By the Docks of Big Lake IC

[Plerumque]

Christmas in Fortitude is a wonderful thing: trees and lamp-posts dripping with lights, the smell of honey biscuits filling the street whenever someone opens a bakery door, carols and fight songs rising above the rooftops. The cooks and poets work double time, and everyone else takes it easy for a few days. Sometimes, in defiance of the warm climate and prevailing winds, there’s even a dusting of snow! Yes, Christmas is truly magical by the docks of Big Lake.

Today, however, is not Christmas. Today is Tuesday. And though the preparations have already begun to fill the streets with activity, the actual celebrations are over a week away—an eternity to a secondary-schooler with big plans. The question, then, on this first morning out of school, is: how will you spend it?

[Thanqol]

In time, dear reader, you may wonder if Rinley is weak. If they lack discipline, or willpower, or the strength of character to get their life under control. You may believe they're a creature of short-sighted impulse, little more than a cat in human shape.

In those moments I want you to remember that on the first day of Christmas Yatskaya Rinley got up, brushed their teeth, walked past a warm kotatsu covered in purring cats, put on their brother's coat, and went straight out into the cold. Yes, you read that correctly! Rinley is so dedicated to their craft that all the temptations of warm noodle soup and two dozen sleeping cats on a day when they have nothing expected of them is not enough to turn them away!

It almost makes you wish that they were applying that determination to some plan more noble than 'troublemaking, starting with Naomi'.

The coat's too big for them, but that's the price you pay when you're the youngest. They're dressed in a motley mish-mash of their brother and sister's clothes - coat and jeans from him, blue dress and scarf from her, enormous floppy hat from the Emperor of Big Lake himself (they'd won it in the hundred meter dash. He'd lost. He was a fish).

They fish around in their pockets for their gear. Carrot. Vampire fangs. Balloon. Onion. Red food colouring. Buttons. Flour. Perfect.

*

Naomi, when you wake up, Rinley is standing outside your window next to a snowman.

They're as still as ice. As pale as ice. You've never seen them so pale - they're not wearing a coat, their bare limbs are pallid, unnatural, bloodless white. Everything on their body is white - except for the bloody pinpricks on their neck.

Oh no.

As Rinley meets your gaze, they blink with red eyes - and bloody teardrops run down their face. They smile and their mouth is full of fangs. "Hey Naomi," says Rinley, as smooth and sinuous as a snake. "Valya sends her love."

Then they lunge to the side, grab the snowman with both hands, plunge their face into his neck and rip out his throat with a huge tearing sound! Blood sprays everywhere! It splatters against your window, against the snow, stains Rinley's face and hands red as they drain the vital lifeblood from the snowman like a feral animal! AAAAAAH!


It's so convincing it takes a moment to realize that you're freaking out that Vampire Rinley is drinking the blood of a snowman.

[Anyr]

The Titov family doesn't celebrate Christmas. The Titov family doesn't celebrate anything. Valya was determined to break that tradition. She wouldn't stay at home brooding. She'd go out and brood on the streets! Baby steps, baby steps. Christmas spirit took a lot of practice.

That's why a black-clad figure now floated through Fortitude. Valya was deeply depressed. Had she enjoyed this season back when she was alive? She couldn't remember. All around, happy people munched upon baked goods. And in doing so, they deprived her of a meal. Vampires fed on ambient negative emotions. There was precious little angst in the air. How could everyone be so cheerful, when life was pain? Valya alone saw the dark side of this winter wonderland. None of these revellers could understand her sorrow; The essential pointlessness of etc etc etc. You get the idea. Vampire teenage poetry is even worse than usual kind.

She needed to break out of this funk. As usual, her mind turned in one direction: To the person whose cheer was actually welcome.

"Rinley. Have to find Rinley."

[Raz_Fox]

Naomi is the sort of sensible that acts on instinct while her head’s full of panicking. So instead of screaming and pulling the covers up to her chest and staring at the gory mess that Vampire Rinley has just made outside her window, she half rolls off and pulls the first aid kit out from under the bed, crosses the room in two strides, throws the window open, and swings one leg out. It’s only then that her brain catches its breath and points out that she will not need to apply immediate pressure to the injury in a valiant effort to save the life of this poor, innocent snowman, for the very simple reason that snowmen are not known to possess a cardiovascular system.

(Except for the Astounding Nightmare Snowpeople, who live and breathe in defiance of God herself, and who we will not talk about any further, other than to say Rinley would be fending one of them off with a garden rake at this hour of the morning, rather than biting their throat open.)

The brain continues to treacherously notice things just a little too late. Things like: gosh, the cold air is bracing, and you would much rather be under your duvet. Things like: you are sitting in front of Rinley, half in and half out of your house, in your jammers. The Disney Princess jammers Mayu got you last Christmas, in fact. Things like: you seriously just grabbed the first aid kit which you are now hugging for moral support after seeing Rinley tear out the throat of a snowman.

“H-hey, Rinley,” Naomi says, her voice breaking like a backstabbing traitor. “...ice of you to drop by?” Uuuuuugh that was so weak. Invite them in! But wait, is that, um, would that be overly familiar, should you just ask them to wait in the living room or would that be rude after they showed up just to exsanguinate a snowman for you, or at you? This kinda feels more like an at you situation, y’know?

[Thanqol]

"Naomi this is no time for jokes," said Rinley with a seriousness they had not earned and did not deserve. It was a Principal Entropy kind of line, delivered with the same mirthless inflection as he would use. It was very unfair. They grab Naomi's hand and yank her fully out of the window. "Ah, good, you're packed!" Rinley says brightly when they note the first aid kit, barely pausing to grab their coat off the snowman.

And suddenly they're off! Marching through the snow, dragging Naomi behind, princess pajamas and all. "So I was thinking!" Rinley was saying. "It's the first day of Christmas which means everybody will be outside, which means that Valya will be out and about, which means the Titov family mansion will be empty and unguarded! With my cunning disguise -" they gestured at the vampire fangs and the puffy white flour that is serving as extremely improvised makeup. "- and your moral support, we'll break into the building, make our way into the deep and dark depths of the Titov family crypt, and then..."

That was a very Rinley And Then. It could mean anything from 'stake the elder vampire and free all her descendants from the ancient blood curse' to 'fill the crypt with balloon animals'. The important thing was that let's doing!

The only important step in this plan is 'don't run into Valya Titov, especially not with two lockpicks jammed into the front door of her house' - and really what are the odds of that happening??????

[Raz_Fox]

Ack ack ack Rinley! Please be considerate of the fact that someone here is only wearing fuzzy socks! This is pretty solidly boot weather, or at the very least a sensible pair of shoes! Also, please be considerate of the fact that Naomi has a suspiciously sweaty hand.

“Wait,” Naomi says, doing the hop-and-skip of trying to both keep up with Rinley and minimize the amount of time she spends with her feet in direct contact with the snow. “Rinley, you do know there’s only one vampire in that family, right? And you don’t have the height for Valya, unless you have some heels in your bag— also the crypt is, well...”

The crypt is a bad place. It’s the kind of place adults don’t talk about to kids, but it filters down how very important it is never to go into that horrible place. There is something down there that makes the Titovs necessary.

But saying that to Rinley wouldn’t be cool.

What’s a girl to do?

[Anyr]

Fortitude is a slow place. People around here tend to take their time. Valya had mixed feelings about that. A minute ago, she'd sedately stalked the streets. But now she wanted something. She wanted Rinley. Vampires don't understand casual desire. Was Valya supposed to wander towards Rinley's house? Absurd! The need burnt too much. Her form suddenly blurred, and shot upwards.

Valya soared through the skies of Fortitude. Gravity was just a polite suggestion. She could ignore it when inconvenient. The same applied to speed limits. In a trice, she'd made it halfway across town. She soon landed in front of the Yatskaya residence. Was Rinley within? Her eyes examined the nearby path. There, in the snow! Fresh Rinley prints. The hunt was on. Valya floated a bit, so as not to disturb the trail. The dark figure followed in her prey's wake. Soon, precious friendship would be hers.

[Thanqol]

Ack ack ack Rinley! Please be considerate of the fact that someone here is only wearing fuzzy socks! This is pretty solidly boot weather, or at the very least a sensible pair of shoes! Also, please be considerate of the fact that Naomi has a suspiciously sweaty hand.

“Wait,” Naomi says, doing the hop-and-skip of trying to both keep up with Rinley and minimize the amount of time she spends with her feet in direct contact with the snow. “Rinley, you do know there’s only one vampire in that family, right? And you don’t have the height for Valya, unless you have some heels in your bag— also the crypt is, well...”

The crypt is a bad place. It’s the kind of place adults don’t talk about to kids, but it filters down how very important it is never to go into that horrible place. There is something down there that makes the Titovs necessary.

But saying that to Rinley wouldn’t be cool.

What’s a girl to do?

"Oh, heels! Good idea!" said Rinley. "Pit stop!"

One of the handy things about Fortitude is that people take their shoes off before they go inside - a cultural trait Rinley approaches with a take-a-penny leave-a-penny attitude. Rinley has a weirdly good awareness of the shoe sizes of everyone in town for this reason, but in a pinch a bit of crinkled-up newspaper can buff out an almost-fit. They wheel Naomi to a brief stop outside Washide Ilya's house and pull off their boots to borrow her heels - and pushes their boots over towards Naomi.

"Seriously, Naomi?" they ask. "You went out in the snow without boots? You're such a goofball, what would you do if I wasn't looking out for you?"

[Raz_Fox]

“I— you— excuse??” Rinley! “Someone was too impatient to let me put them on,” Naomi says, with a petulant little huff. But she can’t refuse a gift from Rinley! Even if she has to loosen the laces in order to get her feet to fit.

Snow crunches unpleasantly inside the shoe. This would have been much more pleasant if she’d gotten Rinley to stop and think for once. But that’d be as hard as getting a cat to do tricks.

And now Rinley is... oof. Hello, height.

“All right,” Naomi says, brushing herself down and trying not to think about the tactile sensation of Wet Sock In Boot, “I suppose your heart’s set on this, isn’t it? As Guardian of the Hearts of Fortitude, I will help you into the depths of the Titov shrine... if that is what you really want.”

Hint, hint. You probably actually want to hang out with Valya. Orrrr... dare we hope... you want to have a good time with your bestest friend, Naomi Vasili, Defender of the Hearts of Fortitude!

[Thanqol]

"That is why I like you so much," said Rinley, affectionately booping Naomi's nose. "Everyone else I try to bring on an adventure spends the entire time like 'I'm scared Rinley' and 'this is dangerous Rinley' and 'it's ten feet tall and is going to eat us Rinley'," that was not a very charitable impression of Washide Ilya, Rinley! "But even though you're a huge scaredy mouse, if I'm around to give you a little push you can be almost as brave as me!"

They were, however, impatient - and so they dropped to one knee to tie the laces on Naomi's other boot while she was still fiddling with the laces. It's a Rinley Knot, which is the kind of knot that tries to get fancy, forgets a couple of steps, tangles into an impenetrable and squirmatious mess, which they then tie a simple bow tie over the top of to make it look like it was intentional. They pause for a moment when their hands notice a strange feeling inside Naomi's boot and thoughtfully squeeze her foot a few times to confirm that is in fact snow slush and not weird alien fluidfoot.

"Come on!" they say, rolling back to their new imposing height and starting off again - although helpfully slowed a little from before due to the demands of walking in heels down icy streets.

[Anyr]

Valya's progress slowed for a while. Tracking someone's footprints across town took time. At one point, she even lost the trail. Then she realised that her prey had cunningly switched shoes! Did Rinley know that they were being hunted? Fascinating! Such tricks wouldn't deter Valya for long. She relentlessly followed through the streets: Streets which became more and more familiar. Until, at last, she reached...her own house? Huh. Turns out she could have just sat at home. Well, no matter. Time to go greet her dear friends.

Rinley and Naomi's own hunt had gone far. They'd made it all the way to the Titov front door. Now their mission could truly begin! They just had to avoi-

"Welcome."

The voice came from right behind Rinley's ear. Something sharp brushed against their skin. Fangs? Yep, fangs. Fangs that were way too close.

"Why are you here?"

[Raz_Fox]

Naomi’s heart skips a beat, but— again— she’s not the sort to scream and throw herself into Rinley’s arms, which is a great disappointment, especially to herself. Like, that’s the perfect excuse to get clingy! But the rest of her just goes: well, I guess Rinley’s plan is busted already.

“I’m sure Rinley can explain,” Naomi says, trying not to look at Valya. If she looks over, reveals she was startled, Valya has won. Besides, what’s more interesting is the roofing tiles of the shrine. Someone hasn’t been keeping them repaired, have they? For shame.

[Thanqol]

Valya's progress slowed for a while. Tracking someone's footprints across town took time. At one point, she even lost the trail. Then she realised that her prey had cunningly switched shoes! Did Rinley know that they were being hunted? Fascinating! Such tricks wouldn't deter Valya for long. She relentlessly followed through the streets: Streets which became more and more familiar. Until, at last, she reached...her own house? Huh. Turns out she could have just sat at home. Well, no matter. Time to go greet her dear friends.

Rinley and Naomi's own hunt had gone far. They'd made it all the way to the Titov front door. Now their mission could truly begin! They just had to avoi-

"Welcome."

The voice came from right behind Rinley's ear. Something sharp brushed against their skin. Fangs? Yep, fangs. Fangs that were way too close.

"Why are you here?"

Do not jump. Do not scream. Do not freeze. You are a puppy in the den of a wolf and the only thing that might save you is the wolf forgetting what it is.

"Did you know that there are tunnels under Fortitude?" lied Rinely with the oily speed and grace of a lizard reacting to the rock it was sleeping under being moved. "Hundreds of them, you see - the rats don't dig them, they only find them. Something - or someone - else has been digging them," escalate into mystery, create a plot hook, how was Naomi so calm was she made of stone!?!? "And we have tracked," Rinley went on, "the mysterious locus of these subterranean tunnels... here!" Now! You've got it! Reverse it all, put it back on her! "Are you, Titov Valya, responsible for the tunnels that emanate from underneath your family shrine? Or are you just as much a victim as the rest of us!?"

[Anyr]

Valya didn't actually suspect foul play. She was just greeting a friend. It's hard to tell whether a vampire is trying to be scary: Because everything they do is scary. It never occurred to her that someone might misinterpret the situation. So she listened, bemused, while Rinley spun a yarn...

...Or rather, what Rinley thought was a yarn. Because there really is a vast network of rat tunnels beneath Fortitude. And the Titov shrine really does have a mysterious underground locus. Only the part about them being connected was (probably) false. But Valya didn't know that. To her, this seemed like a plausible revelation. A flurry of questions came from her mouth (which was still very close to Rinley's neck).

"You have proof of this? Did you bring the proof? Who else have you told?"

Again, Valya wasn't trying to intimidate. She cared for Rinley very much. Her friend was perfectly safe. She only seemed on the verge of silencing a witness.

[Raz_Fox]

Naomi lays a warning hand on Valya’s shoulder. Valya gets so worked up, everything has to be at an 11 all the time, and even for a member of the boisterous Vasili clan, it can be a little much.

“I’m sure Rinley wouldn’t,” she manages to say, before the enormity of the lie crushes her. She tries again. “Rinley came over to my house first thing. Look, if there aren’t tunnels, just tell them so and we can be on our way, and also the vampire makeup was not my idea, I just want to be clear about that.”

[Thanqol]

Rinley had again iced up, the ice-cold realization that they had made a terrible mistake running through their veins, unable to even look around while struggling for words even when Naomi threw her under the bus -

Wait!!!

Naomi!!!

How dare you!?? After all I've done for you!?? You betray me like this? You do dirty by a friend - a good friend, a best friend, even - like that!??! Ack! Betrayal! A dagger in my back! Instead of heroically defending your poor, innocent, pure-hearted best friend forever against a predatory monster, you undermine their perfectly reasonable lie with something as suicidal as a truth-adjacent statement!??!????! When I'm dead and a vampire I'm going to spook you for real and you will have no-one but yourself to blame!!!

Rinley lets the perfectly justified righteous outrage obfuscate the fact that they are shaking in terror before the terrifyingly beautiful avatar of death so that they can push on into further lies.

"The rats! The rats told me!" Rinley squeaked out. Valya can't kill all the rats, right? "They wanted me to investigate further, that's why I'm here! But if you want me to turn around and tell them that they were wrong I can certainly do that too ha ha ha ha," yes, see how useful I am, I can go and lie to people for you, that's exactly the kind of person who's worth having their blood on the inside.

[Anyr]

"The rats, hmm?"

There was a long, thoughtful pause. Eventually, blessedly, Valya stepped away from Rinley's neck. She spoke in what she thought was a reassuring way.

"I see. You and the rats shouldn't concern yourselves with this any more. I'll handle everything. Just forget all about it."

Valya was terrible at reassurance. Oblivious to this, she changed the topic. She'd finally noticed the unusual fashion choices of her visitors. Eyes flicked between Rinley and Naomi. Valya's mind searched (in vain) for some rational explanation.

"Rinley, why are you dressed as a vampire? You should be careful with outfits like that. Some of this town's other undead could take serious offence.

And are those princess pyjamas? Bold choice. I'd have thought you'd be cold. But then, I don't feel the cold any more. Maybe I'm misremembering."

[Raz_Fox]

Everything about this situation is working Naomi over. She can't help but shiver, just like Rinley. Well, maybe not just like Rinley. It's like comparing a bamboo shoot and the branches of an oak. Either way, it's one heck of a reminder that Valya's her scariest peer.

[Take +1 Shiver XP there, Valya. You're one spooky vampire.]

Now, she should stand forward-- she should defend her fashion choices-- she should insist that Valya invite them inside, even if that does increase the risk of meeting other Titovs today, because it is indeed hecking cold and she is, yes, still in her fuzzy Disney Princess jammies, and though they are warm they are not "run around outdoors" warm--

But that's when she hears something. It's far, very far away, but it has all of her attention all of a sudden. Valya, you would likely notice that she's gone all white as a sheet, and not just with cold. The goosebumps she's got from dealing with you? They've grown their own goosebumps. She can feel the scrape of the wheels as a physical sensation, running all down her back. Far off, far off and away, on the very edge of perception, there is a train whistle, which almost sounds like the Arcadia Express. All aboard, all aboard.

She lets go of Rinley, and stands stock-still, like a prey animal that has seen its death's slavering jaws open wide.

[Flipping our card from I'm Here to I Am Under Its Shadow. 1/21 XP.]

[Thanqol]

Okay great! I, Rinley, have successfully upgraded this situation from 'will die right this second' to 'will die an indeterminate amount of time in the future, after Valya checks and discovers the lie and then comes to murder me, possibly in my bed, which is an image that has no right to be as hot as it is'. Rinley turns to Naomi and holds out their hand for a high five to celebrate the victory, a perhaps incomprehensible gesture if you're not sufficiently Rinley-brained.

Except Naomi is actually pale and shivering and - oh yeah, actually. She looks really cold. Guilt, a Forbidden emotion that spends much of its time asleep or locked up in a cage of smug contentment, scratches at the base of Rinley's ribs. There can be none of that! It is extremely important that they deal with guilt as quickly and decisively as possible, otherwise they won't get anything done and all the cats will make fun of them. Nothing gets as much mockery from the cats as feeling guilty about something.

"Um, excuse me Valya," said Rinley, with a newfound sardonic confidence. "She is obviously extremely cold and it is incredibly rude that you have not yet invited her in and provided her with a nice warm fire to warm herself up by. I can't believe you sometimes." Things not to do: reply to the question about the vampire makeup. If you pretend that people don't say things then sometimes those questions go away and you don't get seductively murdered by attractive vampires.

[Anyr]

Valya and Rinley had some things in common. They both found it difficult to really see people. Even close friends got filtered through a lens. So when Naomi froze in terror, Valya paid it little mind. Cold and fear were abundant out here. Naomi's complex crisis got filed in a simple box: Labelled 'excuses to lure people inside'.

That was the key point here. Rinley and Naomi wanted to visit! The vampire's mood received a much needed boost. Life wasn't pain after all. It was filled with loyal friends! A welcoming smile spread across Valya's face. She beckoned the others to follow. If Naomi didn't respond, she'd get pulled in the right direction.

"Of course you can come in! Warm your fragile human forms by the fire. I'm sure we can start one somewhere..."

The group passed through a crumbling gate. The whole estate was crumbling, actually. There was a pervasive air of neglect. Even the plants had lost their will to live. The Titov estate is inviting, in the worst sense. It wants you. It needs you, to keep itself alive. Most people can sense this, on some level. Visitors like Rinley and Naomi were rare indeed. Valya eagerly let her friends into the building, via a side entrance obscured by weeds. Once they crossed the threshold, the door locked itself behind them. No going back. They soon reached a dusty chamber, dotted with moth-eaten furniture. In one wall was an old, but functional fireplace. Valya, the attentive host, set about warming her guests.

"Here we are. Make yourselves at home. Stay as long as you want. Forever, if you like."

Valya's mood card flips to 'life is joy'. That's not necessarily a good thing.

[Thanqol]

"I," said Rinley, "need to powder my nose."

And with that they turned on heel and walked out of the room, leaving Naomi alone with Valya. Best buddy Naomi would be able to warm up and also distract Valya, and Rinley would get a chance to catch their breath - and then go poking around! They did not wait for directions to a bathroom, they just tromped off all alone into the deep dark corridors of the Titov family mansion, looking for anything secrets-y. Staircases leading down, perhaps? Ancient and spooky shrines? Buried treasure???

(Things that were Forbidden:
- Calling this a terrified retreat from Valya rather than a bold exploration
- Worrying about abandoning Naomi to Valya
- Obsessing over that 'stay forever' bit.
- Valya generally
- General spookiness
- This is so dumb, you are so dumb, you are absolutely going to die, oh hey the front door is locked, you're so dead, you're so very dead and it's all your stupid fault)

It was okay they still had their vampire makeup they'd be just fine.

[Raz_Fox]

Breathe, Naomi. Even if you’re breathing in dust and the particular smell of Someone Else’s House, just breathe. There’s nothing on the tiles, nothing curling up on the roof waiting for you. The roofs would tell you. It’s all right. Just breathe.

“Have you seen anything weird lately, Valya?” The incongruity of asking that while bundled up in a moth-eaten old blanket and sinking, slowly but inexorably, into the couch cushions. “Like, while you’re...” Walking around is inaccurate. Flying isn’t a thing people do, so it would be rude to bring it up. “...out and about?”

[Anyr]

Valya reluctantly let Rinley go. The living needed their bathroom breaks. Besides, all the exits were locked. Her precious friend couldn't escape. Meanwhile, Valya tended to the room's remaining occupant. Fire? Check. Blankets? Check. Companionship? Check (sort of). Now Naomi could relax.

...Naomi didn't seem relaxed. She was scared. Once again, Valya missed the significance. Everyone was scared of her. She did her best to lighten the mood.

"Anything weird? Yes, actually. Just today, I met a girl in princess pyjamas! She was being dragged through the street, by someone in vampire makeup. You should have seen it. Oh, wait, that was you! How embarrassing."

No dice. Naomi still looked frozen, by something deeper than the cold. Valya floated uncertainly around the huddled girl. She didn't join Naomi on the sofa. That thing was infested with itchy bugs! This time, Valya took the question seriously.

"What else? Well, there's a disappearing street. I sometimes see it when I'm up high. But I can never find it again on the ground. And the night creatures are more restless than usual. Something's stirring them up."

She wasn't sure how to help. She wasn't even sure whether to help. Haunted Naomi had a certain appeal.

[Plerumque]

Rinley, you walk for a long time through the corridor - you don't know what kind of architectural plan this shrine was built on, but as long as you walk it keeps going in the same direction without so much as the interruption of a bathroom. Do the Titovs never have to pee? you might wonder, but then remember - Valya the vampire, the sister of hers who was made out of Outside-dust... maybe not. Still, not very hospitable of them.

Eventually the passageway widens, and you can see from where you stand that there's a ton of natural light filtering into the room beyond. You had thought the Titovs were philosophically opposed to windows, but this looks like an atrium anyone would be proud of, with sunbeams enough for the whole Yatskaya family to take a nap in. From around the corner, you can hear the clanking of metal and the hiss of a low flame, and then the rhythmic noise of a knife against a cutting-board.

When you peek around the corner - because of course you do - you see a beautifully-furnished kitchen. Copper fixtures, polished limestone countertops, the whole deal. The only thing out-of-place is the woman fluttering around it, who looks like a witch out of a fairy-tale - shriveled and gaunt, eyes like jade chips in the sunken mass of her face, and the whole thing swathed in an enormous fur coat. You might recognize this apparition as Nirmala Titov, or you might not. Either way, as you watch, she pulls down a jar from a shelf, inspects it for a moment, then smashes it on the counter and scoops the whole thing, glass and all, into a saucepan. Hand dripping red onto the floor, she turns and fixes her eyes on you. "Valya!" she says. "I almost didn't see you there! Come and help your mother."

[Thanqol]

Rinley, you walk for a long time through the corridor - you don't know what kind of architectural plan this shrine was built on, but as long as you walk it keeps going in the same direction without so much as the interruption of a bathroom. Do the Titovs never have to pee? you might wonder, but then remember - Valya the vampire, the sister of hers who was made out of Outside-dust... maybe not. Still, not very hospitable of them.

Eventually the passageway widens, and you can see from where you stand that there's a ton of natural light filtering into the room beyond. You had thought the Titovs were philosophically opposed to windows, but this looks like an atrium anyone would be proud of, with sunbeams enough for the whole Yatskaya family to take a nap in. From around the corner, you can hear the clanking of metal and the hiss of a low flame, and then the rhythmic noise of a knife against a cutting-board.

When you peek around the corner - because of course you do - you see a beautifully-furnished kitchen. Copper fixtures, polished limestone countertops, the whole deal. The only thing out-of-place is the woman fluttering around it, who looks like a witch out of a fairy-tale - shriveled and gaunt, eyes like jade chips in the sunken mass of her face, and the whole thing swathed in an enormous fur coat. You might recognize this apparition as Nirmala Titov, or you might not. Either way, as you watch, she pulls down a jar from a shelf, inspects it for a moment, then smashes it on the counter and scoops the whole thing, glass and all, into a saucepan. Hand dripping red onto the floor, she turns and fixes her eyes on you. "Valya!" she says. "I almost didn't see you there! Come and help your mother."

Rinley takes a moment to feel a fierce sense of pride in their disguise. They're so vampirey that they fooled Valya's own mother! Also, look how smart you are, now you know that if you eat any food given by Valya there's pretty good odds you'll die in agony from all the glass wrapped up in the cooking, that's really useful information and only a smart person who doesn't panic and run away gets the opportunity to use it. A smart person recognizes that running right now is a die tired situation.

"Of course, mom!" said Rinley, stepping into the kitchen and watching the soup gingerly. "What are we cooking today?"

Rinley could feel a Story coming on, in the same way that some people can feel a sneeze sneaking up on them. They just need to make sure it's aimed correctly.

[Raz_Fox]

Something’s stirring the night creatures up. Oh, by the Lake, that’s the last thing Naomi needs to hear. Maybe it’s not anything of the sort, maybe it’s something completely unrelated to whatever’s haunting the rooftops, but in her heart Naomi doesn’t expect that to be the case. These things must be connected.

So she solidly brushes herself down and tries to focus on something that’s not a creeping sense of dread. Easier said than done when Valya’s in the room. And when she feels weirdly itchy.

She needs to get her hands dirty with something! Fix something. Yeah. That’s the ticket. Anything in here look like it needs the expert hand of the Bride of the Near Roofs, Valya?

[Anyr]

She needs to get her hands dirty with something! Fix something. Yeah. That’s the ticket. Anything in here look like it needs the expert hand of the Bride of the Near Roofs, Valya?

Anything? More like almost everything. The whole room is falling apart. Its owners clearly don't care about maintenance. There's dust galore. The carpet is more moth than fabric. Every piece of furniture (including the sofa on which Naomi sits) seems held up by sheer will. Want a TV to repair? There's one in the corner. Take your pick.

Not all of the Titov estate is like this. Some parts still receive attention. Particularly nostalgic rooms can overcome the Titov haze. And when a family member overdoses on Outside dust, their psychotic break sometimes makes them clean things. So, you know, things could be worse.

[Raz_Fox]

A TV. Yes. Not that there’s that much to watch in Fortitude if you’re not part of RatFlix (the rats bring you movies they think you’d like), but, hey, that’s no excuse to leave something broken. When Naomi’s feeling lost, there’s two things that always make her feel like the world is understandable, and she’s not sure she’s up to tackle Valya’s heart without some warmup.

“This is one of the Russian sets, right?” She scoots down and runs her fingers along its seams, looks for the screws: there’s always ways to take something apart so you can set it right, and usually they don’t even call for a sledgehammer. “Here, do you know where your dad keeps the screwdrivers?”

[Consider this an invitation to Shared Action: television repair! Naomi’s gonna need Valya to hold things, pass her tools, and talk to her while her hands are occupied. I’ll even spend Will to do it Right, if the offer’s accepted.]

[Anyr]

Valya blinked. She peered at the TV, as if seeing it for the first time. A completely unimportant item. How had Naomi got onto this topic? Oh well. Valya would play along.

"Er, yes, it's Russian. One of those old models, with the static that makes you hallucinate."

The sort of thing that nobody wanted fixed; Nobody except Naomi. She was apparently on a mission. Valya found herself being sent out for tools. Screwdriver screwdriver screwdriver. Now where woul-Ah! That's right. She floated out of the room, in no particular hurry. Her supernatural speed didn't actually get used much. Fortitude was a slow place. When not hunting Rinley, Valya moved at the town's pace.

The vampire returned, some time later. She carried a metallic, rusted toolbox. It looked even older than the TV. Many of the implements within were completely unrecognisable. Surgical instruments for aliens? Torture devices? Perhaps best not to enquire.

"Here you go. I'm sure father won't miss them. He barely even noticed my death."

She held the box out to Naomi. If her friend took it, she'd discover that it was very heavy. Oh, right. Valya belatedly recalled that humans had noodly muscles. So many little details to remember.

[Raz_Fox]

Naomi laughs, loud and bracing, hardly ladylike at all. Full of delight at having something to do with her hands. “Right, right. But I bet this thing couldn’t get your granny’s mind wandering with a blown fuse.”

By the time Valya gets back? Naomi’s working to undo the guts of this behemoth, this aged leviathan of the televisual arts, so that she can set things back in order. There’s already grease on her fingers, and lines smeared on her pink pajama bottoms.

“There— whoop,” she says, as the box clangs the floor. With both hands, she manages to scoot it close enough to the TV to be within easy reach. “It’s hard to take care of these things properly, isn’t it? Dust collects on the inside.” Contextually: she’s not talking about the ordinary sort of dust. “You really have to set aside an afternoon to clean your electronics out,” she goes on, blissfully not thinking about creepy things. “Here, can you reach that?”

That’s the rhythm; in Fortitude, things are best when you’re working together. A vampire and the Bride of the Near Roofs, working to mend an old busted TV: that’s the sort of thing you only see when you’re in the shrine families.

Now, once we’re done here— one imagines that there will, naturally, be a need to grab some water from the kitchen and refresh.

[Anyr]

Valya settled into the task at hand: Well, as 'settled' as vampires can be. She still hovered much too close. And she kept unexpectedly appearing from Naomi's blind spots. But that was just standard Valya stuff. Aside from that, she proved a decent assistant. Any requested tool got passed. Anything that needed holding got held. And she kept up a steady patter of conversation.

"It's hard for my family to care about maintenance; Or anything, really. Without dust, some of them might forget to exist. Still, we'll always have each other."

No matter how toxic that relationship became. Valya was forever tied to her family. And yet, she kept looking for more. She needed, well, moments like this: Connections with someone from beyond this crumbling nest. She needed Naomi, and Rinley. Speaking of which:

"Where has Rinley got to? Shouldn't they be back by now?"

[Plerumque]

The Kitchen

"Oh, thank you, Valya!" Nirmala coos. "It's lemon surprise! I found the recipe in one of your grandmother's old cookbooks." Closer to the pot, you can indeed catch a whiff of lemon, and nose-stinging salt—it must have been a jar of preserved lemons she smashed. "Here," she adds, handing you a knife. "You can chop the weasel." You turn, and there lying on a cutting board is a curled-up rodent, frozen in fear. Only the brightness of its black eyes and the faint trembling of its whiskers give any sign that it's alive.

The Sitting-Room

As you two are working on the television, a door creaks open and in glides the pale, ironic figure of Jason Pyotr Alexei Titov. He surveys the proceedings with a look of utter boredom, but does not comment. Instead, he addresses Valya directly: "Will you be coming to tea? Mother's in one of her moods again, and she asked me to make sure the whole family is in attendance." He shifts his gaze to Naomi. "You're welcome to come too, of course. Though I can't imagine why you'd want to."

[Thanqol]

The Kitchen

"Oh, thank you, Valya!" Nirmala coos. "It's lemon surprise! I found the recipe in one of your grandmother's old cookbooks." Closer to the pot, you can indeed catch a whiff of lemon, and nose-stinging salt—it must have been a jar of preserved lemons she smashed. "Here," she adds, handing you a knife. "You can chop the weasel." You turn, and there lying on a cutting board is a curled-up rodent, frozen in fear. Only the brightness of its black eyes and the faint trembling of its whiskers give any sign that it's alive.

"I know that recipe!" said Rinley. "And, oh, how silly - you've read it wrong. You don't cut weasels, that would be ridiculous. The weasels do the cutting! Haven't you heard the story of the Kamaitachi? Let me tell you!

"Once upon a time the East Wind tried to blow down all of Japan. The mountains of the country were in its way, you see, and it had friends in America and hated having to jump all the way over Mt. Fuji every time it wanted to go and see them. So the wind traveled to Fortitude where a legendary swordsmith worked. It asked him to forge a sword that could cut down the holy mountain!

"But secretly, the swordsmith loved Mt. Fuji, and so he dragged his feet. An ordinary katana has to be folded 1,000 times to be perfect, but the swordsmith folded and folded and folded the blade he was making 10,000 times, until it was the width of a single hair! After a year the east wind returned and asked if its sword was ready, and when the swordsmith said no it flew into a rage. It marked a day on the calendar and said if the sword was not ready by that day it would blow down the entire town!

"The swordsmith didn't know what to do! He went to every shrine in Fortitude and asked them to help him save Mt. Fuji - but none of the families knew quite how to help! Yatskaya suggested running into the land of dreams, and the Vasili said that they'd try to build the town sturdy enough to survive the east wind's wrath - but then he went to the Titov family house. There out the front stood Grandmother Titov with three devil-weasels, stroking their heads with her frayed toothbrush. She said, "Ah, good, I need a knew chopping knife for my Lemon Surprise recipe. Give it to me, and I will sever time itself for you. The swordsmith agreed, so she took the sword and gave it to the weasels. The first of them waited by the calendar, marking days until February 29th arrived. The second of them carried the sword and, when the day came, she sliced it clean out of time! And then the third one stitched February back together afterwards so nobody could see the gaps. But because they're weasels they sometimes forget, and then the east wind realizes it's been tricked and that's why hurricanes happen.

"Anyway, the important part is that to make Lemon Surprise you need to wait until February, and then catch the missing day when the Kamaitachi sever it from the year, and then put that missing day in the soup. If you chop one of the weasels up you'll never be able to make it, or possibly time will become unspooled or the town will be destroyed by a hurricane, depending on which weasel you get. A silly mistake, but Grandma Titov was a little bit illiterate so her recipe was probably a little unclear - that's why stories are so important, because they remember all those important details!"

While Rinley had said all of this with the flowing, pulsing cadence of someone trying to save a life with a story, they had also tucked the weasel into their overcoat's breast pocket just so they were ready to do a runner if necessary.

[Plerumque]

The Kitchen

Nirmala wavers for a moment. "Yes, well... I suppose you must be right, dear. You always did pay such close attention to those stories. Good girl." She reaches out and absentmindedly scritches your head, leaving bloody streaks, then turns back to the pot with a frown. "Wait until February... well, there's no sense in letting this go to waste, and I did promise them something special for tea. Perhaps it could be a pastry-filling? Or some kind of soufflé? What do you think, Valya?"

[Anyr]

Jason's arrival was like an eclipse. It blotted out Valya's good mood. A few seconds ago, she'd been happily collaborating with a friend. Now she glowered at the intruder. Valya's elder brother had always dominated and bullied her. Becoming a vampire had changed that dynamic a bit. He was warier of her these days. But he also knew that, for all her physical strength, she could never hurt him. They were family. Thus, the pair were locked in an uneasy stalemate. They mostly settled for simmering resentment.

News of the family gathering didn't bring joy either. Not that that mattered. Valya would attend anyway. Her face twisted into a blatantly fake look of enthusiasm.

"So her mind has drifted in our direction? We must make the most of this opportunity. Come on, Naomi. Let's go share a special moment of togetherness."

She grabbed Naomi's hand, and dragged her out of the room. Was this a new trend? Would Naomi be forever pulled between scenes? Time would tell.

Valya's card flips back to 'Life is Pain'. No XP this time, though.

[Thanqol]

The Kitchen

Nirmala wavers for a moment. "Yes, well... I suppose you must be right, dear. You always did pay such close attention to those stories. Good girl." She reaches out and absentmindedly scritches your head, leaving bloody streaks, then turns back to the pot with a frown. "Wait until February... well, there's no sense in letting this go to waste, and I did promise them something special for tea. Perhaps it could be a pastry-filling? Or some kind of soufflé? What do you think, Valya?"

"Don't trouble yourself, mother dearest," said Rinley with saccharine sweetness. "I know just the thing. I'll finish up here, why don't you go and say hello to the others?"

By just the thing they meant 'windmill slam the saucepan full of shattered glass into the trash, put a packet of crackers that probably wouldn't kill anyone despite being ancient on a plate and decorate the centre of the improvised platter with a handful of random sweets/sweet wrappers/lint they had stashed squirrel-like in one of their many pockets'. Perfect. A healthy breakfast. No one would die from eating that in the short term. And then it was back! To! Business! Rinley had not finished their snooping and the clock was counting down until all of the lies collapsed and they were eaten by vampires so they wanted to at least find a creepy basement full of monsters and secrets before that happened!

[Raz_Fox]

Jason. Ugh. This guy. He’s a bully and a control freak, from what little Naomi has seen. She doesn’t have what the kids call the tea on him, but oh boy does she know there has to be some. She gives him a steely glare as she lets herself be pulled out of the room. That’ll show him! Yes, she has clearly displayed her lack of taking him seriously by making a mean face right before vanishing into the depths of the house.

And... then there’s the matter of Valya’s mom. People talk, and young adults pick up on what’s not discussed with them remarkably fast.

“I can take Rinley and we can head out,” she says. Does Valya’s grip tighten, or is that just her imagination? “We don’t want to be a bother.” And we certainly don’t want to have tea with your mother, she doesn’t add.

[Anyr]

Valya's grip did indeed tighten. Her reply brooked no argument.

"It's fine. Stay."

'Please stay with me, Naomi. I feel anxious and adrift'. But of course, Valya couldn't say that. She couldn't give Naomi a choice. If she did, her friend might leave; Or exploit Valya's vulnerability, as her family so often had. Better to remove all doubt. Keep your precious companions close. Make sure that they can't escape. That's the Titov way.

[Plerumque]

The Kitchen

"Ah, Valya, you're so good to your old mother," Nirmala says hazily. "You're right, of course. I shall go and ring the dinner-bell. You know where to find the dining-room, of course—we can all come together there in ten minutes, and if you need any extra help, I'm sure one of your siblings will be happy to offer it." With that, she glides out of the kitchen, though not without taking a steadying swig of something from a long-necked bottle on the counter. A few moments later, you feel a bell's toll roll back through the room and through your bones—once, twice, three times.

The Corridor

Your conversation is interrupted by the low tolling of a bell from far away. Valya, you recognize this as the signal to the family to assemble for a meal in the dining-room—it may have been used regularly once, but the bell likely hasn't been rung in months, perhaps years. Regardless, you know that its sound has echoed through the whole ancient depths of the Titov estate, and every member of the family will be there in ten or there'll be hell to pay.

[Anyr]

Pavlov's research didn't just apply to dogs. Valya's pace noticeably quickened. By the bell's third toll, she was almost dragging Naomi off her feet. A time limit had been imposed. Valya kept a verbal tally of it.

"Nine minutes and 28 seconds remaining. Mustn't be late. Mustn't be late. Nine minutes and 23 seconds remaining."

That's some deep conditioning. The punishment for latecomers is probably best left to the imagination.

[Thanqol]

The Kitchen

"Ah, Valya, you're so good to your old mother," Nirmala says hazily. "You're right, of course. I shall go and ring the dinner-bell. You know where to find the dining-room, of course—we can all come together there in ten minutes, and if you need any extra help, I'm sure one of your siblings will be happy to offer it." With that, she glides out of the kitchen, though not without taking a steadying swig of something from a long-necked bottle on the counter. A few moments later, you feel a bell's toll roll back through the room and through your bones—once, twice, three times.

As per the plan: windmill slam the saucepan into the trash, throw the trash bag out the window, and prepare a meal of crackers, pocket-candy and pocket-debris - and then move. Good work Rinley. You're basically a superhero and you just saved Naomi's life probably.

(Rinley's pocket debris was remarkably consistent for somebody who borrowed coats like books from Fortitude Library. They always managed to have some of the red starbursts in there - Rinley hated red starbursts but could not bring themselves to throw out candy so they just filled pockets in jackets around the town. There are tissues, stolen pens, rocks that they reckon might make good slingshot ammunition for spooking geese or skipping [current record: one skip], leftover dry biscuits, and the random scavenged crumpled-up scraps of paper that served as Rinley's diary/poetry journal/to do list. An example of one might be:

TODAY
be gay(?), do crimes (!)
Naomi's nose is my favourite nose/all pink and brave and noble. Valya's nose is fearsome proud/valya if you're reading this i'm sorry please don't kill me your nose is actually my favourite
what is the deal with that cursed rock

cat sketch of the day:
https://image.shutterstock.com/image-vector/hand-drawing-cat-260nw-287339987.jpg

shopping list:
- revenge (chuubo, society)
- starbursts (pink)
- vinegar (any))

With food sorted, Rinley set off apace to discover adventure before it was too late!

[Raz_Fox]

When Naomi enters the dining room... well, she’s not acting like somebody who nearly got her arm pulled right out of its socket by a rushing vampire. She’s not acting like someone surrounded by the Titovs, either. And she’s most definitely not acting like someone standing in a gloomy, gothic dining room, the sort of place with spiderwebs between the good china and chairs that squeak and groan underneath you, and if you wiggle too much you feel like you’re going to end up on the floor.

And she’s not even acting like someone who’s standing in that sort of room while wearing fuzzy pink Disney Princess pajamas.

She’s got both feet on the ground now, and the sound of that whistle’s a far-off memory. (One flips the card, but gains no XP.) She gives the slightly abashed smile of the dinner guest and tugs Valya towards the table. “Thank you for having me,” she says to those already assembled. “I always love getting to eat with another shrine family!”

[Plerumque]

The Dining Room

Valya and Naomi, you are fortunately not the last to arrive but the second-to-last. Everyone else is there—Iskander at the head of the table, quietly digging the blade of a letter-opener into the flesh below his thumbnail; Jason Pyotr, turning flushed from an argument with Ezther to give you a wry salute; Diána, hovering anxiously over the two of them; Soramir and Isabella, playing a game of chess in the corner—except Nirmala, who follows you narrowly in. "Of course, of course," she exclaims, swathing Naomi in an embrace of rank-smelling fur. "It's wonderful to have company. And I'm sure my family will be delighted to show you how hospitable we Titovs can be." She directs a glare towards the table, and Iskander without apparent remorse drops the letter-opener, steepling his fingers on the table.

"Now," she says, pulling back from Naomi to fix her gaze on Valya. "I imagine it's time for the food! Valya, I was just looking for you—is it all ready? Do you need any more help?"

The Kitchen

Rinley, the kitchen is much larger than you first assumed—not only is there the prep area where you concocted your delicacy, but there's also a drafty hallway full of drying herbs and cured meats, a wine cellar that slopes down into darkness, and an enormous storeroom piled high with sacks of grain and beans. There's enough food here for a family the size of the Titov's to eat for years—strange, when shipments come so regularly across Big Lake.

Even more interesting, though, is the panel that you find that opens up into an empty shaft. Ropes run the length of the shaft, and peering up and down, you can surmise that it's meant for the operation of some kind of dumbwaiter. You can hear voices, too. Coming from above you, faintly, Nirmala's voice: "—you need any more help?" And from below you, the sound of someone breathing.

[Thanqol]

The Kitchen

Rinley, the kitchen is much larger than you first assumed—not only is there the prep area where you concocted your delicacy, but there's also a drafty hallway full of drying herbs and cured meats, a wine cellar that slopes down into darkness, and an enormous storeroom piled high with sacks of grain and beans. There's enough food here for a family the size of the Titov's to eat for years—strange, when shipments come so regularly across Big Lake.

Even more interesting, though, is the panel that you find that opens up into an empty shaft. Ropes run the length of the shaft, and peering up and down, you can surmise that it's meant for the operation of some kind of dumbwaiter. You can hear voices, too. Coming from above you, faintly, Nirmala's voice: "—you need any more help?" And from below you, the sound of someone breathing.

Rinley may not be much of a climber, but characters in books climb things all the time without any special training - and besides, if Naomi can do it, how hard can it be?

Sadly, Rinley never gets the chance to demonstrate their probably awesome climbing skills because they're thwarted at a step removed: lack of understanding of pulley mechanics. Turns out that gripping onto one of the ropes of a dumbwaiter sends it careening down due to the magic of counterweights and Rinley lands with a crash and tangle in the Titov basement.

[Anyr]

Valya had made it in time. Excellent! Now the real horror could begin. To her eyes, the dining room was choked with smog. Vampires can sense negative energy: An ability that was suddenly working overtime. Angst angst everywhere, but not a drop to drink. Valya couldn't feed on her own family. They were poisonous.

From the sounds of it, nobody else would be fed either. Had anyone expected otherwise? When Nirmala was the cook, you were lucky to get cardboard soup. Valya greeted her mother with a distinct weariness. The two did love each other. But they could barely connect any more. It was all just memories and fragments.

"Hello, mother. Are you sure I was the one helping you with the food? Could it have been someone else?"

Like a coat stand, for instance. Or someone in a tacky vampire...costume. A worrying possibility wormed its way into Valya's mind. She shot a concerned glance at Naomi.

"...Where's Rinley?"

[Plerumque]

The Dining Room

Valya, you are answered by the sound of a loud crash from the back of the room, evidently coming from behind the wood paneling. It startles nearly everyone; Iskander nearly impales himself on the letter-opener, Diána jumps a foot in the air, and Soramir sends the chess pieces clattering to the floor with the inadvertent jerk of a hand. Only Nirmala appears unperturbed. "Oh, of course! How rude of us—we almost sat down to eat without anything for Akhlut!" She turns back to you. "Why don't you go and get your dish, Valya dear. I'll pour the tea, and Jason, perhaps you could take care of her?"

The eldest Titov child levers himself out of his chair with a grimace. "Of course, Mother," he says, and stalks out the door, taking care to shoulder past Valya with slightly more force than necessary. Nirmala flutters after him, and the other family members settle resignedly back into their chairs as Diána rushes to collect the fallen chess pieces.

The Basement

Rinley, your unexpected descent leaves you sprawled awkwardly on top of the dumbwaiter at the bottom of the shaft, but there's enough of a gap between the top of the dumbwaiter and the top of the aperture for you to peek through. Beyond is a dark, cavernous space, and standing in the center a young child wearing a black frock. The child looks at you, eyes perfectly devoid of emotion; their breathing sounds unnaturally loud in the small space.

[Thanqol]

The Basement

Rinley, your unexpected descent leaves you sprawled awkwardly on top of the dumbwaiter at the bottom of the shaft, but there's enough of a gap between the top of the dumbwaiter and the top of the aperture for you to peek through. Beyond is a dark, cavernous space, and standing in the center a young child wearing a black frock. The child looks at you, eyes perfectly devoid of emotion; their breathing sounds unnaturally loud in the small space.

"Hey," said Rinley as smooth as skateboards. "What's up?"

Be cool, Rinley. You totally meant to do that. Besides, your sweet catlike reflexes had you land mostly on your feet, which probably looked amazing even though your ankles feel like mama Titov's jam-with-glass-shards. You know who dies first in horror movies, Rinley? Not highly trained Yatskaya family priestesses! Creepy ghost girls in creepy vampire basements just aren't scary any more because you are totally grown up and can come down on them like the Exorcist probably. This is what it means to be a grown up!

"Want some candy?" Rinley picked one of their precious stock of pink starbursts out of her pocket. "Promise not to do any freaky ghost stuff at me and it's yours."

[Plerumque]

The Basement

As if in answer, the child opens up their mouth, and inside is the featureless black of the void. A strange sensation washes over you; you feel at once hot and cold and itchy all over. You look up and the shadows in the room are different, stretching out into silhouettes of wolves and serpents. Memories race through your mind—sailing through the Outside on a silver-winged ship; kneeling before the Prince of All Rodents to be knighted with a tiny, tiny saber; sitting by a blazing fireplace with Naomi, playing cards—and then vanish, like dreams recalled upon waking.

And then the starburst leaps out of your hand and lands in the child's. They look at it impassively, then place it delicately in their abyss of a mouth. The shadows seem to shrink for a moment, retreating back into their normal shapes, then roar back into full wolfishness as the child steps forward, holding their hand out.

[Anyr]

Valya was startled along with everyone else. The only reason she didn't jump is that she was already floating. Mother immediately steered things back on track: Albeit the track through loony land. She sent Valya to get a completely pointless dish. Did she even remember that her daughter was undead? Valya felt a pang of loss. Then she felt a far more tangible pang, as Jason shoved past her. He knew that she wouldn't fight back. Ah, the joys of family.

But Valya's mind was largely elsewhere. That crash been rather Rinley-esque. Maybe letting them wander off had been a bad idea. Was there a chance of Rinley ending up...there? But even Rinley wasn't reckless enough to do that, right? Right?

Oh dear. Valya started edging towards the kitchen.

"Excuse me for a minute, everyone. There's something I need to check."

Please be okay. Please be okay.

Valya takes 1 XP for being reminded that she can't eat.

[Thanqol]

The Basement

As if in answer, the child opens up their mouth, and inside is the featureless black of the void. A strange sensation washes over you; you feel at once hot and cold and itchy all over. You look up and the shadows in the room are different, stretching out into silhouettes of wolves and serpents. Memories race through your mind—sailing through the Outside on a silver-winged ship; kneeling before the Prince of All Rodents to be knighted with a tiny, tiny saber; sitting by a blazing fireplace with Naomi, playing cards—and then vanish, like dreams recalled upon waking.

And then the starburst leaps out of your hand and lands in the child's. They look at it impassively, then place it delicately in their abyss of a mouth. The shadows seem to shrink for a moment, retreating back into their normal shapes, then roar back into full wolfishness as the child steps forward, holding their hand out.

As a highly trained Yatskaya family priest, Rinley knew exactly what to do when confronted with a memory-stealing ghost basement monster girl thing. They knew their way around dreams, how to hold them, how to treasure them, and how to keep them safe. There was no way Rinley would mistake what was happening.

So they behave totally rationally given the circumstances: they grab the little girl by the ankles and lift them up, dangling them upside down and shaking them like a sauce bottle. "Give my thoughts back!!" Rinley said, and they might be a little bit mad (and also terrified beyond reasoning). But there was nowhere to run and the little girl was certainly not living up to her end of the bargain r.e. freaky ghost stuff and Rinley didn't know how to get a ghost thing to throw up one's memories but they'd seen their dad do the heimlich manoeuvre one time and he was a priest so that was basically priest training right?

(This was terrible and dumb and the worst and certain to result in being eaten by shadow wolves and Naomi was going to come looking for where I went and she'll fall into this too and - and - and! -)

[Raz_Fox]

Naomi’s reaction to the crash was so subtle, you might even have missed it if you didn’t notice her eyes widen and her hands clench tighter. Crashes are bad, yes, but not the end of the world; things need to be picked up afterwards.

And of course she catches at Valya’s wrist before the vampire (vampiress?) can fully leave the room.

“I’ll come with you,” she says. “If something’s fallen down, two can get it back up easier than one can!” And she gives Valya a nod, putting on a brave face for her sake.

[Shamelessly fishing for XP here.]

[Plerumque]

The Kitchen

The kitchen is a mess—there's discarded pots and pans all over, CSI-like blood spatters on the floor, and some noxious black smoke collecting among the rafters. Sitting in a place of honor on the counter is a platter filled with a selection of crackers, wrappers, and candy that looks suspiciously like Rinley-refuse. On the far wall of the kitchen, the panel leading to the dumbwaiter shaft is open. From the next room over, you hear a thump, and Jason Pyotr emerges carrying a sack of grain over one shoulder. He looks at the open panel with mild interest, then prepares to take hold of the crank next to it.

The Basement

Rinley, as you grab the child's ankles they rear up, moving more like a snake than a person, and clamp their abyssal mouth onto your arm. Your skin immediately goes numb, and all of a sudden—though you try—you can't remember what it feels like to take a hot shower, sing a high note, or eat an éclair.

I think this would be a Deadly Wound: You can't remember happy times, with the option to mitigate as usual. This would count as a wound from a Bleak source, so you can use the "Bleak takes an interest in the Real" option on page 135, or any of the usual options for mitigating a Wound.

[Anyr]

Grabbing Valya's wrist didn't actually impede her. She just dragged Naomi along. It was like trying to stop a freight train. Valya did spare a glance back at her new passenger. After a seconf of appraisal, she nodded.

"...All right. I'll trust you. But if we meet dear Akhlut, retreat. That's family business."

Naomi was a reliable person. She wouldn't charge towards an eldritch abomination, right? Reassured, Valya entered the kitchen. She immediately noticed the Rinley-esque food platter. Her suspicions became a sickening certainty. She shouldn't have let Rinley out of her sight. She should have chained herself to them! Suddenly frantic eyes scanned the room. There! The dumbwaiter was open. Jason received no attention. Valya just shot straight past him, towards the opening. She peered down into darkness. Her predatory senses got put to work. They sought out any sight, sound or smell of Rinley. The lost soul would be much better off being caught by Valya, than by the thing that lurked below.

[Thanqol]

I would not blame you, dear readers, if I have given the impression that Rinley has no idea what they are doing.

To this point, Rinley has - if one were to be charitable - come across a confident but kind of goofy kid who couldn't magic their way out of a paper bag. Perhaps the right kind of person to stop you wasting a winter day inside playing a video game you beat four years ago, but absolutely the wrong kind of person to go poking around in the basement of an actual supernatural monster. Perhaps if you'd lived in Fortitude a little longer you'd have a similar opinion of the Yatskayas as a family. They look after dreams - and so what? That's not the same thing as the ability to speak to the spirits of earth and sky and the rooftops where they meet, or make candy, or be a vampire. It's a silly power, for a silly priest(ess), with too many silly cats, who will probably get eaten up in a single bite the moment they cross paths with a serious monster.

I would not blame you for thinking this! Even Rinley thinks this! But they are in actuality probably the most qualified person in all of Fortitude to have the Akhlut rip one's heart from one's chest. After all, if you stop and think about it for a moment, who has more experience with descending into dark, unknown places to be eaten alive by terrifying little schoolgirls in dresses than the family who spends its time in dreams? To a Yatskaya this is a Tuesday (which is a pleasant coincidence, because today actually is a Tuesday).

What Rinley does is absolutely magic, and it is a very sophisticated and secret kind of magic. They take that sucking void of nightmare emptiness and crash down an entire planet of dreams down into it. Taking a bite of someone expecting to get some goofy ordinary kid memories about eating sweets and instead gaining the complete interplanetary trilogy of The Space Explorers In Hyperborea Orbit (the result of watching Battlestar Galactica back-to-back with Princess Champions of Hyperborea way too late) slammed directly into your face is an extremely disorienting process.

But while it's magic, dream magic isn't very calm, rational, 'oh, i'm in intellectual control of this situation now'. It's the kind of thing you need to leverage some transcendental dream-terror to pull off and it's very dubious how much of it is deliberate. It doesn't feel like a clever act of trickery to Rinley - it feels like the kind of dream where you have to run, and run, and run, and run, and probably scream while your heart tries to slam out of your chest and you breathing goes haywire for reasons you are not privy to and you desperately need someone to rescue you before it all comes crashing down.

[Marking a health level to take the wound Nightmare Void. Rinley has dealt with the injury by opening a connection to the Akhlut's dreamscape, meaning that she'll show up in Rinley's dreams sometimes, and vice versa. This is long term dangerous and toxic for Rinley until Rinley figures it out and gets better at dreaming. It's also probably super weird for the void monster.]

[Raz_Fox]

Oh, Rinley. What did you do? This is probably the worst Rinley-related kitchen disaster Naomi has ever seen. Usually there’s less blood and more mess, though, though that might have been just Rinley nicking herself while cutting, uh, crackers? No, something very bad happened here.

Jason doesn’t have a chance to raise that dumb waiter in lackadaisical fashion: Naomi’s already on it! It’s coming up, and hopefully there will be a Rinley attached!

[Plerumque]

As Naomi hauls on the wheel, the dumbwaiter leaps up the shaft with a disoriented and dream-sick—but still impeccably balanced—Rinley perched on top of it. Rinley, as you rise, you see Akhlut growing smaller in the distance, and for just a moment, an emotion you can't quite place seems to flash in their eyes. Then it's replaced by the alien stillness of before, and you topple into the kitchen.

Startled by Rinley's sudden appearance, Jason drops the sack, which splits improbably down the side and sends a flood of bulgur rattling across the kitchen floor. Without looking down, Jason sighs. "Well, this is quite a mess, isn't it," he says, and you get the sense that he's not just talking about the groats.

Then, as if on cue, Nirmala appears, hefting an enormous pot of steaming water. "Valya!" she says, fixing her eyes on the vampire-costumed Rinley. Then she turrns. "...Valya?

"Yes, Valya," Jason chimes in, following her gaze. "Care to enlighten us as to what's going on?"

[Thanqol]

Yatskaya Rinley looks nothing like a cat who has just been fished out of a river by the scruff of its neck. They are entirely the wrong shape and size and, besides, they do not have a single droplet of water on them. And yet there has never been anything that has looked quite so much as a cat recently fished out of a river as Yatskaya Rinley in that moment. They are a muss and a mess and have that stunned expression right in between wanting a hug and clawing wildly followed by jumping out the nearest window so they can begin pretending that none of this ever happened.

"I uh," they croaked, mouth feeling like it was full of sand even as it went through the automatic process of finding the proper lie for this situation. "I teleported. Pretty cool, right?"

Okay. Not their best work.

[Anyr]

Valya was a cool person. She literally had no body heat. When put on the spot, she remained outwardly calm; Emphasis on 'outwardly'. She turned to face the inquiring visages of her mother and brother. Each received a measured, deliberate response.

"Mother, I'm Valya. This is Rinley. The key to telling us apart is that we look completely different from each other.

Jason, please don't make a fuss. Rinley was just exploring. No harm has been done. They're clearly fine."

[Rinley isn't fine! I should never never never have left them alone! What if they're like us now?! Even we don't want to be us! AUGGGHHHH!]

Valya wheeled back around. All her attention focused on Rinley. She examined every inch of her friend's face. The eyes received an especially deep stare. Windows to the soul: Or whatever was left of the soul. Valya knew the signs for which to search. Was she still looking at a Yatskaya? Or a Titov? Her voice steadfastly refused to betray any of this. She continued to talk as if Rinley had just scraped their knee.

"Rinley, tell Jason that you're fine. You didn't meet anyone down there, right?"

[Right?! For once in your eventful life, please let nothing have happened!]

[Thanqol]

Rinley's mouth was already on autopilot, but what little quality control there was ceased entirely when Valya started staring directly into their eyes, inches from their face. They could feel how hot and unsteady their breath was and how Valya's wasn't and those eyes were like electricity and their knees were considering just giving up entirely and - "Oh yeah, there was a monster down there but I totally kicked its butt, don't worry about it," - they turned their head just a little because if Valya was going to kill them for this then they hoped it would be by biting their neck...

Valya, it's still Rinley in there, still alive, still Yatskaya with all the weird dreamy-calm/nightmare-panic emotional intensity mixed in. But not entirely. One of their eyes has faded from ivy-green to a pale blue. They've been marked.

[Plerumque]

Jason coughs. "Well, I wasn't expecting to be welcoming a new member to the family quite so soon, but I suppose that will be fine. Goodness knows we have beds enough. Just, Valya—you talk to the Yatskayas, will you? And don't expect to get out of any of your chores this way." With that, he turns to Nirmala. "Come, Mother. I don't think there will be any tea today."

"Oh? Why not?" she asks, suddenly a feeble old woman again, following him out of the room. You hear his response, distantly: "There's nothing to eat. We shall have to put it off till tomorrow." And then you're alone again, in a big room full of concern and bulgur.

[Anyr]

Valya continued to stubbornly rebuff Jason's concerns. The fact that he was right didn't matter. Sibling protocol demanded that no ground be given. Valya gave a dismissive way to her departing brother.

"I will explain to them that their child is fine. Rinley just needs some rest. You'll see, Jason."

Hear that, Rinley? Now you have to get better. Because if you don't, Jason will win an argument. We can't have that. Valya casually lifted Rinley from the elevator with one hand.

"Okay, wayward mouse. You've had your little adventure. Time to go home and sleep it off."

[Please please please get better. There are no spare Rinleys to replace you!]

[Raz_Fox]

Naomi hooks Rinley by the arm, because suddenly just grabbing their hand would be weird, right? Like, that’d come off as taking advantage of them in a vulnerable moment, right after they got into some terrifying escapade below the Titov shrine — the Titov shrine, of all places — and as the protector of the hearts of Fortitude, she knows better than anyone that a heart’s right to be left alone right after a terrifying incident is sacrosanct. It would be worse than taking the day after Valentine’s off for some TLC! No, her responsibility is to get Rinley home in one piece so they can sleep it off and this can become yet another of their delightful, thrilling stories, which is why she pins Rinley’s arm to her side.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” she says, with a smile. It’s totally a smile! It’s not forced at all, because that would be rude! “It’s so great to be able to visit, one shrine maiden to another, but we really ought to be going. Thank you so much, and please enjoy dinner!”

Draaaaaaag Rinley out of the room, and walk with dignity. Yes. This is dignified. Her borrowed shoes, pink fuzzy princess pajamas, and bedraggled friend: these things cannot shake the inherent dignity of Naomi Vasili. Only the sound of something moving on the Roofs can do that, and that’s far distant now...

[Thanqol]

Valya continued to stubbornly rebuff Jason's concerns. The fact that he was right didn't matter. Sibling protocol demanded that no ground be given. Valya gave a dismissive way to her departing brother.

"I will explain to them that their child is fine. Rinley just needs some rest. You'll see, Jason."

Hear that, Rinley? Now you have to get better. Because if you don't, Jason will win an argument. We can't have that. Valya casually lifted Rinley from the elevator with one hand.

"Okay, wayward mouse. You've had your little adventure. Time to go home and sleep it off."

[Please please please get better. There are no spare Rinleys to replace you!]

oh okay they were being lifted up off the ground like it was nothing and it isn't just a weird dream anymore but something that actually happens irl that is something that needs to be adjusted to


Naomi hooks Rinley by the arm, because suddenly just grabbing their hand would be weird, right? Like, that’d come off as taking advantage of them in a vulnerable moment, right after they got into some terrifying escapade below the Titov shrine — the Titov shrine, of all places — and as the protector of the hearts of Fortitude, she knows better than anyone that a heart’s right to be left alone right after a terrifying incident is sacrosanct. It would be worse than taking the day after Valentine’s off for some TLC! No, her responsibility is to get Rinley home in one piece so they can sleep it off and this can become yet another of their delightful, thrilling stories, which is why she pins Rinley’s arm to her side.

“Thank you for your hospitality,” she says, with a smile. It’s totally a smile! It’s not forced at all, because that would be rude! “It’s so great to be able to visit, one shrine maiden to another, but we really ought to be going. Thank you so much, and please enjoy dinner!”

Draaaaaaag Rinley out of the room, and walk with dignity. Yes. This is dignified. Her borrowed shoes, pink fuzzy princess pajamas, and bedraggled friend: these things cannot shake the inherent dignity of Naomi Vasili. Only the sound of something moving on the Roofs can do that, and that’s far distant now...

"bye Valya" said Rinley through an extremely dry mouth. Some misfiring neuron prompted them to wink and make fingerguns as they were being hauled out the door. Play it cool. If they knew that your heart was still bruising your ribs with every thump-thump-thump they'll never respect you again. They'll worry about you and if they're worrying about you then it'll be way harder to pretend that everything is fine, and if you can't pretend then reality will catch up to you and swallow you whole before you can say butterfrogs! Nightmares can smell shame, which is why cats - who of course are immunized against the emotion as kittens - always have good dreams.

They were being half-walked, half-carried back through the snow by a girl who felt more stable than the earth below. That meant they were going to make it.

[Plerumque]

Chapter II

Rinley, that night you dream strange dreams—the figure in the basement seen at a wavering distance, as if across hot asphalt or below the surface of a pool. They turn slowly and reach out a pale arm, seeming almost hesitant in their movements. You look up, meet their eyes—

And then you're unrolling a checked picnic blanket over a field dotted with buttercups. You carefully unpack the sandwiches, pour the tea, and then the sky splits open with a roar of lightning—

Then you're on a raft, floating placidly through a sunny gorge. Behind you, studying a map, is your second-grade teacher; in front of you, looking out into the distance, are Valya and Naomi. Then you feel a judder as the raft hits an unexpected rock and goes into a spin—

And then you wake up, in unfamiliar surroundings. It takes you a moment to realize you're tucked into Naomi's bed, over in the Vasili house. Another to realize that Naomi is there as well, dozed off in a nearby armchair. The last thing you manage to place are the faint cries of joy and excitement, which seem to be coming, unexpectedly, from outside your window.

Peering through the curtains, you see Herakleides' orchard, decorated with that rarest Fortitude acoutrement: several inches of snow. Battlements appear to be have drawn up where the pumpkin-patch usually is, and a number of your classmates are engaged in a furious melee of snowballs and icicles. As you watch, a bathrobed Herakleides himself appears, wielding a walking-stick threateningly, and the combatants start to disperse. No doubt the campaign will continue, undaunted, somewhere else—after all, today they have all of Fortitude as a playground.

It's another day by the docks of Big Lake.

[Thanqol]

Yesterday makes itself known in the physical. No matter how well they hid the tension it speaks now in stiff and sore limbs. Days are like that. One of them will be filled with manic, driving energy and the next will be a barely tolerable shuffle. Which is which comes down to your dreams and Rinley's dreams are all a'ragged. There's no graceful feline energy here, no deliberate confidence even in mistakes. They're just tired.

It's a bad sign when Rinley can pass up an opportunity to wake to mischief - when they turn away from an active snowfight in progress. It's a worse sign when they go ahead and make a real breakfast. It is a sign of the coming apocalypse and when they also make a breakfast for Naomi, complete with cup of tea, and set it on the bench beside her. Least they can do for stealing their bed.

They're coming back to themselves after what felt like months of absence. It hurts. It's slow.

[Flipping card to Drifting in the Wind]

[Raz_Fox]

Waking up after falling asleep sitting up is hard. All the parts of your body have settled themselves into place just so, and they take great offense at the idea that you would dare move them out from where they lie. That's why, when the smell of buttered toast and strawberry tea hooks in her nose and tugs her up to wakefulness, Naomi doesn't move or open her eyes, at least at first. She just groans a little, the groan of "just five more minutes," but of course now she's warring with her stomach and her eyelids, and the stomach's got an advantage in that fight. She finally sits up properly, blearily blinks her eyes, and mumbles "ghmrmf."

But she's a Vasili, and they don't give up or surrender, even when the forces arrayed against them are aches and sleepiness! Soon enough she's nibbling away at the toast like one of the Fortitude Rats. "Thanks, Rinley," she says, between bites, now capable of speech. Then, as her brainpan finally catches up to what her eyes and ears are telling her, she sets the toast down and gives Rinley a look over proper. Huh.

"Are you feeling all right, Rinley? This is the longest you've gone without talking since you thought you could get into the World Records for it..."

[Thanqol]

Waking up after falling asleep sitting up is hard. All the parts of your body have settled themselves into place just so, and they take great offense at the idea that you would dare move them out from where they lie. That's why, when the smell of buttered toast and strawberry tea hooks in her nose and tugs her up to wakefulness, Naomi doesn't move or open her eyes, at least at first. She just groans a little, the groan of "just five more minutes," but of course now she's warring with her stomach and her eyelids, and the stomach's got an advantage in that fight. She finally sits up properly, blearily blinks her eyes, and mumbles "ghmrmf."

But she's a Vasili, and they don't give up or surrender, even when the forces arrayed against them are aches and sleepiness! Soon enough she's nibbling away at the toast like one of the Fortitude Rats. "Thanks, Rinley," she says, between bites, now capable of speech. Then, as her brainpan finally catches up to what her eyes and ears are telling her, she sets the toast down and gives Rinley a look over proper. Huh.

"Are you feeling all right, Rinley? This is the longest you've gone without talking since you thought you could get into the World Records for it..."

Rinley scowled at the memory. Forty-four hours had been pretty good for not talking! But Rinleys were made for telling stories and they'd just kept bubbling up and out and writing was too slow and everyone was too lazy to learn sign language. They'd get it next time... should they start now that they already had a good start? How long could the record be anyway? A week? There's no way anyone could go a week without talking...

"I'm..." the word slipped out before Rinley could catch it. Darn! This is why it was hard! "I... it's not fair that you'd ask me how I am when you haven't told me how you are. I mean, I forgot to ask you all of yesterday, so I have priority, and for you to ask me before I ask you would make me rude. So how are you? Did you sleep well? You didn't catch a cold did you? Any, you know... did you have any dreams? You have to tell me if you had dreams, I'm a Yatskaya, it's the law."

[Raz_Fox]

Naomi opens her mouth to say, nonsense, she didn’t have any dreams, and besides, she wasn’t the one who needed to be helped home after doing something very ill-advised indeed in the Titov cellars, but... come to think of it, that wasn’t entirely true. She had had a dream.

“So I was tending for the roofs,” she says, slowly, cupping her hands around the warm cup of strawberry tea. “And the clouds were looking like it was going to rain soon. And I was trying to fit this tile into place, and then... well, I heard something,” she finishes, lamely, “and then I woke up and had to try to fall back asleep. What do you think it means?”

It means she’s totally not telling the whole truth about that dream, is what it means. It also means that she’s stressed about something if she’s having storm dreams and work dreams!

[Thanqol]

Naomi opens her mouth to say, nonsense, she didn’t have any dreams, and besides, she wasn’t the one who needed to be helped home after doing something very ill-advised indeed in the Titov cellars, but... come to think of it, that wasn’t entirely true. She had had a dream.

“So I was tending for the roofs,” she says, slowly, cupping her hands around the warm cup of strawberry tea. “And the clouds were looking like it was going to rain soon. And I was trying to fit this tile into place, and then... well, I heard something,” she finishes, lamely, “and then I woke up and had to try to fall back asleep. What do you think it means?”

It means she’s totally not telling the whole truth about that dream, is what it means. It also means that she’s stressed about something if she’s having storm dreams and work dreams!

Rinley has never been so keen to do dream analysis. Literally all of the time it's like this - fitting a dream into words is like trying to pick up the moon with chopsticks. The fact that you'd even attempt it is an implicit act of disrespect to all of the forces involved. But this! Was someone else's moon! And there was a lot less moonshadow than there was on hers!

"That's really interesting!" said Rinley, swaying back and forth like a snake, or a puppy trying to keep its eye on the biscuit. Dad: Never agree with the dreamer! If you interpret their dream at all then they'll alter their memory of the dream to fit your interpretation! "Here, I've got a thing to help -" they leap with a newfound sense of energy across the room and go through the pockets of their big coat. They come back with an old-fashioned brass box with some sort of English word written on the top. When it opens a patchwork of things come out, strange and well-worn apparatuses that had no concession to showmanship at all. The fortune telling kit of a grandmother who's got no time at all for parlor tricks.

Rinley likewise demonstrates a terminally un-Rinley-like attention to the setup. Things have their place and order, it's not just tossed around hurley-burley. Little oxidized copper statuettes of zodiac animals, forty well-worn cloth patches in a rainbow of colours, and a collection of photographs showing faces of all ages, types and emotional states, cut roughly down with scissors and put into card preserving sleeves stolen from Chuubo.

"Pick out anything that reminds you of the dream," said Rinley brightly. "And talk more while you're doing it."

They hadn't actually done this outside of training before. Hm. Seemed like they were growing up after all

[Raz_Fox]

The first marker is a swatch of pale green, almost a sea-green. This is the color of the dream, firmly. It's the sort of green that doesn't feel right, so of course that's the shade it has to be. The second marker is a small statuette of a rat, naturally -- rats for the roofs. The third marker is a photograph of someone flinching away from the camera, startled or afraid, wide-eyed. The fourth--

The fourth isn't one of the things that was set out, surely not. But there it is under her fingers. It's a dingy brass gear wheel, like you might find inside a clock, each of its teeth for slowly pushing along a hand across a face. She spins it, once, and seems to get lost in the spinning. It doesn't stop spinning, either. Round and around and around it goes, and Naomi's eyes are on it, almost like she's slipping back into that dream.

"The sound was so loud," she says, her lids drooping. "The tiles shook. I was surprised birds didn't fly away, but maybe we were too high up for birds."

Do you hear anything, Rinley?

[Flipping the card over.]

[Thanqol]

This is...

Rinley has no idea.

They didn't even know if this was weird or not. It probably was! Had Naomi... brought something back from her dream with her? Had they slept through that lesson? Was this magical? Was there a ritual they were meant to do? Go get the older Yatskayas to sort it out? A vibration of panic runs through Rinley - they know this dream: today is a test and you have not studied. Don't check if you're wearing clothes because if you check you won't be.

"We should go onto the rooftops!" said Rinley, who knew that confidence with volume were the same thing. "See if we can find the spot in your dream! There's bound to be some sort of connection up there that'll let you see things more clearly!"

Time to see if they could bluff their way through another exam.

[Plerumque]

The Titov Shrine

Valya, I imagine you haven't dreamed much since you died—most dead people don't, after all. This morning, though, you wake with the familiar feeling of something slipping from your memory. You try to focus and remember—eyes in the darkness? A rhythmic clanking? An egg-and-cress sandwich, for some reason? You feel you're almost closed your fingers on it when a rap comes from the lid of your coffin, startling the memory away.

"Everyone decent?" comes Jason's drawl from outside, before there's the creak of hinges and the lid swings open, admitting a wash of daylight. Jason looks down at you, smirking. "Just you, then, Valya? After what happened last night Ezther was asking if we needed to set up a spare coffin in here, but I told her no, I'm sure Valya will be more than happy to share hers.

"But that hardly matters, I suppose," he continues crisply. "The reason I'm here is, I need you to go down to the harbor today. The trawler's coming in today with a fresh load of dust, and we're supposed to send someone to meet them. I forget the name, it's something horribly twee like the Windrider or Cloudraker or something. You'll find it. Oh, and maybe take Isabella with you—she ought to get outside, and I hate having her underfoot anyways."

[Anyr]

"GAH!"

The sunlight hurt Valya's unprotected face. She frantically pulled the covers over herself. Her room had heavy curtains to prevent this exact problem. Jason must have opened them! He launched a few verbal salvoes while she reeled. Her return fire was weak and unfocused.

"Nothing happened last night! It's all a figment of your feverish imagination!"

Just a denial? You can do better than that, Valya. The burning sunlight had stolen her wit. Jason kept up the pressure. He was clearly foisting his work onto Valya. But between the light and the dream, she didn't have the will to resist. Her muffled voice emerged from beneath the covers.

"Fine fine fine! I'll do it. But you'll owe me a favour. Now get out!"

Valya was much stronger than Jason these days. At first, that had made him cautious. His old bullying methods no longer worked. But it hadn't taken long for him to discover new ones. And thus, the war continued. She'd get her revenge soon. The cycle of spite would never end.

[Raz_Fox]

Scene cut!

The Vasili shrine isn't actually part of The Roofs. Its buildings have some of the best-kept roofs in all of Fortitude, but none of the shrines are connected to the roof-roads of Fortitude properly. To get up onto the Roofs, you need to go out closer to the docks. Which means that we cut to the two shrine maidens walking, after a hearty breakfast of pancakes and cream, down towards the docks. On one side of the road, there's a gentle rolling slope that leads down to the shimmering blues of Big Lake, and on the other side of the road, there's a thick bamboo grove reaching out over the road, and it's so thick that if you forget an umbrella when you're walking down this way you can duck under the overhang and you'll stay pretty dry.

Naomi's... she's still a little distant, I think. This is worrying at her in a rather uncharacteristic way. She's used to letting things roll off her back, taking things as they come, but this is sticking to her like a burr caught on her laces. She's in definite need of distraction.

[Thanqol]

Scene cut!

The Vasili shrine isn't actually part of The Roofs. Its buildings have some of the best-kept roofs in all of Fortitude, but none of the shrines are connected to the roof-roads of Fortitude properly. To get up onto the Roofs, you need to go out closer to the docks. Which means that we cut to the two shrine maidens walking, after a hearty breakfast of pancakes and cream, down towards the docks. On one side of the road, there's a gentle rolling slope that leads down to the shimmering blues of Big Lake, and on the other side of the road, there's a thick bamboo grove reaching out over the road, and it's so thick that if you forget an umbrella when you're walking down this way you can duck under the overhang and you'll stay pretty dry.

Naomi's... she's still a little distant, I think. This is worrying at her in a rather uncharacteristic way. She's used to letting things roll off her back, taking things as they come, but this is sticking to her like a burr caught on her laces. She's in definite need of distraction.

"Once upon the time there was a scientist - the cool kind, not the lame kind, the kind with dinosaurs. This scientist was working on everything - on robots, on teleportation, on armies, but deep down he only had one dream: to get more brains! Because what do scientists value more than brains? So he turned all of his evil science power to making his brains even bigger. Brains the size of a basketball. Brains the size of a medium size dog. Brains the size of an ironing board! Brains the size of that one really big dog, you know, from the Guinness World Records book? Brains the size of a lorry! Brains the size of a train! His brains were so big that the police came over to him and said, No, Scientist," despite Rinley feeling floaty and distracted themselves, Rinley is a Professional, and a Professional Always Does The Voices. "Your brains are too big! You need to stop adding brains! And the scientist said, Never! I will never stop adding brains, you brainless brainiacs! And then he shot them with lightning from his tesla coils."

While Rinley was a Professional, they were also a little out of it so they kept the lightning sounds and fake screaming to a minimum. This meant only catching startled looks from half the people on the street. Rinley could do a really good blood-curdling scream when they put their back into it.

"Anyway, the police got together and they decided that the only thing that could defeat someone with that many brains was someone with no brains at all. So they got together the most brainless animals they could think of - like, a rabbit and a bird and something - and they told those animals that they needed to defeat the scientist before he got smart enough to calculate the AntiLife Equation. So the animals start going after the scientist and the scientist realizes that he doesn't stand a chance - there's no way his brain powers will work on them! So instead he runs away to distant planet and then thinks, you know, what is the only thing that can defeat an animal? Another animal. So he gets all of the lizards on that planet and uses them to capture a fox so that he can put his brains inside her head and trick the animals into thinking she's one of them and then stab them all in the back! So then she marries an evil panther and..."

Rinley trails off a bit.

"Anyway, I don't know much more, but it's a really popular story on the mainland," Rinley says awkwardly. "I don't really get it myself. Mesmer seemed really keen about it."

[Raz_Fox]

“Animals are very popular on the Mainland,” Naomi says, a little dreamily, her distance reduced by the flung grappling hooks of Rinley’s cheer. “But not like we’re fond of them, I think? More that... they remember animals more than they know them. If you get me? That’s what I’ve heard, anyway.”

That’s a terrible vision: a place so un-Fortitude that it has a distance from animals that allows them to be romanticized rather than known as friends and petty nemeses by turns. Animals are.

“The rats are strange there, too. They forget themselves.” She shakes herself a little. “Or perhaps they actually remember themselves here? It’s one way or the other.”

[Plerumque]

The Titov Shrine

"Fine," Jason sighs, and stalks out the door. Or, at least, he starts to stalk, but when he opens the door, Isabella is there, and Jason jumps high enough to set the candelabra trembling. "By the—my god, Isabella, don't just stand there!" he shouts, once he's regained his voice. "Freak," he adds under his breath as he stomps off into the rest of the house.

Isabella steps forward and calmly draws the curtains closed. In the darkness, her eyes look even bigger—they seem to reflect every little bit of light in the room. "Good morning, Valya," she says. "Did you have pleasant dreamss?"

[Anyr]

Jason only dropped his guard for a moment. That was long enough. Valya got considerable satisfaction from his panicked cry. If you focus too much on one Titov, then another will get the drop on you. The harsh sunlight soon receded. Valya could emerge from her bedsheet cocoon. She already knew what she'd see: A familiar pair of cavernous eyes.

Death had greatly improved Valya and Isabella's relationship. When Valya was alive, her sister had seemed so alien. Isabella knew things that she shouldn't know. She saw things that the light couldn't touch. Did the sealed creature whisper its secrets to her? Nobody knew for sure. They just felt that she was dangerous. In life, Valya had kept a safe distance. But now, she was dangerous too. Now she was broken, in a way that scared people. She had a newfound empathy for Isabella. There was no need to back away. She floated out of the coffin, to meet her sister.

"I don't remember. Do you remember my dreams?"

[Thanqol]

“Animals are very popular on the Mainland,” Naomi says, a little dreamily, her distance reduced by the flung grappling hooks of Rinley’s cheer. “But not like we’re fond of them, I think? More that... they remember animals more than they know them. If you get me? That’s what I’ve heard, anyway.”

That’s a terrible vision: a place so un-Fortitude that it has a distance from animals that allows them to be romanticized rather than known as friends and petty nemeses by turns. Animals are.

“The rats are strange there, too. They forget themselves.” She shakes herself a little. “Or perhaps they actually remember themselves here? It’s one way or the other.”

"That's super cool!" said Rinley with way more energy than that line called for. There's actually a hungry intense look in their eye right now. "Tell me more!"

This was because Rinley had a secret: They had never actually been to the mainland. Japan, or even Russia, were stories to them. They'd been to Australia once, which made them Worldly, but Australia was an exotic, forbidden place full of rainforests and rivers and thunderstorms. They'd never seen a city except in passing, and anyone who had even a rumour of what it was like to live in one got the full weight of their focus, checked only by their flailing instinct to play things cool.

The rats were different!? What did that mean!?! Tell me, Naomi, or I will shake you upside down until the stories fall out of your head.

[Plerumque]

The Titov Shrine

"Silly!" Isabella laughs, and her face seems young for a moment before it folds back up into expressionlessness. "You can't remember someone else's dreams, Valya. It's surprising your friend hasn't told you that."

And then she's out the door, before you can protest that she hasn't really answered the question. Isabella moves fast through the winding corridors of the Titov mansion—sometimes it seems like she's the only one who really knows where she's going—so by the time you catch up with her she's standing at a doorway, squinting out into the late-morning light. You're surprised to see snow on the ground, but Isabella doesn't seem to be. She stoops to pick some up and watches it shiver into water in her hand, then turns back to you. "Are you ready, Valya? There's not much time."

[Anyr]

Fortunately, Valya slept with a full set of clothes: Just like the first time she'd 'slept' in this coffin. The only things missing were her parasol and hooded coat. Ah, there! Jason apparently hadn't thought to hide them. Valya grabbed her signature accessories; Then rushed to catch up with Isabella.

In a trice, the siblings stood at their house's threshold. The morning light's greeting got rebuffed by a shield of heavy fabric. Valya was lucky. Some vampires couldn't bear to be out in the day. She was strong enough to manage, with a few precautions. Thanks to that, she got to spend her time with actual, living humans...and whatever Isabella was.

"Ready, sister. Shall we depart?"

[Plerumque]

Isabella nods, and then the two of you are off. Isabella hasn't taken you to the exit closest to the front of the house, you notice—it's the one on the side, leading out into what used to be a rose garden. Ezther once tried to revive it, you remember; she spent a spring digging furrows and cutting back all the weeds and even managed to produce a few heady, pale-blue blossoms. Then Jason decided she wasn't paying enough attention to him and dumped a bottle of vinegar into the beds while she slept. Even years later the roses haven't come back.

As fast as the two of you are moving, though, you don't have time to linger. You're quickly through the garden, and then all it takes is an easy vault over the fence and you're on the path that runs from the shrines towards Big Lake. Off in the distance, you can see the old bamboo grove that lines one side of the path, and just past it, if you squint, two familiar-looking backs.

[Anyr]

Valya spared a glance for the pitiful rose garden. Such was the fate of most things in the Titov estate: Either left to rot by apathy, or murdered by spite. The whole place was falling apart. And yet, Valya felt like she'd live here forever. Her one attempt to escape hadn't exactly gone well. Now she just went on brief outings, like this one. She floated above the morning snow, leaving no footprints. Soon she would be amidst Fortitude's inhabitants. But for the moment, it was just her and Isabella.

"So, have you been keeping busy?"

Translation: 'What horrendous nightmares have you been poking with a stick?'

[Raz_Fox]

"That's super cool!" said Rinley with way more energy than that line called for. There's actually a hungry intense look in their eye right now. "Tell me more!"

Naomi gives Rinley a look. A half-fond, half-anxious look of "why would you possibly pack that much energy into something I vaguely remember hearing about, now I have to do my best not to disappoint you, and I am very anxious not to disappoint you."

"Well," she says, drawing out the word, then letting it hang in the air. It's a crisp, sunny cold today, where the air's still and the only way you'll really get cold is if you're riding a bicycle or running and letting the air sharpen all around you. At a ambling walking pace, it's just right, perfect for keeping you awake and thoughtful. "How many animals do you know-- wait, how many animals barring all the cats do you know? Like, see regularly?"

[Thanqol]

Naomi gives Rinley a look. A half-fond, half-anxious look of "why would you possibly pack that much energy into something I vaguely remember hearing about, now I have to do my best not to disappoint you, and I am very anxious not to disappoint you."

"Well," she says, drawing out the word, then letting it hang in the air. It's a crisp, sunny cold today, where the air's still and the only way you'll really get cold is if you're riding a bicycle or running and letting the air sharpen all around you. At a ambling walking pace, it's just right, perfect for keeping you awake and thoughtful. "How many animals do you know-- wait, how many animals barring all the cats do you know? Like, see regularly?"

"None! They've all gone!" said Rinley. It's freezing, misty and miserable today where the air is sub zero and even a million blankets won't entirely keep the chill out. They sneeze. They're not just thinking that because they maybe caught a cold from their dumb vampire-snowman stunt yesterday and/or the soul drain event. No, Rinley is perfect, it is the world that is wrong. "All the birds have flown away and the foxes are all hibernating and the fish are under the ice and Mr. Tsuhi's dog wouldn't come out of the kotatsu if the house was on fire."

And so, poor Rinley, poor tragic wounded lonely princess Rinley, has to waste away the days with only forty cats to keep her company.

And.

That's.

Terrible.

They make sure to let their tragic heartbreak show in their dramatic swoon into Naomi's arms, hand to their forehead in pained lament.

[Plerumque]

Valya spared a glance for the pitiful rose garden. Such was the fate of most things in the Titov estate: Either left to rot by apathy, or murdered by spite. The whole place was falling apart. And yet, Valya felt like she'd live here forever. Her one attempt to escape hadn't exactly gone well. Now she just went on brief outings, like this one. She floated above the morning snow, leaving no footprints. Soon she would be amidst Fortitude's inhabitants. But for the moment, it was just her and Isabella.

"So, have you been keeping busy?"

Translation: 'What horrendous nightmares have you been poking with a stick?'

"Not very," says Isabella, carefully skirting a puddle. "Soramir keeps trying to short-sheet my bed, so I decided not to sleep for a while, to show him. So there's been lots of time. I've been thinking of taking up drawing again, but last time I tried that Father said I mustn't or it would endanger the souls of all who looked upon it. Oh look!" She brightens. "A chipmunk!"

[Anyr]

"Giving up sleep? Let me know how that turns out..."

If only it were that simple. Even vampires needed sleep. Valya's thoughts strayed to last night's dream. She had a feeling she'd forgotten something important. She almost managed to grasp a trace of it: When Isabella suddenly cried out. Chipmunk? Valya sought out the indicated animal. She didn't get many chances to see such things. They tended to flee at the first sight of her. Such was the eternal curse of undea-(etc etc etc. We all now the internal monologue by now.)

[Raz_Fox]

"None! They've all gone!" said Rinley. It's freezing, misty and miserable today where the air is sub zero and even a million blankets won't entirely keep the chill out. They sneeze. They're not just thinking that because they maybe caught a cold from their dumb vampire-snowman stunt yesterday and/or the soul drain event. No, Rinley is perfect, it is the world that is wrong. "All the birds have flown away and the foxes are all hibernating and the fish are under the ice and Mr. Tsuhi's dog wouldn't come out of the kotatsu if the house was on fire."

...

They make sure to let their tragic heartbreak show in their dramatic swoon into Naomi's arms, hand to their forehead in pained lament.

Naomi is solid and dependable, with both feet on the ground. Naomi couldn't be moved if you had a crowbar. She's solid, in the same way that the roof over your head at night is solid; so dependable you don't even need to think about it. The roof will always be there; Naomi will always catch someone who throws themselves into her arms. The only problem with this, specifically, is that it's Rinley who's taking the dive into her arms here.

So Naomi freezes up, letting Rinley sprawl on her outstretched arms like a cat on a radiator. This isn't what she's Supposed To Do, she's aware, faintly, but dropping Rinley is unthinkable and pulling them closer is double unthinkable, and walking while dragging Rinley's feet on the ground is just asking for the two of them to go teapot over kettle, and that's much too irresponsible for her to do. So she petrifies, becomes stone, and lets Rinley's butt sag between her arms.

"I wasn't talking about now, you..." She blanks on a proper insult. Everything is either too serious or too silly. "You Rinley!" There, that's perfect. Absolutely. "It's just that when the animals are out, we actually experience them outside of, like, zoos and television and things of that sort. We know them, instead of knowing about them." Keep talking. Don't look at Rinley wiggling in your arms. That's the trick.

[Thanqol]

Naomi is solid and dependable, with both feet on the ground. Naomi couldn't be moved if you had a crowbar. She's solid, in the same way that the roof over your head at night is solid; so dependable you don't even need to think about it. The roof will always be there; Naomi will always catch someone who throws themselves into her arms. The only problem with this, specifically, is that it's Rinley who's taking the dive into her arms here.

So Naomi freezes up, letting Rinley sprawl on her outstretched arms like a cat on a radiator. This isn't what she's Supposed To Do, she's aware, faintly, but dropping Rinley is unthinkable and pulling them closer is double unthinkable, and walking while dragging Rinley's feet on the ground is just asking for the two of them to go teapot over kettle, and that's much too irresponsible for her to do. So she petrifies, becomes stone, and lets Rinley's butt sag between her arms.

"I wasn't talking about now, you..." She blanks on a proper insult. Everything is either too serious or too silly. "You Rinley!" There, that's perfect. Absolutely. "It's just that when the animals are out, we actually experience them outside of, like, zoos and television and things of that sort. We know them, instead of knowing about them." Keep talking. Don't look at Rinley wiggling in your arms. That's the trick.

Rinley gives a long, meaningful glance at the end of the street, then a long, meaningful stare directly into Naomi's eyes. They are entirely failing to get across their desire to be carried about like a princess - I mean, it's not like Naomi couldn't manage it easily, just check out these muscles. Rinley squeezes one of Naomi's triceps idly while she's talking, impressed with the solidity. These are ladder-climbing arms. Their eyes flick back up to Naomi, a hopeful smile on their face, again communicating entirely improper data. It goes nowhere. Naomi is staring fixedly at the middle distance and talking in her exposition voice. Rinley sighs and goes boneless and it's like holding onto a relaxed cat, as liquid as water, trying to get comfortable but failing and slow-motion sliding through Naomi's fingers onto the snow.

"They know the rats at least?" said Rinley. "Cities are full of rats! Speaking of, Fortitude rats hang out on the rooftops, don't they?" Rinley gasps. "Oh! What if the sound you heard in your dream was rats!" Rinley is up in their most predatory aspect: that of a cat that has spotted another cat's tail dangling unsecured from a windowsill. "I mean, who else is up there these days? Let's catch some rats and interrogate them!" Rinley has spotted a ladder and is heading towards it like the bad guy in a ladder safety training video.

[Raz_Fox]

There are all kinds of things that Naomi should say here! She should explain, calmly, that the rats have their own very specific roof-calls and greetings, and she knows what the rats of Fortitude sound like, being one of their friends, and actually, she should ask them for help, she's just been avoiding bringing the subject up at all, when Rinley bounds and is away!

"I! Abwuh! Rinley!" Naomi's reflexes are too slow to send her directly into catch the Rinley mode, and so by the time she gets to the ladder, Rinley's already taking the rungs by bounds, which means that the only thing for her to do is to follow. Once on the roof, Rinley will find... well, a lot of tiles. And pristine gutters. Maybe even a tiny rat-sized signpost, or some token of their presence, and, most importantly?

A way for a rat, or for a Rinley confident in her ability to jump, to go from one roof to the next, and then to the next, and past that... well, that's where roofs start getting a little strange.

[Thanqol]

There are all kinds of things that Naomi should say here! She should explain, calmly, that the rats have their own very specific roof-calls and greetings, and she knows what the rats of Fortitude sound like, being one of their friends, and actually, she should ask them for help, she's just been avoiding bringing the subject up at all, when Rinley bounds and is away!

"I! Abwuh! Rinley!" Naomi's reflexes are too slow to send her directly into catch the Rinley mode, and so by the time she gets to the ladder, Rinley's already taking the rungs by bounds, which means that the only thing for her to do is to follow. Once on the roof, Rinley will find... well, a lot of tiles. And pristine gutters. Maybe even a tiny rat-sized signpost, or some token of their presence, and, most importantly?

A way for a rat, or for a Rinley confident in her ability to jump, to go from one roof to the next, and then to the next, and past that... well, that's where roofs start getting a little strange.

"Wow, rooftop running is easy," said Rinley, having nearly fallen like eighteen hundred times and still not seeing the need to slow down. Watching them is a constant heart attack and that's before Rinley starts walking backwards so they can face you with a grin and a "So... do you remember this scene from your dreams, Naomi?"

[Anyr]

Rinley's backwards movement was suddenly halted, when they bumped into something. A voice whispered in their ear.

"Careful. There are dangerous things up here."

Valya was terrible at being nice. She'd flown up here to stop Rinley from stepping off a building. Her words were born of genuine concern. But that definitely wasn't the impression she gave. She always seemed on the verge of devouring Rinley: When in reality, her urge to devour Rinley was under relative control. People could be so mistrustful.

"Perhaps we should...stay together. For safety."

[Raz_Fox]

Naomi calmly, carefully, and not without a twinge of fear, hoho, just imagine that, fear, of sudden vampire appearance, perish the thought, picks up Rinley, one hand on each arm and deposits her safely away from both edge and vampire. Only then does she let some of her tension bleed out.

“There are a lot of dangerous things up here,” she says, and from her tone of voice it sounds like she’s still deciding whether or not Valya belongs in that category. Then, an olive branch, offered: “Would you like to come with us? We’re... well, I guess you could say we’re dreamhunting.”

[Thanqol]

Rinley has the startled look of a kitten who has just learned what a dog is before being picked up and moved to safety by its mom. It's a rare moment of total speechlessness, a sudden awareness that the angel and the devil are entirely capable of sorting out their fate without needing to ask them. They give a flustered little wave-hello at Valya but still can't shake the feeling of being very small and silly all of a sudden.

[Anyr]

Valya's gaze remained fixed on Rinley. She studied them with a burning intensity. Were there any after effects from yesterday's excursion? Valya sought out traces of weariness, paranoia, or obsessive attachment: While completely ignoring these traits in herself. It was imperative that she stay close to Rinley. So when Naomi suggested exactly that, Valya of course agreed. The roof runner's other words were also noteworthy.

"I'd very much like that. Dream hunting? Have you been having strange dreams? Please tell me about them, in great detail."

[Raz_Fox]

The three of them are not on those faraway rooftops yet, where they unfold into a patchwork quilt of fantasy. There are wells of wisdom in those places, and strawberry fields where once-priceless treasures lie rusted into uselessness beneath the roots, and there are monsters.

There are monsters, in such places.

The three are not in such a place right now. They’re not even really properly on the Roofs. They’re on a roof, which is different.

But even so, audible ever-so-faintly on the breeze is the sound of a train whistle, sharp and shrieking, and wheels grinding against tiles, or is that just your imagination? It’s so hard to tell. Maybe if they go: hup, hup, up, and clamber into those odd places. Maybe if they say, well, let’s be off, and walk across a bridge over an alley and between two tin cans with prayers carefully etched into them.

That sort of path is not mundane, though. It is shrine maiden’s work, the sort of thing that you’d think is the only thing that they do, but nine times out of ten isn’t nearly as important as sweeping up the dust and picking up garbage and talking to people who visit.

It’s a real adventure. Is that what we want? Or do we want to help the pale-cheeked Naomi back down to safer ground?

“In my dreams,” she says, almost unsteady, “there’s something on the roof. And it’s looking for me.”

[Thanqol]

Valya's gaze remained fixed on Rinley. She studied them with a burning intensity. Were there any after effects from yesterday's excursion? Valya sought out traces of weariness, paranoia, or obsessive attachment: While completely ignoring these traits in herself. It was imperative that she stay close to Rinley. So when Naomi suggested exactly that, Valya of course agreed. The roof runner's other words were also noteworthy.

"I'd very much like that. Dream hunting? Have you been having strange dreams? Please tell me about them, in great detail."

Rinley would tell you that they have a cold and that they're helping out a friend - but what a Rinley says is the least trustworthy part of a Rinley. There definitely is a shadow there, something a bit too familiar, something not quite healed.


That sort of path is not mundane, though. It is shrine maiden’s work, the sort of thing that you’d think is the only thing that they do, but nine times out of ten isn’t nearly as important as sweeping up the dust and picking up garbage and talking to people who visit.

It’s a real adventure. Is that what we want? Or do we want to help the pale-cheeked Naomi back down to safer ground?

“In my dreams,” she says, almost unsteady, “there’s something on the roof. And it’s looking for me.”

"Don't worry Naomi," said Rinley, as bold as can be - courage powered by not wanting to seem like a chicken. They put a hand on Naomi's shoulder boldly. "I'll protect you."

Being spooked by Valya had definitely lost them Rinley-points that they needed to rebuild as quickly as possible.

[Anyr]

Valya confirmed her diagnosis of Rinley: Better than she'd expected, but still bad. Rinley had been infected. They were being pulled by the Titov family's gravity. Their precious Rinleyness was in danger. To maximise their chance of escape, they'd have to avoid all Titovs. And Valya would be right by Rinley's side, to help them do that.

{Note: Perceptive readers might have spotted a flaw in Valya's plan. She, however, is fundamentally incapable of seeing it.}

Right, time to help dispel Rinley's bad drea...Naomi's bad dreams? Strange. Well, Naomi was worth protecting too. The vampire listened to what few details were offered.

"Something on the roof is looking for you? And you're apparently looking for it? That doesn't sound like the wisest move."

[Raz_Fox]

“It makes sense,” Naomi hears herself saying, her ears going red. Oh, boy. Here we go. A matchmaker’s work is never done, and part of protecting the hearts of Fortitude is, well, protecting Rinley’s heart from being embarrassed. What if being told they weren’t wise penetrated their heart and made all their Rinleyness leak out? Or, more likely, what if Rinley spent the next week with a shaved head, wearing an orange robe and mugging people for donations? They would. When you think about it, she’s protecting everyone in Fortitude. She’s very brave.

“If it’s hunting me,” and as she says that she realizes there’s no if involved, “then it already knows things about me that I don’t know about it. And everybody knows the rats know the roofs, and the best place to find a rat is up here. That’s why Rinley came up here in the first place!”

[Thanqol]

"I once caught a rat with my bare hands," Rinley confirmed. "I had to develop a new kung fu technique to do so. First you break time into three pieces and then all three of you grab out simultaneously! You've got to go left, right and up because the one direction the rat won't run is directly towards you. It's pretty easy once you get the hang of it," Rinley humblebragged.

(The actual secret was grabbing the ones in the pet store - they're terrible at dodging!)

[Anyr]

Valya looked distinctly unconvinced. She suspected that Rinley had just charged up here without a plan; Always a safe bet. Trouble is, you couldn't find anyone to bet against. Valya wondered how far this latest scheme would careen. Maybe until Rinley/Naomi ran into a particularly nasty monster. The Far Roofs had some truly infamous specimens. Heroic rats pored over ancient tomes, searching for weaknesses discovered by an ancestor. Then they took their vorpal sword in hand, to seek the manxome foe. And yet, the Roofs never seemed to run out of monsters. They were an inextricable part of the experience. The realm wouldn't be the same without them.

"I suppose I could accompany you. Though I'm really supposed to be watching...Isabella!"

She'd left her sister completely unattended! For several long minutes! Valya cast her gaze groundwards. By some miracle, was Isabella still there?

[Plerumque]

It is, in fact, at this very moment that Isabella clambers over the lip of the roof, puffing slightly. She gets to her feet, dusts the snow off her skirt, then announces formally, "Good day to you, Rinley and Rinley's friend. I am Isabella Alexandrovna Titov. I am sorry to hear you are having bad dreams, but I regret there is nothing I can do about them. Oh." She stares off into space for a moment, as if trying to remember something. "And merry Christmas."

[Thanqol]

Rinley gasps in absolute, petrified horror. "Is it Christmas?!?!? Did I forget about Christmas!?!?!"

Today is not Christmas. Today is Wednesday, six days prior. Rinley, however, has an exceptionally poor inner clock and decisive action must be taken before they go off the side of the roof and drag their broken legs all the way back to the Yatskaya shrine in an impressive but futile hunt for presents.

[Anyr]

"No, it's not. Isabella, don't confuse Rinley. They're very...impressionable."

Read: Stupid. But that was okay. The world needed Rinley's kind of stupid. So far, the 'no Titovs' plan was off to a rocky start. The Titov count already stood at two. Valya needed to get rid of Isabella, before she did any damage. Titovs were very good at causing damage.

"Sister, aren't you supposed to be meeting the dust trawler? You'd better hurry."

Valya was also supposed to be doing that. But something much more important had come up. She had to stop Rinley from becoming corrupted; Or eaten by roof monsters; Or walking off a cliff; Or any of the dozen other pitfalls that sweet, stupid Rinley might blunder into.

[Plerumque]

Isabella frowns, raking her fingers through matted hair. "But, Valya, Jason wanted you to be there, because you scare them in the right way so they give you a lower price, and I scare them in the wrong way so that they make their dogs chase me. Besides, it would be dangerous for you to go up on the rooftops with your friend Rinley, especially if you have been having bad dreams. Jason wouldn't like that at all."

[Anyr]

"Oh, Jason wouldn't like it? How terrible! I would absolutely hate to upset him!"

The sarcasm was thick enough to congeal. 'Please Jason' couldn't be found on even the lowest depths of Valya's priority list. Let him rot! At least, that's what she wanted to say. But that boat's dust was needed by more than just her brother. The family would go catatonic without it. And before they did, they'd make sure that Valya suffered. Augh! So annoying. Valya didn't need dust. Her drug was right here, on this rooftop. Must she really abandon it, for the sake of a stupid boat?

Yes, She must. Finally, reluctantly, Valya nodded.

"...I suppose we'd better go. Farewell, you two. I'll hunt you down again very soon."

With a last lingering look, Valya floated down to ground level. Life really was pain.