Serious Plots 9: Srsr and srsr

[Rebonack]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

G'Nichi charges the formation of zombies! The gladius carves between one of the hulking zombies' armored plates, resulting in electric blue fluid leaking out that quickly solidifies into a jagged mass of crystal points. That's probably going to make stabbing these things a little more difficult, won't it? Not impossible, but probably a bit more difficult.

But that isn't the main benefit of the sword slashing the zombie.

The main benefit is that magical burst that just got dumped into it.

Because while it is getting physically puppeted from the inside by a crystalline abomination said crystal is the manifestation of a malignant alien spirit rubbing up against reality. The magic temporarily disrupts the creature, causing its tendrils in the dead flesh to retract defensively. The zombie's chest swells hideously, more crystal spikes piercing through its mutated meat as it flops over like a marionette with its strings cut.

Nala, meanwhile, pops up from behind her cover and ignites the fallen zombie with a pyre of sacred flames to damage it further. Radiance licks across it, reducing dead flesh into sanctified ashes that will probably make it difficult for the possessing entity to do much with the body. She isn't sure if it is dead just yet, but she figures it might be a good idea to make sure.

This results in an immediate reaction from the zombies.

One of the hulking zombies steps forward to just absolutely clobber the heck out of G'Nichi with one of its great big spiky club arms. This would hurt a great deal and G'Nichi is deeply ill advised to allow it to strike him. The other two guard zombies close ranks around the gunners, preventing G'Nichi from having access to them. And the two gunners? They continue shooting at restaurant patrons and workers. The way the move is... disturbing. Each arm moves and fires independently while the body remains more or less motionless, their eye-covered heads twitching occasionally. It doesn't help that their aim is absolutely uncanny. They aren't shooting at G'Nichi, though, since they don't have a particularly good line of sight on him thanks to the guard zombies.

G'Nichi will, however, hear a meaty thunk and a cry of pain from Nala behind him after one of the shots.

And that giant mass of corrupted flesh and limbs and skulls and entrails and horrible crystalline growth clinging to the ceiling? Apparently whatever it is, it decides to act. Violently blue tendrils extend from it, seeking out those wounded but not dead. The dead, meanwhile, are twitching as their veins turn an electric blue so bright it glows through the skin.

[Deathkeeper]

Sawtooth's Cove

"Nala!" G'nichi shrieks, taking a step back towards the table. Wisps of green gas leak from the sides of his maw and his nostrils which swiftly ignite in the air, turning his face into a bundle of pilot lights.
G'nichi turns his righteous rage at the thing that seems to be directing this attack. It would be charitable to say he thought tactically and wanted to make sure it doesn't start using wounded or dead victims as more troops and overwhelming him. Really, he just really wants to make the thing that hurt his girlfriend and a room full of kind kinsmen stop moving.
Several buttons of G'nichi's shirt pop off as his frame practically combusts with platinum flames. He reaches back and hurls his sword and the floating mass of corruption, white light engulfing it. The gladius' burst of energy will come with an intense flood of holy energy which detonates in a blinding mirror of the way the creatures entered, searing corrupted flesh and crystal alike in a wide radius.

[Rebonack]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

Nala does not reply to G'Nichi's cry of alarm.

The sword thunks into the corrupted corpse blob slash crystal mass and explodes like a two-stage anti-tank shell. The smite blows through the abomination's harder outer layer, allowing the sword's disruptive effect to detonate inside it. This does not kill the creature, however. What it DOES do is cause it to reflexively abandon its tendril attack, drawing all the limbs back into itself like a snail that just got one of its eyes poked. Its central mass swells as the limbs fold back into it, clusters of crystals growing from the wound to plug it and shove the sword out of its body.

The sword lands right in the middle of the zombie funtime pile.

Unlike the stunned zombie (Which is, as it happens, just got torched by the smite. It was already looking pretty messed up from holy flames and the sword wound.) the crystal mass is NOT stunned even a little bit by the sword's disruptive energy burst.

Nope.

Not at all.

Because it just fired a shotgun blast of crystal shards at G'Nichi.

The crystals have several things that make them dangerous. First is the mechanical danger posed by sharp rocks getting launched at a person. Second is the fact that they are virulently toxic. Third is the fact that they set baaascially anything they touch on fire. Fourth, and maybe most insidiously, the aetherial spirit that permeates the crystal shards are deeply corruptive to matter in general and organic matter in particular.

As for the rest of the zombies?

One guard is blinded by the blast and scorched pretty heavily. The other two zombies that are still ambulatory attempt to surround G'Nichi so they can bludgeon him until he stops moving.

This leaves the two gunner zombies unprotected! One of them gets utterly fried by the smite and bursts like over-ripe fruit. The other is a little toasty but it's still shooting. But now nearly everyone is either wounded or has managed to get to safety. Or at least behind cover.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

The gladius lands in the middle of the zombie pile.
And then it's back in G'nichi's hand, without ever traveling the intervening distance.

Just. Boop. In hand.

It also has thoughts about G'nichi being shotgunned and mobbed and generally drowned in an entirely unreasonable amount of offense.
NO!

In direct contrast to a moment ago, the sword alights with a deeply unholy light, light purple-tinted shadows set on fire, and pulses out an unseen wave of magic.
It doesn't do anything whatsoever to the enemies around G'nichi, but there are some unpleasant squelching noises from elsewhere in the building and then...

A thick wall of (only slightly bloody) bones has placed itself between our scaly hero and the crystal shotgun barrage. If 180 degree coverage will block some of the bludgeoning zombies, it'll interpose itself between them too.

[Deathkeeper]

Sawtooth's Cove

If there's any people in that wall there are going to be WORDS. G'nichi mentally roars to the sword as he hops over the table to check on Nala. He isn't liking that lack of response.
"Nala are you okay? Stay with me now..." he whispers, checking for wounds (likely, he won't have to look very hard).

Meanwhile!
Oh right isn't this a pirate themed restaurant owned by a bunch of retired gator and caiman pirates?
Sawtooth arrives on the scene, a small caiman-person with a big hat with a very fluffy white feather in it. And a large musket. Beside him is a huge croc in a striped shirt and is carrying no less than three cartoony round bombs.
"Ye shoot MY patrons in MY establishment with gods-forsaken GOOP-CRYSTALS? To the Whorl with ye!"
A barrage of lead balls and cartoon bombs are lobbed in the direction of the zombies. How Sawtooth can fire a musket exactly once per 1.2 seconds is anyone's guess.

[Rebonack]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

G'Nichi abandons the BONE ZONE in order to try to administer first aid or something to Nala! Scooting around the table he'll find that she's...

Geeze that doesn't look great.

She got hit nearly dead-center in the chest with one of those crystal projectiles. Her dress is stained crimson with unwholesome looking blue veins running through it and she's taking shallow, gurgling breaths. That probably means a punctured lung. The dragonborn is unconscious, so she can't really do all that much when it comes to healing herself at the moment. Should G'Nichi pull her clothing away to get at the wound he'll find that the flesh around it is blackened as though burnt and that violently blue infection is steadily spreading. It crawls and wriggles like a living thing.

Which...

Maybe it is?

In some perverse, alien way.

Several things need to be done immediately or she will die.

The toxic projectile needs to be removed from her so the infection and burns don't continue to spread.

Something needs to be done to stop the bleeding.

And she needs some real medical attention ASAP.

Lay on hands will probably be able to handle that second one. Hopefully maybe the sword can help with the first?

Meanwhile!

Maybe it's a musket that uses cartridges rather than being muzzle-loading? A musket is just a long-arm that isn't rifled, right?

Anyway!

Bombs and bullets.

The zombies quickly reorient themselves on this new threat, but not before the gunner gets obliterated by a hail of projectiles. One of the guards gets pulped and the other two try to rush down the crocodillians and bludgeon them into submission with their awful arms. As for the larger foe? Well, it was going to be doing some pretty terrible things with the people who were injured by that was put a stop to. And the bones of the dead all just got stolen so it can't raise a round of fresh zombies instead.

So it does the next best thing.

Blue tendrils lash out from all the boneless meat sacks nearby, sticking into the larger monster before yanking all the flesh violently into it. Flesh that is rapidly assimilated into a quickly growing amalgamation of the dead, thick crystals growing over its outer shell as it begins mutating and rearranging the bounty of meat it has collected. Our heroes have a few seconds before that crystal seed hatches into some new abomination.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

Their bodies were already desecrated, that thing was turning them into more of its puppets.
...this spares them and you. This can be fixed later, handle the true crisis first.
She sounds genuinely contrite, and G'nichi has enough general knowledge of the bracelet's imperative to preserve him in whatever way it can.
Even if it means borrowing bones.

The sword's spirit probably didn't have as much choice as he would like.

Then we run over to Nala who is in some pretty monumentally terrible shape.
It is also attempting to convert her. I...think I can push out the corruption, but my magic isn't meant for healing. It will probably hurt her more in the process. If you have some other means of healing her afterwards, I think we can make this work.
Once upon a very long lost time, the soul within could have healed.
But no more.

Meanwhile, while G'nichi is distracted, that wall of bones explodes out towards the nearby remaining zombies in a shower of viciously sharp fragments.

[Deathkeeper]

Sawtooth's Cove

G'nichi's attention is drawn by the very malignant looking lights. He stands up for a moment, takes a deep breath and reaches for a familiar feeling in his gut. He breathes out his gas breath which ignites in spectacular fashion, a stream of flames directly onto the forming abomination.
Then he reaches back down, trying to reach back into the feeling he felt when he threw the sword. His hand glows softly. Okay, we don't have a choice. Go for it.

Meanwhile!
Sawtooth fires an incendiary shot at the growing crystal but zombies are advancing!
Sawtooth dives for cover, pulling a bayonet knife out of a holster. The large gator-man slips a hatchet from his belt and goes to counter the zombie's swings with a few of his own!

[Rebonack]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

The bonewall shotgun peppers the two remaining guard zombies from behind while the second gets knifed a whole bunch. That seems to be the extent of the damage it can take, causing it to finally collapse. The other tries to get a flanking hit in on the croc with the knife. Hard to parry stuff when you're already parrying that awful corpse thing in front of you.

Then poisonous fire breath!

Unfortunately these creatures are both very poisonous and very fiery already, so that incendiary round isn't the most effective thing in the world, either. Sure, it makes the crystal mass burn a bit, but it is already burning a bit. The resistance to poison and fire seems to go both ways, in this case. Both these terrible things and G'Nichi are resilient against the same sorts of attacks.

So.

Then some more bad things happen.

Smaller crystal masses begin crawling out of the fallen zombies, the main 'bodies' no larger than a basket ball and their limbs long segmented crystalline things with fluid bits between the joints. They move like six legged brittle stars and it's really unnerving to watch. They all head straight for the crystal cocoon and promptly meld into its surface.

Then the cocoon explodes, shedding crystal fragments everywhere.

Violently.

This will be unhealthy for anything nearby. Including the remaining guard zombie, which just got unceremoniously pulverized.

Rising from the remains is a very big zombie, an unholy amalgamation of all the flesh stolen from the dead, a huge amorphous blob festooned with crystal clusters and flabby limbs. This creature would be far more threatening if the sword hadn't stolen all those bones. It NEEDS quite a bit of bone mass for internal supports. The crystal growths work sort of but they aren't a replacement for actual bones. So good job, sword! You made this abomination slightly less terrible by committing an atrocity!

There isn't much time to celebrate because pores all over the surface of the monster make gross squelching sounds as crystal points jut through them moments before they begin launching toward the pair of crocadillians in a withering, constant fire of absolutely lethal toxic projectiles. It is a veritable maelstrom of death and anything short of extremely heavy anti-ballistic body armor or supernatural resilience will be insufficient to avoid getting shredded in short order.

The main upside to this is that the huge flabby flesh blob is both immobile and only really focusing on things that are actively attacking it at the moment. This means G'Nichi is, right now, a lower priority target than the two proprietors right up in its face.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

Hopefully G'nichi is covered enough to avoid that explosion, as this is likely to be a delicate procedure.

Having bigger fingers works against us here, we're going to have to cause more damage to reach the projectile. If we're lucky it didn't bury itself inside her lung, just damaged it...though I think...
Okay, two things. Go quickly, she's getting closer to my reach every second.
Getting closer to the reach of something that specializes in corpses is rarely good.

The first thing she explains is how to form a ghostly hand extended just slightly from his own, so that he can reach into Nala, and then focus it around grabbing the projectile and extracting it.
The sword does not explain that this involves momentarily seizing a local spirit and forcing it to function as this hand. G'nichi doesn't need that right now.

The second thing is then to place the sword itself against the wound, so that it can do push that necromantic energy it was applying to the other zombies into Nala. This sort of thing tends to cause an amount of necrosis in living things, but the sword is going to try its best to guide G'nichi into focusing it against the corrupted bits.

It will then be pretty vital that he does his healing thing more or less immediately, or he'll just have found a clever way to kill her himself.

[Deathkeeper]

Sawtooth's Cove

Poor Sawtooth is smashed out a nearby window by the guard zombie's swings. He's alive, but that broken arm will probably need to be treated.
The first mate takes one look at the monstrosity forming and books it for the door, managing to avoid the following blast through sheer cowardice (and a blown-off tail).
The rest of the crew (there's not much) open up the final contingency: a pair of doors open up from the back revealing an *actual cannon* which promptly fires at the monstrosity before they flee.

Meanwhile, G'nichi carefully follows the necrosword's instructions. True to his instincts, his hands do glow with a soft healing power. Hopefully it's enough to keep her alive through this.

[Rebonack]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

Alrighty cannon time!

Remember how we were talking about delicate procedures and things?

And then the shell of the abomination blew up?

G'Nichi's nice table cover mostly took the brunt of that for him, but that table is looking pretty darn sad at this point. He may have been blasted with a few splinters and shards in the process. Thankfully he's naturally resilient to things like poison and eldritch corruption thanks to the KIRINness that Xeni endowed him with. Maybe the crazy wizard actually did something useful after all?

And then some fleeing happens.

And some artillery happens.

The abomination is just too goopy for the cannon ball to properly explode in thanks to its lack of bones, so instead it just blasts a great big messy hole through it that sprays violently electric blue fluid EVERYWHERE.

This is intensely bad since G'Nichi is busy trying to help Nala here. None of the goop gets into the wound as he's extracting the crystal bullet (thank Bahamut) but Nala does get more than a little splashed with the stuff. The goop splatters move like living things, burning at Nala's scales as they try to slowly eat into her. Thankfully they can just be brushed off. Not nearly as serious as the bullet was.

This is also... kind of good?

Because that cannon was enough to get the abomination's attention full of G'Nichi and Nala. Instead it goes slithering out the door (taking most of the wall around the door with it) to go chasing after the lizard people. There will be more sounds of combat from outside.

Which means G'Nichi has time to get that bullet out and heal Nala.

She doesn't wake up.

But she isn't getting worse, either.

So that's a success!

She'll probably need some actual medical care pretty quick, here. She'll also need to be kept away from those three lizardy aether zombies that just stood up nearby. Looks like the aether bolts have worked their magic on the previously injured (now dead) other people in the restaurant! And as the only living (and non-infected) people remaining inside they all of course head straight for Nala and G'Nichi.

[Deathkeeper]

Sawtooth’s Cove

Intersection will likely arrive on the scene sooner or later which will only intensify the fighting outside. The monster probably resists laser fire but possibly not bullets and friendship-powered assault magic?

Anyway, with Nala somewhat stable G’nichi has some righteous aggression to work out. Namely, by applying sword to zombies. G’nichi doesn’t have formal training with the gladius and proper form wouldn’t work on such creatures anyway. He focuses on harsh chops, letting the sword guide his swings. And both of them working on the explosive pulses of energy on hit.
He should probably conserve those. But he isn’t.

[Rebonack]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

Intersection arriving definitely does not make things go well for the abomination.

It probably also doesn't help that whatever weird magic vitalizes the gloom ponies reacts violently with the corruptive aether power. This isn't great for the ponies, but it also means they can't be possessed or animated by the horrible thing.

So yeah.

Very loud fighting sounds outside.

And lots of zombie wrecking inside.

And Nala contributes by-!

Laying there!

And not dying!

That's about the most that can be expected of her, really.

Hacking down the zombies is mostly without incident, given that all they can really do is shamble around and try biting at G'Nichi. One of them goes for a gross blue goop vomit attack. But otherwise defeating them is a breeze.

Also?

That weird blue portal is still there.

Concerning.

[Deathkeeper]

Sawtooth’s Cove

G’nichi thinks unpleasant thoughts about that vomit attack, blissfully unaware that he’d have a very similar ability had Xeni actually given him the acid breath he’d first imagined before apparently getting sidetracked and giving him a green/red dragon hybrid weapon.

With that taken care of, G’nichi gives the zombies a withering look but when they don’t rise again he goes to examine the portal.
”Can you close it?” he asks his sword as he holds it up.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

At least this answer is fairly straightforward.
Unless it's powered by the souls of the dead, no.

The sword does do her due-diligence and tries to confirm that, though, reaching out for any snaggable souls to mess with.
Just in case.

[Rebonack]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

The portal is the dream of a god.

There are no ghosts inside.

It isn't powered by death, not as such. But rather an alien and hostile form of life.

The portal doesn't appear to be going away and there isn't any obvious means of sealing it. Though, given the strangely spiritual nature of the creatures that were puppeting the corpses there may be other means of making the portal less of a threat. Is either the sword or G'Nichi aware of any means for warding off malignant spirits?

Because if they know any that might be worth a try.

Speaking of malignant spirits, crystal clusters begin crawling out of the ruined zombies. Only little ones, though. Maybe the size of an orange, give or take. They begin working like a team of ants to drag the hacked apart bodies back together. They probably shouldn't be allowed to do this, all things considered. It will probably be notable that the crystal clusters appear to have been fashioned, at least in part, out of the souls of the fallen. Or at least little pieces of them. The sword was nice enough to sever the tormented souls from the bodies while hacking those zombies apart and it appears to have left the resulting aetherials stunted. They should have grown quite a bit larger in the process of totally absorbing the host soul.

Nothing comes out of the portal.

Yet.

Nala continues to breath uneasily. Thankfully she didn't suffer any spiritual decay. The aetherials don't seem to be able to begin devouring someone's soul until they're actually dead.

[Deathkeeper]

Sawtooth's Cove

G'nichi definitely takes a moment to smash the remaining skittering horrors.
Because no one likes skittering horrors, especially when they're near your badly wounded significant other and a bunch of other people.
Nala will PROBABLY be alright once the Intersection medics get past the giant monster and start tending to the remaining people here. Which should be...sooner or later. He can't do too much more on his own.

He doesn't really have any knowledge of evil spirit wards. Or wards in general. He's had to catch up a lot going from civilian to hero in under two years and magic hasn't really been in the curriculum. It's honestly impressive that he can smite and heal at all, though that's basic paladin stuff.
"Blessed Bahamut, Father of Dragons, lend me the grace of your claws that evil might be rent asunder." he whispers, making at least a token attempt to simple cut the portal away with his sword.
At this point trying the simple approach is at least worth the effort, right?

[Chaotic Bob]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

As a possible thought here...we could try establishing the core of a summoning circle around the portal. Not for the purpose of an actual summoning, but for the purpose of containment.
It might be able to restrict things from stepping out of the portal, or at least further than a step or two.
This would normally be for the purpose of restricting a particular potent independent undead, or recalling one from further afield...but its one of the components of necromancy borrowed from other magical branches, so it has a degree of flexibility.

This is assuming G'nichi can't just smite the portal apart.

[Rebonack]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

G'Nichi stabs a riftgate!

The riftgate, which is a dream of a sleeping god intruding into reality. A flicker of the heavenly vault made manifest. A fragment of divine power.

And he decided that stabbing it would be a good place to start.

Letting loose a burst of divine power into the rift, G'Nichi tries his best! His best in this case acts as a beacon of foreign power intruding into Aether and the reaction is not unlike a pathogen sneaking into a body. Since... that is more or less what just happened. There's a pretty good chance that G'Nichi has drawn the attention of worse things.

Which means!

The sword's idea about sealing off the portal?

Maybe a good idea.

Probably should hurry, though.

Outside the battle continues against the abomination!

Goodness.

That thing must be able to take a beating.

[Deathkeeper]

Sawtooth’s Cove

Don’t be silly. He chopped at a riftgate. Stabbing it would just be silly.
Ugh. Fine. I hate portals. Every hero does.
G’nichi will follow the sword’s instructions to hastily scrawl a circle.
If simply cutting one in the ruined carpet isn’t enough they have plenty of salt from the broken shakers strewn about the place to augment the ritual with a salt circle.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Sawtooth's Cove]

For the purposes of this particular brand of magic circle, the shape and an infusion of energy are all that's needed.
The gladius is up to the task of carving into the floor, subtly guiding G'nichi's movements while it imparts the knowledge into his mind.

From there, he just has to impart will into the circle to solidify it into the world.

This one is a fairly basic circle, stripped of most particulars one would want for a summoning or containment of specific entities.
It's just intended to keep most magical forces from crossing its border from within and presenting a wall to non-native entities.

Not the most powerful ward in the world, but being etched by an artifact means its nothing to sniff at.

[Deathkeeper]

Sawtooth’s Cove

With the circle carved and empowered, G’nichi has nothing more to do here.
He does his best to delicately pick up Nala and carry her outside. There are ambulances on the scene to take care of the wounded. The ones who remain that is.
There might have been more wounded and less dead if he had been paying more attention. If he had been willing to help instead of focusing only on the one he loved. If he hadn’t put her in danger by being near her at all.
G’nichi hands the dragonborn to the medics and lets them leave with her. He doesn’t think he should stick around her much for a while. Team Nightmaere and the other Intersection members can handle the portal; he isn’t the right kind of mage for that job. He gives them a brief statement and wanders off.

With nowhere else to go, he heads towards that building he saw in his vision. It had a view of the water so it shouldn’t be too hard to find. It would be easy if he flew but…he’s not ready for that yet. His sour mood prevents him from even enjoying towering over the crowd again.
And of course his mustache has returned to full size.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Sawtooth's Cove -> G'nichi's New Home]

And so begins his next quest, the beginning of a long and winding path to finally have a place to rest his now-oversized head.

Oh wait, nevermind, it's just over there.

A nice little two-story thing, sitting on a short cliff-face overlooking the bay.
A variety of plants and small trees dot its little yard, and there appear to be multiple balconies with a widely opening doors.
The house is broadly painted in a pleasant white, with dark shingles on the roof being the only non-plant contribution of color to the building.

A walkway at the front leads through a small flower garden, up to a porch with a swinging chair and sturdy wooden double doors.

Sitting in the chair, drifting back and forth on its chains and reading something looks suspiciously like a King Arthur retelling novel, Syncope-as-a-human-once-more awaits G'nichi's arrival.

[Deathkeeper]

G’nichi’s new Home

Well it’s certainly nice. G’nichi feels almost out of place carrying a sword and with clothes covered in various kinds of blood and acid holes. Maybe he should see about getting a universal scabbard.
”Hello, Syncope. How’d you land this place? I get the phenomenal cosmic powers but I didn’t know you were in real estate too.” he says as he approaches. Talking to someone instead of being alone in his head (with a sword) might make him feel better.
”And thanks for the assist, of course.”

[Chaotic Bob]

[G'nichi's New Home]

Syncope peers over the top of her book and looks G'nichi over, then gives a (quiet) theatrical sigh.
"Shame. I thought that one looked rather fetching on you."

Her book is snapped closed, the swing stopped, and she gets to her feet. After taking a moment to smooth out a crease in her own pants (in a jacketless suit style outfit today, it seems), she clasps her fingers before her and smiles.
"It's cute that you still think I have cosmic power of any sort.
Anyway, I of course built the house myself. There used to be an old book store on the property, but the owners never passed it down before their own retirement. I stripped it down and rebuilt something I thought would be more to your tastes than a store front."

A fond little pat is given to the railing of the porch, before she reaches over and pushes open the front door.
"Shall we?"

She'll let him enter first, if he would prefer, or lead him around if not.

It's well-lit within, but not due to an abundance of light fixtures. The home has quite a few rather large windows and they're letting ample amounts of sunlight fill the house.

As a general rule, the building features rather large amounts of open space. The halls are wide, the stairs are wide, the ceilings are tall. The lower floor has the expected amount of relaxation spaces, via living, dining, and cooking rooms. Upstairs has a couple of bedrooms, with a rather lavishly constructed bathroom that borders on a pool-that-just-happens-to-have-other-things-nearby.
Green plants are here and there, in pots or hanging from the corners of ceilings as draping decorations.
Comfortable furniture has been supplied everywhere, though none of it is particularly eye catching, merely pleasant.

"There are more clothes in the closet of the first bedroom upstairs, the one with the balcony. They should all fit, but if they are not to your taste I won't be offended.
Similarly, I have made sure the pantry is stocked with general food items, but I imagine you will want other options. I wasn't entirely sure where your palette would be, going forward."

[Deathkeeper]

G’nichi’s New Home

”Well. I’ll take it as a complement that you thought I was fetching at all.” He didn’t really paint her as being into dragons. But she probably still has a sense of aesthetics.
”It’s spiffy for sure. Elegant, kinda. Uh I might take you up on those clothes.”
His enlarged stomach growls loudly at the mention of food. Oh right, he only had one bite of his lunch.
Well. If Syncope lets him out of her sight for a minute he can change and check the fridge for what she left him.

[Chaotic Bob]

[G'nichi's New Home]

He earns an enigmatic smile to his first comment and and agreeable nod to his second.
"Of course, take your time."
Syncope will then wait downstairs while he goes to rummage through the clothing options.

The clothing options amount to a few differently-colored versions of what he wore at the restaurant, along with an arrangement of more formal robes and suits.
It's pretty much just a basic spread of good-quality, but otherwise generic clothes custom tailored to his measurements and (a few of them) complimentary to his color palette.
None of it is likely to be head-turning at a fashion expo or anything, though.

Similarly with the food supply being very basic.
Syncope has perched herself on the counter nearby, observing as he rummages around the food. Sandwich materials. Basic soup and pasta ingredients. Some juices and water. Simple deli meats. Snack foods like chips and cookies. A handful of apples and things that look like carrots, if carrots were both purple and covered in peach-like fuzz.
For some peculiar reason, there is also a basin of peanut shells as well. Not the actual peanuts, just their shells.

"The food in particular was a bit of a rushed acquisition from a nearby marketplace."

[Deathkeeper]

G’nichi’s New Home

G’nichi makes himself a sandwich after dressing himself in a simple white ensemble. Wow, a suit in the closet? He hasn’t ever worn one. His family always defaulted to robes for formal occasions. As before it takes him a couple minutes to get the shirt on as he isn’t used to reaching behind him and doing the buttons. Since he has a guest he refrains from doing any more posing in the mirror.
”Somehow I have trouble imagining you going shopping.” Maybe it’s her tendency to vanish and appear in his dreams and other such esoteric activities.
”So since you were waiting for me I assume you wanted to talk?” he wouldn’t mind talking. Socializing will get his mind off things.

[Chaotic Bob]

[G'nichi's New Home]

There is always time for posing later, G'nichi. Well, unless every mirror going forward explodes before you can use it, but that seems like an oddly specific sort of problem that probably wouldn't actually happen, right?
Right!

There's a mildly dismissive hand-wave from Syncope, before she hops off the counter and invites G'nichi over to the lower balcony, while he eats/they talk. It has a rather lovely view of the bay.
"My life isn't entirely dark dealings and enigmatic messages, thankfully. It gets exhausting after all, constantly playing the part of a spider patiently waiting in the middle of her web."
The way her face flattens just a touch implies a touch of authenticity to the complaint, but how genuine is that?

Her fingers are clasped before her again and then a moment later unclasped to place upon the balcony railing instead.
"But yes, I thought it would be nice to chat in a less...uncomfortable setting? I worry that you would associate me with nothing more than violence and coerced servitude."