GLoG

Herein lies the various threads in which our characters live out their lives
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Rebonack
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Re: GLoG

Post by Rebonack »

[Treasure Hunting]

"Well I DIDN'T follow you all in and run ahead while you were goggling at the rocks, to be sure," the muskrat replies haughtily. That is, almost without question, exactly what it did. "And how does a deer or a tree talk, hmm? Or a wolf? Or a cat? Or... whatever she's supposed to be."

The muskrat waves dismissively at Khannie.

"HEY!" Khannie retorts, looking pretty indignant at being called a whatever.

"I talk the same way any of you talk!"

It does not. There's no way the motions that it's making with its mouth are actually making those words. This rat is clearly a liar.

Ah, but Manja has chosen the path of violence. The rat begins squeaking and running in circles, very possibly dragging Manja behind it if she holds on. "Violence! Murder! Blackguards! You mean to steal my treasure!"

The rat doesn't look like it's actually being harmed by this at all. The reaction is more like what one might expect from a cartoon character getting their tail bit.

"It isn't YOUR treasure; we did all the work," Khannie insists.

"Well, the sooner you children learn that's the way of the world the better!" squeaks the rat as he continues dashing around the room haphazardly.
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Re: GLoG

Post by Morty »

[Treasure Hunting]

"Manja, stop biting him!" Even if Tuskfang admits the mean thieving rat has it coming. "But if you wanted the treasure, you should have joined us and helped us. And how did you get past us without anyone noticing? Did you turn invisible?"
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

The Yew

On the edge of the forest around GLoG stands a lone, large, tree. It's a European yew, segregated from the rest of the camp by a fence to prevent children accidentally ingesting the toxic leaves, wood, berries, or pollen of the tree. Also it prevents children annoying the tree enough it feels the need to be a bit more direct with its malevolent hostility.

People do sometimes come visit the evergreen, however, as despite the tree's malignant hatred of humanoid life, its associated dryad is far friendlier and perfectly happy to talk to visitors. She's currently sat on the edge of the fence looking out at the lake, a nineteen-year-old woman with hair the same dark green as the yew's leaves and with skin the dark reddish-brown of yew-wood wearing a red jumpsuit emblazoned with a yellow J on the back, her feet bare and hand resting on a human skull on the fence next to her.
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Re: GLoG

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[The Yew]

"Maridia, get back here!" Khannie yells at the fairy dragon flitting between the trees. "I mean it!"

The impish little dragon has absconded with Khannie's Official Glog Business Hat, giggling like a tiny scaly maniac as she cruises through the air above the rather irritated looking girl in hot pursuit. Khannie is almost always wearing a cap of some kind with her giant poofy pony-tail sticking through the back, but now bereft of her head-gear her hair is is a bit more wild and untamed than usual.

"Nyeh! Can't catch me!" the dragon taunts as she lands high in the branches of the yew.

Khannie comes to a jogging stop nearby. She knows the kids aren't supposed to be playing around the tree. It's got a... spirit. Or something. And it doesn't like people much. She gives the tree's dryad an apologetic look.

"Hey, sorry about being loud but I gotta get my dumb lizard," Khannie says, pointing up at the fairy dragon currently trying on Khannie's (much too big for her) hat high in the canopy. "Is it okay if I come in here?"

She points at the fence separating the yew from the rest of the grounds.
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

Yew Know It's A Good Idea

The yew reacts to the dragon in its branches by moving lower limbs to hide Maridia from view. It doesn't know what's going on, but it's making the humanoid irate, and that's a goal worth pursuing in the yew's books. Except... except as she gets closer, the yew realises that Khannie isn't as humanoid as it first thought. For a given value of 'thought', anyway.

"Sure. I'm Baccata. Don't eat the berries, and wash your hands afterwards. He's poisonous, though he doesn't mean it. A big softie, if you get to know him." Rose-tinted goggles on Baccata. "Are you going to help this ghosty girl get her hat, or get in the way because you're in a tizzy, hmm?" Baccata turns to glare at the tree, and sure enough the branches will move around to provide a good ladder- also revealing Maridia's perch simultaneously.
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Re: GLoG

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[The Yew]

As is often the case Khannie's illusion is only covering visual, tactile, and olfactory senses. She looks, feels, and smells like a human girl. But to beings with more esoteric senses they can likely tell that there's a ghostly spirit fox monster under the thin veneer of the girl. Sometimes creatures like this use their illusions for mischief.

Others use them to hunt.

Khannie, technically, falls into the second category.

But she carefully keeps her impulse to devour in check.

It took her a little while to figure out what it was, exactly, that she was hungry for. The sustenance she needed that material food just wasn't filling.

Turned out to be life.

Khannie isn't hungry right now, though. She's already eaten 'recently' so that isn't a problem.

"I'm Khannie, I help out at the campsite. Heck, how did you- neh, never mind, hold on a sec," Khannie says, briefly showing surprise when her illusion is apparently seen right through.

Then she climbs the branches.

Not really as a human might, though. She allows her illusion to partly dissolve, retaining only the visual aspect and nothing else. And that allows her to move a little more freely. She leaps from branch to branch like a hunting beast might rather than as a human girl would, deftly tackling Maridia out of the canopy.

"Oh no!"

Shortly after falling out of the top of the tree the pair become wispy and insubstantial, falling still but not accelerating. Right before reaching the ground Khannie snaps back into corporeality. "Gimme that you doof," she chides, snatching her hat back and releasing the giggling dragon so she can put the cap on properly.

Once she's got her hat back on she regards Baccata curiously. "How'd you tell I'm ghostly? You got magic senses or something? Or like... that paladin ghost-seeing trick?"
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

The Yew

"I can tell you died, and looking at you, I can tell you aren't properly alive. I guessed at ghosty since you don't smell and it's sunny today. I can cross you over, if you want? Take you anywhere my yew grows. There's some nice places. Some less-nice places, too, but I don't think you should go to one of those. I can't help you back to life if I do, though. That's a law I can't break." Her yew grows in several afterlives, which is how she serves a psychopomp's duty. Unfortunately, not senses it's easy to fool, if she can look at someone and tell if they've died or not without even seeing their real self.
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Re: GLoG

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[The Yew]

Khannie's expression shifts immediately from curiosity to shock, then from shock to defiance. "What!? No. No I didn't. I've been over this with some other people I didn't die I just got turned back into a pokemon. I've been Ghost-Type for years it isn't a big deal. I'm not dead I'm just... weird."

Sort of not alive.

Like...

Like Arthfael isn't dead, right? He's still up and walking around and talking and stuff. She's just not regular sort of alive.

"What do you mean, cross over? Like-"

Like what death did with that lady the squid-guy murdered.

"Oh. No way. I'm not going anywhere I'm still going to school. I talked to this skeleton guy who talked all BIG he said it wasn't my time to go yet,"
Khannie replies quite definitively.

Just to reassure herself she shores up her human girl illusion again. It's comforting to feel the feeling of breath flowing in and out of her lungs, to feel her heart pounding in her chest. It feels better than the stillness she feels otherwise.
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

The Yew

"It's OK, very few people remember the moment of their death, even if they're sticking around after. You did die, at some point, but if you're not willing to go I can't make you." Baccata smiles, trying to make it seem kind but probably ending in creepy territory instead. "If you find your way into an afterlife, I can help you back out again if you're still not ready. I can do that any number of times. But I can only help you cross over the other way once." Baccata may be a psychopomp, but she's also a dryad linked to a living tree. Her links to Death are strong; her links to Life are stronger. "I don't think I've met him. I've met a few psychopomps like me, but... I have a specific realm of responsibility in that matter, and so do they. So we don't get to chat much." It's not a job that comes with long periods of downtime. People are always dying. "I met Ben, here. But he made himself my responsibility, him and Bob. Nobody's been my responsibility since." Baccata drums her fingers against the skull sat on the fence post next to her, presumably name it 'Ben'.
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Re: GLoG

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[The Yew]

"I mean... I guess evolving into a Ghost-Type might technically count as dying," Khannie admits after several seconds of skeptical frowning.

There are LOTS of ways to evolve into a Ghost-Type! Which... mostly involve dying. Assuming the pokedex entries are right which Khannie is seriously doubtful of. But she didn't die in any regular sense, right? It was just... some magic stuff happened and then she was a pokemon again. Whatever thing Fortuna had done to her broke. And she was Ghost-Type before she made her magical girl wish, too.

...though technically the magical girls are sort of not alive, too.

They're like...

Glittery liches.

Or something.

"But I'm not like the ghosts around Glog or whatever. They're like... I dunno. Like they're not all there, you know? Like they're echoes of people instead of actually people. The priests at Inari's say souls are important to gods so they don't really stick around and ghosts are just shadows or something. I'm still a real person and everything."

A real person who hides behind illusions all the time.

Anywho!

She eyes the skull.

"Who's Bob?"

Oh no it's Bob the Skull.

Khannie really doesn't... say anything about the afterlife stuff. Because she isn't going anywhere. She's in no hurry to find out what happens if she's DEAD dead.
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Re: GLoG

Post by Gullara »

[Treasure Hunting]

Lucy giggles shamelessly at the exaggerated violence. It's just like a cartoon! But while their foe is distracted, she has an idea.

The dryadeer simply walks up to the treasure chest and tries to open it.
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Re: GLoG

Post by Thursday Violist »

[Treasure Hunting]

If the rat didn't want its tail bitten, it shouldn't have stood on top of the chest with its tail dangling down behind it like a toy.
That's likely the argument Manja would give if she actually felt like speaking. Alas, she doesn't really feel like it, so her thoughts will remain forever unknown.

She gets dragged over the chest and then along the ground, in circles.

Of course, Manja tries to regain her footing. But the rat is actually bigger and heavier than her, and she can't quite do it. Eventually, though, she does let go. She would argue that it wasn't because Tuskfang told her to! But, in reality, it was because Tuskfang said to.
He's definitely got to have some sort of plan, she thinks. That must be why he said to stop.

She slides along the ground, towards the edge!

Fortunately, she manages to regain footing in time and doesn't slide off.
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

The Yew

"Gods have nothing to do with it. People are divisible into four main parts, the mind, the body, the shadow and the soul. Souls and minds go on, the body and shadow is left, and they all go different places. Shadows are supposed to dissipate, but sometimes Shadows can retain an imprint of Mind, and that is a ghost, often living the same moment over and over, as it's not a full Mind. Sometimes the Mind is truly left with the Shadow, and that's a wraith. They can still learn and behave as normal, but... they aren't trustworthy. Without a Soul, they aren't complete. It might be possible to bind a Soul and a Shadow, but without a Mind it would be entirely directed by emotion and instinct. Souls and Minds go to afterlives, but the Soul eventually departs to become an angel, leaving the Mind to decay and forget itself and be absorbed." Sort of compatible mythology, except Baccata doesn't particularly care for gods and is linked to the cycle rather more intimately than a priest.

"This is Bob. He and Bill were the first people I met when my tree here spat me out. They wanted things I didn't, and tried to make me give it to them. So I killed them and crossed them over. That was... oh, fifty years ago, nearly. They were my only company for about four decades, even if it's just a Body with nothing that makes people interesting." Baccata smiles and holds the skull up to give Khannie a good look at it.
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Re: GLoG

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[Treasure Hunting]

Once released, the rat's tail is all kinked and crinkled up, with little smarting stars popping out of it. The creature holds its tail protectively, glaring at Manja and blowing a raspberry at her. This is not a thing that muskrats should be able to do but this doesn't concern the muskrat, apparently.

"Yes I turned invisible I'm a MAGICAL muskrat and-H-HEY!" the rodent gasps as Lucy just up and grabs the lid of the chest and begins tugging on it. "You're doing it all wrong you're supposed to answer my devious riddles first!"

The rat had some REALLY devious riddles! But he got distracted when Manja bit him. And now he looks pretty disappointed that he might not get to ask them...

Khannie seems pretty flummoxed by all of this. Something definitely smells off about the rat. He smells like a muskrat, sure. But he also smells like rotten blackberries and something else she can't quite place. She'll move to scoop up Manja to make sure the kitten doesn't get into any trouble. "Would you feel better if we answer your riddles before we open the chest?"

Brightening considerably, the rat says, "Oh yes! That would be great!"

Lucy will find that pulling on the lid doesn't make it open. It has two of those little spring loaded latches holding it shut. There's probably something you have to push or twist to make them pop open.


[The Yew]

"The priests at Inari's said gods have got lots to do with it. I think this is one of those Nexus things were stuff works different," Khannie helpfully points out. "And I've still got a body! It's just... a weird one. Like, I've talked to another Ghost-Type and he was pretty sure we aren't properly dead. We're just made of weird stuff. Like I can still eat and learn and everything else! And I'm totally trustworthy."

That sounds exactly like the sort of thing that an illusion weaving fox spirit that feeds on life energy would say.

"I think maybe the stuff you're talking about just, I mean. It isn't wrong. It just isn't right about me. That's how the Nexus is, sometimes. There are tons of things from different worlds here and they all work different, right? A Ghost-Type is WAY different from a ghost. Or a wraith or whatever. Aren't those like those creepy screaming guys in the black cloaks from Lord of the Rings?"

Yes.

But no.

And then skull talk!

Khannie seems visibly taken-aback by this revelation.

"You KILLED THEM!?"
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

The Yew

"Of course they said that, they're priests. Even if they want to be honest, what they know is taught by Inari or Inari's agents, and gods always like to make themselves seem bigger than they really are. Like cats having a fight." Baccata still doesn't like gods much, so she's willing to accuse them of lying to their priests. "Of course you have a body, you're not a wraith or a ghost. You're something else. Not all undead lack a body, just like not all undead lack a mind, or a soul. I don't know Lord of the Rings. I've also not met a wraith, I just know what they are. I could make someone a wraith, if they wanted."

"What they wanted was to cause me pain. I didn't want to be hurt, so I defended myself. My tree helped. They died, and would have died by now if I had let them hurt me. What should I have done? I'd never seen a human before. I didn't know how fragile they were, or how they worked. I damaged their bodies, until their shadow dissipated and their soul and mind departed their bodies. Then I took the hands of what was left standing and led them into my tree. My yew had only just started growing across the divide, so I didn't have much choice of where to take them. I left them on the banks of a river. I've not seen them since, even when I visit the river. It's a pretty place; prettier than I think they deserve, if I wasn't the first they wanted to hurt like that." Baccata strokes the skull gently as she talks, treating it far more tenderly than one might expect of the remains of someone who wanted to hurt her... but then, they were her only companion for forty years, even if she hasn't forgiven them, this is just a fragment of the body left behind. The person they were isn't left.
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Re: GLoG

Post by Morty »

[Treasure Hunting]

"We can answer your riddles! Answering riddles is what treasure hunters do." Tuskfang speaks with the confidence of an expert on the subject. Then he sniffs at the muskrat. "But you smell weird. And I didn't smell you before. So you couldn't have been back there with us."
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Re: GLoG

Post by Gullara »

[Treasure Hunting]

"Huh? But you left it." Lucy observes. She gives the lid a couple more fruitless tugs before giving up. "I guess we can listen to your riddles..." If the others are going along with it.
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Re: GLoG

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[The Yew]

Khannie provides Baccata with a skeptical scrunchy-lipped face. She doesn't think the priests are lying. They've got the whole afterlife thing going on, they can even bring people back! It's just hard. And expensive. Surely they can just call in things from the afterlife and ask about it, right? No, Khannie is pretty sure here that her first instinct was right. This is one of those different worlds with different rules things.

Not all undead.

Ugh.

That's not a word Khannie is a huge fan of. IS she undead? Sort of? Maybe?

Why do Ghost-Types have to be so weird?

While Khannie is a bit more at peace over what she is, she still thinks being a regular old human would be WAY less confusing.

"Why would anyone WANT to be a wraith?" Khannie asks, utterly baffled by that idea. "Oh, and Lord of the Rings is a book. A movie too, I guess. There are these bad guys called ring wraiths that are undead sorta things enslaved by the dark lord Sauron."

They're pretty spooky. Not that Khannie has much to worry about there. Her very unusual typing means she has little to fear from the spirit world. She is, in fact, a voracious predator upon fellow ghosts.

Then comes the story of violence and death and that gets a sad look out of Khannie. "I'm sorry that happened to you. Some people are just really terrible. Not super villains, but still villains. I guess you did what you had to do. Killing people's just never a good thing to do. Maybe when there's no other way to save someone, but only then. You probably aren't very interested in human rules though, are you? Like... your tree's poison. It'll kill people that try to eat it, right? And you're a dryad, aren't you? You just did the same sorta thing your tree would do when someone tries hurting it."
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

The Yew

Baccata also claimed to be able to bring people back from the dead, unless she'd passed them on in the first place. Of course, she didn't say what state they'd be in afterwards, if they'd be truly alive or something else.

"Because they're scared of what comes next. Because they want to continue here, and guide and teach the living. Because bodies eventually break down, and stop working properly, and ache, and they see this as a way to escape all that without passing on. It depends on who they are and what they want. Although I have other options, of helping people live past death." Which might not be able to help Khannie, since she's not dying right now and has already died. "Well, I can't read, and I've never seen a film, which would explain my ignorance there. But the wraiths I can create don't have anything to do with rings, and aren't enslaved to anyone. They can do whatever they want." Although if Baccata disagrees with it enough and she's close enough, she could pass the wraith on.

"It didn't happen to me because I stopped it. I don't know if I was the first, but I was certainly the last. I don't kill people unless I have to, or if they ask me to. A few have, over the years. And yeah, I'm a dryad, and this is my Yew. He's nearly awake, but not nearly clever enough to go all the way." The tree's branches creak and groan in disagreement with Baccata's assertion there, though she is mostly accurate about it. Her yew is not a full treant, though it's more than just a huourn. "But I chose to hurt them to make them stop. I could have run, I could have stepped into my yew and stepped out onto the river I took them to afterwards. I didn't intend to kill them, but only because I didn't know my actions would have that result. In the same situation again, I'd choose to kill them. Because I stand between Life and Death, and they did not respect that." Baccata doesn't agree she did it because her tree wanted her to do... although it might have influenced his misandry.
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Re: GLoG

Post by Rebonack »

[The Yew]

Baccata has a lot of things to say here.

About life and death. About undead states. About dryads and trees. About giving and taking life. About many things.

And those are all important subjects. Every single one of them. Growing old. The fear of death. The evils humans visit on each other (or on spirits that they mistook for a human maybe?) There's even a bit of wondering about whether Missus Frescot used to be like Baccata, a dryad tied to one location because of her tree. Or if she's something else.

But Khannie isn't focusing on any of those things.

Oh no.

There's only one thing in that great big list of important topics that captures the whole of her attention.

"You don't know how to read?" she asks, shocked and perhaps even dismayed by this fact. "Reading is like, the most important thing people have ever invented!"

And she's not kidding there, either!

Writing is the single most important invention ever ever EVER!

Not even pausing to think twice, Khannie shrugs off her backpack and withdraws a book from it. She had been doing some studying here at Glog when Maridia decided to start causing mischief and so she has several of her school books with her. The teen brandishes the history textbook at the dryad. "I could teach you! Then you could learn about things outside the forest here at Glog."
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

The Yew

"No, I don't. It's just been me and my tree, for as long as I recall. The nice man moved me here, from where I grew before, as I was lonely and can't stray far from my tree for long." Baccata can and has done so, but always she has to return sooner rather than later. It pains her not to. "I would appreciate lessons. I can teach you things, as well. If you want. I know some natural magic I can impart, how to identify and use poisons without being harmed, how to call animals to you, and how to call animals back to their remains temporarily, and healing as well." Baccata's magic is linked to her nature, so all the animals she could teach Khannie to call would be scavengers and opportunists, animals linked to death and dying- jackals, hyenas, crows, vultures, and so on.
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Re: GLoG

Post by Rebonack »

[The Yew]

"Learning new sorts of magic is cool but you don't have to feel like you've gotta pay me back. Helping other people learn is the right thing to do. Hang on a sec, I gotta run back to the cabin and grab some different books."

The book on ancient history PROBABLY wouldn't be great learning material for the dryad.

Khannie will be gone ten or fifteen minutes or so, returning with an armful of books from the daycare. Simple sorts of books. The ones with bright pictures and large letters with cardboard leaves instead of paper. The sort of books that are for teaching the very smallest of children words.

"Okay!" the teen says with a broad smile. "We start at the beginning since that's a real good place to start. First you've gotta learn the sounds letters make."

And for that?

She'll need the alphabet book!
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

The Yew

"Is that not how people interact with each other, giving things in exchange for other things? And you said yourself that helping people learn is the right thing to do, so if you don't want it to be an exchange, it could be that I'm helping you learn." Although it's also possible that Khannie just isn't interested in the magic that Baccata can offer, due to its sinister tendencies.

Regardless, reading lessons happen! Baccata is a reasonably good study, and has her own book that she'll pull out eventually. It's a copy of The Story of the Malakand Field Force, by Winston Churchill. She'll explain, if asked, that it was an offering to her from the people who lived in the church near her yew before they died out and Justin Mine moved her to GLoG.
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Re: GLoG

Post by Rebonack »

[The Yew]

"I mean, yeah, people help each other in exchange for stuff. But sometimes people help just to help. When I'm doing cape stuff I'm not getting paid for it or anything. I just do it to help make the world a better place for everyone else," Khannie helpfully informs Baccata. "But if you wanna show me your magic stuff because you WANT to that's cool. You don't have to feel obligated to pay me back."

Also Khannie is just a tad self-conscious that her magic ALREADY has a pretty dark theme to it. Shadows and illusions and death. They aren't forces that are generally considered heroic. But then again, she didn't exactly CHOOSE to have an innate knack for shadow magic. That's just how things ended up. Sorcerers don't exactly get to pick which forces they resonate with.

Anyway!

She'll begin with the basics. The alphabet and letter sounds. She'll also take a gander at Baccata's book.

"I haven't ever read this one," Khannie admits. "But that's just how it is with books; there are more of 'em than anyone could ever read."
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Earl of Purple
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

The Yew

"Oh, that makes sense." Baccata will give a demonstration at the end, raising a hand and clicking her fingers. Shortly afterwards, a raven swoops down and lands on her shoulder, tilting its head as it eyes Khannie up. It looks very easy for her, but... it comes as naturally to her as reading does to Khannie (unless Khannie's secretly dyslexic, at least). There's no obvious signs of magic use, but there's magicians out there whose skills are advanced enough there aren't any.
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Rebonack
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Re: GLoG

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[The Yew]

Khannie wrinkles her nose at the display.

"Was that even magic?" she asks quizzically. "You just snapped your fingers and a bird that was flying over landed on your arm."

If that WAS magic, it seems to Khannie that it's got more in common with sorcery than wizardry. Magic that's about intent and influence less so than magic that's about creating an arcane tool and then making use of that tool.


[Returning to Glog]

Choir has come and gone many times now.

She has learned about much. About dance and song. Songs very unlike the songs she knows. She has learned from the songs of others. She has found strange places and wondrous things. Treasures. Objects that were precious to someone. Objects which have stories unknown to her. But stories which, she feels, she might be part of. The others who cherished these objects were all gone when she found them; their self having suffered extinction. It is good, then, to care for what someone else once cherished.

Care is important in 'Glog'. That is the name of this place. Strange that places have names when they have no self. But care is important all the same. She must take care not to alter her physiology while others here are watching, for it causes them distress. She must take care not to partake in communion while others here are watching, for it causes them distress. She must take care not to be here in bodies where the hidden fire burns too bright for while it does not cause the others distress it may cause them harm.

They are fragile things, ephemeral. Like a beautiful whorl of frost that vanishes at the sun's caress.

Sometimes the little others approach her because when she returns she always carries with her precious things. They are curious, always. Voracious in their need to learn. It is an instinct which Choir better appreciates now that the breadth of her thoughts have grown.

At a measured pace, her arms full of oddities she has gathered from Apocalypse Junction, Choir moves toward the cabins. She's clothed herself in a thin, flexible red carapace that has a superficial resemble to the clothing others wear. This body was created only recently and as a result she hasn't had time to acquire 'proper' clothing for it. But there are often clothes available here, which is well. Choir resembles a human woman, if one doesn't look too closely. The texture of her skin is wrong, more like a mesh of innumerable little bone plates all lashed together. Her eyes are a luminous day-glow orange and her hair a mess of red and brown. She isn't wearing any shoes. Such things aren't really needed when she can simply armor the soles of her feet.
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Earl of Purple
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Re: GLoG

Post by Earl of Purple »

The Yew

"You're right, this could just be a raven I've taken the effort to befriend and train. So perhaps I should get a bit more blatant." Baccata smiles and claps her hands, a flock rapidly appearing from seeming nowhere and settling on the fence, the branches of her yew, and many other surfaces nearby. They aren't all ravens; there's crows, magpies, jackdaws, rooks, and also vultures, buzzards, and a massive condor has landed on the ground. Further back, some jackals, foxes, cats, and a lone striped hyena emerge from the forest, skulking about.

It is similar to Khannie's definition of sorcery, yet it's not as innate as sorcery can be. Baccata can teach people how to develop their influence with the natural world to copy her methods.
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Re: GLoG

Post by FireFox »

Keeper wrote: Jan 06, 2023 3:55 am Toby's Cabin

Zulie tries to recover, giving a look of utmost confidence as she puts her hands to her hips.
"I'm here-" she points dramatically at Toby's chest, "as your newest apprentice!"
She was told that if you wanted a job you had to show confidence!
A cold wind roars out all of a sudden, knocking the snow from the treetops in the distance and then hitting Zulie in the back, whipping her hair forward and blowing past her to make Tobias' labcoat stream behind him as if to show her what a dramatic pose is supposed to look like.

"You. Are. Late!
My last apprentice left months ago to stand on her own at HALO. Do you have any idea how many profound thoughts and magical insights I have had since? Seeds of wisdom you have deprived yourself of, with your tardy soil. We will have to start your training immediately to have any hope of my brilliance taking root in your brain in time for my Work, a capitalized word which I attach vague significance here to in order to establish as a point of mystery."
The wind dies with a wrist turning gesture, like a conductor telling the orchestra to shut up because a certain clarinet can't keep time.
"But first: a minor point of clarification: are you here to learn from me medicine or magic? Or perhaps you wish to apprentice under a master in another type of trade, like Smuggery or Fatherhood?"
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Keeper
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Re: GLoG

Post by Keeper »

FireFox wrote: Feb 09, 2023 3:47 am A cold wind roars out all of a sudden, knocking the snow from the treetops in the distance and then hitting Zulie in the back, whipping her hair forward and blowing past her to make Tobias' labcoat stream behind him as if to show her what a dramatic pose is supposed to look like.

"You. Are. Late!
My last apprentice left months ago to stand on her own at HALO. Do you have any idea how many profound thoughts and magical insights I have had since? Seeds of wisdom you have deprived yourself of, with your tardy soil. We will have to start your training immediately to have any hope of my brilliance taking root in your brain in time for my Work, a capitalized word which I attach vague significance here to in order to establish as a point of mystery."
The wind dies with a wrist turning gesture, like a conductor telling the orchestra to shut up because a certain clarinet can't keep time.
"But first: a minor point of clarification: are you here to learn from me medicine or magic? Or perhaps you wish to apprentice under a master in another type of trade, like Smuggery or Fatherhood?"
Toby's Cabin

Zullie is rather taken aback by Toby's sudden reaction, but she grins anyway due to the currently favorable results.
"Well, I had to get my degree first, you know! And um. I'm not really qualified for Fatherhood unless I suddenly develop an interest in Asari, so uh. Yeah magic was the idea. Understanding plants and how the universe works, wielding the mystical forces of the world and using it to sometimes turn into fluffy animals. Um. That's what druids do, right?"
It's at least what some of them do.
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Thursday Violist
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Re: GLoG

Post by Thursday Violist »

Rebonack wrote: Feb 04, 2023 3:38 pm
► SHOW SPOILER
Morty wrote: Feb 04, 2023 8:08 pm
► SHOW SPOILER
Gullara wrote: Feb 04, 2023 10:55 pm
► SHOW SPOILER

[Treasure Hunting]

Manja doesn't blow a raspberry back at the rat.
Instead, she just bleps out her tongue.

She gets picked up by Khannie.
She doesn't really seem to mind, though. The rat is huge from her perspective, and besides she doesn't mind being held like that. And, presumably, Khannie's pretty warm, too, and Manja likes warm.

The kitten Manja doesn't look away from the rat, though. It's a pretty tricky one! Apparently, it's a magic invisible giant rat. Which means it needs to be watched, in case it tries anything magic or tricksy.
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