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[Keeper]

Disasters

"And what if we confront her and another one takes issue and it starts a whole chain of this?" Jim sighs, throwing up his hands.
"I guess I'm just going to have to have some faith that it didn't happen before and the universe won't make a habit of it.
And no, screwing over a fae completely is what got me into this mess. Let's not go into murder."
Murder is bad.
"Okay, well it sounds like getting rid of the curse is out and I don't really want bull legs, so I guess we're doing this. How are we doing this?"

[quillpleasant]

[Chateau Xilo]

Arriving on foot may be old fashioned as well, but Reinholdt never seems to be late when he walks to where he's going. Besides, driving is just awful. It's not healthy for anyone!

Today he walks up the driveway to Atya's Chateau, whistling lightly to himself as the house comes into view. For someone who had escaped scientific experimentation, she sure was doing well for herself. Reinholdt had imagined a more modest living. But then, she had mentioned some of her chemistry hobbies. Perhaps those extracurricular activities more than paid for any extravagance. Should he have dressed up? Atya didn't seem the type to get fancy for this, but looking at the place he now feels maybe he should have gone a little nicer than his usual choice of leather and leather.

His thoughts are extremely distracted by the many birds. The many, many, delicious looking, pretty birds. Reinholdt's mouth waters a little and he lingers longer than he should as he stares at them flit about. So free. So helpless. It is with a great effort that Rein forces himself to continue onwards, trembling a little from either hunger or excitement. When he reaches the door, he chooses the doorbell purely to avoid any implication of what grabbing onto the eagle might mean.

The cameras haven't escaped his notice either. This target... was pretty worthy of getting cased and picked over. If he ever got exceptionally bored and stupid. And he's always one of those at any given time.

The birds, for their part, watch Reinholdt warily. Maybe it's his scent, or maybe they just don't like visitors. Still, they're bolder than most wild birds, and stay hopping about the yard despite his presence. A particularly ornery raven makes a low croaking noise in his direction. That'll show him.

The doorbell doesn't seem to make any noise, at least not to a human. Should Reinholdt's hearing register be closer to that of a cat, he can hear a high pitched whistle from inside the chateau. There's a few moments of silence, and then the door is abruptly yanked open.

If he's expecting to be greeted by a lovely elven face, then Reinholdt will be unfortunately disappointed. Looming in the doorway is a massive, hulking figure closer in size to an ogre than an elf. Its skin is grey and wrinkled like an elephant's, and its clawed arms reach almost to the ground. A maw of sharklike teeth make up most of its face, with the exception of the single huge yellow eye that glares down at him. It's also wearing an apron embroidered with a pattern of daisies. It snarls, a deep malevolent rumble.

Then it blinks, and beckons him to enter. Turning into the house, the creature lets out a restrained roar. A moment later, Atya's voice is heard in response.

"Be a dear and let him in, I'll be down in just a moment!"

The creature motions again, beckoning Reinholdt to enter. He can see that this entrance hall is decorated with an elegant blue rug, racks for coats and shoes, and just to the right a dimly lit lounge area with comfortable looking plush chairs and a couch.

[Reinholdt]

[Chateau Xilo]

Alas, when Reinholdt is gallivanting about like a regular human-like person with weird eyes and weirder clothes, his hearing isn't quite up to snuff.

His vision works just fine though and he recoils at the large and dangerous looking butler/maid. Another escaped science experiment? Or just a half-cyclops, half-shark? Reinholdt swallows, finding his throat dry and is about to introduce himself when it beckons him inside. Must have been expecting him. Rein nods and gives a slightly nervous smile, stepping inside past the creature.

And realizes he is definitely underdressed. Not only is this a swanky place, but also it has its own staff, AND as the coup de grace Atya would be down in just a moment. Almost certainly meaning she was making herself look nice. Recognizing his faux pas but unwilling to admit defeat, Reinholdt immediately starts stripping once inside, tossing his clothes to the butlermaid cyclopsshark. Those cat paw-print boxer shorts are certainly something else. But Rein hurriedly pulls some nice clothes out of his hammerspace and starts tossing them on quickly in an effort to cover up before getting caught. Skipping the entire upper half of those shirt buttons in favor of making sure his shoes matched his pants and trying to get that belted properly.

[Shadowcaller]

Disasters

"And what if we confront her and another one takes issue and it starts a whole chain of this?" Jim sighs, throwing up his hands.
"I guess I'm just going to have to have some faith that it didn't happen before and the universe won't make a habit of it.
And no, screwing over a fae completely is what got me into this mess. Let's not go into murder."
Murder is bad.
"Okay, well it sounds like getting rid of the curse is out and I don't really want bull legs, so I guess we're doing this. How are we doing this?"

Disasters

Jaahlyn taps her hips as she starts to consider this. "The way I see this, we're going to have to play this the woku way. Which means cheating with as much as we can get away with. She never had the intention to be fair so neither should we. Thus, if we do confront her we should make sure you win.

Any sort of blessings or artifacts that you can hide on your person would probably be helpful, yeah? I can probably provide given that know what you would be challenging her in. Sticks and her majesty too, probably."

"She speaks truth. Woku respects a good swindle, even more so than winning fairly." Baphoreth agrees with a nod though as always Jim feels as if they're not telling him everything. Of course, they have already admitted as much.

[Keeper]

Disasters

"So...to get this straight. I'm just going to go out in a public space and call her out for a challenge? And tempt her into un-cursing me being part of the bet? If I lose will she just make everything worse?"
Given the theme he might end up stuck as a full cow. Which would be bad.
"What do you think I could tempt her into accepting a challenge for? I could try music. But her stupid curse makes my brain feel all foggy and cowlike when I'm awake. You're going to have to help me a little. Unless you think you should take the curse and have Sunder break it so we're at least in top form. Even if my cursed self is a little bit better at hiding things."
He blinks. "Can we just do that? Pick multiple options?"

[Halae]

[Skye's Apartment]

Ava gets up and briskly walks after Skye. Since Skye would have seen the door going to the basement each time she walked up the stairs to her apartment.
But before they can leave for that Ava has a reminder. "Just make sure to bring your staffs, I didn't bring mine with me." And she usually didn't like using it for practice since it was magical.

But assuming that Skye has that, Ava and her will soon be down in the basement. This is where the washing machines are for those living here that don't have their own. Well, in the apartment next door at least. So she'd have to walk over there.
This one only seems to only be used for storage. But as Ava suspected, there's plenty of space here and no one else around.

Ava takes off her coat and folds it before putting it down on the floor with her hat soon resting on top of it. Then she takes up positions. "So it was a while since we did this." The last time they did, Skye looked rather different.

[Skye's Apartment]

Skye rolls her eyes at needing to be told to grab the staffs. Yes, of course she will! She knows!

Ah, teenagers.

"It has," Skye says, falling into a ready stance, one point towards Ava. It seems she's waiting for the older woman to make the first move, "We should do it more often."

[Shadowcaller]

Disasters

"I think the first step should be to ask her majesty to break the curse, yeah." Jaahlyn answers, nodding. "But losing is not on the table. I'll make sure of that personally if I have to." There's a dangerous edge to her voice as she says that.

"But that's a if plan A doesn't work, which it will." Jaahlyn suddenly sounds pretty sure about that. Despite the fact plan A doesn't really exist yet. "The only problem is that we might need to be sneaky if we want to get away with cheating."

A beat.

"...do you know if Sticks shields his dreams, Jim? Since we could visit both his and possibly also her majesty's. Then you won't have to be a fool in front of her." Except when they were going to attempt to break the curse of course.

Baphoreth smiles their goat-like smile but doesn't comment on any of this.

[Shadowcaller]

[Skye's Apartment]

Skye rolls her eyes at needing to be told to grab the staffs. Yes, of course she will! She knows!

Ah, teenagers.

"It has," Skye says, falling into a ready stance, one point towards Ava. It seems she's waiting for the older woman to make the first move, "We should do it more often."

[Skye's Apartment]

Ava is cautious in her approach. Slowly approaching Skye with her staff angled forward. "Yeah, though we should probably have had some proper gear for it." She remarks with a small smile. "Even if I know I probably won't get close to hitting you it feels wrong to swing this against someone that isn't even wearing a helmet." She starts circling Skye, trying to test her patience as it was one of her few advantages in a fight.

[Keeper]

Disasters

"Hm. Well if the Princess breaks the curse I will at least be at full capacity mentally. Unless you think I should hold off on that and challenge the woku to a women's fashion contest with as biased a judge as I can find?" Jim winks.
"We may want to come up with at least what the challenge is before we start bothering Sticks and Sunder. On the plus side I don't think Sticks wards his dreams." He would prefer to not have to make Sticks see him in that embarrassing shape.

[quillpleasant]

[Chateau Xilo]

Alas, when Reinholdt is gallivanting about like a regular human-like person with weird eyes and weirder clothes, his hearing isn't quite up to snuff.

His vision works just fine though and he recoils at the large and dangerous looking butler/maid. Another escaped science experiment? Or just a half-cyclops, half-shark? Reinholdt swallows, finding his throat dry and is about to introduce himself when it beckons him inside. Must have been expecting him. Rein nods and gives a slightly nervous smile, stepping inside past the creature.

And realizes he is definitely underdressed. Not only is this a swanky place, but also it has its own staff, AND as the coup de grace Atya would be down in just a moment. Almost certainly meaning she was making herself look nice. Recognizing his faux pas but unwilling to admit defeat, Reinholdt immediately starts stripping once inside, tossing his clothes to the butlermaid cyclopsshark. Those cat paw-print boxer shorts are certainly something else. But Rein hurriedly pulls some nice clothes out of his hammerspace and starts tossing them on quickly in an effort to cover up before getting caught. Skipping the entire upper half of those shirt buttons in favor of making sure his shoes matched his pants and trying to get that belted properly.

The gray monster just stares at Reinholdt as he changes, making no effort to catch the clothes he throws, which fall in a pile at its feet. Being an inhuman creature, its expression is hard to read. But it somehow seems to be judging him. After a moment it rumbles, scooping up the clothes in one great clawed hand and holding them out for him.

It takes Atya a couple minutes to get down, so Reinholdt should be able to put together a nice, if perhaps a little disheveled, outfit. But the irony of the situation becomes quickly apparent when he notices that Atya was absolutely not making herself look nice.

In fact, she couldn't really be dressed more casually. She's barefoot, wearing a red tanktop and black PJ shorts, with her hair tucked behind her ears and a pair of blue rubber gloves on her hands. Safety glasses adorn her face, and they seem to be prescription as her eyes look even bigger than usual behind them.

"Hey Reinholdt! Sorry, I was just finishing up- oh wow, you look nice." Atya freezes, staring at him for a moment before suddenly taking off her glasses and whipping them down the corridor, where they hit the floor with a cracking sound. She stares after them for a second then turns back, grinning nervously as she removes her gloves.

"Uh, I see you've met Daisy. She's my roommate. And by that I mean she lets me mooch." The hulking monster apparently known as Daisy gives a huff of acknowledgement.

[Shadowcaller]

Disasters

"Hm. Well if the Princess breaks the curse I will at least be at full capacity mentally. Unless you think I should hold off on that and challenge the woku to a women's fashion contest with as biased a judge as I can find?" Jim winks.
"We may want to come up with at least what the challenge is before we start bothering Sticks and Sunder. On the plus side I don't think Sticks wards his dreams." He would prefer to not have to make Sticks see him in that embarrassing shape.

Disasters

Jaahlyn smiles wryly at the joke. "I might just have seen her once and I can already tell you that she has a terrible sense of fashion." Jim wouldn't be able to recall what the woku wore at all. It's all a blur.

"But you're right. We need to come up with something first. A music competition would be the obvious choice but I'm not sure she'd accept it." And music was also pretty subjective. So it would be in the same category as the women fashion competition.

"So we need to have at least one back-up." She pauses. "Could have some kind of quiz. Woku favor being clever more than being powerful."

"They favor being cunning." Baphoreth corrects. "Which is different. To being able to trick their opponent rather than being knowledgeable. So any sort of challenge like that would be seen as a competition in underhandedness rather than knowing."

"Right, that's what I meant." Sort of. "A straight up duel is always an option. With Sticks, her majesty and me we can make sure you win."

"If I may." The giant fey interjects once more. "The woku will expect any challenge to be set in your favor so she's' likely to alter it. The only kind of challenge she'd accept straight away is bond to be something she takes pride in."

Jaahlyn let's out a sigh. "This is starting to get complicated. What if we just set up a trap? Jim puts out a challenge in something she's good at, taunting her, and when she comes down to accept it, bam. Trap slams shut. Then we force her to undo the curse and promise not to bother him again."

[Keeper]

Disasters

Jim blinks, turning over the implications.
"Are you suggesting I challenge her to a race and plant the equivalent of a land mine at the finish line? Sticks could maybe make a subtle binding circle..." Woku are fast, right? Jim remembers that part.
"Honestly I might just need some sort of thing to make it LOOK like I'm using some sort of speed enhancer just to make sure she's looking at me and not the trap."

[Shadowcaller]

Disasters

"It has to be believable or she would see the trap, yeah." Jaahlyn agrees with a nod. "Make her believe you're cheating at something else to distract her from how you're actually cheating her."

Baphoreth smiles at this but is silent once more. Kind of unnerving but everything about the fey usually was so perhaps it would be more concerning if they weren't making you uneasy.

[Keeper]

Disasters

"Alright. Well both of those would require Sticks' help. So we should see him next. I guess that also means we're going to just have me deal with the curse instead of you taking it. Which is fine; that was the original plan."
Jim nods. He doesn't want Jaahlyn to have to deal with his problems. And the only reason for her to take it is if it would be easier for Sunder to break it on her should they want to do so before the challenge. But having it still on him during the challenge will probably make it more convincing.

[Reinholdt]

[Chateau Xilo]

Reinholdt gratefully takes his discarded clothes from Daisy and shoves them hurriedly into his hammerspace before Atya can see his switcheroo. Though she may be able to guess what happened anyways. Unless she suspects Reinholdt was heavily making out with Daisy. That too could dishevel some clothing.

Either way, he's going to have to curse himself. Dammit! He can't read rich girls at all! At least not this one. She's a mystery he just wants to unwrap. The glasses and gloves are a start.

He keeps up a confident poise though, grinning back at her. "Why thank you," Reinholdt says, having clearly gone to much length to look super nice. "And you look... professional." Shouldn't someone in PPE at the very least be wearing shoes? Definitely. Atya wasn't one to follow the rules.

"Ah. Daisy's been very helpful. I hope she doesn't mind the intrusion." Rein nods at Daisy with a small smile before stepping over towards Atya. "And I hope I didn't interrupt an important chemical process. If you want I can wait outside and look at your bird collection some more. Quite a variety."

[Keeper]

The House of the Rising Moon

There is a house by the Skullfort
And there shined the rising moon,
and it'll be the roof for a certain horned boy
this Autumn afternoon

A minotaur walks a secluded forest path. Quite a convenient one, actually. Given the enormous size of many trees in this part of the Nexus a marked path is very welcome. And it isn't too far from where Krayger's nephew lives so he was able to pick up some brunch, the scent of warm pastries still wafting from the paper bag in his hands.
Free from the social confines of meeting Askeladd at a classy establishment, Krayger is making a point to come in his usual outfit of his nice but durable pants and his bag. It's a little chilly for that but it's the principle of the matter. And he has a hoodie in his bag anyway.
Now he just has to hope that Askeladd's directions were written down correctly as it's fairly dark under these giant trees.

[Morty]

[The House of the Rising Moon]

The trees are indeed rather large here, but Askeladd's path is oddly straightforward. He might get the impression that he's welcome here; that the forest itself is letting him in because its master has allowed it. Given what he's discerned about Askeladd's nature, it might be true in a very literal sense.

He certainly can't miss it when he reaches his destination. Of the large trees here, this one is by far the largest, dominating the entire glade. One also can't miss the door and windows - not built into it, but grown. In the higher tiers of its branches are visible some walkways and terraces, attachments built on top of the tree. Askeladd is living in comfort here, it seems.

[Keeper]

The House of the Rising Moon

Such things are quite comforting to Krayger. He is sworn to secrecy on the matter, but his mentor has a very similar setup. Askeladd probably doesn't own as many sheep, though.

...though as Krayger gets to the house itself, he considers that the man might have a few pet birds if he likes it or not. And maybe even a fish as there seems to be a pond over there, too. Well, there doesn't seem to be any security that isn't opening itself up to him. That being the case, Krayger simply walks up to the door and knocks.
He can't help but wonder if a magic tree house has plumbing.

[Halae]

[Skye's Apartment]

Ava is cautious in her approach. Slowly approaching Skye with her staff angled forward. "Yeah, though we should probably have had some proper gear for it." She remarks with a small smile. "Even if I know I probably won't get close to hitting you it feels wrong to swing this against someone that isn't even wearing a helmet." She starts circling Skye, trying to test her patience as it was one of her few advantages in a fight.

[Skye's Apartment]

Skye gives a smirk at that, "I suppose that feels reasonable."

She exhales, and then suddenly moves, shifting her weight in a way that has her coming across the ground towards Ava at surprising speed. Little golden sparks trail her feet, very different from the usual aura of power Skye will have shown a few times. Ava will have but a moment to get her staff up in the way, or she'll take a bruise to her left arm.

[AshenAmbrosia]

[Fayyaad's Place]

"Cassandra. Thank you for coming." Fayyaad smiles despite his troubled mood. "And your taste in wine remains exquisite."

[Fayyaad's Place]

"It sounded like it might be needed," says Cass, immediately heading into Fayyaad's kitchen to grab a pair of wineglasses.

"Are you alright?"

[quillpleasant]

[Chateau Xilo]

Reinholdt gratefully takes his discarded clothes from Daisy and shoves them hurriedly into his hammerspace before Atya can see his switcheroo. Though she may be able to guess what happened anyways. Unless she suspects Reinholdt was heavily making out with Daisy. That too could dishevel some clothing.

Either way, he's going to have to curse himself. Dammit! He can't read rich girls at all! At least not this one. She's a mystery he just wants to unwrap. The glasses and gloves are a start.

He keeps up a confident poise though, grinning back at her. "Why thank you," Reinholdt says, having clearly gone to much length to look super nice. "And you look... professional." Shouldn't someone in PPE at the very least be wearing shoes? Definitely. Atya wasn't one to follow the rules.

"Ah. Daisy's been very helpful. I hope she doesn't mind the intrusion." Rein nods at Daisy with a small smile before stepping over towards Atya. "And I hope I didn't interrupt an important chemical process. If you want I can wait outside and look at your bird collection some more. Quite a variety."

Chateau Xilo

Of all the reasons Atya could speculate on for Reinholdt's rumpled appearance, a Daisy makeout would be so far down the list that it would never register. Regardless, her own state of relative undress leaves her little room to judge. Although she is speculating that he might have come here from a fight of some kind. That'd be cool.

"Professional? I like a guy who knows when to lie," she says with a grin, shaking out her hair, "But nah, nothing too important, just checking on the sannish distiller. I'm glad you like the birds! They're wild, Daisy just knows the right things to leave out for them. But no, you're not going anywhere now that I've got you to myself for a while."

She steps over to take Reinholdt's arm, attempting to lead him further into the chateau. Daisy watches them go with a disapproving snort.

"Don't mind her," whispers Atya, rolliing her eyes, "The nastiness is just an act, she's a real mush. She works so hard attracting all those birds just because she knows I like watching them."

Heading past a couple side passages, the two will emerge in a large entertainment room. The floor is made from rich red hardwood with three elaborate Persian rugs laid across it. A huge cream colored couch curved into a half circle stands in the middle, and the left wall is a fully stocked minibar, complete with rotating barstools. A pool table, darts, and a flatscreen television with virtual reality headsets hooked up to it complete the amenities while suits of armor and paintings of exotic birds serve as decorations. The far wall is made of glass, looking out on a pool and hot tub just outside.

"Get you anything to start?" asks Atya, nodding at the bar, "The really good stuff is downstairs but there's time for that later."

[Reinholdt]

[Chateau Xilo]

Reinholdt smirks a little in response to Atya's lying comment. Perhaps a little too much. "Oh, well I guess I'm going anywhere." Rein gives Daisy a little grin and follows Atya's lead, letting her take him wherever she wants to go.

"Oh, I hadn't thought her nasty at all. Was she acting nasty? I'm afraid I don't speak... uhh... grunts?" Reinholdt says after they escape what he guesses is earshot. "Did she also escape from the iii then? You mentioned some horrible side effects of immortality so..." Perhaps Atya knew someone quite personally who were suffering those effects.

Reinholdt lets out a little whistle when they arrive at the entertainment room. Not to summon birds, but rather at its impressive nature. "I clearly need to start spending more money. This is swanky." Reinholdt is torn between sitting at the bar or sitting on the couch. "Don't need to disturb the wine cellar yet. How about a Dark N' Stormy?" Instead of sitting, Reinholdt lingers a little, walking around a bit to look at the different decorations.

"So, you're a huge fan of birds huh? Any particular reason? Remind me to introduce you to a Kestrel I know some day." Rein stops in front of a painting of the fabled phoenix and snorts a little before looking away to watch Atya instead.

[Shadowcaller]

[Skye's Apartment]

Skye gives a smirk at that, "I suppose that feels reasonable."

She exhales, and then suddenly moves, shifting her weight in a way that has her coming across the ground towards Ava at surprising speed. Little golden sparks trail her feet, very different from the usual aura of power Skye will have shown a few times. Ava will have but a moment to get her staff up in the way, or she'll take a bruise to her left arm.

[Skye's Apartment]

Ava only manages to block it since she was prepared and even then just barely. The power of Skye's strike causing Ava's staff to vibrate in her grip.
She attempts to follow this up with swinging the other end of the staff at Skye's flank while stepping away from her as she knew she couldn't stand up to the teenagers raw power for long. Though the maneuver is a bit clumsy and not as well-practiced as Ava would have liked.

Disasters

"Alright. Well both of those would require Sticks' help. So we should see him next. I guess that also means we're going to just have me deal with the curse instead of you taking it. Which is fine; that was the original plan."
Jim nods. He doesn't want Jaahlyn to have to deal with his problems. And the only reason for her to take it is if it would be easier for Sunder to break it on her should they want to do so before the challenge. But having it still on him during the challenge will probably make it more convincing.

Disasters

"Okay, so we're visiting his dream now then?" Jaahlyn inquires as she turns to look at Bahoreth and then back at Jim, gesturing at the fey. "And should we bring them along?"

The goat-headed being folds their hands and turns to address Jim. "Jaahlyn might not remember this but it wouldn't be the first time we've met a wizard. She's been summoned by them many times though in most cases it was when trying to conjure me."

"I remember." The satyr remarks with a small sigh. "Sticks is not the same though." Or at least she was pretty sure he was.

[Halae]

[Skye's Apartment]

Ava only manages to block it since she was prepared and even then just barely. The power of Skye's strike causing Ava's staff to vibrate in her grip.
She attempts to follow this up with swinging the other end of the staff at Skye's flank while stepping away from her as she knew she couldn't stand up to the teenagers raw power for long. Though the maneuver is a bit clumsy and not as well-practiced as Ava would have liked.

[Skye's Apartment]

And Skye steps back, out of the path of the strike to let it glance away from her. But, interestingly, she doesn't take advantage of the opening this leaves Ava with; it seems Skye is trying not to overwhelm the older woman, as she doesn't want the sparring session to end too soon.

After a moment of waiting, she'll step forward again, intent on striking one of Ava's legs in a spear thrust!

[Shadowcaller]

[Skye's Apartment]

Ava does have a better response for this as she pulls her staff to the right as Skye thrusts out, not blocking the attack but forcing it off-course. Effectively deflecting it.
But as good as this defense might be the druid doesn't seem sure how to counterattack from this position and just attempts to step back out of Skye's reach.

[Halae]

[Skye's Apartment]

That turns out to be a good move; it seems Skye was expecting the deflection and brought the read end of her staff around to strike Ava, but with the druid stepping back out of reach the strike doesn't connect. From the smile on Skye's face, she's loving this.

That said, given the counterattack whiffed, Ava will have an opportunity to try and attack back.

[Shadowcaller]

[Skye's Apartment]

Taking advantage of this Ava goes for the simplest attack possible and just attempts to make a slam attack at Skye's chest or shoulder. It isn't particularly well-aimed as the druid is just going for the fastest attack possible.

[Keeper]

Disasters

"Okay, so we're visiting his dream now then?" Jaahlyn inquires as she turns to look at Bahoreth and then back at Jim, gesturing at the fey. "And should we bring them along?"

The goat-headed being folds their hands and turns to address Jim. "Jaahlyn might not remember this but it wouldn't be the first time we've met a wizard. She's been summoned by them many times though in most cases it was when trying to conjure me."

"I remember." The satyr remarks with a small sigh. "Sticks is not the same though." Or at least she was pretty sure he was.

Disasters

"Um." Jim blinks.
"Sorry Baphoreth, but you're kind of scary looking. I think if you're there Sticks might jump to the wrong conclusions. He's got some old traumas and I don't want to spook him. Maybe this is just for me and Jaahlyn?" he admits.

[Halae]

[Skye's Apartment]

Skye brings up her staff to try and block it, but Ava's strike is too fast to fully block, and it glances off of the teen's shoulder as a result. On the upside, it gets Skye to quickly back off and get some distance between the two of them.

[Morty]

[The House of the Rising Moon]

On closer inspection, the pond is the base of a waterfall. The water then proceeds to flow downhill and out of the forest. There also do seem to be some birds and squirrels on the tree's branches. One might assume Askeladd accepts their presence.

The door opens when he knocks, revealing Askeladd in a white shirt, partly untied, and knee-length trousers.

"Krayger! I'm glad you made it. The way wasn't too difficult, I hope."

[Fayyaad's Place]

"For the most part, yes, but... something has been troubling me." Fayyaad watches Cass from his seat. "Do you know Rose? Rose Verdoyant. I don't think the two of you have met."