Skyside Prime

[Keeper]

Incognito Golem

"It's hard to tell how often it happens. I just happen to have a magic fork who knew my past self and was able to identify me. Most people don't know about that sort of thing." Mina smiles as she casually teases Sai with that term.

"The gods sent Sai to my previous life to fight against a horde of demons. She was too young. She won, and died in the process. Got a very nice tomb, mind you. But she was too young. Looked just like me, actually. Just you know, about ten years younger." From her tone, she's definitely not okay with the whole thing.

Thunderhead Rescue

"Was it? Maybe you just don't know who you're messing with."
Fake-G'nichi's pilot lights ignite over his nose and he blasts the soldiers in front of him with illusory fire. It's not as hot as real fire even if the troopers believe it's real so it is unlikely to cause as terrible burns as being point blank in front of G'nichi normally would be, but he's hoping the heat and pain and flash is enough to get them to open fire despite the terrible idea of doing so when you have someone surrounded.

When that loud sound inevitably happens, Real-G'nichi flips his sword around, grasping the sword by the blade and slamming the side of the crossguard into the guard's helmet, hopefully dropping him at the moment there will be too much noise for anyone to notice.

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

"... huh." was all Eddie managed.

He took his dark glasses all the way off and tucked them away to hide his discomfiture, before eventually coming out with "What kind of idiot gods send little girls to fight demons when there's people like me around? Granted, I wasn't on this plane of existence at that point, but I'm sure there were others kicking around that could handle a demon horde better than random small children, magic forks and nice tombs or not."

Eddie was more-or-less oblivious to the irony of his statement, given his appearance, although by this point in his life, he mostly tried not to think about it.

[Keeper]

Incognito Golem

"Oh, this wasn't here. This was back in the world Sai and probably my ancestors came from. They don't have quite as much magic just lying around. I guess they thought Sai would be enough. Or they just didn't have time to wait." Mina shrugs. "Don't know, I wasn't there. Not in a capacity that I'd remember. Trust me, I've filed many complaints. Haven't heard back from them."

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

Eddie sat perfectly still for a moment, then shook his head.

"Never had a lot of use for the pack of divine dinks claiming to be gods, and this certainly isn't causing me to revise my opinion." he ventured. "Honestly haven't had much interaction with them, just banged up against a handful of evil clerics and insane sorcerors that claimed to be their representatives. They were... not great publicity."

"If you're finished your tea, shall we move along?" he asked, getting ready to stand.

[quillpleasant]

Thunderhead Rescue

Resistance was expected- fire breath was not. Considering G'nichi's draconic appearance, the soldiers really should have been more prepared for that. The explosion of heat, despite being illusory, is enough to throw the group into utter chaos. Those caught directly in the blast stumble back screaming or drop to the ground, trying to smother the flames by rolling.

But for most of the others, it's all the excuse they need to take aim and open fire. It's a whole lot of bullets in a very small space, and even if the knight wasn't illusory, it would likely result in some additional casualties. As it is, at least a half dozen men are wounded before they can even tell what's going on, and two are killed instantly by stray bullets hitting vital organs.

One thing should be apparent- despite their equipment and uniforms, these are not real soldiers. They're just thugs and untrained mercenaries with fancier clothes.

The real G'nichi's attack is also a success- the truck guard, distracted by the commotion, is sent staggering by the hilt blow, falling facedown on the pavement. The people in the truck don't need any more encouragement- the moment he's down they clamber out and start to run.

But despite all this helpful chaos, there's an element that isn't going nearly as well. The doctor, who had already backed away, has managed to avoid getting shot in the commotion. His eyes scan the area, noting the fleeing prisoners- and the real G'nichi. He snarls, drawing a pistol from his coat.

"Regroup you morons! He's by the truck!" He's not waiting for order to return however, as he levels and aims the gun at the dragon knight, the crack barely audible compared to the hail of gunfire from moments before.

[Keeper]

Incognito Golem

"I don't think they're gods. More...the celestial bureaucracy. But yeah, no, don't have a lot of confidence in them. And I've told them as much even if they've never answered."
She downs the rest of her tea, of which there was not much left. Then she digs into her pocket for a coin to cover it.
"What kinda places have you been staying at?" she asks as they leave.

Thunderhead Rescue

G'nichi flinches as he's struck full in the chest by the bullets and-
Oh Bahamut his armor actually did something. Praise be.
G'nichi ducks behind the car and considers his options. He decides to go with something straightforward - he illusion's up a chunky submachine gun - just big enough to be obvious but small enough that he could have plausibly been hiding it. Then he ducks out of cover and begins spraying it downrange at the scientist and his men. The Wand's illusions are as real as they're believed to be. And after all, who would conjure up an illusory gun?

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

Eddie fell into step alongside Mina- despite his much shorter legs, he had no apparent trouble keeping up.

"I only arrived in the Nexus today, so I actually haven't stayed anywhere at all. Honestly, I had mostly resigned myself to waking up in some obscure corner with graffiti all over me." His tone suggested that it wouldn't have been the first time it had happened.

"Thankfully I'm mostly the only one that can open my pack" he added, tapping his metal backpack with a 'doink' noise. "It's not magic or anything, just almost no-one has the finger-strength to do it except me."

[Gullara]

[Grave Matters]

"I wouldn't expect that to be a rapid source of damage, if it works at all. They have some basic resilience against the obvious." Utayo's finger returns to normal and she turns back to Ambrosia. "I should also point out that that these are not purely mechanical. This oily substance is not a part of the mechanical process; the machines seem to be subsumed by it and then reform. It would take me some time to understand what's happening there."

[Shadowcaller]

[Grave Matters]

"So what would your suggesting be fighting these things then? Since I'm afraid that I have to at some point in the near future." Ambrosia inquires, feeling that rage returning.
Utayo had held it back for a while, without even realizing it, but it never truly left her. She had just pushed it into the back of her mind for a while, afraid that she would start to destroy random items in Utayo's home if she ever left it unchecked.

And just the idea of that scared her. Since those were the feelings of an unthinking beast, not a person.

[quillpleasant]

Thunderhead Rescue

Despite the initial illusion, the soldiers have not caught on to the extent of G'nichi's powers. And who would conjure an illusionary gun?

So the spray of unreal bullets is quite effective, more of the masked thugs collapsing under the assault. Others dash for cover, and a quick estimate is that there's about four left standing, including the doctor.

And speaking of the doctor, he throws himself to the street the moment G'nichi fires back, but it's not fast enough to avoid getting hit in the chest. Blood blossoms through his lab coat and he wails in agony. But he's not dead, and he crawls on hand and knee to flatten himself behind one of the bodies as a makeshift shield.

"I'm hit! Oh god, help me you morons!"

But none of the soldiers seem especially keen on following his request. This is more resistance than they expected, and they're more interested in finding cover and returning fire than protecting their fallen leader. One crouches behind a metal trash can and lifts a machine gun to fire blindly in G'nichi's direction, while another dashes into the walled bus stop nearby. There's a burst of blue spores and he collapses, laughing uncontrollably.

[Keeper]

Incognito Golem

"Fair enough. Well I can promise the manor is better than an alley by quite a bit. Honestly I'm surprised Sai's never had to deal with robbers. There's security sure but apparently almost nobody's ever even tried." muses Mina as they head down the street. Apparently despite her apparent status, Mina doesn't use a car or some other transport.

Thunderhead Rescue

G'nichi takes no pleasure in hurting these people. Time to wrap this up. He throws aside the gun, hard enough for it to be clearly visible.
"Alright folks, I think everyone's had quite enough of that, yes? Get going and take your wounded with you. sound good to everyone?" he calls out over the fight.

[Gullara]

[Grave Matters]

Utayo looks back at the machines with a frown on her lips. "Breaking them apart into very small groupings is the only method I've been able to observe with my limited testing. I would need much more time to be comprehensive. That said, I never did ask what reduced them to this state in the first place. These are damaged, and I assume you're responsible."

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

Eddie snorted a small laugh. "There are a lot of places that are better than waking up in an alley, especially when you wake up to people freaking right out when the 'statue' they were vandalizing moves. My stay in that particular city didn't last long..."

Eddie didn't really register that Mina didn't drive or have some form of transport; he was quite used to going everywhere on foot, especially given that he could sustain about fifty miles an hour for days if he needed to. And the adventurers he typically hung out with tended to be a pretty rough-and-tumble bunch no matter what their status outside the guildhall, so somebody apparently high-class walking didn't strike him as odd either.

"And in my experience, mansions tend to get robbed based on reputation, rather than how fancy the actual building is- most thieves don't exactly subscribe to Architecture Digest, after all. One built relatively recently and inhabited by just three people... well, four, I guess, now... who are fairly young probably wouldn't spawn rumours about old money or stashes of treasure the way a semi-empty mansion that has stood for years and whose inhabitants were elderly would."

Eddie's voice turned wry. "The line between thieves and adventurers is occasionally a bit thinner than I would like, especially when it comes to rumour-mongering."

[Shadowcaller]

[Grave Matters]

Ambrosia takes a seat, Utayo did really deserve an explanation and doing so while always seeming on the verge on leaving probably wouldn't be fair.
"Not directly." She admits with a small sigh. "This thing broke into my library and my guardian spirits managed to subdue parts of it. But I can only guess how much since it seemed capable of changing size at will." The scholar gestures to the mass. "This might be as much as a majority of its body or only a mere fraction of it."

She considered mentioning Mary showing up but that would probably just throw off Utayo's calculations. She would only share what was relevant to the intruder right now.

"But as for the means they used, one submerged a lot of it into water with the, uh..." The induced sense of drowning? In retrospect that sounded awful even if it at least hadn't intended to be lethal.

Yet she could distinctively recall herself grinning ear to ear as she was devising the most horrible fates possible to would-be thieves. Not ever really considering that she would ever be telling someone about it. In her mind they had made themselves deserving of everything she could throw at them.

"-and smaller parts ran into the mimics I employ who, ah, devoured them. But I haven't actually encountered them myself, no."

[Morty]

[Incognito Golem]

As the two walk down the street, someone steps from behind a parked truck. Which is odd because both Mina and Eddie would have seen the truck from that angle before and this person was very obviously not there. Or was she? Maybe she was...

The person in question is a short green-haired woman in a straw hat and poncho, her arms and shoulders bearing tattoos of ferns and constellations.

"Hey there! Mina, was it? I've been looking for you... though I didn't expect you to have company."

[quillpleasant]

Thunderhead Rescue

The doctor glares daggers at G'nichi from behind his corpse cover. After a moment's hesitation, he calls out to the other soldiers.

"Hold your fire! Get me out of here, I need medical now!"

The soldiers slowly make their way out from cover, weapons still trained on the dragon knight. Two of them hurry over to the doctor and haul him to his feet. The whole group heads over towards the truck, moving cautiously in case this should be a ploy.

Once the doctor is inside the truck the others board as well, one starting it up while another one fumbles with an IV bag, trying to hook it up to the doctor. The latter hasn't taken his eyes off G'nichi the whole time.

"This isn't over," he rasps, "I've seen your face now. We'll find you. Oh yes, we'll find you." Then he erupts into a fit of coughing, blood staining his lips.

Lia makes her way over from the bus stop, looking around curiously at the mayhem. At the sight of dead bodies she pauses, a distinctly hungry look creeping over her face.

"Truly thou art a great warrior! The day is saved once again!" Surely there would be more people applauding if they hadn't already run away.

[Keeper]

Thunderhead Rescue

"What makes you think this is my real face?" G'nichi laughs at the doctor. Still, that was quite the villain speech. He really should probably do something about that guy.
...
G'nichi waves his wand one more time while he can still see the truck window and conjures one more illusion inside it: a bee! Definitely a totally normal innocent thing that would never cause any issues inside of a moving vehicle.
He quickly turns back to Lia.
"Well, that went better than things usually do. I didn't even get shot." G'nichi has been shot a lot. Giving him paladin healing was something his god did which was probably strictly necessary but also definitely enabling.
"I'm glad we could help some people out on our way out. I'm sure Syncope would tell me I should have killed them but eh." G'nichi shrugs. He's not really above smiting people but he isn't going to leap to that option with so little information.

Incognito Golem

"I mean, I guess eighty years is recent as far as mansions go. I-" Mina's attention is drawn to the small green-haired woman.
"Um, yeah? Who're you and why are you looking for me?" Now there's plenty of fairly normal reasons. Mina is semi-wealthy, has a paper-thin superhero disguise, and even had fifteen minutes of fame when she was interviewed on TV once. So her name isn't exactly a secret.

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

"Honestly, eighty years is recent enough that it could go either way..." Eddie started to say, before being interrupted by the green-haired stranger.

"I'm unpredictable like that." Eddie said in response to being told he was unexpected company. He watched the interloper carefully. He had a hard enough time making friends as it was, if this person meant trouble they were going to be getting golem-assisted flying lessons.

[quillpleasant]

Thunderhead Rescue

The doctor does not deign to reply, and the truck's doors slam shut as it screeches away down the street. As it turns the corner, it jerks erratically- almost like the driver has just noticed a bee and is panicking about it.

Can you be allergic to illusions? These are the real questions.

"I'm gladdened that thou escaped without injury. Truly, these ruffians knew not with whom they tangled, says Lia admiringly. "And a knight always helps people, whether they set out to do so or not. Stories always work that way."

She glances down at the nearest corpse, and swallows hard. "Thou may think it utterly barbaric of me, but my kind subsists on the flesh of the dead. In the interests of not causing a public scene, I suggest we depart forthwith, before my hunger gets the best of me." Lia has learned enough about human society to know that eating corpses in broad daylight tends to result in pitchforks, torches, and similar items.

The elevators are currently open and unguarded, so it should be a simple matter to begin the descent.

[Gullara]

[Grave Matters]

Ambrosia takes a seat, Utayo did really deserve an explanation and doing so while always seeming on the verge on leaving probably wouldn't be fair.
"Not directly." She admits with a small sigh. "This thing broke into my library and my guardian spirits managed to subdue parts of it. But I can only guess how much since it seemed capable of changing size at will." The scholar gestures to the mass. "This might be as much as a majority of its body or only a mere fraction of it."

She considered mentioning Mary showing up but that would probably just throw off Utayo's calculations. She would only share what was relevant to the intruder right now.

"But as for the means they used, one submerged a lot of it into water with the, uh..." The induced sense of drowning? In retrospect that sounded awful even if it at least hadn't intended to be lethal.

Yet she could distinctively recall herself grinning ear to ear as she was devising the most horrible fates possible to would-be thieves. Not ever really considering that she would ever be telling someone about it. In her mind they had made themselves deserving of everything she could throw at them.

"-and smaller parts ran into the mimics I employ who, ah, devoured them. But I haven't actually encountered them myself, no."

[Grave Matters]

"Hm, that's hardly conclusive data. Unless there's more information that you can gather from your... defenses." These defenses seem quite peculiar to Utayo, but she won't question Ambrosia's methods. "I wouldn't mind taking more time to learn more for you, but I sense your urgency." It wasn't that hard to sense, as plainly visible as it was.

[Shadowcaller]

[Grave Matters]

Ambrosia gives Utayo a grave nod. "Afraid it is." Then her mind performs a complete circuit switch in the manner of a second. "But, uh, if you want I could always take you there later if you want to learn more."

[Keeper]

Thunderhead District

"Well, people died. I can't be proud of that. But thank you." G'nichi very specifically does not allow himself to enjoy killing people. He allows himself to enjoy defeating monsters at least.
"I'm glad we can at least get you and the other people out. Shall we?" He's also not going to touch the whole eating corpses thing because wow that is not something he wants to touch even if it makes sense for a sapient fungus-person.

[quillpleasant]

Thunderhead District

"Everyone dies. Else there'd be no point," says Lia brightly. Her kind see death and decay very differently from most, and she'll never get used to the squeamishness that most people have toward it.

"Yes..." She looks with trepidation at the lift. Using these things is pretty much the most stressful thing she can imagine, so she's not looking forward to the ride. "I suppose we shall. Thou must forgive me, I will be in a state of great distress until we reach the ground." The mycoid walks over and boards the elevator, sitting down on the floor and screwing her eyes shut. The less she can perceive what's going on during the ride, the better.

[Morty]

[Incognito Golem]

"Name's Hiep." The woman tips her hat. "Now, as you may or may not be aware, you have a destiny. My job is to make sure you're ready for it. I work for a celestial bureaucracy, you see. A different one than the one hassling you, I think."

[Gullara]

[Grave Matters]

Utayo arches a brow. "If you'd like to, I could certainly visit. I'd gotten the impression that you were quite private about your library." The question isn't asked, but it's certainly implied.

[Shadowcaller]

[Grave Matters]

Ambrosia looks confused for a moment. "Oh." A beat. "Well, of course not. Like any library should be mine is open to all visitors. Indeed, it's as far I know the greatest collection of lore on my entire plane. I've rescued countless books and scrolls from destruction. From burning towers to ancient ruins."

She clears her voice. "But, ah, that's why I'm also concerned about thieves. To think if anything in my collection was stolen, it'd be lost forever. I can scarcely imagine a greater tragedy."

[Keeper]

Incognito Golem

"That sounds like a jurisdiction issue waiting to happen. Exactly how many celestial bureaucracies are trying to mess with me?" Mina glances at Hiep suspiciously.
"I hope you mean you want to test me or something and not tell me I was reincarnated wrong."
There's some muffled grumbling from the direction of Sai's hidden sheathe.

[TeChameleon]

[Incognito Golem]

"Oh good. Pantheon squabbling." Eddie muttered. He'd been caught in the middle of that before, and hadn't enjoyed it much, although throwing Heracles so far that he'd hit the Mediterranean was pretty funny in retrospect.

Then he got... well, a little distracted. "Reincarnated... wrong?" he sputtered. "How... what..?"

You could just about see the smoke coming out his ears, although in fairness, if you found out that one could do impossible things incorrectly, it required a bit of adjustment to one's worldview.

[Gullara]

[Grave Matters]

"Ah, my apologies. I'd misjudged. Then I'd be more than happy to join you for a visit." Utayo recovers as graciously as possible. "Perhaps we can arrange a day after you've dealt with your... current security issue."

[Shadowcaller]

[Grave Matters]

"No need for apologies I, uh, get that sometimes. Since honestly? There's not nearly enough people visiting it since it's, ah, remote. So if a scholar of your caliber would grace it with your presence I'd be thrilled." She smiles graciously but then mentally takes a step back.
"Though, yes. I do need to deal with this situation first."

Which reminded her.

"Speaking of, I actually had a final question for you regarding that before I go, how effective do you believe cold temperatures would be?" Since they had tried several types of heat already.