Inside 69: Nice.

[Deathkeeper]

[A Lot Spookiness]

Nick rushes forward, his eyes closed. Okay, so he can't just blindly fire his pistol at the machine, because it's pretty unlikely that small arms energy fire would produce any significant damage. Time for plan-!
Well.
Nick is a human sometimes. And kids aren't normally able to pick out that he's a shapeshifter. But the little girl back at the platform did. And Nick was able to do things that she reacted to.
Which means Nick isn't really in his human form right now; it's just an image projected onto him. Which means that he's still got access to his griffin abilities. What Geneva taught him is that griffin magic is usually tied to thunder and lightning. And one of those he's fairly good at, even if he rarely gets a chance to use it. And so Nick roars, which usually would send a wave of thunderous force crashing into the space in front of him. But it's hard to use griffin magic when you can't feel your beak and your wings.
He hopes it works at least, because otherwise he has to fall back on the "shoot it a lot" plan.

[Rebonack]

[A Lot Spookiness]

See?

That's thinking outside the box.

The sound that follows is like a cross between a hawk's scream, a lion's roar, and a thunderclap.

Nick will hear a whole bunch of crashing and the sound of thousands of beets tumbling over each other. When the commotion ends the stabbing green light that had been trying to stab its way through his eyelids has notably diminished.

Should he open his eyes?

He'll see a projection machine that has been smashed to scrap nearby. And a mountain of beets slumped into a heap. And a rather unwholsome crack in a wall nearby shaped like... geeze... something? And some lurid green light leaking out from under the previously mentioned beet pile. Looks like the horror got launched into the wall, fell to the ground, and had a whole bunch of beets fall on it.

Now, normally you probably wouldn't think of beets as something that's very dangerous, but when we're talking several tons of loose beets rolling over each other?

One snowflake isn't going to hurt you.

But a whole hillside full of them slamming into you?

Same idea.

The green light is flickering a bit as the pile shifts. Whatever that things is appears to have been injured, but it isn't dead.

[Deathkeeper]

[A Lot Spookiness]

Well, looks like their problem isn't solved yet.
Nick goes back to covering his eyes and firing into the glowing green pile of vegetables.
"If anyone's got something heavy to drop on it that might be appreciated!" he calls as he fires. Good thing energy weapons have big magazines.

[Rebonack]

[A Lot Spookiness]

The beets do a good job of shielding the horror from laser fire.

Everyone is fleeing in horror, Nick.

Except that one half-dead looking guy over there on the ground.

He isn't looking at the thing anymore, since it's buried in beets. He also looks disturbingly similar to a raisin. Every now and again he makes awful, drying wheezing sounds.

Looks like Nick will have to do this himself.

Hmm...

There's a crane over there, a bit further away.

It's holding up a bunch of bags stacked on pallets. It looks REALLY heavy. Extremely heavy. He could probably drop that on the horror if he's looking to squash it. Probably a good idea to hurry over there, though, since that mountain of beets is shifting. The thing is digging itself out.

[Deathkeeper]

[A Lot Spookiness]

Nick decides that this isn't working and dives for the crane. He's sure if Geneva was here she could tell him if he was running at human speed or griffin speed, but either way he has to try to get into it and dump that pile of metal on that pile of beets before it breaks free and makes the fight much, much harder.
Because squashing something you can't look at is hard.

[Rebonack]

[A Lot Spookiness]

Nick ran pretty fast.

And he jumped pretty high, too.

If there was anyone around to observe this they might comment on his seemingly super human abilities.

But there isn't.

Everyone who had looked at the thing has been reduced a sooty heap of ash.

Which is why it's good that just as the horror is digging itself out of the heap of beets Nick pulls a lever to drop the crane's load right on top of the thing.

It gets squashed.

The bags on the pallets explode, spilling white powder everywhere. Near the center of mess, the powder slowly begins turning florescent green as something seeps into it.

But.

It isn't glowing anymore.

Mrs DuPree peeks out of her office. "Is... is it dead?" she asks, a tremor in her voice.

[Deathkeeper]

[A Lot Spookiness]

Nick hops out of the crane.
"Probably? Go make sure that there's no more copies of that thing before any more of that show up!" he demands of the lady, perhaps a bit harshly. But he isn't even sure if he's won yet, and he'd like some more assurances of it.

[Rebonack]

[A Lot Spookiness]

"There's still the original left. It's locked in the safe in the main office," Mrs DuPree says, pointing toward the main portion of the factory. "That... that thing hatched out of the film when I broke one of the reproductions. It..."

It's defending itself.

Maybe?

Then she spots mister raisin guy.

There's a look of wide-eyed horror for a moment.

Then she throws up.

Gross.

Not too far away Nick should be able to see the door that leads into the factory proper. Just has to get up there, open the safe, and smash the original tablet.

It's that easy!

[Deathkeeper]

[A Lot Spookiness]

Nick does his best to give the lady a minute.
"Mrs. DuPree, I need you to focus. Give me the combination to the safe. I'll take it from there."
He swaps out the e-cell in his pistol with a fresh one from his pocket. He doesn't have very many of those.
If she gives him the code, Nick will reluctantly venture into the factory, without backup.

[Rebonack]

[A Lot Spookiness]

"It's..." Mrs DuPree coughs a few times. "Sixty nine. Then six. Then nine. Then sixty nine again."

...nice?

"It killed all those people. It was going to kill everyone, wasn't it?"

It was.

That's exactly what it was going to do.

Nick is free to head into the factory. The lights are on inside, but the machines are silent. There's a thick, sweet, syrupy smell in here. Not really the sort of smell you would associate with beets. There's a flight of steel stairs thatleads up to the office. Nick can head inside easily. He can use the safe combination. He can open the safe.

There are several things inside. Most of them don't matter. One does.

The tablet.

The original tablet.

Light slithers through the etching like green worms in the rain. The symbol shifts as he looks at it, trying to resolve.

Trying to hook its claws into his mind.

You don't have to do this, it seems to say. I can help you. I can give you anything you want. I can make it real. But I'm so weak. I'm so hungry. They hurt me, Nick. I'm broken.

It's afraid. Like it's so small and frail. A little lost lamb with a fractured leg, hobbling helplessly.

But behind the sweet, woolly words lurk the teeth of a dragon.

[Deathkeeper]

[A Lot Spookiness]

Nick does enter the factory. He does go to the office. He does open the safe. And he does take out the tablet, dropping it on the ground.
"They hurt you? What a shame, how could they do that?" he whispers to it.
Before he stomps on it with his nonexistent boot and blasts any remnants of it with the entire contents of his pistol.
"Everyone knows when you fight a disease you have to kill it completely." he growls.
Hrm. Not his best one-liner. He gives himself a 6/9.

[Rebonack]

[A Completely Normal Several Blocks Including a Sugar Factory and a Small Town]

Nick will feel something shift.

Almost like static.

Or a video artifact.

And then everything is normal again.

The tablet is broken. Just a pile of shattered bits of partly melted ceramic sitting next to his talons.

Talons?

Yes talons.

He's a griffin again.

If he looks out the window in the office, the exterior window rather than the one that overlooks the factory, he'll be able to see Inside. Just like it normally is in all its weird glory.

That was... it. Wasn't it? Nick had stopped the experiment and now that empty, bleached patch of land is now filled with the small town, incorporated into the rest of Inside. Just like every new area that gets yanked into the ever growing City every now and again. That's it, isn't it? He's all done? Crisis averted since the original tablet was broken and all that's left is that crushed, glassy pile of bits and an indescribable thing just floating there in mid air.

Even calling it an object is... a stretch. Ascribing attributes to it is inherently difficult. It's... almost as if someone had taken the idea of the very birth of the material universe and somehow condensed it into a little floating icon. It gives the impression of interlocking triangles, almost crystalline, stretching fractally deeper and deeper the closer you look at it. It isn't... the thing that he broke. More like something left behind.

Remains?

A... reward?

The power it radiates is intoxicating.

Nick should probably call in an occult team to get it contained.

[Deathkeeper]

[A Completely Normal Section of Town]

Nick shakes his head, trying to blink away the triangles and shapes and all that floats before him. His first order of business is to find a tarp or a blanket and throw it over this thing so he can drag it out to a safehouse without anyone being tempted to look at the accursed thing.
Because the record indicates he can't leave occult objects in this town without people touching them, and that's bad.

[Rebonack]

[A Completely Normal Section of Town]

Nick has acquired one Icon of Hyle.

It's...

Really abstract.

He doesn't pick it up. No really. He tosses the tarp over it (or tries to) only to discover that it only vaguely interacts with the tarp. One's first impression might be that it isn't real and thus it passes through the tarp.

But that impression is completely wrong.

The tarp passes through the Icon because the tarp isn't real.

When he picks it up, though, he just sort of... has it. Now.

And he'll have the distinct impression that he can do several things with it now that he has it, aside from just having it on his person.

>Consume
>Craft
>Drop
>Encyst
>Ritual
>Store

Upon acquiring the Icon it just kind of... disappears.

It's weird.

Everything about this is weird.

[Deathkeeper]

[A Completely Normal Section of Town]

Nick blinks. What? Consume? Encyst? How would you do either of those to a weird geometry thing? What does the word encyst even mean? Craft what? Do a ritual for what? What's the difference between dropping it and storing it?
Nick needs to go find someone who knows what's going on. He didn't even mean to...absorb it or whatever.
First step of that is to get out of here.

[5a Violista]

[Market Street]

A woman named Kuriko walks down ye olde Market Street, looking at the stalls and other medieval-fantasy setpieces.

Kuriko is a former goomba who has turned into a human. It was a while ago, and she's gotten used to being human, now. Fingers are nice. Being tall is nice. Jumping high is nice. Having legs is nice. Having so many lanky limbs is still a little weird.

She tucks her hair behind her ear, to keep it out of her face and then bites her lip. Right: she's here to record what she observes and interview a few people, determine how long ago they came to the Nexus or if they were born here, where they originally came from, how they're integrating, what their home culture is like, what parts of the Nexus they normally travel to, how they feel about it, and so on.

Tapping her pen on her clipboard, she thinks. What else did she want to get accomplished today? A hundred surveys, five interviews, and ten pages' of observations.

Yup, she's ready. She nods and steps forward, looking for interviews. "Excuse me, would you mind filling out a survey?"

[Rebonack]

[A Completely Normal Section of Town]

Nick didn't absorb it.

He collected it and now he has it.

It's that simple!

None of the commands really make a great deal of sense, though. And experimenting with them probably isn't a great idea.

Nick should find someone who knows how this stuff works. Those Watcher people seemed to be in the know, right? There's probably at least one that works for Intersection.

Heading back to the offices won't be a problem.

I mean...

This is an area of several square blocks that just got dumped into the Nexus.

How many people are going to try to stop the griffin from flying off?

Probably none.


[Market Street]

Something comes tumbling off a nearby roof.

Or...

Maybe more properly somethings.

One of them is a goblin.

Not the sort of goblins that live in underside. Oh no. Certainly not. The sort of goblins that live in the Dreamlands. Goblins that are everything nasty, brutish, and crass about human nature distilled into a hideous, misshapen lump of malice and flesh. It looks kind of like a human, though it's bigger than one by half at least. And its face is pulled into a monstrous, piggish countenance with great big tusks and a flat nose. Its hair is bristly and greasy and it smells distinctly of rancid lard. It's clothed in an actually rather fancy looking suit of bronze armor and holding a great big stick capped with even more bronze.

The other thing is... harder to describe. In the broadest sense, it looks like a dragon crossed with a deer. It has something like wings growing from its shoulders, hips, and in place of ears. Things like eyes, pits of darkness ringed with stellar light, dot its wings and face. It has little branch-like antlers and translucent scales the of a vibrant green. The scales on its belly are black as obsidian, shaped like interlocking triangles. They move as it breaths, starlight bleeding between them. A long, dragony tail lashes behind it and its lithe legs end in cervine hooves.

They both hit the ground with a thud, the goblin's club flying from its grasp and rolling across the cobblestones. The dragon? holds on tight, its jaws latched around the goblin's neck in spite of the fact that the creature is easily half the goblin's size. "Let me go or I mumswear I'll gob yah six ways to Tuesday!" he goblin bellows, smashing a great big meaty fist into the side of the dragon's head, cracking one of its antlers and sending some teeth flying.

The much smaller creature is sent sprawling, but it quickly hops back to its hooves as the goblin rises to its feet.

And then?

The dragon splits its jaws wide and releases a burst of searing orange-gold light that washes over the goblin, drawing forth a horrible screech and the sound of sizzling fat. When the light fades there's nothing left but a few bits of water-logged wood, burning moss, and a few pig bones.

The little dragon gives a snort, then tongues at the missing teeth in his mouth.

Ouch.

His funny little wing-ears perk up suddenly, though, as he cranes his neck to stare straight at Kuriko. "Survey?"

Then he pronks over like a frolicking fawn rather than some otherwordly abomination that just murdered a goblin. "I love surveys!"

Now he's grinning at her with that fang-filled mouth of his that's missing several teeth. "What's a survey?"

[Deathkeeper]

[A Completely Normal Section of Town]

Nick flies off, sending in a team to make sure that everyone is adjusted properly. A griffin showing up the moment they're put into the Nexus might just confuse them.
And then he needs to go find a Watcher or something. There's an occultist in base, so he can just talk to them. He can't recall their name because he usually only reads their reports and hasn't spoken to them in person yet...

[5a Violista]

[Market Street]

Oh.

Wow.

That's...a sight.

Kuriko sees the end of the scene and watches...then, scrunches her nose because of the smell. Burning fat and moss. Pretty gross.

"Oh! Right, yeah," she says.

She flips her clipboard around, and there's a survey on the top page. "Basically, this. It's a bunch of questions about you and where you come from and your experience around the Nexus," she explains. "Would you feel comfortable writing yourself, or would you prefer if I read the questions and write your answers for you?"

Maybe she could also swing this into being an interview in addition to just the simplistic survey questions, Kuriko thinks to herself.

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

A sight.

Yes.

The seraph stares at the clip board with his huge black eyes, then sits down on he haunches and takes it with his weird hoof-hands. The two big hooves are about as mobile as fingers should be. And the two dew-claws are enlarged and can swivel like thumbs. He looks at the board for a few moments, then sticks out his tongue through the little divot in his upper lip like one might expect a snake to have. The tongue is quite long and slender, bright crimson with a weird coral-like texture to it. The end drips with... ink? that smells like rich, sweet incense.

And... he starts using his tongue. To fill in the questions.

Name: Peridot
Born into Nexus eleven months ago.
Mother is from the second host in the Tower of Shinar.
Integrating great! Have made four friends and destroyed lots of evil fae.
Home culture is... haven't ever been outside of the Eternal Game before? Doesn't know what things back home are like. Does know that it is really bright. Mom says that Inside is their home and it is important to protect it.
Spends most of his time around Inside see all the cool things, finding new food carts to try food from, making new friends, and hunting down evil fae so they don't kidnap people.

Was that all the questions? He slides his tongue over to the corner of his mouth, peering carefully at the clip board. The little seraph looks like he's concentrating pretty hard here.

Yep!

That's all of them maybe?

He offers the board back to Kuriko

"I think that's everything. That was fun! Is there anything else I can do to help?" he asks curiously.


[Intersection Offices]

The officer that Nick is probably thinking about is one Cephus Cain. He can be found pretty easily at his desk pouring over a computer screen full of crime scene pictures.

WAY less exciting than Nick's afternoon, clearly.

Cephus is your pretty standard looking human. Darker complexion, tightly curly hair, brown eyes that suggest years of experience, a build that makes it clear he takes working out and whole officer thing fairly seriously. Just a normal guy in a normal Intersection uniform looking over very abnormal crime scene photos.

But abnormal crimes are normal around here, right?

So what would qualify as abnormal, really?

[Deathkeeper]

[Intersection Office]

Nick does his best to look serious and confident as he approaches Cain's desk. He still isn't sure how some people feel about their boss being a large fuzzy mythical creature. Sure he could change to being human but he feels like his officers should have a consistent image of him. But it's caused some hiccups.
"Officer Cain. Can I speak with you in my office? I need to consult with you on your specialty."
That is to say
the weird stuff.

[Rebonack]

[Intersection Office]

"Of course, commissioner, one moment," Officer Cain replies before jotting down a few final notes.

Very important final notes.

Then he'll follow Nick into his office.

If he has any issue with Nick being a weird magical cat bird he hasn't ever show any signs of it.

After all, plenty of people in the Nexus a non-human. Cephus has nothing against non-humans, even if his home world doesn't have any non-human people.

Because the adversaries, of course, don't count as people.

At all.

But a griffin? Griffins aren't from the Dreamlands or the Empyrean. They aren't wily fae or silver-tongued devils. They're just another mortal of flesh and blood. Fellow travelers in the road of life. Any Watcher true to their creed would hold no malice against them for being born in a different shape.

Once he's in the office, the officer will wait for Nick to speak his piece.

[Deathkeeper]

[Intersection HQ]

Nick pulls his wide griffin-sized seat from his desk.
”I called you here because of events that transpired starting about one hour ago.” he says as he sits down, staring up at Cain.
What follows is a very detailed report of what happened today, perhaps leaving out some details, such as the exact contents of his conversations and how many clues he probably missed.
”So in my attempt to bring the artifact in for analysis I seem to have somehow taken full possession of it and it is now giving me options. I don’t know what any of them mean but I don’t think any sound good.” Except maybe Drop that one sounded harmless enough.

[Rebonack]

[Intersection HQ]

Officer Cain considers everything he's been told carefully.

"It sounds like these people unwittingly discovered the sigil of a Class-A devil," he says, slowly and deliberately. "Observing anything related to them indirectly, even their sigil, can cause them to gain a foothold in your mind. Thankfully that's a process that takes some time for people to begin descending into madness."

In other words it is rather good that Nick didn't stare at anything.

"To my knowledge all Class-A devils are presently incapacitated. They often reach out like this, trying to make themselves known so they can regain power and awaken. This one in particular, though, sounds like it was directly linked to the concept of observation and quantum super-position. Judging from the Icon you recovered, it was likely a seraphim. An infernal dragon, for lack of a better term."

Great.

Nick was fortunate and didn't get his brain eaten.

"As for the Icon they're... a bit abstract. I'm sure you've noticed. Dropping it would simply remove it from your possession. Anyone happening by would be able to acquire it themselves. We have two sane options open to us. The first would be to store it in a carrying case protected with the Sign of Koth. That will prevent it from manipulating its surrounds in an attempt to build... well... 'shrine' is the official nomenclature in my order. But I think 'dungeon' fits well. Like the sort full of monsters with treasure at the bottom. It could be locked in one of the vaults safely. The other option would be to utilize it for creating an artifact fit for mortal hands. That isn't a process I'm personally familiar with, but there are members of my order who are."

[Deathkeeper]

[Intersection HQ]

Nick nods. All this sounds understandable so far. He thinks.
”I’m somewhat worried about the possibility of it breaking out or being stolen if we just store it somewhere, but that might be the best one. If we turned it into an artifact...would it be safe? Something that wouldn’t go draining people dry? This thing is still based on perception? It didn’t seem like the same thing the...seraphim was.”

[Rebonack]

[Intersection HQ]

"Someone could break in and steal it, but it would have to be a mortal someone," Officer Cain explains. "The Sign of Koth would prevent any adversaries from accessing it. But to those who know how to utilize these objects they're incredibly valuable. Of course, if some deranged cultists somehow found out that it was here they would need to fight their way through the station to get at it. Those aren't odds that I would put in their favor."

Since Intersection is full of really great, upstanding, and talented officers who could fight back very effectively against a raid! And Dobbers.

And then questions about safety.

"My order has spent the past few centuries testing artifacts and the limits of their safety. Using an Icon as a power source is no more inherently dangerous than any other volatile fuel. Provided it is properly contained and applied, it's harmless. The Icon you recovered has an innate connection to the concept of material things. Matter and energy, predominantly. As a result, artifacts created from such an Icon make exceptional tools or weapons. It would be just as safe as a directed energy weapon with a high capacity battery."

Or in other words.

Basically all of them.

[Hattish Thing]

Prison

With an apprehensive expression hidden beneath his helmet, the vigilante moves forward with the prisoner, though he's noticeably on edge.

[Reinholdt]

[The Temperance Teahouse]

"Caviar's, like, fish eggs, right?" Holly asks. She raises her menu up so he can't look in her eyes and read what she thinks of it. "I-I've had it once." Didn't like it, made her feel sick, etc, but she doesn't want to mention that because he likes it. So, instead she says, "That place sounds awful, being cold all the time. I've always found it strange how so many different places have the same name. Or how many weird similarities there are."

She's almost decided what she wants..."It wasn't really monsters that lived in the mirrors: monsters lived in the shadows. Fairies lived in the mirrors, and they only bothered you if you bothered them and most people didn't believe they existed so few people had troubles with them."

The Half-Elf^TM Holly sets the menu down on the table. "So, I think I want the stir-fry and fried bananas, but I really know very little about these drinks so I'll just get what you get."

[The Temperance Teahouse]

Reinholdt chuckles, somehow able to discern Holly's opinion on caviar through her voice. It's not the hardest pick up to be fair. "It's fine. I know I'm in a bit of minority liking caviar. Not everyone has to like the same things right?" Otherwise Rein would have a lot to explain for!
Oh wait. He does. Hmm.

"Ah well. Fairies are alright sometimes." Not Cerridwen though. She was the opposite of alright.

"I guess you'll be surprised as I am then, because I'm getting a drink I've never had and know nothing about. Red Tea. Though I'm getting some Lychee Wine too in case the Tea doesn't work out. I know I like that wine. Also Sushi and the Fried Bananas. Gotta try those out." Reinholdt flags down Sakura and orders 2 Red Tea, 1 Lychee Wine, 1 Sushi, 1 Stir Fry and 2 Tempura Fried Bananas. Unless Holly changes her mind about the drink. Either way, with the order in, they have some time to fill.

[billtodamax]

Midnight Park

Oh, that won't be a problem. Violet says confidently. I only offend morons. She reassures Myrrh. New moon, new year, got it. Airbrush! Let's go get bucking totalled! She says, turning to leave and bumping against Airbrush as she goes. She'd probably be throwing her arm around her shoulders if it were possible to do that and still walk, but being a horse sucks in pretty much every aspect. You got any uh... horse booze around? For pre-drinking? She calls back to her as she starts to leave.

[Deathkeeper]

[Intersection HQ]

Nick thinks this through. It seems like making something out of the Icon would render it more harmless than simply locking it in a vault.
”All right, if we wished to make something of it, who would we need to talk to?”
He gulps. ”And uh, out of morbid curiousity, the whole ‘encyst’ option, would it actually just put it in a gross cyst thing?” Nick looked up the word on the way here.
”I just sort of assumed that consume is the ‘go insane and turn into horrible monster’ option.” It seemed like a safe bet.