There and Back Again

[REDACTED]

Edited by MasterOfAntics on Mar 31st 2020 at 2:23:17 PM

"Creators, I didn't ask for this," Leah muttered, surprisingly unsurprised by the events. It was hard to get too worked up over a dream, since she'd just wake up and get on with her life. She was a little upset to be reminded of her past, but that was easily shaken off.

Somehow, she seemed to understand that the bird... thing was Eileen, who was having some issues. She didn't see anyone else stepping up to the task, so she reached over and poked Eileen in the arm, only realizing then that she was still furry.

"Hey, w- am I still a wolf?" she glanced down at herself, dazed and confused before shaking her head, "dreams... anyway, Eileen, hey! You know we're dreaming, right? Whatever's got you worked up, we're fine, alright?"

Of course, Christie had to go on ahead, but even if it took her a little long to get Eileen out of it, she didn't need to worry about being left behind. It wasn't like she was any slower just because it was a dream.

Road to Potok

Damar rode on the back of his riding hound as he led the group that had volunteered to gather food and other supplies in the nearby village. Turning his head around, he looked towards Usalia and Kled, as those two were the ones who were causing him the most concern. Usalia for her curse, and Kled for his... psychosis.

"Everyone alright back there?" the Cardassian asked, making sure that no emergencies were in the process of forming.

"I shall keep both ears alert and at guard." Mollymauk replied lazily from his spot by the campfire, which coincidentally was the spot that allowed him to lean against a tree. Looking up through the treetop at the Moon, the Demonspawn whistled softly, a tune that Tetra most likely had never heard, because he was coming up with it on the spot.

"I must say," He cleared his throat, making a point of looking at Tetra so that the pirate would know that he was engaging her in conversation. "Today has been very entertaining. Most days usually go like this-" He mimicked with his hands. "-an upward trend that inevitably dies down when everything becomes incredibly boring. And surprisingly, none of you have become boring... yet. I have my bets on Tall, Dark and Ugly getting boring quite soon."

Whistling his brand new tune again, Mollymauk smiled at the moon. "Yes. And, my dear Captain, I must say it again- because I believe I have not said it before- thank you for letting me join your crew. I've always wanted to be a pirate... or was it on a pirate ship? Either way, you are making this ugly old monster's dreams come true."

Road to Potok

Usalia looked back at Damar, snapping from her thoughts. "I was just thinking about how the overuse of magic can damage the environmental balance for hundreds of years in a region. Short-lived races don't see their impact in their lifetimes leading to a dangerous cycle of assuming this is always how things were, plip." Funny how these things turn out. She was just wandering the world lost, now she was a part of a resistance movement against some dangerous people. How does her efforts here help the bigger picture?

While thinking of grand things to occupy her mind, Usalia also looked over to Kled and his partner. "So Kled.. how did you meet Skarrl plip?"

"Oh, you mean how I met Skaarl?" Kled seemed to snap out of his delusions as he seemed to mumble to himself during the time they were going to the town.

"I met this lovely lizard while roaming around a desert during my early years. She is a Drakalops, a very rare species of lizards which are not only immortal, but are supposed to be wind spirits who are the cause of the sandstorms! She might be dumb, but boy does she get the job done...as long as she doesn't run away like a coward."

Eileen kept staring at her new self for a while until some...wolf thing with the voice of Leah snapped her out of it.

"Gods, I hope this is just a dream.." She muttered to herself before returning her attention to Leah. While Eileen's panic attack stopped, Leah could notice she seemed rather uncomfortable with her new appearance.

"What...is this lass? I certainly didn't expected to find ourselves together in a dream."

And this wasn't the Hunter's Dream, so she wasn't sure what was happening.

Edited by Darkomega245 on Apr 6th 2020 at 12:17:05 PM

Campfire

Tetra didn't make much of an effort to pay attention to Mollymauk at first, her eyes only lazily shifting to him when she caught the movement of his hands. His gratitude, however, did cause her expression to change- though the resulting grimace was not what one usually expected from a person receiving thanks.

"I'm glad that poking us with sticks all day was such fun for you." she said, voice tight was sarcasm. "And I'm even more happy that you got such joy from bastardising my name and cutting off my business dealings at Langobard for the foreseeable future."

Though she was loathe to admit it, Tetra did feel a kernel of guilt for being so grouchy at him when he was actively not being a nuisance, so she rested back on her elbows and at least tried to explain her snippiness. "Clearly you're living on a day-to-day basis, but some of us are- that is, some of us have to look further than that. Once this whole mess with Christie is over, I'd like to get back to my crew and my life without having left unfixable destruction in my wake."

She followed his gaze up to the moon, anger tempered slightly with the reminder that, whether on sea or land, the moon's watchful eye was always the same. "You really want to me thank me, do your job tonight. That'll mean more to me than words."

Road to Potok

Damar let out a slight chuckle at Usalia's comment.

"Believe me, it's not just us 'shorter-lived' races that do that. The Changelings are nigh-immortal, and they abuse magic in war just as much as anyone. Then again, that's because they just don't have any empathy for any living thing that isn't a Changeling."

After telling Usalia that, Damar heard Kled mention that Skaarl was a Drakalops. Damar had heard of those lizards before, but like he had with the Hyuga, simply assumed they were a myth. This time, though, he said nothing, not wanting to get an earache from Kled.

Dreamland

"If I may..." Ahriman began. "I have a hypothesis as to the cause of our current... predicament. There is arcane energy at work here - I can feel it, even in a dream. And it feels most similar to what I felt in the pawn shop, when Alice unwittingly summoned that forest. So, it seems logical that Alice is also the cause of...." he paused, and took a quick look at his surroundings. "This."

"Day to day? My dear Captain, you insult me! I'd rather live my life minute to minute." Mollymauk threw one leg over the other and placed his hands behind his head, adding a 'very' to 'lazily laying against a tree'. "And I wouldn't poke anyone with a stick. Not unless it was a very long stick... and filled with thorns and branches and leaves— thinking about it, maybe I would poke someone with a stick."

Taking a deep breath, the Demonspawn bopped his foot to the tune of a song only he could hear. "Oh, Captain, you'll see. I'll do my 'job' better than anyone you've ever met. I think, a couple of months from now, you'll be wondering how you've ever survived without me." Picking up a pebble, he toyed with it for a moment before smiling. "I even bet you might be promoting me within that same timespan." He added, flicking the pebble at Tetra. "Had to go for that. Couldn't find a stick."

Chuckling to himself, Mollymauk basked in the moonlight, going back to bopping his foot. "Worrying about things like that, it's no way to live, Captain. Tell you what-" Suddenly, three cards appeared in between his fingers, and he flashed Tetra a smile. "-how about I read your future, so that you don't have to worry about it?"

"You mean like...w-what do you mean?" Tavros stuttered, not quite taking the hint at what Hinata was getting at at first. "Uh, I don't know anyone who thinks fake as shit things are real, though they like to pretend for fun...they are a bit...intimidating, though, some of them..." He looked a bit uncomfortable as he recalled some of the more unpleasant faces from Flarp days long past.

A small furry creature yawned to itself, checking a small timekeeping device while making a point not to physically touch it. Confirming something, it approached its singular sleeping companion to stir him into changing watch shifts.

This companion was a taller furry creature, more clearly identifiable as a common monkey species from some distant continent, except for the curious detail of a green right hand that looked more apt for the great river-dwelling lizards of this landmass's swamps. The first nudged his shoulder, and then nudged it harder when he remained uncharacteristically asleep. After a couple more attempts at this, suspecting something off, the short creature scaled partway up a tree, trying to spot something unusual and noting a band of other travelers, exactly two of which were awake and appeared to be haranguing each other.

It remained watching the bunch, trying to keep out of sight, while deliberating whether to approach.

Coincidentally interrupting the existing band's pondering of their situation was the sound of an unfamiliar voice cursing with great vigor. From an attic door in the sky behind Christie that may or may not have been there the whole time came plummeting a...middle aged mustached man in glasses, wrestling a green and purple crocodile crackling with some unstable energy. The two entities tumbled across the floor in a Big Ball of Violence, the former continuing to swear angrily while shifting cartoonishly from the latter's energy between a couple different forms,^note among them a strange short furry creature of indeterminate species and what looked like a gray elf with glowing lines across its form eventually stabilizing into something more obviously recognizable as an entertainment monkey with a candy-colored knife taped to the end of its tail (though curiously those present might sense he was a monkey even before this point).

"god fuck...fucking...curse...fucking get OFF!!"

Hinata – On The Road

“N-no, I meant like...” Hinata swallowed, her stammer worsening as she fixed her eyes firmly on the ground. Her face was quickly turning a beetroot red, and there was such a large amount of blood in her face that she was visibly beginning to swoon. Even her voice had grown fainter, and it was quickly becoming apparent that she was trying with all her might not to pass out on the spot.

She gripped the handle of her kunai to keep herself awake, and forced her voice to start working again.

Even if it came out as a squeak more than anything.

“I-I meant more to do with... s-someone you admire... in a... u-um...”

She squeezed her eyes shut a moment, forcing her rapid breathing to slow down and focusing again on the road ahead. She couldn't let herself get distracted. They could get pounced on in an instant if she was too busy falling faint. Not that the others couldn't pick up after her, she had no doubt that they'd do a better job, but...

“...i-it doesn't really matter. Nevermind,” she eventually muttered, willing the colour to recede from her face. It didn't in the slightest. “Just... just wondering...”

Campfire

Tetra rolled her eyes, happily letting Mollymauk contradict himself rather than wasting her own breath. "The only reason I'd ever promote you-" she started, catching his flung pebble without issue, "-is that the thought of you below deck, where I can't keep an eye on you, is more terrifying than any foul brigand we may come across."

"...Not that I'd let you on my ship in the first place." she added quickly, her lips forming into a small pout as she flicked her wrist and sent off the pebble as if she were skipping it; of course, with no water to bounce off of, it tumbled gracelessly into a clump of weeds.

Said pout flicked up into a smirk as Mollymauk offered his services, her body reclining forward again so that she could cross her arms smugly. "You won't be pulling the wool over my eyes with your parlour tricks! Senza's taught me everything I need to know about street peddlers and all the ways they'll try to leech your coin from you. You won't be getting any chalkoi outta me!"

Which, taken another way, meant that Tetra wouldn't stop him if he was offering his reading for free.

"Parlor tricks?" Mollymauk cackled, making sure his cackle was at its most cackle-y, a cackle so cackled it made the word 'cackle' lose all its meaning in comparison. He stood back up, brushing the dust off his legs, and ambled his way over to his lavender-colored pouch, which he had deposited near the sleeping form of Ahriman ("Because I imagine no one is going to go for him first" was his explanation). Reaching inside, he began to dig through the pouch as he continued to speak to Tetra. "My dear Captain. Maybe those ragamuffins you see laying around on the street, offering your fortune for a coin, maybe those people rely on parlor tricks."

"But what I do... is magic." He fished a deck of lavishly decorated cards out of the bag, and dropped it softly besides Ahriman, patting him on the head once before making his way back to the campfire. Of course, the motion wasn't just to annoy his sleeping compatriot. It was also to disguise the other things he had fished out of his bag and slid up his sleeves. The other elements of a successful read.

The Demonspawn laughed again as he sat besides Tetra, with enough space in between them for him to set up his cards. "Of course, you might be asking yourself why you have any reason to believe me!" He announced, pointing at himself wildly with one hand whilst another subtly threw a strange-colored dust at the campfire. Nothing happened— of course, for now. "But I dare you to ask yourself the following, Captain," He continued, setting up a medium-sized piece of black cloth on the floor, holding it down with four gem-looking stones. "What do you know about Demonspawn? Or, most importantly..."

He finished setting up the stage, and spread out the twenty-something cards on his hand, fanning himself. "What do you know about me?" He winked, and slid the cards back into a deck, shuffling them for no apparent reason. "Before we begin, there is something we must do. An invocation. If we do not do that, the gods of fate might give you a purposefully inaccurate reading... try to throw you into a path of chaos and destruction... and who would want something as terrible like that?"

Before Tetra could even answer, Mollymauk threw his hands upwards and closed his eyes, like a priest at a temple. "Gods of fate, smile on us!" He announced to the skies, before looking down at Tetra with one eye and nudging his head, signifying that she should also put her hands up to the skies. "You who sit up there stern in judgement, smile on us!" If she hadn't raised her hands, then Mollymauk would lean forward and pull her hands up before resuming his invocation. "You who look down on us mortal beings- and who doesn't?- bless this reading and smile on us!"

Suddenly, the campfire flared up, emitting a strange purple color, before returning to normal. Mollymauk smiled at it, then at Tetra, and shuffled the cards again. "I think they like you, Captain." He stopped shuffling, grabbing the first card- before putting it back into place. "But first, some do's and don'ts. Mostly don'ts."

As he shuffled (now apparently playing with the cards by shuffling them from one hand to the other), he continued. "Please, don't cough. It tends to throw the reader off. Have some respect for artistry... and please." He stopped shuffling the papers, narrowing his eyes. "Don't cough. Oh, and don't say 'WHAAAAT?' to every reading you think you haven't got. And if you're a snit because you missed the past-" Four cards fell from his hands. "-but who wouldn't pass the past at last-" He picked up the cards, throwing more dust into the campfire. "Still... don't say 'WHAAAAT.'"

He offered one of the cards to Tetra. "When I am waxing humorous," And pulled the card back before she could take it. "Please, don't wane." He offered two cards to Tetra. "The jokes are obscure, but numerous," And pulled them back again, shuffling them into a pile. "I'll explain. When I am waxing serious, try not to laugh," He stopped shuffling, leaning in, lowering his voice with each word. " It starts when I get imperious, and if you're doubt, don't query, yes, I'll signal you when I'm serious, " And then cupped his hands, raising the volume immediately. "IT'S IN THE SECOND HALF."

Finally, Mollymauk began shuffling the cards into three separate but distinct piles, practically doing tricks as he slid each card into a pile. "So please-" He stopped and pointed with one card at Tetra, furrowing his brow. "-don't fart. There's very little air and this is art." He resumed shuffling. "And if you feel offended, don't lose heart-" He leaned in again, whispering. " It's probably what I intended and I'm not smart. " He shuffled the last card into the third pile. "And now..." He stopped, thought about it, reached for the cards again. "-but first!"

The campfire flared up purple again, and Mollymauk rolled his eyes, sitting down cross-legged. "Alright, we'll start!"

Placing his hands above two of the three piles, the Demonspawn let silence reign for a moment before taking a deep breath and proceeding. "This represents your past," He said, pointing at the first pile. "This, your present," Second pile. "And this one, your future." Third and final pile. "I shall draw one card from each pile, and tell you what it represents. No more, no less." There was a strange tone of seriousness to that information, but a smile remained on Mollymauk's face.

He placed his fingers above the first pile and drew the card, placing it before Tetra. In it was a beautifully rendered image of a human man staring darkly at the reader, a grim frown placed upon its lips, while its shadow (projected by the light of a single torch the man was holding) had an equally grim smile upon its shapeless face. "The Haunted." Mollymauk began. "You have left something behind- the cards cannot tell me whether that something is good and bad, only that you desire for it to stay in the past. Perhaps you don't even know what that something is in your mind-" He pointed gently at Tetra's forehead. "-but since your heart senses it and fears encountering it, you never question it." He pointed at Tetra's chest, and then moved onto the present pile.

Pulling out another card, Mollymauk placed it before Tetra. In it was another carefully rendered image, this time of a basket of apples, each one as red and as beautiful as the last one. But if Tetra were to look carefully, she'd see that one of the apples, at the edges of the basket, was actually a putrid fruit, its shrunken shell forming the vague image of a skull. "The Gift." Mollymauk explained again. "You have come upon opportunity, too much of it. Maybe you weren't even looking for it, but now it is here, and it is yours. But within that opportunity lies this..." He pointed at the skull and smiled. "Don't let the lies spread by others trick you, Captain. This does not mean death... or even pain. It means change." He looked into Tetra's eyes and smiled. "But again, the cards cannot tell you whether that change will be positive or negative. Neither will you. Only time will tell."

"But that doesn't mean we can't get a hint." He grinned, reaching for the third pile, and pulling out final card. In it was another delicately drawn picture, this time of a stone tower reaching into a blood moon— but surrounding, nay, enveloping the tower were sinister black thorns, piercing the stone, stabbing the foundations of the tower, becoming one with it. And in the distance, one could see a small creature jumping from the tower, soaring through the sky, its face turned away from the reader, its expression unreadable. "The Thorn." Mollymauk tapped the card. "Change is coming. Big change. Your life will never be the same again, Captain. This is where the card's mysteries come to take over our minds. This change could be anything. It could be death, yes, either for you or a loved one. It could also be love, the kind which you've always dreamed of your entire life, or maybe even the kind that makes you wish you could never love again. The card can only tell you two things: one, you will never be the same. Two, you cannot avoid it."

Mollymauk slid the card forward. "The thorn will always be there. And no matter what you do, you will always be moving towards it, like a goalpost in your own timeline. Do not be afraid of it, Captain."

The somber expression was suddenly broken by another wide grin. "I won't leave you with that somber warning. There's one more card I must reveal to you. But this one you must pick." With two hands, Mollymauk slid the three piles together, before spreading them out evenly in a fan before Tetra. "Choose one card, Captain."

Edited by Stratofarius on Apr 11th 2020 at 3:06:17 AM

She-Hulk

Jen shook herself violently. What the hell? I've been..sleepwalking? She'd just been ambling along following that ninja girl. She was about to quietly tap Hinata's shoulder and ask My brain's gone bye-bye for a while. What's going on? but she figured she might learn more by just keeping her big green mouth shut and listening. Two ears, one mouth and all that, you know.

Edited by Booky on Apr 13th 2020 at 11:51:27 AM

man this is late

Nyssa, The Dream

"A dream? Well, I suppose that would explain your strange appearances, and..." She hasn't realized this until now, but she's wearing a very important ceremonial outfit◊- one she'd previously seen in portraits of her mother. One traditionally worn in League member's weddings. The headdress weighs heavily on her, as though whatever marriage awaited her was a burden and not a choice. "More importantly, how do you intend to relieve us of this situation? And if this is her doing, how so?"

When the small, annoying primate arrives into the dreamscape, she says nothing, but merely glares at him, as if to assert her dominance.

Caitlin, The Road to Bladzy...Bladyzsd...something

"I think I know what you mean, miss. I did once. We were going to be married."

She continues walking along with her group, trying to step lightly. Still a bit fearful.

"I met him before my accident. His name was Ronnie." A wistful smile appears on her face. "You may have noticed I can be a little...guarded. But Ronnie knew how to make me laugh." Her eyes glimmer, a flicker of memory. "Funnily enough, he used to say we were like fire and ice.

The brightness leaves her face. "Then one day, there was an accident...and he disappeared. I...I haven't heard from him since or seen any sign of him. I think he's dead."

Trying to muster some semblance of happiness, she quickly changes the subject. "We should try to figure out when we plan to rest for the night. We'll need the extra energy.

Edited by Spottedleaf on Apr 13th 2020 at 1:45:53 PM

"Your guess is as good as mine," Leah said with a shrug, "I'm not completely sure if this is actually happening, or if it's just a really lucid dream. Hopefully the latter, because I don't need more crazy on top of everything else."

Ahriman's suggestion wasn't very comforting, and Leah just shook her head. "I'm just going to stay in denial a bit more, have fun debating," she declared. With that, she zipped forward after Christie, leaving the others to talk to the monkey-man.

Hinata seemed to be more like Matilda, willing to see the good in Kled. Shoto wondered if they were aware of something he wasn't, or vice versa. Most people knew things he didn't, of course, so that was a real possibility.

Her question was just more proof of that. He didn't pick up on any of what she meant, answering, "you're not supposed to own people. That's not a good thing to do."

Then Caitlin started talking about a fiance, and he didn't really like that. "Fire and ice don't go well together," he said, almost defensively, "fire just melts ice, it's bad."

Hinata – On The Road

“...G-Gomen... nasai...” Hinata muttered quietly, visibly saddened and taken aback by Caitlin's explanation. “I-I thought that... I-I didn't mean to make you remember something bad...”

Shouldn't you just shut up and do your job already? You've been taught that enough.

Shoto's almost hurtful response merely confused her, however, and she turned to him with a small frown that couldn't seem to decide what to be. Concerned or defensive on Caitlin's behalf. She eventually settled on the former in a cautious fashion, and carefully selected her next words in an effort not to further dig her grave.

“A-Ano... I just think that maybe it's... it doesn't matter really, does it? Not in... I mean I...”

A flash of blonde hair and bright blue eyes crossed her vision, accompanied by a blinding white and toothy grin that nearly sent her reeling. She shook her head in an effort to rid herself of this mental image, but she had again reddened in the cheeks despite herself—poking her fingers together again as she momentarily lost focus on the road and lowered her gaze back to the floor.

No! Stay focused! They're depending on you! she internally snapped back, forcing her head back up and ahead again. Don't get distracted! At any time... anything could happen, and it'd be on you!

“It doesn't matter, Shoto-san,” she murmured more distantly, though her tone had for once become level and unwavering. “If fire burns ice... because this is people. Fire is fire. People can change. And... they'd have to. It's what makes them worthwhile.”

She went quiet again, her own words sinking in as she drew in a shaky breath and let it out as a resigned sigh.

“Gomen... I overstepped...”

She seemed almost expectant of some sort of consequence for it.

Edited by Enirboreh on Apr 13th 2020 at 9:10:18 AM

As the monkey dropped from above in the middle of an existential battle, Christie yelped and ducked through the door she'd opened, slamming it behind her. After about twenty seconds, she slowly pushed the door open, judging it safe to peek out again. "Um...everyone?" she said with a nervous smile, "Th-the laughter seems to be coming through here...also I think this hall is inside a tree."

"You sure do apologise a lot, lass," Musztardy called over his shoulder as his badger plodded along. "Relax, Miss Hyuga, no one's gonna be mad at you for having an opinion. Love's a complicated thing, after all. From what I hear, my ma and pa had a rocky engagement. Judging from my uncle, I- wuh-oh..." The little man tugged to slow his badger down. Something about ten feet off had caught his eye. A buzzard was finishing off a meal- only tiny bits of red and a scrap of white fur remained -before taking off into the air. Musztardy was riding slower now, casting his gaze across the area, watching every little shadow now. "...Mind how you go, big folks..." he said, his voice low and serious. "We're getting close, I can feel it...Sun might be out, but there's darkness in this neck of the woods..."

The woods were dense on both sides of the road, which wound like a serpent's path, and Damar and his crew would barely notice when they passed the border into Potok. Soon enough, however, the trees to the left of the road gave way to a smattering of brownstone cottages, with the promise of more civilisation further on ahead. In the third front garden along, a fifty-something woman was hanging out a bedsheet on the washing line, pausing only to give a disgruntled sneer to the motley crew passing on by.

"...Oh!" Tavros said after a few seconds of watching the others' responses finally made it click what the question actually was. The troll scratched his head awkwardly, at first out of recognition of his faux pas, and then again upon processing both his answer and where the conversation was headed. "I-I guess it is a weird metaphor, when you put it like that. I think...it's supposed to be more, two people who. Balance each other? Like, they're very different, but that...lets them help each other be more, rounded? Wouldn't that be a pale romance instead of flushed, though? I guess they are humans...

"Uh, but I haven't had a redrom like that..." he added abruptly, as if feeling a need to shift the conversation slightly. "I did have a red crush, but she—...that, was...bad...."

As the party entered this less savory neck of the woods, Tinkerbull lightly pressed against the troll's large horn.

Edited by Oceanstuck on Apr 18th 2020 at 5:01:41 AM

Hinata – On The Road

No one's gonna be mad at you for having an opinion.

No one's gonna be mad at you.

No one's gonna be mad.

“...will they, though?”

Hinata didn't let her voice raise higher than the distant songs of birds in the trees. She'd never dare to. She'd tuned out again (to the point where she'd completely missed Tavros' own addition to the conversation) and it was only their charge's explicit expression that something was wrong that snapped her out of her trance. With a suppressed growl, she pressed her hands together into a single sign and muttered “Byakugan,” softly and determinedly. Her now bulging eyes scanned about, the tiny black pupils now manifested seeming to pierce through whatever they fell on. Jenn being one of them.

For one brief moment, the shy and doubtful young girl had vanished away into god-knows-where. The face that stared at Jenn was almost inhuman due to the activated Byakugan, but it was that steady determination that made Hinata completely unrecognizable in that instant.

“Jenn-san. You're strong, right?” she asked quietly, granting the older woman a glimpse of the tightly held kunai in her hand. “Please help me keep watch. I have a blindspot.”

That in and of itself was a risk to say conventionally, and considered taboo to even mention to outsiders by her clan. But she trusted Jenn so far. And that kind of physical strength she could use. The others, too, she knew would fight if something did go wrong. But Jenn seemed the most familial to her.

She'd ask her why later. And apologise too. But she knew even an instinctual feeling of something being wrong couldn't be taken lightly. It was a matter of life and death.

Please... be kind...

Campfire

Now, it was true that Tetra did not know much of magic, or demonspawn, or the violet trickster that sat before her. The latter was certainly his fault- even if she were to ask 'Who are you, what do you want, why are you here?', no doubt she'd receive an answer that deflected off itself thrice and ultimately only made sense to Molly and Molly alone. His allergy to candour was one of the many things that grated against her skull like a rusted nail across her ship's flank.

The point of it all being that, while she technically had no reason to distrust him, there was also plenty that prevented her from believing in his words. "Perhaps you should turn those cards on yourself, so that we both may finally learn something true about you." was how she verbalised it.

Though he put on a show, it was a while before Tetra vested any interest in it- she glanced at the sky rather than raising her hands to it (and squawked in protest when Molly moved her body for her), she stared blankly at him as he rambled through his rules and rhymes, and she didn't even bother to raise her hand before Molly snatched away his proffered cards twice.

In fact, up until the cards were laid down for the reading, Tetra's nonchalance was only broken once: when the purple brilliance of the flames danced across the dark blue of her eyes. Mind sharp with alarm and wonder, she had watched the dancing blaze until Molly suckered her back into his banal prattling. Even then, her gaze would occasionally dart across to the flame, making her appear, for the first time that night, like a child fraught with anticipation.

But then that childishness was locked away again as they delved into the heart of the matter. Tetra had barely a moment to consider the first card, automatically thinking of how much it took to craft and how much more it would sell for, before the demonspawn's words pierced her as surely as the cutlass bound at her waist. So deep was the wound, in fact, that it nearly drew blood as Tetra bit down on her lip, glaring down at the grim man that dared even think to pry into her past.

No, no, she had to calm herself. This is exactly what Senza had warned her about- fortunetellers would give a vague enough reading that their marks would do all the work projecting onto it. That card meant no more than what she herself applied to it. She repeated that advice in her mind as they moved on from The Haunted, looking next to the luscious basket of apples.

Now it was a different emotion that flickered across Tetra's face, greed shining in her eyes at the thought of bountiful opportunity. Yes, there was much she could gain thanks to Colombia Christie, and it was that thought that kept her going even amidst the chaos of her unfortunate companions. The potential warning that the card brought meant little to her- of course there would be change, she'd already suffered it, a sea dog forced to trek on land. An abstract warning such as that would do little to deter a pirate that'd caught the scent of gold.

...That said, Tetra was not as quick to dismiss the more drastic change that The Thorn foretold. It was all a silly parlour trick, she reminded herself, nothing more than a trap for naive little minds, but still, it was food for thought. This entire ordeal was quite far out of her comfort zone. She'd been so focused on the end result that the circumstances that led her there, whether they be glorious or catastrophic, hadn't been thoroughly considered.

Really, as a captain, she should know better than that.

By the time the cards had been fanned out, Tetra's initial ennui had been replaced by an undeniable sense of interest, though it was with a cooled head and a sharp tongue that she finally spoke up. "Very impressive, Mr. Mollymauk. 'Change will happen'. What other deep nuggets of wisdom do these cards hold, I wonder?"

She, rather pointedly, did not make reference to The Haunted, and was rather quick to skim her hand over the fan and eventually pick out a card from near its head.

Jen-On The Road

Jenn shook off her own musings and smiled warmly at the younger woman. "Of course I will. No one will touch you while I'm around, Hinata." She gave her a friendly and very gentle nudge on the shoulder. "Do your thing."

As she was speaking, Jenn glanced around the area. No point in making a promise if you weren't going to keep your ears pointed for trouble. For a moment, she wondered idly what would happen if she and Hinata switched bodies. I bet she'd be less deferential if she could kill a man with a punch. Of course, I'd probably get my butt kicked first thing.

Edited by Booky on Apr 14th 2020 at 12:44:36 PM

The explanation about the metaphor didn't soothe Shoto that much. He still knew what happened when fire and ice combined, and it didn't result in anything good.

He didn't feel like discussing all of this with strangers, though, so he just focused on Tavros's... odd word choice. "Redrom?" he asked, "is that... a romance thing?" Not that he knew the slightest bit about romance. His parents didn't have anything of the sort, and his destiny was to be wedded off to some woman with powerful magic to create more powerful heirs for his father.

"If anyone does get mad at you for having an opinion, then they would have to answer to me," Shoto declared when their charge reassured Hinata. No one deserved to be treated like they weren't a person, and he'd see to it that Hinata wouldn't have to worry about those kinds of assholes.

Outskirts of Potok

"Charming woman..." Damar said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "You'd think we were cultists of Tzeentch, Kosst Amojan, or one of the other Dark Gods, what with THIS welcome." The Cardassian sighed. "Hopefully, we'll get a warmer welcome once we're further in... but I wouldn't count on it."

Dreamland

"Deny it all you want, werewolf." Ahriman began, now knowing Leah's true species. "It does not change the facts." Before he could continue with this conversation, however, he sensed another burst of arcane energy. Turning to face the source of magic, he found himself facing the group's new simian companion.

"Well now..." he said. "What do we have here?"

"WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU LOOKING AT YOU UGLY WENCH?!"

Kled screamed at the woman as he became aware of her presence and the look they were given.

"GO BACK TO SLEEP BECAUSE THAT'S THE ONLY THING YOU ARE GOOD AT IN MY DAMN PROPERTY!"

Kled's stare left the woman as soon as he stopped cursing at her, continuing on the way to the town

"Taking shit from a middle aged trespasser. Unbelievable." Kled started to grumble some incoherent gibberish to himself as he moved on.

Without further waiting, Eileen moved on along with Leah. Due to her shock about this and disoriented mind about the fact she hasn't become a beast, she didn't noticed the fact that a newcomer appeared out of nowhere or (thankfully) didn't heard Ahriman's comment about Leah's real self.

"Laughter?" Eileen asked as she heard Christie. She then decided to transform her blade of mercy into dual daggers for anything that might be dangerous in the way, though she seemed a bit uncomfortable with her rather large claws holding them.

Some might say that being wary of a dream would be foolish..but they haven't been trapped in a dream in Yharnam.

Edited by Darkomega245 on Apr 14th 2020 at 2:23:55 AM