Inside

[[brackets lover]]

[A Real Arcade]

"That doesn't make it okay for you to- and stop smiling about it! Jeez..." Asami distressedly commands, taking an exasperated breath. "Just... promise me you won't do something like that again. No matter what, okay?"

[Earl of Purple]

Real Arcade

"That depends. Will you give me a reason to do it again, or not? Because I don't want to threaten people with guns, not for something as stupid as calling me names." Agate's secretly rather pleased with how flustered Asami's gotten with the possibility. Threatening people with guns is not something she actually wants to do, and it'd get her in trouble with her dads and that's not something she wants to risk.

[bc56]

Cry Havoc
Kothar doesn't bother to stop moving long enough for Cea to bite or entangle him. He runs right past her, chopping at her back as he moves. Once he gets out of reach of her tongues again, he whirls around and slides to a stop, ready to protect himself against the next attack.

A Local Shrine
"Then teach me how to think about it the right way," Jade replies. "It's not like I have any choice at this point."
She sits down and crosses her legs, hovering slightly above the floor due to her incorporeal state. "Start at the basics, please."

[quillpleasant]

Cry Havoc

As Raheeda rushes Vyzan, the necromancer looks over in alarm, flinching back. The reanimated angelephant moves with surprising swiftness, stepping forward to interpose between him and Raheeda, acting as a solid wall of flesh to block her tackle.

"What's wrong? I'm not hurting anyone!" the elf squeaks out, peering out cautiously from behind his protector.

Meanwhile, Cea snarls as Kothar dodges past her, the superheated axe hissing as it chops into her shoulder and sears her flesh. Whirling to follow him, she easily evades Wenomir's wide swings, ducking low and preparing to pounce on the lizard paladin.

And then Wenomir's final blow comes arcing down. Cea doesn't realize until too late that it's not simply something she can dodge away from, and her eyes widen as the cutting stroke passes through her. She sneers, taking another step towards Kothar- before collapsing, completely vertically bisected.

Few people can survive being cut in half. Cea is one of them. She writhes and twitches on the street, thick honeylike strands of glowing golden ooze keeping the halves of her body from completely separating. It seems that she's regenerating even this.

However, it'll take some time. Her eyes gaze out sightlessly, and her movements are more reflexive than intentional. For the time being, she's been incapacitated, and judging from her rate of recovery it'll be at least a few hours before she can put herself back together- assuming she's allowed to do so.

Vyzan winces at the sight. "Ooh." But he doesn't look particularly perturbed about it.

[Shadowcaller]

Cry Havoc

Raheeda comes to an abrupt halt as the reanimated robot(?) puts itself between her and Vyzan.
She takes a deep breath but she still can't help sounding annoyed when she speaks.
"Why aren't you taking cover you dumb-dumb! They're gonna think you're helping her and kill you!" She shouts while waving the glaive in the elf's general direction.

Her attention is then drawn to the fight, gasping as she sees Cea being cut apart. Unlikely Vyzan she didn't expect her to start coming together again though.
Wow, she had heard stories about great ones capable of doing that but she had never seen it with her own eyes. Was Cea immortal?

[[brackets lover]]

[A Real Arcade]

Asami winces in frustration, curling her hands into fists in front of her thighs. "No matter what!" she reiterates quite loudly, "Its wrong to threaten someone for any reason!"

[Reinholdt]

[Temperance Teahouse]

"If you require physical constraints to control your pet, you're no true master at all," Ilpholin claims. "But as Spako mentioned, I believe a shoulder pad and thick glove to be more than sufficient. A caged bird would be unusual to bring along to their gathering spot. Those kinds of birds are usually left at home."

While massive eyebrows the bird doesn't exactly scream apex predator, it'll still be better openly displayed than leashed. Presumably. Maybe. "How is two days from now?"

[Shadowcaller]

Temperance Teahouse

I think for hawks they usually just put a glove-thing on one of their talons? Pet birds are common enough that I really don't think anyone would bat an eye on one without...all of that." And Spako definitely isn't saying that because it seems really demeaning. There's the dragon impulse.

[Temperance Teahouse]

"If you require physical constraints to control your pet, you're no true master at all," Ilpholin claims. "But as Spako mentioned, I believe a shoulder pad and thick glove to be more than sufficient. A caged bird would be unusual to bring along to their gathering spot. Those kinds of birds are usually left at home."

While massive eyebrows the bird doesn't exactly scream apex predator, it'll still be better openly displayed than leashed. Presumably. Maybe. "How is two days from now?"

Temperance Teahouse

"I'm not saying that you should put him in a cage or even a leash. Just that you might need to convince people that he poses no danger to them." While Spako was no bird of prey people were always cautious about unleashed animals they didn't recognize. Even tiny rats or insects could make someone scream but perhaps Spako's plumage would be enough to sooth such fears.

She doesn't comment on the two days, just give a small nod. After all, she wouldn't be there.

[Morty]

[Cry Havoc]

"She's... still alive," Wenomir comments, not as surprised as he perhaps should be. "Can she even be killed?" He looks to Kothar to check if he's injured before addressing Vyzan. "You. Vyzan, was it? I'd appreciate it if you told us who she is, who you are and how you got here."

[Earl of Purple]

A Real Arcade

"It's also wrong to shoot people for no reason. And getting angry isn't a good enough reason to shoot someone. Nor is it a good reason to threaten to shoot someone. Don't ever threaten anything you aren't willing to do, and those girls? They'd made my life hell. For years, and the Orphanage had communal bedrooms- I couldn't escape. Ever. I had power, for the first time since I met them I had power they didn't. I could have shot them, maybe nonlethally. Kneecapping, perhaps. But that might've imperilled my wish, and wasn't worth the risk. Now I'm in Inside, adopted by some really great people and they're still in Skyside, and they'll probably never get out." All in all, the threat was a minor part of things, but Agate's considered her revenge complete there.

Looming Spaceship

A small figure flies up towards the vessel, trying to find a way in through a vent or some other method. They're very small; fifteen centimetres tall, despite their human form. They've got pale skin, red hair and green eyes, and wear a pair of denim dungarees over a blue shirt, and they're carrying a miniature black rucksack. As they get closer, they pull a balaclava and a pair of gloves from the rucksack, which they put on.

[[brackets lover]]

[A Real Arcade]

"You're treating me like I'm giving parental advice..." Asami says quite fearfully, a genuine sense of dread in her eyes now, "I can't even understand that. I hate violence. Crimes of passion happen, sure, but... trying to justify that?"

Asami lowers her head and shakes it disapprovingly. "Guns are terrible weapons and civilians should never have them. You don't even need your's, you can just let me handle everything dangerous."

As for the girls that bullied Agate? Asami can probably get them out of Skyside, she is an ace detective, and can reliably find that exact orphanage off the information she's been given along with some internet searches and discrete questions towards Agate and her dads. Not to mention Asami knows exactly how to make sure stray orphans end up in the right place. Not that she's wanting to rescue those girls specifically, but the bleeding heart that she is, she'll probably launch a wider campaign tackling the abuses described with swift and descisive action.

[TeChameleon]

[Looming Spaceship]

The outer hull of the giant ship suddenly sprouted something that looked like a bell jar made of glowing green energy with a sketchy outer framework of thin metallic strips. The 'jar' slammed shut over the fae and reality lurches as, from their perspective, they got rotated through the hull and into the ship.

A synthesized voice said something unintelligible, then said "<garbled>djusting. Please wait while I come down to berate you for whatever contemplated act of suicidal stupidity brought you here."

Then there was a heavy *CLUNK* and the voice cut out while the green energy field vanished with a fizzling noise into a *POP*. The lights in the large room the fae now found themselves in flickered very slightly but otherwise stayed strong.

The room itself was filled with haphazard piles of high-tech... stuff... from pyramids of tiny cubes to bulky machinery that would dwarf beings several dozen times the size of the tiny fae.

The closest large machine had a sign that was, somewhat improbably, directly at eye level for the 15cm intruder, and, after an instant so brief it might well have been imagined, displayed text in the fae's native language.

The text read "WARNING: Touching will result in an umimaginably painful death. Then I will make sure your next three clone cycles die the exact same way, with the death memory compensator disabled, in the futile hope that the generational-self trauma will teach you idiots to read and obey signs."

There was a slamming noise from the far end of the room, followed by a pattering of oddly-syncopated footsteps and the mental impression of muttered curses that were somehow clearly in someone else' mental 'voice'.

[Earl of Purple]

A Real Arcade

"I don't like bullies, Asami. And even if I wanted to, I couldn't give you my gun. I need it because you're wrong. I can't let you handle everything dangerous. I need to hunt witches and their familiars, to keep my soul gem clear. Because I'm not a civilian, haven't been since before I left Skyside. I'm a Magical Girl, and you can't stop that. I'm sorry, Asami." Agate will try to give Asami a reassuring hug, though I'm not sure how close they are physically with their headsets on. It might not work as she's planning.

Looming Spaceship

The sprite is rather surprised by the sudden grab and transport into the vessel- that's either made her task at robbing the place either harder or easier, and there's no easy way to find out which, except waiting. After the energy field dissipates, she looks around and reads the sign- which is odd; it's oddly placed for machines this big to have been built by those as small as she is, although the words don't make much sense to her.

Then, as the telepathic voice started to get closer, the sprite stopped being a sprite. Drawing upon the other half of her ancestry, Boada grows from her prior fifteen centimetres to a hundred and fifty centimetres tall, pulling a wooden sword from nowhere as she does.

[[brackets lover]]

[A Real Arcade]

"I can," Asami corrects bluntly, "For starters, I can keep your soul gem clean. And even if we have to be apart, all I need's is a few people praying on my name and bam! I can make more lasting changes. Like completely eliminating your ability to gain despair. Ooh, ooh, or maybe I can make a whole temple where any magical girl can purify their soul gems!" Unfortunately, Asami doesn't quite know how much "a few" is here. Its not like acquiring a large following is a difficult undertaking for a competent god, but Asami is not a competent god.

"Eheh~ You get my point. There are a few options here, so don't get too used to the whole Magical Girl routine," Asami suggests, giving Agate virtual headpats, "Anyways, what have you tried, so far?"

[Keeper]

Temperance Teahouse

Spako frowns a little before quietly adding.
"If you need to give me a dumb pet bird name, go with Saxony. I don't want anything too demeaning." It seems he does have a little bit of dragony pride after all. "Two days is fine."

A Local Shrine

"Well, the basics are what Ryu told you. You have to accept that you're a fox spirit of...well, some variety. Stop trying to alienate parts of you. You have to sit down, calm yourself, and try to be a little introspective about all of this. That's the start." Stela explains, making figure-8s in her pond.

[TeChameleon]

[Looming Spaceship]

If the sprite happens to be looking at the sign, she may realize that it has risen to remain firmly at her eye-level, and the "Warning" part of it has lit up and started blinking on and off in red.

The telepathic muttering gets closer, and soon a small grey alien, not quite two-thirds her current height, comes into view, moving oddly between piles of techno-whatsits. It was... not exactly 'blinking' between them, but the way it passed between them suggested that it wasn't actually passing through the intervening space, only taking a couple of steps to cross distances that should have taken a good minute or two to jog across. Whatever was happening, it was a little hard to watch, and left one feeling like one's brain was being slightly twisted out of alignment.

The alien caught sight of the fae, and stopped dead. Various displays popped into view, and the alien's facial structure moved in a way that suggested a raised eyebrow, although it was completely hairless.

"Hello, you're new. Haven't run across a new species in quite a while now." the alien's telepathic voice came. "Let me guess, you've heard of the "magic" technology of the greys and you want to claim some."

A sigh, audible rather than telepathic. It was almost startling to hear the otherwise silent alien make a noise.

"Honestly, I wish someone could take some of this crap off my hands..." came the barely-telepathically-audible mutter.

"Oh- allow me to introduce myself; I am X-1, 36th iteration of Wonko the Sane of the Greys." It waved a small, three-fingered hand at the pile of tiny cubes. "Those would kill you if you touched them." it 'said' offhandedly. "Those would kill you if you touched them." it said, gesturing vaguely at a pile of something that wasn't readily identifiable as anything but 'technology'. "Those would... well, I don't think they'd kill you, but judging by the amount of screaming that went on last time somebody tried to take them, you probably wouldn't enjoy the experience." it stated, pointing at what looked like a large fishtank full of angry superballs.

"If you're absolutely determined to take something... and you have some time to kill... I could spin off an iteration to guide you through this place. Your physical makeup is different enough to what I've seen before that we might be able to find something you could take..."

[Reinholdt]

[Temperance Teahouse]

"Why would I want to convince them of that?" Ilpholin shakes her head. "To get close, I'm going to need to stand out above the other recruits. Being dangerous is one way with these martial types. Trust me." The similarities to the past does not elude the nymph.

"Oh yeah, name." Ilpholin hadn't actually considered that. She probably would have had to make up an embarrassing one on the spot later. "Saxony it is."

[Shadowcaller]

[Temperance Teahouse]

"Perhaps pivot into showing your control over him rather than harmlessness then but you seem to know these people better than me so I'll trust your judgement." And Ambrosia wasn't the one risking her skin her, Ilpholin and Spako were.
"Anything I could look into while you two are doing that? Since if there's anything I can do, it's research."

[Keeper]

Temperance Teahouse

Spako frowns, sipping his tea. Something to look into? He’s not sure he knows where to direct the scholar’s attention. He doesn’t want to waste her time on something stupid.
”Well. Aside from locating escape routes, which is probably my job anyway, I guess you could look into this cult and see if there’s anything big to do or not do. But I’m not the leader of the op.” He glances to Ilpholin, hopeful that she’ll have better ideas than him.

[bc56]

Cry Havoc
Kothar is fine, or at least not visibly significantly injured.
He also isn't about to make it easy for Cea to regenerate; he's fought supposedly unkillable regenerating foes before. He thrusts his flaming axe into the goop and twists, attempting to cut strands and force the two halves farther apart. "Maybe. I make time to find out how," That probably means he's buying time for Wenomir to do something. Probably.

A Local Shrine
"I can accept that I'm a fox," Jade replies, "But a spirit? What does that mean? Are there special spirit things I need to do, or not do?" She has so many questions.

[quillpleasant]

Cry Havoc

The angelephant is partially robotic, partially organic. Which is lucky for Vyzan, otherwise he couldn't reanimate it. Although it might not be very healthy to do necromancy with holy warriors about.

At Raheeda's warning, he shrinks back behind the towering zombie. "Wh... but... I haven't done anything wrong?" he says, pale eyes blinking in confusion. Unless these are people who don't care about right and wrong. There's a lot of people like that.

Cea's body hisses and spits as Kothar's axe is pushed into it, and it seems like the tactic should stop her from regenerating if it's kept up- she doesn't heal faster than wounds can be inflicted. However, the thick golden ooze that seems to permeate her body is remarkably resilient, stretching rather than breaking. Actually separating her halves would take an extraordinary amount of effort.

Vyzan swivels his head around at Wenomir's voice. The elf looks quite nervous, and the blood oozing from his nose where Cea struck him only contributes to the appearance of helplessness. For a moment, it seems like he's just going to run, Raheeda's warning clearly bothering him- but it's not like he can leave his family behind.

"Vyzan, yes. That's my sister Cea. We come from a lab, up there," he points into the sky, "In the floating city. There was an explosion, and the power short circuited, and we fought our way out. I told them we should keep going, til we reached the wilderness, but the others wouldn't listen..."

He pauses for a moment, getting his thoughts together. "I know you people love retribution, but please don't send us back there. They did bad things to us. That's what Cea's so hard to kill, they made her that way. Just let me take her, and we'll go far away and won't bother you anymore." Vyzan isn't expecting this to work. And that's why the helmeted elf zombie and the angelephant are both tensed and ready to go on the offensive should the need arise.

[Reinholdt]

[Temperance Teahouse]

"While we're doing that?" Ilpholin repeats and considers for a moment. "Perhaps research on the Wood Dragons would not go remiss. The King in Rags seems fond of them lately and I saw them in his swamp court. They're bipedal fey dragons that are warrior focused. They are certain to be problematic." Maybe they hold some particular weakness that can be researched. Or maybe they hold no particular weakness. Also good to know. "I can't say if they serve the King out of fear, respect, blackmail, or selfishness."

[Shadowcaller]

[Temperance Teahouse]

"I think I know what creature's you're talking about. Very tall, wood-like skin, powerfully built." Ambrosia gestures to Ilpholin. "On account of their warrior focus most likely."

She could tell the nymph what they tasted like but she doubted it would be very relevant to her.

"I should have no trouble finding out more about them." She smiles. "They have 'dragon' in their name after all so it should be in my purview as a scholar of them."

[Shadowcaller]

Cry Havoc

The angelephant is partially robotic, partially organic. Which is lucky for Vyzan, otherwise he couldn't reanimate it. Although it might not be very healthy to do necromancy with holy warriors about.

At Raheeda's warning, he shrinks back behind the towering zombie. "Wh... but... I haven't done anything wrong?" he says, pale eyes blinking in confusion. Unless these are people who don't care about right and wrong. There's a lot of people like that.

Cea's body hisses and spits as Kothar's axe is pushed into it, and it seems like the tactic should stop her from regenerating if it's kept up- she doesn't heal faster than wounds can be inflicted. However, the thick golden ooze that seems to permeate her body is remarkably resilient, stretching rather than breaking. Actually separating her halves would take an extraordinary amount of effort.

Vyzan swivels his head around at Wenomir's voice. The elf looks quite nervous, and the blood oozing from his nose where Cea struck him only contributes to the appearance of helplessness. For a moment, it seems like he's just going to run, Raheeda's warning clearly bothering him- but it's not like he can leave his family behind.

"Vyzan, yes. That's my sister Cea. We come from a lab, up there," he points into the sky, "In the floating city. There was an explosion, and the power short circuited, and we fought our way out. I told them we should keep going, til we reached the wilderness, but the others wouldn't listen..."

He pauses for a moment, getting his thoughts together. "I know you people love retribution, but please don't send us back there. They did bad things to us. That's what Cea's so hard to kill, they made her that way. Just let me take her, and we'll go far away and won't bother you anymore." Vyzan isn't expecting this to work. And that's why the helmeted elf zombie and the angelephant are both tensed and ready to go on the offensive should the need arise.

Cry Havoc

"They're gonna think you will use the wing-o-bot to fight them." Raheeda explains as she gestures to the human guy with the... weapon. She wasn't even sure what it was now.
Then she glanced in the direction of yuan-two. Looked like they were still focused on Cea which was good since she didn't want her to regenerate either at this point.
"But a flying city, huh? I've heard about that." And she had also been in labs before. She had yet to see an un-evil lab so this tracked. "What if I and, uh, others promised we'd go over there and destroyed it? Would that make your sister stop?"

[Morty]

[Cry Havoc]

Wenomir's eyes narrow as he looks at Vyzan. He also closely observes what happens to Cea when Kothar tries to prevent her from regenerating.

"Floating city? We know of it. And we know what happens there. It sounds like you were victims of some of Skyside's worse inhabitants. But we can't let Cea go. She killed and I expect she would kill again if given the chance. I also doubt she'd listen to you if you told her not to. Retribution interests me less than making sure innocent people are safe." He looks to Cea's two halves and Kothar's efforts. "And it looks like containing her would be even harder than killing her."

[Hraithre]

[Hoshiki's Home]

Seaside visitors? Is this berk doing sight-seeing tours now? Never mind. Michalson makes his way as directed, then encounters an unfamiliar person.

"Uh... hello. I've got business with the owner of this place," he says.

[Hoshiki's home]

The girl freezes, mouth wide open, spoon halfway there, spooked by another person barging in. She takes a moment to relax and recover herself. "You're out of luck", she says, continuing her meal between words. *crunch* *crunch* *gulp* "Ah. The man comes and goes. Sometimes to the shore, with that weird robot pupil of his. Sometimes other places. Doesn't explain himself too well." She twirls the spoon in her mouth and thinks. "Now that I think of it, he's been away for a while? Eh. Not my concern. He rents rooms for cheap, that's all I care about." She resumes eating, then stops and points the spoon at the kitchen counter. "Oh! If you plan to stay, jot your name down. Or even if you won't. I guess you could leave a message too. It's not, like, super secret, is it?"

[Hoshiki's home]

The berk rents out rooms? Why- actually, that makes some sense. He's got a big house and he lives by himself, might as well get some use out of the rest. He's off the hook for this one.

"I'm not lookin' for a room. When you see him, tell him detective Michalson Barring was 'ere and that he has something he needs to see. Somethin' from his past. That should be enough, I hope."

The girl's ears perk up. "Detective?", she asks, almost shouting. "I didn't know he'd hired a detective! Is that... official? Like, are you with the law or just a freelancer?" There's fake pep in her voice, this information's clearly made her nervous and she's going a bit overboard playing uo her curiosity to mask it.

[bc56]

Cry Havoc
"Sky city is very bad place," Kothar concurs, "We not cruel. We not send people there." He glances concernedly at Vyzan's undead minions, then at the necromancer. "He not fight. I not see reason to not let go. But I not like undead go free," he comments to Wenomir.

[quillpleasant]

Cry Havoc

Vyzan blinks sightlessly as the angelephant looks between Raheeda and the two warriors. The elf shivers, unsure whether to heed her warning or not. The lizard guy, at least, doesn't seem pleased by his family. Which is just confusing to him- what's wrong with undead?

"If- if you did destroy the lab, then I think I could convince Cea to stop. She's... not right in the head, but she's still good." He seems quite convinced of this, despite how she lashed out at him just a minute ago.

Wenomir's comment earns a stubborn head shake. "Cea didn't actually kill anyone. Yes, she told Aranin to, but she didn't kill herself, you stopped her first." It's technically the truth- the only killers are now both zombified. Vy's bare foot taps anxiously against the street. "If you won't let her go, then what? Murder her? You won't be able to. Arrest her? The lab people will find her and take her back."

His eyebrows droop in a pleading expression. "You have to trust me. I can keep her safe and stop her from hurting anyone now that I have a new cousin." He pats the zombie angel's arm lovingly. "I'll explain that if she kills people then you guys will come hunt her down. Is that okay?"

[Keeper]

A Local Shrine

"Honestly, for the most part it just means don't get bitten by phantoms and other creatures that feed on supernatural energy. And figuring out how to manifest your body back into the physical world. Which you've already surmised and will probably figure out shortly. Val never had trouble so it seemed pretty simple once you figured it out." Ryu explains. "Otherwise it mostly just means you're a category of ephemeral magical being that exists or can exist in this realm that most mortals don't perceive. You probably have rules, but they're usually person-specific."

Temperance Teahouse

"Hm. Bipedal is interesting. Most full dragons are quadrupedal on my world." Spako muses, but he doesn't know enough about these beings to ask any question but one: "You don't think there will be any of them at the cult base, do you?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Cry Havoc]

It was suddenly 'we'? Raheeda wasn't sure how she felt about that but she had to consider that later. Right now she had other priorities.

"What if Cea came along and showed you guys the way to this lab? That way she will also know for sure it's destroyed." And they could keep an eye on her in case she was wearing burning pants.