Silly Plots 4: It's not particularly silly, is it?

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

Lights flicker within the creature's lack-of-a-form as it ponders. Wealth? The state of possessing sufficient resources, correct? And the preferred form of those resources is usually in small metal cylinders. Power? Power is easy. Luxury? Does not compute. But it thinks it has a solution. It knows someone who had all those things, and is now gone.
It reaches out with a fractal tendril of red and blue light and touches Allen in the center of his chest. It passes right into him, neither one of them able to truly touch the other. And then it splinters out into many branches, spreading throughout his body. He'll feel an almost electric feeling as the matter of his body and clothes is rearranged. His senses will sharpen, and new ones will form in his mind, a feeling for the numbers moving behind reality, a predictive skill bordering on precognition. But he'll probably be more preoccupied with the changes to his appearance at first.

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

Allen gasps as the 'hand' touches him. As the feeling spreads throughout his body, so does fur. Claws click on the stone floor. Allen swells as his clothes dance into different vestments. He feels a great power rising within him, rising-
until it all turns into dead weight. He feels his mouth and nose combine and elongate as his ears point up. In a few moments Allen has taken up the appearance of a dead man - one very heavy wolfen.
"Wh-what? Why? What'd you doooooo?" Allen demands, voice rising into a howl. His paw-like hands go to his middle, shaking it.

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

I-we altered your geometries to match my-our last agent-priest. The entity's voice is so much clearer now, almost musical. And Allen's altered clothes do look priestly, white, lace-trimmed robes under a mantle that's half red, half blue, split vertically up the middle. On a gold chain around his neck, something cold and heavy hangs between his chest and clothing. It's a large brass key of indeterminate purpose.

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

”Okay but why did you do that?” Allen demands and he works his hands over the buttons. He pulls his robe aside to get a good look at the large key hanging from his chest - along with his chest itself. At least his coat seems to be well-kept by whoever he’s supposed to match. And as his hands go over his skull he finds an intricately braided goatee beneath his muzzle with a copper wire tie.
”Wait you didn’t make me old on top of fat, did you?” he asks, panicking. Being huge and furry is one thing, but if he got turned into some sixty year old guy he’s going to be livid. He needs all the years he can get!

[Arkhosia]

Spoiler

Show

[Burglarising for JUSTICE!]

At the rear of the fort, second floor

Cantata and Fayyaad find themselves in a sparsely furnished room - something that may have perhaps once been part of a barracks, or equally a prison cell. Bunk beds line the cramped quarters, thin and worn metal frames hold tattered mattresses that look more uncomfortable to sleep on than the floor. Plenty of cover, but nothing particularly easy to fully conceal oneself behind.

The voice next door is muffled, but odd words come through. "...Had en-....Bull-"

Until Cantata puts her ear against the wall, which helps clear it up.

"We've delivered everything she asked for, and what do we got for it? Not a damn thing!" A voice, male, angry, with a distinct rasp to it.

"Oi, shut it, Cans. I know what I'm doing." A second voice, male, sharper than the first.

"Coulda fooled me."

"You know the deal. Once she's got what we wants, everything else is ours."

"Buncha crap."

"Enough, Cans!" There's a thud, as someone is knocked into the wall on the other side. "Crap in our hands, not in hers. Now you keep your damn mouth shut and be bloody patient."

The doorway remains clear, for now.

Mountain Trip

"Relax, Fi. Worst case scenario, Calm Reed can just spin around and throw the owlbear or dragonbear or giant cave salamander into the sun," Saint Laz reassures her closest companion, slowing her pace so the two of them can walk closer together. From the tone of her voice, I'd say she was only half-joking, and she genuinely believes that the only thing stopping Calm Reed from throwing bears over the horizon is how silly it might make her look.

"It would be nice to camp close enough to the exit to see stars in the night sky, instead of just airships, MagCorp satellites, and maybe a few aliens overhead," she adds, echoing Fidelia's own unspoken thoughts on the matter.

[Mountain Trip]

It might reassure St. Laz and Fidelia that there aren't any signs of animals living in the cave. Not large ones, anyway.

"We can camp out right near the entrance, so we can see the sky before it is time to sleep." It's odd to think that the night sky is such an unusual sight for them. Large, advanced cities like Skyside seem to blot out the sky, both through sheer size of the buildings and some mechanisms she can't entirely understand. "And yes, I do rather doubt there is anything in here we cannot handle." Herself especially. The monk peers into the cave and steps in. It seems to extend a fair bit into the mountain slope, but not very deep. It widens after a few meters and there seems to be a glint of metal around the corner, when a flashlight is shone there.

Burglarizing for JUSTICE!

Cantata raises an eyebrow as she listens into the conversation leaking through from the other side of the wall, flinching away briefly when someone thuds into the wall. She looks over towards Fayyaad and signs a couple things to him. They have a leader, probably not one of them. Might be able to exploit their squabbling and distrust if we need to.

Mountain Trip

Fidelia responds with a delighted little exhale as she pictures the outlandish image Saint Laz suggests to her. Between that and Calm Reed's decision on where to set up camp, her spirits certainly seem to rise a little, and her eyebrows raise when she spots the glinting off the flashlight's beam. "Hey, wait a minute - what's that?" Could someone else have taken shelter in here once?

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

Clarify: old? the creature responds. Codebreaker was considered by other corporeal entities to possess excessive resources.

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

"You know. Old? Like...in the later parts of a corporeal entity's lifespan. You know what a lifespan is, right? You know what death is, right?" Allen really hopes that it does or this is going to get really complicated.
"Wait so...what happened to this guy? Because it sounds like what you're saying that if I'm him...I get his stuff?" It did say 'was.' Maybe he died without any heirs? Would his fortune just be lying around in that case?

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

There's a brief pause, almost like the entity is staring at Allen in confusion. Codebreaker has ceased. His return is improbable. The entity gives an approval. His resources remain unclaimed.

[Morty]

[Burglarising for JUSTICE!]

Fayyaad nods.

"Let's keep moving upwards. If we find that leader of theirs we might find out more about what they're doing there. And if we take them out the rest might scatter."

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

Allen nods thoughtfully. "That must be what this key is for." he muses, holding it up again before tucking it against his chest and buttoning up his clothes.
"So like...what I'm asking is if Codebreaker (was that really his name?) had been corporeal long enough for his body functions to begin deteriorating. You know, like us corporeal entities do when we've been around a while but haven't ceased yet."

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

No appreciable degradation was occurring. The being answers Allen. If he gets a good look at his new self, he'll probably be able to confirm that he's not that old-looking. Although it's hard to tell with other species. And there's no mirror in here.

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

"Well. I guess I'll just have to go and find my new place at..." he pulls at the key around his neck and squints at the print on the side.
"11 Monarch Drive. Thanks uh...whatever your name is!" Allen waves, takes a step forward-
-and promptly loses his balance, falling over onto the ground.
"Why are my legs weird..." he groans.
The spirit may wish to inform Allen that his robes were not simply a disguise...

[Zefir]

[The Underground]

((That's right.))
After a heated discussion with the machines, Mia convinces them that the friendly demons are in her custody and that she will take them where they belong.
"Still around? After all this time?" Spike wonders if they should go there first, or if the bridge really is the better way to find out about that.

They make it to the bridge without much trouble.

Once they're there, Mia can see that it's very complicated. Row on row of controls, readouts, sensor panels, computers...and a fair bit of it is broken down.
Will she try to get some certain information from it now, or focus on making repairs? Or something else?

[The Underground]

((Sorry for my missing))

"I don't have much information about their kind, but is it impossible? How long can they live?"

Mia looks at this in schock. Some people might just look a bit worried at this, but for her it's a bit like watching a massaker. (I think I didn't brought out the machine fact of her world. So it might appear a bit off right now)
At first she tries what medics do on a battelfield. Seek the wounded and give them a first treatment. Since this has been for quiet some time she doesn't assume any damage that could cause a fatal blow. If there are several broken parts, she will try to gather whatever is still fine. If possible she might build a robot or other machine out of the good parts and this way save some of the data.

Since she will be up in this work she likly ignores her company or any sign of the enemy.

[Recaiden]

[The Underground]

"I don't have much information about their kind, but is it impossible? How long can they live?"

Mia looks at this in schock. Some people might just look a bit worried at this, but for her it's a bit like watching a massaker. (I think I didn't brought out the machine fact of her world. So it might appear a bit off right now)
At first she tries what medics do on a battelfield. Seek the wounded and give them a first treatment. Since this has been for quiet some time she doesn't assume any damage that could cause a fatal blow. If there are several broken parts, she will try to gather whatever is still fine. If possible she might build a robot or other machine out of the good parts and this way save some of the data.

Since she will be up in this work she likly ignores her company or any sign of the enemy.

"Oh, possible easily. They live far longer than ten years. But...it's been ten years. Expected them to move on." This changes things.

No one interrupts Mia as she triages the damaged machines and does what she can.
The bridge is too wrecked to be restored to working order - too many cables cut, memory banks burnt out, and parts simply failing from time.
But she can get various consoles working. The main engine is, allegedly, charging up now. There are maps of the stars charting the course that they took until it ended with a crash in the Nexus. There are lists of the cargo the vessel carried - including a batch of dangerous aliens for study.

[Blind Date]

"They are completely different," June says, but then claims, "but it really doesn't matter because the important part is seeing how the culture and tradition is reflected in it, I feel."

Since the smoothies are nearly or already gone, it makes it easier to talk back and forth.

"Probably is better for them, yes," June says.
"Thing is, like..." June bites the lower lip, and thinks how to explain the thought process behind it. "So...changing the way you think is a sign of it, though, especially if it was involuntary. If you're choosing to change how you think, then that's fine, but...like, y'know. Choosing something is completely different than not choosing it."

"Yeah. I suppose tails do have other purposes, too. I still like the idea of grabbing things with them." It's just the idea of grabbing things with a tail. Totally different than simply having more hands or whatever.

"Do you have a favorite musical tradition, then? Really it's any of them?" Mei asks. She doesn't get it, really. Don't all songs come from some sort of culture that affects them?

"Well, if you're the kind of person who would change how you think, it's really all the same whether you did or not, right? It's not like you're tricking anyone into drinking it."

The last idea gets her to laugh. "No, if you had just a tail for grabbing, you'd be excited to grab things with your hands, yeah?"

[Temple of Inari]

With that little panic moment over, Jade settles back down, until the lesson ends. If this is the end of class for the day, it would seem it's time to explain things to Honeysuckle. Otherwise, she'll focus on whatever comes next.

Most of these students have more lessons to go to, but Jade probably already passed basic mathematics. And luckily she's not being forced to repeat it.
Honeysuckle doesn't say anything yet; she seems a bit shaken by the briefly-out-of-control fire.

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

I-we am-are α. α answers simply.

Temple of Inari

"Hey. You alright?" Jade comes up beside Honeysuckle and lays her hand on her shoulder. "You have time for the long story?"

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

"Well, it's nice to meet you, a." Allen growls, butchering the name. But then again, he's only now starting to get the hang of talking out of his muzzle, so can you blame him? Luckily whatever it is, α got the idea.
Allen will then spend about ten minutes trying to get used to his new legs and center of mass and actually exit the building without falling over, to only mild success.

[Recaiden]

[Temple of Inari]

"Hey. You alright?" Jade comes up beside Honeysuckle and lays her hand on her shoulder. "You have time for the long story?"

"Got a little while." Honeysuckle mutters.
"That hurt. Thought things under control, but-" she shakes her head.

"So, a long story?"

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine
You must return, in order to perform your duties. α calls out, just before Allen can leave.

Temple of Inari
"Well, apparently I got eaten by a Kumiho, who turned into me and was living my life? And then she wanted to be a real human, so she came here to get cured, I think. But it didn't work, and now I'm a Kitsune? I don't really understand that part. Oh, and while I was... Dead... she made herself a twin brother, who's a copy of me before I was turned into a woman, so I have a brother now. But I don't remember what happened while I was a Kumiho, so I barely know him. It's awkward." Jade long-windedly explains. "So what's your story? I couldn't feel anything supernatural going on until you tried."

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

There’s plenty of time to get Allen back in. He’s slow and unsteady.
”Oh. So I guess you want me to take over as your agent, too? I guess that would explain the robe and not just the fur and gut. Um. What do you want me to do?” he asks.
”And are you gonna just start talking into my ear whenever now?”

[Recaiden]

"You're life's crazy, Jade. Kinda makes sense as a cure for it, though. Leave the fox, cure the monster, right?" Honeysuckle shrugs.

"After the teleporter thing, or was it-" Honeysuckle starts to explain, before realizing she's confusing even herself.
"Okay, so, had this power since I was born. And for however-many years, it worked the same. As long as I didn't look at anything, no problem."
"Then, during that eclipse a while back, got a little weird. Not sure exactly how, but the next day, I had two tails. Okay, sure, eclipses can do whatever, not a big deal."
"Fast-forward, I'm out with you and Marin when I catch fire. The day after that, I have a third tail now, and in the middle of my day, next thing I know I'm in the infirmary. Magical exhaustion, apparently, despite me not doing magic or looking very hard recently."
"Day after that, briefly kidnapped by a fake cyborg supervillain who's actually probably a shapechanging shadow monster. Bet that's unrelated, actually." Honeysuckle shrugs.

"Anyway, clearly there's something wrong with me, so thinking, maybe the fox experts here know what it is. They don't, but I end up in this class. Then- you saw."

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

You are. The entity seems confused as he asks about speaking in his ear. I-weare incapable of that communication. You must return for further instructions.

Temple of Inari

"I guess that makes a sort of sense." Not that she's gained anything useful from it. She can't even do magic. The tail makes sitting down awkward and the ears mean she can't wear normal hats. She'd be better off as human. "Oh, I'm sorry! You don't know why? Could there be any way to find out? I'll do what I can to help, if you want."

[Deathkeeper]

Cliffside Shrine

Allen manages to lean on the doorframe and try to look dignified.
"Okay, well, I'll come back often just like Codebreaker did. So uh, what sort of things did he do for you? Did he give sermons or were the robes for show? I'm going to have to clean this place up if people come visiting again..." He's going to have a hard time doing that much manual labor like this. And the temperature is only going to get higher each day...
Well, at least he doesn't think he sweats anymore. Does he?

[5a Violista]

[Blind Date]

Yes, that's the exact point: they all come from some sort of culture that affects them. The entire point. Seems like Mei gets it perfectly, but just doesn't get that she gets it. June nods. "Yes, I have a favorite. It's um..." Hold on...how are you supposed to explain it, anyway? "Well, it features a couple different kinds of percussion including usually-untuned musical bows and clapping and such, like sometimes features a call-and-response that overlaps and the rhythms are kind-of like..." June's face scrunches. It's not easy to just explain these sorts of things with words. "Well, also, like, there's some kind of tonic-supertonic thing and it's usually mixolydian, but, like. . .not intentionally but just turns out that way? And..."

Well,
June trails off.
This is probably getting too much into the parts that aren't really the key parts of it and that aren't the reason why.


Anyway. Changing how you think: June's head shakes. "It's not the same. It's...it just isn't." That's how June feels about it.

Thinking about tails. June laughs, too, thinking more about it. "Yeah. Now I'm imagining just never having hands and finally getting some for the first time. Like, not a mermaid, but something like that, but with no hands instead of no legs." Mermaids are pretty cool, though.

[Rebonack]

[Enchanted Forest]

Adir steps into the boat and picks up an oar, but the boat is full of guns! Rifles, mostly. He could probably paddle with the stock of one of those?

No doubt this represents something profound about Adir as a person.

Or maybe dream interpretation is absolute nonsense, just like the nonsense one's brain conjures up while dreaming.

Whatever the answer, Adir begins paddling toward the slowly receding ship. The water ripples strangely with each stroke, a swirl of white froth playing atop the waves. Closer inspection would reveal that it isn't foam at all, but a collection of innumerable tiny white crabs. Why did Adir notice this detail? Does it particularly matter? It might.

As his field of view is drawn in on the crabs he can see himself in a little boat upon a lake of drifting white, stepping off the dingy and onto the house boat.

It isn't a lake.

Both are grounded in a field of waving white flowers.

Cassie stands before him.

Does he embrace her?

[Murkus]

[Enchanted Forest]

Oh, this mind**** stuff is getting so damn old. Adir growls as he sticks what he'd normally consider to be a pretty nice piece of hardware into the water and tries to paddle with it, making for Cassie as quick as he can. "Hold on! I'm coming! Don't move, Cassandra!" It's hardly a shock when things shift again... but the shift in perspective does leave him feeling a bit of something like vertigo.

He sways on the dock, if there even still is a dock, propped above the field of flowers. He drops to one knee as his senses spin. He looks at Cassie, a tall figure in black with a rather menacing mask. At least until he pushes it up past the top of his face. His eyes are brimming with tears.

"Cassie? Baby?" He holds a glove out to her, fingers spread. In the back of his mind, he's wary for another trick... but she was so close.

[Gullara]

[Enchanted Forest]

Cassie blinks at her dad a few times, taking a moment to comprehend. "Daddy!" Cassie throws herself into her dad's arms and hugs him as fiercely as her arms can muster. She's immediately in tears as she clutches at his clothes like she'll never let go.

[Murkus]

[Enchanted Forest]

"Cassie!" Adir hugs her as tight as he dares. He lets a tear or two go himself. At his core, he thought he might never see her again, and the simple shock of how frightening that thought was is still reverberating in him.

"Cassandra... Are you okay? Are you hurt?" He only pulls back to give her a rapid once over, checking her from her little hooves to the top of her head. "Where is your friend? The one that helped you?" He thought he'd seen a cat, but she seems to have disappeared?

[Gullara]

[Enchanted Forest]

Even as Adir holds her back a bit to get a look at her, she clings to him as hard as she can. She won't get lost again. "I'm okay." She answers, her voice all but breaking. It's a lot, for such a long child, to not just break down completely. At Adir's next question she turns to look backward, fully expecting Melissa to be standing behind her. "She's here." She says even as she turns to confirm that.

[Recaiden]

[Temple of Inari]

"I guess that makes a sort of sense." Not that she's gained anything useful from it. She can't even do magic. The tail makes sitting down awkward and the ears mean she can't wear normal hats. She'd be better off as human. "Oh, I'm sorry! You don't know why? Could there be any way to find out? I'll do what I can to help, if you want."

But how would you balance without a tail, Jade? And to go back to just normal human ears?'
"Nope. Must be some way find out. If I could just know how." Honeysuckle tilts her head curiously.
"You think you have a way to help?"

[Blind Date]

Yes, that's the exact point: they all come from some sort of culture that affects them. The entire point. Seems like Mei gets it perfectly, but just doesn't get that she gets it. June nods. "Yes, I have a favorite. It's um..." Hold on...how are you supposed to explain it, anyway? "Well, it features a couple different kinds of percussion including usually-untuned musical bows and clapping and such, like sometimes features a call-and-response that overlaps and the rhythms are kind-of like..." June's face scrunches. It's not easy to just explain these sorts of things with words. "Well, also, like, there's some kind of tonic-supertonic thing and it's usually mixolydian, but, like. . .not intentionally but just turns out that way? And..."

Well,
June trails off.
This is probably getting too much into the parts that aren't really the key parts of it and that aren't the reason why.


Anyway. Changing how you think: June's head shakes. "It's not the same. It's...it just isn't." That's how June feels about it.

Thinking about tails. June laughs, too, thinking more about it. "Yeah. Now I'm imagining just never having hands and finally getting some for the first time. Like, not a mermaid, but something like that, but with no hands instead of no legs." Mermaids are pretty cool, though.

But even non-traditional music comes from a culture that affects them. Seems to Mei that June is missing out on a lot of music that's just as musical as the other music.
"That sounds like it would be different to anything I've heard." Mei exclaims. "Musical bows, huh."
"I think I prefer simple songs with just a few pipe instruments, so long as they use enough notes. Music shouldn't be too predictable."

Mermaids are pretty cool. Most things that can swim like that are cool.
"Do you think, oh, snakes let's say, would like to have hands?"

[bc56]

Cliffside Shrine

You care for the Locus-Shrine. α replies. Now go. Find what you desired.

Temple of Inari

But Jade could balance fine without a tail before. Why wouldn't she be able to now? And what's wrong with human ears?

"I don't know exactly. But I'm an engineer. I'm sure I can figure something out." Jade hopes that sounds reassuring. "If I could only figure out how to measure magic. I'm not even sure how it's supposed to work." Jade never wanted any part of magic. It's always been more of a problem than a help. And now she's stuck with it apparently.