Inside 72: Halfway to a Gross

[bc56]

Necropolis of Kysimax

The skeleton stops his attack as Venus stumbles and falls. He holds his blade ready until she rises again. He will not strike a downed opponent, even if it was the perfect opportunity.

Heresy Fighters

Uh oh. "Um... No?" Purple responds. "I'm sure some folks are corrupt, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't protect anyone. They're still people. They deserve our help."

[Deathkeeper]

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?"

Pennilan's Tavern

"Considering he strongarmed me and Sticks into helping him once in Skyside? No, no I don't think anyone ever caught him."
Presently the waiter returns to take their orders. Jim gets to order his sandwich.
"Uh yeah, sure. Just don't finish the bottle just yet. If you pass out I won't be able to carry you and my instrument case home at the same time." Barnabas seems to chortle silently as he sits on said case.

[Earl of Purple]

Wandering Into Trouble

It's still not translating properly, but... he's talking about emotions, and who knows if an empty astronaut suit can feel emotions that even accurately map to human ones? Still, Prumathe wanders off to try and find one that feels 'right', and... oh, hey. Here's one. No, it... just looks like Trog's. He'll wave if someone sees him, which isn't an impossibility with Trog's. He'll head to the next, another Trog's, and... well, it will take a while, and he's still not sure at any one of them that it's not the one he's familiar with, until he finds the one that feels right. He'll hold his breath, close his eyes and jump through that portal.

[Recaiden]

[Heresy Fighters]

Uh oh. "Um... No?" Purple responds. "I'm sure some folks are corrupt, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't protect anyone. They're still people. They deserve our help."

"Does it truly help to prevent them from learning here? To let all these people stay ignorant?"
Gold shakes their head.
"We- I think we- we had it all wrong."

Wandering Into Trouble

It's still not translating properly, but... he's talking about emotions, and who knows if an empty astronaut suit can feel emotions that even accurately map to human ones? Still, Prumathe wanders off to try and find one that feels 'right', and... oh, hey. Here's one. No, it... just looks like Trog's. He'll wave if someone sees him, which isn't an impossibility with Trog's. He'll head to the next, another Trog's, and... well, it will take a while, and he's still not sure at any one of them that it's not the one he's familiar with, until he finds the one that feels right. He'll hold his breath, close his eyes and jump through that portal.

The astronaut gives Prumathe a little wave.
Everything goes red.
And then he's back in Trog's Tavern. Not so far from where he ran into the spiders in the first place.

[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.

"The Thinker wouldn't notice you at first. You could sneak into his lair and stop the stealing of people."
It wouldn't be a safe thing to do, but keeping June safe is kind of an afterthought here.

[Shadowcaller]

Pennilan's Tavern

"Considering he strongarmed me and Sticks into helping him once in Skyside? No, no I don't think anyone ever caught him."
Presently the waiter returns to take their orders. Jim gets to order his sandwich.
"Uh yeah, sure. Just don't finish the bottle just yet. If you pass out I won't be able to carry you and my instrument case home at the same time." Barnabas seems to chortle silently as he sits on said case.

Pennilan's Tavern

Jaahlyn's black eyes widens and she raises and displays her palms in protest. "N-no, no! T-that's not- I just meant one more glass." She attempts to reassure before realizing that it was just a joke.
Then she stares down at the table for a moment before clearing her voice. "...besides, I don't think I'm a light drinker. I have vague memories of doing this plenty of times. Probably far too many." She makes an awkward chuckle and decides to stare at her glass a little bit too long until realizing that she was expected to order food. "Erm- s-same as him." The satyr gestures at Jim.

[Earl of Purple]

Wandering Out of Trouble

The red is a little worrying, but... he's OK now, right? He'll pat himself down and check to make sure he hasn't grown any extra fingers, sigh and order a drink. Probably lemonade; he doesn't want to try figuring out what just happened whilst his faculties are even remotely impaired. Not that he drinks much anyway, since he enjoys a job that involves heavy lifting.

[Deathkeeper]

Pennilan's Tavern

The waiter nods and walks off with his paper.
"Well I guess it'd be weird if a satyr was a lightweight anyway. By all means." He even pours her another glass if she doesn't do so herself quickly.
"So...anything else you wanted to know about?" She hadn't actually asked about Barnabas, which is a first. Most people question having a homonculus just flitting around.

[Shadowcaller]

Pennilan's Tavern

It would be rude to just ask!

Well, right away at least.
"Tell me about Stick's!" She says excitedly. "If he don't mind of course. Did he help with, ah, your friend?" She gestures at Barnabas.

[Sewer System Blue]

The golems aren't capable of answering such demands and won't do so anyway. Instead, they enter their defensive mode by angling their arms forward as shields and then slamming them deep into the ground which projects a powerful shield a few feet in front of them. Anyone trying to move through it will be slowed down as it's like trying to swim through mud while projectiles might get stopped outright or at least slowed down depending on with how much force they're launched with.
However, one of the metal fiends coming in behind them actually do raise their hand and speaks up. "We are not the 'demons' you fight, instead we've come here with an offer of an alliance." The fiend which is apparently the leader looks between the two groups. "Whichever of you would be willing to accept we could share all our knowledge with and the only thing we ask is that you share yours in return. Together we don't need to be the monsters the nexus fears, we could be so much more."

But despite this offer the other fiends look ready to fight if that wasn't obvious already. Their metal hides and soft blue glow might make them look more regal than the more traditional fiends but no less threatening.

Meanwhile, the legion drones keep scanning for beings moving through the passages they've set up in for enemies.

[Sewer System Red]

The group stops, not having expected this. Were was the other group? Had they already found what they were looking for? If so, why hadn't they been told? This machine was probably more of their thing.
Nevertheless, it begged investigating. Hounds are sent fourth to scout this machine out, eagerly 'licking' the air around it to be able to tell more in detail where the scene was coming from and what kind of demons that were inside of it and roughly how many. If it's demons unknown to them they might see it as a mix of different scents instead.

What kind of machine was this? Any way they could tell from what they could see of it? Was this still a small passage or a much larger room?
The golems will remain with the fiends until the hounds got a chance to scout it out. Meanwhile, the fiends have a look around. Is the ground stable in here? Anything up in the ceiling? Assuming of course it's not just another sewer tunnel.

[5a Violista]

[Swordswoman]

Oh! It's good to know that Reinholdt is nearby. Plus, that was incredibly helpful.
She tries to catch the thrown thing, but unfortunately, catching something blind is even harder than throwing something blind (which is also hard).
Harley hears it and reaches out towards the bottle, but it only brushes against her fingertips.

So, it falls and spills alcohol everywhere. Harley can definitely smell it.
She reaches down and sparks shoot between her fingers, until the alcohol ignites.

She's not quite willing to take off her blindfold until after she's sure it's all burned up; she doesn't know if it's still dangerous to see it while it's dying/dead and isn't willing to risk it.


The awful feeling is finally starting to pass, for Venus.
Mentally, still feels awful. But at least it doesn't feel physically awful anymore, since her body seems to have stopped changing for now.


[MERC Searching for Jo]

Unfortunately, just from the feeling of the gaze, Carmen can't really tell the difference from being randomly stared at from being stared at by an assassin.

"Right," she says, confirming. "Probably should look pretty much the same." Probably. "Unless her tastes changed, I suppose."

Anyway.
"Yeah, I could bring you there. Kind-of a long trip, since we'll have to go through a portal and such, since it's not exactly nearby." Carmen rolls her shoulders back and stretches. "So...yeah, I can wait until you're ready, if you want to do that."


[Necropolis of Kysimax]

The stumble wasn't that serious, Venus thought. She could still defend herself. It was still legal. No need to hold back for her sake! she thinks.

Or, rather, the skeleton holding and not attacking was actually a little demeaning! she thinks. It's like the skeleton was saying it didn't think she was capable of attacking or defending herself if she had a knee and a hand on the ground!
Venus chews her lip in humiliation and frustration.
Maybe if they were just sticking to swords, it would be hard for her to counterattack from that position, but she could still defend well enough to stand up on her own! Maybe she could have even done some kind of prise and turned the tables. Besides, what kind of swordfighter can't throw in a kick or takedown from a kneeling position? It should just be assumed she can at least do something that basic!

Venus sighs, gets back upright on two feet again, and takes a few breaths to recollect herself. He probably didn't mean anything by it, and besides, is probably just trying to pass on a secret technique that can only be performed while standing.
She shifts the sword over to her left hand -- sure, the handle feels a little off, but it was designed to occasionally have two hands holding it (and besides, if she really needed to, she could probably remodel the wood of the handle to make it fit better, but she'd rather not because that might be considered cheating).

"Ready," she says. As the only one who can talk, it's her responsibility to wait for the skeleton to attack first.


[Perfectly Normal Walk]

"Okay, I'll do it," June says, not needing much thought for it. Not even an afterthought for the danger. Yeah, stopping would-be kidnappers is definitely the right thing to do. Anyone would do it; and June, being an 'anyone' would obviously also do it.

Plus, this also has the added benefit that if they stop kidnapping people, they're also probably going to stop looking for the person that June knows. Win-win, really, when it comes down to it. There's not many situations where you can help the people you know and the people you don't know at the same time.

He goes back down the ladder.
"So what's the plan, then? Is there, like, an 'off' switch that turns off the kidnapping machine? Or, rather, what do I need to do to make it happen?" He doesn't seriously expect there to just be a button or lever that he needs to use that will just solve everything forever. Obviously there's more complicated steps to take. But June feels like that mental imagery gets across his thoughts better than anything else could.

[Deathkeeper]

Pennilan’s Tavern

”Ah, Barnabas? No, he was a gift from my uncle. He’s a wizard and he makes little golems like that. Though he’s more than just a servant golem now.” Jim affectionately rubs the critter’s horns.
”Sticks is...a very quiet, private man. A lot of history, you know? He doesn’t like to talk about any of it. But he’s old and kindly and warm when you let him be. He’s rather disarming with the kids despite those spindly fingers of his.” Someone less tactful would probably be perceived more poorly by the children.

[Reinholdt]

[Swordswoman]

"Jolly Good!" There's nothing more Adventurer than burning your problems away. He's not going to pose though. If he can't see his pose, no one can.

While Rein waits to hear some death screams, he tries to pat Venus on the back for a job well done. "You ok there Venus?" He hadn't heard her say anything for a while. Usually there's more sounds in a blind fight to the death.

[Shadowcaller]

[Swordswoman]

The papers catch on fire and there is what sounds like a final scream as the fires spread outwards.
Then there's nothing but the sound of burning paper.

Pennilan’s Tavern

As Jim explains the satyr takes another sip from her glass, trying not to empty most of it in one go this time. She had seen how Jim was drinking and is trying to mimic it. "Your uncle is a wizard too? Quite a circle you're moving in, Jim." Jaahlyn remarks with a chuckle. "Gotta be the greatest uncle ever and Sticks seems pretty nice too. Anyone that personally makes toys for children gotta' be. In fact, you tell him if he ever need any, ah, magical aid I'd love to do odd jobs for him should he need it. I do jobs for wizards all the time, y'know, seeking out rare ingredients and stuff like that. Though... eh, you ever do that kind of jobs for him? Or is it more... shop keeping and toy making?"

[Deathkeeper]

Pennilan's Tavern

"Well, I'm not going to lie to anyone and say my family doesn't have some money. I could probably get a place in Riverside if I really wanted. But I like this place and I don't mind the commute. And I'd like to get the money myself..." Jim takes a small sip of his wine again.
"I can certainly get you into his contact book. I know he's not super fond of MERC after they tried their little protection racket but that's ages ago now. I mostly act as his assistant and run deliveries. But I warn you. He's not the type to let someone work for free so you two will have to figure something out with your rules." He chuckles. Of course that won't be a problem. After all, if wine and dinner can pay for a lesson he's sure that Sticks could pay her in something she's allowed to accept.

[Recaiden]

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

"Okay, I'll do it," June says, not needing much thought for it. Not even an afterthought for the danger. Yeah, stopping would-be kidnappers is definitely the right thing to do. Anyone would do it; and June, being an 'anyone' would obviously also do it.

Plus, this also has the added benefit that if they stop kidnapping people, they're also probably going to stop looking for the person that June knows. Win-win, really, when it comes down to it. There's not many situations where you can help the people you know and the people you don't know at the same time.

He goes back down the ladder.
"So what's the plan, then? Is there, like, an 'off' switch that turns off the kidnapping machine? Or, rather, what do I need to do to make it happen?" He doesn't seriously expect there to just be a button or lever that he needs to use that will just solve everything forever. Obviously there's more complicated steps to take. But June feels like that mental imagery gets across his thoughts better than anything else could.

"No switch. It's a pool, glowing, near-boiling liquid. We can give you a chemical that will ...damage it, make it useless for making his soldiers for a long time. Just pour it in." The bug-creature explains. If June doesn't want to comment on the danger, they don't want to make it sound any more dangerous. Getting June back safely afterwards is June's problem, they think.
"We will distract the thinker on the up-north level, outside the temple. Make him focus on finding us and not seeing humans."

If June doesn't have any more questions, the bug-folk will scramble off up the stairs, telling him to "wait", and come back a minute later, pressing a spongy leafy bundle into his hands.

[Sewer System Blue]

The golems aren't capable of answering such demands and won't do so anyway. Instead, they enter their defensive mode by angling their arms forward as shields and then slamming them deep into the ground which projects a powerful shield a few feet in front of them. Anyone trying to move through it will be slowed down as it's like trying to swim through mud while projectiles might get stopped outright or at least slowed down depending on with how much force they're launched with.
However, one of the metal fiends coming in behind them actually do raise their hand and speaks up. "We are not the 'demons' you fight, instead we've come here with an offer of an alliance." The fiend which is apparently the leader looks between the two groups. "Whichever of you would be willing to accept we could share all our knowledge with and the only thing we ask is that you share yours in return. Together we don't need to be the monsters the nexus fears, we could be so much more."

But despite this offer the other fiends look ready to fight if that wasn't obvious already. Their metal hides and soft blue glow might make them look more regal than the more traditional fiends but no less threatening.

Meanwhile, the legion drones keep scanning for beings moving through the passages they've set up in for enemies.

An angel on the far side, near the vault door, who suddenly revealed themselves has definitely been here the whole time waves a tentacle and calls out.
"We'll listen. Share knowledge, if we can agree on the details."
Their archers begin to straighten up, a gesture similar to a human lifting open palms since, as you see, their cannons are now aimed away from anyone else here.

The mutants all turn and scramble away, towards the narrowing southern end of the crevasse. Except one, which stares at the metal fiend.
The voiceless thoughts that were harassing the golems turns to answer. They agree to us and you, we agree to you.
It seems the arrival of the fiends got the two sides to come up with a truce.

[Sewer System Red]

The group stops, not having expected this. Were was the other group? Had they already found what they were looking for? If so, why hadn't they been told? This machine was probably more of their thing.
Nevertheless, it begged investigating. Hounds are sent fourth to scout this machine out, eagerly 'licking' the air around it to be able to tell more in detail where the scene was coming from and what kind of demons that were inside of it and roughly how many. If it's demons unknown to them they might see it as a mix of different scents instead.

What kind of machine was this? Any way they could tell from what they could see of it? Was this still a small passage or a much larger room?
The golems will remain with the fiends until the hounds got a chance to scout it out. Meanwhile, the fiends have a look around. Is the ground stable in here? Anything up in the ceiling? Assuming of course it's not just another sewer tunnel.

It's a fairly small passage. Out here, the ground is stable enough. Anything that was going to collapse already collapsed years ago. The machine, it was a weapon, a flying fortress that is now crumpled to the ground and buried over. The weapons, wires, lights that were built into it, all have broken dead and failed by now.
What sort of demons around here? Imps, lots of them. The large leathery beasts, which it seems burrow around beneath the surface of the ground only rarely surfacing into the sewer tunnels. Ones like those that were present at riverside, hounds and archers. With their incredible senses, the red team will notice where a bunch of them are lying in wait, in what seems like a dried-up and rarely-traveled branch of the sewer. There are layers of dust; it smells like death here. But it's full of angels nonetheless. Not quite the ones they were looking for, but very similar.

[Zefir]

[MERC Searching for Jo]

Unfortunately, just from the feeling of the gaze, Carmen can't really tell the difference from being randomly stared at from being stared at by an assassin.

"Right," she says, confirming. "Probably should look pretty much the same." Probably. "Unless her tastes changed, I suppose."

Anyway.
"Yeah, I could bring you there. Kind-of a long trip, since we'll have to go through a portal and such, since it's not exactly nearby." Carmen rolls her shoulders back and stretches. "So...yeah, I can wait until you're ready, if you want to do that."

[MERC Searching for Jo]

To bad, but on the otehr hand if she tries to seduce Fade right now she won't get a response.

"Unless you have any clues to follow I am ready to go." Fade says. He's got nothing to take care of and for his kind he doesn't need much anyways.

[5a Violista]

[Swordswoman]

The sound of screaming and burning.
That's probably a good sign.
Now, Harley just has to wait to be sure, and wait until the fire goes out.

And, while waiting, she can take care of the next most pressing matter...namely wounds from her swords. Getting that many wounds from her own weapons is probably a bad look and would cause unnecessary worry, so she has to handle it before Reinholdt decides to unblindfold himself. Except for the magnetic sword, all of the swords start to disappear and the cuts pull themselves together.


Venus gets her back patted. As her hair is much longer now, he ends up mostly patting her hair and some puffy flower balls. "I'm fine..." she says.

"Actually, that's a lie," she then adds. Venus takes a deep breath, and looks at her fingers, and shivers. Is this what 'uncanny valley' looks like? she wonders. "What was that thing doing? I feel awful. Feel like I really need to rest, but I don't want to go back: not really in the mood right now to deal with worshippers or cultists or whatever-you-want-to-call-them."


[Perfectly Normal Walk]

Dump a thing into a pool.

Seems simple enough. Honestly, being a distraction sounds like more dangerous job.

June follows, then waits (tapping lightly on his thigh to pass the time with a rhythm), and finally grabs the spongey bundle. "This it?"

Okay, he's ready to go.


[MERC: Searching for Jo]

'I have a few supplies I would need to grab." Carmen then tells him where they'll meet up in an hour or two.

later
They meet up again. Carmen tells him there's a way to the portal to there, and leads him to it. Sure, it is a fair distance away, but it is reachable.

Through the portal, they're in a swamp. Very humid. Sound of various animals all around. Ground is wet and squishy. "Um...stay nearby, okay? If you get lost, this places gets very dangerous, because time and space are decaying and falling away. Um...just make sure you watch where you're going."

She points in a couple directions. "Over there is the clearing where we were captured. It's not far, but after this long I doubt we'll find anything useful there. And that way is the home base of the paladins who ambushed us, and if we go that way instead, just a bit farther away is where we lived."

[Reinholdt]

[Swordswoman]

"Uhh... do you deal with worship cultists a lot?" What's Venus referring to? Reinholdt doesn't remember any cultists. Were cultists involved in this? Possibly.

Still, his face frowns in deep concern. "Did you remember to keep your eyes closed?" Rein asks. He distinctly remembers telling her to keep her eyes closed. "These things mess with your head if you look at them." The Blind Mask isn't actually Blind because he wants to be! He's gotta be. Otherwise he'll go crazy.

[bc56]

Heresy Fighters

Something is terribly wrong here. Purple can tell that Gold is about to do something stupid. She's sure of it. "Snap out of it! Some things, man's not meant to know. That's what we're trying to stop here." She turns away from the burning wreckage and faces Gold, ready for whatever comes next.

[5a Violista]

[Swordswoman]

"Uhh... do you deal with worship cultists a lot?" What's Venus referring to? Reinholdt doesn't remember any cultists. Were cultists involved in this? Possibly.

Still, his face frowns in deep concern. "Did you remember to keep your eyes closed?" Rein asks. He distinctly remembers telling her to keep her eyes closed. "These things mess with your head if you look at them." The Blind Mask isn't actually Blind because he wants to be! He's gotta be. Otherwise he'll go crazy.

[Swordswoman]

Once a part stops being on fire, Harley crushes it under her foot and twists it, to make sure it actually is just ash.
When she finds some papery stuff that isn't burned thoroughly, she relights it.


Venus looks at her hand. "Not just the head..." she says to herself.
She looks back at the Blind Mask. "I didn't keep my eyes closed. Probably...probably should have."

She takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, breathes out. Talking has always helped before, so she decides to just talk. "Um...so...yeah, there was this long-abandoned church that was falling apart, and I needed a place, so I moved in. Fixed it up and cleaned it up. Recently, a whole bunch of people decided to start frequenting there and praying and all sorts of stuff, and it's really awkward because it's just me there and I don't know what to do. Like, should I just ignore them? Or keep on avoiding them? Just not go home for a few weeks and hope they stop? Or what? What if I move out and they follow me? What if one of them decides they want to be a preacher? What if they find out where I work? They should be praying to their god, not some random person who just moved in."

Completely unrelated to these heresy elementals. Seems like a pretty normal problem compared to these elemental spirit things, but it's still weighing on her.


Harley, having decided that that's enough burning, taps her remaining sword a couple more times to echolocate and reorient herself.

She walks over to Rein and the deer-fae-lady, and clears her throat to let them know she's there, in case they're both still blindfolded. (Just outright interjecting herself into the conversation when they can't see her would be pretty rude.)

[Zefir]

[MERC: Searching for Jo]

Fade nods and will be waiting at the meeting place. It has it's advantage to be a rare kind of creature and the fact that he has barly any needs.

Fade nods at her warning. It doesn't seem to change much he looks out for the path. He seems to be used to go through difficult areas.
"I'm not sure why anyone would live here with this threat of decay all around." he says. "Let's head for your old Home. I think I can find something we might need in the future."

He waits until she leads the way in the direction she said there was the home.

[Reinholdt]

[Swordswoman]

Oh great. "Uhh... follow your heart?" Reinholdt has lots of great advice on how to eliminate or infiltrate or manipulate a cult, but not many about what to do when cultists just start worshipping you. That is something he has... maybe one experience with and it was a very bad one. Fortunately it was quick. This seems more drawn out.

And beyond the scope of what Rein can deal with! Oh, Harley's here. That's good. He can't see her, but it's still good that-

Oh no wait! Rein forgot to stay to the shadows!

He quickly ducks around Venus, hiding behind her so only half of him is peeking out, the other half a dramatic silhouette. His voice lowers for some reason. "It's good you're here. We have a casualty here. Have we discovered a way to treat the victims of these attacks?"

[Shadowcaller]

[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."

[Sewer System Red]

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]

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.

Pennilan's Tavern

"Well, I'm not going to lie to anyone and say my family doesn't have some money. I could probably get a place in Riverside if I really wanted. But I like this place and I don't mind the commute. And I'd like to get the money myself..." Jim takes a small sip of his wine again.
"I can certainly get you into his contact book. I know he's not super fond of MERC after they tried their little protection racket but that's ages ago now. I mostly act as his assistant and run deliveries. But I warn you. He's not the type to let someone work for free so you two will have to figure something out with your rules." He chuckles. Of course that won't be a problem. After all, if wine and dinner can pay for a lesson he's sure that Sticks could pay her in something she's allowed to accept.

[Sewer System Blue]

An angel on the far side, near the vault door, who suddenly revealed themselves has definitely been here the whole time waves a tentacle and calls out.
"We'll listen. Share knowledge, if we can agree on the details."
Their archers begin to straighten up, a gesture similar to a human lifting open palms since, as you see, their cannons are now aimed away from anyone else here.

The mutants all turn and scramble away, towards the narrowing southern end of the crevasse. Except one, which stares at the metal fiend.
The voiceless thoughts that were harassing the golems turns to answer. They agree to us and you, we agree to you.
It seems the arrival of the fiends got the two sides to come up with a truce.

[Sewer System Red]

It's a fairly small passage. Out here, the ground is stable enough. Anything that was going to collapse already collapsed years ago. The machine, it was a weapon, a flying fortress that is now crumpled to the ground and buried over. The weapons, wires, lights that were built into it, all have broken dead and failed by now.
What sort of demons around here? Imps, lots of them. The large leathery beasts, which it seems burrow around beneath the surface of the ground only rarely surfacing into the sewer tunnels. Ones like those that were present at riverside, hounds and archers. With their incredible senses, the red team will notice where a bunch of them are lying in wait, in what seems like a dried-up and rarely-traveled branch of the sewer. There are layers of dust; it smells like death here. But it's full of angels nonetheless. Not quite the ones they were looking for, but very similar.

[Two Detectives]

"It does seem like something a emergency management service or the military are more suited to deal with considering it's more of a disaster than a crime." Ava observes thoughtfully. "But you're not exactly a traditional police unit either. You're more of an emergency service and a police combined. With HALO and VIGIL assisting with more complex threats, effectively functioning as the military in a way. Think that's an accurate assessment? Just trying to wrap my head around it all."

[Sewer System Blue]

Not exactly the reaction they had been expecting, but they could work with this.

"A wise decision, let us present you with a gift then to celebrate this occasion." The fiend gestures back at the rest of the group and one of the others step forward holding up one of their metal cases. "Within that is what we call a 'soulseed'. It's part of cuthun and the reason all 'demons' like us are immortal. We are not sure how true that is for you anymore, but this is nonetheless very useful. It can 'store' memories, emotions and experiences, everything that we associate with the 'soul'. But not only that, with enough of that stored it can transfer those on into new suitable bodies. Much like when demons are reborn. But with this you aren't limited just to bodies of flesh with this." The fiend gestures at itself. "The evidence standing right before you."

[Sewer System Red]

The houndmaster relay this information to the other fiends.
What a mess, these tunnels were even more infested than their original information had suggested. Thankfully, they had just the thing for this. Explosives were what they were best at after all.

It wasn't the kind they prefered using but in this situation they couldn't be too loud unfortunately.

As the rest back away their demolition expert start strapping on a special kind of bomb onto the surface of the machine. As close to the top of the machine as they could possibly reach. Then they're going to draw an orange X on the ground in front of the machine as the houndmaster orders their pets to look for a new target. Is the smell of demons particularly potent in any other direction?

Pennilan's Tavern

"Free? Think you go it all wrong, everything I do pays off my debt. It's like... ah..." Jaahlyn suddenly snaps her fingers. "Community service, that's it. Wish I had thought of that one earlier." She smiles to herself as this probably would clear up a lot of confusion. "I mean, it isn't exactly like that as I can take some forms of compensation but the point is that I do hard work until I'm free of my bound. Technically, I'm supposed to just help out fey but with a lack of any of them to help..." She shrugs. "...I'm compelled to help out other people too. Like you Jim for instance. " She gestures at him. "It's sort of like how genies are compelled to grant people wishes except I'm not all-powerful and there's way more than three of them."

[Morty]

[Two Detectives]

Michalson gives a gesture that's somewhere between a shrug and a head-shake and conveys a message of general uncertainty.

"That's another question above my pay-grade. I just do the job in front of me and try to keep people safe while I'm at it. With any luck I don't need to be around when the cutters from Vigil come in sword-swingin'."

[Deathkeeper]

Pennilan's Tavern

"Oh, and here I was thinking we were here because we were friends so fast." Jim teases, swirling his glass. It does sting a little knowing that she might only be here because of compulsions but she could have left at any point afterwards.
"Besides, remember the story? I'm very possibly one whole percent fey anyway.
But no, all I meant is that Sticks wouldn't be satisfied with that. He'd want to give you something for your work in all likelihood. Though I've been wrong about him before..." Jim's long ears flick. Sticks has always been mysterious. Sometimes you just don't know what's going on with him.

[5a Violista]

[Searching for Jo]

Carmen leads the way.

. . .

"Wait! Stop!" she suddenly says, stopping herself.
She points ahead.
It's just a black void of nothingness.
"This, um...this...um..."
She looks around.
"Looks like it's been trapped out of time up ahead." She looks around, to the left and right to see if this is just localized on the trail, or if the whole area is locked away.

If they run off far to the right or left, they'll see that it's literally the whole place that is blocked off. No way around it.

"Looks like the whole place has been..." She breathes in, and talks aloud. "But that doesn't make sense? They wouldn't just neglect the collection of divinity..." she says to herself. Carmen looks down, trying to think what they should do. Should they just go look at the only other major landmark? But he thinks going this way might lead to finding something. "Um..." she says. "Um...um..."

Carmen bites her lip, and looks down at the ground.

There's some small crystals that can be found there. In fact, Fade probably noticed that there's been some this whole way, lining the path. It's probably also clear that as the road goes into the black void, the crystals also stop appearing as you get closer.
"Um...if we can collect enough of those," Carmen says, pointing at a crystal as she picks up the biggest one - it's still pretty tiny - "they're crystalized divinity, so if we can get enough or maybe even a big enough one, then we could expand the area we can reach and bring the trail along with us."

What Carmen said possibly only makes sense to her, but she seems to believe that enough of these crystals/a big enough crystal would let them go towards her old 'Home'.


[Swordswoman]

If Venus had human legs, she would be taller than Harley but due to having the lower body of a deer, she's slightly shorter than (and longer than) Harley, which makes her efficacy as hiding someone to be questionable. Then again, she's also blindfolded still and Venus distinctively smells of flowers, so maybe it's actually a really clever and ingenious solution because now Harley can't rely on scent to find him, which effectively puts him in a kind of scent-based shadow.

"I...okay. Follow my heart." Following her heart is as good of advice as she could expect in this sort of situation.
She still has no idea what to do. It's complicated.


Harley turns to face where she hears Rein's voice. "..." she says.
"No, not yet. How serious is it? From what I know, at best, it just adds to your memories and at worst, changes your personality, so..." Venus makes a comment that it seems to have changed a lot more than even the 'at worst' scenario, since it physically changed her. "Well...this is a pretty new thing so it's not really clear what causes what." Was the one they fought just particularly strong and was able to change people even more? After burning it all until there was nothing left, she can't even look at it now to see if that's the case. "So probably the only thing we can do now is find the extent of the damage and monitor the situation." In case it gets worse, or something.

[Zefir]

[Searching for Jo]

Fade has obviously noticed them since his shadow is like his twin. This way Fade has another set of eyes watching around. He goes on his knees, trying to pick up up a gem. His hand reaches futher down like it dives into the ground. He stands up and shows his hand to Carmen. There are a few shards, more then she might have seen on the ground. Fade has collected a few for later examining.

To add. Fade's shadow can become a humanlike beeing or reamin as a shadow. in the shadow form he can acces to a personal plane were things can be stored. The plane is only the size of a small room so he can't store everything.

"What do you mean with 'neglect the collection'? Do you mean these areas belong to someone's collection?" I think that wasn't mentioned unless it's the paladins area.

[Shadowcaller]

Pennilan's Tavern

"Oh, no, no, no." Jaahlyn insists while raising both her palms as if to stop him in his unmoving track. "This, this is like the closest thing I've had to a day off in ages." The satyr gestures at her glass. "I mean, look at this." Jaahlyn takes a sip and quickly swallows it down. "This is me being wild. I'm so out of there right compared to what I usually do that I feel like I could pass out." She laughs. "But don't worry, I won't be doing any of that today. When someone reaches out to me like this I like to experience every second of it. It's not exactly a everyday occurrence y'know?"

[Two Detectives]

"Fair enough, I suppose that's enough of an answer." Ava flips back a couple of pages in her notebook and looks over something she's written. "But moving on, there were a few other questions I wanted to get to regarding your experiences working here. Now, given the diverse nature of Inside, have you encountered any instances of what you might call racism while working? Either aimed towards you or anyone else. Since there's three larger groups which I've identified in my own work that are at risk. Namely, people who must feed on other sapient beings, such as vampires. People associated with 'conceptual evil', such as demons. Finally, people that greatly divert from the physical humanoid norm. Since Inside is mostly inhabited by humanoids, yeah?" Quite the question.

[Deathkeeper]

Pennilan's Tavern

"Well, if you'd like we could make a habit of it. We could meet up on a given day. Having half a day off on a regular basis might extend your service in the long run, but..." But to him he'd rather have a day off once a week and work 1/7th longer than work nonstop for a thousand years.
At the moment the waiter returns with a pair of hot sandwiches.
"Alright, here you are. You folks let me know if you need anything." he says with a smile before heading out again.

[5a Violista]

[Searching for Jo]

Carmen looks at Fade's hand.
"Well...if we stick together and just want to go through, then we need at minimum this much." She holds her hand in a fist. If they go back along the path and pick it up from the ground, they should easily gather that much.

"If we want to be safe and be able to avoid surprise attacks...we'll need this much." She holds both hands out miming a ball the size of her head. Just backtracking along the trail won't give them enough for that..."So we'd probably have to find a cache. The paladin fort definitely should have plenty, and maybe a few other smaller outposts around should have some if we find enough."

She shakes her head and shows the crystal again. "So these crystals are basically...crystalized divinity. Divine energy, y'know. The only thing that can push back" she gestures at the empty wall of void in front of them "that. If we gather enough, it makes it so we can walk through that space."

She feels that the actual question will be best answered visually, so Carmen carefully walks towards the void wall, and crouches down. She sticks the shard as near the wall as she feels safe in doing.

The void wall moves a few centimeters back, revealing more path and plants. "To be safe, people around here keep a collection of these crystals to stop the void from closing in around them. But..."
The crystal shard she set down gets smaller and smaller, and the wall of blackness starts to contract back to where it was originally. She points at the shrinking crystal sliver. "But, like, look. If you don't, like, keep an eye on your stockpile then eventually you run out and get trapped. But if we have at least a fist-sized, we should be fine for plenty of time."

[Shadowcaller]

Pennilan's Tavern

"To teach you more magic perhaps? Even if you can't practice it yourself... actually, especially if you can't practice it yourself." She then turns to the waiter and nods as he comes over. "Thank you, sir."

Turning back to Jim, she smiles. "Well, honestly the reason I'm even working so much is... I have this recollection of not working very much in a past life, or body I should say. I have had this fear of falling back to that I suppose. But in retrospect, I think it was working myself to exhaustion that made me fall into that lifestyle in the first place. There's only so much work you can do before your body and mind just stop working, y'know? I just burned myself out."