Mausoleum II: Stairdancing The Multiverse

Old Maken’s Shop of Mysteries

“I don’t know her, she’s not my friend…” Makoto murmured petulantly at the elephant man, the pink of the towel wrapped around her face seeming to spread out to color the exposed sections of her cheeks and ears. But as she tried and mostly failed to stare a burning hole in the elephant man’s leathery torso, the full implications of Giri, Kaguya, and Rufus’s words began to wash over her, notching and catching into place like the shuttle of a loom. “Artifacts Inc.?” She said suddenly, before marching over to where she'd been rummaing the shelves for supplies. “Like this Artifacts Inc.?” Makoto grabbed one of the power cells off of the shelf between her thumb and forefinger, before turning to show it off to the room—and, in the process, exposing its back to her, which she took a moment to search for anything like a phone number, manufacturer info, or any other customer support/contact information.^note It definitely wouldn’t have been the weirdest thing she’d seen that day…

Slipping the cell into her pocket after a moment either way, she detoured, deep in thought, to grab the towels as the others began to leave. By the time she emerged, the non-bandaged towels arranged neatly in a stack, she found herself alone, the others already trailing a short distance ahead. A slight chill rippled down her spine as her eyes flicked from one side of the room to the next, suddenly remembering that she wasn’t, in fact, alone. Trying to play off her unease with an innocuous roll of her shoulder, the teen got to her feet, securing her hands on either side of the stack of towels, and said, under her breath, seemingly unthinkingly: “Looks like my holographic disguise worked as planned. Now just to make sure that they don’t find out…” She murmured, almost out the door, almost unthinkingly, almost like she didn’t want any suspicious characters to overhear, and maybe try to call her on it later.

Almost.

Forever and a Day

Truthfully, it probably would have been simpler to transform back, fly over, and beat all of her companions back to the bar. But there were three pressing issues with that plan: Girimehkala was in possession of someone that she didn’t trust him not to nibble on without her direct supervision, the one who was going to solve their current dimensional issue was the very economically-minded ermine that Magicaloid 44 had practically gone out of her way to antagonize, and most importantly, there was really no way that she would be able to drop off these towels otherwise.

So Makoto re-entered the bar, not as a mechanized defender of love and peace, but as a mostly-defenseless teen, and all of the colorful, collected chaos now seemed in danger of spilling over and swallowing her whole at any moment. She made a beeline over to the polished sheen of the bar with a quickness in her step, where she then unceremoniously plopped the towels down. “'scuse me, I just need to borrow this.” Picking up one of the hand towels and moving over to wherever it was that the elephant man had placed her waitress ward, Makoto would remove the bottle of Cure-All from her pocket and unwind the bandage wrapped around the top that she’d been using in lieu of a cap, before pressing the opening flush to the towel and upending the bottle to get a good surge of liquid spread across the towel’s surface. “So, uh, Addward, is it?” Makoto would call to the weasel, while attempting to use the Cure-All soaked rag to dab at Claudia’s face and assuage the worst of the damages, hopefully bringing the woman closer to some semblance of consciousness. “I hear you’re supposed to help save us. How’s that going to work?”

Edited by Uncandescent on Mar 7th 2019 at 3:37:36 PM

Andradite - Alleyway

It took a long moment for Andy to piece together the snatched sounds that made it through the resonance waveforms of the Ringing - the capital R felt appropriate - and to recognize them as speech. She'd focused herself down to a point, the only way to do anything in the chaos sweeping through the alley and her own mind - get her friend out. One foot in front of the other.

Oh. They were shouting for her. And Now Kayne wasn't in her hands anymore. There was a brief stab of panic - had she been sucked in? - But then she saw the be-hatted woman running off. Oh good. Now that she was further away from the singularity, thoughts were coming clearer, the Ringing was softer... and she was starting to think that maybe pulling heavy animals with her cracked arm had been a mistake. From her left elbow down, the ringing was more of a... grinding, with uncomfortable splintering undertones. She could feel the... disconnection spreading further up her arm every time she moved it.

Maybe she should rest. She was tired. It was too dark for this. The purple light here was kinda gross.

With a groan, she found a nice wall that she could put between herself and the vortex and slumped down against it, wrapping her arm tightly in the sleeve of Kyxe's coat and hugging it to her chest, waiting for her body to stop trying to escape in every direction.

Outside Mama Jupiter's Colossal Cabaret → Alleyway

Drag.

Ouch.

Drag.

Ouch.

Drag.

Ouch.

Kyxe dragged and ouched her way along the floor before she regained the leg and arm strength to pull herself back up; initially going to take a cooldown pill to help ease her soreness before realising they were stored in her cloak.

Which was decidedly not over her body.

The rellan sighed—clutching her abdomen with her free hand—and moved out, searching for the one she had given it to. Probably hadn't been a very good idea, thinking about it. She had no clue if the other had even kept a hold of the thing or not. But her stomach was killing her, and the only way for it to begin to get better was with those damn pills. She should really keep some on her person.

She almost missed the alleyway. And very nearly fell over when she tried to stop herself. Despite her momentary blunder, her face remained perfectly calm—gaining a bit of a tight smile as she trudged over to the crystalline being and plopped down next to her.

“Hello. Little sore. Could you... there's some pills in one of the inside pockets. Overworked myself back there, a little...”

She tilted her head.

“So how was your evening?”

Alleyway Outside Mama Jupiter's

As her arrows faded into the void, Lamb tilted her head, before gently patting Wolf's side. At her unspoken command, Wolf had pulled into an alleyway, just in time for Kyxe to come tumbling out.

Wolf slowed down as he noticed the two seemingly near-comatose individuals, and stepped closer to sniff at them curiously. He licked his lips, but Lamb's soft voice interjected.

"Not yet, dear Wolf."

"Does not the Void seek to consume them?" Wolf growled back.

"No. It is not the Void." She hummed, curiously. "That hole is a 'Gate'. To where, I do not know. But it will not consume them - merely move them. And Us, most likely."

Wolf merely grumbled. Lamb slid down from him, and sat down against the wall, next to Andradite. Wolf curled up upon her lap like a shroud, and she began to pet him, humming a quiet melody to soothe her other half as they awaited the Hole to consume them.

Edited by kagescorpionakki on Mar 10th 2019 at 11:33:15 AM

FRIENDSHIP ENDED WITH GIRIMEHKALA. NOW CHARVAKA IS MY BEST FRIEND

Girimehkala laid the sack of whoremeat down with as much care as he could muster, not quite breaking the table, and massaged his temples with two free hands as the ecology asserted itself and charitable hands swept her away. Things here were moving with greater severity and much greater effort than he'd prepared for, along lines of thought for which he was entirely unsuited, dragging proceedings into the realms of the shiny and the chrome.

Such as it was, his plan was to retire with a bottle of peanuts and stare at the wall until things blew over. Something appeared at his shoulder, shrouded in the stench of divinity, and with a single question killed him effortlessly.

"A thing which demands the attention of his betters," he replied, and split down the middle like a pair of curtains.

Between the twitching halves of Girimehkala stood a slender, well groomed man◊ with the eyes and tail of a tiger, draped in the tasteful finery of the performative aristocrat. He he was leaning over a gold-headed cane, and followed Kalea eyes to the viscera at his feet.

"Pay him no mind," he said, and snapped his fingers. The two halves of Girimehkala knitted back together down the middle, suspended upright like a puppet, and then crashed back to the floor lifeless. "He is malingering. You may shame him in whatever manner you feel appropriate. I will be conducting matters in his stead. Come."

He strolled over to a porthole, leading her by the hand, and gestured imploringly towards the purple glow of the portal consuming Mama Jupiter's.

"You are a godling, yes? I admire the banality of your questions. Please, take a look. What do you make of this?"

The Forever and a Day

Makoto would see a strange identifying mark on the back of the power cell, although what exactly it was seemed a mystery. The glyphs were nondescript and weirdly brutal, as if they had been pressed into the wrapping not with ink but a branding iron.

Meanwhile, Kaguya would realise something quite obvious - the diner was flying. The purple dust of Dive was getting farther and farther away, the roofs of the various abandoned shacks and buildings were ascending rapidly to eye-level... it was quite the sight.

What was less obvious, of course, was how exactly this feat was taking place.

"SALT MY AUNT AND CALL ME A PEANUT, GIRIMEHKALA'S DEAD!" yodeled Addward. "PRAISE KEYNES!"

The marten did a little four-footed jig, spun like a celebrating crab, and fell off the bar.

"Ah, he'll be back," said Rufus. "Now, if you'll excuse me, Lady Kaguya, you're in charge here. I will return!"

He ripped another shelf from its hinges, smashed yet another large red button, and dove straight into the molecular incinerator. The tavern speakers stopped playing Little Richard and lit up with the minotaur's crackling voice.

"Alright, worldrollers! I'm sure you're all very surprised at the current state of affairs, but stay completely calm! I have not been incinerated! Merely translocated!"

Viscera looked unimpressed. The gynoid sat back on her chair and began to polish her nose. The several dogs in the trenchcoat began to howl a surprisingly passable version of 'She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mountain.' The billy-goat bounced the crystal ball off his nose and visibly debated eating Addward, who was still twitching in rapture underneath the nearest barstool.

"Now, you may be wondering how this joint can fly... and the truth is, it can't! Not by itself, anyway. Actually, most of it happens to be stuck in another dimension. It used to be the mess-hall of my ship, back when I was still sailing the Mausoleum, and before I crashed straight into that Sinkhole... but more on that later! Wake up, Gressie old girl! Initiate planar strobe!"

The Forever and a Day itself was undergoing an alarming reconfiguration. Chairs and tables vanished, folding away into the floor and replacing themselves with padded seats and odd-looking seatbelts. Twelve small roombas with smiley-faces on their fronts zipped about, sucking up the spilt drinks and shards of glass. The gynoid hitched up her basket skirt, stood with dignity, then lay down on a roomba and attempted with valor to steal their scraps.

"We're going to save your friends!" declared Rufus, even as the tavern lurched forwards and rolled through the skies of Dive. "Say hello to the Egress Eternal!"

Inside And Outside Mama Jupiter's Colossal Cabaret

"T-T-The cloak!" squealed Begonia. "Throw my cloak at the Rift! It's woven through with stasis spells, so it should delay the tearing - but please, for the love of your hat, empty out the pockets first! All my benefits are in there!"

"Question," said Wilfred, still holding onto the boy's collar with steely resolve. "Can she empty out the pockets without your benefits flying out into the void?"

Begonia sniffed, put his hands over his eyes and began to bawl. It was an impressive feat, what with all the suction.

"Alright, alright, settle down! Everything's going to be okay! Just... try not to get swallowed into eternity, alright? It'd be terrible for business!"

It was Rufus's voice, coming from on high - and with him, sparking and shimmering with hints of fuselage and half-real engines, was the levitating chrome dome that had been, and possibly still was, the Forever and a Day. Even the door now opened up into a ethereal steel corridor, although the corridor itself, as well as the entire frame of the ship around it, was flickering in and out like a dream.

Mama Jupiter sighed.

"What's that bull got up to this time?"

"He has a ship, Mama," said Alfred, peering up through the cracks in the ceiling. "It's eaten his diner."

"I knew his stupid pirate get-up wasn't just for show. Come back here, girl, and stop saving yourself. How are we going to get up there?"

Rufus paused. Mama Jupiter paused. The entire mob paused. Even the Rift paused, although whether that was a reaction to the atmosphere or a trick of the light was anyone's guess.

"Oh, you're right. How are we going to get all of you up here?"

The Rift cracked, flashed, and began to expand. Wilfred lost a fraction of his grip, and with a small gasp of surprise, Begonia began his fall into oblivion.

Edited by troydenite on Mar 27th 2019 at 1:51:18 AM

Kayne And Moko—Pandemonium

Indeed, even as Begonia bemoaned his benefits, Kayne laughed inwardly as the first thing that she had done after she had a moment to breathe was to shove everything in the cloak into whatever carrying space she had on her. That was Scavenging 101—always keep what you find. She doubted that Begonia would mind that some of his scrolls were shoved into her boots and important documents into the waist band of her bloomers as long as they were saved.

Letting go of Begonia's cloak, she grabbed his hand securely with her mechanical one, shouting "I have your benefits, what are you going to do about it!?"

The good news was that he was safe. For now.

The bad news was that as she pulled him up, slowly, the post that Kayne was holding on to precariously began to creak.

And snap.

And sag.

"OH SHIT! WE'RE GONNA DIE! WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Moko shouted. Kayne immediately echoed that sentiment.

"RUFUS, RALLY YOUR DAMN CUSTOMERS AND HAVE THEM POOL THEIR SKILLS! SURELY COMBINED YOU CAN FIGURE OUT A WAY! OR JUST FLY THE DAMN THING DOWN IN THE INTERIM WHERE THE RIFT WEAKENS!" she screeched up at the Forever And A Day.

Surely her advice was sound. Or else everyone was doomed.

Kaguya turned away from the world that was running away beneath her view and toward the rest of these odd people. If she could make a right guess just by feeling the place shake, they probably could tell by how it rocked and rolled. Something that put a damper on her mood, more so than bleeding to death, was the sight of Giri being cut in twain.

Well, he had just exploded and come back, surely he—

Ah. Darn.

That put a real damper on her mood. She turned over and laid on her back, scratching her scalp with blood-covered fingers. Things really weren't making sense here.

The owner of the establishment bequeathed power unto her, and Kaguya could only reply "I'm in charge of what?" An answer didn't seem to be forthcoming, so she didn't have much more to go on beyond that she was being asked to act as a Princess and command...something. Non-Kaguya princesses usually didn't do that much in the first place, from her experience, so this was a promotion of sorts.

Well, if it was sitting here by the door, she was doing a good job of that...

Edited by wikkit on Apr 2nd 2019 at 7:48:21 AM

Forever and a Day

Makoto was, admittedly, starting to have a hard time keeping up.

First, Girimehkala hatched like an egg—causing Makoto to immediately freeze, and send the bottle of Cure-All a wonder-filled, foreboding look—only for a man to step out, Addward to celebrate, and Rufus to almost outright state that it was no big deal. Well… I mean… He did basically do the same thing to Maken like half an hour ago, right? While the thought did just a little bit to soothe her conscience, it did absolutely nothing for the girl’s nerves, and she drew her legs up sideways away from the elephant man’s nearest splayed arm even as she swore it twitched.

After that, Rufus jumped into the incinerator, which was also apparently the pilot’s seat, a design decision that Makoto didn’t really have any time to question or concern herself with as the building around them gave off rumblings that she didn’t need the sudden carnival ride-esque seats to spell out for her. Strapping both Claudia and herself down, Makoto’s fingers then carved a death-grip into the armrests as they zoomed through the skies of Dive, wondering in absent terror if they would accidentally hit any stray chunks of elephant that might have been sheared off in this very space a short while ago. It was only when her breathing began to steady, her heart rate began to drop, and her thoughts began to orient themselves, that she started to grasp the intricacies of the situation—and how it really wasn’t that intricate at all. “Hold on,” she would say, lacing her words with a spike of unfettered teenage incredulity, “you mean that we’re just running away?” Makoto’s moment of self-righteous unbuckling took a hit once a latent rumble shook her balance and sent her hip banging into a table, the girl too visibly incensed to do more than wince at the pain. “So the Red Ring just gets away with all of this? All of the evidence of the things they did just goes down the drain? They just get to do this same bullshit somewhere else?” Digging into her pocket, she retrieved the Artifacts Inc. power cell to hold up before the crowd like an especially damning piece of evidence. “The Red Ring’s goon might be blowing up down there, but Artifacts Inc. started this whole thing by taking advantage of a grieving old man!” Though Makoto tried very hard not to think about how if they hadn’t, Andy might’ve been anywhere in the multiverse just then. “If they can go up against the Red Ring, then they can help us get out of this. Because I didn’t suffer through all of that just to not get pai—” Makoto cut herself off with a series of last-minute coughs, even as her gaze strayed down toward the closed incinerator doors, and the treasure that lay behind them. “—payback. For Maken.”

Finding her sea legs for the air vessel, Makoto stumbled over to Kaguya’s prone form, bending over to lay her hands on her knees and peer down at the statuesque beauty’s lightly-reddened form. “Hey, uh, you. I need to ask a… favor.” Reaching a hand forward, she would attempt to help the other woman up, and then reach forward to self-consciously smooth down the pink towels and bandages still wrapped around the lunar princess’s arms. “I don’t know if you’re, um, up to this, yet, but I noticed you floating a little on the way over here. Do you think you could go down to the bar, and deliver a message?” Makoto worked her jaw for a moment, as if desperately trying to figure out a way to encode her words, before simply flashing a grim smile. “There are a couple of lunatics down there, who aren’t good for much anything else. Tell them to smash up one of those buildings, so that the Egress Eternal has room to land, and get everyone on the streets and in the club to safety.” A flash of a screaming, flailing mob abruptly soured Makoto’s expression, and she rolled her eyes. “Well, maybe not everyone. Here—” Jogging lightly over to the elephant man, Makoto pulled the towel still secured behind her neck back up over her mouth, trying not to gag as she bent down, reached out ever-so-tentatively, and began rummaging through the maniac’s things for the exact kind of overly-destructive hardware that she knew he’d trafficked in instead of brains. After a few minutes, countless bullet casings, and more guns than she could comfortably name, she came up for air with a single, tentatively held, sloshing bottle of Molotov cocktail, and the surprising find of a coil of rope that she promptly slung over one shoulder. “I don’t know if this will really help, but it’s all we’ve got.” Makoto said, trying to flash a smile of solidarity over at the other woman as she made her way back over—but rather than hand over the items immediately, she held out her own hand as well. “I’m also going to need that spyglass he gave you. If it reveals what’s lost, maybe it can tell me what that symbol on the back of the power cell means, and how to get ahold of Artifacts Incorporated. It’s only supposed to make you a little crazy, right?” Her gaze then flicked to the side, to the precariously-balancing dogs, to the possibly-psychic goat, the lady robot that she’d gotten the idea for that awful drink from. “Doesn’t feel like it’d be too different.” Her gaze then lingered on the one who’d walked through Girimehkala like a revolving door, next to a woman that she didn’t recognize, and she found her voice raising as she regarded them. “If anyone wants in, now’s the time.”

Provided Kaguya had handed over the spyglass, and that no one interrupted, the teen would then take a step back, flash a nervous smile, and clutch the power cell up before her, the symbol facing her body. Then, with gradual purpose, she took the spyglass, pointed it at the cell, and lifted it to her eye.

Edited by Uncandescent on Apr 4th 2019 at 4:51:47 AM

Forever and a Day - What, without asking, hither hurried whence?

A look of surprise creased Kalea's features, though her composure remained otherwise intact. It was not everyday one saw a beastman burst apart to reveal a rustic aristocrat.

Her gaze followed the newcomer's gesture to the window. His untoward remarks she elected to ignore for the time being. She had heard worse, much worse.

"I would say that it reminded me of the effects of an entity I bear a passing familiarity with back home, save for the fact that it is purple, and its lack of resemblance to a boar."

Her mouth twisted into a rueful smile.

"As for your observation, I'm afraid that you are mistaken in calling me a godling, though it is an understandable error."

Kalea was about to say more, enquire about happenings and identities, histories and locations. The little she had seen of this motley lot had rendered her curious. Her attentions were seized by the minotaur's voice blaring across the room, and the building lurching this way and that with all the grace of a blood ape.

Her focus was then stolen again, by the diminutive girl hurrying hither and thither. She considered her a moment, then returned her gaze to the well dressed man who had so dramatically burst forth from the beastman's innards.

"What course of action would you recommend?"

Andradite

"Huh? Oh, it's you."

Andy looked up in surprise as someone flopped down beside her, realising after a moment or two of slightly-scrambled mental effort that it was the lady who had given her this fashionable coat. Speaking of which -

"Pills like, uhm... these?" She fished sluggishly around inside the jacket until she found a bottle of things she assumed were pills, handing them over to Kyxe one-handed. :"I could give you the whole thing back, but, uhm, it's holding my arm together right now? Can I keep it a little longer?"

Shuffle-grinding over a bit to make room for Lamb and her bendy dog friend, she leaned her head back against the alley wall with a soft klink. "My... evening... well, I got half my face and a bunch of memories stolen... but I got them back, so that'll be fine... unless the horrible space time vortex thing eats us all, I guess. That might make it difficult."

Around that moment, a flickering half-real mess of mechanical... stuff floated overhead. She probably wouldn't have paid much attention to it t this point, but it had the voice of her boss blaring out of it.

"Rufus! I didn't know you could fly!"

Climbing to her feet, she looked between the ship and her alley-friends, rubbing at her hair with her good hand. "Speaking of flying, can any of you? I can probably jump up there, but that doesn't help you guys!"

Kyxe – Alleyway

“Alan'amæ,” Kyxe thanked, taking the pills and swiftly gulping one of them down. “These eliminate excess plasma, and remove symptoms of heat burnout. I should be fine in the next... ooh, ten minutes or so?”

She got up after a fashion, humming to herself as she looked up at the ship hovering nearby.

“Theoretically I could, but what'd more likely happen is I'd propel my upper half away from my lower half. I sort of need both halves. So no. I could scale the buildings and jump onto it from there,” she offered instead—before turning to Andratite and giving her a slight nod.

“And it's Kyxe. Probably not the best place for proper introductions, but I'd rather have made a friend before we get sucked away into oblivion. I'd offer to carry some of you, but I think I'm only standing up right now because I'd pass out otherwise.”

By Lœ, I wish Rine was here.

Ah, the girl was concerned about her well-being? How quaint, and kind. "I'm up for anything, dear," she said with a smile. "A message is nothing." Hardly the usual ken of divine royalty, but that's partially what she was out here for in the first place!

Then, as her newly gained acquaintance moved over to the steaming mess of an elephant, Kaguya didn't let her do all of that work by herself. With us or not, Girimehkala could carry his weight and that was probably more than Makoto could ever think about holding. Piling up what she could in between her own dainty arms and accepting whatever Makoto shoved on top, Kaguya muttered "I think this will be a fair trade" in between the clatter of another ammo belt being piled on. She turned her back to her, and said "My hands are...you know, and it's nestled between myself and my skirt back there. Take it...but please, don't look too hard. You're thinking too highly of your own fortitude."

A grim warning departed, she carried the pile o' guns to the door...and wouldn't you know it, someone was practically calling for her by name. "Speaking of flying, can any of you?" "I definitely can," she answered, and kicked open the door. Don't think that she was doing it for coolness points or anything, it's just that her hands were full. "And better than that, I come bearing gifts!"

She took a step out the front door/off the gangplank and silently drifted to the ground. Even with her hair threatening to mat itself at any given moment with how much blood was in it, it flowed like a shining, dark linen. Taking a soft step with her besocked feet into filth once again, she triumphantly told Andradite "Take this, and go give us some room! Any of you, go remove a—"

Wait, what's that? Oh no, there were people kinda dying in that hole in reality! And not in her sense of the world, the normie kind. She immediately thrusted her weight forward to plant the weapons and weapon eaccessories into Andradite's face. "Take it, take it, take it! Blow up a building and make space for this thing, just take it!"

The Forever And A Day, Now Known As The Egress Eternal But Also Possibly Not

The silver spyglass in Makoto's hands seemed innocuous at first, but as soon as she put it to her eye, an azure flash burst into her brain. A million needles stabbed bright spots into her retina, letting in a pointillistic flood, a shower of azure flame like the rays of a blue supergiant.

When she realised that she was not blind in one eye, she would see everything but the power-cell.

It was as if the tavern had been dissolved into a pot of rainbow paint, splashed into the ocean and then whisked with a toothpick. Skin was unreal. The walls were unreal. Space was unreal. The bones of her own hand wavered in time, brittle things, as tangentially connected to this reality as everyone else in this tavern. She would see through the floor and her own feet and shoes at the same time. The shell of her magical form, contained within and without her, flickered and creaked like the unreal fuselage of the Egress Eternal, which likewise strained at the seams of reality. Only Kaguya seemed anchored; as if there was a solid core to her, as if her entire being was something fundamentally sound.

But that was not the reason for the wavering.

Reality was draining. There was the great Sinkhole, half a mile away, extending forever to the core of the planet, bleeding a myriad of luminous colors that swirled to the sky, a whirl of dimensions and timelines...

And there was the small spot by Mama Jupiter's, siphoning in the substance of Dive, as neat and quiet as a fresh snakebite. Lines seemed to suggest themselves, the solid white lines of a drafter's blueprint, splaying like tapeworms and vanishing.

It was yawning.

"Alright, folks!" boomed Rufus. "We need fliers! Who wants to risk their lives, fortunes, and afterlives to save some girls they barely know? Anyone?"

"I can't even get mad when you put it that way, you colossal hornhead," said Addward from the floor. "Hee."

"Come on, people, show some heart! Be like that brave pink girl over there, the one who ordered the Catastrophe in a Can! I mean, all we have to fear is a lifetime of multiversal drifting, but she can't even die!"

"By the way, did you know that Girimehkala's dead? I felt like I should mention that. Girimekhala's dead. Girimekhala's dead! Haha! All this excitement is making me giddy."

"Going once, going twice... don't make me go down there!"

There was a pregnant pause, echoed by everyone in the tavern.

"Alright, I'm going down there."

"WAIT, WHAT?" screeched Addward. "NOOOOOOOOO! RUFUS, YOU BANKRUPT SONUVAGIR! I SHOULD NEVER HAVE BALANCED YOUR BOO-"

But his imprecations were blotted down by a tremendous lurch that sent him crashing, quite comically, into the bottom of the bar.

Outside Mama Jupiter's Colossal Cabaret, Now Known As Inside Mama Jupiter's Colossal Cabaret But Also Possibly Not

Kaguya was met not only with a sudden lurch in the fibre of her being, but a sudden wave of attention from everyone present. That included the mob, of course.

"You can fly?"

"Save us!"

"The tattoo's just for show, I promise! I only killed my mother that one time!"

"Sit down, you idiots!" came a gravelly matron's voice from within. "If you want to die, be my guest, but don't block the help!"

Her entire nature rebelled against the Rift. It was the opposite of Eternity. It was not meant to be. And with every blink it seemed either smaller or larger, here or there, but never less dangerous.

Meanwhile, at the doorframe, Kayne felt another pair of hands on her shoulders. Alfred joined his brother in his exertions, and pulled the two clean to safety, or at least as much safety as the creaking walls afforded.

"Oh, hat girl!" blubbered Begonia. "You... you saved me!"

"Nice to be appreciated," said Alfred. "Isn't it, Wilfred?"

"Of course, Alfred," said Wilfred, cracking his mangled arm, before curling up on one leg and pitching Begonia's blue cloak right at the Rift.

Begonia's face cracked into a million pieces, but the Rift did not. The cloak tore asunder and sank into the void like a mesh, releasing all its magic in a violent surge. And the pressure, the deadly suction, stopped as suddenly as it had begun.

"Ah," said Begonia. "Ah-ah."

"That should buy us some time," said Mama Jupiter. "Alright, everyone out."

"People? I'm coming down! I'm also going to need space to come down, unless you want me to flatten half of you! Andy, darling? Can you hear me? Use the guns!"

But it was quite impossible for Andradite to use the guns. For at that very moment the flailing mass of gangsters and lowlifes swept through the party like a river, screaming and shouting at the teetering form of the Egress Eternal, addled by the same disorienting impulse that had caused Lamb and Kyxe to attempt to defeat the Rift with violence.

Edited by troydenite on Apr 14th 2019 at 10:19:56 PM

Kayne & Moko—For God's Sake, People, Pull Yourselves Back Together

Kayne let out the breath she was holding as she and Begonia were hoisted to safety. She hadn't even been aware she was holding it. Huh.

Anyways, she shouted loudly over the din of the crowd—"Get out of the way and give that ship some gods-damned room!" and fired some plasma shots into the air to get them to move.

That taken care of, she started to advise Andradite. "Try and blast some parts of the building away. Clear some space with those guns, that's what I mean!" she stammered.

Finally, she turned to Begonia. "I'm going to need you to try and teleport chunks of the building to make sure the ship has room to land. Even if they end up in the singularity, it'll be fine. We care about our asses more. Okay?"

All this was spoken in a firm but calm tone while she grasped the scrolls she was trying to hand to Begonia carefully.

Edited by JumpingFruit on Apr 20th 2019 at 6:38:04 AM

Charvaka, Ergess Eternal, Forever and a Day, Albionic Limbo

Charvaka stayed by the porthole, remaining bolt-upright with every lurch of his surroundings as if anchored by his cane. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow as the girls and the bull took the short trip ground-side, allowing the shape of understanding to filter through layers of ablative ignorance, and smirked obscenely at its outline.

He had no recommendations. His observations were incomplete and their destination was obscured. The portal was a black spot in his understanding, vacant ontologies and lines of implication leading to nothing, and it filled him with a lustful curiosity.

"We came here to partake in the dive, yes?", he said, turning back to the stench of divinity. "In his carelessness, my slave has gifted us with a new entrance. Or, perhaps, he has opened a hole to nothing and killed you all. Fortune favours the stupid. We will join them. Come, godling. Let us clear this tavern a landing path."

On his stroll to the door he paused by the body of his servant, and jabbed him pointedly with the end of his cane.

"Do you see the consequence of this tantrum? You have been robbed, you silly boy. I hope you are proud."

Girimehkala stared back up at him, glassy-eyed and lifeless. Charvaka tutted unenthusiastically, and left him to decompose.

Charvaka, Mama Jupiter's Colossal Cabaret

He drifted to the ground like a terrible nanny some way from the group, a few metres from the bottom of a tall, listing apartment block built up by scrap and requirement over the corpse of an ancient haberdashery. The components were quite transparent to him under observation, fundament to biography in a teeming mass of individual histories and gross symbology, but the majority bowed to earth and water, compacted dirt and rotting wood and stolen metal.

He regarded it for a second through the hole between finger and thumb, the greater leylines and minor interplays, before tracing down to their origin and invoking his authority over their superior.

The world clenched around him, and a load-bearing beam in the foundations shunted up into the third floor.

Edited by OG-Sama on Apr 20th 2019 at 3:23:58 AM

A storm of grasping hands reached out to her, and as the streets started to fill with void holes or something, the criminals and the interdimensional peddlers and the guy with three arms reached up to Kaguya and shouted "save us!"

And Kaguya looked down at them, and replied, "No!" as the first part of a much more detailed response.

She rose up from the mob with a perturbed look on her face, staring down at them as she tried to brush and kick off the people looking for a ride. Good lord...the people here smelled awful. It always felt stupid when she did this, after spending quite a long time trying to get rid of those airs, but Kaguya was gonna have to start acting Royally for a few minutes.

"Your pleas fall on deaf ears!" she shouted over the din. "None of you will receive anything from I, Kaguya Houraisan, if you don't ask for it the right way! All of you, stop trying to ride me like a flying horse, and listen!"

She pointed down the street, even further away from the dumb hole that was going to eat all of them. "Cease your crowding around me and turn your ears my way! Make a line! I will shoulder every one of your burdens up to the Egress, just...bah."

Every word she said made her plan sound stupider. It was the time for royalty who ruled...through ACTION!

Kaguya swooped down and grabbed a couple people by the hems of their robes! She visibly moved slower, and she strained to keep a grip on their collars, but it was better than nothing. "Just wait, you all! Offer a prayer that I get to you fast enough!"

Forever and a Day

Oh. Makoto thought distantly, practically feeling her pupil dilate to the size of the spyglass’s viewing hole. So that’s the Mausoleum.

Any other thoughts were abruptly consumed by an overwhelming, gut-wrenching sense of surreal vertigo, her feet stepping over themselves in an attempt to race back from an edge that seemed to follow her wherever she went. How can I be standing on the ground, when there is no ground?! And my feet, they’re not real either, and my legs, my, my body, I’m not—I’m not—! The eyeglass ended up sliding painlessly out of her grasp almost on its own, her grip simply letting it topple to the ground once she no longer believed that her hand was solid enough to hold it. Her quivering innards immediately felt like they were going to drop out the bottom of her stomach when the world came back into harsh, startling focus, as if the bar were just set dressing in an elaborate play and she had momentarily glimpsed the precarious series of pullies and weights that kept it all from crashing down. She gulped down something vile that tried climbing up her throat, as she pawed at her pockets for something, anything, beyond the rough texture of her jeans and the chill shooting up and down her spine, that she could say was at all real. She eventually found herself grasping on to the familiar egg-shape of her magical phone, and she mechanically brought it out in front of her, clicking her thumb down on a familiar icon without thinking about it.

Makoto suddenly found that she was still her human self, still sitting near the entrance to the bar, and still tapping away at her phone. And tapping, tapping, tapping some more—boops and bleeps echoing up at her while the familiar gameplay screen of Magical Girl Raising project—the doofy, frankly overrated mobile game that had gotten her into all of this mess in the first place—played out in front of her. Specifically, the bobbing, pixelated sprite of Magicaloid 44 waved its arm, sending some piece of futuristic technology that she’d certainly never gotten in reality hurtling straight into the face of an unsuspecting magical monster. Any lingering feelings of dizzying unreality were gradually replaced by a disdainful, but oddly comforting embarrassment at the idea of getting caught playing this dumb game in public, and before she knew it, a nervous chuckle had wormed its way past her lips while her sprite cheered to celebrate its next level-up. “Well that didn’t work.” She said, though it came out as more of a gasp, having to blink away a sudden wetness in her eyes before she awkwardly leaned to the side and made to scoop up the Artifacts Inc. power cell as the ship’s insistent rocking threatened to send it rolling away. She found its symbol just as inscrutable as before, and found herself even able to summon up a well of indignation that Rufus couldn’t have spared the five seconds to say 'the spyglass is like X-Ray Specs, but on steroids’. Her hand hovered over the object in question, hesitating, torn between wanting to inspect it for damages and anxious about accidentally catching another glance through its all-too-revealing lens. She had just found the resolve to grasp ahold of it before she was confronted with an entirely new problem, the bar lurching out from underneath her as a burst of sudden acceleration positioned the entrance she’d decided to have this whole adventure in front of a bit less to her side, and a bit more directly below her.

“RUFUS, YOU STUPID SON OF A DAIRY COW—!” Makoto gasped out even as the rushing wind snatched her words away, her thumb already scrabbling desperately over the face of the magical phone that was still white-knuckle clutched in her other hand.

There was a resounding, wood-splintering crash. A small cloud of wood dust sprang from the crates next to the main entrance to Mama Jupiter’s, scraps of wood and metal raining down onto the unsullied crates and back into the pile of crushed splinters—until a familiar, light-lined arm burst out from the latter, grasping blindly about. Finding enough purchase to pull the rest of Magicaloid 44’s diminutive frame out into the light, she coughed—more out of habit than need—into the gathered dust, then groaned slightly-less unnecessarily as she heaved herself to her feet and held out a hand in front of her face, to inspect its thankfully mostly-cosmetic series of dings and scrapes while she flexed it. “Lucky it wasn’t that far down…” She grumbled to herself, before glancing back up to spy on the Egress Eternal’s half-there visage, her mechanical heart practically leaping into her throat as the sight brought back some extremely recent, extremely disorienting memories. But before her mind could get tugged too far back into the yawning abyss of the seemingly-endless sinkhole lurking in the center of town, a persistent flickering to her side took up most of her attention, enough to break her out of her stupor and bring her gaze to Mama Jupiter’s sign, framed just to the side of the hovering shape of Rufus’s bar-slash-ship. As the roar of the rowdy crowd spilled through the nearby alleyway, her gaze flitted between the sign and the ship, circuits beginning to gradually connect.

Her thrusters promptly ignited in a burst of flame behind her, propelling the girl up and over to give her a bird’s-eye view of the brewing turmoil. A half-smile formed as she saw Kaguya diligently trying to ferry up the unrepentant whiners two or three at a time, but she knew that time was the one thing they just didn’t have. She hoped the princess wouldn’t be too mad about this, later.

If there is a later. “HEY YOU GUYS!” Magicaloid would shout out, attempting to get the attention of everyone present, but especially the crowd making such a nuisance out of themselves. She would then leverage an accusing finger in Kaguya’s direction, along with a silent prayer of forgiveness. “Are you really just going to let her bring you up a few at a time? I mean, think about it; if Rufus’s bar is a ship, doesn’t that mean that Mama Jupiter’s bar should be too? If you really want her to help, you should have her take you inside, and demand that Jupiter take us up into the air!” All of this was skirting by how strangely glad that Makoto was that Mama Jupiter hadn’t bled out or been trampled on the floor of her own club, but she didn’t really have the mental space to deal with that right now; for the moment, Magicaloid merely turned toward Kaguya, faced partly away from the crowd, and gave the princess a concealed wink. In her free hand, Kaguya would clearly be able to see the robot girl clutching the spyglass that she had given to Makoto just minutes earlier.

“In the meantime, I’ll check out Old Maken’s shop, and see if that’s a ship too! You guys all wait here!” With her plan delivered and her piece said, Magicaloid would turn unless stopped and rocket off, leaving an azure streak through the sky as she made her way back along the now-familiar path toward Old Maken’s shop, some of Kaguya’s earlier words ringing freshly in her ears.

We were being scryed on by both of them…

Magicaloid’s thumb gently traced the length of the spyglass, the power cell having been long deposited into her pack with her other things. If this thing can show me what I can’t normally see, maybe it’ll reveal how Artifacts Inc. and the Red Ring have been keeping tabs on Maken’s shop. From there, I’ll just have to get one or both of them to do something about all… this. It wasn’t a great last step to a plan, she’d readily admit, but if she failed, she had a feeling Dive wasn't going to have much of a future either. Coming to a stop with a decent aerial view of Maken’s shop, she braced her mechanical lungs like a pair of iron bellows, followed by checking below her in case she needed anything to land on, before steeling herself to pull the spyglass away at a moment’s notice and holding the mystical artifact up to her eye once more, pointed squarely at Maken’s shop.

Edited by Uncandescent on Apr 23rd 2019 at 7:15:47 AM

Kalea, Egress Eternal

For want of anything better to do, she followed the man, despite his seeming disinterest in correcting himself. No matter, that would come in due time.

She jumped out the door and landed with an unseemly elegance, her dress as pristine as ever. Her gaze fell on the poor, the miserables, the abandoned. Her heart bled for them. She had to help, that much she knew. But how?

She glanced back at the door. It was not too far, and with her abilities she could crawl and jump back and forth in a few moments, even holding onto baggage. She simply needed to enhance herself slightly to ensure that be the case.

Of course, that would require a slight change in mindset.

She looked back the fools, huddled and pathetic, clamouring for salvation. Poor materials, yes. But there was potential here. A cult, yet unformed. A cult, their prayers could nourish her with essence, and her interests would become theirs. Why pass up good resources, souls that might be put to good use?

The essence flowed, and suddenly she was a blur of movement, hoisting men and women over her shoulders and jumping to and fro the doorway of the Egress, depositing the unfortunates inside the vessel.

Mama Jupiter's Colossal Cluster#$&%

I can't carry anyone barring myself. These ones are heavy. I doubt I have the upper body strength to even lift one of the small ones.

“...Well if nothing else I think it's past my time to evacuate,” Kyxe decided, looking between the ship and the others near her for a moment before measuring up the nearby cabaret from her current position. “Hmm, yes. Yes, that'll work. I think. Rather than a constant propellant, I could just use a burst...”

The rellan had started running before she'd even finished her sentence, and didn't stop when she reached the wall. Her feet gripped onto the surface of the building and continued upwards; bright pulses of neon white beneath her soles propelling her further upward as her spinal area exuded potent, repeated bursts of plasma and assisted in boosting her. With the odd launch from her arms to help her gain speed, she finally reached the sign—perching atop it and reassessing the distance between her and Rufus's ship below.

...Bigger drop than I thought. Cursed ships and their moving. Still, shouldn't be too difficult. Just think of Aentolin. You've done worse than this.

She grimaced, shifting her grip slightly.

...in richer atmosphere, with lower gravity, and at your peak physical performance not hindered by being a reckless télé.

She closed her eyes for a moment, bracing her knees in preparation for a tremendous leap, before locking her gaze intently on the ship.

GO!

The burst of plasma from beneath her scalded her with its intensity, but she managed to keep her orientation correct. It did the job. She was rocketing towards the ship, managing to almost overshoot it and scrabbling against its top before digging a plasma-filled fist into its surface. She skidded to a halt, legs dangling off the side—before hauling herself atop it with a grunt and pausing slightly to regain her balance.

It had to list, didn't it?

“I somehow doubt the plausibility of a flying cabaret, but I'm standing on top of a flying bar so I suppose really anything is possible,” she called down to them. “I'll let a line down–”

Oh. My jacket.

She smacked her face with the heel of her palm, groaned into it for perhaps longer than necessary, and then sat cross-legged down onto the ship-building's roof and began to weave something in her hands. Plasma crackled from her fingertips and hardened into roughly cut links; fusing into each other in such a manner so as to create a makeshift chain.

She was pushing it now a bit, but thankfully precision was her key. Unfortunately the thing wasn't extraordinarily long, but a good jump from below should get them onto it in a jiffy. She promptly leaned off the side and dangled it out over the ground.

“If you don't have jets for legs. I think I'm in the wrong place for the entrance, but– ah you'll figure it out, I'm sure. Don't break my arms, please.”

Edited by Enirboreh on Apr 25th 2019 at 12:59:32 PM

From the Ground to the Sky - Mama Jupiter's > Eternal Egress

As the others scampered up to the flying ship, Lamb merely stared. Meeting the Hole in the world seemed as inevitable as meeting the Kindred, so she doubted an airship would help matters.

But Wolf desired to give chase, to satisfy his primal instinct to assert his dominance. So she rose, and settled upon his back as his legs tensed. She gestured for those nearby in the Cabaret to take a spot upon Wolf's back if they so wished. Wolf stretched out as long as he could to allow more to pile upon him.

"If you wish to climb with us, grab hold of Wolf. Rest assured, his fur shroud will not harm you."

After allowing a few seconds for others to climb aboard, Wolf howled and leaped.

Despite the weight on his back, he scaled the Cabaret in one leap, and another carried him and his passengers to the deck of the Egress Eternal, landing the same moment Kyxe dropped her chain.

Lamb gracefully rolled off her companion, before Wolf shifted again, becoming shorter and less corporeal, dropping his passengers off.

"I win, birdy." Wolf stuck his tongue out at Kyxe. "No one can outrun me."

"She didn't intend to, dear Wolf." Lamb said, amused, scratching him behind the ear.

Andradite - Alleyway

Andy was suitably impressed by the graceful way what's-her-face with the hair floated down from Rufus' spaceship. That changed somewhat as a pile of guns was shoved into her hands.

"Eh- wha- but- my arm- i can't even- waitaminute!" She stammered as she struggled to keep ahold of the shifting pile of weaponry with one working hand and the crook of one partially-working elbow, punctuating her words with the metallic clatter of firearms hitting the pavement at her feet. The mob from inside the cabaret had come streaming out when they saw Kaguya, jostling the gem back against the alley wall and making her drop even more guns.

"Hey, quit pushing - I'm supposed to - arrgh!"

Dropping every gun but the one she'd managed to get her fingers around - something mean-looking and wide-mouthed - she flailed her arm into the air and fired, half out of frustration and half because, well, that was what Giri would have done to get a crowd's attention, right?

There was an almost-musical poomf noise, and a line of white smoke that shot up over the heads of everyone present, narrowly missing the Egress Eternal, before gracefully arcing down and landing on the unfortunate building being cleared... where it detonated with a fiery crack and a concussive thump.

"... Oooh."

Since Everyone Is In The Same Place, We Can Finally Say Goodbye To Location Tags!

The combined efforts of the entire party were scarcely enough to save themselves. The gang members hanging off of Kaguya's goodwill fought and scrabbled at each other on the way up, more than one falling to his eternal demise in such a manner. Those foolhardy enough to mount Wolf found their teeth rattled and their souls shaken even more, but no more than three dared to come. Kalea's speed proved of more use, although her grasp was hampered by the sea of arms.

"Of course my joint isn't a ship," said Mama Jupiter, gnawing her cigar as she waded through the crowd. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Do you see anything shiplike about this?"

"No, Mama," said Alfred and Wilfred obediently, parting hooligans like ferns.

The adjacent building shuddered, then began to crumble. As the dust began to disappear, Mama Jupiter gripped Kyxe's chain and started to climb. It was an alarming sight, a bit like an orang-utan in a dress. Her two bodyguards followed, deadpan, their moustachios showing no hint of fear.

"Advanced Apportate," hiccuped Begonia, who by now was reduced to tears and the odd sniffle. "Mass Removal. Greater Teleport."

As the rubble vanished with speed, the Egress Eternal wobbled to an unsteady halt, hovering just inches above the dusty ground. The remaining stragglers, minus the trampled and the sadly deceased, clambered into the tavern-part of it. It was now extremely cramped in the Egress Eternal.

"Excellent work! I knew you could do it! Now, let's get out of here!"

Begonia looked at Kayne.

"Do... I do get to go too, right? You're not going to leave me here? I mean, I know I tried to do you in, but that's a minor thing! Forgettable! I was following orders! You can ask your friends!"

At this point, he seemed rather like a kicked puppy.

"Let's get out of here!"

Makoto's scan of Old Maken's showed one thing of note: a small white orb tucked in the wreckage, behind the broken counter. On it was the rusty chained eye that had been on the power cell and the scroll, the mark of Artifacts Inc. It was too far to retrieve conveniently, and yet so tantalisingly close. Just a zip through the ruined ceiling and a lift of the fallen beam...

Somehow...

"No, seriously, we have to get out of here. That binding spell's not going to hold."

The fact that Rufus was not bellowing in enthusiasm spoke volumes about the gravity of the situation.

Edited by troydenite on May 6th 2019 at 1:39:08 AM

Kayne & Moko—Get In The Boat!

With a mighty heave, Kayne all but threw Begonia into the Egress Eternal before hauling her ass (and Moko by extension) into the ship.

"Get in there! We're all friends now. This is a watering hole, there's to be no enmity here. Nice move earlier, by the way," she grunted, before stopping to catch her breath. "But you better spill the damn beans later though, or I'm not forgiving you!"

Moko was quiet as he tried not to cry in fear. Kayne reached up absent-mindedly and patted him comfortingly.

Edited by JumpingFruit on May 5th 2019 at 8:40:03 AM

Egress Eternal

“I was under the impression that this wasn't a race, but whatever entertains you,” Kyxe flatly retorted to their friendly neighbourhood death wolf, grunting slightly as she braced herself under Mama Jupiter's weight. “Probably... should've tied this to something...!”

But she was soon up, and she panted slightly in relief—using the last of her energy to swing herself from the roof of the makeshift ship and into the bar section itself. Rolling inside, she initially made to relax before realising that not everyone was accounted for, and with an almost-roll of the eyes she leaned back over the side again to peer down at the chaos below.

“Crystal girl! Other ones I don't care about right now! Duty states you haul your kilten up here before I drag you up myself! Lœ forbid you escape from a singularity!”

Any semblance of her disciplined façade had frayed away now. She was exhausted and stressed, and she just wanted to collapse and sleep for the foreseeable future. But she had an obligation morally as well as militarily, and she'd be damned if she was to be guilty by inaction.