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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Street of Slaves
Slaves are looked over, eyed curiously. Special attention is paid to the ogres, the mermaid, the winged elf, and the healthier, more attractive half-orcs and elves.
The daemon-deep dwarf halfbreed, though, that's a nice catch...surely such a beast would make for a fine host.
While other cultists bargain at various shops for heal their, genetically fit humans, one with fancier robes and a more defined stature asks about the half-demon, their voice disguised by a low, hissing modulator.
"What is that one's story? Is it healthy? What power does it hold?"
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotic Slave Shop
The proprietor is an unusual individual themselves- he's half-orc and half-drow, with dark purple skin and thin white hair, large tusks, a slender yet bulky build and bright red eyes. "He was sold by a wizard- an experiment gone wrong, or something. Magic-resistant, flight, super-advanced immune system, incredible strength and capable of seeing with darkness and shadow- even magic-generated. Probably other stuff he's not shown, so he can try to escape later." The immune system might prove a problem; dwarfs are known for their constitution and resistance to disease and poison, and demons are magically impervious to both.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotics Slave Shop
Facehuggers are neither disease nor poison, though the beast's fortitude and cunning may prove a problem...or a boon...
"What would we need to contain it?"
Meanwhile, other cultists inspect the ogres, mermaid, and winged elf, asking about their health, history, and what one would need to manage a breeding or cloning program with them.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotics Slave Shop
"An alloy of silver and iron would be best. Silver, for protection against shapeshifting, fairies, and some vampires; iron for protection from spirits, demons and that sort of thing. Not steel- the carbon contaminates it and makes it useless."
For the ogres, there's one of each gender, so they're easy to breed from immediately. For the mermaid, a breeding program would have to wait a while- anywhere from seven years to a decade for her to reach physical maturity. The elf is also ready to breed, though there's only a 25% chance of any elven offspring inheriting the wings; lower if it's a half-human. For cloning, there's so many variables in the types of technology/magic available in that area that the staff are unable to give any information in that area.
They all seem very healthy and well-cared for, though the mermaid has a few scars from the hooked net that was used to snare her.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotic Slave Shop
"Would titanium coated in the alloy work? And do you have any of if available for working?"
Cloning could perhaps be managed with the mermaid. It will be some time before she is of the best age to be a healthy host-not that xenomorphs care much for age, themselves-but an opportunity for an aquatic host is too good to pass up. The Queen is patient enough, she can wait for it to grow.
Prices begin to be asked for the ogres, mermaid, and winged elf, as well as the choicer elves and half-orcs, both male and female.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Corner of Tinkertown
"Could I interest you in a survey? Only ten questions."
"Ten question survey? Find out if you have magical power and never knew it!"
"Ten questions to learn more about yourself?"
A young man in a crisp white lab coat and a cheap clip-on tie stands on the corner, waving fliers at the off-shift traffic as they brush him by on the way back home. A few people snatch the papers on automatic, but almost as many crumple them up and toss them aside a few feet away, and over the course of an hour the stack under his arm barely shrinks.
"You might have been mutated without your knowledge! Answer these questions, find out more?"
"Answer ten questions, get magical powers? No? Come on."
"This test will change your life, only ten questions!"
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Corner of Tinkertown
"Not having much luck, kid?" asks a voice above the young man. In this case from one very brilliant scarlet avian, essentially a very elegant (and red) version of an archeopteryx.
Iggy, the world's toothiest phoenix, is ready to start making fun of the silly mortals.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Corner of Tinkertown
The scientist glances up, grunts in dull surprise at who he's talking to, and shrugs. "What's it look like? Nah, the sad bit is.. He interrupts himself to shove a questionnaire into the hands of a passing Igor, before turning back to Iggy. "Sad bit is, this is better than I expected."
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Corner of Tinkertown
Iggy shrugs, a bit of an odd movement for his wings.
"That's how it goes, more often than not.
But what's the goal right now, kid? Not exactly the most standard-sounding study."
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Corner of Tinkertown
"Oh, it's a pet theory. People just get changed by the Nexus, girls into dudes, humans into ducks or whatever. It's not likely but it happens." There's a small pause for Iggy to nod or say 'yeah' or whatever, and the young man watches him carefully for reaction. "I'm trying to prove it's way more common, but for most people it's subtle. Like maybe they have a little magic they didn't before."
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Corner of Tinkertown
"Hrm. Are you trying to say that the place simply makes these sort of things happen more often, or that there is some innate property of the place which prevents normalcy?" asks the avian.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Rotting Baron
"Yeah, maybe we should. Can we just backtrack?" Aiden honestly wasn't sure if he could.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
happyturtle
SkyParkHappyFunLand
Maybe you can. How good at you at finding the trail?
[SkyParkHappyFunLand]
"Yeah, sure. I'm pretty sure I can remember what way we went." Dana says. It can't be that hard, right? Of course, she's lived in a city her whole life and doesn't even go hiking. Chances are if Aiden follows her lead, they're not going to be going the right way.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ThirdEmperor
Corner of Tinkertown
"Could I interest you in a survey? Only ten questions."
"Ten question survey? Find out if you have magical power and never knew it!"
"Ten questions to learn more about yourself?"
A young man in a crisp white lab coat and a cheap clip-on tie stands on the corner, waving fliers at the off-shift traffic as they brush him by on the way back home. A few people snatch the papers on automatic, but almost as many crumple them up and toss them aside a few feet away, and over the course of an hour the stack under his arm barely shrinks.
"You might have been mutated without your knowledge! Answer these questions, find out more?"
"Answer ten questions, get magical powers? No? Come on."
"This test will change your life, only ten questions!"
A wheeled flashlight with a thin antenna rolls but stops in front of the man. The wheels spin and point the light at him and at his paper.
FLASH. The questions stay black but everything else goes white for a second.
Something beeps inside the wheeled flashlight. Do you know that broadcast beeps are called pips? :smallsmile:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lord Raziere
The Gardent
"Heh. Thats the weakness of following the rules: if everything looks normal, you assume its normal and nothing is done."
He wasn't going to try and teach or help anyone not follow them though- because really, he was only opposed to rules when they applied to him. Rules in general were a thing that needed to stay around- it provided a box for him to think outside of while everyone else was limited by it. Let the fools stick to their rules, he wasn't going to expose their weaknesses like some foolish freedom fighter, changing the system only means that you need to find new ways of thinking outside the box, because you made a new box. Might as well keep the old box so that you can think outside of it forever without anyone realizing where its cracks are. Better to cheat a system you already know than learn how to cheat a new one.
He looked at the bottled husbands.
"Aw, your seriously trying to steal that fist bullet idea from me? Hm. oh well. Thats fair I guess, since I stole it from Green Arrow. So go ahead, make money off of it, it'll be a good distraction just in case Green Arrow ever comes by looking for me, since you'll be drawing more attention. If you get beat up by a guy in green spandex and feathered hat, I'll know to run ASAP."
He then walked over to the treant, and began to consider the problem before him: to get this big guy out of the ground without cutting off his roots? Because while he wasn't a biologist or anything, he was pretty sure that cutting anything's feet off was a bad idea for their health, and if the treant died, May died. So....hm. How to uproot him? Valcario wasn't exactly Superman....he looked at the mini-blimp. Hm. that might work.
"Kay, I've got an idea about how this will work. How do you feel about being uprooted by ascending miniblimp?"
"Deal!" shouts the husband who was asking about the patent. He gets back on the phone and asks to talk with the head of security. :smalltongue:
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Gardent
No need.
The treant replies, rising.
He lifts a leg and strides to the gate.
Let's go, guys!
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
The Gardent
"Uh, wrong way, er....May's father....argh, didn't ask your name. We get on the mini-blimp right here and then we take off for Nexus City, no need to even go to the docks."
He said, try to lead him to the mini-blimp parked in the Gardent. Maybe he should name it. Hm, but that would require a bottle for christening, and the only one he had was the bottle of husbands, and he doubted the husbands would like it if he smashed them against the side of a blimp just to name it.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Gardent
Probably not. I would not stop you from trying it though. What would happen anyway?
"Can I ride up in the boat part of it?" Lion looks at the ropes that hang down from the sides of the blimp. "I will fit up there. I do not want to hang down and be in a planter. That is too houseplanty for me." :smallamused:
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Gardent
I'm Marius
The dryad hops into the boat, and Marius walks on.
He fits somehow.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
He fits by taking up all the space! :smalleek: "I need some of that space!" Lion says all of a sudden and leans forward to run up the plank. And goes backwards again. :smallsigh: He fixes that and runs forward up and onto the blimp!
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotic Slave Shop
"Probably, yes. And no, I don't. However, I do have his wrist, neck and ankle measurements, and there's a shop three doors to the left that sells shackles and collars in all sorts of exotic materials- I'm sure they'll have something suitable." The drorc smiles tuskily at the interest. The demon/duergar is very unusual and quite powerful, and correspondingly highly-priced.
The mermaid is also very expensive; it's much harder to catch and transport aquatic species than terrestrial ones, and younger slaves are always more expensive because there's more time for training, work, and breeding. The winged elf is slightly cheaper, but still very expensive; if anyone asks, she was sold by a gang of harpies that managed to catch her family unaware in an ambush; the rest of her family were killed and eaten. The ogres are much cheaper, priced slightly above the elves. The half-orcs are much cheaper- they're quite fertile, aren't typically very attractive, and don't live for very long.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Taet
He fits by taking up all the space! :smalleek: "I need some of that space!" Lion says all of a sudden and leans forward to run up the plank. And goes backwards again. :smallsigh: He fixes that and runs forward up and onto the blimp!
"Erh...."
Valcario squeezes himself through, being careful to get to the old-fashioned naval steering wheel just right, then pressing a button so that the door closes behind them.
"Next stop: Nexus City my friends! didn't think I'd going back there so soon, but life is full of surprises."
The mini-blimp then takes off, lifting itself upwards into the sky, he then steers it Nexus-ward, setting off for the city at the center of the universe...
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Quote:
Originally Posted by
ThirdEmperor
Corner of Tinkertown
"Could I interest you in a survey? Only ten questions."
"Ten question survey? Find out if you have magical power and never knew it!"
"Ten questions to learn more about yourself?"
A young man in a crisp white lab coat and a cheap clip-on tie stands on the corner, waving fliers at the off-shift traffic as they brush him by on the way back home. A few people snatch the papers on automatic, but almost as many crumple them up and toss them aside a few feet away, and over the course of an hour the stack under his arm barely shrinks.
"You might have been mutated without your knowledge! Answer these questions, find out more?"
"Answer ten questions, get magical powers? No? Come on."
"This test will change your life, only ten questions!"
Tinkertown, a Street Corner
A jeep with a big wood bumper in the front and no inventions in the back stops at the stop sign. The driver and the passengers are women of all ages and all arguing.
"It is gone! The Longmaker is gone! Parts and all."
"See. You should have voted for my Darting Defender."
"What would it do, poke the thief to death?"
"It is all Patti's fault. She put an override on the steering too!"
"You should talk. You can poke through Kevlar you know."
"You wanted protection from bullets, I gave it to you!"
"What I want is the Darting Defender back! It got stolen too!"
"Do you think I do not want to drive around and look for the thief?"
The young woman on the back seat driver's side leans out over the open door space. She is wearing a nice suit jacket and has very long legs that do not fit in the back seat well. "This is our stop I think. Hello I am Karen. Winner of the Ladies over Lunch ideas league semi annuals." She sticks out a hand to shake. The other women look annoyed. "Come and give us some of those question sheets. Patti thinks it is a good idea. And she has a good eye for a good idea." The middle aged woman driving frowns and does not agree. :smallannoyed:
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Lord Raziere
"Erh...."
Valcario squeezes himself through, being careful to get to the old-fashioned naval steering wheel just right, then pressing a button so that the door closes behind them.
"Next stop: Nexus City my friends! didn't think I'd going back there so soon, but life is full of surprises."
The mini-blimp then takes off, lifting itself upwards into the sky, he then steers it Nexus-ward, setting off for the city at the center of the universe...
Flying! :smallbiggrin:
Lion is careful to face the front of the boat so he has extra room to run when the pot runs the wrong way. And I am not over playing the mistakes on the mechano pot controls. I do mess up joystick directions that much. And write it in every time. :smallsigh:
"I am a FLYING dandelion! This is awesome! And windy. Where did all the wind come from?" :smallcool:
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotic Slave Shop
"If you give me the measurements, I will return...shortly," the cultist hisses.
The others are haggling over prices, but seem pliable to buy near or at listed price. Their movements are slow and calm, but erratic and often over exaggerated. They offer payment in coin, but also in promises of workers and warriors beyond compare later on...
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotic Slave Shop
The measurements are given, handily in the main system used by the shops specialising in chains and shackles. The shop does have some of the correct size in the correct material, or close enough to work.
Coin's good. Coin's very good, in fact- they don't want promises for later, they want payment now. The mermaid is the hardest to transport, given her inability to manoeuvre outside water. The winged elf is advised to be shackled with very heavy chains and extra weights to hamper her flight. The ogres will cause some trouble; ogre nervous systems aren't very good at detecting pain, so they're very hard to direct with pain.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotic Slave Shop
Shackles are purchased, and the cultist returns to discuss pricing.
The trucks they brought are air-tight and armoured inside and out for movement of unruly slaves, but the matter of moving the slaves there in the first place is readily handled by the fact the cultists seem to have a considerable amount of ether and knockout gas. Perhaps their leader is an anesthesiologist?
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotic Slave Shop
That's useful for the half-orcs and the elves, certainly. Especially the winged one. The mermaid is harder to knock out with gas, as she's in water and can thus avoid it- though if they buy her tank, that won't be a problem. The fiendish deep dwarf stays conscious no matter how much sedatives are used against him. The ogres take a while to go down, but will eventually succumb to it.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Quote:
Originally Posted by
OrchestraHc
Warehouse:
The area of flattened plant life is as close to a nest as she has seen thus far. In this case, in the style of a gorilla's nest.
Ashley's never actually seen a gorilla before, so she isn't sure that was a nest. But there was nothing else that came close, so she thinks this is where she needs to be. Still invisible, she tries to sneak up to Vines to light it on fire.
SkyParkHappyFunLand
Aiden actually is an avid hiker, but never in a forest - just mountains and the occasional tundra. So he's no more likely to avoid being lost than Dana is.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotic Slave Shop
The tank is bought, but it takes a bit of work to get it moved into one of the sealed trucks.
The half-daemon is secured tightly, and watched very carefully. Several strange, black, organic looking weapons with an unnatural silver gleam are trained on it at all times.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotic Slave Shop
The half-demon duergar eyes the weapons cautiously, and so far does what it's asked without complaint or needing recourse to the whip.
The mermaid looks worried and scared as she's loaded onto the truck.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Exotic Slave Shop
"Don't worry," the slaves are assured, "You're being taken somewhere nice, somewhere wonderful. We're going to make you beautiful...You'll be well cared for for the rest of your lives."
Of course, the assurances are combined with careful doses of the knockout gas.
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Re: [Nexus] Skyside: Slave 2 Progress
Not The Exotic Slave Shop Anymore
None of the slaves believe the cultists- in fact, some of the half-orcs don't understand what is being said, and the mermaid can't hear them through the water.