The Temple of Inari

[Fenric]

You have entered the temple of Inari, in her capacity as the Goddess of Foxes.

You walk down an elegant white gravel pathway between full-grown pines. Stone lanterns provide a pure white light to the path, while casting elegant shadows among the trees.

At the end of the pathway, a bright red gate stands. A large fox carved from white alabaster gleams at each side of the gate. As you pass between the foxes and through the gate, you feel the presence of the goddess. Gentle and caring, but mischievous and lighthearted, you are never quite certain what will happen.

Past the exquisite formal gardens, you finally step into the pagoda itself. There, at the end of chamber is a raised dais. There rests a statue of a beautiful vulpine woman, flanked by two snow-white celestial foxes. Offerings of rice and incense stand before the statue.

In a niche off to the right side of the door sits a Fox-Cola vending machine. Next to the coin slot, the sign reads "10 cp".

To the left side of the door is a magic mirror. This mirror is actually a portal to Trog's Tavern.

------------------

The temple facility occupies four city blocks in Inside, totalling very nearly a square mile.

The many locations:

Main Gate - the main gate. On the north wall, near the east wall.
Entry Path - path from the main gate to the sanctuary that goes through the ...
Arboretum - An area of mostly pine type trees on the north side of the facility between the north wall and the sanctuary.
Sanctuary - The main room. Where the altar(s) are.
Blue-Ice Storage - Beneath the sanctuary. Very cold
Treasury - Also beneath the sanctuary, past the storage. Secure, and full of treasures.
Field - south from the sanctuary to the south wall, west from the east wall to the hospital, a grassy field.
Underground Temple - in the far southeast corner is a sturdy secure door that leads to an ancient underground temple where many scary and evil things lurk.
Summoning Chamber - West of the arboretum, near the north wall. A permanent, major-artifact-grade chamber for dealing with extraplanar entities.
Priest's Quarters - South of the summoning chamber. Where the priests who live on-site live.
Priest's Cafeteria - Where the priests eat, but it's open to everyone. Serves mostly fox-preferred cuisine.
Guest Hostel - Where people who need somewhere to stay can crash for a while.
Main Cafeteria - Where most people who aren't priests eat. Serves a WIDE variety of food.
Hospital - Where you can go to get healed.
Healer's Quarters - Where people who work at the hospital can live
Hospital Cafeteria - The food here tends to be kinda bland, but very good for you
Gardens - Semi-formal Japanese style gardens that fill the space between the sanctuary and the other buildings.
Pond - A large decorative koi pond with a small island
Stream - an artificial stream that goes around the entire garden. There are two bridges, one is quite ornate.
Fish Pond - An aquiculture pond where trout are raised. Not decorative at all, and cleaning the pond is a punishment.
School - The temple school, oroginally founded for the children of the temple staff but subsequently opened to all
Playground - Adjacent to the school.
Teacher's Quarters - where the teachers live
School Cafeteria - for those who prefer kiddie food.
Stables - South of the school, mostly but not entirely empty these days.
Alfafa Patch - Between the stables and the south wall, not all that big but enough to support a few herbivores.
Pokemon Gym - ... yes, there is one. It's not a major facility and it's badge isn't worth anything.
Elemental Playground - for keeping those strange creatures happy.
Farm - From the north wall, west of the main buildings, all the way to the south wall are fields tended by people who grow things to eat. Started and tended mainly by the sand foxes there are mostly melons, lentils, and hot chilis.
Intersection Base - A StarCraft 2 setting base with Werefoxes. Just in case it wasn't weird enough here. Up in the northwest corner of the compound.
Forest - It's not really a forest, it's the unimproved southwest corner with trees and scrub.

[Keeper]

Sanctuary

There is nothing of particular note happening tonight.
Aside from the fact that Steven is on his usual nightly vigil. And that ever since Tamamo's sisters visited him Steven has been a mildly large three-headed dragon. And seemingly taking to it more than anyone would have reasonably expected. He's still his mild-mannered self of course, but perhaps some of the more pushy of the nogitsune have found that it's harder to take advantage of the high priest's lack of temper when there's six gleaming eyes staring them down. And his sermons are now spoken in stereo. It's probably not too distracting for the congregation.
Keiko and Yumiko maaaaay have created a monster, if thankfully only in the most literal sense.

Still, it's been awfully cramped in his quarters with Caroline now that he's like this. Sometimes he just wants to stretch but has to compress himself into Vulpan form to not shatter the furniture. And that's when Caroline isn't humoring him with her own Inland Sea Dragon shape. Should he suggest they use some magic to make it bigger on the inside or something? It's not like there's any more room for them to move to a proper lair bigger room.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Caroline enters, in her usual shape. She prefers her foxlike form to dragon which tends to disturb the non-shadow Vulpans. She looks a little sheepish and her ears and tail betray acute embarrassment.

I have received another noise complaint: it would seem my attempt at a slience spell did not survive my loss of concentration at certain ... critical moments. We're going to have to think of somewhere else to stay since you seem to prefer your dragon form.

Not that she can really blame him - starting off as a human, getting not-entirely-voluntarily shifted into a shadow vulpan, and then finally again to dragon under similar circumstances: neither are natural to him so why not pick the more powerful and interesting one?

I wonder if we could talk to Kenji and see if there's any way for us to have our home in Grandfather Koi's little pocket-world in the pond?

One can hopefully excuse Caroline not understanding that is a remote corner of the Plane of Water and hardly "little". Steven might possibly know that.

[Keeper]

Sanctuary

Some people like the taste of cilantro. Some people don't have problems getting dirty. And some people are just comfortable as three headed marine reptiles.
"Oh, Caroline. I hope I'm not making this an inconvenience for you. I know you don't feel the same way I do about this." he says, lowering one of his heads to eye-level for her. If they moved somewhere big and wet he'd be forcing her to take her dragon form when that's not her preferred one.

"Well, the thing about the koi pond is that it's kind of all water. We could fix any problems with holding out breath for a limited time but it still seems odd to need magic to be safe in your own quarters." Steven could theoretically hold his breath for an incredible period of time, but not indefinitely.
"It would also mean getting anything we bring in there wet." Presumably and outer sea dragon would make their den in a cove or somewhere that was wet but had a place for them to breathe and dry out.
Of course Keiko and Cleo's home doesn't have those and Orochi's palace isn't exactly submerged so they seemingly don't need that much water.

[Fenric]

Quite right: their lairs would be seaside caves above flood or tide level. And it's not like "Mermaid" or anything where they particularly need to be wet: their scales are quite completely waterproof and their skin beneath takes care of itself. They do need to eat some fish fairly regularly, but that's easy enough. Steven in his dragon form will crave fish strongly enough that it shouldn't be an issue but "Does Caroline realize that she needs to eat fish now?" is a different question... just one not currently under discussion.

Caroline looks thoughtful

That's true... we do still need to breathe, so a completely underwater home isn't reasonable. And I didn't think about everything getting soaked - these silks don't particularly like getting wet even a little, let alone being underwater.

But the old underground temple wouldn't really appeal to the sort of dragons these two are, and the rest of the facility is quite flat overall. It's an interesting conundrum that for once can't be trivially solved with a rhyme or a quick "Holy Inari, Mother of Foxes ..."

Um... hm...

[Keeper]

Sanctuary

Caroline's dietary needs depend on if she's a dragon who can still be a vulpan or the opposite. Steven is certainly the former due to Orochi's essence even if he didn't prefer the dragon shape.

"Well, we could always try to set ourselves up with something more...grand. If we could simply set up our own portal to here it would be the same in practice." Yeah that's probably the Orochi essence talking. Though Steven is too humble to want a palace and riches, he can't help but think he wouldn't mind if they found themselves a nice big place to set up in. A nice big lair with room enough for a library.
But where would they find an unoccupied place like that?

[Rebonack]

[Fond Farewells]

The time draws near.

What time?

Time to move on.

Khannie has been coming to school here at Inari's ever since she was brought home by her dad. Every week day. Including summer classes! It's been a part of her life for years. Making friends, leaning cool stuff, improving her skills, becoming totally desensitized to the smell of fox. Lots of important things.

But now?

In a few short weeks she'll be moving on to her first days of high school.

And what does this mean?

It means she's going to go around hugging teachers and promising she'll come back to visit regularly.

She's also got some really nifty new spells she wants to show to Keiko.

[Nick Byron]

[Nighttime Sanctuary]
Purple mist begins radiating from the center of the room, and a recessive feeling fills the room, drawing the attention of whoever happens to be there. On his knees, clothed in charred gold and burnt silk, a jackal-man is in tears. He laughs and cries in that hideous jackal sound. He settles and looks around, examining where he has been banished to.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Caroline looks over to the mirror: there is certainly already precedent for such a thing.

A portal! Yes, we could put a portal to somewhere! I didn't see any islands when we visited the Great Inland Sea, but we didn't go all that many places there. Or we could look in the Frozen Lands somewhere, if you wouldn't mind the cold. And there are plenty of wizard types around here to do the spell without having to burn a Miracle to do it.

She considers who the best person to help with a bit of scrying might be. Or maybe someone who's visited more of the sea like Cleo or ...

[Fond Farewell]

Keiko is never far. Not that she always enjoys that fact: but her sister's assigning her to this temple does have enough authority behind it that she basically has to be around.

In this case, of course, she's happy enough to step out of the shadows behind a random innocent bystander with a big grin

Hey Khannie! What's all this farewell-looking stuff going on here?

[Night Sanctuary]

Mei is here, clad in her grey robes. She blinks at the unconvential arrival and doesn't quite do her greeting properly

Greetings, neighbor. The favor of Tamamo be with you. What brings you ... er ... sent you here?

[Keeper]

Sanctuary

Steven shudders. "No I think cold is no good for me." He did grow up in warm farmlands, after all.
"I think I would prefer somewhere more...cozy than cold." Ice is not really his idea of homey.

[Nick Byron]

Night Sanctuary
The jackal stares at the robed figure.
What sent me here? Ahahahaha! My own foolishness, that's what sent me here. My path was set in stone long before I could dream of my missteps.
Mr Laugher here settles down.
I suppose you are looking for a more descriptive answer. My insolence towards the god Anubis got me banished to another temple. My innate magic is gone, only my knowledge of the sciences and my ritual casting remains.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Caroline laughts softly

Ok, dear: no cold. The inland sea was cool enough that I did not feel unhappy: I am sure we can find some decent real estate there somewhere.

[Night Sanctuary]

Mei blinks.

Anubis? It's been a few years since any of his people were last here, but I suppose that would be enough for us to be a known destination.
This is the temple of Inari, goddess of Rice and Foxes and her subordinate Tamamo, goddess of the Wild and Shadow people.

I am Mei, priestess of Tamamo.

[Keeper]

Sanctuary

"Real estate? Well, I'm sure there's plenty of land around. What happens if there's nothing dragon-sized and we have to get it built?" Steven asks.
Of course that would take a while and they'd be where they are now for a few months-to-years. Unless of course the local dragons have already started building up neighborhoods around their sea which he can't exactly rule out as something that could be happening.

[Rebonack]

[Fond Farewell]

Keiko manages to catch Khannie right as she's finishing saying farewell to her history teacher.

She doesn't look very surprised when Keiko suddenly manifests, but maybe that janitor was.

Or maybe not?

One would think the people around the temple complex would have gotten use to Keiko's nonsense by now.

"Hi Keiko!"

Whoop, the shadow fox is next on the hug list.

"This was the last day of my summer classes," the young teen explains. "I'm gunna be starting high school in September and that means I won't be here practically every single day anymore."

A great tragedy. Hence saying farewell to the teachers.

"I'll still try to come by to visit but I'll probably be really busy with school and extra-curriculars."

She means being a Magical Girl, mostly.

[Nick Byron]

[Sanctuary]

Caroline laughts softly

Ok, dear: no cold. The inland sea was cool enough that I did not feel unhappy: I am sure we can find some decent real estate there somewhere.

[Night Sanctuary]

Mei blinks.

Anubis? It's been a few years since any of his people were last here, but I suppose that would be enough for us to be a known destination.
This is the temple of Inari, goddess of Rice and Foxes and her subordinate Tamamo, goddess of the Wild and Shadow people.

I am Mei, priestess of Tamamo.

[Night Sanctuary]

Foxes? For pities sake, that's just spiteful.
I am Leon, former medical researcher of Hermanubis.
Leon stretches and asks where the closest restroom is.

[Fenric]

[Sacntuary]

Caroline smiles

Actually, I was rather hoping to find a large, sturdy stone outcrop without any natural cavern yet. There are quite a good number of ways to carve out a fully custom home available to people like us.

She means magic, of course, but Steven's "breath weapon" is a disintegration ray so rapid "stock removal" is certainly well within his capabilities.

[Fond Farewell]

Oh yes, everyone is QUITE used to Keiko's tricks: she says they're all "no fun anymore". Hopefully the temple is never the target of shadowy attack because nobody would respond right away.

Keiko, of course, returns the hug in full with interest

What?! You're growing up on us already?

So what school are you going to go to? I thought that "school for the magically gifted" closed down after one of Michaud's various spawn caused trouble there.

[Night Sanctuary]

Mei ignores the sideways slight and indicates a door to Leon's left. She knows nothing of Greece or Egypt or to be fair anything from Earth. The only reason she knows the name Anubis was a particular incident eight years ago (real time :P ).

Through there. Facilities are on both sides of the hall, marked as clearly as we reasonably can for what bodily configuration the facility works best for.

[Nick Byron]

Night Sanctuary
The jackal sprints that way into the most jackal appreciative bathroom, as the gold and silk begins falling off him. The bathroom begins emanating purple mist, then it dissipates. Leon comes back into view, this time wearing a black and purple trench coat.
Ah, some decent clothing really changes things. Now, I suppose if I was sent here, I'm likely bound here. Is there a place for rent here?
A puff of mist appears beside him, and he is holding a caduceus. The jackal stretches again.

[Keeper]

Sanctuary

Steven considers the suggestion, though he isn't sure he could really do all of that himself.
"Hm. Do you think we would be able to wrangle one of the temple's architects for it? Neither of us know the first thing about architecture and building planning."
It would be rather unfortunate if he accidentally disintegrated a load bearing slab of granite and collapsed sixteen tons of stone onto their heads.

[Rebonack]

[Fond Farewell]

"I've been growing up the whole time. I just made it to critical grownup mass," Khannie confides in the definitely responsible fox.

It's like a pokemon evolution.

You're just cruising along collecting experience until you hit the right milestone and BOOM!

You get twice as big and learn some new moves.

Except instead of getting twice as big and learning new moves Khannie is instead moving to a bigger school and learning new educational concepts! It'll be great! Probably.

"No, it isn't that one. It's called... umm..." Khannie pauses to think here for a moment. "It had a weird name."

Calling the name weird seriously under-sells the place.

"It was an acronym. Oh right! PREP. Prodigiously Remarkable Education for Protagonists. I've got two magical side-kicks so getting in was easy. It's a school for lots of different sorts of teens, not just magical ones. They've got some really weird clubs. Like one about driving tanks?"

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Caronline nods thoughtfully

I am not sure who does the architecture for the Temple, but that is a very good point. Although... given we would be excavating rather than building, we probably want a dwarf or someone similar I would think.

[Fond Farewell]

Keiko giggles

"Critical grownup mass": I like that! I wonder if I'll ever get there.

Then she tilts her head and giggles some more

Prep school! Hee hee hee. But an acronym for book stuffs. Does that mean you'll have a debutante adventure? Protagonist... um... that's the good guys, right? That certainly fits you.

Then she looks toward Caroline and Steven

Tank driving club?! Caroline drives a tank! Or ... wait ... no ... she handles the guns. Do they have a Tank Gunner's Club? Where do they meet? I don't actually know that many people with tanks. They don't let me drive anything, though, so I guess it doesn't really matter - they say I don't stay focused well enough for heavy machinery.

[Night Sanctuary]

Mei blinks

Um... we have the Guest Hostel for short term emergency needs. We don't really rent out anything, but in general we do offer accommodations to all employees. That's a ...

a quick and quiet spell informs of

Healer's wand! The hospital is always in need of assistance: Inside is a dangerous place, not to mention adventurers who come in need of ... uh ... repairs.

[Keeper]

Sanctuary

"Well, it depends on if you want any nice columns and such carved into the place. A cave doesn't have to look like a cave. Though that doesn't really change the answer that you'd want to ask a dwarf stoneworker. Um. Do we know any?" Steven doesn't recall knowing any dwarf masons. He's also not entirely sure what their budget is. He knows more about Caroline's salary than his player does but not how much she's willing to spend on this.

[Nick Byron]

Night Sanctuary
Well, where do I apply? I have spent my life as a medical researcher. I believe I am more than qualified.
Leon is obviously sure of himself. Likely a contributor to his situation.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Caroline looks thoughtful.

I think I would like a nicer home, not just a cave, yes... and I do not know any off the top of my head, no... but surely they would be online and we can search for them? Verise keeps insisting that I get better about such things.

She takes a smartphone out of her pocket and waves it around as she says that.

[Night Sanctuary]

Mei gestures toward the southern exit.

The hospital is out that way and then slightly to the left. It's the only five-story building in the compound so it is rather hard to miss. I must admit that I do not know the night-shift healing staff... being a priestess, I never had a need to visit. There should be a reception desk just inside, and they can direct you further.

[Keeper]

Sanctuary

Steven is somewhat embarrassed. As a dragon he can't really use his phone so he's stopped looking at it much. It's in a little pouch he keeps on him and switches to a smaller shape when it rings.
"Well, just finding one shouldn't be a problem. Finding one willing to work on our budget is another thing entirely.

Of course...we are rather powerful in our own right. We could always barter some magic for services rendered."
Inari presumably wouldn't mind using their spells for such purposes. She hasn't stopped them from using spells for personal use as long as they aren't actually in violation of her ideals.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Caroline's ears fold and her tail droops at the word "budget"

Ah... yeah... we have rather a paltry amount um... saved. Dwarves are known to be somewhat pricy, aren't they? What other underground dwellers are there who might be an alternative...

Since "getting out" for her usually means accompanying Katrina to one of her two favorite clubs, where she sits in a booth and listens to music and is too embarrassed to actually dance, Caroline is woefully unfamiliar with the wide variety of people who inhabit Inside.

I have not seen any of the sort of Troglodyte I am familiar with here. Do you know of anyone likely to be a cheaper alternative?

[Keeper]

Sanctuary

"Well, we could see if there's a local kobold colony. Many of them are quite fond of dragons. But that does seem like it would be taking advantage of their misguided faith." He wouldn't want to trick some poor little lizardfolk into helping him because they think he's divine. Even though he...sort of is compared to many dragons.
"I think our safest bet would be to barter a bit. After all, perhaps they have sick that need aiding. Wards that need erecting. I would probably not offer a miracle just to be safe, but you get the idea. And perhaps your family is owed a favor or two?" The Primerras are rather influential, after all.

[Rebonack]

[Fond Farewell]

"Maybe if you found a way to steal it from people you prank," Khannie suggests, only half joking.

Would that be something Keiko can even do?

She's got no idea, but she wouldn't put it past her.

She's heard tell that foxes are pretty great at swiping things. Clues. Maps. Chickens. Burgers.

Why not grownupness?

"Yeah, PREP school. It's a terrible joke, but it seems like half the things in the Nexus are. And the other half of the time it's some reference I don't get."

Her backlog of 'important movies to watch' is still pretty long. Since the Nexus has the cinematic records of every possible world that backlog is literally inexhaustible.

"Not... exactly good guys," Khannie says cautiously as she continues her walk through the temple grounds in search of more friends and teaches to bid farewell. "Guys the story focuses on, I guess? Like, USUALLY good guys. But sometimes stories are about bad guys. Not usually, but sometimes. So there will probably be some villain students, too."

You never know.

"Uncles Zebes says to be careful not to sit next to transfer students but I dunno how that would even work since this is JUST a high-school."

Wouldn't it have to be a school from the lowest grades all the way to the top for transfers to make sense?

Regardless, she scrunches her nose up when interrogated about tanks. "I don't actually know anything about the tank club, I just saw some posters when we visited the campus. Dad wanted to make sure the place wasn't a death-trap."

A very important feature in Nexus high-schools.

[Fenric]

[Sanctuary]

Caroline sighs and chuckles softly

No, that would never do. I certainly do not want to cheat for our new home and see what fun Balance would bring our way to counter it. As to favors...

She shrugs

If we could find dwarves from my home-world, then there would be a chance of calling in a favor to help offset their demands, certainly... once we were done enduring being called "durn elfy fox things" every few sentences. But just a reminder: dwarves back home life under the poles and the extremes of the surrounding continents - they do not like hot at all... in fact ...

She trails off, finally realizing that Myobi making her an icy sort of dragon might have been a hint.

---

[Fond Farewell]

Keiko smirks at Khannie

You're a sweetie, but there are some things even I can't steal.

Keiko nods, looking less silly for a moment

Ah... like Eric of Melnibone... the focus of the story but not someone you would ever call "good". That's interesting. But isn't everyone the protagonist of their own story? For me, I'm not some side character getting forever shuffled around by more important people.

She chuckles whistfully

But I'm not, am I? Not really...

[Rebonack]

[Fond Farewell]

"I was reading a book where the protagonist was a villain and one of her minions was able to steal all sorts of stuff. Like a fleet of ships. And the sun," Khannie recounts thoughtfully. "I'm pretty sure Amaterasu would be made if the sun got stolen."

She's been reading up on other deities connected to the temple.

"But I guess? Everyone's the protagonist of the story in their own head. But the school had a list of protagonist things. Like special talents and abilities and things. The sorts of protagonists they would make one of my uncle's weird cartoons about. I'm just NORMALLY a sorceress with a familiar, so that's one box. And I was brought here from another world and I used to be something else, so that's two boxes. Plus the magical girl stuff, that's three. AND Sirius, you haven't met him yet he's this computer spirit thing that lives in my smart watch, he decided he wanted me to be his partner so that's FOUR boxes."

Khannie has been ticking off fingers here as she approaches the koi pond to say say goodbye to the fish.

She's planning on visiting the temple regularly, still. So it isn't like this is goodbye forever.

"You only need to be protagonist material for one story to get into the school but I guess that makes me material for FOUR."

Keiko is given an encouraging smile. "I don't think you're a side character; you're cool."

[Fenric]

[Fond Farewell]

Kieko chuckles

She'd be mad, sure, but she's also such a crybaby she'd probably go hide in her cave and sulk again.

then she smiles fondly at Khannie

You'll do great.