[Nexus] Inside 40

[Beans]

[Streets]

"That sounds pretty fun, actually. How did you end up there, though? If you were going to be a botanist, I'd guess you were doing pretty well. What happened?"

Well, I was between jobs for a bit and needed some work. There was this bar that needed a bartender, which I can do---as you know from experience. She chuckles.
Turns out the thing was a front for a brothel, and... well, I ended up where I ended up.

[Lady Serpentine]

Well, I was between jobs for a bit and needed some work. There was this bar that needed a bartender, which I can do---as you know from experience. She chuckles.
Turns out the thing was a front for a brothel, and... well, I ended up where I ended up.

"Weird. Most things like that at least have the sense to leave alone their own employees. Did you end up making the boss angry or something?"

[Beans]

"Weird. Most things like that at least have the sense to leave alone their own employees. Did you end up making the boss angry or something?"

Well, it was just a couple of other new girls and me who got nabbed.
She sighs.
I knew I should've taken a job at a strip club or something. The fey gal smiles wryly.
... Wait, no, then I wouldn't have met you.

[Lady Serpentine]

Well, it was just a couple of other new girls and me who got nabbed.
She sighs.
I knew I should've taken a job at a strip club or something. The fey gal smiles wryly.
... Wait, no, then I wouldn't have met you.

"I still might have gone there and seen you. Or when you were back to botany, I need some pretty weird plants sometimes. And speaking of the other people that were there, how are they doing?"

[Beans]

"I still might have gone there and seen you. Or when you were back to botany, I need some pretty weird plants sometimes. And speaking of the other people that were there, how are they doing?"

They're back to fairly normal lives now, thankfully.
She smiles.

[Lady Serpentine]

They're back to fairly normal lives now, thankfully.
She smiles.

Talina smiles back.

"Say hello for me next time you see them, okay?"

[ThirdEmperor]

Outside the Den

Jasper pokes his head out the window and quickly surveys the battle, squinting as he tries to identify the combatants. "Yep, looks like we're just in time for a grand old ruckus." With that, he kicks the door open, draws his laser pistol and steps out of the truck.

[Beans]

Talina smiles back.

"Say hello for me next time you see them, okay?"

[Streets]
Nycca nods.
You should come with me some time to see 'em.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Streets]

"I'd like that. I miss them."

[Reinholdt]

Spoiler

Show

New arrivals appear to be continuing gawking.
This is fine, but they may wish to keep an eye out for stray lightning bolts.

Now to business.

With the news that Ilpholin's reflective doom mirror shield whip trick being a little smaller, it appears that the moon won't be exploding just yet.
Just little bits of the wall it burst through.

A few chunks of rock slide off the moon however, as consequential damage from all the cracking it's already sustained, leaving the poorly thing rather dilapidated looking.

Dilapidated, but still trying to kill the drow/demon/nymph.
As she rolls out of the way, the moon abruptly yanks to the side, smashing into the wall of the alley instead. A few more chunks of rock fall off, but it bounces anyway, straight into the other wall.
It seems to have made a rather self-damaging tactic change, advancing down the alley more slowly, but in a manner that's harder to avoid.

On the bright side, if Ilph stays in the alley with moon, she won't have to deal with that first salvo of lightning bolts.
Those were just over the street.


Over there, the sandman finds himself falling, as his legs decide they don't really want to be underneath him anymore, largely in part due to Kirk.
One of his legs has outright detached, as a lightning bolt snaps through his thigh.

Well that's strange, lightning doesn't usually do that, does it?
His pant leg spills a large quantity of sand on the ground as he moves, appearing rather hollow for a moment, before the grains begin shaking about and trying to zoom back in.

He glances up, towards the raptors watching on the rooftop.
"I hate the wild-life here."


The form-obscuring glows have surrounded the raptors again, after they released their ugly lightning strike down upon the fighters in the street.
A brief couple of seconds of barking at each other occurs, before they split up into a group of three and two, each leaping off the roof towards the street.

The group of three places itself between the alley Ilpholin fights in, keeping their eyes in both directions, while the group of two more blatantly advances on Kirk and his opponent.

Undoubtedly everyone here is enjoying looking at the needlessly bright creatures.
It's like staring into a bright flashlight. Everyone does that, right?

[Outside the Door to the Den]

Ilpholin backs up and glances at the wall behind her. Drats. Trapped between a rock and a hard place.
*ducks*
Well, only one thing to do. And that's to run at the back of the alley, and start bouncing off corners and flipping and spring off that wall and whip swing and to the roof! Though if the rock gets wise it could try to intercept Ilpholin's vertical escape attempt. In which case she'll probably get clipped and take a nasty fall as a result of rock bashing.

If the rock continues its pattern and she makes it to the roof though, she enjoys looking at the really bright creatures for a second before giving a sharp whistle and running in a direction that would be classified as away from the fight. Mister Squiggles hears the whistle and goes to retreat into the shadows, limping on his injured legs. It's one thing to fight a giant rock. It's another to fight one and a bunch of lightning raptor riders. Not even counting sandman. She truly believes she can take any opponent one on one, but outnumbered by unknown enemies with unknown capabilities means it's time to fall back and regroup.

But perhaps the most important reason of all is simply that Kirk definitely isn't worth all this effort.
Sorry Kirk.

[Beans]

[Streets]

"I'd like that. I miss them."

Nycca nods and pats her back.

[Lady Serpentine]

Nycca nods and pats her back.

Talina tries to reach around behind herself, and gently shift Nycca around so that the fey is on her front.

[PurityIcekiller]

[Underbed, Boxed Fox]

The shadowy substance continued to flood in around Kyinde, and she hadn't made much progress on getting out. She had soon realized that breaking the walls would be ineffective due to the surprisingly high structural integrity of solid darkness.

By now, she'd exhausted all plans except "wait for the situation to change somehow" and "try random things until one of them works". If she could avoid being drowned in darkness for long enough, either the box would weaken or something outside would interfere, and if she tried enough things, one of them just might work. Of course, if she took too long, the dark substance would fill the box, probably with fatal results.

She tried casting mist spells rapidly, hoping to flood the box enough to leave no space for the darkness pouring in. This was going to be rather painful, but at least it might help keep things under control for long enough for circumstances to change...

[Gullara]

[At the Door of the Den]

Kirk jerks and spasms as the electricity courses through his body. He drops both his knives and manages to make a shallow cut on one of his legs. He recovers fairly quickly, scooping his knifes up and springing up into a kneeling position with suddenly inhuman speed. With no mercy or hesitation, Kirk tries to drag one knife cleanly across the sandman's throat while lodging the other in an eye socket. That's just cold, Kirk. You have a common enemy now!

Kirk was totally gonna ditch Ilpholin anyway! Damn, that sounds so weak now. >.>

[Murkus]

Outside the Den

Legion steps out herself, glowering at the whole spectacle. She's gonna go blind looking at those monsters. The Lady gives a shout, trying to draw their attention away from Kirk. "Oy, over here!" She picks up a stray piece of asphalt - as I'm certain the street's rather chipped in this district - and tosses it toward the lead creature with more force than is humanly possible.

[Chaotic Bob]

[At the Door of the Den]

Luckily for Ilpholin, it was hard enough for the Moon to yank it's course off enough to start pinging back and forth like that in the first place.
It'd be much too difficult to correct its course to follow her into that maneuver.

It'll probably shatter in a few more bounces anyway...

So up to the roof she goes!

Meanwhile, we realize that somehow we never actually notice Mr. Squiggles doing anything. Again.
Which means that there are two raptors that hopped off the roof-top whilst draped in webbing.

That pair group, in particular, seem to have just fallen flat on their faces.
Maybe that's why they were in the small group, abandoned by the other three because they were silly enough to get caught in webs.
Oh well, they'll probably cut themselves out soon anyway.


The sandman, meanwhile, is getting a Sweeney Todd shave it seems and not looking thoroughly amused.
Sand spills out of the cut in his high-collared baggy shirt and a cross look appears on his destabilizing face.

His features are losing clarity, like a photo-lens going out of focus, as grains of sand swiftly relocate to correct the sudden gash in the body.
The fellow looks like he'd say something snarky about now, but oops, now there's a knife in his eye and his face just lost all focus.

Mostly just looks like a block of sand shaped roughly into a human-head shape.
With a knife in its eye.

So naturally he tries to punch Kirk in the face now.

There appears to be small piles of sand here and there.
With each loss, the sandman loses clarity, as he's left with less sand to cover more purposes...


Meanwhile, there's still three raptors eying the two.
One barks at its companions, then starts to lower itself down, looking to prepare a leap towards Kirk.

But then a bit of asphalt bounces off its head and it keels over instead, looking a fair bit stunned.

The bright glow around it flickers, as a large bolt of electricity snaps towards the offending object, not really caring how conductive it may or may not be.
Magic cares not for physics, only revenge.

The other two raptors screech in Legion/Jasper's general direction, before bolting off towards them.
Literally bolting.
From above, one could say that two large lightning bolts suddenly appeared and streaked towards the two at the truck.

From their perspective, two yellow velociraptor-monsters have decided to not be Way Over There and instead be Right In Their Faces.
Probably trying to tear those off.
(Of course, assuming their course isn't blocked by something.)

As a product of their bolt-travel, they also seem to have stopped glowing for the moment.

[Morty]

Oh, while I'm eating it, sure, I might have a look. We tend to turn most things into biscuits though. The dwarf happily tells Reelshka, finishing his drink and ordering another.

Biscuits? Why biscuits? Reelshka's ears twitch; now she's even more confused.

[Reinholdt]

[At the Door of the Den]

Kirk was totally gonna ditch Ilpholin anyway! Damn, that sounds so weak now. >.>

Surrrrre Kirk. Whatever you say...


[At the Door of the Den]

Mister Squiggles delayed ninja web throwing let the duo get away and escape! Yay!
They're gone.

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Dalachrech

"No. I did not know he would ask for that." Technically true, but Terrowin did suspect it.

Also, I've retconned his name- the glabrezu is now named Blagzrukel. The previous name was too much like glabrezu.

[Halae]

[Temple of Dalachrech]

Kail just walks over, will plop herself down in Terrowin's lap, whether he likes it or not, and holds him close. Assuming Terrowin allows this to occur, he'll start feeling his shirt get wet as Kail cries. There aren't any sobs; it's very quiet. But she's crying, nonetheless.

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Dalachrech

Terrowin does let Kail sit in his lap, and hugs her quite tightly, gently stroking her back. He's not sure what else will help.

[Halae]

[Temple of Dalachrech]

Kail will be there quite a while, just crying. In fact, a very long while, if Terrowin doesn't make her get off, as she eventually falls asleep.

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Dalachrech

Terrowin will probably let Kail fall asleep, and when he's sure she has, he'll gently try to stand up carrying her in his arms. If it doesn't work, Kail is likely dropped onto the floor.

If he's successful in picking Kail up and standing up, then he'll try to carry her through to his bedroom and put her on the bed. He'll pull the duvet over her, but won't remove her clothes- he doesn't want to wake her up, and that might. Terrowin will then go back into his office to tidy up, and will likely sleep in the comfortable chair by his desk.

If Kail wakes up at any point, then disregard the post beyond that awakening.

[Halae]

[Temple of Dalachrech]

Kail won't wake up as Terrowin is putting her in the bed, and will be fast asleep when he falls asleep as well.

when she wakes up, has anything changed? it will be quite a while, as she was somewhat exhausted mentally from the horror of it all and physically for reasons better left unsaid.

[billtodamax]

Biscuits? Why biscuits? Reelshka's ears twitch; now she's even more confused.

Because we've always made biscuits. Oh, and the odd roast, but honestly I tend to stick with biscuits. That's an answer. Of a sort.
The dwarf finishes his drink and orders another.

[Morty]

[Bar]

I had no idea dwarves were conossieurs of buscuits. Then again, you're different from the dwarves I'm used to. The ones back home live above ground, for one.

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Dalachrech

Well, her surroundings have. She's in a very comfortable large four-poster bed in a room that's rather dark; the curtains are thick and don't let in much light. Also, the wallpaper is dark purple. Standing in one corner is a large wardrobe made of teak, and there's a chest at the foot of the bed. On both sides are bedside cabinets. There are two doors leading out of this chamber- one leads to the office, but where does the other go? One door is ajar.

[billtodamax]

[Bar]

I had no idea dwarves were conossieurs of buscuits. Then again, you're different from the dwarves I'm used to. The ones back home live above ground, for one.

Pansy magma-fearing no-beards. He says automatically. No offense to you, but they probably shave and try to be as tall as the bastard humans. The first real goblin siege would wipe them out. He says, finishing his drink and ordering another.

[Halae]

[Temple of Dalachrech]

Kail gets up and will peek through the door that doesn't lead to Terrowin's Office. She won't enter just yet, though.

[Rebonack]

[Follow the Arrows!]

When Justin gets outside the tavern he'll have some floating arrows to follow!

And they won't lead back to the same warehouse, either! In fact, it looks like the arrow is following a fancy 1920s era car of all things. No doubt the statue must be in there!

Probably has One-Eyed Pete in there as well!

That nefarious bad-guy!

But can Justin really follow a car on foot?

Well...

Guess we'll find out soon enough.