Home 26: Rooms to let, fifty cents

[Rebonack]

[The Derricks]

"We should all leave t-together," Lambslaural says, pointing her spear toward the threshold. "The smoke is so thick it would be easy to miss it. I can f-feel right where it the exit is."

Oh.

Right of course she can.

The threshold tree is part of her so that makes sense.

Who knows?

They might find another mare on the way out. In fact, it's probably pretty likely.

There are plenty of lost, forgotten souls lurking around the Pit.

[bc56]

The Derricks

"Okay. Let's go." The superheroes begin climbing, keeping Delilah shielded between them. Janine mostly hovers, while Jade projects a shield in front of herself and puts her armored body in between any threats and Delilah.

[Rebonack]

[The Derricks]

Back up they go!

Delilah is mostly clinging to Jade, unwilling to speak, her eyes squeezed shut. Maybe is she just doesn't think about this place long enough then it'll go away. Our heroes encounter a few more oily fire jests, but thankfully Lambslaural seems to be able to detect them well before they start trying to torch our heroes. Perhaps surprisingly they aren't attacked again on their way up.

But they DO encounter something else.

A blank toppling out of the sky.

It bounces off a guard rail, spinning through the air, and lands hard on the platform in front of them. A pallid, pale thing in the shape of a human, its face a weeping hole. Grime is already starting to stick to it as the essence of the Pit seeks purchase, looking to create another mare. Fortunate for Jade that they encountered another so close to the threshold.

Unfortunate for the blank that they fell into this awful place at all.

Lambslaural grips her spear in both hands and thrusts it through the growing mare, the taint of the Pit evaporating and leaving the blank slightly more indistinct. Almost immediately oil begins collecting on it again.

"Hurry," Lambslaural says, looking to Jade.

[bc56]

The Derricks

Jade steps forward. In one motion she lasers the blank to remove the oil and slips a mask onto it. No time for pleasantries.

And there, looking very confused, is Jason. "Who're you... What's going on?" Jade helps him to his feet. "Welcome back, brother." Jason looks even more confused. "I'm an only..." He's cut off when Jade removes her helmet. The family resemblance is very obvious. They're twins, brother and sister. Obviously. "I'll explain once we're out of here."

[Rebonack]

Okay!

Time to get the heck out of this awful place and back to-

[Plum Mountain Park]

Our heroes are all pretty filthy from their time in the Derricks. Definitely wouldn't suggest going there on a vacation. Delilah is busy coughing and taking great gasping breaths of clean air. Zippo is currently trying to dissuaded an amorous and inebriated faun. Lambslaural is trying to clean all the soot off herself in the stream that runs down from the threshold tree. She has already swapped the path back to the Enchanted Forest. Feeling the connection to the Pit is pretty gross.

So!

There are more than a few people here looking at Jade.

They were promised answers.

"Seriously," Zippo says, planting a gloved hand on the faun and gently scooting her away. "What the hell just happened?"

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

Jade looks a bit embarrassed. This is going to be a difficult explanation. "Well, you were all dead. But I... brought you back." Jason looks like he's about to object. He's pretty sure something else is up, because he didn't have a twin sister before. "Why?" Janine looks bewildered. If she was dead, how did she become part fox? "Because you all deserve a second chance."

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

"I definitely don't remember dying," Zippo points out. "I remember heroic business and usual and then just nothing until I came to in there."

He gestures at the threshold which, thankfully, no longer leads to the Pit.

"What exactly happened?"

Oh no they're going to force Jade to explain aren't they?

Explain all about awful foxes.

It'll be terrible.

Lambslaural is very busy washing herself off. This sort of potential conflict intimidates her but she'll probably speak up if Jade calls on her.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

Jade looks really embarrassed now. This is really hard to explain. "I, well, I came into possession of your identities. I don't know where they came from. Someone tried to convince me that I'd killed you for them, but, um, that would be impossible. Right Lambslaural?" She looks to her friend for confirmation. "Anyway, I gave your identities to people who had theirs stolen, so, um, now you're back?" She's not sure exactly what the implications might be. But Janine seems disturbed. "So I'm just a copy? Or I'm someone else wearing my face?" "No, you're you. The real you." She thinks.

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

Lambslaural glances up from her washing. "Oh, umm... d-definitely. The Dreamheart tries to t-trick people into thinking they were always faeries s-sometimes."

It's dastardly like that.

"You aren't, um... you aren't copies. I don't think?"

That isn't very reassuring, Lambslaural.

Or convincing.

And Jason is definitely a copy. Right?

"You all have your own soul so, umm... I don't think that means you can be a copy?" she says. Though technically not the same soul they had before. Thankfully naked souls (blanks) have been stripped as clean as they would by drinking the water of the Lethe. No trace of who or what they were before. A soul is a soul.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

Jade shrugs. "We're both pretty new to this faerie magic thing, so we're not absolutely sure about these things. But pretty sure. You're really you, not copies or duplicates. You have a new life, so, um, go make the most of it?" Jason, meanwhile, slips over to Lambslaural and taps her on the shoulder. "Can I talk to you in private for a moment?" He looks concerned. He makes sure Jade isn't paying attention before continuing. "It's about her." Does Lambslaural remember Jade talking about her enhanced intellect? Because that's at work here. Jason's figured out that something more is going on here.

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

"Um... a-alright?" Lambslaural replies, trotting after Jason.

It's clear he's concerned about what's going on. Lambsy thinks he might have cause to be. She isn't sure why Jade decided to put her Jason mask on a blank, too.

It certainly seems odd...

"What, um, what did you want to talk about?"

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

"Who is she, really? I know I don't have a sister, and even if my parents had another kid, genetically, she couldn't be a redhead, and I can tell that's her natural color." Jason looks very concerned. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but he's certainly worried about this mysterious new "twin sister" he's suddenly required. "And I wasn't dead. At least I doubt it. So what's going on here?"

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

Lambslaural taps her index fingers together anxiously.

"Um... She's... I mean, it's complicated?" she replies after a few seconds of silence. Lambsy doesn't do well with confrontation or being put on the spot. "You got eaten by a kumiho. They're bad, predatory faeries. It took Jade's face and replaced it with a... um... another kumiho. Because it was trying to trick me. Jade is... do you remember when, um, when you got cursed and made into a woman?"

If Jason remembers that then maybe this explanation will get less confusing.

If he doesn't then it will continue being REALLY confusing.

Jason should, ostensibly, recall all the things the kumiho did as Jason. Which would mean all the things that happened before Libra's curse happened. At which point the fox got a new mask that she started using.

As usual the Dreamheart is gaslighting these poor people.

It never ceases to be terrible.

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

"What? I think I would remember something like that." That sounds very strange. Jason thinks. "The last thing I remember was being in the Den, and everyone started changing." Did that infect him as well? If it did, how does he not remember it? "Waiiit." The pieces are starting to fall into place. "You're saying she's me? But a lady? How?" He's really confused now. He doesn't get all this magic stuff.

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

Being fair, Lambslaural doesn't really understand all this magic stuff either.

She has a really strong intuitive grasp of it, but she doesn't actually comprehend it in any intellectual fashion. But that's better than nothing, right?

"Um... I think she's the you that got cursed. It made a new identity," Lambslaural says. "Kumiho are... they're strange. They steal identities and m-make them into masks to wear. Under that face-"

Lambslaural gestures at Jade.

"-she's a faerie fox. And she wants to be m-made human again. But when she does that all the faces she's taken, all the people she can be, they'll be g-gone."

Gone to where?

Lambslaural isn't totally sure. Maybe just back to the Dreamheart?

"But she didn't w-want you and Janine and the others to disappear. So she found souls that had their f-faces stolen and gave them the masks of people important to her. Like y-you."

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

Jason looks at Jade with a bit more worry. "She eats people? Do I need to keep an eye on her?" He can't help but notice that she has his armor. Hopefully his spare suits are still around and still designed for someone without boobs. He looks at Lambslaural again. "So she made sure I wouldn't vanish by making me a separate person? But she is me, in a way? But also, she's a fox? Am I understanding that right?" He just sounds way too confused for this nonsense. Seriously, who came up with this?

[Rebonack]

[Plum Mountain Park]

"She eats people," Lambslaural confirms. "B-but she's trying not to. She wants to be a good fox."

Wanting to do better counts, right?

It has to count.

Then Lambslaural nods. And again.

"She's you. Just a woman because of the curse. And a kumiho because another kumiho ate her and forced a fox mask on her."

Those darn fox masks.

Making everything confusing!

"B-but there's a way to make her human again. We're going to cure her," Lambslaural says. She sounds very certain of this fact.

[Deathkeeper]

Arletane Keep

Count Arletane has sequestered himself in his chambers during one of the visits to his county. They are simply decorated, but still warm and classy. Edgar Winchester, also known as Count Arletane, successor to Countess Arletane Aethiiraxa, is quite fond of them. He has chosen to conduct his business here and not his other home at the Golden Kettle to keep the prying eyes of Nahira away from his business. Not that he's seen her in days.
Edgar has been blessed with prodigious height, sharp teeth and claws, and the softest coat of striped fur imaginable. Unfortunately the tiger-like guardian of the Djinni Nahira was also blessed with prodigious girth, as Nahira's perception of beauty was "royalty with so much wealth he has spent his life being pampered with nary a moment of labor." Edgar is no longer slowed down by the his shape thanks to the strength and endurance being a djinni's guardian comes with, but he still disagrees with the idea that he looks good like this. And the same powers also prevent him from simply solving the problem with exercise. You can't burn calories when your body doesn't need to eat and produces its own fuel.

And he happens to own a spellbook of a great archmage. So why not? Edgar gets himself a chalk circle, some candles, does himself a nice little incantation, and puts out a call to the other planes for help with the fact that this particular novice summoner thinks he is just too fat.
He hopes he did this right. That spell diagram was really complicated. And he's not exactly experienced with this. But come on, he's infused with the magic of creation, surely that makes him qualified to do a ritual?

[bc56]

Plum Mountain Park

"Okay. I think I get it now." Jason definitely doesn't get it yet. He starts heading back to rejoin the group. Jade sees him return, and says to everyone, but mainly Lambslaural, "Now that that's settled, we should get everyone out of this forest before something weird happens."

[Earl of Purple]

Arletane Keep

Something happens! Mist arises in the chalk diagram, and from that mist a figure coalesces. They're tall, and thin; humanoid, but far too tall and thin to be human. They're nearly three metres tall, but barely sixty centimetres wide at the shoulders, and considerably slimmer everywhere else. Their skin is the colour of the sky, and their eyes are on the sides of their head, large deer-like eyes with white horizontal pupils, brown irises and black sclera- like a deer's eyes in reverse. Their head is shaved, bar two long braids, one just behind their long, pointed ears, each ending in a pebble with a hole drilled naturally in it by water. They're wearing a short skirt of seaweed, and their chest is bare. Their figure is androgynous, but their voice isn't- that's clearly feminine. They don't have teeth, but two rows of seashells in their mouth. "Ah! Hello there. You are a jolly looking fellow. I am" She makes a noise like waves crashing on a pebble beach. "Sidhe of the Shore. But you can call me Pebbles, if you struggle to pronounce the faetongue. This is a lovely place; why'd you call for me?"

[Deathkeeper]

Arletane Keep

Edgar bows.
"Greetings, Sidhe Pebbles of the Shore. I have come to ask you for your aid. You see, this form was bestowed upon me by my Lady. But I feel like her taste in the proper looks of Lords...differs." he shakes his enormous belly, fully on display with his somewhat revealing blue-silk uniform.
"She won't change me, so I have been seeking aid to help with my problem. Um. Namely that I am very fat." Edgar decides to just be clear about the problem instead of being coy around it when supernatural beings are involved.

[Earl of Purple]

Arletane Keep

"Pebbles, Sidhe of the Shore. My name is... Well, basically Pebbles, and Sidhe of the Shore is what I am." She listens to what Edgar has to say, and tilts her head to one side, examining him closely. "May I step from the diagram? I cannot, without your permission." If it's given, she'll walk around Edgar, or otherwise she'll ask him to twirl around. "What's wrong with it? Your frame is gorgeous. Absolutely regal, truly great. I wish I had it. Ooh, we could swap! Would that be acceptable?"

[Deathkeeper]

Arletane Keep

"Um. Sure." What's the harm in letting her walk around?
"You- you really think I'm hot stuff?" Aethiiraxa seemed to think so, but maybe he misinterpreted her comment. And she didn't seem interested in him when they met the second time. But...Pebbles' frame is a bit alien for him. He might be rotund but it's a kind of rotund a person can be naturally from eating.
"I guess I don't really understand why you and Nahira seem to like it. What's so regal about being huge?"

[Earl of Purple]

Arletane Keep

"I wouldn't necessarily phrase it like that, but yes. I do like it. You look like a favourite uncle, or Santa, or a child's bouncy ball. Bouncy, bouncy." She'll reach out to slap him, just hard enough to make him jiggle. "You are big. Big is power. The sea is big. The moon is big. These things have power. I am fragile and weak. You are regal, you are powerful. You are big." She emphasises the end of every sentence. "But, whilst powerful, you are also soft and cuddly. Friendly and approachable. Powerful, and not a tyrant. That is what your build tells me."

She says she's fragile and weak, but as she's a sidhe, that's very much relative.

[Deathkeeper]

[Arletane Keep

Edgar frowns, but does ponder her words. At least until he's slapped hard in the gut.
"I mean if you want me to shake you could just ask." Edgar hops up and down a bit. Might as well try to please the weird Sidhe. Whatever a sidhe even is.
"Bouncy enough? So...you like big things? Is that why you're so tall? I don't think I've talked to too many people even taller than me."

[Earl of Purple]

Arletane Keep

"Oh, that's less fun." She waves a hand dismissively. "I am the Sidhe of the Shore. A Greater Fae of the coast, I am linked to the area revealed at the lowest of low tides all the way to the part covered by the highest of high tides. That area is long and thin, and so am I. Not all the shore, alas. Just a stretch between two cliffs, dominated by pebbles and the sound of my name. So long as the pebble beach remains, so do I. You should come visit some time." She reaches up and unwinds the hagstone from one of her braids and offers it to Edgar. "Put this on a thong and swing it gently; it'll guide you to my beach."

"I told you- I am weak and fragile. The sidhe of the cliffs and nymphs of the currents are greater than I. I am big in one respect only, and that is reflected with my form." She's also not as weak as she's letting Edgar believe; she's geographically linked to a smaller and less bulky area than those she mentions, but she's linked to earth and water. And weak by the standards of sidhe is still more powerful than most mortals. Edgar might one day challenge her, but only through the help of Nahira.

[Deathkeeper]

Arletane Keep

Edgar looks down at himself. He had been sort of hoping to get a giggle out of Pebbles. If he has to look ridiculous having someone laugh innocently at him is...well, it's something. He takes the gift and sets it down on his nightstand since his uniform does not have pockets.
"Well, your kind words were nice to hear. I do wish I could see myself the way you do. But maybe I will someday."
Since the sidhe is saying he should visit her sometime and seems to think he shouldn't change, he thinks Pebbles is going to leave without helping him. That's sort-of fine; she said nice things to him at least.

[Earl of Purple]

Arletane Keep

There's a waft of sea-air, smelling of rotting seaweed, brine and guano, carrying the sounds of the waves crashing on the shore and seabirds with it. "Done. Glad I could help you." Pebbles smiles, as Edgar grows, though doesn't get skinnier- he gets a bit taller, and keeps the same proportions. He's also surrounded by mirrors, though they are ones from elsewhere in the keep, just moved to be around him.

[Deathkeeper]

Arletane Keep

Edgar shoots up in height to Pebbles' level, though it's hard for him to tell with all these mirrors. Edgar tries to carefully move them out of the way to find her- after taking a moment to look at himself.
Hmm.
No, still looks like a very fat tiger to him. "Pebbles? Are you still there? What did you do?"

[Earl of Purple]

Arletane Keep

Pebbles is still there, behind one of the mirrors, walking back to the diagram on the floor. She turns when Edgar calls. "Granted your wish. You can see yourself the way I do, now. With the mirrors, anyway. It was that or rip your eyes out and show you what you look like that way, but most people don't seem to enjoy that and I like you." 'Don't seem to enjoy that' is putting it quite mildly. She's still climbing back into the diagram to go, but Edgar should notice he's not having to look up any more.