GLoG 94: Good place to grow up

[Morty]

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"I say let them talk." Hard to say if Fayyaad is serious here. "But very well. Hear you later... in whatever manner you have planned."

[Main Cabin]

"Like my aunt and uncle adopted Cheasadh!" Tuskfang is familiar with the process. "Your mom seems really nice. But people can be mean for no reason at all. Mom says it just means we need to be nicer to make up for it." He looks at the drawing. "It is a really good drawing."

Hornclaw decides people aren't paying him enough attention and scurries over to Tuskfang to prod his leg with his head. The woblin puts away his cocoa and picks up the crundle to give him a few pats on the head.

[bc56]

Nightmare in Braon's Head
"He's telling the truth - why would he lie about being a demon, or being pulled out of an abyss?" Sekhmet asks the unseen voice. "So who are you, to judge his lies with your own?" She's skeptical of both of them, Nar'Theo'Loq because it seems to be an intruder in this mind, and the voice because it's clearly trying to push things to violence and fear.

[Ironsmith]

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

"I say let them talk." Hard to say if Fayyaad is serious here. "But very well. Hear you later... in whatever manner you have planned."

[Wormwood Cabin - Fayyaad]

Braon gives him once last smile and another quick hug to go with it, before quickly ushering him out the door. Aside from maybe "let's give them something to talk about", that was probably the best answer he could have given her in this situation, at least by her own reckoning.

How does he do that?

From that night on, Fayyaad can count on receiving a number of messages from Braon, in the form of small animals unusually gifted at speech, dust clouds that coalesce into a vaguely humanoid shape, and various other methods invoking whatever she could get her hands on. Most of them seem to just be venting; complaining about the various inconveniences surrounding her life in GLoG, the aches and pains that accompany her pregnancy (and mood swings, indirectly; she sounds nearly delirious in some of them), or just a general "life sucks" rant, but every now and then her proxy will show up to talk about something more innocuous. Despite ever-present caustic undertones, every now and then she'll show a little more of a softer side, and enough consideration to ask how his own day is going. And once the rant is over, her messengers do tend to be a little softer and quieter; some of them even stick around if he lets them, long past when the enchantment on them ostensibly wears off. The ones with corporeal bodies are very cuddly.

[Rebonack]

[Main Cabin]

"Mother says that here in this world we can be anything we choose to be and so we should choose to be kind," Lapis says, clearly agreeing with Tuskfang's mother's position on being nice. "And Mother's the best! She's the biggest and the nicest! She runs Trog's Tavern since that's where lots of new people appear and a lot of the time they're scared and confused or maybe hurt and so having someone kind there to help them is important."

Zee does a vital job, in Lapis' opinion.

Also?

Lapis smiles at the praise!

"Here Miss Sakura you can have the picture!" Lapis says, pulling the little clay tablet out of the frame!

Huh.

It's hard now?

Like it just got fired or something. It has the feel of pretty normal pottery with a slightly gloss, glazed finish. Lapis has yet to notice that there's a new clay tablet in the frame already.

Khannie hasn't noticed either. She's finally drinking her hot coco and getting whipped cream on her nose.

[Earl of Purple]

Nightmare in Braon's Head

"Ah, but the voice is telling the truth with its lies. This is the dream of an accomplished manipulator; everything we hear is filtered through that. What I say and what you hear may well differ, tweaked and altered to give things the worst possible spin." That is a lie; but it's a lie relying on Sekhmet not trusting Braon, which NarTheoLoq thinks is a reasonable assumption to make given how they behaved earlier.

[Ironsmith]

Nightmare in Braon's Head
"He's telling the truth - why would he lie about being a demon, or being pulled out of an abyss?" Sekhmet asks the unseen voice. "So who are you, to judge his lies with your own?" She's skeptical of both of them, Nar'Theo'Loq because it seems to be an intruder in this mind, and the voice because it's clearly trying to push things to violence and fear.

Nightmare in Braon's Head

"Ah, but the voice is telling the truth with its lies. This is the dream of an accomplished manipulator; everything we hear is filtered through that. What I say and what you hear may well differ, tweaked and altered to give things the worst possible spin." That is a lie; but it's a lie relying on Sekhmet not trusting Braon, which NarTheoLoq thinks is a reasonable assumption to make given how they behaved earlier.

[Nightmare in Braon's Head]

"Because they always lie." The voice continues. "Always. The promise to remove your weakness was a lie, and for believing it, you suffered. The promise of a reward for services rendered, and then for freedom, was a lie, and for believing it, you suffered. The assurance that you were someone special, someone beloved, with a bright future and many happy years to come, and that you would be protected against any who would see you harmed, was a lie, and for believing it, you suffered. You surround yourself with liars, and so you suffer. This one will not be any different. It will lie, and for hearing it, you will only suffer more."

"Believe nothing you do not see with your own eyes. Trust no promises, take no assurances. To do otherwise is to invite more pain upon yourself. You know this to be true; why do you choose now to doubt?"

[bc56]

Nightmare in Braon's Head
"Braon? A master manipulator?" Sekhmet almost laughs. "I'm sure she thinks she is." She turns towards the unseen voice. "So, personification of Braon's... Fear, I guess?.. You've hurt her far more than anything else she's met, except for the man who killed her father and took her. Want to show yourself?"

[Gullara]

[Main Cabin]

"Like my aunt and uncle adopted Cheasadh!" Tuskfang is familiar with the process. "Your mom seems really nice. But people can be mean for no reason at all. Mom says it just means we need to be nicer to make up for it." He looks at the drawing. "It is a really good drawing."

Hornclaw decides people aren't paying him enough attention and scurries over to Tuskfang to prod his leg with his head. The woblin puts away his cocoa and picks up the crundle to give him a few pats on the head.

[Main Cabin]

"Mother says that here in this world we can be anything we choose to be and so we should choose to be kind," Lapis says, clearly agreeing with Tuskfang's mother's position on being nice. "And Mother's the best! She's the biggest and the nicest! She runs Trog's Tavern since that's where lots of new people appear and a lot of the time they're scared and confused or maybe hurt and so having someone kind there to help them is important."

Zee does a vital job, in Lapis' opinion.

Also?

Lapis smiles at the praise!

"Here Miss Sakura you can have the picture!" Lapis says, pulling the little clay tablet out of the frame!

Huh.

It's hard now?

Like it just got fired or something. It has the feel of pretty normal pottery with a slightly gloss, glazed finish. Lapis has yet to notice that there's a new clay tablet in the frame already.

Khannie hasn't noticed either. She's finally drinking her hot coco and getting whipped cream on her nose.

[Main Cabin]

"Oh, that's so nice of you, Lapis. Thank you." Sakura takes the offered tablet, a touch of her confusion in her eyes. Wasn't it just soft a moment ago? She holds it closer to Finian, who paws at it. She keeps her grip on it firm, though. No doubt if he got it fully in hand it'd be dropped moments later. Babies are not reliable thing holders.

[Earl of Purple]

Nightmare in Braon's Head

"This is her mind. Her self-perception here is more important than her actual abilities... And I did not say 'master'. I said 'accomplished'. And who is more likely to get away with manipulating others than somebody the person she's trying to escape thinks she's a bad manipulator?" NarTheoLoq does want to drive a wedge of distrust between Sekhmet and Braon, or at least keep that wedge wide. And implying that Braon's poor ability at manipulating Sekhmet is in fact a front to manipulate Sekhmet is one way to do that.

[Ironsmith]

Nightmare in Braon's Head
"Braon? A master manipulator?" Sekhmet almost laughs. "I'm sure she thinks she is." She turns towards the unseen voice. "So, personification of Braon's... Fear, I guess?.. You've hurt her far more than anything else she's met, except for the man who killed her father and took her. Want to show yourself?"

Nightmare in Braon's Head

"This is her mind. Her self-perception here is more important than her actual abilities... And I did not say 'master'. I said 'accomplished'. And who is more likely to get away with manipulating others than somebody the person she's trying to escape thinks she's a bad manipulator?" NarTheoLoq does want to drive a wedge of distrust between Sekhmet and Braon, or at least keep that wedge wide. And implying that Braon's poor ability at manipulating Sekhmet is in fact a front to manipulate Sekhmet is one way to do that.

[Nightmare in Braon's Head]

If the voice is at all offended by Sekhmet's accusation, it doesn't sound like it. It also doesn't provide something physical for them to look at; no "showing itself".

"You must be very confused just this moment, to not recognize your own shadow." The voice continues. "You're in for another long night, it would seem. Do not trust the words of this intruder. Do not do as it says, do not heed its advice. To do otherwise will invite suffering, which you can not afford. You must keep still until dawn."

[Morty]

[Main Cabin]

"Wow. She runs Trog's. Trog's is important. But I've only been there once on Thanksmas. Mom says it's a grown-up place." Then Tuskfang notices the new slate. "There's a new slate there already! I think this must be magic too."

[Sophie's Office]

Braon's regular appointment is coming up. Surely this will be another routine visit where they just push against each other without much effect, right? There's nothing new for Sophie to bring up. Unless...

[Ironsmith]

[Sophie's Office]

Ugh. Another one of these.

Braon internally sighs as she makes her way up to the therapist's office, idly kicking at the by-now familiar pathway. It's taken a lot of convincing to even get her to come in the first place, but since then she's been more or less regularly, seeming to see it as an obligation she'd be better off finishing as quickly and painlessly (for her) as possible.

She pushes open the door to the office and makes her way over to whatever Sohpie uses as a couch, stifling a little groan as she takes her seat. Ugh. A week ago, that was a painless procedure. Now? Not so much.

Oh, well. She's here now. Let's get this over with.

[Reinholdt]

[Front Entrance]

A catgirl approaches! Rachel appears to have gotten changed somewhere between the beach and here, probably on the boat. The waterbender has in tow some sort of large creature about twice the size of a human. Some kind of dog gorilla shadow monster.

Whatever, it's a child and it's in need of care while its mother is being sought out. So Rachel brought it here, in search of said caretakers.

Spoiler

Show

[Rebonack]

[Main Cabin]

"Mother's really really important! I don't know if Trog's is a grownup place or not I help out Mother there sometimes and Karaglen says that she lived there a long time and sometimes people bring in their kids and when they do Mother has kids menus on these big sheets of paper and there are crayons so they can color," Lapis explains.

Some kids really like coloring with the crayons.

"I've tried drawing with the crayons before I love them they're so smudgy."

Another thing on the list of things that Lapis loves. Like coco! Lapis finally notices hers and begins drinking it, largely oblivious to how hot it is or isn't.

Khannie, meanwhile, has been watching that slate! And sure enough, there's another tablet in it. She reaches out with one hand and presses a finger into it, making a depression in the soft clay.

"It looks kind of like the clay from the lake where the stream runs out of it toward Inside," she says, scooting the frame over to herself and looking at the funny letters along the side. "I bet it's some kind of little enchantment. Like it grabs a little more clay from the stream bank and magics it into the frame."

Just to experiment she draws a rough happy face in the clay before dumping the tablet out. It clatters to the table, as hard as if it had been fired. And when she rights it sure enough another tablet is inside, soft and ready to be written on.

[Morty]

[Sophie's Office]

"Good to see you, Braon." Sophie is unfailingly polite as ever. She has yet to visibly lose patience with Braon, no matter what the latter does or says. "We'll need to talk about something different than usual today. We've received calls about a string of petty thefts in Inside by someone matching your description."

[Ironsmith]

[Front Entrance]

A catgirl approaches! Rachel appears to have gotten changed somewhere between the beach and here, probably on the boat. The waterbender has in tow some sort of large creature about twice the size of a human. Some kind of dog gorilla shadow monster.

Whatever, it's a child and it's in need of care while its mother is being sought out. So Rachel brought it here, in search of said caretakers.

Spoiler

Show

[Entrance]

...Miranda really ought to be used to dealing with "strange" people by now.

Her first day here, she was greeted with the sight of a griffin dropping off her cubs. In the time since then, she's seen all sorts of strange people come through here; goblins, gnomes, that vampire kid, and of course there's Sekhmet (nice lady, she thinks, even if she has a bit of an image problem).

But a shadow monster twice her size? That's a new one.

Right. Okay. Standard greeting.

"Hi!" Miranda beams, walking out to meet Rachel and her companion. "Welcome to the Good League of Good, how can I help you two out today?"

[Sophie's Office]

"Good to see you, Braon." Sophie is unfailingly polite as ever. She has yet to visibly lose patience with Braon, no matter what the latter does or says. "We'll need to talk about something different than usual today. We've received calls about a string of petty thefts in Inside by someone matching your description."

[Sophie's Office]

"Uh-huh." Braon shrugs, laying back on the couch like it's just any other session. She's not stupid, she knows what Sophie's implying, and she wouldn't exactly be wrong, but this seems to be one of those situations where feigning ignorance would keep her out of trouble. "I'm sure you have. Lots of horned brunettes out in Inside these days. It's a popular look."

[Gullara]

[Main Cabin]

"Wow. She runs Trog's. Trog's is important. But I've only been there once on Thanksmas. Mom says it's a grown-up place." Then Tuskfang notices the new slate. "There's a new slate there already! I think this must be magic too."

[Main Cabin]

"Mother's really really important! I don't know if Trog's is a grownup place or not I help out Mother there sometimes and Karaglen says that she lived there a long time and sometimes people bring in their kids and when they do Mother has kids menus on these big sheets of paper and there are crayons so they can color," Lapis explains.

Some kids really like coloring with the crayons.

"I've tried drawing with the crayons before I love them they're so smudgy."

Another thing on the list of things that Lapis loves. Like coco! Lapis finally notices hers and begins drinking it, largely oblivious to how hot it is or isn't.

Khannie, meanwhile, has been watching that slate! And sure enough, there's another tablet in it. She reaches out with one hand and presses a finger into it, making a depression in the soft clay.

"It looks kind of like the clay from the lake where the stream runs out of it toward Inside," she says, scooting the frame over to herself and looking at the funny letters along the side. "I bet it's some kind of little enchantment. Like it grabs a little more clay from the stream bank and magics it into the frame."

Just to experiment she draws a rough happy face in the clay before dumping the tablet out. It clatters to the table, as hard as if it had been fired. And when she rights it sure enough another tablet is inside, soft and ready to be written on.

[Main Cabin]

"Ooh, that's such a fun find." Sakura leans in to take a closer look. Finian, seeing his chance, reaches out and pushes his hand into the soft clay. "Finian!" The baby giggles.

[bc56]

Nightmare in Braon's Head
"Suit yourself," Sekhmet replies to the voice and decides to ignore its ravings. "So, how did you say you got here again?" She asks the fiendish entity in front of her. She can tell that's what it is, but not the details - clearly it's from a hell very different from her own (she's not going to recognize it as the same on Mama Gho came from, she doesn't remember that "smell" well enough).

[Vahnavoi]

[Front Entrance]

A catgirl approaches! Rachel appears to have gotten changed somewhere between the beach and here, probably on the boat. The waterbender has in tow some sort of large creature about twice the size of a human. Some kind of dog gorilla shadow monster.

Whatever, it's a child and it's in need of care while its mother is being sought out. So Rachel brought it here, in search of said caretakers.

Spoiler

Show

[Entrance]

...Miranda really ought to be used to dealing with "strange" people by now.

Her first day here, she was greeted with the sight of a griffin dropping off her cubs. In the time since then, she's seen all sorts of strange people come through here; goblins, gnomes, that vampire kid, and of course there's Sekhmet (nice lady, she thinks, even if she has a bit of an image problem).

But a shadow monster twice her size? That's a new one.

Right. Okay. Standard greeting.

"Hi!" Miranda beams, walking out to meet Rachel and her companion. "Welcome to the Good League of Good, how can I help you two out today?"

The monster does its best to hide behind Rachel, which is funny, given it would at least half again as tall as her if it stood straight, and is probably close to six times as heavy. It's walking on all fours, resting some of its weight on its knuckles, similar to a gorilla. It is hairless and pale, as if it's lived its whole life in a cave. It has orange eyes with slit pupils, looking around warily. Its lips are thin and its face is flat, with no nose to speak off and two thin slit for nostrils. It occasionally licks its lips with its long, bluish black tongue. Its skin is covered in stains of dirt, blood and tears. "I... I don't like this... place. There is something. Something there." It's looking at what is apparently a completely empty spot. It has not even noticed Miranda yet.

[Morty]

[Main Cabin]

"Now there's a slate with Finian's hand!" Tuskfang giggles. "I wonder if the other stuff is magic too. The marble must be, because it makes sounds. But maybe you can make it do that without magic. But I wonder about the wolf." He takes the figurine and shakes it.

[Sophie's Office]

"Many pregnant ones as well, I'm sure." Sophie looks Braon in the eye. "But it wasn't you, I hope. I can't picture a reason why you would do it. Doesn't really make sense, does it?"

[Ironsmith]

[Sophie's Office]

"Of course it doesn't make sense." Braon scoffs. "Putting aside for a minute that I'm doing okay in the financial department for the moment, Inside's probably the most stable part of the Nexus. Pretty much everyone there is comfortably off." She twirls a lock of her hair, not quite meeting Sophie's gaze. "It really doesn't make sense for anyone there to be engaging in petty thievery, does it? Who would be desperate enough? And if they're that hard for cash, why are they engaging in petty theft, as opposed to, I don't know... armed robbery?" She raises an eyebrow. "You know, I'm actually curious to hear your take on that, lady. What do you think is motivating our mysterious thief?"

She's... not lying, exactly, but she's definitely dodging the implicit question. All of the social signs point to her being the thief, and even wanting to brag about it, but not wanting to risk the punishment that would follow a confession.

[Morty]

[Sophie's Office]

"I would guess boredom." Sophie looks and sounds very much like someone merely speculating. But she also speaks with certainty. "For the thrill of it. The chase, the risk, the game. I've worked with people who got themselves into dangerous situations for fun."

[Ironsmith]

[Sophie's Office]

Braon raises an eyebrow. Of course Sophie would guess it. She did seem to be annoyingly good at that. But, if she gets it... really gets it...

"Well, I could hardly blame her if that were the case." Braon shuffles, rubbing her shoulders against the couch. "Being pregnant is tough. Especially pregnant and alone." She folds her hands over her belly, stifling a little groan. "You ever have to go through that? Just sort of sit and... wait. For months. The longer it goes on, the more you have to sit, and the fewer things you can do to pass the time. Lovers forbid you have a life and want to get on with it." She frowns and flicks her thumbs out emphatically. "Maybe she wants to do something fun while she still can. Before she's little better than an invalid."

Huh. She didn't mean to spill quite that much. But it's a bit easier when she can pretend they're not talking about her.

[Earl of Purple]

Nightmare in Braon's Head

"A shrivelled woman with a black unicorn bound me to a scroll to weaken me. Eventually, I was awoken and released- into a summoning circle. From there, I was cast adrift into the realm of nightmare. I don't know timings; I had no way to know them when bound on a scroll and time flows oddly between dreams and the waking worlds. I have thus far been able to survive this way, and regain some power lost during my binding, but I miss the mortal realm." NarTheoLoq gains power through the fear of its victims; it's been able to harvest some from particularly bad dreams it has influenced and caused. "I had done nothing to deserve my initial binding, nor any of those since." It had been wandering the Nexus unsupervised before its first binding, which means it had been causing some havoc and mayhem as it did.

[Reinholdt]

[Entrance]

Rachel smiles back at Miranda, taking a little more than a moment looking at her before remembering where she is and what she was doing.

First though, she turns back towards the creature. "It's ok. Nothing here will hurt you," Rachel says soothingly as she glances at the empty spot. One of the infamous GLoG ghosts?

The catgirl focuses back on Miranda. "Yes, I found this lost child alone by the sea. Calm Reed of Vigil is searching for its mother, but it needs someplace to stay and someone to take care of it until she can be found."

[Ironsmith]

Nightmare in Braon's Head
"Suit yourself," Sekhmet replies to the voice and decides to ignore its ravings. "So, how did you say you got here again?" She asks the fiendish entity in front of her. She can tell that's what it is, but not the details - clearly it's from a hell very different from her own (she's not going to recognize it as the same on Mama Gho came from, she doesn't remember that "smell" well enough).

Nightmare in Braon's Head

"A shrivelled woman with a black unicorn bound me to a scroll to weaken me. Eventually, I was awoken and released- into a summoning circle. From there, I was cast adrift into the realm of nightmare. I don't know timings; I had no way to know them when bound on a scroll and time flows oddly between dreams and the waking worlds. I have thus far been able to survive this way, and regain some power lost during my binding, but I miss the mortal realm." NarTheoLoq gains power through the fear of its victims; it's been able to harvest some from particularly bad dreams it has influenced and caused. "I had done nothing to deserve my initial binding, nor any of those since." It had been wandering the Nexus unsupervised before its first binding, which means it had been causing some havoc and mayhem as it did.

[Nightmare in Braon's Head]

Having said its piece, the voice falls silent, allowing the two of them to converse uninterrupted. Sekhmet was at least warned, even if she refused to take the voice's warning seriously. And so long as it's here, Braon won't be.

[Rebonack]

[Main Cabin]

The wolf statue is shaken vigorously!

It doesn't turn into a real wolf. Or howl. Or do anything strange, really.

It just remains in Tuskfang's hand, being a little wolf statue.

If there is anything fantastical about it then whatever it is doing isn't immediately obvious.

"Oh! I had an idea," Khannie pipes up when the baby shoves his hand in the slate. "We could all do handprints! All the kids who come at the camp, I mean. Everyone does a handprint and we could put them on the wall somewhere."

Khannie will admit that seems like a little bit of a lame baby thing to her but she's thinking that Sakura will probably think it's a good idea.

Lapis, of course, decides to act on this idea immediately. Just a matter of removing Finian's handprint and squishing her own hand into the clay. There isn't anything unusual about Lapis' hand print at all. No weird features are mysteriously revealed. Just looks like a little girl's hand.

With naked interest, Khannie watches the process of the slate getting dumped out again. "My dad makes lots of enchanted stuff and you can usually... feel it? A little? None of these really feel like enchanted items. Or whatever magic they were made with is so different that I can't tell."

"I think they're trinkets! Trinkets are things that just do things because that's what they are," Lapis replies as she pulls her handprint tablet out of the frame and scoots it toward Tuskfang just in case he wants to make a handprint too.

"That doesn't make any sense," Khannie points out.

[Morty]

[Sophie's Office]

"I've never been through it myself." The fact that she's currently planning to get another woman pregnant can probably be skipped. "But of course I've known pregnant people in difficult circumstances and people with disabilities. The feeling that their life is spilling way through their fingers and they're upset they can't hold onto it... I've seen it in them many times. If I could talk to this thief, I'd tell her that there are safer ways to keep busy in such circumstances. Playing with fire can land her in a situation where her frustrations will become worse, not better."

[Ironsmith]

[Sophie's Office]

"I've never been through it myself." The fact that she's currently planning to get another woman pregnant can probably be skipped. "But of course I've known pregnant people in difficult circumstances and people with disabilities. The feeling that their life is spilling way through their fingers and they're upset they can't hold onto it... I've seen it in them many times. If I could talk to this thief, I'd tell her that there are safer ways to keep busy in such circumstances. Playing with fire can land her in a situation where her frustrations will become worse, not better."

[Sophie's Office]

Braon shakes her head slightly. "I don't see that convincing her. The risk of getting caught is part of the point... right?" She glances up at Sophie. "Might even be a point of pride for her. She could get caught but hasn't. And skill at what she does is what makes the difference." She shrugs and twiddles her fingers on her belly. "And if she's been at this long enough, maybe there's a bit of nostalgia to it. You know, a way of reliving simpler times, when she didn't have to worry about being stuck in some dusty cabin and waiting for her pelvis to be ripped open from the inside." She pauses, weighing whether she might have gotten too specific, before deciding to reel it in again. "You know, as an example."

The monster does its best to hide behind Rachel, which is funny, given it would at least half again as tall as her if it stood straight, and is probably close to six times as heavy. It's walking on all fours, resting some of its weight on its knuckles, similar to a gorilla. It is hairless and pale, as if it's lived its whole life in a cave. It has orange eyes with slit pupils, looking around warily. Its lips are thin and its face is flat, with no nose to speak off and two thin slit for nostrils. It occasionally licks its lips with its long, bluish black tongue. Its skin is covered in stains of dirt, blood and tears. "I... I don't like this... place. There is something. Something there." It's looking at what is apparently a completely empty spot. It has not even noticed Miranda yet.

[Entrance]

Rachel smiles back at Miranda, taking a little more than a moment looking at her before remembering where she is and what she was doing.

First though, she turns back towards the creature. "It's ok. Nothing here will hurt you," Rachel says soothingly as she glances at the empty spot. One of the infamous GLoG ghosts?

The catgirl focuses back on Miranda. "Yes, I found this lost child alone by the sea. Calm Reed of Vigil is searching for its mother, but it needs someplace to stay and someone to take care of it until she can be found."

[Entrance]

"Well, you certainly came to the right place." Miranda nods, looking up at the cowering gorilla-thing. The sight of such a large creature frightened of nothing would be almost comical, if not for the inherent danger to smaller, squishable animals that happened to be near it. Probably a good idea to calm it down first. "It's all right, big fella. Nobody's going to hurt you." She looks up at it and smiles. "I'm Miranda. I'll be helping to take care of you during your stay here. What's your name?"

[Vahnavoi]

[Entrance]

The creature turns to stare at Miranda. "Name is something other people who know you call you", it says, "I do not think anyone here knows me. So I have no name."