Serious Plots 9: Srsr and srsr

[Earl of Purple]

Inside: PCC

Once she's gone, after a moment of hesitation, Prumathe rushes off to look through Sekhmet's work bag, looking for her journal. If he finds it, he'll immediately flip to the back and read what's written there. Pontius will help Prumathe gather anything needed, though hopefully it doesn't require anything weird like candles made from human hair. Unless she happens to have candles made from human hair in her bag, anyway.

Skyside: Shivernight Manor

"Because after I went home, the man whose ashes is drifting about your feet took me back to the Guild to avoid the fate the Guild inflicts on those it accuses of harbouring escaped slaves. So I called out for help again, and you didn't answer. Someone else did, someone very pretty, who gave me freedom and enough power I won't fall in the Guild's hands again." And gave her a chance to avenge herself on the man who sold her back into slavery, too. "Would you have helped me the first time, if nobody you knew was there?"

[5a Violista]

[The County of Art]

Redcurrant reads the note.

She rolls her eyes. Naive.
"That's not a good long-term strategy."

---

If they want magic, they can always get it later. Or let someone who can actually use it have it. As it is, the plant-wolves aren't really using it, let alone using it optimally.

The plant-wolf...well, it doesn't exactly sleep, since plants don't really sleep, but it starts to act the same way as it would during the night mixed with what it would do during the winter.

[bc56]

Iconquest

"Yeah, it's weird." The "rabbit" startles Jade out of her thoughts. She draws forth a bulky pistol and aims at it. Dreamheart magic may be less powerful here, but her technology should be plenty effective. A flick of her finger turns the weapon's safety off and she takes up a combative stance, in case the "rabbit" turns hostile.

[Recaiden]

Frustrating to hear, for a second, but then it seems to become clear.

Ein writes out a small note, smiling a toothy inhuman smile.

How long is your long-term?

---

While the plant-wolf, hmm, hibernates(?) there's a lot going on.
Getting that fairy magic out of there, going over the genetic changes between it and your standard redcurrant, maybe making a few improvements, clearing space for the first plants that might need soil of a sort to grow in, getting all the nearby entities used to the prospect of plant wolves. It'll take quite a while, in case the mask was interested in coming to collect the wolf or anything.

[Arkhosia]

Inside: Xuracorp Tower

"Understood sir." Blanche hangs back and readies her rifle, scanning the lobby as they enter. Her steely eyes linger on the succubus - and while in any other circumstance they'd be lingering for other reasons, here it's strictly professional. Assessment as a threat, which she certainly doesn't seem to be at the moment. Of course, that could change on a dime. They still don't quite know what they're dealing with here.

"I'm not shooting noncombatants," she mutters to Wenomir, giving him a bit of a side-eye. "What do you think? Are we going to have to fight our way up there, or does she seem egotistical enough to welcome us straight into her lair?"

[5a Violista]

Redcurrant reads the newest note.
"It obviously depends on what happens during that time period," the weeks-old creature says, "but in my experience, they tend to fall apart after a couple dozen million years, or cycles, or whatever else you want to call it. Only seen one that lasted more than a billion, but even then, at that point, even the faction that supported following the collective had evolved far enough that it would be disingenuous to claim they were just obeying without a choice."

All she wanted was to see if these wolves would work against Zee, and then she got distracted by being curious about what was going on with that plantwolf, but now it seems they don't want her to find out or watch. Sure, she's going to find out sooner or later anyway so it's not a big deal, but they've already disrupted her ability to see what was going on in Trog's by successfully taking away one of her relays and trying to lead away another.

She lies against the wall, as if it were a bed, and stretches her arms upwards along it, looking very vulnerable. "Then again, most people don't care about that long in the future, so I guess it doesn't really matter, then." And, jeez, this conversation is boring her. "Why did you guys want me to come over here, anyway?" There's a barmaid she really needs to slay, and - as it stands - if the last wolf in Trog's Tavern is slain while she's still over here, she won't know how effective it was.

---

The plant-wolf doesn't mind waiting.
After all, it is a plant.
Most plants don't mind waiting, so long as they continue to get the nutrients they need.

[Recaiden]

Oh, how interesting. The opposite problem.
Or a pack of lies; it's hard to tell with just a mask.

We have a system for when decisions should be made, and when they shouldn't. You'll have to check in after a billion years to see how it ends up working. Thanks for the advice, but your way just seems too expensive.

After all, they've been at it for less than a hundred thousand years, certainly.

Ein steps right up next to Redcurrant, leaning on a tentacle pressed against the wall, wondering if there's any point in trying to hurt her. They wouldn't like to have to.
And they speak in a soft buzzy voice that doesn't involve moving their mouthparts at all.
"We did not want you to come here. You followed the plants to us."
"That devil-fairy is very interesting, but someone who just talks through a mask? How could you understand?"
They tuck the notepad away and try to crush the fox mask between their hands.

[Reinholdt]

[Inside: Xuracorp Tower]

A completely stock answer from Wenomir. Which probably means he hasn't been in combat with her before. Maybe seen her train and trusts the Vigil name or something, but no emotional connection. Either way it didn't tell a lot.

Blanche's refusal on the other hand, spoke volumes. Noncombatant? Even if this succubus doesn't have her claws out right now, she's still complicit in the hostile takeover of this building based on the state of the lobby. Assisting those raging in the streets outside, causing chaos and pain. Not to even count however many souls this succubus has drained dry on her own time.

The sniper needn't worry about it this time though, as Ilpholin strides over to the desk, moving at a surprising clip. If the succubus secretary opens its mouth to reply to Wenomir, it'll give the nymph the perfect target for her as her hand juts forth, turning into a sword that aims to thrust right into her head from the front. It's a particularly gruesome way to die, admittedly, and would certainly prevent her from talking. The edge of her sword is coated in silver based poison that makes it easier to inflict and infect wounds on demons who happen to be vulnerable to the stuff.

[5a Violista]

People who live for that long tend to lose sight of what's actually useful.

She reads the note, but since her hands are up she doesn't grab it. So she reads it pretty quickly, just skimming through it. "Whatever happens, just make sure it's interesting."

The fox mask easily breaks into pieces. Just little broken white crumbs.
Redcurrant doesn't seem to mind. Almost certainly because the 'this is me' statement was just metaphorical with the purpose of easily explaining a concept while also seeing if this creature would be tempted to put it on.
If it's not going to be used, might as well break it. If Ein had returned it to her, she would have done the same.

"Really? I was told..."
Redcurrant looks at the plant-wolf that's lazily basking in the sunlight over that way, and after communicating with it using some scents from her hair, says,
"Oh, I see. It was a miscommunication."

Actually, it was just an artifact of the plant-wolves' learning. The plant-wolf who remained in Trog's Tavern was just barely learning to distinguish between their own thoughts and others' thoughts, and at the time the other one in Trog's Tavern (who is now downstairs hibernating) didn't know how to communicate who the intended recipient of a message was. The other ones were just acting as relays between the one in (and still in) Trog's, and Redcurrant. So, when a message was passed down from the first relay-wolf to the second relay-wolf without any encoding (shortly after the second relay-wolf was instructed by the Trog's front-facing wolf that it needs to add encoding to all messages), the message was relayed to Redcurrant and was appended with the false assertion that the plant-wolves were the source of the message and she was the intended recipient of the message. Luckily, all of them have since learned how to handle every stage of that better, so it can't happen again.

...
Basically, it can all be blamed on the plant-wolves trying to figure out how to interact with the world after being faced with a new situation. It was the first telepathic conversation they ever encountered, after all.

Having been wall-slammed by Ein in some sort of love confession (actually, that's not exactly what happened, but she's always wanted that to happen to her once after hearing about it happen), she doesn't move away. Instead, she says, "In that case, I wish you luck in whatever you're doing with the one you took. I'll consider additional limbs -" and as she speaks, the nearby lazy plant-wolf starts budding branches along its sides, growing quicker than ought to be possible, "- and regardless of how or what I understand, I am willing to explain anything about these wolves if you want to know." But if they'd prefer to find out on their own, that's just as good, she thinks.

[Recaiden]

When you can live that long, you probably have a pretty unusual definition of 'useful' to begin with.

Ein moves back a bit, looking at the crumbled pieces of the mask. They had really expected that to have some effect on Redcurrant, either for fairy mask reasons, or just a reaction to seeing it broken.
But Redcurrant didn't even blink. That's a surprise. Really, it's asking to be investigated somehow.
Soon enough, they're back to looking admiringly at the fox-mask-succubus-dyrad.
"We aren't doing things for entertainment. If surviving the world calls for practical, uninteresting things, that's what we have to do." They protest!

So the message was relayed too far, and she got the message that was, in a way, meant for just a relay wolf.
And it was only thanks to that quirk of how the plant-wolves learned that Redcurrant came here to meet them at all.

They go back to writing for the next bit, holding the note up for Redcurrant to see - no need to leave that relaxed arms-outstretched pose.

Why this kind of plant? Did you have more of plan for them than it seemed?

The next notepad page start to fill up with technical inquiries about the plant-wolves' DNA, asking for clarifications on sequences that maybe made more sense in a sedentary, non-sentient plant.

[5a Violista]

Also also, the only things she really cares about are 'conflict' and 'struggle' and a few other minor things so...even if she had a normal time span perspective, her overall perspective would still be skewed, opting towards what causes the most conflict and what requires the most effort while still being successful over what's practical.
A group that followed her teachings and ideals could definitely survive, but could not in any way call itself 'practical'.

Since she can stay in that pose, she still does, and reads the notes, answering all the questions that she can.

For example, "For some reason, this type of plant I can grow the fastest," she says, as a bunch of red currant berries starts growing in her hair. As an object lesson, they fall down to the ground, quickly start growing and taking root, and then suddenly there's a small berry bush there. She explains how it's related to this type of fairy magic she can do. "Just felt like creating something, to see what I could do with it, and to see if it could find a way to grow and flourish without my help."

She also answers the other questions, too, and gives more details, saying things like how she got inspiration from a virus she made once, that would grant intelligence to a few random animals that caught it. The sequences that would work better in non-sentient plant, she writes some of them off as it just being a rush job and feeling that creations need imperfections so that they can improve upon them and find clever workarounds to it, and eventually evolve in new and unexpected ways. Others, she explains that since they are based on a plant, changing them too much would add new vulnerabilities that would need to be addressed one-by-one and would also make them too different from the other plants. Their communication method is based off of using other plants, so if they're too different then they will lose the ability to mimic and use other plants. And, after finding out whether or not they worked and were effective, she was planning on making new variations and by keeping them as close to the base as possible, that allows easier modification and easier troubleshooting. Add too many unique features, and then the differences just cascade and explode into more and more unknowns.

And things like that.

[Recaiden]

They listen to all of Redcurrant's notes. Granting intelligence to random animals would be a disaster; honestly animals are too intelligent already. As is Ein, perhaps. They'll note back that 'no one creature can be perfect', so it may be just as good to make things not imperfect for its role to begin with. But she certainly knows more about designing plant creatures than anyone else involved here, and her answering can do a lot.

But at the end, "This fairy, after she put on the mask, does she make any more choices?" Ein inquires, both confused and confrontational.

[5a Violista]

"Normally," Redcurrant claims, using her hands to gesture what she's explaining, "when someone puts on the mask, that person switches places with a part of me in a parallel mirror world, and I take whatever they leave behind." So, they're still around and can do whatever they want, just not here. And what she takes generally includes 'their body' or something.

"But." She gestures at herself. "In this case, I actually have no idea what happened. Won't find out until next time I die, probably." The woman shrugs. "That's why it's such a unique opportunity, for me. I suspect we merged and so I am her and always have been and she is a part of me and always has been, but. No idea. And no way to find out." She laughs. That's what makes it so interesting. She has no idea what happened or what will happen or what can happen, and so she has to struggle to make sense of incomplete information and plan for things that she has no way of knowing. "Haven't had something like this happen since...that time I met that god of the present."

[Arkhosia]

Avenue of Unpleasant Dreams

Spoiler

Show

Avenue of Unpleasant Dreams

"Jaahlyn? Fi? Is that you guys? Did the spell not work?" asks a familiar voice in the darkness. Well, not exactly familiar. Smol Laz has the familiar voice. This stranger in the shadows is a little lower in pitch, similar to how your voice always sounds different in your head than on a recording. Smol Laz sounds a little closer to what Fidelia has heard before than this shadowy spectre does, but does that make it more or less real than the new Laz? How much can your eyes and ears really be trusted in the unconscious realm of nightmares?

"I've been looking everywhere for y-Oh. I see you've met her," she remarks bitterly, evidently recognizing the pipsqueak. The voice seems to be drawing closer and closer, without being any easier to actually see in the gloomy, bloody abode. "I hope she hasn't been too difficult. She's not what we're here for, but-"

"Shut up, freak. No one even asked. Why don't you just do everyone in the room a favor and drop dead already?" the small one retorts, waving a glowing magical sword in the dark. Tendrils of light pierce the gloom just a little, making it possible to identify a twisted, misshapen silhouette on the other side of the room. It has too many arms, too many teeth (many that aren't even in mouths or places where mouths should be), and what looks like steel plating grafted onto its rotten skin. I don't know if I'd want to look too closely into those shadows, Fi. At least it has the decency to keep its distance from the trio, though that may have more to do with Lil Laz's zweihander than anything else.

"Like I was saying, I'm glad you two are okay," the mass of limbs and teeth with the slightly off voice remarks. "I hope she hasn't caused you any problems or said any-"

"Said any what? You mean like what happened to the pillow? Actually yeah, that's perfect. I should tell her, shouldn't I? Fidelia, do you want to know why we had to have that pillow you liked replaced out of nowhere last week?" the smug, abrasive little knight sneers, reveling in the monster's fear. The thing recoils as if struck when the subject is brought up, but clearly has nowhere to run, and no means by which to silence the brat. I mean, it could try eating the vindictive little thing, but that's a really big sword she has.

Avenue of Unpleasant Dreams

How unsettling... and interesting.
The grim reality certainly appealed to some aspects of Jaahlyn and grimness might just be the thing she needed now in her role as a guide. She just hoped that they could forgive her after this.

She steps out from behind the couch. "Sir Lazarus, Lady Fidelia and I have traveled to your humble abode to help you, don't fret. We're both fine." She declares as she walks up to Fid. "Lady Fidelia, would you mind giving me your hand for a moment? It's important." Jaahlyn's black eyes will meet hers for a moment.

If Fid presents Jaahlyn her hand she will take a firm grip around it. Giving Fidelia what she at least believes is a reassuring look, one of her fingers turns into a wicked claw for a moment and makes a small incision in the side of Fid's wrist, just deep enough to draw blood. Then she will pull out and let the blood hit the floor.

It takes a second for Fidelia to recognize which one's the true Jenette here - her voice isn't quite what she'd expect, and that's certainly a much different look than she was anticipating. But Jaahlyn did say only their lucid selves would be able to recognize Jaahlyn's tail.

"Sorry Jen, we uh, just got here. And I'm- we're not here to listen to my partner's self-loathing," Fidelia retorts at Smol Laz a little more aggressively than she intended, though she can't help a shiver from running down her spine at that. She can guess just fine what might've been the cause even without the figment starting up with the guilt-tripping. She raises an eyebrow at Jaahlyn, continuing to be surprised by her formality and not really sure where she's going with this.

"Uh, sure?" Fidelia does as she's told. Although she winces at the cut, biting back a hiss of pain, she doesn't flinch in Jaahlyn's grasp, watching her cautiously.

[Deathkeeper]

Iconquest

"Don't antagonize it, Jade. The last thing we need is turning a whole landscape against us." Hector's instincts are screaming at him CHASE RABBIT but he will not be swayed by them so easily!
"You're thinking of Savers right now, aren't you?" Heather jokes weakly, trying not to gag at the sight of the thing. "Shush you." "Neeeeerd." "We watched that when there was only one of us, nerd!"

[Recaiden]

"That is interesting." and frightening and confusing besides. Things shouldn't have always been anything except what they are.
"Maybe you can be of a different kind of help to us." They go to take Redcurrant's hand and lead her into the stairwell, following where that first plant-wolf went.

"Why do you bother with this world, and not just the mirror one? What is it like there? Can we go?" Suddenly having so many questions, Ein is even willing to put them into words instead of writing.

"And is dying so little to you? I suppose possibly, we could help with that too."

[Rebonack]

[Skyway]

Oh.

Well.

This isn't very pleasant.

This psychic foe is powerful, certainly, but if we're being honest here so is Geneva. As its mental feelers crawl over her physic barrier she sends an attack racing back along the connection it's trying to forge with her. A destructive psionic bomb aimed at shattering emotional expression and experience. With all connection to negative emotions broken, the creature may have difficulty imposing those emotions on others. Crippling an enemy's ability to attack is often a good place to start.

Geneva knows her limits quite well.

Pink's mind is a roiling maelstrom of emotion and power. It's always a careful balancing act preventing that power from manifesting outwardly and harming the people around her. If she feels herself starting to slip, she's going to bail as quickly as she can.

But for now?

She has more survivors she needs to find.

Deeper in she goes.


[Market Street]

Oh.

Well, the devil wants to play ball does he?

There's the windup.

Pepper charges and leaps!

The lightpost whizzes under her as she sails clean over the devil, hurling a silver javelin down at the behemoth as she goes. The weapon is tipped with a crown of whirling teeth fit for chewing through the devil's infernal armor. Ser Pepper lands hard on the other side, stumbling briefly. Maybe her jump hadn't been quite so clean, the post clipped one of her back hooves. Thankfully she's made of some pretty stern stuff.

[bc56]

Xuracorp Tower
The succubus starts to say something when she's suddenly killed. She slumps over with a gurgle. Then suddenly, her appearance shimmers and wavers, and instants later she's just an ordinary human woman, no succubus at all. Sapphira's harsh, mocking, psychic laughter fills the room. Ah, ha ha ha! You really should be more careful! After all, you can't be too hasty! Wouldn't want to accidently kill an ordinary person by mistake, would you? Good job with that succubus though! She just keeps laughing into the Vigilantes' and Ilpholin's minds.
Meanwhile, Anika can easily find a stairwell leading both up and down, but the elevator only has one button, for the 40th floor. All the others are conspicuously absent.


Shivernight Manor
"Oh eeew!"Sekhmet tries to kick the ashes off her feet as much as she can. But she knows exactly who Bluefoot is talking about. "She'll use you and throw you aside, like she did to my father." She reaches out to gently touch the barrier holding her in. "If you release me, I can help you get out from her control. It's not too late for you." To the unknown mind, she sends emotions and concepts, since that seems to be how this thing communicates. [Confirmed] [Imprisoned] [Want to leave] [Mean no harm]. But Bluefoot is apparently not done talking. "I didn't know! If someone had told me about the, uh, slavers, and asked me to help, of course I would have! I didn't know about it until my, uh, sister-in-law was taken!" She's telling the truth, whether or not her captor believes her.

PCC
The last page of the journal details something called the "Rite of the Crystalline Oracle." Prumathe will need black wax, a candle, a drop of human blood and a hand mirror (not a silver one though). He need to make certain patterns using the wax on the mirror, then take it into a dark room, and by candlelight recite Sekhmet's Name and drip the blood onto the mirror. That's not too complicated, but it will take a while to set up. Below the ritual is Sekhmet's explanation, in her precise handwriting. "This ritual will allow me to speak to you through a mirror. I think it is most effective with your own blood, since you have a connection to me already. Love you!
-Sekhmet"

Market Street
The devil sees the spear coming at it. It takes a deep breath, and roars. The blast of wind deflects the projectile, it tears branches off trees and overturns smaller market stalls, and it deafens those who hear it and knocks them off balance. It probably disturbs Pepper's flight too. This thing is titanic, almost a force of nature. Defeating it directly will be difficult. It swings its makeshift club again, taking advantage of Pepper's injuries to strike at her, making a barking sound that is almost a derisive laugh, but not quite. Is it intelligent? It's hard to tell, but it just might be smarter than its brutish exterior would make it look. Its huge, hoofed foot comes down, cracking the pavement as it advances, step by step.

Skyways
Geneva's psychic assault is caught in an opposing force, attempting to wrestle the explosive back into her mind, to neuter her sense of hope that strengthens her defenses so much. This creature is ancient, powerful, and experienced, a real contest for Geneva's psychic strength. Of course while its attention is focused on her attack, perhaps it grows weaker elsewhere.
Surprisingly, as she moves away from the outer edges of the building, the creature's presence grows weaker, her connection to it more tenuous. In here, civilians are stunned and sluggish, but still able to act on their own. Most are frightenedly cowering in offices and hallways or unwisely cramming themselves into elevators, unwilling to go to the outer edges where both the stairs and the fiend are.

Hodgepodge Street
The third attack comes from an entirely different direction, but this time the hivelings are ready for it. Their second barrage hits home on something large in the mists, which immediately disappears again instead of attacking. If they had some way to clear the mists away, perhaps they could see their enemy clearly. That would negate its greatest advantage. It screeches in pain, but the sound seems to come from all around at once, with no discernable source.

The devil pulls his staff back and raises it towards the slimegirl again. As his cape billows, ominous whispers roil out from it like smoke, foretelling her doom at his hands. He steps sideways and swings the staff again, not like a spear this time, but like a sword. It's not sharp, but she's not solid. So whether or not it can hurt her that way, it won't seriously hurt her meat shield should he miss. "Give up, little one. Or perhaps we can come to some arrangement? I may be able to provide something you need. Brokering knowledge is my specialty." Can the slimegirl even speak? She hasn't said anything so far.

Ell Hive
Lokvah takes more and more power, and the fiendish part of her should soar in elation at her growing strength. But the living, mortal part is not so lucky. By pushing some power to her mantis, she avoids the worst of the effects. It is, after all, a battery for her power. But with her growing fiendish energy, she'll begin feeling the results anyway. Her body might mutate, become more fiendish, better able to contain this power, or it might immolate, begin slowly falling apart as the energy overwhelms it. To survive this, she needs to evolve or die.
But the crystal's power is faltering now, sparking erratically. A bolt of black lightning arcs off of it into a mountainside and carves a deep, perfectly smooth gouge across it, perfectly bisecting everything it passes through. Clearly it would still be incredibly devastating if this weakened crystal reached its destination. But it is weakened.

[5a Violista]

[County of Art]

Redcurrant allows herself to be led.
"It's not as exciting there," she says. "Sure, there's people there, but generally only wild animals and people and descendants of people I brought there. Pretty wild and untamed." And...yeah, that's about it. "And it's easily influenced by the things that happen here, but not vice versa." Your reflection in a mirror responds to you, not the other way around.

She continues to follow.
"Dying is...a loss of opportunity," she says. "It won't stop me, but I'd rather it not happen." Especially right now.


Meanwhile, the lazy plant-wolf just stays in place. Being sedentary in the sun, maybe it'll want to flower and grow berries. Those are a little energy-intensive, after all.


[Hodgepodge Street]

The slimegirl gets hit by the staff.
Swung fast enough, the part that gets hit is splatted and moves apart, acting more like a liquid than a semisolid in the part hit. It leaves her weakened and harder to support herself.

Luckily! Her arms are around the guy, so she puts half her weight on him to hold herself in place. She looks back at the devil, and sticks out her tongue again.

She moves her arm up, deciding there's one last option she has: hoping she can trigger some kind of sleep apnea and force him awake. She moves her hand over his mouth and nose. It'll be safe so long as she stays under twenty or thirty seconds, right? All she has to do with her other arm is hold on around him tightly. (Unfortunately, this means his clothes are going to start dissolving where she's touching it, so...if she could, she'd apologize.)

[Lord Magtok]

Avenue of Unpleasant Dreams

Spoiler

Show

Avenue of Unpleasant Dreams

It takes a second for Fidelia to recognize which one's the true Jenette here - her voice isn't quite what she'd expect, and that's certainly a much different look than she was anticipating. But Jaahlyn did say only their lucid selves would be able to recognize Jaahlyn's tail.

"Sorry Jen, we uh, just got here. And I'm- we're not here to listen to my partner's self-loathing," Fidelia retorts at Smol Laz a little more aggressively than she intended, though she can't help a shiver from running down her spine at that. She can guess just fine what might've been the cause even without the figment starting up with the guilt-tripping. She raises an eyebrow at Jaahlyn, continuing to be surprised by her formality and not really sure where she's going with this.

"Uh, sure?" Fidelia does as she's told. Although she winces at the cut, biting back a hiss of pain, she doesn't flinch in Jaahlyn's grasp, watching her cautiously.

"Great idea, dumbass. Cut yourself right in front of her. Watch, now she's gonna-" Smol Laz is cut off by a sudden lunge forward from the beast. It's not Fidelia who gets targeted, however. A truly massive clawed fist wraps around Lil Lazarus's waist, and shoots outward to pin the self-crucifying thoughtform not against the floor, or a piece of furniture, but the ceiling above them.

"Shut the **** up. I am so tired of you. I chewed up a pillow in my sleep, and then felt guilty and scared about it after. I admit it. That happened. It's the only thing that's ever happened, after all this time. What I didn't do, what I'll never do, is become the dangerous monster you keep telling me that I am," Jenette insists, her form suddenly much less monstrous, though still equipped with that disproportionately large baby-crushing claw.

"You see how I'm not eating anyone? How I'm not going nuts just because I smell blood? That's because I'm not the monster you think I am. I never was. The only ones who've ever been responsible for our actions are me and you. Soon to be just me," Jenette declares, trying to squeeze the (metaphorical?) life out of her own self-doubts and insecurities. I'll admit I don't remember everything Jaahlyn said earlier, so I don't know if that's psychologically healthy or a very good idea, but it feels like a mistake to me. Just a little bit overboard, I think.

[Terumitsu]

Mountain Temple

Arty frowns. Wow, not going to give him anything, are we? Just going to sit there and play the critic? Well, he'd certainly like to see her come up with better than the gods...whatever it is that she is. And making some kind of insinuation about him based on her voice in his head!
Except in this case he'd rather not. Who gives her the right to do any... any remodeling? Don't you dare go touching his DNA. Can you even do that? What would you even mean, trees? Centaurs are not made for climbing!
Arty gets the rather distressing feeling that she can, in fact, do that. He sighs and looks down. The sun is shining nice and bright on the spot of the floor to his left. He lays down, folding his legs and letting his belly enjoy the warm stones as the sun beats down on his lower back. Grand. At least he can enjoy the weather while dealing with this buzzing in his head.
Is she going to tell him anything useful or just criticize his organs? He had totally been hoping for an answer to the previous question. After all, he can do something with his body while he mentally talks to her, can't he?

[Organs which move rather easily when manipulated. One long stomach and set of organs are easy to make happen, especially with your expert touch. The mortal feels a little odd but is oblivious to it as long as you don't touch is nerves too much. He hasn't even noticed some of his humanish half losing some of its body hair (which he doesn't need since it isn't an effective coat like his lower half anyway). Though while he might not notice you fiddling with his innards, moving things around and growing some where there weren't before, eventually he's going to notice.]

Oh you've been given quite a lot. Maybe this is why you've got those relationship troubles? Can't quite pickup the subtext? Not everything is denotative. Think now, what about context? Phrasing? Mood? What have you learned from why things are being said? What hasn't been said? Or maybe the time just isn't right? Maybe you wouldn't quite understand given this current gulf in between?

Though, speaking of gulfs.. What makes you think you've got full rights to this physical form anymore, anyway? It was by your actions that you've got someone else swimming in your cerebrospinal fluid. Was that not you asking for everything that followed? Are you blaming others for the consequences of your own actions now? Hmm.. While it's understandable that of course you'd be upset by the details of the compact, the both of us are not all that happy having to live through this 'fine print.'

How about this, why don't we both give this a try? We're already laying down aaaannnd... Haha! I don't even think we were even noticed there! Then again, we might feel a bit woozy making such a big change all at once. May also feel a bit odd but we've also been doing this for ages so it'll be weird in that way where it feels like we didn't know we could do this. Why don't we try this out and then decide if we like it enough to keep, yes? A little slither, a small shake of the hips to get started.. We were already part one thing and part another so this should be instinctual, right? And look, such a lovely ocean of glimmering jade through which cuts such a striking lapis hue. And don't you just love the 'eyes' of the gold inset in each pool of sapphire on either side? Beautiful, yes? And just look at the edge of each scale, how each captures the light as if each were rimmed with opal. Could we truly say no to such beauty?

[Deathkeeper]

Mountain Temple

Picking up a bunch of masks was not some binding contract to have a passenger in his head! Especially not a permanent one! What gives you the right to be making such big changes when you're not even driving and - oh.
Why does Arty feel so...cool? In the literal sense, not the style sense. Like he just sat down on the cold side of a pillow but all-over his lower self and-
He turns, and gets a good look at the last moment in forever he has legs. That's rather distressing. As well as his now sausage-shaped and limbless lower body breaking out into scales and stretching into...and stretching into. Wow, that's a lot of stretching. It just kind of goes on and on and on and- wait that's his rear end we're talking about what do you think you're doing?

Besides the fact that Arty's lower self is now what he can only call ostentatious (but not gaudy, there's at least some taste in color choices) how is he supposed to be eating enough to support that? He's fairly sure she just increased their mass and volume which is concerning enough from an analytical standpoint if it wasn't also a gross violation of his body. Who said she could just nix their legs just like that? Now they'll be covered in dirt traveling. Especially since she went and made them so long! The washing will be endless.
And what's the plan here? Just hold up his humanish half vertical like this for all times he's awake? The muscles at the junction are going to need to be more powerful than that if they're going to be spending so much time holding themselves upright. So that's going to need thickening up there. Important question, have you actually done this before or just theory? Actually clarification: have you done this yourself before or just on other things?
Ugh, he has the distinct impression of actually having hips now. He's used to the closest things to that being much farther back. Speaking of which, did she remember to bring the software for all this hardware she's forcing on him, or are they both going to be winging all of this- no, it's definitely familiar. Useful, but still extremely worrying on principle. Arty's not sure how to feel about 'legs' already feeling like something that describes that of other things and not himself.

And for the record, he had relationship troubles because he gets overly nervous approaching women he finds attractive and is generally only interested in his own (rare) species. Neither one is helped by her going and turning them into some fancy, shiny, pretty snake-person! Why snakes?

[Shadowcaller]

Avenue of Unpleasant Dreams

Jaahlyn steps away from the scene, likely leaving Fid even more confused. But as the conflict between the two Laz devolves into fighting it might get clearer what she was attempting to do.

These were not the results the satyr was looking for, in fact they were far more positive as she had expected a far more brutal fight.

But as it looks like Laz might actually kill the aspect of her that was holding her back she gives the combatants a concerned look. Killing any part of yourself like that, even just metaphorically, was usually not a good thing. Jaahlyn had meant for them to try to use diplomacy to bridge the gap but she also knew that might be unlikely considering how at odds Laz seemed to be with herself.
The cut had been meant as a way to test this and so far it looked like it had been effective. Perhaps a bit too effective.

She felt guilty of throwing so much discord into this situation with her suggestion and then not doing anything to stop it but she also knew that sometimes discord was nessecary to introduce greater change and it wasn't her role to solve this for them. She was simply there to provide advice should they need it. Which is exactly why her concerned look goes to Fid who would have to be the one breaking this up now.

Xuracorp Tower

Man, Anika should have brough mental earplugs since if they were going to have to listen to that annoying voice all the time...

Thankfully, focusing on a task made it easier for her to concentrate and it looks like she found what she was looking for, a way down!
She returns to the others and attempts to gesture with her head in the direction of the stairs. Even if they would be heading upwards it was still a much better alternative than that cursed lift-box with only one option.

[Morty]

[Xuracorp Tower]

Dammit. Wenomir should have expected Ilpholin to stab first and ask questions later. But what could he have really- and that's new.

"This isn't an illusion," he says in a tense voice. "What the hell happened here?" He glances over to Anika. Does she mean... he'll assume she means taking the stairs. "She's right. We shouldn't take the elevator if that's what she wants."

[Earl of Purple]

Skyside: Shivernight Manor

"Probably. Until then, though, I get to live better than I'd imagined. And if she does discard me, I'll keep as much of all this as I can. And I can stop her discarding me by being useful, and I'm doing damn hard at that. Hence you." Bluefoot smiles at Sekhmet. "You didn't know there were slaves in Skyside? Now you do. Have you done something like that again, tried to break anyone out?" Bluefoot's confident the answer is 'no'- she's not been keeping too much attention on the Guild's operations, but she's pretty sure a mass breakout would make enough noise she'd hear about it regardless, especially since she's bought her old apartment building in Groundtown to make money through rent.

Inside: PCC

Prumathe gathers some wax from the forges, where it's used in lost-wax casting of large metal objects. Then he'll grab a clamshell mirror from one of the other apprentice's handbags. Silver is very common for mirrors, even today, but with Sekhmet making the silver mirrors glow in a most unhelpful manner most of the apprentices who wish to have a mirror with them at work now source aluminium or tin backed one. That's probably the easiest thing to find, in fact. Then he grabs a whittling knife and heads into the bathroom. It doesn't have any windows, so he doesn't turn the lights on and sits on one of the toilets and makes the symbols on the mirror in the glass, using a torch app on his phone. Then he'll turn the app off and put his phone down, cutting himself and dripping onto the mirror. "Sakiril-Ess, Toktr Etsa Korrel, Kodira Myn-Erl, Novilik Kendek, Resyr Lokata, Okaril-Ess, Keyra Dogetal. Sekhmet, do you hear me?"

[Arkhosia]

Xuracorp Tower

Blanche hears rather than sees Ilpholin strike as she sweeps the room, ears flicking before she swivels to watch in alarm. "HEY! What the [caress] do you think you're doing?!" she demands as she stalks over to Ilpholin, too outraged to really register or care about Sapphira's jeering laugh. "I don't care about whatever agenda you hold - we're here to put an end to a threat, not engage in wholesale slaughter!"

Her gaze snaps back to Wenomir as he speaks, then glances over to follow Anika's indication. Her temper calms a little as she steps back from Ilpholin, though she still regards her with mistrust. "Agreed, I'd rather have the room to maneuver. But I don't think we should rule it out while we make our way up - every second we take puts more lives on the line." She'll move towards the stairs as she speaks.

Avenue of Unpleasant Dreams

Fidelia jumps with a little eek as Jenette seizes the figment and slams her upwards, briefly conflicted on what to do. The surge of alarm and sense of responsibility to step in and do something is very real, but so is the swelling in her heart as she hears her soundly reject all those awful things she'd had to endure a figment of her spit out.

Fortunately, the former sense wins out even before Jaahlyn tries to encourage it with a look. "Stop it, both of you!" She demands with a few steps forward, fists balled and back straight. "I'm not going to sit back and let you hurt yourself, a-and I mean that to both of you!" She comes closer to The Real St Lazarus, a rather protective fire in her eyes. "Don't do this, don't- don't lash out and prove her point somehow. Defy her! Let her- let that self-doubt fester and rot."

[Recaiden]

[Skyside: Shivernight Manor]

Intrigue! Excitement! But also a challenge. Why [want to leave]? Why [exist at all]? Demon, barely alive at all, why do you bother with this world? A vastness rousing and mobilizing. Searching.
They know Sekhmet is here in the city, they just have to narrow down exactly where.

[Hodgepodge Street]

The hive creatures maintain their defensive formation. They know now that it's not just a disembodied claw leading to some hellmouth, and that it can be hurt!
It would be excellent to sweep away the mists. But all the creatures that could have once done that did not make it to the Nexus, and in this case no suitable replacement has been found.
They try to rely instead on the hounds' slight sensitivity to magic. Surely, demonic energies are all around, but to move a creature of that size to-and-fro, perhaps it creates a detectable surge of power.

[Ell Hive]

Lokvah breaks into a smile; it's working! But the signals of pain and danger from her body are growing more and more insistent.
It's a sobering sight to see the failing crystal slice through the shoulder of a mountain like that - but that means that it's all the more important to stop it before it can reach the hive. She is intent on draining this crystal away even if it killed her.

The magical energy builds and builds.
Somewhat prepared for this by what happened to Sekhmet, Osa and dukes of Ell focus on Lokvah, adding their psychic strength to help her control her body and mind.
The marquess uses her claw tips and tail to tear open her flight suit to get a moment's relief from the heat via the mountain air. That won't help for long, though.

The fiendish power, the hive's regenerative abilities, and her own nature all struggle as her form begins to warp and mutate. Evolve or die? Easy choice; let it change.
Her horns start to smoke and then burn. Her vision starts to go dark as her eyes burn up from the inside. Her wings snap back and start to tear, bits of chitin split and cut across her skin. She'll become something different if she makes it through at all.

Her mantis is careful to keep her from falling, even as she becomes a painful passenger to bear. It, by contrast, is getting just enough power to be doing great.

[County of Art]

"Taming a wild land is supposed to be exciting, is it not?"
Ein slows down as they walk down the stairs and towards the secret tunnels.
"But if being on this side of the mirror is better...do people ever come back after you've brought them there?"

"I'm supposed to bring you back so we can study you. You're clearly wonderful at manipulating plants."
"But you're so different from, uh, everything. I'm not sure it's a good idea."

The lazy plant-wolf is left alone to bask in the sunlight.

[Rebonack]

[ICONQUEST]

The rabbit is...

Probably? watching them?

It's difficult to tell. How are you supposed to even figure out where the thing's head is? Nothing about it makes any sense.

Either way, it doesn't attack. It's just... watching. Waiting.

"I r-really don't like that rabbit," Lambslaural mutters. "I don't think it likes us very much, either..."

Dandelion is, likewise, keeping her spear trained on the thing as our heroes move away from it.

Just in case.

One way or the other, the shrine of hope isn't very far away now. Do our heroes head inside?


[The Skyway]

These sorts of attacks are most useful when the target DOESN'T notice that it's incoming. Geneva gives the weapon a twist, disarming it into a rapidly dissipating psychic murmur.

The discovery that the creature's reach is weaker further inside the building is definitely welcome. This will give Geneva more time to work before she needs to beat a hasty retreat. She'll begin gathering the dazed civilians, doing her best to provide them with some level of psychic bulwark against the aggressively intrusive thoughts and feelings.

~Can you stand on your own?~ she sends to the first person she approaches. ~Do you need me to carry you?~


[Market Street]

The roar does indeed stagger Pepper, but she's resilient to say the least! This time around she doesn't dodge. Instead she throws out one hand, a wave of silver gears solidifying into an advancing blade that will effortlessly cleave through something as mundane as a light post. The blade wave continues rushing toward the devil, though is momentum was drastically cut by the impact with the light post.

Pepper steps back a few paces, sizing up this foe. She's use to taking on large enemies, so this isn't anything new. With the devil hopefully distracted by the advancing blade, she gestures toward the javelins that had been blasted off-target. The weapons wobble for a moment before shattering into silver clouds. Motes begin to congeal inside the cloud before launching at the devil with an electric snap, darts of razor sharp metal.

"If you think you can overcome the RIGHTEOUS GAVEL OF JUSTICE you are sorely mistaken, fiend!" Pepper yells at the devil as a battle axe swirls into her grip.

[bc56]

Iconquest

"Sooner we get this done, the better." Jade concludes. She steps up to the entrance of the shrine warily, uncertain what to expect.

[Deathkeeper]

Iconquest

Heather does NOT like that creepy thing more than any of the rest of them. Hector understands for very obvious reasons but he can put that aside.
"Let me get the door at least. Unlike you all, I'm not anathema to this entire landscape. Anymore at least." Hector hops down onto his own feet and goes first as they head into the temple-thing. It looks very...library-ish to him. And Heather, really, though maybe her ideal place of worship has more branches than his. Hector makes sure that the handle of his Watcher knife is easy for him to reach.