BC's Best... Cottages?

[Rebonack]

[Kid Things]

"Heh," Khannie gives a stifled giggle. "It IS kinda funny, right? I'm a cape and a sorceress AND a fox spirit. I should be foxy hotness CUBED, right? But maybe they all just cancel out. I'm okay with it. I've got cool and tough and smart, I don't need knockout beautiful, too."

She doesn't TOTALLY believe that. She wouldn't mind being knockout beautiful, too. But she's learned lessons about trying to be something she isn't.

"I think I get it," Khannie replies, running her stubby claws through her pony-tail. "You're realizing stuff about yourself you didn't know before. There was a mental block but now there isn't. Same kinda thing happened with me when I started really digging into my nogitsune and kumiho stuff. When I'm leaning on those I see the world different. I feel different and I think different."

But.

"I guess the trick is to be aware enough to realize when you're thinking different. It's kinda like being a Magical Girl, isn't it? With your soul gem messing with your emotions and your thoughts. It's still YOUR thoughts. They're just tweaked a little, right? So you've gotta figure out that just because you're thinking something doesn't mean it's a good idea. You can't believe everything you think."

Then?

That last part really hits home.

"Wait, so you can't have a baby?" Khannie asks, mortified by that idea. "Geeze... that sucks... But your mom figured out how to make it work still."

Despite everything Khannie has been through she still has those kangaskhan momming instincts wired deep into her.

[Keeper]

Parent Things

"I'm a quasi-retired adventurer. Mostly I make magical items for the more active members of my profession. You'd be surprised how long a single father can support his family with a single sale of one of those. Or maybe you do."
Adventurers will pay anything for a marginal increase to their stats. It's really quite amazing.

[bc56]

Kid Things
"If you ever want to take knockout beautiful for a test drive, I could... Test drive? I'm fifteen!" she has been for a while but now she actually looks it. "That's old enough for a learner's permit right? I should get da to teach me to drive!" I'm sure Prumathe would appreciate you crashing his car, Mary.
"Yeah, no babies. I don't know, I don't really want kids. And I'm too young to think about it." Give Mary some time and maybe she'll come around to the idea.
"Ugh, I've got all this built-up. energy. Mum's right, I do need to spend it on something. Ideas?"

Parent Things
"I have some knowledge of the market for magic. The, uh, black market especially, I try to, uh, keep track of items connected to my own realm. Personally I always felt most adventurers had a lot more money than sense." Specifically they earn a lot of money by lacking the sense to stay out of dangerous situations.
What Sekhmet tracks has more to do with the magical drug trade than adventuring gear, but she assumes the prices are similarly inflated.

[Rebonack]

[Kid Things]

"Hah, you were right on earlier. I could do that myself if I wanted to," Khannie says as the shadows begin washing over her again, cloaking her in her human disguise. But THIS time around the route is a little different. She has her true sight baffle working, but this time around she swaddles even the shadows in gossamer. That glint of darkness is obscured. A composite illusion wrapped in illusions. Maybe this time Mary won't be able to pick up on it?

Also?

Khannie tries for 'knockout beautiful.'

Or at least her own conception of it, anyway. Just letting those kumiho instincts for luring mortals take hold and shape her illusion accordingly.

The result?

Looks amazing.

But Khannie's expression isn't one of triumph. It's one of... almost disappointment in herself for even trying it?

"This feels fake," she says with a sigh, looking down at herself uneasily. She makes a dismissive gesture, her body fading to pitch black before rearranging into her more accustomed figure. A moment later she has color and definition again. "I'm not gunna be a faker. That's how kumihos work. They fake being something else to lure people. I don't wanna do that. I'm happy just being me."

But then comes talk of cars!

"I've just been using Riftline since I was little, I've never really thought about cars before. But I guess I could start learning soon too, huh? My birthday's about a month away. I wonder how different it is from playing Mario Kart," she wonders aloud.

Pretty different, probably.

On the question of venting power Khannie looks thoughtful.

"I mean, I dunno? What can you even use the power for? When my kumiho instincts start nagging at me I usually hunt some ghosts or work on really elaborate illusions. Is this like a steam boiler or something? Like you've got too much pressure and you've gotta vent?"

[Keeper]

Parent Things

"Of course we do! We could buy a city for the price of a good staff. But that comes from finding entire piles of gold on a monthly basis. Frankly I have no idea how the economy survives at all."
It's one of the few issues where Jace would not be surprised if the answer involved some sort of conspiracy.
"I imagine there must be some fun things in your vault." there's a glimmer in Zebes' eye. Not even greed necessarily. Just a spark of wonder and excitement at the thought of cool stuff.

[bc56]

Kid Things
"You looked really pretty though. I don't really get the 'faking' thing. But when I shapeshift, I really am whatever I appear to be so I guess I don't fake anything?" Succubi are comfortable in any form they take.
"I sorta feel tight. Overflowing. Like if I wasn't careful a bunch of power would spill out." she considers what she could do. "Shapeshifting takes a little power, but I'd have to shapeshift a lot to burn all this off. I don't want to use fire because I don't want to burn the house down. Transforming people and objects and reading minds I didn't even know I could do until now." Mary considers the things she just said. "Let's do the shapeshifting plan. You tell me something to change into and then we can play games until I start feeling the pressure again." That's... An idea, at least.

Parent Things
"Tell me about it, I can literally conjure money from thin air. I, uh, try not to abuse it but I can't be the only one with this kind of power." Both Jace's former profession and Sekhmet's magic should render gold worthless, and yet it continues being, well, the gold standard of valuable metals.
"What do you mean by good? Those vaults are full of, uh, the stuff even my mother thought was too dangerous to leave lying around."

[Keeper]

Parent Things

"You know! Forbidden relics! Shiny things, artifacts of wonderous power unseen in ages~" Zebes sighs.
"It is our calling to gaze upon them and cry, 'neat!' "
A truly sacred task.

[Rebonack]

[Kid Things]

"I think maybe your soul is more malleable than mine?" Khannie muses. "Like it changes with whatever you're changing into. But mine stays the same no matter what. My pokemon body feels normal to me. So does the regular fox shape. And so does my human shape. Like all three of those are me? But if I'm trying to be anything else it just feels... off."

The dragon shape is COOL but again it feels fake.

Though this raises an interesting thought.

"Can you see souls and stuff, too? I know I've got a human one, but does it change any when I do? If it doesn't... then I wonder why the fox stuff still feels right to me but turning into a dragon or whatever doesn't."

An interesting thought.

Maybe one she could look into a little more?

Anyway!

Ideas.

"Oh beans I dunno, umm... turn into a rainbow colored unicorn?" Khannie suggests. "Does changing other stuff use more power? Like, what's the fastest way to vent the extra?"

[bc56]

Parent Things
"I don't know. These relics are definitely forbidden, and most of them probably for, uh, good reason. If you could identify some of the ones I don't know without setting them off, that would be helpful but also I wouldn't want to put you at risk " The items Sekhmet has figured out the identities of have included multiple doomsday devices, magic weapons of great and terrible power, ancient grimoires of secret magics, and an entire bookshelf of surprisingly mundane tomes containing thousands of years worth of blackmail material.

Kid Things
"Something with thumbs that won't break my bed when I sit on it," Mary clarifies. She's not going to turn into a horse, even a very pretty one. Horses don't belong indoors.
"Even when you were using fox stuff, your soul looked human. With a bit of fox clinging to it. Sort of like a proto-soul maybe?" Mary doesn't really know. She's only been able to see souls for maybe 20 minutes.
"Changing other stuff definitely takes the most energy. I think it would take more if it resisted, and objects really can't do that."

[Keeper]

Parent Things

Jace waves a hand. "All my friends seem to be divine-level beings nowadays. Or at least taken a turn as one. I'm quite used to handling very delicate things. My days of rolling mysterious golden dice on a whim are over."
[I won't told her what happened from that if you don't.] Shush, you.
"Point being, I can assure you that I can quite the expert on such things. Assuming that they are at least already stable."

[Rebonack]

[Kid Things]

"A human soul with a fox' shadow I guess? Hah, that's actually pretty funny. But it makes sense, right?" Khannie laughs. "Well maybe we can experiment with your magic sight stuff and my illusions later? We've gotta get your problem sorted first."

Mary refuses to turn into a magical horse.

Khannie makes a pouting face. "Aaw, not even for a second? Lame. If I can run around as a regular fox I think you can handle a unicorn. Oh well, maybe-"

Then Mary mentions that changing OTHER things would be a faster.

"Oh! No, I've got it! If you wanna burn power fast then just aim it at me. My brooch gives me crazy resistance to transmutations. My soul has stayed an untouched reflection of who I am even after everything I've been through. AND I'm still a nogitsune, a natural shape-shifter. Even if something DID slip through I could erase it."

Her smiles grows a little wider here.

"This is actually a great idea. I haven't really gotten a chance to stress-test my brooch. I've run into some creeps for sure on my patrols but none of 'em have really tried transmutations on me. If the brooch has limits it might be good to know about 'em so if something CAN get through it won't surprise me."

[bc56]

Parent Things
"They should be. They've been sealed away for ages without breaking down." That's not exactly right. They've been unused for all that time; if they had broken down, no one would know. "If you'd really like to go see, I can open a portal." Sekhmet sounds like she still doesn't think this is a great idea.

Kid Things
"I can do it, but not indoors. Besides I don't like being furry things much." Mary has much more affinity for reptiles.
Khannie suggests trying to transform her. If she were in less of a succubus state of mind, Mary might have reservations about this plan. It could break the brooch after all, and Mary knows how precious that is Khannie. But Mary the succubus needs to burn off excess power. "Okay, here goes..." Mary reaches out with both hands and unleashes an invisible beam of succuboid energy at Khannie. If it succeeds, Khannie will find herself sporting that sorceress/cape/foxy physique she envies but doesn't really want. She might even if it doesn't succeed, depending on how the brooch interacts with her illusions. And succubus magic tends to have a mind-altering component. If it does succeed, it might not even feel wrong (then again she's pretty strong-willed she could probably shake that off)

[Rebonack]

[Kid Things]

Oh.

Right.

Of course Mary isn't big on mammals

"Because dragon, duh, of course," Khannie replies, slapping the side of her head. She'll have to think of something else probably.

But then here goes!

Khannie gets blasted with the hotness ray and-!

Her brooch glows a deep blue and her illusion flickers with the image Mary had in mind but otherwise settles quickly. Khannie wrinkles her nose a bit at it.

"I think that tried messing with my emotions and self image kinda?" Khannie observes. "Did you do that on purpose or is it just part of the spell? It wasn't as strong as what your mom did, that's for sure."

Attempt one?

Brooch endures.

[Keeper]

Parent Things

Jace shakes her head.
”Miss, we just met. This is entirely up to you. I am not going to lecture a queen on what is a good idea or not. If you want it done than we can do it. Don’t worry about it.” he promises her.

[bc56]

Kid Things
"I think it's part of the spell, sorry " It's how succubus shapeshifting works, updating things like muscle memory and body image to make the new form as comfortable as the old. Forcing it on someone else also provides those benefits.
"I'll try again," Mary says, readying her magic again. She still has plenty of power left. She can afford to put a bit more into it this time. So she blasts Khannie again, trying for the same effect. This time, she maintains the attack longer and while it's ongoing, she adjusts the metaphysical "shape" of the beam in an attempt to pierce through the shield.

Parent Things
"I, uh, won't have an opportunity to have my vaults examined by an expert for free often. I'm opening a portal." Sekhmet gestures and a circular opening appears in midair in front of her. The room beyond is dark but hot air with a faint sulphurous scent blows out of it.

[Rebonack]

[Kid Things]

"Nah, no reason to be sorry. It isn't a big deal. I'm pretty good at shaking off charms. Even if I WASN'T you could still remove it afterward anyway, right?" Khannie reasons. She offers an encouraging smile. "I trust you. We've gotta trust each other if we're gunna keep each other outta trouble."

Okay!

Attempt two!

Khannie braces herself! Transmutations are kinda weird, as far as resisting them goes. Some of them are all about force of will. By rejecting the change you nullifying it. And some of them are about fortitude. By maintaining your bodily integrity you are unmoved. Mary's magic is kinda tricky because it's a bit of both. There's a physical AND a mental aspect. Khannie can almost taste the tang of a spiritual one, too. Sorta like the curses some ghost-types can drop on people. And thanks to Khannie's rather unique blend of Normal and Ghost typing she's left spectacularly resilient to a wide range of nonsense.

But still, this is noticeably more intense.

The brooch flares again, but the insidious magic is doing its best to wriggle around the protections. Khannie feels a brief heat washing over her, a fluttering feeling, as the magic aims not at the illusion she's wearing but the zoroark body under it. Khannie's illusion stutters and pops, as it often will if any sufficiently powerful attack smacks into her. And under the illusion she's-!

Still a zoroark.

But her appearance has been softened into a more feminine, human-like figure. It's kind of subtle, but still noticeable. Khannie looks down at herself and then gives a snort of laughter.

"Gunna guess this isn't what you were going for?" she asks, manifesting her fox marble in one paw as she removes her brooch with the other. "How'd you do that? I think the brooch still ate most of the spell but some of it got around it."

Using her nogitsune shapeshifting she begins smoothing the changes away.

[Keeper]

Parent Things

Jace shrugs and gets up. He makes a quick gesture with one hand to protect him from heat and enters the portal.

[bc56]

Kid Things
"I was imagining your sexy human form from earlier," Mary explains. She considers the next question. She's not great at magical theory, but she can 'see' magic, which is a different sort of advantage. "The brooch makes a shield. But not like a metal arm shield, like one of those flickery energy shields you see in the Skyways. And some things can pass right through those shields. I changed the spell so it would do like the same thing." She grins mischievously. "I bet this time I can get it all the way through."
As soon as Khannie has the brooch back on it's time for take 3! This time Mary is using what she learned from the last two times to tune the blast to hopefully completely ignore the brooch's shielding.

Parent Things
The portal leads elsewhere.

[Rebonack]

[Kid Things]

"That's what I guessed," Khannie says, providing Mary with a cheeky fox blep for her trouble. "So basically we're talking like a magic barrier deal. And you're just figuring out how to get around the defense since it's static. That makes sense. Maybe I can talk to dad about working on it some more? I don't really DO transmutations, but I know there's spells for forcing things back to their true form. Maybe something like that could be added in? But then again, I can sorta do that with my own yako magic, too soooo..."

Maybe redundant?

But redundant defenses are rarely a bad idea.

That's one of the first lessons of being a cape! There's no such thing as too much defense, especially when you don't know what kind of super villain you're going to tangle with.

SO!

Attempt three!

Khannie puts her brooch back on and gives a little nod.

This time it doesn't flare at all. Khannie just grits her teeth and takes the spell head-on! It'll be pretty obvious to Mary that Khannie's actively resisting, her spirit rejecting the normalizing effect of Transform(ation) and her resilient body proving implacable against supernatural influence. But Mary's really giving it her all AND trying to figure out how to get around Khannie's defenses.

The zoroark's fur begins brushing away, her face flattening out and her body becoming more human until-!

She opens one eye. Then the other. And twitches the fox ears sticking out of the top of her head. Glances back at the mess of tails behind her. This also isn't quite what Mary was going for. Khannie's hair is white fading to crimson, as are her tails. The two fox ears are ashen grey. Her eyes are still that foxy yellow-orange. But otherwise she looks human. And sporting something close to that foxy figure, though not nearly as exaggerated.

"Umm..."

Khannie rubs the ears sticking out of her hair.

"I don't think this is quite what you were going for, either?" Khannie asks.

While Mary might not recognize it, this is basically a dead-ringer for Jade's default fox-lady form. But obviously with Khannie's appearance and coloration.

[bc56]

Kid Things
"No, but it's cute," Mary says. "If you weren't ready for it, it would've worked completely," she's pretty sure of that. "It's a good look for you, maybe you should keep it." She feels through her powers again. They seem less on edge now. But she still feels like causing trouble. She flashes Khannie that mischievous smile again. "How about a deal? You stay like that and I'll let you choose what I be and we'll play the games you brought." Then she realizes something. "Within reason. You can't make me be something that can't play the game. I need to have hands and not break things when I touch them. And no bugs!" It would be rude to make Mary be a bug, especially since Khannie would know the demon princess has a slight phobia of them.

[Rebonack]

[Kid Things]

Khannie is still fiddling with those ears sticking out of her hair.

This doesn't feel fake the way Mary's last attempt did. Nor does it feel fake like when Khannie was messing with her illusion's appearance. No, this feels more like another fox-shape. Like the scary kumiho form or her less scary zoroark form or her regular old fox yako form. But this one's pretty different. It's basically just... human Khannie. But with just a little bit of foxiness. She can tell that isn't all it is. It doesn't FEEL like a human form. It's another fox.

Then it hits her.

"I think your magic unlocked another one of my natural shapes. The lady who broke the thing Fortuna had done to me? She looked kinda like this. Like a fox-girl I guess you would call it? Human but with the fox ears and tails."

There's a grin, a little one. She holds up one palm, a ball purple foxfire ignites in her palm and she runs it across her fingers as she turns her hand over.

"This has got a TON of fire magic going on. I can feel it inside me like a furnace ready turn on full blast any second." she says, clenching fingers and snuffing the flame. "And I'm ALMOST human without feeling like I'm faking anything. Hah, okay, deal. I'll stick to this one."

She reaches out with a tail, snagging a chair by the leg and yanking it over to herself.

"And you try doing-"
Khannie picks up the Splatoon cartage and points to it.
"-one of the Inklings."

Squids that may or may not be kids don't count as bugs, right?

[bc56]

Kid Things
"Heh all right." Mary's horns and wings and tail pull back into her body. Her hair melts together and coalesces into bright turquoise tentacles. Her skin takes on a natural human tone. "How do I look?" Like an older, unusually curvy inkling. Khannie could probably object that Mary is off-model but would Mary take it that well? She just got this figure.
"Since I look like this, I have to win!" Spoilers, she will probably not win.

[Rebonack]

[Kid Things]

"Like an inkling that isn't shaped like a toon. I guess it isn't bad?" Khannie says as she gets the game booted up. "And we're doing Salmon Run, it's cooperative. If you aren't doing great I can help you out."

Spoilers, Mary probably doesn't do great.

"So... I'm kinda curious," Khannie begins, her tails bouncing in tune with the music. "You ran into some succubus and right after that's when you met Mystery Girl, right? You never told me the whole story; I only got bits of it. What happened? (it's important that you 'Booyah!' with other players, it keeps up moral)."

Oh boy!

It sounds like story time.

[bc56]

Kid Things
Mary does not do great. She didn't grow up with videogames. She doesn't own any consoles. She doesn't have the experience.
"Don't tell mum about this, she'd freak out if she knew. I got a look at some of mum's papers, and there was this thing about a drug ring peddling succubus venom. I thought I might be able to use it to break the seal. So I stole some. But the succubus who runs the ring, her name's Circe, captured me. She put me magically asleep, and when I woke up, there was a weird girl who looked exactly like me and Circe was a bloody mess on the floor. So we got out of there and we talked, and we figured out that before she had amnesia, she went to PREP and was in my Romance class." Mary's tentacles twitch. She doesn't like this story, she was basically a damsel in distress. She doesn't want to be that kind of princess.

[Rebonack]

[Kid(squid) Things]

Well it's still something, right?

Khannie doesn't mind.

Being completely fair, she really isn't GREAT at this game. She isn't terribly great at any video games.

But just because you aren't good at them doesn't mean they can't still be kinda fun.

"Heck. So whatever happened, happened while you were asleep? That doesn't really tell us all that much else, does it?"

Oh well. It was worth asking about, though.

"Y'know you coulda asked me to come with you to help, right?" Khannie offers. "I woulda said yes."

Going it alone on this sort of thing is rarely a good plan.


[Knocking on Mystery's Door]

Some time after video games have been played...

There's a knock.

On the door.

"Hey Emgee? It's Khannie. Is it okay if I come in?"

[bc56]

Squid Kid Things
"I thought I could just get in and out in five minutes. I didn't want you to be in danger for my problems. And... I was a little worried you'd want me to be responsible." Of the two of them, Khannie is the more responsible one. "Aww man! I got distracted!" She glares at the game.

[Rebonack]

[Squid Kid Things]

"Dealing with villains is basically never just in and out. Someone else should always know where you're going in case things go south and it's never a bad idea to have a side-kick along for your mission," Khannie replies.

Responsibly.

Because of COURSE she would have a responsible suggestion.

"You should basically count on SOMETHING going wrong. That's basically how ANY cape arc goes. There's always complications. And if you get surprised alone there's a good chance you're toast."

Speaking of getting surprised!

Mary just got bonked pretty good.

"Hold on imma get your revived. I've just gotta clear out these dumb fish first," she promises. "It sounds like you woulda been a heck of a lotta trouble if Emgee hadn't clobbered what's-her-face while you were out."

Khannie wasn't paying much attention to the villain's name, honestly.

[Ironsmith]

[Knocking on Mystery's Door]

Some time after video games have been played...

There's a knock.

On the door.

"Hey Emgee? It's Khannie. Is it okay if I come in?"

[Knocking on Mystery's Door]

There's an audible thump and a muffled "Oh, crap!" coming from the other side of the door, before Khannie actually gets a coherent reply.

"Don't come in! I'm, uh... I'm getting dressed!"

The tone of her voice is a little frantic for someone changing clothes with a securely locked door between her and the other party. And the rustling in the other side sounds a bit too heavy to be explained away as clothing being moved around. Whatever she's doing in there, it's probably not wardrobe related.

[Rebonack]

[Knocking on Mystery's Door]

Huh.

Those are definitely some noises.

Was she in bed or something? Hopefully Emgee isn't super depressed or something. One way or the other, staying all cooped up in there probably isn't the BEST thing for her. Staying all cooped up and alone isn't the best thing for ANYONE.

"That's okay," Khannie replies diplomatically. "I can wait for a little bit."

Or as long as she needs to.

To amuse herself in the mean time, she manifests a roughly basket-ball sized wisp of purple foxfire and begins bouncing it between her tails. She's got to admit the foxgirl mode really isn't bad. The tails feel a bit more... real? Maybe? Who would have guessed messing around would unlock fox number four?

[bc56]

Kid Squid Things
"Probably yeah. I'm a little worried about going back to that part of inside. As, well, brutal as that was, it wouldn't kill a succubus. Circe is still out there and probably wants revenge on me." Mary doesn't even realize that Circe also wanted her to get leverage over Sekhmet. A sort of "you'll never see your daughter again, but if you obey me, she'll live," deal. "Maybe we can hunt her down sometime and either banish her back to the Depths or catch her and give her to mum to deal with. I bet now that I have all these powers, she wouldn't be able to enchant me so easily."