Riverside 21: Older than Arkh

[5a Violista]

[Ground Level with Riverside]

Leah has a really good point: only an escaped interplanar convict would dare dress that way.

The liongirl is completely ready for hitting the ground, when suddenly a ramp appears beneath her. She is caught on the ramp and rolls down it. Luckily, leather jackets have excellent abrasion resistance, which basically protects all her upper body (including her head when she brings her arms up) from cuts and bruises from rolling down the ramp. (Sadly, the same can't be said for her legs.)

Meanwhile, the robot -- because it's only half a robot, it's missing its best tracking system -- also hits a ramp. Not willing to lose this opportunity, it continues charging and fires an explosive energy beam in the direction where it assumes the liongirl is. It assumed the ramp was less steep than it actually was, and ends up firing a little too high - plus, blowing apart the ramps between them would require a lot of energy, weakening the blast and also causes some blowback that damages parts of the robot. After that, it needs a little time to reorient itself, and get around the wall-like ramp. The robot shifts into a thinner form that has four legs, figuring that would be optimal on this ground.

The liongirl rolls to a stop and is successfully not hit by the beam, thanks to the ramps. She pushes herself up to her feet, and whacks her wand against her other hand, to make sure it's still working. A pink spark comes out of it, which may or may not be a sign of it working. Now that she has gracefully(?) landed, she can move on to the next-most important things. Second matter of business: find what caused the ramp and if it's hostile or not; third matter of business, stop the robot.

She looks around and spots Leah. Ah! That definitely looks like someone who could make ramps from the ground.
Acting like she didn't just fall out of the sky and rough up her legs, she winks to acknowledge her and says, "Thanks for the assist."

[Gullara]

[Suncrest Manor]

"...'kay." Irena concedes before disappearing into the living room, but not before giving Itizi one lingering glare.
The little woman doesn't seem to even notice though as her big eyes are now focusing on Nadia.

"Relationship? Oh no, no, no. Well, not more than you would have with any, ah... elf child." She doesn't wait to be corrected on that however and continues. "I am a warden, meaning that I protect my people from all sort of outside threats. This means that I sometimes have to come up to sky-side, as in where you live, for various reasons. One of those reasons is to collect persons who have gotten lost up here. Like this child. As the parents are... gone, I'd leave it to someone else to track down any remanining relatives once I get back to Norwick. Assuming there are any of course, usually families are all packed up in a single village as it's pretty dangerous to travel below."

[Suncrest Manor]

Nadia takes that in and considers it for a moment. "How do I know you are what you say you are? This child's suffered a lot of tragedy today. I'd like to spare her from any more." She explains.

[MERCing Alleyway]

"Really now?" So they entered the city without even a plan to reach the organization which was technically supposed to arrest on them on the spot? "Well, I'm glad you've put so much trust in us then. The truck should be here at any moment so don't worry. Once our business is concluded we'll have it drive you out of the city too."

Now Zhareen turns to Korrina. "See, Korrina? I told you they could be trusted."

Then a few minutes late the van arrives and gives them a quick ride up to the headquarters.

---

The two will then be escorted up to Dena's office once again. Doesn't seem like she want either of them without supervision for even a few seconds considering there was a MERC member with them inside the back of the van too.

The gorgon is now once again seated behind her desk and smiles as they enter. "Now then, what exactly can I do for you two?"

"Well..." Zhareen looks to Korrina to see if she wanted to take this.

[MERCing Alleyway]

Korrina settles back into her seat, happy to be off her feet again. She exchanges the look with Zhareen and then shrugs. "We're looking for information on the recent rat infestation that plagued Riverside. Given your position here, we assume you would have that information. And given your business model, we expect you will sell it. Are we on the right track?"

[UncleWolf]

Spoiler

Show

[Lotus Gardens]

"Your appearance doesn't concern me. Other things do. Our members... I don't know how they'll react to this." Wenomir sighs heavily. "Maybe if Cessie and I assure them that you're still to be trusted, we can smooth it over. For now we should talk about the reason I came here... Tellysandra's offer."

[Underhill Draconic Branch Museum]

Camera footage is missing? This doesn't sound like a coincidence. Definitely a priority lead. Fayyaad is silent for a moment, as Cassandra has asked the question he was going to ask.

[Lotus Gardens]

Speaking of Cessie, there she is and without as much as a hair out of place. All that time in the bathroom really did help.
Though just as she seems to belive she has a handle on the situation she is left staring at a bewinged Jezebel and slowly, perhaps reduclantly, shift her gaze over to Wenomir.
"I see that I was left out of this reveal." She finally remarks after several moments of silence.

Ms. J. Investigation

The communicators were made for two things, to be essentially unbreakable and be able to send signals even across different dimensions if they had to. How that translates into Jezebel investigating one I'm not sure but the auspex should at least give her a confirmation that there's no foreign listening devices implanted into it.

Anika just tilts her head in confusion though as Jezebel is prodding at the device.
Then she raises her palms. "Whoa, whoa, you're saying that walking around with just tiny horns is like walking around with a tight skirt? Damn, girl. Unless I was trying to really impress, I'd never wear a tight skirt and you've been wearing one all this time?!" A pause.

"Wait, is that's what this is about? Are you trying to impress miss C by looking human? Since honestly, I've seen plenty of humans and no offense, but... you got a whooping tail." Anika gestures at it with both hands. "You ain't fooling no one, lady. Like you said, you got those demon parts already. You really think C-command is gonna mind some wings if she's getting tailed already? I've been with people with a tail before and let me tell you, it's a wild ride. Besides, lady C is clearly into the chests, I've seen her looks, and you added like a cup-size? You must be crazy to still wear that tight shirt. You're gonna get demon accused either way is what I'm saying so just embrace it."

She shrugs. "Anyway, as for shapeshifting, I don't know anything about your kind. I turn into animals by channeling ancient spirits, J-bell. Not really the same thing as, uh, whatever you're doing. Probably not the same thing at least."

Lotus Gardens

"I have a plan that might make things easier to bear." Jezebel explains with a small shrug. "In a couple days I will be holding a small televised press conference about the goals of the Gardens going forward. I imagine it would be quite relevant to Vigil. And while I do share many of the same concerns, I believe I might be able to reassure many of those who have issues with those who appear demonic, or at the very least guilt them into taking a moment to think about it a little deeper. I guarantee I won't be able to convince everyone, but it is what it is and what may come may come." She seems a bit relaxed about it before giving Cessie a small embarrassed smile. "Sorry if you were wishing to be here during the reveal, but I figured it'd be better to rip off the proverbial bandage. At the very least I have yet to be stabbed or hit by a door." Tea is already set out for Cessie, thankfully made by someone other than Jezebel herself.

She takes a deep breath before finally letting it out as she shifts her seat and seems to let out stress. "What was it that Tellysandra is actually wanting?" She asks. Nonchalantly, as if it weren't a big deal at all, or perhaps to try and lighten the mood, Jezebel shifts her form once again. She shrinks fairly rapidly and ends up hoisting herself up onto the edge of the table to stay above it while listening and drinking her ReCaff. Thankfully that at the very least she keeps ahold of her clothing, although it becomes nearly scandalously depleted compared to the dress from before just in the shift to cover a smaller body. In barely a few sips of ReCaff, the tall warrior woman has turned decidedly more impish. Hardly four feet in height including her lengthened spike-like horns, Jezebel somehow keeps an entirely straight face as she takes another sip of "breakfast". Shorter legs, thicker thighs...her stomach was even more defined however as her abs looked chiseled. Her stomach wasn't the only muscled portion either as her arms, all four of them, were sculpted like a rock climber's. The second set of arms sprouts from behind her shoulders, much like her wings from before though she doesn't look capable of flight here. They looked like they could crush rock if given a chance.

Ms. J Investigation

Jezebel can't hold in a snicker at the comments, before finally letting loose a laugh and smile. "I suppose that referring to my human shape as being like a tight skirt is an appropriate metaphor. And dear Warp no, I'm not doing it to impress Cessie. I'm more than fully aware of how attractive she finds me no matter my appearance and I consider myself to be the luckiest woman in the world over it." She admits, still smiling even as she has to wipe her eyes dry a bit. "And I do accept it, but that doesn't mean I can't worry about what sort of issues it may cause to those around me. I was born into a world where unknowing affiliation with the daemonic could be cause for death. Precaution has been learned the hard way and I would seek to avoid people who hate demons deciding to break down my door to come after my family or Charles. Or worse, Cessie's family. I have seen what blind dogmatic zeal and hatred can drive people to do." Her tone is deathly serious and the smile falls as she thinks about it before eventually shaking her head.

"But I do know it will come out sooner rather than later, and that's part of why I revealed it to you and plan to do a more public one in just a little longer. If you've any doubts remaining though, I would ask you take a look outside at the Gardens again, towards the shattered Chapel. Buried alongside all the mortals are no small number of daemons who died in the defense of Riverside. Truly died, not mere banishment. It's their memory and for my loved ones that I'm cautious, but also why I plan to embrace whatever I am now."

[Reinholdt]

[Ground Level with Riverside]

This liongirl must have committed numerous felinies.

Despite this clear bad girl, Leah does step towards her to make sure she doesn't have any serious injuries. She seems to be in working order at least. Give or take her wand? "Yeah. No problem. Are you alright? What was all that about?" The catgirl asks, blushing at the wink and looking away from the underdressed scamp.

Might as well hear the falling cat's story. If there's time. Leah's lost sight of the robot who could be doing anything by now. Which is part of 'all that' which she wishes to know about. And the portal. And the falling. If you're going to make a portal, you should probably make it more gravity friendly!

[Morty]

[Lotus Gardens]

Wenomir's expression goes blank as Jezebel transforms. It's a familiar expression he puts on when he has no idea how to internalize something in front of him. Why did Jezebel do it? Does she feel more comfortable this way? Is she trying to lighten the mood? After grasping about for something to say on the subject, he comes up with nothing. Thus he says nothing and continues as if Jezebel had done nothing more noteworthy than taking off her shoes or changing her hat.

"She wants to work with us to bring order to Skyside." He pauses to let that sink in. "Defeat the corporations that hold control of it before they melt together into one... massive entity that squeezes the city dry. She believes our strength at arms and her political acumen can accomplish it together."

[Rebonack]

[Buffet Dungeon]

Well!

Then that means its time to backtrack to the hell-hallways! Thankfully all those blood seals had already been triggered so our heroes don't have to worry too much.

So, hellhole hallway. The floor is covered in ash and flecks of burned blood. Bits of bone pierce through the surface here and there. Unearthly moans and howls drift through the air.

It smells like a crematorium.

Not really a super great place.

Magdalene immediately looks uncomfortable. And irritated.

But mostly irritated.

"Okay there are probably going to be some cages or some (rose) that the people will be stuck in."

In one direction there are tendrils of bruised meat gently swaying in the fetid wind. In other spires of bone rise into the hazy distance. In another rivers of sluggish, congealed blood crisscross a blasted plane of ash.

Which way do our heroes go?

[5a Violista]

[Level with Riverside]

Even if she got away with her felinies, she probably looks the type that would still have dozens of meowsdemeanors.

The liongirl checks herself, to decide how to answer Leah's question, and winces. Yup, she's pretty hurt – probably should have worn something longer than her shorts. She brushes off debris from her legs. "Yup. Pretty alright." Her scrapes and such pull themselves together and heal. She taps her watch's screen again. "Just need a... screwdriver? Hopefully?" Shoot. This thing looks like it's broken, and it had all the info on it she needed to find relevant people and events and who she could trust and to what extent.

She also looks around and twitches her ears to see if the robot is about to attack again. It isn't, not yet: it's still trying to search around the ramp without exposing itself, so it's diverting most of its energy to its sensors. They have time before it attacks: it's a cautious robot.

"Um, so." She gestures at her watch. "Control module for the robot broke and it went wild." Not quite true, but if the watch was working without interference she could've eventually stopped it. Regardless, seems like she has a little time before the robot attacks again, so time to get some of the more important questions out of the way. "Hey, so, dumb question, but...it's [four months from now], right?" she asks the catgirl.

[Shadowcaller]

[Lotus Gardens]

"Televised? Is that really nessecary?" Cessie first inquires, but that seems quickly forgotten once Jezebel changes form.
Wenomir can likely tell that this is the first time she's seen it as well the way she's staring.
"Why- you-" She starts before glancing at the warrior. "Excuse me a moment, Wenomir but... care to explain this?" She gestures to Jezebel.

[Suncrest Manor]

Itzhi's eyes widens. "Oh. Yeah... you got me there, lady. I got a badge somewhere here but that probably doesn't mean anything to you." She pauses a moment while her eyes stares down at the floor. "Do you want to keep the baby?" The warden suddenly asks. "It would make my job a lot easier admittedly. In the past we used to do these baby-trades with the top-world. Terrible practice I know, but the laws haven't updated since then so we're technically still allowed to hand out babies to top-siders left and right if we'd want to. Not that I could imagine ever handing out any of mine but as this young one is lacking relatives..."

[Buffet Dungeon]

Anika will turn into a giant snake and start to 'smell' the air with her tongue as they arrive to this fork in the road. She's trying to determine in which direction they took the prisoners. They all looked pretty bad but there had to be some indication where people recently walked with all this goo around, right?

Ms. J Investigation

"Uh-huh." Anika remarks as she looks in the direction Jezebel is pointing, still not sure how to feel about all this. Perhaps she needed someone else's perspective on this?
"Embracing, eh? Just be careful. In my experience, embracing anything magic-y can be pretty bad in the long run. Makes you too dependant on it when someone, y'know, pulls the plug on the magic tub." She makes a pulling motion with her hand. "Always a good idea to keep at least one feet on the ground and all that."

[MERC Office]

"Yeah, sounds like you got this one figured out alright." Dena remarks as she leans back, taking up a more relaxed pose in her chair. "But what about this, it's hard to set a price on this kind of information so let's just say you owe me a favor if I tell you this. Depending on what you think my information is worth of course." She looks between the two. "After all, you got talents I could use from time to time."

Zhareen nods, apparently seeing no issue whatsoever with this. "Sounds fair. Right Korrina?" Vax would probably have questioned this a lot more...

[Reinholdt]

[Level with Riverside]

Leah shakes her head apologetically. "I don't have a screwdriver, sorry. I have a hammer." Leah doesn't seem to have a hammer. But she does have a watch which doesn't look all that dissimilar to the liongirl's watch. "It's a big hammer though. A battle hammer. Oh, but I do have some clothes if you need them." And she does seem to desperately need them.

"Oh so it's your robot then?" That doesn't quite rule out escaped catvict, but it does lower the probability significantly. The probability of time traveler goes way up though, based on her next question. "Sorry, no. It's [current date]," Leah says after looking at her own watch to confirm that it's actually current date and nothing weird happened to the time stream on her end. She's usually grounded better, but she doesn't have the hammer strapped to her back. "Why? What happens in four months?"

[5a Violista]

[Level with Riverside]

The robot discovers the location of its target and someone else. That's unfortunate: it's only allowed to cause collateral damage as long as it's not aware that it's causing the collateral damage. Now that it's found someone else, it has to remain aware of her location...at least without direct approval. And, as luck would have it, the necessary components that would allow it to request approval were located in its other half.
It crawls along the ground, trying to find an angle that would allow it to hit the liongirl without hitting Leah. It even goes on top of a building, trying to find a good angle!


"Oh." That's too bad. No screwdriver. Oh well, she's not sure what size of screwdriver she needs, anyway, and what other tools or parts she'd need to fix it up. Would take some time, probably, to fix it up, and time isn't something she has at the moment, not while that robot's still nearby. Speaking of, the liongirl starts pacing, 'coincidentally' putting Leah between her and where she thinks the robot is, for now. "Might need some clothes for later, yeah. Didn't have time to pack a suitcase."

Leah seems to be forgetting that an escaped catvict would be okay with lion...sorry, lying. "Yeah, it's mine," she lies. Then, adds, still not being truthful, "Well, only partial ownership, but...y'know how that is. Same thing."

Anyway, the date, she reminds herself. She paces a bit more, and then starts stretching her legs to make sure they healed properly. She did get here early, but that just gives her time to find someone who can fix her stuff and time to figure out what exactly she needs to do. She was told that she needed to figure out everything before hopping to the past, but...well, time just ran out. "Oh? Four months from now? That'd be...hm...Spooktober happens then, I guess," she says. "Really looking forward to the party." Nothing major happens then, if she recalls correctly, but there's a bunch of minor things here and there that she hopes will butterfly-effect its way into large changes.
...
"Or maybe it was the previous Spooktober?" that she needed to go to. She fiddles with her watch again, trying to get it working. Really should have double-checked the dates.


With the liongirl pacing around like that, the robot can't guarantee it'll hit her without hitting Leah, so it breaks apart into two smaller robots. It's going to have one retreat and set up communication equipment, and one - the size of a small dog - will figure out some way to attack with minimal collateral damage. It starts creeping closer towards the both of them, getting low to the ground and hiding behind debris and other objects.

[Reinholdt]

[Level with Riverside]

"You mean, didn't have time to get dressed," Leah kindly corrects. Packing a suitcase is irrelevant! Sort of. Depends on if liongirl intended to stay in this time period for long. To be fair though, Leah is probably suffering in this weather compared to the escaped catvit. She really could survive with a little less clothes.


Leah ends up raising an eyebrow. "Uh, no. Not really familiar with that. You mean... sharing?" What exactly is partial ownership of a robot? Like... a time share? Seems like a horrible thing to have ownership of at all, based on the amount of attempted murder.

The catgirl even narrows her eyes a little. "Are you messing around with the time str-" Leah cuts off her question suddenly and tilts her head, sensing the robot get closer as it scurries across the ground. The earth was her turf. Mostly. She doesn't have an exact bead on it so can only turn around and try to look for where it is. "I think that robot's back..."

[5a Violista]

[Level with Riverside]

The main part of the robot heads away from the feline girls. Meanwhile, the dog-sized robot stalks closer and closer. It circles around, trying to come from a direction that nobody is looking. It gets closer and closer, doing its best to stay out of sight and behind cover at all times. Of course, that isn't a problem for an earthbender, but the robot is just a robot and can't extrapolate the extent of Leah's powers. As such, it believes that as long as she can't see it then it can go after the liongirl with impunity. It gets rather close: it calculates less than a minute until it's in a safe range where it could strike faster than Leah could react and build an earth wall.


"You're right. Should've changed into a dress: they come off easier," the liongirl counters. It's a huge concern for shapeshifters who can't shift their clothes, but, simply put, she likes dressing this way better. Dresses and skirts and other similar types of things aren't really her style. But it's okay: her current form is strong enough, but if she ever really got in danger, she could always shift into a full-blown battle lion form...at the cost of one outfit.

This catgirl doesn't really seem like the type who's willing to just destroy something without asking more questions first. Judging by how much she can control earth, she could definitely destroy the robot as soon as she finds it, but the liongirl doubts that the catgirl will unless she starts answering questions satisfactorily. It's actually really fortunate that the robot came back when it did, interrupting a question like that.

The liongirl shrugs off her jacket and her watch, too (she doesn't want to damage them). And she starts to take off her boots. Really should've worn something that can just slide off. She can't see where the robot is, but has no choice but to trust Leah that it's back already. (It doesn't help that the underdressed lady is looking for a robot significantly larger than dog-sized.)
"Hey. Do me a favor? and tell me where the robot is. Don't worry about stopping it: it's mine so it's my responsibility to stop it myself." She says the things that she imagines will make Leah cooperate, based on what she's seen of her so far. "Then we can discuss clothes afterwards."

[Rebonack]

[Buffet Dungeon]

Anika will be able to pick up the faint scent of people carried on the wind from the twitchy meat tendril hallway.

Also other...

Less identifiable smells.

Magdalene raises any eyebrow at her.

"The (flower) are you doing?" she asks.

She doesn't know how snakes work.

What?

She isn't a snakeologist or anything like that.

[Gullara]

[Suncrest Manor]

Itzhi's eyes widens. "Oh. Yeah... you got me there, lady. I got a badge somewhere here but that probably doesn't mean anything to you." She pauses a moment while her eyes stares down at the floor. "Do you want to keep the baby?" The warden suddenly asks. "It would make my job a lot easier admittedly. In the past we used to do these baby-trades with the top-world. Terrible practice I know, but the laws haven't updated since then so we're technically still allowed to hand out babies to top-siders left and right if we'd want to. Not that I could imagine ever handing out any of mine but as this young one is lacking relatives..."

[Suncrest Manor]

Nadia's eyes go wide. Now that's quite an offer. "Um." It takes her a second to process that. "I'm not sure that'd be a good idea. But... If you need to arrange for someone to take care of her while you look for a permanent home we might be able to help with that. I still have all our old stuff from when our son was this young, so it's not like we're totally unprepared." Irena probably wouldn't be too happy to hear this offer, but Nadia wants to help this baby. It feels better than just letting this person take her away immediately.

[MERC Office]

"Yeah, sounds like you got this one figured out alright." Dena remarks as she leans back, taking up a more relaxed pose in her chair. "But what about this, it's hard to set a price on this kind of information so let's just say you owe me a favor if I tell you this. Depending on what you think my information is worth of course." She looks between the two. "After all, you got talents I could use from time to time."

Zhareen nods, apparently seeing no issue whatsoever with this. "Sounds fair. Right Korrina?" Vax would probably have questioned this a lot more...

[MERC Office]

Zhareen glances at Zhareen's open, trusting face, then decides to make her own additions. "An exchange of services is reasonable. The negotiation of the details can't end here, though. We have our own principles, so we can't perform any task you might as us."

[Shadowcaller]

[Suncrest Manor]

Ithzi expression she hadn't even expected that kind of answer. Perhaps the question itself was more of a jest? "Eh, are you sure? Topsiders do get attached to these little ones very easily. Might be hard to let them go after a while. That said, it would make thing easier for me, and more importantly, the child." She looks around for a moment as if looking for her. "Speaking of which, would you mind me taking a quick look at her to make sure she's in perfect health? Not that I doubt you have done everything you could do for her but I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I didn't at least have a look at them."

Meanwhile, Irena returns with a chair. "Well, here you are." She remarks as she places it in front of Ithzi.

She then looks to Nadia. "Everything alright in here?"

[MERC Office]

"Of course, you will be able to decline in case you feel it outside your expertise and we'll just try something else. Don't worry though, I think I have a pretty good idea of what you can and cannot do. We got a former member on our payroll after all." Dena replies, displaying her open palm as if making a peace offering.

The she puts her hands on the table. "So, want to her the story now? I'd say it's a pretty interesting one and you might actually understand the events better than I ever did."

[Buffet Dungeon]

Anika the anaconda gestures with its head in the direction of the smell to Magda and then keeps following it in case there were more forks on the road on the way. Besides, this form were her second tankiest one so she felt relatively safe despite their sorrundings. Time to find and save those people!

[Reinholdt]

[Level with Riverside]

"Wha-wha... no!" Dresses aren't supposed to come off! They're supposed to stay on.

The robot moving about actually makes it easier for Leah to pinpoint its location. If it had stayed still she would have a lot more difficulty. But with it scurrying to and fro like that, it becomes trivial. She swings around to where its approach is angled from and stomps twice. "Don't bother, I've got it-what ARE YOU DOING?!"

Leah's earthbending was intended to jut an earthen cage up and around the dog sized robot. Normally not a difficult task for Leah, but the liongirl is proving EXCEPTIONALLY distracting by taking off most of the clothes she already has. Leah's face turns red and her gaze shifts away to give some semblance of privacy to the highly indecent feline. This all throws off her game considerably. It's probable she missed the robot, and the cage is incomplete. Normally she'd put a roof atop the earthen tomb. What had intended to catch the robot so it could be safely reprogrammed just turns into pure disaster.

[5a Violista]

[Level with Riverside]

The smaller robot is captured within the unfinished cage.
Realizing the situation changed, it freezes and begins analyzing the cage and simulating the next-best course of action. Climb up, obviously, but once it reaches the top of the cage it'll be vulnerable so it needs to decide what to do afterwards, before it starts climbing.


Unfortunately, the liongirl doesn't exactly want the robot to get reprogrammed. If someone can reprogram it, they could also look at its timestamps and see that it's from the future. Seems her choice of clothing was actually pretty effective at getting her what she wanted, in the end.

"Thanks!" she says, completely ignoring Leah's protest. "You did great; it's my turn now." Besides! She's still wearing that lowcut tank top and short shorts. Leah is clearly just making assumptions about her. Don't worry! They're in the middle of the street. She wouldn't do that here, in front of someone she just met, regardless of how funny it would be to see their reaction.

The liongirl's legs bulk up and her toes dig into the ground. The rest of her muscles also swell a little and grow more defined, as she crouches forward, with a hand on the ground. Both arms grow white fur on them, all the way up to halfway up her biceps, and her fingertips grow into sharp claws. Once she reaches the earth cage, she tries to barrel through it and tear apart the robot with a claw swipe.

She thought the robot was bigger earlier, but figures the rest of it was damaged when the time portal closed. Oh well. That seems to be enough.

[Reinholdt]

[Level with Riverside]

Leah isn't making assumptions! Taking off your jacket and boots is a height of indecency! Especially when you're only wearing half a shirt and one quarter pants. Truly indefensible.

Well maybe. If Leah saw the shapeshifting thing she may be more inclined to be a little more tolerant. As it is, she's already covering her eyes and can only hear the liongirl go into a more bestial mode and tear through her earthen prison to rend the robot into small, presumably inoperable pieces. "Wait, are you sure you want to destroy it?"

Leah may part her fingers just enough to peek. "Those things tend to be expensive and it'll be harder to fix."

[Rebonack]

[Buffet Dungeon]

Snake tanks?

That's an interesting mental image.

Anywho!

Through the waving field of flesh!

It tries to cling at Magdalene's shoes, wrapping around the laces and generally being gross. She frowns down at the stuff, pulls her feet free, and keeps walking.

Which means it'll probably be even MORE unpleasant for Anika what with slithering straight on the ground and all.

Before too long Magdalene will take cover behind a huge meat-hunk slash boulder and gesture for Anika to join her. She'll point off into the distance. "Over there."

A cage!

Made of meat! Distressingly, the meat cage looks like it was a person who was horribly stretched and mutated into a meat cage. It's pretty horrific. Inside is a collection of prisoners who look miserable and terrified. Nearby is a huge, churning cauldron of gore with a hideous and vaguely cthulhu-y looking monster looming over it. Like all the chthonians so far it looks like it's made of tendrils of bruised meat wound around chunks of volcanic glass. A really awful creature.

To make matters more surreal it's humming to itself like a chef tending to a pot of stew.

[5a Violista]

[Level with Riverside]

Is Leah saying she would have preferred if the boots and jacket stayed on and everything else came off instead?!?
...probably not, but the liongirl is okay with willfully misinterpreting what Leah thinks if it means seeing her act flustered and embarrassed some more.

She slashes and crushes the small robot a few more times, to ensure any identifiable features are beyond recovery. "Just. . .the loss from destroying it is is miniscule compared to it hurting or killing someone on accident," she claims. Arguably true, but definitely not her motivation.

Once it's good and unrecognizable, she looks around a bit more and turns her arms and legs back to normal. Since there's no more imminent danger from obvious sources, her danger-sensing finally starts to calm down and she feels like she's starting to turn back out of her battle form.
. . .
She probably should eventually find a hoodie to hide her most identifiable parts, but the chances she ran into someone who knows her, her mother, or her father are incredibly slim...if she's even born by now. No need to worry about it just yet. Besides, at this point it's too late to stop it:

So, she goes back to Leah and her jacket/boots/watch to get them again and put them back on (starting with the boots, of course). Her ears and tail shift, from lion to. . .well her tail is long and fluffy, her ears are very unique with cat-ears and tricornrabbittasselwithgoldring things. And she shrinks a bit and looks softer, no longer as Amazon-like.

"Well, it's not an insignificant loss," she says, trying to keep to her story, "so I ought to go report it regardless. I'll mention some unnamed bystander helped me, too." She, of course, has zero intention of reporting anything to anybody.

[Shadowcaller]

[Buffet Dungeon]

Yeaaaah, except it would be even more gross if it got dried up in her fur on clothes. At least it was much less likely to stick to her scales. Not that she probably wouldn't need to pull herself free from this revolting mess from time to time as she slinthers along.
Then Magda spots the "cage" and she's suddenly even more glad she was a snake as that was soooo icky.

She could never quite put it in words but the whole scene somehow seemed less disgusting to her snake-self. What she saw here was simply oddly shaped food and big predator about to feast on it.
But she was not going to let it.

How deep could you sink into the flesh? It might just be her inner snek talking but this time she was going to use a touch of sublty. Green anacondas were actually quite decent swimmers, that's how they caught their prey after all. So if she's able she's going to let her heavy body sink deeper into the flesh and then start to "swim" through it. Only keeping her snout above the surface which was enough for her to know where she was going. If this tactic works she's going to pause once she's behind the massive creature and then raise up as tall as she can behind it to see if she could bite at the back of its neck with a sudden strike.

Assuming Magda goes along with this tactic of course considering she's not telling her anything while being a snake.

[Rebonack]

[Buffet Dungeon]

Anika's swimming idea works.

In retrospect she's probably going to wish that it didn't work because holy beans that smell. Hopefully changing shape removes stinks from Anika because otherwise that smell is going to be sticking to her for a while.

But yes.

The plan works.

Sliding through the layers of rippling meat, Anika manages to sneak up behind the giant-sized monster and lash out at it, chomping down on the back of its neck! It seems rather shocked by this sudden development, giving a bubbling, gurgling cry of shock and outrage as it begins flailing around, trying to grab at Anika and pull her off!

Magdalene, meanwhile, sprints from her cover and lobs a gnashing orb of vitality devouring magic at the monster! Like a cloud of teeth it settles over the huge cthonian, gnawing into its rubbery hide and exposing weak points. The chewing hurts. But it makes everything ELSE hurt even more! A very helpful sort of spell. Great way to start a fight!

"Try to take this (flower) down fast!" Magdalene yells as she quickly approaches.

[Shadowcaller]

[Buffet Dungeon]

Anika snake teeth weren't poisonous, instead they were really good at holding on to things like say, a prey's neck. So that's exactly what she was going to do as the rest of her heavy body was slithering up the monsters back, attempting to coil and drape herself all over it. Making it as difficult as possible for the beast to remove her while it's flailing around.

With Magda's help they might just finish the monster before it could get a good grip on her.

[Rebonack]

[Buffet Dungeon]

Anika lashes around the monster's neck like the world's angriest scarf!

The monster begins clawing at her desperately, quite unhappy about this turn of events. Its claws are nasty things, causing horrible bleeding wounds if they manage to pierce through Anika's scales. Normally that would be a pretty major problem. If Anika bleeds out then she'll have lots of trouble constricting this monster to death!

Thankfully Magdalene is here to help!

She clenches her fingers into a claw-shape and thrusts her hand upward, causing a totem topping with a gem throbbing like a disembodied heart to burst from the fleshy ground! Waves of power wash out from it, sapping the vitality from the awful demon and feeding strength back into Anika! She should find that her wounds close rapidly, her coils grip harder, and her assault leeches the very life from her foe!

Further evidence that Magdalene is some sort of shaman.

But she's got some pretty weird and creepy shaman powers.

Helpful, but creepy.

By this time Magdalene is getting pretty close, ready to bring her targe into play.

"Don't let up the pressure! If that (flower) can speak it'll summon more gribblies!"

[Shadowcaller]

[Buffet Dungeon]

Anika's scales and body are far tougher than an ordinary snakes but as the demon's claws likely are supernaturally enhanced too it's a good thing that Magda is there.

But she was getting vitality from some icky demon now? If that flesh she swam through hadn't made her feel filthy this sure would!
Normal shamans at least got their healing from... the elements? Anika was frankly not sure it worked but it was probably better than demons at least.

But either way, better icky than dead so Anika was going to use this vitality to give the demon the best hug it ever had. Even tighter than she'd give her relatives and far more encompassing as she's not just hugging the neck...

[Rebonack]

[Buffet Dungeon]

Thankfully any vitality stolen from monsters if first filtered through Sylvanas (not Windrunner) and as such is safe for use.

It's still weird and kind of gross, though.

Gross just like that demon!

The monster wobbles for a few moments, then makes an icky crunching noise as Anika tightens her coils.

Down it goes!

She had better let go quickly because that demon will begin rotting at an incredibly rapid rate and it is ALSO really gross.

Magdalene, meanwhile, seems a little disappointed that she didn't get to hit the demon more.

Ah well.

Instead she sprints over to the 'cage' and smashes it open with the edge of her shield.

"Come on, people, let's get the hell out of here."

[Shadowcaller]

[Buffet Dungeon]

Yeah, Anika would not want to get anything filtered through that bi-

-ew! Demons were so gross!
Once it starts... dissolving or whatever it was doing, Anika let's go and starts to move towards the exit. She didn't think the prisoners needed more motivation to get out of here. But in case they did the druid would make sure there was a giant demon-goo covered anaconda at their heels at all times as they make their escape.

[Rebonack]

[Buffet Dungeon]

It definitely isn't the strangest way for a demon to die.

Anywho!

Our heroes will be able to lead the prisoners out of literal hell and back to the buffet proper!

Wow.

That was quite the little adventure, wasn't it?

Lots of people will be busy thanking Anika and Magdalene.

"I guess that worked out okay," Magdalene muses. "Too bad we didn't find that goblin you were looking for."

Wasn't that why Anika started bothering Magdalene in the first place?

Because she was looking for a goblin?

[Gullara]

[Suncrest Manor]

Ithzi expression she hadn't even expected that kind of answer. Perhaps the question itself was more of a jest? "Eh, are you sure? Topsiders do get attached to these little ones very easily. Might be hard to let them go after a while. That said, it would make thing easier for me, and more importantly, the child." She looks around for a moment as if looking for her. "Speaking of which, would you mind me taking a quick look at her to make sure she's in perfect health? Not that I doubt you have done everything you could do for her but I wouldn't be doing my job properly if I didn't at least have a look at them."

Meanwhile, Irena returns with a chair. "Well, here you are." She remarks as she places it in front of Ithzi.

She then looks to Nadia. "Everything alright in here?"

[Suncrest Manor]

"I didn't pull her out of there without being willing to go further to help her. I'm sure it'd be fine." When Irena comes in and puts the ottoman down, presumably Ithzi sits. Nadia brings the baby over for her to check on.

"Well, she might be able to find a home for the baby, but I suggested that maybe we could help out by looking after her in the meantime. We still have all Eliseo's old stuff in the attic after all." She's a bit sheepish as she suggests it, because she doesn't expect Irena to be enthusiastic.

[MERC Office]

"Of course, you will be able to decline in case you feel it outside your expertise and we'll just try something else. Don't worry though, I think I have a pretty good idea of what you can and cannot do. We got a former member on our payroll after all." Dena replies, displaying her open palm as if making a peace offering.

The she puts her hands on the table. "So, want to her the story now? I'd say it's a pretty interesting one and you might actually understand the events better than I ever did."

[MERC Office]

Korrina levels Dena with a scrutinizing look, then exchanges a look with Zhareen. She she nods to Dena. "Go ahead."

[Reinholdt]

[Level with Riverside]

Is Leah saying she would have preferred if the boots and jacket stayed on and everything else came off instead?!?
...probably not, but the liongirl is okay with willfully misinterpreting what Leah thinks if it means seeing her act flustered and embarrassed some more.

She slashes and crushes the small robot a few more times, to ensure any identifiable features are beyond recovery. "Just. . .the loss from destroying it is is miniscule compared to it hurting or killing someone on accident," she claims. Arguably true, but definitely not her motivation.

Once it's good and unrecognizable, she looks around a bit more and turns her arms and legs back to normal. Since there's no more imminent danger from obvious sources, her danger-sensing finally starts to calm down and she feels like she's starting to turn back out of her battle form.
. . .
She probably should eventually find a hoodie to hide her most identifiable parts, but the chances she ran into someone who knows her, her mother, or her father are incredibly slim...if she's even born by now. No need to worry about it just yet. Besides, at this point it's too late to stop it:

So, she goes back to Leah and her jacket/boots/watch to get them again and put them back on (starting with the boots, of course). Her ears and tail shift, from lion to. . .well her tail is long and fluffy, her ears are very unique with cat-ears and tricornrabbittasselwithgoldring things. And she shrinks a bit and looks softer, no longer as Amazon-like.

"Well, it's not an insignificant loss," she says, trying to keep to her story, "so I ought to go report it regardless. I'll mention some unnamed bystander helped me, too." She, of course, has zero intention of reporting anything to anybody.

[Level With Riverside]

"I... yeah. I guess." The liongirl wasn't wrong. It just seemed like they had it under control already. Maybe the liongirl knew something about the robot that made it more dangerous than it appeared. Wouldn't be surprising. Robots tend to have surprises under their chassis.

It's hard not to stare at those ears once Leah's gotten a peek. But she can't say she recognizes them. She glances away again as the girl gets her outfit back on. "Hold on now. I have a name. It's Leah. What's yours?" Pfft. Nameless bystander! How dare she?

"And, I have to ask. What did you come back in time to do?"

The liongirl's lies might not have been as smooth as she had hoped.