GLoG

[quillpleasant]

The Challenge

The boy raises his own eyebrow, then laughs. "I don't really know what you're talking about. But there's some magic items in the pile already." He riffles through the stuff, revealing a strange iridescent spindle and a nondescript wooden spoon with runes carved in the handle. "Not sure about the crystal, but the spoon makes infinite food when it's put into a bowl. Kinda cool."

This probably doesn't sweeten the pot too much. But now that she's looking more closely, there's something else that might make her even more wary. Namely, that the boy doesn't have a soul- nor do any of the other children gathered here.

"You sure you don't want to join? I've heard you're pretty fast, but I really think I can beat you," the boy continues with cheerful confidence. Shouts of encouragement come from the glassy eyed crowd.

[[brackets lover]]

[The Challenge]

Asami recognizes a grift when she sees one, realizing this won't be an ordinary race. The soullessness thing, she attributes to being empyreans. Friends of Lapis, she surmises.

However, just in case, she pushes, "Eh? You heard i'm fast? Who told you that?" She seems to be hinging on this point, a believable and specific answer being necessary to assuage her worries.

[quillpleasant]

The Challenge

"Oh, a cousin of mine goes to PREP, she told me about you," the boy replies glibly, "Mary. She also told me you were really rude, so I thought you could stand to be knocked down a peg." There's a chorus of oohs from the crowd.

He rocks back on his heels confidently, then shrugs. "But I guess we'll never know, unless you have something cool to wager."

[Earl of Purple]

Beginning to Look a lot Like Thanksmas

Cheasadh leans back when offered cloves. "Can I... leave this to you? That is a lot of cloves." Cheasadh could join in, but she'd be smelling cloves on her hands for the rest of the weekend and she's not that big a fan of them. She'll be even less of a fan of cloves if she's smelling them for the next couple of days, too.

[Murkus]

[Beginning to look a lot like Thanksmas]

Blue smiles at Cheasadh when she mentions they're having fun. "Yeah!" Blue's eyebrows rise a bit at the soap comment, but as a little girl, she doesn't find it overly strange. Then Khannie returns!

Khannie's display of equestrian agility and quadrupedal seating both also fail to faze Blue - even if they do amuse her greatly. It's like talking to a cartoon person! Everyone else in her life moves relatively normally, even if they're strange or special, but not Khannie. She seems to obey a whole different set of rules.

Blue listens dutifully for the cloves explanation and immediately sets to making some fun designs. "Don't worry Cheasadh. If you want I can make you something special!" She'll let the gnome girl direct her, if Chea wants.

[Rebonack]

[Beginning to look a lot like Thanksmas]

This is one of the inevitable results of being half cartoon-pony. You get up to some relatively improbable antics now and again. Just don't drop any anvils on Khannie she really wouldn't like that.

"Oh right the nose," Khannie says, flaring her own nostrils as well. She's also got a pretty sensitive sense of smell but she doesn't mind the strong scents. She LIKES sweet and spicy. And the cloved oranges are quite certainly both of those. Just not HOT spicy.

"But hey if you wanna get those flamingos made we'll work on the pomanders and get 'em hung up around the lodge. This place is gunna look GREAT this year! It'll be good practice for next year, too. I heard some of the grownups talking and it sounds like they're gunna have the big Thanksmas party here at Glog next year."

A year is so far away, though!

Blue will be EIGHT by then!

Still, that's a grand adventure to look forward to.

[Earl of Purple]

Beginning to Look Like Thanksmas

The issue with cloves isn't the power of the smell, more that no matter how hard she scrubs she'll be smelling cloves on her hands for at least the next day. Gnomes tend to have a subtler taste in food, and if she's eating with her hands for example things will taste of cloves even if that's not desirable with what she's eating. "Oh, really? I hadn't heard that. That's great to hear. I nearly can't wait for next year, which is... Pretty odd considering it's barely this Thankmas first." Cheasadh does head off slightly to get to work on the flamingos, however.

The Challenge

Another child approaches the challenger and his trove of treasure. A young elf, just shy of their teens. They have pale skin and hair, and sky-blue eyes. They're bundled up against the cold, wearing a thick coat, padded trousers, welly boots and a bobble-topped hat. "You still accepting challengers? And... uh, t' make it fair, what bit did you put in the pile? I got this." The elf raises a small cone of granite, rough and crudely carved, yet bearing a rather potent enchantment affecting its size and mass.

[[brackets lover]]

[The Challenge]

The oohs from the crowd certainly serve to push Asami far enough to pull the ring out from her pocket, already staring fiercy at the boy at the mention of that accursed Brignole. However, before she can brashly throw it into the pile, the elf comes up and seems raring to go ahead of her.

"Yeah, they are. I'll go after you, then, so I have more stuff to win," Asami says confidantly, walking into the crowd and immediately ruffling the hair of the nearest child as she spectates.

[Halae]

[Playdate]

...What the fuck are these two on about?

Braon looks from Sophie to Trick as the two of them share some of the details of their respective powers, as though that's somehow meant to be reassuring. Do they think she cares one bit about where their abilities come fro-



...Oh.

Maybe they're on to something here after all.

Braon's face starts fading back down from red as she starts breathing more normally again. That all but amounted to a promise not to judge her. And if Trick breaks that promise, Braon is more than capable of hexing her half a dozen different ways before the playdate ends. Granted, Sophie might go and ruin it immediately afterward, but she can take a little reassurance that she might be able to leave the tiefling with a magically-enhanced wedgie if she goes back on her word.

...She's still not sure she should talk much about where her powers actually come from, though. That seems more like a Sophie-only conversation.

"...It... did... take a lot of effort." Braon says finally, faltering a bit as she tries to put the sentence together. "Enchanting isn't really... it's more art than anything. You can't really just point at something and say 'hey, you, I want you to do a thing'. Doesn't work. Not for me, anyway."

It occurs to her at that moment that she might be describing exactly how Trick's magic works, but she pushes that thought down for now.

"It's all about the whys, really." She continues. "I'm not just giving orders to, um..." Braon glances around a bit for something to use as a visual aid, settling on a rock sitting at her feet, which she pulls up to demonstrate. "...to this. If I wanted to make it, I don't know, explode or something, I'd need to think about why I want it to do that. Am I just angry and want to see something go up in smoke? Does it exploding help in some way? And once I know that, I kind of have to set it up to want the same thing. I have to think, 'if I were this rock, why would I want to explode?' Knowing why I want it as me already helps, see. Then I just kind of... press that into the rock. And then..."

The stone in her hand shudders and emits a little trail of black smoke, proceeding to do nothing but sulk.

"...Goshdangit." Braon pseudoswears, giving the rock a little shake. "Piece of freaking schist." She sighs and tosses it away, out of the circle, where it proceeds to silently disappear by way of popping into tiny pieces, the shockwave visibly carrying through the leaves and grass.

The infant in Braon's other arm watches with a look of surprisingly quiet concern.


If there's any sort of pattern to the game the others are playing, it's probably beyond Bertin's comprehension. But running around is certainly fun, and none of the others seem to have any objections to him joining in.

Ciara giggles as Janos grabs at her feet, involuntarily kicking as the infant's tiny thumbs run up against her soles. Having been in this world for less than a year, her skin is already delicate, even more so on the bottoms of her feet. Which is to say... that tickles!

[Playdate]

"So what feeling did you try to put into this rock?" Sophie asks.

This explanation does fit with what she's seen Braon do. Of course, most of her enchantments that Sophie has seen have been malicious in nature, channeling Braon's monumental rancor against the world at large.

[Playdate]

Trick is quiet, letting Braon answer Sophie's question first as she regards the discarded rock in fascination. She's never seen a spell quite like that before, and is intensely curious.

[Ironsmith]

[Playdate]

"Now, see, I could tell you that... but I think it'd be a better exercise to guess." Braon says, with a small, self-satisfied smile. "Though as a hint, I'll point out that the spirit created this way doesn't seem to be doing anything now that the rock's exploded. That's an important facet of the magic at play here; I'm giving it motivation, not orders, so once it leaves my hands it's... well, out of my hands. It'll do what it wants to do, whatever that is, regardless of how I come to feel about it."

"So." Braon leans forward. "Why don't you try answering that question? If you were a rock, why would you choose to explode, once, and do nothing else?"

[quillpleasant]

The Challenge

The red haired boy looks mildly annoyed as the bobble hatted elf approaches, but that expression is quickly replaced with eagerness as they display the granite cone. Whatever that is, it looks powerful.

"Hey, all challengers are welcome! Go ahead, put it in the pile." He gestures carelessly. "I put in the infinite spoon. It's really valuable." Well, maybe not, but it's certainly useful.

A child's hair is ruffled, and they look up at Asami rather blankly. The boy calls over to her, shaking his head. "It's not a one on one thing, otherwise I'd get tired running so many races. We all go at once, free for all style. If you want to join, you have to do it now." But either way, the newcomer's addition has sweetened the pot significantly.

[Earl of Purple]

The Challenge

"We're not using magic 'n stuff in this, right? Just native athleticism an' homegrown organic muscles and stamina?" The elf child frowns a little as it occurs to them that this mysterious stranger may be planning on cheating with teleportation or something.

They still add the dehydrated mountain to the pile of awards, however, so they'll take part regardless.

[Morty]

[Playdate]

Sophie looks at the remains of the rock, thinking. This seems like a trick question. The answer isn't what it might immediately seem. Let's see...

"I think you made it frustrated. Poured some undirected anger into it. Being a rock, it could do nothing to alleviate it, so it exploded."

[[brackets lover]]

[The Challenge]

Asami tilts her head at the elf's questions. "I mean, if you're worried about fairness, I'm a god anyways. And i've honed my muscles since I was born. I wouldn't really lose to magic, so-" she recoils a bit upon receiving that blank stare from a child, looking suspiciously at them. She internally questions where the wails of protest are.

Offput by the child's behavior, she immediately picks them up from under their armpits and pulls them closer to her. She stares directly at the child, her face uncomfortably close to their's.

[Meowmai]

[Birds and Babs- Treasure Hunt]

"Yeah! He's still a cub! When we visited our uncle, we saw grown-up wolves."

"They were big and fierce!"

The kids are distracted from discussing wolves by Kes giving them a hint.

"Um. Flowers? Then it'd just look like another flower."

"But there's no flowers here."

"But there's a bush!"

They both rush over to the bush and, after some rustling, produce a flowerpot. The next part of the map appears to have been taped to it. It leads to another part of the campsite, near the kitchens. A picture next to their destination depicts a cooking pot.

[Birds and Babs- Treasure Hunt]

"One day Silver will be big and fierce too! Though never big enough for me to ride him, of course. Maybe you two might be able to eventually though, if you're lucky." She smiles at the thought of Silver eventually carrying the various tiny kids around GLoG campgrounds. Mind you, she didn't know how big woblins grew, so perhaps that would be less true for Balthuk and Maltrika.

Her smile widens as the kids successfully find the flower pot, and ambles over to view the next piece of the map. "Good job you two, you found it!" After a moment of bending down to look, she straightens up. "Right then, off to the kitchens we go!" And with that, she'll begin leading the way!

[Murkus]

[Beginning to look a lot like Thanksmas]

Blue hunches over her oranges and cloves as she continues to make funny little designs - and a couple of very silly faces that she claims resemble her siblings. She doesn't have much more to add than that. No doubt by the end of the day the camp will be festooned with her work.

[Halae]

[Playdate]

"Now, see, I could tell you that... but I think it'd be a better exercise to guess." Braon says, with a small, self-satisfied smile. "Though as a hint, I'll point out that the spirit created this way doesn't seem to be doing anything now that the rock's exploded. That's an important facet of the magic at play here; I'm giving it motivation, not orders, so once it leaves my hands it's... well, out of my hands. It'll do what it wants to do, whatever that is, regardless of how I come to feel about it."

"So." Braon leans forward. "Why don't you try answering that question? If you were a rock, why would you choose to explode, once, and do nothing else?"

[Playdate]

Sophie looks at the remains of the rock, thinking. This seems like a trick question. The answer isn't what it might immediately seem. Let's see...

"I think you made it frustrated. Poured some undirected anger into it. Being a rock, it could do nothing to alleviate it, so it exploded."

[Playdate]

"A self-destructive urge?" Trick ponders for a moment, and her expression starts growing... dark, her tail twitching in agitation, before she visibly shakes off the thoughts running through her head, "Can you impart understand on the rock to make it understand circumstances, or is it just a baseline motivation, regardless of context?"

Despite the conversation, she keeps an eye on the play of the children.

[quillpleasant]

The Challenge

"We're not using magic 'n stuff in this, right? Just native athleticism an' homegrown organic muscles and stamina?" The elf child frowns a little as it occurs to them that this mysterious stranger may be planning on cheating with teleportation or something.

They still add the dehydrated mountain to the pile of awards, however, so they'll take part regardless.

[The Challenge]

Asami tilts her head at the elf's questions. "I mean, if you're worried about fairness, I'm a god anyways. And i've honed my muscles since I was born. I wouldn't really lose to magic, so-" she recoils a bit upon receiving that blank stare from a child, looking suspiciously at them. She internally questions where the wails of protest are.

Offput by the child's behavior, she immediately picks them up from under their armpits and pulls them closer to her. She stares directly at the child, her face uncomfortably close to their's.

The Challenge

"No teleportation, but if you're magically fast, that's fine," clarifies the boy, nodding agreeably. "Gods get bested my mortals all the time, that's what myths are all about. All I'm saying is, don't count your chickens." He looks down at the dehydrated mountain, seeming quite pleased.

Meanwhile, a child of indeterminate gender is grabbed and lifted. They look like the most average kid possible, with a mop of brown hair, a round face, and beady eyes. They stare at Asami for a second before giving a halfhearted kick of their legs, as if only just realizing that's the expected response.

"So, last chance. You gonna enter, yes or no?" calls the boy to Asami. He's actually okay either way- the magic mountain is a good enough prize on its own.

[Ironsmith]

[Playdate]

"...Well, you're both wrong, but still within reason." Braon shrugs, momentarily redirecting her attention to Trick exclusively. "And this is also the part where I mention that I only need to understand the motivation, not be experiencing it personally myself, in order to use it for enchanting. In case that's where your head was going."

"Anyway." Braon straightens, holding her child up against her shoulder as the girl starts fussing again. "Yes, it's possible to give the created spirit an understanding of the world around them; it's almost a requirement, in fact. For instance, the desire for freedom I put in that rock wouldn't have chosen to blow it up if it didn't think doing so was necessary to escape. And of course, it waited until there wasn't anybody around to get hit with the shrapnel, because believe it or not I'm not that much of an as-" Braon catches herself as Niamh starts crying, gently patting the infant's back. "...Jerk. Not that much of a jerk." She amends quietly.

[Earl of Purple]

The Challenge

"Teleportation is not a problem for me. I can't do it. But good to know magic's on side." The elf smiles, before moving into position to start the race- once the startline and end point have been motioned out, anyway.

[[brackets lover]]

[The Challenge]

Well, Asami had her suspicions before, but that delayed response is a dead giveaway. She looks in the direction of the elf child and pipes up, "I'm afraid they're cheating anyways, everything you see before you is an illusion."

She spins the child around and holds them closer to her chest, speaking towards the air, "Vallarm-senpai, can I keep this weird illusion child?"

[quillpleasant]

The Challenge

"An illusion?" scoffs the boy, "I assure you, I'm not capable of such magic. You're holding him, illusions aren't physical."

As if to drive the point home, the held child suddenly starts flailing their hands, trying to buffet Asami in an attempt to escape. It's true that this is a physical kid- but of course, some illusions are capable of such a thing.

"Anyway, we're starting, with or without you, so either get set or scram," says the boy, shaking his head as if he can't believe Asami's audacity. One of the other kids darts forward with a stick in hand, dragging it across the dirt to create a starting line.

"From here, to that hill. When you get there, stay until everyone else shows up, for safety," instructs the boy, gesturing at a rocky outcropping about a half mile distant, just visible through the trees.

[Morty]

[Birds and Babs- Treasure Hunt]

As the two woblins lead the way to the kitchens, they'll find them mostly empty. No meal is currently being prepared. They stop in front of the door uncertainly.

"Should we go in?"

"Usually the treasure is outside."

They conclude that they need to look outside and start scurrying along the walls. Before they can find much of anything, Kes might spot a grey-skinned face with orange eyes watching them through the window. The woblins are so focused on their search they haven't spotted her yet.

[Playdate]

Sophie's mouth quirks with amusement as Braon corrects herself after almost swearing. She's not naive enough to believe everyone mellows out when they have children... but Braon seems to be one of them.

"What happens to the desire now that the rock is gone?" she asks. She could try seeing it herself but it's better to let Braon explain.

[Earl of Purple]

The Challenge

"Vallarmsenpe is a funny name." The as-yet-unnamed elf might not be one to talk, however. Someone should maybe ask them to introduce themselves. They'll saunter over to the line and get ready to run, bending over to tighten their laces, casting a bit of a spell as they do so.

[[brackets lover]]

[The Challenge]

The boy's attitude greatly disturbs Asami, his attempts to assauge her suspicions cause her to look at him with a primal fear in her eyes. "You're not... Vallarm-senpai?"

Spurred by a sense of urgency, Asami releases the child in mid-air, not taking any cares to avoid hurting a simulacrum. She then rushes to the elf child's side as she pulls out a pair of ear plugs. "Its dangerous, wear these!" Asami exclaims, practically shoving the ear plugs into the elf's ears.

Next, Asami takes a few steps away from the elf and looks to the group of kids, cupping her mouth with her hands and screaming, "HELP! HELP! I NEED HELLLP!" That may well have been loud enough for everyone in glog to hear, certainly loud enough to debilitate anyone in her immediate vicinity.

[Morty]

[The Challenge]

Someone does come... remarkably quickly. Sophie already had a feeling something was going on that needed her attention. She has an uncanny feeling for this sort of thing. Her eyes sweep the scene, imperceptibly glowing with gold. The gaze of the Unconquered Sun peers through her eyes, searing away deceptions and illusions. In addition, anyone concealing ill intent towards children will find it extremely difficult to hide it.

"What's going on?" she asks. Despite her small stature, authority radiates from her like an invisible wave of heat.

[quillpleasant]

The Challenge

The dropped kid hits the ground like a sack of rice, with their only reaction being an annoyed expression. As Asami rushes over to the elven child, the red haired boy heaves a sigh, sharing the same irritation. He starts to walk towards them- and then Asami yells.

The sonic attack has an immediate effect, as the group of children wavers, their bodies rippling like the disturbed surface of a pond. The boy pauses, his face screwing up in pain."Hey, quit it! I'm not going to hurt you, I just want your stuff! I was going to let you win!" This is all going so wrong. Children are supposed to be stupid, aren't they? It should have been easy to trick them.

But of course, the cat's out of the bag now. Where the hell did that golden eyed lady come from? The boy waves his hands, ready to backpedal and try to make up some sob story to appeal to these do-gooders, but... something about this newcomer is making him want to reveal himself. A magical force of truth, or just the desire to test himself against what seems like a worthy opponent? Either way, the boy smiles, and then melts.

One thing he wasn't lying about. There's no illusions here. The entire group of children dissolve into an entirely physical golden dust, flowing through the air and coalescing around the boy. The cloud passes over the collection of objects on the ground, grabbing the dehydrated mountain as it goes.

In just moments, a new figure stands there- a man with gold metallic skin, biomechanical armor growing from his flesh, a metal plate covering the left half of his face. Although Asami has met Nathair before, he's changed greatly, now barely recognizable as the mostly organic person he was before.

"I didn't come here looking for a fight. Just give me your ring and I'll depart in peace," he nods to Asami. "But if you," he points at the golden eyed woman, "try to get in my way, I'll strip the flesh from your bones." Out of the corner of his eye, he watches the elven child- they're an unknown variable, and it doesn't pay to turn your back on potential threats.

[Earl of Purple]

The Challenge

The elf child disappears. They're still present, and Sophie can probably see them, but they're invisible. It's an innate ability, rather than a spell, so it might not even ping as a magical effect- though it is magical, it's not gathering or channelling magic from anything other than the elf's own body.

They're also fleeing, using the spell just cast to jump away. They've lessened gravity's pull upon their feet, enabling much larger jumps as they sprint off.

[[brackets lover]]

[The Challenge]

As Sophie arrives on the scene, Asami gets behind her, staring down the metal man with trepidation. "I don't really need the ring myself, so..." she says with annoyance, pulling the ring out and grabbing one of Sophie's hands, attempting to place the ring in her palm, "I think we should kill this guy, adult-san."

[Morty]

[The Challenge]

Sophie's eyes return to their natural blue color, but the aura of authority around her doesn't diminish. She regards Nathair with a cold, appraising eye. She then takes the ring from Asami and examines it briefly. She can indeed see the elf child and she's glad to see them go. One less innocent in the crossfire.

"I don't kill if I can avoid it. But we'll see if I can." Looking between the ring and the intruder, she asks: "Why do you want it? Is it just because it belonged to a child in a peaceful place? Making it easy pickings?" She knows it's not the case, but she's purposely needling him to provoke him into giving an accurate answer in anger. Somehow she seems to know his pride.