The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding

[Deathkeeper]

Frescot Estate

Artie smiles wistfully, tossing her tail at the child playfully as she circles behind her.
”Well, some time after. If what my mother told us all that time ago is true none of us will be up to that for some time. And who knows how it will go if they take more after me...” she trails off, just thinking about the possible consequences of having shapeshifting or rain-inducing children.
"Would you mind...uh, giving me advice? My mother only really told us about the biological side since we were young and it wasn't going to happen for at least another half a decade." she asks, fidgeting with her hands.

[Terumitsu]

[Cessie's Lab!]

Riss cleared her throat and returned to a much more sober mood once Cessie explained her situation. "Oh.. I understand." she said. Either way, the form next to Cessie would take the 'ingot' up for analysis as there was already another that had come down to continue the conversation. "Material analysis is going to take a little time. I'll be allocating more attention than would be typical to speed this along but it shouldn't hamper me in the meantime." she said.

"So.. I suppose now would be a good time to check out the staff-in-making..." she suggested. "And given your tone.. Is this 'Libra' someone who visits on occasion or were they sought out on this occasion?" she asked. 'Playful' said in those tones did not sound very much like something the muse would like to be blindsided by... Of course, that might just be tempting fate at this point.

[Shadowcaller]

[Cessie's Lab!]

The sorceress clears her throat as well, those bars had always been a hot issue for her. "To answer the question you asked earlier regarding the break in, yes my family is fine. The thief just broke Garn's broom handle and a few locks." She gestures at a sad broken broom standing in the corner of the room.
"But no, Libra is not a being I would ever seek out. She's a monster that can commit atrocities without even thinking about it. My former husband had a fascination with her nearly limitless powers and asked for aid at times, but even he learned that if you play with fire you eventually get burned." Even if you're immune to it. "Since then, I haven't seen her around. I hope that she's gone for good, but I believe she has just found another victim to 'help'."

[Terumitsu]

[Cessie's Lab!]

"...Atrocities?" Riss asked, more academically curious than anything. That was a fairly hefty thing to say, after all. "So, if what you say is true, then what should I look for in order to identify her?" she asked once Cessie had the time to answer the previous question. Given that the sorceress was one of the very few who could see this aspect of the muse, Cessie would be acutely, frighteningly aware of that fiercely burning, roiling blue iris that normally seemed content to dart around at seemingly random intervals suddenly focus extremely intently at her. Apparently the topic had the muse's interest...

Though, she would gently start walking to try and get Cessie to move with her back to where that staff was located... Semi-staff? Half-staff. Implement of wood that is in the process of being made into something useful. That was also something else she was interested in seeing.

[Shadowcaller]

[Basement]

"Changing people's memories, altering reality, things like that." Cessie explains with a dismissive gesture, not wanting to get into too much detail. "And I very much advise you to not look for her. She's completely unpredictable and will cause nothing but misery. Trust me on that Riss." Cessie says while attempting to ignore the muses weird eyes moving around. "Since if you start looking for her, she will likely just appear and then both you and those around you will likely be in danger of her powers." She continues while following Riss out to where the staff was located. Little has likely changed, besides the fact that the garden and everything around it now is more well-kept.

[Gullara]

[Frescot Estate]

"Oh, well I guess I do have a lot of experience by now." Sakura giggles. A lot of experience packed into (nearly) six years. "I guess it depends what you want advice about. You can feel free to ask me any questions."

Lucy, having made her circuit around Artie, comes to a stop in front of her. "Car eight wins!" She claps her hands. Then she looks up at her aunt. "Do you like race cars?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Frescot Estate ]

”I just don’t know what to expect. I don’t know what to get in advance. I don’t know what I’ll have to do. It’s all very frightening. “ Artie admits.

”I’ve never seen a race car. I’ve never been in a car at all. I don’t fit.” she tells her niece.

[Terumitsu]

[Basement - Gardens and beyond?]

"See, if you keep saying things like that then all that'll come of it is curiosity. Reverse psychology and all." It wasn't unlike the urge to watch a horrible train-wreck in motion just because of the spectacle. Still, there was that hint of a smile to show that the muse was joking at least.

At least, that was what one would hope that grin meant.

"The only reason I was asking was to be aware of what to look for. Like symptoms to an illness. Don't want any misdiagnosis that would end up causing more problems with the wrong treatment." she explained. Fortunately, Libra wasn't present to hear about being compared to a sickness. Hopefully.

Out in the gardens, though, the muse seemed to be taking the time to appreciate the grounds before moving on to the font that hid the staff. Her Eye, however, was still firmly fixed on Cessie for the time being. Creepy, that.

[Gullara]

[Frescot Estate]

Lucy gets to her feet and holds out her toy. "This is a race car! It drives fast." She explains.

"Oh, one sec." Sakura dips out of the room the way they came for a moment. She's back a moment later with a small, well worn book. "Here, you can have this. It's the first book I read before Laela was born. It was super helpful."

[Shadowcaller]

[Basement - Gardens and beyond?]

"See, if you keep saying things like that then all that'll come of it is curiosity. Reverse psychology and all." It wasn't unlike the urge to watch a horrible train-wreck in motion just because of the spectacle. Still, there was that hint of a smile to show that the muse was joking at least.

At least, that was what one would hope that grin meant.

"The only reason I was asking was to be aware of what to look for. Like symptoms to an illness. Don't want any misdiagnosis that would end up causing more problems with the wrong treatment." she explained. Fortunately, Libra wasn't present to hear about being compared to a sickness. Hopefully.

Out in the gardens, though, the muse seemed to be taking the time to appreciate the grounds before moving on to the font that hid the staff. Her Eye, however, was still firmly fixed on Cessie for the time being. Creepy, that.

[Gardens]

Cessie doesn't skip a beat, though smiles apologetically. "I'm just making sure. There are all too many people who just throw out her name without warning people of the danger. So perhaps I felt guilty for almost doing the same thing." She pauses as they reach the place where the staff should be located at. "What do you mean by 'treatment' though? Simply how to avoid calling her attention, or deal with her presence?"

[Deathkeeper]

[Frescot Estate]

"Oh, thank you." Artie takes the book, examining the cover.
"It's an odd thing to ask, but do you think your children take after both of you equally? I've been curious to know what mine might inherit, with Azren and I so different." she asks conversationally.

[Terumitsu]

[Gardens]

"That was more just metaphor." Riss replied. "But in this case, if symptoms would be what to look for and how to identify her, then treatment would be what to do if one has found themselves with a sudden case of the Libra." she said with a shrug.

The muse would let Cessie best describe what to do in the case of a pox of Libras as she turned her focus towards the immersed staff. Kneeling down and reaching towards it, she suddenly stopped and held eerily still just before her fingers would touch the water. If the sorceress were paying close attention, she might wonder if Riss had even stopped breathing for a moment before a burning arc of electric blue danced between the horns of her head like a jacob's ladder before the muse was violently thrown back from a small but potent aetheric explosion. Fortunately it seemed mostly concussive in nature as there were no flames or blackened areas and only a bit of damage to the grass at worst. Riss herself seemed mostly unharmed save for the abrasions she'd suffered from being thrown back. Dazed, she stood up and began to brush herself off, wincing only slightly as she did so.

"So.. Are you aware that adamantine is surprisingly thaumatically resilient?" she asked, as if that would explain anything about what just happened.

[Morty]

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

Wenomir is walking purposefully towards the keep. He sent a message to Cessie that only said he had something to tell her in private.

[Gullara]

[Frescot Estate]

"Uh, I don't think I could begin to guess that." Sakura says uncertainly. "Even with just these two, Cassie looks much more like Adir, and Lucy like me."

Lucy, upon hearing her name, looks up from her toy and crawls closer to her mom. "Mommy." She tugs on Sakura's skirt until the dryad stoops over to pick her up again.

"I'm just telling auntie Artie how you have pretty flowers just like mommy." Sakura explains. Just like mommy indeed, she even has a proportionally huge cascade of them without all the years to grow them. Lucy giggles and puts her hands through Sakura's flowers.

[Shadowcaller]

[Gardens]

"That was more just metaphor." Riss replied. "But in this case, if symptoms would be what to look for and how to identify her, then treatment would be what to do if one has found themselves with a sudden case of the Libra." she said with a shrug.

The muse would let Cessie best describe what to do in the case of a pox of Libras as she turned her focus towards the immersed staff. Kneeling down and reaching towards it, she suddenly stopped and held eerily still just before her fingers would touch the water. If the sorceress were paying close attention, she might wonder if Riss had even stopped breathing for a moment before a burning arc of electric blue danced between the horns of her head like a jacob's ladder before the muse was violently thrown back from a small but potent aetheric explosion. Fortunately it seemed mostly concussive in nature as there were no flames or blackened areas and only a bit of damage to the grass at worst. Riss herself seemed mostly unharmed save for the abrasions she'd suffered from being thrown back. Dazed, she stood up and began to brush herself off, wincing only slightly as she did so.

"So.. Are you aware that adamantine is surprisingly thaumatically resilient?" she asked, as if that would explain anything about what just happened.

[Gardens]

"Frankly, I am not really an expert as I've stayed away from her as much as possible. Simply making little noise whenever she's around. That seem to have worked fine though. As far as I know, I'm unaltered by her whims." Cessie explains.

She then falls silent as Riss approaches the staff, suddenly wishing that she had investigated it properly. There was no telling what it might do, especially considering how crazy Riss had acted under the influence of the aether.

Therefore, just as a precaution, a large magma elemental with shield-like arms forms next to the sorceress and stands ready to protect her as Riss starts her work.
Cessie tilts her head slightly as Riss just appears to stand there, but is patient as she knows these sort of things could take time.
Her eyes widen at the spectacular reaction of the staff however as she walks up to Riss only when she is sure nothing else was happening. "Are you sure you're alright?" She knew even smaller blasts like that could cause lasting injuries, but perhaps Riss custom made bodies were a bit more sturdy than that. "And yes, I was aware, it's one of its most important qualities in fact."

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

Wenomir will find Cessie in the foyer, two large war-like elementals attending her. It appears she was just ready to leave. "Wenomir, excellent. I was actually just about to head over to VIGIL. I was considering a expedition to Seaside."

[Morty]

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

"An expedition?" Wenomir's awkwardness is somewhat replaced by curiosity. But he still looks distracted. "We will need to discuss it, but right now I wanted to talk about something... personal."

[Deathkeeper]

[Frescot Estate]

"Well, that's alright. I just thought I'd ask. It'll just happen how it happens." Artie flips through the book Sakura gave her, wondering just what sort of advice it gives.
"I'll have to sit Azren down and get him to pick names. He's so hard to pin down sometimes." she giggles at the thought. Mrs. Frescot had warned her, after all.

[Terumitsu]

[Gardens]

"I'm fine. I'm not exactly fragile, contrary to appearances and I was able to recycle most of the energy back into my reservoir." Riss said matter-of-factually. "That was just feedback from my material testing. I was trying to see how well it held a thaumic charge but.. Well, I was not aware of this property beforehand and there was a bit of a rebound." she said, taking a moment to stretch. "Being a gestalt entity is generally a positive thing but when it comes to things like thaumaturgy I'm still considered a singular entity.. So that leads to things like just now where one terminal, or body, can be affected by something only for another terminal or all terminals to be similarly affected depending on the origin of the effect." she clarified.

Stepping confidently over to the spring again, the muse simply reached into the spring with her tail and plucked the half-finished staff out from it's long confinement... It looked surprisingly good for a length of wood that had been immersed in water for so long. "Anyway, no lasting harm done... Actually this gives me an idea." she said, her attention now focused on the staff as even that extra burning eye had peeled itself away from Cessie to focus on it. "If you wouldn't mind, could you show me some examples of your craft? Beyond that whole conjuring up a hot lass like you just did, I mean." she said, unable to keep herself from finishing with a joke.

[Shadowcaller]

[Gardens]

"Go ahead then." Cessie replies firmly, not wanting Wenomir to beat around the bush.

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

Her reservoir? It sounded like Riss was more machine than human at this point, and at this point Cessie was almost afraid to ask just how the muse and her other bodies were made up. She just felt uneasy considering making such modifications to your own body. Just the way she described herself, an 'entity', made it sound like she didn't consider herself, with the lack of a better term, human, anymore.

Just what was Riss? And what did she want with all this research? What was her motivation for all of this?

"I see." She replies to Riss explanation. "Having multiple bodies certainly is practical." So far, she could agree.

Then Riss sets out again, and hopefully there wouldn't be more explosions this time.
She carefully observes the muse, wondering what the next step will be when she is asked a question. "What sort of idea? Is there anything specific you had in mind for me to demonstrate? Eldritch is essentially simply conjuring up material and directing them as you wish. Usually, this takes place by focusing on familiar concepts and shapes. This elemental for instance is a reflection of myself for instance but with a added purpose of protection." She explains with a gesture at the elemental. "But there is a lot of other applications of course, as I'm sure you realize."

[Morty]

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

Wenomir takes a deep breath, looks around, then breathes out and shrugs.

"I slept with Harnetta. And I will most likely do it again. That's the long and short of it. I wasn't planning to do it, but that's how it worked out. And I thought you should know. It might have got awkward... more awkward, otherwise."

[Shadowcaller]

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

Cessie's expression is the perfect mask of calm. "I wish you the best of luck then." She replies curtly. "Was that all?"

[Gullara]

[Frescot Estate]

"Well, that's alright. I just thought I'd ask. It'll just happen how it happens." Artie flips through the book Sakura gave her, wondering just what sort of advice it gives.
"I'll have to sit Azren down and get him to pick names. He's so hard to pin down sometimes." she giggles at the thought. Mrs. Frescot had warned her, after all.

[Frescot Estate]

"Well if he's anything like his brother, he should be pretty good at names. Adir's always full of ideas when it's time for that." Sakura says, looking quite pleased with her husband. "Cassandra was his idea, actually."

[Morty]

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

Wenomir looks at Cessie with some surprise. She has nothing more to say on the subject? She can't possibly approve of it.

"...that's about all I had to say. I thought you deserved to be informed by me, personally."

[Terumitsu]

[Gardens]

"It is incredible what can be done with at least more than one of yourselves working on the same thing." she said. Really more people should do it in her opinion. Then again, she was the sort of person who would have said Dr. Manhattan had been given a rough time of it. She would have been utterly flattered if someone else made a duplicate of themselves simply for the reason of supplying undistracted attention to her... Though that might explain exactly why she had done the exact same thing for her Fey.

"And I was just wanting to see how you manipulated the flow.. Though if you do more conjuring than anything else, then this might not be a fit for you.." she began, the tip of her tail flicking back and forth to shake off the water. " This is going to sound childish, almost, but I had the idea that given adamantine's resistance, it could be used to 'channel' certain kinds of effects in a way not dissimilar to, well, a gun." she said, shrugging a bit as she made the comparison. "I mean, I already have the basic idea of what I could do for 'rifling' as well in this case, even... And I'd do it myself but that'd take far more time since.. Well I told you about my situation already, right?" she did know she had at least inferred it strongly the last time they had met.

[Shadowcaller]

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

"Harnetta does seem to like to get involved with a lot of people close to me." Cessie remarkable calmly. "But yes, now I know. I'm sure she will tell me as well at some point too."

[Gardens]

"I imagine, in fact I can in a way transfer my conscious to these elemental bodies for brief amount of times so in a way I have some experience with that." it was quite an advance technique though. Cessie was in fact one of the few who at her age actually had mastered it.

"The 'flow'? Perhaps you could clarify your situation a bit, Riss. It was a while since we talked after all and I don't remember the exact details." Not everyone could have perfect memory after all. "Since I don't really use anything named 'flow'. Except... well, some find it easier, even necessary, to use gestures to make certain spells. Like they're imagining eldritch as a flow of energy." She explains. "I imagining this projectile idea could be very useful for you though. Is there anything I could help with regarding that?"

[Terumitsu]

[Gardens]

"You got there in the end with the 'flow of energy' bit. Basically I just want to watch you 'direct' as you employ your arts." the muse said. Cessie may or may not notice but there seemed to be a common theme to the muse's choice of words when it came to, as she put it, the 'thaumic sciences.' While she might use the word 'enchantment' or similar, she seemed to staunchly refuse to use the word 'spell.'

"As for my situation... Well, you remember that lantern I brought by last time? The one with the black-petaled flower that was always burning with that blue phosphorescence that looked kinda like fire? That's what's called a witchlight but I've taken to just calling it a 'reservoir.' Basically it draws in ambient energy and stores it for later use over time. It's meant to be supplemental power but.. Well, in my case, I don't have the same.. Attribute that others do to 'reach out and shape' like you can. Or maybe it would be better to say it's developed differently? Anyway, the idea is that when it's drained or when I don't have access to it or a substantial local saturation of energy, I can't do anything other than observe what's going on." she explained although it was all very simply stated instead of as if she felt somehow handicapped in this realm. She'd lived her life up until recently without even knowing that such things existed and so this limitation didn't really feel like one in the long run.. Though it did slow her personal experiments down by a bit.

"Anyway, because it's supposed to be a supplemental device, I can drag about seven or so rune-matrix activations out of it before full depletion.. Which is the result of a lot of refinement as I used to be stuck with only three last time we spoke. Thing takes a bit under six hours to charge back to full in a normal saturation environment but higher saturation or siphoning off the remains from unbinding someone else's arts make it go much quicker." she explained. "As for this thing." she said, hoisting up the staff. "My original aim for this was to be something similar but more as an external collector in addition to expanding my total reservoir capacity by a bit." she said. "Anyway, that's half the reason why I'd rather watch you in action. The other half is that if things go well, I could install some kind of augmentation relay to boost certain aspects of your arts into your armor." she concluded. Apparently even now she was focused on that project.

[Gullara]

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

Oh look a convenient distraction. Cora randomly runs into the room, totally missing any tension. "Wenomir!" She comes right up to him. "Did you bring your sword?" She asks even as she's looking for it.

[Morty]

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

Wenomir scowls, the scars on his face creating an ugly pattern. He does not like what Cessie is implying here. Before he can decide if it's a fight he wants to pick right now, though, Cora runs in. His expression turns soft as he looks down at the little quarter-dragon.

"I'm afraid not, Cora. I came here to talk to your mom about something and left my sword at home."

[Shadowcaller]

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

Cessie's attention is also drawn to Cora right away, and she suddenly smiles as she sees her excitement. Well, this certainly would get her mind on other things than Harnetta.
"This little lady had a accident with Leala. She gave her a nasty cut with her sword, so I took away it for a while. If you want to show her some moves, you will have to use the old swords in the storage room underneath the forge. But be careful. Those weapons aren't nearly as safe as the Answer."

[Gardens]

"You misunderstand, no energy is actually directed. Some mages simply imagine themselves doing just that as it helps the imagination, others are imagining it as something different. Though I'm guessing we're just discussing schematics at this point." Cessie tries to argue, but then simply listens to Riss explanation. She suddenly remembered all this, Riss had talked about it at length. There were a few terms she didn't quite understand though. Had to ask about those later, but right now...

"How were you planning to argument eldritch exactly? It haven't been meshing well with the type of technology you use around here so far. It is very much something with a strong connection to the soul, no research have so far suggested that it can be influenced by sources outside of it."

[Gullara]

[Mithar Keep - Unexpected Visit]

Cora immediately looks disappointed, bt then she perks up again at her mom's suggestion. Even the reminder that her own sword was taken away can't bring her down. "Ooh, can you?! Please!"