[Nexus] Inside 36

[UncleWolf]

Current events:
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Rules and locations in the spoiler. Please Spoiler any fan service written in this thread. Thank you.

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All standard forum rules apply here, as do the godmodding rules generally agreed upon on this sub-forum.

Locations
PM Wolfbane to have a new location placed in this registry.

A note on the 'Zones'.

The Blue Zone is the area of the greatest Imperial presence, housing the Imperial Army and ISF HQs and boasting the greatest concentration of Imperial influence. Physically, it's located in the center of the city.

The Yellow Zone has some Imperial influence, but it's not as significant, so crime rates there are higher than in the Blue Zone. The Yellow Zone is physically located at the outskirts of the city, with the justification of having to keep an eye on what's coming in and out of the city, and thus the main concentrations of Imperial influence in the Yellow Zone are at the docks and city gates.

The Null Zone is around midway between Yellow and Blue, and lacks much Imperial influence, with a similar patrolling situation to the Red Zone below. Despite this, it's largely a quiet environment.

Perhaps it is because the Red Zone, a blemish on the otherwise neatly-organized Zones, is essentially a fancy term for the crime infested slums? Who knows! The Red Zone is essentially just the slums, independent of the neat physical arrangement of the others, though DC imagines it's around Null/Yellow, physically, since it wouldn't make all that much sense for the Red Zone to be right on top of ISF HQ of all things. The Empire's influence here is light, but not completely nonexistent, with occasional speeder patrols.

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Imperial Bases

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Acro-Imperial Army HQ (Blue Zone)

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The Imperial Army HQ itself is a massive dome-like structure in the center of the city. The building itself is fairly standard at ground level, but going up from there is when you reach the dome. The dome is the focus of the visible structure, and is capable of housing one of the Empire's oh-so-loved airships.

The main building itself also has underground portions, as it's not like the rest could contain everything a building of this purpose needs.

This building, however, has concrete walls surrounding it at a sizable distance in a square shape, with gates in the center of each segment. The walls have rapid-fire laser turrets mounted at corners and on each side of each gate. Interlopers beware!

ISF HQ (Blue Zone)

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Go here!

Acro-Imperial Civil Government Complex (Blue Zone)

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The main center of the Empire's central government is an odd complex composed of five main structures.

The more notable four are a group of futuristic, utopian-looking towers arranged in the shape of a Y, with the tower taking the position of the center joint being significantly taller than the outer three towers, by about 40% of the other towers' height. This is harder to make out than it seems, however, due to the odd nature of the fifth 'structure'.

This one is actually surrounding the lower two-thirds of the outer three towers, with all four appearing to be coming out of it from the outside. It resembles an odd set of walls, following along the Y-arrangement of the towers. These 'walls' are in the shape of a highly irregular hexagon. The top side, with the two points of the top of the Y within, is fairly long, with two shorter segments heading downward at an obtuse angle from them. These are very short, and two more long wall segments soon move downward and inwards, speaking from a bird's-eye view, ending a bit after the edge of the bottom tower in the Y-arrangement. A final long segment links these two ends.

However, the 'walls' are not merely walls, but actually enclose the area around the towers, with their own roof. The four towers seemingly erupt out of the top of this structure, while they do actually have the rest of them beneath it. The wall-like structure is built around the towers, linking to them at certain points. The structure is not merely that shape described previously with a flat roof, however-the walls reach to a certain point, then slant upwards and inwards, again from a bird's-eye view. The upward slant stops at the edges of the outer three towers, and from there now forms a flat area, this flatness marred only by the towers.

There are three main entrances to the odd complex, each at the center and bottom of one of the longer wall segments. These are oversized sliding doors, essentially. Each is a long, dull metal slab in appearance. When the entrance is open, these are drawn upward into the wall-structure, and when closed, they drop back down like blast doors.

The complex is guarded by normal military and ISF elements alike, landspeeders patrolling the ground outside with the silent gunships patrolling the skies above. The main soldiers guarding the area are ISF troopers, as they are more specialized for urban warfare. Several rapid-fire pulse laser turrets (laser chaingun turrets, essentially) are mounted on the slanted portions of the outer structure, with a single heavy turbolaser turret mounted at the upper central area of each slanted area of the longer sides.

There are two enclosed bridge-like structures linking each of the three outer towers to the main building. The lower one is within the wall-esque structure, and the upper one is visible from the outside, linking the upper areas of the outer towers with the main, central one. To avoid confusion, there are two of these per outer tower, putting the total count at six.

Imperial Docks (Yellow Zone)

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These rather typical drydocks hold the Imperial naval fleet. Due to its relative lack of size, the Imperial Navy falls under the Imperial Army's authority.

Evolution Industries Headquarters + Factories (Player: Darkcomet, Blue Zone)

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The headquarters of the company known as Evolution Electronics and Power is a fairly standard-looking modern-day tower in appearance, not quite reaching the level of skyscraper.

The company owns a large factory nearby, used in production of its MACE units, and potentially other products, should it be desired.

The company also possesses a number of other factories around the city, used for production of weaponry and other military materiel.

Retail outlets for Evolution's products are scattered around the city.

Trader's Trove (Player: EleventhHour, Null Zone)

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A large, crashed starship lies in what was once a park, now ruined by its crash.

The ship is very strange to most, resembling Gothic architecture, particularly cathedrals, in appearance, while at the same time being a spacefaring craft. Or, rather, a former spacefaring craft.

The ship remains in use, however. The owner is a Rogue Trader, and is currently using the ship as a shop.

Azik's Enchantments(Player: Harnel, Yellow Zone)

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Those in the area will hear a rumbling as the Nexus begins pulling in something larger than just a single person. Reality bends, and the shape of portal opens above a certain street corner. For a sickening moment, nothing happens, but then things start coming out of the portal - all of them are bricks, building up finally to a door and a roof, with tiny windows built in. There's even a large chimney sticking out of the center of this strange, conical building that begins puffing rainbow smoke almost immediately.

A creature steps out the front door, though many wouldn't consider it a creature - He is a warforged, a living golem. Covered in what appears to be adamantine plates, he looks up and down the street, his longcoat catching in the breeze. as it flutters, one can see a multitude of wands, schema, and scrolls all attached to several belts around his waist and upper legs. On his eyes he wears a pair of blue tinted shades, despite his lack of ears, and the metal orbs that serve as his eyes glow green behind these spectacles. He looks up and down the street. He doesn't seem to be particularly disturbed by the change in location, but he does take the time to call out, in a metallic voice:

"Azik's Enchantments is open for business! Come find a potion, a wand, a scroll to fit any need! We have spellbooks for beginners and experts! Weapons of all shapes and sizes, and armor unlike anything you've ever seen! Come find what you're looking for here!"

And then he heads back inside. So much work, so little time. Inside is as strange as outside, with magic trinkets lining the walls on shelves, but all behind the counter, to keep any stupid kid with the idea to steal something from doing so. You can find just about anything magical here, and that which you can't find, Azik the Warforged can make within a more than reasonable timeframe.

Erin's Emporium (Player: The Bushranger, Yellow Zone)

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Construction Gnomes have been hard at work renovating a small store along one of the various merchantile roads. Well, it was small. Now it's bigger on the inside.

And filled with every sort of weaponry imaginable, from across the multiverse. From blaster carbines to P-90s, surface-to-air missiles to ballistas, zats to nunchucks, they're all here.

Is that a siege crossbow sitting in the corner?

The Misspelled Cemetary (Null Zone)

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It's the rain that makes for the perfect atmosphere.

Since the party left the well lit cobbles lanes of the Market Streets the sky has opened up upon our intrepid band of adventurers with a vengeance. The wind howls through barren trees as the rain descends in sheets. The heavens are split by a ribbon of lightning and a roar of thunder.

A massive cast iron gate surrounds this place of once hallowed ground. Yes, hallowed once but no longer. The earth appears dead. Rotten. A phosphorescent green fog creeping along the ground. Misshapen fungus and molds clinging to crumbling monuments. Corpses exposed on the surface, half-eaten with decay.

The gate creeks open of its own accord as the party nears.

And above the gate, in rusted iron letters, reads:

The Misspelled Cemetary

The Misspelled Cemetary is largely ruins now, due to the battle against Ebon Mirror, an evil Exalt that used it as his base of operations.

MagMart (Player: Lord Magtok, Blue Zone)

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An absurd mash-up of K-Mart, Wall-Mart, Target, and every other vile retail chain, MagMart is staffed by an unswervingly loyal Magbots, lobotomized talking cats that are too brain-dead to know any better, several voodoo spirits, and a pickle jar that everyone insists is a sentient being that only communes with those who truly believe in it.

Here you can find everything from curtains to carpets, macaroni to monkeys on motorcycles, groceries to zombies. The staff is always happy to help (or else), and if you aren't entirely satisfied with your shopping experience, you can pay a small fee to watch the MagMart employee of your choosing get fired out the MagMart complimentary employee morale cannon.

Pontius' Custom Constructs (Player: Earl of Purple, Null Zone)

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The caravan of 6 wagons (I never said 3! Well, I did, but still.) arrives at a warehouse, previously for sale. The gnomes lead the golems and other constructs inside, and get to work. The warehouse has an open yard at the main entrance, and several golems, like crude figures of worked stone or wood, stand in the yard. A gnome wearing an apron over smart-yet-practical artesan's clothes and puts a sign up.


Pontius's Custom Constructs
Golems of Any Material* at Unbelievably Low Prices!!!**
You Won't Find a Golem, Gargoyle, Guardian or Homonculus Cheaper!!***
Come Now and Buy 1 Get 1 Full Price!!!****



*Flesh has an additional charge. **Define 'low'. ***Except at our competitors. ****Terms and conditions apply.

Sanctuary Fortress of Zoemaytare (Player: Rebonack, Red Zone)

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Like so many other prominent buildings in Town, or not so prominent buildings for that matter, this place seemed to pop up out of nowhere over night.

Buildings are like mushrooms in Town. Probably spread via spores, too.

Regardless, here it is. A rather sizable campus marble hewn from the mountains some distance away. Carved and hauled here near the edge of the slums where they were no doubt assembled. Though... no one can quite place a finger on when this happened.

Though the buildings aren't of only cold hard stone, no. There are timbers as well. Not what one might expect, however. They seem almost organic. As though they had grown into place rather than being hewn.

Oddness aside, the temple is arranged in a rather interesting fashion. Several concentric wall and courtyards ending in a central temple.

The outer wall is lower than the rest, each tier of the temple built onto higher ground like a wedding cake. Each wall is topped with a roof supported on the inside by pillars, creating a sheltered walkway. The exact use of these porches depends on the section of the temple one happens to be in.

Anyone is allowed entry through the first wall and into the first court, the Court of Meeting. Beyond the second wall only worshipers of Zoemaytare are allowed admittance to the second court, the Court of the Blessed. Beyond the third wall only the priests are allowed, where they carry out holy rituals within the temple itself.

The Court of Meeting is dedicated to service of those the worshipers of Zoemaytare dwell among. Food is prepared for the hungry here and given out without expectation of recompense. Those without a place to lay their head are allowed to sleep within the porch. The grounds beyond the porch are devoted to a wondrous garden boasting vibrancy and spectacular color. This are is always comfortably warm and brimming with life. Wounds heal faster as the body is refreshed. Undead creatures will find that remaining here is decidedly uncomfortable.

The sky above the temple seems to be perpetually clear, filled with pleasant sunlight in the day and cloaked with gossamer stars at night. Benches are set up here and there, under trees with hanging branches and above fragrant shrubbery. A lively stream flows endlessly in a circuit about the Court, spilling into several larger pools and meandering up a small outcrop of stone before cascading back down the other side.

This section of the temple is tended by members of the faith. Not priests, though devote. They can be found tending the garden and serving warm food. When in service to the temple these devotees wear a white linen ephod bearing the symbol of a willow tree, ornately rendered in blue thread. They'll be more than happen to answer any questions. Priests tend to have stricter ceremonial garb, including a blue tunic and white robe in addition to the ephod.

Welcome, traveler. May you be more blessed when you leave than when you came.

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New information that isn't readily noticeable at first glance at the temple will be added here.

The temple grounds are protected by a dampening field that blocks unauthorized teleporation and dimensional shifting. The place is something of a fortress after all. Being able to pop in and out at will would defeat the purpose.

Zoemaytare isn't a god of (fill in the black) but rather the patron and protector of her people. As such, her domain, if she even has one, is over all that her people do. The people in question are collectively known as the Zoeos, and this particular temple is their first major venture into Town. At present their stated goal is to set up trade relations and aid the city. This is ministered through the temple on account of the Zoeos government being a theocracy.

It just so happens that there's a dungeon under the temple, though the entrance to it is well hidden.

NPCs thus far:

Potentate of the temple: the head priest and administrator. He has yet to be seen 'on screen' though he has been referred to.

Regent Zachius: And elderly human with a coppery complexion and deep-set wrinkles, the sort of face one expects of a person who has spent a great deal of time in the sun smiling. He's a kind old fellow who is in charge of the Court of Meeting.

Regent Stephen: A younger human who smells rather distinctly of wolf. He's in charge of the dungeons of the temple and seems to be a rather caring and compassionate fellow. It's his job to bring the cases of prisoners before the Potentate.

Regent Thadeus: One of the priests who aids in minor upkeep in the temple proper. He usually isn't seen outside the temple and since his position doesn't put him in much contact with the common folk he tends to be somewhat aloof and judgmental. Also happens to be an elf. Those snooty elves!

Bognus Thundershield: a lay dwarf that operates the temple's teleporter, primarily from Trog's. Though people can be 'ported in from elsewhere as well. While it isn't commonly known, this device can send people over rather long distances, though it's somewhat inaccurate when doing so. Bognus is a bit gruff, though generally good natured. He speaks with a thick Scottish Dwarven accent.

Trollfinger, Ironpick & Greencheek, Mining & Engineering (Player: Morty, Blue Zone)

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A run-down building near Trog's Tavern was bought by three goblin enterpreneurs with a large crew and now houses their mining and engineering company. Everyone who needs something dug, built, repaired or blown up is welcome.

The Temple of Dalachrech (Player: Earl of Purple, Null Zone)

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The first room entered is a foyer. On the walls are red drapes with silver, two-tailed scorpions embroidered on to them, and next to the door is an ornate font. The granite font stands about waist height, and is a plinth with a bowl of unholy water. Winding around the font are carved centipedes. A door away from this chamber leads to the main prayer hall. This room also has drapes with the two-tailed scorpion device on the walls, and a red velvet carpet flanked by wooden pews leads to an altar at the far end. The altar is covered with red velvet, with a gold statue and red candles placed upon it. The statue depicts a demon with a centipede's body, a scorpion's tail with spinnerets next to the sting, a stag beetle's head and the claws of a praying mantis.

This is a hidden location in the Null Zone. Please PM Earl of Purple if you wish to interract there.

Warwick Works (player: happyturtle, Yellow Zone)

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In the industrial area, a building is rented and has a new sign put out front.

W
Warwick Works

The building itself consists of a small office area in front and warehouses in back. There is no indication of what sort of business this is, but a certain cyborg with a satellite might recognize the logo and name.

Eternal Library - Across from Trog's (player-Eternal Drifter)

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The First floor has bookshelf after bookshelf of various books, and a few tables in three corners, and a checkout counter. There is a fireplace leading upwards at the side opposite the door. All the books are stamped "Property of the Eternal Library," and have security devices on them. There is a security bar at the entrance of the building. In one corner is a stairwell leading upwards.

The Second Floor is a hallway with three rooms. One of them is a bathroom for public use. The other two are rooms with chairs and a large table in each, mainly for meetings. The larger of the two meeting rooms, "Space," has a fireplace.

The Third Floor is Drifter's personal residence, with all the necisities. This floor is private, officially only open to Drifter and those who have recived and invitation from him.

Drifter (played by Eternal Drifter) is the librarian. You are free to check out books as you wish, but be sure to actually have the books checked out before you leave... those who forget quite often find themselves at the receiving end of Drifter's glare and Magic Missile spell.

Emergency Bunkers

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Eight bunker-like structures in a ring-like arrangement at about the midpoint between the walls (or the docks) and the center of the city have been completed.

The interior of each is rather dull, rather befitting a bunker, but there are underground areas beneath the visible bunkers. These are similarly dull and military-styled, but they also act as hospitals.

These are mostly designed with emergencies such as shelling in mind, and are usually closed.

Hastings and Sons Mortuary (player: Kid Kris, Yellow Zone)

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Near one of the older parts of the city sits a large and somewhat dour building of brick and mortar, built in the traditional sense, with a metal plaque by the door that reads (predictably enough):

Hastings and Sons
MORTUARY
For the preparation of the dearly departed.

And indeed, should one go in one should find all the trappings of a conventional mortuary, including several large visitation rooms, run by this guy:

Though of course, usually without the zombie there.
In recent times however, the true business of the resident Mortician has branched into a more heretical bent, offering certain services to the living impaired (more commonly known as the foul Undead). These start at simple healings and flesh grafts (the flesh occasionally obtained 'legitimately', when a body comes in for cremation and the Mortician gives them an urn full of wood-ash, but usually corpses are obtained through donations from customers or good old fashioned grave-robbing). But services can also range into body part replacement and augmentation for the undead who wishes his creator had seen fight to give him a giant lobster claw or retractable venomous spines, or even full body/flesh reconstruction for the self-conscious lich (or lich in disguise, though making your new flesh look like someone else usually costs extra) or the zombie in his golden years. These customers usually come in through the back door, where there is a plaque listing the full list of services. Though of course some are brazen enough to come through the front door anyway.

((PM if you wish to interact with the Mortician, as Kid Kris may not always check the thread.))

Emergency Clinic (Null/Yellow Zone border)

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Funded by the empire, this clinic provides the care you would get in a modern emergency room. This is the place to come for getting bones set, wounds stitched, normal illnesses treated, etc. They can't handle magical ailments, nor do they provide magical healing, and the further a being is from being human, the less likely they are to have the necessary expertise to help.

This is an NPC facility. Please godmod your own care.

Witch Which's Wish Shop (Yellow Zone, Player: Haruki-kun)

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Welcome. If you have stepped into this store, it is because you have a wish.

The store is big, ancient and beautiful. It has a large garden with colorful flowers, a pond with fish and running water, and chirping birds. This is the outside of the store. The inside, however, is, to put it simply, gloomy. There’s burning candles and incense everywhere. From the hall where you enter you are led off into a side room with a low table and cushions around it. A tall, masked and unnamed stranger brings tea and snacks to the guests. The Witch sits opposite and rarely ever moves.

RULES (OOC):

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This is a Wish shop. Your character will only enter this shop if he has a wish. Whether the wish is granted or not is a different issue.
Witch Which is in charge of the shop and will grant wishes to everyone who asks, regardless of intent or alignment, as long as the appropriate price is paid. Under certain conditions:

Condition one: Witch Which will not haggle. She couldn’t lower a price or overcharge even if she wanted to. A balance must be kept in order for the wish to be granted.

Condition two: When a Wish directly affects another player’s character in a way that would be considered godmodding, the other player must agree first.

Condition three: The Witch may not reject any wish unless the price is too high to be paid. Wishes to take a life or to destroy the world, for example, carry a price higher than anyone can pay. ANYONE.

Condition Four: The Witch will never engage in battle. Be glad. The Witch is the very definition of True Neutral.

Condition Five: The store is not hard to access; in fact, there’s a big sign outside and everything. However, the store’s grounds exist in a special separate dimension, protecting it from anything that could destroy it, up to and including plot.

Condition Six: Haruki-kun reserves the right to alter the conditions if he feels they’re causing problems such as godmodding or similar issues.

(Haruki-Kun wishes for a PM to be sent to him upon someone entering the shop so he knows about it.)

NOIR (Red Zone, Players: Moff Chumley and Project_Mayhem)

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In a rather seedy building, off of a rather seedy hall, is a door. It's not a pretty door, but it does its job admirably. It's got an eye painted on it, rather sloppily. Under the eye, is the word "NOIR". Inside, is a small, cramped, rather dusty reception room. Coffee machine, secretary's desk, several chairs, the like. The desk looks like it's never been touched; the coffee machine, like it's survived several wars. Three doors lead off the room: Raz's office, Ilyena's office, and a closet. Word to the wise: don't open that door.

Between the two of them, Ilyena and Raz are capable of everything from fairly standard PI fair to more complicated contracts using Ilyena's ability to write spells.

Registry Office(Player: Happyturtle)

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Operated by the new Inside government, this office keeps a record of births, deaths, undeaths, redeaths, resurrections, adoptions, marriages, divorces, organizational affiliations, existence of alter-egos, or any other personal information that citizens choose to enter into the records. Registration is not compulsory, but citizens that choose to take advantage of it may find it helpful for documentation and legal purposes.

If you enter the office, you will be assisted by Norma, a giant flea who wears a propeller beanie cap. She is very friendly and gossipy and will ask all sorts of awkward questions about mammalian family life. Norma is an NPC and can be played by anyone.

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((There is no OOC log. Players will have to indicate whether their character's information is in the logs if it comes up))

Needle and Thread (Blue Zone, Player: Artemis97)

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On one side of a wide cobblestoned street is a small shop. The sign hanging over the door depicts a simple spool of thread, pierced by a needle. No words were included, as a courtesy to those who could not read, nor were they needed. It was clear from the merchandise displayed in the two large windows on either side of the door that this was a clothing boutique. The right side displayed the latest in women's fashions, dresses and skirts in unique designs, all detailed by hand with beading and embroidery. The left window showed men's clothing, from a beautifully tailored three piece suit, cut from expensive fabrics, to the very best in adventuring style, rugged and sturdy, clearly built to last.

Inside, racks and manequins display more clothing, split down the middle between men's and women's fashions. The back wall held rolls of fabric, some plain, others with obviously magical properties. A large, three-sided mirror sits in the back corner, next to a small changing stall. On the other side is a small counter holding a cash register, behind that the door that led to a small workroom.

The Needle and Thread is a clothing shop specializing in custom tailoring and specialty designs. It is owned and operated by Lillith Rock, and the kindly fiendish woman can usually be found behind the counter, or working on orders in the back workroom.

On the City's government

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As the capital city of the Acronymian Empire, Inside is subject to its laws. They largely resemble modern-day laws*, with the exception of weapons control and small-scale vigilantism, as those would be extremely difficult to enforce. Vigilantism, however, once again becomes problematic when it causes more problems than it fixes.

Slavery is illegal in the Empire. This would be treated as a given (see above), but it has come up many times.

The Empire has also imposed a light tax on arms sales and a light-moderate one on imports. The latter grants much more funding than it normally would, thanks to the Empire's location in a nexus of realities-many goods, mundane and exotic, often pour into Inside and the greater Empire.

*Wolfbane may experiment with punishments, though, as he's aware that being unable to play a criminal character because they're stuck in jail for a realistic amount of time is no fun.

On Apocalypses

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When determining apocalyptic effects that threaten Inside, please keep the bottom of this post in mind.

The title is a misnomer, of course. No doubt the moniker of this place was settled on after a brief conversation that started with, 'Wouldn't it be funny if...?'. But now the name has stuck.

But what is this place, you ask?

The city of Inside is the capital city of the nation known as the Acronymian Empire. The city was once the center of the Nexus, the dimensional anomaly that acts as a crossroads between any number of radically different worlds. Now, it is no longer its center, but still shows its influence.

Thanks to the Nexus, the cityscape is high in variety of architectural styles, varying tech levels factoring in to the myriad designs. Though the city is now relatively stable, it's still possible to find buildings of any number of architectural styles within it. Shopping malls lie beside medieval architecture, and futuristic towers rise alongside old cathedrals.

The city is surrounded by defensive walls, with an artificially and accidentally created moat outside the walls. A gap in the walls and a bridge allow for entrance into the city proper, the main gate opening up to welcome newcomers Inside.

[Halae]

[Streets]

At the moment, her, particularly a young east Asian woman with long blue hair in a bright pink kimono.

Arlem turns towards Vincent and nods. "Hello. You know it's the red 'o' button to talk where I'm from. I'm looking for Calublufiok. Can you help?"

Arlem's thoughts go something like this: "Ooh, a game-like person. Like the Great Ones from home sometimes were. Seems a bit new, though. And where's his Party?"
"Anyway, how about this next kid on the street? Any -"
"Oh, a real psychic! a real psychic!a real psychic!a real psychica real psychicpsychicpsychicpsychic"
"Ow. Echoes. Right. I knew I learned about those shields for a reason. Silly Arlem. Need to be more careful. What if that had been an attack?"
After removing from her temple a hand raised up in pain, she grins at Alex and waves. "Heya heya. What're you looking for in our heads?"

[Streets]

Eric doesn't seem to have heard her. He just goes, "Ow, damn, what the hell was that?"

The A button works about as well on Eric as it does on Arlem. At the moment, he's a bit distracted by reeling in pain

[ThirdEmperor]

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[Warehouse 6]

Merrak rolls his eyes, before jumping into action when he senses the vines in advance with his super-senses. The drow leaps up and quickly swipes at the vine going for his neck with his longsword. He lands lightly on his feet and shifts backward with one, putting his right foot behind his left and away from the vines in a balanced stance. He should retain his balance long enough to hopefully slice at one or both of the other vines if he succeeds with the one going for his neck.

[Pie Shop]

Boris chuckles. "If it were worthwile, then we probably should not have killed it. I hear that's bad for science." When Reinholdt makes his whispering, the Russian looks confused. "I did not know they made pies like that." Nevertheless, he heads over to the pig brain pie he was told to pick, assuming they're clearly labeled. He takes a very cautious bite.

[Pie Shop]

Well Zefir first tries to look what kind of pie it is, but either way he will take a bite of it.

Pie Shop

Zefir will find the pie he took is labelled... Ostrich and Squid? Ick.

Taking a bite out of it doesn't cause an undead squid-bird to leap out and attempt to devour his brains, but unless Zefir is resistant to magic, he might find himself suddenly growing taller. And feathers. He might be a bit more concerned about the feathers than the getting taller part.

Boris has better luck, and nothing bad happens to him when he eats a piece of the pie marked Mozzeralla and Pig Brain. Well, he might accidentally chip a tooth on the key inside the piece of pie he just ate, but that's it.

Warehouse #6

The vine reaching for Merrak's neck and one of the ones aiming for his legs are cut in twain, but six more vines erupt from the dirt floor and dart at him. Poison ivy vines no less.

[Devixer]

[Pie Shop]

Boris luckily doesn't chip his tooth, but he does bite down on the key. Curious, he takes that key out of his mouth, studying it as he walks out of the shop. Zefir getting an extreme case of chicken pox doesn't get a glance from him.

[Azik's Enchantments]

Meanwhile, the sniper's plotclone has returned to the artifact shop. He almost looks expectant as he looks for Azik, but he would never admit that.

[VampireRot]

[Warehouse 6]

Oh no! Poison ivy! It's... well, not very effective at all. The vines aren't the strongest of vines, and the "poison" part is an allergic reaction. Which drow, being magical elves, don't get. Or at least, that's how I'm playing it.

Merrak slashes at the nearest vine or two and steps back. He also stretches out his other arm to be snagged by a vine, and then suddenly jerks it back to try to tear the plant away just with his regular strength.

[UncleWolf]

Streets

As far back as It remembers, there had been no big explosion, or a divine lungful of dwarven breath to give a little clay world life, there was just The Beginning. Nothingness one moment, and then It and the Multiverse next. At first, It hadn't been very powerful, just the boiling of emotions given life, barely sentient in all it's former "Glory". In a way, It missed those times. There had been not thought towards consequences, no thought about what had happened or going to happen. Things merely acted. There'd been no sorrow, no malice, just the...pure need for survival. Over time however, It grew as the life in the multitude of universes had, and so Its responsibilities increased with Its sentience.

Eventually, It became worshiped.

Only a few of the Universes ever figured out Its presence in their realm, and even then, the still simple nature of their inhabitants never really knew what It was, just that there was Something among them that could help or hurt them. Back then, It had been a rather...quick entity. Something that was quick to appease or anger. In time, those who actively worshiped It had made It stronger, much stronger, and something less primordial, capable of true in-depth thought. Capable of Gifts and similar Miracles. In one Universe, It favored those who worshiped It more than any other place, granting them strength, power, abilities that they'd call "magic". It granted them without thought, believing it to be an acceptable trade for their faith, their emotions. A trade for...feeding It, it could be said.

All too quickly, It learned Its mistake. No sooner had he granted these gifts than those who worshiped him began to slaughter each other without abandon. In anger, It stripped them of their powers at once. It started to chastise them, but...then they cried out, begged for It to resurrect their loved ones like It did before, all the while begging for forgiveness. For the first time, It felt conflicted. In the end however, It did the only acceptable thing It could think of.

It erased their memories of Its existence, and left their 'Verse.

That had been Its first real lesson in limitations. There had been many others, all learned the hard and sad way. In the end of it though, It had no restrictions on Itself other than self-imposed ones, ones that It could break at any time.

As much as It learned hard lessons, It also learned good ones. Such as how It could "feed" off of people who didn't worship it, or any of it's Ideals. It fed off of their more basic emotions. With how advanced some of the races in the Multiverse grew, It could taste all sorts of new ones. Wrath, Lust, Greed, Joy...each one was powerful and each one tasted wonderful and different to Its...palette.

Looking around at this place, this Crossroads, It could taste each one simply by plucking at the air. It could see everything here, feel the "power" coming from all the Multiverse It was in, and even better, the ones It didn't know existed!

Even here though, It followed Its code, "aiding" most people without them knowing It was even here. With just a "thought", a dozen seemingly miniscule things across the City of Inside occurred at Its behest.

A little girl, riding on her pink bicycle, hits a small bump in the street and a small chip of asphalt punctures her tire, causing her to swerve and crash badly. She begins to cry at her broken ankle as her parents come running. It ignores her cries, knowing that without full use of her leg as she grows, she'll work her mind instead. Maybe become a great philosopher or powerful mage. It knew the real answer already, knowing what would happen to the girl as she grew, her entire life in fact. Such knowledge was unbarred from It, except by Its own wish.

Four blocks away, It allows Itself a slight smile at the knowledge that there'd be a surprise for It in the future to come. Without missing a beat, It continues on Its walk, plucking little bits of emotions out of the mind and soul of people, returning the favor with little bits of fortune, good and bad, to let them make the most of themselves.

Unlike before however, Wolfy would let them do it without them knowing of his presence.

[Darkcomet]

Hotel - Cirrus Street

The woman smirks and opens up a side room. "This is where I keep my armor. If something fits, take it if you want to." She says before stepping in. Inside, there are several different suits of armor. Most of it appears to be some sort of cloth, disguised as anything from fancy dresses, to tattered trench coats. There's a set of bright red robes, heavily gilded in gold and very ornate, and finally, there's a suit of what looks to be light power armor, also red and covered in lines of text, holy prayers to help protect the wearer. "The robes are mine however, and the dresses likely won't fit you." She says with a sly smile.

Trent stares at the selection for a while before turning to Zjen. "...You're sure? I can just take anything besides those?" He glances back at the power armor.

Of course he'd instantly go for that.

[Halae]

[Azik's Enchantments]

Meanwhile, the sniper's plotclone has returned to the artifact shop. He almost looks expectant as he looks for Azik, but he would never admit that.

((Sorry I missed this - Forgot to Subscribe to the new thread))

[Azik's Enchantments]

Azik is standing behind the desk. He hasn't looked up at Boris - he's working on some kind of box, carving runes into it and has his back turned to the door. The sniper may need to get his attention.

[Zefir]

Pie Shop

Well yes Zefir will grow first and get some feathers.

"Oh man I think I should leave this it sucks really."

Well at all he really doesn't like what happened since now and without any other hints he won't go, but he starts going to place something big in the middlw of the building.

"Hey guys. I think you better go now, if you don't want to die with this place."

he will go plant enougth explosives to blew up the bulding.

[Recaiden]

[Streets]

Eric doesn't seem to have heard her. He just goes, "Ow, damn, what the hell was that?"

The A button works about as well on Eric as it does on Arlem. At the moment, he's a bit distracted by reeling in pain

"You tried to read my mind at the same time that I tried to read your mind. So you got my thoughts, and my thoughts of your thoughts, and your thoughts of my thoughts of your thoughts, on to infinity until our concentration broke. And it hurts a fair bit."
Arlem goes to lay a hand on Eric's shoulder and the pain in his head should lessen.
"Luckily for me, though not for you, I've had this happen before. My whole family's got the skill. So I'm rather more practiced and skilled than you appear to be; I'm also older than I look, so don't feel bad that you're new to this. And the will pass, sooner or later."

[Reinholdt]

[Street]

Vincent peers at the two psychics. Peeeeers.
Eh.
Maybe they'll become party members later after Eric tutors under Arlem and then Arlem dies in some horrible, vengeful filling fashion.

He walks off to other people.

A!

[Pie Shop]

Both Reinholdt and Boris left the Pie shop already. So I guess Zefir can blow it up...

[Halae]

[Streets]

Oh no! They bored Vincent!

... not that Eric really cares. He barely even noticed Vincent.

Eric obviously likes the fact that his headache goes away partly. "Sorry about that. I just found out I can do this, and I've sort of been playing around with it."

It's actually fairly impressive how strong he is with Telepathy. If he just found out and doesn't have any training, it's doubtful he should've been able to read so many minds without much problem. Well, certainly his other psychic abilities were advancing that quickly - he could still barely telekinetically lift more than a few pounds.

[Beans]

[Streets Outside Trog's]
Thaunta and Krys come out.
Just need to find somewhere...

[Devixer]

((Sorry I missed this - Forgot to Subscribe to the new thread))

[Azik's Enchantments]

Azik is standing behind the desk. He hasn't looked up at Boris - he's working on some kind of box, carving runes into it and has his back turned to the door. The sniper may need to get his attention.

((It's cool. I had to deadtime anyway.))

Boris looks at the box with some curiosity, but eventually tries to get Azik's attention. "Ah, hello?"

[Halae]

[Azik's Enchantments]

Azik looks up from his work, looking at Boris, "Ah, I apologize sir - I get a bit caught up in what I'm doing, sometimes. What can I help you with?"

[Devixer]

[Aizk's Enchantment]

Boris grins. He understood that first statement all too well. "I came here a few days ago, asking about getting to and from my world."

[Halae]

[Azik's Enchantments]

"Ah yes, the world we didn't know if it had any magic to it, correct?" Azik smiles, "Just let me find it..."

he reaches below the counter, digging around for a moment, when he suddenly pulls up two things. The first is a three foot wide circular mirror. The second... appears to be a marble? "First, we're going to do a bit of testing, to see if you'll be able to make a return trip. Please, step closer - this'll only work properly if you're touching the scrying mirror, so that we can get a link to your world." Azik waits for Boris to place his hands on the sides of the steel mirror, so that he can begin work

[Devixer]

[Azik's Enchantments]

"Yeah, that's right." Boris looks at the two items with interest. When Azik asks him to step closer and touch the mirror, he nods and complies, placing his hands on the steel mirror's sides.

[Halae]

[Azik's Enchantments]

Over the next few moments, the entire mirror will turn a deep blue. It'll take a while, but as long as Boris doesn't remove his hands from the mirror, it will eventually start showing red through the blue. The more magic that's in Boris' world, the more red dots will appear. If there is none, the dots won't even start showing up.

[Devixer]

[Azik's Enchantments]

Boris watches as the mirror turns very blue. After a few seconds, quite a few red dots will pop up, although rather slowly, even for the mirror's intended effect.

"That's a good thing, right?"

[Halae]

[Azik's Enchantments]

"It's a good thing, though there's something it means that's a bit odd. You said you weren't aware of magic until you were transported here, correct? I believe the magic in your world to be hidden. It won't pose a problem to the gate, but there it is." Azik says. The mirror's image fades, "At this point, I would ask that you pay for the rest of the purchase."

[Devixer]

[Azik's Enchantments]

"I've never heard of people using magic in my world. So, that would make sense, I think." Boris hesitates a moment, "Oh, of course." He retrieves his wallet, getting the correct amount of money, and offering it to Azik. "Here you are."

[Halae]

[Azik's Enchantments]

Azik will take the money, and then place the marble into Boris' hand, "Toss it onto the ground where you want to use the portal and think of the world you wish to be in. if it has enough magic to activate, it will. The portal onn the side the user has gone to will then collapse back into a marble - so if you decide not to go through, just wait a while and it will transform back. Have no fear that it will disappear."

[Devixer]

[Azik's Enchantments]

Boris looks at the marble as it's put in his hand. "Sounds easy enough. Thank you." Unless stopped, he turns to leave.

[Halae]

[Azik's Enchantments]

The inside of the marble looks like a blue nebula. Azik doesn't stop Boris as he leaves, instead turning back to work on the box behind him.

[Lex-Kat]

[Streets]

The old lady smiles. "Thank you miss. Is there anything I can do to repay you?"

Well, maybe. Do you happen to know what a Carset is, and where I can find one? she says, placing the last apple in the bag. And if not, do you know anyone who might?

[Lost_Deep]

Mag Mart

"HTML... wizard? Huh. Well, I know a bit about hacking. Don't do it m'self, but I know a thing or two about security holes. What was it, a logic substitution? I know how to fix those. Probably. I also know java. It is possible for me to set up some code that will compare a set price to the bought price, so it will set off a flag if you don't make a profit on an item at a specific price... I'd need to see your current coding to really get into it. But yeah, that and general tech support. I could work in the electronics section, too."

Kate Kyland waits patiently for the imp-killing robot at the customer service desk to reply.

[Recaiden]

[Streets]

Oh no! They bored Vincent!

... not that Eric really cares. He barely even noticed Vincent.

Eric obviously likes the fact that his headache goes away partly. "Sorry about that. I just found out I can do this, and I've sort of been playing around with it."

It's actually fairly impressive how strong he is with Telepathy. If he just found out and doesn't have any training, it's doubtful he should've been able to read so many minds without much problem. Well, certainly his other psychic abilities were advancing that quickly - he could still barely telekinetically lift more than a few pounds.

She smiles and draws back her hand. "Interesting. You're really good for a beginner. Especially given how blind most mortals are. How did you come into the power?"

Arlem waves absently at Vincent as he leaves. Silly RPG character. You don't turn down sidequests. You just put them off unreasonably long.

Of note is the fact that she can't do any sort of telekinesis or psychoportation at all. One way telepathy easy, two way took her some effort, and actual mental attacks and changes were a long time to learn. Almost since she's been in Nexus. Actual physical changes? Very far off.

[Lord Magtok]

MagMart

The bloodthirsty killing machine nods politely, and reaches around behind the desk for something.

"Mhm. So hypothetically, how soon do you think you could start?"

[Lost_Deep]

MagMart

The bloodthirsty killing machine nods politely, and reaches around behind the desk for something.

"Mhm. So hypothetically, how soon do you think you could start?"

"Hmm... well... tomorrow? I think? I'm still getting used to time around here. And the deadtime thing is weird. When do-er, when would you, hypothetically, want me in?"