Roleplay

Oblivious to the scene beginning behind xyr, Yaishirath quirks a browridge at Atrian. "I sampled its song, but this doesn't seem like the place to drink deeply of anything that might cloud ones' mind." A flick of xyr tail indicates the other occupants of the showroom as the cause for caution. "I shall want to do that later, of course. When you have a spare moment."

And then at that moment, the window looking out over the world outside disintegrates in a spray of razor-sharp glass fragments, spraying inward on a rippling maelstrom of temporal distortion as the time inside and the time outside equalize. In less than an eyeblink, the interior of the hotel is painted with blood and ruin, the glass cases containing Atrian's finds shattered, and the handful of attendants who were present have begun to wail in agony from the blades of glass punched into them. Two indistinct shadowy figures are climbing through the shattered window, where the world outside appears to be in an age of general pleasantness - two suns shining down on a green and pastoral land. A third figure - the one Royan had been tracking - is hunched in the lee of a column of metal, miraculously untouched by the glass blades. Atrian is wrapped around the case containing the metal flower, blades of jagged glass jutting out of xis body as xe hisses, "We must protect this at all costs!"

@RiaHawk - Royan's awareness of the figure and her keen grasp of combat and strategy lets her deduce the oncoming danger when the figure ducks for shelter, letting her get mostly into cover before the window explodes. The maelstrom of temporal energy and her own awkward location leave her peppered with painful fragments of glass, several of which are bleeding fairly heavily.

@Kakrikoran - Being at point blank and distracted by his ear-mounted AI companion, K'koran is taken completely off-guard by the detonation and finds himself slammed to the floor by the first shock of temporal flux, shard of jagged glass punched into his entire upper torso with heavy bleeding resulting. The entire world swims dizzily around him for a few seconds, ringing like a massive bell before everything clears enough to figure out what's going on.

@Jssra - Yai sensed something coming a scant moment before the window broke, and so managed to find cover behind the platform, sustaining only a few light but painful gashes from flying glass. Of far more concern is Atrian's sorry state and the shadowy figures entering the area now.

@Levialich - Alex is made of incredibly tough stuff, and she shows it - shards of glass fleck her, leaving nothing more than shallow scrapes and bloody-looking scratches, her position letting her brace herself before the temporal storm hit her. While she looks quite impressive, glittering with shattered glass, with Grax slammed into the floor at her feet and the human with he strange sword nowhere to be seen, it also means she's the only one standing as the three shadowy figures take in the aftermath. The one closest to her points and screeches something in an unknown language, prompting the other two to move in, tendrils of darkness thickening around them into something like stinger-tipped tentacles.

From xyr crouched position in the lee of the platform, Yaishirath glances around to see who's still standing. Not the shiny lizardman, and not Grax, more's the pity. One human xe didn't know, and - Alex? Yes, that was Alex those three were converging on. They wouldn't be a problem for too much longer.

As the injured begin to return to their senses enough to variously weep, scream, and scramble for their comms, Yai reaches up and grabs Atrian by the spindly forearm xe has wrapped around the specimen-case. The mental interface of the microcomputer embedded in Yai's pendant flips a series of Icons through xyr mind's eye. There. The arrival zone at the Agora. There would be a medic station just across the plaza - hardly free, but it wasn't as though Atrian was lacking in means.

The familiar shape of the marketplace of a thousand worlds begins to unfold in the air before Yaishirath.

Yai finds xyrself resisted by Atrian's will, the other being's formidable strength pushing against any other connections to the Stair than the Doors already present. If xe pushes and goes alone, xe can undoubtedly push through, but dragging Atrian is out of the question. The trembling web of gossamer material hisses. "No! It must not go to the Stair!" Eerie purple ichor starts to seep up from the glass wounds, rising as if trickling up against a reversed gravity field.

K'koran finds the Eidolon with ease, the structure underlying all forcing strength into his body as shards of glass begin to slowly slide out of the wounds and clatter to the floor, dripping with his blood. The hissing snap of the spot welder casts alien shadows on the walls, along with acrid smoke as he applies the tool to burn his worst wounds shut. The world swims around him, even as the thundering roar of Alex's challenge shakes everything.

The three assailants spread out around Alex as her form melts, flowing from a human figure into something several times larger, the scratches from the flying glass obvious on her otherwise shining scales as she hisses and snarls at the attackers and their tendrils. One lunges in, only to find itself carrying a crude explosive with a blinking light; Royan leans back out of view, giving Alex ample time to see he creature juggling the bomb before it goes off and blows the creature into a mist of violet-black ichor, shreds of gooey fabric plastered across every surface in sight. Alex finds herself able to take advantage of the situation, smashing her tail through another of her antagonists, leaving a wet smear on the ground as it bursts like a water balloon under a brick.

Royan peeks around her shelter to see the three-headed dragon facing a single assailant that doesn't seem at all put off by the loss of two allies.

Yaishirath hisses in the flash of anger at xyr oversight, but lets the image of the Agora fade. Xer reply to Atrian is flatly logical. "Right. Give it to me and you go. Get medical help for yourself and as many Icons to uninhabited Gossamer places as you can lay hands on. And a nullbox to mute its song." Xe fumbles in a belt pouch and offers Atrian a small metal figurine in exchange for the box. "My Icon."