Seaside 5: Kinda like One Piece without the anime

[Purple Eagle]

[Beach Party]

Jack & Chidi

"Let's go change into street clothes." Chidi has his in his inventory, in case he needed to change clothes quickly. In other words, for such a time as this. He'll follow Jack to a tent they can use to get dressed, wear his clothes and follow her to Inside.

Zaabi

"No, just a beach umbrella." Zara replies, and grins once they start cuddling. "This is nice." She says, stroking Abi's face and enjoying the feeling of closeness.

((we can end both scenes here.))

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

Upon arriving at the normally-submerged cave, Zophiel has a dilemma. As a seacave, it's probably narrow in places. Even normal swinging-swords would be difficult to use in a confined space like a cave. Which basically means, if they go down, the most he could use his swords as is like a shield. Or as some sort of armor-cracker to pierce through armor. It's possible that while he's in there, there won't be enough space to draw them from his back, or put them away. Which means he has to choose now whether or not he's going to use them in there.

Ultimately, he decides it's probably best to keep them on his back instead of drawing them. After all, as a sea cave, there might be some sections they need to climb down and he'll probably need his hands for that.

Zophiel heads down the cave.

Remember how, this very morning Zophiel altered the magic seal he's got on himself? In order to make it so that it wouldn't amplify that sea-call. And it ended up making black lines trace along his skin.
These black lines on his skin start trying to mimic the spirals that are all along the cave.
It's probably nothing. Zophiel either seems unconcerned or hasn't noticed.

He gets to the fork in the path.

"It's got to be further down, right?" he asks. "Upwards probably just leads back to the the entrance they'd normally take if there's a higher tide." And the cave is flooded. "And going past those statues...actually, it most likely is past the statues. But I'm going to see how much longer we have until this place fills with water." Going down would help that, because then you can see how far down the water level is.

So, out of the three paths, Zophiel descends. Don't worry, though. As a paladin, he can probably produce light in some way. And he can probably swim pretty well, too, since all paladins take swimming lessons from when they're young. No need to worry about him.

[bc56]

Sekhmet doesn't have to deal with any guessing. She just lets the relics lead the way. If they go down, so will she, following Zophiel. If they go a different direction, she'll go that way. Considering the influence the relics have over her though, and her mental fortitude (or rather lack thereof), she probably shouldn't be left alone though.

[Recaiden]

"This is definitely the place. I mean look at, well actually, don't look at it. But it's got cult markings all over it."

Anchor suspects that it's the level path, with statues, that will lead them to the relic. Would the cultists all swim.
If Sekhmet heads downwards, she'll follow as well.
If Sekhmet goes any other way, Anchor will try to put a hand on her shoulder, saying "Don't split up."

[Morty]

[Beach Party - Too Many Nicks]

"I wouldn't compare the Lady to us, sir," Michalson tells Nick. "There's factions who do the actual policin' on the streets." He pauses. "Only I wouldn't compare them to us, either, on account they're more like gangs who want to keep order." Turning back to Geneva, he shrugs. "It's a demiplane, really. That is, no one knows. I'm sure there's berks who tried askin', but bein' ignored is the best they could hope for. The Lady just is. Like a lynchpin keepin' Sigil from becoming yet another battleground for Ivories and the Blood War."

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

"I see them. It's an interesting effect, all the more so for being apparently mundane in nature." It doesn't come up as magic through his lens- or at least, they haven't previously done so.

Benedict's following Zophiel, but keeping an eye on Sekhmet. If she breaks away from the group, he'll follow, and he's holding his left hand up ready to cast a spell, should it be needed. The fact he's pointing his hand at Sekhmet's back probably goes unnoticed by the distracted tiefling, though the other members of the party might notice- if they're behind or level with him. If they travel the darkened path, he'll sketch a symbol with his right hand that will drift up to his shoulder and begin to glow, a harsh white luminescence alike the light of the moon, casting stark shadows- though unlike the moon, the symbol Benedict has drawn glows bright enough to pain the eye if looked at directly.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Beach Party- D&D]

Melvin does seem equally put aback.
"Did we work on any of your cases, Ithuriel? I don't remember seeing your name on any of the reports we were out workin' with." And he's very consistent about reading those! Even if everyone else doesn't bother reading every little word.

[Beach Party - D&D]

"Well, uh, no, officially you haven't worked on the reports for any of my cases, but-" She laughs awkwardly, glancing away, "You did kind of unofficially pull my ass out of the paperwork fire a couple of times."

"Ah, it's na' tha' big ay a' deal, Ithuriel. Thar's nae a day goes past wi'out someone needin' a favour."

"And how often do you get thanked for it?"

"Eesh, ah, nae very often?"

"So thank you!"

[Rebonack]

[Marlick Bay]

Well.

It sounds like the party is planning to descend, then.

As it happens, Sekhmet isn't guided anywhere. As soon as she steps foot in the cave, it will feel as though the remaining relic is all around her at all times. It's a rather disorienting sensation. Hopefully she doesn't throw up.

Regardless!

Down!

Down into the briny depths.

The sea cave opens up before our heroes into a wide, subterranean chamber full of slick, smooth stones and brine pools. Should Benedict shine his light into any of the pits, the darkness will reveal deep spiral-covered shafts with no bottom. The scent of salt here stings the nose and many of the pools are littered with the carcasses of fish. The brine is concentrated enough to be toxic. Best not to fall in unless you feel like getting pickled. Hmm...

Several not-fish carcasses, too.

Some look ancient, little more than skeletons caked with crystallized salt.

Others look more recent. Isn't... that one of the people who wandered off into the sea?

Near the center of the chamber is a stone column that reaches from floor to ceiling, a two foot wide budge at about eye-level. Sekhmet will get the odd sensation that the column is somehow out of step with normal time. The column and orb are, of course, covered in conjoined spirals. What else would one expect?

Beyond the column is... what even is that? Like a giant mermaid's purse? The inside of a sea shell? Some bizarre, faintly translucent helical thing. It's huge. Judging from the valuable objects placed in front of it maybe it's some kind of shrine?

Finally, drifting through the air, are several things that look like someone put all the worst parts of a sea jelly and an abyssal fish into a blinder and hit frappe. They're roughly the size of cows and just... hanging there. Weightlessly. The milky-eyed abominations glow with faint light and haven't reacted to the presence of our heroes.

Yet.

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

Good news!
As the place is opening up, that means Zophiel might actually be able to draw and use his swords. If they went one of the other paths, it probably wouldn't have opened up like this.
He keeps them as-is.

The paladin catches a view of some of the corpses. Some of the fresh ones, even.
He immediately recognizes it as one of the people he was unable to save. One that died because he wasn't fast enough.
Tch.
This is making him mad.

Completely ignoring the column and its tumor (there's no reason to try to fix it or deal with its out-of-step time as long as it's not bothering anyone) and using the light of the floating abominations, Zophiel strides forward towards the probably-not-actually-a-shrine to offer the clawhammer he swiped from that cultist. Sure, it's not really valuable, but it's stained with the blood of cultists and the dust of cult statues. That alone makes it pretty unique. And if this 'shrine' is anything like what he expects - the source of the golden treasures that are always found in the ocean near here - then the hammer and it deserve each other.

[bc56]

Sekhmet seems vastly uncomfortable with the sense that the relic is all around her. She keeps mumbling to herself as she follows the group. "It's here. Here. No. Not here. Nowhere. Everywhere. Elsewhere. No. Where?" She extends her time senses towards the pillar and its bulge. How are they out of sync?

[Deathkeeper]

Beach Party- too many Nicks

"Fair enough. All the stuff with gods is a little over my head." Nick fusses. And it's hard to get things over his head! He can fly, you know!

Meanwhile!

"Been thinking of going to school for something cool. Like fishy science. It's probably a lot easier to do fishy science when you can ask fish stuff." says Nick Jr, who nods at his own great and powerful wisdom.
He thinks that there's probably a cooler sciency name for what he's thinking about, though.

[Beach Party- D&D]

"Well, people do say that Wilfred and I live at the library whenever we can." he says with a nod.
"Well uh, I don't know which times you're talking about, but you're welcome regardless." It's true that they don't get thanked terribly often. It's what happens when you're only good at the less glamorous tasks of doing paperwork and seeing the unseen through horrendously complicated arcane processes based on audio-visual sensor runes connected to the eyes and ears of a living organism. Nothing special like what Ithuriel gets up to.

[Recaiden]

Anchor descends into the briny cave slowly, spear at the ready. Her shadow rushed in ahead, capering around the brine pools.
"Going to be here? I mean, here in place, but not time?" Anchor guesses at Sekhmet.

This does seem like the origin of it all. Spirals. Sea monsters. Cultists.
"We should probably destroy those things?" The deep-sea-air-jelly things, in particular. But also everything else.

[Earl of Purple]

Marlick Bay

"Currently they are not hostile. Attacking them could provoke them and we do not know what they are capable of. If we do kill them, I would like a sample for my studies. Most of the stuff here would be interesting to add to my family's collections." He's pocketed the gold icons from the sea already, after all.

He'll stop briefly at one of the mutants, getting a good look at the pickled corpse. He'd love to fish it out and dissect it, but maybe later. He doesn't have anything big enough at the moment to get it out of the pool. He also considers the objects around the shrine, and sketches his magic-seeing-lens glyph to examine the shrine, pillar and all the other contents of the room. If Sekhmet can feel the relic around her, it could be anything anywhere- or even the entire cave. Benedict doesn't know what- if any- limits they have on size or power.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Beach Party - D&D]

"Aww, really? C'mon, Melvin! You must remember having helped me out!" She leans over to give Dobbers a nudge with her elbow. "Point is, I owed you guys one. And I know this might not be your ideal sort of fun activity-"

Wilfred shrinks in his seat slightly as Ithuriel glances knowingly in his direction before he can comment. "Ah wus only gonna say it's na' tha' bad." He mutters to himself.

"But you boys needed to get some amount of sunlight and stop worrying about transformations so much! Look around, nobody's gonna care even if you do!" She gives Dobbers another little nudge. "And you oughta keep track of when I ask for favours in future, so you know how many I owe you."

[Rebonack]

[Beach Party - Too Many Nicks]

"This place is sounding more and more fascinating," Geneva hums. "An expedition could be enlightening but responsibility really does have to come first."

"Oh pah, what has responsibility ever done for anyone, hmm? Why, I shirk responsibility all the time and look where it's gotten me!" comes a very small voice from a very fancy sandcastle that has spontaneously manifested near our heroes. It's one of those extravagantly crafted sand castles, the sort that show up in sand sculpture contests. There thing absolutely wasn't there a few moments prior. Perched at the top of the tallest tower is...

What even is that?

Some kind of... horse... dragon... snake... thing?

It's quite small.

"The queen of all I survey! Lovely beach-front property. All the coconuts I can eat. More free time than I know what to do with. That can get dull sometimes I admit, but when times grow dire I always have my good friends here in the Nexus to count on to spice up life just a tad. Anything to keep me from wasting away with boredom!"

As she speaks Fortuna and the sandcastle blow away when a sudden breeze picks up. Like dust in the wind. A random NPC sitting nearby sputters from the face full of sand.

The draconequus promptly appears hovering above Nick's head with a sound like tend thousand dice being rolled across a fine mahogany table.

"Now then! Since my favorite little friend wants to go on her adventure so badly I think it's only natural that such a fine, beautiful, magnanimous, humble person such as myself step in and make that wish come true! You two-" Fortuna says, reaching one arm around Nick while the other stretches impossibly to snag Geneva and drag her into a group hug. "-little lovebirds can go on your trip and I, being the clearly responsible and trustworthy incarnation of chaos and disharmony I am, watch the eggs and little Nicky! We'll have a splendid time and break only a reasonable number of things."

Geneva does a pretty good job of gawking at all this.

Meanwhile!

"There are fish scientists?" Khannie asks curiously.

"Yeah! They're called ickyologists!" Navvy replies, mostly correctly.

Then? Khannie turns toward some nearby commotion. Is that another dragon? Why does that person seem familiar? Khannie has been getting those weird feelings of familiarity a whole lot recently.


[Marlick Bay]

It's here, Sekhmet. Not elsewhere.

It's just elsewhen.

It isn't here yet. But it should be. It has to be. It MUST be. Sekhmet could wait. Let now become then. Or... or she could do something else. Probably. Surely nothing terrible would result from warping time in a place like this, right?

Zoph, meanwhile, places the hammer on the alter. The alter doesn't appear to do anything, but it does. It attempts to take from the paladin a memory of regret in exchange for the offering. Of course, if it does manage to take a memory it would be rather difficult to be aware that anything happened. The only difference might be the paladin's mental burden lightening somewhat.

Anchor provides some pretty valuable advice for her part. Blowing this whole place to rubble isn't a terrible plan as far as plans go. But what are you going to blow up a giant hill-sized rock with, anyway?

Benedict will find some magic in the cave, as it happens. Though maybe not what he might expect. There's a wand over on the alter, a thin airy looking device wrought from pure aluminum. It has a moderately powerful aura of destructive magic hanging about it. Probably a weapon a petitioner left to curry favor from the Saint.

[Morty]

[Beach Party - Too Many Nicks]

Michalson's train of thought comes to a crashing halt like a Prime trying to peel a well-experienced Cager. What? Who? How did she get here?

"I, uh... I don't believe we've been introduced," he manages to say, forcing himself to be polite in the face of sheer bewilderment.

[Deathkeeper]

[Beach Party- Too Many Nicks]

Nick stiffens immediately at the first word from the voice- after all, it’s the voice of the person he promised to marry.
Of course then that person split in two and he married the half who had a different speech pattern. His life is very complicated.
”Hello, Fortuna. It’s been a while. Last time we met you rewrote my brain and combined my wife with another self.” Yeah, it looks like he’s still upset about it, no matter how casually he just said that. And really, he can’t say he’s terribly happy about the arrangement of there being two Geneva’s in the same body he’s both married to. He’s only lucky that his charm broke cleanly. From his tone and what he’s saying, and the quick glance in Michalson’s direction, the detective might get the impression that his boss doesn’t think he should stay in close proximity of this conversation.
”I was going to write you a strongly worded letter about that but you don’t have an address.” Eh, she probably would have gotten it anyway.
”It’s nice to see you again. But I don’t think I’d hire you as a sitter. I heard what you did with the Vallarm house.” Yeah, Jace was pretty mad about that wasn’t he? Plus Nick has a gun made of elder Magic’s he barely understands. Plus all of Geneva’s pony magic he doesn’t understand. And Pink’s Pokémon magic he doesn’t understand. Well the point is there’s a lot of things he cares about and/or doesn’t understand and he wouldn’t really trust Fortuna to keep it safe.
He really does think it’s nice to see her, though. Chaotic as she is, he had been hoping to stay friends and try to keep her out of the deep end like he’d promised her. Even if he’s still a little bit absolutely livid About what got done to them the day of their wedding.

Meanwhile!

”I feel like it was a word that was easier to say. Something biologee?”
Nick Jr ponders.
”Whatcha lookin’ at Khannie?” he asks his friend.

[Rebonack]

[Beach Party - Too Many Nicks]

"Oh GOODNESS how rude of me! I didn't introduce myself," the draconequus says, her tone dripping with feigned regret. She extends the end of her tail toward Michelson, the end rearranging itself into a large gilded glove offered to shake. "I'm Fortuna, the Golden Dice of Wonder. Queen of Chaos, Regent of Randomness, Lady of Luck, etcetera etcetera. You don't look like the sort who would be inclined toward some randomly generated chaotic fun so I'll decline to offer. You can thank me later."

Then she flashes a almost, but not completely, utterly insincere smile at Nick and Geneva.

"See? On my best behavior today. Draconequus' honor!" she adds, suddenly garbed in an over-sized and absurdly cut Girl Scout uniform. If her merit badges are to be believed all of her honors revolve around Swiss cheese.

"Every story I've ever read is abundantly and transparently clear that draconequus don't have honor," Geneva replies, her tone deadpan.

"My my, tough audience today. All this sound and fury over one teensy tiny little prank," Fortuna laments. "Truly I'm wounded that you wouldn't trust me! Like an arrow through the heart-"

A large, black arrow THUNKS into her chest as she twists and contorts before draping herself dramatically across the waiting arms of several more of herself, all dressed in funeral garb and weeping over her untimely passing.

"-so does you disapproval slay me!"

The whole collection of Fortunas vanish.

"Let me make it up to you," says the tiny, angelic Fortuna standing on Nick's shoulder. "What could I do to win back that trust, hmm? Consider this a freebee. On the house, as it were. I've spent so much time out of the limelight I don't want to begin shrinking from it like a vampire in sunshine."

Meanwhile!

"There's a weird dragon person talking with your parents," Khannie says, pointing in the offending direction.

Navvy wrinkles his nose. "She smells really funky. I don't think I like her."

[Morty]

[Beach Party - Too Many Nicks]

The half-elf detective shakes off his bewilderment quickly, making way to well-practised wariness. Right, one of those berks. Theatrics, word-games and traps. Luckily, she hasn't run into a clueless lemon today.

"Name's Michalson, ma'am, detective for the Intersection, former planeswalker and apprentice spellbreaker. It seems you three are acquainted, so I won't bother tellin' the Commissioner that I see a peel in this 'ere 'freebie'."

[Deathkeeper]

[Beach Party - D&D]

"Aww, really? C'mon, Melvin! You must remember having helped me out!" She leans over to give Dobbers a nudge with her elbow. "Point is, I owed you guys one. And I know this might not be your ideal sort of fun activity-"

Wilfred shrinks in his seat slightly as Ithuriel glances knowingly in his direction before he can comment. "Ah wus only gonna say it's na' tha' bad." He mutters to himself.

"But you boys needed to get some amount of sunlight and stop worrying about transformations so much! Look around, nobody's gonna care even if you do!" She gives Dobbers another little nudge. "And you oughta keep track of when I ask for favours in future, so you know how many I owe you."

Beach Party- D&D

"Well, maybe. But I would care. I've broken so many chairs, Ithuriel. And I ruin every piece of clothing I own when it's hot. Hippos make their own sunscreen, you know." She might have noticed how many of his uniform have reddish stains on the collars and cuffs. Really any place that touches his skin. The trunks he's wearing are pristine, and therefore might be new. Someone should really teach him a laundry-spell.
"But um. I'll try to keep track of things you owe me in the future." he mumbles.

[Beach Party- Too Many Nicks]

There are probably many things Nick could do with a god-level being giving him a favor. He isn't really sure if Geneva and Geneva really like being the same person, so he can't touch that one. He could ask for fabulous riches, incredible powers, or all sorts of things he doesn't really want. Anyone would know you never actually ask for those things. He does feel like maybe he doesn't really know Geneva and her work as well as he should. He doesn't have the head for pony magic, pokemon, or the kinds of science she does and ends up usually just smiling and nodding when she talks about her work. And honestly he does that whenever any of the mages explain things to him at the office. It's not like he actually knows how that relic-gun works. But otherwise he's happy, isn't he? He can provide for Junior and the hatchlings on the way. So really, he doesn't think there's anything he wants, and especially nothing he trusts her to give him.
"Fortuna, love you, but even when you and Geneva were still a thing you tried to do something nice for Halloween and made a clone of me. He's doing fine, by the way."

Meanwhile!

"Oh, that's Forte! Hiiiii, Forte!" Nick rears up and waves a paw at the chaos dragon before he drops conspiratorially to his companions.
"She used to be like, one with Geneva but then she plit to do chaos things. Nick and Geneva said not to accept anything she offers." Which is a shame because she's really fun.

[Rebonack]

[Beach Party- Too Many Nicks]

"I know you mostly mean well, Fortuna, but you're dangerous by nature. It's hardly your fault," Geneva says in as consoling of a voice as she can muster. "I think if you really wanted to build our trust the best way to do that would be by NOT using your abilities recklessly on us, around us, or for us."

"Hmm... I can see how that would be aPEELing to someone insistent on being as boring as possible," Fortuna admits thoughtfully as she drifts up into the air whilst eating a banana. "The problem, you see, is that I've already set my mind to something. Helping YOU-"

She boops Geneva right on the end of the beak.

"-accomplish your little nerd vacation. And I think I know just the thing, too! OBVIOUSLY you don't want someone as cool as myself spending too much time around your children. Jealousy, clearly. So you'll just have to be in two places at once!"

And with that, she seizes Geneva by the ear and plunges her other arm into said ear up to the elbow. The hippogriff makes a rather alarmed squawk at the sudden invasion of personal space, but it's all over in the space of a few seconds when the draconequus pulls her arm back out again, dragging with it a small pinkish cat-like creature who looks equal parts concerned and bewildered.

Concern and bewilderment are the most common emotions when Fortuna is involved.

The pokemon is dropped in the sand with a startled "Mew!"

"There!" Fortuna proclaims triumphantly as she dusts her claws off dramatically. "Problem solved."

"Fortuna what did you DO!?" Geneva yells, rubbing her sore ear.

"Just undid the last vestiges of my prank. You're welcome, by the way. Now that the two of you have your own personal space one can watch the eggs while the other takes a vacation! I'm sure you'll be able to figure out who does what, smart as you are. Toodles!"

Then she snaps her claws and vanishes in a poof of little wrapped bits of saltwater taffy.

So we're left with one Geneva with a sore ear, one Geneva with swirly eyes laying in the sand, and bowl of candy conspiratorially scooted over to Nick Jr.

Meanwhile!

Khannie eyes the bowl of salt water taffy suspiciously.

"Does this count as accepting something?" she asks, pointing at the bowl.

[Morty]

[Beach Party- Too Many Nicks]

"That might've been the most barmy thing I've ever seen," Michalson admits in a somewhat defeated tone. He really didn't expect to see that today. "And I've seen a lot. Are you, uh, okay, Mrs. Geneva?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Beach Party- Too Many Nicks]

Nick feels like Geneva has been given all the bad luck when it comes to Fortuna's visits. Maybe that makes sense, but he's supposed to be protecting Geneva, darn it! Protecting people is his job!
"Are you, uh, two alright? I. Um. Well. Could have- nope not saying that." Nick cuts himself off as he drapes his wings around Pink!Geneva and Grey!Geneva as best he can.

Meanwhile!

Nick Jr. seems unsure.
"Well...probably. But she's never really done anything to me." he sloooowly pulls the bowl closer to him.
He's fairly sure he might be a thing because of Fortuna. Geneva was still Geneva back then but she was doing her chaos stuff and he's not really sure why else he'd poof into a cool magic city with an older cooler version of himself.
Nick likes to pretend Junior hasn't figured it out but they both know he did ages ago.

[Rebonack]

[Beach Party - Too Many Genevas?]

Barmy. Weird. Crazy. Inexplicable.

Those are all pretty great ways to describe what just happened.

"Barmy. I'll add befuddling," Geneva says, the ear that Fortuna somehow shoved her whole arm down still laying flat.

~Discombobulating is a good one,~ comes the telepathic voice of the pink cat-like thing. A polite brush against the edge of consciousness. ~I feel like my brain has been put through the laundry. Not as in brain-washed. As in tumbled and sudsy.~

And then a question is asked of them! While getting a wing-hug.
"I'm fine."
~I'm fine.~

The hippogriff headbutts Nick affectionately. "Well, we tried. She was going to do something weird no matter what we said. Sorry you had to be in the middle of this, Michalson. I'm glad you didn't get caught in the weird."

~And at least she didn't do anything to you, Nick,~ the mew adds as she rises to her tiny feet. Standing upright in the sand she's just a little over a foot tall. ~Actually... this might be a good opportunity to try something daring. I'll be right back.~

Then off she zips toward one of those little beach-tent changing booths! Wonder what she's up to?

"I could use a drink," Geneva finally concludes. "Could anyone else use a drink?"

Meanwhile!

"I think I might have been born because of her," Khannie admits somewhat uncomfortably. "Fortuna turned daddy into a kangaskhan that one time on accident."

Not for very long!

But apparently long enough since all kangaskhans have joeys.

"Don't look at me. Mother made me," Navvy interjects. His genesis has absolutely nothing to do with Fortuna.

[5a Violista]

[Marlick Bay]

Zophiel has so many memories of regret that it probably won't make a difference.
...
Unless, of course, it took very specific memories of regret. Because Zophiel needs those regrets. Like, for example, leaving Cleo and his daughter without really giving a good explanation. Or letting his daughter get kidnapped by fairies (even though that regret is probably unjustified since it wasn't really Zophiel's fault). Or using 'enhanced interrogation' on his father-figure. Or killing the other paladins from his order. Those are a bunch of regrets he should probably keep. It'd probably be bad to lose any of those ones in particular. Or even the regrets from not saving the people who went into the water this morning, because then his anger would lose its base. But there's plenty of other regrets he doesn't even remember because they've already been lost, so those ones can't be taken.

Anyway,
so long as none of Zophiel's several character-defining regrets aren't lost, then there's probably no major problem.

He turns back to the others. "This room seems pretty significant," he says. "So I don't know if we should go back and change something in the other two ways or if we should set up here as the battleground."

[bc56]

"It is-will-be here. Came here in the future. Do nothing. Change nothing. It's coming. It's already here." Someone should probably make sure Sekhmet's okay. She keeps saying weird things. "I hear the echo of something yet to come. I feel the strands of time unraveling. Just a tug, and it will come." Someone should probably stop her from making that tug. That would be bad.

[Arkhosia]

Spoiler

Show

[Sergeant Blanche takes command]

The captain nods and the skyship is taken closer to the previously hidden obelisk ship.
But as they come closer the ship does something weird. It abruptly stops and like a bumper car at a carnival ride it makes a strange 180 degree turn in the air and starts moving towards the VIGIL ship.

"What the **** are they doing?!" The lizardman gunslinger shouts.

"Think der going for a suicide attack." The fiery dwarf grimly replies.

It does appear that the obelisk ship is planning to ram them, now becoming fully visible.

Moonwell - Taking Command

The catgirl blanches for a moment as she realizes just exactly what the ship is up to before her mind starts to race, trying to formulate a plan. "How well can we take an impact from below?" she demands from the captain, before attempting to raise Anika, Awen and St Lazarus again. "Guys do you read me? The dragon's gone, the demons are retreating. We need you out of there before it leaves!"

[Morty]

[Beach Party- Too Many Nicks]

"Normally I'd say I can handle weirdness, but I've got no dark if any of my training would've worked 'ere. And I don't have any of my tools." Michalson rubs the back of his head. "A drink sounds good. Just without alcohol in it. I need to be careful about it."

[Deathkeeper]

[Beach Party- Too Many Richards]

Nick sighs.
"I'd almost take weirdness at me if it meant sparing you from it for once." he admits.
Then Pink takes off! Nick is surprised that she is capable of going off like that so soon after being split but he isn't one to complain.
"Yes, uh, a drink is probably in order." he mumbles, calling over one of the little cat-bots to get them a round ordered. Including some iced-tea for the detective.

Meanwhile!

"Yeah, that was probably before they split, though." Speaking of splitting, it looks like a cat just whizzed past. Wasn't that Geneva's other shape? Nick isn't sure. He takes one of the candies and inspects it closely. It does look like normal candy. But things are already looking weird.

[Recaiden]

"Everything here is going to need to be broken down. I mean, we can't leave those spiral designs all over."
Anchor points her spear at the orb in the strange column.
"Sekhmet, don't do anything yet."
Her shadow comes over by Sekhmet's shadow, going to put a hand on its shoulder, a motion not to do anything hasty.

"This is the place. I think we should all stay here."