Inside 71: All I Want For Thanksmas Is You

[Earl of Purple]

Hodgepodge Street

"I've smelt worse. That sea-cave I found my shovel in, the mutant worm lady didn't smell pleasant." Mostly it smelt of salt and rotting seaweed, like the sea in general. Occasionally mixed with bird guano and fish.

"I think I can see where the magic's coming from. Might be we can go stop it. It's like... strings of power, linking them all together. Follow enough strings, hopefully we'll find the middle." Or they'll find the edge, but that's less likely because they know which direction they're going in, so just start here, go back to the statues, chase down the monkey and continue from there.

[5a Violista]

[Visiting the Church of Venus]

Venus just realized that dress is still up on the wall over there.
...
If she can make illusions, can she make illusory clothes? she wonders.

She lets the breeze in the area run across her head as she leans it against the altar. "I...I..." She can hardly think about what she needs to say. She closes her eyes again and takes a deep breath. "Maybe? But...I'm fine. I just need to find something to focus on, or get distracted with. Preferably something that makes me concentrate on it. That way, it, um...it helps with...um...the...um...it helps by making. . ."

She groans again, this time in frustration. "Ugh! I don't even have the words to describe how it helps!"


[Brimstone Park]

"Huh, that's pretty neat," June says. "Magical reagent? Yeah...that's really neat. Sounds really complicated, but also pretty fun." What other sorts of 'magical' reagents are there? he starts to wonder. Can you just mix them together, or...? How do you tell what they do? This is incredibly interesting. Wait, would those hair-flowers also count? Would his mushroom...spores? count as a magical reagent?

"So...do you three take turns who's at the front, who's doing the mixing, and who's getting...milked?" Yeah, that's a good conversation starter.

[bc56]

Brimstone Park

They could be! He'd just have to try.

"Oh, no, we don't need to extract that much venom. The potions are very, very dilute. We extract maybe, once a fortnight? Whenever we make a new batch. It's Pyrite's turn today, and I'll do it the next time. Want to help?"

[Shadowcaller]

Jim's Apartment

Jim blinks and then nods.
"Ah. Alright. Well, I'll come around your office and ask for you, then? Sometime later. You look like you ought to get some sleep." Jim is rather happy that Sticks rarely needs him to work extra late. Thanksmas is the only time of year their work gets very busy.

[Court of the Deep]

Reina clears her throat. "A prince," the catgirl adds, "With a lot of brothers and sisters, none of which have been clearly defined as heir. Hence the importance of making diplomatic contact with other noble courts." She nods towards the birds. The silent prince has to prove himself in many ways before he's to be considered for king!

[Court of the Deep]

The Eye of the Bird seems satisfied with their explanation about "Prince Tybalt". However, the other half of Dena's explanation seems to attract its intense scrutiny.

"What other fey are they?

What have the people of Inside done to them?

Do they follow our King? We do not believe so."

Jim's Apartment

"My- oh, you misunderstand. I'm not a MERC member. Simply an associate. I don't have an office or really anything at MERC." Jaahlyn explain as she scratches herself behind the ear. "We could still meet there if you wish. Or I could come here. Whatever works best for you, sir." She bows down her head.

[Court of the Deep]

Dena shakes her head. "I wasn't in the city when it happened but from what I've been told the fey in question wanted everyone to be like them. So they turned everyone they could trick to to talk to them into clones of themselves that spread the whole thing even further." Was a bit more complex than that but she doubted this being found the information all that essential.

"The name of your king was ever mentioned in association to them however. Seems like it was the act of some other fey royalty. Could even be a rival, who knows?" She shrugs.
"But in response fey have been discriminated against and downright murdered on the street. We're trying to determine just how far some people are willing to go to attack people like you, sir."

[Deathkeeper]

Jim’s Apartment

Jim raises an eyebrow.
”You don’t work for them but you are going around all day doing surveys for them? Whatever I guess. You can come back here when you want, then. It doesn’t matter to me.” So she just does odd jobs for people? They pay can’t be good for that.

[Recaiden]

[Wandering Into Trouble]

"Um, yes. Why're you looking for me? And... And if you're going to nab me through time, will I be home in time for supper?" Also quite an important question to ask. Though he should probably ring Sekhmet and let her know what's going on just in case.

"Uh, no, we try to keep bits of linear time synced up where we can, and this will last past your mealtime. Speaking of linear time, try to hurry and get ready."
The spider answers, putting one leg through the time-portal.
Prumathe is being so reasonable, they might have to escalate things.

[Perfectly Normal Docks]

June shakes his head, and says, "No, propellers are fine."
"It's just...I wanted to know if it was going to be part of the statue, or if it was for something else."

They probably should get out of here for now, shouldn't they?
He walks away from the docks, and waits.
"So...yeah."

"No" "Sta-tue" "On-ly" "Stone" Vix tries to explain.
Then the mutant shambles over away from the docks and tries to give June a hug.
"Thank" "You" Thanks to his help, they...wait, something is wrong here, isn't it? But she doesn't connect the confusion to her own distorted ideas that came when cleaning up that room.

[The Golden Kettle]

"Oh, the leaves are from a farmer's market down the road. I probably wouldn't be able to get them in bulk.
As for costs, well, the supplies would likely be [moderate double-business level sum] but that wouldn't even be getting into the staff and their wages. I used to work in retail; I don't really have experience crunching numbers quite so much. Maybe I should get an accountant as well as a tailor..." Edgar drums his fingers against the counter. He's still rather overwhelmed by all of it. At least Alphonse is keeping Arletane's coffers in order for him.

"Think bigger. They came from a farmers' market, but don't you have farms?" Chevin suggests.
"Your duchy doesn't have a treasurer? Definitely find one."

[Earl of Purple]

Wandering Into Trouble

"Right, OK. I'll just send Sekhmet a text, so she knows I'll be late." He gets out his phone and quickly presses some buttons before sending send.

It's possible that Moschu can block the text from going through, but if it doesn't it's here.

Spoiler: To Sekhmet

Show

hey ive met a spider cald more chew and hes got somethin to shwo me and its important. tim travles involvd, ill be late for supper.

[Shadowcaller]

Jim’s Apartment

"I belive it's considered having a license for them? Grabbing jobs that aren't immidiately grabbed by proper members and as this is mostly just busy work..." Jaahlyn shakes her head. "I don't mind though, it's better than risking your life which is what I usually do." Well, this body at the very least.

[Reinholdt]

[Court of the Deep]

"It is an unfortunate truth that while the fey involved don't serve you, people aren't always wise and discriminatory. So anything those fey may do might fall back on you anyways. We're doing our best to prevent that kind of unfairness from happening." Not getting murdered unjustly is a good start!

[Morty]

[Court of the Deep]

"The only equals to the King are locked away until the door opens.

But challengers will not be tolerated."

The birds' eyes keep boring into the mercenaries.

"It is correct that the locals may not discriminate between other fey and us.

We will take it into consideration.

Why are those who hired you interested in fey?"

[Deathkeeper]

[The Golden Kettle]

"Oh no, Arletane has a treasurer. I just have been trying to keep Arletane and the kettle separate if I can.
And Arletane is mostly mining town. There's crops sure, but they're the hardier kind. I always got the impression that tea trees were more...delicate?"
Wait, does tea come on a tree or a bush or a plant? Edgar realizes that he does not know.

Jim's Apartment

"Oh. Well as long as you're getting paid whatever works, I guess. When you want to come just let me know and I'll make sure to be home." Jim starts writing down his phone number on a scrap of paper.
Hopefully Jaahlyn has a phone. Or doesn't have any weird fey rules against using a payphone or something.

[5a Violista]

[Brimstone Park]

Hm.
This sounds interesting, in the way a novel experience is interesting.
"Um, sure," he says.

He steps forward into the shack and actually gets to looking at the tail. "So, show me and tell me what I need to do."


[Perfectly Normal Docks]

"Okay." That doesn't really explain why the motor, but...okay. So it's not part of the statue, it's just for some other reason.

Since hugging is nice, he of course hugs back. Or, rather, tries to. It's a little hard to figure out where to put his arms, considering what half of her body's like, but he eventually figures out something. "Yeah, no problem. Anytime. I didn't really do much, though." Just helped a little take it out of the water.

After a sufficient amount of time, the redhead says, "So, let's go back, then?"

[bc56]

Brimstone Park

"Okay, just grab here right above the tip and squeeze until nothing comes out anymore." The succubus with glasses shows June where to grab and then opens a cupboard and begins taking out jars and bottles of other substances and setting them on a small counter next to a hot plate and a small distillation apparatus.

Wandering into trouble

About a minute later, if Prumathe can still both send and receive messages, he'll get a response from Sekhmet.

Spoiler

Show

Okay, uh, stay safe? I'll keep your food warm for you."

[5a Violista]

[Brimstone Park]

"Um...alright," June says. He walks up and grabs there on the tail.

He squeezes, and makes sure it's lined up properly.
"Am I squeezing too hard?" he asks. Don't want to squeeze too hard, after all.

[Shadowcaller]

Jim's Apartment

She does seem to have a mobile phone, ironically a payphone would be even harder for her to use.
"Great." She smiles widely. "What do you say I make my next visit say... two weeks from now? Hopefully that's long enough to plan ahead. Otherwise we can do it even later... or sooner. Up to you sir."

[Court of the Deep]

Dena tries to not make eye-contact as the being speaks. She should have sent that damn goat instead, she was fey wasn't she? Would probably have a much easier time here.
But nope, the goat was out conducting freaking interviews. Just great.

"Since they've been hired by the city to protect its citizens, and plenty of those are fey. Hence why we're looking into the fey situation. Trying to understand the local power-structure, build alliances with the local lords and so on. That way they will be able to prevent something like that from happening again. Or at least deal with the outfall easier. After all, the beings that know how to best deal with fey are fey themselves." Dena attempts to explain.

[bc56]

Brimstone Park

Pyrite giggles when her tail is touched. "No, I'm fine." Black venom begins oozing out of the stinger. If June were to cut himself on it, that would be bad. But it's not so hard to avoid doing that.

[Reinholdt]

[Court of the Deep]

Don't worry Dena, Reina's part fey! Kinda. Sorta. More like fey-touched or fey-adjacent. If the fey have a caste system, there's a reasonable chance Reina would be on the bottom.

"It's less that they're interested in fey and more that they're interested in keeping the peace. The fey just happen to have a spotlight on them right now in that regards. Things get awkward like that sometimes." Reina provides a light laugh in an effort to diffuse some tension, but even she's having trouble with eye contact.

[Deathkeeper]

Jim's Apartment

Jim hops up and goes to another table upon which is a little navy-blue book. He flips through it, pulling out a pen that was clipped to the curly plastic bindings.
"A week or two from now? Yeah, I can do that. I don't have a terrible amount of plans. A day's notice is all I really need." Really, he only keeps the day-planner for planning his delivery routes when Sticks wants him to run those.

[Recaiden]

Wandering Into Trouble

"Right, OK. I'll just send Sekhmet a text, so she knows I'll be late." He gets out his phone and quickly presses some buttons before sending send.

It's possible that Moschu can block the text from going through, but if it doesn't it's here.

Spoiler: To Sekhmet

Show

hey ive met a spider cald more chew and hes got somethin to shwo me and its important. tim travles involvd, ill be late for supper.

Letting Sekhmet know the situation?
That's no good. She ought to block the message from getting through. But they didn't bring any electronic signalling equipment...
Moschu suddenly looks a little more tired. She just tried to change the past to end up with cell-jamming-gear in place nearby, but for technical (although non-paradoxical) time-travel reasons, it didn't work. It was a fairly embarrassing mistake on her part, so we're not going to go into detail.
"Right, good thinking." the spider mutters.
So the text works, and off they go!

On the other side of the time portal (which closes if Prumathe comes through), gravity is much lessened, although they're still heavier than they'd be on, say, the moon.
The horizon curves up instead of down, as on the inside of a bubble, but one can see slightly-misplaced stars up above. The ground is made of a pale white-purple substance which here and there curves up into wild nonsensical structures.

"Here." Moschu hands Prumathe a glassy, basketball-sized bauble. She hadn't been holding it a moment earlier, but it's here now. It's a crystal ball, showing a semi-distant place and time. The Good League of Good campground, six years from now, completely incinerated. "This is one of the worse-case scenarios, but as you can see it's pretty extreme."

[The Golden Kettle]

"Oh no, Arletane has a treasurer. I just have been trying to keep Arletane and the kettle separate if I can.
And Arletane is mostly mining town. There's crops sure, but they're the hardier kind. I always got the impression that tea trees were more...delicate?"
Wait, does tea come on a tree or a bush or a plant? Edgar realizes that he does not know.

"Doesn't tea come from a bush? That grows in low-lying mountains? Pretty sure." Chevin explains. "It doesn't really sound like you have the luxury of keeping them separate, does it?"

[Perfectly Normal Docks]

"Okay." That doesn't really explain why the motor, but...okay. So it's not part of the statue, it's just for some other reason.

Since hugging is nice, he of course hugs back. Or, rather, tries to. It's a little hard to figure out where to put his arms, considering what half of her body's like, but he eventually figures out something. "Yeah, no problem. Anytime. I didn't really do much, though." Just helped a little take it out of the water.

After a sufficient amount of time, the redhead says, "So, let's go back, then?"

After a sufficient time, the mutant nods, goes back to pick up the propeller in her hand, and then starts walking back towards the apartment.
A few blocks into the walk, though, Vix suddenly stops and turns sharply to the side, trying to see something in the distance.

[bc56]

Red Zone - Alley
open scene

This is a rough part of town. Street gangs and organized crime run rampant here, with little law enforcement. It's not somewhere you want to be if you can help it.

But today, from a pile of garbage bags and other refuse in this grimy alley, a faint whimpering sound can be heard. Someone or something is hurt. Or trying to seem hurt. But who, or what? Will anyone help them?

[5a Violista]

[Perfectly Normal Walk]

Noticing that Vix stopped, June turns around to see what happened. Did she drop the propeller, or did somebody go up to her and bother her, or. . .?

Oh.
She's looking at something.
The guy turns in that direction, to see if he can spot what she's looking at. "What is it?" he asks.



[Brimstone Park]

No, don't giggle! You're not supposed to make this feel awkward.

Luckily, back in Trog's Tavern, Pyrite already told him how dangerous it would be while the tail was all wrapped around him, so he definitely knows to not prick himself.
Besides, it's not like he's Sleeping Beauty, getting pricked by random things.

"So how long does this normally take?" June asks, to keep a conversation running while this happens.

[bc56]

Brimstone Park

"Five, ten minutes? We were nearly done when you got here. This just frees me up to start mixing already." Sure enough, after a little bit, the stinger goes dry. "Hand me that jar. Don't spill any." The succubus holds out her hand to June.

[Earl of Purple]

Wandering Into Trouble

Prumathe does follow through the portal, and experiments with walking in the slightly-lighter gravity. He walked through before Sekhmet's reply came in, so he doesn't get that yet- unless possibly the place he's walked through to has a) a mobile phone tower, and 2) is in the future/present from when he walked through to it. Although if he goes back sooner in time it might turn up then. Timetravel and communication is tricky.

"This is a weird place. Where are we?" When are we isn't asked. Prumathe doesn't think to ask it. He takes the crystal ball and his eyes widen; he recognises the lake, and there's the cabins in the right layout, even if they are all burnt-out husks. "Goodness, what happened here?" He asks when it is, if there isn't a date stamp on the image.

[Morty]

[Court of the Deep]

There's a long silence from the Eye of the Bird as the birds look between Dena and Reina.

"Peace is an illusion.

It will not last long.

But your efforts are acknowledged.

You can tell your employers that our court will withstand whatever comes.

Until the King returns to us."

[Zefir]

Red Zone - Alley
open scene

This is a rough part of town. Street gangs and organized crime run rampant here, with little law enforcement. It's not somewhere you want to be if you can help it.

But today, from a pile of garbage bags and other refuse in this grimy alley, a faint whimpering sound can be heard. Someone or something is hurt. Or trying to seem hurt. But who, or what? Will anyone help them?

Red Zone - Alley

A young man, maybe around 20, is heading for the mentioned ally. He seems a little off from the usualpeople you see here. He wears clean cloths and leather pants like from medival age. The man looks lost as he looks up at the buildings, trying to find something.

"This isn't right. Maybe I should have gone left and not right, don't you think?" The man says loud. It appears like he is talking to someone, but the man is clearly alone. When he notice the whimpering he jumps back in panik holding his bare palm against the unknown source. A moment passes before he hears te whimpering again. "Hello?" he calls out as he get's closer. He takes of a broken leg from a chair and will use it to push the garbage away should there be no reply to his call.

[bc56]

Red Zone - Alley

There's no response, so the garbage is pushed aside. The source of the whimpering is revealed. It's a red fox, clearly badly beaten. It doesn't seem to be aware of the man that's found it, or really of anything other than its pain.

[5a Violista]

[Brimstone Park]

That's very quick, actually, he thinks.

"It sounds like it's pretty fun," June comments.
He nods. "Okay." After letting go of her tail, he grabs the jar (with both hands! Don't want to spill) and brings it over to that succubus. "'Kay, here you go."

[bc56]

Brimstone Park

The succubus takes the jar and sets it to the side. She pours water into a beaker and places it on the hot plate, then starts pulling herbs out of another cabinet. "Here. Grind these up." There's a mortar and pestle on one of the shelves. June could use that.

[5a Violista]

[Brimstone Park]

"A'ight," June says.

He reaches for the mortar-and-pestle, and finds a decent place to put it down. He then puts the herbs onto it. "Fine ground or coarse ground?" he asks as he starts doing it.

To keep a conversation going (it's a little weird if there's not, he thinks) he says, "I'll be honest: this seems a lot more 'scientific' than I was expecting magic potion stuffs to be like."

[bc56]

Brimstone Park

"Fine. So it will mix well."

The statement about magic and science seems to insult the succubus somehow. "Of course it's scientific! I wouldn't just throw ingredients together willy-nilly like some silly hedge mage! There'd be no quality control! No safeguards!"