Serious Plots 9: Srsr and srsr

[Deathkeeper]

Orobou Office

Well, it sounds like there is quite a bit she has to know, but almost none of it she has to know now.
"Ah, well. I don't really have any agents. So I suppose I will be in contact and you can explain all of this to me as time goes on. It sounds like there's not much you need me to do until this body dies, so...I suppose there's not much? If there's no one in the Nexus I need to speak to and no duties I guess it's essentially a vacation." Is that really it? She knows they're giving her time to get used to things but this all seems very relaxed for celestial bureaucracy.
"Um. Are there any fey from our associate Courts around?" There are other courts, obviously. Otherwise they wouldn't have a word for it and it would just be Fey.

Waste Land

Krayger nods and follows Reina. Gosh, nobles and their posing. It might even work in this case but it still manages to come off as pretentious. Krayger doesn't question why Felix decided to hide himself from "high" society once his public career was over.

Iconquest

"Nope, looks the same to me." Heather says. "Mhm. Same." adds her brother.
They continue on mostly un-phased by the grand cathedral-esque area they find themselves in.
Hector carefully eyes the person at the altar. A guardian or just a cultist?
"Hello? he calls as he walks down the aisle of pews.

[5a Violista]

Dark Cave

The slimegirl follows the stream, squeezing when she has to squeeze.

She gets to the pond.
Because it's fresh water, it's probably best if she doesn't spend too much time in the water, so that she doesn't take in too much and start to swell and dilute and whatever else could happen.

Still, the slimegirl goes into the pond. With her good sense of touch, she can 'see' around the water pretty easily, by feeling vibrations and movement.

The best way to find out if something is a plant or an animal or a person, she thinks, is by observing it. Seeing if it acts like a person or an animal, and if there's doubt...just don't eat it.
She waits in the water, like an ambush predator, to catch a fish (if she determines it's not a person).

Okay, that's enough. If she stays in here much longer, it's going to be hard to keep her shape or move around after leaving the water. After leaving the pond, she feels around the edges, trying to find what feels like a way out.


[Mirror of Art]

The preteen answers to the best of her ability.

The dragon god sleeps and is eternal, obviously, so he doesn't really do much in the moment-to-moment. Only wakes every...well, a long time. Only when there's something that threatens all dragonkind. So while he's the creator and god, if you need divine assistance then he's not the one to turn to. Meanwhile, the foxmasklady is in the moment so...y'know, she tries to explain. An interloper. That kind of stuff.

[Recaiden]

[Slime Cave]

It doesn't seem like these fish are people. They're probably fine to eat.

As for ways out, she could stay in the water, and squeeze even smaller to fit into the underwater cracks in the stone. Or, it feels like there's an opening that way, where the vibrations open up. There's something else that way, moving the air very slightly.

[Mirror of Art]

"Okay, but what do you need divine assistance for here?" Ein demands. The rest of it, it almost makes sense.
And they're not planning on threatening all dragonkind so probably that will never come up.

[bc56]

Iconquest

"Definitely as gross as the last one." Jade affirms. She sees the cultist. She has a little more experience with what exposure to the Empyrean does to people. She readies her devices to restrain the stranger as soon as he makes any hostile move, which she fully expects. At the bare minimum, he's crazy.

[Shadowcaller]

Orobou Office

"It could be considered a vaccation, yes. We do have those, though it's rare to see them used within the physical realm. That said, keep in mind that your position is unique within the court as the only one of us manifested within the nexus. Therefore, you might be called upon to do tasks which no one else is able to perform. Though with your lack of experience I urge you to try to decline all such propositions. They might be dangerous, demanding of your time or simply tedious." Vez explains, his eyes glancing down at his notes as he pauses for a moment.

"As for your question... what do you remember of the other courts? I might need to fill you in there too." He looks back up at her while his arms starts filtering through the papers as if looking for something.

[Deathkeeper]

Orobou Office

"Well, I don't mind helping the Court if I'm in a position to...but I understand where you're coming from. If I'm going to spend this body's life in the Nexus I'm going to need a normal mortal job to take care of the necessities. My time won't be as free as 'vacation' makes it sound." Thinking about the absolute guarantee of having a position after her death is not something her mind is properly wrapping itself around and she's fine with that right now.
"I don't know much about the other courts. I think my predecessor didn't deal with them much directly." She has vague memories of knowing some members of their court but no such ghost of a memory for any others.

[5a Violista]

Slime Cave

Squeezing farther into cracks in the water seems like a decent way out. After all, water, just like crabs, are evidence that there's another way out.

However, it might take a while. And she doesn't want to stay in the fresh water for too long, especially because she likes staying solid-ish.

With the quickly-dissolving fish inside her, she leaves the water and heads towards the air vibrations.
Air vibrations usually means a way out, after all.


Mirror of Art

The preteen shrugs.

"I don't know," she says.

After thinking about it some more, she says, "You probably don't need it here, I guess."

[Shadowcaller]

Orobou Office

"Well, I don't mind helping the Court if I'm in a position to...but I understand where you're coming from. If I'm going to spend this body's life in the Nexus I'm going to need a normal mortal job to take care of the necessities. My time won't be as free as 'vacation' makes it sound." Thinking about the absolute guarantee of having a position after her death is not something her mind is properly wrapping itself around and she's fine with that right now.
"I don't know much about the other courts. I think my predecessor didn't deal with them much directly." She has vague memories of knowing some members of their court but no such ghost of a memory for any others.

Orobou Office

"Physical bodies do need to be sustained, though that's more of... well, seeing you need a reminder this would be a good segue into the court that handles our connection to the physical realm then." Vez clears his throat.

"While the Orobou of course guard the line between the earth and the heavens those that allow us to walk its surface aren't us. That would be the 'court' of the vettir. Crafters and creators of all things, such as the body you're currently using. While your essence shapes the vessel its the vettir that crafted it in the first place." Vez explains while two of his tails gestures at her.

"They're represented by, ah, the hairy ones. Mammals I believe is a term that mostly covers them." One of his tails seems to gesture vaguely at her chest. "They aren't really a court as we are however. More of a collection of diverse groups that specialize into various interests and aesthetics. This diversity makes them difficult to properly summarize as that would require me to go into each specific group of which there are many. But for simplicity's sake I will say that the expert I offered to have a look at your body belongs to this court. We can easily cooperate with certain elements of it while others... not so much." Vez's tails make a shrugging motion.

"Do you have any questions so far?"

[Deathkeeper]

Orobou Office

Artie finds something oddly comforting about the being before her, likely knowing more cosmic truths than she would have ever glimpses as a mortal having to search to remember the word “mammal.”
”Well, as a native to a world distant even from the nexus I don’t think they made this particular body. But I see your point.” She’ll never have another one like this. That’s another strange but melancholy thought. She wonders what their intended replacement for her was. Do they have lizardfolk from their native plane? Or would they have used a human?
”I guess their nature does explain why I felt a bit disconnected between my role and my old body.” See, that does mean that their Court simply is reptiles. That’s exactly what she was trying to ask!
”So are there many of them in the Nexus?” Or is it another thing she’ll only have to worry about in a century?

[Recaiden]

[Slime Cave]

Getting closer to them, the air vibrations sound like they're coming from voices and footsteps. Quiet, but getting closer.
So if there's people, they must have come from somewhere. Which means a way out! Right?

[Mirror of Art]

"Everyone came here because of her, right? So that's divine intervention already."
Ein reasons.

"Say, shouldn't we go out into the actual wilderness to demonstrate some of this wilderness survival priestess training?"
The dragon-kid, they think, might appreciate that. Better than sitting here talking, right?

[5a Violista]

Slime Cave

Yes!
She knew that if she went towards those crabs, she'd find a way out.

A little excited now that she realized what's causing the air vibrations, Gabrielle goes towards them pretty quickly, following the direction of the air waves.

Oh! But wait, what if they're part of the wedding planners. They might be, because by now that one Sophia might have told everyone that there's a runaway bride who left him waiting at the altar. Or...pond. whatever, it was an unconventional wedding, they didn't even give her a dress. Another reason to skip out on it.

The slimegirl slows down, so that she had time to hear what they're saying before they're able to see her.


Mirror of Art

"Just because the masks are hers doesn't make it divine intervention," the preteen claims.
"I think."

She blinks.
"Um, yes. It's right here, so might as well." When she was getting trained, she never got actual in-wilderness experience, but since they're already in the wilderness it just makes sense to do practical practice.

She gets up and starts to leave camp. The people still at camp let her go (initially trying to stop her from going off alone) after they realize she won't be alone.
If only Ein were more easily-noticeable.

"Also I'm trying to decide a way to grant you priestesshood without touching you because of your allergies." Being allergic to dragons sounds like it's literally the worst thing ever.

[Rebonack]

[Iconquest]

Our heroes approach the mysterious figure and he jumps up with a start when they speak!

He looks like-!

-a normal guy. Normal save for his left eye, which happens to be pitch black ringed with stellar white. Jade might recognize that particular look.

He also looks a little nervous about all these people who just appeared.

"Oh, hey, welcome to the sanctuary?" he says a bit uncertainly. "I haven't ever had visitors before. Are you here seeking the wisdom of the Saint of Determination?"

"Actually we're just here looking for an icon," Tristan replies, lowering his spear. This guy seems harmless enough, right?

"Then you're wanting to go through the trials? At least, I think that's what's behind the big doors. I've never gone in there myself. I'm... probably took weak. Just getting out here on pilgrimages is hard enough," he admits.

Tristan glances at the others. What's this guy's deal?

[Morty]

[Waste Land]

The land on the other side of the town's walls seems even more empty than the one they'd traversed before reaching it. No insects, no birds, no animals... even the grass seems to stand still. There's a pervading sense of stillness. The land is waiting in a liminal state, for something to happen to decide its fate. No one among the Prince's entourage says anything. The Prince seems disinclined to do so and the elves dare not speak without being spoken to.

The mercenaries will probably feel the storm-bird before they see it. The storm clouds thicken and darken and the air becomes heavy, as if right before the storm. Thunder rolls as a shape forms on the horizon. It is... bird-like, but seemingly made of pitch-black cloud substance, illuminated by flashes of lightning from the inside. Even though it's a fair distance away still, they can see the bird's eyes very clearly. They're patches of white in the roiling blackness of its body and they're shining through with pure madness. It's the raw, unfiltered and directionless fury that's capable of boring through a mountain with sheer tenacity.

When this happens, the party will find themselves on a dirt-road winding itself between two gentle slopes. Atop the slopes is a number of low, thick trees. Which are now absolutely still in anticipation. Before them, should they choose to advance and meet the bird head-on, the terrain drops fairly quickly, until it leads to a deep ravine. It's not clear, from here, what's on the bottom of it.

[Recaiden]

[Slime Cave]

There's two voices. And they're discussing what that weird sound coming from the pond might be.
Did something fall in? Did a monster swim up from deeper? There's no signs that anyone went down this way, right?

They don't seem to be bringing any light with them. It remains utterly black on the underground shore. How are slimegirls at seeing in the dark?

[Mirror of Art]

If Ein were more noticeable, what would the point of them be?
Anyway, they escort the preteen out into the wild with no fear at all. Between them and a dragon, what could cause them any trouble?

"Something that she said to me...it sounded like it was on purpose." It totally counts.

"How would it work if you could touch me safely?" Being allergic to dragons is a lot worse when you are a dragon. For Ein, it almost never comes up.

[Reinholdt]

[Waste Land]

Reina finds the lack of insects distressing. It was always a bad sign. Felt like the madness had swept through here and all the cicadas dueled themselves to death or something. She finds her fur standing on end more than she'd care for. She could always blame the static, dry feeling.

She can't blame anything else for the feeling in her heart as she catches sight of the thunder-bird's eyes. It was yawning, familiar. Far too familiar. Even this close felt nearly overwhelming. The catgirl steeled herself as she continued to approach, like summoned by the incarnation of death. That wasn't who she was anymore. Probably. Maybe. Her grip on her shotgun tightened.

They could try for the cover of the trees but that would likely only result in falling, flaming wood landing on their heads. Going towards the goal through the middle like this is probably the closest thing they could hope for in terms of safety. Perhaps the higher flanking hills will incidentally draw some of its ire. Head on was probably the best approach. "I think if you want to call it your highness, now's the time." She glances to Krayger to see if he concurs.

[bc56]

Iconquest

Jade nudges Tristan aside and whispers,
"He's been infected with her. Don't tell him to much. Especially not about..." Jade mimes fox ears with her hands. "If he knew, he'd probably go mad with rage, and who knows what powers he got from her." Empyrean cultists are weird. This one looks weak and acts non-threatening at least, but under that cloak, he could have all sorts of nonsense. Hopefully Heather's deerbutt doesn't give away the nature of the adventuring party and provoke a fight.

[5a Violista]

[Slime Cave]

She actually needs light to see.
But!
Between the ground and air vibrations, the sound, the feeling of heat, and everything else she can sense, she can still find where they are pretty easily! If she actually knew them, she would consider sneak-hugging them to surprise them.

The slimegirl can't decide whether she should hide from them or go up to them.
Eventually, she decides that being friendly is the best option. If you're friendly, people are friendly back, right?

She really wishes she could talk with them, though.
She goes up towards them and waves. They can probably see even though it's dark, right? That's why they didn't bring a light.
And she keeps on waving, trying to catch their attention. Hey, look this way! I'm saying 'hi' to you! Hi!


[Mirror of Art]

The preteen starts pointing out what kind of wood is good for use in a fire and which isn't, and how to dry it out if you need to. Also, she explains what tools you'll need to start a fire and shows hot to make them, and also several different ways to make the fire, including firebreath but she acknowledges that not everybody can do that and she can't even do that right now without making herself all scaly first. Which presumably Ein can't do, so she doesn't see the point in demonstrating.

"Well, I'm sure if we needed divine intervention then we could probably get it," she says, but figures they don't need it.

And, most importantly, since she is a dragon, the preteen just naturally assumed if you had a dragon allergy, there'd just always be a dragon around since that's always been the case for her.

"Um. Well...normally," she explains, trying to think out which parts of the ritual to become a priestess were important and which weren't. "Normally, the previous priestess painted designs all over me and helped me kill a fox and skinned it and wore its skin. And then some other person did some chanting and then the last priestess used her fingers to make little cuts on my back and face, and then she put the mask on me, and then I was a priestess." Also, she was also here instead of there. "The chanting part is probably unimportant because it was just some random old guy who did it, so I'd have to paint you and hunt with you and making cuts on you is probably bad especially with my fingers because of allergies so maybe we can skip that? But I don't have a mask either and you're already here too so maybe you don't need that part."

[Deathkeeper]

Waste Land

Krayger approaches with Reina, though he keeps his distance. He is the tallest target after all and he would hate for her to get fried with him.
"You just give the word for when you want me to stop because otherwise I'm going to keep shooting." he growls to their patron as he flicks off the safety and raises his longarm to his shoulder.

Iconquest

Heather keeps her distance to the weird guy. Something about him just feels off to her.
"Yeah. Trials and stuff. I think we'll be okay. Probably." Hector nods, since he's capable of looking and talking about this stuff without flinching or looking disgusted.

[Arkhosia]

Throne Room

((I'm going to ask a number of questions about the rooms to BC. But they won't be relevant for this post so...))

Just two windows in this room? Well, as the succubi aren't coming in through the window they just took, giving Anika time to briefly return to her humanoid form to throw up instant and near instant healing spell on herself which will keep healing her for about half a minute.

This will likely cause Blanche to fall flat to the floor though. But no time for rest, Anika was still enacting her 'plan'. "Shoot the first demon-babe that comes through that window!" She shouts while trying to focus on her spellery at the same time.

While she can't gesture and cast her spells at the same time, Blanche probably still gets what window she means.

Throne Room - Offices

Blanche grits her teeth as the duo crash through the fracturing glass, barely even missing a second as Anika shifts back into humanoid form to turn her fall into a tuck and roll. The recovery back to her feet isn't as smooth and effortless as someone like Wenomir might manage, but it gets the job done and soon enough she's in position to cover her girlfriend knelt in a crouch, rifle aimed at the window.

Blanche may have felt hesitation before when the possessed demons first entered the fray, but with Anika's orders its almost as if a switch has been flipped. The instant the first succubus crashes through that window she sucks in a breath and puts a bullet right through her shoulder, aiming to cut through the subclavian artery. She won't have any complaints if she's off by a little - a wound in that area will make trying to use the arm quite a bit painful, and the impact at this caliber there should spin the target off her feet either way. Any additions will find her shifting her sights and opening fire with icy efficiency, aiming for the torso each time.

[bc56]

Vigil Skybase

It doesn't take Sekhmet long to figure out what Geneva means. She gets very agitated. The temperature around her rises noticeably. "We have to help him! She'll... She'll, uh, kill him! Or worse!" Sekhmet's concerns about her clothing have evaporated again. That adventurer hasn't even brought her anything more than this ill-fitting cloak. A tear appears in midair, expanding into a portal to a familiar hellish landscape, Sapphira's marble palace visible in the background. "If we go though here, we can find where she's gone and return right there. Then we can save Prumathe!" Geneva probably couldn't convince Sekhmet not to go except by force, but this is a Bad Idea.

Throne Room
The Answer cuts into Sapphira easily, but she fights against being pinned with unnatural strength. The serrated edge tears a wide, bloody gash through her, nearly bisecting her body as she pulls free, and yet the wound is disappearing before Wenomir's eyes, as flesh flows to replace what was lost.
Her severed arm has disappeared, so Prumathe can strike at her new one. The silver blade leaves a burn mark on Sapphira's skin, one which heals much more slowly than her other wounds, excepting the destroyed eye and its leaking green light, which has not healed at all.
The fiendish queen turns on Wenomir, lunges with her sword... And at the last second, strikes with her stinger tail instead, the barbed point whipping in lighting-quick at the Vigil commander
Haru tears the throat of one of the possessed, causing her to revert, but the others don't listen to her threat. They're weaker fiends than her, and haven't recovered from the blast yet.

Offices
Blanche shoots a succubus. She goes down, her body morphing back to a very dead normal person. Then another, and another, making two slain and one seriously injured.
And then Sapphira triggers a psychic and magical attack on the sniper, even as she's battling with her sword above.
The attack is twofold. Wordlessly, it amplifies feelings of guilt and remorse. Blanche just killed two innocent people and mortally wounded another. They may have been trying to kill her, but they weren't acting of their own free will. They didn't deserve to die here, by her hand.
Second is the magical component. The two corpses shudder and begin to stand, staring at Blanche with vacant expressions that could easily be interpreted as something else, hunger, rage, maybe even a desire for vengeance. They shamble forward towards her puppetlike, arms outstretched.

[Reinholdt]

[Throne Room]

Whether Wenomir gets poked by a woman for a change, Sapphira may have trouble with following up. This is because the moment after, a presence shielded from her psychic clairvoyance falls from above and attempts to introduce the demon queen's jaw to a solid golden fist. The golden form is statuesque in more ways than one, a beautiful nymph with lustrous yellow hair. Ilpholin just leapt from the top of the stairs into battle, choosing an aerial assault as a way to both bypass intermediaries and to keep her approach as silent as possible. She's well trained in the art of stealthy footsteps when necessary, but even she can't expect silence if she charged across the room in her current state.

If you asked Ilpholin, she'd say it was her raw drive to eliminate demons that pushed her. That her pure hate can overcome any demonic trap. The truth is that her electronic nanites work just fine when turned to gold, an element often used in computing. Their job of restoring her to her original, undamaged state could easily continue unabated as they steadily undid the curse. She took her time to make sure she wasn't diving in with only one tenth of her mobility, but as soon as she was able, she entered the fray.

Ilpholin opens her mouth to say something. Unfortunately, nothing comes out. Right. Vocal cords weren't exactly top priority on things to reconnect together. If they were, Sapphira surely would have heard something about getting rocked by a nymph with a heart of gold, or perhaps saying that it was time to start the heavy metal section of the boss music. No one will ever know Ilpholin's witty one-liner. Well at least she can flourish her purple sword as she prepares to wreck Sapphira once and for all.

[Morty]

[Throne Room]

Wenomir's awareness of what's going on around him is impeccable and borders on precognition, but defending yourself against an unexpected attack from the back is never easy. As his sword is raised to intercept Sapphira's feint, he notices the stinger coming his way at the last moment. Unable to dodge or parry, he simply angles himself so that instead of piercing him or cutting him open, the appendage will impale on his armor. Possibly cutting through it, depending on how sharp and durable it is, but not dealing a major wound to him just yet.

Ilpholin's appearance is both a relief and a source of confusion, specifically as to why she's golden. He has no time to speculate on the reason just yet, but if Ilpholin's fist connects, he'll waste little time capitalizing on it - though the hit he just took slows him down for what might be enough precious moments for Sapphira to avoid his blade. Which will try to slice into her sword-arm and cut it off or cripple it.

[Waste Land]

The prince nods, slowly and almost imperceptibly, before raising his arms above it and... he doesn't call out, but in a strange way it feels as though he did. It's not a lack of sound, it's a conspicuous and jarring absence of one. Perhaps something was uttered, but nothing Reina or Krayger can perceive.

Regardless, the effect is immediate. Lightning flashes across the bird's entire body and It dives down, heading for the Prince with a single-minded purpose. For now, its attention seems focused on him and no attacks are directed the mercenaries' way. They might be concerned about the stray lightning shearing off from it, but for now it's too far for that to be a concern. However, the emotional effect they were warned about seem to be already taking hold. Any mistrust or apprehension they feel towards their client might be intensified and pushed to the forefront of their minds. The effect is subtle for now, but persistent.

[Recaiden]

[Throne Room]

Between Haru killing them, Wenomir and Kiun exorcising them, Prumathe pummeling them, and all the ones who flew out the window, there's probably just like, four or five demonic minions left in the room. Which is still too many. But if they're too busy recovering from the blast of angelic magic to listen to Haru, they're almost certainly too out-of-it to notice Haru disappearing behind a veil of illusions again. The first and last thing they'll notice should be a venomous tail stinger stabbing into them.
Prumathe, sword-guy, aim for the wounded eye! Kiun, just, do something useful! We're not done yet.

Kiun does not do something useful.
She finally recovers enough to stop shielding her face with her wings and takes a look around the throne room.
Just in time to see a golden statue of Ilpholin leap into the fray.
That leaves her speechless, just absolutely baffled for a few moments.

[Slime Cave]

There's two figures here, and they're asking each other what is that thing?
Is the water moving on its own? Is it dangerous?
It's a weird blobby shape, right? Shaking a fist at them?
One of them asks "Hello? Who are you?"

[Mirror of Art]

It's true, Ein can't breathe fire at all. Would have to use sparks or friction like any non-dragon. Which is a shame, really.

Ein agrees, actually. In most situations, the less divine intervention is going on, the better things are.

"I put on a mask to come here. So that part's already done." They have a suspicion that the chanting did matter, but the dragon would know better, wouldn't she?
"You do the painting, and then we hunt a fox. Then you show me where to cut, and I'll do the cutting." They hold up their left lower arm to show its claws. Not as impressive as a dragon, but should do the job.
The painting will probably not be great for allergy reasons, but it shouldn't be as dangerous as getting all those cuts. That would kill Ein, no doubt about it.

[5a Violista]

[Mirror of Art]

Ideally, divine intervention should only happen when things are going badly, the preteen thinks.

"Yes that's probably good enough," she says, "you already got the mask part out of the way."

She looks around. "First, we need to find something to make the paint." She walks over to a bush: "These berries would work, except they're poisonous unless they're mixed with other stuff."

After a lot more looking around, she finds some decent non-poisonous berries that would make okay paint. "Okay. These berries," and then she holds out a flower she picked, "and petals from these flowers. That should be good enough." She then specifies how much they'll need to get.

Once they have enough, and find a place to crush them, she does that into a paste, and gets a stiff leaf to use as a paintbrush.

She starts painting out some geometric patterns and other designs all over Ein. "Okay, good. Next step, a fox. I need to help you, but you need to be the one who comes up with the hunting plan."


[Slime Cave]

Gabrielle would sigh if she could.
She still moves her shoulders as if she is.
Right, people are going to ask her questions and she can't answer them.
She definitely doesn't go any closer to them, in case they interpret that as her trying to eat them or something.

She stops waving.
The slimegirl then focuses really hard and tries to make her shape as distinctly person-shaped as possible.

She waves again, more slowly this time, and then tries to make the few sign language words that she recognizes, before realizing...some of those require more definition than she can give while moving.
She just wants to talk with them and say 'hi, I come in peace, nice to meet you'.

[Recaiden]

[Mirror of Art]

Ein starts reaching towards the berries, only snatching a tentacle back when the dragon mentions that they're poison on their own. They could probably handle it, actually - what are the odds that what's poison to dragons is also poison to them? But why risk it?

When shown the revised berries and the flowers, they just nod and get to work, setting the mirror down (but keeping a tentacle on it) while sweeping up the berries with their claws. Sure, in better circumstances picking plants would be beneath them, but here in the mirror they're all on their own. Except this dragon kid, which might be worse than being alone, actually. But the point is, no one else is going to do this job.

At one point, they pause to ask "Your name, priestess-dragon?"

Then, sitting on the rock beside where they crushed the paints, focusing on remaining visible to the dragon, they try to lay out a plan.

"You can be bait for the fox." Ein suggests.
I'm not sure they really know anything about foxes.

[Slime Cave]

One of the people notes that this strange water-creature, it doesn't have a tail! The other one adds that she doesn't seem to have ears either.
What if it can't hear them at all?
It's making some weird motions! Get back!
And indeed, they scramble back quite a distance, worried of what Gabrielle could be doing. What if she's an evil sorcerer?

[Reinholdt]

[Waste Land]

The call went out like silence before a storm. It was unnatural. As much as the missing wildlife. Reina felt deeply uncomfortable. There was something off. Especially about this so called Prince. Was he even a Prince? Most princes she's ever met wanted to show their face as much as possible, the egotistical blowhards. What was he hiding?

She can't much get the thought of her head and by the time she realizes the bird is coming for them, it's much closer than she intended. Right, the job. She takes aim with the shotgun and fires. The bird was still a distance away and it's a shotgun firing holy water charged pellets, but she's not looking to cause a lot of damage either at this point. The goal is to wound it or startle it or both.

[Shadowcaller]

Offices

Blanche shoots a succubus. She goes down, her body morphing back to a very dead normal person. Then another, and another, making two slain and one seriously injured.
And then Sapphira triggers a psychic and magical attack on the sniper, even as she's battling with her sword above.
The attack is twofold. Wordlessly, it amplifies feelings of guilt and remorse. Blanche just killed two innocent people and mortally wounded another. They may have been trying to kill her, but they weren't acting of their own free will. They didn't deserve to die here, by her hand.
Second is the magical component. The two corpses shudder and begin to stand, staring at Blanche with vacant expressions that could easily be interpreted as something else, hunger, rage, maybe even a desire for vengeance. They shamble forward towards her puppetlike, arms outstretched.

Offices

Innocent people?! Even before Sapphira had ordered them to kill them, they had been attacking Anika and had insisted on not being saved.

Well, the druid wasn't having any of that!
She's going to turn back into a bear and go into a certified bear-rage™ which causes her form to increase even more in size. Then with a terrifying roar she's going to punt away one of the shambling corpses with her claw and then slam into the other one.

Orobou Office

Artie finds something oddly comforting about the being before her, likely knowing more cosmic truths than she would have ever glimpses as a mortal having to search to remember the word “mammal.”
”Well, as a native to a world distant even from the nexus I don’t think they made this particular body. But I see your point.” She’ll never have another one like this. That’s another strange but melancholy thought. She wonders what their intended replacement for her was. Do they have lizardfolk from their native plane? Or would they have used a human?
”I guess their nature does explain why I felt a bit disconnected between my role and my old body.” See, that does mean that their Court simply is reptiles. That’s exactly what she was trying to ask!
”So are there many of them in the Nexus?” Or is it another thing she’ll only have to worry about in a century?

Orobou Office

To be fair, mammal was just an scientific classification based on certain biological traits! You could technically base such a classification on other traits.

"I wouldn't know. I doubt they would react well to us trying to monitor them. However, I find it likely there are at least a few, but not too many. Less than a dozen probably. It's unlikely that you need to be concerned about them however. While there certainly are violent groups within their numbers it would be extremely unlikely that you encounter one of them. No, there two other courts that you might need to keep an eye on instead, for your own safety. Not that I'm saying you're in any actual danger but that you might actually encounter them."

"The first are the avari, more commonly known as angels, they're what you might call 'law enforcement'. They hunt down criminals and right now they believe that there are criminals in the nexus so that's why they're there. Speaking of, the other 'court', and I use that term very loosesly here, are psychopomps which is a group that's mostly made up of fey criminals. Invidividuals that have been banished from the other courts, making them the most numerous fey group, hence why its far more likely to encounter them than any other fey. Which of these would you like to hear about first?"

[5a Violista]

[Mirror of Art]

If the preteen knew they were poisonous, she probably just shouldn't have mentioned them.

"My name's Mindy," she says. "But you can call me Mindy the Fierce or Mindy the Terrible if you want." It's okay, you don't have to. But she'd like it if you did. Obviously, she doesn't ask what Ein's name is, because usually when you ask someone's name you volunteer your own.

Painting's finished!
"Okay, I'll be the bait," Mindy the Priestess says. She tries to think about what Ein wants her to do as bait, before asking, "You know what a fox looks like, right?"

Besides.
In this weird parallel world, foxes might even be a little different than usual.


[Slime Cave]

Oh no!
Gabrielle realizes she scared them.

The slimegirl suddenly freezes, and holds her palms forward and hands up, to show 'hey look I'm not holding any weapons' or whatever that gesture is supposed to mean.
Wait,
What if they don't recognize that gesture? she wonders. Palms-forward is what humans do, but lots of animals don't do that since they don't have palms.
Lots of animals, um...
...
get on their backs? she thinks. And show their stomachs, for some reason. It would show that she doesn't have any weapons in her stomach, either, so that might be a good thing to do.

The slimegirl lies down with her stomach up, still with her palms forward, in hopes that helps get her point across.
Also, actually, it's more comfortable to lie down like this because then she doesn't have to fight as much gravity to just stay in shape.

[Recaiden]

[Mirror of Art]

Huh. Well, that could distinguish her from all the other Mindys (Mindies?) that presumably exist in this camp.

Ein told their name right at the start. Did you already forget it, Mindy?

"Yes." Ein lifts up their tentacles and displays an illusionary picture of a fox.
It's not very accurate. Like, the kind of image you might make if you had only seen a fox once, it has weird proportions, kind of cartoonish, looks more like an odd crab than a fox actually...

"You'll pretend to be hurt, and the fox will think it can eat you. Then I will drop down and catch it."

[Slime Cave]

Okay, on further examination, it seems Gabrielle is not an evil sorceress performing strange magic.
In fact she seems to be surrendering?

That's good, they at least understand that universal gesture.

The braver one of these people approaches again, ready to spring away again at a moment's notice.
"Okay, we're not going to hurt you. Um, uh, if you understand me, lift up a hand?"

[Deathkeeper]

Orobou Office

”Oh, alright. Well, I suppose you could start with these angels. Why should I be worried about encountering them?” Artie asks. She’s fairly sure she knows why she might be concerned about encountering a criminal.
Not that she’s really one to talk.