Inside 69: Nice.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Slums - Definitely a Normal Vacuum Shop]

Beth joins Fenris under the magic umbrella with a nod and a, "Thanks." She was okay in the rain, but Fenris already went to the trouble.

A scant few minutes later, she looks up at vacuum sign. A few thoughts go through her head. This looks like a decent enough secret hideout. I wonder how long ago this building officially burned down. If it were truly unoccupied it probably wouldn't stay that way for long.

None of these ideas are terribly relevant. She pulls the warped door open to the tune of creaking hinges and crackling lead paint and steps inside to hold it open for the other two as she looks around.

A stairwell up and down is right next to the door, probably placed such that other tenants could proceed to their private business without going all the way through the ground-level storefront. There's no sign or anything, but foreboding darkness and silhouettes of broken two-by-fours make it clear that no one's welcome upstairs or downstairs. So, Beth proceeds to the counter of the vacuum shop itself and idles, imagining that Hector's contact gave him some kind of password or something.

[Morty]

[The Slums - Monroe's]

Michalson suppresses a sigh. First the oh-so-subtle threat in the mug, now she's about to stonewall him. Time to be blunt.

"It would be very helpful if you could recall anything you can, ma'am. The information I'm lookin' concerns the safety and welfare of several people."

[Halae]

[Red Zone]

Our heroes try their best to look cool as the vampire burns.
But after a few moments they're pretty overcome by the smell and start gagging furiously.

But assuming nothing jumps out at them after a minute they'll start searching the place for the key to the girl's cage.

[Red Zone]

The key is relatively easily found on the vampire's desk, and simple to carry over to unlock the eleven year-old girl's cage.

She has definitely seen better days. Shivering and pale, she hasn't been here long enough to be seriously tortured and tormented, but her skin is a deathly pale and there's the telltale puncture wounds on her neck of having been bitten by the vampire. She hides in the back of the cage, unsure of what to do about the strange beings that came here. She's obviously terrified this is somehow going to get worse.

[Strange Temple]

"I cannot read your mind." Did he guess what she's concerned about? Or feel it somehow? Or maybe it's just something he expected. "But I am well attuned to desires, if they align with my purview. I can take the thread of your longing for home and bring it back, just for a while."

[Strange Temple]

Emily considers that for a long moment, "Then... I accept, with a caveat. If you ask me to do something against my morals, or commit any atrocities yourself, there'll be hell to pay."

[Hattish Thing]

[Monroe's - The Slums]

The woman shrugs, leaning forward slightly. It's clear that she has no intention of cooperating without further incentive.

"A few dollars more might help, flatfoot."

[Earl of Purple]

Sunlight Gardens

"So! I'm going to be back shortly, I need the little boy's room." Prumathe stands up and works his way into the coffee shop, where he has a short discussion with the barista and is led off.

"So, now he's gone. What's your thoughts on Pru? And be honest, he's a dumb stick sometimes, too keen of using his muscles and magic to solve issues and not his head. I won't tell him anything you tell me, I swear it on moon and stars." There's some weight coming down as Samantha swears, and Sekhmet can tell she's bound to the oath- not permanently, it's not that powerful. Hopefully this will also distract her from Nocri and her predicament.

[Deathkeeper]

Red Zone

The pair holster their weapons and snatch up the key. Gu checks for anything else incriminating (or useful) in the room while Mac unlocks the door.
"Hiya there, dearie. Amata sent us to get you home. Come on now, 'fore any of his friends hear us." Though if anyone else was here they probably would have heard. Hence their desire to not press their luck and escape out the back as soon as possible.

[bc56]

"Oh." Does Sam expect Sekhmet to have some secret doubts or misgivings? "Prumathe's wonderful. He's so kind and generous. He's given up so much to help me with my problems. He doesn't care what I look like. Uh, and he really did save my life." Sekhmet pauses for breath, then continues. "I, uh, was the one who first brought up the idea of, uh, marriage. I think I caught him by surprise. I'm a little worried I'm rushing him, and he's, uh, not ready. But we've been through so much together, and we've been courting for almost a year."

[Morty]

[Monroe's - The Slums]

What in the Whistles does "flatfoot" even mean? Some unflattering way of referring to policemen, but why?

"I will order somethin' to eat," he says. This seems like a way to approach this. "Take away and eat later, that is." Or rather throw away once he's out of sight. "While I wait, you can tell me what you know."

[Rebonack]

[Aimless Shenanigans]

The hostages weren't restrained, save by their fear, and will happily follow Zabb out of the bank.

Eao, meanwhile, blasts the leader!

The projectile just kind of... fizzles. And one of the Mobster Robster's fancy jeweled cufflings shatters.

One of three.

"Nyeeh, a wise guy, eh? I was gunna sacrifice a few hostilities but you did the work with my patsies for me! Skeletron! In invoke yah! Nyeh NYEH NYEEEEEEEH!" the robster bellows as he holds the pendant aloft.

Out in the lobby the bank begins to shake as a great rift tears its way through the floor, bits of marble tumbling off into the abyss as sheets of roaring flame belch forth! A huge skeletal hand rises, gripping the lip of the fissure, soon followed by a second, as a MASSIVE horned, hooded skeleton rises from the pit!

"NYEH HEEH HEEH HEEEEEEEEEEEH!" it laughs as flames consume the dead robsters, leaving only... umm... human skeletons behind? Not sure how that works.

Regardless!

The smaller skeletons begin hurling fireballs at our heroes! Oh no!


[Metropolis Square]

There are, in fact, quite a few nice looking dress heels of varying heel heights, from low extra high!

When Jade looks at Morning the equestrian shrugs and laughs. "I walk on my tippy-toes all the time. Either nothing I wear is heels or EVERYTHING I wear counts as heels."

More like...

Ballerina shoes?

Maybe?

That's probably the closest thing.


[Slums]

A password?

Hah.

As if.

The vacuum repair shop is...

Well.

It looks like someone could, hypothetically, repair a vacuum here. There are dozens of them scattered about the shop. Standing upright on the floor. Laying flat on the floor. Draped across tables and sofas. All of them in varying states of dissection with vacuum parts strewn across nearly every available surface. There's a counter at the back of the room, the sort with a glass display case in it. The glass is long since missing and even MORE vacuum parts are stored within. Perhaps unsurprisingly the counter is heaped with even more disassembled vacuums.

Peaking out just above a vacuum bag is a pair of large black bat ears. The sound of soft snoring fills the room, nearly drowned out by the rain.

Fenris shuts off her magical umbrella now that they're inside, looking around the shop curiously. "Reminds me of Dwemer machines. Just less stabby."

Most things are less stabby than Dwemer machines.

[Deathkeeper]

Slums

Hector grimaces as he enters the shop and finds it notably missing secret societies. Maybe there’s a hidden door somewhere? That cloud of pixies seemed to indicate the Watchers are primarily human, but those definitely aren’t human ears. He tries not to trip on any of the mechanical parts lying around. At least it’s not abandoned. He noticed they didn’t have a door bell like Cobbler and Cobbler.
”Uh, hello? Excuse me? I could use some help.” he calls, trying not to shout too loudly at a person with ears that big.

[bc56]

Jade laughs. She picks out a pair of shiny black pumps, takes off her current shoes, and tries them on. She stands up, wobbling unsteadily. "Hey! I'm tall!" She laughs again. "How do I look?" She feels weird. These shoes force her posture to be different, more stuff and erect, and of course it accentuates her legs and butt.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Slums Vacuums]

Beth steps over piles of hoses and motors on her way to the counter and pokes the top of the cat's head. "Hey. Wake up. You have business. Super-secret high-end business or whatever." As the cat/cat-person/mammal with ears similar to a cat grumbles and shakes off its comfortable collection of bags and filters, Beth looks back to the doorway. "Show them your note, Hector."

She's making a lot of assumptions about how this operation works.

[Hattish Thing]

[Monroe's - The Slums]

A good question; likely some form of local color. Perhaps a friendlier citizen would be able to provide a more thorough explanation at some point in the future.
Best hold onto that term, for now. Maybe familiarity with it would turn out to be useful, somehow.

The woman simply shrugs. "Have it your way, flatfoot." She wasn't going to push the issue any further, this was victory.

--

A few moments later, the line cook emerges from the kitchen once again. She wipes a greasy hand upon her stained smock as she shuffles towards the detective. She's favoring her right leg, perhaps an injury that never healed? No, more likely a medical issue of some sort. She was an older woman after all, and dangerously overweight.

She sets a tray down besides Michalson, coughing as she does so. She was quite obviously ill. Her cheeks and eyes were swollen, and her nose was runny and red.

There's not much in the way of acknowledgement, just a sharp glare before she turns back around.

--

The sandwich upon the tray is mediocre, consisting of a frozen patty in between two soggy buns. There's some lettuce there, somewhere. A tomato slice or two, some lopsided cheese. The ingredients are all rather musty - all in all it smells quite strange, not at all how a sandwich should.

This was better than the coffee, at least. Finally, the woman behind the diner bar responds. "See that alleyway 'cross the street? There's a building at the other side, hasn't been used in years." It had been a newspaper company - bought out and shut down. "Burnouts live there now, burnouts and transients." She grimaces. Even she was unhappy with it all. "There's a panhandler that lives in that alley there, strange looking man with only one hand. He sometimes crosses the street to beg."

"I don't actually know his name, but he approached the woman you're wanting to find. I didn't get a good look at her, but he must have."

[Rebonack]

[Slums]

Bat ears, actually.

But they look like they probably belong to a fruit bat, so mistaking them for cat ears in the dim light is definitely a possibility.

"Neh...?" she mumbles, peeking up from behind the vacuum bag she was using as a pillow. "O-oh. Customers!"

She blinks at them myopically for a few moments before feeling around on her desk until-!

"Ah! There they are."

She puts on an almost comically thick pair of glasses which makes it almost look as if she has anime eyes.

A few seconds more of peering and she draws a conclusion. "None of you have a vacuum."

Very perceptive.

"Did you need to buy some parts ooor?"

It would appear as though she hasn't noticed Hector's shadow. Probably because it is obscured by the counter.

Fenris, meanwhile, is inspecting one of the gutted machines curiously, sketching a picture of its components and trying to figure out what it's for and what they do. She could just ask of course, but what fun would there be in that?


[Metropolis Square]

Jade can likely feel the muscles on her lower legs getting stretched a bit as well. Obviously not as much as actually just walking around on tip-toes, of course.

"They're cute! You were a few inches taller when you were Jason, right?" Morning Glory asks. "Must have been strange getting use to the lower perspective."

And being on her tippy toes maybe helps with that?
"help me"
The shoes themselves are a nice pair of pumps, sacrificing little in the way of comfort for their elegance. It looks like they have them in a few different colors.
"please help me"
"So would you say you're more of a black shoe woman or a red shoe woman?" Morning Glory asks teasingly.
"please"
One of the Equestrian's ears twitch as she looks around, ears swiveling this way and that. She's suddenly alert, muscles taunt and ready to spring into action. "Do you hear something?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Slums]

"Uh, no. The owner of Cobbler and Cobbler sent me. He said I could get some help here. I've been dealing with a rowdy black dog." He has absolutely no idea whether or not she'll get the message, but there doesn't really seem to be anyone else here. The walls are too dusty and the floor too crowded for him to really say whether or not there could be any secret basements to house Watchers. Maybe they moved out after the fire damage?

[Morty]

[Monroe's - The Slums]

The sandwich does little to improve Michalson's mood, but getting something that looks like a lead works much better. He's glad he wasn't wasting time here. Of course, he says none of it. When he responds, his tone is as formal and polite as before.

"Thank you for this information, ma'am. I'll be off now, unless there is anything else."

[Strange Temple]

Silently, the King in Rags feels amusement in the core of his being. Mortals do so often enter deals with fey and expect to keep their hands clean.

"Then as the immortal Wyrd is our witness, the deal is made. Come here tomorrow night, at midnight. Instead of the temple, you will see the home you remember. You will have an hour or so to enter it and take something dear to you."

[bc56]

"More than just a few." Jade responds. Nine inches. Nine whole inches. She'd gone from a taller than average man to a shorter than average woman. The curse must've known Jason liked short women and responded accordingly. "Being short was one of the hardest things to get used to. There's so much I can't do anymore." Like reaching tall shelves, for example. Jade shrugs to Morning Glory's joke. "I have no idea what that means. But these are nice." She lifts one foot to look at it, and has to quickly catch her balance. When Morning Glory hears something, Jade's just about to start trying to walk a few steps to test them out. She stops, and tenses as well, although in her current shoes, neither fighting nor fleeing will be easy. "I don't hear anything. Why?"

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Slums Vacuums]

Beth idly runs her fingers through her bouffant as she tries to size up the bat girl. Does she really think she's here to sell vacuum parts? "How long have you worked here?"

She isn't doing much repairing herself, Beth thinks. If she just takes in the vacuums, it could be that they're smuggling something in the bags...

She looks down at one of the beat-up vacuum bags on the counter. Some fine dust has leaked out of a hole in the stitching. It could theoretically just be regular dust. Whatever. I'm not a cop. We just need to find the real office.

[Rebonack]

[Slums]

"Problem? With a black dog? I work on vacuums, sir, this isn't a veterinary clinic," the bat-eared woman replies.

Maybe she's playing dumb.

Or she actually has no idea what's going on and the Watcher he's looking for is in another castle?

"Huh? About six years?" she responds to the question. "Are you sure none of you have vacuums?"

Fenris has picked up a bit of steel with tightly wound copper wire on it.

She hasn't the faintest clue what such a thing would be fore

Don't people just use soul gems here? What good is a bit of metal and copper wire? It certainly LOOKS like it must be important, since it would have taken quite a bit of effort to make such fine copper wire and spool around a piece of metal like this. What could it be...


[Metropolis Square]

"But if you're short you won't bang your head on low-hanging objects," Morning Glory points out. There's always an upside to everything!

Okay maybe not always and everything.

Some things are pretty bad regardless of perspective.

Though on a more serious note-

"I thought I heard someone just now," Morning Glory says, trotting cautiously toward the back room of the shop. "Hello? Is someone th-"

As she steps around the corner out of view her voice cuts out.

Silence.

Save for the bustle of the street in front of the shop.

[Deathkeeper]

[Slums]

Hector pulls out the piece of paper with the address written on it.
"This is your address, right? Was there someone else here a while ago? I saw you're missing an upper floor. Because he assured me he had an associate here." he tells the bat-girl.

[bc56]

Okay. That's freaky.
"Hello? Morning Glory?" Jade walks forward and peers around the corner, her high heels too loud in the silent shop. Where did she go? Jade is tense, grabbing the edge of her skirt tightly with one hand, raising her other hand in a defensive stance. "Anyone?" It can't be a coincidence that Morning disappeared right after hearing someone.

[Purple Eagle]

[Aimless Shenanigans]

Zabb continues leading the hostages out of the bank, hearing and sensing trouble but focusing his efforts on ensuring that every hostage makes it out, and far enough to be reasonably safe. He knows the two can handle themselves against the Edward G. Robinson wannabe robster, and aims to join them as soon as he can.

Right now, though, it's ensuring the hostages' safety and ensuring that one of them contacts the proper authorities. Also, that they keep watch over the surrendered robsters without exacting revenge. They've surrendered, after all.

[Rebonack]

[Metropolis Square]

Jade called out in fear.

But no one came.

Looking around the corner, it looks like a pretty standard shoe shop back room.

Lots of shelves.

Lots of shoe boxes.

It's claustrophobic and kind of creepy.

Especially since the only illumination is a single naked bulb hanging from the ceiling.

It sways back and forth gentle, shadows it casts skittering across the floor.

[Hattish Thing]

[Monroe's - The Slums]

There's no further response from the woman. She doesn't even say goodbye. Rather, she grunts in acknowledgment before starting to wipe at the stained counter once again, eager to work herself back into a mindless stupor.

It was simply easier that way. Outside, the rain starts to fall harder, hammering onto the street.

Police sirens wail in the distance. What now?

[bc56]

Metropolis Square

Now this is really creepy. Fortunately, Jade is not a coward. She is a superhero. And that means she isn't going to be stopped by a claustrophobic room lit by a crappy bulb. She cautiously walks into the room in the unusual gait only someone wearing high heels or on their tiptoes can have. Now the skirt around her legs feels less like it's pleasantly swishing around her and more like it's letting too much breeze in. Or is that her imagination?

Aimless Shenanigans

Wow. That thing's big. Eao immediately switches to her true form to breathe a beam of searing light at its face. She'll let Lapis deal with the robfather. She wants to take out the big guy.

[Rebonack]

[Metropolis Square]

Probably just her imagination.

That skittering sound wasn't, though.

Or that eerie giggle.

Several possible paths stand before Jade.

There's a bathroom back here. A puddle of water is slowly spreading from under it.

A door that leads out to a loading dock in the back. It is smeared with greasy black hand-prints.

A door leads into an office. Deep parallel gouges cross it.

And finally, perhaps most eerily, Jade can just barley make out a door behind the shelves of shoes. It is open. Only darkness greets her.


[Aimless Shenanigans]

"NYAAAAAH!" bellows Skeletron as the burning light sears away at its skull. But it isn't going down that easily! With another mighty, "NEYH!" it sweeps both of its massive bony hands toward her to try to crush her between them!

Lapis, meanwhile, is dodging fireballs from smaller skeletons! Well. Not actually dodging. She had bought a Trait that lets her use her sword as a shield! The flames strike the fire that burns hotter than they could ever hope and are consumed. Giving her leafy wings a beat, Lapis launches herself at one of the skeletons, cleaving it in half and reducing it to a heap of cinders.

But now Lapis has a problem.

She ALREADY used her sword throw attack! She can't use that again for a little while! So she'll just have to do something else instead.

With her free hand Lapis pulls out a pistol made of twisted wood and searing light and levels it at a second skeleton, the weapon giving a fiery BRRRT! as it spits a spray of plasma at the burning skeleton! Lapis' aim isn't great, though. She's been spending all her skill points on sword stuff instead of gun stuff!

"BLEH! I hate guns they're stupid!" Lapis complains.

Then a fireball whops into her back. She gives a rather dragony sounding snarl as she beats her wings to extinguish the flames. She seems relatively fire resistant to begin with.

FWUPH!

Meanwhile!

Outside the civilians are scattering. They want outta here! One of them is calling Intersection. Back inside, the remaining burning skeletons are burning the other surrendered robsters! How rude! They scream and burn and become more skeletons! How rude.

[bc56]

This just keeps getting creepier. Jade heads towards the loading dock, hoping those handprints aren't fresh. They're pretty gross. And she keeps hearing things. She's not alone here. She feels like the girl in a horror movie. Hopefully the heel of her shoe doesn't break. She's getting used to walking in them, at least.

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

[Slums Vacuums]

A big dog in the house could easily imply a problem for a vacuum... ...but Beth doesn't say that out loud. Babbling and pedantry are more her sister's thing.

"What was your contact's name?" she asks. Who knows, maybe the myopic clerk will recognize it. Other than that, she leaves Hector to do the talking since he hopefully has a better idea what he's looking for.

Meanwhile, she paces around the room, looking at the shelves and furniture. Secret societies traditionally have secret entrances from shops like this, and there are more than two sofas around that could easily be covering a trap door. Unless that was just dad's BS. I'm pretty sure other organized criminals do it too. Convergent evolution or whatever.

[Rebonack]

[Metropolis Square]

Jade opens the door to the loading dock, revealing the back alley with a delivery truck pulled up to the landing. Its trailer is open.

And empty.

The cab door, likewise, is open. The window is smeared with more oily hand-prints.

Thick black fluid is running out of the cab and dripping into the gravel.

Sitting at the base of the concrete stairs leading down to the alley floor is an old, beaten up steel hand truck and a baseball cap. Both are dabbed with black slime.

Looking either way down the alley, nothing else seems amiss. Life continues in Metropolis Square as usual.

[Slums]

"Are you certain you don't have the wrong place?" the bat-eared woman asks, adjusting her glasses again. "You say a cobbler sent you? Did the dog eat your shoes? Why do you need a vacuum repaired if a dog ate your shoes?"

Either this lady is really dense-

-or she's waiting for Hector to explicitly explain what his problem is.

If Hector checks the card again, the one from Cobbler Cobbler with this address written on the back, the small man he had met before was named Wilbur.

That's a pretty good name for a cobbler, right?

"Excuse me," Fenris finally pipes up. "What are all of these-"

She gestures at the vacuums.

"-for?"

Poking around the room it DOES look like the edge of some sort of trap door is poking out from under a rug. Hmmm... wonder what could be down there?

[Deathkeeper]

Slums

Hector exhales sharply.
”No, I said Wilbur from Cobbler Cobbler sent me. Because I need help reigning in a barghest.”
Hector would tell him that he’s not fond of the terms being thrown around here, but well, he already is chained up at all times.
”They’re cleaning tools, Fenris.” he explains poorly.