Riverside 19

[Shadowcaller]

[MERC Office - Visitors]

"Alright."
Todd signs the paper, tentatively, with the name 'Karol Todd Devoss.'
"Am I supposed to feel something?"

[Southside - Dragon Research]

"That's true. Almost everything goes to waste. People have real trouble getting along."
Ruby has to admit this.
"But the fact that the world as a whole can't manage something is no guarantee that it can't be managed by a smaller group."
"No one should have to starve, huh? Do you think no one deserves to?"

[Ilpholin's Residence]

If the gargoyle lands at the same time Adir shows up, it could always try giving it to him, but that's both lazy and irresponsible.

Alternatively it could try to go through HALlelujah and talk his way in. Or most conveniently he could just stick it into one of the slots on the wall near the front door where all the mail normally goes. Not that they've had much mail, but it is there with labels for Ilpholin, Mister Squiggles, and Kal depending on the recipient.

[MERC Office - Visitors]

Dena presses her fingers against the contract and slowly pulls it over to her side of the table where she in a swift motion puts it in front of her face. She doesn't as much as glance at it though, her eyes not leaving him for even a moment. However, he might not be able to tell this due to her sunglasses, a small advantage of using sunglasses indoors. "Nah, it doesn't really influence you. Or so I'm told. It just gives permission which is big mojo when it comes to magic." She explains as the snakes on her head seem to be studying the document by themselves.

Then she puts away the contract to her side and offers her hand once again. "But welcome to MERC, mister Devos. If that is your real name." She says with a smile.

[Southside - Dragon Research]

"If we are talking punishment for certain behaviors, I think there are far better alternatives than starving someone. I just don't think starvation should be a real problem, and I don't think it'll help anyone to reform. As I said, there are better ways to make someone think twice about partaking in society damaging behavior." Ambrosia argues. "But yes, a smaller group would be ideal in researching what ways the nexus could be used to improve people's life in general. I already seen that there has been a lot of progress in communication. Those, ah, cellphones for instance."

[Ilpholin's Residence]

The gargoyle has specific orders, it won't break them so easily. So it simply puts the letter into the Ilpholin slot and goes on its way. A mission well done.

[Earl of Purple]

Blood Moon
Weird William's, Eastside

The city's main lycanthrope bar is a shabby place. There's no sign proclaiming the name of the establishment- or even that it's open. The windows are boarded up, and the benches sitting outside the front door are old, rotten and neglected, with missing slats and protruding nails. Within, it is poorly lit, filled with broken and mismatched furniture, with a long bar along one wall. Nature documentaries play on an old, boxy television set, the sound coming out too loud and distorted. The entire bar smells of wet dog, urine and stale beer, though the patrons are used it. Sat on a hefty chair in the corner is the bar's splatter, a hill giant in a dirty and ill-fitting suit, and the barman is an effeminate-looking half-elf in a dirty t-shirt and ripped jeans.

When the Blood Moon rises, they know something is going on, something unusual and potential dangerous. They start to shift, and their instincts kick into overdrive. Most flee the building, exiting through the door or squeezing out of the gaps between the boards over the windows, a mix of raccoons, rats, foxes and feral cats fleeing the larger predators before they start to prowl. The tide stops briefly, as the door is hurled off its hinges, a semi-humanoid shark bursting through and running towards the river. The monster is at least seven feet long, and wears the tattered remains of a suit. It isn't the last to leave the bar; that is a large black-coated jaguar, which goes bounding onto a dumpster, then a shop's awning, and from there onto the rooftops.

The werefoxes, of whom there aren't many, prowl the alleyways and back streets, and head mostly into the well-off areas of Northside, where there's large gardens and ample locations for real foxes to dig earths and dens. They'll dart out at any humanoids they see, aiming to bite their ankles and Achilles tendons. The jaguar prowls the roofs of Eastside, gazing into alleyways and windows, hunting- primarily- dogs. Feral dogs aren't common in Eastside, as this particular jaguar enjoys the irony of hunting them. The wererats head into the sewers, aiming to avoid all the larger werecreatures prowling this city. The wereraccoons, the largest population of lycans, aim to cross the river and enter Westside, where they shall hunt in the never-ending darkness, avoiding the light of the artificial sun. The feral werecats gather into packs and stalk, quite openly, various areas in Southside. The wereshark, meanwhile, stays in the river, a large male bullshark swimming up and down and looking for prey.

[Deathkeeper]

Blood Moon, Eastside

A small boat put-puts over the river to the docks, twenty meters from Weird William's. Its pilot, a large, muscular man in his twenties in loose garments, moors the boat with a pair of ropes, and goes up the stairs to find a dead drop waiting for him. He's a tough guy, been in the business for a few years. Had the former bouncer lost his legs before getting to the river, he would have likely pushed the shark into it though, because that's the kind of guy he is. As it stands, he goes from the street to the dock a few times, loading on crates, and making him a somewhat simple, if not easy, target for anything on either avenue.

[TheRedFox201]

[MERC Office - A Visitor]

Todd accepts the hand.

"It most certainly isn't, but It's a signature, and magic. Now that I've officially signed on, is there anything I should be made aware of?"

[Gullara]

[MERC Office - Kids]

"**** ****!" Eliseo back steps and runs into furniture before he's through his first step. He tries to clamour over the furniture to go back the way he came.

[Northside Streets => Eastside Streets]

"Very well. Do it and then we go." Vax waits for Nazaan to loose the spirits on the gorgon. The moment he does that, she picks him up as easily as she did the limp Zhareen. She lets go of the growth magic and sher starts to rapidly grow once more. She surges forward, huge and perfectly capable of trampling Malechenar's witless troops. All she needs to do is make it into Eastside proper.

[Felandria]

Felandria's Office

Felandria is busy decorating her city council office, putting up her posters and comfy chairs, when she notices the moon outside.

Uh oh.

That can't be good.

Felandria closes the blinds, but it's too late.

The transformation is quick and painless, and when all is said and done.........

Howooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Yes Felandria has turned into a red furred wolf puppy!

She runs outside to frolic with the other wereanimals.

[Murkus]

[Ilpholin's Residence]

The legs give it away. The realization dawns on Adir slowly as he approaches along the walk. He might be spiteful or dumb enough to stamp on the grass if he was going to visit an enemy, but that certainly wasn't the case.

The stag stops and sizes up his faceless greeter when addressed. "Adir. Frescot." A beat. "I'm here to see Ilpholin about training."

[Shadowcaller]

[Fourth Tower Compound]

"Eastside?" Sticks asks, forgetting about the rest. It wasn't as though he could fault the man any further for protecting civilians. If they were leaving the city, they had only to head north. He wasn't going to catch them either way. But there might yet be a chance if leaving wasn't their first objective... "Why Eastside? What's there?"

Blood Moon
Weird William's, Eastside

The city's main lycanthrope bar is a shabby place. There's no sign proclaiming the name of the establishment- or even that it's open. The windows are boarded up, and the benches sitting outside the front door are old, rotten and neglected, with missing slats and protruding nails. Within, it is poorly lit, filled with broken and mismatched furniture, with a long bar along one wall. Nature documentaries play on an old, boxy television set, the sound coming out too loud and distorted. The entire bar smells of wet dog, urine and stale beer, though the patrons are used it. Sat on a hefty chair in the corner is the bar's splatter, a hill giant in a dirty and ill-fitting suit, and the barman is an effeminate-looking half-elf in a dirty t-shirt and ripped jeans.

When the Blood Moon rises, they know something is going on, something unusual and potential dangerous. They start to shift, and their instincts kick into overdrive. Most flee the building, exiting through the door or squeezing out of the gaps between the boards over the windows, a mix of raccoons, rats, foxes and feral cats fleeing the larger predators before they start to prowl. The tide stops briefly, as the door is hurled off its hinges, a semi-humanoid shark bursting through and running towards the river. The monster is at least seven feet long, and wears the tattered remains of a suit. It isn't the last to leave the bar; that is a large black-coated jaguar, which goes bounding onto a dumpster, then a shop's awning, and from there onto the rooftops.

The werefoxes, of whom there aren't many, prowl the alleyways and back streets, and head mostly into the well-off areas of Northside, where there's large gardens and ample locations for real foxes to dig earths and dens. They'll dart out at any humanoids they see, aiming to bite their ankles and Achilles tendons. The jaguar prowls the roofs of Eastside, gazing into alleyways and windows, hunting- primarily- dogs. Feral dogs aren't common in Eastside, as this particular jaguar enjoys the irony of hunting them. The wererats head into the sewers, aiming to avoid all the larger werecreatures prowling this city. The wereraccoons, the largest population of lycans, aim to cross the river and enter Westside, where they shall hunt in the never-ending darkness, avoiding the light of the artificial sun. The feral werecats gather into packs and stalk, quite openly, various areas in Southside. The wereshark, meanwhile, stays in the river, a large male bullshark swimming up and down and looking for prey.

[MERC Office - A Visitor]

Todd accepts the hand.

"It most certainly isn't, but It's a signature, and magic. Now that I've officially signed on, is there anything I should be made aware of?"

[Northside Streets => Eastside Streets]

"Very well. Do it and then we go." Vax waits for Nazaan to loose the spirits on the gorgon. The moment he does that, she picks him up as easily as she did the limp Zhareen. She lets go of the growth magic and sher starts to rapidly grow once more. She surges forward, huge and perfectly capable of trampling Malechenar's witless troops. All she needs to do is make it into Eastside proper.

[Northside Streets => Eastside Streets]

Nazaan nods and takes a deep breath before sending the wisps in the direction of the gorgon, like fireflies the swarm around her blazing with a intense red light. The gorgon let's out a loud hiss and the guards suddenly realize that something is amiss.
They had been told to be prepared for an attack, and this appeared to be it, while it takes longer for them to realize the threat Vax it than usual thanks to her dream aura, they manage to get a few shots off against Vax before she reaches the blockade.
They have been armed with a type of solar-reflective weapons that have proven slightly more effective against Nim than the projectile-based weapons the police used. It will basically ignite Vax's body where the beams hit, causing a severe burn. However, due to the current size of her body, the weapons won't be as effective as they should be.

Vax will be able to force the blockades away, but the guards will keep shooting at her, even as Nazaan puts up a weak shield around the two which will at least lessen the impact of this type of weapons.

[MERC Office - A Visitor]

"Well, our main office is way up in the mountains so if you want to visit, you're looking at quite a trip. It was founded way back when the cities got invaded all the time, hence the remote location." Dena explains. "But, I might actually already have a mission for you if you wish to prove yourself. It is, technically, just some basic Intel gathering, though I wouldn't call it easy." She leans forward. "Do you know anything about Riverside or the factions that exist here?"

Blood Moon
Northside

Since the eradication of all animals in Riverside by the fourth tower during the great plague invasion, the wildlife is still slowly recovering. In the well-off districts close to Malechenar castle itself, you rarely see any animals that the nobles didn't bring there themselves. This make this sudden invasion of foxes an oddity that will be met with full force.
As the guards and the police have been ordered to prioritize crimes and attacks against the nobility, it won't be long until you have Malechenar forces attempting to take down werefoxes with full force. If they had known they were werecreatures, they might have shown some mercy, but now they are simply attempting to kill the "pests". However, as it is a peaceful neighborhood that doesn't like disturbances, they can't go around shooting nilly-willy, so they at least take careful aim first, not wanting to accidentally hurting anyone else but the pests.

[Fourth Tower Compound]

"I don't know, but logically, it's their best option. There are two ways leading to westside and one leading to eastside. Each of these paths are blocked by a tollbooth." The captain explains, counting the ways on his armor-clad fingers. "However, as Westside is crawling with MERC agents working for us that already been alerted of the treachery, the Eastside tollbooth would be their best option. No matter how many guards I positioned there, they're likely going to simply force their way through. So assuming they're not using magical transportation, like flying or teleportation, that's where they will strike. Regardless if they're going to east- or southside."

[Recaiden]

[Southside - Dragon Research]

"If we are talking punishment for certain behaviors, I think there are far better alternatives than starving someone. I just don't think starvation should be a real problem, and I don't think it'll help anyone to reform. As I said, there are better ways to make someone think twice about partaking in society damaging behavior." Ambrosia argues. "But yes, a smaller group would be ideal in researching what ways the nexus could be used to improve people's life in general. I already seen that there has been a lot of progress in communication. Those, ah, cellphones for instance."

The Commandant shakes her head. "You lost me somewhere. Nah, we don't starve people for punishment. What'd be the point? But some people out there can't get food, because someone doesn't want them to have it, or because they're useless. That's a shame. If you can't eat, you don't have a chance to become anything, right? I'm not some kinda philanthropist, but it's still a damn shame."
"Or were you saying that with all the power in the Nexus, we could do away with crime?" That's a really big idea there, Ambrosia. At the last comment, she gets out her own cellphone (a blocky, heavy, near-indestructible thing of shining chrome and textured red plastic) for agreement. "They are pretty great, huh? Do you look at creating a new race, you know, with the power of dragons, the same kind of thing as inventing and building phones?" Phones were new and useful, but the world already has lots of elves.

Blood Moon

When the Blood Moon rises, they know something is going on, something unusual and potential dangerous. They start to shift, and their instincts kick into overdrive. Most flee the building, exiting through the door or squeezing out of the gaps between the boards over the windows, a mix of raccoons, rats, foxes and feral cats fleeing the larger predators before they start to prowl. The tide stops briefly, as the door is hurled off its hinges, a semi-humanoid shark bursting through and running towards the river.

The feral werecats gather into packs and stalk, quite openly, various areas in Southside.

Southside will not look happily on this!
But I guess that's just what happens when you drive the native timber wolves out of the streets.
Cats, everywhere.

At first, the cats encounter normal, trusting, cat-loving people, going to pet them or at worst, ignore them.

[Earl of Purple]

Blood Moon

Anybody who is bitten may contract lycanthropy, though it's not a sure thing. The exact type doesn't specifically rely on what did the biting- rather, it's the closest large non-humanoid predator. Which is usually the werecreature that just attacked, but not always.

River

The bull shark finds the boat quite easily- it's right next to where it entered the water, the area it still somehow thinks of as its 'territory'. It will wait until the man is on the boat proper before attacking, bumping into the bottom, trying to capsize the boat and knock the pilot into the water, where he's even easier prey for the massive fish. Fortunately for the pilot, this particular shark isn't trying to eat or even kill him- it'll leave him alone once/if he gets bitten, or climbs out of the water. Unfortunately, bull sharks have large mouths, and death is a possible side-effect. If he does die, the shark's not picky- the corpse won't be found.

Northside

If the security teams are using low-calibre guns, without silver bullets, then the most they can hope for is to scare the foxes off. Higher-calibre and silver bullets are more effective, though the former are more risky and the second more expensive.

Regardless of what type of gun is used, the foxes get the message quite quickly and flee, hiding in alleyways and gardens, waiting and lurking. Some will try to attack the security teams, using the same tactics as before, darting out of hiding and nipping before fleeing.

Southside

The poor people of Southside will soon discover these cats aren't particularly friendly, and every person approaching them is greeted by a quick nip. Once bitten, however, the cats turn friendly, purring and rubbing themselves against the possibly-new-feliphobes. Unless they see a dog. Then they all scatter in different directions.

[Deathkeeper]

Blood Moon- River

There's enough beasties in the river that our muscle here reacts quickly to being thrown into the river, pulling a very normal steel knife from his leg sheathe and swinging it at the shark, while its jaws take a painful chunk out of his other bicep. The metal blade is unlikely to do much damage to the werecreature.

As demonstrated in the Black Dragon's Den, therianthropy incubation time is about five seconds under the blood moon so that knife is even less likely to do anything as its bearer has no fingers by the time he winds up a second swing.

Our second shark looks pretty grumpy. Maybe it's the bite mark in his fin, which not even were-creature fast healing will fix entirely. Who knows how his new brother will treat him? Especially given that other one is much bigger. The disadvantage of one being actually a much larger humanoid and the other just being human-based.

MERC office- kids

Koshal is trying to look tough but is left stumbling with nausea. Faye, who doesn't need her eyes, dashes at the eyes with her fangs and claws bared, eyes shut.

[Morty]

[MERC Office - Kids]

Iknika sees the eyes appear, but her vision goes blurry as nausea hits her. She tries to stand her ground, as she thinks befits a knight, but her bluster is undermined by her swaying and stumbling.

[Shadowcaller]

Northside

Seeing the limited success of shooting the foxes, the security teams quickly gets frustrated and so does the nobles who hired them. Crazed creatures that attacked without reason deserved only to be put down is the agreement but the putting down part is a lot more difficult as their weapons didn't seem very effective. These foxes were clearly magical in some way. Perhaps they were from wildside?
Either way, magic was best countered by other magic, normally the fourth tower would be called in but as they were busy with the whole civil war, the second best thing is used, the earth vampires.

Being Malechenar's secret police, having them chasing down foxes was a bit undignified but with powerful enough people pulling the right strings will eventually have them on the job.

The vampires method is bog standard, they will treat the foxes as any criminal they were up against. They will attempt to move underneath the earth and collapse a hole underneath the foxes and grab them, from there they expect it to be an easy fight squeezing the life out the creatures.

Earth vampires are worm-like creatures that seem to be made up of a fat-like liquid that can squeeze themselves through any space. Their method of killing was fairly simple, they squeezed themselves down their victims throat and either suffocated them, or if they somehow survived that, burst through their stomach chest-buster style.

[Southside - Dragon Research]

"Er, I must have started to ramble again. My apologizes. I simply assumed you meant it as a punishment." She claims, then taking a deep breath. "I just meant it as a significant technological breakthrough, but I don't think it is fair to compare them. They're both amazing accomplishments, but in completely different fields. However, perhaps you could tell me a bit about what the exact benefits of your process. Besides the draconic features, do the nephilim's gain any less obvious benefits such as resistance to disease, or a longer lifespan? Are there any notable side effects?"

- - - Updated - - -

[MERC Office - Kids]

"**** ****!" Eliseo back steps and runs into furniture before he's through his first step. He tries to clamour over the furniture to go back the way he came.

[MERC Office - Kids]

Iknika sees the eyes appear, but her vision goes blurry as nausea hits her. She tries to stand her ground, as she thinks befits a knight, but her bluster is undermined by her swaying and stumbling.

MERC office- kids

Koshal is trying to look tough but is left stumbling with nausea. Faye, who doesn't need her eyes, dashes at the eyes with her fangs and claws bared, eyes shut.

[MERC Office - Kids]

Faye will have to clamor over a lot of furniture if he wants to reach the eyes, which likely isn't all that easy with four legs. The voice laughs at them and the next moment the eyes are gone once again.

However, anyone with dark vision will be able to see the furniture where the eyes were at moving around as if something is moving across them, away from the blink dog as he is trying to get through all the furniture.

[Gullara]

[Northside Streets => Eastside Streets]

Vax powers through the pain. The size does her a service. There's a lot of excess bulk to burn, just so long as Zhareen is safe beneath it. She smashes into Malechenar's goons like a beast. Her focus is getting through the line, though, not doing damage. At the first opportunity she'll move past the line.

[MERC Office - Kids]

Once Eliseo can stumble his way way to putting a little distance between him and... whatever that is, he looks back toward it. Geez, what the hell is that?

[Reinholdt]

[Ilpholin's Residence]

The gargoyle has specific orders, it won't break them so easily. So it simply puts the letter into the Ilpholin slot and goes on its way. A mission well done.

[Ilpholin's Residence]

The letter will go through some generic scans and tests to ensure it is not designed to maim, murder, mutate, etc. before it is delivered to Ilpholin for her to read.

[Ilpholin's Residence]

The legs give it away. The realization dawns on Adir slowly as he approaches along the walk. He might be spiteful or dumb enough to stamp on the grass if he was going to visit an enemy, but that certainly wasn't the case.

The stag stops and sizes up his faceless greeter when addressed. "Adir. Frescot." A beat. "I'm here to see Ilpholin about training."

[Ilpholin's Residence]

The panel's circular red 'eye' for lack of a better term seems to rotate once. "Error. Adir Frescot is a deliciously handsome man about my height with deer antlers on his head. You are clearly not delicious."

Oh boy.

It thinks it has a sense of humor.

I doubt Ilpholin knows HALlelujah is quoting her verbatim too. "Also you do not match the height parameters given. You cannot be Adir Frescot. Please state your real name and the real purpose of your visit."

[Zefir]

[DMside - Alice]


"Yes, things are different here." Alice muses. Perhaps Nature And Nature's Goddess could make a convincing case as Mia has done...but she doubts it. Feral mindless centaurs must belong to her, rapacious raiders as wild as any mustang. To nature belong monsters.

She takes a deep breath as she finds a space at the table. The robots deserve a thanks for recognizing that the chairs wouldn't suit her and moving them away. "The dinner smells wonderful. Do the robots cook, or someone else living here?"

[DMside - Alice]

Well, good thing by accident. I might have the wrong picture of Alice in my head.^^

"Not allways." Mia says. "And even then a cook is watching over them. Taste is somthing we learn by trial and error. We haven't inventid a robot with this ability, yet."

Mia smiles. "It's also a bit troublesome when robots try to cook 'healthy'. Not this or that or anything that got some taste."

The Lotus Gardens - Mia

Jezebel is silent as Mia explains and she gives a small nod when she is finished. "Is there a certain place you wish to set up? Either in Eastside or here in the Gardens, I do not care which and I will be glad to give you support to move and set up."

The Lotus Gardens - Mia

"Up to now we thought we could just add the current territory from DMside to Eastside." Mia says. "We haven't done much negotiation with the fraction so I can't say what they think about that. Moving thing will be a real trouble."

[Deathkeeper]

The Empress' Estate

Poor Tester. This has happened twice now. Just passing out in his boss' arms. It'll be the first words out of his mouth when he awakes, too.
"I gotta stop passing out in these rituals..."

[Gullara]

[Westside - Suncrest Manor]

The gargoyle points at the letter, which is conveniently enough labeled Invitation. The flying beast appears unable to speak though, maybe not the best type of messenger?

[Westside - Suncrest Manor]

"Uh, just a minute." A couple minutes later, Nadia comes outside and walks up to the gate. She looks as confused as she sounds. She'll hold her hand out to accept the invetation, and open it when she receives it.

The Lotus Gardens - Cessie

Waiting to meet them outside the door is an older gentleman, human, who is wearing a suit and a small dish in hand. The grey-haired man leans down when he sees the children and quirks an eyebrow effective. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Lords and Ladies. My name is Charles, and I am under the impression that good little boys and girls would be arriving today. Surely you've seen them?" He asks with a hint of a smile as he lowers a dish to show a variety of flavored hard candy suckers for them to choose from. As he does so, Ariel bursts out of the door, too excited to be polite and patient, and the little dark-haired girl instantly squeals in delight before instantly grabbing a piece of candy before trying to hug the nearest Mithar kid.

Jezebel stands in the doorway, covering her mouth with a hand in an effort to try and hide a grin and snicker.

The Lotus Gardens - Cessie

"I don't know, are there?" Cessie asks with a glance at Cora. She had not expected such a welcome from Ariel though. Hopefully her children didn't demand as much personal space as she did.

[The Lotus Gardens - Cessie]

The kids all harvest a sucker each. Sugar is the surest way to win them over! Especially since they don't get a lot with such a strict mother. Cora grins between Cessie and the man. "Yeeeees!"

It's Bastion who's ambushed by Ariel. He's caught off guard by the excited girl. It's hard to put him too off guard with how rambunctious his twin sister is. "Hi Ariel."

[Murkus]

[Fourth Tower Compound]

Sticks' eyes slowly widen. "Divert who or whatever you can to Eastside with all haste! Spare no man or monster! And tell your master all of this. Hurry!" Sticks puts his hand on Bolt's neck and the damaged construct veers away, it's head turning east. "And thank you!"

Sticks will make for the Eastside entrance with equal haste. His bird can fly at approximately the speed of a propellor plane, provided Sticks clings very hard to the back.

[Ilpholin's Residence]

"Wow, you are definitely one of Ilpholin's," Adir sighs. He frowns a little and puts his hands on his hips, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. He mutters, "But without the good taste in guys. Okay, look. I've got some weird stuff going on. This... magic made me get taller. If you're smart enough to snark at me, you're smart enough to know how the Nexus goes sometimes. Would you please just tell her I'm here and she can come verify for herself? I'll even..." Adir looks around himself. He walks back several paces - giant-sized paces - from the entryway. "I'll even stand over here. How's that?"

[Recaiden]

Blood Moon
Southside

The poor people of Southside will soon discover these cats aren't particularly friendly, and every person approaching them is greeted by a quick nip. Once bitten, however, the cats turn friendly, purring and rubbing themselves against the possibly-new-feliphobes. Unless they see a dog. Then they all scatter in different directions.

People can be awfully lax about cat bites, seeing them as such harmless animals. When the first person starts changing shape though, it starts getting taken a lot more seriously, and those nearby who are yet to be infected clear out (or in one case, opens fire on one of the werecats cat with his laser pistol).

[Southside - Dragon Research]

"Er, I must have started to ramble again. My apologizes. I simply assumed you meant it as a punishment." She claims, then taking a deep breath. "I just meant it as a significant technological breakthrough, but I don't think it is fair to compare them. They're both amazing accomplishments, but in completely different fields. However, perhaps you could tell me a bit about what the exact benefits of your process. Besides the draconic features, do the nephilim's gain any less obvious benefits such as resistance to disease, or a longer lifespan? Are there any notable side effects?"

"Ohh. No problem." Framing it as a technological breakthrough to be pursued really did illuminate things for the Commandant. "Hmm, good question. Besides being stronger, smarter, better balanced, they have more mana, chi, you know, magical energy, the stuff Aleksei works with. Resistance to lots of bacterial infections and some toxins, but there's a few brand new diseases humans wouldn't get. Don't know about the lifespan yet; we're not old enough, and it hasn't been tried as a treatment for aging. Dragons live a long time; there might be something there."

If there's no answer about side effects, hopefully that means there aren't ones to speak of.

[DMside - Alice]

Well, good thing by accident. I might have the wrong picture of Alice in my head.^^

"Not always." Mia says. "And even then a cook is watching over them. Taste is something we learn by trial and error. We haven't invented a robot with this ability, yet."

Mia smiles. "It's also a bit troublesome when robots try to cook 'healthy'. Not this or that or anything that got some taste."

"They cook only for health, then. I don't know if it would be that troubling; everything is tasty enough when you're hungry." Alice comments, both to reassure Mia that her food will be fine regardless of how many robots were involved, and to highlight her own fortitude.

On to the dinner!

[Earl of Purple]

Blood Moon

River

The dagger doesn't do much against the shark, glancing harmlessly off its sandpaper-like skin. Now that the other shark has transformed, the giant shark ignores what was recently prey, and instead attacks the boat, trying to sink it... And demonstrate to the smaller one that this bit of the river is his territory, and the smaller one should hunt elsewhere.

Northside

The earth vampires are far more successful at hunting the werefoxes, and the survivors- the ones lucky or smart enough to figure out what's happening before they are targeted- are quick to flee, headed either for the district's boundaries or the roofs, where hopefully the vampires cannot reach.

Those foxes which are caught are easily dispatched. Their flesh is tougher and stronger than expected, but they can still be asphyxiated... Or exploded from within.

[Deathkeeper]

MERC Office- Kids

Silly narrator. A blink dog doesn't chase something on foot when it's hunting on uneven terrain. It blinks. While relying on smell and sound, Faye has plenty of darkness to pop in and out of. She continues her attempts to pounce on the ghost.

Koshal, meanwhile, is still stumbling about trying to levitate over the stacks of furniture.

Blood Moon- River

Well, at least only one of the four crates was loaded yet. It won't be a complete loss for the agent's boss, and he probably won't call out a hit on his own guy, or stop doing business in this particular neighborhood. Still, the boat is cheap and quiet, not combat-crafted. It sinks.

With that demonstration, the shark swims up-river to find livelier waters. They'll probably meet again in a day or two.

[Morty]

[MERC Office- Kids]

Iknika swings her arms wildly, throwing a footstool she'd found in the direction of the eyes. She's got a surprisingly good eye and throwing arm, considering that her head is swimming and eyes are watering.

[UncleWolf]

The Lotus Gardens - Harnetta & Wenomir

Jezebel frowns at Wenomir's statement, quite obviously displeased as she shuts off her tablet again and sets it aside to lace her fingers together. "Wenomir, I would quite rather you didn't say you had nothing to learn from me. I understand if you don't want to spar, but if that's the case just say so." She explains before giving a small amused snort. "After all, you two have probably had enough exercise for the week."

The Lotus Gardens - The Sleepover

The kids will find that the suckers are the hand-made variety, wrapped in bits of stiff plastic wrap and carefully made with tender love and care.

Or in Charles' case, just a bit of sugar, boiling water, and freshly squeezed ploin juice. With a bit of food coloring to make them all sorts of different bright colors.

The taste is...definitely fruit, slightly astringent like ripened persimmons, but also sweet from the sugar and slightly citrusy. Every batch, indicated by different colors, is a little different in taste from one another, but it isn't the worst candy out there. It's most likely that the children would love it for the sugar anyway. Overall, the flavor isn't for every kid, but Ariel definitely seems to enjoy it as she pops one into her mouth after breaking off her hug with Bastion. She tries to talk(possibly to say hello), but her mouth is full and she stops with a frustrated look on her face before opening her hand to collect the bits of candy wrapper from the others to be polite. If they hand it over, she'll scamper back to her mother to hand them to her to dispose of. "Well, I certainly think there are good children here. Please, come on in, Lords and Ladies Mithar." Jezebel says with a smile as she stands aside and holds open the door for them to come in.

Right inside, the children are greeted with a fairly large foyer with hardwood floors, racks for coats and hats, and even shelves for dirty shoes although Ariel seems to keep her polished black dress shoes on(complete with pink bow!). Charles is there to take any from the children, though Jezebel is the one to offer to take such from Cessie should the Mithars have brought anything that should be hung up. "My room is on the top, far left!" Ariel shouts as she darts off up the stairs that's along the right side of the foyer. At least, she would except Jezebel's hand reaches out to stay her shoulder gently. "Ariel?" Jezebel asks pointedly, raising an eyebrow as she looks at the little girl.

Ariel looks embarrassed for a moment before spinning around and curtsying. "Welcome to my home!" When she speaks, it is of course muffled, but the candy is tucked into her cheek this time around.

Sergei however, is still MIA.

The Lotus Gardens - Mia

Jezebel can't help but frown at the thought. "Mia, I need you to be perfectly clear. Are you really wanting me to declare your area part of Eastside rather than South? I can't do that. That would be incredibly aggressive. I was voted in to unite Riverside, not tear it to pieces or send it into a potential civil war of factions."

The Empress Estate - Tester

The Empress doesn't say anything as she lays Tester down, nor does she add anything after he falls asleep again. A thin but warming blanket is placed over his body and will stay that way until he awakens.

The Empress' Estate - Frescots

As asked, The Empress can produce a mirror with ease, simply reaching back for a hand mirror that she had laid out in preparation for just a question. It isn't a large one, but it should do the job. She says nothing however and lets Adir formulate his own opinion of the changes.

Northside Tour

"Actually, I could say that the designs in the Gardens sprung up from me." Jezebel admits. Well, it was mostly true. It was "divine inspiration" from a Dark God she had served before, but they were still her designs if modified now that the connection to that particular entity was practically severed.

"But a monster themed costume party? I have a few flashy and gothic ideas in mind provided fire is okay." She adds with a smile as the thoughts run through her head. "And for that I definitely will need to speak with a designer who knows how fire works. It'll be interesting. I'd ask what you'd be showing up as, but I sense I'd rather be surprised."

[TheRedFox201]

[MERC Office - A Visitor]

"To be honest, I don't know nearly as much about this place as I would like, but if people are the same, I can adapt. You have a crash course or presentation ready?"

Todd visibly relaxes now that tensions have loosened.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[MERC Office - Electra]

Electra strolls into the MERC office in her civilian gear, looking somewhat troubled. She has someone she needs to talk to, she just hopes he's available. If Dena is manning the front desk today, she'll make a beeline for the gorgon; otherwise, she'll wait patiently until one of the other clerks is free.

[Earl of Purple]

Blood Moon- River

His superiority assured, the bull shark shaped giant noses through the boat's wreck, looking for anything that it can eat. After, it swims downstream, looking for more prey, boats or dolphins. It doesn't expect to find any of the latter, but he looks anyway.

[Shadowcaller]

[Fourth Tower Compound]

"Good luck." The captain curtly states, not waiting waiting for Sticks to leave before starting to bark orders at his men. There was little chance any reinforcements that were sent now would arrive in time to stop them in case they actually went to Eastside. But at least they would be there to take care of the wounded if that happened.

[Ilpholin's Residence]

It's an invitation to a masquerade in Malechenar that passes all the checks. Apparently, if she feels like coming, she may bring with her one other person of her choice.
The theme of the masquerade is "monsters".

[MERC Office - Electra]

Dena is at her desk, regarding Electra curiously as she is making a beeline for her. "Hey, what's the hurry?" She asks, seemingly a bit tense. She did not like when people moved quickly towards her, regardless if they were friend or foe. "Something on your mind?"

[MERC Office - A Visitor]

"A presentation? I don't usually introduce people to the nexus, but I can give you a quick summary of the relevant stuff. Basically, the nexus pull in people from all sort of worlds that end up here. It doesn't really make much sense when you really think about what this world is like considering the various technologies available, but it seems just be the way things are." Dena starts. "Anyhow, there are three famous cities you should know about. Inside, the big weird city. Was once the target for a whole bunch of invasions, but things have quiet down considerably now. Been a while since I set my foot there as MERC was temporarily banned by "the union" which used to control it. They technically still do, but now they're letting other people run it for them, called "Intersection", who aren't nearly as strict.

Then we got Riverside which is basically a battleground for a whole bunch of factions. The city is divided into four districts, west, east, south and north. Westside, were we are now, used to be controlled by vampires, and now it is controlled by other vampires hiring us to keep an eye on things. These vampires, going by the name of 'Malechenar', also control northside. You probably saw that flying castle of theirs when you came here. Then you got Eastside which is a democracy. They just elected a lady by the name of Jezebel as mayor, which is kinda funny since she is also a self-proclaimed "goddess" governing over an entire district within Eastside." Dena would not have voted for Jezebel, but the other options weren't that great either. It was a big stupid mess. "Finally, we got southside which once was no man's land after some fey lady left it behind. But then some general moved in and took it all over. She almost invaded the other sides too, when she suddenly was abandoned by her allies. So now she's stuck in Southside, playing governor." She takes a deep breath, it was not a small thing Todd was asking for here.

"Okay, so the final city is Skyside. Skyside is completely lawless and is run by a bunch of criminal gangs. They have a couple of hostile mercenary companies based there such as KABAL, who are on hostile terms with us.

Finally, we got all the other organizations. VIGIL, bunch of hero-wanna-be's, HALO, more hero-wannabe's, AMEN, villain wanna be's and GloG, pacifist-wanna-be's. Before my time, they always attacked one another, but these days they're all pretty quiet." She taps her finger twice against the table. "I think that summary should do for now, any other questions?"

The Lotus Gardens - The Sleepover

Cessie would have been overwhelmed by this in the past, but after having to deal with all the Frescot children, this almost seemed relaxing in comparison. "It's all very nice." She remarks. "But where is Sergei? I assume he wanted to be on his own?" Cessie wasn't completely unfamiliar with that feeling. She remember hating these sort of things when she was younger.

Northside Tour

"We encourage our guests to be as creative as they can with the theme, as long as people arrive disguised as something." Celestel claims. "So we would absolutely love to see what you and your designer have come up with. The more spectacular, the better."

[MERC Office- Kids]

Faye might have more problem than usual then, as whatever it is give away no smell and while things certainly move, they don't make a sound for some reason. Like everything around this anomaly goes strangely silent. Faye can still smell the saliva that seems to be in places all over the room, but here she can't smell anything. If Faye can still pounce on the being without those ways to track it, she might be able to do it in the next post.
The footstool Iknika throws hits something, and there is a loud hiss from whatever it is. But it appears between Faye and Iknika attacking, they got the creature retreating as it is moving back, deeper into the room, towards the spot where Faye could smell the saliva and Iknika could see things glimmer.

[Westside - Suncrest Manor]

The gargoyle will hand Nadia the letter than then fly away.
Inside is an invitation for two to the Malechenar costume party. The theme is "monsters" and people are encouraged to dress as fantastically as possible.

Blood moon - Northside

The vampires won't follow the foxes beyond northside. Once they were out of there, they were someone else's problem. Last thing they wanted to be accused of killing animals in Eastside, could cause a diplomatic incident.

[Southside - Dragon Research]

"Dragons usually live for a very long time, yeah. I can see the benefit it could have to the people being infused with their essence. There is one thing I've been considering this whole time though, aren't you afraid that some dragons might take offense to this usage of their kin's body parts? They are creatures of pride after all, not usually letting 'mere humanoids' harvest their bodies in this manner." Ambrosia wonders.

[Northside Streets => Eastside Streets]

The guards continue firing at her, but they're not crazy enough to stand in her path as she is hulking through the barricades they've put up. When they were told they were stopping a warlock, they were expecting trickery magic, not a giant plant beast.
Vax will be able to get through to the other side, but both she and Nazaan will take a lot of shots at them from the guards. There is also the loudly hissing gorgon to worry about... but for now they are on the other side. They've made it to eastside. Now they just need to keep surviving.

[Nova_Eclipse]

[MERC Office - Electra]

Electra waits until she's close enough to talk in a low voice without much risk of being overheard. Her expression is serious, though she doesn't seem angry.

"I need to talk to Dipsnig. Is he here, or should I head up to HQ? And, could you spare an hour or two if he's at HQ? I think your input would be helpful, too."

[Recaiden]

[Southside - Dragon Research]

"Dragons usually live for a very long time, yeah. I can see the benefit it could have to the people being infused with their essence. There is one thing I've been considering this whole time though, aren't you afraid that some dragons might take offense to this usage of their kin's body parts? They are creatures of pride after all, not usually letting 'mere humanoids' harvest their bodies in this manner." Ambrosia wonders.

"Can't say that I am. I figure for every dragon offended by using their essence and DNA, there's another whose pride would be glad that humanoids are trying to be more like them." Ruby rationalizes. "It seems like a pretty remote possibility that one would actually try to cause us trouble. And even more unlikely that they'd manage it. They may be super-powerful, but they're always alone."