Serious Plots 8: Rawr serisaurus!

[Reinholdt]

[Fairy Mountain]

"The crystals also seem to remind the trolls of something as well, by my understanding." There's a history there.

Ilpholin hesitates for a moment, which speaks volumes by itself. "Yes... I think... I don't- I don't know. The King showed me glimpses, images of it and I could... it was like I felt something caressing the back of my neck. I'm not sure how else to describe it." A primordial breath slipping through the crack would probably suffice. But having never experiencing the joys of the Fairest of Lands firsthand, she is a poor vessel for recognizing the truth in front of her.

That the Fairest of Lands is seeping through.

[Artemis97]

[Grove]

Hmm... maybe she'd leaned a bit to hard onto that particular emotion, Alaine decides. She tries to riot the fey's desire to help now, slowly at first, so as not to startle her.

"Sadly it has to be work first, with us. Maybe some fun afterwards." She offers. "Perhaps you can help?"

[Everfree Forest]

"I have rope." Raril says, indicating his pack. "But why should we trust you, sir? I'm not about to throw myself down the throat of a monster on your word alone."

[Morty]

[Fairy Mountain]

The Singer makes a tittering noise that sounds like clicking glass chimes.

"You have seen it. And felt it. I can see it in your eyes. One can't see the Fairest of Lands and remain the same for it." She stretches herself up, towards the ceiling. "It's beautiful. Endless. And we will see it again." She's shaken out of her reverie by remembering Ilpholin's comment about the trolls. "What is a meagre reminder of home for me is anathema for the trolls. They remember the Fairest of Lands as well, but with hate. The giant-kin fared no better than we did, when their own Lands were taken away. Some simply steer clear of me, but some cannot."

[bc56]

A Street, a Search

The snow has recently stopped, and it's pretty cold. A Pedestrians bustle back and forth about their business. Amidst the people, one seems to stand out. A beautiful Tiefling woman, clad in a fur-lined woolen greatcoat moves back and forth across the street. A thin golden circlet ornaments her brow just above her curving horns. She's clearly searching for something, her tail swishing back and forth intently. If someone were to pay the right sort of attention, they would realize she's watching the faces of passerby and occasionally sniffing the air for something or someone.

[Earl of Purple]

A Street, A Search

One of the passersby is Prumathe. He's a dark-skinned young man, about nineteen, with curly black hair and green eyes. He's wearing a thick blue coat and a pair of tough work trousers and steel toe-capped boots. He doesn't notice the tiefling woman, and walks quite closely past her. He's on his home from work, where he spent his lunch break with Sekhmet. And they work alongside each other, though not usually very closely- he works in stone, she in metal. Different parts of the same warehouse.

[bc56]

A Street, A Search

The Tiefling sniffs the air. There! That youth! Her search changes direction, veering directly towards Prumathe. "Excuse me, sir." She tries to get his attention. "I'm looking for my daughter. Have you seen her?" She gives her best impression of a worried mother searching for her child, a little fearful quiver in her voice, a nervous twitch of the hands and tail. She's a skilled actor and liar, so it would be difficult to spot the fact that she's faking it.

[Earl of Purple]

A Street, A Search

Prumathe doesn't realise she's lying, and assumes she's looking for a small child. "Um, no, I can't say I've seen your daughter. How old is she?" Prumathe's willing to help, once he knows more.

He might get a niggling feeling if this beautiful lady looks like Sekhmet.

[bc56]

A Street, A Search

The woman does look like Sekhmet. A lot like Sekhmet. They could be closely related. She continues. "She's eighteen." Isn't that Sekhmet's age? "I was going to meet her here, but I can't find her!" This is all technically true, if viewed from the right angle. "Could you help me look for her?"

[Earl of Purple]

A Street, A Search

"Does she know you were going to meet you here? I mean, Inside's a big place. Lots of streets it could have been." Prumathe is definitely on guard now, trying to not to go too far. He's met the woman Sekhmet thought of as a mother, and this looks like her bio-mum. Or maybe an aunt. Somebody he needs to warn Sekhmet about, he thinks. Interesting that the mother's a tiefling, though.

[Morty]

[Grove]

"None of us enjoy having to work, but that's just how it is," Fayyaad says, with a deep sigh. "It's better to get it over with and have time afterwards."

[bc56]

A Street, A Search

"Yes. I'm afraid she's become lost." The first part is a lie. The second is true from a certain point of view. She's starting to seem agitated, and Prumathe might get the faintest impression that she's grown larger without actually changing in stature and might glimpse the shadows of batlike wings out of the corner of his eye. "Will you help?" The question seems oddly forceful, almost like she's urging him to choose a side.

[Earl of Purple]

A Street, A Search

"I'm... sorry. My sister's sick. Your daughter's eighteen; I'm sure she can look after herself, but I need to get home. If you'll excuse me." Prumathe's lying through his teeth, and he's nowhere near as accomplished a liar as an immortal demon. He's still going to try and walk away, however. Regardless of if the lady tries to stop him.

[bc56]

A Street, A Search

"I'm sorry to hear that." The woman turns away and resumes her search without so much as a farewell...
For a couple seconds. As soon as Prumathe is looking away, she moves to follow him, casting a spell of invisibility before he can turn to look for her again. He will lead her to what she seeks, she's sure of it.

[Earl of Purple]

A Street, A Search

Prumathe looks over his shoulder a few times, just to be on the safe side. He doesn't relax once he's unable to see her any more; he's aware that invisibility exists, and that Sekhmet's good at illusions. That could be genetic, as far as genes work for this. He takes a deliberately obfuscating route home, passing through a busy Riftline station where he could easily be lost, and narrow alleyways that aren't used much so he can keep an eye out for being followed. He hops on a bus, buys a ticket for five stops and gets off suddenly after three.

He's not actually good at making himself hidden, so he could still be followed.

[bc56]

A Street, A Search

The so-called Tiefling follows invisibly, tracking Prumathe more by scent than sight. At time she takes to the air to watch him as he passes through crowds. The bus trick nearly catches her off-guard. Luckily, she was atop the bus rather than inside, or she wouldn't have been able to recover in time. She should be otherwise able to follow Prumathe all the way to his destination, remaining invisible.

[Earl of Purple]

A Street, A Search- Prumathe's Flat

Prumathe leads the 'tiefling' to his house, a six-storey block of flats. He lives on the top floor, in a four-room apartment accessed by an interior stairwell. He'll look around very cautiously before opening his door, and closes it quickly behind him and locks it, as well. Sekhmet hasn't come around yet; he knows she lives in a cabin at GLoG, and thinks that would be far nicer than his place.

After locking his door, he'll head to his balcony and make sure that's locked and then checking his windows. The key goes in his pocket, too.

[bc56]

Prumathe's Flat

The Tiefling alights unseen. on Prumathe's balcony. She only needs to watch where he goes, not to be near him. She expects him to either lead her to her quarry or to bring it here. She settles in, sitting invisibly on the railing while waiting to see what happens. It shouldn't be long, not compared to the time she's waited already.

[Earl of Purple]

Prumathe's Flat

The first thing he does when he's sure everything is locked is take his phone and head into the bathroom. It has the smallest window, so it's hopefully hardest to eavesdrop on; Sekhmet now has wings, so he doesn't want to assume the tiefling he met earlier doesn't also have wings that it was hiding. He rings the first number in his address book. "Hello, Sekhmet. Um, listen. Be on your lookout, there's a tiefling lady around looking for an eighteen year old daughter. She... Looks a bit like you. A lot like you."

[bc56]

Prumathe's Flat

Sekhmet's voice comes back through the phone. "Why should I look... Oh! You think she's my... but that's impossible!" She seems confused. Sekhmet's unaware of her true parentage, and she doesn't know how her biological mother would be here, in a different universe from where she was born. She also doesn't know why it's a problem. "Why do you sound worried? If she is my mum, we should meet her!"

[Earl of Purple]

Prumathe's Flat

"No, Sekhmet. You shouldn't. Your uncle... He did some digging, a long time back. He also warned me about your parents. He found you a few days before a demon cult was uncovered, its members all getting cursed bad. Their leader said he'd had a kid with a fiend, and the cult was getting punished for losing it. You. Your aunt forbade your uncle from telling you, thinking you'd be better off if you didn't know. I promised him that I'd not tell you what he told me unless it was relevant. And... And I think it's relevant now. Sekhmet, your Mum planned your birth for something, because you might look like a tiefling but your blood's stronger than that. Um. Did you know your uncle didn't name you? Your name was on the blanket he found you with." He really doesn't like having to tell her this way, but... She's far away, and he's not and he thinks either he was followed or he was tracked some how. His one hope is that Sekhmet's world doesn't have telephones, so her mother doesn't know about them and can't intercept this discussion.

[bc56]

Prumathe's Flat

"I..." There's a thump from the other end of the line, followed by very muffled speech that can't be made out, and deep breathing. Sekhmet is rather shocked, and it seems like she dropped her phone. A little bit later, she picks it back up. Her voice seems shakier. "I... I... Understand. Why you kept that from me. And I, uh, knew the bit about my name." Which is also proof enough as to the information's veracity. Prumathe couldn't have learned that in the Nexus. "What do we do? We can't hope to fight her." Sekhmet sounds nervous and afraid. Does she really have some foul destiny to fulfill?

[Reinholdt]

[Fairy Mountain]

The Singer makes a tittering noise that sounds like clicking glass chimes.

"You have seen it. And felt it. I can see it in your eyes. One can't see the Fairest of Lands and remain the same for it." She stretches herself up, towards the ceiling. "It's beautiful. Endless. And we will see it again." She's shaken out of her reverie by remembering Ilpholin's comment about the trolls. "What is a meagre reminder of home for me is anathema for the trolls. They remember the Fairest of Lands as well, but with hate. The giant-kin fared no better than we did, when their own Lands were taken away. Some simply steer clear of me, but some cannot."

[Fairy Mountain]

Ilpholin purses her lips a little, but says nothing. So that was it. The Fairest of Lands. It was so alien to the world she knew. Did it terrify her? Enthrall her? She wasn't sure of anything, except that it made her uneasy, perhaps simply because she was unsure. She was not one who fancied uncertainty and indecision.

"I see. Well, if you wish to keep relations with the elves, you understand that the King in Rags takes care of those loyal to him. Protection from those trolls is certainly within his power. Do I have your answer then? Will you join him once more and seek the Fairest of Lands?"

[Chaotic Bob]

Spoiler: Blue City Spoils

Show

Pyramid of the Cosmos

"...I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna boop the snoot." Norael declares after staring at the snek for a few long moments. The entity was simply gorgeous. It certainly meant that the thing was unbelievably deadly, but she was doing this job to try and have fun as well as her work. What was life without a few risks? Unless she's stopped(which is likely easy), she'll breach the barrier and use her wings to glide closer to the giant serpent.

Pyramid of the Cosmos

Benedict has studied many things throughout his life. From ancient religions, to archaeology, to the biology and anatomy of various animals, beasts and cryptids. However, the stars haven't really featured that heavily, so he does not recognise the creature.

"I don't recognise it, but it looks dangerous. I hope you know what you are doing." Because alas, Benedict is a little out of touch and doesn't recognise the phrase 'boop the snoot'.

If Norael does get eaten, hopefully it will give Benedict a clue as to the monster's reaction speed and reflexes, so he can either cross the room- if there's any doorways or portals visible on the far side- or knows how much time he has in which to kill it, as unlikely as that feat currently seems.

TBC - MagQuest



Roughly two-thirds of the Purples frown, considering the matter carefully with a hand upon their respective chins. Realigning the timelines would take a lot of magical effort, he presumes, and we'll need every last bit of Needs Food Badly's magical might for the real conflict, won't we? We should consider alternatives to anything as powerful and resource-draining as time magic.

"Needs? Instead of using chronomancy, what if we-"

"No. It's a terrible idea and would kill us all," Needs answers flatly, a few of his smaller tentacles wriggling from one side of Orange's mouth to the other, adamantly rejecting the idea before the others can even hear it. A different Purple than the one who spoke up a moment ago looks at Orange/Needs with a mix of hurt and frustration, before picking up again right where he left off.

"Blue? Would you be willing to stay behind and transport Feia into the portal timeline realm when she gets here? We'd all be on the other end waiting for her, and-"

"It would not work, Magtok." Needs insists again, reaching into a voluminous sleeve to produce a set of enchanted pocketwatches for Blue, Libby, three of the Purples, and that one soldier guy who was praying Needs had forgotten all about him. "You do not understand thaumatemporal mechanics, but I do. I will weave the spells needed to make this jailbreak possible from here. You will do your part in there. You will be back before I have had time to blink, before Feiadyne makes her dreaded entrance. Do not argue," Needs insists, one of many mouth-tentacles handing out those magical timepieces, before rudely nudging each and every person in the room towards the portal.

[TBC - MagQuest]

Transporting Feia is an amusing notion, but I think I would struggle rather a lot convincing her to momentarily reject her incorrect perception of reality, don't you? Do keep not understanding what I'm doing though. It's, mmm, quite important that you don't try to "get it". Your poor little mind won't be able to grasp what's going on.

Even in the most dire of circumstances, with an angry dragon with delusions of godhood bearing down upon them, the Prof can't miss an opportunity to insult Magtok.

Meanwhile, Blue takes his pocketwatch without question. Needs has a plan. It's probably a good plan. Might as well go with it.

"There's something rather amusing about Feia's own little puppet using that term to refer to anyone else, don't you think? Come now, are you really just going to do as she says when she's left you in charge of such a playground? It's disappointing, really. You think she'd know better than to leave a secretary like you in charge of anything. Speaking of which, care to tell us exactly what you are while we wait?" Poking fun at Syncope probably isn't wise, but Blue doesn't care. He's about to be out of sync with time or something.

As he's pushed towards the portal, though, he takes a moment to slip a small cylinder across to Needs, doing his best to keep the action hidden from all other parties - just in case a Purple felt like kicking up a fuss about this.

Affy's voice filters through just to Needs for a moment. Magic dragon. Do not make any assumptions about what is and isn't achievable before she arrives, irrespective of, mmm, time shenanigans. Keep it safe. Push button in case of dragon.

[The Blue City]

Feiadyne drifts upwards into the air, sand and debris swirling around her as she rises.
Her ascent is not particularly hurried, but neither is it necessarily slow. She is raising herself alongside the exterior of one of the many spires of the Blue City, contemplating the nature of the task before her as she goes.
Giving herself time to think, but not so much as to jeopardize other operations.

The current situation is not ideal, though it is typical to a point. Courtesy the actions of her rebellious child, she was dragged back into the spotlight just long enough to attract the attention of at least a handful of "heroes". The majority are making no immediate moves against her specifically, perhaps, but there are those that are.
The Magtoks, specifically, in this case. Not the most stereotypical of heroes, but such is the nature of the Nexus' interference.
It is still enough for protagonism to take effect and enforce an expectation of failure upon her, regardless of the discrepancies in power and situation.

She's done the math. Magtok is not even vaguely comparable to herself. This is not arrogance, but objective fact.
It does not change the inevitability of his intended victory.

Feia continues to rise, her face schooled into a relatively neutral flatness. Behind her, the wind-born sands veer away as the debris begins to separate itself out. Cloth, wood, bits of stone, and the like are pulled out and dropped to the receding ground below. A growing cloud of iron and steel remains, rotating in a slightly bent figure eight behind her.
As more of the metals are accrued, their movements go faster and faster.
Her rise remains steady.

So then, there is a degree of futility to her own side of this conflict, isn't there?
Certainly, going at things headlong with naught but the expectation of crushing one's foes. However, she's been giving this a good deal of thought of late. The recent arrival of her latest guest has given her the agency to act on some of these thoughts. To make some adjustments to her own expectations and intentions.
Just because one side has to win, doesn't mean you have to lose. Futility is just a matter of perspective.
Make their victory your own.

Her feet clear the lip of the spire's peak and she steps out to settle upon it. The witch's gaze slides across her externally meager kingdom, so many of its wonders and curiosities buried under sand and drab stone monoliths. Her eyes settle on a particular tower and she takes a moment to mentally calculate and lament the impending damage. It is high, but not enough to stay her hand.
It is still far less than the recent consequences of her son's actions wrought. Still within acceptable and functional limits.

Behind her back, heat roars and spills around her, burning the surrounding ground before she tightens her grip on the containment.
What had once been a floating mass of garbage has now become a vortex of molten metal, swirling at such devastating speeds that any degree of separation between pieces of metal has long since been lost.
It begins to shrink in area, pressure collapsing it into a more compact space and subjecting it to ever more terrible forces.

Continuing to stare ahead at her chosen tower, Feia smoothly draws symbols into the air before her with her finger tips, generating a floating circle of glyphs.
At some point, smaller and smaller ones begin appearing beyond it, stretching off towards the tower.

Step one: don't play to expectation.

[TBC - MagQuest]

The confused but nonetheless alert soldier cautiously accepts his watch, after watching everyone else take theirs, while Libby tries to give him an encouraging sort of smile.
Not that this works super well, when she recently murdered one of his companions via terrible shadow demon, but it's the thought right?

If nothing else, it serves to conceal her own concern about whatever plan is being formulated here. Needs recent lucidity bodes well for the viability of the plan, but there is a degree of complication building up here that usually makes things more difficult...
"Theoretically there should not be much for us to do from the inside."
Probably. There's a possible complication that's just occurred to her, but she's not sure how relevant it will be.
Probably won't be. Right?

Blue is talking to the walls! The walls, obligingly, talk back.
"Oh, just an experiment in weaponizing choice characteristics of her foes. I wouldn't worry about me too much. I'm only so much a puppet as you or she happen to be, I wouldn't hurt your little heads over it. Everyone has their little cosmically abstract strings, hmm?"
There's a little tittering noise, someone's terrible impression of a lightly synthesized laugh.
"Would you look at that. Hm. Good luck!"
Then the walls promptly go silent again after that vague final message.

In precisely eight seconds, a terrible lance of nearly boiling] molten iron is going to tear through that far wall, at an angle that carries it through the floor just shy of its opposite wall. In its wake, the surrounding stone melts and waves of burning air will crash through the room. The lance itself isn't likely to hit anyone.
But a second later, another one will fly through a different wall, at a different angle. And another. And another. Each as potent as the last and aggressively lethal.
It won't take terribly long for the entire room to be reduced to a melted ruin and likely collapse this entire portion of the tower.

Was this accounted for in Needs' plan?

[TBC - Pyramid of the Cosmos]

Benedict's surveillance will certainly identify a spot along one wall that looks like a sealed door, as well as that portion off to one side with most of the lights that seems to be the primary (the actual, non-cheaty) entrance to the room.
So there's that.

Norael, meanwhile, proceeds onwards. That barrier that had been blocking their magic and the great snake's effect impedes her not at all.
Once within the room, the presence of what feels like electricity in the air mingles freely with a wet sort of heat.
Being in this room just feels bad. Not lethal, or necessarily immediately dangerous, but pretty unpleasant.

For good or ill, the snake does not immediate rise up or strike at Norael as she approaches it. It doesn't even open its eyes, on the vague presumption it has any in the first place. There is a slight shifting of its body, but it doesn't seem an inherently aggressive motion.
Just a slight adjustment of its weight around the plinth upon which it rests.

Its head isn't reachable from just standing nearby, placed such as it is on part of its own coils, but she could fly near it easily enough.
As long as she goes fast enough to not be terribly impeded by its next breath.

More than anyone else is likely to, perhaps, she'll feel as all the ambient light and energy in the room is sucked in towards the serpent, creating a brief flash of heat as it all rushes past her and then a deep, bone-chilling cold that is left in its wake. And the darkness.
It's as complete in here as it looked from the other room. Even attempts to make more light just results in the serpent's breath devouring that as well.
But before the cold becomes truly dangerous, the snake exhales again, heat and light returning to the room immediately.

Still predictable, at least.

Up until the entire room begins to violently shake, as if subject to an earthquake, splashing bits of whatever terrible fluid lies below to sizzle onto the edges of the floor around it.
The serpent does react to this, uncoiling itself and raising its head up most of the way to the ceiling, angled straight up. No eyes ever open, but it seems to be sensing something anyway.
Where it was once clearly relaxed and at rest, it is most assuredly taut and tense now.

Back in the piping room, the rest of the party is not spared whatever quake has hit the area, the room violently rattling in its wake as well. Gauges on the pipes flicker back and forth ominously, trending towards the red zones more often than not and some faint keening noise can be heard from many of them.

[Earl of Purple]

Prumathe's Flat

"I swore to your uncle that I would, on my right hand. And we don't have to fight her, we just have to, uh, thwart her I guess. Figure out what she wants and stop that from happening. Good news is, we've got help. You're in... a cabin, right? That's a good place to be. Lots of people there who can help, if you ask. They're famous for it. And Pontius will, too." He doesn't want to say GLoG just in case Sekhmet's mother can hear them, as unlikely as that may seem. Anything else he doesn't mind; but if Sekhmet's mother finds out where her daughter lives, bad things will happen.

As for Pontius' willingness to help... He did come to investigate and reassure her when she had a week off after her transformation.

[Recaiden]

Sekhmet? We can feel you're really worried. What's going on? comes a mental impression of Spike's voice.
She might be comforted to know that the hive wasn't paying close attention the whole time.
Even when the psychic signature of a creature in serious distress arose, well, for a moment they figured it was probably just Sekhmet being weird as usual.
But it couldn't hurt for her friend to check in with her.

[bc56]

Prumathe's Flat
"Why don't you say the name? You're worried she's listening?" Sekhmet doesn't know how powerful her mother is. It's possible she is listening.


"Spike?" Sekhmet very nearly responds to the telepathy out loud. "It's my mother. She's here." She sends enough information to explain what she knows about the situation. Unfortunately, she doesn't know much.

[Earl of Purple]

Prumathe's Flat

"I don't know. She questioned me specifically, and only me. I didn't see her ask anyone else. I think she followed me home, but I can't prove it. She's not in the flat, I know that much. She'd have to break in to do that. I'm in the bathroom, there's one window here and it's small and wavy. It can't be seen through clearly. And I know you don't have this tech on your homeworld, so I'm really hoping she can't hack in and listen to both sides of the conversation. But I also don't know how good her senses are." If he thinks about it too hard, he could freak himself out. Better to stop thinking about it, then.

[Recaiden]

A secret, a cult, demons, a plan for the child. The hive isn't particularly familiar with cults or demons of this sort. But it all sounds quite sinister.

Hmm, that is interesting, and maybe worrying.
Sekhmet's mother might not appreciate the changes Sekhmet has undergone.
We can help you hide from her, if you need.

On the other hand, Sekhmet's mother is presumably a better source of Sekhmet's powers than even Sekhmet.
He's right, we need to discover her plan.

[bc56]

Prumathe's Flat

"How are we supposed to learn what she's doing? We don't know where she is, and she has no reason to tell us anything." Sekhmet addresses this to both conversations. She also speaks to Prumathe. "I, uh, know some, uh, people who could, uh, hide us." She seems hesitant to mention it, and her emphasis on the word people suggests that it might not be strictly true. Would they be a match for her mother? She doesn't know, but her instinct in these situations is to run and hide. Should Prumathe meet them? He was bound to find out sooner or later, but Sekhmet doesn't exactly like that part of her life. She would prefer to keep it hidden.

[Earl of Purple]

Prumathe's Flat

"I don't know. But it's got to be possible. Maybe find a rakshasha, they're... tricky, but trustworthy. They're obsessed with knowledge and learning; if anyone in Nexus knows, one of those will. I hope." Which does leave the question of how to find such a creature. Sekhmet, fortunately, has met somebody who knows how to get in touch with one. Or she could maybe just ask around elsewhere. "Do you trust them, Sekhmet? These... 'people'?" Prumathe suspects they're the people responsible for her alteration, though he knows nothing more about them. The answer to if Sekhmet trusts them... That would be very important knowledge.