[Nexus] Inside 43

[happyturtle]

City Walls

"Not too far off from yours. I want to learn. But I'm more interested in applied knowledge - things that will make the world a better place."

[Halae]

[City Walls]

"What sort of things do you want to change? Need any help? Knowledge is only so great if you don't put it into practice, as you said," Amlin says. Willow may be able to get something out of this, maybe?

[Lord Raziere]

Common Street

Destur ducks around to one side of the technoblin, avoiding the charge as he throws another knife at one of the other technoblins. This one is electrically enchanted, so if it hits then the electricity may cause short outs in the technoblin's circuits.

The flaming technoblin is too focused to miss because of a mere dodge; it turns to still be focused on you, adjusting its course for every tiny movement you make and leaps upon you.

The other technoblins have already learned to avoid your daggers, and dodge it, well at least the one your aiming at. the other three have thrown down a grenade that explodes into a brick wall they hide behind.

Meanwhile….
"Destur: Fond of throwing daggers. Has ranged defense spell. Optimized for close combat. Doubt the spell can defend against everything ranged. Need more firepower. Also: specialized daggers for taking out robotics. Noteworthy."
The Modified One begins to call Zaratech Corporations again.

[happyturtle]

City Walls

"It's kind of you to offer, but I don't think it would work out," Willow says, more courteously than she's managed to say anything this entire conversation. She's starting to realize that a lot of the problems in the Nexus will go away if she can just get rid of magic, and Amlin is obviously not going to be an ally in that goal.

[Halae]

[City Walls]

"In keeping with a trend, I don't think you answered my first question you know." Amlin says, obviously amused

[Earl of Purple]

Common Street

The charging technoblin does hit- Destur wasn't expecting it to factor in the dodge. He'll try to grab the dagger causing the hellfire; once it's out, the hellfire on the technoblin will go out. Meanwhile, Destur is now pinned to the floor and starts chanting a different spell. This one will summon some water in the air above the technoblin and Destur- the water will obey gravity and fall onto the technoblin. As before, the navy-blue termite mound fades into view around Destur.

[happyturtle]

City Walls

"I have a little brother and sister. I'd like them to grow up and continue to be their insufferable bratty selves." Willow shrugs. "You've probably noticed this is a very dangerous place. I want to change that."

[Rebonack]

[Some Street ==> UFA Sojourn]

"Very little of consequence," the alien that looks just like a human with a bit of chin putty responds. "We had best depart immediately. The temporal anomalies that seem to plague this sector of space make remaining in a single location for too long highly hazardous."

No better way to get stuck in dead time than to do nothing.

With that the alien sets off at a brisk pace!

The ship is soon seen in the distance. A large saucer section attached to a Y shaped body. The ship is fairly large, easily large enough to comfortably house several hundred people at least. The hull is marked with scorch and sheer marks from the crash landing. Though even more distressing are portions of the ship that appear to have been eaten away.

What a mess!

A few other adventurers seem to have gathered here as well! A dwarf wearing typical samurai armor. A woman in blue overalls who appears not quite human. A large orange bird that looks like a cross between a ostrich and a toucan wearing a ridiculous flight helmet. And a pastrami sandwich floating in mid-air.

They're all conversing with some more of the ships crew members outside.

[LadyOfWar]

[Headed to the Enterprise Sojourn]

Wes keeps up easily. She has a surprisingly long stride for such a short gal.

Suddenly the 'alien' will find himself hurrying forward alone as Westlanna pauses to get a good panoramic view of the ship. "Wow. Looks bigger in real life." She notes the chewed-on bit with concern and hurries to catch up to the crew-member.

"What's eating her?" Wes asks. 'Her' clearly refers to the ship. If these things are eating the ship this might be a bigger job than she figured on.

The peculiar assortment of others receive a friendly wave when she gets closer, but her primary concern at the moment is the answer to her question.

[Rebonack]

[The Starship Sojourn]

"The Sojourn was exposed to an unknown caustic substance during the test of our new engines. We were forced to shield the most vital portions of the ship."

Wow!

They're fortunate to have made it through in one piece.

Y'know.

Relatively speaking.

"Our science team is presently attempting to ascertain the nature of the substance. It appears to have lost all caustic properties upon being transported to real space."

The pastrami sandwich waves back at Wes. How it does this without any limbs of any discernible kind isn't immediately clear.

[LadyOfWar]

[Starship]

Wes does a triple-take. A pastrami sandwich is waving at her. This requires more than two glances. "This place is definitely parallel to Town." she mutters.

"Is the area infested with these odd creatures near the melted part?" she inquires as she walks on over toward the others.

"Hello, I presume we're going to be working as a team on this?" she motions toward the ship. "I'm Westlanna."

[Rebonack]

[Starship Sojourn]

"Not exclusively, no," the Ensign replies. "Though some of the creatures seem to prefer the damaged portions of the ship. We are uncertain if there is a connection between them and the corrosive substance."

As for those gathered!

I'm a sandwich! the sandwich replies telepathically. Apparently it's a psionic sandwich.

"WARK!" says the bird rather loudly before peering at Wes out of one eye. The critter can probably understand her. Just can't speak English.

"I am Yamamoto of Clan Undermountain," the dwarf states simply. He also provides Wes with a short, formal bow.

"I think the Nexus is trying to make up for how similar all the people on this ship are," the woman in the overalls laughs. Now that she's facing Wes it's clear that there's something really weird about her... well... face. It has the appearance of something trying to look human and not doing a terribly good job of it. "I'm Amil Wightson, nice to meet you Westlanna."

[Gullara]

[Willow's Lab]

Oh my. A lull in the conversation. Seems like a perfect time for...

Knock knock knock. Seems like someone is knocking on the lab's door! I wonder who it could be. Well, you can probably see who it is if the doors are glass. I'm not really sure if they're the slide-y doors some pokemon buildings have or if the lab has normal wooden doors. But if they're the glass doors, it looks like there's a dark-haired kid waiting impatiently outside.

Becca whirls around when she hears the knocking. How are they going to explain all this... Oh well, best get it over with. The girl goes over to the door and pulls it open. "Uh, hey. There's no professor here right now."

[LadyOfWar]

[Spaceship]

"Thank you, that will be useful to note." she replies to the fellow from the ship. "And I'm sorry, I never did catch your name."

Then for the others. To the sandwich she replies: "I can see that." Then she follows it up internally with, "If you can read this thought, I'd thank you NOT to read my mind." she's not angry, but her mental tone is firm.

The bird recieves a polite nod. "Shall I call you Wark, then?"

"Pleasure to meet you Yamomoto of clan Undermountain." the formal bow is returned.

"I have a sneaking suspicion you are right, Amil. It would be in character of this place to do exactly that."

[VampireRot]

[Willow's Lab]

The kid raises an eyebrow, then scowls and crosses his arms.

"Then what are you doing in here?"

The boy looks to be around 14 or 15 years old. His black hair is straight and a bit long, curling at the ends, and his eyes are a simple brown. He is dressed in a green sweater with a plain white T-shirt underneath and regular jeans. On his feet is a pair of sneakers, and perhaps most importantly of all there are three Poké Balls attached to his belt. He also has a backpack slung over one shoulder.

[Rebonack]

[Starship Sojourn]

"I am Ensign D'nair," the fellow in the red shirt replies. He lifts his head up slightly when using his own name and title. Gives a good view of his chin putty. You can almost see where the make-up ends and his skin begins!

Talk about lousy special effects.

"WARK!" the bird squawks, nodding his head. Looks like Wark will do nicely! Wonder what kind of amazing special talents a bird with a funny hat could possibly have?

I can only read people's minds if they're hungry, the sandwich replies. And then only what they're hungry for. But if you think at me I can totally hear it!

After introductions the dwarf returns to brooding silently whilst looking at the space ship.

"Come. Our chief security officer is waiting inside," Ensign D'nair states before setting off toward the open hanger-bay of the ship.

"Glad things are finally moving. Feels like this adventure has been stuck in a deadtime quagmire for days," Amil comments as she heads off after the Ensign along with the other adventurers.

[Willow's Lab]

The new person is regarded with suspicion by Glamdring! Obviously this guy is bad news. He can smell it! The eevee will stick pretty close to Becca. Not that he cares about her safty. The fact that he was caught just means he has to protect her.

It's nothing personal.

[LadyOfWar]

[Spaceship]

"Nice to meet you formally Ensign D'nair." she replies.

The sandwich gets one more thought directed at it: "In that case finish the sentence, right now I could kill for...." the correct answer is curry.

"I'm sorry I held things up for you, Amil. I had to grab a few supplies." she reaches over the shoulder to run a finger over the stock of her new combination rifle/shotgun.

Then she shuts up and follows along into the ship.

[Rebonack]

[Starship Sojourn]

Oh you're totally hungry for curry, the floating psionic bowl of curry replies.

...

That ability doesn't seem like it would be at all helpful toward its self-preservation.

Once inside the adventurers will meet the head of security, Commander Dorf!

He's a Dorf.

Of the planet Dorf.

All Dorfs happen to look like short humans with beards. Yamamoto finds this mildly offensive but doesn't comment on it.

"Thank you all for your timely reply to our call for aid," Dorf begins. "I am Commander Dorf and I will brief you on the present situation."

And then he sets off down the hall, motioning the adventurers to follow!

[LadyOfWar]

[spaceship]

Westlanna gives the bowl of curry a look that says the contents of that bowl should fear for its life. After all, her exact words were "I could kill for..."

She follows along, her eyes flitting about noticing every detail and piecing them together to give her an over-view of what she's getting in to. She's a detail oriented gal.

[The Bushranger]

Wings & Co.


Rhyan arches an eyebrow, as she digests Winguardia's information along with her own magical knowledge, but keeps any conclusions to herself.
"A most intriguing property. And good to know, should the situation demand."

[Lost_Deep]

[Park - Harnel and Harnel]

Harnelle sighs. She didn't want to do this, but she will.

She place a single claw on the grig's collar bone, and will start to dig the point in. She's very careful not to go too deep, knowing that something so small would be fairly delicate. Harnelle doesn't want to permanently maim her, after all, but she begins bringing her claw down the front of Vivreka's body along the sternum, "Take four will stop once you change me back."

((All atempted, of course. The Grig may indeed get away or stop Harnelle Somehow.))

[Harnel and Harnel]

Harnel watches, half about ready to walk away and try to find an alternative solution.

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

Don't pour water on the heater! Rein likes that thing dry! D=

And then water on the bed. Some of it splashes onto Rein and helps wake him up a bit. He lifts his head and looks around.

*****

Just arriving at the front door to the shelter is Mecha-Rein and Mega-Kate!
"In here!"

[Park - Harnel and Harnel]

The grig's expression goes from happy to pain. She does not say anything, and Harnel will be able to rip her flesh (and scrap of a shirt) right down her sternum. When he finishes, the wound seals and she looks... unamused.

"Experiments might have amusing results, but torture is torture. If you want to go there, I will have to get... creative."

Her voice says "Don't make me do it." Her look says "I want you to give me an excuse to do it."

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

I'm not sure about that "mega," but Kate is here. She doesn't know what's going on. She'll just follow the mecha cat.

[Rebonack]

[The Starship Sojourn]

It's completely possible that the sandwich (now a bowl of curry) has been eaten before. The thing is a psionic intelligence attached to some food. It could probably just cook up something else if need be. Or animate a pile of rocks. Or what have you.

No doubt it'll become more clear as the adventure continues!

As for the appearance of the ship itself...

Anyone at all familiar with the original Star Trek series would instantly recognize many of the ship's features. Complete with the rather puzzling fact that there appear to be lots of colored pipes that don't seem to actually go anywhere.

Wark is plodding along, as expressionless as usual. Being a bird he lacks any sort of ability to make facial expressions. Though it's obvious enough that he's quite intelligent and seems to be taking note of any useful paths of escape or potential danger.

Yamamoto walks along with his hand on the hilt of his katana, ready to execute a vicious draw-attack should anything attack.

Amil seems to be completely unarmed. Though given the nature of the Nexus there's a good chance that she's just as dangerous as those security guys with their phasers. She's focused pretty solidly on the Commander as he describes what they'll be facing.

"The creatures appeared as soon as we returned to normal space. The majority of them have extremely spongy bodies that absorbed energy weapons with no ill-effect. However, crew members trained in hand to hand combat were able to harm them. Unfortunately we don't have enough crew members with such experience with less high-tech forms of combat," he then motions to a nearby door. A door covered with some goopy black gunk. "More of the corrosive substance. Thankfully it seems to be inert now. Our crew is working their hardest to remove as much of it as quickly as possible."

He then halts at a second non-goopy door.

"This cargo bay is infested with many of the smaller creatures. They're no more than a half meter tall, but there are enough to prove difficult to deal with. Once the creatures are cleared we'll be able to access the tools and materials we have stored here to further the repairs on our ship."

[Gullara]

[Willow's Lab]

"Looking for the professor, duh." Becca doesn't like this guy's attitude. "All there was was some stupid Porygon Z. Who're you anyway?" Looks like they're getting off to a nice start! They'll surely be the best of friends.

[Beans]

"All sorts of things. Spacecraft, robots, floating streets that move..."

... Oh, that's... that's a lot of things.

[VampireRot]

[Willow's Lab]

"A stupid Porygon Z? But that's a rare Pokémon!"

The kid seems annoyed that Becca would badmouth such a powerful Pokémon.

"My name is Winston Caracol."

He gives a certain airy smirk, as if that name should mean something.

"Who are you?"

[Lord Raziere]

Common Street

The charging technoblin does hit- Destur wasn't expecting it to factor in the dodge. He'll try to grab the dagger causing the hellfire; once it's out, the hellfire on the technoblin will go out. Meanwhile, Destur is now pinned to the floor and starts chanting a different spell. This one will summon some water in the air above the technoblin and Destur- the water will obey gravity and fall onto the technoblin. As before, the navy-blue termite mound fades into view around Destur.

He does get the dagger out, but now he has a damaged technoblin constantly trying to punch, claw and generally try to kill him.

The fourth technoblin has dived behind the brick wall.
A grenade is thrown over the brick wall, bouncing then landing near Destur while the damaged technoblin continues to struggle and scrabble at Destur, doing anything he can to hurt him.

[Halae]

[Park - Harnel and Harnel]

The grig's expression goes from happy to pain. She does not say anything, and Harnel will be able to rip her flesh (and scrap of a shirt) right down her sternum. When he finishes, the wound seals and she looks... unamused.

"Experiments might have amusing results, but torture is torture. If you want to go there, I will have to get... creative."

Her voice says "Don't make me do it." Her look says "I want you to give me an excuse to do it."

[Park - Harnel and Harnel]

"That's the thing, isn't it? Neither of us wants the torture to happen. I just want to go home and make amends with my wife. So, I'll tell you what. You change me back to my original color, but I'll stay a woman when I go home. Deal? Should end up interesting."

Regardless, she most certainly does not want to play this damn game.

City Walls

"I have a little brother and sister. I'd like them to grow up and continue to be their insufferable bratty selves." Willow shrugs. "You've probably noticed this is a very dangerous place. I want to change that."

[City Walls]

"A laudable goal," Amlin says, leaning back, "As near as I can tell, a lot of people are trying to work towards something like that themselves."

[happyturtle]

City Walls

"That doesn't relieve me of the responsibility." Willow says.

[Lady Serpentine]

... Oh, that's... that's a lot of things.

L'lanyaea smiles, and goes to put an arm around her.

"True. But once you get used to some of the weird things, the rest seems less weird, because it's similar to the stuff that you're used to now. So it shouldn't take too long for you to adapt."

[Halae]

City Walls

"That doesn't relieve me of the responsibility." Willow says.

[City Walls]

"And a good attitude to boot!" Amlin says, "I really do hope you at least make some headway in your goals. You seem like the sort of person that deserves it."