[Nexus] Inside 31

[Murkus]

Masks

"The offer for more power?" Jezebel asks. "That would have to depend on the costs, and the amount of control you'd have over us."

"A little slice off each of your souls. If you've got any left. And don't worry, they'll regenerate. Maybe some extra priveleges or something, too." Jack says, pondering as he looks them over. "As for control? I don't want to rule over you. Although I wouldn't mind telling Juan what to do..." He smirks at the daemonhost. Of course, he fully intends to mark everyone with a mental influence ward. They'll subtly, slowly start to respect, fear, or love him. Depending. It's a slow way to gain power over such a large group, but it might work.

[Lord Magtok]

National Park

What hadn't a clue how fast the guy would move when the blow finally came, but he had a fairly decent idea of where he would be hit. The archaic deity might find himself punching past some soft mushy pumpkin, and right into a pair of tightly bound railroad spikes.

That's right. What set a trap for the God, right inside his own head.

And he's not done yet. Expecting his adversary to still be reeling after shoving his knuckles into jagged spikes, What swings his sickle, intent on taking the deity's other wrist with it. Were he not mute, he'd likely be laughing hysterically and throwing all sorts of foul jeers and insults at Thor as he does so.

[happyturtle]

Masks

Xifra grins, still leaning with one arm around Jack, tracing her fingers along his spine. "Sometimes Juan likes being told what to do, don't you?"

[Reinholdt]

[Arkham Street - Ward Cemetery]

Reinholdt is abnormally calm about having a bucket of spiders on his head. I mean... there's trying not to panic and there's a complete lack of emotion. And he's showing the latter. I know he should be screaming. He knows he should be screaming. I know I'd totally join Raril when it comes to the shrieking if it were me. But he doesn't.

Just calmly lifts the bucket of his head and starts picking the spiders off and setting them down, slowly. Doesn't want them to bite and poison him after all. Don't think he's fully grasped they aren't poisonous, but I just can't get a read on him anymore.

[Gullara]

[National Park]

The God howls in pain, loud enough to shatter What's eardrums if he had any. And then the second attack comes. It tears through flesh and bone with ease. The hammer drops to the ground.

The God isn't done yet. He swings his stump downward at the treacherous, mush headed murderer.

[AmberVael]

Aul Street

"It's a sign of neglect for the other person's well being, I suppose." now he looks even more awkward, rubbing the back of his head, "I try to be nice all the time and... well I just... uh, I'm not really sure what to say."

He lets out a sigh, and suddenly turns back to the river, looking like he's chasitsing himself mentally, "That's a bit of a problem with me. Sorry."

Aul Street

"Well, I've enjoyed our conversation. I don't think you have anything to be sorry for."
Well, except maybe staring at her tails, but Grace decides to skip over mentioning that.

[Halae]

Aul Street

Eric takes off his glasses so he can rub the bridge of his nose, looking rather embarrassed still, and says, "Yes well... Let's move on."

"Alright, you said that the Nexus tends towards grabbing people who are interesting, right? What about me then? I'm about as mundane as they come. How am I interesting?" Clearly, he doesn't know about that entity that has touched him.

[Rebonack]

[Arkham Street - Ward Cemetery]

Zee tries her best not to giggle when Raril begins screaming. But given the nature of the prank that was apparently just pulled on them it's pretty darn hard to resist.

Rein will find that several of the havestmen are nibbling at him. It feels kind of itchy. But it's doubtful it will cause any damage. Though... if he weren't wearing that weird pendant of his this would probably be a lot more horrifying.

Zee wrinkles her nose a bit. Then stoops down to pick up one of the arachnids. Only to toss it away rather quickly and begin stomping on the ones that are on the ground. "Cyphophthal! They're offspring of Cyphophthal! Kill them! Kill all of them! Don't let a single one get away!"

Stomp stomp stomp!

Apparently aware now that the jig is up the gross little spider-like things leap off Rein and go skittering away toward every dark corner and crack!

[Lord Magtok]

National Park

What has no intention of remaining in the path of Thor's fist, and leaps right at the deity, intending to knock them both down and into the water. He tries to carve into the God's face and eyes with his sickle, as his other hand gropes about in search of that fallen hammer. There's no way he's going to let this bastard win, not when he's still so new to this Seeker thing.

[AmberVael]

Aul Street

"Ah, no. I said it favors those who are interesting. That said... you don't have to be particularly strange or out of the ordinary to be interesting."
Grace walks across the rest of the bridge, and further down the street. It looks like Aul Street is about to reach an end and turn into another street.
"That said, how can you judge what is mundane here?"
She raises an eyebrow at him.
"I'm willing to bet you're in a minority, actually."

[Gullara]

[National Park]

Thor goes down hard, and loses his eyes in the process. You'd think Thor would be a better fighter. Geez.

He grabs at Mr. Pumpkin's mushy mass of a head. Little good that will do. What should find the hammer easily enough. The God's hand is still clutching it.

[ThirdEmperor]

[Apartment]

Prince sighs. He hates doing this, especially when there's a good chance he won't regain control. That creep never keeps his end of the deal, except when it suits him. Still, the entire apartment is surrounded by powerful wards, which give Prince some certainty this won't go horribly wrong as he takes his journal from the bag of holding, and flips it open. As the blood from the cut on his hand touches the page, he blanks out.

[The Bushranger]

Delta nods. Yeah, get some sleep. Probably gonna need it.

Delta herself will find a comfy chair and sit in it, not actually sleeping. She doesn't need much sleep, really. Only a couple hours. And she wanted to time her waking with Jamie's.

So, no sleep yet.

And Jamie sleeps!
Peacefully.

[Halae]

Aul Street => Another Street

Eric hurries after her, making sure to walk along as well so that's he's not left slowly behind.

"That doesn't make me feel any better about it. If the Nexus is so crazy, I'll likely end up in situations that, without some sort of superpower to back me up, I'll be completely in over m head, and maybe I won't die, but it'll just keep happening." His brow furrows, and he sighs. "Sorry, I'm whining."

[Lord Magtok]

National Park

What tries to take Thor's severed hand, not even bothering to pry the man's fingers off the hammer before clumsily swinging it down toward the Norse warrior's forehead.

If it works, he lifts the hammer back up, ignore the bleeding hand that was grasping at his remaining pumpkin bits, before bringing the weapon back down into his adversary's skull again.

And again.

And again.

And again. Until the twitching stops, and a mix of blood and cerebral tissue spills into what was once crisp, clear, untainted water.

[Earl of Purple]

Overgrown Street

A seven-foot-long millipede is approaching. It is holding the first three feet of its body vertically off the ground, which gives it many pairs of short arms. Those arms are holding a myriad different devices, including a short pair of shears, a bag, several pens, a pad, an instant genome sequencer and a magical aura detector. Accompanying it are three disc-shaped drones. Two have a pair of squat guns slung beneath them and the third is much bulkier; the gun-drones have a single antennae sticking out of the top, whilst the third has two of those antennae. All three drones are orange.

The Encyclopede will, when it reaches the plants, cut samples from every plant it sees, putting the cuttings into the bag, whilst it uses the other items of equipment to sequence the plant's DNA and detect any significant magical items, objects, beings or phenomena in the area.

[Gullara]

[National Park]

Thor struggles in vain. The first blow hammers down, ending any chance of him surviving this encounter.

And then the next blow, then the next. Okay What, that's completely unnecessary. Oh my, he's not planning on stopping, is he?

Eventually the God lies still, and What obtains his hammer.

This is object number 444 of 538, and they must never come together.

[Maxios]

The Courier, whistling a merry tune, buys an old bracelet from a mysterious old man. He is now the Holder of Pride

[Lord Magtok]

National Park

What stands back up when he's done, pulling together as much of his head out of the water as he can, before dragging himself out of the small pond with his prize and his sickle. What just leaves Thor's bloody remains lying in the pond, for whatever innocent young Pokemon trainer that might come by here in the morning, simply not giving a damn about the mess and the red-tinged waters.

He does, however, leave just one last note behind, connecting this murder to his last. One of the flash card is plopped down on Thor's body, and written in English from the Old God's blood, What has left a very simple warning:

You are not alone. None of you are safe.

[AmberVael]

Aul Street => Another Street

Eric hurries after her, making sure to walk along as well so that's he's not left slowly behind.

"That doesn't make me feel any better about it. If the Nexus is so crazy, I'll likely end up in situations that, without some sort of superpower to back me up, I'll be completely in over m head, and maybe I won't die, but it'll just keep happening." His brow furrows, and he sighs. "Sorry, I'm whining."

Generic Street

"Then train. Or learn something. Or find something. This is Nexus- your personal power only ends when you stop trying to increase it. I'm sure you can find something."
Grace says simply.
"It might take a little doing, but there are ways to go about it."

[Halae]

Generic Street

"That... is a remarkably simple answer. Don't you hate it when things that sort of answer is just staring you in the face and you don't realize it?"

He shakes his head, "Do you have any suggestions regarding that training? Maybe learning some sort of magic?" he's having a bit of trouble imagining himself doing magic.

[Morty]

[Erin's Emporium]

Dorotha is in her lab. She's been locked up in there for quite some time now, after having several bags of fresh clay brought there.

[AmberVael]

Generic Street

"It really depends on what you want. The fastest way would probably be to commission something- you could probably just buy some kind of absurd combat gear from Erin's Emporium and have enough firepower to level a building in under a minute. There are some magic users around who could potentially teach you, but what that would involve really depends on the magic in question, as there are a lot of types. You could undergo some change which gives you powers, for example, becoming a vampire. As I recall, the Empire has an elite squad known as Mortal Coil which can stand toe to toe with the most powerful adversaries, but I think they have some stringent requirements. Might be a few weapon masters you could learn from..."
She lists off all the options she can think of, them bites her lip.
"The best option is probably to learn a magic or weapon skill, but those take the longest."

[Artemis97]

Spoiler

Show

[Arkham Street - Ward Cemetery]

Zee tries her best not to giggle when Raril begins screaming. But given the nature of the prank that was apparently just pulled on them it's pretty darn hard to resist.

Rein will find that several of the havestmen are nibbling at him. It feels kind of itchy. But it's doubtful it will cause any damage. Though... if he weren't wearing that weird pendant of his this would probably be a lot more horrifying.

Zee wrinkles her nose a bit. Then stoops down to pick up one of the arachnids. Only to toss it away rather quickly and begin stomping on the ones that are on the ground. "Cyphophthal! They're offspring of Cyphophthal! Kill them! Kill all of them! Don't let a single one get away!"

Stomp stomp stomp!

Apparently aware now that the jig is up the gross little spider-like things leap off Rein and go skittering away toward every dark corner and crack!

[Arkham Street - Ward Cemetery]

And suddenly there were hundreds of little Far-tainted spiders jumping towards Raril. It's safe to say he panics a bit. Still, he has the courtesy to shout "Get down!" before calling on his magical abilities and summoning a (partially illusionary) ball of fire to scorch the whole lot of the spiders.

[Rebonack]

Booooored

Time to make things happen.

[Generic Street - Residential District]

Something went awry.

The car melts as a coherent stream of radiation peels through it, vaporizing the occupants' flesh and burning their bones.

Something went terribly awry.

Another horrible crustacean-like monstrosity bursts through the wall of the burning home even as the roof falls in. Bits of blazing debris cling to its carapace but cause little in the way of harm. The torrential rain seems unwilling to quench the fire as it hisses into steam.

Something went so terribly awry.

And...

Now it's raining cupcakes? Mostly vanilla, but a few chocolate ones as well. The two nine-foot tall aberrant decapods don't seem too interested in the pastries. More interested in destroying anything more complicated than a rock.

[Arkham Street - Ward Cemetery]

Raril has burninated all the spiders! Thankfully they're much less durable than people. Otherwise this probably would have been fairly awful.

Zee blinks, her face blackened by the fireball.

Dead spiders lay on the floor smoldering and crackling.

[Halae]

Generic Street

Eric's brow furrows as the crazy happens, and he looks at Grace. "I think we should probably go. The nexus may ward away death, but I don't think it'll get rid of it completely if we do something stupid." remarkably, he seems a lot calmer than he did regarding Hansel. maybe because Hansel seemed more real to him than these monsters and the cupcakes falling from the sky?

[VampireRot]

[Generic Street - Residential District]

"Come now. Is this barbaric property-destruction really necessary? You both look like upstanding and smart giant crabs, surely you could make a living doing something other than destroying the city? I'm appealing directly t- ooh, chocolate."

Eig'Quzi, an eleven-foot tall purple carapace-d monster wearing a fancy tuxedo, stops berating the two giant enemy crabs to gobble down a cupcake that fell onto its top hat. After the purple people eater is finished with the delicious dessert, it'll look back up at the horrors and adjust its monocle with a claw-like hand.

"Well? Are you going to stop your temper tantrum or am I going to have to teach you a lesson in manners?"

[KerfuffleMach2]

[Generic Street - Residential District]

Hey, need help with that teaching?

The voice comes from a female standing on a roof nearby. She has pure yellow eyes and dark blue hair. She also has a tail. And is covered in blue fur.

Talia smirks a little. Haven't had a good fight in a while.

[Rebonack]

[Generic Street - Residential District]

Eric really should be careful. Especially since a vanilla cup cake is hurtling toward his head from the heavens! Might get frosting in his hair. Which... the heavy rain that abruptly started up might wash away.

Or maybe it isn't raining a few blocks his way. Weather can be very spotty at times in the Nexus.

That home continues to blaze. And out of the blaze stumbles a humanoid figure. They happen to be laughing rather madly and clutching something to their chest, probably due to rather rampant insanity. A few stumbling steps later the immolating person slumps to the ground in a shallow puddle of muddy water.

When the Purple People Eater speaks up one of the two Chaos Horrors turns its head toward him, a pair of massive feathery antenna waving at the air in his general direction. Aside from the limbs growing out of where one would expect to find eyes the beast has no sensory organs to speak of.

But apparently that's all it needs.

The Horror levels a jagged pincer at Eig and sends a searing stream of radiation lancing toward him. Hot enough to ionize the air around it. Looks and sounds rather akin to a lightning bolt.

kraKOOM!

The other monster smashes one of its spear-like pincers into an oncoming car, the force of the impact sending the vehicle tumbling into the air in flagrant violation of the laws of motion.

HOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNK*crash!*

[VampireRot]

[Generic Street - Residential District]

"Fight? What? No! I was merely going to instruct them on the basics of politeness, such as saying "please" and "thank you" and not stepping on small children purposefully!"

Eig'Quzi's frantic explanation is then interrupted by the radiation beam. The bulky monster really can't dodge, so it simply howls in pain and endures. Unfortunately, its tuxedo and hat are vaporized, though the magical clothes will reform later. The now-nude (but not indecent, as it's more bug-like than humanoid) purple people eater inspects its radiantly glowing carapace with disgust. The void beast doesn't seem quite as vaporized as it should be, though.

"Now that. Was extremely rude."

Eig'Quzi glowers at the offending Chaos Horror and stomps one of its feet. The ground rumbles a little, and five sharp purple spikes shoot up from the ground beneath one of the crab-thing's limbs. They aim to impale and raise up the appendage and put the Horror off balance.