Thanksmasnewyearskwanzakkah 2017- An Intersection of Holidays

[Deathkeeper]

Elsewhere

Isaac, now thoroughly distracted, throws on his coat.
”Hi, Natalie.” He smiles at Iknika’s little explanation.
”Well I guess that’s why I’m just the squishy sorcerer, huh?” he asks her, though she would probably not call his large shape delicate. Or maybe she would, seeing him fight.

[Morty]

[Elsewhere]

"Well, most of the time you are," Iknika says. "That's fine, though. It's what I'm here for, to stand between danger and squishy magicians like you and Natalie."

[Earl of Purple]

Elsewhere

"I'm a Conjurer. And a stage magician, but that's less fancy." Not the way you do it, Natalie. You don't have sleeves to hide things in. "Is 'sorcerer' a catch-all term, or do you have a specific focus?" She's curious, because where she's from magic is self-contradictory meaning she can't actually learn how to animate dead bodies, or shoot beams of magical energy, or create force fields, or brew potions. Just teleport things from one place to another, and occasionally open portals and wormholes, though those are draining and the last time she created one, she couldn't do anything magical for a week.

[Deathkeeper]

[Elsewhere]

"I mostly just do healing and force-magic. Except when I turn into an elephant and hit something with a big hammer." he says with a cheery smile, waving his little mallet. "It's pretty much the exact opposite of fancy. It's invisible most of the time anyway."

[Felandria]

[Snowball Fight]

As the battle rages on, Brinika scuttles over to Felandria.

"So, what's your name? You seem familiar, but I don't think I've met you."

I’m Felandrismuff!

A snowball connects with Li’l Fel’s cheek.

Snowball Fight

Cheasadh doesn't care about names when there's people to pelt with snow! So that's pretty much what she's doing. She's started arcing them to try and get them over the wall of the opposing castles.

Pookie, meanwhile, is building snowballs, which he hands out to whomever is nearby and in need. Mostly Cheasadh, because he knows her best.

Who?

Where?

Why I oughta!

And she starts grabbing snowballs from the little pyramid she made and chucks them arcishly towards the opposing fort.

[Morty]

[Snowball Fight]

"I thought Felandria was a big giant lady who was with Vigil and HALO," Brinika says, ducking under a snowball.

[Elsewhere]

"Oooh, right. He's a shapeshifter, like you are," Iknika tells Natalie. She was waiting for Isaac to mention that himself. And she might want to omit some of the circumstances of her seeing his elephant-form first. "Only he can't transform whenever he wants."

[Earl of Purple]

Snowball Fight

"I'm Cheasadh. That's Pookie, my Teddiursa. That fort threw the ball. Duck behind the crenellations if you're worried about getting hit." Since they were Cheasadh's idea, she's rather proud of the merlons they added to their wall.

Elsewhere

"I don't have any shapes bigger than I am. I just get smaller, and usually more mobile." Two shapes are less mobile than her human shape; chameleon, which is rarely used because it's so slow, and sloth-girl, the result of a curse that is barely capable of moving. "Force magic sounds fun, though. Is it, like, force fields and magic blasts, or redirecting gravity and kinetic energy?" Either one sounds quite interesting.

[Deathkeeper]

[Elsewhere]

”You should get an elephant shape!” Isaac says cheerily.
”But Yeah, mostly the first one? Moving stuff, barriers, magic missiles.”

[FireFox]

[Thanksmas Tree]

I know so, the winged woman replies with all the certainty of a Goddess pronouncing a Divine Truth. She sets the larger package down and focuses her attention on the smaller one, turning it over and over as if she's reading each and every single one of those awful puns. Is she giggling? No, those sounds must be disgusted choking. Only a meownster with their sense of humor declawed could find puns funny. The only other part of the wrapping she'd like to make note of is the taping. Is Reinholdt an organized or haphazard taper? Does he use one long strip or many short pieces placed at proper intervals? Only once the small package is over-analyzed does she carefully peel at the tape with a sharp fingernail. Oh geez. She's the kind of girl who has to open presents the "proper" way, like she's going to save and reuse the wrapping paper. She definitely won't get to the inside before Kore and Rein finish opening theirs.

The Maiden tosses the wrapping over her shoulder and inspects the Super Nintendo. Which means a lot of poking and staring and maybe even some nibbling on the off chance it's a type of food. It's clear that she's either never seen a videogame or something so old before. Wow! So cool! I love it! Thanks, Rein! What is it?

Rein's search reveals that some excitable little maniac has taped several matches to the bottom half of the paper box and glued a strip of lighting paper to the inside of the upper lid in such a way that anyone hastily opening the gift is likely to set the whole thing on fire. "Disarming" the trap is as simple as lifting the lid without enough force to ignite the matchheads against the strike surface, however, and thus reveals a leather pouch the size of a pencil case. Elastic straps on one of the inside halves of the pouch hold two wooden tubes in place. Both tubes have matching threads allowing them to be screwed together and one of them has a wider opening like a mouthpiece. The other half of the pouch has a buttoning pocket which contains 10 spherical objects that look like large seeds or small nuts. Put them all together and you have a foot-and-a-half long blowgun that seems more like a toy than a lethal weapon. Finally, the pouch contains a card of paper bearing a handwritten note. The lettering is sharply angular with spiky serifs. Some words are only crossed out once, while other phrases have been totally obliterated. The writer clearly put pen to paper with a fear of making mistakes, as if they were insecure about their handwriting. Or in a poor state of health.

Dear Reinholdt,
I've made a divine artifact for you. Not just for the holidays, but because [indecipherable] and thanks for [an entire line of scribbled out words] everything. I hope being gifted something by me isn't too disappointing. Kore suggested that you would be happier if I gave it to her instead so you could try to steal it from her. I know you love stealing magic items from children gods, but I think you'd fail with her. After screwing it together and putting in a ball, put your lips on the head of the shaft and blow exhale with new pnoo pnuem [angry scribbling] Forget it! Even a stupid cat can figure it out. The magical part's in the ammunition. They cast curses. Anything hit by one will be invisibly marked and send a constant divine signal back to the blowgun. Hold it up like a wand and it will tug in the direction of your prey. I made it so it works on fast vehicles, transported items, and other nonliving materials so you can track anything in theory. But if the ball makes contact with bare skin, the curse will also help you stalk by slowing the target down, sapping their energy and clouding their mind. Usual warnings about the magical methods for detecting and removing curses apply. Happy hunting.
There was a second paragraph beneath that one, of roughly equal length, but it's been painstakingly censored by line after line of strikethroughs. Evidently there were many words that Kyne tried and sentenced, then executed. The only things preserved are the valediction (itself undoubtedly interrogated for subversive thoughts) at the bottom of the letter and the signature.
Fondly,
Κυνεγετις

[Morty]

[Elsewhere]

"I think to do that, she'd need to be turned into an elephant first, somehow," Iknika says, her ears twitching. "Isn't that what you said, Natalie?"

[Earl of Purple]

Elsewhere

"Yeah, that's right. I can't pick a new shape to turn into. Somebody else has to turn me into it first, but I can change back whenever I want afterwards. I only found out I could do it at all by eating a cursed banana." Unlike Brinika, who as I vaguely recall managed to avoid eating a banana way back when that happened. "Force magic still sounds fun."

I have no idea what would happen if somebody tried to change Natalie's state, but not her shape. Turned her into stone, for example. I think that would stick; her ability is genetic, meaning it's magic DNA, and rock doesn't have DNA.

[Deathkeeper]

[Elsewhere]

Isaac squints his eyes, looking Natalie over.
"Well, I could ask one of the Ancestor Monks to try something. I used to be able to turn people into things but I lost those powers and got my force powers as a replacement." It was...complicated.

[Morty]

[Elsewhere]

"Wow, so Brinika didn't make up that banana. I can't always tell," Iknika says. "Besides, getting used to such a big body would take a while."

[Earl of Purple]

Elsewhere

"The banana was real. Thank you, Isaac. I'd appreciate that. These clothes aren't actually enchanted to transform with me, otherwise I'd give a demonstration." Natalie gets her every-day wear enchanted, but she's not planning on wearing this costume again- it's just for the Thanksmas party. Getting it enchanted in the same way would be a lot of money for not a lot of utility.

[Deathkeeper]

[Elsewhere]

Isaac raises an eyebrow, looking fairly shocked.
"Wait, you really want me to send a ghost to try turning you into an elephant? Uh, sure, I'll see what I can do. You might not want to wear anything you care about the night I tell you to do it, though." he says sheepishly, not sure how to say that without it sounding really awkward.

[Reinholdt]

[Thanksmas Tree]

At least someone opens presents properly. Gently is the best way. Reinholdt originally attempted to use two very long pieces of tape to wrap the present, but it's clear from the occasional white speckles of ripped wrapping and trace amounts of blue fur that something went horribly wrong. It turned out to be too dangly to resist. So the present ended up with an organized series of small pieces of tape instead. The bigger box that's been set aside appears to have been designed for a ribbon, but something must have gone wrong there too since it also has a series of tape keeping it closed. At least there's no mangled bits of wrapping on that one, it just looks awkward with the tape holding the lid down. But that gift is for later! Inside the smaller one being opened now is a jewelry box containing an expensive looking pearl necklace.

Rein huffs a little. "Don't say you love it without knowing what it is! And don't eat it." He really truly considered getting Kore a tin of chocolates. Should have done it if she's going to eat his gifts anyways. Ah well, it's hers. She can do what she pleases with it. "That's a video game thing. I hear it has a bunch of different options on there. It has to be plugged into a monitor to work. Ask Rho to help you set it up when you get home." She probably knows how best to handle it.

Who's crazy enough to risk setting their own present on fire? Well, Kyne is. Or Kore. Or both. Probably both. Reinholdt pulls out the pouch, spending a moment working out what it is before reading the note. "Oooohhh," he says as he reads through the note, trying to ignore the clear anger about the weapon of Kyne's he sold for charity and the obvious sexual tension she marked through repeatedly. It's a very fancy little device. "I could use this to track just about anything, huh? First chance I get, I should tag Kyne's bra with this." She is a tricky one to track down, but that seems invasive. "That's a joke of course. We all know she doesn't need to wear one." Rein gives a grin to the other two at his own poor taste in jokes. He should probably just skip to writing his epitaph now.

"Thank you very much Kore. And tell Kyne thank you as well if you see her before I do. It was very thoughtful," he says, more seriously with an appreciative smile.

[Felandria]

[Snowball Fight]

"I thought Felandria was a big giant lady who was with Vigil and HALO," Brinika says, ducking under a snowball.

Snowball Fight

"I'm Cheasadh. That's Pookie, my Teddiursa. That fort threw the ball. Duck behind the crenellations if you're worried about getting hit." Since they were Cheasadh's idea, she's rather proud of the merlons they added to their wall.

Li'l Fel holds up her mittened hands, palms up.

What can I say, the holidays always bring out the kid in me.

I'm happy to meet you all though.

Just tell me what you want me to do to help snowball the other fort.

[Morty]

[Elsewhere]

Iknika is likewise surprised and just waits for Natalie to answer that.

[Snowball Fight]

"Well, we can't use magic. That'd be cheating," Brinika says. "Maybe you can draw their fire while some of us sneak around and hit them from the back."

[Earl of Purple]

Snowball Fight

"That's not true. We can't be caught using magic. It's only cheating if you're caught. My brother taught me that." Cheasadh's not speaking very loudly; hopefully only Brinika, Felandria and Pookie can hear her. Though Pookie isn't listening, and already knows this little bit of 'wisdom'. Brinika might disagree, or Felandria as she's secretly an adult.

Elsewhere

Earl didn't realise Isaac wasn't serious, so Natalie responded on that basis. But I think this will work.

"The worst that can happen is I'm turned into something helpless or awkward, and don't get an elephant. In that case, I can turn back whenever I want, because of how my ability works. And then if ever I need or want to demonstrate the not-elephant shape, I can." She also makes a mental note to invest in shapeshifting pyjamas.

She doesn't see any risk of being transformed into a corpse, or losing her intelligence somehow and forgetting how to turn back. She also doesn't think about smaller changes, ones that might not qualify as a whole new shape, like horns or oddly-coloured skin. Hopefully if that is a risk, Isaac knows enough to bring it up.

[Deathkeeper]

[Elsewhere]

Isaac was entirely serious, he just expected Natalie to laugh off the suggestion.
”Well it would work out fine. They don’t believe in using their powers to change people but with your powers it’s more of a blessing. And if you’re Iknika’s friend I’m sure she would think you’re up to her requirements.” he says, thinking of the specific spirit he’d send. She reminds me of his grandmother.

[Morty]

[Elsewhere]

Iknika's ears twitch.

"If you both think this is a good idea... what are 'ancestor monks', though? Other elephant people like your grandfather?"

[Earl of Purple]

Elsewhere

"Well... I don't think it's a bad idea, but Isaac knows what the monks can do better than I." Natalie's also curious about the Ancestor Monks, as most monks she's familiar with are religious scholars with weird haircuts, brown robes and who protest lycanthrope rights and organise illegal hunts under the full moon.

[Deathkeeper]

[Elsewhere]

"Mostly they're the ancestors of the monks and families that are at Elephant Rock who stick around to watch over their descendants. I mean probably she'd just enter Natalie's body and chat for a while in her sleep so she wouldn't be awake for the, well I guess it'd be a possession by definition. Like I said, they'd never do it to someone normally but since it would be temporary to you it's different."
He seems bashful about Iknika mentioning the Grandmaster. "He's not literally my gramps, I just like to call him that. I could bring you around to the Rock, sometime. It is mostly loxodons but they're real courteous to smaller people."

[Artemis97]

[Santa's Throne]

"Perfect timing." Ilpholin says as the trio get to Anika just as Alni leaves. "Go ahead first Tori. Get something good and don't accept anything less." Ilpholin urges Tori forwards. That way there can be an alternating pattern of presents received.

Tori smiles and steps forward. "I think I've been a good girl this year." She states, "I'd like something to help people, something to heal them and ease their pain."

[Morty]

[Elsewhere]

"I think I'd like that," Iknika says, tossing her hair. "There's spirits in the GLoG campsite, but I figure they wouldn't do anything if she just talks to Natalie."

[Earl of Purple]

Elsewhere

"Technically, it would still be a permanent change, it's just that in practice, I can change myself back again. Or into a bird, or whatever. It's a bit complex, and I don't fully understand it all." I have a rough theory, but I don't want to write it down. Because if I do that, I'll have to refer to it and remember the theory the next time this comes up, whenever that would be.

She doesn't comment on the invitation, because she's pretty sure that's only for Iknika. Or if it isn't just for Iknika, the goblin would appreciate it more without Natalie.

[Deathkeeper]

[Elsewhere]

"Alright. Whenever you want, then." Isaac says with a smile. Elephant Rock has kind of been like a big secret for him to keep, and he's honestly rather eager to share it with someone who isn't just his buddy Lucas.

[Felandria]

[Snowball Fight]

"Well, we can't use magic. That'd be cheating," Brinika says. "Maybe you can draw their fire while some of us sneak around and hit them from the back."

Snowball Fight

"That's not true. We can't be caught using magic. It's only cheating if you're caught. My brother taught me that." Cheasadh's not speaking very loudly; hopefully only Brinika, Felandria and Pookie can hear her. Though Pookie isn't listening, and already knows this little bit of 'wisdom'. Brinika might disagree, or Felandria as she's secretly an adult.

Felandria nods.

I can draw fire, yeah.

And she runs out into the open running around in a random pattern.

Can’t get me!

Too fast for ya!

[Morty]

[Snowball Fight]

"Well..." This point of view appeals to Brinika, and goblins in general. "Maybe. But look! Felandria distracted them."

And indeed, Felandria's sudden assault seems to have caught the attention of the other forts, and a hurricane of snowballs is sent her way.

[Elsewhere]

"We'll go sometime," Iknika says, with a nod, then looks at the two human(ish) teens again. "So, anything else you want to do here? We probably shouldn't get involved with my cousins' snowball mayhem."

[Earl of Purple]

Snowball Fight

Also appeals to young gnomes whose parents insist that their word is law, and laws are unbreakable. Cheasadh usually confessed that she'd cheated in her prayers to Bane, but so long as her father didn't find out, she wasn't punished.

Using magic's a moot point, anyway. Cheasadh doesn't have any, she doesn't think Brinika has anything useful, and Felandria's just walked off to be a target. Ooh, target. Cheasadh doesn't throw any at Felandria, but she will at any goblins exposing themselves to take advantage of the easy target Felandria's presenting. Pookie will throw a ball at Felandria- just one, before Cheasadh tells the little bear off and points out the goblins elsewhere. Hopefully she didn't notice the little bit of betrayal.

Elsewhere

"I was wandering around, having a look at the decorations and maybe snaffling a mince pie or two. Or three. They're only available at this time of year, and I love them." Alas, shops over here have stopped stocking them. No more mince pies for me until the Christmas stuff starts turning up in shops, probably late October.