Porcelain Child/SessionNine

[10:22] <onine> Everyone just stares at Magpie.
[10:23] * Magpie looks at them. "What?!" she asks, in her normal voice.
[10:23] <onine> "Wh... what was that Magpie?" Epheri asks a little stunned
[10:26] * Magpie decides insouciance is the best course. "I dunno."
[10:27] * Yengo shakes his head, leaning back against one of the trees heavily. "That makes... two of us."
[10:28] * Magpie frowns, looking at him. "Are you okay? Because you don't realy look okay."
[10:28] <Anona> "Whatever it was... and I have my suspicions... I suggest we return. For now. If that rapid-passage of time wasn't an illusion, we should get back to see if Vana has returned... wherever she is.
[10:29] <Yengo> "No... I'm... fine." He turns to Anona. "That's a good idea. We still have the other problem to deal with, after all." He coughs.
[10:31] * Magpie moves over to stand by Yengo, and clutches his sleeve. She peers up at him. He still didn't look okay. His cold, probably. "So lets go back." She was a little anxious to get out of these woods anyway.
[10:31] <onine> "If we're even able..." Epheri says direly, looking up at the red sky.
[10:32] * Yengo casts a tired smile down at her. "Yeah."
[10:34] <Anona> "We'll just have to try our best, won't we?" Anona sets off in the general direction of "away".
[10:35] * Yengo follows after her, staring ahead a little glassily.
[10:35] <onine> Epheri shrugs and follows. "If she can keep us out she can probably keep us in you know?"
[10:35] * Magpie trots beside Yengo, casting worried looks at him whenever he so much as sniffled.
[10:35] <Yengo> "If she does, she'll be sorry."
[10:37] <onine> Epheri clutches her bow a little tighter. "Fair folk... they're strong right?"
[10:37] <Anona> "Some of them. That's the problem with chaos. It's chaotic."
[10:37] <onine> "Oh come on, how would you know Anona, you've never even seen one!"
[10:38] <Anona> "No, but *I* paid attention in class, Epheri. "
[10:38] * Anona rethinks that and states more honestly, "Well, MOST of the time."
[10:39] <Magpie> "You mean, she's a...a fairy? I thought they only existed in the the Threshold. Why would she even be here?"
[10:39] <onine> "You were setting *fire* to things!"
[10:39] * Epheri considers Magpie's question
[10:39] <onine> Epheri considers the question.
[10:40] * Yengo fingers the iron spoon strung around his neck absently. Might come in useful, after all. "I'm surprised she let us leave without a fight. Now that we know she's here, we could tell anyone."
[10:40] <onine> "She hasn't let us leave *yet* you know, dont count your yeddims."
[10:41] <Anona> "You can set things on fire and listen at the same time. You have hands AND ears, don't you?"
[10:41] <onine> "...untill they've ...er..."
[10:42] <onine> "...dare me? *laughter*" Magpie hears a boy's voice, as does Yengo. The two dragonbloods feel a faint change in the wind for a brief moment.
[10:42] * Yengo shakes his head at Epheri's comment, then abruptly stops. "What was that?"
[10:43] <Anona> "... I'd hope 'she' realizes that if we aren't 'allowed' to leave the forest, there won't be a forest to leave very shortly... eh? What, Yengo?"
[10:43] * Magpie scowls. "You're just a coward meany!" She shouts back into the woods.
[10:44] <Yengo> "A voice in the woods..."
[10:44] * Magpie 's eyes widens. "It sounded a little like Luc. Not a �lot�, but..."
[10:44] <Anona> "Like the other things you were seeing?"
[10:44] <onine> Magpie, as you turn your head looking for the voice you find yourself looking at the village. You look back at the others... they're not there.
[10:45] <Yengo> "Maybe, I don't know..."
[10:45] * Magpie turns in a panicked circle. "Yengo, Anona!" she shouts. "Where, where are..."
[10:45] <onine> There is a figure standing over by the wall, his back facing you. It looks like Luc, it wears the same clothing.
[10:46] <Magpie> "Luc! Luc, you're alive!" In the sudden wash of enormous relief, Magpie forgets the taunting boy's voice she had heard. She runs over to him, to grab him by the shoulder.
[10:49] <onine> You pull him around and are met with the boy's alabaster pale face. His eyes are open, and they are like black voids that seem to swallow you, just as Boughs did. You only see it for a fraction of a second before the forest returns in a blink.
[10:49] <onine> To the rest of you, Magpie runs a short distance into the underbrush.
[10:51] * Magpie swallows a scream, and falls to her knees, shuddering.
[10:51] * Yengo takes a few halting steps after her. "Magpie, are you... all right?"
[10:51] <Anona> "...the hell?"
[10:53] * Magpie sees Yengo standing there, and struggles to her feet, and tears through the bushes headless of thorns tearing long scratches on her arms and legs. "I saw him again. Luc. Only he was like �her�."
[10:53] <onine> Magpie sits on her knees before a tree. Up against the tree is (to Yengo) a boy. Pale, looks like he's been starved for weeks. Closed eyes.
[10:54] * Yengo takes a step back, away from the body, uttering a short sound of shock.
[10:55] * Magpie lifts her head, and sees the boy there. She shuffles frantically away from him on her hands and knees.
[10:56] <Anona> "You know... Epheri, isn't it interesting that, so far, only the mortals present seem to be seeing things? I wonder...
[10:57] <onine> "...if we're immune?"
[10:57] <onine> The dragonbloods see an odd mound of leaves against the treetrunk.
[10:58] <Yengo> "Don't touch him, Magpie. Let's just..."
[10:58] <Yengo> "Just..."
[10:58] <Anona> "That's a possibility. The only other guess I have is that, if this is one of the Fair Folk... maybe our feelings aren't 'tasty' to it."
[10:59] <onine> "Well... " she speaks lower. "We've had pretty good lives thoigh, not much suffering to look back on... you know?"
[11:01] <Anona> "YOU, maybe. Maybe losing my parents isn't as devastatingly heartbreaking as whatever THEY went through, but I think if it COULD have effected me, it would have."
[11:01] * Magpie scrambles to her feet, lunges forward to put Yengo between her and the corpse. She peers around him. "Burn him? That would be right, wouldn't it? Anona can burn him, and then he's had a funeral and we can all go away."
[11:01] * Yengo takes the girl by the hand and starts to back away, yelling, his voice angry and panicked. "What the hell are you two DOING back there?"
[11:02] <Yengo> "Yeah." He doesn't care about examining the body. He just wants the hell out of here.
[11:02] <onine> Epheri walks over and pokes the leaves, which seem to lose their 'humanoid' shape and fall to the ground. The mortals see the shape of Luc fade into leaves.
[11:02] <Anona> "Wondering why you're getting so emotional over a pile of leaves."
[11:02] <onine> "Yes, its nothing! You have to realise that." Epheri adds.
[11:04] <Anona> "Hmm... I don't suppose either of you have anything made of cold-wrought iron, do you?"
[11:05] * Yengo glares at Epheri. "Let's wait and see what she shows you, then maybe you won't find it so easy to say it's nothing." He turns to Anona, pulling off the spoon he has around his neck and tossing it to her. "Here."
[11:06] * Anona tosses it back. "I'm not the one who's needing it, Yengo. Next time you see something... or Magpie seems to be seeing something... try poking it with the spoon. If it's real, no harm done, if it's glamour, it should be disrupted."

---

<Yengo> "Ah. I... I never thought of that..."
<onine> "She's feeding..." Epheri says quietly. "Getting stronger before facing us..."
<Anona> "Cold iron is about the least wonderful thing there is. Nobody writes poems about it, you know? That's what makes it so useful... or so I've been told, anyway."
<Yengo> "I knew that it burns them, but I'd forgotten about what it did to their illusions..." He coughs again.
Magpie glares into the forest, eyes burning. She wouldn't be a coward, she wouldn't. "So let's go," she says. She tightens her grip on Yengo's hand,
Anona continues her search for a way out.
<onine> You all continue your awkward trek through the strange woods, the mortals (especially Yengo) feel really 'wrong' here. Theres just a feeling that well, doesn't feel *right*
Magpie keeps close to Yengo. She keeps her eyes firmly fixed on the ground in front of her.
<onine> "Are you *sure* this is the right way Anona?" Epheri calls from the rear.
Yengo looks around as he walks, growing more uneasy by the minute.
<onine> You are moving up a hill, when suddenly the trees are covered in a glow. A glow from a light behind you all.
<Anona> "I'm not sure of anything, right now. I don't think it's taking me very seriously. I should fix that."
<onine> There is the noise of a sudden breeze
<onine> "What is serious? But a rigid state of mind Tepet Anona..." A voice says.
Yengo stops, wondering for a moment whether he should turn around, if this is some new trick, but in the end he has to look.
<onine> The voice comes from a small white creature sitting in the center of a still, glassy pool of water that was not there a moment ago.
<onine> The creature looks like a small girl, 12 maybe. But that is where all humanity ends. Her skin is white, like chalk, and her hair is that of branches and tiny leaves which drift down like an autumn and fade when they come to rest on the water surface.
<onine> Her closed eyes look to be *far* too large for her, and her head is a little out of proportion with her body.
<Anona> "... I was thinking more, 'it's the best way to not die horribly by my hand', but hey, your definition works too."
<onine> All outward signs of sexuality beyond basic shape are gone. Nipples, genitalia, navel - all are absent.
<onine> Even her ears are nothing but small mounds on the sides of her head.
<onine> "Die?" She chuckles, the sound is a mixture of a child's laugh and breeze through wind chimes. "No one *dies* silly dragonblood."
<Anona> "There are those that would disagree with you. Unfortunately, they also happen to be dead, so... it's a hard argument to disprove, I'll give you that."
<onine> "And there are those who would disagree with you. Hee-hee!"
Magpie trembles, and resists the temptation to hide behind Yengo. "Except her, right?" she asks, looking at Anona. "You're going to kill her now, aren't you?"
Yengo grips the cold iron spoon in his free hand, glaring at the creature before him. "Sounds like a good idea to me, Magpie."
<Anona> "Oh, we COULD kill it right away, I suppose, but then we wouldn't know how it GOT here, would we?"
Magpie gives Anona a Look. "If it's -dead-, it doesn't matter. I think you should kill it right away."
<onine> There is a 'screee' and a little white bird flits overhead and lands on the girl's shoulder, almost like a soulless parody of Magpie and Crow.
Magpie glares at the white bird, and is glad she made the crow stay with Tara.
Anona tsks at the girl. "Ah, but Fae are like rats or other troublesome pests. Where one is, others can follow. Best we figure out how to seal the way in and truly take care of the problem."
<onine> "Yes. More will follow. It is how things are meant to be."
<onine> She stands slowly on the surface of the water. "The next age will belong to us, and this time nothing will stop what is destined."
<onine> "You can destroy me, but it will do you no good, I am but a small piece of the puzzle." She laughs and little pieces seem to break off her body in the wind
<Anona> "You seem to be forgetting something."
<Magpie> "Kill her anyway," Magpie urges.
<onine> More and more begin to blow away and soon there is just a cloud of little white leaves that flow and flutter and then disappear.
<Yengo> "Damn it, we should have killed that thing when we had the chance."
<onine> Winds suddenly begin to pick up, throwing leaves around. They don’t stop, soon a veritable whirlwind of leaves swirl around you.
<Anona> "agh!"
<onine> White petals flow in from all sides and reform above the central pool, the girl's shape returns floating above the little pool.
<Magpie> "Anona, now! Kill her, kill her!"
<onine> A voice breaks through sounding like every wind in the forest speaking at once. "You can do nothing! You will do nothing!"
Magpie screams at her "Will too!" As if to set a good example, Magpie bends down to scoop up a rock and throw it at the evil thing.
<Anona> "That's YOUR opinion."
<onine> Shapes all around her begin to shift, phantoms, images on the corners of your vision, sights that terrify you and pierce into your hearts
<onine> Then, her eyes open...
<onine> The black orbs, like portals into chaos open, as if to swallow you. A split second vision assaults your minds, of bodies warped, of impossible geometry, bodies growing together, absolute chaos. The noise is a deafening cacophony of wails laughs and screams.
<onine> Then as sudden as it was, it is gone, for most of you at least.
<onine> The visions of impossible pleasure and pain still haunt Yengo's mind. He could almost *feel
it himself. Part of him wished it never happened, part of him wished it never stopped...
<onine> Once again, but faster, the creature fragments and blows away on the winds, the white petals swirling around then reforming behind the group, suddenly lunging upon Yengo when half formed
<onine> The creature wraps her arms around Yengo from behind and rakes her fingers lightly across his chest and head, little phantom trails escape Yengo's body and are absorbed into the creatures fingertips.
<onine> Scenes, memories flash before your eyes. Painful ones, happy ones. You feel each emotion, then the memory no long seems to hold any kind of significance for you...
Magpie shrieks as she sees the monster eating Yengo...just like she'd eaten Luc. Rage boils up inside her, and with a yell, she grabs a rock from the forest floor with both hands, and pummels at the pale thing leeching onto Yengo.
<onine> The creature pulls Yengo into the air drinking in his emotions, the very things that make him human. Magpie's rock slams into the small of her back and a shriek seems to come from all directions, one that pierces into you and chills you. An entirely alien shriek.
<onine> She drops Yengo in a heap on the ground and floats back a little toward her pool hissing and glaring at Magpie with her soulless eyes.
<onine> Epheri backs up and nocks three arrows in her bow, drawing it with the characteristic creaking of elm, and launches the three arrows at the floating creature. Each trails a few wisps of sparkling crystal in the air behind it.
<onine> The arrows pierce the fae and she lets out an earsplitting scream as she is thrown back from the impact.
Anona , sensing a good moment to strike draws her sword and charges the fae, slashing at 'her' midsection. Just before the moment of strike, a burst of flame erupts from the blade...
<Anona> ... and barely scratches the fae, with a nonexistent follow-through on the swing.
<onine> The fae stretches out her arms, calling. Almost all of the leaves in the area are whipped up into a tornado of activity. The swirl around you, hitting you and stinging your skin. They flutter and crash against the fae like a tidal wave, solidifying against her...
<onine> ...into a shiny black shell even covering her entire face, like that of polished ebony, complete with thorns protruding here and there.
<onine> The fae flies quickly at Anona, slashing against her with newfound claws on her black hands.
<onine> Her claws rake across Anona's torso, leaving four parallel slashes in the chest of her tunic.
Magpie holds the rock she'd smashed at the thing with previously over her head, and with a great heave, sends it sailing over Anona to fly right smack into Windswept Bough's face. She smiles viciously at the impact. No one was going to eat her friends while she just *watched
ever again! Ever!
<onine> The rock sails true and hits with the sound of stone on wood. The Fae's head is bent back impossibly by the blow, and she rights it slowly to glare at Magpie.
Yengo draws his sword and rushes forward, more angry now than ever at this thing. He brings his curved blade up above his head, shoulders tensing, then slashes it back down across the creature's carapace.
<onine> The sword cuts a deep groove in the fae's wooden shell, and black ichor spews out spattering across your armour and dripping in river down your sword. The fae is thrown back and down from the blow and her howl of pain is not that of a little girl. Epheri in the mean time nocks another arrow and draws the shaft back, aiming it carefully. She whispers to it as the power builds, growing little crystals like ice along its shaft. "Fly true my arrow, that which does not kill it certainly will not make it stronger!" "Wha-?!" she cries as the arrow deflects off the black skin of the fae with little more than a scratch, shooting halfway into the ground.
Yengo takes a step forward, bringing his blade, still on the downstroke, up in a sweeping crescent at the fae.
<onine> Which continues after your arms finish the strike, sending the sword sailing through the air. The fae's fingers dance in the air as if conducting music, and Yengo's swords trajectory straightens into a menacing spinning flight towards Epheri, who tries to leap out of its way.
<onine> Epheri stumbles and screams as the blade impales her through the buff jacket and into stomach. She rolls painfully into a wailing heap in the leaves trying to yank the blade out of her body.
<onine> You are given no time to act as even now the fae descends, slashing her claws at Anona's face.
<Anona> Quick as the flames she calls on, Anona swings her sword in a wild arc that deflects the fae's claws.
<Magpie> Seeing the fae engrossed in its struggles with Anona, Magpie scans the ground frantically, and at last spots another rock. She scoops it up, circles around, and sends her instrument of mass mayhem whistling toward the fae's back.
<Magpie> ...and scowls, when she sees it ricochet to no effect.
Anona makes another desperate slash with her sword, focusing her will and anger on making a solid connection with the blade.
<Anona> ... and yet again fails to make a solid connection.
<onine> Epheri presses her back against a tree and pulls Yengo's sword out of her stomach with an agonized grunt, and shakily nocks an arrow, aiming it at the floating fae through tear-blurred eyes.
<onine> The fae easily darts to the side in mid-air, the arrow streaking past and into a tree behind.
Yengo backpedals towards Epheri and his now rather grisly weapon. With inventiveness born of true desperation, he shouts "Magpie!", tears the spoon from his neck, and tosses it to her.
Magpie catches it one handed...and hurtles it instantly onward, sending the little bit of iron straight into the fae.
<onine> The fae turns to face you as the spoon sails into it. As it touches her, the illusion armour shatters into leaves that explode in all directions. She lets out a mortified wailing that gains in pitch, as if everything in the forest is screaming in agony.
<onine> When the leaves no longer obstruct your view, you see her floating striken, the spoon imbedded in her chest, the area of her skin around it crumbles like dry leaves, and spreads around the rest of her body. She floats down towards the pool of water and begins to sink into it a little, her expression is... wistful... sad. Her eyes are normal now, no longer the deep pools of chaos.
Magpie approaches slowly. "You're dead now, aren't you," she asks the thing in the pool.
<onine> She smiles as the decay starts to encroach on her face, and she slumps into the water, her body slowly dissolving into it, leaving only the iron spoon on the pool bed.
<onine> Her hand reaches out to Magpie and a thought enters the girl's head. "We'll see each other again..." Then she is no more...
Magpie shudders. We can't, she wants to tell it. You're dead. Instead, she splashes into the pool, reaches in, and takes the spoon.
<onine> The water is cold against your skin, and the spoon even colder. Also at the bottom of the pool, is a gemstone, of green and blue shifting colours.
<Magpie> Sneaking a glance back at the others, she dips her hand back into the water, and picks up the gem, holding it up to her eye. It's ...pretty. She puts the gem in her pocket next to the spoon, and splashes back out to rejoin the others.
Anona glares at the spot the fae was, then rushes over to check on Epheri.
Yengo moves with Anona, surprised to find himself more or less in one piece, despite the horrifying sensations of earlier.
<onine> Epheri for the most part is no longer in dire straights, her wound no longer bleeds, the gift of being a prince of the earth. "I'm okay..."
<Yengo> "Are you sure, Epheri? That was... pretty bad. And it was my sword that did it..." He reaches down and touches the blood-splattered blade lightly.
<Anona> "If you think so... but it never hurts to check, right?"
Yengo leans heavily against a tree. "Part of me... still can't believe that we lived through that."
<onine> The blood is mixed with black which is steaming, rapidly evaporating into nothing.
<Anona> "I guess that means we won't have so much trouble leaving, this time around."
Yengo looks back at Magpie as he checks over Epheri's wound. "Good job, Magpie. And everyone. I'm glad we pulled through this."
<onine> As you step out of the pool, it fades and your legs are dry. The reddish light also fades quickly, as if you were held in a bizzare place that no longer holds sway.
<onine> All that is left is the proper dimming light of late afternoon. There is no sunset tonight.
<onine> "Uuuah.. That hurt..." Epheri complains standing stiffly, holding her stomach.
<Anona> "You're the one who happened to have the iron... why DID you have a spoon around your neck, anyway?"
<Magpie> As Magpie reaches into her pocket to withdraw said eating utensil, she feels for the gem. Still there? Still there, though you surmise its probably not best to keep it in the same pocket as the spoon.
<Magpie> "It's a story," she pipes up.
<Yengo> "I've kept it around since my legion unit had a run in with the Fair Folk in the Threshold..." He looks at Magpie. "Yes... I uh... told Magpie the story, with a couple of embellishments..."
Magpie pulls the spoon out, and hands it to Yengo with a flourish.
Anona waves it off. "No need to tell it now. But it was a good thing you had it; that thing moved /fast/."
Yengo takes the spoon, turns it over in his hands for a moment, then gives it back. "You hold on to it for me for awhile, okay? You're a better shot with it anyway." He turns to Anona. "Yeah. And that force around it... it was all I could do to stay focused on staying alive."
<Magpie> "Really? -Wow-." Magpie holds the battered iron spoon up to the fading sunlight, and turns it to watch the little rim of gold fire on its edge. Then she puts it back into its new place- a pocket opposite the one holding the gem.
<Anona> "Well, it's gone now. Let's get back to town, see if we can't find Vana... rest up... we may have solved both of our problems tonight."
<onine> "Uhhh can we go?" Epheri complains in a strained voice.
Anona is going.
Epheri stumbles a little after her.
Magpie follows, still awed by the honor accorded her- the spoon by this time having reached mythic proportions in her imagination.
Yengo moves onward, still sniffling a bit. Putting an end to that thing has helped ease his dark mood, however. Even his cold feels better.
<Anona> Calling back to the others, Anona explains: "Well, we WERE considering that this and the bandits could be related; maybe they had a deal with the fae. You know, send it fresh 'food' in exchange for keeping nosy officials and the like away."
<Yengo> "Could be. Or just blind, dumb coincidence. I can't believe this thing had been on the Blessed Isle for so long."
<onine> Yengo, you do feel a little... tired. Drained. Feeling okay in some ways. But you're a little... lethargic
<Anona> "I'm not going to pat ourselves too hard yet. Like I said... where one is, many can follow."
<Magpie> "But we have a magic spoon!"
Yengo drags behind a little, trying not to show it. His initial euphoria having faded, he does feel a little tired.
<Anona> "Actually, we have a NON-magic spoon. That's why it works so well."
<onine> "Well it worked," Epheri grunts. "Isn't that enough?"
<Magpie> "Oh. Are you sure?"
<onine> After an insultingly short walk, you make it over the bridge and into town.
Magpie flies ahead. "Tara, Tara! We killed the fae! Taraaaa!"
<Yengo> (Will is that tall Sidereal in the back. He... he... what was I talking about again?)
<onine> Crow flies around cawing happilly, well, most assume its happy.
Anona heads directly for the council hall. She needs a good long lay-down.
Magpie pulls out the spoon to show him. "See? We killed it with -this-!"
<Magpie> "Taaarrrraaa!"
Yengo staggers along, a little pale. A bed is sounding better and better.
<onine> Tara comes rushing out from the council hall and down the path to you. "Oh my you're back at last! I was getting worried, you've been gone nearly a day and a half!"
<Anona> "That long?"
<Magpie> "We killed the fae!" Magpie says, bouncing.
<Yengo> "I guess there's no telling how long we were in that pocket of the Wyld..."
<Anona> "That bit where it looked like everything was going faster. I guess it DID go faster. Or we went slower. Something like that."
<Anona> "By the way, Tara... have you seen Vana since we've left?"
<onine> "Vana? No no..she's still gone I'm afraid."
<onine> "There's some soup on the stove inside if anyone is hungry?"
<Yengo> "I wonder where she could be... I hope she hasn't done anything... foolish." He sways a little.
<Anona> "How long have you known her, Yengo? Is she PRONE to doing anything foolish?"
<Magpie> "She's not very good at hiding," Magpie volunteers.
<onine> As the others enter, Tara hugs Yengo quietly and for a long time.
Yengo sighs and hugs her back, thinking of the all-too-recent reminder in the forest. "I'd- I'd better go see about some of that soup. I feel sort of... tired..."
<onine> "It's good." She says with a slight smile. “I was able to get some meat to put in it.”
Magpie grins. And Tara didn't think she was in love with Yengo. While the others fuss with the soup, Magpie retreats to a corner and babbles the whole story of How We Killed the Fae! to Crow.
<Yengo> "I'm sure that it is." He smiles tiredly and begins stowing away his armor. Feels great to get that stuff off.
<onine> You all eat and share tales and opinions on the events, but even though it only seems like a few hours, you feel as if you have indeed been out for days.
Anona also looks into the soup. Simple fare, but anything nourishing would be welcome after their recent experience.
<onine> In the wee hours of the morning there is a knock at the door...
Magpie slides down from the rafters and opens it. She's been much too excited to sleep.
Vana is standing at the door, looking entirely unlike a Prince of the Earth; even in her jade armor she seems haggard and worn. Over one shoulder is she's holding a white jade breastplate, and over the other a similar one of black. A daiklave and pair of katar hang around her neck with a length of rope. "... hi."
<Magpie> "Vana!" Magpie flies forward to give an enormous hug. "Everybody, Vana's here!" she shouts.
<Anona> "Buh? What? Who?" Anona demands sleepily.
<onine> "And Ujiro!" Another gruff voice shouts from outside.
Vana oofs, and drops the armor; they leave a serious dent in the ground. She hugs Magpie back after a moment.
<Magpie> "Ujiro?" Magpie doesn't seem interested. "EVVERRYBODY! VANNNA!"
Yengo rouses himself with real difficulty, still feeling tired and washed out. "What? Vana?"
<Magpie> "Guess what?" Without waiting for an answer. "We killed a fae!"
Vana makes an effort to seem happy. "Really."
<Magpie> "Yes, we did! With a spoon!"
Magpie recalls her manners, and drags Vana inside.
Vana follows obediently.
<Anona> "Where the hell have you been?"
<onine> An unshaven man walks in behind, with a No-Dachi on his shoulder. His armour is hap-hazard and piecemeal, and he wears only rags underneath. His helmet is on backwards.
<onine> "Ooooooaaaah Ujiro should demand superior accomidation."
Vana waves her hand vaguely. "Around. This is Cathak Ujiro, everyone."
Yengo looks at them curiously. "Around? And where did you pick this one up?"
<onine> He turns around and flexes his muscles, offering a grand show of his almost bare buttocks.
Anona is not impressed.
<Magpie> "Pleased to meet you," Magpie says politely.
<Magpie> He was strange enough looking that was curious now. "Why don't you wear clothes?"
<Vana> "Can... I explain tomorrow? I don't think I can stay awake much longer."
<onine> "I aid the mighty warrior in her quest of glory!" he looks at Magpie and thwacks his breastplate.
<Anona> "That's nice. I'm going back to sleep now."
<Magpie> "Oh. That means you can't wear clothes?"
<Anona> Suiting action to word, Anona lays right back down.
Yengo wonders if he's even awake. He shrugs listelessly. "Yeah. Sure. Just... behave."
<onine> He holds a finger up. "I have no need for clothes, vestments of the weak, armour and the strength of my bravery protect me, and garb my mighty skin!"
<Magpie> "Oh, really?" Magpie experiments, poking him hard with a forefinger.
<onine> "Kakakakaka!!" He hops back
<onine> He looks closely at Magpie. "Ujiro wonders if you perhaps have an available older sister?"
Magpie wrinkles her nose. "No, why would I?"
<onine> "Awaaah... how sad. But Ujiro is not bothered! He will bravely take the watch alone! To fight valiantly against foes that would dishonourably seek to harm the might warrior in her slumber! Ha Ha Haaah!"
Yengo has laid back down by this point and tries to pretend he's not hearing any of this.
Magpie giggles. "You're funny."
<onine> "Comedia-ism is a skill for all!"
Anona mumbles in her sleep. "mighty... ior... sure..."
<Magpie> "So how did you meet Vana?" Magpie asks, sitting down cross-legged and apparently settling in for the long-haul.
<onine> He steps outside and sets up a little folding stool and produces a large jar of liquid that you wonder how he hid in his armour. He takes a swig and offers some to Magpie
<onine> "Yes, the warrior and Ujiro met on the field of battle... well... after, but I was still brave! I robbed them of valuable supplies (he raps his breastplate) so that they would be ill-equipped should they return!"
Magpie takes a gulp. "So you were totally naked when you met her?" Magpie asks, fascinated.
<onine> Its Sake. It takes pretty bad... but makes you feel warm.
<onine> "The warrior realised Ujiro's skill and nobility... ahh... here it is." He pulls a rolled up parchment from his undergarment and offers it to you.
<onine> "Never naked, I always carry this." He raps the sword against the ground and looks up at the night sky, drinking some more, then offering Magpie another swig.
Magpie takes it, narrowing her eyes to make the script focus. She took quite a large gulp, and she has a very low body mass.
<onine> The parchment contains names and birthdates, along with the lineage of a particular branch of the Cathak family. Its an archaic dating system, but one you know.
<onine> Right at the bottom (before it is torn off) is a name, Cathak Ujiro. Which has been underlined and circled in red ink
<onine> Your math may be off by a year or two, but according to this, Ujiro is 10 years old.
Magpie looks up. "You're ten years old?" He looked bigger than that to her...
<onine> He looks 30.
<onine> "Uuurrr..?"
<Magpie> "If you're Cathak Ujiro," Magpie explains, "you should be younger. See?" She runs through the calculations with him. "Are you -sure- you're Cathak Ujiro?"
<onine> "Ujiro is mighty!" He shouts snatching the parchment from you and stuffing it back into his undergarments
<onine> He frowns and offers the jug again
<onine> (Tara is gonna *kill
you...)
Magpie tilts back her head, and chokes some more of the stuff down, and wonders if it was maybe just that Ujiro's parents were bad at math too...
<Magpie> "What is this stuff called?" she asks with a burp.
<onine> "Saaaaaaah-KE!"
<Magpie> "I like it, it's issa good."
Anona , still sleeping, starts sleep-sweeping her arm across the floor, searching out throwable objects.
<Anona> *mumble mumble*
<onine> He thrusts his fist in the air and roars "YEEEEESSSS!"
<Magpie> "So what're you doin in this mountains?" Magpie takes another swig.
<onine> Dogs back in the distance and you hear people across the village yell for quiet
<Yengo> "I guess.... this isn't a dream after all. Look, I don't know who you are or why you're wearing your helmet backwards, just be quiet. Quiet."
Yengo rolls over ill-temperedly.
<onine> "Ujiro is warrior and *hic
brave n' all that... whas ure story? Ura little short fer a maj-iss-trate"
<Magpie> "I'm nota magisterate. That's Dia-" Magpie decides, at this point, attempting his name would be unwise. Instead she spread her hands wide. "BIG earth guy."
<onine> "Dis big?" he does the same
<Magpie> "Bigger! Biggern Yengo-" Magpie stumbles to her feet and points, almost tripping over Epheri. "Yengo is furst Archon. Heez in charge." She hiccups mightily. "Gimme more." She reaches for the sake.
<onine> "Waaahhh!" he passes it over. "Saaaaay... you ave an older uh-vay-luh-bull sistur?"
Magpie shakes her head, and doesn't so much sit down again as collapses into a heap. "Don't have ..sissturs."
<onine> "Awaaaah... did I ever tells yue tha' Ujiro's real brave little magistrate?"
<Magpie> "You did." Magpie hiccups, and gestures wildly with the jug of sake."Lottss!"
<Magpie> "Also," -she gulps down sake - "warrioor!"
<onine> He tells you a long rambling tale of his bravery, with many many embellishments - in fact, probably all embellishments actually, and contradictions that would make a sober person's eyes water.
<onine> But if he's to be believed (and he says he IS), Uruji just happens to be the greatest and bravest warrior in creation. He would have taken the Scarlet Thrown 700 odd years ago, but he was too brave to be cowardly and use the Imperial Manse's weapons. He would have killed all the fae himself.
<onine> And would then have cut the contagion in half with his sword, and he's convinced that such a feat was possible, and that no one sufficiently brave enough ever tried.
Magpie seems to take his story at face value, and toasts him many times with the jug, as she tries to ramble through her own tale of killing the fae. She can't make it all the way to the end- she gets caught up in the describing the color red the sky had turned. "Not gray, no....red...like, you know, flowwers.."
<onine> Ujiro slumps in his stool.
<Magpie> "Ho, Ujiro? You sleeepy?"
<onine> "Raaah!" He jumps up suddenly about to draw his sword and stike down the foe that had snuck up on him - but trips and makes himself into an impressive pile on the ground.
<onine> "Whaaaaaaa? Who defeats Ujiro so?"
Magpie giggles drunkenly. "Saake."
<onine> "Oooooowwwhh!! He squeals in delight. "Where!?"
<onine> It occurs that he really *could
be ten years old...
<Magpie> Basically Magpie's age, in fact. She tries to toss him the jug. She misses, and it rolls several feet away...bumping into Anona.
<onine> "Uh oh..."
<Magpie> "Ooops."
Anona snaps into a counterfeit of wakefulness and sits up immediately. "Wha-?"
<onine> Ujiro in a fit of sudden stealthiness waves frantically at Magpie and hisses "SHHHHH!!!!"
Magpie nods and stumbles over to hide behind a basket- tripping over it and tumbling to land inside.
<Magpie> ..with quite a clatter.
<Anona> "You know, some people do this really neat thing called 'sleep' when it's night. You two should try it, it's fun."
<onine> Ujiro subsequently claps both hands over his mouth and tries to contain laughter
<onine> "Ujiro will sleep when Ujiro neez...to... *snore*"
Magpie watches this show with something like bemusement. Cradled in her basket, her legs sticking out over the sides, she asks hopefully "Do you...do you want saaake, Anononaaa?"
<Anona> "No... I'm going to need a clear head tomorrow." She wisely doesn't comment on *Magpie's* drinking; if you've nearly been killed by the fae and defeated them with a spoon, not to mention had a friend die, you probably deserve a drink. Even at ten.