Inside 69: Nice.

[Rebonack]

[Creepy Victorian Book House]

There doesn't appear to be any other way out of the secret room.

Which is a shame.

If it were some kind of panic room with an escape hatch somewhere then they could get away!

Of course, the house doesn't seem to be very keen on them getting away.

At all.

Which is why they can now here a wet, sloshing, shuffling, scraping sound outside the fake book shelf. Whatever's out there sure sounds like it's making a mess of things. The sound of books being pulled off shelves is absolutely unmistakable. Which... is concerning. The Thing knew they were in here. It knew they couldn't have gotten out of the room. And it apparently knows enough about libraries in fancy houses to be aware of the fact that every now and again one of the books is actually a switch to open a hidden passage. So it's just yanking ALL of the books off the shelves.

It's only a matter of time before it finds the right one.


[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Melissa stomps on some of the shadows, too, just because she can. They're dumb and weird and inedible. What are they even DOING up here? Stupid.

At the sight of the ghost she nearly pounces outright, but something about the room gives her pause. The way the shadows are... shuddering. Is it a trap? It feels like a trap. It's making her tail frizz a little. But there's a ghost! Playing even! And not just a trapped spirit like those other ones down in the cafeteria, either. A real ghost! That means this one is fair game.

But...

Hmm...

She doesn't want to go in there.

What could she do? Maybe...

"I'm going to try to lure the ghost out," Melissa says as she runs one hand along her cheek, whiskers like moonbeams shimmering. She draws one out, longer and longer, a strand of impossible silvery-white light. And then she casts it into the room. The silver strand stops right in front of the ghost, a little wisp of blue-green flame spiraling at the end like a worm on a hook. Melissa bounces it back and forth a bit, trying to catch the ghost's attention. She isn't sure WHY a wisp like that should be enticing to a ghost, but the knowledge is just sort of there.

She knows how to hunt.

Should the ghost react to the lure, she'll begin reeling the line back in.

"This is weird as heck," Lucas comments, turning his attention down the hall to make sure nothing is sneaking up on them.


[Market Street]

"Okay!" Peridot replies with a head-bob. "I hope your surveying goes good! I'm going to get back to hunting, bye!"

And then he shimmies up the side of a building like an oversized gecko.

Away!

[Reinholdt]

[Temperance Teahouse]

"I use boring to catch up on my sleep. And all the other things I have to do." HALO paperwork. Organizing his treasures. Cleaning his treasures. Sleeping. More sleeping. Rein doesn't mind boring too much.

But he does frown a little. "A hole in your roof? How did that happen?" There's a hundred possible ways! Most of them don't sound fun. "Well as a member of HALO, there's always a place for you if you want to stay there. Unless you already had a place in mind. I've been considering getting my own place too. HALO's nice, but it's not cozy, you know? I've seen a lot of houses lately. They've all been cozy." Rein's been staying in member rooms since GLoG. It was fine. For a time.

[bc56]

Prison

"Smell? What smell?" The guard looks puzzled. Maybe he's just used to it. Maybe something more mysterious is afoot. The gith also has some last words to give. "It's in the vents! Don't let them forget you!" As she's dragged away, the vigilante may catch a glimpse of a ribbon of red slime trailing after the foot of one of the guards, before he disappears around the corner.

Inside the warden's office, a tired-looking secretary greets the vigilante apathetically. "How can I help you?" she drones, pushing a stack of papers out of the way of her desk surface and glancing over at a large filing cabinet. Another door is set in the far wall, constructed from sturdy oak. It probably leads to the warden's personal office.

[Lord Magtok]

Delilah's Old Hideout

Always fun to be stuck doing a Magtok's dirty work for him. Even now, even when they're ostensibly free of the tyrannical grip of the MagHegemony, Ambriel and Haz are still getting roped into stupid nonsense and horrible danger just because a regular Magtok is too busy, afraid, and/or important to deal with it himself. Gods, this is so bloody typical. Haz bristles with indignation, adjusting the sights on his rifle and shifting beneath his power armor's camouflage cloak, as he waits for Ambriel to step into the building below.

"Careful down there, Cherub," he cautions the winged cyborg, watching from an adjacent rooftop, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. Honestly, he should be the one down there rushing into danger, leaping into the unknown. It would certainly be a lot safer, what with his power armor and lightsaber and slew of shiny guns holstered about his body. Ambriel's got what, a sword and a gun and a white tux? Those wings just make him a bigger target, and all that white meant he was a pretty easy one to begin with.

"This isn't my first rodeo, Green," Ambriel assures him, as he hurries towards the building. Leading the charge was his idea, of course. Angeltok is just about the only MagClone from The Faction who still remembers how to talk to outsiders, and if Delilah's still here and alive, we might very well need a sharp mind and an even sharper tongue far more than overwhelming firepower and death. Of course, if he's wrong, well...Haz is only like a second and a half away, right? We'll be fine; he's all the muscle we need if this goes south.

[Recaiden]

Out of Stuck Square

"I don't know. We could go see if we can find somewhere else that's interesting. Oh! I think I know somewhere nearby. Wanna check it out?" Jack grins and points in the direction she's pretty sure she needs to go in. She can recognise the spire of a nearby temple, and that's telling her roughly where she is.

"Sure. Lead the way."
Anchor smiles and looks in the direction pointed. That pointy building up there?
Off they go.

Hive Sewers

She puts her rucksack down. "Um, silverware mostly, some coins. I could melt it down if I can't sell it, but metal's risky. Still the most valuable stuff, for a thief. Maybe some weaponry, that goes well on the black market. Atium if you could get it. Metal's risky, though. Iron and steel mistings can track metal if they're close enough to it, but usually they let you know where they are by trying to take it from you." She opens it and reveals some fine silk pyjamas used to wrap around three large silver candlesticks, to prevent them rattling. There's also a few bags of coins and an obsidian knife, an ebony-and-ivory chess set and an antique gold watch.

The candlesticks, and any other silver, will be glowing as the Tineye takes them out of their wrapping.
The Stalker looks at her in amazement. "This is junk. The knife is alright, for you who need it."
She shakes her head, antennae waving. "What's your name, Misting? Mostly it doesn't matter here, but I'm curious."

[Ionbound]

[Creepy Victorian Book House]

Melissa blinks and drops the relic when it's shoved into her hands and replies, "I mean it's not like I have a better solution! Look, whatever. We've got a bigger problem to deal with." She gestures to the sounds outside and adds, "This sword seems to make them pop pretty good but...Well, it sprays that awful oil everywhere. And I don't exactly want to get more mutated."

[Deathkeeper]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Isaac certainly doesn’t feel great about all of this, but he isn’t going to interrupt the ghost eater doing her thing. So for now he bides his time in the creepy room, letting some magic flow into his hand in case he needs to leap to the defense of either of his teammates.

[5a Violista]

[Temperance Teahouse]

In spite of the commute, staying at HALO is better than her other plans, which included sleeping in her car, or homeless in other ways depending on where she had to be.

"Some guy crashed into it," Holly says. "He was looking for somebody, but he left before I could get him to pay for it." All of that is true, actually.

"I do like having my own place," she adds, "but I'll keep HALO in mind in the meantime." How does she even get a room, she wonders? Is there, like, an application or does she just claim an empty one?



[Market Street]

And so, Kuriko goes back to handing out surveys, writing down observations, and trying to score interviews.

[Chaotic Bob]

[SNS Street Gym]

Hey, that's not fair. It doesn't smell just like sweaty mammals!
Someone lit a nice lavender candle over there by the front desk.

Anyway, there are currently nine individuals within the gym. One is just some plain old human, off in the corner lifting a barbell. There's a group of what seems like dog-men taking turns lifting increasingly large weights and howling at successes.
A willowy elven couple (in between glaring in the direction of the dogs) are debating with each other on how one is supposed to actually start using these facilities, while something that looks like a floating pyramid with eyes is telekinetically floating a variety of weights around itself.

The most fantastically muscular bird one can imagine is sitting at the desk (the one with the nice candle), flipping through today's issue of Candlemaker's Digest.

Oh wow. Hunksville?
See, this is what we could be doing instead of hunting for questionable shortcuts.
Taking in all this eye candy? SOLD!
...what is wrong with you?

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Come on Melissa, it's a little girl. Are you trying to eat a little girl?
Granted, worse things have happened in this building, but geeze, aren't you the little monster.

It takes said ghost girl a few moments to register that anything in her environment has changed. She seems a bit entrenched in her game, as children are wont to do, but eventually there's a sort of confused creasing of her spectral face before she looks up at what Melissa is bobbing around her.
As she turns, the other half of her face is revealed. Sort of. It isn't there anymore, hopefully scratching out any curiosity about cause of death here.
Flickeringly, her form transitions to a standing position and begins the process of trying to grab the flame.

While the quivering darkness at the edges of the room doesn't explode outwards, or collapse, or anything particularly trap-like, it does seem to become more and more still as the ghost girl approaches the door.
Interestingly, all that muttering and activity from the other rooms seems to be fading away too.

Another shadow silhouette pops into being, mere feet away from Isaac. It looks like a simple mound, about five feet wide and a foot tall.
Like the others, it swiftly disappears.

The floor above creaks.

[Delilah's Old Hideout]

The building mostly looks the same. Just another incredibly average Inside house, that belonged to an incredibly average postal worker. Past tense, apparently, as there's a For Sale sign next to the door.
Said door is locked, but since when has that stopped a Magtok?

Though, as Ambriel reaches for said door (or window, or wall, or really just gets particularly close to the building at all) there's the hair-raising feeling of energy filling the air.
Reminiscent of the feeling of an impending lightning strike, but it doesn't stop or actually result in a lightning bolt.
Touching the building won't discharge anything, if he ends up feeling brave. The effect doesn't seem to be from the house, just inside of it.

Either someone inside built a power substation, or there's some impressive magic being performed.

[Deathkeeper]

[SNS Street Gym]

G’nichi decides to speak to the avian, since he feels that they are slightly more like a lizardfolk than the mammals and the...whatever those eyes are.
Meanwhile, he also reminds the rapier that once they pay off the magic collar it will help him work out by normal means. That and no matter how much training he did he’d never get past the fact that his species is naturally small and willowy. And that on any other day the staff probably won’t be with him if the weapons keep shuffling.
”Um. Excuse me. Did a pair of dwarves come by here a couple of days ago? Someone told me that they saw them being taken past a local gym a while ago.” he asks of the birdperson.

[Earl of Purple]

Creepy Victorian Fungus House

Jack pulls out her wand and holds it at the door. She's not sure if it will work, but it's probably a better choice than swinging her shovel with both hands. "This is... Not the best situation I've been in. Wait, the sword makes them pop? Try stabbing the thing I gave you. If they are linked, it should do something." It's a guess, but better than thwacking it with a shovel. Might even weaken the thing out there enough that it won't spray that goo around. Jack still hasn't noticed her own new mutations.

Headed Towards the Rooftop Statuary Garden

Oh, the temple isn't where they're going. It's just a landmark near where they're going which Jack has recognised. She grabs Anchor's hand and leads her down an alleyway to rusty fire-escape, which Jack climbs quite agilely to a suspended rope bridge over a busy railway line. The other end is suspended from a squat and Brutalist block of flats, specifically a concrete balcony. Jack climbs over the balcony railing and enters an apartment. The main living area has been cleared of furniture, and the front door is missing; it's quite a popular route for travellers and urban explorers. So popular that the kitchen has been converted into a coffee shop with three baristas. Next stop is the building's elevator, which Jack rides to the roof.

The elevator opens up out of an ugly concrete shed, but what's outside isn't the expected bland flat concrete rooftop, decorated with lost Frisbees and old footballs. It's a small meadow, stretching from one side of the roof to the other, and decorated with statues. There's a tall bronze statue of a man with a spear, raising his other hand up to the sky; a marble woman with no arms; a statue carved from basalt with a disproportionately sized head and a headpiece resting on top made from red scoria; another brass statue, this of a wolf, and several others. A bald man of bronze leaning on a walking-stick and wearing a greatcoat is staring directly at the elevator doors when they open.

Hive Sewers

Her eyes widen at the glow of the silver, something she's never experienced before. Silver's an allomantic dead metal, everyone knows that- there's absolutely no risk of an enemy Mistborn chowing down on your silverware to take out your guards, which is an issue with tin, pewter and steel. She discards the silver, though it's valuable, and takes the knife as bid. Obsidian's a good Mistborn weapon; though she's not a full Allomancer, she's learnt the value in a weapon that a Coinshot or Lurcher can't steal. "My name? Um, Sylvette. Only name I've got." Normally she goes by 'Sly', but she's not sure she trusts the people around her enough to hand out her nickname.

[Rebonack]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Melissa isn't a little monster!

...

Okay, yes. She is totally a little monster.

But she isn't going to eat a little girl! That's a ghost. Ghosts aren't people. They're what's left of people. Like a skeleton except different. It's like getting mad at a vulture for eating dead things. If they didn't eat the dead things then dead things would be all over the place! It would be gross! And it's exactly the same with ghosts. If no one ate the ghosts then they would just linger forever and everywhere would be haunted! If you live in a house that isn't haunted then thank a cait sith, they're doing their job.

So nyeh!

Once the ghost is within range, the little girl with a cat tail is suddenly not a little girl at all, but a cat.

A great, big, huge cat. With great big orange eyes and great big sharp teeth as bright as the full moon. Her jaws yawn open wide to gobble up the ghost in one bite.

Just. Like. That.

Lucas jumps when the shadow lump appears. "What the heck are these things, anyway?" he asks, waving his smouldering sage roll at it.


[Creepy Victorian Fungus House]

Well.

Stabbing the relic could be an answer.

Maybe?

Or maybe not.

Regardless of whether or not that action is taken (or whether or not it would be helpful) the unseen horror continues its rampage through the library. It sounds like it's getting dangerously close to the secret passage.

[Recaiden]

[ --> Rooftop Statuary Garden]

Anchor follows along after Jack, a smile on her face. She scampers up the fire escape, not quite as fast (blame he heavy bones), and laughs aloud when she sees the kitchen coffeeshop. Sadly they just stopped at one in Stuck Square, or she'd want to visit such a quaint place.

"Woah. Imagine finding this place up here. I mean, where do they all come from?"
She's not sure what she was expecting, but it wasn't a meadow.

[Hive Sewers - Cloakroom]

They push the silver aside, out of the way, glowing a little tiny bit less.
"Nice to meet you, Sylvette. Syl-vette, Sylvette." The Stalker repeats, to remember it better, or just to appreciate how it sounds. It's a Good Name. "I'm called Fay. Only name I've got."

"You have a home? A family? Something important to you?" Fay leans against the entrance to the cloakroom. Which happens to be the only way the Tineye might escape. If she was getting any ideas just because she had a knife in her hand. "See, you're going to help us. But maybe we can also help you. We aren't above making deals."

[Deathkeeper]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Isaac doesn’t get to see his maybe-sister eat a ghost because he’s busy being spooked looking away from her.
”whatever they are, I don’t like them at all.”
Isaac shakily sends a small wave of force, like a summer breeze, to trail along the floor. Are these things shadow constructs? Spirits? Are they actually on the floor?

[Earl of Purple]

Rooftop Statuary Garden

"Well, I cheat, I must admit. But I don't think there's anybody who knows the rooftops and skyscape of Inside better than I do. Seeing it from above helps a lot." And as she doesn't have a fixed home or job, she can spend all her spare time exploring the City. "I've got no idea how they came up here. They're really cool, aren't they? Some of the residents don't even know they're here, which is a mixed blessing. There's no graffiti up here, but there's a lot lower down." The coffee shop might know about the statue garden. Hard to tell; enough people must cross that rickety rope bridge to make it worthwhile.

Hive Sewers

"I share a safe house with a couple of other burglars and a fence. Nothing major. No family. My parents were killed by Steel Inquisitors when I was young. My aunt hid me, but gave me to a canal boat's crew to keep me- and her- safe. I've not seen her since I was six. My knife was important to me. Nothing else." No mementos or trinkets from her family; she's from a very poor family and nobody had anything except the clothes they wore and the tools they used. Nothing to pass down, except knowledge and names. Her curiosity's piqued now, and she doubts she could get past all the crab things she's seen. "What... What kind of a deal?"

[Recaiden]

[Rooftop Statuary Garden]

"Can you picture someone hauling them all the way up here? I mean, and how does the grass keep growing, at that?"
Anchor walks around to get a better look at the various statues - and so she feels like the one by the elevator isn't watching them.

[Hive Sewers]
"We thought that might be the case. Too bad about the knife, but that's the problem with trinkets. Fragile."
Fay says. She really is a little bit apologetic.
"Say you cooperate, join us, help save the world and defeat our enemies. We can do a favor for you: something preserved or protected, a revenge taken, a question answered."
Alternately, they could force her to cooperate and give her nothing. But it would be annoying, someone would have to spend effort on mind-control or radical changes that might (for all they know) jeopardize her allomancy abilities.

[Hattish Thing]

Prison

The vigilante takes careful note of the vile residue left behind by the guard, cringing beneath his helmet. That was as clear a sign as any that there was something awful taking place within the confines of this prison, and now, Marco had personally jeopardized the safety of one of the inmates within.

Rather than sit with the warden, he stands, glaring down from above.





- - - Updated - - -

[Moonrise]

"What makes you so sure?" Orrey says, but when he raises his eyes to one of the people at the bar, they all start to move as though closing time has been called early. People pick up coats, hats, weapons. The shadows seem to come alive. They shuffle by beneath the green lights, an army of phantom people, the destitute armed with less than legal weapons and ideas by a man who may or may not be sane himself. Some of them bump shoulders with Deadlight's people or flash them sick grins as they pass. Oh yes. All friends here, those smiles say.

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."

[Reinholdt]

[Temperance Teahouse]

In spite of the commute, staying at HALO is better than her other plans, which included sleeping in her car, or homeless in other ways depending on where she had to be.

"Some guy crashed into it," Holly says. "He was looking for somebody, but he left before I could get him to pay for it." All of that is true, actually.

"I do like having my own place," she adds, "but I'll keep HALO in mind in the meantime." How does she even get a room, she wonders? Is there, like, an application or does she just claim an empty one?

[Temperance Teahouse]

"Wow. Rude. Want me to track him down?" Rein could probably find him. Though so could Holly. "Oh. You'd probably be better at that, huh? Sorry. Not used to other people who can actually find things." Slightly more a Private Investigator's job than a Treasure Hunter's.

Just claiming an empty one works well enough. "Umm, If you just need a bed for a night or something, you're, uh, welcome to share mine." Rein clears his throat, blushing strongly and brushes some out of place hair back into place.

Thank goodness the food arrives... next post. Of course such conveniences aren't anywhere to be found when actually needed. So Reinholdt has to find his own out. "So what do you like to do when you aren't working?" Holly probably has some interesting hobbies of some kind or another.

[billtodamax]

[Midnight Park]

Myrrh Balm is pretty skeptical.

But she keeps her criticism to herself.

Air Brush gets bump!

"Not here," she replies as she quickly follows Violet out. "I don't keep recreationals on me when I'm working."

Because responsible people don't bring stuff like that to work.

Obviously.

Violet would probably know about that if she had a job.

Or at least a job that doesn't consist of robbing people.

Midnight Park

Yeah, duh, like, where you live, or whatever. Violet says, lifting into the air as she steps outside and taking a look around. It's all close, right? She asks, lazily drifting through the air until Airbrush picks a direction.

[Arkhosia]

[What's Kraken inside?]

"Mistress, do you... er, are you sure you know exactly what we're looking for here?" Marina queries as she stumbles along, only barely managing to keep up Suzie's pace and still a little unused to balance in her shiny new stiletto heels. Not that a little difficulty like that would ever cause her to relinquish the tender grip of her beloved mistress.

"Perhaps I could inquire if any of the locals might know its location? I highly doubt any of them might suspect a thing about our intentions." The maid gives Suzie an inquiring glance, broom resting on her shoulder.

[Rebonack]

[Midnight Park]

"At my house, sure, but I can't just leave while I'm working," Airbrush objects. "If you wanted to meet me at the Salt Lick around nine though?"

She can't just drop everything to serve your every whim, Violet.

Geeze.

Maybe think of other people once in a while?

Oh who am I kidding.

Violet probably doesn't have the capacity for introspection at all.

"I'll see you later, okay?" Airbrush says before turning to head back to work.

She's got lots of painting to do still! Very important work.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[What's Kraken Inside?]

"Of course I know what we're looking for! We're looking for the library!"

Suzie, that's not actually answering the- oh nevermind.

Roughly twenty seconds after saying that, the krakengirl suddenly comes to a halt, reaching up with one tentacle to toy with a length of her "hair" (more tentacles). "You know, you make a good point, minion. Yes, an excellent suggestion in fact! Go forth and ask for directions! But make sure you be subtle about it. We don't want anyone catching on."

They are not wearing subtle outfits.

Nothing about them is subtle.

That said, no one in their right mind would think Suzie's nefarious plan would take this particular form, so they're probably still fine anyway.

[5a Violista]

[Temperance Teahouse]

"Thanks, but I don't need help: I'm sure I'll eventually find him again," Holly says - She will, one way or another. "And, when I'm around HALO, I'll have to take you up on that offer." She suspects she'll probably actually spend more time around HALO at least until she figures this out.

...but she thinks she really would need to overcome her nightmares and/or nightly panic attacks before she feels comfortable actually sleeping in the same bed as someone else: because of it, the last time she slept in the same bed as someone else, she ended up killing them while asleep. Sure, there's that Shapeshifter's Bane dagger, but she just recently learned how bad everything can go if she depends on it to sleep. Or maybe she could just roll out of the bed onto the floor and pretend she's just a deep sleeper who rolls around a lot while sleeping? Thinking about it, she decides that's probably the best option if it comes up. And then she could brush it off, saying that's why she sleeps more comfortably in a hammock.

As the waitress has just arrived and begins putting out the plates and cups, Holly gestures to show which ones are hers and which are Reinholdt's. "Oh. I, um..." What even are her hobbies anymore? She never has time to do anything because she's always switching between different lives and personas...maybe what she does in her other lives? "Most my hobbies are pretty boring," she claims. "I kind-of like following politics and studying biology," she says. "I also enjoy doing practice swordfighting," she says as well, but then adds, "but I'm not nearly as good as I want to be." There are also a couple other things she wants to do but doesn't have time and besides, the food's here so no point in talking about hobbies she wants to do but doesn't do.

[Chaotic Bob]

[SNS Street Gym]

The bird looks up from his magazine and does a frankly terrible job of not looking completely baffled by G'nichi's outfit.
Not even the elves are dressed so outrageously. The elves.

"Uh."

So, it takes him a minute to actually catch up to the question being posed here.
And when he does, a rather dark look immediately comes over him and his response is quiet.
"Why're you asking?"

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

That shadow lump definitely disappeared by the time Lucas was beginning to wave the sage at it. Really didn't stick around long.
Isaac's little breeze causes the darkness along the floor to whorl around, supporting Melissa's experience that there's some measure of substance here.

Then Melissa eats that poor, unsuspecting little girl (ghost). She's nothing special, beyond being a confused amalgamation of spectral memory, so there's no real defense for herself here.

"No no no no!"

That voice from the kitchen whispers out from the walls with clear distress and the shadows within that room begin collapsing inwards, like sludge pouring down from the walls.

"Again, it's happening again..."

That dark mass on the ground reappears and flickers out, reappearing further down the hall before snapping back into position. This time, the breeze seems to billow around it and the presence of the sage seems to make it wispier on the near side.
A larger shape, further down in the gloom of the hall, and a clearly audible thump as something sizable lands on the floor.

And a very short distance away, clearly visible at the top of the stairs leading back down, is the very tall shape of a man with a wide smile gleaming through the dark. He takes a step forward and the floor creaks beneath him.

"Get out get out get out get out get out!"

Spectral energy seems to abruptly thrum through the entirety of the darkness here, through the walls, floor, shadows, the shape on the floor.
But not the man. He simply grins wider and takes another step.

[Deathkeeper]

[SNS Street Gym]

G’nichi glowers at the staff. People are staring. It’s getting in the way. Knock it off with the outfit. It hasn’t even done anything in hours.
”They haven’t supplied their customers as scheduled for days. They’re getting worried. That’s all.” he tells the bird.

[Earl of Purple]

Rooftop Statuary Garden

If Anchor checks, there is actually soil under the grass. "Well, you get meadows on mountainsides and stuff, right? Where there's rock and it's too steep for soil? I guess it's a bit like that. As for the statues, I've got no idea. I mean, magic and technology makes lots of things possible, doesn't it?" Jack follows Anchor, so they're not being looked at by Winston Churchill any more. Around this half of the garden, there's a crude stone man, a black granite Egyptian block statue of a pharaoh, a bronze mermaid on a rounded boulder, another bronze of a cross-legged man with his hands in his lap sits on a lotus leaf and a marble statue of a seated Victorian gentleman with crossed legs, a squared beard and a bald head, with his jacket draped across his knees.

Hive Sewers

"Um... Do I have to ask the favour now, or can it wait? I'm... Not sure I've got anything I really want protected, nobody's annoyed me enough for me to want revenge, and... I suspect most of my questions will be answered after I join you." Most of her questions she actually suspect will be answered with a 'no', so she really doesn't want to ask them just in case she's right. Questions like 'will you let me go', and 'will I ever see the surface again'.

[Lord Magtok]

[Delilah's Old Hideout]

The building mostly looks the same. Just another incredibly average Inside house, that belonged to an incredibly average postal worker. Past tense, apparently, as there's a For Sale sign next to the door.
Said door is locked, but since when has that stopped a Magtok?

Though, as Ambriel reaches for said door (or window, or wall, or really just gets particularly close to the building at all) there's the hair-raising feeling of energy filling the air.
Reminiscent of the feeling of an impending lightning strike, but it doesn't stop or actually result in a lightning bolt.
Touching the building won't discharge anything, if he ends up feeling brave. The effect doesn't seem to be from the house, just inside of it.

Either someone inside built a power substation, or there's some impressive magic being performed.

"Green, can you get me a-" The entire doorknob and locking mechanism is fired upon with a precise laser, meant to melt the thing to pieces. That's not quite what Ambriel was asking for, but close enough. He shrugs, hurrying onward. Disaster is about to strike; something terrible is about to happen in this building, and he needs to find the source of the effect before it's too late. He promised that kid he'd find Delilah; what kind of awful, shameful failure would he be if he hesitated now?

[Rebonack]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

"I got her!" Melissa declares as she swirls back into a little girl again, her giant toothy Cheshire cat grin remaining just long enough to make it disturbing. "There's way more of her still than that gross wraith. Let's see, how do I..."

She peers over her shoulder and touches the tips of her forked tail together, causing a little spiraling wisp of ghostly flame to ignite between them. She gives a squeal of delight, hopping up and down and clapping her hands. But then serious time! She runs her fingers along her face again, those wires of moonlight trailing from her fingers, before carefully touching them to the wisp.

Then?

She pulls her hands apart, fingers splayed.

Causing the apparition to appear before her.

"Ohmygoodnessitwork!" she giggles, oblivious to all the spooky stuff going on around her. "Okay umm... um that was supposed to patch you up right? Your face doesn't look all... missing anymore. You're Sadie right? I'm Melissa the Nekomancer and I'm going to be taking care of you, okay? You'll get to ride around in a little wisp and help us beat up bad guys! That sounds cool, right? Ohmygosh this is so cool! It's like pokemon except with ghosts."

"Uh..." Lucas mutters as the creepy voices start up.

"I really hope you'll want to stay and play with us for a while, Sadie, but if you don't I guess I can take you to wherever you were supposed to go when you died. Or if you prefer I could eat you for real and you would go to the Dreamheart and get reincarnated as a new person!"

"Hey! Creepy thing!" Lucas yells, backing away from the smiling dude, his sage held defensively.

[Deathkeeper]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Isaac finally has something to do. Force magic is very effective against certain kinds of incorporeal spirits. He couldn’t really understand the theory behind why that is. He just knows that sometimes it works well. So he had best test it, shouldn’t he?
Isaac reaches back and tosses a ball of force at the creepy man spirit ghost thing. It’s not his strongest attack but it should be a good measuring stick as it usually collides with the impact of a bowling ball being thrown at something.

[Arkhosia]

[What's Kraken Inside?]

Marina has just as much difficulty stopping as she has keeping pace with her mistress, having to catch herself as she takes one step too many and the grip she has on Suzie's tentacle yanks her back.

Thankfully, she seems to recover quickly. Maybe she's getting used to it.

Those spooky black yellow eyes of hers brighten as an order is given. Something to make herself busy with, a way to be helpful! "As you wish!" Marina gives an excited little curtsy before turning forward and setting off with an eager bounce in her step and a unintentionally-teasing swish of the tail. Now, let's see if she can find a local!

A proper local, that is. None of those dime-a-dozen visiting travelers and bustling adventurers just as clueless about the landmarks as they are. So infuriating!