Home 24: A house in this market?

[Deathkeeper]

[Richards Flat]

”That’s because you’re not on the payroll and I have to stick to protocol. So that’s why you only occasionally get to look at Intersection equipment.” He wiggles some feathers at her.
”No, I’m talking about making something. Or a couple of things. Now that we’re both of clear mind.
And you know.
Still young. Ish.
You know?”
It’s probable that she doesn’t know. But maybe she’ll catch on. Probably not.

[Rebonack]

[Richards Flat]

Geneva stares at Nick blankly.

No.

She doesn't know.

It doesn't look like she's catching on, either.

[Deathkeeper]

[Richards Flat]

Nick sighs. He pulls her close with one wing so he can properly talk quietly in her feathery ear.
”I’m asking if while we’re still able if you want to get back to that talk we had way back when.
The one we had about if you wanted
Uh
Like.
You wanted-
Cubs.”

[Rebonack]

[Richards Flat]

How is it that Geneva manages to blush in spite of having a face made of feathers?

This is truly a mystery, but she pulls it off somehow.

"Oh, ah, haha! That's what you meant? Of course that's what you meant. What else would you mean? That's a totally normal thing to wonder about. I was just so busy thinking about my work that, uh... well you were here so you saw it and... umm..." Geneva dithers.

She screws her eyes shut, flattens her ears, and gives her head a little shake.

Focus.

Focus, Geneva.

"That would... um... that would be great! I think that would be great. I would need to make an appointment to have my implant removed first. Since... you know. The computer back at the Stable hadn't ever picked someone to pair with me with before-"

She fluffs up a bit at Bad Memories.

"-b-before I l-left."

A few moments of silence pass.

"...clutches range from one to four. Median is two. Breeding a griffin and a hippogriff has an approximately fifty fifty chance of resulting in either a griffin or a hippogriff. Are we ready for more kids? Two more kids? Maybe even three or four?" she asks. Sounds like her anxiety is starting to gnaw at her. "We're both so busy and we already have Junior to take care of. I... umm... I would need to go shopping for incubators. Do they sell incubators anywhere? Of course they do, why wouldn't they? They sell everything and I don't know if I'm ready for this."

[Deathkeeper]

Richards Flat

Nick gently takes her feathery face in his claws. Even if he’s mentally cursing. He forgot about that blasted implant. Now he’ll have to find another day to surreptitiously send Nick Jr. away.
Nick is way too prematurely mature to not figure things out. Blasted wasteland childhood.
”Geneva. Geneva. Sssh.
Do you want this?
Because if you do, you’re ready and we’ll do it. If you’re not, we won’t. Nick is old enough to help. He’ll be in his teens soon enough. Don’t you worry about him. Or me. I can delegate if I have to.”

[Rebonack]

[Richards Flat]

Does she want it?

That's a question.

Does she want it?

Does she want children. Her own children. And not with someone chosen by the central computer. With someone of her choosing.

Does she?

Is that what she really wants?

Geneva takes a deep breath. Focus. Calm. You're safe here. You're safe. The Wasteland is a long, long ways away.

Children.

Do you want children.

"...yes."

She was hoping saying that would be like a giant weight lifted from her shoulders. That all the anxiety would evaporate and suddenly everything would be clear.

It doesn't.

She still feels a knot in her gut.

But... she still wants it all the same, old scars be damned. She does her best to offer a small smile.

[Deathkeeper]

[Richards Flat]

”Okay.” Nick lets her go, tapping her beak with his.
”Well Bloodfeather. I kinda uh. Cleared our schedule and forgot about the whole, uh implant thing.
So.
Wanna watch a movie or something?”

[Earl of Purple]

Scaleback's Apartment

When they find out that Geneva's been able to understand everything, (maybe the Nexus is translating it for her? Or she hears a non-Equestrian language she knows, instead of one she doesn't) the dwarfs still. They weren't moving much to begin with, so it's not immediately obvious. But they suddenly all start moving. The one curled on the floor detonates a one-off device containing magical darkness, to occlude the sight of anyone who isn't adapted to low-light conditions, like the dwarfs. Four rush forward, aiming to tackle Emily and smother her with chloroform-coated rags they've pulled out of pockets. The final dwarf, the one that had been speaking, pulls out a short copper wand and a square ruby, which he starts to screw onto the end of the wand.

It takes a few seconds for the darkness to spread, so Geneva and Emily have some time to react before they can't see, if they're affected by the dark-grenade.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tieflings and Vampires and Sneks Oh My]

"Ah, right. I understand." Valerie sobers a bit. "But if you walk me through it, I'm sure it'll go just fine." She leans over to give her girlfriend a peck on the cheek.

[Tieflings and Vampires and Sneks Oh My]

Astrana wraps her arms around Val in turn and returns the kiss in a more passionate fashion. "You will be, just be forceful. Don't take no for an answer, you must show how much you want this. Show that passion you have, Val. I know the girls got it from you."

[Rebonack]

[Richards Flat]

Geneva gives a nervous, hiccuping laugh.

"Out of sight out of mind, right? A movie sounds really nice."

She glowers at the mysterious orb.

"Might help me come up with a solution. Sometimes the best way to solve a problem is ignoring it and then sleeping on it."

Never know what your brain might rearrange for you while you sleep.

Maybe something useful!

Or maybe not.

Geneva is betting on the useful part, though.

[Deathkeeper]

[Richards Flat]

Nick gives a nervous chuckle and heads over to the den where they have their TV. He lays out a number of options on the menu.
"So. Like. Where you're from do you have um, traditions for names if they're different? Because I really don't care which of us they look like. But. Um."
Turns out Nick's almost as bad at this as she is.

[Halae]

[Scaleback's Apartment]

As it happens, crocodilians have excellent nightvision. In fact, I think the only people in the apartment that don't have excellent night vision are either unconscious or guarding the unconscious woman.

Emily, meanwhile, knows the threat - they can't beat her in a straight fight, so they'll try to poison her. The trick with the idea of tackling her and then using chloroform becomes evident when they collide with her and she doesn't fall over. She's nine hundred pounds of muscle, bone, and scale, and while they do push her back slightly, she was ready for a charge and thus braced for the impact. Without her being toppled, the dwarves can't reach up to her face properly.

This is going to be especially bothersome as nothing they've done has actually really challenged her physical dominance at all. A pair of arms, thick as most people's torso, rocket towards the group, and will be acting to sock two each in the face. If it doesn't knock them out cold, it'll break noses and likely floor them. Still, this distraction gives the ones in the back a moment to act.

[Rebonack]

[Richards Flat]

"This is going to sound silly, but traditionally griffins have names that start with 'G'," Geneva replies.

Apparently that applies to hippogriffs as well.

You would think that would get old fast, wouldn't you?

Only being allowed to use 'G' names?

"Of course, I don't think we're really a traditional family, so adhering to those cultural norms isn't expected."

[Scaleback's Apartment]

Meanwhile, earlier that afternoon...

Geneva gives a squarwk of surprise when the lights start going out! She quickly activates the light spell on her PIPbuck, ensuring that she'll have ample illumination for the beat-down that's about to take place.

Without second thought, she drops into SATs and time around her slows to a crawl as she assesses the situation. Emily is doing pretty well on her own. And what's this? Looks like that one dwarf is drawing a weapon. Or a wand. Wands are usually weapons.

Given that she would prefer to avoid a lethal take-down, she instead takes a deep breath and ROARS!

It isn't just loud.

It also carries with it significant concussive force.

Enough to hurl someone off their feet and leave a nasty wound in any drywall that happens to be behind them. Wand-dwarf might be having a bad time soon.

[Deathkeeper]

[Richards Flat]

Nick blinks. "Is that why every once and a while I'd find myself signing my name as Gnick when I was dealing with Fortuna's enchantment? Geez these things are weird.
And yeah, I don't have anything against G names, but we're not doing that. If we actually had more than two that would be way too annoying."
That would be...
Well it would be needlessly hard.

[Scalebound's Apartment]

Domhnall can't really do much to people when he can't see, and he has very normal human and equine senses, neither of which are well known for their night vision.
So instead he takes a moment to point at the wardrobe and cast a charm that makes things light up, since that's what he thinks would do well against a darkness spell.

[Purple Eagle]

Felandria comes back into the living room with Rose’s rum and coke and her own glass of wine, she settles onto the couch and hands Rose her drink.

Where do I even start, there was the big invasion of Riverside, fought a couple of big scary monsters, scared the rest of them off.

And then of course, there was the giant robot one time.........

Rose gratefully accepts the rum and coke, at first listening to Felandria, though it doesn't take long before her gaze wanders to the other lady's lips, lingering long enough that it's clear where she just looked before returning to the eyes. "Well, I recall you saying something about the kind of woman you like? Because you're the kind of woman I like." She says, placing her hand on Fel's and smiling warmly.

[Gullara]

[Tieflings and Vampires and Sneks Oh My]

Astrana wraps her arms around Val in turn and returns the kiss in a more passionate fashion. "You will be, just be forceful. Don't take no for an answer, you must show how much you want this. Show that passion you have, Val. I know the girls got it from you."

[Tieflings and Vampires and Sneks Oh My]

Valerie grins. "Forceful, right. I can do that." Not her usual M.O. but this is important!

[Earl of Purple]

Scaleback's Apartment

The dwarfs panic when they can't bring Scaleback down and one grabs for his knife, trying to stab her- before her massive fist collides with his head and smashes him off his feet. The dwarfs weren't ready for the move, and all four go down. They've got thick, heavy bones, so they aren't unconscious- but they're all stunned, and one has a broken nose. Two have lost teeth, though one was 'lucky' in that the tooth he's spat out is an obsidian filling.

Between Geneva's wrist-computer and Domnhall's light charm, the darkness dissipates, though the shadows around the room look darker than they should.

The wand-dwarf is hurled back by Geneva's roar, hitting the far wall and dropping both wand and the ruby he was screwing onto the end. Several other gemstones- a round pearl, a pyramid of obsidian and a multi-faceted diamond- bounce out of his pockets, each fitted with a thread to screw onto a wand.

[Halae]

[Scaleback's Apartment]

The massive woman will grab a pair of dwarves off the floor. As her balled fist is about the size of one of their torso, it's not difficult for her to grab one's entire torso in a single hand.

Stunned bodies in hand, she proceeds to slam them down into the two she wasn't able to pick up, intending to leave the dwarves in a heap on the floor. A bit much, perhaps, but it's certain to keep the lot of them down for a good while, as they have to disentangle themselves from one another while in pain.

"You should have simply stayed put," She says, quiet menace in her voice.

[Rebonack]

[Scaleback's Apartment]

Geneva will aim to grab wand-dwarf by the ankle and drag him out of the closet.

She's quite big, and quite strong. Certainly not as strong as a strength enhanced cape by any means, but still stronger than your average humanoid.

Suffice to say she isn't worried about her chances of failing to snag someone who is both smaller and more stunned than she is.

"I just want you to know that I'm not a fan of violence and I feel horrible about having to roar you into a wall," she informs the dwarf. "You should hold really still until Intersection arrives, otherwise the charges against you are going to keep piling up."

...

There's also a good chance that she'll scoop up the wand bits.

Geneva has a thing for magical trinkets.

[Earl of Purple]

Scaleback's Apartment

The four on the floor are entangled now, as well as stunned, and the wand-dwarf is pulled out of the wardrobe. He seems to listen to Geneva, as he doesn't move- or resist.

The wand is a distance wand. That's all it does, at the moment, affect things at a distance. It can't do anything else- 'effect' has no real meaning. The square ruby is enchanted with controlled fire; connected to the copper wand, it projects a controlled burst of fire, one that doesn't last long- it should burn, but the blast shouldn't last long enough to start a fire except in exceptional circumstances. The pearl is uncontrolled water, connected to the copper wand it projects a jet of water with a great deal of force- so much force the wand is hard to aim, as this effect produces recoil. The pyramid is a little more esoteric; it's effect is sharp. On the copper wand, it functions as a black-beamed laser, able to cut through things at a distance. The diamond is light, and on the copper wand it produces a beam of sunlight.

Geneva should maybe search him, make sure he doesn't have any other wands or knobs on him. Though the knobs don't actually do anything when they're not attached to the wand; they contain an effect, but no way to actually manifest it.

[Halae]

[Scaleback's Apartment]

But there's one missing here, isn't there? Emily has dealt with four of them, and Geneva has dealt with the fifth, but the massive woman reaches into the back of the closet looking for the final one. Shouldn't be hard to find - while he might be hiding in the folds of the one formal dress she actually owns, the vast majority of her wardrobe doesn't reach the floor, and thus she'll be able to see his feet. Should her seeking hand find him, she'll reach out and grab him, lifting him into the air.

[Deathkeeper]

[Scaleback’s Apartment]

Domhnall blinks. A lot of things just happened.
”Well. You folks uh, seem like you’ve done this before. I’ll just ah, be over here.”
Fighting in this cramped place would have been so hard. Where would he have swung his sword?

[Rebonack]

[Richards Flat]

Geneva's quiet for a while, staring at their selection of movies. Her mind is elsewhere, obviously. And she only just registers the 'Gnick' comment.

"If one 'G' name is okay," she says slowly. "And we have a boy. I... I think I want to name one of our children after my brother. Gerhardt."

Then she's quiet again.

Very, very quiet.

Geneva doesn't really talk about her family.

She hasn't ever gone into detail about what happened when her Stable was invaded by the Enclave.

A general overview of the fact that it's happened? Sure.

But details? No.

[Scaleback's Apartment]

Geneva draws several zip-ties from her inventory spell (always useful to have!) and will begin binding the dwarf she grabbed.

Then?

She'll begin going through his pockets to see if he has any more nasty surprises on his person.

"I don't know what you were thinking," she chides him. "There isn't any other way this could have gone. You should have just surrendered quietly."

[Deathkeeper]

[Richards Flat]

Nick wraps a wing around Geneva.
What Nick knows about Geneva’s family is that from the very rare times she talks about them, they presumably didn’t make it, and her Stable was attacked by Enclave, and Geneva had shown a particular aversion to bodies of creatures killed by laser weapons when they first met.
Nick can make a few jumps from those facts.
”I think that would be very nice. Any other names you wanted? You made it sound like we should probably expect two.” he says softly to her.

[Earl of Purple]

Scaleback's Apartment

The dwarf hiding in the back of the closet squeaks but doesn't resist as he's pulled out from his poor hiding place. He looks at his fallen comrades and stands there, a little sheepish at everything that's going on. He behaved, right? So he'll get off lighter than the others? He hopes so. He has a feeling his cowardice will be punished if his comrades get the opportunity.

The wand dwarf carries two more wands, one made of tin and the other of zinc, both modular with a screw-end for attaching the knobs. The tin wand is a touch wand, and the zinc affects people. The square ruby on the tin wand burns with a touch, like the ranged effect but without the range. On the zinc wand, it sets somebody on fire without them burning, so they can run around and set fire to things and be very distracting for five and a half minutes, when the effect wears off. The pearl on the tin wand makes things wet when it touches them, soaking and sopping and as wet as can be. On the zinc wand, the pearl grants the ability to breathe water, but the 'uncontrolled' aspect kicks in and there's no way to tell how long the effect lasts until it wears off. The pyramid, on the tin wand, is basically a very sharp knife. On the zinc wand, it grants supernatural clarity of mind and speed of thought for eleven minutes. The diamond on the tin wand causes something to glow for a minute for every second it's kept pressed to the end of the wand. On the zinc wand, it prevents somebody from being blinded and makes their eyes glow, like a head-torch for nine minutes, and as a side-effect grants immunity to a gorgon's gaze and other supernatural attacks that require eye contact.

"Esperante, ne pensante." Is the dwarf's response to Geneva. Had he been able to start using his fire-beam wand, things might have been different.

The kidnapped princess rolls over, the first movement she's made under her own power. Maybe she's starting to wake up?

[Murkus]

[Sagittarius Towers - Day]

"It's no less abusable than technology," Rein rationalizes with terrible timing.

Even if he's uncertain how wise it might be, Rein's already brought it up. Might as well lay it out. "Fortunately, it's not particularly weird or gross. It's a place, called the Pool of Origins. I honestly think it's probably more of a spring than a pool, but I didn't name it. I haven't actually seen it either, so..." One glance at Tina says she needs more than that, so Rein continues. "Anyways, it is said that anything that bathes in its water will be returned to its original form. Since it's not exactly loot, I never really investigated it personally. I know the general area, but its exact location is hidden and surely guarded."

A dangerously dangerous adventure to be sure.

"I've found in personal experience that such blanket promises are sort of like monkey paws. The wish you desire absolutely comes true, but almost never in the way you envision it," Rein warns.

[Sagittarius Towers]

"...Gimme your honest opinion, Rein. Do you think it's worth a try? You'd know a lot better than me. What with the personal experience," says Fettina. "I just... I'm scared to be like this forever. And honestly... there are parts of it that aren't so bad... or at least that feel like they aren't so bad. Which makes me wonder if it did something to my head, too."

[Reinholdt]

[Sagittarius Towers]

"Well some curses have an element of messing with your head. You often don't realize it though. We can probably figure that out pretty easily. Which part of being unable to drink or have sex or have fun isn't so bad? Is it the wings?" The wings are pretty cool.

"Honest opinion? It'll solve your problem at a cost. And I don't think I can tell you if that's worth it or not. Only you know how unsatisfied you are with this and how much risk you're willing to take. But you don't need to figure it all out now. Why don't you focus on killing Tellysandra first and I'll work on narrowing down the location of the Pool in case offing her doesn't do it?" Reinholdt suggests. There's no reason to limit themselves to one or the other.

[Recaiden]

Oliver chuckles. "I suppose you have a point! Alright, here's another one: 'Pickpocket and maker of heists gets caught, only to be convinced to use his sneakiness for good.' Is that one good?" Oliver is starting to genuinely like this stranger, even if he is on a mission.

"That's better. It suggests he'll go on, have further adventures, be a hero. And the reason you need that: stories, even one-sentence long, can have power. And here, we try to master that power."
He nods slowly, head wavering.
"So just who convinced you, and how? Good is so ... difficult."

[Halae]

[Scaleback's Apartment]

The remaining dwarf is put down onto the pile, and held under the watchful gaze of an angry reptile woman, "No more games. Any more attempts and you'll be losing more than just your teeth," she says. Intersection should be here soon.

[Deathkeeper]

Scaleback’s Apartment

Domhnall’s ears pick up the movement and trot back to the girl.
”Miss? Are you awake?” he asks, in case she is.