Inside 59

[Ionbound]

[Temple of Bats]

Charlotte nods to Cleo and says, "I'm sure. Whoever she is, she needs to pay for what she's done...Thank you for helping me, though."

[Rebonack]

[Bob's Burgers]

Fortuna giggles back.

And then?

Something profound occurs to her.

"Oh my gosh! If we aren't really very special friends then that means I can go and check out your apartment and that's totally fine!"

What a revelation!

"We should do that. If you aren't busy doing Union things, I mean."

Union things are very important, after all. If they don't go around scowling at people and being in charge then who WOULD? Magtok? AMEN? Ralph Waldo Picklechips? Someone worse? Who knows.

[Devixer]

[Red Zone - Trash]

Susurrus is slow to react when Aiden lunges off his perch. He had expected - something. Anything. The violet energy arcs through Aiden and scorches the ground where he was, the asphalt exploding into oily chunks.

Sus's head is a bony protrusion, the remnants of a large carnivorous animal's skull. A great many eyes are inlaid along it's sides and front, but Aiden punches one of the largest. It pops with a sickening wet sound, and his fist comes away soaked in stinking brown-yellow muck. Susurrus... doesn't roar, however. It's eyes flinch in pain, but it doesn't quite rear back in agony.

The beast's long tail arcs up and around, it's tip wrapped around Aiden's sword. In a motion so fast it blurs before the eye, Susurrus tries to skewer Aiden on the blade. If it proves a success, Susurrus will lift him away from his huge, bony face with a violent motion.

Aiden catches his sword by the edge before he gets impaled again. He pushes against Susurrus's tail and gives a derisive snort. "Is this all you got, ugly? Seriously, I'm getting bored over here," he says.

[Deathkeeper]

Bob's Burgers

Nick pulls himself off of her, a heavy sigh escaping from his beak.
"I'm really going to miss being able to make you stammer by doing that. It was cute, for the record.
No, I was just investigating the gate your clone was messing with. That situation...resolved...
the park has been turned into a completely different thing, but that's not exactly dangerous...
I'm off the hook. Oh, that reminds me, did you get to keep the roll results that your clone landed on?" he asks her with some mild curiosity.
And then his eyes narrow, a wide, wide smile appearing on his face.
"Waaaait a second. All your kooky chaos magic has replaced your old 'griff magic.
That means I'll be able to fly faster than you! Mwahahaha!" he taunts cheerily.
That also means she's probably out of a job. Which is less entertaining.

[Shadowcaller]

Outside Chadwick's Temple

Arty nods.
"Well, I've read that section of the book three times, and I think I can handle that part at least. Just point me to what I need to do, sir, and I'll get it done."

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara does feel a bit woozy as the sedative kicks in, and then when the fiendish blood enters her system, she coughs and then groans suddenly as a blue tint spreads across her skin, leaving her a nice, light blue shade. A another groan, this one closer to a moan is elicited as cute little half-inch horns jut from her forehead, and tiny bat wings sprout from her back.

And, as suddenly as it started, the changes stop, and Clara looks at the back of her hand and flaps her little wings and says, "Ugh...Is that it?"

Outside Chadwick's Temple

"We need to find Radu first and make sure it doesn't kill the host. If I know Radu right, it will try do do that the instance we're spotted. I also fear the demon might have eyes within temple. Radu is made up of shadows, the most of it's being must be focused to possess my cleric but it can divide parts of itself to serve as it's eyes and ears. It can divide itself too much however or it would lose control of the host. If we only could trick it somehow, it would make things much easier." Chadwick explains.

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

"You. Were. Out. For. A. Bit." The nurse says monotonously. "Must. Have. The. Doctor. Check. On. You. First." She gestures at the little long-eared bat-creature which flies into the room with a chart held in it's tail. "Yes! Yes! I'm here!" It lands on her lap and looks at the chart through it's big glasses. "How are you feeling Clara? Dizzy? Does it hurt somewhere?" The doctor raises an eyebrown at her.

[Ionbound]

[Devil's Charm Hospital]

Clara smiles, perhaps a little wickedly, and says as she turns her hand back and forth in front of her, "I feel good...Very good."

[Recaiden]

[Temple of Bats]

Charlotte nods to Cleo and says, "I'm sure. Whoever she is, she needs to pay for what she's done...Thank you for helping me, though."

"Okay. So...how do we find her?"

Cleo starts meandering towards the exit.

[Rebonack]

[Bob's Burgers]

"That might still be possible," she replies with a wide grin. "But you're going to have to try a little harder now since I'm better at rolling with things. Including my special friend trying to make me act bashful."

Fortuna gives a flap and rises up into the air, grinning down at Nick. "Not quite! That curse was keeping my magic types neatly boxed away into separate compartments. Now that it's gone I've got full access to both."

The alternative would have been awful.

She would have felt positively terrible if she had lost the magic she grew up with completely.

"Okay then! I want to see that fancy new apartment of yours," she declares before suddenly thinking better of her present position and landing. "And maybe we should walk there? Or ride Riftline. You probably shouldn't be exerting yourself too much so recently after magical exhaustion."

Because magical exhaustion?

Serious business.

[Ionbound]

"Okay. So...how do we find her?"

Cleo starts meandering towards the exit.

Charlotte shrugs and says, "I dunno. She's probably going to come back here at some point though. Just keep an eye on the temple, maybe?"

[Deathkeeper]

Outside Chadwick's Temple

Arty puts a hand to his chin, trying to think of a way to trick a demon.
"Could we perhaps make a false image of us entering the temple, and then sneak in another way? Or could you snuff out the light entirely, and shroud us in darkness? If he couldn't see through it I doubt he'd ever expect it was you under that. Erm, we could also try asking someone to distract it, but we don't want to risk anyone else. Any ideas so far?" asks the centaur.

Bob's Burgers->Riftline->Metropolis Square?

Nick shakes his head.
"I'm gonna have to try real hard to surprise you, Miss. And that really is your catch-phrase, isn't it?
Ah, well. I'm still a better shot than you. I have something on you.
I liked the place because it was easily accessible from the air, but I really shouldn't fly. Sorry. Here, Riftline really isn't that far."
And so he walks there with her, his mind slowly getting the idea that he could get used to her in that kooky shape. She sounds more like her old self than the clone did. That's comforting.
They arrive at the Riftline, where with any luck nothing crazy will happen besides a normal Nexus train ride, in which a pair of quadrupeds can enjoy each other's company on the actually-somewhat-comfortable train sets, Nick quietly humming a tune he heard somewhere.

[Rebonack]

[Riftline ==> Metropolis Square]

Fortuna just rides along, humming to herself and staring out the window, watching the City zooming past as she rolls one of her golden d6s along her talons rather deftly. Sort of like one of those finger juggling balls! Except with dice. Or a die, rather.

"I've met a few people who were really homesick," she comments idly as a the train passes through a water-filled tunnel lined with little animatronic children singing 'It's a Small World'. "A lot of people who were homesick. The Nexus is such an amazing place, but not everyone who ends up here wants to be here. On the one claw getting snatched up is a good thing for some. They would have just been killed by some freak teleportation accident otherwise."

That would have been Geneva's fate, her constituent atoms scattered to the cosmic winds.

"But sometimes it seems grabs people for no good reason. They were just going through a door, or laying in their bed, or walking down the street. But that makes me wonder... When people like that get grabbed, maybe it was because something bad was going to happen to them if they stayed where they were?"

The draconequus glances over at Nick, an expression somewhere between curiosity and concern on her face.

"Do you think that might be what's happening? That the Nexus is trying to help in the only way it knows how?"

[Recaiden]

Charlotte shrugs and says, "I dunno. She's probably going to come back here at some point though. Just keep an eye on the temple, maybe?"

"Maybe. You can let us know when she's seen again?"
Cleo calls back to the priest.

"That would make sense, yeah. I was assuming just a random troublemaker."

[Deathkeeper]

Riftline->Metropolis Square

Nick looks over at his slightly-less-fuzzy-than-before girlfriend.
"Sheesh, I sure hope not. I was on an op, two miles away from the target with no one around. If I'd somehow managed to get that to go sideways, I would have been really sucking at my job.
I don't know if I could think that the Nexus could be alive in any sense. It's a very weird way to think about it. What kind of mind would a world have? I don't think I could ever guess that one."

[Rebonack]

[Riftline ==> Metropolis Square]

"If it does have one it would be unfathomably weird, given how wonky everything is. This place is like someone dumped a bunch of odds and ends into a kaleidoscope and decided to make a location out of what they saw," Fortuna laughs. "Or maybe one mind doesn't cut it. Maybe it's a whole bunch of minds all vying for different outcomes. That would explain a thing or two."

Or three. Or six.

"Or it might just be instinct. Or a complex program that snags people and things on a set of per-established parameters. Or just absolutely random," Fortune rattles off as she produces a second d6 and begins contact juggling the two of them between the talons on her left plaw. "Whatever it is, this is a fun and wonderful place. And I've got two goals for myself here. Making the place MORE fun and wonderful, and giving more people the chance to enjoy it. Hehe... Or stop enjoying it, if that's what they want. I'm getting close, Nick. I can almost taste it. I've just about figured out how to reliably widen and hold open microscopic bridges so people can safely traverse."

That'll be a big deal.

With that knowledge she'll be able to open the path back to her home universe.

Of course... she isn't quite the same person who left... But no one is ever really left the same after a visit to the Nexus, not really.

[Deathkeeper]

Riftline->Metropolis Square

Nick is comforted again with not-Geneva slipping back into the familiar, but something occurs to Nick, something which he said a long time ago but now doesn't just apply to him anymore.
"Erm, Fortuna? What will you do if you do get a gate open to your homeworld? How are you going to tell people about it? You said yourself that your home has a very bad history with your erm...kind. What if you being the one to advertise for it...spooks folks from it?"

[Cynceltri]

[Crystal Gardens]

Naxim was somewhat taken aback by the rather abrupt departure of the little silver dragon, but she was starting to take such things more in stride now, and merely sighed.

"Searching for a mobile castle does sound like fun, but I myself would really like to visit this 'Skyside' he mentioned earlier. I can't help but feel like my best chance of getting back home lies in that direction."

Floating up into the air, she began curling herself about in very serpentine patterns, following the tip of her tail.

"Still," she continued, "you are all very good company. I wouldn't mind postponing my attempts at reconnecting with my own reality if there's somewhere you'd like to go first. I'm feeling a bit more adventurous now that I have apparently gotten over my initial shock at being so displaced, and exploring the unknown and unfamiliar is what I end up doing most of the time anyway."

Coming out of her twisting glide, Naxim came to a halt, hovering roughly a foot and a half above the ground. She turned her gaze upon her companions and smiled.

"What say you?"

[Rebonack]

[Metropolis Square]

Fortuna just grins at that question. "Oh, I know. No one would trust me if I arrived looking like this. But if I'm lucky I should have the form altering trick figured out by then. But if not?" she shrugs. "Turns out I have a lot of really great friends who might be willing to help me."

Friends are pretty nice things to have.

And Fortuna has been making plenty of them.

A pleasant, automated voice announces, "Now disembarking for Metropolis Square," as the the train slows to a halt and the doors open.

Fortuna will hop off the seat into a hover and slip on out through the door.

[Deathkeeper]

Metropolis Square

Nick nods. "I hope they're all good at learning new languages." he says with a snort.
And with that, he takes the much more boring way of leaving using his (gasp!) feet.
Once out of the station, he'll point to a tall, tall building. Not a very thick one, but tall, and just as shiny as most of the ones around it.
"See that? Floor 22 is mine, just a few under the tallest of 25. Normally you could just fly up to the balcony, but we're being what passes for mundane in our lives." he says, smiling at the thought.
"Even for the Nexus, our level of 'normal' is pretty low."

[Rebonack]

[Metropolis Square]

Fortuna could walk if she wanted to!

Hovering around for no readily apparent reason is useful, though.

It's an easy, innocuous way to get more practice using her chaos magic. The chances of her hurting someone by ignoring gravity just because rather than using flight magic isn't very likely to harm anyone nearby. The only apparent side effect of her chosen method of transportation is the occasional wisp of chaos wafting from the end of her tail suddenly liquifying into a drop of impossibly colored paint.

The last one was purple with green polka dots.

"The Nexus' translational effect should cover that," Fortuna replies. "I was speaking in English when I went to the Marvel universe. I would imagine anyone who goes to mine would be speaking in Equestrian."

Heh... If Jace and Zebes accompanied her, there would be a good chance Zebes wouldn't change at all. And Jace would end up as a unicorn. Knowing Jace's luck, he would probably end up as a unicorn mare.

Anywho!

Fortuna peers up at the floor in question. "That isn't too far," she comments. "We should be able to fly that distance easy! If you get fatigued just tell me, okay? I can haul you up the rest of the distance."

[Deathkeeper]

Metropolis Square

Hey! Jace was a male haunter and a male dragon, those two things just happen to not be very obviously male to those of untrained eyes! And well, I don't know if he ever actually told her that particular detail of The Kangaroo Thing.
Nick takes a look up at the building.
"Yeah, you're right. I was just trying to play it safe though. Just be my spotter, then." he says.
And with that, he hunches up low to the ground, wiggles his rear a bit, and leaps into the air, letting his impossible flight magic keep those pesky laws of physics from having any say in the matter of him getting from points A to B.
As they get near the place, they'll come to a shady little balcony. Well, it's not always shady, just certain parts of the day, and just the parts that the balcony above it shades. In one of those not-shaded corners is a little honey mesquite tree in a broad pot. It looks oddly well-trimmed.
Nick alights onto the balcony easily, although Fortuna might need to hover a bit as he fishes the key from the inside of the helmet and starts fiddling with the lock.
"Sticky thing" he mutters.

[Rebonack]

[Metropolis Square]

Fortuna is, in fact, just sorta hovering there over the edge of the balcony and enjoying the view. Her old apartment actually wasn't that far from here, though she had used it more as a lab than as an apartment. She had been so busy setting up her equipment that she had forgotten to make room for a bed.

Most nights she didn't fall asleep on her desk were spent snoozing on a cloud parked over the balcony.

"Congratulations Nick! You made it up here without dropping out of the sky! I think your rate of magical metabolism is picking up a bit. You've been spending a lot of time as a griffin, haven't you?"

There's that sly little grin of hers coming along with the griffin comment.

She certainly approves of griffin time.

Though...

She'll admit that he's pretty cute as a human, too. especially after spending some time as one herself.

[Deathkeeper]

Metropolis Square

It's understandable that becoming something that doesn't belong to any one species would do a number to broaden one's taste in things like appearance.
Nick turns, grinning. "Compare how often I've been seeing you to what my job is supposed to be, and you'll realize how little I actually do. Besides, I save so much time and money flying. Not to mention that flying is awesome."
The key turns, and the door swings wide.
Inside is a lot of white and blue. Tasteful light-blue on the walls, some light furniture (but not white furniture, that stains like crazy). Most of it is done in what Fortuna probably would call reminiscent of home, since they both share that sense of aesthetic sometimes. A light sci-fi as interpreted by the 50's. Well, with the exception that he ordered extra-large everything. Extra wide cushions and seats, a broad, slightly low countertop.
One might wonder how he did this, but then you might realize literally all he had to do was request "size the room for a griffin, please." and the Nexus takes care of it.
The bathroom couldn't be helped too much, that's expensive to overhaul, but it still has one of those bathtubs so incredibly giant that even he could sit in it.
He should probably waterproof the walls, because he knows one of these days he's going to shake himself dry...

Nick takes his hat and arm-band off with a pleased sigh, and throws himself onto a couch, beak resting on his foreclaws.
"Make yourself at home." he says, relaxing.

[Rebonack]

[Metropolis Square]

"Flying is pretty awesome," Fortuna agrees with a head-bob as she drops down to her feet and lopes along behind Nick into the apartment. As she gazes about the room she can't help but smile. "This is why I love Metropolis Square," she says, her silly grin slowly creeping up her jawline. "It's what I imagine the world was like before the war ruined everything. Before everything was turned into tears and ash."

How morbidly poetic?

She turns to gaze out the window, smiling at the seemingly perpetually sunset sky providing dramatic back lighting to Metropolis Square's gleaming towers of glass, stone, and steel. Air ships and flying cars whiz through the man-made canyons, all sleek and streamlined. Everything gives a sense of speed. Of rushing into the future. A better future.

"Somewhere out there," Fortuna says with a sigh. "Somewhere in that bustling urban jungle, a super hero is punching an evil robot. I just know it."

She's right.

There's totally a super hero punching an evil robot about four blocks from their present location.

[Deathkeeper]

Metropolis Square

Nick gets up and walks over to her, leaning against her. She's only a bit bigger than her old shape, but she was already big to him, and now she's full-on towering. She's lucky he likes that for some reason.
"Yep. And right here, is a sometimes-griffin staring into the sunset with his special friend, whose ability to look good as a hodgepodge of critters will never quite be understood by him. I like that image, too. And I know that for sure." he says coolly, gazing out the window as well.

[Rebonack]

[Metropolis Square]

Sunsets always make things nicer.

Fortuna stretches both wings on Nick's side to wrap them around him and pull him closer. When you don't have any arms you just have to make do with what you have available. "I like it, too. The view is nice. But someone to share it with is better."

She leans down to bunt her head against him.

"You've already taught me a little bit about human dating rituals. The kiss was nice, but I went and made a huge deal out of it like a feather brain," Fortuna says as she noses at Nick's ear. "I think another would be nice, but this time I think we should just enjoy it."

And then?

She'll hug Nick closer and try to kiss him on the beak. She's actually sort of equipped with lips like this! Nick isn't though. But Fortuna really doesn't care. Human dating rituals seem a lot more fun and flexible to her.

[Deathkeeper]

Metropolis Square

Nick knows what's happening. He went for it after all. But it's not for a moment or two does a silly idea get planted into his head. A very, very silly one.
"Oh come on. You didn't know any better. Don't blame yourself." he says.
And he lets her get in close. He gauges himself, carefully checking that what he's thinking about isn't terribly dangerous, and satisfied that it isn't, he lets her lean in and kiss his beak. He waits a second or two, then shifts into human shape, making it a bit more of an actual kiss, even if it's the weirdest one he's ever even witnessed and a rather chaste one. That part-fuzzy, mostly-scaly mouth of hers is definitely not what his brain expects when it comes to romance, but damn if it isn't the thought he's trying to make count.
"How's that for a reversal of fortune?" he asks at last, grinning ear to ear as he has now almost entirely flipped the scenario from before.

[Septimus Faber]

[Crystal Gardens

"Well, I have no preferences. I know very little about Nexusian - is that right? - geography, so I wouldn't know where to begin. I'll happily go where everyone else wants to go," says Dr. Yarr.

[Murkus]

[Red Zone - Trash]

Aiden catches his sword by the edge before he gets impaled again. He pushes against Susurrus's tail and gives a derisive snort. "Is this all you got, ugly? Seriously, I'm getting bored over here," he says.

The eater of souls brings his great filthy hands up now, trying to grab Aiden off his face while at least one of the warrior's arms is occupied. They clutch and squeeze down in an attempt to catch him. Should they succeed, Aiden will be dashed against the nearest hard surface with the same force of a forty-mile-per-hour car crash. Then again, and again. Flung about, hurled against upturned asphalt or slime-greased concrete sewer walls in a mad attempt to batter him and his upstart mouth apart.

If they miss, well, they'll grasp only air.

The Place of Little Idols

Mist is somewhat confused by all of this. Did Tina always bring her dates here? Or was it just...casual...if she didn't call them dates?
He gives a somewhat awkward smile to the automaton, and in a desperate move tries to make conversation.
"So uh, what is your schedule? What is it that you do here?"
asks the nervous changeling.

Mist doesn't have to be quite so desperate - the pair of them don't seem too genuinely irritated with one another. Apol is perfectly willing to answer Mist's question at any rate. He turns his blank face to the fox-lad and says, in a perfectly clear voice, "I pray. To the idols."

"That's all he does. All day. I've seen him," Tina assures Mist, glancing at him and nodding.

"Someone has to remember. Things die, if people forget about them. I don't forget things. Not ever," Apol meet's Mist's gaze with it's own nonexistent one. "So I worship, prostrate, sacrifice. Whatever they require."

[Rebonack]

[MS - Nick's Flat]

While Fortuna certainly does have scales running down her forehead and the bridge of her snout, her nose, lips, and even the slightly hooked end of her 'beak' all have a soft, velvety feel to them. Different from a human, that's for sure. Probably a little strange. But since when has the Nexus ever been choosy in matching up unlikely pairings?

When Nick returns to human shape Fortuna does her best to suppress a giggle and focuses on one aspect of herself that she does have mastery over changing. Her size. She compresses herself down to a more human scale, fidgets a bit to adjust her wing hug on Nick, and continues the kiss unabashed. Then Nick pulls away and provides his little pun.

Fortuna laughs. She laughs because she's happy. She laughs because she's crying. She laughs because the laughter is bubbling up inside her and what else is she to do? Once she manages to compose herself she grins back and says, "That was pretty bold of you, Nick. And *snrk* you know what they *hehe* what they say about the bold?"

She doesn't finish the obvious little proverb.

Instead she leans in to kiss him again. Human or griffin, she doesn't care. She loves him, not something so superficial as his appearance. Because if there's anything she's learned in the Nexus, it's that appearances can be very flexible.

[Deathkeeper]

Place of Little Idols

Mist raises his eyebrows and his ears, intrigued by the robot man and his odd little mystery.
"What do you remember for them? What are they?
...
what do they need as a sacrifice?" he asks politely.