Too Many Cooks Spoil The Multiverse: This Is (Not) A Joke

Zone Six [Egress Eternal]

Some time has passed. You're not really sure how you wound up back in a restaurant so far out of your price range twice in one day. Must be whatever's left of the alcohol in your system.

You think back to the flophouse, where you showed everyone your tentacle. The conversation pretty much died right after that. Should have figured that would happen. They may be your colleagues, they may be literal gods and angels with the patience of saints, but even they can only take so much of a person like you before the awkwardness sets in.

So, you'd excused yourself and left. You had started making your way back home, insomuch as you can call it that, but the exact details of the trip remain foggy. All you know for sure is that you found yourself in front of the Egress Eternal, where a voice came over the loudspeaker, asking for "heroic" types to come in.

You'd hesitated. You're not a hero. You might have been one in the past, but you weren't one now. You were strongly tempted to just keep walking. But the voice had sounded urgent. Legit. And you know they never would have forgiven you if you turned your back on someone in need. None of them would.

So you sighed, drew yourself up, and walked back in.

And now you find yourself in some kind of lounge with a few other people, including Amaterasu and a redheaded guy with a talking red guitar, listening as a little girl explains the situation.

The floating doesn't bother you. Neither do the glowing eyes, or the fact that this little girl doesn't talk like a little girl, or the haughty tone in her voice and look. Compared to everything else you've seen in your life, even before coming to this city, she's practically mundane.

No, what bothers you is the name. Not the fact that she shares it with this restaurant/ship/whatever, but the fact that it's so long. And your powers came from an Aztec god. You a thing or two about ridiculously long names. Tezcatlipoca, Quetzalcoatl and Coyolxauhqui have nothing on this kid.

You're not going to call her Gressie. But you're sure as hell not going to use that full name. Not without mangling it, at least.

But enough about names and the length thereof. There's a missing… person to deal with. And a kidnapped ferret, but nobody seems very concerned about that, so… person it is, then.

You wait until Amaterasu and Lang — or Ling, or Ya, you don't know and you don't want to assume — have finished speaking. Then you clear your throat. "This Andy, does he sweat? Because I might be able to track him if he does."

Might. Even when you were whole that wasn’t something you could do easily, but now… you have no idea. You never had a reason to try something like this since you got here.

Not that it matters, if the answer to your question is a no…

Witch - Zone Two; Home > Zone One; Founder's Park

It had been a remarkably pleasant morning. You'd been able to enjoy your coffee while watching the "sunrise", the neighbors had kept to themselves, and your training sessions with your mischief had gone swimmingly. Wrinkle - he was so proud of the name he'd picked for himself - perched on your shoulder as you checked over your gear, overseeing his broodmates scurrying about and receiving occasional scritches. All in all, a good start to the day.

Naturally, that meant you would be assailed by heavens knew what the moment you left the sanctuary of your new home.

The house in question sat off to the edge of Zone Two, and it would barely be an exaggeration to claim that acquiring it was a steal. Nobody else wanted to touch it, and for good reason. The previous owner had disappeared one day, leaving behind a rather modest rat infestation. You'd stepped in, claiming no small amount of experience dealing with vermin, and bought the place up. It only took a day to bring the critters to heel, a rare chance to make good use of your sway over things that go bump in the night. After that, it was just a matter of training them to clean up after themselves and to keep out of sight and a generation or two later they were excellent housemates. It helped that the little bastards were rather adorable once they started keeping themselves properly groomed. For your part you kept them well fed and well supplied to keep themselves entertained, and they kept the place nearly spotless. Now if only you could get them to reliably change their own bedding....

Sufficiently satisfied with your inspection of your equipment, you donned the last of it, bid the mischief farewell for the time being and headed outside into the city. Immediately you were accosted by the sights and sounds of an incredibly mundane, almost boring day. No shouting in the street, your neighbor on the left was sleeping in his rocking chair on his porch and your neighbor on the right had forgotten to open his windows before he started his yodeling routine. Nobody was bleeding out on your porch steps, and there was no sign of anyone from the precinct waiting with a case that absolutely required your attention specifically.

Perhaps today might actually be a peaceful day after all?

Against your better judgement you opted to stop by your office in Zone Six and check in to make sure there wasn't something that actually absolutely required your attention. You headed towards the connection through Zone Four, hoping to avoid potentially having to deal with Greed's flunkies in Zone Five. Zone Four was less troublesome from a general standpoint- in no small part thanks to Amaterasu's calming influence- and you hadn't stopped by the park in some time besides. It was never too late for another reminder that nature didn't agree with you, but at least the park usually didn't lead to any sort of paperwork you had to deal with.

You'd barely made it off your street when you caught a voice calling out to you, bringing those plans to a halt. "Boss!" it shouted. "Hey, Boss!" You didn't have to look to know who it was.

"What's the sitch, Rodriguez?" you say, turning to your "apprentice" as he drew closer. "Engels cock up another investigation that the brass want me to sort out?" Private Rodriguez gave you a look as he caught up beside you, taking a few seconds to catch his breath, before he said "What, you mean Evans? No, this isn't about him. Kinda. Well, not yet, if we hurry." You sighed and held up your hand, signaling for him to stop. Wishful thinking on your part that you could enjoy your day off.

"Alright, alright, start from the top. Where're we headed? Fill me in on the way."

Zone One, a civilian found a body in the Founder's Park with a sign embedded in its chest, staked straight through into the ground. Naturally, the brass didn't take it seriously and thought it unworthy of attention.

"Lemme guess, chief told ya to fuck off when you asked to poke around?" Rodriguez nodded. "Pretty much. His words were, and I quote, 'Fuckin' nobody goes to the Founder's Park, place's a ghost town, and you expect me to believe some broad got murdered there and somebody went to the trouble to plant a sign through her chest? Get the fuck outta my office and go waste somebody else's time.'" You rolled your eyes and snorted. Just another typical fulfilling day of work with the Peacekeepers. It truly was a wonder that most people in the city didn't trust them if they could afford it. "Ya gotta understand, Rodriguez, the chief's got a lot on his plate. He's so busy gargling the Diet's balls all the time so he can keep his cushy desk job he doesn't have time for anything else. How else is he gonna dodge workin' an honest day in his life?" Rodriguez did his best to remain composed but let a smirk slip through."Remind me to never play cards with you, Boss, you're way too good at keeping a straight face." You simply shrugged. Up ahead you could see the entrance to the park, which took care of one half of the story Rodriguez had started.

"Where's our golden child fit into all this, anyway?" you asked. Rodriguez cocked his head before finally saying "Oh, right, Evans. He overheard me talking with the chief and said he was gonna head out and investigate, solve the whole thing by himself, y'know, the usual. Except, well, he's..." he paused for a second, obviously searching for a diplomatic approach. "A fucking moron," you finished for him. "I mean, yeah, no shit. Anyway, Evans left for the park. 'Cept I'm pretty sure he thought we were talkin' about Konohana Park and went there instead, because there's no way we'd've beat him here if he knew where he was going."

Incredible, truly incredible. What were the odds that Evans' idiocy actually worked out in your favor for once? You clapped your gauntleted hands together and said "So we've prob'ly got a solid hour before he works it out and makes his way here. Plenty o' time." Sure enough, as the two of you entered the park proper there was a figure splayed out on the ground with a sign jutting out of its chest, and Evans was nowhere to be found. And this scene definitely hadn't been missed for several days before being found. The spirits were restless in the presence of a death so fresh. The place absolutely reeked of it. "Don't suppose you had a chance to take a look before this?" you inquired. Rodriguez shook his head.

"No, but I betcha I could tell you what the chief would say," he said after looking around, pausing to clear his throat and get into character before leaning into his best cowboy impression. "Dunno what you sissies were so worried about, just a case o' harmless vandalism an' an improper disposal of a cadaver! Open and shut case! Pack it up, boys, we'll be back to the precinct before lunch!" You shot him a quick bemused look as you glanced over the scene and said "Practiced that one, haven't you?" Suitably satisfied with himself, he said "Maybe once or twice," then walked around to the side of the body and tapped the sign. "You figure this is just paint, or did they actually go to the trouble to write in blood?"

From the smell alone you could tell it was definitely blood. It made your teeth itch, but you kept plenty of rations in the fridge back home to stave off actual hunger. You crouched down next to the body to get a closer look. The pooled blood beneath the corpse was a strong indicator that the stake had been the fatal blow, but something didn't add up...

"It's blood alright, and definitely homicide. 'Cept the body looks more set than the blood does." You gave the corpse's arm a nudge. "She hasn't been here long, but she's already going stiff. Something ain't right. Let's keep lookin'."

You took another look at the sign. 'Sic Semper Tyrannis', it said, along with part of the Diet motto. Someone was clearly going for the dramatic approach. Frankly, they could've picked a more well-traveled spot to stage their little art installation.

Zone Seven, The Welcoming Guild

Whilst Bondrewd and Prushka took up residence on one of the sofas, Leonardo was sprawled out on another one, occasionally emitting a groan of pain and staring idly at nothing as he recovered from a near broken back.

(For context: having taken a pit stop at his apartment in Zone Six, Leo had presented his store-brought pastry to his neighbour- a thank-you gift for an earlier incident with a reality quake that had necessitated Leo's neighbour saving him from a ravenous, two-headed bird that had mistaken his hair for a nest. Said neighbour- a giant of a man with a face that was too long and an eyeball that had slid down to settle beside his nose- had screamed and pulled Leo up into what could objectively be called a bear hug, but Leo would describe as being closer to a death trap. He had yet to recover from the strain that said hug had put on his back.)

Fortunately- or, well, maybe not- Leo was quite used to brushes with death while on the job, so he hadn't let it stop him from following along to the Welcoming Guild. Hearing his co-workers talk, Leo scooted his head just enough to spot the small, pink blob that had initiated conversation with them. "Hey Egbert." he greeted. "Anyone interesting come in lately?"

"Interesting" was a relative term in Concordia, and doubly so for a previous resident of Hellsalem's Lot, but it wasn't like Leo had much else to say to the cat.

A truly soul crushing sigh escaped the mouth of the lithe alchemist as she made her way through the lush grass of Founder's Park. She had no real opinion or attachment to the park, but she needed to use it as a shortcut on her way to the Conclave. They were still pressuring her to release her observations on the engine brought to her by one Donkey Kong. She was not exactly forthcoming with that information for two reasons. One, she has never been good at working with others. Two, it was really fun to watch pencil-pushers get in a tizzy.

As luck, or maybe unluck, would have it on this particular shortcut, a cry rang out to interrupt her trip. She perked up a little and turned to look at whatever distraction she could get away with. Walking a few feet off of her path, she came upon the grizzly sight of a woman, skewered by a sign post through her torso.

The sight was honestly surprising, considering how few people use walk through this park. She rarely ran into another living soul when cutting through here, yet there were two or more people that met up and resulted in one being dead. The surprise was enough that she didn't notice the other two and the scene before her at first. A woman and a man, neither of whom she recognized.

She found her eyes drawn to the message on the sign sticking out of the woman's chest. While she was never one to have anything to do with the Diet for any reason, she recognized part of their motto. She also recognized the second part of the message. In her lifetimes she has studied plenty of Latin and ancient Rome back on her world. The surprise of running into something familiar like this threw her off a bit, causing her to mutter out loud to herself while glancing towards the Founder's statues.

"'Thus always to Tyrants'...Sounds like someone is a fan...."

Miso the Vortigaunt wasn't used to being treated by non-Vortigaunt healers, but he did his best to stay put as a clearly sleep-addled nurse applied bandages to his head. It wouldn't make much of a difference, as he had spent the previous night inwardly communing with the Vortessence, healing the deeper, darker wounds within his psyche. Yet it'd make the nurse feel better, so he did it.

That didn't stop him from looking out into the hallway, hoping someone would approach him about the incident he had seen last night. "The crystalline being..." He began, much to the chagrin of the nurse, who was hoping to finish the job without hearing that speech all over again. "... requires assistance, as the robotic assailant has conscripted it into the beyond..."

"Yes, yes, sir." The nurse mumbled under their breath, finishing work on the bandages. "I bet it does."

Still, his words vibrated through the Vortessence, attempting to reach the waiting ears of those who would do something about it. Miso knew that it was only a matter of time until someone responded to the call, which often took the form of a soft whisper at the base of their ear, luring them towards the Vortigaunt and pushing them to hear more.

Edited by Stratofarius on Apr 26th 2021 at 11:41:16 AM

Areum, Founder’s Park

After eating, I decided I needed to go do something very important – look at my statue in Founder’s Park. As expected, she is extremely hot, just like me. Beautiful, powerful, having the best opinions – that’s me, baby. After I was finally satisfied that I had the hottest statue in the Diet, I turned my attention to the other people who were not me.

Oh look, it’s Witch. Witch was a cop, and cops are nerds, and I dunk nerds in the toilet super hard. Thus far however, I have showed impressive restraint by not doing so. As I have learned, people tend to get mad at me when I relentlessly bully people, which is why I’ve cut it down to more reasonable levels during my time here. Plus, I believe Witch is into the Goth Kpop scene, so she can’t be that bad. Or at least she has that look.

I wonder why she’s here, any- oh shit! Is that a dead body? Shit! This is NOT epic! Who could have even DONE something like this? Jengbish was a brutal guy, but wanton murder doesn’t seem like his M.O. Myn was pretty sneaky, but was he really capable of something like this? Meanwhile, Leonardo… wait, of course it wasn’t goddamn Leonardo! Even the smartest brain in Concordia has dumb ideas sometimes.

“Yooo Witch!” I call out in a super friendly manner. “What’s up homegirl?”

Helena, Angel’s Flophouse

Helena overheard her patient saying something about a crystalline being, and decided to interject.

“Crystalline… wait a moment, are you talking about Andy? Did something happen to them?”

Hmm. Why are apes like this...

Kaguya, with the clear evidence of the ape's exaggeratedly large hands proving that everything was right, felt confident that this was going to be the start of good things. Provided that this one task of his doesn't go awry, of course. She pulled out a fan that flowed from the gap in her sleeve like it was water, and flapped it open expertly.

"It'd be hard for someone like you to fall in the line of duty, surely? We'll speak again after you have managed to make it back." She taps her head. "Keep a clear mind! Nothing's impossible to those who think...at least, if they think quick enough."

With those vague platitudes dispensed and her mind settled on other business already, Kaguya walked over to the counter, asked to send a round to DK's table, and left. In a hurry, I must add. She wasted no time with mere walking; her feet flew off the ground and her self back to the entourage she kept when out and about. That task was done, and now was the time for the far less favorable one...

...listening to the pleas of her descendants, and random outsiders.

In betrayal of her usual refined demeanor, she rested her head on her fist. The words of this person, some far-flung Houraisan who had no more of her self in him than anyone did. Yes, he was most likely going to live to be centuries old at the minimum, and yes, the refined appearance of the earth-born Lunarian shined past his features. That was never in question.

What she had grown to despise was the way that most of them simply looked up to her for gifts. Yes, random sixth-generation Houraisan, you need the charity of the House so that you can start a...coffee-growing business? And not a tea-growing business? How—

Ah, yes. He's wearing an American flag on his shirt.

That he comes to her house, begging for hand-me-downs, while wearing a t-shirt makes Kaguya blanche on the inside. She didn't want him in this room any longer.

A pittance was given, a treacherous contract signed, and in all likelihood he was going to be made to do something unsavory for the House in no time. Though her blood runs thin in him, it was enough to get quite a few activities done without question. The last person who begged in such a way to her had her circle of friends destroyed after she performed some simple, but effective rumormongering on Kaguya's behalf.

A little of a shame. Kaguya had talked with those ladies once. They weren't that bad.

Kaguya wished she was at home.

Kayné Ainsel & Moloch "Moko" Kothys—Zone One, Central Business District, Corner of Seventh & Ninth Street

"Thank you! Come again!" Kayne said cheerfully to the patrons that left the little cafe, courteously seeing them out as she cleared the tables that they'd previously occupied and otherwise cleaned up after her guests. She hummed lightly as she worked, channeling a sort of cheerful bustle as she served DK another steaming mug of coffee. "Here. Kaguya ordered this for you. If you don't want to drink it now, paper cups with lids are right over there."

"Kayne! Do me a favor, love," Moko shouted, his voice echoing from inside the kitchen, as he was fiddling with the dishwasher. He had no compunctions with doing the dishes by hand, but liquids were likely to short Kayne's prosthetic hand out and she wanted to reduce Moko's workload, and so the newfangled contraption remained. "I forgot to sweep out front; would you kindly help me with that, please?"

"Sure!" Kayne chirped back, retrieving a broom from a small closet. She propped the door open and got to sweeping, noting how even the artificial daylight outside seemed extra refreshing in that moment. The day was sure to be a wonderful day as it ended, she was sure.

Edited by JumpingFruit on May 1st 2021 at 11:28:25 AM

Welcoming guild

Off to one side, facing the door towards the airlocks that would eventually let them out into the Incoherence, Maia was a picture of quiet activity amid the bustle of the team mingling and preparing.

With deft, precise motions, she pulled her pulse pistol out of its holster, flipped the cooling shroud back to inspect the plasma coil, checked the contacts on the battery pack, and slipped it back under her cloak. Next, her spear, cycling the power system, flicking the hardlight blade on and off, and checking the weapon's balance on the tip of one finger. Satisfied, she moved on to her webbing pouches...

Even as all of this activity went on, her eyes were flickering faintly, her expression blank. Her gear was only occupying a small partition of her attention, the rest turned inward to the system checks running in her mind.

• Motility System Group
  • Nominal
• FFCS
  • Nominal
• NFCS
  • Nominal
• Reactor System Group
  • LOW FUEL ERROR

This was never an enjoyable exercise, but it was not one she could neglect. As doorman, her team's success and survival depended on her performance, and she had to make sure her sub-optimal state did not jeopardize the mission.

• Main Canon System Group
  • LOW POWER ERROR
  • FIRE CONTROL ERROR
• [UNKNOWN] System Group
  • [UNKNOWN] ERROR

As she had become accustomed to doing, she set aside the familiar errors. Pushed them to back of her mind, as a human might say, where they nagged at her with a distant urgency. She limited her analysis to her core systems and ended the diagnostic.

Final score: 23% theoretical operational capacity.

18% was her minimum cut-off for deployment. She found a small amount of satisfaction in the fact that she had not yet had to abort on technical grounds. She was getting better, albeit slowly.

With her own preparations out of the way, she turned her attention back to the team around her, stepping over to the sofas where some of the others were sitting. Father mussed her Sister's head, and Maia smiled. It was good to think about something other than her problems before they deployed. As much as it would improve her fuel situation, accidentally inserting the concept of alchemic neutronium into an uncharted Room would have disastrous consequences for the health of her team.

Speaking of which.

"Leo. You are in discomfort. Do you want me to summon a medic?"

Edited by LittleMako on May 1st 2021 at 5:19:08 AM

Zone Six; The Egress Eternal

Egress Eternity Eupepsia ‘Ey seems completely unperturbed at the request for something with a scent. No, it’s the request for sweat that gets her. She frowns at Everett, her girlish brow scrunched in a way that makes it clear that she’s trying to think nice thoughts, or at least sufficiently dumbed-down thoughts.

“Oh, you. I remember you. You’re the drunk who got all sad in his beer this morning. Shame about the arm, maybe you should get a new one. Anyway, if you were looking at my very accurate projection, you would notice that Andy is literally a rock. His name is Andradite. Andradite is a mineral. Not vegetable. Not animal.”

Very instructively, she pulls out another hologram, this one of Andy tripping over with a loaded tray. Addward is also in the picture, but under Andy.

“Mineral.”

She seems to be wondering whether all meat-based brains work this slowly.

“So no, Everett, I don’t have any gem-sweat on me. Addward, however, does perspire, because he is a disgusting mammal. No offense meant, of course. I’m sure you’re all perfectly sanitary in your own ways.”

She gestures to the far wall. A hatch snaps open right behind the wine cabinet, and a helpful-looking mechanical arm shoots out, holding a gigantic ledger book the size of two encyclopedias glued together.

“This is Addward’s balance book. I’m pretty sure it’s ceremonial, but he’s kept it updated obsessively ever since we arrived here, I think because his brain has the consistency of a scrambled egg.”

The mechanical arm begins to ruffle through the pages, before pointing at a slightly damp spot on one of the tabulated cells.

“That may be sweat, or drool, or whatever. I don’t know why it’s there, I don’t want to know why it’s there, and I hope that you’ll be kind enough to never tell me once you work it out.”

The mechanical arm returns, this time bearing a keen-looking black blade that appears to be made of obsidian.

“And this is Andy’s favorite sword. Rather brittle, all things considered, but then again, he has been using it for the past hundred years. I don’t know what you could possibly gain from it, Ammie, but I don’t actually have a nose. So what do I know?”

Gressie folds her arms.

“Go nuts,” she says, clearly not willing to do anything resembling nuts. “Also, shut up, Ling Ya. We aren’t old friends. I have no friends. And my name is Egress Eternity Eupepsia ‘Ey. How would you like it if I called you Talking Lute?”

Addward’s sweat trail leads out of the diner and to the east, while Andy’s sterile scent leads out of the diner and to the west. It seems clear that whatever decision you make next, you’ll have to split yourselves up, and fast.

Zone Seven; The Welcoming Guild

“Agriculture,” says Egbert, curling up around a nearby stool. “Yes, very interesting.”

Being a cat, he is incapable of lying, and so this statement is followed by a gigantic yawn.

“Well,” he says, his spine stretching through his ridged skin, “I’m sure you’ll do a good job of it, Bondrewd. Not too sure about your girl, though — I know you love experiments, but surely there’s safer places to work on your parenting. Hello, Leo. You look dead. I’ll fetch the medicine.”

He trots elegantly towards the door, slipping out through the catflap designed specifically for him. When he comes back, he is half-dragging, half-pushing a bright pink first-aid box.

“Thwey mwake iwt bwight pwink two kweep fwom scwawing thwe newcomers,” he explains eloquently, before setting it down and springing the catch with remarkable nose dexterity.

“Maia,” he says, “take the pain patch and put it on Leo’s back. You might have to lift his shirt, but I think he’ll live. I would do it, but I don’t have any thumbs.”

The pain patch itself appears to be something like a medicinal plaster, marked with Chinese characters and smelling strongly of spiced oil. The paper sheath peels apart like gum.

“We don’t know if these actually work,” says Egbert, in a conspiratorial tone. “Amanda swears by them, but I think they’re just placebo. Then again, who puts good medicine on a hairless cat?”

Amanda is the actual secretary of the Welcoming Guild, and Egbert’s ostensible human. The cat rubs against Leo’s legs, then settles back down in a pinkish lump.

“As for interesting persons, well… do you want to hear about the three dogs in the trenchcoat, or the fortune-telling goat? Oh, and there was another man too, quite conceited… what was his name?”

He yawns again.

“Darien Brand? Ah, whatever. Who cares?”

Zone One — Founder’s Park

“I d—didn’t do anything!” whimpers the old man. “It’s true!”

The extent to which his fear can be chalked up to the appearance of three very tall ladies is another mystery, but one outside the scope of this particular segment.

Your keen investigator’s senses reveal absolutely nothing. It’s as if the body was simply dropped there. There doesn’t seem to be anything around it at all, not even footprints in the grass — despite the fact that the marks of your own feet are clearly visible.

The statues, too, yield no clues. You are about to give up when something quite unexpected happens.

“I know why she died,” says a new voice. “I saw it.”

The woman has produced herself, quite suddenly, from behind the statue of Areum. She is middle-aged, stuck in that wrinkled limbo that women reach between the ages of forty-five and fifty-five, where their faces stay largely the same but their eyes age rapidly. She has the glassy eyes and bright smile of a fanatic.

“I saw her fall from heaven,” says the woman. “She fell from the sky and the sign fell on top of her, inside her. It was a punishment for refusing to praise the great god. It is a warning to us all. Fear the great god, giver of life! Praise the great god, who planted the trees of the earth with his mighty hands! Praise him!”

Quite without warning, she begins to beat her chest and screech, and you realise with a shock that her shirt is emblazoned with a familiar face.

“D.K! Donkey Kong! D.K! Donkey Kong!”

Zone One, Kothys

Unfortunately, the day is neither over nor wonderful, unless you consider externally-motivated and strangely spontaneous robbery to be a good thing.

Ten men stumble through the door all at once. They are clad in a motley assortment of criminal attire, from hoods to ski masks to an actual clown outfit. All are armed, although only two of them have guns, and only one of those appears to be an actual gun. You’re pretty sure the second is fake.

“THIS IS A ROBBERY!” yodels Clown Man. “GIVE ME THE CASHIER!”

“No, you idiot,” hisses the guy next to him, “the cash! Ask her to give you the cash!”

The sloshing of his gun confirms that it is, indeed, fake.

“I have a knife!” calls out one of the robbers, rather helpfully. “Do you want me to use the knife?”

Clown Man takes a deep breath.

“THIS IS A ROBBERY!” he screams again. “WE HAVE A KNIFE, WE WANT YOUR CASH, HAND IT OVER!”

"Yeah!" says Knife.

"Yeah!" says Water Gun.

Clown Man waves his 2mm Kolibri, menacingly.

Edited by troydenite on May 4th 2021 at 12:36:40 AM

Kayné Ainsel & Moloch "Moko" Kothys—Zone One, Central Business District, Corner of Seventh & Ninth Street

This was either a joke with really terrible taste behind it or an actual, honest-to-God, attempt at a genuine robbery. Either option lacked pathos, and Kayne wasn't sure how to respond at first, and instead just stared at the would-be robbers for a bit with lowered glasses, giving them her best "disapproving schoolmarm" look. She had perfected it, but it wasn't going to help her much here. Unless Clown Face was as idiotic as he seemed.

"This is a coffee shop," she began mildly, detaching something out from under the counter, as she had indeed moved back to man (woman?) it after she'd swept the floors. She did not raise the plasma musket she'd once made for Rotgut—complete with bayonet—yet, instead holding it visibly in her lap. "I have a plasma musket, we only serve coffee and pastries plus a few other edibles, and if you're hungry, I can give you our leftovers after we close, but pointing a weapon at me won't help your case any."

"What the hell are you lackwits doing in my shop?" Moko intoned furiously from the door to the kitchen. He marched towards the counter with fists clenched, steam rising from whatever skin was exposed on his (rather toned) human form as he started radiating heat in waves. "Point that knife somewhere else other than the love of my life and save me the trouble of killing you, you miserable f—"

"Moko, dear, I just swept the floors," Kayne interjected. "I'm not inclined to mop their blood up today, and I'm sure they're just high on some drug or another. We're supposed to be hospitable people. Remember, you're a gentleman. At least give them the time to calm down and order something or leave before you start with all the swearing and the ripping and tearing. Honestly."

"Get out," Moko snarled, rolling his sleeves up and pointing a red-hot Hellfire-coated hand at the lead robber. "I won't tell you again! Get out!"

"I think it would be best if you listened to him," Kayne suggested, raising the plasma musket at last, its energy core whirring to life and humming menacingly. "Please don't make this more difficult for us than you have to. As a doctor, I hate to be the one patching up all the damage afterwards. Then again, you might not be alive for that, either..."

Edited by JumpingFruit on May 8th 2021 at 9:56:55 AM

Zone Six [Egress Eternal]

There's a lot of things you could say in response to that. "Gee, thanks, the thought never would've crossed my mind," or "I may be many things, but I am not some fucking beggar," or "Right, because every person named Jade must automatically be a sentient humanoid rock, too. It's not like you included graphs and core samples in your projections, ya stupid AI".

You don't say any of them, though. It won't get you anywhere, and there's more important things at stake. So instead you grit your teeth, exhale, and let it go.

Then you hold out your hand toward the book. You turn your palm upward, as if expecting someone to take it. And you focus.

Come to me...

The damp spot on the page begins to contract, to shrink. Dry, wrinkled paper is left in its wake as all the lingering moisture in that one spot is drawn inward, coalescing into a single point.

You curl your index finger. That point leaps off the page, becomes a perfectly spherical droplet. It arcs through the air and comes to rest a few inches above your palm, quivering and spinning ever so slightly.

You stand up, slowly, carefully, making sure to keep your hand level. The droplet of ferret fluid wobbles for a second before settling. It glitters like a tiny gemstone as it catches the overhead lights. It's such a small, insignificant thing. You doubt Addward gave much thought to whatever this liquid was when he shed it, if he even thought about it at all.

What would he think if he learned that the key to saving him lay in his spit-slash-sweat?

The thought makes you smile. Then you begin the procedure.

You breathe in, slowly, deliberately. You breathe out. In, out. In. Out.

The world falls away. Sounds of conversation, thoughts of androgynous rock people, the caress of recirculated air against skin, the reflective surface of the table... All grow fainter with each breath, until all you hear is the sound of your own heartbeat, all you see is that glittering droplet, and all you feel is the pulse of your own blood circulating through your veins.

You turn your senses inward. You close your eyes...

And open them to find yourself in the Cave.

Its vaulted ceiling is lost in the gloom, but there is light within the darkness. Below you, before you, a vast expanse of water stretches in all directions. It glows faintly from within, casting everything that can be seen in a pale, blue-green glow. Its surface is perfectly still and as clear as a mirror, and when you look down you can see your reflection staring up at you.

The face is one you barely recognize anymore. No blue skin, no fangs, no goggle eyes, and no split lip: just an old man, from a life that might have been. An old man with no shirt, no shoes, and no right arm.

This stranger isn't all you see, of course. You see that familiar face looming large as well. You turn and glance over your shoulder, at the real thing.

A great stone face looms large out of the shadows. It’s the spitting image of the face everyone sees when they look upon you, just on a grander scale. The jutting fangs are as tall as you are, and the downcast goggle eyes are wide and deep enough to be the outfalls of a sewer. Water flowed out of them once in a steady stream, but that was a long time ago.

You nod at the face. "Hey, Tlaloc."

No answer, not that you expected otherwise. Tlaloc hasn't said a word—hasn't done anything—since the day you were broken. You have no idea whether the god is alive or just dormant. You'll probably never know.

"Great conversation, as always." With that you turn your attention back to your hand, and the droplet of fluid still floating above it. You peer into its depths. To someone else, there would be little to see.

To you, it's like gazing into the cosmos from outside.

This was spit, and you can tell exactly why it was shed from the chemicals and impurities floating within: the ferret was drooling from an unexpected profit that would keep the lights on for the next quarter. That's not all you find in there, of course: you find traces of feather and bug chitin, probably from Addward's lunch; minute flecks of zinc and nickel and copper, cotton fibres and linen, all taken from the money he probably handles on a daily basis; dopamine and other hormones; and...

Eww. Evidently Addward is one of those ferrets that believes in thoroughly grooming himself.

But it doesn't matter. Because now you have the mixture, the composition, the essence of Addward.

"Spit is water," you mutter. "Sweat is water. Water is rain, and Rain is life…"

You turn your hand. The droplet falls.

Plop.

The sound of its impact echoes throughout the Cave. Its ripples shimmer across the surface of the pool for a long time.

You nod to yourself. "Gotcha."

Your arm falls. You close your eyes...

And open them.

Very little time has past since you first closed them. All that's different is that your arm is hanging at your side, and the droplet is no longer in the air. Rather, it has dashed itself to ruin against the surface of the table.

"Okay," you say. "I've identified the makeup of Addward's spit and sweat. If he does either of those things, I'll feel it happen... if I'm close enough."

You don't mention the fact that you still need to pick him out from all the other people that might be nearby. There must be millions if not billions of people in this city, and quite a few of them must be spitting and/or sweating at any given moment.

It's gonna be like finding a needle in a haystack. It always was, but at least the needle is a bit bigger and brighter now.

Zone Six, Egress Eternal

Amaterasu considered interjecting a moment, defending Everett from this strange, arrogant girl, but she decides against it. Her fellow god has been through much, and she does not want to remind him that she holds more authority than he does. She wishes only for him to stand with her as an equal.

So she instead focused on the items. She took a sniff of Addward's ledger, taking in the faint musk of a small rodent. A marten, she decided after a moment. As Everett focused on the sweat-stained page, Amaterasu turned towards the sword, and from it gleaned the smell of base earth. Rocks don't have complex smells, and that makes it easier to follow.

One scent to the east, one to the west. She prepared to tell the others, but was given pause by two things.

The first was Everett, as he briefly focused on the ledger. Within him she could feel something stir, some memory of a broken divinity. There is a strange familiarity to it, like she was looking in a mirror. But only for a moment, before he looks up and the feeling is gone.

The second was a whisper, barely audible, at the back of her head, speaking of a crystalline being abducted by a robot. Her ears twitched and her head turned slightly, as she wondered if the sound was even real. But there was no one there.

Exhaling, then taking another breath through her nostrils, she padded for the door.

"Addward is to the east," She nodded in that direction, "While Andradite is to the west. It seems we must split up."

Amaterasu stretched her legs a moment as she faced towards the distant scent of Andy. "I shall go after Andradite. Everett should be able to track Addward. You may follow either of us as you desire."

After giving those present a minute to decide who they would follow, she set off at a decent jogging pace towards Andradite.

The Welcoming Guild

"Hey, I can take care of myself! I'm a grown woman!" Prushka protested, pouting after Egbert in a way that very much undermined her statement.

"Now, now," Bondrewd placated as he began to double-check the inventory of his pouches once more, "Egbert is a cat, so perhaps he understands your age in a different way. In any case, are you sure you want to go on this expedition? You did say that the next time you set out, you wanted to be able to prove yourself a Master, but you won't be able to do that this time because of Guild rules."

"I'll just use this as a chance to get some more practice in! Besides..." she trailed off, giving the pained, squint-eyed occupant of the other couch a sidelong glance.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing!" she finished, snapping her eyes back to look straight ahead as a faint rosy tinge colored her cheeks, "Egbert, why don't you tell us about the fortune-telling goat?

Edited by darksidevoid on May 3rd 2021 at 8:25:55 AM

Witch - Zone One - Founder's Park

The scene didn't stay quiet for long. The old man who'd been whimpering off to the side of the park started yammering again, profusely claiming his innocence. You had no idea why he was still here. Presumably he was a bum squatting here because very few people passed through this area to be able to harass him.

Shortly after another wandered into the area, obviously not aware of the unfurling situation prior to waltzing in. You heard her before you saw her. Rodriguez moved up to intercept the new arrival, assuming she was merely another civilian. You caught a glimpse of the Doctor's face and clapped Rodriguez on the shoulder before he stepped out of your reach. "Ma'am-" he'd started to say before you stopped him.

"Relax, Rodriguez, this isn't an official investigation."

At least, that's what you'd wanted to say. By the time you'd managed your partner's name you noticed that yet another figure had joined the growing congregation in the park, and this latest entrant was much less welcome. Areum the technicolor harlot had shown up, ostensibly to admire her own statue in yet another show of vanity. A fraction of a second prior, you had been attempting to tell your apprentice to ease up. Now, ever fiber of your being was screaming, ABORT! ABORT! ABORT! Thankfully the banshee seemed to have not yet realized the scope of the scene she had trundled into.

As quickly as you could manage, you finished your statement "...this is an official Peacekeeper investigation, and the good Doctor's aid would be most welcome in this endeavor. Doctor Faust, might we rely on your expertise to assist us in this matter?" Rodriguez turned and shot you a slightly confused glance but quickly did his best to play along.

You had no idea how smooth of a save your course correction actually resulted in, but you did the best with what you were given. Frankly, it was unlikely that Doctor Faust actually remembered you, not that you would be disappointed if she didn't. Others largely only knew of you as the tireless knight among the Peacekeepers. You largely only knew of her by association, and by verdict of your frequent collaborations with the Draughtsmen.

Areum finally- unfortunately- took notice of what had transpired in her vicinity and the company she had unknowingly entered. She opened her mouth, and unleashed her voice upon the world once more. You had no idea what a "homegirl" was, but you could tell with great certainty based on her tone of voice that it was not a term you would self-describe as.

"Yo, boss, you know either of these people?" Rodriguez whispered to you. "Later," you whispered back, before addressing the pastel giantess before you with the slightest bow you could manage. "Areum. To what do we owe the honor of your presence? As I'm sure you can see, someone was murdered here, and we're currently investigating. I don't suppose your considerable... talents would be of use here?"

Just when you thought you'd already seen roughly four times as many people as ever attend the Founder's Park, another made itself known. 'I know why she died', the voice said. You cocked an eyebrow as a middle-aged woman shambled out from behind Areum's statue. The woman's... attestation of the events that transpired started out sane enough, until the word 'god' was let loose and she started screeching.

You sighed and brought a hand to your temple. Absolute insanity. And yet...

She said the body fell from the sky. Thus far you'd seen no sign of where the body came from. No footprints, no drag marks, nothing. It was truly as if the body and sign had come from nothing. Curious, you checked the corpse again and noticed the impression left in the grass seemed a bit more pronounced than if the body had merely been laid to rest here. Maybe there was some truth to the woman's ravings?

You looked up again at the screeching woman, now dancing and chanting and pounding her chest. You level your right hand out in front of you, clench your fist, close your eyes, and release a quick incantation. A brief flash of light erupts around you and settles into a faint glowing circle on the ground. "Would you care to repeat that statement, ma'am?" you say as you subtly fish a small ringed metal ball out of your pack and palm it to Rodriguez. He quickly takes it and nods, keeping an eye on the woman in case she makes any sudden moves.

Anyone who chooses to remain in the vicinity of the still-glowing circle will find that lies and untruths can no longer exist within their minds or on their tongues.

Edited by lynkzero13 on May 6th 2021 at 9:09:40 AM

Zone Seven, The Welcoming Guild

Leo turned his eyes to Maia- an imperceptible motion with them being closed- and dismissed her question with an airy chuckle. "Nah, don't worry about it. I just need to rest a little more and then I'll be walking about..."

Egbert promptly ignored him, as could only be expected for a cat, and brought the hideous-looking medical kit over anyway. Leo frowned but didn't plan to protest further (he wasn't so wrapped up in the politeness game that he'd turn down free medical care), not until their robotic companion was ordered to lift up his clothing to apply the medicine.

"Hey, hey, I said I didn't need-!" Cheeks flushing red to match his fellow Draughtman on the other couch, Leo grabbed fistfuls of his jumper and made to tug it further down over his stomach, in much the same way that a scandalised maiden might attempt to cover her exposed ankle. Said movement jarred his spine and he was immediately forced to relent, a raspy groan escaping him as he shuddered back into his original position.

Betrayed by his own body and forced to admit defeat, Leo huffed and engaged back in the small talk, hoping to at least ignore this latest embarrassment if he couldn't stop it. "What about you, Maia? Everything good on your end?"

He couldn't confess to understanding much about the robot, but what little jargon he'd been able to interpret from Bondrewd seemed to indicate that she had some chronic problems she was dealing with.

Meanwhile, disturbed by the sudden movement, a furry head poked itself out from Leo's collar. Sonic the Speed Monkey gave the room a quick survey and then honed in on the strange pink creature that had nestled up to his partner's legs, watching Egbert from a distance with wary eyes the size of dinner plates.

Zone One; Kothys

Oh, you! You might be wondering what someone as beautiful as me is doing here, right in front of this really pretty cottage... well, you're about to find out!

Ahem.

My name's Tsukino Usagi! I'm fifteen years old, I'm a Cancer, my blood-type is O, I like eating sweet stuff and reading romance manga. And I'm pretty smart, if you ask me, even though my grades suck. But grades never did anyone any good, anyway!

"Psst. Usagi."

Oh, and I'm secretly the Sailor-Suited Warrior of Love and Justice, Sailor Moon! But don't tell anyone, okay?

"Usagi."

Oh, and I'll be sixteen soon, which is a big deal, because then I can ask for birthday prezzies!

"Usagi!"

And this is my talking cat, Luna! She's from the Moon, like I used to be, and she gave me a cool pen that lets me change my appearance, even though I don't use that anymore because I'm trying to lose weight, and a nifty brooch that lets me change my appearance even more to become Sailor Moon, and…

"USAGI! THERE ARE MEN WITH GUNS IN THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY!"

Owie, my butt!

"Uwaaaaaah! Luna! Don't scare me like that!"

Luna shakes her head and sighs, looking worried. She's a black cat, or I think she's meant to be, but she kinda looks like she's fallen in a puddle of blue ink sometimes. I think it's a Moon thing that they did back then, maybe they used all their cats like stamps, but who knows? There's a crescent moon on her forehead, the same one that shows up on mine when I become the Moon Princess… oh, but you don't know about that, do you? Teehee —

"Usagi, I think that if you spent a lot less time daydreaming and a lot more time thinking, you'd be much better at getting yourself out of dangerous situations."

"Hey! Don't say that!"

"I'm not just saying it," says Luna, pointing her nose towards the cafe. "Look!"

I get up and dust myself off. Man, I hope the ground didn't ruin my skirt... oh, there's men inside there. And they have masks, and they're all yelling. They look really excited! Don't tell me…

"Oh, wow, a special sale!"

"No!"

"Oh, wow, a robbery! And there's men with guns! This looks like a job for Sailor—"

Luna leaps up and bites the brooch off my chest. I unpose and get a bit smaller.

"Sailor Totally-Not-A-Moon. C'monnnnnnn, Luna, let me live a little."

"You don't actually have to handle it," says Luna. "Listen, until we can work out how to get home and solve the mystery of this city, no superheroics, no transforming, and definitely no interference in dangerous affairs. Got it? You're the Moon Princess, not Moonlight Mask."

"Geez. For a cat with a mouth full of pink plastic, you sure can talk!"

"I talk exactly as much as I need to," says Luna primly.

"Oh, but I do have a question…"

"Yes?" she asks, suspiciously.

Hehe, I'm so smart. I turn away so she can't see how sly and sneaky I am.

"What's a vicinity?"

Her jaw falls right down, just like I planned. I flop and grab the brooch, and then come up as gracefully as Nelson's apple!

"Moon Cosmic Power…"

"USAAAAAAAGIIIIIIIIII…"

"Make Up!"

So there's like a bunch of pink ribbons and stuff, and they all come around me and I start spinning, and I get two big red shiny danglies in my hair-buns, and it's all really pretty and exciting, and I think I lose my clothes and swap my long skirt for a short skirt and my blouse for a leotard, oh, but no-one can really see it, I think, just me, but anyway, it's really cool and that's how I become Sailor Moon!

And I get this tiara!

snap back to reality

"Ahem. Attention, evildoers!"

Clown Face turns around, pointing his tiny gun. Something in his brain seems to crack.

"You who pervert justice… you who dare to rob nice little cottages with your tiny guns… I won't forgive you!"

The teenage girl is tall. The teenage girl is confident. The teenage girl has absolutely ridiculous hair. She's dressed in a white sailor suit with a rather tiny blue miniskirt and long red boots that look like they could swallow a man whole. On her head is a golden tiara with a red jewel in the center.

"Freedom of business is a human right!"

…If you had to describe her hairstyle, you might go with pulled wontons?

"And the freedom of humans is my business…"

Water Gun scratches his head.

"Right!" she finishes, confidently. "The sailor-suited soldier of love and justice, Sailor Moon! In the name of the Moon…"

She wheels her arms around, then points her long white gloves at the robbers, right hand sticking through the crook of her left arm.

"I'll punish you!"

"She does this every time," says the black cat curled up around her left calf. "Please don't shoot her, she's a nice girl. Really."

Clown Face looks around at his compatriots in crime, turns around to look at Kayne and the seething Moko, then makes a very brave decision.

"Alright, time's up. Get her, lads!"

"Moon Tiaraaaaa AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH Luuuunahelp MEEEEEEEEE!"

Chased by a bumbling mass of criminality, unable to apply her headgear for offensive purposes, the teenage girl runs out of the door in a blubbering mess, wailing in fear all the way.

The black cat looks at Kayne and Moko.

"At least they didn't shoot her," she says philosophically, before spinning around and dashing off in pursuit. "Hold up, Usagi! Waaaaait!"

In the silence, it occurs to you that you have found the only person in Concordia who could possibly find the robbers intimidating.

Edited by troydenite on May 12th 2021 at 10:26:04 PM

Kayné Ainsel & Moloch "Moko" Kothys—Zone One, Central Business District, Corner of Seventh & Ninth Street

"Imbeciles, the whole lot of them," Kayne observed, putting her plasma musket on safety mode just in case and tripping the robber alarm which was also under the counter, which made a tinny wartime alarm blare out of the coffee shop, a little incongruously, given its homey decor and theme. "Hmph!"

"Which of them do you mean?" Moko asked, staring out the door where everyone had stumbled out of, not even bothering to blink and keep up the pretense of being fully human.

"Those horrid clowns," Kayne clarified, already stepping out of the door, gun at the ready. "Anyhow, the good Peacekeepers will be here soon, and we need to help that poor bun-haired girl. We need to set out right now if we're to catch up to them."

"Right, right!" Moko yelped, tearing off after Kayne. He'd almost forgotten that she could move surprisingly fast despite her ill-fitting prosthetic. Just because she nearly always limped did not mean that she could not limp quickly, after all. "Slow down, please!"

Edited by JumpingFruit on May 11th 2021 at 10:27:05 AM

Maia, Welcoming Guild

"Egbert, thank you. Leo, please hold still."

Peeling the paper backing off, the android reached down and pulled up Leo's sweater, pressing the medicinal patch to the other draughtsman's spine with surprising gentleness for a 180 kilogram robot.

"If your pain persists, we will take you to a medical station." She said firmly, giving him a smile as she folded the empty paper wrapper into a precise square and flicked it into the garbage bin on the other side of the room.

"I have finished my pre-deployment checks. I am operating above my minimum performance standards, and all mission critical systems are nominal. So I think I'm doing alright."

Zone One, Outside Kothys

There came the sound of boots, heavy and foreboding. Then there was the caw of a raven, moments before the bird in question seemed to materialize from nowhere and swoop into the eyes of Clown Man, clawing at his face with the intent to make him drop his gun.

The man that follows behind the raven looks old, silver-haired, his face covered in whatever the opposite of laugh lines are. He wears the Peacekeeper's plain black uniform. There is no sign of his rank, but he has modified the uniform; he has thrown an oversized coat over his shoulders, into which is tucked his left arm. His right arm hangs free, drumming on his thigh as he surveys the situation.

Jericho Swain is not visibly armed, and is not wearing his armor. An intelligent criminal might notice this and be worried, concerned that an elderly man is not threatened by them in the slightest. The criminals before him do not appear intelligent, and so Swain readies himself for their inevitable counter-assault.

"This is the Peacekeepers." Swain announces, his rich baritone somehow projecting itself over everything, even the screaming of the bun-haired lunatic in the ridiculous outfit. "You are under arrest. Resistance will be met with force."

His voice is firm, not betraying how inwardly annoyed he is at an interruption to his daily constitutional, especially one as frivolous as this.

He nods at Kayne and Moko respectfully. For all their political differences, he finds them admirable - Kayne reminds him of Darius, in many ways - and besides which, Kothys' makes good coffee and fine pastries.

Kayné Ainsel & Moloch "Moko" Kothys—Zone One, Central Business District, Corner of Seventh & Ninth Street

"Stop, in the name of the law, which I am not!" Kayne shouted, leveling her plasma musket at the robbers and flipping off the safety, making the gun's firing mechanisms whir to life with an audible whine. "Step away from that bun-haired child and that old gentleman or I'll start blasting!"

"Er, Kayne—" Moko began, hesitatingly, looking between all the parties present nervously. "—That old gentleman is the leader of the Peacekeepers."

Kayne fumbled with and almost dropped her plasma musket as she fixed her glasses in a rare moment of shock. "Well, what is he going to do, arrest me for having vision problems?" she asked crabbily. "He'll have to wait 'til I'm done with these child-chasing miscreants! And speaking of a child, oi! Dumpling head! Don't you have some sort of power that you can channel? Stop running away and help with these robbers, for goodness' sake! They have more reason to be afraid of you than you of them!"

"What if he does arrest us after this?" Moko asked dubiously, dropping into a low fighting stance, fists burning with hellfire. "Then I'd have to defend you, and that would be unfortunate."

"He likes your pastries, so I don't think he'll arrest you," Kayne confided while still holding the robbers up. "Besides, I'm the anarchist scum here, not you. And he won't find any evidence to incriminate me in the courts, so there!"

Edited by JumpingFruit on Jun 9th 2021 at 11:27:32 AM

Outside the Egress Eternal

"Hey, I wouldn't mind! Talkin' Lute's what I am, heheh!" Ling Ya chuckled, "Anyways, time's a wastin'! Let's get movin'! See ya later, Gressie!" With his master nodding in agreement, and ducking to artfully dodge any assorted items the consciousness of the Egress Eternal might throw at them in retaliation, they headed out onto the street.

"We'll leave Andy to ya, then, Sunny!" the pipa declared as Amaterasu loped out of sight, "Make sure you don't miss any pieces of him that mighta broken off, ya hear? Those are important!"

"Now, Everett, was it?" Though he let the instrument do the talking, Lang turned toward the degraded god with a sense of transition. "That's a pretty neat trick ya got, what with the moisture tracking stuff and everything! I've seen all kindsa people in this city, but yer pretty unique, all things considered! What sorta place do ya hail from, exactly? We're from the Kingdom of Xi You originally, though gotta be honest, I'm pretty glad we got outta that place!"

Edited by darksidevoid on May 22nd 2021 at 9:29:01 AM

Zone Six, Egress Eternal and environs

East. Okay, at least you have a direction now. You nod to Amaterasu as she stretches the way that only dogs can—part of you is surprised she doesn't yawn at the end of it—and exit the Egress for the second time today.

You figured you would be alone in looking for Addward, but surprisingly you aren't. Lang the redhead and Ling the talking instrument have joined you in your noble quest to rescue a talking ferret from unknown perils.

You run that sentence through your head again. You take a moment to ponder this whole situation. You try to remember a time when the thought of something like this would have at least made you raise an eyebrow. But nothing comes to you.

You sigh internally. This is your life now. This is what you do.

Ling Ya is proving chatty enough for the three of you. He's asking you questions now, and not the kind you would prefer to answer. But he's also being polite enough to offer tidbits about him and his master, so you figure the least you can do is reciprocate.

And honestly, you're just glad somebody is expressing some appreciation for what you can do.

"Well, the answer's complicated." You reach up and ruffle the back of your head. As you do, you suck in a breath through your mouth. It whistles ever so softly through the gap in your lower lip. "I came from a little town called Genesis Springs, but, I haven't been there in years. It's... well, it's been gone for a long time."

As the words leave your mouth, you think back to that fateful night. The night when a strange old man invited you into his home. The night your life changed forever.

You never did see how the world came to an end. You were indoors in a room with no windows, and besides, you were kind of busy writhing in agony on the floor. Awakening to godhood is not a pleasant experience, especially when it involves your mouth splitting open and your skull reshaping itself into something out of a nightmare.

Of course, given what you saw and went through the second time the world ended, maybe it's for the best that you didn't see it happen the first time around.

You shake your head. "But enough about me." You glance at the silent musician as you walk. "So you're Lang Wu Yao, right? And your... friend is Ling Ya." You point at the instrument in question as you say this. "How do you two know these people, anyway? If you don't mind my asking," you add after a second.

Outside Egress Eternal

"We don't mind one bit! Wu Yao can tell ya ain't a bad guy, after all! Oh, right! For reference, Lang's his surname and Wu Yao's his given. We just use the surname first because that's how we used ta do it back where we come from. But he don't mind whichever one ya feel like usin'!" Having anticipated this, Lang had taken the instrument off his back and held it in a ready pose, then strummed an ascending chord.

"That means he agrees," the pipa explained, before continuing to gab, "Anyways, back after we first left Xi You, we were on a quest to find this thing called the Orb of Origen. Supposedly it's all-powerful, an' some say it's hidden somewhere in this Ship, but who knows? We said we were after it to lift a curse on Wu Yao's voice, but just between ya and us, the real reason we were after it was to make sure it didn't fall inta the handsa no evil-doers. Early on in that quest, we joined up with ol' Rufus and some others due to some circumstances, and eventually we ended up here."

"There was plentya interestin' people in that party: Andy, who thoughta himself as a lady back then; Kayne Ainsel an' her partner Moko Kothys, if ya've hearda them; even the famous Kaguya Houraisan! It's kinda a long story, and sometimes I forget somea the details, but it was quite the adventure! We kinda gave up on that quest after we all got stranded in the Ship, but we help the Draughtsmen out every now and then, just in case they stumble across a path to the Orb. Other than that, my buddy Wu Yao works as parta the Minstrel's Guild. How about ya, Everett, my man?"

Edited by darksidevoid on May 22nd 2021 at 10:07:07 AM

At an semi-abandoned building in Zone 6

"Well, that's everything from my old hideout." Nathan Grey, or as he preferred, Dr. Grey, or as certain angry mobs called him, "Crazed Science Loon" said to himself. Of course, that wasn't actually everything, most of his stuff was at his unit at the self-storage place with unassuming guards.

He was intending to set up a temporary base, or rather a more temporary base, as most of his bases end up having to be abandoned due to previously mentioned angry mobs. The reason for the more temporary base was that he was simply here to do some basic research rather than his experimentation. Normally, he would continue with experiments, but unlike Zone 5, where the occasionally destructive results of experiments gone awry would go relatively unnoticed outside the general area, if he destroyed stuff in Zone 6, he would probably anger a whole lot of people everywhere, or worse, an industry baron like Robotnik. That was a lesson he learned the first time a experiment went destructive, but it was best not to think of that horrible experience.

Dr. Grey decided that since he had spent so long setting up all of his equipment, he might as well head off for some relaxation, incognito of course, wouldn't want someone to recognize him and call the authorities or something. He had heard that one of the best bars in Concordia was somewhere around these parts, right in front of the building in fact.

What was also enticing was that it was built in a crashed spaceship, something that proved a tantalizing research opportunity. Such research would have to be kept to a minimum, in order to avoid suspicion, but should still provide some valuable insights. If none were to be found, at least he could get a good drink or two. Not to mention a brief respite from the normal chaos of his life, after all, the worst that could happen over there would probably just be a bar fight or two.

"What could possibly- wait, shouldn't say that. Invoking Murphy is always a bad idea. But either way it should be fine." Dr. Grey spoke out loud to no one.

"...I just invoked Murphy anyway didn't I? Oh well, shouldn't be that bad." Dr. Grey paused. "Oh blast, I just did it again."

Nonetheless, preferring to experience Murphy's wrath at a public area rather than his personal base out in Zone 6, he set off towards the Egress Eternal.

Edited by Mindris on May 25th 2021 at 6:43:39 AM