[Nexus] Inside 53

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Philip Memorial Library]

"So you have," the Librarian replies simply as he holds out a hand waiting for the book to be handed over.

Though not before taking off his dirty gardening gloves.

"As per our agreement you will be allowed access to the rare book room. All materials from the rare book room must remain inside at all times. The room locks itself, so when you are finished with your studies I will let you out."

Wow.

That's some pretty high security for a room full of books.

Eeeeeevil books.

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

The minotaur regards Sebastian for a few moments and is about to open his mouth to respond when suddenly-!

"Daddy daddy daddy!" comes a high-pitch bleating voice of a minotaur calf wearing water wings and an inner-tube with a silly smiling duck face on it. She begins pulling on the gun slinger's tail. "Come swim with me!"

"Sorry sunshine, Daddy ain't swimmin' today."

"Aaaww..." the calf replies, giving her best pouting face.

"Go on and get. You have fun."

[Lycan 01]

[Riftline]

Dawn scowls, and gives another shake of her head. "Right. So, voodoo priest. Wonder if there'll be an expert in stuff like this at... wherever it is we're going next," the pegasus mutters, before looking over at her companions. "Where would that be?"

[Earl of Purple]

Arkham Street- Philip Memorial Library

"Thank you." The old man is not surprised at the security measures; he's got some familiarity with enchanted tomes of evil lore. He wrote one himself, sort of. He took a hedgehog, altered it with his magic so it was immortal, book-shaped and capable of defending itself and then wrote a list of Sorcerous material inside.

[Rebonack]

[Riftline]

And now that the train no longer has a space ship lodged inside it can safely stop at one of the stations here at the Skyway's Spaceport!

Slothman disembarks.

Slowly.

Bye Slothman!

Shortly there after a medical team collects the people who had been mind-blasted and carts them off for inspection and treatment. Gotta make sure that their heads weren't filled with brain worms or something after all.

Once the official business is done various sci-fi races begin boarding the train, giving it a vastly different feel from the 'boring guy in business suit' vibe it had when filled with passengers from Metropolis Square.

"Well, me and Bob are headed to the dee oh dee stop over on Market Street. That's where we're meetin' our friends at," Sunder says as she slips back into a chair. "You could probably find someone like that around there. Or you could stop at Carousel Court. There's this freaky zebra shaman guy who lives on the edge of Everfree Park."

Not inside it of course.

He isn't suicidal.

Geneva for her part sits down in one of the seats and begins staring off blankly out a window. That weird alien memory just won't leave her alone...

[Arkham Street - Philip Memorial Library]

The weird old guy will be lead inside and let into the rare book room! Finding the Necronomicon isn't that hard. It's on a reading podium right in the middle of the room. And despite being unable to see anything else the contents of the foul tome will appear as deeper blackness within blackless despite the man's blindness.

Creepy.

[The Bushranger]

[Riftline]

Lydia also falls quiet, watching the boarding passengers. They happen to include two Minbari in nicely fitted three-piece suits and fedoras who are carrying violin cases! Clearly they're heading off to pratice for a concert! Sitting across them is a male Twi'lek in a leisure suit, while a few seats over a Kalish is staring out the window at the passing aircars with an annoyed look.

[Earl of Purple]

Arkham Street- Philip Memorial Library

That is creepy. But it doesn't stop the old sorcerer from opening it with his good hand, before he reaches down and tugs hard on his walking-stick. With a pop, it comes loose and he sets it aside, three of his fingers still embedded in the top. But that gives him one finger and his thumb to help turn the pages and read, especially as he's hoping it's Braille.

[Zefir]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

Well, let's see...

Most of the pool's occupants are children of various species and flavors. Though those three bronze dragon wyrmlings splashing about and pouncing on each other stand out pretty well. Two humans and a young elf are tossing a large beach ball back and forth between themselves.

And of course there are all the adults sunning themselves around the edge of the pool. And even more children romping about at the fountain proper. The earth pony from earlier has let the kids who were riding on him down, watching them with a silly grin on his face while they giggle and chase each other between the jets of water.

AAAND one can't forget the ice cream, hot dog, and snow cone carts! Everyone loves a nice summer time treat!

[Black Goat Woods - Dunwich Crypt]

Into the crypt he goes.

Thankfully this place seems to be just your average crypt rather than the entrance to a sprawling dungeon. Entrances to sprawling dungeons are generally best to avoid when you're by yourself. Though to be fair the Red Zones in general are best to avoid when you're by yourself.

The walls are lined with coffins inside little cells in the wall. Opposite the door is a cobweb infested book shelf protected by a locked iron gate crumbling with corrosion. No doubt the codex is in there.

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

Mika will head over to the earth pony or what it is in her eyes. Not that she knows much about them, but at least the books didn't told her they are hostile like the skeleton thing from befor.

"Are you there babysitter?" Mika asks, wondering about the pony's relationship to the kids.

[Atriol]

((Yuki did mention that there was a very small amount of nanotech in Atriol))

Akira leans forward a touch, a curious look on his face. "...a god of machines, hm? Is his power limited to his own part of the multiverse?"

"And since you're one of his followers, I suppose you can speak to machines as well?"

[Atriol]

Mia laugths a bit. The question about his limits make her giggle in the #If you would know' way.

"He got no limits, even thought he doesn't show them everywhere."

"That's true. I can hear the voices of the machines if I listen." At that time Mdm leans a bit forward, obviously speaking .

"Don't worry," Mia says to the robot "I would never stop listening to you."

MDM seems to be pleased with that answer and returns to his position.

[Gullara]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

Valente chuckles a little, but doesn't comment just yet. They have ice cream to get! "I'll have triple fudge brownie. Two scoops please." Valente says, opting for something more interesting than Astrana's choice. Mr. Frosty's weirdness gets no comment, because that would be rude.

Taking a Stroll

Neme Hat Reinholdt is walking along with Arel! Or I should say is pushing Arel along at a leisurely pace, taking their time and just enjoying the sights.

[Taking a Stroll]

Arel smiles a bit to herself as they go along. She's quiet for a bit. it's nice to just spend time with Rein.

...She's quiet for a bit longer. Possibly because her player is drawing a blank for topics to talk about. .-.

[Lycan 01]

[Riftline]

Dawn looks at Geneva and shrugs. "What do you think? Should we tag along with Miss Sunder and Mister Bob? Or would you like to go see what a proper pony civilization is supposed to look like? Or we could try looping back around on the next train through here, back to our original destination."

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Philip Memorial Library]

Braille?

Nope.

None of that nonsense.

No, he can plainly see what's inside the book despite being blind. He could close his eyes and hold his arms over his face and he would still see the contents of the vile tome's pages burned into his mind.

And you know what that means?

Time for adventures in literature!

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

"Shoopity whoopity doop there's your scoop!"

Wah...?

Mister Frosty just waved his hands around and suddenly he was holding their ice cream cones! That might have been magic. Or Toon Physics. Or possibly just really good slight of hand. Regardless they've got ice cream now.

"That'll be-" a totally reasonable sum for two ice cream cones.

Meanwhile!

The green earth pony with a light tan mane glances over at the fox-girl. His mark isn't visible on account of wearing pony-tailored pants and a shirt. "Huh? Oh! No. They're my wife's from her previous marriage. Still adorable though, I love them like they were my own."

Well.

That's probably not the weirdest relationship in the Nexus.

"Do you have any foal-eerr, children?"

[Riftline]

And one would be remiss not to mention the two old series cylons. Or the wookie who is not being escorted by a scruffy looking smuggler.

Anywho!

As Geneva stares off into space her mind begins probing at the alien memory again. She finds that it's almost comically simple to recall it with crystal clarity now that she's focusing on it again. It's all just so exotic and beautiful! Incredibly complex, but not without order and structure to it. Some kind of n-dimensional fractal? Now she just needs to find the best way to model it mathematically...

"Huh...?" the hippogriff grunts several long seconds after Dawn had spoken to her. "Umm... I'm not sure. What do you think Lydia?"

[Chaotic Bob]

[Riftline: No Reward Skipping]

"Sooooooorry!"
The little girl reappears before the group! Specifically right in front of Lydia.
Slightly too close.

"See, I had this great cake and this totally awesome pie, and I was gonna use them as rewards, but then they sort of fell out of your space-time stuff and got eaten by this gooey thingy that I can't even name, although I only really wanted to feed it that funky space-ship and it didn't really care, so then I had to go find some more cakes and pies which took foreeeeeeeeeeeever but I did it anyway and then I saw these fantastic-"
"Pants!"

A second little girl has appeared, entirely identical to the first one and giving her a little high five.
Everyone is also incredibly likely to have various forms of leg apparel upon their craniums. Specifically super soft cotton-fiber sweat pants.

They adopt rather sweet little smiles, in the face of their latest head-pantsing, and turn away from each other to better face their rewardees.
"Anyway!"
"Cake!"
"We've got it!"

After just a moment, the girls start to rise up into the air a little bit, wavering just like little blades of smiley grass, as a great distinctly wedding-themed cake rises out of the nothingness next to them, perched upon an enormous taloned hand.

The cake is a rather lovely silvery color, with pale blue and white vine patterns trailing around it, concealing within it a delectable red velvet inside.
The hand is a rather shimmery mix of orange and gray fur, with periodic traces of miniscule feathers.

"Sorry! It was kind of big to carry in costume."
Says the equally enormous hawk-like head situated behind the hand, with a peculiar set of rabbit ears upon it suffering from the same shimmering effect as the hand. One of them also seems to be waggling a little finger wave at the group through a hand that should not exist.
The other one is giggling.


For a brief moment, there is a Far chimera on the train.

[Earl of Purple]

Arkham Street- Philip Memorial Library

Well, that's useful! Also mentally damaging, but honestly, when you mess with magic and I'm the person who makes up that magic's rules, it's going to alter your thought processes anyway. That's why my magics aren't compatible; they require different, mutually exclusive thought processes, even when the magics in question are very closely related, like Witchcraft and Druidism.

The mutated Sorcerer will read the Necrocomnicon.

[The Bushranger]

[Riftline]

"I'd be in favor of returning to our original destination," Lydia says, businesslike. "After all -"

Bam, creepy little girl!
And Lydia jumps back!
Well, kinda sideways.

And she just blinks.
Speechless.

[Shadowcaller]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

"Thanks." Astrana says before accepting the ice cone, handing over the sum. It was probably best not to question how they got there though. Everyone else seemed to enjoy their ice cream by the looks of it.

[Gullara]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

"Hey thanks. Neat trick." Valente says as he takes his cone. Must be especially popular with the kids. He gives Mr. Frosty a nod and heads off with Astrana.

He loops his free arm around Astrana's waist as they find a place to sit down. "How 'bout we lay out the towels and sunbathe for a bit?" He suggests. It's so nice and warm; better enjoy it.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Philip Memorial Library]

Welp!

A book gets read! It'll take a while to do and will no doubt result in quite a bit of San damage but it'll get done eventually. In the course of reading the book the mutated man will run across a pretty decent amount of information on K'rax-Naggath! Always a good idea to be familiar with your employer after all.

The Warden is certainly an interesting one. And at least according to the author of the book one of the few Old Ones that could be considered as 'friendly' toward mankind. Of course it goes on to qualify those HUGE QUOTES around friendly. All of the Old Ones are awful and sanity shattering. But there are some that are at least awful in a generally well meaning sort of way. Not that well meaning means much to most people once they're curled up in the fetal position and muttering blasphemies in dead languages to themselves.

Well!

Now he just needs to read the rest of those terrible books and then send off his resume!

Ooooor he could use the knowledge gleaned from the book to contact K'rax regarding his mutations as opposed to the intern position. It's always possible that she might see fit to help him. Oooh! Or he could try summoning one of K'rax-Naggath's starspawn! Summoning starspawn is always a safe bet when you just need a small fraction of their power to complete some unholy ritual.

Of course...

The book also warns that containing a starspawn of K'rax-Naggath within a summoning circle for any length is nearly impossible. It's always just a matter of time before they adapt to the barrier and break free.

[Earl of Purple]

Arkham Street- Philip Memorial Library

The intern position was mainly to see if he could learn more Sorcery, as that seems very similar to what K'rax-Naggath does. But now, he re-evaluates the position and decides it's not really worth the risk. The particular branch of Sorcery he uses isn't focussed on summoning anything; it's about taking existing life and changing it to the caster's own ends rather than bringing life from elsewhere and bending it to the caster's will. Like what he did with the maggot in the crypt, and would have used grass for if the crypt had been locked.

He'll probably try for contacting the Warden, as that seems to be something his existing magic is capable of doing.

[Shadowcaller]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

The tiefling loops her tail around his waist and her arm around his back, "That sounds like a great idea, maybe you even can get a tan?" She suggests jokingly as they sit. "You could use it."

[ThirdEmperor]

Hodgepodge Street- Fountain Way

Sebastian does his best not to chuckle at the strange figure of the minotaur calf and her smiling rubber ducky, holding a hand over his mouth. Wouldn't do to be rude while he's asking for a favor.

[Gullara]

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

Valente chuckles and lays down next to her, on his side and propped up with one arm so he can look at her. "Something tells me that's not gonna happen. Not with this much sunscreen on at least." He gives her a silly grin. "What, do you think I'd look better with a tan?"

[Lycan 01]

[Riftline Place of Madness]

Dawn stares with a deadpan expression for a moment, before flatly stating: "I vote witch doctor, because now I have even more memories that need removal."

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Interrogation Room - Red]

Red just switches on his normal grin to the interrogator, and heads out to meet the others!

"Well, basically, I got hired. Or impressed. Anyway, me and the robot work for them now, in exchange for not being blamed for destroying condemned buildings." He pauses. "Wanna be my crew?"

"Sure. Not like I have anything else to do. I wonder how I could combine spells with mechanical objects... hmm..."

Teddy drifts off into a spell-creation world of his own. Kind of like Enin from Jeff Inlo's Delver Magic series (which, by the way, is a very good read).

Alysha thinks seriously for a moment. This is a big decision.

Well...I guess I could help you. Maybe. I don't know much about big robots, though. Or small ones. Or any robots, really.

[Rebonack]

[Riftline]

Geneva smiles when the strange rabbit eared girl appears again. Then becomes somewhat puzzled when suddenly there are two of her. And when a pair of pants suddenly find themselves on her head.

And then a cake.

And...

A thing.

Of some kind.

Holding the cake.

"N-dimensional entity displaying hyper-spatial movement delivering cake..." the hippogriff mutters as she stares blankly at the whatever it is in front of her.

Sunder doesn't seem bothered at all.

"Oh sweet, cake!" the pegasus says, motioning to Bob to help her take the cake off the Far Chimera's claw. "There's no way we're going to be able to eat all of this. Who wants free cake?"

"Aaaaauuuuuuurrrrrrh!" apparently the wookie does.

[Arkham Street - Philip Memorial Library]

Contacting K'rax is very much within the range of rituals described in this awful book. In fact, the book is written such that even a person who doesn't know the first thing about magic would be able to carry out the rituals it describes and thus doom themselves to a fate worse than death.

There are three main options.

The first is to send a a note as a sacrifice. Essentially the ritual required to send one's resume to the Warden.

The second it to attempt to make direct contact to her either through meditation or dreams. Both will almost without question result in utter insanity.

The third is to summon and bind one of her starspawn which she would be able to speak through. That carries the risk of the starspawn breaking free and eating the summoner's face.

Ooooor he could just try to find one of the starspawn who live Inside. How difficult could it possibly be to track them down?

[Hodgepodge Street - Fountain Way]

Eventually the little minotaur calf gives a huff before skipping back to the pool and cannon-balling in. Due to her over abundance of flotation devices she doesn't sink that far.

The gunslinger holds out the newspaper for poor abused newcomer to take.

"Name's Rawhide."

Oooh, polite introductions!

[Chaotic Bob]

[Riftline Cakeline]

"Cake for everyone!"
The chimera is even nice enough to use those sharp little talons to slice bits of cake off for folks.

Lydia, Dawn, and Geneva all have cake proffered in the general direction of their faces, along with anyone else who doesn't run screaming in terror.
Those individuals just lose their pants.
"Or if anyone prefers, I could just leave a little at their home..."

Geneva:

Spoiler

Show

"-and consequently, the increase in ley minutia would be able to boost both retention and usability by a factor of at least forty-seven. It's my firm belief that if enough ponies can get behind this endeavor and actually put some practical testing into the concept, we can usher Equestria into an even grander golden age of technology and progress!
...
Any questions from the non-existent gallery? No, they'd still be inedible Spike."
A little sigh.
"I really should have taken that professorial position instead..."

[Rebonack]

[Riftline]

Thankfully most of the people who use Riftline are the sort of folks who were already fairly acquainted with the oddness of Inside. After all, most new folks don't usually notice it right away. Geneva was a bit of an odd bird in this case since she happened to have an internet connection to point out the public transportation to her.

So that means far more politely decline cake or ask for cake than run away screaming. This IS the Skyway after all. There are plenty of weird aliens around here. Way more common than other parts of the city at least.

Anywho!

Sunder is happily munching on cake as if it hadn't just been given to her by an eldritch abomination. "You guys should try this," she says through a mouthful of cake. "It's really good."

Geneva is putting things together. Important things. Seeing that weird hawk-rabit creature is providing some very useful insight that she can use in the modeling of those alien memories! Hooray for progress! No doubt that gaining an approximate knowledge of secrets which mortal minds aren't meant to grasp will have no negative side-effects to speak of.

The hippogriff gives her head a shake. Then accepts a piece of cake. She inspects it closely to make sure it doesn't display any non-Euclidean geometry.

"Twilight? Who are you talking to? Who's Spike?" Geneva asks of apparently no one. "Is there someone else in there with you?"

[The Bushranger]

[Riftline]

Lydia finds herself being faced with cake!
This is truth!
She proceeds to remove her head-pants, and accept the cake.
For this is what one does when Elder Evils offer you cake.
Refusal is the true lie.

"...thanks."

[Lycan 01]

[Riftline]

Dawn eyes the cake warily for a moment, before shrugging and accepting it. "Alright. Doesn't seem to be explosive or anything, like the cake back home sometimes is," she muses as she accepts the pastry. "Thank you."

And hey, even if it is explosive, Dawn will probably survive it. Yay for being a living flak jacket?

[Chaotic Bob]

[Riftline: Serving the Best Cake Since a Few Minutes Ago]

"You're welcome!"
Lydia and Dawn get very loud reciprocation for their thanks!
The Far Chimera's breath smells faintly of squid.

"Okedoke, I'll stick what's left of the cake on someone's kitchen table. I should go now though, so bye!"
A rather large second hand is brought up through the floor and waves to everyone before the whole body walks behind nothing in particular and vanishes once more.

"Also totally not an elder evil!"

Although if she was, being the Elder Evil of Freakishly Delicious Cakes couldn't be too terribly awful.

Geneva:

Spoiler

Show

"Oh hey, we meet again. Spike's my best friend! Doesn't everyone know that by now?"
The mare seems...faintly perplexed.
"Um, anyway, nope. Just me. Me, my words, and your brain. And some rather suspect mathematical theory, but that's okay. Not everyone has a whole lot of experience dealing with weird stuff like that.
At the risk of sounding even more rambly, you should really go easy on the thinking there, Geneva. I think there's something funny happening."

[Rebonack]

[Riftline]

"Bye..." Geneva mutters absently as she watches the totally not an elder evil slip away sideways in time. Her mind is already chugging away with this new information. Two of her in the same place at once. That involves some sort of non-linearity in time. Feeding space ships and pies to goopy things. Moving outways. That Elder Sign must have something to do with it since it can block and ward such things? Maybe something to do with its geometry. But not its two dimensional geometry, that wouldn't make sense. Maybe an n-dimensional shadow of something else? But how would that be configured?

If she just put that there and moved that over there... How to express that as a matrix? Perhaps...

Twilight's comment results in a reply that's half spoken and half disjointed thoughts. "This is important."

Have to figure it out. I have to know.

*DING!*

"Market Street, Dungeons of Doom entrance," calls a voice over an intercom system.

Which causes Sunder to perk up. "Hey! This is our stop. Later guys! Me and Bob had fun smashin' some squid face with you. If you wanna meet up again just head to Carousel Court and stop by the bath house. Tell 'em you're friends of mine. Later!"

The pegasus goes zipping off the train!

The shore elemental gives a shallow (har har!) bow. "It was a pleasure meeting you all. Farewell."

[The Bushranger]

[Riftline]

Lydia gives a wave to the departing Bob and Sunder, as she finishes her cake!
"Well, I suppose that in the end that could have gone worse, couldn't it?"