Home 22: Our neighborhood watch is extra vigilant

[Halae]

[Trick's Home]

In between kisses, Trick manages to say "Hmm... nope." she traces a finger along Sophie's collarbone, "Between the two of us, I'm gonna have to say you're the hot one."

[Morty]

[Trick's Home]

"And just what makes you say so, dear?" Sophie asks, kissing Trick's forehead as she cunningly tricks the tiefling into complimenting her.

[Recaiden]

"I don't know what a 'chocobo' is, exactly. But let me take a look!"

Cleo strides briskly over to look at Bell.
"Definitely a bird."
"Herbivore, looks like a riding-bird of some sort. I don't think his magic does anything, really."
"Well, see you there."

The door's this way, right? She can see herself out.

[Deathkeeper]

Clara's Flat

Clara pets Bell's head.
"Well, that's a relief, sort of. Won't have to worry about him doing anything crazy. But...I don't have enough space for a riding bird. I'll just have to move up in the world before you become a big boy, won't I?" she coos, scratching the bottom of his beak.
Cleo shouldn't have trouble seeing herself out.

And when it comes time tomorrow, Clara shouldn't have trouble finding the Wizards' Tower either, since apparently it's impossible for her not to.

[Recaiden]

First thing Cleo does is take off that silly fake beard. And soon enough she's gone from the city.

Bell chirps and flutters his little wings.

Along the way, Clara might come across a Sword in a Stone, standing off the path, almost-buried by fallen leaves.

[Deathkeeper]

To the Wizards' Tower

Clara has to arrange for her mother to come around and feed Bell while she's gone, but that's really not a problem. She packs a bag and dresses in her most practical clothes, heading out in the early morning.
She laughs when she spots the sword, walking over and giving a dramatic pose as she leans down to tug at the blade.
"Tell me, am I chosen to be honored by thy hilt?" she asks aloud.

[Recaiden]

Wow, relatives!

The sword slides easily free, leaves having crunched underfoot and now sweeping away from the stone. A crack of lightning erupts from the tip of the blade and zips up to the sky, and a shooting star flashes in the sky above.

It doesn't talk, but Clara might get a sense of approval or at least a sudden unexplained feeling of how cool she is. In contrast with the sword, which is slightly warm to the touch. Speaking of the sword, it's a rapier with an overly elaborate flowery handguard. Symbols stream down across the guard's smooth plasticky surface. 〇 and 一.

[Deathkeeper]

To the Wizard's Tower

Clara's jaw drops open. "Oh, uh. Thanks. Wow. I don't actually know how to use a sword like this. I'm sure I can get a scabbard for you later. Um. Ok."
Circles and dashes? Who knows what that could mean. Clara starts to continue on her way, staring at the blade, leaves crunching under her boots.

[Recaiden]

The circles and dashes move a bit more quickly over the surface now that Clara's taken hold of the sword.
It's reassuring her. It's okay that she doesn't know. Everyone was a beginner once. There was a time when the sword had no idea how to be wielded.

[Deathkeeper]

to the Wizards' Tower

Well, that is a little reassuring. Clara wishes she had had more time to practice before Cleo's assignment, but at least she had something to fight with, right? Time to continue on. Clara does wish the sword had come with a scabbard.

[Recaiden]

Don't be silly, Clara. Who ever heard of a scabbard in a stone?

~fin~

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Room

Our young sorcerer is doing homework, though his mind isn't in it. There might be a full moon tonight, but it isn't ever definite. His potion helps when he transforms but makes him rather I'll if he takes it and doesn't do so afterwards. And since he was kicked from the clown throne (good riddance) and temporarily made a mildly obese elephant (at least he wasn't shrunk for once) his curse hadn't been the nice funny thing it had been under the clowns' influence. What should he do, he ponders.

[Rebonack]

[Isaac's Room]

"Well, you could ask for help, for one," comes a female voice from the direction of his bed. Should he turn around, he'll notice a certain draconequus draped across it. She's looking a little less symmetrical than before, but at least her limbs haven't gotten all hodge-podged. Maybe that's a good sign. "But someone else already asked for help on your behalf, so here I am! And we'll just start right away, how does that sound?"

That said, quick as a flash, she reaches out like a striking serpent to beep Isaac's nose!

Should she succeed, she'll pull from Isaac, nose-first, a faintly luminous couatl! She gives the snake-thing a firm shake, causing it to spontaneously solidify into a couatl-themed end table lamp. Said lamp is placed on a classy end table that Isaac didn't have previously. The thing looks like it was pulled straight out of a Doctor Seuss book, all garishly colored and oddly angled.

"There! Problem solved, right?" Fortuna asks with a wide, leering smile. "Here, catch!"

She tosses something Isaac's way! Should he catch it, he'll find a large silver coin in his hand. On one side is a draconequus with her tail in her mouth. On the reverse is a cornucopia. Neat?

"So, what next kiddo?" she asks, still reclined on the young man's bed. "You know I can't just make you normal and leave it at that. I was given instructions."

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Room

Isaac whips around, and is poked on the nose. He blinks in confusion, but is still able to catch the coin. The scenario clicks in his head eventually and he breaks out into a grin.
"Did you just extract a physical manifestation of my therianthropy? Jeez, thanks a bunch. Like seriously." he does frown a bit after that.
"Miss, I've been a talking ant, a roughly human-shaped amorphous blob, a winged snake, almost a wasp, an octopus, and an elephant. And each of those was its own little nightmare, though there was some positives I guess. Flying was kind of cool, even if I can barely remember my therianthropy changes, and the elephant incident at least was the one time I didn't shrink. But even without that, I have raptor eyes, fangs, and a giant reserve of fairy magic. I ain't normal."

[Rebonack]

[Isaac's Room]

"Sure did! If your curse were to trigger right now you would transform into.... Yourself! OOoooooOOoooOooh! Spooky!" Fortuna declares, wiggling her fingers in a suitably spooky fashion. "That might either be totally unremarkable or really weird. I have no idea which. But I say we find out together!"

She gives her claws a SNAP! causing a tiny moon to appear in a flash of magnesium white light and begin orbiting Isaac's head!

Who knows what will happen!

If anything?

And Fortuna?

Well.

She's eating noisily from a bag of popcorn she suddenly acquired.

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Room

Isaac flinches as the moon appears, but nothing of note seems to happen. His hair shortens a few millimeters to his preferred length, one of his zits clears up, and one or two barely noticeable things about him change to suit the way he sees himself, but nothing really entertaining at all happens.
"So, uh...you satisfied?" he asks her.

[Rebonack]

[Isaac's Room]

"Pfft. Are you kidding?" Fortuna laughs. "If I just left you like this, I wouldn't ever hear the end of it. Nope, I've got to find something to replace the snake-bird with. But I'm going to be really nice about it! Whatever sorta curse you have dumbs you down. So I'm going to replace it with something that isn't stupid! That way you won't be a dolt come full moon."

Her grin grew three sizes that day.

"So. What's it going to be? Have you got a favorite mythological critter that is intelligent? I could go with an old standby with dragon. Everyone likes dragons, right? Or maybe a pegasus. Or how about one of the humanoid ones? Like a djinn or a dryad or a nyad or something? Hmmm..." Fortuna hums aloud.

It...

Sounds like she's giving Isaac a choice here?

But he had better not waffle, otherwise she'll make it for him.

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Room

Isaac shakes his head. "No djinn! Er, uh, sorry but...yeah, no djinn. " he says before he calms down a bit. Looking at that grin, he decides to play along, but he doesn't necessarily like it.
"I'd uh, like to stay a guy, if you don't mind. My magic is fairy magic, though. I don't know if having an unrelated sort of thing like dragon magic would be safe. So, probably something that meshes will with my fairy transmutation magics. Being a dragon does sound pretty fun though. I'd probably find some way to get back at a few people if I was something bigger instead of smaller. I suppose it depends on the extent of any mental effects. A satyr would be a safe option unless I start acting like a drunken idiot and piss off the wrong girls from flirting. Um, thoughts?"

[Rebonack]

[Isaac's House]

"Fairys, huh? Okay I think I've got just the thing!" Fortuna replies as she produces a little red plush toy from apparently nowhere. It looks rather like a dragon, a long snakey sort with little tiny wings, webbed feet, and a webbed ridge along its tail ostensibly to help with swimming.

Then?

She shoves the thing up poor Isaac's nose.

Somehow.

In the presence of the tiny orbiting moon he should undergo a rapid transformation into a knucker! Because that's a type of fairy dragon, you see. Isaac may suddenly have a powerful compulsion to find a well or a deep pond or something similar to claim as his. Because, you see, knuckers have this thing for holes. Sometimes holes full of water. Sometimes holes in rocks. Sometimes blow-holes near the sea. Sometimes even big holes in really big trees! But it's always a hole they want to live in.

Oh.

And shiny things.

Shiny things are the best.

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Room

Isaac raises an eyebrow at the doll, but has quite some vivid deja vu when Fortuna stretches his nose out a ways and shoves a doll inside of it. His nose doesn't bounce back either, the rest of his head just flows forward as it molds itself into a snout. Isaac breaks out into red-orange scales, and almost immediately begins trying to slither out of his clothes, which feel weird. His sudden resemblance to Fortuna would be a bit funny, especially give the glasses that are still sitting on his nose. And even though his wings are tiny and probably vestigial. He immediately slips under the bed, where the moon might have trouble following.
"W-woah. I d-don't know if I like this. I feel really...exposed. Not very strong." he stammers.
Knuckers are probably better at hiding and ambushing than overpowering things.

[Rebonack]

[Isaac's Room]

There's no reply from Fortuna, the draconequus is already gone since her job here is done.

Isaac feels exposed, certainly. He's got an intense desire to find something to hid in or under. And his bed just isn't deep enough. Maybe if there were a well somewhere nearby? Wells are always nice places to hide. Especially if someone is nice enough to toss shiny coins down to you. Yeah, a well would be good. Or maybe he could fill up his bathtub and hide in there? That might be okay for a little while at least.

Other fae things might be watching him all of a sudden...

And who knows how long it'll be before they start bugging him.

He already had faerie magic, after all.

It might just be a matter of time before he begins to hear the piping of the flutes...

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Room

Isaac feels awful. Just awful! Where's he supposed to find a well? To find one he'd have to go outside! And he might be bothered out there! Ick, just ick.
He scuttles over to the bathroom and tries to slip into the bathtub with some nice warm water flowing.
Those weird flutes will stop eventually. Right? Go away, stupid magic thing.

[Rebonack]

[Isaac's Bathtub]

Why would magic things ever stop, anyway? Isaac was given fae magic. And fae are really weird. This is a well known fact. When you have a connection to really weird things, really weird stuff is going to be going on all the time and there's simply no escape from it. At the very least, it's fluting instead of honking. At the very least is isn't clowns. There's something squirming just beyond the edge of reality. Something watching that ought not be. Something testing the veil, searching for the best way in.

It probably isn't something nice.

Not with the way it's making the air feel sticky with reality.

Not with the way Isaac will be able to sense the unrelenting pressure of its baleful attention.

It appears over by the sink, growing out of nothing like a pimple rising from the skin, swelling and fattening until it bursts in a spray of aether that spatters across the mirror and walls, coating them in a filmy layer of impossible colors. The thing is horrible! Awful! It's... it's-!

It looks like some sort of chicken-sized theropod dinosaur, complete with eerie fractal plumage that doesn't ever seem to end unless one looks directly at it. In place of eyes, its body is speckled with orbs reminiscent of soap bubbles. Some remain more or less stationary, others are drifting about the creature, forming and unforming. In place of a normal snout, the tiny monster possess three keratinized tendrils that form a serrated beak. The thing speaks to Isaac, though not with words as they might be conceptualized. Its will and intent are simply made known.

~Hiya! You look like you've been having a weird day.~

Say hello to the servitor of Yog-Sothoth, Isaac. Surely it couldn't mean anything nefarious with this visit.

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Bathtub

Isaac peers over the rim of the tub, absolutely sullen. Why did he have to be bothered?
"Yeah, what's it to you? You're trespassing, you know." he insists. Why can't this thing just go away?

[Rebonack]

[Isaac's Bathtub]

~That would probably matter if we found mortal laws compelling. The only laws we're interested in are the invariant ones,~ the tiny horror replies. Somehow the flavor of its crushing will made manifest is perceived as cheerful. ~Mostly I'm just here to mention some hazards. The big folks don't have much of a problem with the sorta fairy stuff you got dumped with, but there are other fae that have been skulking around recruiting people who are really terrible. They want to end existence! You like existing, right? Right. Everyone likes existing. If they had it their way, everything would stop being a thing, and that's terrible. And if they make enough of the real world like them, then they might take a stab at gobbling up the whole thing! Which would be terrible. Just ghastly. So mostly I'm just passing on a warning. Watch out for weird faeries. You met one already named Twig. And those goblins that were after her? They're doing the dirty work of collecting good old normal material folk to enchant.~

Those goblins were pretty awful.

They were trying to kidnap students!

And why would anyone want to let them do stuff like that?

The way Twig explained it, the things she had been subjected to were absolutely horrific. Imagine the whole world being trapped in a living nightmare like that.

~My boss is trying to stop that from happening, but everyone thinks he's the bad guy! Could a guy who's existence allows sapience to be a thing be bad? Heck no! Yog-Sothoth is great. Everyone loves him. It's just some of the cultists who give him a bad name, I swear. If you wanted to lend my boss a hand, that would be pretty super fantastic! You would just get a neat-o mark on you somewhere that's this super-keen fractal thing that would help anchor you in reality so those jerks from the Dreamlands can't enchant you. Aaaaaaaand you could use it to commune with Yog-Sothoth in his house beyond the edge of physical reality! Doesn't that sound great? Because it's super great. Waddaya say? Wanna help Yoggy save the world?~

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Bathtub

Isaac sinks a bit into the water.
"I don't even know what you want me to do! And I can't just go on accepting things that suppress fairy magic. I use fairy magic; if you nullified it I'd get kicked out of school! Not to mention that I don't even know if I am one right now. And I don't want any more eyes!" he insists, very wary of this strange being.

[Rebonack]

[Isaac's Bathtub]

~You aren't a faerie! That's the good news. If you were a faerie already, I wouldn't be wasting my time. Nah, you're a fairy, which is different,~ the thing replies. Somehow the distinction between 'fairy' and 'faerie' is made powerfully apparent. One is pretty darn okay, like an ideal or personification of a thing! And the little horror's bosses like those. The other is an awful creeping cancer on reality. And those are the worst. ~Yoggy's mark would probably make your fairy magic stronger if you try using it to alter someone's perception of things. Wouldn't that be cool? Illusions are pretty much the best since you can use them to end conflict without killing anyone, which means the universe doesn't have to lose any precious sapience! Isn't that great? That's pretty great.~

Several more 'eyes', iridescent bubbles with interiors as black as night, boil into existence around the creature.

~What's wrong with eyes? Eyes are great! They let you perceive things! And perceiving things is the best. Are you sure you don't want me to sign you up for any more? Not even one extra floaty one? Floaty eyes are pretty awesome, let me tell you.~

Man.

Just look at those floating eyes.

So cool.

~But I guess if you don't want any extra eyes that's okay, too. Just the fractal mark. See, look!~ the horror says, showing off its plumage. The strange mark can be found on all of the creature's feathers, a strange coiling image that never seems to end. Isaac might recognize it as the dragon fractal if he's at all into math.

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Bathtub

Isaac shakes his head. "No no, I don't need that many eyes. Four is plenty." he says, adjusting his glasses.
Isaac that's a terrible joke. No wonder the clowns fired you.
"And I'm not signing up for anything unless I know both sides of the bargain!" he insists to the transrealital chicken.

[Rebonack]

[Isaac's Bathtub]

A beat.

~Oh! This is the sound of me vibrating my diaphragm to indicate my pleasure at your clever play on words!~ the creature replies quite genuinely. It even makes a physical sound that is almost, but not wholly, unlike laughter. ~Because glasses are sometimes refereed to as an extra set of eyes in jest. My boss could fix your eye problem, too. Without adding any more eyes. Just fixing your current ones. Your side of the bargain would be to take our protection from being turned into a faerie. Our side of the bargain is giving you the sigil! What you do with the boon is up to you. You could even use it for nothing! You're just a likely target for the Daoine Sidhe to try to take, and we're trying to prevent that from happening. Can't we just be nice? We're just trying to be nice. You should accept the deal.~

Technically?

Technically they don't have to ask for permission.

But they're being nice about it!

Isn't that nice of them?

[Deathkeeper]

Isaac's Bathtub

"I don't think I want any more changes made to me. I might accept your help, but only if it comes with the clause that it won't affect my being in some other way, nor will I be compelled to have further dealings with you if I wouldn't normally want to. I'd rather not be this at all, but that dragon person made me this way before I could properly think about what was best!
That and you can totally take this moon for free if you want it. I already have another one at school." he offers, not seeing another way to get rid of it.
If only Fortuna had waited until he'd been able to think of the name of a creature he'd have liked. Then he could have been exactly the same as he usually was right now, with just some flowers in his hair or something.