GLoG 93: Something something something babies

[bc56]

"I, uh," Sekhmet looks down at the pieces scattered across the table. "I don't like the idea of playing a game with little models of my friends. It's, uh, weird." And pretty creepy. "Maybe we should, uh, do something else."

[Shadowcaller]

[Woods]

"Well, I do know how to use a sword. And I know a few little charms. But I'm not old enough to have become a priest or a shaman or anything like that. Why, do I look priestly?" That would be a rather flattering comparison, if she thought he looked particularly wise and mystical. Especially in his current state of dress.

[Woods]

"Ohh! So you're in training." Anika approaches and holds up her hand and depending on if his body language suggests he's okay with it or not, she will give him a quick pat on the shoulder. "Hang in there, bud. If your training anything like my cousins I don't envy you. She had pretty hardass teachers." The druid nods to herself. "But yeah, you remind me of her in a way. You got that, uh, priestly air about you. Or maybe that's just since we're near the moon well." She gestures back at it.

[Deathkeeper]

Woods

”Well, not really.” he admits.
”Wasn’t old enough to train at home, no one to train me in the Nexus. So now I took a job looking after kids so I’d have a place to stay.” He walks over and looks down into the moonwell again.
”is it really full of magic? Does it do crazy stuff? What’d happen if I used it?” he asks, curious.

[Rebonack]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

"Hmm.."

Yeah.

"That would be kind of weird, wouldn't it," Geneva admits. "Is there something else you would rather do? It is a pretty nice day."

And this place does happen to be a campsite by a lake.

You know what lakes are good for?

Having islands in the middle of them with creepy occult sites!

And swimming! Hiking! Non-threatening things!

[bc56]

Sekhmet nods. "That sounds good. I could use some fresh air." Especially after all the deep revelations and stuff in here. The Hound jumps off her, and she stands up. It stands just behind her, like a loyal dog at heel.

Sekhmet, Geneva didn't actually suggest anything. She just said it was a nice day. But Sekhmet doesn't really care. Just going outside is nice. It's something she could never do in her homeworld.

[Rebonack]

[Not Hawthorn Cabin]

"Okay, well, let's go outside then? Maybe a hike along the shore of the lake would be nice?" Geneva suggests as she finishes off her tea and heads out the door.

As Geneva said, it's a pretty nice day.

Sun is out, glinting off the water. A cool breeze sends gentle waves lapping against the shore. Insects drone in the summer heat and forest birds call out to one another.

Geneva withdraws a sun hat from her inventory and puts it on.

Wouldn't want to get a sunburn after all.

For the first few minutes Geneva is just going to walk in silence.

This is something she really likes about not being in the Wasteland anymore. You couldn't really just go for a stroll there. Not without the risk of begging savaged by raiders or irradiated mutants or slipping into toxic water or any number of terrible things.

[bc56]

Sekhmet follows after Geneva, waving her hand at Ellie as she goes, a flash of power cloaking the hiveling in illusion. The large golden retriever then follows her fiendish mistress out the door happily. Unlike Geneva, Sekhmet needs no protection against the sun. She's never been sunburnt in her life. She might not even know it's a thing that can happen to people. She's glad the day is nice and warm. This is something she likes about not being at her old home. She can just be outside, and doesn't need to worry about hiding anything. Being part fiend won't get her killed, or worse, here.

[Rebonack]

[Walk Around the Lake]

Frogs leap into the water.

Toad bugs hops about in the sand.

Leopard beetles race about, in search of a meal.

A heron strides the the water on stilt legs, hunting for little fish.

Dragon flies bob and weave among the reeds at the lake's edge.

Geneva leans down and picks up a particularly shiny stone, turning it over in her fingers.

"Did I ever tell you about where I came from?" she asks.

She's pretty sure she hasn't.

[bc56]

It's nice out. The nature here is beautiful. Sekhmet rarely saw any wildlife before coming here, and what she did see were vermin, rats, cockroaches, and pigeons, not the colorful variety found here. She quietly watches the heron until Geneva speaks to her. "Uh, no?" Sekhmet replies. "Except you mentioned a vault, and, uh, raiders." That was purple Geneva, wasn't it? Of course, Sekhmet has no reason to believe pink Geneva would be any different, except for the fact that their two minds are separate.

[Rebonack]

[Walk Around the Lake]

Hey, pigeons have shiny neck feathers! Those are pretty colorful.

And the vaults and the raiders are in fact something they had in common. They were, after all, just echoes of the same person from two different settings.

"There was a war a long time ago," Geneva says, her eyes following the ridge-line of the distant mountains. "A really big war. A war that consumed the world. Nearly everything and everyone on the surface was killed, poisoned, or mutated. There were vaults created. Little communities deep underground where the poison couldn't reach them. My ancestors took shelter in one of those vaults."

Huh.

Well.

That might explain why Geneva likes it outside so much, too.

The landscape here is extremely unpoisoned.

[bc56]

"Oh," Sekhmet replies. She's silent for a moment, in thought about how terrible that is. That level of destruction and death is scary just to think about, even though she's not sure what mutating means."That's terrible. How could anyone do that?" To her, killing one person is unthinkable enough. Killing the entire world? That's a level of unthinkability beyond her comprehension.

[Rebonack]

[Walk Around the Lake]

"Nations with different ideas of how things should work," Geneva sighs. "They both created horrible weapons that could poison a whole city. Neither side would use them, because they knew if they did the other side would use theirs. I don't know who used their infinity bombs first. I don't know what convinced someone that absolute annihilation was a good plan. That part of history is pretty hazy. Lots of misinformation and confusion."

Geneva tosses the rock she had picked up into the lake.

A plunk.

Ripples spread across the water.

"My home world is a ruined, poisoned mess, Sekhmet. You can't even drink the water without getting sick. Most of the people and pokemon there have completely forgotten what friendship is. All they care about is surviving. If that means others have to suffer so they can survive, they don't care."

Geneva takes a deep breath.

"Everyone's fighting over the scraps of the dead past. And that's why I've been working so long on building a bridge back to my home world. The Nexus is clean and alive. And maybe... if people didn't have to fight to survive anymore they would embrace friendship again, too."

[bc56]

Sekhmet just looks sad. "I wish that would work, Geneva. But it's not like that. The world I came from is as alive as this one, but the people are just as bad." She shivers suddenly, caught in a painful memory. "I just wanted to see a train come into the new station. I snuck out, with a disguise. It wasn't good enough. These men, they grabbed me, carried me away." She's crying now, tears streaming down her face. "They brought me to an old warehouse, tied me to a post, and then flogged me. They sold tickets, for people to watch me scream. When they were done, they threw me in a closet. They had a serving girl tend my wounds, and they said they'd be back that night, making crude jokes. They intended to, to..." Sekhmet doesn't finish her sentence, instead breaking down into sobs. After weeping into her hands for a few seconds, she looks Geneva straight in the eyes, the tears not yet dried from the fiendling's face. She says. "Leave the truly damned for Hell. Concentrate on saving those who will appreciate it."

[Rebonack]

[Lakeside Walk]

Geneva turns to her friend, steps up to her, and gives her a hug.

It sounds like she could really use one right now.

For several minutes she doesn't say anything.

Just...

Let Sekhmet cry.

Though, eventually-

"We called people like that 'raiders'. People who had given up on all pretext for civilization. People who only cared about satisfying their base impulses. Some people need a society to restrain them. Strip society away and they act like-"

Geneva shudders.

"-that. Those people, they didn't see you as a person. The rules didn't apply, so they felt like they could do whatever they wanted. The soldiers who raided my home were like that. We weren't people to them. How did you escape?"

[bc56]

"The serving girl," Sekhmet explains. "I, uh, choked her until she passed out, then, uh, disguised myself as her using illusion." And then walked a good distance through the streets, naked except for a shift and the illusion, bleeding from several wounds on her back. It was a miracle she made it home unharmed. "If I hadn't, I... I don't know what would've happened." No wonder Sekhmet's terrified of people. After something like that happened to her, of course she would be.

[Rebonack]

[Lakeside Walk]

Geneva gives a slow nod.

"Everyone back home was psychic to some degree. But the soldiers had this armor. You would try to grab them and everything just slid off. We were helpless. It smelled like burnt meat everywhere. People were screaming. There was smoke. I tried fleeing down to the vault entrance. I thought maybe if I could get outside I would be able to escape. There was a solider not too far behind me and I knew I wouldn't have time to wait for the vault door to open. So I started it up and hid under the metal grating that covered the subfloor."

She knew that the soldiers probably had an augmented reality HUD like she did. It would show them the direction she was in. But... the system had a flaw. It didn't indicate vertical distance. So-

"He knew I was there. Just... no exactly where. If he found me he was going to kill me. So I..."

Geneva swallows.

"When his back was turned I lifted up a heavy panel from the flooring and hit him with it. I kept hitting him until-"

She was crying back then. And screaming. Terrified and furious. A roiling ball of negative emotion. Geneva shakes her head at the memory.

"I remember standing over him trying not to hyperventilate. His helmet was crushed in like an egg. I-" Geneva swallows again. "I pulled the helmet off. I probably shouldn't have. I thought maybe he was some kind of Wasteland monster. We had stories about the kinds of things that must live out in the irradiated wastes. The armor looked terrifying. But it was just a person under it. And I had killed him. I don't know how long I stared at him. It felt like forever but it must have just been a few seconds. Then the vault alarm went off to indicate that the door was open and I chain-teleported as far and as fast as I could until I was too exhausted to move."

Geneva scrunches her nose up.

"Then I threw up on a rock."

[bc56]

"I think she was still alive when I left. I hope she was still alive." Sekhmet really doesn't want to believe she killed that girl. She has no idea whether she did or not. "By the time I got, home I was delirious. I was bedridden for weeks, it hurt to move so much. When I finally healed, I had these ugly scars down my back, where the cat bit me." A cat o' nine tails, she means. Geneva might notice a conspicuous lack of scars on Sekhmet's back now, given that she has to show a lot of it to fit her wings through her shirt. Where did they go? "I could barely walk for months, and I kept having nightmares." She was almost like a young child again, dependent on her guardians for everything.

[Rebonack]

[Walk Around the Lake and Down Memory Lane]

Well, Sekhmet got a new body built so that's probably why the scars are gone.

No reason why a new body would need scars.

"And those people are long gone," Geneva says. "The raiders and the monsters. It's safe here. Nearly a paradise."

She stoops down and runs her fingers through the water.

"A living world where people aren't going to mistreat you for what you are."

There are some dark spots, sure.

But...

Honestly Geneva hasn't had much experience with those. Just doing her work and trying to make the world a better place. There have been some horrors that have popped up, but nowhere is perfect right?

[bc56]

"Uh. No. People still try to kill me for what I am." Now that silver glows in her presence, some people who wouldn't have targeted Sekhmet before will. She feels that Geneva may have a bit of an isolation issue. Living on a heavily protected floating island keeps a lot of the bad people away, and most of the everyday problems too. "But I can be outside undisguised, and have a job, and a boyfriend, and so many other things I couldn't have dreamed of having. It is a better place, just not perfect."

[Shadowcaller]

Woods

”Well, not really.” he admits.
”Wasn’t old enough to train at home, no one to train me in the Nexus. So now I took a job looking after kids so I’d have a place to stay.” He walks over and looks down into the moonwell again.
”is it really full of magic? Does it do crazy stuff? What’d happen if I used it?” he asks, curious.

Woods

"Dude, that's good and all but imagine what you could do with some training. Doing menial chores suck." Anika seems fairly adamant about that.

She then turns to look to follow his gaze to the well. "Uh, use it? Use it how? I don't actually know that much about the well since they're forbidden to use. But we usually just use them to heal wounds and stuff back home. Though they're like filled with pure magic so they can supposedly do all sorts of stuff. That's why we don't want them to fall into the wrong hands."

[Deathkeeper]

Woods

”Yeah, but there’s no one to train me. I took the job helping the kids because I didn’t really have any place to go, let alone mystic teachers.”
He blinks.
”Oh, the demon guy was convinced you’d been using it. That’s fine. It would probably require drinking a lot of it or swimmin’ in it, and I don’t think my posterior would fit in it, huh?” he says with a grin.
”Kinda want to know what sittin in pure magic feels like though. Think it’s really tingly?” It’s probably really tingly.

[Rebonack]

[Lakeside Walk]

Geneva doesn't live at VIGIL! She just works there. She lives in one of the nicer parts of Inside.

Regardless, that point stands.

She blinks, looking a bit surprised. "They... they do? When? Where did this happen? Inside has some pretty strict anti-discrimination laws."

Of course if it happened at Skyside or something there isn't much to be done about that. Skyside is a lawless train-wreck of a city.

"I know it's not perfect. But... we can at least work at making it better. And the situation is far superior to where we came from, so that counts for something."

Honestly 'Better than the Wasteland' really isn't setting a very high bar.

Everything is trying to poison you or murder you.

Or, well, not everything. There are probably some non-irradiated rocks you can sit on safely.

[bc56]

"It was at a spooktober party," Sekhmet answers. She's never seen any evidence of anti-discrimination laws, but she's also terrified of police, which doesn't help her case. Police were one of the many things she had to avoid for most of her life. "It is better here." Especially at GLoG. Sekhmet feels safe here.

[Rebonack]

[Walk Around the Lake]

"It is better here," Geneva agrees. "I just hope I can make my home world a bit better with my work, too."

She frowns a bit regarding the party.

"Really? What happened?"

She can't imagine someone attacking a devil at a Spooktober Party.

Aren't devils spooky things?

Well.

Not Sekhmet.

Sure, she looks a bit intimidating but she's probably the least spooky person Geneva has met in recent history.

[bc56]

"I was talking to this guy, and we, uh, wandered away from the main group. Then one of the other partygoers followed us with an axe. She tried to kill both of us, and, uh, kept ranting about demons the whole time. I, uh, barely got away." She doesn't know what happened to the other guy. She hopes he didn't die down there. That would be bad.

[Rebonack]

[Lakeside Walk]

"Oh my Arceus, Sekhmet, I'm so sorry," Geneva gasps.

Geneva was, of course, not there.

She hadn't even MET Sekhmet yet.

But now she's kicking herself for not going to that party.

She could of...

Goodness.

She isn't even sure.

But she could have done something!

"Did you report her?" Geneva asks.

[bc56]

"Report? To who?" Sekhmet asks, incredulous. "The police would just take her side." They would on Sekhmet homeworld. But not here. She doesn't realize that though. She really doesn't trust any authority figures.

[Rebonack]

[Lakeside Walk]

"To Intersection. Making sure people in Inside are safe is their whole job," Geneva says. "Inside has very strict anti-discrimination laws. But for those laws to be enforced people have to report discrimination."

Otherwise they don't know about it, see?

"I think you should report this person who attacked you. Anyone willing to attack someone just because they're a devil even if they haven't done anything wrong is a danger to the citizens of the City."

Seriously.

Axe wielding crazy?

Why would anyone want axe murderers around.

"And before you object, I should probably tell you that my husband Nick is the police commissioner. He's in charge of Remnant. And I can assure you that your report would be taken seriously."

Oh no Geneva is married to a cop!

[bc56]

"What's the use? It's been months. I have no proof. And even if I did..." Sekhmet's voice trails off as Geneva mentions who she's married to. Then she panics. "Please don't tell him about me! I haven't done anything wrong! Don't let them give me to the 'quisition!" She seems very desperate about that, and doesn't seem to have heard much else of what was said. She's too busy freaking out.

[Rebonack]

[Lakeside Walk]

"They have professional diviners that work for them, I'm sure they could figure out what really happened," Geneva replies. She's about to say something else but then-!

Oh no!

A meltdown!

Geneva focuses inward for a moment, reaching down to a place in her mind she knows well.

A place she reaches to when panic attacks threaten to cloud her thoughts when confronted with the wrong sound or smell.

A place of of serenity. A still pool. Quiet and clam.

She takes this emotion and projects it as Sekhmet. It isn't intrusive. Or forceful. It's gentle and soft.

Be still.

"You're fine, Sekhmet. You're safe. I don't even know what a 'quisition' is."