[Nexus] Inside 44

[ThirdEmperor]

Arkham Asylum

Unslimed clothes? Sweet.

Marching through a tomb of mummified flesh? Not so sweet....

Using his glowing sword as a torch, Oliver concentrates upon his innate ability to see souls 'n ghosties 'n such, trying to see if there are any spirits trapped in the dessicated corpses or sneaking up on them.

[Hattish Thing]

Arkham Hospital

"Go right ahead bro. An' thanks." Oliver will let Grantz cast the clothes repair spell on him, before heading down the stairs after Winifred.

Myup. Not much else to say.

Dusty Flagon

Ray's just about to answer Mr. Poe's questions when the scream rings out. There's a moment of confusion as he tries to figure out where it's coming from, then a dawning comprehension, the detective leaping from his seat and sending the portal zipping down his arm and onto the wall. The second portal, meanwhile, should move from the inside of the watchseller's pocket to the nearest large, roughly flat surface, be that the sidewalk or a nearby wall.

"I'll be back in a second!" And with that, he expands the portal to roughly door size and leaps through, ready to face.... Whatever it is he finds on the other side.

He'll appear in a dark alley. The poor watch-seller's corpse lies in pieces. A tall beast with a doglike body tears off his head brutally before dropping it and staring up at Ray. It stands on it's hind legs and growls in common. You ah a fool. Ge' out of here, you know nothing of what ish meant to be. Leave here, or I will make you shuffer his same fate. The wolfman growls in a low voice. (He's not Rodolphus. This wolfman has dark black fur.)

Meanwhile: Arkham Asylum.

Poor Rodolphus almost gags on the horrid smell. Oh...That ish foul! Oh gods...Urgh...

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Hospital]

Haha!

Wow.

That ghostly spooky sight is going to be really useful. Because some of those seemingly immobile corpses were totally going to come to life and spring up at the party. Thus Oliver can spot the four zombies even before the party gets close!

...

He'll need to warn them, though.

Because otherwise Winifred is going to blunder right into the middle of the undead mob and that would probably be terrible.

[Halae]

[Lot's of Hope Hospital]

"I'd imagine." Arik replies without much empathy. He can't really imagine at all. "Are quarter dragons special in some way? Besides the... obvious. I'm afraid I don't really know much about your kin besides what I asked my sister." The mage asks as he looks at the children.

[Lot's of hope Hospital]

"I don't know," Harnel says, "If I had to hazard a guess... well, Dragons from my world are elemental beings, and with what I know of the world you and Cessie come from, that actually makes them quite likely to be mages."

[ThirdEmperor]

Arkham Asylum

Yeah, when it comes to fighting ghosts, Oliver just about hit the jackpot in the superpower lottery by being born with his particular set of sorcerous talents. Of course, the downside is that being so in tune with the spirit world leaves him pretty vulnerable to getting the life drained out of him, being possessed or other unpleasant crud like that.

"Hey, fox-lady, hold up!" Y'know, considering how bad Winifred reacted to just her tails being pointed out, it seems to me that outright calling her a fox-spirit would be incredibly poor tact. "Some a' these stiffs ain't quite dead enough yet. Think ya can fix that, flaming dude?" Oliver asks, pointing out the four corpses that still have spirits locked within so Grantz can light 'em up.

Outside the Dusty Flagon

Well that's... disturbing. Especially as it couldn't have taken Ray more than a few seconds to leap through the portal, yet this wolf-dog-thing still managed to literally tear the watch-seller limb from limb before he arrived.

"Ah, right, well, whatever's "meant to be", you are hereby under citizens arrest. Put your hands, I mean, paws up and come along quietly."

He didn't draw his gun, Ray suddenly realizes... Why didn't he draw his ******* gun beforehand!? Putting on his best poker face to avoid giving away his panic, the detective tries to look non-challant as he subtly reaches for the revolver sequestered in a shoulder holster beneath his jacket, praying that the wolfman will assume he has some sort of combat powers and not realize that he is, for the moment, damn near to defenseless.

[Halae]

[Arkham Asylum Hospital]

"Hold up," Amlin says, "I should be able to control them instead, gain us a few extra allies for this endeavor." It's a bit of a blunt control, but as a necromancer he has a lot of skill in working with the undead.

If allowed the necromancer will start weaving a spell. If it connects to the zombies, it should control them, but if they have their own will they can potentially resist. Anybody could potentially stop him, though.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Hospital]

Winifred glances back at Oliver, then to the corpses on the floor as she bites her lip. "Yeah... I was worried that might be true... but I couldn't tell the dead ones from the not quite so dead ones..."

Huh... Apparently calling her 'fox-lady' doesn't bug her at all.

Both of her tails slip out into plain view as a pair of fox-fire wisps drift into her hands. She clenches her fists, causing the wisps to flicker and resolve into a phantasmal blue halberd crackling with ghostly fire!

She gives the weapon a good spin, getting a feel for its weight whilst a wisp orbits the axe-head of the halberd. It probably looks spooky!

Then the necromancer tries to take over the zombies!

However he'll find that someone else is apparently controlling them already!

Four Wights spring to their feet! One has dead black Ebony claws. The second looks like a husk of gnarled oak bard. The third is covered in icy armor. And the fourth's head and arms suddenly burst into flames!

"Wights!" the Huldra hisses.

[The Bushranger]

[Backyard Battle]

Assming Rhyan and (er....I've forgotten her name already ) are in visual range, it's quite possible that those fighting Winguardia might suddenly see shimmering images appear nearby.

Images of their worst fears...

====

[Soul Quest]

Sallianne looks shocked. They're the enemy? ((I forgot she speaks in Pink. )) They need to be stopped! She starts to head inside the deli.

((You mean Pearl right? ))

Mikani will try to grab Pearl's shoulder and shake her head!
"This is something you need to let your mom handle instead of taking it on yourself," she says, trying to be firm without using any of her Druidic Listen-To-Me abilities!

Using them on her friends would be wrong.

She'll try to pull Pearl over to rejoin Irene and Sophie!

[Lady Serpentine]

[Limit Street]

((Out of curiosity, what action does 'knee her in the solar plexus with an elbow' translate to? ))

Mayhala hisses again as the tendrils are once more foiled, and rapidly begins to form a suit of ornate plate armor around herself, along with a rather odd weapon; a staff, with two straight blades at one end, and a heavy sphere at the other.

Then, however, the fire hits her, undoing some, though not all of what she's done - for the most part, it simply prevents the things that were just starting to come into being from doing so for a few moments, before the process resumes.

Of course, all of this leaves her reasonably open to further retaliation, though she is getting less so as more of her body is covered by the armor.

[Arkham Hospital]

Wolf is rapidly learning about undead. As such, this time, there's little hesitation when the Wights stand; she quickly draws her pistol, and fires a pair of incendiary rounds (the same kind she used on the hair-monster back in Trog's) at the Ice Wight, one aimed towards its chest and the other its head.

[Lex-Kat]

[Soul Quest]

It was mentioned.
Irene scowls at the women. She hated this sort of thing. Reminds her way too much of the whole partial slave and more importantly sex slave act Felina had going on that she was lucky to escape from. But she'd never be anything but disgusted by it and it shows.

Especially when she pulls her flaming sword out and waves it around a bit, menacingly.
"Show's over folks. GET."

Some of the crowd around them turns toward the voice who's trying to cancel the show. Upon seeing the sword though, there is much yelling screaming, and most importantly, running.

Sophie coughs nervously. So... one guess which part of your soul it is?

Everyone, including the stripper, runs from the scary flaming sword-bearing ghost cat-woman.

Sallianne flies up above the crowd, trying to watch wear she goes.

((You mean Pearl right? ))

Mikani will try to grab Pearl's shoulder and shake her head!
"This is something you need to let your mom handle instead of taking it on yourself," she says, trying to be firm without using any of her Druidic Listen-To-Me abilities!

Using them on her friends would be wrong.

She'll try to pull Pearl over to rejoin Irene and Sophie!

(( Yes, Pearl.))

Pearl, all grumpy-faced, is firmly pulled away from the Deli-onion killers.

"Show's over folks. GET."

Up ahead, they see a sea of people rushing toward them, running for their lives.

[The Alexandrian]

[Theater Plot - Massacre]

And you will know them not by name but by deed...

There's a curious degree of freedom stumbled upon when one is met with the reaper's gruesome, ever-blunted scythe and brittle, cadaverous skull. A sense of elation that you sidestepped his swipe, which doesn't quite net many accolades, seeing as he is using blindly swinging a farming implement, the cutting edge of which is on the inner curve of the rusty metal blade.

But something declared that someday, the reaper's thirsty iron will strike its mark. He will have his heyday and we will all bemoan our mortal states.

The stakes of this game are particularly high. Many lives are wagered by all players. A queen of hearts. An ace of spades. But no matter what the outcome is, the house wins. The house always wins. And the house is death.

Now all of the pieces have taken refuge all across the board in the customary opening moves to set the stage for the play.

And as Act One of the play opens, the real game begins.

The prelude is brief and too tiresome to recount. An player attired in the garb of aged elder hobbles hunched-over to center stage as the uproar of the garrulous, rowdy crowd of ruffians dies away swiftly and painlessly. A lull descends on the audience as the player speaks of new things growing old and old things growing new. With a couple of playful jests the audience erupts in mirthful howling like maddened hyenas. By this point, all of the assassins and heroes should be in their respective positions. Jane and Teq are, correct me if I am wrong, concealed on a rooftop, although most of the seating boasts no bulwark to ward off the cruelties of the wanton elements like water or ice. Demon Queen has taken up her station somewhere inside of the theater, Shrike is...somewhere, and Fade is lurking in the wavering (but not waning) shadows.

As if on cue, a van pulls up outside of the theater. Four people, their gender un-discernible at this distance given the well-made disguises they are clad in, pile out of the van and secure the entrance of the theater. They slam the front gate firmly shut and chain it up. It has already been abandoned by the gatekeeper, who inexplicably abandoned his post not long after the prelude started as though he were on a certain someone's payroll.

This, of course, assumes that nobody intervenes. As it has been established that all characters spare Shrike are within the theater itself (I myself am dreadfully unsure of her present location), only characters who have chosen to remain near the entrance should take note of this, as it doesn't call much attention to itself nor is it unheard of for theater doors to close after a play initiates.

This should create a clearly partitioned killzone.

A person wearing a Bauta mask and an inconspicuous, loose, black cloak steps forward as four players wrapped in satirizing royal capes and egotistic airs strut onto the stage as the prelude to Act I concludes. At first it seems as though he or she is no more than another actor contributing to the ambiance of the play. That is, until he/she points her right arm and a clenched fist at one of the actors upon which a rattling dakka, dakka, dakka thunders across the enclosed space.

One actor, a boy of eighteen, falls to the floor, dead, fake crown rolling into one of the wings. Many think he feigns injury, but some know better.

In a flash, five men wearing plated suits shaped out of dense space-age polymers burst out of a hatch stage left, automatic rifles raised as they empty the chambers into the pit where the majority of play-goers are gathered, wounding countless people seemingly at random in hopes of laying down some covering fire. A stray bullet might graze or hit Fade or Demon Queen in the lower body if they don't soon manage to grab some cover themselves.

Granted, there aren't too many seats or walls around here, but with any luck, Fade and Demon Queen will improvise and survive.

-------
[Warehouse Raid - Without Ever Saying "I'll Be Back"]

The chain link fence surrounding the perimeter of the factory of untold horrors clatters to the ground with a raucous clang as smoke billows up from the blazing ruins of the power generator housing unit nearby.

Emergency responders are already en route to the smoldering stack of rubble and debris. Some of them may accidentally cross Raenall's path, culminating in either success in Raenall surmounting the wall if she does not swerve from her path or failing to breach it if she veers to sharply to one side or the other.

Don't feel too bad, Raenall! They are just guilty, faceless mooks anyhow.

Well...
They did have families.

Mafia families!

Moving on, (assuming that Raenall doesn't spin off-course when those more lively obstacles appear) the cement wall gives with the gritty crumbling grind of metal straining to pulverize stone. The vehicle pushes through into the inner sanctum with nary a dent. The room (sans electricity) that the assault team penetrates contains eight open fourteen ft. by fourteen ft. stainless steel boilers that reek of dead fairies. Suspended from the ceiling above these sinister vats of potent poison are fragile metal catwalks with hip-height rails and upon those teeter a enormous cabal of pretty darn expendable factory workers equipped with pistols but no tangible combat skills.

As the pair bust through the wall, one of the factory workers flinches away from the hole, toppling over a rail into one of the caskets of nigh vendible, gut-wrenchingly horrific product.

Another whips out his pistol and daftly fires at the killing machine, or as everyone else fondly calls him, Dippy!

The majority of the workers, however, flee as fast as is humanly possible.

This results in the introduction of three workers to their boiling product instantly. >.<

Good thing they aren't casualties! They are plainly armed!

[Streets of Inside - What A Wonderful Day For A Stroll And What A Horrible Night To Have A Curse]

Cookies to you if you recognize the reference! And a toast! And an internet!

That series isn't really popular with the people I hang out with of my same generation. 'S undervalued by them, sorrowfully. By my generation, I mean all people who are currently 17 plus or minus 1 years of age.

There remains only a modicum of humanity behind Lintha's scalding, scathing grimace of ruination. While she would heartily appreciate his concern over her current level of health in a more relaxed state, as things stand, she is too occupied restraining the enemy bound to her soul locked away for...for...

For a time.

With a resolved grunt she leans against a nearby brick facade and coughs up a plume of fire and extremely carcinogenic gunk.

Is that...

That's soot or powdered coal, isn't it?

Who knows. All other things notwithstanding, Lintha isn't feeling or looking very stout or hale as is. Her movement is indubitably hindered by her agony, but her gumption keeps her going well enough. Dark slivers of dire evil pulse through her veins, causing her to quake and tremble as she struggles against a monster of terrible nature and disposition.

"Nnargh!"

Ouch! That acute shrieking would lead me to believe that whatever Lintha is going through really, really hurts.

She's in no condition to hustle to a hospital, and I honestly doubt that a normal sawbones could do much to help her out anyway.

[Clarissa's Showdown]

...

Dave totally filched Clarissa's tactic! Oh well! Looks like she has to run off and console Dave now. I'll leave you in suspense as to how Clarissa polishes these two off, for now.

So, to the Outside thread?

[Lex-Kat]

((Cookies to me!! It's from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. ))

{MagMart }

Judy enters and begins shopping for a nice dress for her babies.

[Hattish Thing]

Well that's... disturbing. Especially as it couldn't have taken Ray more than a few seconds to leap through the portal, yet this wolf-dog-thing still managed to literally tear the watch-seller limb from limb before he arrived.

"Ah, right, well, whatever's "meant to be", you are hereby under citizens arrest. Put your hands, I mean, paws up and come along quietly."

He didn't draw his gun, Ray suddenly realizes... Why didn't he draw his ******* gun beforehand!? Putting on his best poker face to avoid giving away his panic, the detective tries to look non-challant as he subtly reaches for the revolver sequestered in a shoulder holster beneath his jacket, praying that the wolfman will assume he has some sort of combat powers and not realize that he is, for the moment, damn near to defenseless.

It growls evilly, blood on it's teeth and claws. The thing was a predator by nature, and knew that it should strike as fast as it could. So, it pounced! The thing lept and aimed to bite Ray's throat, to snap and tear while claws try and rip his limbs off, the same thing it did with the poor watch-seller. Grrawr!

Inside: What A Wonderful Day For A Stroll (And Awesomeness!)

Javert frowns. He had a spell, he could spare some shadow essence. He moved to her worriedly and put his arms around her waist. His spell is cast and as he tries to softly kiss her lips shadowstuff will fly into her mouth and into her body. The spell should heal the large amount of inner bleeding, (Unless an organ is completely destroyed of course.) The essence of shadow is a gas, dark black like ink. It flows inside and Javert kisses her rougher. It always hurt when he cut his own essence off to heal others. Javert was already hurt, and to remove his shadowy essence hurt like someone was chopping off a finger. Ow. So he eventually lets go of her. Her outside wounds would still be hurting though. Her psychological wounds are a completely different matter however. He lets go and almost falls to the ground in pain. Gah! You....urgh....What's wrong with you? Why aren't you better? Poor Javert always had his spells work. Though I doubt his spell cured her insanity as she struggles with her darker side. Ah... He breathes heavily and feels his wounds all the more painful.

[Devixer]

[Red Zone]

There has been an abnormal number of reported disappearances in the Red Zone recently. Dozens of people have spoken of lost friends and family. This happens fairly often, of course, but what is peculiar is also the supposed sightings of "strange black creatures" slipping through the alleys, much to fast for anyone to have garnered any details.

A few have theorized that the increasing number of disappearances is linked to the sightings of these creatures, which have also increased in the past few days.

[Reinholdt]

[Soul Quest]

Irene reaches out a free hand and mentally tries to yank any of Irene's soul bits out of the stripper as she runs before she gets too far.

She purposefully doesn't answer Sophie's question.

[Asha'man]

[Arkham Street Hospital: Depths]

Leave this icy Wight to me!

Grantz hated the cold and that manifested in his powers. Fire abilities and Ice weakness. He orders his three demon companions to cast Agi! on the icy wight. Grantz himself uses a physical attack 'lunge' on the wight.

[Halae]

[Arkham Hospital]

Amlin starts doing something... but then everybody apparently decides it's time to throw everything at the wights. He interrupts his spell in the midst of all the attacking, wanting to conserve his magic for later, and simply sits back and watches.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Hospital]

Seems everyone hates the ice Wight.

The creature gets blasted by fire and then MORE fire. While critters from the Empyreum don't actually have elemental weaknesses that much fire really isn't healthy for ANYTHING.

The Wight gets blasted apart into a slushy pile of sooty snow with a few glistening blue fragments of Glacia in it. Yay lewt?

Without paying much heed to the death of their comrade the other undead leap towards those nearest them! Rawr!

Winifred darts in to place herself in the path of the fire Wight, blocking its burning claws with the haft of her halberd before shoving forward HARD to knock the monster off balance.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Arkham Hospital]

And now Wolf is getting leapt at! That may not have been the best idea, though admittedly, Wights aren't exactly all that smart. She has just enough time to get a hastily-aimed shot off at the bark Wight before it gets too close, at which point she lets go of the weapon, and tries to slash at the Wight's arms with her own claws.

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Theater Plot]

Odds are good that Shrike is with Demon Queen. If not right next to her, then somewhere nearby. One could assume this since the main reason Shrike is here is Demon Queen asking for her assistance.

In any case, Demon Queen doesn't notice the gate closing. She's too busy watching the shadows in the crowd. She doesn't pay much attention to the stage. That is, at least not until the first shots ring out.

Demon Queen quickly looks to the stage in time to see the others step out and open fire. Reacting on instinct, Demon Queen quickly moves her hands in front of her, then yanks them straight back. The desired effect is to grab several members of the crowd around her and force them behind her, further from the stage. Now, given how quickly she did this, some may get tossed a little roughly. Might cause some bruising, maybe a sprained ankle or two. However, most would agree that a sprained ankle beats a bullet in the gut any day.

Now, doing this first meant that, for a bit, Demon Queen wasn't focused on protecting herself. This ends up with a bullet grazing her right thigh. She grits her teeth, blocks out the pain, and thrusts her arms forward again. This time, she means to send a wall of kinetic force at the stage, hoping to deflect any bullets heading her way and then hit the people on stage, knocking them down. That's what she's hoping for, anyways.

[Murkus]

Theater Plot

The human and the abhuman are atop the theatre, awaiting their cue.

Gunfire from inside. That must be it. Knowing it can't be Fade, Teq primes his weapon with a whirring hum and turns to Jane the drow. "Blow it." More an order than a request.

The Vraal warrior steels himself for the inevitable blood that will be spilled. After fighting so long, rather than growing more hardened, he's only become more susceptible to the horrors of his profession.

[Reinholdt]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

Reinholdt and Arel return. Reinholdt taking note of Arel's distance, but really too drained to make a fuss about it or move closer, among other reasons.

[Gullara]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

Arel decides to head right for the privacy of the bedroom, expecting that Rein will follow. Once inside, she sits at the edge of the bed and motions for Rein to sit beside her. Now to figure out how to explain...

[Reinholdt]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

Should have been thinking about that the whole way back Arel!

Reinholdt sits down on the bed next to Arel, mostly focusing on looking down at his hands for the time being.

[Gullara]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

She was! Just, not very successfully. "I've sort of known for a while. That I'm attracted to woman, I mean. But that doesn't mean anything else has changed." Arel gives him a pleading look, willing him to understand.

[Reinholdt]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

"For a while, huh? Since when?" Reinholdt... I think he mostly looks a little dazed more than anything.

((deadtime for me))

[Murkus]

((Apologies for forgetting this))

Lots of Hope Hospital

"Like a balloon? Fast, or what?" Adir says foolishly. I really hope Harnel hears none of this. >.< Unfortunately, Adir has never been good at that little thing called whispering. "That must've really been weird."

[Gullara]

[Bast's Animal Shelter]

"More or less the last night I worked at the Gambling League of Gambling." Rein may recall Libra being stripped naked, and perhaps the effects of the lust aura. "It doesn't really matter, though, because I'm with you."

[ThirdEmperor]

Asylum Hospital

Woo! Wights getting burned into snow and leaping all over the place!

Just the sorta awesome, crazy, totally nonsensical violence Oliver signed up for. Ducking and dodging away from the charging ebony wight, the ghost-hunter grabs one of the throwing knives from his belt and hurls it at one of the undead's legs, hoping to slow it down a tad.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Hospital]

There certainly seems to be a lot of awesome crazy violence going on down here. And there's a good chance that it won't end with this particular encounter, either.

The Ebony Wight gets stabbed in the leg! Since it has no muscles that actually function and moves due to malevolent force of will alone injuries short of pulverizing the creature usually won't stop it. The monster hisses and lashes out at Oliver again! Careful of those claws, they're nearly as hard as diamond and tougher than steel.

The Wood Wight gets shot in the chest with no apparent ill effect, getting buffeted slightly before getting its arms slashed! The limbs are chopped into, but sheering straight through that much wood with a single stroke is pretty darn difficult. The monster follows up by trying to bite Wolf in the face! Gnar gnar gnar!

With the Fire Wight off balance Winifred cracks the smouldering undead in the knee with the haft of her halberd, causing it to drop to the ground in a kneel. She then follows up with a sweeping stroke, neatly decapitating it! The monsters body erupts in flames, leaving only a heap of ash behind. And a few fragments of a reddish, brassy metal. Sweet! Orichalcum!