[Nexus] GLoG 84: Goblins and catgirls and dryads, oh my!

[Morty]

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

Brinika scurries over a little closer to the catbaby and presses her hands to her cheeks.
"Ooooooooh, he's so adorable."

[Hattish Thing]

Vidalia watches, keenly interested in what Marty decides to do with the door. She smiles bemused as he shuts the door, then shakes her head ever so slightly as he heads to the loveseat instead of sitting next to her. She stops before he can notice the movement, unless he has eyes in the back of his head, or he sat rather suddenly.

She watches and cranes her neck a little, to see any burns or scars on his neck. That's alright. What scared you away? Then her eyes turn back to their evil glare. Did someone threaten or harm you? something may tell him that her anger is not directed at him this time, that she may even be about to get up and avenge this wrong.

Well, they are old scars, burns, and what looks to be canine teeth marks on his neck. No, he has no eyes, nor he did he sit particularly quickly.
He wrings his hands again. Um...i-it w-was at n-night....some w-woman wearing armor w-with a b-big sword w-wanted to see Ms. Quinn...I t-tried t-to stop h-her...then she kicked me down a ditch a-and h-hit m-me with the h-hilt...then somehow R-Reinholdt w-was involved...I d-didn't know h-her name...

[Gullara]

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

Salix goes over to get a closer look. She crouches down in front of him and gives him a big smile. "Hiya Mikhail. I'm Salix."

[happyturtle]

Lakeside - Salix's Sapling

Mikhail makes baby noises in Salix's direction, and bats at the snow with his chubby little fists.

Vasi sits down in the snow and adds to the tree snow shelter.

[Morty]

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

"He's got tiny furry ears," Brinika observes. "How old is he?"

[Gullara]

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

"Do you wanna help build the wall, Mikhail?" Salix asks. Of course, he can't give an answer, so Salix is going to try and pick him up under his arms and lift him just enough to move him next to the wall. Should that go well, she'll demonstrate packing snow onto the wall for him. "Like this."

[Earl of Purple]

Balsa Cabin

"Oh, wow, thank you Justin! I'll go see if I can borrow Bramble's Lockpick to get through the ice on the lake. I don't think he'll let me, though; he thinks that crowbar's the best thing he's ever found." It was in the boot of a rusted old car he found in a pond just outside Inside.

[OrchestraHc]

Balsa Cabin

"Oh, wow, thank you Justin! I'll go see if I can borrow Bramble's Lockpick to get through the ice on the lake. I don't think he'll let me, though; he thinks that crowbar's the best thing he's ever found." It was in the boot of a rusted old car he found in a pond just outside Inside.

Balsa Cabin

"It's actually formally named the Lockpick? I thought he was just being cute," Justin says. "Well we've all got our favorites. I've had my bag for ages." He swiped it from an abandoned shop in the Atlanta underground. "Sorry it's so aseasonal, either way. Also, I have a gift for Lichen. Could you give it to him when he wakes up?" Justin removes another box, much smaller than the last and holds it out.

[Earl of Purple]

Balsa Cabin

"Whenever he talks about it, he calls it a lockpick. So I have no idea if it's formally named or not, but it probably is. He says he could use it to unlock the secrets of the mind with it, but I don't think he's hit anybody with it yet. Sure, I'll give it to Lichen. I'm sure he'll like it." Yes, it's pretty formally named.

Also, I got New Vegas for Christmas! I have a grenade rifle. It goes 'boom' and cripples Legion Assassins, unless I've loaded incendiary rounds, when it normally kills them. I usually don't have any ammo left after, though.

[Hattish Thing]

Main Cabin

The man takes the hand for a shake.

"Andreas Emerald" he sais as the man searches for his name.

The he holds both his hands up in defense.

"Wow ow. Slow down Mister. This isn't a speed interview. I would like to take my time."

"First off. I think we have devine people around so you can't become 'the' camp priest. I think thats something Quinn counts for us. Next, we don't fight much which means you won't meet that much evil to beat. Next, if you want to 'raise' undead then leave immediatelly."

He nods. The being a matter of speech. I meant "a". Divine people? Mhm,, I've heard of Ms. Quinn. Good, not much fighting. Better for you. I can raise. I never said I wanted to, sir. Most priests can raise the dead. We just find it absolutely despicable...At least priests of my religion. I want to help the undead in the camp cope with being....well...dead. for example, I met one just outside! Named Reinholdt.

[happyturtle]

Lakeside - Salix's Sapling

Spoiler

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[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

"He's got tiny furry ears," Brinika observes. "How old is he?"

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

"Do you wanna help build the wall, Mikhail?" Salix asks. Of course, he can't give an answer, so Salix is going to try and pick him up under his arms and lift him just enough to move him next to the wall. Should that go well, she'll demonstrate packing snow onto the wall for him. "Like this."

"He's thirteen months old," Vasilisa says. Mikhail is moved next to the wall, but Salix's inexperience in hauling babies around causes him to topple over into the snow. He makes whiney noises, then he manages to roll onto his belly and gurgle as he plays with the snow.

[Morty]

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

Brinika gasps. "Is he alright?"

[Gullara]

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

"He's okay." Salix assures them as she flops down in the snow in front of him to make sure. "He's squirmy, and hard to move." How is he supposed to help make the wall?!

[Zefir]

He nods. The being a matter of speech. I meant "a". Divine people? Mhm,, I've heard of Ms. Quinn. Good, not much fighting. Better for you. I can raise. I never said I wanted to, sir. Most priests can raise the dead. We just find it absolutely despicable...At least priests of my religion. I want to help the undead in the camp cope with being....well...dead. for example, I met one just outside! Named Reinholdt.

[Main Room]

Andy looks a bit confused at the cleric. This guy sounds a bit crazy and less informed then he needs to be. He shakes his head.

"You must be mistaken. I only know one Reinhold that is on this ground," (Plotclones don't count)" and I'm save to say he is no undead. Futhermorw A cleric who doesn't want to raise undead would never mention it while introducing himself. It appears more like you will do it."

Andy makes a shrt break as letters appear at his left eye.

"I can't see how your helping undead will work out here, especially as we have only 1 and I think it's bettter to threat her like we do with everyone here. I wonder why you only mention to help undead. Why can't you help normal people as well?"

[happyturtle]

Lakeside - Salix's Sapling

Spoiler

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[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

Brinika gasps. "Is he alright?"

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

"He's okay." Salix assures them as she flops down in the snow in front of him to make sure. "He's squirmy, and hard to move." How is he supposed to help make the wall?!

Vasi laughs. "It's easier to move babies when you're grownup, but they're always kind of squirmy." Mikhail shows no signs of being any help on the wall at all! Good thing Vasi is there to do her part.

Mikhail loses his interest in the snow when he spies something and snatches out to try and catch it. He misses! Partly because he has all the grace and elegance of a typical one year old, but mostly because he's trying to catch the shadow of his own tail.

[Morty]

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

Brinika interrupts her work at building the wall to giggle at Mikhail.
"Babies are so cute. Baby Flamecrest is cute, baby Hadrian is cute, baby Scylla and Prism are cute and Mikhail's cute too."

[Poplar Cabin]

Reelshka is there to speak with Brand if he's free.

[Gullara]

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

Salix giggles at Mikhail grabbing at nothing. Silly baby. She sits up again and nods her agreement with Brinika. "There's lots of babies." She observes, not having realized just how many were.

The dryad gathers up a small pile of snow and buches it together into a snowball. She sets the ball in front of Mikhail within arms reach. "Here you go."

[happyturtle]

Lakeside - Salix's Sapling

Mikhail is happily distracted by Salix's snowball. "Bo bo bo!" he announces happily, and then tries to eat the snowball.

[Morty]

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

Brinika giggles again. "Snow isn't for eating, silly!"

[Gullara]

[Lakeside - Salix's Sapling]

Salix laughs along with her. Too cute. An idea suddenly occur to her. "Wanna come inside the wall, Mikhail?" She looks up at Vasi. "Can you help me move him inside?" She doesn't want to make him topple over again.

[Halae]

[Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning]

Through it was delayed due to various circumstances (not the least of which was simply forgetting to do it), this scene is a bit belated, but happens on Thanksmas Day.

It had been a pretty good night. Eric, as a family man, had a few days off to enjoy the holidays, and he was making the most of it. currently, though; he's asleep. As when he was a starspawn, he doesn't actually need sleep, but it's a nice way to recharge and let your mind work out problems on its own while you're drifting through dreams. A pair of nightmares had started, but in his sleep he moved closer to Julie, to hold her tight, and if she let him, that would have quelled the nightmares completely.

They'll likely be in each other's arms when they're awoken by a squealing girl in the hallway, "Mommy! Daddy! It's Thanksmas!"

[Slii Arhem]

Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning

If Julie had her way the night would have begun and ended in Eric's arms. Holding him through the night kept her from waking up and thinking he was still dead and her life with him had been the dream, even though such night terrors happened less and less frequently these days.

Julie's mind was already awake by the time Scylla began to shout, and her body roused with a glowing smile and a a stifled yawn. Their first Thanksmas together as a family...

On the stove, a pot of hot chocolate comes to a boil with a thought from the succubus as her eyes flutter open to look at Eric. She gives him a squeeze around the middle and rests her head against his shoulder.

When Eric wakes up, he can see over Julie's shoulder that Prism is standing in the doorway, rubbing her eyes tiredly with one hand and clutching at a dirty onion plush toy with the other. Her night gown is already an inch shorter than it should be despite Julie just making it for her a week ago.

"Did Wolfy Claws come daddy?"

[Halae]

Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning

Eric will come into wakefulness himself after a moment, before he gives Julie a little kiss and sits up in bed to look at his daughter, "I don't know Sweetie. I slept all through the night wouldn't have heard him come in."

Blatant Lies.

"Why don't we check for presents from him and see about the milk and cookies we left out?"

Scylla, meanwhile, is waiting for her parents to get out of bed by doing something clever; Time is moving around her quicker than everywhere else because it's easier and makes things happen faster. So basically she looks like she's in slow motion. Wonder when she figured out this particular trick?

[Slii Arhem]

Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning

"He better have come, or else all that effort I went to finding a recipe for bacon cookies will have been for nothing." Because what else would you give a werewolf god of bestial nature dressed up in a santa suit?

When Julie gets up and sees Scylla, she just shakes her head, Waldorf was a horrible influence on his nieces, "Scylla honey, if you don't stop that you're going to get really hungry and we aren't eating until all your presents are unwrapped. Besides, it's your first Thanksmas so you need to cherish it and take it slow, even the boring parts okay?" Julie sways out into the family room where their little Thanksmas tree is standing in the corner, surrounded by piles of presents. She and Eric picked it out of the GLoG forest themselves, and with a bit of psionics carried it back very easily.

[Halae]

Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning

Eric will come out as well, and boop Scylla on the nose. She giggles and sticks her tongue out at her mother, being playful, "Go ahead and open the first present, Squishy. We'll all take turns."

Scylla gleefully obliges, and will reach for the first present available, not even waiting to see if everybody else agrees.

[Slii Arhem]

Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning

Julie doesn't object, but she picks up Prism and grabs another present out of the pile to hand to the wide-eyed little fargirl. It happens to be the same shape and size as the one Scylla nabbed, and Eric may notice that they're a pair that were addressed as "from Wolfy Claws."

Prism will consciously wait until her sister starts pulling the paper off of hers before doing the same, apparently taking her mother's advice about going slowly to heart.

[Halae]

Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning

Scylla will start pulling off the paper quickly as Eric sits quietly and watches with a smile. He can wait for anything that might have been gotten for him, after all.

Scylla, unlike her quiet sister, is definitely not going slow.

Inside the presents, one for each of the girls, is a Tablet that runs on magic. They run on the Spheres^TM operating system, which is largely compatible with everything and is constantly being upgraded. Scylla's tablet has a fish pattern on the back, while prism has a floral pattern.

[Slii Arhem]

Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning

Prism's eyes go wider, if possible. It was a thing! A grownup thing!

Okay, she has no idea what it does, but she'd seen grownups with them and now she has one with flowers on it eeeeeeeee!!! The little empath's happiness and excitement washes over the whole room, and she hugs the tablet to her chest while still supported by Julie.

"Well, I think Wolfy made one of our little darlings happy. What about you Scylla, do you like your present from Mister Claws?" The succubus kneels down to look more closely at Scylla, not wanting to exclude her from the moment.

"Eric, why don't you pick out a present from your pile? There are a few from Kate there too that we should get to soon."

[Halae]

Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning

Scylla is too busy tearing the tablet out of its box to have really noticed, but when Julie gets close, she grins widely, "I love my..." she looks at the box for a moment, turning it over until she finds the title, "N-Tal 3200?" she frowns at the name, but the smile is still evident on her face, "It has fish! And it's a thing grownups use!"

Eric grins, "I'll show you how to use it when we're done unwrapping presents." A present - one of the largest ones of course, given he's always excited to get gifts too - will float over to him and he'll begin opening it, with Scylla climbing onto the couch to see what it is too.

[Slii Arhem]

Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning

Scylla is too busy tearing the tablet out of its box to have really noticed, but when Julie gets close, she grins widely, "I love my..." she looks at the box for a moment, turning it over until she finds the title, "N-Tal 3200?" she frowns at the name, but the smile is still evident on her face, "It has fish! And it's a thing grownups use!"

Eric grins, "I'll show you how to use it when we're done unwrapping presents." A present - one of the largest ones of course, given he's always excited to get gifts too - will float over to him and he'll begin opening it, with Scylla climbing onto the couch to see what it is too.

Rowan Cabin - Thanksmas Morning

The present Eric chose certainly is heavy, but it's also fairly floppy and flat. As he unwraps it he'll find a cloth suit bag under the paper, and if he pulls down the zipper he'll see a dark grey pinstriped suit, the stripes done in silver thread. A dashing fedora is included with it.

"You have no idea how much effort I went to to enchant that psionically, especially since I'm usually useless at it, but I figured if you were going to keep enforcing for loan sharks you might as well look the part, and you won't have to clean that at all. The rest of the features are on a card I slipped into the inside breast pocket. Merry Thanksmas hun." Julie sets Prism down so she can stand and give Eric a peck on the cheek as he's inspecting it.

"Alright, let's see what else we have for you two.. how about something from auntie Kate, hmm?" Julie psionically lifts two big heavy cube-shaped presents and sets them before her darlings.

Prism starts unwrapping this one right away, curiosity getting the better of her. Of course, she's still tentative about it so she begins by peeling wrapping paper away from a corner slowly.