Inside 71: All I Want For Thanksmas Is You

[bc56]

In the Painting

I AM ALREADY DEAD. SAVE YOUR ADVICE the cracks in the mirror say. That's ominous. June can write all she wants though. Yssa can't stop her.

The jewelry box is right there, and June can easily pick out a necklace and set it out. Who is she hoping to catch?

[5a Violista]

[In the Painting]

"You won't be dead if you don't die," June says, protesting. That's just how it works.

She isn't quite hoping to catch anyone just yet. She needs somebody to notice she's wearing it first, so that she can leave it somewhere and...well, if it vanishes, that means someone's nearby. And if it doesn't, then she can keep it as a distraction in case the necklace-thief tries to kill her.

June closes the diary and puts it away, and then puts on the necklace.
What's her next plan? she wonders. Clean off and take a bath? Actually...taking a bath might be the best time for the thief to take the necklace, which means she needs to be seen wearing it first. And she still has to understand the rest of the layout of the house, as well.

She leaves her room and, taking the formerly-hot-water/knife bundle with her, first goes to the library to grab a book as an excuse, and then goes looking through the rest of the rooms that she didn't finish exploring.

[bc56]

In the Painting

June leaves the room and explores. She'll find a variety of rooms she'll expect to see in a nice Victorian manor. Studies, a trophy room, washrooms and bedrooms, a larder, etcetera. Fortunately she doesn't encounter anyone this time.

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

Rose grows another spear, leveling the weapon at the incapacitated devil. Some part of her wants to go acquire that infernal reward. But thankfully a LARGER part of her remembers that she wants to make the soul stain better, not worse.

With that in mind, she makes her demand.

"I don't care about your stock," the gaiad retorts. "I'm looking for a faerie who came through here. A fire sprite like me. She probably didn't [i]look[i/] much like me, though. It wouldn't have been very long ago."

She's pretty sure she knows what happened, based on what the devil just said.

Charcoal was captured and taken to the processing center, whatever that is.

Hopefully it doesn't involve grinding people into soul juice or something.

"And don't even TRY lying to me. My vines can smell falsehoods and they'll make you regret it."

That's a bald-faced lie. A bluff. An utter fabrication. But Rose sounds really convincing and sometimes that's all that matters.


[All I Want For Thanksmas Is You]
Nim and Michalson

Nim and Michalson set off toward the radio tower!

They'll get a nice view of people smashing electronics along the way. Unfortunately that doesn't help. At all. Even pulverized they somehow manage to keep belching out that horrible Thanksmas tune.

Once they get a bit closer to the radio tower they'll note some other people gathered here as well. If people is the right word to describe them. Three rather hefty looking goblins are milling around and looking intimidating at anyone who gets too close. Those would be Dreamland goblins. Awful brutes as cruel as they are hideous. They're all identifiable human, but their features are distorted and monstrous. One has a vaguely bull-dog like countenance with prominent protruding tusks. The second is an impossibly thin, spindly thing with a distinctly spidery air about her. The third is hideous fat with huge, greasy fingers nearly as big around as his legs.

Should our heroes approach they'll be shouted at.

"Oi! Shove off!" yells the bulldog goblin.

[bc56]

Lethal Lava Land

The devil struggles and hisses. "The outsider? Took her to the palace. That's where all outliers go." He laughs wickedly. "Good luck getting her out of there. Why don't you just head on down to the Processing Center and turn yourself in? It'll spare you a world of hurt."

[Deathkeeper]

[All I Want for Thankmas Is You]

Nim isn't phased by the long walk. The goblins get him to grimace, though.
"If you're making that racket, you better shove off!" Nim declares, though he'll let Michalson serve them the official statement.

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

"Thanks for the free pointer," Rose retorts. "Got one for you, too."

Her pointer doesn't consist of any words or useful advice.

Instead it involves the gaiad taking her spear and aiming to slam it through the devil's torso and into the stone below him. Just for extra fun, the spear will meld with the rock and stick fast. Assuming the devil survives he's going to have one hell of a time getting free.

Then?

She looks up toward the palace high above.

WHY does she know where the palace is? Why does she know about the processing center for that matter?

It must have something to do with that hell portal being part of her. This place is treating her more like a native devil than it would otherwise.

Heedless of any howling from the devil, she sets off toward the palace. She said she's going to try to rescue Charcoal and that's exactly what she's going to do.

[bc56]

Lethal Lava Land

Silly Rose. You aren't just being treated like a native fiend. You are one. Having that portal in you, combined with all the soul goop still oozing around in your head and the infernal power you have from those two pacts, that all makes you a denizen of this plane. Why do you think you're able to meld with the landscape here, which is by no means natural? How did you know you could draw a soul into yourself from the husks?

The big devil is impaled. It doesn't scream or even show signs of pain, but it is stuck pretty well in place. Rose is free to go find the missing pyriad.

But getting to the palace won't exactly be easy. First Rose needs to escape this canyon. Then there's an hours-long trek across a blasted wasteland to the base of an impossibly tall mountain range, all under a forboding, lightless sky. From there, it's up and up, until she comes to the land bridge leading to the palace. It's eerily still. The bridge leads to a sphere of polished marble, which hangs impossibly in midair. The palace, Rose knows. The queen is there. No one enters without good reason, because to waste the queen's time would mean annihilation.

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

Rose isn't a devil. Nope. No way no how. She's just an infernally inclined gaiad. Nothing weird going on there.

Then she starts thinking about the palace and where to find it. Geeze. Out of the canyon, across the wasteland, up the side of a mountain to the big white ball.

How long ago was Charcoal taken captive?

Days ago?

That doesn't seem right. The impression she had gotten from the pyread was the disappearance was recent. But... she promised.

She already promised.

And those two nymphs live in HER garden. So they're kind of her responsibility. Or at least that's how it feels now. And she's not going to let generally nice fae who live in her garden down. So that means it is time to set out! Good thing for Rose she can meld with the stone and just go zipping through it. Not an instant process like hopping from one hedge of roses to another, but still WAY faster than just walking! Also means she can avoid any more meanies on her trip there. Eventually she'll be popping out of the rock near the palace and eyeing the huge white ball.

There it is.

That's Sapphira's place, isn't it?

Rose is pretty sure it is. Without hesitation she begins trotting across the bridge and heads straight in. They took Charcoal here? Fine. That's where she'll be getting the nymph back from, then. Hopefully she doesn't get smote. Getting smote would be terrible.

[bc56]

Lethal Lava Land

Rose pushes past the luxurious velvet curtain that serves to bar entry from outside. Despite her being made of lava, it doesn't burn at all. She's in an opulent marble chamber, with gilt inlay on the walls, and black marble tiles on the floor. A small set of stairs lead up to another curtain, giving the distinct sense that this is an audience chamber. No doubt whoever rules this place opens the curtain when they wish to speak.

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

Wow.

Swanky.

Rose admires the surroundings for a few brief moments. It's all really pretty, after all. A finery is something she still appreciates. That's an aspect of her that hasn't changed in the least. But as nice as it is in here, that isn't Rose's reason for visiting. She's searching for the missing nymph and that's it.

"Come on, Charcoal, where are you," she mutters. Experimentally she tries rubbing one of her fore-claws against the stone floor.

No good.

She can meld with extrusive igneous rock. MAYBE with intrusive. But metamorphic rock is right out. No chance of melding into this marble.

Getting some bad vibes from the other curtain, she turns around and heads back outside. Hmm... There are a few balconies up there that she could try peeking through. With fingers and toes splayed wide, Rose begins scaling the side of the sphere like a giant semi-molten gecko. She'll scamper up the face of the sphere and discretely peek inside one of the rooms. Time to be stealthy!

[bc56]

Lethal Lava Land

Rose scurries on over to the nearest balcony. It looks into a room full of steam, a pool of water in its center bubbling ominously. Or maybe happily. Other furnishings make it clear that this is a bathhouse. Golden plumbing, jewel-encrusted brushes and trays, towels beautifully embroidered with images of tormented souls. Apparently whoever lives here doesn't care if people can look in at them bathing. It's empty of any people right now.

[5a Violista]

[In the Painting]

Okay, she's actually pretty disappointed that she didn't run into anyone, or run into anything particularly interesting.
And she can't just look around outside, because that might incite Mr. Husband. Can't call Lilly, she's busy.
...
Maybe she should take a bath or something.
June thinks about it.
Do they even have hot water, or does it need to be heated up over a fire first? Well...a hot bath might help push the 'cramps' idea, so. . .
huh.
Well, regardless, washing off might be good.

June goes to the restroom to see if she can figure that out, how it works.

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

Okay now Rose is kind of craving a nice hot bath. Maybe if she rerouted some under ground water back at her park she could create some hot springs? Or at least a few nice boiling mud pots. Water hot enough to scald flesh off would be REALLY comfy. Mostly because her flesh is pretty specifically scald proof. Yeah, that sounds nice. Rose manages to avoid her impulse to go relax in that bath for a little while and moves on the check out the next balcony.

She'll be searching to see if Charcoal is in one of the rooms she can immediately see first.

And if not?

Well...

Then she'll just climb in through one of the balconies and begin searching!

Ideally she would prefer to avoid running into Sapphira. She isn't sure if the devil queen would recognize her like this, but she would prefer not to find out the answer. Either way it probably wouldn't be great for her. Either she might get smote for intruding or she might get smote for...

What?

Reasserting her gaiad nature after Sapphira went to the trouble of trying to purge it?

Honestly Rose isn't totally sure WHY some of her Buttercupness was able to survive. Was it something about her? Or something Buttercup had done?

Regardless, on to the next window. Peeking must continue.

[bc56]

In the Painting

In the bathroom, there's a claw-foot tub, a wood-burning stove, and a hand pump, as well as a supply of buckets, firewood, and towels. There is no running water. Hopefully June can figure out how to work this without much trouble.

Lethal Lava Land

Rose checks another balcony. It looks in on a room full of mirrors and racks and dressers full of fine women's clothing, all quite revealing. Also not what she's looking for. The third balcony, however, looks in somewhere else. There's a library in this room, and a woman dressed as a French maid is dusting one of the bookshelves with a feather duster. She's got hair made from burning branches and skin as black as coal. She's also crying, burning tears dripping down her face.

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

Sapphira's clothing collection?

Yeah, that style really fits her. Her taste really reminds her of the sorts of clothing that she had brought for Alexandria. Not ALL of it, mind. But enough for a theme to emerge.

The idea of a devil queen just... shopping is still really jarring to Rose. Definitely nothing like the devil Alexander had found himself in the service of.

Well.

Maybe not NOTHING like the devil. Their style is definitely different, that's for sure. Ashmedai is far more business-like. Everything came in the context of transactions and contracts and corporate lingo. He was more about snappy suits and professionalism.

Rose climbs up to the next balcony and discovers a library! A library with a pyread in it, dressed in a... French maid outfit? She really doesn't want to know.

"Pssst! Charcoal!" Rose hisses from the window. "I'm Rose, the new gaiad from Brimstone Park. Your friend told me you were missing."

[bc56]

Lethal Lava Land

There are two surprises in store for Rose as Charcoal looks up. The first is that she's wearing a rune-inscribed collar that was covered by her hair. It glows faintly. The second is that she has a small pair of devilish horns growing from her brow. Her orange eyes watch Rose fearfully, and she remains silent and keeps dusting. What happened to her?

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

Oh no.

That's one of those collars that the devil had tossed at Rose, isn't it? She isn't one hundred percent sure what it's for without examining it in detail, but she can definitely guess. Any time you've got a collar imbued with magic being used offensively like that it's because it is a device for controlling.

Rose is definitely glad that she avoided being shackled like that.

She climbs up over the lip of the balcony and into the room, raising her hands in peace.

"It's okay, I'm here to rescue you," Rose says, trying to avoid focusing too much on those horns. Did Charcoal get soul-stained, too? Maybe Sekhmet can help both of them. She really hopes Sekhmet can help both of them. Thankfully for Rose, the trip up to the palace had taken quite a bit of time, long enough for her internal stores of magic to build back up again. She's got some tools at her disposal now, thankfully. Maybe even some that can get the collar off.

Usually devices like these aren't designed to resist a great deal of external tampering. Once they're clamped onto a person then they're a thrall. One doesn't expect thralls to try to removing an enchanted collar.

"Hold still, okay? Let me take a look at that collar," Rose says as she moves closer. "I'm going to try to get it off you."

[bc56]

Lethal Lava Land

Charcoal doesn't even nod. She keeps dusting. It seems like she can't stop. Rose is able to look closely at the collar. There's no catch. It's a single solid band of metal. It seems like it's intended to never be removed.
But of course, it can be tampered with, if she wants to mess with it. Charcoal is unable to do so. But she's not resisting Rose's attempts.

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

Rose examines the spellwork of the collar closely and finds pretty much everything she was expecting.

A Domination effect inflicted on the person wearing it. Ugh... Now she's really wishing Siegfried was here. The paladin would be able to shatter a charm like this without an issue. Now Rose is wondering how her old friend is doing. She hadn't heard from him in years. They had parted on... not the greatest of terms. But Rose finds herself longing for companionship like that again. Those were some of the best years of her life.

She's been...

Far too alone.

The gaiad gives her head a shake.

Other things to focus on. She can reminisce about her old adventuring buddies later.

She carefully reaches out to worm her fingers under the collar on either side and braces.

Okay.

Here goes.

One.

Two...

Three!

With considerable strength Rose pulls on the collar, trying to rend it apart while at the same time hitting it with a targeted dispel to try to temporarily disrupt its magic. Gaiads are surprisingly strong given that they mostly look like prissy nymphs, so hopefully this will be enough to sunder the collar and free Charcoal. If it works then they're probably going to want to get out of here FAST on the off chance that the collar has a mental link rather than simply a link of ownership.

[bc56]

Lethal Lava Land

Rose strains against the collar and it bends and finally snaps. Charcoal gasps, the duster falling out of her hand. "We've got to get out of here!" She bursts out. "She might be back any minute!" She's clearly terrified. "And you've got to help me! Whatever she did to me, I can feel it churning inside!"

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

"Sshh, wowie I know, come on," Rose replies as she takes Charcoal by the hand and leads her toward the window. "Alright, climb onto my back. Backs? I guess? Just hold on tight this might be bumpy."

Assuming Charcoal grabs onto Rose as instructed the gaiad is going to vault over the edge of the balcony and only hang on with two of her six limbs. It isn't enough to hold her weight and she'll begin sliding down the marble face, but not at a dangerous speed. A controlled fall is way faster than climbing back down since she can let gravity do most of the work for her. Once she's on level with the bridge she'll grab back on with her claws and hands, skittering over to it and hopping off.

Then it's time to leg it across the bridge! Assuming all goes well, she'll begin descending down the mountain in more or less the same fashion. It's a bumpy ride for sure, but better to make haste than get caught.

"I don't think I have any way to help with what she did to you. She did something like that to me, too. But there are supposed to be some people in the Nexus who CAN help us, and that's where we're going."

Does Charcoal know about the gaiads that Sapphira corrupted?

If she does then Rose sure doesn't look like one of them.

She isn't a tiefling at all!

[bc56]

Lethal Lava Land

With a bit of finagling, Rose and her passenger manage to get on their way back towards the portal. But their journey is interrupted partway across the wasteland.

"Oh, ugh." Charcoal looks sick and grasps her stomach. "It's happening again! Let me off, I need to lie down." She starts trying to struggle her way off Rose's back and lie in the ashes. "I hate this..."

[5a Violista]

[In the Painting]

To be honest, that's kind-of what June was expecting. Not really what she was hoping for, though.

She looks through all of it. Fire to heat the water. Hand pump to get water. Gotta prime it, though, right? By pouring water down it. Gotta start the fire, too. Towels...she knows what those are, obviously. It'll take a while, but. . .

She puts some of the wood into the stove and looks around for something to start it. And if there's no water around to prime the pump, then she figures she'll have to take a bucket to go do that, too. If they're not here, she definitely knows that there's some in the kitchen; so she'll take a bucket with her to there so that she can start. She knows where the kitchen is, of course.

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

Rose helps Charcoal down into the ash gently, looking up now and again to keep an eye out for any trouble.

Honestly she's kind of surprised that they haven't been harassed by anything. Is this whole place really this desolate? Are they just really fortunate and not running into an devils wandering around and...

Doing...

Devil things?

Come to think of it Rose has no idea what devils of Sapphira's sort even do.

Do they have a Blood War here?

She's got no idea.

The Nexus is full of all sorts of crazy cosmologies.

"Okay. Just... let me know as soon you feel well enough to keep moving, okay?" Rose says, her mind swirling with all the awful possibilities that Sapphira may have inflicted on this poor nymph.

[bc56]

Lethal Lava Land

Hell is a lonely place.

Charcoal lies in the soft ashes a while. Then, abruptly, her body starts spasming. "Urk... Glugh..." She vomits out a stream of black sludge, more than should be able to fit inside her stomach. Just when it seems she's done, more still comes out, leaving a large puddle in the middle of nowhere. Charcoal wipes goop off her mouth, stands unsteadily, and turns back to Rose. "Just let me... Catch my breath." She heaves dryly for a few more minutes. Rose may notice while all that spasming and vomiting was going on, something else about the pyriad changed. She has a tail now, a small devilish spade-tipped tail. Not nearly so large and strong as Alexandria's or Sapphira's. But it's a start.

In the Painting

June draws a bath! It's a tedious but mundane process. If only she had a maid to help her with it.
Doesn't it feel good to soak in warm water once it's done, even if it's not her proper body she's soaking?

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

Rose grimaces at the sight of all the black goop. That's really gross. And probably more or less pure liquid corruption. Rose has enough of that already, thanks. She really doesn't need any more. She notes the tail with concern, but doesn't say anything. Not yet. Charcoal really doesn't need anything else to worry about and they're already going as fast as they can.

"Okay, all aboard the getting the hell out of hell train," Rose says as she hike the pyread onto her back again. Then once more she'll set off! "If you're feeling goopy again let me know. No offense, but I really don't want that black stuff on me. If you start feeling different let me know, too."

You know.

Normal devil transmutation things.

Like the desire to commit UNSPEAKABLE EVIL!

"She did something to me, too. Used it on a bunch of us gaiads while we were still named Buttercup. It poisoned us and turned us into devils. Turned all our kindness into meanness. But I still had a little Buttercup left in me and I had Intersection use that Buttercup Name Integrator on me. I think I'm still a little devil-y, but at least I can love the things I love again. Before the only things I could enjoy were mean things."

She hated it.

[bc56]

Lethal Lava Land

Charcoal slowly gets back on Rose. "I understand... Oh, I feel awful." She does notice the tail, pretty quickly. She grabs it with one hand and gives a little squeak of alarm when she feels herself squeeze it. "Oh wow. I guess I have a tail now? At least it's kinda cute." She rides in silence until the topic of devilification is brought up. "Oh no, that's horrible! Is that happening to me too? Are you all right? I'm not going to turn bad am I?"

[Rebonack]

[Lethal Lava Land]

At least it isn't a scary barbed tail like the one Sekhmet has.

No doubt she was really alarmed when that one appeared.

"I... guess it's kind of cute," Rose begrudgingly admits. "But it's a bad sign! The Queen must be trying to figure out how to turn faeries that aren't Buttercup into devils."

Which is definitely terrible news.

"It is pretty horrible, yeah. I should only have one Mask now, but I've got two. This one and Alexandria, the awful terrible meany of a devil lady I got turned into. I tricked her into putting me on since I could meld with Brimstone Park and explore the portal down in the lava. She wanted reagents for making spells from the damned souls."

That's pretty terrible. And she still got the reagents.

"If I put her back on then I become mean again, so I'm trying to put it off for as long as I can even though I can feel that goop doing things to me, too."

She really isn't too happy about the goop. Gotta find some goo-be-gone!

"But I don't think the same thing is happening to you. When the Queen used it on me I changed it just a few seconds. It REALLY hurt," she says, then scowls. "She tricked me into letting her use the 'cure' on me. I made her promise that she wouldn't use it on any of my friends. But after I changed I was such a meany I didn't think they were my friends anymore and she poisoned them, too. And betraying them like that felt good."

She sniffs back a tear.

"I hate it. I don't ever want to be like that again, but I'll have to. At least for a little while until I can gather my strength again. I think I can at least get us back to Inside first."

[5a Violista]

[In the Painting]

It definitely does feel good, even if it is someone else's body. (She doesn't particularly like how it feels different, especially since she had only recently gotten used to all the vampire stuff and all the stuff with Minerva/Venus and all the...but...okay. Fine.) More importantly, she's getting clean, and won't have to worry about doing this later before bed, when the murder is supposed to happen. Jeez, getting murdered in the bath would be the worst. For lots of reasons.

And, just in case, she's got the knife hidden in the folds of a towel, balanced on the edge of the bath. The necklace was conspicuously set down near the door. And then, after this, she can fill the hot water bottle with heated water to continue the...

...
...
June face-palms. She's an idiot. She had water in the bottle this whole time, that she could have used to prime the pump.