[Nexus] Riverside 11

[Gullara]

[Meeting Place]

The back room looks like a regular storage area. Piles of neatly stacked boxes are its most exciting feature. There are two other doors. One that goes outside the building and another with an unknown destination.

Also in the room is a young man. He has short blond hair, blue eyes, and is quite well dressed. He's also strikingly handsome.The man stands from his seat when he catches sight of Irena. He looks her over, starting from her feet and working his way up. "How can I help you?" He asks with a charming smile once he's reached her eyes.

[Malechenar]

"I'm not actually sure. There wasn't any way for me to tell, really." Valente says unhelpfully. "I guess she might have."

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

At some other night, Nadia steps into the bedroom after she knows Irena's already inside. "Hello there, beautiful." She leans against the door frame, wearing nothing more than some of her lingerie that she can still fit into properly.

[Shadowcaller]

[Meeting Place]

Yay, eye candy!

This was more like Irena had pictured it, like being in Baccano! The witch looks intrigued at the young man. "I need to hire someone that's good at taking care of business. I have two would-be assassins that I don't like to be around anymore. Do you know anyone who could take care of that problem for me?"

[Malechenar]

"Curious. Would you mind me taking a small blood sample from you? It would be for scientific purposes of course." Harold asks.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Irena is sitting in the bed eating a chunk of brie cheese with a Nintendo DS resting on her lap, sounding loudly. As Nadia enters she seem to swallow the chunk whole however, quickly putting the rest of the cheese away. The DS completely forgotten. "Oh, hello there."

((I'll post in the mindscape once I have eaten dinner, I haven't forgotten Lost!))

[Gullara]

[Meeting Place]

"Assassins, eh? Yeah, I could round up some of the boys and we'll do them up for you.We usually charge for protection, though." He smirks a little. "If you've got the dough, then we can talk."

[Malechenar]

"I guess you could." Valente replies hesitantly. It wouldn't really hurt.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Nadia giggles at her reaction and saunters over to the bed. "You like what you see?" Nadia smiles more broadly. It felt so good to see Irena react like that, no matter how bloated she felt.

[Shadowcaller]

[Meeting Place]

"I got plenty of dough, the question is how much you charge to make sure these guys don't trouble me again." Irena asks, letting him set the price.

Mindscape

"I doubt it'll listen honestly." The tiefling replies as she slowly starts to step closer to the darkness. "No, I'm going to try something else."

[Malechenar]

"Good, I like to you report to doctor Shanus as soon as possible. I'll have a guard escort you there." Harold replies with a gesture at the door.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Irena smiles, "As far I'm concerned, the pregnancy have only made you better-looking. Unless you count the belly." She gestures vaguely towards Nadia's swollen stomach. "Maybe there really is something divine about you now?" Though Nadia had always been a goddess in Irena's eyes.

[Lost_Deep]

Mindscape

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Mental Astrana asks. She wants to help the real Astrana as best as she can... it's the least she can do for the real version of herself.

[Gullara]

[Meeting Place]

"Ehhh, hard to say right now. How 'bout after we find out how much trouble it was to ice them, we'll talk price?" He says, his smile broadening.

[Malechenar]

Valente nods. "Yes sir." He stands, and if there's nothing else he'll go as instructed.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Nadia giggles and crawls into the bed next to Irena. "I'm glad you think so, because I feel huge." She jokes.

The lampades trails her fingers over the other woman's stomach and hooks her fingers around the waistband of her sweatpants. "I think I need to get you in something like this, because if you look so amazing in sweats, you'd drive me crazy in lingerie."

[Shadowcaller]

[Meeting Place]

"Sounds fair, oh and I'll pay you extra if you try to keep it quiet. I don't want my fiancee to know the exact details. Just make them disappear." She replies, trying to match his smile.

[Malechenar]

"You may leave now, it was good talking to you." Harold says with a gesture towards the door.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Irena giggles, leaning over to close the DS. "You did give me that kind of clothes, don't you remember?" She asks. "I'm just pretty bad at using them."

Mindscape

"I'm not sure what's going to happen in there, but I suppose you could try to pull me out if you tie a rope around my leg if something seem to be going wrong. But that's assuming I'm not teleported away when I enter it. Or something else completely different." Astrana replies.

[Lost_Deep]

Mindscape

"We can hope," Replies Mental Astrana as she tries to tie a rope around Astrana. Don't worry about where the rope came from. It's not important. "Give the rope pair of sharp tugs and I'll try to pull you out. Good luck."

[Gullara]

[Meeting Place]

The man looks a bit disappointed when she mentions a fiance. Ah well, just business then. "Discrete is my middle name. Don't you worry about a thing. Now, tell me more about this hit."

[Malechenar]

"Good day, sir." Valente nods and leaves without another word. He looks around for the guard that will escort him to the doctor.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

"Oh, I remember. And that, my love, is a terrible lie." Nadia smirks as she leans in to give Irena a brief, tender kiss. "How about you go put some on and I'll be the judge of how good you are at using them?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Meeting Place]

"Well there is a group of people, I think there is only two, but there could be more, that is hanging out in this inn called the flying horse. They are armed and dangerous, probably have some magic too." Irena explains, also slightly disappointed. But Nadia wouldn't want any threesomes, oh well.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

"Mmm... can't I just undress instead?" The witch suggests hopefully, putting on and off clothes required so much effort.

Mindscape

"Thank you, if I don't make it out of this... well I can probably adapt." Astrana replies with a smile before taking a deep breath before entering the darkness.

[Gullara]

[Meeting Place]

"I gotcha. Consider it done." The man says with a grin. "And one more thing, what's your name? And where can I find you when the contract's done?" They'll need to collect after all.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

"What did I buy those for if you're never going to wear them. Come on, I want to see my sexy fiancee all dressed up." Nadia tries to give Irena a little pinch on her rear to get her moving.

[Lost_Deep]

Mindscape

It goes so far

Deep down deep down further further further.

Eventually, Astrana will stop falling... because she can't go any further. Becuase she has reached the limit of Eadelain's mind. But the darkness goes on.

Nothing happens right away... except for that rope disappearing. Wherever Astrana is, her Mental doppelganger can't help her.

[Shadowcaller]

[Meeting Place]

"Um, it's best we met somewhere private. What about I'll give you my phone number and you call me once it's done so we can met somewhere? I'm Irena Rizzo." She introduces herself.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

"Ow!" Irena get's up from the bed. "Okay, okay. I'll get dressed." It was much harder to be sexy for Nadia then the other way around!

Soon she returns in the lingering however, "Wouldn't it be easier to just be naked?" She asks as she glances at herself in the bedroom mirror.

Mindscape

Okay... she guessed she didn't have much of a choice now, she had to go on. Too bad her she couldn't take her pact bounds into the mindscape or this wouldn't have been much of a problem.

Scanning the area she tries to see if she can discern anything at all in this blackness, amazingly calm despite the situation.

[Gullara]

[Meeting Place]

"That'll do just fine. You can call me Indro." He pulls out a cellphone in preparation for receiving the number. He's not worried that she'll try and back out on paying. He has enough info to track her down easy.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Nadia obviously appreciates the lingerie more than Irena does. Her eyes roam hungrily over the naiad's body. "I don't know exactly what it is. Leaves a bit to the imagination I guess." She says distractedly. "You are absolutely gorgeous."

[Shadowcaller]

[Meeting Place]

"Okay Indro, the number is [Irena's Phone number] and you can probably reach me any time unless you call in the middle of the night or something. I wouldn't like that. It's pretty important that you do it quickly though so I'm willing to pay more if this is done quickly." Irena replies.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Irena smiles as she lay down in the bed alongside Nadia, "I know." She states with a smug smile. "Though if I had to choose, I'd pick you over myself. I'm far too skinny." The witch laughs.

[Gullara]

[Meeting Place]

"Right then. Quickly. You and your fiance don't have to worry about those assassins from now on." He says with a smirk.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

"Of course you would say that." Nadia laughs along with her, and then leans closer to kiss her. "I'm very happy with my skinny fiancee." Her hand trails down Irena's leg and then grabs hold to pull it around her.

[Lost_Deep]

Mindscape

It's empty... no, it's not. There is something else in here... or some things? Does it have a will of it's own? Or is it an extension of some other will? Eadelain's? Something else?

It serves, it will serve thoughts and will. It must, it is that. It serves thoughts and will for that is what it is, what it does.

In the darkness, red dots appear. In sets of three, in triangles.

Wait for the thoughts. The thoughts will be served in time. Long time, it will come. Will it be too long? It cannot be too long, it must not be. When thoughts and will must be served, it is served, but it does not yet know wants. It must know wants to serve. Thread the needle.

The darkness tries to cling to Astrana, grab onto her, hang onto her. It tries to press on her... not to harm her, but it seems to want to hold her.

The needle must be threaded, from the bottom to the top. Thoughts must be served. It will be served. This way, from the bottom to the top.

The rope is around her waist, and a pinprick of light is above her. Astrana can escape; it's only two tugs away... and the darkness is still trying to grab her, to hang on to her.

Thread the needle. Pull the fish to the dock. To the thoughts.

[Shadowcaller]

[Meeting Place]

"Great, I like you already. You seem like the guy that get things done." She replies with a smile.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

"So am I." Irena replies once they kissed, starting to touch Nadia at not entirely appropriate places.

Mindscape

Going up in the light was tempting, this might be her only chance after all, but it also might be some kind of trick. She put that as an unlikely possibility though considering she already had headed into the eye of the storm here. Or so she thought.

There was still a lot of questions unanswered, taking a hold of the robe she suddenly calls out to the darkness. "What put you here?" She is planning to pull herself up the instance the... whatever it was, wasn't responding.

[Lost_Deep]

Mindscape

Need will. Need thought. Need it.

More red dots appear, in triangles of three. Eyes... they're eyes. Peering eyes.

No will, no thought, no direction. No purpose. Need it. Stepped to get it. Planted it. As long as there are none, it can make one. It did. This is the one for this age.

Claws will begin to grab at Astrana, trying to get a grip on her. Arms, legs, hair... Whatever they can grab. Shadows begin to ooze up the rope, slowly.

[Gullara]

[Meeting Place]

"You got that right. I'll call the boys up and we'll see about casing the joint soon." He says. "We'll be in touch." Indro nods to Irena and heads out the back door.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Nadia doesn't need any more encouragement than that. The curtain is promptly pulled closed.

"You know, I was planning on talking to you about something when I came in here." Nadia giggles and traces her finger along Irena's jaw.

[Shadowcaller]

Mindscape

Okay, time to retreat. Without a word Astrana attempts to pull herself up the rest of the way, into the light. Hoping it wasn't some kind of trap.

[Meeting Place]

"Alright, see you later." Irena replies as she realizes having a hat to tip would look pretty cool right now. She had to get a fedora right now.

Leaving the store (once again wishing she had a fedora to tip as she passes by the store keeper) she grabs her cellphone, time to see what Nadia had been up to.

Dum de dum, nothing interesting, though that guy was sitting in the coach was kinda hot.

Too bad she couldn't see what had transpired from her, she was kind of curious what Nadia and that guy had talked about. Oh well, Nadia looked a bit down but she knew just the way to cheer her up.

[Suncrest Manor]

Assuming the Tenebras people don't stop her or anything, the witch enters the manor dressed in a fedora that could have been taken directly from a mafia movie. She is also carrying a huge bouquet of black roses, which assuming Nadia comes to the door once she hears it opens, hands over to her fiancee with a elegant bow. "For my lovely lady." She says with a tip of her fedora (finally she could do that!)

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

"You kinda picked the wrong clothes if you wanted to talk." Irena replies with a grin. "But shoot, tell me."

[Gullara]

[Suncrest Manor]

Nadia goes to meet Irena when she gets home, and stops dead in her tracks when she sees the roses. She accepts the flowers and breathes in their scent. "They're beautiful." She says with a stunned little smile.

"For my dashing fiancee." Nadia takes Irena's chin in her hand and pulls her forward for a small kiss. "I like the hat."

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Nadia looks away sheepishly. "Well probably not." She laughs a little. "Okay, well, you remember way back when we summoned Hecate and she suggested that familiar thing? I was thinking that maybe we could do it." She waits to see what Irena thinks of that first.

[Lost_Deep]

Mindscape

The hands, clutching at her, hanging onto her... She gets close enough to the top that she can see the Mental Astrana, and the Mental Astrana can see her. Mental Astrana begins to pull, too... up, out of the darkness and into the bulk of the mind...

...pulling some of the darkness with her.

It quickly spews out, and spreads throughout the mind. Suddenly, everywhere in the mental manor the floor are covered in about half an inch of unnatural shadows.

Mental Astrana is surprised by this. "What happened?"

[Lex-Kat]

[Quest to find Secret Slave Society]

As Bianca is sitting there, the door suddenly opens, revealing a woman in a gigantic purple top hat. Her skin is grey with black combed hair which hangs just past her shoulders. She looks kind of dead frankly, even if you look past the grey skin there are visible stitches across her arms which are a different color then the rest of her body.The green turtleneck she's wearing might even cover up more such stitches. "Hello! Come on in!" She exclaims with a wide smile.

Bianca doesn't jump at the suddeness of the door opening. She does one last stitch, cuts and ties the string, then tosses the cowboy hat atop her head.

Hel... she starts as she stands and turns to face girl in the doorway. lo? she asks. Then recovers quickly, holding her hand out to shake. Name's Bianca. Looove the hat. she says with a warm enough smile.

[Shadowcaller]

[Suncrest Manor]

"They are the same color as your beautiful eyes." Irena replies with a smile once Nadia comments about the flowers. "Yeah, I know right? I should have bought one of these long time ago. It's really cool." Irena says before kissing the lampade again, a bit longer this time. Not having a thought about if the others in the house could be watching.

"So have anything happened while I was gone?" The witch finally asks.

Mindscape

Astrana groans as she looks around, so it had been a trap in a way. Clever. Hopefully the information she had required was worth this.
Turning to the mental Astrana she frowns, "Not much, I just tried to talk with it, and then it attempted to drag me in. Then this happened. Do you feel any change at all?" She slowly attempts to get up on the floor, using her tail to help her push herself up.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Irena blinks, "But I thought we agreed that was a bad idea? Sharing emotions and all that. Seem kinda risky to deal with greek gods too, they always end up turning you into a spider or some ****." She gestures at Nadia.

[Quest to find Secret Slave Society]

"It's made of the hide of an purple dream elephant!" The woman exclaims with an excited expression, holding her hands together, looking ready to jump up and down in enthusiasm.

She then absentmindedly takes Bianca's hand and attempts to pull her inside, "But that's just one of many of my creations!" If Bianca is pulled inside she will see that the manor is very well lit with lamps everywhere standing on every available furniture all wearing hat-shaped shades. There are portraits hanging on the wall with people looking similar to the woman (except for the grey colored skin and the stitches) all dressed up in strange hats. In contrast to her however, they all look very serious, staring down from their portraits at Bianca (but not literary).

[Gullara]

[Suncrest Manor]

There doesn't seem to be anyone else around at the moment. They're probably more around the building and in the general area than in it.

Nadia hesitates a second before she replies. "Nothing exciting. I just sat around and watched TV." She lies. She doesn't want Irena to worry about Macario being a jerk.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

"I didn't mean we had to get Hecate involved. I got the impression you could do that yourself." Nadia is quick to shoot down one argument. "And sharing emotion was kind of the reason I wanted to do it. We wouldn't be constantly feeling each others' emotions all the time, right? And just think how romantic it would be if we were so linked together."

[Lost_Deep]

Mindscape

Mental Astrana looks around "I don't... but this is still notable. It will probably have some effect."

Astrana's Room

In real life, while this is happening in her mind, Eadelain changes slightly. The notable veins on her hands, arms, and legs turn inky black. Like they were before... but they aren't fading at all.

[Gullara]

[Astrana's Room]

Cynthia notices the change and hops off her seat to go look at Eadelain. That's pretty weird. She tries to lightly trace her finger over one of the veins on her arm.

[Shadowcaller]

[Suncrest Manor]

"You sure? You looked rouble on the surveillance cameras... not that I'm spying or anything." <.<

Mindscape

"That's for certain, I probably just speed up whatever process that was going on." The tiefling replies as she look around. "While this is what we wanted to avoid, at least I have some more clues to what it is and if Eadelain now is greater influenced by it, perhaps we can even gather more clues from her based on these changes."

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

"Romantic? I dunno... what if I'm taking a **** or I'm [censored]? Pretty sure you don't want my feelings on that." Ew.

[Gullara]

[Suncrest Manor]

Nadia frowns a little and shakes her head. "It's nothing really. Macario was just being an ass. I dealt with it." Or rather, ran away from it.

[Yet Another Instance of Suncrest Manor]

Nadia just laughs at that. She's not taking that all that seriously. "Don't mind knowing about every aspect of your life, though that second one might be distracting." She jokes. "But seriously, is it really a constant connection like that, or can it be turned off or suppressed? I do understand that sometimes privacy even from each other is important."