The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

[Recaiden]

[Getting Ready to Leave]

Ah, getting to embarrass everyone around you, especially the kids...
"You don't use them for hunting. But that's not all you do, is it?"
Silly Steven.
Although Cleo's never had more than one head herself, this is only based on Keiko, who does seem pretty distractable when she has 9 heads.

Cleo leads them out of the garden, away from the temple, where a gust of wind comes to teleport everyone off to the sea. There shouldn't be any trouble going back there, right?

[Concert]

"Oh."
"Aren't llamas just...how can one be a priest?"

[Fenric]

[The train has left the station]

(( And away we go to Silly Plots ))


[Concert]

Celeste laughs

He is the only creature of his sort I have ever seen! There is apparently a magic they call "awakening" that had been done to him, and through various adventures he ended up here.

She shrugs

Ending up here seems a fairly common thing, I suppose. I never felt any need to join their priesthood, however.

[Recaiden]

"Oh, how amazing."
'Awakening', huh? Fay thinks that might be useful to them. Or it might be counterproductive. But if it could make a llama a priest, what might it do with a Mother or a Doctor?

"What is your role, then?"

[Fenric]

Celeste chuckles

I manage the stables, a small pasture, the alfafa field, and I maintain the Atreyu memorial... which honestly doesn't take much maintainance.

Overall, it's been quiet since those odd pony-things left. There's only one permanent resident named "Sir James" now and otherwise we have a couple of ponies and one old quarter-horse that the children ride and play with. There is still the occasional guest with a horse to take care of, of course, and there are a few of the odd little creatures that people keep in red and white spheres that come over from time to time.

[Rebonack]

[Oh No Khannie's Thirteen]

You know what the best thing about birthday parties is?

The party.

Obviously.

The party where everyone celebrates YOU and how cool YOU ARE for having survived the wiles of the Nexus long enough to turn thirteen!

Wow.

Thirteen!

It feels-!

Honestly Khannie doesn't feel that different. There's just a sort of metaphorical weight on her shoulders that wasn't there before. Not to be confused with the physical weight of Maridia since the fairy dragon has decided that perching on her is the thing to do this afternoon. She's currently flopped over Khannie's shoulder backwards with her front paws dangling whilst her eyes rove for any treats to steal. Because let's be real here Maridia has learned precisely nothing from her encounter with Keiko.

So.

Metaphorical weight.

Khannie is officially not a kid anymore. Now she's a TEEN! That's practically an adult probably. And that means more responsibilities and more weird smells because puberty is a harsh mistress.

For the time being Khannie is doing her best not to pay attention to the treats and things being assembled. Instead she's practicing her wizardry. She's finally got the mage hand thing figured out! Tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth and fingers splayed, Khannie has a small white stone hovering between her outstretched hands.

"They have cake!"
"You don't get to lick the cake."
"I wanna lick the cake!"
"You don't get to lick the cake. You can have some later."
"But later isn't now!"

[Ironsmith]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

Arthfael emerges out into the area where the party is being held and is immediately taken aback. What was going on here? Didn't they just have a festival? Why were people putting up new decorations?

It doesn't take him too long to piece it together. If nothing else, the oversized cake saying "Happy Birthday Khannie" was a dead giveaway.

Wait.

Khannie was here?

Arthfael really hoped he was invited and just forgot. Because otherwise he was going to have a hard time explaining what he was doing at Inari's.

[Fenric]

Let us assume that things are being set up in part of the Guest Hostel's cafeteria, since a birthday party isn't really appropriate for the sanctuary.

There is a debate going on between three factions of helpers: Until just recently for the Fenethi, 13 meant you were an adult and became a full member of the tribe (Khannie will likely favor their side). While the poison that affected them is gone, the effects won't fully vanish for several generations. Meanwhile, for the other vulpans 13 is still quite a young child - they aren't biologically adult until 50. And the humans of course know that it marks the transition between childhood and the tumultuous time of puberty - neither child nor adult, but changing.

So the decorations are an interesting mix of cute, young teen, and brightly colored red and yellow streamers with swirling designs and the occasional bit of writing that the Nexus still hasn't learned to translate.

[Deathkeeper]

Khannie's Very Foxy Birthday

Khannie might find concentrating on her wizardry difficult as she is ambushed and possibly nearly suffocated in the constricting coils of her friend Nick Richards (Junior). He's very huggy.
Nick has also reached TEEN-ish status, as marked by his grown-in mane and whisker-tendrils. "Happy birthday Khannie! We haven't been hanging out enough I'm sorry if I've been a bad friend!" He looks pretty horrified at this possibility.

Meanwhile, Jace is busy setting up the place. Zebes is guarding the cake. And of course, the two of them were the first additions to the pile of presents to the side...

[Rebonack]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

Unless it's a birthday specifically for Inari, right? Does Inari have birthdays?

Anyway Khannie is about to set her floating rock down to wave at Arthfael (he looks kind of lost?) when suddenly she finds herself constricted by a small (relatively speaking) river dragon!

Oh no!

Khannie is under attack!

Khannie manages to make some wheezing noises that might be interpreted as a comforting reassurance that Nick isn't a bad friend.

Maridia, meanwhile, takes off and begins laughing at the sight of Khannie getting some snake hugs.

Way to go, Maridia.

Great job protecting your partner.

[Ironsmith]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

Arthfael jumps as Khannie is hugged by the river dragon; recent events involving a certain serpentine monster made him a little antsy with large snake-like critters getting too close to Khannie, but it quickly becomes apparent that they know each other and he manages to avoid doing anything brash.

Well, involving the river dragon, at any rate.

When she has a moment to breathe, Arthfael walks up to the birthday girl and gives her a little smile. "Um... hi. Happy, ah..." He clears his throat awkwardly. "Happy birthday."

Bravo, mister Ty-Maldwyn. Was it always this difficult to talk to her? It hadn't been the first time around.

Might have something to do with the gemstone in his pocket he was hoping she wouldn't see or ask how he acquired.

"So, um... welcome to teenhood." He says lamely.

[Recaiden]

Celeste chuckles

I manage the stables, a small pasture, the alfafa field, and I maintain the Atreyu memorial... which honestly doesn't take much maintainance.

Overall, it's been quiet since those odd pony-things left. There's only one permanent resident named "Sir James" now and otherwise we have a couple of ponies and one old quarter-horse that the children ride and play with. There is still the occasional guest with a horse to take care of, of course, and there are a few of the odd little creatures that people keep in red and white spheres that come over from time to time.

Oh, that makes sense. The temple would need something to manage all its many silly plants. This Celeste is a strange choice - why not one of those little foxes? - but there's probably a reason for it.
"Are you happy with how quiet it is?" It's obvious that the world is too busy and loud much of the time.

"And what became of your sister?"

[Deathkeeper]

Khannie Turns Thirteen

Nick Jr releases Khannie as if nothing at all happened.
"So do you feel any different? I don't usually feel different during my birthdays but I'm also gonna have a lot." Near-immortality is weird.
"So who's this guy? Friend of yours?" he asks, squinting at Arthfael. Looks like a normal boring human but smells funnier.

[Rebonack]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

Well luckily for Arthfael Khannie hasn't seen the rock in question yet so she doesn't know anything about it.

Mostly she's just patting Nick on the head as he ceases to squeeze her.

Gotta love those snake hugs.

Unless you're something the snake is planning on eating.

Then they're kinda bad.

"Thanks," Khannie manages to wheeze after catching her breath. "It hasn't seemed that different yet. I dunno, maybe it will eventually. There are a TON of movies that uncle Zebes and I have gotta watch now, though."

All of the official 'you can watch it when you're older' movies.

Well, she's older now!

"Oh, yeah, this is Arthfael. I met him over at GLoG a while back. Arthfael this is Nick, he's one of my oldest friends. Also a dragon."

In case that wasn't obvious.

[Ironsmith]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

"Um... hi." Arthfael manages. What was he supposed to do here, exactly? If Nick Junior were a human, or something like one, he'd offer a handshake, but... well, he wasn't. A wave seemed wrong here, too; you don't normally wave at someone within touching distance, it's awkward. And stepping back to wave would probably send the wrong message. And now he's gone on too long to do anything with his hands other than fidget with them nervously. "It's... um... it's nice to meet you."

Well played, Arthfael.


Meanwhile, a certain fiendling Lord has also joined the celebration. Sort of. He isn't involved in the party, per se, but seeing as he lives at this temple, he's well within his rights to be here. Besides, he's much more interested in speaking with Khannie's father than Khannie herself. "They grow up so fast, don't they?" Braeg chortles.

[Fenric]

Oh, that makes sense. The temple would need something to manage all its many silly plants. This Celeste is a strange choice - why not one of those little foxes? - but there's probably a reason for it.
"Are you happy with how quiet it is?" It's obvious that the world is too busy and loud much of the time.

"And what became of your sister?"

Easy enough: she was here first - she predates them by about eight years. Besides, their specialties lie in lentils, chilis, and various gourds and melons. There just wasn't much pasture in the deep desert... probably still isn't since Home is on the wrong side of the mountains.

Celeste nods

Oh my, yes! Much better this way: busy isn't nice.

Then she looks a little sad

I don't know... when I woke up in the morning, I was by myself. I had assumed she just went out for various reasons, but I never found her. I assume she's back home still...

[Deathkeeper]

Khannie Turns 13

"Well I'm actually the same age or so as Khannie we both kinda had weird childhoods and she has friends who are a lot older than me but that's not what she meant." babbles Nick, whiskers flicking just like the fur on the end of his tail.
"It's nice to meet you to. So what's going on? You been watching movies this week, huh? Nick doesn't watch tons of movies with me alone because it's hard to separate him and Geneva from the babies." Silly babies, stealing attention away from his parental figures.
Arthfael may be confused that Nick's dad is also named Nick but that's not THAT uncommon. Hence his designation as Junior.

Meanwhile, Braeg is NOT within his rights to be here as this was a rented space and he isn't even a staff member of the Hostel anyway. Jace looks up with a smile but it falls a bit as he picks up on the man's facial expression.
"I'm sorry, do I know you from somewhere?" asks the man with the dragon perched on his shoulder as politely as he can.

[Rebonack]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

Just don't call him Little Nicky.

"He's the friend that I've known for the longest," Khannie clarifies.

There!

Now everything is cool and understandable.

"Oh yeah! I've seen all the cubs at GLoG! They have been getting really big really fast. But I guess that's normal for griffins? They grow up faster than humans do," Khannie says.

They grow up faster than dragons, too.

"Gilda has pounced on me, like, eight times now. There's this one bush by the lake she likes hiding in for pouncing so one time I filled it with illusionary spiders while I was walking past."

Nick probably didn't hear about that event since Gilda is WAY too proud to admit how much she shrieked.

[Ironsmith]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

Arthfael smirks. Yeah, that sounded familiar. He wasn't in the area at the time, but he was fairly certain half the Nexus heard the sound of the griffin cub screaming bloody murder. Served her right, too.

"Gods I wish I'd seen that." He chuckles to himself.

---

"From down the hall, presumably." Braeg quips with a smirk. "Lord Braeg of the Lesser Wood Clan, at your service." He greets, extending his hand. "Not to worry, I won't intrude on you for long. I'm only here to keep an eye on my pupil. You know how it is; you mix a young boy with his first taste of arcanery and a girl he'd like to impress and you get a bit of a delicate situation." He chuckles and has a seat on a stool that wasn't there a moment ago. "As a fellow educator, I'm sure you understand what I mean."

[Deathkeeper]

Khannie Turns Thirteen

"Only nine times? You don't live with her." Though Gilda doesn't pounce Nick Jr as much when she realized just how sharp his horns were when he happened to be moving his head around mid-pounce. He DIDN'T stab her. But she did lose a feather.
The others are less hyper. Glory bounces off the walls but she doesn't take it out on everyone around her like Gilda does." Nick grumps. Sounds like his nieces drive him crazy a little bit.

Meanwhile!

"I mostly sell goods and services. I'm not really an educator. So I'll say sure and pretend. Jace and Zebes." He extends a hand, but instead of grasping Braeg's his familiar scampers down onto his wrist and shakes the fiend's pointer finger. It's impossible to tell if it was practiced or Zebes' mischief but Jace smiles anyway.

[Rebonack]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

"Only nine times," Khannie confirms with a grin. "After I started to get a feel for the sorts of places she liked pouncing from I started messing with her. Y'know like making an illusion of myself that she would jump right through. She managed to surprise me on number nine but I've mostly managed to trick her. That was last week? She keeps trying, though, I think she's taking it as a challenge now trying to surprise me."

The great pouncing war is steadily escalating.

"But I guess it isn't too bad. If she gets much bigger it's going to start hurting, though. Probably better than she's pouncing on me instead of Cheasadh. She's way smaller and big predatory things kind of freak her out. Plus I'm pretty resilient thanks to the whole magical girl thing."

She waves a hand dismissively.

Khannie has mentioned the magical girl stuff to Nick...

...but had she ever said anything about it to Arthfael?

She really doesn't talk about it much.

[Ironsmith]

Khannie Turns Thirteen

"Only nine times? You don't live with her." Though Gilda doesn't pounce Nick Jr as much when she realized just how sharp his horns were when he happened to be moving his head around mid-pounce. He DIDN'T stab her. But she did lose a feather.
The others are less hyper. Glory bounces off the walls but she doesn't take it out on everyone around her like Gilda does." Nick grumps. Sounds like his nieces drive him crazy a little bit.

Meanwhile!

"I mostly sell goods and services. I'm not really an educator. So I'll say sure and pretend. Jace and Zebes." He extends a hand, but instead of grasping Braeg's his familiar scampers down onto his wrist and shakes the fiend's pointer finger. It's impossible to tell if it was practiced or Zebes' mischief but Jace smiles anyway.

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

"Only nine times," Khannie confirms with a grin. "After I started to get a feel for the sorts of places she liked pouncing from I started messing with her. Y'know like making an illusion of myself that she would jump right through. She managed to surprise me on number nine but I've mostly managed to trick her. That was last week? She keeps trying, though, I think she's taking it as a challenge now trying to surprise me."

The great pouncing war is steadily escalating.

"But I guess it isn't too bad. If she gets much bigger it's going to start hurting, though. Probably better than she's pouncing on me instead of Cheasadh. She's way smaller and big predatory things kind of freak her out. Plus I'm pretty resilient thanks to the whole magical girl thing."

She waves a hand dismissively.

Khannie has mentioned the magical girl stuff to Nick...

...but had she ever said anything about it to Arthfael?

She really doesn't talk about it much.

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

Arthfael nods his understanding. Khannie had never really gone into what made her a Magical Girl, as opposed to merely a girl who was magical, but the concept seemed straightforward enough to him. She has magic powers, they help her out. Magical Girl. Exactly what it says on the tin.

"You'd think she'd stop at some point. I mean, it's not like griffins always pounce on anything. She's gonna grow out of it eventually, right?"

--

Braeg chuckles. "Come now. No need to sell yourself short. You only need one pupil to be a teacher." He nods off in Khannie's direction. "I've seen her around the temple. She's learning an impressive amount on her own, but my understanding is that you gave her a leg up to begin with. Is that not so?"

[Deathkeeper]

Khannie Turns Thirteen

"Geneva thinks she'll stop eventually. But she probably won't get any less...Gilda. She'll probably just tackle people less and be just as annoying." Spoken like a real big brother.
"Gabriel and Gwen are a lot more cuddly." Nick finds himself more able to tolerate his quiet, less pouncy "cousins."

Meanwhile!

"Sorcery is different for everyone. We just act as guides. We answer questions when she asks them, and sometimes put rules down when she does something foolhardy. It's not much." Jace says with a shrug. Frankly he considers his lessons with Khannie to be a bit personal so he doesn't like to go into detail.

[Rebonack]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

If pressed Khannie would explain the difference between regular girl magic and Magical Girl magic.

She's perceptive enough to be able to tell that they're qualitatively different. Sorcery is in her blood. Magical Girl magic comes from her weird soul gem thing.

But that's a conversation for another time.

Anywho!

Khannie nods.

"I mean... I dunno, probably? I don't know a ton about griffins. Especially not ones that are people. Geneva used to live at dad's house before she moved in with Mister Richards and she was pretty nice. She was one of the people with dad who rescued me from the pokemon world. I'm definitely glad I'm not stuck there anymore," Khannie confides in her friends. "And I think I like Gwen most. She's really quite and shy but she's cute. It took her a while but she'll talk to me now, sometimes. She really likes it when I use illusions to animate the things she draws."

Gwen REALLY likes drawing.

"Oh! Speaking of cool stuff!" Khannie holds out her hand, a small stone hovering above her palm. "I finally figured out the Mage Hand thing. It's a wizard spell instead of a sorcerer spell so it was pretty tough to figure it out. With illusions and things I just sort of get how they work but other types of magic I've really got to work at it."

[Ironsmith]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

Arthfael jumps back when he sees Khannie levitating the rock, having remembered the last time he saw her attempt it and being way too close to the rock in question for comfort.

Fortunately, Khannie seems to be as good as her word, and the rock doesn't explode, which prompts Arthfael to relax a little...

Right up until the rock starts freaking out on its own. It seems to be panicked, frightened of some sort of imminent unpleasantness and desperate to get away from Khannie. If Khannie or Nick have any way of sensing souls, they'll find an infant one in the rock that wasn't there a moment ago.

---

Braeg chuckles. "If that's all you can do, then it's all you should expect of yourself, yes?" He smirks and fiddles with a granite ring on his finger. "It's not so different for our clan's arts. The journey to arcane mastery is necessarily one of self-discovery, among other things. You only remain a teacher for a short while; after that, you are simply a knowledgeable peer."

[Deathkeeper]

Khannie Turns Thirteen

Zebes cries inside, lamenting Khannie's terrible decision to do a weird multiclass build or whatever she's doing. It's not optimized whatever it is. Unless she's doing that weird Arcanist thing he never looked into.
"Geneva is pretty great." Nick Jr. agrees. Then a rock starts freaking out.
"That's weird."

Meanwhile,
Jace shrugs. "Something like that. But I'll be watching her for as long as I can. Something she lets me indulge in as her father." He raises an eyebrow at the ring.
"That magic? Stone rings are uncommon, particularly ones of 'boring' colors." It seems Jace has a sharp eye. Or maybe it's just the exact kind of thing he does for a living.

[Rebonack]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

Khannie absolutely has no way of detecting souls.

Not even a little bit.

So all she can tell right now is that all of a sudden her rock is wiggling around.

"I'm not doing that," Khannie admits. "My magic isn't, either, I dunno what's going on."

And so?

She sets the rock down on the table to eye it dubiously.

Then?

She'll poke it with her finger.

Doop!

[Ironsmith]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

When Khannie sets the rock down, it immediately starts rolling directly away from her, only changing course long enough to swerve out of the way of any obstacles; anything on the table, Nick, Arthfael, and so on. If nobody stops it, it'll roll out the front door, never to return.

Arthfael swallows hard. "...W... well, that... that was weird." He says nervously. "I wonder what caused that?"

That had to be the second most unconvincing lie to ever come out of his mouth, and he knew it. Enough so that when he goes to sit down, he's only half-surprised when the chair he's trying to sit in suddenly swaps out its legs for four columns of jelly, which don't do a very good job of supporting his weight.

---

"'Boring'?" Braeg scoffs and gives Jace a light punch in the arm. "For shame! Some wonderful lady poured her heart and soul into making this for me." He smirks. "But to answer your question... yes, it is indeed magic. The focal point of a charm I'm developing. Protects the wearer in direct proportion to their confidence in the charm's effects." He chuckles. "Done right, it's yet another layer of immortality for the wearer. Popcorn?" He offers suddenly, holding out a carton full of the stuff, glancing toward the party every few seconds.

[Deathkeeper]

Khannie Turns Thirteen

Nick stands up on his hind legs so he can properly squint at Arthfael's face, which looks an awful lot like the face of a LIAR!
Mostly because he sounds exactly like Nick does when he says that Gilda raided the cookies again.
"Are you cursed or somethin'?" asks Nick, eyeing the collapsing chair.

Meanwhile,

Jace seems unconvinced. "No thanks, I don't eat conjured food. And you seem to be glancing over at my daughter and her friends quite a bit, considering the active magic going on over there. One of those yours?" he asks, not clarifying if he's referring to one of those kids or one of those happenings.

[Rebonack]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

Maybe if the rock where a meatball it's escape wouldn't have been so shocking.

Everyone knows that meatballs, given half a chance, will roll right out the door.

"It's like someone animated it or something," Khannie reasons. "That's a really tricky sort of transmutation, I think? Where you bind an elemental spirit to a thing so it can move around like it's alive. Not sure who would be-"

She looks around.

And immediately spots Braeg talking to her dad.

Her eyes narrow dangerously.

What's that jerk doing here on her birthday of all days?

Is he here just to cause trouble?

She doesn't look over at Arthfael when there's a squelching noise shortly followed by him falling onto the floor. Khannie knows that absolute jerkface likes flaunting all sorts of really powerful magic to show off how powerful he is. She'll bet he's the one messing with him.

To that end?

Khannie does what she does best.

Something rash.

She stands up, hauls back, and hurls a shadow illusion of an orange at the fiendling. The orange in question is in fact two illusions layered over each other in order to get all the sensory aspects functioning together. It should look, feel, smell, and impact just like a real orange. And Khannie's got a pretty good arm.

Hit or miss, Khannie is shouting now.

"WHO THE HECK INVITED YOU HERE YOU JERK!?"

[Ironsmith]

[Khannie Turns Thirteen]

"Really, now." Braeg smirks, popping a kernel into his mouth. "You're supposed to be clever, aren't you? I'm surprised you have to ask." He holds up his hand as the "orange" approaches, slowing to a near-stop when it reaches his palm. He chuckles and twiddles his fingers in such a way as to show off the ring. "Hm. How about that, it works." He muses, turning and making his way to Khannie and her friends.

Arthfael groans as he sits up from the wrecked remains of the chair, coming face-to-face with Nick. "C-cursed? What?! No!" He stammers. "Of course not. Maybe. I don't... I don't think so, at least..." He stammers, his hand going to the gemstone in his pocket.

It's about now that the chair will start inching away from Nick, barely able to move thanks to its jelly legs but in a hurry to get out of there anyway.