Inside 72: Halfway to a Gross

[Reinholdt]

[BDD Sans Thread]

June must be really tired to be able to hop back to sleep with two people in the room talking. Rein feels bad for waking her up.

"I know some cats who have unique colored eyes," Rein says cryptically. "You-" His phone dings and he looks at it. There's some typing back.

V secure. Elementals more dangerous to fairy because belief. No treatment found. Stay safe. Kisses.

He puts his phone back and apologizes for that. "Well, I wish I could tell you I have a plan to help, but it's quite probable this is it for you. I know there are researchers at HALO more competent at this stuff than I." The fourth tower affiliates might be able to cook something up. "The best I can come up with is having a bunch of people believe you were what you looked like previously. Which probably would require cultists." Rein shakes his head, thinking he already knows the answer to that one.

"Thank you for indulging me for so long. Sorry I couldn't do more."

[Vahnavoi]

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.

Due to the poor visibility from the windows, the swordsman didn't really figure out there'd be another exit in the kitchen. Maybe he'd realize it if he spend a moment longer looking around and thinking about it, but he really wants out of this place, back to the realm of the living. So, he does what he usually does and kicks the door into pieces.

Sighing from relief, he walks out into the garden. Plants are not people, but they are an improvement over the dusty interior. He walks towards the fence and spots the "For sale" sign. He looks at it, then back at the door, and grimaces. "I'll have to pay for that, don't I?", he mutters. He resumes looking at the fence. Presumably it has a gate - he goes to try if it is locked too. If it is, he takes a few steps back and measures the height of the fence. With just one hand free, climbing would be a chore, but if the fence is not much taller than him, he's sure he can haul himself over it with one arm.

[FireFox]

[Golden Circus Office]

Rhett takes his sweet time lighting Sill's cig for her. Then he takes an even longer time getting his own going. She just saw him light hers, she knows the Bic works, but somehow he manages to spark the flint wheel three times before he gets a steady flame. It's manifestly a stalling attempt, no matter how natural he acts. Finally, before the feline assassin can strangle him with a rainbow colored silk streamer, he sighs phlegmatically. "Reynard is getting antsy. I told him the more time he gives us to hire people and work, the better the Circus'll be. But he wants to get his side of things going. He's the boss; we'll just have to make sure we're ready with our parts."

The cigarette doesn't taste normal. Metallic yet not unpleasantly so. The tobacco has been alchemically treated in a process which results in a smoke that grounds the taster, focusing their mind. It's a type favored by the Agency's psychics, who use it to muffle the noise of other people's minds. Rhett is one of those psychics and quite the empath, according to rumors and stories Sill has heard. Which means he probably knows exactly what she thinks about him. Doesn't seem to keep him from being annoying, though.

[Beans]

[Golden Circus Office]

Rhett takes his sweet time lighting Sill's cig for her. Then he takes an even longer time getting his own going. She just saw him light hers, she knows the Bic works, but somehow he manages to spark the flint wheel three times before he gets a steady flame. It's manifestly a stalling attempt, no matter how natural he acts. Finally, before the feline assassin can strangle him with a rainbow colored silk streamer, he sighs phlegmatically. "Reynard is getting antsy. I told him the more time he gives us to hire people and work, the better the Circus'll be. But he wants to get his side of things going. He's the boss; we'll just have to make sure we're ready with our parts."

The cigarette doesn't taste normal. Metallic yet not unpleasantly so. The tobacco has been alchemically treated in a process which results in a smoke that grounds the taster, focusing their mind. It's a type favored by the Agency's psychics, who use it to muffle the noise of other people's minds. Rhett is one of those psychics and quite the empath, according to rumors and stories Sill has heard. Which means he probably knows exactly what she thinks about him. Doesn't seem to keep him from being annoying, though.

She turns the metallic taste over in her mouth. "I'm ready. Rather get this whole thing locked in and settled sooner than later." A diplomatic way of stating how deeply she hates this and wants it to be over, to be sure. "Much as it'll be better with a fuller crew, don't know if I can fault him for his eagerness to get the show on the road."

She takes a deep drag. "When you got sworn in and all, did you ever think you'd be..." She waves her free hand vaguely. "Doing this, exactly? Hell if I did. 'Course, at the time I was two steps from belting out the national anthem without warning, so even if I'd be told 'you will have to do circus things' I'd probably never have blinked an eye."

[bc56]

Necropolis of Kysimax

Through the archway is a much smaller, domed room. A fountain stands in the center, long dry, depicting an armored man with sword held high in one hand, and an open scroll in the other. This room appears to be a dead end.
But it might not be. There have been a number of other secret passages so far.

Heresy Fighters

"Pretty sure. You seem dangerously unstable." Purple may not have the powers Gold has, but she has determination. She tries to tackle the more heavily armored warrior off her feet and get in top of her, where she can hopefully keep her pinned while using the torch.

[Deathkeeper]

Moondoe Cafe

G’nichi has an idea! He waves Bell around a bit at the remaining cultists. They’re already in bubbles, but what if those bubbles got smaller to cover their hands? He would have to subdue them the old fashioned way but they wouldn’t be able to grab any of their magic items like that!

[Chaotic Bob]

[A Street - Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

The gnome-girl is considering the tunnel options, by the time Red comes by. She's favoring the "deeper into the city" option, as it's likely to have more prey options that way, as opposed to the bay.
Not as many of her peers living in the water.

She's getting ready to take off, when Red Velvet speaks and she makes an exasperated expression.
"Uuuugh. Are you going to be stuffy the whole time, horse miss?"
This is probably a yes to Red's question.
"Can we just kill the monster and maybe not talk at all in the process?"

---

Meanwhile up on the surface!
There are no obviously visible girl-and-cat-thing combos to be found. In light of the recent murdering and the fact that the killer is being actively pursued, such little socializations are currently being put on hold!
Harley may see a couple little white shapes on rooftops, out of the corner of her eye, but they appear to be disappearing when she actually looks at them.

[Moondoe Cafe]

Well that's certainly doable. It's a bit similar to his own transformation sequence, having the bubbles collapse over the cultists like that.
Only instead of covering them in beautiful ribbons and bows, it instead just collapses around their hands like horrible gauntlet-restraints. At least they're still a pleasant shade of pink.

Does free them from the overall prison setup though.

[5a Violista]

[Necropolis of Kysimax]

Venus approaches the fountain, and sets down the glowing flower ball on it. That way, she can look around and have a free hand!

First, she glances back, wondering if she missed something. The coffins could have had a secret passage in one, she thinks. Would have to find the right one, presumably that matches the sword of the guy she fought (and that she has a wooden sword version of it). That seems like it would take a long time, though, and the writing is probably old and unreadable now.

Or. Maybe she needs to find a scroll? But, likewise, any scrolls would probably be deteriorated or unreadable.

Venus leans against the fountain, thinking about it. Maybe there's another key she needs to find. If there is a keyhole, then she'll know what to look for. Considering this room, the main feature of this room is the fountain. So if there's something notable, it'll probably be in this fountain.
She decides to search the fountain first. On hands and knees around the base, and then working her way upwards for anything that looks interesting or noteworthy.


[BDD Sans Thread]

It's okay, June is still probably awake. She's probably not that tired.
And she didn't mind. She even said it was fine, probably.


Venus doesn't pick up on the cryptic hints.
When he looks at his phone, Venus pretends to be looking in the mirror like she was too absorbed in spotting all the differences, so that he doesn't have to worry about ignoring her while on the phone. Don't worry! She was the one who was distracted, not him, so it should be her apologizing for ignoring him while looking at herself in the mirror. That's her reasoning, anyway.

"It's fine. It's not like this is the first time my appearance changed against my will." She was a victim of the Buttercup thing, after all. "It's not that big of a deal. Worst part is probably the fingers." She waves her fingers, to show them off. Then, she continues, as if explaining why the fingers are the worst part, with a bit of levity: "Probably never going to find decent gloves again. At least I can wear normal hats again, now that my ears aren't in the way."
It's not actually as small of a deal as she claims, but after confirming that there's no obvious or noticeable mental changes that happened to her, she's a lot more okay with it and more relaxed now.

"To be honest, if it comes down to it, I could live with this. Don't need to deal with cultists." Venus has an idea that came because - hey, her face has already changed today and she already had a scare that her memory and thought pattern was all messed up -, but wants to immediately dismiss it as morally wrong. She leans against a dresser. "I just had an idea that could probably easily solve my cultist problem, but..." She sighs and runs her fingers through her hair. "I can kind-of steal people's names and faces, sometimes. It's actually how I still have human legs, I traded one of mine with one of hers," she says, raising a leg to show it and to point at June. She then sighs. "If I do it with one of the cultists' leaders, I would know everything they know, know how they're doing what they do, and probably could just...tell them to stop. And they probably would."
Venus rolls her head back. "...I'd really appreciate it if you could tell me it's the worst idea ever and that it'll never work out and so on and that it's just plain...wrong. Normally I'd have her-" gesturing at June with her foot again "-tell me, but..." She's asleep. Her breathing and the way she relaxed her tight hold on the pillow gives it away.

"...Anyway."
She looks down. After finding out more about her, it's entirely possible he changed his mind about whether she should join HALO or not. "HALO. We were headed there?"

[A Street - Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

Meanwhile up on the surface!
There are no obviously visible girl-and-cat-thing combos to be found. In light of the recent murdering and the fact that the killer is being actively pursued, such little socializations are currently being put on hold!
Harley may see a couple little white shapes on rooftops, out of the corner of her eye, but they appear to be disappearing when she actually looks at them.

[A Street -- Cat-hating (no Sewer) Monster]

Harley is a little relieved that there's no girls by the sewer.

She is a little frustrated, though, that none of these white cats want to talk with her. Maybe she should actually blindfold herself? But they can probably hide from sound waves, too, so that wouldn't help.

Well, she continues checking more sewer entrances, making sure there's none by one that she had missed.
The next time she spots one of these little white shapes - and verifies that they aren't birds - and verify that it's just not a bird or something, she calls out, "So you guys just going to avoid me?"

She doesn't expect them to answer, of course, and that's fine because she still has more sewer entrances to check to make sure there's no children by them.

[Rebonack]

Moondoe Cafe

It would appear as though the remaining cultists have all been restrained.

There's still a problem, though.

"Where did you send all the people here?" Nala demands of one of the shackled cultists.

And the cultist?

Spits on her foot.

Now, mind, she isn't digigrade like G'nichi. She can wear actual shoes.

HOWEVER!

That doesn't mean she likes her shoe being spit on by cultists of Tiamat.

What will G'nichi do about it? That's the real question here. Is he just going to call it quits? Or is he going to try to rescue the kidnapped cafe patrons? The second one would probably impress Nala more.

Just in case that's a thing G'nichi is concerned about doing.


[A Street - Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

"Ah, to be young again," Red Velvet sighs.

That's probably a 'no' to the magical girl's question, too.

"While battling in stoic silence is rather dashing I'm afraid that, no, that simply isn't to be," the unicorn says as she trots briskly down the tunnel toward the heart of the City. "Since you have seen fit to so brashly leap into the jaws of death I feel it would be remiss for me not to share some insights into the nature of our ghastly foe."

Red is being needlessly theatrical about this.

But that's Red Velvet for you.

"We face a nightshade. A being of primordial darkness, unspeakable evil, and restless undeath in equal parts. While I admit I've yet to puzzle out what drives it to attack little girls talking to white cats, in broad daylight no less, its reasons are no doubt nefarious."

God why does she have to use so many words.

"These entities have dreadful intellect matched only by their malfeasance. They wield powerful necromancy and are unnaturally resilient. Natural sunlight is noxious to them, however they are not strictly harmed by it. And, perhaps most relevantly to you, they have the ability to temporarily rend the magic from their hapless foes. I do hope you have a way to protect yourself from being disjoined?"

[Earl of Purple]

Delmah Phor

"Pregnancies are weird. If ever I decide to have chicks, I'm laying an egg like Mum did." Jack looks pretty human (except for the wings growing from her back, with eyes in the joint), so that's probably a surprise for everyone involved, except Eun and Miranda who know she can shapeshift into a bird. And Eun already knows about the egg thing, if she remembers Jack's response to 'xrays'.

"I don't know. I've not actually been here before, and I've also never asked a priestess for a coffee, I'm pretty sure." Jack might have asked a priestess for a coffee, but if she has, she didn't realise they were a priestess.

Arkham Street

The door is smashed and the Swordsman goes down the garden path. The gate is not locked, but it is rusty, and the hinges squeal when it's pulled open. Just as well; the fence is four metres tall and cast iron, with narrow spaces between the bars and spikes on top, designed to be hard to climb or jump. The squeal wakes a boulder resting next to the gate. It lifts up and reveals that it is not, in fact, a boulder but rather a very large mollusc shell, though it's not a mollusc living in it at the moment. A giant hermit crab has moved in, and it turns around to see the Swordsman. "Ah, greetings! I was told to wait here as there would be a viewer that wanted a look at the house today." The crab moves its eye-stalks and twists one of its claws to look at a watch on the back of it. "Oh, my. I appear to have drifted off; the viewing was supposedly fifteen minutes ago. Still, if you've just arrived there's no harm done, hey? It's a nice house, structurally sound despite the unpleasantness, with lots of large rooms at a very reasonable price. It comes undecorated, but that simply means you can make your mark on it. One exception- the basement. The basement is a fully equipped magical workshop; my understanding is the last resident, may they rest in peace, was a wizard who made a living through enchanted objects. Do you have any questions before we begin?"

Or does the Swordsman want to interrupt the hermit crab estate agent, with the revelation he doesn't plan on buying the mansion.

[Deathkeeper]

Moondoe Cafe

G’nichi bops one of the cultists on the head with his staff and confiscates the badge they were going for.
”I should probably go after them. You prep any buffs? Or do you want to come?” he asks Nala with a smile.
They could wait for Intersection to come but the captives might be moved by then.

[Rebonack]

[Moondoe Cafe]

"You should go. But..." Nala pauses, looking conflicted. "I don't have my weapons or armor. I would just be one more person you have to protect from Tiamat's fanatics. I'll call Intersection and wait for them to round up these villains. You go save the day, G'nichi."

Then?

She'll lean in and smooch him.

While casting a prayer of divine protection over him.

Enemy attacks are now less likely to harm him!

"A blessing from Bahamut. And from me. May justice and goodness flow from your deeds."

So.

Is he going to do the hero thing?

He better he just got a smooch from the girl.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Moondoe Cafe]

A few heart-shaped bubbles start floating out of the top of G'nichi's head after the kiss.
The staff does not tell him this.

[A Street - Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

"Blah blah blah, horrible monster. This isn't my first go around the murder block, lady."
The gnome-girl waves her paintbrush in some sort of strange "see?" gesture, as if it's supposed to mean anything to Red.

"My solution to magic ruining stuff: not get hit by that. Easy! I'll just doodle a sun or something, let's just find it and kill it."

It would seem she's not a whole lot for the whole "pre-strategy" thing. Or into all of Red's talking because, wooooow, boring.
To ease her boredom, she'll doodle a little fire on top of some of the ice, to see if the heat does anything to it. The fire is neat and sort of oil-painting-y, casting its glow in strange fluidic ways.

-----

They do not, in fact, answer Harley.
But one does hang around long enough to give her a thoughtful little tail-flick before disappearing into thin air like some slightly-cuter Cheshire cat.

Probably not something Harley can tell, but at pretty much every sighting, they're between her and where the gnome-girl/Red Velvet are located.

[Recaiden]

[Heresy Fighters]

"Pretty sure. You seem dangerously unstable." Purple may not have the powers Gold has, but she has determination. She tries to tackle the more heavily armored warrior off her feet and get in top of her, where she can hopefully keep her pinned while using the torch.

Gold laughs.
"Well, if you haven't caught on, I won't-" Whatever they were gloating about is cut off when Purple tackles them. They're unreasonably solid for how short they are, but I think Purple manages to get them off-balance. So what Gold does, is try to grab onto Purple and throw her behind them, using the determined warrior's momentum against them.
"Dangerous, yes. Unstable, technically. It's so easy to get distracted from the right thing."

[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?

He's still in the lair of those monsters.

Breathing brings an awful smell to his nose - blood and offal along with the faint airs of sewage that had been here.

The darkness has receded, so he can see by the light of the ferns. He's by the pool, which is dark and still and dead. The walls and floor of the cavern are squirming a bit, but they were doing that before. On the far side of the pool is, well, a bunch of corpses. One dead giant-snake-monster, lots of dead kidnapped folks from the city above. Several little scavenging animals picking at the pile.
There's the passage he came in by. There's another tunnel leading downward, out of the sewers and into just the underground. There's the same weird plants as before. There's a collection of tubes growing out of the wall.

There's technically living things all around, but it feels like he's alone.

[Rebonack]

[A Street - Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

A little flame is created! The dark ice will greedily suck at its heat and light as if drawing it into a bottomless, ravenous well. Which probably isn't far from the truth. The ice rather stubbornly refuses to melt. Unless, of course, that flame is hot enough to melt a rock. In which case it will work just fine!

Red Velvet sighs dramatically.

It sounds like this poor child is unwilling to heed the wisdom of her elders!

What a shame.

Well. If she's slain and her soul is torn from her as a twisted undead mockery Red Velvet can, at the very least, free her from that condition. She's holding out hope that the nightshade reduced the murdered children to slaved shadows. If so, then there's still a chance for them.

If they were simply eaten?

There isn't anything Red can do about that. She quietly wishes that won't be the case.

It isn't long before our heroes step out into a wide, vaulted chamber of some kind. The path had been sloping steadily downward and there's no telling how deep they are below the streets. The brick-lined artificial cavern would usually be slick with slime and water, but it has all be frozen solid. Somewhere high above, beyond the reach of the light, water is still dripping from the ceiling. The shadows twist and flicker strangely around our heroes in response to the magical girl's light. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal.

But one of those flickering shadows tries touching the gnome girl as it flits past. Should it succeed, it will rob her of some of her strength.

One of them grabs at Red Velvet, too, but that results in a shimmering rainbow POP! of sparks as it touches her. Red is instantly on high-alert.

"Shadows! The spirits of the dead girls. Do NOT destroy them. Restrain if you can, I can still save them," Red Velvet says, hoping the magical girl will listen to her this time.

[Deathkeeper]

Moondoe Cafe

G'nichi stands straight and resolute as he traces the sign of Bahamut over his chest.
"In the light of Justice, my faith is my shield." he looks down and winks at her.
"But yours helps too."

And then he slaps the escape badge!

[Reinholdt]

[BDD Sans Thread]

"I can recommend the Needle and Thread, here in Inside. They do exquisite custom jobs and probably can handle the glove issue no problem." Four fingers is still pretty weird though. Though slightly less weird to Reinholdt than other people perhaps because he's more used to not having fingers than having them.

Reinholdt looks pretty surprised at Venus' suggested 'solution' to the cultist problem. "Uhh... are you capable of returning the faces and names you stole? I mean... stealing isn't that wrong, but this is usurping someone's entire identity. That seems a very bad slope to get on." Sure, you start with the cultists that are harassing you, but in two years, BAM, you stole a queen's identity and are suddenly the end boss for some urban based adventuring group.

"Even worse, is if you take the cult leader's memories like that and then find yourself suddenly understanding them. Agreeing with them. Some forbidden knowledge changes the way you think and instead of solving the cult problem, you become the cult problem and lead them even more fervently in their worship." There does seem to be some kind of dark mind games going on with this cult already. It's not outside the realm of possibility.

Rein shakes his head a little. "HALO's the goal sure, but leaving to go there now with those things still out there isn't great. We should grab rooms here and hunker down. Either until it's taken care of, or perhaps just until night. If their goal is to be seen, they probably won't be wandering out much at night and we can sneak out then."

[5a Violista]

[A Street - Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

Figuring out that their position is based on the relative position of herself and someone else would have required a lot more planning and preparation earlier. So, Harley doesn't figure that out. Especially because she headed in the same general direction as Red Velvet and the gnome-girl, so the direction the cats are in isn't even in the same compass direction each time: she's zig-zagging back and forth trying to hit all the sewer entrances in that general direction.

Confident that she's already checked for girls all over this area, she decides to step up her game, just a little: the sewer-monster seems to create unmelting ice. So, logically, following heat traces would probably be the best option. She stops on top of a rooftop, and starts converting her left eye so that it no longer sees visible light but instead just infrared and heat, similar to a snake's. Takes a few moments, but with no apparent immediate girls in danger, she feels like she has the time to do this.

While closing that eye, she checks her phone with her other eye, trying to see if there were any areas she missed or that she thinks she should go over again, or if she should just expand her search.
There are, of course, occasional little girls around completely unrelated to this whole mess, so upon finding some, she goes down to warn them away from the sewers.


[Perfectly Normal Walk]

It is pretty lonely, isn't it?
And there's tons of dead people everywhere. It's a miracle he managed to survive, somehow, then. To him, it seems like if he hadn't been tossed into that water, he would've probably died just like everyone else here during all the fighting. Only spared, really, since nobody noticed or cared about him. To think this all started because he picked a plant.

Trying to figure out how to use his snake-'legs' to move around is pretty hard, but fortunately the awful smell here is a good incentive to quickly learn.

He needs to get back to the surface, find a pay phone/borrow someone's phone and warn Vix if she's even still there (assuming she knows how to answer his cell phone), maybe get back to his apartment (wait, does he even have the apartment keys anymore? He checks his pockets, only to realize he doesn't have pockets anymore - they must be somewhere back in that pool, which he doesn't want to go back in), call work and get it off for the week, and then decide whether to go to the hospital or just take a bunch of painkillers and collapse at home for a while.

Okay, step one, back to the surface, he reminds himself.
He goes to the passage he came by, and starts backtracking. At least with this passage, he'll be able to recognize where he is and maybe work backwards to the surface. Any other pathway, as far as he's concerned, has no guarantee it leads back to the surface. He's slow-going, but at least he's making progress back.


[BDD Sans Thread]

'Custom-made' is frequently code word for 'expensive', Venus thinks. Oh well, gloves aren't actually that important, especially because normal weather isn't that big of a problem for her. Comes with being a nature-spirit. "Needle and Thread," she repeats to get it in her memory.

"I probably can return it, somehow," she says, not really putting up much of a fight against it. The whole point of bringing up that idea was for it to get shot down by someone else, and not to discuss the details of how it could work. "Yeah, you're right. Definitely not a good idea to do." Guess she'll just have to actually talk with them, later when she feels the simple act of talking with them won't change who she is.
Being the end boss probably wouldn't be that bad, though. Would definitely be exciting, if nothing else.

Venus pushes herself away from the wall and stops leaning on stuff.
"That's a really good point," she says. "I didn't really consider what would happen if I saw another one, but it'd probably just compound the problem. Waiting it out sounds like a very reasonable solution."
Of course, that means, with both Rein and Harley staying out later than intended, whoever's watching Manja would have to watch her for a bit longer than planned.

[Rebonack]

[Moondoe Cafe]

Wonder how long those little floating hearts are going to last.

Anyway!

G'nichi slaps the pin and vanishes, only to appear again at-!

[Abandoned Newspaper]

Let's be clear here.

There aren't as many people reading physical newspapers anymore.

But that still doesn't mean all the printing presses and stuff would just be up and abandoned right?

Well, apparently not.

G'nichi will find himself popping into the building standing inside of a large cage with several frightened looking captives! There appear to be a number of cages spread around the facility. Judging from the screams in that can be heard over the sound of the press the cultists aren't doing anything nice to anyone. Thankfully the bad guys don't seem to have noticed G'nichi yet.

[Deathkeeper]

Abandoned Newspaper

There's no time to lose!
G'nichi puts a finger to his mouth to signal quiet to the captives. He gently reaches out and taps the ruby of his staff against the lock on the door.
They could probably turn all the bars into jelly or something but they're trying to be a little quiet so better to just start with opening the door. A cheap lock is nothing compared to the power of JUSTICE!

[Terumitsu]

Sam's Room

Sam gives Alva an odd look. Truth be told, Sam used to be an expert liar. Sam was so good a liar that he got himself into business he had no right being in. And theoretically the snout only makes it easier to lie to people experienced in reading human faces. But ever since he escaped Skyside he just hasn't needed that skill. He's out of practice and he just doesn't know if it's worth it anymore. Most of the time in situations like this, he just tells the truth.
"I saw some things. Bloodstains, noises, that sort of thing. Nothing tried to brain me or anything. I'd thought that was you?
Anyway, I'm not being paid. I was just answering an ad that offered the house for whoever could make it presentable. So you could claim it just as much as me. And I also don't really know anything about ghosts? Usually I just wave my key at it and sometimes that solves the problem. And if it doesn't I just call for backup."
Sam stands up and starts rifling through his drawers.
"I did have a poltergeist at my Riverside apartment once. Some weird lady barged in and busted it for me. Only after it ruined half my china. I could find her card? I bet she'd jump at a chance to get a loyal customer like you. Assuming you don't want to live in the spooky ghost house to keep your neighbors away." Sam turns and gives Alva a wink.

Sam's Room

Sam could probably guess what Alva was going to say from her expression alone. It was that special blend of tired, annoyed, and just a spritz of exasperation that one might normally use when talking about a troublesome child or a particularly disobedient pet. "Okay, yeah, that's about par for the course." she said, running her fingers through her hair. "I mean, not the worst I've heard about. Like I heard of one particularly bad case where there was this deposed prince in a giant mansion which had all of the utensils and furniture possessed by spirits from the silverware to the sofa. Not sure if he was mad before the haunting or after... she said, trying to remember.

The way she sat up at the idea of someone who might be able to take care of her uninvited house haunts, though, would likely give Sam the impression that if she weren't shape-changed at the moment, her ears would definitely have perked up at the news. "Ooooh, really? Well I suppose a 'loyal customer' by circumstance might not be the worst thing. I mean, people hire landscapers for season-long attention because, well, grass keeps growing so if the spirits keep coming.." she didn't find the idea distasteful at least.

[Recaiden]

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

To be fair, June did die like everyone else here.
But he got better, and they didn't.

Luckily, the sewer passages haven't rearranged themselves while he was out, and he should be able to retrace his steps (from back when he had feet) and make it to that damaged district where the monsters had taken everyone.
There's no sign of the angels.

The pay phones still work. Does he still have coins with him to pay?
If he does, well, his apartment phone would ring for a while, but eventually someone will pick up-

[5a Violista]

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

June tried a collect call from the payphone. He has made collect calls before, so he knows how to do that, but...
...
Something he didn't know is many cell phone carriers, and including his, automatically reject collect calls.

Which leaves borrowing a phone from someone.
Honestly, it's not hard to borrow a phone: most of the time, all you have to do is ask. The fact that lots of people were abducted from around here means he has to walk(?) a short distance from here, and looking a little off (lots of arms! Snake! Who knows what else, he hasn't got a chance to look!) is a complication hurting his chances, but the fact that he looks both injured and in pain is a positive.

Regardless,
eventually,
after a lot of trouble,
he eventually borrows a phone.
And since he knows his own phone number, he calls, and it rings.

"Vix? it's me, June."

[Recaiden]

[Perfectly Normal Phone Call]

After a long pause, Vix answers in her broken-up voice.
"June. Where. No. What?"
It's been so many years since she talked to anyone on a phone. How is it supposed to go again?

[Chaotic Bob]

[Moondoe Cafe]

Those little bubble hearts are going to last up until they become a stealth hazard, or combat resumes.
G'nichi is never, at any point, going to be informed of them by the staff.

It is definitely amused though.

[A Street - Cat-hating Sewer Monster]

The gnome-girl has been riding on her little warpstar through all this, having never actually dismissed her new one before falling into her self-made hole.
Does its electrical glow dissuade the shadow girls at all? Probably not. Touching it will certainly do the job though, it's like touching a constantly-active cattle prod.

Now, that passive little defense aside, the gnome-girl is a bit more competent than Red Velvet is inclined to believe. This really isn't her first rodeo on the monster hunting scene, and with some...stranger monsters.
She doesn't look it, but she's on high alert.

Her initial reaction to shadows trying to touch her is probably a bit less immediately friendly than Red would prefer, as well.
Namely, she crouches lower on the warpstar and spins like an aggressive top, sending out a fairly short ranged flurry of electric bolts into the air around her.
"Ugh, well, at least these aren't the ugliest things that have tried to grope me this month. No promises on the destroying."

[Artemis97]

[Delmah Phor]

The older priestess' white eyebrows shoot up, her eyes going wide in anger. "You impudent dog! You think I would sully myself to lay with the likes of you?"

The younger stifles a giggle behind a cough. "Sister, he only asked for coffee." She looks at Vlad. "You're a bold one, aren't you?"

Jack mentions laying eggs, and gets a strange look from both drow women. "That...might be simpler?" The younger one seems to agree.

[Ironsmith]

[Delmah Phor]

Not with that attitude, lady. Vlad laughs and gives the acolyte a friendly clap on the back. "Of course! Just coffee. No commitment."

Heh. "A bold one." That was a good sign, he thinks. That particular turn of phrase tended to be used by people who found it admirable; people who didn't tended to react a little more like the priestess.

Miranda's read of the situation is... somewhat different. She saw a pissed-off priestess, an acolyte who had to do whatever she said, and a square full of people who either wouldn't interfere if she turned against them, or would actively help. This was not a good place for tourists to be.

Eun and Rose watch silently at what appears to be a tense situation, neither of them daring to weigh in. Well, Eun was sitting quietly. Rose was chewing on locusts again, since popcorn wasn't available.

[bc56]

Necropolis of Kysimax

There's something unusual about the rollers of the statue's scroll. One end of one is ridged, like it's meant to be easy to grip, but the other is smooth. There's a faint seam between the ridged end of the roller and the rest of it.

Heresy Fighters

"Oof!" Purple is thrown into a cart of cabbages, which go bouncing into the road. She gets back up. "Cryptic nonsense isn't going to convince me to let you do whatever horrible thing you're planning."

[Reinholdt]

[BDD Sans Thread]

Reinholdt, like many people with excesses of money, doesn't think in terms of expensive. It does make things a little more difficult when he suggests someone just buy a castle to solve their problems.

"Yes. Reasonable...." Rein says, kinda disappointed. "I mean, but, if you were in a hurry we could go now anyways..." Reasonable just isn't very exciting! Though maybe it could be made exciting. There is alcohol, illegal substances, and a secret arena here. Lots of excitement to be had.

Or naps. Naps are good too.

The question becomes who is watching Manja? Felandria, Kitsuki, GLoG daycare, Shuyoru, Magtok. Some of these can handle delays more than others.

[5a Violista]

[Perfectly Normal Phone Call]

"I got captured," June says, getting it out of the way fast. "I got away, so I'm okay now."

Meanwhile, the person whose phone is being borrowed starts to worry about if they got wrapped up in some sort of weird fugitive thing.

"But. They might know where you are and they definitely wanted to find you. Maybe they're all dead, though: there was an explosion, and a lot of fighting."


[Necropolis of Kysimax]

Oh? Is it supposed to be pulled? she wonders.
Venus sets down her sword so that she can get a good hold of the scroll, and stands on her toes to reach it from the best angle.
Then, she grabs on to the statue's scroll, and pulls.


[BDD Sans Thread]

To be fair, buying a castle would solve a lot of people's problems.

Venus starts to wonder if she said something wrong.
Or if this is some kind of test.
If it's a test, then what's he testing for, anyway? Figure that out, and she'll pass the test. She's clearly already doing poorly, judging by his tone. So she needs to do something to make up for it. Regardless, staying here is clearly not the right answer. "Actually, I am in a little bit of a hurry. I mean, for now we're safe from cultists because they couldn't have followed us, but I'm sure some of them know I occasionally come here and so the longer we stay here, the higher chance we have of running into one. We can stay for a bit, but it's probably best to leave sooner than later."

She wonders if that was the type of answer he was looking for.


And, honestly, it's probably Magtok because their names start off the same, and that's how babysitting works.