Inside 68: Dawn of a New Season (or two)

[Deathkeeper]

[Market Street]

”Because if I just said my race all the time how would anyone know what I was saying? I don’t know what kind of show you’re watching, kid. But you should go back to your mom. She’ll freak out if she turns around and doesn’t see you.” She’s trying to be gentle, but how is she supposed to react to a little pest demanding to know why she can talk?!

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

The child stares at Moira for a few moments. Smacks his lips.

Snorts a bit, causing the line of snot oozing down his face to retreat back into his nose, which he then wipes on his sleeve.

"Pikachu is my favorite pokemon," the child reports. "Have you ever fought a pikachu before?"

Guh.

He isn't going away.

And his mom is still over there haggling over the price of weird looking potted plants.

Who even buys ferns anymore these days?

Everyone knows succulents is where it's at.

[Halae]

[Southpaw Boxing School]

This time, there's no sudden turnaround forthcoming, as Emily is truly off balance. The flurry tilts Emily over, and she falls to her back, her tail splaying out to the side as she blinks up towards the ceiling. The crowd cheers - nobody's beaten Emily before, and this was a hell of a match.

It takes a moment for Emily to pull herself off the floor, "Damn. That was impressive."

[Deathkeeper]

[Market Street]

”Gah! No. I haven’t fought anything! Except weird short rock dudes.” Well they were actually about as tall as she is now.
”Besides, I wouldn’t fight a Pokémon. Beating up people is bad.” Everyone knows violence is only okay when it’s against monsters that provide exp.

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

"Was it a geodude?" the child asks.

And at about this point Kirinirik turns away from the wagon with his pack significantly lighter.

But with his inventory full! Money! And... one fun bauble that both siblings really liked.

"Alright Moira, we're ready! Corva here says there's a lapidary shop just down the street, so even if they don't have a moon stone they might know who does," Kirin says.

And then spots the child with the pokemon paraphernalia.

Both heads grin.

"Did you gain a fan?"

Not really.

[Deathkeeper]

[Market Street]

”Guys, he won’t leave me alone!” Moira moans to the farigiraf. She crosses her arms and pouts again. It’s probably still cute.
”And what’s a lapidary anyway? Isn’t that something about bunnies?” No Moira that’s a Lapin- not a lapid-.

[bc56]

Burnt-Out Ruin

The demon uses some cables to plug both devices into his laptop, then makes a concerned face at it. "Trust me, they never do anything without a reason. They may be inscrutable at times,.but they always act according to their plan." He turns the computer around so that it is visible to the others, and sets it down. "You all are due an explanation, at the least." Flames dance around his hand, and he presses them into the ground, where they burn outward, creating a symbol in the stone floor which burns dimly. A circle, from the center of which radiate curved spokes, like a galaxy, or some strange wheel. Four triangles sit at ninety degrees from each other around it, each marked with a different arcane symbol. "Where I come from, the universe is caught in the grip of war. Four armies do endless battle with each other. What you encountered is one of them. The Mechanians are a force of rigid, uncaring law, and they have arrived here. I represent their eternal foes, the Demons. You've saved me a lot of trouble by bringing these logs, but I still need your help. I'm in exile here, so I can't exactly call for backup. With your help, and these logs, we can hit the invaders where it hurts and force them to leave." He taps the computer. "There's a list of their current projects here. We should be able to use the information here to stop each one individually. Once we've defeated them enough times, they should retreat."

On the computer is a list of file folders with the following names:
Avatar of Division
Denial of Service
Empty Streets
Guiding Hand
Lost City
Silent Running
Recycled Essence

[Recaiden]

Tao listens to the explanation.
He's increasingly unsure that he's the right person for this job. But then, he keeps thinking of the ruby.
And he clearly knows something about fighting, for some reason. Oh, from when he went into the sewers of her city, and when they cleared the hollow of-
Hold on, what was he thinking again?

"So they don't care about revenge, or enmity, just about this plan. And if completing the plan becomes too difficult they'll go somewhere else. That's about right?"
"But what do they actually want?"
He waves at the list of files.

"And I guess this is way outside the Demons' territory, or whatever, but how about the other two sides?"

[Earl of Purple]

Burnt-Out Ruin

Jack frowns and reads the words on the screen. This doesn't sound as fun as she'd thought it would, but never mind. She's here now, and maybe there will be shiny things. "Do we know what those operations all mean?" If she were a little more computer literate, she'd wonder why the robots bothered to name the folders in English, rather than something like binary. But maybe Tethrik's translated them.

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

"You're a farigiraf," the child says, looking up at Kirinirk with that blank expression of his. "I don't like that pokemon, they look dumb."

Nirik scowls.

"Well hi to you too, kid. Come on, Moira, we're going to look at rocks," Kirin proclaims before turning to head off down the crowded street.

Hopefully Moira sticks close.

Getting lost would be easy.

And thankfully the kid isn't moving to follow.

Past the booth selling flowers. Past the booth with a collection of cucumbers, eggplants, pumpkins, and other vegetable-style fruits. Past the booth manned by what appears to be a swarm of weird little dragon-bees selling honey. And finally! A storefront with a pretty drab sign advertising 'healing crystals', a large window in the front showing off quartz, amethyst, and gypsum. Kirinirik head inside, causing a little bell to ring above the door.

Behind the counter stands an elf in a tie-die shirt wearing a necklace of large beads. Perched on his nose is a pair of little blue-tinted glasses.

"Heeey dudes," the elf says placidly with a vague wave of a gesture. "If you, like, got any questions or wanna know which crystals will harmonize best with your chakras, just inquire right here."


[Ruins]

Her eye twitched a bit at the 'eternal law' comment.

She had encountered something called a 'demon' with her friends. It was, supposedly, a being of pure evil and chaos. She isn't sure how those can even be things. Let alone things something could be made of. Trying to comprehend the creature had been decidedly unpleasant and she had eventually settled on just screwing her eyes shut and blasting the general area until it died.

Considering that this creature was helping them instead of murdering them on sight, she suspects that what this person calls a demon and what her friends were calling demons may in fact be different things.

Because of course different physical universes would be composed of different things. Why should she expect anything different? Worlds differ widely.

It would probably be best to just try to avoid thinking too much about impossible things and instead focus on the parts that do make sense. She understands conflict. Though conflict works a bit differently where she comes from, she has come to understand that violence is an excellent way of resolving conflict in physical universes. If a creature has its physical form disorganized to the point that it can no longer contend your will, then you can carry out whatever purpose you desired.

That appears to be the plan.

To disorganize the ideas and aims these machines have until expending resources here ceases to outweigh the potential value.

"Should we just pick a plan to disrupt?" Myriam asks

[Deathkeeper]

[Market Street]

Moira continues to attach herself to Nirik to avoid getting lost. It’s convenient that he can watch Moira while Kirin steers them so they don’t lose her.
Especially because the smell of that honey is completely enthralling. Moira almost wants to walk right up to the person holding the jar as they open it.
But she doesn’t.

And then a rock shop! Neat! Moira does like rare gems. But they’re not as exciting in a store as they would be finding them in a cave or a chest.
”We’re looking for a moonstone. The kind that makes nidorinas evolve.” She’s not sure if this pointy-eared guy would know about that.

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

No doubt the person (persons?) selling the honey are disappointed that Moira didn't want any.

But you know what they say about accepting food from faeries...

Regardless!

The elf nods placidly at Moira's question. "That sounds far-out, little dude. We got some moon-stones here."

That said, he'll lead our heroes over to a display shelf full of little baskets which are, in turn, full of rocks. Each has a little paper tag leaded against it saying what kind of rock they are and what spiritual properties it has.

Whether said rocks do in fact have any spiritual properties is up for debate.

The elf picks up a little blue-white, iridescent stone.

"Moon stones are for new beginnings, little dude. They promote inner growth and strength. It, like, soothes emotional instability and stress and just makes you totally chill," he says. The stone is held out for Moira to hold it.

Holding the stone will not, in fact, cause her to evolve. It's just a gem-grade piece of feldspar.

[Deathkeeper]

[Market Street]

Moira frowns but decides not to press the issue of being called Dude. Even though it annoys her. Because she’s not a dude. She’s a girl. Duh. She knows she’s a weird venomous shrew thing but her voice still sounds like a girl.
Sadly, the rock doesn’t make her glow again.
”Huh. No, not glowing. We must be looking for something else with the same name. Know anyone else who might have glowy magicky rocks? Maybe the kind Pokémon use?” Moira really isn’t cognizant enough to know it’s sort of rude to ask a shopkeeper about where their competition is.

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

That vacant nod from the elf continues.

"Ah, you're looking to evolve, huh dude? And not just, like spiritually or anything? That's cool."

Didn't she say that's what she was doing?

Explicitly?

Was he just not listening?

"Well, I don't, like, get these crystals or whatever myself. I just know how they'll shape your aura. I buy them from a bunch of different dudes who, like, go out and collect them. There's this one dude who might know about your evolution gem. I think he might have, like, a booth or something set up nearby?" the elf says, nodding slowly.

...and then doesn't say anything else.

"So who exactly are we looking for?" Nirik asks, vaguely cross.

"Oooh, yeah, I should, like, totally tell you about the dude you're looking for?" the elf agrees. "Or the, like, the dudes, I guess. He makes this wicked red honey, man, that stuff is such a trip. And he's always got some pretty rad gems to sell. But I guess he doesn't, like, sell them to just anyone? Just the shop owners. I dunno why, man, but everyone's got their path to take and I say you gotta walk it, y'know? Anyway, dude's name is Drake, he's like a ton of these totally rad little faerie dragons."

[bc56]

Burnt-Out Ruin

To Tao's comment, the demon responds, "They want to rule. To control everything, and make it fit their laws. Everything they do is aimed at conquest and control in some way, although it's hard to see." To Jack, he continues, "I have a vague idea of what each does, but it's been millennia since I was involved in fighting them last." To Myriam, he finishes, "Pick a plan, any plan. There should be some information in each folder that you can use to find their project sites or targets, although it's incomplete."

[Deathkeeper]

[Market Street]

Moira gasps.
”The little dragonfly guys! Thanks, Mister.” Then she goes to grab Kirin’s hoof-hand and guide him back to where she saw the bug-dragons’ shop.
Hopefully she’ll be able to convince him to sell. She hopes so. She feels like she can get along with bugs, or is that just bug-types? She feels like that’s probably a thing even though Kirin has explained very little of how Pokémon work to her.

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

Of course there are bug types! And bug/poison is a very common typing.

But is that what the little dragon-bees would be? Are they even pokemon?

They DID look kind of outlandish...

Kirinirik is taken by the hand and lead back out into the street! Turns out finding the booth in question isn't terribly difficult. It's only about half a block away and swarming with the weird little bee-dragons. Most of them are about the size of normal honey bees, but there are a few closer to the size of an iguana. The weirdest part, though, is that when one talks they all talk more or less in unison. It gives their voice a somewhat unnerving reverb. Though otherwise they have a pretty cute sounding, buzzing voice.

"And remember not to eat it all at once," the faerie dragon swarm warns. "This rhododendron honey is pretty potent. Only take a spoonful at a time. A small spoonful."

The fellow buying the jar of deep amber-orange honey replies with a, "Yeah yeah, whatever," and places an eclectic array of coins and bills down on the booth's counter. A small swarm of smaller drakes gather the money up and deposit it in a nearby box.

"All sorts of new races here," Kirin mutters. He's pretty amazed by all the different types of people!

[Deathkeeper]

[Market Street]

Moira goes straight up to the booth. She would think the swarm is weird. Actually she does. But she’s not gonna be bothered by it right now considering her best friends at the moment are two magic giraffes growing out of each other’s bottoms.
”Hi! My name is Moira and my friends and I- she gestures at the farigiraf- are looking for a moonstone. The Pokémon kind. A guy at a store said you might know where to get one?” she’s asking the nearest big dragonbug but she can’t help but wander her eyes at the lot of them while talking.

[Recaiden]

Tao shakes his head. This just gets better and better. Which is to say, continually worse.
"Better look at them all first."
But he's not the one at the machine, so he has little more to say.

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

At the mention of rocks ALL the little drakes perk up in unison.

"Oh yeah, I saw you two going into Sunflower's shop earlier. Did he try to sell you some feldspar?" the swarm of pixie drakes all ask in their little buzzing voices. Now that she's near the booth, Moira may notice that there's a single little basket on the counter with a paper sign attached to it.

Gemstones also accepted as payment.

In it are a collection of various gems and semi-precious stones in a variety of colors. Very shiny.

But no moonstones.

"The pokemon-style moonstones aren't feldspar at all. They're a pallasite, a meteor made of peridot crystals in a nickle/iron matrix. Which are usually stuffed full of magic, I guess? Pokemon are magic, right?" Drake asks.

"Pokemon are scientific," Kirin insists.

"Sure, stuffed full of science. Anywho! I've got a few pallasite samples, but they aren't with me AND they aren't magical. So I don't think those would work if you're wanting to evolve," the swarm buzzes thoughtfully. "There's a pretty magic-y impact crater outside the City that I've been wanting to check out, but the place is swarming with feral pokemon and they keep eating any mes that start snooping around. I bet that would be a place to find a proper pokemon moonstone."

[Deathkeeper]

[Market Street]

Kirin gets a sidelong glance.
Moira is currently a small, teal, venomous shrew thing because she beat up some rock monsters while carrying a gold plated statue which made her grow fast.
She’s pretty sure all of this is magic.

Also the idea that he has had some of his selves eaten is kind of terrifying.
She also didn’t understand any of that geology-speak.
”Feral people? That sounds horrible. But...maybe we could handle it, guys. Do you still want to go help me? I know I’m asking a lot...” she doesn’t want to trouble them. After all, if they get fed up and leave she’ll be all alone! And that would be terrible.

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

Strictly speaking, she is a LARGE venomous shrew monster.

Normal shrews are pretty tiny.

And as far as getting some of his selves eaten, Drake doesn't seem terribly concerned about it. He mentioned it in a 'oh yeah, that's a thing that happened' sort of way.

"I feel like we kind of owe it to you," Nirik says. "We dragged you into this mess somehow, even if I'm not sure HOW. The least we could do is help you evolve into something that isn't so..."

"Tiny? Adorable?"

"Sure. We'll help you, Moira. We aren't amazing at fighting, though. Feral pokemon are no joke."

Sounds like they have an adventure planned!

"I could show you guys the way there if you want?" Drake offers. "You would be wandering around blindly, otherwise. And I've been wanting to check the crater out anyways."

Kirin starts to open his mouth to reply, but comes up short when a pixie drake lands on his nose.

"Uup! Nope! No thanking me. Do not thank me. Never thank faeries for a gift or a favor or a compliment. Ever. Because then you owe them and they can take whatever they want from you," Drake warns.

[Deathkeeper]

[Market Street]

”Thanks, you two.” Nirik gets a hug because he’s the one hanging within her reach. He’s still weird but she’s starting to think he’s not as spooky as she thought.
She remembers to specify just the two of them since apparently the fairies don’t want to be thanked for stuff.
”So you’re a fairy?” A fairy that is a swarm of cute dragon bugs makes about as much sense as anything else.

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

Aaww...

PokeHugs.

Kirinirik pat Moira on the head, careful to avoid any of her pointy bits.

No one wants to get poisoned after all.

"I'm a buncha pixies," Drake replies. "A couple years ago I chased a goblin that stole one of my favorite rocks and ended up in the Dreamlands somehow. I did a couple stupid things in there because I had no idea what was going on, offended some pixies, and now I'm a pile of them. Moral of the story is, avoid the Dreamlands. And faeries of any kind are potentially dangerous."

That's a story Moira can probably relate to.

A small swarm of dragon-bees descend from over the roof of a nearby business, sparkles of light flashing around them as the swarm closes in on itself until they've poofed into another cat-sized pixie drake with a sound akin to tinkling crystal bells. Apparently Drake is able to merge and split to make individuals larger or smaller? He hovers in front of our heroes, his four bee/dragon wings buzzing. "We should take Riftline out of the City. Way faster than walking."

The rest of the Drakes at the booth wave goodbye.

[Deathkeeper]

[Market Street]

Drake has joined the party!
”This Place seems to do that to people.” Moira and Drake at least ended up mostly harmless cute things. Some people run afoul of magic and/or faeries and wind up miserable piles of suffering, or furniture.
Or kelpies.
”That sounds like a train?” she guesses.

[Rebonack]

[Market Street]

Drake is most certainly not harmless. No more harmless than Moira.

A swarm of bees can be pretty dangerous all on its own. Now imagine a swarm of bees driven by a single intelligent will that has decided that you're going to have a bad time.

"Like you wouldn't believe. This place has done a number on lots of people," Drake replies. "And yeah! Riftline is a train. The closest station isn't too far from here."

And that said?

He'll take off, buzzing along just above the crowd in a meandering path that will give Kirinirk and Moira plenty of time to follow.

"Feral pokemon look different from actual people," Nirik says as they walk. "They're shaped more like beasts instead of a human. They're clever and violent. And they have a nasty habit of ambushing travelers."

Like.

Say.

Leaping out of some tall grass at them.

Reaching the train shouldn't take too long. A little sheltered train station stands on a platform at the edge of the tracks, providing protection from the elements. Not that it's needed right now, anyway. Drake lands on the roof with a little thump, his claws scrabbling for purchase on the slick surface. Looks like there are quite a few people here waiting for the train, actually. Many of them are pretty normal looking humans, all things considered. But there are a few oddities. Such as that cave-man carrying a club, wearing a loincloth, and wearing a tie that looks like it was fashioned from a leopard pelt. Or that night elf reading a news paper (who reads newspapers anymore?). Or that giant tortoise with three tiny elephants balanced on its back which, in turn, supports a disk-map. Should Moira peer closer, she'll be able to see teeny tiny clouds drifting over the map and minute cities, forests, and mountains. There's that cyan pegasus pony over there reclining on a cartoony looking cloud. And finally, a fellow in generic full body knight's plate mail. It's hard to tell who or what they are under all that armor. Heck, it might even just be an animated suit walking around.

Looks like everyone is just waiting for the train?

[Deathkeeper]

[Riftline]

At the very least, Drake and Moira did not immediately start harming folks upon being changed like some kinds of werewolf, so that still makes them as harmless as a regular person with a weapon.
That is to say, only as far as you don’t get them sufficiently angry. Or possibly thank them.

Moira tries not to make any noise. Especially at the pony, since Moira likes equines (and being a similar color to Moira is just better) and making sittable clouds at will sounds amazing.
What’s also amazing?
The thought of seeing Kirin sit again once they’re on the train. For Nirik it would be like sitting on your collarbone. How is it comfortable for him?
Moira wonders if somehow she’s wandered into a cartoon today. It would explain a lot.
”So those gold idols were of feral Pokémon? They weren’t all human shaped.” she decides to ask an innocuous question.

[Rebonack]

[Riftline]

"That's exactly what they were," Kirin replies.

Aaaaand then the train arrives.

Passengers disembark first. Then everyone waiting at the station piles in. The sheer variety of different types of people here is mind-boggling.

And?

Moira gets to see Kirinirik sit down.

It...

Isn't nearly as interesting as she was probably imagining.

He just sort of lays down on a bench with his legs folded under his body more or less like a deer would.

Drake, meanwhile, is hanging out in the little luggage rack above the seats since he's so small compared to most of the rest of the passengers.

Time to ride the train!

[Deathkeeper]

[Riftline]

On the plus side, that makes way more sense for them to do than what she was imagining.
But trains in their world must have to deal with people taking up a lot of space just like here if people have to sit like that.
Moira also manages to play it off when she nearly hurts herself by sitting on her own tail because she keeps forgetting she has one. She totally just sat on a button or something. Totally.

[Morty]

[Industrial Strength Investigation]

Zenon eyes his companions for a moment with an odd expression on his face, before giving a predatorial smile, spreading his hands wide, palms open. Michalson can see the mawspheres slowly stop rotating, both of them now looking over the group, but neither becomes normally visible, and they don't seem to be increasing in power, either.

"There is nothing more to investigate. I required the materials and factories, and I acquired them. I didn't even kill anyone. Unfortunately, I've had to hide those facilities and materials away to a more secure location, but I even allowed the workers that were taken to go free, and even generously triggered a homing device so that you would come and pick them up." He looks the group up and down, the smile not fading.

"You'll forgive a bit of melodrama from my new lieutenants; they mean well, but they shouldn't have made threats. I've no interest in fighting any of you; and I doubt any of you wish to die today in any case. So, if you must, then attribute the theft to AMEN. Any fools in Inside who operate without some form of insurance deserve the hit to their bottom line anyways."

He crosses his arms over his chest, the smile changing from predatorial to smug.

"Is that cooperative enough for you, or shall I make some tea?"

"I don't know the laws where you come from, but around 'ere we don't let thieves and kidnappers go free because they returned some of their haul," Michalson says, slowly, through half-clenched teeth. "That you're AMEN explains a lot. But I thought they were a half-dead relic."

[Southpaw Boxing School]

Calm Reed will extend her hand to help Emily up.

"Thank you. You put up a good fight. It's been a while since someone had me on the defensive like this."