Inside 69: Nice.

[Deathkeeper]

SNS Street Gym

G’nichi silently thanks the staff. He wonders if it has a healing function? If it can do that he has little to lose with starting a fight, other than suffering through the pain. Still, just because he’s in a win-win situation doesn’t mean he’s any more keen on violence.
”You know, I’m quite envious of the shape you all are in. And this is a nice establishment. A fight here would be a very poor thing for all of us. You could just answer my question and you’d never see me again.” he’s not really good at this whole “violence and the stopping thereof” thing but sometimes flattery does get you somewhere.

Golden Flock Orphanage

Isaac growls and staggers to his feet, now frustratingly having to worry about the height of the ceiling, and the space to maneuver his mace.
”This is a trap you know.” he says as he stumbles out of the way. He is somewhat glad that Melissa isn’t making a big deal out of seeing his loxodon shape for the first time (maybe). He obviously told her about some of it, but she hadn’t let on if she only knew about the tail or everything. And it’s not like he can remember what he told her.

[Earl of Purple]

Rooftop Statuary Garden

"Oh, I hadn't noticed that that one's named. Wonder who the rest are. I think that one's my favourite; the one with the big head." She points at the moai with its scoria pukao. Jack doesn't actually know who Charles Darwin is; she's not had much of an education. She's literate, and was basically taught to read and write and the basics of mathematics and left to learn whatever she wanted to read about.

Hive Sewers

Sylvette feels the intruders- or what she takes to be such- at the edges of her mind, and shivers. She does take off her clothes, though only so far as her underwear, and picks the obsidian dagger up again. She's toned and sleek, with a few scars here and there from a rough life. Most notable are a long scar down her left ribs, a couple of rounded scars on her legs from coins and a graze from an arrow on her upper arm. She extinguishes her tin and removes her nose plugs. She'll grab a robe and put the plugs in her pocket; she has no idea if she'll need them again, but it's better to have them just in case.

Creepy Victorian Deathtrap

Jack raises her wand pointing it at the door, ready to blast anything that comes in. She takes out the other bit of Relic, too, in the hopes that if the wand doesn't work, maybe she could throw it as a distraction.

[Murkus]

[Moonrise]

Deadlight allows himself a calm exhalation as he rises.

"I make it my business to know zhe enemy. Never fight a battle you have not already one, after all."

"Well, with a policy like that, we should have an easy career," Orrey scoffs, walking along and out with the strange reflective man. And off they'll go... to AMEN, likely.

[Recaiden]

[Rooftop Statuary Garden]

"I don't recognize any of them." Anchor admits, looking over at the statue Jack indicates. "With the big stone hat? It's pretty unique. I think that one's my favorite statue." at this, she points out the wolf from a few posts ago.

[Eurus Hive]

Think just the opposite, Sylvette. Your mind is the visitor. Welcome.

Now that they're into the hive proper, the place doesn't particularly smell of sewage. Just earthy, wet, maybe a little acidic.
Without the tin senses, it's a little easier to not notice all the creatures in the hive. But the slowly increasing mental awareness of them should more than make up for that.

Fay leads her out of the coat closet, back past the anteater-like guardian beast, under the four-tentacled cephalopods clinging to the ceiling, and through spacious living tunnels. The worker crabs all get out of their way. "We'll fix those scars, and you'll be tougher, faster to heal. Other changes too; not so predictable."
Off to the side, one can see a chamber full of sleeping monsters of all sorts, and further along there's a cavern of rocks and metals being busily sorted and added to by a few crabs. Those glowing plants are here and there, making the place visible (if dim without some sort of enhanced senses).
But Fay will pass all those things by.

[Reinholdt]

Spoiler

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[Temperance Teahouse]

Well, if Reinholdt is going to eat already then that leaves Holly no choice but to eat as well - obviously, when he's talking.

There's probably lots of buried treasures all over, too - and somebody's got to discover it. Probably just as important as finding new species. "I-I like both kinds, okay? What's wrong with that?" the Half-Elf^TM says, defensively in response to his smirk. "Stories for the sake of just reading were hard to come by where I came from: books had to be handwritten or used awkward machines." Like, printing presses.

Sure, you can justify it however you want, Holly, but that doesn't change anything.

"Well, what sort of books do you like?" she asks, counterattacking with a question of her own.

[Temperance Teahouse]

Reinholdt can't keep himself from giggling at Holly's plight. "It's fine, it's fine. There's absolutely nothing wrong with liking romance of all varieties." His grin is still pretty wide though. It does soften a little as he thinks about his home. "I don't think we had too many books either back home. Not widespread anyways. The nobility had it and that was about it."

Rein wasn't prepared for the counterattack and suddenly tries to appear more busy than he is. "Ah, well, umm... I kinda like... History books. And action adventure fiction." The history books are fascinating, but also give him a lot of clues for his supposed profession. The latter is just him idolizing just important figures as Indiana Jones and Othar Tryggvassen. Though there is a series of novels out there very loosely based on Reinholdt himself and his Treasure Hunts. Very loosely based, but the similarities are impossible to deny. Given that it was penned by a devious fox Rein once knew for some cheap cash, it's clear why. Reinholdt just wish he knew before they were published, gave any kind of permission, or got any of the royalties.

It was kind of a raw deal actually.

[Rebonack]

[Creepy Victorian Dead End]

First?

The relic is poked with the sword.

It responds with that chiming sound again.

Even louder than the first time. Loud enough to be painful.

Second?

There comes an awful rending sound as the secret passage bookshelf is ripped clean off its hinges by the thing on the other side of the door.

And now our heroes see it for the first time.

It's... pretty horrible.

A writhing, wriggling mass of black fungal roots, wolves paws, goats hooves, ears, eyes, horns, jaws, and flesh-colored toadstools. Words skitter across the horror's flesh like spiders. It has four arms made of other limbs all twisted together that it moves on with stuttering insectile speed. Its back half seems almost crushed, a ruined, dragging mess of roots and misshapen legs scraping on the floor behind it and leaving a trail of thick black sludge.

And then several magical birds smash into it, blasting oozing holes in the thing.

It doesn't appear to like this very much.

Then Melissa throws the relic at it!

Which... umm...

The horror lashes out with one of its over-sized composite limbs to seize Melissa (who is not a cat) and drag her out of the secret passage. She may want to do something to prevent it from doing that.


[Golden Flock Orphanage]

"Umm... maybe we should go?" Melissa (who is a cat) suggests. "I've got one ghost that's good enough for now right?"

She isn't very worried for her own safety.

But maybe for Isaac's.

Just a little bit.

[Lord Magtok]

[Delilah's Old Hideout]

Spoiler

Show

[Delilah's Old Hideout]

This scene is nightmarish.

The kitchen has suffered much the same fate as the hall, clearly the site of extensive fighting, but that is to be expected.
It's that thing pinned to the wall by a giant sword, high enough up that what remains of its feet can no longer touch the floor, that is the horror.

It's the right height for Delilah, and it has her special little necklace around its neck, but...she should be very dead. The sword is going directly through the middle of her chest, easily large enough to be ruining several vital systems. Discounting all of the other wounds, missing flesh, and clearly broken limbs.
Almost a third of her head is just skull, on one side.
But live it still does, rasping something from the ruin of its mouth and pawing something like a hand on the sword's flat side.

Standing before her, surrounded by a literal cloud of golden glowing symbols, stands Venmaunt.
The half-dragon looks immaculate. Not just in a clean sense, but his simple bearing, demeanor. There is a serenity about him that could possibly be related to that very faint golden corona drifting behind the tips of his spiraling horns.
At Ambriel's shout, his face half-turns, revealing eyes of molten gold interspersed with flecks of amethyst.
"I wouldn't shoot. You'll want to hear this, for your own sake."

He does not raise his hands up in the air, more than they are. Which, currently, is in the middle of finishing the tracing of two more runes in the cloud.

"...fine," Ambriel answers, standing down and lowering his pistol. This is clearly a lot more complicated than what he was expecting. The half-dragon might be Feia's own child, but Delilah clearly some hapless innocent damsel either, and without more information on what's going on, how can w-

Oh crap. Ambriel almost goes blind in his human eye, forgetting to raise an arm up to shield his vision from the armor-piercing laser weapon's potent deathbeam of doom. Gods, at least Delilah is already so messed up that a few burns and cornea damage won't make any difference, right? Right, so clearly, Venmaunt may have convinced Wings here to lay down his weapon for a moment, but Haz was never the biggest fan of all that diplomacy and negotiation bull feces, and he wasn't brought into this to not shoot the half-dragon in the face and save Delilah. It's much easier to ask forgiveness for shooting some kind of scaly demigod in the face than for permission, right? So that's what he's done, without so much as a trace of remorse.

As for the hyperlaser itself, well, that rooftop gun is going to sit there and cool for a few minutes, before getting tossed in the trash like the burnt-out piece of garbage it has now become. Before any of that happens, however, Haz needs to confirm the kill with his own eyes. He's going to hop off the building and hurry in after Ambriel. That gun on its strongest setting should be enough kill just about anything and anybody, but in the Nexus, what should happen isn't always what does happen. If Venmaunt lives, he's going to need to fix that. Preferably before our sweet little cherub brother gets his wings ripped off.

[5a Violista]

[Temperance Teahouse]

The benefit of having food in front of you is that it's really easy to appear busy: all you have to do is put a slightly-too-large piece of food in your mouth.

Holly presses the attack: "Hmm, action-adventure fiction. What, you don't get enough adventure or action in your life?" she asks. It's a joke, so she laughs a little at her own joke. After she starts the sentence, she realizes that this leaves her open to a similar question about her preferences but she hopes to keep her date off-balance enough such that he doesn't notice the weakness in her attack.
"If you need some pointers on how to get action, I'm sure I could give you some," she mentions, with one of her eyebrows moving to distract him from her opening.

Having finished her line of attack, she feels satisfied and sips some of her tea.

[Reinholdt]

[Temperance Teahouse]

"Hah! If only." At first Rein doesn't notice her weak spot, too busy rolling away from the accusation. It's so difficult to avoid action these days.

But her distraction has a fatal flaw, drawing Rein's attention to her double entendre and making him aware of her weak spot. He leans forward and ripostes. "Oh? You'll provide the action, and I'll provide you with the romance, is that it?" He asks with a disarmingly suggestive smile. "I think I could get used to that arrangement." Rein raises his wine and seals it with a mock toast, pinning Holly into a contract of passion. Even more so should she follow his prompt and join him in the toast.

There's a moment of weakness where she could slip away though, as Rein gives her an escape opening. "So do tell. What pointers can the fabulous Holly provide?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[SNS Street Gym]

The three dogs that weren't tossed back by the staff have assembled next to each other, arms crossed and no less aggressive looking.
They're not rushing to maul him though, so that's good. Looks like have a giant heart balloon on a stick is doing some good after all!
And is it humming? It sounds like a little girl is humming some sort of song, inside the balloon.

The huskieman speaks up next. His voice is low and just shy of a bark.
"They belong to the boss and the boss will not see such a puny little lizard, with nothing to offer."

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

The darkness in the room seems to very slightly roil at its edge, small tendrils of black caressing the hallway floor as the group stands outside it.
Almost tenderly, like one would stroke the head of a pet.

It is mocking them.

Sadie, meanwhile, is vigorously nodding in agreement from the spot where she is hiding behind Melissa. Leaving sounds great.

[Delilah's Old Hideout]

Venmaunt's clawed finger tip is halfway done with another symbol when the beam hits. It does not get finished.

"NO!"
The voice that shouts out is not Venmaunt's, but some distorted, echoing woman's. There's a flash of golden light, as that faint corona blazes into a glorious disk of energy to impede the beam's intent to drive right through the half-dragon.
Which flickers, like a flashlight running on a dying battery, before sputtering out and failing to really do much at all.

What is left of Venmaunt falls to the ground, leaving behind a dim figure of light standing in his place. It's difficult to make out details, as it alternates between flickering out entirely and being so bright it's purely a silhouette. The general shape seems feminine, with the impression of a large halo looming behind her. An angel, perhaps?

"I need more time! I'm sorry."

Wasting very little time, the figure flies forward about as fast as you would expect a being of light to, evidently looking to fly directly into Ambriel.
Into and throughout.

[Rebonack]

[What's Kraken Inside?]

Okay.

This is it.

This is it for real this time!

Zee has gotten groceries for Thanksmas stuff! And this time they aren't getting stolen! Or lasered! Or go falling down a storm drain! Or be possessed by an evil clown!

None of those things are happening this time!

She's just going to head back to Trog's and cook up those fruit pattes she was planing on making! They will be covered in chocolate and they will be tasty! The end. No argument. And that's final!

Zee just needs to focus on the prize and not get distracted and-

-is that a giant swarm of butterflies zipping through the air in the rough shape of a giant butterfly? Oh wow they're really pretty! I wonder if they're a hive mind or some-

Zee runs straight into Marina when she isn't watching where she's going, causing her grocery bags to go flying out of her hands.

"No!"

They scatter their contents all across the street, bags bouncing, bottles breaking, and fruits rolling to freedom. This is okay! Just a few things broke she can still-

Out of dozens of holes in the street come skittering a veritable army of tiny white crabs. The wave of crustaceans rolls over the top of Zee's spilled groceries, seizes basically everything, and drags it all back into their burrows.

All that's left behind is a single, sad looking cranberry.

Zee's lip quivers as her eyes begin misting.

"Why!?" she yells at the Nexus in general.

[Deathkeeper]

[SNS Street Gym]

”Hey, I’m working on that! Not everyone is naturally tall, alright? Some of us have to make elaborate quests to look half as impressive as people who can just work out.” G’nichi sputters. He’s already dealing with far too much to take being humiliated visually and verbally by a bunch of mutts- well he doesn’t know their heritage he probably shouldn’t be rude like that.
”And not only is owning people illegal in this city, I will have you know that I am currently carrying a rather impressive amount of magic at the moment. So maybe you should tell me what your boss wants before you decide that I have nothing to offer him or her.”

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

”I’d rather not be here in the first place, so you know? Leaving sounds good right about now.” Isaac says quietly, rubbing his head even though his bruise has already healed.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[What's Kraken Inside?]

Suzie watches this improbable series of events occur from a distance.

Clearly she should feel sympathetic towards poor Zee and the loss of her groceries.

And as a creature of terrifying watery power, she could easily use her coral staff to summon these treacherous crabs back to the surface and command them to return the goods to Zee!

Suzie does not do this.

Instead she strides over and offers Marina a hand-up...with a tentacle.

"HAHA! Excellent work, Minion! This completely normal denizen of Inside is perfect! You there! Normal person! Take us to The Library!"

[Rebonack]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

"Agreed, let's get out of here," Lucas says as he backs away from the darkness toward the stairs.

Hopefully this isn't going to be one of those haunts where all the exists and stuff vanish.

That would be terrible.

Melissa, since she's got a good three years on Sadie at least, puts an arm around her. "I'm going to keep you close and extra safe, okay?"

And then?

She gives those moonbeam-strings a pull, causing the ghostly child to vanish into an orange size orb of spiraling ghostly fire that will bob along in Melissa's proximity.

It's WAY harder for another boogie to get her that way, right?

Sadie will still be able to see and hear and speak, she's just tethered very closely to the cait sith as she starts heading back toward the stairs. Several steps broke, right? They might need to hop over them. Or maybe Isaac can make a bridge or something?

[Earl of Purple]

Rooftop Statuary Garden

Anchor likes the Capitoline Wolf! Though this version doesn't have the bronze babies added by Renaissance Italians. "That's a pretty cool wolf, isn't it? I like the stone ones, because I think they're more work. I mean, with metal you make the mould and pour it, don't you?" Jack's not got the best understanding of how metallurgy works, but for the cast bronze statues that is the method used.

Eurus Hive

Sylvette tries to ignore all the beasties around, though it's hard. Especially since she can predict where they are now, based on her new awareness. She suspects they can sense her the same way, too. She follows a little nervously, nodding at the healing of her scars. She'll miss them, a little; each has a memory attached, usually a lesson learnt rather than anything more pleasant. Tougher and faster sound quite good; like a Pewterarm. She's... Not so sure about the other changes, though.

[Recaiden]

[Rooftop Statuary Garden]

Anchor nods quickly.
"Isn't it just about as hard to carve the mold for the metal as it is to carve the stone? I mean, I'm no sculptor, but you have to get the shape in there somehow."
Of course, wax is much easier to work with than basalt.

Lights flicker behind Anchor's sunglassses.

[Eurus Hive]

Your prediction is correct, Sylvette. You may still be able to run, but you can no longer hide.

They pass a pair of the anteater-guards to enter the main cavern, much larger than the places they've been scurrying through before, and with more light.
There are other passages than they one they entered by, to the left and the right, to the up and the down.
Invisible beasties stand here and there, and others lie buried beneath the surface, ready to spring up at any enemies that make it this far.

At the far end of the cavern is Eurus herself, a living castle of shell and horn. The stuff that composes the floor and wall of the hive flows out form under the leathery folds that stretch between its tubes and low towers. At the center stands a crown of teeth, fed now and then with parcels delivered by worker crabs. The whole structure looks a little squished and warped, like the earth is too small to contain it properly. Plump little worm monsters play around the edges. Sylvette can tell that the castle is awake. That it can see her. That she should be safe and welcome, with it watching over her.

Just outside the castles walls/carapace, one can see the cocoons, like caterpillars use to turn to butterflies. Some small, some large, and quite a few are the perfect size to fit a human in.

At the center of the cavern stands a pool of bright blue bubbling water (?). Smooth-skinned almost-humans kneel amidst the spikes at its shore, magic flowing into the water from their many many many fingers. When you get close, you can see that the walls of the pool live as well, and are in constant fluttering motion.
This is their destination.

You are permitted to be disgusted and afraid, but it will make Fay a little sad.

[Hattish Thing]

Prison

It isn't hard to find stairs leading down. The prison has three floors, and a stairwell is located at each corner of the building. The door at the bottom, however, is a sturdy steel fire door with the words "EMPLOYEES ONLY" stenciled onto it in large black letters. Trying the handle will reveal that it is locked tightly.

As he strides through the prison avoiding unwelcome eyes whenever possible, the vigilante allows himself an appreciative exhalation which promptly blossoms into a sigh. It was a good idea to wear the urban suit today, rather than his traditional suit of powered gear. A more covert approach would have been impossible, otherwise.

Once he reaches the fire door, the vigilante will retrieve a heavy handheld laser from his side before cutting into the steel and destroying the locking mechanism.

[5a Violista]

[Temperance Teahouse]

Wait!
She didn't intend it that way. Blood flushes her face. The double entendre was completely accidental.
"I- I, we, but...I..." She's been disarmed and left speechless by his smile. She had the advantage! She was pressing it! How was he able to counter so thoroughly? His riposte cut her straight through, and leaves her no other choice but to hold her tea out in toast as well. "Fine, you win. Deal."

With how quickly he turned that around, she should be asking him for pointers. "I feel like if I give you any more help, you'll be unstoppable," she says. "But since you asked..." She appears deep in thought. "...some mindless, ridiculous fun followed by something relaxing like a massage will probably lead to plenty of action."

Sounds reasonable, right?

[Chaotic Bob]

[SNS Street Gym]

The three dogs stare at G'nichi for a few moments, while their fourth gets back to his feet.
Then they all burst out laughing.
"It's...like an angry puppy."
"Yap yap yap yap."
"Almost cute, in a squishable sort of way."

Then they laugh some more, though the yorkieman is not participating in any of this, just scowling.
Eventually the huskie at least breaks free enough to try talking seriously again.
"The boss wants power, puny little lizard, like anyone else. How could you help with that?"

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Being turned into an orb of sentient flame is a novel sort of experience for anyone, presumably.
Sadie seems to be taking it well, or at least quietly. This is possibly because of the stark terror afflicting her still, but...who can say.

Anyway, the group turns away from the darkness to the stairs!
The perfectly ordinary, safe looking stairs leading to a perfectly ordinary, dark wooden hallway below.

Which is odd. There definitely were a bunch of missing steps and a whole lot of quarantine-style plastic downstairs earlier.

[Deathkeeper]

[SNS Street Gym]

G'nichi grits his teeth. He pokes at the staff and the rod, asking them what they might have to humiliate these ruffians without actually hurting them. He fervently wishes he could simply be bigger and stronger than them, but if his artifacts could do that they wouldn't be standing here. Even with the collar's help, he'd need to challenge them to a whole slew of things before it does anything, probably. He really wishes he could test it out before he does something incredibly stupid.
"Are those big ears useless? I recall telling you that I'm carrying a considerable amount of magical artifacts on me. And you think I know nothing of power." he sniffs.
"I also happen to know of the location of a place where one might acquire a significant amount of power if that is one's wish. But if you're going to keep laughing at me I suppose you or your boss will never know about it." he grumps. His voice isn't that high-pitched, is it? Sure, he's been mistaken for a female before but that's just mammals not knowing the differences between reptiles...

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Isaac looks down at the stairs.
"How about one of you light folks go first? I'll make sure there's something under you if you fall." the loxodon suggests.

[Earl of Purple]

Rooftop Statuary Garden

"Yeah, but that's wax or something, isn't it? You can carve a candle with your fingernail. Can't do that with the white stone she's made of." Jack points at the armless Greco-Roman statue, and doesn't notice the lights behind Anchor's sunglasses.

Eurus Hive

Sylvette's not afraid. She's awed, and nervous, and feels vulnerable, but she's not scared. She believes, now, that she's going to survive all this, and that's very much not something to fear. It worries her, a little, and it's all so odd, and disturbing, but... It's not truly disgusting. Just alien.

She burns her tin again, trying to get a better look at the 'water' and the smooth-skinned nearly-humans that are pouring magic into it- though she doesn't actually get telescopic sight, like a Feruchemist does with tin, but rather sees more detail and with less light. She's not entirely sure where she's going or what she's doing, but she suspects the water will be involved.

[Ionbound]

[Creepy Victorian Dead End]

Melissa stares at the shubboth in shock and takes an aggressive stance, but instead of stabbing at it with purpose, she hesitates, afraid of getting covered in oil again, and instead of lunging she just kind of...Flails...With the sword at the monster. That's...Probably not good, especially with the tentacle grabbing her!

[bc56]

Prison

The lock is lasered open, and the door now swings easily on its hinges. It leads into a dark hallway (although there's a light switch on the wall). Steel doors stand out from its walls every so often, with signs reading "STORAGE," "BOILERS," "POWER," and "STORAGE" again. Nothing stirs. This level of the prison seems as empty as a tomb.

[Rebonack]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

"I'll go first," Melissa says as she gets a running start and aims to leap down the stairs by employing her cat-like agility!

And...

Umm...

Kind of notices whilst in mid-air that things look a little different down on the first floor.

WELP!

Hopefully that doesn't prove to be a problem.

Because if it IS a problem she just jumped headlong into it.

Lucas, meanwhile, is looking whichever way Isaac ISN'T just in case anything tires to sneak up on them.

[Lord Magtok]

Delilah's Old Hideout

Ambriel has a moment to wonder what fresh new hell Haz's actions have wrought. Just a moment. He's not half as fast as divine spirit beings, and too busy being confused and concerned to even think about running, anyway.

[Reinholdt]

[Temperance Teahouse]

Wait!
She didn't intend it that way. Blood flushes her face. The double entendre was completely accidental.
"I- I, we, but...I..." She's been disarmed and left speechless by his smile. She had the advantage! She was pressing it! How was he able to counter so thoroughly? His riposte cut her straight through, and leaves her no other choice but to hold her tea out in toast as well. "Fine, you win. Deal."

With how quickly he turned that around, she should be asking him for pointers. "I feel like if I give you any more help, you'll be unstoppable," she says. "But since you asked..." She appears deep in thought. "...some mindless, ridiculous fun followed by something relaxing like a massage will probably lead to plenty of action."

Sounds reasonable, right?

[Temperance Teahouse]

"Deal," Reinholdt confirms with a cat-like smile. The contract has been forged! I'm sure Rein would relish the victory more, but he's honestly too busy just enjoying how cute Holly looks at the moment. A beautiful sight to behold indeed.

She makes him laugh too. "Fair, fair." He probably doesn't need any more help in this category. "But you lay out what sounds like a great time to me. A friend of mine taught me some basics to massaging. Certainly no pro though. There was a time when I honestly considered taking some courses on it and getting accredited, if you could believe that. Maybe I should actually do that." Sounds like a useful skill to learn. Maybe not as useful as sword fighting or something along those lines, but still beneficial overall.

Rein takes a moment to chew a piece of his sushi, using the time it takes to try and think up what would be a good qualification for mindless, ridiculous fun that they could share together. Something silly and light... light... Ah yes! Rein swallows and takes a sip of his tea before continuing. "Have you ever been flying Holly? Without the aid of a vehicle?"

[Recaiden]

Rooftop Statuary Garden

"Yeah, but that's wax or something, isn't it? You can carve a candle with your fingernail. Can't do that with the white stone she's made of." Jack points at the armless Greco-Roman statue, and doesn't notice the lights behind Anchor's sunglasses.

"Oh, is it? I didn't know what they made molds of. Obviously I'm not a sculptor myself." Anchor admits, with a bit of laughter in her voice.
"I bet the molded ones don't have their arms fall off as often, though." is her comment as she admires the marble. Although...was this copy made before or after the arms broke off the original?

"How about this one?" The lightning in the statue garden gets weird all of a sudden, and there appears in the meadow a statue of "Jack pointing at the armless Greco-Roman statue", almost exactly as she appears, cast in something like (but not quite the same nor as detailed as) black marble.


Eurus Hive

Sylvette's not afraid. She's awed, and nervous, and feels vulnerable, but she's not scared. She believes, now, that she's going to survive all this, and that's very much not something to fear. It worries her, a little, and it's all so odd, and disturbing, but... It's not truly disgusting. Just alien.

She burns her tin again, trying to get a better look at the 'water' and the smooth-skinned nearly-humans that are pouring magic into it- though she doesn't actually get telescopic sight, like a Feruchemist does with tin, but rather sees more detail and with less light. She's not entirely sure where she's going or what she's doing, but she suspects the water will be involved.

She is almost certainly going to survive. That might be something to fear.

It is mostly water, heavy with salts and metals like any ocean, tinted with the glowing elements of the plants and red healing elixir pumped in through the ground's veins.
Through the hive's presence at the sides of her mind, Sylvette can see the pool in its original context, an oasis amidst red sands, the source of life for the quick-running dune creatures that came to drink of it. The spines are the rocks that would have shielded it from the wind, the membranes the cracks and seeps in the rocks that would fill the pool.

Of the Weavers, she can see that they are pale, for unlike Stalkers they have never seen the sun. At their temples are bumps that in future iterations should blossom into proper horns. They have no hair on their heads, or their faces, or anywhere, even their eyelashes are heavier filaments of skin. Some are pinkish, others bluish. All are masculine, and they could be -though not twins- brothers, so alike are their features. None of the wear anything except a band of red cloth around the chest, but they have a doll-like lack of anything to be embarrassed by. And finally, each has twenty-eight fingers or so, each perhaps three times as long as they should be and slender as you like, with sharp nails, and these rest with their fingertips in the water.

"Leave behind everything except the knife and step into the waters, down to the bottom. You are in no danger of drowning."

[5a Violista]

[Temperance Teahouse]

"I've never done any official massage learning," Holly comments. It's pretty unfortunate, because learning the basics is pretty cool.


Her only experience with flying - machine-assisted or no - was the airships to and from VIGIL.
Well, that, and that one time she jumped off VIGIL's flying island. And I guess that one time Stu did a rocket-powered jump. And jumping out of Watchtower's tower. But one of those is just a jump and the other two are literally just falling with style. She supposes she could fly if she tried out a lot of things and found the right biology that would allow someone of her size to fly. . .but that would likely involve repeatedly jumping off tall buildings or cliffs until she got it right.
"No, I haven't," she finally says, after chewing her food enough to give her time to think. "I've a couple airships, and I've fallen a handful of times but I've never flown."

[Earl of Purple]

Creepy Victorian Fungus Trap

Seeing the birds having some effect, Jack fires them again at the tentacles grabbing Melissa (who is a wolfdeergirl, not a cat). She lifts her own Relic high before her, and shouts as loud as she can. "Back! Back, I say! By the gods of sky and tree, back!" Jack's scared and hoping it works, but she's also pretty desperate.

Rooftop Statuary Garden

This copy is without the arms. Though they didn't exactly break off, I don't think; the arms were carved from a seperate piece of marble and pinned into place, I think. But the pins didn't survive and the arms fell off.

"Oh, that's cool, how'd you do that?" Jack's not had any magic lessons, and doesn't understand how magic works. That doesn't stop her being absolutely fascinated by it and all the forms it takes, though. Jack walks over to investigate herself, spreading her wings so the magic-seeing eyes in them can have a look.

Eurus Hive

Sylvette puts the obsidian knife down on the floor by her feet, careful not to chip the blade. Then she shrugs out of her robe and look curiously at the Stalker; if it makes it clear it means her underwear as well, then she'll take off her bra and knickers. Then she picks the knife up again and walks into the pool. She doesn't quite believe that she won't drown if she breathes the water, so she'll loiter as it reaches her face to give it a try before she goes further whilst holding her breath.

[Chaotic Bob]

[SNS Street Gym]

Why can't we hurt them? They're totally asking for it.
A tip, from someone with experience with rogues: maybe don't push too hard on the "I have a lot of valuables" detail, when they already don't respect you.

The rapier has a point, G'nichi. It's asking to be mugged.
They already seem to dislike you.

The huskie validates this further.
"If you have so many 'magical artifacts,' then we'll just take those and our boss will be very happy.
Sic him."

Seeeeee? Asking for it! Just let me bop 'em and slap 'em and bunny 'em.

The two retrievers dart forward around the ballooned up staff, to try to quickly surround the little lizard hero, but!
His little hip wings abruptly flare out and launch him backwards a few feet.

There's your freebie, G'nichi.

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Melissa jumps down the stairs!
And lands in the middle of a long hallway, lined with several doors on the right side, and two very spaced apart doors on the left side. The floor looks rather gouged up, stained, and generally miserable, as do the walls.
But it's a lot less dark up here.

Also those stairs behind her are gone. Ignore that little pool of shadows disappearing on the ceiling.
Some more stairs over at the far end of the hall though.

Meanwhile, Lucas and Isaac!
Melissa jumped down the stairs and that annoying gloom in this hallway seemed to twitch around the stairwell, just long enough and severely enough to block line of sight for just a moment.
She's not at the bottom of the stairs anymore.

Also those broken steps and all that plastic stuff is back!

"Heh. Hehe. Bad kitty.
The tall grinning man is standing at the threshold of that room behind the boys now, fingers twitching at the end of his spindly arms.
He steps into the hall.

[Delilah's Old Hideout]

Possessions tend to be described in a multitude of ways. Cold and suffocating. Painful. Terrifying.

As this entity of light flies into Ambriel, it just feels like sleep and a dream. A rapid dimming and gentle dismissal of awareness, as his consciousness is suffused and enveloped by something far beyond it.
The bright side to this is that he won't have to deal with that usual sense of horror from being a witness to one's own body acting without your consent. Instead, his world becomes nothing but an endless expanse of stars with no one but him and the figure of light for occupants.

I would like to reassure you that I mean no deliberate harm to your body.
The figure speaks, still in that distorted feminine voice, but echoing further off into the void around them.

Back in the real world, barring any potent surprised to keep the body nonfunctional...

His biological eye becomes the same molten gold with amethyst that Venmaunt's were, but the mechanical eye's color remains as it is.
The entity makes a passing sweep through Ambriel's mind, to glean what it may about the cyborg's recent activities and anything at all about the shooter, but it's possible the mechanical half of things could make this less than convenient. This isn't ideal, but there really isn't anything to be done about it right now if there's no easy access to the memories.

Time is too short to waste time really digging into it.

With luck from there, "Ambriel" isn't going to be shot, as he swiftly strides the rest of the way into the kitchen, rushing to flick the fleshier set of fingers through the series of missing symbols in that cloud by the sword-pinned thing. And then stare down at the fallen form of Venmaunt.
"I am sorry, my child. In another future."

If by now, Haz hasn't already made a move, "Ambriel" will attempt to look as unaggressive as possible as he tries to catch a glimpse of the fellow through that unfortunate hole in the ceiling.
Hands held to the side and still.
What happens after this will direct future action.