Skyside 4

[Morty]

[Party Place]

The beetle-riding goblin manages to get out of the pincers' way, but not before they give him some very bad bruises on the ribs. He also has to fall off the beetle in the process. The beast screeches and starts circling him protectively.

The earwig will be fired at from the crossbow and the gun once more.

"Protect the kid!" the alchemist meanwhile cries out to Kestrel.

[Murkus]

[Goblin Market]

Sticks' hand does its little disappearing act on the bag of colorful stones. He fully intends to use them in the making of toys, though he suspects they're worthless from a monetary standpoint. This wasn't a terrible trade at all. He touches the tip of his hood and nods at the small creature. "Of course they have. Obliged for your jewels. Long days, pleasant nights," Sticks concludes before stalking after Jim with his long cloak in his wake.

[Recaiden]

That was the conclusion Kestrel had already come to. The goblins, however inefficient it is, should be well capable of fighting giant arthropod with giant arthropod.
Most of the robot turns this way, standing protectively behind the child, while the mechanical arm with the weapons swings out to simply clobber one of the sprites while the ray guns are recharging.

[Arkhosia]

[Skyside Docks]

'The Open Arms Hostel.'

It's not all pretty out here, in the motion and shouting and the roar of the wind as airships drift and clumsily turn, fighting a crisp cold northeastern as they're pulled in to dock. Over all that, the yells of the auction houses can still be heard - counting up the prices on slaves, counting down the deal, praising the strength of this one and the looks of that one.

Maybe hurry a little as she passes the raised auction stages, and the chained lines of ragged slaves.

A little further on and the shameless commerce gives way to something more respectable, high and modest rows of houses built on clean white stone. Trellises of sweet-smelling flowers overhead of the streets. Restaurants and hotels for the traders. A weird rotten smell pushed along on the breeze.

She doesn't react much to the auctioneering, with little but a dissatisfied frown. She didn't think too highly of slavery, but when one often works in Skyside they get used to the aerial city's ugly nature.
The woman raises an eyebrow at the smell, her nose crinkling in response, as she seeks out the hostel.

[Shadowcaller]

[Goblin Market]

"Just look into the mirror. Not here, thank you." The door of the caravan swings open, the sudden push of the wind rattling the bottle-lanterns that hang overhead. The old creature settles back in his seat, producing the half-carved statue from his pocket, and starts again.

They're done here.

[Goblin Market]

"Right. Bye." Dena certainly wasn't going to say more than that. She exits the shop and removes the mask. Let's see if she could find Sticks and his little helper first. She could probably look into that mirror while she was in a more private environment.
So her first course of action is to find the wizard and Jim.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row]

And so, after a fairly interesting conversation at the Dancing Fox, one of the Nexus' newest castaways steps beck out the door and finds himself exiting a phone booth. One of those older phone booths, mind you. The fancy wooden kind that closes and affords some degree of privacy.

"Again, really?" Orion mutters, working the accordion door open and closed a few times. He's sure this isn't what the outside of the Inn should look like. Absolutely, positively sure. He had looked out the windows and everything. This place was supposed to be a quaint little roadside Inn. Not all this.

He gazes up at the dirigibles, zeppelins, flying sail boats, air cars, and all fashion of other vaguely fantasyish modes of air travel whizzing about, docking nearby, or just generally hovering in mid air. And airship port, maybe? All those taverns, market stalls, and vaguely pirate-looking people certainly suggests as much. The sight is enthralling, to say the least. There's just so much to see. So much going on. So much-

"Hey, outta the way pink skin," grunts an ogre wearing a striped shirt and a wide straw hat. Orion quickly obliges, letting the hulking air pirate reach into the phone booth to make his call. "Yeah, mum? Imma be late tonight-"

The rather out of place castaway quickly vacates the proximity of the ogre, and not just because of the smell. The big guy seems grumpy and Orion would really like to avoid being a venting source for frustration.

With potential squashing avoided, Orion begins making his way down Tempest Row, doing his best to avoid looking like he's totally out of his element and generally failing miserably. The guy may as well have a neon 'this is a recent castaway, come rob him blind!' sign flashing above his head.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tempest Row]

The poor guy probably won't have an easier time as a woman in a old-fashioned black dress with an equally old-fashioned black umbrella comes floating down from the skies like Mary Poppins rip-off. "Hiya!" She greets Orion, taking off her large top hat. "A PC like you shouldn't be alone out here! The last normal guy who did got turned into a monster!" She warns him before he can even reply.

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row]

It's only really a Mary Poppins rip-off is her umbrella has a talking duck head on one end.

Or if people start showing up out of nowhere for musical numbers.

"Pretty sure I'm not a personal computer," Orion points out, standing more or less frozen in place as he tries to figure out the best way to react to this situation. "Unless you mean something else."

Crazily enough, he isn't a table top roleplaying sort of guy. His knowledge of fantasy is purely literary. And that means at least some of the usual tropes will be utterly unknown to him.

He does know, however, plenty about how you're supposed to act around magical beings claiming to be benefactors.

"So is that the normal thing then? People getting turned into monsters for being out and about?" he points at a nearby mime performing between a pair of stalls. "That guy seems pretty normal. Well. For a mime, anyway."

Yup.

Totally normal mime.

"Why shouldn't he be worried?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Tempest Row]

The black-clad woman shoots a stare at the mime. "Uh, since he isn't... special enough?" She seems confused by the question for a moment as if it had been so obvious she have trouble explaining why it is obvious. She turns back to stare at Orion. "Look, people are being turned into monsters for like no reason at all these days and I'm on a mission to prevent that! I just happen to know that the people that like to do that sort of thing, spider-ladies in particular, target people like you. Yes, you heard me, people that look like completely normal, standard humans. That's who they target!"

[Rebonack]

"Would I be better off with some white face paint and a little black porkpie hat?" Orion asks. Maybe if he looked silly rather than looking like a normal person then the spider people would leave him alone? "Because I'll admit, I would really prefer not being a monsters if that can be avoided at all."

Given that this poor guy is a Rebo PC, avoiding being a monster might be difficult.

But who knows!

Maybe he'll finally be the one to break the trend?

"Or maybe you have a better idea?" Orion asks. "Better than dressing like a mime, I mean. I would really rather avoid that as well if I can manage. "

Because mimes are weird.

Just look at that guy over there, acting like he's trapped inside a glass box.

"And just to be clear, I'm not consenting to anything. I'm just asking if you have any better ideas," Orion adds, mostly because he's well acquainted with stories about people meeting strange magical beings and being reckless with what they say and agree to.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tempest Row]

The woman rubs her chin thoughtfully. "How to discourage people to turn you into a monster... difficult question. Usually it just happened after a while unless you already have some special ability." She points a finger to the sky as she suddenly seem to get an idea. "Aha! What if I gave you a special ability of some sort... or a monster costume! That be neat huh?" She offers her hand to shake. "I'm Libra by the way! Nice to meet you!"

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row]

"Libra? Like the constellation?" he replies with a wry smirk. "I'm Orion. Also like the constellation."

People named after constellations are the coolest.

He looks down at her hand, scrunching his lips off to the side slightly. After a moment's consideration, he offers a polite bow instead. "Please excuse the lack of hand-shaking, but I know a few too many stories about people meeting mysterious magical beings to go and do something like that."

Hah!

Cautious one, this guy.

"And I would prefer to decline any gifts, whether that be powers or costumes. Maybe you could provide me with some advice instead? I think that's something I can accept in good faith."

This guy isn't going to let you give him a magical stag-skin cap that turns him into a deer. He's heard that story WAY too many times.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tempest Row]

"Ohh, yes! Just like the star-picture!" She claps her hand together excitedly when he doesn't want to shake her hand. "But, like, advice?" Libra asks skeptically. "Orion, I'm super-powerful." She declares while putting her hand on her chest. "I could turn you into a huge dragon or a tiny ant if I wanted to and there'd be nothing you could do to stop me. Thankfully, I'm a really nice person now so I don't want any of that happening to you. Pinky-swear!" She exclaims. "Anyway, my point is that there are more people just like me who aren't super-nice. If they ever got a hint of your existence, it's already too late! Just BOOM and you're something really weird! Nothing to protect you unless I just happen to be nearby or something."

Libra nods. "Like the only way to defend yourself against that is if you had powers of your own. They'd be less interested in you too!"

[Ionbound]

[Tempest Row]

As Libra says this, a woman with green eyes and black hair, wearing jeans and a tshirt, who had been walking by smiles mischievously and comments, "Well, you could always give him Magic Bounce. Make any weirdness bounce off of him and back onto who-or-whatever is causing it."

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row]

"I guess that's still advice," Orion points out. "And thank you for not turning me into a dragon. Or an ant. Either would make it really hard to fit into my favorite jacket."

Which would be a shame.

It's a really nice jacket.

"Really, though, I can't think of much of anything. I'll admit that I've read my share of fantasy and imagined what it would be like to live in a world of high magic, but..." he trails off, wrinkling his nose a bit. "Mostly I'm worried that the whole 'magic' thing, or any other enchantment for that matter, would ruin my chances of ever getting home. I wouldn't belong there anymore. But maybe I'm worried about nothing? Really, I have no idea how this place decides to grab people or anything else for that matter. Frankly, it's all a bit overwhelming and-"

SUDDENLY POWER SUGGESTIONS!

"Magic what now?" Orion asks, giving the woman a befuddled look.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tempest Row]

Libra nods as Orion is talking about being overwhelmed. How silly being worried about stuff like that.
But then someone new enters the scene! How exciting!

"Oh hey, who're you?" She asks the newcomer.

[Ionbound]

[Tempest Row]

The lady smiles and says, sounding all together too perky and peppy for a normal human in the Nexus, "Hi there! I'm Cassiopiea. I live here in Skyside. But I was walking by and I overheard you talking, and I couldn't help but help out! It sounds like you're looking for a way to weird-boop this guy, right? Magic Bounce. Keeps him safe, without a doubt."

[Rebonack]

[Skyside]

Orion frowns.

FROWNS!

Who is this person to come by suggesting strangeness for him?

This sort of thing should be up to him, shouldn't it? And is it really wise to be handing out any ideas to... whatever Libra is?

Some kind of faerie benefactor, maybe?

Orion honestly has no idea.

"While I appreciate the suggestion, I'm not sure if I want to be 'weird-booped'. Is that even a word? Is this kind of insanity really so common here that you actually have a word for it?"

Really, he shouldn't be surprised.

[Shadowcaller]

[Skyside]

"I'm not "weird-booping" anything." Libra states with a hmph. "I'm trying to protect him from that, since I'm a nice person!" She's very insistent on that particular point.
"But yeah, I can't just hand out abilities like that anyway, they have to come with a theme. Everything goes with a theme, like Orion's name for instance, suggests a star theme. That would be a theme I'd use." She pauses. "If I had been interested in doing that of course."

[Ionbound]

[Skyside]

Cass shrugs and says, "It sounded like you were offering to Weird-boop him. Sorry. But yeah! Theming is important. I don't have any ideas on how you could do that with something that would keep other people from being weird at him, though. Maybe give him some kind of weird greek godly fortitude?"

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row]

"Orion wasn't a god. I mean, he wasn't an Olympian anyway," Orion rattles off without really thinking about it. "Depending on the story, he was either the son of Poseidon and the gorgon Euryale or he was the 'son' of King Hyrieus, gifted to him by the gods for roasting a really tasty offering."

He leaves off the part about how the gods made said child.

Why?

Because it's really weird.

And kind of pervy.

But kind of pervy is par for course with Greek gods, isn't it?

"Regardless, I guess he was still a demi-god, which was why he was such an amazing hunter. Unfortunately boasting about how he could kill any beast of Gaia really upset the goddess and she scorpion'd him to death."

Getting scorpioned to death is the worst.

"Unfortunately, I'm not really much of a hunter, so I don't think amazing hunting skills would be that useful for me. Back home I just worked at one of the local museums of anthropology."

[Shadowcaller]

[Tempest Row]

Libra looks thoughtfully at Orion and the lady-visitor as they explain the Iron name. But then her attention is directed to something Orion said. "Wait, you work at a museum? That's great! I could give you the ability to learn everything about an object's history by just touching it. I'd be super-cool!"

[Ionbound]

[Tempest Row]

Cass nods along with Libra and says, "That sounds pretty cool. You should go with that. And it would make stuff less likely to be weird at you. Take it from me, you don't want some of the stuff around here being weird at you."

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row]

Everything.

About an object's history. While that does sound really useful, but...

"Would this mean I would learn the history of my hot-dog when I pick it up?" Orion asks. "Because that seems like it would just cause massive information overload. If I could control it, I can see how that would be helpful. It would certainly take a lot of the guesswork out of historical artifacts. But if I couldn't control it, it sounds more like a curse than anything else."

A really awful curse.

Why?

Because there are MANY things you don't want to know.

And that's doubly true of things in the Nexus.

"And how would various mischievous beings even know that I'm not normal? That sort of ability isn't exactly outwardly apparent."

Maybe that can see it on your character sheet, Orion.

[WarKitty]

The giant earwig snaps at the beetle with its pincers. Since it's approximately the size of a large horse, this generates quite a nice snap.

One of the sprites is effectively clobbered, but the other manages to lay a hand on the child!

[Shadowcaller]

[Tempest Row]

"Hey, I said that I'm nice." Libra states in protest to Orion's observation. "Can you imagine if anything you touched activated it? You'd never be able to sleep unless you chained up your hands in the air first! So I'd obviously make it controlled." She nods. "Then maybe I'll make like a mark. Like, differently colored hair and eyes? A neat hat? A mustache? What about flowers for hair? I know a person who has that!"

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row]

Orion can't help but laugh at that last suggestion. "I'm pretty happy with having hair for hair, thanks. And I would be okay with a hat. Something that I could remove if I felt like it instead of something I'm stuck with. I'm honestly quite content being me, thanks. So I'm not sure ow I would feel about getting foliage added to me. Or neon anime hair. Or, I don't know, a random animal tail or what have you."

Lots of people marked by magic end up with tails or hooves or horns or something equally strange. At least in the stories they do.

And while such stories are certainly interesting, Orion would prefer to avoid being a part of them to that degree.

Besides, how would you put on pants if you have a tail?

Sheer madness.

"Alight then. I'll except your offer, miss Libra. The ability to know the history of an object and a nice hat to go with it," he finally relents. And then adds, "And thank you again for not turning me into a huge dragon or something equally ridiculous. While flying under one's own power would no doubt be novel, I doubt I would enjoy being the size of an RV."

[Ionbound]

[Tempest Row]

Cass tilts her head thoughtfully as she listens to Orion and asks, "Hey, just out of curiosity...What do you think of as a nice hat? Not to stop you or anything. Just wondering."

[Shadowcaller]

[Tempest Row]

Libra claps her hands together again with excitement. Agreement, yay! "Hooray!"

She is stopped short by Cass's question however and rubs her chin thoughtfully. "I suppose it have to be big... and furry. Maybe with a wide brim? And horns?" She looks between the two. "What do you guys think? It has to be a pretty epic hat so people know!"

[Rebonack]

[Tempest Row]

Orion casts a sidelong glance at Cass and mouths 'thankyou'.

He hadn't considered that this 'Libra's' idea of what a nice hat is might be a little... absurd.

He would rather like to avoid absurd if at all possible.

"Honestly, I would rather like to avoid something absurd or ostentatious. A gigantic fur hat with horns... I would probably feel absolutely ridiculous wearing it."

Most anyone would feel ridiculous wearing something like that.

Except maybe a jaeger.

But jaegers are silly.

"Couldn't it just somehow... I don't know... let things know that I'm not totally normal already so I'll be left alone?"