Outside 44: Baby it's cold outside

[Fenric]

[Village]

Well... yeah: It's a really long walk

Keiko softly mutters a rather more involved spell than the one she's used lately, but it's not long before the somewhat familiar tingle grips the pair once more and they're whisked back to the Temple

[Earl of Purple]

The Tower- Outside

"I know Miller's Praise. It's a farming community, rich in wheat. Quite religious, but not a bad religion- sun worship, monthly fertility rituals that are quite fun, but otherwise peaceful and calm. Well-defended, though; two watermills, one for flour and one for power which they use to charge energy weapons. About twenty miles away, or maybe thirty. Don't know about any demons there, though, but my info's old- been at least ten years since I last visited. Maybe it's been overrun with cultists, raiders or monsters like what happened here." The rest of it means nothing to her, though.

She smiles at Luna. "I'm not a fan of hugs from people I don't know. That's no longer you lot. As for a name... How about Artemis? She's a goddess of the moon, hunting and the wilds. So it keeps the same base." She'll also give her adoptive sister a hug as well.

[Cyber Punk]

[Outside The Tower]‎

Luna looks away from Phil. "My real name isn't Luna. We - little sis and I - we use pseudonyms. I can't tell you my real name for personal reasons, one of which is that I only want certain people calling me by it." She lets go of Phil's hand. "I know it sounds selfish, but I'm asking you to give me time." A deflection-statement, in fact. She intends to stall for as long as possible.

When Zither suggests the name, Luna shakes her head vehemently before the tiefling can continue. "Nope. No, no. I'm not going by that name. I'm not fond of it for reasons." What's with the secrecy all of a sudden? Another result of the merge, perhaps? "Artemis is a b-" She glances at Vaylith, she doesn't want her learning bad words. "...baaad person. Also, not a fan of greek names. Gotta be Japanese, long story."

Her look goes blank for a few seconds as she scans the meshnet. "Okay, we have either Mirai (beautiful lightning, future) or Inazuma (Spark of lightning, sounds like the cool-sounding Iwajira). Choose one." She doesn't turn down the hug, however.

After Phil and Zither talk about the cryptic poem, Luna speaks up. "Demon's blood and fiend seems to refer to Zii, chaos eye might be Phil... sleeping storms might be me, unborn kin legion... eggs, maybe?"‎

[Nalix]

Outside the Tower

"Any name I know you by is real to me," says Phil matter-of-factly. "I like Mirai." Phil listens to the bit about Greek and Japanese names, but doesn't know what those are.
"It does look like it's talking about us," says Phil about the writing. "I wonder if each one is a clue that leads to the next one, there seems to be some sort of sequence here. I thought they were talking about us as well, at least for me and Zither. Who can say, really. At least you've heard of Miller's Praise," Phil says to Zither. "Maybe we can go there. Is it far?"

[Earl of Purple]

The Tower

Zither runs the prophecy through her head again. "I do know some blood magic, actually. But I can't see how transferring wounds is relevant. And I don't think I'm who it means with demon or fiend. Or not the only person, anyway. It says in the beginning 'demon of Miller's Praise'. I've been there, but I haven't lived there. It's not my home. If anything, I'm the demon of the Tower, or of Greater Littlewood." Then she frowns confusedly at Not-Luna-Any-More, "You've met the goddess Artemis? You didn't see her bathing, did you? No, she'd have turned you into a deer for that." Mythology reference!

"I like Mirai, too. But it's up to you, if you want to go for Inazuma, you can." Mirai's easier to say, is Zither's thinking.

[Solidarity]

Spoiler: Shadowcaller

Show

[Outside the Temple Gate]

Beyond the gate, which was about to close, the wizard can see a large round room with a dome, every centimeter of it engraved with a indicate pattern of symbols which gives off a faint glow. There are no doors or other other exits within the room and it's otherwise empty.
Within the room are two more pit lords, frozen in time as everything else. Both are turned towards the door, it looks like they are attempting to cast some kind of spell.

Meanwhile on the top of the cliffs the guardians are in disarray, the angel moving to one of the last cannons without as much as a word or glance at the dragon. But the guardians aren't as easy to vanquish this time. Something in their structure seems to resonate with Hei's words which seem to somehow cancel out the vibrations set in motion by the dragon. Seeing that they're not breaking apart and dying, they suddenly decide to take the initiative and float up to her and attack with their clawed tentacles.
They will attempt to swarm her, extending their many limbs to cut off all escape paths as the other move in to cut and wound, aiming for the wings and the head.

The angel is having some difficulties of its own as the guardians are as easy to cut through anymore and the creatures are attempting to swarm it in a similar fashion as Cleo.

But while the fight on top of the plateau goes on, the invading horde is slowly straggling towards the gate, despite taking heavy losses. The cloud of corruption Hei sends to the fliers doesn't seem effective at all as they simply fly through it and starts to swarm the dragon. Darting straight into him, trying to pierce his scales with their talons and beaks. They're specifically attacking wings and other limbs. Like they're trying to force him down on the ground.

Spoiler: Cleosepha

Show

[Outside the Temple Gate]

The angel has its purpose, fine. The Wizard certainly isn't here to be its friend. Cleo watches the guardians start to shake - and then become reinforced. She'll just have to do this the old fashioned way. Really unfortunate that they spend so much time aiming for the wings - she doesn't have any. Whatever Hei might be doing with his shape, this dragon resembles nothing so much as a snake. (not exactly alike, but that's a dragon that's appropriately snakey.) Add hands and horns and something not-exactly-a-rattle on the end of the tail, yes. But serpentine.

One clawed hand draws a knife from - I think it was just made to appear by magic. These mechanical guardians ought to provide no more resistance than appropriately warmed butter. Cleo slashes at the tentacles as they close in, a bit wildly. Lucky for her that several held back, preventing an escape she wasn't trying for. Most of the claws have trouble getting through her scales - but here and there, near the eyes and jaw, they land a scratch.

[Outside the Temple Gate]

Foreboding images flooded his mind in efforts to glimpse through to his immediate future. As he thought, something or someone was interfering with the flow of time here, making it difficult to step back and see things as an interloper, like Eternus was so accustomed to doing. Still, he thought, if anything is capable of such feats, it wasn't worth being shunted around in an alternate timeline to avoid his death by facing it without his ally.

Looking back at Cleo, he'll notice her predicament, and will attempt to begin an arduous climb to get to where she is. If he gets close enough, quick enough, he'll grab hold of his clockwork staff and attempt to cast a spell on Cleo. If it succeeds, she'll find her mind moves much more rapidly. The mental acuity and precision of thought made true by the hastened effects in her brain at a neural level might allow her to boost her spells in both power and frequency.

[Cyber Punk]

[Outside The Tower]‎

New-Codename-Luna smiles at her friends. In a year they've grown so close... Almost enough to wet her eyes. Hmm, she's not cried in a while. Maybe the merge squashed her crying-buckets-when-emotional syndrome.

"Then Mirai it is. Aaaand, done. Celebrity'll handle the rest back home." The newly codenamed and nicknamed Mirai smiles and exhales. "Hotaru and Rai are no more. I'm now me, Mirai. Thanks, guys."

She laughs quietly at Zither's question. "No, just a girl who's caused me trouble quite a few times in the past. Better hope we never meet her, or whatever we're doing will get screwed up."

"Does demon refer to me? Some people aren't used to seeing individuals with black sclera and nanoaugmentations. I've been called a demon before..." She frowns and shakes her head. "Idiots. So, I obviously not the first one, save for the nanites in my blood, but I'm good at riding stuff."

Her mind goes to a guttery place and she quickly corrects herself. "Like riding creatures. That's what I meant." She feels her cheeks burn slightly. "Let's just head there and see what we can find."

She taps her thighs. "Let mummy carry you, Vaylith!" She grins.

[Outside The Temple Gate]

Hei growls angrily and dodges the flying creatures, mostly succeeding. The ones he can't dodge are attacked with sharp claws, corrosive poison breath attack and some fine usage of razor wind. His scales are hard, but one or two attacks get in, much to his chagrin.
‎
"You will submit!" He booms in a loud voice, intending to intimidate the winged creatures to... well, submission.

His attention is a bit divided, though, and he bids the ground, vegetation and water kami to act in ways that'll impede the time wizard's progress. Former VIGIL members or not, anything that'll aid the demons and he as well should be protected.‎

[Murkus]

[Out and About]

"He could be both!" Fettina suggests, eyes returning to the forward position. "Kirk, you wanna boink us right now or what?"

[Gullara]

[Out and About]

"Yeah, I can tell since you aren't giving us bedroom eyes." Dena replies, waggling her eyebrows. "If there is anything I learned is that Kirk-chan has two modes, horny and angry. Since he isn't the first right now, by logical exclusion he gotta be the second." She'd joke that it's still more modes than Tina who only got one, but she needed her on her side for now.

[Out and About]

"He could be both!" Fettina suggests, eyes returning to the forward position. "Kirk, you wanna boink us right now or what?"

[Out and About]

"You two really are relentless, aren't you?" Kirk rests his chin on his hands. There's no use giving the two of them more fuel, not when they're rebounding off of each other like this. "We are going somewhere, aren't we? Or are we just driving in circles until you run out of witticisms?"

[Nalix]

Outside the Tower

"Okay Mirai, I'm with you till the end." Phil gives Vaylith another pat on the head as she moves. He's still not sure what his relationship is here, but he's never been one to worry about that sort of thing before. "I guess this means we're going to Miller's Praise?"

((I'm not sure how we want to handle the NPC's at Miller's Praise, I'd be happy to let Earl control them, except that I know what the demon is really supposed to be. Let's say that the town is normal except for wild rumors about the demon, and I'll control any NPC's who have actually made contact with it. Let me know if that works for either of you.))

[Deathkeeper]

A Warm Spring

Little pools of various size flow into one another, water gently gurgling about. Despite the time of year, the whole place is temperate and warm. It's supposed to be a wonderfully therapeutic place. And reasonably safe, too. Though it gets little traffic any time of the year; it's a bit of a local secret.
And so it gets a visitor, a young lady in her twenties, with shoulder-length brown hair and green eyes. It's slightly curly, but the light wind isn't making that quite as obvious, blowing it everywhere. Just because the whole area is warm doesn't mean the wind can't be chilly. She just wants to find a nice place to sit down and start pitching the shelter. Maybe it wasn't the best idea, but it's not like she has a job to be doing right now.
[closed scene]

[Lost_Deep]

A Warm Spring

As she's pitching her tent, she may hear some mumbling from around a nearby boulder. It sounds like some woman, but the speech is too mumbly to actually understand. Is someone else out here, in this weather?

[Deathkeeper]

A warm Spring

The girl looks up from her knot-tying, more surprised than afraid.
"Hello? Is someone there?" she calls, not too loud, but enough to call it calling.

[Lost_Deep]

A warm Spring

"What?!?" There's some scrabbling, and a brown-furred cat-woman in fairly heavy winter gear rounds the boulder. She's clearly surprised to see the girl. "Oh... sapient life. That's unexpected."

[Deathkeeper]

A Warm Spring

The girl is surprised to see anyone else around, especially a feline hiker. Cats don't like baths!
"Uh, were you using the spring? I can wait my turn if, uh, you were." she says hesitantly. She really would rather not, but she should be polite.

[Lost_Deep]

A Warm Spring

"No, no, I already... uh, is there civilization around? I mean, at all?" She's still confused, "I half-expected this place to be nothing but untamed nature."

[Deathkeeper]

A Warm Spring

The lady raises an eyebrow.
"Uh, yeah. About three miles out that way. Where did you come from? Riverside isn't for miles." she says, jabbing a thumb behind her.

[Lost_Deep]

A Warm Spring

"Uh, transrealital displacement. It's a small miracle that there's air I can breath, much less life and people." she looks a little embarrassed. "Understand that I didn't know what kind of place this was, so I haven't explored much."

[Deathkeeper]

A Warm Spring

She tilts her head a bit in confusion. That doesn't really clear things up.
"Well, that doesn't sound good at all! What are you here for? Can you go back?" she asks innocently.

[Lost_Deep]

A Warm Spring

"Yeah," She pulls a remote with one big red button out of her pocket. "I just have to wait for the device to re-charge. I'm a scientist, I'm here for research, not... trapped here. And I assure you that the transrealital displacement has been wonderful so far."

[Deathkeeper]

A Warm Spring

"Uh, okay, then. How long does it take for something like that to recharge. How do you choose where to go, anyway? That looks like a pretty simple control scheme." she says, pointing at the oddly simple remote.

[Lost_Deep]

A Warm Spring

"Uh, oh, yeah, this is just the return remote. It'll charge in a few hours," she says.

"So... if you don't mind my asking, are you a native?"

[Deathkeeper]

A Warm Spring

The girl nods.
"Yeah, I am. Lived here my whole life. Why, want an interview for your research or something?" she says, waving the cat-lady over to the small rock she's been using as a seat next to her tent.

[Lost_Deep]

A Warm Spring

"Yyy-actually, let's start with just talking about where here is and all. About the local culture and people," she says. "Start by setting up a background rather than jumping into complex questions."

[Deathkeeper]

A Warm Spring

The girl shrugs as she sits down.
"Do you mean like, right here? The local places? Or like, the city that I came from? Or this whole dimension in general? Because those are all very different requests." she admits, shaking her head.

[Lost_Deep]

A Warm Spring

"'Dimension' refers to ninety-degree turns in space," She says suddenly, "But if you know anything about the inner nature of the local spacetime, yes, let's start there, please."

[Deathkeeper]

A Warm Spring

"Well, we call this world the Nexus. It's like a gutter for all other realms, places and things and people just sort of dropping in from time to time. So it's a little bit of everything. The little towns usually are a bit more thematic, but the big cities are usually pretty chaotic in terms of populace and designs and things." she says, pulling out a photo from her bag of her and presumably a friend from a few years ago, in front of a backdrop of a chaotic skyline and hundreds of humans, elves, and various aliens.

[Lost_Deep]

A Warm Spring

"Oh, that..."

"...doesn't make a lot of sense from a metaphysical angle, but okay," she says, examining the picture warily. "So I don't need to worry about getting lynched for being unusual, I presume?" She asks hopefully.

[Deathkeeper]

A Warm Spring

The question is met by a shake of the head.
"No. People like you are pretty popular in some circles actually. Don't look for those, though. Might get creepy." she says with a wave of her hand.

[Murkus]

[Out and About]

"You two really are relentless, aren't you?" Kirk rests his chin on his hands. There's no use giving the two of them more fuel, not when they're rebounding off of each other like this. "We are going somewhere, aren't we? Or are we just driving in circles until you run out of witticisms?"

"Of course we are. And I think we're almost there," Fettina insists. She's even reasonably sure of that, too! And off they can go, to... a to-be-determined thread!