GLoG 94: Good place to grow up

[Morty]

[Sophie's Office]

"I believe you." Sophie's tone makes it clear this wouldn't be the end of this conversation otherwise. "I'll vouch for your stay here, on the condition that you'll report to me and talk about just what happened in Inside. But you'll be safe here and carry your pregnancy to term."

[Lakeside Hole Digging]

"Yeah, where did it go?" Tuskfang looks around wildly. "And why was a key in a tree? This is really weird."

[Rebonack]

[Lakeside Hole Digging]

"A tree's a good place for a key since they rhyme," Lapis says, her voice full of certainty.

Khannie doesn't seem quite so convinced, however.

"Stuff doesn't just disappear. That doesn't make any sense," she points out.

"Why would it stay? We found the map we don't need the box anymore," Lapis replies. As far as she's concerned it was just clutter at that point. What else would you do with it?

"Things don't vanish because no one needs them. And it was a really pretty box. We could have put other stuff in it," Khannie challenges.

Seriously!

It was a really pretty box!

If Tuskfang didn't want it Khannie was thinking about taking it home and using it for the various little treasures she's collected over the years in the Nexus.

[Ironsmith]

[Sophie's Office]

"I believe you." Sophie's tone makes it clear this wouldn't be the end of this conversation otherwise. "I'll vouch for your stay here, on the condition that you'll report to me and talk about just what happened in Inside. But you'll be safe here and carry your pregnancy to term."

[Sophie's Office]

Braon frowns. So she'll be allowed to stay, with the caveat that this lady's going to require her to talk about her feelings?! Ugh. It would almost be better to just take her chances camping out in the woods somewhere.

...

No, it wouldn't.

The fiendling shakes her head and wraps her arms around herself, just over her stomach. "I guess that will have to do." She mumbles. She's not really in a great position to be negotiating terms; she should consider herself lucky Sophie's going to help her at all, really. "If we're done here, I could use a place to lie down. My head is killing me."

Not quite true. She does have a little headache, granted, but she's more just saying this for the sake of getting Sophie to show her to a room... without actually asking to be given a room. It won't feel like hers if it's just given to her. She's got to be a bit clever about it, to cajole it out of Sophie somehow. And it still feels weird to be asking for help... admitting to vulnerability is just a bit more palatable.

[Deathkeeper]

WITCHES
It takes until the dragon starts calling for Khannie for Sekhmet to notice.
She exits the front door of her cabin, one clearly powerful demon who is also clearly pregnant. "Uh, hi? Are you, uh, Khannie's uncle? She left to help one of her friends a few minutes ago, but, uh, she said she'd be back afterwards."

WITCHES

Zebes sighs. "Yeah, that's her alright. So, what's the story? I'm guessing you called me because you had some results?"
Oh sure, when Khannie finds a super powerful demon it's fine to ask for help but when Zebes' friend tries to help it's not reputable.

[bc56]

Witches
Sekhmet shakes her head. "No results. Not yet. Just, uh, a possible way forward. We should talk about it, uh, while she's gone. It's, uh, a serious procedure." The demon queen looks Zebes up and down. "I, uh, don't suppose dragons drink tea?"

[Deathkeeper]

Witches

Zebes rapidly shrinks down to the size of a small cat.
"Fair enough. We were expecting to need the big guns on this one. Just gotta decide how big a gun to use and what strings are acceptable."
Khannie's already dealing with a lot of strings.

[bc56]

Witches
Sekhmet brings a teapot, teacups, and a tray of biscuits out onto the.cabin's porch. "So, uh, you know that Khannie's soul is transformed into a jewel outside her body by a malicious entity of great power in order to create, uh, some sort of creature from her."
Khannie told her as much, so she's assuming she's also told Zebes that much. "The nascent creature will, uh, feed off any negative emotion that Khannie feels, while pushing her towards those emotions as well. The easiest solution would be to enchant her to be unable to feel those emotions." The way Sekhmet's talking, she doesn't seem to like that solution. "That would be easily within my power to do, but I don't like the idea of cursing someone to be untouched by, uh, an important part of being human. The other option would be soul-surgery. Extricating her soul from the egg and restoring it to her body would be, uh, a fairly involved procedure, and, uh, much like bodily surgery, would be risky." That's why Sekhmet felt the need to talk to an adult. She wants parental (or avuncular) consent to operate on Khannie.

[Deathkeeper]

Witches

"Yes, these are all things we know. That's why I've been pushing her to find folks she's willing to entreaty for this." Zebes daintily nibbles on a tea-biscuit.
"So...how much experience do you have with this kind of soul-surgery?" he asks in a most professional manner.

[bc56]

Witches
"A good amount. Mostly to do with demonic corruption and possession. With this exact procedure, none, I've never even seen a soul mutilated in this way before." Sekhmet sips her tea and waits for a response.

[Deathkeeper]

Witches

"Yeah, that's more or less what I was expecting." mutters the dragon.
"I ah, don't suppose you could do anything to reassure us?" he asks simply. Because yeah. That's not exactly reassuring.

[bc56]

Witches
Sekhmet shakes her head. "I'm sorry. There are rarely good things to, uh, say about things like this. I'm reasonably confident that if the entity that, uh, caused this doesn't interfere, it should at least be straightforward if not easy."

[Morty]

[Sophie's Office]

Sophie raises an eyebrow, seeing what Braon is attempting clear as day. It's very difficult for her to admit she needs help with anything at all. Sophie has met such people before. Feeling like you can only rely on yourself, because no one else can be trusted, will do that to a person.

"Of course. I can show you to a room you'll be staying in during your tenancy here. I assume you're familiar with the spirits who guard this place? They won't bother you unless there's trouble. Then I'll have to speak to a few people about your situation."

[Ironsmith]

[Sophie's Office => *That* Cabin]

Braon just gives a sardonic little smile and rolls her eyes at that. Whether it's there or not, she's reading an implication that Sophie's counting on said spirits to keep her in line... completely unaware that, unlike basically everything else, spirits present no threat to her whatsoever. Sophie may as well have offered her a breath mint.

"Lead the way, then." She says, following behind Sophie to her new room. What follows from there depends on how interested Sophie is in getting more information out of her, and whether they run into anyone else on the way.

[Deathkeeper]

Witches
Sekhmet shakes her head. "I'm sorry. There are rarely good things to, uh, say about things like this. I'm reasonably confident that if the entity that, uh, caused this doesn't interfere, it should at least be straightforward if not easy."

Witches

"Therein lies the problem. We have no reason to think it won't. I mean we already lost service and Khannie got pulled aside right when you called. It might already be doing so."
Zebes looks around, glaring into the corners.
"The question is, how do we stop it or obfuscate what we're doing?" Hiding from higher beings is generally pretty hard.

[bc56]

Witches
"If, uh, all it can do is such indirect things, we, uh, might be able to ignore it. If not, uh, I don't usually suggest violent solutions, but, uh, Khannie mentioned her father would, uh, become dangerous if he found out?" Sekhmet doesn't know exactly how dangerous, that's what this question is for.

[Rebonack]

[Sophie's Office => *That* Cabin]

Running into anyone on the way.

That is, one might suppose, a way to describe what transpires.

As the women pass a completely unassuming shrub there's a brief rustling and the sound of a lashing tail thudding against snow. The source is, of course, Gilda calibrating her butt for a pounce and flipping her tail around in anticipation.

Shortly there after the griffin cub bursts from her cover to pounce on Braon.

Because of course she does.

Gilda has pounced on, or at least has tried to pounce on, pretty much everyone at the campground. She knows better than to use her claws in any capacity. It's all fun and games to her. She and Khannie have even fallen into something of an arms race with Khannie using her illusions to bait the griffin and Gilda trying to figure out how to catch Khannie unawares. It was only a matter of time, really, before Gilda decided to 'greet' Braon. Probably best to get it out of the way sooner rather than later.

The cub isn't huge. Maybe forty pounds or so. The size of a medium dog. But still, getting tackled by a fuzzy missile isn't the most pleasurable experience.

Sophie may very well be able to intercept here, but we'll see what happens.

[Deathkeeper]

Witches

"Oh yes, I've kept Jace out of the loop because he's liable to go full Papa Bear and start shooting lasers if he knew how much danger Khannie's actually in."
sssssip.
"Not sure if that'll actually be helpful. Might be easier to just find a way to hide for a bit. Or distract them."
He DOES know a lot of people good at being distracting.

[bc56]

Witches
"That's, uh, actually what I was thinking. With a being this, uh powerful, it's unlikely it could be killed. I would, uh, be open to another distraction though. Whatever, uh, works." Sekhmet believes the entity is of similar power to her, but she couldn't go fight it, she has an unborn child to worry about.

[Morty]

[Lakeside Hole Digging]

Tuskfang's eyes narrow.

"That wasn't a normal box. It could have been a spirit box. But spirits don't vanish just like that either. We can think about it after we've followed the map, though."

[Sophie's Office => *That* Cabin]

Sophie hears Gilda's tail with a preternatural keenness and decides to put herself between the cub and Braon. Braon is pregnant and not expecting it, so let's avoid incidents. Sophie isn't a big woman, but she should be able to withstand Gilda's pounce.

[Ironsmith]

[Sophie's Office => *That* Cabin]

Running into anyone on the way.

That is, one might suppose, a way to describe what transpires.

As the women pass a completely unassuming shrub there's a brief rustling and the sound of a lashing tail thudding against snow. The source is, of course, Gilda calibrating her butt for a pounce and flipping her tail around in anticipation.

Shortly there after the griffin cub bursts from her cover to pounce on Braon.

Because of course she does.

Gilda has pounced on, or at least has tried to pounce on, pretty much everyone at the campground. She knows better than to use her claws in any capacity. It's all fun and games to her. She and Khannie have even fallen into something of an arms race with Khannie using her illusions to bait the griffin and Gilda trying to figure out how to catch Khannie unawares. It was only a matter of time, really, before Gilda decided to 'greet' Braon. Probably best to get it out of the way sooner rather than later.

The cub isn't huge. Maybe forty pounds or so. The size of a medium dog. But still, getting tackled by a fuzzy missile isn't the most pleasurable experience.

Sophie may very well be able to intercept here, but we'll see what happens.

[Sophie's Office => *That* Cabin]

Sophie hears Gilda's tail with a preternatural keenness and decides to put herself between the cub and Braon. Braon is pregnant and not expecting it, so let's avoid incidents. Sophie isn't a big woman, but she should be able to withstand Gilda's pounce.

[Sophie's Office => *That* Cabin]

Which means Braon herself is mostly only going to suffer a brief surge of adrenaline as a strange, dog-sized creature jumps out of the bushes and pounces her escort, earning an accompanying startled yelp from the fiendling as she raises her hands defensively.

Of course, three seconds later, she realizes Gilda isn't tearing Sophie apart and decides she really has nothing to worry about. Gilda strikes her as being the equivalent of a big, friendly dog; enthusiastic, not completely aware of her own strength, and far too stupid to be malicious. "Hello!" She coos, uncharacteristically playful, squatting a little to get a better look at the griffin. "Aren't you a cutie~! Hi! Hi~!"

Braon stops in her tracks when she remembers that, oh, right, Sophie is still here. She quickly straightens up and runs her hands through her hair, tucking a couple loose locks behind her horns. "You heard nothing." She mutters near-inaudibly.

[Deathkeeper]

Witches
"That's, uh, actually what I was thinking. With a being this, uh powerful, it's unlikely it could be killed. I would, uh, be open to another distraction though. Whatever, uh, works." Sekhmet believes the entity is of similar power to her, but she couldn't go fight it, she has an unborn child to worry about.

Witches

"Pardon me. I should go make a call." Zebes nods and takes his leave for the moment. Can't do this with a pregnant lady around, demon or not.

A Few minutes later, a mile from camp,
"Hey Forte, I know you're all way too important for the likes of us and you're way too cool to associate with me let alone use the F word but could I commission a prank on someone who thinks that change and entropy and chaos are lame?" Zebes calls.

[Rebonack]

[Not Quite to That Cabin]

Oh.

Sophie got in front of the new lady.

Gilda spreads her wings mid leap and gives them a single flap, bleeding most of the speed from her pounce and turning it into a more benign 'leap into Sophie's arms for a hug.'

It's all very smooth and looked mostly intentional no one will suspect a thing.

Gilda poofs up her head feathers a bit at this new person to look fierce.

"I'm Gilda are you a new teacher?" the griffin asks.

[Lakeside Hole Digging]

"Yeah the box doesn't matter it was just for holding things," Lapis agrees? with Tuskfang. "Let's see what the map says!"

Khannie was going to point out that she's pretty sure that wasn't what Tuskfang meant at all but hey map!

The map consists of a pretty good sketch of a boulder leaning up against a tree, the tree growing at a weird angle thanks to the weight of the stone. The surroundings beyond that are vague.

Also?

It has words on it.

"Oooooh no it's a riddle map those are the worst!" Lapis laments. She doesn't like riddles! She has trouble figuring them out without cheating and if she cheats they aren't any fun.

"What's the riddle say?" Khannie asks, looking over Lapis' shoulder. "Where springs still, hard as stone? What's that supposed to be? Like ice or something?"

[Cavorting with Chaos]

There comes a crunching sound somewhere above Zebes, shortly followed by a shower of walnut shells. Not one or two, no, shower is pretty accurate.

The shells burst into popcorn upon hitting the ground (or Zebes).

"Too important? Humble little me? Why, what a hurtful thing to say after everything we've been through together," comes the unmistakable voice of Fortuna. "You don't call, you don't write, you don't even provide poorly drawn finger paint cards to show me you care!"

At that an absolutely terrible painted rendition of the draconequus appears hanging on a nearby tree, arm draped across her face in a gesture of shame. The picture of course immediately animates.

"Do you really think so little of me that you only reach out when you need something? Am I just another genie in a bottle to grant wishes?" ask the Fortuna emerging in a cloud of smoke from a hooka nearby. "Got your number, have I? Is that it in a nutshell?"

Fortuna comes drifting down in a tiny friendship balloon with a walnut shell for a basket. She is, as a result, very small

"I suppose I could thank you for the chance to be relevant. Everyone is so dreadfully serious these days. What were you needing again? I wasn't paying attention. Something about misguided attempts to forestall the inevitable end of the cosmos as we know it?"

[Morty]

[Not Quite to That Cabin]

Sophie smiles knowingly as she hugs Gilda. So, Braon isn't immune to the charms of cute and fuzzy kids. She lets her introduce herself, though. She probably wouldn't take being introduced very well...

[bc56]

Witches, Dragons, Demons, Agents of Chaos
"Huh? What?" For Zebes' efforts to keep Sekhmet out of this, she seems to have materialized here.
Along with her table, chairs, and tea set. She very nearly drops the teacup she was holding. "What's, uh, going on?" Other than surprise, she doesn't seem very concerned.
Maybe she should be?

[Deathkeeper]

Cavorting With Chaos

"Forte, you split yourself up from Geneva, mind-whammied her and her husband, declared yourself not in need of friends and turned our house into a crayon drawing for an entire day. And you're wondering why Jace doesn't trust you around Khannie?" he says, completely unbothered by being covered in nutshells.
"I think said husband's been trying to talk to you about all that for ages, actually." Nick wrote a strongly worded letter! He mentioned it at dinner once while they were having a parents' night out.
"But we did keep the coin, if that means anything. Anyway, yes. Local anime-cat is killing girls to ward off entropy and chaos and stuff. We're dealing with that. I mostly just thought it would be great if it had something else to worry about for a while. And you might enjoy putting an expression on that face."

[Ironsmith]

[Not Quite to That Cabin]

Oh.

Sophie got in front of the new lady.

Gilda spreads her wings mid leap and gives them a single flap, bleeding most of the speed from her pounce and turning it into a more benign 'leap into Sophie's arms for a hug.'

It's all very smooth and looked mostly intentional no one will suspect a thing.

Gilda poofs up her head feathers a bit at this new person to look fierce.

"I'm Gilda are you a new teacher?" the griffin asks.

[Not Quite to That Cabin]

Sophie smiles knowingly as she hugs Gilda. So, Braon isn't immune to the charms of cute and fuzzy kids. She lets her introduce herself, though. She probably wouldn't take being introduced very well...

[Not Quite To That Cabin]

Braon's face turns a deep shade of red as Gilda introduces herself and immediately dispels the "basically a dog" theory, though it's hard to tell if Braon's complexion is the result of a wave of embarrassment or fury. Probably both feeding into each other. She doesn't much appreciate being tricked (or rather, mistaken), least of all by... by a stupid griffin brat!

"Now look, you little-" Braon cuts herself off, stopping short of profanity when she remembers, again, that she's still in Sophie's presence, and lashing out like that is probably the fastest way she could get herself booted out of the camp. The fiendling scowls and straightens, adjusting the clasp of her cloak nervously as she tries to find another way to handle this situation.

"...No. I'm not a teacher." Braon replies curtly. "I'm... I'm just a temporary tenant. I'm expecting." She runs a hand over her stomach for emphasis. "When I'm done with that, I'll be out of your collective hair and you can forget all about me."

So she won't need to bother with learning Braon's name.

She makes a "let's go" gesture in Sophie's general direction, making it as clear as she can that she's already done with this conversation. She hates having to restrain herself like that. She can't even properly be mad at Gilda for it; she's just a kid, she doesn't know what's going on. The restrictions she brings to the situation are entirely passive, she's not doing anything, really.

[Rebonack]

[Cavorting With Chaos]

"We're having tea, my dear, do try to keep up," Fortuna says, sitting in one of the chair in an elegant Victorian lady's gown which looks absolutely absurd on her given that she's a great big snake-y looking thing. Next to her Zebes with a chair of his own, a stack of gundum manga under the dragon serving to boost him up to the table. "Were you really going to decline to introduce me to your new friend, Zebes? For shame! Sekhmet and I have so much in common, too! Love the horns, by the way, Sekhmet. Exquisite taste."

She dips her biscuit in her cup of tea, then eats the cup whole, tea and all. After crunching away at it thoughtfully she daintily sips the biscuit, leaving behind a hollow rind, which she tosses over her shoulder casually.

The biscuit bursts to the tune of God Save the Queen, startling a flock of fainting goats that were without question there the whole time.

At Zebes' reply she pulls a sour face.

"Ugh, are we really going to air out dirty laundry?" she asks, whipping off her mysteriously soiled gown and tosses it as well. It drapes over a nearby branch and nothing particularly weird happens. "Very well. Friends are a liability to someone like myself, my dear Zebes. Would you really want to be the subject of my unremitting attentions? All toys break, eventually, even those that are loved. And the most loved toys oft break the quickest. So please excuse my standoffishness, it's for your good as much as mine."

That...

Sounded sincere?

Fortuna knows she's dangerous and didn't want to hurt the people she loved? Maybe she was trying to push her friends away intentionally.

Maybe that was easier.

"As for our good pal the Inkyubietor, I've been watching that little show for some time now. Quite the drama, I must say. Especially the part with the nightshades icing kids before they can make a wish. Shame about all the dead little girls, though. There's nothing that sucks the fun out of a spectacle quite as quickly as a pile of tiny corpses," Fortuna says, sighing morosely. "Just so morbid. Now, I know what you're thinking-"

She strikes a dramatic pose, her lion-like paw on her chest.

"-perhaps someone as powerful and humble and radiantly beautiful as myself could prank the Incubator collective hard enough to blind them from the surgery on dearest, sweetest little Khannie? In short?-"

Fortuna grabs a free-standing easel and flips it over, revealing the word-

"YES!"

-in big block letters.

"However."

She flips it again, this time with 'no' written in tiny script.

"While I do in fact have quite the zinger planned as a swat for sticking their nonexistent noses where they don't belong, the comedic timing just wouldn't be right to spring it now. It's all very technical and scientific, you see," Fortuna explains, now clad in a lab coat and busily jotting complex equations and a caricature of Zebes wearing a dunce hat onto the board. Little wavy lines emanate from the picture of Zebes with a helpful arrow labeling them as 'dragon stink'. "You kiddos carry on your harrowing plan. Rest assured, I have something in mind to tie this little story arc up with a neat, tidy, and hilariously chaotic bow."


[Not Quite To That Cabin]

"I'm BIG!" Gilda immediately and indignantly fires back, poofing herself up some more just in case it isn't clear that she's the biggest besides Gwen but Gwen's a hippogriff so she doesn't count.

Then the new (not teacher?) says some stuff and storms off, leaving Gilda perplexed.

"What's she expecting?" Gilda whispers to Sophie.

[Deathkeeper]

Cavorting with Chaos

Zebes shrugs with his wings and reaches under his seat.
"How unkind of me. Sekhmet, this is Fortuna. Golden Die of Wonder, Draconequus, Sower of Chaos, formerly one with Geneva Richards, technically fiancée of Nick Richards because of that, inventor of the Silver Coins of Wonder, and former roommate of mine. She's- holy crud is this Thunderbolt? Oh, it's in Greek. Okay." Zebes tosses the manga aside.
"Anyway, good friend of mine. Lovely at parties."

Zebes looks at Fortuna and her diagram, narrowing his tiny eyelids. Then he leans back, as if he hadn't been told no-ish.
"Okay, Forte. I understand. You do you. Making soap-trees and funny werewolves and such. I’m sure your master plan will be spectacular when it comes." he says that in his usual cheery, unblinking way. Zebes always did take her humor the best of anyone she knew.
"Thanks for coming out all this way. It means a lot to see you." Bah, there he goes again, being hopelessly sincere right after snark.

[bc56]

Cavorting With Chaos
"I'll, uh, spare you my title." Sekhmet says when introduced. To the comment about the horns, she adds, "Uh, thanks?" Mostly she's just confused by everything going on.
But it's when Zebes responds to the offer that she actually speaks up. She looks surprised and taken aback. "What? Just, uh, like that? She offered to help, you shouldn't just, uh, turn her down outright, even if she was, uh, rather rude."

[Rebonack]

[Cavorting with Chaos]

At that wonderful introduction Fortuna offers a flourishing bow. "Just don't call me Forte since Zebes is quite possessive with his pet names."

Which may or may not be true.

"And you know Sekhy-poo, you don't mind if I call you Sekhy-poo, do you? You know Sekhy-poo here is exactly right!" Fortuna says, coiling round Sekhmet's chair in the process. "I go out of my way to visit when you call, put my best foot forward-"

She withdraws a large platter full of cartoony looking feet, including several that were clearly drawn by Rob Liefeld considering how absolutely terrible they look.

"-it's that one, there. Exquisite work if I do say so myself. And I even mostly behaved myself! I haven't so much as caused any hilariously zany weather to overtake this quaint little campground. I've practically been a saint today!"

Now she's standing over there in front of a large cardboard cutout of a cathedral dressed in a rather holy looking robe with a little halo dangling above her head at the end of a wire.

The top of the wire doesn't appear to be attached to anything.

Several smaller baby-proportioned Fortunas descend likewise, clad in diaphanous fabric and playing discordant notes on vuvuzelas.

It looks like she's still talking, but it's being drowned out by the vuvuzelas.