[Nexus] Inside 53

[Slii Arhem]

Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way

"Yes to both, Miss Kate. It's impossible and it hasn't been done yet, and once it is done, it may simply have only been possible under those very specific circumstances, and become impossible again shortly thereafter. As for you seemingly-little-girl-child-thing, Your interpretation bends causality over backwards and shoves it up its own arse. If what you said was true in every case or even most cases, simply interpreting an event poorly would make it have a different outcome. If observations and interpretations make up the quality of this place, then it is not the observations or interpretations of its denizens, in my opinion. Which would mean that there's a collective of somethings out there, determining how our current little vacation spot works based on their whims and indeterminable logic." He finishes with a dramatic flourish that kicks up a great spray of water around himself, possibly scattering a shower of droplets over Raven and Copi.

"And the worst part about that thought is, they clearly don't agree with each other on things."

[Rebonack]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

"Destroying the Nexus through force is impossible. Neglect would be its only end," Raven replies with some degree of certainty. "And feel free to call me Raven."

That said she regards Waldorf with a curious expression. Scrutinizing, perhaps? Maybe she's wondering just how much she should say. She doesn't respond much when she gets splashed.

"Causality is an illusion. A contrivance of convenience to drive the story forward as it is written. Though of course there are some who insist that the story is already written and decline to share with us the ending," Raven comments idly. "So we are here, writing ourselves into the story. Swaying it this way and that to decide who gets to keep the book once all is done. Making our own little inserts and avatars within the pages. But what of all the other characters along the way? The ones who live within the story as opposed to those from without? Do you hope and dream and aspire as we do? Or are you as we see, a hologram etched into a surface? Words on a page. An illusion. A simulation. An empty thing with only a facsimile of life."

Raven just sits there for a time, studying her two conversation partners. "Mother believes you're real. Or at least close enough to warrant consideration. And many consider her mad for that."

[Gullara]

[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.

[Abrajin's Library]

"How odd." Xavier says absentmindedly as he moves to take a peek in one of the magazines. "I think these are the books, not just normal magazines. This place is quite thorough with its themes." He tells Kirin.

[ThirdEmperor]

Fountain Way

Sebastian makes a passable attempt at a friendly smile as the minotaur lumbers over, although not without shifting back a little in his chair, giving up on his prior comfortable slouch to adopt something a little more suited to making a run for it.
Nobody else seemed especially worried, and they would be more qualified to know whether this thing is dangerous, but, it couldn't hurt to be careful.

"Ah, hello?" He pronounces it with a little more careful emphasis than he might, as if speaking to a foreigner, someone who might not necessarily know the language.

[Zefir]

[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.

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

Seh is less experienced in such things and doesn't really notice that men can see her action different. She blinks twice in confusion.

"But I don't want a drink. And I'm sure the kids are over there." She sais, pointing at the kids again since the life guard's attention is at the woman again.

[GrandDM]

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.)

Indeed it is. The rig is a full-body latex suit, packed with sensors and so on. Inside it is an Iron-Man-style display superimposed on a live feed from the helmet. There are various graphs, statistics and controls all available via voice commands. In the top-right, a small video box pops up with an image of Harald's face.

"Now you're hooked into the suit, you're good to go. Your movements will be picked up by the VR rig and the suit will copy. The rig will feedback to you sensations of touch and so on, allowing you to experience the suit as if you were using it like armour, not a robot. If you need anything, or if something goes wrong, you can call me up through my satellite network. The suit's hooked into it at all times, except in other dimensions and so on."

[Deathkeeper]

HLabs

Once Isaac finishes his G-Gundam suit up scene and gets his tutorial, he'll be headed out to explore Inside at his improved height.

[Morcleon]

[Atriol]

Mia just leaves it with the angry expression, returning to look less annoyed he follows Akira.

[Atriol]

As Mia and Yuki step through the portal, they are transported onto an idyllic island, with only a single house surrounded by grass and sand, surrounded by a miniature sea that ends in an all-encompassing waterfall.

"Welcome to my personal domain." Akira smiles at Mia. "Now, might you elaborate on your purpose for coming here?"

((Apparently I accidentally unsubscribed to this thread. Sorry about the delay... ))

[Lost_Deep]

Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way

Copi listens. Very interesting. The topic being talked about, also, but the mentions of this kind of beings are intriguing.

"You know, if I am not real here, I think I am okay with that. Because, in theory, there are an infinite number of alternate Nexuses... some closer than others, some perhaps a great many levels of separation away... and in some of them, reality works in such a way that I am real. And the idea that somewhere out there, I am real, even if I'm not real here... it's utterly unprovable, but in theory no matter how far you can disprove it there's always another level of separation, beyond which it might be true. And if somewhere, I am real, all the fake, fictional, or hallucinatory mes can live with it."

Abrajin's Library

"I'm not fond of magazines," Kirin muses, picking one up and leafing through it, "They always seem to be too busy trying to grab your attention to actually be useful to me. They're afraid that halfway through you'll decide to walk off, so they make everything pretty to convince you to stay."

[The Bushranger]

[Riftline Ruckus]

Lydia has little to no time to prepare before, preumably, everybody gets soaked in the goo that was in the tanks!

Eew.

She'll be busy trying to de-slime herself.

[Gullara]

Abrajin's Library

"I'm not fond of magazines," Kirin muses, picking one up and leafing through it, "They always seem to be too busy trying to grab your attention to actually be useful to me. They're afraid that halfway through you'll decide to walk off, so they make everything pretty to convince you to stay."

[Abrajin's Library]

"There are some that have some good substance to them, but I know what you mean." Xavier sets down the magazine he was looking at and searches out one that looks like what they're looking for.

After a bit, he says. "Ah ha! I found it I think." Xavier flips to the next page and his face goes red. "Um, yes, this looks just about right. I can preform it for you even." He holds out the magazine for Kirin to take. On it, Kirin will see detailed a spell that will reduce the size of the recipients breasts. If she flips the page like he did, she'll see what he was blushing about. Before and after pictures, and the women pictured are quite topless.

[Reinholdt]

Blue Zone Park

Reinholdt leads Civvy here. Nice place. Trees, benches, fountain, even a mini-playground with monkey bars and swingset. Ideal picnic spot.

[Mee]

Blue Zone Park

Reinholdt leads Civvy here. Nice place. Trees, benches, fountain, even a mini-playground with monkey bars and swingset. Ideal picnic spot.

Paaaark

"OH SNAP PLAYGROUND." Is the first thing Civvy notices.

Rein might be shocked at just how fast Civvy can sprint towards something she really wants. In this case, the playground.

Now deadtime.

[Reinholdt]

Paaaark

He would be if he hadn't gotten tackle smashed by her twice now. For now it just warrants a small smile.

Everything does sort of fall into place though. She wasn't born normally. Chances are she's actually just very young. It explains the behaviour and intelligence. Particularly since Tobias and Orianna seem... embarrassed about her and want to keep her inside. Almost out of sight. Whatever created her, that much wasn't fair.

I mean, not when there's playgrounds to play on.

[Lost_Deep]

Abrajin's Library

"Nice. Is it permanent? I don't know how to read spells, and I know that temporary reduction spells are sometimes used for pranks-" She turns the page, also, and then immediately turns back. A blush is hidden by her fur. "They could use swimsuits. Nice to know how strong it is, though."

[Gullara]

[Abrajin's Library]

"Yes, I think it should work perfectly for what you need." Xavier says, looking over her shoulder at the first page again. "See, all that we need to do is apply these regents to some wrappings. Then there's a spell using these words here, and another here. It looks like faux Latin. Tasteless, but it'll do the job. And then the wrappings are wrapped around your chest over night." He points out each part as he talks about it.

[Lost_Deep]

Abrajin's Library

"Okay. Sounds good... maybe not terribly comfortable, but if it works it works. A bit more complex than the point and cast that I was hoping for, but that might have been unrealistic."

She closes the book. "Okay... next step is, getting out of this place. Any ideas?"

[Gullara]

[Abrajin's Library]

"Right. Well, let's go back into the main magic area and find another exit from there. Best we not go back the way we can, of course." Xavier says. And if Kirin doesn't raise any objections, he'll lead the way!

[Lost_Deep]

Abrajin's Library

"Yeah. I'm hoping that there's more exits than the one we came in, because if not then we'll have to work our way around to rotting things or something." Kirin and her sensitive nose does not want to go to the rotting things room.

[Rebonack]

[Abrajin's Library]

They COULD try backtracking through the whole library to get out. That would almost without question lead to awful things finding them and very possibly eating them.

OR they could walk through that totally normal looking door marked 'Exit'.

There has been one in every room they have visited thus far. It probably leads back to the library's lobby. Or maybe it leads to an awful place filled with unspeakable dread.

Who knows!

But there's only one way to find out!

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

The lifeguard is studiously ignoring the fox girl at this point. He probably thinks that she's rude and annoying. Mostly because she's being rude and annoying. Might just be a cultural disconnect, though.

Meanwhile!

The minotaur casts a sidelong glance at the nervous human and replies with a deep, "Howdy."

His tone is a friendly drawl. Certainly doesn't sound mean at all. Just a casual greeting. The sort anyone might expect to get from someone sitting next to a pool.

"Nice weather we've been havin'."

Hahaha. Looks like Sebastian gets to shoot the breeze about the weather.

Though... a few moments later it gets rather cold all of a sudden. A hulking, twelve foot tall skeletal figure is stomping its way right through the middle of the fountain leaving a slick of black ice in its wake. A huge humanoid skeleton with the skull of an elephant atop its head with a cloying aura of chilling dread following in its footsteps. The children shrink away from the frightening creature as it walks past, though a few do their best to look tough and stand their ground. Others appear to be paralyzed with fear.

The Mastidoom has arrived to ruin the mood.

[Gullara]

[Abrajin's Library]

Well that's convenient. "Well, we'd better try the exit door." Xavier says. Hopefully it's actually an exit, and not a part of the library that's all about exits.

[Lost_Deep]

Abrajin's Library

"That's handy," Kirin comments and goes to open the door and step through.

[Rebonack]

[Abrajin's Library]

And thus our heroes walk right into a Sphere of Annihilation and are totally erased from existence.

They're back in the lobby!

Yay!

And the quest through the library wasn't nearly as traumatizing as it could have been!

That's always a plus.

Abrajin is still sitting in his corner and looking grumpy.

[Gullara]

[Abrajin's Library]

"Ah ha! And here we are. Let's go back to the keep then and we can do this right away." Xavier says with a bright smile for Kirin. Unless there's some other delay, he'll head out with her, giving Abrajin a nod on their way out.

[Mr. Moon]

Spoiler

Show

((Reposting so Jacklu can find it more easily.))

Outside Trog's

Zeke blanches slightly as his Radiant Bolts are practically knocked aside, but then he grits his teeth and scowls. This demon had been holding back? So be it He would show the unholy demon that a knight of the Order of Illumination feared no dragon.

As Ez'Bezel draws near, the translucent golden shield that once appeared before Zeke returns. The paladin darts back from Ez'Bezel's more physical shield, and raises his sword to block the other. The two blades clash as they meet, the blow ringing into Zeke's very bones. Grim-faced, Zeke blasts another holy bolt at the demon's face and swings one-handed at his sword-arm.

Red Zone

"Alright, ol' lady," scowled the mole-man, squinting at the little old lady down the scope of his trashy old handgun. "Just give us the cash, nice'n easy, an' no one needs ta get hurt ya see?"

"Huh-huh, yeah," gloated his accomplice, a young looking half-tiger holding a chain in both hands. "Ya see?"

The old lady, a decrepit elvish woman, quaked violently as she pressed up against the alley wall. "P-please, I n-need this money! My m-medicine...! They're for m-my wife!" She clutched her purse to her chest, looking around desperately.

"Hah! Ya got pills, ol' lady?" The mole-man grinned as he shoved his pistol at his victim. "Fork 'em over, too an' maybe ya can go home ta yer broad t'night!"

"Huh-huh, yeah," grinned the half-tiger, tilting his head so his fangs glimmered in the low light. "Yer broad. Yer whore."

The mole-man leered as he reached for the woman's purse, but out of nowhere!: a flash of terrible bright yellow, a resounding thud, a horrible wobbling.
"HOLD it right there, VILLAINS."

Standing between the thugs and their prey was suddenly a large, obese dwarf clad in bright yellow spandex. His beard hung from his chins in huge, thickly braided ropes, joining together to form a chain that held a large, circular black weight over his guts. He crosses flabby arms across his chest, glowering at the two evil-doers. "It is I, the MIGHTY BEARD! Bearing the HEAVY WEIGHT of JUSTICE, I go wherever there is CRIME to RIGHT WRONGS and TRIUMPH over EVIL! And that MEANS you!"

"What??"
"**** off!"
Fwip.

Wait. Fwip? That's a weird thing for a thug to say-
Oh.

A small hole had just appeared in the Mighty Beard's forehead. For a second, it is as black as the space between the stars. And then it blossoms into a brilliant rose of red. Blood trickles from his nose and lips, his face frozen in the triumphant glare that he had turned on the thugs. The dwarf's last breath escapes his lips in a ragged sigh. He falls first to his knees, then face forward onto his knees, dragged down by the weight he wears. His face crashes into the pavement, blood oozing from a clean exit wound on the back of his skull. Behind him, the elderly elf lady is covered in a fine mist of blood, bright crimson against her deathly pale skin. She lets out a low whimper, and faints.

"What???" repeats the half-tiger.
"****! **** this! I'm gettin' outta here!" the mole yells, sprinting down the alleyway.
"H-hey, wait!" stammers his accomplice, hesitating only a moment to follow after the mole-man.

For the next five minutes, the Mighty Beard's body lays alone on the dirty pavement. The blood stopped running quickly, simply laying pooled in the twin wounds. Then, footsteps on the pavement.

"Huh. Ain'tchew an ugly sunuvabitch."

Allen Parker squats down next to his kill, nudging him in the arm with the barrel of his rifle. The same rifle that fired the shot that killed him. "Well. No fixin' that now. Maybe ye'll be less ugly as jus' a head, huh?" The merc sets down his weapon away from the blood, and begins to rifle through the dwarf's pockets. Eventually he finds what he's looking for, and pulls a NO mercenary license from one of the folds of fat. "'Ope you don't mind too much," says Allen as he puts the license in an interior pocket of his coat. "S'all bis'niss." He pulls a knife from his belt sheath and begins to saw.

[Deathkeeper]

Red Zone

The distinct sound of a bone being sawed attracts the attention of a certain metal person, currently strolling about enjoying his new form. The figure now in the mouth of the alley is off-white, somewhere between Iron Man and a storm trooper. A metallic sigh escapes his face-plate.
"Do I even want to know why you're in the process of ripping a guy's head off? Because something tells me folks aren't supposed to be goin' around doing that." he makes a motion as if cracking his knuckles, although clearly his metal hands don't do that.

[Mr. Moon]

Red Zone

It's hard to read Allen's emotion when he looks up at the metal-clad vigilanty. A stained, black bandana covers his face from the bridge of his nose down, and a pair of thick black goggles obscure his eyes. A wide brimmed cowboy hat shades his view as the would-be cowboy returns to his grim work with increased speed.
"I don't want no trouble now. S'just bis'niss. Ya go on now, afore things get messy, yeah?"

[Mee]

Paaaark

He would be if he hadn't gotten tackle smashed by her twice now. For now it just warrants a small smile.

Everything does sort of fall into place though. She wasn't born normally. Chances are she's actually just very young. It explains the behaviour and intelligence. Particularly since Tobias and Orianna seem... embarrassed about her and want to keep her inside. Almost out of sight. Whatever created her, that much wasn't fair.

I mean, not when there's playgrounds to play on.

Park

And Rein is, in fact, very, very close to having it all put together. Pretty much all he's missing are the exact specifics.

And playing on the playgrounds commences, to the great glee of Civvy. Though at some point, she invites Rein to come play too. Because it's fuuuun~

[Reinholdt]

Park

"I dunno... I'm not really a... Playgrounder type person..." Reinholdt says, looking at the monkey bars warily.
But somebody needs to push the swing!

[Mee]

Park

"I dunno... I'm not really a... Playgrounder type person..." Reinholdt says, looking at the monkey bars warily.
But somebody needs to push the swing!

Park

"Oh.

Well. Could I get a push on the swings, then?" Civvy asks, currently hanging from the monkey bars Rein was eying warily.