Inside 72: Halfway to a Gross

[bc56]

Abandoned Hospital
The chest plate creaks open to reveal normal mechanical innards, wiring, motors, and such. Not really much of note there.
Except for an empty receptacle in the center of the chest cavity. It looks like a small object could be placed inside. Furthermore, the interior of the receptacle is lined with arcane sigils. This is not a purely mechanical device; it's partly magical as well.

[Rebonack]

[Burning Apartment Complex]

Tristan replies to the question of how quickly he can retrieve people with a thumbs up as he vanishes into the flames. He hasn't the faintest idea what 'going faun' means in this context but whatever the medic has to do to help save these people he's okay with it. There's no time to chat right now, he has to move quickly. And, thank God, he can move quickly. The thick flames and smoke doesn't obscure his vision. That is, perhaps, the biggest blessing. There are some clever magical means of shrugging off the choking smog and the searing flames, but being able to see through the haze of smoke unimpeded? As far as Tristan knows there aren't many other people who can manage that. People made it out of the lower floors for the most part on their own. It doesn't help that flames have consumed the stairs. The only blessing is that the building isn't stick-built. Most of the buildings Inside aren't.

Again.

Thank God.

High rise wooden buildings are a disaster waiting to happen.

That means while the flames are bad, he doesn't have to worry too much about the building falling in on itself. It would certainly be nice if the fire suppression systems were actually working.

Second floor.

Third floor.

Precious seconds tick away.

There!

Tristan boots a burning door, splintering its hinges. The flames aren't so bad in here, but the smoke is thick. There, in the closet clinging precariously to the floor, trying to keep below the smoke. Tristan scoops up the child and heads straight for the nearest window. Smash it out with an elbow, clear the glass away with his hand. The shards poke, but they can't cut or pierce. Okay. Partial changes are always a pain in the butt, but.

Leonie claws dig DEEP into the facade of the building as Tristan leaps out of the window, raking furrows into the brickwork to slow his descent. He sprints over to Reuma and sets the girl down.

"Only one in that apartment, minor burns bad smoke inhalation," he reports.

Oh.

She just acquired hooves.

That's probably what she was talking about.

"I'll see what I can do," Tristan says, looking back up at the blaze.

Taking the stairs is way too slow.

Could he seriously make this work? This is friggin' impossible he's never done something like this before. He knows cats can jump pretty high but could he seriously...

Gotta try.

Clock's ticking. Free time's burning.

He backs up away from the building, takes a few quick breaths, the sprints forward and leaps.

Four stories straight up. He hits a window and it gives way, vanishing into the conflagration again.

[Aurora Alchemi]

Burning Apartment Complex

The faun rearranges the girl, putting her to a more convenient location, then quickly checking over her with a wash of blue sparks from the horns over the mask. This girl is good... suppress the pain and her body can heal the rest, check on lungs... then... Set her to help here. Reuma quickly consoles the girl, giving her the instruction to bring fresh water from nearby, and pointing out a bucket to bring it in. Half of the job was for washwater for the victims, but the other half was to give the child something to focus on, which would keep her from being too scared or possibly getting hurt some other way.

Reuma returns to healing the others, knitting wounds closed efficiently. The healing was in steps, knitting deep tissues together, easing out burns, slowly mending the flesh back together; but the results were clear. Soon the man and woman looked more like they had scalded themselves with boiling water, rather than getting burnt alive. Keeping an eye on the building, Reuma looked for the strangely patterned firefighter. I hope you know what you are doing, jumping up like that... but if it gets people down, I can fix the broken bones. Reuma takes some available scrap fabric and makes some makeshift spots for more victims, tending to the others all the while.

"Come on... get them down here..." The satyrlyrri's mutter comes across, even behind the mask.

[Rebonack]

[Burning Apartment Complex]

The child nods, fetching the water. Sounds of emergency services are drawing closer, but they're still precious minutes away.

Keep going.

There.

Faster.

Another.

One foot in front of the other.

And another.

Don't stop, can't.

Another. Too many.

He's only got so many arms, so much body mass. He's strong, but he only has enough leverage for so many.

We h-have to.
Harder without hands but I'm for it! Let's go!
Keep cool we got this.

Another minute passes.

A quick check out a window. That alley is clear. No people. Nothing that looks immediately flammable. A perfect landing zone.

Sixth floor.

A chunk of the wall shatters, showering the empty alley below with bits of concrete and rebar as something absolutely huge leaps out of the building. Claws once again dig into the outside of the building to slow their descent while a thick serpentine tail pins half a dozen people to enormous beast's back. Front half of a lion, lioness head to the left and ram to the right. The back half of a mouflon. A serpentine dragon for a tail. Chimera steps out onto the street as the tail begins carefully lifting people from their back and setting them down on the pavement.

"Carried out as many as we could," the lioness states.
"Um... we t-tried moving the ones we couldn't carry to s-safer places," the ram head adds.
The dragon makes a mumbley noise but her mouth is full of burn victim at the moment.

Chimera will unload the six passengers before heading right back up again.

[Reinholdt]

[Hunting for Ice]

A little girl doesn't even narrow things down much without unicorn being a possibility. Could have been a catgirl or a gnome or an orc or a doggirl or an elf or an endless stream of other possibilities.

"I see ma'am..."

Butler doesn't see.

He's confused.

"I know some people who can change someone's race ma'am. But they aren't a monster ma'am." So there's at least precedent to keep Butler from being completely lost. That's good.

Butler frowns and offers the unicorn/little girl a hug if she wants it. "Well ma'am, your family is always going to be special to you. And I'm sure they miss you just as much ma'am. Sometimes the best way to keep them with you is to live your life and always honor them with your character and deeds ma'am. And when you see them again one day, you can meet them with pride because you were the best you ma'am."

Someone should have told Wandering Star she could bottle her tears and sell them for easy cash.

[Rebonack]

[Hunting for Ice]

That's okay Butler.

Life is full of confusing things.

Sometimes you just don't see things and that's simply how it is.

Sort of like how poor Wandering Star doesn't get to see her family anymore. And she also doesn't get to see any tear-bottling cash because no one told her about that. But, maybe, she'll get to see that magic kitty again and get her heart's desire fulfilled.

"I guess..." she sniffles again.

Then she looks up at Butler and offers the best smile she can manage.

Considering how lousy she's feeling it isn't that great of a smile but hey at least she's trying. She wraps her hooves around Butler in a hug.

"Thank you for talking with me Mister Butler."

[Aurora Alchemi]

Burning Apartment Complex

The shaking ground and rumble of chimera approaching is the initial sign of their approach. Reuma gives the three heads a small double take. Ah, so that explains the density of their weave... Interesting. But there will be time to examine and explore their unique anatomy later. For now... burns, unconscious that one looks like they are borderline shock. Reuma pulls the mask off and ties it to her belt, looking at each of the new patients, a strangely calm analytic look on her face as she gives a few small directions. "There, a little closer together. That'll do nicely, thank you. How many more do you think?"

Reuma steps into the middle of the group, quickly prioritizing the most serious victims. A closer look might see the slightly far away look, almost as if looking through the patients instead of at them, but the pronghorn seems to be locked into an almost trance of concentration. Stooping low over the worst case, her hands reach out, and the flow of green and blue magic cascades over and around, long streamers going from her horns to her hands. But that isn't the only healing; Almost like foxfire, a glowing aura flows around the satyrlyrri's whole body, and small sparks of green and blue arch and jump between her and all of those in her care. Where the sparks land, it is as if there is a time lapse of normal healing, the body's natural restoration cranked up to 11.

The aura isn't just limited to the burn victims, however, and it's feeling is almost as if one had received a full day's rest, just by standing within three or four paces of the healer. There was clearly more than physical healing at play too, as the air took on a feeling of focus and concentration, worries and concerns still present, but "muted," as if getting the job done and saving more people was the only thing that the area around Reuma wanted to let people focus on.

"I can handle more." Reuma's face looks up, and the healer gives the chimera a gentle, but confident smile.

[Rebonack]

[Burning Apartment Complex]

As the dragon-tail unloads the last passenger a thoughtful look passes over her face even as Chimera is ascending. "We're on the top floor now, not too many more I don't think," she calls back down to Reuma as they ascend. "Hang in there you're doing great!"

And then they've vanished into the flames once again.

Three sets of eyes and ears help.

They're bigger, faster, and its that much easier fro Drakaina to taste their life when she's occupying her own head-space. Even still, the Chimera siblings try to avoid this when they can. But when lives are on the line? Well, that's when it's worth it.

"On your right, Leona, we've got another pair huddled in there."
"I've g-got the door." Ram's horns strike, wood splinters.
"See 'em. Hey! Stay low we're gettin' you out."

Such a scene unfolds more than once. And once more Chimera descends, this time burdened with ten lives.

"I, um, I think that's e-everyone," the ram's head reports.
"Everyone alive," the lioness adds, a look of grim finality on her face.
The dragon-tail is, once again, unloading passengers indisposed to speak.

[Aurora Alchemi]

[Burning Apartment Complex

Reuma stands confidently as the chimera returns, turning to get eyes on the new patients coming in. Visible under the brilliant verdant flame of magic coating her hands, the healer's skin seems to be pitted with new burns and marks, though sparks of green and blue dart among them, and they seem to close even faster than the wounds healing among the other victims. "Excellent job, thank you for getting them down here." Stepping over toward the new group being laid down, the pronghorn faun seems to wobble a little bit, and a few beads of sweat drip down her brow.

Ergg... some of these are pretty bad. I don't have the energy to get through all of them alone, at least not as quick as some of them need. Reuma's confident visage cracks a little, and she frowns, a faint purple tinge clouding the bright magical energy, and the feeling of the worry radiating for a moment, accompanied by a dip in the strength of the magic. Then the amber eyes flick over to the chimera. A single thought rings true: But I'm not alone. The healing magic seems to surge again, the purple dissipating and the verdant electricity returning to sparking and weaving wounds closed.

"I hate to ask this of you, but can you stand closer? And think happy thoughts..." Reuma carefully centers herself in the new, less stable apartment dwellers. Breathing deeply in and out, Reuma steadies herself. "I can halt their shock if we can divide their pain and reduce it among the four of us. For the couple who need to have their hearts restarted, I can provide a kick, but I'll need to weave your positive emotions into energy to do that... The happier you can make yourself now, the quicker and less painful this will be for us both. Can you do that for me?" Reuma reaches out a hand, but pauses, seeming to ask for confirmation before actually touching the chimera. If the three of them can steady my emotions, I should be able to take 60 percent of the pain and stay conscious that leaves ten percent for each individual spirit in that body, and then only ten percent for the burn victim. The thoughts race, but this same overthinking has a way of focusing the healer, and her steely eyed confidence returns.

[Rebonack]

[Burning Apartment Complex]

Aries, the ram's head, is quite observant. He notices things that others might miss. And so, he's the one who spots the shift in Reuma's expression shortly followed by the murky intrusion of color into her aura and the dip, however so small, in her power. He perks up at the sight immediately. There's an intuitive sort of understanding of what must be going on here. And when the healer makes her request it looks like the lioness is about to question it when the ram speaks up instead. "It's okay, Leona, her magic is empathic."

Leona, ever the watchful protector of her siblings, seems to be content with heeding her brother's insight.

Chimera steps closer and sits down on their haunches. So close to the pronghorn its that much more obvious just how huge the creature is. They aren't some mere beast roving the country side, they're of divine stock. An echo of the ancient world.

"Happy thoughts," Aries repeats. "Of home, of the people we love, of the lives we've saved."
Leona seems a bit skeptical at first before slowly closing her eyes.
Drakaina, meanwhile, watches everything going on with wholly unconcealed curiosity. Those brilliant green, intelligent eyes are drinking in all the details.

After a few seconds the dragon gives a nod. "Go on and hit us with it. We're sturdy as bars of Tartarus and I think Aries' sunshine and rainbows thoughts-"

The ram smiles and gives a small laugh as he recalls a pleasant memory.

"-will more than make up for how grumpy Leona is."

[Aurora Alchemi]

Burning Apartment Complex

Trades.

To weave well is like a barter with the world, in which you trade one quality of the world for another...

But not all trades have to be net neutral, or a loss. Weave to find the loops that empower one another.

As Reuma reaches out to touch the chimera, she brings to mind the advice of a certain moose, simple and full of power. Now she just had to find all the little places to trade emotional health for much needed physical health. For a moment, the timid healer's mind is connected with the chimera, like a brush between spirits; It carried with it all the weight of Reuma's past, small flickers of traumatic battles, the smell of burning soldier, trying to save the fallen of both sides in an active battle. But then that weight is muted, swamped out by the emotions of focus.

A long blue tendril curls, flowing almost waterlike from the chimera, up the pronghorns arm and around her horns. Joyful memories from the ram... a sense of protection from the lion... strong curiousity from the last... Reuma's mental voice rings soft and unsure of itself in the healer's mind, but clear as a bell while it echoes in the momentary union of the four. As each emotion falls away from the chimera, it's almost as if the emotions vanish; though they are not replaced with sadness, the feelings mute and dull as their energy is removed. This will do... Thank-

"You." Reuma's voice slips between thought and spoken word, the lack confidence in her mind discordant with the focus and resolute sound of her verbal speech. But still, almost instinctively, the combat medic works. As the blue energy crackles and sparks, slowly it is spun, falling from the horns into a gossamer and brilliant emerald thread, shining almost adamantine in the firelit street. Reaching a hand out toward the group, the thread begins to weave into the victims, undoing burns and restoring breath to the breathless. At the same time, a vicious red flame seems to siphon off the victims. "Hold... fast..." The reassurance seems to be as much for herself as for the chimera. The flame distributes itself between the four, the majority sinking into the healer, who shudders slight. It is pure fiery pain, shockingly white hot, and probably novel to a being incapable of being burnt.

Reuma's vision flickers as the healer swims in and out of consciousness, but the pronghorn dimly registers that all the victims are no longer at threat of death.

[Rebonack]

[Burning Apartment Complex]

That's a sensation, isn't it?

A deadening of emotion?

Not a feeling of sadness, a feeling of nothing. A feeling that is insidious in its own way. But as it turns out, Drakaina was not lying. Chimera is resilient, physically and mentally. Where emotions from each mind are deadened the depth of strength from the other siblings is quickly filling in the gaps. The emotional wound inflicted on them is healing quickly.

Fastest in Leona.

Her strength of self is like a bonfire and pulling at her overwhelming desire to protect is like trying to bail water out of the ocean with a bucket. Unmoved, the muting of her emotions is like a flicker in a flame soon forgotten.

Drakaina looks a bit bored all of a sudden and isn't totally sure why.

Aries' smile fades and he looks puzzled. He can tell what just happened and why, but it's still a strange feeling. Or lack of feeling.

Then the pain comes. A hiss from all three siblings, but they grit their teeth and endure. They're made of stern stuff. Trying to transfer burns to them likely won't work at all. Their flesh is unharmed by the flame regardless of the source.

The survivors are, at least, stabilized. Healing them all would be a daunting task, surely. But thankfully one that our heroes won't have to face by themselves.

Because the rest of the first responders just arrived.

A fire truck with an ambulance close behind.

The vehicles halt and occupants disembark, Drakaina perking up at the sight of one of the fire fighters.

"Hey Justinian you made it to the party," the dragon pipes up as the men begin unloading hoses and getting to work. Paramedics are already moving to collect the worst of the wounded first.

"Chimera?"

"We were in the neighborhood and spotted the smoke. We've gotten all the survivors out and our new pal Horns here has got them stabilized."

Chimera steps aside to allow the first responders to do their work, sitting at the sidelines and watching. It'll be touch and go for a few of the survivors, but everyone pulled from the flames will be living today.

Leona glances over at Reuma and gives the healer a small nod. "Hey. Good work." There's a weight to those simple words. Reuma should be proud of what she managed to accomplish.

[Aurora Alchemi]

Apartment Complex Fire

Reuma steps back away, letting the other responders work. Leaning against a wall, the pronghorn wipes her sweat drenched brow, and rides out the waves of pain and adrenaline. Now that the situation isn't commanding her focus, the more standard static of pain and empathetic magic coats her horns, broadcasting to the world her internal state and how much of the load she had been shouldering. Every once in a while, a soft bead of tarlike black ooze of a magic drips down the horns, feeling of fear and numbness, an obsidian gem of distilled past traumas.

But it was at least time to recover, and slowly faun returns to her more typical form, grabbing her boots and mask off the ground, then going back to the wall with a slowly falling slump of exhaustion. Breathing heavily, the amber eyes look up, happening to meet the lion's gaze. "T-thanks.... sorry about the... uh..." The pronghorn waves a hand gently at the chimera's form. "Is there anything I-i..." The tiny healer's frame shudders with a cough and for a moment she pauses to let her gaze refocus. "Can do to help? I'm not too c-comfortable changing forms either... i-i'll have to do some sewing tonight." The healer gives a soft groan and a small laugh, a small violet shower of sparks raining from her horns, feeling of embarrassment as they fizzle out on the ground. One of their hands pulls up a corner of their gown, revealing the tatters of socks around their legs, as well as unintentionally showing a few burns that were taken off the apartment dwellers, each in various stages of healing. The healing was still fairly quick, but now with the lack of focus and the now nervous state of her mind, the healing had slowed significantly.

"My name is Reuma Almsheir, b-by the way. Who are... You? You all? Ye?" Reuma's already weak voice falters into mumbled awkwardness.

[Rebonack]

[Burning Apartment Complex]

Chimera sits, allowing their breathing to slow, allow their heartbeat to calm. It's mostly Aries' work, bringing them down from the heightened focus and surging adrenaline of rescue mode. They don't need to be on edge, not anymore. They've done their part. They did well. And their new acquaintance helped. They would have had to work clumsily at stabilizing each person they rescued or risk leaving them out in the open. If they had been lucky they might have been able to ensure a quarter of those people survived.

Thank God.

Thank God that a healer happened past.

Thank you thank you thank you.

The transferred pain still aches, but Chimera can ignore it. That isn't so big of a deal. Pain isn't something they're typically accustomed to, but Leona is bearing its brunt and soldiering on.

When Reuma speaks up again it's Aries that replies to her, "Oh, umm, you c-could but we should probably wait a little while."
"Swapping too fast sucks," Leona clarifies.
"It's hard on us, we mean," Aries adds. "But thank you f-for offering?"
"Reuma, huh? Cute name!" the dragon says, giving the pronghorn a look up and down. "That healing magic of yours is WILD. Some equivalent exchange sorta thing going on, right? Man I wish we could do magic like that. We're basically restricted to being huge and setting things on fire. So yeah anyway hi! I'm Drakaina and I am not a snake. That's my brother Aries and my sister Leona. If you want to refer to all of us then we're Chimera. Like the Chimera. Not one of those winged weirdos with three heads all on the same end."

[Morty]

[Foiled Restaurant Raid]

The redcap is once again surprised by just how fast Calm Reed is, managing to get off another crack of her awful pestilent whip right before Calm Reed plows into her and smashes her into the pavement with a resounding boom, sending cracks spiderwebbing away from the goblin. Pusknee gives a gasping cough as the breath whooshes out of her along with strands of filmy garbage water. The goblin struggles to stand, only to collapse back to the ground.

"Heh," she manages to wheeze. "You're pretty friggin' tough. Like to give as good as I get, but you're outta my league."

The goblin coughs again, spitting up more slime and bile.

"Hey, before you pop me, if you promise to hang onto my whip I'll tell you where the Briar Patch is."

The whip.

That vile thing radiates malice and murderous intent.

Calm Reed stares down as Pusknee for a brief moment. Hold on to her whip? Whatever the intent behind the offer, it can't be good and can't be risked. Without a word, the monk tries to stomp down on the goblin's neck to crush it into the pavement and kill her quickly.

[5a Violista]

[Mossman Park]

The Drakes are pretty intimidating.
Not only are they big (not massive tubs of lard! Just a little chunky), but they are also geckos. Plus, some kind of weird perversion of animals all jumbled together.

People like that eat girls like her as a snack.

The lone pixie backs up as far as she can without falling off the chimney. "I-I'm warning you, pervert, I've got a whistle," she lies, "So don't come too close and I'll say whatever you want me to say,"

Mairi holds her hands out as if she's ready to fight them if it comes down to it. "I...I got lost and separated in that basement place, and I'm trying to decide if I got out or if this is just a trick to make me think I'm out."


[The Basement]

Unfortunately, there's no mirror so June can't see herself, so she can't tell how spooky she actually is. She looks down and sees that her fingernails are kinda sharp, though.
And, yes, it is pretty weird that she's in this guy's dream. In fact, she thinks she might've had a nightmare exactly like this before, where she was in a school and some random guy was nude and panicking.

She looks down and raises her hands to block her view. Pretty embarrassing, being around someone else who's naked.

...
Yeah, just leaving out the door seems like a good plan.
June stands from the ground. "Um...hey dummy, you should put some clothes on if you're going to be out in public like this," she informs the guy, and tries opening and going out the door.


[The Dreamheart]

So. Rain is not an option, because can't fly. Likewise, cold isn't an option because there's nobody around to warm her up.
Bright and sunny!
That's the best option, she decides, as she flies up the sunny area.

The other two (the captain is regaining her ability to think as they get farther from it) feel like it's literally going to take forever. They'd like to check all the bottles on shore, but two isn't enough and they need to get to safety first to inform everyone else what they've been doing and an update on getting the name back. Can't lose the progress that they have made.

Together, they fly down to the small elf.
"Hey! Hey! Do you know a way out of here? Or have you seen our missing name?" they ask, each asking one of the questions.


[Verdant Heights]

Harley is going straight to the apartment complex.
Or, rather, that's the goal.

She hears some of the rude monkeys/goblins as she goes there, past the corner store, and the hex tells her she needs to fight them.

Across the street from the corner store, she points her sword at the corner store.
She then makes it have a decently strong magnetic pull, directed at one of the goblins she can most easily 'see' (being blindfolded and all, meaning one of the closest and loudest). Being actually alive and conscious, it's mush stronger than when it pulled on Pusknee. And even though it's directed, she's still blindfolded so it's to be expected if it doesn't just pull the iron in that goblin but also the things immediately around it.


[Abandoned Hospital]

Oh!
It's magical.
Carmen immediately recognizes that it's definitely some kind of magic.

Maybe, she thinks, if she uses the right kind of lust magic in the right way, she could disrupt its function.

Pretending to put on glasses and a labcoat, the succubus looks at the sigils, while pretending to write in an invisible notebook; she tries to figure out the purpose of the sigils, what they do, and deduce what the best way (she has available) that she can use to disrupt their function.

[Aurora Alchemi]

Apartment Complex Fire

Reuma gives a gentle nod, carefully donning the mask once more, then looking over. "I'm not sure exactly what you m-mean by changes being uncomfortable... but I know I don't like t-to stay in faun form too long. It's dangerous for my kind, some maybe that's sort of similar?" Well, dangerous was kind of overstating it; it was just that wounds had a habit of sticking in worse ways when they sat around too long on the faun form. It's why most satyrlyrri only changed in emergency, or around people they are really comfortable with.

The brilliant torrent of speech from Drakaina was mildly overwhelming, and for a moment there was a gentle flicker of purple shyness, though it passed quickly. My, she is a curious one. A little bit heavy in delivery, but I get that way when I'm intrigued too, I guess. "A-actually, if I'm not mistaken, you might be able to. My magic comes from being able to interact with the currents and eddies of magic that go through everything, instead of tapping one specific thing. It's.... kind of slow, and takes a lot of skill, which is why my people called it weaving. But, you might be able to learn it! It just takes knowing what to feel for; a little bit like learning to walk when you are blind."

Reuma pauses, and taps her horns softly. "Satyrlyrri horns are magically conductive, so it helps that we can "see" the magic, unlike most folks." Giving a small flourish, Reuma pulls some sparks of white from the air, then blows them out, where they flake into a light snowfall, though the process takes some concentration from the healer, and a close look to the flakes shows small imperfections and issues with their formation. "I-i'm afraid, however, you've lost me on "the chimera" bit. I'm afraid that since I've come, I've met a great many more races and species than were in my l-lands." Reuma looks around nervously, shifting from foot to foot. The gentle violet haze that gathers among her horns broadcasts that there is still some uncomfortableness with the large change, due in part to her own species being nearly extinct even in the world it belongs too. "Are things here always so... b-busy?"

[Rebonack]

[Foiled Restaurant Raid]

There's a wet squelching crunch as the goblin gets stomp, her body unraveling into pits of rusty iron, bones shards, and garbage. It smells really gross. Like just stepped in something rancid gross.

What a terrible creature.

It's death is certainly a strange thing; the effigy body suggesting that it might have been little more than a shell for a malign spirit.

The fact that the aura of malice and violence from the whip just grew by an order of magnitude suggests that yes, this is the case and the spirit has fled into the weapon.

Yes indeed, what a terrible creature.

And speaking of!

Those other three weaker goblins just came trundling out of the laundromat dragging stunned victims behind them!

They seem pretty concerned when they spot Calm Reed still standing and Pusknee very much NOT standing.


[Verdant Heights]

Harley decides to yank on some iron with her sword magic!

Given that the goblin being targeted is pretty close to a parked car this may have some unintended results.

But hey!

At least the goblin begins swearing loudly as it bounces across the street toward Harley. The rest of the goblins find this simultaneously hilarious and infuriating and decide to murder Harley by hurling bottles at her. The amount of force they're hurling said bottles with is quite frankly terrifying.


[Apartment Complex Fire]

"Changing back and forth too fast hurts," Leona clarifies. "So we don't do it."
"We, um... we usually wait an hour or two, at least. S-sometimes longer," Aries adds.
"Eddies and currents, cool beans," Drakaina says, nodding along as she considers those points. Then she adds in her best old Obi-Wan voice, “It's an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together. Or something like that? An impersonal force? Oh! And the Chimera thing that's-"

At about this point Drakaina gets a soft headbutt from Aries. She looks at him for a moment, confused, then her expression softens as she realizes. "Mile a minute, my bad."

"Um... what my s-sister meant is that there's only one Chimera. That's us. We're unique; one of a kind. Or, um, three of a kind, hehe," Aries takes over here. His voice is soft, soothing, measured, and gentle. He has none of the bottomless excitable energy that Drakaina seems to possess. He could tell that Drakaina was coming on a little hard and proving to be overwhelming for the pronghorn, so he decided to butt-in quite literally. "There are some... um... beasts? that people call chimeras. But they aren't like us. They're the world's m-memory of us, I think. Our echo."

Aries shifts his ears slightly, then looks this way and that.

"Busy?" he asks, only for a look of dawning realization to rise. "Oh. D-do you mean all the m-magic here? Or j-just all the people?"


[Mossman Park]

Ugh.

UGH!

Every time!

"Why do you tiny pea-brained pixies always have to be such JERKS!?" one of the Drakes demands, flying forward aggressively only to get tackled out of the air by one of the other Drakes. They both start thrashing about as the go rolling down the roof of the dilapidated building. "She said not to get closer, stupid!" the tackler yells, biting the first on the tail.

A third speaks up in place of the first. "It WOULD be nice if other pixies would at least insult me properly. But anyway I wouldn't eat someone as gross and scrawny and stinky smelling as you."
"Yeah! I make HONEY I don't eat gross smelly people!" the first pixie hollers right before he kicks the second off himself. The kicked Drake goes tumbling off the edge of the roof and manages to latch onto the wall with his toe pads.
"This isn't the Bottomless Pit you're back in the Waking World again I wouldn't ever go down since there aren't any flowers. You must be a giant idiot if you thought going down there was a good idea," a fourth Drake points out.

Maybe she DID make it all the way back up to the top?


[The Basement]

The poor dreaming guy doesn't pay any attention to June! Mostly because he's pulling some extra clothes out of the washing machine built into his desk.

Anywho!

Back out into the hall!

It's still a weird hall, though there aren't as many doors as there were last time. Some of them have been replaced with stairs leading down deeper into the Basement. But June doesn't want to go down, right? She wants to go UP! But this is a real problem. The Pit really doesn't like it when things go up for the most part. Something as small as a single pixie might slip its notice, but a whole human woman? There don't appear to be any stairs leading up (even though June is SURE she came down some). Instead there are just rickety old cabinets and shelves that a person could climb on, but that would be pretty precarious.


[The Dreamheart]

Well! One pixie goes zooming away up the sunny stream path and will find herself popping out near a peachy orchard! How weird. She'll probably be able to hear a bunch of other Mairis not too far away. Something about toads is going on.

Meanwhile!

The kobold, meanwhile, lowers his shades and peers at the pixies.

You know those funny little elves that you see making toys or shoes or cookies?

This elf looks just like one of those elves.

"I do and I haven't," the elf replies before lowering his sunglasses and looking away again.

There! Answered all their questions.

What a magnanimous elf.

[Reinholdt]

[Hunting for Ice]

Sometimes you hear things or taste things instead.

"Anytime ma'am. You'll be ok ma'am," Butler assures her as best he can, hugging her and patting her back. Even a bad, little smile can improve someone's day.

Once they release, Butler will stand back up and collect the cooler off the ground.

"Well ma'am, I must go get ice for the smoothie sultan." It's an important job. "Have you ever had one of Steve's smoothies ma'am?"

[bc56]

Abandoned Hospital
The little container in the center of the robot's chest seems to be intended to draw power from a magic object placed within it. Changing the type of magic it uses might mess with its function. But it seems like it's pretty power-hungry. Any change might not last long.

[Morty]

[Foiled Restaurant Raid]

Looks like yet another foul artifact just like the one Jedrek is watching over back at the restaurant. Vigil will have to contain them and, if possible, destroy them. For now, Calm Reed turns to face the goblins returning with captives.

"Let go of your victims and start running," she says. "You are enough beneath my concern that I am not likely to hunt you down."

[5a Violista]

[Verdant Heights]

The car gets pulled across the street towards her. Since it's pretty heavy, it doesn't quite bounce as much as the goblin.

She's glad to find out this works pretty effectively to find these monkey-goblins and separate them from the group, Harley thinks as a couple glass bottles shatter on her. Ouch, hurts, cuts, but it doesn't damage her eyes because of the blindfold. And it tells her how many there are and where they are, so that's a good thing, she tells herself.

She deactivates the magnetization pull, and starts running with an arm up, to block glass bottles from her face. She reaches the car, makes an extended whistle to echolocate again, and jumps off the car's hood towards the swearing goblin that she had pulled earlier.
And swings her sword at that one.


[Mossman Park]

"If you're not going to eat me, then WHY is your mouth SO BIG, you big...big MAMMOTH?" Mairi counters, clearly disproving Drake's argument.

She folds her arms, which is something Drake can't do, and then sticks her tongue out at all of them.
"I'm not a giant idiot!" she kindly informs the fourth Drake. "I went down there for a very good reason. The best reason, actually. It's because..."
Mairi quickly covers her mouth with both her hands. Can't just go telling random people, especially ones that can't help.

She carefully removes her hands, as if worried the explanation might accidentally come out if she removes her hands too fast. "A very important reason. A very important thing was lost down there and I'm just waiting for more people to show up so we can go back down there again and it doesn't matter what you say because you don't know anything and you'll never convince me otherwise."


[The Basement]

June doesn't want to go down.
Only up.

Luckily! She's actually pretty decent at climbing; has been, her whole life.

She looks for stairs. There have to be some stairs going up, right?

Not finding any, she sighs. Closes her eyes for a few moments and prays, then looks for another way up.

Cabinets are better than shelves, she thinks, because at least then they were designed to hold some weight.
Or!
Remembering the light armor that created swords and balls earlier, June wonders if she can do the same again, except with climbing gear.
...
...
She makes some, sure, but it's a pretty faint light. Probably wouldny work for anything.

Okay, cabinets it is.
She tries climbing a cabinet, while doing her best to not move imbalance its center of gravity too much.


[[B]The Dreamheart[/i]]

"Oh. That's good to know,"

They both land.

"Did you know there's a big monster nearby?" the captain informs the elf. "It came out of the water and was chasing us."


[Abandoned Hospital]

Oh, great!
Carmen stops with trying to write out something on an invisible notebook, and decides it's time for practical experimentation.

Earlier, she converted the electricity in that other room into lust energy. A similar concept should work with this.

Carmen starts cutting into the back of her hands into similar magic circles, with demonic writing in and around them. Conceptually, whenever she activates these circles, any magic between her hands will be converted to lust magic. Will have a cooldown, and...it means she'll have to get up close to the robot, but if the gun fails she'll be up close to it anyway.

She tests it out on the broken robot here, to see if it works as intended.

[Aurora Alchemi]

[Apartment Complex Fire]

Even behind the mask, the pronghorn clearly doesn't understand the reference, the brilliant eyes squinting softly as Drakaina goes on. Luckily, Aries butts in, with a soft sigh of relief from the healer. "It's no bother, r-really! I Get the same way, o-on some things at least." Reuma considers getting her journal, but at the moment she's a little too tired, and there would be time to add pages later. The long deerlike ears flick ever so slightly, turning to help hear Aries better.

"I guess I sort of understand that... There are legends among my people of g-great satyrs and fauns that lived so long they ceased being "living", and simple became an echo o-of their memory as a part of the land. The witch of faces, the grand moose, those sort of stories. I-i take it these memories are not quite so... u-uh... Endearing as you are?" The tired healer's voice lilts a little, so that the sound of her soft smile was less hidden behind the mask.

The question about the business of the world at first prompts another shower of embarrassed shower of magic, though it passes and is replaced by a warm feeling of introspection, that gently fills the area with a slightly refreshing healing aura, easing some of the remaining pain from the day. "I-it's not... W-well uh.. It's... Hm... My horns help me see the weave of the world... and that means everything. Like, these new... u-uh... Eel licked tro nucks. They all seem to be broadcasting, and communicating, like living things. Then like... if someone passes close enough, I can feel their heartbeat, sometimes even emotions if they are having a very good or bad day. In a place this dense... i-it's just a lot to get used to. No quieter areas, at least that I've found. M-my old world was... lots of space, less people, more nature. The blanket of the world's magic was still there, but the pattern was easier on the eyes, you know?" Reuma shrugs, hoping the comparison would make the situation more understandable.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Twisty Labyrinth]

Okay.

Okay okay okay what's going on in here?

Khannie runs herself down a mental list just to keep it all straight in her head on account of how disorienting this all is. What can she see? What does she know? There's a tree. A Thanksmas tree? Probably? With its baubles all broken. And she can see someone in the distance zipping around the top of the tree. Also at the top is one of those little angel tree toppers. Okay. Those things all make sense. The tree topper is the witch, Khannie is pretty sure of that. And the little figure in blue is definitely the other magical girl. That's easy to tell since she looks different from everything else.

More real.

Less abstract.

She decides to approach the battle in the fashion that makes the most immediate sense to her. Namely, by leaping into the air and launching one of her gauntlets toward the distant tree. The metal fist goes whizzing away from her in a blast of purple sparkles, a scarf flapping behind it like a trail of smoke. And when it grabs onto the tree Khannie likewise grabs onto the scarf and-

NYOOOOOOOOOM!

Goes rocketing away toward the point that she grappled.

Khannie had no idea that she could do what she just did. She isn't even sure why she thought she could. But the idea just kind of occurred to her and she rolled with it. Learning all the stuff her magical girl powers can do is definitely going to be a process of discovery.

She wants to get close enough that she can clearly see what's going on, but she doesn't want to dive into the fight proper and startle or distract the other magical girl. She knows well enough that any distractions in a battle can lead to disaster.

[Ironsmith]

[Verdant Heights - Depths]

Braon leans against the arm of her chair, drumming her fingers against it irritably. Her battle plan- and by extension, that of the goblins- was in a bit of an awkward position right now. The raid raging aboveground was drawing people into Verdant Heights, but hadn't yet gotten enough of them to make springing their trap worthwhile. And it was taking so long... she was stuck with her reserves in this little cave, waiting for the opportune time to arrive, and finding it to be too far away for her liking.

In short, she was bored.

Braon looks around the room, stroking her chin thoughtfully. The goblins in the room with her... at first, she'd found them repulsive. But as time went on, she found they actually had quite a lot in common. They reminded her of herself, in her much younger days. Just as hateful, but lacking... direction. Fortunately, she was here to provide it.

Still, with nothing else to do, and this sentiment fresh on her mind, she entices a random goblin over to her. "...You remind me of the babe." She says enigmatically, deciding to mess with the unfortunate goblin a little, as well.

[Rebonack]

[Hunting for Ice]

"I haven't had one of those before," the lil'ist unicorn confides in Butler.

Strictly speaking, Butler hasn't either.

Which is a shame.

If Zee says this guy makes the best smoothies Inside then she's probably right. Or maybe she's wrong and just missed an even BETTER smoothie place? That's also possible since Inside is pretty big.


[Foiled Restaurant Raid]

WELP!

That seems pretty convincing to the goblins.

The drop their bludgeoned, unconscious, bleeding victims and flee toward the Briar Patch. Following them won't be difficult. That will, of course, take Calm Reed to-


[Verdant Heights]

Harley neatly skewers the off-balance goblin right around the time she'll hear MORE goblins approaching from her right. There sure are a bunch of these dumb things, aren't there?

One goblin gets the bright idea of rushing toward Harley to begin beating her with a stick and this seems to embolden the rest, resulting in a mob of the terrible things descending upon her from all sides. This will be the scene Calm Reed comes upon. A blindfolded woman in an ornate outfit getting wholloped on by a whole bunch of goblins.

What an exciting evening.


[Apartment Complex Fire]

Oh good.

Reuma is saying that everything is fine, but Aries can hear the relief in her voice. Being assertive like this doesn't come easily to him, but he can tell he made the right choice.

The tension he was feeling relieves and he visibly relaxes.

"Oh, um... n-no, they aren't. They're m-mostly just hungry. But some of them are j-just smart enough to learn to be cruel," Aries says. "We, umm... we try to help as we can. As much as we can. We've been given strength and that's a r-responsibility. It would be wrong to squander or m-misuses our talents. I, um... we, all three of us, he hope maybe we can help people r-remember Chimera is a guardian, not a despoiler."
"Damn straight," Leona adds.

Then he quietly listens as Reuma explains her horns. This gets Drakaina excited.

"Now that's nifty," she says, perking up again. "I can sort of taste living things. Gives me a heading and a rough idea of distance. I've never been able to figure out if it's chemical or metaphysical, though. Should probably look into that, honestly. All three of us have got our own little tricks, aside from the fire breath."

"That sounds overwhelming," Aries observes. "There are a few quiet places around the city. Gardens, mostly. But... umm... not the p-parks. There are usually wild things living in parks that may not be kind."


[Twisty Labyrinth]

So what's going on?

Magical girl in blue with a crossbow on her wrists?

That seems like it would be annoying to reload but magic probably takes care of that, doesn't it?

And the witch is attacking with shards of stained glass maybe? That would be a pain. Khannie considers how she might counter something like that. She can make big gauntlets, so maybe just shield herself with a could? Or wrap those scarfs around herself like a great big cocoon? Thick enough fabric can stop glass shards, right? She's pretty sure they can.

As she ponders the branch she's standing on abruptly crumbles to ash which... maybe means the witch is dying?

It also means she's falling.

Khannie quickly thrusts out one of her fists into a swirling scarf portal, resulting in a MUCH BIGGER portal appearing under her from which a SUPER SIZED gauntlet emerges!

Palm up.

Fingers flat.

Khannie drops onto her hastily created platform.

She looks at her arm sticking into the portal. Then down at the giant version of her own hand that she's standing on.

"So I'm pickup myself up by my own shoelaces. Okay," she mutters.

Come on Khannie! Pay attention! Keep your eyes on the battle it isn't safe here.


[Mossman Park]

"So I can fit nuts in it you mushroom-faced fluff-for-brains," Drake retorts. "I roast nuts and put honey on them! What would you expect a bee lizard gecko to use a mouth for?"

Probably backflip off things and eat butterflies.

Oh hey mouth covering.

That means this pixie must be hiding a SECRET!

"There are more of you down there and you got lost? What a dimwit. I'm definitely not going to eat you you would probably make me dumber."

Is that how eating things works? Eat smart things to get smarter? Nuts and honey probably aren't very smart so that's likely untrue.

Then? THEN!? She says he doesn't KNOW ANYTHING!

"I know LOTS of things! Like where most of the owls like hanging out Inside! I've got hives all over the place I'm probably the most knowledgeable pixie in all of Inside," Drake boasts.


[The Basement]

Sorry June, the armor needs light to do its thing and it is pretty dark down here. It likely needs to be charged out in the sunshine for a while.

Stupid bottomless pit and all its darkness.

Anyway!

Shelf climbing.

That's a pretty good way to ascend except when a bunch of rat husks come swarming out to try to nibble on June's fingers as she climbs. What a bunch of rude dead rat things.


[The Dreamheart]

"Big monster from the sea? Neh. Sounds like a jabberwock. How did you twirps manage to rile up one of those things?" the kobold asks.

Also?

He's looking around to see if he can spy the 'big monster' while keeping in mind that a pixie's idea of big isn't always big big. It could be the size of a house cat and still be big from their perspective.

[Reinholdt]

[Hunting for Ice]

"Well if you want, you can come with and we can go get you your very first smoothie ma'am."

That's a dangerous offer Butler. Steve only offered the one smoothie for this quest.

Besides, every kid knows not to follow someone promising candy.

Unless her parents didn't get a chance to tell Wandering Star.

That would be sad.

[Aurora Alchemi]

[ Burning Apartment Complex ]

"Well, at l-least it seems to me you are doing a wonderful job with that part..." Reuma waves a hand softly at where the med crews are helping with the burn victims. "I'd have a very good memory of you if you came and rescued me when I needed it, haha." The healer reaches into her pack, retrieving a bit of water from a waterskin and drinking. It seems like the pronghorn is getting some of their strength back, with fewer exhausted trembles here and there. The mask, of course, is briefly moved up just enough to drink, an action so practiced it seemed like the faun had been doing it for years.

"Oh? That sounds useful. Kinda like how some snakes can taste the air?" Reuma pauses for a moment, seeming to focus on something, with a little rub of her hand on her mask and chin. "Well, except that you don't feel like a serpent. Might I ask what exactly you are? Your... siblings?... have forms that are more familiar." The moment of curiosity seems to lend some strength and courage to the healer's voice, though the shyness returns after the questions are asked.

"It's usually not; m-most of the time we satyrlyrri are able to tone out most of the unimportant noise, but you kinda have to get used to what's around you. I-i should be much less overwhelmed in a few days, but I just need a bit longer." Or at least, I hope I just need a little longer. There is a lot of stuff in the weave to get used too, especially all these signals of little boxes talking to each other. The thoughts swim for a little bit, coloring the horns in various shades of purple, though it passes. The more perceptive in the area might even be able to pick out the rough ideas of her internal thoughts through the feeling of the magic cascades. "Dangerous beasts t-though? Goodness... and I didn't even get swept away with my hunting equipment or tools.... Do they cause much trouble for the people here?"

[Rebonack]

[ Extinguished at this Point Apartment Complex ]

"Yeah, we're pretty awesome," Leona admits, turning her head to the side a bit and allowing her short mane to be tasseled dramatically by the breeze picking up.

She's almost as humble as she is cool.

When the subject of tasting comes up Drakaina begins to say, "Yes like that also I'm not a sn-"

Then Reuma notes that she isn't a snake.

To which Drakaina laughs. "Haha, sure. Well see it's really easy with us, right? Our names are what we are. The Nexus has this thing where it translates for people. Otherwise there's no way any of us would be able to understand each other. Like this place turns the Tower of Babel on its head or something like that. What would an upside down tower be, anyway?"
"Umm... p-probably a mess?" Aries offers.
"Haha, a mess! That's pretty good. Anyway! The Nexus translates things but it doesn't usually translate names. If it did that then you would be hearing 'she-dragon' for me, 'she-lion' for my irrepressibly awesome sis, and 'ram' for my brother," Drakaina rambles on. "Our names are descriptive since we named ourselves and we're kinda garbage at naming things. All three of us. It's our single greatest weakness."
"Don't think that counts as a weakness."
"Single! Greatest! Weakness!"

This sets off Leona and Drakaina bickering back and forth over what counts as a weakness and what doesn't. Drakaina is mostly being a smart-ass and Leona is mostly making video game and comic references that will no doubt go over Reuma's head. While all this nonsense is going on Aries pipes up again.

"Um... so... the parks? The m-monsters there usually stay in the parks so it's s-safe mostly. Most of Inside is s-safe. But the papers like to focus on exciting and t-terrible things," he says, his calm voice somehow drowning out his arguing siblings. "I prefer the gardens myself. They're p-pretty and peaceful."


[Hunting for Ice]

Wandering Star shifts uncomfortably at that offer.

"My parents always told me not to go places with strangers offering me things," she objects.

It isn't safe!

Then again, sitting on benches by herself isn't safe, either.

[5a Violista]

[Verdant Heights]

Harley is, at the moment, just wearing a floral sundress and a blindfold.
Nothing particularly ornate. That all disappeared earlier.

Harley's right hand's fingers sharpen themselves into claws, with a mild neurotoxin wetting its surface.
(somewhat) shortly after she feels the first stick, she wings her fancy glowing-orange sword in that direction, to hit that one and all the others around it.
And her claws swing behind her, reaching for (and hopefully cutting into) any goblin unfortunate enough to have attacked her from behind.

Of course, to everyone who wasn't hit by these attacks, this leaves her open to everyone else walloping her.
As a helpless civilian, she probably needs help to be saved from these goblins.


[Mossman Park]

Mairi laughs: "Ha! Ha ha. You say you're a gecko but you don't even know what a gecko eats. Guess you are just a lizard-brain."

Apples are smart. If you eat enough apples, you'll get smarter.

The lone pixie decides to lie down on her side, and smirks. This animal-animal-animal guy proves how much he doesn't know by so easily falling for it! So Mairi sticks her tongue out at all of them again. "But you didn't know what I was looking for or why it was so important, so you clearly don't know anything."


[The Basement]

Yes.
The rats are very rude.
They shouldn't be just biting things!

June swats at them with her hand. Which is good and all, but...
...It just slightly throws the dresser off-balance, and it starts to tip.

Oof, she falls a bit.


[The Dreamheart]

It's huge! A huge monster. No need to doubt the pixies.
"It decided it didn't want to be in the water anymore," Mairi says, "but it went fwoooosh! and then nyooooom and it went up and started eating and making a static-y noise thing." It's a pretty decent explanation. "That's how."