[Nexus] Outside XXXII

[McBish]

{Melody's Island- Barn}

I think it is safe to say Derek will almost never stop Jezebelle from wrapping her arms around him.

"Yeah I have learned that touching things that might be evidence isn't a good idea.

I can help. I am an OK cook while under supervision."

[Lex-Kat]

{Feed the Refugees}

"I don't know, but it's better to have them in our inventory. Ribbons are like... the best accessory ever. Immunity to status effects? HELL YES. So wearing one." He was shocked they were so cheap. And you never know when you're going to get another party member.

"Though I guess we probably didn't need all the antidotes anymore..." Ribbons are nice like that.

He glances over at Caroline. "You ok?"

Caroline nods and smiles innocently, as she hugs the Melody doll close. MmmHmm. Let's go.

{Melody's Island- Barn}

I think it is safe to say Derek will almost never stop Jezebelle from wrapping her arms around him.

"Yeah I have learned that touching things that might be evidence isn't a good idea.

I can help. I am an OK cook while under supervision."

Let's go back to the cottage then. and she'll try to take his hand and lead the way.

[Reinholdt]

{Melody's Island}

"Alright. Not upset about switching with Catoline during the mini-game are you?" Vincent asks as they head back towards the dock.

[McBish]

{Melody's Island- Barn}

He follows behind her a bit holding her hand. Glad that she didn't freak out about the dagger in his tent. He is very glad Melody was able to clear that up so quickly.

[Devixer]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

It looks like something heavy was dragged across the floor from a pool of blood and then placed into the sarcophagus with the nausea-inducing runes crawling across its surface, but there's no sign of a body. Unless it's in the sarcophagus, anyway.

The titanium monkeys are slowly approaching, with their shields held cautiously in front, their eyes peering over. They have their swords ready to strike, too, though they're too far away to attack at the moment.

Also, if Cassidy's smaller weapons can't penetrate the titanium armour, then surely it's superior the the brass casings belonging to most of the others?

Cass decides not to waste her ammo on trying to take down titanium monkeys. She'll save them for the silver and gold ones. She starts to increase her speed and strength through magic, then takes a few steps towards the coffin.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

One of the monkeys runs quickly to intercept Cassidy, though she'll pass it before it reaches her. That won't stop it slicing at her legs, though, and it's still close enough that the long blade of its sword may hit Cassidy a glancing blow.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Cass dashes over to the sarcophagus, and barely notices that her calf's been hit by a blade, even though she hears her jeans rip. She tries to rip its lid off, not caring about the nausea or pain. If this was going to be the end of this whole thing, then she really wanted to get it over with quicklike.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

The sarcophagus can be opened, and surprisingly easily for such a hefty lump of stone. The crawling, nauseating runes have that affect upon the sarcophagus, amongst others. Within the sarcophagus lies a body. It's a male body, middle aged, balding and slightly fat, and completely naked. There's no sign of what killed him; there's not even a scar. In fact, for a dead person, he seems remarkably healthy and there's no explanation for the blood smear.

The other of the four general guard titanium monkeys are rushing after Cassidy now. Well, rushing is the wrong word; they aren't very fast, and their top running speed could be outpaced by the average human. They make up for that deficiency by not needing to rest, but that's only an advantage when hunting somebody down for long periods of time rather than in the clamour of melee combat.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Cassidy aims to grab the corpse by the neck. "C'mon, drekhead, time to introduce you to the Chunky Salsa Effect." She tries to heave the body over her shoulder and carry him over to the machine powered by the d20. Because of her magic, she should still be able to move faster than an average human.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

Cassidy easily out paces the monkeys and reaches the D20-shaped power supply. Cassidy may note that the numbers on the D20 move, though the opposite numbers always add up to 21, just like on a real D20. Rolling it might be a bit of a nightmare, though.

A gold monkey nearby screeches a command at its titanium, halberd-wielding bodyguards and two swing their halberds at Cassidy, the length changing mid-swing until they're as large as an actual, human-sized halberd. One will still miss, though the monkey takes a few steps forward to try again next post.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Cass moves back as soon as she dumps the body, managing to deflect the halberd that wouldn't normally miss. She continues to move back as she grabs the Panzerfaust that she still has slung on her back, trying to get to a relatively safe distance before firing.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

On her way from the body, another titanium halberd-wielding monkey takes a swing; it's slashing horizontally so hopefully Cassidy will walk into the blade as it is swung, though she may still dodge the polearm normally.

Another of the titanium monkeys, this one with in-built sword and shield, is headed as fast as it can go for where it believes Cassidy is going on an intercept course.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

The monkey's halberd does hit Cassidy and probably goes through the lamellar armor she's wearing, but not even titanium can go through her coat, apparently. She keeps running, and turns around to aim the Panzerfaust. The running monkey might catch up to her at this point.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

Oh, the lamellar is outside the coat. I've been picturing her as having the coat on the outside; not for any real reason, but mainly because that makes accessing the coat's pockets much easier.

The running monkey dives for her left leg, it being the closer one, and hopes to either knock her off balance (running is precarious enough without titanium monkeys whacking into your calves as you travel at magically enhanced speeds) or impale her leg. The latter is much less likely, as it requires the monkey to have its sword blade pointed at just the right place as Cassidy's super-speed moves her on her way past the monkey.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Cass is hit in the leg by a sword, and this causes her to fall to one knee. Well, this was it, do or die. She no longer had the time to properly aim, so she just points the Panzerfaust at the machine and fires, hoping to catch both it and the dead body in the resulting blast.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

Fortunately, it seems the anti-tank recoilless rifle is simple enough that not much aiming is not a large hindrance. The missile doesn't quite hit either body or D20, but it does hit the pedestal the D20 is on. The D20 flies up, hits the ceiling, bounces off and stops moving, suspending itself three inches from the top of the chamber. The pedestal has shattered. Brian's body has been spread over a lot of the chamber; most of what's left is riddled with splinters from the pedestal and the floor it stood on.

The gold monkeys realise their dream is over and deactivate, the magic powering them dispersing and entering a hibernation state from which they won't awake until somebody tries to awake them magically. One self-destructs, exploding into fragments of gold and a piece of diamond that dents the head of a titanium monkey. Some of the silver monkeys also enter hibernation; another was hit by a large piece of debris and has scattered into silver shrapnel and a gleaming shard of obsidian. Another runs for the hatch and dives through, seeking to escape. The titanium monkeys either try to awake the gold ones using physical methods like hitting them; some join the gold monkeys in hibernation and two flee; one carrying its halberd, the other slowly marching with its inbuilt sword and shield. The nearest titanium monkey, however, seeks to avenge its plan and marches slowly towards Cassidy, its sword and shield held ready.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Toward]

Cass drops the unloaded Panzerfaust, and takes out her assault rifle again. She unloads it and loads it with the magazine with cold bullets while taking two steps back and keeping the one monkey coming towards her in her sight. The smaller cut on her leg has stopped bleeding.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

Unfortunately, Panzerfausts are one-shot only; there's no way to reload it. Or at least it's not designed to be reloaded.

The monkey continues its onward march, the shield held high to protect its torso, upper legs, sword arm and head, though it peeks over the shield to keep its eyes upon its chosen target.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Yes, that's why she dropped it and got the assault rifle out. She's keeping her sights trained on the monkey as she racks the first cold round, waiting for the monkey to expose a joint or something.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

Unfortunately, the monkey has joints like those of a suit of platemail, protected by round lobstered titanium designed to strengthen the traditional weak point; it is not very effective because the joints still need to bend, but it should protect against most attacks.

The monkey's eyes gleam over the top of its shield.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Cass fires a couple cold rounds at the monkey's legs, intending to slow it down by making the metal stiff and brittle.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

The monkey's hit in the legs, and one of its feet is frozen to the floor. It lowers its shield to protect its legs as it tries to work its stuck foot free. Its eyes continue to gleam and stare at Cassidy, the monkey not taking its eyes off her for a moment.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Cass scowls and fires again at the monkey's eyes. She stands up off of her knee. "I have had enough of you things for the rest of my life," she grumbles.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

The bullet enters the titanium monkey's head via its eyesocket and freezes the cogs and inner workings there solid, plus damaging them via being a bullet that shattered and rebounded from the back of the monkey's titanium skull.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Cass points the gun down and steps toward the monkey, intending to stomp on it a few times, regardless of what that ends of doing to her foot.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

Titanium is hard. Unless Cassidy stamps on the sword blade, nothing happens to the monkey. If Cassidy does stamp on the sword blade, she may have a sword through her foot.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Cass doesn't stomp on the sword, she's just aiming to air out some aggression. After the stomping, she backs up and fires another few rounds on full-auto.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

The bullets hit the monkey, one bouncing off the shield without even leaving a dent, the other denting the monkey's torso. They also freeze where they touch, unless Cassidy swapped magazines.

[Lex-Kat]

{Melody's Island}

"Alright. Not upset about switching with Catoline during the mini-game are you?" Vincent asks as they head back towards the dock.

Surprisingly, no. I think... we came to an agreement during the last game. It was pretty cool. she smiles happily. Let's go find out what our next adventure is.

{Melody's Island- Barn -> Cottage}

He follows behind her a bit holding her hand. Glad that she didn't freak out about the dagger in his tent. He is very glad Melody was able to clear that up so quickly.

Jezebelle opens the cottage door with one hand, and holds the door open for him. She's also glad Meldoy was able to sort it out so quickly. She's also keeping it to herself how worried she'd been she'd fallen for another psycho. If you peel the potatoes, I'll get the stove ready, and fetch some eggs.

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Cass calms down a bit after she's done shooting. She steps back further and checks to make sure that monkey has stopped moving.