GLoG 93: Something something something babies

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

"You can't." Braon confesses. "I'm a habitual liar and a pathological trickster, not to mention a colossal jerk. But, hey, at least you know that going in." She sighs and lets her vines extend enough to re-balance herself on the branches. "But if it helps, you'd sort of monopolize my attention. I've got nobody to betray you to, and not a lot to gain by crossing you." She shrugs. "Which makes trust irrelevant, really."

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
"If you know those things are bad, why don't you try to change? Uh, that's what I've been trying to help people with." By people, she means the souls of the damned and the fiends that consume them. "And, uh, GLoG used to have a program for helping people be better." She's not sure if the redemption program is still a thing though.

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

Braon gives a derisive snort. "Oh, highness..." She begins. "I'll tell you why not. I know who I am." She runs a finger along the edge of her horn. "I'm a selfish, cutthroat fiendling, in this world for herself and herself alone. It's what I'm supposed to be. All I ever will be. The only way I can really change is by getting better at it." She shrugs. "Mortals don't understand this. They think nature can be changed. That, with the right combination of words and actions, they can make someone bad or good." She shakes her head. "Poor idiots."

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
"I'm sorry." Now it's Sekhmet's turn to slide close to Braon and gently put a hand on her shoulder. "They told me that too. Whipped me and imprisoned me because of what I was. But truly, uh, it's possible to be better than what's expected of us. I'm living proof. So are my courtiers, Rose, Obsidian, and the rest. They agree with me, and we're, uh, all trying our best." She speaks with conviction; she truly believes what she says.

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

Braon recoils at Sekhmet's touch, and opens her mouth to object, but decides against it. She wasn't going to be persuaded that easily, but there was no sense in telling Sekhmet that. Instead, she just lets her shoulders sag and puts a hand on Sekhmet's.

That was... nice. Sekhmet's gesture was more empathy than she'd come to expect from the average person. It'd be a shame if that were as far as it went.

Braon takes a shuddering sigh and leans into Sekhmet, shaking uncontrollably. If Sekhmet doesn't push her off, Braon will bury her face in the demon queen's chest and cry more openly; not loudly enough to be caught, but hopefully enough to get more of a response from her.

[Reinholdt]

[The Spooky Tree]

In the dead of night, under the nearly dead tree, stood a most dreadful and abhorrent monster. Shadows licked its vaguely human-ish form as it buried itself in the frozen bosom of darkness. Very little could be seen under the black cloak which obscured all but the empty voids that served as its eyes. Mistaking this abomination for a mere eleven year old girl would truly be disastrous for whomever chooses to flit along the edge of tragedy.

Said frightful wretch much preferred the shade the paler half of time provided, though not necessarily the chill which followed the atrocious figure, clinging to it like dew to a flower. It's hard to say where this decrepit tree came from in an otherwise lush campsite, nor why it was night in this one area so often, as if reality were being bent, broken, remade, reforged at the whim of this unspeakable evil. Twas better not to question the dreadful influence this beast was having, lest one invite it into their mind to devour a person's sanity from within.

Rather one would be more inclined to note that this cretin has shown up at this spot regularly, every day, for two years, going on three, staring forlornly out at the path that winds up to the camp. For that is the direction in which her father left.

And he would be back.

Any day now.

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
Sekhmet hugs Braon and gently rocks back and forth. "Shhhh. It's okay. You're safe here." She genuinely cares, so it would be a shame if Braon's tears weren't so genuine.

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

Aw.

Sekhmet was being just like the mother Braon never had.

Sort of.

She did have a mother. She just wasn't much of one.

Because, you know, fiendling.

Still.

Having someone actually care what Braon was going through was a refreshing change of pace.

It'd make Sekhmet so much easier to manipulate. If Braon knew pity was going to get her so much traction with her, she would have opened with that. Now, even if Sekhmet didn't trust her, she was still going to be quite vulnerable.

All too easy, really.

...

But that can wait a moment. Braon hasn't been hugged in years. She's not going to let that go right away.

Braon reaches around with both her arms and vines and hugs Sekhmet back, her hands balling into fists. It won't be very comfortable for Sekhmet, but it should still serve as a sign that she's doing something right.

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
Sekhmet's still aware that Braon is a confessed murderer.
But part of Sekhmet's duty is to deal with murderers and worse on a regular basis. Sure, she leaves most of that to Rose, but she's participated some. She doesn't trust Braon, but if she doesn't open herself up a little, healing can't begin. She'll keep this up as long as wanted.

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

Braon reluctantly drops her hold on Sekhmet, all too aware that she was probably going to draw unwanted attention if she detained the demon queen for too long. She wipes her eyes on her sleeve and gives a little sniffle. "...Right." She says finally. "You said there were other things I could do?"

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
Sekhmet nods. "Are you good at, uh, finding people? There's a man I need tracked down and brought to me. Alive." If that wasn't clear. "Can you do that?"

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

"I found you, didn't I?" Braon croons. "...It's not my specialty, but I can get a lot of eyeballs out reasonably quickly." One of her vines snakes back down to her, wrappes around a robin that had been roosting elsewhere in the tree and was now desperately struggling to get free. "Tell me more about this... ugh, man you want found." She says, stroking the frightened bird in a vaguely meancing way.

[Morty]

[Woods]

"I'm sure it probably can't be that bad," Khannie reasons as she grips her MIGHT STAFF and goes tromping off across the flowery field, swatting a few large seed pods as she goes and sending a cloud of windborn seeds swirling away like a cloud of startled pixies. "Whatever you've got will probably be great."

It probably beats pokemon food.

Hey guys guess what we're having today?

BERRIES!

barf

"Okay so yeah our adventure! So I was thinking there would be this monster that's rampaging through the forest and we have to trick it back into a cave and then Brinika can use her magic sword to seal the cave," Khannie says, making a lock-turning motion with her staff. "How does that sound?"

At the far end of the meadow there's a granite boulder sticking out of the earth with a conspicuous crack running through it. It's patched in lichen and bits of dried grass where weather and time have eaten little shelves into its surface. Here and there, clinging tenaciously to the stone face, are small bubbly leaved succulents oblivious to the fact that plants have no business growing on patches of barren rock. Sticking out of the crack is a stunted, crooked old pine tree all gnarled and twisted and bent.

[Woods]

"Trite and cliché." Arthfael replies, lowering his flute. "Also, not particularly well thought-out. What kind of rampaging monster would be stupid enough to go into the cave with a convenient lock on it, instead of, say, continuing to rampage?"

He wasn't wrong. Even a dumb animal would need to be lured in with food or something. This was starting to sound an awful lot like one of their "heroes" was about to get eaten, and he didn't like his odds if it came to that. He might not be enjoying the game, but he'd be damned if he was going to "lose".

"It's not about being bad, it might make you sick. Aunt Reelshka says goblins eat stuff that would make topsiders sick. It's an, uh. Adaptation." She looks up at Arthfael. "So how do you suggest we lock away the monster, then?"

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
Sekhmet nods. "His name is Ananias Crowley. He is, uh, was a servant of my mother. He has some information I need. He is under a curse that prevents him from saying what he knows; I can remove it." That seems simple enough. "Can you find him?"

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

Braon raises an eyebrow. "Fascinating. You managed to tell me everything I need to know about this man except what would help me identify him. Don't you have a photo or a sketch or something of him? I don't even know what species I'm looking for. Human? Fiendling? Full-on demon? Oh, wait, no, don't tell me, he's a leprechaun, isn't he?"

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
Sekhmet says nothing but closes her eyes. Then an image tries to force itself into Braon's mind. A man, emaciated and withered, long, unkempt brown hair streaked with grey. There. How's that? Sekhmet doesn't speak aloud.

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

Braon starts and nearly falls out of the tree, looking at Sekhmet like she'd just shoved ice cubes down the front of her shirt. "Sweet Lady Ad- a little warning would be nice!" She pants, not at all prepared for the mental intrusion.

"...Well, whatever. I've got him now." Braon runs her fingers over the robin's head, mumbling incoherently, before releasing the bird back into the wild. Over the next several days, the hex she placed on that bird was going to spread from animal to animal, causing any that saw Ananias to congregate near him. She'd just have to keep an ear to the ground about odd gatherings of birds and rodents over the next week or so.

"There. Check back with me this time next week." Braon smirks. "Same time, same place. Unless there was somewhere else you would prefer to meet?"

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
"Does it have to be up in the tree? There's a picnic table, uh, right down there." Sekhmet points in the general direction with her tail. "Next week. Uh, near here."

Whether or not it's exactly here doesn't especially matter.

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

"It has to be discreet, yes." Braon replies. "Putting aside that I'm supposed to be on the lam in general thanks to that aforementioned raid, I'm sure word's gotten out by now that I was after the children and no self-respecting GloGster is going to let me anywhere near them."

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
Maybe Braon shouldn't have said that. Because at the mention of going after children, something snaps in Sekhmet.
"You WHAT!?" The air becomes blisteringly hot, leaves curling and crinkling as they begin to burn. The demon queen lunges, flames trailing behind her hands likes ribbons. She's trying to tackle Braon out of the tree and bring this sudden fight to the ground below.

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

"What in-" is all Braon has time to say before being body-checked by the angry queen. With a startled cry, she falls out of the tree with Sekhmet on top of her, hitting the ground with an ominous thud, simultaneously dealing with falling the distance out of the tree and being squished under Sekhmet's weight. Her vines go up to try and throw her assailant off, only for Braon to remember too late that they were flammable already (and presumably, demon fire was more potent regardless), causing her to squeel in pain as they burn down to their roots. "Stop it! Get off!"

[Rebonack]

[Woods]

"It's a magic key-sword though, it can seal any cave," Khannie counters. "And yeah! If you think my idea is so dumb then how about you come up with a better one?"

She's definitely tired of Arthfael raining on every single part of their adventure.

He's like...

The worst bard EVER!

Bards are supposed to make adventures more fun not less fun!

Doesn't he know the first thing about barding?

Oh well.

While the vampire boy considers that challenge Khannie will begin constructing her idea for the monster in her mind. Let's see... What would a good monster be that's attacking goblins? Something that lives underground for sure. It would have to be big, but it wouldn't have to be TOO big. In most of the old stories monsters mostly ate livestock on the surface. That was a big deal because people counted on their sheep and goats and cows and things to survive. So what sort of monster would eat beetles? Maybe a giant mole?

Khannie quickly tucks her staff under her arm and pulls her phone out to look up pictures of moles since she isn't one hundred percent clear on what non-pokemon moles look like. A giant diglet probably wouldn't cut it.

[Ironsmith]

[Woods]

"Fine. Okay. Magic swordkey seals any cave. Sure." Arthfael mumbles. "But isn't that sort of pointless if whatever you're locking in can just dig its way out?" He pulls out his pad and paper and starts making a quick sketch. "What you need... is something that is willing to go into a cave, but doesn't do a lot of burrowing. Something like..." He taps his pen to his chin. If he really wanted to make this a good story, he'd have to really sell them on the villain.

"...Either of you girls ever hear of a vorvolak?" He begins. "You see, not all monsters start out as something big and scary, or even all that evil. Sometimes you get something a little more mundane. Like, say... a cave snake." He shrugs. "Not that big. Not that clever. Most of the time, they just eat harmless little beetles, maybe the occasional rat." He holds up his fingers to indicate the smaller ones. "But what if you had one that got to live a very, very long time? It never stops growing. It never stops learning. It just gets bigger and stronger and more and more clever." He paces in circles around the two of them, scribbling furiously. "And... just supposing, this big old snake just happens across a dead goblin somewhere. Maybe they were killed in a mining accident. Maybe they just got lost and couldn't find any food. Maybe a bear got to them and didn't quite finish the meal. It hardly matters to the snake. All it smells is a possible meal, so it does as it does best; it comes up, unhinges its jaw, and swallows the dead goblin whole. And then, like it has so often in its considerable life, it discovers something new; it likes the taste of goblin."

Arthfael gives a wicked little smirk and starts dragging his feet as he steps around Brinika in a circle, imitaring the sound of snake scales scraping on stone. "Of course, that happened far away from any settlements. Nobody knows this creature exists yet. Not until a mining expedition goes wrong."

"One by one, miners just start disappearing. They go down into these tunnels and just... don't come back. Adventurers go in after them to try to find out what happened. Most of them don't come back, either. Except for one. A very lucky young goblin who went into the mine with two others, hoping to find some trace of the others."

"So in she goes, with her friends. They're not sure what they're going to find, but they're confident they can handle whatever comes their way. They go down tunnel after tunnel, finding nothing. Until one of them starts hearing this... quiet hissing noise. Like a gas leak, almost. There are a lot of those in the mines, you know, and that might account for some of the missing goblins. They go to investigate."

"And then, when our lucky little goblin happens to turn around, she sees that one of her companions is just... gone. She didn't hear anything. She didn't see anything. Their third member just isn't there any more."

"She goes to warn her friend, and that's when she sees it." Arthfael flips the sketchpad around and shoves it in Brinika's face, showing her the picture of a massive snake, jaw open, an unidentified goblin halfway in its mouth, struggling helplessly. The serpent's eye is turned straight toward her, its lifeless gaze still betraying its hunger and intent; she was next.

"So our lucky goblin runs. She gets as far down the tunnel as fast as she can, the vorvolak right on her heels. It's big, true, but it's also fast, fast enough to have snatched up her companions right under her nose. She makes it to the end of the tunnel, which is thankfully narrow enough that the monster can't follow."

Arthfael tilts the picture to Khannie, letting her see it. "A terrifying beast, indeed. Do we know anyone brave enough to confront it and stop it?"

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
The two fiends crash to earth wreathed in flame like a meteor. Sekhmet doesn't let up on impact either. "YOU HURT CHILDREN!? AND I WAS GOING TO EMPLOY YOU? YOU MAKE ME SICK!" Her right arm strikes the earth next to Braon's head with supernatural force, dirt exploding upward from a small crater formed under the blow. Her clothes are aflame now, not that she's noticed, and a circlet of molten gold has manifested on her forehead above her horns. She's bigger too, having gained about a foot of height already and still growing, her already-damaged dress protesting under the strain. She looks more and more like a glorious, terrible queen every moment. "GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON I SHOULDN'T SEND YOU TO MY KINGDOM RIGHT NOW!"

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

Braon looks up at the now-enlarged demon queen, terrified. "I never hurt any kids!" She protests, throwing her arms in front of herself defensively. "The raid failed entirely!" Realizing that her excuse probably wasn't going to fly with Sekhmet, she changes tack to something a little more relevant. "What ever happened to 'people can change'?" She says shakily. "Or is this what you really think? If they're bad enough, there's no way they can be brought around and they should be killed immediately?"

Her vines had already burnt to a crisp, including the ones holding her legs together. If Sekhmet ignored her pleas, Braon was doomed.

She wasn't ready for that. Not yet.

She needed help.

Braon looks over Sekhmet's shoulder at the tree they just fell out of, focusing on it intently. If she could get the demon queen to hesitate even a little, help would arrive momentarily.

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
"I WON'T KILL YOU." That sounds the opposite of reassuring. "I'M DOING THIS TO PROTECT THEM!" Sekhmet gestures towards the daycare down the hill. By now her clothes have completely torn and burned away, but she is clad in a regal raiment woven from fire itself. Her claws reach out and tear into the fabric of reality, a rift opening between her hands to an inhospitable volcanic hellscape. The intent is clear. She wants to banish Braon to this place, if she can. But Braon's help might have other things in mind.

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

"Please! Not that!" Braon begs, crawling backward away from Sekhmet. "Don't... don't do that to me! Please!" She raises her hand defensively, shaking in terror. "You don't understand! I..."

And that's when she lowers her hand and smirks. "...must bid you farewell now. Godspeed, your highness."

That's about when the tree is going to come to life and attempt to slam Sekhmet through her own portal, or at the very least off her feet. Meanwhile, Braon is going to roll onto her side and start regenerating some of her vines, in the hopes of gaining something to help her move.

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
The tree smacks Sekhmet, but not through the portal; in fact, the gateway snaps closed as soon as the demon queen stops concentrating on it. She ignores the tree for now, screeching at Braon instead. "LEAVE HERE AND NEVER COME BACK!" Now, she turns to the angry, animated tree and blasts white-hot hellfire at it in a blinding spray of light and heat. Clearly A: she was holding back on Braon and B: she doesn't care much about not making a scene.

[Ironsmith]

[Watching Daycare]

Naturally, an enchanted tree is not much of a match for hellfire, except maybe in the conflagratory sense. What might have been a formidable physical challenge for anyone else is reduced to ashes in under thirty seconds.

But, as a distraction, it was sufficient.

Braon has already regrown enough of her vines to re-bind her legs and rise to her feet. She won't be able to run fast, but she will be running. And as she runs, she sets off another series of enchantments; every few meters, whatever sod was under her feet would be imbued with life; not much, but enough to cause it to clump up and pull itself free of the dirt. So far, she's traveled far enough for three of these creatures to be created; two are heading toward Sekhmet as further distractions, and the third was moving somewhere else Braon knew would be more important to Sekhmet than chasing down the fiendling:

The daycare.

[bc56]

Watching Daycare
True to Braon's expectations, Sekhmet completely changes directions when one of the monsters starts plodding towards the daycare. She leaps into the air and with a flap of her wings flies over to it, ignoring the other two to land in front of it. She rears back her right arm and lashes out in a punch, sloppy and inexpert, but hitting with titanic force, enough to blast the creature apart if it connects. She's not going to let anything hurt those kids.