[Nexus] Inside 53

[KerfuffleMach2]

Two Evils

Ivaz nods, then casually strolls over to the nearest shadow. Which she plunges her hand into.

Alright boys, she says as she pulls out a pair of serrated daggers from the shadow. Ready to play? She gives a toothy grin, then whips one of the daggers at a mugger's knee.

[The Bushranger]

[Two Evils]

"Oooh, another shadowmancer? Nice." Becky smirks, and summons one of her shadowstuff familiars, which looks like nothing so much as an oversized demonic candy corn as it lunges at the second mugger, roughly waist-height.

The first mugger, meanwhile, goes down on one knee with a cry of pain, but still tosses two knives at Ivaz!

[KerfuffleMach2]

Two Evils

As soon as she threw the dagger, Ivaz was on the move, allowing her to dodge the knives with ease.

Shadow Base, honey. Little different than what you do.

She'll move in close so she can grab the initial dagger, yank it out, and stab at his shoulder with the other dagger, all in one fluid motion.

[The Bushranger]

[Two Evils]

"Close enough."

Mugger #2 goes down predictably, screeching, as Becky leaps over towards him, spinning around, locking her legs around his neck, and rocking backwards to take out his neck.

Mugger #1 gets stabbed by Ivaz in the shoulder, but slashes with another dagger of his own at her legs, even as she hits an artery with predictable fountaining of blood.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Two Evils

As soon as her dagger lands, Ivaz pulls it towards her, which should cause the mugger to lean forward. She also leaps up, dodging his attack easy enough. She'll use his body as a pivot point to flip over him. As her legs come back down, she'll stomp onto his back.

[The Bushranger]

[Two Evils]

Pull, flip, stomp = crunch.
And thus ends the short but eventful life of Mugger #1, his back shattered by Ivaz, as he gives one final, pitiful stab at her lower calf before expiring!

Becky, meanwhile, disengages from the ex-Mugger #2, standing, stretching, and watching Ivaz with a combination of awe and lust.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Two Evils

Ivaz counters the stab attempt by aiming a kick at his hand.

Well...that was rather quick.

[Lord Magtok]

EMBOH Air-Vault

Spoiler

Show

[EMBOH Air-Vault]


Magtok twirls around to reveal-!
Nothing. No one seems to be jumping up to attack him this time.

Maybe that rocket drop has finally won the day?
Huzzah, for beating down the peculiarly inept security staff with a rather violent return project!


Lurking off to the side, a rather suspicious grin crawls on Libby's face.
Right before she chucks Mr. Sleeping Ice Beauty at the cyborg.
"Save me, valiant hero."

"Gah!"

Magtok staggers back under the tremendous weight of the unconscious super, briefly rattled by the fellow's seeming return to action before he realizes what's actually afoot. The cyborg shoves the sleepy sack of spandex to the ground, staggering slightly as he does so. Aaagh, Frosty is ****ing heavy!

"Blagh. You should've accidentally thrown this guy overboard before we got up this high. Now we're stuck with him, and here I am with a secret base that's way too busy being at war to use one of its many slow, convoluted, rotating death traps."

The safe continues to rise into the sky and away from Inside, but beyond that, it doesn't really seem to have a destination in mind.

"...I probably should've thought about safe storage before I went and did a thing like this."

Considering the consequences of your actions has never been one of your strong suits, Maggy.

[The Bushranger]

[Two Evils]

"Quick, and fun. I need to take lessons from you," Becky declares, grinning broadly as she dusts herself off.

[KerfuffleMach2]

Two Evils

Ivaz shrugs as she sticks the daggers back into the shadow.

Not much to it, really. I'm flexible. And I got a stash of weapons. That's about it.

[The Bushranger]

[Two Evils]

"I noticed." Becky chuckles, and stretches before stepping back over to the still-open portal. "So, anything else that needs killing before I take you to Riverside in a few short steps through shadowspace?"

[KerfuffleMach2]

Two Evils

Um... Ivaz finds something to climb up onto and looks around for a moment.

Nope. All alone here. Guess not.

[The Bushranger]

[Two Evils]

Becky chuckles, shaking her head, and takes the opportunity to look up at Ivaz.

"Well then, off we go," she declares, stepping through the portal once Ivaz steps back down!

[KerfuffleMach2]

Two Evils

Ivaz stays up there for a bit longer than needed. Almost like she knows that Becky's looking or something...

Eventually, though, she will climb back down and follow Becky through.

((And deadtime.))

[The Bushranger]

[Two Evils]

Well, Becky certainly won't be rushing Ivaz, that's for sure...

But eventually, through the portal they go!

[GrandDM]

HLabs

"It looks very slick. It'll be nice to have something like my old shape back, even if it does look a little like a stormtrooper." And with that the ant (who provided his name at some point as Isaac) thanks him again and signs off.
He'll come the next day about noon, wearing what looks suspiciously like the same bug-sized T-shirt as yesterday, to Harald's discreet entrance, knocking on the door. Pretty loud for someone his size, actually.

The door drops downward about a foot, then slides sideways into a pocket. Below it is the suit. It hovers up out of the long, white shaft and lands neatly next to the bug. The chest opens up to reveal the VR rig.

[Luka]

[The Mispelled Cemetary]

CLONK! would be the sound of various weapons and skeletens thwacking at the Crusader's shield. Thankfully they don't seem to have the presence of mind to realize that they could just attack somewhere other than the shield to cause him harm.

The crawling one gets dusted, though.

Until such a time as the Crusader decides to do something else the unded will continue their totally fruitless assault.

Ha!

Skeletens are dumb!

Such is how there ain't peace in unded, as they're unable to comprehend how their attacks are just blocked there, and they say ignorance is bliss ....Wait....

The crusader would attempt to break out of being surrounded by skeletons by jumping up and pouncing right into one of the skeletons with his shield on front, attempting to slam it and breaking out of the skeletons' blockade.

[ThirdEmperor]

Fountain Way

Sitting in a beach chair just outside the spray from the fountains is a slightly disheveled Sebastian, right arm encased in a clean new cast, which would be the reason that he's watching the fun instead of joining in. Still. It's nice just to relax in the sun without giant snakes or talking demon rabbits to worry about.

He could use less worrying. Sebastian has a general air of nervous unease about himself, even here, which perhaps accounts for why the chairs on either side of him have been left empty. It doesn't help that his clothes are dirt stained and more than a little frayed at the edges, although, he'd hasten to add, they were very nice clothes only a day before.

Before talking rabbit demons and giant snakes and arriving in a completely new world, sans almost any money or a place to live or a clue what he's going to do.

[Zefir]

"Oh sure. They don't know anything about us, do they?" The Moff ponders. "Well, if something happens we can always track them down and kill them and their families, I guess."

[Everysize Hotel]

Zefir got different clothes then usal also wearing a cap and missing his bag of endless boom. Quiet hard to identify him.

"So what now? I mean even if they now got the power. How can we direct them to go against the others? Do we annonce a tax increase from Remnant so people get mad at them?"

[Metropolis Square - Airship Port]

So, hmmm...

There certainly aren't any pirate ships around here. But there ARE several ships in typical Equestrian style that the crew would probably recognize. They aren't military, however. Look more like merchant ships.

The closest is a ship named Her Resplendent Dawn. The tower's elevators are pretty busy at the moment, as are several teams of pegasi carrying cargo to and from the ship. As a matter of fact it seems there are a fair number of pegasi around here doing dock work.

It makes sense, really. Being able to fly to and from the ground quickly with loads and ropes and so forth is a fairly useful skill to have around an airship port when most races are ground-bound. There are even a few griffins here!

While most of the people at the docks are still humanoids it seems that fliers of Equestrian origin are in higher demand here than elsewhere. Having someone on board an airship that can manipulate weather really doesn't hurt either.

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

The life guard very quickly pretends that he hadn't been ogling women and turns his attention back to the pool with laser-like focus.

Real smooth, guy.

Reaaaaal smooth.

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

"You are a strange guy. Maybe you should drop your job since other things are more intressting for you." Mika says in a friendly tone. She really doesn't mean it bad. She don't wants someone to get mad.

[Reinholdt]

[Everysize Hotel]

"We could dress up in official uniforms and everything! Demand people pay immediately." Not even sanity challenged people are going to believe you're Remnant Stu.

[Gullara]

Abrajin's Library

Gah... so many choices. But at Xavier's prompting Kirin looks up at the things... "With our luck, they probably eat magic or something. Which one of these do you think works the best? Or can you see one marked as 'flesh magic'?"

Kirin had better hope that they don't eat magic, because she's forgotten that she registers ever so slightly on magic detection...

[Abrajin's Library]

The fly-eyes continue to ignore our heroes.

Unless they decide to antagonize them somehow.

Which probably wouldn't be wise.

And alas there are no doors marked 'Flesh Magic'. Rebo has already listed the relevant signs!

[Abrajin's Library]

"Okay, let's see." Xavier says, returning his attention to scanning for the promising doors he spotted. "Let's give Cosmetic Magic a try. It seems promising for altering your appearance." He says.

[Lost_Deep]

Abrajin's Library

"Sounds about right, let's try it." Kirin will open the door, and step in.

[Deathkeeper]

The door drops downward about a foot, then slides sideways into a pocket. Below it is the suit. It hovers up out of the long, white shaft and lands neatly next to the bug. The chest opens up to reveal the VR rig.

HLabs

Aw, he'd been hoping he'd get to see some of the lab. Oh, well. He'll crawl over and into the cockpit, which hopefully is pretty self-explanatory. (I'm also assuming that the little remote mentioned earlier is packaged in there.)

[Rebonack]

[Riftline Ruckus]

"I'm not picking up anymore hostile contacts..." Geneva gives a bit of a frown. And then replies to the voice in her head. "You've been cutting in and out since we got here. Maybe it's because of the trip over? I really hope your artifact didn't get damaged somehow..."

She would really hate it if her friend got broken. Even though her friend is clearly just a simulacrum with no actual self awareness she's still nice to talk to. Geneva decides that she should go find that Sigil Stripe person as soon as possible so he can examine the artifact. But in the mean time? In the mean time she dumps the water out of her canteen and begins scooping some green scuzz into it.

Eeww....

"Inside the pipes, huh?" Sunder echoes as that 'ima be violent at something' smile crosses her face "Well then let's find out!"

And with that the brick red pegasus zips over to one of the pipes, scrutinizes it for a moment, and then lightly taps it with a hoof. For whatever inexplicable reason that should cause the whole thing to up and burst.

[The Mispelled Cemetary]

The Crusader shoves his was out of the skeletens and dusts one of the pick-axe wielders bringing him down to seven foes and zero horrific injuries to his person. The lower horrific injury score he can maintain the better, so keep up the good work!

Once their prey is no longer within reach the skeletens begin shambling after him. The Crusader could probably walk briskly to escape if he felt so inclined.

[Abrajin's Library]

Cosmetic Magic it is!

The room they just entered looks rather akin to the beauty parlor. Just... with lots of vaguely magical looking equipment rather than the usual technological sort. All the books in here are magazines rather than the hard or soft bound sort. All scattered about on racks and tables just like any magazine one might find in an actual beauty parlor.

There doesn't appear to be anyone else here this time.

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

The life guard glares at the fox girl before turning his eyes back to the swimming pool again, his face flushed with embarrassment. "Listen lady, if you want me to buy you a drink or something you'll have to wait until after my shift is over."

He thinks she's hitting on him! Probably not much of a surprise considering how she's acting.

Meanwhile!

The random NPC generator has decided not to be kind to the poor dimensional traveler and saw fit to spit out something weird at him. The weirdness in this particular case?

A cowboy.

In the very literal case.

A minotaur gunslinger sits down on the seat next to Sebastian, adjusts his hat to keep the sun out of his eyes, and opens up a news paper to read. The chair give a groan under the minotaur's weight.

[Slii Arhem]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

"It will endure," Raven replies to the question, her tone expressing at once certainty and vague disinterest. "Your topic seems rather too deep for the shallow end of the pool. Though I apologize for listening in. It is just so rare to hear flatlanders musing on the nature of existence outside of the occasional academic. I might perhaps offer my own insight? Though like your own it is quite limited by my own limitations."

She looks about sixteen years old in human terms. And she's very clearly trying way too hard to seem completely serious. Though... that comment about the shallow end of the pool was probably a joke.

Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way

"Feel free, every additional voice on the matter adds some depth. Everyone has their own view of the situation, and especially in the Nexus such views often vary greatly." Copi sits down as well, honestly interested in what this girl has to say and not caring about getting her little unspecific shoe things wet.

The 'flatlanders' comment was noted, and is partially what Copi is taking into consideration when talking about greatly varying views.

Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way

"Are you sure this end is shallow? Liquids are in a constant state of flux after all, and if we're measuring depth rather than volume we should take the heights of the fountain streams into account. Are you even sure we're both flatlanders? After all, my companion here was born, or close enough to being born, in a void unending and spent her formative time constructing a reality from her own questions, and I'm... actually much less impressive when compared to that, but I still only consider myself a vacationer in these "flat" lands. There's a lot to consider before branding something at a glance alone." He seems unsurprised at Raven's intelligence, or attempt at it, just tossing a few holes in her statements to see how far she's thought this through.

"But by all means, speak your mind on the topic. I was running out of things to say shortly before you began speaking."

[Rebonack]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

Raven points at a nearby sign which reads 'Shallow End'. The water here is about three feet deep. As opposed to twelve feet deep as one approaches the opposite side of the pool.

"My sister would say that over-analysis of a joke ruins the joke. But I suppose that, like most things, is a matter of opinion."

That's certainly one way to look at it.

"The clearest attribute of the Nexus is its property of allowing multiple divergent and even opposed cosmologies to operate simultaneously. All of your suggestions are as such equally true. It is... disorienting if one reaches out with one's senses too far as a result."

[Lost_Deep]

Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way

"Omniquantism: everything is true simultaneously, despite any perceived or actual contradictions. This is possible due to the nature of infinity; if anything is possible it means that everything is possible, including the things thought to be impossible, no matter in what way they are thought impossible."

"As thus, everything that we have pondered so far is true. We've figured out reality. Now what do we talk about?"

...She's being perfectly serious. I'm confused.

[Slii Arhem]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

Raven points at a nearby sign which reads 'Shallow End'. The water here is about three feet deep. As opposed to twelve feet deep as one approaches the opposite side of the pool.

"My sister would say that over-analysis of a joke ruins the joke. But I suppose that, like most things, is a matter of opinion."

That's certainly one way to look at it.

"The clearest attribute of the Nexus is its property of allowing multiple divergent and even opposed cosmologies to operate simultaneously. All of your suggestions are as such equally true. It is... disorienting if one reaches out with one's senses too far as a result."

Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way

"Omniquantism: everything is true simultaneously, despite any perceived or actual contradictions. This is possible due to the nature of infinity; if anything is possible it means that everything is possible, including the things thought to be impossible, no matter in what way they are thought impossible."

"As thus, everything that we have pondered so far is true. We've figured out reality. Now what do we talk about?"

...She's being perfectly serious. I'm confused.

Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way

"But we've only just scratched the surface! If everything is possible then it's also possible to have impossible things, so not only is everything possible, but everything is impossible as well. Likely, these impossibilities just resolve as contradictions that aren't normally present in a logical universal system, little holes in the way reality works that don't make sense. But it's entirely possible for something to be completely unable to be done in this hypothesized system, on a case by case basis. It's impossible to utterly destroy Inside, for one reason or another, until it isn't impossible anymore. Just as an example."

A finger is put to the side of a chin, idly rubbing at the stubbly hairs there, "I wonder how far you'd have to tilt the ground before this end became the deep one of the two?"

[Rebonack]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

"Mmm, no," Raven replies after a few moments of consideration. "All cosmologies are true in so far as someone or something here is living them out. Action and observation create reality. The pool here is filled with water because children are playing in water."

Raven gestures at the pool in question.

"It is not filled with grape soda. Or beer. Or all other possible fluids. The shared perceptions which we call reality are consistent here. However, the underlying principles that create these shared differ vastly depending on who you feel inclined to speak with. I would tell you that this reality is a hologram, an illusion. Another would tell you that it is quite real. And the nature of the Nexus demands that we are both right."

Because the Nexus is weird.

Raven nods about the comment regarding the destruction of Inside. "Mm. Yes. There are actions which the Nexus will not allow. It seems intent upon preserving itself. Though whether this is a knowing effort on its part or not I do not know."

That said she finishes eating her hot dog.

It was delicious.

[Lost_Deep]

Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way

"How can you tell that something is impossible before it is done? Is it really impossible, or has it simply not been done yet?" This is really just playing devil's advocate, to see where the other two will go next.