Riverside 21: Older than Arkh

[Arkhosia]

[Moth Park]

"You should start shutting your blinds, I bet she's, like, perched in a tree outside your window or something," Ana teases, smirking over at Eliseo.

[Purple Eagle]

[Eastside Park]

"Hmm... was pretty funny, admittedly." Karasu offers a genuine smile. She follows Seraphina and takes a seat beside the woman. "We can always fix that, by walking around the area together until something interesting happens." There's one of those just around the corner too... but food, first.

"So..." Karasu decides to start the process of getting to know one another, even though she suspects this woman to be just as private as she is. Though, she comes off as one of those introverted extroverts, like Dr. Tanaka. "Tell me about yourself, Seraphina?"

The food pack does contain rice, a big piece of fish, and a complimentary bottle of water.

[5a Violista]

[Eastside Park]

Seraphina sets the water aside first, and starts eating. Talking and eating at the same time is somewhat impolite, so she'd rather get Karasu to be talking instead, so that she can eat. "I'm actually pretty boring," she claims. "Not much to know about me. I live on my own, a couple of hours out that way -" she gestures with a nod of her head "- came to the Nexus pretty recently, too. Been to a couple of the villages around, but a bunch of them seem pretty weird."

Oh! "But! I did see something that was pretty interesting just earlier today. There was this giant crab thing. Big enough to be a small mountain. It came out of the ocean and washed up a bunch of shipwrecks, too." She holds her right hand out and shows off the snake-ring. "Found this thing on the beach there."

[UncleWolf]

The Lotus Gardens

Jezebel groans in the bed as she gets up to her elbows and rubs her eyes. She was transformed, but still looked incredibly groggy despite the demonic features. "...I don't think he'd joke about such. Better hurry." She mutters as she crawls out to get dressed in a robe. She doesn't even bother hiding her demonic traits at the moment given she's so out of it unless Cessie prompts her to do so.

In the dining room, Coffee is served with sugar and cream. The serving maid shifts from one foot to another, looking like she's feeling rather awkward around Wenomir as well. She looks entirely mundane, oddly so given the nature of the Gardens and the manor she was working in, but mostly she seemed uncomfortable around Wenomir himself. Tall, lean, callused hands from both blade and pistol...yet she looked like she was entirely unarmed at the moment. The nervous glances at his sword certainly betrayed her wariness if nothing else.

Ms. J Investigation

Jezebel gives a deep sigh of resignation. Well, this was going to be more complicated to explain than she'd prefer. "Bad...yes and no. At the time, choices made felt like the lesser of two evils or for the sake of survival at the core. My sisters may have Fallen to their respective powers, but if I had to call someone bad, I would have to say it is my father. He...orchestrated scenarios to encourage our downfalls. Even now I doubt he's dead. I imagine he'd be in the portrait otherwise." She admits, casting a frown at the family portrait with the lacking father figure. "Though perhaps I am mistaken and it is merely a taint of our bloodline, but I would prefer to believe it was mostly free choice. As for powers...it wasn't about lust for me, Anika. It was about sensation. Pleasure and feeling good was very much a part of it, but I wouldn't say there was anything particularly sexy apart from natural talent." She was being quite a bit more open than she felt she wanted to be, but rather she felt like she needed to be. "The problem Anika is that there's nothing I can probably say to dissuade you from your belief that I'm a succubus." She finally points out. "What proof could I offer? What promises? If you decide I'm lying this entire time, then nothing I say has merit. I'll answer anything you ask regardless though, as entirely truthful and factual as possible from my own understanding. I could take you on an entire guided tour of both my Manor and any place within the Gardens you point to if that's what you wish."

The Empress' Estate

The moment Octavia is dressed, Glahr looms over her, one hand on the wall and pinning her there with her presence rather than touch. There's an excitement to her eyes, a flush to her cheeks, and Glahr's entire body seems to be full of tension like a coil spring ready to leap. Before she can do anything however, she looks at the door a heartbeat before The Empress enters the chamber and closes the door. The handmaiden gestures for Octavia to help for a moment as she moves to wheel an armor rack close and starts to undo straps. "You look quite well now, Octavia. I trust you have found your companion's company reinvigorating?" She asks, knowing amusement in her voice and smile. "And you are right, Glahr will have to take you shopping, but in the morning." She pauses, helping with her own heavy breastplate to set it upon the rack. Afterward she gives a sideways glance at Octavia and smirks. "...make that mid afternoon."

[Morty]

[The Lotus Gardens]

Wenomir (currently unarmed) is... equally awkward and hopes Cessie and Jezebel get here soon after thanking the maid. He can't remember if he's ever met this woman. Was she there when he and Harnetta fought their way through the hotel all those years ago?

[Shadowcaller]

The Lotus Gardens

Cessie pops her head out of the sheets and frowns at Charles. That was even worse than a joke!
Someone had seriously screwed up here and if she was going to find out who as soon as she-
Jezebel should really pay more attention as she nearly managed to pull off the sheet with one of her wings. A terrified yelp later, Cessie just barely managed to hold by clinging to the sheet for her dear decency. As she recovers, she gives Charles an dark glare. "Please leave, I need to get ready." Her wording suggests politeness but in that tone she might as well have insulted his cooking skills in the same breath.

She of course assumes that Jezebel was going to change back as she was getting ready. None of her ordinary clothes would fit with those wings and she couldn't imagine Jezebel fixing herself in the mirror without realizing it. Thus, once Charles have absconded she takes to the other bathroom to get ready and will make sure that nothing on her person is out of place. This grave situation had to be handled with uttermost care.

Ms. J Investigation

Anika blinks, their own father had- what? That's not what father's did at all!
She gives the portrait another look. All the girls looked a bit different. Maybe he wasn't actually their father but had taken them while they were children or something? That would make more sense to her. Whoever he was, he sounded exactly like the kind of person who would consort with demons though. Just awful.

She is about to comment on it when Jezebel switches tone, suddenly berating her. While she should have expected that, she somehow didn't end ends up looking at the floor, scratching her head as she tries to muster up a reply. "I- um... tour please?" She smiles awkwardly.

[Moth Park]

Hekta looks between the two, not believing her ears. "There are no trees big enough you dummies!" She insists while gesturing in the direction of Eliseo's home. "Maybe ey' looked in once..." She raises one claw. "Twice." One more. "But that's just since ey' needed to know what them pointy mommies were hiding in there. Like if they were 'prisoning him or something."

- - - Updated - - -

[Buffet Dungeon]

"Calling dibs is totally fair. Besides you don't use lifesteal stuff," Magdalene replies as she heads into the next room. "If it was a ring that, like, increased your bearness by twenty five percent I would have passed that to you, no questions asked."

Twenty five percent more bear is a lot of bear when you already have a ton of bear like Anika does.

To the second question she just shrugs.

"I dunno I kind of lost track. The world ended when I was little."

She is, in fact, fifteen years old. Though as she said she doesn't really keep track of her age at all. She just knows that it feels like she's been doing this for a long time. Which, from her perspective, is quite true.

Into the next room!

There's a cage in here. Made of creepy bones. And full of people! Several are unconscious but two are awake, looking up at our heroes fearfully.

[Buffet Dungeon]

"My bearness can never exceeded one hundred, duh." That was basic bear math, surely Magda knew that?
Then Magda mentions her young age and Anika decides to switch subjects as quickly as possible as they had already been here once before. "But lifesteal sounds kinda unpleasant honestly. Like, I don't think I'd want any of the life of the things I fight inside of me. Gotta be filters on those things." She gestures at the gauntlets as they walk into the prison cell.

The druid letting out a phew as she sees that some people were okay. "Looks like we're in time." Anika remarks while pointing at the cage. "So is there anything special about that cage or can we just open it up?" There gotta be a reason that they used bones to make it, right?

[Zefir]

[Abonded village]

Fade is not really sure what all of this means. He s not the type who enjoys rythems and such.
"I was send to stop whoever cause the traiuble here, which seems to be you. It has to stop one way or another."

[Recaiden]

[Abandoned Village]

You want to know why we're here? <Ruby then says some very rude things, which shall not be repeated>."
And the dragon-woman takes aim at the rat king (or at least at it's protective shell of giant rats) and holds down the trigger until something forces her to stop, be it the rats, the other heroes, or ultimately the gun overheating.
If she didn't think the King in Rags deserved answers, this monstrosity surely doesn't.

[Gullara]

[Moth Park]

"You should start shutting your blinds, I bet she's, like, perched in a tree outside your window or something," Ana teases, smirking over at Eliseo.

[Moth Park]

Hekta looks between the two, not believing her ears. "There are no trees big enough you dummies!" She insists while gesturing in the direction of Eliseo's home. "Maybe ey' looked in once..." She raises one claw. "Twice." One more. "But that's just since ey' needed to know what them pointy mommies were hiding in there. Like if they were 'prisoning him or something."

[Moth Park]

Eliseo just stares at her for a second, and then shakes his head. "You were actually poking around my house. You're lucky Irena never saw you doing that. She takes security seriously." Extremely seriously. "Nobody really likes people snooping around their house."

[Purple Eagle]

[Eastside Park]

Seraphina sets the water aside first, and starts eating. Talking and eating at the same time is somewhat impolite, so she'd rather get Karasu to be talking instead, so that she can eat. "I'm actually pretty boring," she claims. "Not much to know about me. I live on my own, a couple of hours out that way -" she gestures with a nod of her head "- came to the Nexus pretty recently, too. Been to a couple of the villages around, but a bunch of them seem pretty weird."

Oh! "But! I did see something that was pretty interesting just earlier today. There was this giant crab thing. Big enough to be a small mountain. It came out of the ocean and washed up a bunch of shipwrecks, too." She holds her right hand out and shows off the snake-ring. "Found this thing on the beach there."

[Eastside Park]

"Everyone says that. Could be someone that is the coolest thing ever, too, from your POV." Karasu responds to Seraphina's assertion that she's boring. "I'd have said I was, but apparently having powers, natural cybernetics and non-white sclera isn't an everyday type of human."
"Unless..." She turns and peers at Seraphina, trying to maybe get a glimpse of what's up that mask. "... are you from earth-prime? Y'know, the boring earth that everyone else is apparently based on... or so I hear, at least?" She's starting to seem more interested. "How're you coping with all the Nexus weirdness?"

And then she talks about the interesting thing she saw, which is only made interesting by the shipwrecks and the snake ring, especially. "Do you know what it does? Should make sure, in case it turns out to be cursed or something."

[5a Violista]

[Eastside Park]

"The fact that you call them 'powers' proves that you think they're not boring," Seraphina asserts. 'Powers' isn't something you call something that everyone can do so much that it's completely normal and unexpected. Someone who's born on a high-gravity planet doesn't consider their super strength to be a 'power', she thinks, for example.

Oh, right, she remembered that she was eating, not talking. She quickly shovels food into her mouth to remove the temptation to talk.
There's no mask.
Trying to look so closely under Seraphina's hood makes her turn away. It's embarrassing having someone look at your face so intently! Especially when your mouth is full.

She swallows. "I'm not a mole-person or a mud person or a golem or whatever else you think I am," Seraphina replies. "But, um, maybe you could say I'm from the earth? I guess? I've always thought it was really weird how everyone said that when they were clearly born from their mother, but I suppose that's a saying people sometimes use."

She puts more food in her mouth. Guess you'll have to wait until she swallows again for her to answer the question.
She swallows.
"Not sure what you're trying to say with 'coping', but. . ."
Seraphina holds out her right hand, the one with the snake ring, to show it off with all her fingers outstretched. "What's it do? Obviously, it looks good, don't you think? That's what it does."

[Purple Eagle]

[Eastside Park]

"Forgot to mention: been in the Nexus for years now. Know what people call my talent, thus, only used that word so you'd know what I was talking about. Back home, we call 'em special/unique talents." Karasu explains, correcting Seraphina and giving her time to shovel more food into her mouth.

Her eyes narrow and her back slumps a bit in an expression that says 'really?!' when Seraphina mistakes 'from earth' to mean 'mud person'. "Come on, you know what I mean: from the planet Earth, or the original version of it anyway." To think she'd meet someone more literal-minded than her. That is, unless Seraphina's making another joke... but this one sails cleanly past her head.

It does make her stop trying to catch a better glimpse of Seraphina's face, however. Most of her own face is rather visible even under the hoodie, it's only fair that Seraphina shows hers to Karasu!

"Most people like the weirdness of the Nexus, but some find it hard to get used to. Where do you fall on the spectrum?" She clarifies her question, then peers at the ring. "Looks pretty, yes, but... Sera - if I can call you that - random rings in the Nexus are usually magic. Ever played DnD, or video games? Like that. Betting this one does stuff. Should take it to a shop to get it identified. Should be one close by." Her magic-sensing skill honed, she studies the ring to see if any power emanates from it.

[Shadowcaller]

Spoiler: Quotes

Show

Abandoned Village

"I was hired by KABAL, to take the bounty on rat tails. The rats have been eating the food of those above, the ones who are not rats, by any measure." Flicker has very little sympathy for the homeless that have been abducted and mutilated so; being a native of Skyside has jaded and hardened her heart to the suffering of others.

[Abandoned Village]
Over there

Oh. Well, it all seems to be...over? ish?
There's way too many different ways she could answer that king-person, so Holly turns to Jaahlyn and asks, "So are you the servant or are you the pretender?" She thinks she knows which one refers to which of them, but she could see it going either way.

She looks back towards the village.
"I hope he can hear us from here because I'm not in the mood to go all the way into there just to answer this question that should be obvious anyway." Since she doesn't know which of the events that led her here that that person wants answered, she decides just to be safe to go through all of the steps.
Holly puts her hand on her hip. One of the places the rats targeted the most were the slums like where she lives, so, "The rats were hurting my neighbors and I didn't want to hear their kids going hungry again, so I decided to help out. Then the rats threatened to do worse, so I decided to stop what was making the rats do that. Then they hurt the people with me, and now I was told to make sure everyone gets back safely." And that's why she's there, even though she's only had a handful of hours of sleep this week.

[Abandoned Village]

As if there's any reason to trust this thing. Archera stands on guard, ready to move at a moment's notice. That said, she has think think about protecting this child more than anything, and she's running out of gas quickly. Whether or not attacking this thing again is the right thing to do, it's in her best interest to stall for time and understand the situation better.

"Nobody should be terrorized by what you're doing, no matter who they are. That's why I'm here to stop you." She declares, firm in her convictions.

[Abonded village]

Fade is not really sure what all of this means. He s not the type who enjoys rythems and such.
"I was send to stop whoever cause the traiuble here, which seems to be you. It has to stop one way or another."

[Abandoned Village]

You want to know why we're here? <Ruby then says some very rude things, which shall not be repeated>."
And the dragon-woman takes aim at the rat king (or at least at it's protective shell of giant rats) and holds down the trigger until something forces her to stop, be it the rats, the other heroes, or ultimately the gun overheating.
If she didn't think the King in Rags deserved answers, this monstrosity surely doesn't.

[Abonded village]

"You know why I am here, your majesty." Despite the fact they can barely see one another from this distance Jaahlyn feels the need to bow before the malformed creature, but her voice betrays nothing but spite for it.

The rat king just look back at her with a grin however, showing a row of blackened rotting teeth that would be more at home within the mouth of a cadaver than any living creature. A unpleasant sight for each person that answers the question as it turns to look at them until only Irena and Ruby has left it unanswered.
As Irena has been quiet for this entire time, spending in on reloading her weapons rather than answering, the king turns to Ruby almost at the same time as she opens fire on it.

The first shot hits it right in the head, causing it to let out a loud screech and stumble backwards into the smoke that's still raising up around it. But as Ruby continues shooting the other rats are there to take the hits and soon a laugh can be heard echoing across the village. "Yeess! Just one... remains!" The rat king suddenly emerges from the smoke and in a single leap it crosses the distance and lands right in front of Irena. While looks like it was just about to attack her it instead just stands there looming over her, tilting its head slightly as it seems to be expecting a reply.

She barely even flinches but still drops her guns, though only to replace them with a sword as black as oil which just seem to materialize in her hand from thin air. "****. You!" She screams while then proceeding to drive the blade right into the creatures chest.

"Good... enough..." The rat king coughs up more of the yellow pus which seems to make up its internals while gripping the sword Irena stabbed it with while it stumbles backwards. From this up close they can see that there's not only a hole in its chest but through its head too and the pus is pouring out of them like blood. "You will be... judged now..." The rat king gestures at them all before it collapses in a way that makes it look like a elegant bow.
It appears dead yet words can still be heard coming through its mouth despite it no longer moving. "Just remember... this lesson, be nice... to... your rats..."

At this point the giant rats that haven't already been killed start to kill one another. Exposing one another's throats and essentially committing suicide as the king collapses dead on the ground.

[Earl of Purple]

Abandoned Village

As the rats start to kill themselves, Flicker just shrugs and pulls out a combat knife. She's going to wait until they're all dead and then start harvesting as many giant rat tails as she can. It's why she's here, and hopefully the bounty is bigger for the larger tails.

She's not particularly worried about being judged, or the death of the Rat King. The gunfire made her jump, a little, and teleport-dash a few metres back, because it caught her by surprise. But it's not aimed at the supervillain, and she's pretty sure she hasn't upset anyone in Riverside enough that they'd arrest or kill her. Well, maybe those trolls.

[5a Violista]

[Eastside Park]

Calling it a talent - especially special or unique - is also a word you wouldn't use if you consider it boring or plain, Seraphina also thinks, as she chews on food.

"I thought I knew what you meant," Seraphina says, "but I guess I didn't. But, seriously, Earth? That's seriously the worst name for a planet that I've ever heard. It's like calling your star 'Fire' or moons 'Rock' or 'Ice' or 'Water' or 'Lava' or something."
She pauses, and looks over at Karasu (especially since she doesn't have any food in her mouth right now).
(Her face looks...like a normal face. Red hair. Looks the same as June's, but Karasu hasn't met June so that's an awful reference point.)
"..."
"People don't actually do that, do they? I would seriously lose faith in humanity if that's true."

"No, don't call me Sarah, that's my sister-in-law's name. Just stick with my own name, please," she says. The ring does not have any power emanating from it, especially not magic power. "Still don't really get what you mean by 'spectrum', but. . .well, cultists are weird. Mountain-sized crabs are weird. Eerily creepy villages are weird, too. But the train's nice."
Seraphina brings the ring closer to look at it again.
"Yeah, but most places would probably charge money to identify it, and there's no point in identifying it if I'm just going to wear it. I'd feel all weird if they told me something that it was special, or if it was actually valuable or something. Not sure if I want to have to deal with all that."


Abandoned Village

Holly wasn't able to stop the rats from killing each other earlier, when she tried capturing some, and so she doesn't see how intervening here could help.

She turns to Jaahlyn, to turn away from it all.
"So...what do you think of all of that?" she asks. She keeps her shotgun out, just in case it looks like she might need it, but keeps it pointed down at the ground.

[Morty]

[Abonded village]

Amalungak can see that this might be his only chance to get out of here without being captured. It's a slim chance, but he has to take it. He leaves the hut and makes a run for the nearest exit. However, he's still bound, isn't very athletic at the best of times and it's entirely possible to stop and capture him.

[Arkhosia]

Moth Park

As soon as Hekta comments on the size of trees around the Suncrest manor, Anastasia jumps to her feet. "Aha! I knew it!" The trap she'd set had worked as planned! "Are you sure all your snooping isn't exactly what's having them keep him up in his room all the time? And like, what things were you even looking for in there anyways?" A bit of hypocrisy in her accusing Hekta of trying to steal from the Rizzos, but hey.

[Gullara]

[Abonded village]

Archera recoils away from the rat as the gunfire sounds. She puts a protective hand over the child's head and takes the chance to puts some extra distance between it and her. Quicker than she can do anything else, though, it's over. She looks around warily, and although there's gruesome activity, there's nothing she identifies as a threat.

She steps forward again, up behind Irena. "Irena." She whispers. "Neither of us should linger." There's still one more risk here, and there's been enough of it for one night. Besides, she also has an orphaned child in her arms, and she still has to figure out how to resolve that situation.

[Purple Eagle]

[Eastside Park]

Karasu glances at Seraphina, wondering why she cares so much about what a planet's called. "Name's not bad. It's the 'earth' part we live on, even if the planet is over 80% water. Other names are Gaia, Terra or 'the globe', but everyone calls it Earth. How that's worse than people naming planets after pagan gods eludes me." She just stares back blankly at the woman, then laughs. "Ah, I see, another joke. Cos people naming planets unimaginatively isn't a reason to lose faith in humanity. Got me again, that time. Sorry, jokes tend to fly over my head." And the fact that she found that funny means her sense of humour might be weird from Seraphina's POV.

((Everyday's great at your Junes!))

"Meant S-E-R-A. Y'know, the first 4 letters of your name? If you insist, though..." The black teen clarifies as she pulls out a granola bar from her inventory and starts eating it. The manner in which she does so might interest the redhead seeing as it's so video-gamey: a holographic screen emanates from her wrist, she goes to inventory and physically pulls out the selected item, which then materializes in her hand. "Always is like that at first. You'll get used to it eventually. For the most part, that is."

She looks at the ring again, then at the other one, in case that's the magic one. "Gotcha. Weird rings you find lying around are a dime-a-dozen, and they usually have some sort of effect. Unless the magic's inside you, or it's tech... can't see anything special about it, magically." She concludes, then munches on some more granola. "As for me, I'm training to be a field medic. Got any illnesses or pains? Could help."

[Zefir]

[Abandoned Village]

Fade watches the rats killing themself while he puts his sword back. There is no need to do more then nessesary and the rats seem to fullfill the task rather well. As he turns back to talk to the dragonborn he notice a person running away. Not that he saw him befor and the fact that he is bound is also strange.

"Hey guy! Stop right there." Fade shouts at Amalungak walking straight at him.

[Arkhosia]

Spoiler

Show

The Empress' Estate

The moment Octavia is dressed, Glahr looms over her, one hand on the wall and pinning her there with her presence rather than touch. There's an excitement to her eyes, a flush to her cheeks, and Glahr's entire body seems to be full of tension like a coil spring ready to leap. Before she can do anything however, she looks at the door a heartbeat before The Empress enters the chamber and closes the door. The handmaiden gestures for Octavia to help for a moment as she moves to wheel an armor rack close and starts to undo straps. "You look quite well now, Octavia. I trust you have found your companion's company reinvigorating?" She asks, knowing amusement in her voice and smile. "And you are right, Glahr will have to take you shopping, but in the morning." She pauses, helping with her own heavy breastplate to set it upon the rack. Afterward she gives a sideways glance at Octavia and smirks. "...make that mid afternoon."

The Empress's Estate

It's a bit difficult of a pose to achieve considering Octavia will have gotten dressed on the bed itself, but that might be to Glahr's advantage - after all, there's something even more daringly implicating about looming over someone vertically instead. It'll certainly make her quarry blush all the same as anticipation steals the breath from her lungs, nervous, surprised and eager, her back flattened against whatever surface is behind her. Unfortunately, the Empress's entrance kind of kills the mood - the elf's face flushes with embarrassment as she moves to assist, doing her best despite a clear unfamiliarity with whatever latches and buckles affixed her leader's armor. The ones she can reliably reach, at least.

"U-um, yes, that's- it has warmed my spirits, yes," She answers, doing her best to remove a pauldron. "I guess we, um, have a great deal of catching up to do." A glance back over at Glahr and a glow in her cheeks is enough to broadcast that she understands the Empress's meaning. "A-and you will have to tutor me on this strange land we have found ourselves in.'

[Rebonack]

[Buffet Dungeon]

"Yeah but what if you meet a monster with a 50% bearness debuff?" Magdalene challenges. "Then you would need extra bearness to shrug it off."

Magdalene has found herself in that situation before.

Except with fire resistance.

Not bearness.

"I think it all gets fed to the Hart and then some power comes back down the line to me," Magdalene explains. "That's why I'm hungry all the time."

She goes actually get to eat any of the things she eats. All goes to the bottomless hunger of the Hart.

"We can just smash these things open," Magdalene says as she crunches the lock with the edge of her shield, allowing the door to swing open. "C'mon, everyone out of here."

Normally Magdalene would use a rift to portal someone back to town but those haven't been working quite right in the Nexus so she's just going to have to walk these folks out of the dungeon.

"What about the people they took?" asks a fearful looking man as he exists the cage.

Judging from Magdalene's expression the answer isn't great.

[Morty]

[Abandoned Village]

Amalungak doesn't seem to have any intention of stopping. He turns to try and run around Fade. But he doesn't do anything except run, so Fade might well be able to intercept or stop him.

[Recaiden]

As it's all ending, Ruby nods to Irena. She was the only other one who had the right idea.

Then she turns and picks her way through the abandoned village towards Jaahlyn. This all went down faster than she'd been expecting.
The awful rat thought it was teaching them a lesson, but (as Ruby thinks is usually the case for awful giant spirit monsters) was a bit cryptic about it.
Obviously it was a servant of the King in Rags, mistreated, who then visited that same mistreatment on the city's rats as a sort of protest. But it was all endorsed by the king himself, part of his fey theatrics. To what end, she can't figure out.
"So. What's the way back out of here?"

[5a Violista]

[Eastside Park]

"Yeah, I know what you meant, but 'Sera' still isn't my name." It's a big deal, calling someone by something that is neither their name nor a nickname.

The other ring isn't magic either.
It's just a pink-and-black ring.
"I've never seen a weird magic ring before just laying around. If there were a magic ring, you'd think someone would take better care of it."
She lowers her hand since there's no point in looking at the rings anymore.

Seraphina leans back and looks up. Not far enough to make her hood fall down, of course, since then it's a pain to put it back up.
Does she have any illnesses or pains?
She purses her lip to think.
"Nope, I got nothing," she says. Even if she had, like, a sprained ankle, she probably wouldn't bring it up because it's not really a big deal anyway. Would heal on its own.

[UncleWolf]

The Empress' Estate

Glahr slips behind Octavia to help lift the pauldron, and despite the clumsiness, The Empress herself is very patient and keeps still to lessen the difficulty of the tasks. The metal is finger-numbingly cold and the thin layer of rime makes it slick. The entire set of armor could be tricky to handle if she weren't careful, and there was always a chance of dropping a piece upon one's own toes. Thankfully The Empress is on the watch for such. Once the armor is half off and their Matriarch's helm is removed, Glahr gives their Empress a look, seeming to say something wordlessly through their bond that makes The Empress smile in amusement. "Glahr says that much of the world here seems ignorant and caught up in their vices, so you should be able to fit right in."

She takes the rest of her armor off herself, bending down to unlatch the legs and boots, and much like the breastplate those pieces would have been a struggle for most to lift off the ground let alone place them upon the rack with the rest of her armor. Beneath all that heavy regal armor however is a set of roughly hewn cotton trousers and tunic that even a commoner would be hard pressed to say is of good quality. The important thing is the woman who wears it however. The worn cloth does little to hide the sculpted muscles, dark weathered skin, and large frame. A large frame that reaches down to try and scoop both Glahr and Octavia both up to her shoulders just for a bit of fun before falling back onto the bed with a spin. The bit of fun turns into a tired sigh as The Empress lays back and closes her eyes. "The last time all three of us were in a room together, I was hardly over half your height. Even if I can not afford the luxury of calling you both friends, I am indeed glad to see you here."

The Ms. J Investigation

Jezebel gives a sigh and reaches up to rub her face, regretting her choice of words and tone for the moment. "A moment before we do. You're not entirely wrong, Anika." She finally concedes. "You're right in that I am keeping a secret, but it most definitely is not being a succubus." She points out, backing up a step and taking a look around her feet to make sure she's in the clear and won't knock anything over. She rolls her shoulders and seems to shrug out of her current form, stretching her wings out from where they seemed to hide under her back and twisting her neck a bit as if soothing a tight muscle. "Unless, of course, succubi where you're from are fully capable of throwing boulders." For a very brief moment she's naked, but it takes just a bit of effort for an elegant toga to cover her. "But to me, there's little difference between being able to do this and your own shapeshifting. And the only reason it's been a secret is because I still need to figure out what all I can do like this."

The Lotus Gardens

Charles is already well on his way out the door when Cessie gets after him, but his snickering is impossible to miss. "Just let it go. He's allowed to have a bit of fun now and then. Can't say I didn't appreciate the extra sleep." Jezebel points out, using a hot facecloth to wake herself up and clean up. She gives Cessie the bathroom to freshen up, using her nightstand to do it on her own. "I'll give you a few moments, but I'll go and greet Wenomir." She says through the door before departing. Much to Cessie's common sense, Jezebel at least shifts back as she summons forth clothing. Despite the effort required for the former, she didn't want to put in extra for the latter.

When she arrives in the dining room, Wenomir will see a fairly groggy Jezebel shuffle her way in and head right for a cup of ReCaff set out for her. At the very least she's dressed, wearing dark brown slacks and a flashy white long-sleeved blouse complete with ruffled collar and wrists. "Sorry for the wait. It seems mischief is on the mind of my staff this morning. Though if it is ever a true emergency, you've my permission to always run straight back and hammer at the door. Propriety be damned."

[Purple Eagle]

[Eastside Park]

"Yeah, I know what you meant, but 'Sera' still isn't my name." It's a big deal, calling someone by something that is neither their name nor a nickname.

The other ring isn't magic either.
It's just a pink-and-black ring.
"I've never seen a weird magic ring before just laying around. If there were a magic ring, you'd think someone would take better care of it."
She lowers her hand since there's no point in looking at the rings anymore.

Seraphina leans back and looks up. Not far enough to make her hood fall down, of course, since then it's a pain to put it back up.
Does she have any illnesses or pains?
She purses her lip to think.
"Nope, I got nothing," she says. Even if she had, like, a sprained ankle, she probably wouldn't bring it up because it's not really a big deal anyway. Would heal on its own.

[Eastside Park]

"Not big on nicknames, huh?" Comes Karasu's response, then she shrugs. "Okay, I get it: sticking with the mouthful." She looks at the rings some more, finding them pretty once she's sure there's no more to them.

Seraphina does make a good point, however: usually, weird magic rings just lying there usually not found outside dungeons. "True... usually in dungeons, not just laying around. Sometimes, it's the case, but that's rarer. Sense no power in them, so keep rocking those rings."

"Good." The younger girl says once Seraphina mentions having nothing wrong with her. "Let's tour the area once you're done eating. Still gotta shop for my girlfriend. Could talk about life in our worlds before coming to the Nexus, too, if you want. F'rinstance, what you did before getting here, how you got here, what you do now etc."

[Morty]

[The Lotus Gardens]

Oh, thank the dead gods. Jezebel is here and Wenomir can stop feeling so awkward and out of place. To business.

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that." Because he remembers distinctly what happened last time he interrupted Cessie and Jezebel. Well, Anika did the interrupting, but one wonders what he might have walked in on if she hadn't broken the door. "I know I'm coming on short notice, but I got an offer from Tellysandra, one of the leaders of KABAL, during the party. One I didn't expect."

[5a Violista]

[Eastside Park]

The absurdity of what Karasu just said is pretty funny, Seraphina thinks. She can't help but give out an involuntary burst of laughter. She quickly covers her mouth to stop food from coming out of her mouth.

"Sorry, it was just too funny, saying I don't like nicknames and then promptly saying you'll just stick with using my nickname."

Seraphina nods and removes her hand so she can finish eating. She starts eating a little too fast.

Eating makes it hard to talk, so after swallowing she asks, "What sort of stuff are you looking for?" before immediately getting back to scarfing down the food.

[Shadowcaller]

The Ms. J Investigation

Anika raises an eyebrow at Jezebel's odd statement at first but then she gets curious what kind of juicy secret could she-

Then the wings appeared.

OHELUNESHEWASADEMON!

Pretty nice rack though.

BUT A DEMON!

"I knew it all along!" Anika boasts with an accusatory finger pointed at Jezebel, if that WAS her real name!
"Did... did you kill the real Jezebel or something?" She inquires while backing into a corner of the room as her eyes paranoidly looks around the room for demonic minions. The demon had revealed itself to her, that meant she was gonna get killed! "Or was there ever one? Tell me your evil scheme!" That's what usually happened so she might learn that at least.

The Lotus Gardens

Cessie will take some further time to get ready so Jezebel and Wenomir will have some time to catch up with all the awkwardness that comes with it.

[Abandoned Village]

Jaahlyn lets out a sigh of relief as the rats has started to kill one another. "They are fey, miss." She remarks as she turns to Holly. "Wished to teach you a lesson, to send a message. 'Do not mistreat those underneath you', which is exactly what they did. But that's the point. They embodied what you shouldn't be." She shrugs. "What matters is that the ratties and the people will be safer now with them gone so you can return from wherever you came and tell them that the beast have been slain."

However, those people who came in close contact with any of the giant rats or their corpses (like Flicker when she started cutting off their tails) might become infected by one (or more) of six different mind diseases that would start to affect them without hours or days.
They could be infected by the following ailments if the player believe it would be interesting (either pick one or roll a D6):

1. Dream Disease Having difficulty to tell dreams and reality apart after waking up as well as a powerful urge to make their own dreams come true.
2. Rat Plague Causes the person to desire to become more rat-like as well as developing a deep fondness for them.
3. King's Madness The infected develops an urge to become a ruler of some sort and acts in a increasingly dominating fashion towards those around them. They will start to desire to usurp their superiors if any. If they already are a ruler, they will become far more ambitious.
4. Filth Sickness Causes either a deep revulsion of filth to the point the infected can't stand to be near anything that could possibly make them filthy OR a deep fascination or even attraction to what or who they perceive as "filthy".
5. Rhyme Disorder Causes the person to often speak in rhymes (or just rhyme very poorly) and act in a overly theatrical manner as would be benefiting a stage play. The infected is unable to notice their own speak pattern and behavior.
6. Sympathy Affliction The infected becomes unreasonably sympathetic towards their subordinates or a person, animal or even object which is dependant on them such as a child or a pet. For example, allowing them to do whatever they want or starting to give them gifts or help them out to the point where they are endangering themselves.

All diseases can be cured in a way the infected characters players feel is reasonable. If you need ideas I can always provided them by PM however (or just message me in discord). Said diseases are not exactly normal so if immunity to normal diseases applies to not are up to the players.

"Shhh! Not so loud!" Irena hisses back as she glances around them. She does give Ruby a quick nod back though. Seemed they thought alike when it came to this. "Can't let these people know my name." But then she simply nods in agreement. They should really get out of here now. Thankfully the baby seems to be so exhausted that not even the fight woke her up. They are likely extremely hungry too however so they better feed her soon.
Irena does gesture for the route they took out of here. "This way." She informs Ruby.

There is nothing that stops anyone in the party from simply leaving at this point unless they wish to go deeper down or remain in these tunnels of course. Some of the party have already met some of the creatures that dwell down here.

Of course, there's still a certain elf to deal with as Fade has just found out...

[Buffet Dungeon]

"Everyone knows you can't divide bear numbers, Magda." She holds up her index finger. "See? One bear, like I am. How can you divide that without splitting my finger? It can't be done!"

Then she stops in front of the cage and glances at Magda. "Seriously? Wow, that sucks. Can't you do anything about it?"

But rather than waiting for a reply she will help Magda with bringing out the prisoners out of the cage. The man's question causes her pause however. "Was there anyone you knew, dude? We could have a look around if you give us a description of them or whatever they were wearing."

[Moth Park]

"Ey'm invisible, okay?!" Hekta insists as she gestures around wildly with her claws before simply crossing them over her chest. "'i'ma just walking around all casual but, ah, since ey'm invisible people say I sneak. Totally unfair." She insists despite it not really being the point.
But Anastasias accusation of stealing causes the demon to glare down at her which might cause a mild headache if she stares into Hekta's eyes for too long. "Stealing?! Ey' ain't a thief. Just findin' things occasionally, but ey' never found anything there. Why're you askin'? You missin' something? Since ey' could find it for ya'." She gestures at herself. "Thief-finder is what ey' am. Best in the city in fact."