her nose, staggers back up onto her feet, and looks about worriedly, before stomping her old cell phone to pieces. Can't take it with her, can't leave it here, y'know? She'd carry it in her mouth, but what if she has to talk to someone along the way? Explain the whole bloodsoaked situation she's got going on here, and then insist on being allowed to handle it on her own? Nope, gotta just stomp it and move on. She's just lucky the sword was sitting snug in its scabbard at the end there, that thing is expensive.


Anyway, all in all, it was a pretty okay evening. She really wasn't expected Dad's minivan to come speeding to her rescue at the last second, but the Nexus is full of timely surprises like that. It was hard to believe at first, but gods, she'd recognize that ugly red van and the stupid 'proud parent of a North Portside College honor student' sticker anywhere. She's not even mad that both of her arms were torn apart under the wheels; the fleshwalker was obliterated, and now she has a funny story to share when she finally works up the courage to come out to her family and tell them about her being a hideous, flesh-eating zombie! 'Hey dad, remember that time you had to run over some monsters on the drive home in that one apocalypse? Well, guess who was one of those monsters, ahaha!' Ah, fun times ahead, she's sure. She laughs quietly to herself as she begins limping towards the nearest Riftline station. Laughing is safer for her right now than crying.

[Morty]

[Sunny Side of the Moon?]

"That's not too many," Sophie admits. "And I've never met any of those you've mentioned. One of the Exalted I did know, the Solar... I think she was Exalted here, like I was. The other came from your own world, 'Creation'." She pauses. "I haven't felt like visiting it, even if I could. It doesn't sound like my kind of place. My home's here now and my actual homeworld seems inaccessible."

[Recaiden]

Tao lets out a sigh of relief.
Thank the Mother(?). He'd finally made it back to civilization!
Buildings! That are all intact!
People! Who aren't trying to kill him!
And magic flowing over the whole thing like an aurora.

Oh, how wonderful. He was beginning to think that this strange new world was just a violent wasteland after all. Tao carries on rejoicing in this way for a good half a minute before a distant explosion happens and monsters reveal their nature and panic starts to engulf the city.

Well.
That's just the way of things sometimes.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Sunny Side of the Moon?]

Corvus nods again, a bit of nostalgia creeping into his expression.

"Can't say as I blame you. Those of us in the Silver Pact have been trying to make things better for people in Creation, but there is much to do there...and now I cannot go back. I came through the untamed chaos of the Wyld, and I couldn't tell you how I made it here. When I tried to go back, the way I came was closed. I was waiting for someone who promised they could find me another path when I met Willa, and suddenly, I wasn't so anxious to get back to Creation anymore." He chuckles. "I believe I have gained more than I lost by coming to the Nexus, and it seems you are in much the same boat, yes?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Industrial Complex]

"Think you are up to deal with these creatures again, sir?" Jaahlyn inquires as she glances at Muun. "We barely got out last time."

[Docks - Goblin Negotiations]

Anika thankfully continues at a slower pace after that incident and they make it to the goblin ship which looks a lot worse to wear. It looks like the explosion has ripped a huge hole in the deck which the crew and their small automatons are preoccupied repairing.
Two goblins armed to the teeth are standing end the end of the gangplank leading up to the ship itself. The rest of the crew which aren't busy guarding or repairing appear to be either on the lookout or on cleaning duty. Going around the deck with blow torches to wipe out potential parts of that skinwalker.

The saber stops and let's Blanche get off before she changes back into her humanoid form. "Alright... so here's the situation. I might have blown up a part of their ship, but that was to deal with one of those monsters. And I also haven't paid off those explosives yet. They offered me some contract and I just signed, we're saving lives here after all. Can't exactly be picky, am I right?"

[Morty]

[Sunny Side of the Moon?]

Sophie nods. She can definitely understand meeting someone in the Nexus she'd never leave behind.

"Certainly. My homeworld... it looks normal, on first glance. A lot more like this city than I imagine Creation is. Modern, you could put it. But supernatural beings hide from humanity and often harm it, even if not on purpose. I was... shown the truth by strange voices we call the Messengers. I fought them alongside others like me for a while, and just as I lost hope of ever making a difference, a sorcerer we fought sent me here. So I can't go back, even if I wanted to. But here I found purpose, love, friends... and now this. The Messengers have been silent since I was Exalted, too."

[bc56]

Darkness Falls II - Bazaar

It's a beautiful day. The group returning to Inside from Darkness falls will find a crowded, open-air bazaar has sprung up just inside one of the city's many gates. Peddlers are hawking wares from across the multiverse, and exotic scents drift across the breeze. Even the most unusual people could blend into the crowd with little comment.

[Arkhosia]

[Docks - Goblin Negotiations]

Anika thankfully continues at a slower pace after that incident and they make it to the goblin ship which looks a lot worse to wear. It looks like the explosion has ripped a huge hole in the deck which the crew and their small automatons are preoccupied repairing.
Two goblins armed to the teeth are standing end the end of the gangplank leading up to the ship itself. The rest of the crew which aren't busy guarding or repairing appear to be either on the lookout or on cleaning duty. Going around the deck with blow torches to wipe out potential parts of that skinwalker.

The saber stops and let's Blanche get off before she changes back into her humanoid form. "Alright... so here's the situation. I might have blown up a part of their ship, but that was to deal with one of those monsters. And I also haven't paid off those explosives yet. They offered me some contract and I just signed, we're saving lives here after all. Can't exactly be picky, am I right?"

The woman stumbles after dismounting, briefly disoriented from hanging on for dear life under blistering speeds. She looks a little queasy but suppresses it, using Anika's shoulder to steady herself. "Jesus Christ... that's, uh, gonna take a bit of getting used to." Compared to the modes of transportation that she was used to, saber-riding was a very different beast.

Blanche surveys the area once she's recovered. It was clear the crew had ramped up security, that was probably a good sign. "Well, maybe now that they've seen these things in action, they'll be more amenable to lending a hand."

[Devixer]

Industrial Strength Investigation

Spoiler

Show

"Okay. So, warehouse theft." That's not normal. "Is it a particularly valuable warehouse? Something important or dangerous or expensive or a combination thereof within it?" People don't just steal warehouse without a reason-

Well, no, people just don't steal warehouses.

Who steals a warehouse?

She glances around at the little gathering. "Think we got enough here to take another crack at it?"

"Well, they nicked it with a bunch o' workers, whom we've found and evacuated," Michalson explains. "And robbed a bunch of stores. As near as we can tell, they're tryin' to create an army of tin men. Robots. Y'know what I mean. With the two of you 'ere, I figure we might 'ave a shot. But let's be ready to give that place the laugh real quick, too. There's somethin' inside and we need to find out what it is, at least. It uses some kinda of dazzle, so I might be able to stop the worst've it."

Iamar's eyes narrow. "If someone is trying to build an army of any kind, that is something to stop, much less a mechanical one." She nods at Michalson. "Then I shall make short work of any who attack us."

[Recaiden]

It's a beautiful day. The group returning to Inside from Darkness falls will find a crowded, open-air bazaar has sprung up just inside one of the city's many gates. Peddlers are hawking wares from across the multiverse, and exotic scents drift across the breeze. Even the most unusual people could blend into the crowd with little comment.

Tao's not that unusual. He's just an ordinary little guy. With antlers, and a weird skin color. Wearing badly clashing clothes, now torn and bloodstained.

This market looks very SHADY, but it's definitely better than the HORROR and MURDER-CULTS he's run into so far.
Plus, he's running low on BULLETS and FOOD. Can't recover from being shot by rat-people on an empty set of stomachs.
Nevertheless, it's with considerable trepidation that he ventures into the stalls, looking for people selling things he needs or can't live without. Or perhaps a merchant who will take some of his random treasures off his hands.

As far as he knows, he's here alone, Jack having flown off someplace and the witch having disappeared off to complete her strange mission.
But that's fine. It's not the first time he's been alone in a strange new world. Wow, what a strange thought? Has he really done this before? No, must have been a bit of deja vu.

[Earl of Purple]

Bazaar

Jack is in fact here! Well, sort of here. She's sat on a rooftop overlooking the bazaar, watching the people go about their business, as she eats a bowl of radstag stew. It was rather cheap, Jack hadn't tried it before, and the merchant looked interesting. And she's always up for trying new things, even if that includes eating mutated two-headed venison.

[UncleWolf]

The Palace

For a brief moment, Veronica is very obviously considering using magic to boot the two out of there. She flexes her hand, calling forth a small sphere of sickly green light. With a bit more of thought, she tosses the sphere at the soil surrounding the trees. "No. You're going. What am I supposed to do, sit here and say "Oh boy, History time!" while you two practically hit each others minds again and again suffering the metephysical version of a concussion? Am I supposed to be HAPPY when you two choose to put yourself at risk for me? Well, I DON'T, Jace." She says with a scowl before swinging her feet aside to stand up from her throne. "You two are heading out to get treated even if I have to force you two to go. Or more appropriately, THEY will." She says, gesturing up at a small field of a dozen skeletal arms bursting forth from the ground. The skeletons that claw their way up look human, at least as far as a skeleton can, but the bones are jade and gold, born of this place. "I'll get treated in time, but if I step one claw out of this place before it finishes materializing then it will collapse in on itself and be lost to the Chaos between realms again. Not just this place, but the inhabitants as well including those fighting elsewhere. It'll be another day or two before things stabilize, but I'm not going to have you two get all patronizing and self-sacrificing just because I'm teetering over the deep end right now. Go, get treated, and if you REALLY feel like it, then bring a doc back here for me. And my pajamas. And maybe a game system or something now that I have some hands." She adds the last after a moment of thought. "Might as well get comfy."

The Palace Fight

Everyone's efforts pay off, and despite Emily's wounds her retaliation ends up causing the sword-arm to fling off in the air as it is torn asunder. Thankfully her wounds aren't as bad as they could be with the enchanted shovel helping to deflect the other sword. Oil, hydraulic fluid, and another fluid of glowing blue sprays over the combatants, possibly obscuring their vision. Apart from tingling, the last fluid doesn't do anything so they won't need to worry. Not unless any of them can use it to channel their magic at any rate. The sword that was ripped away flies through the air, nearly hitting Marin, but it seems her new android friend has come to her senses enough to snatch it from the air and sheathe it in a single motion. The blade wasn't a perfect fit for her sheath, and it looked rather goofy with part of a magitek arm hanging off the end, but at least it wasn't a danger anymore. "Help me to my feet." The android asks. The best she'd managed on her own was getting to her knees to catch the blade and she seemed quite unstable.

For all the efforts however, it did mean that Emily was still grappling with a multi-ton monster that had one sword arm free. It doesn't attack with the sword again however as it takes time to pull the arm back. Instead, perhaps in a massive display of irony, it tightens the grip on Emily's hands and rolls its massive body down the slope as it attempts to drag the Croc-Woman down into a deathroll.

Docks

Such gifts come with a cost of course, it it seems that Glavvy himself was willing to pay this one. At the mew's behest, he raises his tail up and clamps down on the backside of it. His many fangs sink deep, drawing copious amounts of blood but not as much as a growl from the monster despite how painful that must be. Blood drips onto the ground, sizzling and hissing before it forms itself into several Objects. A gun sight, a pair of gloves, three necklaces that could be wrapped around objects, and a bangle. All are made of deep blue-black leather and scales, and give off the warmth of embers. They were only minor objects, small blessings really, but they had a savage allure to them. All anyone would have to do is attach them to a gun or blade, or wrap them around a Focus, and it would bring forth enough heat and flame to their weapon and powers to give them an edge against the current blight.

The gift was freely offered, but those who would take them up would have to freely take them.

[Shadowcaller]

The woman stumbles after dismounting, briefly disoriented from hanging on for dear life under blistering speeds. She looks a little queasy but suppresses it, using Anika's shoulder to steady herself. "Jesus Christ... that's, uh, gonna take a bit of getting used to." Compared to the modes of transportation that she was used to, saber-riding was a very different beast.

Blanche surveys the area once she's recovered. It was clear the crew had ramped up security, that was probably a good sign. "Well, maybe now that they've seen these things in action, they'll be more amenable to lending a hand."

[Docks - Goblin Negotiations]

"Right, so we just walk up to them and ask for some more bombs." While hopefully someone has a better idea, I doubt anyone actually does so Anika just walks up the gang-plank with the goblins instantly aiming their guns at her. "H-hey! Not any closer!"

"Aw, come on! I just helped you guys!" She waves in the direction of the hole left by the explosion.

"You could be one of them now!" The other guard insists. "We're not letting anyone aboard! So scram!"

[Deathkeeper]

The Palace

Jace’s response is immediate, energy flaring down his arm which almost crackles to his hand before his brain grabs hold of his reflex and he swallows it.
”Okay. I know I deserve that but rude. Very rude.”
”Frankly he’s insulted you think they could take us, though. I mean, that’s CR7 tops?”

Her explanation gets a somewhat different reply. Mostly Jace slumping down, defeated, as they both grumble simultaneously.
”Why didn’t you lead with that?”
”As Zebes would say, the only acceptable collateral damage is none.”
”And teammates with Improved Evasion, yes.”
”You’re right, obviously. He needs help. And I can’t harm your adorable little servants through your absence. Stay here, then. I’ll find him a...
A...”
He stops.
”Do I need a doctor or a psychiatrist?”

Jace pulls out his phone and closes the text message menu-
Oh, there’s all the news bulletins he missed. Hundreds appear the moment he starts looking. Jace stands there a long time. He says “oh” periodically.
”So. Um. Zebes is contagious. You’re probably contagious. And there isn’t a cure. So. Compromise out of necessity. Zebes could stay here while I check on the kids. He’ll only spread it to them. And everyone else if I try to find a doctor that can’t do anything for him. Um. Do you think-that’s...?” He doesn’t know how to finish that sentence. He isn’t used to things appearing that can’t be solved with a few days’ work and a cleric. Not since Ara.

Zebes reads the article through Jace’s mind and blurs into a gold-haired teenager wearing a RAVE-LORD NITO shirt.
”Huh. Better.” But his brain still feels like it’s got a few bees bouncing around in there. Bees made of alt-rock songs.

[Arkhosia]

[Docks - Goblin Negotiations]

"Right, so we just walk up to them and ask for some more bombs." While hopefully someone has a better idea, I doubt anyone actually does so Anika just walks up the gang-plank with the goblins instantly aiming their guns at her. "H-hey! Not any closer!"

"Aw, come on! I just helped you guys!" She waves in the direction of the hole left by the explosion.

"You could be one of them now!" The other guard insists. "We're not letting anyone aboard! So scram!"

The Docks - Goblin Talks

"Look, we don't have time to [firetruck] about," Blanche states, stepping forward. "I'm not sure if you've noticed, but there's a massive one of these things flailing about out there. If we don't get the ordinance we need to send it back to the Stone Age, it won't [caress]in' matter whether or not you've kept those things off your boat. Matter of fact, it won't matter for tens of thousands of folks and their own metaphorical boats."

Her tone turns harsher as she continues, taking another step toward the other guard and staring him down. "And if you're so dead-set on making sure your crew doesn't get the recognition of helping VIGIL save those tens of thousands of lives, We can make sure the rest of the Nexus knows just who's responsible."

Of Errants and Ronin

Elsewhere, during a much more peaceful time where the city isn't besieged by an invasion from eldritch abominations, a duo of antiquated warriors stroll down a main avenue to admire the sights of this strange and wondrous new world.

Although most perceptions will see it as one, seeing as her companion is currently nothing more than the sentient spirit of the uchigatana upon her hip.

"What a wonder this strange land is!" Murasaki exclaims, her ghostly form surveying the teeming buildings and vibrant stores as they pass. "Why, everything is so bright and dazzling, and the motion of it all is so fast!"