Home 24: A house in this market?

[Rebonack]

[Scaleback’s Apartment]

Geneva will deposit the wand dwarf with the rest of the dwarfs, his wand bits all collected and stored away in her inventory spell.

She'll probably hand those over to Intersection.

No use for random wands, honestly.

Even though the modular design is awfully interesting...

"Well!" Geneva declares. "I was expecting this expedition to be exciting, just not exciting in quite this way... Oh well. May as well get what readings I can while the bridge is still fresh."

And with that?

She pulls out a boxy looking device with a T shaped antenna on one end.

The device begins warbling as she waves it in the general direction of the closet.

"Hmm..."


[Richards Flat]

Geneva scrunches up a bit at that question.

"I... haven't really though of any others," she admits. "Sorry."

[Deathkeeper]

[Richards Flat]

More wing-hugs! As tight as Nick can give them.
”That’s all right. We have lots of time.
For me, I think that we probably shouldn’t name one of our other sons Reed, huh?” he asks her with a grin.
”Same goes for Griffin. It’s a real name, you know.” He’s really trying to make her laugh.
”But in seriousness...how about...Wynne. Diana. Tiassa. Lan. Ward.” he says quietly, pulling up old names from the recesses of his mind.

[Earl of Purple]

Scaleback's Apartment

The dwarf from the back of the cupboard nods vigorously in agreement to Scaleback. He's very fond of his teeth. And his fingers, toes and other fleshy appendages. He'll slowly sit down and put his hands on his head. Another dwarf groans as his belly is turned into an impromptu seat. The wand dwarf is dumped next to him, and he doesn't flinch at the way his leader was so handily defeated.

Unfortunately, the device used by the dwarfs has messed up Domnhall's original coordinates. Geneva might be able to read the coordinates the dwarfs and their captive princess came from; a small, bowl-shaped world locally called The Basket of Paradise, suspended by adamantine chains from the branches of a World Tree- this one an oak. The dwarfs, however, originally came from another world, The Peak, a mountain of rock and stone nestled in the oak's roots, and that's where they were hoping to end up. Several other worlds are also supported by the oak.

The elf girl moans and curls up, but doesn't awaken the rest of the way without being touched.

[Shadowcaller]

[Tieflings and Vampires and Sneks Oh My]

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

[Tieflings and Vampires and Sneks Oh My]

"Good, since I'd like to see that." Astrana grins back...

---

[An imperative ritual]

"These particular angels are especially proud and aggressive so you have to always be respectful, yet at the same time make it clear how much you want this. You must show that you're willing to make sacrifices. Yet don't allow it to walk over you, by agreeing to this, you're going to allow it to enter your mind. To possess you, essentially, to alter your very being. this is going to change far more than your sex, it will open up your mind to a completely new world, with all the dangers that entails." Astrana is making sure Val understood the consequences of this ritual now that the preparations of it had been completed.

[CosmicHobbit]

"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."

Oliver smiles. "Well, they told me to never tell others their exact name, but they worked at GLoG. They showed me all of the pain that I had caused and could cause by keeping others from having money which might have gone to food or shelter, and showed me what I could be. It just...made sense." He shrugs. "If that makes sense."

[Gullara]

[An Imperative Ritual]

Valerie nods. "Yep, I gotcha. And I have my story straight, so that should be fine." She shifts from foot to foot, full of nervous energy. "So where will you be? not too far away, right?"

[Felandria]

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.

Felandria leans closer and gently whispers into Rose’s ear.

Then let me show you how much I like you.

Felandria takes Rose’s hand as she stands up to lead her upstairs.

[Halae]

[Scaleback's Apartment]

"I take it you can't help Domhnall anymore, Geneva?" Emily asks the other lady in the hall. She doesn't remove her eyes from the dwarves, as she needs to monitor them until Intersection gets here

[Deathkeeper]

[Scaleback’s Apartment]

Domhnall grimaces, then decides that he has to risk scaring the poor girl. He goes over and gently shakes her shoulder.
”Miss? You’re safe now but you really need to wake up.” he urges her.

[Rebonack]

[Scaleback’s Apartment]

Geneva makes some bird noises at her machine.

It probably sounds kind of cute.

"No, I wouldn't say that," she replies slowly. "Deciphering space time topography after a new bridge has come in on top of an old one isn't impossible. I have some software for doing exactly that, just not with me."

The computer that runs it has to be submerged in liquid helium to work and isn't something that can be carried around on her person.

"It'll just take a bit of time. This isn't the worst tangle of yarn I've had to unravel. It just means Domhnall will have to settle in for a while. A month. Maybe two? Vacation instead of exile."

That's...

Not terrible news?


[Richards Flat]

D'aw, snuggling.

"I think... I think maybe I want to see them first," Geneva concludes as the movie starts playing. "Maybe that isn't as exciting as coming up with names beforehand."

[Deathkeeper]

Richards Flat

Nick shakes his head.
”No problem. I hear some dragons just give their kids numbers so when the hatchlings are a few years old they can name themselves. We can wait to see them.” he says with a gentle smile, and clinks their tail-rings together again. He loves doing that.

[Earl of Purple]

Scaleback's Apartment

The elf moans and shivers as she's dragged from sleepy land. She looks around with some confusion, since she doesn't know where she is. She's not visibly scared by anyone, despite being the smallest person in the room (whilst taller than the dwarfs, they're much wider- and she's still not much taller than they are). "What... What happened to my bedchamber? Where is my lady's maid? Who are you? Did you touch me? What happened to my mothers, are they alright?" Questions, and it looks like it's down to Domhnall to answer them, since he's closest. Her eyes, now she's awake and they're open, are a bright green, with cat-like pupils. She'll sit up in the bed and swing her bare feet over the edge to stand, before wobbling a little. The chloroform hasn't quite rubbed off all the way, and she's still a little drowsy.

The dwarfs don't move and hope the princess doesn't see them.

[Halae]

[Scaleback's Apartment]

"You were kidnapped, ma'am. We stopped them," Emily provides helpfully from down the hall, out of sight of the bed in the living room. The noble girl is likely going to be concerned about the fact that one of her saviors has a voice like a woman who's spent the last three years gargling gravel and mayonnaise. She can't take her focus off of the dwarves for too long, though, and leaves the rest to be explained by Domhnall. He's a better face for dealing with potentially panicked women than she is.

[Deathkeeper]

[Scaleback’s Apartment]

Domhnall grimaces at Emily. Och, blunt as a sack of bricks that one is.
”My name’s Domhnall of Serrisil, Miss. I’m afraid I did have to touch ye, aye.” he says more gently than Emily. ”’Fraid I cant tell ye much else. We found ye in the cliches of some unruly dwarves.” he admits.

[Rebonack]

[Scaleback’s Apartment]

Geneva, for her part, has managed to distract herself fiddling with the orb the dwarves brought with them.

She hasn't seen technology quite like it before.

So...

It'll take something pretty jarring at this point to get her attention.

Chances are Intersection should be showing up soon to take the goons away.

[Earl of Purple]

Scaleback's Apartment

"I am Princess Jystereiel Oakarrow of the Starwood Kingdom on the Rim. It is an honour to meet you, Sir Domhnall. Dwarfs? The ones I saw before... I fell asleep, they were Shade Dwarfs. Mercenaries, they'd have been hired by somebody else. We captured one, but he's worth more unharmed." Since he can be ransomed back to his clan, and they'll pay more if he's unharmed.

The device works through the runes, and is entirely magical. It draws power from another world, a shadow-world created by the light of a sun god falling upon the Great Oak. Here, that realm of shadows is a long way away; the Great Oak is similar to the Nexus in being a world bordering other worlds, and it's drifting away from Nexus to prevent itself from crashing into the Nexus as a cataclysmic meteor of wood and fire. It won't work for long.

[Purple Eagle]

Felandria leans closer and gently whispers into Rose’s ear.

Then let me show you how much I like you.

Felandria takes Rose’s hand as she stands up to lead her upstairs.

Rosalind gasps as she realizes what's going to happen, but can't keep from grinning like the cat that ate the canary. "I can't wait." She replies in barely a whisper, following this beauty like a woman entranced.

[Shadowcaller]

[An Imperative Ritual]

Valerie nods. "Yep, I gotcha. And I have my story straight, so that should be fine." She shifts from foot to foot, full of nervous energy. "So where will you be? not too far away, right?"

[An Imperative Ritual]

"I will be close, but out of sight. You can't hint about the fourth tower or me, if she asks you about where you got this pact bond from, simply tell her that you bought it from a fence." Astrana explains as she hands over a small statuette of an eagle. "They use these as invitations but as you aren't known to them you can hardly claim you were invited. I don't know enough about their organization to fake that so we'll have to go with this plan."

[Murkus]

[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.

[Sagittarius Towers]

"Well... yeah I mean, it's kind of the wings," says Fettina, blushing. "But Rein... It's not only that I can't do those things. I don't feel any urge to. At all. I don't feel like I have to... use." Fettina crosses her arm across her body and rubs her other bicep. "I miss sex, but... that's the worst thing. I don't know about the rest. I played piano like I haven't in years these last couple nights."

"But anyway. I guess 'kill Telly' it is," Tina sighs. She lifts her eyes to Rein. "...So what'd you come over for?"

[Halae]

Scaleback's Apartment

"I am Princess Jystereiel Oakarrow of the Starwood Kingdom on the Rim. It is an honour to meet you, Sir Domhnall. Dwarfs? The ones I saw before... I fell asleep, they were Shade Dwarfs. Mercenaries, they'd have been hired by somebody else. We captured one, but he's worth more unharmed." Since he can be ransomed back to his clan, and they'll pay more if he's unharmed.

The device works through the runes, and is entirely magical. It draws power from another world, a shadow-world created by the light of a sun god falling upon the Great Oak. Here, that realm of shadows is a long way away; the Great Oak is similar to the Nexus in being a world bordering other worlds, and it's drifting away from Nexus to prevent itself from crashing into the Nexus as a cataclysmic meteor of wood and fire. It won't work for long.

[Scaleback's Apartment]

With her vigil over the dwarves still maintained, Emily asks, "Geneva?"

There's not really much else she can do here.

[Recaiden]

Oliver smiles. "Well, they told me to never tell others their exact name, but they worked at GLoG. They showed me all of the pain that I had caused and could cause by keeping others from having money which might have gone to food or shelter, and showed me what I could be. It just...made sense." He shrugs. "If that makes sense."

"A mysterious inspiration, huh? That's pretty good."
"I suppose it's the sort of thing you never thought much about before. There are so many things in the world, too many perspectives to consider."
He shakes his head.
"A good story rests on at least three points. You're a thief. You want to prevent suffering. What's anotha thing about you, something that matters? Maybe what's the future for you?"
Oliver might get the sense of being watched by something down below, among the impossible stars.

[Deathkeeper]

[Scaleback’s Apartment]

Domhnall seems quite embarrassed. A princess? He’s not really one for dressing up (or dressing at all) but for royalty he wishes he had something on to look impressive instead of his current...nothing.
”Aw no, Miss. I ain’t a Sir. Just a tribesman. But you’re most welcome.” he says with a shallow bow.

[Gullara]

[An Imperative Ritual]

"I will be close, but out of sight. You can't hint about the fourth tower or me, if she asks you about where you got this pact bond from, simply tell her that you bought it from a fence." Astrana explains as she hands over a small statuette of an eagle. "They use these as invitations but as you aren't known to them you can hardly claim you were invited. I don't know enough about their organization to fake that so we'll have to go with this plan."

[An Imperative Ritual]

"Right, a fence." Valerie clutches the idol to her chest and nods along. "There's so many little details to keep straight. I don't know how you do this every day." She says with a nervous smile.

[Reinholdt]

[Sagittarius Towers]

"Well... yeah I mean, it's kind of the wings," says Fettina, blushing. "But Rein... It's not only that I can't do those things. I don't feel any urge to. At all. I don't feel like I have to... use." Fettina crosses her arm across her body and rubs her other bicep. "I miss sex, but... that's the worst thing. I don't know about the rest. I played piano like I haven't in years these last couple nights."

"But anyway. I guess 'kill Telly' it is," Tina sighs. She lifts her eyes to Rein. "...So what'd you come over for?"

[Sagittarius Towers]

Rein's face wavers between a frown and a forced smile. "Well that certainly makes you a better person than I. A lot of people would kill to skip those seven steps." Rein nods at the drink Fettina was making for him.

"Look, when it comes to curses like this one, there's always the option C. Which is to... well... just accept it as a major, unexpected life change. It's not that different from a surprise pregnancy, a blindsided layoff, or a crippling car accident. It sucks, it's not fair, and it never should have been forced on you. At same time, you can cut your losses, live with it, adapt, and move on. It's certainly not unheard of. I remember when Dena used to just be a drow. She's changed dramatically, but she's made it work for her." Reinholdt says, using an example near to home. "I know I'd love to hear you play piano more and if you're getting back into it, maybe there's some good to be had of it all? Maybe you don't need the adventures, the murders, the sketchy deals with irony genies. Maybe just being Tina is enough."

Oh right. The purpose of his visit. "Ah, well, uh, I just, um, hadn't heard from you in a while and wanted to check up." Part of it. The rest of it is a poorly disguised booty call Tina can probably sniff out easily. To be fair, Rein didn't come here thinking he would need to disguise it in the first place!

[Rebonack]

[Scaleback's Apartment]

It takes about five seconds for Geneva to process the fact that someone is talking to her.

She's busy trying to figure out how this doo-dad works!

"Hmm?" she finally grunts, looking up from the orb. "Oh. What is it?"

She has a suspicion.

That suspicion?

A question.

That question?

Will more people appear in my closet.

[CosmicHobbit]

"A mysterious inspiration, huh? That's pretty good."
"I suppose it's the sort of thing you never thought much about before. There are so many things in the world, too many perspectives to consider."
He shakes his head.
"A good story rests on at least three points. You're a thief. You want to prevent suffering. What's anotha thing about you, something that matters? Maybe what's the future for you?"
Oliver might get the sense of being watched by something down below, among the impossible stars.

"Well..." Oliver scratches the back of his neck. "If I'm honest, I still fall into my greedy habits at times. As long as it's not hurting those who don't deserve it, why shouldn't I grab some extra valuables?" This is something Oliver has never admitted out loud before, though it's certainly always been at the back of his mind. There's a tinge of embarrassment to his voice as he says this.

He ignores the sense of being watched, dismissing it as his mind psyching him out.

[Earl of Purple]

Scaleback's Apartment

"I did not know there were centaurs in the the Basket. Where are you from, Sir Domhnall? Serrisil, of course, but which world?" She doesn't know all the different nations, states and governments that rule parts of each world on the Great Oak, but she knows the larger worlds attached to the world tree. Sir Domhnall probably doesn't come from one of them, though it'd likely be easier on Geneva if he did.

From the worlds of the Great Oak, it's unlikely they'll be further cross-overs into Nexus, in Scaleback's apartment or anywhere else for that matter; the tree is deliberately moving away. Does mean there's likely a time limit on how long the dwarfs and Jystereiel can get back safely, however.

[Shadowcaller]

[An Imperative Ritual]

Astrana smiles back. "That's since I don't, Val. Meeting new entities like this is always stressful, this one in particular. In my day to day business I use a established clientele. Entities that I know and trust, right now you're performing the hardest part of my job. Things like this usually just come up every so often and that's what all my experience is for and you don't have any of that."

[billtodamax]

Old Mall

So what if she didn't tell me where she was going? Who cares right? Violet flies over the old house again, double checking to make sure she didn't miss anything It's not like they were gonna make it a... a thing or anything. She was hot, I was hot, we banged. That's all there was to it. She flies around in larger, lazy circles, trying to spot any sign of life in the nearby houses. Why the buck do I even care about finding her again, huh? It's this Celestia damned ponyfeathers brain. Just wanna find a buckin'... friend. Hey it's not like having a friend wouldn't be nice, I just... I never needed them before! ...Did I? It's probably just since I arrived in this weird place. She spots some movement in an old abandoned shopping centre, starting to drift over that way. That's it. I had friends before! They all just bucked off when I ended up in this dumb city. It's... it's horseapples is what it is. Why shouldn't I look for more friends? She spirals downward, landing at the front entrance of the mall, trying to open the doors and head inside. Hey! Cass! She yells into the empty mall. You here?

[Devixer]

Old Mall

Perhaps once, this large monument to shopping would've been filled with people and stores and noise. Now though, there was little more than darkness, decay, and the occasional cute mascot. Not that they looked cute anymore, now that the lights had been off for years and all the plush of the costumes was peeling away.

At first, there's no response to Violet calling out. But then, a noise that sounds like someone rummaging through a bag. Then, a voice. "Who the crap's there and why are you following me?!"