Outside 40: It's all downhill from here

[Solidarity]

Spoiler: Frozen Forest

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Frozen Forest - Skellur á Köldu Stáli

Stórhríð stops dead in his tracks, allowing the two undead druids to take the brunt of the positive energy. They collapse, only to rise again shortly thereafter to slay the skeletal minions and protect their lieutenant.
Speaking of the cold warrior, he barrels past his fallen comrades with his shield up high, spinning and hacking and slashing until he his face to face with Raziel. Once he is within range, his steel blade becomes permeated with a magical, infective frost, which the Lich may want to avoid. Should he take too many wounds, the necromancer may find himself unable to move.

Frozen Forest

Snowfall moves with a savage grace, picking up speed as it swings the behemoth blade held tight in it's cold gauntlets around itself. The very air around the foul abomination decreases in temperature, and what small plant life survived around this area was instantly frozen over by the large pulse of intense cold given off by the monster as it marched forward, preparing to go on a rampage. The first skeletal warrior draws his way, the summoned monster's sharp claws and talons reaching to claw and tear at the tower of cold armor in front of them. The first skeleton draws incredibly near Snowfall, for it was raised closer to the mountain of ice before it. The skeleton might feel it's arms slowly begin to freeze over as it draws so close, and it even manages to get a swing at Snowfall out before the titanic undead strikes back. The swing rakes down Snowfall's armor, but doesn't leave a scratch. He was made of harder stuff than claw and bone. Snowfall clutches his mighty blade, Katlsverð, with a single hand, waving the blade about to gain momentum. To repel his current attacker, Snowfall will clench his other hand into a fist, his spiked gauntlet ends aimed forward. With that, he'll swing a powerful slap towards the skeleton, strong enough to break it's skull and send the whole thing flying to pieces many feet away.

Should that attack succeed, and it probably will, for Snowfall was strong and skillful in combat, the monster will charge forward much quicker than expected. It's blade is stabbed forward as the thing lunges towards it's next target, another skeleton nearby. The enormous blade ought to enter one side of the skeleton and impale the thing on the blade, whether or not the skeleton is still functioning or not. It mattered little to the frozen warrior. Another skeleton draws near to attempt at striking Snowfall down from the side while the monster was impaling it's comrade. This skeleton does manage to get a blow through one of the tiny areas unprotected by plate armor. This small pocket of exposed cloth was only revealed due to Snowfall's lunge. It seems that even chance was on Raziel's side this day. Black ichor, almost frozen by the cold, drips out of the wound created by the skeleton. To rebut the skeleton's attack, Snowfall turns quickly, aiming to grab at the skeleton's neck. Snowfall is quick and strong, and should his hand find it's target, the monster will squeeze hard and lift the minion off the ground, and throw it right back down with enough force to shatter the thing to pieces.

Maybe chance wasn't on their side.

That leaves three skeletons destroyed and out of the fight, most likely. However, two more approach Snowfall, attempting to form a swarm of two. They rake their limbs at him ferociously, but simply wear their talons down to nubs on the magical and evil armor. Snowfall looks down at the two in front of him now, gripping his cleaver with two huge hands now, aiming a final swing for this turn. The Winter Knight swings the blade from the side, the sheer ferocity of the attack stunning to those watching. In another few seconds, two more skeletons will most likely find themselves chopped completely in half, the bones closest to the area of effect crushed to dust. To reiterate Snowfall's point, the mighty beast will ensure one of the skeletons cleaved in front of him was dead by brutally stepping upon it's head with a great black boot. It'll shout at Raziel now, it's voice echoing over the wind. Gefast upp eða deyja! However, right afterwards, the first burst of holy magic rockets down towards Snowfall, covering the form in bright light. It's unclear what the effects of the burst are this round.

Unfortunately for the frozen forces, Raziel was clever in his forethought. Though they aren't too well versed in combat, the minions that were slain did serve another purpose. As each skeletal minion was thrashed about enough to be destroyed in any way, they would explode in holy energy, harming greatly any undead around it. ((Not sure if this would change any posts; Hatter gave us a chapter. xD))

The lich's eternal grin would seem to widen, seeing the results of it's energy barrage. Should the Dread Lieutenant make it's way to Raziel undeterred by the countless positive energy blasts he ought to have sustained when finishing off the skeletal minions, the lich will sneer at him, gesturing wide, invitingly with his radiant scythe. Raziel was no novice to melee, and granted his would be adversary the first blow.

Spoiler: Barren Waste

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[Barren Waste]

"You probably know them as goblins, hobgoblins and orcs," the wolf head says, staring Suscipio right in the eyes. The expression of its own eyes is nigh-impossible to read. "They're cruel, base creatures. They turned on us Fae, but they do not get along with the other mortals, either."

Barren waste
Krayger nods.
"Oh yeah, some of those live in the city. They seem to get along fine with their neighbors. So you'll probably have to watch those statements. Even if things seem like those from your own world they might be radically different. Wouldn't want to offend anyone." he says, managing to sound more polite than sarcastic.

Eternus goes quiet again.

No reading. This is not good. Is the beast trained for this? Why? By whom?

The man's grip loosens on his two katana, slowly going slack until they're at his sides, comfortably.

"I have met a few in the same city of which the minotaur spoke. My experiences were very similar regarding their nature, at least toward me. I will state again, however. Maybe we could assist you. How could we help your King with this issue? If it is true that all of this goblin race wishes to enslave your master, surely we could help you dissuade them. Would there still be an issue if we would succeed?"

[Aric Kale]

Where'd the Pine Forest Go?

Marcus seems stumped, but then he has an idea...
He takes his spear and tries to stab it into the ground with a surge of damaging energy, hoping to change the landscape, possibly revealing a cave system or something he can escape to.
By now, even he knows something is wrong, and when he gets home he's going to put some effort into researching another runetype.

Frozen Forest

At this point, I can no longer speak for the druids, though I would assume they're in bad shape.
Vynris, on the other hand, has one more trick up his nonexistent sleeves.
With every burst of positive energy that tears away from his body, ice comes in and takes its place. Who knows if he will truly regenerate, or if he'll just eventually become a Dread Ice Golem? Regardless, a large chunk of the frosted menace's left is now solid ice, as well as his entire right leg. Damn, nothing seems to deter Snowfall's Blizzard.

Skilled Raziel may be, but he will regret letting his opponent take the first strike. With a seemingly gentle flick of his wrist, he swings his broad, four foot blade at a diagonal swipe towards the Lich's chest. Should it come in contact with anything, the necromancer may be surprised by the resounding force behind the blow. The cold lieutenant staring up at him would not be holding back for this fight.

[Lord Magtok]

Melody's Island - Barn

Melody continues to look between the pair. Magtok was being way too silent. And Momma? Momma doesn't need her permision to date anyone. So, how long have you two been dating? she asks, deciding to forget Reinholdt, for the moment. He'd be back. He always came back.

Melody's Island - Barn


"We... haven't started yet," Happy stammers. "I didn't think it would be right until we'd talked to you."

"Coming here was literally the first thing we did when Happy said she wanted your blessing first," Magtok says, technically being completely, totally honest. He's just not specifying when Happy said she wanted Melody's blessing, is all.

[Arkhosia]

[Peaceful Spring]

Kitty giggles at Obriane's embarrassment. "Still though." She insists.

Meanwhile, the baby kitsune is reaching over her tube and splashing at the water between her and Obriane. Her giggle echos her mom's. "Looks like someone's having fun. Maybe we could go to shallower water so we can get her out of that tube." Kitty suggests. She doesn't want to try and hold a baby when her feet can't touch ground.

Invidia can't help but chuckle at Annie's actions.
I'm fine with that. Honestly, I'm probably going go take a break soon. Getting a bit thirsty, you see....

[Morty]

[Barren Waste]

For the first time, something akin to emotion shows on the beast-like faces of the two-headed fae. Said emotion seems to be irritation. It is quickly replaced by the same look of disinterest, though.

"How interesting. An offer of help from mortals?" the cat head says. "If you truly want to help us, you can start by telling us all that you know about our harriers."

[Pine Forest.. or Not]

The magic tears into the ground, ripping a hole in it and sending... dirt flying around. Somehow, the blackened rock explodes into soft forest soil when Marcus uses his spear. As bits of soil fly, something like a hiss of frustration can be heard from behind Marcus, and they suddenly turn into rock fragments.

[Shadowcaller]

[Otherwordly Portal]

The blue pixie makes a rude gesture at the other and flies in Geneva's face. "What's a city?" He latches onto something the hippogryph said earlier.

"But it's so nice. And ooooh, look at the red in it when it catches the light!" She peaks around Cessie's hand. It's a wonder she resists the urge to touch her hair again.

[Otherwordly Portal]

Interesting!

Though it's a fairly well known fact that the Nexus somehow allows widely disparate cosmologies to all function at the same time. If it didn't then a lot of folks would be in a lot of trouble. Or at least they would get converted into something that could function locally. Geneva is pretty sure she wouldn't feel comfortable getting turned into a human. Or a humanoid, anyway. Humanoids seem to be even more widely varied than pony tribes! It's a mystery to be sure.

Why does the Cosmos seem to like the human form so much?

Why are so few sapient races quadrupeds?

If nothing else dragons seem to be fairly consistent across worlds. That in and of itself is a mystery, too.

"I'm going to set up a sequestering chamber around the portal," Geneva says as she begins removing small silver orbs from her inventory spell and placing them in mid-air. As soon as she releases one lines etched into its surface begin glowing with soft, white light. "I should be able to exclude the Nexus' ambient background and get some more precise readings. Hopefully that'll get us a little closer to figuring out precisely how the anomaly works."

[Otherwordly Portal]

"Excellent, I'll start-" Cessie replies before her attention is diverted by the pixie who seemed to have an odd fixation with her hair now. She probably shouldn't mention that annoying heritage she had. "Yes, but please. We're conducting important research here and you're distracting me a bit."

[Peaceful Spring]

Kitty giggles at Obriane's embarrassment. "Still though." She insists.

Meanwhile, the baby kitsune is reaching over her tube and splashing at the water between her and Obriane. Her giggle echos her mom's. "Looks like someone's having fun. Maybe we could go to shallower water so we can get her out of that tube." Kitty suggests. She doesn't want to try and hold a baby when her feet can't touch ground.

Invidia can't help but chuckle at Annie's actions.
I'm fine with that. Honestly, I'm probably going go take a break soon. Getting a bit thirsty, you see....

[Peaceful Spring]

"Alright, let's swim closer to shore then." Obriane says, glad to suddenly change the subject. She will gently lead Annie back to Kitty before starting to swim back to the shallower parts of the spring.

[Gullara]

[Otherwordly Portal]

"Oooooh." The pixie nods in understanding. He knows how ants work! "And you never came from the sky hole? I never knew there was people on this side of the hole. We should explore!" He turns to his orange friend with that declaration.

"We don't even know what way to go." She points out. That deflates him a bit.

Meanwhile, the little menace with Cessie is already edging closer to her head again. "What kinda research?" She asks absentmindedly as she reaches out to try and touch Cessie's hair again.

[Peaceful Spring]

Once they're in shallow water, Kitty picks Annie up and tosses the tube onto the ground. "There you go, Annie. Now you can swim like the big girls." She moves the baby back and forth through the water, much to Annie's delight.

[Rebonack]

[Otherworldly Portal]

"No, I'm pretty sure I didn't come through the sky-hole," Geneva replies with a small smile. "But we're trying to learn how the sky-hole works so we can make another one with destinations wherever we want."

Doesn't that sound neat?

That would mean you don't have to fly around as much, just take a sky-hole to your destination!

Geneva continues setting up the orbs to create a sequestering chamber. Once she has four of them in place around the anomaly she'll hit a button on her wrist computer aaaaaand-!

The lights on the orbs glow a little brighter, but otherwise don't do anything obvious. What's not quite so obvious is the fact that everything within the floating pyramid-shaped solid is now insulated from the ambient magic of the Nexus! Very useful if you want to study a peculiar magical object. Or even work at creating a new type of spell. Or maybe a spell matrix. Excluding ambient magic is just as important to magical engineering as a clean-room is to building delicate electronics!

"Please don't go inside that area," Geneva says, pointing at the sequestering chamber. "If you do something really unfortunate might happen."

Like forcing her to waste time recalibrating the chamber. As opposed to, say, getting set on fire. The chamber isn't dangerous, but if she makes it sound dangerous the pixies might be more likely to leave it alone.

[Shadowcaller]

[Otherworldly Portal]

Geneva hasn't dealt with pixies before has she?

"We're trying to see how the portal works so that we potentially could construct another-" Cessie starts as she feel the pixie touch her hair. "Please don't do that." Now she attempts to wave away the pixie, this was really annoying.

[Lex-Kat]

Melody's Island - Barn

"We... haven't started yet," Happy stammers. "I didn't think it would be right until we'd talked to you."

"Coming here was literally the first thing we did when Happy said she wanted your blessing first," Magtok says, technically being completely, totally honest. He's just not specifying when Happy said she wanted Melody's blessing, is all.

Melody looks surprised. Really!? she smiles at Happy. Momma, you don't need my permission to date anyone. Well... she shrinks a little as she thinks of at least one person she'd rather not see her mom dating. Well, maybe not anyone. But really, I've known that you and Magtok have been close friends for years now. If I'd had any problem with you two being together, I think I might have voiced it by now. I just want you to be happy, Momma. And if that's with a cyborg lunatic, so be it. she smirks at Magtok.

[Hyperbolic sine]

[Darkwater Mine]

Sophia's mainly pissed off cuz they infected people into things that killed people without will to do so. Basically it's brainwashing in her eyes. And she'd be more pissed off if she was in the AoTverse longer.
She nods. Sounds good.
How about this: we stay put, take cover, and observe. The vehicle may have an insignia on it, and even if it doesn't, our new friend should be able to tell if it's Seraphina and her buddies, right?
If they are well-equipped, I fear they'll tear you apart if you do a frontal assault if they truly are the enemy.
She replies, taking cover behind a convenient rock or wall.

"Well, then, let's do as you say. But first...". Before taking cover, supposing there is one big enough to hide him, and turning the flashlight off, Wraal looks around for large rocks and other rubble to put in the middle of the road, to force the vehicle to stop (or, at least, slow down), doing so if any are found.

[Shadowcaller]

[Darkwater Mine]

There aren't actually many rocks to hide behind for the party, those who made the tunnel seemed to have wanted to keep it clear from such obstructions, probably when they transported all the heavy equipment down into the shaft. However if they go outside the tunnel the will find quite a few large rocks laying around which they realistically could hide behind.
But the problem is that the vehicle, being a large transportation vehicle is already on it's way down into the mine.

On board it's trailer is a large four legged battle droid of some sort with two arms, one which appears to be a flamethrower and another which seem to have an harpoon(?). Near it sits and whole gathering of gnolls, smaller droids and an ogre. Upon the droid and the vehicle is the symbol of a bloody saw-blade with a gnoll skull in the middle of it which your goblin friend seems to recognize. "Thorak Kai, the Chosen Ones. Of course Seraphina would hire those brutes to do her dirty work. It's an mercenary group established in skyside, completely merciless."

[Aric Kale]

It IS a Pine Forest!

Reveal yourself! Marcus shouts, not expecting a response...
The runist looks about wildly before stabbing his spear into the ground once more, allowing more of his energy to flow through the runes. No illusions were going to keep this soldier out of the action.
If this didn't work, it would be time to do some studying.

[Deathkeeper]

[Barren Waste]

For the first time, something akin to emotion shows on the beast-like faces of the two-headed fae. Said emotion seems to be irritation. It is quickly replaced by the same look of disinterest, though.

"How interesting. An offer of help from mortals?" the cat head says. "If you truly want to help us, you can start by telling us all that you know about our harriers."

Barren Waste

Krayger turns and lets his companion take the question. He's still not really sure what they're talking about.

[Morty]

[Darkwater Mine]

Wenomir nods, but does not strike yet. It's obvious that both sides here are shady at best, so he's going to wait until the intentions of the newcomers become clear.

[Hyperbolic sine]

[Darkwater Mine]

Likewise, Wraal remains in cover, waiting for the mercenaries to approach and ready to charge at the first sign of hostility.

[ImpSyndrome]

[Misplaced Spirits Incident]

Luckily for Hiizumi, the dust doesn't really affect her vision, seeing as she simply alters her memory to see. That said, she does struggle to dodge Sasha's blasts, possibly due to the part of her still trying to retake control deciding that it's her best be to be defeated here. But, unfortunately for Sophia, Chiaki is still very much driving the bus, and when she sees the shifter flying at her, she unleashes a very shotgun-esque blast of white magic at her. Time to see how good Sophia is at grazing.

((For the record, Imp, I'm taking the attack pattern from Cirno is EoSD. It's one of her non-card attacks, IIRC.))

Sasha maneuvers out of the way of the shotgun, hoping that her ally won't be terribly hurt by it, and continues to dart around in the cover of the smog, firing off small streams of bullets. She isn't doing enough damage by herself to stop the Spell Card, though, which means that Sanji and Midori are still struggling to stay alive. Back to the fight, though, a stray shot from the magic brawl cuts into Sophia's skin and leaves a smoking welt there. Whether it's the laws of the Nexus or Chiaki's magic at work, or if yokai magic just works that way, it seems that a Titan's defenses aren't quite so ironclad when it comes to these bullets.

((Sorry to do that, but I wanted illustrate a point. Going Titan will not always be the best solution in these encounters, as I imagine it's hard to dodge a flurry of fast-moving bullets when you're 15 meters tall. Plus, no one should be outright invincible; that just takes the fun out of it. I'm sure we can all cooperate so that no major characters are killed or seriously injured without express consent, so let's give everyone a sporting chance, huh?

Actually, speaking of chances, maybe there's another way to end this fight...Let's go another round or three and see what happens.))

[Beans]

[Hunting Trip]
Eo stares at her for a few moments, processing the... er... compliments.

Beyond the fact that I am glad you are pleased, I am unsure how to respond. Declarations of romantic intent are rather out of my experioence.

Aside from my apparently overwhelming attractiveness, how shall we proceed in our hunting?

[Gullara]

[Otherworldly Portal]

"No, I'm pretty sure I didn't come through the sky-hole," Geneva replies with a small smile. "But we're trying to learn how the sky-hole works so we can make another one with destinations wherever we want."

Doesn't that sound neat?

That would mean you don't have to fly around as much, just take a sky-hole to your destination!

Geneva continues setting up the orbs to create a sequestering chamber. Once she has four of them in place around the anomaly she'll hit a button on her wrist computer aaaaaand-!

The lights on the orbs glow a little brighter, but otherwise don't do anything obvious. What's not quite so obvious is the fact that everything within the floating pyramid-shaped solid is now insulated from the ambient magic of the Nexus! Very useful if you want to study a peculiar magical object. Or even work at creating a new type of spell. Or maybe a spell matrix. Excluding ambient magic is just as important to magical engineering as a clean-room is to building delicate electronics!

"Please don't go inside that area," Geneva says, pointing at the sequestering chamber. "If you do something really unfortunate might happen."

Like forcing her to waste time recalibrating the chamber. As opposed to, say, getting set on fire. The chamber isn't dangerous, but if she makes it sound dangerous the pixies might be more likely to leave it alone.

[Otherworldly Portal]

Geneva hasn't dealt with pixies before has she?

"We're trying to see how the portal works so that we potentially could construct another-" Cessie starts as she feel the pixie touch her hair. "Please don't do that." Now she attempts to wave away the pixie, this was really annoying.

[Otherworldly Portal]

"Wow. Okay, I won't." The pixie promises. Yet he still flies very close to it. He never said he wouldn't get a closer look! Hopefully he won't make a blunder and screw the whole thing up.

"You're too close, dummy!" The orange one flies closer as well, if only to better tell off her friend.

The purple one bites her lip and slicks her hands behind her back. "Sorry." She wiggles from side to side, as if the effort of restraining herself is already getting to be too much. "Can I have some of your hair? Just enough to make a belt! You'll never miss it." She nods exaggeratedly.

[The Alexandrian]

[Hunting Trip]

Mmm. Dat scent. Clarissa really digs Eo's scent because, due to her bestial instincts, she associates the appeal of an individual's scent with the desirability of an individual's genetic/magical traits (which is peculiar in and of itself as Clarissa wants to never be pregnant ever again and can effortlessly shape her flesh however she wishes).

Perhaps, then, Eo's scent is so attractive to Clarissa because she wants it to be attractive to her and has altered her body chemistry in order to achieve this result.

In any case...

"Uh, yes..."

"Let us- Let us not speak of that again for a long, long time."

"As for the hunt, there's not much to talk about. Try not to make too much noise, don't wander off, and shoot anything that tries to kill us. If you do get lost in the forest, meet me in the deserted village."

With that short mission briefing concluded, Clarissa stalks off into the totally ordinary forest with her manservant and his monkey trailing her at a considerable distance.

[happyturtle]

Melody's Island - Barn




Melody looks surprised. Really!? she smiles at Happy. Momma, you don't need my permission to date anyone. Well... she shrinks a little as she thinks of at least one person she'd rather not see her mom dating. Well, maybe not anyone. But really, I've known that you and Magtok have been close friends for years now. If I'd had any problem with you two being together, I think I might have voiced it by now. I just want you to be happy, Momma. And if that's with a cyborg lunatic, so be it. she smirks at Magtok.

"Us lunatics have to stick together," Happy says. Then looks more seriously at Melody. "Thank you. Your approval means a lot to me."

[Arkhosia]

[Peaceful Spring]

Once they're in shallow water, Kitty picks Annie up and tosses the tube onto the ground. "There you go, Annie. Now you can swim like the big girls." She moves the baby back and forth through the water, much to Annie's delight.

Invidia watches Kitty play with her daughter with longing and amusementbefore looking at the time via handy dandy waterproof watch powers, and cursing under her breath as she gets out of the water, grabs a bottle of water she brought with her and drinks some of it.
however, Orbriane and kitty might notice she also took some medication with the water.

[Darkwater Mine]

Likewise, Wraal remains in cover, waiting for the mercenaries to approach and ready to charge at the first sign of hostility.

Sophia grins.
it can never be easy, can it? she mutters, preparing to run if sighted.

Sasha maneuvers out of the way of the shotgun, hoping that her ally won't be terribly hurt by it, and continues to dart around in the cover of the smog, firing off small streams of bullets. She isn't doing enough damage by herself to stop the Spell Card, though, which means that Sanji and Midori are still struggling to stay alive. Back to the fight, though, a stray shot from the magic brawl cuts into Sophia's skin and leaves a smoking welt there. Whether it's the laws of the Nexus or Chiaki's magic at work, or if yokai magic just works that way, it seems that a Titan's defenses aren't quite so ironclad when it comes to these bullets.

((Sorry to do that, but I wanted illustrate a point. Going Titan will not always be the best solution in these encounters, as I imagine it's hard to dodge a flurry of fast-moving bullets when you're 15 meters tall. Plus, no one should be outright invincible; that just takes the fun out of it. I'm sure we can all cooperate so that no major characters are killed or seriously injured without express consent, so let's give everyone a sporting chance, huh?

Actually, speaking of chances, maybe there's another way to end this fight...Let's go another round or three and see what happens.))

((it's fine. actually, Sophia was planning on acting as a shield for her friends if it got too thick a bullet storm out there, so it puts a kink in strategies.))
Sophia curses inside the titan. not that anyone can hear.
she then charges blindly towards Hizume, aiming to stun with the jump out and slam her, sending her flying. the impact won't be too damaging, but it might knock her out, which is exactly the plan

[Morty]

[It was a Pine Forest All Along]

The debris from the new explosion is mixed rocks and soil. It seems that once a flaw was spotted in the illusion, keeping it intact is progressively difficult. The heat decreases further, and the entire countryside becomes blurry and indistinct, with vague shapes of pine trees appearing here and there.

[Ionbound]

((it's fine. actually, Sophia was planning on acting as a shield for her friends if it got too thick a bullet storm out there, so it puts a kink in strategies.))
Sophia curses inside the titan. not that anyone can hear.
she then charges blindly towards Hizume, aiming to stun with the jump out and slam her, sending her flying. the impact won't be too damaging, but it might knock her out, which is exactly the plan

((Remember, Ark: Think in three dimensions.))

Hiizumi jinks up out of the way of the charging Titan, blasting down at it as she does so, all the while her body in rebellion, trying to stop her movement.

[Beans]

[Hunting Trip]
Eo nods and follows closely behind Clarissa. The awkwardness of that whole... deal... is not entirely lost on her, but mostly because she observes its effects in Clarissa rather than feeling that much of it herself.
She takes the Headsplitter from her back, cradling the ludicrous gun in her hands as she pads quietly along behind the taller woman, mind half on this and half on... determining just how to deal with the whole business of Clarissa having the hots for her.
This is no mean task, as she has zero experience on that front from either end, nor any bystander experience.

[Aric Kale]

Back to the Pine Forest

Marcus slashes the nearest tree, hoping to speed the process along, all the while trying to catch a glimpse of the Fey...

[Shadowcaller]

[Darkwater Mine]

Wenomir nods, but does not strike yet. It's obvious that both sides here are shady at best, so he's going to wait until the intentions of the newcomers become clear.

[Darkwater Mine]

Likewise, Wraal remains in cover, waiting for the mercenaries to approach and ready to charge at the first sign of hostility.

[Otherworldly Portal]

"Wow. Okay, I won't." The pixie promises. Yet he still flies very close to it. He never said he wouldn't get a closer look! Hopefully he won't make a blunder and screw the whole thing up.

"You're too close, dummy!" The orange one flies closer as well, if only to better tell off her friend.

The purple one bites her lip and slicks her hands behind her back. "Sorry." She wiggles from side to side, as if the effort of restraining herself is already getting to be too much. "Can I have some of your hair? Just enough to make a belt! You'll never miss it." She nods exaggeratedly.

Invidia watches Kitty play with her daughter with longing and amusementbefore looking at the time via handy dandy waterproof watch powers, and cursing under her breath as she gets out of the water, grabs a bottle of water she brought with her and drinks some of it.
however, Orbriane and kitty might notice she also took some medication with the water.

Sophia grins.
it can never be easy, can it? she mutters, preparing to run if sighted.

[Darkwater Mine]

These goblins shady? I never!
The vehicle continues down into mine on the beaten path and unless they decide to attempt to stop it, it will stop at the bottom of it. Then they can see a tiny figure coming out from behind a rock, it's a small gnoll carrying camouflage clothing and a walkie-talkie. Still assuming they haven't been attacked the driver, a larger gnoll, steps out and have a conversation with the other gnoll. Meanwhile the rest of the mercenaries are starting to jump off the vehicle and unload the battle armor.

They will note that the smaller gnoll is pointing at the tunnel they just came out from but they won't be able to hear what either of them say unless they have supernaturally good hearing or manage to get closer.

[Otherworldly Portal]

Cessie attempts to divert her attention back to Geneva who actually seemed to do something important unlike the pixie she didn't really have an interest talking to. But at the suggestion of having her hair being used as a belt she really had to protest. "No, I rather keep all my hair to myself. Sorry." The idea of a pixie flying around with her hair as a belt was just too bizarre.

[Peaceful Spring]

Obriane notices it, if she had known anything at all about drugs she would probably have decided to ignore it and let Invidia have her privacy. But now she was curious. "What are you taking Invidia?" She asks curiously.

[Rebonack]

[Otherworldly Portal]

Well.

The pixies are getting closer.

But they aren't actually going into the sequestering chamber.

That's something, at the very least.

"She's right, you're a bit too close. You should back up," Geneva says whilst she herself backs up to a distance of a good two meters. Hopefully the pixies get the idea and ease off a bit.

A few button pushes later on her wrist computer and the science-y sounds of the machines begin to increase! Along with a rather ominous thrumming noise. Technically she's just cycling the thing before calibrating it, but that doesn't make it look and sound any less impressive, what with the glowing and the deep, resonate sounds.

[Deathkeeper]

The Weald
(Closed)
One young Artorias walks these woods today. He'd heard it was an area with certain odd energies, that often enough you could find fey and nature-spirits if you knew how to look.
Arty has no idea how to look, but he could probably use a little camping excursion anyway. The cities can get so loud and hard on his hooves. Sometimes he needs to get out a little, and if someone might say it's because of his race, he wouldn't argue, but he doesn't care much for such analysis. For now, he's content to just be wandering around the trees and grass and ponds, laden with the sparse few supplies he feels that he needs. His horse body barely notices the wait, leaving his upper half without the pack most hikers would need. And bare-chested for once, because he doesn't really think he'll find anyone out here to notice how he can't even remotely pull off that look (which he totally can if the audience is fond of muscular eighteen-year-olds, he just has no confidence in that aspect of himself) but there's no point in getting a shirt soaked in sweat if he needs it for neither appearance nor warmth.
Ah, well.

[Lost_Deep]

The Weald

Atry comes across a series of small lakes in a river. The river flows into a large pond, which from there falls down a small waterfall into a small lake, and then falls down into a slightly larger lake, and then takes a layover at a small pond and continues into a larger lake... you get the idea.

The water of the lakes are clear and clean, fish swim about lazily and frogs croak on the shores.