radio414

Chris watched the first maid leave and caught a glimpse of the other one coming up behind him. It was starting to become a bother. Now that he’d found the book he wanted to check out, he didn’t want all these eyes on him. This was why he’d requested to be alone. Alas. If Estellise were here, she surely could have scared all these servants off with a look. He, meanwhile, had to do it the hard way.

He approached the maid, who was not-to-subtly looking back at him from the corner of her eye. “Weren’t you just over here?” Chris said. “Did you not clean good enough the first time?”

The maid glowered a bit, then smiled. “Well, you know, filth always comes back.”

How come even the servants were so snooty? Just because they lived in the house didn’t mean they were any better than him, even if he weren’t noble. Chris’ retort came out of his mouth before he even had a chance to realize where it had come from. “Did you know that if you wash your hands too many times, you start to draw blood?” It was only then that he realized he was speaking from experience. The Wolfsbane incident was the inciting action for everything in his life that had followed. Oh, how he’d tried to wipe out those spots. Stewardess Myrtle had not been worth it.

Not that the maid knew anything about that. She only said, “Sometimes a little bleeding can be good for you,” before turning and walking off.

Chris was too focused on the actions to internalize another barb. As far as he could tell, nobody was watching him right now, and while he would have loved to cross-check and make sure, it seemed like an opportunity too rare to miss. He took out his spool of magic string and tied a knot around it, then another just to be extra sure.

He kept the whole thing close to his chest as he moved to the far wall where all the windows were. They were pretty high up, but he had planned for this. A well-placed dagger didn’t even need to hit the right way around to- Oh. Right. Of course he’d assumed he’d still have those and then didn’t even think through what it meant for his job in the real world. But he didn’t have time to ruminate on the consequences. He unsheathed his sword and threw it through a window instead.

The crash sound startled everyone in the library except him. Chris could feel everyone’s eyes turn towards the broken window, then him, and then he started to hear movement as they came rushing forward. Chris hadn’t stopped moving, though. He spun the book around with the magic string and threw the book through the window.

He wished Estellise were here. Not that he would have done anything differently, just that he wished he could have said something before he did it. Something like, “I promise I’ll return this,” to the one person who might believe him or even just, “I’m sorry.” But no, it was too late for that. He felt a hand on his shoulder, but he tugged on the spool and teleported away.

Chris landed on top of the book. His sword was nearby too, thankfully. He scooped one up, then the other, giving both a quick once-over for any obvious damage, but there was nothing more than what one might expect when getting thrown through a window. Good enough, Chris thought. The house’s security systems were starting to activate. There were statues on the outside of the house, and they were zeroing in on him. Before he could even blink, one spat a fireball at Chris that he had to throw himself back onto the ground to avoid. Another shot right where he would have been had he stayed there any longer.

He took off, away from House Fereis, dodging more fire as he escaped. Chris ran this way and that, making sure to never run in a straight line for long enough for the statues to lock in on him, while still always heading towards his goal: out and away. He wasn’t sure where he was going after that -- someplace he could lie low where Estellise wouldn’t know to look for him -- but one step at a time. There were back roads he could wait in in the meantime.

He tossed the book over the fence, teleported through it, and kept on going into the night.

Crawling Into A Fireplace Cackling

Countdown stared at the hole he’d made in the floor-now-ceiling, trying to get a glimpse of Aeon up there as she reduced the former Quintofthingy (whatever Overflow called it) down to a threeothingy. It was weird how the slime knew that that was happening, how it shivered in response. The fall had made the shivers more pronounced, too. “Fuck,” he would have said if his mouth wasn’t full of weird breathable slime -- If they hadn’t tested it, he would have sworn his power wouldn’t have worked under such conditions. But this was part of the plan. Keep them split up, and keep them busy. They didn’t even need to win so long as Project Rubicon -- whatever that was -- went off without a hitch. Overflow had reassured him: “If Aeon kills you, you won’t be there to know her greatness or however she likes to phrase it. The worst is a little concussion, and my research will be most grateful for the data.”

In any case, it was better than Arcturus kicking his teeth in herself. At least he was getting paid for this. Countdown raised his index finger, pointing up at the hole, and tried to think of a number that would work this time. Something to really get Aeon’s attention. Before he could, though, his watch buzzed a quick phrase in code. Griffin wanted to talk to him.

Countdown stuck his head out from the good (more accurately the goo stuck his head out but he hated thinking like that). He couldn’t see anyone, of course, but that didn’t mean anything. “What?” he hissed at a ticket gate.

“Behind you, actually.”

He hated it when Griffin did stuff like this. He almost wanted to not turn around and insist on the point, but the slime rotated him around anyway. “What?” he said again.

“Hanging in there? No, I can see that look even behind your mask so I won’t do too much small talk. Overflow gave some tactical information to relay: You’re going to want to move in a little bit, maybe get in the tunnel. See that sprinkler head? I’m going to commit something of a misdemeanor.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” Countdown asked, but he got no response, and the slime responded on its own, moving as instructed. Countdown briefly wondered why he even had to be a part of that conversation if everyone was going to talk past him, but he stopped when he realized he’d kept his eyes off the hole in the ceiling. Whatever Aeon was doing up there was still kind of a concern. He pointed his finger again and started counting as the slime pulled him back into its center, ready for any sign Aeon might want to give him on where to point.

Administrative Violence

Minos repeated Override’s conclusion. “So it’s a floor and change below the restaurant? I wonder if people know that when they decide to eat there…”

“I mean, it kinda makes sense,” A.V.D. added. “If they’re using water as their main fire suppressant because Caesar’s got that woman on staff, like, you still want a different suppressant if the restaurant’s got a fryer. I don’t think even Caesar could convince a health inspector otherwise.”

“Oh, true,” Minos said. “Bureaucrats are pretty scary.”

“And the control room’s probably got a lot of tech. You don’t want water leaking through the floor into that. She can’t be here all the time to keep it out if something goes wrong.”

Neither of them spoke for a moment to let A.V.D.’s conclusions sink in. Minos was the one to speak up first. “Oh, so it’s like a blind spot!” she said. “She’s in the Control Room, but she can’t let too much water get in there. We could probably just make a hole in the kitchen floor then, right? Go down through there?”

“You know where the kitchen is?” A.V.D. looked at Minos quizzically.

It was an expression Minos ignored. “Duh! My superpower-Cassie-says-isn’t-a-superpower, remember?” She grinned. “Also, there were signs for the restaurant when we came in.

“Anyway, yeah, if you’re real anxious, I could probably close up the floor when we’re done with it too,” Minos said.

A.V.D. looked down at the rushing water and slot machines below. “I don’t want to get into all that water on the floor, though,” he said. “I guess we’re running across the machines, then? I’ll try to conjure up some handrails in case we lose balance because that doesn’t look safe either…”

“Good idea!” Minos said. “Well, we’ve got a goal and a plan to achieve it.” She looked at Override. “What else are we waiting for?”

Hail Sound

The Chameleophyte, well, it couldn’t really roar, but it certainly looked like it would have if it could as Sibyl took another chunk out of its side. Up above, Cassiopeia kicked another set of Albatross’ feathers into the ooze, which it took significantly less notice of. She sent one of Arcturus’ balls of energy that way too, but Arcturus maintained control of it enough to not shunt the ooze somewhere it didn’t belong.

The ooze got low again, going for another sweep to knock Sibyl back down to the ground. It did so, however, while making a slight retreat, extending itself to attack the rest of it moved backwards.

Small black cylinders popped out all over the turf as the ooze stood back up. They were arranged around the field in even intervals -- it was hard to not be near one of them. Then, somewhere in the stadium, Griffin turned the sprinkler system on, and water began to spray everywhere.

Everyone could also hear the sound of a fire alarm coming from the stadium building. Griffin had also pulled the lever on that, sending an extra shower of water down on the triophyle. The water affected both slimes in the same way: they absorbed it. It took a moment for their internal chemistry to change again, but both of them grew in size with each droplet of water that landed on them. The Chameleophyle Sibyl was fighting seemed entirely rejuvenated, though its Hellhound disguise seemed much more see-through now, while the triophyle grew to block off the tunnel entirely, its three remaining globules also swelling inside it to match.

There was one additional small consequence to all this water getting sprayed everywhere. If Sibyl was looking, she would be able to see the outline of an invisible human watching her fight.

---

OOC

 

Quinn did not know what the man was talking about either, and so just stared at the man in confusion until Nathaniel tackled him and put an end to whatever remaining semblance of a chase there had been. She might have even applauded such a move had fae not been clutching a Pokémon egg against their chest. Just because the egg had been through so much already and remained intact did not mean each subsequent action was any less dangerous.

Cassiopeia, meanwhile, tried to make sure the man did not make it any further, blocking off whatever routes she could with a body the size of a Starly. She kept turning around to look at Quinn, though, clearly concerned about the potential for scraped knees and bruised elbows from that dive Quinn had taken. She was not a very good roadblock even with her arms outstretched, but Nathaniel was a good enough alternative to keep the man in place for the time being, even as he wriggled out of Nathaniel’s tackle. The disparity in size was probably why the thief threw a Poké Ball at Nathaniel and not the Pokémon ready and willing to fight, though perhaps nobody was expecting the ball to be used as a weapon of assault instead of the monster inside.

Before anyone could do anything else, the man ran off, making it Quinn’s turn now to inspect Nathaniel for wounds. “I am alright,” xe said, “The egg is alright too. But you are not dizzy or anything, are you? Any blurry vision? I cannot believe it has been barely two days into our proper adventure and we have both been hampered by injury.”

With regards to the Pokéball now in Nathaniel’s posession, Quinn said, “That must have been stolen too. I could not imagine surrendering a companion so easily. Normandie has only been with me for a single day but if anything happened to her I would fight tooth and nail to get her back. But if that is true, I wonder who the owner is? They would be worried sick. Perhaps Bobby would know? He would at least know who to ask, and we have to head back with this, too.”

Ze needed a moment at the beginning to catch its breath from the sprint, but once they were moving again, it was easy to keep doing so, and the walk back to Billy and Bobby’s hostel was shorter than Quinn had expected. “We brought an egg back,” Quinn announced as soon as they had crossed the threshold. “Hopefully it is the one that was missing. The thief mentioned something about Team Phoenix and regret, but I only recognize the latter of those things and I do not regret anything about this morning yet besides that it happened at all.”

As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”
-Mark 13:1 (NIV)

---

Melissa kept as much attention as she could as Aduain described a situation that would be impossible to contain in the margins of any paper he wrote it down on, but her mind was elsewhere. She’d already had breakfast and wasn’t hungry for more, so she had to turn down Fen’s offer of cooking, but she still chewed on her thoughts as if that would help her make a decision. Trevor had asked what they were all doing today, and while Fen already had plans, Melissa… didn’t.

On some level, she had the same wants as Fen. Prana was their ward, to be sure, but it was still an enigma to her, and having someone tour everyone around was probably the best bet. Kelsey was certainly one of the better options for that, the overlap in “those we know” and “those fit to give a tour” was not large in Melissa’s mind. Rei was an option, but that girl had largely exchanged phone numbers with Melissa out of obligation. Texting her too soon would come off as needy, wouldn’t it?

Plus, after spending so much time meeting so many new people, Melissa kind of just wanted to be alone. She just wanted to wander, and while she recognized her situation as a celebrity guardian and a host left her little in the way of physical or mental privacy, it was something she wanted to work towards just as well as everything else she was training and developing. Of course, she had been focusing on those aspects of herself because her spiritual life had been forcibly put on hold. What was she going to do, go to some dragon temple as a proxy?

Well…

It wasn’t the worst idea, and she was curious. To be clear, it was an academic sort of curiosity -- Melissa was very confident in her faith even in adverse times such as these. She wasn’t about to convert to some otherworldly religion on a whim. In the worst case, she could learn what needed improving when she inevitably did start proselytizing, and at best it could serve as one of those universal quiet places of prayer and reflection that peppered public areas back on Ambrosia. Maybe the dragon god was a less jealous sort than her capital G one.

Melissa realized that if she was going to go pray somewhere she should probably look the part. She mumbled some excuse about thanking everyone for the company at breakfast or something, checked on Bartleby again, and slipped back upstairs to change into her Sunday best nun getup. She packed what supplies she had into a bag -- Duel- Yu-Gi-Oh! deck in case the Spike Brothers waylaid her, the church program she’d been clutching when Mauvache brought her here… did she need a water bottle? That was something to consider for later.

Fen was greeting Kelsey at the door when Melissa came back down, and Melissa nodded her greetings to the both of them. “I’ll see you around,” she said. “I think I have everyone’s numbers if we need to get in touch.”

‘Sup, nerds.

This one took a bit longer than expected partly because I was just a little lazy in getting around to organizing everything and partly because oh my goodness there was so much good music this year. There are some albums on here that people love that just didn’t happen to make my list this year, like JPEGMAFIA and Danny Brown’s collaboration or Geese’s new 3D Country album. And this isn’t to mention all the music I didn’t get a chance to listen to this year! There’s too much music!

Anyway, if you’ve been following this list for the past few years now, you know the drill. The honorable mentions are in alphabetical order by artist, and then the actual Top 10 list with remarks:

like i said, there was too much music this year so don't be too disappointed if your personal top picks don't make the cut. leave which snubs made you the most mad in the comment section below.

 

Boxboxboy!

Chris did not have to fight as much to get into House Fereis this time. It was almost refreshing if he wasn’t solely focused on the job. The servant at the door tutted under their breath and said something to the effect of, “That’s still ‘Lady Fereis,’ to you,” but they nevertheless led Chris into the house and to the grand library, where they left him in the care of the other members of the house staff cleaning the library. Estellise was nowhere to be seen, but the servant said she would be there when convenient, a phrase so loaded Chris couldn’t help but double-take as the servant left him behind.

The maids were off dusting all the bookshelves at the direction of the butler in the center of the library, all of whom looked busy enough, so Chris decided to ignore them and browse at his own pace. He remembered thinking the circumstances for this job weren’t ideal -- Estellise hadn’t been able to secure him completely private access -- but he could handle some of the help if it came down to it. The first matter of business was figuring out just what exactly the heart-shaped stone the undine girl had given him was, so he looked for books on magical artifacts.

It was a task easier said than done. The books were all clumped together on the shelf, but he had to go through a few of them before he found one that had anything remotely close to his thing, and even then, it just said something about a “Conjuration Enhancement Item.” Chris had to read that a few times to even make sure he wasn’t reading the word “Enchantment” lumped in there, and was going through a reread to make sure there weren’t any more citations he could follow (there weren’t) when the butler walked up to his table, breaking his concentration. “Do you need any assistance, sir?”

Chris looked up and saw that there was a smile on the butler’s face, like the “sir” was perfunctory. It was a taunt more than anything. He didn’t take the bait. “I guess I’m looking for your section on Conjurations,” he said. “Enchantments too, if you can provide it. I admit I’m not entirely sure what I’m looking for, just trying to use Lady Fereis’” -- he remembered that time -- “hospitality while I have it.”

The butler’s smile only grew more smug. “Ah yes,” he said. “I believe we do have some tomes on the… lesser magics here. I am not sure why you would bother the great Fereis family if that is your goal, but you could find them off in… that corner, I believe.” Chris turned to look where he was pointing and saw a maid doubling back to dust in a corner he was sure she’d dusted before.

It was suspicious, but Chris was pretty sure he was still in the clear as far as people surmising what he was capable of, so he left the last books on the table and went over to check out what Conjuration had to offer him.

Magic was hard, it turned out, especially for a mundane person like Chris to wrap his head around. Even for a less extensive section, every book had all these extra words that Chris could only infer the meaning of, and he could feel his eyes start to glaze over. The artifact books were all, like, archival. They were lists of stuff. He could deal with lists of stuff. Now that he was trying to read actual theory, he could hardly make head or tail of it. Needless to say, it took a lot of skimming back and through a few different books again before he was able to track the reference down. “Lodestones,” Chris mouthed the word when he found it. He kept a finger on the word and traced the following lines to ensure he picked up every word he could. “Used to bind entities to objects rather than the caster.” There was some other stuff warning about the dangers of keeping them around, but Chris was more focused on how to get rid of them. “Kill the caster, destroy the thing, or Abjuration magic…” He raised his voice and turned his attention to the maid who was surreptitiously trying to look over his shoulder. “Excuse me, I know it’s a lesser magic or whatever, but where is the section on Abjuration?”

The maid didn’t know (and, to be frank, seemed surprised to even be asked), so she had to ask someone else on the house staff to take Chris over. And this maid, unfortunately, was chatty. As Chris pulled out the first book to comb through, she said, “My you sure are reading a lot. Tryin’ to master every magic or something?”

“Oh, I'm not particularly magic-inclined,” Chris said, trying to ignore her. “I’m just the curious sort and found myself with the opportunity to learn.”

“Well isn't that quaint! What are you looking for now, hm?” She took a step towards him, trying to get a glimpse.

Chris snapped the book shut and tucked it under his shoulder, spine facing away from the maid to ensure she wouldn’t be rewarded for being nosy. He did try to oblige her a little bit. “Well, I started with enchantment, then I went over to conjuration for a bit, and those books said something about abjuration so now I’m over here,” he said. “I’ve heard of some other schools of magic too but I wouldn’t expect a noble house like House Fereis to have books on necromancy. I’m just happy with what I can find.”

Whatever frustration the maid had from being thwarted disappeared when Chris implied she could still be of use. “Oh well of course there's Necromancy books too, why wouldn't there be? Of course, everyone knows that Evocation is the strongest magic but it wouldn't do not to learn what you can from others too. A lot of people read up on them for fun!”

It was an opportunity. Chris could smell it. “Well, I need to finish getting what I can out of this book,” he said, “but if you can find some good primer material for me, I would be much obliged.” If this didn’t work, maybe Estellise could shoo her away when she showed up. Or he would have to use some other plan. He hadn’t committed to anything yet, but that didn’t mean he didn’t want to put something into motion soon.

Was it disappointing to see Carmen disappear through the ceiling and immediately reappear coming back through one of the doors to the room? Yes, obviously, but Brian tried not to let it show. He’d thought it was a good idea, and now he was less enthused about his other idea about breaking down the wall. He was running out of good ideas in general, actually, which sucked because he was the one who suggested thinking about the whole thing like an escape room in the first place, and he hated admitting he was wrong. At the same time, Carmen had found a clock that was still ticking away. According to that, it hadn’t been long at all since they’d first entered the room, but Brian could still feel his mortality creeping up on him. The office had water, so there was that necessity, but soon he would require food, and there wasn’t much in the way of leftover congratulatory pizza parties (provided instead of a cash bonus, of course) that he could see.

He sighed. Well, there was one idea left. They were dealing with something supernatural, and they did bring a box of things with them that worked on supernatural things. In his defense, they’d known the room was cursed or whatever from the moment Carmen went through the door, he just thought there was an actual ghost to find like last time. He hopped down from the desk as Carmen went to go pick up all the shit he’d kicked off of it, and grabbed a handful of seals.

The first thing Brian sealed was a door. The far one, the one that had started this mess in the first place when Carmen had gone through it. He stuck one on the other door across the way for good measure too. When he opened the door and stepped through, though, he found nothing had changed. He still immediately popped through to the other door with no time in between.

Brian made a noise like “Hm,” and paced between the door and the box. Nothing else in the room seemed out of the ordinary. It all seemed perfectly mundane. Too mundane, perhaps, but that was just offices in general. He’d been in those. The only thing out of place really, was, well, the people in it: Carmen and himself. It wasn’t their office. He took one of the seals and examined it under one of the humming office lights. Now that he thought about it, the seals were supposed to put ghosts back where they belonged, and right now, they were kind of like that. Brian stuck the seal on his chest.

The next best idea was ripping one in half as part of the solution to the stupidest riddle imaginable (put the halves back together, two halves make a whole, fall out through the hole).

He turned to Carmen and looked her up and down. He couldn’t put one on her chest without running the risk of touching something he wasn’t supposed to so he looked for somewhere more unassuming. He settled on her forehead and closed in.

Carmen leapt back. “Wait wait wait, what are you doing?” she said.

“I dunno, what’s it look like?” Brian said. “Just trying stuff. I’ve got one on and it hasn’t killed me yet. so you shouldn't have to worry about anything bad happening.”

Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney

Gravity’s Rainbow

Thessa’s presence on top of the broken ceiling as it came crashing back down to the mezzanine floor kept it from rotating, and the ooze bore the brunt of the flat surface slamming directly into it. The whole thing squished down and spread out, cushioning the impact as best it could. It took a moment to spring back up, but spring back up it did, throwing the ceiling chunk off-balance though still resting lopsided on the ooze.

If Thessa were to look, she’d see two features of the ooze change slightly. The first, more obvious one was color. Most of the ooze was a redder tint than it had been before. A pocket of contrast surrounded the man inside ‐‐ maybe the color around him was the same but that was harder to tell. The newly-colored slime started to dissolve all the debris touching it, slowly but surely, but the man inside did not dissolve.

Speaking of the man, as soon as he saw Aeon again, he had his index finger trained on her, though an explosion wouldn’t go off after three or even five seconds.

The other changed property involved one of the five globules. They all moved about the ooze freely, so perhaps assigning them locations was not the brightest move, but the one near the top of the ooze looked worse for wear than the other four. There were visible cracks all around it. As more and more debris dissolved, the cracks started to heal, but it was a slow process.

As soon as the slime sensed Thessa’s presence again, it shuddered and launched a piece of itself at the hero.

The Same Space

Override came crashing through the ceiling of the casino at just the same time that the other capes ran in through the front door. It took everyone a moment to find each other and regroup, but that was the only issue. Thankfully, by dealing with those on the roof, Override had saved everyone else from the initial counterassault. Now they were surrounded by row upon row of slot machines, all alike.

Minos’ voice was clear, even over the sounds of blaring klaxons. “Classic move,” she said, commending Override’s entrance. “Always wanted to do that someday except, well,” she stomped her boots, “also like having my feet on the ground.”

“Maybe you could do it again?” A.V.D. said. He was a bit harder to hear but one could at least get the gist. “That’d get us underground better than dealing with the backrooms. Surely they’ve got security.”

As if on cue, every sprinkler system in the casino pit activated. A.V.D. conjured up an umbrella, miming the opening action and shaking it a few times to get it big enough for everyone to comfortably fit under (“Isn’t that bad luck?” Minos said), but the water was starting to pool at everyone’s feet. Worse, the klaxon subsided and was replaced by a voice over the speakers.

“You seem like a troublesome bunch,” the voice said. It sounded feminine, but a low sort -- almost sultry. “Casino policy states that we can refuse service to anyone for any reason, and that means you, I’m afraid.”

“Where is that coming from?” A.V.D. said. “Control room?”

“If you don’t voluntarily exit the premises, you will be escorted out by security, and we will not be responsible for any injuries caused by me or my colleagues in the carrying out our said duties.” The water on the floor started receding away from the raid team before the voice even finished speaking.

“Alright, sounds like we gotta deal with her first,” Minos said. She looked down the row of slots and her eyes widened. “Incoming!”

Tearing across the rows of slot machines was a massive wave ready to crash down on all of them.

As Above So Below

The way Overflow saw it, you had two career options with powers like his. Supervillainy, or becoming the best goddamn plumber in the city. He had chosen the former and had no regrets. Who would want to spend their life iterating on variants of drain-o? Research was so much more fun when there were none of those pesky “ethics” involved, and who else would have developed such magnificent aquiformes besides himself? The answer was nobody. Nobody else could even try.

He was here on Caesar’s explicit permission. His work on Project Rubicon had been completed weeks ago, and whatever supervisory role he could perform was better performed by somebody else. Overflow knew his limits. He had been itching for some field tests and jumped at the call. 

A notification buzzed in on his watch. His Quintophyte model had just sustained some damage. That was to be expected, though. Both Aeon and Countdown were up there, he would have been surprised if the Quintophyte didn’t get roughed up. And even if Aeon (or Countdown, in his idiocy) managed to destroy the five slime cores he had fused into that thing, well, that was useful data too.

Overflow focused back on the fights on the field, coming back to his senses just in time to leap back out of the way of his Chameleophyte’s attack on Sibyl’s legs. He was just an invisible observer, leeching off of Griffin’s power to avoid detection. Griffin’s whereabouts, of course, were none of his concern. The Chameleophyte, meanwhile, what a design! How much of his work had been combined, infused into it to make it just so? It was all worth it for that brief moment of surprise on their opponent’s face. Had they not just captured Hellhound?

Up above, Cassiopeia kicked some more of Albatross’ feathers into the Chameleophyte as she continued to duel both him and Arcturus. The aquiforme gave no indication that it even felt the feathers as they slowly sank through its disguised skin. It was more interested in Sibyl getting it in a crab claw grab. The sliced-off arm splashed down onto the turf, collecting in an inert blob.

Overflow watched as the Chameleophyte dove on top of the goo, reabsorbing it to grow another arm. It was either that or shrink, of course, and Overflow felt it had made the correct decision. It was a little vulnerable on the ground like that, but it counterattacked smoothly, shooting out a foot aimed squarely at Sibyl’s chest.

---

OOC

 

The moment Nathaniel passed Quinn was the moment Quinn doubled her efforts to catch the thief. It was not a moment of competition, of course -- no man nor spirit in good karmic standing would dare turn this chase into something of that nature -- but an act of determination. The knowledge that Nathaniel was there at all gave Quinn the will to push onwards. Cassiopeia was there in front of xir too. She had not quite had her fill of hot air and sunlight for the day, but the Drifloon was still able to float. How Quinn wished his material form would hurry up and leave gravity’s clutches, but no such luck. Eir parents always insisted that it needed to gain more weight.

Quinn and Nathaniel’s collective will must have had some sort of effect, because the man they were chasing slowed, stumbled even. Nathaniel in particular was gaining on the man, and one errant look to check his position, one small crack in the thief’s own will, was enough to send both himself and the egg he was carrying flying into the air.

Quinn did not slow down to check on the man. He charged forward, eyes on the precious thing that had been taken and, even when the egg seemed just out of reach, they leapt forward with one final burst of energy, diving to get zir hands underneath the egg and cradle it from harm. It was just enough, and Quinn landed on the ground as well, though significantly happier for it. Or perhaps “happiness” was not quite the right word. In that moment, all Quinn could feel was relief. Quinn tucked the egg into faer chest and sat up, examining the egg for any potential break in its shell. “Nothing,” xe said, saying the result aloud just to reassure zemself. “Safe.”

She looked back at the man, who appeared to have completely forgotten his stolen loot, and was now evaluating which way he could go next. Cassiopeia was pestering him already, trying to get in his way no matter which way he looked, though she was a bit too unimposing to give him any more than small hesitation before he picked a direction. Quinn was out of breath, but they still tried to at least keep his attention a few moments longer. “What did you think you were doing?” Quinn said in between further gasps of air. “Or do, present tense, or will in the future? Were you the one causing all that trouble on Route One Oh One as well?”

The Delusions of Von Sottendorff and His Square Mind

6×1≠Unlimited

Fat Dragons

I am an Air Traffic controller Airport Hero Hawaii

it's already been winter for nine days oh no i'm late

Chris took a deep breath. He’d spent every waking moment since last night -- save the ones he’d spent fighting for his life, obviously -- thinking about this job. In a way, this would be the most important one he’d ever do. Chris could think of no better reason to do something like this. Of course, he couldn’t think of a worse target either. He had been careful to not outright lie to Estellise. In fact, he had specifically said when and why he was concealing information from her. But that made it worse in a way. He had spent a lot of social credit getting this far, even outing himself as a disgraced nobleman if he had been paying attention, and he was about to burn through a whole lot more.

The job didn’t need much, though. Materially, anyway. His entrance had been sorted yesterday, so all that was left was as clean a presentation as he could muster given his circumstances (oh how he hated bathtime growing up, what he wouldn’t do for a proper scrubbing now!), his sword with crest that proved he was who he said he was, and the magic spool and string the dungeon had so graciously provided him. Chris held that last one in his hand, just looking it over. There were a lot of things he did not understand about magic. Really, that was half the point of this job was trying to understand it! To do that, he had to put some trust in some unknowns. He put the spool away at his waist opposite his sword. He was as ready as he would ever be.

Ziun was downstairs talking with Hector about something or other. Chris didn’t pay them any mind and hoped they both would be courteous enough to return the favor. He went straight to Fereis Manor. His stomach started to cramp up -- he was nervous! Why would he be nervous? Estellise had told him of some complications and didn’t say what they were, sure, but what could House Fereis do to him once he was already inside? They might be expecting his ulterior motive, but that wouldn’t stop him. It just wouldn’t. This was necessary. Maybe that was why.

“Stick to the plan,” he mumbled as he walked up to the manor’s servant’s entrance. He took a moment to tussle his hair, making sure he looked his absolute best, and knocked on the door. “Estellise Fereis is expecting me.”

“‘Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”
-Luke 15:23-24 (NIV)

---

“How are you?” Melissa thought as she idly stirred a cup of tea.

What do you mean?

Melissa flinched. “I don’t know. I’m just trying to be a courteous host,” she thought. ‘If there is anything that I can do…”

We are well. Your continued survival is all that we require.

“Okay.” She said that one out loud, though it wasn’t any louder than a mumble.

If we may ask, what brought this on?

Melissa thought, “I guess- I know it’s been less than a week, but I’m still trying to figure out our relationship. We agree to speak to each other more and then that doesn’t happen. We didn’t meet in my dreams last night either. And that’s fine, but I worry. Trevor’s got this whole thing going on with his book, are we supposed to be like that?”

Trevor also implies he is still an apprentice, and his grimoire is his teacher. You believe in guardian angels, do you not?

“I’m trying not to think of you as angels, though.”

But perhaps it is similar?

Melissa took a bite of her food. “I guess I wouldn’t know what to say to my guardian angel, either. And he never was particularly forthcoming with me either. Alright, well, I feel a bit better about all that. You’ll have to understand if I still ask occasionally, though.”

Of course.

“And we should probably practice that thing I’ve been working on, too. Hopefully, we can find some time for that.”

Everyone else trickled in as her conversation wrapped up. Speak of the devil, Trevor was first, though Fen showed up before he could get too far into his lament. Melissa felt she had to step in, though, on one such instance of her summary. “Oh, don’t sell yourself short, Fen. You held your own. I don’t think we would have won without your input. Besides, you beat your half of the Spike Brothers, right?

“And Trevor, I’m sorry we didn’t invite you. The message was addressed to us. I guess we just didn’t think about it.”

Any further conversation was cut short, though, by the surprise arrival of Aduain. Melissa had only known the fish person for a few days, but she would still recognize that “Heeeeeeeeeeeeey! Team?” anywhere. “Welcome back!” Melissa said as he arrived in the dining area. She got up with Fen and helped him unload his bounty, putting the food away (and the… apple next to the sleeping Bartleby so he could have it when he was ready) and laid out the rest.

“These tell quite the story,” Melissa said when it was all finished. “But you can tell it better than this, I’m sure. What’s it like outside of Prana? Besides all the weird fish, I mean.”

Gathering Storm

Cassiopeia had not stopped staring at Arcturus since she had walked onto the field. When the conversation turned to memory, Cassiopeia rubbed the center of her forehead. “I remember you, traitor,” she might have said. “I have been waiting for this moment since the day you left.” With a few more motions, “Ophiuchus gave you your name, and I intend to take it back.”

Her next motion was not unlike a bicycle kick from a soccer player. It carried no meaning, but as Cassiopeia’s feet left the ground, she began to fall in the direction her feet were pointing instead of straight down. As she manipulated herself further, it became clear that this was a general rule for her person. It was not a perfect rule and subject partially to Cassiopeia’s whims, but it was close enough.

Arcturus snarled and sent her energy ball right for her former associate. The explosion sent Cassiopeia in the winged man’s direction, who sent a flurry of razor-sharp feathers her way, but Cassiopeia recovered in time to kick them all away. She stabilized, reducing gravity’s pull on herself and leaving her floating in between the two fliers, eyeing them both.

Down below, the thing that looked like Hellhound saw Sibyl running at them and charged back. As they ran, their form shifted, growing bigger until it was nearly twice Sibyl’s size, though still retaining the general shape of Hellhound. They roared too. It was an inhuman, guttural scream that accompanied the Hellhound raising both of their hands up clasped together above their head, aiming to bring them both down on Sibyl’s head.

Meanwhile, Thessa immediately saw the man she had chased up to the mezzanine the moment she got up there, though he was not the only thing waiting for her. Behind him was a massive ooze creature, translucent green in color, with a few darker spheres suspended in the gelatinous mass. A single tentacle extended out from the thing and was wrapped around the man’s waist.

The man was wearing a mask, but one could tell from the tone of his voice that he was smiling. “I expected nothing less,” he said. Then he raised a finger, pointing at Thessa’s chest, and began another countdown. “Three… two… one…”

[…+The Buildings They Are Sleeping Now]

The casino loomed large over all four capes as they stepped out of the armored car. The trip had been surprisingly smooth given where they were headed, though surely some part of that had to do with the external guard detail Director Sekelsky had assigned to the transport. As they left, one member of the guard said, “We’re headed further West, some sort of activity out near the Shimmer. We’re all counting on you, though.”

A.V.D. balked at the comment. “You mean I could have been… I just thought this was the only way to help. I would have volunteered for something else if I’d known. Now that I’m here, it’s a bit too much.”

Minos patted the renegade on the back. “Hey, no worries. We’re all right here with you. Here, I’ll make a big show of things, and that way all the attention will be on me, okay?”

A.V.D. shook his head. “I don’t want to feel more responsible if you get hurt than I already would,” he said. He managed a few deep breaths. “It’s fine. I can do this. It’s no bigger stress than my first show, or the one with critics in the crowd, or… I managed those okay.”

“Override had the blueprints,” Minos said. “We know exactly where we’re going.” She looked down at the ground. “Hate working with asphalt, but it’s only polite to knock.” She knelt down and dug deep into the parking lot, pulling up a wall of the substance that she kicked and sent careening right into the casino doors with a loud CRASH!

For a moment, the whole building seemed to shudder, in a way that implied someone might be controlling it, but it wasn’t something Minos seemed overly concerned about. “Alright, let’s go!” she said. “I’ll make more walls if you need cover!” With that, she charged.

---

OOC

 

 

On 12/8/2023 at 12:54 PM, LordCowCow said:

 

yeah that's a lot of fun 8.5/10

On 12/11/2023 at 9:53 PM, cr47t said:

 

embeds ok for me

"do you like the way it sounds" is a really easy hook to make a joke about. i won't make it but i want you to know i thought of it. 6/10

---

nearing the time of top 10s and someone reminded me this album exists and i was like "oh yeah" 8.5/10 

 

Chris was the last one into the stairwell, diving through once Estellise had dragged Ziun past the threshold. He popped back up quickly, though, having safely tumbled to protect his head and neck, leaving just a few bumps that, though they would surely bruise, were about to get healed away once they exited the dungeon. There was some part of Chris that wondered if he was being a bit dramatic. He probably could have just turned and ran just like everybody else, but he had already done it, so he’d never know the answer to that question.

He pulled himself up all the same. “Everybody okay?” Chris said. He revised the question almost immediately, though. “Everybody okay enough to make it ten paces through a portal?”

Walking around without his daggers was an odd feeling. Without one, like, there was still a little bit of weight there, and he could justify it to himself that he had one in his hand all the time, but without both, while he did feel lighter on his feet, he could also feel his right hand drifting to grab something he’d never find. He moved where he kept his magic string and its spool in the meantime, even if it meant that felt weird instead.

Lana was also up and moving about. She was the one who got to the treasure first, though she passed on the special item in favor of more coin. Chris held the wand in his hand and fiddled -- though didn’t press -- any of the stones on the side. Unlike the string, which he felt safe fiddling with when he’d first picked it up, the wand felt like something for someone with a little more magic experience to explore, so he too just took a share of the treasure. “I have to get… a whole bunch of stuff, actually,” Chris said. The money could help with some of that. Rent had to get paid somehow.

When they all stepped out, the first thing Chris noticed was the time. “Oh, I thought…” Hadn’t the dungeon transported them out just a few minutes after they’d gone in before? And now, the one day where he was counting on such a weird quirk, it decided to not work that way? It was rude, was what it was. All of a sudden, his mental timetable narrowed. “I have to go wash up,” he said. “Estellise, um, I’ll see you in a bit when I don’t have skeleton dust and pain all over me.”

Quinn could find neither Belladonna nor Nathaniel in their ventures through the astral plane that night. Fae could only dream of home. Technically, the house was active. Quinn could see clearly even though none of the lights were on, and she could hear sounds from the kitchen like the hum of a microwave or the occasional crackle of a gas stove coming to life. As ze wandered through the house, though, smaller details stuck out more and more. Despite the noises, the kitchen was completely abandoned, and every countertop had a noticeable layer of dust and cobwebs. The back door was only an affectation of a threshold -- the doorknob did not turn and pushing or pulling produced no results.

That was not to say all doors in the house were inoperable. The one to the restroom worked just fine. Quinn noticed that the bathroom mirror did not seem to work, reflecting nothing, acting as a sheet of jet-black metal against the wall. Other reflective surfaces were the same. The sink faucet had a leak that no fiddling with the handles could fix.

The door to Quinn’s bedroom was breaking down. It swung open without Quinn even needing to nudge it. This room was in more a state of disrepair than any other. The bed frame was missing an entire leg. It leaned over and the mattress slumped over the side. Books had fallen off their shelves, and the shelves themselves had collapsed. 

A whir emanated from the television back in the living room -- something was playing even though the screen was off. Quinn reached out and turned the television on, and the screen illuminated the entire room in a bright red light, a light that bled into Quinn’s vision, wiping out everything else. There were words on the screen too, in distorted and wicked black, only just legible:

YOU NEVER
CAME
BACK

Quinn woke up from the nightmare. Xe could see the time out of the corner of its eye. It was about three of the clock. Quinn refused to move. The room was unrecognizable to her and ey did not want to disturb it. It was only then that they realized he was not breathing, and e had to manually resume that particular function of their material form, concentrating on that until the unconscious habit returned.

Where were they? The memories of the previous day -- of the whole voyage, in truth -- took another moment to return. Quinn started to feel better. The breathing helped too. Still, the energies of the astral plane were against her, that much was obvious. Somewhere along the way, his noumenal essence had split in two. Part of Quinn’s self had stayed behind in Sinnoh, and it was calling across the waves trying to reach out.

But no, this was a necessary journey. Not everyone had agreed, but most had not been in a position to argue. A bout of homesickness was but a minor trial. Yet still, as the seconds ticked on, Quinn did start to relent a little bit. Ze inched over to the side of the bed, reached into hir bag, and pulled out one of the Pokéballs contained inside. “Cassiopeia,” Quinn whispered, and the Drifloon came out of her ball with as muted a “Drif…” as she could muster.

“Come sleep out here with me, Cassiopeia,” Quinn said. This would help. It was a small thing, but it was familiar. Maybe in the future, they could include Normandie in the equation, and whatever other Pokémon they happened to befriend on their journey, but for now, this was enough.

---

Quinn read and reread Belladonna’s letter, trying to understand it even as Billy explained the additional information he had for them. The morning had seemed so exciting, too. Good omens abounded once her astral self had given up on exploration for the night, and any accompanying visions subsided. The morning sky was exactly as it should be. But perhaps Quinn still needed to work on his interpretations, because such prominent positive symbols blinded zem completely to Belladonna’s departure. How else was it supposed to feel about it? Quinn wordlessly passed the letter on to Nathaniel for him to read. Her final words to Belladonna had proven particularly insightful. Now the land of dreams was the only place they would find each other for the foreseeable future.

The sudden Magmortar attack was almost a welcome distraction to keep eir mind off it. “Nathaniel and I can go chasing after this thief,” Quinn said. “That way you can keep your focus entirely on your charges, the Magmortar, this cute little thing, and whoever else.” They looked at the Smoliv, still quivering in Bobby’s hands. Quinn was barely cognizant of the fact she had just volunteered for both of them. It did not particularly matter. Something had to be done. Stolen things had to be returned to their rightful place, after all. It was something Quinn knew from experience.

“No, it was a good idea,” Brian said. “You were thinking outside the box. It just so happened that the room had that thought first.” He walked over the long way back to Carmen. “But I think it’s safe to say the doors aren’t how we’re going to get out of here. Not right now, anyway.”

Brian was surprised Carmen had had an idea at all. He still remembered the helpless girl who could barely function her way through dealing with a ghost haunting from just last night. He wasn’t sure what he’d do if that happened again. He might just leave her there, he realized, which was mean, sure, but she’d deserve it. Of course, he didn’t have to make that decision yet -- it was just a stupid thought. In any case, back to the problem at hand.

“If the doors are out,” Brian said, “there are six other ways I can think of off the top of my head to get out of here.” He pointed at each of the four walls, then up at the ceiling and down at the floor. He also moved over to a chair and felt its weight in his hands. It was pretty sturdy, which was good. He didn’t want to look around for anything else that was better, tearing the office apart for something that could smash it to pieces. The ideal thing would be a fire extinguisher, but apparently, ghosts or whatever this was didn’t believe in fire safety.

That was a thought for a few plans down the line. Brian filed that one away for now. Instead, he put all his energy into running to one of the walls and whacking it with a chair.

The results were not great. Even after a couple of whacks, Brian only managed a small hole in the wall. It was progress, but it was a brute-force sort of progress. He put the chair back down. “We’ll call that Plan B,” he said. He rubbed his shoulders and looked up at the ceiling. “Or Plan C or whatever. It’s a plan. My turn to ask you to do something, then.”

Brian returned the office chair to the desk he’d gotten it from and hopped up on the desk, brushing away all the little keepsakes and doodads with his feet to create a relatively stable standing space. With that established, he reached up and pushed away one of the ceiling tiles. “A member of my fraternity swears you can do this,” Brian said. “Carmen, you’re smaller than me, you think you can get up there and, uh, I don’t know, find something out that way?”

 

On 11/29/2023 at 3:18 AM, LordCowCow said:

 

"when he said, 'as you wish,' what he meant was, 'i love you.'" 6.5/10

On 12/5/2023 at 10:53 AM, cr47t said:

 

yeah seeing this three months ago was cool but also not getting a rating in a music rating thread. i did correct the remix thing from the last post though sorry i mixed that up.

On 12/6/2023 at 2:15 AM, Mr Spaz said:

 

6.5/10 that's a really tempting song name to meme on but i will resist the urge

---

OP Suggestion: i don't normally listen to noise but i do sometimes dip my toe in and enjoy what i find 7/10 

 

It had only been a half-day’s worth of activities, but Melissa was still glad to return to the apartment. Some of the day's events had turned out to be quite harrowing, and Melissa needed some time to recover. The other feeling she’d had was worry, just thinking about how Bartleby had handled the place by himself. Perhaps such a feeling was unfounded, but he did turn out to be mobile after all, even vocal at Fen’s and her return! It was practically cause for celebration, as Melissa scooped Bartelby up into her arms and carried him around the apartment. She did notice his occasional longing glance at the kitchen, though, and chided him accordingly. “You’ll get your food at dinnertime,” she said. “The person at the store and the instructions on the bag say the same thing. It’s all measured out.” It didn’t stop Bartleby’s wanting, but saying it out loud did help reinforce the schedule to herself. Like all pet caretakers, she wanted to give him a little something, you know, as a treat. Maybe someday, but she wanted to be disciplined for the time being.

That night, Melissa placed her new Duel Mon- her new Yu-Gi-Oh! deck, box and all, including the chaff, in her bedside table drawer and lay awake looking up at the ceiling. Her mind whirred at just how similar the world of Prana was to her own, and yet still uncannily different in so many ways. She wondered when the inevitable screw-up was going to happen, that she would make a mistake and it would be meaningful somehow. Socially, perhaps she could fall back on her status as a Guardian, or even use that as a defense, because of course she still didn’t get it, why would she? But there was potential for her to suffer a real, physical cost because of something like this. She didn’t see it, but as she learned from her training with Rei, just because she couldn’t see it yet did not mean it wasn’t there.

It took a while, but she eventually drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

---

“Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place?”
-Job 38:12 (NIV)

---

Despite her watch flashing a news report about skeleton attacks, Melissa wasn’t exactly hurrying to get out of bed. There were no blaring alerts. Mauvache had said nothing yet. But tried not to laze about. Instead, Melissa’s movements were more of a deliberate slowness, savoring the morning as best she could. She’d heard that pets and owners slowly adapted to each other, owners becoming more like their pets and vice versa. Perhaps there was an element of truth to that. When she got downstairs, though, the lack of anybody else suggested she was the first one up, which implied differently.

She checked on Bartleby, who was also sound asleep, and went over to the kitchen to make breakfast. Just something she could throw together, she thought. Maybe some toast, with butter and jam? That and some tea sounded nice.

As her slices of bread magically turned into toast, accursed thoughts crept in. There was something ominous about skeletons. Maybe that was just the fact they were skeletons -- they were perfectly natural parts of the body until they were outside of you and still moving around. Melissa couldn’t help but wonder if there was a reason the news was investigating that, from the headlines, still was just speculation at this point. But she was able to keep such idle ruminations at bay a little longer for now, at least unless everyone else came down and started talking about it too. She hoped there would be something else to distract them so they wouldn’t, but could only guess as to what that could even be.