[NEXUS] WATCHTOWER 17: Through Cloud, Shadow, Earth, and Flesh.

[Reinholdt]

Searching the Keep

Ilpholin doesn't discount that there might be AMENites that Decker brought in other than Blake before Garn started guarding the door. But as she heads off with Darcy to search, she figures two knowns are better than an unknown.

She's quiet for a moment before replying to Darcy. "Because of AMEN... or because of Watch?"

Training Tower

Stu sneezes again, spreading pollen on the floor. "Like... the sound a bunny makes when it eats! Good idea. We'll do that. I'll take upstairs?" Stu suggests.

Those evil flower eating bunnies.

((Oh and the catacombs are just that. No one knows quite where they lead, but they've proven dangerous to explore. Also Mister Squiggles used to keep a nest roughly at their entrance.))

[happyturtle]

Searching the Keep

"I'll never be able to trust them again. Especially DC." Darcy says.

[Shadowcaller]

Searching the Keep

If Darcy and Ilpholin are about to go out into the courtyard, Cessie suddenly stops them. "Wait. According to Jeremy that elemental the hand took control over is somehow underneath the earth. I'm guessing it's waiting to grab you Ilpholin. Perhaps it's best if you search the inside of the keep instead? I and Jeremy can handle the ones outside it." She says with a suspicions glance over her shoulder at the ground around them.

So I guess they decided to search the inside of the keep instead. Your last posts don't need to be changed unless you want them to.

[Terumitsu]

[Past - Hospital Tower]

Rather than a giggle, there was some suspicion. More curiosity than paranoia, though. "What do you mean?" she asked in what was likely her first breath in at least ten minutes. She had to admit, though, that not only did her head feel clearer but that it was as if things had a better 'flow,' for lack of a better term. There were some ginger twinges from her head, still, but it was more like just poking at a bruise rather than something that was actively causing her distress. In fact...

It was an impulsive action; one out of curiosity. The calm brought on by the aided meditation was enough to reminder her again of the session with Klitcht which brought up a few ideas. It was like.. Feeling the shape of objects by their wind shadow but more defined. Both like having a hand open out to the wind and 'catching' the flow as well as feeling actual solidarity to such a fluid thing. It wasn't something she could put more than analogies to but it was interesting. Deciding to take one step more, she wondered if she could do more than just.. 'Pseudo-feel.' Which was slowly becoming more like how she would imagine her sonar functions would be like if it were more of a sensation thing rather than just another feature on her HUD. There was a scalpel not too far away that she felt she could just barely reach for although not too much farther and she felt a familiar pain that she would rather not experience. So, instead, she was simply aiming to pick it up and maybe twirl it about before setting it down. ...What actually happened was that the instrument was violently crumpled into a mess of bent metal before being hurled upwards with such force that it might very well embed itself into the material that made up the ceiling if not pass through it depending what exactly it was.

Of course, this was certainly enough for Ghoul to open her eyes and take notice given that the sound alone of all of that was likely hard to ignore. "...That may have been my fault." she said with a touch of dismay.

[UncleWolf]

Hospital Tower - Past

Cutter looks up at the dented ceiling. "It's fine." He says after a moment. After all, what could he do if he wasn't fine with it? Not much.

"And perhaps I should show you how I really look if you're up to it. Though maybe after I remove the needles. It can be a shock sometimes."

[Shadowcaller]

[Gate]

Once Ilpholin and Darcy have gone into the keep to search for more AMENites Cessie summons eldritch wind energy and simply flies over the wall so she won't have to open the gate itself. Jeremy will see her coming over the walls and stop, floating just above the portal.

"I'm glad you're looking well, but I will need you to cover me as I need to focus completely at the portal for a few minutes if I'm to close it down." She explains.

[Terumitsu]

[Past - Hospital Tower]

This sort of thing suddenly made it clear why she had found recommendations of having some sort of focusing item when starting out. The muse would swear that she hadn't used hardly any force in her attempt but the results, as could be seen, were hard to argue with. She was somewhat distracted by it still when she answered but not enough for it to be all that detrimental. "Yeah.. I'll wait till we get these things out on that." she said, looking up at the mess of metal still lodged up there.

She had best work on getting that seed crystal growing as soon as she was done here, though.

"Though I have to wonder what you mean about mine looking better? I can't say I know what this stuff is my hands have on them but... Yeah, I guess it could be a kinda glossy chitin, come to think of it." she said, looking at the sheen her 'hands (more like claws at this point she thought)' had adopted.

[UncleWolf]

Past - Hospital Tower

Cutter removes the needles one at a time. Once he does, he doesn't wait long before taking off his coat and closing his eyes as he shifts.

Should Ghoul watch, she'll see his human form bubbling, boiling and steaming off of his body. His flesh changes to what appears to be mostly raw muscle, albeit somewhat darker than human, and is partly covered in bone-white chitinous plates, especially over the chest. His head is completely inhuman, with the lower half of his face appearing like the muscle, with a too-wide lipless mouth baring hundreds of needle-like teeth. He lacks ears, eyes, and nose, and the upper half of his head appears as a mass of the chitin.

As he waits, he crosses all four of his arms, each ending in clawed hands.

Gate

Jeremy nods and watches over Cessie the entire time.

[Terumitsu]

[Past - Hospital Tower]

Huh was the first thing that had come to mind as Ghoul had watched the transformation. It was.. Unsettling to watch but simultaneously fascinating in some way. Still, the whole flesh bubbling part was a bit disgusting, all said. She could recall a design of exo-prosthesis which were designed to look like humanoid musculature and so it wasn't quite so strange to see that but the natural bone armor or whatever it might be definitely was eye catching at least in prominence. The extra limbs were interesting as well but the most interesting, or maybe startling, feature was the lack of features. With a mild furrow to her brow, the muse pushed herself up off the table while focusing intently on just how that un-face moved. Or if it failed to move at that.

If there were some kind of visual senses in place, though, it would be evident that it hadn't been just her hands and forearms that had changed. Her teeth had all taken a similar sharpness as her incisors which were now fiercely prominent although somehow managing to not be unwieldy although only just. She folded her arms over her chest although less for modesty and more out of habit due to the tone she was about to take; her mouth opening only giving her a further likeness of a viper ready to strike due to her forked tongue. "Well aren't we a couple of monsters?" she said, chuckling rather darkly. "So.. Seeing how everyone I've come to meet in this organization has apparently been either overtly alien or inwardly so, is this the theme you guys have here?" she asked.

There might be just one last odd thing, though. Cutter may have this niggling sensation like that of the prickling of the neck hairs that he was being intently watched. He may get the feeling that if it were someone else, it might be less simply watching and more 'preying.'

[Shadowcaller]

Gate

The sorceress focuses on the portal, trying to determine it's "tapestry", it's lay-out. This will be more difficult for her as the type of energy she's dealing with is probably alien to her. It's only once she can determine the gate's layout she can unmake it through a careful manipulation of it's energies by infusing eldritch into it.

[Reinholdt]

Searching the Keep

Since that was Ilph's original intent anyways, nothing really changes. Besides Darcy did specify waiting until they're alone.

"We might need their protection." Ilpholin points out, if today was any indication.

[happyturtle]

Searching the Keep

"If we do, we'd do better to find it elsewhere. NO maybe?" Darcy suggests. "I'm not crazy about being a mercenary, but it's better than being here."

[Reinholdt]

Searching the Keep

"NO hates me because I gave them a job a long time ago and then got mad at them because they didn't do it." That is the origin of Dipsnig's animosity towards her. "And then Kirk joined them." And that was the nail in the coffin.

"I'd sooner go to Remnant if I thought Vasquez would give me half a chance."

[happyturtle]

Searching the Keep

"She might be as hostile as DC," Darcy says. "Aren't Remnant and EI kind of in each other's pockets?"

No, but it's not like Darcy has any real insight into Nexus politics.


Outside the Keep

The portal closes.

[Reinholdt]

Searching the Keep

"I think they pretend to have friction between them to disguise just how much is really in their pockets."

"Look... can we talk about this later?" Ilpholin has already left one organization today at Darcy's behest. At least I hope Darcy doesn't mean immediately.

[happyturtle]

Searching the Keep

Only because organizations keep trying to get Ilpholin killed!

"Okay, love."

Search, search, search, search the ridiculously tall tower...

[5a Violista]

[Sometime In The Future]

A tall, blond female with a long scar on her face walks briskly through the doors of the Keep's Main Room with her dark trench coat trailing behind her, searching for a person to pass in her resume to.

Name: Caelynn Turath
Age: 21
Sex: Female
Species: Faunus (person with animalistic features: Cat ears and eyes in my case)
Profession:Mercenary, Acrobat, Former Spy, Prostitute (Spying often requests rather unsavory cover jobs).
Reason for joining WATCHTOWER: To put my combat skills to a cause
Special skills/items you believe will aid/have decided to contribute to WATCHTOWER: I am very clever and intelligent, perceptive, and quick. Years of practice have honed my acrobatic and combative skills
Other Information: I wield shotgun-bracers that can release shock waves and boots that quicken speed.

[Sometime in the Future]

The one who answers Caelynn is thus:

A man, wearing a cape and leather boots. He has a sword hung at his waist. He has several scars on his face, and his entire head is that of a wolf's head.

He takes the Resume and looks it over.

"Hm," says Conrack. "You were a mercenary, too? That's neat." He was also a mercenary.

"Now, I'm not an official spokesman for the guild, but it looks like it all checks out. I'll make sure whoever needs this will get it."

"In the meanwhile, I could show you around and answer any questions you have," says the man with a wolf's head.


Training Tower

"Good idea. Noone would suspect a bunny," agrees Harley. That's the perfect hidden sound.

"I'll take downstairs."

((OoC help for me: What does this "downstairs" consist of? I don't want to accidentally have her go through a secret passageway again. That sort of thing should only be done on purpose.))

[UncleWolf]

Past - Hospital Tower

Ghoul might sense that even without eyes, Cutter seems to be looking her over for any signs of weakness or particular strengths, a predatory creature himself. Once she asks her question though, his "face" snaps up to her own. While it's difficult for him to speak, he eventually does so in a hissing voice.

" 'Erhatsss..." He admits before slowly changing back into human form to better be able to speak. "Perhaps. See what I mean about you being far more attractive about me?" He asks with a wry smile.

[Terumitsu]

[Past - Hospital Tower]

Ghoul held her ground under the scrutiny; showing no sign of apprehension nor indication of anything more than simple recognition of the action. She had no quarrel with Cutter, after all, and though menacing, she didn't detect a sense of real threat from him at the moment. Or at least no intentional threat, was the better term as she could almost see the both of them, circling like some pair of animals at the moment.

She pushed herself to resume a more human appearance but found that her incisors didn't seem to want to cooperate entirely, remaining rather more prominent than before. It was mildly puzzling as even though she felt the 'flow' they received as being notably more than before, she didn't see how that would affect her ability to shift them back and forth. Then again, I'm probably best looking at this as more of a conduit than a switch. "Well, I do try to take care of myself so maybe it's just a side effect." she jested while making a waving motion as if to draw attention to her form. "Still, you're a piece of work yourself. I imagine it's annoying when you have only two hands, though." she said with a smirk.

[D_Lord]

Underground

If they have a way of seeing inside solid rock, they would find that the earth elemental is now mostly taken apart. More a mass of black threads which are slowly spreading down there in the earth under WatchTower.

[UncleWolf]

Past - Hospital Tower

"It is annoying to only have two, but in this form, at least I can speak correctly." He points out as he takes a seat on the table, giving her a renewed look up and down before smiling wryly. "And I'm glad you liked it. Feeling any better from the treatment?"

Underground

Surprisingly, probably even to Watchtower, the black threads will find that they aren't alone underneath the organization. They'll find hundreds of little mole-sized tunnels beneath and a handful of other larger cavities. All of them filled with insects.

Lots of insects.

Strange ones, all part of a small Reserve Hive Pat installed ages ago.

As soon as the black threads appear, the insects go on the offensive, trying to gnaw into them with powerful jaws and melt them with powerful acids. Pat has no idea what's going on, but she had thought this place was safe.

Guess she was wrong.

[Reinholdt]

Training Tower

"Good idea. Noone would suspect a bunny," agrees Harley. That's the perfect hidden sound.

"I'll take downstairs."

((OoC help for me: What does this "downstairs" consist of? I don't want to accidentally have her go through a secret passageway again. That sort of thing should only be done on purpose.))

Training Tower

Well since no one seems able to help, I'll just make stuff up based off the first post description.

Downstairs, also known as the first floor has the armory they just pilfered and one secret panel that leads into a safe room. I guess for disasters and stuff. Also, a giant game of rock-em sock-em robots sits on display in the corner. It's incredibly neat and fully functional.

There is a research tower across the courtyard that probably has a lot of cool experiments to pilfer through.

Stu makes it upstairs and is searching through the training arena when he glances outside and notes someone closing their portal home. Shoot. Now they have to rescue Decker.

[Terumitsu]

[Past - Hospital Tower]

"Surprisingly, yes." she said, moving behind the hospital curtain to retrieve her clothes and beginning to put them on. "I can't say I can tell exactly what about it worked but maybe it's a case of what you said earlier. 'Here' doesn't necessarily follow the same rules." she said.

It took maybe a minute before she was fully dressed again and came out from behind the heavy cloth barrier. "I'm surprised that it's your first time. Felt pretty skillful from my end." she said with a smirk. "And nicely invigorating. All I have left is like a sore bruise but I'm betting that'll go away soon from the feel of it." she said, tapping the side of her head a few times. "But if that's what I have to look forwards to, then I probably wouldn't mind finding the time for later sessions." she said. It was rather nice to have a relaxing sort of thing like this. "By the way. What was that music you had playing, anyway?" she asked.

[D_Lord]

Past - Hospital Tower

"It is annoying to only have two, but in this form, at least I can speak correctly." He points out as he takes a seat on the table, giving her a renewed look up and down before smiling wryly. "And I'm glad you liked it. Feeling any better from the treatment?"

Underground

Surprisingly, probably even to Watchtower, the black threads will find that they aren't alone underneath the organization. They'll find hundreds of little mole-sized tunnels beneath and a handful of other larger cavities. All of them filled with insects.

Lots of insects.

Strange ones, all part of a small Reserve Hive Pat installed ages ago.

As soon as the black threads appear, the insects go on the offensive, trying to gnaw into them with powerful jaws and melt them with powerful acids. Pat has no idea what's going on, but she had thought this place was safe.

Guess she was wrong.

Well I don't think these insect jaws can bite through adamantine or can deal with something almost as tough with the consistently of taffy that regrows as you try to chew it, and it starts making mouths of it's own to bite you.

[5a Violista]

Training Tower
Downstairs

Harley looks around the room, looking for where they could be hiding the other AMEN members. Since she can't see them here, that means Harley is looking for secret passageways, which means she finds at least one.

However, they're not filled with what she's looking for so there's no point in continuing to search them.

So...search...search...searching...and so on.

Until Harley is 97% confident that there are no AMENites down here, except for herself.

So she starts to go upstairs again. They must be in one of the other towers.

[Shadowcaller]

Outside the Keep

Once the portal closes, Cessie turns to Jeremy. "Thanks for the aid. Just wait here a moment." She will then fly over the wall again and open the gate for him. "Think you're in condition for searching for out intruders? Ilpholin and Darcy are searching the keep itself."

[Reinholdt]

Training Tower
Downstairs

Harley looks around the room, looking for where they could be hiding the other AMEN members. Since she can't see them here, that means Harley is looking for secret passageways, which means she finds at least one.

However, they're not filled with what she's looking for so there's no point in continuing to search them.

So...search...search...searching...and so on.

Until Harley is 97% confident that there are no AMENites down here, except for herself.

So she starts to go upstairs again. They must be in one of the other towers.

Training Tower

Stu comes back to ground floor. As he does, he makes a bunny noise! So Harley knows it's him.

If she makes one back, he'll come all the way down. "They've sealed our exit and are looking for us. We need to find them fast or get a really good disguise. Also look in a different place." Because not here.

[UncleWolf]

Underground

The ants aren't strong enough physically to bite through adamantine. At least, not this variety, but Pat didn't have the more aggressive or larger forms stored here.

Even so, the acid inside the ants is strong enough to at least etch such strong materials, so it might still be painful, distracting, and possibly damaging, especially when the mouths chomp down on them.

That all aside, there's a very limited number of ants and other organisms here, so they won't last more than a couple more minutes at this rate, and Pat doesn't have the ability to replenish them in any meaningful amount in any reasonable time.

Past - Hospital Tower

"I'm over a century old, so "First time" is kind of meaningless for the most part." Cutter says with a wry smile. "And it was a classical piece from my old world. Would you like to keep it?" He asks, heading over to a record player to gently remove the vinyl.

Outside The Gate

He gives a nod as he reaches down to rub his twisted ankle, already feeling the Nannies kicking in and easing it all. "Yes. But four things. Do you want me to use Lethal or Non-Lethal force? Do you have any idea where they might be? Can you send out a message to recall any other Watchmen? And after this, we really need to talk."

[Terumitsu]

[Past - Hospital Tower]

Ghoul shook her head at the gesture. It was.. Odd that Cutter would just hand something over like that but more to the point she couldn't say she had really any reason to take the thing. "Nah. Would rather not if it's all the same. I don't exactly have a stable dwelling right now and even if I did, I don't have anything to play it on. Plus I can just download and play it as soon as I find it elsewhere. Really I don't share the same attachment to such things as you do seeing how presumably different our backgrounds are." the muse said matter-of-factly. It was simply how things were.

"Won't deny that it was nice to listen to though, if a touch.. Well, not used to the hissing and pops cropping up every so often, I guess." she said.

[5a Violista]

Training Tower

Harley did, indeed, make a bunny noise back! It's very bunny-like. Almost like a real bunny.

Regarding a disguise, Harley says, "Hm." She reaches up to her face, and notices an enchanted feathery red mask that I just remembered she was wearing. "Oh, hey. You could wear this. It magically makes your face harder to recognize as long as you wear it." That is, indeed, its magic. Any part of your face covered by the (obstinately large) mask is made harder to recognize. "And then I could just shape-shift." 'Cause she's an Evil Shapeshifter. There are waaaaay too many shapeshifters here, I think.

The mask's other innate magic ability is that you don't have to describe it if you forget about it existing. It's only when you finally remember that your character put it on that you have to describe it, so long as you remembered to make your character put it on in the first place.

So, Harley grabs the mask off of her face, showing once again the large scar which runs down the left side of her face. She tries to hand the mask over to Stu.

Meanwhile, she shapeshifts herself to look at least twenty years younger (so she now looks to be in her twenties): her hair goes from brown with some grey bits to black curlyness. She looks a little taller, and her skin goes at least two-and-a-half shades darker. Inexplicably, her clothes change, too, to a red calf-length dress. She looks sort of like a certain unnamed famous guitarist/singer.

Oh, but she still has her massive scar. And her scabbard. And the foam sword. And a bright red amulet with frost powers. Thus, she's not that much a guitarist-lookalike.

So, if someone tried really hard to recognize her, they could. So long as they've seen her before. It would be pretty much impossible for someone who's never seen her before to recognize her. In fact, I think that statement can be generalized to everybody who ever existed.


Edit: Oops, that was a long post.