The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

[Recaiden]

Well, that's far from the worst thing she could have wished for. Also far from the best.
Better to be a weird haunter kangaskhan fusion thing than a human.
But what can you do? Complain about Jace for being too aspirational of a father-figure? Absurd.

"Do listen to your Uncle Zebes." Ideally before you make any more magical deals.

"Kyubey probably thinks being a sparkly lich counts as a good thing. Now, being a magical girl is a lot of strain. Only use your powers when you really must. Now, I think I remember a wizard who is particularly able to help people surrounded by despair. And I understand love and friendship are helpful in these situations."
If she were hiding her magical girl career and human nature from everyone around her, that would make this so much more difficult.

"Oh, Keiko, hello-" Well, with the best ninetails helping her, Khannie is sure to...
...'be perfectly fine' and 'be totally doomed' both spring to mind, and Arlem isn't sure which is the correct thought.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Yumiko gives Keiko an exasperated look. Keiko, menawhile, waves to Arlem and then extracts a chicken finger from the bag and noms it noisily

Offering accepted! Now let's eat!

And she starts pulling the food out and setting it on one of the benches. Yumiko turns back to Steven

A little bit of his nature.

Keiko giggles between mouthfulls of coleslaw

Oh! Getting him one of Dad's Potions of Dragon-kind? You know what, that's not a bad idea: nothing will toughen him up quite the same... or as fast.
Just so you know, though: they're a little different than the usual sort, and a lot more permanent. But you've already got enough of a mix going on, Steven: what's one more thing, right?

Yumiko blinks and looks doubtful

His description sounded rather more subtle than all that, Keiko.

But now a tiny, colorless person steps out from the shadow of the altar carrying a bottle so black one's eyes cannot see its features.

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven accepts the bottle from the messenger and thanks them rather automatically. He looks down at the bottle. Why does Orochi just...have these on hand? Yumiko assures him it's a subtle thing and not some dragon potion but still. He wasn't aware of people bottling fragments of their natures.
"Um. Well, you're sure this is a good idea, Madam Yumiko?"
He certainly doesn't sound convinced. But if Yumiko assures him that it's fine he'll undo the stopper and down the potion. He expects it will either taste foul or like nothing at all.

[Rebonack]

[Sanctuary]

"Yeah I figured out that part," Khannie says as she sits down at the bench and selects one of the smaller pieces of breaded fish to munch on. "It's a lot like managing pokemon power points for moves. Except instead of needing to chug ethers or visit a pokemon center you just have to beat up a witch to recover it. I've been careful to only use the Magical Girl magic when it's witches or something SUPER tough. The rest of the time I just use my regular sorcery since that doesn't draw on the same pile of magic points I don't think."

Of course this sort of resource game would be familiar to Khannie.

It would be familiar to any pokemon, former or otherwise.

She takes a bite out of the fish and her eyes widen!

"Oh wow! This is really good!"

It's about this time that Maridia sticks her nose out of Khannie's pack and starts sniffing around.

Khannie's fairy dragon familiar smells brownies.

[Recaiden]

[Sanctuary]

"Is beating up witches that easy for you?"
Probably good news, but witches can get...quite fearsome.

"Really, that gem is tougher than a human body, it just comes with its own problems."
"It should be possible to get your soul back in your body, but it's not clear if that would change the course of things."

Arlem takes a seat at the end of the bench.

"And it's not only witches that can have that potential." Wonder, has anyone seen a wraith around the Nexus?

[Morty]

[Meditation Gardens]

Someone is sitting in the water in the meditation gardens. A very large... crocodile-person. People familiar with the temple will recognize Batu, the shy hobgoblin who is also a were-crocodile. Batu likes the garden's stream when he feels like being a crocodile for a while. He's idly pulling out and shaping globs of water from the stream, careful not to disturb the fish. His bird, Genghis, is sitting on his head.

[Ironsmith]

[Meditation Garden]

Braeg is also here, for mostly the same reasons as Batu, in broad terms. After a frustrating encounter with a certain twelve (nearly thirteen)-year-old who did not appreciate the value of a good teacher, Braeg felt the need to unwind. Unfortunately, his idea of a relaxing time was bound to conflict with the more... contemplative methods a monk might use. He's brought along his mandolin and is strumming a lively, directionless tune; not something easy to tune out.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Yumiko glances at Keiko

I am certain that if father suggested it for you, then it is a good idea.

Keiko finishes another chicken tender and stands up, then takes a few steps away from the bench.

Drink up, Stevie! Don't mind me!

It feels like a bottle, but looking at it, it almost seems two-dimensional as it reflects no light at all. As Steven opens the bottle, it doesn't smell like anything, but it tastes not unlike tar. It is very thin, however, and fortunately for Steven the taste doesn't linger.

The feeling immediately after drinking is a coolness spreading to every limb, then an overwhelming urge to stretch.

It'll go a lot more smoothly if you just follow along with the magic.

(( And fortunately I did correctly remember that Yumiko is the other sister who preferred dragon-shape. And forum search says Keiko had nine heads back in 2015, not three. So ooops. But anyway, let's just transfer that to Steven: three heads - which of course can be merged into one for convenience ))

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven gags but manages to down the whole potion.
"Well, it wasn't as rank as it looked." he gently removes Eclipse from his belt and lays it on the altar. He's feeling the strange desire to stretch and it will get in the way.
And yeah, if Keiko is giving such simple advice he'll go along with the strange feeling.
A little stretching never hurt anyone, right?

[Rebonack]

[Sanctuary]

"Yeah?" Khannie replies to Arlem between bites of fish. "I was a pokemon before. I already know how to fight and my Magical Girl powers aren't super different from my old fighting style. I can just do WAY more crazy, goofy stuff than before. It's like just about anything I can imagine doing with flappy scarfs and punchy gauntlets I can do with my Magical Girl powers. I even made up one attack that's like a set of bolos that starts punching a bad guy after it wraps them up."

She makes a punching motion with one hand by way of demonstration.

"I haven't come up with a good name for that attack yet. I was reading Titanomachy in the library and it was pretty cool so mostly I've been using names for gods and monsters and things from that. I've beaten up two witches so far? And I got to watch a different Magical Girl beat up another one. It seems like the witches mostly aren't that strong they're just tricky sometimes. So the secret is to react fast if they do something surprising. I've got the fighting instincts for that but I don't think most of the other Magical Girls do 'cuz they were just kids before. That's why the one on the TV show got her head ate."

Khannie has no intentions of allow her head to be ate.

She takes a bite out of her fish for emphasis.

"I think... maybe it would be a good idea to figure out what will happen to me before doing anything with my soul gem. I don't want to end up as a ghost or something on accident. I was already ghost-type before and my body feeling so still all the time was creepy," Khannie says.

Then?

She watches the dragon transformation! Or the maybe dragon transformation.

It isn't very exciting yet.

While everyone has their eyes on Steven Maridia sneaks out of Khannie's pack and tries to steal all the brownies. The fact that she's invisible at the moment may make her crime harder to detect.

[Morty]

[Meditation Garden]

The rather large crocodile-person sitting in the water turns to look at Braeg. He hasn't seen him before. Not that he visits the temple as often as he should. His large croc-tail splashes through the water.

"Uh, hello?" he feels he should say something instead of just sitting quietly. "I haven't sheen you here before."

[Ironsmith]

[Meditation Gardens]

"I wasn't here before." Braeg replies, with an accompanying musical sting from his mandolin. He leans back in his seat, strumming the instrument a little more slowly, taking in the creature before him. Some sort of crocodile-man? Okay. Hardly the strangest thing he's seen. He gives Batu an amiable smile and chuckles a little to himself.

"In point of fact, I haven't been anywhere in a while." He adds cryptically. "Wandering around and around, roaming the woods, watching mother nature do her work... it's been quite the journey for my attendants and I."

Attendants, apparently, who were not present at the moment.

Braeg shrugs, rubbing his hand along his bruised jaw plaintively. "You wouldn't have happened to have been looking for me, have you? Have some kind of trouble in your life?"

[Fenric]

Sanctuary

Steven starts to stretch... it's just that he doesn't quite stop where a reasonable person might. He gets longer but without the accompanying thinning one would expect. And it isn't just his body! His face stretches out as well, and even his teeth! This isn't going to go great things for his robes, I'm afraid. Then his head and neck look indistinct for a moment before becoming first two, then three!

When it finally stops, Steven will come in somewhat under fifteen feet long total from nose to tail, roughly evenly split between head/neck, body, and tail. His body is very nicely proportioned with girth compared to length making the golden ratio (roughly 9 feet in girth - about 3 feet across). His neck is thinner than his body, but not wiry with a tail that tapers elegantly from the full width of his body to very nearly a point. His scales are shiny and darkest black, making him fairly reflective. No wings, but he has all the usual fringes, horns, whiskers, and feathery bits that a proper eastern type dragon always has, all in a graduated deep purple color that fades to silvery at the edges. His snout is fairly long and tapered, and filled with many long, needle-sharp teeth all of the same size in the manner of a number of aquatic dinosaurs.

In short, Steven can now take the form of a three-headed Greater Inland Sea Dragon.

Yumiko sighs: it would seem Keiko had been right all along, but Keiko claps in glee

Oh, yes! Very nice! Three heads is fun! Now beware: you breathe disintegration!

[Rebonack]

[Sanctuary]

Khannie, holding her piece of fried catfish in her mouth so her hands are free, claps too!

Very impressive!

Turning into a dragon is cool!

Not that Khannie would really want to be a dragon. She's just fine being a human.

With everyone's eyes on the LARGE DRAGON no one is noticing the TINY DRAGON absconding with all the brownies.

As soon as Maridia grabs the sweets they vanish.

Now she just has to figure out how to toddle off with her front legs full of brownies and eat them without being detected.

Hmm... what are some good places in the sanctuary for a brownie thief to hide?

[Purple Eagle]

[Sanctuary]

Yumiko points out the back door

Out the door, straight through the garden, over the small bridge, and into the big building: the cafeteria is to the right.

[Sanctuary]

"<Thank you very much!> I shall depart now, and intercept him in the cafeteria." Svetlana bows respectfully, then excitedly runs off, forgetting the regal air she usually always puts on.

[->Cafeteria]

Once there, she looks around the area in order to locate Katsuo, as well as ascertain when would be a good time to approach him.

[Fenric]

(( Not my turn in the Sanctuary ))

[Cafeteria]

The line for breakfast is longer than one might expect given Yumiko thought this would be "off hours", but there's a group who prefers the small hours of the morning: the Fenethi are having their dinner!

But standing tall in a row of long tan ears is a lone and very sleepy looking shadow fox male.

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven's tail whips against the stones of the sanctuary as his robes go to tatters. Oh, dear. Not again. Not again. Not again.
His thoughts appear to be echoing and- oof. Steven's heads poke each other. Nope, not a mirror trick. Oh dear. Dear. Dear.
"I feel as if I should really question why your father has these on hand. And if disintegration is really necessary." what sort of adaptation is that for? It would likely be inconvenient underwater. Can you disintegrate water?
Steven's heads scan the area, trying to get used to being able to see so much at once. He wonders what about this is supposed to help him. Is it just to intimidate people? Is there some mental change he should be expecting besides the echoes?

[Morty]

[Meditation Gardens]

The crocodile-man shakes his head.

"I washn't- exushe me." He steps out of the water and suddenly changes shape, turning into a rather short (smaller than a human) hobgoblin with pale, yellowish green skin and close-cropped brown hair. "It's difficult to talk in crocodile shape. Not much of a problem if someone knows me, but... anyway, I wasn't looking for you. And my life is remarkably untroubled right now, really. It's odd."

[Ironsmith]

[Meditation Gardens]

The crocodile-man shakes his head.

"I washn't- exushe me." He steps out of the water and suddenly changes shape, turning into a rather short (smaller than a human) hobgoblin with pale, yellowish green skin and close-cropped brown hair. "It's difficult to talk in crocodile shape. Not much of a problem if someone knows me, but... anyway, I wasn't looking for you. And my life is remarkably untroubled right now, really. It's odd."

[Meditation Gardens]

"No?" Braeg frowns and stops playing for a moment. "...Huh. I must be losing my touch." He shrugs and resumes strumming his mandolin. "Are you certain? Nothing at all you're unsatisfied with? Love life okay? No money troubles? Nothing?"

Braeg may look like the type to revel in another's misfortune, but every now and again, when he got bored enough, he'd give generosity a try. It usually resulted in something interesting happening. If nothing else, it would give him some ideas for what to do with his powers.

[bc56]

Meditation Stream
Jade's spent the last little while testing the limits and effects of her magic. Now, she's taken off her shoes and waded into the stream up to her shins. If she'd been planning this, she would've worn a bathing suit. She's careful to keep her tails out of the water as much as she can. She hates how long it takes to dry them off. One was bad enough, nine is too much. She looks down into the stream. While she's here, she could also test the hypothesis about whether being underwater is harmful to her, but... Does she want to test it? Especially without anyone watching in case she gets hurt. And it would get her clothes all wet. After a moment of thinking, she climbs out of the stream and heads back towards the temple to see if there's anyone willing to help her with her experiment.

[Fenric]

[Pond]

The koi swim around lazily, but a slender dragon-face has been watching Jade with curiousity. Kenji manages to get resurrected from endless deadtime and calls after Jade

Trying to get into the water, Miss?

(( Hm... for a fox temple, I sure have a lot of dragony people ))

[Recaiden]

[Sanctuary]

Spoiler: Previously

Show

"Yeah?" Khannie replies to Arlem between bites of fish. "I was a pokemon before. I already know how to fight and my Magical Girl powers aren't super different from my old fighting style. I can just do WAY more crazy, goofy stuff than before. It's like just about anything I can imagine doing with flappy scarfs and punchy gauntlets I can do with my Magical Girl powers. I even made up one attack that's like a set of bolos that starts punching a bad guy after it wraps them up."

She makes a punching motion with one hand by way of demonstration.

"I haven't come up with a good name for that attack yet. I was reading Titanomachy in the library and it was pretty cool so mostly I've been using names for gods and monsters and things from that. I've beaten up two witches so far? And I got to watch a different Magical Girl beat up another one. It seems like the witches mostly aren't that strong they're just tricky sometimes. So the secret is to react fast if they do something surprising. I've got the fighting instincts for that but I don't think most of the other Magical Girls do 'cuz they were just kids before. That's why the one on the TV show got her head ate."

Khannie has no intentions of allow her head to be ate.
She takes a bite out of her fish for emphasis.
"I think... maybe it would be a good idea to figure out what will happen to me before doing anything with my soul gem. I don't want to end up as a ghost or something on accident. I was already ghost-type before and my body feeling so still all the time was creepy," Khannie says.

Then?
She watches the dragon transformation! Or the maybe dragon transformation.
It isn't very exciting yet.

While everyone has their eyes on Steven Maridia sneaks out of Khannie's pack and tries to steal all the brownies. The fact that she's invisible at the moment may make her crime harder to detect.

Steven starts to stretch...
...
In short, Steven can now take the form of a three-headed Greater Inland Sea Dragon.

Yumiko sighs: it would seem Keiko had been right all along, but Keiko claps in glee

Oh, yes! Very nice! Three heads is fun! Now beware: you breathe disintegration!

Khannie, holding her piece of fried catfish in her mouth so her hands are free, claps too!
Very impressive!
Turning into a dragon is cool!
Not that Khannie would really want to be a dragon. She's just fine being a human.
With everyone's eyes on the LARGE DRAGON no one is noticing the TINY DRAGON absconding with all the brownies.
As soon as Maridia grabs the sweets they vanish.
Now she just has to figure out how to toddle off with her front legs full of brownies and eat them without being detected.
Hmm... what are some good places in the sanctuary for a brownie thief to hide?

"You could use a different name for the attack each time, just to keep anyone who'd heard of you guessing." Arlem suggests. Of course that trades off against the catch-phrase potential. But sounding cool really isn't that important in the end.

Is Khannie taking this seriously? She does have a lot of practice fighting.
"Fighting witches really isn't like fighting as pokemon. Being fast is good, but it's not everything." Just avoid rivalries, romance, involving your family. Expect the unexpected. Be thorough. And then you'll probably be fine.

"You're right, of course. We wouldn't want you to end up as a ghost. It's just an option to consider." There are ways for a magical girl to be okay long-term. But the obvious ways all involve people dying. So they'll need some of the non-obvious ways.

Arlem then reaches over, stretching an arm across the bench, and goes to pick up a tiny dragon by the scruff of its neck.
"Stealing all of Keiko's brownies, are you?"

[bc56]

Pond

Jade is mildly surprised by the dragon. She's never seen him here before. "Yes, actually. I wanted to test something out, but I need someone to make sure I don't drown, and maybe a change of clothes and a towel. Could you help me with that?" He looks like a water dragon, so he can probably help with the lifeguarding bit at least. That's helpful.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Keiko laughs

You ought to be feeling more confident already. More assertive will come when you need it, I think. And you don't have to worry about suddenly wanting a hoard because our sort don't do that! I actually visited a wild one with Cleo once, she was nice and it was fun and we met the goddess of this sort of dragon and she was kinda surprised and I don't think the "natural" dragons breathe disintegration, that's just us... and ... hm..Anyway, you can change back whenever you want... but you'd be kinda naked right now.

Yumiko sighs

So... it seems that Dad keeps the potions because he's a dragon-lord. People end up in the shadows and would rather be dragonkin, so we go through a lot of these. If it's any consolation, I got "you seriously didn't know that?" from Mom just now. I can dispell it if you prefer: I thought it would just give you confidence and assertiveness, not make you into one of us.

[Pond]

Kenji most certainly is a water dragon. He was born here at the temple, and is twenty years old now.

I can help with all of those... no need for a towel or a change, though: I can dry you instantly.

[bc56]

Pond

"Oh, that would be really helpful. You wouldn't mind doing that for me?" Jade steps back up to the pond bank. "There's a couple things I want to try. I used to have a problem where if I went underwater, I would lose my powers and die. I've been told I've been cured of that, but I'd like to test it in a relatively safe environment before I go swimming anywhere. If that's safe, I want to run some simple tests to see how foxfire functions in a low-oxygen environment." Hopefully that makes enough sense to Kenji.

[Rebonack]

[Sanctuary]

"That's probably only a problem if I'm fighting super villains," Khannie points out. "I think witches don't get on the internet to read the latest gossip on City Capes."

That being the premiere Nexus blog/forum/shameless fan site for costumed super heroes.

And she's taking this all really seriously! Super seriously, even. She knows what the consequences are if she messes up. Getting bewitched or getting eaten and she plans on doing neither of those things.

"Not just being fast. Reacting fast. Being clever. Finding solutions. Fighting witches is weird you've gotta figure out QUICK how to deal with whatever crazy junk they throw at you. Helps being strong, too, and I'm really strong."

Or so she insists.

"It really won't bug me any if I stop being a Magical Girl so long as I'm human still," Khannie admits. "I don't care that much about the power. If I just wanted to be powerful I coulda stayed a pokemon instead of wishing to be a human girl. I was already stupid tough. I hated the way that it felt, but Normal/Ghost was a crazy good type combination I was immune to all sorts of stuff. So really I don't mind if the Magic Girl powers break. I just wanna make sure nothing worse happens to me."

She huffs a little breath and takes a bite out of her fish again. Hmm. It needs something. She puts some slaw on top of the fish and bites it again. That's pretty good! A nice combination of tastes and-

Her eyes widen as she gasps, nearly sucking way too much food down the wrong pipe. That leaves her coughing and sputtering. After a few moments of making a giant dork of herself she manages to wheeze, "I know how to make the orange work!"

Maridia, meanwhile, gets grabbed.

"Nooooo they're mine!" the fairy dragon wails.

[Morty]

[Meditation Gardens]

Batu quirks an eyebrow. He seems more... amused than surprised?

"You're not the first person to come by and offer me help, you know. Last time I accepted it, it worked out quite well for me. Some teething problems aside." He realizes that Braeg won't understand the reference, since he doesn't know his crocodile form comes from Sobek. "Either way, I shouldn't keep asking for more from other people, you know?"

[Ironsmith]

[Meditation Gardens]

Batu quirks an eyebrow. He seems more... amused than surprised?

"You're not the first person to come by and offer me help, you know. Last time I accepted it, it worked out quite well for me. Some teething problems aside." He realizes that Braeg won't understand the reference, since he doesn't know his crocodile form comes from Sobek. "Either way, I shouldn't keep asking for more from other people, you know?"

[Meditation Gardens]

"Oh, absolutely not." Braeg agrees. "The last thing you want to do when dealing with gods and godlike beings is come off as too demanding." He chuckles a little to himself. "Well, actually, no. That's the second-worst thing you could do. The worst is be too boring." He lets the statement hang in the air for a moment, along with the implicit threat.

"So, I'll ask again. Anything at all in your life you aren't satisfied with?"

[Fenric]

[Pond]

Kenji nods

Oh, yes! I am very familiar with keeping people from drowning: there are a lot of kids here, and they do fall in from time to time.

Then he tilts his head

I always thought the "fire" was just an illusion. Yeah, the more powerful foxes can put a heat effect on it, but it's not really "burning" anything?

[Deathkeeper]

Sanctuary

Steven shakes his head, which is disorienting when you actually have several.
I can already shapeshift just fine, Madam. This shouldn't be any problem to fix." he insists. With a poof he shrinks into a normal sized black fox. An actual one, since he has no clothes.
Of course there may be some semantic differences if Steven is now a dragon who can turn into any of Inari's creations, instead of one of Inari's creations that can turn into the others and also a dragon. But that will likely be changes to his demeanor and possibly what his children would look like.