Inside 60

[FireFox]

NPC Memorial Park

Thank you, I'll have to consider what would be the most useful. Douglas takes the rod and holds it while thinking about what Zane just said. It wasn't looking like he could run the pyromancer as an agent. No good motivations of greed or glory to take advantage of. But... there were other advantages to be gained. He could settle for those with the greatest degree of safety. He wasn't sure he dared to risk the pyromancer turning on him if he was brought on for the long term. All right, here's what I'm going to do. In one week, I will call you and set up another meeting. At that time, I will offer you a job. Most likely a person or place for you to burn to ashes, but I need time to figure out the details. In addition, I will bring one thousand dollars for every dossier of an AMEN member you can write up and bring to me then. Their names, descriptions, strengths and weaknesses... everything you can get. I want, at the very least, a report on the current leader. That's a solid grand. I doubt AMEN has ten active members anymore, but if they do and you get me their information, that'd be ten thousand in cash. Understand? Easy money, right?

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Nick shrugs.
"Well, I think that from what I've seen you've only ever had one bad incident with rolling, and that was a) not actually you and b) while you had some serious mental issues from the fox-spell. So really, I don't have a reason to think that it could be bad, and it's a day of fun, isn't it?
And yeah, food would not be welcome."

Monochrome waves back as they leave.
"Have a nice day! Come back sometime!" he calls.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

Back out into the street they go, crisp autumn wind breezing through the darkened streets as a bright yellow harvest moon illuminates them from above with its festive glow. Fortuna bounces along, admiring the various lanterns glowing upon porches and hanging from posts.

"See, that's what I've been telling people," Fortuna says. "They're all just fun and silly. The ones that are actually bad are more of an inconvenience than anything that's actually trouble. So with that in mind!"

She braces herself and grins at Nick, letting the face of her dice (showing the one and six sides on her left and right hip, respectively) catch the moonlit light!

"Give it a spin and we'll see what kind of adventure we get!"

Adventure?

Excitement?

Silliness?

It'll certainly be something.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Well, there was the acid-blood roll result, but presumably she could stop that one from happening if it came up again, and it only happened because she was still in Chaos Transition and needed something to stop crazy aliens. Still, that one proved quite deadly. Not that Nick knows about that.

"Well, they might all be silly, but they can be quite a hassle, enough that I don't know if I'd let kids handle it. I mean, you did say you found one or two that were harmless but nasty."

Like when she blew up Ezekiel. He got better! Slightly traumatized, but better.

"But I can handle that small chance of nastiness. And I trust you to handle some damage control on the off-chance something like that comes up."

And with that, he gives the dice a spin with a simple flick of his claw.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

Fortuna has gotten pretty good at not making weird noises when someone rolls her.

Instead?

She just grins like an idiot and watches the dice spin!

Eventually they settle down on, "Five hundred fifteen!"

Which is a nice enough number!

And what does this result in?

Well...

A younger version of Nick suddenly appears! As in younger when he was human. And by younger we mean, say, seven years old. Younger Nick will have all of his memories up to his seventh birthday and may be rather confused about why he's suddenly riding on the back of a griffin wearing a Thor costume.

[Aric Kale]

NPC Memorial Park

Thank you, I'll have to consider what would be the most useful. Douglas takes the rod and holds it while thinking about what Zane just said. It wasn't looking like he could run the pyromancer as an agent. No good motivations of greed or glory to take advantage of. But... there were other advantages to be gained. He could settle for those with the greatest degree of safety. He wasn't sure he dared to risk the pyromancer turning on him if he was brought on for the long term. All right, here's what I'm going to do. In one week, I will call you and set up another meeting. At that time, I will offer you a job. Most likely a person or place for you to burn to ashes, but I need time to figure out the details. In addition, I will bring one thousand dollars for every dossier of an AMEN member you can write up and bring to me then. Their names, descriptions, strengths and weaknesses... everything you can get. I want, at the very least, a report on the current leader. That's a solid grand. I doubt AMEN has ten active members anymore, but if they do and you get me their information, that'd be ten thousand in cash. Understand? Easy money, right?

NPC Memorial Park

Zane nods in agreement.

Acceptable. I will be waiting for your call. Is there anything else you need of me?

He asks, turning to leave. Money doesn't interest him, nor does selling out the AMENites...of course, watching AMEN burn would be quite the spectacle.

Fun times ahead.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Assuming we're keeping what he would have had on at the time, young Nick would be wearing a very simple cloth shirt and pants, with sandals. It's hot in California after all.
They boy looks at the colorful decorations, the colorful and colorfully dressed dragon in front of him and blinks a few times. In fact, it's quite a few seconds before he even realizes that he's sitting on something, and only really does because Nick unconsciously wiggles his red-dyed wings at the sudden increase in weight. The griffin swings his head around in surprise, but the boy speaks first with a dumb, "Uh, what is all this?" and a small frown.
Nick might not have recognized himself from just the face, but the voice helps him put two and two together.
"Aw, geez. Geneva, how long's he here for? I need a stable time loop, you know!" he says worriedly. The boy looks even more confused as the bird-thing he's sitting on talks in a voice that sounds kinda like his dad.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

"Nonsense!" Fortuna laughs. "Time travel doesn't work that way. And I'm about eighty three percent certain that him being here doesn't even have anything to do with time travel."

Probably more like cloning.

Or maybe he was grabbed from an alternate universe?

Something like that.

"And I have no idea! The random chaos magic event didn't have a duration, so it might be for five minutes or five forevers," she rambles. Then? She grins a silly grin at the child and produces her hitherto unseen bag full of gourmet, artisan candies. "Hello there! This is an adventure! Would you like some candy?"

She offers the bag to the child.

The contents smell wonderful and aren't even kind of radioactive! And does Kid Nick know what a PIPboy looks like? Because Fortuna is totally wearing one.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Young Nick blinks. He's not supposed to accept anything from people he doesn't know, but he's fairly sure that he's dreaming, or that this weird mutant critter thing in a dress counts as a person. She seems nice, though. He takes one.
"Well, ok then. But maybe we should get him off of the street before-"
"So, where am I, anyway? And why do you have a Pip-boy? Did you walk outta some Vault somewhere?" demands the little boy, cutting himself (heh) off.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

The candy Lil Nick takes happens to be a bon bon wrapped in colorful foil. He'll have to unwrap it first! Only then will he be able to dine on the glorious chocolate.

"Flew out of a Vault somewhere, yep," Fortuna replies, her tone a little more reserved than she was just a moment ago. She nods toward a nearby pumpkin patch with a canvas tent built above it so kids can frolic amidst the oversized orange fruit. Some children are just having fun hunting for candy hidden amidst the pumpkins while others are playing games and still others are doing some pumpkin carving!

That counts as off the street, right?

Hmm...

A lot of those kids are wearing nice clothing. It doesn't look old or worn or anything! And costumes! And...

And a lot of them don't look human. Sure some of them look human enough, but quite a few don't. Some weird mutant community? Or just a weird dream?

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Young Nick pouts. "That was only one answer." he says before popping the candy into his mouth. He looks like he's about to say something else, but is temporarily distracted by the heaven happening in his mouth. Nick Prime takes the question.
"This is Inside. It's a city where things end up from other places. Fortuna here accidentally brought you here, but what she did to do that might send you back soon. I'll take care of you 'til that happens, okay? And even if it doesn't."

Young Nick looks down at the smiling face of the bird-thing who sounds like his dad. After a second or two, he nods. Living on the borders of the NCR means that you're living knowing that at any point some psycho might show up and blow up your place. He's not as despondent as other kids might be at the concept of being separated from his family. And he doesn't know why, but these two do sound like they mean well.
"Why do you think I want that?" he asks, suddenly acting to the contrary of the nod he just gave, as in remembering that he's supposed to do so.

"Because I know basically everything about you, including what you like and your name."
"How?"
"Because I'm magic. And if you're good I'll teach you how to be what I am. Before you ask why you'd want to, it's because griffins can fly, and flying sounds awesome and you know it." he says, sarcastic grin spreading.
Young Nick crosses his arms and huffs, defeated, because that all did sound pretty accurate.

[Shadowcaller]

Libra's Lovelorn Lovers

Arty laughs a bit at that.
"The same way you control two legs. You just need to know the right ways to stand and move. I guess you need to practice moving about like that." he says with a shrug.

And then Libra. Arty turns. "Uh, just normal ways are fine. Although I suppose that'd need trying for my shirt. I uh, don't think it matters." he says, not really able to think of many methods right now.

Libra's Lovelorn Lovers

As he turns he will see that Libra is dressed in full supporter gear, with an giant hand that says, "Go Arty!" along with a t-shirt and a cap of a similar theme. "Not even a water-themed rollercoaster? Or a obstacle course? It will be hilarious!" Libra loudly proclaims.

"Please, no more 'hilarious' for me, I can barely stand over here..." Zhora comments as she slowly manages to get up, now nearly completely drenched in mud from head to hoof.

[Deathkeeper]

Libra's Lovelorn Lovers

Arty chuckles a little bit at how stupid that sounds, but shakes his head.
"I think it'd be best if you just made all the mud go away, Libra. She says she's had enough, and I can't say that I blame her. Maybe some other time."
He turns his head to the demon.
"I know it doesn't help, but I do think you look very nice in that shape even if you uh, need a bit to figure out how to work it." he tries to compliment her, the ridiculous nature of the scenario helping him keep from getting too nervous right now.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

If there IS time travel involved here somehow and Nick teaches his younger self how to be a griffin then what kind of impact would that have on older Nick?

Now isn't that a question.

"We both came from worlds that were a lot like yours," Fortuna says. And what she says is quite true. "But with differences, obviously."

Like the whole 'not being human' part.

And the 'magic' part.

Both of those parts are important.

"And truth be told, it's a lot nicer here. That's why I'm working on a way to let people come and go freely! It'll be super-great, but the project is still a work in progress. We probably won't have to use the Bridge to get you home. More likely the spell that pulled you here will wear off and you'll snap back to where you're supposed to be like nothing happened."

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

This would likely just create a branching timeline, as if Nick already knew that he wouldn't have asked Wukong for the ability, thus creating a paradox.

Young Nick nods, sort of getting that. Even in a lousy world a seven year old is a lot easier to convince that magic is a thing. Especially given his surroundings.
"Well, ok. So what to we do now? And uh, what're you? You said you're a 'griffin.'" says the boy, poking 'himself' in the back of the head.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

"I'm Fortuna Wonder and I'm a draconequus," Fortuna replies with proudly, puffing out her chest a little. "The only draconequus left from my world, as far as I know. Most of them ended up going a little bit crazy-"

She sticks out her tongue, crosses her eyes, and begins twirling a talon next to her head.

"-and so they had to get stuck in the ground."

Killed and/or sealed away in a pocket universe or torment forever.

More or less the same thing.

"It's a real shame, but just the way things are I guess. And what to do next..." she hums, looking over the various activities for children in the little street fair. "Well... My special friend and I are just out to have some fun tonight since it's Spooktober! Would YOU like to have some fun, too? You'll need a costume. Costumes on Spooktober are in important tradition to keep you from being spirited away by spooks that don't actually exist."

The most nefarious kind!

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Nick smirks. "You're right on a technicality, but you weren't a draco when you were still in your home-world." he says.
"Was that like how you learned to be a griffin?" asks the boy.
"No, someone just taught me how to do that, hers was a bit more stressful. And permanent."
"Oh. Is it like Ghouls?" asks the boy.
Nick blinks. Exposed to a high amount of chaos magic and transformed, tend to go insane but otherwise capable of being perfectly good people?
"Yes, it's like Ghouls. But fluffier and with more magic."

Young Nick seems to accept this answer. And then offers of fun.
"Oh, like in the old posters? Uh, okay, if we're just wasting time. Where do we get one?" he asks.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

Ghouls are created by awful necromancy radiation back where Fortuna is from.

It's SUPER awful.

When you start dealing with magical technology, war can get pretty terrible in its most heartless extremes. Not that conventional war is no less brutal. Killing people is still killing people.

Anywho!

Fortuna just smiles and nods.

"Well, as it just so happens there's a costume shop right over there!" she says, pointing at the shop in question. It's a pretty curious looking building. A strangely crooked place crammed into a far-too small space between two other buildings, its red tile roof and hanging lanterns giving it a distinctly oriental feel. Its sign reads 'Odsin Ends' Curio Shop'. The place has quite a few costumes on display out front and it is almost without a doubt one of those magical stores that vanishes when you leave.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Nick looks over and nods. His younger self does about the same.
Neither of them knows about those kinds of stories. Wasteland ghost stories don't have shops as the focus normally, since there's not many towns out in the desert.
"Neat. Sounds good then." Nick says, and pads over to the front door to head in. Yay shops!

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

For what it's worth?

Fortuna doesn't either.

Cessie had talked to her briefly about the concept, but it wasn't something she was particularly familiar with so she wouldn't know what a stereotypical magical shop would even look like. And this thing is totally a stereotypical magical shop.

Anywho!

In they go!

The interior is... cluttered... to say the least. Tables and shelves abound with baskets stacked up below them, strange and whimsical things overflowing from their containers. Codexes, trinkets, the occasional cute fuzzy creature not to be fed after midnight, baubles, forbidden tomes, scrolls of all sorts both loose and sealed away in scroll tubes, strange crystals, the occasion arcane looking weapon, and of course spooky costumes. Dried plants (and dried other things) hang from strings on the ceiling and somewhere in the depths of the store a huge grandfather clock can be heard ticking, each tock causing time itself to shudder. The place smells heavily of incense and spicy herbs.

"Oooh, this place is neat," Fortuna observes.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Nick crouches down low so Young Nick can easily dismount, although the boy moves up to the griffin's front and stays quite close to him. He's still not sure why he's trusting him, but he's not going to be passing up the griffin's protection.
"Yeah, I'll say." says Nick, looking around. What even is this stuff?

The boy pokes at the griffin's neck. "Come on, we have to find the costumes!" he says irritably, and with a chuckle the griffin lets himself be dragged in that direction.

[UncleWolf]

The blow hits, scattering the little plastic caltrops everywhere and distracting the undead creature as it's knocked down upon it's rear end.
Meanwhile, the girl taps Veronica a bit harder than needed and points to a nearby grate to some vents just big enough for them to fit in. It's the only real exit as one is blocked by plastic foot torturers.

ODS

Veronica freezes the moment the vent is pointed to and she can't help but shudder. "N-No. I don't do tight spaces. Just...no. You go. I'll take my chances with the zombies and just fly out of here using the stairs." This probably isn't too surprising. A creature with unparalleled freedom due to flight probably hates being restricted in any way.

"I wish for job advice from a- you offered, and I need help," Eadelain counters. "I don't know what I'm doing. I have some experience doing cleaning and filing, but that's it. I don't want to do that more than I have to, but I don't have a solid education, either. I don't even know if I really want to work a job. I don't know what I want, and so I don't know what to do. I only know that what I was doing isn't going to work anymore, so things have to change."

Astrana's Apartment

"Are you talking about accountant work or secretary work? I have positions for both, though I don't believe you'd like to work for me personally. I own clubs of various sorts, particularly of the more adult themed kind even if I consider them a bit more...tasteful than most." The Wolf God explains. "That said, I do offer quite a bit in the way of perks."

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

Deeper into the strange shop they go...

Fortuna seems to have been distracted by books! This should come as a surprise to no one.

Nick gets dragged into a section of the store that appears to be dedicated mostly to costumes.

Odd thing about them, though is the sorts of costumes that aren't among them. No popular culture figures. No super heroes. Just spooky looking creature masks and the like. Hmmm... Looks like they have clothing on sale back here, too.

Maybe they should pick up something a little warmer for the kid?

Spooktober is a lot cooler than July.

By quite a bit, as it happens.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Stuff! Masks! Things!
Young Nick has barely ever been in a store, let alone one like this. Nick easily guides him to the rack and shelves of masks and costumes.
"You find something. I'll see if I can't find you some real shoes and such. What's your shoe size again?"
"What do you mean?" asks the boy in response.
Nick blinks. "Oh. Right. Well, I'll just be a second." he says, lumbering off to find kid-shoes and maybe some pants.

Young Nick meanwhile, is having basically the same idea, and browses through the place to see if he can't find something more than just a mask and a feather or two. Because he really was cold out there.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

Looking for something a little more all-covering, are you little Nick? Well, there are a few of those! Suits more akin to something that someone might be wearing in a movie. Or maybe a cosplay? Various mythological creatures and more fantastical things besides. Dragons of various sorts, manticores, hydras, griffins in different cultural flavors. Gargoyles and ghouls and ghastly ape men! For whatever strange reason all the costumes look invitingly warm.

Huh...

Weird that they all appear to be in his size...

That's probably just a magical curio shop, for you.

Does the lad make a choice?

If so, what does he pick?

[Shadowcaller]

Astrana's Apartment

"Does those perks include a basic education? She's a smart girl, but don't she need at least some learning to take such a position?" Astrana asks Wolfy.

Libra's Lovelorn Lovers

"Pffh, boring!" Libra exclaims, not caring particulary much that Arty is talking with someone else at the same time. "We need something to make this more exciting. What about we skip the cruise deal and let you decide what your prize is! A dating wish!"

Zhora smiles at that compliment. "I like the sound of that." She states as she crosses her muddy arms underneath her chest. "And I do enjoy experiencing new forms, one of the major perks of being able to change it at will."

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Young Nick frowns at the rack. People in the NCR would kill for this much fresh cloth. This city is weird.
He'd prefer something that looked a little less silly, but these costumes all seem so thorough chances are no one would even recognize him under the hood and critter's face even if they did know him!
With that in mind, he ought to take something that's fun, and not too drab, shouldn't he? He eventually lands on a basic-looking dragon. There are so many spooky reptiles here, but that's probably because they make good monsters. The ape suit seems pretty lame, and he's got no idea why there's one that looks like a Brahmin-bull with only one head. The dragon suit in question is a dark orange (it seemed like a nice but not too bright color) and looks somewhat similar to the others, but has more of an Eastern flavor, with more antler-like horns on the head and a fuzzy mane to go with the wings and tail. It looks awfully well made. Young Nick hopes he doesn't drag the tail on the ground and get it all dirty.

Libra's Lovelorn Lovers

Arty frowns and thinks for a moment.
"Well, first is that I definitely want the date money you promised me. I already went and earned it, and Chadwick really can't afford to pay me much of a salary. I'll be a pretty lame date if I'm broke after the first one.
The cruise idea sounded pretty, but well, hooves don't do so well on rocking ships. So how about somewhere equally scenic on land? A nice place to visit for a few days. A first date shouldn't be terribly fast-paced, or so my brother always said. So that means none of your monsters there, Libra. I've had quite enough of those!" he says, crossing his arms as well, and focusing entirely on the Oni to avoid stammering. As long as he doesn't think too hard about the date part he should be fine...

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

An orange dragon with antlers?

That sounds like a pretty great pick. Is it the sort with a more wolfy face or the dinosaurish ones?

Regardless of detail, getting it down off the hook should be easy enough. The scales and mane feel awfully real, assuming Lil Nicky has ever handled creatures with features like that before and the glass eyes are so convincing one might almost expect them to suddenly blink. Apparently this is one of those costumes where you peer out through the mouth.

There's a zipper along the back hidden by a velcro strip that the suit's fuzzy ridge down the spine covers up. The suit is already open, so Lil Nicky could climb into it easily enough if he felt so inclined, he'll just need some help zipping it closed.

What's Fortuna doing right now?

Still looking at forbidden tomes, of course.

[Lost_Deep]

Astrana's Apartment

"I mainly did janitorial duties and some paper filing," Eadelain admits. She was thorough and reliable at it, too!

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Let's compromise and say it's a slightly pointy-snouted dinosaurish one.
Clothes shopping isn't really something that people do in the Wasteland, but logic states that you should make sure something fits before you buy it. Young Nick slips the costume on, although the detailed costume seems to have its own clawed feet, which does make him need to take his sandals off.

Nick comes back at this point, with a set of long-sleeved shirt, jeans, socks, and some possibly-second-hand sneakers that all seemed appropriately sized.
"Oh, founds something already? Looks cool. If we know it fits we'll just make sure this stuff does before we find the clerk and pay." says the griffin.