Inside 73: Holiday Rush

[Vahnavoi]

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

Oh, so real Hazel kidnapped seven people? Nice to know. "Can't say if it's any of them. Not much I can do to figure it out. Maybe that detective will have better luck."

[Morty]

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

"Hmm. Then getting a cold in the first place might be significant. How did you become a fox yourself?"

Sizewell, meanwhile, looks down at Siana.

"I Could Ask About Your Food, If You Would Like. It Might Be A While Since Anyone But Me Can Go Anywhere."

[bc56]

Fox Pox Outbreak
"It's a long story. I got eaten by one fox spirit which caused me to be like it, but then a priest tore me apart so I would stop wanting to eat people which made me into a different type of fox spirit, and then the two parts of me merged together so now I'm a different type of fox spirit... Or something like one, anyway." The way Jade explains it, she doesn't really know how it worked.

[Ironsmith]

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

"Whoever it is... it sounds like they're going to be able to get this to stick." Jackie says worriedly. "...I... I don't like the sound of that. If you need me to do anything that might help prove your innocence, let me know. It's the least I can do."

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

"Please do." Siana says as politely as she can muster, chewing on her lip as if it would help abate her hunger. "And... hurry, please."

[UncleWolf]

Flying Palace

Jace at least takes care to to remove his shoes, cloak, shirt, and pants before he approaches any pools. He primly folds them, even though Veronica should know he's abysmal at folding clothes and keeping them from getting wrinkled. His boxers will have to serve as bathing trunks today, easing himself in. He gazes fondly at Veronica and her glowing feathers.
"Have I gotten a chance to tell you how lovely your feathers are when they do that?" he asks, gently pulling at the nearest few.

Jace looks up, gazing around at the grand room around them and its scattered pools.
"It seems this place has more wonders to show us yet." he says, almost nostalgically.

Flying Palace

Veronica might be good at folding clothes, but she knew a lost cause when she saw one. "Maaaaaaybe." She says, grinning up at him from the water and letting her eyes wander over happily. "But I love hearing it more anyway. Any gal would." She points out as he tugs at the feathers. She giggles a bit when she thinks on it a bit more and nudges at him with an elbow. "But please, say more and help me preen my ego more like it isn't already large enough. And lest you forget, you yourself aren't a slouch, you know. My handsome man, you." While Veronica might tolerate his poor laundry skills, one of the local Tonberries doesn't seem to be able to after it arrives with a small lantern. The lantern is set down only for the Tonberry to turn in place and go about neatly folding his clothing, even folding his pants along the pleats should they have them.

The harpy sits up in the water, a bit awkward given all the feathers and limbs, but eventually she rights herself and sidles right up next to Jace so she can put her head on his shoulder. "I think there's more here too, probably more than we could explore in a lifetime, but I would rather stick with the wonder right next to me instead I think."

[Vahnavoi]

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

Ooh, what a convenient offer. Too bad "Hazel" can't think of any way to take advantage of it in the moment. "Sure. I'll let you know."

[Deathkeeper]

Flying Palace

Jace grins back and answers Veronica's request by facing a bit to the side as if addressing a crowd.
"Her elegance and charm are worthy of praise (and I heard she used to throw for the Inside Days)
She works two hundred sixty-eight hours a week and I've yet to meet her match,
A marvel of modern magics, she's a natural-born pioneer,
I can't make up my mind: should I put her on display or hide her?

I'm gonna be her prize fighter, though I know she's out of my league (gonna be her prize fighter, my uniform has been decreed)"
Jace leans into the water beside Veronica. His eyes close but then he slowly opens one to give her a sidelong glance as he floats.
"That enough for your ego today?" he asks wryly.
"You should be glad bonding to this place didn't quite make you a Locus. Then you'd know every square inch of the place and it would ruin the mystery."
He sits up, looking up at the glittering ceiling.
"Should I go get myself a dungeon too? You call me a wonder but I'm having trouble competing here." he says with a wink.

[Morty]

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

Dorota's look of abject confusion is thankfully obscured by her helmet.

"Hmm. Well. There is apparently precedent for turning people into more fox spirits. Maybe this cold is an expression of this ability, but in a different way? And only partially so. That doesn't really tell us how to stop it, though."

Sizewell leaves, heading towards the quarantined cafe staff and inquiring about Siana's meal. He's polite, but very persistent and won't stop until he's acquired something.

[bc56]

Fox Pox Outbreak
"There is, but I didn't know it could happen after all that." Jade contemplates. "There must be some way to negate the magic or counter it somehow. If it comes from me, I must be able to stop it somehow?"

[Ironsmith]

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

Ooh, what a convenient offer. Too bad "Hazel" can't think of any way to take advantage of it in the moment. "Sure. I'll let you know."

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

Jackie smiles and goes to offer "Hazel" a comforting pat on the shoulder, only for one of her guards to give a warning in the form of a high-pitched whine from his taser as the charge escalates, dissuading her. "Well, I should, um... I should get going." Jackie stands. "Best of luck. I mean it."

And with that, unless "Hazel" does something to stop her, she's gone.

Which just leaves the question of "what now?".

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

Dorota's look of abject confusion is thankfully obscured by her helmet.

"Hmm. Well. There is apparently precedent for turning people into more fox spirits. Maybe this cold is an expression of this ability, but in a different way? And only partially so. That doesn't really tell us how to stop it, though."

Sizewell leaves, heading towards the quarantined cafe staff and inquiring about Siana's meal. He's polite, but very persistent and won't stop until he's acquired something.

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

After being ping-ponged around various infected servers, Sizewell will eventually come face-to-face with the one that took Siana and Jade's order, and immediately encounters another class of problem:

"The girl didn't order any of the food on our menu!" The server manages to say, through his newly-grown muzzle. "Freakiest thing. She just said, and this is what I have written down here, 'something that's still alive'. She defaulted to 'bugs', like we can just hop back in the kitchen and grab her a few. Yeah, I'm thinking no. This is a respectable establishment. We keep our kitchens clean and vermin-free." The server gives an aggravated sigh. "If you want to try to find her something matching that description, be my guest. But I don't think I can help you."

[5a Violista]

[Abandoned Hospital]

Carmen really wishes she could get that power saw working, because then she could permanently disable this robot instead of just temporarily.

She gets hit in the shoulder by its wild strike, which definitely hurts, but. . .at least she's still alive. Get out of here, get patched up, and she'll be good as new.

Carmen looks over the disabled robot, looking for if there's an obvious way to disable it further, like an off switch or a weak joint, but doesn't look too long because getting out of here is the biggest priority.

So, she heads down the direction that the robot came from.


[Silent Night]

Since Yuvan clearly doesn't want his – probably cursed – coins back, June sets it back down on the ground.
A little black inky smudgy stripe remains on it.

June points at one of the pixies, who flies closer and lands on June's head. "She counts as a full person but none of the others count so," she says in a totally serious tone, "so it's closer to a sixty percent increase, I guess."

June looks at the magic flame. She holds her hands out to warm them up by it.
"Oh, so you can do magic, too? I've met —" she says, before getting totally interrupted by a pixie lying on her shoulder (lying on her stomach, with her head in her hands with her elbows on the 'ground'), who says, "I can do magic too! I rode a dragon once and I can tell things to go fwooosh! and then they go fwooosh!"

June laughs, shakes her head, and then pulls back the conversation to what Yuvan asked. "Just been here a couple months."

[Rebonack]

[Midnight Park]

The equestrian glances up from her work, ears folding back in embarrassment. She had been so absorbed in her simple task that she hadn't even noticed the-

Oh.

That's why she didn't hear any footsteps.

Because the person talking to her hasn't got any feet.

That explains it, doesn't it?

"The Princess? I don't think the Princess is at Hometree today," the equestrian replies, her tone apologetic. "I heard she's visiting the ponies on the front down in the Gloom. It's important to keep moral up, after all."

Thankfully equestrians are well equipped for keeping moral up.

"When the Princess is out her senechal, Myrrh Balm, takes all the missives and requests for her."

Sorry Artie.

It sounds like you're going to get to talk to the Princess' secretary instead.


[Skyway Zoo]

Khannie hasn't really spent much time up here.

In retrospect, she really wishes she had spent more time up here.

If only because this whole part of the city is hecking cool.

Flying cars and moving walkways and crazy Jetsons buildings? What's not to love? Everything is so shiny and fast and future-y. Khannie is mostly into the optimistic feel of things, as opposed to the downtrodden and oppressive feeling of Burnt Chrome Street. She's pretty sure it's always raining there. Or at least it was always raining there back when she was punching bad guys more regularly. She'll give it that; definitely more bad guys.

But Khannie isn't looking for bad guys today.

She's looking at goofy alien animals. Also goofy not-alien animals. Also goofy animals that should otherwise be extinct.

Like this crazy thing.

It looks like a great big lizard with a bird beak.

Not even a dinosaur-y looking lizard. Just a lizard lizard. With a beak.

"Tereterpeton... from the Triassic period," Khannie says aloud, reading the little informational placard on the animal's enclosure. "So you're a real Earth animal? You look weird."

The lizard, being a lizard, does not respond to Khannie.

"I'm hungry!" Maridia announces from Khannie's shoulder.

"You're always hungry," the thirteen year old definitely normal and not at all weird human girl replies to her familiar. "But I guess we can get a churro at one of the food carts. You don't get to eat the whole thing, though."

That said? Khannie begins moving in a foodward direction, enjoying the sights of strange and exotic beasts along the way.

[Vahnavoi]

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

Indeed, what now? In the short term, "Hazel" can do little else than go with the flow, returning to routine of the prison while she waits for detective Michalson to make his move. Possible wild cards being sudden return of Hazel's spirit, or whatever rumours Jackie might unwittingly spread as a result of their short conversation. In the meantime, "Hazel" notes in her mind every mundane object the guards allow her to use or have in her cell. She has ideas for acquiring that vessel, but it will be hard to do without raising suspicions.

[Deathkeeper]

Midnight Park

Hm. Well, that might make the bonds' request of the "monster" that threatened them harder to deliver in the tone Artie wants, but she can write the Princess a letter if that really is who she's looking for.
"A seneschal is fine. I'm merely looking for a mutual acquaintance. Horns, goat-hooves? I think she may be friends with the Princess."
This is a very indirect means of investigation but Artie doesn't really have much to go on.

[Morty]

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

"Yes, we need to analyse your powers and see if we can find why they're doing it. And how to stop it. The most likely hypothesis at this stage is that they're going haywire for some reason. Can you try to sneeze into a testing tube I prepare? I want to see what the immediate effect is." Dorota begins to pour some blue, steaming liquid into a tube.

Sizewell, meanwhile, finds himself in an awkward position. Siana was never going to receive any food, even if things hadn't gone poorly? Not good. He does, however, hatch a plan. He steps outside the restaurant while Dorota is busy talking to Jade. He waits for some pigeons to sit on his shoulder and snatches them into a medical bag. With it, he returns to Siana.

"The Restaurant Is Unable To Serve Your Order. But I Have Captured Some Pigeons," he rumbles.

[bc56]

Fox Pox Outbreak
"One minute." Jade waits until she needs to again, then obliges to sneeze into the tube. "How's... Achoo!.. That?"

[Ironsmith]

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

Siana takes one of the pigeons in her hands, giving the little bird a sad smile. It's so cuuuute! With its beady little eyes and vacant stare and pleasant trilling coos and... aw. Siana feels kind of bad for it, honestly.

But, eh, circle of life.

If Sizewell has any preconceptions about how vampires feed, with clean, pretty little bite marks through which they somehow manage to siphon blood, he's going to quickly find out Siana isn't that sort of vampire.

What follows next is a lightning-fast chomp as the pigeon is shoved head-first into Siana's mouth, her needle-like teeth digging into the bird's flesh. Panicked, desperate trilling can be heard from inside Siana's throat, which has a noticeable bulge in it, as her esophagus is just a little too small to accomodate the pigeon's skull.

It takes several minutes for her to swallow the terrified bird, her teeth raking across it in the process, resulting in a spindle of gore and feathers dangling from the strigoi's chin, which she daintily wipes away with a napkin.

"...What?" Siana looks at the surrounding gawkers defensively. "Is it that weird?"

[Glass Lake Penitentiary]

Hazel didn't really keep much in her cell. She doesn't seem to be the type to care much about worldly goods; it's essentially as empty as it was when she came in, with two exceptions. First, "Hazel" will find a dirty magazine under the pillow, which seems to draw an implicit connection between the ability to draw in and graphically bed attractive women, and the ownership/good maintenance of a beefy motorcycle. One of the guards goes to confiscate this item, only to have his hand slapped away by the other. It's risqué, but not quite contraband and "Hazel" can keep it if she behaves herself.

The other thing she'll find is a folded-over piece of notebook paper and a pen, with the words "[Poop] List" scrawled across the top and a number of names, most of them crossed out and a few repeated, written beneath it. The guards will permit this as well; Hazel's idea of getting revenge on someone in this prison generally amounted to putting sand in their trousers; irritating, but harmless and ultimately unactionable. Between that and having a shiving epidemic, the warden seemed to prefer the former.

[Morty]

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

"This should be enough. The fluid simulates a living body. Now I can hopefully take a closer look at what's happening when your fluids enter it."

She puts the tube under what looks like a brass microscope, trying to analyse it for just that. What is the exact process taking place?

Sizewell looks down at Siana. He doesn't look scared or apprehensive... because his face can't make any expressions. The eyes glow as they always do.

"Most People Find Animals Being Eaten Alive Off-Putting," he explains helpfully. "It May Have Been Better To Step Aside For Your Meal."

[Ironsmith]

[Silent Night]

Since Yuvan clearly doesn't want his – probably cursed – coins back, June sets it back down on the ground.
A little black inky smudgy stripe remains on it.

June points at one of the pixies, who flies closer and lands on June's head. "She counts as a full person but none of the others count so," she says in a totally serious tone, "so it's closer to a sixty percent increase, I guess."

June looks at the magic flame. She holds her hands out to warm them up by it.
"Oh, so you can do magic, too? I've met —" she says, before getting totally interrupted by a pixie lying on her shoulder (lying on her stomach, with her head in her hands with her elbows on the 'ground'), who says, "I can do magic too! I rode a dragon once and I can tell things to go fwooosh! and then they go fwooosh!"

June laughs, shakes her head, and then pulls back the conversation to what Yuvan asked. "Just been here a couple months."

[Silent Night]

Fifty, Yuvan internally corrects. If they had two before and he makes three, he'd be a fifty percent increase. Math must not be this waif's strong point. Which would hardly be surprising; her current circumstances suggested chronic poverty, of the sort he would assume goes back to early childhood, which would preclude having much of an education.

Not that he was judging her for it.

Much.

Yuvan reaches into his inventory and produces a hunk of firewood, tossing it into the flames to sustain them when his spell expires. "I see. What do you think of the city so far?" He asks, producing a well-crafted guitar by similar means, strumming at its strings idly.

[Deathkeeper]

Skyway Zoo

On the way to the snacks Khannie might bump into someone. Namely a very tall minotauress with a build that says “regularly wrestles big demons.” Of course she might not because it’s actually really hard to miss someone like that. Mina is trying her best to look casual in street clothes but it’s hard when you’re really big and a very noticeable yellowish cream color.
Her mom told her that her fortune today was “seek childhood delights.” That’s why she went to the old zoo. She used to come here as a child. Now she could probably pin a third of the scary beasties with one beefy arm.
She also made a miscalculation by also going to the snack bar. She’s currently learning the perils of trying to eat sticky popcorn when you have big furry minotaur mitts for hands. The poor minotaur is trying her best to quietly find a bathroom to wash her hands off.

[Rebonack]

[Midnight Park]

The arion looks thoughtful as she considers that question.

"Well... I don't work in the palace. But one of my friends does. And he said that someone new joined the court recently. Someone who isn't an equestrian. And that doesn't happen very often."

Not never.

Just not very often.

"A faun, I think? I'm not sure if that's the right word. A human-shaped person with goat feet. Are you her friend, too?"

Look at that.

Look at those kind, guileless, sparkly pony eyes.

Clearly this pony just wants everyone to be friends.


[Skyway Zoo]

Khannie most certainly does not run into the giant cow person because physically running into other people is for klutzes and Khannie's spatial awareness is just too amazing to stumble into that sort of trope. Sure the Nexus might be pushing people toward meeting each other like that but Khannie is having exactly none of it. She nimbly steps around the huge cow lady busy trying to get caramel corn out of her fur with a polite, "Excuse me, miss," before heading for the food cart.

"On churro, please," she requests of the operator.

"And ice cream! The little dot ones!" the orange fairy dragon perched on her shoulder adds.

Khannie gives the dragon a look.

"What? No. We're just getting a churro. You don't need ice cream too. You eat so many sweets I dunno how you even manage to fly you should be a giant chonk," Khannie retorts, shooting down her familiar's clever plan.

"I'm not a chonk! I'm a dragon!" Maridia, ever the clever one, retorts.

"We're just getting the churro, nothing else, here's the money, mister," Khannie says, exchanging COIN for GOODS AND SERVICES. The service, in this case, is handing the goods to her. She breaks off the end of the pastry and hands it to Maridia, who begins snacking on it noisily. Khannie starts munching away at her own treat while eyeing a nearby sign. Finally she concludes, "I think we should go see some of the space animals next."

[bc56]

Fox Pox Outbreak
"What are you looking for?" The blue liquid will quickly begin to turn orange. The actual genetics of the "body" aren't being altered, just the way they manifest. It's a very simple body-altering magic.

[Ironsmith]

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

"...Oh." Siana straightens. "I... I see." She reddens slightly and wipes away what's left of the pigeon from her lips, staining the napkin with bird blood. "Well, um... you know what they say about hindsight." She gives a nervous giggle at the onlookers. "Not to worry; I'm full now. You won't have to see that again."

Technically not true. Siana is never full. But she's not hungry enough to pose a threat to the other patrons, so there's that.

"You can, uh, let the others go, Sizewell." Siana says, motioning to the remaining pigeons.

[Morty]

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

"I'm trying to find out just what happens when you pass the illness onto someone. It seems like it's a very simple body-alteration magic. So it might be easy to reverse. I have the basis for a basic potion that undoes such transinformation. I could alter it to work with this. Then the challenge would be to stop you form spreading it."

Sizewell lumbers over to the window and releases the other pigeons, who fly away with what might be relief. Hard to tell with pigeons.

"That Is One Problem Solved, At Least," he admits as he returns. "My Creator Is Working On The Other One."

[Deathkeeper]

Midnight Park

Artie nods with a smile.
”That is almost certainly who I’m looking for. I should go seek her immediately. We’ve only met once before but I certainly hope we’re at least almost friends. You have been a wonderful help.”
If the gardener doesn’t have more to add Artie will head further in to investigate this court and its Princess’ seneschal.

Skyway Zoo

Mina is currently attempting to use water from a shockingly not-overpriced bottle to get her hands unstuck. As she leans forward Khannie may notice the pronged knife-like weapon tucked into her belt.
A weapon that might be similar to the one wielded by a certain giant cream-colored minotaur in a recent posting on the Skyside Super Heroics sub-forum.
And let’s face it, it’s not like that costume hid her identity literally at all. The bandage over her eyes was rejected. The only real difference is that her horns are a different color.

[bc56]

Fox Pox Outbreak
Jade nods. "That sounds simple enough. Except for making me not contagious. Do you have any idea how this changed from regular cold to mutagenic plague?" She also needs to be able to avoid becoming the source of a plague of foxes again.

[Ironsmith]

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

"You should probably help her with that." Siana smiles. "I'll be fine now... if a bit useless." She shrugs. "I don't understand magic or sickness well enough to do much on either front. But if you do need me for something, I'll be right here."

Still being gawked at.

Naturally.

[Morty]

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

"No, I don't really have any solid theories about it yet." Dorota adds a few strands of hair from someone's fox-tail into a flask with purple liquid. "Given that your situation seems unique, or at least highly unusual, it could be any number of things. If this is simply how your body reacts to common illnesses, it could be problematic in the long run."

Sizewell rumbles in affirmative and goes to rejoin his creator.

[bc56]

Fox Pox Outbreak
"If you have any questions for me, let me know. I'm not any good at magic, sorry. I don't know what information would be helpful to you." Jade doesn't even understand what's going on at all. She just wants it to stop.

[Morty]

[Fox Pox Outbreak]

"So what powers or abilities do you have, normally?" Dorota asks as the potion churns and bubbles. "Maybe one of them can provide us with a clue."