Home

[Arkhosia]

[Foxes and Felines]

”Huh? Um, yeah, sure.” May blinks and glances around, as if finally noticing what everyone else is up to for the first time. She unfolds and slips out of the chair, leaving the book behind and moving quietly to the kitchen area. The girl wastes no time opening the dishwasher and starting on her task. She doesn’t even wait for Rein to lead the way!

[Gullara]

[Foxes and Felines]

"Uuuuuuugh." Annie groans. What a disappointment. Rein was supposed to be cool. But now she has to do her dumb homework. She puts her head down on her arm and looks sideways at the paper, as if the effort of this task has drained all energy from her.

The triplets are pretty immediately captured by the film. That should keep them busy for a bit. Their laughter and chatter will be constant background noise.

The two infants are appeased by being fed for now. Rein best tread carefully, though!

[Halae]

[Skye's Apartment]

"Then we'll wait for the moment," Skye answers Mary. If she'd exhausted herself... well, Skye knows a remedy to that.

She intends to head into the kitchen to get some food!

The kitchen, of course, where Asami has been hiding out! Hopefully he hasn't made a mess of things while the others were doing things in the living room. Skye would be unhappy with him.

[[brackets lover]]

[Skye's Apartment]

In the short time that has passed, Asami probably only got out a small snack for himself. When Skye walks in, he pauses and turns to them. "Ah. Sup, Skye-senpai. And Brignole-senpai. Everything okay?"

[Reinholdt]

[Foxes and Felines]

If Reinholdt was going to tread carefully, he wouldn't have agreed to babysit! Only wild and reckless behavior can earn the respect of children.

For instance, Rein follows May's lead instead! Crazy!

"So, you got your third tail huh?" Reinholdt says he enters the kitchen, slightly off to one side. "If I recall my conversations with Kitty years ago that means you found an aspect of yourself, correct? Or it represents an aspect of yourself?" Might as well start with the obvious. May is going to have to explain that tail to a number of people a hundred times Rein's sure.

[Arkhosia]

[Foxes and Felines]

There’s a clatter of silverware as the usually-dexterous kitsune fumbles. The question wasn’t new by now, but that last tidbit blindsides her. She reaches back into the sink with one hand as the other squeezes against the rim.

”Y-yeah… yeah, it does.” May swallows, trying to regain herself and not show pain at the very suggestion of such a thing. To think of the yokai as an aspect of herself….

[Reinholdt]

[Foxes and Felines]

Reinholdt watches May's reaction, but it's not far off from what he was expecting. Mostly just confirmation as to why May's been listless tonight. "And I take it that it's a part of yourself you don't like much, huh?"

Rein moves to the sink beside her and starts rinsing the more egregious stains before passing them over. Regardless of whether she answers or leaves it purely hypothetical, he continues. "You know, I was born wrong."

[Arkhosia]

[Foxes and Felines]

”No.” May shivers. “I really, really don’t.” She takes an uncharacteristically warding tone here, but her mind races on how to elaborate if needed to. Could she say it represents that someone hurt her? It might be pointed enough to keep away further questions.

Fortunately, the man takes a different direction. She looks back to Rein for a moment, surprised. ”What do you mean?”

[Meowmai]

[Flats and Cats]

"Heh, yeah, no kidding." The catgirl smiles briefly, but notes Liz's evasion quickly. Something's bothering her, that's for sure. But Liz isn't going to just open up to her if she asks about it if she hasn't already, especially when the girl barely knows her. Hmm, how do you get someone to talk to you?

Blanche takes a quick glance around the neighborhood. "Well, uh. If you're tired, you wanna get a coffee or something? My treat." Sure, that's probably the best you could be expected to think of. Very subtle.

[Flats and Cats]

As family goes, Elizabeth is not the social kind of sibling. She's spent a good chunk of her life ideally minimising how many people know her and how well- something she tells herself is for entirely practical reasons due to the nature of her work. So when Blanche suggests getting coffee together, her first instinct is to find some excuse. No way is she letting her weird soldier sister from VIGIL get to know her.

"Ahh, well unfortunately I sorta have a thing happening later today, sooo," she starts, before hearing a faint ping. Her eyes flick downwards to the device on her wrist, reading a new message. Oh, motherfucker. The last flat viewing she had booked had been cancelled. Some other bastard had taken the room! Which left her with more searching to do, an idea that exhausted her with the mere thought. She flicks the message away- though if Blanche is nosy she might catch a glimpse- and sighs. Fuck this. She could really do with a good coffee right now. One someone else is paying for. "Actually? You know what? Sure. That'd be... nice."

[bc56]

Skye's Apartment
Asami already knows they're sharing Skye's body... How much of that conversation did he listen in to?
"I'm all right, just tired." Of course that means Mary's body is comatose in the other room, if Asami wants to cause trouble.

Meanwhile, the kitchen! Mary's in Skye's body, so she shares Skye's hunger, whatever that's at at the moment. However, if anything strikes her fancy, she'll blurt it out. She loves meat and chocolate, sometimes even together.

[Halae]

[Skye's Apartment]

Skye will immediately see to a leftover meal of hers - a hearty stew with spices (perhaps too many), ham, various vegetables, and more, reheated on the stove, which she adores the taste of, but bowing to Mary's own taste, she'll also prepare a bowl (not a mug, a bowl) of hot chocolate using a cannister of hot chocolate mix that Ava left for her. All in all, it'll take about ten minutes for everything to heat up to Skye's tastes.

Which will of course give Asami an opportunity to do whatever. Skye is wiling to chat if he sticks around in the kitchen, but she has no aims on keeping him from entering the living room, where Mary's unconscious body is sitting on the couch.

[[brackets lover]]

[Skye's Apartment]

Asami blinks a bit, then smiles with relief. "Gotcha. Have you done this before or anything?" he asks curiously.

[Reinholdt]

[Foxes and Felines]

"My people- my species, well we all can shapeshift into large cats. Panthers, lions, cougars. That sort of thing," Reinholdt explains. "To us, learning how to do so is like how you bipedal children learn how to walk. It comes naturally enough." He pauses for a second before continuing with the dishes.

"So at first they attributed my lack of shifting to slow learning. I was considered a remedial student of sorts I suppose. In time it became clear that wasn't the case. That I just couldn't shift at all." Rein gets a little quieter. "To my mother I was a bad omen, to the doctors an abomination, to my father a disappointment. But no one hated me more for being different, for something I couldn't change... than me."

[Arkhosia]

[Foxes and Felines]

May works quietly, continuing with her own dishes as Rein speaks. It's not hard to tell that she's listening, though. To hear Reinholdt describe himself as a strange, defective version of his kind that wasn't able to function like they were expected to... it hit closer than Rein could possibly know. Still.... "But... they were wrong, right?"

[Reinholdt]

[Foxes and Felines]

Reinholdt opens his mouth to reply but quickly closes it again, thoughtfully thinking first. Ah shit, that was the worst question May could have asked. How to dig out of this hole he made himself? It takes a moment to formulate a proper response.

"If you're asking whether I could shapeshift into a large cat at the end of the day, the answer is no. That never came to me. Were they wrong to hate me for it? My therapist says yes. My emotions say no." Reinholdt gives a soft smile. "Most days my emotions win."

A particularly reflective glass catches his attention for a second before he passes it off. "I'll never know what you're going through. Everyone who is special in the 'wrong' ways has to find their own way to fight. But you don't have to fight alone. And if you ever decide you'd like my support, I can promise I can keep a secret from Kitsuki and Obriane. I take confidentiality quite seriously."

[Morty]

[Askeladd’s Hideaway]

"Sharing their power doesn't come easy for gods. There's a reason Exaltation is such a rare miracle." Askeladd strokes his beard in thought. "I've known Havsken to give this gift a few times, for their own reasons."

[A Succubus Problem]

Sophie rejoins Trick and Sekhmet after a while, having checked in on the twins who are (thankfully) calm for now.

[Arkhosia]

[Foxes and Felines]

Somehow, the pause to answer is a strange comfort. The hesitation to say everyone else's assessments were wrong feels more in tune with herself than any affirmation Reinholdt could have given, and his actual answer only cements the feeling. The way she looks at him from the side of the eye is different now. Not a true sense of kinship - how could he know anything close to the blood on her hands? - but certainly a newfound connection. Understanding.

"When I say I didn't like my new aspect... it happened because I let someone hurt me," May explains. It's not a lie, not exactly. Still, she hesitates. "I've been thinking, and - the way that person hurt me... I think I was assaulted." There's a spare glance at Rein, gauging his reaction. "My boyfriend, I - I don't know how to tell him."

[Halae]

[A Succubus Problem]

"Where do you need us to stand?" Trick asks, looking antsy. She isn't certain how long the protection to her mind that Sophie applied will last, and wants to make sure her mind doesn't revert to where it had been a minute ago. That wasn't great. With Sekhmet leading this particular ritual, though, it shouldn't be too bad. Right?

[Keeper]

[Askeladd’s Hideaway]

"Sharing their power doesn't come easy for gods. There's a reason Exaltation is such a rare miracle." Askeladd strokes his beard in thought. "I've known Havsken to give this gift a few times, for their own reasons."

Askeladd's Hideaway

"I think they did mention that was theoretically possible."
He tilts his head, looking up at Askeladd.
"But well...what now?"

[bc56]

Skye's Apartment
"It's the first time, but it went pretty well," Mary replies. She appreciates the smell of the food cooking.
"Don't worry about us, we're both fine."

A Succubus Problem
"Just stand inside the circle," Sekhmet lays the iron hoop down on the ground. "This is going to hurt. But whatever you do, don't leave the circle until the ritual is done. Don't stick so much as a finger out."

Once both of them are inside, Sekhmet starts chanting and walking around the circle. The glyphs she scribed begin to glow...

[Reinholdt]

[Foxes and Felines]

Reinholdt grows pretty quiet and there's a twinge at his lips. It's not his place to get mad for May, but he can't help but feel a little angry. It won't be of any help here though so he forces himself to rein it in. There's a sadness that replaces it when he does and he fails to look her in the eyes. "Well you're leagues ahead of me. I was in denial about it for years." Reinholdt stares down at the countertop. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

Tilting his head up, Rein gets a little more thoughtful. "I don't think there's an easy answer to that one. Depends a lot on him and you and what you're both like. I know it's important not to rush it, especially if you're still processing. And if he's a keeper, he'll understand that. I also know that if you never tell him, he's going to feel pushed away. He'll feel like he's not good enough for you to lean on when you really need it. That might not be true at all, things are much more complicated than that. But people feel that way anyways. So I wouldn't wait forever either. Perhaps... have you considered writing him a letter? It's easy to lose words when you have to talk about something emotional. A letter helps make sure they're at least all there in one place."

[Morty]

[Askeladd’s Hideaway]

"What now? Hmm. I have an idea." Askeladd's form briefly glows silver and before Krayger knows it, his boyfriend has transformed into a spotted brown bird. He hops onto the window next to Krayger. "If you're not yet tired, we can see the countryside from above together."

[A Succubus Problem]

Sophie stands in the circle, wrapping her arms around Trick and resting her face against her chest. If this is going to hurt, holding each other close will help deal with it.

[Arkhosia]

[Flats and Cats]

► SHOW SPOILER

[Flats and Cats]

As family goes, Elizabeth is not the social kind of sibling. She's spent a good chunk of her life ideally minimising how many people know her and how well- something she tells herself is for entirely practical reasons due to the nature of her work. So when Blanche suggests getting coffee together, her first instinct is to find some excuse. No way is she letting her weird soldier sister from VIGIL get to know her.

"Ahh, well unfortunately I sorta have a thing happening later today, sooo," she starts, before hearing a faint ping. Her eyes flick downwards to the device on her wrist, reading a new message. Oh, motherfucker. The last flat viewing she had booked had been cancelled. Some other bastard had taken the room! Which left her with more searching to do, an idea that exhausted her with the mere thought. She flicks the message away- though if Blanche is nosy she might catch a glimpse- and sighs. Fuck this. She could really do with a good coffee right now. One someone else is paying for. "Actually? You know what? Sure. That'd be... nice."

Blanche blinks as she watches Elizabeth seem to suddenly deflate over the course of a single message, and her eyes drop to her younger sister's rig. Liz is too quick for her to catch the actual body of the message - but she does catch the sender's name, specifically the "Landlord" part of it. Was Liz having flat troubles or something? Would explain the exhaustion. "Cool, okay. C'mon, I think I saw a place down the road." She tries to put on her best, most personable grin.

[Foxes and Felines]

► SHOW SPOILER

[Foxes and Felines]

Reinholdt grows pretty quiet and there's a twinge at his lips. It's not his place to get mad for May, but he can't help but feel a little angry. It won't be of any help here though so he forces himself to rein it in. There's a sadness that replaces it when he does and he fails to look her in the eyes. "Well you're leagues ahead of me. I was in denial about it for years." Reinholdt stares down at the countertop. "I'm sorry that happened to you."

Tilting his head up, Rein gets a little more thoughtful. "I don't think there's an easy answer to that one. Depends a lot on him and you and what you're both like. I know it's important not to rush it, especially if you're still processing. And if he's a keeper, he'll understand that. I also know that if you never tell him, he's going to feel pushed away. He'll feel like he's not good enough for you to lean on when you really need it. That might not be true at all, things are much more complicated than that. But people feel that way anyways. So I wouldn't wait forever either. Perhaps... have you considered writing him a letter? It's easy to lose words when you have to talk about something emotional. A letter helps make sure they're at least all there in one place."

"...Thank you." Rein might catch a slight slackening of the shoulders when he finally speaks. He's the first person May's found the moment to speak to about this, and the empathy he shows is exactly the reception she needed. "Eliseo and I have been together for over three years now. He's... he's always been understanding." Her mind wanders to how unconditionally he's been there to comfort her and how affirming he's been of her. "I'm just scared I'm leaning too much on him right now. I think seeing how badly I was in the aftermath really hurt him too."

"I need to give it some time, but... I think you're right about a letter. It'll help me get some of the feelings out just writing it, too. That'll... help, at least." She scrubs away at a small pan. "It's... really nice to know I have someone I can talk to about stuff like this. I didn't think you'd be the type."

[Ironsmith]

Benedict's Manse

Despite his reputation of a wealthy scholar of magic, Benedict's home isn't quite as impressive as one might expect. It primarily consists of a seven-storey square tower with a flat, crenellated roof, all made from rough, black basalt. Built around it is a red brick two-storey cottage, with several large windows and fancy brickwork and arches. A flint stone barn standing off to one side has been refurbished into a coach house. The house is built on a cliff-edged headland overlooking the sea, and there's the greyish-white ribs of an immense leviathan set into the ground like immense posts marking the edge of the estate. Just inside the border is a small graveyard, with three worn marble headstones and a marble mausoleum bound with heavy bronze chains. Ten skeletons carrying spears and wearing black robes march about the estate on patrol, quickly approaching Jubilee's coach as it approaches, lowering their weapons to encourage it to stop.

[Benedict's Manse]

"...Sad, what gets away with calling itself a wizard's tower these days." Jubilee notes as they approach the manse. Apart from the skeletons, she's not seeing much to distinguish this place from the verifiably podunk tower they left behind in Little Sattleborough. "This whole setup is one unfortunate earthquake away from tumbling into the sea. You'd have to be some kind of moron to want to live here." She glances over at her apprentice with a set of raised eyebrows, encouraging her to take the hint in the event things go sour.

For now, though, the immediate concern is the amateur necromancy project blocking their path. Hardly an actual concern, mind, but they made for a much more official fenceline than the whale bones. This is where she'd announce herself and her business.

"Fetch your master." She commands simply. "I would speak with him on a sensitive matter for his ears only."

If the skeletons don't comply, she can at least say she tried to be polite.

[Gullara]

[Aftermaths and Futures]

"Devious, I like it. Suppose I really am rubbing off on you." Dulcinea grins, leaning in close once Reilana turns to focus on her new task. The sensation of proximity is much more tangible with the strange, chilly aura the girl now radiates. "I'll let you work," she coos, then plants a soft and skillful kiss on Reilana's cheek and pulls away.

[Aftermaths and Futures]

Reilana blink, flushing warm as she's caught off guard by the kiss. "Right, to work." She manages, reorienting her brain back toward the task. She flashes a smile and turns to her desk.

She steps over and grabs a bone shard off the surface, then turns back holding it up between her fingers. "I'll just make a decoy. They're used to be not being talkative right now." She turns it over between her fingers, inspecting the theorems already carved into it. "Shame I don't know more flesh magic. I could grow out my hair, and make a pretty convincing double." She makes a scissors cutting motion through her hair.

But that aside, she takes her knife, the one Dulcinea is intimately familiar with, and alters the theorems. Then she places the shard on the bed where her shoulders would be. "Well, let's try this." She makes an (unnecessary) little gesture, and the shard explodes outward, curving back toward the bed in what was supposed to be a controlled expansion, but instead it slams into the bed. There's a loud crack and the bed frame breaks. Reilana is left staring stunned at the display.

[Reinholdt]

[Foxes and Felines]

Reinholdt frowns a little. "That is complicated. It hurts seeing someone you care about being hurt. Hopefully he has someone he can talk to about it." He hasn't met this Eliseo fellow, so Rein's not even sure if he has a mouth, but presumably he does. You never know with the Nexus.

"N-not the type? When you're moving tumblers you have to be good at listening." That... probably isn't as connected as Rein thinks it is. "But I'm glad I could be of help." Reinholdt glances at May with a reaffirming smile.

"If I may bring up a sensitive practical issue? I expect you're going to get a lot of questions about that tail you don't want to answer at school. Or even just out and about, honestly. Have you considered dying your fur?"

[Earl of Purple]

Benedict's Manse

This has some similarities, but it's quite a bit bigger, and clearly has had several architects looking it over and designing it. It's been added to several times, but it's still quite cohesive and it's been build properly. Also, Earl said they were leviathan bones, not whale ones.

"I will." Although Earl's less sure it'll stick, since Benedict's ancestor stole the tower nearly seven hundred years ago, by murdering a village and flying off with it.

One of the skeletons nods its head and turns to trot off, jogging towards the manse. The rest of the patrol remains where they are, remaining vigilant. They aren't a serious defence, either, but intended to slow down attackers for more potent defences to be activated.

Unless Jubilee says anything to Samantha- who isn't going to initiate conversation, as she fears the skeletons can hear them and will report back to their master all that they say- it's going to be a minute or so before the skeleton returns, accompanying a dark-skinned man with green eyes wearing a purple suit, striding along with an elegant walking-stick and his wife, a human woman with dark skin (though she's paler than her husband) and dark eyes, with brown hair and wearing a pair of jeans and a jumper. "Greetings, neighbours. I am Benedict Beaulieu, esquire, and this is my wife, Mergei. Would you like to join us in the house? I have a coachman who will look after your horses. They aren't skittish, are they? My coachman... takes a little getting used to."

[Arkhosia]

► SHOW SPOILER

[Foxes and Felines]

Reinholdt frowns a little. "That is complicated. It hurts seeing someone you care about being hurt. Hopefully he has someone he can talk to about it." He hasn't met this Eliseo fellow, so Rein's not even sure if he has a mouth, but presumably he does. You never know with the Nexus.

"N-not the type? When you're moving tumblers you have to be good at listening." That... probably isn't as connected as Rein thinks it is. "But I'm glad I could be of help." Reinholdt glances at May with a reaffirming smile.

"If I may bring up a sensitive practical issue? I expect you're going to get a lot of questions about that tail you don't want to answer at school. Or even just out and about, honestly. Have you considered dying your fur?"

[Foxes and Felines]

"...Yeah," May agrees, thinking silently. Rein manages to lighten things up for her - his remark earns him an actual laugh, even if it's a small one. "I mean, yeah, but people don't really make the same clicks as tumblers. The mechanisms are weirder than that."

"I... hadn't thought about it." May swallows. "I dunno. I don't want to keep fielding questions about it, and I don't like seeing it either, but... I think I need to get used to it being a part of me." The Yokai of Violent Ends is part of her now. Despite how much she hates it all and how little she wants to feel defined by it, she can't help but feel like covering up her tail would be like trying to deny what had happened to herself. And she's so very tired of running from everything she's done.

[Arkhosia]

► SHOW SPOILER

[Aftermaths and Futures]

Reilana blink, flushing warm as she's caught off guard by the kiss. "Right, to work." She manages, reorienting her brain back toward the task. She flashes a smile and turns to her desk.

She steps over and grabs a bone shard off the surface, then turns back holding it up between her fingers. "I'll just make a decoy. They're used to be not being talkative right now." She turns it over between her fingers, inspecting the theorems already carved into it. "Shame I don't know more flesh magic. I could grow out my hair, and make a pretty convincing double." She makes a scissors cutting motion through her hair.

But that aside, she takes her knife, the one Dulcinea is intimately familiar with, and alters the theorems. Then she places the shard on the bed where her shoulders would be. "Well, let's try this." She makes an (unnecessary) little gesture, and the shard explodes outward, curving back toward the bed in what was supposed to be a controlled expansion, but instead it slams into the bed. There's a loud crack and the bed frame breaks. Reilana is left staring stunned at the display.

[Aftermaths and Futures]

Dulcinea's expression is akin to the cat who caught the canary as she shifts herself to the foot of the bed, watching Reilana get to work with a satisfied little smirk. It's not the most graceful exit in her current condition, but it'll do for now. Her eyes fall onto the wicked knife in her girlfriend's hand. Had she really only carved those runes into her a week or two ago? It felt so long ago. Perhaps it was because of how drastically it had changed things for them. "I'm surprised they've let you keep that," she observes.

Dulcie stays where she is as the bone shard is placed and a theatrical gesture is made... and then suddenly, the two get way more than they bargained for. "Ah!" Dulcinea yells in surprise as the bed frame cracks under her, sending her tumbling backwards into the center as the mattress drops inwards. She lies there for a moment, wide-eyed, her legs dangling over the newly-formed ridge. "Spirits... do you think anyone heard that?"

[Reinholdt]

[Foxes and Felines]

Reinholdt smiles a little himself. "That they are."

People are weird.

"Oh sorry, no. I didn't mean it like that. It's really hard to dye black fur I think? Don't quote me on that. I meant, dying the rest of you black. It would be easy to pass it off as a goth phase. That way they'll be complimenting your aesthetic rather than asking about it. And it wouldn't be forever, just until you were comfortable again and ready. But I hear what you're saying too." Reinholdt shrugs. "Well, it was just a thought. I wish I could offer something more concrete and substantial." He frowns a little and decides to shift a little to something lighter.

"So I saw you messing with locks last time I was here. Is that something you still do?"