Seaside

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

"Slaves. But I guess you probably mean more of a mental slave?" Dizzy guesses. Someone who has fallen for one of the celestials is enslaved for sure, depending on the depth of depravity. But whether they're aware of it or not is another question.

Dizzy has something very different in mind from what Sele is thinking. But that's not a shock. The Nexus is full of weird things and Dizzy has experienced none percent of it so far.

And yes, the seal should still be open.

[bc56]

Marlick Bay
"Worse than that," Sele answers. "The person they were is effectively dead. Their body, mind, and soul belong to Neshiyahel now. Not even human anymore. Hopefully they're all gone." They should be, without Neshy to make more of them.
The pair descends the rest of the way down the stairs, past the open closet with the blue cultist robes in it and past the torn-down curtains to the well chamber. The first place to stop. "Last time I was here I didn't really have a chance to look around," Sele comments. She was under the influence of Neshy's Relics at the time but Dizzy doesn't need to know that. The well, etched with arcane symbols and full of pitch-dark water, seems like a good place to start destroying. Sele peers into it to make sure nothing's lurking within.

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

"Wow, that sucks," Dizzy eloquently summarizes. "Is soul stealing actually a thing that happens here? Not just a subject of fanciful fiddling contest wagers?"

Dizzy pauses to look down into the pool of black water and then does something that is possibly really dumb. Sticks an arm right in there.

Said arm doesn't go very deep.

"I think the bottom of the pool is just painted black. Looks spooky though."

It does look spooky. And it doesn't appear as though any tentacles are forthcoming.

[bc56]

Ruins
"Yes. Unfortunately." It would be easier if nobody had souls. Like Empyreans.
Since the pool isn't doing anything, Sele takes a step back and waits for Dizzy to finish. Then she takes aim with her weapon. "Better safe than sorry." She fires. There's no muzzle flash or visible projectile, only a distortion in the air that leaves the well and the ground beyond it full of holes like swiss cheese.

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

Joke's on you, Swiss cheese is full of spherical voids that only LOOK like holes because it gets sliced.

Anyway now there's water pouring out onto the floor. Tragic.

"Sounds like someone should do something about that," Dizzy replies while watching the pool drain. "Since all souls belong to God."

Little does Dizzy know that all cosmologies are true in the Nexus. This makes things very confusing.

[bc56]

Ruins
"Uh... Sure." Sele's pretty sure that's not how it works around here but whatever. The next step is to go through the already opened secret passage and into the ritual chamber proper.
Sele remembers this place. The cultists were going to sacrifice that creepy elf. It might have been better if they had, he was really creepy.

[Hraithre]

[Empty Beach]

When Hoshiki tells Aaron to brace himself, the skittish man places his hands on his ears in anticipation.

Of course, the attack works as expected, causing Aaron to mutter in surprise, "Guh..." He seemed distressed by the sound still, though evidently not as hurt by it this time.

"Got it!" TASBot moves a safe distance away from Hoshiki and crouches low, getting ready to watch the impact.

"Whoa!" he says, instinctively raising his arm to deflect a piece of gravel flying in his direction. After that, he stands up and begins to move towards Hoshiki and Aaron.

"That one peaked my microphone," TASBot quips, following it up with "Anyways, how'd you get the forcefield to push back against the ground instead of against you?"

Hoshiki stands still for a moment, then steps back and looks at his sword contemplatively. "... it was all about the angle of attack", he answers to TASbot, sheathing his sword once he's checked there's no damage to it. TASbot or Aaron might notice the veins of his hand and arm are showing very clearly, a blue light shining through, as if the swordsman has fire for blood. "I figured the hex repels attacks exactly the way they come. A lightning from above, is sent back to the sky, a strike from below is deflected down to the ground. It feels like the force might have been multiplied, I'm not sure. Either way, this is useful knowledge for when we move from training grappling to striking."

Hoshiki sheathes his sword and lets go of the hilt, stretching his fingers. TASbot might notice he has to do this a few times to stop his hand from trembling. The man is doing his best to not show it, but the kickback might have been quite painful.

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

Oh course sure!

Who else would souls belong to? The individual? It isn't like they made them or bought them or whatever.

Anyway! Further down. Dizzy doesn't know anything about the weird creepy elf, but would probably agree with that assessment otherwise.

"So this place was a classic sealed evil in a can deal, right? Some nasty thing just waiting to be set free?"

[bc56]

Ruins
Your hands belong to you, don't they? You didn't make or buy your hands. Why aren't souls the same way?

The bodies of the cultists are probably still in this room. Hopefully. If they're not, something either moved them or worse, they got up and left of their own accord. Hopefully the bodies of a bunch of humans with a few fishy parts and one man made entirely of sponge are still here. Sele stows her gun into nowhere and draws her sword. It's a bit more efficient for taking things apart.
"More like something from outside reality trying to get in," she explains, "Its complicated.
She had a foot in the door, so to speak, but needed to get the rest of her through. She should be completely gone now." Sele has no idea about the mini-Neshy that was around helping out HALO.

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

Do you own a body? Or are you a body?

Speaking of bodies!

The bodies of the cultists are still here. But also not. They've been heaped together in an amalgamated mass of fish parts, flesh, and sponge. The heap seems alive, crusted in a protective shell of jagged spicuels and scales.

Dizzy seems distressed by the sight of it.

"That looks like something out of an 80s horror movie. And I left my flame thrower at home," Dizzy quips.

Dizzy doesn't actually have a physical flame thrower. But sometimes it's the flame thrower in your heart that really counts.

"I'm going to admit this sounds like a bunch of HP Lovecraft stuff which really wasn't what I was hoping to meet in the Wood Between the Worlds."

[bc56]

Ruins
Sele's seen things like that before. It's gross, but she won't be losing her lunch over it. "That wasn't there before," she notes. "It looks like the thralls merged together after they died? Somehow? We'd better destroy it." There's only one thing to do when confronted with a gross, potentially dangerous thing: cut it in half with a thing that is like a sword. Sele's khopesh flashes as she raises it above her head and brings it down on the mound of flesh. "Who? And what's this wood you're talking about?"

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

Swording the horrid mound is rarely a terrible plan.

Dizzy seems content to stand back and see what Sele is capable of, if only because it's a good idea to know what your buddy can do when you're going into the dragon's maw together, right?

Chopping a mound in two, in this case.

Both halves begin flailing and shrieking and smelling horrible. The pungent stench of rotten fish is almost overwhelming. This isn't terribly dangerous but it sure isn't fun.

"An author who wrote about otherworldly gods that didn't care about people and where really bad. And a forest from a different book by a different author that was this midway point you could get to lots of different worlds from," Dizzy replies, watching the bisected mound carefully just in case it does something that's actually threatening. "This place kind of reminds me of the Wood Between the Worlds. Somewhere you can get to anywhere from. And I guess somewhere anything can get to."

[bc56]

Ruins
Gross, but at least it's dead. Or it seems dead anyway. They probably should completely destroy it just to be sure. "Be Decayed." Sele holds out her hands to overfill the pieces of the mound with Entropy and hopefully rot them to nothing.
"That's, uh, not entirely wrong," Sele answers. But this place isn't really like a wood. It's, uh, more like an antlion trap." Hopefully Dizzy knows about antlions. "It's easy for something to fall in, and hard to get back out." There isn't an antlion in the bottom of the trap though. That's where the simile falls apart.

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

Sele has discovered the secret to make the horrid mound smell even worse than it does normally.

Good job, Sele!

Dizzy gags a bit at the malodorous scent because seriously. Yuck.

After coughing a few times Dizzy comments, "You needed special rings to get out. Otherwise you just got stuck. In the wood, I mean. Green ones to go in and yellow ones to come out. Or maybe it was the other way around? I don't remember it was a long time ago that I was reading those books."

They're good books, though! Really great ones.

"Hopefully there's no bug at the bottom of the trap waiting to suck your guts out. I like my guts," Dizzy says, cautiously edging around the discolored spot on the floor where the heap once was.

[bc56]

Ruins
"I, uh, hope there's no bug like that. I haven't seen one," Sele's smelled rot a lot of times by now. It's part of using her entropic power. But she still blanches at the scent of decaying fish-blob-mound. That's rank.
She turns and slashes through the altar next, making multiple cuts to break it into chunks. "Once I'm done with this, we'll have to wait for low tide to get into the other cave. We should, uh, probably set up a camp, it will be a while."

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

"That really doesn't reassure me at all," Dizzy admits, watching the alter get dismantled. "Though I didn't fall into a hole to get her. I got punched through a building and up into the sky. When my head stopped spinning I didn't recognize where I was."

That's a new one, right?

Punched so hard you get knocked into the Nexus?

"So this other spot you're looking for, I'm guessing it's in some of those sea caves along the coast? I saw the waves hitting a few of them on my way in."

They looked picturesque!

And not terribly forboding.

[bc56]

Ruins
"A ritual I was working on, uh, exploded and I found myself in a tavern in Inside," Sele tells Dizzy.
"Yes. The particular cave is completely underwater right now. It only opens up at low tide, and only for a few days around when the tides are the lowest all year." She knows this because she's been there before and also because her quest log said so. "It's where Neshiyahel's avatar was." And so it's the most likely place for something horrible to arise.

[Thursday Violist]

[Port Valdez]

Port Valdez is a pretty interesting town. Half of it is underwater.

Most buildings are made out of grounded ships, shipping containers, and other things like that. It gives it a very interesting aesthetic. Legends say it was founded when a sailor and a mermaid loved each other so much they didn't want to leave each other. This is, of course, nonsense: if they actually actually loved each other, either she would have found a sea witch to join him or he would have found magic water-breathing kelp or bargained for a mermaid's kiss or something. More likely, it was created by pirates who wanted to make easier deals with water nymphs or other sea creatures to help them in their piracy.

Anyway, the town's got a mix of sailors, pirates, smugglers, water nymphs, mermaids, slimegirls, sirens, and various other races that could easily live either on the shore or just offshore. In fact, there's even some buildings that are half-on-land or are in the water but sticking out above sea level to the many interconnected docks and piers, just for those in mixed land-and-sea relationships.

June, who has a long snake body and six arms, didn't come here for the pirates or anything. In the first place, it's near HALO - she was told she has a doppelganger living at HALO and wanted to stop by somewhere on the way - and in the second place, there's plenty of offshore reefs, wrecked ships, and sea caves to explore around here. She did want an adventure, after all, and this seems like as good a place to do so as any.

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

"Explosions, huh," Dizzy muses. "So what do you mean by a ritual, exactly?"

Dizzy is guessing this is supposed to be some sort of whizzbang fantasy magic or something. Because normally rituals wouldn't explode if you're just trying to convince some jerk of a spirit to do something. Dizzy has the uncanny feeling that's how things are going to be working around here. Where magic has more to do with waving wands and speaking in bad Latin than looking at birds and trying to figure out the future.

"So are we done down here? Or was there something else that needed smashing?"

An important question.

[bc56]

Ruins
"It's, uh, kind of embarrassing." Sele doesn't elaborate further but if it's embarrassing it must have been some kind of triviality.
"Yes, I think that's everything down here," everything the player can remember, at least.

[Keeper]

Port Valdez

Henry Vadnova is also here, wearing his swim trunks and looking pretty confused.

As usual being a shark means he likes ocean swimming. But Henry has a rather terrible sense of direction. He was sure this was the way to Butterfly Bay from HALO. He goes to find someone to ask for directions. He feels a little weird wearing only his trunks but he’s probably not the only shirtless person in town this time of year.

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

Embarrassing?

That gets an eyebrow rise for sure.

Oh well.

Dizzy shrugs. "Don't worry about it. So are we just going to hang out on the beach and wait for the tide to go out?" Dizzy asks, turning to head back up the stairs out of the shrine. "I think I could handle sitting on a beach for a few hours. All the oceans were blood back home. It stank to high heaven."

Sounds icky. Sitting on a regular beach without any horrid apocalyptic doom sounds WAY better.


[Port Valdez]

This is a pretty great spot to stop and rest a while, in Stephan's opinion. The sun is nice, the water is nice, and the people are, well. Some of them are nice. Others are very hive of scum and villainy...y. That's what you get when a location is a popular place for pirates. Most importantly, though, is the mech hanger here. Well, not mechs SPECIFICALLY but the machine shop has what Stephan needs to repair and refuel Stephan's mech.

All this means Stephan has a few days to lay about and enjoy the scene while the work is done on his mech, which is fine by him. His last mission was pretty lucrative, though that overly armed helicopter was a complete pain in the ass to take down. His mech took a beating, hence why he's here.

For the time being, Stephan is hanging out at a little noodle stand and parking in some solidly not-terrible noodles. He's a human (in his opinion) with light azure skin and deep indigo hair with notably fin-like ears, a big fin sticking out of the top of his head, and a gill ruff around his neck. He's got big, dark colored eyes like a seal and a long, thick tail ending in a horizontal fluke. Honestly most people would probably peg him as a humanoid vaporeon but he would a) deny that and b) not know what a vaporeon is. He's wearing a relatively skin-tight jumpsuit since he can't water-shift clothing that's too bulky.

So!

Really great noodles.

[Earl of Purple]

Port Valdez

Also visiting the town- albeit stuck to those parts of the town that are above the waves- is a human with pale skin, green eyes and red hair, with a pair of mandible-horns emerging from her shoulders and arcing up over her head in a manner reminiscent of a halo. She's wearing a battered blue jumpsuit altered with the addition of a pair of scary-looking pauldrons that might make one reconsider fighting her and a wolf-buckled belt cinched around her waist with a revolver and an agate-headed disc-mace hanging from it. A computer device has been fitted tight around her wrist and is ticking gently. She's leaning on a wooden spear with an iron point wrested from an old fence mounted atop it as she looks around.

[bc56]

Ruins
"Uh, yes. That's about right." Sele says. In this case, she's not planning to timewarp them forward. She doesn't trust Dizzy enough to tip her hand about that. "Ew, that's gross. The ocean is one of the best parts of the world." That's why she spends so much time out here.
The two of them can begin ascending out of the cave.
"I've got some food. You don't have any dietary restrictions, do you?" Whatever Dizzy is might not eat normal things, Sele doesn't know.

[Thursday Violist]

Port Valdez

Henry Vadnova is also here, wearing his swim trunks and looking pretty confused.

As usual being a shark means he likes ocean swimming. But Henry has a rather terrible sense of direction. He was sure this was the way to Butterfly Bay from HALO. He goes to find someone to ask for directions. He feels a little weird wearing only his trunks but he’s probably not the only shirtless person in town this time of year.

[Port Valdez]

It's true, there's several shirtless people in town this time of year. (June isn't one of them, though. In fact, she's pretty much only wearing a slightly-long shirt)

Like Henry, June is looking for a local for help. But, as Henry looks like a shark person, he looks a lot more like a local than a six-armed snake person. She tries to not look at his chest too much.

"Um...hey," June says, approaching Henry Vadnova. She rubs one of her hands on the back of her head. June was initially going to ask Henry for directions to a scuba rental place, but then notices that Henry looks like he's confused and might need help. "Hi. I was...going to ask you for help, but it seems you need something, too. Can I help with it?" she asks.

[Port Valdez]
For the time being, Stephan is hanging out at a little noodle stand and parking in some solidly not-terrible noodles. He's a human (in his opinion) with light azure skin and deep indigo hair with notably fin-like ears, a big fin sticking out of the top of his head, and a gill ruff around his neck. He's got big, dark colored eyes like a seal and a long, thick tail ending in a horizontal fluke. Honestly most people would probably peg him as a humanoid vaporeon but he would a) deny that and b) not know what a vaporeon is. He's wearing a relatively skin-tight jumpsuit since he can't water-shift clothing that's too bulky.

So!

Really great noodles.

Port Valdez

Also visiting the town- albeit stuck to those parts of the town that are above the waves- is a human with pale skin, green eyes and red hair, with a pair of mandible-horns emerging from her shoulders and arcing up over her head in a manner reminiscent of a halo. She's wearing a battered blue jumpsuit altered with the addition of a pair of scary-looking pauldrons that might make one reconsider fighting her and a wolf-buckled belt cinched around her waist with a revolver and an agate-headed disc-mace hanging from it. A computer device has been fitted tight around her wrist and is ticking gently. She's leaning on a wooden spear with an iron point wrested from an old fence mounted atop it as she looks around.

[Port Valdez's Noodle Stand]

As the mandible-horned woman leans against her spear and looks around, she'll spot an outdoor noodle stand that's close to a machine shop. The noodle stand is at the base of a pier right where it connects to the beach, too, which has more shops and buildings farther out. However, the noodle shop is clearly the most important one, because - having just arrived - she's probably hungry.

Would be a great place to visit and to speak with the blue person right there.

Stephan, too, will be able to spot the woman who just arrived here - seems she's from out of town, so maybe he should call out to her.

[Keeper]

Port Valdez

Henry would be extremely flattered to know someone found him distracting. Even his girlfriend mostly thinks he’s cute in the teddy-bear sense.

”Oh uh. I was just going to ask where are we? I think I took a wrong turn during my swim at some point.”
Henry has never seen so many snake people as he has since joining HALO. Apparently they were all living near water.

[Thursday Violist]

Port Valdez

Henry would be extremely flattered to know someone found him distracting. Even his girlfriend mostly thinks he’s cute in the teddy-bear sense.

”Oh uh. I was just going to ask where are we? I think I took a wrong turn during my swim at some point.”
Henry has never seen so many snake people as he has since joining HALO. Apparently they were all living near water.

[Port Valdez]

As flattering Henry would find it if he found out June was staring, June would be embarrassed if it was mentioned.

"...Oh! You're not from around here," she says. "I'm sorry, I thought you were. Um..."

June looks around, even though looking around doesn't help. It's not like the name is just written somewhere. "Oh, yeah. This place is called Port Valdez," she says. "Nearest Riftline station is the one by HALO, I heard." Oh, but Henry just said he swam here, so he probably doesn't take trains. June bites her lip and curses herself for not thinking of that before saying it.

"Actually, I heard there were a lot of cool things like shipwrecks and undersea caves just offshore and someone recommended I look for some kind of adventure," she says, "and so I was looking for a scuba rental place. Since you swam here, did you pass by any cool underwater places?"

[[brackets lover]]

[Empty Beach]

Hoshiki stands still for a moment, then steps back and looks at his sword contemplatively. "... it was all about the angle of attack", he answers to TASbot, sheathing his sword once he's checked there's no damage to it. TASbot or Aaron might notice the veins of his hand and arm are showing very clearly, a blue light shining through, as if the swordsman has fire for blood. "I figured the hex repels attacks exactly the way they come. A lightning from above, is sent back to the sky, a strike from below is deflected down to the ground. It feels like the force might have been multiplied, I'm not sure. Either way, this is useful knowledge for when we move from training grappling to striking."

Hoshiki sheathes his sword and lets go of the hilt, stretching his fingers. TASbot might notice he has to do this a few times to stop his hand from trembling. The man is doing his best to not show it, but the kickback might have been quite painful.

[Empty Beach]

"I see," the skittish man remarks as he untenses, "Since every action has an equal reaction, and the barrier sends out an equal force as well, everything would come back twice as hard." He places a finger to his chin, contemplating, "Unless my aura repels the very laws of physics themselves."

[Rebonack]

[Ruins]

"After seeing it for the first time I've got to agree with you there. I'll tell you what, the end of the world really does a number on the scenery," Dizzy retorts.

That goes without saying. A nearly destroyed Earth really isn't a great place to live, as far as places go.

Dizzy follows along out of the ruins.

"Well, I had some lunch when I landed but I won't object if you're offering. When you're busy surviving the end of the world you learn not to be picky."

[Rebonack]

[Port Valdez Noodle Stand]

The owner of the noodle stand, for the record, has the lower half of an octopus and the upper half of a human. He isn't a sea witch that makes contracts with people, though. He's a noodle-smith who makes noodles. If he were a noodle-smith that DIDN'T make noodles that would be kind of odd.

"Noodles are pretty great as usual, Otto. You hear about anything interesting going on nearby lately?" Stephen asks as the woman with the disc mace approaches. "I've got a three day layover while Gloobabloop is working on my rig."