Outside: Grass touch place

[Rebonack]

[Moonstruck]

"But you AREN'T supposed to look at the pond!" the child objects.

"Sorry, we've got to go get in trouble!" Cat calls over her shoulder to the confused child. "Don't follow our example though!"

So!

Back to the pond!

Yep.

There it is.

Still a pond. Still harboring that malign presence. Still inaccessible.

"...are we just going to wait around here for an hour?"

If only one of them had amazing time warping powers! They could play the sun's song or something and make it night.

[bc56]

Moonstruck
"Yes we are." Sele puts a hand on Cat's shoulder and for a few seconds the moon blurs upwards in the sky. "It's time." Now when they look into the pond something should happen.
Maybe not to Sele. She's big, she might not be able to fit into the Dreamlands.

[Earl of Purple]

Travelling Trouble

"The Charter-spelled blade? We did. Well, Lartius did. The magic is potent, very effective against the skeletons, but it doesn't make up for a lack of skill. Lartius was killed, but... When he stood up again, he couldn't touch the sword. We weren't expecting trouble, and lacked the time to don armour. Mostly we tried to keep the wagons between us and our attackers, since our weapons were longer than theirs." The pikes and muskets are usually more effective, but the skeletons lacked the mass to make effective targets.

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
Having sufficiently felt her new tail, Sekhmet starts swimming. Her succubus magic alters muscle memory and self-image to her new form, so the basic strokes come as easily to her as walking. She'll have to learn anything more complex on her own.
"Hehe, they are," Sekhmet responds, "I'd like to swim around and, uh, find the layout. That way I can practice before going into rooms that might have sharp rusty things I need to avoid." She means both the kitchen and the armory in this case. Without waiting for June's assent, the merdemoness swims out into the hallways to have a look around.

[Japaraita]

Being able to quickly adapt to the basics of a new form sounds incredibly useful. June's jealous.

"Yeah! Okay, that's fine," June says. She swims just behind her, while looking around the place and getting a mental map of what the castle's like and what to expect.



In the end, it's a pretty simple castle, since it didn't have much time to be around. The armory, stairs down to the dungeon, and soldiers' areas are all together in one corner, the dining, kitchen, servants' areas (including the stairs to the winecellar and stairs down to the servants' quarters) are in another corner. In the middle, there's the courtroom and chapel and a few other nonconsequential rooms, and in another corner has the most interesting rooms: the pub, the game room (as in, hunting game), and the study. As well as the treasury. Unfortnately, the study and the stairwell down to the treasury have been flooded by mud, making it extremely hard to find anything interesting in there (or even swim downstairs to the treasury) without digging and moving collapsed furniture and stone.

Besides the soldiers' areas and the kitchen (which feature plentiful rusted and sharp things), the most interesting things they'll find (besides some schools of fish, or frogs, or other things like that) are in the chapel - which has an altar and various religious iconography still intact in there - and the pub, which has still got alcohol, the study, which has a few surviving odds and ends and knick-knacks behind locked (but easily opened) desks and cabinets. Like, there's a key. And there's some pretty basic magic items including a crystal ball, a magically charming pair of glasses, and some magic stones in the shape of lips that basically act as walkie-talkies.

"Oh, wow, there's some interesting stuff here," June comments.

[bc56]

Travelling Trouble
Kothar considers. An anti-undead sword would be useful, more useful than swords normally are. But he doesn't need it as much as these traders might. "You keep. Undead might come back." He considers further. "Make clubs. Work better than long spears or firesticks."

Japaraita
Sekhmet deliberately stays out of the chapel. That's one of the weaknesses she didn't tell June about - she can't enter holy ground such as churches and some graveyards without the explicit permission of the relevant deity. She can't enter holy waters either, but it's not usually phrased that way because most people who describe the weakness live on land.
In the pub, Sekhmet, upon spying the beer bottles, questions, "How do you drink underwater?" opening a bottle would cause the liquid inside to diffuse into the surrounding water. Salt water isn't potable. So how do mermaids not dehydrate, living in the sea all the time?
And also there's the study. "Hold on. Some of these things are magical." There's no way that display case will hold together well after all this time underwater. But without legs to brace against the ground, how can she get the leverage to force it open? She'll just end up pulling herself through the water. Sekhmet swims back and forth, thinking about the problem.

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
Sekhmet deliberately stays out of the chapel. That's one of the weaknesses she didn't tell June about - she can't enter holy ground such as churches and some graveyards without the explicit permission of the relevant deity. She can't enter holy waters either, but it's not usually phrased that way because most people who describe the weakness live on land.
In the pub, Sekhmet, upon spying the beer bottles, questions, "How do you drink underwater?" opening a bottle would cause the liquid inside to diffuse into the surrounding water. Salt water isn't potable. So how do mermaids not dehydrate, living in the sea all the time?
And also there's the study. "Hold on. Some of these things are magical." There's no way that display case will hold together well after all this time underwater. But without legs to brace against the ground, how can she get the leverage to force it open? She'll just end up pulling herself through the water. Sekhmet swims back and forth, thinking about the problem.

[Japaraita]

As June is just following Sekhmet, she doesn't enter the chapel either. Besides, it would feel a little wrong to ransack a chapel.

"Um." How do you drink something from a bottle underwater? That's just not something June's ever seriously thought about. "You're just constantly drinking, and biology absorbs and filters it," she explains. "And so if you opened the bottle right now, both you and me would just be drinking it as it diffuses out. Maybe hold it closer to your mouth if you want more of it?" She shrugs, and adds, "But if you really want to drink it by yourself, you can just swim up to the surface and drink it there."

The fact that everyone is constantly drinking and opening beer would just cause everyone around to drink it implies some interesting things about underwater mermaid bars: that they're more of a group experience where everyone drinks the same things together. But it would still depend on trade from above the surface, since it'd be hard to make bottled drinks underwater.

June keeps on following.

"Oh! Right!" she says, looking at the display case. She takes the purse off her shoulder and digs through it for the crowbar. "Here," she says. Instead of just giving it to Sekhmet, though, she decides to instead show how to use it as a mermaid. She sticks the crowbar's tip into the crack of the display case. "That's why I got this. You can use one arm to push against the bar, while..." She places her other hand on the display case, "your other hand holds on to something else." She starts swimming with her tail, as well. "Water's thicker than air so you can push against the water, too."

It pops open, just a little.

June leaves the crowbar for Sekhmet to use, and swims over to the desk. "There, you can finish it now, I'm going to see if I can get this desk's drawer open." She swims under the desk and looks upwards at it.

[bc56]

Japaraita
Sekhmet wasn't drinking, just wondering.

And of course. Need leverage? Get a lever. Sekhmet takes hold of the prybar and swims against it to pop the cabinet open. "Any idea what these might do?" Sekhmet can only get a vague sense. She picks up the crystal ball and stares into it to see if it does anything.

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
Sekhmet wasn't drinking, just wondering.

And of course. Need leverage? Get a lever. Sekhmet takes hold of the prybar and swims against it to pop the cabinet open. "Any idea what these might do?" Sekhmet can only get a vague sense. She picks up the crystal ball and stares into it to see if it does anything.

[Japaraita]

June pushes herself out from under the desk. She didn't manage to get the locked desk drawer open.

"What? Oh, this, the crystal ball."

She swims close.

"Hmmmm....I've never used one of these," she says, "but I heard it's used for scrying or telling the future sometimes."

As June swims close, she looks into the ball as well. June doesn't see anything other than just a normal refraction.
Sekhmet, however, once June swims in front of it, will suddenly see several vague images in the crystal ball related to June: apparently, the ball doesn't tell anything about the person holding it, but rather the person in front of them. The images themselves flash by quickly and don't have an obvious meaning. Images include June in various different states, purple fire, a tiara, a demon lady with several arms and several wings, a pink and black ring, and a few other random things that would definitely need some kind of context to have any idea what it means at all.

"Huh, I don't see anything," she says. "Maybe you need to have magic to get it ot work. Hey, I'm taking the crowbar, I'm using it on the desk." She grabs the crowbar, and swims back to the desk, to try to force it open.

[bc56]

Japaraita
"Wait, I saw something when I looked at you through the ball. Maybe try using it to look at me?" Sekhmet sets the crystal ball where June can reach it and moves on to the next object of interest, the glasses. She briefly shapeshifts her eyes back to their natural nearsightedness and tries putting them on, just to see if they're close to the lenses she needs, and also what magic they hold.

[Earl of Purple]

Travelling Trouble

"How about some of our jewellery, then? It's all enchanted. This ring, though ugly, improves the wearer's metabolism so they don't need to eat as often." It really is an ugly ring; a gold band shaped like a humanoid head with lapis set into the eyes, the mouth agape to slot the finger through. "This ring is lucky, giving the wearer good fortune, but it does so by draining good luck from anyone nearby, inflicting misfortune upon them. Usually minor, as it stores the luck until its wearer needs it." That ring is braided silver, set with a moonstone. "This ring provides mental fortitude, preventing telepaths and mages from reading your thoughts or influencing your behaviour unnaturally. And if you look through this one, instead of wearing it, it shows what is hidden." The first is made of white-glazed ceramic, and the latter is made of black plastic. "Or we have amulets. Hagstones to protect against the evil eye," five of those, none magic and consisting of pebbles with a hole worn through them on strings or ribbons; "and this one redirects incoming missiles, causing them to swerve away from you." A blue Egyptian faience arrowhead, on a glass bead necklace. "This one gets warm in the presence of those that mean you harm, the more of them the warmer it gets." A brass fly hanging from a chain of the same material.

[bc56]

Travelling Trouble
Kothar can't sense magic, so he can't tell whether any of the items other than the sword (with its obvious enchanted writing) are truly magical. "That one," he finally decides, pointing to the fly amulet.

[Earl of Purple]

Travelling Trouble

The fly amulet is handed over, and Kothar is invited to stay for supper, as the traders are staying put to bury their dead and loot the attackers. The plate worn by the dead knight is claimed, though they doubt they'll be able to sell it- it has a slight flaw in that the electricity it channels from being hit explodes inside as well as out, and the corpse that they're interring from inside the armour has multiple obvious lightning scars in addition to the wounds inflicted post mortem by Kothar's axe.

[Rebonack]

[Moonstruck]

Being able to hurl time forward sure is a helpful skill.

Cat gasps at the sight. "That was a time, skip, wasn't it? That's so cool. You must never get bored waiting for things."

Since she doesn't have to wait.

But!

There are more important things to tend to. Namely, the reflection of the moon shining down into the pond. Normally such a thing would be utterly harmless, just a bright spot on the water. But instead it looks like a hole in reality leading to some surreal mirrored realm of lambent light and creeping brambles. Whatever strange realm this is, it is heavy with unreality. But it is most certainly NOT the Dreamlands. It would be caustic to entities like Cat and Sele, but it won't bar their entry.

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
"Wait, I saw something when I looked at you through the ball. Maybe try using it to look at me?" Sekhmet sets the crystal ball where June can reach it and moves on to the next object of interest, the glasses. She briefly shapeshifts her eyes back to their natural nearsightedness and tries putting them on, just to see if they're close to the lenses she needs, and also what magic they hold.

[Japaraita]

The desk makes a creaking and a snapping sound, and then the drawer is open. June opens it, She swims up and looks at it. "Oh, found some keys."

Rather than immediately grabbing the keychain, however, she swims over to grab the crystal ball. "Yeah! I'm curious to see if it works for me, too." She peers down into it, and swims to in front of Sekhmet. She concentrates, and tries to get it to work and to show her some images.

Sekhmet, upon putting on the glasses, will find out that they actually match her prescription. And it's actually not by chance. The glasses actually magically slightly alter their lenses' shape to match the eyes of the person wearing them. If Sekhmet changed her eyes back to perfect vision, they'd still allow her to see while wearing them.

June, looking into the crystal ball, says, "Oh! I see something! Just a bunch of random images, though." All sorts of images relating to Sekhmet, some future things, and some fated things. June has absolutely no experience interpreting those sorts of things, though, so she doesn't get anything from it.

She looks up at Sekhmet, and is suddenly charmed by Sekhmet, probably only amplified by Sekhmet's natural charm. The glasses's magic activates once June looks at Sekhmet wearing them. June feels hot, flush, her cheeks turn red, her jaw drops a little at how charming Sekhmet looks, and...she turns around and pays close attention to the desk. "Um. Sorry, what did you want?" she says. June feels like she'd be willing to do most anything Sekhmet asks her to do.

The owner of this ruined castle probably used them to instill obedience and loyalty in their subjects.

[bc56]

Travelling Trouble
Kothar will gladly sit down to a meal with the merchants. He has no interest in the armor he can't wear and from what he can understand of the merchants' talk, is probably broken anyway.

Moonstruck
"This place is going to be very, very dangerous," Sele says. "Stay close to me and don't get yourself killed." Sele steps through the portal.

Japaraita
Visions of baby demons, flames and smoke, and a light shining in the darkness, probably.

"Uh, June? Are you all right? You looked like, uh," Like you've finally noticed that Sekhmet is a succubus and gotten yourself smitten with her. "Should I, uh, wear something different?" The swimsuit is pretty tight-fitting, which is good for swimming but even though it doesn't show much skin, it still doesn't leave much to the imagination. The glasses, magic though they are, don't even cross Sekhmet's mind as a source of June's new demeanor; she's too used to being looked at like that.

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
Visions of baby demons, flames and smoke, and a light shining in the darkness, probably.

"Uh, June? Are you all right? You looked like, uh," Like you've finally noticed that Sekhmet is a succubus and gotten yourself smitten with her. "Should I, uh, wear something different?" The swimsuit is pretty tight-fitting, which is good for swimming but even though it doesn't show much skin, it still doesn't leave much to the imagination. The glasses, magic though they are, don't even cross Sekhmet's mind as a source of June's new demeanor; she's too used to being looked at like that.

[Japaraita]

Babies are cute! Even baby demons, they're just as cute. Beyond that, June just can't make any sense of what she saw.

June sets down the crystal ball, so it won't roll or break or anything. And she starts wondering why Sekhmet is asking June if she should change into just seashells (she isn't asking that) and starts wondering if it's because Sekhmet would feel more comfortable dressed that way or if she thinks that's what June wants (that's not why she's asking that).

"Um." She pushes a lot of water through her gills. "Yes, I'm alright." she says. "You should, um,"

June taps her own cheeks, and moves over to look at the drawer again, where the keychain is. "No, you're fine, this has nothing to do with that," she says. She grabs her crowbar and puts it back into her purse, and then busies herself looing at the keys. "Sorry, I don't know what just came over me," she says, noting that she completely failed at trying to hide what she was feeling, and trying to push her sudden and overwhelming desire for Sekhmet's approval out of the front of her mind. "Probably just glad to finally be on an actual adventure with someone else again..."
June bites her lip, "I wonder where these keys go."

[bc56]

Japaraita
Silly June, Sekhmet couldn't wear seashells. She'd need E-shells at minimum.
"Are you sure? Because you seem, uh... Distracted." Sekhmet's pressing the issue. Maybe she does want June to suggest the seashells after all (she doesn't). "Really June, what's going on? If you need me to wear something less, uh, you know, so you can focus, I can." Sekhmet means "less provocative" but given her state of mind, that may well not be what June hears.

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
Silly June, Sekhmet couldn't wear seashells. She'd need E-shells at minimum.
"Are you sure? Because you seem, uh... Distracted." Sekhmet's pressing the issue. Maybe she does want June to suggest the seashells after all (she doesn't). "Really June, what's going on? If you need me to wear something less, uh, you know, so you can focus, I can." Sekhmet means "less provocative" but given her state of mind, that may well not be what June hears.

[Japaraita]

June makes small adjustments to her position in the water, until she's sitting in the old, dilapidated, and waterlogged chair in front of the desk. She leans her head back. "I don't know!" she says. She runs her hands up to her hairline. "I don't know. My brain's acting weird."

She groans, and feels awful that it seems like Sekhmet is thinking June's acting weird. "It does this sometimes. First time exactly like this, but it does this sometimes."

June groans. "Sure, you can wear less, it's fine. I can go get my seashell bra, and then...with your magic you can resize it."

She removes her hands, and swims upwards out of the seat, and looks at Sekhmet again. She again feels the impulse to make Sekhmet pleased. Not quite as strongly as before - the glasses's effect is a little weaker this time. "Just...just give me a few moments. I'll be fine, just give me a few moments."

[bc56]

Japaraita
Seashell bra? That's traditional mermaid clothing, but the exact opposite of less skimpy. Sekhmet is of three minds about this. Part of her wants to say no. Part of her is curious. And part of her wants to mess with June further. The two sides that can coexist win out.
"I can magically change my own clothes," she says. "I'll wear seashells, but on one condition," what could that be? "You have to wear them too." Not the same pair, obviously. June could wear her shells and Sekhmet could turn her swimsuit into another pair.

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
Seashell bra? That's traditional mermaid clothing, but the exact opposite of less skimpy. Sekhmet is of three minds about this. Part of her wants to say no. Part of her is curious. And part of her wants to mess with June further. The two sides that can coexist win out.
"I can magically change my own clothes," she says. "I'll wear seashells, but on one condition," what could that be? "You have to wear them too." Not the same pair, obviously. June could wear her shells and Sekhmet could turn her swimsuit into another pair.

[Japaraita]

The good news is that, now that June is going to do something that she perceives Sekhmet wants, she'll be spared from the worst of the glasses's charm effects, leaving just the elation from getting approval and the lingering one-sided crush's feelings of admiration and the other basic feelings like that, and not the overpowering drive to please Sekhkmet.

June carefully listens to the condition, and nods. "Okay, yes, I'll do that," It's just in her suitcase, which she left on the shore, on the edge of the lake. She smiles: "I'll be right back."

June sets the keychain on the desk and swims out the window, to shore, so she can swap her v-neck for the seashell bra. If Sekhmet wears E-shells, these are more, like, A-shells.

While she's gone, some fish swim over to Sekhmet.

And, a couple minutes later, June returns, wearing the seashell top, looking for Sekhmet.

[bc56]

Japaraita
While June is gone, Sekhmet takes the keys and tries them on every lock in the room. She has time.
But June returns. Part of why Sekhmet requested June wear shells was that without seeing how the garment actually holds together, she could only guess how to make one herself.
"Okay. I said I would so, uh..." her swimsuit shrinks down and loses almost all its coverage as shells (much too large to be simple C shells, but we've done that joke already) form over Sekhmet's naughty bits.
Stars, she feels so naked. How do real mermaids dress like this? At least June's also dressed this way. "Better?" Sekhmet asks. She still looks too demonic to pass as a proper mermaid, but she wears the shells well. Maybe too well. "I was thinking of checking the wine cellar. There might be some good vintages there I could bring home."

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
While June is gone, Sekhmet takes the keys and tries them on every lock in the room. She has time.
But June returns. Part of why Sekhmet requested June wear shells was that without seeing how the garment actually holds together, she could only guess how to make one herself.
"Okay. I said I would so, uh..." her swimsuit shrinks down and loses almost all its coverage as shells (much too large to be simple C shells, but we've done that joke already) form over Sekhmet's naughty bits.
Stars, she feels so naked. How do real mermaids dress like this? At least June's also dressed this way. "Better?" Sekhmet asks. She still looks too demonic to pass as a proper mermaid, but she wears the shells well. Maybe too well. "I was thinking of checking the wine cellar. There might be some good vintages there I could bring home."

[Japaraita]

Half the keys go to locks in this room. Unfortunately, Sekhmet and June have already found pretty much everything interesting in this room. Most of the locks here either had their containers rot away, or their contents are completely disintegrated, with one exception: mostly-buried in mud (she'd have to dig away some of the mud to open it) there's a chest that just holds a handful of jewels and various metals. Assuming Sekhmet can notice which ones are magic...well, most of them have magical energy stored inside them, it's just that the magical energy is entirely unfocused. Would need a magic craftsman to really do anything important with them.

Of the remaining keys that didn't go in this room, there's five notable ones: one that's quite obviously a door key that could lock or unlock most of the doors in this castle (if they weren't in such bad condition or were already opened that it'd be pointless), one that appears pretty much like a cell key, one that's really small and ornate and likely goes to either a jewelry box or a music box, one that appears to follow the same design motifs as some of the objects that were inside the chapel, and the last one's key teeth are clearly far more intricate than the rest, suggesting that it goes to a lock that was designed to be much harder to pick open.

June returns.

She watches the outfit change. Admittedly, watching outfits magically change is pretty interesting.

"Yes, I -" She closes her eyes, and does what would be taking a deep breath if they were above water. "Yes, feeling better now," she says. She opens her eyes, and bites her lip.
"Okay, wine cellar, right? That'd be in the kitchen, I think." Either that, or in the bar, but she's pretty sure they didn't see that there.

June swims out towards the kitchen, looking for where a wine cellar would be. Turns out there's a trapdoor - which could either be pried open or they could just use the generic door-key - to open it. In which, there's still a bunch of wine. The newest one's already decades old, and there's actually a lot of it, and some from various different places. It was one of the first places flooded, so there wasn't time for anyone to remove any drinks from there.

[bc56]

Japaraita
Sekhmet examines the wine racks and picks three bottles of red wine off of one of them. "This one looks good. One to make sure it is good," She uses a claw to pop the cork out of one of the bottles, and lets the wine filter out into the water so she can taste it, trying out the mermaid way of drinking, "And two to take home with me." She hangs onto the other bottles.

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
Sekhmet examines the wine racks and picks three bottles of red wine off of one of them. "This one looks good. One to make sure it is good," She uses a claw to pop the cork out of one of the bottles, and lets the wine filter out into the water so she can taste it, trying out the mermaid way of drinking, "And two to take home with me." She hangs onto the other bottles.

[Japaraita]

June also looks at the bottles, taking them out and looking at them. She doesn't know what she's supposed to be looking for.

"Okay, sounds good, I -" June speaks up, but just a little too late. "Um, actually I have no experience with actually drinking wine." Or any alcohol at all, for that matter. Which is interesting, given earlier she apparently knew enough about mermaid drinking habits to explain it.

Luckily, as long as she keeps her distance from where it was opened, it wouldn't be too much that gets to her. "..."
June starts wondering if maybe she shouldn't have said that. Was that the right thing to say? What does Sekhmet think about that? She decides to just say something based off a comment Sekhmet just made. "...so, your home. Is it just you, or...?"

[Thursday Violist]

[Riftline]

The first and last time Violeta Escarlate was on the Riftline, it wasn't exactly the best day of her life, though it really had felt like it started that way.
In fact, one could argue it was the worst day of her life.
Honestly, she should've taken everything leading up to it as a sign. Being stopped by train bandits and having everything but her engagement ring and her dress stolen. Being stopped by some supervillain. Having her make-up ruined by sewer. Her dress getting torn. Needing to beg someone to let her in so she could clean up. Arriving late. Needing to get married outside of her own church. And then, neither her partner nor anyone he knew showed up. In fact, nobody she knew showed up, either, because of how far away and how sudden the ceremony was. In the end, the only good thing about it was that kind ogre - or, rather, he called himself a demon; she was the one who mistakenly called him an ogre - who took pity on her for the sake of his own amusement. He could have easily eaten her and gained...something but decided to feed his boredom instead.

Well, that time was no longer the 'last' time she's been on the Riftline, since she's now getting on it once again to leave her hometown of Caldas da Rainha. This time, however, she doesn't have any cheering family or friends seeing her off. Nobody saying they'll miss her, but also this time people do expect her to come back.
This time, two-tailed foxgirl's journey is already starting out as the worst day of her life; with luck, she hopes, this journey will end up becoming the best day of her life.

She looks out the window, seeing the mountainous resort town grow smaller and smaller until her tears make it too hard to see it any longer. Everything will turn out alright, in the end.

Honestly, though: it's doubtful. The stench of curse, paradox, and despair all hang in the air around her. Hope alone isn't enough to overcome her fractured fate.

[bc56]

Japaraita
"Don't worry, it's just a little and you're all the way over there." Sekhmet, you're literally immune to mundane poisons, including alcohol. You've never opened a wine bottle underwater before. You have no idea how strongly this will affect June, don't pretend you do.
"It's me, my husband, and our two kids." Oh. June you probably have no chance here. She's a married demon with kids.

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
"Don't worry, it's just a little and you're all the way over there." Sekhmet, you're literally immune to mundane poisons, including alcohol. You've never opened a wine bottle underwater before. You have no idea how strongly this will affect June, don't pretend you do.
"It's me, my husband, and our two kids." Oh. June you probably have no chance here. She's a married demon with kids.

[Japaraita]

Heartbreak!

Okay, it wasn't quite heartbreak, since it was just a magically-influenced crush. Instead of heartbreak, instead it's more, like, 'feeling bad for asking in the first place' and 'trying to distract self until she's over it'.

"Oh. I see"
Honestly, at that distance, it's incredibly unlikely June will get anywhere close to drunk. The only concerning thing would be if she starts thinking she's supposed to be drunk and then starts acting like she imagines she would act when drunk.
"Sounds nice," she says.

She keeps on waiting at a distance, occupying herself by looking at some more bottles. "Y'know, I've always wanted kids," she says, putting the bottle back and looking at another one. Her voice gets quieter since she's speaking about herself, but sound still travels pretty well in water. "But, y'know, it's hard, infertility, things don't work out, y'know. The usual." She waves dismissively with the bottle she was holding, and then puts it back. Besides, given how confident she is that she's stuck in some super-advanced VR video game world, and the fact that she hasn't once found the 'log out' button, June's pretty sure that her real body at home would be stuck in some kind of coma on life support or something. Can't log out if you're in a coma, or something along those lines. "But, yeah, seems unlikely to happen," she says in a 'whatever, doesn't matter' tone.

She puts the bottle away and pulls out another one, accidentally knocking a wine rack over. In the water, it starts falling in slow motion. "Oops."

[bc56]

Japaraita
"Oh that's terrible!" Sekhmet is infertile herself, although you wouldn't know it by looking at her children. She needed significant magic to have them. Well, to have one and convert the other. "Have you considered adopting?" And then the wine rack falls. "June watch out!" with a snap of her tail the merdemoness charges in an attempt to catch it. She's not experienced swimming with this tail though. Instead of gently catching it and setting it upright, she plows into it at speed. That will probably make this mess much worse.

[Thursday Violist]

Japaraita
"Oh that's terrible!" Sekhmet is infertile herself, although you wouldn't know it by looking at her children. She needed significant magic to have them. Well, to have one and convert the other. "Have you considered adopting?" And then the wine rack falls. "June watch out!" with a snap of her tail the merdemoness charges in an attempt to catch it. She's not experienced swimming with this tail though. Instead of gently catching it and setting it upright, she plows into it at speed. That will probably make this mess much worse.

[Japaraita]

Plowing into it at speed absolutely makes the mess worse. Given the relatively similar specific densities of water and wine, the absolute worst that could've happened is June getting pinned under the rack (and if that happened, the buoyant force would've made it easier to lift off her than it would be on land) and maybe a small number of bottles that got their necks caught in the wrong spot would be broken open.

Just like how June forgot to explain how to get leverage until asked about it, she also forgot to explain how things fall slower, too. In other words, all the blame can be clearly put on June.

When Sekhmet runs into it, its water-damaged structural supports break in half. Instead of it all falling in one group, the wine rack breaks apart. Sekhmet can try to hold it all together, but more and more of it is falling apart, and more wine bottles are falling out of it.

Not wanting to answer the question, June moves up behind Sekhmet and holds her arms out to help hold the rack together so it doesn't collapse more. It's already caused two bottles to begin breaking, and wine to leak out. "Um! Thanks," she says, "For coming to help me," since Sekhmet did want to save her from getting pinned.


[Riftline]

Once her mountainside hometown is too far to see, Violeta Escarlate finally looks around at the other inhabitants of this train car.

Behind her, there's some friendly and talkative hobgoblins who are offering their home-cooked food to the others around them, offering their food to some aristocratic catpeople who are scoffing at them. There's beefy hunter who's napping, a group of religious pilgrims sitting all together and praying, some inventor lady with some fancy gizmo, several other random people, and...

...Violeta notices someone who she doesn't recognize at all, in a cloak, who keeps on looking at her. Except when Violeta looks directly at her, then this cloaked person looks away and pretends to be doing something else like praying or something like that.

The foxlady hopes it's just a weird person who has a thing for foxgirls, or something like that.


After a couple hours, the train eventually stops in the middle of the valley it's traveling through. Not at any particular Riftline stop, though. Out in the middle of nowhere.

An announcement goes over the train: the train needs to be stopped for a while, there's a massive storm up ahead, and they're worried about a potential mudslide up ahead. However, they say, there's no need to worry because everything's alright and they'll continue on as soon as they get the go-ahead.

For a few minutes, that seems to be true. They just have to wait there. Then, the storm seems to be approaching, as the sky gets darker. There's some heavy sounds of lightning and explosions and rocks falling outside.

The power in the train suddenly shuts off, with the only light coming from the overcast sky.

Fortunately, before the storm grows darker, the train's emergency power comes on.

[Zefir]

[Riftline]

Oh there is another person in the train who has a thing for foxgirls, but he doesn't wear a hood or anything shady.
In fact Violeta might be a bit suprised.Befor the shutdown she may have sworn the seat next to her was empty, but when the emergency lights kick in someone is sitting there... or did he sit there the whole time? The reason she might notice him just now is not because he suddendly appeared. It's because he suddendly speaks up.

"Anothery delayed train? for gods sake, that is the first and last time i use public transportation." The man say, obviously annoyed.

The man himself looks like a normal traveler, could be coming from an office job or just made a tour. He wears casual clothing wwithout any remakrable feats, only a necklace with a piece of marble makes him look different then any NPC. Thought he is no NPC and he hides his bombs as it's allways a bad idea to carry them openly.