Home 26: Rooms to let, fifty cents

[Shadowcaller]

Dreaming of Fey

Jaahlyn sinks down on her knees and then slowly turns to look at Jim before crawling over to him. "Always is. I've re-lived that so many times." Her voice sounds a bit hoarse, which should be no surprise.

She gets up on top of him and he can feel her weight as the satyr sinks down on his chest. "It's extremely rare I get to show it to someone though. I've changed the lyrics a bit from the original memory but the feeling is still the same..." She plants another kiss on his mouth. "So what did you think?"

[Deathkeeper]

Dreaming of Fey

”So you did that back then? I didn’t know I was sharing a dream with a rock star. One of your old lives?”
He sighs with content.
”To be succinct? I think you’ve got a hell of a voice.”

Jace’s Place

Jace has gotten into his full cloak and boots for Khannie. But while that’s a little bit of a big deal it’s nothing huge. Khannie knows by now her dad just likes to have any excuse to say he’s “working” and put on his lucky cloak. He only has the one even after so many years.
”So you know that feeling you get when you close your eyes and press on them a little for a bunch of seconds? You focus on that while you make your hands into a ball and go low-“ he demonstrates a move something like a bowling toss. ”and then toss like it’s a handful of sand.” he does so. Then he turns away from her, doing it again at full speed. His eyes flash blue, a kaleidoscope of colors forms in his hands, and the entire yard is momentarily lit up as he throws it like a firework in front of him. It’s a dazzling show if nothing else.

[Rebonack]

[Jace’s Place]

Khannie gasps at the display!

"It's pretty!"

You still aren't allowed to use it around your friends, Khannie. This is very very important DON'T USE IT AROUND YOUR FRIENDS.

"Okay eye fireworks..." Khannie mutters as she closes her eyes and presses her palms against them like her father described. After a few seconds yep! There's they are! All sorts of fuzzy, glittering, swirling, jittering shapes form before her eyes. "They look like what it feels like when your leg goes to sleep," Khannie observes.

That's...

Probably accurate?

"Okay. Remember that feeling, hand low, use my magic and-!" Khannie makes a tossing motion toward the woods nearby!

There's a slight fizzle from her palm but that's it.

Attempt one!

Failure.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace’s Place

”And that’s why I told you that you might be tempted to show it to people. But you shouldn’t. It’s also risky to use more than once in a fight since it’s useless if your opponent knows to just close their eyes.” Jace observes Khannie’s failure.
”Flick your hands more at release. Or not. Sorcery is one of the most inexact sciences there is. A lot of it is about feeling. How do you feel like it should flow for you?”

[Rebonack]

[Jace’s Place]

Khannie considers these things.

What should it feel like? What's the feeling of blasting a cone of clashing colors out of her hands? Maybe-

"It should feel like this!" Maridia announces as she begins flying up into the air a good twenty feet and then-!

Barfs a brilliantly clashing cloud light and glitter into the sky. It spreads like an explosion of fireworks and butterfly scales.

Because fairy dragons Maridia's age can cast Color Spray once per day.

Khannie felt that for sure. Maridia made CERTAIN that their mental connection was wide open. It felt like a little ball of jittering power had formed down in Maridia's belly, a mess of color and light straining in every direction to get out but held under tremendous pressure. She felt it worm its way up the dragon's throat and then when Maridia opened her mouth it EXPLODED!

So.

Cup her hands tight.

Feel that ball of magic in her belly. Feel it travel down her arms. Feel it alive and fizzling inside her hands.

Khannie, like a fool, parts her fingers ever so slightly to look at the jittering ball of magic.

It promptly bursts.

Not with anywhere near the amount of power it would have had if she cast it properly, but still enough of a BANG! to startle the girl and cause her to fall on her butt in the grass.

Maridia begins giggling like an idiot.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

Jace winces. That's how lots of magic goes when you try to rush it.
"You don't have to get it the first try. Keep going and you'll get it. But don't feel bad if it blows up in your face for a few days before you get it."
"And take breaks when Maridia tells you to. You can't feel your own brain-static as well as your familiar does."
Repeated castings can take a serious toll on the mind. Which is one reason wizards and sorcerers delegate some of that monitoring to small helpful sidekicks.

[Rebonack]

[Jace’s Place]

Khannie hops back to her feet and brushes the grass off her rear.

She's not giving up!

...Three more attempts that result in varying degrees of failure later Khannie is giving up. She's just a child after all and spellwork takes a whole lot out of you. Especially when you're struggling to get something new to work. It feels like those times where you're trying to remember a word and it's just on the tip of your tongue but you can't quite get it.

The little sorceress is missing something.

Something important.

But she isn't sure what it is.

Yet.

It'll come to her, though.

"I don't think I can do anymore magicing tonight," Khannie admits with a huff. "My head is starting to feel fuzzy."

No fuzzy heads allowed. Fuzzy heads are for cute dogs only.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

Jace gives her a reassuring smile.
"That's okay, Khannie. It happens to everyone. You'll get it if you keep on it for a while. Did you want to go out or wait a while?"
Jace isn't really terribly hungry for dessert but he did promise to take her out if she wanted to go.

[Rebonack]

[Jace’s Place]

"Yeah, I think I'm ready to go," Khannie says as Maridia flaps down and lands on Khannie. She holds onto the dragon's rear with her paws draped over her shoulder.

"I like the going now plan," Maridia pipes in.

Is there a time Maridia is ever opposed to acquiring sweets?

No.

No there is not.

Now then...

How are they going to be heading over?

Walking? Taking the Zebes dragonite express?

[Shadowcaller]

Dreaming of Fey

”So you did that back then? I didn’t know I was sharing a dream with a rock star. One of your old lives?”
He sighs with content.
”To be succinct? I think you’ve got a hell of a voice.”

Dreaming of Fey

Jaahlyn giggles at these suggestions. "Rockstar? I was more of a... ritual leader. Or goddess perhaps." She giggles again. "I sang the songs of the People and helped them out whenever I could. I must have stayed with them for more than a decade..." She puts her head on Jim's chest and glances at the still dancing shadowy figures around them. "So I really should have remembered what they actually looked like, shouldn't I?" She turns to look back at him and rests her chin on his chest. "That's the downside of revisiting old memories. I discover how much of them that I've lost over the centuries. Friends, lovers, admirers... all gone." Melancholy seeps into her tone but she doesn't seem to want to linger on it as she suddenly starts to unbutton Jim's shirt, which he apparently has now.

"But do you want to see something else I've learned?" The scene around them starts to shift, becoming brighter and more soft as he starts to sink into what seems to be a huge red pillow. They appear to be indoors now inside a room with sturdy stone walls that's crowded with luxurious plush beds. The scent of a strong exotic perfume is lingering in the air though Jim will somehow know that it's mostly there to hide the smell of sweat and... more sexually related odours.

He can see shadow figures crawling around on beds around them, likely more people Jaahlyn lost to time. However, then there are those whose faces and bodies she clearly must remember as he too can see them in detail now.

Satyr's.

A lot of them.
Coming in various flavors of goat and man. Specifically man in fact as besides Jaahlyn herself they're all male.
They're moving about around them and interacting with the shadow people, though quite a few of them seems to have gathered around the two of them. Though while he can their facial features and individual hairs on their body they're still unfocused somehow. Like extras in a movie Jim somehow know that they're unimportant and that he shouldn't focus on them. They're simply a part of the background as in this case he and Jaahlyn were the only important characters.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

Jace wants them to walk. Mostly because it's three blocks away and Commissar needs a walk anyway.
That said it is a warm summer evening and it will doubtlessly be a very easy trip.
And even if it wasn't it would likely be worth it anyway.
For is there truly a greater pursuit than that of baked confections?

Dreaming of Fey

Wow.
Um. This is...
"This seems to have very abruptly gotten less private." From the look on Jim's face that's a big deal for him.
Yeah. He's not doing this sort of thing so he can be watched by forty people. They're not real but that doesn't exactly change much to him.

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

Unless, of course, something horrible and tragic befalls them along the way!

Like encountering some kind of horrible mutagenic plague creeping through the neighborhood! Or a witch causing people to be self-destructive! Or a crazy meteor with a flesh eating blob falling out of the sky! Or a tiny car full of WAY too many clowns!

No, nothing like that is happening tonight. Little Khannie has had plenty of excitement lately and she deserves a break, don't you agree? Just a nice, jolly, happy evening with her father and uncle and familiar and definitely not anyone else. No extra chaos needed here. Why, one might even say Khannie's existence is predicated on chaos. What would she need more for? That's like tossing too much cinnamon on your toast. Do you need to upend the whole cinnamon shaker? Really? DO YOU!? Of course not.

Khannie isn't holding her dad's hand.

She's a bit to old for that, after all.

Instead, she's walking just a little bit ahead while carrying Maridia.

"What kind of doughnut are you going to get, Zebes?" she asks.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

Zebes' answer should be surprising to absolutely no one.
"Icing.
with bacon."

Zebes loves bacon. And for some reason bacon-bits are a donut topping. They're okay as long as it's warm.
"But only because Sugar Swirl serves them hot." Yeah, see? Zebes blinks and looks around. He could swear he heard a buzzing behind his fins.

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

"I like the apple fritters!" Maridia says.

"The apple fritters are nearly as big as you are, Maridia," Khannie points out.

"I know, that's why I like them!" the fairy dragon clarifies.

Khannie rolls her eyes.

"I think I want to try a new sort of doughnut today," Khannie decides. "A kind I've never ever had before."

That will probably be pretty easy to accomplish.

Practically the only sort of doughnut she ever used to get were chocolate custard filled doughnuts. Want to try a new doughnut? Just get anything other than that.

Then?

She raises an eyebrow at Zebes. "What's going on?" she asks, noticing

[Shadowcaller]

Dreaming of Fey

Wow.
Um. This is...
"This seems to have very abruptly gotten less private." From the look on Jim's face that's a big deal for him.
Yeah. He's not doing this sort of thing so he can be watched by forty people. They're not real but that doesn't exactly change much to him.

Dreaming of Fey

Jaahlyn stops in her tracks and looks around, apparently having been completely oblivious to the scene change. She let's out a panicked cry and the satyrs and the shadowy figures disappear. Laving them alone in the room. "Sorry, sorry, sorry..." She repeats like a mantra, profoundly blushing as she turns back to Jim. "Mindslip. I... I completely ruined it, didn't I?" She shuts her eyes closed and starts to lightly bonk herself in the forehead with her own fist. "Stupid."

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

Jace wonders what Khannie and Maridia talk about in private. Because he knows that he and Zebes bicker that much out loud but their relationship is significantly better than one would imagine from all that bickering.
"You could try one of the fancy kind. Like the sve-sfen- the cream puff things." Jace tells her.
"It's nothing, Khannie. I just thought I heard something." But surely he didn't or someone else would have heard it.

Dreaming of Fey

Jim does his best to give her a reassuring smile.
"It's okay. I got the idea that dreams aren't really much of an exact science. And we might have been going a little fast anyway." It wouldn't be the first time he's almost made that mistake. But this time he's the younger one by quite the large margin.

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

Yep definitely nothing.

No weirdness going on here, no sir.

"A creme puff sounds good but I always get those Boston Creme doughnuts normally," Khannie reasons. "I don't want one that's like the one I always get, even if it's fancier."

This of course gets her thinking.

"Hey daddy? How come they're called a Boston Creme doughnut? Is Boston a person or a place? Oh! Or maybe a fruit they get the creme from!"

These are, of course, important questions.

Khannie's curiosity about extra-universal geography should definitely be encouraged. How else would she learn what Boston is?

Otherwise the question will haunt her forever.

[Gullara]

[Kitsune Recovery Service]

"How well do you and Ana know one another exactly? I know you felt very excited when you first met her." Obriane inquires as she glances towards the bathroom door. "Anything I should know about her?"

[Kitsune Recovery Service]

"Not well at all, really." Kitsuki shakes her head. "We just met the one time. I gave her my number to call if she wanted to talk about anything, but it never came up again until now. I don't know too much about her. She lost her parents and is living with her foster parents. Her parents came from the Nhung Empire, but I could have guessed that. She plays guitar?" It's really not much.

[Arkhosia]

Kitsune Recovery Service

It's at this time that the rhythmic patter of the showerhead comes to a stop, followed soon after by the distinct shshsh of a shower curtain sliding back. Anastasia must be almost done in there - and indeed, she'll peek her head out through the doorway after a few minutes of thorough blow-drying, a towel wrapped tightly around her frame.

"U-um, you said you had a change of clothes for me...?" Poor girl sounds almost hesitant, as if she's worried her reminder might be mistaken as a demand for her host to hurry it up.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

"Um..."
"Boston is a place. It's where Fallout 4 takes place. And also some other stuff." New York and California usually get all the representation when it comes to movies and games.
"But I have absolutely no idea if that's where the cream is from." Pastries are not Zebes' specialty unless the question is if he likes them.

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

"So Boston is the place where they make doughnut custard filling," Khannie concludes.

This is very important information, as far as Khannie is concerned.

"They must really like doughnuts there if they make custard that's so special it gets named after their city."

Khannie is really plumbing the deep questions here, isn't she?

Oh!

Hey look!

There's the bakery!

Now they can stop talking about doughnuts and start eating them.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace’s Place

”Sometimes names are complicated. Like how Genoa salami is made in the region of Genoa but not really the city.”
And then bakery!

Inside is…
a pony!

And a whole lot of pastries.
Some people find the two main kinds of Nexus equestrians unnerving as they’re either made of shadowstuff or marshmallows but when it comes to sweets, accept no substitute.

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

Khannie doesn't think either kind of equestrian is creepy they're all cute.

HOWEVER!

She knows not to ask to pet them.

Some of them don't like that, even if they'll be nice about it.

"Hi Sugar Swirl!" Khannie says as she moves toward the great big glass display counter full of doughnuts. She's careful not to touch the glass since she doesn't want to leave smudgy fingerprints all over it. "I'm not going to get a Boston Creme today I'm going to get something different."

"I want an apple fritter!" Maridia interjects.

"We're gunna cut that in pieces if you eat the whole thing at once you'll get sick," Khannie warns.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

For some strangely cosmic reason, Khannie might find that thinking they're cute is perfectly acceptable.
Jace for his part simply nods and says, "Hullo again SS. Chocolate cigar."
Jace is referring to the flaky tube-shaped chocolate-drizzled pastry not the actual chocolate molded to look like a cigar.

Sugar Swirl begins slicing a fritter into quarters with those magic knife-holding hooves of hers.
But the question remains.
What does Khannie desire?

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

Technically not Jace's place but jumping between threads is kind of silly sometimes.

Anywho!

Khannie watches the cute and magical fritter cutting as she contemplates the display.

What does she want?

What does she REALLY want to try out?

Hmm...

Eventually she settles on, "I want that one."

She points to a doughnut that looks like some sort of crazy hybrid with a Belgian waffle, complete with whipped cream and strawberries with syrup dribbled on top. Khannie knows she likes waffles so a waffle doughnut should be good, right?

[Deathkeeper]

Jace’s Place

Jace drops a thick silver coin on the counter in anticipation of the bill.
”I think we’re going to want to eat these here.” he gestures to a nearby tiny wire table.
He has a point. What Khannie just ordered looks EXTREMELY messy.
There’s no way she’ll be able to eat it while walking.

[Rebonack]

Jace's Place

Khannie takes her doughnut, a little paper plate, and a hearty helping of childish gusto as she scampers over to the indicated table and chomps down on her treat.

Turns out Jace was right.

It is very messy.

Strawberry filling BLORP!s out of the side of the doughnut and plops onto the plate, eliciting an "Oh no!" from Khannie as she tries eating at the leaking side to prevent any more jelly from escaping.

Khannie is...

Mostly successful.

Mostly.

Maridia will attack the quarter apple fritter with great ferocity the second it gets set down for her.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

Jace and Zebes split their chocolate pastry at the little table behind them. Zebes is a classy as always; nibbling slowly at his food and wiping his mouth with one of his wings frequently. Jace is happy he already sequestered away the rest of the apple fritter. It is safe from Maridia and her terrible hunger.
He's going to have to be wary. As she gets older it's entirely likely that she will remain exactly the same but only get more clever.
"How is it, girls?" he asks.

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

Khannie disengages long enough from her treat to say, "It's really good! I'm glad I decided to try something new."

Her fingers are going to be VERY sticky by the time she's done.

Maridia will make... affirmative noises? as she attacks the fritter piece.

And Jace is quite right. Maridia WILL get more clever. Though she'll probably get at least a little smarter. Fairy dragons are intelligent, definitely. But they definitely aren't the brightest bulbs in the Draconomicon.

Anywho!

Treats are finished and our happy little family will be able to return home without facing any undo weirdness. When they return Khannie will resolve to sit down with Zebes and together they can watch the first few episodes of his weird cartoon that he said the cat thing is from. They'll make it through the first two episodes before it's time for Khannie to go to bed and so far nothing bad has happened? Though Khannie will be able to confirm one thing with absolute certainty.

"Kyubi. That's him. That's the weird kitty that granted my wish."

It's with heavy thoughts that she heads for bed. To be truly human and living with her real family is everything she ever wanted. But what does the future have in store for our newly contracted Magical Girl?

[Shadowcaller]

Kitsune Recovery Service

Obriane isn't sure how to take the fact that Kitty almost knew nothing about the person she had just helped covered up a dead body for but it wasn't exactly reassuring.
Thankfully, the girl herself chose that moment to return. Obriane turns to Ana and then moves out of the way so that Kitty can talk to her. She was all too concerned with considering what to say to really have anything to say to the poor girl.

Dreaming of Fey

"...it's hard, yeah." Jaahlyn admits after a few moments of silence as she slumps down on the bed they're sharing. "Especially when I'm feeling like this." She lets out chuckle and runs her hand through her hair.

"I must seem like quite a mess, huh?" She inquires, though her tone is now more playful than forlorn. "It's because I am. Just giving you a fair warning before we start anything more serious. I still feel like I'm the same age as when I was changed but I'm older than your grandma." She lets out another chuckle as if laughing at the absurdity of it all.