[Nexus] GLoG 81: Ghostbusters!

[Lost_Deep]

Near Rowan Cabin

"Hi Mintbalm."

It... it doesn't look like Mintbalm is the one that's going to be getting this to a non-awkward place. "How are you feeling?" That's a good start. Isn't it?

[Lex-Kat]

{Lakeside Beach}

"Well I also think we're two of the few people that get results on jobs he gives us."

Caroline nods her head. Yeah. We are essential to the organization. Imagine if we weren't there? Poor Dipsnig, he'd problably go insane.

Cherry Cabin

"Awww... I'm sorry ma'am. That sounds horrible ma'am."

There's not much that can fix bleach that Butler knows of. But that's clothes.

"Maybe eating something will help ma'am? I could get you something ma'am."

Either way, Butler will give Vidalia hugs.

Oh, would you Butler? She sighs. Maybe some, some.... she thinks for a moment. How about breakfast? Surprise me with something breakfasty.

[Slii Arhem]

Near Rowan Cabin

"Pretty terrible, but I'm getting better. I'm sorry Kate, I really am." There's nothing else she can say really. She looks like she desperately wants to move closer to Kate, but something is holding her back.

[Lost_Deep]

Near Rowan Cabin

"It's okay; I don't blame you. Was there anything in particular you wanted to talk about?"

She doesn't know what to say to do the most help. She doesn't pretend to. She'll just ad lib and avoid doing more damage.

[Rebonack]

"Yeah, um... my tree." Salix nods sagely. It's hard for her to explain it when it's just a vague feeling of attachment to it, in addition to the very real attachment. "I have to stay close to it most of the time. Unless I bring a vine. But I have to go back." The dryad unwinds one such vine out of her hair. It blends in perfectly, so you'd never have known it was there.

Freddie just stakes at the vine.

He knows nothing about dryads.

Quite literally nothing.

So this whole tree thing is quite mysterious to him.

"Oh. That seems like it would really limit your ability to explore, wouldn't it?" he asks. "How far away from your tree can you go? What happens if you go too far?"

[Reinholdt]

{Lakeside Beach}

"Probably." Vincent pauses for a second.

"So which one of the three do you think were right?"

Cherry Cabin

"Alright ma'am. I'll be back soon ma'am." Butler says, going to give Vidalia a kiss on the forehead before moving to head to the kitchen.

[Lex-Kat]

{Lakeside Beach}

Hmmm? Three what? Sounds like she's forgotten the original quest already.

Cherry Cabin

"Alright ma'am. I'll be back soon ma'am." Butler says, going to give Vidalia a kiss on the forehead before moving to head to the kitchen.

Vidalia is kissed. I'll be in my room. she says as she tries to give him a pat on the bum. Wouldn't want to get yours all messy. she winks.

[Slii Arhem]

Near Rowan Cabin

Mintbalm shakes her head, not really sure what to say either, "I just had a talk with someone, and I think I'm ready to stop pretending now, if you still want to just be friends. It would make me really happy if we could go back to that." Mintbalm manages a half-smile, even though she doesn't look up just yet.

Behind her back, her right hand twitches, then turns in a slow circle. Her index finger trails behind a line of dust that hangs in the air, twinkling brightly.

[Reinholdt]

Cherry Cabin -> Kitchen

Butler grins at her briefly from the pat, before heading to the kitchen.
Time to make some pancakes and sausage, with some fruit on the side.

{Lakeside Beach}

"You know, the three opinions we got. Though crazy old man's wasn't much of one. I expected some... I dunno... wisdom sounding thing." Maybe that's what the quest's for?

[Lost_Deep]

Near Rowan Cabin

Kate smiles. "Yes, I would like that."

She doesn't notice the bit of pixie dust.

[Slii Arhem]

Near Rowan Cabin

"Great, so do you have some time to hang out, chickadee?" As she says the last word, Mintbalm generates and hurls a fistful of pixie dust through the little portal she made behind her back with a flick of her wrist.

And then it comes out above Kate's head in the matching portal, and holy crap what the heck did Mintbalm do!?

Rather than just a fistful, the second portal spits out a massive, fridge-sized hunk of pixie dust all at once that heads down towards Kate at full speed. If it hits her it's going to do something Kate might remember well, after her last experience with a dust fight. It's going to enclose her in an eggshell, and give her a very clucky makeover. This one is extra bad in fact, in that standard removal effects are only going to make it worse.

Which just begs the question, where did Mintbalm get all that dust from to generate such a powerful effect?

[Lost_Deep]

Near Rowan Cabin

Poof!

ARGLEBLARGLE DISPEL DUST!

Presumably that makes it worse. this should end with Kate out of the egg, but also very... birdy.

"If we're going to do this, I want to do it in a more out-of-the-way area."

She doesn't sound too upset at that. And she's a bit shorter... but it's hard to tell with the feathers.

[Slii Arhem]

Near Rowan Cabin

Mintbalm smiles, Kate's beak, wings, and skinny legs standing out more than her decrease in height.

"I don't know what you mean. Surely sensible, perfectly normal Kate couldn't possibly be thinking about engaging in a childish pixie fight, could she?" The actual pixie sticks out her tongue, then spins in a circle while dropping some pinches of dust here and there. Each sprouts up into a mushroom, and once the circle is complete she waves goodbye and winks out of sight.

Of course Kate could probably follow her through the ring, if she remembers how.

[Gullara]

[Up a Tree]

"Um, I just remember how far it is. It's kinda far. It's easy to tell when I'm getting too far away. I went past it to see what happens one time. I felt really icky, and it hurt." Salix frowns at that memory. "Now I'm really careful to make sure it never happens again."

[Rebonack]

[Up a Tree]

Freddie frowns at that.

Though...

Most people from his home don't travel that far. Serfs stay on the same plot of land their whole lives after all. But just the knowledge that you could never go far from home without getting sick and maybe dying just seems to... stifling.

"The dryads that I met all have a tree that follows them around," he replies. "I had thought that maybe that's the way it was supposed to work?"

Crazy Nexus and its crazy things!

"Maybe someone could teach your tree how to walk."

[Lost_Deep]

Near Rowan Cabin

Nurf...

Kate wants to take time out to fix this thing, but... awkward. It's a simple enough matter to step through the ring. It's no harder than stepping through a door...

...I want it on the record that Kate is completely ditzed right now. She tried really hard to dispell that effect, and as a result is not thinking straightly.

[Slii Arhem]

Clearing

Kate will find Mintbalm in an out-of-the-way clearing, still within GLoG's fence, but deep into the forest where they won't be disturbed.

"Ohoho, looks like I was wrong about you Katie. I've given you my best shot, now what will be yours?" It should be noted that Mintbalm has replicated Kate's previous trick, only defensively. Unless she is overwhelmed, whatever Kate tries on her should be returned to sender.

Tricksy pixies...

[Lost_Deep]

Clearing

"Give me a sec, I just need to..."

PUFT!

Kate tries to shift the change (let mintbalm deal with her trick) and then it gets reflected back.

"hey..."

So, Then Kate tries to trade effects with Mintbalm. The results of that might be... interesting.

[Gullara]

[Up a Tree]

Salix tilts her head at Freddie, utterly baffled. "Teach my tree to walk? But trees don't walk." How could Freddie not know that?!

[Slii Arhem]

Clearing

The first attempt to foist her problems off on Mintbalm is reflected as planned, but the second one, oddly enough, triggers the birding effects once more. It looks like foisting her troubles onto someone else isn't going to work with this one Kate. For her troubles, Kate gets a nice new set of tailfeathers.

"Aren't you going to ask me how it works?" Mintbalm's smile couldn't possibly get wider, but it does. Kate might notice that despite not being able to shuck off her bird curse, she has managed to acquire Mintbalm's reflector without the pixie noticing.

[Lost_Deep]

Clearing

Kate stands there for a minute.

If... a failsafe. A basic underlying effect under the obvious one, which reacts to attempts to alter the enchantment.

There's always another level of separation.

A mix of analysis and magic to take index of all relevant effects, including parts of effects, with a bit-

Rabid snot she's trying to boil the pixie dust down to a science! While your first reaction may be, "That's not possible, silly," the truth of the matter is that any magic, when sufficiently analyzed, is indistinguishable from science.

The total effect should be analyzing the the effects, and removing all effects affecting the "bird morph" effect and then the morph itself.

If it makes you feel better, she will have no idea what she did here after the gets her mind back to normal. This really only makes sense to pixie Kate, but to pixie Kate it's no harder than using a programming language.

Kate is a programmer. She programs for a living. As thus, pixie Kate should be able to pixie program like she pixie programs for a living.

YES, that paragraph makes total sense.

[Lex-Kat]

Cherry Cabin -> Kitchen

Butler grins at her briefly from the pat, before heading to the kitchen.
Time to make some pancakes and sausage, with some fruit on the side.

Vidalia yawns and stretches, before getting up and heading for her own room.

She's had her friends pull the table to the bed so she can eat from there. She moves one of the chairs closer, to give Butler a place to sit, if he wants.

She then lays back and soaks up the sun from the open windows.

{Lakeside Beach}

"You know, the three opinions we got. Though crazy old man's wasn't much of one. I expected some... I dunno... wisdom sounding thing." Maybe that's what the quest's for?

He seemed to be really cranky. Maybe you should listen to Sophie's advice. She seemed reasonable. Caroline nods.

[The Bushranger]

Lakeshore

...

"Why is GLoG so full of things that don't make any sense? There is magic, and tree tents, and fire boxes, and funny things with neck knives, and your dad... What's a dad, anyway?"

She just really said that. No joke.

Jamie just blinks in surprise.
"...wait, what? Are you serious?"

[Slii Arhem]

Clearing

Once Kate looks into the "code" of the bird morph, she'll see exactly what's wrong with it compared to most effects she's seen up until recently. Namely, Mintbalm has managed to use so much pixie dust that she's broken one of the fundamental rules of lower class fey magic. All effects, large or small, should be non-permanent and easily removable. In this case, she's created a sort of self-perpetuating curse that reacts to a certain kind of behavior (attempting to remove the curse in most any way) and only undoes itself after a certain "password" action is completed.

The action in question, if she's able to dig that far into the effect, happens to be a kiss.

Mintbalm keeps smiling, wondering when Kate is going to give in and ask so she can brag a bit.

Of course, if Kate wants to go the extra mile, there are certainly ways to mimic a kiss using pixie dust, which would probably fool the bird-curse enough to remove it.

[Reinholdt]

Kitchen -> Cherry Cabin

Butler returns momentarily, carrying the breakfast mentioned earlier on a tray. He knocks at Vidalia's door before entering.

"Here you are ma'am. Hope you like pancakes ma'am."

{Lakeside Beach}

"Well so did the first guy until they started talking crazy. So... you think I should grow up then?" Vincent asks in confirmation.

[Lex-Kat]

{Vidalia's Room}

Vidalia will reach out a tendril to open the door, just in case Butler's hands are full (which they should be ).

I looooove pancakes. Vidalia says, bouncing slightly on the bed and clapping merrily.
She stops to breathe in the aroma. Smells divine. What else?

{Lakeside Beach}

Caroline shrugs. I think you should do what feels right to you. That's my advice.

[Rebonack]

[Up a Tree]

"And cats don't talk. And fire dragons don't fly. And undead aren't ever nice. And the sun sets in the east," Freddie replies with a laugh. "I've started to wonder if there's anything that isn't impossible in the Nexus. I'll bet that if we looked hard enough that we could find someone who knows how to teach a tree to walk."

No doubt they could!

Maybe a druid of some kind?

Or a wizard?

Zee could probably do it.

But Zee creeps Freddie out pretty hard.

[Artemis97]

[Front Gate]

Sornnolu Xar'Cha, liason to the Nexus from House Xabaresh Chaeron, approaches the front gate of the Good League of Good. He was accompanied by an honor guard of four elaborately armored drow, all decorated in the gold and blue of Hosue Xar'Cha.

[Reinholdt]

{Vidalia's Room}

They are, but Butler's been a butler for a long time and has mastered the art of opening doors while his hands are full.

He appreciates the assist all the same though.

"Well I also got you some strawberries, orange juice, and sausages ma'am." He sets the rather large tray down on the table. There is, of course, syrup as well.

{Lakeside Beach}

"Hmm..." That's no help.

"You ready to go to that Island?"

[Lex-Kat]

{Vidalia's Room}

Looks delicous! she rubs her hands together in anticipation. She looks for the plates. There are plates, right?

{Lakeside Beach}

Caroline nods and stands up. She wipes the sand from her bum, before using the inventory screen to change into a sunny dress. Do you know where it is?