Serious Plots 8: Rawr serisaurus!

[Murkus]

[Platinum Star]

Maiel leans down so only Telly can hear his rumbling whisper. He sounds amused. "Do you think you can really bring them over to your side? Make them work for you, perhaps?"

[Purple Eagle]

Well, let’s see, So you’ve heard of Zeus, Hades and Poseidon?

[The Platinum Star] Fel and Rosie

"I've heard of Poseidon!" Rosie repiles immediately the name is mentioned. "One of the three ancient weapons, asides Pluton and Uranus. Poseidon is a mermaid with the power to communicate with sea kings... no?" Fel's look is probably changing at this point, letting Rosie know she's wrong.

"Hmm... I heard of Zeus and Hades in school. Something to do with..." Her eyes brighten as she remembers and links it to what Fel said earlier. "... a pantheon! Oh, tell me more, honey."

[5a Violista]

[Gem Dungeon - Floor 4 stairwell], which has railings on one side of the wall.

"Yes, it's done. I double-checked earlier," the half-succubus woman says.

She was so consumed in making sure all those memories were right and proper and would work out fine that she had forgotten what the next step of this memory/clone plan was.
Carmen suddenly remembers what the next step was.
She backs up to the side of the stairway that doesn't have railings on it. She's considering saying 'there's still time, I can still go back up a floor and take the easy way out', even though she's not sure exactly how she'll safely get back over that catwalk without either of them to fly her over. Plus, she figures, if she says that then it might get one of them mad enough to not want to finish off the plan.

Carmen bites her lip,
turns towards the wall,
closes her eyes,
and holds her breath, waiting in anticipation for what comes next.

[Felandria]

[The Platinum Star] Fel and Rosie

"I've heard of Poseidon!" Rosie repiles immediately the name is mentioned. "One of the three ancient weapons, asides Pluton and Uranus. Poseidon is a mermaid with the power to communicate with sea kings... no?" Fel's look is probably changing at this point, letting Rosie know she's wrong.

"Hmm... I heard of Zeus and Hades in school. Something to do with..." Her eyes brighten as she remembers and links it to what Fel said earlier. "... a pantheon! Oh, tell me more, honey."

So, the pantheon consists of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hades and Heston, they’re one generation, then there’s their kids Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Dionysus.

Zeus, Poseidon and Hades are the big three, Poseidon is in charge of the seas, Hades is in charge of the Underworld and Zeus is in charge of the rest.

Honestly, there are many texts that can give you the whole story, but long story short, Zeus is the one in charge because he saved the rest of them from their father’s stomach, airs a whole thing, anyway....

Let’s just say that Zeus likes to come down from Mount Olympus and.......consort with mortals.

Like my mother.

[Recaiden]

"Were they always that big?" the paladin asks in response to the answer.


He answers her question next. "These swords are really too big to use indoors or in dense areas," he says. Hearing the noise, he draws one of the swords and looks in that direction and around it, trying to spot what caused the sound. His voice lowers so that he can still answer without being too loud. "So when not out in the open, I adapt and improvise with different weapons." They end up breaking or getting lost too quickly, however, so that's why he sticks with these two. They don't break and they're hard to lose.

"Oh yeah, giant. Also not very good indoors." Although sometimes you can swallow the whole building, and that's fine.

Out in the direction of the noise, one can see a thin sinuous line, darker than the surrounding darkness, almost just a shadow, pulling away from the broken branch and further off to the right.
One hopefully* doesn't see the many hands and larger shape sweeping closer, concealing themselves near-silently behind one of the great trees.

[Purple Eagle]

So, the pantheon consists of Zeus, Hera, Poseidon, Demeter, Hades and Heston, they’re one generation, then there’s their kids Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Dionysus.

Zeus, Poseidon and Hades are the big three, Poseidon is in charge of the seas, Hades is in charge of the Underworld and Zeus is in charge of the rest.

Honestly, there are many texts that can give you the whole story, but long story short, Zeus is the one in charge because he saved the rest of them from their father’s stomach, airs a whole thing, anyway....

Let’s just say that Zeus likes to come down from Mount Olympus and.......consort with mortals.

Like my mother.

[The Platinum Star] Fel and Rosie

Rosie listens closely, nodding at points to show she's listening. It's quite interesting! When Fel says the last thing, however, her eyes widen before settling into a frown. "Gods, taking whatever they please." Quite like the Celestial Dragons of her world. "Did he ever return to seek you out, dear?"

She found out she was demigod somehow, yes, but Rosie doesn't expect the answer to reflect well on Zeus.

[Lord Magtok]

The Platinum Star - Cats and Cyborgs and Chainswords and Cessies

Spoiler

Show

The Platinum Star - The One Who Has Probably Been Smacked The Most

Everyone present ought to be thankful that Jezebel wasn't taking a drink at that moment as she would have easily spit it out at her description. "Please, I haven't been a maiden in ages." She insists before shaking her head. "Admittedly, I don't believe Caelynn and I know each other very well. A handful of small chats from when she stayed in The Gardens. I always try to meet expecting mothers in the Gardens when I've time as they usually have concerns about the magic of the area." Of course, that would raise issues of Time itself, especially considering how old Blanche was now and how relatively young the Gardens were in comparison, but with how acquainted at least two present were with The Warp and its own shenanigans involving time, it shouldn't be anything too surprising or concerning. "It wasn't anything scandalous, I assure you. " She points out with a grin.

The Platinum Star - Two Moms

Caelynn raises an eyebrow, in amusement as much as surprise. "I didn't realize maiden had such a specific definition to it, I'll admit. Or at least not one that needed to be refuted." It was more of a synonym for woman than anything else in her mind, although she wasn't exactly going to retract the compliment.

"But yes, I know Jezebel more by her general reputation than anything else. Although I wouldn't mind changing that." The catgirl punctuates her words with a friendly smile. It wasn't as if she was terribly well-acquainted with many folks nowadays; most of the people she knew back in the day had disappeared or moved on in some manner or another, and she was never that great at reaching out and meeting new people.

[QUOTE=Shadowcaller;24756308]The Platinum Star - Two Three Moms and a Dad

"I got the impression that you knew one another better than that." Cessie looks between Caelynn and Jezebel. "I didn't even know Jezebel had such a reputation as a duelist. I foremost knew her as an entrepreneur and leader. It took a while until I even knew that she had such a talent for violence."

Her attention shifts to Magtok. "Back me up here, wouldn't you, Magtok? Jezebel just mentioned dancing and singing so I don't think either of us can't help but recall that unforgettable number she did at your casino. You must have known that she more than anyone would bring in the crowds." The sorceress smiles warmly as she turns to look at Jezzy. "How old were you back then? You couldn't have been much older than twenty." Jezebel's height and experience always made her seem older than she really was.

"I, uh..." Magtok frowns at his drink, trying to recall what had happened at the casino. If Jezebel danced there, it must've been one of the few casino events that weren't completely awful. In fact, it must've been just harmless enough that the other clones didn't think that particular memory was important enough to send with him when he came here to the Nexus. Oops. There's only so much room in each Magtok's head, though, and an absolutely ridiculous quantity of memories scattered across countless past bodies. If it didn't involve any critical Nexus history, important scientific skills, his past romantic entanglements, or one of the many traumas that define who he is today, does it really merit inclusion?

"I think I left that memory in storage, actually. Ask me about it next time and I'm sure I'll know what you're talking about," he admits, trying not to look too ashamed of his technologically-induced senior moment, or too uncomfortable when Cessie starts jabbering about age. Must be nice, having a clean and tidy contiguous lifespan, without any simultaneous lives running parallel to it to completely muck up any sense of the passage of time and advancement from one age to another. If either of them mentions how old Jezebel is now, he swears he'll pull out a ray gun and vaporize them both.

[5a Violista]

Rather than seeing the larger shape and the hands hiding, the paladin sees the thing that was in the direction he looked. That shadow(?) pulling off and away. Maybe it's something like that multi-cat?
...
Actually, thinking back to something he saw in the treehouse, he has a thought.

Zophiel lowers his sword a bit, relaxing his arms. "That one of yours, too?" he asks Hunter.

[Recaiden]

"No, that's not one of us." You can tell by how it's not psychically singing like the others.
Hunter takes a moment to look up, left, right...

And then in that general direction there's more shuffling as a little horned rabbit hops most of the way out of the underbrush, sniffing at the air, and then looking with wide eyes at the paladin.
Meanwhile the other thing scrambles quite quietly up the side of the great tree.

[5a Violista]

"Oh."

Horned rabbits are actually pretty dangerous. Sure, they look cute but they're incredibly dangerous, especially because when you see one there's always more around. Never let your guard down around them. His guard goes back up. "Oh. I see."

It's too bad that Zophiel can't ordinarily see through trees, though.

He starts to back away from it, while keeping an eye on it. If it doesn't follow, he feels confident enough to continue in the same direction as before. If the rabbit is trying to stall them so that other rabbits can surround them, it's best to keep on going and break their ambush.

[Murkus]

[Gem Dungeon - Floor 4]

It's hard to quip back at Rein about his facts-book when the situation with such a serious situation. She does take his arm though. And she looks at him a little uncertainly as Carmen presents her neck. If he really thinks this will work...

Well, let's just say it doesn't seem that crazy with everything they've seen in the Nexus. On top of that, this is basically exactly how you'd preserve someone's cyber-brain if you wanted to capture it or something. She reaches for familiar circumstances in an unfamiliar situation.

[Recaiden]

The horned rabbit takes a careful hop towards Zophiel.
Not an aggressive bound, just an ordinary hop.
It seems to have an oddly long tail, stretching back into the brush behind it.

Hunter creeps to the side to keep up with Zophiel. No one wants to be left behind with the horned rabbits.
Something scrambles through the branches overhead. It can't help but bending boughs and rustling the leaves, just a little.
Meghan sings out that there's something ahead, a recently killed dinosaur, beheaded, the rest being picked over by scavengers.

[Reinholdt]

[Gem Dungeon - Floor 4 Stairwell]

"Why don't you go on ahead a bit Tina? I'll catch up." There's no reason she should have to watch this. Well there are reasons, but Rein doesn't agree with them for the most part.

Either way, he solemnly turns to Carmen and before doing anything asks her, "Do you have any resistances or in invulnerabilities I should know about first?" It would be really awkward if Carmen was resilient to whatever method Rein uses and it leaves her in a great deal of pain instead.

[5a Violista]

[Visiting Family]

Thinking that there's another rabbit up there, Zophiel glances upwards. He keeps facing the long-tailed rabbit -in fact, he even steps away from it again, since it's obviously following them- but glances upwards to see if he can spot whatever causing the slight rustling. Especially if it's another rabbit.

There being a beheaded dinosaur nearby is just more evidence that there might be a lot more rabbits around.

Somehow, he needs to scare the rabbit away. That might break their ambush formation.
His left hand starts to turn black, as if several thousand threads are wrapping around it, in preparation of doing something to shoo off the dangerous rabbit.


[Gem Dungeon - Floor 4 Stairwell]

"Poisons," she immediately answers. "Poisons probably won't work. Unless they're, like, lust-element poisons. Those ones would work well." Super effectively, in fact. "M-maybe don't try light or dark-type things either, since it'll take longer and hurt more." Maybe she should just keep on talking, since just standing here in silence feels weird and awful. But she's run out of resistances so there's nothing else to talk about. "If you have one, I'd recommend a lust sword or abstinaxe or wanton dagger or something like that, since it'd be fastest." 'cause everybody just casually has a lust sword hanging about.

[Recaiden]

As soon as Zophiel glances upward the rabbit goes for his throat, leaping with all its rabbitty strength, horns seeming to become even sharper in midair. It tail can be seen to be impossibly long and thick for a rabbit, since it's in fact not a tail, but a cable connecting it to something else.

But he will see what's causing the rustling up there. It's not a rabbit. More of a giant blob of jelly with dark spots in it and about two dozen long jelly-noodle arms that it uses to crawl about. Some of those noodle-limbs stretch all the way back over the tree and down to the ground.

Hunter follows Zophiel's gaze up and fires her gun, which puts a big splattered hole in the jelly-monster and sends it tumbling down towards them. But it's certainly still alive. And pretty upset, judging from how the arms are moving.

[5a Violista]

There's a reason why rabbits normally have short tails.

It's because long tails are easy to grab. And the benefit of being a paladin - with healing magic, and all - is that you can take advantage of if by putting off fixing your gored throat for later. Of course, he can't really say anything - throat, obviously.

Zophiel raises his hands, reaching for the abnormally long tail, with both hands, coming from each side. Once he does that, he moves one hand upwards towards the rabbit. So that he can squeeze it and pull it off.
At the same time, his other hand clamps down. Once he has both hands clamped down - one on the tail and one on the rabbit, he steps back and yanks the tail, trying to find where it's attached to. Maybe it's coming from the jelly creature, but...he still pulls.

[Recaiden]

The paladin has the rabbit!
As he starts squeezing the rabbit, for one thing, it starts flailing at him with its rabbity feet. For another thing, it starts to lose its fluffiness and its sharpness, slowly becoming a generally rabbit-shaped glob of jelly with a rabbit skull floating at one end.

The tail he's yanking on runs through that brush, up into the tree, and then down to the jelly creature. It was already losing a lot of slack as the creature fell from its perch, so when Zophiel pulls on it, the tail snaps, way up on a branch it was looped over, and begins wiggling in frantic confusion.

The jelly creatures crashes to the forest, twirling over to keep its wounded side away from them, rearranging its hands around to face them, a few false tails still stretching up into the treetops.
Hunter sets aside her gun and its pack and draws a sword. Well, the hilt of a sword, which immediately forms a blade of burning plasma that lights up the dark forest like the sun. The jelly creature does not appreciate this, rearing up and getting some of its many jelly hands tangled.
Sandstone jumps on the monster right away, biting at its nearest hand.

[5a Violista]

Speaking of swords,
Zophiel had to drop his to grab the rabbit.
The sword was somewhat displeased for being dropped instead of used. Who cares about only having two hands to do things with. Nobody! Just grow more hands! The sword knows Zophiel has had more in the past and so the fact that he currently only has two is entirely his fault.

Anyway, now it's time to deal with his neck. The paladin tosses the rabbit-shaped blob away and moves his blackened hand to wrap around his throat. It's not the thing he was intending to do, but new circumstances now require healing instead of attacking.
The torn-apart throat is stitched together under his hand, and as that happens he decides to watch Hunter. Sure, it's primarily to watch her, but also it's watching her back in case any other tails or rabbits or whatever try to go after her to stop her.

[Recaiden]

The rabbit blob sails away into the woods. Shouldn't be a problem anymore.

The jelly creature's hands fold in, forming a cage around Sandstone as she bites at that one hand-
And Hunter slices through a half dozen of the jelly hands, letting the little dragon flutter free.
Out of the flank of the jelly creature stretches a huge animal face, gaining definition as it forms fangs and horns and plates of armor to snap at Hunter-
Who is suddenly on the opposite side of the jelly beast, carving into it with the burning sword, jelly boiling away. The monster is almost split in half - but not quite.

At one end of the monster, several jelly hands twirl themselves together and after a half-second of squiggling are one bigger and stronger jelly hand, which reaches out to grab the paladin...

[5a Violista]

Zophiel is in the process of healing is throat.
If he stops right now, it would have been better to leave it and heal it later: so he can't stop.

One sword is on the ground, so he can't grab it in time. With his free hand, he reaches back to grab his other one. However, the jelly creature's jelly hand is too fast and grabs the paladin before he can get that sword free.

At this point, Zophiel would ordinarily have to finish healing and then figure something else afterwards. Maybe a contest of strength against the hand, or something like that.
However,
instead of that happening,
the sword on the ground starts building up spiritual energy.

Then, suddenly, a phantom slash shoots out of the sword. The sword doesn't move, but the space above it is still cut as if it were swung. This space, in particular, includes half of the jelly-hand's wrist.

[Felandria]

[The Platinum Star] Fel and Rosie

Rosie listens closely, nodding at points to show she's listening. It's quite interesting! When Fel says the last thing, however, her eyes widen before settling into a frown. "Gods, taking whatever they please." Quite like the Celestial Dragons of her world. "Did he ever return to seek you out, dear?"

She found out she was demigod somehow, yes, but Rosie doesn't expect the answer to reflect well on Zeus.

Well, it’s not like he knew I existed at first.

But eventually he found out and he left a sword in a dungeon for me to find that would lead me to him, it was something I had to do for myself.

But when I found him, he was so welcoming, he truly does care for me.

[Purple Eagle]

[The Platinum Star] Fel and Rosie

Rosie looks super-surprised. A god actually caring for their children, of arguably lower status? She has to remember that they're from different worlds. In fact, Felandria seems to be a native Nexusian, whereas she herself is not.

She also quickly remembers that as Fel's girlfriend, she should be more supportive rather than judgemental, and holds back the scoff she was going to make. "... I'm glad that's so, babe."

She squeezes Fel's hand and takes a tiny sip of her drink, making said sip look longer than it really was. "Will you introduce me, sometime? You can meet my mom and dad, as well." She trusts Fel, but wants to meet this Zeus for herself.

[Recaiden]

Zophiel is in the process of healing is throat.
If he stops right now, it would have been better to leave it and heal it later: so he can't stop.

One sword is on the ground, so he can't grab it in time. With his free hand, he reaches back to grab his other one. However, the jelly creature's jelly hand is too fast and grabs the paladin before he can get that sword free.

At this point, Zophiel would ordinarily have to finish healing and then figure something else afterwards. Maybe a contest of strength against the hand, or something like that.
However,
instead of that happening,
the sword on the ground starts building up spiritual energy.

Then, suddenly, a phantom slash shoots out of the sword. The sword doesn't move, but the space above it is still cut as if it were swung. This space, in particular, includes half of the jelly-hand's wrist.

Cutting through half the wrist is really going to interfere with the jelly's plans. See, the hand still grabs onto Zophiel, but when it tries to pull it just sort of twists and tears at the sliced wrist instead.
So after a moment it lets him go, and then lifts up the injured arm to just whack him as hard as it can.

If you're watching the rest of the fight, you'll see that the jelly monster has extruded many somewhat-animal-shaped pseudopods, each with a little skull at the front of them, in order to fend off Hunter. She's getting in small hits here and there with the sword, but the bits of jelly keep coming, backing her up towards a tree.
Then the song hits a high point and Sandstone breathes out a cloud of dusty vapor that turns the wounded bit of the jelly beast to a thin layer of stone, which crumbles and cracks as the monster fights.
The jelly shatters into two pieces each capped in jagged rock, and the slightly smaller part, far from Zophiel, begins to grow still.

[5a Violista]

Zophiel gets grabbed but luckily nothing happens - he assumes Hunter must have done something - which gives him enough time to fix his throat before getting whacked.

He gets hit away and into a tree.

It's okay, though. He recovers quickly, and finishes drawing his other sword. He looks to see what's going on, and sees the jelly turning into rock and jelly bits.

He winds up, and aims at the still-moving part, taking a little more time so that he doesn't hit Hunter on accident. Once he's sure he won't hit Hunter, he hurls his sword at the jelly-bit that is moving more.

[Recaiden]

Zophiel, you have to pay more attention to your weapons.
Well, at least you probably should pay more attention.

Hunter punches a jelly mouth, putting enough holes in it that it falls apart.
The still-moving part starts to pull itself back up into the canopy.
Zophiel's sword is hurled true into it, cutting through a jelly arm, carving the monster open, and setting it swinging wildly.

[bc56]

Sekhmet arrives here at the agreed upon time to meet Anchor and her friend. She looks very different from the last time they met though. She's got armor this time, although she clearly seems unused to it, bronze armor perfectly fitted to her form. The whole ensemble consists of masterfully crafted breastplate, mail skirt, helmet, bracers, and greaves, designed to be both beautiful and functional. She enters the temple grounds nervously. This isn't something she undertakes lightly.

[5a Violista]

[Visiting Family]

Yeah, Zophiel probably should.

He gets a look of what's happening, to catch up. It looks like...cutting isn't really working particularly well against this thing, since it just divides it into a smaller part. Unfortunately, all he has is a sword, so.

He runs over to grab his first sword - the one that fell earlier - so that he's not weaponless.

"Hey, what do you recommend?" he asks Hunter (partially to show that he's no longer bleeding out). She probably knows more about this thing.


[Message's Temple]

Zophiel arrives at the temple. He's tall, wide-shouldered, very much the picture of 'knight in shining armor' except without the armor. Instead, he's just got two massive swords on his back, both with elaborate handles and bases but one sword is deep red and the other is dark blue.

Presumably, he's already been briefed on what happened which fit with his experience of time snapping there. So, he wouldn't really be particularly surprised to see a second Sekhmet - this one looking kinda different, though.

He spots her and mouths a 'hi' to her.

[Recaiden]

[Visiting Family]

Cutting it is fine, since the small pieces don't last long on their own.
"Knock it down, keep it out of the trees!" Hunter calls. And it is good to hear that Zophel is in condition to talk.
Hunter is dousing the flame of her sword, returning the sword hilt to her belt, and getting out another gun - not as cumbersome as the first one, better suited to small targets like jelly-hands, or branches.

[Message's Temple]

Anchor is already at the temple.
Like Sekhmet, she's exchanged her day-to-day outfit for serious gear. Her armor is a high-tech, form-fitting suit of glossy black, with some gratuitous black crystals, made by her step-aunt, the goddess of hunting. Her weapon is a straight steel sword enchanted to be bane of demons, received years ago from a wandering knight. Around her neck is a string of lion's teeth, across her chest a bandolier full of potions from Leahs and Jeanne. And as usual she has a cloak made from the light of the setting sun, plenty of guns, a book of magic spells, and a few mystical trinkets.

"Just on time. I mean, I was worried something would happen between then and now."
Anchor's shadow is sprawled on a pile of cushions near the musicians' stand on the far side of the temple. Not taking this seriously enough at all, that one.

"Zophiel, this is 'real Sekhmet', like I explained at VIGIL. She's part of my church now, but never met us before."
"Sekhmet, this is Zophiel, my parent but more importantly today, a paladin. And he was there in the time-fold at Marlick Bay."

"We're going into Hell to find 'past Sekhmet', who ended up there are a tiefling without us looking for her. Alexis should be able to send us there; I mean, part of the temple is set up for opening portals, unless either of you have a back door into hell we can use."

[bc56]

Message's Temple

Sekhmet looks at Zophiel, but there's no recognition in her face. She really hasn't met him. "Hi, uh, I'm Sekhmet." She uncomfortably adjusts the straps of her armor and tries not to think of how scandalously much of her legs are showing. "I, uh, have a way in. It's, uh, more likely to, uh, get us close to where she is."

[5a Violista]

[Visiting Family]

Zophiel nods, "Okay."

At this distance, there really isn't much he can do with just a sword if he doesn't want to throw this one away too.

So, he gets closer to the tree that the jelly creature is climbing in to. His free hand uses a paladin magic, shooting black vines with golden thorns upwards. They wrap around some of the branches - mostly the ones that the jelly creature is using to climb back up. The thorns dig in to the branches, and then Zophiel pulls down on the vines. This causes several of the branches to crack and get pulled down.



[Message's Temple]

"Hi," he says aloud this time. "Good you meet you." To be honest, after she proved herself he didn't dislike 'fake Sekhmet'.

The paladin doesn't have a way to get there, so he stays silent on that part.
"Once we're there, do we have a way to track her?" Presumably, with this Sekhmet here it shouldn't be too hard. Maybe some sort of soul resonance or something like that, he figures.