[Nexus] Random Places and Plots 8: Adventures! Thrills! Groceries!

[Deathkeeper]

Cabinetopia- Concrete Abstraction

Pat seems largely unbothered by the admission of murder. She gives another loud sniff. "Sure, why not? Do you know how to get there from here?"

[Hyperbolic sine]

[Arty's Epic Quest]

Alistair gets off Arty, thanking him, then says: "That way, you say? Lead, then...your survival skills seem much more better than mine. I'll take care of the reversed werewolves."
So, he will follow the centaur, and will keep using the wolf as a "weapon" if necessary; as a side benefit, the poor animal could also prove useful for leading Ashna in the right direction.

[Beans]

Cabinetopia- Concrete Abstraction

Pat seems largely unbothered by the admission of murder. She gives another loud sniff. "Sure, why not? Do you know how to get there from here?"

Acanthe nods and looks through the closet she ate the doctor in; after throwing out a bunch of stuff, she returns. "I knew it, of course a Pentaposa would have a door to the Pipeways back there..." She leads her to the closet; at the back is a cabinet door painted red. She opens it, revealing a short entryway and a long perpendicular hallway, both dim and lit with lamps that cast pools of yellowy light.

[Deathkeeper]

Cabinetopia

Pat follows Acanthe awkwardly, muttering under her breath. Walking is really, really uncomfortable like this. And- holy crap there isn't even blood did she swallow it whole?! Yeesh.
Pat will grab a lab coat if there's any in this closet, else she'll be stuck with her robe for a while longer.
"Just lead on, I'm right behind you. I want out of this as soon as frickin' possible." She really didn't think it was possible, but things really have gotten steadily more ridiculous. She'd never have guessed you could have beaten the duck.

Arty's Epic Quest

"Sheesh Alistair, don't wring the poor thing's neck! We don't even need it for that; Ashna is a wolf and five feet from us. The only reason I don't say to let it go is that we can't have her following it and not us." he says, but continues on.
Unless Ashna suddenly decides to break away from the group or Libra throws more things at them they might actually make some progress!

[Earl of Purple]

Pyramid of Painful Demise

The vulture-harpies are enchanted, but none of the other statues are. There's a hidden compartment in the floor, hidden amongst the mural, and the exit is behind a griffon, though magically blocked and currently inaccessible.

[Recaiden]

[Arty's Epic Quest]

On hearing the name, Ashna looks away from the wolf and back to Alistair. This is his fault! She moves towards him, with an arc of fire lazily expanding towards him, flickering closer and further by the moment.

Progress seems unlikely.

[Beans]

Cabinetopia

Pat follows Acanthe awkwardly, muttering under her breath. Walking is really, really uncomfortable like this. And- holy crap there isn't even blood did she swallow it whole?! Yeesh.
Pat will grab a lab coat if there's any in this closet, else she'll be stuck with her robe for a while longer.
"Just lead on, I'm right behind you. I want out of this as soon as frickin' possible." She really didn't think it was possible, but things really have gotten steadily more ridiculous. She'd never have guessed you could have beaten the duck.

[Cabinetopia - Pipeways]
She can snag a labcoat indeed! Acanthe leads her down the hall and out a doorway into a warm night; black sky overhead, but lit all around with many streetlights. The cityscape is fraught with pipes, hence the name; whereas the Abstraction was a smooth, clean place of white and grey and blue, the Pipeways brings together art deco, noir, and gaslight in a highly stylized, amber-tinted world. Dark goo-people with glowing specks in them like starry skies wander about, as do others, around ornate fountains and by streetlight poles.

[Deathkeeper]

Cabinetopia- Pipeway

Pat gladly takes the coat and replaces her robe with it, tossing it on the floor without a thought. Nasty, cheap thing and now with a bad history. The coat is just as covering and has buttons! Lovely things, buttons.
And then pipes! The Pipeways are rather pretty, actually. They are much more homey to Pat. She'd smile if she wasn't still distraught with he whole "being something protagonists shoot" thing. Still, it helps a little.
"So, who is this person exactly?" she asks the glowy lady, who fits in with the glowy goo folk.

[Hyperbolic sine]

[Arty's Epic Quest]

"Sheesh Alistair, don't wring the poor thing's neck! We don't even need it for that; Ashna is a wolf and five feet from us. The only reason I don't say to let it go is that we can't have her following it and not us." he says, but continues on.
Unless Ashna suddenly decides to break away from the group or Libra throws more things at them they might actually make some progress!

On hearing the name, Ashna looks away from the wolf and back to Alistair. This is his fault! She moves towards him, with an arc of fire lazily expanding towards him, flickering closer and further by the moment.

Progress seems unlikely.

"Calm down, calm down, I'll let it go" he says sighing: he would rather avoid a confrontation with Ashna. The wolf will slowly descend to the ground, and then will be freed from the telekinetic constraints. Should Ashna resume following it, though, the poor animal will find its limbs forcibly moved to make it go in the right direction...hopefully it will look like he is moving normally.

[Beans]

Cabinetopia- Pipeway

Pat gladly takes the coat and replaces her robe with it, tossing it on the floor without a thought. Nasty, cheap thing and now with a bad history. The coat is just as covering and has buttons! Lovely things, buttons.
And then pipes! The Pipeways are rather pretty, actually. They are much more homey to Pat. She'd smile if she wasn't still distraught with he whole "being something protagonists shoot" thing. Still, it helps a little.
"So, who is this person exactly?" she asks the glowy lady, who fits in with the glowy goo folk.

Acanthe blushes glowy blue, swallowing.
"Well. Uh. She's the queen of the star-jels, so she can probably help... 'course, she's also my ex, which is why this is my last resort..."

She keeps leading her, getting a few odd looks from the star-jels.

[Deathkeeper]

Cabinetopia- Pipeways

TWEEST.
Pat manages to avoid stopping in place and gaping. Barely.
"You dated a star-gel? A really important star-gel? And are a lesbian? How far is she?"
Pat doesn't ask 'are you sure?' because she's petty and cares about her own comfort more than Acanthe's right now. Sue her.

Arty's Epic Quest

Arty grits his teeth. He has had just about enough of this. His hand moves in a few motions.
Sorry Chadwick, but I believe in you, even if you don't. he thinks, gathering some energy in his palm. If Ashna doesn't stand down from the wolf being released, he's going to actually try to do something cleric-y.

[Beans]

Cabinetopia- Pipeways

TWEEST.
Pat manages to avoid stopping in place and gaping. Barely.
"You dated a star-gel? A really important star-gel? And are a lesbian? How far is she?"
Pat doesn't ask 'are you sure?' because she's petty and cares about her own comfort more than Acanthe's right now. Sue her.

"Yeah, well... it's complicated and I dun' wan' talk about it, but yeah. and now we're not a couple any more, but I figure she won't refuse to help someone and stuff...

[Deathkeeper]

Cabinetopia- Pipeways

"Oh. Okay. Cool." says Pat simply.
Aaaaawwwwwkkkwaaaaard.
She'll probably let the silence hang all the way to the place unless Acanthe or someone else breaks it...

[Beans]

Cabinetopia- Pipeways

"Oh. Okay. Cool." says Pat simply.
Aaaaawwwwwkkkwaaaaard.
She'll probably let the silence hang all the way to the place unless Acanthe or someone else breaks it...

Some of the star-jels greet Acanthe, some just look at her, and some pointedly don't look. At least one slips off after seeing her.

"Oooooh boy, we're gonna have one hell of a welcome..." She opens a phonebooth, puts in a number combination (99466-#-12110-#-4231), and pushes the wall of the phonebooth inward, revealing a ramp going down. "Follow me..."

[Deathkeeper]

Cabinetopia- Pipeways

Pat silently comments that unless it involves actual torture and/or killing them it probably won't be as hellish as the welcome she's already gotten in this place. Still, she follows along, still disliking to walk in this form.

[5a Violista]

Spoiler: Quotes

Show

Mirror Mirror

Card, being the last one over the wall, heavily lands on the grounds. He straightens up and then bushes himself off. Hmm, the fountain is still working, that's a bit unusual. Well, better to get to the manor, that's where all the loot will be. He moves down the path, after Harley gets going down it.

Mirror, Mirror

Darsy shrugs a bit at Xanthos' comment. Well, guess we won't get to have that spar after this, then. I punch and kick my way through most things.

Like Card, Darsy finds it odd that, with how rundown everything else is, the fountain still works. Sure, it might not be in the best shape, but it still works.

I'm guessing that's got some magical power running it? Cause I think any source of electricity would've ended by now.

She'll stare at it for a moment more before following Harley Ms. Martinez towards the front door.

"Oh, it won't mind me fighting with you. It just doesn't like... fraternisation. I'll be more than happy to beat the snot out of you."

They pass by a fountain. Xanthos activates his Mage Sight to see if it's magical.

[Mirror, Mirror]

Don't you deride the honorable sport of high-stakes Train Poker.

Suthy stops atop the wall to help Card up, seeing as nobody else seems overly concerned about their quiet draconian friend. He touches down in the bushes with what what could be called a lack of elegance, or maybe a bumblingly terrible landing that has him struggling to tug himself free of the branches.

Either way, it's not graceful.

While the rest are heading towards the main doors, Suthy will quietly make a quick detour - heading a little off the beaten track to take a look at that pond. It's probably just the reflection of the sunlight, but still, the glimmer of gold on the waters makes it more enticing to him than some dusty old house or unclean detour. Besides, he'll probably be back with the rest before they've noticed he's wandered off.

[Mirror, Mirror]
Reflecting Pool

Upon examining the reflecting pond, Suthy notices that his initial guess was correct. The glimmer of gold on the water is something more than just the reflection of the sun on the water. Along the tile ground beneath the water, there's golden little round bumps every so often, which somehow make the sunlight reflect even brighter.

Also, there's a bunch of century-old coins all over the ground in the reflecting pool, underneath the still water. It seems people liked throwing coins in there when this place was more popular.

Actually, there's something even more interesting in the pool. From far away, the reflected light from the sun hid this, but halfway out in the pool, there's an underwater staircase going downwards into a dark corridor (still underwater). It looks very inciting, does it not? Almost enchanting.


Front Door

Harley opens the large doors, and walks into the dark building. It's really dusty inside, and any sound echoes throughout the entire room. "Well, I can't say this doesn't look creeeeeeeee-" Then her voice cuts out suddenly, as do her footsteps. Only Card sees what happened, because Darsy paused at that fountain for those crucial moments.

The room is basically a large room filled with nothing except pillars, arches, staircases, and doors to other hallways and rooms and wings. There's a few gasoliers along the ceiling, which is almost too high to see without looking upwards. The floor is tiled, much like a chessboard. Like a chessboard, half the tiles are black. However, the other half are a reflective silver color. Some are tarnished, some are polished. Nearly everything is covered in dust - which makes following Harley's footsteps easy - up until the point where they abruptly stop.

Harley fell through one of the polished tiles as if there were nothing there, and that tile rippled like water afterwards. The ripples and waves nearly die down by the time Darsy gets inside.


Fountain

Xanthos, using his Mage Sight, will be able to tell that it is, indeed, powered by something magical. Must be the pump, or something, because (as Darsy guessed) it wouldn't be working any longer if it ran on electricity.

As he studies the fountain, he'll also notice something very peculiar. After looking in the water for more than two seconds, his reflection will begin to fade. Actually, the reflection of everything begins to fade. Oddly enough, the longer he looks at the water, the more magical it becomes. It's also strange that it didn't do this when Darsy looked at it. There must be some reason why.

So, now the question is: Does he continue to study it or does he go on ahead to catch up?

[Shadowcaller]

Pyramid of Painful Demise

The vulture-harpies are enchanted, but none of the other statues are. There's a hidden compartment in the floor, hidden amongst the mural, and the exit is behind a griffon, though magically blocked and currently inaccessible.

[Arty's Epic Quest]

On hearing the name, Ashna looks away from the wolf and back to Alistair. This is his fault! She moves towards him, with an arc of fire lazily expanding towards him, flickering closer and further by the moment.

Progress seems unlikely.

[Arty's Epic Quest]

"Calm down, calm down, I'll let it go" he says sighing: he would rather avoid a confrontation with Ashna. The wolf will slowly descend to the ground, and then will be freed from the telekinetic constraints. Should Ashna resume following it, though, the poor animal will find its limbs forcibly moved to make it go in the right direction...hopefully it will look like he is moving normally.

Arty's Epic Quest

Arty grits his teeth. He has had just about enough of this. His hand moves in a few motions.
Sorry Chadwick, but I believe in you, even if you don't. he thinks, gathering some energy in his palm. If Ashna doesn't stand down from the wolf being released, he's going to actually try to do something cleric-y.

Pyramid of Painful Demise

"The flying sisters up there are enchanted in some way and there is a secret compartment in the floor. Pretty sure they're there to open it up." Dena tells Wenomir as she gives the vulture being a closer look and points at them. How accessible are they? The rogue might just get over to them and have a look around.

Arty's Epic Quest

Well, the wolf is now clearly in pain as it howls and whines even more when it's legs are forced to move against the poor animals will. If Alistair simply releases it however it will quickly run away from the group, darting in a completely different direction than they're going in.

[Beans]

Cabinetopia- Pipeways

Pat silently comments that unless it involves actual torture and/or killing them it probably won't be as hellish as the welcome she's already gotten in this place. Still, she follows along, still disliking to walk in this form.

Eventually, they arrive in a big, round chamber with a round, checker-tiled pool of water in the middle. Star-jels around the edge of the room peer at them... and in the center pool sits a tall figure of inkiest black and brightest points of light, simply radiating the purest essence of SULK. Gods would tremble at the huffy, fussy magnitude of its petulance.

"... So,uh." Acanthe wiggles uncomfortably.

[Morty]

[Pyramid of Painful Demise]

While Dena examines the statues, Wenomir goes to investigate the door further. He also puts his ear near it, trying to pick up any sounds coming from behind it that might be a clue as to what awaits them on the other side.

[Deathkeeper]

Cabinetopia- Pipeways

Pat grimaces awkwardly. Uh... "Evening?" she says questioningly.
"Acanthe, I know nothing of relationships and less of these people. This one is on you. Introductions?" she says quietly.

[Earl of Purple]

Pyramid of Painful Demise

The statues are quite easy to get to; they aren't on pedestals or anything of that sort. They also don't lash out at Dena as she approaches.

The door is hidden, and it seems from the post that Dena hasn't found it. The compartment in the floor doesn't have any sounds coming from it, and isn't soundproofed either.

[Recaiden]

[Arty's Epic Quest]

When the wolf is released, Ashna will clam down, turning to watch it go and then falling in next to Arty himself. The fire flares up briefly and then fades down to a small flicker.

[ThePhantom]

Front Door

Harley opens the large doors, and walks into the dark building. It's really dusty inside, and any sound echoes throughout the entire room. "Well, I can't say this doesn't look creeeeeeeee-" Then her voice cuts out suddenly, as do her footsteps. Only Card sees what happened, because Darsy paused at that fountain for those crucial moments.

The room is basically a large room filled with nothing except pillars, arches, staircases, and doors to other hallways and rooms and wings. There's a few gasoliers along the ceiling, which is almost too high to see without looking upwards. The floor is tiled, much like a chessboard. Like a chessboard, half the tiles are black. However, the other half are a reflective silver color. Some are tarnished, some are polished. Nearly everything is covered in dust - which makes following Harley's footsteps easy - up until the point where they abruptly stop.

Harley fell through one of the polished tiles as if there were nothing there, and that tile rippled like water afterwards. The ripples and waves nearly die down by the time Darsy gets inside.

"Martinez!"

Card reaches for Harley as she falls through, but he's too late. He pauses on a black tile, watching the ripples fade out. He turns to look at Darsy as she comes in.

"She fell through the floor."

[KerfuffleMach2]

"Martinez!"

Card reaches for Harley as she falls through, but he's too late. He pauses on a black tile, watching the ripples fade out. He turns to look at Darsy as she comes in.

"She fell through the floor."

Mirror, Mirror - Front Door

Darsy hurries up when she hears Card yell. When he turns back to her, he'll see that her fists are on fire, and her expression and stance show that she's expecting a fight of some kind.

At Card's words, Darsy relaxes her stance a bit. She looks around, but doesn't see any holes in the floor.

Where? And how? Trapdoor or something?

Seems she missed out on the silver tile shenanigans.

[Master Narrator]

Front Door

Harley opens the large doors, and walks into the dark building. It's really dusty inside, and any sound echoes throughout the entire room. "Well, I can't say this doesn't look creeeeeeeee-" Then her voice cuts out suddenly, as do her footsteps. Only Card sees what happened, because Darsy paused at that fountain for those crucial moments.

The room is basically a large room filled with nothing except pillars, arches, staircases, and doors to other hallways and rooms and wings. There's a few gasoliers along the ceiling, which is almost too high to see without looking upwards. The floor is tiled, much like a chessboard. Like a chessboard, half the tiles are black. However, the other half are a reflective silver color. Some are tarnished, some are polished. Nearly everything is covered in dust - which makes following Harley's footsteps easy - up until the point where they abruptly stop.

Harley fell through one of the polished tiles as if there were nothing there, and that tile rippled like water afterwards. The ripples and waves nearly die down by the time Darsy gets inside.


Fountain

Xanthos, using his Mage Sight, will be able to tell that it is, indeed, powered by something magical. Must be the pump, or something, because (as Darsy guessed) it wouldn't be working any longer if it ran on electricity.

As he studies the fountain, he'll also notice something very peculiar. After looking in the water for more than two seconds, his reflection will begin to fade. Actually, the reflection of everything begins to fade. Oddly enough, the longer he looks at the water, the more magical it becomes. It's also strange that it didn't do this when Darsy looked at it. There must be some reason why.

So, now the question is: Does he continue to study it or does he go on ahead to catch up?

Mirror, Mirror - Front Door

Darsy hurries up when she hears Card yell. When he turns back to her, he'll see that her fists are on fire, and her expression and stance show that she's expecting a fight of some kind.

At Card's words, Darsy relaxes her stance a bit. She looks around, but doesn't see any holes in the floor.

Where? And how? Trapdoor or something?

Seems she missed out on the silver tile shenanigans.

As the reflections in the fountain start to fade, Xanthos hisses some choice curse words in the demon tongue, snapping his attention away from the fountain. No sense in letting it do its thing when you don't know what it does. With a quick tread, he heads up to the front door and catches up with Darsy in time to hear her ask her question, and see a distinct lack of Harley. Taking this in, he mutters a few more demon swearwords.

"I would suggest we stay outside until we know what happened. Give me a moment to take a look."

He blinks, reactivating his mage sight, eyes glowing red as he examines the room.

[Hyperbolic sine]

[Arty's Epic Quest]

Sinc Ashna doesn not seem keen on following the wolf anymore, Alistair will lift it only a few inches above the ground, quickly move it in the fog so that Ashna won't see it running away, and release it at last. Farewell wolf.

[Beans]

Cabinetopia- Pipeways

Pat grimaces awkwardly. Uh... "Evening?" she says questioningly.
"Acanthe, I know nothing of relationships and less of these people. This one is on you. Introductions?" she says quietly.

Text colors exist again!
I---
The goo lady huffs. Then she decides it wasn't enough the first time and HUFFS AGAIN BUT MORE ENTHUSIASTICALLY.
I...
HUFF.
I DIDN'T EAT YOUR PEARLS
I DON'T BELIEVE YOU
WELL YOU'RE STUPID
YOU'RE STUPID
YEAH WELL FIX THIS LADY'S BUTT BACT TO A NORMAL BUTT
WHY SHOULD I
I DUNNO
IS SHE YOUR GIRLFRIEND
NO SHUT UP though i do like her regular butt but that's not relevant
FINE I'LL FIX HER THEN LEAVE
YELLING. The starjel lady has not deigned to turn to face her ex.

[ThePhantom]

Spoiler: Mirror Mirror

Show

Mirror, Mirror - Front Door

Darsy hurries up when she hears Card yell. When he turns back to her, he'll see that her fists are on fire, and her expression and stance show that she's expecting a fight of some kind.

At Card's words, Darsy relaxes her stance a bit. She looks around, but doesn't see any holes in the floor.

Where? And how? Trapdoor or something?

Seems she missed out on the silver tile shenanigans.

As the reflections in the fountain start to fade, Xanthos hisses some choice curse words in the demon tongue, snapping his attention away from the fountain. No sense in letting it do its thing when you don't know what it does. With a quick tread, he heads up to the front door and catches up with Darsy in time to hear her ask her question, and see a distinct lack of Harley. Taking this in, he mutters a few more demon swearwords.

"I would suggest we stay outside until we know what happened. Give me a moment to take a look."

He blinks, reactivating his mage sight, eyes glowing red as he examines the room.

"Like it was a pool."

Card stands back while Xanthos looks at the floor of the room. Detecting magic isn't something he can do very well.

[Deathkeeper]

Arty's Epic Quest

Arty sighs and releases Chadwick's power. He decides not to comment on his views of Alistair's animal cruelty. He also decides not to touch Ashna, even though his first instinct at her going over to him was to give her a pat on the head. Off they go, then.

Cabinetopia- Pipeways

For just a moment, one of Pat's eyes twitches. She even goes a little red.
"SHUT THE F*** UP! she screams. All the pent-up anger from today does a marvelous job of helping her project.
I have had one of the s****iest days in the history of s****y days, and frankly I don't give a crap about your history, I just want to be a normal human or at least stuck to something that isn't embarrassing. If you're going to do that, get on with it. And if not, shut up so I can find someone actually useful!"
It's a good thing the jels are probably immune to being throttled.

[Beans]

[Cabinetopia - Pipeways]
Everyone goes quiet for a long, long while. The jels around the edge start to scoot away, melting into streams and flowing out train holes.

The queen jel melts into a puddle, forming an arm to quietly beckon Pat closer. ... Step in.