Inside

[Hraithre]

[Detective Michalson's Office]

"Found 'em, bought 'em, got 'em as a gift... they're relics of a misspent youth." Michalson places the glyph on Bunny's back and begins to scrape it with a ritual knife of some kind, drawing complex shapes. "I'm not a wizard, though. This glyph requires no magical ability... just the right know-how."

"Not sure what line in the sand you're drawing there", the gargoyle comments, "isn't having the right know-how to use tools to control the supernatural the very essence of wizardry? Or are you just being modest because you lack gift of second sight?"

[bc56]

Rooftops
"Light manipulation. Project shields and objects, energy beams, holograms." He's not going to go into the nitty-gritty details right now.

[Morty]

[Detective Michalson's Office]

"Could be a matter of definition," Michalson says as he works. "I don't... have magic. In my body, brain-box, whatever. I can't cast spells. Anything I can do comes from the outside. I just know where to poke it."

[Hraithre]

[Detective Michalson's Office]

The gargoyle giggles. "Where I'm from, magic isn't something you have, it's something you do. You might lack second sight, or lack the words of origin, or a dozen other things, but you're obviously doing magic right now. So, don't sell yourself short. Be a proud little wizard."

[Morty]

[Detective Michalson's Office]

"Aye. By that definition, I reckon I am a wizard." Michalson keeps talking as he works. "But I still think of myself as a gutter-trash kid who wanted to learn all he could. And I fought wizards, when I was younger and stupider. Learned how to break their magic. A revolution has a way of teaching a body to think in black and white."

[Hraithre]

[Detective Michalson's Office]

"Oh? A revolution? Did that happen here? What was it about? Was there an upper class of wizards making your life difficult? Were you on the run from magic men-in-black?", the gargoyle muses. "No wonder you were so cross at boss man talking about erasing your memories. You must've seen something like that happening before." "Boss man" referring to the shady "Sandels" character.

[Morty]

[Detective Michalson's Office]

"No, it wasn't 'ere. It was... on another world, far from here. I came there while wanderin'. I found a group of bashers fightin' against their homeland's rulin' wizard-class. I thought... it was somethin' I could believe in." He sighs. "But you're right. He did remind me of the wizards and their enforcers. Treatin' people as obstacles to be removed... I met many of them. Scragged some. Got pretty close to the dead-book myself."

[Hraithre]

[Detective Michalson's Office]

"I understand", the gargoyle says solemnly, "it's a bit ironic, though. I mean, you work in law enforcement now. Be careful to not fall in a funk and become one of those self-hating coppers." Pause.

"... so, you finished? Or do you need me to shut up to complete the ritual?"

[Morty]

[Detective Michalson's Office]

"I'm quite aware of the irony, aye. I hope... I'm better." With that awkward statement, he steps away. "Should be done now. Try to fly around a little." If Bunny does try it, she'll find that she seems to weigh a lot less than before and it's indeed quite possible for her to float and fly around, with some practice.

[Recaiden]

[Rooftops]

"Light manipulation. Project shields and objects, energy beams, holograms." He's not going to go into the nitty-gritty details right now.

"That was one of the energy beams, the thing that you used to drive it off earlier?"
Kiun doesn't think much of light manipulation how impressive can that be? But other parts of the hive remind her that light can be very dangerous. It's just that she's only ever seen light being mild and disorganized.

At this point she sits down next to Jason on the air conditioner. "You've seen what I can do, basically." That's not quite right; she can do lots of things. But for most things, she just isn't very good at them, or they wouldn't help with Eidolon at all.

[bc56]

Rooftops
"Fire, darkness, and flying," Jason observes, "And I'd guess you have other, less violent abilities too, but they won't help." He's sharp. "From here it's a waiting game. Once help arrives, or Eidolon returns, then we can act."

[Hraithre]

[Detective Michalson's Office]

The gargoyle smirks, or at least tries to as far as its ugly little face allows. "Don't worry, boss man's set the bar so high, everyone can comfortably walk under it." Then it tries jumping off the table again. This time, the fall turns into a short glide that carries it to the corner of the room. "Okay, that seems to have done the trick. Can we go somewhere where there's more room to practice? Like an indoor basketball court? Want to get this right before I try flying anywhere windy."

[Recaiden]

[Rooftops]

"Fire, darkness, and flying," Jason observes, "And I'd guess you have other, less violent abilities too, but they won't help." He's sharp. "From here it's a waiting game. Once help arrives, or Eidolon returns, then we can act."

Kiun nods, looking a little nervous.
"I know what Eidolon said, but what if it doesn't come back?" How could they find it again if it's mostly not there?

Speaking of help, some of Kiun's is getting close, specifically, there's a creature invisibly climbing up side of the building.

[bc56]

Rooftops

[Rooftops]


Kiun nods, looking a little nervous.
"I know what Eidolon said, but what if it doesn't come back?" How could they find it again if it's mostly not there?

Speaking of help, some of Kiun's is getting close, specifically, there's a creature invisibly climbing up side of the building.

Speaking of nervousness, it's about this time that the roof suddenly starts to glow purple and grow soft and squishy. "It's here!" Jason jumps to his feet and twists to face where Eidolon is rising through the roof and into the air.

[Recaiden]

[Rooftops]

Some people would suspect Eidolon had just been waiting for them to say something like that, just for the dramatic timing.

Kiun jumps up off the air conditioner and spins around to face Eidolon with a twirl of her wings (good as new by new).
"Are you willing to talk this time?" she asks the monster.

Down below, her backup climbs faster.
It's here already!? Unfair.

[Morty]

[Detective Michalson's Office]

The gargoyle smirks, or at least tries to as far as its ugly little face allows. "Don't worry, boss man's set the bar so high, everyone can comfortably walk under it." Then it tries jumping off the table again. This time, the fall turns into a short glide that carries it to the corner of the room. "Okay, that seems to have done the trick. Can we go somewhere where there's more room to practice? Like an indoor basketball court? Want to get this right before I try flying anywhere windy."

"There is a recreation area outside. We can go there." Michalson picks up a walking cane from his desk. Seems his leg is doing worse today.

[Rebonack]

[Steele Street]


The rider notes the monster shying away from the water. Curious. Maybe it is subject to one of many traditional restrictions of crossing running water? Too bad water is one element he does not know the origin words of, so he can assume no direct control over it.

He's about to charge, but the snake turns its attention back on him. He looks up at the roiling thunder. "You are a slow learner, aren't you?", he taunts, bringing his warhorse to rear and lifting his hammer high. "Go ahead! Hit me with the worst you've got!" Through it all, he gives Hyeonbin a meaningful glance - hopefully the professor will take a hint and either do something to direct the water at the snake, or at least finally turn tail and flee before his lucks turns.

A slow learner?

It appears so.

The beast doesn't appear to be very bright, trying the same thing over and over and over again. But that's how beasts typically work, isn't it? They have a few strategies written into their behavior and if something deviates from those options they are in trouble.

The implication, then, is that this is an animal. A very large and very dangerous and very spiritual animal, but an animal none the less.

With an earth shaking boom lightning crackles across the clounds and then the sky splits apart as fragments of the firmament itself begin screaming down from on high like giant hailstones. Where the stones strike they explode in concussive blasts of freezing cold primordial waters that instantly freeze into ice, stealing the breath of everything they douse.

Ah.

Hmm.

That wasn't a lightning bolt after.

[bc56]

Rooftops
"No." Eidolon separates itself completely from the roof and then lashes out, extending its limbs in attempt to impale both heroes. Despite it passing through walls a moment ago, it's quite solid now.
Jason, jumps to the side and uses a blade of light to slash through the tendril. The part cut off just dissolves into nothingness, and Eidolon itself seems unharmed.

[Recaiden]

[Rooftops]

Kiun jumps back, beating her wings to add speed and distance and get clear of the stabbing tendril.
"How sad." Not very sad though, when you think about it. This is just what she expected.

For her part, Kiun conjures a jet of flame, aimed at the center of Eidolon where it floats above the roof. How he reacts to this attack could dictate the whole battle.

[Hraithre]

[Outside Detective Michalson's Office]

The gargoyle follows the detective, his limp making it easy despite the difference in height. Once outside, the gargoyle starts running and hopping around, building up speed for a low glide first, then trying carefully to gain altitude by flapping its wings. When that proves too difficult, it climbs up the side of a building to begin its glide from higher up and tries again. This time it manages to fly from one end of the recreational area to the other. After repeating the stunt a couple of times, it lets itself float down and lands next to Michalson. "Whew. It's pretty exhausting, but I can manage short distances. Better than a pheasant, but not as good as a gull." The creature rubs its belly. "It's weird. I feel sort of hungry, but I don't think this vessel was made to eat anything proper. Do you know how the people who came up with your rune meant for it to recharge? Do you need to repeat the ritual ever so often, or do I need to go bask in the sun, or what?"

---

[Steele Street]

When the stones begin falling, the steed of the rider breaks into a run, but even fast as it is, even it can't avoid the sky falling. One of the stones hits the rider and knocks him off his saddle, his metal horse running off into the distance, neighing loudly as it disappears from sight. There's a violent hiss as the icy water striking washing against the man is instantly turned into steam. He wrenches himself up, using his warhammer as support. He is almost thankful for the cold as it removes excess heat from his armor and body, but he has to keep moving lest it cool him down too much. He did not expect the snake to conjure water and ice, after its adverse reaction to running water a moment ago. Oh well. This isn't the first time he's fooled himself.

The iron coils around his injured leg twist and tighten, serving as bracing and artificial muscle where his flesh and bone fails him. He hefts his hammer on his shoulder and begins marching towards the snake. Water from the stones splashes against him, covering him in rime one second, then melting back into water and turning into steam the second. He's well protected from concussions, but reciting more incantations is out of the question - even talking is not worth it, with the stones drawing his breath away. He simply glares at snake as he approaches through the hail, daring it to strike.

---

[Elsewhere]

The piece of the city, if there ever was such a thing, is disturbed when a massive warhorse races through it. It neighs wildly and loudly as it goes, wisps of fire and smoke escaping from its nostrils. From a distance, one might mistake it for a normal horse in heavy armor, but a closer look reveals there is no point where the armor ends and the animal begins - it is entirely made of metal, like some bizarre sculpture or automaton. It is covered in soot, rime, concrete dust and rust, spreading an unpleasant odour of gasoline, oil and sulphur as it goes.

It has little respect for anything less massive than itself, with ordinary people having to throw themselves out of its way, lest they get trampled. It only bothers dodging vehicles that are big enough to overrun it, but even then it seems to wait to the last second, as if to spite hapless drivers. As far as disasters go, it is a minor one compared to, say, a storm-causing giant snake, but it still begs to be stopped. Well, the horse doesn't beg. Neither do the people. The horse dares, the people shout and swear.

[Gold]

A short man with a gold top hat, waist-length jacket and pants, a purple shirt and black trainers, and a chipper attitude is walking through the street when the horse rushes by him, causing him to spin around in a daze. He shakes himself out of it and looks at what just spun him out. As his blue eyes register the giant warhorse that just passed him by, only one thought crosses his mind and leaves through his lips:

"I've got to ride that pony."

The man gives chase to the horse, his legs turning into a Wheel o' Feet as he does so. His pearly white teeth are clenched, as he's trying his absolute best to catch up to that metal horse and, if he can successfully do so, hop up onto its back and start riding it.

[Morty]

[Outside Detective Michalson's Office]

"I will need to reapply it now and then, but it will be shorter than the first time." Michalson consulted some old notes before beginning the process. "As for rest, if you perch somewhere safe you can enter into a sort of suspended animation mode for a while. That will recharge your energy. Like sleeping. Hopefully this will be comfortable enough until we find you a proper body."

[bc56]

Rooftops
The fire strikes Eidolon, and it seems to burn it for a few seconds. But as it does, its form again grows more fiery, and it seems to glare mockingly at Kiun. It turns in place and jets of purple flame spray out from it, lighting the rooftop ablaze. Jason turns and leaps off the roof, a slide of light appearing to carry him over to the next rooftop.

[Rebonack]

[Steele Street]

Maybe the fact that the water is frozen somehow makes a difference?

Still water, or ocean water for that matter, is often metaphysically distinct from flowing fresh water.

Regardless of the reason, the storm serpent isn't playing nice.

Now with its foe dismounted and helpfully approaching it, the storm serpent seems to believe that it's the time to rid itself of problems in the only way it knows how.

By eating them, of course.

It rises high, metal scales screaming against the cobble-stones, as its flesh of living lightning knots up to strike. To say that it descends toward our hero like a lightning bolt, jaws agape, would be a dreadfully insufficient way of describing the suddenness of the violence it unleashes. Hopefully the reaper has a good way to prevent himself from being devoured.


[Normal Escort Missions]

To wait.

To watch.

That is all.

Reduced to less than a background character unworthy of description, Neshy observes. She's already gained valuable secrets from the brief exchange. Hopefully loose lips will divulge more.

[Hraithre]

[Outside Detective Michalson's Office]


"Okay. Thanks for the heads up", the gargoyle says with a nod. "Really, it's a shame they didn't make this vessel smaller. I'm just a tad too large to comfortably perch on your shoulder. So, where next?" It looks around. "Did you plan on going somewhere, now that we're outside?"

---

[Steele Street]

The reaper sees the snake's lunge with his mind's eye before it happens. Alternate timelines play out in the blink of an eye. In some of them, the man is caught in the jaws of the snake and is quickly swallowed. In others, he gives it one last blow from his hammer, before its descending bulk crushes him under itself anyway. The world around him shrinks. There is only so much space he can move in before the strike comes. He carefully adjusts his weapon in his hands and moves his feet off the ground just as the lower jaw of the snake touches it.

TWANG! The hammer grows in length, lodging itself between the jaws of the serpent, preventing them from closing. The man hangs from the shaft for his dear life, carried away by the momentum of the snake. At first opportunity, he reaches for the edge of the snake's jaw, swinging himself out of its maw, hanging from the side of its mouth in a way that would be terribly uncomfortable for a living creature. From there, he works to climb on the head of the beast, using the faces staring from its scales as hand and footholds.

It is a precarious situation. One slip and the snake could shake him off, sending him flying in a wide arc. Or even if he manages to hold on, it might just ram its head to the pavement or against a building to rid itself of such a pest. But right now, his raw strength and persistence are what he has to work with, and this is what he needs to do. Water is still gushing out of the whole Professor Hyeonbin created, and there may be other sources of pressurized water still hidden under the streets or within the walls of nearby houses. He simply needs to agitate this creature to crashing into one of them - such as a fire hydrant further down the street, or an apartment with an intact sprinkler system.

The snake's thrown him off his mount twice today. It's only fair it gets to be his new mount for a while.

---

[Elsewhere]

Speaking of mounts, the metal warhorse at first pays no heed to the short man in a gold top hat. It has stopped before a small street booth and, much to the consternation of the owner, is eating all the carrots that were meant for sale. But then, it perks its iron ears and gives a glance to the man who has decided to chase it. With a mocking neigh, it leaves the carrots be and turns, breaking into a gallop.

At first, it seems the man will have an easy time catching up to the horse, its little lunch-break having allowed him to close nearly the entire distance between them. He can almost touch it, just the final hop and he'd be on its back, but then the beast itself leaps up and over a building that seemed to still be far away just split of a second ago. The man has to either run up the wall or go around the building to keep pace.

The beast is toying with him. If it simply wanted to flee, it wouldn't need to horse around like this. But it has noted the man's desire to ride it. A warrior doesn't have to prove he can run faster than his own mount - that would just be silly - but some degree of persistence and cunning, those, the beast wants to see.

So, keep chasing, little man. Show what you've got.

[Gold]

Oh, they're playing chase now? Then this is where the fun begins.

At first, the man doesn't run up the wall or go around the building. He slams directly into it. He is momentarily stunned, complete with little birds flying in a circle around his head, but they promptly leave when he mutters something about wanting a horse instead of a bird, bringing him back to his senses.

So, how does he get past the building? Simple! He pulls out a pallet and paintbrush, and paints an elevator door onto the wall. The painting of an elevator door then opens, revealing a really rather luxurious elevator interior. A little screen on the front reads NEXT STOP: ROOF. The dapper man somehow steps into this painted elevator, and rides it all the way to the roof of the building, where he gets off. The elevator's screen now reads NEXT STOP: OUTER SPACE as it ascends past the roof and, indeed, into space.

Now on top of the building, he has a few ideas of how to get down, none of them sensible. The one he settles on involves pulling out his trusty hunting rifle from inside his jacket, then mounting it as if it were a pogo stick. He then bounces off the roof with his pogo rifle, causing him to now be taking massive bounces down the street and moving at an increased speed, complete with cartoon boing! noises.

[Thursday Violist]

[Hodgepodge Street]

Unfortunately, the bakery smells seduced Seraphina into buying some other more boring and plain kind of bread instead. And a churro. She asked for it to be filled with sweetened condensed milk but was told off and kicked out and banned for her heresy.

She leaves the bakery.

Almost doesn't notice the girl with the kind of bread she had ordinarily, but!
Then she does.
Mostly because she was thinking about how much she wished she had them, how it's been so long, and then she thinks she only imagines the teenager has those, before she realizes it wasn't her imagination.

"Hey!" she says to the girl. "Ummm...sorry. I mean, where did you get that bread from?"

[Hodgepodge Street]

Now, normally, it is kind of unusual to be stopped by strangers and asked about bread.

When Seraphina speaks up Magdalene initially glances over her shoulder to see if someone else is being spoken to.

No, it would appear, is the answer.

She's the only one around with any bread, let alone bread in her mouth.

"At a bakery," Magdalene replies, completely unhelpful. After a few seconds pause she elaborates a bit. "My apartment is on top of this bakery in Riverside. They make it there."

The teen takes another bite out of her unobtainable (presently, for Seraphina) sweet bread.

"Why? You want some?" she glances at the much closer bakery. "They ain't got any in there?"

[Hodgepodge Street]

Magdalene's right, that was very unhelpful. The later clarification was more helpful, though.
"Oh. Riverside." Seraphina sighs. "Haven't been to Riverside in...months, I suppose."

She shakes her head. "No, it's fine. I was just wishing I had one like that."
Seraphina points back into the bakery. "Don't have anything like that here. Called me a heretic and kicked me out for just asking, saying something about his sisters, or something like that."

Seraphina groans. Mostly to herself.
"Oh well. At least I got a plain churro before that."

[Morty]

[Outside Detective Michalson's Office]

Michalson shrugs.

"Nothing specific, but I ought to stretch my legs and you should get familiar with the place. Those parts of it you can see, anyway. Let's hope your tenancy in this body is a short one."

[Normal Escort Missions]

The door opens and two men enter it. One is, as the other voice would indicate, old. Ancient, even. An elf, with light brown skin, wrinkled with age, but his eyes still bright and cunning. The other is the man they saw enter the store. He looks around with a frown when he comes through.

"This room... something's odd here."

"Of course. It contains my rarest wares. Can you feel anything in particular."

"No, simply... hmm. Maybe I'm just getting paranoid."

"Not unreasonable, given who you work for. Now where was it..."

[Gullara]

[Normal Escort Missions]

Onyeka is holding her breath when they walk in. It seems... it worked? She relaxes only slightly. In the meantime, though, she directs the spirit to enter the room and observe the two. There might be things she can't see from her angle that the spirit is free to see.

[Rebonack]

[Steele Street]

The storm serpent is, unsurprisingly, not happy about this development.

It's jaws locked and the reaper perched atop its head, hanging on desperately as he is to the monster's sharp-edged scales, there is but one recourse.

Shaking itself about wildly.

It thrashes and spins and crashes into the streets and nearby buildings alike. The violence it unleashes is terrible, but if our heroes manages to hang on he'll be able to direct the monster straight into a nearby fire hydrant, causing a plume of fresh water to explode from the main and douse the serpent's face.

The reaction here is spectacular.

There's a sound like twisting metal and howling wind and crackling thunder as the flowing water washes spirits out of the serpent's body and carries them away, the faces on its scales smoothed away as by centuries of erosion. That would explain why the serpent was trying to stay away from the flowing water, wouldn't it?

Troubled by this development, the serpent discharges a massive blast of electricity from its body in a final bid to try to dislodge the irritant.


[Hodgepodge Street]

Magdalene seems deeply skeptical of this.

"There's bread heresies?"

This is apparently news to her.

"Is there some sorta' (flowering) bread priest what decides which breads are heretical?"

Now she's imagining some deranged cultist in cultist robes wearing a really tall hat made of bread.

"I mean, I guess you can have some of mine if you want? I got a bunch," Magdalen says, holding out her little bag of coconut bread.

Hopefully this won't be too many carbs since Seraphina already has a churro.


[Normal Escort Missions]

Something amiss?

Ah, to be expected.

No reaction would imply that nothing relevant to the story is taking place.

But that is far from the truth.

This one, the one they followed, what is his story? His purpose? His beginning and his end? What secrets drives him?

Subtly, the star fallen to earth peels back the cover of the world to snoop.[/p]