Inside 68: Dawn of a New Season (or two)

[Deathkeeper]

[Streets]

Sam surprisingly goes for the purple one, remembering some old advice from a handsome demon-dude. He manages to get all his arms through no problem.
”So, um, does it look okay? A guy told me purple was my color a while back. And my last girlfriend only ever wore red so colors aren’t really my thing.”

[Dob-a-Dib]

He’s not the only one nervous. Dobbers has been checking their backs the whole time. He doesn’t seem all that stressed really. He’s just constantly looking around.
”Oh come on! You’re a mage! You have a staff and everything. I’ve got a book. It’s from Thoth. I mean, I think it’s pretty neat. I can see things with it, sometimes. You should be more proud!” Melvin tells Wilfred.
Right around now a pleasant breeze kicks up, spreading the wonderful smells (and pollen) of the colorful flowerbeds around them. And a few drifting dandelion seeds from the weeds that haven’t been plucked yet.

[Leostales]

Palace - Group 2

Metalhead notices whatever is about to attack him due to his advanced scanner tech, but does not react soon enough to save Emily the trouble of barreling into whatever creature is attacking them. He pulls out a gun and starts firing at the creature. His unnerring accuracy ought to prevent him from hitting Emily.

Ice Devil Dimension
The Ice Devil Dimension is a barren, freezing cold wasteland. As they walk through valleys of ice, Tethrik notices faces carved in the ice. Though inspecting their eyes reveals they are not sculptures, but souls trapped in the ice.

Tethrik also notices that Blackwall does not seem in the least affected by the cold, it is almost as if he belonged here.

Soon, they reach a huge castle carved into the ice. The castle is as barren as the valley. "I guess we'll enter." Blackwall says to Tethrik. "I'd recommend arming yourself, this might get controversial."


[Industrial Park - Blizzard Below]
"Ya don't need to tell me twice." Muun mutters, running away as far as possible and shooting behind him.

[House Hunters]
Anatya rushes to the desks and starts filing through them, looking for the remains. She takes the time to cast protection from undead first.

[Shadowcaller]

[Docks Sewer Nightmare]

The bear recoils back when the rainbow nightmare starts happening before her. Looked like she wouldn't be able to do much protecting from that. She really wished she had a bomb just about now.

Well, there was always the expensive back-up. Her novels.
This thing was going to pay for making her do this.

The bear roars as if asking them to get back before she shifts back to her humanoid form and blasts one of the incoming rainbow goo with a sunbeam which should fry it at this distance. "Don't get in contact with it!" She shouts, likely unnecessarily. Everyone could likely tell this was bad news.
She then reaches into her backpack to get something she shouldn't even be carrying around in a situation like this, a book. Not just any book though...

Anika throws it right at the creature. "Fire at the book!"
If the book is indeed set on fire, the steaming 300 page long romance anthology will get far more literary as the magical ink it has been written with explodes violently and causes a completely unpredictable magical effect...

Assuming of course the monster didn't just swipe away the book or something to similar effect.

[Blizzard Below]

Jaahlyn's priorities suddenly shift once the portal collapse. That was their job done? She wasn't even sure if this was connected to the facestealers but she wasn't aiming to stay around to find out.
She stops to play and runs to towards Morning, hoping to get a ride out. She seemed preoccupied but as Down had said, there was little choice but to flee now. Hopefully the collapse would bring down this entity or they would have to do clean-up work.

She waves to Morning, trying to signal for her to get closer so she could get up.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Industrial Strength Investigation]

The SWAT officer nods.

"How do you want to play this, then, Detective? We can, and probably should, go ahead of you, but how close are you comfortable with?"

[bc56]

Ice Devil Dimension

Tethrik shivers during the trip. He is most definitely not used to the cold and doesn't belong here. When they reach the stronghold, he doesn't draw a weapon. He doubts he has one that would be more effective here than his fists and fire magic. He follows Blackwall in.

Office of Horror

Frustrated by the two Pokémon fleeing in opposite directions, Tethrik begins to pound on the walls. They crack and splinter under his assault, spreading a cloud of plaster dust into the air.

Pontius' Custom Constructs

Sekhmet appreciates the encouragement, and it inspires her to focus and work harder. She's just happy to be here and learning, she'd never get an opportunity like this on her homeworld.

[Reinholdt]

[Scavenger Hunt]

Many people have seen a cat run before. It's amusing. Most people haven't seen a cat in a hazmat suit run holding a glowing conch shell with a half-naked banshee chasing the feline, mouth moving in a manner resembling a silent movie. It's still amusing.

Maybe less so for the cat though. After some twists and turns, he's finally able to duck out of sight and seems to be home free until his cell phone rings and the chase begins anew. Gah. Who in the world has the worst timing? Did he have that greentooth thing installed in this suit? Rein doesn't remember and fumbles around, knocking over some market stands trying to answer the phone and not get murdered.

[Earl of Purple]

Office of Horror

Well, if Tethrik's destroying walls rather than chasing either pokemon, that's quite handy. Both stop, concerned that Tethrik's caught up on their compatriot or Alfred. Ben puffs off a blast of Sleeping Powder at the space demon, whilst Arnie uses another Rock Tomb to try and pin Tethrik in place.

Pontius' Custom Constructs

I think this is it for now, since they're basically building and designing and we've covered most of what's going to happen during that process.

[Morty]

[Industrial Strength Investigation]

"I'll be right behind you," Michalson says. "I'm tougher than I look and this way I can block whatever daz- magic might be thrown at you all. Now let's take it slow and at least try askin' some questions before we shoot."

[5a Violista]

[Arkham Street]

Harley the Evil ShapHolly the Half-Elf/licensed mercenary walks down the street, following up on her previous investigations. She's got a notebook out, where she has written down all the things in some weird nonsense shorthand, and she goes along questioning people and writing down more info as she gets it.

As she had just recently left Trog's, she's still wearing the same mask she wore there. It's a purple-and-silver one with a purple rose on the left side, a swan image on the mask, and both purple and black feathers.

Spoiler: image

Show

Looking back at her notebook, she recalls what she had initially been told about the going-ons: First, there's that harpy. She doesn't really have much to go on there.

Traditionally 'dark' creatures have been acting odd because of some disease. She's not all that sure what it is, but a couple people have told her what they heard about it on the news. She's still not sure if it could affect her.

The...skinrunners? Wormwalkers? Or whatever they're called. She had initially thought it was something else, but after a little investigation at VIGIL she learned that she had nothing to worry about. However, she still is a little curious about who they are and more about them, since her "informant" at VIGIL was unable to tell her much about them other than they have a fire allergy.

Faeries and Empowered fire things? Or whatever they're called. She just wrote down "empowered fire" but she's not completely sure what they refer to. Empyres? Something like that. She figures that the people on this street might know something about them, but she's not getting her hopes up: her questgiver told her that they were all lying low for now, so she's not certain she will make any progress on this quest.

Finally, robot bugs. She knows so little about what's going on that she doesn't even know what sort of questions to ask the people. 'Have you seen any robot bugs around here?'

Oh, yeah, and there were also those rats in a basement. Holly crosses that one off, because she already recommended a good rat killing poison.

...Yeah. She's not really making all that much progress beyond just learning a little bit more.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Industrial Strength Investigation]

The SWAT officer nods, then turns to his men and begins giving hand signals. In short order, they've created a formation to cover the advance towards the group spotted from the air. Misty joins Michalson's side, and the group moves forward, through a cropping of trees, and into another meadow. At the far end, they can see the group of people they spotted from the air milling around, but none seem to be making threatening gestures, nor do they seem to be armed. After a moment of observation, the SWAT officers move up, all alert for threats from any sides. A few people spot the officers as they move up, and put their hands up in a gesture of surrender before the officers even have time to call out commands to them. As the Intersection group draws close, they can see that some of the people appear dazed, and barely register when the officers approach. The few that put up their hands wait for the officers to approach before lowering them, but are obviously thankful to see some of Intersection's finest.

The most coherent of them is a young human woman whose relief is nearly palpable, and she starts speaking as soon as the officers lower their weapons.

"Thank gods you're here! We don't know what happened to us, or where we are, but at least we're alive! Do you have an ambulance? I think some of the worse cases may need some help." She gestures to a group of about half a dozen that are propped against a tree. They either seem to be unconscious, or stare blankly, not even acknowledging anyone who approaches them. Michalson can sense something similar to what he sensed in the factory if he approaches these folks.

[bc56]

Office of Horror

Tethrik roars and charges towards Arnie, pushing through the flying rubble to strike with a heavy slash of his bladed upper limbs.

[Rebonack]

[Abrajin's Library]

"I'm not sure if I startled you earlier," Myriam says, cautiously following the robot. "You acted like you were worried I was going to attack? Thanks for not whacking me with your staff."

The mill appears to be the stone sort.

Big round stone basin with a large stone wheel rolling in a slow, grinding circle. Grain constantly cascades into the device, where it's crushed into flour. The flower in turn drains into sacks that are being tended to by tiny, sooty little spider-like creatures. They don't seem terribly interested in the robot, all things considered. Though one of them DID just collapse under the weight of its sack. Poor little sooty spider thing.

The pair of cereal spooks at the table nearby watch curiously, though they make no comment on the interlopers.


[Blizzard Below]

Of course it's collapsing the roof.

What else would it do?

Morning Glory gives a sigh of relief as the portal closes, allowing her to break her focus on the Sea of Glass. Holding the link open AND not allowing it to expand out of control is a pretty trying task. Especially when an elemental of cold and hate is howling in your face the whole time.

"Everyone else get out! I'll try to stop this dumb windy horse," she bellows, somehow managing to be heard over the raging storm. And then she'll begin slowly trudging toward the swirling horror, incandescent flames still licking across her, eyes burning like stars. As she draws closer to the windigo she gathers every ounce of power she can muster, drawing deep from the well of her glory, pulling forth the full force of everything she stands for. Like a bonfire blazing bright, she rears back on her hind hooves, braces her legs against the icy stone, and leaps toward the apparition to deliver-!

-a hug.

"There's no need for conflict. Peace. Be still."

[Earl of Purple]

Office of Horror

The blades clang against Arnie's literally iron shell, but the armoured pokemon does yelp in pain, responding with a jump to Headbutt Tethrik's jaw, possibly stunning the demon or knocking him over. Especially as Ben is shooting a Bullet Seed at Tethrik's knees.

Alfred's hiding in a cupboard, listening to the noises outside and hoping desperately that his pokemon will be alright after all this.

[Morty]

[Industrial Strength Investigation]

"We'll call for a medical evacuation," Michalson decides, thinking quickly. This doesn't look like a trap, but it could still be one. "Can you tell me anything about what happened to you?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Industrial Strength Investigation]

The woman nods as the SWAT officers begin trying to help rouse the unresponsive.

"Thank you. Um, not much. We were all in the middle of a shift, when everything suddenly went black. I think just about all of us passed out, but I do remember hearing a....rumbling. Like something was hungry, almost, before I passed out. When I came to, we were all here. I was one of the first to wake out. I found this weird case not far from here, and it seemed like it had some kind of tracker or something in it, so I tried to get it working. It must have worked, since you're here now."

[Morty]

[Industrial Strength Investigation]

Michalson digests this for a moment. The kidnapper or kidnappers must have teleported those people, then either controlled their bodies to make the (presumably) cybernetic soldiers or forced them to do it and then wiped their minds. But why not just dispose of them afterwards? They really didn't give him the impression of someone concerned with innocent life.

"Hmm. Let me try something."

He puts on his goggles again, trying to spot any other magic that might be affecting the abductees, apart from the familiar traces.

[UncleWolf]

The Palace - Veroni, Zace, and Kothar

The odd words and phrasing cause Veroni to stop whatever she was about to do or say, and she gives Jace a puzzled look. Her eyes dart up and down, from the hand she's holding to the limp dragon, to her boyfriend's odd phrasing. She gives the hand a squeeze, silently admitting that yes, it was nice to hold hands finally, but she quirks a brow. "No...no this is not normal. Well, the sappiness most definitely is. The double-speak isn't, but if I had to hazard a guess...Zebes, Jace, fair warning but if you two are fused still by the end of this, we are NOT making out until you're fixed." She warns with a frown before letting go of the hand and shrugging to Kothar.

She even turns her back to him, as if not caring in the least, and takes a moment to flop back onto her throne lazily. "How about...no?" She tells Kothar with another shrug. "Oh no, I'm selfish and greedy and prideful. What ever shall you do?" She says dryly before rolling her eyes. "Yes, I'm insulting you. No, I really don't care. What I am curious about however is what you decide to do about it. Are you going to try and "heal" me? Try to pacify me or attack me? Or are you going to leave? You see me as a tyrant after all, but I've yet to raise more than my voice to you. The ball is in your court, Mr. Fun Police. You're the one that decides how this goes from here." She warns with a wave of her wing at him.

The Palace - Group 2

"We do not know, but she is not ours. She came aboard like you all many years ago. Go ahead and examine her if you wish."

Up close, the doll, or perhaps more truthfully an android, reveals itself to not be entirely human in design. She sports a fluffy(if dusty) grey wolf tail, as well as a pair of wolf ears instead of human ones, but the other thing that is readily apparent is that despite all the destruction and damage around her...she's far from a combat model. She wears no armor, her externals aren't hardened, and right where the blade is stabbed through her, she has an exposed power core. The blade has severed cabling attached to the dim blue sphere, but other than that there wasn't any sign of damage. She was a model designed for elegance, for grace and show. She shouldn't have been capable of the damage around the room, but she still wore two ancient scabbards upon her hip. Her daisho was empty as the blades she had were likely destroyed if the chamber is anything to go by.

The time to examine and do something is short however, for when Emily tackles the wielder of the blade, the air shimmers around the chamber as the creature's Active Camo fades. If Emily weighed over nine-hundred, then this thing must weigh OVER NINE THOUSAND!111!! since the centipedal creation was many times longer and larger than the smaller ones that had been destroyed. The length of it wraps around the entire chamber and it is as wide as a car with nearly a hundred mechanical legs, a couple dozen large segments to its body, and a single heavily armored four-limbed torso that Emily just tackled. The torso, arranged much like a centaur's would be, has two powerful arms and two more slender ones ending in blades that rise up from its back. For all of Emily's weight and force, it grapples with her and while it doesn't crash to the ground, it is pulled off balance enough to find it necessary for it to lower its first few segments to the ground for support but only after it throws Emily to the side. If she has enough mind to grab on as she is thrown, she might pull away one of the inch-thick armor plates upon its torso.

Metalhead will find himself with plenty of surface area to target, especially if Emily is capable of pulling off a piece of armor, but the creature lacks an actual head. If his eyes are keen however, he'll see a glowing deep-red strip along the creature's body that acts as a sensor.

From her vantage point up in the air, Jack will notice something else however. About half down the body, a broken blade sticks out several inches. The armor is badly cracked there and there are signs of corrosion given the time that has passed since the wound was given, but it would need quite a bit of force to drive it in or tear it out.

Intersection HQ

"I came here willingly, and it seems under the right assumptions as to how things have gone, so I'm not leaving the lobby. I won't hurt anyone, but if something goes down then I'm not letting myself be stopped by something as simple as a wall." Brokenfang explains to Ithuriel, sounding like she was disapproving of the entire situation despite appearing like she was enjoying it. "Or you." She warns.

When Nick shows up however, Brokenfang looks at him curiously before speaking what's on her mind. "Gotta ask. How the hell do you draw that gun, let alone use it?"

Golden Flock Orphanage

Luckily for Mo, her mechanical mind doesn't tend to miscalculate things even if it is sluggish more often than not. Once they finally have a moment, she frowns at Ithuriel. "Clear us. I already messaged my girlfriend to ready a doc for me, but you're not letting us go that easily, are you? And you owe me an explanation about the other person." She adds, her voice getting grim as she refers to the babysitter.

[Halae]

[The Palace - Group 2]

Emily does indeed grab hold of whatever she can when she's tossed aside, bringing a piece of the machine's plating with her as she uses the momentum to carry herself onto her feet and skids to a stop. There hasn't been many things that can toss her like that, and all the things that could are extremely dangerous. As such, she keeps holding onto the armor plate, using it as a shield as she rushes forward once more, intending to ward off any impact from the machine's blades using the armor plate in her hand so that she can reach a hand into the innards and potentially pull out something vital.

[Earl of Purple]

The Palace, Group 2

Jack spies the broken blade and swoops down, brandishing her shovel. She dives down to land nearby, and as part of landing- before she's lost most of her momentum- she brings the flat of the shovel down on the end of the shattered sword. Hopefully she manages to pound the sword in deeper with that blow, and won't have to try hitting it again. Because she's leaving the spot anyway; the monster's probably aware somebody just attacked it there even if she wasn't successful, and she doesn't want to spend too long too close. She rather thinks it's more dangerous than she is in melee.

[Deathkeeper]

[The Palace]

Jace's eye twitches. Just a little.
"That-""-Doesn't-" "-make-""-any-""-SENSE!" the two exclaim in unison.
"First of all-" he makes a gun motion with his hand. "BANG!" "If someone had a gun, bam, your kid could be dead, instantly. No brink of, no edge of, bullet in the brain dead, instantly." "Second, where would he be safer? How about at home? With a babysitter? How about anywhere else?" "I just destroyed my own relationship with my daughter for at least a month because I caught her traipsing off to Skyside and you're going to lecture us about bad decisions while you brush off life or death peril?"

Jace takes a deep breath and turns as well, going back to his place on the arm of Veronica's throne.
"We'll be fine, Veronica. But Zebes is-" "I'm not o-kaaaaay~ you weaaar me ooooout~" "-unwell. Something's been spreading through the city. I need to check you and Khannie and your sister later. You're right. You do look a little sick." "Does your head feel like a steel drum during a solo right now? 'Cause mine doooooes~"
Then Jace turns back to Kothar. His voice is hard as he goes back to his confrontational tone, his right eye starting to go blue. Their head is pounding. He can tell that doing this has put a dent in Zebes' sickness but he can't keep this up for more than a few more minutes. This has to stop now.

"You know what? I don't care. Be an awful parent. Bottom line: I was right. You were wrong. Veronica just went on camera and told everyone that she isn't conquering the city. So my point has been proven. You aren't needed; there's no villain. And that means that if you continue to stand here that makes you trespassing on private property. So do us all a favor and get out of our palace."

[bc56]

Abrajin's Library

The scout tilts its head at something unheard. A worried expression passes over it. The signal contains rather disturbing content, and it switches off its poetry subroutine. This news is too grave for rhyme. "No time to chat, I'm afraid. I just refused a self-destruct command. They can see through my eyes. You are in danger." Inspecting the millstone more closely will have to wait. "Can you fight? I can put you on the right track to start, but you will need to find a demon to help with the execution. I am too vulnerable."

Office of Horror

Tethrik is knocked over by the assault. The demon is confused and enraged, lashing out wildly without aiming at anything in reach. He should be easy to bring the rest of the way down.

Palace

Kothar ignores the insults about his parenting. That discussion is getting neither side anywhere. "It is in 'my court' as you say." The ball game he imagines is doubtlessly not the same as the one intended, but thankfully it is similar enough that the metaphor holds. "You are both diseased, but possibly not beyond my power. You are, as you claim to be, selfish, greedy, and prideful, and your mate is aggressive and ornery, but I am still willing to heal you, if you are willing to be healed. Otherwise, I will leave. I will find the other party which arrived here and warn them to stay away from you, so your sickness does not spread, and I will go into the city with the same warning. I shall not slake anyone's thirst for battle this day." The last comment is directed at Jace. Kothar interpreted his aggressive posturing as a challenge to a duel. He's never been good at interpreting the actions of warm-bloods.

[5a Violista]

Spoiler: quotes

Show

The Palace - Group 2

"We do not know, but she is not ours. She came aboard like you all many years ago. Go ahead and examine her if you wish."

Up close, the doll, or perhaps more truthfully an android, reveals itself to not be entirely human in design. She sports a fluffy(if dusty) grey wolf tail, as well as a pair of wolf ears instead of human ones, but the other thing that is readily apparent is that despite all the destruction and damage around her...she's far from a combat model. She wears no armor, her externals aren't hardened, and right where the blade is stabbed through her, she has an exposed power core. The blade has severed cabling attached to the dim blue sphere, but other than that there wasn't any sign of damage. She was a model designed for elegance, for grace and show. She shouldn't have been capable of the damage around the room, but she still wore two ancient scabbards upon her hip. Her daisho was empty as the blades she had were likely destroyed if the chamber is anything to go by.

The time to examine and do something is short however, for when Emily tackles the wielder of the blade, the air shimmers around the chamber as the creature's Active Camo fades. If Emily weighed over nine-hundred, then this thing must weigh OVER NINE THOUSAND!111!! since the centipedal creation was many times longer and larger than the smaller ones that had been destroyed. The length of it wraps around the entire chamber and it is as wide as a car with nearly a hundred mechanical legs, a couple dozen large segments to its body, and a single heavily armored four-limbed torso that Emily just tackled. The torso, arranged much like a centaur's would be, has two powerful arms and two more slender ones ending in blades that rise up from its back. For all of Emily's weight and force, it grapples with her and while it doesn't crash to the ground, it is pulled off balance enough to find it necessary for it to lower its first few segments to the ground for support but only after it throws Emily to the side. If she has enough mind to grab on as she is thrown, she might pull away one of the inch-thick armor plates upon its torso.

Metalhead will find himself with plenty of surface area to target, especially if Emily is capable of pulling off a piece of armor, but the creature lacks an actual head. If his eyes are keen however, he'll see a glowing deep-red strip along the creature's body that acts as a sensor.

From her vantage point up in the air, Jack will notice something else however. About half down the body, a broken blade sticks out several inches. The armor is badly cracked there and there are signs of corrosion given the time that has passed since the wound was given, but it would need quite a bit of force to drive it in or tear it out.

[The Palace - Group 2]

Emily does indeed grab hold of whatever she can when she's tossed aside, bringing a piece of the machine's plating with her as she uses the momentum to carry herself onto her feet and skids to a stop. There hasn't been many things that can toss her like that, and all the things that could are extremely dangerous. As such, she keeps holding onto the armor plate, using it as a shield as she rushes forward once more, intending to ward off any impact from the machine's blades using the armor plate in her hand so that she can reach a hand into the innards and potentially pull out something vital.

The Palace, Group 2

Jack spies the broken blade and swoops down, brandishing her shovel. She dives down to land nearby, and as part of landing- before she's lost most of her momentum- she brings the flat of the shovel down on the end of the shattered sword. Hopefully she manages to pound the sword in deeper with that blow, and won't have to try hitting it again. Because she's leaving the spot anyway; the monster's probably aware somebody just attacked it there even if she wasn't successful, and she doesn't want to spend too long too close. She rather thinks it's more dangerous than she is in melee.

Palace - Group 2

Upon seeing the whole of the centipede-thing thing, Marin realizes her little pistol probably wouldn't do anything good, especially with it so close to everyone else.

The catgirl looks over for any extra damage beyond the obvious blade, but can't see anything else. She starts wondering and hoping that's really all there is to it: just reconnect the cabling. She has no idea if this will work, if that's the only problem, or even if doing that would be able to help anything at all in the battle, but it's likely better than just standing there wildly firing a pistol. It doesn't look like this android would be able to help due to the empty sheathes, but just in the rare possibility that it would...well, anyway, maybe the android doll would be a better shot than Marin is.

"Okay," she says to the guide. "I'm pretty useless against that thing, so..."

She drops her bags and her pistol and kneels next to the android-doll. Oh, she would kill for some solder and electrical tape right now. If only she had brought her toolbag with her today, instead of just assuming she wouldn't need it on her day off.

She considers her options. Let's see...solder substitute. Maybe she could use...Oh! Coils of copper wiring. She reaches into her grocery bags to find the long wires she bought, and tears open the packaging with her claws. Luckily, her boss likes the idea of exposed wiring so she doesn't have to worry about stripping them as well.

Since she doesn't have any lead, maybe she could melt some plastic to help hold the severed sides together and keep the copper from falling out. Looking at her shopping bags, she considers the plastics. No, that would burn too easily next to the loaded wires...that one's a thermoset...aha! A good thermoplastic! And! Instead of electrical tape, maybe she could use band-aids. Sure, kind-of sketchy but she doesn't have much choice at the moment.

Finally, a substitute soldering gun...She gets out her phone, and takes out battery. Sure, this would ruin the battery, but it's not like she needs to take any calls. Using a small piece of the wire, she shorts the battery and creates a makeshift battery-lighter.

Okay, now finally something to insulate her hands from the potential electricity. She does have a screwdriver in her purse! This one's easy: she knows exactly where it is, and grabs the screwdriver.

Now she's all ready. Marin glances over behind her to see what's going on, and...she's making good time. Luckily she's done stuff like this before many times, so she doesn't need to waste any time thinking.
With the screwdriver, she first pushes the blade out and the copper coils in. Then, wrapping it in the plastic and melting it keep the two ends of each cut cabling attached and in place well enough...so that she can then pull them tight together with the band-aids.

...and then she tosses the battery-lighter because now it's practically worthless.

After - no, If this works, she'll have to fix up the job later. It just looks terrible and thrown together. (Which...it was.) Not to mention the burned plastic smell. And the synthetic robot is probably old enough and hasn't been cared for in long enough that Marin gives no guarantee anything will still work.

As she pulls tight and band-aids the last one, she says: "Pleaseworkpleaseworkpleasework..."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Streets]

Lucy steps back, puts a finger to her chin and peers at Sam. She sloooowly paces around him in a circle, humming thoughtfully, observing him from every angle. There's a point where Sam may get the distinct feeling she's staring at his butt for a few seconds.

"Yeah! Looks good!"

*****

[The Part where Dibbles Sneezes]

Oh no, dandelion seeds! There's no defense against them for someone with a sensitive nose!

"Ah, weell, y'see-" Those treacherous seeds, floating through the air! One of them lands right on Dibbles' nose. "Aw naw, ah- AHHCHOO!!" With an almighty sneeze, the rather small and weedy Dibbles explodes in size.

The big furry were-yak looks down at himself and sighs. "Well, tha's tha', I guess. Ugh."

*****

[Intersection HQ]

Ithuriel...sighs and shrugs awkwardly. "I guess so. Well, so much for my budding career as a politician, huh?" She mutters sarcastically. "Somebody somewhere apparently promised me something they didn't feel like delivering on. Guess I really am just good for punching things."

*****

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Seems everybody's out, more or less in one piece!

Ithuriel gives a nod to Red. "Sure. Getting our friend directly into a cell sounds good. We ought to have some specialised cells for this kind of tricky individual. Sounds good, Red, go ahead." Better plan than anything Ithuriel had at this point.

She rubs her forehead and turns back to Mo, shifting back to her regular non-rhino-y size. She's tired. So tired. "Yeah. Yeah, you're clear, don't worry. And the babysitter? By now she's probably figured out how to stoke the fire and get herself a nice hot drink in my cabin. She's safe. Just- just give me a minute, and I'll take you both there. Need to get her and the kid back together, right?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Streets]

Sam smiles warmly at Lucy.
"Lucy, I know what you're doing. You don't have to pretend to stare to make me feel better. I'm over it.
I think...there might be one thing though. I really liked those gauntlets. Even though they were uh- anyway, do you know where I could get some cool gauntlets with neat powers? We can find an armory somewhere I'm sure." Sam's near death experience might have made him comfortable with himself, but he still doesn't think he's attractive. And when it comes to magic items, well, he thinks he should ask the magic dragon with a hoard before he goes and buys something.

[Intersection HQ]

Nick sighs. Sitting back on his haunches, he draws the revolver in a single easy motion uninhibited by the armor. He gives it a spin, and a twist, and a twirl, and a number of other motions that really shouldn't be possible with the range of motion quadrupedal creatures' shoulders are capable of and yet there he is, doing them. Without even setting it off. When he's not using them to walk, it's more apparent that his fore-claws are more hand-shaped than your average griffin's.
"Any other questions, or can we get back to solving the problem at hand?" the griffin grumbles.

[The Part Where Dobbers Gets Startled]

Melvin happened to be looking down at his book at that exact moment as he'd been going to show it to his new partner. Someone sneezing loudly in your face when you're not looking is pretty surprising. Looking up at the same time to find a large yak-man towering over you barely a foot from you is also rather surprising, and these two things do a great job in getting Melvin to jump. Unfortunately, that causes him to explode in size. As it turns out he wasn't kidding; while slightly shorter than Ithuriel, he beats her in width, giving him the dubious honor of being the second largest therianthrope on the force after Officer Al. Who's basically cheating anyway, stupid dinosaur.
Regardless, the barrel-chested were-hippopotamus now finds himself towering over his partner, which is sadly nothing new to him. He rubs his face with a groan. The cheap enchantments on his uniform seem to have reached their limit, but are holding for now.
"Just once, just once, I'd like someone to go a day without seeing me like this. I-wait a second." He stares down at Wilfred. "Don't I know you? Do you go to that library down on Hodgepodge Street?"

[Rebonack]

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

"Well enough, I'll see to it," Red replies.

And that's exactly what she'll do.

It'll take a few minutes of conversation and then however long it takes for Far Step to do his thing. In the mean time, Ithuriel should have ample opportunity to retrieve the baby sitter.

While that's going on, Red will be keeping a close eye on their 'guest' in the nice suit.

[Abrajin's Library]

"A... demon to help with the execution?" Myriam says, looking befuddled. "I can fight, but I'm not sure if I understand?"

This is all very sudden and very strange! Self destruct orders and demons and fighting don't really... Well. Maybe demons fit with that. If her tentative understanding of what demons are is accurate, anyway. Demons being entities of pure 'chaos and evil'. Or at least that's how it was explained to her. Even if she still isn't quite sure what 'chaos' and 'evil' are supposed to be.

Myriam tightens her grip on her shepherd's staff a bit, while the perfectly normal lamb bobs her head, looking vigilant.

[Earl of Purple]

Office of Horror

Arnie will use another Rock Tomb to try and pin Tethrik in place whilst Ben runs off to find Alfred and help him flee the building whilst the authorities deal with the issue of the crazy space-demon.

Fortunately, there's a bond between pokemon and trainer, and Ben can find Alfred quite easily.

[Shadowcaller]

[NEWS UPDATE!]

There is a new update about the virus, coming not from Faith, the previous journalist that had information about the virus, but a journalist called Irek Quill from another newspaper.
While most news sites are now either covering the spread and effects of the virus or the invasion of facestealers by now, Irek's report covers how the virus can spread with the source cited as "HALO".

Irek's bullet points are as follows:

• The disease need two components to spread to an individual, visual and audial input of an infected individual at the same time. Thus the disease can spread through television and other visual mediums with audio but not through audial or text-based ones.
  
• The disease can't infect living humans, nor can they be carrier of the disease. Other species that don't have any fantastical elements to them can't be infected either but Irek's source don't dare to make any speculation on what species that might share this immunity.
  
• The disease can be cured during the initial stage of the infection by various means, however no cure has yet been found for people who are at the later stages of the infection.

[Arkhosia]

[Docks Sewer Nightmare]

The bear recoils back when the rainbow nightmare starts happening before her. Looked like she wouldn't be able to do much protecting from that. She really wished she had a bomb just about now.

Well, there was always the expensive back-up. Her novels.
This thing was going to pay for making her do this.

The bear roars as if asking them to get back before she shifts back to her humanoid form and blasts one of the incoming rainbow goo with a sunbeam which should fry it at this distance. "Don't get in contact with it!" She shouts, likely unnecessarily. Everyone could likely tell this was bad news.
She then reaches into her backpack to get something she shouldn't even be carrying around in a situation like this, a book. Not just any book though...

Anika throws it right at the creature. "Fire at the book!"
If the book is indeed set on fire, the steaming 300 page long romance anthology will get far more literary as the magical ink it has been written with explodes violently and causes a completely unpredictable magical effect...

Assuming of course the monster didn't just swipe away the book or something to similar effect.

Blanche doesn't need to be told twice, diving for cover as best she can manage. There's not much to be found, unfortunately... which proves to be a good thing, as Anika soon requests her to fire upon the book with a close range weapon! Cursing as she sprints back to the front, Blanche levels her hand flamer and lets loose a jet of flame to immolate the book.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Inside Everywhere]

A minor earthquake.
Howls.
Seemingly random, infrequent portions of road sagging, as if the ground beneath them has disappeared.

In the distance, a tower of grotesque flesh.

Spoiler: Various Spoils

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Spoiler: Docks/Sewers Spoils

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[Docks Sewer Nightmare]

They're alive.

They're alive AND not a skinwalker.

This is... about the best outcome Geneva could have hoped for.

As her friends and comrades begin blasting the tumor, Geneva quickly extracts the first of many victims from their cocoon and extends her psychokinetic bubble around them-

-just in time for the outside of the bubble to get splashed with disgusting rainbow goop. She knows all too well what that stuff is, what it does, and how important it is to keep it away from herself. She kind of wishes she had loaded herself out with Heal Bell today instead of Substitute, but that just means she needs to make the most with what she has.

Namely?

By suddenly splitting in half.

There are now two Genevas, each working frantically to free as many victims as quickly as possible. Each will still be tested with a little psychic jolt before getting pulled inside her barrier. It makes this all take more time, but she can't risk pulling an actual skinwalker inside her defense with all the actual people she has rescued already. The psychic jolt is distinctly unpleasant, enough to give a normal person a splitting migraine and a nose bleed. But that's way better than the alternative of getting left to the tender mercies of the skinwalkers.

[Docks Sewer Nightmare]

The bear recoils back when the rainbow nightmare starts happening before her. Looked like she wouldn't be able to do much protecting from that. She really wished she had a bomb just about now.

Well, there was always the expensive back-up. Her novels.
This thing was going to pay for making her do this.

The bear roars as if asking them to get back before she shifts back to her humanoid form and blasts one of the incoming rainbow goo with a sunbeam which should fry it at this distance. "Don't get in contact with it!" She shouts, likely unnecessarily. Everyone could likely tell this was bad news.
She then reaches into her backpack to get something she shouldn't even be carrying around in a situation like this, a book. Not just any book though...

Anika throws it right at the creature. "Fire at the book!"
If the book is indeed set on fire, the steaming 300 page long romance anthology will get far more literary as the magical ink it has been written with explodes violently and causes a completely unpredictable magical effect...

Assuming of course the monster didn't just swipe away the book or something to similar effect.

Spoiler: Industrial Blizzard Spoils

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"Ya don't need to tell me twice." Muun mutters, running away as far as possible and shooting behind him.

[Blizzard Below]

Jaahlyn's priorities suddenly shift once the portal collapse. That was their job done? She wasn't even sure if this was connected to the facestealers but she wasn't aiming to stay around to find out.
She stops to play and runs to towards Morning, hoping to get a ride out. She seemed preoccupied but as Down had said, there was little choice but to flee now. Hopefully the collapse would bring down this entity or they would have to do clean-up work.

She waves to Morning, trying to signal for her to get closer so she could get up.

[Blizzard Below]

Of course it's collapsing the roof.

What else would it do?

Morning Glory gives a sigh of relief as the portal closes, allowing her to break her focus on the Sea of Glass. Holding the link open AND not allowing it to expand out of control is a pretty trying task. Especially when an elemental of cold and hate is howling in your face the whole time.

"Everyone else get out! I'll try to stop this dumb windy horse," she bellows, somehow managing to be heard over the raging storm. And then she'll begin slowly trudging toward the swirling horror, incandescent flames still licking across her, eyes burning like stars. As she draws closer to the windigo she gathers every ounce of power she can muster, drawing deep from the well of her glory, pulling forth the full force of everything she stands for. Like a bonfire blazing bright, she rears back on her hind hooves, braces her legs against the icy stone, and leaps toward the apparition to deliver-!

-a hug.

"There's no need for conflict. Peace. Be still."

Spoiler: Orphanage Spoils

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Golden Flock Orphanage

Luckily for Mo, her mechanical mind doesn't tend to miscalculate things even if it is sluggish more often than not. Once they finally have a moment, she frowns at Ithuriel. "Clear us. I already messaged my girlfriend to ready a doc for me, but you're not letting us go that easily, are you? And you owe me an explanation about the other person." She adds, her voice getting grim as she refers to the babysitter.

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

Seems everybody's out, more or less in one piece!

Ithuriel gives a nod to Red. "Sure. Getting our friend directly into a cell sounds good. We ought to have some specialised cells for this kind of tricky individual. Sounds good, Red, go ahead." Better plan than anything Ithuriel had at this point.

She rubs her forehead and turns back to Mo, shifting back to her regular non-rhino-y size. She's tired. So tired. "Yeah. Yeah, you're clear, don't worry. And the babysitter? By now she's probably figured out how to stoke the fire and get herself a nice hot drink in my cabin. She's safe. Just- just give me a minute, and I'll take you both there. Need to get her and the kid back together, right?"

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

"Well enough, I'll see to it," Red replies.

And that's exactly what she'll do.

It'll take a few minutes of conversation and then however long it takes for Far Step to do his thing. In the mean time, Ithuriel should have ample opportunity to retrieve the baby sitter.

While that's going on, Red will be keeping a close eye on their 'guest' in the nice suit.

[Docks Sewer Nightmare]

Geneva's continued testing efforts turn out to be pretty wise, as only about a half of these victims are actually victims. Nine, by final count.
Those other eight are the sort of thing that she was paranoid about accidentally 'rescuing' from their fate.

Although, really, she's only going to identify one of them herself before everything about this situation very abruptly changes.

Anika throws a book, which was going to be entirely ignored by the horrible thing in front of everyone.
Then Blanche shoots it.

The arcane energy wrapped up in the literature erupts outwards as it impacts the abomination, scattering across its surface in an eye blink.
Across the tumor. Across the strange webbing moving to the walls. Across some portions of the walls.
For just a brief, tiny moment there is a surprised sort of yowl from the thing's many maws...

And then its gone.
The flesh orb and the webbing disappear entirely, a few portions of wall collapse, several of its captives fall wetly towards the ground below (those that Geneva hasn't yet acquired), with the one Geneva having identified as a skinwalker moments prior possibly just beginning to wind up into its unholy howls and literal fleshy unfurling.
Somewhere off to the side, where one of the colorful energy orbs had been thrown, glimmering flecks of metallic light swirl against the wall and drag it out of sight.

But still, these are not the most notable occurrences.
That honor belongs to the great trembling that courses through the earth, shaking the walls, ceiling, and ground all around the party. A great explosion not too far away perhaps, or an unconscionably huge impact. One of the more unstable portions of wall collapses further and somewhere above there is more rumbling from the dilapidated structure settling further into its own collapses ruin with the vibrations.

And then the deep, bass rumblings of a truly gargantuan chorus of howls.

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

While they may not be particularly close to the site, everyone here will be able to see and hear the arrival of the horror-show in the Understreet.
Even the suit man's smug composure breaks into something akin to perturbed surprise here.
"Oh...goodness. That doesn't seem right at all."

[The Blizzard Below]

Down was going to make a grab for Muun as she darted towards the exit, to carry him out of this place. This plan is adjusted a bit as she sees Morning Glory suicidally("???") run towards the windigo and leave Jaahlyn escape-less.
She curses whatever portion of empathy she has that convinces her to adjust course and fly directly overhead.
"Grab my back legs!"
This is shouted as loudly as she can, and it's hopefully heard over the blizzard's din, because that's the only chance she can give the rat-whisperer.

The weight of both of them is going to make this a very hard flight, but her powersuit's assistance should see them all out...if only just.
Just in time for the world to shake in the aftermath of yet another thing going wrong.
There is no appropriate place for Down's ensuing fountain of profanity.

Back below the earth, Morning engages her rather wild flying hug attack upon the elemental grouch!
This somehow works.
Something in her expression of positivity acts as an opposites-cancel-out effect here, immediately drawing out a surprised whinny from the windigo and a sharp reduction in the fury of the blizzard.
It's still snowy in here and a bit windy, but it's less...lethal?
The creature's size even seems to dwindle a bit, something mixed between a sickened and confused expression crossing its otherwise horse-like features.

Then the earth shakes in the wake of a new disaster and the blizzard begins to howl again.

[The Understreets]

It was probably a fairly ordinary day here, in this little pocket of Inside's drow population. Probably a gang war or two. Maybe whatever the equivalent of a drow neighborhood cookout is (probably that gang war).

Whatever had been happening here is promptly interrupted by a truly unfathomable pillar of writhing, wet, and oozing skin, bones, and teeth.

For a very brief instant, a strange network of fleshy "nodes" connected by great strands of membranous webbing spontaneously sprung into being above this neighborhood, before it all collapsed downwards and into itself through the unfortunate laws of gravity.
Gravity slammed the bulk of this mass into the ground, flattening the apartment of a notable MERC member and whatever unfortunate buildings had the gall to be immediately around it.

A tide of rainbow-colored, shimmering ichor spills out in all directions on impact, spreading the immediate danger area beyond the already not-inconsiderable bounds of the impact site.
Those who were beneath the flesh's impact had the easiest ends. Those nearby, unable to get to higher ground or distance, are bathed in a mutagenic wash that they only wish was fatal.

And then the pillar, from an uncountable number of mouths, maws, and tears, cries out in surprised rage to the world around it, the chorus melding together into a deep rumble lacking any defined meaning beyond a carnal hatred.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[Industrial Strength Investigation]

Michalson's goggles reveal much more of the miasma that was present at the factory, much of it clinging around the people. Curiously enough, all of these people seem to have magical "bite marks" present on their auras. Those that are unresponsive seem to have the largest concentration of these marks, and their auras, such the goggles can reveal, are much weaker than they should be. The young woman who's been doing the speaking is also covered in these bite marks, possibly even further than those that seem most affected. But within her also shines a core of magical power that seems to be healing her marks; some of them have started to fade, though they can still be seen.

One other curious bit: the miasma this time seems to have left a trail, leading off towards the forest at the base of the nearby mountain.