Skyside 8: Base Violence and Unnecessary Change

[Morty]

[SSGTV- Control Room]

There's a fresh and exciting horror. Michalson is reluctantly impressed that they managed to come up with something new. Hana's odds against this deader aren't exactly great. But there's really nothing they can do about it now...

[5a Violista]

[Street]

The merbatmaidgirl June has been bored, worried, pensive lately.

She rolls down the street with her fancy wheeled dress thing.

For one, her boss had been acting weird. And is not around. Missing? She can't really tell what to think.

Second of all, she's felt like she has been stagnating recently. There's not really much to do, she still hasn't figured out how she's supposed to open her inventory, she hasn't really done any quests, and she hasn't leveled up (and if she had, how would she even know? It's not like this is a decently-designed game, anyway).

And she still hasn't found that tiara again. Kinda feels like she should give up on finding it, and just instead look for the next point of progression. Maybe she should leave Skyside, and look for somewhere else to do something.

Besides, shouldn't there at least be a friend's list or something? Because then she would be able to at least keep in contact with people she's met and message them.

[Reinholdt]

[Coming Up]

"It's too much if you ask me," Raven says, her organic eye twitching at the idea of four lost hours every week.

Raven looks down at Rose's leg. There was indeed no scar. "Why would there be a scar?" Raven asks with a raised eyebrow. Well whatever. "I'm not really one for spas and baths. I'm more a shower person. But I mean, I guess it could be useful? Ish. If I were able to make sure the nanites didn't interfere with my cybernetics. They're delicate you know! You don't really want robots swimming around between circuits."

Raven takes a moment to pass Rose the rest of her clothes. "More importantly, I just don't see how any of that's very... evil, you know?" The Black Abyss has to stay on brand. Building, using, and/or selling sleeping pods doesn't seem to be on point to what they're trying to accomplish here.

[Earl of Purple]

SSGTV

The zombie is a bit too close to evade, especially given Hana's had to ram a spike into its throat- she was getting grabbed before the thing should have been paralysed. The machete swings into the arm, and bites through the muscle into the bone underneath, smashing through that and sending the arm to the floor, where it bounces and rolls. It keeps its grip with its other hand, though, and tries to flop its head into a position where it can bite Hana- though she could, now, break free of the one-armed zombie's grip. It might end up scratching her arm/shoulder, but it might be better that than letting the bunnygirl get closer because its mouth is rapidly approaching Hana's ankle.

SSGTV Control Room

"It's a disease. Dunno the science of it, they hired me because I worked my way out of the arena. And I'm good at picking who makes a good match. Misjudged Razor, though. Out in Outside, there's a bit where people cross in from places where society collapsed. Some of them are carrying it- and sometimes the dead infected with the disease follow. It's a good source for the Guild, desperate refugees sign themselves into processing without a second thought." Though not all of them find their way into the arenas. "We got some people waiting for a fight, actually. Wanna pick who gets the clunker, since you're paying for Razor?"

[Ironsmith]

[Street]

The merbatmaidgirl June has been bored, worried, pensive lately.

She rolls down the street with her fancy wheeled dress thing.

For one, her boss had been acting weird. And is not around. Missing? She can't really tell what to think.

Second of all, she's felt like she has been stagnating recently. There's not really much to do, she still hasn't figured out how she's supposed to open her inventory, she hasn't really done any quests, and she hasn't leveled up (and if she had, how would she even know? It's not like this is a decently-designed game, anyway).

And she still hasn't found that tiara again. Kinda feels like she should give up on finding it, and just instead look for the next point of progression. Maybe she should leave Skyside, and look for somewhere else to do something.

Besides, shouldn't there at least be a friend's list or something? Because then she would be able to at least keep in contact with people she's met and message them.

[Street]

Right on cue, June's communicator(? it looks like a smartphone, sounds like a smartphone, acts like a smartphone, but Klaus was insistent it's just a regular communications device, whatever that's supposed to mean) goes off, letting her know she's just gotten a message from said boss.

Meeting at headquarters. Top priority. Respond promptly and report immediately.

This on the end of a long list of similar messages. He's probably got a template for these or something.

It's probably not that important, or even urgent, is the point. A few of the other members of their little militia will be able to confirm that. One of them got such a message in order to be sent on a donut run last week, for crying out loud. Was that June? It might have been June.

[Coming Up]

"It's too much if you ask me," Raven says, her organic eye twitching at the idea of four lost hours every week.

Raven looks down at Rose's leg. There was indeed no scar. "Why would there be a scar?" Raven asks with a raised eyebrow. Well whatever. "I'm not really one for spas and baths. I'm more a shower person. But I mean, I guess it could be useful? Ish. If I were able to make sure the nanites didn't interfere with my cybernetics. They're delicate you know! You don't really want robots swimming around between circuits."

Raven takes a moment to pass Rose the rest of her clothes. "More importantly, I just don't see how any of that's very... evil, you know?" The Black Abyss has to stay on brand. Building, using, and/or selling sleeping pods doesn't seem to be on point to what they're trying to accomplish here.

[Coming Up]

"Um, because you stabbed me?" Rose wants to say, but doesn't. No sense in reopening old wounds, figurative or literal.

"Well... no, it's not." Rose concedes, tugging her shirt back on and returning the favor by passing Raven some of her undergarments. How they managed to get caught up in the ceiling fan is anyone's guess. "But not everything you do has to be evil, right? You've got to invest a little in practical upkeep and such. Get a couple of these pods in for your non-zombie workers, might help cut back on the need for an insurance plan or a high labor demand, saves you money, saves you people, all that good stuff." She plops back onto the desk for a moment while she pulls on her jeans. "...Good point about the cybernetics, though. Hadn't really thought about that. The nanites go far enough to regrow damaged tissue, and if 'missing because there's an implant there' counts... yeah, might not be such a pleasant time for you." Rose frowns. "...Which I guess could be used for evil, if you invoked that effect intentionally, but... I dunno. Seems a little over-elaborate compared to just poking someone with a stun baton hooked up to a car battery."

SSGTV

The zombie is a bit too close to evade, especially given Hana's had to ram a spike into its throat- she was getting grabbed before the thing should have been paralysed. The machete swings into the arm, and bites through the muscle into the bone underneath, smashing through that and sending the arm to the floor, where it bounces and rolls. It keeps its grip with its other hand, though, and tries to flop its head into a position where it can bite Hana- though she could, now, break free of the one-armed zombie's grip. It might end up scratching her arm/shoulder, but it might be better that than letting the bunnygirl get closer because its mouth is rapidly approaching Hana's ankle.

[SSGTV]

Ooh, yeah, that's not good. Hana looks down at the bunnygirl approaching and realizes she doesn't have time to break the zombie's grip on her and dodge the assault on her ankles. The time or the space. She's going to have to find a way to take care of both problems at once.

Fortunately, with the question of breaking out of the zombie's grip seeming to be answered, Hana no longer considers herself its prisoner, but rather, the proud owner of a fleshy, hundred-some-odd-pound bludgeon. One which she hooks her leg behind and pushes into, with the intent of throwing it off-balance and into the bunnygirl. Their combined weight should be formidable if she can pull this off, and once everyone is on the ground, she can approach this a little more conservatively.

[Vahnavoi]

[SSGTV- Control Room]

"Hmmm? I have no preference on the matter. Garlic can pick", Sandels replies. Should've figured saving Hazel's wife would put some other poor sucker in harm's way. Such is life. "So, this zombie disease... you don't know it true nature or origin. Curious." By "curious", he means "terminally stupid". If this outbreak caused societal collapse elsewhere, there's a chance it will cause one here. Whoever runs this show is playing with fire - though maybe he shouldn't criticize, given he's burned one building down today himself.

The bandaged man is now occupied by watching Hana's match with the zombies through the window. It might not be apparent to anyone else, but he's trying to narrow down which kind of undead they are. For someone like him, there's a relevant difference between a mundane microbe or a fungus jerking some decomposing matter around, versus a disease that's a manifestation of a curse or some spiritual evil. Depending on which way it swings, he might have to burn this place down too. He's using his second sight to see if they have any souls worth saving - or condemning.

[Morty]

[SSGTV- Control Room]

Yeah, no. This mission is dubious enough. Michalson isn't going to partake in their sick games by making this decision.

"Don't really matter to me," he just says gruffly.

[Shadowcaller]

[Searching for Truth]

The pink garbage is exactly what Ilpholin wanted Tina to smite. But at least Tina is able to suggest something palatable as an alternative. That is... effective? Sort of. The results leave a bad taste in Ilpholin's mouth but she's not going to turn down opportunity.

"Come on!" She encourages the other two unnecessarily as she flips up to land upon a skeleton and then run across the tennis players' heads and shoulders without their consent, each step but a light, dexterous moment upon her foes.

She... probably should have cut the mercs free that she led into that room, but eh. That'd take time and the mist didn't stop existing or anything. They'd live. Or not. Either way, she's gotta figure out their next move. This angel might not be the best to actually take on Tellysandra with, they've failed to find a lie detector unless it was that pyramid thing they picked up, and they're in a giant house maze. Best option might be to backtrack the way they came and wreck stuff on their way out.

[Searching for Truth]

"Hey!" Fettina exclaims. "There are skeletons out here!"

The belly-dancer starts hopping over the skellingtons, as pretty as you please. Fettina has to look at that in shock for a second before she just plows forward, still holding onto the stuff from the cabinet. "Scuse me - sorry - sorry! Move!" While she can't push or smash the skeletons with both hands, her heavy metal wings make an effective screen to swat, smash or slide the skellies with. God, un-dead thingies were gross!

She'll follow Ilpholin as much as she's able.

[Searching for Truth]

Anika doesn't waste any time and rushes right into the skeleton crew, causing them to fall like bowling pins as she comes through. It does seem like Anika has decided to dismiss the entanglement but its too late for the poor mercs who disappears into the mist as it reaches out for the group.
But at least they saved Lumine, right? Well, 'saved' is relative as Ilpholin just crushed her wings and the pain of that seems to have put her unconscious as she's no longer struggling or screaming.

Neither Tina nor Ilpholin have to fight off the skeletons though as they only seem interested in trying to grab onto Ilpholin. Which they don't have much luck with as she's moving far too fast for them.
So they're leaving them behind along with the mist which doesn't seem capable of moving far beyond the summoning chamber itself. "Aw, bye darlings! Think of me in your dreams~" The demon within the mist calls out after them as they flee.

They aren't encountering any resistance but they might note that all paintings and other art they come across now seem to have force fields protecting them. It would seem that Tellysandra does have certain priorities.

But as they're attempting to retrace their steps they arrive at a grand hall that's main function seems to be an art display with huge paintings on the walls and several sculptures and more esoteric and modern (as in weird and electronic) artworks in display cases around in the room. At this point they've been through a number of rooms like these without encountering any resistance but here is where their luck seem to end as a swarm of flying combat drones can be seen at the other end of the room. They're all painted black with the word PEACEKEEPER - MEKIII clearly displayed in white on their exterior armor. There's about a dozen of them and they seem to have several integrated weapons though it isn't clear what any of them do.

Tina suddenly understands something as she sees the drones. As if she's remembering a memory that she never had. These drones are controlled by a Legion demon which are specialized in controlling a lot of vessels at the same time. Usually its people but in this case someone has made them possess metal vessels. One of the weaknesses of legion demons is that their ability to possess groups makes their grip around each of their vessels loose. Thus, with the right spells, rituals or sacred martial arts it can easily be thrown out of the vessels it controls and made to enter other, more harmless, ones

[5a Violista]

[Street]

June pulls out her Communicator (yeah it's a cellphone but it's a setting-specific name; how are you supposed to know you're in a fantasy setting if you just call it a cellphone?) and looks at it.

Probably not important, she thinks. So maybe she could stand being a little late.
However,
June's bored enough that it's probably worth it. What if it's a neat quest? What if it's the start of a quest chain, or something? That'd be pretty neat. Or, more likely, it'll increase some kind of secret behind-the-scenes variables or switches that will be relevant later. Maybe she'll run into an NPC with a specific schedule and that'll unlock something!

Well...at least, worth it to go check.
June turns around and goes back to the headquarters.

[Reinholdt]

[Coming Up]

"Yeahhh... there's no way I'm going out of my way to keep my employees healthy. Or alive." Raven specializes in mecha-zombies. Corporate-zombies are a different breed of evil altogether and while she may dabble, all employees must eventually transition to the first position.

Raven manages to crawl back into her gothic lolitia dress. There's a pause though as Rose brings up an excellent point. "... Overly elaborate way of committing evil you say? Well why didn't you open with that?! We're definitely going to need one of those sleep pods, absolutely. Just one though. If I'm pulling a 'no Mister Robot, I expect you to sleep' on a hero, they have to be a very specific type that we honestly haven't seen all that much of." Cyberheroes are just a rare commodity in this fantasy focused world.

[Searching for Truth]

Ilpholin skids to a stop upon encountering the drones, eying them warily. "If I can get close enough to interface with them, I should be able to turn them against Tellysandra," the exotic dancer whispers to Anika and Tina, her hair starting to shift and move of its own accord. Strands bundle together and prepare to be docked, small mechanical jacks forming at the ends of her long hair, not unlike snake fangs waiting to strike and input their code into the Peacekeeper drones.

[Murkus]

[Searching for Truth]

Fettina skids to a halt, unfamiliar images flashing through her mind. Where was all this coming from?

"They're possessed by a demon! Not controlled electronically!" She points. "I don't know if what you can do will work, Ilpholin, but uh... the grip it has on them is really loose. There're some kinds of magic - pretty basic stuff - or sacred mojo that can shove them out pretty easily. Make them get stuck in other inanimate objects."

Tina tries to reach into these memories. If they're something to do with her curse... or her time here, maybe there's something more about herself too. Maybe some abilities or 'sacred mojo' she doesn't know she has.

[Earl of Purple]

SSGTV

The builder goes over and Hana lands on top, with the bunnygirl at the bottom of the fleshy pile There were some crunches as they landed, but unfortunately nothing that will stop any of the dead in the pile. The one-handed crawler that was hanging onto the bunny's ankle tries pulling itself closer, but still only has one arm and can't grip easily. The builder doesn't try to get up, though it continues to try pulling Hana into the reach of its mouth. The bunny tries pulling itself out from under the builder, but it's pretty stuck. It can't bend its neck enough to try for Hana's ankle any more, at least.

SSGTV Control Room

The zombies are carrying a virus, one that spreads in their fluids. So long as Hana doesn't get any of their fluids in her body, she should be safe- at least from the active form of the disease. There's a passive form that won't kill Hana, but would reanimate her upon her death. Up to Ironsmith if she's infected with that.

"Well, it ain't magic, we know that. From worlds that don't have magic. The origin worlds' native science can't deal with it, but if she gets bit you don't need to worry. Not unless the bite kills her immediately because they rip out her throat or something. We've got priests on standby to heal her up. And stuff like them? Once you know what you're dealing with, they go down easy. It's big numbers and surprise that get you." The clunker being an exception, due to its concrete armouring. Although that might count as a surprise.

She pouts at the two not willing to consign another to a hard fight like this. "Well, if you're not willing to pick someone to fight the clunker, maybe I should keep Razor in the ring a little longer." She gestures at a another keyholder, and she quickly tilts her screen around so 'Garrick' and Sandals can see three people, all waiting in small rooms. There's a dwarf woman with a necklace with some ears on it, carrying a hammer and wearing a short white dress that's open up both sides. A man wearing jeans, with a fox-like tail and ears, holding a sword. The last is another woman, a tall hobgoblin with dark grey skin wearing a white bikini top and short chainmail skirt, holding a metal pole as a staff.

[Ironsmith]

[Street]

June pulls out her Communicator (yeah it's a cellphone but it's a setting-specific name; how are you supposed to know you're in a fantasy setting if you just call it a cellphone?) and looks at it.

Probably not important, she thinks. So maybe she could stand being a little late.
However,
June's bored enough that it's probably worth it. What if it's a neat quest? What if it's the start of a quest chain, or something? That'd be pretty neat. Or, more likely, it'll increase some kind of secret behind-the-scenes variables or switches that will be relevant later. Maybe she'll run into an NPC with a specific schedule and that'll unlock something!

Well...at least, worth it to go check.
June turns around and goes back to the headquarters.

[Street => SIN Headquarters]

The little ramshackle house Klaus had chosen for their headquarters is looking a little less ramshackle these days. Not too much so, though; the exterior looks as though the place has been abandoned, as opposed to left to decay for several years. There aren't any guards posted outside, but that's because the sentry duties are handled by a network of hidden cameras, an AI, and a bored crossword enthusiast in the living room.

The interior, however, looks quite different. Where possible, SIN's members have shored up the existing structure, applied new coats of paint, replaced rotten timbers and rusted pipes with fresh counterparts, re-tiled and re-wired the place, and so on. Walking through that front door will almost feel like stepping into a different dimension; there's no way this is the same building.

June will know that Klaus will be waiting for her downstairs. He spend a lot of time down there; if he's not out doing a mission, he's in indulging in some tailoring or working on some kind of Machiavellian scheme. Probably both at once, if he's to be believed.

Of course, even once she's here, June won't necessarily have to go straight downstairs. It's not like anyone else is likely to take the summons THAT seriously, even if they know about it. She could stop and grab a donut from the kitchen, head upstairs to one of the bedrooms converted into a sleep-pod repository, maybe practice in the backyard firing range. Up to her.

[Coming Up]

"Yeahhh... there's no way I'm going out of my way to keep my employees healthy. Or alive." Raven specializes in mecha-zombies. Corporate-zombies are a different breed of evil altogether and while she may dabble, all employees must eventually transition to the first position.

Raven manages to crawl back into her gothic lolitia dress. There's a pause though as Rose brings up an excellent point. "... Overly elaborate way of committing evil you say? Well why didn't you open with that?! We're definitely going to need one of those sleep pods, absolutely. Just one though. If I'm pulling a 'no Mister Robot, I expect you to sleep' on a hero, they have to be a very specific type that we honestly haven't seen all that much of." Cyberheroes are just a rare commodity in this fantasy focused world.

[Coming Up]

"Oooh, yeah, that's pretty neat." Rose concedes, hiding her mouth behind her hand and giving a little giggle to disguise how disgusted she is at the image. "It'd... it'd work pretty well for disarming them, too, I guess. Like if they have a cannon on their arm or something, they'll come out of the pod with and arm and no cannon. You know what I mean."

Then she has an idea for how to get Raven to use it as intended.

"Of course, you could also kind of dangle it over your employees." She begins coyly. "In the metaphorical sense, obviously. You could just use anvils or whatever for the literal version. But, you know, offer it as a reward for the hardest-working, most diligent person in the building. The rat race is plenty brutal, and it's so much funnier if it's their own fault that the workplace is so miserable." She takes a minute to shrug on her jacket. "Also means you wouldn't have to be so hands-on with them. You could be, if you wanted to, but this way you have more time for doing the big stuff, like the lasers and the tanks and the world domination and such."

If that works, Rose can walk up the number of pods as time goes on with varying excuses, and hopefully make things just a little bit better around here. If not... well, no sense in pressing the issue.

SSGTV

The builder goes over and Hana lands on top, with the bunnygirl at the bottom of the fleshy pile There were some crunches as they landed, but unfortunately nothing that will stop any of the dead in the pile. The one-handed crawler that was hanging onto the bunny's ankle tries pulling itself closer, but still only has one arm and can't grip easily. The builder doesn't try to get up, though it continues to try pulling Hana into the reach of its mouth. The bunny tries pulling itself out from under the builder, but it's pretty stuck. It can't bend its neck enough to try for Hana's ankle any more, at least.

[SSGTV]

Hana scrambles away from the builder, machete in hand, pulling back to a moderate distance so she can admire her handiwork and take a moment to just rest. It doesn't look like any of those three will be getting back up again, which means she can basically decapitate them at her leisure.

Well, maybe not at her leisure; she could see the organizers of this deathmatch throwing in the next wave early if it looks too much like she's going to be boring about it.

Just to be sure, she'll two-hand the machete again and attempt to chop the builder's head off at the neck, hopefully leaving the bunnygirl pinned under the corpse's weight in the process.

[Vahnavoi]

[SSGTV Control Room]

If it's a virus, then it's their problem, not his. Sandels turns his attention back to the amazon and gives her a cross look. Is this an attempt to bargain for more money? "Well if you insist", he says lazily, looking over Hana's possible replacement. "Hmmm... the ugly elf in bikini. Keeps the theme going. So, we done?" As with elf mongrels, correct taxonomy of goblin-kind is beyond and beneath his interests.

[5a Violista]

[=> SIN Headquarters]

The sooner she gets this over with, the sooner she can go back out and look for an actual quest. Like maybe some kind of puzzle dungeon. Honestly speaking, this is probably one of those mandatory cutscene-like scenes that triggers some flags and sets some variables in order to unlock some more content, she figures. Or something like that; she doesn't actually know the programming of how this works, just that it seems to follow pretty bad game design and is partially unfinished. Like, seriously! What kind of game designer locks compass and map behind specific races? Were they trying to create different themed maps and compasses and everything for each race but ran out of time, or something?

Anyway, June figures that getting through this possibly-mandatory cutscene will be the best choice, just in case it actually is mandatory.

Well, on the way in as she passes the living room, she says 'hi' and has a short conversation first. Dialogue is, after all, the best part of this.

June reaches her greatest nemesis: stairs.
First thing she does is stand at the top of the stairs and poses menacingly, as she puts her hands on her hips, juts her left shoulder forward, and tilts her head slightly, while looking at the stairs condescendingly. However, she can't keep a straight face for long and bites her lip to keep herself from gleefully smiling, since she just pulled that off! (At least, she just thinks she did. She can't exactly see herself, but she assumes that if she could see herself, it would have looked really cool.)
So.
The stairs.
June takes a deep breath in, and out. Okay, wings folded back. she shifts and wriggles and pushes down so that she sinks a little into her dress's structure, so that her mermaid tail can touch the ground and push force down onto it. She places her hands on the wall and railing to hold some of her weight, and then...
white h
spa o
ce p
. s
down
the stairs.
Once at the bottom, she puts her hands back on her hips and lifts herself back up into a more upright position. She doesn't want her tail to drag on the ground, after all.

"Hey. You here?" she asks as she gets down there, and looks around.
She seriously hopes he is. Hopefully he's here right now and doesn't have to go back up and look around, because going up and down the stairs only once today is the ideal situation.

[Reinholdt]

[Coming Up]

"Yeah, really wreck those tech junkies! Nyahahahaha!" Raven laughs maliciously!

Until Rose turns the conversation back to employees again. "I thought I said I don't care about employee welfare," Raven scowls, hating when she has repeat herself. "Staying alive is their reward and motivation for efficiency. If they don't like it, I have a mecha-zombie waiting to take their job with their face on it. Now are we done talking about the peons?" The more they talk about someone that isn't Raven or Rose, the less they're talking about Raven.

Raven does not seem to be one of those practical minded CEOs who would make a good boss. Even if Rose is right on all her points, talking business is the last thing Raven's interested in. She wants to own the stuff, not manage it. Use it until it breaks, then throw it away and get a new one. Like any horrible evil empress would.

"Oh yeah, speaking of heroes, I need to come up with some scheme to handle a cow and her boyfriend not-a-sword for the next time we meet. Something classy and ironic, but still cruel. Hmm... maybe something milk themed. Hijacking the milk bottle factory?" It's a work in progress.

[Shadowcaller]

[Searching for Truth]

Tina can recall two ways to go about banishing this kind of demons.

The first is the ritual method which involves herself putting her wings in a certain position and singing a 'sacred song' while maintain her wing position. The exact song isn't actually important as long as it catches the demons attention and that it lasts for about a minute. Usually one draws a protective circle around themselves before performing this ritual as it would be difficult to maintain that wing position and move around at the same time.

The upside of this ritual is that it will throw out the demon from each vessel that can hear the song for a minute. The downside is that can either destroy the protective circle and get to her while she's performing it or that they can simply move away or deafen themselves somehow until they no longer can hear the song.

The other method is a lot more straight forward.

It involves punching, kicking or wing-bashing the demons in a specific way which will throw them out of their hosts and into something else depending on from which direction her attack is coming from.

The upside is here is that it's simple, the downside is of course that she actually has to fight the drones and their demon overlord.

Now, Anika is still in her bear form and is putting herself in front of Ilpholin and Tina in case the drones decides to open fire.

The drones move in closer and at this point they're close enough to see that there's actually two classes of drones as indicated by the smaller text underneath their model descriptor.
The ones that take the frontline are designated "Hoplite II" and they project a huge circular holographic shield in front of themselves while a singular spear-like appendage sticking out from the side of their floating circular bodies rotates around to be aimed in the direction of the all-female group.

The second class are the ones with a lot of weapons and have positioned themselves behind the Hoplites. They're designated "Toxotes IV" and while they have quite the arsenal at their disposal they only opt to use the two smaller guns at their sides when they suddenly open fire. They're using laser-like weaponry which fires short bursts of low-intensity radiation that once they hit the eyes can cause temporary blindness and searing pain.

This might not be as much of an issue for Ilpholin but it will still hurt a lot.

[Ironsmith]

[=> SIN Headquarters]

The sooner she gets this over with, the sooner she can go back out and look for an actual quest. Like maybe some kind of puzzle dungeon. Honestly speaking, this is probably one of those mandatory cutscene-like scenes that triggers some flags and sets some variables in order to unlock some more content, she figures. Or something like that; she doesn't actually know the programming of how this works, just that it seems to follow pretty bad game design and is partially unfinished. Like, seriously! What kind of game designer locks compass and map behind specific races? Were they trying to create different themed maps and compasses and everything for each race but ran out of time, or something?

Anyway, June figures that getting through this possibly-mandatory cutscene will be the best choice, just in case it actually is mandatory.

Well, on the way in as she passes the living room, she says 'hi' and has a short conversation first. Dialogue is, after all, the best part of this.

June reaches her greatest nemesis: stairs.
First thing she does is stand at the top of the stairs and poses menacingly, as she puts her hands on her hips, juts her left shoulder forward, and tilts her head slightly, while looking at the stairs condescendingly. However, she can't keep a straight face for long and bites her lip to keep herself from gleefully smiling, since she just pulled that off! (At least, she just thinks she did. She can't exactly see herself, but she assumes that if she could see herself, it would have looked really cool.)
So.
The stairs.
June takes a deep breath in, and out. Okay, wings folded back. she shifts and wriggles and pushes down so that she sinks a little into her dress's structure, so that her mermaid tail can touch the ground and push force down onto it. She places her hands on the wall and railing to hold some of her weight, and then...
white h
spa o
ce p
. s
down
the stairs.
Once at the bottom, she puts her hands back on her hips and lifts herself back up into a more upright position. She doesn't want her tail to drag on the ground, after all.

"Hey. You here?" she asks as she gets down there, and looks around.
She seriously hopes he is. Hopefully he's here right now and doesn't have to go back up and look around, because going up and down the stairs only once today is the ideal situation.

[SIN Headquarters]

For a basement, this place is weirdly classy. The floor is covered in a soft, plushy carpet, likely to accommodate the number of SIN members who spend their time walking around barefoot (or merfolk like June who would have their tails on the ground instead). The walls are covered with hardwood panels up until about waist height, at which point they give way to an intricate pattern in various shades of red, which collectively serve to make the room seem a bit bigger than it is. There are a few monitors on the walls, one of which is tuned in to a gladiator match across town; that monitor quietly switches off about the time June gets a chance to look at it. The others show placid, natural scenes; a quiet lake, an empty forest trail, a snowy mountainside, among others.

The center of the room is dominated by a large, faux-oak desk. The top is neatly divided up, with a section toward the end housing a desktop computer, the middle area being empty except for a little green lamp, and the other end having a pair of in/out trays, with a respectable balance between the two.

Behind that desk, in a leather-backed chair, dressed in his usual three-piece suit, is Klaus. He gives June a friendly smile as she comes down, quietly pretending not to be amused at her expense over the small matter of the stairs. "Good. You're here on time." He greets, producing a decanter of... something, it looks like it's probably alcoholic, but at this distance it's not going to be easy to tell what. "Normally, this is the part where I'd ask you to take a seat," he begins, gesturing at the pair of cushioned stools in front of his desk, "but I'm not entirely certain whether that's all that comfortable for you. Drink?" He offers, pouring a glass full of the beverage.

[Coming Up]

"Yeah, really wreck those tech junkies! Nyahahahaha!" Raven laughs maliciously!

Until Rose turns the conversation back to employees again. "I thought I said I don't care about employee welfare," Raven scowls, hating when she has repeat herself. "Staying alive is their reward and motivation for efficiency. If they don't like it, I have a mecha-zombie waiting to take their job with their face on it. Now are we done talking about the peons?" The more they talk about someone that isn't Raven or Rose, the less they're talking about Raven.

Raven does not seem to be one of those practical minded CEOs who would make a good boss. Even if Rose is right on all her points, talking business is the last thing Raven's interested in. She wants to own the stuff, not manage it. Use it until it breaks, then throw it away and get a new one. Like any horrible evil empress would.

"Oh yeah, speaking of heroes, I need to come up with some scheme to handle a cow and her boyfriend not-a-sword for the next time we meet. Something classy and ironic, but still cruel. Hmm... maybe something milk themed. Hijacking the milk bottle factory?" It's a work in progress.

[Coming Up]

Rose gives Raven an apologetic smile and a little hug from behind. "Sorry. You're right, the riffraff is below the threshold of 'our problem'. I won't bring it up again." Although, she internally notes, if Raven really doesn't care, Rose herself is free to do pretty much whatever she wants with regards to the living employees, so long as it doesn't get in Raven's way. Getting them all killed isn't necessarily the goal, after all, just a consequence of Raven not really giving a damn.

"So anyway... yeah, a milk-bottling plant." Rose smirks. "That could be fun. I mean, in addition to being ironic, it'd also give you access to a bunch of a resource pretty much everyone in town uses, just a step or two down from the water supply. Slip a suggestibility agent in there, and bam, every restaurant, bakery, and grocer in the city is singing the praises of the beautiful and cunning Empress Ebondark." She plants a kiss on Raven's cheek to punctuate the statement. "Or not, and we could just say we did. The point is, it's excellent motivation on both sides of the fight, wouldn't you say? You get an expansion if you win, and she gets to stop you from expanding if you lose." She nuzzles up against Raven's neck. "Not that you'd need my help to build up to a climax, ha. Just an idea."

[Morty]

[SSGTV Control Room]

Michalson grunts after Sandels makes the decision for him. It's a cowardly way out, but he had no idea what else to do. Bloody sick slavers... maybe making other people choose this way is how they amuse themselves.

[5a Violista]

[SIN Headquarters]

Sadly, June isn't fast enough notice what was on the monitor he quickly turned off.
June gives him a smile and mouths a 'hi'.

She stops in front of the stools and looks at them, and then at his drink.
"If it's alcohol, then no; if it's not, then sure."

June fiddles with and unlatches something at her waist, and then starts talking to pass the time as she works her way out of the dress's structure and onto one of the stools.
"Normally, this is the part where I..." Using her abs and her hands on the hip part of the structure, she lifts her mertail out of the dress and sets it beside the stools. "...would grab one of the chairs but I'm afraid I won't make it up the stairs while carrying it."
By the time she finished the sentence, June transfered her hands over to the two stools and then carried her body to sitting on just one of them, almost like the dress hoop and the stools were part of a pommel horse.
There!
Sitting down.
Benefits of having decent abs, and the ability to hold herself up on her arms.

"So."
"What'd you call me here for?"

[Reinholdt]

[Coming Up]

Raven's getting excited evil tingles. Nefarious plans are forming and no one, not even Missus Moo can stop her. "No one would ever suspect a catgirl for going after the milk bottling facility! Ohohohohoho!!!" Raven Ebondark puts the back of her hand near her mouth and laughs villainously. Or at least tries. It's actually a little difficult with Rose hanging onto Raven's neck like that, but the Empress has a lot of practice so manages to pull it off. Not cleanly, but evil enough.

"We're still going to need countermeasures against Missus Moo herself. Maybe some minotaur mecha-zombies, to really screw in and emphasize the callous disregard for life? Maybe put her off her game by enraging her or making her sad or whatever emotional impact it has. Just so long as it has an emotional impact." Raven gives Rose a kiss on the forehead, but works to extract herself. There's so much work to be done between this evil plot, the upgrade to Bruce Almighty, and that sleeping pod. She needs to write some of this down. "Plus I'm going to need to modify my umbrella. Missus Moo threw lightning last time and it really caught me off guard. Kinda ruined the last fight if you ask me. Themed mecha-zombies don't come cheap! Probably worked out for the best, admittedly. She seemed to be struggling there at the end. We're looking at fresh year one heroine. Which is honestly the best time to get involved."

Raven shivers with excitement thinking about their next encounter. "But yes. Ok. Minotaur mecha-zombies and zap proof umbrella. A reasonable upgrade and a one time gimmick. Perfect. Waiiiit, should we introduce you then? I don't think we'll have the tank ready by then." Ahh, the tank too! So much to do! "And we gotta run you through a tailor." Raven goes to the last empty whiteboard and starts bulletpointing all of the things she needs to work on. This is exactly why she can't afford to sleep!

[Searching for Truth]

Well that's unfortunate. But if Tina says Ilpholin can't control the drones, then she's probably telling the truth. "I bet you smashing them is a wonderful ritual that still works." Demon can't control what isn't there and doesn't function.

Talking about it seems to have given the drones the initiative who rudely interrupt by firing lasers! It's terrible. Ilpholin can't protect all three of them, but does raise an arm up that becomes a shield, not unlike the kind the Hoplite II seem to be using, protecting her face. It doesn't stop a laser from catching her hip as she starts to run forward and she hisses in pain briefly before turning her pain receptors off entirely. Allowing her to truly berserk into the cloud of drones, almost ignoring their lasers entirely as her other hand turns into a whip and lashes out at them. She's trying to get under one of the rows to cut deep into chassis of the drones from a hopefully vulnerable spot, even if it does make herself more vulnerable to the lasers in the process.

[Ironsmith]

[SIN Headquarters]

Sadly, June isn't fast enough notice what was on the monitor he quickly turned off.
June gives him a smile and mouths a 'hi'.

She stops in front of the stools and looks at them, and then at his drink.
"If it's alcohol, then no; if it's not, then sure."

June fiddles with and unlatches something at her waist, and then starts talking to pass the time as she works her way out of the dress's structure and onto one of the stools.
"Normally, this is the part where I..." Using her abs and her hands on the hip part of the structure, she lifts her mertail out of the dress and sets it beside the stools. "...would grab one of the chairs but I'm afraid I won't make it up the stairs while carrying it."
By the time she finished the sentence, June transfered her hands over to the two stools and then carried her body to sitting on just one of them, almost like the dress hoop and the stools were part of a pommel horse.
There!
Sitting down.
Benefits of having decent abs, and the ability to hold herself up on her arms.

"So."
"What'd you call me here for?"

[SIN Headquarters]

Klaus smirks, reaches into his desk drawer, and pulls out a two-liter bottle of Pixie; a generic lemon-and-lime soft drink found here in the Nexus. "Good for you, keeping a sense of humor." He chuckles, pouring her a glass of the stuff. "Yes, as it happens, I have a rather important assignment for you. High priority, top secret. Nobody outside this room can be allowed to know about it." He rests his elbows on the desk and props up his chin. "I've spent weeks setting up chaff for this meeting. If you have any doubts about your ability to maintain absolute silence on this matter, now would be the time to voice them."

[Coming Up]

Raven's getting excited evil tingles. Nefarious plans are forming and no one, not even Missus Moo can stop her. "No one would ever suspect a catgirl for going after the milk bottling facility! Ohohohohoho!!!" Raven Ebondark puts the back of her hand near her mouth and laughs villainously. Or at least tries. It's actually a little difficult with Rose hanging onto Raven's neck like that, but the Empress has a lot of practice so manages to pull it off. Not cleanly, but evil enough.

"We're still going to need countermeasures against Missus Moo herself. Maybe some minotaur mecha-zombies, to really screw in and emphasize the callous disregard for life? Maybe put her off her game by enraging her or making her sad or whatever emotional impact it has. Just so long as it has an emotional impact." Raven gives Rose a kiss on the forehead, but works to extract herself. There's so much work to be done between this evil plot, the upgrade to Bruce Almighty, and that sleeping pod. She needs to write some of this down. "Plus I'm going to need to modify my umbrella. Missus Moo threw lightning last time and it really caught me off guard. Kinda ruined the last fight if you ask me. Themed mecha-zombies don't come cheap! Probably worked out for the best, admittedly. She seemed to be struggling there at the end. We're looking at fresh year one heroine. Which is honestly the best time to get involved."

Raven shivers with excitement thinking about their next encounter. "But yes. Ok. Minotaur mecha-zombies and zap proof umbrella. A reasonable upgrade and a one time gimmick. Perfect. Waiiiit, should we introduce you then? I don't think we'll have the tank ready by then." Ahh, the tank too! So much to do! "And we gotta run you through a tailor." Raven goes to the last empty whiteboard and starts bulletpointing all of the things she needs to work on. This is exactly why she can't afford to sleep!

[Coming Up]

Rose gives Raven a respectful distance and lets her get to work, though when she gets to the bit about the tank, throws up a hand to stop her. "Uh-uh. You're going to be swamped enough trying to find enough minotaur corpses to guard a milk-bottling plant, and also getting a milk-bottling plant, and also doing your upgrades. I'll handle the outfit; I've probably got all the base components laying around, it shouldn't take me too long to assemble. It's also probably just a smidge too early to introduce me; that sounds like the kind of thing where I'd show up to fight instead of you, and be all 'pitiful worms, the Empress has better things to do right now than waste time on you'." She puts on a raspy voice for effect, rubbing her hands together excitedly. "Classic bait-and-switch, and lets you build up toward an even bigger encounter in the near future. And maybe lull her into a false sense of security at the same time... it's not like I've ever driven a tank before." She giggles.

"Once we're both established as threats independently, we can make showing up at the same time a spectacle." Rose taps her finger to her chin. "Really hammer in how screwed she is. 'Oh, you have a hard time fighting the Empress of Darkness herself or her girlfriend slash minion? Well, how do you feel about both?' Hee hee~" She giggles maliciously. "Of course, we couldn't do that all the time, she might get the impression that she's only screwed if we both fight her. Kind of reduces the impact of a solo encounter." She massages her chin thoughtfully. "But that's a tangent. The point is, you wouldn't need to have a tank ready yet. Save your energy for... well, everything else."

[Earl of Purple]

SSGTV

Especially not at her leisure as the builder zombie, despite lying down, isn't injured enough to stop it from trying to get up again. She can decapitate it quickly, and then rest a moment, but resting first would let it get back up again.

There's no movement of the gates, so the next wave isn't immediately forthcoming.

SSGTV Control Room

The Amazon nods, leaning over and whispering in the keyholder's ear. Several keyholders appear on the clunker's screen, holding wire loops on poles, and hook the clunker's limbs before the door opens and they drag it away. The three waiting gladiators are also released at once, and cameras change to view the arenas. The dwarf is in a small arena with swinging pendulums, the fox is in an arena with several narrow walkways separated by stretches of nails pointing up... and so is the hobgoblin. Despite the offer of a choice, the Amazon has sent the clunker against the dwarf. "Yep, just a matter now of letting her clear the end of the fight." The Amazon looks back to Hana's screen. "Damn, looks like I missed a good bit. I'll have to catch the recording later."

[5a Violista]

[SIN Headquarters]

"Well, I really only saw two choices:" June interjects as Klaus pours her a glass of the Pixie, "Either make a joke or have you watch me try to sit in complete silence. Sure, I can see the appeal of the latter, but..."
She ends the sentence there.

Anyway, drink. June holds off on drinking it for now, waiting for Klaus to finish speaking and for her to come up with an answer.
"I can make sure to not say anything about it," she says. June then takes a sip, but then considers something: "Is there any danger from mind-readers? I've never really run into one before so I don't know how to stop them from reading minds." That would, honestly, be the only problem in the info leaking, as far as June can foresee it.

[Vahnavoi]

[SSGTV Control Room]


"Yeah, we missed a fair bit too when we were walking here. Hopefully my wife caught it all on video", Sandels remarks, resuming looking out of the window. Come on, Hana, survive and finish this show!

[Ironsmith]

SSGTV

Especially not at her leisure as the builder zombie, despite lying down, isn't injured enough to stop it from trying to get up again. She can decapitate it quickly, and then rest a moment, but resting first would let it get back up again.

There's no movement of the gates, so the next wave isn't immediately forthcoming.

[SSGTV]

"Oh, of course." Hana drones, two-handing her machete again. Okay, that's still not too bad. Finish off the builder and work from there. She just needs a minute to get to a good angle, and then down the blade comes over its neck.

[SIN Headquarters]

"Well, I really only saw two choices:" June interjects as Klaus pours her a glass of the Pixie, "Either make a joke or have you watch me try to sit in complete silence. Sure, I can see the appeal of the latter, but..."
She ends the sentence there.

Anyway, drink. June holds off on drinking it for now, waiting for Klaus to finish speaking and for her to come up with an answer.
"I can make sure to not say anything about it," she says. June then takes a sip, but then considers something: "Is there any danger from mind-readers? I've never really run into one before so I don't know how to stop them from reading minds." That would, honestly, be the only problem in the info leaking, as far as June can foresee it.

[SIN Headquarters]

"Thankfully, no." Klaus stands, pulling open a drawer in his desk. "I'm taking countermeasures as we speak. Mind-readers shouldn't give you an ounce of trouble." He turns to look back up at her, giving her a tight-lipped smile. "I need you to run interference for me. Tell me, in your time in the Nexus, have you heard of an organization called VIGIL?"

He's not going to have a lot of time to explain this. Better to skip the details if she already knows them.

[Murkus]

[Searching for Truth]

Well, that answers that. No time in a real fight to stand around singing, especially when she can't be sure the other ladies will be able to cover her. Tina never much liked her singing voice anyways.

"Anika! Try to stay down!" she shouts, knowing that of the three of them, Anika is probably the most vulnerable to things like small-arms fire. But this is... different. Blasts of radiation? That look kinda like lasers?

Tina is almost immediately struck with one. She blinks several times. It seems harmful radiation, at least on this scale, doesn't do much to an angel. When you can fly in vacuum or near the surface of a star (not that Tina would know she can do these things), you aren't fazed much by directed-energy weaponry unless it's of a substantially higher caliber. Plus, she's not even sure she can be blinded this way. So mostly the shots just give her a little headache.

Scowling, Fettina spreads her wings in a flash and takes off, zipping right towards the cloud of drones. She moves with preturnatural speed, for a several-hundred-pound metal winged being. Not anything that couldn't be tracked by a normal person, but certainly faster than a creature like her ought to be able to, especially with so few flaps of the wings.

She lets out a scream as she levels a fist at the nearest drone, a halo of light momentarily bursting into being around her wrist. She tries to strike the thing exactly as she remembers, and will likely keep doing the same to other units until one of them stops her.

[Morty]

[SSGTV Control Room]

Michalson remains silent, just hoping this all wasn't a giant waste of time. And there's nothing he can do to ensure it wasn't...

[5a Violista]

[SIN Headquarters]
((fixing her speech color because I realized I messed it up))

"Oh, good," June says. Mind reading sounds like it sucks. "Unless you tell me how it works, I'm just going to assume it's the type of protection that works better when you don't know about it."

Anyway.
VIGIL.
Right.
June spends a few moments thinking back to see if she's ever heard of VIGIL. She's heard of..."Nope." Only heard about one called GLoG. "Haven't heard about it. If they're big enough, I bet I could find out what I need to know by asking around or looking it up or something." If they're a small organization, however, she might need a briefing on it.

[Reinholdt]

[Coming Up]

"Hmm... it's true minotaur aren't especially common." Finding a few to zombify will probably actually take some effort, unlike humans and elves. "It's not like you'll need to know how to drive the tank to smash through the wall unexpectedly. I guess you'll need to know how to use the brakes once you show up. Yeah, ok. Sounds like a plan. Uhh, tell what's his face to buy you a tank you practice driving into stuff or whatever." Just until Raven has time to build Rose a proper Black Abyss tank.

Raven smiles at Rose. "You seem to be catching on. Excellent. We'll paint this whole world black and red!" It's so nice to have competent help. Competent help that's also easy on the eyes and fun to kiss. Not that the rest of Raven's help is setting the bar particularly high.

"Oh by the way, do you need any help explaining why you're quitting your assignment? Should I, I dunno, kidnap someone close to you and make it too personal or something?" Raven's not really sure how one helps in this situation. It's a little more complicated than her usual evil empress antics.