GLoG 93: Something something something babies

[5a Violista]

[]

Manja probably would like it if someone massaged the base of her ears, but if other babies act like she does, that's probably not what would happen.

Manja reaches back at Odin's hands, trying to show her dominance by taking control and grabbing his hands.

When someone else takes advantage of her focus by sneaking past her defenses and going after her nose, Manja suddenly switches targets, trying to put Zara back in her place by grabbing her finger.


Harley just lets Manja reach at things.
She obviously can't introduce herself as Harley because of obvious reasons. This is GLoG, after all.
"This is Manja," Harley says. "Named for Iemanja."

She looks at the babies.
"And..." Harley thinks a bit more. Yeah, considering what happened here earlier, it would be appropriate. "I'm Moremi."

[bc56]

Sekhmet glides in to a landing in an open place near the lake. The fiendling is still not entirely comfortable being watched by an angel, but he's had plenty of chances to vaporize her and hasn't yet. Even so, letting him know where she lives is uncomfortable. What if he changes his mind?

[Purple Eagle]

[=> Daycare]

One of Orin's hands is grabbed, and she grabs the other girl's other hand and stares at it a little. She makes a cute little 'eeeh' sound in greeting, or what passes for one in baby talk.

She lets go of the hand grabbing hers when it's tugged away, freeing Manja to grab at Zara's finger, which the staff allows. "Manja... this one is called Zara, and she likes the sound of the name!" The happy Jewish girl declares. Seeing as everyone's introducing each other, Zither joins in by addressing Harley. "Moremi, huh? Sounds Yoruba, like my hubby. I'm Zither and this is Orin."

Is that nervousness that Dahlia senses? She's not the active personality right now, but Harley's demeanour has caused her to pay more attention... much like a hungry shark after sniffing blood. She'll be keeping an eye on Harley, just in case.

"Please follow Zara, both of you." Zara pulls her hand free from Manja's grasp, and leads the two young mothers inside the cabin, waiting at the door to turn around and ensure they're following.

[Sekh and Zabb]

Zabb lands beside Sekhmet and squeals happily as they land, choosing to ignore her discomfort. He'll continue to try to put her at ease, however. "Wasn't that fun? Plus, now you know the way for next time." He'd spent their trip pointing out flight routes to prominent places of the Nexus, and how to account for Nexus shiftiness.

"Oo, where's your house? I stay at Evergreen cabin!" He points out where he's talking about, of course.

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

"I think the Queen of Poison is Sekhmet's mother," Geneva replies somewhat uncertainly, looking at Sekhmet for confirmation.

"And I think I have to agree, that first part is pretty vague. Though it might make more sense in the context of whatever event causes it to unfold. That's how the more arcane prophecies usually turn out," Geneva reasons. "The second half, though, is more encouraging. It SOUNDS as if you inherit your mother's throne, but not in the way she's expecting. TECHNICALLY forgiveness is a type of injustice. After all, it means that a person isn't receiving the due punishment for whatever wrong they've committed."

Forgiveness is not necessarily a good thing.

Especially if people are being forgiven for bad reasons instead of kind ones.

"It does sound like this prophecy might be a portent for your mother's redemption. If we can find a way to give more people a happy ending it should definitely be investigated."

Gilda mrowls in agreement.

She has no idea what anyone here is talking about, but she felt like providing some input.

[bc56]

Angel and Devil Sekhmet nervously points towards the back of camp, near the woods. "My husband and I, uh, live in Hawthorn." She hopes Zabb doesn't want to see her house. She hasn't cleaned up in there recently! And would he approve of her choice of books? She's still very afraid of getting on his bad side.

Something Something Something Cubs
Sekhmet nods. Geneva is correct, Sapphira is the Queen of Poison. She gently sets Gwen down on the ground and lets her go. "Uh, I don't know if any of that is even possible. Mother... Uh, I don't see a spark of good in her." Last time they met, she twisted Sekhmet's body for her own amusement and generally made a nuisance of herself. And that's not even bringing up what she was doing to other people at the same time, corrupting them into devils and cultists.

[5a Violista]

[Daycare]

Manja is, of course, disappointed when she no longer has someone's hand to grab.

Harley/Moremi, meanwhile, doesn't know what 'Yoruba' is, but given how the Nexus works she assumes it's just like when someone says 'Hey it sounds it's Elven' or 'I am speaking Draconic' or something like that. "Yeah, it's weird how the Nexus works like that," she says.
"Nice to meet you."

She follows.

...But, just in case, she keeps in mind that she's keeping an eye out for anything weird or sketchy or that involves the sudden appearance of ghosts. Anything like that happens, and she's taking Manja and leaving immediately. Won't ever come back, until at least without Rein.

"So how old is Orin?" she asks to make conversation. "Manja's eight months, almost nine "

[Purple Eagle]

[Angel and Devil]

"Cool! I know where it is, I can come find you anytime! Though I doubt you'll want to play with me, I'm a kid... and I can sense that you're still worried." Zabb frowns at himself, wondering how he can help allay her fears. However, he's looking in her direction as he does so, which makes it look targeted at her.

"You said you're a blacksmith? What do you make?" He suddenly asks.

[Daycare]

Don't worry, Manja! Orin's still grabbing your other hand, and trying to grab Manja's ears now whilst staring intently at them... at least until it's time to follow and Zither has to pull her away. Orin makes a disappointed noise as a result, until her attention is taken by the way Zara skip-walks.

"Yes it is. I've been told I sound Welsh, but I've lived in the Nexus all my life. Never been to this 'Welsh' place." Zither responds, looking down at her biracial baby and smiling at her. "Oh, she clocked 8 months just recently, herself. Seems they're interested in each other, too." Interested in grabbing each other, that is.

Zara leads them into the Daycare building, and directs the two mothers to sit down on provided chairs. After telling them to wait one moment, they're left alone with their babies within arms reach of each other. Of course, Orin tries grabbing Manja's ears again.

[5a Violista]

[Daycare]

Harley Moremi moves her baby from one leg to the other, farther away from Orin. Pulling on ears is a big 'no' and she'd rather not have to leave before it even starts.
Luckily!, though, Manja reaches out at the hands that are attacking her, trying to grab them herself and pin them in place.

"Yeah, they definitely look interested," she says, agreeing. "Hopefully they can play nicely."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

Of course vague statements like that make sense in context. They can make sense in a hundred different contexts, that's why they're useless.
She sounds vaguely bitter about this.
Knowing her, there are 50/50 odds this is either trauma-related or just being a literary snob.
I really do think this does imply some form of redemption though. Or can be made to, if it's one of those flexible prophecies.

That comment about not seeing a spark of good in her mother though...that one's more saddening. Not necessarily discouraging though.
You don't have to necessarily be able to see goodness for it to be within. By all mythological accounts, the Nightmare back home seemed irredeemably evil...up until we purged away the darkness suffocating her true self.

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

"Well, one way or the other it's probably going to be a good idea to be on the lookout for potentially helpful/harmful snakes," Geneva reasons.

Couldn't that refer to a pretty large number of snakes?

Or at least the venomous ones.

Harmful because they bite.

Helpful because they...

...keep...

...the rodent population in check?

Not sure how that could be useful to the situation at claw but it pays to be alert to possibilities.

"There was a villain back home known as Nightmare Moon. In all the stories she was evil without question. She would have condemned the world to eternal night, leaving everypony to freeze or starve," Geneva recounts. "But she wasn't without goodness. That goodness was smothered by darkness and hate. All it took was the Magic of Friendship stripping away that evil. I don't think there's anyone who's truly beyond help."

[bc56]

Angel and Devil

"Uh, I'm just an apprentice." Sekhmet replies. "But I make parts for, uh, golems." Most of the time anyway. She's tried her hand at other things.

Something Something Something Cubs

Sekhmet has to think about what to say next. "Uh..." She pauses, then starts again. "I, uh, helped a devil that wanted to be better once." A sort-of devil, anyway. Rose defies categorization. "But that's, uh, so incredibly rare."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

Sekhmet already has a data point to work with, wonderful. While I'm sure an unfortunately extensive amount of conflict is going to result from all of this, by the time all is said and done, there is a positive resolution to be gained.

A checkmark is placed next to a scary demon queen head on the mental dry-erase board.

Actual coordination is going to require a lot more specific details, obviously.

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

That gets a wide smile out of Geneva.

In so far as someone with a beak can smile.

Like a cat, it mostly involves her eyes, though the edges of her mouth DO turn up a little.

"That's wonderful, Sekhmet! And a start. It just goes to show that they aren't all beyond the power of friendship," the hippogriff says. "It sounds to me like our best course of action would be to keep an eye out for other potential applications of the prophecy. Hmm..."

She rubs the underside of her beak with a talon.

A cub rubs his face against her leg.

Gabriel gets the reaction he was looking for. Geneva fans the end of her tail at him and he begins to attack it.

"How would you describe the helping process, Sekhmet? What exactly did it consist of?"

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

"Uh..." How can Sekhmet describe such a metaphysical process, the rebuilding of someone's soul? "I, uh, pulled out the corrupted parts of her soul and, uh, moved them outside her core being?" That's a weird answer, but it's really complicated. "Uh, maybe you could meet her sometime? You could ask her more, uh, questions."

[Chaotic Bob]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

Brute force purification, sounds like what we did. Neat.
Some little rainbows are drawn around the demon queen head.
Her method will probably have scaling issues with a bigger target, unless it was more potent than I'd expect. But that's fixable.
Still going to have to actually get to her mother first, and I don't imagine one just waltzes up to a hellish ruler on their throne.
...most of the time. Pretty sure I've read some books where that precise thing happens...

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

"Hmm... that DOES sound an awful lot like what exposure to the Elements of Harmony in their active state can do to a person stained by darkness," Geneva muses aloud. "Unfortunately I haven't encountered anything yet in the Nexus that would suggest artifacts of similar power or purpose exist here. Having a tool like that at our disposal would probably be helpful."

Nothing like a giant RAINBOW FRIENDSHIP LASER to solve problems.

"I'll also admit that I really don't have any practical experience with soul magic. It's a somewhat... taboo subject back home."

For good reasons.

For very, very good reasons.

"However, talking with your friend to get her perspective might be helpful."

Making new friends is also its own reward.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

"I'll, uh, ask her if she'd like to meet you. She's, uh, very busy." Minding a gateway between here and Hell, and rehabilitating lost souls, that's a lot of work. Sekhmet isn't sure if Rose wants to be interviewed either. Is Rose even a public figure? The park is a public place, but that doesn't mean Rose is well known.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

Researching her friend, or researching the hell place, both are pretty important. If Rose isn't available, there are other options.

But without said information, there's not much more a soulbound mare can offer here.

[Rebonack]

[Something Something Something Cubs]

"Hmm, well, I think I can begin doing some database hunts to see what information I can come up with. Maybe search to see if there's some kind of prophecy expert Inside?" Geneva muses aloud as she begins gathering up cubs and stowing them away in her bab-holding harness. Some of them complain a bit. Gilda complains loudly.

"Either way, this is definitely worth looking into deeper. Everyone deserves a chance at redemption, whether they know it or not."

Sounds like Geneva's attitude on these things aligns closely with GLoG's.

Back when GLoG did more villain reform and less baby-sitting.

But hey, sometimes you have to change your business model to fit the times, right?

"If your friend is available let me know. I'll probably come by to visit again. I really want the fuzzballs to get use to hanging out at GLoG. Once my maternity time is up I'll definitely need the day care services."

Oh no.

That means there will soon been a gaggle of magical flying children joining the bab-swarm at GLoG.

[bc56]

Something Something Something Cubs

"I'll, uh, do that! Hopefully, uh, she's interested." Sekhmet nods and waves Geneva and the cubs farewell. "I'm sure, I'll, uh, see them again. Talk to you soon! Bye!"

[Purple Eagle]

Angel and Devil

"Uh, I'm just an apprentice." Sekhmet replies. "But I make parts for, uh, golems." Most of the time anyway. She's tried her hand at other things.

[Angel and Devil]

"That's cool, yay! And soon you'll be no longer just an apprentice, too!" Zabb declares. "I help to make the other kids happy by playing, so I have a job too, asides from the celestial stuff." He adds, his hands on his hips as he stands triumphantly, his wings stretching to their full impressive span once, then returning to resting position. "Can I see your workshop, Sekh?"

[Daycare]

Harley Moremi moves her baby from one leg to the other, farther away from Orin. Pulling on ears is a big 'no' and she'd rather not have to leave before it even starts.
Luckily!, though, Manja reaches out at the hands that are attacking her, trying to grab them herself and pin them in place.

"Yeah, they definitely look interested," she says, agreeing. "Hopefully they can play nicely."

[Daycare]

The babies battle by clumsily grabbing at each other, until Manja's unfortunately moved away, and Orin makes a cry of protest. "Babies, grabbing everything."

"Let's put them together and see what they do. I'll make sure she's not too grabby." Zither suggests, whilst Zara runs off making preparations.

[bc56]

Angel and Devil

"Uh, I don't have one." Sekhmet's just an apprentice. She doesn't have her own forge and tools yet. Those are expensive, and she doesn't have much space for them. She works in her instructor's forge along with his other apprentices, and that's over in Inside.

[5a Violista]

[Daycare]

"Grabbing the wrong thing could turn out badly," Moremi says.

Harley considers it, and decides to move Manja a little closer. Sadly, Manja tries to close the gap even more by leaning forwards so her stomach touches her legs, putting her much closer than intended, and reaches out while making gruntlike noises.

[Ironsmith]

[Main Lodge]

Miranda ties her jacket around her waist as she approaches the main lodge. Her team was undergoing a diaspora of sorts, and she found herself heading for tbe most charitable cause she could find. "Good League of Good" seemed to fit the bill. Of course, she had her doubts... in her experience, organizations labelling themselves "good" seldom were. But if that was the case, there weren't many people as well-equipped as her to handle it. And if this place was all it was cracked up to be, she was looking forward to retirement.

Just not this abruptly.

She sighs and tries to put on a smile as she walks into the lodge. Now was not the time to show uncertainty.

[Rebonack]

[Main Lodge]

Or at least near it.

Above it?

Sure.

Geneva wasn't carrying the gaggle of cubs this time around. Oh no, that had become unnecessary about a month or so ago. A month of them getting comfortable with their wings. A month of them getting comfortable with their wings and steadily larger. At this point they were getting into everything and Geneva was feeling at her wits end more often than not. She can't imagine how her parents managed to cope with she and her siblings. Thankfully they were still young and weren't that keen on straying too far from her.

The trip from home out to GLoG was a trip they've taken quite a few times before. Geneva has made sure the kiddos have had plenty of opportunity to grow accustomed to GLoG and the people there.

This trip is different, though.

This time?

She's going to be leaving them in care of the camp while she's away at work, to return at the end of the day.

C-come on Geneva. You can do this. It's just for the day everything will be fine. Just-

"Gilda you leave those geese alone," Geneva scolds as her mottled black, white, and grey griffin daughter does some well-timed swoops through a V of geese who were just minding their own business. There's a cacophony of honking, beating wings, and terrified birds.

Gilda makes a plaintive noise back at her mother before beating her wings to pick up altitude and join the rest of the pride in the sky.

It isn't too much longer before the hippogriff lands with her quartet of children, two griffins and two hippogriffs. Geneva herself is quite the sight. About the size of a full grown male lion, like a cross between a snow leopard, a harpy eagle, and a dappled grey mare. She might be mistaken for a beast if not for several notable features. Like the wrist computer on her left foreleg. Or the fact that she's wearing a fitted flight jacket and goggles. Or the colorful symbol on her equine haunches, a white cloud with three purple 'hurricane' symbols superimposed over it.

The quartet of children aren't wearing anything, save for ashy grey and dappled white Glory with her outrageously over-sized straw sunhat.

"Okay, this is the big day. Mom's going to head to work and Sakura is going to be keeping on eye on you, okay?" Geneva says, doing her best to fight back tears. "You can all behave for her, right?"

[Ironsmith]

[Main Lodge]

Seeing shadows overhead, Miranda instinctively ducks out of view, before remembering that no, there wasn't really amy threat of something dropping out of the sky here and-

What the hell was that?!

It takes Miranda a few minutes to fully comprehend what she's looking at. The griffins and hippogriffs weren't common sights where she was from, and even then, they were hardly ever depicted with clothing. She stayed out of sight, wondering if maybe that was the right call after all.

Wait, no, that thing had a wrist computer. A properly-attached wrist computer, more importantly. And it looked like it might have dressed itself... it had to be intelligent. Maybe more so than she was, for all she really knew.

Knowing that, Miranda prompted herself to look again. Geneva was a person, not just some animal, and those were her kids with her. The griffins especially caught her attention; they had to be adopted, right?

...That was so sweet.

Miranda sighs and comes out of hiding, giving the group a little wave. She wasn't a part of GLoG yet; she wanted to make her presence known, but not give them the idea that she worked here.

[Rebonack]

[Main Lodge]

One of the little hippogriffs is the first to notice Miranda. He's all black. Or at least a VERY dark shade of brown with darker black rosettes like a melanistic leopard. He watches Miranda curiously for a few moments, then perks up when she waves. He turns his head toward the adult and-

"Mom?"

Yep. He just spoke. These are definitely people.

Geneva glances down at her son, then follows his eyes to Miranda.

The huge flying apex predator has tears in her eyes.

"Oh, ah, hi?" she says rather lamely. Geneva looks a bit flustered being caught like this. She quickly reaches out with one of her wings and, in a display of almost impossible dexterity, dries her eyes with one of her primary feathers as if it were a finger. "Are you staff or a, a visitor? I don't think I've seen you before and I've made a point of making friends with everyone who works here I hope I didn't miss someone unless you aren't one of those reformed villains are you not that you have to answer that if it's too personal or anything and-"

A blink.

"Oh princesses I'm rambling I always get so rambly when I'm emotional I, uh."

Then she sits down on her haunches and offers the biggest, most adorable, most dorky smile someone would be able to imagine a creature like her producing.

"Sorry. I'm Geneva. Geneva Richards. I'm just dropping my kids off for-"

"I wanna stay with you mom," comes a plaintive whine from under Geneva's legs. As soon as Miranda had stepped into view Gwen, the dark slate grey hippogriff, had hidden behind her mother's legs.

Gilda, meanwhile, has taken a few steps forward and puffed herself up, flaring out her wings a little. The griffin is about the size of a mediumish dog and isn't that threatening.

Glory the griffin in her little sunhat has already taken to chasing a nearby dragonfly and is completely oblivious to the whole situation.

[Ironsmith]

[Main Lodge]

I was not ready for this today.

Miranda needs a moment to find her voice back, trying to process all this new information, not entirely sure what to make of what she was seeing.

Then she clears her throat and tries to answer Geneva's questions in order.

"Okay, so... I'm not staff, so I guess I'm technically a visitor, but I'd say 'applicant' is more accurate. I'm new here, we never would have met before now, but that's nice of you to make the effort. I don't... think I'm a villain, reformed or otherwise. My name is Miranda Cortez, and it's very nice to meet you."

And with that out of the way, the next thought to enter Miranda's head was trying to comfort the very clearly distressed mother. She didn't really know how to do that, though. She kinda wanted to pet her, but that seemed rude. You don't just pet a person.

She closes her eyes and tries to pretend she's talking to someone a little more normal. What would she do if this were her neighbor?

She has a seat next to Geneva and decides to do the petting after all. She wanted to give the poor lady a hug, but Geneva was way too big for her to do that. She wanted to tell her everything was going to be okay, but she was new to this and she couldn't actually gaurantee that. All she could do right now was some gesture that indicated she cared, on some level... so, gentle strokes along the back ensued.

[Rebonack]

[Main Lodge]

The second Miranda begins approaching Gwen gives a little "Eep!" and retreats to the other side of Geneva, burying her face in her mother's side. Geneva drapes a wing over her and makes some comforting? bird noises at her. It's almost a whistly chuckling sort of sound? It would be familiar to anyone who has heard eagles before. Actual eagles. Not hawks dubbed over eagles since they sound more dramatic.

"It's nice to meet you too, miss Miranda, GLoG is a wonderful place to work I'm sure. Are you a newcomer to-"

Miranda moves up along side her.

"-to, um, to the Nexus?"

Now Miranda is petting her.

Geneva stiffens slightly at the touch.

Oh geeze what should she do.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened. Especially with humanoids who aren't quite sure what to make of her. They react to her like they would to a friendly animal. You pet friendly animals. She tries not to be offended by it. They mean well. After all, Miranda is a human. Lots of humans come from worlds were they're the only sapient species. They just don't have any experience in dealing with other sorts of people. Especially radically non-human ones.

Yep.

Just.

Try not to poof up your head feathers too much, Geneva.

Miranda probably doesn't know what that means but you do. Just relax. Be nice and smooth.

A smooth bird is a calm bird.

To prevent this from being awkward Geneva reaches out with one of her wings and strokes Miranda's hair.

Yep.

This is definitely less awkward. Way better.

"So, um... did you arrive here recently?"

"I got a bug!" Glory announces to everyone after pouncing on the dragonfly, her hat escaping in the process.

[Ironsmith]

[Main Lodge]

Miranda had handled animals before, but this was the first time any had handled her back. It wasn't altogether unpleasant; Geneva seemed to be putting in the effort to be gentle. It was just... weird.

Oh, well. That's life.

"A few days ago." She answers, not missing a beat this time. "My team and I crashed here. Our scientist has gone off and decided to lock herself up until she can find a way back, so until then, we're all just trying to get along with the locals."

As it happens, Glory's hat ends up blowing right by them. Without turning to look, Miranda reaches up and deftly grabs it out of the air, before reaching back down to a level where Glory would be able to retrieve it, in a smooth, rehearsed motion that suggests she's dealt with rowdy kids before... or people who act like rowdy kids, at least.

"What about you? It sounds like you've been here a while." Miranda asks, deciding to ease up on the petting in favor of a more cerebral distraction.