Serious Plots 9: Srsr and srsr

[5a Violista]

[County of Art]

"Not as exciting as people," is Redcurrant's opinion.

She keeps pace with Ein, even as they slow. "There are ways back. So, people cross over on occasion."

Redcurrant considers what Ein says. She wants to go there and see what the rest of this group are like. They are interesting. But it sounds like, while they would like her to be there, Ein would not....and she thinks it would probably be a good idea to go along with and encourage Ein's independent thinking and ideas. Even if it really isn't independent thinking and more just 'has personal experience with being in Redcurrant/Cearta's presence'. Actually experiencing her is fundamentally different than hearing about her, in her humble opinion.

Considering her options and what's for the best, she could just escape, but that sounds...boring. It'd shut off a lot of possibilities and future conflict, just for meaningless present conflict. So, instead..."Tell you what." Instead of just going slowly, she stops. "You heard of Brimstone Park, yes? It's not too far from here." Relatively close. Still in the same city. "There are plenty of succubus-nymphs there. If you want to study someone who can manipulate plants, find one - or more - there and you could study those parts directly," without having to worry about studying one that has been 'tainted' by a foxmask. "And others that can manipulate rock or fire or water, too, instead of just plants." Plus, the other succubus-dryads have different trees that they can manipulate, so maybe they can figure out what causes one to be better at, say, an oak vs a maple vs obsidian vs granite.

[Reinholdt]

[Inside: Xuracorp Tower]

Ilpholin's eyes widen as the succubus transforms before them. Her body trembles for a moment before stilling. It wasn't her fault. She knew that with unquestioning certainty. You don't blame a train for running over the person. You blame the villain that tied them to the tracks.
But knowing and feeling something were two different things.

Blanche getting in her face grounds Ilpholin and her hand clenches with renewed conviction. This, this was why she hated demons so much. And until the mission was over, there was no room for emotion. She affixes Blanche with a steely gaze. "Demons ARE a threat," Ilpholin replies with forced serenity. "I'll not have one at my back while we climb."

Ilpholin cleans her blade while returning towards the group, the simple act a calming one as Sapphira's laughter still echoed in her head. But what did that woman's death mean? Analyze. Learn. How did it happen? The most logical explanation would be illusion. Wenomir claims there was none. Or none he saw. He's trustworthy. What's the next most logical explanation? Sapphira's voice makes it clear. She's deeper in their heads than initially believed. Changing their senses from the inside and making them see what she wants them to see. It wasn't the only explanation but it felt the most probable.

"You just tipped your hand asshat."

That thought directed towards the mocking demon queen, Ilpholin pauses midstep, becoming unnaturally still, her eyes going blank.
Initiating anti-viral program.
A wave of nanobots floods into Ilpholin's brain, analyzing outside intrusions and foreign entities, quickly discovering and quarantining Sapphira's psychic trap. The rest flow around and isolate Ilpholin's mind from the outside with buffers and firewalls. Ilpholin blinks once and resumes moving, her eyes showing flickers of blue in the green. An ocular improvement to see through illusions and focus only on the truth. Sapphira's proven deceptive and sadistic. The chances of illusions existing are high despite this not being one of them. The cyborg received this gift a long time ago from Darcy to fight a dragon and long since integrated it into her body. But the nature of it gives her headache and she doesn't like using it if it isn't necessary.

"She's egotistical enough to be up there," Ilpholin says, finally answering Blanche's earlier question. "But she's sadistic too." It takes effort to not look behind her at the body there. "And obsessed with the villain hero dynamic." The nymph glances from elevator to the stairs Anika found and back again. "Both routes will be trapped. Countermeasures designed to toy with and weed out any she deems unworthy of dealing with herself. We have more freedom of movement in the stairs, but the elevator will be faster if time is a factor. Your call," she tells Wenomir. Most of what Ilpholin's assumed is her speculation.

[bc56]

Xuracorp Tower
While the Vigilantes discuss what to do next, Sapphira remains mercifully silent. But perhaps that's more ominous than the psychic taunting from earlier. Either way, time is running out. They'd best choose, quickly.

PCC
The blood pools and flows through the symbols and begins to glow very faintly red. There's a few moments of agonizing silence before Prumathe's reflection wavers. A very blurry image of Sekhmet's face replaces his own in the mirror. "...mathe? I... skysi... capt... ed... Mother... ulti... m... ickly!" Her voice is garbled and keeps cutting in and out. Then moments later, the mirror returns to Prumathe's reflection, and the glow in the blood he spilled goes out. But it seemed to work. If only he could have understood more of what she said.

Shivernight Manor
Sekhmet looks disheartened by that question. It hit her where it hurts. "...No." She sighs, sadly. "I'm sorry. Truly I am. But I can't afford to attract attention to myself. If I were, uh, to wage war against the guild, uh, it wouldn't change anything. Just, uh, make me a target." Then Sekhmet freezes, staring off into space as if listening to something. It lasts several seconds before she seems to return, and her demeanor has changed. She seems more hopeful. "But, uh, it can be done. If we all, uh, take on the problem at its source. If we be better than this horrible place, we can, uh, change it for the better. The guild, uh, feeds on distrust and, uh, division. If no one would sell their neighbor out, there would be no guild. If no one was crushed into poverty, there would be no need to sell each other. If everyone, rich and poor, worked together, cared for each other, there would be no poverty." A very idealistic speech, and not a very practical one. Likely its impact on Bluefoot depends strongly on how much she already believes what's being said.
To the presence, she sends back, Because [love]. [Those I love] are [elsewhere in this world]. The feeling of love bolsters Sekhmet a little.

Ell Hive
The crystal's path is no longer straight. It's slowly descending and falling off course as the magic holding it aloft weakens. But this is all at cost to Lokvah. When it's all said and done, what, if anything, will the marquess be?

Market Street
The fiend steps easily over the lunging blade and barks another monstrous laugh as the darks skitter off its angular, demonic armor without penetrating, leaving dark burn marks in their wake. It takes another deep breath and roars. A stream of molten rock sprays from its mouth towards Pepper, splattering against objects, melting metal, igniting wood.

Hodgepodge Street
The man begins to inhale the slimegirl... And then gasps into consciousness, trying to spit her appendage out so he can breathe. His partly dissolved clothes are the least of his concerns right now. The devil looks on disapprovingly. You should consider my offer. Wouldn't it be useful to have a solid body? Or a voice?
The Hive's hounds prepare for the next emergence... But when it comes, it comes with a shock. There's no magic whatsoever as the limb emerges from the fog and is driven back by another projectile barrage. However this thing moves so quickly, it does through entirely mundane means. Furthermore, all the injuries it had sustained before were gone. It's as if the first successful attack had never happened.

Skyways
"I'm fine." The woman's mind is clearly wracked by psychic turmoil, but not in an active sense. "But I don't want to leave here. It's safe here, safe from that thing, and every other demon that's attacking."

[Shadowcaller]

Xuracorp Tower

Ominous? Nah, it's a huge relief!

Though as she sees Wenomir and Blanche's expressions it's clear that neither of them expected Ilpholin to kill the secretary lady. Apparently, neither of them knew as much about Ilpholin as she'd thought.
She had expected Wenomir to figure it out but she couldn't really blame Blanche as they had never interacted before.

Well, now they knew that for future reference.

But getting back to the others conversation it sounded like Ilpholin had forgotten to mention one option and Anika was more than willing to remind her as she suddenly turns into a huge red falcon. She gestures upwards with one of her wings and then flaps them without actually taking off.

[5a Violista]

[Hodgepodge Street]

Oh, gosh, does that feel weird, having her hand partially in someone's nose and mouth. She's glad that it worked, and moves her hand away from those parts.
The slimegirl still mostly hangs off of him,.to give herself time to regain structure.

Having a solid body? And a voice? Yeah, of course those would be useful. It's every girl's dream to have a solid body and a smokin' voice. But there's no way she's going to trust somebody who just attacked her to give her them. No way, no how. So, mute as she is, she scrunches up her face and just sticks out her tongue again to say 'no thanks, not interested'. (She's really getting a lot of mileage out of that tongue.)

The slimegirl repetitively taps the guy on the cheek again, trying to grab his attention and let him know she's there. Hey! Hey! Listen! You need to get out of here!

[Morty]

[Xuracorp Tower]

Wenomir curses himself inwardly for not expecting Ilpholin to kill the demon the first chance she had. He thought she might at least wait a little... no matter. Sapphira is counting on them to be divided and they can't afford that. She can also hear everything they're saying, so...

Silently, the warrior points at himself and Ilpholin, then the stairs. He then points at Blanche and Anika, then points to the door and upwards with his thumb. It's hopefully going to be cleared up with a quick text message to Blanche on her communicator.

Try flying up with Anika; cover us.

[Terumitsu]

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?

Mountain Temple

We've not been on the reviving end of our own artistry but this is nearly rote at this point. And yes it's cooler now but only to conserve energy a bit. We're still a 'warm thing' as giving that up would just be awful. Besides, we're far more clever than to just slap things together like some brutish Frankenstein. This is holistic and bespoke work! Besides, it was always really stupid that someone decided that lizards can't run and breath at the same time and that clearly wouldn't work here.

Also, dirt? Really? It's not harmful at all. Hmm.. Well just a moment and... There. Unless there's some real, vigorous rolling around, we shouldn't fear any accrual of detritus. It'll all slide away like a smooth shedding. Good idea, actually. It would indeed be a shame to let these scales tarnish. If anything, that little change made them gleam even more! Speaking of changes.. We may be cooler at the moment, yes, but we're so much more efficient now! Maay need a bit more water but that's nothing in the long view. Speaking of water.. Well, no, we can do that in a moment. Why not try climbing the tree here? Just don't think about it too hard and it should be fine. Millipede's dilemma and all.

[Deathkeeper]

Mountain Temple

Alright. Moving over to that tree. A little slither, a shake of the hips...why do they have to do that while slithering? He isn’t sure if it’s entirely necessary but he doesn’t know any other way.
Okay. Tree. Climb. He...knows how to do this. He’s never climbed much of anything before but there we go. Arty curls up all their coils, running a hand over them. They are pretty wide. Obviously. They have to be as wide as his waist. It feels strange and yet it’s the only thing he can really imagine his self being. They could hunt something huge with all these. Not that he intends on swallowing anything huge. He refuses to be given unhinging snake jaws.

So. Tree. Coil. Raise. Coil. Not so hard.
So while he’s not going to say no to being glamorous if they really must be a snake (he’s not sure why they had to be something scaly) is that really what they want? Everyone staring at their hindquarters whenever they meet anyone? He thinks that he’s at least a little handsome after all that work he’s done to be fit, but he doesn’t think anything could match this shimmery, bejeweled serpent that she’s made them into.
Which is NOT suggesting she start tinkering around by the way. Like he said, he does not want snake jaws! Or anything else!
Wait, shedding? Do they do that?

[Arkhosia]

Xuracorp Tower

Blanche seems like she's about to respond to Ilpholin when Anika suddenly transforms, and she raises an eyebrow in surprise. She's not entirely caught onto what Anika's thinking until Wenomir clarifies with direction. She nods, moving back over to Anika and clambering on.

[Earl of Purple]

Skyside- Shivernight Manor

Bluefoot laughs at Sekhmet's excuse. "There's already a target on your back, missy. If there weren't, nobody'd have given me instructions on how to force you to appear as... deliciously clad as you are. And as soon as you can convince the rich that they're rich enough and should spread that wealth until everyone is as wealthy as they are is the day I'll put my own voice in a bottle and smash it to pieces. I won't bother to waste the time preparing one ready for such an occurrence." The humour in her voice dies rapidly as she speaks. "Destroy poverty and the rich will find new ways to grind everyone else into the dirt, because that's what the rich do. I'm rich, now, and I do it too. It's easier than helping people. Soup kitchens for those that don't work would be seen as weak, and I am not yet rich enough to be able to get away with seeming weak. Those richer than I would pounce, to add my wealth to their own, and I'd be back in a cage, with no clothes. I quite like cages, but not from the inside. I won't be a slave again, and if that means putting you, him, or Applegiggle into chains, I'll do it gladly." She gestures at one of the cultists with 'him', but Applegiggle is left unexplained.

Inside- PCC

Prumathe smashes out of the cubicle and heads to the door. The words- such as he's able to interpret of them- run through his mind. Prumathe, Skyside, captured, Mother, ultimatum, quickly. So he needs to get to Skyside quickly, to rescue her. But that's going to be very tricky, he has no way of getting there in time and doesn't know where in the city she would even be. So he turns towards Xuracorp Tower, and runs towards that structure. He's starting quite a way away, and on foot. He's also not boosting his stamina or speed too much, since he wants to be able to do stuff when he gets there. He could probably be stopped, if a devil notices him.

[Rebonack]

[ICONQUEST]

From the outside the shrine looks quite fancy, an otherworldly edifice gleaming and brilliant. The door opens inward smoothly and effortlessly, but as soon as our heroes step inside it becomes instantly and deeply obvious that this place is somehow even weirder than the garden it's sitting in the middle of. For one? It looks way less alien. Everything is fashioned of amber colored, frosted glass interspersed with black to create pleasing geometric forms that draw the eye. Pillars line the edges of the cathedral, capped with gold at either end. Between each pillar hangs a heavy green curtain that shimmers and glistens in the flickering firelight. Firelight cast by statues that stand before each pillar.

An angel with six wings draped in a tunic and robe carved from living, polished wood. A cowl hangs heavily over the face of the statues, obscuring her features. Each has six wings spread wide, two at the hips, two at the shoulders, and two emerging from slots in the cowl where ears might be. Four human arms are extended in various poses, each hand holding something different. A glass star, fire burning within, the source of the chamber's light. A sword, its tip pointed toward her breast, as though she were offering the weapon to the onlooker. A compass (the drawing sort, not the magnetic sort), held delicately between three fingers raised in a sign of blessing. A scribe's inkhorn with a quill sticking out of it, a pinion vibrant in color.

At the back of the shrine, far further back than should be possible given how large it looked from the outside, stands a set of massive oak double doors.

It looks like a temple, surely.

But there's no altar. No pulpit. No pews-

-and not worshipers.

Each time our heroes step on one of the glass panes a single, crystalline note plays, filling the chamber with a tune as soothing as it is otherworldly.

The music fills Hector with hope.

But for the fae?

It's a thing of dread.

Lambslaural has her arms pulled tight around herself, looking vaguely ill just being in here. Dandelion seems tense, her grip tight on the spear. Snapdragon seems strained, as if she's trying to keep up a positive demeanor but she's having trouble pulling it off. "Oof. This place is creepy."


[Market Street]

Rather than glancing off the darts instead splat as if they were made of sand rather than metal, followed by an awful grating sound like ten thousand tiny teeth rasping against devil's armor. The silver clouds will keep up their barrage until they run out of mass, trying to aim for what appear to be weak points in the devil's armor.

As for Pepper?

She sprints off down one of the side-streets as soon as she sees the devil winding up for a breath attack. She's fought against (and with!) enough dragons to recognize when it's time to move! A few spatters land on her, followed by little silver PUFF!s as her armor ablates, blasting the offending substance off her and leaving little pockmarks behind.

Hmm...

This foe is tricky!

That just means that JUSTICE will have to be CLEVER!


[The Skyway]

~Maybe for now, but it's reach is steadily penetrating deeper into the building,~ Geneva warns as she casts her gaze around for anyone else nearby. ~I can protect myself and others near me, but I'm going to need your help to gather up the people in the building. I can't do it alone.~

Technically she could use Substitute to divide herself and cover more ground. That's definitely an option! But dividing her focus might be hazardous against such a potent psychic enemy.

~Once we've gathered everyone I can teleport us all clear. But we need to make sure we've gathered EVERYONE.~

Another sub-vocalized command is sent to her wrist computer and a text message should pop up on Sekhmet's phone.

Geneva: Sekhmet are you alright? There are devils all over the city.

[Reinholdt]

[Xuracorp Tower]

If Anika mentioned she could do that, Ilpholin did indeed forget. She hasn't seen Anika turn into a flying creature before. But it makes sense. She's ridden Anika on land and in the sea, so the air is a logical next step.

Ilpholin blinks a little at Wenomir. "She's going to see us coming either way. Wait until she's distracted with my fist in her face to get fancy," Ilpholin suggests. Regardless, she starts heading towards the stairs. "Still, if we happen across a security room on the way up I might be able to cut off some of her intelligence. Depends on if she's using those or not." Ilpholin jerks her head slightly towards a standard office camera.

The nymph slowly pushes open the stairwell door and peers inside to check if it's clear and how wide the stairs are. If they're wide enough, Wenomir and Ilpholin can head up them without staggering one behind another.

[Recaiden]

[Shivernight Manor]

[Love]
Sekhmet can tell that she has given a great answer!
So [plainly said]. I am coming.

[Hodgepodge Street]

Or perhaps there's more than one of these things. No reason each demon should be unique.
The experimental archer makes it up to the group; perhaps its silver-inlaid spines will leave lasting wounds on the monster?
The hivelings make a slow movement towards a building, then on towards an alley. Limiting the angles this thing can approach from might help pin down how it's doing this.
Or maybe they'll be trapped there. But probably not; this giant demon may not be wounded, but it clearly still hurts.

[Ell Hive]

That will have to be enough.
Let the crystal fall off-course (and probably leave an impressive crater of sliced-up rock), Lokvah is past being able to drain it, and her mantis speeds on towards the hive. They need to bring her to the snow, the pool, the weavers.

But it seems she will survive. There's no Prumathe to help, but they're closer to the hive, better prepared, and have the benefit of Sekhmet's discoveries and Harley's experiments.
Lokvah is of a kind with Sekhmet and Sapphira - she grows taller, develops the new heat-managing organ system that Sekhmet demonstrated, and her proportions grow closer to that ideal succubus that Sapphira appears as. Her horns are constantly wreathed in fire as a marker of that fiendish nature.
Lokvah is more a creature of the hive than the original marquess was - she has begun to expresses more features of other sorts of hive creatures. Her chitinous armor has spread further, her legs end in flanged points like a strider's, when she smiles wide enough you see a tinker's mouthparts.
And there are some changes that happen to Lokvah because of who she personally is: she leads the mantises, she believes in the hive's way, and she tends towards self-sacrifice - she's sprouted a third pair of wings, her tail is shorter and thick like a mantis's tail rather than a stinging spade, and there are some further internal changes to aid in recovery.

So, a mantis-succubus - stronger, lovelier, and more alien than before.

[bc56]

Xuracorp Tower
The stairs are wide enough for two people side by side, as long as you don't care about anyone coming the other way. As Wenomir and Ilpholin ascend, the temperature slowly rises to a sweltering heat. By the time they finally reach the 40th floor, no one would blame them for being exhausted. They just climbed 40 flights of stairs, after all.
Blanche and Anika, outside the building, have things much easier. Above the 40th floor is where the dark, fiendish castle begins, with no windows or openings of any kind. Perhaps far below, they spot a lone person running towards the base of the tower.
Prumathe can reach the tower without incident. When he arrives, a familiar voice touches his mind. Well, if it isn't my daughter's... Husband, Sapphira sends with obvious distaste. You have no hope of defeating me. But by all means, come on up, and we can have a nice little chat, mother-in-law to son-in-law. At around the same time, Sekhmet's phone makes a musical chiming sound. Seems she got a text message, but she's not here to pick it up.

Shivernight Manor
Sekhmet shakes her head sadly. Clearly this cultist is too set in her despicable views. "You can go now. This conversation is over." There's an air of command to her words, although nothing supernatural. She needs to start looking for a way to escape. Bending down, Sekhmet begins examining the floor, trying to see if there are weak points in the circle. She can't damage the circle directly, but maybe she can break out of it a different way. She sends to the mystery presence, Thank you. Please hurry.

Ell Hive
With its fiendish power mostly stored in Lokvah, the crystal drops off and crashes. Moments later, it explodes in a burst of darkness. The rock around where it landed is simply gone, as if scooped out by a colossal hand. As for Lokvah, she's something new now. But not completely new. Sekhmet might be able to teach her to wield her new powers effectively, or the Hive might have stolen that knowledge from her already.

Market Street
The huge fiend comes barreling after Pepper, chunks of its own armor fragmenting off to dislodge the silver slime eating at it. It doesn't follow her into the side street. Instead, it tries to cut her off, by smashing through the buildings like a juggernaut, spraying rubble throughout the street and stepping forth unharmed ahead of the fleeing Gaiad, a massive chunk of concrete and rebar in hand as a new makeshift weapon.

Hodgepodge Street
Pity. The cane slices swordlike at the slimegirl's neck. We could have both left this engagement a good deal richer. But no matter. A second swipe aims to separate one of her arms from her shoulder. If you wish to die, so be it.
Meanwhile, the Hivelings, during their retreat, are swiped at again. This time, the limb seems to already have the injuries they inflicted, adding credence to the "more than one of them" theory. In the alley, they have a brief respite. Perhaps the creature isn't willing or able to follow them into such an enclosed space.

Skyways
"I don't want to go back out there! I can get the people in this area, I guess. HEY! GET OVER HERE! THIS, um, PINK THING HAS A PLAN TO GET US OUT OF HERE!" A few curious people wander over, but most are still trying to pile into the elevator.


Iconquest
Jade shivers. No offense to Zee, but her true shape is really creepy. "Guess we go through those doors." The doors are the most normal-seeming part of this place. Jade rushes towards them, not wanting to hear the creepy music more than necessary.

[5a Violista]

[Hodgepodge Street]

If the sword goes through more than three-quarters of her neck, her head falls off and hits the ground with a splat, near the pool of quasi-liquid at her feet.
It doesn't stop her.

Likewise, the same happens with her arm, which starts to dissolve back into the rest of her.
With only one arm left, she slumps down farther on the guy, using him more and more as support.

But why isn't the guy running yet? she wants to scream.

With her remaining arm, the slimegirl tries to shake him as much as possible. Hurry up! If you stay here, you're just going to go back into whatever trance you were in before! The slimegirl thinks she won't be able to stick around and help for much longer!

[Shadowcaller]

Xuracorp Tower

Blanche seems to have misunderstood Anika's intentions, but so has Wenomir. Go up the building? She had wanted to head down first. But whatever, let's do what the stupid demon said.

As for Blanche, the falcon will move away from her the moment she attempts to sit down on it. Instead, it will gesture towards the door outside and then start to walk towards it. If Blanche follows they will soon be outside where Anika starts to take off. But as soon as she's in the air she will swoop down and attempt to grab Blanche by the arms with her talons and start to lift her into the air.

To the skies!

[Recaiden]

[Shivernight Manor]

They are hurrying, since they heard Sekhmet's answer.
Perhaps she can faintly sense this, feel the hollow mantises sweeping down through the city to triangulate her location.
But it will take time.

[Hodgepodge Street]

They have a defensible position, but how long before the colossal demon decides to just rip up the buildings they're sheltering near?
One hound scampers out of the alley, bait to keep the demon interested and draw it into the line of fire.

And one of the stalkers, noticeable only as a faint swirling of the mist, happens to head towards the slimegirl and the tempter devil with the cane, trying to find the source of some odd sounds.

[Xuracorp Tower]

While the combatants and scavengers rushed from the red zone into Hodgepodge, a select group had been taking the longer route up through the County of Art and over to the diabolical fortress that Xuracorp Tower has become, hidden during their journey by supernatural powers.

• Haru, now a stalker-devil, expert in stealth and illusion
• Goldie, an ordinary hound
• Kiun, a marquess who has an angelic weapon but is presumed to be useless otherwise.
• Sylvette, with incredible powers of perception and the most actual experience.

Their mission is simple: reach Sapphira and throw the weapon at her.
Delivering a dramatic speech is optional (but recommended).

[Morty]

[Xuracorp Tower]

Wenomir grits his teeth and bears the climb and the heat without complaint. If there's one thing he's good at, it's running. Granted, it's also rather frustrating when it dawns on him his plan accomplished nothing and they might have been better off just using the elevator. Hopefully Anika and Blanche's approach from the sky does something at least.

[Deathkeeper]

Iconquest

Heather follows after Hector, flexing the string on her bow. Hector finds himself smiling but he can't keep it up with his noticeably unbouncy sister and Jade going off and being reckless.
"I shouldn't have to remind you that this place is basically the opposite of a Weald. You shouldn't go running around touching things!" Hector calls after Jade as she rushes through the central room. He scampers after her with Heather on his heels. They really should be taking this more slow.

[Arkhosia]

Xuracorp Tower

Blanche pauses as Anika pulls away from her, still not entirely sure on what the plan is even as the druid lifts off the ground with a few powerful beats of her wings. Only when Anika reaches down with those grasping talons do her eyes widen in shock as she finally catches on. "Oh gods, you're kidding."

But even with her obvious reticence, Anika shouldn't have any trouble hauling the sniper up into the sky. Not that that stops her from clutching at her ankles, trying to pull herself closer as her feet dangle in the air. "Y-you're owing me big time after thiiiiis!"

[Reinholdt]

[Xuracorp Tower - 40th Floor]

Were it any pair of characters other than two of the fittest, most battle-ready the Nexus has to offer, this climb would be very different. But even if the physical endurance and heat didn't cause it, Wenomir's morale seems to have taken a hit. Ilpholin's been friends with him a long enough time to tell the slight differences in grump that he exudes. "Hey don't worry about it. I've been to orgies hotter than this." She winks at the swordsman.

"And definitely don't let an anti-climax get you down. Our goal is to kill her, not thwart her at every turn." For now, Ilpholin focuses on the environment around her. Are there stairs that lead further up? A door to a lavish and elaborate metaphorical arena? A telephone with instructions on how to proceed with a sadistic and cruel game?

If there's a nearby window, the nymph's hand will shift to a hammer and move to smash it. Give Anika and Blanche room to get back inside if they need to without having to smash through it themselves.

[Recaiden]

[County of Art]

"Not as exciting as people," is Redcurrant's opinion.

She keeps pace with Ein, even as they slow. "There are ways back. So, people cross over on occasion."

Redcurrant considers what Ein says. She wants to go there and see what the rest of this group are like. They are interesting. But it sounds like, while they would like her to be there, Ein would not....and she thinks it would probably be a good idea to go along with and encourage Ein's independent thinking and ideas. Even if it really isn't independent thinking and more just 'has personal experience with being in Redcurrant/Cearta's presence'. Actually experiencing her is fundamentally different than hearing about her, in her humble opinion.

Considering her options and what's for the best, she could just escape, but that sounds...boring. It'd shut off a lot of possibilities and future conflict, just for meaningless present conflict. So, instead..."Tell you what." Instead of just going slowly, she stops. "You heard of Brimstone Park, yes? It's not too far from here." Relatively close. Still in the same city. "There are plenty of succubus-nymphs there. If you want to study someone who can manipulate plants, find one - or more - there and you could study those parts directly," without having to worry about studying one that has been 'tainted' by a foxmask. "And others that can manipulate rock or fire or water, too, instead of just plants." Plus, the other succubus-dryads have different trees that they can manipulate, so maybe they can figure out what causes one to be better at, say, an oak vs a maple vs obsidian vs granite.

"You said there were even people there. So it must be exciting for both reasons." Ein argues. "The exciting thing about people is what they can do, that normal creatures can't. And you can see more of it in harder situations, right? Compared to here where there's so many people and things are easy for them." As long as it's not too hard for them.

They go on one step past Redcurrant/Cearta and then stop as well, turning back.
"Where those awful Buttercups were? Yes. Haven't been by in a long time, though. Other parts of the city seemed more important. You're from there?" Or is it just where some unlucky other succubus-nymphs are?
"We could go there. But then, what to do...with you?"

[Earl of Purple]

Xuracorp Tower- Outside, Prumathe

Prumathe grabbed Sekhmet's bag, and stuffed her clothes inside. He'll stop outside and try to find a way in that ideally doesn't look like Sapphira knows about it- a service entrance, or if it has a neighbouring multi-storey car park he'll probably check that, see if there's a way inside from there. But first, he pulls out Sekhmet's phone and reads the text. It's not something he'd usually do, but he's halfway expecting a message from Sapphira either taunting him or giving him clues he could use. As is, this is better. He'll send a quick reply.

Sekhmet's gone Sapphira has her. This Prumathe. Sekhmet's in Skyside I'm at Xuracorp outside. Can you get to Skyside quick to find her?

Picking him up en route is less important than getting to Skyside, as far as Prumathe's concerned. If picking him up would slow Geneva down it's not worth doing.

Shivernight Manor

"Oh, of course, I'll just go." Bluefoot turns, before turning back. "You don't get to tell me anything, Missy. You're stuck in that circle, and this is my manor." Bluefoot walks around the circle when Sekhmet bends over, giving a whistle when she's behind the fiendling. "Nice bum. I like the tail. You hoping to find a way out? You won't. Not before my Mistress gets here." Bluefoot's less confident than she sounds, however. She's never had to draw a ritual circle before, and it's possible that there's flaws that Sekhmet can find and exploit. She did her best, it's a question of if her best was good enough.

Xuracorp Tower- Hiveling Assault

Sylvette was human, once. Now, she has a long and delicate pair of feathery antennae, a metallic green chitinous carapace, four arms, two ending in seven tactile, boneless tentacles, the lower pair ending in small and barely-functional hands with obsidian claws. A pair of insectoid mandibles are in her face, partly hidden behind her cheeks. She's boosting her sensory prowess by metabolising tin, using the metal to fuel a type of internal magic that boosts her senses. All of her senses- sight, hearing, smell, touch, even taste- as well as the advanced sense of air-vibrations provided by her antennae, giving her a far better idea of where people are in relation to her own position.

There is a specific way to detect Sylvette's magic, those with the ability to metabolise bronze, but it is blocked by metabolising copper and so may be hidden by the supernatural powers disguising them. And also it might simply have gone totally undetected even if it wasn't hidden, as it's such a specific way of detecting her power.

[5a Violista]

[County of Art]

Not as many people there, though. People are exciting, so more people are more exciting. "The possible interesting situations with more people increase exponentially," is Redcurrant's opinion.

Anyway.
So.
"Yeah. So, apparently, one of those Buttercups got enslaved by a demon lord, then broke free and mutated, and discovered that she could turn other demons and damned souls into more like her, except not quite as strong. So now the whole area is filled with all different kinds of succubus-nymphs like me, except without..." She flicks her own fox ears to show what she's talking about instead of saying it.

What to do with her, though? is a question that is probably important.
Redcurrant shrugs.
"First you study them or whatever else you wanted to do. I also have a connection to that place, so after you've found out all the basics or whatnot, and if you're still interested in seeing how I'm different, it'll be easy to find me around there on occasion." is her suggestion.

[Rebonack]

[Iconquest]

So! Doors.

Engraved into the massive oak doors are more images of that four-armed angel. One one side she appears to be standing benevolently above adoring worshipers. On the other she's driving nightmarish looking things into a body of water. Chasing fae back into the Dreamheart, maybe? Definitely not very encouraging to our fae friends here. Though... that water imagery... those monsters. It could be that they're supposed to be jabberwocky. Our fae friends haven't encountered those avatars of dreamless sleep yet, but they come with a baked in understanding that they're really bad.

Also engraved into the door? Words.

Before you stands both adversity and glory. Do not flee from adversity; for in its crucible the Blade of Self is tempered.

As our heroes progress through the hallway the 'torches' held by the statues brighten, casting the chamber in brilliant illumination and sharp shadows. Hector will likely notice that his fae comrades look... thin...? in this light. Not thin like skinny. Thin like stew with too much water in it. Like there isn't much there.

To either side of the huge double doors are a pair of hallways blocked by heavy curtains. From one comes a heavy scent of spicy incense. From the other a low, crystalline ringing. What shall our heroes do?

The Plum Sisters are definitely uncomfortable.

"It's p-pretty, but I wish it didn't feel so gross," Lambslaural mutters, hugging her arms around herself.
"The musical floor is pretty neat. I bet we'll be able to appreciate it a bit more once we're back to normal," Snap says, looking up at the huge door.
"Keep your heads, dudes. Anything here might be dangerous," Dandelion warns.


[The Skyway]

Yes.

The pink thing has a plan.

Geneva looks like a pink floating cat.

Sort of?

Definitely cat-like. Though strictly speaking she's white with a slight iridescent pink sheen. But that psychic barrier around her is definitely pink so close enough.

~I have a plan, yes. I have a teleportation anchor attuned to the skybase of VIGIL. My understanding is that this attack is currently only focused on the city of Inside. I can take everyone here to VIGIL, where you can wait out the crises while VIGIL and Intersection deal with the threat. The method is safe; much safer than staying here.~

Then?

There's a little chime in Geneva's mind as her PipGear alerts her to a reply.

...

oh no...

A quick reply is returned.

I have some civilians I'm gathering up. I'll offload them at VIGIL then head to Skyside. Stay safe.

~Alright everyone please make your decision quickly. We don't have much time.~

[bc56]

Xuracorp Tower
40th floor
A window is easily smashed open to allow Blanche and Anika into the building if they so desire. Inside, there's a large, spiral staircase of black stone leading up into the dark fortress. Bleak torches of dead wood and bone line the stairs, all unlit. Thin wisps of yellow fog drift down from the top of the stairs. It seems to be the only one further up from here.
Airspace
The pair fly further up to the top of the fiendish fortress. It's a bleak edifice of volcanic rock, devoid of doors and windows. There's a round platform at the very top, about the size of a helipad, where something could land, but there doesn't appear to be a way inside from there. But appearances can be deceiving.
Ground
The hivelings' approach seems to be undetected, or maybe Sapphira just doesn't have anything to say to them. They might spot Prumathe headed around the building to the car park. They could ignore him, but he might be a useful ally too. That's up to them.
There is a car park Prumathe can use to enter the building, not nearly as tall as the building itself, but it should provide a way in that is probably not so closely watched. He's much less likely to spot the hidden hivelings than they are him.

Shivernight Manor
At Bluefoot's comment, Sekhmet has a thought which sickens her. But she's desperate. "Really? Want a closer look?" she teases, trying to posture herself tantalizingly. But despite her heritage, she's not great at succubus-like temptation. Maybe Bluefoot can tell that Sekhmet's heart isn't really in it. And Sekhmet herself feels icky all over just thinking about what she's doing. She thinks a whispered, Sorry Prumathe. But desperate times call for desperate measures.

Skyway
There's a murmur through the assembled people. "Beats taking our chances with the demons." "But can we trust her?" "No choice." The discussion draws more people away from the elevator. "Just do it quickly, before that thing gets in here!"

Hodgepodge Street
Finally the man seems to come aware of his situation. He scrambles away from the devil, stepping through the slimegirl in the process. You sadden me. The fiend steps away from the dismembered slime, raising his cane again...
And plunging it through the heart of one of the other people he has entranced. She collapses, blood pooling around her. You forced my hand.
When the lone hound exits the alleyway, it prompts a quick response from the monster, which is again repelled by the counterattack. This approach might be holding it off, but it doesn't seem to be making any progress against it. Unless they can figure out where it's coming from and stop it, it will probably just keep attacking them indefinitely.

iConquest
Jade's sensitive nose says not to go to the incense path. "It's okay, we can make it." She tries to give the worried Lambslaural a brief hug before heading to the musical hallway. "I don't like the smell of the other one. I think we should go this way."

[Deathkeeper]

Iconquest

Hector's nose twitches under his illusion.
"I'm pretty sure you girls are metaphysically forced to hate everything in here. But I don't really have a preference so whatever works." Actually incense reminds him of fancy, luxurious things. Which he'd probably like more than spooky crystals. But then again everything here is going to try to kill them given the description.
So they head to the ringing path. Hector has his knife ready to draw.

[Shadowcaller]

Xuracorp Tower

Aha! That's the final fight platform! Anika had fought enough demons to recognize them on sight as demons always seemed to have them around. Unless Blanche protests she's going to circle around it once to see if she could spot any defenses or forcefields before attempting to land.

[Morty]

[Xuracorp Tower]

"My mistake for not going to more of those," Wenomir quips back, his spirits lifted somewhat. Ilpholin's right, this ordeal is meant to frustrate them and they must not let it happen. "I'm sure we'll feel refreshed once she's in a few more pieces than she used to be," he adds as he keeps climbing.

[5a Violista]

[Hodgepodge Street]

Ugh!
The slimegirl was just going to help one person and leave, but now look at this situation! This mist-person just tipped his hand and revealed that he's going to kill everybody here! Previously, the slimegirl was hoping that's not what was actually going to happen and that someone else would deal with all this poisonous mist some other way, but if he's going to just kill everybody anyway, there's no way she can leave!

(...getting stepped through is a really weird feeling, but...well, it's not the first time that it's happened to her. She just has to try to pull herself together after that.)

The slimegirl starts to reconstitute, as she goes towards the quickly-dying woman. She climbs over the woman, and then sticks her hand at the wound, trying to block the bleeding. . .

Obviously, it doesn't work. Just gets some blood inside her. Is there anything she can do? she wonders.
With the blood in her, she reconstitutes a little faster, but it's not significantly faster.