Foxside: The Temple of Inari 54 - Ten Years of Foxes

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

Nick puts a claw on Geneva's back in support.
To be perfectly honest, Forte, she needed you more than the other way around. Nick knows she's worried and isn't letting on. Geneva worried about everything more than she had to without you.
"That would be this." he says merrily, twirling the underwear on his other claw.
"I know it isn't much, but Fortuna did apologize for being reckless in her prank on the Temple. She promised to be a bit more careful to make sure no one's seriously injured and everything stays mostly in good humor. It was the best I could do, really. She's not over the deep end just yet, but I can't say I had any real control over the situation."
And that does make him sad. At least she's still a friend, even if it's a friendship he's not going to be super open that he's kept, lest everyone question his sanity. That and it was weird but he did think she was pretty, and now she's going to ruin it by growing a single antler and weird non-matching legs or something gross. Gross!
And he knows it's okay to think that, because she's already made bird jokes at him, so all's fair in making fun of each other's appearances.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

It's that sharply analytical mind. Her desire to understand and control things. And when things are out of her control, she starts getting anxious. Fortuna gave her confidence. So she'll just have to learn how to be a little more confident on her own. Though on the upside, it'll probably be a bit easier to get her to blush.

Like right now. Geneva is blushing and giggling and trying not to make a big deal of her transformed computer but generally failing.

See?

Even with all this adversity, Fortuna still managed to make them laugh.

<She apologized?> Geneva asks, her little ears perking up. <That's... that's probably good. After reading up so much on what a draconequus is like, I was terrified of what would happen if I wasn't her conscience anymore. That she would just be a chaos monster that's totally out of control... but...> she smiles up at Nick. <It sounds like I left some good impression on her?>

Geneva puffs out her tiny chest a bit.

<Guess that means you don't have to be from pastel pony-world to teach someone that friendship is magic.>

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

Nick laughs.
"First of all, you've always been the one to say that, not me. And uh, should I even bring up your theme songs?"
He has a point. Pokemon theme songs have almost as many references to friendship as the ones where it's an actual plot point.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

<Ooooooooh you're my best friend~ And the world we must defeeeeend~ Pokemon!> Geneva sings, giving a snorting giggle about half way through. <Those cartoons are so comically inaccurate. Mewtwo was not cloned from an eyelash.> She flits up, settling atop Nick's head like an adorable pink hat. She begins scratching him behind the ears now that he's helpless to stop her. Because there are some upsides to her natural shape, as it so happens. She really couldn't ever spend much time in it back home without putting herself or her friends at risk. And even here in the Nexus, she has to be cautious.

You never know how crazy trainers might get around 'legendary' pokemon.

Geneva gives a contented sigh.

<It feels like it has been way too long since we've had time to just stop and breath. What a crazy world we live in.>

Says the mew who spent most of her life disguised as a normal human locked away under ground who has fallen in love with the griffin from the world parallel to her own. Both of whom are currently waiting inside a pokemon enclosure in a temple run by fox-people for a dragon goddess to snap out of temporal stasis so she can remove some curses set upon them by an incarnation of chaos magic.

Crazy world? Goes without saying.

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

Were Geneva still part of Fortuna, she might have been able to hear the very, very faint voice of a certain pocket dragon belting out a topically relevant tune.
crazy noisy biiiiizaaaaaarre toooooown!

"That was supposed to be an eyelash? I always thought it was a weird hair or a broken claw or something. And yeah, it's nice. And while I'm sure Fortuna isn't done with us just yet, we'll have plenty of time to breathe going forward, I'm sure."

Don't forget about their little brother slash son who is a dragon. He's also weird.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

Leave it to Zebes to find mildly fourth wall breaking songs to sing.

<We still need to pick out a cake,> Geneva points out. <Maybe just something small and inconspicuous. A chocolate cake with white frosting and strawberries. Just big enough for me to completely vanish inside.>

Because that's what they need.

A cake that Geneva can spring out of at the end of the ceremony.

Isn't that usually traditional at the bachelor parties BEFORE the wedding, though?

<Or maybe it would be a better idea to just have a quick little ceremony and that's that? If we have a reception, it might get crashed by Miss Chaos-pants. Even if we have it here and the gods stop her, it would really ruin the mood,> Geneva ponders, mind wandering to all the things that could possibly go wrong.

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

"Geneva, how do you expect to hide in the cake when we're saying vows?
And I'm not sure. To be honest, we've only got, what? Us, Nick, Jace's family, your few friends, and the foxes. And maybe a fish bowl somewhere for Henry. I only invited one person and she's not going to show. I'm not sure how necessary a reception really is, unless you just want to have it in someone's living room and show movies." Nick suggests.
Ambassador N'alae would probably not get within three miles of this nuthouse.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

Even if both of them were humans for the ceremony? The were-foxes can look human too, right? And the kitsune? They could just pretend that everything is normal, nothing to see here.

<I could try teleporting into it?> she suggests. <But since neither the cake nor I are Bose-Einstein condensates we wouldn't be able to occupy the same space at the same time and the cake would probably explode.>

It would explode.

Without a doubt.

Fortuna would probably find it hilarious if she was invited.

Or if she wasn't

<I invited a few people from work, but I don't think anyone was very interested,> Geneva hums. <All I got were a few maybes.>

Yes. Geneva's work. The place where she exchanges labor and knowledge and time for money. Her place of work which isn't a weather factory, because a mew who spends much of her time disguised as a human or a griffin working at a weather factory would be unusual. No, she works at a technology firm that makes psionic technologies. Because after all, she still has her psionics when she's in non-pokemon forms. With her natural aptitude and her analytical mind it's a perfect job. Clearly.

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

"See? We don't really have that many people coming. I don't see a point in going nuts."
Properly speaking, Nick said that they were still engaged when Forte talked to him, and she didn't explicitly dump him, so in theory they are still sort of engaged and she probably could come.
But even after that teary speech Nick would very, very firmly tell her to behave if she expected to stay.
You sure are taking this retconjuration seriously, Forte. What are you going to do next, start altering Nick Jr's costume? Change Nick's profession? Reveal that Geneva was actually a Detective Comics fan all along?

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

Detective Comics? Let's not get TOO crazy now.

<Okay. Small it is. And we're still both going as griffins for the vows. And then we do the beak-touch. Then we do a kiss as humans. Because a wedding just isn't the same without a kiss,> Geneva replies as she finds a new spot part way down Nick's neck to scratch. <Would a wedding without a kiss even count if you're physically capable of kissing, but you don't? I'm not sure if it would. I'll need to look into that. Normally I would just look it up right now. Geeze I miss having my PIPgear. It's so disorienting not having that augmented reality display when you've had it for your whole adult life. It's like... like losing the ability to see color all of a sudden.>

Which would be awful.

Imagine a world in shades of grey only.

Nothing but terrible fan-fiction mutated into best selling smut as far as the eye can see.

That would be the worst.

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

Speaking of which, originally Geneva (she was still Geneva at the time) thought they were engaged because Nick kissed her. Does that mean we're switching that since it was a griff thing?
These retcons are so confusing, Forte.
"Well, sure, if that's what you want. When did you get so scratch-happy?" he asks her.
Personally, while he's glad Wukong gave him the power to be a human, he never really bothered to use it much. After a few months he realized that it doesn't really matter, that nobody cares, and he stopped using it much.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

Ha! Sure, why not? Can you imagine Geneva working up the courage to kiss Nick without me giving her a confidence boost? That would be adorable to watch.

<W-well, I just figured it would be a nice thing for me to do since I'm up here?> Geneva replies somewhat sheepishly. <I don't spend much time in my natural form. It makes me feel... you know... exposed. People seeing me like this back home would have put my friends in danger. I know things aren't like that here, but old habits are hard to break. But... well, since I'm stuck until the curse is broken, then I might as well make the best of it!>

By sitting on Nick's head.

And kneeding his hair like a cat.

Because why not!

<Oh geeze, did you want me to stop? Sorry Nick, I should have noticed that you didn't like it my mind has just been running in circles ever since Forte shoved me out that I haven't been stopping to think about things as long as I normally do and I think my judgement might not have been the best otherwise I would have known to bring better protection with us since Forte could have accidentally hurt one of us and->

Oop.

She's dithering.

How will Nick staunch the flow of nervous verbiage today?

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

And it'll be adorable later, assuming you don't interrupt it by turning Jace into a unicorn or turning all the air into confetti or something else ridiculous. So that's your only warning, Missy!

Nick lets Geneva blather for a while before slowly turning his head up so he can see her, looking her in the eyes with as wide a grin as a beak can do, and saying,
"Fortuna also wished us a merry post-marriage tango."
Mentioning anything even slightly lewd has always gotten Geneva too flustered to blather. Unless Fortuna meant that literally, but neither of them can actually tango so even then it might have that effect.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

Geneva's immediately stops talking. Because she just started wibbling instead. A hundred little partial thoughts that can't seem to articulate into words. Her face flushes as her cheeks turn bright red, easily seen through her nearly white fur. Finally she decides that the best course of action is to topple off Nick, landing square on her head with a thump.

Geneva is confused!

?
??
???

Geneva hurt herself in her confusion!

Now she's laying there on the floor like a lump.

What a lucky guy you are, Nick. You haven't gotten to see her do that in forever.

[8BitNinja]

[Garden]

The little gardener looks at Steve with big eyes

You need to call the police? If there's an emergency, we're supposed to get the temple guards first because they're right here.... but the non-emergency number is built-in. Push the little round button on the front and hold it until the screen lights up, then say "Call Remnant non-emergency".

"Thank you sir" says Steve. He looks at the phone once more, holds down the button, and says "Call Remnant non-emergency"

[Fenric]

[Garden]

The phone lights up and shows "Calling Remnant Non-Emergency...", with a few buttons at the bottom, and a big red square labelled "End Call".

And now we come to the awkward part of the path you have chosen:

I neither run Remnant, nor do I have any characters who are part of it, nor honestly have I ever paid more than a tiny bit of attention to it: I can't legitimately play the receiving end of this phone call.

---

[Hospital]

Felina looks thoughtful

I'm sure the housekeepers will be careful.... And my more precious items can look after themselves to an extent: there are some benefits to coming from a magic-rich world.

Then she listens carefully to Arlem's condensed news report, and smiles again

It sounds like you have things well in hand, dear.

The baby has woken up and roots around, squeaking.

Ah... the wonders of infants: needing to eat every couple of hours. It's best to change his diaper now, too.

And so, acts of baby care ensue. New parents do not get to sleep...

---

[Pokémon Enclosure]

Keiko is released from the dire tendrils of dead-time, fully aware of everything that has happened. She promptly tilts around in a bizzare parody of canine fashion to scratch behind her right ear with a hind leg: itches take priority over everything else, after all.

Euuuugh! Reality warping makes me itch. Is it Fortuna going and mucking about with your universe-state? Inari had a follower do that once, and you know what happened? Clan NorZilliar, that's what. I hope she just Polymorphed your PIP-thing 'cause if she turned it into panties that way, I'm not sure I can undo it: I'm immune to those sorts of shenanigans, but I've never tried changing them.

And then she giggles at Geneva's prude reaction. But since Geneva is flopped right now, she holds off on describing the wonders of laying eggs.

Allrighty, then: Geneva gave me that yummy egg treat and I had a good nap, so let's see whether I can put your computer back to rights!

And with that, she gathers up her energy: quite noticeable this time as she doesn't take short-cuts

Spell of change, results silly and strange
Panties of pink? What made you think
that would ever do? Now I'll tell you:
a shape like that leaves our friend flat.
It's time go, quick now: not slow!
Back to a PIP-Colt, now all in a JOLT!

And she releases her magic in a burst: attempting to put the little computer back the way it was.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

And lo, with a sound akin to one of those mooing cans, the flowery undergarment is returned to its rightful state! It would appear Fortuna didn't put much effort into warping the computer, the effect was only a simple metamorphosis rather than fundamentally altering what it was. Adding a masking value over something is easier than actually changing the thing itself, after all.

<Thanks Keiko!> Geneva says, quickly recovering from her state of befuddlement. She picks up the far-too-large device and applies it in the only way that makes the least bit of sense. As a fancy looking technological back-pack. A side module is pulled from the side and attached to her teeny little wrist, giving her a smaller version of the device's screen to work with directly. After all, there's no way she would be able to the screen on her back. That would be silly. A few adjustments later and- "Oh thank goodness. This really beats writing on a notepad. Now we'll just need to figure out how to remove this weird interruption effect Fortuna put on my TRANSFORM and I think we'll be alright."

At least until their next attempt at thwarting Fortuna.

They'll need to think things through a little better, next time.

That, or Fortuna will spring some kind of 'game' on them and they'll have to improvise.

Time will tell.

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

"Well, I could try interrupting the interruption with a roar of noise, but I'm not sure how well that would work."
Griffin magic can't really produce a flat dispel like D&D magic, but the way magic works for those silly ponies, throwing flat "noise" everywhere is a good way to short magic weaves and circuits from functioning properly.
Darn it Forte, I have to get all this stuff right from now on.

Nick considers if he should tell the Foxes to look into the Harmony whatsits. He doesn't really approve of the idea of doing anything bad to Fortuna, but she said she was considering being a villain as long as her defeat is possible, and those are what you would use to defeat her.
A thought which never would have even gotten three psychic miles of his brain if you hadn't rewrote him to have that knowledge, of course, Forte.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

"Hopefully the roar doesn't startle anyone in here," Geneva muses, glancing about at the various fox-like pokemon who are no doubt watching this whole exchange. "Okay, I'll give it a shot. Get ready with that magical shout of yours."

And then?

Geneva focuses, but as soon as she begins to pixelate, the strange effect starts getting yanked away from her!

Now Nick!

Do it now!

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

Nick belts out a quick roar of magical noise. It tingles and sounds odd, almost like static. Really weird for anyone listening. Though it only has a limited range of about fifteen feet.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

Rawr!

Magic disrupting roar!

The pixels waver for a moment, but it doesn't prevent them from once again resolving into the stern, looming shape of an elderly Pokemon Professor.

"You can't use that indoors!" he proclaims before vanishing again.

Geneva puffs out her little cheeks in frustration. "Well, it was worth a try. Maybe you have some ideas, Keiko? Or maybe one of the other divinities here at the temple might be able to do something about it?"

Sadly, the foxes aren't super familiar with psionics, are they? Geneva knows plenty about them, but their interactions with weird chaos curses are pretty well beyond her ability to puzzle through.

Chaos magic really irritates her. Things need to be ordered! Logical! Not all... willy nilly!

[Fenric]

Keiko's ears are still ringing from the noise when Professor Oak comes and makes a pronouncement

Who's that dip? Just the sight of him annoys me for some reason.

She reads the previous posts

No, as a rule we suck at Psionics. And the last time Myobi tried to fix Geneva's shapeshifting it didn't turn out so well... but Myobi is all stuffy and proper and frequently no fun at all...

She pauses, and looks at Geneva, and then her voice sounds... odd...

(( Hey Fortuna! It's not gonna be any fun to tell Geneva about laying eggs unless she can change to something that actually lays them. Eggs just happen for Pokémon, you know? Surely that's a reaction you want to see? ))

It's easy to forget that Keiko is on the "pranks and mischief" side of the house herself...

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

Nick's eyes go wide and he just sort of gapes. Is she...calling her out? That's a terrible idea, just look at what happened last time!

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure]

"It's Professor Oak, he operates out of Pallate Town," Geneva replies matter of factly. "Or... well... More like a caricature of him. This curse might have something to do with him somehow? Let me see if I can find anything..." She begins making an inquiry on her PIPgear to see if she can find any promising hits. Sure enough, right at the top of the list! "Ah! There's a little town south of Inside that recently got pulled into the Nexus. Pokemon is just a video game there and they have some kind of build devoted to pokemon entertainment. They have a wall display of Prof Oak that looks just like that phantom that keeps interrupting me."

Well!

That's a lead at the very least, right?

And then Keiko says something awful.

Geneva just... stares at her, her expression one of abject horror. "...why? Why would you say that? What have I ever done to you to deserve this?"

"Eh, mews give live birth unless they're Transformed into some other pokemon, then they do it the normal way with an egg poofing out of nowhere," comes the disembodied voice of Fortuna. She is not, in fact, in the sanctuary. But there is a tiny radio-speaker mounted on the wall that wasn't there a moment ago. "And Equestrian griffins give live birth, too. Back half of a lion and all that. What, you want me to turn her into a dragon or something? Or how about a snake? Oh wait, you're a snake already aren't you? Wouldn't want her stepping on your non-existent toes."

Keiko may or may not be an enormous black snake. Should she be an enormous black snake, the effect will only last a total of twelve seconds before ending in an explosion of Snake-In-A-Can toys launching themselves in every direction as Keiko reverts to normal.

[Fenric]

And for 12 seconds, Keiko is indeed a black snake. And then snake-in-a-can toys disperse to entertain the 4th through 6th graders when they come out to recess.

It was worth a try. You said she was trying to make things interesting and have fun. If there's an interesting and fun angle to something, I'd a thought you have a much better chance of getting her cooperation. And if you did lay eggs, it would have been very instructional. But you don't and it didn't work so... now it has to be the difficult way.

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

"We already have a dragon, thanks. I don't think we need any more changes made, thanks very much." says Nick tersely, not happy with Keiko at the moment.

[Rebonack]

[Pokemon Enclosure ==> Away]

Geneva doesn't add anything to Nick's comment. She simply zips out of the pokemon enclosure, leaving a vague psionic haze of emotional hurt and anger behind her. The ambient emotional imprint will dissipate into nothing in short order. It's not an attack. Nor is it particularly intense. More like an echo of Geneva's emotional state. Because psychic pokemon do that sort of thing sometimes.

Midnight, of course, wouldn't notice it at all.

Anyone else would feel the outside emotion keenly for a second or two before it fades.

Should Nick take off after Geneva, he'll find her rapidly flying away from the temple grounds in general and Keiko in particular, a trail of faintly luminous tears streaming behind her. Given the way Geneva's aura is beginning to flare a brilliant shade of magenta, she's probably gearing up for a chain TELEPORT to get as far away from the temple as quickly as she can. Nick will have to hustle to catch her before she BAMPH!s

Well.

Looks like Keiko might not be getting invited to the wedding.

[Fenric]

Keiko watches Geneva go

Did it again... yay, me...

And she dives into the nearest shadow and disappears

[Deathkeeper]

Pokemon Enclosure

Nick, who as of retconjuration can easily surpass Mach 1, should really not have trouble catching up to Geneva, no matter how much psychic backlash she throws out.
He doesn't say anything, merely resting his beak against her cheek and wrapping her in an oh-so-fluffy hug.

[Rebonack]

[Above the Temple]

As Nick wraps his arms around her, the aura of building power swirling around Geneva gutters and dies. She tries to speak between sobs, but all she can manage are a few strangled gasps and hiccups. Frustrated and hurt, she simply buries her face in the griffin's breast feathers and weeps.

Emotion is rolling off her in waves, sadness and anguish and anger and not a small bit of self-loathing. It's taking all of her mental discipline to prevent it from ramping up into a psychically disruptive wave of power. Things like this have always been hard for her. Reaching too much emotional turmoil plays havoc with her focused mental state. And there are few things more dangerous than a psychic-type losing mental focus. So Nick will have to excuse her. She won't be talking for some time. Just crying, hating everything about the past day or so, and desperately trying to reign in her mental power so it doesn't cascade into a potentially harmful psywave.

Being near Nick helps a lot, though.

Being near Nick always helps a lot.

The sound of his heartbeat, the feel of his mind, the softness of his feathers, his silly birdcat smell. She loves everything about him.

And that, more than anything else, helps her find a place of calmness.