Home 26: Rooms to let, fifty cents

[Deathkeeper]

[Jade's Lair]

Wicke shoots them a genuine smile.
"Well, I'll leave you to it, then. Have fun you crazy kids!" he hollers in his best old-person voice. And then suddenly there is no centaur there at all, just a large bunch of crinkled red and brown leaves the fall to the ground in a neat oval pile.

[bc56]

Jade's Lair

Jade sits down cross-legged next to Lambslaural silently. It's peaceful here. She has a lot on her mind. Apparently being a woman isn't part of the curse? Is this really who she is now? She reaches under her shirt to adjust her bra straps a little. The curse made all of this so comfortable, it's weird to be feeling a little awkward in her body again. But it is her body, and more importantly, her mind. No outside influence she's aware of, and she trusts Wicke to be pretty thorough cleaning her out. So maybe he's right. Maybe this is the real her. But she's not sure. She runs a hand through her hair and contemplates.

[Earl of Purple]

Sekhmet's Cabin

"Oh, that's not good. I'm on my way. Love you." Prumathe hangs up after that, and heads back.

Samantha arrives first, she was already on her way and despite having short legs, she's a brownie and cheats with fae magic. She knocks at the door, and waits outside until she's specifically invited in. "Prumathe's on his way, isn't he? Let's wait for that, then." Sekhmet can see her, because without saying anything Samantha has instituted the 'no compliments' rule.

[bc56]

Sekhmet's Cabin

"Love you too." Sekhmet manages before Prumathe hangs up.
When Samantha arrives, Sekhmet nervously opens the door. "Oh, uh, come in. He'll be here soon." She invites Sam into the sitting room, where there are a couple armchairs and a couch that's partly taken up by a lounging alien creature wearing a blue collar. "Uh, have a seat. It shouldn't, uh, be long."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Felix's Tower]

Krayger smiles, moving a bit closer to examine the equipment. His natural inclination is that he probably should have showered before he had to spend a while next to Felix but...if anyone isn't going to care about standing next to a sweaty minotaur, it's the wizard who keeps livestock in his own home.
"Ah. So we're working with chemicals right now? Or are you planning on sending me straight off on another quest?" Krayger wouldn't put it past him for either. Felix is definitely a mysterious one. A mysterious one who has no problems making his apprentice work very hard.

[Felix's Tower]

"Working with chemicals. Tsk tsk, silly boy, you ought to know better than that!" Felix remarks, putting on a very exaggerated frown for just a moment. "The tools may look the same, but don't let that fool you. We're doing magic, not science!"

Because the two things are, of course, always completely different.

"And worry not. I have no intention of sending you off on another quest. No, rather, I think it's important that we get you familiar with the workings of alchemy. This is a complex potion we're brewing, and you'll need to be able to brew it on your own, eventually. Now then." He gets up and strolls over to the cauldron, peering at its contents and giving it a quick stir. "First thing you need to appreciate is that good things come to those who wait. It will take us several weeks before this potion is complete. During that time we must carefully monitor it and tend to it at certain intervals. It requires a combination of ingredients both mundane and magical, as well as the infusion of additional magic by the ritualistic casting of spells over the cauldron."

[Deathkeeper]

Felix's Tower

Krayger brushes off the teasing. A magic fluid still has properties like a chemical. Even if a scientist wouldn't accept it in their lab.
"Well, I can stay here for a long haul. I don't have anywhere to be at the moment. What's our first step, then?" asks the larger of the two mages as he peers over the cauldron.

[Earl of Purple]

Sekhmet's Cabin

The alien thing probably doesn't count as humanoid enough to be easily affected by Samantha's cloaking glamour, but I've not thought where the line lies with regards to intelligent non-humanoids.

Samantha sits on one of the chairs, getting in quite easily- but only if nobody's looking at her. From Sekhmet's point of view, Samantha's standing, then she blinks or turns away and when her eyes open or she turns back around, the brownie is sat upon the chair. "I can wait, I think. Um, interesting pet." The brownie doesn't really know what to make of it, either.

Prumathe's going to arrive quite quickly, out of breath and panting. He lets himself in, and glances at Spike. That hiveling still makes him a bit nervous. "Oh, hey Samantha. I can't see you. Thank you for all the stuff you do for the family, whilst I can say it. What's happening?" Samantha smiles as she's thanked, and Prumathe looks at the brownie afterwards, since she's put the usual rule up.
"I went past Nocri's today, just to pop in. She's not there, and the landlady says she hasn't seen Nocri since the Buttercup thing. All her stuff's gone, too. Just some sentimental stuff, nothing valuable. This year's diary, with an entry for the day before yesterday and some photos. The entry's mostly her worrying about paying for food and planning a trip to that new mountain park, so it's definitely written since the Buttercup thing. I think the Fairy Godfather's decided the Buttercups was a good cover to make her disappear, so he can recoup some losses. Her stuff's gonna be on the black market, or smuggled to Riverside or somewhere to sell it more openly. The landlady smelt of whiskey and pyrite, so she's been hit by leprechaun glamour."

[bc56]

Sekhmet's Cabin

"Thanks. I've, uh, had her since about a year ago." Sekhmet takes a seat on the couch and scratches Ellie while she waits.
Once Prumathe arrives, Sekhmet immediately gets up to give him a hug. Ellie gets up and pads over to rub against his leg. It seems to have no apprehensions about him. Once Samantha has finished filling him in, Sekhmet asks, "Uh, what do we do?"

[Earl of Purple]

Sekhmet's Cabin

"We need to figure out where she's going, and get her out of there." It's either that or leave her to her fate, and Prumathe's not happy with that option.
"It's got to be Skyside. The biggest slave markets are there, that's the only place I can think of where he can sell her openly. But not by Riftline, it's nearly impossible to smuggle anything by Riftline."
"There's some people I met here, they escaped from Skyside by glider. They might know where she'd go on arrival. They've got another cabin, I'll go find them. See what they know." Edmund and Aethelflaed nearly crashed into the lake, but their glider did come from Skyside. Prumathe stands up and leaves again, headed to the cabin of the escapees.

[bc56]

Sekhmet's Cabin

"Okay, uh, let's go see them." Sekhmet stands to follow Prumathe. Ellie remains behind. "What do we do, when we find out where, uh, she is? We, uh, can't rush in without a plan." They'd be captured and sold alongside Nocri in no time.

[Earl of Purple]

Not Sekhmet's Cabin

Samantha goes with the group, again moving from seated to walking alongside them without a break in the middle of getting up.

"We do need a plan, but we can't plan without knowing what to expect, or how to find her. And that's what we're going to find out, right?" Prumathe grins, faking a confidence he doesn't really feel. He's really quite worried.

The cabin they're after is Balsa Cabin, which had been emptied by the previous tenants when they moved to Inside to move their furniture reclamation and refurbishment business in larger premises, but they still send money to GLoG to support other escapees and rescued slaves. Prumathe knocks, and the door is answered by a seventeen-year-old girl with red hair and pale skin, wearing a long denim dress and a pink wool cardigan. "Oh, hey Prumathe. Come in, I'll put the kettle on. How do you have your tea?" She heads inside, leaving the door open so they can all enter. "Hey Aethelflaed, this is my sister, Samantha, and my wife, Sekhmet. Um, could you invite Samantha in explicitly? She's... got some funny restrictions because of what she is." After that's achieved, they're led to a room very similar to Sekhmet and Prumathe's own lounge, except the furniture is mismatched but all well-cared for, and there's a desk in the corner covered in blueprints and models of aircraft. "Is your brother here? I think we might need his expertise. My sister's gone missing from Inside, and we think she's going to be sold to the slavers."
The girl nods, and her lips set into a line. "Ed won't help much. He didn't see inside their operation, not like I did, but... I didn't see much. Whoever took her will go to Groundtown, that's where the Guild do a lot of their buying. They've got a shop down there, quite a big place. Brick and concrete, with a helipad on the roof. Once she's bought, she'll stay there for a bit. Don't know how long, depends on how many others they have. When they've got enough, twenty or so if they're human sized, they'll be loaded into a helicopter and taken to Skyside itself, a warehouse. I don't know where it is, I have been there but I didn't see anything on the way up or when I left. Edmund got lucky, he found me after I'd spent a while there, and I was being moved to the shops themselves. Your sister might not go to the shops, not if she was taken from Inside. Too risky if the Guild know they're buying slaves stolen off the streets of there, she might go off-world if they find out. And they will; in the warehouse, you're stripped, cleaned given new clothes, your health is assessed and a wizard comes along to find out what they can about you, how useful you are and where to sell you. You want her back, either go in as sellers and get someone on the inside before striking from the outside, or hit the building at night when it's closed. Doesn't have to be violent, but if you're caught you'll be sold, and the guards are pretty good."

[bc56]

Not Sekhmet's Cabin

"Oh, uh." This sounds like an extensive operation. Sekhmet's thinking about how she could use her powers to help, but without a better idea of the locations involved, she's not very sure. "It, uh, sounds like we need a way to get in without, uh, raising suspicion. If we, uh, pretend to be sellers, we'll, uh, have to sell someone." That idea really bothers Sekhmet. It goes against most everything she stands for. But it might be a necessary evil. "Could we, uh, pose as buyers instead?"

[Recaiden]

Each of the top slots contains a little skeleton and a notecard written in shorthand draconic.
Most of the skeletons are tiny dragons, but some lack wings, or arms, or legs, or have too many, and a couple are more different: a large blobby thing hardly a proper skeleton at all, a minuscule humanoid, a crow, etc.
Finally comes a whisper, accompanied by chattering of teeth and buzzing of gossamer.
The voice is mostly from the specimen box, but also seems to echo at the back of Arron's head.
You've already started, good.

[Rebonack]

[Jade's Lair]

Lambslaural seems to content herself with just admiring the garden for now. They can always do some more work on it another time. Maybe she could visit a nursery and buy some perennial flowers? Or one of Inside's markets? Jade had felt a little left out due to how magical the initial work had been. She would probably feel more included with a little trowel getting to plant a few nice flowers herself. Maybe a few pansies would be nice? They're pretty little flowers and they'll spread all on their own.

...gosh...

What are they going to do?

Now she's stuck in this weird doe body again without an easy way to be... comfortable. And she can tell Jade is different. She's showing the same sorts of body language Lambslaural finds herself slipping into. Uncomfortable. Had it just been that weird curse that made them fall for each other so hard? Why does this all have to be so complicated?

And what about getting back to normal? Would he still be a she? There are just so many questions.

Maybe... maybe it's better to just take things one step at a time.

"Um... did you still want to look around the park?" Lambslaural finally speaks up. "It's nice there. And... um... I really could use your help."

[bc56]

Jade's Lair

Jade sits and thinks. Who is she? Man or woman? She thinks back to the last months. Sure, she made a lot of strange decisions, but there are some things she actually liked. She really does like looking good, but she could do that as a man too. She doesn't know who she is anymore.

At Lambslaural's suggestion, Jade snaps out of her thought. "Sure. That could be fun." She stands up, wipes a bit of dirt off her pants, and waits for Lambslaural to take the lead. "Which way?"

[Rebonack]

[Jade's Lair]

Lambslaural is facing similar questions about identity. Maybe they can just be complicated messes together.

The gaiad raises to her feet and doesn't bother brushing the dirt out of her fur. It can come with her back home. Dirt likes to travel, after all. She raises one hand, pointing off toward the heart of the City. The crown of the Threshold Tree is juuuust scarcely visible over the city's skyline here by the docks.

"That way. You can see the top of our big t-tree," Lambslaural says.

It really is a BIG tree.

Just absolutely enormous.

She sets off at a leisurely pace, fighting down her urge to prance everywhere. Even a relatively slow prance still requires a human to jog to keep up with her.

"So... I said last night that there are still some people stranded in the weald," Lambslaural explains as they walk. "I really wish we could have s-stopped the Seed Dancer without turning into a weald. Dandelion had a good idea, I think, but we didn't listen to her..."

Lambslaural still feels kind of bad about not heeding her sister's advice. If they had listened to Dandelion to begin with they probably wouldn't have gotten Buttercup'd at all.

[bc56]

Jade's Lair -> Plum Mountain Park

"I see it. Wow, that's huge." Jade gives a low whistle. She sets after Lambslaural at a walk or even a slow jog if necessary. She's fairly athletic, although up until now the curse had prevented her from really developing her body that way. Now she really could. Maybe she'd feel better if she lost some of the excess fat that gives her curves and had more of a svelte, muscular figure? Now she actually could try that.

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

"Isn't it? It's... um... it's mostly just magic. Like the trees in the garden. But a real tree is growing up into it. It's like... um... like a scaffold, I guess?" Lambslaural tries to explain. She's sure that Snapdragon would do a way better job than she does.

It isn't too long before our heroes are walking past Thimble Park. Like most of the parks Inside it seems dilapidated and neglected, with a large rusty steel play structure reminiscent of a thimble. Near the center of the part is a grove of oak trees. Lambslaural looks a bit sad, laying her eyes on the dejected place.

"Faeries set up in many of the parks around the City. It made people afraid to come to them since they didn't want their children stolen," Lambslaural says, walking through the deserted place and running her fingers along an old faded plastic wobble-horse mounted atop some sturdy springs. "All these groves connect to the weald now. They're all shortcuts for the fae."

She turns back toward Jade and smiles.

"I'm really h-hoping that with my sisters and me in charge we might... um... m-might be able to clean up a little? Make the parks safe again? It's so sad, seeing them like this..." she sighs.

Something rustles in a nearby scraggly bush. This is followed by a rather mean spirited laugh from the park's decrepit looking bathrooms.

They're being watched.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

"It is terrible." Jade agrees. "If I can help you, I will." She doesn't even react to the rustling and laughing, but her hand goes into her purse. Lambslaural doesn't know that she keeps a ray gun in there, does she? And after last night's fae nonsense, a steel screwdriver too. Wow, it's weird to wear a purse. But it is useful for carrying things, and it's not like women's pants have pockets.

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

Lambslaural narrows her eyes, stomps a hoof, and tries to look as threatening as possible!

...which isn't very threatening but hey she's trying.

"You g-goblins had better knock it off! I'm one of the three spirits of Plum Mountain Park and you'll be in BIG TROUBLE if you don't behave!"

Nothing immediately threatening happens, so Lambslaural heads for the trees.

"Goblins are bullies," she says. "Dangerous too, sometimes. Especially if they have a b-big goblin to push them around."

Once past the tree-like she heads straight for a tall, oblong, irregularly shaped smooth stone sticking out of the earth. White and full of black speckles, yielding a grey stone that catches the light in tiny crystal facets. Something about it feels unnameable ancient and mysterious. Looking close, it has lines and curves carefully carved into its surface. Right in the middle of the rock is a perfectly round hole punching from one side to the other.

"I've been adjusting the waystones since our weald grew. They used to lead to different parts of the Enchanted Forest, but I've been making them all lead to my park instead," Lambslaural says as she touches the stone. Soothing white light flows through the grooves, the color of the plum blossoms adorning her flanks. "There! This way if fae want to come into Inside easily, they have to come through our Threshold Tree. I'm hoping we might be able to keep the worst of them out of the City."

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

Jade nods. "That seems like a good plan. Sometimes being open to all the worlds is a problem. There are some things you don't want coming in." She releases her grip on her weapon and relaxes. "Need me to do anything?"

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

"Just lean down and look through the hole," Lambslaural replies.

And should Jade do so?

She'll be able to see... somewhere else on the other side?

Some other part of the forest. The trees there are different. The ones here are all wide oak trees. The ones on the other side are redwoods and they're absolutely HUGE!

Upon standing up again Jade will find that she's now standing in the middle of the redwood forest, towering trees surrounding a small glade full of wildflowers. A small stream burbles out of a large granite pool nearby where several small birds are busy splashing about. There's also... a house? Or at least it looks like it was a house at some point. A huge living redwood log shaped roughly like a house with a few holes where windows would be. No doubt the result of the weald consuming someone's home. A thick hedge of huckleberry and salal bushes surrounds the glade, save for a little arch leading back out into the forest proper. Growing near another suspiciously building shaped tree is a dogwood tree covered in bright white blossoms. Wild plum trees of smallish size dot the area, along with several types of apple and cherry trees. It's like a little orchard. And of course there's a waystone right in the middle of the grass, surrounded by snapdragons, dandelions, and a little lambslaural bush.

It feels...

Peaceful here.

A moment later Lambslaural appears, mist drifting away from her.

"So, um... this is my house?" she says, gesturing at the weird tree. "Or... um... was my house, I guess?"

Much of the garden here looks like it was in place well before the weald gobbled the whole neighborhood up.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

Jade goes through the teleportation ritual without fuss. She explores around just a little before Lambslaural arrives. "It's nice. Sorry about it being destroyed." Or mostly destroyed, as the case may be. "So this is the park? Looks pretty good. I love what you've done with the place."

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

Lambslaural gives a dejected sigh.

"I really wish it hadn't been. It wasn't just my home that got swallowed up by the weald. It was everyone's," she says as she heads through the archway on one end of the glade and out into the 'street'. Or at least where a street would have been before.

This was a residential neighborhood.

A wide, three lane road is just beyond the archway. Or at least it was your typical asphalt road. Now there's sheer cliff face at the edge of the sidewalk thickly covered in ferns and little waterfalls. At the bottom of the gorge flows a river rushing over granite boulders that used to be cars. Water trickles out through the arch leading to Lambslaural's home and goes cascading over the edge in a plume of glittering droplets. The canyon stretches off in both directions, etching its way around residential blocks, turning them into little islands above the churning river below. Here and there fallen logs and twisted masses of vines form bridges across the otherwise impossible terrain. There are other houses. Or things that used to be houses. More strangely shaped trees, branches reaching to form a canopy casting the whole forest in emerald twilight.

How many people's homes were swallowed up by the forest?

"There's a school over this way," Lambslaural says as she turns to her right and sets off down the gravely stream-bed that encircles the block, stepping up onto a sandy shore and then hopping onto a log that spans the chasm. Across the way is, sure enough, a school. Or was a school. Now it's a collection of strangely shaped trees, meadows, and streams. "There are some people in there that... umm... wouldn't listen to me when I was talking to them. They thought the weald was trying to t-trick them. So... umm... maybe a human face will make them feel better?"

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

Jade looks out over the street. "Woah. That's..." She doesn't finish her sentence. Instead she starts heading for the former school. "Come on, let's save some people." Her balance isn't as good as it was a little while ago, so she wobbles a couple times on the log bridge, but she does okay.

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

Thankfully the log is quite wide and not particularly slippery since that chasm is about fifty feet deep and full of rushing water swirling around boulders at the bottom. It would probably not be that fun to fall in there.

Aside from the roar of the river below and the occasion shrill call of forest birds the weald is strangely quiet. Every now and again Jade might swear she can hear the sound of reedy pipes playing somewhere in the distance. Maybe the more unpleasant fae just don't want to harass Lambslaural? Or maybe the weald just isn't that heavily populated yet. Sure, it's a magical forest. But it's a magical forest that only started existing a few days ago. It takes time for spirits and ghosts and ghoulies to stake out their territory.

Lambslaural leads Jade across a sunny meadow toward the school's main entrance. Or... the giant log's main entrance. It looks really dark in there. But Lambslaural raises one hand, vines twisting together out of her arm and forming a little basket full of eldritch light that casts the hallway in a cool green glow.

"The last time I checked they were, um, huddled up in the cafeteria. Or... I guess where the cafeteria was," she explains.

Considering how much fresh water and how plentiful fruit trees are it is unlikely that the people holed up here went hungry. But eating and drinking food and water for too long from a weald isn't good for humans. If they keep that up they won't remain human for very long...

Dusk and spores drift through the air. In the far distance down the hall a similar eerie green light winks at our heroes. The door to the cafeteria is closer, if one should rightfully call it a door. More like a curtain of silk crusted with wood fiber.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

Jade pushes the door open. "Hey, anyone in here?" Hopefully people are alive in here and neither faeries nor dead. "Someone told me there were people who needed to be rescued in here." She listens for an answer.

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

Beyond the door is-!

...and empty room.

Well. Not empty. There are heaps of stone and earth that probably were cafeteria tables at some point. But no evidence that anyone is, or was, in there. Which is strange, because Lambslaural was quite certain that there ARE people in there. So what exactly is going on?

Hmm...

Oh, wait.

There IS something in there.

Sitting on top of one of the former tables at the back of the cafeteria is a fox.

The fox is watching Jade.

Yep. No one in here except a fox. Jade may as well look somewhere else.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

"Hey there," Jade cautiously enters the room and approaches the fox. "There were people here. Do you know where they went?" She's got talking animals living in her house, and this is a magical forest, so she just assumes the fox might be able to talk. "Hey Lambslaural, they aren't here. Do you know where they went?"

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

The fox doesn't react as Jade walks towards it.

It just watches her.

Though when she speaks up the animal quirks its head off to one side a bit.

Lambslaural can't really see what's going on since she's around the corner watching Jade head into the cafeteria. She didn't want anyone to see her lest they get spooked over the presence of a faerie.

"I'm sure there were, umm... there were people in there this morning," Lambslaural insists. "B-but maybe they went to another part of the school while we were walking over?"

That...

Might explain what's going on?

As Jade walks through the cafeteria she might notice a few odd visual artifacts, especially if she turns her head while walking to look away from the fox. Parts of the room seem... displaced? Kind of? Like things don't quite line up properly. It never lasts for more than a moment and she only ever catches it out of the corner of her eye. As soon as she's looking straight at anything it seems normal.