The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven nods. He's still wearing his very official hat. He wonders if it makes him look more mysterious.
"Of course. I can answer any questions you have to the best of my ability. Though if you're looking for Arlem you'll have to come earlier." he tells Jade. He does wish these things could have been spaced out more. It's not often he gets to speak to the Messengers and now they get interrupted twice in ten minutes.

[Ironsmith]

[Disaster]

Braeg lets out a little sigh as the rocks and branches and stuff fall unceremoniously to the ground. He should have expected a response like that; when anyone involved can be a liar, it's only natural not to take any party at their word.

"Well, all right, then." Braeg says, walking over to a dislodged boulder that had been trying to crush him a moment ago and taking a seat on it. "I can tell you you're at least partially right. But this wasn't the work of anyone you would call a 'goddess'... at least, she wasn't at the time. It's been more than ten years; she might have reached that potential by now." He waves his hand dismissively. "Ah, but that's another matter. The point is, that hex was placed on me by my niece, Bronntanas. She was thirteen at the time and, like you said, very angry with me." He scratches his bearded chin thoughtfully. "I also freely admit that some of those charges were... technically true, but misleading. Some weren't even that, and some were just outright lies. The idea is to repulse anyone who might otherwise come to my rescue." He chuckles dryly. "Quite the bit of arcanistry, eh?"

[Rebonack]

[Disaster]

Oh no!

It sounds like maybe the guard is taking Khannie's warning a little TOO seriously!

She was expecting him to ask for a little bit of clarification rather than going straight to panicking!

Khannie does her best not to panic herself as she quickly amends her report.

"He SOUNDS like he's really bad but he hasn't actually done anything bad yet here at the temple aside from being a jerk!" Khannie hastily adds. "Miss Keiko just wanted me to get you in case he TRIES to do something bad, I think."

No need to scramble the army!

Probably?

Just have some soldiers ready in case something untoward happens and a jerk needs to be arrested.

[bc56]

Sanctuary
"It's, well..." How do you explain to someone that you came here, got killed and brought back as something different, then regained what you had lost a couple days ago? "When Arlem resurrected me, I lost a few months of my memories and eight of my tails. But I got them back. So now I remember being a Kumiho and doing all those awful things, and I'm worried that might start up again, and I got my magic back, so I don't know if I still should be taking magic classes, and..." Jade pauses for breath. "Well, it's just rather confusing."

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven nods and tilts his head forward a little. Mostly so his hat can hide how utterly confused he is about this.
"Well frankly I have no idea what it was exactly that Arlem did to you, so you're better off asking him. Magic classes are still available to you if you are still magic. As for kumiho's tendencies, well. Do you have any violent impulses towards me standing here right at this moment?" he asks her.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Yumiko looks thoughtful, but listens quietly.

[Disaster]

The guard looks at Khannie

You said Lady Keiko. Even with only a potentially bad man that's a recipie for disaster. Her dragon form breathes blasts of disintegration, which is not such a good thing in a heavily populated area.

You see... the notion that triggered him was "Keiko" not "bad man".
The sound of something jet-powered can now be heard approaching

Keiko hrmphs, but nods

Ok... I think I might actually have got it right for a change... and yeah, I can get the part about a thirteen year old.

Her ear swivels to the sound of the approaching rapid-response transport.

Ravenloft meets StarCraft II in finest Nexus fashion. Vulpine rapid response: coming, no doubt, to ensure that I don't disintegrate half the temple in an ill-thought-out battle in the garden.

She ponders

I don't think I've ever made that big a mess. Myobi would have banned me forever. Anyway, unless you want to dodge a variety of high-tech ordinance, it would be best to let me calm them down and explain things.

[Ironsmith]

[Disaster]

Braeg shrugs. "Well, you turned off the magic, so there's not a whole lot else I could do anyway."

Technically not true; by the D&D-esque rules Inari's temple seemed to run on, Braeg would be exempt from the anti-magic field as an epic-level spellcaster, but he wasn't about to tell her that.

"Incidentally, for the record, it wasn't my goal to best that girl... I was about two sentences away from offering to teach her." Braeg adds. "If my niece could manage this after three years of my tutelage, imagine what someone with six years (poorly spent though they may be) under her belt could do."

[bc56]

Sanctuary

Jade sighs. That's about as useless as it gets, but she expected nothing more from advice about magic things. "No, I don't feel like eating you, but you're also not a human." She shakes her head and her tails droop. "I guess I'm just not sure what I am anymore." She's been a lot of different things over the last year or so of her life. Man, woman, centaur, satyr, harpy, kumiho, kitsune, and now this.

[Rebonack]

[Disaster]

Khannie's shoulders slump a little.

"Oh..."

She glances cautiously back toward the garden.

It doesn't look like anything is disintegrating?

Yet?

"I don't THINK she's going to do that? She wasn't fighting him when I left she just told me to go get the guards," she reasons. "I'll go back and remind her not to turn anyone to dust! Okay stay safe mister guard!"

And before the guard can advise the child about the dangers of a child hanging out anywhere near a location where epic magic, disintegration, and high-tech ordnance might be flying around, Khannie runs off again.

Oh look here comes Khannie now!

She'll be stopping before she reaches the zone of weird because it looks spooky and she was told to stay out of it.

"Keiko I'm back you didn't bite that jerk on his jerk face yet did you?" the girl shouts as she comes to a stop.

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven bows dramatically, taking off his hat and passing it in front of his face. When it moves past it he is entirely human again.
"Miss, if I can give you a single piece of advice from my life experiences it is thus: what you are doesn't really matter much at all. Perhaps your previous self was an exception to that given your Dietary Restrictions. But barring that? You shouldn't worry about it." Luckily no one here is in a position to notice that he doesn't know how to shift his robes to cover their tail-hole.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary ]

Yumiko smiles at Steven's display, and gives Jade a sympathetic look.


[Epic Misunderstanding]

What's an "epic level"? This is a 2nd Edition setting played a touch fast and loose

Keiko sighs

Well... sorry. I am still me. And there is no way I would have ever expected that to be the result of dropping our blessing from you.

Khannie arrives

No, I didn't eat his face or bite him or anything. Look:I'm not even a dragon, I just put up the anti-magic shell so I could have some chance of talking without having rocks flying around randomly.

It now gets VERY LOUD as a transport arrives and drops a Goliath, two Firebats, and two Marines in full power armor.

Keiko sighs

[Ironsmith]

[Epic Disaster]

Braeg looks at the newcomers with some degree of annoyance. "...Anyone else remember when 'temple security' meant 'behave or our god will throw lightning at you'?" He snarks. "All right, fellas. I don't supposed you're gonna be willing to hear me out?"

[bc56]

Sanctuary
"I know, but I can't just not know!" Jade complains at the human priest. "I'm curious! It's something I should know in case something comes up!" All this magic "don't worry everything will work out" nonsense bothers her. She is, fundamentally, a person of science, even as a magical fox.

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

”To be frank, from the sound of it you have been jumping between cosmologies and evading the rules of one with the help of another. The most likely answer is that what you are exactly no longer has any definition. It will be whatever you want. You even get to pick the name.”
Frankly if Steven knew the full story he would question why she would ever have chased down her memories for the risk of being a kumiho again.

[Rebonack]

[LOUD GARDEN PARTY]

Khannie doesn't know why there are a bunch of robots in the garden now. Mostly she just knows that they're REALLY BIG and REALLY LOUD.

Or at least the biggest one is really loud.

"MISS KEIKO I GOT THE GUARDS LIKE YOU SAID BUT THEY SENT A BUNCH OF ROBOTS!" Khannie helpfully shouts at the top of her lungs just in case someone managed to miss them. "I DIDN'T KNOW THAT THERE WERE GOING TO BE ROBOTS ARE THEY MESSING UP THE GARDEN?"

The robots seem PRETTY BIG and the sort of things that would mess up gardens.

"I THINK THAT THEY WANTED TO MAKE SURE THAT YOU DON'T DISINTEGRATE ANYTHING!"

Khannie's commentary is very helpful here.

[bc56]

Sanctuary
"Okay, fine, but I need to know some things about what I am, even if it's not something that's existed before. Are there health issues I should be concerned about? Abilities I don't know I have? There are things I still need to know." Jade paces back and forth as she's elaborating on that. She doesn't want to run into something unexpected as a result of her weird nature, good or bad.

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

"Well, given that you are some combination of an immortal dream creature and a near-immortal fox spirit I would say your health will likely not trouble you as long as you keep proper hygiene and possibly avoid the weaknesses you used to have. It sounds like most of your questions you will have to figure out from trial and error." Jade seems to be one of those kinds of people who thinks that wearing a robe means you have all the answers if you simply demand loudly enough.
And unlike Arlem, he doesn't act like that's true.

[Fenric]

[Storm in a Teacup]

All of the weapons train on Kieko

Control: Subject is already in an antimagic field. Please advise
Did we have a confirmed Keiko event, or did someone call us early?
I think we might be disutrbing the peace for nothing, guys

Keiko stomps

You think so? Really? Geeze, guys: I expected a couple MP's, not a rapid reaction force. Go home!

Roger, ma'am. Transport, get us back out.

Keiko taps her foot as the noisy equipment noisily returns to the transport which makes its noisy way away.

Ok. Hang tight, Khannie. It's ok.

Now... Braeg, right? This shell's going to collapse soon. What do I need to do to keep Myobi's precious landscaping in it's proper position?

[Ironsmith]

[Storm in a Teacup]

"Well, if you have a way of restoring the blessing, I would start with that. We didn't have any problems with it before then." Braeg smiles. "If you can't, I can create a field of my own, though I should warn you that it would be... unruly."

[Purple Eagle]

[Sanctuary]

Some nights ago

The silver fox stands there unattended, which isn't so bad, because he can use his own two eyes to see what's happening. One thing's for sure, though: he knows a couple people who'd love to visit.

He doesn't stay long, and soon returns from whence he came.

Tonight

One of those people is here! An very beautiful pale-skinned Polish-Japanese woman with a regal posture is the next person to walk through the doors of the sanctuary. She has hetero-chromic electronic eyes with a grey orb for a sclera, and coloured (green and hazel-green) concentric circles for irises. Her raven black hair's done up in a top-knot, and there are faint lines on her skin that could either indicate an accident or cybernetic enhancements. Currently, she's wearing a sleeveless knee-length blue dress, comfortable dark blue shoes and silver stud earrings.

All in all, your everyday drop-dead gorgeous lady who'd pass for human were it not for the white-furred fox ears (in addition to her human ones) and tail she's currently also sporting. Of note is also the unconcealed 'awestruck fangirl' look she has on her face as she looks at everything with wide eyes.

Dr Svetlana Himesaki Tanaka has entered the building, folks.

She soon finds herself beside Yumiko, and bows forward, greeting her in Japanese. "<Good day! Wow, this is really happening, indeed. It all looks even better than Jinkei said.>" She rambles uncharacteristically, then catches herself and clears her throat, standing up straight. "I mean... greetings. I am looking for a Katsuo no Yarafuji?"

[bc56]

Sanctuary

Jade shakes her head. "I don't think I want to experiment to see if I still am only paralyzed when someone sticks a blade through my heart. Or if I still lose my powers and die if I'm submerged in water too long." But she does want to know whether those options are available. "As for everything else, if I don't know I can do something, I'll never be able to do it. And if I don't know about a weakness I have, I can't protect myself from it."

[Rebonack]

[Storm in a Teacup]

Or maybe the storm has lifted and now there will peace?

Once can hope.

Khannie sits down on a rock outside the anti-magic shell and waits.

Waits waits waits.

She decides to start practicing with the orange again in spite of the face that Jerkface McJerkfaceson was making fun of her for using an orange to practice.

Well who cares about what he thinks!

Shadow illusions are hard and she is way better at them than even most growups are her daddy said so! So she's just going to keep practicing and getting better no matter what any stinky jerks say!

An illusion of an orange appears.

Khannie licks it.

The illusion fails for want of taste.

"Maybe I'm thinking about this wrong..." Khannie mutters. What's she missing?

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven stares at her. Ah yes, definitely one of those “that’s not the answer I want so I’m not leaving” types.
”You can still sit in a bathtub to see if you panic. Fight as if a blade will still kill you. And you were a kumiho for some time and took kitsune classes for months. If you could do something before, try it now. I already gave you my answer: I have no idea what you are now. I’ve known you for two minutes and I don’t have a fox identification ray.”
At this point he might need one.
”You can’t rely on others to hand you answers just because it’s out of your wheelhouse. You’re going to have to find some of them yourself. And if you refuse to do so, then you have to live with that. And of course I could try to make things different but I think you have had quite enough of that, haven’t you? As I said though, if you wish to speak to Arlem since this was partially his doing, he’s around every day.” Steven theoretically could try to mess with fey with his messenger skill set but he is loathe to blindly go throwing that around.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Yumiko contemplates recommending a divination spell or two, as the answers with the subject standing right there will be be highly accurate. It would technically interfering to make such a comment but a nudge now and then isn't that big of a deal.

But then someone chatters at her in Japanese! She responds, though it is somewhat different

<Edo-period Japanese><Oh, hello! This actually isn't my native tongue, but it is nice to hear.>

She looks out the back door for a moment

Dr. Yarafuji is heading from his room to the central cafeteria for his breakfast: he changed his schedule around so he could teach during the day when most students are active, but that resulted in him matching neither the more nocturnal nor the more diurnal life patterns.

[Teacup without Tea]

Keiko nods

That, at least, is easy enough.

She steps out of the anti-magic shell and then dismisses it, immediately followed by restoring the favor of Tamamo to Braeg

You are welcome here, Our blessings be upon you.

Then she smirks

So... tone down the superiority a bit, eh? There's lots of high-end people wandering around the Nexus. And maybe try to have a little more perspective about the capabilities of normal children.

Um... Keiko... A sentence with both "Khannie" and "normal children" needs a "not" in there somewhere.

Khannie, he was actually going to offer to help teach you after his "least effective way to gain friends EVAR" introduction. But it is probably a good thing because I'm really not much of a teacher and I'm not going to do that posession thing until someone teaches me how to do it properly.

Another look to Braeg

I'm a Messenger and she's one of our followers, so if it's official business for the purposes of helping with a request, there's nothing at all wrong with it. I'm just not qualified and shouldn't have tried.

Khannie might be a tad on the fringes of "follower", but by the rules Keiko is operating under that prayer brought Khannie "into the fold" for at least a while. She looks back to Khannie.

He's under a curse because of a tantrum from someone with more power than self-control, which is never a good thing, but he hasn't asked for any help and I'm still trying to follow the rules so I don't get in trouble again. He's maybe not the best person in the world but then again...

She grins a pointy-toothed grin

Neither am I!

[Rebonack]

[No Tea So How About Snack Time?]

Khannie glances up from her little orange-focused reverie. Did she just hear that right? Did Keiko say this absolute jerkface was offering to teach her magic?

He said he was powerful (he turned a rock into an apple but that isn't the sort of magic that comes naturally to Khannie at all) and he's pretty obviously arrogant. Also possibly a terrible person depending on who one believes.

With the anti-magic shell gone, she slides off her rock and approaches Braeg, resolution in her steps. She comes to a halt a good three feet away and glares up at the man.

"You insulted me. You insulted my teachers here at school. You even insulted my dad. I don't care if you're the most powerful wizard in the whole Nexus; I don't want to learn anything from someone like you."

She gives him one more glare, eyes narrowed in disgust, before stalking away. The memories of the possessed charm are fuzzy, but Khannie thinks she might still have the basic idea cemented in her mind. It's a thankful thing that her understanding of magic is more intuitive than intellectual; she just needs to have the right idea. She gestures to Keiko with one hand, precise motions subtly woven into her beckoning. She reaches out with the same charm the nogtisune had used on Steven.

"C'mon Keiko! Let's get some snacks and then try some more, okay? We both need practice and I don't mind if you want to practice possession with me. I didn't really know what you were going to do and maybe you won't feel so sick if random jerkfaces aren't breaking things. Maybe now that I DO know what you're doing I can help?"

[Ironsmith]

[But What About The Tea?]

Braeg shakes his head. "Fine. You don't want to learn from me? I can understand that. Bronntanas was something of a reluctant student, as well." Braeg clops over to Khannie, his cloak making a little swoosh-swoosh sound as it scrapes against the ground. "But before you take that decision and make it final, let me ask you this: Why do you think you can't get that orange just right, hm?" He rolls an orange that wasn't there a moment ago over his fingers as he talks. "Do you suppose it's a matter of stretching your brain too thin? Or perhaps a lack of faith on your part? Or just this tiny touch it needs to get it just right?" He peels the orange in his hands without looking, carefully peeling away the skin and popping it into sections. "Your teachers will try to help, I'm sure. But ultimately, they're all going to tell you the same thing, in a number of different ways. And the problem is more fundamental than most mortals are capable of grasping." Juices spurt from the orange slices as he pops one into his mouth and gives a satisfied "ah". "You don't like me. I'm not surprised. But if you choose to only learn from the people who don't get under your skin, you're only going to end up limiting yourself. You're passing up this..." he waves the orange in front of Khannie enticingly, "...over a clash of personalities. Like the child you insist you aren't. Think about it. Is that a good trade-off?" He presses the orange into her hands, letting her tell that it's very much real.

Until it isn't.

Braeg says nothing else and turns as though to walk away.

[Recaiden]

"Esteemed Mr. Primerra, you don't think I stop helping people the instant the sun goes down, do you?"
Arlem asks with the peculiar lilt of a totally rhetorical question as he strolls into the sanctuary. Hmm. Is Steven having trouble with his wardrobe or his shapeshifting, to end up like that?

And if she did want to eat Steven, just a little, that would be understandable.

"You have questions, Jade? Mind if I take a look?"

[bc56]

Sanctuary
"Oh, hi Arlem. Go ahead, but don't kill me this time. I only just got my memories and tails back from the last time, and I'm not going to pay for another resurrection." Jade says to the daytime priest sarcastically. She'd be surprised if he can see anything more than the other two.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Yumiko smiles and nods politely to Arlem as he enters, being preoccupied with Svetlana for the moment

[Tea needs Snacks]

Keiko's stomach immediately growls: that was a suggestion that didn't really need a Suggestion to back it up! And she drools a little at the orange, illusion or not.

Ok, I need something to eat before I bite something I shouldn't: that anti-magic shell wasn't really in my league, I'm still kinda sick from having my posession forcibly cut short, and I haven't had dinner yet let alone a snack. Temple cafeteria's not open, but Trog's always is: let's all go get some food while we debate the relative insult value of overbroad boastful statements, hmm?

Khannie, I know what he said offended you... but I also know way more than I care to admit about trash-talking too much. Maybe give him a chance to repay you instead of just walking off?

[Rebonack]

[Tea needs Snacks]

The orange is shoved into Khannie's hand.

She never breaks eye-contact with Braeg, locking him with her steely glare, as she drops the orange on the ground and wipes the juice off on her skirt. "I don't want anything you're selling," she states with absolute certainty. Khannie is, for better or worse, quite stubborn. Once she's decided on a path swaying her from it is quite the task. And she's pretty dead-set on having nothing to do with this guy. She doesn't care about the power. Maybe before her wish she would have. Back when she had that itch to get stronger. But that's gone now. The only reason she's learning magic is to be more like her dad and because puzzling her way through it is fun. And being around Braeg is anything but fun.

Khannie will continue to glare at him as he leaves.

That's right, mister, keep walking.

Speaking of fun.

It might not have NEEDED it but Khannie can tell that her Suggestion worked!

This is, actually, pretty exciting for her.

This is the first time ever that she's managed to get a spell to work that wasn't an illusion. Sure charms were really similar. Khannie is pretty sure that's why she was able to do it. The idea is the same, the application is just a little different. She just barely manages to avoid whooping with delight since she doesn't want to seem anything other than serious and defiant while Jerkface McFacejerk might be watching. Once he's far enough away Khannie will give Keiko a hug and half-whispers-

"I don't know if you did it on purpose or not but when you were in my head you shared how you got kidnapped," Khannie says quietly. "Something like that happened to me, too, when I was little. If it's even MAYBE true that guy steals kids I don't want to be around him."