Outside 46

[Shadowcaller]

[Ancient Temple]

"Oh? When you're calling someone you're unfamiliar with, isn't it customary to make sure you've got the right number first? But yes, you're right. Pardon me for just a moment." The phone falls silent.

...

It stays silent for about a minute before the screen brightens up, projecting a tiny, flickering image of a man with silver hair and blue eyes, leaning on a cane. The next time he speaks, the audio is considerably louder and clearer. "I had to make a couple of adjustments. I should warn you, this is going to drain the batteries quite quickly, but I'll happily make you a new phone afterwards to compensate you if you so desire. My name is Professor Affidavit. My research suggested we might have some shared interests, so I thought I ought to say hello. Unfortunately I lacked the means to approach you in a less mysterious voice-y manner."

[Ancient Temple]

If Affidavit can see through the phones camera, can can see a hooded figure which seem to have wrapped itself with bandages is standing above the phone, looking down at it. The figure is oddly distorted in the picture, making it impossible to make out many details.

"Is that so? Then allow me to introduce myself, I am, as you guessed, Shazhan. Archaeologist, collector, administrator, security expert..." He waves his bandaged hand, a golden wrist band with a large ruby socketed into it becoming clearer. Its gleaming so brightly in the sun that comes in through a hole in the temple ceiling that its causing a lens flare before Shazhan lowers it. "And there is no need to compensate for that device, I do not put much value in such exposed technology. I have to acquire new ones constantly due to the stress I put on them through in my job."

"No, instead tell me of these shared interests of ours. I am easily intrigued by such offers."

[Hattish Thing]

Maggy Land - Late

The gray-coated man does not appear to react to the cyborg's line of questioning here, but rather taps at his glass softly, the sound reverberating through the painfully bright innards of the armored vehicle. After watching the carbonated beverage swirl for several seconds, he turns, staring deep into Magtok's organic eye from behind the onyx lenses of his starmetal spectacles, his eerie gaze piercing through the glass. A few seconds pass before he slowly retrievs a thick folder from within his coat. He presses another button within the vehicle, which causes a tray to unfold before Magtok.

Slowly, he sets the folder down upon the tray before calmly nudging it to the cyborg, his expression quite serious. Within the folder, several documents can be found, each of which contains information on Conference Z, as well as several pictures of Magtok and "friends", taken quite obviously without consent.

"I am Executor Kramolagh. I must say, y-your vhork is impressive."

[Lord Magtok]

Maggy Land - Late => Road to Nowhere

"I'm shortening that to Krammy," Magtok informs the Executor. Though obviously meant to antagonize the man, Magtok doesn't even bother watching the man's face for a reaction, already poring over the documents and pictures within the folder. The implicit threat intended with these photos is cute, and 'A' for effort, Krams, but Magtok isn't really friends with any of these people. I mean, Needs can fend for himself, Ithuriel can go to hell, Dena's just a mercenary who offered him money, and Reinholdt can go to double-hell. No wait, triple-hell. Anyone else in these pictures is probably encased in permanent deadtime and not worth worrying about, or people we don't actually know. Yep, that's the one upside to not having any friends left in the world, you get to look at intimidation tactics like this and just sneer in derision. Ha! Can't threaten to hurt friends when Magtok's friendless and alone in the world, Krammy! You lose this round, hahahahahaha-*sobs*

Aaaaaanyway, after taking a few pictures of the documents with his eye (just in case he needs to look back on any of this information after Krammy shreds it), Magtok hands it back to Kram, clearly done with it all already. "Alright, now that I know what this is all about, let me start by saying you've been pushing all the wrong buttons, Krammy. I've been dead before. I've been dead a lot, actually. I'm not intimidated by you. At worst, I'm mildly frustrated by your attempts at strong-arming me into coming here. I mean, I'm like eighty percent sure Libby's gone forever, so what's this supposed to do?" Magtok asks, pulling out a photo he'd slipped up his sleeve, of himself and the death goddess, Libitina. The same one Feiadyne has imprisoned, not that Mag knows anything about that, clearly.

[Hattish Thing]

Maggy Land - Late => Road to Nowhere

The gray-coated man chuckles darkly here, continuing to face forward. Kramolagh allows himself a wry grin here, exposing a few uncomfortably sharp teeth which glitter in the harsh, white light. The unusual man licks his lips for half a second before leaning back, continuing to tap his fingers against one another.

He smirks, his tone matter-of-fact.

"You are zhe last one."

[Lord Magtok]

Road to Nowhere

"The last one in the Nexus," Magtok corrects him, leaning in to scowl at the Executor. "If I die, Command will send another. Admittedly, I would rather it not come to that. I would very much prefer to be the Magtok who gets the lair up and running again, I would like my memories to be in that next generation of clones, but it isn't the end of the world if I don't make it." That sounds like it pretty much amounts to the same thing, though. He might not be the last Magtok, but he'll still experience death in a way few other clones ever do, with all his networking and connections and memories lost forever. That deal with MERC will completely fall through if the next Magtok knows nothing about it, for example.

[Hattish Thing]

Maggy Land - Late => Road to Nowhere

Kramolagh takes another long sip from his glass of sparkling water before responding, still staring forward. "Will zhey? Are you certain?" The man shrugs, tapping at the glass with an almost disinterested expression upon his face, watching the bubbles pop and fizzle.

He glances towards Magtok at this point.

"It's not a risk I vhould vhant t-to take."

--

Comfortably, the gray-coated man leans back in his chair.

"You are a clever man, cyborg. If vhe vhanted to k-kill you, it is unlikely zhat vhe vhould invite you here, no?"

"You are here... because I believe vhe can help one anozher."

[Lord Magtok]

Road to Nowhere

"I've looked at your documents, Krambles. I'm aware of your focus on 'weird science.' I can see how I can help you," Magtok turns that picture of Libitina around, losing himself in a bit of nostalgia for a moment. It's sorta funny, in a sick, cosmic irony sort of sense. He'd briefly convinced himself that the death goddess would be eternal, that the psychopomp would be unique amongst all his other past loves, never dying. It was always destined to be this way, though. Everybody dies eventually, even the divine. Everyone goes away in the end...well, everyone except Magtok. The upside of all that death nonsense is that we already know it'll just be a few more years of waiting before we get to dance on Reinholdt's grave, though. Kram, I give a few months, maybe a year and a half, tops. Oh man, dancing on Kram's grave, I can already tell that'll be so much fun!

"How do you believe you can help me?" There's the big question for Magtok. He can just shoot himself in the head at any moment if he believes they're planning on making him their permanent science slave. The hope that this might lead to money, riches, power enough to achieve his own goals before Kram can go all psycho evil Nazi on the world, that's the only reason Magtok's still here. We need that MagCave up and running, and if we have to betray a few creepy Germans and set fire to our own research in a few months to get there, so be it.

[Hattish Thing]

Maggy Land - Late => Road to Nowhere

Kramolagh nods, noting the cyborg's lack of a response when it comes to the questioning of whether or not his superiors would actually send some sort of replacement. Convinced that he's gained the upper hand within the conversation, the gray-coated man takes another sip, smirking softly.

His response is swift, almost incredulous.

"Believe? Oh, you pretty zhing you."

"You have nozhing l-left, cyborg. Vhe know, vhe have vhatched your s-spectacular fall."

--

He continues, adjusting his coat. "But zhis does not have to be zhe end."

"All zhat you have lost... vhe can restore."

[Devixer]

Chapel

Faudre grimaces as the guard dies. She didn't much care about the man's life, but now their time was cut in half at least. She had to find a way to get them out of here quickly. She lifts her bardiche onto her shoulder. "Stay silent as the clouds. They are here in greater strength than us." She tries to remember where the side door was and make her way over quickly and quietly.

[Lord Magtok]

Road to Nowhere

"I'll believe it when I see it," Magtok frowns, arms crossed. It's getting harder and harder to justify not jumping right out of the car and dying, but Kram will just find some other scientist if we don't play along. Nope, whether we like it or not, we committed to this thing the moment we stepped inside the car. For the time being, begrudging compliance appears to be our only way forward.

[Deathkeeper]

[Under Mountainside]

Too much booping! Too many compliments! She should run awa-

No no, we're not doing that again. Not really anywhere to run to anyway. Besides, the elevator is slowing down as it nears the end of its descent!

"I-it's not how dragons do things. I don't, um, I guess I don't mind though. A-and we can be us-us later. I just can't around other people."

Under Mountainside

”Well that’s funny. Because we’re dragons. So if we decide to do something, then by definition it’s how dragons do something. Y’know?”
Spako looks at her, dead serious. He’s going to get some confidence into this drake even if he has to do it one poke and compliment at a time.

[Earl of Purple]

Chapel

The orc isn't going to wake up and raise the alarm now, so there's that.

The slaves follow Faudre to the door, which is nailed shut. It's unguarded, but there's boards nailed across it. They can be removed, but it might be noisy and could alert guards. The heterochromatic girl grabs a hammer- probably the one used to nail it up- and two other girls hold the board as she starts prying the nails out.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Ancient Temple]

The phone being flat on the floor, it would take a pretty snazzy adjustable camera to actually angle it enough to see anything of value. Shazhan's appearance remains a mystery to the man in the phone. It does mean the ethereal's little display, lens flare and all, is rather wasted on him.

"I'm striking out on a limb a little bit more than I'd usually like to, admittedly, but I believe that, among the leaders of KABAL, you're the one with the most inclination to display an interest in technology. Particularly if, say, that technology had some historic value to it?" The little image bows roughly in the direction of Shazhan's voice. "Consider me a living piece of Nexus history, if you will. At this point I could count on one hand the number of people with knowledge dating as far back as mine. And as for why I say it's a shared interest? Well, you're quite unusual yourself, aren't you? With, I suspect, quite a bit of interesting technology to your name. So I'm hoping we can arrange for an exchange of knowledge. An exchange...and perhaps some business for KABAL as well?" The Affy-image flips open a pocket watch and peers at it. "Potential business in, hmm, twenty two hours and seventeen minutes anyway."

*****
[Under Mountainside]

The elevator rumbles to a halt. Strings of multicoloured lights spark into life, marking out a pathway that leads a short way into another chamber. Looks rather large. Looking back up, the ceiling looks like a rainbow slowly descending through the darkness towards them.

Amidst the lights, another tuxedo'd elemental stands, waiting patiently for the guests to disembark and follow it along.

Which means Sylvie hurriedly pours out the rest of their wine and passes Spako's glass over to him. "Here, let's not let it go to waste. A-and, um, it's not that I mean to disagree with you, it's just that the dragons back home have been doing things at a more, ahhh, a more sedate pace for tens of thousands of years. It takes time to know someone, you know? B-but I don't mind this. I really don't. It's just hard to adjust to?"

*****

[A sleeping Zern]

You know how most people sleeping out in the open will generally try and build a shelter, maybe make a campfire?

Damon has a different solution. He's turned in for the night, completely out in the open, keeping himself safe from the elements by just making himself the campfire. He's snoozing merrily away, covered in black fire.

[Deathkeeper]

[Under Mountainside]

”Relax, Sylvie. It’s just a date. We’re not committing to anything. It’s not like we’re going to have children by morning if we have a fun dinner.” Spako assures her, taking a swig of wine and trotting off under the rainbow with his arm locked with hers.
The rainbow really is something.
And if Sam were here, he’d be laughing at Sylvie’s suggestions of ‘too fast’ after how forward Lucy was with people he’s seen her with.

[Morty]

[A sleeping Zern]

Somewhere else, something else is dreaming. It's dead, but still dreaming. It dreams of wind and fire, still coursing slowly through what bones it has left. But it remembers the battles it fought, against giants and demons. It was a proud creature, with power enough to burn away corruption and throw aside the weak. It fought for a world and a home it never knew, but it seems it's not really gone.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[A sleeping Zern]

"If only..."

How many times has he dreamed of something that would give him an edge over the demons? He shouldn't be surprised, really, not after this latest humiliation. Not after being reminded that even pit fiends are too much for him. Oh sure, he's the terror of lesser demonkind, but he's still a long way off getting rid of the demon lord responsible for the death of his race.

Still, this one feels a little different. "What are you, creature?"

*****

[Under Mountainside -> The Crystal Cavern]

Don't you see, non-existant Sam? It's one thing to fool around as Lucy, but Sylvess is on a date with another dragon here! That's like super-serious!

The pathway opens up into a colossal natural cavern, a huge pocket of open space deep underground. It's rather cold, and the darkness is broken up only by the flickering red light of dozens of orbs, illuminating the various tables across the room, the booths carved part-way along one wall of the cavern (with seats fitted, not just carved out of the stone, that'd be very uncomfortable!) and a lengthy bar that has been carved straight out of the floor, complete with a few stalagmites set along its length. The lights along the bar outline the silhouettes of three dwarves, the bartenders for the evening.

It's all rather quiet as the various members of staff wait for everyone to take their seats.

"I-I mean, we're both male anyway so, y'know, no danger of that whatever happens." There's sort of an unspoken suggestion there that she'd be okay if "whatever" happens. She might not have realised that. "Oh, there's our booth!" She grabs Spako's hand again and runs over to take a seat.

[Morty]

[A sleeping Zern]

The dragon doesn't answer, as such, but Damon's question resonates with it. It was a being of fire and wind, soaring the skies when the world was young. Before the treachery took the Fairest of Lands away, bent the seas and enforced the yoke of mundanity. It was free and it wants to be free again. All this power, slowly regained but unable to be used, waiting to burst and rage freely again.

[Tower of Batu]

Batu's face darkens more, but he smiles.

"I... think I'd like that. Maybe not here, though."

[Deathkeeper]

[Under Mountainside -> The Crystal Cavern]

Don't you see, non-existant Sam? It's one thing to fool around as Lucy, but Sylvess is on a date with another dragon here! That's like super-serious!

The pathway opens up into a colossal natural cavern, a huge pocket of open space deep underground. It's rather cold, and the darkness is broken up only by the flickering red light of dozens of orbs, illuminating the various tables across the room, the booths carved part-way along one wall of the cavern (with seats fitted, not just carved out of the stone, that'd be very uncomfortable!) and a lengthy bar that has been carved straight out of the floor, complete with a few stalagmites set along its length. The lights along the bar outline the silhouettes of three dwarves, the bartenders for the evening.

It's all rather quiet as the various members of staff wait for everyone to take their seats.

"I-I mean, we're both male anyway so, y'know, no danger of that whatever happens." There's sort of an unspoken suggestion there that she'd be okay if "whatever" happens. She might not have realised that. "Oh, there's our booth!" She grabs Spako's hand again and runs over to take a seat.

The Crystal Cavern]

Spako snickers.
"You must not have been in the Nexus long. That doesn't stop people. The Pink Wizard had a quartet of cute hatchlings with her wife. Its-ooooooh pretty!"
Spako wanders about in wonder at the whole place of shinies before he's pulled to the booth by Sylvie.
"So uh like is our food gonna be here already?" he asks her as they sit down facing each other.

[Murkus]

[Tower of Batu]

Div leans in to whisper. "Well, come on then. You must have a room here, right...?"

And perhaps the scene can be ended there, with them scurrying away to Batu's chambers.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[A sleeping Zern]

Power? Rage? Those are words that resonate with Damon. But what can he do? How does he free it? Could that power be used to aid him?

"Where are you, creature? How do I help you? Tell me."

*****

[The Crystal Cavern]

"Pink Wizard, what are you- ohhh." Sylvie's question is cut short as her attention is caught by the whole ceiling above them lighting up. A cluster, a cloud of wisps dance about below, shining their lights upon it. And hovering in the middle of the room below them is a strange cluster of brilliant, flawless, completely clear quartz prisms, floating about each other in a vaguely humanoid shape. Staring at their strange dancing pattern one can almost imagine arms, legs, a face of sorts. And then it speaks, its voice like an angel that causes a collective gasp amongst the guests as its soft, heavenly tones echo out about them, leaving a soothing ringing in their wake that slowly fades away. "Welcome, welcome everyone, welcome to my home!"

In a practiced routine, the wisps flit about, causing ripples of colour to flow across the ceiling. A handful move down to circle around the quartz-creature, their colours slowly shifting in a slow, gentle pattern that's focused through the prisms, causing streaks of light to scatter across the ground. As the light plays across the ceiling in pulses, it quickly becomes clear that there are massive clusters of remarkably pure crystals spread all across it.

"It is my utmost joy and pleasure to share the beauty of this place for you. Truly, it is a treasure beyond words."

The light plays across the floor, highlighting a number of statues, rather greek in style, carved out of stalagmites - men and women in the nude, elegantly posed, the whole effect very much leaning on the artistic rather than anything more untoward. Above, stalacmites have similarly been carved to form a chorus of angels in flight. From behind the angels, on some invisible cue, groups of small shadow-y grey pixies flit out to perch upon them, singing out in a wordless chorus that helps add volume to the beauty of this cavern.

"A treasure like no other. A treasure so great that some say a great crystal dragon once claimed this place as its lair!"

Powerful illusory magics kick in, causing the room to shake and the crystals to shimmer and crack as a massive crystal dragon bursts through the wall. The audience gasps, one or two more in fright than from the spectacle, "Relax. Enjoy. It's all part of the show." The quartz-creature's words bring calm in an instant. The dragon wheels and swoops about the room, its breath coming out in clouds of sparkling light, like emeralds frozen in the air, then sapphires, rubies, amethysts, topaz, shifting between colours and leaving a trail behind it. Finally it comes to a halt, hovering directly above the quartz-creature. The pixies voices raise in volume as it reaches its climax, the dragon exploding in a dazzling display of colours like a colossal, silent firework.

"I hope you enjoyed our performance. Now please, enjoy your meal." As the wisp-light fades to a soft glow, the guests collectively turn their gaze back down to find their first courses waiting for them in front of them. A number of kobold waiters having silently, expertly dished them out while everyone was distracted by the display.

Sylvie's mouth just kind of hangs open. "So prettyyyyy." She hasn't even noticed her food yet!

[Morty]

[A sleeping Zern]

The dream shifts to show a mountain, standing in the middle of a barren land. Damon can't see the dragon inside it, but all the buried emotions and desires of the beast flow from there. This place seems real, rather than simply dreamed, and all that remains is for Damon to find it in the waking world.

[Deathkeeper]

[The Crystal Caverns]

Spako's mouth drops, and he claps cheerily with the rest of the crowd. Honestly, the only way that could have been more impressive is if somehow the wisps had rhymed too.
Spako makes sure Sylvie isn't too clueless and gives her a light touch on the claw to remind her that her food might be getting cold.

He also waves to the 'other' kobolds. Hi other kobolds! Spako doesn't see enough of his (former) kinsmen.
"You picked out a lovely place, Sylvie." he tells his date with a toothy reptilian smile.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[A sleeping Zern]

"Find it? Find it how? This place- it's huge! How am I meant to find one mountain among so many?" Damon lets out a confused hiss, looking around this portrait of the real world, searching for something that would help him find this place.

But there's more he needs to know here, too. "What must be done to wake you? And what do I get in return?"

*****

[The Crystal Cavern]

"Uh, whu? Oh! Food! When did that get there?" She looks down at Spako's hand, at her food, at his eyes...her gaze lingers there for a moment. "W-well, enjoy!" She promptly starts attacking her broth with a spoon. It's not exactly the most ladylike method of eating, but she is at least making sure not to get any down herself. "I, um, I hoped it would be as nice as it sounded. Like I said, I don't really know how else to impress a dragon." Is this impressing Spako? Seems like it, right? But it's just the product of throwing money around. Sylvie rubs the back of her neck, managing a half-smile.

One of the kobolds takes a moment from scurrying around to wave back at Spako, "Whenever you wish for another drink, sir, please let us know and we'll be happy to fetch it for you."

[Deathkeeper]

[Under Mountainside]

Spako’s table manners aren’t that refined either, but that’s when you’re taught courtly manners by actual birds. Fancy, pretentious birds.
”Well you might not know how but you’ll already done it a few times today.” he assures Sylvie.

”House red for the table then!” he tells the kobold waiter.

[bc56]

Horizon Colony
Interaction wanted

Not long ago, a colony ship landed on the Nexus and set up a human colony in the wilderness of Outside. Now, they are under attack. An undead army has surrounded the cluster of tetrahedral buildings and is unleashing artillery fire upon the inhabitants. The robot Ezra, caretaker of the colonists, has sent a distress call on all frequencies. "This is Horizon Colony, coordinates attached. We are under attack by an unknown supernatural force. Please assist. Repeat, we are under attack by supernatural forces, requesting assistance.

[Morty]

[A sleeping Zern]

Damon will see the mountain from very high up, in his dream, with a sort of silvery trail stretching out into the distance... right to where he is now. After his other question, he can see a vision of the dragon waking up, fire and wind radiating off it in every direction. Unbridled power, ready to be harnessed and claimed.

[billtodamax]

Horizon Colony
Interaction wanted

Not long ago, a colony ship landed on the Nexus and set up a human colony in the wilderness of Outside. Now, they are under attack. An undead army has surrounded the cluster of tetrahedral buildings and is unleashing artillery fire upon the inhabitants. The robot Ezra, caretaker of the colonists, has sent a distress call on all frequencies. "This is Horizon Colony, coordinates attached. We are under attack by an unknown supernatural force. Please assist. Repeat, we are under attack by supernatural forces, requesting assistance.

[Horizon Colony]

Who knows how Anastasia heard the broadcast - maybe overheard from her usual spot in Trogs? However it happened, the zombie ogre is trudging towards the besieged Horizon Colony. She'll try to simply walk past the undead that are besieging the buildings.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[The Crystal Cavern]

"Of course, sir. Right away, sir." The kobold scurries away, darting between tables with practiced skill and efficiency.

"O-oh good, I guess." There's that slight feeling of panic again. Go away, cowardice! Shoo! She's not going to bolt out of here! "More wine sounds good, a-and is there anything you wanted to talk about?" She's struggling for conversation topics! Help her out, Spako!

The kobold skitters back, demonstrating remarkable dexterity with her tail as she plonks the bottle on the table and uncorks it while facing the other way, handing something out to the guests sitting at another table. That done, she turns back round to pour a drop into each of their glasses, waits for their approval, then fills their glasses, leaves the bottle, and dashes off on her way.

*****

[A Sleeping Zern]

It's all very strange, this dream that calls to him. But it's there and it's powerful. And it's not like he has anything better to do anyway, other than sulk about his failure some more which isn't exactly helpful. "Then I shall come to you."

[Deathkeeper]

[The Crystal Caverns]

Spako approves of the wine, and sends the waiter away. She seemed neat. He's never met a kobold with a prehensile tail. She probably had to do a lot of excersice to get the tail strength to uncork a bottle with it. He should see if it's physically possible for him to do that; it would be great for parties.
"How about you tell me about you? Got any fun hobbies? Goals? Stuff in your bag to brag about?" he asks sweetly.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[The Crystal Cavern]

Well, she sort of asked for this, didn't she? Sylvie stalls for a few moments by finishing off her broth and setting it aside. Time enough to think about what she does and doesn't want to say about herself. And the answer is "not much". This conversation is too difficult!

"U-um, I don't know. I kind of like just flying? I've always been kinda good at it, I guess, but it takes a fair amount of practice to stay in shape. I'm sort of in two minds as to whether I lucked out by coming here. It's let me leave a lot of responsibilities behind but it's also kind of distressing being stuck here?" Gee, that's a bit of a downer, isn't it? "Not that I need to go back or anything, a-and it's much nicer here now that I've met you."