Inside 73: Holiday Rush

[Vahnavoi]

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

Sandels looks at Hana. "We're talking of world of spirits, where the metaphorical is made literal. There is no distinction. If you mean to ask, where are the dead nobles now? Well they aren't where they are supposed to be, hence the law: It is forbidden for a Reaper to decide final destination of a soul. If you mean to ask, where is the representative now? They are where they deserve to be." He turns and nods towards Hazel. "When you have chance, ask your wife where she thinks that could be."

((Music: Turmion Kätilöt - Hades))

---

[Red Hook Pier]

The second shot goes through the shop wall and pierces deep into the floor. This is followed by several more exclamations. "Nyarlothotep damn it!", the shopkeeper shouts, ducking behind their shop counter. "Father Dagon save us!", a customer cries as they flee through a window. Batsael's quest log remains insistent on her quarry still being alive.

Meanwhile, Hoshiki bursts back into the valley and breaks into a run. His lips move as he tries to hastily recite a chant as he goes: "Forger of the sky / Creator of clouds / Watcher on the edge of Heaven / Borrow me your axe / Let me hold the hammer / To strike a spark / To sound the thunder..."

[Rebonack]

[Streets: An Angel and Me]

What follows is a comedic cat chase scene.

The cat, being a cat, will run away.

But he'll run away just slow enough that Marianne can keep up but just fast enough that she can't lean down and grab him.

He does this because he is a cat and cats like giving people false hope.

Meanwhile!

The pixie glances over at the receding cat along with the giant moron casing said cat.

"Those bozos were just chasing me to get the glasses but I stuck them on your hideous face so I don't have to look at all of it anymore so who cares? I'll have to find something new to do," the pixie retorts, totally aloof to the immanent demise of the other two pixies that are also this pixie. Then the sad story is told and the pixie starts crying because that's so sad! "Oh those gobnobbing featherbrained halo-lickers! Why would they do that? Only insult chumps when they can't hear them? That's terrible!"

The pixie is having trouble imagining something more sad and more terrible than that.


[Super Throwdown]

With Arthfael busy getting sprayed and hugged Olympia pulls out a grief seed and briefly touches it to the big purple gem on the bow she wears in hear hair, the darkness building in the stone draining away. She heaves a sigh of relief as she feels the weight of emotional doom lift from her shoulders. Ugh... better. Getting down that low sucks.

Once Olympia is content with Arthfael's spraydown she'll crank the bolt in the other direction and shut off the flow of water.

There!

All clean.

Kind of.

Okay not really but still better than before.

"Okay champ, what did you learn today?" Olympia asks, leaning against the hydrant and crossing her arms. She doesn't look as enraged as she did a few minutes ago but she still doesn't look happy.

As for Violeta?

She should be able to find a place to get a shower in the emergency bunker, actually! They're meant to be able to house people for a couple days in case of extended disasters and so they're pretty well stocked with necessities.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Inside General Hospital]

A fresh, regular zombie isn't that gross. It's just a body shambling around going "braaaaaains."
It's worth noting that Kara has never actually seen one of these before, and it has been only gross ones.

This one just happens to be so gross that easy containment is not working.

With a pained yelp, she tosses it away from her as the spikes lurch out of it and quickly takes a second to wipe off any of the remaining liquids she's been splattered with.
There's a small note in the back of her mind to wonder about how she doesn't look hurt, though it definitely didn't feel good...But that's for later.

Now is the time for having frustration-born plans of attack.
"Okay, I really don't have time to pick you apart piece by piece. I'm going to come back to you later."
Which is pretty much immediately followed by her clambering back over to it, to grab it and just try to drag it [somewhere else] outside of the room.

This is where she was planning on coming anyway, so she can stalk along the ventilation system to try to track the source of the dust emissions.
It's also where she's just going to try to strand the zombie for a bit.

>Shalomel: Okay, got it. Less focus on small things, more focus on big things.
>Shalomel: I'll...worry about the dead god part of that later
>Shalomel: Going for the local source

[Rebonack]

[Inside General Hospital]

Fresh zombies require being there right as they're created.

Like, if Kara were a necromancer or hung around with necromancers regular that would probably be a thing she has seen.

But it seems like she isn't too keen on animating the dead.

So!

Kara grabs a zombie and drifts.

She is now hanging out perpendicular to reality.

Holding a zombie.

It is very odd. It gives her this weird impression that she's holding a paper doll rather than a real person. There just isn't much substance to it when she really looks at it like this. As a result of her pulling three dimensional matter into this utterly alien place Karaglen will notice that she has attracted the attention of the [swimmers]. There's wildlife out here? Maybe? Whatever they are, they seem to be regarding Karaglen's cargo curiously.

But that isn't what Kara is focusing on.

What she's focusing on is that magical toxin that's being blown into the hospital rooms through the vents. A small number of rooms have more of those crystal zombies in them trying to get out. Most of the rest of the rooms have people who are responding to the gas like they're having a bad pollen allergy reaction. Not life threatening, but for people who were already really sick...

If Kara follows the source she'll find that it seems to lead down into the basement where the air is filtered. There is some kind of awful amalgam of corpses and crystals clinging to the filtration machine like a bloated tick. That is, likely, where the infection is coming from.

>Arukhael: I'm just about there.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Inside General Hospital]

Just going to sort of...leave the zombie [over there] and try not to think about what that means too much.
Maybe do a little shooing motion at the nosy wildlife(?) while she's at it.

Last thing she needs is to have accidentally caused some sort of four dimensional zombie plague.

Seeing the breadth of the problem is fairly heartbreaking, for Kara. The zombies are people already lost, though temporarily contained, and the sickened are...some possibly soon-to-be lost. She wants to go to them, to each of them, to console and repair them.
But that wouldn't actually be doing them a long-term favor. The dust will just keep pouring out and hurting, the zombies will probably break free and kill others, and the core problem will persist unrelentingly.

>Shalomel: In the basement

She could wait for the help she's called, but every second she waits is another second of that filth being sent out into the hospital.
Maybe Arukhael will arrive as soon as she engages to help. Maybe not until after, when they have to go around cleaning up the zombies and making sure the un-turned don't have respiratory failure.
Either way, she's going to start now.

"Okay, remember, it's just a nasty crystal corpse bug. Not a person. It's not a person."
Fundamentally opposed to Peace.

Step 1: Cut it off from its victims.

Karaglen flings herself into the basement from directly above the filtration system, where she can drag her claws through the outbound piping leading to the hospital's ducts.
If those are sliced open, how can it keep up the pressure to contaminate the rest of the building?

Then she'll land a short distance away from the flesh blob and completely forget what she just reminded herself a second ago.
A transparent finger is pointed towards the gross thing.
"If there's anything intelligent inside of you, this is your only warning to stop what you're doing and give up!"

Dumb.

[Rebonack]

[Inside General Hospital]

A zombie is stowed somewhere else. Kara shoos at the [swimmers], which swirl away like a cloud of coco powder skimming about the surface tension of a glass of hot water. As soon as she withdraws her limb they return. Hopefully they'll leave the animated corpse alone but it's difficult to guess what their intent is. If they even have intent.

Anywho!

More important things.

Karaglen's claws rend through the air ducting, tearing into the sheet metal like so much tissue. Her claws are as keen as obsidian without obsidian nasty issue of being fragile. That's a pretty potent combination of traits. With the pipes ruined, glittering particles of electric blue are now flooding the basement around the machine and the zombie attached to it.

The zombie attached to it is...

Well.

Kara had seen it before.

But before it was almost an abstract sort of thing, viewing it from perpendicular to reality like that.

But now?

Now Kara can see all of its horrific details in all their nauseating glory. These are bodies, their flesh like wax, all amalgamated together. Limbs paw at their air blindly. Eight. There are eight corpses. Most of their features are too deformed to make any sense of. Huge clusters of electric blue crystals pierce through their flesh as tendrils slither through it like the strings on a puppet. Their faces are distended, mouths huge, flesh melted onto the ventilation system so they can blow their toxic dust into the hospital's air system. This horror is scarcely able to move, nothing more than a heap of meat and crystal. One face turns toward Kara, its eye-sockets utterly consumed with crystalline growth.

"We surrender," it wheezes at her.

Wait, what?

>Arukhael: Okay I've arrived. I can see you cut off the source of the toxin I'm going to stabilize the people close to death and then come join you, alright?

[Chaotic Bob]

[Inside General Hospital]

Oh.
Well then.

Kara can't actually tell if this is a good thing or not.
On one hand: surrender means the potential for a non-violent resolution. Yay!
On the other: it could just be lying and, if first impressions are to be believed, probably is.

This creates a sort of tricky situation for a girl who really, really wants to give everyone a fair chance.

Sure, it's hideous beyond all belief, but that's not necessarily it's fault. You shouldn't judge people harshly for not being the common definition of beautiful.
Maybe it isn't even contaminating this place on purpose? Maybe it was just attached here by something else that forced the natural dust byproduct it emanates into the ventilation?

...hm.
She does not step closer, but does lower her claw a bit.
"Can you stop leaking that blue dust everywhere then? Surrendering sort of means not hurting people anymore and your dust is."

>Shalomel: Okay, let me know if anything weird happens.
>Shalomel: It's surrendering but I don't know how much I can trust that.

[Rebonack]

[Inside General Hospital]

The horrid amalgamation continues wheezing, blowing blue dust into the air with each breath. Where the swirling specks touch, they melt onto the walls and floors and Karaglen's scales and begin to burn as tiny crystal growths form. They're thick with alien, malignant magic and they really don't feel nice.

"We can not," wheezes the one face that is apparently capable of talking. "Breathing forth the blessing is our purpose. We can do nothing else."

Oh.

That's really unfortunate.

It sounds like they always blow out that poison dust all the time forever. Just by existing they are a danger to everyone around them.

That's probably bad.

"Our blessing does not touch you. You are an empty vessel, yet you are no spawn of Nyx. Come closer, child," is wheezes, raising an arm that is made of at least five arms toward Kara, each with a little hand at the end of each of the fingers. Sort of like her! Except worse in every imaginable way. "Let us feel you. You are a strange and beautiful thing."

It...

Sounds... nice enough? It wheezes like it's in constant pain. But it doesn't sound evil. Maybe it doesn't know that what it is doing hurts people?

>Arukhael: Surrendering? Did you ask it to do that?
>Arukhael: The big ones are VERY clever but they consider normal life to be an infection.
>Arukhael: The only thing they care about is trying to replace that infection with more of themselves.
>Arukhael: I don't think that blob you found was the only big one down there.
>Arukhael: It's probably stalling for time.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Inside General Hospital]

Unfortunate.
It's clearly terrible just by existing, but it's also pretty polite about it? How is she supposed to ruthlessly incinerate this sort of threat?
She isn't. She can't really ruthlessly do anything.

>Shalomel: Um, yes. I did.
>Shalomel: Maybe it's just broken and doesn't really understand that it's cancer?

Because that's what it is, functionally. A horrible mass spreading its taint to metastasize everywhere it can reach.
But cancer doesn't talk, have etiquette, compliment.

Karaglen gives her wings a sharp snap, to hopefully blow all the dust trying to give her a really nasty rash across the room. This also serves to give her a second to think about its really weird request to "feel her"?
That's probably a bridge too far.
"Ummmm...no....I don't think I feel really comfortable with that."
Stranger danger.

"Look, I'll be honest. Your blessing is kind of hurting a lot of people. You seem nice enough, so if you can't actually stop doing the dust thing, I'll just move you somewhere else.
But I really can't let you keep doing it here."

[Rebonack]

[Inside General Hospital]

"I'm afraid here is the place my blessing is needed the most," the amalgamation wheezes. "This place is full of writhing, purposeless meat. It is full of poisoned life that breeds chaos. The blessing of Aether will bring order to this chaos, and all will be well."

Oh.

Hmm.

It's arguing that regular people are cancer.

"The world is a festering corpse, fashioned from the body of a divinity, its people given life by her blood. The gods who did this were fools. It was a mistake to use the blood of chaos itself in the forging of mortal races. A mistake Aether will correct. You do not have the dead goddess' blood in your veins. You are no spawn of Her Below. We have no reason to be at enmity with one another. Help Aether bring order to the world. It shall be recast into crystalline perfection."

By turning everyone into weird crystal virus zombies that sounds like a terrible plan.

>Arukhael: I really hope you aren't listening to it.
>Arukhael: It's just going to try to justify committing genocide.

[Recaiden]

[Definitely Normal Errands]

"No, it means the opposite of that," Zee insists out. "Which is why it's frustrating."
Regardless!
The reason why she is here.
Probably more important.
"I did actually get banished once before," Zee replies thoughtfully. "It was a real hassle, though. Very disruptive. I took the break to look some important stuff up."
Looking up things is very important.
Also important?
There's a guy over there with a hand cart selling stuffed Norwegian blue parrots. They're very pretty and have lovely plumage but they're all dead.

"I don't think they would call it science if it were the opposite of that, Zee." What would be the point of that?

The devil-girl looks over at the parrot booth but quickly looks away. Birds have been considered and discarded as efficient flying creatures for most scenarios, and she prefers warm colors anyway.

"How does banishing work? Is it just like moving your fractal hologram portion, but in an unusual direction?"

[Rebonack]

[Definitely Normal Errands]

"That's how they get you!" Zee insists. "They lure you in with a false sense of security pretending they're selling above the board technology when REALLY it's just a bunch of completely magical nonsense powered by imagination. It's like... oh! Like super powers! Like does anyone really expect a radioactive spider bite would give someone giant spider powers? The proportional strength thing doesn't even make sense because arthropods are strong because of the square-cube law, not because of having some sort of crazy strength. Bio-mechanics is kind of my whole thing, believe me. Giving someone the musculature of an ant would not give someone a huge strength boost. That stuff is all just magic, powered by imagination, while pretending it makes sense."

As she walks she pauses briefly, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

"Though I guess they kind of retconned things to say all human super powers were because of giant robot alien space god magic that was imbued in humans a long time ago or something that lets super powers happen. That's okay, I suppose, so long as they're admitting that it's all silly and impossible."

Zee takes all of these things very seriously!

Today.

For some reason?

"How did I get banished? Someone was using some kind of banishing spell, I guess? Flubbed my save really bad. That happens sometimes."

Even the strongest people can roll a four.

[bc56]

Red Hook Pier
Aha! There he is. Running for his life like a floofing coward.
Batsael takes aim again. It's time to end this.
She fires, then again, two more darts aimed ahead at where the swordsman is about to be.
With four shots fired, she needs to hunker down and reload, but now Hoshiki can probably see the inhuman shape hunkered on the rooftop, clutching a familiar crystal rifle.

[Ironsmith]

[Streets: An Angel and Me]

"It's a genius disguise," the woman says to the pixie in a very even tone, regarding the sunglasses. "In fact, it's so good I might not even recognize myself."

She looks after the cat and the angel chasing it. "But, of course a dummy stickbug would forgot something important. If they both got eaten, then how are they going to chase you?" Didn't think of that, did you? It's obvious.

"You should hear her story, though. It's so sad, you'll cry." She gestures at the angel. "You see, she's an angel. Which means she's from, everybody pretends to be nice to each other while secretly being mean when you're not around. So it's doubtful she's ever heard an insult her entire life."
She wipes a claw under the sunglasses, as if wiping away a tear. "See? Literally sad."

[Streets: An Angel and Me]

What follows is a comedic cat chase scene.

The cat, being a cat, will run away.

But he'll run away just slow enough that Marianne can keep up but just fast enough that she can't lean down and grab him.

He does this because he is a cat and cats like giving people false hope.

Meanwhile!

The pixie glances over at the receding cat along with the giant moron casing said cat.

"Those bozos were just chasing me to get the glasses but I stuck them on your hideous face so I don't have to look at all of it anymore so who cares? I'll have to find something new to do," the pixie retorts, totally aloof to the immanent demise of the other two pixies that are also this pixie. Then the sad story is told and the pixie starts crying because that's so sad! "Oh those gobnobbing featherbrained halo-lickers! Why would they do that? Only insult chumps when they can't hear them? That's terrible!"

The pixie is having trouble imagining something more sad and more terrible than that.

[Streets: An Angel and Me]

The woman's more right than she knows; if one chooses to define Marianne's life up to this point as being from her second "death" up until now, encapsulating only the time she spent as an angel, no, nobody's ever actually insulted her openly. Sure, the demons prosecuting her in the Pecatorium raised implications, but they didn't really insult her outright. On the other hand, including any of the time before that, she's heard a lot worse, and not in the usual "insult of endearment" sense that she might get from her bandmates.

Neither of which is particularly relevant here, but might be a source of amusement for the woman if she knew about it.

For now, Marianne's concerning herself with chasing the cat, choosing to work the odds in her favor by spreading her wings again, this time for their more obvious physical purpose. By flying low to the ground, she'd ensure she wouldn't have to stop to scoop up the cat, and she can travel a lot faster by means of flight than she could on her feet. With that advantage, she hopes to end the chase quickly before the cat hides under something inconvenient and eats the two pixies she accidentally endangered.

[Super Throwdown]

Immediately upon receiving the dress, Violeta Escarlate gives the teen vampire a hug with a "Thank you thank you thank you!" even while he's sputtering and soaking.

Even though the dress is wet, she runs(ish, sort of a run) back to the shelter, just to check in and ask if it's safe to leave. She doesn't really have any intention on sticking in the shelter for an hour while everything geta checked, though, so. Luckily the limp person was already brought there, so Violeta instead leaves before they can force her into the shelter.
Looking for...a gym, to beg to get in to and borrow a shower or something.

[Super Throwdown]

With Arthfael busy getting sprayed and hugged Olympia pulls out a grief seed and briefly touches it to the big purple gem on the bow she wears in hear hair, the darkness building in the stone draining away. She heaves a sigh of relief as she feels the weight of emotional doom lift from her shoulders. Ugh... better. Getting down that low sucks.

Once Olympia is content with Arthfael's spraydown she'll crank the bolt in the other direction and shut off the flow of water.

There!

All clean.

Kind of.

Okay not really but still better than before.

"Okay champ, what did you learn today?" Olympia asks, leaning against the hydrant and crossing her arms. She doesn't look as enraged as she did a few minutes ago but she still doesn't look happy.

As for Violeta?

She should be able to find a place to get a shower in the emergency bunker, actually! They're meant to be able to house people for a couple days in case of extended disasters and so they're pretty well stocked with necessities.

[Super Throwdown]

Arthfael reddens as the bride-to-be thanks him rather vigorously, the gentle afterglow of praise for a job well done quickly interrupted with another spray of pressurized water. When Olympia finally turns the water off, she's going to find herself facing a furious snarl, the kind that implies Arthfael might want to take another bite out of her from sheer spite.

"What did I learn?" He demands. "You mean other than a few dozen tastes I'd rather f... f..."

And just like that, all of that bravado is gone as he collapses to the ground, arms wrapped around his stomach, biting his lips in an all-but-futile attempt to avoid crying out in pain. The situation's over and now he can finally fully process just how badly he wrecked his body pulling that last stupid stunt.

Which is to say, he's done a number on his insides. Though it might take Olympia a moment to figure out how and why.

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

Sandels looks at Hana. "We're talking of world of spirits, where the metaphorical is made literal. There is no distinction. If you mean to ask, where are the dead nobles now? Well they aren't where they are supposed to be, hence the law: It is forbidden for a Reaper to decide final destination of a soul. If you mean to ask, where is the representative now? They are where they deserve to be." He turns and nods towards Hazel. "When you have chance, ask your wife where she thinks that could be."

((Music: Turmion Kätilöt - Hades))

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

"...Contextually, I'm going to say you mean something like..."

"Yeah, he means actual literal hell." Hazel confirms.

"...Not fun." Hana mumbles. "Then... what's that mean for us, then? Some kind of peacekeeping initiative set up by Old Earth? The same Old Earth that doesn't really want us there in the first place?"

"To be faih, he did say it wouldn't really wohk foh us."

[Vahnavoi]

[Red Hook Pier]

In one world, Hoshiki keeps running forward at a steady pace and gets shot in the head and shoulder. In this world, Hoshiki sees that possibility and reverses direction just as Batsael is squeezing the trigger.

For him, time seems to slow down. He can see the first bullet fly past his head, just a hand's with away. The second comes in its wake, piercing his right sleeve and clipping his shoulder.

Normal time resumes. The swordsman crashes against the alley wall and falls on one knee. His head whips around, looking for the shooter. Meanwhile, Batsael might notice it has gotten darker than it was a moment ago. The fog above and around her seems to have condensed into a dark, low-hanging cloud. Hoshiki points at the spot where he caught a glimpse of her and shouts: "Path of Destruction: Pale Lightning!" A blinding flash illuminates the streets, followed by a sound like a shot from artillery. Anyone unlucky to look directly has the after-image of a lightning bolt burned in their eyes, a jagged line striking from the clouds towards Hoshiki's pointed finger, going through the building Batsael was on. Part of the building is now in pieces due to being struck by lightning. He hopes the sniper is too.

---

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

"Well it depends. Who in your world has the power to do what's necessary? Who of your lot can go to serve as your representative on Old Earth, or would it have to be the other way around?"

"The real reason I say our solution might not work for you, is... well, it's all about balance. Think about a children's game. The kind where two teams play tag. If Team A catches someone of Team B, the caught player switches to Team A, and vice versa. The game ends when everyone is on the same team. What, then, decides which team everyone is on at the end? Does it matter, if you just want to win?"

[Deathkeeper]

Fashion Diva

"Well it's true that I can't wear one outfit every day..." Unless you're an RPG character!
"So sure, we can see another few places. But please let me pay for my own things from now on." Mina insists.

[Ironsmith]

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

"Well it depends. Who in your world has the power to do what's necessary? Who of your lot can go to serve as your representative on Old Earth, or would it have to be the other way around?"

"The real reason I say our solution might not work for you, is... well, it's all about balance. Think about a children's game. The kind where two teams play tag. If Team A catches someone of Team B, the caught player switches to Team A, and vice versa. The game ends when everyone is on the same team. What, then, decides which team everyone is on at the end? Does it matter, if you just want to win?"

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

"I mean, if you go by that logic, it's not really in question who's going to win. We've got them outnumbered five to one." Hana points out. "Granted, they have an edge because they brought in a third team that's nearly as big as we are and way more pissed at us than them, but that's another matter entirely." She sighs and shakes her head. "Honestly, I don't think they do 'just want to win'. If that were the case, they would have cooperated with us right out of the gate. There's something about Old Earth that they think they should preserve, which is more valuable to them than their own lives."

Hana scowls and shakes her head. "What that might be, I can't imagine. It's a backwards place. The progress we've made technologically in the five hundred year lead we have on them already makes them seem pretty pathetic by comparison. They were still struggling with cancer when our worlds first met. Their climate was all out of control. Supply lines limited and certain areas were ridiculously impoverished. Why they would want to keep the world like that is beyond me. Personally, I just think they're idiots." She sighs. "But, ten billion idiots is still a force to be reckoned with, I guess."

Fashion Diva

"Well it's true that I can't wear one outfit every day..." Unless you're an RPG character!
"So sure, we can see another few places. But please let me pay for my own things from now on." Mina insists.

[Fashion Diva]

"Done." Marianne grins and leads Mina out of the store, vaguely musing at a few other potential outlets on the same street.

Maybe someplace that sells bikinis?

Hm.

[bc56]

Red Hook Pier


"Floof!" CRACK-A-THOOM!

Something jumps off the roof at the last second and rolls when it hits the ground. It's not even nearly human shaped.
It's something like a great serpent, sinuous and cunning, like an earwig, furtive and crawling, like an eye, watching and waiting, and like a closed book, keeping knowledge trapped within. It slithers and skitters, keeping it's distance and aiming with the rifle clutched between its insectoid limbs.

Batsael. The Mighty Take.
Here for her revenge.

[Morty]

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

It's at this point that Michalson comes back, his steps strained after walking for longer than he usually prefers to.

"I've arranged a visitation with... whoever it is who's wearin' your wife's body. We can all go there. And if this doesn't work, it's my ass on the line. So, you know. No pressure."

[Vahnavoi]

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

Sandels lets out a mirthless laughter at Hana's words. It takes a while for him to collect himself. "Adding third team to the equation doesn't change the fundamental questions", he says. "Let me try to put this all together. One reason why the game might not just speed towards the end when one team gets the upper hand, is because kids remember their initial teams. If you look at the allegory through lens of the game, the issue is that some captured members of team A - the representative, the refugees who hide their children - refuse to play by the rules and keep playing for team A despite now being on team B. If captured members of Team B keep playing by the rules, this means Team A gains an unfair advantage. One counter would be for captured members of Team B to keep playing for Team B as well. But this prevents either side from gaining an advantage and the game never ends."

He shrugs. "I suppose what I'm saying is that simply being on the winning team is not enough for some people, because if you play by the rules, everybody will be on the winning team. They see some inherent value to their initial position, their original team identity, and thus the real game becomes about preserving that. It's all very childish and silly, but is there a reason to oppose it, other than you having started in the other team yourself?"

He fixes Hana a piercing glare. "I mean, in the story, there is. Because the pay-offs for Team A winning and Team B winning are not, in truth, identical. But I hope by now you realize Team B's thing was never fixing all the wrongs on Earth."

Michalson will likely be feeling he missed something upon hearing this. After finishing his rant, Sandels straightens up and hobbles after the detective. "Sure. Let's do this."

---

[Red Hook Pier]

Hoshiki does not recognize the snake-insect-thing as the girl he competed against in the game of ascension. But he does recognize her as one of the angels, even if her outer shape is nothing like the puttis. One more spiritless projection of some unseen truth on the canvas of reality.

"I don't know what your deal is!", he shouts, clutching his injured shoulder, "but is there any way we can solve this without continuing to kill each other?" He is not expecting a positive answer - and if Batsael is observant, she can see his injured arm is not that injured, because the hand attached to it is reaching for hilt of his swords, ready to draw.

[Morty]

[Prime Target- Smoggy Church]

Just like Calm Reed predicted, not much of an effect. So let's try something else. The monk takes a step back and strikes again, this time with a powerful two-fisted hammer-blow followed by a knee-slam. Earth Essence pulses through her limbs as she does so, trying to root Syncope in place, forcing her to assume a material form and preventing her from disappearing or teleporting away.

[bc56]

Red Hook Pier
"I'm just here to keep my promise," The creature replies sweetly, drawing forth a pistol from nowhere and returning her rifle to the same place. "Hold still. I'll make it quick." She takes aim.

[5a Violista]

[Streets: An Angel and Me]

The woman adjusts the sunglasses.

"It just makes me cry. So much. When I think about it," says the woman who is not crying. Evidently, she's not thinking about it.
Either that, or maybe she doesn't have tear ducts.
That's a possibility too.

"Hopefully by the end of the day, I can help at least one birdbrain realize how awful it is."

Or something.


[...Throwdown]not Super anymore because she left the two heroes alone

Sadly,
as someone who is neither from Inside nor who has ever been here before,
Violeta Escarlate isn't aware that emergency bunkers have a shower in it. Maybe if she had entered it first, then she would've found out. Or maybe if she had thought about it, but there's far too much on her mind to stop and think.

But it's okay.

After just a little bit of humiliation, she's able to get inside a gym.
Honestly, she's really amazed that the dress is actually not destroyed and not awful-smelling and not irreparably unclean.
Plus! Once that's taken care of, she also manages to find someone with a first aid kit, which is pretty helpful. Painkillers, bandages, antiseptics...basically everything she needs.

Violeta leaves the gym and, with her hair still wet, starts running off again. There's still time. If she alters her hair plan and goes with an easy hairstyle, and skimps out on the make-up, there's still time. Her fiancé won't mind.

[Lord Magtok]

A Prime Target - Getaway Hideaway

Spoiler

Show

[Getaway Hideaway]

Free stuff, obviously!

Phoebe doesn't seem to be questioning it. She's busy at work trying to acoustically manipulate the supplied motor(s) and her own body, in order to facilitate the replacement of her damaged servos. At least until she gets one of her arms up to operational specs, at which point she switches over to doing the job manually and can spare enough brainpower to join back in on the conversation.

"Isn't it obvious, Mister Prime? She's helping us because she likes us!" The gynoid chirps. "We're helping to create a world that's ultimately better off, aren't we? With you in charge, we'll be able to get rid of all those mouth-breathers, and that can't be anything but a good thing, can it? Why wouldn't she help us?"

[A Prime Target - Getaway Hideaway]

These two offer a really rather delightful dichotomy.
Wildly trusting and cheerful.
Incredibly paranoid and hateful.

The less substantial Syncope smiles more widely.
"Your new friend isn't wrong, I do like you. What you present.
I know you're terribly suspicious of any hand that reaches out to you with no clear gain to speak of, so allow me to quite blunt.

Watching you crash and burn under a pile of heroes, over and over, is boring.
Life is a tale writ upon the pages of time. I would help you make a good one, for my own...reading pleasure. There is great potential within you, you know that. I want to make sure it actually sees the light of day and doesn't simply gutter out into a dull heap, to land in the bargain bin of history."

It sounds a lot like she's just bored and expects you to amuse her, Prime. Though, in a way that seems to involve giving you support?

"Aren't you a tad young to be personifying divine providence, Syncope? Regardless, it sounds like you've settled into your role and I've chosen mine," Prime shrugs, idly spinning a tiny mote of black hellfire between the fingers on his right hand. Best not to get too chummy with Feia's spawn or get drawn into long-winded discussions with her. She'll be offering hints, advice, and gentle nudges to the heroes soon enough, once Prime's plans start escalating and his forces start seizing ground. Anything we reveal now is material she can indirectly use against us later, all in service to her great story.

"Do you need anything else, Phoebe? We may not be coming back here after I leave," he answers, remaining ambiguous as to when that will be. When they've established a base of operations with the Systerhood? When the dragon's scion ceases to see any narrative value in keeping him here? When the gnome pushes him out of portal?

[Artemis97]

[Mechant duFromage]

"By all means." Fromage gives the allomancer a friendly smile and waves her toward the counter. "Come on, then. Let's see what matter of valuable trinket, bit, bob, odd, or end you've procured for me on this fine evening."

"...How's that now, boss?" One of the band members interjects.

"I want to see what she's selling." Fromage explains condescendingly.

"Right."

[Mechant duFromage]

"Trinket, I'd say." She says pulling the necklace from inside her cloak. She lays it out on the counter, so that the strange hands its made up of catch the light.

[Vahnavoi]

[Red Hook Pier]

Blade versus pistol. Which one wins? Well humans have all kinds of studies of such match-ups. In the time it takes to draw and fire the gun, the assailant with the blade may dash forward several meters. Even if the gunshot hit them, their sheer momentum may carry them forward another meter or two. So the gunman ought to be fair distance away, to be safe.

So how does this change when applied to the non- or super human?

Well, Batsael might be a faster draw than any human. Hoshiki's does not know for sure, his precognition does not give him exact measures. That would shrink the minimum safe distance. But Hoshiki is faster than any normal human, which of course expands it. He is in the alleyway, she is across the street, near the foot of the building that got thunderstruck. Estimated distance between 15 and 20 meters.

Is that enough? Batsael will find out the hard way as the swordsman dashes forward, moving low to the ground, drawing his shorter sword to ram it in her stomach - well, stomach-height area.

[Rebonack]

[Super Throwdown]

It sounds like Violeta has managed to escape from another form of weird assaulting her on the way to her wedding.

Hopefully nothing else terrible happens on the way there.

Like the groom and all the guests getting turned into talking furniture because a completely unrelated prince somewhere was a jerk to a witch.

Anyway!

Back to Olympia and Arthfael.

Did he...

Eat a bunch of stuff down in that hole?

Ugh.

If that's what happened then that's super gross. Honestly it makes the Magical Girl gag a bit more than the thought of her own flesh being eaten. She's had monsters take chunks out of her before. She doesn't really feel pain as anything more than than a muted 'oh I got damaged' and her magic just erases the harm. No big deal, right? But the thought of someone eating sewer stuff is just. Ugh. Gag inducing.

She'll wait there until Arthfael is done and she's sure nothing else weird is going to pop up.

Also because she isn't done chewing him out yet.


[Streets: An Angel and Me]

And now flight is happening!

The sudden WHUMP! of wings startles the feline and make him run EVEN FASTER! ugh, why do cats have to be so fast when they want to be?

Charging away, the animal pauses and turns back briefly, the pair of maimed pixies in his mouth, his tail flipping back and forth irritably.

There's only one chance to grab him.

If Marianne misses it the cat is going to leap across a little canal nearby and into an almost exactly cat-sized hole in the wall to vanish into. If she doesn't catch him before then? The cat and the pixies will be out of her reach.

Meanwhile!

"Well I hope you can teach that feather-brained doof-lord how to insult people to their face like a regular person," the pixie says, flying up a little higher into the air. "The lardmasters are doing one of their market things today so I'm going to go drop prickle pods on them! Bye!"

And then the pixie goes zipping away it be a tiny jerk while laughing at people.

[bc56]

Red Hook Pier
Batsael is a much quicker draw than a human, but not quick enough.
But she has another defense against the charge. She swings her sinuous tail around, the pincers at its end snapping at Hoshiki and attempting to hold him back before he can reach her with his blade.

[Vahnavoi]

[Red Hook Pier]

Hoshiki's blade is stopped just barely before it impales her. He isn't sure if he's dealing with a limb or prehensile tail, but doesn't let that stop him. He pushes his weight on Batsael and reaches at the pistol with his free hand, first to direct the barrel away so he won't be shot, second to snatch the weapon away from her while she's still focused on his blade.

[bc56]

Red Hook Pier
Batsael yanks the pistol away from Hoshiki's grasp. "It's mine, get your own! But don't, because you'll be dead!" Real menacing there.
While she's got him grabbed, she might as well finish him off though. She opens her mouth wide. A blinding glow shines from the back of her throat along with an ominous low-pitched hum...