Inside 72: Halfway to a Gross

[Deathkeeper]

Moondoe Cafe

"Maybe the Lady of Darkness found out you were pledging yourself to two different goddesses at the same time? I've heard she isn't much of a fan of sharing." G'nichi suggests but he isn't going to give the cultist much time to consider it. He's going to wave his staff and try to get another colorful tether to pull the staff out of the cultist's hands and tie him up before he can set off any more explosions.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Moondoe Cafe]

It's not his clothing ribbons this time. This fellow actually seems dangerous enough to try a little harder.

As G'nichi moves the staff, a contrail of shining, rainbow light follows behind it. With scarcely the thought of his intention to go by, it darts out with all the speed of FRIENDSHIP and all the force of JUSTICE to zip around intervening obstacles and try to treat the cult-leader to the mummy treatment.

A shining, rainbowy mummy.

[5a Violista]

[BDD Sans Thread]

Being on fire's normal.
Probably.
If it felt dangerous, she might've brought it up, but...it doesn't.

In this case, neither of the sisters have all the money so it's not that bad.
June grabs the pillow and goes back to the bed, lying down in it and smooshing her face into the pillow and squeezing the pillow really hard between her arms and legs. "I'll be right here if you need me," she says after one more yawn.


"Um. Well," Venus answers, "Since it seems like my memories of how I looked are right....there's a bunch of things different, I guess. Basically the things she listed." She holds up her hand, showing how she's only got four instead of five fingers. "Missing a finger. Seems kinda ridiculous, I've never seen anyone with four fingers before." She gestures at her mid-back, "Hair used to go down to here," but now it goes much farther down; but luckily the top's largely held in place by a couple small thorny vines. "And, I guess...eyes." She goes over to a mirror and looks in them. "Used to look like...normal eyes, like hers," gesturing at June, "but now I kinda look like a cat. Do cats ever have purple eyes?" She then traces deer-shaped ears over her head. "And my ears used to look like a deer's. Matched a lot better with these legs, but made it really hard to pretend to be human, back when there was a bunch of...anti-gaiad bias going on."

Venus bites her lip.
"Honestly, I'm not seeing any running theme. Used to be, like, deer and flowers all over. But now there's, like, a mish-mash of a bunch of different things."
She looks away from the mirror and back at Rein. She then shakes her head. "No idea what 'soul-flowers look different' implies, though."


[Necropolis of Kysimax]

Venus is obviously a little confused. Did it just want one last fight before finally passing on? she wonders. Probably. That answer makes the most sense, out of all the ones she can think of.

She takes the key and looks at it. "Thanks," she says.

But where does this key go? she wonders. The unreadable letters probably give a hint. But, she can't remember finding a lock. Well, there was a lock by that other skeleton, but the 'key' was actually just a sword. Speaking of swords, Venus debates...unmaking the wood sword she has, or planting it, or something, but decides it's best to just hold on to it. Might actually be good to carry around a sword.

Well, she didn't spend much time looking around one of the rooms here. She goes back to where she first found the skeleton. She didn't look too carefully around this area, so Venus starts looking for any kind of keyhole here.



[A Street -- Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

Harley had gotten her phone out and started looking up local safety considerations for sewer access and online permit applications, even as she was listening to and analyzing the sewer.

When the gnome-girl comes over, she sighs. Ugh. This officer is the worst at manipulating children. Basically just told the gnome-girl, 'Hey look over there at that dangerous thing, you should definitely go over there and investigate the sewers where there almost certainly is a monster there'. No wonder there's so many dead children, when there's officers like Red Velvet around directing them to the most potentially-dangerous parts immediately. Regardless, she does reluctantly agree with the pony's intentions: the gnome girl probably shouldn't get involved, especially since it seems all the victims are young girls just like her.

"You know, I thought the same thing at first," she tells the gnome-girl, quickly trying to convince her to leave before she goes into the sewers and crouching over the manhole to block the gnome from easily going in until she finishes explaining (while pretending she's pointing at the walls and ice and stuff). "Unlike you, I'm pretty weak in a fight but I do know one thing. See all this ice? If it actually ran off this way, it could have used normal magic ice instead of magic never-melt ice. It's clearly waiting for someone to get distracted and go in, so that it can attack someone else not far from here." She sighs again: "If only I could fly, I could look everywhere nearby for its next victim and protect her before she got attacked."

Harley bites her lip. Please work, please work, please work, she prays. Please investigate from a safer location.


[Perfectly Normal Walk]

Unfortunately, June doesn't know much about serpents. There's no way he can know the difference between a serpent being serious about coiling around someone, and a serpent not being serious about coiling around someone. And he's definitely not fast enough to run/escape, especially since they're literally all around. And he is just an unarmed human.
"Ha. Figures," he says, to the snakeish person. "Typical. Don't like the message, so you think getting rid of the messenger solves the problem."

Actually, June's pretty sure that they won't actually kill him: it seems like they're unwilling to give up on Vix, and he's their best clue to finding her. As long they haven't found her yet, they're not going to kill him. The fact that the serpent isn't squeezing yet suggests that he might be correct.
...
Of course, that doesn't mean June's suddenly okay with being tortured to find out the information. Really, in this situation, his only available weapon appears to be his words, so as the serpent starts coiling around him, June says in as confident a voice as possible (when surrounded by a large group of people who clearly have contempt for him), "You better hope you have a faster way to find out than just torture, because that'll take far too long and she'll have long gotten away."
Yeah. He'd rather not get tortured, but even then he's pretty sure torture only works a small percentage of the time. He read a study about that once. Yeah, they'd get him talking but most of the time it'd just be what they want to hear and not actually the truth.

[bc56]

Heresy Fighters

Purple knows she has the advantage right now, and she's determined to keep it. With one hand, she tries to grab Gold by the shoulder, so that with the other, she can bring the torch to bear again. Whatever Gold's armor is made from, it's tough. On more typical materials, a cutting torch should have right through it. She goes for what appears to be a weak point: the joint at Gold's nearest elbow.

Necropolis of Kysimax

Venus returns to the room with the scrolls and the throne. It shouldn't take too long to find a keyhole in the back of the throne. Once the key goes in and is turned, the stone seat slides away, revealing a spiral staircase descending into darkness.

[5a Violista]

[Necropolis of Kysimax]

Yeah, definitely should have brought June with her, she thinks, when she sees that the staircase goes even farther down into darkness.

After double-checking to make sure she has human legs (a spiral staircase seems a tad difficult for deer-legs) and making sure she has a glowing yellow inflorescence, she descends the staircase. One hand holding the flower ball, the other holding the sword.

"Helloooooooo? Anybody down here? The air's safe to breathe, right?" Venus says, as if the air would answer back that yes, it's safe to breathe.
Well, it's not that she's expecting an answer. She can already kinda feel how stale the air is, anyway, and would probably be okay with some kind of poisoning maybe, since she kinda is part-plant. Maybe she'd be okay. Possibly. It does kind-of help her nerves, though, descending alone into somewhere dark without anybody else with her.

[Chaotic Bob]

[A Street -- Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

The gnome-girl seems to consider this surprisingly seriously.
This is entirely because the whole reason she's here at all is to keep the blasted monster from murdering more girls, so...if this is a distraction so that it can do more of that elsewhere...

There's doubt on her face for a few moments, before she tilts her head as if listening to a faraway voice.
Which she is.
"Hmm. Don't think that's going to be a problem. Good thinking though, lady! Now scooch."

Scooch, so she can launch herself down. Or don't, and she'll try to go through you?

[Earl of Purple]

Arkham Street Attic

I cannot remember if the Swordsman can sense magic or other unnatural energies. If he can, there's a number of sources of such in the attic, including both the urn, the tablet and the sword he has already.

Frigate sticks his thumb back up in response; he can't hear the Swordsman, but can read lips. There's no point in him verbalising a reply, however, as Frigate's face is a steel helmet. Something in the wardrobe thumps as it hears the Swordsman's voice, though.

The hatch is not locked nor stuck, and lifting it is quite easy. The ladder also slides down, so the Swordsman need not jump. Or he could use the pulleys built over the hatch, which enabled the bulkier items of furniture to be hauled up to the attic. He can go down to a small servant's chamber, dusty and unkempt. There's a bed and a wardrobe and really not much else. A door leads out to a servant's corridor, everything quite plain and functional though well-made and also old. Everything is an antique.

Delmah Phor

"Oh, that's a pity. I'll buy some rum or something, then. Try that. Maybe she's not found the alcohol she likes best yet." Jack doesn't agree with sacrificing living things, either, but then she doesn't really understand the idea of gods. Back in the Clattering, the elders try to appease the spirits, but none of the spirits are gods.

She raises an eyebrow at the last bit and turns to Vlad. "How and why did you rip a man in half?" Jack's not worried about the same happening to her, exactly. She's confident in her ability to escape if he tried, for now at least.

[Rebonack]

[Moondoe Cafe]

THE MALFUNCTIONING STAFF WAS A RUSE!

The second the shield comes down and the rainbow streamers are fired the cultist leader looses another fivefold breath blast at our heroes!

Now, granted, he still gets all wrapped up by the rainbows.

But this also might mean that our heroes get a face full of nasty dragon breath, too.

Can G'nichi manage to raise the shield WHILE tying up bad guys with rainbows?

If so then all is well!

If not then a wave of fire, lightning, acid, cold, and poison washes over our heroes! Nala is already pretty resistant to fire herself but the rest of the attack is going to be really unpleasant.


[A Street -- Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

Well!

This situation isn't going Red Velvet's way at all.

Not only is this rambunctious (if adorable) child ignoring her not so subtle hint to be elsewhere, she's not listening to the witch(?) either. Not that the witch should be poking around a crime scene herself. Goodness this is TOO vexing! The fate of any Intersection officer, it seems! You try to do your job with dignity and distinction and adventurers always want to help! Or get in the way. Occasionally both, but Red tries to assume the best of others.

Now then, to that end? She has deduced that these two are going to 'help' whether she asks them to or not. Maybe if she could convince them of just how dangerous this situation is? Her horn lights up with a muddy hazel glow as a similar field of light winks into existence around the magical girl and the magical woman. Red will aim to yoink them both away from the still exposed mare-hole while at the same time plopping the cover back on.

"I see that you're BOTH quiet excited to help and I'm simply delighted that you care for my safety and the well being of Inside. However, I suspect that our quarry may be none other than a nightshade. A truly dreadful creature which I shan't, in good conscience, subject you two dears to unless I am certain of your abilities," Red Velvet says after releasing the girls post-yanking. She takes a few graceful steps forward, lighting up her horn again. "So, a test, as it were. I would like so very much if each of you strike me with your most powerful attack. If you succeed in harming me with it, then you may accompany me on our little subterranean safari. If you can not, then please do take care of yourselves and look for less dangerous quarry to hunt."

Four little red bubbles, each about the size of a softball, burble out of her coat and begin lazily orbiting around the unicorn. Then? She sits down primly and waits to see how they react.

[Vahnavoi]

Arkham Street Attic

I cannot remember if the Swordsman can sense magic or other unnatural energies. If he can, there's a number of sources of such in the attic, including both the urn, the tablet and the sword he has already.

Frigate sticks his thumb back up in response; he can't hear the Swordsman, but can read lips. There's no point in him verbalising a reply, however, as Frigate's face is a steel helmet. Something in the wardrobe thumps as it hears the Swordsman's voice, though.

The hatch is not locked nor stuck, and lifting it is quite easy. The ladder also slides down, so the Swordsman need not jump. Or he could use the pulleys built over the hatch, which enabled the bulkier items of furniture to be hauled up to the attic. He can go down to a small servant's chamber, dusty and unkempt. There's a bed and a wardrobe and really not much else. A door leads out to a servant's corridor, everything quite plain and functional though well-made and also old. Everything is an antique.

The swordsman has one foot on the ladder already, when he turns to look at the wardrobe, his brow furrowing.

What was that thump?

Come to think of it, why was that wardrobe tied shut?

From the looks of it, this attic has been left unattended for a long time. If someone or thing was imprisoned in the wardrobe, it should be dead by now. But the swordsman has enough experience with the restless dead to know that doesn't really mean what he'd like it to mean... especially in a place such as this...

"Don't worry. I'll come back for you", he shouts. "I'll just go empty my hands first!" With that, he slides down the ladder. The servant's chamber does not seem too interesting, so he doesn't stop to search through it. He heads down the servant's corridor, hoping to find a way out as quickly as possible.

[Shadowcaller]

Pennilan's Tavern

"Crazy?" Jim stops to consider. What sort of crazy things does Jaahlyn normally get into? "How crazy are we talking about? Roller coaster crazy? Bungee jumping off flying dragons crazy? Taking random potions from Pi's shelves crazy?
Though I suppose I could probably already guess you've got a good singing voice for the karaoke judging from giving out musical lessons."
He doesn't argue that this was all to pay her back for the free lessons and this is already going to get them into a cycle of owing each other. Best not to press that argument. It's no fun anyway.

[Sewer System Purple]

The angel watches the discussion between the living fiend and the mechanical fiend. How interesting. Almost comical to watch.

"We do. Are these Sargon's forces, then? And who are you led by?"
They nod to the other question. They temporarily brought down the communication block, and got a few people up to the giant demon ship.
But then Ilpholin turned on them and that was pretty much the end of their contribution.
It all ended up well, though.

"I can open a connection for them to talk to our queen. Even here, if that is acceptable to the king."

[Two Detectives]

Michalson mutters something into his beard, that would quite certainly be unsuitable for print.

"Sod it all and call me a gereleth's groom. I'll do it. But I'm bringing in my partner and that's not negotiable."

[Two Detectives]

"One detective gives more credibility than one. But whose this partner of yours then?" Aitana sounds distracted for a moment as yet another siren seems to be going off in the background.

[Sewer System Purple]

"They are, but these are my forces." The blue leader remarks with a gesture at the other metal fiends. "And I serve my people directly." Whatever that means. "But..." The commander glances at the fiends in the other team. "What kind of 'connection' would this be? Sargon can only appear through projection so there wouldn't be any chance of mental communication."

Pennilan's Tavern

Jaahlyn smiles mysteriously. "All of the above, but without us risking or paying anything. See, uh, this might sound a bit weird but I can dream-walk. Y'know, visit others dreams?" She suddenly seems more hesitant about sharing what she's now saying, yet still continues. "...but it's not just that, I can pull people into my own too. Kind of, it's not really anything... um, it's just for casual fun y'know?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[A Street - Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

"Whoa, hey, hey!"
The gnome looks highly offended by the forced teleportation and quickly pats herself down to make sure she's all in one piece. More than one pat is given to the gold clasp holding her ponytail together.
Then Red also has the audacity to issue a challenge alongside this!

There is a very obvious eye-roll to this and the gnome-girl hefts up her paintbrush.
"Oh please, you're not my mom and this isn't hard."
Then she draws a hole under her feet straight into the sewer.

[Recaiden]

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

Unfortunately, June doesn't know much about serpents. There's no way he can know the difference between a serpent being serious about coiling around someone, and a serpent not being serious about coiling around someone. And he's definitely not fast enough to run/escape, especially since they're literally all around. And he is just an unarmed human.
"Ha. Figures," he says, to the snakeish person. "Typical. Don't like the message, so you think getting rid of the messenger solves the problem."

Actually, June's pretty sure that they won't actually kill him: it seems like they're unwilling to give up on Vix, and he's their best clue to finding her. As long they haven't found her yet, they're not going to kill him. The fact that the serpent isn't squeezing yet suggests that he might be correct.
...
Of course, that doesn't mean June's suddenly okay with being tortured to find out the information. Really, in this situation, his only available weapon appears to be his words, so as the serpent starts coiling around him, June says in as confident a voice as possible (when surrounded by a large group of people who clearly have contempt for him), "You better hope you have a faster way to find out than just torture, because that'll take far too long and she'll have long gotten away."
Yeah. He'd rather not get tortured, but even then he's pretty sure torture only works a small percentage of the time. He read a study about that once. Yeah, they'd get him talking but most of the time it'd just be what they want to hear and not actually the truth.

Thank you for your concern. I do have more thorough methods than pain to find what you know.
The serpent starts squeezing him. It still doesn't want to kill him - well, okay, it wants to kill him, but it's been ordered to slacken up once he collapses from lack of breath, and that's what it will do, unless June does something surprising enough to make it let go early.
The voice becomes more than a voice, but a presence, a pressure in his head clawing at his thoughts, looking for memories of Vix.

Far away, the voice stops dealing with the distraction, and the angel-bug's troops surge forward in the suddenly clear hallways of the vault.

Heresy Fighters

Purple knows she has the advantage right now, and she's determined to keep it. With one hand, she tries to grab Gold by the shoulder, so that with the other, she can bring the torch to bear again. Whatever Gold's armor is made from, it's tough. On more typical materials, a cutting torch should have right through it. She goes for what appears to be a weak point: the joint at Gold's nearest elbow.

Right when Purple grabs hold of their shoulder, Gold jumps, and the armor's mechanisms howl with strain, sending a fresh gout of smoke from where it was damaged. Still, it should be enough to send them (and Purple if she can hold on) careening thirty feet into the air - but not in the direction they meant to jump, given the burnt pieces and the super throwing them off balance - so after that they're falling.

[Sewer System Purple]

"They are, but these are my forces." The blue leader remarks with a gesture at the other metal fiends. "And I serve my people directly." Whatever that means. "But..." The commander glances at the fiends in the other team. "What kind of 'connection' would this be? Sargon can only appear through projection so there wouldn't be any chance of mental communication."

"An um, audio signal, two-way. Enough to converse and little more." If Sargon will only be attending as a projection that should do fine, right? In fact the angel steps a bit forward, as if they had agreed already.
"And how do we refer to you, oh servant of the people?"
The mutant just watches the proceedings.

[Deathkeeper]

Moondoe Cafe

G'nichi throws his arms out again to make them another shield. He's willing to make it small or drop the attacking ribbons to do so even though he's fairly sure something as powerful as his staff can do one thing while the other still exists.
Magic's her whole thing of course she's good at it! Hm. Has he asked her for a name? So far only one of his weapons has given him a name to use.

Pennilan's Tavern

Now that is certainly not what Jim was expecting.
"Well. That's definitely not something I've ever tried before but you're certainly welcome to. I just...go to sleep and you pick me up?" he asks her.
They have officially exited anything resembling his expertise and he does not have any idea where this is going.

[5a Violista]

[A Street -- Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

Luckily, Harley doesn't drop her phone when she is yanked over there. Phones are pretty important!
As Red explains the challenge, Harley starts downloading a map of the sewers and then lowers her phone so it can download uninterrupted. Harley's own soul gem is pretty dark already and doing anything close to "most powerful attack" would just be a waste of power...not to mention, this officer-pony seems to think it would be impossible for either of them to pass this test, otherwise she wouldn't give it, which means trying to figure out how the officer's defense works would be a waste of time while there's a child-hunting monster out.

On the bright side, observing the gnome-girl for these few moments has already narrowed down what she was thinking to the second option. Definitely knows what to look for, now.

She leans over and looks down the hole that the girl just created, mostly to observe which way she ran off - and check if there's any more evidence about which way the monster-thing went. "You should probably go after her," the swordwitch(?) tells Red Velvet. "We both know I'm not going to pass your 'test' so you're not going to let me go down there after her. I know officers don't have to help people, but you should at least put on appearances and chase after her." Ugh, that was a pretty nasty dig. Harley immediately regrets saying it, but apologizing would take too much time when a child is chasing after a child-hunting monster in the sewers.

Speaking of sewers, Harley's phone pings to show the download is ready. Great: now she can find all the other sewer entrances and manholes in that direction, to see if there's any girls-with-magic-cats near them.


[Perfectly Normal Walk]

As it happens, June doesn't have any surprising techniques to make a snake let go. He is, after all, an unarmed and perfectly normal human wearing loungewear, up against a giant snakemonsterthing.

Even as he's being squeezed, though, he makes sure to move his shoulder in a way that the hidden sponge doesn't get completely squeezed. Sure, it means now his shoulder is severely dislocated, but that's probably okay. He does end up dropping the fern thing.

June loses breath and strength and comes rather close to passing out, but is fortunate that the serpent decides to slacken, because he remains somewhat conscious. Probably fortunate for them, too, because it's probably easier to go through a conscious person's mind than an unconscious one's.

When it comes to memories about Vix, there really aren't that many. It wasn't that long ago that they met, after all. There's meeting her in the street, what she did in the park, his apartment and her cleaning up, the feelings of crush as a result of the expired love potion, eating together, the small beach/dock and the statue there now, running away on the street and through the bakery, splitting up in the alley, and telling her where the tram station is.
Not even a full day, actually. Plus, they're fresh memories so they're probably really easy to find and fast to pick out, so there's little-to-no reason to go through any other memory.

[bc56]

Necropolis of Kysimax

Down Venus goes, her inflorescence lighting the narrow stairs until they open up into a large, vaulted chamber. Lining the walls are stone caskets, standing upright. A row of pedestals directs her attention across the room to an archway on the far end. Resting on each pedestal are swords, of all manners of design, all ancient and rusted. Some pedestals are empty, and the caskets near them are open, also empty. Unlit torches hang in sconces between the caskets.

Heresy Fighters

Unsurprisingly, Purple loses her grip. She runs to catch up with Gold before the lunatic can get away and cause trouble elsewhere. These rocket jumps will be problematic for her ability to keep up.

[Earl of Purple]

Arkham Street Not-Attic

The wardrobe thumps again in answer. It's not just been tied shut, but a cast iron gate has been propped against the door, and that's probably not an accident- there's other places the gate could have been put that wouldn't have made it hard to get into the wardrobe.

Outside the servant's room is a narrow corridor, with five other doors. Three lead to nearly identical chambers; one is missing a mattress on the bed, another has a small, empty shelf mounted on the wall and the furniture is slightly different in each. One, at the end of the narrow corridor leads to a larger room, with a double bed, a wardrobe, a chest and a desk, all finely but plainly made- the quarters of a master servant, perhaps. Everything in all the rooms is dusty and abandoned. The other door leads into a cramped spiral staircase going down, though there's also a door out onto this floor.

[Vahnavoi]

[Arkham Street Mansion]

The swordsman wanders through the rooms on this floor, wondering. It's such a big place, in the middle of a city. Why's it been abandoned? One would think there'd be people willing to move in, or at least do something about such a fancy house. Something must've gone horribly wrong, or be horribly wrong with the city itself. He thinks for a while what to do next. Still no sign of anyone living. He doubts he'll fine any helpful residents downstairs, so he goes to what he thinks is the front door and opens it, stepping out on the streets. He looks around, hoping to see any signs of normal life.

[Earl of Purple]

Arkham Street Mansion

The building has three floors below the attic, and the front door is locked. In addition, the ground floor windows have all been boarded up from the outside, and most are broken. Everywhere is dusty and neglected, though a lot of the expected furniture is missing. The servant's areas are the ones least touched by this, but even they miss chairs, tables, crockery and cutlery. From a window on the first floor, he can see a large and neglected garden with an overgrown path to a cast iron fence, separating the house from the street. Tied to the fence is a sign declaring this house is For Sale; it's an old and faded sign, however.

[5a Violista]

[Necropolis of Kysimax]

This all is pretty interesting, Venus thinks. She wishes she had more resources and more time and more connections, because examining all these caskets, pedestals, and swords could be a really fun archaeological thing.
Oh well. Someone else will come by and look at it all, probably.

She looks at the swords, admiring them a little even though they're so old and poorly-maintained. Guess dead people can't really maintain their swords, right? One of the empty caskets probably belongs to the skele-guy she found and fought.

And so, Venus keeps on going down the room, admiring the swords and looking at the caskets, until she gets to the other end, at the archway. "So this is probably a...warrior burial place, right?" she says to herself. "Maybe even just of the leaders or something. So...huh. Is the layout supposed to mean something? Like, chronological, or something else?"
This is why this kind of thing should be left to archaeologists.
Venus gets to the archway and walks under it, looking around.

[Vahnavoi]

Arkham Street Mansion

The building has three floors below the attic, and the front door is locked. In addition, the ground floor windows have all been boarded up from the outside, and most are broken. Everywhere is dusty and neglected, though a lot of the expected furniture is missing. The servant's areas are the ones least touched by this, but even they miss chairs, tables, crockery and cutlery. From a window on the first floor, he can see a large and neglected garden with an overgrown path to a cast iron fence, separating the house from the street. Tied to the fence is a sign declaring this house is For Sale; it's an old and faded sign, however.

Locked, huh? The man takes a closer look at the door. Does it unlock from the inside without a key? If not, he'll have to cause some damage to the property. He isn't in the mood to look for a key...

[Morty]

[Two Detectives]

"She's Ithuriel, an angel. We joined the force on the same day," Michalson explains. His voice is firm and it's clear he won't budge on this. Something of a change, since normally his voice goes between resignation and formal, emotionless rattling off of regulation-approved phrases. "I need someone I trust to have my back out there."

[Recaiden]

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

As it happens, June doesn't have any surprising techniques to make a snake let go. He is, after all, an unarmed and perfectly normal human wearing loungewear, up against a giant snakemonsterthing.

Even as he's being squeezed, though, he makes sure to move his shoulder in a way that the hidden sponge doesn't get completely squeezed. Sure, it means now his shoulder is severely dislocated, but that's probably okay. He does end up dropping the fern thing.

June loses breath and strength and comes rather close to passing out, but is fortunate that the serpent decides to slacken, because he remains somewhat conscious. Probably fortunate for them, too, because it's probably easier to go through a conscious person's mind than an unconscious one's.

When it comes to memories about Vix, there really aren't that many. It wasn't that long ago that they met, after all. There's meeting her in the street, what she did in the park, his apartment and her cleaning up, the feelings of crush as a result of the expired love potion, eating together, the small beach/dock and the statue there now, running away on the street and through the bakery, splitting up in the alley, and telling her where the tram station is.
Not even a full day, actually. Plus, they're fresh memories so they're probably really easy to find and fast to pick out, so there's little-to-no reason to go through any other memory.

Just enough memories for the voice. The apartment, the tram station, and traveling between them all. It knows just where to look for her.

With June weakened, near to passing out but not quite, the snake monster squirms back so as to drop June into the pool.
Sponge and all, since he managed to keep it hidden on him and they didn't need to go through his most recent memories to get what they wanted.

There is immediate chaos.
The sponge fizzes up into a chemical froth as it dissolves in contact with the pool.
The water churns like they've been put in a giant blender. Something beneath him at the bottom of the pool explodes.
The lights go out, no, are covered up, the same darkness that covered the park earlier.
The snakemonstergiants are shooting at something.
People are screaming.

June may or may not be undergoing horrible side effects of being in the pool with the sponge. He wasn't supposed to be in the water! But even then, his well-being was never a priority for the angels.
Maybe all his skin is fleeing his body, maybe he's growing extra limbs, maybe his teeth fuse together, maybe it just feels gross but in the end he's fine. Anything could happen.

[Heresy Fighters]

Unsurprisingly, Purple loses her grip. She runs to catch up with Gold before the lunatic can get away and cause trouble elsewhere. These rocket jumps will be problematic for her ability to keep up.

Gold crashes through a newspaper stand, breaking it to bits and sending news everywhere.
It takes them a moment to get out of the debris and back on their feet. Probably just long for Purple to catch up, despite her lack of jumping powers.
They regard the super with their costume's expressionless mask.
"Are you sure this is what you should be doing right now?"

[FireFox]

[Golden Circus Office]

By the door of that very office in the Blue Zone, something sparkles bitterly. In a sequined outfit, a lithe cat lady balances on top of a large ball, and not even her extremely glittery makeup can hide how little she enjoys this. The occasional lash of her tail gives it away. That she is very good at this acrobat stuff does little to make this better for her. She hopes people show up, if only to provide a momentary distraction from her sparkly torment.

[Golden Circus Office]

A human man--late 20s, light brown hair, blue eyes, average physique--walks out of the office building wiping his hands on his gray coveralls. He looks up and down the street while fishing a pack of cigarettes out of a pocket. Despite the acrocat's flashy appearance, the man's gaze somehow misses her until he's pulled a cigarette halfway out of the pack. If she didn't know better, she might think his surprise at seeing her is authentic. "Oh, hey, how's it going? Smoke?"

[Beans]

[Golden Circus Office]

A human man--late 20s, light brown hair, blue eyes, average physique--walks out of the office building wiping his hands on his gray coveralls. He looks up and down the street while fishing a pack of cigarettes out of a pocket. Despite the acrocat's flashy appearance, the man's gaze somehow misses her until he's pulled a cigarette halfway out of the pack. If she didn't know better, she might think his surprise at seeing her is authentic. "Oh, hey, how's it going? Smoke?"

Sill knows Rhett. She knows his ways. She maneuvers until she's crouched like a sullen, glitzy gargoyle atop the ball. "Like an osmium balloon." She takes an offered cig. She accepts it as payment for not thinking as hard about killing him. She's never been a sadist, never bloodthirsty; even with as many people as she's killed, the satisfaction was in serving king and country, in removing threats to the nation that took her in and gave her a home, in doing the Huntress and the Agency proud.
But Rhett... ever since things went upside-down for her, his damnable breeziness occasionally inspires her to daydream of his neck in the wire. Just daydreams, like imagining lavish and intricate delicacies you've no real intent to pursue. Probably.
"Any updates?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[Moondoe Cafe]

If you believe in me, G'nichi, I can do a lot more than this!
Though it's one thing to say you believe, it's another to truly believe. This is usually the sticking point in this particular flavor of magic. Most people at least get subconsciously hung up on some of the particulars, like "you can't possibly make that big of a bubble, it would pop!" or "this should make me feel at least a little tired". Silly things, usually.
But it's enough to limit the process.

Regardless, this particular task is most certainly within the staff's "believable" ability range.
A shield pops up, though it is a little smaller than before and not entirely to convince Nala to scooch in. G'nichi must have enough sliver-of-doubt to inhibit the full range of it.
Oh, and you can call me Bell!

[Earl of Purple]

Arkham Street Manor

It does require key before it's unlocked. I have realised a few things which I'd not mentioned sooner- my own fault for forgetting my plans partway through a post. First, the urn is pretty heavy. It's full of something quite dense; specifically, dust, ash and occasional chunks of bone, though checking would require breaking the seal. Second, there's a basement hatch in larder next to the kitchen. Possibly a wine cellar, maybe something else. Oh, and one of the rooms, a library, is smaller than it should be.

He can probably kick or otherwise force the front door open, or he could go to the kitchen and try the servant's entrance, which is also locked and without a key, but it's also less visible from the road and the door isn't as sturdy.

[Rebonack]

[Moondoe Cafe]

Sure!

That'll do it.

The boss cultists is completely wrapped up in rainbows and Nala is hugging G'nichi tight to stay within the confines of the shield!

So...

That seems like a win all around, right?

The rest of the cultists are looking pretty concerned over the fact that their boss just got whomped. One of them pulls a little badge out of her satchel, pins it on her robe, and then slaps it!

Causing her to vanish.

The rest of the cultists seem to realize that maybe that's a good idea and now they're looking to withdraw badges, too.

"They're getting away!" Nala helpfully observes.


[A Street -- Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

WELL!

It's rare that Red Velvet is on the receiving end of remarks that are that rude.

Granted, she was expecting these two would probably ignore her warnings and dive into the sewers regardless BUT at least she would have learned something of their talents. The slight in mind, she trots right past the witch, giving a "HMPH!" and tossing her nose and tail for emphasis. She MIGHT be willing to ignore this wholly uncivilized slight but the witch would certainly need to prove herself as having more than brashness on her side. "At least make yourself useful and ensure that no other children are loitering around sewer entrances? I will see to the beast and with luck the child will be more inclined to listen after she understands how little this is like a game."

And then?

Down the hole Red Velvet goes.

Harley will probably hear a "Eeuh this sewer air is never kind to my poor tail," as Red vanishes into the darkness.

And speaking of the darkness!

The sewer tunnels are all frozen solid.

Normally there would be underground rivers flowing down here but they're all solidified into dark, evil-looking ice. It is painfully cold down here. Cold enough that one can feel their nose-hairs freezing. The tunnel splits off in three directions, two of which have deep claw marks in the stone and ice. Given just HOW BIG the claw marks are, whatever this thing is-

Isn't super huge?

Like maybe the size of a big bear?

Down the third one can hear water still flowing in the distance. It probably didn't go that way. The first tunnel leads off toward the bay while the second winds its way deeper into the city.

When Red spies the claw marks she heaves a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. Not big enough for a nightcrawler."

Then? She gives the flying child a look.

"Shall I expect you to be difficult the whole time, little miss?"

[Artemis97]

[Delmah Phor]

Nobody seems to like hearing that.

Miranda looks silently furious that they'd even considered asking for money for living sacrifices. Especially in the context of "in exchange for medical treatment"; had Eun been in more serious trouble, such an act would be tantamount to extortion. She also didn't like the implication that they had such sacrifices ready to go, just waiting for someone to buy them.

Eun and Rose both look horrified. Apparently, they had they same general thoughts as Miranda on the subject, but with a little more emphasis on what those poor creatures must be going through right now. Eun in particular looks to be ready to faint again.

Vlad shrugs. "So... how does Lolth feel about having celibate priestesses?"

"VLAD!" The other three exclaim simultaneously.

"What? We used to have animal sacrifices a few thousand years ago, and up until about twenty years ago, we still had slaughterhouses. And we've all personally done worse. It doesn't seem entirely fair to judge them for it. 'Oh, you guys ritually kill animals. Great. I tore a man in half last week. You wanna go grab dinner?'"

Delmah Phor

"Oh, that's a pity. I'll buy some rum or something, then. Try that. Maybe she's not found the alcohol she likes best yet." Jack doesn't agree with sacrificing living things, either, but then she doesn't really understand the idea of gods. Back in the Clattering, the elders try to appease the spirits, but none of the spirits are gods.

She raises an eyebrow at the last bit and turns to Vlad. "How and why did you rip a man in half?" Jack's not worried about the same happening to her, exactly. She's confident in her ability to escape if he tried, for now at least.

[Delmah Phor]


The older priestess wrinkles her nose at the thought of celibacy. The younger one looks confused.

"Why would anyone not...?" The acolyte asks.

Her elder scoffs. "A woman is at her most powerful when pregnant, when giving birth. It is the height of a priestess' power, a true blessing from the Spider Queen. To shirk that? Unthinkable."

[5a Violista]

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

While entering the pool with the sponge was an option June had considered, he had no idea that it would be this dangerous and disastrous. Just assumed there'd be some chemical poison or something that would block or prevent stuff from happening. Not an explosion and all this. Probably would have tried harder to not actually enter the pool if he had known.

Between already being weak from oxygen deprivation, the really dislocated shoulder making it hard to swim, feeling like his everything is melting off, the very turbulent water, and the excruciating pain possibly caused by organs not quite working how they should and things not being where they should, June finds it really difficult to leave the pool immediately.
Also, he dies.
Probably a result of his skin crawling away and his organs not being where they should.

Spoiler: Where? Nowhere. When? Never. What? Nothing.

Show

The redhead wakes up. He's...not really sure where he is. Everything looks...unrecognizable. He'd say that, but it also looks a little familiar.
Someone's middle hands start clapping. Are they his hands? "Congratulations, Samantha, you're the second one," his voice says. Wait, but that's a woman's voice, not his. There's no way that could be him over there: he doesn't have wings. Plus, he's over here. Not over there. "Number two. You died. Second place."
Dead? But how?
"A really dumb way," the voice that isn't his says. Does he even have a voice? "Didn't have to happen. If only you were more clever, or stronger, or smarter. Instead, you're just slothful. Had all these chances, but..."
Oh. It's coming back. Yes, it was pretty dumb, he has to admit. So, what, is this heaven? Definitely doesn't look...
"You want to go back, don't you? Just one condition, just say 'I agree' and---"

The redhead wakes up. He's...not really sure where he is. Everything looks...unrecognizable. He'd say that, but it also looks a little familiar. Did...is he dead? This doesn't really look like heaven....oh. It's coming back. He definitely recognizes here.
He got tossed into this pool, something exploded. There's screaming. It's dark. Also, he can't breathe. He's in water.

June reaches out with his middle hands, and finds the edge of the pool. He starts to pull himself up and out.
Wait, his arms definitely feel weird. He has...way too many arms. Should only have two, right? Not six. And he doesn't know if he can feel his legs or not. And the air touching his skin burns. It feels like he lost a lot of layers of skin, like a scrape or road rash or something, and anything - even just the air blowing past - hurts. He's only felt this way three times before in his life, but even then it was localized and not all over.
He pulls himself out of the pool, and then pulls his legs...Oh. OH! Scales! He doesn't have legs. Is he a snake? He's a snake! Why is he a snake?

No, but wait, snakes don't have arms. He feels for his face. He has a face. Feels...normal, even though it hurts. He coughs some of that water out of his lungs. Finally, he feels like he can breathe again, even if only a little.

June looks around, trying to figure out where he is and what's going on. There's some kind of attack, isn't there? Did that sponge cause this much chaos?




[A Street -- Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

Harley decides that only if the officer keeps the girl alive, then she might apologize.

She orients her phone to match where she is, and then looks up at the buildings, trying to map out the best ways to check all of them. "Already on it," she says, not as a courtesy to Red Velvet but rather to let her focus more wholeheartedly on the gnomegirl. It's a strategic thing.

About a year ago, Harley spent a lot of time hunting things in the Riverside sewers, so she gets that comment about the sewer air.

After getting the route in mind, the shapeshifter quickly messages Reinholdt and puts her phone away:

Sewer-monster is hunting kids. Might be back late.

She considers putting a blindfold back on, but ultimately decides the risk of spotting a Heresy Elemental is not that bad compared to the time loss of being blindfolded.
Harley runs, tosses a magic sword into a wall, and then uses it as a springboard to jump up on top of a building. From there, she goes off to the nearest sewer entrance in that direction, and upon verifying that there's no children, white catlike creatures that she's heard so much about, or signs of the monster, moves towards the next one. And the next. And the next.

[Ironsmith]

[Delmah Phor]

"Figure of speech, Jack. Figure of speech." Vlad grins at the acolyte. I don't know much about this Lolth, but I have to say I like the way she thinks.

"So, then. I don't suppose either of you lovely ladies would be interested in grabbing a coffee later?"

Rose and Eun let out a collective groan, both not-quite-silently annoyed that Vlad appeared to be thinking with his minigun. These two seemed like bad news to them.

Miranda just lets out a quiet sigh and motions to Jack. "How much trouble is he about to get into?" She whispers.