Inside 63

[Murkus]

[Office District]

"I get here once a week." he replies.
At his next question he runs a hand over his face to check if he wears a mask and just forgot it.
"I'm not sure what you mean. I don't wear a mask right now."

[Office District]

((My mistake! Thought C4 would be wearing one as he always is with Adir. I'll roll with it and say Adir thought he was wearing a very clever one :P))

"Well that's good to know, but I don't just mean the actual masks," Adir says, scrutinizing him. "You're not a heap of walking plastic explosive - at least you don't look it - so what's your real name?" Adir has never been so brazen as to just ask for it before.

[Deathkeeper]

The little guy seems to like a big of grooming: squeaking and wiggling happily. Stephanie shrugs

I don't think these guys eat each other particularly, and like as not they've got some magic or other keepin 'em inside. Might get fat from all the feedin', though.

A bell chimes softly, and people start to head over to the water features

Must be time to feed the otters. Let's go see!

Mustelid Park

Jesse shrugs.
"Guess they get fed here so they don't got a reason to ever leave into the city proper. I'unno. Sure, maybe there's a show." he says, and goes to check the signs for where the otters are, and head there.

[Fenric]

Stephanie nods

Why go out and work for a living if you get free food and lovin' just by staying here.

Arriving at the habitat, for the first time it's vaguely crowded. It takes a bit of searching to find an open spot with a reasonable view, but one is found.

A trainer comes out with a bucket of small fish and runs through the usual sea life park schtick, with the otters doing various and sundry little tricks before munching happily on their fishy lunch. A lucky child gets selected from the audience to feed the "star", while another lurks up behind her in mock jealously. The little girl squeals in delight at the reveal and of course gets to feed them both.

The trainer wraps up with a short lesson on otters and thanks everyone for coming. Stephanie chuckles

The little ones are always so cute around the critters, aren't they?

I suppose if "making the woman contemplate having cute little daughters" is a danger, then the park has fulfilled it's duty. Stephanie wanders along the path partway lost in a happy daydream-land, and doesn't really notice that she's wandered off to a place where other visitors... aren't visiting.

[Deathkeeper]

Mustelid Park

Jesse puts an arm around her but lets her lead the way.
"Yeah, I remember when the Twins were like that. We've still got a ways of waiting, right?" he asks her, the only reminder of their time requirements as Steph goes on her way.

[Shadowcaller]

Down the Rabbit Hole

"What interesting priorities you both have." Stolas remarks in the same dry tone he used against Libra a moment ago. "Lack of a clear purpose will do that I suppose. I know enough to pity that. Engaging is self-destructive behavior in the hopes of finding some sort of elusive 'fulfillment'." He nods, turning back to Libra. "Libra, if you truly consider this creature your 'friend', you need to give it a purpose. At this pace you're going to cause it's destruction, one way or the other."

"Whaaat? No way! I'd never do that to Arty! You'll see! I'll grant him an epic quest, how's that for a purpose, huh?" Libra crosses her arms over her chest and looks sternly across the table.

"Why would 'Arty' even accept this 'epic quest' unless you force him, or lure him with yet another elusive 'reward'?" Stolas raises from his seat, revealing that his body just seems to be made up by the clothes he's wearing. A cloak and hood pulled over nothing but air which now is floating over to Arty, past the reversed centaurs and werewolves who are still focusing on their food. "You must both realize that the problem is within your mind's." Stolas will now reach into the centaurs mind to see the different desires pulling him in different directions.

[Deathkeeper]

Down the Rabbit Hole

Arty sputters a response about him having a very clear goal when he went on the quest to fix Chadwick, but it's doubtful that Stolas is listening to him.

Arty desperately wants companionship, as he feels alone in many aspects. When he does find beings like him, they aren't often interested in a relationship, or he doesn't know what to say. He seeks to understand females and how he should behave around them, but those are a means to the goal of merely having companionship.
Outside of himself, Arty also enjoys helping people, which is why he became a cleric of Chadwick and a medical student beforehand. He enjoys knowing he has improved or saved someone's life. For the most part, though it is something he enjoys doing and would love to be the best as possible at it, he isn't sure how he could get any better at it than he is currently as a Cleric. He thinks that there are more powerful clerics of more powerful gods, but he would not abandon his friend Chadwick so entirely, even if the god has been quiet lately.
And last, Arty is a bit bored. As much as he enjoys helping people, he hasn't done much new in ages. Merely living. Perhaps he would feel better if he did find companionship, but he thinks that there needs to be a change of pace somehow, be it traveling, something new, or finally finding a date.

[Slii Arhem]

[1111 Avenue Avenue]

"Uh, hi. We're here to see about the curse. I assume that was a manifestation of it?" Trick says, looking at the woman worriedly.

[1111 First Avenue]

The accursed lady stumbles out welcome of a dozen little eyes, the emerald beetles arrayed in a ring around the closet door to watch. They wave feelers and antennas, scuttling forward curiously, well before Trick finds her way into the halls with Bastian ambling after idly, hands tucked down into his pockets. -Hic-

Well then. Her pockets. And now she's more busy fussing with her suddenly long curls, tcching as she searches for where that hairband's gotten to.

1111 Avenue Avenue

"Oh wow. Yes, my family has been cursed to wander for five generations now. No matter how improbable, we'll wind up getting lost whenever we try to find something. Though, walking out of my own closet when I just tried to get to the bathroom in Tenny's is a new one. So you're really here about the job? I posted that ad months ago, I didn't think I'd paid enough to let it run this long." The lady brushes off the multitude of beetles with the air of a person who has never had a day where something normal happened in her life. And, on looking at and dismissing them, completely misses seeing Bastian until her shift has already happened.

"My father was convinced that there was something that could break our curse at the local museum, but he could never find it. I haven't seen him in over a year, so I don't know what he was referring to. Wish I could be more help, but you're welcome to look for his notes upstairs. Just don't try to take anything out of the house. We had it enchanted so that nothing could be removed without permission. It's easier than losing things all over the Nexus."

[Zefir]

[Office District]

((My mistake! Thought C4 would be wearing one as he always is with Adir. I'll roll with it and say Adir thought he was wearing a very clever one :P))

"Well that's good to know, but I don't just mean the actual masks," Adir says, scrutinizing him. "You're not a heap of walking plastic explosive - at least you don't look it - so what's your real name?" Adir has never been so brazen as to just ask for it before.

[Office District]

((Didn't we got the scene where Adir tried to hook him up with someone? I remember he wasn't wearing a mask at that time. Otherwise he wouldn't have know who the mages seek for. And my first thought was what he speaks of now ^^))

"Yeah I'm not." he replies. "But I wasn't the one giving me that name. Ask my parents. They gave it to me." In a way it's true. They just used a differetn writing, but his real name and the one adir knows aren't really different.

[cavalieredraghi]

[Hodgepodge - Running Away from a Bloodbank]

"No thank you!"

And suddenly the ground underneath the cat is only smoke, and the cat and its winged rider drop like a stone. That would be the same instead the kobold fires his arrow. The same moment the Harlequin pulls the trigger of his strange pistol, spraying a lightning triple-tap of impossibly sharp little blades, each cut from perfectly formed crystals.

On the clown's end, there is a sharp, strangled little gasp as the arrow hits him in the shoulder, punching right through the checkerboard suit he wears.

Mal is clipped in the shoulder one of the blades sticks out of him. He looks back at the drow with a snarl on his face. The drow may not have even noticed when Mal reloaded his crossbow and already sent another trio of bolts at the clown he just shot. Mal was floating in the air having no problems staying aloft at the moment. He reached for the blade that was sticking out of him and pulled it free. His wound already closing around itself.

[ThirdEmperor]

[1111 First Avenue]

Before Sebastian can even think, her mouth is open. "How do you.." A question could go anywhere. Eat? Work? Did she actually make it to the washroom? Wisely, she stops, and smiles instead. "Nevermind. I could spend all day asking silly things. Ah, I could stand to know how it all started, though?" Frowning, Bastian pauses a moment with her fingers among her curls. Closing her eyes, a spark of pale green-blue burns through each follicle, and they do shrink down to normal length.

Only they don't stop glowing when the spell ends. "Bother." Plucking a stray, she watches it curl and fade in the palm of her hand. Rather like the fungi at Crescent Park, up close, thin and translucent.

[Shadowcaller]

Down the Rabbit Hole

Arty sputters a response about him having a very clear goal when he went on the quest to fix Chadwick, but it's doubtful that Stolas is listening to him.

Arty desperately wants companionship, as he feels alone in many aspects. When he does find beings like him, they aren't often interested in a relationship, or he doesn't know what to say. He seeks to understand females and how he should behave around them, but those are a means to the goal of merely having companionship.
Outside of himself, Arty also enjoys helping people, which is why he became a cleric of Chadwick and a medical student beforehand. He enjoys knowing he has improved or saved someone's life. For the most part, though it is something he enjoys doing and would love to be the best as possible at it, he isn't sure how he could get any better at it than he is currently as a Cleric. He thinks that there are more powerful clerics of more powerful gods, but he would not abandon his friend Chadwick so entirely, even if the god has been quiet lately.
And last, Arty is a bit bored. As much as he enjoys helping people, he hasn't done much new in ages. Merely living. Perhaps he would feel better if he did find companionship, but he thinks that there needs to be a change of pace somehow, be it traveling, something new, or finally finding a date.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Stolas turns to Libra, ignoring Arty's protests. He had what he came for. "As I suspected. 'Arty' as many other mortals is pulled apart by it's own desires and you're not helping the issue, Libra. If you truly care for it, you have to untangle this tangle first. The threads are pulling 'Arty' in too many directions at once."

Libra looks between Arty and Stolas. "Ohh! I see what you mean!" She smiles widely at the poor centaur. "Arty, stand still for just one moment!"
She will then pull out what would the physical representation of all Arty's romantic desires made flesh. It should look very much like Arty, just representing that pure romantic desire. Arty won't lose the desire, Libra is just making it take physical form.

[Deathkeeper]

Down the Rabbit Hole

And so, a copy is created. How exact probably depends on whether or not Libra gave him clothes. Either way, the two look at each other, equally confused.
"A...a copy? How is this supposed to help me?" he asks, his double crossing his arms and also raising an eyebrow at Libra.

[Rebonack]

[Mandrake Memorial Park]

The worst thing about slogging through a swamp is the whole 'swamp' part.

Just everything about it.

The squelching of mud in your shoes, the water making your clothing hike up in places it shouldn't, the invertebrates that really think that you should share your vital fluids with them, and of course the awful humidity. That's not to mention the monsters. Now, Orion hasn't encountered any monsters in this particular park.

Yet.

But there's no telling whether or not he will.

Okay.

That isn't true.

He totally will, but he doesn't know that yet. Poor guy. But if nothing else, that'll give him a chance to test his steadily growing magical ability in a high-stress environment!

"I really hope that pinching feeling isn't a leech."

It isn't. He's just imagining that. The giant leeches that live in this park do less pinching and more wrapping around people like anacondas before sucking them dry. Like that one right there! The huge olive-drab worm suddenly bursts from the murky water, its tri-part mouth gaping wide!

"Go on, shoo!" Orion admonishes, waving his hands at the beast.

Anyone want to place some bets on the likelihood that shooing the monstrous leech will work?

[The Playground in the Playground]

Well well, would you look at that?

The chest appears to contain another key fragment!

Though from the look of things, there's still one left.

Curse these stupid video game puzzles.

[Deathkeeper]

The Playground in the Playground

Sam takes the piece and puts it with the others.
"Don't think I'm forgetting about you. I will have respect." he insists as he heads back to the main room.
"Okay, so the next room is really, really dark. Can you glow like you did before but like, for a while? I can't swing you in the dark. Well, not accurately." he asks the dagger.

[Rebonack]

[The Playground in the Playground]

"Yeah, see, last I checked respect has to be earned pork-pie," Steve the (currently dagger) replies.

At least he isn't calling Sam chubs anymore?

"If you make it through this little tomb of horrors alive, I'll call you whatever you like. And glowing? Easy."

With a dull pulsing sound, Steve begins to shed about as much light as a torch. Certainly not going to light up the whole room, but it should be enough.

As before, the floor is covered in bones while a large column obscures the other side of the chamber. There are rattling noises coming from the other side our heroes can't see.

"Man I hate animated skeletons," Steve complains. "They're the worst."

He thinks everything is the worst.

Silly Steve.

[Deathkeeper]

The Playground in the Playground

"Considering I'm the only reason you're not still sitting around with your last wielder's corpse and killed what got him, I'd say that I should have earned something by now." he insists, heading farther into the room, waving the blade this way and that to make sure he doesn't miss where the possible threats are coming from.
And yes, he remembers to check the ceiling.

[Murkus]

[Office District]

((Didn't we got the scene where Adir tried to hook him up with someone? I remember he wasn't wearing a mask at that time. Otherwise he wouldn't have know who the mages seek for. And my first thought was what he speaks of now ^^))

"Yeah I'm not." he replies. "But I wasn't the one giving me that name. Ask my parents. They gave it to me." In a way it's true. They just used a differetn writing, but his real name and the one adir knows aren't really different.

((I can't seem to remember how that scene went. Did we end up finishing it?))

"So it's really just... See-Four? Really?" Adir is melodramatically skeptical. Once the lift stops, he'll follow Zefir to wherever it is they're going. "You're ******* with me." He seems mirthful, at any rate.

[Zefir]

[Office District]

((He talked to a woman played by Devixer If I remember correct.))

As they enter the office, Zefir greets the secretary. A few words where trade telling her that Adir is with him and he just wants to catch something out of his office. The woman nods and continues to use the pc again. As they go on, they come to Zefir's office room. The room was original designed for a plan office, but now only one desk close to the door is there. The rest of the room is filled with boxes that end up in a maze. Zefir will walk a straighht way to a box with 'repklace clothes ' on it.

"In another langue, but still the same meaning." he says as he searches through the box. "My father was kind of a fan in this legendary things."

[Murkus]

[Office District]

((I think I do remember that. Dang.))

"Legendary things? I don't getcha. What's in the rest of these boxes?" Adir chatters to keep himself busy, peering over Zefir's shoulder. Clothes? "You want me to turn around?"

[Zefir]

[Office District]

((I think I do remember that. Dang.))

"Legendary things? I don't getcha. What's in the rest of these boxes?" Adir chatters to keep himself busy, peering over Zefir's shoulder. Clothes? "You want me to turn around?"

[Office District]

((I missed to get futher into it))

"Yeah. Where I come from, technologies and inventions are only known in Legends." Zefir clears things up. Then he stops searching threw the pill of clothes he got in the box he was looking in.
"Clothes for my Employee is over there." he points to the entrance of the maze. "Some office replacements and tools are there." he points to the right. "Bills and other copies of businesspaper should be there." he points left. "And if we go futher you will find boxes in the boxes."

He then grabs the usual C4 stuff with cape and mask, shirt pants and some shoes.
"If you fear you could be attracted by what you see, then it's best you turn around." he says joking.

[Fenric]

Jesse puts an arm around her but lets her lead the way.
"Yeah, I remember when the Twins were like that. We've still got a ways of waiting, right?" he asks her, the only reminder of their time requirements as Steph goes on her way.

Yeah, better part of an hour.

(( I was gonna do something here... Oh well... here's a ... ))

A much less friendly sound on the path ahead snaps Stephanie out of her daydream of future daughters into the somewhat frightening presence of a wolverine on the road. No, not a bizzare mutant superhero but one of the largest of the weasel clan: and it's all puffed up and snarling.

Now... that don't look so friendly.

[Rebonack]

[The Playground in the Playground]

Remembering to check the ceiling is important.

You never know what kinds of horrors might be lurking up there.

Like...

Stalactites!

Or monsters that pretend to be stalactites and then murder you.

"And y'know, I had been picked up by some other loser before him. And so on and so on. This job has got high turnover," Steve replies. Apparently monster hunters die a whole bunch.

Who knew?

Sam waving the sword around isn't revealing any threats. Yet. Just a floor cover in bones. So what's making that rattling noise...? Hmm, looks like some of the bones over in the corner are jostling around on their own. That likely isn't a good sign.

[Mandrake Park]

So yeah.

Giant leeches.

Orion's shooing doesn't help at all. Probably because leeches lack both eyes and ears.

With a guttural hiss, the massive worm lunges at Orion! The dreadfully out of place anthropology nerd dives to side, discovering something VERY useful in the process. Instead of slowing him down, the water is actually parting in front of him and giving him a little shove from behind to augment his motions. Which is pretty handy when you're trying to avoid being drained to death by a monstrous leech. With the monster recovering from its lunge, Orion tries to do that water thing he had done earlier in his trek through the swamp! A water ball!

He manages to splash the leech impotently.

"That would have been more effective if we were just having a water fight," Orion observes.

The leech hisses in agreement before readying itself for another attack.

[Deathkeeper]

Mustelid Park

"Now Steph, he's probably just being territorial. Don't make eye contact and back up slowly and he might let us go." Jesse says to her slowly, putting a hand on her shoulder.

The Playground in the Playground

"Yeah, I bet they were all skinny losers without the proper muscle or guts to back it up." he says, feigning pride in the girth he most certainly isn't particularly proud of.
Now then though, moving bones just aren't good at all. Sam goes over to them so he can stomp them into dust before they can move.

[Rebonack]

[The Playground in the Playground]

As Sam approaches the heap of bones music begins to play.

It sounds like 'Them Bones', except it's being played upside down and backwards. Several instances of the song are running over each other, each at a different shrieking key. The result is a horrible cacophonous mockery of a silly old children's song. And while the song plays, the bones begin springing together, slowly forming into a mish-mashed shape of vaugely bestial form. Sam might want to try getting a few hits in before that horror is finished putting itself together.

"Oh hey, a bone giant. I hate bone giants," Steve observes.

Steve hates all undead, of course, so this should come as no shock.

[Mandrake Park]

The leech attacks again!

Orion moves to dodge, but sadly his foot gets caught on a root, sending him into a tumble! The massive worm lashes itself around him and clamps onto his shoulder! Ouch! Orion would probably cry out in pain, but he just got his face dunked in the swamp, so there's just a bunch of bubbles instead. In a panic, he lashes out with his still poorly understood magic, causing a literal lash of pressurize water to flail out from him, neatly severing the giant leech's head.

Ouch!

The massive worm sloughs off Orion and into the water, leaving him bruised, bleeding, and gasping for as soon as his head breaks the surface.

"I really need to get out of here..." he mutters.

Thankfully his next three trudging steps take him out of the morass and into the manicured, relatively safe portion of the park. A disconcertingly normal looking person sitting on a bench nearby is feeding ducks! Said duck feeder catches the movement and frowns. "Hey buddy, you don't look so hot. Smell like a castaway, too. You should really head over to Inari's, they can help you out."

Orion mumbles something vague and starts walking in the direction the totally normal and not at all unusual random stranger pointer.

[Shadowcaller]

Down the Rabbit Hole

And so, a copy is created. How exact probably depends on whether or not Libra gave him clothes. Either way, the two look at each other, equally confused.
"A...a copy? How is this supposed to help me?" he asks, his double crossing his arms and also raising an eyebrow at Libra.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Stolas doesn't look away from Libra. "Yes, how exactly?"

"Don't you guys get it? Now he can ask himself for advice what to do! It's perfect!" She turns to Love!Arty. "Larty! What should Arty do? What should I grant him, huh?"

[Deathkeeper]

Down the Rabbit Hole

Larty blinks. She made an Arty who's entirely focused on romance, but that doesn't mean he's any more knowledgeable.
"I haven't a clue! I don't know how to mares think any more than he does! If you want him to succeed you'll have to make him better at love in general. Or at least more confident at it. He has to know what to do, how mares think, or something! " he insists. "though he could have told you that."

The Playground in the Playground

"Don't you 'oh hey' like this is something interesting! This is the exact opposite of neat-o!" Sam exclaims, running at the giant and smashing at its legs in hopes of crippling it with both armored fists and both blades.

[Fenric]

"Now Steph, he's probably just being territorial. Don't make eye contact and back up slowly and he might let us go." Jesse says to her slowly, putting a hand on her shoulder.

Stephanie nods and begins to back away slowly... but then there's a rush of wind and sound from behind, and a creepy feeling of something not at all right.

The wolverine bares his fangs and charges!

...

right past the pair: and from behind, a tremendous cacophony of vicious combat. Stephanie's eyes go wide

Do I even want to know?

[Deathkeeper]

Mustelid Park

Well, Jesse kind of wants to know, even if he isn't staying to watch it much. He turns to look, though he does start walking forward in the opposite direction from all of this.

[Fenric]

Behind them, a strange brown creature: long like a weasel but with spines like a hedgehog and dreadful long razor-sharp claws is busy not doing very well against the wolverine... who has an armband with the Union Police logo of all things...

Stephanie is quite content to go AWAY from the sounds of fighting and deeper into the park. A building appears up ahead just around the bend and she starts to make for it

Inside... yes, time to get inside.

[Deathkeeper]

[Mustelid Park]

"Yeah, inside, sounds like a plan." Jesse breathes in response, running with her over to it.