Outside 44: Baby it's cold outside

[KerfuffleMach2]

VHAC

Alysha was clearly angry. Rage showed on her face as she used her Keyblade to defend herself from Shane's punches. She's starting to give in to her vampire side, allowing it to increase her speed and power. She may not be able to gain any ground against him at the moment, but she isn't really losing any, either.

I don't care about your combat skills! I don't care about how good you think you are! You tricked us! You tricked me into letting an innocent man die! You will pay for that!

As soon as Alysha gets an opening, she will aim her Keyblade at him and snarl out a single word.

Firaga!

This will send a massive blast of flames right at him.

Meanwhile, Stitch is making sure the other goons are tied up and weaponless.

[Shadowcaller]

[Outside the Temple Gate]

The beings have no intention to submitting, only to subdue the dragon with their sheer numbers. As there is no flying support coming, Hei has to stand alone against the onslaught of the fliers. It seems that the corruption can't soak through their metal-like skin; but his claws can easily slice through it however. Yet they're trying to keep out of his reach by attempting to dig into his back and wings with their talons. It feels like the creatures are trying to weigh him down and simultaneously cripple his wings to force him down on the ground.
On said ground the metal creatures are slowly breaking through, but their force is broken, the flame cannons, Hei's magic and the hounds demons having decimated their ranks leaving only a skeletal crew of the original force.
The stragglers are now making their way through the gate as the demons focus on the main force. It seems like all the pit fiends guarding the gate are either wounded or otherwise not fit for combat. But the gate is now closed so that's another obstacle in their way.

Up on the plateaus the guardians are being broken apart with the magical assistance of a knife and the sword the angel just summoned to it's side. With their remaining tentacles they switch tactics and attack the dragons eyes and mouth instead, trying to bypass her scales. The angel simply moves too fast for them, dodging their every attack.

[Eterus]

Shouldn't Cleo still be moving towards the first cannon in this timeline? If time is frozen then the attacks should just have started here.

[The Demonic Temple]

Triflex entered the chamber where the great one were working, bowing his head slightly in respect of the concept. "Great one, we are not sure how long we can hold out. The dragon you sent will only delay the inevitable."

The demonic construct turned it's alien head towards Triflex and nodded in agreement. The blue energies that danced around it suddenly started to fade. Like dying stars the points of light around Jaccalish. The demon lord never having so much as uttering a word for it's champions to know that it meant. "I will inform the casters then." Triflex replied, always finding the silent communication somewhat unnerving. Someone had to fill the silent in this place.
As he told the mages he couldn't but to help feeling disappointed at the lack of combat while being posted here. It was of course a honor to be a part of a great one's private guard but his inner concept was the one of conflict and combat. Not guard duty.
He knew that the great one wouldn't disappoint though, as soon as they were out of here there was plenty of conflict to be had. Perhaps he would even face his slayer out there. Perhaps one of the VIGIL-mortals would prove tough enough.

[Outside the Temple Gate]

As the conflict continues outside there is a sudden flux of energies as the whole temple shakes within its foundations.
There is a pause on the battlefield as the quake appears to unnerve the attacking horde. But the next moment the whole temple flares up in a intense pillar of light so bright that it is likely to blind anyone watching it.
Then each demon, living, dying or dead are engulfed by smaller pillars of light as the phenomena seems to be spreading outwards from the temple.
As the light brows ever brighter there is another flux of energy yet this time it's like snuffing out a light as the next moment all the pillars of light are gone together with the entire temple and all the demons.

The cave it had been carved into starts collapsing as that was made to support it suddenly disappears. Eterus can feel that whatever force that was manipulating this place is gone but in it's wake it left a great wound in the fabric of the nexus behind. Now without anything controlling it, it's likely to spin out of control.

Hei can sense a presence within his mind giving him a glimpse of a location in Seaside underwater. It appears to want him to go there.

[Mountain Meditation]

It's a peaceful night with only stars stretching for miles in each direction. Near a waterfall a dark-skinned woman sits with her legs crossed in deep meditation. Here she is isolated from the rest of the world, being miles from civilization without any paths leading this far up in the mountains. It would take a mountain climber to hike up all the way up here yet this woman is in simple underwear. The only thing by her side is a large tome.

If one looks closely though they might be able to see something moving within the waterfall, hints of a long black serpentine body moving in and out of the constant stream of water.

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation

Springing up from rock to rock with nary a concern for physics or any assorted sciences, a woman leaps and bounds towards the only living thing she's felt for some time.

Excepting goats, but they're not very fun to talk to.

But apparently quite fun to mimic, as the loincloth-clad lass approaches her quarry at a high clip, reaching the meditator with a high arching, silent leap that brings her into a crouch, perched with legs splayed and eyes wide, peering sideways at the other inhabitant.

If Ambrosia cares to look at her silent watcher, she'll see a fit, agile waif sporting dark, mossy green locks and the tan of one who never wears clothing, apart from her currently donned cloth knotted tightly around her hips. Her small rack of antlers and deer-like eyes might remind her of another she's met previously. While the rest of her is wholly human-like, her legs flex with powerful musculature, visible under the smooth softness of her skin.

She'll watch, not breaking the silence herself for quite a while until... "Nice panties."

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation

The serpent in the water suddenly stops as the watcher makes her comment. It peaks out from the waterfall, an elegant dragon head with long tendrils like a mustache observes the newcomer for a moment before it suddenly breaks the stillness and emerges from the waterfall with drops of water flying everywhere. It enters the meditating woman like a ghost and the next moment her eyes are wide open, staring back at the watcher.

"T-thanks?" She puts as a confused question while she clumsily attempts to stand up again. Her legs had fallen asleep in this position and her body was aching. Giving up on standing she at least untangles her legs and stares back at the intruder. A fey? A spirit? "Who are you?" A pause as she studies the woman. "Can I help you with something?" It was likely a spirit, perhaps a trickster of some sort.

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"You're welcome." The woman chirps, happy her compliment was well-received. "I'm Lee, and I noticed you out here in the wilderness and decided to see who you were. Plenty of goats here, some birds, but only one person to meet." She smiles, simply happy to have found someone else.

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

The scholar smiles awkwardly at Lee. "I'm afraid I didn't come here for company. Figured this would be a good spot for some solitude and relaxation. But I don't mind chatting a bit if that's what you want. I am Ambrosia by the way, nice meeting you Lee." She offers Lee her hand to shake, it seemed to be a common method of greeting around here.

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"Is it perhaps because you didn't want anyone to see you out of yourself, like that? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I realized that it would be worse if you didn't know I was here, watching you. If you'd like to continue, I can be quiet." Lee touches the hand outstretched briefly, getting up and jumping closer to Ambrosia without another sound to be able to touch it. It's not a handshake, but the brief brush of her fingertips against that hand was very warm.

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

The scholar regards Lee's gesture curiously, a brief touch instead of a shake. Lee carried a great deal of power, her mere touch could probably effect people. "No, it's alright." Ambrosia ensures the other woman with a smile. "I don't mind people seeing my true form anymore. It's much harder to keep a secret around here anyway." She slowly raises from the ground, her legs were still aching but at least they felt strong enough to stand on now. "But why are you out here in the solitude then? I can't happen to notice that you're a spirit." It was a bold guess but spirit was a wide term and Lee definitely gave away aether.

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

Lee's head tilts to the side, her expression curious and surprised, "A spirit? I'm not dead, it would defeat the purpose if I were. I'm an aspect of the Nexus, out here preparing for the busy season." She gestures around at all the complete and utter lack of busy-ness surrounding them.

"I personify mating, mostly governing animals since usually it's them who think of it only to breed, though a rare sapient can find me when they need direct help. I was hoping you were out here for help, actually. Have you ever been with child?" The joy of her occupation, her purpose, brings the smile back to her face. She is what she does, and she loves every minute of it.

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

A concept. A kami, or rather a Kaga by the sound of it. A core aspect of reality and another fertility one to that. Just a coincidence or were fertility beings common around here?
The scholar shakes her head. "Never. I am far too young for that. My kin don't do that until we're much older and there aren't any of my kind around anyway." She pauses. "I am looking for a way to bring my kin back, but... not quite that way." She laughs nervously, she was giving away far too much.

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

Another curious head-tilt, "What other way would there be to bring them back? Not necromancy, surely." A rather abhorrent concept, restoring the dead rather than renewing the species with new generations. Diametrically opposed to Lee, certainly.

"You can't be the last of your kind and still breed true though, this is true. Well, not without help." Ambrosia can practically see the gears in Lee's head turning.

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"I was considering something akin to cloning actually and there was an egg..." Anything to keep those gears from turning in Lee's head. She gestures at the tome. "Perhaps it would be something that interests you? It's supposed to be able to be able to create a whole new race. I could show you it if you want."

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"Sure, if you would like. But cloning? But then they wouldn't have any protection against new germs, new life that would prey on them. They would all just be you repeated, no changes, no adaptations. Unless it's only like cloning like other things are like cloning. Do you mean like asexual birth, instead?" Another big no, for Lee. Breeding is how a race survives as an entity, passing along better traits through generations! A race that only has the traits it started with would be a sickly entity indeed.

"But what about..." Well, she's thinking again now. It's clearly a very interesting puzzle for her to solve.

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

Ambrosia nods. "Yes, these are all problems I'm attempting to circumvent. Yet each solution seem to carry it's own set of difficulties. I'd appreciate any suggestions that doesn't involve me carrying children. I have tapped some of my own blood for cloning but it could be used for conceptual rituals I imagine. But I don't know anything that could bring a whole race back into existence." Lee seemed rather intelligent and she had great power as well, perhaps she was the solution she had sought?

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"Not carrying children now, or not carrying them ever? I know you're too young by your species' standards, but would you never want to be a mother yourself?" She has to change gears, if that's the case. It makes things quite a bit more difficult to ensure.

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"I cannot say for certain. Right now I just want to explore the world, find out as much as I can. Not be tied-down by motherhood. Perhaps one day, but I suspect it will be a long time until then." Ambrosia explains. "It's not like I never consider it but I... I guess I was intending a faster solution? I am not immortal and if I die before then my kind will be extinct."

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"You would need universal fertility then, and surrogate mothers or some other way to incubate the young. Do you not lay eggs yourself? Most draconic and scaled kind do. I, hm, I might be able to make it so that you could bear eggs, rather than live young, though you would still need others to care for them if your young are not born self-sufficient. Regardless, being able to breed a true member of your race no matter who you choose to mate with would be the solution. You would gain their race's immunities and, if you wished, their beneficial traits. It's essentially how humans do it, making half-everythings, only we could ensure your traits would be the dominant ones." Ahah! And there was Lee's brain at work. Slow, but methodical and effective.

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

The scholar blinks. "We... do lay eggs." She admits, having scarcely considering her own reproduction traits at this point. Moving around with a human body made the two so easy to mix up. "There... is a problem however." She gestures down at herself. "This isn't my body. I'm separated from this. If I mated like this the human-body would get pregnant, not me. While I could mate in my true form, it's far less likely that I would find willing partners. Dragons are somewhat rare here and we're proud beings. Not at all like humans." Humans mated like rabbits.

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

Lee smirks, "Ah, but I was offering universal fertility to help you along! You wouldn't need to mate with other dragons, or even with humans. Just pay for donations from healthy men, and use those to do it artificially. Whatever keeps the race alive. And it wouldn't matter where it came from, because with what I can do, they'll all come out as a member of your race." Lee's powers to make babies just sort of... happen can finally be used for good!

"There is one other option, if you want to do it without donations. I could make your human body birth the same as your dragon one would. If I can make a rabbit birth an elephant, making a human lay an egg is nothing." It might be unwise to question if she actually attempted and/or managed the former.

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

The second one involved some serious body manipulation, completely messing with the human conceptual spirit. But such were the powers of the kaga if she recalled correctly. They usually weren't this... humane however. They were core aspects, the very foundation stones of reality. Anything but the concept they represented meant very little to them.
"Artificially? You have to excuse my ignorance but I'm actually not sure what you mean by that. It's a process I'm not familiar with." It sounded somewhat unnerving however, though... "But you said you could make anyone be able to give birth to anything?"

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

The second one involved some serious body manipulation, completely messing with the human conceptual spirit. But such were the powers of the kaga if she recalled correctly. They usually weren't this... humane however. They were core aspects, the very foundation stones of reality. Anything but the concept they represented meant very little to them.
"Artificially? You have to excuse my ignorance but I'm actually not sure what you mean by that. It's a process I'm not familiar with." It sounded somewhat unnerving however, though... "But you said you could make anyone be able to give birth to anything?"

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"All a male contributes is an amount of liquid storing his genetic material. That can be taken from them, stored, and then inserted later without any mating between you. I learned a lot about it, being near farmlands. Farmers do that very thing to breed their cattle, it's very sterile, but it suits people who don't wish to mate directly." Clearly not her preferred way, being more clinical than natural, but since she's looking at this as a puzzle, Lee is considering all options.

"I'm not certain anyone could give birth to anything. Perhaps a mouse could give birth to one of you, but it would have to be so changed to survive its infancy that it would hardly be the same. And it would almost certainly kill the mouse. But I can make it so that anyone can breed with anyone. Usually, the result is just a mutt, but with a little tinkering, well, after all, people and animals don't start out very different. Enough nudging can make the result be anything you'd like, within reason."

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"Oh yes. I was just considering another dragon. Wouldn't making something go through that." Just the mental imagery alone...
"That would be a way though. I would need to consider these options carefully however. It certainly would be easier if I could have someone do it for me, someone who'd want children of her own." She pauses. "So they would have a real mother you know? Not someone that has been forced into it thanks to circumstances."

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"Then you'd need to find surrogate mothers, or foster mothers if you wanted to birth eggs. For a mammal birth, it would require that your genetic sample is extracted, combined with that of the male, and then implanted into a healthy woman to let it grow and be born. For an egg birth, you would birth it yourself, but then leave the egg in the care of another." Lee huffs and shakes her head, "That, I can't help with. It wouldn't be right, making people want to be mothers to babies that aren't theirs. There is one other option, though most people would turn their nose up at it."

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"Yes, but I'm not sure how I could possibly recreate an entire species without help. One woman can only produce so many children and then there is the issue of them mating with one another..." She would mention that dragons only laid one egg but she had a feeling that Lee could bypass such limitations considering how she casually seemed capable of manipulating everything else. "Can you bypass all that too somehow?"

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

"That would be the other way I mentioned. You could, conceivably, fulfill the male role and just impregnate mothers that way. If they were willing, there would be no issues with that. A single man can have as many children as he has willing women, after all. It's either that, or surrogates to get as many as you'd need to populate the whole species back. Or resigning yourself to a large clutch and staying gravid forever." Not a particularly pleasant puzzle to solve, as Lee is finding.

"What about the egg you mentioned?"

[Solidarity]

[Outside the Temple Gate]

As the conflict continues outside there is a sudden flux of energies as the whole temple shakes within its foundations.
There is a pause on the battlefield as the quake appears to unnerve the attacking horde. But the next moment the whole temple flares up in a intense pillar of light so bright that it is likely to blind anyone watching it.
Then each demon, living, dying or dead are engulfed by smaller pillars of light as the phenomena seems to be spreading outwards from the temple.
As the light brows ever brighter there is another flux of energy yet this time it's like snuffing out a light as the next moment all the pillars of light are gone together with the entire temple and all the demons.

The cave it had been carved into starts collapsing as that was made to support it suddenly disappears. Eterus can feel that whatever force that was manipulating this place is gone but in it's wake it left a great wound in the fabric of the nexus behind. Now without anything controlling it, it's likely to spin out of control.

Hei can sense a presence within his mind giving him a glimpse of a location in Seaside underwater. It appears to want him to go there.

[Outside the Temple Gate]

When the dust settles, Cleosepha and any else who remain in the area might find the chronomancer in place, seemingly still and deep in thought, as if he had been standing this way for an indeterminate amount of time. The only mentionable distinction about him would be that he wore a rigid mask of horrific understanding, staring directly at the now absent temple and surrounding area.

He'd felt this before, hadn't he? No. It was similar, but not the same. What emanated from this location had many similarities to a Paradox, and if that was any indication as to the damage it could cause...

"By the powers..." He whispered. "We were too late."

Any and all thoughts he may have had now immediately switched to the much more pressing matter of collapsing this anomaly, and restoring balance to the area. He looks about for his colleague desperately, as he's unlikely to be able to do it alone.

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

Yes, not very pleasant solutions, which is why Ambrosia eagerly takes on the new subject and grabs her tome. "Yes, let me show you." The book opens on it's own accord and the pages starts flipping by themselves until it reach a specific passage where Lee can see the picture of an egg. Ambrosia touches the picture and it disappears; replaced by the very real real egg resting in the middle of the scholars palm. "It's supposed to be given blood from people create new life out of it. Like mating in a way but with this as the womb." She presents it before Lee so she may have a closer look. "I haven't tried it yet honestly. The merchant that sold me it was rather shady."

[Slii Arhem]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

Lee very carefully does not touch it, instead looking at it, angling her head and leaning around to look from most sides, "It feels.... broken? Almost intentionally broken, though. It's like it would almost work, but the people wouldn't come out just right." She shakes her head, grimacing, "Without knowing what's wrong with it, I couldn't tell you more. They could come out with birth defects or mutations, or something worse even. I don't even know if I could fix magic this strange, even if I knew what was wrong."

[Shadowcaller]

Mountain Meditation Interrupted

Ambrosia frowns, glaring at the egg in her hand. "Hmph, as I suspected then. One should not trust shady merchants." She let's out a small sigh. "Which only proves how desperate I must be considering I actually bought this." She pauses shaking her head and puts away the egg again. "But you've at least proven helpful Lee. I'm glad that I met you." She smiles at the other woman. Even though her suggestions were unnerving she was actually being helpful. "There have been another option I have considered though but I'm not sure it is under your purview. In legends I've read there are stories of people becoming dragons. While they are just legends the idea itself could be considered viable, though highly immoral." Would also work if a lot of of other egg-laying beings of appropiate size suddenly started give birth to dragons instead of their own offspring but Ambrosia didn't want to give Lee any ideas. "There might be willing targets though if I could find a way to make it work." And if her stay in the nexus had taught her anything it was that nearly everything was possible here.

[Cyber Punk]

[Outside the Temple Gate]

As Hei flaps his wings, trying to get the darned creatures out of there, with the aid of his suggestive control of the wind to blow them all off his back, he gets the message in his mind and immediately starts flying in that direction.

In order to encourage any remaining creatures off his back, he lands inside the nearest body of water and bids the water kami to flow at a speed he can handle, but that the unwanted riders can't.

((Then I post seaside))

Miller's Praise- The Store

She wishes she could greet customers properly anyway. She doesn't particularly enjoy having one leg.

There's a PipBoy wrist-mounted computer in a box of circuit boards, wires and miscellaneous electronic components, though it's buried rather deep. A rack of flintlock, wheel-lock, and matchlock muskets and early rifles contains a Tau pulse rifle, and a triple-barrelled shotgun. There's a shelf of alcoholic drinks, including Honeybrew Mead, Black-Briar mead, rum, Argonian Ale, grog and the mildly hallucinogenic mushroom beer. A pile of books contains spellbooks, fantasy novels, and an annotated copy of Newt Scamander's Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

Zither is mostly interested in a collection of spare mechanical parts and tools, and has found a broken sonic screwdriver which she is examining to figure out if it works.

Miller's Praise- The Store

If Mirai knew that, she'd offer to build the woman a new leg in exchange for some of her stock.

Mirai passes by Zither and places her hand on her adoptive sister's shoulder affectionately, then removes it and walks away to inspect the PipBoy. Now I think I know the difference between Zither and Mirai where gadgetry is concerned: Zither is more of a mechanic while Mirai is more of an electrician.

She looks at the Pip-Boy and the surrounding electrical components, looking for what will be most useful to her, though she already looks forward to taking apart the Pip-Boy, she never was able to get her hands on one. She can already think of the bombastic (heh) potential of the pulse rifle, and all the meads look nice, save for grog. That thing messes with her internals.

"Hey, lady. How much for the Pip-Boy, the pulse rifle, the Black-Briar Mead and the electrical components? I'm an electric girl, see." She says, trying to make small talk. To accentuate her last statement, she generates arcs of electricity around her fingers.