Anastasia is easily flustered, clearly. But the way Eliseo ribs her is pretty cute.
"Don't worry, I'm used to short jokes," she says, recognizing Atsede's nervousness. "I think I've seen your siblings around, though." She looks up at Anastasia. "Annie is a real terror. Started a fight over crayons once, or so Brinika tells me."
Eliseo gives Ana a playful wink. He knows what he's doing.
"You're all gonna make me worried. I'm waiting for the baby chaos to drop at my place. Pip makes things hectic enough." He gives a mock, exaggeratedly worried look.
"It's not scandalous, it's a perfectly acceptable length," Anastasia pouts, folding her arms at Atsede even as Eliseo winking her way stirs her tails into a gentle wag. "A-and I really don't get why kids spook you so much. I mean, yeah, it gets pretty hectic at my place sometimes with so many running around, but they're really cute. Like, seriously, have you met Su-Jin or Pip? They're adorable.
As compelling an argument as it is, Iknika's next comment does put a bit of a dent into the vibe Ana's trying to articulate. She looks back over at the goblin, surprised. "Oh! Um, yeah, that uh, sounds about right. She's still a good kid, but - um, like, really insistent about a lot of things."
[Robots, Ghouls, Trainers and Schools]
Oh whew. So she hadn't just said something horribly insulting. That was reassuring. "I would offer you refuge at my place, but, y'know..." she shrugs jokingly at Eliseo. Dealing with Pip and the upcoming kids was still probably a better experience than her families judgmental stares.
"Cus... cus they're annoying! Small, loud, always crying or bugging you about something. And I dunno I'd call a baby throwing up all over you or whatever they do 'adorable'!" She gestures over at all the many goblin kids running around. "See? That's just too much to bother with."
"I'm with Atsede on this one," Iknika declares. "Kids can be fine enough in limited doses, but... I guess being the oldest in a goblin family isn't very limited. Some of my cousins are cool, though. Like Brinika and Cheasadh." She looks around. "But we should go find something to do instead of standing here and waiting to be swarmed, though."
[Gals with Guns]
"Not sure what you mean by corpo here, but these were done by a private specialist." Olvisin flexes her fingers a little. "And I don't know if I'd call it bad, but I'm a MERC member. These beauties help me both shoot my guns and stitch people up."
"Right, sorry - corporate. Back home, if you got yourself an arm from one of the big ten corps, that arm didn't really belong to you." Cassidy shrugs. Most people she knew were smart enough go that route, but it was always a concern.
She perks up a bit. "No fooling? I ran with MERC a couple years back myself. How's the place holding up? 'Snig's still the boss, right?"
Last edited by Ember on Oct 16, 2022 11:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"He is, yeah. Not getting any younger, but still in charge. It's why there's so many goblins in MERC. I'm not surprised you used to run with us. You seem the type."
Eliseo looks at Ana. It's not like he doesn't know how she feels. "I mean they're not that bad." He offers. And, like, in small doses, sure, he believes that. He'll ignore right now when Pip is crying, though. That is the worst.
"But yeah, we could use a guide. We just showed up and we don't know what's going on."
They're - they're not annoying! They're just - they're a lot of work, but they're just people, and -" Ana screws up her face. "Ugh!" Why is Atsede being... like this affecting her so much?
The kitsune tries to shake off that lingering frustration with a sigh and turns back to Iknika. "Um, I dunno. I've never really been to one of these, but - like, we did just learn that Atsede doesn't know what 'bobbing for apples' means, so we could totally make her do that!" And definitely not play any tricks on her presumably.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
Expression faltering a bit, Atsede holds up her hands in an attempt to offer Anastasia some kind of semi-surrender. "Okay okay! I dunno why it's such a big deal for you. They're still annoying but- look, I'll drop it." Really, why did the fox care so much though? Did she like having her free time interrupted by tiny whining people? At least Iknika had some sense.
"Yeah what is there to do. And seriously, what is apple bobbing?" Atsede looked to Iknika. She was here earlier than them, probably, so maybe she might know more?
She cackles. "Yeah, what gave me away?" She didn't remember a lot of goblins in MERC, but that was a long time ago. "It's a good gig, especially when I first got dropped into the everything the Nexus is."
The Nexus really does throw a wrench into things, doesn't it?
Ghosts aren't real!
But there's Stan the Ghost right over there, ghosting away.
"The Witches I had to fight all the time before I got rid of that dumb magic girl contract were kind of like ghosts," Khannie reports as she looks in the general direction Jade is gesturing in, squinting as if the act of doing so would will the ghosts into visibility.
It doesn't work, of course.
"I dunno what the deal is with the camp ghosts. I thought they were just a story for scaring kids."
To be fair to Khannie, that is USUALLY the purpose of ghost stories.
And that thought results in a skeptical look cast Jade's way.
"Wait, you aren't just trying to pull a Spooktober trick, are you?"
Jade might be trying to spook Jason and Khannie with her mendacity!
"They're real," Jade answers, "But I think any stories about them hurting people are made up. They seem nice." She pauses, looking at empty air. "Yes, I can see you. Don't worry about it, I don't mind you as long as you don't mind me."
That out of the way, "I'm surprised more people can't see them. Isn't this the night when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest?"
"There weren't any stories about them hurting people, just them being around and stuff," Khannie clarifies. "And sometimes scaring staff members."
What's the point of being a ghost if you can't scare people?
No point at all, that's what.
"The veil? That sounds like a necromancy thing," Khannie says, wrinkling her nose a bit. "Necromancy is kinda oogy. Like calling up ghosts and zombies and things? I heard some students at PREP talking about that. Like witch stuff. Not like Witch stuff, though. Like potions and cats witches. No crazy despair ghost Witches."
That's a really important distinction in Khannie's mind.
"You just have that rough and tumble badass look." Olvisin grins. "I've learned to recognize it. Being a mercenary pays the bills while me and my siblings work on our own projects. Right, but I don't think we've introduced ourselves yet. I'm Olvisin Zuulit-Obeleck."
[Robots, Ghouls, Trainers and Schools]
Huh. Anastasia has strong feelings about kids. Weird.
"You know, now that I think about it, I'm not sure. I think it's got something to do with biting apples. If that's the case, I've got an unfair advantage." She grins, showing her rather large and sharp teeth. "Anyway, let's go and find out together. Call it spooky cultural education."
Eliseo steps closer to Ana and touches her back. When she looks at him he gives her an apologetic look, then slips his arm fully around her waist. He gives Atsede a small glance, waggles his eyebrows at Ana, then gives Atsede his full attention. "Oh yeah, you definitely have to try bobbing for apples. It'll be fun." There's somethign suspicious about that smile.
Anastasia sighs, but seems to accept her apology. "Okay." When Eliseo moves in she leans gently into her boyfriend's arm, appreciating the physical contact - and then notes the cheeky look he gives her with slight confusion. What was he conspiring?
"I mean, I guess I have a bit of one too. Not like, as impressive as yours though." To prove her point, Ana smiles herself, showing off a pair of short vulpine fangs on both the top and bottom row. "And yeah! It's pretty fun - basically they put a bunch of apples in a tub of water, and you have to get one out with just your mouth,"
As the kitsune explains it all, she leads the group over to a large circular plastic container filled near-to-the-brim with water. There's a variety of apples in all sorts of colors floating around in the tub, from pink lady and McIntosh red to granny smith green and golden delicious.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
"They might do that," Jade laughs, "I won't make any promises." She shakes her head to the necromancy comments. "It's just something people said back where we came from. It stems from old folk superstitions and such, but it doesn't actually mean anything. Just that supposedly it was easier for spooky things to happen on Halloween night."
A cat sized fairy dragon with a goofy little bee antenna headband attached to her head comes swooping in, lands on the lip of the plastic tub, and shoves her mouth into the water, seizing one of the apples with her tiny pointy teeth. The creature nearly topples headlong into the tub, scarcely catches herself, scrabbles fruitlessly for a few moments at the slick plastic surface, and finally escapes dripping wet with her prize.
See?
Easy.
Just grab an apple out of the water like that. But with less falling in.
The Firepit
And Maridia lands over here, perched atop one of the benches near the fire to dry off as she begins gnawing at her stolen apple.
But is it really stealing if all this food is just laying around to be taken?
Probably not.
[Foxy Ghost Talks]
"Weird stuff ALWAYS means something in the Nexus, though," Khannie insightfully points out. "Do you think this might mean it's easier to talk to the ghosts here tonight?"
Without waiting for an answer she yells, "HEY GHOST! Can you hear me?" in the general direction Jade was looking in earlier.
Foxes and Ghosts "He can hear you," Jade confirms, "But I don't think he can speak." She thinks. "I bet it's something about these," She motions at her tails, "That lets me see them. Want to try?" "I wouldn't do it. Ever since she figured out that they were detachable, she's been trying to get me to wear one, 'for science,' and I don't like it."
Seraphina looks at Maridia, thinking the little dragon looks a little familiar.
She blinks, then looks back in the direction Maridia came from, and then notices that the dragon's head (and apple) are still shimmering from being wet.
"Did a little apple bobbing, didn't you?" Seraphina asks, after putting one and one together.
She cackles. "Guess the costume only covers so much, huh?" She pushes up her white mask to reveal her face. "Name's Cassidy.Was a shadowrunner before I got caught up here, now I kinda do my own thing."
Khannie responds to this in about the most reasonable way possible, given the context.
Namely, she stands there in befuddled confusion for a few seconds, her face a mask of blank incomprehension, before going-
"What?"
Something about the concepts of 'detachable' and 'want to try' just isn't clicking in her brain.
[Fire Pit]
Maridia looks a little familiar because she's Khannie's little familiar.
Or because Seraphina has seen her before.
One of those.
"It's mine I caught it from the fruit pond!" Maridia announces between mouthfuls of apple. She hunches her body over the fruit and spreads her wings to obscure it, just in case someone tries to steal it.
Foxes and Ghosts
Jade realizes she's not making any sense. "Look." She grasps the base of one of her tails and pulls. With a slight pop, it separates, so she's holding a tail in her hand. "I think it you put this on, you'll be able to see the ghosts." Of course can a suspicious fox tail be trusted? It seems a little weird.
Khannie just sort of jumps a little when the tail comes off.
Okay yeah Jade had said they come off but she wasn't expecting THAT.
Honestly Khannie really wasn't totally sure WHAT she was expecting.
She eyes the tail dangling in front of her.
"For science, huh?" she asks skeptically.
You should always be skeptical of strange women offering tails at parties.
[Fire Pit]
Maridia looks at Seraphina blankly for a few moments.
Then down at the apple.
Then back at Seraphina.
"The crunchy type?" the fairy dragon ventures. Maridia doesn't know many things and different types of apples are among those many things she doesn't know. Honestly she just grabbed the sweetest smelling one that was within reach.
Foxes and Ghosts "For science," Jade confirms. "You can't find out how it works without trying it." That's probably not reassuring but at least she managed to not sound like a mad scientist.
Foxes and Ghosts "Among other things, I think so." Jade isn't absolutely sure.
The flesh of the tail is warm in Khannie's hands, as if it's still alive... Which it probably is.
Foxes and Ghosts
It tickles as the tail roots itself into place, not just where it's attaching but also on Khannie's ears, which poke up into foxish ones. Once attached, Khannie can feel through the tail just like any other appendage (and don't question how it interacts with the fact that her current body is an advanced illusion). On the subtle side, the smell of fox will no longer be offensive to her - she smells like fox herself. More notably, she can see the ghosts. They're special forms of people, some of whom show signs of their deaths, seemingly enjoying the festivities in parallel with the living. "Did it work?" Jade asks, "Can you see them?"
Khannie doesn't really notice the scent shift. Thankfully Cheasadh isn't nearby to point it out to her friend. One thing she definitely wouldn't want to smell like is fox since it's rough on everyone else's nose!
Anywho!
She waves the tail back and forth a few times. It certainly FEELS real. But then again so does the rest of her phantasm human body so that isn't exactly anything new. She can feel her hair brushing against the fox ears, too. Wait, ears? Wasn't this only supposed to be a tail? Khannie reaches up and grabs at those, befuddled.
"Wasn't this just supposed to be a tail? Where did the ears come from?"
The ears and the fox-colored hair sticking out from under her silly Mothra cap.
Ugh.
Whatever.
Khannie turns her attention to the camp at large and-!
"Oh! Yeah! I can see them they're all over the place!" she gasps. "What's foxes got to do with ghosts, anyway?"
