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  1. - Top - End - #151
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Pond
    Jade shakes her head. "That's not how I was taught." She snaps a little ball of blue foxfire into existence. "But it is what I'm testing. It doesn't consume fuel, but it will burn flammable materials it contacts, and although mine does produce heat, it's not nearly hot enough to reach the flash point of any compounds in the air." She waves the flame away. "My best guess is that it's a visible thermal anomaly I can somehow create by concentrating. I want to see how it functions differently underwater. The next step after that would be to try it in hard vacuum but that's a lot more difficult to set up."
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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  2. - Top - End - #152
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Sanctuary]

    Yumiko nods.

    As you wish.

    Keiko grins

    Awww... you make a cute fox, Steven!

    And at long last she turns back to her dessert, only to see Arlem holding Maridia holding her browines!

    Ack!

    Thanks, Arlem.

    You know, little creature, stealing brownies from someone who frequently threatens people with "Imma eat you" and is relatively notorious for following through on that is perhaps not the world's best plan!


    [Pond]

    Kenji shrugs

    No idea, just what I've heard sitting around the pond. Regardless: the pond's just mundane water, nothing special at all, so wade on in whenever you're ready.

    The koi have noticed Jade and are already starting to gather and mouth at the surface.

    Don't mind the koi: they're just fish.

    Mostly. But that one hasn't caused trouble in ages so he's not worth worrying about.
    Last edited by Fenric; 2021-08-14 at 12:10 PM.

  3. - Top - End - #153
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Pond
    That's the thing about the Nexus. You'll always find someone who does the same thing slightly differently.

    Jade wades into the pond, her dress and tails getting soaked in the process. Once she's up to her waist, she takes a deep breath. "Immersion trial number one. If something goes wrong, please get me back out of the water as soon as you can."
    She holds her breath and lowers herself under the surface.
    As soon as her whole body is under, she suddenly shrinks and shimmers, as her body takes on the shape of a nine-tailed red fox. Startled, she begins paddling her way to the surface.
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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  4. - Top - End - #154
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Pond]

    Kenji waves a clawed hand and the school of koi gather around and squirm and bump and then the muscular, two foot long fish do their best to push Jade back out of the water quick as a blink.

    He hops out again a moment after

    Well! That was not something I see every day. You ok?
    Last edited by Fenric; 2021-08-14 at 12:22 PM.

  5. - Top - End - #155
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Pond
    Jade is happy to be back on solid ground after that."Yip!" she replies. She looks confused. "Yip yip!" She paws at her face to wipe some water off. Apparently she can't talk in this form.
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
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  6. - Top - End - #156
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Meditation Gardens]

    Quote Originally Posted by Ironsmith View Post
    "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?"
    Batu... doesn't seem particularly intimidated. Not because he's brave, because he really isn't. He just doesn't think he's got anything to fear in the temple. Inari wouldn't let someone hurt her faithful here.

    "I wouldn't say so. Nothing I can't fix myself with some effort, at any rate," he says in a confident tone of voice. "Can't go around expecting a helping hand everywhere, right?"
    My FFRP characters. Avatar by Ashen Lilies. Sigatars by Ashen Lilies, Gullara and Purple Eagle.
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  7. - Top - End - #157
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Quote Originally Posted by Morty View Post
    [Meditation Gardens]

    Batu... doesn't seem particularly intimidated. Not because he's brave, because he really isn't. He just doesn't think he's got anything to fear in the temple. Inari wouldn't let someone hurt her faithful here.

    "I wouldn't say so. Nothing I can't fix myself with some effort, at any rate," he says in a confident tone of voice. "Can't go around expecting a helping hand everywhere, right?"
    [Meditation Gardens]

    "Are you certain?" Braeg asks with a frown. "I would've been certain you'd at least be hungry." He lifts an apple (which definitely wasn't there before) to his mouth and takes a hearty bite. "Or thirsty, perhaps?" He takes a sip from the lemonade that was there now. "Entertainment?" He tosses the pair of dice lightly into the air and catches them, rattling them back and forth in his hands. "It's rare to be given that sort of opportunity for no cost; it'd be foolish to not avail yourself of it."
    Who're you? ...Don't matter.

    Want some rye? 'Course ya do!


    Here's to us.
    Who's like us?
    Damn few,
    and they're aaall dead.


    *gushes unintelligibly over our cat, Sunshine*

    [Nexus characters, grouped by setting:
    Ouroboros: here
    Maesda: here
    Others: here
    ]

  8. - Top - End - #158
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Pond]

    Kenji tilts his head

    sorry… I don’t speak fox

    He uses his native water-controlling ability to try to dry Jade off.
    Last edited by Fenric; 2021-08-14 at 06:55 PM.

  9. - Top - End - #159
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Sanctuary

    Now that leaves Steven confused.
    ”Keiko…I’m not sure how to respond to that one, actually.”
    ”Oh yeah, what was all that noise I was hearing before?”
    Right. At this point one of the acolytes goes over to inform Steven that Khannie accidentally called the werefoxes on Keiko and his guest.
    ”Was that fellow bothering you, Keiko? Is he still here?”
    Spako Highclaws by Ceika.

    [Sorry Boss, but as always, I get the last word.]

  10. - Top - End - #160
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Sanctuary]

    Keiko chuckles

    It's a compliment. "Thanks" would do. Or getting a little embarrassed. Whichever you pefer.

    Then she rolls her eyes

    Oh, that guy - the one that came in earlier with a pair of lackeys, looking for sanctuary. Yeah, now there's a towering ego lurking around out in the garden who thinks he's really special because of ... reasons. Seems magic enough that I don't think I'd want to mess with him, to be honest, though: I like a good fight well enough but when you start tossing spells around I get overmatched pretty fast.

    she shrugs

    But not gonna lie: he didn't actually do anything, he just thinks a lot of himself and likes to tell other people about it.

  11. - Top - End - #161
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Pond

    When Jade is dried off, she seems a little relieved and shifts back to humanoid form. "Thanks,. That was... Surprising. Normally I can speak in fox shape; I wonder why I couldn't then? I couldn't change back either. I think I was blocked from using magic? I don't know why." She quickly changes back into a fox again. "See, I can still talk, right?" And then she's a human with fox ears and tails. "I guess I'll have to do my next experiment from the bank then." She pulls a thermometer from her purse and holds it in the pond, but then she stops. "Hey look at this. I never noticed that before." Her reflection in the surface of the water is that of a fox, not a humanoid. "I wonder how that works. Where does the light change?"
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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  12. - Top - End - #162
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Meditation Gardens]

    Quote Originally Posted by Ironsmith View Post
    "Are you certain?" Braeg asks with a frown. "I would've been certain you'd at least be hungry." He lifts an apple (which definitely wasn't there before) to his mouth and takes a hearty bite. "Or thirsty, perhaps?" He takes a sip from the lemonade that was there now. "Entertainment?" He tosses the pair of dice lightly into the air and catches them, rattling them back and forth in his hands. "It's rare to be given that sort of opportunity for no cost; it'd be foolish to not avail yourself of it."
    "Rare enough that it's natural for people to assume there is a cost, we just don't see it," Batu points out. "And I've already been given a lot by someone else. Why do you want to be generous to me, anyway?"
    My FFRP characters. Avatar by Ashen Lilies. Sigatars by Ashen Lilies, Gullara and Purple Eagle.
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  13. - Top - End - #163
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Quote Originally Posted by Morty View Post
    [Meditation Gardens]



    "Rare enough that it's natural for people to assume there is a cost, we just don't see it," Batu points out. "And I've already been given a lot by someone else. Why do you want to be generous to me, anyway?"
    [Meditation Gardens]

    Braeg throws up his hands defensively. "All right. You got me. My motives here are entirely selfish." He smirks. "Well, that's true of almost everyone, so no great revelations there. No, see, I happen to be in a bit of an... awkward position." He sighs. "That position being 'in the throes of rejection'." He strums idly at his mandolin. "Not a great feeling, having someone tell you they want absolutely nothing to do with you. Words can hurt, you know." He looks back up at Batu. "So this is me coping. It helps to be useful every now and then. Does that make sense?"
    Who're you? ...Don't matter.

    Want some rye? 'Course ya do!


    Here's to us.
    Who's like us?
    Damn few,
    and they're aaall dead.


    *gushes unintelligibly over our cat, Sunshine*

    [Nexus characters, grouped by setting:
    Ouroboros: here
    Maesda: here
    Others: here
    ]

  14. - Top - End - #164
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Pond

    Quote Originally Posted by bc56 View Post
    When Jade is dried off, she seems a little relieved and shifts back to humanoid form. "Thanks,. That was... Surprising. Normally I can speak in fox shape; I wonder why I couldn't then? I couldn't change back either. I think I was blocked from using magic? I don't know why." She quickly changes back into a fox again. "See, I can still talk, right?" And then she's a human with fox ears and tails. "I guess I'll have to do my next experiment from the bank then." She pulls a thermometer from her purse and holds it in the pond, but then she stops. "Hey look at this. I never noticed that before." Her reflection in the surface of the water is that of a fox, not a humanoid. "I wonder how that works. Where does the light change?"
    Kenji watches quietly, but looks into the pond when jade is surprised.

    What!?

    He quickly checks the water, then shakes his head

    No... it's not my water: still as normal as water ever is.

    He looks at Jade curiously

    This is a new one to me: you look like the other foxfolk to me, but I've never seen anything like that before.
    Last edited by Fenric; 2021-08-15 at 08:18 AM.

  15. - Top - End - #165
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Sanctuary]

    Maybe. Did she think of all of this before becoming a magical girl, or just after?
    "The main concern, for making sure nothing worse happens to you, is how you connect to your body now. It's not completely empty, right? You could pull back to that little earring even more."

    "You said you watched another magical girl fight a witch. Do you know her? Would she help you?"
    He imagines there's a pretty good proportion of magical girls who would take the option to go back to being normal girls, if they had the chance.

    "The orange?"
    Is that...what? Why does that matter, Khannie?

    As for Maridia,
    "I don't think she'd be as good as a brownie, but if you want..." Arlem hands the tiny dragon over to Keiko, pilfered desert and all.
    Is revenge sweeter than chocolate? (Is it okay to give a ninetails a chocolate brownie, actually?)
    Last edited by Recaiden; 2021-08-15 at 11:24 AM.
    ~Inner Circle~
    Quote Originally Posted by Raz_Fox View Post
    He takes normality and reason and turns them UP TO 11!
    Quote Originally Posted by Anarion View Post
    Recaiden, stop using your mastery of the English language to confuse the issue.
    Echidna by Serpentine

  16. - Top - End - #166
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Sanctuary]

    Definitely after.

    Khannie only learned most of the details after making her wish. She's a smart kid, though, and pretty good at putting stuff like this together. At least in her opinion.

    "I mean, I dunno? I don't know anything about soul magic. That's why I was hoping maybe someone at the temple does,"
    Khannie reasons. "I thought maybe someone could do scanny spells on me or something and then they would know what's going on?"

    She doesn't know how that kind of magic works, as she said earlier.

    "Since this is my soul we're talking about I don't want it to break or get weirded up or whatever," she insists. Khannie is pretty okay with having a normal human soul. That is, in fact, what she had to begin with. That's part of the reason her pokemon body always felt so alien to her. On the question of the other magical girl she looks a little less certain. "A little? I mean, I talked to her a bit after the witch was beaten. She talked about the grief seed and told me how I can use it to cleanse my soul gem thingy. She seemed nice enough?"

    Hopefully this doesn't mean Khannie will get to traumatically witness her becoming a witch.

    And then!

    The orange!

    Once Khannie is done choking on coldslaw she sets down her food on a little paper plate and conjures a phantom orange in one hand. It looks and smells like a real orange. "Okay so I can only do illusions with three aspects at once, right? If I try to do more it breaks. BUT!"

    In her other hand she makes a second illusion, this one a weird purple and black wireframe that is shaped like an orange bereft of its texture.

    "I can make more than one illusion at a time. So what if I make TWO illusions with the aspects split between them and-"

    She slowly shoves the two together until they merge. Then? Khannie digs her finger nails into the rind, zest squirting and juice dribbling as she peels it.

    "Hahaha! It worked!" she laughs as she takes a bite out of an orange slice! "It tastes real! It worked it worked it worked!"

    She is, in fact, so excited that she totally fails to notice Maridia getting handed off to Keiko.

    "You can't eat me I taste terrible that's why I'm bright orange," Maridia warns. It's true. She IS a small animal that's bright orange.
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  17. - Top - End - #167
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Pond
    "I don't know. I'm something new and different. Like them, but not exactly." She sighs. "I'm trying to understand my magic and what I am by testing things." She conjures some foxfire and holds it under the water. It doesn't go out. "If I know what I can and can't do, I won't be caught by surprise when it becomes important."
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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  18. - Top - End - #168
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Meditation Gardens]

    Quote Originally Posted by Ironsmith View Post
    Braeg throws up his hands defensively. "All right. You got me. My motives here are entirely selfish." He smirks. "Well, that's true of almost everyone, so no great revelations there. No, see, I happen to be in a bit of an... awkward position." He sighs. "That position being 'in the throes of rejection'." He strums idly at his mandolin. "Not a great feeling, having someone tell you they want absolutely nothing to do with you. Words can hurt, you know." He looks back up at Batu. "So this is me coping. It helps to be useful every now and then. Does that make sense?"
    Batu nods, his earlier apprehension replaced by sympathy.

    "I know what you mean. My family... decided they want nothing to do with me a while ago. I wasn't really in a position to help anybody back then, but I understand."
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  19. - Top - End - #169
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Quote Originally Posted by Morty View Post
    [Meditation Gardens]

    Batu nods, his earlier apprehension replaced by sympathy.

    "I know what you mean. My family... decided they want nothing to do with me a while ago. I wasn't really in a position to help anybody back then, but I understand."
    [Meditation Gardens]

    "Damn shame." Braeg shrugs and resumes his mandolin playing. "That sort of full-bodied repulsion leaves a nasty mark. It's be one thing if your family merely didn't like you, or you weren't always welcome among certain members... but the whole thing, deciding you're irredeemably twisted and can never be allowed back in?"

    One of the strings on his manolin snaps, producing a discordant twung.

    "...Forgive me. I may be projecting just a bit here." Braeg says, smoothing the string back out. "...All the same. If it were me, I'd always wonder why, exactly, they felt that way. Sure, there's usually something obvious... but that seldom tells the whole story, now, does it?"
    Who're you? ...Don't matter.

    Want some rye? 'Course ya do!


    Here's to us.
    Who's like us?
    Damn few,
    and they're aaall dead.


    *gushes unintelligibly over our cat, Sunshine*

    [Nexus characters, grouped by setting:
    Ouroboros: here
    Maesda: here
    Others: here
    ]

  20. - Top - End - #170
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Sanctuary]

    Keiko takes the tiny dragon, then pulls a face at the "I taste terrible" line

    Really? Of all the possible choices for something to say you go with the tired old "you don't want to eat me: I taste bad" one!? You could have talked up the brownies, you know: how awesome they smell and how great they look and how you just couldn't help yourself and "please please have mercy" and maybe even make big-eyes and then ask for one anyway... but no. "I'm orange! That means I taste bad!" like I'm some sort of bird with a caterpillar or something.

    she rolls her eyes

    Well, you're right: I can't, with a straight face, insist that I like the taste of faries. I don't: they're really awful. So I'm sure a fairy dragon must totally taste like garbage. And while I could go all menacing and dark and have my eyes glow and say "Aha! But I don't want to eat your flesh" ... I doubt a feeble little thing like you'd survive me touch-attacking you even once and I so very much don't want to see what happens to a little thing like you after being drained to death.

    she chuckles

    So, instead, how about you give me back the brownies and apologies like a good little dragon who's been caught red-handed without me coming up with an "or else?"

    [Pond]

    Kenji nods

    That makes sense, I guess. And yeah: getting caught by surprise is a really bad thing around here. Better to know, even if you have to figure it out through trial and error.

    then he shrugs

    Let me know if you need water rescue again. The magic I use is just part of me and I couldn't tell you how it actually works

  21. - Top - End - #171
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Sanctuary]

    To be fair to Maridia here, her mode of thinking is very much that of an unusually clever forest animal. So 'I'm orange I taste bad' is exactly the sort of argument that makes sense to her.

    After all, SHE knows that if you find an orange bug you REALLY don't want to eat it.

    She wriggles impotently for a few seconds in Keiko's grasp, then finally relents.

    The fairy dragon holds out the bag of brownies she had stolen.

    "I'm sorry..." she mutters.

    And then?

    "Please don't eat Maridia, Miss Keiko, she's kind of dumb but she's my familiar,"
    Khannie calls out from none too far away.

    "No I'm clever!" Maridia insists loudly.
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  22. - Top - End - #172
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Pond

    "I don't think I'll be getting in the water again after that." At least not willingly. "It was a bit of an unpleasant surprise." The water around the foxfire ball is heating up and begining to bubble. "I was right. No fuel oxygen needed, unless it takes it from the water somehow. It outputs thermal energy, I wonder where that comes from?" Jade tries to recall the lessons. Something about focusing on the potential heat of a place and increasing it? The energy must come from somewhere, or the laws of thermodynamics would be broken. Then again, she's already been able to flagrantly violate the law of conservation of mass by turning into a fox. If she could figure out how magic bypasses that, she'd be published in every physics textbook. Unfortunately magic no doubt has its own ideas.
    Awesome avatar (Kothar, paladin of Tlacua) by Linkele!

    Quote Originally Posted by William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV.i.46
    'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
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  23. - Top - End - #173
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Quote Originally Posted by Fenric View Post
    (( 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.
    [Cafeteria]

    Svetlana runs up to the sleepy man, assures everyone in front and behind him that she isn't trying to cut in line, then refocuses on him. "Greetings, Dr Yarafuji. You do not know me, but I am a good friend of your daughter, Dr Katharina Masters, also known as Jinkei no Yarafuji."
    Purple Eagle's character list
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  24. - Top - End - #174
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Sanctuary]

    "Yes, you've already gotten 'weirded up' by taking that deal. And you want to be back to normal. I want you to understand what we need to find out and do, and why."

    At this point Arlem will perform some scanny spells to answer a few questions.
    Is Khannie technically undead in the negative energy sense?
    What's the status of her body - how 'still alive' is it really?
    How does that soul gem work as an item of magic?

    "Keiko, did you notice anything unusual when you were demonstrating magic to our young friend?"

    ...

    Arlem can't help but feel that the orange, while a nice breakthroguh in shadow illusions, is kind of a distraction from the fate of Khannie's soul. Stay focused, kid. Or maybe...

    "I think Khannie just came up with the perfect solution. You could place an illusion of tastiness over Maridia, and then..."
    ~Inner Circle~
    Quote Originally Posted by Raz_Fox View Post
    He takes normality and reason and turns them UP TO 11!
    Quote Originally Posted by Anarion View Post
    Recaiden, stop using your mastery of the English language to confuse the issue.
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  25. - Top - End - #175
    Pixie in the Playground
     
    Fenric's Avatar

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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Sanctuary]

    Keiko takes the brownie-bag and looks over to Arlem

    Other than her having that weird purple egg thing? I dunno... I don't really have a lot to compare to. That's the first time I ever tried to take somebody over like that, and she was purposely being cooperative.

    Then she chuckles

    Cast an illusion for myself? So are you saying I'm such an awesome illusionist that I can even fool myself, or that I'm so gullible I'll fall for my own illusions? 'Cause being the caster is pretty much automatic disbelief, ya know. I have no idea how Khannie is managing to test her own illusions.

    She shrugs, and turns her attention back to Maridia

    But it doesn't matter, because she came clean. And good little dragons should get a reward.

    Keiko sets the little one down and breaks off half a brownie then offers her the tasty treat

    Here you go.

    [Cafeteria]

    Katsuo smiles sleepily

    Jinkei? My my, it's been a while. How is she doing, away on that island she went to?
    Last edited by Fenric; 2021-08-16 at 09:59 AM.

  26. - Top - End - #176
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Sanctuary]

    Maridia is pretty glad she isn't getting eaten.

    She snags the bit of brownie and will scamper away to hide under the nearest piece of furniture to eat it. The fairy dragon acts basically like one would generally expect from most forest critters. Don't hold it against her too much.

    Meanwhile!

    "Yeah, I get that," Khannie says. "It's weird stuff but it's weird stuff in the right getting less weird direction."

    She considers being a pokemon weird. Most pokemon would probably disagree.

    And then she stands up really straight and holds her breath a little bit as magic happens! Several things should be pretty clear right away.

    First? Khannie is not undead in the traditional sense. There's no negative energy going on here. Quite the opposite, in fact.

    Second? Her body is biologically alive in all the usual ways. However, it has been significantly reinforced with magic. As with all wishes they have some impact on the magical girl depending on the nature of the wish. In Khannie's case because her wish involved building a new body for herself her new form is exceptionally resistant to modification. Transmogrifications and even injuries would have great difficulty 'sticking' to her.

    Third? The soul gem appears to be a construct of some eldritch, otherworldly power. Or at least aliens of a technological level so advanced as to seem god-like. The soul gem serves a dual purpose. The soul within acts as a conduit to the primordial creative engine that spawned the universe itself. It draws in that limitless potential power to store and refine it. Some is used to fuel Khannie's Magicl Girl powers. The rest goes into the process of slowly incubating Khannie's soul into a Witch so that the power can later be collected and put to ineffable uses. Khannie's negative emotions are likewise stored in the egg and amplified by her use of magic. This is, of course, meant to eventually send her into a spiraling emotional breakdown of despair.

    At the moment Khannie has kept her soul gem quite clean of negative emotion both through Witch-busting and being a pretty upbeat kid. She will likely be a significant power source for the Incubator when she hatches.
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  27. - Top - End - #177
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    Default [Sanctuary]

    "Well, Keiko, I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but you should get more practice."

    Arlem says, smiling.

    "As for the illusions, hmm, both? Both."
    This gets a nod.

    "If you stop being a magical girl, you won't be as tough. And you could end up with as much strangeness happening to you as anyone." A reasonable price to pay for not turning into a monstrous embodiment of despair, but they should at least mention it.
    "There doesn't seem to be danger of lingering effects once you're out of the gem. May I look at it more closely, Khannie?" Arlem holds out a hand, palm up.

    If someone is dead, you can put them back in a mostly healed body and spark them back to life without much trouble. And Khannie's body is already alive, and somehow not full of possessing foxes and / or ghosts, which is really the ideal situation already. And her soul isn't darkened by despair or anything, not yet. The main hurdle would be if the soul gem doesn't want to let her go.
    ~Inner Circle~
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  28. - Top - End - #178
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Meditation Gardens]

    Quote Originally Posted by Ironsmith View Post
    "Damn shame." Braeg shrugs and resumes his mandolin playing. "That sort of full-bodied repulsion leaves a nasty mark. It's be one thing if your family merely didn't like you, or you weren't always welcome among certain members... but the whole thing, deciding you're irredeemably twisted and can never be allowed back in?"

    One of the strings on his manolin snaps, producing a discordant twung.

    "...Forgive me. I may be projecting just a bit here." Braeg says, smoothing the string back out. "...All the same. If it were me, I'd always wonder why, exactly, they felt that way. Sure, there's usually something obvious... but that seldom tells the whole story, now, does it?"
    "There was no particular mystery for me. I pursued the path of sorcery. Which they decided they couldn't accept." Batu shrugs. This isn't a very painful memory for him anymore. Bitter, but not particularly upsetting. He's had time to come to terms with it. "So I have the luxury of knowing exactly why and being sure they were foolish and short-sighted."
    My FFRP characters. Avatar by Ashen Lilies. Sigatars by Ashen Lilies, Gullara and Purple Eagle.
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  29. - Top - End - #179
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    Quote Originally Posted by Morty View Post
    [Meditation Gardens]

    "There was no particular mystery for me. I pursued the path of sorcery. Which they decided they couldn't accept." Batu shrugs. This isn't a very painful memory for him anymore. Bitter, but not particularly upsetting. He's had time to come to terms with it. "So I have the luxury of knowing exactly why and being sure they were foolish and short-sighted."
    [Meditation Gardens]

    "...Sorcery." Braeg says flatly. It's not even a question, just a statement of incredulity. "...That certainly sounds petty. Personally, I might see that as a source of disappointment, possibly infer a lack of ambition or confidence, but not cause to disown someone." He strums his mandolin a moment. "...I have often found that such things are usually more of a symptom, perhaps even a catalyst, than a cause unto themselves."

    "Take my niece, for instance. If she ever met me again, she'd probably try to murder me. She's certainly declared her intent to." He pauses a moment to take a sip of lemonade. "Ah. If one were to look at the events leading up to our last encounter, one might conclude she's mad at me for beheading her foster father in front of her. There's a whole tragic story there about how that happened, but as my point says, it's neither here nor there." He waves his hand dismissively. "The real cause of the ever-growing rift between myself and my niece is a fundamental conflict of values. She spent the first five years of her life being raised by a human... quite the far cry from a majestic fiendling like myself. He laid into her certain precepts that conflicted with those of my clan, so when living as she was wont to do, she would often find herself... disharmonized, shall we say?" He shakes his head and chuckles a little. "She didn't exactly fit in. She didn't want to fit in. We were thieves, brigands, killers, and I the worst among all of them. So the next eight years were misery for her; formative, mind-setting misery. And then, when she couldn't stand looking at our faces anymore, she ran away, and endured still more misery and alienation." He shrugs. "She doesn't just blame me for the death of her father. She blames me for quite literally everything that's gone wrong since. Now that is motive for murder." He plays a cheery little tune on his mandolin to punctuate this gruesome story.

    "...Now, I imagine your sorcery-loathing family isn't harboring any sentiments quite that extreme, but I'm inclined to believe it's more than 'ooh, magic bad'."
    Last edited by Ironsmith; 2021-08-16 at 03:42 PM.

  30. - Top - End - #180
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    Default Re: The Temple of Inari 57: Life goes on

    [Sanctuary]

    Keiko chuckles as she returns to the bench with the rest of her brownies

    Practice? I don't know how much I want to bother, though. The fact that in all this time I've never really needed to do that is kinda a hint, don't you think?

    Then she grins

    Curious to see what you think of her weird soul egg thing: that's so far outside of anything I'm used to I couldn't come up with anything to even say.

    [Pond]

    Kenji nods

    Yeah, can't blame you for that.

    He listens to Jade, but it's not really making sense to him.

    A lot the trouble of trying to understand magic here in the Nexus is that the answers aren't the same for everyone. There's at least three different sorts just for this temple and they don't follow the same rules at all.

    It really doesn't help to have traditional folklore randomness, an early version of a "pencil and paper" roleplaying game, and an at least semi-thought-out fantasy world all overlap. And that's just mine :D
    Last edited by Fenric; 2021-08-17 at 11:01 AM.

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