Mithar Keep & Frescot House IV: Magic babble lies within

[Gullara]

[Arrival]

Sakura beams at her two darlings and sweeps towards them. There's something about her right now. A feeling more than anything. Somehow more than she is. "Are you two having fun?" Sakura crouches next to Laela and gives her a kiss on the cheek. Lucy, seeing her opportunity, tries to grab hold of Laela's little bow. Her toy now!

[Murkus]

[Arrival]

Laela's mouth turns into a little 'o' as she sees her mom. Maybe she can sense it better than Adir, how very... Sakura she seems to be. How animated and flush with life the dryad is. That look of mild and not-unpleasant surprise lasts at least until she's pecked on the cheek, and the little girl gives another popping giggle. "Yes! I shot daddy! He's bad at this!" Laela gives a little eep of surprise as her toy is grabbed at, but she's in a good enough mood she doesn't fuss about giving it up. Maybe just for a minute.

"The worst," says Adir, beaming right back at the pair of them. "Our biggest daughter keeps embarrassing me, baby. The clan's honor won't stand for this. It will be a contest decided..." He kneels down beside Laela and suddenly tickles her sides. "A different way! C'mere!" He grabs Laela for a hug, a squeeze and his own kiss on the cheek. She laughs and shoves at him.

Adir picks her up just-so, brushing his forehead against Laela's flowers. His eyes fall on Sakura and brighten even further. "And how about you? How was your walk? You look even better than when you left."

[Shadowcaller]

[Lunch Visit]

"Irrelevant," Ilpholin insists to Cessie in a cold tone that shares qualities with a detached serial killer's confession. She looks about to continue with an explanation, but calls to change the subject reach her and she nods, letting the question float away.

The nymph returns Adir's smile and turns her attention to the meal. "Yes of course. Let's eat. Thank you for making this for us Adir."

Weekend Morning

"Then let us take a couple days and then figure out when and where we should dine then." Jezebel says, giving a small bow as she smiles. "By your leave, I will collect Ariel and Sergei and we shall be on our way. It has been a pleasant morning, truly"

[Lunch Visit]

Cessie nods quietly in response to Ilpholin, seeing that there would be no use to argue here. "Yes, thank you, Adir. Let's eat."

Weekend Morning

"Oh, of course. I won't delay you further, we must have been out there for at least an hour or two now. So go and pick up your kids, Jezebel, and thank you for a pleasant morning talk." She nods respectfully at the other woman.

[Gullara]

[Arrival]

"Well that's saying something, isn't it?" Sakura laughs musically. She steps toward Adir and gives his shirt a little tug so he bends and she can give him a small kiss. "It was good. Interesting." She replies somewhat cryptically for now. Explaining now would just confuse poor Laela.

"You're better than daddy now, are you? He's gonna have to practice more to catch up." Sakura touches Laela's arm and squeezes her hand. Lucy is thoroughly distracted with the new toy she's acquired. She tugs on the bow string, determined to beat it's springiness.

[Murkus]

[Arrival]

Adir is bent! And she can feel his lips curl up in a little smile beneath hers as they meet. It's enough for him not to ask after what she means, anyway.

Laela giggles and grabs her mom's hand. "Hehe, yeah!" She likes to watch daddy shoot, so that sounds good to her.

Adir grins and lets the tyke go, the latter of whom immediately stands closer to her mom. The stag says, "I think we've got a real natural talent on our hands. She's scary, this one."

[Lunch Visit]

"They're, uh, stuffed pud-midges. Like fat little game hens without feathers." Probably taste about the same, too, and in quite a good way. The odd little reptile-birds are stuffed with much more mundane vegetables. He smiles at Sakura. "For the protein-intolerant, we've got a sasikris. My uncle used to say it was a sort of ground-plant, like a potato. Also good for stuffing, though. And even I like em', so if that tells you anything..." Adir was, ironically, more of a meat-eater than anything.

[Gullara]

[Lunch Visit]

Sakura avoids the meat portion of the meal entirely, of course, as she dishes herself up. "Adir is getting to be quite the cook. Maybe good enough that Cessie will miss him when we get our own place again." She gives Cessie a conspiratorial wink.

[Arrival]

"I bet. And I think Lucy wants to play too." Sakura says, drawing attention to the younger girl. Lucy looks up when she hears her name and holds up the bow. Sakura eases it out of her grip and hands it back to Laela. "Why don't you go to the shed over there and show your sister how you shoot, sweetie?" She points to the shed a little ways away, but still close enough that their parents can watch tem. She puts Lucy down on her feet in the grass. "Hold her hand and help her walk over, okay?"

[Halae]

[Another Visitor]

Coming up the path is everybody's favorite half-dragon, Harnetta! She's coming today dressed in a tight black top that, while it covers her arms and has a modest front, leaves her back exposed to the air so her wings can move. On her legs is a pair of jeans, and her digitigrade feet are dessed in wraps that leave her claws open to the air, meant to deal with the lingering chill of the fading winter.

Having called ahead to make sure she could visit without problems, the draconic woman is also carrying a purse and a plastic bag with something inside for the kids. She waves to Garn, as the gargoyle is no doubt watching her with unhidden paranoia as she approaches the gate, "Hello Garn. Could you tell Cessie that Harnetta is here?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Another Visitor]

Garn does not reply, but he does go and gets the sorceress who regards the half-dragon with rather mild enthusiasm. "I'm glad you could make it. You brought gifts for the kids?" Hopefully the Frescots wouldn't be jealous, Cessie already gave her children far more toys than Sakura's children got.

[Halae]

[Another Visitor]

"Mhm," Harnetta says, "Games this time; things they can share between them and their friends, including one chess set." Harnetta will give Cessie the bag -true to her word, there's several board games inside, and one lawn game.

"It's good to see you again."

[Reinholdt]

[Lunch Visit]

Ilpholin never understood limiting one's food options to the point of irony and near cannibalism. And since she watched Adir make it, she's reasonably sure none of it is poisoned. She tries quite a bit of everything, holding a strong appetite to match her active lifestyle. "It's good," she squeezes out somewhere between bites.

"Are you already looking for a new place? Found anything interesting?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Another Visitor]

Cessie accepts the bag. "Is it? Our last meeting didn't go so well, I actually though you held resentment for me after the divorce." She basically took everything after all. "I know I did, which is why things didn't go so well last time."

[Lunch Visit]

"Maybe I'll start paying Adir to cook for me then." Cessie muses. "He could become a professional." She points out.

[Halae]

[Another Visitor]

"That'd be pretty hypocritical of me," Harnetta says, moving towards the entrance, "I'm the one who withdrew from you. I'm the one whose mental issues caused the divorce. I needed literal years to get my head on straight; I was anxious last time we met because I know you'd be upset with me, and still would be."

"I admit, I miss some things. The forge, the adamantine, the Keep. You." Embarrassment on Harnetta's face as she says that, "But I needed to get away and sort things out, and I don't blame you in the least for not sitting around and waiting as I withdrew further into myself."

Seems she's had a fair amount of time to think about this.

[Shadowcaller]

[Another Visitor]

That it did. Cessis actually looks surprised at her reflection regarding the whole thing. "It sounds like you've grown, and that makes me glad. Its that person I married so many years ago." She smiles. "Yet, I noticed that you didn't mention the kids there, and honestly, I'm not sure how well they remember you at this point. You've been gone a long time, and when they saw you, you were still male."

[Halae]

[Another Visitor]

"I know. I haven't really been around for them; frankly, it might be best if they never actually learn what my relationship to them is," Harnetta says, "At best, I could be a family friend, maybe someone that can tell them how to do things with their draconic heritage. I do want a part of their lives, but I don't really think I'm fit to be a parent - I've grown some, but I'm just not the sort of person that can handle the responsibility, and I'm not sure I ever will be. It's enough for me to know they're part of a good family, with good friends close at hand."

[Murkus]

[Lunch Visit]

"You're a sweet bunch of gals, but I think Cessie is gonna be happy to have her peace and quiet back. And I can still be her cook-slave now and again, all for free," Adir smirks and sets to eating. He at least forks something into his mouth before he starts talking again, looking over toward Ilpholin. "Uhhhh... not exactly. Sorta might have a place lined up, but I don't know what it's like. My job would put us up somewhere, that is." He swallows.

[Arrival]

Laela is eager to get her bow back. They've been teaching her to be more patient with the little ones, but it could be irksome. She still grins when she takes Lucy's hand, and only tugs on her a tiny bit as she helps the toddler... well, toddle over.

Adir grins after them. "I love watching them learn stuff. Most fun I've ever had."

[Gullara]

[Arrival]

Sakura beams up at him and hugs his arm. "Oh I know. They're absolutely wonderful." She watches after the kids as they head toward the shed. "Sooo, I met someone interesting on my walk. A woman named Lee."

[Reinholdt]

[Lunch Visit]

"You'll have to tell me more about this mysterious job of yours later tonight," Ilpholin says. It might be more of an oddity, but it seemed fairly commonplace in the Nexus to live where you worked. "For now I really should get going. I hate to eat and run, but I've spent longer than expected here and I still have other things I need to catch up with." Like the timeline.

[Murkus]

[Arrival]

Sakura beams up at him and hugs his arm. "Oh I know. They're absolutely wonderful." She watches after the kids as they head toward the shed. "Sooo, I met someone interesting on my walk. A woman named Lee."

[Arrival]

Adir is happy to lean against Sakura and let her hang on his arm. He likes how it feels. "Mmyeah? Interesting ey? How so?" Adir laughs. This was strange. "A woman in the woods?" Those weren't as common around here as they were back home.

[Terumitsu]

[Cessie's Lab!]

"I let it help Sakura do gardening. But I think you'd have to ask her how useful it has been. I know nothing about gardening. The gardens do look nice though." She observes, focusing her gaze on the Riss that was speaking. The only other being she had ever met that had more than one body was Helios, and he had been annoying enough. At least Riss wasn't near his level. "I have to ask though, are you any good at fashion design? While the armor must be practical, it also need to look right. It might sound silly, but it is important to me."

[Cessie's Lab!]

With her other two bodies, Riss began setting up the.. It was probably best to call it a 'contraption' at this point from anyone else's point of view. Of course, mostly this was while Riss kept Cessie 'distracted' with the form she was conversing with. Multiple bodies were useful like that. Still, she would have to see who this Sakura person was just in case they needed advising in the proper care of the construct. "Fashion isn't my vocation but I belive I would be offended if someone were to consider my designs inelegant." the muse replied. "Though, form and function can become antithetical at a point, I believe I can aid in the production of something that incorporates both without much issue.. Depending on how you would like to show yourself off, of course." she said, crossing her arms and taking a more relaxed pose.

"Though, don't you find it ironic that appearance was a first topic of our first meeting and is now part of the reason behind our second?" she asked. Of course, there was a lot more irony given a few of the specifics that had been implied if not directly said back then.

[Shadowcaller]

[Another Visitor]

Cessie frowns at Harnetta's reply. "I'm not going to lie to my own children, and you better not ask me to do that. If you want to be a part of their life, you can't to be someone you're not. I don't even understand what you're afraid of, that it's going to be confusing? I've heard people back home using the same kind of argument for a large number of things, and it never struck me as a very good argument."

[Lunch Visit]

"Oh, of course, Ilpholin. I don't want to hold you here, you must have a lot of things to do after returning to the nexus after all. I'm just glad we've been able to be interesting enough company to keep you this long." Cessie says.

[Cessie's Lab!]

"Perhaps? In all honesty, I regret my aether experiments. They led to some rather awkward situations that I never particularly cared for." Cessie admits, glancing at the other Riss as they are setting up. This still felt so bizarre. "As for the form and function, what do you mean by 'showing off'?"

[Gullara]

[Lunch Visit]

Sakura only wishes Adir would be a cook. That'd be such a burden off her mind. But best not dwell... "Oh, it was so nice seeing you again, Ilpholin." Sakura says with a warm smile.

[Arrival]

"Mmhm. I didn't really understand what she was... Like, she had some special connection with fertility and stuff?" It's still so surreal when she looks back on it now. "And well, she said I'm pregnant." Sakura looks up at him, watching his face carefully. She knows he's been worrying a lot more lately...

[Halae]

[Another visitor]

Harnetta just shrugs. Where once she might have risen to an argument, doubled down on her stance... she doesn't now. Doesn't even look terribly bothered. "Alright. It's your choice as to what to tell them. Best figure out the terminology you're going to use, though." the half-dragon will open the front door so the pair of them can proceed inside.

[Murkus]

[Lunch Visit]

"I'll catch up with you later, then," Adir says, ambling to his feet and coming 'round the table. "I'll walk her out. You two finish up." And he'll likely do just that.

[Arrival]

That first part is strange enough, but then she drops the important bit... "Uh," Adir does a little double-take. He looks shocked, like he hasn't quite processed that information yet. "...Are you sure? How can you be sure? How can she have known that?" The stag's face creases with concern. A little more quietly and with confusion, he adds, "When could that have happened...?"

[Reinholdt]

[Lunch Visit]

Adir would be good as a cook. So long as the place didn't have one of those overhead rotating order things for his antlers to get caught up in. He'd have to go with some place fancier.

Ilpholin smiles back as she stands. "Likewise. Always a pleasure Sakura, Cessie. Thanks for having me."

She turns and follows Adir out, primarily thankful that she doesn't have to be escorted by Garn. Once at the exit, she'll stop. "The food was really quite delicious, thank you." Ilpholin moves to give Adir a parting hug and cheek kiss.

[Terumitsu]

[Cessie's Lab!]

"You keep glancing like that and I'll feel as if I should start asking unprofessional questions." one of the other forms said. Of course, Riss spoke with the form who's back was to the sorceress just because she could. Regardless, it seems like Cessie missed what the muse was getting at on all counts.. At any rate:"I wouldn't mind some additional controls in place for any additional experiments on that but I wouldn't mind further experimentation, actually." she began, pulling a hand-held disk from the 'toolbox' and tossing it over to herself. Or at least the 'self' that was the main self speaking with Cessie. "Well, it seems fairly obvious when speaking of form, right? I mean, there's always ornamentation. I would make the recommendation against showing a bit of skin but I also feel like I don't really need to say that given what I've seen of your wardrobe. There's also tailoring to at least flatter your figure a bit as well though that again comes with some of it's own demands." Riss said, the disc projecting images in miniature of a sleek ornate suit with filigree, something that could perhaps be seen as more of a costume although not necessarily fitting the true definition of 'skimpy,' and a re-imagining of the first although altered to fit someone of Cessie's figure in that order. ...Actually, they would probably be terrifyingly accurate measurements if anyone dared to compare between the holographic figurine and the sorceress herself.

[Shadowcaller]

[Cessie's Lab!]

The sorceress closes her eyes for a moment. "You have to excuse me, I am not used to talking to one person at some many places at once. It is quite distracting." She breathes out. "But, as you guessed, I do not desire to be so crass." She gestures at the image shown. "It is the armor that is supposed to draw the observers eyes, not me. That way we can focus on making the armor practical, without having to worry about my body-shape. It obviously can't be too clumsy either however, I still need to be capable at moving around in it as required in a fight." She explains.

[Lunch Visit]

"Come back at any time, Ilpholin. It was fun having you here." Cessie says as she bids the nymph farewell.
She will remain seated at the table however, not exactly the type that follows the guest out. So whatever Adir and Ilpholin are doing, she won't notice it.

[Another visitor]

"What terminology would you prefer? Since you know that I'm hardly a expert on this, and you must surely have encountered this problem by now, you have visited your family in all this time, yes?" Cessie asks as she moves inside, closing the door behind them.

[Halae]

[Another visitor]

"I have, and they weren't exactly accepting. They're actually who I went to first." A grimace, "But I prefer feminine pronouns, if you please. I'm a woman, and I'd rather be identified as one."

[Gullara]

[Arrival]

That first part is strange enough, but then she drops the important bit... "Uh," Adir does a little double-take. He looks shocked, like he hasn't quite processed that information yet. "...Are you sure? How can you be sure? How can she have known that?" The stag's face creases with concern. A little more quietly and with confusion, he adds, "When could that have happened...?"

[Arrival]

"Weeeeell, probably a couple times..." Admittedly, the two of them aren't super great about being careful about that, despite Adir's best efforts. "I'm pretty sure she's right, though. Uh, she definitely had a sense for this kind of stuff. She's... pretty powerful I think." Sakura's a bit cagey. It's hitting her now that this whole situation could come across wrong to Adir.

[Terumitsu]

[Cessie's Lab!]

And yet people find it perfectly easy to speak to what they think is several different people with ease. Strange how that works. "Then you asked the right person for help. Not to say that there'd be an issue if you wanted something tailored to you. Just that you'd have to be more careful of anything that would affect your shape or size as it's much less tolerant to adjustment." Riss said, setting the disk on the floor and adding three others around it as she added: "I mean, we somewhat joked last time that people here apparently had the occasional tendency to end up more top heavy which is now rather ironic in my case but re-fitting armor is a bit more of a task than getting a new wardrobe is why I bring it up. Anyway, if you'd stand in the middle there, for me.." she said, actually sounding mildly amused about the whole thing as she gestured with a hand over the first disk that had been lain on the floor.

"Speaking of getting a new wardrobe, though, this is basically going to be a holographic projection that will move with you, within reason. It might sound strange but even a weightless light-construct is useful when you just want to concept a design. First, though, I'll let you pick a starting point." Riss said, snapping her fingers in a theatrical kind of way as several kinds of armor were projected in blue in front of the sorceress. The snap, of course, was entirely unnecessary but the muse figured that perhaps a few signals from her end might go over better with people than just her normal way of mentally activating and commanding everything.

At any rate, some of the armor on display were that of a somewhat romanticized but quite iconic cavalier; that of the bands, metal masks, scales, and lacquered slats of what could belong to a shogun; that of the sleek, almost organic chords and plates of an enhanced exosuit; and the much more robust and commanding stature of hard, carapace-like shell of powered armor. There were others, of course, but those were just among the first few that would immediately be in the sorceress' view. The 'commands' to move around and look at the various choices were easy enough to pick up on that the muse didn't feel the need to explain. Especially with how intelligent Cessie was.

[Shadowcaller]

[Cessie's Lab!]

The sorceress nods. "I can assure you that my measurements won't change, I know that it happens around here disturbingly often, but I have been spared thankfully. I've seen awful things happening to people." Technically a lie, but Cessie did not want to discuss such matters. Instead, she stands upon the circle, not really sure what it was supposed to do, but she considered Riss trustworthy enough.
"These are all... very fancy." At least the one that showed up right away. "Not exactly my style though. It might sound silly, but I'm looking for something more... dress-like?" She will scroll through the options for exactly that. "I have admittedly never seen such a thing, but considering your advanced technology, perhaps there is a way to make it work."

[Another visitor]

"So just feminine pronouns? Nothing else? I thought there might have been a term for, uh, someone who had changed their gender?" Not exactly Cessie's area of expertise.

But perhaps the children will show up right about now?