quillpleasant wrote: ↑Jul 12, 2023 4:07 pm"Yeah, no, I appreciate it. Still getting used to being human and all that entails, so. Guess I'll go read some books." Harley gives an awkward thumbs up. "May the fates fare thee well." And with that he gives another slight bow before turning and walking off back towards his cabin.
The Date
"If you want to reach me, just go looking for HALO."
Pretty easy to find her. Not many snakes in Halo.
Artie will let him go. Was she wrong to shoot him down? It really seemed like he had more important things to be doing, though...
"That's not ideal. If we can't bypass it in some other way, we could simply record these sessions. This way all parts of you can check the recording later and see what was said," Sophie suggests.
Returning From Hell "Hypothetically, it would work," Sekhmet reasons, "But we wouldn't really be talking to each other. We wouldn't be able to directly address each others' concerns or negotiate compromises." And she still doesn't want to go back under.
"Indeed. It would be our last-ditch strategy if nothing else works." Sophie nods. "But we also need to make some arrangements for... body-sharing. I don't think one of you keeping the others down until forced back is entirely healthy."
Returning Home "There's no choice about that," Sekhmet looks disappointed to say so. This is one of the less active aspects speaking, after all. Having her own body would be great. Of course, having 11 different Sekhmets running around (12 if you count Selekhael) would come with its own host of problems.
"There's likely nothing we can do about the situation itself, but is there no way you can coordinate more in who uses your body and when?" Sophie admittedly has no idea, but she wants to suggest it anyway. It's no good if Sekhmet's different aspects resent each other.
"I'm well familiar with his kind, yes. Targeting people in distress and taking advantage of their not being in a position to refuse." Contempt hangs off Sophie's words like icicles. "No doubt he justifies his actions by having nominal consent for them. We'll find a way to keep him out. I can ask Sekhmet... maybe Trick."
"Thanks Sophie, you're the best," Khannie says completely ingeniously. "And you did a really good job today too, Manja."
Basically the best weird talking shape shifting kitten fox rabbit thing.
"I've gotta go check on one of my friends back Inside. Kyubey was saying some... really sketchy stuff about her. I have to make sure she's okay."
And if she isn't okay...
Well...
Then Khannie will have to clean up the mess.
But hopefully it doesn't come to that.
[Starward Gaze]
"You're the best," Manja says to Sophie, echoing Khannie.
She gives one last swipe at the puppet-corpses.
She thinks they look pretty pathetic. Manja can't believe they thought they stood a chance against one of Dark Mistress Manja's royal knights. Pathetic.
She looks up at Sophie.
...
Then suddenly remembers that her parents would probably get angry at her if they learn she was just prowling around the forest by herself, especially since they still haven't learned anything about who it was that tried to kidnap her.
She tries sneaking away, but her attempts at stealth are ruined by exclaiming "Don't tell my mom or dad anything!"
She starts dashing back towards the daycare building.
Returning From Hell "Not that I know. The, uh, mechanics of all this aren't exactly well understood. I think, uh, only my mother would have the answers and she's..." Even as a succubus, Sekhmet recognizes how awful her mother was.
"Huh." Eshe replies without much apparently concern. "Yeah! Our moms' boss has bunches of wolves. I think he said other goblins like him also raise wolves. They ride them! I wish I could do that, but if you're not a goblin you're too big." She laments in the end.
[Birb Babysitting]
"Oh! No wonder Silver reminds you of them. He was being raised by goblins too, before- well, I helped them out, and Silver bonded to me." She brushed over why he had bonded to her in her little story. Best not to bring up the death of the poor cubs mother in front of Eshe. "I do wonder what it'd be like to ride a wolf. I mean, it sounds so cool!" Kestrel seemed just as wistful as Eshe about being far too large to be a wolf rider.
A triangular bottle is floating here, the dark green glass glinting in the sunlight. It's got a bulbous glass stopper in the neck, sealing it and preventing water from entering it. It's not too far from shore, though to retrieve it one would need to get their feet wet, and possibly their legs up to the knee, too. It doesn't seem to be getting closer to the shore.
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"But your other self willingly brought you forth when I asked her to," Sophie points out. "So I could understand you and your situation better. Regardless, if we're going to do something, we need to try to understand them better."
"Wow, really? You're so lucky!' Eshe says breathlessly. Where's that luck for her??? Oh well. "Yeah I wish. I wanted to learnt o ride Hastur. She's our big hyena pet." She adds.
"But you're too young." Orlane adds, her tone suggesting some kind of echo.
"Ugh, it's not fair!"
Meanwhile they arrive at the edge of the lake! They're not so far off from the more populated beach, where they can see people milling around in the middle distance. This stretch of beach is less friendly to summer fun.
Returning From Hell "I think she assumed you would 'deal with me,' not deal with me," the succubus comments. "Unless you have a way to ensure I won't just be buried again, I'm not going back under. Thanks to you I'm free again and I'd rather you didn't ruin that." She's got a good thing going. Because the other aspect willingly relinquished control to her, she's not likely to be forced out. "I don't know what all your divine powers are, if you have some way to get inside my head and look around I'm listening but I'm not giving up control, I only just got it." The succubus is good at misleading people, but Sophie's good at detecting. She might be able to tell that Sekhmet's hiding something with that last sentence, albeit not lying outright.
Hmm, not good. Sophie would really rather not use coercion, but she also can't let the Sekhmet who agreed to this remain buried. But there is something else...
"When was the last time you were in control? And in what circumstances?"
A triangular bottle is floating here, the dark green glass glinting in the sunlight. It's got a bulbous glass stopper in the neck, sealing it and preventing water from entering it. It's not too far from shore, though to retrieve it one would need to get their feet wet, and possibly their legs up to the knee, too. It doesn't seem to be getting closer to the shore.
Well would you look at that!
Khannie is about the camp in her OFFICIAL GLOG BUSINESS cap!
As is often the case she's doing some cleaning. The trails are all nice and clear so now it's just a matter of more mundane and routine things. Namely? Going around and picking up trash visitors leave behind. There aren't a TON of visitors at Glog. They aren't exactly a tourist destination. But SOMEHOW garbage still ends up cropping up here and there. Not much, but just enough to be unsightly sometimes.
Could it be babs discarding leftover ice cream sandwich wrappers on the ground?
Maybe.
Anyway, that's where there's a zoroark in an airy summer outfit wandering around with a garbage bag.
And that's who spots the bottle.
She frowns at it.
"Seriously?" Khannie grumbles. "Who the heck throws bottles into the lake."
She kicks her shoes off and begins wading into the lake, her shorts quickly getting soaked as a result. Thankfully it's a pretty hot day and she'll dry off quickly. Once she's close she'll grab the bottle with her free paw and head back to the shore with it.
Returning From Hell "The party, the one where you were helping as a greeter. Some succubi were teasing me about not wanting to dance, and I got mad, took control, and put them to shame." That's a significant time ago, and it's the honest truth, so the omission must have been something else.
This is a dead end, but Sophie's mind is already picking apart Sekhmet's words in search of what she's missing.
"What could I find if I did poke through your head?" She can't do it, but she won't say it just yet. "Do you know of something that could help? Or maybe another personality knows?"
The bottle is surprisingly heavy, although it floats fine. Khannie might notice there's something in the bottle, though it's hard to make out details through the coloured glass. Looks like paper, or perhaps parchment; and something rattles at the bottom as well, something round with a hole in it.
Does Khannie try opening the bottle by pulling the stopper out, or does she hurl the glass container against a rock or some other solid object to try and smash it, to retrieve the bottle's contents that way?
Avatar provided by Happyturtle. Still using it, after all these years.
Smash the bottle? Are you serious!? There's NO WAY Khannie would do that! Kids play barefoot here and glass might get lost in the sand! She would NEVER do something so irresponsible.
No, the rattling and the note catch her attention.
"Huh... Is this some kinda art project I missed?" she wonders aloud before sitting down on a smooth, flat boulder to remove the cork and see if she can't pull the contents out.
Last edited by Rebonack on Jul 23, 2023 4:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Returning From Hell "Some sort of mind labyrinth?" Sekhmet suggests, "No I don't..." she starts to lie then stops herself, sighing heavily. "I can get you inside," she admits. "I could bring your mind into my subconscious using dream magic." And from there Sophie could do what she needs to to get the aspects working together.
"That is exactly what we need. And not the first time I'd be doing that." Though last time she did it with Trick's help... and Sekhmet didn't have quite as many voices in her head. "But you didn't want to tell me about it."
Returning From Hell "You're my friend, Sophie, and I trust you, but..." Sekhmet looks hesitant to keep talking, "Only so far. I don't really want you going in here and changing my mind." She taps her temple with a claw. There's a significant difference between spectating in Sekhmet's nightmares and tweaking things in the actual inner workings of her consciousness.
"You're right." Sophie can't find herself disagreeing, nor would she have a very strong argument if she were inclined to. "Letting someone into the very center of your mind is dangerous. I don't want you to do it unless you are absolutely certain you want it."
"Wow, really? You're so lucky!' Eshe says breathlessly. Where's that luck for her??? Oh well. "Yeah I wish. I wanted to learnt o ride Hastur. She's our big hyena pet." She adds.
"But you're too young." Orlane adds, her tone suggesting some kind of echo.
"Ugh, it's not fair!"
Meanwhile they arrive at the edge of the lake! They're not so far off from the more populated beach, where they can see people milling around in the middle distance. This stretch of beach is less friendly to summer fun.
[Birb Babysitting]
Eshe was right. Kestrel still couldn't believe that they had let her keep and look after Silver. It was like a dream come true! She was on her way to becoming a proper ranger at this rate!
She's intrigued though. While wolves have always been some of her favourite animals, a huge hyena still sounds pretty cool! "You have a big hyena and you're not allowed to ride her? That is so unfair!" Being young meant she was smaller, right? So surely that would be an advantage for riding an animal, as it'd be easier for them!
Kestrel looks around as they come to the lake's edge, taking in the view. This camp is definitely pretty. "So, where's all this clay then?"
Returning From Hell "I don't think there's anyone I could trust with that level of, uh, control. Maybe Prumathe? But even he's questionable." This might be a dead end, they'd need to find a different way to allow the different Names to speak.
The bottle doesn't have a cork, but a sturdy stopper made of the same colour glass as the rest of it. The fit is snug enough to require a bit of tugging but not impossibly tight; if Khannie really tries she can pull the stopper free.
Inside, there's two things. The first is a piece of paper, curled into a tube and pushed into the bottle. That can be fished out with fingers, just about, and unfurled. It's old, and yellow, and it's got a rather crude map drawn on it, leading to... Well, somewhere in Apocalypse Junction.
The other thing in the bottle is a coin, round but chipped and worn, made of a nickel-iron alloy called invar. One side has a pair of crosses embossed upon it, whilst the other features a worn profile, too eroded to be certain of much about them. That can't be fished out, but turning the bottle upside down and shaking will eventually cause it to rattle free. Or Khannie could decide to take it elsewhere and break it somewhere that's easy to clear up.
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Khannie tucks the bottle under her arm as she unfurls the map, looking it over. She doesn't exactly recognize the place, but it's definitely interesting. This isn't a map of Glog, though. Nor, in so far as she can tell, a map of anywhere that's safe. She knows Tuskfang would love a good treasure hunt but this... looks a little more serious.
The zoroark runs her tongue along her teeth.
...yeah.
There's a slight tingle.
"You trying to nudge me somewhere, Fortuna?" Khannie asks the open air, receiving no reply to speak of. If there's one thing she KNOWS about her 'mom' it's that ignoring what gets dropped in front of her isn't a good idea. With a sigh, she heads back to the main cabin and sets down her garbage bag and grabber, heading inside. The map is spread out on one of the tables and the bottle set to weigh it down on one side while a salt shaker is used for the other.
Then?
She takes a picture of the map with her phone, feeding it into Moogle Maps.
While the image is processing to create a USEFUL digital map to a real location she begins shaking the bottle to get the coin out so she can examine it.
"Mommy says I'm too young and could get hurt if I don't know what I'm doing." Eshe laments. Truly she suffers.
Orlane, sadly, is deaf to her sister's struggles. "It's right over here." She steps to the edge of the lake and points down. "Right under the water in this shallow part. We just gotta dig it up." She illustrates by plunging her hand shovel down through the water and scooping up a dripping mass of clay. This promises to be messy.
"What we need is a way for me to address all of your personalities, but with no more control over them than I have over you here in the flesh. What if we reversed it? If you entered my subconscious?"
Returning From Hell "That might work," Sekhmet assesses, "But then, are you comfortable giving me that much control over you?" Not that it's direct control so much as the ability to alter the victim's mind and change what and how they think.
