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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[The Mithar Keep - A Package!]
Thankfully, the package did have a return address.
Looked to be... Somewhere in Inside? If Cessie knew much about the various locals, she may or may not be able to pin the area to a suburban area just on the verge of a factory district. Fitting, in some ways.
If she were to look it up on a map, though, the building would look a bit.. Small? At least for a laboratory.
Well, Riss did have a certain way of defying expectations...
At least the location was in a fairly safe area.. Actually it hadn't always been safe but crime had apparently plummeted back around... Wait.. No, that' was clearly just a coincidence.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[The Mithar Keep]
"Sounds? Oh, that is neat," Ilpholin admits. Up until now she thought the orb was just a glorified lamp.
The sound effect seems appropriate as Cora bursts into the room looking a little like she was drizzled on. "Wow. With time to spare. That is impressive. You're definitely ready for advanced training."
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[The Mithar Keep]
Cora puffs out her chest and grins with pride. "But you're slow, mommy." Cora wants to go go go, and her energy is boundless.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Sweet Dreams]
There's a pause before Cessie receives any reply, but then she can hear Sakura's voice again. "Don't be silly, Cessie, I'm right here." Once again it's impossible to place where her voice is coming from.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Sweet Dreams]
The sorceress puts her hand against the nearest tree and takes a closer look. Was her friend within them somehow? "I don't understand." She admits, though she guessed it was connected to all these trees.
[The Mithar Keep]
"You can always run ahead, Cora. I know we can't keep the same pace but I also know you like exploring. See it as a little adventure." She turns to Ilpholin. "You'd have to tell Wenomir that. It was a while since you met him too, wasn't it? He trains Cora every week and it looks like it has results." The sorceress looks back to her daughter with a smile.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
Spooky Encounters
"You're a genius, Jillian!" Lucy decides in as loud a whisper as she dares. "Come on, I'm gonna get his attention."
Lucy will sneak up, give a whistle at the creepy thing in the direction of their candy trail, and then slink away around the corner. Provided it doesn't spot them, they'll circle around to get at the phone.
Molerat Wranglin'
"Why, yes, you did," Viviana says, peering at her granddaughter very strangely. "...I didn't frighten you at all with those bubbles, did I, dear?" She comes over and stoops. "Have you ever done anything like that before?"
David, meanwhile, comes hurtling over from where he fell in the pond - fairly covered in mud - and waddle-runs in a little splattery circle around Tuskfang, chittering loudly at the rotund amphibian he holds. Clearly the frogs were the ones responsible for the bubble attack!
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
Spooky Encounters
The ghost stops eating as soon as Lucy whistles and soon leans out from behind the fridge door. It's cyclopean eye searching for the source of the sound like a searchlight. It appears as if it's looking right at them but then looks down and spots the candy on the floor. "Clops..."
It picks it up and opens it mouth, giving Lucy and Jillian a brief glimpse of its insides which appear to be nothing but a black void of nothing in where the candy just disappears without a trace. "Duclop... muchmuch..." Then it moves on to the next piece, and the next piece, eventually giving the girls the opportunity to sneak over to the phone.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[The Mithar Keep]
"I suppose not. I don't keep in touch as much as you do I guess. Since I don't go to VIGIL every day." A natural side effect. "Though I'd love to see his face when Wenomir sees my belly." Ilpholin smirks to herself, just imagining how loud Wenomir's chiseled jaw would be when it hits the floor.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Spooky Encounters]
Jillian and Lucy head around the other side of the island as the ghost follows their trail. "It worked!" Jillian whispers excitedly as the creep over to the phone. She wastes no time and grabs the phone, maybe with a bit of a boost from Lucy. She punches in the number she knows will get a hold of her mom and holds the phone up to her ear.
[Molerat Wranglin']
"Mm mm." Lucy shakes her head. She might have been overwhelmed at the end there, but not scared. "Did something like what?" She asks, not fully grasping the situation.
"Boy frogs are bigger." Cern decides, even if he knows nothing about frog biology. He leans over to look at the frog at eye level.
"Mommy says the frogs gotta live in the pond, so we can't take him home." Gwydion explains.
[The Mithar Keep]
"Okay, mommy. I could beat you in a race!" She decides. She goes over to Bastion. "Come on, put your ball down. Let's go race." She's riled up now. What has Ilpholin done?
"Mm, okay." Bastion holds his orb up to Ilpholin. "You can look at it more if you want." He offers.
"I wanna go too, mommy." Jillian says. She wants to be included.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Sweet Dreams]
The tree looks like a very normal cherry blossom tree. There's another delay before she hears Sakura's voice again. "I'm right here, silly." This time it's coming from behind her. If she turns she'll see Sakura. The dryad looks like her usual self, dressed in a light dress for the warm weather. She's beaming from ear to ear. "I'm so glad you came." She steps over to give her friend a hug.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Sweet Dreams]
Peculiar.
Cessie smiles back nonetheless, glad to finally have found her friend and returns the hug. "You're acting as if we haven't met each other in a while." She muses. "Of course I'm going to visit. I visit you almost every day."
[The Mithar Keep]
"I'm certainly not going to race you, Cora." Cessie remarks as she gently puts down Jillian on the floor. "So it's a good thing you have your sliblings. Just let Jillian join in will you?" She tries to make eye-contact with both the twins.
[Spooky Encounters]
After a few signals Jillian can hear her mom at the other end. "Hello? Who is this?"
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[The Mithar Keep]
Probably nothing that wouldn't have naturally, seeing Cora's inherent excitability.
"Thank you," Ilpholin says, taking the orb and holding it up, smiling at Bastion. "That's very kind of you."
She'll have to fiddle with it while they're gone, see if she can get it to work without any instructions. Like a puzzle.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Molerat Wranglin']
Tuskfang's tail wags as he basks in his triumph. He's no doubt going to boast to his dad and his cousins about his mighty feat of frog-catching.
"Yeah, I think dad told me that frogs aren't like fish and can be outside water but they gotta go back. But I saw a picture of a frog in a tree once. Does that mean some frogs live on trees?"
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Spooky Encounters]
Lucy 'whispers' rather loudly into the side of the phone, a rapid fire barrage of words. For all her excitable nature, Lucy sounds genuinely concerned. "Auntie Cessie auntie Cessie, there's ghosts here! There's one eating all of daddy's food and our candy and there was another one that changed our hair and that one wasn't that bad but the first one is really scary, please come over here!"
[Molerat Wranglin']
Viviana lowers her voice a little. No need to make a spectacle of Lucy for the boys. "Like something magic. What you did was magic, Lucy, dear. You popped my little spell. That's not something most little girls can do." She puts a gentle hand on Lucy's shoulder. "Have you ever... hm. Have you ever just said something, and then had it happen? Without you having to do anything other than say so?"
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Spooky Encounters]
"Yeah mommy. You gotta come. It's real ghosts!" Jillian adds, overlapping with Lucy. The rush of words from the two kids might be a bit hard to interpret over the phone.
[Molerat Wranglin']
Lucy looks at Viviana with wide eyes. This is the first time she's heard this. "Maybe? I don't remember." This was a lot to process. "I never tried to pop the bubbles, though."
"I never seen a frog in a tree before." Cern decides after a moment of thought.
"Maybe different frogs do. Let's ask gramma." Gwydion decides. It looks like Viviana's time to privately talk to Lucy might be cut short because Bastion leads the boys back over. "Gramma gramma. Can frogs climb trees?"
[The Mithar Keep]
Cora purses her lips. Jillian is small and slow. "Okay..."
Bastion grins and Ilpholin and then goes over to take Jillian's hand. "Stay with me, Jillian."
Then the three head out of the room, with a chorus of 'bye byes' on their way out.
[Sweet Dreams]
Sakura appears to think about that for a moment. "I'm always excited to see you, though." She decides. "Did you come to celebrate with me?" She asks.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Molerat Wranglin']
Tuskfang follows Cern and Gwydion, still holding the captured frog. He's rather curious about the answer himself.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Spooky Encounters]
There is a short pause as Cessie seem to take all that in. "Ghosts? Stay where you are ladybug. Don't make a sound." She swallows. The girls likely able to tell how tense she suddenly sounds. "I'll be there in a second, don't worry." She doesn't hang up though and they girls can hear what sounds like movement.
Even from here they might be able to hear the ghost founding the bags of candy and starts digging in. It muches loudly from within the room.
[The Mithar Keep]
"Just watch out for each other!" Cessie calls after them as they go. Jillian wasn't even dressed for running so she hoped she didn't trip and fell.
Then she turns back to Ilpholin. "So where were we? We were talking about Jezebel, right?"
[Sweet Dreams]
"Celebrate?" Cessie inquires, clearly not seeing what she meant. "There's a lot to celebrate, Sakura." She smiles. "What do you mean in particular?"
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Sweet Dreams]
Sakura's expression shifts. She furrows her eyebrows. Then she shrugs, smiling again. "I'm not really sure." She looks away, down the path Cessie had been following. "Where are you going anyway?"
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[The Mithar Keep]
Ilpholin lowers the orb and turns her full attention to Cessie, quizzically raising an eyebrow. "Were we? What do you mean?" Cessie didn't mention Jezebel before! She was about to say something before, so presumably it was about Jezebel.
"If she's mad about the clothes, I kinda lost them fighting demons for my life. Sorry, not sorry?"
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[The Mithar Keep]
The sorceress shakes her head and smiles. "No, I think she felt those clothes came to good use. Jezebel herself got gravely wounded while fighting the demons though." She gives Ilpholin a somber look. "She's fine now, don't worry. But something else happened in-between that. Well, two things actually. First of all, which I believe you will find most serious, she have assumed a more spirit-like apperance. Horns, a tail..." She raises her hand as if expecting Ilpholin to object. "The demons didn't get to her if you're wondering. It was something more personal. She settled things with the being that possessed her before right before she fought against the invasion. A daemon as she calls it. It no long threatens to consume her as they've united into one being from what I understand. She acts the same though and I've had an expert look at her and she doesn't believe that she's driven to any abnormal behavior. However, I understand that you will still be concerned and I am too."
She pauses, taking a deep breath. "She and I got, ah, together. As in a relationship. That's the second thing that's happened. So of course I'm concerned that something might have changed within her." Cessie puts her hands together. "So do you have any suggestions? I know these changes will likely will make you distrust her but I want you two to be able to work something out. You and Jezebel were the two most important figureheads during the attack. Without your efforts the city would have been lost to those creatures. Therefore, I want you both at the same side and to be able to at least tolorate one another."
Cessie reaches into a hidden pocket of her dress and takes out her small communication device. She flips it open and reveals a picture of Jezebel (fully dressed!) as she looks now.
[Sweet Dreams]
"To visit you of course." Cessie explains, giving Sakura another smile. "To understand you a bit better I guess you could call it. That's alright I hope?"
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Sweet Dreams]
"Are you? But I'm right here, and the path is leading you down there." Sakura turns and looks down the path Cessie had been heading down before she showed up. As before it appears to head deeper into the woods.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Spooky Encounters]
"Oh good! She's coming!" Lucy looks around. Clearly their parents will be here in a second, just like Cessie says. It's worth noting that if Adir is at the Keep, he'll definitely want to accompany the sorceress in whatever way she uses to travel. Hopefully she has something quick, or maybe she can make the portal work again.
Lucy, not even able to guess at any of this, gives Jillian a gentle tug. "Come on. Daddy once showed me where we can hide in case there's someone bad in the house." He sometimes got very serious about it. The hiding place turns out to be a little side compartment under the sink, a gap through into an empty cabinet space. It's only slightly less visible than being under the sink, if someone decides to open the shutters and look, but it was better than nothing.
[Molerat Wranglin]
"Well, it isn't always something you have to try to do. But there might be more you can do if you do try. Just be careful, my dear." She puts a hand on Lucy's head.
"Oh, gracious me, look at you three!" Viviana says with a laugh, pouring on the matronly warmth as the three boys return. "Why, yes, my darling! Some of them can. Some can climb trees, some live in caves, some can even live in the desert!"
"I see you've caught an awfully handsome specimen there, too. A resident of the pond, no doubt. I wonder if you should name him so you can say hullo in the future?"
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Spooky Encounters]
"Good idea. We're going to the hiding spot, mommy." Jillian says before hanging up the phone. She follows Lucy into the little crawl space and bunkers down. She sits holding her knees to her chest. "Mommy's gonna scare those ghosts off for good." She states confidently.
[Molerat Wranglin]
Lucy nods. "Okay gramma."
"Yeah, good idea, gramma!"
"What're you gonna name him?" Gwydion asks, looking at Tuskfang. He caught the frog, so he gets to do it.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Spooky Encounters]
It will take a while but eventually they can hear something else than the ghost muching on candy, namely the front door being slammed open. "Jillian! Lucy!" Cessie cries out as she practically flies into the kitchen.
The word "flies" is actually appropriate as the physical her isn't actually here. Jillian, and maybe even Lucy, have seen her mom like this before. She appears as a cloud of ash grey gas, vog or volcanic gas Jillian might recall mommy telling her, that resemble her in shape and form. It means that she's probably back home too, resting in a form of trance and projecting this elemental form here.
[Sweet Dreams]
Cessie pauses, not sure what to think of this. There seemed to be some dream logic she was missing. Last time she had been within another mind there had been more than one aspect of the person she visited. Did that mean there were several versions of Sakura too?
"Let's go down the path together, shall we?" She suggests and attempts to take Sakura's hand to lead her down the path the dryad was gesturing at.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Molerat Wranglin]
Tuskfang swells with pride upon being given the very important task of frog-naming. He lifts the frog up to look at it more closely as he tries to think of a name. There was that one name he's heard once...
"I'm going to name him Styx," he announces solemnly. "Styx the frog. Thanks for playing with us, Styx."
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Molerat Wranglin]
Cern giggles. "Sticks? I thought he was a pond frog."
"I think it's a good name." Gwydion says encouragingly.
[Quiet Night]
Late one night the Frescot house is quiet. Adir and Sakura sleep side by side. For a little while Malachi and Kissa are quiet in their cribs and let them rest. Laela slumbers in her personal palace. Cern and Gwydion half hanging off their beds where they'd been leaning over to whisper to each other. Lucy nestled in her own pile of flowers and Russell buried under his covers. Laurana clutches her plush rabbit to her cheek, sleeping peacefully.
In the next bed over lies Cassie, her plush cat resting on her pillow next to her head. She's bundled up tightly in her blanket against the cooler night air.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Quiet Night]
Have you ever... wondered?
Have you ever wondered... why the youngest children fight so hard against falling asleep?
Why they kick and scream and battle against heavy-lidded eyes?
Have you ever wondered why they so often awake weeping? Why so often terrified cries of 'mommy' reach through the quiet of the dark?
Have you?
Wondered... That perhaps they still recall something that you have forgotten?
Three knocks.
*TOK TOK TOK!*
The gloom under Cassie's bed deepens, stark and thick, as a miasma of heavy torpor settles over the room.
Warm.
Still.
Smothering.
Terrifying.
Sleep will flee from Cassie as her mind snaps back to wakefulness, yet something is wrong. Deeply, horribly wrong. Her eyes move, but nothing else. She can't wiggle her fingers. She can't shift her legs. It is as though a horrid weight is crushing the breath from her lungs. Should she try to scream the words will echo silently in her mind and travel no further.
A hand slivers from the gloom under her bed, black and furry. Fingers too long, too many joints. An arm trails limply behind it, an awful ropy thing covered in greasy, dark hair. The hand creeps across Cassie's bed, looming over her. And then another appears. And another. And another. And another. And another. And another. Then something else, a sooty black mass on a dangling neck with a perfectly pristine top hat balanced upon it. The hands grasp her, still swaddled in blankets as she is, her arms, her legs, her shoulders. A hand clamps over her mouth, even though so paralyzed with terror she can't force her tongue to obey her.
And then in a single, rapid, violent motion Cassie is yanked under her bed into the gloom.
But wait.
What's this?
Another child in the room, awakened as well into a state of frozen fear?
The sooty blot turns. Slowly. Agonizingly. Until it faces toward Laurana. Below the hat, sitting slightly askew, rests something not unlike a comedy mask. The black spots that form the eyes and mouth crawl as though they were made of spiders. The nightmare raises one of its horrible, crooked fingers to its mockery of a mouth and-
"Ssshhhh...."
-vanishes back under the bed.
There are still blankets on Cassie's bed. And in fact Cassie still appears to be laying in it, exactly as she had been, sleeping peacefully. The under-bed gloom fades. Slowly, gradually, over the course of a few terrifying minutes the torpor slowly lifts from the room.
Laurana is free to scream now.
Have you ever wondered why children fear sleep?
I haven't.
I know.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[The Mithar Keep]
Ilpholin feels her gut start to knot and a growing desire to wretch. Just when things were starting to go right for the first time in a long time, just when there was this real deep understanding between them, this... this betrayal happens. Jezebel happens.
Ilpholin starts laughing. "You can't, haha, you can't be serous right? Hah hah. You're joking. You have to be..." It was clear that Cessie was not actually joking and Ilpholin's breaths become shallow, rapid, manic, as if to match her voice. "Do you even hear yourself? 'She cut a deal and now she's not possessed, she's united.' A person doesn't get bit by a vampire, come to terms with their bloodthirsty maniac and suddenly get better. They aren't merged and ok and calling them vampyre doesn't make it all right! Mildly changing the pronunciation of the word doesn't make her any less of a demon!"
The nymph points her finger at Cessie's phone accusingly. "Look at her!" Ilpholin demands in a shrill voice. "LOOK AT HER! News flash! Daemons. ARE. Demons!"
"Lolthdammit Cessie. Tell me you didn't sleep with- Of course you did. Of course." Putting a hand to her head, she started taking deeper breaths. That's right. Jezebel wasn't just a demon, she was a demon with powerful enchanting magics and brainwashing power. None of this was Cessie's fault. Ilpholin knew the web was there and didn't warn her friend. All because she was what? Ashamed of what she had done? And now Cessie was the one getting hurt because of it.
"I'm sorry, I just... I know something about Jezebel I haven't told anyone. When I was in charge of AMEN, there was this girl. Becky. She was... wholly devoted to me. Just short of fanatically so. I kind of regret..." Ilpholin trails off, knowing there was no saving that girl and quickly reminding herself of that fact. "Anyways, she disappeared for a week with no warning. When she got back, she said she had encountered Jezebel. Had spent the whole time with her in the Lotus Gardens with her cult. Sleeping with them. And that devotion? It had almost entirely disappeared, twisted towards Jezebel."
Ilpholin stares Cessie in the eyes with the most serious look she's ever given the mage. "Cessie. Jezebel has sex magic. She's charmed you and seduced you and played with your head. I know, I know you may be the most stubborn, willful mage I've ever met, but done correctly, over time it can be near impossible to notice, let alone resist. She's using you Cessie, to get to VIGIL."
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Not So Quiet Night]
Laurana screams and cries hysterically, uncontrollably. It's only moments before the lights flick on as Sakura sweeps into the room. She sits next to her daughter and pulls her into a tight hug. "It's okay, sweetie, it's okay. What's wrong?" She coos. Laurana can't get any words out past her sobbing now, though, so Sakura scoops her up into her lap and rocks gentle while whispering soothing reassurances.
Cassie pushes her head off her pillow and rubs her eyes. She was sleeping so peacefully until her sister started crying. She mostly just looks dazed to be up at this hour.
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Re: The Twofold Houses 5: Rebuilding
[Sweet Dreams]
"Sure." Sakura smiles warmly and starts to walk down the path with Cessie. As they walk the scenery doesn't change much. It's just more and more trees as far as the eye can see, and she can see quite a ways. The path in front and behind her are perfectly level and the distance she can see is limited by her vision. There doesn't seem to be an end to the woods.
"You said you wanted to know me better." Sakura says, breaking the pleasant silence. As silent zas strolling through the woods ever is. "But I don't hide anything from you, or I don't try to." Sakura glances at her friend out of the corner of her eye. "What don't you know?"