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  1. - Top - End - #481
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [A Secluded Desert]

    Okay, yes, pretty much everything about this was a terrible idea and he knew it. Maybe he's been feeling a little bit self-destructive lately. Maybe just extra foolish.
    But at least he can still salvage the one thing he actually promised to do with this blasted thing.

    This is still an awkward, abominable perversion of magic as he usually performs it, but in theory...
    Just need to nail his consciousness a little harder into reality, so he doesn't break free again when he peers Outwards...then try not to think too hard about Everything Else while he looks for those smoothest and most frayed spots in the chaotic smear around him.

    It doesn't take long, which is good as he can feel his poor mind struggling almost immediately to not get literally carried away, frayed and dispersed to the - stop thinking about it. Stop. Focus.

    There's a smooth spot over there.

    Phase 2.
    With significant effort, he drags his consciousness over and into the smoothness, before yanking a more mundanely arcane tether to snap his body along for the ride.


    With the very slightest whiff of faerie, Salyune Xeni folds into Zee's feeding grounds.
    "Fear and creativity are conjoined twins."
    Absentee Spirit

  2. - Top - End - #482
    Titan in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Manticore's Village]

    Calm Reed's eyes go wide and her breath catches when her fingers suddenly snaps. She slows down and almost stops for a moment, but it doesn't last long. She keeps going and lashes out with her good hand, sending a jet of freezing high-pressure water at the cruciamancer's head.

    [Nightmare Forest]

    The forest only grows denser and more tangled as the party head deeper. It teems to twist on itself, paths shifting and criss-crossing. Lapis' trail of breadcrumbs will be helpful in making sure they keep pushing forward. The light is very dim here, the sun's rays barely piercing the dense forest canopy.

    As they make their way through it, the Vigilantes will notice that the terrain is dropping. They seem to be heading into a valley. They can't see much in front of them, but they can hear the rushing of water. Then they will see a river, occupying the base of a wide valley. It flows lazily among rocks and dead trees, but its other end is hidden in deep fog. Everything is entirely silent save for the sound of water. Shapes seem to be moving in the fog... but maybe that's just the wind.
    Last edited by Morty; 2019-12-05 at 04:19 PM.
    My FFRP characters. Avatar by Ashen Lilies. Sigatars by Ashen Lilies, Gullara and Purple Eagle.
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  3. - Top - End - #483
    Orc in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    A Secluded Desert

    It's hard to truly get away from everyone and everything. Even the most isolated spots are occasionally visited; humanity is like cockroaches, getting everywhere and managing to eke out a living. Even places like this get visited, though sometimes it's only by visitors.

    Today, those visitors include a hundred and three people on a large vehicle driving through the landscape on its way to somewhere else. It's not very subtle, kicking up a cloud of dust, adding to it with smoke and steam from its engines. It has three wheels, a large wheel in the front and centre of the vehicle which pulls it along, and two in the back connected by a complex arrangement of hydraulics and chain pulleys that allow the vehicle to steer. That front wheel is four storeys tall, and the vehicle's highest point is just atop it, a small building supported by steel scaffolding accessed by ladders and steps. There sit the steering committee, arranging the vehicle's movements. Currently, they're a little bit lost.

    Manticore's Village

    One of the buses has just started up, the engine on as a slaver tries to drive away from the attackers and at least salvage some of the slaves from this raid. The driver could be targeted, that'd stop them getting away.

    The half-elf doesn't get time to scream before freezing water hits her face hard enough to knock her out.

    The slaver collapses after a few punches, his kevlar vest against Alice's forcefield and coming up short.

    The three slavers left standing raise their shotguns and fire, two at Alice and one at Calm Reed.

    Nightmare Forest

    Makuro gulps as the fog closes in, feeling a little claustrophobic by one of the few things able to impact her eyes and her power-derived resistance to blindness. "We should find a bridge to cross the river. It looks slow and sluggish, but I don't trust it. There might be monsters in it." She doesn't know if upstream or downstream is more likely to have a safe crossing, however.
    Last edited by Earl of Purple; 2019-12-05 at 05:20 PM.
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  4. - Top - End - #484
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [A Secluded Desert]

    Xeni appears.

    He'll likely notice three things, primarily. First, the Icon he holds, the tohuwabohu, begins to diminish. The process isn't rapid by any means. Nor is it physical in any sense of the word. It doesn't get smaller. Or lighter. It just gets less. Second? He's surrounded by what can only be described as an alien garden. It's distressingly similar to the way reality was warping inside the putti arena, full of chrome-like lattice full of burning light, crimson coral-like fungal growths oozing brownish black slime, and drifting masses of iridescent bubbles. The air is starting to feel soupy and thick. And there are also mutated animals.

    Like that rabbit.

    Xeni may have a hard time justifying why his first thought upon seeing the abomination is 'rabbit'. It looks like someone took the idea of a rabbit and stretched into into something not unlike a tree. Except the tree is also a dragon made of black glass specked with drifting stars. It looks like it should have trouble even moving but it's getting along fine.

    The third thing he probably doesn't really register right away. Some huge glassy stone hill, black and glossy near the bottom before abruptly shifting to a dark amber colored agate flashing with iridescent ribbons of green and yellow light. It's impressive, surely. And foreboding, too.

    It gets more foreboding when it moves.

    "You have a lot of audacity to draw my attention when I'm feeding, faerie. Is it because you crave the void?" comes a voice with the force of a hurricane. A dragon of frankly incomprehensible size cranes her neck to peer down at Xeni. The ridge-line of the 'mountain' begins to glow an eerie blue as fel flames begin dancing between her teeth. The air is filled with a low, reverberating, repeating thrum that rapidly begins increasing in both pitch and speed.

    But what follows isn't a stream of irradiated plasma and horrible, instantaneous death. It's a question.

    "Xeni? Is that you?"


    The seraphim leans a bit closer, a grin equal parts massive and terrifying splitting her face. And then, inexplicably, Xeni's vision of the creature turns into an incoherent smudge of color and light. Everything else is clear, but it's as if someone put a censorship filter over the dragon. She she speaks again her voice is much smaller, much closer, and much more familiar.

    "Hi Xeni! Wow, this is really surreal. You're so tiny!"

    Meanwhile, off in the distance!


    The brief flare of Cherenkov radiation in the unnaturally thick air, a spooky blue glow off in the distance, might catch the attention of the folks aboard the traction city. As they crest a ridge a wide valley in the terrain of rolling hills comes into view. Including the mountain sized dragon parked in the middle of an expanding alien garden. The Glory she sheds is far brighter than the anemic sunlight trying to fight its way through cloud cover, casting anything illuminated by her into stark shadows. Those who find themselves looking at the creature will likely find that a sliver of the empyrean is now lodged in their mind, the mere memory of her taking on a life of its own. A name comes unbidden. Yezekiel, Saint/Sanctified One/Holy One/Sacred of Perseverance.

    Those who catch a glimpse of the angel may find themselves gawking, depending on how powerful their force of will is. She is at once both too terrible and too wonderful to look away from. Mutations will set in after a few minutes, though it would take a full hour of exposure to corrupt someone to the point of the nearly unrecognizable 'rabbit' that Xeni encountered.


    [Nightmare Forest]

    "Yeah, a stream will break the trail of breadcrumbs and we might get lost! Let's look upstream first since upstream is usually uphill but I guess it might not be in an enchanted forest," Lapis reasons as she begins heading up stream. "Don't worry, Makuro if there are any monsters I'll help protect you!"
    Last edited by Rebonack; 2019-12-05 at 11:14 PM.
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    The Eternal Game Nightmære Stuff
    It doesn't matter whether you win or lose, just how awesome you look doing it.

  5. - Top - End - #485
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [A Secluded Desert]

    The Icon never ceases to be a curious...thing. Grasping one's mind around it in the first place is already quite the thought exercise, one that the mage had spent a significant amount of time on.
    Doing things with it and being aware of it changing are even wilder to comprehend.
    So that's one fun revelation Xeni has here, that there's some abstract change happening.

    Mutated rabbits and essentially blighted landscape is significantly less surprising. He knew there'd be a bit of that, it's why he came here after all. Deliberately seeking out an area where he theorized to be Empyrean influence.
    Bright side? His theory was absolutely correct and that is fantastic.

    The price seems to have been the fact that said Empyrean influencer is still here and very very large.
    "Oh crap, Godzilla got snapped up."
    Obviously, initial instinctual terror requires stupid (yet alarmingly accurate...) jokes, while the smarter and more disciplined parts reach out for literally any defensive magic that seems convenient.
    Probably just going to be a oh get very very far away teleport, but then it is abruptly less hostile, more weird, and just familiar enough to make him less existentially panicked.
    More socially panicked.

    Somewhat shakily, he stands back up from where he definitely fell on his butt in surprise and tries to pretend he's feeling more confident than he is.
    "Ah...Zee? Is that you cosplaying as Spacezilla up there?"
    He squints into the 'censoring' on Zee a bit, very briefly contemplating how hard it would be to breach it before deciding that that is probably a rather bad idea.

    No, he's not really immediately afraid for his life anymore on purely hostile-monster grounds.
    But he is still kind of a bit scared of some impending conversation points that are probably inevitable at this point.

    "Why are you cosplaying as Spacezilla?"
    Last edited by Chaotic Bob; 2019-12-05 at 11:57 PM.
    "Fear and creativity are conjoined twins."
    Absentee Spirit

  6. - Top - End - #486
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Rebonack's Avatar

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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [A Secluded Desert]

    Even calling it a thing probably isn't accurate. It's more like... the potentiality of a thing. It could be a thing. But then it wouldn't be an Icon anymore.

    Hadn't Zee said something about the Watchers using them to make weapons? She had, hadn't she. It's probably hilariously dangerous.

    Sort of like what Xeni has been up to.

    As well as the situation he finds himself in right now.

    "Cosplaying?" comes a giggled reply. "Haha, nah. I don't think I could pull off Spacezilla in the first place. I haven't got the hips for it."

    At that comment there's a grinding, groaning sound as the earth tremors under Xeni's feet. The mage will get the impression that the giant smudge completely blocking out half the sky moved just now. Yezekiel probably wiggled her giant dragon-butt. She's got real commitment to the jokes, even as a... whatever the heck she is.

    "Okay, well, don't freak out and panic, alright? I'm feeding. I need to be in my natural, unbound form to feed. It's pretty dangerous to anyone and anything around me, so I only do it waaaaaay out in the wilderness where I'm miles away from the nearest person," she explains matter-of-factly. "I kinda... eat the world around me. All the fae-ness I gobble up lets me change and grow. It makes everything become more heavenly, which you probably noticed."

    Most people probably wouldn't call the surreal landscape heavenly.

    "But dangerous, as said. You've seen what it did to the wildlife? Does the same thing to people. It would be dangerous to you if you weren't still in possession of that Icon. How's the study been going, by the way?"
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    The Eternal Game Nightmære Stuff
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  7. - Top - End - #487
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [A Secluded Desert]

    Yeah. That's definitely Zee.
    Only Zee would be this brand of normally-relieving goofy as a giant monster.

    And really, it's incredibly relieving to that bit of animal-brain screaming to find a different, less immediately predatory planet to live on.
    That just leaves the social part of the brain quivering.

    This would not typically be a problem, if Zee wasn't an almost-exclusive member of the nowadays very short list of still-alive friends he has and he was terribly concerned about making her genuinely angry with him.
    Which seems probable.
    But hey, at least this internal fear is preventing him from criticizing Zee from her- wait, she's eating the world isn't she?

    "Ri-ight...eating is important. Cool, I understand. Maybe not the particulars you have going on here, but..."
    Particulars like that weird rabbit thing in the distance. He feels like its staring at him whenever he isn't staring at it.
    It probably isn't. But it feels like it.
    "Uh, hey, I feel sort of obligated to make sure, but...is this a permanent thing? This 'heavenly' change to the place? Gonna spread? Cover the entire planet? Doom everyone to a life of fearing that strange glossy animals are going to be watching them sleep for the rest of their lives?"
    Okay, the rabbit is definitely going to bother him.

    Which is definitely not at all stalling for her question, which is precisely what he doesn't really want to talk about right now.
    He's very obviously and immediately uncomfortable with it.
    "Well, I have gone a few days over our agreed time budget with the 'Icon', so I'd like to start with apologizing about that. On the flip side, I have definitely...learned some very interesting things lately."
    A very vague truth that is probably less incriminating than "I was definitely and only mostly metaphorically poking horrible faerie danger with my finger this whole time".
    "Fear and creativity are conjoined twins."
    Absentee Spirit

  8. - Top - End - #488
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
    Rebonack's Avatar

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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [A Secluded Desert]

    Zee's personality is immediately and overtly recognizable. Yes, even as a Godzilla sized star-monster. Likely the only reason this is the case is because her personality had been echoed thousands of times over in her genesis. Normally when a person undergoes apotheosis their mortal predilections and persuasions fade pretty quickly. They simply lack the Determination to endure the refining process.

    As for questions of friendship? Thankfully for Xeni, making Zee honest to goodness angry is a pretty difficult task to accomplish. Making her annoyed? Sure. Inconvenienced? Sometimes. But actually angry? That requires a special sort of dedication to persistent awfulness.

    At Xeni's actual out loud question, Yezekiel nods, causing the ground to tremble again. "Permanent, yes. Short of some pretty fancy 'cleansing' stuff that the Watchers know how to do. Or fae trying to sprout an Enchanted Forest right on top of it, but I think that might just cancel out."

    A beat.

    "Or explode. No spreading, though. No way. My gardens are self-sustaining, but they don't grow. That's true of any empyrean. If they DID spread all on their own I think I would prefer starving over dooming everyone to slow-creeping destruction," the seraphim continues. Her tone here is pretty resolute. It would appear as though the overall safety of the Nexus, even above her own well-being, is still her number one priority. Then she adds, "The glossy animals are mostly harmless."

    Should Xeni glance over his shoulder, he'll discover that the rabbit... thing... is absolutely staring at him. It's already black, but its eyes are pits of absolute darkness.

    Then Xeni replies to Yezekiel's question. She also gleans more information from his worldline than he was inclined to share with her verbally.

    She doesn't chastise him at all. Or even sound angry. She just asks another question.

    "Xeni, how long ago would you say I placed the Icon in your possession?"
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  9. - Top - End - #489
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [A Secluded Desert]

    As Xeni lacks Zee's talent for reading "worldlines" or even an awareness that this is an option for some, he entirely misses out on all of the unspoken reassurances to his immediate concerns.
    This is kind of a shame, but - oh lord the rabbit really is watching why is it staring like that we are not a giant glass carrot man.

    The poor fellow definitely doesn't spend precious thinking seconds gawping in a deeply unsettled fashion at the Rabbit Thing, instead of actually listening to Zee explain that her Garden isn't an existential threat to the world on its own. Not that he was truly concerned about that. He likes to think he can trust Zee to not lose herself that wholly. Again. So soon.
    Okay, so it's still technically a risk, but that's why he asked at all in the first place. So that he knew that he still knew that, and maybe she knew that he knew that, but in an unaggressive way that doesn't imply he distrusts her and makes anyone exceptionally unhappy here.

    Okay, thoughts are running away to avoid thinking about the problem at hand again.
    He pulls his gaze (very reluctantly) away from the Rabbit Thing and back towards the censored ZillaZee.

    At least this is a fairly simple question, that while he feels guilty about slightly overdoing isn't that bad.
    Although. This also seems a bit like a leading question...
    This makes the mage somewhat more overtly cautious, clearly expecting this to be going somewhere he's not going to entirely like.
    "Hope you don't want a really specific answer, my clock died awhile ago. Couple weeks? Maybe a teensy bit more?
    ...how long have you been eating this patch of world?"


    That last part is 5% petulant deflection, 45% poor attempt at humor, and 50% actual curiosity.
    "Fear and creativity are conjoined twins."
    Absentee Spirit

  10. - Top - End - #490
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [A Secluded Desert]

    Ah right, other people can't do that, can they? Zee has to remember to actually verbalize her thoughts and feelings to others so they'll comprehend them. Being stuck in the Empyreum really HAS had an impact on how she acts. That's impossible to avoid, not matter how she tires to be just like she was before apotheosis. She can't walk back to what she once was.

    "Okay, so, first I wanted to say some things that I was feeling but I didn't actually verbalize," Yezekiel begins. "I'm not mad at you. You've been doing wizardry. Eldritch magic hasn't completely permeated you like it would with a sorcerer. A... uh... a sorcerer is something from my home-world that has an innate connection to the Dreamheart. Anyway! Do not be afraid and all that. And because of the way I started existing in the Empyreum I'm WAY more grounded in humanity than most of my siblings would be. You don't have to worry about me turning into some kind of scenery munching villain, even if I munch scenery sometimes."

    There!

    That's... mostly reassuring.

    Right?

    Then, very carefully with one of her huge feather-like leaves (or leaf-like feathers?), Yezekiel reaches down and geeeeently scoots the Rabbit Thing over to the other side of another nearby hill.

    'Gently' meaning that the action just carved a furrow into the ground about ten feet deep that immediately grew over with chrome lattice and alien light.

    See? She can use a soft touch!

    "I've been feeding here for about fifteen minutes," Yezekiel replies. "And I gave the Icon to you nearly a year ago."

    Aren't there lots of fairy tales like that? Where someone gets involved with fae stuff and POOF! tons of time has passed?
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  11. - Top - End - #491
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [A Secluded Desert]

    Oh. Look.
    Reading him like a book.

    This should probably surprise him more than it ends up doing, which amounts to a brief flare of shock, followed by embarrassment and a tad bit of deeper shame.
    Of all the things he's seen lately, Zee digging up his not-incredibly-subtle fears really isn't that high up on the totem pole of weird.

    More importantly, there's some actual, nice reassurance in there.
    Not permeated with the faerie stuff? Not mad at him? Accordingly probably not concerned that he's become a terrible fae-man who needs to be viewed with terrible disappointment, shortly before a subsequent game of obliteration-tag?
    Great!
    And that terrible Rabbit Thing is gone too!
    "Okay. Firstly: really glad you're maybe kind of okay with this. Secondly: still sort of sorry for predictably going further than I said I would."

    Only sort of. It was the sort of predictable he figures everyone was aware of at that time and was being tacitly, if unhappily, agreed to. And he's learned such interesting things that he doesn't think he could go back on anyway, if given the choice.

    He looks prepared to continue into a 'thirdly', before that last comment of Zee's finds purchase in his clearly-scattered thoughts somewhere.
    And then he just gets kind of quiet and stays that way for a minute.

    There's a murmur, at some point, that's not terribly audible. Not that this is likely to stop Zee from noticing.
    "A year, huh."

    He doesn't seem to know what to do with that information.
    "Fear and creativity are conjoined twins."
    Absentee Spirit

  12. - Top - End - #492
    Barbarian in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [A Secluded Desert]

    Well. Yezekiel is glad she was able to at least alleviate some worries before she scattered Xeni's fragile confidence to the freezing wind. Maybe he could use a little more building up in the mean time?

    "Eternal Game activity was actually pretty mellow while you were out. I'm thankful for that. Especially since those awful pod people were being awful, too. Though they were also taken care of. At the end it looked like they got caught in some kind of deadtime bomb, not that I'm complaining," the seraphim recounts. "Karaglen has been doing fine. She's healthy and happy and growing. And you're really fortunate, too. Sometimes when people shake free of fae time warps all the time they would have experienced piles up on them all at once."

    That means a year of dehydration and starvation!

    Keen.

    Probably good that didn't happen.

    "You should probably visit Kara and let her know that you're alright," Yezekiel adds. "I know she tries to make a show of not worrying and missing you when you vanish from time to time, but she does. Miss you and worry about you, I mean. It would mean a lot to her and she would probably give you a Thanksmas gift."

    After mildly panicking that she didn't have one ready (unless she had the foresight to anticipate Xeni's return for Thanksmas).
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  13. - Top - End - #493
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    Secluded Desert- Wrattleham

    As Zee and the garden come into view from the traction-town's lookout/steering position the Mayor barks an order into the speaking-tube. Wrattleham slows down and starts to turn, headed more directly into the heavenly garden of unearthly... Well, everything. It's also slowing down, and word's getting around amongst those that aren't working on the engine-deck that there's something weird coming up, so the population that isn't working gather on either side of the front wheel.
    Terrowin Avatar by HappyTurtle. Much thanks!

  14. - Top - End - #494
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Manticore's Village]
    Quote Originally Posted by Morty View Post
    Calm Reed's eyes go wide and her breath catches when her fingers suddenly snaps. She slows down and almost stops for a moment, but it doesn't last long. She keeps going and lashes out with her good hand, sending a jet of freezing high-pressure water at the cruciamancer's head.
    Quote Originally Posted by Earl of Purple View Post
    One of the buses has just started up, the engine on as a slaver tries to drive away from the attackers and at least salvage some of the slaves from this raid. The driver could be targeted, that'd stop them getting away.

    The half-elf doesn't get time to scream before freezing water hits her face hard enough to knock her out.

    The slaver collapses after a few punches, his kevlar vest against Alice's forcefield and coming up short.

    The three slavers left standing raise their shotguns and fire, two at Alice and one at Calm Reed.
    Four vehicles: one crashed, one empty, one with its tires shot, and one...trying to get away.
    Three targets remaining
    Preventing escape...

    The drone brings itself to a stop in the air, takes aim at the driver (weren't they just seconds ago stuffing slaves onto that bus? Do you suppose the door is still hanging open?) and fires.

    One slug cracks against the forcefield and comes to a stop. The other finds a weak interface, the corner between two planes of the force-field's current configuration, and continues on to strike Alice in the side, only barely slowed. She staggers (but doesn't fall), pain flashing on her face, blood welling up, blood bubbling strangely. With fingers spread, she slowly waves a hand, reshaping and redoubling the force fields to better protect her.
    Notice - sustain limit exceeded...
    Damage appears minor. Continue attack.
    Last edited by Recaiden; 2019-12-06 at 02:21 PM.
    ~Inner Circle~
    Quote Originally Posted by Raz_Fox View Post
    He takes normality and reason and turns them UP TO 11!
    Quote Originally Posted by Anarion View Post
    Recaiden, stop using your mastery of the English language to confuse the issue.
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  15. - Top - End - #495
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Secluded Desert- Wrattleham]

    The mobile city approaches! Cresting the ridge, they'll have a good view of the angel and her heavenly garden. The creature is huge beyond reason, nearly three hundred meters even if the tail isn't taken into consideration. Not quite on the scale of the Really Big Crab, sure. But still really big! 'Dragon' is probably the first word that springs to mind when viewing the creature. Or, well, the second word. The first word being her name echoing relentlessly inside their skull. The massive beast has a body shape that is at once feline and cervine, a pair of massive horns stretching from the back of her head to form an elliptical ring, a blazing star burning bright between them. Just below the horns are irregular branching antlers like the limbs of a tree. She has wings in place of ears, though small. Or at least small compared to the enormous sets growing from her shoulders and hips. Leaves adorn the wings in place of pinions, glittering gold and emerald in her incandescent radiance.

    She crouches in the midst of her garden, which is steadily growing around her, great tail curled along her body like a resting cat. A few minutes after Wrattleham begins trundling toward her, she reaches out with one of her massive forewings and draws in the earth with one of her pinions. No doubt those currently enraptured by the sight of the angel will assume that whatever Yezekiel just did must have been something ineffably holy.

    It's possible to muster up the Will needed to pull ones eyes away from the angel. It might be easier to do if one notices that the others who have been standing there transfixed for the longest are beginning to... change.

    Little things at first. Patches of scales in obsidian black or rusty fire-agate brown. Points of starlight. New limbs trying to form. Deep black eyes ringed with stellar fire. Branch-like horns. Twiggy antlers. Leafy feathers.

    They are pulled along specific motifs. Dragon. Star. Glass. Tree.

    Only a fortunate few, though, will find these new features manifesting in places that make sense. To most they will be chaotic, mismatched, useless, or even detrimental.

    The more Yezekiel grows inside the mind, the more they will become obsessed with the Saint of Perseverance. To venerate her. To pray to her. To sacrifice to her. To learn more of her. To become more like her. To see her purposes and plans fulfilled, even if they have no idea what those might be. Deranged cultists are imaginative, you see. Who needs to know what your patron actually wants when you can just guess and carry out rituals of your own creation in her name?

    Hopefully a few, slightly more sane individuals will win out here. Otherwise the mobile city may well become a mobile cult.
    Last edited by Rebonack; 2019-12-06 at 02:56 PM.
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  16. - Top - End - #496
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Secluded Desert]

    It is a shame that Xeni is entirely unaware of that city in the distance. Zee, too, for that matter. The two of them would undoubtedly go to great lengths to stop what is happening there.

    But! Apparently they haven't noticed yet.

    Xeni's excuse is that he's coming to terms with an entire year disappearing in the span of days. Which, he would be disappointed to report, means he misses most of what Zee says during this time.

    At some point in the latter end of discussing Karaglen, he reacquires his awareness of the immediate situation and has to mentally suffocate the duo of terrible thoughts that always pop up at the thought of Kara lately.
    1. is she actually safe, or will she need put down again? This thought has an especially black spike of guilt in his heart.
    2. That isn't really her, not after what Zee did. This one is easier to mash, under a self-repeated "if it looks like a baby dragon named Karaglen and talks like a baby dragon named Karaglen, it's a baby dragon named Karaglen" mantra.

    He has gotten better at crushing the invasive threads of these, but they do still exist, at least enough to be noticed.

    Also an easy out to stop worrying about his own issues for a little longer. This is absolutely a dreadful plan, but it seems good in the moment.

    So, with that all worked out to some passable degree, he lets out a ragged little sigh and drags his fingers through his somewhat matted hair. Which reminds him that he could probably use with a bath at some point. Imminently.
    He's sure he looks like general exhausted garbage (not wrong) and he should probably at least wipe off some of that Mad Wizard Grime before seeing anyone else he cares about.

    "Yeah, you're right. I'll have to apologise to her too. Hah, I promised I wouldn't disappear for months on end again. Didn't take long to break that..."
    He was planning on following through on that too, which is more frustrating.
    "I won't pity party over it though. As long as she's fine, everything is fine. Definitely fine."
    So very unbelievably fine.

    He squints back up in Zee's direction, again resisting the temptation to test her censor-ward.
    "How long are you going to be out here eating?"
    "Fear and creativity are conjoined twins."
    Absentee Spirit

  17. - Top - End - #497
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    Quote Originally Posted by Gnrlshrimp View Post
    [Hillside Rambling]

    It's been a little while since Lucy last visited Vivi. Not to say she's been absent entirely, but she's definitely been around...less often.

    But perhaps to make up for that, she's promised to take Vivi somewhere really nice today! And, true to her word, their trip today has taken them into one of the more scenic parts of Outside's substantial landscape. Beautiful rolling fields of green, copious amounts of plantlife and wildlife - the perfect place for a walk, and a picnic.

    Lucy still hasn't exactly been her normal cheery self today though. Definitely seems like something's up.

    [Hillside Rambling]

    "Lucy?" The stocky woman next to her asks as they meander along. She's volunteered, nay, insisted on carrying everything for the picnic. She looks like she's got some arms well use to bearing burdens, although her bundles are often more child-shaped. "Was there something specific you wanted to talk about?"

    While it's definitely a welcome visit, that gap in their seeing each other combined with the sudden timing of it and Lucy's discomfort makes this an easy read.
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  18. - Top - End - #498
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    Secluded Desert- Wrattleham

    The people working on the engines and actually doing the work that moves the traction-town can't see what's outside, until they're ordered to stop the scavenger-suburb. Then, they can go see what the fuss is about.

    After they do, their foreman, the Gutmaster snaps out first. He's able to rouse a few of the others- not many, not enough, really, for what he's going to do. They don't even have a skeleton crew of non-staring engineers right now, to put the city in reverse and start moving away without damaging the complex steering system. Wrattleham has never reversed before, and whilst the engine and wheel are theoretically capable of it, it's never been tested in the scrap-built town.

    They start to move slowly backwards, putting strain on the rear wheels and steering assembly, and as they start to go back other engineers snap out and join in, though... The thirty-five people on Wrattleham's sole tier have been looking at Zee for several minutes, and the Lord Mayor and his steering committee have seen her for over ten minutes.
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  19. - Top - End - #499
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Secluded Desert]

    "Kara is absolutely safe, Xeni," the wizard is reassured. "I made the mistake of not confronting the evil of that sword quickly and decisively enough. I won't make that mistake again. Kara will get the normal, carefree childhood she deserves. You're welcome to help, if you can find the time."

    What's unspoken here is pretty obvious. Yezekiel isn't super-enthusiastic about Xeni's penchant for vanishing and leaving Kara alone to worry about him for months at a time. Even before adopting the little dragon, Zee provided most of the parental attention for her. Makes sense, given that she basically lived in the rafters at Trog's. Do better, Xeni! Kara believes in you! Zee wants to believe in you, too.

    "Kara is still herself," the seraphim continues. "I'll admit, I had to use more than a little of me to rebuild her. There wasn't much left after everything she's been through."

    Y'know.

    That whole unnaming thing.

    "She isn't exactly the same, but no one stays the same as they travel through life. She still loves you though, Xeni. And I think that's the part that truly matters."

    Nothing like a child's love as encouragement.

    "I'll probably be here for an hour or so. Enough time to get my fill. You should probably head back to town and get cleaned up, Xeni. You can use the showers in one of the upstairs rooms at Trog's if you want?" the giant celestial dragon offers.

    And then... a shame they're unaware of a city...?

    That gets a rapid and abrupt reaction from the seraphim.

    "City, what city?"

    It seems like a complete non-sequitur. Who said anything about a city? Xeni will feel the ground shake as Yezekiel draws herself up into a sitting position, craning her neck to scan the horizon.

    There.

    Just cresting the hills. Some kind of... giant three-wheeled vehicle?

    Oh no. How did she miss that? She hadn't missed it. It was heading away from her chosen feeding grounds when she was scouting the area a few steps sideways in time. They must have reversed their course for some reason?

    "No. Nonono they weren't supposed to come this way," comes a worried rumble from Yezekiel. Then she turns her attention back down to the wizard. "I can't just uproot myself. It takes time they don't have. Xeni you need to get to the town-truck over on the ridge. Find a way to stop them from looking at me. Get them to turn around and move away. GO!"
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  20. - Top - End - #500
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Manticore's Village]

    Calm Reed stands perfectly still when she sees the slaver raise their gun again. The glow around her becomes brighter as something imperceptible seems to flow from the earth itself through her, rendering her as unmoving and unassailable as a mountain. She puts on a facade of calm over the stabbing pain of her broken finger and stares the slavers down, making slow cutting motions though the air with her hands. Will they stand their ground or realize they're outmatched without her having to actually run up there?
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  21. - Top - End - #501
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    Quote Originally Posted by Reinholdt View Post
    [New Inside - Castilla]

    "Close, huh?" Ilpholin frowns. Previously, she thought the pixie meant they were in this hospital somewhere. But upon revisiting the idea, what if they meant Thinky was in the room somewhere?

    Ilpholin starts to look around for anything out of place. "Hello, Thinky? Are you there?" She calls out to the room.
    [New Inside - Castilla]

    "I already tried that like a dozen tiems. They moved them after I attempted to tag them." The pixie rolls their eyes. "They're still close though, I can feel it. Probably just through a bunch of these walls in that direction." They gesture to the wall behind Ilpholin.

  22. - Top - End - #502
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Secluded Desert -> Wrattleham]

    Heroism.
    There is still a very strong basic need for this instilled in Xeni, despite any of his other modern problems.
    It drives most of his more reckless decisions, most of his disappearances, his personal sense of significance.

    There are reasons for this, some unhappy, some quite happy, but none of them are as especially important in the now as "make the world better and safer."
    Which seems to be something Zee has very inadvertently threatened now.

    "What?"
    His sharp response to Zee's sharp response cuts all other thoughts from his mind and a small current of magic sends him straight up into the air, to scout out for himself.

    The mage is aware of the effect unbound-Yezekiel can have on the unprotected. This was joked about earlier, somewhat, with the idea of her feeding grounds threatening the world.
    Less funny now.
    "How long have they been there?"
    It doesn't really matter does it? Too long, by any length of time at all.

    "//\\\/ /\\ \\\//\\/"
    With very little wasted time, he reaches deep for his reservoir of Will and commands reality in its own tongue to drop as much fog as it possibly can between Zee and the city.
    Which, it turns out, is a really enormous amount of line of sight-blocking fog. Enough to blanket the nearby hills.

    There's a clear, immediate exhaustion and strain on his face, but Xeni immediately follows up by disappearing-pop-and reappearing in the vague airspace of Wrattleham.
    The fog hasn't extended to the town itself, just the land in front of it, so he is fully visible to everyone looking up. Just a very tired looking white-haired man in a blue robe.
    His look of distress will vary depending on how many people have already begun visibly changing.
    "Fear and creativity are conjoined twins."
    Absentee Spirit

  23. - Top - End - #503
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Nightmare Forest]

    Quin plods along beside the ladies, keeping watch. When they reach the stream, he stands looking for a moment.

    "Normally, I would say, 'hop on' and fly you both across, but we might not be able to find our way back if we do that. Upstream is probably as good as downstream, but maybe we'll find the stream's source," he muses, moving to follow Lapis in that direction.
    Why is it Plan A is always, "Get 'Em!" and Plan B is, "Cause as much collateral damage as possible"?

  24. - Top - End - #504
    Orc in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    Manticore's Village

    The door is still open, and the driver is shot, the bus slowing down before it even got very fast.

    The slaver who'd just shot Alice sees her wounded but still standing, and is worried, whilst the other turns to cover Calm Reed. The slaver that should have just shot the Exalted has instead dropped their gun and has turned to run away... But doesn't get far, as the manticore swoops down and grabs him with its paws.

    The other two slavers surrender when they see that, tossing their guns down and sticking their hands in the air. "Please, don't hurt us! We was just doin' our jobs!" The man's voice is deep and gravelly; underneath the mask he wears he's half-orc.

    Wrattleham

    It's not much of a city. The vehicle's dominated by that single massive four-storey-tall front wheel, and there's barely enough space for a hundred people to live aboard. It may be one of the largest vehicles in the Nexus, but by the standards of its homeworld, it's tiny. A true city would have to be very hungry indeed to bother chasing it, and it would barely count as a light snack.

    It's also already trying to back up, but it wasn't designed to go backwards. Xeni can see that there's nearly forty people amongst the farms that make up the town's top deck, and most of them have started to mutate, though it's minor in most cases. Extra fingers growing like twigs from their arms, elongated and slender tree-like bodies, black eyes that glimmer with forgotten stars opening across their faces, patches of smooth scales growing from their skin, glassy antlers sprouting from foreheads, knees, elbows and weirder parts of their anatomy. Xeni might also spot the Town Hall, perilously perched upon the arch of the town's great wheel, recycled plastic windows pointing in every direction, but from above it's hard to tell how many people are within.

    For their part, the Wrattlers haven't noticed Xeni, too focused on the bank of fog mercifully sparing them further sight of Zee. They seem unaware- or uncaring- of their mutations, as those nearest the edges get back to work on cultivating pumpkins, rye and strawberries.
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  25. - Top - End - #505
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Wrattleham]

    For better or worse, he doesn't have the heart to put the mutated down. That would probably be the wisest course of action, as killing them would prevent the growth of a most-likely dangerous cult.
    But...look, most of them are just going back to work. They're not sacrificing the unmutated, they're not dropping to their knees and praising the stars or trees or whatever Zee did to them by existing.
    Maybe this is, if not fixable, at least containable.
    And maybe not everyone has been hit by it. Time for a couple of experiments.

    Experiment the first: identify leadership and assess social functionality.

    He'll spend a moment to observe everyone going back to their work, before determining that the head honcho probably isn't one of them. It never is.
    Leadership would be...probably at the terribly obvious point of interest by the wheel.
    Xeni thusly directs his magic to fly him over towards those windows at the town hall, with no degree of stealth whatsoever.

    He wants to see and be seen. As long as no one shoots him or otherwise tries to kill him, everything will be hunky dory.
    "Fear and creativity are conjoined twins."
    Absentee Spirit

  26. - Top - End - #506
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Nightmare Forest]

    As the group head upstream, they'll find little change in the scenery. The river slowly flows, the fog hangs heavy, the forest overlooks them ominously. There's no bridge in sight. In fact, they might get the distinct feeling they're right back where they started - though it's difficult to tell if Lapis has stopped dropping crumbs. If she's still doing it, they'll eventually come across it from the other direction, though the crumbs seem to have been moved or disturbed.
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  27. - Top - End - #507
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    Wrattleham

    They turn to look at Xeni as he approaches the farm deck, but nobody moves or acts hostile. One dark-skinned chap with a beard of fingers in a kevlar vest and wearing a tin helmet raises a rifle, but doesn't fire. A strange man is floating over their farms; mostly they want to get back to work and think about what they've Seen, but if the man wants to stop them they'll act accordingly. Even if most of them will have to do so with hoes and sickles.

    Through the windows (which are not very good quality; they're made of plastic bottles melted down and poured flat and screwed into place) Xeni sees the Lord Mayor of Wrattleham and his Steering Committee! It's six people, four sat at desks with screens, dials and gauges in front of them, one sat in an armchair and one with a rifle standing near the door. The mayor is immediately obvious, as he's the oldest guy aboard the whole town. He's a bald chap in his fifties, and his faded orange overalls have been ripped and torn by a network of glassy roots which have grown from his legs and back, curling about the battered armchair that serves as his throne and anchoring him in place. His eyes reflect the night sky. Sat nearest him is a twelve-year-old boy with four arms in the sleeves of his fur-lined coat; fortunately, it's several sizes too large and he hasn't ripped it. His skin is translucent, like it's made of glass, and dotted with constellations of stars. On his head is half a plastic globe, serving as a hat. There's a draconic-looking woman covered in dark scales, with glassy antlers, a pair of arms growing from her shoulders before branching into two forearms and four hands and too many fingers each, pressing one of her many organic eyes to a seaside pier telescope bolted to the floor. The radio-operator looks like the mayor, minus the roots; she has an arm growing from the centre of her chest and an extra leg that ends in a seven-fingered hand at her hip. She's covered in eyes and mouths, most of them seeming to open into the gulf of interplanetary space, a few more organic or glassy in their look, and her skin is glowing just enough to be noticeable. The final person sat down has three faces overlapping each other, one slightly to the left of the original and one slightly below, giving them five eyes, three noses and two mouths. Their arms look like wings, covered in feathery leaves, fingers and tongues.
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  28. - Top - End - #508
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    [Wrattleham]

    While he is inwardly rather nervous about the fellow with the gun, he doesn't show it and it isn't for the usual reason people get nervous about having guns pointed at them.
    Spontaneously being fired upon would be a pretty nasty block mark on the "xenophobic" charge and would probably nudge him towards taking actions he doesn't want to.

    They could still just be people. Albeit mutated.

    Not being shot at, but being aimed at is fine, if they haven't had much contact with outsiders though.
    It's tempting to smile down at the man, potentially put him at ease, but it could ruin the experiment.

    From this point of thought, after staring into the windows, Xeni looks for the nearest door into the room. Hopefully it's exterior access, otherwise he's going to have to scare the people a lot more when he pulls on some magic to phase through the wall.
    One way or the other, his goal is to make his way into the room and greet everyone in the least threatening way possible: a very stupid grin and dorky half-wave with one hand.
    "I come in peace!"

    This is probably going to be significantly less funny looking if he has to do it after phasing through a wall.
    "Fear and creativity are conjoined twins."
    Absentee Spirit

  29. - Top - End - #509
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    Wrattleham

    Well, underneath the mutations the Wrattlers seem to be mostly human, though of different ethnicities. It's an unfamiliarity with people that fly that leads the finger-bearded guard's caution. After a few moments of Xeni making no threatening moves, the rifle is lowered- though not put down or holstered. If he decides to set fire to the farm and the people in it, the gun could be raised and fired reasonably easily.

    There is a door Xeni can use! Two doors. He can either use the hatch on the roof next to a currently-unmanned rocket projector or he can use the door at the top of a storey and a half's worth of rickety ladder, which provides the way up used by... Well, everyone who comes up here, actually. In Xeni goes, opening the door and being... Very nearly ignored. The Mayor is shouting at his daughter, who is simultaneously shouting back and barking instructions into a speaking-tube. The Mayor wants to get the Town to go through the mist, see the Saint so they can figuratively bow down before her, and the radio-operator is trying to explain that the engineers aren't actually doing what she's telling them to and the guards aren't close enough to a speaking-tube to order to intervene.

    The navigator, with his half-globe (the Northern Hemisphere) hat, does turn to Xeni. "Hello. Um, we're also going. I'm not sure where, my maps aren't great. I'm Mark, the Navigator. There's, uh, stuff going on now. So I hope you don't want to talk to the Lord Mayor. He's, uh, not being listened to." The glassy boy with stars floating amidst the muscles visible through his skin sounds a little nervous, though at least the glass that is the surface of his body proves flexible enough for him to move.
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  30. - Top - End - #510
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    Default Re: Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

    Quote Originally Posted by UncleWolf View Post
    Camping Trip

    The tilt of the monster's head displays clear confusion, but eventually he voices it. More? There's...more? He wonders. His head seems to be smoking a bit at the thought, though it may just be his naturally volcanic body.
    [Camping Trip]

    Koshal tilts his head.
    "Well, yeah. Of course there's more. That's what living's about. Otherwise everyone would just be doing the minimum of everything." After all, if it was just about survival, Glavvy wouldn't bother with the cheese just because it tastes good.
    Spako Highclaws by Ceika.

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