Home 22: Our neighborhood watch is extra vigilant

[Rebonack]

[Pepper Oni's]

"Our house filled up with monsters and we decided to go get pizza!" Khannie says, quite cheerful about the whole situation. Hey, she got out of her math homework (for now) AND got pizza? AND she got to punch things? This is a win all around as far as she's concerned. The only thing that could possibly make it better is if Veronica's little brothers and sisters were here to play with while waiting for the pizza to cook.

And for good measure, she sticks her tongue out at Zebes.

"It burns my tongue! My tongue isn't tough like my plates and scales are."

Duh.

Everyone knows that, Zebes.

Apparently she didn't quite catch the pun.

Now Zebes has a choice. He can explain the pun, thus ruining the joke, or he can let it slide.

[UncleWolf]

Pepper Oni's

The waitress looks at Jace for a moment before looking at the others. She doesn't say anything but gives a nod before vanishing in a puff of smoke. Veronica stands in her place, wearing her gym shorts and tube top holding an mPod in her hand as she dances to music. "Shake it off...shake it off... She sings as she dances, shaking her hips from side to side. It takes her a few moments, but eventually she realizes that the air is wrong and that she is no longer at home. When the realization hits the Harpy, she opens her eyes and spins right around, looking furious for a moment before she sees Jace, Zebes, and Khannie.

"Oh." She says as she pulls her earphones out and sets her mPod on the table. "Lunch it is then." She adds with a smile before hopping up into a seat next to Jace and leaning against him to give him a quick kiss. "Shoulda called me."

[Deathkeeper]

Pepper Oni's

Jace frowns, but lets everything go with an exhale and returning a kiss to his darling harpy.
It isn't weird, we swear. Normal Nexus couples.
"It was supposed to be quick and spur-of-the-moment. I didn't expect our waitress to have such an attachment to serving us at the same time." he says, only complaining about the surprise and not the results.

[Rebonack]

[Pepper Oni's]

"Blegh! Why do adults do that all the time?" Khannie complains, making a sour face at all the kissing. Sure, the kissing might have have been pretty tame, but any kissing is a major point of contention to a child of Khannie's age. Why couldn't the waitress have brought someone fun along with Miss Veronica? Like her younger siblings? That's no fair. Khannie decides to display her displeasure by sulking.

...at least until she remembers that the restaurant has some neat old video games.

They always seem to be something different, though.

She hasn't ever really thought about that much. Mostly because this restaurant is the only place where she has had any contact with arcades. So the machines getting swapped out every visit is less magical and more expected.

"Dad, can I go see what video games they have this time?" she asks, doing her best to look as adorable as possible.

Really hoping for a yes.

Otherwise she'll just be fidgeting at the table. Unless she's brought something to color on. That might hold her attention for a few minutes.

[UncleWolf]

Pepper Oni's

Veronica gives a small shrug. "I don't really mind as long as she sends me back too. I'd been enjoying myself since my siblings are all out at summer classes today." She admits before taking her fork and stabbing it into her pile of pasta and taking a bite. Should the other three look in front of themselves, their food has already arrived as it simply popped into existence. Khannie's is on a giant smiley face plate and has a silly Slime themed(as in the monster with the smile on its face) coloring book and crayons next to it. "Having fun today?" Veronica asks Khannie, giving her a smile and genuinely interested.

[Deathkeeper]

Pepper Oni's

"You can if you want dear, but your food will get cold." says Jace, who definitely knew the food was there all along.
Just as planned.
"Ich. Summer school. Glad to have mostly avoided that sort of thing." Zebes says. Those poor bird-kids.

[Rebonack]

[Pepper Oni's]

Khannie glances between the video game cabinets and the pizza.

Did the food always show up so quickly here? She can't recall... Maybe she just wasn't paying attention last time.

Ah well.

She picks up her slice, long streamers of melted cheese dangling from it. She starts with those, trying to bite them all at once. It's about as awkward looking as it is adorable.

Once she manages to chew her way up to the pizza-proper, she gives a smile at Veronica's question. "I fought some monsters! There were these weird rabbit things and I punched those. And there was a thing made of bones and dad said I wasn't allowed to punch that one, so I hit it with a chair. That's what the wrestlers on TV do, but their chairs are different 'cuz they fold up and they're made of metal."

Because of course Khannie would watch wrestling. It's quite a bit more theatrical than actual fights on television.

"And I did some long division. It's really hard."

Super hard.

[UncleWolf]

Pepper Oni's

Veronica listens to her boyfriend's daughter speak, giving her a gentle smile the entire time. After she admits to the wrestling however, the Harpy takes a careful look around and sets a wing on the table to separate Khannie and her from Jace and Zebes. "Channel 28, 7:00 PM every Thursday. Ultimate Lucha Fights is on then. The Luchadors are more acrobatic and just as flashy. They also have really cool masks." She says, faking a whisper. She expects Jace and Zebes to hear her, but to make it seem more fun for Khannie she acts like it is a conspiracy.

Afterwards she sets her wing back down and looks back at Zebes. "Well, the summer classes are all interesting to them. Samuel is taking advanced mathematics, Richard has gone to a competitive martial arts dojo for...well, what else? Crane Style. And Heather has found a basic witchcraft class in her school she can take." She explains.

[Deathkeeper]

Pepper Oni's

Jace turns his head and pretends to not hear any of that conversation.
"Ick. How high math are we talking? He hasn't hit pre-calc yet, has he?" asks Zebes.

[Rebonack]

[Pepper Oni's]

Khannie gives a little giggle of delight. Flashy masked wrestlers? That sounds like all sorts of fun. "I'll watch those, too," Khannie replies, trying her best to be as conspiratorial as possible. She's not sure why they're whispering right now, but she isn't about to ruin whatever secret is going on by being too loud. "The people aren't very good at punching on TV, but they do lots of other cool stuff."

Sure, Khannie could learn a few other types of fighting moves, but she's not exactly the best at them. She's been trying to get the hang of Reversal for a long time, practicing on a punching bag her dad got her for her birthday, but she still hasn't quite gotten that move figured out yet. According to Sensei Marrowack, it's one of the most powerful, complex moves a kangaskhan can learn. And she IS still pretty young. She'll have to get a whole lot more EXP before she'll be skilled enough to use that move right.

"When do your brothers and sisters get out of school?" Khannie asks between bites of pizza. "Can I help Richard practice with his martial arts? I can use that turn into a human trick Grandpa Koi taught me so I'm not as tough."

That was one of the things established VERY early.

No punching Veronica's siblings.

Or most anyone, really.

Humans aren't as tough as pokemon.

[Recaiden]

This is stupid.
I know. But don't I have to try?
No. No you don't; this is stupid and crazy, what are you thinking? I mean, that I'm even considering helping you is-what the wand and even I would do to you if we could...
You folk never were any good at playing roles. We have a nice safe deal, don't we? Now this thing, it's cuplike. Just intensify it. Shouldn't be too different from what the metal-vixen did.

No one gets hit by a meteor. As far as I know, anyway; I'm not here to talk about one. But there is the flash of a shooting star up in the sky.
Some magic spirals down to settle on Clara, and particularly on that enchantment that makes her seem more glamorous, and, shall we say, turns it up to eleven? Magnifies it a great deal; she might even notice it herself. But really, it's how other people will react that will be something to see.

[Deathkeeper]

Clara's Flat

Clara does not notice at all. She simply keeps watching television. She won't notice anything herself.

[Recaiden]

Is that it?
It takes time. You're, what, you've been this class for a year? Patience. Just watch her.

Whether anyone is still watching or not, some time later, Clara gets a call.
Caller ID would put it as 'Aegisburgh Public Library'.
But should one answer, you'd hear Cloud's drawn-out voice sayin' "Hello."

[Deathkeeper]

Clara's Flat

Clara sits up straight.
"Cloud? Hi! They did give you my number then! What's up?" she asks.

[Rebonack]

[Jace Place]

Once our heroes have collected Nick's gear, Geneva follows the chaos trail right to-

"Oh no..."

Jace's home, of course.

At least, where Jace's home was supposed to be. The house is... well... let's just say it looks like it was scribbled into existence by a gaggle of rambunctious children who all disagreed over what it should look like.

"I don't think Fortuna is still here," Geneva says as she examines her AR display. "I'm still getting some pretty strong chaos magic readings, but nothing like what I would expect if Fortuna were lurking in a shrub nearby."

Which... is good.

Maybe?

"I'm going to give Jace a call and make sure he's alright. You two might want to check around the house for anything that shouldn't be here."

Like that sapphire skull with spider legs leaping out from behind objects and startling joggers.

Geneva calls Jace's phone!

Ring ring ring!

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

"This is heavy duty. Could it be fixed like Myobi fixed the Temple?" Nick asks.

Meanwhile, Jace picks up.
"Fortuna? What the hell's going on?" he demands.

[Fenric]

Keiko looks around

Woah... even I never messed up this bad! And I've got some serious...

she stops short, looks from side to side, then looks at Geneva

So... this was caused by like half of you? Uh... yah.

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

Geneva makes the universal 'wait one moment, I'm on the phone' gesture at Keiko.

There's a decent chance that Keiko isn't familiar with this gesture.

"Okay, you're angry. That's understandable," Geneva replies over the phone. "Is... eerr... am I there? Where you are, I mean. I'm looking for Fortuna. She kind of kicked me out and now she's running around causing chaos with no one to tell her that's a bad idea."

Hopefully that'll get the idea across simply enough.

Meanwhile!

Now the skull is chasing someone's pug, dooting at it fearsomely.

Pepper Oni's

"Daddy!" Khannie hisses. "Don't say that! That's a bad word!"

Her teacher told her so.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

Jace shakes his head at Khannie.
"You better not be lying. She showed up, rolled, left, and kept rolling. I didn't find her or a spare dice lying around. So I have no idea." he responds.

[Fenric]

Keiko scratches her nose with her right hind leg... an amusing sight considering her legs are a good eight feet apart!

Smells like Chaos! Ugh! I mean... I don't always like following rules and all... but...

SHEESH!

She sneezes violently, involuntarily launching a black-purple blast of disintegrating energies...

[Recaiden]

Clara's Flat

Clara sits up straight.
"Cloud? Hi! They did give you my number then! What's up?" she asks.

"Finally got a couple spare moments; higher-ups were really excited by that drill-tank, not ta' mention the mission I was called off for and- thought I'd see how you were doin' maybe meet up again."

There's a distant excited voice in the background.

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

"I'm not, this is serious," Geneva says, trying to hide the hurt in her voice that her friend would even THINK that she might be lying. "Without me Fortuna is a draconequus that used to be the golden dice of wonder. I'm worried her pranks might get more dangerous than they already have be. She..."

Her tone falls to a whisper.

"She's already killed people, Jace. Not intentionally. But she did, over at Inari's. We're hoping we'll be able to talk her down..."

It sounds like there's an unspoke 'but...' in there.

Meanwhile!

That sneeze obliterates a chunk of Jace's roof-

-and the pop-o-matic bubble a single die of wonder was sitting in. This of course causes it to fall to the ground one last time, rolling 135.

Suddenly a multitude of thatched roof cottages burst from the ground all over the place! In yards. On the side walk. In the middle of the street. On top of some poor person's car... From the cottages a mob of peasents pour forth, weilding pitch forks, spades, hoes, and torches.

They look really upset about something.

"There she is!" one of them shrieks, pointing up at Keiko. "There's the vampire!"

Keiko is not, in fact, a vampire. But that doesn't seem to dissuade the villagers. As one, the unruly mob begins lobbing rocks at the dragon.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

"Alright. I'm with Khannie. I can lay low for a while. Tell me if you need backup.
...
Where are you?"

Meanwhile...
"This is the police! Disperse or I'll cite you all for disorderly conduct and illegal gathering!" Nick booms at the crowd.

Clara's Flat

"Meet up? Yeah sure! Just give me a time and a place!" Clara says earnestly.

[Fenric]

Keiko blinks in surprise as the first rocks hit her. And then the words sink in. And then, flashbacks of villagers chasing multi-tailed foxes flood her mind.

And PTSD takes over

The rather cute, mild, not quite Disney-grade fish-eating-dinosaur dragon curls her lips into a rage-filled snarl and becomes honestly a quite terrifying figure of shadow, teeth, fangs, and glowing red eyes

VAMPIRE? If Imma eat you, IMMA EAT YOU WHOLE!

And she rears up, casting fear and horror in powerful waves: claws spread and sharp teeth bared, eyes and nostrils flaring, tail coiled... and ready to devour anyone and everyone who would dare attack her people.

because the mobs were always coming for the children... not her, personally...

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

"I'm over at-"

Jace might be able to hear a lot of yelling in the background.

"I'm near your home right now," Geneva says, covering one ear with a free hand. "I've been tracking the chaos magic trail Fortuna has left behind. Stay safe, okay? I don't think Fortuna would hurt any of you, at least not intentionally. But I don't think it's a good idea to risk it."

Meanwhile!

Snarling!

Terror!

Yelling!

Between all the noise the spontaneously generated villagers shriek in terror and flee back into their cottages.

Seems that worked alright?

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

There's a sigh on the other end of the line.
"Has it gotten any worse? I couldn't find the source of the rolling. If it's bad enough I'll just stay somewhere else for a day and call in the Temple to try to fix things. Chaos is out of my league."

"Calm down, Keiko. It's under control." Nick says sternly. He doesn't think her actions had been strictly necessary.

[Fenric]

Keiko looks at Nick: feral eyes blazing...

then she shrinks down, magical aura dispersing like the morning mist.

Sorry, officer... I've had some bad times with people acting like that before...

She hasn't actually done anything, but looks rather embarrassed.

[Rebonack]

[Jace's Place]

"Well... the outside of your house looks... odd..." Geneva says, unsure of how else to describe it. "And your neighborhood just gained a village of peasants. Maybe it would be best to stay clear until we're sure it's safe..."

Meanwhile!

The crawling skeleton cautiously peeks out from behind a trash can to make sure things are getting dangerous before skittering off down the street, looking for someone to doot at.

The peasants don't seem to be causing any additional trouble.

Though...

Who knows how long that will last.

They might start building mud-farms any moment now.

[Deathkeeper]

Jace's Place

"Thanks, talk to you later." says Jace and hangs up.

Meanwhile!
"So...is there anything we can do for the place? Should we call the Temple? I don't know if they can help much since Mr. Vallarm isn't a worshipper. And uh, Keiko seems to be allergic to it." Nick thinks aloud as he looks at the place.

[Fenric]

Keiko pouts

Hey! I didn't say I couldn't fix it! Just 'cause I sneezed a bit... the world remembers what it used to be. Waves and super-positions and stuff... it's just a matter of where along the time ... thing... and stuff... and...

There's knowing what to do, and knowing how to explain it. She gathers her energy, and Geneva should feel it this time: Keiko's not trying to be subtle

BE THE WAY YOU WERE ON MAY TWENTY-FOURTH!

And with that, Keiko expends a not inconsiderable amount of power to roll the place back to the way things were before Fortuna changed anything at all... how well that actually works is up in the air.