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[Shadowcaller]

[Bellamy Apartment]

Obriane does not meet Kitty's gaze as she's just smiling nervously at Ava right now. Not wanting to take her eyes off the detective even for a moment. Since she was not a good liar and she hadn't even been sure if Kitty had wanted to hide the whole 'fey-party' thing or not.

"Well, I couldn't help but notice your post-box on my way up here." Her eyebrow raises questioningly. "'Will-O’-wisp investigations'?" Ava's gaze moves over the pair, lingering a moment on Obriane, possibly due to her apparent nervousness. "The name of your company combined with your wards draws me to the conclusion that you at least have some experience dealing with spirits. Is that a correct assessment?"

"Uh, yeah." The changeling nods, giving Kitty a brief glance. "We got years of experience dealing with, ah, spirits." A beat. "Due to my condition-" Yet she stops herself mid-sentence, recalling what she agreed to earlier. "Eh, right. I'll try to be brief."

Ava smiles faintly. Barely even noticeable. "It's alright, but let's continue. Given that your wards turned away this being I think you at least believed it to be a spirit or... ghost? I'm not sure about the terminology here."

"We call them yokai-" Obriane glances at her fiancee and realizes that she had just contradicted her. "I- uh, mean, we're not sure exactly what it was, just as Kitty said. Since there's all kinds of spirits. Yokai is just a, erm, broad category for spirits with a body and we at least know it had that."

Ava nods. "Thank you for clarifying." Then she turns to Kitty. "Is this your professional opinion as well, Kitsuki? I could really use some more of your insight on this."

[Gullara]

[Bellamy Apartment]

Kitsuki gives a small shrug. "It's hard to be specific, but the fact it was repelled by our wards means it's probably some kind of spirit, yes. That's a category that covers a lot of ground. We don't have a lot to go on, since we never saw the thing. All I can tell you is that it's not, or not purely, incorporeal." That's quite evident by it's bloody work.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bellamy Apartment]

Ava nods. "Though now that you mention it, is 'it' the proper term here? Since the culprit was evidently capable of both speech and writing so they must have a decent amount of intelligence."

"Uh, not necessarily. Spirits often just mimic the behavior of people without truly understanding it. Like a parrot." Obriane clarifies.

"Perhaps, but they seemed capable of adjusting their mimicry to different situations. Like how it was knocking on your door when it couldn't force an entry. Since I assume that's how the ward work, yes?"

The changeling nods. "Yes, it's like a, uh, contest of wills. It can't make itself cross a certain threshold. In this case the door. That's why you usually make the ward just outside the door as opposed to inside of it. Of course, we did both." Since they're professionals!

"I see. But they stopped knocking before the victim, Mr. Underfoot, called out didn't they? During that time, did they attempt some other kind of communication? Since you must have gone to at least make sure the door was secure after waking up."

This looks like yet another question Obriane is going to leave to Kitty as she wasn't sure how much they were supposed to tell here. She had certainly heard it saying all kinds of awful things and they already knew that it had an interest in Ana...

[Gullara]

[Bellamy Apartment]

"I was the one that went to the door at first, but I didn't stay there long before I went to ward the windows. I didn't wait around to listen to the creepy whispering after it sounded like it was trying to knock my door down." She explains.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bellamy Apartment]

Soundlessly, Ava glances at Obriane who freezes on the spot as she tries to think of something to add to what Kitty said. "Uhh... I was at the door and I heard it say something about, um... murder. I couldn't make out much of it honestly but I was creeped out for sure."

The detectives eyes shift between the pair. "Actually, I-" Her expression doesn't betray any emotion but Obriane panicked as it seemed like Ava was about to correct her on something.

So before Ava inquires further she adds. "Hold on! I also recall it was asking to come in and how it... well, it was talking in this awfully sweet voice, y'know? Really unnerving."

Ava nods. "Erm, thank you, Obriane." But then she turns to Kitty which made Obriane "But I was actually gonna ask Kitsuki a few more questions if you don't mind?" And that's when Obriane realizes that Ava hadn't even finished asking questions to the kitsune yet which causes her to blush.

"So you said 'creepy whispering', meaning that you at least heard their voice, is that accurate? Since I would like a description of their voice as far as you could make it out."

[Shadowcaller]

[Dreamy Disasters]

Jim will find himself waking up in his own dream. Something he should be familiar with by now thanks to having a dreamwalker as a girlfriend.
But speaking of said girlfriend, Jim can hear her voice nearby within the dream. Her voice and another's which he can't recognize. It sounds like they're arguing about something. He can't quite make out what it is but he can hear his own name being mentioned more than once.

[Keeper]

Dreamy Disasters

Things are blurry and Jim can’t really make out details of much at the moment.
Blinking away the sensation of going from a nonsense dream to a more lucid one, Jim tries to swim through the Dream’s feelings to a door that seems to be in the voices’ direction. Gravity asserts itself as he pulls it open.

[Shadowcaller]

Dreamy Disasters

Most Jaahlyn related dreams tend to be pleasant but this one is quite different as there's another actor involved.
This idea of something being rather different is further reinforced as Jim actually can see the satyr.
Her back is turned to him but he can see that she's holding the black scythe which definitively is not featured in any of their other dreams. Her posture is defensive, looking ready to swing the weapon at the small group standing before her.

He can see something that looks like a giant worm with arms, a spider with a masked face, a black wasp that has the head of a man and finally the smallest of them all. A ape-like woman with arms that nearly reaches the ground of the dream even while standing. She is standing in front of the other creatures which are spreading out. Seemingly investigating the dreamscape around them with their various appendages.

"-talk to her."

"Talk to me, bitch."

The ape woman looks like she's about to make a comeback to that insult but pauses as she appears to spot Jim.
Something which also causes Jaahlyn to take a glance behind her.

Jim probably soon realizing that all of them are now staring right at him.

[Keeper]

Dreamy Disasters

Jim blinks, looking at the crowd in confusion. The dreamscape starts to coalesce into a mostly open wooded area with trees relatively far apart.
"It seems like most of you are not supposed to be here." Jim says quietly, something long and vaguely suggestive of a weapon starting to take shape on the ground beside him.

[Shadowcaller]

Dreamy Disasters

The ape woman let's out a rather hyena-like laugh. "Well, well, don't you two deserve one another?"

She smirks as Jaahlyn turns her head as much as she can without actually turning around. "Jim, you should wake up. Now. Like we've trained."

However as she says that the ape-fey leaps into the air and lands in front of Jim in the matter of a split-second. Moving with unnatural grace. "So you're the cow, huh? Not quite how I envisioned you."

[Keeper]

Dreamy Disasters

"Thanks, we do."
Jim's hand immediately comes up clutching the vaguely-defined dream staff at the ape. "And auroch, thanks." Jim willingly slips, trying to take a deep "breath" and let himself "fall."

[Shadowcaller]

Dreamy Disasters

She jumps at him at his very next breath.

He can feel her hand touching his chest from behind as she has somehow darted all the way around him in the blink of an eye. "No." Her voice hisses up against his ear and the next moment she presses up against the other one before he can try to grab her. "Cow, as in the insult. A breeded, vapid, fat-stacked, milk-cow, that's what you truly are." It almost feels like a cartoon the way she is there one moment and gone the next before his reflexes can even catch up. Since now she's somehow sitting on his back even as the dream has turned into a fall with all the fey, including Jaahlyn, now falling with him. "Playing with things she doesn't understand. So I'm just returning the favor. Giving you a hint of the pain you've caused me!"

Then Jim suddenly bolts right awake.
Yet he doesn't quite feel like Jim all of sudden. He feels more like Jay all of sudden as the words of the ape still echos in his mind.
He can feel Jaahlyn laying (as a goat) on his chest. Was she there when he went to sleep? His memories are hazy, but as she stands up and leaps off him he can tell that she's concerned. Since something has changed and for some reason he can't get those infernal words out of his mind.

[Gullara]

[Bellamy Apartment]

Kitsuki glances at Obriane, her expression not betraying her feelings with Ava looking right at her. She really wishes he could tell her to talk half as much at most. But she has a question to answer. "I'm not sure I can describe it in detail. I'd say a young woman's voice, though, somewhat higher pitched. I'd assume it was some kind of deceptive tactic. We've encountered many spirits that can imitate voices."

[Keeper]

Dreamy Disasters

”What…does that say…about him?” Jim groans out before everything shifts back to reality.
He bolts upright, hopefully not bucking Jaahlyn too bad.
”Well that was weird. I guess you warned me, huh? Gonna have to get triple the guard on my dreams.”
Jim shakes himself, trying to get the image out of his head of Jay as some weird dairy-cow-lady.

[Shadowcaller]

Dreamy Disasters

"Meeh!" Jaahlyn bleats as she falls over onto his bed as Jim bolts up.
She quickly manages to get up though and gives him a concerned look with her goat-y eyes.
Since there was something that was wrong here.
Jim feeling as his body is suddenly altering. Changing into what seems to be Jay's body. Yet that had always been an instant process and he definitively shouldn't be feeling it like this. Nor should he be able to do it right in front of Jaahlyn's watchful gaze.

Since those weird Jay-ideas in his mind? He somehow knows that they're starting to become real. His thoughts driving some kind of transformation process that he seems to both have complete control over yet also none at all. It's like those words the ape-fey told him has turned into the worst kind of mindworm he's ever had as he just can't stop thinking about it despite that they're apparently causing this change somehow.
In fact, it might remind him of how Radigall inspired him while he was at his workshop. Yet in this case all that creative energy is going into an idea that isn't even his.

[Bellamy Apartment]

"Do you think it might have been trying to imitate a particular voice? One of your daughters perhaps?"

This time, Obriane is going to let Kitty answer the question. Since she's clearly not up to the task.

[Keeper]

Dreamy Disasters

"I think I might need you-you, Jaahlyn." Jim mutters, but he finds himself unable to focus on her or any real conversation. Every time he tries to form a thought instead all he can think about is
YOU ARE A MILK COW
A STACKED MILK COW
A FAT STACKED MILK COW
A VAPID MILK COW
Jim tries to focus on anything else, but he can't. All he can do is imagine himself as a milk cow. He's already been a bovine-person, it's frustratingly easy to imagine. Jay, but less wild. Less tough. A MILK COW. Why did she have to say milk cow, dairy cow would sound so much less weird but she had to say MILK. Jaahlyn will easily notice Jim's shape growing to Jay's size, but not quite the same. Softer. BREEDED. What did that even mean? Jim puts a hand to his chest and thankfully does not find anything that could be described as "stacked."
But unfortunately that only makes him think about that part more.
YOU ARE A COW. A STACKED COW. FAT-STACKED. STACKED. MILK.
And then he groans and finds it becoming exactly as the horrible thoughts keep making him imagine.

[Gullara]

[Bellamy Apartment]

"Maybe, it'd be hard to say through the door. It certainly didn't talk like any of them, even if it was using their voice." Kitsuki replies noncommittally. "But I'm guessing based on what we already know you're guessing it sounded like Ana."

[Shadowcaller]

Dreamy Disasters

The goat looks increasingly confused as this happens.
Which isn't terribly hard for a goat.
All she can think of is getting up close and act as emotional support with her fur. Since she couldn't stop what was happening here. All she could do was trying to make them feel better by being close.

[Bellamy Apartment]

"Uh, yeah." Obriane nods in agreement with Kitty.

"So you agree with Kitsuki's assessment that it sounded like your daughter Anastacia?" Ava inquires, seeking clarification.

"Y-yeah, like she said. It sounded like Ana... now that I think about it."

"Alright, and you said that Ana had been feeling watched lately. Could you go into more details on that?" The detective gestures to Kitsuki as she had been the one mentioning it. "Can you recall when she mentioned this and what wording she used?"

[Keeper]

Disasters

Jaahlyn provides emotional support! Sadly it does nothing to break the trance-like state that has Jim in its grips where he can only think about how heIS A BREEDED VAPID FAT-STACKED MILK COW PLAYING WITH THINGS SHE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND. And what does this fey even know she's using 'she' like she knows Jim at all when she's clearly A COW-dammit.
Jim tries to focus on something else but immediately is pulled back into asking what breeded means anyway. Like, a cow breed? She doesn't know anything about cow breeds aside from the fluffy ones and the normal black and brown ones and the stereotypical black and white ones known for being MILK COWS. LIKE YOU. That unfortunate connection sends cowhide growing all over her body even over her furry legs. Her horns seem to be bending to a new shape as well.
Jaahlyn can hear her muttering under her breath very much like Radigal's trance but she seems to be having much less fun.

[Shadowcaller]

Disasters

Yeah, no kidding. She recognized this condition now, even if she wasn't sure about the particulars, and it enraged her. Weren't woku supposed to strike up rather than down?
Reminded her far too much of behavior she had seen in the past and just like back then she was as powerless to stop it now.

Or perhaps that wasn't completely true anymore. She had picked up a few tricks since then.

With that thought the goat suddenly grows into a woman if only half a human as she tries to cup Jim(Jay?)'s chin in her hands. Her eyes turning completely black as she sings him a lullaby.

"Hush now, hide, all your little thoughts.
Rush now into the middle of nowhere.
Where all your concerns will die

Dreamless sleep, follows Me
When My kingdom comes, darkness is nigh

Quiet, crawl to the in-between
Silent, secretive feeling
Of fearsome ideas reaching your mind

You will bring joy to Me
When I see the light leaving your eyes."

It won't stop the changes but it will slow down and eventually kill all the thoughts as Jim/Jay will then fall into a deep death-like slumber as all light seem to leave their eyes.

[Keeper]

Disasters

Jaahlyn's voice is calming even if she wasn't doing magic. Though Jim's face does seem to slide ever further into bovine territory, her breathing slows and she's out like a light within a minute.
Which of course leaves Jaahlyn with an important question: what now?

[Gullara]

[Bellamy Apartment]

"Uh, yeah." Obriane nods in agreement with Kitty.

"So you agree with Kitsuki's assessment that it sounded like your daughter Anastacia?" Ava inquires, seeking clarification.

"Y-yeah, like she said. It sounded like Ana... now that I think about it."

"Alright, and you said that Ana had been feeling watched lately. Could you go into more details on that?" The detective gestures to Kitsuki as she had been the one mentioning it. "Can you recall when she mentioned this and what wording she used?"

[Bellamy Apartment]

"I think you might be better off asking her. I was going to need her to explain it again anyway to figure out how to follow up. She was pretty shaken, so I didn't press right away." Kitsuki explains.

[Shadowcaller]

[Bellamy Apartment]

"So perhaps I could speak to her now then?" Ava inquires, it being the logical conclusion to Kitty's answer. "With you accompanying her of course."

[Shadowcaller]

Disasters

Jim has a completely dreamless sleep until he suddenly awakens with a start as he feels lips being pressed against him. He will only have vague memories of what happened before he fell asleep. Which might make the whole realization of "my body has suddenly drastically transformed" even worse.
His memories will eventually return but right now he will find himself staring at Jaahlyn who still had completely black eyes. Which probably explained why she was acting so calmly. Just staring at him.

[Keeper]

Disasters

Jim blinks awake feeling extraordinarily strange. Including feeling...fuzzier. Her vision seeming off, and well, Jaahlyn pressing up against her chest-
Which presents itself with a number of problems, since having a bovine face means moving her head down doesn't actually help, but after some frantic movement Jim does in fact manage to actually look down and note her significantly altered torso.
"Uh, Jaahlyn?? What the crap?" Jim looks like there would be some frantic gesticulating if Jaahlyn wasn't so close.

[Shadowcaller]

Disasters

Jaahlyn blinks, her eyes regaining a touch of white as her pupils become visible again.
It honestly was the worst feeling. Starting to care. Especially in a situation like this.
Everything was so much easier when it was all turned off. She knew people who would die for something like that. Yet here she was willingly turning on her feelings again.

And in that same moment she moved away further from Jim as if she saw him for the first time like this. Since in a way she was. She quickly covered her eyes as she stood up. The rapid motion nearly causing her to slip on the floor.
"You- uh, got changed. The woku changed you before I could stop her. I'm so sorry." She looked at Jim in-between her fingers, well-aware of silly that was. It just... was a lot seeing him like this. She needed to take it bite-sized.

[Keeper]

Disasters

Jaahlyn will have to put up with the sight of Jim, still naked, sadly poking and running a hand over her new self, noting all the new sensations and the odd new sensitivity.
"...that bad, huh?" she asks Jaahlyn quietly, noting the face-covering and look of horror. She is not desiring a look in the mirror right now.

[Shadowcaller]

Disasters

"Have you seen Baphoreth? It's not worse than them." Jaahlyn remarks as she slowly puts her hands down. "So y'know, not that bad? I mean... it, uh, has it's charms." A beat as the satyr then gestures to Jim's chest.
"Very big charms." An attempt of to a joke.
She puts her hands on her hips. "I've certainly been with people that didn't look too different before." Or at least had a vague recollection of that. "Better channel Jay if you want to feel more comfortable like that. Until we've solved it. Shouldn't be that hard though. It's uh, temporary at worst."

[Keeper]

Disasters

Jim weakly stands up straight and gives Jaahlyn a smile, trying to pose with those charms.
"Well, I can try to turn on the Mask if you turn around." Would that even work?
"But yeah, it's just a fey thing right? We can just get another fey to fix it? We do already have Radigal's address."

[Shadowcaller]

Disasters

Jaahlyn's eyebrows raise at that reaction as she pauses for a moment. Since she had expected the stark opposite frankly, which was why she had been trying to change the subject.
Had Jim been changed so much that he had just gotten used to it by now? Or maybe he was already channeling Jay?

"Erm, well, a bit more complicated than that actually. Since Radigal only spends the springs here. He likes to spend seasons in different places. A lot of vettir do actually as they have a seasonal theme going..." She shrugs. "But it won't be a problem. I have a lot of vettir connections. Just a matter of getting in touch of them."