GLoG 93: Something something something babies

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

Sekhmet nods. "She made me beautiful, like her. It was her 'gift' to me. But it all feels wrong." She gestures at herself. "I look like her! I can't even look in the mirror without being reminded of her. And people look at me differently! I just want to look like myself again, not some succubus floozy!"

[Gullara]

[Workshop]

Unfortunately, it seems the bucket is indeed not quite enough to reach the note.

"But where are we going to find a ladder?" Tuskfang wonders aloud. "Or... a bigger bucket, maybe."

[Workshop]

"Hang on, I've got it!" says Lucy, again harkening trouble. She looks around for a long, sturdy stick. She'll try to break one end at the tip so it's sharp, and then climb up on the bucket. If she can, she'll poke it through the paper (which is presumably stuck there somehow) and pull it off the sill.

[Workshop]

"Ooh, good idea, Lucy!" Jillian gives the other girl room to wave the stick around.

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

"I'm really sorry you had to go through that," Geneva says as she scoops up Gilda again and stuffs the struggling cub into the bab-holster.

Sorry, Gilda.

Too much biting.

"I'm not exactly an expert on fiendish magic but aren't beings like you able to naturally shape shift? That was the impression I got when I used Transform to mimic you."

Wait.

What are you saying, Geneva?

"Soo... couldn't you just change back?"

Ah, that's what she's saying.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

"I, uh, yes, but, uh, no," Sekhmet manages. "I, uh, did. Once. But, uh, after that, it's been, uh, really difficult." She looks at Geneva. "You can do it, can you, uh, teach me?" She's not sure how she was so successful when she first tried at Rose's urging, but she hasn't been able to change her shape since.

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

That is a whole bunch of uhs.

Geneva frowns slightly.

"Well, Transform doesn't work like your shape shifting would. Or at least I'm pretty certain it doesn't. Though I suppose I could try mimicking you and trying to figure out how it works?"

That's certainly an option!

Though the Hive might start poking at her again.

Geneva really didn't like that.

Not even a little bit.

Gwen, meanwhile, has found a small round stone and is busy batting it around.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

"Uh, if you want? Your kids, uh, won't mind?" Sekhmet imagines it might be strange and distressing for one's mother to suddenly be replaced by someone else, even for a short while. "I can, uh, try to show you?" Sekhmet closes her eyes and concentrates. Her body wavers and seems to change for an instant, beautiful features sinking back into something more normal, but then it snaps back to the form Sapphira forced on her. "See? I almost had it!"

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

"I've used Transform around them, mostly into human shape. I keep in empathic contact most of the time so they still know I'm around," Geneva explains as she observes Sekhmet's attempt.

Hmm!

Fascinating.

"That's interesting. I think, maybe, you should try something simpler first. Don't change everything. Change one thing. Maybe your eye or hair color? Something relatively simple. If you can do that, then it might serve as a foothold to more expansive alterations."

Start small, Sekhmet!

Don't try doing the big things right off the bat!

Speaking of batting, both Gwen and Glory have gotten in on swatting around a small, round stone. Gabriel is still assaulting Sekhmet's dress and Gilda is still stuffed in Geneva's cub-carrying harness for being too bitey.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

"Okay, uh, I'll try." Sekhmet pulls a handful of her hair in front of her and focuses again. Streaks of color flash through the gripped locks of hair, but in the end it reverts to its original black color. "Ugh! Why?" Sekhmet looks frustrated. "How do you do it?"

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

"Mental blocks, magical blocks, lack of experience. Potentially many reasons; hard to guess without more data," Geneva admits as she walks in a little circle around Sekhmet.

Then?

She spreads out her wings, stretching her pinions wide.

"Try again."

Sekhmet may recall that the wings of griffins (and pegasi) are magical sensory organs.

This is the equivalent of looking at something VERY closely for a human.

She doesn't tell Sekhmet how she does it, not yet.

Geneva wants to see if she can't get an idea of what's causing the hangup first.

Gilda, still stuck in the bab-holster, spreads out her wings too and gives a fearsome, if tiny, roar.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

Sekhmet obliges. Again she tries to change her hair color. The colors flicker through her hair again. This time it stays. Sort of. Sekhmet releases her now-white locks of hair and lets it fall back over her shoulders. "It worked? Uh, I need a mirror." If she was trying to make all her hair white, she failed. Only the small portion she was holding changed, leaving her with a white streak in her hair.

Meanwhile Geneva is scanning Sekhmet's magic. When she focused her power, her magic surged through her body, especially the hair she was focusing on. The magic seems to rewrite the material of the affected areas, causing the hairs to turn white even down to their roots. "Uh, why did it work this time?"

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

"It didn't fizzle this time, not completely. You have one lock of hair that's white," Geneva observes. "If I had to suggest a hypothesis, I would say that you're having trouble maintaining the alterations. You managed significant alterations, but you were unable to make them stick. There are several probable causes for this phenomena. We can rule out lack of power. You have power to spare. So that leaves us with some kind of mental block or a lack of thaumatic finesse."

The pacing continues.

Gabriel making cute noises also continues.

"Try again. Same change, same color."

This time around?

Geneva is going to be focusing on the areas that revert instead of staying white.

She wants to know why Sekhmet is having trouble. Once she's narrowed down the issue she can begin proposing solutions.


[Sing With Me]

Why did she come back here again?

Why does it feel as if a great deal of time had passed? It had been... hours... perhaps. Since Choir had traded with the people at the Clattering to improve the cart she had made to transport the strange treasures she had found at the ruined village.

Was it because this place felt safe, somehow?

How could this place feel safe?

There is no hidden fire for her to feed on here. And the air is toxic, just like it is everywhere else.

Why, then, does it feel so calm here?

Choir does not know. She does not understand. There are many things she does not understand. Though perhaps she can understand more. Others of her Choir had spread out to explore and learn. To grow. To persist. She was small and weak. If she is many, then the risk to her continuity is reduced. She would make a safe place for herself here; the little ones were kind. They wanted to help her to know.

But were unwilling to take communion with her. They were unwilling to add their voices to her own.

Strange, alien ways.

Choir, for the record, appears as a human woman with brown hair streaked with rusty red. Her eyes are an eerie shade of orange and she's still wearing a borrowed outfit she had been given here at GLoG when she initially manifested. How long ago was that, now? Time is all twisted up. She's pulling a little cart full of odds and ins from an irradiated village she had explored. There's a non-zero chance that some of the curios are still radioactive.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

Sekhmet reaches down to ruffle Gabriel's feathers again. The cub is pretty cute when he's doing that. "Okay, uh, I'll try again." She focuses. Color and magic wash through her hair. No color changes permanently except what was already white.
Where the magic passed through, it remade the hairs. But in the majority of them, it didn't stay, fading away as reality reasserted itself over them and restored them to their original color. It's almost like Sekhmet isn't asserting her will enough.

[Purple Eagle]

[Sophie's Office]

Sophie taps her pencil against the notebook in thought.

"No, I think I've learned all I needed for now. I'll have to think about this and I encourage you to do the same."

[Sophie's Office]

"Thank you Mrs Sophie!" Zara curtsies with a flourish, and spins in place so her skirt does so as well. "Zara will be returning to work, now."

A question does occur to her, all of a sudden. "Hmm... Zara does have one question: she'd like to help Mrs Reelshka with her babies, since she's very busy. Zara can do it!" She puts her hands on her hips triumphantly. "Can Mrs Sophie help tell Mrs Reelshka? Zara can do it herself, but it would have more weight coming from you."

[Morty]

[Workshop]

Tuskfang watches with bated breath as Lucy tries to get the paper off. When she succeeds, he jumps up and cheers squeakily, his tail wagging.

"You did it! That was really smart."

The piece of paper is the third part of the map. It leads towards the residential cabins, specifically one less dense cluster of them. The two tiny pirate captains added a hint:

Find the treasure where trees are iron.

[Sophie's Office]

Sophie looks at Zara for a long moment with those piercing blue eyes that seem to see right down to a person's core. Whatever she sees seems to make her amenable to the request.

"I can do that, Zara. I know you have experience taking care of children. And Mrs. Trollfinger really is a very busy person."

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

Gabriel is pretty cute regardless of what he's doing.

Except maybe climbing the curtains.

That's less cute.

Geneva thinks she's getting a good idea of what's going on.

"You're queuing an alteration but you aren't confirming it," Geneva says, folding her wings and giving them a fluff to get the feathers to lay down. "Like this."

There comes that odd electronic noise as Geneva's resolution drops to nothing but a pixel-y mess before rearranging itself-

-but doesn't fall back into resolution. Instead she sort of snaps back into her hippogriff shape.

"It isn't enough to just picture the changes you want to make. You have to will them to be. You're imposing on reality. You have to believe strongly enough that reality agrees with you."

Geneva shifts again, this time assuming her mew form.

Gilda is being held in her teek, wriggling impotently. Glory immediately begins trying to jump up and swat at the end of Geneva's tail.

~Magic rarely works in half measures.~

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

Sekhmet watches, confused. Uh, what? How, uh, does that work?" She doesn't really understand. So I have to convince, uh, everything?" She looks around at, well, everything. How do I?

Geneva might notice that Sekhmet is much better at telepathic communication now. She switched seamlessly to it from speaking aloud as soon as Geneva did.

[Earl of Purple]

Sing With Me

Watching Choir's arrival with curiosity is Natalie. Natalie is currently human. Well, always human, but she looks human right now. She's a seventeen-year-old girl with short black hair and green eyes, her pale skin tanned by the sun. She's wearing a pair of jeans and a black denim jacket, with a pair of trainers on her feet. She's not wearing socks, however. "Do you need help with that? I've not seen you here before. I'm Natalie." She's rather interested in the contents of the cart.

[Rebonack]

[Sing With Me]

Choir is staring out over the lake when it begins speaking at her. It takes a few moments for her to realize that's what it's doing.

Verbal communication is still strange to her. Especially when she isn't initiating it. It feels like such a terrible means of communication, but since this is a world populated by so many things how else would they convey information one to another? They don't all sing together like she does.

It is scrutinized, briefly.

Then the contents of the sled are considered.

"Should I need help?" Choir asks genuinely.

Does she need help?

She is uncertain.

"I am Choir. I have been here before. I was sent here. Because, I think, they were afraid of me. I didn't realize they had voices of their own," she tries to explain. It would be so much easier to take communion with this Natalie. Then they would both understand. But she was told that she shouldn't do that. She understands why, now. They cherish their aloneness. It is deeply sad. "This place, it feels safe. Peaceful. Do you know why?"


[Something Something Something Cubs]

~It's less about how and more about will. There's very little how involved. You must DO. It's like the psionics practice we've done before. Granted, this is magical and the precise mechanics are a bit different, but both are tools for altering the world around you, including yourself sometimes. Certainty that you CAN accomplish what you're trying to do goes a long way toward actually doing it.~

A little esoteric, sure, but that's still-

Glory manages to catch Geneva by the tail and pull her to the ground. Her grip on Gilda is lost and she's immediately dog-piled by all the cubs. Judging from the mental laughter this isn't dangerous at all.

[Earl of Purple]

Sing With Me

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Choir. I don't know if you'd need help, but it looks rather awkward, dragging that cart around." Natalie thinks a moment on the next bit. "It's a beautiful place, that helps. The lake, the trees... it's just perfect. And it's defended, too, there's magical defences. They make the place feel peaceful, too, so long as you're friendly. I'm not sure what you'd feel if you came here intending to hurt people." She smiles, and looks around. The explanation didn't make much sense to Natalie, so she's ignoring it mostly. Assuming Choir came here as part of the redemption program, which doesn't get as many applicants as it used to.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

Huh? I don't... Oh!" Sekhmet seems to come to a realization. You're saying because I did do it once, I can probably do it again. Uh, right. She did, didn't she. So she can do it, she can. Sekhmet focuses again. Okay, uh, I'm ready. Magic courses through her, and behind it, it leaves her with a full head of white hair. She tosses it back and forth and tries to get a good look at it. "Haha!" It worked! She doesn't bother to rescue Geneva from the pile of cubs.

[Rebonack]

[Sing With Me]

"I found them. Scattered. They were in many of the... homes?" Choir says.

Is that the word?

That seems like the correct word.

"The place had been burned by the secret fire. The people there perished, their songs silenced. But they had hidden all these things. Protected them. They must have been precious."

Especially the gyroids and that floaty meteor thing. And the records. And the guitar. All very important.

"I think, maybe, I shall protect them too. But I do not know where. There are homes her as well. Many of them. Do they all belong to others?" Choir asks.

Sounds like she wants to know if any of the cabins are up for use.

"It is pleasant," Choir says, looking out over the lake again. "I like viewing things from this perspective. I can notice details that are otherwise difficult to see. But being this small was dangerous before. The humans were afraid of me."


[Something Something Something Cubs]

~Good job!~ comes Geneva's reply, giving Sekhmet a tiny thumbs up from the cub pile.

...she's still buried under a heap of babs.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

Need a little help? Sekhmet bends down near the pile of cubs and wiggles her tail temptingly. Come on, little predators, pounce on the moving object! I can't believe it worked! What do I try next? She runs a claw through her snow-white hair, marveling at it.

[Earl of Purple]

Sing With Me

"Oh, you found and explored somewhere? That's cool, I'd like to go explore a ruin someday. There's spare rooms in some of the cabins, yeah. Do you need a place to stay? We'd need... I think Reelshka for that. I'm not sure. Come on, let's see where she could be." If not Reelshka, it's probably Sophie.

[Murkus]

[Workshop --> Elsewhere]

"Thank you, thank you," says Lucy as she swivels and bows to each of them from atop the bucket... and almost wobbles off of it. She will hop down before reading the note to them both. "Well, let's go!"

[Purple Eagle]

[Sophie's Office]

Sophie looks at Zara for a long moment with those piercing blue eyes that seem to see right down to a person's core. Whatever she sees seems to make her amenable to the request.

"I can do that, Zara. I know you have experience taking care of children. And Mrs. Trollfinger really is a very busy person."

[Sophie's Office]

Zara just stares back with that big smile and those quite-empty eyes of hers, waiting for a response. She gets what she wants, and grins. "Yaaaay!" She exclaims, jumping up and down in place. It's debatable how much of her mannerisms are fake as she claims, and how much are just because the Zara-personality has the mentality of a child, but in this case it should seem more real than not. Perhaps that's simply a testament to how good she is at playing pretend?

"Can we go now, Mrs Sophie? The sooner the better, my orphanage matron always says!" She means the one she spent the past 6 or so years, of course.

[Rebonack]

[Sing With Me]

"Yes. There was a skeleton moved by machines. It objected to my presence there," Choir recounts.

It attempted to kill her.

As did the crab.

Both failed.

She will not allow her song to be extinguished.

"Why do you desire to explore forgotten places? Do you wish to discover the treasures left there?" Choir asks.

Choir follows this one called Natalie. A cabin. A dwelling for herself? Such a shelter would be welcome. She is small. Remaining small and many, Choir suspects, will make it less likely that the humans will fear her. But if she is small then shelter is required.


[Something Something Something Cubs]

Oh no.

Oh no, Sekhmet.

Now your tail is being attacked.

Geneva takes the brief to reprieve to Transform back into hippogriff shape.

"I believe trying a few more simple effects first," Geneva says, laughing at the assault on Sekhmet's tail. "Changing hair color is a relatively simple exercise. Maybe try a few more colors?"

[Earl of Purple]

Sing With Me

"A mechanical skeleton... That's not something I'd heard of before." It sounds like it was quite scary, though Natalie isn't picturing a dinosaur skeleton. She's picturing a steam-powered human skeleton. "Yeah, the treasures interest me. Mostly I want to just poke around somewhere, see how people lived in the past, maybe." It's the exploration that interests Natalie more than the treasure.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

Sekhmet wiggles her tail teasingly away from the cubs, laughing. They're so cute!
"I guess I could try that again." Sekhmet does so, going through a few different colors. Brown! Blonde! Redhead! Blue! Pink! She's really happy that it keeps working. "Okay, uh, now should I try to look like myself?"

[Rebonack]

[Sing With Me]

"Nor had I. It was violent, motivated by hidden fire. I destroyed it," Choir reports. She'll follow Natalie toward the cabins to inspect them. "Others of me are still exploring. We reached concordance that I should find a safe place to settle while they continue to search."

Choir is uncertain if the one called Natalie will understand what this means.

She, like all humans, is alone.

Choir decides to offer more insight.

"I am many, though I speak as one. I can... fracture myself? I believe that is the word. Each voice is very, very small. But when many sing together, I grow more clever. A single voice cares only for simple things. But as we gather our thoughts grow larger."

The woman wrinkles her nose is consternation.

"You are alone. All humans are alone. It is difficult to describe. I am sorry."


[Something Something Something Cubs]

The four children continue to assault Sekhmet's tail.

Until they don't.

Gwen tries pouncing at Sekhmet's tail further up. Glory and Gabriel attack her dress. Gilda begins trying to CLIMB Sekmet's dress and up onto her shoulder so she can "MEW!" loudly at the devil's ear.

"Maybe something a little more structurally complex?" Geneva suggests. "Making your face look a little different? Assuming you can concentrate with my children crawling all over you."

That last bit is added with no small degree of mirth. Distracting children help to make the exercise more challenging.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

Now Sekhmet's got one cub riding her tail, one on her shoulder, and two clinging to her skirts. She's fine with most of that, but Gilda will have to move. Gently, the fiendling lifts the cub off her shoulder with both hands, setting her back on the ground. "How would I tell if anything changes? Wait, uh, I know, one minute!" Sekhmet runs off towards her cabin, probably with the griff-cubs still in tow.