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

[Recaiden]

By magic, obviously.
You could also credit the cell phone.
"I know. You have been doing an admirable job dealing with the hunger recently."
He waves for Jade to follow him.
"How did this all get started?"

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

"Well, I went for a walk in the park with a faerie friend of mine, and a kumiho ambushed us and ate me and turned me into a kumiho to get at my friend. And then after that I studied kumihos a bit and learned how to split old identities off me, so I dropped the ones I had, and, well, Jason was one of those, but he doesn't know he's not the original and I can't bring myself to tell him." Jade has a lot to say. "I've been eating corpses in the graveyard instead of living people, but it's not as satisfying. I don't know how long I can keep it up."

[Recaiden]

The high priest leads Jade out through the garden.
Here, if she follows, her powers and senses as a kumiho probably feel weaker, muffled. The carefully tended plants are normally quite serene.
"You dropped those identities, but you seem to have accumulated quite a few since."
"How have you managed to stay so much yourself? Still 'Jade'."

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

"It's tricky sometimes. But I never put those masks on. I always just am Jade or a fox. I don't want to lose myself." And it's already hard because being a kumiho at all eats away at Jade's humanity. She shrugs. "When I eat, I gain identities. I can't help that. And the process for getting rid of them is difficult and dangerous." She stretches her arms and tail out. It feels nice here. She likes it.

[Recaiden]

"That's wise. It can be very easy to get caught up in a role."
They walk across a bridge, and turn left at the fork in the path, passing between residences on the right and a large pond on the left.
"Never? And Jade is certainly the original? It makes a difference to how we can help you."

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

"I have it on good authority, literally the word of god, that she... I... am the original identity." Jade pauses to look at her reflection in the pond, adjusts her hair a little, and continues. "So what's the catch here? I know magic isn't cheap. Can you fix me, and what will it cost me?"

[Recaiden]

This road ends at a little building set apart from everything else, past the more agricultural fields with their rows of crops. Where the others structures in the temple complex were built with some sense of aesthetics, this one was built to be solid. Plain slabs of stone, a basically uncollapsible roof, and that single door must have cost a fortune, made at that thickness of those rare metals.
The hungry fairy part of Jade will not like this building at all. It feels like a cage.

"I can help you."
"Helping you, so that you aren't driven to prey on people, that's worth doing on its own."
"You'll give up all those other identities. You'll lose all the powers you kumiho have."
"You were going to lose those no matter how you solved this, though. Shouldn't it take something more?"
"It will, of course, require a great deal of trust."
The priest adds with a smile.
"What do you think is a fair price for your humanity?"

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

Jade bristles at feeling trapped. Last time she asked for help with the Kumiho thing, the proposed solution was being a mind-controlled attack dog with a heavy helping of "if you don't accept this, I'll kill you." Luckily she got away from that with her personhood intact. Now she's worried a repeat may be in the works. But this seems at least slightly friendlier. "I don't know!? No matter what I'll say, you'll twist it to be way worse than I expect. Magic people are always like that. I refuse to 'owe you one,' since that will come back to bite me no matter what. I doubt you want money, although I have plenty of it. Offering to do some sort of religious service seems easiest, but again, I don't know what I'd be getting into. And doing a quest, I could do a quest to get it fixed already. It's just a really ridiculous hard quest into a place that is anathema to my current nature and would want to kill me at every turn." Which isn't to say she isn't prepping for that quest (she is) but, an easier method would be, well, easier. And it would mean there'd be more Icons for Buttercup victims.

[Recaiden]

"I am not an evil genie, furious at confinement in a lamp. Nor is the goddess interested in twisting peoples' words."

"I am trying to help you, so let's just go over what you'd be getting into." He counts off points on his fingers as he raises them.
"Changing species requires expensive and difficult materials in the best of situation (and this is not the best of situations), so there will be a sizeable fee." And if that fee is larger than strictly necessary to cover material costs, there are always uses for money: people to feed and clothe, repairs to do, administrators to get out of the way, war machines to acquire for purely educational purposes, etc...
"Then each day for the next year, you'll say a set of prayers, spend time tending a garden, and try to do an additional good deed. But, should you ever fail in this task, we'll be very disappointed in you."

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

"That all sounds good enough, so... What's the catch? Side effects, fine print, all that." If something seems too good to be true, it probably is. And this may not be the furthest Jade's seen in that respect, but it's close. Money is a non-issue. Prayer and meditation aren't terrible, although she really doesn't care about either. A garden... Well, that might take some doing, but it's not something she'd mind. She could get together with Aries and work on that sorry excuse for a park where they planted the plum tree together. That might be fun. And other good deeds? She's pretty sure she has that covered. So there's got to be a catch.

[Recaiden]

"An extra good deed, not the ones you were already planning on! I know, the distinction isn't always obvious."
The priest shakes his head.
"It will only work if, deep down, Jade wants to go back to being who you were before. You might think 'of course I do', but it's not always as clear-cut as it might seem."
"During the middle of the ritual, you will, technically, be dead."
"And there's a possibility of small changes - you could be stuck with the ears, or a fear of dogs, or something." He holds his hands out, palms up, to emphasize that, that is really all.

[bc56]

Temple of Inari
"Technically dead, meaning... What, exactly?" While technically dying isn't exactly a problem for her (patients in hospitals do that all the time) Jade wants to know what that entails. A fear of dogs would be unfortunate, but not too debilitating, and honestly she wouldn't mind keeping the ears and tail. It doesn't hurt her to have them, after all.

[Murkus]

[Enchanted Forest]

The pooka's ears flatten out at Adir's reply.

"Oh, haha, you're going to put me on the spot? Ummm..." the pooka dithers back. Apparently it hadn't really thought this far ahead.

Or maybe it had and just wants Adir to THINK it wasn't thinking ahead.

Pookas are devious like that, so it's hard to guess.

"Ah! Oh oh I know! I was born here in the Dreamlands, so getting out is really tough. I want to see the Waking World! After you rescue Cassie-Cute-As-Puppies I want you to take me with you."

Well!

Surely nothing bad could come of that, right?

No way letting a trickster spirit out into the world could harm anyone?

[Enchanted Forest]

"Okay, but on one condition," says the stag, holding up his pointer finger. "You aren't going to purposely harm any mortals. Directly or indirectly. Swear it to me. I don't care what else you get up to, but I'm not going to have that on my head."

[Recaiden]

"Because you were the original identity here, I can restore this kumiho to your human self, but not while it's active and holding on to identities. For some time, you, so to speak, will be a disembodied identity without a functional body. If the magic were interrupted at this point, you would simply be the ordinary sort of dead." Which would be an unfortunate outcome for everyone.
"Preventing that is one of the reasons we have this very secure magical facility here." He motions to the heavy stone building before them.

"But the expected outcome is that your identity would then be reunited with your body and you would be back to normal."

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

Jade hesitates for a few moments. "Okay. I'll take it. What do you want me to do?" She hopes this is a good idea. It sure sounds like a good deal, but magic has an annoying habit of being not what it seems.

[Recaiden]

"Head inside, and when the time comes, let your identities go. Don't try to hold onto them, not even to being Jade. You will come back to yourself, but first, you have to stop being this."
He swings open the door, revealing an interior of black volcanic glass with a circle of glittering metal and jewels at the center. All around are lines of glowing silver: holy sigils and magic script that seem to move before one's eyes.
It is splendid, to a kumiho's eyes, definitely a cage. Jade probably gets a sense that she should not go in there for any reason, lest she be left in there to starve.
The high priest walks in with no hesitation.

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

Jade walks into the room, tamping down all her instincts which say to cut her losses and run, this can't be worth it. But she walks into the center of the warded chamber and waits. She can give up all her identities. They're not really hers anyway, except Jade. She waits for the priest to do something.

[Arkhosia]

Mountain Trip

"And, uh, even if we do run into something bad, it might be good training anyways." It doesn't occur to Fi that the kind of scenario Jenette is thinking about involves getting caught unawares when you're usually prepared for practice. She falters behind, rather taken by the picturesque sight. That cave still didn't look terribly inviting in person, but it was hard to deny how stunning the scenery around it appeared.

"We won't need to do any, um..." she takes a second to recall the word. "spelunking, right?"

[Recaiden]

The door clicks closed with a heavy finality.

"Kumiho, be you bound. You shall not leave this place, though the souls you have taken will go free."
The swirling symbols dance in time to his words, so it will be.

He lifts his hands, and the fox tails wave behind him.
"Holy Inari, mother of foxes, I call on you to return Jade to herself."
"Who you are, who you were,
stolen faces, now return,
to me who guides you back."
There is an intense feeling of pressure, magic surrounding her mind and her masks, as the memories and images of the identity she most recently scavenged bubble up- and then fade away. It feels like forgetting something that you are so close to remembering, a word on the tip of your tongue that you just cannot find. And then the next identity before that, and then the next...

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

Jade lets the identities go, one at a time. She feels herself grow weaker with each one lost, her supernatural powers waning. One by one, they go, leaving not even a whisper in her mind.
Until there is only one left. And even that begins to leave. But despite what she said, Jade isn't ready to let go of who she is. She clings as tightly as she can to herself, her last identity. She is Jade, and she doesn't want to stop being Jade. She resists the pressure stripping her identity from her.

[Recaiden]

The pressure mounts, but ultimately it can't strip away an identity she's holding on to, not like this.
"Jade, remember what you said. You have to let go. At this point, holding onto yourself is holding onto the kumiho's endless hunger."
Around the chamber, the sigils of the warding continue their dance. The magic can't work as described if she doesn't let it, but the power is still building; it can certainly do something.

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

"No! If I lose this, I'll lose everything! I'll just be a nameless kumiho again! I don't want to forget who I am!" Jade continues resisting, holding on to herself, curling up into a fetal position as if that will stop the magic from taking her face away. She's not going to easily release the thing giving her her sense of self, even if she knows that's what she's supposed to do.

[Recaiden]

"No, you'll be yourself again. This is what you need to do. Remember, you are not the kumiho."

There comes another voice, behind Jade. If she looks, she can see that other kumiho, that first took the Jade identity.
"Idiot. You walked into this trap, gave up your identities, and for what? As if you could ever become human again."
That's...probably not real. Just part of the magic bringing up the context where she got her identities, right? But it doesn't feel like the others.

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

Jade continues lying on the floor, unsure of what to do, whether to trust the priest. Then the other kumiho appears"Huh? No! You're dead! I saw you get thrown into the ocean!" This is starting to spark some memories in her though. Memories of the last time her identity was taken from her. By this creature. She clutches even more strongly to her self and stands up, moving to confront the other kumiho. "You won't get the best of me again."

[Recaiden]

"Even having a kumiho's powers of misdirection yourself, you saw what you wanted to see, with no other proof."
The other kumiho paces back and worth, a delighted smirk on its face.
"I won't? Haven't I already? Look at what you're doing here; when it comes down to it, you're just like me."

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

"No." Fists balled, Jade stands defiant before the other Kumiho. "I'm nothing like you. Even after all your efforts, I'm no murderer. I'm Jade Fisher! I've faced down villains, monsters, and being a woman! Sure, I've made mistakes, but I've suffered the consequences and moved on from them! You're nothing to me! Get out of here!" With that, she winds up and moves to clock the Kumiho right in the face.

[Recaiden]

Jade's fist will surely stop short, over one of the circles of warding symbols.
The kumiho makes a show of being bored.
"So you've gone a few months without eating anyone. This is forever. You'll come around someday, when you take off that pretty face for some reason..."
It takes a few lazy steps forward, before starting to fade away.

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

Jade glares at the Kumiho, since she can't punch her. "No. If this doesn't work out, I have another cure lined up. I'll fix this, one way or another." She's confident at least that she won't be like this forever. She doesn't have to worry about that far in the future. When the other Kumiho fades away, she's glad to be rid of her. But she's still holding on to her identity, even more tightly since the Kumiho challenged it.

[Recaiden]

The pressure of the magic reaches its peak, and all at once it becomes a terrible burning heat.
Everything goes dark.

Time goes by, with Jade knowing nothing of it, while the ritual works what changes it can.

---

Well, everything seems better now. Jade shouldn't feel hungry, or tired, and the heat and pressure of the magic is gone. She still has a fox tail and all, but she's not wearing a mask; she's just herself.
She's probably a bit disoriented, unsure how or why she came to be alone in this warded magic room with the symbols swimming around her like fishes. But I'm sure it's not a problem.
Distantly, the priest's voice. "Jade, come back. Wake up." He sounds like he's trying to help.
But, she doesn't have to listen to it. She could stay here, wherever here is. Maybe she's dreaming, if she's supposed to wake up?

[bc56]

Temple of Inari

Jade stirs. "Huh? Where... who?" As she sits up, her hand lands on something soft and fluffy. She looks down to see a fox's tail, and follows it with her eyes back to her own rear end. "What? Where did this come from? Who are you? What's going on?" She looks around for the source of the voice now, bewildered by these strange circumstances. "Where am I?"