Inside

[Shadowcaller]

[Anchor Manor]

Eliot states that they have done a good job and that he might hire them in the future before they leave.
'A' will politely follow them out to the gate and nod to both Onyeka and Neshy before closing the gate behind them.

Planar Introductions

Ambrosia catches the look in Utayo's eyes and feels her resolve crumble. She would think she was a dumb nervous wreck now and so would Thariza. All because she just couldn't keep her cool around Embralat. She wanted to sink into the earth or be taken by the winds. Anything to get out of this self-inflicted situation.

Then came the question she had been dreading. What did she want to talk about?

Honestly, she had no idea. Her thoughts were at a standstill.

So she did the only thing she could think of.

"...Uh, could you first excuse me one moment? I... I need to use the-" What did they call the indoor outhouse again? It always had those letters- "WC."

And then she gets up and walks off in the direction of the bathroom.

How awkward.

[Recaiden]

[Train Station]

"Nah, this is more like something out of a good horror movie. The kind that's not just all blood and guts." Jason glances up at the clock. "It should be here any second now. Riftline's almost always on time."

It occurs to Kiun that she really doesn't know anything about horror movies. She can telepathically learn about them from Sophia, and that's well enough, but it's not the same as seeing and reacting to them yourself, is it?

So she just shifts her wings awkwardly for a moment.
"Blood and guts mean things have really started. Eidolon is confusing, but neither of us have been seriously hurt. Right?" Not that serious injury is really a thing that happens to her.

[Morty]

[Planar Introductions]

Ah, rust. This is bad. Thariza rests her hands on the table and sighs.

"I better go after her. This is really unlike her."

[Gullara]

[Planar Introductions]

Utayo simply nods. Thariza certain is best equipped for whatever is going on.

However, that leaves her with a total stranger for a little bit. Not that she's not adaptable. Best to try and redirect the topic from the obvious, though. "I apologize if this is rude." She begins, acting as thought nothing is up with Ambrosia. "Are your wings perhaps synthetic?"

[bc56]

Train Station
"Or things have really ended... Here's our train." It's just pulled into the station and the people are emerging. "Hopefully we'll get far enough fast enough that that thing loses track of us.

[Shadowcaller]

[Planar Introductions]

Thariza will likely be able to spot Ambrosia's boots underneath one of the bathrooms non-dragon stalls as she enters. Being the only pair, it won't be especially difficult.
If the charr decides to open the door she will find the scholar staring down at the floor with closed eyes. Taking deep, presumably calming, breaths.
But as Thariza enters she looks up and then hides her face behind her hands. "Please... I'm trying to calm down, Thariza. I just need a bit..."

[Recaiden]

[Train Station]

"Or things have really ended... Here's our train." It's just pulled into the station and the people are emerging. "Hopefully we'll get far enough fast enough that that thing loses track of us.

They don't quite get what Jason is saying there, but they hop on the train once there's room to get in. At this point, Haru will become easily visible again. "Assuming we do get away, how are we going to track Eidolon down when we're ready to get rid of it?"
It occurs that 'inside a train' would be a terrible place to fight Eidolon. Hope this works.

[Morty]

[Planar Introductions]

"I noticed. But I've never seen you so nervous. I got worried," Thariza says, looking Ambrosia up and down. "Why did meeting Neon send you into a panic?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Planar Introductions]

"Panic? Nooo, no... I just..." Ambrosia let's out a sigh. "I don't know." A beat. "Actually, that's not entirely correct. We broke up. Or rather, I broke up with her. By leaving a message and... she isn't a bad person. Quite the opposite really. Yet I couldn't even do it in person and she deserved that. She was even the first- the first person I've actually been with and I just disappeared on her." She hides her face in her hands again for a moment slowly rubbing her face tiredly until she speaks up again.

"But that's enough of a reason for me to act like this. To be unable to keep my cool. I feel like I'm breaking down in front of you and I don't know what to do about it. What do I say to her? How do I explain myself? I don't know, I don't know. One moment I'm talking about the history of the city and the next I'm not even sure what I'm saying. Do I want to be with her again? Or is it just a symptom of how truly deprived I've been of emotional contact of that level?"

[Morty]

[Planar Introductions]

Oh, flames. Thariza isn't equipped to give advice about this. Her relationships have been decidedly on the casual side. As is common for Charr. But she has to say something.

"Why did you leave her like that?" This seems important to know if she's going to give any kind of useful advice. "You must have had some kind of reason." Not necessarily a good one (in fact probably not) but it had to be there.

[Keeper]

[More Like Hunger Busting]

Ribs.

Of course ribs.

Sadly Khannie is pretty confident that she doesn't have enough money for something fancy like one of those barbecue table places. She might have to settle for something a little less extravagant.

She hops up on a bus stop and sits down on her haunches, curling her tail around to get at the tail bag she's wearing. Let's see how much has she got...

Some!

Enough. Probably.

"Okay I'll get you some ribs but they won't be the fancy ones," she warns before taking off skyward. Technically she could just check her phone for where the nearest Fluxmart is but going up high for a quick look around lets her avoid all the foot traffic anyway.

Let's see... Wasn't there one right around...

There!

Target spotted, Khannie descends down to the weird grocery store and releases her partner. "Okay you know the rules for stores. No touching. Just point at the ONE thing you want okay?"

Usually Fluxmart has those warm food sections and HOPEFULLY it has ribs. Time to find out.

More Like Hunger Busting

"I'll do my best!" chirps Sirius.
Presumably Khannie will let him out of the watch when she lands or else it's really hard for Sirius to point when he's just a 2D sprite on her watch.

[Planar Introductions]

Utayo simply nods. Thariza certain is best equipped for whatever is going on.

However, that leaves her with a total stranger for a little bit. Not that she's not adaptable. Best to try and redirect the topic from the obvious, though. "I apologize if this is rude." She begins, acting as thought nothing is up with Ambrosia. "Are your wings perhaps synthetic?"

Planar Introductions

Embralat knows what Utayo is doing but choses to just let it happen.
"Oh, yes! They're my own design. Though not my own installation, obviously. Crystal magitek is my specialty. I specialize in designs that help people with limited dexterity. Most people like me don't have hands like you do." She wiggles her claws, which are rather dexterous looking despite her being quadruped.

[Rebonack]

[More Like Hunger Busting]

His best.

Sirius will do his best.

Well.

Khannie will have to accept that, won't she?

Thus! She releases Sirius from the watch! And then she begins heading toward the automatic doors!

"There's gunna be lots of stuff in here that looks good," she says, craning her neck to look back at her partner. "But we're only gunna get ONE thing because I don't have a lotta-"

DONK!

The faewild dragon makes a silly face as her snoot mooshes up against the glass doors, causing her to double back in surprise and rub her nose irritably. That was decidedly uncool. Did anyone see her smack into the door?

A quick look around reveals yes, probably.

Embarrassing.

"C'mon you dumb thing, open!" Khannie hisses at the door, which remains implacable and aloof to her distress.

[Gullara]

[Planar Introductions]

"Oh truly? We're kindred spirits, then. Not that I'm familiar with your particular technology, but I also had a hand in designing my own prosthetics." She holds up her left hand for emphasis, articulating the warmly coloured metallic fingers.

[Shadowcaller]

[Planar Introductions]

Oh, flames. Thariza isn't equipped to give advice about this. Her relationships have been decidedly on the casual side. As is common for Charr. But she has to say something.

"Why did you leave her like that?" This seems important to know if she's going to give any kind of useful advice. "You must have had some kind of reason." Not necessarily a good one (in fact probably not) but it had to be there.

[Planar Introductions]

"Yes, yes, she was... tracking me. Through that phone-device which are popular around here. In retrospect I think she just wanted to be with me more but once I learned of it I... I guess you could say that I freaked out. I left a message and abandoned the phone right at the spot. Never to pick up another one ever again." Which would explain why she never have one on her.

[Morty]

[Planar Introductions]

Thariza rubs her snout.

"So you didn't ask why she was tracking you? And why did it scare you so much? She already knew you're a dragon, didn't she?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Planar Introductions]

Ambrosia nods. "She does, of course she do. She has seen my true form." More than just seeing it really...
"And... I'm a private person, Thariza. One might even say... paranoid. Since I might have overacted a bit when I learned of that. The scenarios I imagined were in retrospect rather far fetched. I just don't know how to explain that to her though if she asks. Since she is going to ask and what do I say then? That I went crazy?" The scholar groans.

[bc56]

Train
Jason takes a seat. "We need to know what it is before we fight it. There's probably someone somewhere who would know but finding them would be like a needle in a haystack." He shrugs. "It's a problem for after we get away from it."

[Keeper]

[Planar Introductions]

"Oh truly? We're kindred spirits, then. Not that I'm familiar with your particular technology, but I also had a hand in designing my own prosthetics." She holds up her left hand for emphasis, articulating the warmly coloured metallic fingers.

Planar Introductions

Embralat's visor covers her eyes but she might look excited behind it.
"Oh, that's super neat! Did you install it yourself? I know some people who did. Mine don't quite help me fly but they produce a powerful enough aetheric field to let me hover. Which is more than I could ever really ask for having not been born with them at all."

[More Like Hunger Busting]

His best.

Sirius will do his best.

Well.

Khannie will have to accept that, won't she?

Thus! She releases Sirius from the watch! And then she begins heading toward the automatic doors!

"There's gunna be lots of stuff in here that looks good," she says, craning her neck to look back at her partner. "But we're only gunna get ONE thing because I don't have a lotta-"

DONK!

The faewild dragon makes a silly face as her snoot mooshes up against the glass doors, causing her to double back in surprise and rub her nose irritably. That was decidedly uncool. Did anyone see her smack into the door?

A quick look around reveals yes, probably.

Embarrassing.

"C'mon you dumb thing, open!" Khannie hisses at the door, which remains implacable and aloof to her distress.

More like Hunger Busting

Sirius definitely saw that.
But he doesn't comment because he is a good partner. Instead he only quietly snickers.
"It's probably just fried." Sirius steps on the pad to be safe, but also tries to gently pry the doors apart with his claws. He doesn't want to scratch the doors and get yelled at but they need the DELICIOUS PREPARED FOOD AISLE contents!

[Recaiden]

[Train]

Jason takes a seat. "We need to know what it is before we fight it. There's probably someone somewhere who would know but finding them would be like a needle in a haystack." He shrugs. "It's a problem for after we get away from it."

Kiun sits next to him, wings folded in a way that makes her look kind of nervous.
"It seemed more hurt, the second time. Because it bothered to flee through the building, instead of just vanishing."

Haru stands nearby, tentacle wrapped around one of the poles - for stability.
"Feel like I should remind you that we don't have another glave bomb."

"We know it comes from someplace less chaotic than this. And that place also has a Hoplite. Someone could have trained it to come after you, with a fake. It could be from another world. It could still mostly be in that other world. Could be from our own future - scary, scary..."

For now they just have to see if the train takes them far and fast enough to be out of its sight.

[Rebonack]

[More like Hunger Busting]

Sirius is a good friend.

Anyway!

He stomps on the foot pad a few times! Nothing happens! Then he tries prying at the door! Nothing still happens!

Then someone walks through the door to their left and it opens for them!

Oh.

Khannie wasn't paying attention and tried walking in the out door.

Okay yeah she's looking really red as she slinks inside whoops.

Our heroes are immediately met with A SALE!

Apparently depleted uranium bird statues are eighty two percent off today! But our heroes don't need any really dense birds so Khannie avoids that display since that's a really weird thing to make statues out of.

Pretty soon the scent of delicious ribs will begin teasing Sirius' nose.

[Morty]

[Planar Introductions]

Right. Given what Ambrosia has told her about her past, some degree of paranoia about people finding too much about her isn't entirely unexpected.

"I think honesty is the only way to go. Tell her that you were worried about your privacy and overreacted. Awkward, but trying to justify yourself would be more awkward. She seems friendly enough so she should be willing to hear you out."

[Shadowcaller]

[Planar Introductions]

Ambrosia let's out a small sigh. "...I suppose that sounds reasonable. She knows about my privacy concerns already after all." A beat.
"Just... please do me a favor, Thariza? If it starts storming outside tell me okay? Since I might have accidentally caused it due to stress and that sort of thing can hurt people. Don't want me melting down over relationship issues to cause others distress."

[Gullara]

Planar Introductions

Embralat's visor covers her eyes but she might look excited behind it.
"Oh, that's super neat! Did you install it yourself? I know some people who did. Mine don't quite help me fly but they produce a powerful enough aetheric field to let me hover. Which is more than I could ever really ask for having not been born with them at all."

[Planar Introductions]

"I'm afraid surgery doesn't number among my skills, nor would it be wise to perform on myself in any case. It's quite an involved process to install cybernetics. At least the variety I'm familiar with. Of course the requirements are quite demanding, as it needs to replicate motions perfectly, transmit touch signals, and provide mental control over its additional features."

The moonfolk was getting quiet animate and was leaning forward in her seat. Catching herself, she settles back and folds her hands neatly in front of her. "But don't let me prattle. Flight is always a tricky thing to manage on a personal scale. The dynamics of the motion can be complex. Hovering is impressive enough."

[Keeper]

Planar Introductions

"Oh, yes. Not only does the wiring have to connect to the nervous system, aetheric resonance has to be accomplished perfectly with your body's natural aura or they wouldn't stay in place." The crystals that make up Embralat's wings aren't even touching so that does doubtlessly require intense magical tuning. They probably don't have to float like that but where's the pizazz in that?

More Like Hunger Busting

"Oh oh oh Khannie they're over there, over there see over there!" Sirius is tapping his feet against the floor in a vaguely rhythmic motion.
Khannie probably can't see because Sirius has already located the aisle by scent. She may have to speed up if she wants to keep him from bursting with excitement.

[Rebonack]

[More Like Hunger Busting]

Honestly Khannie can taste it from where she is.

Just gotta mlem a few times. That forked tongue exists for a reason! It's so she can tell which direction the taste is stronger in!

"Yeah yeah I see c'mon you doof let's go don't smack into anything like idiot me," Khannie says as she sets off toward the WARM SNACKS section. As she had hoped this part of the store has exactly what she's after. Fried food, prepared food, salads, and the like. Khannie's pretty sure half the selection is Klingon or something considering how much it's wriggling around. But they've got what she's after.

BBQ ribs and fruit salad.

She stands up her on hind legs and flashes a mischievous grin at the bored looking worker behind the counter.

"Ho! Could I get some ribs and some fruit salad for me and my friend?" she asks as politely as she can manage.

The man glances between she and Sirius, but doesn't respond right away. Just sort of... staring at them. Or past them. Into the middle distance.

[Keeper]

More Like Hunger Busting

Do not confuse the Klingon food with the Batarian food. One wriggles around, the other wriggles around and is also full of helpful* parasites.
Sirius looks at the silent employee. Oh, he knows what he's doing. He's doing that thing that adults do to CHILDREN. Well Sirius might have emerged from a website less than half a decade ago, and he might have no formal education and be partnered with a high schooler, and his bio officially says Child Form (but only on certain settings, the other setting says Rookie), but he is not a CHILD.
...he'll play along for ribs, though.
"Pleeeeease?" he adds helpfully to Khannie's request, smiling his toothy grin wide.

[Rebonack]

[More Like Hunger Busting]

More anticipatory silence follows.

And then, finally, at long last.

"Fine. You lizards kids had better have money," he sighs.

Khannie is indignant. "I'm not a lizard or a kid!" she insists.

"Uh huh," the employee replies, none too moved by Khannie's clever counter-argument.

...he still isn't acquiring ribs for them.

OR fruit salad.

This is a travesty.

[Keeper]

More like Hunger Busting

Khannie's not a lizard. Or a kid. And she's DEFINITELY not a squid.
For some reason her uncle has made that joke at least four times ever since she got to the age of being indignant of being called a kid.
"You totally brought money with you, right Khannie?" he asks her.
Don't meatspace people usually do that? He found something called "zenny" after he beat up those viruses but he doesn't know if it's good out in the real world.

[Rebonack]

[More like Hunger Busting]

She IS a wizard, though. Just a not great one.

But she's getting better!

Honestly her interest in wizardry is more academic than anything else. And probably born of her friendship with the dorfs. If she knows the basics then she can teach her friends, right?

"YES," Khannie insists, maybe a bit too forcefully. "I've got..."

She roots around in her little bag for cash before withdrawing-! Some paper money from a couple different countries, two silver coins with an image of a Caesar on them, one gold coin with a skull on one side and a sickle on the other, enough pokebucks to represent the lunch money of at least two obnoxious kids wearing comfy shorts, and a quartz token for storing some kind of digital currency.

"All of this?"

Okay.

Khannie will admit here that she has zero idea how much any of this stuff is worth.

The less she thinks about economics of the Nexus the better, probably.

The food-guy glowers at them for a few moments before taking the two silver coins and begins filling up a pair of cardboard clamshells with fruit salad and ribs.

Success!

[Morty]

[Planar Introductions]

Thariza nods.

"Alright. If it starts getting stormy outside, I'll discreetly let you know. Mentioning the weather in a conversation is normal."