GLoG 94: Good place to grow up

[Ironsmith]

[Night Campgrounds]

"Yeah, that's great and all, but we're both about to die." Miranda points out. "Did you actually manage to do anything in those four centuries? I've saved my world, multiple times, in the thirty plus years I've already been given. My life meant something. What are you leaving behind, other than a string of bodies?" She shakes her head, stepping past a series of inactive lathes. "You died the first time locked in a tiny room, alone and unloved. Four centuries later, you're primed to do it again. Sounds to me like you've wasted a lot of time."

[bc56]

Night Campground
Lizzie scoffs at Miranda's proclamation. "You don't really think you saved the world, do you? That's just big talk from powerful people afraid of loss. The world is always 'doomed' and always being 'saved,' yet nothing ever changes." In her mind, "being a productive member of society" is a trap. She just wants to get more for herself.

[Ironsmith]

[Night Campground]

"A bit more literally so than that." Miranda shrugs, mentally replaying a mission where she and her team knocked out a satellite network that collectively would have raised the surface temperature of Earth to a hundred and twenty degrees centigrade, scouring it of life. She's not exaggerating about the magnitude of what she's accomplished in her lifetime.

"But even if it were all talk, so what? People have built legacies on less." She tiptoes past an unused welding torch. "And besides, 'nothing ever changes'? That's got to be the most oblivious summation of history I've seen since... well, the last time I was on Maggit, I suppose. Don't underestimate the power of good, reliable people."

[bc56]

Night Campground
Wow this shed sure seems large.

"Oh, you poor thing." Lizzie replies patronizingly. "There are no good, reliable people. Everyone is corrupt, even a goody-two-shoes idealist like you. Why do you think there are so many stories about how monstrous people are? It's because it's true, and everyone knows it." She does have a point. Stories about how humans are the real monsters are very ingrained in the public consciousness.

[Ironsmith]

[Night Campgrounds]

"If you honestly believe that, I'm sorry to hear you never had anyone in your life to prove that wrong." Miranda remarks, squeezing past a palette of spare parts. "Or that you never got the message despite having people like that in your life. Either one is just sad, really."

"I mean, I get it. I really do. I've had a front-row seat to some pretty terrible stuff. I've seen what humans are capable of when they're scared or angry or desperate enough, and more than a few that just completely defy explanation and seem to be just evil for evil's sake." Miranda sighs and stops near an inactive drone. "But when you get to it, most of us at least try to be good people. We're not perfect and never will be, and it's an uphill battle to make any progress at all, but we're getting there."

[bc56]

Night Campground
"You'll see. You're still young." Lizzie asserts. Maybe at one point she did agree with Miranda, but now she completely dismisses that perspective as foolishness. She's done with this conversation for now, however.

[Ironsmith]

[Night Campground]

Miranda shrugs this off and stops in front of an inactive drone, stooping to get a good look at it. "...Huh. You know, I've never really thought about it, but... how do you turn this thing on?"

As she says "on", the drone flickers to life and looks up at her. "Statement: Hello, Miss Cortez. Cautionary Statement: This unit is currently being repaired and is immobile. Query: How may I assist you?"

Miranda lets out a sigh of relief that the machine still recognized her. "Yes. Hi. I just need some directions, that's all. I'm trying to get to the cabin where the demon queen is located. Can you help me?"

"Certainly!" The machine chirps. "Clarification: You are searching for Sekhmet Brignole, Queen of the Scorching Depths, correct?"

"That sounds right, yes."

"Thank you. One moment, please." The drone lets out a melodic hum as it runs the search through its database. It's not long before it has a response. "Results: Queen Sekhmet can be found in [her] Cabin. Query: Will there be anything else?"

"No, that will be all, thank you." Miranda smiles and turns to leave.

"Statement: There are several discrepancies between your physiological profile and your present appearance. Query: Are you in need of medical attention, Miss Cortez?"

"Well... not yet. We'll have to see how this meeting goes."

"Understood. Advisory: A transcript of this conversation will be sent to the infirmary in thirty minutes."

"...I'd rather you didn't."

"Statement: It is a matter of personal health, Miss Cortez. In the event that you require medical attention after meeting with Queen Sekhmet, it would be inadvisable to place the burden of seeking it out on you, as you may be incapacitated."

"That's not..." Miranda starts, but then waves it off. "You know what? Good idea, actually." This probably wasn't the sort of situation that function was intended for, but it seems like it'll work out for her. If Sekhmet can't help her, at least she'll know how long she has before she needs to leave, and word gets back to her superiors about what, exactly, happened to her.

With that, she turns and leaves, making her way to Sekhmet's cabin.

[bc56]

Night Campground - Hawthorn Cabin
The cabin is on the far side of the campground from the entrance, near the forest and not far from the lake. It's dark.
Given the time, any inhabitants are probably asleep, assuming demon queens sleep. Hard to say.

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

Right. Okay. Miranda can't exactly afford to wait until morning for the demon queen to get up and see her. Instead, she's going to go through a round of brisk knocks, a short pause, and more knocking, with growing degrees of urgency. If five minutes go by and Sekhmet doesn't come out to meet her, Miranda will go to the window and try to pry it open, taking that as a sign that the demon queen isn't home but needing to be certain.

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
It's a few rounds of knocking before anyone answers the door. The demon queen Miranda's been looking for is there, but she's clearly just been woken up; her hair is disheveled, her eyes are puffy with sleep, and it looks like she only just slipped into her dress a minute ago. Standing at her feet is an alien creature with bladed legs and tentacled shoulders, wearing a blue collar. "Uh... Hello?" It's the middle of the night? What does this lady (clearly succubus-touched) want?

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

"Um... yeah. Hi." Miranda replies with an apologetic smile. "I'm really sorry about the timing, but I've got a bit of a situation and it doesn't seem prudent to come back during the day." She glances down at her bare legs and gives a little shiver. "May I come in? It's cold out here."

Not that she really minded that, but being behind closed doors seemed safer than sitting at Sekhmet's door, where anyone could see and/or approach them. Plus, they could be talking for a while and it's generally better to do that in a more comfortable setting than the doorway.

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
A long pause as Sekhmet thinks. "Uh, yes. Yes, come in." She lets Miranda into the sitting room. The cabin seems pretty standard, with a few decorations to show the inhabitants. The bookshelf is particularly laden with a mixture of occult tomes and cheap romance novels. "Uh... Tea?" It's the middle of the night, but Sekhmet will at least try to be a good host.

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

"Yes, please." Miranda smiles, taking a seat on the couch, shrugging off her jacket and tossing it over her legs to regain some sense of modesty, as well as a little warmth.

"So, I'll get right to it. On the way home from shopping for a friend's birthday..." Damn, she just realized she left her present out in the woods, she's going to have to either get it back or buy something else. "...I picked up a hitchhiker of sorts." She taps her temple to indicate she's talking about her brain. "A voice out in the street. She calls herself Lizzie. I tried to be a good host, find her a new body without hurting anyone, but... well, she decided she liked mine better. Plus or minus a few alterations; I was a C-cup with pants that fit this morning." She looks down at her altered body and gives a little sigh; it still didn't feel right. The tail definitely wasn't helping. "I was hoping you could help get her out. She seems to know who you are, at any rate... she's been throwing an extended tantrum ever since I got the idea to come here."

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
Sekhmet leaves and returns with a tea set and a kettle full of water that took far too little time to boil. She sets out too teacups and teabags and fills them with water; she takes a sip without waiting for it to cool.
"Uh..." Sekhmet's thinking over what Miranda said. "You're, uh, experiencing the, uh, symptoms of demonic possession... Uh, did you say Lizzie?" It takes a moment for that to hit. "Erzsébet! Come out of that woman at once!" This is when Lizzie finally speaks. She takes control of Miranda's mouth and vocal cords to do it, yet the voice that comes out is distinctly not Miranda's. "And go where, my queen?" Her tone of voice suggests that she has absolutely no respect for Sekhmet whatsoever. "No. I like this body much more than being a disembodied voice. Give me an anchor and then we'll talk." She releases control of Miranda's speech as she waits for Sekhmet's answer.

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

"Wow. Rude." Miranda wants to give Lizzie a glare, but since she's living in her head, the best she can manage is an annoyed look upwards, which looks too much like she's rolling her eyes at Sekhmet. "Okay, you know what?" Miranda starts thinking about an earworm she heard a few years ago, one that stayed in her head for months. Lizzie can have fun getting caught up in the ensuing feedback loop. "You really don't have anyone to blame for this but yourself. I didn't care who you were or where you came from. I wanted to help you. All you had to do was nothing, just sit back and enjoy the ride while I find you an anchor. Do you think you're going to just get one now?"

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
"I can't remove her from you without putting her somewhere," Sekhmet warns. "If I did, she'd just be free to go possess whoever she likes in the campground." She continues, "And, uh, I would advise against holding her in your body. No one can withstand a demonic possession forever." "Just do it already! I know you've got a stash of artifacts that could be used as anchors here that you never touch. Just give me one of those!" Sekhmet glares at Erzsébet, but it looks like she's glaring at Miranda.

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

"...What, specifically, do you need to have an anchor?" Miranda asks, her hand going to her Hotbox. "If the qualifications are mundane enough, I could print something to put her into. Then she's at least contained."

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
"It's a, uh, technical word for an, uh, object capable of containing a soul. A living body, a corpse, or a, uh, magical artifact of sufficient power. Uh, the more powerful the demon is, the more, uh, resilient and powerful the anchor needs to be." Sekhmet doesn't appear to have anything like that on her, which might prompt a question but probably isn't relevant right now.

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

"Damn. I was kind of hoping she was lying about that." Miranda sighs, leaning back against the couch and tucking in her jacket under her legs. "Is there any way we could still get her away from everyone else, even without an anchor? Maybe if I were to go someplace nobody would ever follow and somehow force her out there?"

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
"That, uh, might work. It would, uh, have to be very remote though. Anyone else who visits later would be in danger." Sekhmet isn't dismissing the suggestion outright, but she seems skeptical. "The Inquisitors of my home world had a way to trap a demon in an object, but even if I could go there, I couldn't exactly ask them for that secret. They would, uh, kill me." Sekhmet mulls this last thought over for a bit.

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

"Right. I don't know much about your world, but 'hates demons' seems to be a multiversal constant." Miranda nods, rubbing a finger along their chin. "...How do they feel about the possessed?" She asks, an idea worming its way into her head. "If there's a way to get in touch with them and they're sufficiently understanding, you could just pass me along without ever being in danger yourself. If not... well, I have a long career of finding out secrets. At least I know where to look."

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
"Uh, I think it's a kill on sight sort of thing. Sekhmet has to think. "I, uh, did meet one Inquisitor since I came here. She was, uh, a prisoner of my mother's cult and, uh, she was possessed too, but, uh, by a different type of demon and, uh, she was in a really bad way. She kept trying to kill herself and everyone around her. I, uh, turned her over to Vigil to keep prisoner, uh, mostly to keep her safe from herself." A possible lead, if an insane woman infected by a monstrous entity from another plane can be considered a lead.

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

It's an option Miranda didn't have before.

"Vigil, you say." Miranda's brow furrows as she considers this option. She has a contact in Vigil, it shouldn't be too hard for her to arrange a safe meeting. On the other hand, that contact is someone she needs to keep far, far away from Lizzie, so if anything goes wrong, she's putting a friend in a very high-risk situation. And the lead is sort of vague; there's no guarantee the Inquisitor will even agree to speak with her, let alone help her.

Miranda sighs. Okay, she's going to have to do this with as little risk of harm to other people as possible. Long-distance communication, maybe? Eun could track down this Inquisitor and get her a phone, then the two of them could arrange something. No, wait... the Inquisitor might have the same problem as Miranda. She can't just send Eun in after her, either. Damn.

"...This could take a while to sort out." Mirands concedes. "Do you know of anywhere safe I could stay in the meantime? Safe for everyone else, I mean."

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
"Uh, normally I'd suggest you stay at my palace, but, uh, I can't do that this time. The, uh, succubus possessing you is exiled from my kingdom, and it would be letting her in again for you to visit. But, uh, my husband and I have a couple spare rooms in the cabin." The cabins are designed for a few people in each one, but Sekhmet and Prumathe together only take one bedroom and no one else lives here.

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

Miranda frowns. Staying in Sekhmet's cabin would still leave her uncomfortably close to the daycare when morning comes. Best not, if there are other options available. "...I may be misunderstanding." She begins. "But aren't you the authority in your palace? I'd think whether any given demon remains in exile or not would ultimately be your decision. Besides, if she's stuck to me either way, she'll just be trading exile for imprisonment; she won't exactly escape punishment this way."

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
"Yes, I am. I exiled her, and I don't intend to, uh, overturn that." Sekhmet replies. Then she continues, "You, uh, misunderstand. She's stuck to you, uh, here, but she can manifest freely in our home domain. The moment you would cross the threshold, she would be free again."

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

"...Oh." Miranda lets out a disappointed little sigh. "Yeah, that... would be a good reason to keep her out, yeah." That pretty much did just leave the cabin for now, didn't it? "...All right. I'll take you up on that offer to stay here. Do you have any way of making sure I can't leave the room, and nobody can come in to see me? I don't want to put anyone else at risk if Lizzie manages to take control."

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
"Uh, the door locks from the inside, so, uh..." Sekhmet thinks. "Ellie's uh, done sleeping for the night. She can watch you in case you start, uh, sleepwalking." She pats her... whatever it is. Pet, sure. It sniffs at Miranda's leg. "She can, uh, see and smell magic. If Erzsébet tries anything, uh, she should know." Evidently Sekhmet isn't worried about the potential of Lizzie possessing Ellie. Maybe it's not a problem?

[Ironsmith]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

Miranda starts to nod, but then another thought occurs. "...Actually... my sleeping pod is just back in my own cabin, just a little that way." She points through the wall in the right direction. "If you don't mind, it could conceivably be used as a restraint. We could bring it here, or lock me in my cabin until we find a more permanent solution. In either case, I'd rather not be left alone. Would you be willing to help me with that?"

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin
"Uh, I think that would work. But, uh, let me get properly dressed. Do you, uh, want a skirt or, uh, something?" Sekhmet apparently doesn't consider her current state of dress good enough to go outside in even in the dead of night. She does look messy, but not indecent. In reality, she just needs something warmer. It's cold outside, and she's adapted for a much warmer climate.