Making Trouble
"As if you don't appreciate it," the succubus replies and yanks on the thread, which causes the entire assembly to retract with surprising force, intending to pull Blank off his feet and into the temptress' waiting arms. "Why fight? We could have so much fun together," she suggests liltingly. If she managed to pull Blank in, she presses closely up against him so he can feel the heat of her body.
Early Bird Cafe
Jason parks the car a short distance from their destination, and he and Morning Glory can walk the rest of the way.
It's a nice place, cozy, with a bird's-nest theme. Above it is a block of flats where the murder must have taken place, and judging by the people who are around and the preponderance of balconies, this area caters to flying folk. As Jason opens the door, the cafe's harpy hostess asks, "Table for two?" with a slightly surprised expression. Is there something unusual about them? More than normal for the Nexus, anyway?
Inside
Re: Inside
[Early Bird Cafe]
She may not look it, but Morning Glory is watching. Eyes flicking this way and that. Ears on a swivel even as she pitches some innocuous sounding small talk at Jason. Is there danger? Does anything feel off? She might not have a direct connection to Yezekiel anymore, but there's still a seed of that in her. And that seed tends to bristle at the nearness of unreality. It isn't as bad with Jade, not since she got cured. But there's still something off.
But then again, given that this is the Nexus, something is probably always off.
Glory catches the expression of the harpy quickly enough. A slight quirk of her lips, a slight shake of her head. No, she and Jason aren't an item.
"Table for two," Glory replies.
She'll hold off on any questions about the the goings on upstairs for now.
Best not to seem too interested. Better to wait for their order to arrive at least.
[Touring Inside]
"So you want to strike out for adventure. For goodness! For taking way too big of a bite out of cookies!"
Aivu say something that MIGHT have been 'no such thing' but her mouth is full of cookies.
"It's been a little bit since I've had a proper adventure. And I did smack some ghosts a few times. There's a... ah! Here! A haunted house on the list of sights to see. It's down a little ways-"
"Since there are no treats there."
"But maybe we could check it out a little earlier than I was planning?"
She may not look it, but Morning Glory is watching. Eyes flicking this way and that. Ears on a swivel even as she pitches some innocuous sounding small talk at Jason. Is there danger? Does anything feel off? She might not have a direct connection to Yezekiel anymore, but there's still a seed of that in her. And that seed tends to bristle at the nearness of unreality. It isn't as bad with Jade, not since she got cured. But there's still something off.
But then again, given that this is the Nexus, something is probably always off.
Glory catches the expression of the harpy quickly enough. A slight quirk of her lips, a slight shake of her head. No, she and Jason aren't an item.
"Table for two," Glory replies.
She'll hold off on any questions about the the goings on upstairs for now.
Best not to seem too interested. Better to wait for their order to arrive at least.
[Touring Inside]
"So you want to strike out for adventure. For goodness! For taking way too big of a bite out of cookies!"
Aivu say something that MIGHT have been 'no such thing' but her mouth is full of cookies.
"It's been a little bit since I've had a proper adventure. And I did smack some ghosts a few times. There's a... ah! Here! A haunted house on the list of sights to see. It's down a little ways-"
"Since there are no treats there."
"But maybe we could check it out a little earlier than I was planning?"
Re: Inside
Touring Inside
Henry takes a bit to reply since his mouth is full of cookie.
"Is it like...a spooky haunted house or just where ghosts live? I don't want to harass people just trying to live their afterlives." Henry says, which probably tells Eu a lot about the Nexus if she hasn't figured it out yet.
"But we can certainly check it out and see if there's something we can do."
Henry takes a bit to reply since his mouth is full of cookie.
"Is it like...a spooky haunted house or just where ghosts live? I don't want to harass people just trying to live their afterlives." Henry says, which probably tells Eu a lot about the Nexus if she hasn't figured it out yet.
"But we can certainly check it out and see if there's something we can do."
Re: Inside
[Making Trouble]bc56 wrote: ↑Jun 15, 2023 9:41 pm Making Trouble
"As if you don't appreciate it," the succubus replies and yanks on the thread, which causes the entire assembly to retract with surprising force, intending to pull Blank off his feet and into the temptress' waiting arms. "Why fight? We could have so much fun together," she suggests liltingly. If she managed to pull Blank in, she presses closely up against him so he can feel the heat of her body.
"I really don-" Blank starts to protest, before the sudden yank on his arm refocuses his attention and he's forced to dig in his heels. Why's she so much stronger than he was expecting? Holy hell.
But he can't let her reel him in. He's heard things about succubi before. And while he's not sure which species she is, for many of them, being close enough to touch is a big no-no...
Wait.
So is getting close to him.
...It's a risk. But that's kind of what this whole superhero thing is about, right?
Blank pulls down his mask and stops resisting, allowing the succubus to yank him close to her... at which point she'll find her throat on the business end of a mouthful of unnaturally sharp teeth, belonging to a creature that survives by devouring souls. Which perhaps is not the smartest thing for a demoness to bring close to herself.
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.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
-
bc56
- Poster from Beyond the Veil
- Posts: 2781
- Joined: Jul 25, 2022 3:09 pm
- Location: Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
Re: Inside
Early Bird Cafe
Clientele seems pretty scarce here. No doubt they were scared away by the murder upstairs.
The harpy looks... Relieved? Disappointed? It's hard to tell. But she got the message. Jason orders some trivial thing, and presumably so does Glory. "So how do you want to approach this?" Jason asks, "This is where Jade was when she was arrested." Maybe not this exact table, but you get the point, "Maybe there's some clue here? But I doubt it."
Making Trouble
Does Blank really want to eat succubus? That sounds like it would cause problems. It certainly can't be safe, even for something like him.
The succubus' throat is ripped out in a spray of black blood, but it doesn't really seem to slow her down. The wound is rapidly regenerating back to inflamed perfection. "Naughty, naughty. Biting without any foreplay first." It seems she's determined to make anything he does seem dirty. She continues to rhythmically, suggestively rub up against him, but her hands are moving to the sides of his head, her clawed thumbs poised. As soon as she gets a chance, she'll try to plunge them into his soft, unprotected eyes.
Clientele seems pretty scarce here. No doubt they were scared away by the murder upstairs.
The harpy looks... Relieved? Disappointed? It's hard to tell. But she got the message. Jason orders some trivial thing, and presumably so does Glory. "So how do you want to approach this?" Jason asks, "This is where Jade was when she was arrested." Maybe not this exact table, but you get the point, "Maybe there's some clue here? But I doubt it."
Making Trouble
Does Blank really want to eat succubus? That sounds like it would cause problems. It certainly can't be safe, even for something like him.
The succubus' throat is ripped out in a spray of black blood, but it doesn't really seem to slow her down. The wound is rapidly regenerating back to inflamed perfection. "Naughty, naughty. Biting without any foreplay first." It seems she's determined to make anything he does seem dirty. She continues to rhythmically, suggestively rub up against him, but her hands are moving to the sides of his head, her clawed thumbs poised. As soon as she gets a chance, she'll try to plunge them into his soft, unprotected eyes.
Avatar by me! No more outsourcing!
Re: Inside
[Intersection Precinct]
"I care because I'm tryin' to help you." Michalson sounds genuinely hurt by this and it's a moment before he speaks. "I don't know how to stop him. This is the tail end of a longer story and I dropped into it like a lemon into the Hive."
"I care because I'm tryin' to help you." Michalson sounds genuinely hurt by this and it's a moment before he speaks. "I don't know how to stop him. This is the tail end of a longer story and I dropped into it like a lemon into the Hive."
-
quillpleasant
- Reborn Elder Poster
- Posts: 1654
- Joined: Feb 27, 2023 7:23 am
- Location: Somewhere cold
- Pronouns: Any
Re: Inside
[Intersection Precinct]
But as Bunny continues her anxious muttering, Lia frowns. She's had enough of this wailing. She raises a finger, pauses for a moment, then launches into a tirade.
"Okay, we get it. You're desperate and lashing out because you're paralyzed by your own insecurities. You're obsessed with a man who doesn't care about you as much as you care about him, and you just want to go back to living a lie rather than self actualizing and moving on."
She pauses for a moment, as if something's occurred to her, then she continues.
"That's fine, if you want to waste your time throwing tantrums then be my guest. But if you actually want to help Sandels, then you need to share everything you know about your respective pasts, what you know of his world, your plans for the future, and anything else that might help. Otherwise, there's no point in continuing this conversation." She folds her arms, leaning back against the precinct wall.
Lia gives the detective a sympathetic look. He truly seems over his head with this whole affair. Not that Lia isn't, but she never expected anything else.Hraithre wrote: ↑Jun 15, 2023 8:25 am "What would I do then? What do you care? Once I have a body and have served my sentence, it's none of your business!", Bunny snaps. "Knowing what I'd do in the future won't help you stop him!"
She begins pacing around in a circle again. "So he wants me to... we could... wait no, you already talked to him. He'd see right through it..."
But as Bunny continues her anxious muttering, Lia frowns. She's had enough of this wailing. She raises a finger, pauses for a moment, then launches into a tirade.
"Okay, we get it. You're desperate and lashing out because you're paralyzed by your own insecurities. You're obsessed with a man who doesn't care about you as much as you care about him, and you just want to go back to living a lie rather than self actualizing and moving on."
She pauses for a moment, as if something's occurred to her, then she continues.
"That's fine, if you want to waste your time throwing tantrums then be my guest. But if you actually want to help Sandels, then you need to share everything you know about your respective pasts, what you know of his world, your plans for the future, and anything else that might help. Otherwise, there's no point in continuing this conversation." She folds her arms, leaning back against the precinct wall.
horses can attack and eat me
-
Shadowcaller
- Poster from Beyond the Veil
- Posts: 2935
- Joined: Aug 02, 2022 6:29 am
- Location: Sweden
Re: Inside
[Mecha-Flu Investigation]Rebonack wrote: ↑Jun 05, 2023 4:50 pm [Mecha-Flu Investigation]
Now that the civilians are out of her mane and the elves are stuffed in handy containment tubes Red Velvet will climb off the golem and stoop down for a better look.
"Your enthusiasm and concern is appreciated, darling, but you needn't worry about me. I'm simply too gorgeous for any magical machine plague to mar my exceptional beauty," Red Velvet confides in the golem.
While she's being obnoxious and the kirin is prepping the pods for containment back at Intersection HQ the arion moves along side the golem and begins helping to prop them back up. Red is, of course, still keeping up her divination on any other sources of phyrexia infection in a pretty wide area. The golem doesn't look like it's in any shape to lead them anywhere right now.
The 'golem' slowly, stiffly, starts to get up, carefully watching Red Velvet's every move. "How do you know this? To take such a risk, I-" They pause, reaching up to touch their forehead as if checking if they were wounded before slowly turning to the other ponies. "-I apologize. This world is alien to me." They hold out two of their hand in a gesture of offering to the arion coming to help them up. "Will- will you still allow me to at least show you the other sites? Before it's too late." They look rather worn out but there's a fire in their voice that speaks of a deep-seated obsession.
Intersection members deal with fanatics and other mentally unwell people all the time so they might recognize the tone and the behavior. Calm and polite one moment while unreasonable and angry the next. The 'golem' will likely get upset again if they don't get what they want.
Now, Red Velvet can sense this new corruption across the city. Centered in what must be the 'locations' that the 'golem' keeps babbling about. There are a few dozen infected individuals right now but she does get the sense that this plague is airborne so those numbers might change at any moment. There only seem to be a few infected at each side expect for one where the majority of them seem to be gathered.
Re: Inside
[Making Trouble]
If Blank were only interested in doing things the safe way, he wouldn't be out here confronting a succubus in the first place.
Fortunately, eating a small piece like this has minimal effect on him. If there wasn't enough of her in that piece of flesh to inconvenience her, there certainly wasn't enough to inconvenience him.
No time to dwell on that, though. The demoness is going for the oldest, dirtiest trick in the book; blinding him.
And unfortunately, he fell for it.
Blank lets out a rapidly-escalating scream of pain as the succubus's claws dig into his eye sockets, the watery flesh giving way almost immediately under the sharp implements. He turns amd tries to throw himself away from her, hoping to buy some time to recover.
"That... that hurt, you bitch!" Blank snaps, his voice barely carrying through the bestial growl in his throat.
If Blank were only interested in doing things the safe way, he wouldn't be out here confronting a succubus in the first place.
Fortunately, eating a small piece like this has minimal effect on him. If there wasn't enough of her in that piece of flesh to inconvenience her, there certainly wasn't enough to inconvenience him.
No time to dwell on that, though. The demoness is going for the oldest, dirtiest trick in the book; blinding him.
And unfortunately, he fell for it.
Blank lets out a rapidly-escalating scream of pain as the succubus's claws dig into his eye sockets, the watery flesh giving way almost immediately under the sharp implements. He turns amd tries to throw himself away from her, hoping to buy some time to recover.
"That... that hurt, you bitch!" Blank snaps, his voice barely carrying through the bestial growl in his throat.
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.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
Re: Inside
[Touring Inside]
"The House of Ten Thousand Spooks," Eu replies, reading off the list. "The premier haunted house of the Nexus. Come to hear about the ghosts that haunt the City. It sounds like entertainment?"
"Ghosts don't live places they haunt since they aren't alive," Aivu helpfully points out.
"Typically ghosts are trapped by something. Or at least all the ones I ever met were. If a ghost is in the world of the living then something went wrong."
Like.
Say.
A curse set down by 'good' paladins.
[Early Bird Cafe]
Well.
Being fair there WAS a murder nearby the other day. That might spook people.
"I'm not sure. I'm not exactly a detective. But what I do know is that kumiho are usually playful. Just in ways that aren't healthy for anyone around them," Glory replies. "So I was hoping the fox might have left a trail of chicken feathers for us to follow, if you'll excuse my mixed metaphors."
[Mecha-Flu Investigation]
My, busy aren't they? Red gives one of her ears an almost imperceptible flick.
"Switchboard? Be a dear for me and dispatch containment teams to the following locations. No one goes in or out, preferably. The biohazard team and I will be by shortly to clean up the messes," Red Velvet says as the other equestrians finish loading the containment tubes. Then Red lights up her horn with a muddy chartreuse glow. There comes a beep from each of the pods shortly before each one vanishes in a magnesium white flash and a loud fizzling pop of magic.
While the arion is helping the 'golem' up Red (who is apparently in charge of this little soiree) turns back to the golem as well. "You strike me as a little under the weather, darling, but if you can keep up with a brisk trot then feel free. A little background on what we're dealing with would be lovely if you can supply it."
"The House of Ten Thousand Spooks," Eu replies, reading off the list. "The premier haunted house of the Nexus. Come to hear about the ghosts that haunt the City. It sounds like entertainment?"
"Ghosts don't live places they haunt since they aren't alive," Aivu helpfully points out.
"Typically ghosts are trapped by something. Or at least all the ones I ever met were. If a ghost is in the world of the living then something went wrong."
Like.
Say.
A curse set down by 'good' paladins.
[Early Bird Cafe]
Well.
Being fair there WAS a murder nearby the other day. That might spook people.
"I'm not sure. I'm not exactly a detective. But what I do know is that kumiho are usually playful. Just in ways that aren't healthy for anyone around them," Glory replies. "So I was hoping the fox might have left a trail of chicken feathers for us to follow, if you'll excuse my mixed metaphors."
[Mecha-Flu Investigation]
My, busy aren't they? Red gives one of her ears an almost imperceptible flick.
"Switchboard? Be a dear for me and dispatch containment teams to the following locations. No one goes in or out, preferably. The biohazard team and I will be by shortly to clean up the messes," Red Velvet says as the other equestrians finish loading the containment tubes. Then Red lights up her horn with a muddy chartreuse glow. There comes a beep from each of the pods shortly before each one vanishes in a magnesium white flash and a loud fizzling pop of magic.
While the arion is helping the 'golem' up Red (who is apparently in charge of this little soiree) turns back to the golem as well. "You strike me as a little under the weather, darling, but if you can keep up with a brisk trot then feel free. A little background on what we're dealing with would be lovely if you can supply it."
Re: Inside
Touring Inside
"Oh, so it's like an exhibit. Yeah that's fine. I-"
bzzzt. bzzzzt.
"Hang on, that's my sis, I was asking her about the house and stuff and..."
He holds the phone right up to his nose and squints at it.
"She said the curse was because our great-something grandfather started a cult and tried to summon a, and I quote, 'super-demon' in the grossest manner possible so a god got mad and had their servants bind it to his location and bloodline instead. I would have said to just banish it but noooo, make it our problem forever instead of solving the problem, good job guys. Friggin pulling a Lord Sothe on us.
Also my sis Sarah tried to move out once but her new place exploded so people stopped trying."
He frowns, pocketing his phone and looking up at Eu.
"I think I would like to be anywhere else doing anything else right now, thanks."
"Oh, so it's like an exhibit. Yeah that's fine. I-"
bzzzt. bzzzzt.
"Hang on, that's my sis, I was asking her about the house and stuff and..."
He holds the phone right up to his nose and squints at it.
"She said the curse was because our great-something grandfather started a cult and tried to summon a, and I quote, 'super-demon' in the grossest manner possible so a god got mad and had their servants bind it to his location and bloodline instead. I would have said to just banish it but noooo, make it our problem forever instead of solving the problem, good job guys. Friggin pulling a Lord Sothe on us.
Also my sis Sarah tried to move out once but her new place exploded so people stopped trying."
He frowns, pocketing his phone and looking up at Eu.
"I think I would like to be anywhere else doing anything else right now, thanks."
Re: Inside
[,,,,]
"Okay Page, system is calibrated. Turning on the Ouroboros Engine now."
The whir of fans and the hum of running electricity. Most of it is aesthetic, unnecessary for how this equipment should run, but Syncope has always found it comforting to be amongst the background noise of basic machines. It's more her element than most of the more arcane problems that she is frequently contemplating.
This is a smaller control room, fabricated entirely for this project. It's barely big enough for her typically small frame, but the wall-to-wall buttons, levers, and lights make it seem even smaller than it is.
She thinks its beautiful.
As she places a hand on one of the levers and begins to pull it down, she notes a light in the corner switch on.
"An audience? If this is narratively significant, then...Page, I'm cancelling the procedure! Something is going wrong."
But the lever already pulled will not let her switch it back.
Ruinous. There's no other word for what this was.
Ruinous.
Hiding in a nearby alley, Syncope watches the warped space across the street.
The air, ground, and building within distorted into tangled and interconnected polygons, visions of motion in one portion not lining up with visions in another. Sometimes they repeat. Sometimes they skip.
The Ouroboros Engine's safety checks have broken down completely and the local time looks to be pretty literally shattered.
This is problematic.
She bites the side of her thumb, an unusual nervous tic that she stops as soon as she notices, then looks at the two girls lying on the ground next to her.
Mari and...Sarah Vadnova, she believes. Not one she paid much attention to, but perhaps that was yet another mistake.
One of many to create the other ruinous problem ahead.
When the Engine completely failed and she...escaped her control room, she found that it appeared the anomalous space had ejected a number of objects from within it.
There were quite a few bodies, most of them dead, two not.
The Mari on the ground next to Syncope was one of the breathing ones, along with this Sarah girl.
Every other body was also theirs.
All deceased. Many barely recognizable.
Well. Mostly all deceased.
****
Down the street, a headless body crouches down next to another corpse.
A dark maw splits open across the headless one's chest, as it leans down to devour the other.
"Okay Page, system is calibrated. Turning on the Ouroboros Engine now."
The whir of fans and the hum of running electricity. Most of it is aesthetic, unnecessary for how this equipment should run, but Syncope has always found it comforting to be amongst the background noise of basic machines. It's more her element than most of the more arcane problems that she is frequently contemplating.
This is a smaller control room, fabricated entirely for this project. It's barely big enough for her typically small frame, but the wall-to-wall buttons, levers, and lights make it seem even smaller than it is.
She thinks its beautiful.
As she places a hand on one of the levers and begins to pull it down, she notes a light in the corner switch on.
"An audience? If this is narratively significant, then...Page, I'm cancelling the procedure! Something is going wrong."
But the lever already pulled will not let her switch it back.
► WARNING
► STELLAR INTERFERENCE DETECTED
► WARNING
► SYSTEM CORRUPTION DETECTED
► SYSTEM FAILURE SYSTEM FAILURE SYSTEM FAILURE
► ERROR SYSTEM SHUTDOWN FAILED
Ruinous. There's no other word for what this was.
Ruinous.
Hiding in a nearby alley, Syncope watches the warped space across the street.
The air, ground, and building within distorted into tangled and interconnected polygons, visions of motion in one portion not lining up with visions in another. Sometimes they repeat. Sometimes they skip.
The Ouroboros Engine's safety checks have broken down completely and the local time looks to be pretty literally shattered.
This is problematic.
She bites the side of her thumb, an unusual nervous tic that she stops as soon as she notices, then looks at the two girls lying on the ground next to her.
Mari and...Sarah Vadnova, she believes. Not one she paid much attention to, but perhaps that was yet another mistake.
One of many to create the other ruinous problem ahead.
When the Engine completely failed and she...escaped her control room, she found that it appeared the anomalous space had ejected a number of objects from within it.
There were quite a few bodies, most of them dead, two not.
The Mari on the ground next to Syncope was one of the breathing ones, along with this Sarah girl.
Every other body was also theirs.
All deceased. Many barely recognizable.
Well. Mostly all deceased.
****
Down the street, a headless body crouches down next to another corpse.
A dark maw splits open across the headless one's chest, as it leans down to devour the other.
Re: Inside
[A Busy Morning]
Karaglen has been running all over this morning. She always runs all over, so this isn't very unusual.
Technically, even the unusual events of her morning on not technically unusual in the grand scheme of things. Her days are also often unusual.
Today she has
-rescued two (2) cats, one from a tree and one from a sewer grate
-alleviated a poor girl's asthma
-admired a particularly beautiful garden
-helped a man missing one of his arms, traumatically babbling about "a headless person with a big mouth" which didn't really make sense
-assured a woman that her sphinx cat was in fact supposed to not have any hair
-eaten a pretty solid cookie that same woman offered
Busy busy!
And now she's admiring some interesting graffiti art that someone has painted on a mailbox, while finishing off the leftovers of that cookie.
Not the worst morning she's had, really.
Karaglen has been running all over this morning. She always runs all over, so this isn't very unusual.
Technically, even the unusual events of her morning on not technically unusual in the grand scheme of things. Her days are also often unusual.
Today she has
-rescued two (2) cats, one from a tree and one from a sewer grate
-alleviated a poor girl's asthma
-admired a particularly beautiful garden
-helped a man missing one of his arms, traumatically babbling about "a headless person with a big mouth" which didn't really make sense
-assured a woman that her sphinx cat was in fact supposed to not have any hair
-eaten a pretty solid cookie that same woman offered
Busy busy!
And now she's admiring some interesting graffiti art that someone has painted on a mailbox, while finishing off the leftovers of that cookie.
Not the worst morning she's had, really.
Re: Inside
[Touring Inside]
"Huh," would be Eu's reply to the talk of super demons. "You know I discovered that super demons aren't all that tough when confront them with the power of friendship, kindness, and overwhelming violence."
One of those things is not like the others.
"So is that... a yes? We should check out the haunted house?" Eu asks, just to be clear.
Aivu yells something through a mouthful of cookie that might relate to a spooky house sounding like fun just so long as there aren't any zombies.
[A Busy Morning]
Karaglen has likely learned by now that her Quest Journal has certain foibles. It keeps track of the sorts of quests she has started and finished and suggests MORE quests like those. That means lots of quests that involve helping people in need trapped in situations that require little if any violence and occasionally a zombie outbreak that can be solved with lots of violence.
The zombies really aren't great.
But it feels a little guilty just ignoring those, doesn't it?
That isn't all that the journal provides her with. Every now and again she'll get a quest out of the blue that really doesn't have a great deal of resemblance to the other quests she's been doing. Sometimes they're pleasant surprises! And sometimes they're terrible. Often they're a bit of both. So when that insistent little soundless ping goes off in Kara's mind she'll know what it is.
A new quest!
Hopefully something about helping that doesn't involve zombies, right?
Should she take some time away from admiring mailbox graffiti Kara will find the usual title and brief description format the quests always take.
[Ruinous]
There are different ways to divide things.
Lapis knows this fact well.
You can divide something to bring it distinction, like carving a statue out of marble.
Or you can divide something to destroy it, like, well, that's how most dividing works! Cutting something so that its parts don't work together anymore.
And Lapis can tell that normally people would think that this quest would require lots and lots and lots of the second thing and not much of the first thing. But most people haven't fought skinwalkers before. You can divide them the regular way and all the little pieces just keep wriggling unless they've been reduced to ashes. OR!
Or.
Unless you know other ways of cutting.
Previously Lapis had been working on dividing the new growth off the hedges at VIGIL to make them pretty! But when her Quest Log pinged her that there were SKIN WALKERS Inside and people were hoping and praying and begging to be saved from them Lapis KNEW she had to go stop them right away!
Because after all!
If she can stop all the skinwalkers before they get out of a place or two Inside then they can't threaten VIGIL. And preventing skinwalkers from threatening VIGIL is Lapis' VERY BIG and VERY IMPORTANT job!
All it takes is orienting herself toward the quest location and taking a single bounding leap as she leans into the essence of Motion. Reality blurs around her as the world turns below her feet. And in a moment she's there. A headless thing with too much mouth causing trouble. She's pretty sure there are others, but this one is first. In a single flowing motion the half-drow girl draws forth Resolution and-
"Infinite Sword Arts: Incandescent Soul Searing Strike."
-cuts.
But a single cut. Normally a single cut would matter little to a skin-walker. Then you would just have two slightly smaller and usually much grosser skin-walkers. But this cut does not cut flesh. It cuts essence. It cuts magic. It cuts spirit. It cuts being. It cuts away the esoteric animating principle and ignites it into a blazing inferno.
Lapis is quite certain this is a good cut for giving the gross magic of skinwalkers a distinctive and better purpose.
"Huh," would be Eu's reply to the talk of super demons. "You know I discovered that super demons aren't all that tough when confront them with the power of friendship, kindness, and overwhelming violence."
One of those things is not like the others.
"So is that... a yes? We should check out the haunted house?" Eu asks, just to be clear.
Aivu yells something through a mouthful of cookie that might relate to a spooky house sounding like fun just so long as there aren't any zombies.
[A Busy Morning]
Karaglen has likely learned by now that her Quest Journal has certain foibles. It keeps track of the sorts of quests she has started and finished and suggests MORE quests like those. That means lots of quests that involve helping people in need trapped in situations that require little if any violence and occasionally a zombie outbreak that can be solved with lots of violence.
The zombies really aren't great.
But it feels a little guilty just ignoring those, doesn't it?
That isn't all that the journal provides her with. Every now and again she'll get a quest out of the blue that really doesn't have a great deal of resemblance to the other quests she's been doing. Sometimes they're pleasant surprises! And sometimes they're terrible. Often they're a bit of both. So when that insistent little soundless ping goes off in Kara's mind she'll know what it is.
A new quest!
Hopefully something about helping that doesn't involve zombies, right?
Should she take some time away from admiring mailbox graffiti Kara will find the usual title and brief description format the quests always take.
Oh! That name is a cat-pun! This quest might involve cats, somehow? Either way, it sounds like someone really needs some encouragement.A Potentially CATastrophic Situation wrote:Catherine is losing all hope. If she succumbs to despair she'll definitely hurt herself and probably others, too. She needs someone who can quell the chaos of her emotions and show her that peace is still possible.
[Ruinous]
There are different ways to divide things.
Lapis knows this fact well.
You can divide something to bring it distinction, like carving a statue out of marble.
Or you can divide something to destroy it, like, well, that's how most dividing works! Cutting something so that its parts don't work together anymore.
And Lapis can tell that normally people would think that this quest would require lots and lots and lots of the second thing and not much of the first thing. But most people haven't fought skinwalkers before. You can divide them the regular way and all the little pieces just keep wriggling unless they've been reduced to ashes. OR!
Or.
Unless you know other ways of cutting.
Previously Lapis had been working on dividing the new growth off the hedges at VIGIL to make them pretty! But when her Quest Log pinged her that there were SKIN WALKERS Inside and people were hoping and praying and begging to be saved from them Lapis KNEW she had to go stop them right away!
Because after all!
If she can stop all the skinwalkers before they get out of a place or two Inside then they can't threaten VIGIL. And preventing skinwalkers from threatening VIGIL is Lapis' VERY BIG and VERY IMPORTANT job!
All it takes is orienting herself toward the quest location and taking a single bounding leap as she leans into the essence of Motion. Reality blurs around her as the world turns below her feet. And in a moment she's there. A headless thing with too much mouth causing trouble. She's pretty sure there are others, but this one is first. In a single flowing motion the half-drow girl draws forth Resolution and-
"Infinite Sword Arts: Incandescent Soul Searing Strike."
-cuts.
But a single cut. Normally a single cut would matter little to a skin-walker. Then you would just have two slightly smaller and usually much grosser skin-walkers. But this cut does not cut flesh. It cuts essence. It cuts magic. It cuts spirit. It cuts being. It cuts away the esoteric animating principle and ignites it into a blazing inferno.
Lapis is quite certain this is a good cut for giving the gross magic of skinwalkers a distinctive and better purpose.
Re: Inside
Touring Inside
Henry slowly leans over and takes one more bite of cookie statue. He feels better almost immediately.
"Yes, let's go check it out." he declares with a nod.
"And well, if you want to go exorcise our super-demon some time you're not on vacation, feel free to give it a shot."
Henry slowly leans over and takes one more bite of cookie statue. He feels better almost immediately.
"Yes, let's go check it out." he declares with a nod.
"And well, if you want to go exorcise our super-demon some time you're not on vacation, feel free to give it a shot."
Re: Inside
[A Busy Morning]
If it were a physical thing to be looked at, Karaglen would be side-eyeing her quest list as it alerts for her attention.
All the zombies just really make it hard to get excited about it, anymore. It's still important and it does mostly lead to her helping people, but...the violence is icky.
But the metaphorical side eye becomes a more alert and worried one instead.
Someone despairing so much that they're at risk of self-harm or more?
The mailbox is quickly forgotten, as she backtracks a couple houses to politely ask someone for some more of their pretty delicious cookies, tucks them away, and then sets about to trying to figure out the quickest way to reach this Catherine.
[Ruinous]
It's quite the assassination technique, arriving out of nowhere straight into an obliterating slash.
All the more effective, one would think, on the headless form of a young woman hunched on the ground shoveling bits of corpse into itself instead of paying attention.
And so she does.
Lapis appears with the suddenness of Death itself and divides her target. A surprised sort of hideous gurgling is released from it, somewhere within the rest of the brutal devastation of the attack upon its self.
There's definitely no way at all that it survives.
And so she [a faint crease in the air] tries.
But her target is not where the swing lands, jerking itself to the right and turning itself around to face her in the same burst of momentum. One hand remains on a piece of the body it was holding, tearing a leg with it and flinging it towards Lapis' face in the process.
Not a very dangerous attack, to be sure, but perhaps one distracting enough to let its perpetrator back up a few steps.
****
"Ah, blast it, drew in an Empyrean. Guess I'm going to find out how big of a screw up this was after all."
Syncope ducks her head back into the alley she was watching from and begins dragging Mari and Sarah further in, away from the probable blast radius.
If it were a physical thing to be looked at, Karaglen would be side-eyeing her quest list as it alerts for her attention.
All the zombies just really make it hard to get excited about it, anymore. It's still important and it does mostly lead to her helping people, but...the violence is icky.
But the metaphorical side eye becomes a more alert and worried one instead.
Someone despairing so much that they're at risk of self-harm or more?
The mailbox is quickly forgotten, as she backtracks a couple houses to politely ask someone for some more of their pretty delicious cookies, tucks them away, and then sets about to trying to figure out the quickest way to reach this Catherine.
[Ruinous]
It's quite the assassination technique, arriving out of nowhere straight into an obliterating slash.
All the more effective, one would think, on the headless form of a young woman hunched on the ground shoveling bits of corpse into itself instead of paying attention.
And so she does.
Lapis appears with the suddenness of Death itself and divides her target. A surprised sort of hideous gurgling is released from it, somewhere within the rest of the brutal devastation of the attack upon its self.
There's definitely no way at all that it survives.
And so she [a faint crease in the air] tries.
But her target is not where the swing lands, jerking itself to the right and turning itself around to face her in the same burst of momentum. One hand remains on a piece of the body it was holding, tearing a leg with it and flinging it towards Lapis' face in the process.
Not a very dangerous attack, to be sure, but perhaps one distracting enough to let its perpetrator back up a few steps.
****
"Ah, blast it, drew in an Empyrean. Guess I'm going to find out how big of a screw up this was after all."
Syncope ducks her head back into the alley she was watching from and begins dragging Mari and Sarah further in, away from the probable blast radius.
Re: Inside
[A Busy Morning]
When Karaglen arrives, she might be surprised to see she's not the only person responding to the quest listing.
Presuming one stretches their definition of "person" enough to include sapient piles of trash.
Tahara's still trying to play it cool when she gets there. Maybe she'll do her usual trick of coalescing into being in a seat right next to Catherine, or on a rooftop above her, or something like that... some way of suggesting that she was here to see the magical girl but not imply a sense of urgency. The last thing that girl's going to need is knowledge of the panic with which Tahara ran to her location the moment she saw this coming.
When Karaglen arrives, she might be surprised to see she's not the only person responding to the quest listing.
Presuming one stretches their definition of "person" enough to include sapient piles of trash.
Tahara's still trying to play it cool when she gets there. Maybe she'll do her usual trick of coalescing into being in a seat right next to Catherine, or on a rooftop above her, or something like that... some way of suggesting that she was here to see the magical girl but not imply a sense of urgency. The last thing that girl's going to need is knowledge of the panic with which Tahara ran to her location the moment she saw this coming.
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.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
Re: Inside
[Touring Inside]
"Ugh."
That's the reply to the whole help with the demon situation.
"There are rules. It's terrible," Eu laments. "As it is I don't think I would be a lot of help there. I mean, I could help, but that would be helping like pretty much any other adventurer can help. Once you get a special hat then you aren't allowed to intervene directly. I cheat a little but that method of cheating means I can only drop my excess power here. And while I suppose it's possible to dial that up pretty high there are still limits. And those limits are probably still below taking down a demon lord all by myself."
Thems the breaks.
But hey, she still offered some level of help, right?
"We might not be able to beat a demon lord alone but with the power of friendship anything is possible!" Aivu helpfully clarifies.
Now! On to the spooky haunted house! Eu stops along the way to take a picture of a five dimensional mural.
"Haha, this is so weird."
It sure is.
[A Busy Morning]
Those following the siren's song of despair will find themselves lead to one of Inside's zoos.
It's still morning of course. Which means things aren't that busy here just yet. While kids HAVE gotten out of school the zoos are often more popular a little later in the day. It's a pretty neat zoo, all things considered. And considering how the Nexus works that shouldn't be a shock. All sorts of strange wildlife from all sorts of strange places. And not to mention nice landscaping and gardens and some fountains for small children to frolic in.
Nekohammer, fitting to call Catherine that since she's in Magical Girl mode at the moment, is sitting alone in front of the leopard enclosure.
For those familiar with her, that's unusual.
She's always accompanied by her spirit cat Mittens.
Clad in her cute lion-tamer's outfit, she seems anything but her typical picture of spunk and positive can-do attitude. Instead she's holding her top-hat adorned with a bright red crystal. Or... usually bright red. The gem is murky with darkness as her eyes are murky with tears. She stares into the gem forlornly.
"I thought I could beat it..." she mutters under her breath.
Typically matters of the soul are quite opaque to empyreans; a subject that's unknowable to them. But Karaglen's apotheosis from the depths of the Pit provide her with a degree of sensitivity to these things that's unusual. The soul is an engine of creative potential not unlike that dark sea Kara had encountered at the bottom of the world. A small drop of it. Usually it's within people in some vague and metaphysical way. But this girl, somehow, her soul is sealed within the stone on her hat. And rather than being a drop from the sea it is instead a spillway opening into it. Like a dam across a lake, allowing it to flow to harness its power. The child on the bench wields the very engine of creation itself, able to create as her imagination dictates within some predefined boundaries. The problem, however, is that dam is beginning to crack.
Catherine doesn't react to anyone arriving.
Not until they actually reach out to her.
[Ruinous]
Something is wrong.
Lapis isn't quite big enough to read the worldlines like Mother. Nor does she have the context for it. She would AT LEAST need to be bronze host instead of iron and make a trip to the Empyrean itself so she can see the cosmos from without. But she can still feel that something is up. She clobbered that monster-
-but she didn't.
Which is a problem, of course.
It reminds her a little of how her sister Selekhael works at Trog's sometimes. Where she does and doesn't do several things at once. That isn't something Lapis really understands. Time isn't one of her Spheres. BUT! She'll make do with what she has!
Her cut missed, but she still grasps it. Normally she wouldn't be able to but she took Clarity of Purpose! Sometimes invocations don't work because the bad guys are tricky! And instead of losing that power when the cut missed it is retained. And even better, she can feel her Light drifting back within reach, too.
Gross stuff gets thrown at her, but she Moves. Just a little step. Nothing fancy. Right where she has to be to press the attack and swing again. If the bad guy is doing time things to avoid getting cut down, how many times can it keep it up? Lapis focuses her Seer senses upon the creature.
What is it? What sorts of powers has it got? What sorts of weaknesses? She'll expose them and exploit them.
"Ugh."
That's the reply to the whole help with the demon situation.
"There are rules. It's terrible," Eu laments. "As it is I don't think I would be a lot of help there. I mean, I could help, but that would be helping like pretty much any other adventurer can help. Once you get a special hat then you aren't allowed to intervene directly. I cheat a little but that method of cheating means I can only drop my excess power here. And while I suppose it's possible to dial that up pretty high there are still limits. And those limits are probably still below taking down a demon lord all by myself."
Thems the breaks.
But hey, she still offered some level of help, right?
"We might not be able to beat a demon lord alone but with the power of friendship anything is possible!" Aivu helpfully clarifies.
Now! On to the spooky haunted house! Eu stops along the way to take a picture of a five dimensional mural.
"Haha, this is so weird."
It sure is.
[A Busy Morning]
Those following the siren's song of despair will find themselves lead to one of Inside's zoos.
It's still morning of course. Which means things aren't that busy here just yet. While kids HAVE gotten out of school the zoos are often more popular a little later in the day. It's a pretty neat zoo, all things considered. And considering how the Nexus works that shouldn't be a shock. All sorts of strange wildlife from all sorts of strange places. And not to mention nice landscaping and gardens and some fountains for small children to frolic in.
Nekohammer, fitting to call Catherine that since she's in Magical Girl mode at the moment, is sitting alone in front of the leopard enclosure.
For those familiar with her, that's unusual.
She's always accompanied by her spirit cat Mittens.
Clad in her cute lion-tamer's outfit, she seems anything but her typical picture of spunk and positive can-do attitude. Instead she's holding her top-hat adorned with a bright red crystal. Or... usually bright red. The gem is murky with darkness as her eyes are murky with tears. She stares into the gem forlornly.
"I thought I could beat it..." she mutters under her breath.
Typically matters of the soul are quite opaque to empyreans; a subject that's unknowable to them. But Karaglen's apotheosis from the depths of the Pit provide her with a degree of sensitivity to these things that's unusual. The soul is an engine of creative potential not unlike that dark sea Kara had encountered at the bottom of the world. A small drop of it. Usually it's within people in some vague and metaphysical way. But this girl, somehow, her soul is sealed within the stone on her hat. And rather than being a drop from the sea it is instead a spillway opening into it. Like a dam across a lake, allowing it to flow to harness its power. The child on the bench wields the very engine of creation itself, able to create as her imagination dictates within some predefined boundaries. The problem, however, is that dam is beginning to crack.
Catherine doesn't react to anyone arriving.
Not until they actually reach out to her.
[Ruinous]
Something is wrong.
Lapis isn't quite big enough to read the worldlines like Mother. Nor does she have the context for it. She would AT LEAST need to be bronze host instead of iron and make a trip to the Empyrean itself so she can see the cosmos from without. But she can still feel that something is up. She clobbered that monster-
-but she didn't.
Which is a problem, of course.
It reminds her a little of how her sister Selekhael works at Trog's sometimes. Where she does and doesn't do several things at once. That isn't something Lapis really understands. Time isn't one of her Spheres. BUT! She'll make do with what she has!
Her cut missed, but she still grasps it. Normally she wouldn't be able to but she took Clarity of Purpose! Sometimes invocations don't work because the bad guys are tricky! And instead of losing that power when the cut missed it is retained. And even better, she can feel her Light drifting back within reach, too.
Gross stuff gets thrown at her, but she Moves. Just a little step. Nothing fancy. Right where she has to be to press the attack and swing again. If the bad guy is doing time things to avoid getting cut down, how many times can it keep it up? Lapis focuses her Seer senses upon the creature.
What is it? What sorts of powers has it got? What sorts of weaknesses? She'll expose them and exploit them.
Re: Inside
[Intersection Precinct]
Lia, on the other hand, just makes her livid. Tiny hands curl into fists and for a moment, it looks like the tiny gargoyle might just explode, she's trembling so violently from anger.
But, after a moment of shooting daggers from her eyes, she manages to collect herself. "I'm not sharing anything with you", she says to Lia with an icy tone, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes, "Mister Detective there might stress how little he knows, but he does know more than you. Including personal stuff I don't care to tell to some stranger who stumbled in through the door. So if you don't have anything useful to tell him, go away."
Bunny is taken aback by Michalson's tone. Given circumstances of their meeting, she does not really understand where the detective's sympathy towards her comes from, nor what to do with it.quillpleasant wrote: ↑Jun 17, 2023 7:21 pm Lia gives the detective a sympathetic look. He truly seems over his head with this whole affair. Not that Lia isn't, but she never expected anything else.
But as Bunny continues her anxious muttering, Lia frowns. She's had enough of this wailing. She raises a finger, pauses for a moment, then launches into a tirade.
"Okay, we get it. You're desperate and lashing out because you're paralyzed by your own insecurities. You're obsessed with a man who doesn't care about you as much as you care about him, and you just want to go back to living a lie rather than self actualizing and moving on."
She pauses for a moment, as if something's occurred to her, then she continues.
"That's fine, if you want to waste your time throwing tantrums then be my guest. But if you actually want to help Sandels, then you need to share everything you know about your respective pasts, what you know of his world, your plans for the future, and anything else that might help. Otherwise, there's no point in continuing this conversation." She folds her arms, leaning back against the precinct wall.
Lia, on the other hand, just makes her livid. Tiny hands curl into fists and for a moment, it looks like the tiny gargoyle might just explode, she's trembling so violently from anger.
But, after a moment of shooting daggers from her eyes, she manages to collect herself. "I'm not sharing anything with you", she says to Lia with an icy tone, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes, "Mister Detective there might stress how little he knows, but he does know more than you. Including personal stuff I don't care to tell to some stranger who stumbled in through the door. So if you don't have anything useful to tell him, go away."
Re: Inside
[A Busy Morning]
Oh, that's what it means by hurting herself and others.
She's at risk of losing control of her soul stuff, and risking a rather beautiful light becoming a raging wildfire.
Kara's not even fully sure how she would fix that if it happens, she's never healed someone's soul before.
But, if it doesn't happen at all, she won't have to find out.
And there's the objective: prevention. Which sounds very clinical and cold and she mentally amends it to soothing a poor girl's heart with a secondary objective for prevention of an abstract imagination disaster.
Her heart is the real priority; the calamity after hopefully won't matter at all.
Shalomel had rushed to the zoo, slipping in and out of bounds across streets and buildings in all the ways she couldn't while more constrained to a regular person's form, but stopped some distance away from the girl (technically inside of a nearby bathroom, which was mostly an accident on her part discovered when she looked down to a foot in a toilet)
A big, shiny wolf-dragon made of hands isn't usually the most...comforting thing to be suddenly faced with.
Better to stick to the more mundane, more relatably humanoid, half-drow Karaglen.
So that's who hums her way up to the leopard enclosure, noting the presence of a third individual, but deciding it isn't worth risking anything to just wait and see what she does.
"I only ever see the leopard here sleeping in the sun like a lazy-bones. It must be nice to have such a care-free life, huh?"
Karaglen has taken up a position standing at the enclosure pretty close to Catherine's seat, but turns her head to offer a warm smile with her question.
One that may not even be noticed, but is offered nonetheless.
[Ruinous]
Naturally Lapis continues. No sense in standing back to posture like a fool when you're armed with sword and purpose.
The creature looks pretty ready for a continued assault, bending its legs into a readied state by the time its opponent moves.
It dodges left jerks backward lunges forward around Lapis' arm in the strike, where its gross upper chest maw tries to get itself wrapped around her forearm.
Unsurprisingly, to bite it off.
It doesn't do anything about the information gathering. If it's even aware of it at all (it isn't), there's nothing it can do about it.
Which Lapis is undoubtedly okay with.
Oh, that's what it means by hurting herself and others.
She's at risk of losing control of her soul stuff, and risking a rather beautiful light becoming a raging wildfire.
Kara's not even fully sure how she would fix that if it happens, she's never healed someone's soul before.
But, if it doesn't happen at all, she won't have to find out.
And there's the objective: prevention. Which sounds very clinical and cold and she mentally amends it to soothing a poor girl's heart with a secondary objective for prevention of an abstract imagination disaster.
Her heart is the real priority; the calamity after hopefully won't matter at all.
Shalomel had rushed to the zoo, slipping in and out of bounds across streets and buildings in all the ways she couldn't while more constrained to a regular person's form, but stopped some distance away from the girl (technically inside of a nearby bathroom, which was mostly an accident on her part discovered when she looked down to a foot in a toilet)
A big, shiny wolf-dragon made of hands isn't usually the most...comforting thing to be suddenly faced with.
Better to stick to the more mundane, more relatably humanoid, half-drow Karaglen.
So that's who hums her way up to the leopard enclosure, noting the presence of a third individual, but deciding it isn't worth risking anything to just wait and see what she does.
"I only ever see the leopard here sleeping in the sun like a lazy-bones. It must be nice to have such a care-free life, huh?"
Karaglen has taken up a position standing at the enclosure pretty close to Catherine's seat, but turns her head to offer a warm smile with her question.
One that may not even be noticed, but is offered nonetheless.
[Ruinous]
Naturally Lapis continues. No sense in standing back to posture like a fool when you're armed with sword and purpose.
The creature looks pretty ready for a continued assault, bending its legs into a readied state by the time its opponent moves.
It dodges left jerks backward lunges forward around Lapis' arm in the strike, where its gross upper chest maw tries to get itself wrapped around her forearm.
Unsurprisingly, to bite it off.
It doesn't do anything about the information gathering. If it's even aware of it at all (it isn't), there's nothing it can do about it.
Which Lapis is undoubtedly okay with.
Seer Analysis wrote:Sin of Want - Headless Haunt (Distorted, Regret)
Headless Haunts are a low-level spawn of [The Howling Dark Star of the Void], typically the product of foul necromantic spellcraft. Beyond their disturbing appearance and the obvious danger of their large maws, their primary danger is in the ability to produce more of themselves by biting the heads off of still-living mortals. While they lack vital organs as a point of weakness, they otherwise take damage as expected and will still perish with sufficient harm to their bodies.
This particular one has been distorted by temporal magics and acquired affinity with Regret. This enables it a limited ability to experience up to several seconds of fabricated, future timelines. More effort is needed behind longer uses, so it is likely to stick with minimized amounts of time.
This one seems young and unpracticed.
REGRET [|||----]
-
[brackets lover]
- Coffin-Bound Aged Poster
- Posts: 959
- Joined: Feb 07, 2023 4:56 am
Re: Inside
...Right. Its still alive, just as Asami thought. She didn't expect it to be so animalistic, though, so the mad dash caused her to have to think quickly. She gets into a proper stance as the monster approaches her, breathing in deeply. Once in range, she delivers a powerful left hook with all her weight behind it directly to the monster's jaw, accompanied by a startlingly loud kiai shout. The punch itself would feel like being hit with a large blunt weapon held by a very large and muscular person (or mysteriously strong tiny person), and to boot would cause the monster to get even hotter via prolonged contact with Asami's corona, though not without making herself vulnerable to whatever attack it has planned.bc56 wrote: ↑Jun 15, 2023 11:41 am Making Trouble
The needle sails past Blank. "I don't know or care what you are." The succubus gently tugs on the thread and the needle curves around in an arc, not aimed to strike Blank's back, but rather to loop the thread around his neck. "You will give in. Judging by your gaze, you're already pretty horny." Oh no, that's an awful pun. The succubus is smirking, she expects that to break Blank's concentration on her horns.
April Foolery
Nowhere did I say the monster was dead. >:)
As Nathair and Asami debate the nature of magic, the still-burning creature tears through the remains of the bookcase with another screech, barreling into them with blind rage and pain. It doesn't seem intelligent, just angry.
Re: Inside
[Intersection Precinct]
Michalson briefly hides his face in his hands. When did this become his life? This detective job was supposed to keep him out of other people's drama.
"If Lia steps away for a moment, will you speak more freely? So we can find some kind of sense in this barkle?"
Michalson briefly hides his face in his hands. When did this become his life? This detective job was supposed to keep him out of other people's drama.
"If Lia steps away for a moment, will you speak more freely? So we can find some kind of sense in this barkle?"
-
quillpleasant
- Reborn Elder Poster
- Posts: 1654
- Joined: Feb 27, 2023 7:23 am
- Location: Somewhere cold
- Pronouns: Any
Re: Inside
Intersection Precinct
Lia glowers at Bunny, opening her mouth as if to argue further. Then she stops, nodding.
"Fine. I guess I'll be going. Good luck, Detective."
She turns, heading for the door, but slows and hesitates for a moment. Half turning back, she glances at Bunny, her face softening slightly.
"Hey, I... I'm sorry. I guess maybe I'm..." she pauses again, struggling for words. "Sorry." And then she quickly sweeps out of the precinct, not waiting for a response.
-
April Foolery
Nathair yelps in surprise as the monster charges. How could he have forgotten to check? Stupid, stupid stupid. He leaps out of the way, expecting Asami to do the same.
What he wasn't expecting was the girl to launch a devastating counterattack, although he's learning to not be quite so surprised at her capabilities. Rolling into a crouch, Nathair makes another gesture, telekinetically grabbing any sort of loose furniture or decorations around the room to launch them at the monster in a barrage. None of the impacts are terribly powerful, but hopefully it distracts it enough for Asami to do some damage.
Lia glowers at Bunny, opening her mouth as if to argue further. Then she stops, nodding.
"Fine. I guess I'll be going. Good luck, Detective."
She turns, heading for the door, but slows and hesitates for a moment. Half turning back, she glances at Bunny, her face softening slightly.
"Hey, I... I'm sorry. I guess maybe I'm..." she pauses again, struggling for words. "Sorry." And then she quickly sweeps out of the precinct, not waiting for a response.
-
April Foolery
Nathair yelps in surprise as the monster charges. How could he have forgotten to check? Stupid, stupid stupid. He leaps out of the way, expecting Asami to do the same.
What he wasn't expecting was the girl to launch a devastating counterattack, although he's learning to not be quite so surprised at her capabilities. Rolling into a crouch, Nathair makes another gesture, telekinetically grabbing any sort of loose furniture or decorations around the room to launch them at the monster in a barrage. None of the impacts are terribly powerful, but hopefully it distracts it enough for Asami to do some damage.
horses can attack and eat me
Re: Inside
[Intersection Precinct]
Bunny glares after Lia, as if to make sure she stays away. Then, she sighs, and flies on Michalson's desk, sitting on the edge. She doesn't say anything, having lost track of her thoughts, staring morosely at the floor.
Bunny glares after Lia, as if to make sure she stays away. Then, she sighs, and flies on Michalson's desk, sitting on the edge. She doesn't say anything, having lost track of her thoughts, staring morosely at the floor.
Re: Inside
[Ruinous]
Lapis is getting little inklings of the others things the haunt? is trying to do. Or did? Did and got sworded. So it keeps trying different things. One of the big tricks when it comes to fights is doing something that your opponent doesn't expect. If they don't expect, then it's harder to defend. And if it's harder to defend then you lose.
She casts her attention outward, briefly.
What else is nearby?
Bodies.
Two people being pulled away by someone else?
Some bugs and grass and very confused rats trapped in the shattered time. Okay. Lapis can be careful about this. But first she needs to be not-careful.
She lets the monster bite her arm.
However, she holds the spheres of Shape and Will. The monster is willing her arm to be a bit off shape instead of an attached shape.
Lapis refuses.
According the journal entry this monster is limited by time and distance. That's good for avoiding little things like swords and bullets that go past very quickly.
But what about something big that lasts a long time?
Can it avoid that?
And now with her scratched up arm inside the mouth of the monster Lapis does what stars do best.
"Be Illuminated."
She shines.
Reaching deep into the sphere of Energy, Lapis fills the area around her with searing sunlight, turning the concrete under her feet into boiling glass. As the air super-heats roils, sending a booming thunderclap rolling away from her with glass-shattering force. She's careful with the spread, though. She doesn't want to catch the three people a distance away in the blast.
Lapis is getting little inklings of the others things the haunt? is trying to do. Or did? Did and got sworded. So it keeps trying different things. One of the big tricks when it comes to fights is doing something that your opponent doesn't expect. If they don't expect, then it's harder to defend. And if it's harder to defend then you lose.
She casts her attention outward, briefly.
What else is nearby?
Bodies.
Two people being pulled away by someone else?
Some bugs and grass and very confused rats trapped in the shattered time. Okay. Lapis can be careful about this. But first she needs to be not-careful.
She lets the monster bite her arm.
However, she holds the spheres of Shape and Will. The monster is willing her arm to be a bit off shape instead of an attached shape.
Lapis refuses.
According the journal entry this monster is limited by time and distance. That's good for avoiding little things like swords and bullets that go past very quickly.
But what about something big that lasts a long time?
Can it avoid that?
And now with her scratched up arm inside the mouth of the monster Lapis does what stars do best.
"Be Illuminated."
She shines.
Reaching deep into the sphere of Energy, Lapis fills the area around her with searing sunlight, turning the concrete under her feet into boiling glass. As the air super-heats roils, sending a booming thunderclap rolling away from her with glass-shattering force. She's careful with the spread, though. She doesn't want to catch the three people a distance away in the blast.
Re: Inside
[A Busy Morning]
Tahara was just about to emerge from underneath a nearby bench to comfort Catherine when a strange half-drow girl she's never seen before comes up to her and starts chatting.
Ugh! This crazy kid's going to mess around and get them all killed! If she can't get to Neko in time, she's going to blow, and she can't just go charging in or she's going to-
Gah! How did she not see this com-
...
Right. Random occurrences are still beyond her.
Dammit.
Tahara was just about to emerge from underneath a nearby bench to comfort Catherine when a strange half-drow girl she's never seen before comes up to her and starts chatting.
Ugh! This crazy kid's going to mess around and get them all killed! If she can't get to Neko in time, she's going to blow, and she can't just go charging in or she's going to-
Gah! How did she not see this com-
...
Right. Random occurrences are still beyond her.
Dammit.
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.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
Re: Inside
[Busy Morning]
Tahara will find herself beset upon by the most immediate problem here. Namely in the form of a large gecko crawling along the underside of her bunker bench. The lizard pauses in its skittering and licks at the air.
Roach taste.
Pupils dilating, the upside down lizard begins casting around its gaze in search of insects to eat.
Meanwhile!
Catherine jumps a little when Kara speaks up, having been absorbed by the hypnotic churning of darkness within her soul gem.
"Oh, uh..."
Not a great start.
"I guess? Most cats are like that. Big ones, little ones, magical ones. So long as people are feeding them they don't have anything to worry about," Catherine replies, a forlorn fatalism in her voice that is very much unlike her. "But even a well fed kitty doesn't stick around forever."
Several seconds of awkward silence follow.
Then with a well practiced flourish she puts on her top hat.
"You probably want my autograph, right? After all, it isn't every day you get to meet Fearless Spirit Cat Tamer Nekohammer!" she says, striking a dramatic pose accompanied by some bright red sparkler effects.
Even that small display of magic widens the cracks.
Tahara will find herself beset upon by the most immediate problem here. Namely in the form of a large gecko crawling along the underside of her bunker bench. The lizard pauses in its skittering and licks at the air.
Roach taste.
Pupils dilating, the upside down lizard begins casting around its gaze in search of insects to eat.
Meanwhile!
Catherine jumps a little when Kara speaks up, having been absorbed by the hypnotic churning of darkness within her soul gem.
"Oh, uh..."
Not a great start.
"I guess? Most cats are like that. Big ones, little ones, magical ones. So long as people are feeding them they don't have anything to worry about," Catherine replies, a forlorn fatalism in her voice that is very much unlike her. "But even a well fed kitty doesn't stick around forever."
Several seconds of awkward silence follow.
Then with a well practiced flourish she puts on her top hat.
"You probably want my autograph, right? After all, it isn't every day you get to meet Fearless Spirit Cat Tamer Nekohammer!" she says, striking a dramatic pose accompanied by some bright red sparkler effects.
Even that small display of magic widens the cracks.
Last edited by Rebonack on Jun 21, 2023 3:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
-
bc56
- Poster from Beyond the Veil
- Posts: 2781
- Joined: Jul 25, 2022 3:09 pm
- Location: Sector ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha
Re: Inside
Early Bird Cafe
"That makes sense. I don't know what we can learn without going up there, but maybe we should ask around to find out exactly what happened." Jason considers some possibilities. "Doesn't Intersection have specialists for fae crimes? I can't imagine they'd be clueless about Jade's innocence."
Making Trouble
With Blank blinded, the succubus is done playing with her food.
She grabs at his shoulders to hold him in place so she can follow it up by impaling him through the chest with her tail.
It's hard to say if her venom will have any effect on such an unusual victim through.
April Foolery
With Nathair distracting the monster, Asami can bash its face with her flaming punch. Its head snaps back with a sickening crack. It falls limp.
Then it explodes, spraying candy everywhere and revealing that it's a hollow construction made of woven paper. A pinata.
But it sure felt like flesh and blood mere moments ago...
This place is weird.
"That makes sense. I don't know what we can learn without going up there, but maybe we should ask around to find out exactly what happened." Jason considers some possibilities. "Doesn't Intersection have specialists for fae crimes? I can't imagine they'd be clueless about Jade's innocence."
Making Trouble
With Blank blinded, the succubus is done playing with her food.
She grabs at his shoulders to hold him in place so she can follow it up by impaling him through the chest with her tail.
It's hard to say if her venom will have any effect on such an unusual victim through.
April Foolery
With Nathair distracting the monster, Asami can bash its face with her flaming punch. Its head snaps back with a sickening crack. It falls limp.
Then it explodes, spraying candy everywhere and revealing that it's a hollow construction made of woven paper. A pinata.
But it sure felt like flesh and blood mere moments ago...
This place is weird.
Avatar by me! No more outsourcing!
Re: Inside
[Making Trouble]
Blank lets out an involuntary gasp as the tail pierces his sternum, his body going rigid, then slack, as the venom pours into him. If his vision wasn't dark already, he's sure it would be going that way now. It doesn't take an expert in anatomy to see what's happened.
She stabbed him in the heart. The one form of injury he can't survive.
The strigoi collapses onto the floor in a lifeless heap, his face settling into a permanently vacant expression.
The succubus probably isn't going to have to worry about how the venom will affect Blank. Or anything else, for that matter.
Blank lets out an involuntary gasp as the tail pierces his sternum, his body going rigid, then slack, as the venom pours into him. If his vision wasn't dark already, he's sure it would be going that way now. It doesn't take an expert in anatomy to see what's happened.
She stabbed him in the heart. The one form of injury he can't survive.
The strigoi collapses onto the floor in a lifeless heap, his face settling into a permanently vacant expression.
The succubus probably isn't going to have to worry about how the venom will affect Blank. Or anything else, for that matter.
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.
Want some rye? Course ya do!
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few,
And they're aaaaall dead.
Re: Inside
[Ruinous]
The chomping is really given a good college try before the haunt instead makes a grab for the sword.
But then it is incinerated in the light of a star.
The haunt promptly releases Lapis' arm and twists itself further to snap its jaws at her head instead.
But then it is incinerated in the light of a star.
The haunt promptly releases Lapis' arm and launches itself away from her, running down the street instead of pursuing further attacks.
But then it is incinerated in the light of a star.
The haunt gives a wild, frustrated howl from within its maw and goes completely berserk.
It begins wildly flailing its limbs around while keeping its jaw firmly on her arm, simply trying to cause enough havoc on her body to knock her off kilter and prevent the Illumination.
This probably isn't possible.
It is likely incinerated in the light of a star.
[Busy Morning]
More than a single syllable reply! That's pretty excellent actually.
Karaglen is fully prepared to be excited about that and be supportive, preparing to agree for one of those autographs....
But then she sees the gem crack a little more.
That's...distressing.
"The beautiful thing about the kitties, and all the other fuzzy animals, is that they don't really need to be here forever to make ours lives great."
There's an implication in Catherine's words here, a familiar trace of emotion that she thinks she recognizes.
Loss?
She recognizes the girl's (very cool) title, from her little list of Local Heroes In Case Of Emergency, but doesn't really know a huge amount about her specifically. Though...the "cat tamer" part seems kind of obvious.
She must have lost a cat, then.
Okay. Small idea.
Keeping her warm smile firmly in place, as smiles always help everyone feel better, especially when she pushes just a little bit of extra peace mojo into it, she does a little clap.
"Well you caught me, of course I'd love an autograph. It's not every day you meet one of her your heroes."
Technically true. It's usually every other day.
"But um...would it be super rude if your fan asked for a kinda silly request?
Can I try on your hat? I know its weird, but I just want to know what it feels like. To be under the awesome Nekohammer Hat."
Karaglen is a true master at the weaponized look of innocent earnestness.
The secret is that she means it.
The chomping is really given a good college try before the haunt instead makes a grab for the sword.
But then it is incinerated in the light of a star.
The haunt promptly releases Lapis' arm and twists itself further to snap its jaws at her head instead.
But then it is incinerated in the light of a star.
The haunt promptly releases Lapis' arm and launches itself away from her, running down the street instead of pursuing further attacks.
But then it is incinerated in the light of a star.
The haunt gives a wild, frustrated howl from within its maw and goes completely berserk.
It begins wildly flailing its limbs around while keeping its jaw firmly on her arm, simply trying to cause enough havoc on her body to knock her off kilter and prevent the Illumination.
This probably isn't possible.
It is likely incinerated in the light of a star.
[Busy Morning]
More than a single syllable reply! That's pretty excellent actually.
Karaglen is fully prepared to be excited about that and be supportive, preparing to agree for one of those autographs....
But then she sees the gem crack a little more.
That's...distressing.
"The beautiful thing about the kitties, and all the other fuzzy animals, is that they don't really need to be here forever to make ours lives great."
There's an implication in Catherine's words here, a familiar trace of emotion that she thinks she recognizes.
Loss?
She recognizes the girl's (very cool) title, from her little list of Local Heroes In Case Of Emergency, but doesn't really know a huge amount about her specifically. Though...the "cat tamer" part seems kind of obvious.
She must have lost a cat, then.
Okay. Small idea.
Keeping her warm smile firmly in place, as smiles always help everyone feel better, especially when she pushes just a little bit of extra peace mojo into it, she does a little clap.
"Well you caught me, of course I'd love an autograph. It's not every day you meet one of her your heroes."
Technically true. It's usually every other day.
"But um...would it be super rude if your fan asked for a kinda silly request?
Can I try on your hat? I know its weird, but I just want to know what it feels like. To be under the awesome Nekohammer Hat."
Karaglen is a true master at the weaponized look of innocent earnestness.
The secret is that she means it.