Meanwhile, at the back of the gathering...
Fei's warning is interrupted by a large drill emerging from the ground near where he is standing talking with the guards. A second drill emerges a little further on, and a third, and a fourth.
"That....is not what I expected," Fei says as he sees the machinery breaching along the perimeter. He looks back to the guards. "Go - rally everyone that you can to the center. I will buy you time to do so," the young monk says as nanites from his surveillance 'cloud' race down and infest the drills, rapidly assessing their capabilities and looking for an exploitable weakness before they finish their task.
Robin facepalms. "Um, inside. The inside of it. That's a thing, right? The firebirds came from somewhere."The program flickers off and then a new one initiates. This time they are in an open area, like a balcony of some kind with an elaborate carved railing of some sort of patina covered metal. Looking over the edge reveals a large drop below. Clouds block some of the view, but between the wisps of cloud they can see the ground far below, mostly just patches of color. Behind them is a wide avenue leading between buildings of white stone. There were a lot of columns and arches and several buildings had elaborate tile mosaics worked on their sides, showing various scenes of flame.
Florence looks around, wide-eyed.
"I guess this is it."
"It's hard to say. Once magic gets involved the normal rules kinda get tossed out the window. That's the whole point of magic after all," she said with a shrug, starting to hang up her clothes in the wardrobe. "Telling the laws of physics to sit down and shut up," she joked."Kinda makes you feel sorry for the people that can't use it, doesn't it? Sometimes people would tell me to make them be able to use magic, and I couldn't really blame them. It was really rare for anyone to get my bottle that deserved it, but I can't a couple of em, I really couldn't fault for wanting the things they did."
Jasper helps hand her garments with a monkey tail he didn't have a few seconds ago.
She raises an eyebrow at the tail, but doesn't say anything. "Yeah, there's lots of reasons why someone would want or need to use a wish. Still sucks that there were so many people willing to take advantage of you to get it. Seems like there were better ways. But maybe I'm just used to wonders as something normal. And the wish spells my grandma used tied into the ones my ancestors used in....weird ways. So I guess wishes aren't the easiest thing to either obtain or use by any method really. Or it could just be us. I mean, there's not exactly a big sample size to go by, and there's a definite survival bias since it takes a certain amount of inventiveness and resourcefulness to survive being hunted for centuries, but we're kinda good at innovation with a heaping side of unintended consequences. And what I've seen in the pool when I decided to study the history of my people suggests that it's not totally just my family. I mean, we take it to new heights, but that's that whole survival thing in action I think."
"So....for tonight, should I wear the twinkle stars dress or the one with the puffy purple skirt? Not really sure which one is more party appropriate," she said, holding up both garments, one in a midnight blue covered with sequins that actually lit up like stars and one that looked like a four year old's dream party dress, with a puffy chiffon skirt.
Kevin keeps his claws in his coat pockets as he passes folks, hopefully not inciting too much ire from the folks of the town. He seemed to be in the clear for now. He looks up from the slightly head down position he'd walked with to the front of the restaurant.
"This is kinda cool." He smiles a bit as they enter the place. Some gay men had a good eye for decor, but Kevin only seemed pleased by the edging-on-tacky interior of the place. Oozes didn't spend much time underwater, so it hadn't been much of an interest for him, but seeing the place done up like this was definitely exotic. Being a liquidy blue himself, he almost blends against the walls.
He regards the hostess with a slight smile.
"Uh, yes. First time," is all he manages. He notices the bit of hair flipping, possibly being ever so slightly more aware of these things than Jeran, of not by much. It was likely that one of either her or his own attempts to flirt with Jeran wouldn't be terribly successful, but possible both or neither would be. He'd thought he'd read the Lycan batting for his team, but he'd never been good at people. He'd also been blown up into a squishy reptile this week, so luck didn't exactly feel like it was on his side.
"You're gonna love it here!" she said with a flirtatious wink, swimming through the air to lead them to a table. "Your server will be here in just a moment. Have a nice meal. I especially recommend the mackerel today," she added with a warm smile before swimming away.
Jeran sat down. "Don't mind Tasha," he said dryly. "She flirts with everyone. It's just how she talks. I guess it encourages customers? I don't know. But she's actually really nice," he added, picking up his menu. "And she gives really good recommendations if she likes you. But if she doesn't...there's this one businessman who comes in and gets all inappropriate with the staff and I'm pretty sure they've been feeding him kitchen scraps and telling him it's some kind of special delicacy for weeks now. The waitresses all have a good laugh about it when he's not looking."
Once Ace arrives, he shifts into his human form and walks over to Fei "Couldn't let you handle whatever it is that's going on out here all alone." He says, flashing the young monk a friendly smile.
Then the drills start to burrow up from the ground, and he asks "You're the ranking student here, how do you want this dealt with? Seek to contain or fight to harm?"
Once Ace arrives, he shifts into his human form and walks over to Fei "Couldn't let you handle whatever it is that's going on out here all alone." He says, flashing the young monk a friendly smile.
Fei quickly bows to Casilkasheyith as he approaches.
Then the drills start to burrow up from the ground, and he asks "You're the ranking student here, how do you want this dealt with? Seek to contain or fight to harm?"
Having ascertained the level of technology for these devices, Fei orders most of the nanites infesting the drills to sabotage them immediately (severing oil lines, triggering small detonations in the engines, etc). Their goal is not to trigger large explosions, but rather to stop as many of the machines as possible in their proverbial tracks with no hope of easy repair - and effectively block whatever troops are following them from coming to the surface as planned. The rest of his nanites down there scan behind the drills to find out who or what is behind them.
He turns back to his shapeshifting companion.
"Contain if we are able to, and maintain an opening for the festival guests to escape through if need be - harm only if necessary. We also need to know who or what is coming - the guards wearing the green leaf pins had foreknowledge of this, so someone in authority is complicit."
As he is talking, Fei sends an update to Ghalen via comm:
"Alright, contain it shall be, oh wise one" Even in the moments leading up to what is likely about to be a huge battle, Ace can't help but try and ease the tension some.
Focusing his mind for a few moments, he alters his physiology to better enhance his spellcasting .
He then draws deeply upon his inner reserves to push himself past normal physical limits and casts a spell that should hopefully slow down their foes.
Ghalen gets the message from Fei, and some of the color leaves his face. He turns to Tyrrin, and focuses his thoughts...
::Danger is coming from outside. Fei thinks some of the guards are complicit, those wearing green pins. He also thinks this may be some kind of a coup. Orders?::
Kamenwati frowned as he stared at another mess of a thoughtful act. It was, at least, recognizable as he pulled it from the oven. He was sure if he still had official access to the kitchens this wouldn't keep happening. A few more tries and a few more hours the young half-fiend gave up and asked the school's chefs for help.
One possibly bad idea(teleporting right to the engineer room) Kam left a large cake for Aananada and left. Out of the whole family of dragons she was the least scary to him at times. She overworked too, and he'd heard she forgot to eat sometimes.
He did feel guilty about this though, and it was why he was trying to be sneaky. After all, he hadn't done anything like for his birth mother. Not that he had been able to at the time.
"Maybe I'm trying to make up for that now...." He mutters as he heads back to the room he shared with Taron.
"Wow..." Robin whispers under her breath, although she looks slightly paler than usual at the view of the ground. She looks left, then right, then at the avenue, and clears her throat. "Well, it looks like we're here, although not actually here, so, um... might as well take a look around?"
The cat blushes slightly at more or less being pet. He huffs and pads back at him, not quite able to get actually mad at him. "Daaave stahp." He tries to groom his hair back into place, but is unable to get it straight again.
"You're lucky you're taller than I can, reach, Shiny."
He takes one of Dave's wrists in both his paws, putting it over his shoulder as if he was going to drag him, and as if he had any chance of accomplishing that.
"C'mon I'm starving."
Dave laughs as he's "dragged" to the cafeteria, quipping "you know we could have both just teleported here"
Belyu had, more or less, graduated and moved to the elementary school to help teach the kids there how to read musical notes and learn simple instruments. It was.. nice. The children especially enjoyed 'follow the butterfly' when learning a new song.
A blur of half-elf anxiety and double-checking lists with suitcases in case anything was missing. Clothes, spare money, miniature lab for alchemy tricks and traps. The thing he checked the most was the little dragon he'd made for Kitty's grandfather(mother? He couldn't really tell sometimes) and making sure it wasn't going to wake up before it was supposed to. It's container had plenty of energy to keep the dragon in hibernation for the whole trip if need be.
She raises an eyebrow at the tail, but doesn't say anything. "Yeah, there's lots of reasons why someone would want or need to use a wish. Still sucks that there were so many people willing to take advantage of you to get it. Seems like there were better ways. But maybe I'm just used to wonders as something normal. And the wish spells my grandma used tied into the ones my ancestors used in....weird ways. So I guess wishes aren't the easiest thing to either obtain or use by any method really. Or it could just be us. I mean, there's not exactly a big sample size to go by, and there's a definite survival bias since it takes a certain amount of inventiveness and resourcefulness to survive being hunted for centuries, but we're kinda good at innovation with a heaping side of unintended consequences. And what I've seen in the pool when I decided to study the history of my people suggests that it's not totally just my family. I mean, we take it to new heights, but that's that whole survival thing in action I think.""So....for tonight, should I wear the twinkle stars dress or the one with the puffy purple skirt? Not really sure which one is more party appropriate," she said, holding up both garments, one in a midnight blue covered with...
"Yeah, they definitely don't always go like you plan for them to. Usually it's because I make them not, but not always."
He looks up and regards the two dresses. "Well, I suppose it depends on whether you're planning to dance with anyone or not. The stars might help you get a partner, but if you wanna dance on your own, the other would keep people at about this distance." He holds up his hands in an ever so slight exaggeration of the width the skirt.
"You're gonna love it here!" she said with a flirtatious wink, swimming through the air to lead them to a table. "Your server will be here in just a moment. Have a nice meal. I especially recommend the mackerel today," she added with a warm smile before swimming away.
Jeran sat down. "Don't mind Tasha," he said dryly. "She flirts with everyone. It's just how she talks. I guess it encourages customers? I don't know. But she's actually really nice," he added, picking up his menu. "And she gives really good recommendations if she likes you. But if she doesn't...there's this one businessman who comes in and gets all inappropriate with the staff and I'm pretty sure they've been feeding...
He smiles and thanks her politely before she goes.
Once she's away, Kevin chuckles a little bit. "Yeah, I appreciate the effort, but I'm generally more interested in someone with at least one Y chromosome."
He glances at his menu, looking it over probably a bit more than Jeran is given he's never seen it before. "If only the cafeteria at school worked that way."
"Well, ya, but it's right here. I can teleport almost anywhere, but I still walk places. Sometimes there's things to miss."
He picks up a loose copper piece from a corner of the hallway.
"Like this."
Dave rolls his eyes "oh no we almost missed one whole copper whatever would we have done"
The cat flips the coin through the air to Dave.
"Hey, not everyone is made of money."
"Wow..." Robin whispers under her breath, although she looks slightly paler than usual at the view of the ground. She looks left, then right, then at the avenue, and clears her throat. "Well, it looks like we're here, although not actually here, so, um... might as well take a look around?"
Flourence makes a "you first" gesture, smiling softly.
"You're gonna love it here!" she said with a flirtatious wink, swimming through the air to lead them to a table. "Your server will be here in just a moment. Have a nice meal. I especially recommend the mackerel today," she added with a warm smile before swimming away.
Jeran sat down. "Don't mind Tasha," he said dryly. "She flirts with everyone. It's just how she talks. I guess it encourages customers? I don't know. But she's actually really nice," he added, picking up his menu. "And she gives really good recommendations if she likes you. But if she doesn't...there's this one businessman who comes in and gets all inappropriate with the staff and I'm pretty sure they've been feeding...
He smiles and thanks her politely before she goes.
Once she's away, Kevin chuckles a little bit. "Yeah, I appreciate the effort, but I'm generally more interested in someone with at least one Y chromosome."
He glances at his menu, looking it over probably a bit more than Jeran is given he's never seen it before. "If only the cafeteria at school worked that way."
"What makes you think it doesn't?" Jeran said with a grin. "It's best not to underestimate the ingenuity of the people serving your food. Safer too."
"Well, that's a sentiment I can approve of," a voice purred from just behind Kevin's shoulder as their waitress swam up. She had a golden tail and matching hair and a great deal of beaded necklaces that appeared to be all the clothing she was actually wearing, although they hid all the relevant bits.
"Hi, Alaura," Jeran said with a polite smile. "Did you get a new necklace? I don't recall the purple one."
"Yes, I finished it last night," she said, obviously thrilled that someone had noticed. "And who is this?" she asked, turning to Kevin with her most charming smile.
"This is my friend Kevin," Jeran said. "He hasn't been here before."
"Well, of course not!" Alaura said, rolling her eyes. "Pretty sure I'd remember if he had. I never forget a customer," she admonished.
"Yeah, they definitely don't always go like you plan for them to. Usually it's because I make them not, but not always."He looks up and regards the two dresses. "Well, I suppose it depends on whether you're planning to dance with anyone or not. The stars might help you get a partner, but if you wanna dance on your own, the other would keep people at about this distance." He holds up his hands in an ever so slight exaggeration of the width the skirt.
She laughed. "Okay, twinkle stars dress it is," she said, shaking her head. "I spend enough time dancing by myself already. Parties are supposed to be for socializing."
"I think that about does it for the unpacking," she said, looking through the box and the bag of holding and realizing that both of them were empty while her closet was now quite full. She set the twinkly dress on a hook on the closet door while the puffy purple one was shoved into a spot in the closet next to the yellow dress that Jasper had made for her when they first met. "This is literally the neatest this room will ever be," she added thoughtfully. "I tend to leave clothes lying around everywhere. And glitter. Glitter makeup gets absolutely everywhere. But this is about as lived-in as I can make the place look without a few days to really let it get that backstage changing room look," she joked.
A blur of half-elf anxiety and double-checking lists with suitcases in case anything was missing. Clothes, spare money, miniature lab for alchemy tricks and traps. The thing he checked the most was the little dragon he'd made for Kitty's grandfather(mother? He couldn't really tell sometimes) and making sure it wasn't going to wake up before it was supposed to. It's container had plenty of energy to keep the dragon in hibernation for the whole trip if need be.
The dragon nods in understanding of what Jeran was positing.
"To be honest, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anything I couldn't eat at this point. I still taste things though, so survival and benefit are two separate outcomes there."
He raises his eyebrow ridges in polite regard to the new waitress approaching.
"Nice to meet you. I'm sure that part of the job will be a bit easier for me in particular. I've recently acquired a face that's hard to forget, not to mention the rest of me."
He chuckles a bit, thumbing the menu one last time to make sure he hadn't missed anything.
Jasper takes the magic mirror back whenever Andromeda gets to that point in emptying her bag of holding. He takes it gently, giving it a bit of polish before producing some light orange striped wrapping paper and trussing it up in an elegant, if unpracticed package, somewhat impressive in its lack of any tape.
"Maybe you could teach me a bit? It's been a while since I've danced, and I only really learned elemental sphere-dancing and the Auran waltz, both of which involve a bit more lateral maneuvering than Material Plane dances seem to."
He nods knowingly at the glitter problem.
"Dude, I know, right? It's the worst. I thought I could mimic the colors some fey have, like, under the eyes, but it's all just make up and illusions. I can't shift anything that doesn't exist somewhere, so I had to learn how to do all that myself. I mean, decades to practice helps, but every time someone dug up my bottle, aaall the fashions had changed and I come billowing out in this cloud of smoke and wind wearing stuff their grandparents wore. Definitely hard to make an entrance like that."
Ryuzo enjoys a pleasant lunch with Nala, keeping the mood as carefree and light as possible. Then after a bit...
"Ok, well, I suppose I should go talk to Krays and make sure he's on board with this idea. That is, if you're sure about this."
Ryuzo enjoys a pleasant lunch with Nala, keeping the mood as carefree and light as possible. Then after a bit...
"Ok, well, I suppose I should go talk to Krays and make sure he's on board with this idea. That is, if you're sure about this."
"Yes, I'm sure," she said firmly after changing back to her human form, sighing as she noticed the frost accumulating around her feet. "Which doesn't mean I'm not extremely nervous about it."
He smiles.
"It's to be expected to be nervous about death, I suppose. Do you want to go see him together?"
Robins begins wandering down the central hallway, gawking at the wondrous sights.
Raelle takes to the controls with surprising ease for someone who can't even drive a skimmer without crashing. It's possible that the higher degree of complexity is actually helping. Or it's just dumb luck. She's able to follow the 'I didn't tell you this' instructions to get sound to go with the picture.
A couple minutes of listening shows that the scene is indeed one of crisis as several people were murdered including Embre Soleil and Fieri's mother. The gathering had turned to complete chaos. The scary blonde woman ordered a recess to let emotions die down. The gathering was expected to reconvene later that day in order to decide on a temporary government to see them through the move to a new location. Whoever she is, she is either respected or feared enough to get the rest to obey her at least for now. She also insists that the trial of the del Sols be put off until the next day as they had to have a government before they could reasonably try anyone and there was obviously more evidence to collect in light of these recent developments.
The dragon nods in understanding of what Jeran was positing.
"To be honest, I think you'd be hard pressed to find anything I couldn't eat at this point. I still taste things though, so survival and benefit are two separate outcomes there."
He raises his eyebrow ridges in polite regard to the new waitress approaching.
"Nice to meet you. I'm sure that part of the job will be a bit easier for me in particular. I've recently acquired a face that's hard to forget, not to mention the rest of me."
He chuckles a bit, thumbing the menu one last time to make sure he hadn't missed anything.
Alaura snorted. "Oh, honey, one day's freaky is another day's normal around here. This used to be a backwater town of mostly humans. These days you never know who is gonna come through the doors. You do stand out now, but don't expect that to last. But don't worry. I'll still remember your face even when it isn't weird anymore," she said with a wink. "So what would you boys like to eat?"
Jeran ordered salmon and tea and handed her the menu that he hadn't even bothered to open.
Fei's nanites are able to stop the drills from functioning, but since they already broke the surface, the troops marching behind them are able to push them out of the way to exit the tunnels, slowing but not stopping them. Ace is able to create additional difficulties with two of the drills, stopping the progress of those squads for now.
The drow troops march in terrifying unison towards the elven gathering.
"Oh dear....we may be changing our tactics," Fei says, glancing over to Casilkasheyith.
As he says that, he sends one more transmission to Ghalen:
Ghalen:"Drow troops in combat formation. Prepare accordingly, and be careful."The young monk then strides forward to meet the oncoming troops, letting both his Champion abilities surge forth to bolster all of the guards that he knows are their allies, and his nanites devour and 'weaponize' the enemy drills.
Bold Rally:For the next 7 minutes, all allies that can perceive the Champion are inspired to acts of tremendous heroism. They gain a +4 Champion bonus to AC, all saving throws, and all attack and weapon damage rolls. This is a mind-affecting ability.
Tyrrin's eyes widened. She took a deep breath. She had trained to handle a crisis like this. She just had to act. ::Stay near. We're going to have to try and evacuate all these people. If there are traitors among the guards, I need your help to keep watch for them while I'm helping my mother.::
He gives a curt nod, converts his sword into it's rifle configuration, and begins to focus on the guards in the area, looking for those with the green leaf Fei described, prioritizing targets from closest to farthest...then he gets the message from Fei. He clicks his mic to acknowledge the message was received.
::Word from Fei: It's Drow, M'lady.:: A low, draconic growl escapes him as he refocuses on targets.
Jasper takes the magic mirror back whenever Andromeda gets to that point in emptying her bag of holding. He takes it gently, giving it a bit of polish before producing some light orange striped wrapping paper and trussing it up in an elegant, if unpracticed package, somewhat impressive in its lack of any tape.
"Maybe you could teach me a bit? It's been a while since I've danced, and I only really learned elemental sphere-dancing and the Auran waltz, both of which involve a bit more lateral maneuvering than Material Plane dances seem to."
He nods knowingly at the glitter problem.
"Dude, I know, right? It's the worst. I thought I could mimic the colors some fey have, like, under the eyes, but it's all just make up and illusions. I can't shift anything that doesn't exist somewhere, so I had to learn how to do all that myself. I mean, decades to practice helps, but every time someone dug up my bottle, aaall the fashions had changed and I come billowing out in this cloud of smoke and wind wearing stuff their grandparents wore. Definitely hard to make an entrance like that."
She nodded. "Yeah, you gotta time it just right so that the fashions have come back around to what you were wearing before or it's just awkward," she joked.
"And yeah, of course I can show you how to dance. This kind of party is pretty informal so any dancing will be pretty simple anyways." She held out a hand. "Shall we?" she asked, grinning.
He smiles.
"It's to be expected to be nervous about death, I suppose. Do you want to go see him together?"
She nodded, a little uncertain. "I think want is a strong word, but yes, I think it's a good idea."
He smiles an assuring smile.
"Let's go, then. He's usually at the lake by now."
He'll lead her out to the lake, and he looks into the water.
"Hmm. I don't see him..."
The water ripples slightly, as Krays surfaces like a croc, and heads over to Ryuzo...
Krays lifts his draconic head out of the water...
"Are you looking for me, Mr. Kato?"
He looks at Nala.
"Oh, hello, Miss Zamarosok. How fares the infirmary? Hopefully nothing has happened that requires my services?"
Krays lifts his draconic head out of the water...
"Are you looking for me, Mr. Kato?"
He looks at Nala.
"Oh, hello, Miss Zamarosok. How fares the infirmary? Hopefully nothing has happened that requires my services?"
"No, nothing has happened. Well, not in the immediate sense, but I suppose something has happened. Needs to happen? I'm....not explaining this well," she said with a shake of her head as she nervously picked imaginary lint off of her skirt.
"Krays, we need to ask a favor of you. Nala, is in a bit of a conundrum, and without getting into too much detail, it seems the only way to remedy this would require your services...afterwards."
Krays looks back and forth between them a little puzzled.
"You are both Champions, are you not? Is it related to that? While it is a good loophole, dying will not necessarily prevent you from being chosen again."
"No, it's not related to that."
He sighs.
"Alright. Well, I'm sure if you've come to this decision, whatever the cause, you've explored all other options. If you truly need this, I will assist."
Kevin smiles a bit and nods. "Thanks. Well, I can't really think of anything better than the Mackerel, so I'll try that. Could I get two, actually? And a sweet tea with a lot of lemon, please."
He hands the menu over as well.
She nodded. "Yeah, you gotta time it just right so that the fashions have come back around to what you were wearing before or it's just awkward," she joked.
"And yeah, of course I can show you how to dance. This kind of party is pretty informal so any dancing will be pretty simple anyways." She held out a hand. "Shall we?" she asked, grinning.
He chuckles and stands, brushing himself down a bit.
"Yeah, I wish I had that sense of timing."He takes her hand, but doesn't assume any sort of position more than that.
"Are you going to lead, or should I? Or is that still a thing?"
Robins begins wandering down the central hallway, gawking at the wondrous sights.
Flourence follows, as slowly as she can- thst is to say, she darts up, stops and waits, and repeats, as she glances all around, barely able to hold still. She's running about, poking all sorts of architecture.
Ace nods grimly at Fei's words, and moves somewhat away from the monk, as he hopes to not catch the warrior in the spell he is about to unleash. Shifting his vocal chords to something similar to a those of a banshee's, the mercurial young man lets loose a devastating cry of sonic destruction.