Inside 72: Halfway to a Gross

[bc56]

Necropolis of Kysimax

The skeleton walks out into the arena, and from there into the forge room. He gathers things from around the room, a steel ingot, leather strips, a hammer, and plenty of coal, and lights the forge.

If Venus doesn't interrupt him, he'll begin the process of forging a new sword from scratch.

Heresy Fighters

The purple swordswoman catches the torch. "No, I don't." A blowtorch is at least something she's more familiar with, even if it doesn't seem like a weapon. Torch in one hand, sword in the other, she follows after. She's not sure what to think about the golden person. But she needs the help.

[Reinholdt]

[Forbidden Knowledge - Mahou Church => SwordWoman]

"Excellent! Yes. Thank you... oh. In all the busy I forgot to ask your name. Who are you, kind floral scented stranger?" Rein particularly appreciates the floral scent because it allows him to follow her relatively easily. So he intends for it to be a compliment of sorts.

When she stops, he stops! After a bit. Well ok, first he bumps into Venus, then he stops. But it's a soft bump. He turns his head this way and that, trying to determine if they're where they're supposed to be, but he doesn't seem to... oh! The light, unmistakable shing of a sword being drawn. They must be in the right spot! Rein'll have to stay back until such a time as things appear dire. Hmm... he really should get onto another roof for this. He starts feeling around for a fresh building.

[5a Violista]

[SwordWoman] will return...soon. After the enemy has a chance to act.


[Necropolis of Kysimax]

Venus follows...and watching, thinks this is going to take a long time. The forge alone ought to take a while to get hot enough to make it decent, she thinks.
"...How long is this going to take?" she asks.

Because, "I do have somewhere I need to be eventually." Plus, she needs to go pick up those groceries again from where she set them down. Luckily, she didn't buy anything that needed a freezer or to be refrigerated today but she does have work later.


[Perfectly Normal Walk]

More people should appreciate the poignancy of ghost trains.

June figures it's safe enough to climb down all the way, now. "I heard someone get dragged this way and was hoping I could help them," June explains, matter-of-factly. He sighs. Ugh, no: don't sigh in the sewer, that's gross. "Unfortunately, I think I lost them."

He thinks about what the bug-person said. "They're probably going to keep on looking around until they find her, but she already left..." and he decides to not say where because, to be honest, it's possible that they're listening in. "so they're going to be stuck here for a long time. Seems like going northeast is really our only option." But if you're in the sewer, how do you even tell which direction is northeast? It's weird. Maybe this person has some of that magnetic sense like birds and foxes do.

[Earl of Purple]

Wandering Into Trouble

Prumathe takes a deep breath and closes his eyes before jumping. He'll open them again when he feels as though he's landed... or if he's been falling for five minutes, whichever happens first. Chances are, he makes it- falling forever would be... a pretty unpleasant fate.

Assuming he makes the jump and isn't falling for at least five minutes (in which case he'll start to scream), Prumathe looks around and looks at the floating rock, before deciding not to look at that and turns to the weird landscape cloud he's now standing on. Hopefully it's not translucent. "Which of these is the one I need to take? Does it matter?" He's almost considering dipping a toe in the nearest one.

[Recaiden]

((other scenes soon))
[Wandering Into Trouble]

Prumathe looks up, hesitating, glancing back at the rock beneath him, before jumping himself.
For someone less gifted at jumping than the astronaut - which is most, after all - it takes a minute to land.

Not five minutes, but still terrifyingly, impossibly long.
If gravity were acting normally, he'd have dropped several kilometers, and would certainly die.
As it is, maybe he's winded a bit on the cloud landscape. He looks up just in time to see the other Prumathe land - straight into a portal. "Oops. He'll be back; don't worry."
As bad as looking at the upside-down rock might have been, looking down is probably worse; the cloud is quite translucent. Below, far below, and seemingly at whatever angles they please, are other layers of cloud with their specks of darkness and color. But it certainly seem that nothing is holding them up.

Overhead, the rock zips away, as if launched by a rubber band.

"Just walk around a bit. You'll recognize the right one. Will feel like ♒︎□︎❍︎♏︎." the astronaut explains, facing towards Prumathe.

[Heresy Fighters]

"They're wood, mostly. Very flammable." The figure explains.
"But don't destroy too much."
They pause at the corner, looking at the honestly baffling heresy elementals out in the street.

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

"Already left? Far away?" the buggy-sewer-person asks. If they could find this creature, that could really change things, after all.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. This way. Try to keep up." They tell June, strain in their voice.
They way you tell northeast, of course, is by being used to the area and remembering which direction each tunnel goes.
So, knowing that, they scamper off into the dark.

[bc56]

Necropolis of Kysimax

The skeleton doesn't answer. He can't speak, remember? He just keeps working. Venus can stay or not, as she chooses. She could even leave and come back.

Heresy Fighters

"I can see that." The heresy creatures are obviously made of paper, which is obviously made from wood pulp. She rushes towards one elemental, swinging the torch wildly to try to ignite it.

[Earl of Purple]

Wandering Into Trouble

"Um, that word didn't translate again." Prumathe doesn't look down once he sees through the cloud. He really doesn't like the idea of falling until he dies of starvation or something. That'd... be absolutely horrific.

Still, Prumathe's going to wander around until he finds a portal that feels right. He's not sure what it's going to feel like, though.

[Shadowcaller]

Pennilan's Tavern

"I don't actually know. I met her the one time and that was it." And then a toast!
Jim is quite noticeably savoring his drink a bit more. "Well, you've made it sound like that's quite a lot. I hope you can remember how to pace yourself. We haven't even ordered food yet! Oh right, do you have dietary restrictions? I know a lot of satyrs are vegetarian. Or barely eat anything.
I guess I can be proud of my family's stuff being your first taste in ages." Jim starts flipping through the menu a bit even though he's already read in a hundred times already. It would be a shame if they got all the way here and she couldn't eat anything.

[Forbidden Knowledge - Mahou Church => SwordWoman]

Bright lights are probably not nothing, even in labs, Venus thinks. Except certain labs. Only certain labs have explosions, but that's very few labs, is how she thinks science works. She must come from a world that has a very strange kind of science.

"Okay. Yeah, this way then," Venus says. She can see it and she can see the walls and gutters and everything so she figures she can go first best.

They eventually get there, to the street where Harley and the spirit-elemental is. They can see (or...hear) it going on.

Venus, not having a blindfold, is blindsided when she sees the wounded elemental and presumably something not-good starts happening. Especially since she is a fairy.

[SwordWoman]

Harley decides she needs to step up her echolocation: she turns her right hand's fingernails metal and with one finger starts tapping on it repeatedly.
With so many swords and energy around, most of the civilians have fled so she believes it's safe enough for her to approach now.

With her left hand, she reaches behind herself and draws a fancy ancient sword with spikes and an orange glow to it.

It probably would have been best to run up and immediately follow-up with another attack while it was knocked down, but. . .
being blindfolded, Harley ends up approaching a lot more slowly and cautiously than would be good, as she waits to see what the elemental will do. After all, she can't tell whether it's actually knocked down and helpless, or if it's getting down low and is preparing.

[Forbidden Knowledge - Mahou Church => SwordWoman]

"Excellent! Yes. Thank you... oh. In all the busy I forgot to ask your name. Who are you, kind floral scented stranger?" Rein particularly appreciates the floral scent because it allows him to follow her relatively easily. So he intends for it to be a compliment of sorts.

When she stops, he stops! After a bit. Well ok, first he bumps into Venus, then he stops. But it's a soft bump. He turns his head this way and that, trying to determine if they're where they're supposed to be, but he doesn't seem to... oh! The light, unmistakable shing of a sword being drawn. They must be in the right spot! Rein'll have to stay back until such a time as things appear dire. Hmm... he really should get onto another roof for this. He starts feeling around for a fresh building.

[SwordWoman]

Harley is so honorable, waiting for her enemy to get a turn in the turn order. A true knight magic girl.

The creature slowly reforms but doesn't move otherwise. Not yet.

What the pages has formed into looks like a child's picture of a maw. The kind that they'd give a monster, full of teeth and perpetually open in a terrible roar. Yet this one doesn't come with a monster attached, it's just a shape made up of pages floating above the pavement.
But as bizarre as it looks even this shape has a purpose which might already be apparent.
It screams.
They wail.

They as there is far more than one voice coming out at the same time.
One might describe it as a chorus of screams that's too orderly as this has more in common with the sounds coming out of a torture chamber than anything produced for the purpose of music.

But as terrible as the sound it, it's the memories that comes with them that hurt those who hear it the most. Brief glimpses of the dozen upon dozen of events that created all those screams. They're not as clear or distinct as the memories gained by looking at the creature and will just be remembered again for a moment before being forgotten again the very next, but they are still just as hurtful if not more. The creature channeling the pain these poor souls might have spend a lifetime trying to forget.

Pennilan's Tavern

"I heard she was... nice." Quite a bold lie, but apparently she hadn't made that bad a impression on Jim so she couldn't be that bad, right?

"But I can eat pretty much anything while I'm, er, 'human'. Or at least... anything a human could. I mean, a goat wouldn't drink wine would it?" Jaahlyn raises her hand. "Actually, scratch that, I'm pretty sure it would if it could. Mad creatures they are." She chuckles. "But your family makes wine then? Interesting considering your... change." The satyr gestures to him as she finishes the rest of her glass.

[Sewer System Red]

These fiends had their orders and thus not even these lifeforms could be spared. Two of them will start to scorch the walls with their flamethrowers while the hounds are reporting back on their findings to their masters through a telepathic link.
There do seem to be some disagreement of what to do once they have this information but eventually it seems to be decided to stop scorching the quarter-demons and start to move ahead.
They are heading towards the area where the scent of demons is the strongest. Hopefully the 'angel' headquarters.

[Sewer System Blue]

These metal fiends either don't have flamethrowers or aren't as interested in using them as the only way they interact with the quarter-demons is attempting to grab a few of them off the walls and put them in separated sealed containers that they're storing in a type of hammer-space.
But as the mapping of the servers gets underway these fiends start to head to the right, the golems once again taking the lead.

The legion drones will after scouting as much as the fiends consider needed enter observer mode where they will hide, either in plain sight, the ceiling or underwater, and then just report if anything would occur in the sections they're in.
The drones that headed right will remain active however and make sure to not get too close to the battle they're surveying.

[Deathkeeper]

Pennilan's Tavern


"Ah, okay. Well, I'll probably get a reuben sandwich if you want a recommendation. The Lady? Well I suspect if I wasn't the apprentice of someone she liked it would have been bad. I mean she totally could have killed me, tricking me into drinking that much. Or done far worse while I was out than just ship me home with an embarrassing note. I wouldn't recommend an audience. It's a funny story but not one Jim is ever interested in repeating.
"Yeah so like I said, supposedly my father has faun blood in him. Not that it's clear visually. So, well, let me back up." Jim shakes his head.
"So what happened is that I got cursed with this shapeshifting ability that slowly degraded into less and less like me. I'm fairly sure it would have eventually made me a frog or something. But anyway I caught it pretty quick and got it removed and this is the shape that I settled on before it got ripped out of me. So...I guess my comfort with the goat legs might indicate that old tale was right? Who knows? Either way I did choose it and the story may or may not have affected that decision of mine.
Dad handles all the winery stuff, though. Mom's a physician."

[Morty]

[Two Detectives]

Michalson is staying put for now. There's no real point in chasing the strange creature, even if his leg didn't protest at the mere suggestion of the word "chase".

"The length of the training isn't the issue. The process is painful and difficult. Not everyone comes through it with their brain-box unscrambled. It involves substances and rituals I'm not familiar with. And is difficult to undergo alone."

[5a Violista]

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

"..."
Yeah, already left, but far away? Probably not? While it's far enough that a bus or tram would be the best way to get there, it's still within walking distance from here...after all, they did walk to the beach from there and he walked (or ran) from the beach to here. "Hopefully far away by now."

Anyway.
"Okay. I can't see in the dark, so..."
He follows, not wanting to get lost or separated.


[Necropolis of Kysimax]

Could've at least done a thumbs-up, Venus figures.

"Okay," Venus says. "I'll be...I'll be back later."

She leaves, to take the groceries back, do some work, and so on...


Several hours later,
Venus returns to see what's up. (She obviously brings the wooden sword back, in case she needs it for something.)


[SwordWoman]

"Venus," is what she said earlier before they got close enough...

Unfortunately!
Later!
After seeing that elemental, it feels like she's being torn apart. Ugh! This is pretty awful! What even! Sure, the sound's pretty awful, but being torn apart is even worse! And the wailing of the memories is just amplifying it!


meanwhile
Harley.
Partially depending on sound to tell its distance has its disadvantages, of course, especially when it starts screaming. It makes it really easy to find where it is, but she had also made her hearing really sensitive. She freezes to recover, and takes a deep breath. The memories of those all the events that made those screams. . .she quickly dismisses it all as an imitation, mocking the people who actually felt that pain and got through it. She seethes with anger: the worst things you should never try to forget.

Harley sheds the sword-wings, and they clatter to the ground. No longer needing the sword in her right hand (it's too loud to not hear), she drops it too. She waits a few moments, letting her anger at this mockery-spirit build.

And so, Harley starts running towards the elemental, with just the ancient sword.
Rather than going straight up to it, however, she circles around it, and activates her sword's magnetic ability, and starts pulling all the swords she dropped towards her. And with the elemental between her and the swords, she hopes a wave of swords is enough to stop its wailing.

[bc56]

Necropolis of Kysimax

When Venus returns, the skeleton is standing at ease in the arena, a newly forged sword in his right hand. He beckons Venus closer, and steps around in a wide arc, slowly extending the blade to point towards her in a ready position.

[Reinholdt]

[SwordWoman]

Ah-hah! Rein can easily tell where the enemy is now! It's... screaming. Ow. Owowowow.

The feeling wasn't dissimilar to the star of remembrance Rein once wore. The pain of relieving those memories was very real. Normally Rein would stab the thing screaming with his cane, but that would require closing the gap and not holding his hands over his ears. Both of which he is very much doing the opposite of, standing there with his hand over his ears. Owowowowow. He didn't know these things could create sound. It feels like cheating after all the effort he took to get here blind.

[5a Violista]

[Necropolis of Kysimax]

Now that Venus is back in the arena and it's incredibly obvious that she's the one who is going to fight, she realizes that she has a much larger problem than the sword being backwards:

She doesn't have the muscle-memory to do the footwork with four deer legs. She's going to trip over herself.

Fortunately, that's a much easier fix than making a right-handed sword left-handed.

Venus signals to wait a few moments to the skeleton with her hand, turns around, and reaches towards her face. Moments later, she no longer has deer lower body and instead has a human lower body. Unfortunately, she's barefoot but she's fought barefoot before. (She's actually even a little taller now! since hips-down human is taller than shoulder-down deer, for her.)

She turns back and points her right foot forward towards the skeleton, and holds the sword in her right hand. "Okay, I'm ready now."

[bc56]

Necropolis of Kysimax

The skeleton stands opposing Venus. He opens up with a single slash at her neck. If she fails to prevent the attack, he'll stop just short of hitting her. Apparently, he's not interested in hurting her. But then why is he doing this?

[Recaiden]

((Will get to the other scenes soon, I hope))

Wandering Into Trouble

"Um, that word didn't translate again." Prumathe doesn't look down once he sees through the cloud. He really doesn't like the idea of falling until he dies of starvation or something. That'd... be absolutely horrific.

Still, Prumathe's going to wander around until he finds a portal that feels right. He's not sure what it's going to feel like, though.

Don't worry, Prumathe. If you fell, you'd die way before then.
"You know, it will feel like ⬧︎❑︎◆︎♓︎⬧︎♒︎♓︎■︎♑︎. A place that's ♑︎●︎□︎⬥︎♓︎■︎♑︎ ❒︎♏︎♎︎. A ♏︎❍︎♋︎■︎♍︎♓︎◻︎♋︎⧫︎♓︎□︎■︎?"
Whatever they're saying, it likely has a very particular meaning.

Prumathe will find a portal that, looking through it, he sees Trog's tavern. But...he doesn't feel anything in particular, so to speak?
That'll happen five or six times before he finds a portal to Trog's, and looking into it, it'll feel like he has come home.

[Heresy Fighters]

"I can see that." The heresy creatures are obviously made of paper, which is obviously made from wood pulp. She rushes towards one elemental, swinging the torch wildly to try to ignite it.

Maybe it's obvious to her that paper is made of wood pulp. But for some, that fact took a bit of learning, as it was not intuitive at all!

The golden figure stops. Closes their eyes. Better not to see those words, if they have things like that written on them.
They should help. Set fire to the papers.
But they can't.

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

"..."
Yeah, already left, but far away? Probably not? While it's far enough that a bus or tram would be the best way to get there, it's still within walking distance from here...after all, they did walk to the beach from there and he walked (or ran) from the beach to here. "Hopefully far away by now."

Anyway.
"Okay. I can't see in the dark, so..."
He follows, not wanting to get lost or separated.

The stranger leads June through the sewers, going slow and loud enough that he should be to keep up, even in the dark.
"You're a human, aren't you? You could help."
They stop moving, here, and nudge June forward. It seems there's a set of concrete stairs here. He could climb backup, get out of the darkness, to a safe(?) part of the surface streets.

[Shadowcaller]

Pennilan's Tavern

"Ah, okay. Well, I'll probably get a reuben sandwich if you want a recommendation. The Lady? Well I suspect if I wasn't the apprentice of someone she liked it would have been bad. I mean she totally could have killed me, tricking me into drinking that much. Or done far worse while I was out than just ship me home with an embarrassing note. I wouldn't recommend an audience. It's a funny story but not one Jim is ever interested in repeating.
"Yeah so like I said, supposedly my father has faun blood in him. Not that it's clear visually. So, well, let me back up." Jim shakes his head.
"So what happened is that I got cursed with this shapeshifting ability that slowly degraded into less and less like me. I'm fairly sure it would have eventually made me a frog or something. But anyway I caught it pretty quick and got it removed and this is the shape that I settled on before it got ripped out of me. So...I guess my comfort with the goat legs might indicate that old tale was right? Who knows? Either way I did choose it and the story may or may not have affected that decision of mine.
Dad handles all the winery stuff, though. Mom's a physician."

[Two Detectives]

Michalson is staying put for now. There's no real point in chasing the strange creature, even if his leg didn't protest at the mere suggestion of the word "chase".

"The length of the training isn't the issue. The process is painful and difficult. Not everyone comes through it with their brain-box unscrambled. It involves substances and rituals I'm not familiar with. And is difficult to undergo alone."

[SwordWoman]

Harley.
Partially depending on sound to tell its distance has its disadvantages, of course, especially when it starts screaming. It makes it really easy to find where it is, but she had also made her hearing really sensitive. She freezes to recover, and takes a deep breath. The memories of those all the events that made those screams. . .she quickly dismisses it all as an imitation, mocking the people who actually felt that pain and got through it. She seethes with anger: the worst things you should never try to forget.

Harley sheds the sword-wings, and they clatter to the ground. No longer needing the sword in her right hand (it's too loud to not hear), she drops it too. She waits a few moments, letting her anger at this mockery-spirit build.

And so, Harley starts running towards the elemental, with just the ancient sword.
Rather than going straight up to it, however, she circles around it, and activates her sword's magnetic ability, and starts pulling all the swords she dropped towards her. And with the elemental between her and the swords, she hopes a wave of swords is enough to stop its wailing.

[SwordWoman]

Ah-hah! Rein can easily tell where the enemy is now! It's... screaming. Ow. Owowowow.

The feeling wasn't dissimilar to the star of remembrance Rein once wore. The pain of relieving those memories was very real. Normally Rein would stab the thing screaming with his cane, but that would require closing the gap and not holding his hands over his ears. Both of which he is very much doing the opposite of, standing there with his hand over his ears. Owowowowow. He didn't know these things could create sound. It feels like cheating after all the effort he took to get here blind.

[SwordWoman]

The wailing stops rather abruptly as it was only meant to incapaticate Harley long enough for the elemental to flee.
But it's attention is on her and not the swords so despite attempting to flee the swords still cut through it as they're called back to Harley and this time it might not be able to get back up. Even as just more holes were cut into the floating papers the elemental have just collapsed into a heap. Then again, it could be playing dead as there is hard to tell if a being made out of floating book pages was even alive to being with.

Pennilan's Tavern

Ah... not as nice as Jaahlyn had imagined though probably what she would have expected from most fey.
Still, besides that and this awful curse he was describing it sounded like Jim at least had family and friends to back him up. "Who or what cursed you? Since if was a fey that could explain a lot. Some of them are all about themes and stories so it could explain how you ended up like that." As she speaks she eyes the bottle again, she could get used to that taste. It reminded her of something, probably a previous life as it would have resonated more strongly with her otherwise.

[Two Detectives]

Ava writes something down. "I imagine prescribing such substances to officers alone would be difficult if it's what I think it is. Mind altering substances are hard to come by for a reason." She makes a straight line in her notebook. "But what about we continue our tour then if we're not letting that inccident stop us. I take it this event isn't too out of the ordinary for Inside?"

[Deathkeeper]

Pennilan's Tavern

Jim rolls his eyes. "That's the worst part. By all accounts it was just some guy!" He takes an annoyed swig of his wine.
"I mean he had a shop full of cursed goods and he certainly pulled the mysterious card plenty of times. I'm not saying he couldn't have been some disguised fey or demon or something. But I even met the guy a few times after the fact and he just seemed like some arcane jerk. I'll probably never know. And honestly I'm fine with that. Guy's awful to deal with. Made it sound like it was supposed to teach me a lesson or something. Like it was my fault. At the time I just wanted to lose weight." He certainly wasn't polite in any capacity.

[bc56]

Heresy Fighters

"Hey, are you all right?" Purple notices gold's hesitation. As the elemental beside her goes down in flames, she turns back to her chance companion. "Snap out of it!"

[Zefir]

[MERC Searching for Jo]

A while after the job was offered one of the MERC members took it and headed for the location given. It might confuse some why Fade has signed up for the task. For once he has no sense for beauty, which might make it a bit harder to find the missing person based on the description and also because he's not really the investigater Type. On the other side his lack of emotions might help with a succubus.

Fade appears to be a human men around 6 feet high. His skincolor is just perfect (due to a spell cast on him). His apperance otherwise is a bit shady he wears common boots and pants, but the upper half is a mess of several layers of grey rags. they hide his blades, but make him appear like a himeless. a black scarf covers halv of his face and his yellow eyes look at the half elf.

"I'm from MERC." he says his voice echoing a bit. "What else can you tell me about that missing person? Jo was the name you called her?"

[Morty]

[Two Detectives]

"It's not normal, but it's not much I haven't seen before," Michalson says languidly as he resumes his patrol. "Things like that just happen 'ere. I'll make a report and see if they need me to do more about it. I reckon I'm one of the people qualified. I'm not a spell-slinger, but I know more about dazz- magic than many of 'em. I know how to deal with it or break it."

[5a Violista]

[SwordWoman]

Venus hits her head against a wall. Her face and head hurts, and it feels like her hands hurt too. . .she curls her hand and notices she has one fewer finger than she should. Her hair feels heavier and longer, too, and. . .


The magic swordslady Harley, meanwhile, expects it to still be alive. Appearing dead is a pretty common tactic, so she doesn't just assume it's safe now.
. . .
PLUS! The swords that tore through the elemental didn't suddenly lose their momentum or magnetic strength. They continue and pierce and cut her.

Being in pain, she makes an appropriate sound and falls to her hand, and blood drips down her arm and leg.

After a moment to catch her breath and make sure no important parts of her are bleeding, Harley decides she needs to finish it off so it can't come back. If she weren't blindfolded, she would probably just see that it's practically paper and just torch it herself. Instead, she taps on her sword trying to locate other people, and calls out, "Anyone got gas handy? Or a pure alcohol?" Dousing it then burning it is generally the easiest way to guarantee something doesn't come back.


[Necropolis of Kysimax]

Venus raises her hand and her sword, to parry the sword and push it up and away from her head. (Head strikes happen – not the most common, but they still do happen often enough, so she has experience with this.)

...
This sword she's using feels a little weird. The balance and the flexibility is odd. But parrying another sword is easy enough that those things don't seem to matter as much.

She blinks, and moves her sword back to a ready position. "If we're going to do this, shouldn't we wear safety equipment?"


[Perfectly Normal Walk]

That's good. Very considerate, keeping pace with the person that can't keep up as well in this situation.

June, reaching somewhere that finally looks decent, goes ahead and steps up the stairs. Doesn't go all the way up yet; gotta stick around to talk a bit more.

He looks back, even though that doesn't really help in the dark. "Help? Help how?" since that seems like an important question. Yeah, he's human, that's obvious so no need to confirm what's already obvious.


[MERC: Searching for Jo]

Carmen has pointy ears, silver hair, purple eyes, and a purple ribbon in her hair.

She movee closer than is probably comfortable for a first-time meeting (she has a small personal-space bubble) and looks up at him.

"Oh! Hi," Carmen says. "Thanks for meeting with me."

"Is there anything particular you want to know? Jo and I were separated a long time ago, so I don't really have high expectations, but thanks anyway." She gives a brief and slightly-more-detailed description of Jo, especially including the wings because those are her most notable features.

"I haven't got a job or anything, so I can answer as many questions or take you to anywhere if you think it might help."

[bc56]

Necropolis of Kysimax

In the first real response to anything Venus has said, the skeleton shakes his head. No safety gear. Just cold steel. He twists his blade away as soon as it contacts Venus's and prepares another attack, a lunge towards her chest. Again, he'll pull the attack just short if she fails to defend herself.

[Reinholdt]

[Swordwoman]

"Harley!!" Reinholdt calls out in concern. His relief that the screaming stopped is replaced suddenly with deep concern when he hears the magical girl cry out in pain. He's mere moment away from tearing off his own blindfold and rushing to her side when she calls out her request. Things are probably not that bad if she can still make requests.

Well. If there's one thing Rein always has handy, it's alcohol. "Take this!" He calls out dramatically pulling out a bottle of 138 proof spicy rum and tosses it through the air to Harley. Approximately. Give or take tossing bottles blind. Aim is in question. But if he misses, it'll probably just land on the elemental papers on the ground anyways.

[Zefir]

[MERC: Searching for Jo]

Fade doesn t seem to mind the violation of personal space, but as she does she will feel something staring at her. Something that might lurk out of a shadow. Maybe someone is keeping an eye on Fade.

"Is there anything uncommen in her behavior that might draw attention? Maybe some kind of addiction? Or just something rare she eats? Anything that she would do here like back in your world."

[5a Violista]

[Necropolis of Kysimax]

Because of the lack of safety equipment (and because she parried the first strike), Venus has no idea that the skeleton is planning on stopping the sword before hitting her. So she does her best to block this one, too. And she's going to attack back after thi~

Venus blocks again, pushing the thrust aside, but also has to step back because it's a lunge. Unfortunately, since everything is backwards and the sword is in the wrong hand (and maybe also because she's gotten used to having four legs instead of just two like she has now), she stumbles while retreating, putting her back knee and her left hand onto the ground.
Whoops.

(Also, do you know what the worst part of fighting a skeleton? They're really bad at bantering back.)



[MERC: Searching for Jo]

Being stared at is a normal phenomenon. Happens all the time in public.

"Uncommon...?" Carmen wonders. Like..."I don't know. It's been several hundred years since I last saw her, so..." She looks down, a little uncomfortable. It has been a while, what if she doesn't like her anymore? "...so....I don't know. Anything unusual we did together wouldn't really be considered unusual here, so I'm not sure it would help."

[Shadowcaller]

Pennilan's Tavern

Jim rolls his eyes. "That's the worst part. By all accounts it was just some guy!" He takes an annoyed swig of his wine.
"I mean he had a shop full of cursed goods and he certainly pulled the mysterious card plenty of times. I'm not saying he couldn't have been some disguised fey or demon or something. But I even met the guy a few times after the fact and he just seemed like some arcane jerk. I'll probably never know. And honestly I'm fine with that. Guy's awful to deal with. Made it sound like it was supposed to teach me a lesson or something. Like it was my fault. At the time I just wanted to lose weight." He certainly wasn't polite in any capacity.

[Two Detectives]

"It's not normal, but it's not much I haven't seen before," Michalson says languidly as he resumes his patrol. "Things like that just happen 'ere. I'll make a report and see if they need me to do more about it. I reckon I'm one of the people qualified. I'm not a spell-slinger, but I know more about dazz- magic than many of 'em. I know how to deal with it or break it."

[SwordWoman]

Venus hits her head against a wall. Her face and head hurts, and it feels like her hands hurt too. . .she curls her hand and notices she has one fewer finger than she should. Her hair feels heavier and longer, too, and. . .


The magic swordslady Harley, meanwhile, expects it to still be alive. Appearing dead is a pretty common tactic, so she doesn't just assume it's safe now.
. . .
PLUS! The swords that tore through the elemental didn't suddenly lose their momentum or magnetic strength. They continue and pierce and cut her.

Being in pain, she makes an appropriate sound and falls to her hand, and blood drips down her arm and leg.

After a moment to catch her breath and make sure no important parts of her are bleeding, Harley decides she needs to finish it off so it can't come back. If she weren't blindfolded, she would probably just see that it's practically paper and just torch it herself. Instead, she taps on her sword trying to locate other people, and calls out, "Anyone got gas handy? Or a pure alcohol?" Dousing it then burning it is generally the easiest way to guarantee something doesn't come back.

[Swordwoman]

"Harley!!" Reinholdt calls out in concern. His relief that the screaming stopped is replaced suddenly with deep concern when he hears the magical girl cry out in pain. He's mere moment away from tearing off his own blindfold and rushing to her side when she calls out her request. Things are probably not that bad if she can still make requests.

Well. If there's one thing Rein always has handy, it's alcohol. "Take this!" He calls out dramatically pulling out a bottle of 138 proof spicy rum and tosses it through the air to Harley. Approximately. Give or take tossing bottles blind. Aim is in question. But if he misses, it'll probably just land on the elemental papers on the ground anyways.

Pennilan's Tavern

Jaahlyn's eyebrows raises. "That's awful, wasn't he even brought to justice? You can't just sell stuff like that and get away with it, especially if you're 'just some guy'. Just imagine what he might have done to other people that stopped by his shop." She shakes her head and then gestures at the bottle. "Do you mind if I take some more by the way?"

[Two Detectives]

"So what makes this stand out from the everyday things you have to deal with? I assume that crimes involving magic are fairly common here at least. Depending on your definition of magic' of course. It's a rather loose term." Ava inquires as she flips open a new page to fill with notes.

[Swordwoman]

The elemental still isn't getting up. Either it's simply dead (destroyed?) or its too hurt to even move.

[Zefir]

[MERC: Searching for Jo]

Being stared at is a normal phenomenon. Happens all the time in public.

"Uncommon...?" Carmen wonders. Like..."I don't know. It's been several hundred years since I last saw her, so..." She looks down, a little uncomfortable. It has been a while, what if she doesn't like her anymore? "...so....I don't know. Anything unusual we did together wouldn't really be considered unusual here, so I'm not sure it would help."

[MERC: Searching for Jo]

Oh the staring is different from the one you get on the street. it's more like the lurking assasin ready to end you any time.

"Time is not important. I was told that some habits never disapear. I assume her kind doesn't age like humans?" he says. "Maybe you can lead me to places you would go with her. If we ask around we might find a clue."

[Morty]

[Two Detectives]

"There's magic and there's magic." Michalson shrugs. "Spirits made out of books that plant false memories into people's brain-boxes aren't common or normal even 'ere. Usually we just get bashers with bright ideas about how to use their powers to get rich quick."

[Recaiden]

[Sewer System Red]

These fiends had their orders and thus not even these lifeforms could be spared. Two of them will start to scorch the walls with their flamethrowers while the hounds are reporting back on their findings to their masters through a telepathic link.
There do seem to be some disagreement of what to do once they have this information but eventually it seems to be decided to stop scorching the quarter-demons and start to move ahead.
They are heading towards the area where the scent of demons is the strongest. Hopefully the 'angel' headquarters.

The little eye creatures put up no resistance to being incinerated. They cannot react. They only watch for the moment that the flames approach.

The strongest scent of demons is back behind them, where the imps and leathery things have been.
This is not the direction that the blue team is going in.
As they proceed in this direction, they find fewer of the tiny quarter-demons, and perhaps run across a feral half-material imp. Soon, this path reaches - not the end of the sewers, but an interruption. A buried ruin of earth and metal. A colossal machine, sunken into the earth, long-inhabited by demons, especially coming from the south end.

[Sewer System Blue]

These metal fiends either don't have flamethrowers or aren't as interested in using them as the only way they interact with the quarter-demons is attempting to grab a few of them off the walls and put them in separated sealed containers that they're storing in a type of hammer-space.
But as the mapping of the servers gets underway these fiends start to head to the right, the golems once again taking the lead.

The legion drones will after scouting as much as the fiends consider needed enter observer mode where they will hide, either in plain sight, the ceiling or underwater, and then just report if anything would occur in the sections they're in.
The drones that headed right will remain active however and make sure to not get too close to the battle they're surveying.

The little eye creatures put up no resistance to being put into containers. They become totally still and sedate once in hammerspace.

Now, the path to the right. The crevasse, with battle raging.
On the far side, the east bank, there is a large metal door, as if to some sort of vault. It is sealed closed. There is a spindly six-limbed half demon crawling towards it from the north nothing to be seen on that side of the crevasse.
On the west bank the golems are approaching, and the legion drones are hovering up to keep a safe distance. The battle is very close by. Coming from the north are the angels they know and are looking for. hounds charging in two abreast, archers firing from the openings where other sewage tunnels meet here. Coming from the south are...other things. Demons of mostly human form, but terribly mutated, like their skin and muscle is at war with itself. Hounds so thin as to be almost skeletal, leaping like graasshoppers. The two groups clash wherever there is space to stand, fighting with unrestrained fury, claws and spikes flying, corpses being thrown down into the depths even as they dissolve. The battle comes to a near-instant pause as the mutants notice the golems and drones, and the angels notice the mutants noticing something.
Wordless mental voices reach out, demanding explanations, answers, from the golems.

Heresy Fighters

"Hey, are you all right?" Purple notices gold's hesitation. As the elemental beside her goes down in flames, she turns back to her chance companion. "Snap out of it!"

Gold doesn't seem particularly alright.
"Why?"
"Look at them, and can you still say why you fight them? That people aren't already corrupt?" Their voice doesn't seem to come from their lips; it's echoing all around the street.