GLoG 92: Generosity, Love, Opportunity, Growth

[Purple Eagle]

[Daycare]

"But I need it now." Annie says, uncompromising. She then reaches over to try to take the crayon.

[Daycare]

Asher hands it to her without question, and places his hand on her shoulder. "I-It's alright, we can share!" Then he reaches for one of her crayons to use while she uses that.

[Ironoak Cabin]

"Sasha is... very socially-stunted," Reelshka explains. "She doesn't know how to deal with other people. And she has an aura of palpable dread and discomfort that makes it difficult to be near her. You can Karasu should find it easier, at least."[/COLOR]

[Ironoak Cabin]

Ruth looks thoughtful, and nods. "Thank you, Reelshka. I should be going to get that done now, but I shall be back to meet her brother." She says, nodding towards the sleeping babies. After saying her goodbyes, perhaps even a friendly hug, she'll leave the cabin and fly to meet Karasu.

Later, in the

[Daycare - Dark Room],

Ruth and Karasu approach the dark room! The former is an olive-skinned woman with Greek features, green hair and purple eyes, wearing a robe. The latter is a 15-year old dark-skinned girl with Afro-Japanese features, an afro mohawk (with the mohawk itself dyed purple), amber eyes and black sclera, dressed in casual wear: a navy blue top with goth designs, a black skirt reaching up to her knees and dark grey sneakers. Once they're in, with both being able to see in the darkness, Ruth calls out. "Sasha? Call me Ruth, and her Karasu. I work here, and she's a girl willing to be your friend."

It's true, too! Once Karasu was told of Sasha's shadow status, she couldn't wait to meet her.

[Reinholdt]

[Daycare Dark Room]

In the dark room, at the furthest and most isolated corner, a dreary ebony cloak slowly and soundlessly rises up out of the ground like an apparition. Under the cloak lies an obscured waif of what seems to be a humanoid creature, but it is near impossible to tell under the enshrouding darkness that clings to the figure like wet hair. A pair of eyes are discernible from within the hood, black as everything else, but those empty pools of void glimmer with what could only be presumed to be intelligence. An aura of cold surrounds the cretin, a chilling sensation that matches the absence of light with absence of heat. A height estimate would suggest Sasha was only about eight years old, nearly half of Karasu's age. If she even followed human conventions, a mystery in and of itself now that the only one who knew Sasha's complete past is deceased.



Other than rising into the surface world, Sasha doesn't do much else. She does stare at both Karasu and Ruth in equal measure. One could imagine that she says hello in return, but that would be projecting wishful desires onto the awkward silence.

[Recaiden]

Holly, of course, laughs. "I'm sure she'll have a very funny look on her face if I go back with my hand in a jar." 'Hello, I heard you wanted a hand'.

"No." Serious time. "I was just planning on getting a few skin and blood samples from each hand and only using those." Why does she need samples from her uninfected hand? "The samples from my left hand are to be a control, because I'm only half-human." As you can tell from her ears, the other half is probably elf. Because only elves have pointy ears.

She pays attention to how it gets used.
Holly suddenly has a scalpel in her left hand that wasn't...anywhere before now. "I brought a scalpel," she claims, "but I forgot to bring syringes or things like that." Syringes are also harder to make on the spot. "Do you have any I could use, for the blood samples? While I cut out the flesh samples."

Holly is not against cutting a piece of skin out of her hands. Of course, she'll start with the left hand before taking off the right hand's glove, because she doesn't want to transfer the mutagen anywhere.

"That mostly makes sense. I mean, what does being half-human have to do with it?"
Is the left half of Holly human, while the other half is something else?

"Oh, of course."
Anchor turns to get a pair of one-use syringes from the cupboard and deliver them to Holly.

[Purple Eagle]

[Daycare Dark Room]

In the dark room, at the furthest and most isolated corner, a dreary ebony cloak slowly and soundlessly rises up out of the ground like an apparition. Under the cloak lies an obscured waif of what seems to be a humanoid creature, but it is near impossible to tell under the enshrouding darkness that clings to the figure like wet hair. A pair of eyes are discernible from within the hood, black as everything else, but those empty pools of void glimmer with what could only be presumed to be intelligence. An aura of cold surrounds the cretin, a chilling sensation that matches the absence of light with absence of heat. A height estimate would suggest Sasha was only about eight years old, nearly half of Karasu's age. If she even followed human conventions, a mystery in and of itself now that the only one who knew Sasha's complete past is deceased.



Other than rising into the surface world, Sasha doesn't do much else. She does stare at both Karasu and Ruth in equal measure. One could imagine that she says hello in return, but that would be projecting wishful desires onto the awkward silence.

[Daycare Dark Room]

Ruth studies Sasha in all of her full glory. What she's looking at seems to be the fusion of a cosmic creature - like her but very different - and a young girl. The eldritch side of Sasha might recognize Ruth's nature as a cosmic being, in turn.

"You poor thing... this is no existence for you. You may already sense my nature, but I'll say it out loud: I'm an angel, a cosmic being like part of you. My true unbound form and its effects would cause any surviving onlookers to scream 'eldritch'." She says, smiling sadly. "I have to be leaving now, I came to bring her here and to meet you. Perhaps you'll meet my son soon, too. We will see later, Sasha." She says, turning to leave the room, leaving Karasu alone with her.

The black ninja girl steps forward, generating her own void aura of cold and darkness for a few seconds, locking eyes with Sasha. "A friend of the darkness is a friend of mine." She says. With a gesture, a small pool of shadow forms on the ground before her, morphing into the letters HELLO.

While her powers allow her to communicate with shadow creatures to an extent, shadow letters seems to her to be a reasonable alternative should her communication abilities not extend to Sasha.

[Gullara]

[Daycare]

Asher hands it to her without question, and places his hand on her shoulder. "I-It's alright, we can share!" Then he reaches for one of her crayons to use while she uses that.

[Daycare]

Annie's baleful look fades as soon as she snatches the crayon. She immediately goes back to her colouring. Then she stops for a beat, thinks, and mumbles. "Thank you."

[5a Violista]

Holly answers the question as she cuts out a sample from her left hand and puts it in stasis: "Unstable genetics," she says matter-of-factly. The bleeding from where she cut immediately stops. Must also be something about being half-human.

Obviously half-humans like her have unstable genetics. When you mix a human with something so radically different like an elf (or whatever she is) then it's only natural that things would be weird.
At least, that's how she sees it.

She switches which hand the blade is in, so that she can take off the glove. As her right hand's revealed, it definitely has some weird things about it. Almost like a mad scientist or god thought 'what do I need to make a hand?' and threw together a bunch of different things because they weren't entirely sure if they got everything or not. "'Cause, y'know, that's just how it works. Genetics is weird when it comes to supernatural stuff." She takes care of that sample, and while the glove's off she gets some blood from that hand, and does the same with it.
She returns the glove to its spot on her hand, and looks for a spot to put the scalpel. "Biohazard disposal?" she asks.


She'll do the remaining hand once she's taken care of the sharps disposal.

[Reinholdt]

[Daycare Dark Room]

Sasha's gaze upon Ruth never flickers or wavers. Though Ruth says a lot of things that don't make sense, she does reiterate that Sasha shouldn't exist, something the little shadow girl is familiar with. Though she seems cowed in this assertion, lacking the pitchfork and torches usually accompanying such assertions. That was good. She promised Master she would stay here until he returned. Something bad would surely happen if Sasha had to run or defend herself.

Fortunately none of that happens and Ruth exits, leaving Karasu behind with Sasha. Thus the monster of shadows' stare focuses upon the ninja. Karasu too likes to use foreign words. Like friend. Ruth used it earlier. Was that Karasu's race? Elf, Gnome, Dwarf, Friend? That would make some sense. Karasu looked pretty human to Sasha, but it was hard to tell the difference sometimes. Like when she's supposed to retrieve a halfling, not a hobbit. Maybe a Friend was like that. Mostly human-like but with those black sclera.

Regardless of the racial intricacies, the Friend scrawls something upon the floor using shadows. Those symbols were somewhat familiar. Sasha had seen Master write them down on his papers from time to time. Was the Friend performing science too? Regardless, the Friend had done it with shadows. No one had ever done that before besides her. She looks back at Karasu, suddenly a little guarded and wary. Was the shadow realm leaking out? There were nests of creatures down there she knew how to avoid, but that was when Sasha was submerged. She doesn't know how those predators would react if they had escaped into the surface world with the light dwellers. There was clearly no apparent hostile intent, but one slip up is all it took for the creatures to swarm upon their prey. She lost more test subjects that way than any other. She'd never known one to talk before, but she had never seen one on the surface before either.

And there was no indication of what this Karasu wanted. People always want something. If Karasu was a people.

[Purple Eagle]

[Daycare Dark Room]

The awkward silence that responds to her, along with the seemingly-guarded look on seeing the shadows, tells Karasu that not all of that got through, and whatever did was lost in translation. "Uh, okay..." She simply says, dispelling the aura and making the shadows move, to form pictograms. If she doesn't understand words, then she'll understand pictures.

Perhaps with words said so she learns more words.

The shadow moves between them and starts forming into pictures bounded by a square. In it, there's Karasu waving to the standing shadow girl in greeting. "Hello."

She then shows a smaller version of herself celebrating a 10th birthday with cake, and manifesting her powers (depicted as her heart getting engulfed in fire), then using it to fight huge monsters. "My shadows won't harm you, only big monsters."

She displays what she hopes will happen, both standing side-by-side, holding hands and looking content. "You and me, friends."

At the end, she shows them both using pools of moving shadow pictures to communicate with each other. "Your turn. Talk to me, Sasha."

[Purple Eagle]

[Daycare]

Annie's baleful look fades as soon as she snatches the crayon. She immediately goes back to her colouring. Then she stops for a beat, thinks, and mumbles. "Thank you."

[Daycare]

Asher just smiles back, then resumes colouring, starting to hum a happy tune, his wings twitching once. "W-Why don't you smile?" He asks, curiously. I'd imagine she looks rather serious.

[Recaiden]

Holly answers the question as she cuts out a sample from her left hand and puts it in stasis: "Unstable genetics," she says matter-of-factly. The bleeding from where she cut immediately stops. Must also be something about being half-human.

Obviously half-humans like her have unstable genetics. When you mix a human with something so radically different like an elf (or whatever she is) then it's only natural that things would be weird.
At least, that's how she sees it.

She switches which hand the blade is in, so that she can take off the glove. As her right hand's revealed, it definitely has some weird things about it. Almost like a mad scientist or god thought 'what do I need to make a hand?' and threw together a bunch of different things because they weren't entirely sure if they got everything or not. "'Cause, y'know, that's just how it works. Genetics is weird when it comes to supernatural stuff." She takes care of that sample, and while the glove's off she gets some blood from that hand, and does the same with it.
She returns the glove to its spot on her hand, and looks for a spot to put the scalpel. "Biohazard disposal?" she asks.


She'll do the remaining hand once she's taken care of the sharps disposal.

"If your genes are unstable then, I mean, shouldn't you use someone else as a control? Compare it to someone stable?"
The doctor stares at the infected hand a bit when the glove comes off.
"Uh, disposal's right there." she says, pointing it out.

[5a Violista]

"Probably," Holly says, disposing of the scalpel.

She goes back to finishing using the stasis-machine. "I'm not going to be the one using the lab, so I don't know if there will be other controls as well. If we found someone else who was infected with it, then it would be better to use them instead, but as far as I know I'm the only person who has touched the stuff so far."

...
Okay. Finished. "I hope we can figure it out before it becomes a widespread problem."

[Recaiden]

This is where the doctor should volunteer some other subjects she knows of, or volunteer to help test the dangerous substance.
But she doesn't do either of those things.

"How would it become a widespread problem if it's only affected you? I mean, and you've got it well covered up and are being really cautious with the samples..."

[5a Violista]

Volunteering people to test something known to be dangerous would, of course, be unethical. If she was expecting a doctor to volunteer subjects, Holly should have gone to Skyside and not GLoG.

Holly actually does know the answer to this question. "From what I can tell, the substance comes from skinwalker remains, when burned. If I'm right and VIGIL and the militaries continue to try to exterminate them, I expect a lot of collateral damage from the substance."

The half-human then shrugs. "At the very least, it'll help us understand them better and maybe make them less dangerous."

[Gullara]

[Daycare]

Asher just smiles back, then resumes colouring, starting to hum a happy tune, his wings twitching once. "W-Why don't you smile?" He asks, curiously. I'd imagine she looks rather serious.

[Daycare]

Annie looks up from her drawing again and gives him a puzzled frown. "What do you mean?"

[Reinholdt]

Spoiler

Show

[Daycare Dark Room]

The awkward silence that responds to her, along with the seemingly-guarded look on seeing the shadows, tells Karasu that not all of that got through, and whatever did was lost in translation. "Uh, okay..." She simply says, dispelling the aura and making the shadows move, to form pictograms. If she doesn't understand words, then she'll understand pictures.

Perhaps with words said so she learns more words.

The shadow moves between them and starts forming into pictures bounded by a square. In it, there's Karasu waving to the standing shadow girl in greeting. "Hello."

She then shows a smaller version of herself celebrating a 10th birthday with cake, and manifesting her powers (depicted as her heart getting engulfed in fire), then using it to fight huge monsters. "My shadows won't harm you, only big monsters."

She displays what she hopes will happen, both standing side-by-side, holding hands and looking content. "You and me, friends."

At the end, she shows them both using pools of moving shadow pictures to communicate with each other. "Your turn. Talk to me, Sasha."

[Daycare Dark Room]

Sasha continued to stare at Karasu. It wasn't too unusual to say hello after introducing oneself. Karasu. Race: Friend. Hello. So far so good. The moving shadows was a little unusual and forced Sasha to split her focus so she could watch both at the same time.

There is a minuscule flinch at the second set of pictograms, but nothing particularly overt. Apparently the third set was supposed to represent her and Friend? Holding hands? That wasn't possi- ah. Karasu was suffering a misconception Sasha had run into before. Well certainly no big deal. Surely Karasu didn't come here for simply that though.

And as Sasha suspected, Karasu clarifies that she wanted Sasha to talk. Well that just seemed like a worse idea than the first one! People always seemed to want her to do that until she actually does. That's what made the dorfs so refreshing. They just presumed she couldn't. Still Karasu seemed insistent.

Oh wait. On which topic? Sasha stares at Karasu, continuing to stretch out the awkward silence the little shadow girl had absolute mastery over. What was she supposed to talk about?

[Recaiden]

Volunteering people to test something known to be dangerous would, of course, be unethical. If she was expecting a doctor to volunteer subjects, Holly should have gone to Skyside and not GLoG.

Holly actually does know the answer to this question. "From what I can tell, the substance comes from skinwalker remains, when burned. If I'm right and VIGIL and the militaries continue to try to exterminate them, I expect a lot of collateral damage from the substance."

The half-human then shrugs. "At the very least, it'll help us understand them better and maybe make them less dangerous."

Well that's all perfectly reasonable, and the doctor gives Holly a nod.
"Alright. You'll keep us informed on what you discover, won't you? I mean, if what you can tell is right, we'll probably have to treat more patients affected by it."

[5a Violista]

"Of course," Holly says. "I'll make sure to share any relevant things we find out. Gotta keep a good relationship between our organizations, right? No point in trying to compete over patients."

The half-elf gathers together the samples-in-stasis. She double checks to make sure she has everything...

"Oh, wait!" She sets them back down, and then laughs. "I should probably label these first. Wouldn't want to get which are which mixed up."

She then, of course, labels them and then picks them up again.

"Well....thanks. That was really helpful."

Holly waves 'bye' and heads towards the door out.

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin

The day is bright and warm, and a cool breeze drifts through the campground. Hawthorn cabin is a fairly standard cabin, towards the edge of the campground. Today, all the windows are thrown open, and through one, a Tiefling girl can be seen sitting on a recliner in the common area. She's asleep with a book lying open in her lap. Her hair is pulled into a ponytail, and she's wearing a long, dark blue dress. She evidently dozed off while reading.

[CosmicHobbit]

Hawthorn Cabin

Coming out of the woods is a bald human, wearing a white jumpsuit and a constant grin on their face. They glance around the campground, then start heading straight for Hawthorn Cabin, making no attempt to be stealthy or quiet.

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin

There's nothing defending the cabin. The door isn't even locked. The interloper will find his progress completely unhindered.

[CosmicHobbit]

Hawthorn Cabin

Raising his eyebrows, the grinning man opens the door and walks in, closing it loudly behind him. He looks around the room, trying to find a place where it would look cinematic for him to be when the girl wakes up.

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin

With the slamming of the door, the girl starts awake, causing her book to fall to the ground with a loud thump. She shrieks when she sees the man in the room. "Eeeek! Who are you!?"

[CosmicHobbit]

Hawthorn Cabin

The man turns toward her, opens his mouth, and appears to turn inside out from there. The inside, however, seems to be made up of slimy scales. He forms into a large, semi-floating snake-like creature, roughly 10 feet long. It has a large, bald human head with an unnaturally large grin and three eyes with slit pupils. The grin shows off 3 layers of sharp teeth, and the creature's body is run up and down with cilia and spikes. A tentacle extends from the creature's body and lifts up to it's mouth, where a clawed hand grows out of the end of the tentacle. Holding one finger in front of it's grin, the creature quietly says in an echoey voice, "Shhhhhh. I don't plan to hurt you."

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin

"Aaaaah!" The girl screams, almost knocking her armchair over in fright. "What do you want!?" She is visibly terrified of the abomination before her, shivering in fear.

[CosmicHobbit]

Hawthorn Cabin

The tentacle disappears, and the abomination sighs, though it still grins. "Come on, I get that you're not used to this kind of thing, but I'm not even the scariest where I come from! If I cut to the chase, will you stop screaming?"

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin

"I, uh, I suppose." The Tiefling looks skeptical. This thing looks horrific, but it doesn't seem like it wants to kill her. She supposes she can hear it out, but she's still scared.

[CosmicHobbit]

Hawthorn Cabin

The abomination's grin seems to somehow get wider. "I would like you to be my chosen one to carry out my will in the world. If I were a god, you'd be considered a priest." His grin goes back to normal before he says, "Though, I will say you're not off to a great start, considering your screeching probably made other people wonder if you're safe."

[Morty]

[Hawthorn Cabin]

A certain presence may be felt around the cabin. Someone or something, invisible to the naked eye, have gathered in response to Sekhmet's distress. The intruder might felt a sense of being watched closely and scrutinized. Sekhmet might get an intangible feeling as well, but in her case it's one of reassurance. She's being watched over.

[bc56]

Hawthorn Cabin

Sekhmet feels a bit better as the unseen presence settles upon her. She doesn't think it comes from the entity across from her, or he'd have been using it already. "A priest? Uh, why me?" She's not about to apologize for screaming; this monster still frightens her. She doesn't trust it.

[CosmicHobbit]

Hawthorn Cabin

Jimothy takes note of the presence. He makes a note to watch what he does until it goes away.

Curling himself into as comfortable of a position he can get, he says, "Quite a few things. Your great scholarly knowledge and fighting skills, for one." He's making this up as he goes along. In reality, he has no reason, he just decided randomly, but he's pretty convincing about this.

Sekhmet will feel a sort of prickling in her mind, and if she has the willpower of the average person or lower Jimothy will start detecting her thoughts. Any more than that, though, and she'll be able to fend his ability off without even realizing she's doing it, unless the prickling gives it away.