Oros the Mad says...

Well would you look at that? The Reality Plenum fired up again just when I said it would!

Since those bone heads on the bottom floor couldn't do what Master Chief was able to do (that's "finish the fight" for you uncultured nerds), I think we should take a look and see how all that went down. What's better than reading through a self indulgent flash back sequence before seeing what sort of WHACKY antics everyone's up to? Since some of the Patrons are new here, we could even flavor it as a tutorial. How does that sound?

I don't care about your opinion.

Besides, this Patron Observation Station Transcript, or P.O.S.T. if you prefer, is already up. Don't you know how this shit works? This ain't instant messaging, buddy.

Pax Septimus wasn’t a friendly place. Outwardly, it looked innocent enough. The art deco buildings of the historic district drew a crowd, and many of the fine eateries would happily serve tourists whatever treat their hearts desired. But those with even a modicum of curiosity would scratch the facade and know it was paint thin. Gangs lingered in every street and had their fronts on every street corner. Monsters hid among men, and were only kept in check by a small number of brave souls. But today, if everyone played their cards right, that could change.

The Golden Trove housing complex was a hideout for the remaining masterminds. The Hand, as they called themselves, had decided that this would be where they would have their finest hour. All the big factions were going to start throwing their weight around, and some uneasy alliances were set up. GEMINI and Maverick Alternative had joined forces to try and crush the Hand once and for all. Naturally, freelancers were notified of an important mission but couldn’t be told too much until the day of. But the pay was good, and espers from America and beyond flocked to collect the bounty.

Only Bionca may have overslept a bit.

She was transformed already. The wolf-themed ninja had one hand on the steering wheel and another on a slice of toast. Or at least it would have been toast if she had bothered to toast it. Her orange ponytail flapped in the wind as she sped down the road in a 1996 Volkswagen Transporter. Some of the body panels had been replaced with those from a salvage yard, and it needed to be painted a single color at some point. It had a misfire, but that was probably just plugs. She hoped the white smoke coming out of the exhaust was from the cool autumn weather and not because she had a blown head gasket.

Bionca remembers reading...

A misfire paired with white exhaust is a symptom of a blown head gasket. Coolant from the motor is leaking through the gasket into the cylinder head, which can cause the vehicle to misfire. Then the coolant is expelled through the tailpipe as white smoke. Though this could also indicate the engine block or head could be cracked, which is a far more expensive repair.

Oros the Mad talks about P.R....

Your P.R. can be used to pick up extra information in an environment. The Grand Magistrate, or GM, will share anything they feel your character is smart/savvy enough to know. Typically your attributes relate to information about Pax Septimus or paranormal shit, but you can use features to get info on other stuff. He still hasn’t put in features yet, has he? Be sure to bother him about it frequently.

It was never a good idea to drive around in your own car while transformed. All a monster has to do is take your license plate, run a few checks, and get your true identity. Fortunately it sounded like the vile monsters at this location had a bit more to worry about than an esper who overslept.

After rounding a corner, she slammed on her brakes. Before the Golden Trove was a slew of parked motorcycles. Clearly Maverick Alternative had gotten here and was already inside. Ahead of the motorcycles were a few espers fighting on the steps of the building. She wasn’t sure who was friend or foe, and didn’t think she could talk them down. It was clear by the look on their faces that they weren’t going to stop fighting. Finding an alternate way in was a must.

Oros the Mad talks even more about P.R....

Just because you have high INFLUENCE doesn’t mean you’re gunna have mind control over these nerds. Unlike BOOK or STREET, INFLUENCE is a modifier for an esper/traveler’s base charisma. When they act commanding, charming, or intimidating, it’s more likely to work. This means that what they say/do is important. If you wanna befriend someone and you treat them like a piece of shit, high INFLUENCE ain’t gunna get you a second date.

After hopping out of her van, Bionca jogged around the side of the building. For such a grandiose place, it was a little underwhelming on the outside. Sure, the opening archway that led in had two gilded chinese dragons, and there were a number of smaller flourishes she didn’t have time to examine, but the rest of the building was a grey slab with windows. Did people really pay a million dollars a month for some of the rooms here? The ultra rich were weird…

But not as weird as a battle between two metallic dragons.

One looked like it had a chrome exoskeleton with a pink flame bleeding out of every orifice, and the other was a golden dragon. While this was another fight Bionca didn’t want to be a part of, they were far enough away from the Golden Trove that she felt like she could get inside. Their battle had knocked down the eastern wall on the lower half of the building, which would make getting inside easier.

But what was that on the third floor? Grey smoke? Bionca reached into her back pack and pulled out a helmet. It was bulky with a howling wolf painted on either side of it, but the most important part was the goggles. When she slipped the helmet over her head, she switched through the modes until she landed on infrared, and looked into the smoke.

Oros the Mad talks about Backup...

You can pretty much access all of your gear at any time, transformed or not. Just make sure you have a free hand to grab stuff with. It’s also worth mentioning if an esper isn't holding onto their instrument(s), or doesn't have them stowed, they’ll leave their esper form shortly. That’s just embarrassing, right, Marrie?

Through her infrared goggles, Bionca could make out the shape of a nun standing with her back to the open wall. She seemed to be occupied with making problems for others that were inside the building. Normally Bionca might suspect the Inquisition was doing something in these parts, but they weren’t part of this mission. News had been making the rounds about some former GEMINI agents that called their squad Black Sabbath. They were darkweb espers that sold their souls and dignity to the highest bidder. They were all chain smokers, and Bionca got just enough clarity out of her goggles to see the nun was using a cigarette as a magic wand. That matched Nova’s description pretty well. This was an enemy, and a particularly nasty one.

It was hard to be stealthy with melodies. They were usually noisy, flashy things. But between the fighting inside and outside the hotel, it was unlikely Nova would notice. Bionca reached out a hand and focused. Light swirled like a cyclone in her palm, and before long a tender chicken leg appeared in her hand. It appeared to be cooked to perfection with a crunchy breaded coating. She pulled back her hand and whipped the drumstick towards her opponent.



One of the dragons roared, which caused Nova to turn her head, but it was too late. The tasty projectile smacked into her shoulder, at which point a giant wolf head manifested and bit into it. Then with a sharp tug, the wolf head vanished along with the drumstick, and Nova flew out of the building.

Oros the Mad talks about artistic licensing...

Melodies and gear can look like pretty much anything. Pick a theme and stick with it for extra cool points! Some things like push/pull notes need descriptions to function properly, as they can be used to move a target or knock them off balance. Narrate what your melodies do, lazy bones!

Nova didn’t have time to save herself from the fall, but she did fall onto one of the few bushes that hadn’t been flattened by the dragons. It softened her fall, but it was clear she was in some pain. Bionca wasn’t about to give her a chance to recover, so she sprinted towards the nun’s position. Nova sat upright, dazed but alert, and turned to face Bionca. The ninja grimaced when she saw all the piercings the corrupt nun had. This was just a final confirmation she made the right choice and this wasn't a member of the Holy See. The nun pointed her cigarette at Bionca, the tip lit up, but Bionca swung a cast iron pan at the side of her head before anything could happen. With a sickening crunch, the nun was flung onto her side. Her habit covered her face, but there was enough blood to indicate that the attack had been effective. Nova’s body was wreathed in smoke as she reverted back to her original form: a business woman with half of her skull caved in. The only time wounds carried over from an esper to the original body was when they were killed, so Bionca knew she would never hurt anyone ever again. Brutalizing other humans brought her no satisfaction, but she had heard of the beheading of a GEMINI agent that the nuns had carried out. It was hard to feel much empathy for such creatures.

Oros the Mad makes an observation about Style...

RESIST is an important attribute. Just sayin’.

While we’re talking about styles, espers aren’t that much more durable than humans when you come at them with something mundane like a frying pan. They’re more resistant to arcane powers and a lot more resistant to chaotic elements like monsters. Having more RESIST makes an individual take less damage from everything. Having a heavier style lets you sacrifice sexy acrobatics for a higher likelihood that a blow will bounce off your armor. Nova didn’t invest in any of that because she was a pleb.

Normally espers don’t get domed this fast, but if you take someone with low RESIST, pull them backwards out of a building, break both of their legs from the fall, and then clobber them from behind with a frying pan, they’re going to drop pretty fast. Fights are less bouts of roshambo and more like chess where ya gotta force them into a position where they can’t possibly defend themselves. Unless they’re weak, then you can just mow ‘em down.

With the initial threat neutralized, Bionca stepped back and threw another drumstick at the third floor. Just when it was going to hit a wall, it grew a mouth and opened wide to inhale the food. The opening was tall and wide, but had nothing inside it. Bionca would need a moment before she could cast another melody and pass through the portal she was creating.



The smoke was starting to clear out, and a second nun showed up. This one had bunny ears, an eyepatch, and a huge cigar in her mouth. This had to be Bobo, who was another member of Black Sabbath. Her eye scanned the battlefield until it rested on Nova’s corpse. "Someone finally caught you out of position, huh?" As the rest of the smoke cleared out, her weapons of choice became apparent. There was a mace in one hand and a flame thrower in the other. She raised the flame thrower and pointed at Bionca. "The least I can do is build your killer a funeral pyre."

"Guess I won’t need my flint!" Bionca stashed her frying pan.

The tip of the flamethrower sparked, caught fire, and then a stream of burning napalm was fired out. Bionca did her best to evade, but it was tricky. The napalm continued to burn well after it hit the ground, and all the heat was causing her infrared to pick up everything. She immediately turned her goggles off and hopped backwards. Magic swirled around her limbs as she prepared her next melody.

Once she was ready, she leaned down and touched the ground. It immediately grew a mouth and opened wide, taking her inside.

Oros the Mad talks about Genre...

Genre-ly speaking, you can use a single melody in a P.O.S.T.. What’s a little less obvious is that while it does take time to compose a melody, you can do other stuff at the same time. Dodge attacks, block attacks, spit out sick one liners, it doesn’t matter. So long as it doesn’t demand too much focus, you can do it while composing a melody. While Bionca’s low efficiency means she can’t compose notes quickly, she can totally get a melody off if she does the composing while staying alive.

It felt a little weird falling through the portal she had made. Gravity helped her enter the first one, but as soon as she came out of the other one, she was already falling. Bionca managed to stumble into a roll. It was noisy, and Bobo immediately turned to see what was going on. The ninja drew her knives and lunged for the bunny nun, and steel met steel. They exchanged blows, with Bobo using her mace to bat aside Bionca’s knives, who would then counter swing just as she tried to aim her flamethrower at Bionca. But this was just a delay, as both espers swelled with mana.

Oros the Mad talks about Instruments...

Attributes have some pretty interesting implications in fights that might not be immediately apparent. DAMAGE is pretty obvious unless you’re a total dipshit. The assumption might be that SPEED is what determines who has initiative, but you know what happens when you assume, right? It’s RANGE that usually determines who hits first. Generally, all espers have the same reaction times. So if you have a knife that you can swing really fast, it won’t matter if the other guy has a slow gun and you’re approaching them from a mile away. Bionca has good RANGE, her opposition just has naturally large weapons, and better ones too.

Both espers had their magic primed at the same time. Bionca thrust at her opponent’s midsection. Bobo went to block with their mace.



On impact, Bionca was greeted with a fiery explosion that covered her body, and Bobo was flung from the Golden Trove. Both of them screamed for different reasons, and fell different distances. Bionca rolled back and forth on the floor until the searing flames began to subside. She patted down her outfit where the flames hadn’t quite gone out. The last thing she did was pick up the end of her ponytail to crush out the last flame. She peaked over the edge to see if she had defeated Bobo, but it looked like she had survived the fall, almost entirely unscathed.

"Did you think I’d fall for that?"

"Your friend did." Bionca stood up.

"She was a business acquaintance, it’s not that personal." Bobo stepped backwards towards the portal. This was going to be a little dicey.

Oros the Mad makes an observation about the person she’s talking to...

Penny Jr? Finn!? Did you fall asleep on me? What the hell man! It’s so hard to tell with the doctor mask.…

Well whatever, I’ll finish showing you what happens later.

Pax Septimus had many attractive vistas. After Dan’s arrival a week ago, there were even more of them. The most notable of which was Caesar Beach. It used to be a sad little place that contained more empty soda cans than sand, but Dan’s beach magic had transformed the place into an otherworldly summer paradise. The grains of sand glistened like pearls, there were a few palm trees despite their inability to grow this far north, and the water was crystal clear. The algae and junk that tended to float ashore was completely gone as well. While every beach in Pax Septimus was like this, Caesar was special in that it was never too crowded and visited exclusively by espers. It was also where Dan Daggernose tended to spend most of his time.

Every esper or monster, wherever they were, would see Dan Daggernose appear on a screen near their position. Maybe it was on a TV in their apartment, maybe it was up on a Jumbotron in the city square, but he would be in view. The anthropomorphic shark man was standing knee deep in ocean water, waving at the screen.

"How’s it going, friends?" He said in a voice that was more befitting of a cartoon mascot. "The water’s fine, and we’ve got breakfast on the grill! So how about you stop by Caesar Beach for your morning workout and a snack?" He placed his hands on his hips. "There’s a lot of interesting people here that would love to meet you. And if you didn’t show up… You could hurt their feelings." His shoulders deflated. "And that wouldn’t be very nice. But you are nice! So you’re going to show up!"

---

^@Ponn

One of the first things that happened when Dan came to Pax was that he fixed up a lot of the damaged buildings. The second weird thing that happened was that he gave all the espers rooms in the Golden Trove. Mika and Ashley had to share a couple’s room, but it was spacious and had two beds, so other than the bathroom they didn’t have to share anything.

Mika was looking in a full body mirror in the bedroom. She had watched a few cartoons, and everyone always looked like they were having a lot of fun on beach episodes. She hadn’t really considered how embarrassing it might be to wear something like a bikini out in a public space. Finn and her had showered in two different stalls once and the chance he might see her in just a towel was a possibility but not one that had bothered her. Perhaps what made it okay was that she felt safe around Finn at the time, and she wasn’t sure if she would feel the same way at a beach party with a bunch of strangers. Especially when most of those strangers were going to be way older than Finn was.

"I don't want to go, but I guess we should." Mika and Ashley had gone, every day, for the past week. The good doctor had said to do so to keep Dan distracted, and now they hadn’t seen either of their superiors for several days. Bird of Paradise had been with them until yesterday, and they also disappeared when they failed to arrive at the party on time. Mika turned away from the mirror and looked at Ashley. "But then we need an idea after the party is over. I don’t like this."

---

^{@Emeth@Nakushita}

Billy Black, Trixy, and Tetrad. All gone.

The Continental breakfast buffet was usually open now, but if the TV had anything to go by, Dan had shut it down so that everyone would show up to the beach to get fed. In truth, Iris had little issue walking into the kitchen and making food for everyone herself, but it would be unwise to defy the shark man’s whims at this time. At present she was armed with a giant corn dog and little else. Her eyes went down the front of her body. She didn’t feel embarrassed, just exposed. Though she doubted she would feel that much more secure if she had her robes back. Perhaps having a real weapon would grant her the security she sought. With a sigh, she looked at a statue of a giant golden koi by the front entrance.

Nina and Scypho came down stairs just in time to see their temporary leader. A petite woman with black hair, pale skin, a giant corn dog, and a number of spider legs protruding out of her back. She turned around to look at them as they arrived. "Good morning." She hadn’t been around either one of them very much. Trixy had been holding the group together until her disappearance yesterday. "I guess our first order of the day has been decided for us." She lowered her brow. "I entirely plan on confronting that shark. He has to know what happened to the others."

---

^{@Yankee@Majoraa}

Bionca was out and about trying to enjoy the morning city scene. She had encountered a few scam artists that were trying to swindle her out of money through rigged parlor games. Fortunately, she was smart and wise and caught onto them instantly. Then she saved a bunch of other espers from losing their savings, and they all admired her, and all wanted to be with her, and then, and then, and then she woke up.

Damn it! She overslept again.

Transforming into her esper form was faster than getting dressed, so she did that. Then she flung open the door and ran straight into the hallway, at which point she realized she had no place she needed to be.

"Why do I do this to myself every morning?"

Maybe she did have a place to be. Dan’s announcement played on a TV screen at the end of a hall. But rather than feeling a sense of foreboding, it further reassured Bionca that she hadn’t overslept. It was weird that random espers kept going missing, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. For all she knew, they just had to go back to doing their job elsewhere. Nothing wrong with that.

Bionca wasn’t the only one in the hallway though. There were two more people that looked like they were just as ready to party as she was. At least, that was what she suspected.

"Are you guys headed to Caesar Beach? Because I hear it’s a lot of fun, and I’m a lot of fun too."

---

^{@Chevaleresse@The World}

Marrie and Rika, two wandering and confused souls, would find themselves walking around the city early in the morning when Dan’s message came over the jumbotron. The streets were empty, which was strange even for a weekday like this. But Marrie had been around Pax long enough to know this wasn’t normal and had only started after Dan arrived.

The two weren’t alone though, and they hadn’t been together. What joined Marrie and Rika together was a third party. A third party named Book Kidd.

"You there! In the well coordinated outfit" The goat man approached Marrie. "Would you happen to know where I can find some dye? These trunks look absolutely appalling on me! Red is clearly my color and they had the nerve to give me blue ones!" He was also holding a book of questionable reading material, which he promptly hid behind his back. "It’s a gag gift for a friend, I’m just waiting to meet him so that I can hand it to him." His eyes pivoted to Rika. "Oh! You look like you could be Chinese? Korean? Japanese? Either way, you look like someone who can appreciate the ‘wah’ in someone’s outfit. Is this not the most repulsive combo you’ve ever seen?" He pointed at himself. "Please tell me you know where I can buy some dye. No one will come with me to Caesar Beach if I look like this!"

Coffee, for Nina, was a can of cold brew, probably one of those overpriced ones stowed away in each room's fridge. Or fresh from what was hopefully one of the many vending machines in the hall, and not one of the many shady convenience stores in the city. Neither of the other two Maverick girls could be entirely sure where or when she'd acquired it. Absent the rigidity of a strict schedule, she seemed to naturally drift towards retiring to bed early and rising before the sun did, though she didn't show an ounce of the stereotypical energy early birds were supposed to have. How did the old saying go? Healthy, wealthy and... well, two out of three wasn't bad. The woman seemed to take every aspect of her life in stride—an absolutely glacial one, to be sure—but to her credit, in the brief time they'd been acquainted, she'd always been punctual, prepared, and keeping whatever icy quips might be rattling around in that quiet, unenthused head of hers to herself.

In the context of a compulsory, unending beach vacation, her usual preparedness made her look ready to volunteer for lifeguard duty. Just, as soon as the caffeine kicked in. "Good morning boss," she replied tepidly. Even in beach attire, she was still wearing a jacket. Did she ever hang that thing up, or did she wear it to bed and take the time to iron it every morning? "Da." She nodded. "Shark man is acting like all is well," she observed, brow furrowed. "But is deceiving situation." She understood that her job was in jeopardy here, at least, even if she hadn't known the others well enough to be particularly empathetic about their disappearances. Indeed, she didn't seem to be feeling much of anything about any part of this situation, except tired. She downed the last dregs of her cold brew and tossed the empty can into a waste bin that was, uncharacteristic of the city's usual condition, rather empty. "Poekhali." She flashed a thumbs up.

Ashley sighed as she looked out the window of her and Mika’s room at the Golden Trove. The sky was a clear, vibrant blue, and the entire city seemed to gleam in a bright, super-saturated way that made the world outside appear not quite real. That was unsurprising, with Dan’s magic spell having turned Pax Septimus into a warm-weather beach resort, despite it nearly being (US) Thanksgiving. If she was being honest, the Knight of Tomorrow had mixed feelings about that development. On the one hand, the city was finally the pleasant, safe, and peaceful place she had always hoped it could someday be, one free from crime, monster attacks, or violence of any kind. However, on the other hand, that peace was forced, not voluntary, something Dan’s most recent, passive-aggressive “invitation” only served to accentuate. Thus, it wasn’t truly real, but merely a facade, like the one the shark man had draped over the formerly cold, dilapidated city. Real change couldn’t be affected simply by waving a magic wand, or snapping one’s fingers. It needed to be worked at, and for Ashley and her teammate, it was time for that work to continue.

“I don’t particularly care for it either,” the high-tech heroine replied to her feline-themed subordinate. “Especially in light of the others’ disappearance, but this is the only way we’re going to get any answers.” As instructed, they had played along with Dan’s whimsical ways for the past week, but now, with the director and other members of their team having vanished, it was clear they needed to take a rather more proactive approach. “I know he was brought here by a member of The Hand, but if Dan’s really as devoted to pacifism as he claims, I doubt those who’ve gone missing are in any danger,” she added. “That said, I still want to know what he’s done with them. If he’s even the one responsible to begin with…”

While certainly powerful, there was another, perhaps even more god-like being at work besides the cheerful shark man. Indeed, his presence in the city was a direct response to that individual’s still-not-fully-understood plans, plans Ashley, or rather, her grimoire, was central to. Yes, if anyone else could cause the leaders of both Maverick and GEMINI to vanish without a trace, it was (the also missing) Sharr Webber. Yet, since Dan seemed to have knowledge of and control over most everything else that was happening in Pax Septimus, with any luck, he would also be able to shed some light on that mystery as well…

"Hm..."

So it's been a week since Dan took over Pax Septimus. With the initial commotion that came with such a widespread transformation, Alice was able to slip into the city easily enough. Though it took some getting used to blending in; which included the rather ornate swimwear she was forced to wear in order to do as such.

Frankly, Alice was never the one for summer-time bullshit like this. And as she idly stared out her room window, she was reminded of the fact. All the frills and beaches and sunshine in the world could never change that.

"God, this is way too familiar for comfort." She groaned, rubbing her palms into her eyes. Once they rested back onto her lap, Alice's attention was turned to the mass of notes scattered across her bed. Asides from her main objective for being here she was trying to investigate some other things about Pax Septimus on the side. "At least there's no one breathing down my neck this time. She lifted one of the papers up to give it another glance over.

Perhaps not her neck, but her mind was a different story…

Well, well, well… Aren’t you the good little rule follower? An amused voice taunted. Kowtowing to all the Grand Magistrate’s petty demands and conforming yourself to his reality plenum’s laughably limiting rules framework… I thought you were more of a rebel than that, Jen. I mean, if it were me, I’d just give all that rules crap the biggest middle finger imaginable and arrive with my full, reality plenum-shattering power completely intact! But I guess you’ve mellowed in your old age, hmm? Or were you just so bored that you’d agree to anything if it meant you could get a little excitement? Oh, that’s right, you go by Alice now. My apologies. Gotta say, that particular name has acquired more than a few distinctly unpleasant connotations of late, as I’m sure you’re aware, but if you simply had to pick an alias, I suppose it’s still nowhere near as cringey a choice as Literally Satan. Speaking of, if you run across that smug bitch, be sure to give her my regards. And if you’re wondering why my dialogue doesn’t have a color code in the local Incident Chronicle, it’s because I think it’s for the best if I conceal my true identity under a veil of mystery for a while longer, although astute individuals will probably be able to figure out who I am thanks to all the various context clues I’ve helpfully provided. Plus, I don’t want anyone to confuse me with that Dead Head dumbass… ANYWAY, seeing as how I’m not your official Watcher, I’ll get to the point. The real reason I called you is so that I can give you a little present to keep you company on your ‘working vacation’. It should serve as a suitable reminder of what happens to failures…

With that, a yellowy-green lightning-ringed tear opened in the fabric of reality, depositing a large, deformed, partially dissolved, and quite mutilated plush head.

Or, y’know, if you’re feeling creative, I’m sure you can figure out a way to turn it into a beach ball! Nyahahahaha!!!

A moment later, Dan’s magic worked its whimsical wonderment on what was left of the plush head, bestowing upon it a pair of fancy sunglasses, even as the maniacal laughter faded off into the depths of Alice’s mind.

Alice simply sat unphased as the eldritch voice prattling on in her head gave her its fair share of criticisms. Unsurprising. She let out a long sigh at the comment towards her decision to go by her old name this time.

_{Then again, both were technically her real name, it was just a complicated situation from her oldest self. And she didn't want a mix-up with that one cop from GEMINI's initial op. C'est la vie. She was first though. You can fight her on it but you will lose.}

"Oh you poor soul, you were hoping for a team-up, weren't you? Forgive me for not including you in my plans." She lifted up the transmutated sunglasses with furrowed brows. A reminder of who was stuck with Aigorost at the moment. Not even Alice knew what it had planned for the unfortunate kid. "Here I had hope your promotion would help get that stick out of your ass. Though I somehow doubt you'd be easily content with watching over your pet project." If they were as much of a rulebreaker as they boast, it was only fair to expect. Alice set the sunglasses onto a nearby coffee table and gathered her notes to put away for now.

...Maybe when things were restored to its wicked normality, she could find a way to patch the poor plush back up.

But right now, she needed a drink. Alice grabbed her weap- water guns. These are water guns. She grabbed her water guns and stepped out into the hallway. Right on cue, Dan's announcement played on TV.

Yeeeeesh...

Alice couldn't help the look on her face. If the shark man was two-toned, she'd be trying to shoot the screen. Even the name of the damn beach was somehow enough to make her shudder. Her considerations were interrupted when someone spoke to her and the other Esper in the hall with them. Was that an attempt to flirt? "As much as I have other buisness to attend to, I might as well try to get more information from people about the string of disapearances and everything." She explained to Bionca, turning to face her.

"Might be a good idea to stick together until we get there, yeah?"

"Uh." Rika responded eloquently. "Well technically I'm Californian," she clarified after a moment. She spent a little too long trying to figure out if that comment should bother her, or if it was supposed to bother her, but before too long Rika elected to just let that question slide away unanswered. "I think there's a hobby shop or something in the strip mall a few streets over that way?" she said. "The one with the crappy wings and the liquor store." She waved her hand in the general direction she meant, assuming that the goat boy could probably find his way over. "I dunno if now's the best time, though, the shark guy seems pretty insistent."

Scypho acknowledged Iris’s and Nina’s good morning with a wordless gaze as she made it down the last of the stairs. Attending Iris's remarks in mild disinterest with a scrutinizing stare, her red eyes focused on Iris’s Iris’s letting her finish her remarks. She didn’t know what all the hubbub was about, she quite liked the beach and all that it had to offer. But the others seemed intent on trying to figure out how to revert everything back to the way it had been before. Though it was troubling that others kept disappearing without a trace or warning, especially three of the more senior and leading members of Maverick. Now with Trixy having been the latest she was stuck with Nina and Iris, neither of whom she knew all that well other than their brief interactions here and there within the same organization and after Daggernose Dan changed everything. She had yet to build any trust with either of them, nor have they yet to build any trust with her in return.

She found Iris’s plan to confront Dan Daggernose quite foolish, she knew he was not likely to give them a suitable or logical answer to the question. Not only that it seemed unwise to antagonize a massive muscular orange shark man if you didn’t have to. He had all the cards right now, and was the king of this little sea. Especially when all they had was a spider with a giant corn dog, a jellyfish with a pool noodle and Nina with the jump rope and beach ball. At least they could offer him a form of food and some beach side entertainment but that was about it for their options as far as Scypho was concerned.

Giving a shrug of her shoulders as she lifted her sleeve covered hands up. “He could have eaten them, he is a shark after all” Scypho suggested to Nina and Iris without an ounce of humor within her stern tone with a glance towards Nina then back to Iris. Whether she was joking to try to be funny and lighten the mood or she was being serious there wasn’t any visible sign of either upon her features. If her two co-patriots wished to go confront Dan for answers, she had very little choice but to accompany them as a united Maverick front despite her reservations about how successful it would be. The shark had shown very little interest in giving up any information beyond his beach plans and she didn’t think that would change anytime soon.

Once more, Marrie found herself wandering the empty streets of Pax.

How detestable.

After all that had happened just over a week prior, the girl's mind had been running almost nonstop. She still didn't know what happened to the others who had been there, but it didn't matter too much what actually had happened.

'What matters is results.'

But these were not worthwhile results. Yes, nobody in Pax was getting hurt in Pax, but everyone else was presumably still in danger. And who knows what happened to the others when they disappeared?

Not to mention... what about everyone who wasn't trapped there, like 'Ms. Webber' from the fight at the Golden Trove? Was she just getting more and more prepared for their return while they pissed away time here? Sure, a vacation would have been nice, but...

Marrie shook her head. Even so, she couldn't shake the feeling that this wasn't some sort of magical overlay, but rather an alternative world in a similar shape. One in which it was always a certain season. In which case...

Her thoughts were knocked from her head by a Visitor, a goat man, asking her if she knew where to obtain dye. What was this, minecraft? And more importantly...

He looked a lot like the goat man who had been at the fight. Was that a coincidence that there were two, or were they related? She decided that this, too, didn't matter.

What did, potentially, matter was the fact that his comment implied he hadn't been in Pax for very long. Did that mean he'd just arrived? Did he know what was going on outside? And would asking that directly be dangerous? She didn't know.

She supposed she could ask one of the other humans, but... that didn't seem very appealing, honestly. With how her mind had been this past week, she figured any interpersonal interaction was going to bomb, badly.

Marrie fell back into reality just as the other Esper mentioned him. That's right, the shark who had caused all this.

Yes, he had saved everyone, or at least most of everyone, who had been in the fight. But that fact was outweighed by the disappearances of those who didn't play along. Maybe they were safe and sound, but she couldn't bring herself to believe that yet. And so...

"That's right. Maybe Dan'll have a spare red set for you. Better than getting sent to who-knows-where, right?"

The voicemail box of the number you have dialed is full and cannot accept any messages at this time. Goodbye.

There'd been no change in the last three days since Roland had been in Pax Septimus. With one hand he pulled the phone away from his ear, glaring at the screen as the call disconnected, and with the other he shoved another spoonful of off-brand Cheerios into his mouth. Though he hadn't been back for long he was living in a populated apartment complex (against his will or not), and visiting familiar crummy take out places that had managed to stand the test of time, but this little morning ritual still made him feel a little... isolated.

Which meant it was about time to shake that feeling off and get a move on. With a slightly exaggerated sigh Roland pushed up from the tiny table. This was a kind-of-sort-of-but-not-really vacation for him, but after all this time he still found it hard to sleep in, as much as he might want to. Already dressed for the day, he passed a hand over his belt (it'd been a while since he dropped the accompanying poses... for the most part) and transformed.

This hadn't changed so far either, his alternate form's outfit always reverted back to a sleek black one piece swimsuit no matter what alterations he tried to make. Yesterday he'd even attempted to swap the one piece for something a little sexier just to lean into the phenomenon that had gripped the city, but even that hadn't lasted. Briefly, Roland raised his phone up at an angle and checked himself in the device's smooth, dark reflection.

Ah, well, this wasn't too bad either.

It really wasn't that much more of a hassle to come and go in his esper form, even as beach-ready as it was, because everyone else was stuck in the same circumstances. Even factoring in the whole peaceful beach spell going on it was weird that a bunch of espers had all been more or less forced under one roof in the first place, but that was exactly why he was transformed in the first place. The whole secret identity thing. Though to be honest he didn't think there was any real risk of being recognized, better safe than sorry. Still, it was just one of those things. Those little things that were easy to forget, and yet sure to pile up.

It wasn't much longer until Roland stepped in the hall as Jack, wrenching the stupid sticky door closed behind her. A monitor hung on the wall lit up to broadcast that shark guy's latest message, though Jack ignored it for the most part - at least until the ladies in the hall with her struck up a conversation. Jack hadn't planned to go to the beach either, but she would have to look into it eventually. Might as well move it up on the schedule, especially because she still didn't know much about these disappearances mentioned.

Gold eyes glanced at Alice. "You worried about being spirited away yourself or something? Wherever you end up it's not like you'll get hurt or die anyway, right?"

At least until this was all reversed. It couldn't last forever, but for the time being it really did seem impossible to hurt others. Jack had checked.

She turned to Bionca then, looping an arm around the red head's shoulders as a smile split her face. "But sure, we can stick together, and I could use some fun. Maybe even put this swimsuit to use!"

Nukkelina had arrived in Pax Septimus in the week after Dan Daggernose had transformed the city into a summer paradise. She has been called in by Maverick Alternative to reinforce the organization against the entity known as The Hand. She had accepted the job, since she was curious to see how much influence Hand possessed, and if they had the connections that she sought, especially when it came to a certain monstrous puppet who had stolen her “heart”.

Now, with a void in place of it, the girl looked on into the distant shores of Ceasar Beach from her room in the Golden Trove, holding Ser Miauskers in her arms: it seems he was eager to join the festivities based on the vintage striped swimsuit and scuba gear that the enchantment had blessed the cat plushie. As her attire as an Esper had also been transformed into something more fitting maritime activities, she had accepted that the enchantment specifically encouraged summery activities. And that meant needing to socialize with others, something Nukkelina was not familiar with. The only practice she has had since the voiding of her heart had been her puppets, and those made for poor conversationalists. Still, an invitation was an invitation, and Iris Silk, her local contact, had previously mentioned about heading out there along with other Maverick agents. Giving one last sigh, she opened the door, and exited the room.

She walked downstairs to the lobby, and joined up with the Maverick agents.
”Greetings,” she spoke, her voice devoid of emotion.
”Confronting an entity capable of such power is unwise, and likely to result in your limbs being pulled apart, one by one,” she continued.
”However, such beings are ruled by emotion and passion. With subterfuge and charm, we will achieve much more intelligence than simply rushing in.” She side-eyed the other girls, Nina and Jellmiko in particular.
“However, despite what my current clothes imply, I will refrain from swimming.”

Oros the Mad says...

Sup bastards!

Since there’s a non zero percent chance espers are going to sling spells during this adventure, let’s pivot from the frying pan wielding nun murderer to the spider furry. Are spider girls considered furries? Are they closer to scalies because of the exoskeleton? I’ll have to ask Rika when I corner her. I feel like insect bros would want their own cringe group for themselves.

Try to stay awake this time, Finn!

The bottom floor of the Golden Trove was alit with activity. Espers along with Maverick Alternative’s various monsters were going up against the weretiger mafia. The main lobby didn’t offer a lot of cover. Towards the back of the room was the clerk’s desk, and to the front was a golden koi statue. The walls to either side were lined with pillars, but gunfire and spell slinging had destroyed most of them. While the Hand’s most important members were hiding on the upper floors, Big Tony had come all the way down to the bottom floor to meet the entrance team personally. He was no less important than Dragon Fruit or Book Man, but he wasn’t one for hiding.

Due to this, most of the fighting was taking place in little side areas, or they took cover behind pillars to progress. Only Billy and Tony dared to remain in the center of the lobby. The barechested titans were slugging it out while the lobby exploded around them.

Maverick Alternative knew they were only here to draw attention away from the upper floors, but Big Tony was a known member of the hand and the leader of the weretiger mafia. If they could take him out, it would further disorganize the Hand and make the city that much safer. The Mavericks might have been on the side of monsters, but even they knew when their kind pushed too far.

Iris hid behind a pillar with Trixy. While she found the woman’s personality grating at times, there were few people she trusted to support her with covering fire. At a glance, a nymphomaniac with a rocket launcher bigger than her daddy issues was probably the last person you wanted watching your back. But despite her instrument’s lack of finesse, Iris had yet to see Trixy ever hit one of her allies.

"Right!" Trixy turned to Iris. "The sniper retreated upstairs, so our position should be open now. If you get in there, maybe you can help Billy take on that cereal mascot."

While Iris was listening to Trixy, her eyes were scanning for threats. Sure enough, a weretiger with a tommygun had taken interest in their position. She pulled Trixy close and hid behind the disintegrating pillar.

"Oh uh, weird time for a hug Iri-" The bullets ripped through what was left of the pillar and started pelting Trixy’s back, and bruised her skin. "Ow-wow-wow-wow-wow!"

Oros the Mad talks about Monsters and Travelers....

If a well made frying pan is all it takes to cave in an esper’s skull, how can trixy act like a human shield against a tommy gun? If your answer was anything like ‘She must have a special ability that protects her’ or anything dumb like that, you’d be 100% certifiably wrong. It’s because the tommygun was doing chaos damage, which espers are extremely resistant to.

Monsters are incapable of dealing physical damage normally. Their chaotic energies warp anything they touch, causing them to break with ease or become entwined with their own energies. Most monsters usually forgo using this world’s weapons because they can do so much more damage without them. They usually have enhanced capabilities far greater than an esper to do what damage they can, and chaos damage from firearms tends to be weak by comparison.

If chaos damage guns do so little damage to espers, then why use an esper as a human shield? Well, Iris isn’t an esper. She’s something we here in the business call ‘a traveler.’

Travelers as a term doesn’t really exist in this world, monsters are just monsters regardless of where they came from. It's just a meta name for monsters that are in line with esper Patron Champions. They don’t truly have glamors as they don’t have grimoires, but for generation purposes they have all the same attributes and shit. They have a few differences between their esper counterparts, but the two biggest are their resistances and the damage types they have access to. As mentioned before, Monsters and travelers have any physical damage they deal converted to chaos damage. This includes damage from gear they may be carrying around, like shit granted from a P.R.. The second important difference is their resistances. It’s assumed that monsters are tougher than humans on average, but they take greatly reduced physical damage (to the point where most physical attacks won’t do anything), normal chaos damage (Still reduced when compared to a normal human, but more than an esper would take), and arcane damage is even more effective on them.

If it was a regular human shooting at them, Iris would take way less damage from the attack and would be better suited to act as a shield for Trixy.

Iris, while still holding on to Trixy, dropped to one knee before falling onto her back. The stream of bullets continued to fly overhead, narrowly missing the legs she had curled around Trixy.

"He’s still shooting."

"Ya think!?" Trixy rolled off of the spider woman, causing her legs to unfold. "We’re not doing anything over here."

"Hmph." Iris opened her hand, and a thick black strand started to form in her palm. "We need to reposition. Follow my lead and he shouldn’t see you." And with that, Iris became transparent. She dropped one end of the black web on the ground and started to speed crawl. Once she was out from behind the pillar, she stood into a crouching sprint and made her way to the next pillar.



"Ohhhhh!" Trixy followed after her and kept her rocket launcher slung over her shoulder. "Nice melody. I didn’t know you could do that."

Iris raised an eyebrow. "Melody?"

"Yea, it’s, uh…" Trixy scratched her head. "I forgot you were a monster for a second, heh! What do you call that magic that you just used?"

"Is now the time to be asking that?" Iris sighed after she responded. After using Trixy to protect herself, the least she could do was answer her question. It wasn’t like anyone would hear them between her magic hiding their presence or all the gunfire. "It’s orbweaver’s magic, specifically umbral web. It allows us to travel undetected."

"Neat!"

Oros the Mad talks about Magic....

Travelers have magic, but it ain’t the same thing as an esper’s melodies. They just use the same system for balance reasons. Many monsters have magical abilities that can’t be easily broken down into notes, so be ready for that. Outside of ‘in story’ lore and shit, travelers use the same casting system. Come to think of it, it’s pretty hard to tell the difference between espers and travelers, given a lot of them are humanoids with similar abilities. Though monster detection abilities will reveal a traveler for what they really are.

That aside, let’s actually talk about magic now. I’m not gunna dig too deep into the individual formula of every melody (or spell, technically) because I feel they’re pretty well explained in the formula itself. I also choose to believe an ape brain like yourself knows the very basics, like that you start with a cast note and then add other notes to get the desired effect. All notes need to be unique and you can’t include a note more than once in your melody or spell.

What might be a little less clear is how we get the grades of the individual notes. Effects scale with POTENCY, and mods scale with EFFICIENCY. It’s also made a little more complicated because while mastered notes can be cast at the grade of an esper’s/traveler’s attributes, proficient notes are cast below it, and basic are two below. Iris has B POTENCY and E EFFICIENCY. Since [Obfuscate] is mastered, it gets cast at B. Trail is basic, so it’s cast two grades below Iris’s EFFICIENCY, making it G grade.

Oh, and just an idea, if you hate navigating the DoCS to find your notes, you could try making a spell book or something. Maybe write the ones you know down somewhere for you to easily reference later. You could even stash them on your CS if you’re feeling particularly conservative.

Iris only had a few seconds left on her spell when she rounded another pillar. "Give me cover from here." Technically Trixy outranked her, but Maverick Alternative was more fast and loose with its leadership structure than GEMINI. A respected individual was one with a high rank, but respect didn’t equate to a mind for strategy. Trixy was far better at rehabilitating monsters and minding her own powers than strategy deploying others in a high risk situation like this. This seemed to be something she understood, as she wordlessly remained behind the pillar.

As the last of the umbral strand left Iris’s hand, she charged across the room. Should the weretiger gunner notice her before she could get to him, she knew she could dive behind the golden koi statue.

Oros the Mad talks about Maps....

A picture’s worth a thousand words, yo.

Some of you have likely wondered how the heck you’re supposed to keep track of a battle that has more than a few espers in it. For particularly outrageous battles, that’s usually when the maps get busted out. It’s a bit overkill for a scene like this. But you can see how it works. There are portraits of all the characters in their current positions. This is usually set up in an editable DoC where the patrons can freely adjust the placement of their espers to better indicate what’s going on between Grand Magistrate P.O.S.T.s.

But this isn’t an excuse to get lazy. These maps are rarely one to one with the described scene. The koi statue was described as sitting across from the clerk’s desk near the entrance to the hotel, but in this image you can see it’s more in the middle with an unidentified object where the koi statue is supposed to be. Other observations would be the clearly japanese/cyberpunk accents for this hotel despite it supposedly being chinese in theme. This ain’t a commissioned piece, and is just a tool to help you make sense of what’s being written. Don’t take the map itself as gospel, but you can approximate everyone’s distance from each other or their general area.

Iris kept running. The koi statue passed her by, and it seemed like she might get to the weretiger before he realized what was going on. He must have thought he had killed the girls, because he was shifting his attention to the fight between Billy and Big Tony. He changed the drum shaped magazine on his Tommy before he noticed the approaching yokai. It only took him a moment to pivot his gun towards Iris and fire.

She did her best to deflect the rounds. Espers and monsters were capable of great feats of agility, but she couldn’t deflect all the bullets. A few rounds managed to enter her torso, enough to crack one of her ribs, and she stumbled to cover in front of the pillar. She placed a hand on her stomach. No time to worry about the pain now. She knew he was going to try and fire at her again, and she needed to be ready. Her nerves rose up to her throat, but she refused to scream. She could see the barrel of the tommygun peak around the corner, but it pulled back when the weretiger roared. He wasn’t roaring at her though, he was roaring at the nutty girl on the other side of the lobby. Her rocket launcher was pointed right at him, and a pillar of annihilation flew out the end of it. The beam looked red at the edges, but the middle was white and left afterglows in all of Iris’s eyes. When it made contact with the weretiger, Iris threw her arm in front of her eyes to avoid getting blinded.



It was total overkill. The weretiger was vaporized on the spot, and even his weapon melted into a metallic mist. Miraculously, nothing else was damaged. When Iris lowered her arm, she could see that the pillar and her had been unharmed by the blast. She let go of a breath she didn’t know she was holding and scrambled behind the cylinder. Once she confirmed there were no nearby hostile targets, she looked back across the lobby at Trixy. She was grinning back at the yokai, and gave her a thumbs up. Wearily, Iris returned the gesture before ducking back into cover.

Oros the Mad talks about complex melodies....

When making more complex melodies, it can be really important to put notes in the right order so that the Grand Magistrate understands what sort of harebrained plan you’re trying to hatch. If those notes were arranged in a slightly different order, Iris could have been vaporized along with the werechump.

It’s always good to start with the cast type, followed by any enhancements. Since almost all notes are influenced by POTENCY or EFFICIENCY, it makes sense to put notes like [Powerful] or [Quicken] first. This melody is extra complex because it has effects that we only want to activate when they hit an opponent, so any effects that we want to work no matter what need to come before that. As an example, if we accidentally hit Iris with our shot, we still want [AoE] to go off so that it can catch any potential targets. So you’d place that before [If Foe] so that it activates. Then everything after that is going to pretty much activate at the same time. [Damage X] and [Push] can be placed in any order you like since they all activate instantly. There just wasn’t anything to push.

Oh, and a reminder that all smart notes are usable by everyone, as they don’t need to be in an esper’s lists to access. That includes conditions and logic gates. Multicast technically falls under the smart note umbrella but it does require higher EFFICIENCY to use those notes.

Iris was wounded, but there was no time to heal herself. Not when Billy was still engaged in a fight with Big Tony. Actually, he looked like he could use some treatment too. Billy was strong, but the immortal big cat seemed to recover from any wound that was inflicted on him.

Her mana weaved itself into a chromatic web that wrapped itself around her blade. Lights shining the full spectrum of the rainbow walked across her face as she steeled herself. With the big cat distracted, she pointed her odachi at the feline’s back, and the glowing web shot forward and slung itself into a multicolored ball of spider silk. As if tethered to the ball by an invisible string, Iris soared after it.

She was moving too fast to be stopped. The ball of web exploded when it struck Tony’s back. Blue threads coiled around his magical enchantments and shattered them. Red threads eroded his flesh like acid. Yellow threads coiled around his wrists and pinned them to his sides. Green threads stuck to Iris and Billy, and the purple and orange spiders that lingered on them crept into their wounds and went to work mending them. As this all happened, Iris’s momentum carried her blade forward and she stabbed Tony through the back.

Oros the Mad talks more about complex melodies....

Calm the fuck down, Iris. That was half of your mana.

Firstly, yes, the notation suggests that Iris is using a melody, but that’s just because most of the patrons have espers blah blah blah.

The only thing I want to draw attention to is that you can have multiple condition notes. A pretty common setup is a spell like this where you want half of it to affect bad guys and the other to affect good guys. Notes between two condition notes are only concerned with the first one, unless a logic gate is involved. Though situations where logic gates are necessary are pretty niche.

Dynamo might feel kinda random in this melody, but it’s there to get the timing right rather than sell the visuals of the spell. Without it, Iris’s entire spell would go off before she was pulled to Tony’s position. Now it goes off the moment she buries her sword hilt deep in the fuzzy bastard’s back. I bet Tony didn’t think that was great, huh?

Tony was not like most intelligent monsters. He was less an enemy combatant and more a force of nature. Destruction was all he knew. Even the ability to speak was something he had never learned how to do. Surrender wasn’t something he was unwilling to do, it was something he didn’t understand. So he struggled against his bonds, and they gradually began to break. But neither Billy nor Iris planned to let him get free. Billy used his mechromancy to create an axle out of thin air, and proceeded to use it as a club on the feline’s head. Iris never stopped cutting. She twisted the blade before pulling it out of Tony’s back, only to begin hacking away at his shoulders. His body still tried to heal the wounds, even as they inflicted more. But it couldn’t keep up. Until his last breath, the only thing Tony did was howl in rage. Iris’s blade eventually cut through his neck, and his head tumbled across the floor. His ever regenerating body stopped mending itself, and his torso collapsed to the side. There was fighting elsewhere in the Golden Trove, but the Lobby was quiet at last.

"I say, I say, I think he’s finally kicked the bucket!" Billy kicked the massive weretiger’s corpse just to be sure. "I say he kicked the bucket real good!"

Iris didn’t have the stamina to be so celebratory, especially with more hostels on the way. She nearly fell over, and needed her additional legs to support her. "We can’t rest yet."

"Ya gotta relish the little things, Iris! And ya gotta relish the big things too!" He slapped her back, which didn’t help her balance. "Ya did fine, girl. I say ya did damn fine! Morale is gunna be sky high thanks to you."

"We did it together, Billy." She leaned up against a pillar. "I couldn’t have beaten him myself."

"Ya ain’t gotta be so modest! It’s fine to think you’re hot stuff every once in a while!" Billy placed his hands on his hips and turned to look at the stairway leading to the next floor. "I’m tellin’ everyone that ya killed him. Ain’t gunna change my mind either, and doncha dare try to tell anybody else otherwise."

"Mmmph…" Iris watched Billy disappear up the stairs. That guy was in an entirely different league than her. Though she’d be lying if she said it didn’t feel good to have her abilities acknowledged like that. The corners of her lips curled into a smile. They had secured the area, so maybe it wouldn’t hurt to rest for a moment and catch her breath. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she prepared herself for the next round of fights.

She hadn’t fallen asleep, and by her recollection, she couldn’t have been meditating for more than a few minutes before she heard Trixy whispering in her ear. "Heyyyyyyy cuuuuutie!" She followed it up with a giggle.

Iris sighed, opened her eyes, and turned her head. Her vision was filled with Trixy’s toothy grin. "I was meditating." She understood calling Trixy desperate was an understatement, but she had told Trixy previously to mind her personal space. Though after thinking about it, she thought she understood what might have caused her to behave this way. "I was not trying to be affectionate when I hugged you earlier. I knew that you would hold up better to the gunfire than I would. But if you’d like me to heal you, I can do that."

"Oh, I know all that. And thanks for the offer, but I feel fine. However, you’ve gotta answer a question for me!"

Iris sighed. "Okay."

"Well, if you don’t want me oogling you and calling you cutie, then why did you change into a swimsuit for me?"

"I what?" But no matter how long Iris stared at Trixy’s grin, it didn’t stop her eyes from wandering all over her. Her own eyes rolled down to the front of her body and she could see that her outfit had changed quite a bit. She pushed herself away from the pillar and ran her hands and legs all over herself. "What did you do!?"

"What makes you think I had anything to do with this?" She giggled.

"You!" The words caught in Iris’s throat as she pointed at Trixy. "Because you’re also in a swimsuit! And your cannon is a giant squirt gun!"

"Wha?!" Trixy looked at herself, and there was genuine surprise painted on her face. "Wow! I had no idea! I guess I got tunnel vision when I spotted you."

"Um, fellas?" Both girls looked back to the staircase. The giant ten foot tall mechromancer was wearing nothing but his mask and a mankini. "I think we’ve just been put on an indefinite ceasefire."

Oros the Mad talks more about Finn....

The bastard fell asleep again!?

That’s it, I’m done! No more tutorials for you bastards! I’m done!

^@Ponn

"I guess…" Mika stepped away from the mirror. "He’s annoying. I wanna punch him in the nose, and I don’t care if he’s spying on us right now." She was speaking a bit louder, almost like she hoped the shark man could hear her. "Whatever, let’s get out of here."

Mika and Ashley had never been especially close. Though prior to the siege on the Golden Trove she had become a lot more agreeable to Ashley. Prior to very recently, the girl would always be quick to point out her leader’s shortcomings, but that was not happening anymore. It was more than just being cut off from the rest of GEMINI. The good doctor was still her favorite person (if Mika could like people enough to have a favorite) but it was starting to seem like Ashley had finally gotten Mika’s respect.

They left their room and headed towards their destination.

---

^{@Emeth@Nakushita@Ariamis}

Iris’s situation was weird. She didn’t consider herself a senior member of Maverick Alternative, but she might as well have been with so many brand new faces. There hadn’t been any time to integrate everyone in when all the true senior members were here. It shouldn’t have been a problem, but…

"Boss?" Iris was amused with the moniker, even if she didn’t show it outwardly. Nina made a lot of strange noises that she didn’t understand, but she did understand what a thumbs up meant. So long as that was approval, they could work through anything else. Whatever the girl was thinking inwardly, that was none of Iris’s concern.

Scypho was very much a girl locked in her own head. She hadn’t said much since joining, and Iris got the impression she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to be here. When she finally spoke, it was to comment on what the shark man might have done with everyone. "Well, I’m a spider woman, and I haven’t dissolved and devoured anything yet." It was hard not to be a little offended at Scypho’s statement, but Iris chose not to start the morning with a debate about yokai and the creatures they borrowed their powers from. "If Dan was going to eat us, he wouldn’t have to go through this much trouble to do so, I think." That was probably a diplomatic place to leave things.

Nukkelina was even more detached from everything, a puppet without its strings or a girl without her heart. But even without apparent emotions it seemed she opposed the idea of rushing in. Not that anyone voiced they were for that. "Did I give the impression that I was going to treat him poorly? I had planned to be civil and- Did you say charm?" It was hard to hear the word charm and not think of Trixy. She was friendly enough, but tended to go overboard with that friendliness. The idea that Dan might be the same way caused Iris’s head to sink between her shoulders. "I think playing with his emotions like that would be more dangerous than simply asking him directly. Depending on how he responds, we can change our approach."

They’d have time to think about it further before they got there.

---

^{@Yankee@Majoraa}

Bionca’s shoulders squared up as soon as Jack wrapped her arm around her. "Hah! Yea, the disappearances are a little mysterious, but I don’t think I’d worry too much about it. It’s like uh…" She squinted her eyes. "Jack here says, nothing bad can happen to us. Trust me, if someone’s going to go missing on a beach vacation because they did something stupid, it woulda happened to me on day one!" She had heard Jack’s name in passing a few days ago. Bionca worked in the public long enough to develop a pretty good encyclopedia for names and faces. She still remembered all of the regulars at her waitress job when she was a teenager. "I came here for business too, but I don’t think people are doing much business right now. We should be having fun instead!"

She reached for Alice’s waist and pulled her close. The three of them were standing shoulder to shoulder. "Let’s try to get our steps in sync so that we don’t break our butts going down the stairs. Adeup! Adeup! Adeup, tup,trip, four-adeup…!"

Jack senses something from beyond the veil....

Something smells vaguely familiar and… Earthy. Though the further you walk, the less noticeable it is. Once you get outside, you can only smell the salty breeze of the sea.

Alice hears the chattering of the lonely lunatic....

You’re being watched.

Oros the Mad breaks her vow to talk about watcher messages....

Okay so maybe one more tutorial!

Any time a specific character learns about something, it might appear in a stylized box like this or the two above. This is true for info granted by your P.R. but sometimes watchers can impart information to you too. What’s extra cool is that it’s not clear what you’re going to get from them or why, though there are a few extremely vague hints or shit if you care about that kind of stuff.

Now I’m really done so you guys and the sleepy plague doctor robot can go screw yourselves!

---

^{@Chevaleresse@The World}

"Californian? Like from California?" Kidd rubbed the back of his head. "Well, sorry about that. You just kinda looked like an oriental. Is that a bad word, oriental? I didn’t mean anything by it. B-but Californians are cool too. I mean, you’re probably blond in human form and really good at surfing, so you’re probably set up for these strange times, even with the gas tax being as high as it is. Do you own an EV?" Kidd got so wrapped up in his own ramblings that he seemed to miss Rika’s suggestion. For better or worse, Marrie interjected with her own suggestion, which was more or less an attempt to appease Kidd and get everyone moving to Caesar Beach. "Maybe, but I don’t think so. He turned them this color. It happened when I-"

Kidd can feel the rust moving through his veins....

You are aware of the interlopers.

…

Kidd’s mouth slowly closed.

"Alright, I’ll uh, I guess I gotta calm down a little bit." He nodded and pursed his lips. "Let’s get going, I know a shortcut."

---

Dan waited patiently at Caesar Beach. He was standing on top of a picnic table with his hands on his hips and his chest puffed out. For an anthropomorphic shark man, he was pretty ripped for an AI monstrosity. He remained like that as if he was a statue, and his stomach didn’t even move, which might suggest he wasn’t breathing.

The first group to arrive were the Mavericks. They had all gathered in the lobby before departing. The next to arrive were the freelancers accompanying Bionca. They were only a few seconds behind them, and managed to get down the stairs without tripping once. The third group to arrive were the two GEMINI agents. They had only been a few seconds behind, and had more or less been trailing after the group of freelancers since they departed the Golden Trove. Despite being the closest to the beach, the last group to arrive were the freelancers accompanying Kidd. But despite that, they had also only lagged behind the GEMINI agents by a few seconds. It was almost as if everyone had been carefully told to come to the beach with their travel speed taken into account.

"Hi guys!" Dan waved to the group as he stepped off the picnic table. Dan was far taller than a normal man, and was able to take the step as if he was stepping off of a footstool. "I’ve got all kinds of fun activities planned for you today! For starters, we have… Volleyball!" Dan pointed down the beach, and there were several nets set up. Each net had its own volleyball resting next to it, waiting to be kicked. "And we’ve also got… Beach ball!" Dan pointed in the other direction, and there was a giant plastic crate filled with more beach balls than anyone would ever need. In fact, the sea winds had blown some of the top most beach balls out of the crate, but by luck or magical forces, they never rolled off of the beach entirely. Even the ones that inevitably rolled into the sea were thrown back on a subsequent wave. "And…Sand…Castle…Buckets!" Dan pointed at the sky, and a far smaller crate filled with buckets and plastic trowels fell in front of him. "But if your walk here was enough of a morning workout for you, there’s plenty to eat for breakfast!" The table he had just stepped away from suddenly filled up with plates of food. Grilled fish with a crunch char, Fruits and vegetables that were almost too vibrant to be real, and there were more tropical versions of existing food, like stacked pancakes topped with tropical fruits and whipped cream, and even more classical things, like an egg and cheese sandwich on a crispy croissant.

Mika wandered over to the picnic table. Her eyes scanned everything, but she wasn’t going to eat anything. She never did, but it was evident she was tempted by it. She looked back over her shoulder at Ashley before looking back at the food. This wasn’t the first time Dan had put out a feast like this, and somehow he always managed to put out different items that look equally tasty.

Iris was less phased by the spectacle, and promptly headed towards Dam. "Is this everyone that’s left?"

The smile ran from Dan’s face. "Ah, I think there’s a few people out there that are arriving late."

"But the people who are arriving, there’s less and less of them every day."

Dan hung his head. "Well uh, I guess not everyone likes the event? I’m kind of getting bummed out honestly…"

Iris folded her arms. "It’s impossible to leave here, so where is everyone going?"

"How should I know?"

"Isn’t all of this your doing? The beach vacation?"

"Yea! And it’s a little hard to keep track of everything!" Dan threw up his hands. "You know there are still cultists trying to perform sacrifices on people? I have to personally show up and punish them!"

Iris could sense Dan’s frustration, and remembered what Nukkelina told her earlier. "We are capable of dealing with cultists, Dan. If you need help-"

Kidd immediately placed himself between Iris and Dan. "First of all, sir, there’s been a huge mistake!" He bit his lower lip. "The ritual involving that virgin woman was never going to come to fruition. You see, I was actually going to cut her bindings, so you kind of jumped the gun when you gave all of us ugly swimwear."

Dan shrugged. "I don’t believe you."

"Please, you need to change me back!" His sobbing was cut short when a beach ball bounced off the side of his head. Meanwhile, Bionca had positioned herself at the top of the crate filled with all the beach balls. She was covered up to her waist in them, and was chucking them at the other espers and monsters.

"Mwa-hwa-hwa! Beware my beachy fury!" She chucked another beach ball, but this time it was aimed at Rika’s head.

Dan, like a distracted child, found his gaze drifting towards Bionca. He chuckled to himself as he watched the spectacle play out.

When Ashley and Mika finally arrived at the beach, Dan had just started his typical cheery “fun in the sun” routine. Unlike Mika, Ashley wasn’t particularly uncomfortable about wearing a bikini in public. After all, she had gone to the beach numerous times with her family, and her normal esper attire was quite revealing on its own. Dan’s beach-themed magic wasn’t particularly disconcerting either. What was significantly troubling was the number of people present. Or, rather, the lack of people. Even if one didn’t count Maverick and GEMINI, there were dozens of freelance espers in Pax Septimus, all of which Dan seemingly wanted to see attend his seaside gatherings. Indeed, the initial gatherings had boasted sizable turnouts, but now, a little over a week into the forced vacation, the total number of people in attendance was a mere twelve…

While some were clearly unbothered by any of that and got right to their favorite beach activity, it was something of a relief for Ashley to see that she wasn’t the only one who had misgivings about the troubling development, even if the first to voice their concern was a monstrous member of Maverick Alternative. The Knight of Tomorrow listened as the spider girl made several inquires that she herself had been planning to ask, and couldn’t help but frown when Dan pleaded ignorance. Her frown only deepened when the monster boy who bore an uncanny resemblance to Bookman gave a pathetically unconvincing response to allegations of attempted human sacrifice, and she glared at the goat boy from behind her green visor. Once again, the high-tech heroine was forced to concede that Dan’s presence seemed to be doing as much good as harm. Even so…

“Dan, I know you just want everyone to have fun,” Ashley began, easily catching a beachball thrown at her without breaking her stride as she walked up to the shark man. “But the fact that so many of our companions are missing is making that difficult. Are you truly certain you had nothing to do with their disappearance?” she inquired. “That the magic you’ve infused the city with hasn’t somehow taken them elsewhere? I just think we would be able to enjoy ourselves a lot more if we knew they were safe.”

Before. . .

"Er, no, oriental is not really a good word. And I'm also not some magazine-cover blonde bombshell or something. . ." She was struggling to figure out how annoyed she should be with this guy. It's not like you never encountered people being weird and racist outside whatever magical nonsense she'd wandered into lately, but the attempt to compensate with an equal and opposite stereotype was throwing her. Eventually, she elected to just shoot the other girl there a confused and vaguely disdainful look before shrugging and following Kidd off to the beach.

---

Rika's attention was drawn by all this talk of human sacrifice, but her focus was quickly snapped away by the nefarious assault upon her person. Evidencing no discomfort whatsoever in her beachwear, the dragon girl leapt up into the air, caught the inbound beachball, then launched it back toward its sender in a single deft spin. "Have at you, then!" she shouted with a laugh. Not to allow Bionca to rampage unchecked, she charged the castle of inflated plastic the other esper had taken possession of. On her way, she scooped up another stray beach ball, arming herself for the next assault.

"Hmph" It looked like she had unwittingly touched a nerve, it wasn’t like Scypho had claimed that Iris had gone around eating the guests, nor did she imply that all monstrous beings went around eating people. She would have to take note of this reaction to her remark and keep it in mind for future interactions with Iris. Regardless, Scypho felt it would be best to let that discussion be for the time being with a slight frown glancing between Nukkelina and Nina as if to appeal to them. Allowing the others to continue the discussion at hand while she listened with mild disinterest until it was time to move out and head to the morning meet up with Daggernose Dan.


When the Maverick group finally arrived, Scypho made a quick note of everyone that had shown up to account for how many were missing since the last time. Overhearing Daggernose Dan’s presentation as she finished her quick headcount once the last of the guests trickled in. It looked like Maverick currently had the most people remaining out of all the groups. Turning her attention towards the discussion that soon followed from Iris confronting Dan. Her eyes trailed over towards the food and the Gemini agent that was eyeing it up, her gaze lingering for a moment before moving on. She gave both Nina and Nukkelina a silent but stern look, having found evidence to support her earlier remark, she quietly moved up beside Iris.

Lifting a frilled sleeved hand as she casually gestured towards the prepared breakfast. “Perhaps he is taking his time to fatten us all up” suggesting in a quiet whisper to Iris. He did keep insisting that they eat only the food he prepared for when they met up at the beach. Maybe it was all a ploy to ensure that they suited his dietary needs when the time came for him to devour them. Scypho knew that possibility was relatively remote and there was likely another more logical explanation for the disappearances, but after how Iris reacted to what she had suggested earlier she figured she might as well point out this fact.

Satisfied, she took a step back and gave her fellow Maverick’s a mildly displeased expression with partially hooded eyes when the beach balls started flying. Even more so when she had to reach up and bat one away before it made contact with her face. Beach games were fun and all, but now wasn’t the time for playing around as she had to catch another one before it hit her, tossing it aside. That was exactly what Daggernose Dan wanted them to do, and they had more important concerns at hand. Even with Gemini also questioning Dan, she doubted they would fare any better in getting the answers they sought. Plus the freelancers seemed more interested in playing games and having fun then getting to the bottom of the mystery. “Even if Dan knows anything, he won't give anyone a satisfactory answer, it's best we come up with our own plan, Iris, Nina, Lina….” shifting her gaze between the others as she addressed them.

So was this an attempt to delude one's self into believing everything's all peachy, or were these two genuinely unaware of fates worse than death? Thoughts aside, Alice didn't actually say much. Her eyes did widen when Bionca pulled her in by the waist like the three of them were merry drunkards doing a pub crawl. Ok, yeah, this might as well happen. The syncronized steps were a bit overkill but-

...

Out the corner of her eye did Alice knowingly look, her clock eye gleaming. Ah. Her intuition remains justified.

"Hmm...

Though she knew better than to scare whoever it was off by warning Jack and Bionca then and there. Don't want to be rude when everyone's going to the same destination. She'll deal with that one, in time.

Speaking of which! Alice quitely broke off from the other two soon as they arrived, mentally taking count of everyone who made it. Mavericks were all new faces, GEMINI was in a sorrid state, and there's the demon. She was barely even paying attention to Dan listing off the available until someone brought up the elephant in the room. Cultists. Right, even if people can't hurt each other right now, that doesn't automatically uncorrupt the corrupt. Alice let out a heavy sigh.

Then the illustrious leader of GEMINI continued to pry into Dan after Iris (and uh, whatever Kidd was more concerned over?), implying the possibility that he may indirectly have something to do with the dissapearances.

Wasn't he summoned by her deal with Bookman? Alice thought, catching the beach ball aimed at her and chucking it back. Maybe she forgot to read the fine print. It's always the damn fine print. She chuckled to herself. Right, taking one more glance over everyone, Alice moved over to the picnic tables. Even if they can't trust the food, it wasn't like she couldn't handle a little poison.

Besides that, there was enough space for someone else, if they choose audacity.

Nukkelina, despite having worked previously with Maverick Alternative agents on previous ventures, whether by joint missions or simply as passerby acquaintances, had never spent much if any small talk with them. One reason was for her abnormal nature even by Esper standards, of course, but there was also another reason: she didn’t really know how to make small talk. Sure, the time she spent at her uncle’s shop at the village did give her the basics for social interaction, but she spent more time playing with dolls than with real children. She supposed that might have been one reason why that cursed monster had chosen her, as she shared that deeper connection with unliving objects mimicking humans than humans themselves. But it was not a fair exchange, and she would rectify that.

But until that day comes, she had to contend with this group, composed of similarly maladjusted personnel. Iris Silk was perhaps the most normal of the bunch, appearances notwithstanding, though the stoic girl showed some irritation due to the position she was forced into due to the disappearance of her superiors. Much like at a workplace where the middle manager is fired and someone must take their place in the chain, so too did Iris have to take control of Maverick’s operations in Pax.

The other girls, however, were more colorful in personalities. Nina gave the first impression of a simple-minded bruiser. The conservative swimsuit that emphasized function over form was the most obvious hint. But what really solidified the puppet girl’s initial thoughts of her was her short and to-the-point statements, spoken in an accent familiar to Nukkelina, but not in a positive manner. She associated the style of speech most with ruffians and ne’er-do-wells based on her experiences in her homeland. However, despite her displeasure, her expression didn’t show it in the slightest, as she truly did not feel hate. At least, not anymore. Rather, it was more of a reflex, born from memories of a life of emotions. In any case, she hoped she wouldn’t have to spend more time in her presence, as the reaction was pleasant, and it distracted from her mission.

The other girl, Scypho, did not elicit such a strong impression, though the noticeable difference in body mass, especially around the chest, was not unnoticed. Her pleading look was met with a blank stare: Nukkelina had no sympathy to give for the mass of jelly in the form of a female. It seemed Iris had taken her words in a more accusatory manner than she had intended, but it seemed she did not take it personally, as she then suggested leaving their options open until Dan had shown more of his way of thinking, a plan that the puppet girl agreed to with a subtle nod.
”Very well then. Perhaps we won’t need someone like Jellmiko over here to seduce the shark with her jiggling,” she added in her characteristic emotionless tone, making it difficult to gauge whether it was a joke made in envy, or a sincere statement about her viability to rizz for the Maverick Alternative.

Caesar Beach was, just as Nukkelina saw from the window, a picturesque paradise of golden, grainy sands, clear blue seas and a warm breeze that cooled just the right amount from the sweltering heat. Of course, they were not the only group to arrive, as the puppet girl noted both the Gemini and the Freelancers to show: she had been informed over the Maverick’s network the past week about the very basics. However, when it came to more detailed information such as their powers as Espers, Nukkelina was unable to find a definitive answer. Not that it was a problem: it didn’t matter what powers they had, as the culprit behind this ridiculous seasonal drift had made it abundantly clear that violence would not be tolerated. This lent to an air of strange calm tinged with uncomfortable tension, like a doll that had its eye painted just slightly off, giving it an uncanny effect.

Dan Daggernose, of course, had waited for them, and gave out choices for activities for the groups to engage in however. Nukkelina was averse to the more physically straining options, though the sandcastle building sounded quite enjoyable, and dare she even think such…fun.

But before she could come up with ideas for crafting the most magnificent sand monument, Iris made her move, and inquired Daggernose about the disappearances. To nobody’s surprise, the chondrichthyan seemed evasive, and deflected the topic by bringing up cultists working in the area, sacrificing kidnapped maidens in some unholy ritual. One of the Freelancers, who seemed to be a member of aforementioned cult, claimed the opposite in intentions, and like a groveling worm begged to be released from the enchantment that they had all been afflicted with.

”Pathetic,” Nukkelina spoke out, and then turned to Scypho.
”Now then, let us proceed with the plan. Jellmiko, start jig-Bweh!?”

At an instant, the composed puppet girl was knocked down on the sand, as a direct hit from a beachball had struck her noggin. She realized she had dropped Ser Miauskers, and crawled on the sand to retrieve it, clutching it in her arms like a baby: she had developed an amusing shade of red on her cheeks.

Nina's eyes drifted lazily from one member of the group of Mavericks to the next. What a warm bunch of rays of sunshine they all were. Perhaps she would fit in alright, after all. While the girls discussed, some more seriously than others, the possibility of 'charming' the shark man, not one of their eyes turned towards her with the expectation that she would be the one doing the charming. That was a pleasant surprise. She allowed herself a little bit of a self-satisfied smile as they all walked to Ceasar Beach together.

Nina trailed behind the others, bringing up the rear. She moved like every ounce of her energy was too precious to waste keeping up with the rest of the world. Perhaps it was no surprise, then, that when they arrived, the food was what Nina gravitated to immediately. Squishy hardly even had time to give her that stern look of warning before Nina had already filled her hands with a selection of grilled fish skewers and egg sandwiches. "These fruit are geneticly modifie, definitely," she decided, but took one anyway. She sat near Alice, but kept a close eye on her allies.

If negotiation was the goal, Silky was the girl for the job. Heading on over with them would likely just anger Squishy and create chaos. If her partaking of the food was going to cause an argument, it'd be better for Squishy to come over here to give her that lecture. Listening in, she mused that their group was not, in fact, "capable" as Silky said of dealing with cultists—not with this current state of affairs, at any rate. She continued to eavesdrop from what some might consider an impressive distance, given the level of noise and number of conversations going on around her. Beach balls flew here and there, but Nina's focus remained on her food. The look in her starry eyes as she sank her fangs into one of the grilled fish appeared positively delighted—not an ounce of care in the world, nor much fear of poison, it would seem.

Eventually, however, the "beachy fury" would come for her, too. As the beach ball overshot Alice and flew towards Nina, one of her hands instantly shot out to deflect it with extreme prejudice, nearly sending it rocketing towards Alice in the process. It was a near miss. Nina blinked, and swallowed her mouthful of fish. "Soory. Is reflex," she said, the intensity in her eyes gradually waning. "Fish?" She offered her a skewer in lieu of an olive branch.

A sigh. Somehow, everyone had shown up at the beach at practically the same time. And yet, as always, she was the last to arrive. At least she wasn't too late this time.

Those thoughts left her as she watched yet another display of Dan's magic; care packages of beach-going supplies fell onto the sand, not even disturbing it.

Seriously, how strong is this shark?

This thought would soon pass as well when someone else began their interrogation of the Visitor. Where the disappearances really not Dan's doing? She could believe that, especially given what had been happening before his arrival. But that did lead to the question of 'who,' rather than 'what.'

As usual, Orion was both quicker to the draw and more effective, asking if the shark knew anything with much the same reasoning Marrie would use. She was about to add onto The Knight of Tomorrow's argument when somebody new began throwing beach balls at... just about everyone, it seemed.

On a day like today, in weather like this, Marrie normally would just ignore it. On a day like today, in a mood like her current one, in her esper form as she was, she would normally puncture it with her Instrument.

Dan had, however, turned Fenrir into some sort of infinite Popsicle and life-jacket combo. A life-jacket she couldn't remove, she had learned. This, of course, meant that the beach balls would remain inflated for now. It also meant that Marrie didn't really have a way of shutting down the apparently hyperactive girl's merrymaking, at least not easily and effectively.

Then again, maybe she herself would have been like this, if she had only had different experiences since moving to Pax. She didn't know how new or experienced the other esper was, but it didn't really matter. Either she was excited because she didn't know better, or she was excited because she did know better, or at least handled things better. Better than herself, at the very least.

This train of thought was knocked off the rails by a beach ball colliding into the side of it and Marrie's skull. Despite the non-violence magic, it stung a little. She'd have to put some thought into that later. For now...

The blue haired esper bent down and picked the offending sphere off the ground. It had somehow bounced directly up when it made contact with her temple and fallen directly down as well. Another part of Dan's magic?

Regardless, she had no intention of throwing it back at the terrorist excitable girl who had given it to her. Instead, she'd use it in a way she hoped was more beneficial.

"Hey, Dan! Wanna play catch? We can bounce this back and forth like a volleyball, ya know? Should be fun for a bit!"

Fun or not, maybe it would keep Daggernose's attention on a single thing long enough to get some actual information from him/

Prior to the weird trio's exit from the Golden Trove, Jack had snickered at the red head's little bit of self-deprecating. Yeah, that girl definitely seemed fun. Maybe a bit ditzy too, though Jack couldn't say she disliked that. She also couldn't quite remember the other woman's name after being called by name herself; Bi-something, it was on the tip of her tongue. She was going to blame it on the adjustment period for not recalling it at the moment - she was sure she'd remember soon enough anyway. As Bi-something roped the third in and started their parade down the hall, Jack dragged their feet for just a moment.

Her nostrils flared shallowly and she tilted her head up. Scent was heavily linked to memory, hadn't she heard that somewhere before? And now there was something else besides the names of the girls with her that was niggling at her brain.

What the hell, was she that tired this morning that her mind still needed waking up? Jack craned her neck over her shoulder as the scent began to fade, then made no subtle show of leaning over to sniff her new pals to see if it was them she was catching whiffs of. If not perfume, incense from another room? Patchouli, maybe?

By the time the trio hit the beach, the familiar smell had been pushed to the back of Jack's mind. There were more pressing matters at hand.

She let out a low whistle at the sight of the ocean and sand. So this was Caesar Beach now? What a transformation. It was almost sad to think about it going back to the sorry state it had been in before all this started. Almost. Since Alice and Bionca had split up pretty quick after arriving, Jack stood by her lonesome with her hands on her hips and gold tinted sunglasses hung around her neck. This was her first visit since arriving in Pax Septimus, so she was gleaning a lot of information from just listening to the other espers speak.

...most of it was unpleasant information, but still. Jack raised an arm to stroke her chin with her thumb and index finger, trying to get the cogs in her brain to start turning faster. Obviously this Dan guy wasn't trustworthy, but he also seemed to be an idiot. It took one to know one after all. So Jack figured he probably wasn't intentionally misleading anyone when he said he didn't know where the people disappearing had gone to. And at the very least he was telling the truth about there being some late arrivals, because there was at least one glaring absence among the people gathered that Jack could see. As for everything else, she wasn't sure. She did sneer at the goat and spider behind their backs as she turned away from them--

"Try harder!" she shouted as the beach balls being tossed finally sailed towards her, only for Jack to intentionally move into their path to hit headers back at the rowdy espers.

After the third headbutt in a row she let out a satisfied puff of air from her nose and placed her sunglasses onto her face. With a tap to the frame the anti-illusion enchantment activated. There was still more Jack wanted to know about the situation, like was this a true metamorphosis or just a paint over? Alright, let's start seeing how deep this magic goes.

Questions were asked, questions were answered, if to an unsatisfactory level. Everyone seemed to want the same thing but had different ways of attaining it. Some drew attention away from the shark man, others wanted to talk amongst themselves, and more still asked different questions.

Ashley was next up, with her questions about some of the people being spirited away by his magic. "It doesn’t work like that!" He practically shouted the words. "All my magic has done is turned Pax Septimus into a beach paradise. It prevents people from harming one another. This is performed in all sorts of different ways, like by turning weapons into more harmless versions of themselves. But there’s also protection from other forms of harm, such as falling. If you fall too fast or run into something too hard, it’ll stretch like a balloon!" To demonstrate, Dan snapped his fingers and an anvil appeared just a few feet over his head. It looked pretty convincing, but as soon as it landed on him it rippled like it was made of gelatin. It tumbled down his chest and landed in the sand, at which point it did so as a half ton anvil. Dan invited her to try and move it, but it was too heavy. It was only when someone tried to strike it in a way that would hurt themselves that it stretched to prevent harm. "Physical pain should not exist here!"

"If it's all futile, then why do I need to be punished like this!?" Kidd pointed at his pants.

Dan sighed. "Kidd? I didn’t do that to you because you tried to hurt her."

"Which I didn’t!" The goat guy hissed.

"I did it because you hurt her feelings!" Dan turned away from Ashley. "I can’t force anyone to behave one way or the other. Some disciplinary action is necessary to enforce good behavior. So, uh, if you’re good I’ll turn your trunks black tomorrow. You haven’t been too inflammatory today."

Scypho continued to whisper, and sometimes state things in her normal voice. Things about Dan. Every time the shark was in earshot. "I uh, I can hear you, you know that right?" Dan whimpered a little at the shade that was being thrown his way.

But that all changed when Marrie offered to play catch with Dan. He immediately turned to face the girl with a giant open mouth grin that showed every tooth in his massive face. He leaned on one knee and patted her shoulder. "I would love to! But wouldn’t you rather do that with a volleyball? Whatever, let’s do it!" He grabbed Marrie by the shoulders and hoisted her over his head before running down to where the volleyball nets were. It wasn’t so far away. If you really wanted to focus you could probably hear what was being discussed. But Dan did not look like he was paying much attention to anything. "Alright, you serve!"

Despite the shark man’s apparent muscle, he was very gentle when he returned the ball. If there was any difficulty to be had from catching the ball, it was from the occasional gust of wind that blew across the beach.



Bionca pretty much had the entire beach under her control. She had become a ruthless despot, attacking anyone and anything that came too close to the beach. Many were defeated, retreating to the breakfast table or simply ignoring her presence. But while Bionca’s reign of terror had been long, it would be the few, the brave, that attempted to stand up to her.

"Ah!" Bionca turned her face sideways as a beach ball glanced off her shoulder. "If you demand satisfaction, you shall have it!" Bionca had entirely overlooked Rika’s presence with Jack trying to deflect so many beach balls with her head. Not many of them got thrown back up to Bionca, but she did an admirable job of deflecting the projectiles with her head.

Jack picks up something with their glasses....

Your vision is darker with Illusion Begone working. Things at a distance are often too dark to see. Dan’s magic is no illusion however. Everything he conjures is real. Even the other esper’s weapons do not show signs of being illusions. They may have been transformed, but Illusion Begon cannot show if that is the case. It is only concerned if something is real or not.

But you can see there is something hiding in Bionca’s ball fort. What is not yet clear. There are enough real beach balls to hide what is being revealed by Illusion Begone. But there’s no mistaking it; An illusion has been detected, something has been hidden.

With the tyrant distracted, Rika was able to ascend the crate unchallenged. Bionca noticed Rika’s head pop up, and prepared to spike her face with a beach ball. But her opponent came prepared, and Rika was able to launch her attack first. Bionca turned her head sideways, but was still smacked in the head by the incoming beach ball and ended up stumbling backwards. She threw out her arms when she landed, and several more beach balls were cast out of the crate. Some of them fell around Bionca, but many more fell on the beach itself.

"Not bad, hero!" Bionca sat upright and slid a beach ball into her lap. "You should join me. Together, we could surely hold this beach under our thumbs!"



After getting some questions out (and getting interrupted) Iris was content to let things run their course for a bit. Dan had said a few interesting things, and was now far enough away that he wouldn’t be eavesdropping on anyone.

"An interesting discovery." She returned her attention to Scypho. She thought to comment on her antagonistic nature towards Dan, but thought better of it. Then her eyes traveled to Nukkelina, who was able to show emotions other than indifference after all. She thought to help her up, but it seemed someone else beat her to the punch. Nina, ever the free spirit, appeared to have distanced herself by the buffet table. With a groan, she turned to face Ashley. "Perhaps GEMINI is interested in another joint operation with Maverick Alternative?" It did not make sense for them to keep their distance here. Once Ashley joined them (Or declined, her choice) Iris began to speak. "I’m starting to believe that Dan might not be the reason why everyone is disappearing." Her eyes continued to move between everyone that was present. "While he is the reason why we are trapped here, I believe there may be a third party at play. But let me confirm something…"

A blob of web appeared on the tips of her finger, and she pressed it against the bottom of her elbow. She braced herself, then the tiny blob of web shot up and splatted against her elbow. Water and sparkles showered down from the impact area and her arm was wrenched towards the heavens, nearly pulling her off of the ground.

"Interesting." She examined her arm. "That spell should have wounded me, but it seems that Dan’s magic has transformed the harmful components of my spell to merely splash water and glitter on me. The rest worked as intended, however. I wonder if it would be possible to capture someone under these conditions."



When Nukkelina had fallen down and scrambled towards her plush cat, it had been Kidd who first approached her.

"When you said ‘pathetic’ you were talking about the pants thing right?" He reached for her shoulder and hoisted her to her feet. "I know! It’s incredibly mean spirited what Dan is doing to us! I bet he has some sick fetish or something! But don’t let him get inside your head, that’s exactly what people like him want. Feed him silence, and he’s sure to just go away." He patted her back. "Anyway, I think you’re cool, okay? So just because you did something extremely embarrassing by falling down in front of everyone, and no one is ever going to forget, at least you have nice looking swimwear." He jumped as he had just caught the tail end of Iris’s experiment. "A little warning next time!"

"So the sacrifice that you were going to ‘free’ from her bonds. Did that happen on the beach? How did Dan find you?"

"Oh, yea, so, I mean, everyone kinda knows you can’t kill anyone right? I mean, this spell we’ve been under has been doing its thing for a week now. But I found some really dumb, really stupid cultists that were trying to bring back their dark lord or something. But I came in there and they were all like ‘what the’ and things like that. And then I was like ‘you can’t do this anymore’ and I cut her free. Or I was going to but she was really nervous. It must have been because I was a goat guy. Kinda racist but I wasn’t thinking about that at the time. So while I was cutting her free, Dan appeared in a cloud of smoke and gave and did something humiliating to all of us. Most of the cultists were given clown noses, but he messed with my drip."

"And where was this ritual taking place?"

"Oh, uh, in a warehouse. It was pretty secluded, if that’s what you were asking. I’m kinda surprised Dan found it so fast. It’s not like she screamed or anything, since she was gagged."

"Hmmm…" Iris tipped her chin into her fingers. "He said he punished Kidd because he upset someone. Then can he pick up on emotional distress?"



Mika wasn’t too amused by the two girls that had just suddenly showed up and started gorging themselves. One had an outfit so revealing that it made Mika feel modest by comparison, and the other one talked like a moron. She had remembered her mother telling her that it was important to be able to pronounce words well. At the time, it was something that she hadn’t taken too seriously (given her foster mother’s own broken English) but this did not feel like a mere error. No, Mika got the impression that she didn’t speak this way because she was a foreigner, but that it was a willing choice she was making. Why did everyone put so much energy into being so eccentric? She saw no value in it, and didn’t see any value joining in a conversation with these airheads either.

There wasn’t much going on elsewhere either. Marrie was playing with the shark, some other people were screwing around with balls, and another group was talking. Talking was good when it completed things, but too often did Mika see espers get bogged down with talking and nothing actually happening.

With a huff, Mika turned away from the table and walked away from the beach. If everyone was going to do what they wanted, then that was what Mika was going to do too. It wasn’t like she didn’t have a phone. She could contact Ashley if she really needed her. Her phone hadn’t been able to connect with the rest of GEMINI, but that was likely because they didn’t have their phones on them.

This probably was dangerous, but it wasn’t like anything bad had happened because Mika had left early before. To her knowledge, the only people who went missing were the ones that never arrived to start with. That wasn’t something she knew for sure, she hadn’t been documenting everyone, but it felt right.

…

Just in case, maybe Mika should stick around the general area. This seemed much more agreeable. She headed up the beach with the idea that she was going to observe the perimeter rather than getting lost in the city of blood.

As Dan gave his response, Ashley became more and more convinced that the shark man really wasn’t responsible for the disappearances. Once he’d finished explaining things via a visual aid, Gale decided to occupy their host’s attention with a game of catch, while Iris, the spider girl, made Ashley a rather compelling offer. “I think that might prove mutually beneficial,” the Knight of Tomorrow agreed in response to the idea of another team up between GEMINI and Maverick (although initial impressions of the arachnid young woman’s associates definitely left something to be desired). “I’m inclined to agree,” Ashley replied when Iris echoed her own thoughts on Dan’s innocence in regard to the missing people.

The Knight of Tomorrow’s eyes widened when Iris proceeded to test the limits of Dan’s magic by attempting to cast a damaging melody on herself, only for it to become utterly harmless. Of course, a prohibition on harm did not equate to one on detainment as well, something Ashley and Iris seemed to realize at the exact same moment. She really is quite insightful, the high-tech heroine was forced to concede. It was a shame she was a monster in league with Maverick, as someone with the sharp mind and maturity Iris possessed would be most welcome indeed among the members of her own ever-dwindling team. Iris went on to further display her insightful nature by questioning the far less appealing “Book Kidd”. The answers the goat boy gave provided even more evidence that it was still possible for people to be restrained, but not, it seemed, against their will.

“That’s definitely what it sounds like,” Ashley concurred after Iris posited that Dan’s apparent arrival in response to the distress of the cult’s victim seemed to indicate that the shark man could detect negative emotions. “But if that’s the case, I can only think of two possibilities as to why he hasn’t located our missing comrades,” the Knight of Tomorrow added. “Either they’ve been captured and are being sedated so as not to produce any negative emotions, or, they’re concealing their whereabouts on purpose, which then begs the question, why?” As she voiced these musings, the high-tech heroine noticed that Mika had begun scouting out the periphery of the gathering, perhaps in an effort to spot late arrivals, or get a better perspective on the situation. Perhaps Ashley herself needed a better perspective as well…

“Iris, when and where was the last time you saw Billy and the others?” the Knight of Tomorrow inquired. If, like the missing members of GEMINI, they were last seen at the Golden Trove, then perhaps a thorough exploration of that location should be their first course of action.