Serious Plots 9: Srsr and srsr

[5a Violista]

Mindy has never had a dragon allergy so she's just basing it off of her own nonexperience. She's been a dragon her whole life, so if she was born with an allergy to dragons then she's practiced it all the way away already.



Over at the portal,
the pseudodragons notice the portal becoming active again. Not only that! But there's also large flying creatures nearby.
A couple fly closer or watch from the ground, but don't get too close. First, they need to decide if they're dangerous or not, and then after that they can try to intimidate them away. Two of them already know that they can intimidate the portal away, so they're not as cautious of that part yet. It's mostly the balloon-elephants that they are careful of.

After all, they could be a little dangerous. Even if the pseudodragons win in a fight, they still might get injured which could make fighting not worth it.
They'll occasionally swoop close to test how they react.

[Recaiden]

[Mirror of Art]

All of the intruders are slowly flying away from the portal.

It's the (relatively) little bat-winged creatures that react first. When a pseudodragon comes closer, they all start screaming at it in their shrill, clicking voices.
Sure, they could fight them, and probably win. But these are just bugs, they'll probably get scared off.

If a pseudodragon persists in coming closer after that, it'll suddenly find itself very light, almost free from gravity. So light, in fact, that it may not be able to stop from drifting up and up and far away from the hive creatures.

[5a Violista]

[Mirror of Art]

The screaming gets the pseudodragons to back off for a bit.
But.
This is their nest. They've got a baby here. They can't just let it take over just because it's loud.

One of them does, in fact, get closer...
and starts suddenly drifting away, in spite of it trying to fly. In fact, being like that messes up its flight reflexes, too.

That makes the rest back off and wait for the intruders to leave.

[Recaiden]

Once there's enough distance between the big balloonish dukes and the pseduodragon, the unnatural lightness will fade away and let the moth fly correctly again.

But the hivelings are able to fly off towards the camp.
The smaller ones are all flying in perfect formation, moving at the same angle, flapping their wings at the same time. It helps keep left and right straightened out.

This time, the portal doesn't go away just because of the big intimidating pseudo-dragons near it.

[Earl of Purple]

Scorching Vigil

"On the hook I screwed into the bedframe, under the bed itself, my side of the bed. Um, my side's the one with the giraffe on the end table." It's a much-loved cuddly toy, threadbare and worn. It was a gift from his foster parents to help him sleep shortly after he arrived in the Nexus; as such, it's one of his oldest possessions. Hopefully Rose can bend down far enough to get to it, given her lizardy lower body it might be tricky. (Unless Earl is misremembering what Rose looks like.) "Somewhere it's not going to be found by accident or mixed up with other keys but somewhere I also know how to find if I need to open it."

Prumathe follows Sekhmet to her mother's bed chamber. "Now you're Queen, don't you have more power to fight it off and resist such an attempt?" Or perhaps not. Perhaps the necessary reagents are trickier to find, and the ones that Bluefoot was left trying to gather were hard enough- the skull of a fallen saint, an iron dagger never touched by sunlight, as well as other things Earl can't recall right now. Earl doesn't know if Sekhmet knows what was used, however. "I know. I mean, I'd guessed. You're here, your mother isn't, you're queen now. I'm twenty-ish, Sekhmet. We've got decades to find a way to stay together. Pontius might have some pointers. I think he's looked into transferring himself into a golem of some kind."

[bc56]

Scorching Depths

Sekhmet gives Prumathe a quick hug. "I, uh, just wanted you to know. But, uh, there's also another thing. When mother created my body, she, uh, made it incapable of having children." Sekhmet's voice takes on a bitter tone, "She thought of it as a blessing for a proper young succubus." That explains why they'd been unsuccessful in the past several months of their marriage. "So, uh, we're going to need to find another way."

[Earl of Purple]

Scorching Depths

Prumathe hugs back. "Can you change that, now? Like, you've gotten shorter since I came here, and you've always had shapeshifting. Can you figure out how Sapphira did that and undo it?" Prumathe met Sekhmet's mother, she was far nicer than Sapphira. He tries not to call Sapphira such (Earl is maybe not great at that, though).

"And if not, well. We know some very clever people. Sophie, and Pontius, and my dads, and Geneva. One of them will be able to help us, or know somebody that can." Some are likely more help than others- Prumathe's dads don't have any children except those they fostered and adopted through the orphanage they run, Pontius' magic doesn't work on living tissue, and there's other issues as well.

[bc56]

Scorching Depths

Prumathe's dads can also be a reminder that adoption is an option as well.
"I can try, but it's, uh, much easier to change, uh, surface details than how things work inside." He's seen Sekhmet shapeshift before. Her appearance fluctuates slightly whenever she dreams, but she usually changes it back every morning the way other women might do makeup. "In here, uh, everything is much easier. It's my domain. But, uh, the things here aren't real in the same way." She holds out her hand. "Like me. You can touch me and, uh, hold me, but, uh, this is just my spirit. It can't hold a physical form outside this plane on its own." She stands beside him. "Uh, I think that's everything I, uh, needed to say to you right now. Do you want to, uh, rejoin the others and work on getting my body back?"

[5a Violista]

Once all the intruders leave, the pseudodragons go back to trying to intimidate the portal away with every way they know how, going all-out. Or, if that doesn't work this time, to surround it and keep it from moving in ways they don't want it to go.


The people who decided to leave are waiting at the camp, in groups.
They see the approaching hivelings.
Some of them start cheering as soon as they realize what they see.

Mindy is also there, but because she needs to fly herself, I believe she was not grouped.
Also she keeps her distance. If they all have a dumb allergy, she doesn't want to get too close.
It makes it less fun, though. Sitting alone like this is awful, so she ends up drawing pictures of the hivelings, including Ein, and also herself (not a hiveling) in the dirt.

[Earl of Purple]

Scorching Depths

Yes, adoption's on the table, potentially, but Earl (and possibly Prumathe) thought Sekhmet wanted to have children and get pregnant and experience it all.
"Ah, I see. So you'd need to change your actual body to have children, and that's not here. Right. Your spirit is beautiful, and not like Sapphira. It's a similar deal to her, right? Your beauty is just... you, shining through. Hers was trying too hard, y'know?" Sapphira was absolutely stunning, and Prumathe won't try to deny it, but he didn't find her very attractive.

[bc56]

Scorching Depths

Sekhmet hugs Prumathe after that compliment. "Aww, thanks." Neither of them have seen Sapphira's true form, and they can count themselves lucky for it. "Come on, uh, let's get back to the others." There's a plume of smoke and in an instant the two of them are back on the balcony they left, where Geneva's drone and Rose are.
"Rose, uh, did you find everything all right? Geneva, is my body ready?" Sekhmet seems mostly ready to take charge of the situation.

[Rebonack]

[Scorching Depths]

"Yep! I found the bones easy peasy," Rose says as she returns, a light degree of the typical Buttercup bounce to her step. She's quite pleased with everything that's going on and it's showing.

Geneva, meanwhile, gives Sekhmet a thumbs up.

She's currently directing some technicians in the process of setting up the life support equipment in her lab while Sekhmet's body is being moved in.

So far so good!

[Recaiden]

Once all the intruders leave, the pseudodragons go back to trying to intimidate the portal away with every way they know how, going all-out. Or, if that doesn't work this time, to surround it and keep it from moving in ways they don't want it to go.


The people who decided to leave are waiting at the camp, in groups.
They see the approaching hivelings.
Some of them start cheering as soon as they realize what they see.

Mindy is also there, but because she needs to fly herself, I believe she was not grouped.
Also she keeps her distance. If they all have a dumb allergy, she doesn't want to get too close.
It makes it less fun, though. Sitting alone like this is awful, so she ends up drawing pictures of the hivelings, including Ein, and also herself (not a hiveling) in the dirt.

Unfortunately, this time the portal is not being intimidated. Even if the pseudodragons roar, puff themselves up, flap their wings, and rush towards it, the portal just doesn't react.
Luckily for them, it's easy to surround and keep in place. It doesn't try to move in any way they don't want. Or any way that they do want. It's just very stationary.

---

The smaller hivelings, that we call mantises, they fly circles over the camp in their eerie synchrony. Might make it a little harder for Mindy to draw their wings correctly.
The larger dukes drift to a stop, disgorge some other hivelings, and levitate them to the ground: five frilly workers and one uniquely strange marquess (she looks even more human-like than Ein in some ways, but quite odd in others). More things for Mindy to doodle.
The little dragon might realize that exactly one of the workers isn't allergic to dragons. It doesn't have the subtle flinch away from Mindy that all of the others do, and it even looks different, with sharp-edged claws without any undulating fringe, hard angles to its shell, and just a sort of rightness about it.

Ein addresses the people who are hoping to leave.
"Okay, first group, step forward. These guys will fly you up and carry you to the portal back to the real world."
"You'll be squeezed closed together during the ride, but it's not a long trip."

[Earl of Purple]

Scorching Depths

Prumathe is a little surprised by the teleport, so he spends a moment or two blinking and looking around. "Do you want me here with you, or out there waiting for you to come through? I'm glad you could find the key OK, though." And hopefully there wasn't anything too embarrassing under the bed, either. Though Rose doesn't look like the type to be easily embarrassed.

[bc56]

Scorching Vigil

Sekhmet nods appreciatively to all the information. "Prumathe, you, uh, can stay here if you want. Things might, uh, get a little strange though." Then she switches back to coordinating. "Rose, uh, can you open up the bag and try to assemble as much of a skeleton as you can? Not all the bones are there. Geneva, can you get my body through the portal? I can, uh, handle keeping it alive once it's through, and then I can prepare it properly."

[Rebonack]

[Scorching Vigil]

Geneva looks a little uncomfortable unhooking Sekhmet's body from the machines, but she can handle keeping things going telekinetically while she passes the comatose body through the portal.

And Rose?

Well.

She starts assembling a skeleton.

Sadly she doesn't know the 'Them Bones' song.

It really is a tragedy.

[5a Violista]

Oh! That's more stuff that Mindy just has to draw.
It's hard to draw their wings, so she just draws them like dragon wings. And one thing vomiting, she makes sure to draw that, too. It's very important.
Mindy spots the one that isn't flinching away from her. If there were just a few that were flinching, it would be hard to notice but with all of them doing it, it's much easier to notice when there's the one that isn't doing it. She takes a break in dirt-drawing so that she can wave at it.


The first group doesn't mind being squeezed together. If it means getting home, then it's fine. They listen and obey.

[bc56]

Scorching Vigil

Rose can only find about half a skeleton's worth of bones. There's a right arm, part of a ribcage, most of the spine, and the upper half of two legs. The skull is absent, but judging by the shape, the bones must have belonged to a monstrous creature. Sekhmet bends over them, letting Geneva deal with her body for a little longer. "I need to, uh, exorcise the entity in these and, uh, take its place. She puts a hand on the bones. "Stand back!" A glow suffuses her as a spectral beast rises from the skeleton. She blasts it with hellfire. "I am Queen of the Scorching Depths! You shall leave this vessel and never return!" It pounces, and the two of them begin wrestling for dominance.

[Earl of Purple]

Scorching Vigil

"Go, Sekhmet! Kick that nasty demon outta there!" Yeah, Prumathe can't do much so he'll shout support from the side lines. Hopefully it helps, and doesn't distract his wife.

[Rebonack]

[Scorching Vigil]

"You can do it your highness!" Rose likewise cheers!

She can't really contribute all that much to the spiritual battle.

But Geneva?

Geneva is kind of cheaty.

The woman reaches out with her mind to blast the demon's sense of resolve. This wouldn't cause any physical harm to speak of, but in a battle of wills like this one it's like having the rug yanked out from under one's feet.

Hopefully...

That helps?

We'll see!

[bc56]

Scorching Vigil
It becomes very quickly clear. It's okay that most of the people here can't help, because Sekhmet is by far the more powerful of the two combatants. It's possibly terrifying and awe-inspiring, watching her claws tear into the ghost demon's chest as Geneva weakens it, and it explodes into flame and smoke and is gone. Sekhmet cools back down to normal and holds out her hand, beckoning. The bones float into the air and hover around her. "Okay, uh, Geneva, send my body through." Once it's through the portal, it stops needing help to stay alive and starts doing so on its own. It walks stiffly and puppetlike over next to Sekhmet's spirit and stands perfectly still. Sekhmet stares at it. "Uh, wow. It's weird to, uh, see myself like this."

[Earl of Purple]

Scorching Vigil

"I bet it is. You don't look like that now. Do you want to get your ears pierced? Because the... the Hell-you has pierced ears." Sekhmet might be able to shapeshift most of the other differences. Pierced ears are a possible one she can't do, as piercings aren't natural.

[Rebonack]

[Scorching Vigil]

"You're definitely quite a bit bigger," Geneva points out. "And it IS a little curious that Hell decided to pierce your ears."

That's...

That's strange?

Right?

Geneva watches the scene curiously and a bit apprehensively. This is definitely too much soul-magic for her liking. Necromancy was considered terrible in all of its applications back home, even those that someone might be trying to use for good. It's a strange idea that some tools can be inherently evil rather than just being tools, but after learning about the dark arts Geneva concluded that it's a tool best left unused.

Of course...

Necromancy is different from one universe to another. Maybe the magic of other worlds isn't quite so odious?

[bc56]

Scorching Vigil
"Uh, yes actually. I'd been, uh, thinking about it for a bit but I hadn't said anything about it yet." She can shapeshift in the other differences if she wants.
"Prumathe, uh, you should look away now." The next bit could be charitably described as "disturbing." Sekhmet runs a hand along her forearm, and the flesh of her body peels back, revealing wet bone glistening with black ichor, all the way up to her elbow. Then, gently, but firmly, Sekhmet grabs the bones of her arm and pulls. With a clatter, they come out and she sets them aside on the balcony railing. Then she gestures, and the demon bones, those from the bag, take up positions where her old bones were, replacing her entire right hand and forearm. She released her hold on her flesh, and it slides back into place, sealing up as if there had never been any injury there and the bones of the arm are still the originals and not those of an undead monstrosity.
"Okay, uh, she, uh, I'm ready," Sekhmet announces, "Now, uh, how do I get inside?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

[The Hunter, Hunted]

Fayyaad's mood lifts slightly as he sees the weapon marks. They're likely on the right trail. Not many people tote this kind of weaponry, even in Skyside.

"We need to get closer," he says to Noc quietly.

As the pair move in, they can hear the two figures talking to each other. The large one has a deeply gutteral, mechanical voice that's almost, but not quite, deadpan, as though a machine trying to sound human. The normal one is quiet, and reserved, but also slightly haughty. Firelight and the few remaining lights flicker over both of them, and closer in, it's obvious that the large one is mechanical in nature, but shares nothing in terms of similar design to Electra. Electricity crackles from a few holes in its (his?) massive chest armor, and one arm ends in a mangled mess of wires, cables and severed hoses. Its faceplate is two sections, lower and upper. The lower is a smooth expanse, while the area around the eyes seems to be....strangely human. His eyes glow green dimly; unseen from outside, but closer in, visible. The shorter figure appears to be human, for all intents and purposes. Dressed in a long trenchcoat, eye-covering shades, with what's obviously an armored vest over a very expensive shirt. Cargo pants, heavy combat boots, and a pistol, still holstered on his right thigh are seemingly at odds with the very carefully adorned ponytail. Conventionally handsome, some might say, though at the moment, the several rips through his trenchcoat and the way he seems to move implies that he's injured in some fashion that isn't immediately apparent.

The short one looks down as they get in close, and the unmistakable scent of blood and scorched flesh assaults both Fayyaad and Noc's nostrils. He nudges something with his foot, then looks back to his partner.

"....we're in trouble now.." The shorter one starts. The big one simply shakes his head.


"No more trouble than last time. At least we did not have to kill this one ourselves. And he paid us up front."

"And you don't think his business associates are going to come after us when they find out he's cacked it? Use that machine brain of yours, Revenant. If they find out we failed to protect him, we're done in the bodyguard business. And if they don't figure that out, they're not gonna believe the actual story about some crazy android chick killing him before we could even do anything about it." He curses loudly. Revenant shifts slightly, and the sound of metal grinding on metal can be heard. Another thin crawler of electricity snakes up from his back and crawls over his damaged shoulder and arm before extinguishing itself.

"They may be a problem, but analysis indicates the likelihood of them actually pursuing us to be very low. With the correct contacts, we could even be in a position to assume his place as a broker for these technologies. We do know these people. Getting them to do us a favor would not be out of the realm of possibility." His eyes flash. "You are not thinking rationally, Face. Are your injuries severe?"

Face sighs, and leans up against a pile of crates.

"Nah, she only grazed me. Crazy, lightsaber-wielding ****. She tagged you worse. How long for repairs?"

"Sixteen days, four hours, thirty-two minutes, twenty-one seconds." Revenant's head moves, looking around. He doesn't seem to have spotted Noc and Fayyaad just yet, or perhaps he's ignoring their presence. "Assuming we have no further engagements."

Face chuckles, pulls out a cigarette and lights it. "That's a pretty big 'if', there. We probably shouldn't stick around here, though. Someone will come looking, either for Maddock or that blonde chick, sooner or later." He looks towards where Fayyaad and Noc are hiding, and grins sardonically. Even behind his shades, they can see his eyes glowing blue. "Sooner than I expected, even. Can't catch a break today. Well, we're in no shape to fight you, whoever ya are, so which is it? You lookin' for the idiot whose brains are currently all over the floor, or blondie?"

[Recaiden]

Oh! That's more stuff that Mindy just has to draw.
It's hard to draw their wings, so she just draws them like dragon wings. And one thing vomiting, she makes sure to draw that, too. It's very important.
Mindy spots the one that isn't flinching away from her. If there were just a few that were flinching, it would be hard to notice but with all of them doing it, it's much easier to notice when there's the one that isn't doing it. She takes a break in dirt-drawing so that she can wave at it.


The first group doesn't mind being squeezed together. If it means getting home, then it's fine. They listen and obey.

The odd worker raises its left claw to wave at Mindy.
No, the left claw.
The left one-
Oh, I mean the right claw, which is on the left side. Of course. There it goes.

The other workers are all fluttering around by the trees outside the camp.

Each of the other groups are also quickly lifted and then put into sacks; if they took one group at a time, simple packing everyone up would take four times as long, but working together, they can manage it quickly.
Then the dukes and three of the mantises turn and fly off towards the mountaintop portal. Only a bunch of pseudodragons stand between these people and leaving the mirror world.

Ein walks over towards Mindy, staying an allergy-safe distance away.
"You are really committed to leaving?"

[Earl of Purple]

Scorching Vigil

Prumathe does turn around and so misses Sekhmet opening her arm, pulling bones out and replacing them. "I love you inside and out, Sekhmet. OK? Even if... that sounds really gross." Wet sucking sounds as bones are pulled out and replaced is pretty gross.

[Rebonack]

[Scorching VIGIL]

Oh.

Wow, uh.

That really wasn't great to watch.

Geneva does her best to avoid being sick and juuuuust barely manages to succeed.

Rose really isn't bothered by the display at all.

"I'm afraid I can't be of much help there, Sekhmet," Geneva admits. "Possessing bodies really isn't one of my areas of expertise."

Not by a long shot.

"If your body in hell is spiritual would you be able to just... kind of step into it?"

[bc56]

Scorching Vigil
Prumathe can probably gather from Geneva's expression that whatever just happened looked even grosser than it sounded. Sekhmet looks a little sick herself even.
"Just step in? I, uh, guess." She walks up to her body until her face is only inches away from her face. Nothing happens. She feels her face with her hands. Again nothing. "Wait, uh, no. That's not where 'me' is." She reaches up to the empty space between her body's horns, where a fiery ball of light would normally sit. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
Sekhmet's spirit collapses down into a point of light and rises to float between her body's horns.
Her eyes snap open. "It worked, it worked!" She holds out her arms and flexes her fingers, especially on her right hand, feeling out her restored body and its new parts. She laughs aloud. "Wow, I'm hungry!" It feels so good! She has a living, breathing, body again! She can be hungry!
She practically skips over to Prumathe to give him a kiss on the cheek. As she crosses the distance, she not-so-subtly is shapeshifting her body, taking on more of the aspects she had as a spirit; a little more regal, a little more radiant, even a little more seductive. She doesn't even seem to care that she's hardly decent in the hospital gown she's currently wearing. She's just so excited! "It worked! Come on, let's go home!"

[Earl of Purple]

Scorching Vigil

Prumathe hugs Sekhmet back and kisses her forehead. He'll take her hand and walk through the portal, where hopefully she's able to follow. He'll give her another hug and a proper kiss if she makes it through after him.