Outside 47: [Insert seasonal phrase that will be outdated when this thread ends]

[Earl of Purple]

Temple of Shattered Swords

The Occultist gets to work on breaking the link as soon as Yone mentioned it, slightly suspicious that it's something new. "They were heretics who refused to see the King's divine mandate as a ruler, or pagans unable to see the Vast Powers that surround us. Depending on the sect, anyway." Though he's probably left muttering to himself, as Yone leaves. The aura of peace emanating from the Saint accompanies Yone if she takes the corpse with her.

The tiny bear hasn't reached the door by the time Yone does; its legs are too short.

((Let me know when/where/if Yone does any more experimenting with the spikes.))

[Shadowcaller]

[Tauron's Workshop]

Fay shakes their head, slowly and deliberately.
"Not...just the birds? Yes, I hear them too clearly. They are not how I remember birdsong. I can ...follow it like a bird."
Maybe this is how controllers feel, seeing everything. They'll have to ask when next she's in the same place as one. The thought cheers them up. Are they more alike now in any other ways?

"A sanc...tu-ary, to us, it should be cozy. Solid and secure. This place is wide open. Too much light, too many windows. Feels exposed."
Different people feel at peace in different places. The medical cleanliness and brilliant lines of the temple are surely soothing for some. But these angels would rather be someplace deep and dark and warm, such as: buried alive, wrapped in a controller's sac, curled up in an egg, resting in their mother's shadow.

Fay crouches down to run a newly-spiky tendril through the snow.
They want to complain about staying too long in a sanctuary. But it's only been a little while, hasn't it? They'll need patience.

The other angel runs off, in the general direction of Inside. Its work is done and Fay doesn't need it now.

[Tauron's Workshop]

Tauron nods. "I will expand upon the tunnel network and get more heating down there. Perhaps some more... flesh-related things too. I personally don't care for it but this will be your space too and you will be able to have your own part which you can put whatever you want in." He pauses, turning to her. "Does that sound good to you, Fay?"

[Tauron's Temple]

Tauron does not reply right away, falling silent as he comes into view above Ilpholin and sees her cry. He does seem to struggle with a direct reply, his many arms fiddling with seemingly random things such as a empty blood bag and what seems to be surgical instruments. "I... tried to improve you, Ilpholin. I did my best. You are a powerful warrior and clever tactician and I wouldn't want to lose either of that, but you were also badly damaged so I had to replace a lot. Whatever feelings you're feeling now... they are a natural part of the process. To ease the transition from what you were to what you have become. I promise I didn't make any too radical changes to you however, I wanted you after all, not anyone else." He finally explains, falling completely silent afterwards and looking at her expectingly. It seems like her tears is making him uneasy.

[Recaiden]

[Tauron's Workshop]

Fay straightens right up, a movement that evidently strains something painfully.
"What do you mean? My space? I'll be staying here until I've recovered from the...operation. That doesn't need changes to the temple." Are they safe? Does he mean to keep them prisoner here? Or is it something else? "Do you think we would work together more closely? That isn't up to me." They hold their hands out, palms up.

[Reinholdt]

[Tauron's Temple]

Well Tauron should be uncomfortable! He made a woman cry. And Ilpholin's not going to stop. Granted it's not all out bawling or anything. It's not even sad tears. But they do roll nonetheless.

A part of Ilpholin wants to look, to see what changes wrought this new perfection. She barely has the strength at the moment, but even if she did she knew looking would be like making it real. That there would never be a way to unlook. It would be... letting herself go forever.

And there was still the matter of Tauron. His objectives remained questionable, though Ilpholin could tell he was telling the truth about this at least. Could feel it, with how complete and whole she was. "What happens now?"

[Arkhosia]

[Lost Grotto]

"The clan is all over!" answers Votsana. He smiles for her and stoops to pick the catgirl up. She seems not to trouble him. He looks right into her face as he holds her in a bridal carry. "Oh my Gods, you are so light!" He chirps. "You must eat nothing at all."

Votsana starts off through the wood, helm now stowed in his pack, ears frittering restlessly beneath the small curls of his antlers. This close, she can see the tattoos crawling down the side of his neck... wheels, arrows, flames, and strange signs. "Is a good name. Warrior name."

Lost Grotto

Blanche is careful to snag her rifle as Votsona hefts her up, clutching the stock while helping stay up with an arm around his neck. Her grip was not entirely gentle, simply utilitarian. She affixes the man with a raised brow at his observations. "You think so? I always thought it was a little... delicate." While she speaks, she studies his tattoos with a curious gaze. Nothing she recognized, definitely some sort of tribal origin. "Good to know it suits me, though."

[Shadowcaller]

[Tauron's Temple]

"I will help you recover, it will likely take a few days to get you back on your feet. Of course, that would likely be considered nothing short of a miracle for anyone else considering the extensiveness of the operation. Once that is done, you are free to do as you wish. I do hope you'll still help me against those who did this to you however. The world still isn't free of their taint." He explains while standing by the make-shift bed she's laying on.

The room is simple and nearly empty besides her bed and the only light source, a powerful lamp hanging from the ceiling.

[Tauron's Workshop]

Tauron seems confused by her reaction. "For you to recover of course. But the tunnel system will need to be expanded either way. You might be the first in need of a more subterranean environment, but I just realized you won't be the last. Things have to be adjusted if I'm to house others that are similar to you, or anyone else for that matter." He gestures at the temple. "It wasn't originally made to house anyone really so adjustments have to be made to meet new needs. I do believe there might be more beings that are interested in my services soon."

[Recaiden]

"Oh." Their tentacles and wings droop, relieved. Fay starts to laugh for a moment. Ow. When you've just come out of such an operation, that hurts one's respiratory mesoskeleton, doesn't it? "Tunnels are good. You can't just bring in any flesh and have it help. We'd need a Princess or Mother to come here and build; I don't think we have any to spare." THey shake their head, but smiling.

"I need food." Probably Tauron doesn't eat, but he should have some for his patients, right?

[Murkus]

Lost Grotto

Blanche is careful to snag her rifle as Votsona hefts her up, clutching the stock while helping stay up with an arm around his neck. Her grip was not entirely gentle, simply utilitarian. She affixes the man with a raised brow at his observations. "You think so? I always thought it was a little... delicate." While she speaks, she studies his tattoos with a curious gaze. Nothing she recognized, definitely some sort of tribal origin. "Good to know it suits me, though."

[Lost Grotto]

"No, no. Sort of indelicate. Like a man's name," Votsona says dryly, just another quick flash of that smile to let her know he's at least partly kidding. "Indelicate. Maybe clumsy, hm? But tough."

A pause. The crunch of Votsona's boots over fallen leaves.

"...I definitely would have thought a woman touched with the spirit of a cat would have had a lighter step..." says he, filling the silence with more ribbing as he looks straight ahead. His feet are light and sure.

[UncleWolf]

Rein's Hold

Leap nods when her terms are agreed to and she leans over to inject the tracking chip into the bound woman's thigh. "It's a pity, really. She has such lovely sapphire skin. It would have looked absolutely gorgeous with my chitin." She admits, sounding wistful as she pats her own emerald and black glossy chitin. She gives another sigh, as if her dreams have been dashed from her, but she loads up her bundle. "I know it wasn't part of the deal, but as far as preferences go I lean towards the colorful or exotic. I'll take whomever I can get though and you can trust that I'm a monster of my word." She promises.

Unless stopped, she'll give all the Reins a wave and head off towards GLoG.

[Arkhosia]

Lost Grotto

Blanche raises a brow. Was this man appraising her, or her name?
"I'm not sure how much of this is thanks to spirits, but my ears aren't as keen as they used to," she defends. Guns are loud, and frequent exposure has enough of a toll on human ears, let alone feline ones. "And I thought deer were skittish things which ran from snapped twigs?" The snark is pretty heavy on that response.

[Reinholdt]

[Tauron's Temple]

"No. No it is not," Ilpholin begrudgingly admits. Demons were the antithesis of everything she has become. She was now whole. Complete. Demons were broken creatures seeking out and breaking others in a desperate cry, lashing out because of how empty they truly were. That she once believed that a few like her brother could be saved is entirely laughable. Demons could not be cured, could never be complete. Only purged.

Ilpholin remembers now, there so much left to do. She could not be lost in this glory, simply basking in it out of both awe and fear. The nymph starts to move, trying to sit up and look at her new body, surprisingly resilient but still probably not in any shape to be moving about.

[Rein's Hold]

Reinholdt arches an eyebrow. "I'll see what I can do." Either that applied to... Everyone he knew or like two. It depends on how colorful and exotic Leap's thinking. Well regardless, he has to get an agreement first, so Rein waves goodbye and turns to get started on the latest project.

Ugh. But first a bucket or something. He doesn't know why but the whole experience made him feel pretty nauseous.

[Earl of Purple]

Isolated Highway

There's a vehicle here. It's a very large, six-wheeled truck, with an extra axle at the rear, and heavy armour plating on every surface, painted in the greys and blacks of urban camouflage. At the rear there's a heavy door. Mounted on the top of the van is a round hatch with a light machine gun mounted on a ring-mount. It's also currently not moving, as it's got a puncture. The people within would normally get out and replace the wheel, and especially not continue driving until the tyre was shredded and the vehicle was so uncontrollable it hit a wreck on this mostly-deserted road. The vehicle's also pretty big; a combination of heavy goods vehicle and military transport,

Unfortunately, due to some extenuating circumstances, that's exactly what's happened, and the armoured van has stopped, perched awkwardly atop the burnt-out wreck of an old police car. Snuffling at the crash site is a massive rhino-like creature with a single huge horn on the end of its nose, with small eyes and thick skin. There's a crossbow bolt stuck in its hide, just behind the head, but it seems not to have noticed the wound. The creature- a krushok- is nearly twice the size of the van, heavy enough its footsteps crack the tarmac road surface.

Three wrecks nearby- a bus that's been ripped in two, a hatchback and a small lorry- all bear scars from the massive horn, though thus far the military-looking truck has avoided a direct charge from the monstrous opponent. That might not last long, however.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tauron's Workshop]

"Of course. Food." Tauron repeats the word to himself almost as if he had forgotten what it meant.
"Yes... I do keep some of that in the freezer for these occasions. But what kind of 'food' will you need exactly? Will simple flesh do? Since I recently managed to acquire manufactured food which claims it has everything your bodies need. Might be more in line with your new body, though I'm not sure what you ate before."

[Tauron's Temple]

As Ilpholin starts getting up, Tauron backs away in awe. He didn't seem to have expected her to be able to move this soon.
The first thing she can note is that she's naked. Not a shred of clothing in sight and Tauron doesn't seem to have cared to give her a hospital gown, or he simply didn't have any.

The second thing of note is that her skin is so pale that it appears she's never been touched by the sun, yet it does not lock sickly. Instead there seem to be a strange shine to it making her look unearthly in her complexion. It seems smooth to touch but she can somehow instinctively tell that it isn't as before. It's still her skin but something has been mixed into it, making it something in-between flesh and metal even if an observer likely would be unable to see that.
Reflexively, she can change the color of her pigments into anything she wants. Potentially able to change her complexion at will, make tattoos or patterns appear on her skin or suddenly blend perfectly into the environment.

Tauron eventually steps back and holds up one of his hands which changes shape into a mirror, the silvery substance he is made up of able to perfectly reflect Ilpholin's face. "Is- is it alright?"
The upper parts of her body seem to have undergone some more noticeable changes. Her purple hair now appears artificial in nature as each strand of hair is now made of a thin durable metal that Ilpholin can control as easily as her other limbs. Just like her skin she could change its color but more importantly its length as it can compress and stretch according to her whims. The metal her hair is made up of could also cut someone's throat like if its was sharp barbed wire.

The pupils of her eyes appear the same but the sclera have turned completely black and by the look of it, so have her tears. Right now it appears she has been crying while wearing heavy mascara as the tears now appear to be made of a black oily substance.
"I attempted to preserve your original appearance as much as I could." He explains as she looks at herself in his mirror-hand.

[New Inside - President Sierra's Office]

"So a complete shutdown of all trade with Inside? Won't that be..." President Sierra paused while she toyed with her long black hair. "Isn't that good for us? Pretty sure that was even one of my election promises."

If there was anything Judeen hated more than dealing with incompetent underlings it was dealing with incompetent superiors. "Madame President, while a complete shutdown of all trade with Inside is going to put some severe strains on the economy and likely put a jobs at risk, it's the only option at this point. We've already severely restricted it anyway due to the outbreak there. A complete obstruction of trade won't be much of a stretch at this point."

"I did promise more jobs too, and a better economy. What a dilemma." She looked off in the distance for a moment, it almost looked like she was staring at that grotesque boar head trophy she had mounted on the wall along with the rest of her tasteless decor. Why did they let the presidents redecorate again? The election certainly hadn't been in taste.

"With all due respect ma'am, we can't let the virus reach New Inside, or their other plague for that matter. This is a reasonable measure to take, we don't even have to inform the public of why."

"The face-thing? Yeah, that's pretty bad isn't it? Like that movie... what was its name..." Off her attention was to the distance once again, was she looking at the boar-trophy for guidance perhaps? The Saints knew she needed it.

"You mean-"

President Sierra dismissed her own question by raising her hand. "Actually, doesn't matter, I'm more curious why we are even concerned about this virus thing. I mean, we don't have any monsters here. I said that in a interview."

Why did she even need to explain this? "Yes, but... that isn't technically true. We have a lot of non-humans living in New Inside, some of them even work for the order. If it came here it would be catastrophic as we don't know how to cure it or even stop its spread. At least with the plague we got some idea how it spreads."

She got off her desk and walked off to the window behind her overlooking the city. "But wouldn't this be a benefit? To stop them from hiding their true nature from us?"

"...ma'am, the order members are our special operatives. They're the ones that deal with the high-level incursions at our borders. We cannot afford to lose them, or let a quarter of our population get infected." Judeen paused only to add. "It would likely cause you to lose the next election."

President Sierra threw her hands up in the air. "Fine, fine, I'll let you 'experts' take charge of this one. So call one of your meetings, I got a hunting trip to attend to." Then with just a wave of her hand, Judeen was dismissed and left the room.

Her thoughts stayed with the president for a few moments though, mostly around the woman's neck.
But she had achieved what she had set out to do. Now she just needed to deal with the council and she could get this show on the row. Inside would have to be monitored very carefully so they could at least gain some intelligence on the virus effects. They just had to keep them from learning where it had come from at all costs or her country's paranoia might just become more justified...

{Plot Post 3}
Previously: Plot Post 2 - Not-So-Strange Happenings
Next: Plot Post 4 - Sunset Streets - Night time

[Recaiden]

"Of course. Food." Tauron repeats the word to himself almost as if he had forgotten what it meant.
"Yes... I do keep some of that in the freezer for these occasions. But what kind of 'food' will you need exactly? Will simple flesh do? Since I recently managed to acquire manufactured food which claims it has everything your bodies need. Might be more in line with your new body, though I'm not sure what you ate before."

Fay laughs.
"Different creatures eat different things."
What manufacturer could know them well enough to provide tailored complete nutrition?
"'Simple flesh', yes, I can eat. We call it 'meat'. That and sugar while I recover."
At home Fay pretty much ate the same things every meal, but now, they might need a variety to cover all the nutrients this strange new body needs.
"You don't eat? What do you do instead?"

[Reinholdt]

[Tauron's Temple]

Ilpholin runs her fingers along her bare skin, trembling slightly, as the tips dance along the mixture of organic and synthetic. Black tattoo lines appears, following her fingers in an inelegant pattern, and fading moments later. She stops, pulling her own hand close and turning it, examining the foreign entity until Tauron holds up a mirror, displaying some of his own abilities.

Ilpholin stares at herself for a while before dabbing at her own black tears and examining the now glistening finger with just as much scrutiny and curiosity as exerted on her hand just moments ago. What she thinks of it is left unknown as the Phyrexian Nymph moves to touch her hair, running her hand through it. Suddenly she winces and draws her hand back, finding a thin line of blood beginning to well up from a small cut.

Closing her hand and her eyes, Ilpholin softly leans back down onto the bed and whispers to Tauron, "It's perfect." She had already known it was perfect beforehand. But she needed to look, to understand, in order to process being whole. It was everything and nothing at the same time. Hah. If she knew it was so zen maybe she'd have listened to Wenomir's Answer philosophy more closely. Regardless, that effort made it clear to her she wasn't going to be killing demons or the sharing the good news quite yet. She'd need to recover, yes, but also get used to controlling her new body.

"Thank you."

[Recaiden]

There's a vehicle here. It's a very large, six-wheeled truck, with an extra axle at the rear, and heavy armour plating on every surface, painted in the greys and blacks of urban camouflage. At the rear there's a heavy door. Mounted on the top of the van is a round hatch with a light machine gun mounted on a ring-mount. It's also currently not moving, as it's got a puncture. The people within would normally get out and replace the wheel, and especially not continue driving until the tyre was shredded and the vehicle was so uncontrollable it hit a wreck on this mostly-deserted road. The vehicle's also pretty big; a combination of heavy goods vehicle and military transport,

Unfortunately, due to some extenuating circumstances, that's exactly what's happened, and the armoured van has stopped, perched awkwardly atop the burnt-out wreck of an old police car. Snuffling at the crash site is a massive rhino-like creature with a single huge horn on the end of its nose, with small eyes and thick skin. There's a crossbow bolt stuck in its hide, just behind the head, but it seems not to have noticed the wound. The creature- a krushok- is nearly twice the size of the van, heavy enough its footsteps crack the tarmac road surface.

Three wrecks nearby- a bus that's been ripped in two, a hatchback and a small lorry- all bear scars from the massive horn, though thus far the military-looking truck has avoided a direct charge from the monstrous opponent. That might not last long, however.

There's another vehicle here. It's a flying motorcycle, more-or-less, with electric repelling mechanisms of questionable scientific veracity in place of wheels. It's painted orange and grey, meant to look cool more than anything else. It's currently moving. Coming down the road to nowhere approaching the wrecks and the truck. The rider, you see, is looking for monsters, and seems to have found one.
What luck!
The hoverbike slides to a stop at the side of the road and she hops off.
It's Omiko, cyborg (robot eye, two extra robot arms) demon-filled (note the crystal hair, the slight-but-unusual paleness) anthropomorphic lynx (which is to say, much more cat that your average 'catgirl'). She is not wearing a proper hoverbike-safe outfit. Not at all.

She approaches the scene carefully, lasergun-arm charged and ready. Who knows if the krushok might have more up its sleeve than brute strength?

[Earl of Purple]

Isolated Highway

The krushok's eyes aren't very good; it's a lot like a rhinoceros, scaled up and given a much, much larger horn. When it hears Omiko's approach, it snorts and turns in her direction, pawing the ground and lowering its head. If she gets within five metres of it, it'll likely charge, but that's easy to avoid by keeping her distance. Unfortunately, the military-looking truck is just within that radius, and given the size disparity, the transport would not stand much chance against the krushok's horn and momentum.

Omiko might be able to avoid the beast by simply keeping her bike above it.

[Recaiden]

But what would be the point of avoiding it?
She already went to the trouble of getting off her bike so it wouldn't get in any trouble.

Still, short-sighted or not, the monster clearly knows she's here.
Omiko hops onto the hood of the police car, and if the beast still hasn't charged towards her by then, she shoots it with her laser-cannon, aimed for one of the eyes.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tauron's Workshop]

"I draw on the latent mana of the plane itself of course, don't golems do that here?" Tauron pauses, but not long. "Ah, you haven't seen any of course, my bad. This plane is just so different from my home. So much... well, 'meat'." All his four hands make quotation marks in the air. "But if its that you want, then its meat you shall get. I have to look into this 'sugar' thing though, as well as what all you meat-beings need. I never had the issue before honestly, most of my previous designs were all pure golems like myself so it never came up."
Tauron gestures for her to follow as he will lead her back into the temple and into its cellar where Tauron is indeed storing meat in a freezer next to other machines. Just that this frozen meat comes from is anyone's guess but Fay probably isn't too picky.
"I believe it must be heated first though, right?"

[Tauron's Temple]

His hand returns to normal as he makes a bow before her. "I-it was just my pleasure to just work on you. You have a amazing body that was already fit to being with. All I needed to do was to enhance its original design." Perhaps not the most normal way of putting that... "Speaking of which, there are some features that aren't immediately noticeable that I wanted to mention before you rest. First of all, your pain can be turned off and on." Tauron raises one of his index fingers. "Contrary to popular belief, pain fills a important function to dissuade and alert us of damage. You aren't indestructible after all." One of his hand move across the cut she got from examining her hair and it immediately closes and heals without leaving any traces of itself. "But I also realize that in some situations pain is a downside so I made it so that you not only can turn it off, but choose in which parts of your body you can feel pain in. The pain nodes are your left and right arm, left and right leg, torso, chest, throat, back and of course head." He explains as his arms gestures at her body. "Just think of one or more of the nodes and the phrase 'pain is off' and 'pain is on'. If you want to turn all pain off or no, simply think 'all pain is on' or 'off'. I think you get it." Tauron nods eagerly as he seems to get quite enthusiastic about this.

"In addition, your 'hair' is not only sharp but quite sophisticated in other ways as it now can be used to connect you to machines with powerful surge protectors in case things go wrong. In theory, if you connect your upper cords to a machines mainframe you should be able to control it with your mind. For this purpose, and others, they can also extend quite a bit." He gently lifts the strands of her hair with one of his hands as to demonstrate but lets go before it seems even weirder than it already is. "Finally, I looked up a bit of your past to understand what I should focus on and I'm happy to inform you that you should be able to exert pheromones again at command. However, for machines that are too advanced to take control of directly with your uplink, like sentient ones for instance, you can insert a form of virus that should influence them the same way your pheromones influence flesh-beings." He pauses a moment as he seem to consider. "Might want to talk to your Mr. Squiggles about the exact applications for all this however."

[Earl of Purple]

Isolated Highway

The krushok charges just as Omiko jumps onto the old police car, the massive beast speeding up quite quickly as it charges forward in a shockingly unsubtle attempt at turning the cyborg catgirl into a thin, reddish paste smeared across its hide, horn and the road. The police car can't resist the beast; it's so much smaller and lighter it will go flying when the krushok makes contact with it.

A humanoid figure wearing desert-pattern combat fatigues and a battered gasmask with a cracked lens pops out of the roof hatch, grabbing the machine-gun and swivelling it round to fire at the immense beast, though the bullets fail to penetrate its thick skin.

[Recaiden]

[Tauron's Workshop]

"I don't know anything about golems." Fay admits. "Were you not made by creatures of flesh to begin with?" Everything of importance ultimately comes from meat.

They follow, already moving with more strength and steadiness than when they came out here to look at the birds and the snow.
Eyes widen upon viewing the freezer. Delicious! Eventually. And what did this even come from?"
"Yes. I could eat it cold, but it would be more effort. Was this for your work?"

[Isolated Highway]

Just as planned.
Well, the krushok is faster than she thought it'd be.

Omiko jumps back and up as the beast crashes into and launches the police car, with the goal of grabbing the tip of its horn (better be with all three hands) and swinging herself up onto the monster's back. Or its face, anyway? Wow it's big.

[Earl of Purple]

Isolated Highway

Omiko manages to jump onto the monster's head, gripping its horn. It snorts and turns around, facing towards the military vehicle and lowering its head- and horn- once more, charging into the stuck vehicle. The gunner screams in panic and pulls out a metal cylinder on a long wooden handle, pulling out a metal ring from the top and tossing it under the immense beast. The stick grenade explodes, sending shards of metal into the krushok's legs and belly, though as it was an anti-personnel grenade it didn't appear to do much- though it does roar in pain, it doesn't stop and its horn will slide right into the side of the van, the steel plating providing no resistance- though unless Omiko moves, she might find herself stuck between the steel van and the thick bone of the krushok's skull and crushed.

[Murkus]

Lost Grotto

Blanche raises a brow. Was this man appraising her, or her name?
"I'm not sure how much of this is thanks to spirits, but my ears aren't as keen as they used to," she defends. Guns are loud, and frequent exposure has enough of a toll on human ears, let alone feline ones. "And I thought deer were skittish things which ran from snapped twigs?" The snark is pretty heavy on that response.

[Lost Grotto --> Lost Path]

"I'm carrying one right now. You do not seem like something to run from," says Votsona. "At least, not right now. Do you live nearby here? Do you want to, er... call someone?" He makes a motion with his thumb and forefinger by his ear. "With your phone? Someone to come and fetch you or fix you?"

[Recaiden]

"Aaaah!"
Omiko swings herself around the horn to throw herself onto the monster's back, out of the direct way of being crushed. Eyes open up all across her wavering fur to take stock of the situation.
Ooh. That poor giant truck thing.
As she scrabbles to hold onto it with her claws, the laser-gun aims at the krushok's head and fires. It's no mere anti-personnel weapon, and she hopes it will do a lot of damage, but we did just hear about its thick skull. I expect Omiko will be disappointed.

[Reinholdt]

Spoiler

Show

[Tauron's Temple]

His hand returns to normal as he makes a bow before her. "I-it was just my pleasure to just work on you. You have a amazing body that was already fit to being with. All I needed to do was to enhance its original design." Perhaps not the most normal way of putting that... "Speaking of which, there are some features that aren't immediately noticeable that I wanted to mention before you rest. First of all, your pain can be turned off and on." Tauron raises one of his index fingers. "Contrary to popular belief, pain fills a important function to dissuade and alert us of damage. You aren't indestructible after all." One of his hand move across the cut she got from examining her hair and it immediately closes and heals without leaving any traces of itself. "But I also realize that in some situations pain is a downside so I made it so that you not only can turn it off, but choose in which parts of your body you can feel pain in. The pain nodes are your left and right arm, left and right leg, torso, chest, throat, back and of course head." He explains as his arms gestures at her body. "Just think of one or more of the nodes and the phrase 'pain is off' and 'pain is on'. If you want to turn all pain off or no, simply think 'all pain is on' or 'off'. I think you get it." Tauron nods eagerly as he seems to get quite enthusiastic about this.

"In addition, your 'hair' is not only sharp but quite sophisticated in other ways as it now can be used to connect you to machines with powerful surge protectors in case things go wrong. In theory, if you connect your upper cords to a machines mainframe you should be able to control it with your mind. For this purpose, and others, they can also extend quite a bit." He gently lifts the strands of her hair with one of his hands as to demonstrate but lets go before it seems even weirder than it already is. "Finally, I looked up a bit of your past to understand what I should focus on and I'm happy to inform you that you should be able to exert pheromones again at command. However, for machines that are too advanced to take control of directly with your uplink, like sentient ones for instance, you can insert a form of virus that should influence them the same way your pheromones influence flesh-beings." He pauses a moment as he seem to consider. "Might want to talk to your Mr. Squiggles about the exact applications for all this however."

[Tauron's Temple]

Ilpholin chuckles quietly. "You know doc, most people just say I'm sexy. Or hot. Just give me a day or two to recover first and maybe I can show you the real pleasure working on me can provide." Tauron was certainly a strange one. For instance, what did he believe popular belief on pain actually was? Isn't it already common-sense what purpose pain serves? Well regardless, there were certainly times where it held back those without properly honed willpower. The Phyrexian nymph closes her eyes, testing out this new feature, which becomes evident when she takes in a deep intake of air as if she had been holding her breath. It was impossible to deny the relief that came with being able to turn off pain at will.

Ilpholin has to consider the next part more carefully though, eyes opening and head tilting to look sideways at her own hair. Flexing herself a little, she allows her hair to stretch and grow in length, gently working its way to reach her hips. "... So I finally get to know, huh?" Ilpholin says, more to herself than to Tauron. She turns her head to look more at Tauron now. "Machines huh? I can't say I've, uh, interfaced with those before. Beyond the nanites anyways." It's hard picturing how that works, though a part of her knows it does work. She'll just have to see it in action if even Tauron has to refer elsewhere.

"Could always test it on the AI back home. Mister Squiggles won't be too happy about that though." Since he worked so hard on it and all. It's really difficult to come up with an AI that doesn't Rampage or deteriorate or all sorts of other exceptionally hazardous outcomes.

[Earl of Purple]

Isolated Highway

The krushok raises its head, and the armoured van with it, before shaking its head and throwing the van a short distance, the vehicle rocking and falling onto one side. The gunner in the desert fatigues has fallen out, and been thrown as well- fortunately, he didn't get crushed by the truck landing on him. He groans, the monster turning towards him and he freezes. That's before Omiko shoots it in the head, and it roars, turning to face where it thinks the blast came from and charging again. It's got a pretty bad burn on its head, and it's running towards the wrecked bus.

A shot to the krushok's chest or belly might have a better chance, where the skin's likely thinner.

[Recaiden]

Whoops. Hope anyone else in that van is okay. It didn't go too far.

Some part of Omiko suggests the same thing, and she slides down the side of the Kurshok as it carries her about in its charging, her claws probably hurting it only about as much as a papercut. Then she lets go, and as she falls down beside the monster, she twists and shoots up at its underbelly.
Then she hits the ground, rolls, and springs to her feet.
Ideally the krushok had too much momentum to stop and hurt her, but remained close enough to shoot.

[Earl of Purple]

Isolated Highway

The krushok can't turn fast, and Omiko's blast into its belly has penetrated the thinner skin of its gut. There's a large burn there, and the krushok has hit the ruined bus and shunted it about four metres down the crumbling tarmac. The krushok's still alive; despite the laser-injury to its belly, nothing fatal- or nothing immediately fatal- was hit, and it roars in pain before pulling out of the bus and turning, quite slowly, to face Omiko and charging again. Plenty of time to get off another shot, if the laser weapon's undamaged by the fall, and hopefully hit something that would stop it.

The injured soldier-y chap moans and sits up, looking around in apparent befuddlement. The gas mask makes facial expressions impossible to determine.

[Recaiden]

The laser-cannon is the most vulnerable part of Omiko. But the rest of her cushioned the fall.
Her mechanical eye takes in the lumbering-about-to-charge monster as the laser builds up its energy for another shot, searching for a weakness.
There. While it's turning, aim up at the right angle and there's sure to be some lungs in there. It probably needs those.
ZAP!

[Earl of Purple]

Isolated Highway

Omiko manages to shoot the krushok in the lungs and it collapses in a heap, unable to breathe and dying. It's not an especially fast death, but it is faster than the intestinal blockage that would have resulted from the damaged gut. Omiko killed it! Now she can check out the overturned truck, or maybe search one of the other vehicles nearby if that attracts her attention instead.

The gunner, if Omiko looks at them, will raise their hands in surrender. There's a black revolver holstered at their waist, and a long knife strapped to their calf.