GLoG 89

[OrchestraHc]

[Alyca and Miriah's Cabin]

It's still standing! Hooray!

Sadly, the same can't be said for Alyca. She isn't allowed to stand yet - doctor's orders.

She survived falling out of the sky in a tank and then being ambushed by an extremely well-trained and well-funded band of mercs. Her legs were not so lucky. They had to be replaced.

On the bright side, the replacement legs look and feel natural. She can still sense when something is touching one or both of them. She can sprint endlessly and perform all manner of neat tricks with them!

On the downside, she's more machine than woman now...

At least she had the foresight to fill the freezer with ice cream before she "tripped and fell down a flight of stairs".

[Alyca and Miriah's Cabin]

This cabin needs a wood name.

Justin has arrived after a long hiatus from hanging around GLoG, which is sad, because literally all his friends live here.

He feels as awkward as he looks, standing at the cabin door. When he last came to this door it lead to a... a weird situation. That weird situation has left his relationship up in the air, so he's come here to "catch it" to extend the metaphor.

His hand goes up and knocks gently at the door. He silently snickers at himself. He's recently realized that he's weirdly open and friendly with the people he doesn't care about, and horribly awkward with people he does. If he didn't care what Alyca thought of him, he'd probably have come in through a window.

[The Alexandrian]

Until we choose a wood name...

[<Redacted> Cabin]

It's advantageous for Justin, then, that he does care about one of the the inhabitants of this cabin! It takes Alyca and Miriah a couple of minutes to answer the door. They weren't expecting a visitor today; if Justin had broken into the cabin via one of the closed and locked windows, he would be liable to find himself staring down the business end of one of those easily concealable semi-automatic pistols the girls are ever so fond of. The super secret spies simply are not willing to drop their guard so soon after one of them was nearly terminated in the invisible war that they so valiantly wage (except on weekends and holidays).

When Miriah does finally answer the door, it will immediately be crystal clear to Justin what she was up to when he first rapped upon her cabin's door. Glistening beads of hot water trickle down strands of her wet hair. They slowly but steadily drip down onto her solid black tank top. She models a pair of bright red sweatpants and comfortable black slippers with no socks.

She welcomes Justin to her home by swiftly stepping outside and carefully closing the door behind her as quietly as a mouse.

"Justin, before you charge headfirst into that melancholy cabin to confront my depressed sister, we need to talk about her condition."

[OrchestraHc]

[<Redacted> Cabin - Is there a good spy/wood pun?]

"Ah," he mutters, "I really need to learn to call ahead. Sorry."

"What's up?" he asks, returning to seriousness. "I know she was in ICU, but I wasn't told much else." Spy organizations seem not to be very forthcoming with agent medical information. Shocker.

[The Alexandrian]

[<Redacted Cabin> - Crabapple? ]

As in the Endangered Spy Crabapple?
I know nothing about trees.

Aaanyway...

"I trust that the information I'm about to relay to you will not be repeated to anyone or anything else - besides Alyca, of course."

The uncharacteristically humorless Miriah whispers conspiratorially, double checking that nobody else is in close proximity to the cabin before she continues.

"She's dead, Justin."

"After Alyca was blasted out of the back of that VTOL we were traveling in, she tried to dive into a hovercraft. She succeeded in that, but she failed to buckle up before the tank hit the pavement. She reported that she was attempting to switch the mode of the tank while the user identity verification program was running so that her landing would be cushioned by a sequence of steady and rapid pulses from the repulsors on the bottom of the tank."

"The repulsors broke her fall, but the mode switch wasn't activated quickly enough to be 100% effective."

"The force that the repulsors didn't negate was absorbed by her legs. She was in critical condition when she was recovered. Thanks to her cranial augmentations, she only just survived the impact."

"Her legs were irreparably damaged."

"They had to be removed and replaced if she was ever going to walk again."

[WarKitty]

Infirmary

A young woman walks up to the infirmary and looks around for anyone who could answer inquiries.

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

Choir was still sitting in here.

At some point someone must have brought her a bagel to eat, since she was eating said bagel whilst staring blankly at a nearby wall. She looked like, well, a fairly normal human, really. Aside from the dayglo orange eyes. She had red hair speckled with black and brown, which gave it a dirty, rusty sort of quality. Her clothing was somewhat ill-fitting and was probably originally for someone else.

Could Choir possibly answer the new person's questions?

Well...

Probably not.

But she might try!

Might just end up confusing everyone involved, too.

[WarKitty]

Infirmary

Candace doesn't really know how things work here, so she's going to ask anyway!

Do you work here, ma'am? I was looking for someone who I could ask about...amphibious treatment facilities.

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

It took Choir some time to realize that the other was speaking at her.

That's a thing she still had trouble with. The concept that others would speak to her. It was growing more... comfortable with time. More natural. But a not inconsiderable part of her was still repulsed by it. Others were dangerous. Or food. She had her self. That was all she ever needed.

But now...

"Work?" she asked. She hadn't ever heard that word before. But she knew it. Ideas and concepts and other words lit up in her mind when she thought it. Work. It was a thing one did to make one's environment better. Things one did to survive. But there was more to it than that. It also meant... working for others. Working for common good, like she worked for her self. But not for her self. For...

"No," Choir concluded, as much for her own understanding as for the question. "I was banished here. And... changed. The others here said they would help me become myself again."

Hopefully soon. The fear of extinction still ate at the edge of her mind.

[WarKitty]

Candace's eyes wrinkled a little. Her voice shifts to a hypnotizing, almost melodic lilt. It should be quite soothing.

Become yourself? Who are you?

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

"My self, yes," Choir replied with a nod. She wasn't sure what the nod was for, only that it was the right thing to do. "I'm me. But this body is wrong. It's static, congealed, calcified. It's asleep and it won't join me in my song. It can't hear me. It won't change. I need to wake my self up."

This was one of the problems with speaking to others.

Every time she met a new other she had to explain all these things to them all over again.

It was...

Frustrating.

Things were so much simpler when it was just her self who she spoke to.

But now? Everything is so muddled and confusing.

[The Bushranger]

[Goblin versus Junco]

Brinika ponders things. This little bird seems to understand her, but she can't understand him. She plays her flute once more, this time mimicking almost exactly what Tom just said.

This makes Tom fluff his feathers, the junco becoming the size, shape, and fluffiness of a medium-size puffball.

And he peers.

"SEEP CHIRP SEEP PEEP!"

("...do you kiss your mother with that mouth?!")

[WarKitty]

Infirmary

Candace is a bit puzzled.Song? You sing? No one around here really sings. Or dances. She pauses. You should try dancing sometime!

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

"My bodies sing in harmony. Or... at least they did. They're quiet now and I have only one voice," Choir explained, shuddering. "I don't like the silence. It feels wrong."

Then another new word, another word she didn't know and yet...

No.

No, this time she didn't understand.

But she wanted to.

"Dancing?" Choir echoed, curious. "What is... dancing?"

Her face contorted in a mask of muddled emotions, as though it didn't know how to shape itself to properly express what she was feeling.

[WarKitty]

Infirmary

Candace's eyes widen. This woman is strange indeed! Dancing is...well, let me show you.

She steps back, her dress billowing. And she starts to sing. It's a simple tavern song, about a woman searching for her lover who never came back from the war. And as she sings she dances to the music.

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

Choir watched.

Choir listened.

Music. This was music. Human music. It wasn't like her song, but it had a strange, alien beauty to it. She particularly liked the way that the other moved in step to her song. It was a thing Choir had never thought to do before, at least not like that. Her bodies all moved with her song, but not like this. Not on this scale. This was something different. Something new.

Choir decided that she liked dancing.

"I don't understand your song's story," she said as she rolled the words about in her mind. "Why did the one in the story devote so much time to searching for this other? I've learned that humans can not make more self, and so they must make an other with the help of another. But couldn't she have just found a different human to make her other with?"

Love. That had something to do with it, she was sure.

But what is love?

[WarKitty]

Infirmary

People don't just have sex to make babies. It's a bonding thing. Sometimes they even have sex when they can't have a baby, like when two men or two women have sex. And there's other stuff people do to get to know each other.

Do your people not marry or live together?

[Morty]

[Goblin versus Junco]

Brinika can't help but giggle. The puffy little bird is sooo cute. She then tilts her head.

"Can you sing, bird? Maybe I can understand you if you sing."

[5a Violista]

[=> Approaching GLoG Fortress Campingground]

A woman who is mine comes up to GLoG, on a motorcycle (who would want to walk all the way here?) with a music case on her back! Obviously, she has a motorcycle helmet, too. She parks her ride near the Central Cabin, and walks in. 'Cause that's the thing to do, you know. She takes off her helmet and continues holding it.

Her hair is in a ponytail, of course. What else would it be in? She sits down somewhere and waits.

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

More than making others. Bonding. Getting to know each other.

Choir didn't understand. None of the others she met or 'got to know' expressed any desire to mate with her. So there must have been some nuance to it that she didn't yet grasp. That seemed reasonable to her. There were still many things about interacting with others that she didn't understand.

"No," she replied to the other's question. "There is only me. All the bodies of my kind are me. When I separated for a time, I would take communion with my self to share what my bodies had learned. There were no others. Only me."

She frowned slightly as memories tugged at the corners of her mind.

"I tried to take communion with humans when I first found them. I didn't understand that they were different. Your kind isn't like me. You aren't singular. You aren't a choir. You're many voices, each with their own song. One giant body with one giant voice. When I tried to take communion with the humans their self became extinct," Choir recounted. Once again her face was a twisted mess of emotions that couldn't find the right way to express themselves. "I... that wasn't my intention. I didn't understand."

[Morty]

[Maple Cabin]

When Cheasdah starts to cry, Sophie stalks out of her room and knocks on Celica's door. Jace warned her something might go wrong, and it looks like it indeed has gone wrong.

[WarKitty]

Candace frowns. I think I've heard of creatures like that. There were creatures I knew that had one mind in multiple bodies. And creatures that can split and recombine and send pieces of themselves places. Sometimes mages did that, sent a little piece of themselves off to experience other things, though they weren't physical pieces and had to be put in a different body. She looks worried. I knew a mage like that. He wasn't nice though, he wanted to control others. He wants my baby so he can control it.

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

"My mind, my... voices. Are many. Or... at least they were. I was told my bodies are still with me, but they're sleeping. They're stuck acting human. I need to wake them up. I'm afraid of only having one voice like this. I'm afraid of what will happen if this body is killed," Choir admits.

She hadn't ever given extinction much thought before. There was nothing like her. She was strong. She was sure that she would be able to endure forever. There was only one who had ever fought her to a standstill, but he had perished by the heat of his own flame while she had survived. She had endured.

But now...

Now she felt so small.

So vulnerable.

Then another word. "Your baby?"

That one's other. An other she had created that was half her and half someone else. Choir found the idea strange, but the humans didn't. That puzzled her greatly. Why couldn't they just make more of their self?

"Why would a person wish to control others?"

That makes even less sense to her. Others will do as they do. Hide from them, eat them, ignore them. But control them? Why?

[WarKitty]

You mean you don't die? People die. It's something we're used to, you die. But your stories live on. That's why I tell stories and sing songs, to remember the dead. Candace seems pretty calm about it. Yes, my baby. Surely you've seen children? My baby is unusual, because his father wasn't a human. Sometimes bad people want to control others, because it makes them feel more powerful. My baby's probably going to be powerful like his father.

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

"My bodies can die, but I always just made more. I only need fear extinction. Otherwise I can always repair my self. Though... if I lose too many of my bodies I'll lose my knowledge. A single body can hold very little. But many of them can hold a great deal. I would rather not lose all of my knowledge. I don't think... I would really be me anymore if I had to rebuild my self from one body. It would be a new choir, but at least my kind would endure."

That was a frightening thought to her, that she might cease to be.

But...

She hoped that the others at Glog would get her what she needed. She would be able to wake her bodies up. She would be able to sing with many voices once again. She would be able to rebuild her numbers and be safe. And... maybe she could start doing other things. Things beyond simply surviving.

Like...

Dancing.

And learning new songs.

Choir has decided that she likes those things.

She pondered the idea of feeling powerful. That... she could relate to. That she understood. "I fought the King and survived. Enduring his fury made me feel powerful. I felt unstoppable. But then the humans used a weapon that ripped me apart and cast me away. Now I'm here," Choir recounted. "I... think... maybe if I had known that humans can think like I can, I might have done things differently."

But would the humans have ever allowed something like her to live? Something so totally alien from themselves?

They had to think her as alien as she considered them.

"You want to protect your other. Your... baby... because it is partly you. It's the only way your lifesong can continue, by making a melody with another. You don't want the... wizard? To take your baby and force it to sing for him instead."

Choir sets down the remains of her bagel and stands, moving quite awkwardly toward Candace. She'll reach out a hand to try to gently touch the expecting mother on the belly. "Your carry the baby inside you? The other I met, she carried her baby in her arms."

[WarKitty]

Candace quietly allows the touch. That's how humans do it. Our baby starts inside us and grows there for a little bit. The baby has to come out after a while though. That's why I'm here, my baby is unusual and he'll need water when he's born. His daddy wasn't really human, and he lived in the water.

We tell stories, too, sometimes. Like the song I sang, though that's the stories of many people rolled into one. I know a lot of stories, that's my job.

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

Choir could imagine several ways in which the baby could come out, but none of them strike her as being very comfortable for the human mother. She decided that she didn't particularly want to know the answer to that detail.

"My bodies laid eggs," she stated simply. "They were very small and they would hatch into new bodies to add new voices to my choir. But they were all me, not partly another."

What would it be like to take communion with an other to make something that was only half herself?

The idea seemed... strange to her. But less alien and more exotic. It would be silly though, wouldn't it? To indulge in such a thing. Why create an other with only half her lifesong when she could just create another self instead? There had to be a reason for it. But she couldn't imagine what it would be.

"There's a lake here," Choir observes. "Couldn't you have your baby there?"

She wasn't sure of the specifics of human baby laying, but she had always laid her eggs in water if at all possible. That was simply how it worked.

[WarKitty]

Infirmary

Candace seems a tad nervous.

It's best to ask permission. And...giving birth is a private matter, it would be nice if I could have a little space to myself when the time comes. Perhaps also a healer, giving birth to unusual creatures can be difficult sometimes. Sometimes the mother or the baby gets hurt.

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

"I see..." Choir replied after a time of thought. She looked at the human, then down at her bagel. "I don't know where any of the others that... own? Yes. That own this place are. I don't think I can help you."

She care hardly help herself...

Choir didn't like that, not one bit.

Being forced to rely on others to any degree made her feel equal parts vulnerable and uncomfortable.

"I hope your baby is unharmed. And that no wizards take it."

She doesn't know why she said that. It would have no impact on her whether this other and its... offspring? baby? spawn? survived. Or at least she couldn't think of any reason why either outcome would matter to her. And yet... Saying those words seemed to be the thing she should do. To... comfort. Comforting an other. That was another new thing.

[WarKitty]

Thank you. And I hope you...find yourself.

Candace settles onto a chair to wait. Would you like to hear another song?

[Rebonack]

[Infirmary]

Choir felt the edges of her mouth tug up. She didn't know what that was supposed to mean, but it seemed like the right thing to do when she felt what she did. "Yes. I would like that."