Home 19 - Please Contact Your Friendly Neighborhood Realtor

[Septimus Faber]

Garden Away From Home

I know a guy, Cornelius remarks. But I'm not sure if I'd be able to reach him with all the weirdness that's flying about at the moment - oh, no offence intended, Reynardine. He looks slightly embarassed.

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Tree]

"Oh, uhh, there have been a ton of undead popping up lately," Sunder says. "Like... a lot. The infectious kind. The just come into a village at night, turn everyone, and then bail before the sun rises. It makes an echo in the Gloom that's really easy to find and I've been sending my little ponies to do clean-up."

Sunder frowns at this.

"No idea why this stuff is happening all of a sudden. The last time undead started crawling out of the woodwork like this was when..." she trails off, her skin shuddering. "Back when I died the first time..."

Which is bad.

Super duper bad.

Atropus returning would be terrible in pretty much every single way that matters.

"Well... I guess we're stronger and tougher than normal ponies, at least at night. Direct sunlight really messes us up, though," Sunder admits.

The pair continue to walk deeper into the roots of the Tree, the path illuminated by magical lanterns giving off cool, silvery light.

[Garden Away From Home]

"I could find a local phone book?" Rey offers.

The local phone book may or may not be infinitely large.

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Tree

That... wasn't what Punch meant, but there's a bigger issue that Sunder just brought up. "Someone's Put a Price On your head and the heads Of your Ponies. It's On the wall. Marked 'totally not Orcus.' I'm not Sure what Orcus is Or if he'd Be Stupid enough to Do that, But it means that Someone Doesn't want you eating Undead. That implies that Someone is Sending the Undead."

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Tree]

Sunder whistles. "Hoo, that was faster than I was expecting. Me and my little ponies redeemed a lieutenant of Krampus' the other day along with... way too many wights that used to be people." She gives her head a shake. "They hit this mega-apartment complex over in the slums looking for a fancy cup called the Crucible. Ardent Heart doesn't know what the thing is or what Krampus wants it for, just that he was told to go grab the thing and kill anyone who got in the way."

She gives a snort and a lash of her tail.

"The guy's like... an end game boss or whatever. Rules over this nasty frozen part of the Gloom and styles himself Prince of Undead. Real bad news."

Apparently Sunder is already aware of him!

Really not a very nice person.

"I was kind of expecting him to notice what I'm doing, what with all the undead I'm converting and stuff," Sunder muses. "I think he's the guy that's always scheming to find some way to make everyone who dies end up as an undead down in the Gloom to bolster is army."

The pair of friends soon reach a pair of massive double doors decorated with a rather distinctive Spirograph engraving that may be familiar to Punch. Sunder begins shoving them open. "In other news, I found this place while I was poking around down here. It reminded me of some of the stuff you had told me about, so I wanted you to take a look."

With a groan the doors are shoved open, revealing a chamber with a massive stone bed in the center. A bedpost rises from each corner of the slab, ending in a white sphere at the top. And in the center of the bed? A symbol inscribed, a set of six unconnected crescents arranged in a circular pattern.

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Tree

"...what?" Punch blinks, and is obviously surprised. "What's one of these... THINGS doing here? Is this because I broke my other one?"

[Rebonack]

[The Shadowood Tree]

Sunder grins a grin!

"Ha! I thought it looked like the sort of stuff you were describing from that game," she laughs. "So I'm with you, what's one of these things doing in my treehouse? Is this kind of like those game monsters showing up out in the hunting grounds? Just some random Nexus crazy going down?"

You never know with random Nexus crazy.

It could strike at any moment!

Sunder pokes at the slab a few times with her spooky shadow mane.

"So... what the hell is it? It looks like a bed. Or maybe one of those sacrificial slabs deranged cultists use."

Silly deranged cultists.

[Lost_Deep]

The Shadowood Tree

"Sacrificial slab, yes. It's connected to a SGrub player. If the player dies on it, or is placed there after death, they ascend to god tier."

While the effect isn't obvious, the how to use is straightforward enough. Morbid, but not straightforward.

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Tree]

"Soo..." Sunder replies hesitantly after a few moments. "If you get killed I can dump you on this thing instead of kissing your corpse?"

Because Sunder really doesn't like the idea of kissing humanoids.

Especially dead humanoids.

That's just weird.

[Deathkeeper]

Morgan's Place

Well, it isn't really Morgan's place. It's hers and Air Brush's. Morgan rather bashfully asked the pegasus to room with her when she realized most of the apartments and such were as large as they were. Morgan's already living off Sunder's benevolence, she doesn't want to be wasteful with it.
Everyone was very hospitable when it came to moving in. The houses had all already had their furniture, so no one had to deal with silly chairs or something they couldn't use lying around. The sinks were still a bit high, though. All in all though, Morgan was just happy to get back to bed after all that mess at her old place was done with. She had a nice, peaceful sleep, despite the circumstances.
In the morning, Morgan awakes, cheerfully trots over to the blinds, discovers that opening the blinds in the morning is a terrible idea, and vows never to do so again before 6 pm. She knows she's a bat, but she didn't expect to end up nocturnal! With a sigh, she wanders back into the bathroom with its stupid high sink...
...that doesn't seem very high any more.
Morgan comes back into the bedroom, fearfully poking at her friend.
"Air? Air Brush, wake up. Do I look different?" she says in a near-panic. Justifiably too, since she's noticeably taller, with a bit more of that shadeling predatory look, and now has a shiny gold highlight in her mane.

[Lost_Deep]

Shadowood Tree

"No. It's not mine, that's not my elemental symbol. It's similar, but different. That... I don't remember." She shakes her head. "I never paid enough attention to the details."

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Tree]

Sunder scrunches her nose a bit.

"Okay. If I find another one of these things, what would your version look like?"

Hey.

This is the Nexus.

The chances of that happening aren't strictly bad.

[Morgan's Place]

The neighborhood around Midnight Park actually isn't that bad. Or at least not as bad as it used to be. It wasn't quite a slum, no. More like a depressed suburban area infested by unpleasant types of both the mundane and non-mundane sort. The park, after all, served as a safe haven for creatures that shunned the light. And typically creatures that shun the light aren't very pleasant. But then Team Nightmære began buying up all the empty houses previously filled with undead squatters and started recruiting.

While still officially part of the Residential Red Zone, things are looking up. The people trying to scratch out a living in a more depressed part of the town are certainly thankful for a new herd of neighbors, even if the new neighbors put what too much emphasis on the 'neigh'.

Most of the houses were little two bedroom deals in pretty rough shape, but you might be amazing what a small army of industrious people working together can accomplish. Especially when their work is backed by extensive tomb raiding. Two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and a bathroom. All stocked with pony-style furnishings and stuffed with five nightmære shadelings living together like a little family.

When Shadow goes tip-toeing back to her room she'll pass Dark Chocolate, the house's lone unicorn stallion and chef, snoozing on the couch. As the odd one out, he sadly didn't get his own room. On the upside, he gets to decorate the kitchen and living room however he likes. However he likes seems to involve a rather homey feel with lots of little ceramic roosters everywhere. Flower pots, glass trinkets, salt and pepper shakers, napkin holders, the works. That and pictures of old barns.

Shadow makes it back to her room without incident and begins prodding at Air Brush, who makes a plaintive noise and turns over on her cot. After a little more pestering she finally gets out a groggy, "Wassit..." It takes a moment or two for her eyes to focus, but when they do... "Whoa. You got... bigger. And pointier and stuff." She grins a mischievous grin at her friend. "Did you level up or something? You like like a nightmære spawn now."

[Deathkeeper]

Morgan's Place

Morgan blinks. Is that what happened?
"I...guess I'm about as tall as Red is. Uh, is that a thing that can happen? I mean I did blow up a forge-wight. Uh...I don't feel very different. So...I guess it doesn't really matter?"
If Air is perceptive enough, she might notice that Shadow's shadow doesn't appear to be obeying the lighting of the room. It also appears to be shrugging, even though her friend is most certainly not doing that,

[Rebonack]

[Morgan's Place]

Well.

Apparently Morgan's shadow doesn't know the answer to her questions either.

"Hell if I know," Air snickers. "I've got all of an hour on you when it comes to this stuff. Everypony is blundering through what's happening to us blindly. I've heard a few ponies even say that all this stuff is new to the Mistress, too. That she wasn't like this until a few weeks ago."

That's almost frightening, isn't it?

That something could start with one and grow this quickly.

It should be frightening to the undead monsters prowling the Nexus. But it isn't. Mostly because the majority of them can't feel, per se.

"Uuuh... do you think maybe we should tell somepony about what happened to you?" Air suggests. There had been a brief talk on the trip over about various things they should keep in mind whilst being shadelings. One important rule was that they were supposed to report any nightmære spawn that they sired immediately. It was a little fuzzy who they were supposed to report to. But the destination was Shadowood Hold at the center of Midnight Park.

[Deathkeeper]

Morgan's Place

You know what else is a little fuzzy? Everyone in the building right now. And chances are whoever they're supposed to report to is also a little fuzzy.
Morgan frowns a bit. She asked Air Brush because she seemed to have a better grip on everything. She was more comfortable, at least it seemed. Her vocabulary changed while Morgan's didn't.
"I guess we probably should. They said we should tell them if we redeemed anyone pretty strong. I didn't start out that way but I think I am now.
...
After breakfast though?"
she says, her stomach growling a bit.

[Rebonack]

[Morgan's Place]

Fuzzy in at least two ways. Fuzzy in one way isn't so bad. It's like wearing pajamas all the time. Fuzzy in the other way is a little more annoying, since you aren't clear on what's going on. Pretty much every single person in Team Nightmære is still trying to figure out what's going on. Learning about themselves. Learning about their friends. It's all one big adventure they're all having together.

Air Brush gives a nod in reply. "Yeah, after breakfast sounds good. Here, let me get the blinds," she mutters as she trots toward the room's window, completely unaware of the unpleasantness that awaits her on the other side.

Meanwhile!

Dark Chocolate makes some sputtering noises and rolls off the couch, landing on the floor with a thump. His breathing is fast and irregular, his eyes wide and searching for unseen threats. The wights were going to kill him! He has to get away! He has to... has to... The shady unicorn's ears droop as he closes his eyes and takes several deep breaths. "I'm one of the Mistress' little ponies now, they can't hurt me anymore." He repeats the mantra until his heartbeat calms down. The feelings of immanent danger eventually fade and he rubs his head with his cloven hooves. "Just a dream... just a bad dream... Need a distraction."

Thankfully he gets to do his favorite distraction. Dark Chocolate trots into the kitchen, lights up his horn, and begins gathering what he needs. Pancakes, eggs, and sausage. Yeah, that sounds good. Simple and tasty. Something that smells great to draw everypony else out of their caves.

[Lost_Deep]

[Shadowood Tree]

Sunder scrunches her nose a bit.

"Okay. If I find another one of these things, what would your version look like?"

Hey.

This is the Nexus.

The chances of that happening aren't strictly bad.

"It would Be... Similar, But white, with the Crescents touching in the Center. There are a few more I've Seen, But it will take me a Bit to Remember them all," Punch says with a shrug. "Maybe we Can look them Up On the internet."

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Tree]

"Nah, I don't think we need to look 'em up," Sunder admits. "I was just wondering if I could use this thing to revive you in the event of an acute case of the deads."

Acute cases of the deads are the worst.

"I've been looking for people who know how to run... stuff. Not a whole lot of luck so far," Sunder admits. Though at some time in the future she'll get Myrrh Balm and she'll be super-helpful. But timelines in the Nexus are weird. "I honestly feel like I've got no idea what I'm doing. I've got all these people looking to me to be a leader and I hardly even know how to lead me."

It's somewhat distressing!

[Ionbound]

[Were-house]

Cleo follows into the nice living room, then into the "kitchen full of water". An interesting architectural choice, to be sure, but she kind of likes it, the narrow bands of linoleum to stand on, with the interconnected pools on all sides. The hum of the filter is nice too, of course, and the hovering table is just wonderfully elegant.

"That's a shame. I'm afraid my advice is still to give it up. You're hurting yourself more than her. Spend time at the temple making it safer and better, rather than hunting for just one enemy."

[Were-house]

Don't make fun of me for posting at Midnight, Rec.

Charlotte sighs, and says, "Maybe. But what she did was unforgivable. I just can't let that go. Not without making her pay for it in some way."

[Deathkeeper]

Morgan's Place

Morgan reaches over with a wing to restrain Air for a moment.
"I...wouldn't do that, Air. They didn't mention it to us, but I think we're a bit too dark and gloomy for sunlight. It doesn't hurt, but it feels icky. And I think Chocolate's up early..." she says, sad to give her friend that first piece of news.

[Rebonack]

[Morgan's Place]

"Icky?" Air echoes, glancing between her friend and the blinds. "What sort of icky are we talking here?"

And then carefully, experimentally, she slooooowly eases the blinds open, allowing some of the morning sunlight to fall on her. As soon as the direct sunlight touches her she gives a strangled gasp, her coat draining from glossy black to dull grey, her wings drooping as if she suddenly had hundreds of pounds dumped on her back. With ears flat against her skull she quickly closes the blinds again. "Cripes, that's awful..."

She gives a shudder, trying to shake the scuzzy feeling as her fur gradually darkens back to its normal shade and luster. "Heh... I guess that means we're obligately nocturnal now, right?" She's trying to up-beat and joking about it, but she's no less sad about this development than her friend. The sun is nice... But apparently it's their enemy now. What a shame.

At the mention of Chocolate, Air gives a little nod and heads out into the living room! The scent of cooking breakfast is already filling the air and, true to Chocolate's expectation, drawing all the ponies out of their caves. Funny how the two fliers ended up roomed together and the two terrestrials are together, too. Of the arion and the qilin, Black Opal is the first to stick her head out of their door, her scales shimmering like the namesake gemstone. "Good morning!" she calls, a huge toothy grin stretching across her face. "Did you girls try opening the blinds, too?"

Air Brush's expression is all the reply she needs.

"Blegh! Wasn't that terrible?" the qilin continues, making a rather sour face. "We're probably going to have to travel through the Adventure Sewers during the day time if we want to go anywhere. It's still a big step up from being blasted into ash, haha!" her ears droop slightly. "Though I really was hoping I would be able to enjoy the sun again..."

Fairy Ring is close behind and her attention focuses on something completely different. "Oh my gosh! Shadow, you're nearly as tall as me! What happened?"

[Recaiden]

[Midnight Were-house]

Don't make fun of me for posting at Midnight, Rec.

Charlotte sighs, and says, "Maybe. But what she did was unforgivable. I just can't let that go. Not without making her pay for it in some way."

"You don't have to forgive her-"
Cleo steps right up to Charlotte here.
"-but maybe you don't have to be the one to punish her, either. The universe will pay evil unto evil in time. If anything, you should be helping the man at the temple track her down."

[Deathkeeper]

Morgan's Place

Morgan smiles a bit at the qilin. It's nice to be surrounded by such cheerful people. She knows Blackout would have loved to have ended up in this house, but it hadn't worked out that way. He'll have his chance at some point.

She turns to Ring. She'd felt weird living with someone to huge compared to the rest of them, but looks like that didn't last.
"I'm fine, Ring. But I think my little exploit last night earned me a promotion." she says with a silly grin.

[Ionbound]

[Were-House]

Charlotte nods and says, "Perhaps. But I just...It makes me so mad. The defilement...I just..." She trails off, barely noticing how much closer to her Cleo is.

[Baeleck]

Garden Away From Home

Lee gives a snort. "I haven't really been paying attention to local metallurgists, though. I certainly don't know who to call."

Garden Away From Home

I know a guy, Cornelius remarks. But I'm not sure if I'd be able to reach him with all the weirdness that's flying about at the moment - oh, no offence intended, Reynardine. He looks slightly embarassed.

[Garden Away From Home]

"I could find a local phone book?" Rey offers.

The local phone book may or may not be infinitely large.

[GAFH]

Harvey looks back and forth between the trio and the mystery metal thing on the ground.

'Does this place even use phones?' he queries. So far any calls he'd tried to make had been disconnected immediately.

Though, that's probably because he's trying to call people back at home. Y'know, their real home.

'Whatever the case, we can't exactly continue with this.'

Not even past step one and there are complications. Harvey can't help but look a little disappointed.

[Recaiden]

[Were-House]

"The temple was left alone, right? It's just the priest and his pride that were hurt."
Attempt to put a comforting hand on Charlotte's shoulder.
"It is as holy a place as it's always been."

[Rebonack]

[Morgan's Place]

Black Opal is pretty good sized, too. Qilins and arions are both a fair bit bigger than the other three tribes, on average. And yes, Blackout would have jumped at the chance to room with Shadow. But amusingly enough, each house seems to be set up with one shadeling of each tribe. They're meant to function as a little family, a little herd. And a single squad who know each others strengths and weaknesses when sent out on exciting missions!

"Shadow, I'm so happy for you!" Ring laughs as she practically prances up to her house-mate and grabs her in a hug. Opal giggles and joins in the fun. Soon there after Air can't help but join in too.

"Ladies, if you're done with your sappy group hug I've got breakfast ready," Chocolate calls from the kitchen. He's levitating food, condiments, cutlery, and flatware to the low table in the middle of the living room that they've all been eating at. It's basically a table without any legs, or at least legs so short that a bunch of equines seated around the thing would still be able to easily reach the foodstuffs sitting atop it.

Most furniture made for humanoids is terribly awkward for equestrians.

Pancakes (with and without chocolate chips), various kinds of syrup, scrambles eggs, sausage, fresh sliced cantaloupe, and toast in several variates.

Opal takes a deep breath and makes a funny murmuring sound before quickly snitching one of the sausages and pops it in her mouth, chewing slowly and savoring the taste. "H-h-hoh my gosh... I nearly forgot how good food is..." Apparently this is the first real food Opal has eaten since getting redeemed. She had joined their household late last night, a bouncy ball of enthusiasm and energy filled with the sheer joy of feeling alive again.

[Lost_Deep]

[Shadowood Tree]

"Nah, I don't think we need to look 'em up," Sunder admits. "I was just wondering if I could use this thing to revive you in the event of an acute case of the deads."

Acute cases of the deads are the worst.

"I've been looking for people who know how to run... stuff. Not a whole lot of luck so far," Sunder admits. Though at some time in the future she'll get Myrrh Balm and she'll be super-helpful. But timelines in the Nexus are weird. "I honestly feel like I've got no idea what I'm doing. I've got all these people looking to me to be a leader and I hardly even know how to lead me."

It's somewhat distressing!

"Well, knowing that you Can't is a Start. Poke around to See if any Of your Ponies are leaders, I guess. At a thousand People, there's Got to Be Some in there who Can lead. You Get a thousand trolls together, and you'll find at least One leader. And Ponies are more Cooperative than trolls, Right? You Don't need Someone who will Run the Show, you need Someone who will help you Do that," Punch says, "And as long as you Care about them and want the Best for them, you're Better than the Psycho who ran my Planet."

(Actually, if you get a thousand trolls together they'll form hunting parties and start killing each other because Alternian trolls are awful, but there will still be Some leaders.)

[Rebonack]

[Shadowood Hold]

We'll call it that now.

Why?

Because it's more of a hold than a keep or a castle. Since, y'know, it's a tree.

And it sounds like Alterian trolls are terrible, territorial critters in person.

No wonder they mostly just interact through online chat programs. There's usually less murder that way.

Anywho!

Sunder gives a nod. "Yeah, that's about what I was thinking. Just keep an eye out for folks that will be able to help me keep things sailing smoothly. We've got a decent presence Inside sweeping the slums for predatory undead and stuff. And down in the Gloom we're gearing up to take over this necropolis that's sorta near the roots of our tree."

[Deathkeeper]

Morgan's Place

Morgan is piled on, a giant fuzzy blob sandwiched between slightly less fuzzy friends.

Later, she takes some normal pancakes and some sausages. Luckily as a pointy-toothed unliving she can hopefully still eat meat. Equines and fruit bats don't really eat meat, so maybe she wouldn't be able to normally.
She gives Opal a sad smile. "You were stuck for a while before one of us found you, weren't you Opal?" she asks.

[Rebonack]

[Morgan's Place]

The sausages smell amazing, so there's a pretty good chance that Morgan's predatory look isn't just for show.

"Hold on a sec, Shadow, I got something special for you," Chocolate says as he goes trotting back into the kitchen.

"How come you didn't get me anything special?" Ring laughs.

Chocolate, in an act of utmost maturity, sticks his tongue out at her as he trots back with a ripe mango already cut into slices floating in his TK grip. "Because I already made the sausages at your request, you doof." He sets the fruit down on the table next to the cantaloupe slices. "Speaking of, you had better grab some before Opal inhales them all."

Black Opal gives a rather sheepish grin and stops snatching up MOAR sausages. "Hehe... sorry. Yeah. I was a bodak for... I dunno how long. It was hard to keep track of time," she recounts with a frown. Spreading jam on her toast seems to cheer her up a little. It's honestly amazing how dexterous equestrians are with the contact TK on their hooves. "Being a bodak was super awful. You feel all hollowed out inside. And you're able to remember just enough about being alive for it to make you feel miserable pretty much always. And bodaks don't eat anything, they suck peoples' life out by glaring at them."

To demonstrate she looks really intently at Shadow, sucking out exactly none of her life in the process.