GLoG 94: Good place to grow up

[Rebonack]

[Baby Shower]

It shouldn't be that much of a shock that Geneva isn't too well known by the GLoG staff.

Mostly she just drops off her cubs and she has provided Sekhmet with psionics lessons now and again.

Really not the mostly mingly sort of activity.

"Hello Spike, Miranda, Sophie. It's nice to see you all here," says the very obvious negative influence(?) on Sekhmet. Chances are she would wear the Hive's disapproval as a badge of honor.

Regardless, she steps back from the hug and sits down on her haunches, her ears flicking toward all the whispering that's going on nearby.

"He's absolutely precious. Oh! And I brought a gift, here-" Geneva says drawing forth a moderately sized box completely lacking in embellishment. It contains a baby holder! Like a backpack. For a baby. Except on the front instead of on the back. "Mine has been an absolute life-saver, I thought you might like one too."

Perfect for carrying babies while keeping your arms free!

"How are you sleeping? Is he keeping you awake?"

An inevitable side-effect of being blessed with small children.

[bc56]

Baby Shower
"Yes, uh, think so," Sekhmet answers Spike. She has another child too, a sort-of adopted one, but Mary's not here right now. "Thank you, Geneva. He's, uh... No, I haven't been sleeping well. You, uh, know how children are." She yawns. "But he's so precious otherwise." The child makes a cooing noise in Spike's arms.

[Earl of Purple]

Bad Omens- Demon Summoning

The demon is bound, the cloak wrapping itself about its torso and the eyes there. It might rip; the barbs growing from its ribs and bones are sharp. This also means NarTheoLoq can't reach the black iron knife hanging on the human-leather bandoleer draped over its torso. It screams, opening its mouth incredibly wide as all three voices desynchronise slightly in the scream; the child's scream is high and pained, whilst the mother's is more fear and the man's voice is screaming anger. The sound is drawing on some of the tricks learnt from nightmares, and any who hear it might get mild hallucinations, and not just visual ones. The smell of old blood and smoke, or the suggestion of movement in the corner of the eye, or the feel of breathing on the back of their necks. It also reaches its right arm out, the tentacle-fingers writhing to grab and hold and pull Braon closer. She can dodge, but it knows where she was and is going on memory. The left arm is grabbing at the edge of the cloak to pull its dagger free.

The statues grab its legs and arms, and the twisted bones of both have sharp edges and barbs. Maybe not enough to harm stone, but certainly uncomfortable to hold for anything that has a sense of touch, and its quite strong- stronger than something as spindly as this should be, though possibly not stronger than the statues. It retaliates by lashing its mouth down at the one grabbing its arm to bite, and its teeth- despite appearing to be human- are sharp and hard enough to mark stone, paired with jaws strong enough to crack it.

Hawthorn Cabin

"Yeah, we'll try our best." Prumathe will join the hug, which might be a little awkward for Mary since she's only just met him, but he's going to be her dad, so it's OK. Right? Oh, Prumathe hopes so. He was expecting a decade before he had to deal with teenagers! This is going to be tricky.

[Ironsmith]

[Baby Shower]

Miranda nods to herself a little bit. While Sophie's idea is good, it sort of fall apart if now just doesn't make for a very good meal time... something more to just keep in the back of her head for later. Spike's advice seems more useful; do something nice for Sekhmet now, and don't wait for her to permit it. Doubly so, pointing out that the demon queen's stressors were ongoing led to the conclusion that she's probably not able to relax properly even right now.

Fortunately, she has a fix for that.

Miranda gets up and stretches, making her way back around behind Sekhmet's chair as unobtrusively as she can. If her physiology is at all like Miranda's own, she'll be feeling this stress, as tension, in muscles all over her body, but more importantly, rather prominently in the neck and shoulders. Nothing a pair of reasonably-skilled hands can't work out without bothering her too much. And Miranda's familiar enough with this kind of quick fix, having applied it to herself many, many times in the past.

Bad Omens- Demon Summoning

The demon is bound, the cloak wrapping itself about its torso and the eyes there. It might rip; the barbs growing from its ribs and bones are sharp. This also means NarTheoLoq can't reach the black iron knife hanging on the human-leather bandoleer draped over its torso. It screams, opening its mouth incredibly wide as all three voices desynchronise slightly in the scream; the child's scream is high and pained, whilst the mother's is more fear and the man's voice is screaming anger. The sound is drawing on some of the tricks learnt from nightmares, and any who hear it might get mild hallucinations, and not just visual ones. The smell of old blood and smoke, or the suggestion of movement in the corner of the eye, or the feel of breathing on the back of their necks. It also reaches its right arm out, the tentacle-fingers writhing to grab and hold and pull Braon closer. She can dodge, but it knows where she was and is going on memory. The left arm is grabbing at the edge of the cloak to pull its dagger free.

The statues grab its legs and arms, and the twisted bones of both have sharp edges and barbs. Maybe not enough to harm stone, but certainly uncomfortable to hold for anything that has a sense of touch, and its quite strong- stronger than something as spindly as this should be, though possibly not stronger than the statues. It retaliates by lashing its mouth down at the one grabbing its arm to bite, and its teeth- despite appearing to be human- are sharp and hard enough to mark stone, paired with jaws strong enough to crack it.

[Bad Omens - Demon Summoning]

Blood and smoke.

Those scents won't keep Braon in a reverie for long, but they don't need to; a small hesitation is plenty of time for the demon to grab ahold of her.

Fortunately, the statues are also still grappling it, albeit with their numbers dropping at an alarming rate. One bite will be enough to reduce one of them to rubble; they are not nearly as resilient as they appear to be.

Braon snaps back to her senses and reaches for the demon's chest. She needs this incantation done now.

"[Here we see two hearts, beating apart.]" She intones in Maesdan, the first of three lines. She needs just a little time...

[Recaiden]

[Baby Shower]

Spike's necklace goes back to how it was before.
"Are you going to-"
"Sekhmet, are you saying you have Æthelred with you all the time?" What about Prumathe? What about your workers?"

They look down and make cute nonsense sounds back at the baby. Human memories and instincts insist that he is completely precious.

[Morty]

[Baby Shower]

"I'll put on some tea, I think. Who wants some?" Sophie asks, following the same methodology as Miranda.

[Earl of Purple]

Bad Omens- Demon Summoning

NarTheoLoq's skin is hard and unyielding, whilst its tentacle-fingers try to work their way to Braon's neck, aiming to wrap about her neck and squeeze. It doesn't know if this will stop everything, or even really what's going on, but it'll make the demon feel a lot better about itself. It also ignores the other three statues grabbing its limbs; it judges them less dangerous than their mistress even without knowing what she's doing.

[Ironsmith]

Bad Omens- Demon Summoning

NarTheoLoq's skin is hard and unyielding, whilst its tentacle-fingers try to work their way to Braon's neck, aiming to wrap about her neck and squeeze. It doesn't know if this will stop everything, or even really what's going on, but it'll make the demon feel a lot better about itself. It also ignores the other three statues grabbing its limbs; it judges them less dangerous than their mistress even without knowing what she's doing.

[Bad Omens - Demon Summoning]

"[Here do we join them, as-]" Braon's voice catches in her throat as the demon's fingers wrap around it, quickly cutting off her air supply and providing an unanticipated obstacle to her finishing the incantation. Her free hand jumps to her neck, clawing at the tentacles in the hopes of loosening them even slightly.

This isn't good. If she doesn't complete the ritual, she won't be able to steal this thing's heart, and then it will almost certainly kill her. Or it might stop her by killing her.

She has to get the words out. She has to. She can't afford to fail.

"[As.. as the Lovers... did... did...]" Braon rasps, barely getting even that much out through her compressed trachea. Every syllable hurts to recite. Her face flushes with heat as she pushes into the incantation, the corners of her vision starting to blur.

"[Did... before... us...]" Braon's voice drops wearily.

There's still a whole other line to the spell, but she may not get a chance to recite it. Her strength is already failing her.

[Rebonack]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

Oh no!

Mary is getting all sorts of hugs!

This is the best possible outcome!

"I'll try my best to be a good daughter, honest I will!" she insists. "You won't regret this!"

She probably doesn't need to worry too much on that front.

How often do people regret loving children?

Thankfully not often.


[Baby Shower]

"Oh do I ever," Geneva laughs.

Imagine getting hounded by four hungry cubs constantly!

To say that it's a lot of work would be a massive understatement.

"I'll have some, Sophie, thank you," Geneva says with a nod. "You do have a lot of people who can help you, Sekhmet. Spike is right. Even if it's just for a few hours so you can rest."

[bc56]

Baby Shower
When Miranda gets behind Sekhmet to massage her shoulders, she gets a clear view of something she's probably only glimpsed before. There's a network of thick, ropy scars across her back, clearly the result of some vicious injury. Miranda knows Sekhmet can shapeshift, yet she's apparently left these here for some reason. They don't seem to have any logical order to them.

Other than that, Sekhmet's shoulders are very tight, all four of them (the two for her arms and the two for her wings). "Miranda, what are you... Ohh."
"I'd, uh, like a cup too, uh, thanks Sophie," she adds when tea is offered.

"No, silly, uh, not all the time. But during the day, Prumathe is at work. And at night, uh, normally we'd both be asleep, but, uh, he, uh, needs to be looked after then too." In other words, Sekhmet's exhausted because the baby keeps waking her up.

[Ironsmith]

[Baby Shower]

"(No tea for me, thanks.)" Miranda gives Sophie as an aside. "That's true, but your cabin is right in the middle of a daycare center." She points out, working her thumbs into the base of Sekhmet's neck. "If you want, surely there's room to arrange something. Let someone else care for him during the day so you can rest then. Or have a volunteer come by at night. It would only be temporary either way; he'll be sleeping much more soundly in a few months."

Miranda knows better than to touch the scars. If Sekhmet still has them despite her ability to shapeshift, they're either intentional or magically permanent... the latter seeming more likely, as Sekhmet probably can't see her back. She doesn't want to risk aggravating old wounds.

"The point is, help is literally right next door at all times. And we all want you to still be getting enough sleep." She moves in a little closer and mumbles, so only Sekhmet can hear, "Your subjects would thank you for it, too. Now you're a queen and a mother. Trust me, it's not good for anyone when the leadership overtaxes herself trying to do everything at once." Her tone suggests that view may be informed by personal experience.

[Earl of Purple]

Bad Omens- Demon Summoning

NarTheoLoq doesn't keep squeezing; he'll instead lift, raising Braon up before throwing her away and moving to attack the statue grappling its other arm. It still can't see, since the cloak is wrapped about its torso and the six eyes lurking there. It wants to free its arm and then clear the cloth blinding it. It wants to be able to see the fear in Braon's eyes as it kills her, and possibly add her eyes to its own. For now, though, the tentacle-fingers of its free hand are closing around the neck of the statue gripping its other arm before they wriggle and writhe away from the head as the blue-skinned demon turns its head and takes a bite out of the stone sculpture and wrests its arm free.

[Ironsmith]

[Bad Omens - Demon Summoning]

As a second statue breaks down into rubble under NarTheoLoq's bite, Braon pulls herself up to her hands and knees, hoarsely gasping and coughing to clear her trachea and start breathing properly again. Her face and neck still hurt all over, and a fall like that might have already injured her unborn children.

There are still two statues holding down the demon's legs. If she runs now, they might keep it occupied long enough for her to get away.

No. She needs to end this now.

If she lets the demon live, it'll wreak even more havok than if she'd done nothing. She'll have actively endangered everyone at this camp, including herself and her children.

She can't have that.

Braon stumbles to her feet and bumbles toward NarTheoLoq, jumping onto its back and pressing her hand to its spine(?), rapidly working her way through the incantation again.

"[Here we see two hearts beating apart here do we join them as the Lovers did before us-]" She rambles, trying to finish as quickly as possible.

[Earl of Purple]

Bad Omens- Demon Summoning

NarTheoLoq's spine has some barbed bone spurs along it, though not as many as the twisted ridges of its ribs do. Braon may cut herself on them; they're sharp, and NarTheoLoq's back is just as hard and unyielding and not-flesh-like as its front. It doesn't react to Braon's presence, though it knows she's there; it's still trying to pull the cloak off to free its eyes. Only if it succeeds at this will it try to strike at the fiendling, though it'll first take its iron dagger and stab the statue holding its left leg. The blade is enhanced; so long as NarTheoLoq holds it, even touching it causes pain, and it's sharper and sturdier than it should be as well.

[Recaiden]

[Baby Shower]

Spike shakes their head. They've never had tea, but shared memories suggest that it is bitter and awful, so no reason to start now.

"Not all the time, just all day and all night?"

A nod towards Miranda, who seems completely correct on this topic. How interesting.
"There's plenty of help to get, so get it. Especially once he has siblings."

[Ironsmith]

Bad Omens- Demon Summoning

NarTheoLoq's spine has some barbed bone spurs along it, though not as many as the twisted ridges of its ribs do. Braon may cut herself on them; they're sharp, and NarTheoLoq's back is just as hard and unyielding and not-flesh-like as its front. It doesn't react to Braon's presence, though it knows she's there; it's still trying to pull the cloak off to free its eyes. Only if it succeeds at this will it try to strike at the fiendling, though it'll first take its iron dagger and stab the statue holding its left leg. The blade is enhanced; so long as NarTheoLoq holds it, even touching it causes pain, and it's sharper and sturdier than it should be as well.

[Bad Omens - Demon Summoning]

Braon bites her tongue in an attempt to avoid cursing, and therefore breaking the incantation, as her hand is impaled on the demon's spines. That hurts, but she can't afford to break concentration now, not when she's so close!

As the demon causes one of the two remaining statues to collapse with barely even a touch (the new souls that inhabit them have a very low pain tolerance) and it rips away the cloak with its other hand, Braon hurries to finish, watching the demon's limbs warily.

"[Let them be bound together for eternity, that nothing may seperate them.]"

And it's here the magic will take hold. Braon's hand will no longer be in the business of such mundane details as "tangibility". She'll reach into this demon and grab ahold of what she hopes is its heart, or something close to it.

At least she will if the demon feels anything for her. Pity, gratitude, anger, fear, it doesn't matter. All she needs is some form of bond.

...This would be a terrible time to learn that she never had a chance.

[Earl of Purple]

Bad Omens- Demon Summoning

NarTheoLoq is capable of feeling emotions, and it does feel some emotions towards Braon. Mostly, it's a mixture of scorn and anger. It's not grateful to her for freeing it; it doesn't fear her, and pity is a far kinder emotion than any the demon has in its repertoire.

So Braon's semi-intangible hand can reach inside the demon, where it will find... not a heart. It's a tooth, a large human-looking molar, big enough to fit comfortably inside the hand, and as it's removed NarTheoLoq cries out with its three voices and disappears, dagger and all. The tooth has a lot of power in it; the entire essence of a demon. She's bound NarTheoLoq into a container of itself; now what does she plan on doing with it?

[Ironsmith]

[Bad Omens - Demon Summoning]

Braon collapses to the floor as the demon vanishes, panting heavily, holding the cursed tooth in her hand.

She did it.

The crazy bitch, she did it.

Between gasps for air, Braon lets out a wheezing, halting laugh, which steadily grows in intensity and mania as she recovers. She did it! She managed to outmaneuver the demon! At last, at long last, she won at something!

And it's no small victory, either. NarTheoLoq, if it is half as powerful as it appears, could have wreaked a great deal of havoc on the Nexus, especially if its inhabitants were unaware of its presence. As it is... it's now safely contained in a fist-sized tooth. If Braon so desired, she could find somewhere nice and isolated, bury it, and let the demon starve to death, ridding the world of one more evil influence forever. How far-reaching would the consequences of that be? How many lives has she inadvertently touched, possibly even saved?

It doesn't really matter. There were only a few she meant to touch. And by Adea, she did exactly what she set out to do.

"That's it!" She squeals in celebration. "THAT is how it's done! Screw! You!"

Hahahahaha!

Heh... heh...

Ha....

...

Okay.

She's going to be high on her success for a while. But back in the here and now, she needed to figure out what her next move was going to be.

It's... surprisingly not intuitive. Some part of her didn't expect she would actually succeed at binding the demon. That she would mess it up and be lucky to walk away with her life. As had been the case in so many of her other encounters in recent memory. The plan she'd developed for dealing with the demon once it was sealed was... still in the abstract stages. Who would have thought she'd have to use it?

"All right, big guy." Braon smirks, knitting together a series of cords to make the tooth into a sort of makeshift necklace. "Your days are numbered. As soon as I figure out how, I'm going to dissolve you into aetherial soup. That's what you get for, you know, being a [genital]." She slips the new power source on over her neck. "But, in the meantime, you'll make a good spare heart if I end up needing one. So I guess you're a... thing of your word in the end." She chuckles a bit at that. "Anything to say for yourself?"

[Earl of Purple]

Bad Omens- Demon Summoning

The tooth doesn't reply to Braon, continuing to dangle on its improvised string.

NarTheoLoq isn't completely unaware of the world around it despite the lack of reply, and whenever Braon eats something and she's wearing the tooth it'll use its influence to cause minor, disturbing hallucinations in Braon. A steak would become a writhing mess of maggots after she's put a forkful in her mouth, or anything she eats tastes of blood and ash.

[Morty]

[Baby Shower]

"Are you planning to give him siblings?" Sophie asks as she busies herself making tea for those who want it. "I don't know if Trick and I will have more than one child yet. I think many parents figure it out as they go."

[Ironsmith]

[Bad Omens - Demon Summoning]

...But for now, nothing.

Well, not nothing, exactly. Braon should still make her way up to the clinic and make sure the injuries she suffered weren't serious.

And there's that persistent euphoria at having won for once in her life.

But apart from that? Nothing.

[Daycare]

One would think the high of vanquishing a demon would last longer than a few days. Or at least a day.

But no, Braon finds she's actually somewhat grumpier after the fact. She hasn't been getting a lot of restful sleep these days... she keeps waking up in the middle of the night to bouts of intense nausea, probably having something to do with the fact that she's nearing her due date.

As if her mood wasn't already unstable enough.

Still... with that day fast approaching, her final decision on how to handle things after she gives birth is, also, coming on quickly. In order to do that properly, she needs to calmly consider her options... or at least, so she's been told.

Which is why she's going to the daycare proper on this particular day. She'll have to see what her future children are in for, if they stay here at GLoG.

[Rebonack]

[Baby Shower]

"Five is already more than plenty for Nick and I to handle," Geneva laughs. "Thankfully we have Junior to help keep the little ones corralled."

Having an older child to take care of the younger children is definitely a big help.

"Help of any kind is a blessing. It's hard leaving them alone with others for the first time, but your child will be growing up around the people who work here. That should make things easier when you have errands to attend."

Geneva absolutely cried the first time she left her cubs at GLoG.


[Fireworks!]

There are a couple times a year where it's possible to buy fireworks from stands Inside. Some of those times are in the winter, though, so setting them off outside is going to be chilly.

This time of year, though?

This time of year it's warm and pleasant! But also dry so you have to be CAREFUL!

Which is why Khannie is down by the lake. It's a nice wide sandy beach so that's a perfect place to set stuff off without having to worry about fire. And the ones that SHOOT can be launched out over the lake! She's opened up the great big box full of assorted fireworks and she's busy digging through them, trying to decide what she should be setting off first. It isn't QUITE dark enough yet for the fireworks to be really fun BUT it's getting close. Khannie has decided she's going to bide her time with a little box of snappers since they're basically just loud and don't spray sparks everywhere.

Anyone who decides to join Khannie will find her easily thanks to the loud POP! of throwing the snappers against boulders.

[Ironsmith]

[Wormwood Cabin => Fireworks!]

"'How many d... d...' Huh. What's this word here?"

"Don't ask me. If I tell you, you won't learn."

"I'm asking you because I don't know. Can't you help me out a bit?"

"No. You have to be able to figure it out without me."

"...You know I hate it when you do that."

"Go on. Sound it out."

"D..duh...wh-wa..arrrr...vuh...eh...s? Oh! 'Dwarves'!"

"There you go. You're doing great. Now, from the t-"

BANG!

"...What was that?"

"That's just Khannie down by the lake. Ignore her. Now, again, from the top."

"...'How many dwarves does it take to change a light bu-'"

BANG!

"Agh! I can't think with that kind of noise!"

"It's only snappers. They're not that ba-"

BANG!

"Okay, that's it. I'm going to go have a talk with that girl."

Arthfael scrambles to his feet and stands in front of the cabin door. "Miss Hexenborne, please. She's not doing anything wrong."

"She's being a distraction and I'm not having that." Braon sneers, stepping around him and yanking open the cabin door.

Arthfael sighs and stays back. No way is he going to be anywhere near those two when they meet. Especially if there's explosives nearby.

---

"Hey, kid!" Braon snaps as she waddles up to Khannie's spot by the lake. "Could you keep it down? I can hear you all the way from my cabin!"

[Rebonack]

[Fireworks!]

Ugh.

It's that witch of a lady that's a jerk to everyone.

Khannie's pretty sure she doesn't actually work here or anything. She just hangs around. Sophie and Sakura both insist that Khannie should be nice to her but being nice to someone that angry at everyone all the time is hard.

But that's kind of how it is, isn't it?

Being nice to people who are nice is easy.

Being nice to jerks is the real challenge.

"No? I'm setting off fireworks they're loud," Khannie retorts, doing her best to avoid using a tone that conveys her feelings that the fiendling is making a dumb request. "I already asked for permission to set them off and it got okayed so you're just going to have to deal with it."

To punctuate her point she throws another snapper against a nearby boulder whereupon it POP!s loudly.

[Ironsmith]

[Fireworks!]

Braon frowns. If this obstinate little girl is telling the truth, she's not going to get any help from GLoG's staff. She's on her own.

"Have you considered just... not?" She grumbles, staring at the box of snappers. "The people at the office seem to be a little disconnected from... you know what? Fine. I'll do it myself." She waves her hand in the general direction of Khannie's fireworks, placing a simple, but likely conflict-ending, enchantment on them. Either Khannie will lose interest in the newly-silenced fireworks, or she'll continue to set them off without disturbing Braon. Either way is a win.

Maybe those conflict resolution classes are having some effect after all.

[Rebonack]

[Fireworks!]

"No."

That's a pretty straight forward answer.

No, she has never considered just not playing with the fireworks because they're fun.

Speaking of fun!

She tosses another one at the rock!

Which causes it to blow up, but there's no sound.

Khannie frowns at this, kneeling down to examine the exploded paper packet. It still went off but there wasn't any... Hm. She takes another, sets it on a rock, and stomps it. She can feel it bursting under her shoe, but again, no noise. Not an illusion. This lady does that enchantment stuff, right? That's what Arthfael said, anyway. Well, if this lady is going to be a jerk and use magic to ruin Khannie's fun?

She layers a pretty simple shadow illusion over the snappers. It's a fragile thing, prone to breaking with any significant force applies to the object it surrounds.

This is, of course, the goal.

Another snapper is tossed against the rock!

POP!

Triumph!

"Go bug someone else you jerk I'm just trying to have a fun summer."

[Ironsmith]

[Fireworks!]

Braon gives a satisfied little smirk as the first of the poppers fails to make any kind of satisfying noise whatsoever. Success! Maybe that will teach this kid to listen to her. She turns away to return to her cabin, when-

POP!

Braon stops mid-stride and slowly turns back toward the girl with the fireworks, her face contorted into a look of distilled annoyance. "...Don't do that." She snarls, lifting her hand a second time and pointing at the box. Fine, she's going to just fix the poppers if Braon breaks them? Then Braon won't let her have any poppers.

The box and its contents will all be enchanted a second time, this time to make their way out of Khannie's grasp and start running off (well, rolling off) away from her. With their close proximity to the lake, that's likely to ruin at least a few of them, and Khannie won't be able to set off as many if she has to chase them down first.

"You don't want to be playing this game with me, kid." Braon sneers, lowering her hand. "I've been casting spells since you were trundling around in diapers."

[Rebonack]

[Fireworks!]

Yep.

This is definitely that same sort of stuff that Lord Buttface back at Inari's was throwing around.

But, you see, a critical misunderstanding is going on here. Is Braon assuming that Khannie just somehow managed to fix the poppers? That she neutralized the enchantment somehow?

Oh no.

That's not what Khannie did at all.

She makes a subtle tweak to her spell, lowering the frictional threshold that sets it off.

The poppers all pop as the hit the ground.

And they keep popping as they start to roll.

It sounds like a string of firecrackers being set off.

"Jokes on you, you hag, I never wore diapers."

That's kind of a lame burn but Khannie will go for it.

"If you can cast silence spells just put one over your stupid cabin so it'll be quiet and leave me alone."

[bc56]

Baby Shower
"I, uh, he, uh, sort of already has a sister." Sekhmet stammers. "We, uh, sort of adopted this orphan girl who was, uh, hurt." That may come as a surprise to most of the people here. Sophie probably noticed the tiefling girl coming and going from Hawthorn Cabin though, few things seem to escape her notice.

[Ironsmith]

[Fireworks!]

Braon's hands fly to her ears as her attempt at depriving Khannie of fireworks backfires, the resulting escalating crackle of poppers going off proving to be quite hard on her hearing. How is it these kids never appreciate how loud they are?

And...

Did Khannie just call her a hag?!

Braon lets out an appalled little gasp and steps back, taking a moment to check out her reflection in the surface of the lake. She's not that decrepit-looking, is she? She's still in the prime of her life! ...Mostly. She has let herself go just a little bit.

...Why does she care what this kid has to say about her looks, anyway? Clearly she said that just to get under Braon's skin. She probably didn't even actually mean it... not that that would stop it from working.

"Okay, that's it. You asked for it." Braon scowls, rolling up her sleeves and making a gesture towards the surface of the lake.

Which then moves up a few meters, as she attempts to smother the sound of the popping, possibly ruin the remaining fireworks and soak Khannie in the process.

Excessive? Maybe.

Justified? Probably not.

Does she care? Of course not.