Home 26: Rooms to let, fifty cents

[Earl of Purple]

Not Sekhmet's Cabin

"I hate to say it, but she's got a better chance than you do. She'd be put in the same area as the others, and that's where your sister's gonna wind up. Just have to hope she's not been ferried off somewhere else first. I don't know the likely stops after that, but not all the people they buy are sold in Skyside." And there's a risk that Nocri could wind up somewhere else entirely, with very few clues as to where she's gone.

"I don't like this plan. I really don't like this plan. Can we come up with literally any other plan? Hiring MERC to break her out?" GLoG mostly takes in refugees, it's not got the martial might needed- Prumathe thinks- to break slaves out of the Guild's storehouse. HALO he's not too aware of, and Vigil's too large-scale to do something like this. That leaves MERC, which he can't afford, most likely.

[bc56]

Not Sekhmet's Cabin

"Where would we, uh, get the money?" Sekhmet asks. "I, uh, don't like this plan either. But it, uh, might be the best way." She won't rule out the possibility of a better one. But with the resources at their disposal, it seems like it is. "I can, uh, link our minds. That way you'll know where I am and, uh, be able to talk to me the whole time."

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

Lambslaural looks sad.

Dandelion looks irritated.

Snapdragon looks thoughtful.

"S-so you really are trying to be a good person. But, um... but the sort of fae that you are is making that hard. I'm so sorry, umm... Jason? We'll help you get your Jade mask back," Lambslaural says.

"Yeah not buying it," Snapdragon says, crossing her arms. Her two sisters both glance at her, Lambslaural in shock and Dandelion like she's getting ready for a fight.

"W-what? She isn't lying!" Lambslaural insists. "Everything she said is true, I'm sure of it. The p-pain she feels. The shame over eating people. She's trying so hard to be a good fox."

"No, everything she just said is stuff she THINKS is true," Snapdragon retorts. "Little bits of this story just aren't adding up. But the BIG problem? Wicke was poking around in her because of that curse. Kumiho magic might be tricky, but it isn't fool a god tricky. Wicke would have noticed for sure. The Dreamheart is gaslighting her just like it tried to gaslight us with the 'always been Buttercup' garbage."

"S-so you're saying she used to be human? Like us? But the other kumiho forced a new mask on her?" Lambslaural asks.

Snap nods.

"Easy way to find out," Dandelion snorts. "HEY WICKE! WHEN YOU DE-CURSED JADE WAS SHE A HEART-EATING FOX MONSTER AND YOU DECIDED NOT TO SPILL THE SECRET?"

[Deathkeeper]

Plum Mountain Park

The wind blows, and leaves rustle and blow. Specifically into a suspiciously wolf-like pile.
Oh, hello? Who are you? Oh, hi Aries. These must be your sisters. You mentioned them. Must have mentioned me, huh? The pile of leaves roughly shaped like a wolf head looks distinctly bothered.
Um. No? Why would she- oh no. Oh gods no. It's been not even eight hours did Jade get cursed again in the time it takes for someone to finish a shift at a shoe store?
What? No. Totally not.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

Of course she didn't. It's been more than 8 hours. 9? 10?

"What? No, I remember so clearly... I was definitely like this when Wicke examined me. I must have just done really well on my illusions. Yeah, that's it." Is she rationalizing? It sounds like she's rationalizing. The fox paces back and forth on the bed, repeatedly pawing at her aching head.

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

"Yo," Dandelion says, giving the leaf-head a brief wave.

The three sisters are indeed materialized at the moment. It's way easier to just talk to someone rather than using forest sounds.

"U-um..." Lambslaural speaks up, meekly raising her hand. "I think w-wildling magic doesn't work that well if the wildling isn't feeding r-regularly. If it's b-been a long time since you ate then your illusions shouldn't b-be that strong."

"Huh. They work like that?" Snap asks. Lambsy nods. "Okay let's run a test. Uh... fox? Why don't you try magicking up an illusion. If you haven't snarfed someone in... what like a year? Or more?"

Lambslaural nods again. Jade had said she was turned into a woman about a year ago.

"Then the illusion should be pretty wimpy."

Snap is pretty big on empirical testing. Not that she's doubting W, more like she's thinking it might help the fox bulldoze through the Dreamheart's fake backstory.

[Deathkeeper]

[Plum Mountain Park]

The fox receives the most Disapproving Dad look that they've probably ever gotten from a bunch of leaves vaguely resembling a wolf.
I like to think that my insight deserves a little more credit than being fooled by an illusion when I had my metaphysical hands all up in your metaphysical core pulling out curses. it grumbles. For now though, it'll shut its trap. It can't stay even this poorly manifested for very long.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

"I can too do good illusions!" The kumiho calls up her powers. Oh look, the house is on fire. Everyone better get out now. She gasps, "Fire!" and begins scampering for the door.

It's the opposite of convincing. The fire looks like bad special effects, and it's limited to the area right around the kumiho. She looks embarrassed once she realizes. "If I had a good meal, then I could do it." That's the point, isn't it? You can't do it right now?

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

"Case. In. Point!" Snapdragon retorts. "You haven't eaten anyone in a long time, so your illusions are pretty lousy."

"N-not that eating people is a good thing," Lambslaural adds.

"Not that eating people is a good thing," Snapdragon agrees. "Your illusions obviously aren't strong enough to trick ME, let alone a GOD, so I think it's safe to say that if you had been a kumiho the whole time he would have-HEY!"

Dandelion just shoved past Snap, walked up to the kumiho, then reached down to pluck her off the ground.

"The hell is wrong with you, dude?" Dande demands. "Are you seriously going to let the Dreamheart yank your chain? Jerk you around until you believe its bull ****? You're no idiot, use your head. You were Jade before. You were born human. That piece of **** fox just stole your name and shoved a kumiho mask onto you. SO SNAP OUT OF IT!"

As usual, Dandelion is quite forceful.

And, somehow, her forcefulness comes across as supremely inspiring. Her harsh encouragement is enough to help cut through the brain fuzz and, perhaps, help all the pieces to fall together.

[Earl of Purple]

Not Sekhmet's Cabin

"I don't know. If we could wait, I'd have some- I'm saving money now I don't have to pay rent in my flat." He probably still pays rent to GLoG; I'm not sure how that works, but when it's shared between he and Sekhmet there's savings. "I still don't like this plan." Even if it is the only plan they've got.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

"Yipe!" The kumiho struggles as she's picked up, but not especially aggressively. The gaiad can stare her right in her little foxy eyes. She paws at her head. The things Dandelion is saying make a lot of sense. That explains why she felt awkward as Jade at first, even though it should have been just another mask. Why no matter how many times she as Jason caught someone alone, even a villain, she had no interest in eating them, no matter how hungry she was. Why nobody noticed her foxiness the one time she was naked at the spa. Why Jason's memories are so clear to her, but the others are a bit blurry. Everything falls into place, and the kumiho gasps."We need to get my name back!"

Not Sekhmet's Cabin

"We can't wait. But, uh, if we need to do it again, we can use the money we'll, uh, make from selling me." Now they've graduated from rescue missions to fraud. Sekhmet doesn't really care though, because the slavers are evil and don't deserve that money. "I'll, uh, have to practice some to, uh, get everything ready. Who else are we, uh, bringing along?"

[Deathkeeper]

Plum Mountain Park

If you need me, call me. Even if there’s not much left I can do after all I’ve done this week. But still. Keep me in mind...” The pile of leaves collapses into a pile of leaves. Seems like they might have made W overdo it.

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

The sisters wave farewell to the leaves!

"Damn straight," Dandelion says as she puts the kumiho back on the ground. "We've got some butt to kick. You can use the super powers on those other masks you've got, right?"

Yes.

The answer is yes.

Though that raises a question. When the kumiho puts on one of those other masks she can feel their memories, too. She has 'digested' Jason's memories well due to how much she has worn that mask, but the longer she wears the others the more their memories will gel. Who WERE these people? If the kumiho hadn't eaten them like she remembers doing, then where did they come from?

"Are... um... are we going to do this r-right now?" Lambslaural asks. "I mean... I guess we can take the waystone to Thimble Park..."

"Don't see why not," Snapdragon says. "Go crash this name-stealer's party. Any ideas how we should tackle this Lambsy?"

"W-well... kumiho illusions are r-really confusing. So if we can catch her by surprise I think that would be g-good?" Lambslaural says. "And... um... I think to get your name back? Y-you're going to have to t-take it the same way she took it from you."

Assuming she doesn't just give it back. Which... seems unlikely.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

The kumiho puts on Purity's mask and hovers in midair. "You bet I can." It's definitely one of her strongest masks but wearing it always makes her feel a little weird. That urge to pick up the human supremacist ideology, while easy to resist, is uncomfortable. "So I've got to eat her heart just like she ate mine." Does that even work on a kumiho? Do they have hearts?

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

They've got hearts so long as they're wearing a human body. Janine can feel her heart beating in her chest. In her natural form, though, she can feel that foxfire licking at her insides, always hungry for more hearts to fuel the fire. And after so long it is very hungry.

"Um... y-yeah, I think so," Lambslaural says, nodding her head. "B-but she has to be Jade for it to work."

"What if she just changes into someone other than Jade?" Snapdragon asks.

Dandelion pounds one fist into her palm. "Then we encourage her not to do that."

Sounds like they have a plan!

One by one they'll head over to the waystone, peeking through the hole in the granite monolith before vanishing.

Poof!

When Janine does the same she'll find herself back in the oak grove in the middle of Thimble Park with the Plum Sisters waiting for her. Then they set off toward the dock. This is going to be quite the little parade, won't it? Three gaiads and a cape? Janine might want to alter her costume a bit, though. Something other than Purity's usual white spandex with a gold sun-wheel on the chest. It wouldn't do to have a dead cape who is also a super villain show up all of a sudden.

The trip to the docks shouldn't be an issue. It's late, so the number of people out here is even lower than normal. Before long Jade's warehouse comes into view and-

Lambslaural sings?

Pretty soon she has a swarm of rats sitting in front of her listening intently. She kneels down and smiles at them. "Hello again friends. I know you normally keep an eye out for Jade but please don't right now. A terrible faerie has stolen Jade's name and we're going to get it back."

Huh. She must have been talking to the rats while she was working. Good thinking.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

Janine understands the need for secrecy. Her outfit changes, white spandex becoming black, the sun wheel replaced by a light bulb. Also notably, she stops hiding her fox ears and tail. Now she looks like a random foxgirl cape, so she's more incognito. "If she's got my face, she probably also has the knowledge of how to operate my suits." Since Janine has Gyro's ability to build spinny robots when in that form, it seems likely. Of course, armor, clothes, flesh, none of those are a hindrance to a kumiho tearing the heart out of her victim. She just needs a way to get the drop on the imposter. As she prepares, Janine is already running through creating a new hero identity for her new look. Enlightenment, magic foxgirl super! She can feel her mask squirming with disgust at her form, and she's glad for it. "We'll need to catch her by surprise. Any suggestions?"

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

Ooooh that is a pretty great way to pressure wash the greasier parts of the Janine mask.

Purity was a worshiper of Zarrus, the human god of perfection and humans in about the same way Morradin was the god of dwarves. Except Zarrus is considered an arrogant evil jerk by just about everyone. To the followers of Zarrus' faith, the only thing worse than non-humans were half-human offspring. And the only thing worse than half-human offspring were humans who willingly tainted the perfect human form with non-human features. So intentionally allowing her kumiho tells to be visible to absolutely everyone? That's basically dunking the human supremacist parts of the mask into an acid-bath.

That gross, crawly feeling of human supremacy wanes notably.

"Any way to get in aside from the front door?" Snapdragon asks.

"Umm... if she's just pretending to be Jade she'll p-probably be doing what Jade would be doing right now," Lambslaural mentions.

It's about ten PM right now, so it is well and dark at this point. Would Jade be up working on her equipment? Doing some recreation? Sleeping?

Given the fact that Jade has been relying on the rats for security, how lax has she gotten of late?

Dandelion for her part is... making armor? There wasn't even a transition. She's just all of a sudden wearing a suit of bronze phalanx armor in classical Macedonian style, complete with a round shield and a spear of twisted vines and eldritch magic. It looks like she's ready to stomp on someone.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park -> Jade's Lair

"If she follows my schedule, she should be working on one of my projects right now." If that horrible fox has actually managed to complete the active camouflage projector Janine was working on, she's going to be so mad! She was looking forward to solving that problem herself! "There's only one entrance, so unless we want to make our own, we have to go in that way. Luckily it opens right into the workshop, so she shouldn't have time to set up an ambush." Unless she's expecting them already, in which case they have bigger problems.

[Rebonack]

[Jade's Lair]

"Arright let's go say hi," Dandelion says as she heads straight for the door.

Snapdragon follows behind her and Lambslaural even further back, looking quite nervous.

Dandelion shoves the door open and hefts her spear ready to hurl it and-!

...there's no one in here.

Dandelion slowly lowers the spear, looking both on edge and disappointing.

Snapdragon begins walking around, admiring all the equipment with a whistle. "Wow. This is quite the setup you've got!"

"Um... h-hello friend?" Lambslaural says to a passing rat. "Do you know where Jade is?"

The rodent chitters at her.

"Umm... Bartholomew says Jade went to get something to eat?" Lambslaural reports. "D-do you think that means she's... eating people?"

Sounds like they might have a chance to ambush Jade when she comes back from getting her late night snack.

[bc56]

Jade's Lair

The room is half electrician's workshop, half exercise gym. The perfect place to prep for heroism, whether physically or with gadgets. Janine walks over to the mirror in the gym section and admires herself, again intentionally trying to wear down the human supremacism of this mask. Doesn't she look good like that? The tail really accentuates her excellent posture, and don't those ears look so fuzzy and scratchable? She turns back to Lambslaural. "She probably is going to go eat someone." Janine thinks about it. "Come on upstairs. We should set our trap in the bedroom, when she's preparing to go to sleep." Kumiho do need sleep, right? Janine remembers sleeping while in her masks. "She won't have any equipment then."

[Rebonack]

[Jade's Lair]

The mask's toxic beliefs are further eroded by Janine's posing and contemplating how great she looks on account of being a foxgirl. If she keeps this up for a few days she'll probably be able to erode the mask's racism away to nothing. At that point it'll be a completely new persona, one Janine is building all her own. If she really wanted to she could even grow a new Name for it. That would just require using and answering to the new name of that persona. Usually kumiho copy masks and THEN develop them into new personas, but chances are Janine would like to just overwrite this nasty persona completely.

The up the stairs they go!

Lambslaural looks a little queasy at the thought of that monster murdering someone while wearing her friend's face.

Our heroes will have about fifteen minutes to prepare before Janine's sensitive fox ears pick up the sound of the door opening downstairs.

There are some more sounds from down there.

And... the smell of blood.

Jade has definitely been eating people.

Footsteps on the stairs.

The door opening.

And there she is. The perfect chance to strike.

[bc56]

Jade's Lair

"Shh, she's coming." Janine lurks, waiting for the perfect moment. There, Jade's stepping into the room, now! She lets loose a blinding blast of light from her hands and charges, feet not needing to touch the ground as she makes a flying tackle at the imposter.

[Rebonack]

[Jade's Lair]

Absolutely blindsided.

Jade screams and clutches her eyes moments before she gets bowled over by Janine. She's knocked flat on her back, air blasting out of her lungs. Marks like whiskers appear on her cheeks as illusions begins slithering through the room, disorienting shapes and colors and motion, her body vanishing into a writhing mass of venomous snakes-

"The bed!"

-and then it all pops like a soap bubble when Jade's bed goes sailing right through the middle of the illusionary morass and pops the whole mirage like a soap bubble.

Dandelion is standing over there, having just hurled the iron bed frame like a discus through the middle of the magical display and ruined the whole thing. Jade looks momentarily stunned by the violent dispelling of her glamour.

"Make sure she stays down."

Lambslaural makes a grasping motion, vines erupting from the floor and lashing around Jade's arms and legs. She isn't going anywhere.

Jade is screeching incoherent rage-filled animal noises. She seems pretty upset.

[bc56]

Jade's Lair

Janine shifts to her true, monstrous form, and towers over Jade. "I'll be taking that back." She says, holding down the hapless imposter with one paw so she can reach into her chest and tear out her heart with the other.

[Rebonack]

[Jade's Lair]

Jade still had blood on her lips when she had come through the door. She hadn't even bothered to wipe it off. A monster wearing her face.

The kumiho's paw plunges into Jade's chest as if she were reaching into a pool of water, he claws fastening around the beating lump of muscle, and then effortlessly rips it free. Just as the last time this had happened to Jade, she falls absolutely still as paralysis freezes her in place. Her heart, still bloody and beating, is held in the kumiho's hand.

That's it.

She did it. She has it. Now she's just got to eat it.

The heart tastes sweet between her teeth. The most delectable thing she's ever eaten. Memories of all the other hearts she's devoured come flooding back with redoubled clarity, the good and the bad. She remembers her first, motivated by little more than animal hunger. She had slipped down into a basement unseen and found a hostage. She remembers August's dying wish; tell my mother I'm sorry. She remembers Purity's absolute horror when the villain realized exactly what had defeated her. She remembers speaking with Jason, her admiration for him, reaching out toward him, and then a pang of hunger she couldn't control. Claws in his chest. Teeth around his heart. She didn't mean to. It was an accident.

Strength fills her as she swallows, her magic blazing from guttering embers to a roaring fire.

Peeling off Jade's face and making it HER mask again is easy.

But now...

She has a choice.

The other kumiho, now in her natural form as well, a monstrous grey fox wreathed in icy blue fire, is lashed to the floor by iron-hard vines she can't hope to break.

What will she do with this other monster that's at her mercy? She still has so many hearts inside her. More could be taken. More power. More masks. She could stoke her magic from a fire into an inferno.

What does the red fox do?

[bc56]

Jade's Lair

The red kumiho stares down at her grey counterpart. It would be so easy, so delicious... But no, that's not right. She slips on the mask that was stolen from her. There she is, Jade, dressed in her jacket and yoga pants like she was when her face was stolen this morning. Jason wouldn't have wanted her to take all this power. She should turn the other kumiho over to the proper authorities. "She's yours." Jade says to the gaiad trio. "Punish her as you see fit." She licks her lips, getting the last tastes of that heart off her mouth. So tasty. Surely one every once in a while won't hurt... No! She's supposed to be a hero! And heroes. Don't. Kill.

[Rebonack]

[Jade's Lair]

The bound kumiho glares hatefully at everyone gathered, so wrapped in vines that she hasn't the slightest chance of escape.

"So what do you guys think? She's pretty dangerous," Snapdragon says.
"Dude wanted to murder Lambsy. I know you're big on forgiveness La-"
"Throw her in the bay," Lambslaural says, her voice hard.

Both her sisters look surprised.

"She's a monster in every sense of the word. It's the only way to be sure she won't hurt anyone else."

Dandelion snorts. "Fine by me."

She grabs the wildling and sets off down the stairs with the struggling monster in tow. Should the others decide to follow her they'll have a pretty good view of Dande walking out to the end of a peer and tossing the kumiho into the water.

Sploosh!

The grey fox sinks like a rock.

Lambslaural, meanwhile, scoots a little closer to Jade. "Are... um... are you okay? Y-you've been through a lot today."

[bc56]

Jade's Lair

"I don't know..." Jade says. She's not even sure what to think. She's got two clashing sets of memories in her head now, one of herself being born a human and remaining so until today, and one of her always being a hungry kumiho, and eating that human self of hers. And she has all the memories of everyone else she ate. If there's one happy side effect of this, it's that she's no longer feeling awkward as a woman. That's just part of this mask. A bunch of her other masks are also ladies, as is her true form. "I have my self back again, but." Jade once again lets her foxiness show, ears and tail appearing from her human body. "I can't ever be the same again, can I?"

[Rebonack]

[Jade's Lair]

That's what makes it so hard, isn't it? Jade remembers the lives of all those people. It's hazy when she isn't wearing their mask, but the last hour or so she spent as Janine? She could remember everything just as clearly as she could remember Jason's life. These can't just be made-up people like the Plum Sisters were thinking. Some of the details of her life as a kumiho feel suspect, but the lives of her masks? No. No, they had to have come from somewhere.

Did she... did she really eat them? Are her friends wrong and she really was a kumiho spawned from the Dreamheart all along? And if she isn't, then who WERE all these people who are part of her now?

There have to be records of them somewhere.

This harrowing experience has raised many questions.

"I don't know," Lambslaural admits, reaching out to put an arm around Jade. "Maybe we can't ever be human again, not really. Maybe we'll be like this for the rest of our lives. Or... maybe there's a cure. I know some friends who work tirelessly to f-find cures for this, um, this sort of thing. This is the Nexus, impossible things happen here all the time. B-but no matter what I'll still be your friend. And w-we'll figure out how to tackle this faerie stuff together, okay? You're always welcome in our weald."

Then she gives a tiny giggle of a laugh.

"And... hehe... the ears do look kind of cute. Not very c-cute when you're huge and snarly, though."

[bc56]

Jade's Lair

Jade puts her arm around Lambslaural in return. "Thanks. It's going to be hard for me." She can tell that already. She knows what it's like to be starving for human hearts, and how hard it is to avoid eating them (thanks fake kumiho memories). "I really don't want to eat anyone, but what if I slip up?" She lets that worry stand for a little while before Lambslaural compliments her ears. "You think so? What about like this?" Jade's a little red fox now! Is she still cute?