Skyside Prime

[Earl of Purple]

Ruins of the Trust-Worthy Hotel

The child-thing reaches up at the top of its leap, brushing the ceiling and then falling up, hitting the ceiling and bouncing a little before jumping to its feet once more and springing to one side. It's quick, and is as agile on the ceiling as it would be on the ground- it's as though it's reversed its personal gravity, so the ceiling is the ground for it, and has no trouble sticking upside-down. It bobs and weaves as it darts back towards Sandals, aiming to get in close where it can put its teeth into use. At a distance, it's got far less options.

[Gullara]

[Raindrop Apartment]

Ambrosia steps inside and takes a seat with the infant still in her arms.
Then as she's gently bouncing him she turns to Utayo. "So how is Skyside treating you? I've been here many times but never to this part of the city. It seems nice." For skyside at least. "And probably a lot safer than being around me." Their introduction had been rather dramatic.

[Raindrop Apartment]

Utayo seats herself across from Ambrosia. "Oh it's pleasant enough. It's a bit like home, in fact, though I've been told I should take some appropriate precautions." She gestures back to the door Ambrosia just entered through, and Ambrosia will see some sort of mechanical barring mechanism has resecured itself behind her.

[Shadowcaller]

[Raindrop Apartment]

"Really?" Ambrosia's eyebrows raise. "I had figured your home world was more like mine at first I admit." And Skyside wasn't that at all. In fact, the reason she had come here in the first place was since it was so unlike anything she had been to.

She turns her attention to the automatic look and slowly stands up so she can walk closer and give it a closer inspection. "I can empathize with the need for safety. It was why I picked up swordsmanship in the first place actually." Though her fears might have been a bit more unfounded than Utayo's. Her father was partly to blame for her paranoia though.

[Keeper]

Black Abyss Milk Factory Wreck

Mina groans as she pushes the wreckage aside. Her cream-colored coat and silver uniform are now coated in dust and ash.
"That really doesn't look good. Honestly, dude, I think you with the flying carpet probably have the best bet to get her to an actual doctor. Oh uh, unless you are, miss...?"
Mina doesn't actually know any of these people's names, but Dorota does look like a doctory kind of person. But she could be a doctorate-doctor and not a medical-doctor. The point is of course that either way, Mina is going to seriously weigh down that ride even if she fit (she certainly won't).

[quillpleasant]

Ruins of Trust-Worthy Hotel

Lia watches with horror as the child-thing skitters across the ceiling. The creature clearly has supernatural powers, and she's not even sure if it's actually alive. However, it seems physical enough, and since its focused on Sandels it's worth taking a shot at it.

Throwing out a hand, Lia sends a burst of spores through the air towards it, resembling a cloud of fine purple dust. It's one of her deadlier kinds, a sort of nerve agent that causes a wide array of effects depending on the target's toughness, from mere annoyance to loss of motor control or even seizures- but how it would react with a possessed and unnatural being is anyone's guess.

"Be careful!" she calls to Sandels as a heads up, although even if he got caught in the spores they'd be unlikely to affect him at all- undead are generally immune to such things.

[Morty]

[Black Abyss Milk Factory Wreck]

Dorota kneels in the rubble and shakes her head weakly.

"No, I'm not a doctor. And I don't have any supplies even if I was."

Fayyaad, meanwhile, crouches next to Rose and takes her hand.

"I don't know... she might not make it outside the city. Do you know any place we could get help around here?"

[Hraithre]

[Ruins of Trust-Worthy Hotel]

Sandels's hand whips towards the creature as it falls upwards, but when he sees Lia throws her ball of spores in the air, he abruptly closes his fist and covers his mouth without finishing his spell. Then, eyes closed, he runs into the toxic cloud, hoping the creature will follow him, preparing to be tackled or jumped on.

The spores could affect him, but he is also wrapped in protective bindings from head to toe. As long as he avoids getting the spores on his eyes or inhaling them, he ought to be fine. The creature's much more exposed than him. If the spores have an effect on it, that will spare the man a lot of trouble.

[Ironsmith]

[Black Abyss Milk Factory Wreck]

"If I... if I had my hotbox with me..." Rose breaks out into a fit of coughs, wincing as the spasms wrack her body. "I... I could whip up some... some medgel... that would get me back... back to MERC, at least..." She grimaces. "...Hell of... of a day to leave it at home, huh?"

She takes a moment here to take hold of one of Dorota's hands and give it a reassuring pat. Maybe not the most comforting gesture with only eight fingers, but she's making the effort anyway. Despite the whole kidnapping thing, Rose is confident Dorota would be doing everything in her power to help if she could. No hard feelings there.

[Gullara]

[Raindrop Apartment]

"Really?" Ambrosia's eyebrows raise. "I had figured your home world was more like mine at first I admit." And Skyside wasn't that at all. In fact, the reason she had come here in the first place was since it was so unlike anything she had been to.

She turns her attention to the automatic look and slowly stands up so she can walk closer and give it a closer inspection. "I can empathize with the need for safety. It was why I picked up swordsmanship in the first place actually." Though her fears might have been a bit more unfounded than Utayo's. Her father was partly to blame for her paranoia though.

[Raindrop Apartment]

"I'm afraid I'll need to learn more about where you came from to answer that, but perhaps not." Utayo replies contemplatively. "I've never encountered another plane like mine, so the similarities present here are novel in a way."

She watches Ambrosia go inspect her handiwork. "It's a simple precaution, really. I built it myself a few days after I moved in. Honestly it's a bit shabby compared to my usual work, but I don't have access to all my tools on the go." Utayo might be a bit modest, because it seems well constructed to Ambrosia's untrained eye at least. Maybe the joins aren't super clean, and there's some exposed wiring.

[Zefir]

[Black Abyss Milk Factory]

It takes a few moments for Dorota to register that she's not boiling alive in a vat of chemicals.

"T-thank you," she stammers out, as panic starts lifting off her body a little, restoring the use of her limbs. Didn't Rose say something about her bonds being easily loosened? Then, however, Rose's warning sends a fresh wave of terror through her and she redoubles her efforts to get free.

[Groundtown]

"This thing is smarter than it looks," Olvisin remarks as the paint train grows thinner.

"I think it's heading into the woods," Luuvat observes, his sensitive ears twitching. "If we hurry we can catch it in the open."

Groundtown

"We were warned about that. The old dude said it was clever." And it's a predator; they often tend to be smarter than their prey. If she gets another look at the predator, Sian's going to pull her other hand from the pocket of her coat, pulling out a small paintball gun and firing a burst of inaccurate and low velocity plastic spheres filled with brightly coloured paint inside, hoping to spatter and add a few more drops to make their trail easier to follow.

Groundtown

How diskriminating of the Goblin to judge the beast by it's look.

The Paintballs mostly miss due to distance and the beast aware of it's hunters. Between the city and the forest is a rather plan area. The area is close toa dumpster. Plants only grow at some places and instead of rocks or trees there are chunks of waste. The hunters get a better look at the beast as it runs between the piles using them as cover. they should now see that the creature is extremly underfed, especially where the bright coloure is set it looks like the bones are showing. The creature still tries to escape. Now the goblins and Sian can step on a pile and get a clear line of sight on the beast.

[Earl of Purple]

Ruins of Trust-Worthy Hotel

The child-thing on the ceiling is adapted to lightless and subterranean environments; it does breathe, so it inhales the spores; but its carbon-based blood and alien anatomy means they don't have much affect on the adult form.

The child will jump up and, once it touches Sandals, it sets him as its personal gravity, falling the rest of the way. It's going to try and pin Sandals' arms against his sides as the mouths on its tendrils extend and dig at the bandages- unless they can reach his eyes. Kyldren- for that is what this monster is, a kylder- love eyes, and that's going to be its primary target to eat.

[quillpleasant]

Ruins of Trust-Worthy Hotel

Lia huffs in dismay as her spores have no effect. Whatever this thing is, it's like nothing she's encountered before.

But she has more than one kind of spore. Her flesh-eating spores might have a greater effect- but with the thing grappling Sandels, she's unwilling to catch him in the radius. She freezes, unsure of what to do.

"Try to toss it off you!" she calls out helpfully. Because he definitely wasn't trying to do that already.

[Hraithre]

[Ruins of Trust-Worthy Hotel]

The spores don't seem to slow the creature much, despite Sandels being sure it was exposed to them. So much for that idea. He moves out of the cloud, towards the exit and fresh air, dragging the kylder with him. In response to the creature trying to snare him in its tendrils, he grabs those tendrils himself for a better hold, using his left arm to control its movements while pulling his right back. The bandages shift and tighten in response to the creature's attempts to worm under them, as if they have awareness of their own. Sandels's eyes, though still closed, seem like an easier target - but just before the tendrils reach them, he slams his right fist towards the creature's face.

[Morty]

[Groundtown]

Olvisin, having the longest-ranged weapons among the goblins, takes this opportunity. She jumps on a pile of trash and aims with one of her handguns, carefully trying to hit the creature in one of its hind legs. Slow it down.

"Lots of scrap metal in here... I can work with it. I just need time," Luuvat says as his staff starts glowing with a yellow light.

[Shadowcaller]

[Raindrop Apartment]

"I'm afraid I'll need to learn more about where you came from to answer that, but perhaps not." Utayo replies contemplatively. "I've never encountered another plane like mine, so the similarities present here are novel in a way."

She watches Ambrosia go inspect her handiwork. "It's a simple precaution, really. I built it myself a few days after I moved in. Honestly it's a bit shabby compared to my usual work, but I don't have access to all my tools on the go." Utayo might be a bit modest, because it seems well constructed to Ambrosia's untrained eye at least. Maybe the joins aren't super clean, and there's some exposed wiring.

[Raindrop Apartment]

"Really? I imagine you're saying that in a positive sense then as technology here is more advanced than in many other places." Ambrosia remarks as she spends a moment inspecting the contraption. Then she turns back to Utayo. "Speaking of which, I imagine you must be working on something since you took the trouble of settling down here. Ugi would very much would like to see it as well I imagine. You never know what children can absorb even if he can't understand it yet."

[Keeper]

Black Abyss Milk Factory Wreck

"There's a rain district hospital as well as a Cloudtops one if you have money." Mina says simply.
"...and a library manned by a djinni if you're feeling creative. I...can't imagine that she'd twist a wish to save someone's life after she was nice to Gwas..." but it's still a rather unorthodox option.

[Halae]

Mina's Place

Mina blinks.
"Oh, yeah. They are. They're way more durable than they ought to be and they don't require any nails. Sai insisted the nails wouldn't be a big deal buuuuut I just didn't want to do that, you know?"
She would be grateful to know it's an extremely common hangup among hoofed people.

[Mina's Place]

"I know I don't have hooves, but I've had nails in me. It's not fun!" Emily confirms, "You've constantly got stuff grinding against the inside of you. Absolutely horrible. Maybe it's different if you have hooves, but I'd be wary too."

[Morty]

[Black Abyss Milk Factory Wreck]

"A djinni... too risky. I don't have a lot of money so the hospital in Rain District will have to do." Fayyaad will gently pick Rose up and step onto his carpet. "Thank you both for your help. Ask for Fayyaad ibn-Haashid al-Zafar of MERC if you need it."

Dorota makes a non-committal grunt.

"Rose, I'm going to call Olvisin. She can meet us the hospital with your hotbox and take you back to MERC. The hospital can help you until then."

[Ironsmith]

[Black Abyss Milk Factory Wreck]

Rose rolls around a woozy grin to Fayyaad. "Cheap medicine in the era of manual surgeries, passive antibiotics, and pharmaceutical painkillers. Yay~" She jokes, her fists shaking slightly as she tries (and fails, miserably) to lift them over her head to complete the mock cheer. "...Sorry. I think I might be staining your carpet." She adds, her head rolling off to the side as her eyelids droop. "...Wake me when we get there, okay...?"

[Gullara]

[Raindrop Apartment]

"Really? I imagine you're saying that in a positive sense then as technology here is more advanced than in many other places." Ambrosia remarks as she spends a moment inspecting the contraption. Then she turns back to Utayo. "Speaking of which, I imagine you must be working on something since you took the trouble of settling down here. Ugi would very much would like to see it as well I imagine. You never know what children can absorb even if he can't understand it yet."

[Raindrop Apartment]

Utayo's eyes light up. "Oh of course. I don't really stop working. Much to the chagrin of my husband, I'm afraid." She laughs, a small sound and with a hand covering her lips. "Nothing too exciting at the moment, I don't think. I'm been considering the diversity in this place, and doing studies of flying creatures in the area. There may be potential to design a new drone form factor with some of the ideas I collect."

[Shadowcaller]

[Raindrop Apartment]

Right, her husband. She had one of those too, hadn't she?
She smiles mysteriously as Utayo giggles. "I consider myself fortunate that my own husband and I have an arrangement regarding that."
However, Utayo's answer has her thrown for a loop. "Flight? Now that's one of my favorite subjects." There's a moment of hesitation as she didn't want to come off too strong but... "Since ever since I start, ah, having this body I wish I could be like you and just float around." 'Using this body' sounded weird but she wasn't sure if 'having' had sounded better.

"In fact, I actually got into origami while I was younger since- well, to make up for my own flightlessness I suppose. I believed that if I copied herons I could make my paper-birds fly further. Of course, that's not how it really worked at all." She shakes her head. "But you're going to make actual flying constructs? You need help?" That... wasn't too eager, right?

[Earl of Purple]

Groundtown

Sian puts the paintball gun back, and pulls out instead a flare gun. She's still the most blind one here, so things aren't great for her. She won't fire it, though, unless the shadow-beast looks like it's going to get away and everyone could use the light.

Ruins of Trust-Worthy Hotel

The child-thing shrieks as its face is smashed with a fist, black goo leaking from its nose. It'll try biting his hand as Sandals grips its tendrils, which are slippery and tough, quite sturdy. He could maybe try yanking them out, but... it won't be easy.

The ghost inhabiting the thing takes the opportunity of Sandals having its hands full to reach out. Phineas is visible even to Lia; his former invisibility no longer a power he has access to. His arm stretches from the kylder's chest, apparently made of shadows and pulsing with darkness. The fat fingers reach out to grip the psychopomp's bandages and pull, leeching life from Sandals to try and age him. Against a normal person, time may be an effective attack; though it notably doesn't work on kyldren, and might not work on Sandals.

[quillpleasant]

Ruins of Trust-Worthy Hotel

Lia watches in horror as the spectral form of Phineas manifests, attacking Sandels with his dark power. Normally she would relish the opportunity to fight undead- physical ones, that is. Against incorporeal foes, there's nothing she can currently do. But she can still attack the host.

Throwing caution to the wind, she wreathes her arms in flesh eating spores. Her deadliest weapon, they look like a buzzing green cloud, and they do exactly what you'd think, rapidly eating away at soft organic material in a manner similar to highly corrosive acid. She doesn't want to catch Sandels with them by accident, so she has to risk getting close.

Stepping up to the combatants, she waits for an opening, then thrusts her hands forward, trying to hit the kylder's back. In the thrashing melee she might miss, and the thing might be resistant to such attacks, but if all goes as planned it could leave a terrible wound.

[Hraithre]

[Ruins of Trust-Worthy Hotel]

Sandels pulls back his right arm back after the punch to keep it free. The creature can try to gnaw his left all it wants, for the moment his bandages will hold. But then, Trust's spectral hand emerges from the creature's body. Sandels is starting to get outnumbered in appendages, he always hates that part, keeps him from using some of his best skills.

Yet, there is a silver lining to this dark cloud. Sandels drops his right hand down, his fingers wrapping around Trust's ghostly wrist. Trust might find he is leeching nothing off the Reaper - the silver pendant still in his palm keeps him from doing that, becoming black with tarnish as it ages in the Reaper's stead.

Then, using his greater size and strength to his benefit, Sandels pushes with his legs, trying to lift the kylder off the ground. If he can manage that, it's a piece of cake for him to hold the squirming little bastard in place for the few second it takes for Lia to hit it in the back - though he doubts whether these spores will be more effective than those before.

[Zefir]

[Groundtown]

Olvisin, having the longest-ranged weapons among the goblins, takes this opportunity. She jumps on a pile of trash and aims with one of her handguns, carefully trying to hit the creature in one of its hind legs. Slow it down.

"Lots of scrap metal in here... I can work with it. I just need time," Luuvat says as his staff starts glowing with a yellow light.

Groundtown

Sian puts the paintball gun back, and pulls out instead a flare gun. She's still the most blind one here, so things aren't great for her. She won't fire it, though, unless the shadow-beast looks like it's going to get away and everyone could use the light.

[Groundtown]

Taking aim her shot seems to be all right, but then one of the beasts tentacles covers its feet and takes the shot instead, making it howl in pain. That doesn't slow it down, but now it's going to jump between covers then run a straight path to the edge. While doing that i grabs some of the trash and thrwos it at his attackers, but with the pain and all they are mostly missing.

[Keeper]

[Mina's Place]

"I know I don't have hooves, but I've had nails in me. It's not fun!" Emily confirms, "You've constantly got stuff grinding against the inside of you. Absolutely horrible. Maybe it's different if you have hooves, but I'd be wary too."

Mina's Place

"I think it's different because hooves don't have nerves?" Mina doesn't know much about medical science. She honestly doesn't even know the names of the different parts and bones her minotaur legs have. She's pretty sure there's something called a fetlock on horses?
"Well, point is, neither of us have to deal with that. I'm guessing your stuff is all custom made?" That seems like less of a big deal when you're in a cape family. Capes always either have or are a discreet tailor for their costumes.

Black Abyss Milk Factory Wreck

"Good luck." Mina says simply as Fayyaad departs.
"Oh. Um. How are you? Do you need to see a doctor too? Otherwise I can find you a port to get home." Mina suggests to Dorota, who has been in the background for a bit.

[Gullara]

[Raindrop Apartment]

Right, her husband. She had one of those too, hadn't she?
She smiles mysteriously as Utayo giggles. "I consider myself fortunate that my own husband and I have an arrangement regarding that."
However, Utayo's answer has her thrown for a loop. "Flight? Now that's one of my favorite subjects." There's a moment of hesitation as she didn't want to come off too strong but... "Since ever since I start, ah, having this body I wish I could be like you and just float around." 'Using this body' sounded weird but she wasn't sure if 'having' had sounded better.

"In fact, I actually got into origami while I was younger since- well, to make up for my own flightlessness I suppose. I believed that if I copied herons I could make my paper-birds fly further. Of course, that's not how it really worked at all." She shakes her head. "But you're going to make actual flying constructs? You need help?" That... wasn't too eager, right?

[Raindrop Apartment]

Oh interesting, Ambrosia is quite talkative today. Quite eager, really. Utayo files away the husband information for later to keep thinks focused. "I'm surprised you haven't devised some way to achieve flight as you are, though I understand there's always costs to that, whether magical or technological." She grants.

"But I actually have quite an interest in origami myself." Her eyes alight at that. "The craft is actually foundational to the design of drones and mech suits back at home. To this day it's still frequently used as a prototyping step. Though I'm afraid I haven't gotten that far in any current projects." The moonfolk taps her chin thoughtfully. "There's something you could do perhaps. If you're comfortable. You see, you are a flying being on this plane." She arches her brow.

[Shadowcaller]

[Raindrop Apartment]

Oh interesting, Ambrosia is quite talkative today. Quite eager, really. Utayo files away the husband information for later to keep thinks focused. "I'm surprised you haven't devised some way to achieve flight as you are, though I understand there's always costs to that, whether magical or technological." She grants.

[Raindrop Apartment]

"Ah- yes. It would also draw a lot of attention and... so on." She hastily tries to justify the fact that she didn't have a flying vehicle or device. Since that had been a point of contention between her and her father until she realized not only the practical limitations of carrying around the devices they had to offer but the fact they would provoke a slew of unwanted questions like where she even got such a device from. It Utayo's world such technology was probably just plain better and wouldn't stand out at all...

Ambrosia had never felt so ashamed of coming from a low-technological world.
So she's quite relived when Utayo changes the subject.

"But I actually have quite an interest in origami myself." Her eyes alight at that. "The craft is actually foundational to the design of drones and mech suits back at home. To this day it's still frequently used as a prototyping step. Though I'm afraid I haven't gotten that far in any current projects." The moonfolk taps her chin thoughtfully. "There's something you could do perhaps. If you're comfortable. You see, you are a flying being on this plane." She arches her brow.

"Truly?" She can't help but to remark when the moonfolk mentions that she not only had an interest in origami too but that it was used to develop technology in her world. Made her feel less like a savage if only by association.

So of course she would help in this development process. She might not be technologically advanced but she was still one of the greatest flying beings around, wasn't she? "Oh, of course I'll help in a fellow scholars endeavors. What do you need me to do?" She couldn't help but to hold her her head high, as Utayo was rubbing just the right spot of her pride.

[Earl of Purple]

Ruins of Trust-Worthy Hotel

The kylder can be lifted easily, as it's chosen Sandals as its gravitational down. Basically, it would find walking on Sandals to be as easy as walking on the ground, and if thrown away it'll fall back towards Sandals as though he was the ground. So in some respects he was already lifting it.

It continues to scrabble and tear with all the limbs it has available, until the flesh-eating spores hit it. The fungal infection is quick to take root, and spreads rapidly. The kylder, weird as it is, is undeniably 'organic'. Its clothes are quick to shrivel, then the flesh of its back starts to dissolve into black goo, pallid maggots writhing their way free and plopping against the floor- though many of those, already exposed to the spores, are shrivelling up and dying anyway. The kylder screeches, and one arm goes limp, as do the mouth-tendrils. More maggots emerge, erupting from places in the kylder's body that weren't exposed to the spores, and all that's keeping it intact enough to continue trying to attack is the malevolent ghost within, desperate to kill Sandals or injure him badly enough it can escape. Phineas misjudged the kylder's effectiveness as a weapon against his hunter. The thing's left arm is dissolving rapidly, due to that arm not having Phineas inside it.

[quillpleasant]

Ruins of Trust-Worthy Hotel

Lia whoops triumphantly as her spores do their gruesome work. She half expected the kylder to be more magic than flesh; although the ghost is still very much a problem. Darting back from the combat just in case the thing lashes out at her, Lia watches the two struggle nervously.

"It's weakened! Do your thing!" she calls out to Sandels. She assumes he has some way of dealing with Phineas, otherwise he wouldn't have brought them here. Right?