Home 27: Ward-bound

[Rebonack]

[Jade's Lair]

Tristan glances up from his reading at the question.

"Umm... would that mean she would be able to remember how she got here?"

Apparently her GPS is dead.

That might just be because she can't communicate with the GPS satellites around the planet?

...maybe?

Goodness Nexus nonsense is confusing sometimes.

[Ironsmith]

[Jade's Lair]

"No. My archival memory is still readable. My memories of events that far back will be as legible in my fully-operational state as they are now." Green blinks. "...Which is to say, not at all. That data is corrupted and I cannot access it properly."

[Deathkeeper]

Cauldron Golem's Lair

Krayger nods, despite not actually knowing what They say about golems in general.
He approaches slow and carefully, but starts by taking out the help. Krayger casts his force-blast spell as before at the two slimes before the golem can build up TOO big of a defending force.

[Gullara]

[Kitsune Recovery Service]

"Uhh..." Obriane groans as she turns around in bed to address the girl. "It's okay, Annie-sweetie. Go back to bed."

Kitsune Recovery Service

The kitsune blinks. Well, yeah, okay, I guess it is a little out-of-the-ordinary. But she’s not going to tell some little kid she barely knows that she was too scared to fall sleep alone, much less one being this indignant and demanding. ”I, uh, needed a place to like, sleep?”

Obriane stirring only takes Anastasia very lightly by surprise, and her eyes flit back in her direction before returning to Annie - yeah kid, listen to your mom please.

[Kitsune Recovery Service]

"It's morning, Obi. You gotta get up." Annie counters. There is enough light in the sky to make an impression even past the closed curtains. She turns her attention back to the intruder. "This is mommy and Obi's bed." She emphasizes.

[Morty]

[Dreaming of Birds]

Leah turns and scowls at the snake. "You plan to just let the King in Rags decide how this all happens?"
"What can your station do, then?"

"I can... bring it in line with the memory of my master, rather than the King in Rags." The Serpent is uncertain, but continues on. "Turn it into a weapon of lightning. A weapon for a dragon-slayer, rather than a dragon. Like a human god-king of old. But it will only come to you if you're fearless, if you head into battle with your head raised high."

[Shadowcaller]

[Kitsune Recovery Service]

Obriane slowly raises up from her bed and looks to the curtains. Was it that late in the morning already?
"It was only for one night, Annie. You know we sometimes let you sleep in here too when you've had a nightmare and... that's what she had." Obriane argues as she gestures at Ana.

[Arkhosia]

Kitsune Recovery Service

Spoiler

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[Kitsune Recovery Service]

"It's morning, Obi. You gotta get up." Annie counters. There is enough light in the sky to make an impression even past the closed curtains. She turns her attention back to the intruder. "This is mommy and Obi's bed." She emphasizes.

[Kitsune Recovery Service]

Obriane slowly raises up from her bed and looks to the curtains. Was it that late in the morning already?
"It was only for one night, Annie. You know we sometimes let you sleep in here too when you've had a nightmare and... that's what she had." Obriane argues as she gestures at Ana.

"Y-yeah, I, um...." Ana seems to be a little distant for a moment, previous events sort of haunting her thoughts for a moment as she attempts to support Obriane's claim. "It was uh, a rough night."

[Deathkeeper]

Dreaming of Birds

”My head is always held high, sir.” states Krayger confidently, though whether this is a boast or a comment regarding his height is uncertain.
”And would this bind me to your master instead?” he then asks.

[Recaiden]

"I can... bring it in line with the memory of my master, rather than the King in Rags." The Serpent is uncertain, but continues on. "Turn it into a weapon of lightning. A weapon for a dragon-slayer, rather than a dragon. Like a human god-king of old. But it will only come to you if you're fearless, if you head into battle with your head raised high."

”My head is always held high, sir.” states Krayger confidently, though whether this is a boast or a comment regarding his height is uncertain.
”And would this bind me to your master instead?” he then asks.

Leah looks between the Serpent and Krayger. It's a strange idea that the serpent has, but it should be encouraged to take action of any flavor.
"I don't think that will be difficult for him; we're no cowards, here."
She takes a pair of steps to the side.
"Better not to be aligned with the King in Rags, in most cases."

[Murkus]

[Fettina's Place]

Fettina and Cantata have been spending the night together lately more often. Just snuggling, mostly, since Fettina really relishes any chance for personal contact these days. If Cantie has no proper place to stay, Tina is even happier to have her there. Fettina's probably been drowning Cantie in her favorite music, her favorite movie picks, and games. Gods, one would never have suspected the amount of games this girl wastes her time on. It seems the time between music, drinking, screwing and sleeping had to be filled with something.

And then there's the music. The times Fettina feels inspired to play, she settles into another version of herself. She seems... altered. And she sounds like heaven.

They're probably waking up one day, getting reacquainted with the sun and trying to drag themselves to coffee (or at least Tina is, as she is not a morning person), when there comes a knock upon the door. Wait a minute. It's not even morning. It's probably closer to noon, but Tina is still essentially a person-shaped ooze. It's really quite silly.

"Go and get that would you, babe?" Tina asks, not really considering Cantata's disability when it comes to actually answering the door.

[Morty]

[Dreaming of Birds]

"I do not believe so," the serpent says. "My master is asleep. They cannot forge new contracts. They cannot reach out to you from the Fairest of Lands. The King can, because he's in your world. And it's only a sliver of what my master used to be."

[Deathkeeper]

Dreaming of Birds

Krayger nods slowly, accepting this answer.
”Alright, then. Do what you must.” Having it be a fragment of someone who cannot come to collect is much preferable to being tethered to some Eldritch being trying to do who knows what.

[Arkhosia]

Fettina's Place

Indeed, the desire for affection seems to be very much mutual - while Cantata does indeed have a cozy little apartment Fettina's doubtlessly gotten to visit once or twice by now, she seems to be staying over more and more, to the point that she might as well be a resident herself half the time.

Aside from the general joys of simply having someone else around and close beside you, she seems to genuinely adore how overjoyed the angel seems to share all she can of what she loves. The music in particular seems to be what she loves the most, seeming almost enchanted and content to prop herself up on Tina's piano and watch the angel perform. And its what Cantie seems the most eager to share in return, too - even nowadays the empath remains a very musical person, and emerging out of the bedroom to find Cantata nodding along and moving to some gentle jazz piece or energetic soundtrack music as she cooks dinner for the pair will have become a common sight. Perhaps she's even treated Fettina to a dance or two.

Its on this day as much as all the others that Cantata proves herself to also be not quite a morning person. Even so, she's less so than her partner, having already awoken and tidied up before Fettina. Smiling down at her still bundled-up angel, she gently pushes back a strand of hair to get a better look at that adorable face as she answers with a nod and drifts away. She's still not dressed fully quite yet, wrapped in a silk bathrobe most likely stolen from Tina's vast wardrobe - but it doesn't seem to concern her much as she opens the door for the visitor and gives them a friendly if slightly puzzled smile, her hair still faintly damp from the shower. Hello? She signs with one hand, the other still resting on the doornob.

[Morty]

[Dreaming of Birds]

The serpent stretches upwards, its glow deepening. There's a hum in the air, at the edge of hearing. Krayger will feel something inside him stir, awaken and change at the same time. The emotions passing through him are something mortals don't quite have the names for anymore; they were lost with the Fairest of Lands. But as the serpent works its will, the effects will manifest in him - a bec de corbin, fashioned out of brilliant lightning, appearing in his hand.

[Deathkeeper]

Dreaming of Lightning

Krayger brandishes the weapon as it appears with the might of a storm. His fingers runs down its side; he can identify neither the brilliant metal of its head nor the strange, ancient wood of its haft. He does not notice as the wings on his back vanish, as if having never existed (for they hadn't). Though a spark does jump between his horns now and then.
"Well. I think I could get used to this at least." he says approvingly.

[Murkus]

Fettina's Place

There is a man at the door with a chrome jaw. He's young, dark skinned, powerfully built, and dressed in a very well tailored jacket with six gold buttons neatly spaced across the front fold. The rest of his ensemble, including a small cap with a short leather bill, would seem to strongly indicate he's some kind of professional driver.

He perks up suddenly when Cantata answers the door. He pauses, taking a moment to recognize what's happening, and then smiles as he raises his hands from behind his back. They're each capped in smooth white leather gloves.

"Hello. Is Miss Fettina at home?" he signs to her, more than adequately. "I've been sent to ask if you both would like to join her father for breakfast."

[Arkhosia]

Fettina's Place

There's a brief look of steely assessment in Cantata's eyes when she first registers the high-class look of the stranger before her, glancing down the chest and to the hip in an almost reflexive motion as she checks for signs of weaponry. Unfamiliar men in formal wear arriving unannounced was usually the prelude to an ugly fight or forceful threat within her line of work. Even so, the friendly demeanor proves enough to partially disarm the wary tenseness in her shoulders.

When the driver signs his message, it ends up being Cantata's turn to pause and process for a moment as blinks in surprise. A faint degree of color siphons from her cheeks before she nods and signs a quick I'll go retrieve her. Stepping away, she closes the door and hurries back.

Cantata steps back into Fettina's room and waits for her to ask on who it is before signing back an answer. A driver's here asking for you, dear. He says he's been sent here by your father.

[Ironsmith]

Left

"Well, I was going to show you my house. Made it myself. It's not very comfortable." She can build stuff using materials she's gathered and altered. She doesn't understand how it's done, but she does it. Everything she builds is made of oily-looking bubbles, with a rainbow sheen over a black surface. It's mostly a collection of rooms somewhere a little out of the way, filled with some salvaged furniture. "Get you a bit more confident, I think. You're a nice guy, anyone that doesn't appreciate that is too shallow to deserve one." It'll probably include a lot of discussion about pasts, futures, and possibly the tale of how Mishnehel became an angel.

[Mishnehel's Home]

Vlad looks around the house with a mix of fascination and bewilderment. This house appeared to be much less solid than it logically would have to be, and Vlad finds himself curiously running his hand over the walls, rubbing his fingers together as he tries to make sense of what appears to be conflicting sensory information. "This is... wow. How'd you manage to build this?"

[Earl of Purple]

Mishnehel's Home

It all feels solid, though Mishnehel has covered the floor and parts of the walls with other materials because the substance she built it from isn't flat, though it is quite smooth. "Angel magic. I don't know how, exactly, but I can scoop out stuff- ground, mostly, but it works on other stuff too- and then bring it out again, shaping it as I do." It's not exactly magic, just manipulating reality and making stuff work by messing with the source code behind the scenes and stuff.

[Ironsmith]

[Mishnehel's Home]

Not that Vlad would really know the difference.

"So... does it always come out like that?" Vlad asks, looking over the oily bubbles that made up Mishnehel's home. They didn't really look like any material that would be overly commonplace (like dirt).

[Earl of Purple]

Mishnehel's Home

"Yep, always bubbles like that. I can make shapes out of it, but it's not actually great for building with." As is quite obvious, from the fact that the floors are made from scavenged metal sheeting, wooden panels, and other things that she's scavenged and salvaged from around and about so she has an actual flat surface, and most of the furniture is likewise normal, with maybe the odd repair in oily bubbles- one leg of the table in the kitchen, for example, though the 'leg' is anchored in space, not to the floor or the table. There's no internal doors, no plumbing, and no bathroom- Mishnehel doesn't exactly need to use one any more. Mostly she built it so there's somewhere she can call 'home', for the first time ever. There's several rooms, all growing out quite organically from one another, as though she didn't plan the structure before she began building it. Due to the structure being anchored in space, rather than to something solid, it doesn't all look very safe, though Vlad will find it quite stable. "They also look the same no matter what I harvest to build with. Mostly it's sand, some scrap material as well if I couldn't find a use for it or move it another way."

[Ironsmith]

[Mishnehel's Home]

It occurs to Vlad that this may very well have been why Mishnehel had made a point of asking Miranda about the possibility of building a house; the structure may have been much safer than it looked, but it certainly couldn't be very comfortable.

The floor went from plywood to sheet metal to carpet to linoleum tile with no clear pattern, and even though it wasn't shaking precariously under his feet as he walked around, it made for some awkward footing. And the walls could use a more thorough patching job; this place had to be a nightmare every time it rained. By any modern building standard, this house... wasn't.

Vlad idly wonders at the possibility of fixing this place up. He had access to the appropriate materials and tools, and a free-standing structure couldn't be that much more difficult than his shuttle.

But he found himself hesitant to offer. First, as Miranda said, there'd be difficulty producing the materials at an appropriate rate. He'd have to tackle it as a series of small projects, which would make for quite a time commitment. More importantly, offering to fix up the house would require admitting to Mishnehel that he thought the place needed fixing. It'd carry the implication of "you did a bad job here". At least, he was worried it would. He was already extraordinarily lucky to have even gotten her attention in the first place; insulting her may very well ruin something that wouldn't happen again in this lifetime.

"It's, um... it's very nice." He manages to say, finally.

[Earl of Purple]

Mishnehel's Home

The walls are thick, but the windows are only glazed with clear plastic sheeting. Some of it looks to be old shower curtains. Most of the rooms aren't comfortable in the rain; the exception is a windowless 'upstairs' chamber with a hole in the bottom for access from the ground floor. She keeps those of her possessions she can't afford to get wet up there.

"It isn't. But it's better than what I had, before. In Skyside, I rented a single room in an apartment building. It was big enough for a bed, not much more than that, and no windows. Kitchen and bathroom were shared, and rent was weekly. Here, there's no rent, plenty of windows, and also no risk of my landlord deciding that as I'm out all night he can rent it out so some dayworker is sleeping in my bed whilst I'm out. That didn't happen to me, but I do know people who experienced that." Skyside has a shortage of space, and lots of labourers working on building things, usually illegal things. Housing is at a premium, and Mishnehel was living in a one-bedroom flat converted into a living space for six people, hence why she shared a kitchen and a bathroom and had no window.

[Ironsmith]

[Mishnehel's Home]

Vlad shudders. Ugh. He couldn't imagine having some stranger in his room while he was away. He'd never be able to keep anything private... which was a problem, because he'd have a lot to keep private. "That... that is just horrible and I'm about ninety-nine percent sure it's illegal." Vlad replies, before facepalming and letting out a little sigh. "But then, it's Skyside, so who gives a damn about that, right?"

[Morty]

[Dreaming of Lightning]

"This weapon will help you defeat the King's minions. Or any other great beasts," the serpent says. "I wish you the best of luck, mortal. I must return to the Fairest of Lands now."

[Earl of Purple]

Mishnehel's Home

"Certainly not the landlords, except with a few rather... privileged occupations. Security in the Guild, thieves, and gang toughs, mostly. Nobody wants to get on the Guild's bad side, unless they're powerful on their own or have sufficient backing to feel confident about it. Nobody wants to share a room with a thief, which is what I was, and gang toughs can be touchy and have enemies." Plus all three groups tend to have decent wages, even if they're paid in bullets or pay their rent with stolen jewellery.

Mishnehel will also leave this room, finding a ladder and climbing up to a room on the first floor. "Come on up here, the best seating's here." The room is mostly circular, with a flattish floor- slightly sloped- covered in wooden sheets with a ragged old rug spread over the top. The seating itself is probably the best in the building; a pair of new mattresses resting on a raised platform to serve as a bed. There's no windows, and light comes from a battery-powered camp lantern hanging from the ceiling. Mishnehel's sat on the bed, though she's still wearing the jeans and t-shirt she changed into when she left the beach.

[Ironsmith]

[Mishnehel's Home]

Eugh. Vlad had dealt with that sort of crowd before, but something about the open matter-of-factness in the way Mishnehel talked about them was still a little unsettling. Her confession to thievery, buried as it was, didn't exactly stick out to him at first... but when he realizes she'd said it, he shrugs it off. She came from Skyside. She had to survive. And she seemed to be more interested in salavaging things than stealing them these days.

Vlad approaches the ladder hesitantly, giving it a few test tugs before following Mishnehel up. It didn't look like it was meant to support that much weight, but then, this house was generally much stronger than it appeared to be. So, taking a deep, bracing breath, Vlad follows her up, trying not to sound slightly panicked at the prospect of breaking her stuff and injuring himself in the process.

That tension does not go away when he see where she's brought him. A windowless room with dim, moody lighting and no furniture except for a bed.

If Mishnehel listens closely enough, she can probably hear Vlad's brain screaming.

[Earl of Purple]

Mishnehel's Home

The ladder isn't one Mishnehel made, it's a steel tube extending ladder, anchored at each end by being set into the bubbles. It's very sturdy. "You know... I'm an angel, so I can look now however I want, within some parameters I've not fully figured out. But I like looking like this, which is what I looked like when I was a half-elf. But I wondered, sometimes, if I actually looked like this. My mother is an elf, and all I know about my father is that he looked human and was called Brian. Mum named me 'Brianelle', after him. Mishnehel is... the name I had in my mind after my apotheosis." Kind of the wrong word there, but close enough. "He wasn't fully human, though. He had some shapeshifter or something in him, I could make parts of my body go grey and plastic and reshape them however I wanted, and they stayed like that after. A bit like... this, I think." Mishnehel holds her hand up and concentrates, showing it to Vlad. It goes grey, the fingers blend together, and it... ripples, slightly, before returning to her natural skin tone- but now her hand has an extra little finger and it's the other way around. "I wondered, sometimes, if I was doing that to my face when I slept, if I was really as pretty as I looked. I know how easy it is to change the surface, Vlad. It's why I like what's deeper."

[Gullara]

[Kitsune Recovery Service]

Obriane slowly raises up from her bed and looks to the curtains. Was it that late in the morning already?
"It was only for one night, Annie. You know we sometimes let you sleep in here too when you've had a nightmare and... that's what she had." Obriane argues as she gestures at Ana.

Kitsune Recovery Service

"Y-yeah, I, um...." Ana seems to be a little distant for a moment, previous events sort of haunting her thoughts for a moment as she attempts to support Obriane's claim. "It was uh, a rough night."

[Kitsune Recovery Service]


Annie looks primed to counter this, but she gives Obriane an uncertain look. If Obi says so... "But why are you here?" She shifts her demand. "I never seen you before." She clarifies her position.

[Shadowcaller]

[Kitsune Recovery Service]

Obriane now gestures to Kitty. "Mom wanted us to help her, that's why she brought her in."