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[Morty]

[A Succubus Problem]

Sophie steps out of the circle on shaky legs, blinking as if she woke up from a deep sleep.

"Mmm. Who... who were you talking to?"

[Meowmai]

[Flats and Cats]

Blanche may not be the most socially skilled catgirl in the world, but even she picks up on the anxiety in Elizabeth's body language. She raises a brow, then blinks in surprise when Liz asks about money - and yet, she doesn't seem particularly offended. "uh, yeah - I suppose I could... you're not in trouble, are you?" The look in her eyes might not be too hard for Liz to read. Money troubles? Does that mean her sister has some sort of debt going on? She knows Liz is inclined to rather shady activity, what if she owes the wrong person or something?

[Flats and Cats]

Elizabeth momentarily lights up at her unexpected success, only to sag again as Blanche asks further questions. "Really!? Thanks! Buy uh, well, I mean, I wouldn't say trouble, not when you phrase it like that." She scratches the back of her head. "But things aren't maybe... great." She admits.

[Arkhosia]

[Aftermaths and Futures]

"No, but..." Reilana rubs her neck. She really doesn't think that's an actual excuse. "I might have had some problem with the theorems. I can try to replicate what I did to double check my work. Theorems don't influence intensity, but maybe this just looks like an intensity issue. Or maybe there was some outside influence, but I don't know what that could be. It was invisible if it existed."

[Aftermaths and Futures]

The gears in Dulcinea's brain start to turn. "...Invisible, you say?" She regards Reilana for a moment. "Those... spirits you put inside of me, you don't think they wouldn't be a potential interference would you?"

[Earl of Purple]

Benedict's Manse

"Ostensibly? You thought this was a possibility?" Benedict caught the use of a word that means 'apparently but not necessarily so', even if Jubilee did misuse it, and raises an eyebrow. "That is more than enough, really. [Slightly lower amount] is enough for me, that and the opportunity to witness your magic." Although if Jubilee insists, he'll accept the higher amount she's pushing on him.

He's also ready to start heading upstairs, with the jar if Jubilee wants to put Jackson in it again. He might start to rot if he's not bathed in the alchemical mixture somewhat regularly, though perhaps not; whatever keeps living people from rotting should still hold true for his head, so long as Jackson remains awake and not dead-adjacent.

[Halae]

[Skye's Apartment]

Skye breathes out as a bit of tension leaves her shoulders; while she's perfectly alright with Mary's experiment, it's still an extra load to have someone literally watching everything you're doing.

And then she moves over to a closet, where she'll draw out a wooden board with a series of hexagons on it, as well as a large number of wooden game pieces to go with it. There's four painted armies that are part of the board - red, white, black, and an unpainted wood. She'll lay them out on the dining room table, within sight of the living room where Mary will be waking up (hopefully without any cramps from how she was laid down).

And then Skye takes the bottom of the board off so she can begin raising the hexagonal platforms of the game board, allowing her to create hills, cliffs, and other terrain features for the structure of the board.

"Feel free to choose a color. I tend to prefer playing the unpainted one. The game works just fine with three players - it's probably better than just two. I've heard of boards that can handle up to ten, but this one isn't anywhere large enough for that."

[A Succubus Problem]

Trick, meanwhile, is still in a tubetop.

One that was meant for someone with a significantly greater bust size than her.

As a result, she's forced to hold it up, lest it fall down and flash Sekhmet.

"Presumably, it was the soulstuff she just took back. Coherency can gain some presence of mind when enough soulstuff is collected in that way."

[[brackets lover]]

[Skye's Apartment]

"Ten is a big number," Asami helpfully points out, sitting cross-leggedly at the table. "I guess i'll be red." He picks up one of the pieces and begins fidgetting with it, tapping it against the table.

[bc56]

Skye's Apartment
Mary takes a seat across from Skye, looking a little out of sorts, but fine.
"I'll be black. How do you play this?" She looks at the little columns being raised up and wonders what they're for.

A Succubus Problem
Sekhmet opens her mouth to explain, but...
"Uh, yes. It was that,' she confirms. "Everything should be back to normal now."

[Ironsmith]

[Benedict's Manse]

"Of course I thought it was a possibility. Intent is a requirement, after all. The only surprising part is that my magic apparently had influence beyond the ritual itself." Jubilee smirks. "Hardly a disappointment, if not quite my design."

Jubilee follows, making a point to nudge Samantha toward the stairs. She won't object to Benedict carrying the jar, even if she'd wanted to go ahead and dunk the head inside, and simply carries Jackson next to her, taking no particular care to avoid smacking him against her leg or the wall as they make their way back upstairs.

[Halae]

[Skye's Apartment]

"First, we set the field. Each of us can claim a third of the board and create terrain by using the platforms; this allows us to create hills, cliffs, and the like. Then, once we have that, we select our forces - these will represent our armies, though you're only allowed to choose fifteen pieces," as compared to the thirty they have access to. Each one is painted with an Old Realm word on the top, showing what they are - cavalry, infantry, chariots, trebuchets, catapults, archers, and more are all included.

"Once you've selected your terrain and your force, you place your army within your section of the board, and we roll dice to determine how a given battle between units goes. I understand the Princes of the Earth use it to train their children to think like generals, and grand competitions are held yearly."

"Asami, as the youngest of us here, I'll let you choose; would you rather set up your terrain first or last? First would allow you to work unimpeded, but going last would let you set up terrain that counters our choices."

[Earl of Purple]

Benedict's Manse

"I am surprised as well. I have not encountered your particular practice before- something which has become increasingly common since I arrived in Nexus- so I did not know what to expect." Had he known it was a possibility, he'd have warned about it.

Samantha doesn't take a lot of nudging to get the stairs, glancing at her father's head occasionally. The head itself tries swallowing the stocking stuck in its mouth, with the ultimate aim of being able to bite Jubilee.

[Rebonack]

[Richard's Residence]

"Yeah but Veronica will be around to help a bunch this time!" Khannie announces brightly, her ears perking up. "She was around sorta when we was little but we're all gunna move in together and be a regular family now, right?"

That's her general understanding of what marriage will result in. Though by the time it actually happens she might have already moved out. She's going to be sixteen in the fall! SIXTEEN!

That's getting awfully close to grownup age!

"That sounds wonderful!" Geneva says. "Have you and Veronica decided on a date and venue yet?"

[Keeper]

Richards' Residence

"I admit there was a time we almost considered slipping away one week and doing it all in secret."
Jace seems like he'd be smiling if his face still could.
"But that's out of the question with Kit going to need me around. We're ah, going to wait until after Kit's out at the very least." Jace would be very embarrassed making it look like he was dragging Veronica into a shotgun wedding.

[[brackets lover]]

[Skye's Apartment]

"Oh, you are? I'd never have guessed. How old are you?" Asami asks, returning to the game, "Ok, so I guess I'll go first and put some cliffs over here..." Notably, he was making a deliberate attempt to make his decisions seem un-stragegic, purposefully maintaining a speed consistent with the impulsiveness expected of him.

[bc56]

Skye's Apartment
Mary looks at Skye. She's pretty sure the other girl is older than her, and not by much, but it's hard to tell with demigods. Or demonesses, for that matter.
Once she gets the all-clear to go next, she starts setting up her board. She sets up some hills next to Asami's cliffs, descending down to plains and a few hills facing Skye. "Is that a good move?" she questions.

[Halae]

[Skye's Apartment]

"It's a solid decision," Skye says while setting up her own part of the board, in which she includes a layer of raised hills in the center of her area, far away from the terrain set up by the others, "Cliffs and hills give additional range to ranged units, like archers or artillery; the higher the terrain is raised, the further they can shoot, but it can also trap them if they're outflanked, as raised terrain can be difficult to move over."

"As to my age, I'll be turning eighteen on the fifth of Descending Earth, about ten months from now."

"Now, we select our units. Choose fifteen pieces to represent your army," Skye chooses to put together an army consisting of a few lines of infantry, cavalry on the flanks, and archers on the hills behind her infantry. It's an extremely simple formation, but good because of how strong it is, especially with the infantry protecting the archers behind them up on the hill.

[[brackets lover]]

[Skye's Apartment]

"What the hell is a month?" Asami asks in a deadpan manner. She turns back towards the pieces, looking at them curiously. "Wait, how do you tell which piece is which?"

[Ironsmith]

[Benedict's Manse]

Swallowing a stocking is a lot harder than it sounds, and almost as unpleasant. Jackson is going to find that while the nylon makes Jubilee's impromptu gag rather compressible, it also expands back just as quickly, and resists any attempt to pull it into the back of his throat, cutting into his cheeks in the process. And the whole time, he might come to realize this is not a freshly laundered stocking but one that has seen at least a day's worth of use, and as such the attempt will see flecks of dirt and dust flaking off and further parching him.

Jubilee doesn't seem to notice or care what he's doing, remaining engrossed in her conversation with Benedict. "So I gathered." She says, slightly deadpan. "As you insisted on calling it a 'privilege to witness' despite the lack of spectacle. Laying it on a bit thick, weren't you?"

[Earl of Purple]

Benedict's Manse

Jackson has a lot of spite and a disagreeable nature; if swallowing won't work, he'll try spitting it out. The taste doesn't matter to him; either he traded his sense of taste away to a raksha for something or his tongue is coated still in the jar's chemical mixture and can taste nothing but formaldehyde.
"Oh, but it was. The simplicity was itself spectacle. Most wizards, regardless of their practice, will endeavour to show off, especially when meeting someone new. You didn't, despite being in my house. You showed me you were confident, meaning you're powerful or see yourself as such. You also brought an apprentice, and didn't show off for her either. So not only are powerful and confident, you're also practical. You may not have meant to, but I still learnt about you by watching." Benedict smiles, heading back to the library. The building has shifted on them again, and now there's a corridor enroute that wasn't before. The corridor's got blue wallpaper and it has a great many paintings and portraits on the walls. Notable images are a full-length portrait of a cavalier, in foppish clothes and a peacock-feather-adorned hat despite being a skeleton; a medieval battle scene between people under a blue flag with a yellow fleur-de-lys on it besieging a flying tower; a faded and ragged Dutch naval ensign; and an intricate dragon tattooed across a piece of skin that rather clearly was once somebody's back.

[Gullara]

[Aftermaths and Futures]

The gears in Dulcinea's brain start to turn. "...Invisible, you say?" She regards Reilana for a moment. "Those... spirits you put inside of me, you don't think they wouldn't be a potential interference would you?"

[Aftermaths and Futures]

Reilana pauses, then turns her head back to her girlfriend. "Um..." She pauses a moment longer. Those spirits were an unusual factor. "I wouldn't expect it."

She turns to the bookshelf and pulls out a thick tome. Jostan's resources on necromancy weren't exactly modern productions. Flipping through some pages, Reilana continues, "One purpose of theorems is that they shield from outside influence. Even if the root cause was a soul's influence, it was still my error that would've given the opening."

She pauses to read a page, her brow furrowing. "And your spirits should be tightly bound..." She sounds more uncertain at that. It was advanced spirit magic she did, and it is not her specialty.

"Souls themselves are generally thanergetically neutral as well. They've done all the dying they're going to do already." Still, though, she's considering the option. Maybe there's something she's missing... All her negatives aren't an outright dismissal at all. She'd love to pick Jostan's brain here, but that's not an option.

[Ironsmith]

Benedict's Manse

Jackson has a lot of spite and a disagreeable nature; if swallowing won't work, he'll try spitting it out. The taste doesn't matter to him; either he traded his sense of taste away to a raksha for something or his tongue is coated still in the jar's chemical mixture and can taste nothing but formaldehyde.
"Oh, but it was. The simplicity was itself spectacle. Most wizards, regardless of their practice, will endeavour to show off, especially when meeting someone new. You didn't, despite being in my house. You showed me you were confident, meaning you're powerful or see yourself as such. You also brought an apprentice, and didn't show off for her either. So not only are powerful and confident, you're also practical. You may not have meant to, but I still learnt about you by watching." Benedict smiles, heading back to the library. The building has shifted on them again, and now there's a corridor enroute that wasn't before. The corridor's got blue wallpaper and it has a great many paintings and portraits on the walls. Notable images are a full-length portrait of a cavalier, in foppish clothes and a peacock-feather-adorned hat despite being a skeleton; a medieval battle scene between people under a blue flag with a yellow fleur-de-lys on it besieging a flying tower; a faded and ragged Dutch naval ensign; and an intricate dragon tattooed across a piece of skin that rather clearly was once somebody's back.

[Benedict's Manse]

Spitting the stocking out presents much the same problemas swallowing it, only less harmful to his cheeks and considerably louder.

"Is that so? Well, less is more, as they say." Jubilee shrugs theatrically, bapping the head against the doorframe as they walk by.

...There's a certain irony to the concept coming up as they step through what seems to be a needlessly opulent hallway, but Jubilee decides to spare him from any comment to that effect.

"...Samantha, dear, would you like to hold him for a bit? He keeps making faces at me, so I suspect he has not yet recovered enough to process the concept of risk. And you can slap him around yourself if he gets uppity."

And if Benedict still wants to see some flashy magic, this would likely be equivalent to striking a match on a keg of gunpowder.

[Earl of Purple]

Benedict's Manse

It's an old building belonging to a reasonably wealthy house. This 'needlessly opulent hallway' is restrained compared to some stately homes and manors. There's very little gilding, for example, and most of the tables bear books atop them instead of vases or other trinkets. Benedict doesn't consider this flashy.

Samantha takes the head. "Hello, dad. Weren't expecting to see me again, were you? I'd like my finger back, you don't need that five years. You always wanted to get ahead, now you've lost your body. Benedict here probably has it wandering around doing menial chores." She smiles as Jackson gets quite irate.
"Not all of it. Without a head, and with barely six fingers and less toes, it's useful only as a source of spare parts." Benedict may have some of Jackson's bones wandering around, though; ribs or vertebrae, to repair damage to the servants that actually were intact when he sourced them.

Benedict opens a door back to the library, where Mergei has been joined by a tiefling woman with deep purple skin, pure white eyes with no sign of iris or pupil (she's able to see just fine despite this, however), and six fingers on her left hand wearing a loose dress. A child, just shy of two, is on the tiefling's lap, a boy with dark skin bearing a purplish tinge and pure white eyes. His hair is black and curly, and he waves with his six-fingered left hand.

[Ironsmith]

[Benedict's Manse]

"Hm. Yes, it would seem as though you have to face the consequences of your actions now, mister North. Alone, I'm afraid, as you have no body to rely on. It's what you get for being so headstrong." Jubilee deadpans, giving Samantha's hair a little ruffle. Taunting one's enemies is one of life's little pleasures; it's good to see Samantha taking to it so readily.

Her demeanor changes entirely as they enter the library, momentarily taken aback by the sudden appearance of what she's certainly not about to admit out loud is a rather ugly toddler. Well, maybe not so much ugly as quietly disturbing; the pupil-less eyes already look off on an adult, and on a very young child they plunge straight into the uncanny valley.

...She'd probably be best served getting that digusted look off her face, though.

"Well, hello there." She greets the tiefling and child with forced cordiality. "I don't believe I've had the pleasure...?"

[Earl of Purple]

Benedict's Manse

Samantha smiles as her hair's ruffled, but doesn't react to Donatien's appearance as they enter the library again.

"My wife, Libertine, and our son, Donatien. She's learning elementalism, with an affinity so far for smoke and oil." Libertine can do some pyromancy, but usually in an effort to create smoke or igniting summoned oil.
"It's a pleasure to meet you. Mergei said you're Jubilee, right? And that must be Samantha. It's a pleasure to meet you; Benedict is a wonderful teacher." She smiles, though it's hard to say if it reaches her blank white eyes.
"Yes, I'm Samantha. This is what's left of my dad, Jackson North. He's staying gagged because I don't know if he'd be polite." She hoists the head up as she introduces it, 'accidentally' poking Jackson in the eye to his distress.

[Ironsmith]

[Benedict's Manse]

"Oh, he most certainly would not be." Jubilee smirks and gives Jackson's head a little scratch under the chin. "Which is a real shame, mister North, because a man your age should certainly know better. And as miserable as you are now..."

She seizes him around the jaw, her fingers on one cheek and thumb on the other as she forces eye contact.

"I can make it much, much worse." She says calmly, with all the confidence of someone who has made good on that threat more times in her considerable lifespan than Jackson would want to know.

She then releases the head and lets it bob back into place. "So." She resumes, the weight gone from her voice. "I hate to leave so soon after being introduced, but we got what we came for and there's still a lot to be done today."

[Earl of Purple]

Benedict's Manse

Jackson growls as he's scratched, glaring at Jubilee as she dares to threaten him. He's not visibly cowed, but as a severed head all he's got is appearances.

"Ah, of course. It was lovely to meet you, though, and I hope you return if you wish to make further deals or bargains. My family has been collecting magical secrets for a millennium, there's a lot we might know." Or at least have written down somewhere Benedict can find it somewhat easily.

[Arkhosia]

► SHOW SPOILER

[Aftermaths and Futures]

Reilana pauses, then turns her head back to her girlfriend. "Um..." She pauses a moment longer. Those spirits were an unusual factor. "I wouldn't expect it."

She turns to the bookshelf and pulls out a thick tome. Jostan's resources on necromancy weren't exactly modern productions. Flipping through some pages, Reilana continues, "One purpose of theorems is that they shield from outside influence. Even if the root cause was a soul's influence, it was still my error that would've given the opening."

She pauses to read a page, her brow furrowing. "And your spirits should be tightly bound..." She sounds more uncertain at that. It was advanced spirit magic she did, and it is not her specialty.

"Souls themselves are generally thanergetically neutral as well. They've done all the dying they're going to do already." Still, though, she's considering the option. Maybe there's something she's missing... All her negatives aren't an outright dismissal at all. She'd love to pick Jostan's brain here, but that's not an option.

[Aftermaths and Futures]

Dulcinea settles precariously onto the floor against the ruined bed as Reilana pores through the pages, mulling things over alongside her partner. "And... I'm thanergetically neutral, right?" She tilts her head. "Since I'm not dying anymore, last I checked."

"About the spirits, though..." Dulcinea frowns, pursing her lip. She wasn't quite eager to have this conversation so quickly, but it felt needed. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

[Gullara]

[Aftermaths and Futures]

"Right, exactly." Reilana confirms, filing that away with the other facts that she's still actively turning over in her mind. Dulci can practically see the gear turning.

Something in Dulcinea's tone snaps her out of it, though. The necromancer looks up from the book to meet her eye. "Yeah? Go ahead."

[Arkhosia]

► SHOW SPOILER

[Flats and Cats]

Elizabeth momentarily lights up at her unexpected success, only to sag again as Blanche asks further questions. "Really!? Thanks! Buy uh, well, I mean, I wouldn't say trouble, not when you phrase it like that." She scratches the back of her head. "But things aren't maybe... great." She admits.

[Flats and Cats]

"Hey -" Blanche leans closer, her ears tilting as she makes eye contact. "You can tell me."

[Ironsmith]

Benedict's Manse

Jackson growls as he's scratched, glaring at Jubilee as she dares to threaten him. He's not visibly cowed, but as a severed head all he's got is appearances.

"Ah, of course. It was lovely to meet you, though, and I hope you return if you wish to make further deals or bargains. My family has been collecting magical secrets for a millennium, there's a lot we might know." Or at least have written down somewhere Benedict can find it somewhat easily.

[Benedict's Manse]

"It doesn't seem likely that we will, but I'll keep the offer under consideration." Jubilee replies with a small, wry smile. The situation that brought them here in the first place was rather niche and rather personal, after all. What are the odds Samantha is going to have a second asshole relative stumble into Benedict's lap like that?

Not zero. But certainly not high.

...Then again, perhaps coming back might further her education. Benedict's dungeon was rather zoo-like in its own way, and his collection would be similar in some respects to a museum, to say nothing of what could be found in the library. There's a lot here she could learn about that Jubilee couldn't teach her on her own.

"...We'll think about it." She reiterates, before gesturing Samantha toward the door.

[Meowmai]

[Flats and Cats]

Elizabeth shifts under Blanche's gaze. She hadn't known Blanche long enough to really think of her as her sister, more of that VIGIL soldier she ran into that one time, so felt like she was being interrogated a little bit. But she did need help.

"It's uh, the thing is... welllll... I don't really have a place to live right now." The catgirl wrings her hands. "And I sort of... need one. Obviously, of course- but uh, like, fast."