Planeside

[Shadowcaller]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

"Everyone's at least a bit dangerous if they put their mind to it." Jaahlyn replies as she gives this notion a moment of consideration while staring out at the road. "Since that's what makes people so dangerous, right? Their minds. Not claws or horns."

"In fact-" She adds as she raises her index finger. "-I figure it makes me less dangerous than most people. Since at least it makes people watch out while I'm around while the really dangerous ones are those that you never see coming. The kind that look just like everyone else. That could walk right past you without getting as much as a second look."

[Ironsmith]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

The boy continues to stare at her anxiously, though now it seems partly tempered by confusion. Apparently he isn't quite following along with her point.

"...So... you're saying because you're scary, I shouldn't be scared of you?" The boy tries, an incredulous edge creeping into his voice. Why, the notion defied all logic. Or at least logic as an eight-year-old understands it.

[Shadowcaller]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

"What I mean is that all strangers can be dangerous if you're not careful around them. But you're more careful around me than you would be with anyone else, right?" Jaahlyn turns towards him and gestures at herself. "'cause of what I look like."

The satyr shrugs. "Eh, but maybe you don't need to be warned about strangers. Since this place is filled with nice people, right? My point was really that I'm not as dangerous as I look. Not to anyone in here at least, though I get why people think that. I get it a lot."

She scratches her chin. "But what else does your mother tell you? Since for someone I've never met she sure seems to know a lot about me."

[Ironsmith]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

The boy shakes his head. "They don't seem too nice to me." He says, wrapping his arms around himself anxiously. "They weren't mean mean, but they weren't nice. They just kept staring at me and they kept talking like I was in trouble. I didn't do anything."

The boy steps out of hiding, and Jaahlyn can get a better look at him; he's dressed in a black robe, like the ones she saw Marianne and Melody in during their trials, except this one has a paper tag fixed where the right breast pocket would be, which reads:

Hello! My name is
Edward
Please help me get to
Bracnic Orphanarium
7070 Everrett Ave
Bracnic, EL

"...I don't think my mum was talking about you, specifically." The boy adds after a moment. "She just had a lot to say about you demons. Like how you're all mean and liars and eat kids if you get a chance." He looks up at Jaahlyn warily. "...You don't actually eat kids, right? That sounds like something my brother would make up."

[Rebonack]

[Primordial Bog]

Well now all Khannie can really do is look down at her hooves and think.

Why didn't she ever ask?

Well...

Mostly because Fortuna rarely if ever interacts with her directly.

It's always through some intermediary.

Maybe she'll do something with dad or that one time with Sekhmet or when she disastrously inverted a Witch just to see what would happen. She doesn't seem to want to get close to Khannie. Maybe for a reason?

"I guess all I can really do is ask. If she ever shows up," Khannie admits.

This has been...

A weird chat.

For sure.

[[brackets lover]]

Reginald nods vigorously to indicate that he is, indeed, friend!

And he places himself next to Jon, ready to provide whatever assistance is needed.

For example, he could cast Find The Path…….

Such a spell may not work so well in this situation as lacking in information as Reginald is. In fact, it entirely depends on what he has in mind in regards to what "Jon's mother" actually is.

In all likelihood, the spell would fail. For Jon's part, he's excited to have company and wags his tail. He begins howling and making complicated gestures with his tail, attempting to cast a spell of his own. However, nothing happens as a result of this, causing him to sigh with displeasure.

With no other recourse, Jon begins sprinting forth, trekking across the snowy wasteland. There'd be smell of creatures, but not the ripe smell of organic processes. Some of the smells wouldn't even be anything native to any of the worlds either Reginald or Jon have been to before.

Shortly after travelling, the smell of humans came into range, about a village's worth and equipped with pickaxes and bags for storing mined iron. While they were all constantly moving, some of them had wounds of various intensity, to the point where they'd couldn't be alive under normal circumstances. A few of them even had rotting flesh. They seem to be toiling away, a constant flow of people going into a cave opening in the side of a mountain and out of it towards a location beyond what Jon can smell.

[Shadowcaller]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

The boy shakes his head. "They don't seem too nice to me." He says, wrapping his arms around himself anxiously. "They weren't mean mean, but they weren't nice. They just kept staring at me and they kept talking like I was in trouble. I didn't do anything."

The boy steps out of hiding, and Jaahlyn can get a better look at him; he's dressed in a black robe, like the ones she saw Marianne and Melody in during their trials, except this one has a paper tag fixed where the right breast pocket would be, which reads:

Hello! My name is
Edward
Please help me get to
Bracnic Orphanarium
7070 Everrett Ave
Bracnic, EL

"...I don't think my mum was talking about you, specifically." The boy adds after a moment. "She just had a lot to say about you demons. Like how you're all mean and liars and eat kids if you get a chance." He looks up at Jaahlyn warily. "...You don't actually eat kids, right? That sounds like something my brother would make up."

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

That black robe did catch her attention. Very curious that one.
Was he a... shade? One of those destined for- well, around here just either the abyss or Elysium she supposed.
She considers this new information for a moment.

"Well, I'm not actually a demon you know? I'm a guide, my job is to lead people where they're supposed to be. And I don't think demons are supposed to be up here." Then she suddenly offers her hand. "You seem a bit lost though, you need any help? I'd be pretty bad at my job if I turned down someone lost."

[Ironsmith]

[Miss Hesperos Goes To Heaven]

The boy steps back cautiously as Jaahlyn offers her hand, staring at her with wide eyes. He certainly doesn't seem to have expected that.

"...H... how do I know you're not lying?" He asks quietly. "Demons lie all the time, and you say you aren't one but isn't that what you would say if you were?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Miss Hesperos Goes To Heaven]

Jaahlyn pulls back her hand and gives the question a moment of though. "Is there any way I can prove that I'm not a demon to you? I could turn into a goat, can demons do that?" She figured that turning into Baphoreth wouldn't help her case at all here.
"Maybe a music number?"

[Ironsmith]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

"...Can demons turn into goats?" The boy wonders out loud, staring at Jaahlyn warily. It's not like he would know. He's not a demonologist, he's seven.

"...I don't know. Mum always said demons are tricky. Those both sound a little like you're trying to trick me." The boy replies finally, stepping back a little.

[Shadowcaller]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

"I dunno, I never asked one."

Halls below, she sucked at this. Why didn't any of her previous experiences include child handling?

"But, uh, you don't need to be all that close to you to help out actually. Since it says right there on your name tag that you need to get to somewhere, right?" The satyr gestures at the note.

"Like you I'm pretty new around here so I can't tell you where that is. But what I can do is asking someone who does know for you. How about that, kid? I'm sure the bus driver or someone else that look more trustworthy than me can at least give me some directions even if they're not keen on giving you any. Best part about that is that you don't have to get any closer to me." They had to speak pretty loudly but that was alright.

[Ironsmith]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

"...Um..."

The boy seems to need a minute to consider that, turning over the proposal and looking at it from every angle he can think of, trying to figure out if Jaahlyn could possibly be tricking him. He doesn't seem to see how she could, but then wouldn't that be the case if she were? She's clearly much older and smarter than him.

Fortunately, the boy's ponderance is cut off by the sudden arrival of a familiar-looking bus, which by some strange coincidence, opens up to a familiar-looking driver and a familiar-looking tour guide.

"Eeeey, it's Jaahlyn!" The driver greets, flashing her a hand gesture that wouldn't be out of place at a metal concert. "How you doing, bruh?"

Grace gives a wide smile and a perky little wave. "Hello again! Welcome back, Miss Hesperos!"

[Shadowcaller]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

Jaahlyn like to think that heaven probably on fortunate coincidences like this. The residences probably had enough of experiencing the exact opposite while alive.
Since she did indeed consider herself fortunate to see these familiar faces and greets them with one of her iconic, as she liked to think of them, bows.
Then she takes a step inside, placing one hoof inside the bus while the other remains on the pavement outside. "Salutations, always good to find oneself in good company such as yours." The satyr grins and then gives a nod to the driver. "Meaning that I'm doing well all things considered. Enjoying a bit of a vaccation-y period in my life one could say."

She glances at the boy standing some distance away. "But sadly I can't enjoy it here. Duty calls me elsewhere. So I find myself in need of some directions. So would you be so kind to tell me how I could find a place called Bracnic Orphanarium? The full address being 7070 Everrett Ave at Bracnic, EL." Jaahlyn wasn't sure she said those in the right order but she was not experienced with these sort of addresses.

[Felandria]

Such a spell may not work so well in this situation as lacking in information as Reginald is. In fact, it entirely depends on what he has in mind in regards to what "Jon's mother" actually is.

In all likelihood, the spell would fail. For Jon's part, he's excited to have company and wags his tail. He begins howling and making complicated gestures with his tail, attempting to cast a spell of his own. However, nothing happens as a result of this, causing him to sigh with displeasure.

With no other recourse, Jon begins sprinting forth, trekking across the snowy wasteland. There'd be smell of creatures, but not the ripe smell of organic processes. Some of the smells wouldn't even be anything native to any of the worlds either Reginald or Jon have been to before.

Shortly after travelling, the smell of humans came into range, about a village's worth and equipped with pickaxes and bags for storing mined iron. While they were all constantly moving, some of them had wounds of various intensity, to the point where they'd couldn't be alive under normal circumstances. A few of them even had rotting flesh. They seem to be toiling away, a constant flow of people going into a cave opening in the side of a mountain and out of it towards a location beyond what Jon can smell.

Reginald stays close to Jon, extremely wary of these humans, or possibly former humans.

He considered what magic would be able to protect them if these creatures decided to come at them with the pickaxes.

[[brackets lover]]

Reginald stays close to Jon, extremely wary of these humans, or possibly former humans.

He considered what magic would be able to protect them if these creatures decided to come at them with the pickaxes.

Resistence is one thing, but it'd probably take more than a single spell to protect against a veritable horde.

Nevertheless, no one actually pays any mind to Jon and Reginald.

Except for one person, a bulky man with bulky armor from the waist down and wearing a pair of gauntlets, leaving his muscular torso completely exposed. He carried around a massive straight-peen hammer and had a long, braided-beard, completely bald up top. He approached Reginald and Jon.

"[Well, ain't this a funny sight]," he says, curiously, in the tongue of animals, "[You two kill each other or something?]"

[Ironsmith]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

Jaahlyn like to think that heaven probably on fortunate coincidences like this. The residences probably had enough of experiencing the exact opposite while alive.
Since she did indeed consider herself fortunate to see these familiar faces and greets them with one of her iconic, as she liked to think of them, bows.
Then she takes a step inside, placing one hoof inside the bus while the other remains on the pavement outside. "Salutations, always good to find oneself in good company such as yours." The satyr grins and then gives a nod to the driver. "Meaning that I'm doing well all things considered. Enjoying a bit of a vaccation-y period in my life one could say."

She glances at the boy standing some distance away. "But sadly I can't enjoy it here. Duty calls me elsewhere. So I find myself in need of some directions. So would you be so kind to tell me how I could find a place called Bracnic Orphanarium? The full address being 7070 Everrett Ave at Bracnic, EL." Jaahlyn wasn't sure she said those in the right order but she was not experienced with these sort of addresses.

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

"Oh, certainly!" Grace grins. "We have several stops in Bracnic, one of which is right next to the orphanarium. We'd be glad to take you two there."

The boy behind Jaahlyn backs away from the bus a little, hugging himself and shaking his head. "Uh-uh. No way. Mum always told me never to go anywhere with strangers. I don't know any of your people, I'm staying right here." He emphatically stamps his foot on the ground, before going pale and stumbling back from the bus, as though expecting the declaration to provoke retaliation of some kind.

[Shadowcaller]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

As she gets those instructions she turns to look at the little guy.
Well, fair enough.

"That's just fine. But you do have to move to go where you want to be or you will never reach your destination I'm afraid." This reminded her far too much of dealing with certain souls which was bothersome.

"Is it long to walk there?" She asks, turning back to Grace.

[Ironsmith]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

"A very long walk, yes." Grace replies with a sigh. "Even the bus takes most of the day to get there. I'd guess it's... well, figure a twelve hour drive, at an average of twenty-five kilometers per hour, so three hundred kilometers. That's gonna be a few straight days of walking. And while you can't get tired up here it's probably still not how you'd want to spend your time." She frowns. "Ooh, and that's also assuming you know where you're going. A wrong turn could easily add another day or more to that total."

"Erm..." The boy shuffles his feet nervously. "...Maybe I'll just stay here, then."

Grace sighs and shakes her head, giving Jaahlyn a little "can you believe this crap" sort of look. "Cherubs." She mutters, mildly annoyed.

[Shadowcaller]

[Miss Hesperos Goes to Heaven]

After a moment of thought Jaahlyn turns to look around the bus. "Well then, could everyone on the bus please introduce themselves then so this young man won't have to travel with strangers? His mother has told him not to."

She doesn't need to shout, her voice somehow carries over so that every passenger can hear her anyway.

[Felandria]

Resistence is one thing, but it'd probably take more than a single spell to protect against a veritable horde.

Nevertheless, no one actually pays any mind to Jon and Reginald.

Except for one person, a bulky man with bulky armor from the waist down and wearing a pair of gauntlets, leaving his muscular torso completely exposed. He carried around a massive straight-peen hammer and had a long, braided-beard, completely bald up top. He approached Reginald and Jon.

"[Well, ain't this a funny sight]," he says, curiously, in the tongue of animals, "[You two kill each other or something?]"

Reginald looks very confused by this, because Reginald is very much alive.

He looks quizzically towards Jon.