Inside 60

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

"I'm Bumblebee!" the little boy in the transformer costume replies before making some pew pew noises with his gun-arm.

"He meant your real name, stupid!" the little girl in the witch costume chides. The boy sticks his tongue out at her. "I'm Elisa. And my little sister is Clair."

"How come haunted houses have to be so creepy..." Clair complains, doing a good impression of a tick trying to burrow her way into Fortuna's side.

"Traditionally, being creeping is the point of haunted houses," Fortuna mentions as she leads the little group toward the stairs. "Should we try going up? Or just head straight through the house and out the back door?"

Oooh, now you're assuming the place even has a back door, Fortuna. Didn't you know this crazy place is built like the Winchester Mystery house? It's a haunted maze of nonsensical architectural contrivances! You'll probably never escape. Now you're doomed to be spooked at forever.

Forever! Bwah ha ha ha!

One of the gargoyls crouching atop the banister slooooowly turns toward the little party. Clair gives an eep and Fortuna glares right back at the thing.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

It's a good thing Nick isn't Zebes, or he'd be laughing about Elisa, a cop, and a Gargoyle being on the same post.
"Well, hello friend. Here to give us the welcome wagon?" says Nick cheerily as the gargoyle turns. There's no point in being rude to the spooky haunts, after all.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

The creepy gargoyle remains totally silent, giving no indication that it can even move.

"I wanna get out of here faster... but we still have to make it through for the bet," Clair says, burying her face in Fortuna's fur so she doesn't have to look at any of the creepy things.

Those things are just too creepy!

Fortuna gives a little nod. "Alright, out the back door it is then" she says as she heads toward a big, important looking door and opens it up.

On the other side of the door is a huge fireplace.

The draconequus frowns at said fireplace.

"That isn't a hallway at all."

[Shadowcaller]

Astrana's Apartment

"It is no trouble at all, Astrana and completely free of charge." Wolfy says with a grin before giving the young lady a bow. "I am a God. Call me Wolfy if you'd like. In what way can I ease your troubles? I promise I won't bite unless you wish me to." He adds with a wry smile and a wag of his tail.

Libra's Lovelorn Lovers

Arty has exactly one advantage here, and that's knowing his body probably better than Zhora knows hers. He gives her a moment, and after deciding that she's not making a move, decides to make one himself.
He leans in forward and charges, not stopped too much by the mud. He's ran in worse. When he gets close, he suddenly ducks down even lower and tries to get his arms around her midsection, wrenching to the side in an attempt to throw her off balance.
A human can often slip downwards out of such a grip. Horse legs really don't work like that.

A god? You can almost see the 'uh... okay' cross Eadelain's face. "I don't know. There's... something in me, and we don't know what, but it's powerful and... tries to defend me, but not always well. I can use it a little, but only a little so far. Thanks to it I don't need to eat, sleep, or drink, but using any magic on me tends to make it try to undo that."

Astrana's Apartment

"It also has a number of creepy servants running around trying to watch Eadelain. Not to mention it's capable of infecting people with itself and manifesting outside her. Obviously very powerful and dangerous trying to mess with it's 'host'." Host might not be right right word considering it was much closer to Eadelain than that.

[UncleWolf]

Astrana's Apartment

Wolfy nods and takes a seat on a stool that wasn't there before now as he looks the young woman over. "I can sense it, but what is it that you wish for my help with? Such things could be considered part of a normal life in this world."

ODS

Veronica's nose wrinkles at the foul stench and when she's hit by the kid she puts a supporting wing out to keep them both from falling. "Hey! Watch it!" She says, using her other wing to pull her earbuds out so she can hear better. "You alright?" She asks as the screams finally register and she takes a quick look around.

[Lost_Deep]

Astrana's Apartment

Eadelain nods. "True. I suppose my concern at the moment is that the organization I was previously working for has effectively left the Nexus, and as a result I'm not sure what to do next. I don't really know what's going on in Riverside, and so I'm not sure what to do with myself now."

[Arkhosia]

Astrana's Apartment

Wolfy nods and takes a seat on a stool that wasn't there before now as he looks the young woman over. "I can sense it, but what is it that you wish for my help with? Such things could be considered part of a normal life in this world."

ODS

Veronica's nose wrinkles at the foul stench and when she's hit by the kid she puts a supporting wing out to keep them both from falling. "Hey! Watch it!" She says, using her other wing to pull her earbuds out so she can hear better. "You alright?" She asks as the screams finally register and she takes a quick look around.

The child teenager (thirteen year olds are very adamant about that) nods. She's a human (at least, she looks like one. Hard to tell in the Nexus sometimes, y'know?), with her hair dyed pink on the right and black on the left. Clad in a pair of navy blue jeans, her torso adorned in a pink sweater with a picture of a purple eye upon a radio microphone, the silver eyes girl with Caucasian skin and scrawny form gets up and points one of her ten black-gloved fingers over to an approaching zombie with worry upon her face.
It appears to be a recently deceased dark elf store clerk, blood spattered upon his blue McJohnny's Toys shirt and jeans.
His name tag reads Boboli McFundersonn, but that's not important.

[Gullara]

The new kid - even so strange and unexpected as he was - feels good against Adir's chest. Like a little furnace. He strokes Lucy's head once or twice, while they lean together, but otherwise remains quiet and still. Amazing. For once the two of them cried more than the children.

Cheek kissing happens. Adir leans back a little and turns his face toward her, happy. "Aw! You're gonna sleep?" Adir hesitates to joke, but... hell, it couldn't hurt anything. He wags his eyebrows, sniffs, and smiles, looking all the more ridiculous with his face so tear-streaked. "We could start to work on the next one, if we're real quiet." Despite that, he stands up right after, going to fetch the nurse so she can put their children somewhere comfortable.

"Um," Adir looks at Sakura once the children are extracted, leaving the two of them alone for the moment. "You want me to stay with you?" He figured he might go and check on the children at home while Sakura rests, but he really wants to be there when his wife next wakes.

[Lots of Hope Hospital]

"Oh shush you." Sakura would give him a playful smack if her arms weren't occupied! Instead she gives him a smooch. "You should go. The other kids need one of us, and I'll be fine until tomorrow." She smiles warmly. "I'll be right here waiting for you."

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Nick smiles. "Well, it can't be that straightforward. C'mon, let's find ourselves a real door." he says, moving off to look for other doors, although careful not to get too far away, lest the two groups get separated.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

{Certainly don't want to get separated. That would be far too spooky.}

"I dunno, I think Nick would be able to handle himself without me," Fortuna points out as she pokes at the fireplace with a talon. Who knows? There might be something secret in there! Like a passage. Or fire.

{Don't talk to the narrator in front of the kids, Fortuna, they'll think you're crazy.}

Fortuna sticks her tongue out at that fancy jerk! She isn't even the least bit crazy! "Alright, I guess we'll have to try the doors up on the second floor then?" she suggests as she begins climbing the stairs. The stairs, of course, suddenly go flat with a mechanical click about two thirds of the way up. Fortuna thwarts this age old gag by ignoring gravity and letting her present wards hang onto her. "I think the stair thing would work better on people who can't fly."

{Curses! Looks like the ghosts are going to have to find some other means to spook everyone. Head-turning gargoyles and mechanical stair gags pranks don't seem to be working! Though it is interesting that both effects thus far could easily be replicated with simple mechanisms as opposed to any sort of actual haunting...}

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Nick chuckles at the trap. Silly trap, that's way to old to work! Well, actually it would have worked fine, but there's a few too many wings here for that.
"Up we go, then." says Nick, twisting his neck around so he can pick up his charge by the collar and deposit him on Nick's back, making it significantly easier to give his wings a strong flap and get to the top of the stairs. The boy is free to dismount by that point, although Nick won't force him to.

"Has the place seemed noticeably mundane to you so far, Fortuna?" asks Nick as the two groups meet at the top of the stairs.

[Murkus]

[Lots of Hope Hospital]

"Oh shush you." Sakura would give him a playful smack if her arms weren't occupied! Instead she gives him a smooch. "You should go. The other kids need one of us, and I'll be fine until tomorrow." She smiles warmly. "I'll be right here waiting for you."

Smooch! Adir smiles and listens, giving a slight nod. "Till next time, then, lovely woman," He almost moves away at that, but can't help leaning in to kiss his wife again. "Sweet dreams, the lot of ya."

And with that, as... Sakura's taken the babbies, presumably until the nurse arrives, Adir will reluctantly make his way out've the hospital. He makes a mental note to teach the pixies at home how to use a phone... might only take two or three of them.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

Nick's passenger seems totally okay with rides.

"I was thinking the same thing," Fortuna muses, two giggling children clambering onto her back. Why walk when you can ride the weird fluffy dragon thing? Their friends will all be super jealous, no doubt. "It's almost like this place is-"

Her thought is interrupted when a panel opens up in the ceiling and a big obviously mechanical spider in the end of a wire drops down. It bounces a few times before wriggling its legs and giving a spooky laugh thought tinny speakers.

"Woah ha ha ha ha!" quote the spider.

"-kind of a gag? Remember what I was saying earlier about some forms of infrasound causing an irrational fear reaction?" she continues, batting at the spider a few times with one of her forepaws. "I have the uncanny feeling that there isn't anything supernatural going on here at all. Just mechanical pranks and spooky-sound being piped in through hidden speakers."

Way to suck all the mysteriousness out of it, Fortuna.

She shoves open another door, opening the way to a long hall filled with fancy framed mirrors.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

"Well, back home we didn't have anything supernatural but places like this still found business. Sometimes it's fun to deal with tricks, even if you know that they're tricks."

Nick peeks into the hall Fortuna opened.
"Ooh, the mirror section! That's a classic. If anything really supernatural occurs, it'll be with spooky mirrors." he says cheerily.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

By now the kids are chattering and giggling with each other. Hey, if the grownups are saying the spooking feeling is just a pretend then why not relax? As they walk through the hall of mirrors they'll be met with a few fun-house style distorted mirrors and one mirror that turns out to be just a lightly silvered window. The nature becomes clear when a zombie head mask on the stick pops up on the other side along with a ghoulish "BRAAAUGH!" as the mirror is back-lit with black light!

Fortuna gives a little "Eep!" at the jump scare, the girls on her back screaming theatrically before descending into a fit of giggles.

"This place isn't scary at all!" Clair laughs.

"Nope, not even a little bit," Elisa agrees.

"You're just saying that 'cuz you're riding on a dragon," the little boy who's still refusing to give out his name counters, sticking his tongue out at the girls.

Hmm... he raises a valid point!

At the end of the hall our heroes step into a grand ballroom filled with clockwork dancers! Music box music begins to play its vaguely uncanny, plunking melody as the full-sized machines begin twitching to life and whirling about on their clearly visible slots the floor.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

To be fair, riding a dragon tends to inspire confidence. Riding a fluffy dragon tends to make most things whimsical. And Fortuna has the added bonus of being extra-whimsical. Fear the dragon of whimsy! Or not! She'd probably prefer that you didn't!

Nick watches the display of the clockwork dancers approvingly. "You know, I'm not really sure how this is supposed to be scary, but this part is actually pretty cool. All the clockwork is probably pretty complex even if the movements are simple."

[Darkcomet]

[Street Barge Stratus - Ballroom]

There's a crank on the side of the horn, but no other visible controls. Talking into it seems to work just fine - the crewmen aren't here to correct her, at any rate.

A breath of laughter buzzes in Noelle's ears. "Gurri. Gurri my father named me. What does your mother call you?" The question is conversational. "Where is Qy?" Key, the name sounds like.

"Gurri? Gurri, ask them if he's okay..."

"Shut up, South!" Gurri shouts down the voice that was just a little further from the communication horn. One could almost imagine the four of them, crowded around the horn in the Bridge, confused and whispering amongst themselves. A growling sigh exhales from what sounds like a monstrous set of lungs. "Is Qy alright? Have you hurt him?"

"Uh...I'm Noelle Xanatov, Major of the Union Air Force. Your pirate buddy is in custody up here, having been shot in one of the...floating sphere things following his shooting lightning at everyone, and then hit with...I don't know what they hit him with so I can't really say. I don't know much about the species, but they say he's alive. If you surrender now, I'll make sure he's taken to whatever expert you can direct us to." Noelle hopes she's doing this right. Stupid weird xenos.

This is why they say to just shoot them where she's from, she thinks, jokingly. She'd probably have a laugh about that if she wasn't busy having to worry about it.

[Rebonack]

Blackout spares a few admonishing words to the rescued passengers about Team Nightmære helping to make the City a safer place. It's always helpful to have people cheering you on! Especially when you look kind of spooky. That done, he'll be winging his way back to the airship.

[Airship Ballroom]

"A disruption bolt," Tenebra replies matter of factly. "They cause cell death without any tissue trauma."

Basically? It makes living things just.... stop living. Makes a great disinfectant in small amounts! Not nearly as messy as making holes in someone with a bolter. Also less likely to blast holes in bulkheads. Those are all useful qualities, right?

Aside from that? She and Nyx don't have much more to do aside from waiting to see what the next step is.

[Spooktober!]

Fluffy whimsical dragon seems pretty accurate, yeah. Fortuna could probably give Falcore a run for his money! She gets extra points, though, since she doesn't have a goofy looking dog-face.

"They move kind of weirdly?" Fortuna suggests as she steps over one of the slots on the floor, careful not to get any of her extremities caught in the clockwork contrivances hidden by the polished wood. This would be a pretty terrible place to be wearing a cape. Just imagine what would happen if a cape got snagged in there! "Moving weirdly really isn't much of a scary sort of thing, though. Just kind of uncanny, I guess?"

There's a lot of stop and go in moving across the ballroom. After all, the clockwork dancers aren't really paying any attention to where they're going.

[UncleWolf]

Astrana's Apartment

"You wish for job advice from a God?" Wolfy asks, sounding a little perplexed by it before shrugging. "Well, what sort of thing were you looking for? I can probably find something to suit your talents."

ODS

Veronica sighs when she sees the zombie and winces. Of course something would happen when she went shopping. "I'm going to assume not-a-nice-zombie instead of the good ones." She says as she grabs the lego kit off the shelf and throws it at the zombie's face. She doesn't think it'll do much, but she needed to buy time to remove the caps she places on her talons whenever she goes out. She didn't want to scratch up people's furniture after all.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Well, it's a good thing Nick faked the cape on this one, isn't it?
Nick gives a quick warning to his passenger to hold on (his costume should help with that) and simply takes a big, wing-assisted leap over the whole room. Ballrooms have nice, tall ceilings after all, and he doesn't want to get smacked by a robot!

[Arkhosia]

ODS

Veronica sighs when she sees the zombie and winces. Of course something would happen when she went shopping. "I'm going to assume not-a-nice-zombie instead of the good ones." She says as she grabs the lego kit off the shelf and throws it at the zombie's face. She doesn't think it'll do much, but she needed to buy time to remove the caps she places on her talons whenever she goes out. She didn't want to scratch up people's furniture after all.

The blow hits, scattering the little plastic caltrops everywhere and distracting the undead creature as it's knocked down upon it's rear end.
Meanwhile, the girl taps Veronica a bit harder than needed and points to a nearby grate to some vents just big enough for them to fit in. It's the only real exit as one is blocked by plastic foot torturers.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

The room of mechanic dancers is easily avoided!

Certainly beats getting shoulder-checked by a clockwork ballroom dancer.

The next door leads to a blancony with a sheer drop!

Bwah ha ha!

That's up way too high for a human to jump down safely!

They're trapped!

TRAPPED!

Fortuna lifts up into the air and hovers down to the ground. "Well, that was really neat! Not terribly scary, but next," she says as the children disembark into the grass.

"Thanks missus fuzzy dragon! That was lots of fun!" Clair says. "Do you want some of our candy?"

Fortuna makes a bit of a face, still stuffed from the ice cream. "No... I think I'm good."

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Nick crouches down so the kid can hop off easily.
"You kids think you can get back fine or would you like us to get you back to the street?" he offers. The kids will probably say no, but he's being the responsible adult here. And responsible adults don't let kids walk around in spooky mansion yards alone!

[Shadowcaller]

Libra's Lovelorn Lovers

Arty has exactly one advantage here, and that's knowing his body probably better than Zhora knows hers. He gives her a moment, and after deciding that she's not making a move, decides to make one himself.
He leans in forward and charges, not stopped too much by the mud. He's ran in worse. When he gets close, he suddenly ducks down even lower and tries to get his arms around her midsection, wrenching to the side in an attempt to throw her off balance.
A human can often slip downwards out of such a grip. Horse legs really don't work like that.

Libra's Lovelorn Lovers

Zhora braces herself as he comes charging but still ends up slipping as she's thrown off balance, but she seem to panic and attempt to grab a tight hold of Arty while threatening to fall. This might cause him to be dragged along.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

"Nope, we're good!" the children reply. In unision. Rather creepy sounding unision. "Thanks for helping us get through the mansion," they say as they grow gradually more ghostly and insubstantial. "Now we can finally pass on..."

And then they wisp away into little more than a cold wind.

Fortuna blinks.

"Uuuh..."

Apparently they just helped some ghosts escape from the mansion grounds?

Or something?

That's a pretty spooky thing to do on Spooktober.

[Deathkeeper]

Spooktober!

Nick blinks, probably at the same time Fortuna does. He leans in close to her.
"I won't comment on anything if you don't." he whispers softly.
Great. Now he has to feel all nasty about the obvious implications of ghost kids.

Libra's Lovelorn Lovers

This is basically what Arty was hoping for. He tries to pin her arms using his a bit as she grasps for him, and falls with her, hopefully managing to get her to fall on her side with him somewhat on top of her, but in a position more easily risen from. It might not keep her as pinned as normal from the slippery mud, but he only needs five seconds, and he's banking on her unfamiliarity with the shape to give him another second or two.

[Rebonack]

[Spooktober!]

Maybe it was just a grownup ghost that manifested as three kids?

Ghosts can do some pretty weird stuff if Ghostbusters is any clue.

Fortuna coughs awkwardly.

"So... umm... I guess that makes it your turn? Where to next?"

Please not somewhere with food...

Fortuna is NOT in any need of food right now.

[Holy-hunter]

[Slums]

Spoiler: Mandrake

Show

Mandrake will leave the head alone for now. Her knowledge doesn't extend to treating headwounds. First she'll attempt to remove any clothes or whatever obstructing the shoulder wound. Laying her gloved hands on the wound, she'll do two things. First, she'll attempt to detect if there's any sort of supernatural plague or necromantic buggery infecting him. Can never be too careful about that sort of things, especially when the undead involved are so specifically associated with plague. Secondly, she'll run a light pulse of Negative energy into his wound. His skin will start to flake off in the affected area, and any injured tissues will most likely die. The important part, however, is that any microbes or parasites that have begun to take up residence in the wound will find themselves flinging off into the great beyond. Nothing sterilizes like the surgical application of pure Death.

Wound disinfected, Mandrake will pull out a needle and some surgical thread, and go to work quickly, stitching tight the wound in a few practiced strokes. True, usually those Mandrake practiced her technique on were already dead, but the finished work should prove quite satisfactory, especially after Mandrake covers the wound with a wrapping of cotton cloth.

Spoiler: Rebonack

Show

Have you ever heard the stomach turning sucking noise of a creatures' entrails being riffled through? The sound of bone popping and splintering as blood flows freely? That's the sort of sound that comes from inside the dumpster, though it doesn't last long. Just as quickly as the grotesque noises started they end again, followed by silence.

Silence save the pattering of the rain.

And then a child-like voice.

"Sarah? I feel a little better now, maybe I will come out and play," calls out the voice of Tommy, though now that wheezing gurgle of fluid-filled lungs is gone. The child pauses for a time, listening for the sound of his play-mate's voice. When no reply comes, he speaks again, though with a voice heavy with trepidation. "Sarah? Are you still out there?"

There comes a shriek of metal on metal as the lid of the overturned dumpster is pushed open ever so slightly, allowing the hairless, fox-like skull of a drekavac to peek out into the night with his empty, oozing eyes. The undead abomination gives a little gasp when he spies the alley filled with motionless bodies and ducks back inside his dumpster.

As Mandrake treats the wound her patient shows no signs of conciousness, except for, away from her focus an out stretched arm wraps a feeble trembling finger around the gun that had been dropped to the floor.
A moment later a quick succession of four thundering loud bangs blast from the unsteady pistol followed by several desperate empty clicks.

He shot at the dumpster.

"Trap it" the soft dry words escape his almost motionless lips.

[Aric Kale]

Neil P. Collins Memorial Park

Zane Darkstar enters the park wearing a fairly nice, yet simple, outfit.
Grey slacks with a white button down and black suspenders. He's also wearing some well polished black boots.
His hair is black and his eyes are too; it is unsettling.
The only adornment that the pyromancer has is a black pocket stuffer that looks like real flames.

Who knows? It could be.

He doesn't seem to have any weapons, but anyone looking at him can easily sense a "Don't mess with me" vibe. Could be the small ball of fire that he has resting idly in the palm of his hand.

[FireFox]

[Neil P. Collins Memorial Park]

In the center of a park, a man with blondish-brown hair is sitting on a bench, writing in a journal. He's wearing a leather jacket with a fur collar, the kind of thing American pilots in WWII wore. Scattered around are a few people braving the colder weather. A man, woman, and teenaged girl are playing catch with brand-new baseball mitts. A sleepy-looking man is sitting on a square of cardboard just off the path, idly strumming a lute. A second woman is seated on another bench, paging through a thick tome.