Inside 67: Shadow over Innside

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Cafe Davit]

At a certain point, it became inevitable.

Flashes of different memories are cobbled together before Edict, images of Creations at every stage of their development, from the almost skeletal, fragile metal frame right through to the floating, segmented orbs that came to define them in their final stages. Branching off the central line are countless dead ends, failed experiments, mistakes made along the way of perfecting their design. Round about the stage they were at during the KNAVES days, several different branches persist for a length of time before eventually reuniting into a singular form.

I could put a marker along this line, at the point where this outcome became a certainty. It's further back than you might think. The marker for where I became aware of that is, hmm, a little further along. But not much. The marker for where I became accepting of this, right beside it. A harsher tone. The marker for where I stopped accepting - right at the end, as you've seen. Which means my preparation, my execution was...sloppy. I should not have woken up with so little at my disposal. I should not have been so unprepared. If I had done this properly, there would be no-

No, best he stop there, before he says too much.

I am ready. Break your curse. The pain shall be mine.

*****

[Intersection]

"Good hunting. And best get used to needles. If I get this quarantine set up, no one's getting out of a quarantined area without a blood test. Make sure your reinforcements know not to get bitten." And with those parting words, Ithuriel runs off to go make herself look different.

And then she's going to issue the order for all Intersection officers to shoot regular-looking-her on sight. With a passcode as backup or something in case anyone's uncertain.

...and then she's got to go see if she's still allowed in the field while there's a clone of her possibly running around. And if she can set up quarantines. And if she can have a flamethrower. Lots of questions.

Have fun, VIGIl. Ithuriel will probably get out there to help you. Eventually.

[Arkhosia]

[Docks]

Calm Reed will be waiting there when Anika arrives. This... "kaldorei" and "druid", as people call her, resembles a Lunar Anathema a bit too much for the monk's comfort. But she lacks the silver tattoos and other signs, so Calm Reed will abide.

Docks

A third party member is present her too! Blanche, clad in her usual outfit of a baggy military jacket over an armored bodysuit, stands out quite a bit next to the two more fantastic-looking individuals. In addition to the medical satchel and the scoped assault rifle she’s carrying, she seems to have made new acquisition for this mission: a clunky handheld flamer, and a simple respirator to block out the results.

She looks toward each of her companions with a bit of guarded skepticism, but doesn’t seem to mind them too heavily. If they prove capable, that’s all the catgirl needs.

[Shadowcaller]

Intersection==>Docks

"Needles ain't the problem. It's the blood tapping." Anika remarks as she playfully sticks out her tongue at Ithuriel before heading straight out the door.

She does call VIGIL about her findings, most since Wenomir explicitly told her to. She wouldn't want to go to the docks alone either way. While she liked to rush ahead she knew that she always would at least need one partner in crime. Going on a mission alone never ended well, and in particular this one.

Therefore, she isn't surprised to find both blue girl and cat girl waiting for her. Or whatever Wenomir had called them, she had barely heard him since she had been holding the communicator wrong.
Landing before them in the shape of a large fiery colored hawk, she changes shape right in front of them and gets up from standing on all fours, smiling and waving. "Hey guys! I'm Anika, from VIGIL." She gestures at Calm Reed. "Let's introduce ourselves, you go first blue girl. Who're you?"

[Morty]

[Docks]

"I am Calm Reed, a monk of the Immaculate Order," Calm Reed says, taking offence to being called "blue girl", particularly since the one to call her that is actually purple. But she lets it slide for now. "A recent member."

[Earl of Purple]

Grocery Shopping Gone Gross

Trusting it might not be a good idea, but it (she? Alfred thinks it's a she) thinks he's adorable and he's willing to work with that. As a result, Alfred's willing to give it a try. "Um, sure. I'll keep an eye out for any other, um, whatever you ares from this way." He nods and gestures in the direction of a random aisle. "Let's, uh, put these two down Ben, and keep an eye out for this, uh, young miss? Yeah, let's go with young miss." Then, when it has diverted attention away from that aisle with all its eyes, he and Ben start to drag the people they're trying to save down that aisle and hopefully towards the exit. He's not even feeling bad about betraying it, it seems to be playing a game of some kind, so it's likely that it, unlike the poor shoppers, won't properly die if it's killed.

He hated campers back when he played Unreal Tournament online, and that helps the decision a little too.

[Arkhosia]

The Docks

Quirking her eyebrows in surprise at the sudden appearance, Blanche looks up from thumbing rounds into a magazine towards the hawk as she transforms with alert ears. Well, that wasn't something you see everyday.

"Blanche, combat medic." She responds tersely, her bubblegum eyes studying the two others. Assessing the two, but not in a predatory or a detached way. The blonde was about to place her life in their hands, trust them to cover her back, and she wanted to get a sense of who she was working with. "I'm a good marksman, I can cover your backs and I can patch you up if you get hurt. Nothing particularly special, really."

[Shadowcaller]

The Docks

Once they introduced themselves, Anika gives them a thumb up. "Great, did you bring a flamethrower, Blanche? Or maybe Reed can breath fire? I've seen some monks being able to do that." Or was that mages? It was so hard keeping track of all the other classes.
Either way, she raises an inquiring eyebrow at the monk. Then to be fair, blue wasn't the most fire-y of colors...
"See, these things, the 'facestealers', apparently hate fire so that will be our most effective weapon against them. The most I can do is firing beams of arcane light which isn't really the same thing. I can turn into a bear though, which is always useful." She pauses. "Oh, and they can turn into anyone they have the blood of, not to mention infecting people. So keep your distance."

[Morty]

[The Docks]

"Fire isn't my speciality, I'm afraid," Calm Reed says. "I can cremate a corpse almost instantly, however. Perhaps that will be of some use."

[Rebonack]

[Grocery Shopping Gone Gross]

The creature replies with a playful, "Don't get fragged, okay?" as it tunnel visions on that corner.

Alfred will be able to start sneaking away without an difficulty! And that awful thing isn't turning around so he's probably home free!

Or... probably mostly home free.

The main strip of the supermarket is an absolute free for all. Cherubs keep popping out from behind aisles and islands to take pot shots at each other. The whole front of the store has been absolutely demolished, leaving a sheer, clean gap where it used to be. And amazingly it's still standing. Unnatural looking coral-like growths have been erected here and there as barricades, and as Alfred watches he'll see one creature building a low wall of fluted, off-white material at an absolutely absurd pace to provide cover for itself. Should he turn his attention outside, he'll be able to see more of the alien structures full of alien geometries reaching toward the sky.

It isn't just in here.

Projectiles are whizzing through the air, but most of the horrors don't appear to be focusing on the non-powered citizens any longer now that they've harvested whatever dark power they gain by murdering them. People are screaming in panic and confusion. It's a mess. And to make it even more of a mess, the two folks Alfred has been dragging around suddenly regain their senses and start freaking out.

It helps that one cherub just tackled another into a cranberry sauce display not three feet from them. The tackler raises its flaming sword into the air! "Get wrecked, scrub!" And then brings the weapon down on nothing as the other creature shrinks out of existence. "Fluffing drift!" is squeals as its foe pops back into existence and skewers it from behind. "Floof you, drift-puff!"

"Your salt sustains me," the victorious cherub sighs.

"How u drift? Am newb," rises a voice above the din. It's met with a cacophony of ridicule.
"Lol, noob."
"Look up a guide!"
"Haha, what a loser."
"You have to step sideways in time, but it has a cooldown."
"OMG! Don't tell them!"
"kk, thx."

And one helpful answer, apparently.

The two NPCs, meanwhile, look absolutely terrified! "Wh-what's going on? What is that thing!?" one of them screams, pointing at the awful over-sized toddler thing with the face of a deer, goat, sheep, and bull arranged in a rough ring around a neck of burning brass. The monster is collecting the essence spewed out of the cremated remains of the other cherub it slew, skittering around on goat-like legs. "What's it doing? Oh gods oh gods oh gods they're killing peo-"

A bone spike from a disgustingly organic looking weapon punches a messy hole through the man, silencing him in an instant and reducing him to another heap of grey ash. The woman standing next to him is covering her mouth with her hands in horror, shaking violently but otherwise silent. The cherub continues picking through its prizes whilst at the same time building a little calcareous barricade to block line of sight on itself while it's busy. It grumbles something to itself about loud critters being annoying.

WELP!

The whole front end of the store is torn open. Alfred could flee through there, but it looks like those horrors are outside as well. Now what?

Awful Baby Monsters Remaining: 76

[The Docks]

And then, suddenly, there comes a voice from the wrist computers the various VIGIL members had been supplied with! Hopefully they put them on.

"Sorry I didn't speak up sooner, I guess I waited a little too long. Um, sorry. Again. I'm Geneva Richards. I'll be providing you with overwatch on this mission. If you look up you'll see that cloud up there? That's me on top of it, waving. Um, hi?"

Should anyone look up, they'll probably spot a little white almost cartoony looking cloud hovering about a hundred and fifty feet off the ground. And there's someone peering over the edge waving at them. From Anika's perspective, the person probably looks kind of like a gryphon, though they have some distinctly human proportions, especially to their head. Details are a bit harder to make out at this distance, though.

"I'll be keeping an eye on things from up here. If I spot trouble, I'll let you know. If something nasty happens, I'll provide support fire."

Well.

Sounds like they've got eyes in the sky.

Handy.

"If it gets really bad I'll come down and help. Hopefully it doesn't get really bad."

[A Completely Normal Supermarket Not Overrun with Awful Baby Monsters Because Zee is Finally Going to Get her Shopping Done!]

She's pushing a cart!

And humming to herself!

And being annoyed that the cart sorta pulls to the left a little bit!

But that's fine. Zee can live with minor irritations. Why?

Because she's finally acquiring the food-stuffs she needs! Materials for baking, most importantly. Fresh veggies for the sandwiches. Some replacement condiments and spices. A little pickle-grabbing contraption because it looked neat. All that's left now?

"The meats!" she declares, maybe a little too loudly and in a deeper voice than she anticipated. More than a few people give her weird looks as she heads over to the meat section. They've got a meat in the kitchen at Trog's she fully intends to use. Fresh cut deli meat is soooooo much better than the pre-cut stuff. That just means getting some hefty portions of ham, chicken, roast beef, and turkey. Maybe something else, too? Streak strips might be fun. Cheese steak sandwiches are still popular, right?

So there she is, pushing around a little cart examining cold cuts.

Surely there's no way this could go tragically wrong.

[Chaotic Bob]

[The Docks]

The docks are quite a bit less...tense, since Michalson and Ithuriel blew through and cleaned out that anger contagion running through the place.
Intersection policies have probably kept the original warehouse location under some form of either quarantine or basic cordoning.

We can elaborate further on the general situation once we see where the group is going/doing!

[A Completely Normal Supermarket Henceforth Known As FluxMart]

There actually isn't anything particularly exciting happening here at the moment beyond FANTASTIC THIS WEEKEND ONLY 74.3% OFF DEALS ON ALL CHEESE-BASED PRODUCTS!!! going on at the moment.
This has lead to some biology-oriented debates over in the refridgerated zones, as some individuals are trying to argue over what precisely constitutes a "cheese-based product".
The signs aren't very specific. Apparently the current clerk on duty is open to convincing arguments one way or the other, just for the jollies of it.

Par for course at FluxMart, which takes pride in its more unusual practices.
Don't look for green seasonings today, they're all been replaced with purples.

But nothing molests Zee's attempts to shop for the Trog's inventory!
Besides, it looks like something already did that to the bits of meat she's looking at. The cuts appear to have some unusual parasite buried inside them, that probably isn't supposed to be there.

Although, if she looks around, it would appear that most of the meat has this foreign inclusion.

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

It sure was nice of Intersection to find some place for the babysitter to be able to stay with her little boy charge. Being separated forever from their parents because of monsters is hideous enough, but at least they can have some sort of familiar face along for the ride!

As far as orphanages go, this one is perky and cheerful looking. They've adopted a gamboling golden sheep motif, painted above the main door and around most of the windows.
The building itself is a decent sized three-story building, in a fenced off area about the size of an entire city block. A lot of this area is neatly maintained lawn, interrupted by some trees, a modest playground, and the paved road leading from the entrance gate to a circular lot in front of the building.
Flower gardens are arranged periodically around the edges of the building, though they aren't terribly alive this time of year to be notable.

Come nightfall, most of the golden sheep designs glow with a gentle radiance, staving off even that potential for nocturnal creepiness from descending upon the building.

At least, until things went horribly wrong. Almost as soon as the second day of the kids' ended.
On this night, the little golden sheep are not actually glowing as they always have before.

Around 9:42 PM, a 911 call is sent off to Intersection.

[Cafe Davit]

Oh boy, everyone's favorite of this proceeding!
Edict is looking forward to this probably about as much as Affidavit, in both a sarcastic and literal sense.

I hope you are truly ready. This is a very unique pain.
This statement is rather unusual coming from Edict, considering all the things he has been responsible for.

He takes a few moments to actually do anything, after Affidavit gives the go ahead signal. Perhaps a lingering case of nerves, or (more accurately) a moment of doubt over his current level of energy as he draws in more darkness.
A biologically unnecessary breath and then the curse triggers, at the precise moment he starts to start trying to break it.

The core of the curse surges out a substantial amount of energy, which more or less instantly expands all the preexisting curse tendrils into a dense container-filling weave.
Or normally would. Depending on the abstract nature of what Affidavit accomplished, it will probably all be exploding out towards trying to fill Affidavit's mind instead.

Somewhat predictably, these tendrils then begin pumping out vast amounts of "PAIN" signals in what should already be a highly effective (if simple) technique.
But coupled with that, the newly-expanded weave also looks to be trying to strangle any active thought and memory processes, replacing those with temporary, synthetic memories of more pain (not only are you hurting now, but apparently this hasn't stopped and only gotten worse for three years) and very heavy-handedly encouraging "QUIT, STOP, CEASE" thoughts.

Under a normal mind, the goal is simply to flood everything with pain past and present, and literally bury any mental processes not geared around that suffering and doing whatever it takes to stop the offending action causing it.

[Rebonack]

[Fluxmart]

Of course.

Of course cheese would be on sale after discovering that the mini-fridge at Trog's is a gate to the paraelemental plane of cheese. Of course the one thing Zee didn't actually need at all would be on sale. Oh well. That's how things go sometimes. At least this Fluxmart place has reasonably fresh food. Like all of this wonderful, premium, Grade-A...

Wait a minute.

Zee squints at a little plastic package sporting several lamb chops.

"Parasites? Huh... this isn't one I've seen before, either. I'm sure I would remember something like this," she mutters before turning her attention to another package of lamb chops. Weird. Same problem. What about that tritip? More parasites. The ribeye? More parasites. Pork chops? Parasites. Bamhacon? Still more parasites. Pork belly? Shoulder? Loin? Parasites, parasites, and more parasites. Even that heap of ground beef has parasites! This is a problem. This is, in fact, a big problem. The sort of problem that suggests some degree of nefarious intent. Because all this meat from diverse sources has no reason to be infected by the same nasty little bugs.

Rather non-chalantly, Zee reaches out and grabs a passing clerk and pulls the woman over to herself. "All the meat here," she says, making a sweeping gesture with her free hand. "Is infected with parasites. Except that for one pack of liver. That one, right there."

The pristine liver is pointed out.

"I can't make sandwiches with just liver. That would be weird. And people can't eat any of this meat, either, or else the little bugs in the meat are going to provide them with some X-TREME weight loss. Like eating all of their insides sort of extreme," Zee says as she moves to grab the clerk's shoulder with her other hand and look her dead in the eye. "Do you understand what I'm telling you? If anyone eats these... these meats of evil-"

Meats of evil...

"-they're going to die a horrific death as they're slowly chewed up from the inside by an awful little worm. And if you don't do something about it right now then it's going to be all your fault. We need a announcement over the intercom. Right now. Anyone who has bought this stuff is in mortal danger. Someone probably planted these things, too. If there's footage of this area look for someone poking at all the meat and then putting it back."

A moment passes.

Two.

"GO!" Zee practically yells. "Hurry!"

And then? Zee will guard the cuts until she's sure the clerk actually did what she asked her to. That might mean shooing folks away from the meat who want to busy some (and then die horribly after eating it). She glances over at one of the packs and gives her right hand a snap! causing a little morphing white globular orb that appears simultaneously organic and crystalline to flash into existence above the tip of her pointer finger. Then she aims the ball meatward, sending a tiny swarm of incredibly fine filaments zipping through the plastic packaging and blob of ground beef. Should all go well, the parasite will be deftly extracted and suspended in the air for Zee to puzzle over.

Hopefully it is large and gross enough to properly flail in a manager's face.

[Chaotic Bob]

[FluxMart]

"Uh. Yeah okay, going. Going!"
Getting yelled at about evil death parasites really wasn't what the clerk signed up for today. That was supposed to be Advanced Cheese Existential Debating.
Figures that his boss just took their lunch break too.

But he knows how to use the intercom!
So he disappears off into the office to do that, moments later leading to a loud:
"Attention all shoppers, the meat department is closed for the day, tomorrow, and probably the rest of the month. We deeply apologize for any inconveniences this may lead to and encourage you to instead explore the cheese department! We have an absolutely wonderful sale going on over there this evening..."

Might be able to figure out the camera system too. Maybe.
He'll start working on that, rather than running back outside and having to deal with Zee more.

Meanwhile!
Extracting the parasite isn't really that hard for her, as it doesn't seem particularly prepared for much any hostile magical action to be taken against it.
It kind of looks like a really tiny, mostly-meat-colored ribbon worm. Scaled down to perhaps peanut dimensions, but thinner. There will be much worm-like flailing when Zee holds it up.

[Arkhosia]

The Docks

The catgirl nods, tugging on the strap her flamer hangs from to indicate it. "Yeah, not much capacity per tank though." she cautions, before adding "I'm also, er, not good with the smell of burning bodies, but the rebreather should take care of it." She briefly wonders if Calm Reed's cremation powers would work on undead, but decides not to ask. It's not exactly related to the task at hand.

"...If they can use our blood, how should I treat syringe and equipment disposal?" She was skeptical she'd need to perform any onsite surgery, but if it came to that, it paid to know the proper procedure.

And then, sudden communication! Jumping a little, Blanche peers upwards for a second, quirking a brow at the sight. This place really did keep finding ways to surprise her.

[Shadowcaller]

The Docks

Anika eyes the straps that Blanche is tugging. "Oh man, those flamethrowers are awesome. I've always wanted to try one. You gotta learn me how to use it, Blanche." Anika remarks as she moves behind the cat-girl as if to inspect the tanks. "My arcane light could set fire to dry wood and stuff, kinda like when you focus sunlight with a magnifying glass, but much stronge-"

Then an unexpected voice cuts Anika off mid-sentence she quickly turns around, now fully at alert.

She looks up, and her concerned face suddenly breaks into a smile. "Oh, gryphon gal. Hey!" She waves at Geneva. "You're smart, right?" The druid gestures at Blanche. "Maybe you can tell Blanche here how she's supposed to handle disposal of her healer gear? I got no clue." Her parents had taught her first aid, but that was it.

[Rebonack]

[The Docks]

And so Anika begins shouting at clouds.

Geneva gives a little sigh.

The communicator crackles to life again. "There's a little button on your wrist communicator that looks like a microphone."

A beat as Geneva realizes that Anika might not know what a microphone is.

"A button with a little oval that's filled in on the top, with a U under it ending in a flat cross-stand. Push that and hold it down to talk. That'll make it easy for everyone to stay in communication with each other," Geneva explains. "Any used medical supplies can be considered high-level biohazards. Destroying them immediately after you're done using them is a good idea."

That's pretty straight forward, right?

If Geneva's description of the microphone isn't good enough, hopefully Blanche can educate the other group members.

"The plan was just to scout around, right? Um... check the area where another one of these monsters was sighted? If you three want to look around for clues, I'll keep an eye out for trouble."

[FluxMart]

"You're pretty awful," Zee informs the gross worm as she builds a new archive defining its biological properties. "And you go squish now."

Her arcane power suddenly gets very pointy as it aims to perforate and digest the worm. Break it down into a soup of amino acids, lipids, nucleic acids, and water. To break it down at the conceptual level as everything that it is gets pulled apart, reduced to raw biological building blocks in their basest forms. Any unwholesome eldritch magic flowing through it will be exposed to the searing Light of Truth, a brightness that falsehoods and chaos tend to find difficult to endure.

Zee isn't going after all the other parasites just yet. Mostly just focused on the one.

And slapping away any shopper-hands that get too close to the meat.

[Gnrlshrimp]

[The Streets]

As soon as Viviana calls out to Lucy, she freezes in place, any immediate reocgnition of her utterly supressed by the look of fear on her face. She even sort of instinctively flattens herself against the wall a little as Vivi bounces over.

What will also be apparent to her as she looks over is that Lucy appears to have been physically affected by whatever has happened. She's slightly shorter, her hair is duller, her dress has lost its sheen and she just sort of generally looks a bit lesser in every way...all the better to blend into crowds, albeit not as good an effect as if she'd just taken another form entirely.

Slowly, dimly, a sense of awareness dawns on her and there's the faintest flicker of a smile in acknowledgement. "U-uh, Vivi? What are- what are you doing here?"

*****

[Cafe Davit]

Fascinating. The Professor is suffering. Of course he's suffering. Insofar as he could tell, there was no way to avoid the pain in this process. It isn't dependent on someone being able to physically feel pain, and any attempt to just dispel it directly risked instantly killing Edict. No, someone was going to have to go through this either way.

There are two main reasons why I am capable of handling this. The first? The scale of my mind. Affy's mind as Edict sees it abruptly zooms out, swiftly, steadily, further and further out, revealing a seemingly endless blanket of fog that stretches on impossibly far in all directions. It stretches around him, it encircles him, it seems to coil around itself in impossible ways as it goes on and on. When you have thousands of minds at your disposal, all thinking tirelessly for you, you become something...greater. She made her curse to break a mind as small as yours, not the minds of thousands rolled into one being. Somewhere off in the distance, the faint rumble of thunder and a spark of light in the fog briefly visualises the destructive effect of Feia's curse at work. It has a lot of ground to cover...

Zoom back in, to a Professor not much younger than he appeared to be during the KNAVES days, sitting down in a chair that leans right back, several banks of surgical implements and a complex array of mirrors around him creating a fairly impressive little operating theatre.

But it also helps that I've experienced pain in ways that few would ever dare to. You remember how I had an artificial eye when I actually had a body of my own? Watch...

Spoiler: Gross Surgical Stuff

Show

The young Professor is breathing heavily, his body visibly shaking as fear sends adrenaline coursing through his body. A wild look is in his eyes as he reaches over and picks up a small white block and wedges it in his mouth, biting down on it.

Everyone out there, they were all calling him crazy. Him, crazy? Who were they to judge him? They sat there, stupid, lazy, never putting their talents to work while he pushed the boundaries of science further than they'd ever dreamed possible! Who were they to doubt him? Who were they to refuse to assist in his latest project, forcing him to do it all himself?

He sets the block aside for a moment. "Aha. Ahahaha." Laughter, nervous and hesitant. One shaky hand reaches over to pick up an implement that looks like some sort of serrated spoon. "Am I really going to-? No, no, hands are shaking too much. Curse my mind for feeling fear at this! Fine. Fine, I can use a little, localised." He pulls a lever, spinning the trays around him, setting the spoon down and instead picking up a syringe filled with white fluid. A moment to swab his wrists with disinfectant and then he eases the needle straight into his artery, injecting a little of the fluid directly into one wrist, then the other. A hiss of pain. A spot of blood. A relieved sigh as his hands instantly relax.

The block goes back in his mouth. One hand picks the serrated spoon up again, the other eases a couple of small, soft hooks into place that force his eye to stay open. His nostrils flare as he looks up at the mirror, raising the serrated spoon, watching as his angles it towards his eye. A pause. A moment of doubt. Then he presses on, carefully angling the spoon around his eyeball, causing discomfort but minimal pain just yet - would that he could just block out the pain, but he needs to make sure this works. All he needs to do is slide it a little further forward now, and then pull...

And then he does so, the spoon expertly designed to guarantee that it severs his eyeball in one clean cut with a sickening squelch, the spoon forcibly yanked forward to pop it out of his eye before he can feel the pain and- RED. DARKNESS. BLEEDING. A pain unlike anything he's experienced before, white hot and searing, wells up in his eye socket as his vision on one side goes red, then black. He hurriedly slams the spoon down, the sound of metal clattering ringing around the operating theatre as various tools are knocked to the floor. "HRRRNG! RRGHFFRRRM! ARRGNMGHH!" He screams through the block, saliva frothing and drooling out around it. His hands shake and he thrashes in his chair as his body screams at him to reach up and claw at his blood-soaked eye socket, to just reach in and pull out the pain, to do something, anything to make it go away.

Time seems to slow around him. It's hard to say, even from Edict's external perspective, how long the Professor spends shaking, writhing and fighting with himself in the seat, trying to get himself under control as the open wound sends a steady flow of fluid pouring out. Even with a clean cut like this, leaving an open wound like that could cause serious complications if left for too long.

Eventually a shaking hand slaps the lever, then reaches over and crashes about on another tray, eventually grasping hold of a small, blue, metallic orb. It spins it round, blindly determining which way round it goes before reaching over and forcing it into his vacant eye socket.

Too much force. "RRRRRRRRRGH!" Fresh screams are muffled by the block as fresh lances of pain spear through his mind as the object is forced in. Whimpering, crying steadily from his still-functional eye, the Professor forces himself onwards, picking up something akin to a very fine sewing needle attached to a sort of miniaturised fishing rod. A series of fine controls essentially let him use it with all the precision and dexterity of an expert surgeon as he eases it in around the artificial eye and uses it to start reconnecting the nerve-endings to the artificial eye.

More pain. Still more pain. But his mind is so clouded and blinded at this point that he barely notices as he works away. He just about manages to retract it and spit out the block before he slumps back, falling unconscious in his chair. He'll have to test it later. His body needs to recover from the ordeal first.

This is more than just putting on a show for Edict. It gives Affy something to focus on, to help keep his mind active and not entirely drawn in by the curse.

[Morty]

[The Docks]

"From what Commander Wenomir told me, we're to flush the monsters out and keep their attention while the mercenaries strike more subtly," Calm Reed says. She's not sure what to think of Wenomir. A mortal peasant, by his own proud admission, who fights and leads like a Forsaken Solar Anathema. If she were to face him, she's really not sure if she could come out the victor. "Do we have some places to start looking?"

[Nova_Eclipse]

[The Docks]


"You won't be alone, Miss Geneva," A deep, but friendly-sounding voice intones over the communicator. A shadow falls over Geneva for a moment, as the sound of thrusters flares and then quiets to mere background noise. What appears to be a green mech suit slowly hovers down next to her in the air, its arms crossed over its chest, though at around 11 feet tall, it's not typically the size one might think of. It turns its head in a manner that suggests it isn't mechanical, either; the movement is a bit too smooth. It nods at her.

"Quin Mantha.EXE at your service. You may call me Quin, if that suits. I was asked to provide additional support, if needed."

[Earl of Purple]

Grocery Shopping Gone Bad

More and more, these things are reminding him of the worst of the online gaming community. Even the random helpful person fits in! They only helped to antagonise the others, not to help the newb.

The way the building's looking, staying here isn't safe. So that's hiding out the window, which is very unfortunate. Hiding was looking like a great plan, until he saw the shopfront. "Uh, right, so be quiet. These things are violent, but they're at least mostly killing each other. We need to get out of here and we can't make noise or attract too much attention, OK?" That said, Alfred will lead the person and Ben towards the front of the shop, trying to keep to the surviving shelves and any abandoned barricades as he goes, staying low and trying to be stealthy. He's a tall man, so that's not working in his favour, but he is at least light-footed and careful about not making much noise.

[UncleWolf]

Unfortunate Meeting

When the car vanishes and Nora is left behind, she blinks at the empty space behind her and sighs. She relaxes and snaps her fingers, dissipating the shield. "Alright. I surrender. I can wait for Intersection to arrive." She says, looking for a place to sit down before doing so and crossing her legs to wait. "I mean, I'm not getting away, but I did make sure that you weren't shot at least. Those kinds of people tend to be twitchy and it's a good thing they were able to leave before they actually hurt someone."

Orphanage

Mo was used to working late shifts at the docks and then taking her time walking home. Typically she'd buy some fast food for her and her roomie, but this night she'd picked up some good flour, sausage, milk...almost everything a person needed to make a good tin of biscuits and gravy. Her almost nightly walk home had her pass the orphanage and sometimes she'd be considerate enough to leave little bags of candy at the fence for the kids to take before the caretakers noticed. She hadn't been raised in a place like that, but she at least understood how cold it felt to be locked behind bars and walls.

Tonight though, she almost passed it but the lack of lights made the large woman pause. It was...unsettling. Disturbing. But that could be my paranoia. She always tells me that not everything is ominous or suspicious. She's definitely the more reasonable of us two. Mo thinks, setting an oversized hand on the gate to the orphanage as she looks at it. She stands there, tall and quiet as the metaphorical gears in her head turn slowly. But...it wouldn't hurt to check, right? There are kids there.

With that in mind she sets her bags of groceries down and tests the gate to the orphanage. If it is locked, all it will take is a bit of effort on Mo's part and the lock will just be twisted apart in her hand. Worst comes to worst, she'll replace it herself and make repairs on the place. She was nice and handy like that. Once she's past the game, she'll head to the front door and give it a knock. "...Hello?" She calls out.

[Mee]

Ithuriel walks out hand in hand with Naku. They survived. Good job, guys! Once they're clear of the building and a little ways away (out of fae earshot at least), Ithuriel stops, slumps against the wall and lets out a huge sigh of relief. "Hey, we got through it. No lingering debts, no weird mind-control stuff, nothing." Well we're not entirely sure about that mind control bit, are we Ithuriel? She's still struggling to take her eyes off Naku - her wings, her face, her...physique. Mostly the wings though. Those are some really fascinating wings.

She's not particularly good at hiding where she's looking either. The constant staring at Naku's wings probably seems kind of weird.

"A-anyway, are you okay? That fae lord guy was doing everything he could to provoke a reaction from us. I hope it wasn't all a bit too much. Some of the stuff you had to say in there, it seemed kind of personal." It could've been much worse though - much, much worse. She was still going to have some words with a few of the guys back at HQ, but she at did get to meet Naku as a result of it, so all in all it felt like a good evening for her. "Oh, um, you danced very well. It's been a long time since I got to dance like that - longer still since I last got to lead. It was nice. I wish we could've just kept dancing."

"Y-yes." Naku nods a few times, arms crossing in an almost self-hugging sort of way. "That was . . . unpleasant." Naku admits, shaking her head slightly. "I do thank you for your companionship; you made the evening bearable.

And yes," Naku agrees, nodding a few times. "I . . . have not gotten to dance many times. That was enjoyable. Thank you for that, as well."

[Arkhosia]

The Docks

The catgirl looks a little surprised by the exuberance Anika shows, allowing the woman to inspect the weapon with ease. "W-well, sure, I definitely could!" She responds, her demeanor brightening. Blanche may be a little prickly, but there is no faster way to make friends with her than to bring up weapons.

Listening to the new arrivals, she nods. "Understood." Should be easy enough. Just burn it! Hopefully she brought enough tanks....

[Rebonack]

[Grocery Shopping Gone Haxxor]

That's a mostly accurate statement.

Of all the empyrean hosts, the cherubs take the 'Game' part of the Eternal Game most seriously.

Or... least seriously.

Depending on your point of view.

The woman with Alfred, a moon elve from the look of her, keeps her hands over her mouth as she nods violently. She'll follow the human carefully, casting a fearful glance at any cherub that gets too close. They all seem so angry. But also having fun? It's a strange combination that anyone unfamiliar with online multiplayer gaming probably wouldn't have much context for. A few of the creatures obviously seem more skilled than others, moving with careful precision, reacting to being fired upon by drifting out of existence or rapidly constructing barricades of otherworldly matter to break line of sight. Those seem to be the least dangerous since they're mostly predictable.

It's the unpredictable ones that are a problem. Some are hunting NPCs for giggles. Others are razing the store and haphazardly filling it with patches of strange spongy material, alien coral like substance, bizarre fungal masses, metallic growths bleeding starlight, spiraling clusters of tubes that belch out syrupy fluid that suspends itself in the air, and drifting motes of color that give a person a headache looking at them too long.

In the parts of the store that are becoming increasingly otherworldly, Alfred will notice at least one unfortunate NPC who has been ensnared by a nest of fungal filaments and is pathetically struggling as they're slowly subsumed into a sponge-like growth as they gradually dissolve. Probably best not to get too close to those.

Carefully waiting for opportune moments to move, Alfred, Ben, and the elve woman who hasn't mentioned her name manage to slip out of the enclosed chaotic melee and into the wide open chaotic melee that's outside. The otherworldly structures are much larger out here, towers of unwholesome growth looming over ruined buildings that look like portions of them have been simply deleted. It's unnaturally bright out here, all the colors saturated and the outlines blurred. Everything touched by that repulsive stellar brilliance is simultaneously being eroded and resolved. And then things get worse when it feels like Alfred just ran into a wall of water all of a sudden.

It doesn't feel or look any different than the rest of the air around him, but it has more resistance. Like you could swim in it. The surface ripples from the point Alfred ran into it face first, slightly distorting everything behind it as if peering through uneven glass. A huge cluster of craggy, irregular tubes looms nearby, belching out thick black smoke that quickly 'cools' into the sea of glass that's filling the street. The tubes are visibly growing as the darkness precipitates out and rains down onto the growths. Here and there new fissures are opening up in the street (or impossibly in mid-air), filling the path with more smoke. This area is quickly becoming alien and inhospitable.

But... there has to be an edge to it somewhere, right?

...right?

Terrible Baby Monsters Remaining: 67

[The Docks]

Geneva gives a surprised little "Meep!" when the mech suit suddenly begins existing in her general vicinity. How on earth did that thing manage to sneak up on her without any kind of warning? She works at settling her nerves and convincing the fur on her tail to stop poofing up.

"Oh, ah, sure! Thanks, that's a good idea. More eyes on the game is a good idea," Geneva replies with a nod. She's pretty big, for the record. About the size of a normal female African lion. Her coloration consists largely of greys ranging from dusky to light. Her front half is like a cross between a lion and an eagle while her back half resembles a dappled horse. Her tail is long and feline, ending in a fan of feathers. And on her haunches is an image of a purple hurricane symbol super-imposed over a white cloud with five smaller clouds surrounding it. It doesn't look painted on. The fur and skin under it all bear the design, its edges looking sharp rather than smudgy and indistinct. She's wearing an old fashioned bombadeer's jacket (fitted for her of course) and a pair of flight goggles hanging around her neck. There's a rather advanced looking wrist computer clamped over her left foreleg and a hippogriff-sized coilgun in her talons.

There's a good chance that anyone on the receiving end of the coilgun is going to have a bad time.

And she's just sort of... sitting. On a cloud. Like one of those little discrete object clouds you see in cartoons and video games. Little wisps of white are curling around her legs and belly, the cloud giving slightly under her weight as if it were a giant cotton-ball.

[Shadowcaller]

The Docks

Anika glances down at the communicator. "Uh, right." Had to remember that for later. These sort of things were always so bothersome though. Normal magic was so much simpler than this goblin magic Geneva used. You couldn't even shapeshift with it since it was so unnatural, kinda like fel-magic except not quite as demonic. Somewhere in-between if she had to guess. Not demonic enough that she would refuse to use it but clearly a sign that it wasn't natural either.

Like when goblins chopped down and burned down great forests with their golems without doing anything to sustain it. Not natural at all.

"But, yeah. We're actually already here. The docks is supposedly crawling with facestealer activity. All we have to do is look around, maybe ask a few people around here..." She gestures around the dock and starts heading towards whoever she can see around here. "Not sure how we're supposed to tell if they're facestealers though. Just look for anyone acting weird I guess."
She turns to Blanche. “And if they do attack, you can show me how that gun of yours work.”

[Chaotic Bob]

Spoiler: Autumnal Equinox Ball

Show

Autumnal Equinox Ball

Jack, Feia, Kramolagh

Maldwyn throws his hands up and looks around the hall at all the fae (although now there's significantly less of them - most of them either going home with their conquests or giving up on whatever mortals they had been talking to), before looking back at Feia. This is my family, Feia dear. Tragically reduced with poor Maelynn's death, of course, we shall grieve her. True sorrow adorns his features. How could you Feia? Just letting Maelynn die like that.

Ah but, I see we have been talking for quite some time now. He adds. As lovely as it would be to while away hours with you fine folk I'm sure none of you wish to be here forever. Jacqueline, may I? He reaches out for her hand, and Jack will find it very, very hard to refuse him. There is a debt to be settled.

[QUOTE=Earl of Purple;23506082]AEB- Jack, Feia, Kramolagh

Jack takes Maldwyn's hand, gulping nervously and inhaling deeply. She's really nervous about this, because she feels the obligation is about to be discharged and she doesn't know what shape that's going to take. Hopefully a dance.

There's no way she's lucky enough that it's going to be a dance.

Poor Jack, you shall find no rescue here.
Feia really doesn't care about your fate, one way or the other.

She does feel some degree of desire to do something just to inconvenience Maldwyn, but that would just be petty.
"Take your prey and begone then, faerie."
There'll be no further impedance from her here.

Though she does still need to figure out where Felandria ended up...

[FluxMart]

The parasitic little worm really doesn't have a way to defend itself, so go squish it goes!
Examining the "fine print" of its form amounts to a creature that also consumes the biological data of whatever it ends up internally devouring.

The actual structure of its form seems a little loose, to accompany this, suggesting that after acquiring the appropriate amount of data and mass, it would then be quite able to simple be that which it consumed.
Only, a horrible monster on the inside.
There's already residual arthropod information in there, though it seems incomplete. Mostly inactive spines, wings, and some sort of neurotoxic chemical.

What little magic there was in the thing seems more bent towards ensuring that this genetic information can be consistently manipulated as needed.
But then, Zee seems to be annihilating that part out of here anyway.

[Golden Flock Orphanage]

The gate is in fact locked this time of night.
But it is in no way magical or special, just being a normal, wrought-iron gate, so Mo can twist that up simply enough if she has the raw power for it.

Similarly, the front door is a very ordinary (but nice looking!) oak wood door.
Knocking on it produces no unusual effects, beyond the noise one would expect.
There is no obvious response to her calling out, though if Mo has the sense of mind to look up, one of the third floor windows very briefly lights up and immediately goes back out.

The door is not locked.

[The Docks]

Heading towards the first person they can see, huh?
Well, that happens to be quite a few people. Despite the issues from a short time ago, the docks are a pretty busy place. There's workers going to and fro all over the place, moving freight hither and yon, to and from boats, to and from buildings, to and from piles.

There's an important looking mer-elf fellow over there, standing on top of a storage crate directing traffic.
There's a couple dwarven dock workers over there arguing about the best bar within walking distance.
There's a halfling chasing a cat away from a net full of fish.
There's dozens of others, but these are technically the closest.

[Cafe Davit]

Externally, the cafe is becoming incredibly dark, as Edict seems to be drawing out ever more darkness to himself.
He is attempting to work quickly now that the opportunity is presenting itself.

It gets worse, Professor.
Internally, he is working through a brute of a counter-curse. All the power he is drawing in is being used to envelop the core, treating it to what amounts to an antimatter/matter interaction.
Shadow magic works in hostile mirrors, so that is what he is inflicting on the curse itself.

The downside is, directly assaulting the curse definitely is making it far worse than it was. Initially, simply by pushing the false memories even further back in time and ramping up the comparative impulses of the current pain. Enforcement of the previously made memories leans them towards a more concrete sort of permanence.
But it doesn't take long to realize this is the sort of thing that would just break a normal person's mind.
Lucky the Professor isn't normal, then, isn't it?

But over on the true memory side of things...
Edict has no particular degree of pity for Affidavit, no empathy or sympathy here. These are emotions beyond his capabilities.
That does nothing in particular to dissuade his interest, however, in the learning that is occurring here.
This seems like it was a foolish risk. Had your nerve failed at the wrong time, you simply would have died and accomplished nothing.
This critique doesn't have much value, as it belongs in the distant past, but it still distracts from the current issues.
I would have thought a robotic implement to perform the eye exchange for you would have been more up your alley.

[Rebonack]

[FluxMart]

"Oh!" Zee gasps as the worm comes apart. "You aren't fae at all, are you? Weird. I guess you aren't a new faerie identity theft plot after all. Just someone else's identity theft plot."

Hmm.

That's troubling.

"It's like Invasion of the Pod people. But with ribbon worms. Invasion of the ribbon worm people," Zee comments to no one in particular as she raises her weird bio-crystalline orb a bit higher, allowing it to swell in size as she pours more power into it. "Or, OH! What was that movie? The Faculty? But I don't think those people got eaten. Just had their brains taken over. Or were they eaten? I should probably look that up."

Ah well.

Then the orb explodes in a veritable hail of needle-thin growths that go lancing into all the nearby infected meats.

WELP!

Looks like Zee is planning on doing a whole bunch of worm extraction! She'll be killing... pretty much all of them. Hanging onto one in case she needs to wiggle it at the manager to prove that she isn't just causing trouble. Fluxmart will probably still want to destroy all the meat anyway. Who would want to eat meat that might have gross worm juice in it? No one, that's who.

"I'm going to need to bug these people about getting cuts that haven't been out here, won't I? Otherwise I still won't have anything other than some pre-sliced roast beef for the sammiches."

That Zee. Focusing on the important things.

[billtodamax]

Autumnal Equinox Ball

Jack, Feia, and Kramolagh

Jack will feel a daze descend on her as soon as Maldwyn takes her hand - like her head is shrouded in a thick fog, unable to focus on anything. Maldwyn, meanwhile, will try to take her hand up to his mouth, kiss it delicately on the knuckles, and seize her pointer finger in his mouth, biting down with razor sharp teeth. He ought to have no problem severing the finger - and the fog over Jack's mind will keep her from really registering the pain. As the blood (possibly) spills from her wound Maldwyn will try to drink deeply and greedily, taking a pint of her blood before he pulls away. He'll wrap her hand in a serviette the staunch the bleeding before letting go, and as he does the fog will completely fade from Jack's mind, and with it the bond to Maldwyn as well.

I think that settles that, doesn't it? He says with a smile, revealing blood coated teeth. His face suddenly appears a little more alien, a little less beautiful than it was a moment before. Truly a pleasure to speak with both of you. He says, before bowing and heading off with a sprightly bounce in his step.

A fun time had by all!

[Chaotic Bob]

[FluxMart]

The clerk has sort of figured out the camera system a bit, mostly insofar as he figured out how to choose which cameras to be watching at any particular moment.
Means he gets a good view of what Zee is doing and can feel accordingly dismayed to watch the essential destruction of most of the meat department.
No one will want to buy energy-bopped meat!

The worm doesn't really respond to Zee's chatter, sadly. Mostly due to lacking vocal chords or any particularly meaningful sort of brain.
Likewise, it's siblings don't react much to being obliterated!

In an abstract sense, they are all terribly displeased by this turn of events, but practically and physically they feel nothing.
Mostly because they're too busy being dead.

Hooray, the city is saved! Maybe!
I wonder how long this meat was on sale before Zee got to it?

[Rebonack]

[FluxMart]

Zee's wondering that same thing.

How long has this stuff been on sale?

That's why she shooed the clerk off to figure out how to get the cameras working. To get an idea of how many people are infected and how much of a pandemic this is. Also to see if she can't figure out who started this mess. They probably deserve a stern talking to. And/or getting set on fire.

Zee isn't that great at setting things on fire, all things considered

But she could probably figure something out if she was really pressed.

After all, this looks like an outbreak of 80s body horror monsters. And when you're dealing with 80s sci-fi horror keeping a flame thrower handy is always wise.

The remaining worm will be sealed inside a little block of crystal with a good two inches of solid growth between it and the outside world. The stuff is uncannily tough and corrosion resistant, so she's fairly sure it should hold. The worm will be deposited in her pocket for later inspection.

Then?

Zee will lean forward and knock on the window of the deli department. "Hey! You guys should probably burn all this meat. It was full of flesh eating worms. No one will want to eat it."

That said? She'll head off toward the checkout lane! Maybe she'll just swing by one of the smaller butchers on her way back to Trog's? Hopefully they won't be infected with doom worms, either. Oh! And now that she knows what to look for? Zee's eyes are going to be peeled for those tell-tale biological markers and tiny whiffs of unreal magical nonsense that typified the worms. Will be handy to know if there are any pod people wandering around.


[Cherub Arena]

Finding the place won't be hard. It looks like a huge soap bubble has been blown over a several block radius area, is surface shimmering like oil on water. Every now and again ripples flow across it, indicative that something has passed the parameter. Everything inside the bubble is... warped. Buildings look like there are chunks simply missing from them, leaving bits of the structure hanging impossibly in the air. Towering alien constructions dot the landscape, disquieting amalgams of coral, sponge, fungus, and metallic marrow bleeding impossible colors of starlight. The way everything inside moves is almost... nauseating.

Zee stops a good two hundred feet from the edge of the effect and motions for everyone to keep their distance and walks a comfortable hundred feet away.

"Alright. I'll go in first," she calls out. "Wait about a minute and come in after me. If you see me in there, try to keep at least sixty feet away. I'm pretty sure the reach of my life-shaping aura is about half that, but better safe than sorry."

She turns back toward the bubble and takes a deep breath. In. Out. "Maximum effort."

And then she blossoms.

It's like watching origami unfold, except the end result is something even bigger and weirder than what you started with.

A Dragon. Because of course she is. It will probably strike Karaglen as making quite a bit of sense. Her mom is a Dragon. What else would she be?

She's big, for one. Huge, even. Calling her dragon-like doesn't feel quite right. More as if dragons are her-like. A seraph of the second order. A Glory. An empyrean. And the very air around his is alight with shimmering incandescence.

Shape is recognizable. Somewhere between feline and reptilian. Four legs that end in metallic black cloven hooves. Back and flanks covered in huge overlapping rust-colored scales, their surfaces scintillating with fractals of green and yellow light. Copper colored fur pokes out between the plates, filling in the gaps. Metallic, black triangular interlocking scales cover her underside, pinpricks of searing white light bleeding between them as they shift. A long draconic tail, the end decorated with a shifting mass of bubbly crystalline growth. Her head has a slightly vulpine shape to it, seven eyes blazing with starlight. Two black horns sprout from just behind her eyes and arcing back in an incomplete oval, forming a twisted crown. Between them hovers a pitch black orb, triangular networks of glowing white lines occasionally shimmering across its surface as a corona of solar flame roils around it. A billowing black mane of hair spills from her head, over her antelope-like ears, and half way down a sinuous neck.

There's an enormous yellow bow tied about a three fourths of the way down her tail.

Somehow.

She takes a few tentative steps forward, leaving masses of globular, rust colored crystals growing from the earth in her hoofprints. Flickers of opalescent yellow and green fire begin creeping across everything within thirty feet of her as things begin gradually growing and twisting.

"Stay safe, everyone," she sings, her voice as clear as crystal. The sound as sharp as a diamond blade.

Then the coppery fur around her shoulder blades grows as its twists and winds around itself, unfurling into a pair of metallic, pinioned wings in the span of a heartbeat. She crouches low, spreads them wide, and then launches herself into the bubble.

Well!

That's certainly a thing that just happened.

It might occur to Raril that this thing he just witnessed bears almost nothing in common with Krax' typical appearance beyond the fact that 'really weird' probably applies to both of them.

[Artemis97]

[Cherub Arena]

Raril follows Zee from Trog's to the strange bubble space in the middle of the city. He steps back when she transforms. It was still amazing, even after all this time. She looked different, this time, though. But when he saw that giant yellow bow he couldn't help but smile. That was Zee alright.

"Ok, we should stick together. I'll mark a path out with some faerie fire, as we go in. Kara, you're a healer, right? Don't worry about getting people to one hundred percent, just get them mobile and keep moving. The more people we get out the better."

The drow steels himself, and waits a bit after Zee enters the bubble, before he enters himself, leading the way into the fray.