[Nexus] Outside XXXII

[Lex-Kat]

{Melody's Island- Barn}

Derek nods to Jezebelle and heads to the barn where he paces back and forth.

It takes a while, but eventually both Jezebelle and Melody step inside. Melody's nightgown is covered in blood.

Jezebelle jogs to Derek, to hug him. Melody stands back, looking tired. Jezebelle said you had something important to tell me. She finds a haystack, moves one of the towels to sit on, and sits down.

[Shadowcaller]

[Ancient Temple]

The witch grits her teeth, "I knew they were sick, but that? ****ing monsters." She replies before accepting the scroll. Her expression doesn't soften as she read it though. "So that's what he want to use my ritual for? Make you pregnant you with some god-baby? Yuck!" She looks rather disgusted at this fact.

[Gullara]

[Ancient Temple]

Nadia clearly isn't outraged like Irena is, despite the fact that she was the target of this plan. But she sure doesn't look pleased either. "What I don't understand is him trying to kidnap me to do it. He says he wants to be reasonable, but something tells me there's more to this than what he wrote here."

[Shadowcaller]

[Ancient Temple]

"Whatever it is, it's sick." Irena replies with a frown. "It feels like I need to thank Dio again after this, if he had done this to you... I'm not sure what I would do." She isn't really sure how to handle a divine child, but the witch know exactly what she would have done if she had been in Nadia's situation.

[Gullara]

[Ancient Temple]

"Yeah." Is all the response Irena gets for the moment. Nadia definitely doesn't disagree that it's twisted. Thankfully she never was kidnapped.

The lampades puts the box back on the headstone, but tries to take the letter back from Irena and put it in her bag. She's not going to leave behind an important piece of information. "Alright, we better keep looking around then."

[Shadowcaller]

[Ancient Temple]

Irena have no issue whatsoever with Nadia taking the note, she sure didn't want it. "Actually, that letter gave me an better idea. The creepy guy mentioned that she was 'doomed to wander this place forever' or something like that right? So I was thinking, what if we used that summoning circle and conjured up her ghost? She'd would have been able to see everything that have been going on here so she might be able to tell us where the creepy guy was heading."

[Gullara]

[Ancient Temple]

"You can do that?" Nadia isn't sure what she thinks of it, really, but it would sure be a better lead than wandering around and hoping they find something. "Alright, let's do it."

[Shadowcaller]

[Ancient Temple]

"To do it we must perform an séance, you know what that is right? Like on TV when you sit around a table and hold hands. It's really simple, you just need the correct ritual for it." Irena asks as she quickly is heading away from the graveyard, back to the temple. Nadia have probably noticed the ground is pretty wet from the storm last night.

[Gullara]

[Ancient Temple]

"Really? Alright then." Just like on TV. Odd how that works. The lampades follows along. She seems to be impatient to do this, in fact. She wants to hear what happened to this woman badly.

[Shadowcaller]

[Ancient Temple]

"Yeah... but when I think about it, might be better to do it in her room instead. We'll probably have better chances of making contact with her there." Irena informs Nadia before she leads her back to the room where they just spent the night.

She sits down at the table and makes some room while taking up a marker-pen from her pocket and starts making a circle and strange signs on he table. "You can sit down, it'll take a while to get this right." The witch informs Nadia while she works.

[Gullara]

[Ancient Temple]

Nadia sits at the edge of the bed and watches Irena work. "Are we just going to be able to talk to her normally? And will she be able to answer our questions fine?" Nadia asks curiously.

[McBish]

{Melody's Island- Barn}

Derek hugs Jezebelle back and then turns to Melody and nods.

"Yes, I heard the scream this morning and I think that this probably has something to do with it."

He unwraps the bloody knife to show to her.

"I found it in my tent when I woke up this morning. I wanted to tell you right away."

[Shadowcaller]

[Ancient Temple]

"Uh, maybe. Ghosts are kinda unpredictable when it comes to communication. Sometimes they talk to you directly, sometimes they write on the table, sometimes they use more subtle signs to make their presence known." Irena explains absentmindedly as she writes down the last rune. "We´ll see I guess." The witch says with a shrug. "Anyhow, now you need to take my hand while we call her spirit."

[Gullara]

[Ancient Temple]

"Okay." Nadia stands and moves over to Irena's side. She slips her hand in hers and looks at her expectantly.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

All of the bodies are female, and they died recently. The oldest appears to be twenty; the youngest, sixteen. Although that's in human terms; there's two elves, a half-elf, an aasimar and a tiefling as well. Another thing all the bodies have in common are a tattoo on their inner forearm depicting a pointed hat above a four-pointed star; this is quite obvious because whilst the tiefling, the youngest in appearance, is wearing a short, sheer night dress revealing lots of her red skin, most are clad in substantially less material.

[Shadowcaller]

[Ancient Temple]

"Alright, repeat after me..." Irena states as she starts to chant something in a language the lampade most likely don´t understand while she takes her hand, sitting on opposite sides of the small table.

The chanting takes a while without nothing happening. But as Nadia randomly blinks, something have obviously happened in the room. Irena is staring at her concernedly and the smell of smoke can be felt in the air. As the lampade looks down at the table, she will notice that her hand is on fire (something that doesn't actually hurt her) and that she have cut open her own arm open (which appears to be the source of the fire).

With this she have burned something into the table.

They took my boy from me.
Put him in the bottom of the well
Return him to me, let him do what I never got to do in life.
Hold him in my arms.
Then I shall tell you.

"Nadia..." Irena says softly, "Are you back?"

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Cyan Beach]

"I'm not sure myself but from what I have learned from staying in this world a while is that there are countless of worlds connected to this one. So it isn't too far-fetched to imagine there could be very similar worlds with the same people inside them." The dragon explains slowly, not really sure what to believe himself. He wasn't sure what other way to explain this however unless Damon or he had their memories altered by demons or something.

"Sso there'ss a world where thingss didn't go horribly wrong for me? Well issn't that jusst wonderful to know." Rather demoralizing, really.

"I ssupposse I sshould apologisse then, sshouldn't I? If what you ssay iss true, I mean. It doessn't sseem like you, the you I know, to come out and taunt me, I guesss. The Vizek I knew would never have dared sshow hiss face around me, after being too cowardly to do anything."

[Rebonack]

[Freddie the Explorer?]

Varied and unusual.

That would be the Nexus in a nutshell. Walk a few miles and witness multiple worlds, each more amazing than the last. Provided one is willing to brave the oddness it can be quite the experience.

So what's Fredrick doing out here?

Just... wandering.

And his current location?

Well...

It has lots of mushrooms, apparently. Mushrooms the size of trees. Enormous fungi stretching off into the sky and engorged with symbiotic blue-green algae. Thick mycilium creep across the forest floor shrouded in a perpetual dusk, the stocks of the mushrooms glowing with a dull blue light. Spores like over-sized dandelion puffs drift in the air, shedding a bright green glow and giving the impression of a dream-land populated by innumerable pixie folk.

Maybe there ARE pixie folk down here somewhere. Who knows!

Freddie pauses by a small stream, reclining against a smooth granite boulder as he enjoys the scenery.

"I should probably do this more often."

[Devixer]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

All of the bodies are female, and they died recently. The oldest appears to be twenty; the youngest, sixteen. Although that's in human terms; there's two elves, a half-elf, an aasimar and a tiefling as well. Another thing all the bodies have in common are a tattoo on their inner forearm depicting a pointed hat above a four-pointed star; this is quite obvious because whilst the tiefling, the youngest in appearance, is wearing a short, sheer night dress revealing lots of her red skin, most are clad in substantially less material.

One of Cassidy's fists clenches as she sees this particular sight. If she was looking at the bodies of joygirls like she thought, than she really hated this Brian guy. She uses her astral sight again to determine if there's any magic on them.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

The tattoos were placed via magic, and they cannot be removed. Closer examination shows some have scars from being whipped, and two have chaffed wrists. The tiefling and the aasimar both glow slightly; they're inherently magical, descended from the union of mortals and extraplanar beings. The half-elf's earring also glows with magic; a minor protective charm designed to soften blunt trauma; completely incapable of dealing with the eight wounds inflicted upon her young body by something bladed.

[Rebonack]

[A Field of Wheat]

In a flicker of light, the divine princess Luna materializes just above the stalks of crop.
With a gentle beat of her wings, she settles down into them and takes a little breath.
Remember the plan.

[Field of Wheat]

Time is a fiddly thing.

One must move and exist in a particular fashion in order to experience it properly. If one moves in a fashion that is wrong then all sorts of crazy things can result. Such as arriving at a destination before one departs.

All very odd.

But in this particular case? The Far Chimera arrived well after the pretty pony princess did. Or... at least it would appear as though the perfectly normal human female arrived later.

"I think we probably got off to a poor start," Zee says, having become a fair bit less loud and alien and generally creepy. "So I'll introduce myself again. Hello! I'm Zee. I hope you enjoyed the cupcakes Pinkie Pie and I made for you. Would you mind helping me make sure my home isn't devoured by an eldritch terrorhorror that wriggled out of your reality? Because that would be great."

[Devixer]

[Sznovf - Wizard's Tower]

Once Cassidy sees how the tattoos were placed, everything makes sense to her, and she wishes she had been the one to geek Brian. She leaves the bedroom, not taking the earring or anything else.

[Earl of Purple]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

There's the library, the bathroom, the small bedroom and the two larger bedrooms still to explore. Which does Cassidy choose to examine next? The bathroom and larger bedrooms are the least magical; the other two are dense concentrations of magical energy from protective wards, enchanted artefacts and the residue of cast spells.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Field of Wheat]

Princess Luna purses her lips faintly, but opens her eyes from meditation as Zee appears.
She had been examining the framework of this land, trying to inspect how tainted and distorted it was compared to what she knew.

Results are not promising.
"Eldritch terrorhorror, how cute."
Her tone seems to suggest that Zee is finding this a game, a fact which doesn't remotely please Luna.

"My reasons to help you number in the vicinity of zero."
The pony does not like Zee.
She is not pretending to hide it.

[Rebonack]

[A Wheat Field]

Pretty much anywhere would seem tainted and corrupt when contrasted with Equestria. Except possibly Mount Celestia or some other heaven-like locations.

"Common nomenclature," Zee counters. "And maybe you would be willing to help me because it's the right thing to do?"

True enough.

"I love this place. And I love the people in it. Despite all their shortcomings and failures. And so I protect it as much as I can. There are... rules regarding what I can and can't do. How I can and can't intervene. Mostly I have to operate through proxy, point others in the right direction. But this Star?"

Oooh. There's the term.

"It doesn't follow our rules. Which gives me a little more leeway to operate. It hasn't broken the rules enough for me to step in personally. Yet. But by that time people would be dying. Or worse. And I would rather avoid that outcome if at all possible."

Zee takes a deeeep breath.

"Your friend, the purple unicorn? The infection has run deep in her already. And a few of my children are doing their best to purge it from her without causing any damage. If you know of ANY way to cleanse her safely I'm listening."

[Chaotic Bob]

[A Wheat Field]

The right thing to do.
Logic is telling her that the right thing to do is remove Zee from existence.

Despite, or perhaps even due to, her love of this land, she seems to be another horror-that-does-not-belong.
Influences from any such being tend to have undesirable consequences at some point. Even if they do act frivolous and happy.

She is not Luna's primary enemy here, at least...there is that. Zee also does not appear fond of the Star, so perhaps "enemy of my enemy" could be invoked.
But...the princess is not yet sure of the farmaid's position in this land. Perhaps this is a tactic to take more unwanted power, by pretending to be helpful to an outsider? An attempt to steal the power of the Star?

Not enough information.
Celestia always stressed the importance of information.
Of course, she also stressed diplomacy, and Luna was never particularly fond of that.
"I have no basis on which to trust you, on only your perceived merits."

And what was that about her children trying to purge the taint?

The princess' attention narrows further, and she stands.
"They mustn't agitate Twilight! It...makes the influence worse. Your children must stop at once!"
Unfortunately, this is a fact that Luna is very intimately familiar with.

[Gullara]

[Ancient Temple]

"Alright, repeat after me..." Irena states as she starts to chant something in a language the lampade most likely don´t understand while she takes her hand, sitting on opposite sides of the small table.

The chanting takes a while without nothing happening. But as Nadia randomly blinks, something have obviously happened in the room. Irena is staring at her concernedly and the smell of smoke can be felt in the air. As the lampade looks down at the table, she will notice that her hand is on fire (something that doesn't actually hurt her) and that she have cut open her own arm open (which appears to be the source of the fire).

With this she have burned something into the table.

They took my boy from me.
Put him in the bottom of the well
Return him to me, let him do what I never got to do in life.
Hold him in my arms.
Then I shall tell you.

"Nadia..." Irena says softly, "Are you back?"

[Ancient Temple]

Nadia looks at Irena with confusion. "Back?" Then she looks down at the table, and gasps. "B- bleeding? I'm on fire!" It doesn't hurt, though, and that stops her from freaking out too much. She experimentally touches the flames. They don't burn her at all... Well then, the lampades presses her hand to the wound. The fire may not burn her, but the cut still hurts.

The message will no doubt be acknowledged after the wound is dealt with.

[Rebonack]

[A Field of Wheat]

Removing one of K'rax' puppets from existence would be a good way to get the being's attention. But other than that...

Zee flops over backwards in the grass so as to better peer up at the sky. "A token of trust, then."

A scroll bound in a pretty seal plops down in the absurdly tall grass. A scroll written on both front and back. Then? Comments about agitation. "They've already managed to purge the other unicorn. Just didn't have enough time to finish the process with... Twilight was it? The scroll contains two spells. One a warding. The other destructive. They impose Reality upon beings and forces not native to the material world. It's how they removed the Star's taint."

The farmaid sits up again to peer at the alicorn. "Agitate her and risk making the influence worse with the eventuality of purging the taint. Or leave her be and allow it to fester. I can't allow the Star to gain foothold in the Nexus through her or anyone else. I need another option if you have it."

[Devixer]

Sznovf- Wizard's Tower

There's the library, the bathroom, the small bedroom and the two larger bedrooms still to explore. Which does Cassidy choose to examine next? The bathroom and larger bedrooms are the least magical; the other two are dense concentrations of magical energy from protective wards, enchanted artefacts and the residue of cast spells.

Cass goes to the library next, hoping to find some documents or something on this machine she's looking for.

[Earl of Purple]

Wizard's Tower

There's several shelves and a display cabinet. A quick search of the shelves shows books on illusion, magical artifice, enchantment, hypnotism, necromancy, and a rather mysterious-seeming tome without title or author; it's bound in leather taken from the hide of an elf, and its cover is adorned with a skull tattoo. There's no books on how to come back from death, though several shelves have gaps suggesting a book has been removed from it.

The display cabinet has a collection of magical trinkets.