Trog's Tavern CLV

[Artemis97]

[Caravan Search]

The maps, should they follow them, will bring the group to a place Outside.

[Recaiden]

Blossom considers, and shakes her head.
"Maybe you know my sister? Or maybe there's more people from my ancestral universe in the Nexus now?" Wouldn't that be exciting? Although probably their way of doing things would be unfamiliar and horrifying if there were any, so perhaps it's for the best that there aren't.
"Yep, Jason filled me in on it."
"I guess my first advice is that you don't have to figure it out on your own. Other people have been through this before. Maybe not this exact situation, admittedly, but similar.
"But figuring it out is important."

[bc56]

Twin Siblings

"Do you know anyone who could help me figure it out? Or maybe undo it? Because, let me tell you, I am not a huge fan of this. I liked being human better." That's not to say there aren't good things about her current state, but the bad ones definitely outweigh them.

[Recaiden]

Blossom's eyes widen in surprise. That really is unexpected for a kumiho. "Oh, my. Making someone human is more than I know about, but High Priest Merisanne should be able to help. Or if not them, you could go to Malukhar." Jade will have to provide the details about how she got like this, but there's no need to say anything in front of Jason.

[bc56]

Twin Siblings

"Where would I find these people? And what would it cost?" Jade is no fool. Everything costs something, and magic things frequently cost things that are difficult to give up.

[Recaiden]

Blossom points at the mirror portal by the staircase. Of course you'd find a high priest and a spirit at the temple.
"They're not a business, or a wicked witch. Maybe being human would be cost enough, or maybe you'd need to complete a quest. It all comes down to the details of how you got this way." she says, apologetic.

[bc56]

Twin Siblings

Jade looks at the portal. "Oh, that's where I know you from! You told me you couldn't help me though! And this is a much worse curse than that time." Admittedly, its also a curse more closely aligned with the temple's focus. "What are you talking about?" "It's been mostly dealt with, don't worry about it." "...Ok." Jason does not sound like he's not worried.

[Recaiden]

"Oh, you're that Jade. You know, just between us, my sister isn't very good at magic." Blossom says, lowering her voice just slightly. "So you find the high priest, and this fox thing will get all fixed." Although if she had gotten back to normal then, this Jason probably would never have existed.

[bc56]

Twin Siblings

"Guess it can't hurt to try that." Jade heads over to the mirror portal and disappears inside.
"What was that all about?" Jason doesn't really understand what is going on.

[Recaiden]

"Well, it seems Jade met my sister at the temple here in town sometime in those missing months." Blossom glides over the details of the explanation.
"The good news is that she hasn't been killing people. The bad news is that she definitely is a dangerous kumiho, with lots of stolen spirits, you know? That she's gotten some other way."

[bc56]

Twin Siblings
"Stolen spirits? How? Why?" Jason's relieved to hear that Jade hasn't been killing people recently though. "How would she take someone's spirit without killing them?" He doesn't understand how any of that works.

[Recaiden]

"Well, it's what they do. And then they can take on the identities of those people." Blossom explains.
"The main ways are she could have gotten them in some sort of deal, or if they had died of other causes recently."

[bc56]

Twin Siblings
"I've never seen her be anyone other than herself and a fox. If she steals other identities, she must do it while we're apart." Jason's got a suspicion of where Jade might go, but he's not sure. If she needs fresh corpses to get identities without directly stealing them from people... There's a graveyard a few blocks from their home.

[Recaiden]

"Which she could, since you both go out often enough?" Blossom recalls. "And from what she said here, she wouldn't have wanted you to know."

[bc56]

Twin Siblings

"Yeah. Hm. I'll have to follow her." Jason muses. "She's good, and she won't like it if she finds out, but now that you've brought it up, I need to know." He pauses. "Of course, that's only if your people can't get her problem fixed first. Then I'll never know."

[Recaiden]

"There might not be need for that. But, couldn't you just ask her?" Blossom asks. All he would need is a pretext to inquire about all the graverobbing she might have done.

[bc56]

Twin Siblings

"I could, but she tells me a lot. If she hasn't told me yet, she probably won't unless I can prove something's up." Jason knows how Jade's mind works pretty well. Or at least he assumes he does. They are different versions of the same person, after all.

[Recaiden]

"do you have an idea how she might be doing it?" Blossom asks, with a sudden idea. "You could look into that, and if it seems at all suspicious, what you do, is ask her help checking into it."

[bc56]

Twin Siblings

"I think I know," Jason elaborates, "There's a graveyard not far from where we live with a large number of disappearing corpses. But it's been like that since before there were the two of us. We're not far from the docks and there's a small population of ghouls in the area. A few extra corpses going missing wouldn't arouse suspicion." Then he thinks of something. "How often do kumihos need to feed?"

[Recaiden]

"Blending in as a ghoul? That could certainly be it."Although the precise answer to that question has never come up before, Blossom will give a time period that's consistent with the feeding habits of the Erdan kumiho, which may or may not be the same as a dreamheart kumiho. But these things often tend to happen to match.

"Do you suppose the ghouls could help keep count?"

[bc56]

Twin Siblings
"I don't really talk to them. But if anyone knows, they would." It's certainly an avenue Jason could take. He knows one of the undertakers turns a blind eye to the ghouls' activities, and he bets that undertaker knows how to contact them.

[Rebonack]

"Glade I could help?" Arukhael replies a little awkwardly. He really isn't sure what the deal of this 'sort of looks like Selekhael' person is.

Also?

He decides to answer that question sort of directed at Zee. Mostly because he also knows the answer.

"Kind of? I think these bodies are still sort of technically alive? So we still have to eat stuff. But I think that's mostly just to replace lost mass. We don't have to eat much," he replies.

Upkeep only! Not much in the way of biochemical energy needed. That's covered by spooky weird power sources.

Meanwhile!

Hugging.

Selekhael will get some more hugging, since that's what she needs right now. Hugging and patting on the back. It's going to be okay.

[bc56]

Selekhael lets herself continue to be hugged for a while, then finally releases Zee. "So, uh, what do I do now? I, uh, can't pay you to stay here. Can I, uh, earn money somehow? Maybe, uh, work for you instead?"

[Recaiden]

[Twin Siblings]

Blossom nods.
"Maybe you should talk to them, even if you don't need to find missing bodies. They are kind of your neighbors, right?
"Anyway, before you got a sister as suddenly as the breeze, what kind of things did you do?"

['sort of looks like Selekhael' Person]

Well, he's not going to find out what the deal is by not asking!
Or maybe, as an empyrean, he is. Who knows?

"Yes, thank you!"

Kiun looks around the bar again. Maybe she should get going; this doesn't seem to have been the visit she hoped it would be. Even if they did discover some neat Empyrean facts. And plant-wolves, making it otherwise very productive.

[bc56]

Twin Siblings

"I have my reasons." Jason doesn't publicly live there. He can't go revealing the location of his hideout to random people, even if they are his neighbors. "I do a bit of inventing, some adventuring. She does too." Jason isn't going to reveal the full details right now.

[Recaiden]

"Oh, wow. Could you tell me about one of your inventions?" Blossom inquires, thinking that she couldn't do anything like that. Adventures, sure, but new machines? Plus, probably Jason gets to talk about his adventuring all the time. Adventurers love that.

[bc56]

Twin Siblings

"I can do you one better." Jason raises his wrist, grabs his watch, and twists. The watch face pops apart and a small projector beneath its face is revealed. The projector lights up and creates a small hologram above the watch. It shows the time, and beneath has a small login field, which Jason ignores for now.

[Recaiden]

Blossom leans in to look at the hovering number.
"Oh, look at that. A little vision of the time. What is it meaning by 'login', though?"

[bc56]

Twin Siblings

"If I want to use any of its more advanced functions, I need to log in. See." Jason taps his finger through the login icon, then taps out a passcode on a keyboard that appears, and the clock icon expands into a menu with a number of different symbols floating around it.

[Recaiden]

"Oh, what sort of things can it do? Blossom asks, curious. That's much better than a simple illusionary clock.
Although the clock seems useful too.