Henry is somewhat alarmed because he can't tell what just happened to that weird fish. It just kind of vanished? Weird. Sure that's something HE can do but most things can't. Luckily he's pulled back out of the hole. He has to slowly pull himself backwards out of the hole since it's just a tiny bit too tight for him to easily turn around.
Once they're back in the larger chamber he points at one of the holes to the left of the one they just came out of. It's noticeably bigger and that's good enough for him.
[Port Valdez - Cave]
Clearly, the fish must be the same type as him. It glowed, he glows; it vanished, he vanishes; it had a tough time turning around, he has a tough time turning around.
June nods and gives a thumbs up.
The new hole they go through is noticeably wider, so neither of them will have a hard time fitting through. The cave heads upwards, and passes several fish and other sea life (that don't glow). There is an off-shoot cave branch, but it's smaller and - given the experience they just had - it's inadvisable to go somewhere that tight again.
They continue upwards...and, soon! the space widens up significantly, and then they reach a surface. Air. The undersea tunnel they follow actually opens up into the bottom of an underground lake. And the cave actually opens up even more sideways, such that they can get on land and rest. There's not much out there, but there is some smooth rocks. Even some twilight plants, too, since a very small amount of natural light somehow reaches here, originating somewhere farther ahead on the cave-land.
Actually, if they look around, there's signs on land that people have been here. Some trash, a torn flag, and water-damaged paper, near the underground lake.
June surfaces, and takes out her mouthpiece. "Hey, you okay? she asks. "You almost got stuck; let's avoid that from happening again."
Henry seems to be fine as they surface, but not in the best spirits. "I'm fine. I'll do my best in the future. Sorry. I guess my gut makes me not the best suited for this. I'd lose it if I could." The problem with being cursed into an unchanging semi-undead self. "It looks like this could be the place's side entrance." he says, looking around and changing the subject.
Ironsmith wrote: ↑Oct 15, 2023 4:02 pm[Butterfly Bay - Great Writers Steal]
If Katherine had been thinking about this logically and rationally, that interjection wouldn't have accomplished much. "So what," she might have said, "you were able to find me, so could they". It wasn't even that far removed from what she had been concerned with moments prior.
But, the simple act of Magtok pleading with her, attempting to persuade her to get off of him, rather than pulling out some gizmo or gadget and splattering her across the floor, is enough to give her pause.
The succubus clambers off of him, toward the door, likely kicking him in the face at least once in the process. Thankfully, she is not, in fact, wearing stilettos like she appears to be, so the actual damage from this will be minimal, if he somehow doesn't manage to avoid it.
Katherine stands in front of the door, arms spread, staring down at him and panting heavily, already winded from the brief struggle. "You're... you're not going anywhere..." She gasps, attempting to summon some kind of authority into her voice. "Not until... until we fix this."
...Somehow. Exactly how was she supposed to do that? Even if she'd somehow managed to knock him out, what was she going to do then? Escalate fraud up to murder? Or was she just going to keep him locked up in the garage until... something? What would happen if he broke out?
Shit. Why is it she can never think these things through?
"Fix this? Just be someone else. Drop Kate and burn whatever traces of her are still left," Magtok glares back at Katherine, slowly dragging himself back up, a hand rubbing the spot on his cheek where he took an unexpected kick. He already knows she can magically change her hair, so if she just tosses the name aside and moves on, how's everyone else supposed to know it's her? He only identified her due to his brother's...well, let's not talk about the methodology right now, just in case we ever need to pull that trick again.
"You said the house isn't even in Katherine's name, right? Just stop being Katherine," he reasons, though he suspects she's about to tell him it's not that simple and she either has some weird attachment to the identity used to scam him, or it's bound to a series of deals and relationships she can't relinquish without issue. He doesn't really need to solve this, though. He just needs to keep her busy and thinking about something other than violence and kidnapping Magtoks long enough to figure out his own escape from this situation.
"You probably found 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising' in the humor section. Let's just hope that is where it belongs."
"Yeah, the house isn't in my name, and you still found me." Katherine objects, still barring the door with her arms as though she thought T-posing was going to present any real obstacles for Magtok. "I've been very conservative about going out in public like this. Very few other people even know about Katherine Amici... or at least they didn't. Doesn't the fact that I can't really dial it back any further, but am still worried, tell you that's not an option?"
Her arms slowly go down as the discussion continues, seeming to take the fact that he was even willing to engage the point at all to be a sign of good faith. Her expression, likewise, is slowly shifting from one of panic to one of general unease... the look of someone who hss a problem to solve, rather than an imminent threat to her life. "...And that aside, I'm not the only one who lives here." She continues. "I can't have a dozen crime families in Skyside hunting me down and risking them stumbling across any of my f...flatmates. 'Burning all traces' of this identity means bailing on the people I was trying to help in the first place. And even then, it isn't a sure thing, since all that needs to happen is for the mob to figure out Katherine Amici lived here at some point and some people who might know where she went still do." She gestures around the house. "They're not safe here. Look around. This is a house in the suburbs, not some superfortress that could repel a-"
She trails off, her expression suddenly lighting up as an idea occurs to her.
"...You could just take credit for all those heists you actually did." She points out after a moment. "Get them off my back and back onto yours. I mean, you're a goddamned supervillain. Nobody would question it if you semi-publically gloated about stealing from your rivals. Hell, isn't that what you're doing right now?"
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
"I do like to gloat," Magtok quietly admits, as the wheels begin to turn in his head, and he tries to determine just how much fun and/or notoriety he could get out of this. Telling all of his creditors at once that they're never getting their money back, hrm. We'd need a late night tv advertisement, or maybe a NexTube channel, or a livestream that suddenly cuts from an e-girl succubus doing stretches to a dastardly supervillain putting up a list on the screen, one detailing a number of banks, loan sharks, and 'legitimate businessmen' that won't be getting their money back.
"Unless you've got a greenscreen or a recording booth or something upstairs, I don't think I'd be able to do all of that from here, though. I could let you take my arm hostage until this is done, as a show of good faith, but I'd need to-No wait, what am I talking about? I'll just have the other guy take care of it," Mag shakes his head, forgetting that there's two standard clones active in the Nexus right now, and that the other guy owes him a favor. He taps the side of his head, stares up into space for a moment or so, and then frowns.
"...He says it'll be uploaded in two hours." Less than convenient for the cyborg who's here right now, who would very much like to leave but has no way of proving to Kate that he's being honest and forthright about the other guy.
"You probably found 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising' in the humor section. Let's just hope that is where it belongs."
"...Then I guess you're staying here for a couple of hours." Katherine says, eying him warily. That was a lot she was apparently just supposed to take at face value, just now. What if he called the police? Or some kind of cyber assassin death squad? She doesn't have any guarantee he didn't or wouldn't.
"...We do have a greenscreen in the basement. And a camera." She adds, continuing to watch his reaction carefully. "And a multi-colored lighting rig, microphones and mixing equipment, a laptop with editing software... we could absolutely film this all in-house. In fact I think we probably should."
If she were holding a gun or a knife or something, this would be the part of the conversation where she'd brandish it in the direction of the basement door, in a way that says she won't be negotiating on this point. As it stands, all she can really do is un-intimidatingly nod in that direction and hope Magtok actually agrees to go down in there.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
Henry seems to be fine as they surface, but not in the best spirits. "I'm fine. I'll do my best in the future. Sorry. I guess my gut makes me not the best suited for this. I'd lose it if I could." The problem with being cursed into an unchanging semi-undead self. "It looks like this could be the place's side entrance." he says, looking around and changing the subject.
[Port Valdez - Cave]
"One time I went caving with my dad; he nearly got stuck the same way," June says. "Actually, on the same trip, one of my friends got stuck, too. Except for him, it was his chest that got stuck."
After all that time unable to talk, she's mostly just running her mouth.
Although June's not aware that being a ghost makes him stuck that way, she is aware that weight loss is hard, so she doesn't fault him at all.
June also looks around.
"Oh! Huh, yeah, you're right. And people definitely were able to come in this way," she says.
She swims towards the lake shore. "Well, ignoring the paths that are too dangerous to go or that I would need better equipment, it looks like we've got a choice: we can look for the entrance here and see what else we can find here, or we can go up that really cold in part of water back in the main big chamber." June, of course, isn't exactly a fan of the cold. But she remembers Henry saying that he likes it.
"Well, I guess it was my chest that got stuck. But...the lower part of my chest." It was actually probably his hips. He blames his belly but to be honest it's not nearly as big as he feels it is. He's kind of just a wide guy.
"Um. Well, the cold tunnel might be really uncomfortable or even unsafe for you, wouldn't it? What if you get hypothermia? I couldn't have that on my conscience. It would be fine for me but I can't have you freezing on my behalf." the shark insists.
Magtok sighs, tapping the side of his head and mumbling something like 'never mind, forget it,' to whoever it was he was speaking to a moment ago. When his only options are still around and doing nothing for two hours, or engaging in the creative process himself, down in a spooky basement, I guess the spooky basement looks like the better option of the two.
"...fine, but if it's not what you describe, and you're trying to keep me in some sort of deranged sex dungeon out of confused and misguided desperation to control the situation, then please reconsider. Someone with better security measures has tried something like that before, and failed drastically," Magtok warns. He still doesn't sound anywhere near afraid of Katherine or concerned for his own safety, however. If anything, he's more concerned about her safety, about getting blood under his nice clean fingernails, of soiling his quaint little plan to come here, gloat, and leave with an unplanned and inconvenient homicide. Killing a (not exactly) innocent woman in her own home is the sort of thuggish and disgusting conduct that lesser criminals resort to. A brilliant and cunning genius like himself should never have to even hit a woman, much less kill one. Not unless she's a big and powerful and intimidating enemy combatant on the battlefield, a building-sized menace whose downfall would earn him glory and applause. That's clearly not the case here, however. Hurting Katherine would reduce him to the stature of a schoolyard bully, not the Nexus's longest surviving pillar of supervillainy. We can't have that.
"You probably found 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising' in the humor section. Let's just hope that is where it belongs."
"Don't worry, we don't have one of those." Kate reassures him, awkwardly unlocking the basement door while trying to keep an eye on him. "Scheduling conflict with the local contractors."
A short descent down a set of carpeted steps shows she is not, in fact, lying. The basement is divided into three separate rooms, judging from the doors visible from here. The far wall of this room in particular plays host to a greenscreen, with a camcorder on a tripod stationed directly in front of it, flanked by a pair of stage lights. A boom mic can be seen overhead, floating just out of camera, suspended on an adjustable pole nearer the entryway. Off to one side of the setup, the inevitable bundle of cords converges onto a laptop on a fold-up table, which is currently doing nothing but showing off a rather provocative screensaver.
Behind Magtok, Kate lets out a little sigh of relief. She couldn't remember if they'd cleared all the props away beforehand. "...Right. So. Like I said, we've kind of got a little studio down here." She reiterates, stepping toward the laptop, clicking off the screensaver and setting to work pulling up the appropriate programs, before almost absent-mindedly nudging a bottle of hand sanitizer in Magtok's direction. "...You don't get nervous in front of a camera or anything, do you? It's all right if you do. Happens to everyone at some point."
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
"Nervous. In front of cameras," Magtok repeats skeptically, as if nobody had ever introduced him to the concept of stage fright before, and finally having the notion explained to him filled our villain with such disdain and disgust that a small fraction of his soul withered away to a black, gangrenous mass of hate. A hate devoted exclusively to you, for having the audacity to suggest a being such as he could possess such a despicable and pathetic weakness.
"Kate, I used to own this universe. I was bigger than the gods, scarier than the government, and stood on equal footing with the acronym organizations. They each sent a diplomat to Inside's advisory council, representing their people's interests. I was invited to send a clone of Magtok, to represent the interests of Magtok. That's how big I was back then. You don't have to worry about nerves," he answers arrogantly, rubbing the hand sanitizer between his fingers, trying to get every inch of both his prosthetic and biological hands.
"Just so long as you don't bring a dog down here. Dogs are extremely unstable around me and I don't like dealing with them. Point a gun at my head, hold a sword to my throat, or even phase your hand through my skin to squeeze my lung between your fingers, that's fine. I can deal with all of that, I've dealt with all of it before. Just no dogs," Mag shakes his head, patiently waiting for Katherine to finish setting up. He's not lying, by the way. Well, except for owning the universe (an obvious exaggeration) and the 'dogs are unstable around me' part, that's an outright lie. Dogs treat him like they do everybody else. Everything else he said in this post is honest and true, though.
"You probably found 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising' in the humor section. Let's just hope that is where it belongs."
"Well, yes. But public speaking and avoiding it is about half the reasons shadow organizations exist." Kate says with a completely straight face. "If you're comfortable, so much the better. Let me see if I can just..."
Kate's voice trails off as she scrolls through a series of animated backgrounds to apply to the footage, most of which clearly do not strike the tone Magtok would want, before finally settling on an industrial warehouse with heavy machinery innuendously pumping away behind his mark.
Kate doesn't seem entirely satisfied with this option, but it seems to be the best one available. She'd really rather not take any more risks with this acronym-comparable villain than she has to.
"...Okay. I think that's everything. Get in position... please." Kate watches nervously to see if he complies, before giving the countdown with her fingers to the exact moment thr camera will start rolling.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
Okay, here we go. We don't want to be doing this all day, Magtok, so let's get it right the first time. One perfect recording, one perfect five minute micro-stream, and then we let the internet do the rest.
"Hello, I'm Lord Magtok! You may remember me from past roles such as Apocalypse Meow,The Ill-Advised Adventures of Intrepid,The Billionaire Bank Robber,Me, Myself And I: Memoirs of a Multitudinous Madman, and multiple acts of international and domestic terrorism!" Mag opens, giving the camera a cheery smile as a small hologram is conjured forth from his left hand, providing the relevant movie poster art from MagStudios, as well as brief flashes of past news headlines about an attack on Vyrn's Empire, AMEN's invasion of Riverside, the attempted assassination of Vasquez's spouse back when she was running the show in Inside, an actual bank robbery instead of the silly movie one, and an aborted attempt to conquer a small coastal town with a giant battle mech built in the cyborg's own image.
"I'm here today to showcase and review our the latest civilian espionage and infiltration device from our sponsors in MagMart, the Live Observation Shield and Exterior Replacer," Mag explains, shooting a glance towards Kate hanging around off-screen. It certainly looks like he's just shilling a product at her studio's expense, which is why he's quick to take on her form first, so his intentions become a little less obscure and she doesn't rush to pull the plug when he's already midway through his product review. He then becomes Wenomir, Zee, a Magbot, a drow, and then himself again, the form he's obviously most comfortable wearing.
"Folks, be honest, have you ever wanted to be someone else? Your coworker, your neighbor, your wife's favorite movie star? Don't lie, I know you have, and I know your wife feels the same way. You've both been drooling at your phone, computer, or tablet screen this entire stream, wishing you could be or be adored by someone as effortlessly perfect as me. Now, you could always go to the nearest swamp witch and ask them to waste elaborate illusion rituals on you, but magic is expensive, and unstable, and either too temporary or far too permanent, and what if you don't want to run the risk of getting turned into a frog and going on a goofy amphibian adventure quest to reclaim your original body? Well, that's why you have me, Nexus. The Live Observation Shield and Exterior Replacer uses our patented hologram technology to take on any physical form, and so long as you don't go too far above or below your own height and weight, the illusion is perfect. Just upload the file for the three-dimensional being you wish to look like, or use one of our dozens of preset forms, and voila."
Magtok goes through some additional coverage of his hologram technology, and explains how there's only going to be about a few hundred of these devices sold as part of a very brief Black Friday event, before his smile fades, and he clasps his hands together in front of him, gliding them down across his face. A cold, disappointed scowl is revealed when his hand passes below his lips, a cold glare staring down at his viewers.
"But you're already doubting me, aren't you? You think it's not going to work, that if someone reaches out and grabs you, there'll be a flash of static and buffering, incoherent noise and your disguise will be ruined. Well let's be clear, the Live Observation Shield and Exterior Replacer's image software may hold together when poked and prodded at, but it can't fool a hand reaching through a body that isn't there, and if you haven't showered all week, stinky, you probably won't fool anyone with a superhuman nose, either. Who it will fool, however, are banks. Bankers, loan sharks, several notorious crime families, they all believed that I was Katherine the Business Succubus, that Kate was a real person seeking large sums of money for various charitable enterprises," Magtok finally delivers the killing blow, shifting his entire head back to Katherine's most sadistic and devious grin, while leaving his robed torso intact. He holds that form just for a few seconds, then goes back to being himself again. One might think he's a little too quick to drop each disguise, but blegh, he's been Katherine far, far too much today; any excuse to go back to being Magtok is going to be seized upon immediately.
"When this short stream is over and the vod is uploaded across the net, expect to see a list in the description, or tacked onto the end screen. An unabridged, uncensored tally of every rich clown hoodwinked out of their money by a pretty face and short skirt. Check to see if your bank or criminal institution is there, and if it is, ask your bosses how they managed to let me get away with this. Remember, it's only because of such massive donations from stupid assholes like you that we're able to fund projects like this one, so thank you. Thank you, everyone, from the lowliest maggot to the magpies and magistrates who've been here since my debut. You're all such a lovely audience, and I look forward to seeing you all rushing the storefront to be one of the lucky few who gets to see a brand new face in the mirror. Good night, and good luck," Magtok takes a bow and holds it, waiting for Kate to give the word and tell him the stream is over. Ugh, gods, she better have gotten all the cameras and sound equipment and everything else perfect, because there's no way our cyborg is going to give half as spirited a performance a second time.
"You probably found 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising' in the humor section. Let's just hope that is where it belongs."
"Well, I guess it was my chest that got stuck. But...the lower part of my chest." It was actually probably his hips. He blames his belly but to be honest it's not nearly as big as he feels it is. He's kind of just a wide guy.
"Um. Well, the cold tunnel might be really uncomfortable or even unsafe for you, wouldn't it? What if you get hypothermia? I couldn't have that on my conscience. It would be fine for me but I can't have you freezing on my behalf." the shark insists.
[Port Valdez – cave]
Sharks are already pretty big. The hips needed to support the shark body on land would obviously be pretty large.
"Yeah. I'd rather not get hypothermia," June says.
She moves to the shore of the underground lake, and sits (for someone with a snake body like her, the difference between sitting and standing is really just the distance of the torso from the ground).
"Let's see, we've got a path from the sea to the chamber. One path that continues on but we don't have the right equipment. One path that we decided was too dangerous. One that doesn't work for you, one that doesn't work for me, and this path we're on now which appears to have another exit."
She looks up.
"Think that's good enough for the scuba rental place?" she asks. "Well, at least we could try to find the other exit in this branch and I could map it down."
It's a good thing this video doesn't require any fancy camera work, because there's no way Kate could have kept up with it; she's far too busy staring bug-eyed at Magtok as he makes his speech, thoroughly engrossed from the beginning. It takes her a moment to realize when he's actually done that he's waiting for her to end the video, which she does posthaste.
"Er... cut." Kate says finally, clicking a few buttons and starting the editing process; there won't be much to do there, apart from tweaking audio levels and incorporating subtitles, thankfully.
She'd expected him to gloat, of course, and she had some idea what she was in for, but... holy hell, did that man love to hear himself talk. And more worryingly, so did she. Part of her has to wonder if he didn't have some low-key psychic ability hidden under that machined skull of his, before she quickly dismisses the notion; if he did, he probably would have used it when she was waling on him earlier.
"...So." The succubus continues, after a moment to re-ground herself with her work. "...We're... we're done after this, right? I don't mess with you, you don't mess with me. No more messing. Right?"
If he had any plans to come after her again in the future, this would probably be her best chance to learn about them... while he might still be in a gloating-type mood.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
”I mean it’s probably fine? It still tells them that if they want to get all of it they’ll just need to send someone suited for the cold and the dark.”
Which really, Henry is. But he doesn’t have a lot of experience relying on just his nose and bio-sense. And besides, the murky dark tunnel could throw off even those senses. Henry sits beside her, idly kicking his feet in the water. ”If you held my stuff I could ghost through the tight tunnel. But Um. Then I would be. You know. Naked.”
So that sounds like a vote for exit.
"No messing," Magtok agrees, raising up his left hand, doing a cursory examination of the prosthetic arm, as if expecting to find a part out of place or a finger screwed on backwards. Whatever he was checking for seems to meet with his approval. Everything seems exactly as it ought to be, and he sets the arm back down, along with a small index card where he's meticulously listed out each and every money-lender swindled and humiliated by his earlier attempt at revenge.
"As far as I'm concerned, this chapter is concluded. You won't be inclined to take a gamble like that again, not unless you find yourself afflicted with the most severe, horrific desperation, or a suicidal compulsion to get the last word in brought on by senseless hubris. I would like to imagine you're too smart to fall prey to either of those conditions. Meanwhile, I have no reason to twist the knife, as my dignity's intact and my reputation as the big spooky bad guy has been preserved. Nobody is going to hear of this and think 'Damn, I should go after Mag too, he sounds like such an easy mark,' which was my primary motivation in coming here," Magtok further clarifies, looking to Kate to make sure she agrees with his assessment. If there's still fury burning in her eyes, if she thinks he didn't suffer enough for breaking into her home, well...that might complicate things later on. Things could get messy if the hatchet isn't well and truly buried after this.
"This last bit was fun, though. If you somehow have need of me later on for something fun and you're willing to act like we've never met before, I promise not to release the hounds without hearing you out first," Magtok offers, even though he doesn't actually have any attack hounds and highly doubts Katherine runs with the kind of people who could find a use for a megalomaniac in a purple bathrobe. Still, It doesn't hurt to keep our options open. You never know, being on halfway decent terms with a fiend like Kathy could be useful some day.
"You probably found 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising' in the humor section. Let's just hope that is where it belongs."
Kate lets out a little sigh of relief. It's not entirely clear whether she really should trust the cyborg's word, but of the two of them he's done less actual lying to the other so far. And he certainly sounds convincing; the rationale given makes sense, at least.
...With that thought, it seems to occur to Kate that she's gotten incredibly lucky here. Magtok's letting her keep the money she already took; that's enough that she could comfortably live on interest for the rest of her life, along with her bandmates; they'd never know financial hardship again. Nobody's coming after her in particular for this scheme, they'll be gunning for Magtok himself, if they aren't cowed into remaining relatively passive. And there's absolutely no reason to ever take a stupid risk like this again.
...Hell, if she's understanding correctly, she might even have made a friend. Kinda.
So, in a nutshell, she's just been secured a fortune of her own, and all it actually cost her was a few grey hairs.
The more she thinks about it, the more her relief breaks into her expression, starting as a few halting laughs and ending with her, for the second time, surging forward and wrapping up the supervillain in a tight hug, visibly and tangibly shaking.
"...Thank you." She sniffles quietly.
"...Who the hell are you?"
Euphoria lets the paper bag she was carrying fall to the floor, standing at the bottom of the stairs with her hands on her hips, staring down the two of them.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
There are two things in this Nexus that utterly revolt our cyborg, that make him freeze up in anxiety and discomfort. One is dogs. Dogs, wolves, coyotes, hellhounds, werewolves...all of them are absolutely the worst, the most terrifying and unsettling monsters this world has to offer. The click of their nails across the floor as they race towards him, the slathering maw possessed by a ravenous hunger for his flesh, the way they can smell fear and are instinctively drawn to it...gods, don't even get him started on those beasts.
The other thing to get the same kind of fear response from our villain is, of course, surprise hugs. Affection he wasn't expecting, an abrupt embrace he hadn't mentally prepared himself for. He'd have to put some sort of personal force field device on the next time he speaks to Kate, something to ensure she'll bounce right off if she should ever try something like this again.
Before that, however, we have to answer to...whoever the hell this is. One of Kate's roommates? The grocery bag certainly suggests that she lives here, right? Another demon, then. As rude as it might be for someone to ask who we are, to act like it's not immediately obvious just from a glance, Magtok bites back on his venom. Just getting past the one demon has been bothersome enough for one day; we don't need to be picking a fight with a second. She probably just arrived in the Nexus a day or two ago, it's totally understandable that someone might've failed to hear about us and how amazing and brilliant and incredible and perfect we are if they're still a new arrival.
"...I don't know how to answer that question. Do you want the long version or the short version? " Truthfully, Magtok has absolutely no idea what to include in 'the long version.' Kate might've told her friends everything, or she could be keeping the whole scheme completely under wraps. Lying about it now, telling Kate's friends things that she already knows aren't true, that would just make him look exceedingly guilty of something. Similarly, if Kate hasn't told her roommates anything at all, confessing in full is just as likely to get our head smashed against a wall, for both exposing Kate and putting her through all of this vindictive terror in the first place. It's a very delicate situation and the longer Magtok can keep Kate or Euphoria talking, the better his odds of slipping out of this without saying something dangerous.
"You probably found 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising' in the humor section. Let's just hope that is where it belongs."
Euphoria's demand might be made worse by the fact that she's an (admittedly minor) celebrity in her own right. If Magtok had any dealings with the right crowd, he might recognize DEATHKISS's keyboardist and songwriter. Or he may even recognize her from a few slightly-obscure diabloc texts or as a background character in some conspiracy theorist's video essay in the deep politics of various calamities throughout the Nexus.
To her credit, Euphoria's eyebrows raise as soon as she gets a clear look at Magtok's face. There really aren't many half-robot bathrobe enthusiasts around here... or at least, not many that aren't also Magtok.
"...Actually, I think I would like to revise that question." The six-foot-six succubus amends, her gaze moving over to a clearly terrified Kate. "What the hell is he doing down here? In our house? And why are you dressed like that?"
"...We... we were, um..." Kate stammers. "...What do you think is going on here?"
Euphoria's gaze flicks back and forth between the two of them, before she lets out a little sigh. "You got caught up in a blackmail situation and came down here to pay him off."
Kate blanches. "...H...how the fu-" She stammers impotently. "That can't be what it looks like."
"Exstacy, I'm five hundred years old. As far from 'born yesterday' as most people can ever hope to be." Euphoria frowns. Her attention then turns back to Magtok. "So, one more time. What are you doing down here, and what did you make her do?" Her tail swishes back and forth behind her irritably as she awaits what had better be a good explanation.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
”I mean it’s probably fine? It still tells them that if they want to get all of it they’ll just need to send someone suited for the cold and the dark.”
Which really, Henry is. But he doesn’t have a lot of experience relying on just his nose and bio-sense. And besides, the murky dark tunnel could throw off even those senses. Henry sits beside her, idly kicking his feet in the water. ”If you held my stuff I could ghost through the tight tunnel. But Um. Then I would be. You know. Naked.”
So that sounds like a vote for exit.
[Port Valdez – Cave]
"Yeah, that does sound pretty dangerous," June says. "Being without your stuff in a cave is just a recipe for disaster."
She nods sagely, as if she really knows this sort of topic.
"Besides, what if there's some kind of...anti-ghost rock? Not that I'd know what one would look like, but if you do encounter one, it'd best be in a place we can both get to."
She places the map and the grease paint away.
She twists, and looks in the direction of the on-land exit, trying to see if there's any tricky things they need to do, to exit that way. There is a skeleton here, after all, which implies somebody couldn't get out on their own. "...Hopefully it's an easy route out..."
She looks closer into the dark, and shines her flashlight in a couple different directions. "Oh, I see." She glances back at the skeleton.
The way out has a short climb. Something that could easily be scaled by someone tall enough or with a big enough armspan to grab the next handhold, or someone who's got climbing equipment, or someone who just can climb. It even looks easy enough if you've got two people, to help each other out.
She points at the skeleton. "This poor soul looks like they were just a touch too short and too alone to climb out."
Actually, more likely given the nearby smuggling routes, they were betrayed by a partner and tricked/pushed in here.
She takes a deep breath and lies back on the ground. "Well, anyway, this was a pretty fun adventure. But except for those crystals in that one room, we didn't find any treasure, and unless that skeleton buried any treasure on the way in, I don't think we'll find any."
Henry shrugs. ”We could look around in here in case someone buried something with all this trash? But I dunno, the treasure isn’t worth much to me. This was more for fun.”
But of course most people don’t have more money than they know what to do with like Henry.
"Exstacy-" the name feels strange when Magtok says it, like he's trying out the word for the first time. Could he really have gotten this far without knowing Kate's other identity?
"-moderately inconvenienced me, so I committed some crimes with her face and came here to brag about it. That plan got turned around when she successfully guilt-tripped me into posting a video online, taking credit for my own work. We're square now, everything's resolved, and I was just about to leave," Magtok clarifies, leaving out exactly what Kate did to kick this all off. If Euphoria doesn't already know, it shouldn't be our responsibility to tell her, should it? Of course, this half-assed explanation might prompt Euphoria to punch us in the face, but that's still better than the alternative, right?
"You probably found 'How to Survive a Robot Uprising' in the humor section. Let's just hope that is where it belongs."
Today was the Butterfly Bay Polar Bear Plunge, where the denizens of the Bay challenge each other to take a quick dip in the cold Thanksmas-season waters for charity and general merriment. It's a yearly tradition. One which Codebreaker cheerily pointed out is much less of a challenge in a town where everyone is on average only a little less insulated than the polar bear lifeguard who hosts it.
Of course, the issue being that the event is at two pm. Naturally, this is a problem for strigoi, one that isn't really solvable by making it at night since that would be a massive safety hazard for everyone else.
So this late Thanksmas evening, Henry Vadnova places a large stuffed bear in the lifeguard's chair and turns to Owena, holding his lantern. "So did you want to do this too, or did you just want to see me do it?" he asks. Despite their current activity Henry is in full Thanksmas costume with a scarf and hat. The lantern was probably part of the effect. In the low light of the night-time beach Henry's luminescent eyes and stripes are particularly bright..
Euphoria listens to Magtok's explanation stoically, waiting for him to finish before she turns her attention to Kate. "...Is that true?"
"...He's, um... downplaying it a bit." Kate grimaces. "But yeah. We were just filming a thing. I wasn't even on camera for any of it. I mean... my likeness was, I guess, but it's not at all like you were probably thinking."
"...Hm." Euphoria pauses a moment, before stepping out of the way of the stairs to let Magtok up and out of their house. "All right, then. Be on your way. And..." She reaches down into the grocery bag, pulling out a random item as something akin to a peace offering. "...Apologies for the trouble."
[Butterfly Bay - Private Dip]
Owena smiles at that. "This isn't really very much of a spectator sport." She notes. It'd be hard to watch Henry swimming around underwater at night without already being pretty close to the water herself. And it wouldn't be particularly entertaining to do so; he seems pretty comfortable underwater even in abnormal conditions, so there wouldn't be any of the schadenfreude that normally makes up the bulk of the entertainment at these things. She'd probably have more fun watching him get in the bath.
Owena starts undoing the belt on her robe, struggling with it a bit as her exposed hands shiver involuntarily in the frigid night air. Hopefully that isn't a sign of things to come. She knew this was going to be a little uncomfortable; she's going swimming in cold water, of course it's going to be uncomfortable. But this is an opportunity to spend time with Henry, doing something he loves, right? She can put up with the cold for a few minutes.
Besides, she's a Ty-Maldwyn. Everyone in her family's built tough. She can handle this.
As she dramatically shucks the robe off and onto one of the supports of the lifeguard's chair, she finds herself immediately regretting that decision. It turns out "cold" means something entirely different when dressed in a two-piece swimsuit compared to a full-length insulated robe. The latter is mildly uncomfortable. The former is akin to a mob of ghosts swarming her and setting about an impromptu flogging.
Despite feeling a sudden need to clasp both arms over her chest to hold in what little body heat remains, Owena manages a toothy smile in Henry's direction. Or at least it looks a bit like a smile. It might just be the muscles around her mouth stiffening. "S-see? R-r-ready to go-o when y-ou are!" She shivers, working her toes under the sand.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
Henry can't really blush as a shark but he certainly appears to be doing his best. He bashfully walks to the other side of the wooden chair to have some form of cover as he removes his elaborate ensemble. Even knowing he's wearing trunks underneath it all he's always very bashful about this sort of thing. They've gone swimming regularly and he kind of does this every time.
"Well, just to remind you, the regular people are only supposed to be in the water for a couple seconds. And you don't want to get lost so you shouldn't go more than waist deep anyway. I can get back to shore easy because my nose can feel you." He wiggles his nose a little. Owena is a strigoi but there's apparently enough life there for his bio-electric sense to trip. "Um. You know what I mean. So um. Are you sure? I mean I guess it's not like you can actually get hypothermia any more than I can." As usual, Henry is standing there in just swim trunks in the winter cold absolutely unphased. He even does that thing he often does where he runs a hand over his chest as he enjoys the cold wind on his skin.
Owena gives him a patient smile as she waits for him to get undressed, pogoing in place as she tries to keep her circulation going in the agonizingly long seconds it takes. She won't watch, of course; it'd be rude to do that if he isn't comfortable exposing himself like that just yet, and she can tell where he's at in the process from the sound of cloth on wood anyway, and- oh please let that be the last piece coming off and not him arranging them.
As Henry enters the water, seemingly unperturbed, Owena approaches after him, stumbling along as she stiffly jolts herself forward, one bent knee at a time. She keeps her eyes on the sand directly in front of her, partly out of respect for Henry's modesty, and partly because she doesn't want to expose her throat to the cold air.
As she approaches the water, Owena stops, then dances back away from the breakers rolling up the beach. Oh Absum she is not ready for this. She isn't even in the water yet, but she can imagine what it's going to be like, from the blazing cold sensation under the soles of her feet from just standing here. This is going to be agony.
...It's okay. Henry said just a couple of seconds. She can do a couple of seconds, right? One, two. That's it. It doesn't have to be any harder than that.
Don't even think about it, just go. She won't even feel it, it'll be so quick.
Owena closes her eyes and hurriedly stumbles forward a couple of paces, into the water.
And somehow the water is worse than she imagined.
Owena squeals as the freezing ocean water slaps up against her shins, then her thighs, seeming to cut right through her like so many tiny knives, before systematically replacing her bones with razor blades. It's a mercy that the soles of her feet are touching actual land, leeching some amount of precious warmth from the sand... "warmth" being something of a relative term here, in that it seemed to only just barely protect her feet from further violation.
But she's in. And she only needs to be in so deep for so long. A couple of seconds. She's probably already thought about it more than she needs to, she can just turn around and run back up the beach and nobody will think less of her for it. Certainly not Henry. If she asked he'd probably carry her back.
...That hardly explains why she still feels compelled to go further forward.
The next thing she knows, she's lunging toward Henry, grabbing hold of him as best she can. She's holding her arms completely above the water, awkwardly and stiffly twitching as her elbows knick against the surface and she recoils away from it. How well she can hold onto him is unclear, both because of his composition and how difficult it would be to grasp anything in this position, rib-deep in freezing cold water.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
Finding Henry to grab him is pretty easy. He isn’t trying to stay under the water and he glows in the dark. And he’s quite solid until he decides not to be.
In fact, grabbing him likely makes Owena aware of how solid he is. He’s round enough to be a bit soft but under that is a lot of muscle. Henry always tries his best to be classy and respectful around her so he isn’t quite as huggy as halfling culture would normally suggest. Especially not while they’re in swimwear. Of course, his skin is as rough as always.
”Oh okay. Um. Are you okay? Have you had enough?” Henry isn’t really sure how to respond to this turn of events, gently putting his arms around Owena as she uses him as a float.
See, at this point, it would be so ridiculously easy to just say "yes". "Yep, I'm done, please get me out of the water now." She's not sure exactly how the cold will affect her from here, but...
...
Actually, this doesn't feel so bad. Now that she's had a second to adjust, that sharp, stinging sensation radiating throughout the submerged part of her body and slowly crawling up to the bits that are still dry, doesn't seem quite so... awful. It's certainly weird, sure, but... not entirely objectionable. Her skin feels all numb and sensitive at the same time, somehow, which she finds to be a rather interesting combination with Henry's own sandpapery exterior. It's something like what she might anticipate laying on a bed of needles might feel like.
"I'm... I'm fine." She says after a moment, a little airily. She cracks a smile, slowly slipping down into the water until it's past her shoulders. "It's an acquired, um... I mean I guess 'acquired taste' works here but I don't think that's quite right." Her face flushes and she gives him a little laugh. "Let's make a point of staying close to the shore for now, just in case... but this is nice, actually."
Her grip on the shark-man tightens into a proper hug as they bob out there in the water. Henry might notice that, despite the frigid water around them, she's actually quite warm... at least by comparison. Her pulse is also unusually high, which might account for her face turning the shade of bright red that it is... though it's not going to be clear if that's as a result of moderate hypothermia or her cuddling up with her boyfriend nearly bare-chested.
Who're you? ...Don't matter.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
At the very least sharkskin feels rough because of all the tiny tooth-like protrusions, so if Owena moves her hands in the other direction Henry’s skin wouldn’t feel as rough. But that’s not what she’s going for, is it?
As for being bare chested…well he certainly is. And he can’t lie and say that her outfit is all that modest. ”Whatever you want. I can quite literally do this all day. Um. Just let me know, okay?”
He glances around. He has trouble looking directly at Owena given the position of his eyes and how close they are. ”So uh. Well you look very nice tonight.”
Henry is personally surprised Owena’s uptight uncle let her get herself such a swimsuit. Maybe he doesn’t know?
