GLoG 94: Good place to grow up

[bc56]

Braon's Nightmare
"You lie. You took that power willingly and greedily. Justice is blind, it does not care WHY you did it. You KNEW that what you were doing was EVIL and in your FEAR you took it! That THING could not have touched you, not until you LET IT IN!" Sekhmet blazes with power, the blood bubbling and burning away in the air around her. Her words are punctuated by hammer blows, fueled by blind rage. "It is because of people like YOU that in my world, I could not show my face in public! It's because of people like YOU that I was whipped and mocked in front of jeering crowds! People like YOU are why people like ME are hated and feared! Because YOU take being treated as a MONSTER as an EXCUSE to become one! YOU let the powers of the world shape you into WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO BE! You are ENSLAVED by your TERROR, your HATRED, and your DESPAIR and you let that EVIL control you to wreak CORRUPTION and DEVASTATION. You have followed the easy road through life. You avoid suffering for your principles by not having any worth keeping. Whenever someone more dangerous than you comes along, whether myself or the unseelie fae that had hold of you before we met, you roll over, give them what they want, and hope they don't kill you. The perfect sycophant. My mother would have enjoyed breaking you." Sekhmet seems more and more calm, righteous fury giving way to what sounds like pity. "In the end, you're just like any other self-made monster. You lash out at everyone who gets close, afraid that they'll hurt you, or worse, show you that you don't have to hurt others, because that would make everything that you've done your fault, and you've blamed your persecutors for so long, you don't know how to survive the guilt." Sekhmet takes a deep breath. "Monsters like you are sad, broken things. And you are a monster that will trouble my dreams no longer." As if expecting the stage lights to dim to black, the demon queen turns her back on Braon and takes a couple steps towards the lake.

[Beans]

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

Nefila is slightly stung by Braon immediately shutting down any discussion of her past---but, sure, they've only just met. Maybe she's not comfortable sharing from her own end either. Passing over the newspaper, she nods. "Think I can catch something good, and I know how to clean a kill." She ducks back into her room to get her tattered cloak. "Especially with it warming up some lately. I should be back pretty quick."

[Morty]

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

At least Fayyaad quip injected some cheer into the situation. That's better than nothing. He doesn't really consider offering any disagreement to Braon's self-assessment. It'd feel hollow.

"At least here you'll be safe until you can deliver the child. That's an upside to the situation. And I'm sure they've helped people in your kind of predicament before."

[Ironsmith]

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

Nefila is slightly stung by Braon immediately shutting down any discussion of her past---but, sure, they've only just met. Maybe she's not comfortable sharing from her own end either. Passing over the newspaper, she nods. "Think I can catch something good, and I know how to clean a kill." She ducks back into her room to get her tattered cloak. "Especially with it warming up some lately. I should be back pretty quick."

[Wormwood Cabin]

"Yeah, well, I'm not waiting around all morning!" Braon calls after her. "If you're not back in thirty minutes, I'm eating without you!"

Realistically, she's probably only got the patience for twenty. She doesn't have a clock handy. And after a certain point, the mushrooms are going to either be overcooked or she'll pull them off and they'll get cold, which is probably going to be the bigger determining factor in whether she has one ready for Nefila when she gets back.

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

At least Fayyaad quip injected some cheer into the situation. That's better than nothing. He doesn't really consider offering any disagreement to Braon's self-assessment. It'd feel hollow.

"At least here you'll be safe until you can deliver the child. That's an upside to the situation. And I'm sure they've helped people in your kind of predicament before."

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"Well... yeah, I'm sure they have. Probably loads of times. Hundreds, even." Braon sniffs, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. "...But I... I don't think that will help. The therapist basically outright called me a monster shortly after I arrived, and the clerk... well, to her, this whole endeavor is a job, it's what she does instead of mining coal or running a shop or something. It's just how she gets food on the table, I don't think she really cares all that much." The enchantress shakes her head slightly and leans back into her chair. "...I don't know if I'll be leaving them in good hands. But... nearly any hands are better than mine, I guess."

Braon's Nightmare
"You lie. You took that power willingly and greedily. Justice is blind, it does not care WHY you did it. You KNEW that what you were doing was EVIL and in your FEAR you took it! That THING could not have touched you, not until you LET IT IN!" Sekhmet blazes with power, the blood bubbling and burning away in the air around her. Her words are punctuated by hammer blows, fueled by blind rage. "It is because of people like YOU that in my world, I could not show my face in public! It's because of people like YOU that I was whipped and mocked in front of jeering crowds! People like YOU are why people like ME are hated and feared! Because YOU take being treated as a MONSTER as an EXCUSE to become one! YOU let the powers of the world shape you into WHAT THEY WANT YOU TO BE! You are ENSLAVED by your TERROR, your HATRED, and your DESPAIR and you let that EVIL control you to wreak CORRUPTION and DEVASTATION. You have followed the easy road through life. You avoid suffering for your principles by not having any worth keeping. Whenever someone more dangerous than you comes along, whether myself or the unseelie fae that had hold of you before we met, you roll over, give them what they want, and hope they don't kill you. The perfect sycophant. My mother would have enjoyed breaking you." Sekhmet seems more and more calm, righteous fury giving way to what sounds like pity. "In the end, you're just like any other self-made monster. You lash out at everyone who gets close, afraid that they'll hurt you, or worse, show you that you don't have to hurt others, because that would make everything that you've done your fault, and you've blamed your persecutors for so long, you don't know how to survive the guilt." Sekhmet takes a deep breath. "Monsters like you are sad, broken things. And you are a monster that will trouble my dreams no longer." As if expecting the stage lights to dim to black, the demon queen turns her back on Braon and takes a couple steps towards the lake.

[Nightmare]

Slam!

Clang!

Kerrack!

Thud

Braon falls to the ground, further bloodied by Sekhmet's continued onslaught. Two of Sekhmet's attacks had broken her dream-self's legs, leaving her collapsed on the ground, unable to stand under her own power. One of her arms hangs limply at her side, similarly damaged. The other claws at the dirt in front of her, as she attempts to slowly pull herself forward through Sekhmet's speech, determined not to let her get the last blow in.

But as Sekhmet switches from rage to pity, Braon's crawl slows to... well, a dead stop. Copious amounts of blood roll from her injuries, flowing quietly into the lake. It will be difficult to see from where she's sitting, but Sekhmet might be able to tell from the way her eyes close and that furious sneer gives way to a hardlined frown that she's losing momentum, slowing down and actually taking in what Sekhmet says.

And when she's done, Braon's only got two words for Sekhmet, which are unlikely to surface again between the two of them.

"...You're right."

[Beans]

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

Nefila's back a little over 15 minutes, bearing a freshly-spun silken bundle. She sets it down and unwraps it, revealing a freshly-cleaned woodpigeon carcass of decent size. "Think this'll do the job?"

[Rebonack]

[Lakeside Hole Digging]

The wolf is really cool.

"Tuskfang's right a treasure chest can't just appear out of nowhere on top of a rock. It's probably been here the whole time and no one found it because people don't come over to this side of the lake very often AND it's down in this hollow that makes it hard to see," Khannie says, taking Tuskfang's side on this one.

"But they DO just appear!" Lapis objects. "That's how the Game works."

Khannie crosses her arms, resolute.

"Have you ever tried to figure out who put them places before?" she asks skeptically.

Lapis glances down at the chest. Then up at the rock. Had she? "No," she has to admit. "But they're all over and they're really fun to look for I love them!"

"It was probably a long time ago when the Nexus first started," Khannie guesses. "Someone went around hiding treasure for people who would come later."

There are still two more trinkets in the box. The strange marble and tablet. Maybe they should grab everything so they can show their friends? And the new map hasn't been addressed yet, either.

[bc56]

Nightmare(?)
Sekhmet was so convinced that she'd beaten the nightmare and would be waking up soon that the words take her by even more surprise than they would have. "What?" The demon queen turns back. Her mask has a jagged crack running diagonally across its surface. Her eyes are welling with guilt and sadness. The dream is losing it's hold on her. "I thought if I kept you close to me, I could help you. I could show you how to be brave. But I failed. All I managed to do was hurt you. I'm sorry." She kneels at the edge of the lake, the blood staining her clothes. "Sophie told me you've moved into GLoG now. I'm not going to bother you. She can help you much better than I ever could. I hope you trust her." It seems she still thinks she's talking to her mental image of Braon, getting things off her chest where no one will hear and fighting (somewhat literally) through her own issues.

[Morty]

[Lakeside Hole Digging]

"Which game do you mean? 'Cause I don't know any games that make stuff appear like that." He looks down at the other two items. "Maybe we should get those home before looking for more."

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

Fayyaad is momentarily at a loss for words. This is not what he expected and he's not sure how appalled he should be.

"Why would she call you that? Is it because of what happened in Inside?"

[Earl of Purple]

Braon's Nightmare

Oh, dear. They've stopped fighting- although that wave of hate was quite tasty whilst it lasted. This won't really do, but NarTheoLoq suspects if it appeared to them now, they'd unite against it. So how to get them to start fighting again?

Prumathe's head starts to whisper; Sekhmet should be able to hear it, but Braon isn't supposed to. She might anyway, it's her dream. "Look at what she did to me, my love. This is her, what she is on the inside. She's evil, don't trust her." The head continues to weep cockroaches.
Fayyaad's head also whispers, with the words directed at Braon and not Sekhmet, in much the same way as Prumethe's words- although Sekhmet, being more powerful and a telepath, might be able to hear it despite this. "She's lying, she never wanted to help you, just neuter you, keep you weak and not a threat. So she could do this, look..." A cockroach crawls from Fayyaad's mouth as he pauses. "Around you, this is her desire, you to blame for her moral failings. Don't let this happen again."

[Ironsmith]

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

Nefila's back a little over 15 minutes, bearing a freshly-spun silken bundle. She sets it down and unwraps it, revealing a freshly-cleaned woodpigeon carcass of decent size. "Think this'll do the job?"

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

"...Eh, looks a little bony, but I can work with it." Braon shrugs. No sense in giving too much praise and letting it go to the other woman's head. "Deal's a deal. Here."

Nefila will have a freshly-roasted mushroom shoved into her hands, still warm but not uncomfortably so. It's about the size of a loaf of bread, but weighs nearly nothing. Its outside is all shriveled and wrinkled; Braon probably overcooked it, and now it's gotten sort of dry. It also looks like Braon hasn't bothered to season it; she just stuck it on the stick and roasted until it was at a level she would enjoy.

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

Fayyaad is momentarily at a loss for words. This is not what he expected and he's not sure how appalled he should be.

"Why would she call you that? Is it because of what happened in Inside?"

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"Who knows, and who cares?" Braon sighs and shakes her head. "It's not a unique perspective. I've never really gotten along with the type of person who thinks they can fix everything. Or, you know, the kind who thinks they know how things are supposed to be and want to get everyone else on the same page." She massages her temple worriedly. "And she's going to make it a point to try to get me to talk to her every so often. I'm not enjoying it, but at least she isn't, either."

Nightmare(?)
Sekhmet was so convinced that she'd beaten the nightmare and would be waking up soon that the words take her by even more surprise than they would have. "What?" The demon queen turns back. Her mask has a jagged crack running diagonally across its surface. Her eyes are welling with guilt and sadness. The dream is losing it's hold on her. "I thought if I kept you close to me, I could help you. I could show you how to be brave. But I failed. All I managed to do was hurt you. I'm sorry." She kneels at the edge of the lake, the blood staining her clothes. "Sophie told me you've moved into GLoG now. I'm not going to bother you. She can help you much better than I ever could. I hope you trust her." It seems she still thinks she's talking to her mental image of Braon, getting things off her chest where no one will hear and fighting (somewhat literally) through her own issues.

Braon's Nightmare

Oh, dear. They've stopped fighting- although that wave of hate was quite tasty whilst it lasted. This won't really do, but NarTheoLoq suspects if it appeared to them now, they'd unite against it. So how to get them to start fighting again?

Prumathe's head starts to whisper; Sekhmet should be able to hear it, but Braon isn't supposed to. She might anyway, it's her dream. "Look at what she did to me, my love. This is her, what she is on the inside. She's evil, don't trust her." The head continues to weep cockroaches.
Fayyaad's head also whispers, with the words directed at Braon and not Sekhmet, in much the same way as Prumethe's words- although Sekhmet, being more powerful and a telepath, might be able to hear it despite this. "She's lying, she never wanted to help you, just neuter you, keep you weak and not a threat. So she could do this, look..." A cockroach crawls from Fayyaad's mouth as he pauses. "Around you, this is her desire, you to blame for her moral failings. Don't let this happen again."

[Nightmare]

He's right. Sekhmet just said those things to hurt her. She just wants Braon to be in pain. It's what demons do.

"No."

Braon shakes her head slightly, as much as she can with as broken and bloodied as she is. "No, you were right." She manages, blood running down her face as a deluge of scarlet tears. "'The perfect sycophant'. That's... ironic, I guess. I didn't want to be anyone's servant. I wanted to be free, and I tried... I tried so hard to get free. But I'm... I'm just not the kind of person that can ever really have that, am I?" She spits dirt away from her mouth before she continues. "I'm not a fighter, like my da. I can't stand on my own two feet. The second I come up against something bigger and scarier than me, I run or try to strike up a deal with them. In the end... I'm nothing but a coward."

"And that's not all you're right about." Braon's gaze falls to the ground, staring at the blood-soaked earth in front of her. "...Do you know how I felt, when I was that horrible nightmare creature? I was happy. I'd spent a lifetime looking for people I could connect with, and I found them, and they were horrible. The one time that's happened since I became an adult; I didn't feel that way at Trog's, or here at GLoG, or in the Depths with you, where I didn't belong, but among those freaks, among the rot, I was at home. Because that... that is what I am. That's what I really am. A monster, just like them."

Braon lays silent for a moment, eye closed.

"...and monsters like me don't get to be happy." She breathes.

---

There's a deafening silence in Braon's room. A sudden absence of ambient sounds one would expect from a place where she's sleeping. The slow, rhythmic breathing, the quiet rustle of blankets being moved, the murmured bouts of sleep-talking, the occasional creak of bedsprings as she changes position... all gone, all stopped.

There's nothing in there but stillness.

[bc56]

Nightmare
"Prumathe..." Sekhmet looks torn, but shakes her head. "No. This is a dream. You're safe by my side." The mask splinters further. "Braon, no. Don't give up." Sekhmet moves on hands and knees to the fiendling. "Your father believed in you. He saw the good in you. You've made mistakes even terrible ones, but everyone does." She takes a deep breath. Only a few people know this next bit. "I didn't come into my power naturally. I was afraid and greedy too. I made a pact with a group of entities. They would increase my magic power and awaken my, uh, dormant fiendish nature. I, uh, was afraid of the world. It had hurt me so much before, and I wanted to be too powerful to touch. The, uh, price I paid was that those beings, uh, used their own abilities to make copies of what they found, flawed imperfect copies, but... They want to devour the whole world, and I gave them the means to create an army of demons to do it." Sekhmet sighs. "We all make mistakes. But we don't have to let them define us. You don't have to be a monster if you don't want to. It won't be easy, but, uh, few good things ever are."

[5a Violista]

[Arriving for...daycare?]

Harley, with her baby Manja, is back here, to drop off her baby. Except, this time again, she's planning on staying here, for a notable reason:
her boyfriend has been looking pretty tired. Probably because he had to watch the baby for most of the time that she was trying to figure out the cat transformation. (She's 99% back to normal! But wearing sunglasses, because her eyes are the most notable part that's still catlike. And parts of her brain, messing up instincts. And a couple other things here and there, but they aren't really surface-visible.) And so she's giving him time to sleep. And maybe drink, if he feels like that's necessary. But mostly to sleep, since that's usually the cure for tiredness.

Manja is super-cute, though! More than a year old, she's literally the cutest baby Harley has ever seen. And, sure, she's biased, but being biased doesn't make it less true. A large fluffy white tail, white hair with pink tips, those creepy pink eyes, and the cutest cat-rabbit-??? ears that anyone's ever seen.

Instead of going straight to the daycare, though, she takes Manja over to look at the lake and forest because she's spent so much time in HALO that Harley figures it might be neat to look at something new.
And Manja, of course, finds the big open spaces with all the neat sensations and sunlight and wind and dirt and sound of birds and everything incredibly interesting. Perfect to claim as her own, she thinks.

[Beans]

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

Nefila accepts, making the trade. She picks out the choicest bits for her baby, content with the remainder for herself. She's not wolfing it down, but she's certainly hungry. "Tastes pretty close to what I'm more used to. And it gets Sujo's stamp of approval." She smiles down at her child as the larva nibbles away.

[Deathkeeper]

Cavorting With Witches
Sekhmet's mental voice suddenly turns incensed. Just because I'm a woman with horns and wings you assume I'm a succubus!? The implication is that this comes up frequently enough for Sekhmet to be peeved about it. I assure you, while such people do exist in my realm, none of them would be involved in an undertaking like this, nor would they be foolish enough to put their slimy fingers on someone under my direct protection, nor would I be keeping Mary there after the process is complete. I know that my kingdom is no place for children, That last bit is also pointed, as if she expects it to be obvious.
And it makes sense in a way, since the pregnant demon queen is living here in GLoG rather than in her kingdom, where she presumably could be waited on by many servants. She is old enough. Why not let her decide for herself, when she's stable?

Fortunately, Mary's eyes are closed, so she can't see the brief flash of rage across Sekhmet's face. "You're doing great. Keep it up." Sekhmet was hoping for a more tangible effect, like an alteration of the local terrain or the appearance of an object, to prove to Mary that she's in control here.

Cavorting with Witches

Sekhmet can likely hear Zebes' eye-rolling.
"No, I assumed you're a demon of corruption because you literally told me that you are. You jumped to the S-word. My point being that it might be a bit too soon to expose that theme of Infernal energy onto girls to whom Corruption via emotions is the reason we need to help them in the first place.
Zebes almost points out that Mary is maybe twelve, but assuming girls can't make any decisions about themselves is what got them here in the first place.

[Ironsmith]

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

Nefila accepts, making the trade. She picks out the choicest bits for her baby, content with the remainder for herself. She's not wolfing it down, but she's certainly hungry. "Tastes pretty close to what I'm more used to. And it gets Sujo's stamp of approval." She smiles down at her child as the larva nibbles away.

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

The taste is where the things get weird. It's not... bad, exactly. A little plain, a little earthy. It might remind Nefila of the taste she'd get in her mouth if she'd ever spent any amount of time playing in the dirt with her friends growing up. Specifically of those times, and rather vividly at that. She'll be able to smell pollen in the air, hear vague but encouraging cheers from her friends (even if she didn't have any at the time), laughter, that little satisfying ache of rolling over a tree root but winning the impromptu wrestling match that ensued when-

And it's gone.

For her part, Braon doesn't seem to react much to the mushroom, quietly chewing at it while she watches Nefila carefully. It's been a while since she's cooked for someone else... she's watching the woman's face for any change in expression that might indicate she did well.

[Morty]

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"That might indeed be a long nine months," Fayyaad admits. He's got some experience with sanctimonious types. "It should be bearable, though. And being stuck here will let you plan what you'll do once you get out." He's not going to say it, but this might do Braon good. She strikes him as not normally prone to planning.

[Beans]

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

The taste is where the things get weird. It's not... bad, exactly. A little plain, a little earthy. It might remind Nefila of the taste she'd get in her mouth if she'd ever spent any amount of time playing in the dirt with her friends growing up. Specifically of those times, and rather vividly at that. She'll be able to smell pollen in the air, hear vague but encouraging cheers from her friends (even if she didn't have any at the time), laughter, that little satisfying ache of rolling over a tree root but winning the impromptu wrestling match that ensued when-

And it's gone.

For her part, Braon doesn't seem to react much to the mushroom, quietly chewing at it while she watches Nefila carefully. It's been a while since she's cooked for someone else... she's watching the woman's face for any change in expression that might indicate she did well.

Nefila blinks as she chews. It's a strange sensation, memories she never had, secondhand nostalgia. Strange, but it's benign. She looks to Braon, swallowing. "... Okay, uh, I just had... memories, except not mine? About... playing outside with friends?" She pauses, not wanting to pry. "... Is that how that mushroom's supposed to work?"

[Ironsmith]

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"That might indeed be a long nine months," Fayyaad admits. He's got some experience with sanctimonious types. "It should be bearable, though. And being stuck here will let you plan what you'll do once you get out." He's not going to say it, but this might do Braon good. She strikes him as not normally prone to planning.

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"Hmh!" Braon lets out a derisive little snort, which turns out a little more like a sniffle when she's done. "What is there to plan? I've never had a plan before and I don't see how starting now would help." She runs a hand along her cheek as she considers this. "I mean, I've got goals, sure. Kill my uncle, travel the world, things like that. But considering my assets are basically just me, myself and I, there's not a lot of call for planning."

Nefila blinks as she chews. It's a strange sensation, memories she never had, secondhand nostalgia. Strange, but it's benign. She looks to Braon, swallowing. "... Okay, uh, I just had... memories, except not mine? About... playing outside with friends?" She pauses, not wanting to pry. "... Is that how that mushroom's supposed to work?"

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

"The mushroom's got nothing to do with it." Braon replies, skewering the bird. "Food's just enchanted. It's, ah, not anything to worry about." She shrugs. "Just an expressive form of magic. It sometimes leaks into things without my trying if I'm not holding it back." She stares at the fire as she slowly turns the bird over on its spit. "...Had a lot on my mind lately. You're probably just tasting that."

[Rebonack]

[Cavorting With Witches]

Definitely good that Mary doesn't see the flash of rage.

And hopefully that rage doesn't reach beyond Sekhmet.

She is, after all, psionic.

None the less...

Mary's expression falters a bit.

Because Witches feed on negative emotions. They feed on them and they amplify them in others. And that is exactly what she's doing right now.

She opens her eyes a few seconds later, looking slightly ill all of a sudden.

"I don't feel so good, ma'am..." Mary mutters, as the darkness and gloom of the swamp growing deeper again, flashes of fire igniting here and there in the pools of oily runoff. "Is it supposed to work like this? Making me feel ill?"

Mary looks worried. She's feeling worried. Something seems wrong.


[Lakeside Hole Digging]

Lapis wrinkles her nose. "The Game. The Game. It's what some people call the world I think?"

"The Nexus is a game to some people but not to others," Khannie says definitively. "The world my dad saved me from was a game, but I don't think this one is. But it might be to you since the Nexus is lots of things."

Lots of things, many of which are weird.

"Yeah I think we should go back to the cabins," Khannie says as she begins gathering up the remaining trinkets. "It's starting to get kind of late and cold and we're all the way on the other side of the lake. We can go take these back to the lodge and check them out some more! Maybe we can check out the other map tomorrow?"

"Okay..." Lapis agrees somewhat hesitantly.

[bc56]

Cavorting With Witches
I'm, uh, yes, uh, but it's a special case. Sekhmet replies. I didn't, uh, want this job, it was, uh, forced on me. Fate put me here to turn corruption back on itself. Sekhmet considers being queen a job, and a very hard and frustrating one at that. Ruling demons is like herding cats.

"No, no, you were doing great. Something went wrong, but, uh, don't worry, we can try again. Just don't give up, I know you can do it." Sekhmet could use her power to cripple the witch, drown her ability to feel those emotions, but she also knows that they're part of life, and removing them would be very bad. She's just trying to show Mary that there's hope and that she can break free of the cycle.

[Morty]

[Lakeside Hole Digging]

Tuskfang is... very confused. He blinks and his tail wags slowly.

"Um. I didn't know the world was a game to anyone. I thought it was just the world. I don't think it's a game for me or my parents. Mom always says the world is just what it is." He chooses to focus on what he's more certain of. "The treasure will still be there when we come back. Now we can see what all this stuff is."

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

Fayyaad briefly assumes the expression of a man who is trying to come up with a delicate way of telling someone that their attitude might be a major contributing factor to their current problems.

"If nothing else, killing your uncle might require a plan. Given how your previous interactions have gone. Decidedly in his favor."

He's not going to argue against killing him as a general principle; he'll hesitate to say anyone deserves it but it doesn't sound like he'll be particularly missed.

[Ironsmith]

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"...True. He does tend to get the better of me." Braon concedes. "But what exactly am I supposed to do? Like I said before, I don't really have anything to levy against him but myself. There's just nothing to plan. At all."

She sits in sullen silence for a bit, leaning back against her chair with a tense, frustrated expression. "...That's never happened to you before, has it?" She prompts, looking back up at Fayyaad. "Where you've had to face an overwhelmingly powerful enemy on your own? How would you handle it?"

[Morty]

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"It's true, I haven't really been in such a situation before. Well, I was, once. But then I had to flee. I told you about it when we first met." His escape from the empire that occupies his homeland. Still, he's pleased that Braon sees his point. "But if I were to actually fight such an enemy, I'd try to find allies, weapons, weaknesses... any advantage I could find. If I didn't have anything but myself, I'd try to find something more."

[Ironsmith]

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"That's useful." Braon snarks, massaging her forehead in an attempt to fend off a growing migraine. "I'm not really going to be able to pull in any more outside assistance on this. Last time i tried, I ended up imprisoned in basically-hell for a few months. And as far as the warden was concerned, I deserved it for... what, getting possessed by a nightmare spirit? It's not like I had much say in what my body was doing at the time. I was just sort of along for the ride."

Granted, that's not exactly how it happened... but Braon's not going to pass up the opportunity to make Sekhmet look bad.

[Beans]

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

"The mushroom's got nothing to do with it." Braon replies, skewering the bird. "Food's just enchanted. It's, ah, not anything to worry about." She shrugs. "Just an expressive form of magic. It sometimes leaks into things without my trying if I'm not holding it back." She stares at the fire as she slowly turns the bird over on its spit. "...Had a lot on my mind lately. You're probably just tasting that."

Nefila nods, listening as she holds and feeds her baby. "Oh, okay. I... I can empathize with having a lot on your mind and it kinda bleeding over to other people, though in a different way than that." She would go on, but... well, Braon already expressed a disinterest with hearing more about her life in the hive. She'll let the other woman prompt her for more if she wishes.

[Rebonack]

[Lakeside Hole Digging]

"I think the world is real to pretty much everyone," Khannie says definitively as she stuffs the tiny lock-box and marble in her pockets and picks up the clay tablet. "Who cares what other people think?"

If someone wants to believe this is all just an illusion then fine, they can think that. But Khannie is going to keep on being a real human girl.

"C'mon lets go back to the cabin I could use some hot coco," Khannie says as she begins tromping off through the snow.

Lapis decides to follow them, partly because wouldn't mind some hot coco and partly because she's curious what the other treasures are for. None of them are trinkets, obviously, so they aren't for her. Just neat things for regular people to find in case they discover a trove? She thinks about Tuskfang's words, too.

The world is just the world.

Mother says that's what it is to the people in the Nexus. Just the world. Which is why they shouldn't treat it like a game because then they might start treating the people like a game and that wouldn't be kind.

"Maybe it isn't a Game," Lapis wonders aloud. "Maybe it's a big adventure instead."

An adventure with treasure!

[Morty]

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"You said as much when we met in Inside, yes," Fayyaad says. At the time, he wasn't sure how much of it was true. Is he more certain now? Hard to say. Braon is hard to pin down. "I think that's as specific as I can get, though. I've only met your uncle once."

[Lakeside Hole Digging]

"My mom can make us something warm. Or Mrs. Sakura or someone else. Do they know you're here, Lapis?" Tuskfang asks, before his brain jumps to another topic. "I dunno if it's a game or adventure. But I like being here. All my friends are here. So maybe that's enough."

[Ironsmith]

Nefila nods, listening as she holds and feeds her baby. "Oh, okay. I... I can empathize with having a lot on your mind and it kinda bleeding over to other people, though in a different way than that." She would go on, but... well, Braon already expressed a disinterest with hearing more about her life in the hive. She'll let the other woman prompt her for more if she wishes.

[Wormwood Cabin - New Roommates]

Braon stares at her for a moment, her attentions briefly leaving the task of cooking the bird (something she's likely to regret later).

There will be an awkward silence as Braon continues to stare.

Like she's trying to put a hex on her or something.

At least, that's probably what it'll feel like in the first thirty seconds. Eventually, Braon gives up on nonverbal communication and tries a more direct approach.

"...Well?! You going to just leave it hanging like that?" She prompts.

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"You said as much when we met in Inside, yes," Fayyaad says. At the time, he wasn't sure how much of it was true. Is he more certain now? Hard to say. Braon is hard to pin down. "I think that's as specific as I can get, though. I've only met your uncle once."

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"...Oh. Right. That." Braon folds her arms and looks away, her face going pale. "You, um... you're probably mad at me about that, aren't you? That... was sort of a cheap shot." She grimaces. "...But like I said, I wasn't really... me, at the time. If it helps to think of that as the actions of a nightmare monster wearing my face, please do."

[Rebonack]

[Lakeside Hole Digging]

Off through the snow toward the cabins!

It'll be a little bit of a walk since they skirted a ways around the edge of the lake to get here.

"Warm definitely sounds good," Khannie says, suppressing a little shiver. "I'm starting to get chilly."

She's bundled up well enough, sure. But boy is her nose ever cold!

At the question of knowing Lapis just shakes her head. "I don't think so I heard about this place from my friend Zabb he told me about how nice it is so I decided to come and see it and noticed there was a trove and decided to dig it up and then we started following the map!"

Just like that.

Hmm.

If she's friends with Zabb then that might explain why she's so unusual. Otherworldly beings and all that.

[Deathkeeper]

Cavorting with Witches

Hm. Kind of like Exar's boss, then. I guess I can accept that.
Zebes doesn't have a problem with nice demons, he just feels like possibly making children into them feels like something that wouldn't be his Plan A.