Home 18 - Where Everybody Knows Your Name

[The Bushranger]

[A Summoning Chamber]

Siara smiles at Hadlin, almost sympathetically. "You may wish to be more careful in the future; not all spirits will be as...moderate as I," she advises. "And you will wish to keep in mind that if you chose to...undo your changes, it will be a breach of our contract and your eternal youth will lapse; if time has passed, the aging could be...rapid."

As the spirit fades, she blows a kiss at the startled summoner. "Enjoy your eternal youth, darling!"

[Lost_Deep]

Kate's Mindscape

"Pretty good," Kate says. "It's been kind of confusing, but... pretty good. Derailed all my plans, yes, but that said it's pretty good. I'm not in 1700's England, or Nekoka, or some other places I could think of. You want a drink?"

Trick's Home

They work great! A moment later, her tail splits into three, too.

"Okay! Now for clothes. What do you think? Princess?"

"No! She isn't a princess. Not at all! Maybe something like what she was wearing before."

[Halae]

[A Summoning Chamber]

A dumbfounded and mildly upset Hadlin is left in the ritual chamber watching where Siala disappeared. Then she swears. And swears and swears. and then falls back on her back, wondering how she let this happen to herself.

There's a long breath, and she examines her new body: the new breasts (which she really needs to get some support for, given how large they are), and the new hips, legs, everything. Long hair too. She's never ever had long hair in her life, so this is definitely something new.

She stands, and then heads upstairs, into the house proper. Need to eat something. Eating is calming. Eating gives you time to figure a situation out without panicking, as it gives your body something to do. Pancakes are delicious, after all.

All in all, she got off easy with this. Being female isn't maimed, dead, bedridden, or any number of creative punishments spirits can come up with for the unwary. This still means she's going to need a new wardrobe, though. And bras. Why did it have to be bras?

[Kate's Mindscape]

"What kind of plans?" Eric asks, "And milk please, since becoming as I am now, it's one of the only liquids I've been able to stomach. Julie makes no end of jokes about it." He's not upset about that fact. In fact, he finds them rather funny most of the time.

[Trick's Home]

"What I was wearing before?" Trick asks. The dress she'd worn to be pretty was a yellow and red affair, bright and colorful with flowing sleeves, beautifully crafted just for her. She'd gotten it as a gift from a tailor she'd helped save the daughter of.

[Lost_Deep]

Hadlin's Place

A few minutes after the summoning is done, before the residual energy has completely faded, Hadlin might detect the slight twing of something going horribly wrong on a neighboring plane. This will give him a few seconds of warning before a young woman materializes out of nowhere and slams into one of Hadlin's walls.

Fit and of an athletic build, this woman is wearing a black long-sleeved shirt and black jeans. Her hair is more abnormal; it's about waist length but at the end poofs out into something of an unruly mass. More worrying is that she's flickering in and out of existence like a picture on a TV with poor reception.

Kate's Mindscape

Kate leads Eric into the living room, and then heads toward the kitchen herself. "Um... remind me? Becoming what?" After a moment, she'll come back with a large glass of milk.

Trick's Home

A dress will come into existence around Trick, fitting her new stature. It's simple at first, and the pair quickly begin to bicker about what should go on it. Golden trimming appears, and after a moment a moderate cleavage window joins it. The sleeves are much wider near the bottom, and the dress itself is made as to not impede movement.

A small argument then breaks out on whether to add a lot of 'poof', or only a little.

[Halae]

[Hadlin's House]

After a moment of watching dumbfounded, Hadlin is quick to help, her new proportions moving in ways she's not used to as she hits the floor, "Are you alright? Did you teleport wrong or something? Do you need an ambulance?" Even as she asks, she's checking the woman's pulse and breathing

The one-eyed albino woman shows a great deal of concern here. she's got the hero gene in her, after all.

[Kate's Mindscape]

"Oh, sorry," Eric says, "My entire body is a lump of dense gray matter. It's a bit odd, so I can't actually eat much anymore. I get a lot more nourishment from the psychic resonance of other people around me." He smiles, "What about those plans, though?"

[Trick's Home]

"This... is beautiful," she says, feeling at the fabric. What's it made out of?

[Lost_Deep]

Hadlin's House

"Don't touch me, it'll only make it worse." If Hadlin does touch her, he will find that she really is fading in and out of physical existence. Hard to take a pulse like that. After a few seconds, she stabilizes to mostly being there with a few spots of static.

"Cripes, that was like getting hit by a truck. In realital transit. What the..."

Kate's Mindscape

Kate hands Eric the milk. "Well, I had plans to go to the next system over, I was accepted to a university there and I could live with my cousin. She went missing, apparently a training exercise went wrong, but I had everything all planned out and still had some family over there, so I went anyway. I got nexus'd shortly after we went into tesseract drive, so I guess now I'm missing, too. And after my aunt died... I guess my family has bad luck."

Trick's Home

What IS it made of? It's light, strong, smooth... like silk but better. A large collar is added with some kind of patterned fur... white with multicolored speckles. It looks fake, but feels real. most of the other trim is left unaltered, and some artistic swirls appear on the dress in red. Not as thickly as on Trick's skin, but similar. Small gems appear in the gold along the edging, some larger ones framing the neckline.

[Arkhosia]

"Some places are other things in addition to strange, neh?"
He leads her into the village, waving to the crocodile, which lifts a paw in response.
"You want to get some rest, girl? You look tired."

Felia nods, watching the two interact with interest.

[Recaiden]

Felix points his fellow explorer to a house, the largest one in the encampment, except the half-house-half-workshop adjoining the mill.

"My place; you can make yourself at home. The actual guest house still has a pair of refugees from the Grand Storm. We were actually going to raise a new house just after I got through with the ruins, so-"

The crocodile snaps and whistles in Felia's direction, which Felix evidently understands.

"Nah, she's alright. Helped fight off living machines in the ruins, and...yeah, you can see what I mean."

[UncleWolf]

Pepper Oni's

"Uh, there are two tenants at my place who are the same person and I once helped stop a demonic invasion of my homeworld?" he says casually as he slides into the seat across from her.
"Hiya. he says to the kids with a smile. I'm Jace, but you probably picked up on that. You guys order already?" he asks.
Zebes sits next to him, and for now is more than enough to keep him warm.

Pepper Oni's

The two boys shake their head, apparently a little shy now that things have settled down compared to earlier. "Nah. The food is instant. Well, instant enough. They still make you wait a bit since it is a restaurant, but the food will simply appear when no one's looking." Veronica explains, passing over a menu for Jace and Zebes. "Pretty much anything you'd like, but they specialize in pizza."

As she's explaining a waiter suddenly appears by the side of the table, a giant blue skinned demon wearing a wooden red mask with a particularly long nose and long wispy mustache. How dare you unworthies settle down in this hallowed cave of sanctuary an- oh. Hi Veronica. Surprised you came back after last time. The waiter says, his words entering their minds directly.

"Yeah, well, bygones are bygones. It wasn't your fault that the lightning kept trying to strike me even in here. Besides, your Manager promised a good deal the next time we came." She explains before looking at Jace. "A sentient camera shy lightning storm followed me for a day and a half. Thought this place would be safe after I annoyed it too much. It wasn't."

[Deathkeeper]

Pepper Oni's

Jace nods in greeting to the waiter, and shakes his head at the anecdote. "Oh my Veronica, you didn't tell me that you have issues with folks and things following you around. Well, at least that's something I can help with next time." he says with a chuckle.
"Got any favorites? Zebes and I know what to get at places like this usually." he says to the harpies.

[UncleWolf]

Pepper Oni's

"Wait, let me guess!" Veronica says as she closes her eyes, waving her wings above her siblings slowly. "Hmm....bugs...bugs...and....mice?" She asks, cracking open an eye to see them all rolling their eyes. "Alright, let me try again." Veronica's wing passes over each of her siblings in turn once more, Heather, Samuel, and Richard one after another. "Blueberry and cream cheese calzone with strawberry syrup for dipping, a Carnivore Special personal pizza, and a vegetarian lasagna with alfredo sauce instead of marinara." When she opens her eyes, all three siblings are staring at her in wonder. "Oh please, I know you three better than I know myself." She points out before looking at the waiter. "And I'll have a smaller helping of all three because I'll be honest, they all sound pretty damn good."

"As for things following me, Jace, in a place like this the weather likes to do that more often than not. I once had a personal blizzard stick with me for three weeks like a lost puppy. It'd been the middle of summer too."

[Deathkeeper]

Pepper Oni's

Jace blinks. "Huh. I might have to put a certain friend of mine on speed dial if you have such common problems with weather." he says with a smile before turning to the waiter.
"A chicken slice and a pepperoni twist for the two of us, please." Jace says to the fellow. Zebes snickers to himself.

[UncleWolf]

Pepper Oni's

The waiter nods and vanishes in a puff of smoke, leaving behind whatever drinks the patrons felt they were thirsty for. Veronica sips her water and gives a small shrug as her siblings enjoy their milkshakes. "I'm the weather girl as well as traffic reports, remember? I have a particular issue with weather disliking me or thinking it's funny to set my tail feather's smoking." She admits with a wince. "That said, a rain of frogs fed us for a week. Who knew there were so many ways to cook frog legs?"

[Deathkeeper]

Pepper Oni's

Jace grimaces and shakes his head. "I'll take your word for it. I've never been fond of those things, no matter how nice the chefs were who insisted they knew how to prepare them." he says, sipping idly at his orange soda that began being there a few moments ago.
"Weather control really isn't something I'm knowledgeable about, and I'd be hesitant to use it on something sentient. Still, I can at least be confidant that I can block a lightning bolt."
"Except that one time."
"That wasn't my fault, I was protecting six people and that thunderbird cheated!" he says defensively to his familiar.

[UncleWolf]

Pepper Oni's

"Ah, thunderbirds. Rather prideful beings." Veronica says, shaking her head. "Know what to do when you meet one? Sing. I've met a couple in my line of work. Both over-aggressive bundles trying to overcompensate, but like most beasts they like music."

"As long as it's not like your favorite." Richard says, appearing to look queasy.

"Alright, alright, I get it. Disco is still fun. Shush."

[Deathkeeper]

Pepper Oni's

Jace grimaces and shakes away bad memories. "I had to try to cover everyone best I could while it shot bolts at us, but I couldn't do much to stop it from dogfighting our Roc. Zebes was the only one who could talk to it. "and it was very rude. Said terrible things about me and worse about Tallahassee! "We did handle it though, even if it took weeks to get rid of that burn-scar. Big T did fine, bless her heart." he says, feeling better about remembering the end result.
"But uh, anything exciting happen recently? I'd hate to kill the whole time sounding like an old man with war stories." he says embarrassed.

[UncleWolf]

Pepper Oni's

"Nah, nothing too interesting except for a small meteor shower that singed half my hair away." She admits, gesturing to the short cut she's worn since he's met her. "My hair used to be quite a bit longer. It was time for a change anyway I guess." She adds with a shrug. "As to war stories, I don't think any of us mind hearing them. We haven't really been associated with many spellcasters. Surely your adventures are far grander than what we've been through."

[Deathkeeper]

Pepper Oni's

"Well, your current cut looks plenty fine to me." says Jace with the utmost sincerity. He doesn't show it, but he's almost surprised how much he means it. But what's he to argue with his mouth? It does. He imagines a long cut would not be the best to have waving in the wind while flying. And it might cover up those little feathers sticking out behind her ears, which are rather cute. Erp.
"Well, yeah, but after a certain point I think I just sound like I'm showing off. Don't want to be arrogant. Or romanticize violence and such." he says, rubbing the back of his neck.

The Hidden Mansion

"Good. You can help out by taking the books I mark down to the piles of appropriate color. The titles should appear on the list in front of them if you can't figure it out."
The pages he left in front of each pile are from his Book, which he has complete control over. Which means he can pull some shenanigans for writing on them.
Romeo may have to work fast though, because suddenly unsaddled with the need to transfer the books from shelf to pile, Tep's pace is going to increase dramatically the more he gets focused on his work and less cognizant of Romeo's maximum transfer speed.

[Arkhosia]

Felix points his fellow explorer to a house, the largest one in the encampment, except the half-house-half-workshop adjoining the mill.

"My place; you can make yourself at home. The actual guest house still has a pair of refugees from the Grand Storm. We were actually going to raise a new house just after I got through with the ruins, so-"

The crocodile snaps and whistles in Felia's direction, which Felix evidently understands.

"Nah, she's alright. Helped fight off living machines in the ruins, and...yeah, you can see what I mean."

Okay, thanks Felix! Say, um, how did you learn how to speak with crocodiles?
Felia inquires as they presumably go to the house!

[Recaiden]

"Always been able to talk to animals. Relatively, anyway. We all can here."

They do head to the house.

"Wait, can you not? Not even cats?"

Inside the place is rustic, or even primitive. There are several beds, a 'fireplace' with orbs of solid fire filling a stone pit, a desk covered in uneven rough paper, and many things besides. Bark-cloth curtains would divide it into wedge-shaped rooms, but they're currently all pulled back. In one of the beds a hyena and a young wolverine are curled up, asleep.

[Arkhosia]

"Always been able to talk to animals. Relatively, anyway. We all can here."

They do head to the house.

"Wait, can you not? Not even cats?"

Inside the place is rustic, or even primitive. There are several beds, a 'fireplace' with orbs of solid fire filling a stone pit, a desk covered in uneven rough paper, and many things besides. Bark-cloth curtains would divide it into wedge-shaped rooms, but they're currently all pulled back. In one of the beds a hyena and a young wolverine are curled up, asleep.

Felia nods.
Nope! Nice place you have, by the way.
She compliments sincerely as she looks around, admiring the rustic atmosphere of the house

[Recaiden]

"Thank you, kitty. We like it well enough. Better than my old home, even."

He provides directions to the food, water pump, outhouse, extra blankets, and anything else practical that might be needed, before drawing the dividers around the sleeping animals, kicking off his shoes and falling into one of the beds.

"What kind of place you got to live in?"

[Arkhosia]

"Thank you, kitty. We like it well enough. Better than my old home, even."

He provides directions to the food, water pump, outhouse, extra blankets, and anything else practical that might be needed, before drawing the dividers around the sleeping animals, kicking off his shoes and falling into one of the beds.

"What kind of place you got to live in?"

"I can see why, Felix."
She replies as she plops down on a bed next to Felix. If that's not possible, she plops down next to Felix on his bed.
"Currently a small apartment. Nothing interesting."

[Recaiden]

The beds are fairly widely spaced, so she'd have to be right there next to Felix, where he moves over to make space for her.

"That's too bad. But at least it's your own. That's half of the best about this place." On the downside, it's not so old-timey for the feel of; it's because that's the best they've got.
"You change places a lot then?"

Felia may note that the place is almost devoid of decorations. Totally without them, in fact.

[Arkhosia]

The beds are fairly widely spaced, so she'd have to be right there next to Felix, where he moves over to make space for her.

"That's too bad. But at least it's your own. That's half of the best about this place." On the downside, it's not so old-timey for the feel of; it's because that's the best they've got.
"You change places a lot then?"

Felia may note that the place is almost devoid of decorations. Totally without them, in fact.

Felia nods.
Yeah,,it kinda fluctuates depending on my current amount of money.
She replies.

[Recaiden]

"What, you get the richest place you can buy till the money runs out?" It's clear he finds that more than a bit frivolous, although he's never really thought about how people live in the cities.
He turns to give her a not-quite-disbelieving smile.
"Not doing so well right now then? Sorry we didn't find anything worth much in that place. Well, to you, anyway. You still get your pay, but there's the hope, you know? That's gotta be pretty tough, not having a place to go back to. You got no family around here?"

[The Alexandrian]

And so, Celica attempts to bring Khyli to the bed and pull the curtain!

[Khyli's Paradise]

Magnificent curtains are had! That's just one of the many benefits of having a passionate and powerful "goddess" of lust as a girlfriend.

As soon as the curtains are finished, Khyli will attempt to teleport Celica back to her home. Of course, she conveniently teleports herself with Celica because she doesn't want to leave Celica's side ever again. She remembered that Celica has a daughter to take care of and probably distorted time so that Celica could tuck her daughter in in a couple of minutes, or so she believes.

Celica might feel even more powerful than she did before the curtains began since Khyli will attempt to transfer even more of her own power to Celica during the curtains.

Celica probably has gained superpowers of some sort if Khyli was successful in her power transfer attempt! How cool!

[Halae]

Hadlin's House

"Don't touch me, it'll only make it worse." If Hadlin does touch her, he will find that she really is fading in and out of physical existence. Hard to take a pulse like that. After a few seconds, she stabilizes to mostly being there with a few spots of static.

"Cripes, that was like getting hit by a truck. In realital transit. What the..."

Kate's Mindscape

Kate hands Eric the milk. "Well, I had plans to go to the next system over, I was accepted to a university there and I could live with my cousin. She went missing, apparently a training exercise went wrong, but I had everything all planned out and still had some family over there, so I went anyway. I got nexus'd shortly after we went into tesseract drive, so I guess now I'm missing, too. And after my aunt died... I guess my family has bad luck."

Trick's Home

What IS it made of? It's light, strong, smooth... like silk but better. A large collar is added with some kind of patterned fur... white with multicolored speckles. It looks fake, but feels real. most of the other trim is left unaltered, and some artistic swirls appear on the dress in red. Not as thickly as on Trick's skin, but similar. Small gems appear in the gold along the edging, some larger ones framing the neckline.

[Hadlin's House]

Hadlin stares down at the woman, "So, mind explaining to me exactly who you are and what you're doing in my home? Given your previous statement, I assume it was unintentional." She'll likely notice Hadlin is incredibly feminine.

[Kate's Mindscape]

"I'm sorry to hear that," Eric says sincerely, "My own folks probably miss me back home, but I just can't bring myself to care. I've been here for too long; this is my home now, and I have a family here, regardless of whether they know about it."

[Trick's Home]

"This is a beautiful dress, thank you." Trick says, smiling, "What's it made from?"

[Lost_Deep]

Hadlin's House

"Yeah... uh... do you believe in magic? Or teleportation possible by any means? Or even just ftl travel? If so, I might be able to explain it to you. If not..." she gets up slowly, gingerly. Not as if she's in pain, but more like she's brittle.

Kate's Mindscape

Kate nods. "Yeah. It... I remember crying a lot my first time through. Lying in my bed wishing I'd wake up and get to see my parents again. I guess now I'm going to go through that again. And there will be two sets of parents mourning me." A tear forms in her eye.

Trick's Home

"A kind of fabric!"

"Yeah! A new kind we made for you!"

[Halae]

[Hadlin's House]

"I'm to understand you aren't aware you're in the Nexus then. In that case, welcome; have you been here before, or do you need an explanation?" Hadlin says this flatly and matter-of-factly. She's in no mood to beat around the bush.

[Kate's Mindscape]

"I suppose I'm lucky in that I don't feel emotions properly," Eric says, "But make no mistake; while you may have left a family behind, you have one here, and many people that love you. Take comfort in them, rather than sinking into despair. We'll always be here for you, whenever you need us."

[Trick's Home]

Trick nods. Given all the crazy things they're doing to her, she supposes it makes sense, "So... what now?"