There's a slightly different feel to Tasha's usual painting spot. It could be due to her relaxation afterglow, where the light seems more languid somehow. The pond is smooth as glass, and light comes through the canopy in faintly visible, green-tinted beams from the edges of the clearing. There's almost no breeze, so everything is still.
Stillness is fine with Tasha, though she'd have prefered a slight breeze to work away the warmth of the city. Still, no breeze means no having to fight the breeze while painting. She sits herself down in her now usual spot -- made usual by her sitting there twice now -- and unpacks her paint set and easel. As luck would have it, they're the same hinge-ridden device.
Lets see ... who or what to paint today? Tasha mulls over the blank surface and the cards atop it, deciding which she'd rather work on. At length she decides to paint Wolf, who helped her realize just how much Humans influenced not only Karnors, but Jupani, herself, and many other species that grew up on Sinai. And, that there were other ways to be. So she pulls out a a card and begins to paint, knowing just how to do it.
The stillness and quietude help Tasha to concentrate fully. So it takes a while before she starts to feel as if she's being watched.
Expecting to be watched, Tasha continues to paint. She's decided to try a variation of her four-part Card arrangement, both because not every subject has a temporal state, and some beings are best depicted all at once, or as a whole. And so Wolf is as he is, and is as she lets that Human side of herself see him -- terrifying and majestic all at once. The depiction begins as an outline of floor of bones, a cavern opening, and the vague outline of something lurking atop the mount. And eyes, great, predatory eyes. There's a moon, trees, and stars.
"The forest has been a place of mystery and danger to humans," a voice says. It's like a whisper, but not close. "Is that what you are trying to capture?"
"The thrill and the fear and the majesty of the Wolf, the Beast in the Woods. The chill down the spine, the energy, and the beauty. And within it, something learned." Tasha finishes her outline and then begins to paint in, masking off the light bones, moon, and stars while she works on darker colors. And there are a lot of darker colors, but none so dark as the shadows and Wolf.
"Things you have felt?" the voice asks. "Aren't you part wolf?"
"I am part wolf and part Human," Tasha explains. It hasn't been long, so she's still painting in shadows. She thinks better of her taping and also tapes off Wolf's eyes. Those will need to be startling. "I'm a lot of things: Part Shadow, part mortal, probably some other things. I think I have a monkey tail." She hands her brush over to her tail to illustrate as she illustrates. Picking up another brush, she begins to add upon the blacks, browns, greens, and greys of the landscape and wolf with lighter colors to provide contrast, detail, and a sense of depth.
"A true chimera," the voice says.. with perhaps a subtle hint of amusement. "Are you a created being, natural or perhaps some sort of fey?"
"I'm mostly created, but I was born, too. Born and created to fulfill a wish, but not complete and not right. Then I died, and and I was remade. By myself, I think, but that may just be a mother's encouragement." Once the basic highlighting is done, Tasha leans back and tilts her head. Suitably dark and ominous, some forsaken place in the woods. She nods; on to the lighter colors.
"Remade? As in reincarnated or rebuilt?" the voice asks.
"I'm a little fuzzy on it myself. I think both, I was really dead for a moment there." Talking about death leads Tasha to be inspired, inspired to draw bones. The bones, a mixed lot as she remembers, come in many shades of white and pale yellow, old and new, big and small, with many different heads. Yet before the pale goes down, she adds some black to provide depth to the cracks and crevasse, the shadows between the remains of the dead. "I never did become a skeleton, though."
"So you didn't get to gnaw on your own bones?" the voice asks, with that slight hint of amusement again.
"Sadly, no. Or even get a souvenir." Tasha still has the bone she brought back, she put it with her Very Dangerous Don't Touch stash along side the angel insanity glasses. Thoth, Samael, and Kainudy have all mentioned the power of things of great emotional, magical, or other power, items of history and consequence, blood, tears, love, and longing. The light of an angel and the bones of a monstrosity count. More pales are added until the bones are complete, a seemingly endless pile that stretches right up to the viewer, giving the impression the viewer is standing before the cave and below the shadow. Next comes the moon, pale, cold, beauty, and the distant stars that offer less warmth but the same kind of beauty.
"May I ask why you chose this spot to paint in, and why it such a small painting?" the voice asks.
"Yes you may. I happen to like the contrast of the area -- light and shadow, wet and dry, water, land, and sky, a reflection of one to another, the myriad greens and colorful flowers, the sound of the wind through the trees. It may sound quiet and isolated, and it is, but it's also very busy, and it has much to say if you're listening. And besides, I've always liked transition points, points of travel; the mirror pond and its reflection suggest other worlds, a mystery below the water where someone like me is ill-suited. That makes is exotic, forbidden, and dangerous." The young woman nods to her painting, another kind of dangerous. She switches colors now that most everything has been painted in, frowning at golds and whites and reds, even some metallic shades, and gloss additives.
Tasha still hasn't decided when she answers, "The Cards are reflections of reality as I know it. They are magical things, but they are also depictions of the essence of things. They have meaning, and the meaning has them. Like the water, they're mirrors leading to another reality, of sorts. A bridge, a connection between viewer and viewed."
"Very poetic," the voice says. "I struggled with art and poetry for a long time before I began to grasp it, I must admit. I am not much of an artist myself, at least in the traditional sense."
"Tradition, art and beauty are like civilization and the wild, different ways to do things. Some prefer an orderly and refined approach, others another way. I don't think either is exactly wrong, but it's all in the eye of the beholder. Art exists in the viewer, and in the maker." Tasha taps her chin with her brush, getting a little gold there and not noticing it. At length she decides on a very vibrant shade of yellow, some darker detailing shades, the requisite black, whites for the illusion of the moon glint, and a rather expensive gloss. She even adds some flecks of gold to the yellow to give it sparkle. The end result makes the eyes draw the viewer's attention immediately, both bright and frightening, they hold one's gaze. The flecks of golden light are hard to ignore, and the gloss cover causes the viewer to see themselves, ever so slightly, in the predator's eyes.
"I like the eyes," the unseen visitor notes. "Like my own, but not. I've seen many civilizations, and their art is always different from any other. Some is deliberately ephemeral, or unique in a way that once experienced, it can never be repeated. A lot of it was edible though."
"I know some beings who can eat the soul of things, but the ones I know can never quite capture the reality of what was. Hollow memories," Tasha admits as she turns her head this way and that, frowning, until she decides the image works right. She then takes the white and begins adding glints to the shadowed teeth, illuminated, as they are, by moonlight. "It seems everyone sees something different, that reality is about layers of new interpretations as imperfect beings try to view what is around them, and come to different ideas than what the truth is. Hmm." Tasha pauses, finger to lips. "I wonder if that is Yellow, and why Yellow, demons, and there lot have no souls. A soul is born of imperfection and interpretation, an inner world different from the outer, because of seperation and limitation."
"I have heard that trying to grasp the nature of reality is like looking through a small hole that only lets you see the shadows of things," the voice says. "It is an onerous task, never to be completed. Because things are always changing before they can be glimpsed. Grand events can occur, with nobody ever to notice them. Is this something you are painting from your inner universe, or your external one? I would worry about being alone in this forest-of-one if such a beast abided here."
"Oh, Wolf is real, a shadow in the forest who has always been, at least as long as there have been forests and things to fear in them, I think. Grandfather Wolf. But," and here Tasha taps her own head, "A little of him is in me. I know what it's like to fear the predator, but also to be the source of fear. And so like the mirror I see myself in Wolf's eyes, even as he reminds me to be careful of beings larger than myself."
"All wolves have a bit of Wolf in them, at the core of their being," the voice suggests. "Although it may have different faces, it is something universal to predators. All dragons have a spark of the Dragon, all Humans have the grip of the Ape.. and if one goes back far enough, there is the Lizard. Shells upon shells, both in spirit and in brain structure."
"That makes sense to me. The essence of what we are resounds in reality, much as art resounds from us. Like waves," and so Tasha smiles at her nod to base reality. It's all very neat, if you try to make it sound neat.
Once the teeth are done Tasha nods. The card is titled 'Wolf,' though she considered a more generic Beast in the Forest. The card then gets a sealing spray and is put aside to dry.
"You said that it was a magic card," the voice prompts. "Are you a wizard or witch?"
"More of a would-be witch. I only just started. Before, I suppose I was more of a warrior and used the magic of hitting things really hard, sometimes as a forty-foot metal god. Those were fun times." Tasha smiles at the memory. Although she would't have thought so back then, things were simpler then. "I'm not as robust as I used to be, and great beings are rarely concerned with my old, tiny fists, so I thought it was a good time to take what I've learned and switch."
"So you need magic for combat?" the voice asks. "I avoid fighting. I'm not fond of dying."
"I need to fight well, because I fight Shadow things, and Shadow-gods. The Ogdoad, their creations, and sometimes other things. I stabbed an Unseelee fae a few days ago in fact. She was a bit kidnappy." And so tasha lays back, hands under her head, deciding a break to recover the mental juice is in order. "Dying is probably my least favorite part of fighting. That and the moral questions."
"Morality is a lot like art," the voice claims.
"Based on interpretations and viewers? That makes sense." Tasha blows some stray hairs out of her face, then spreads her hands to lay on the dirt, the grass, the moss. She sniffs the air; it all feels alive and real, so unlike the void. "By the way, who are you? I'm Tasha. Maybe I won't be Tasha forever though, I've thought about changing my name."
"I've had a lot of names," the voice says. "My original is Galatea. I found it fitting, and less purpose specific than others."
"Does your name mean anything?" the voice then asks.
"That's a pretty name, and it sounds a little like 'galaxy,' which makes it a very science-fiction name. I sometimes feel like I'm in a science-fiction work, at least ever since I knew what one was and what it meant." Tasha looks up and squints at her canvas. She could paint everyone as wolves, that would be a good use of her time. She painted everyone in their alternate sexes. Yes, that's what she'll do.
Sitting up again Tasha pulls out her paints. "Sometimes too purposeful a name can be limiting. I know some beings are physically -- or whatever passes for their physicality -- limited by names, but I think it can bind the mind just as handily. Tasha? It means my mother thought that the Jupani woman she met had a pretty name and it sounded very Jupani and middle-class, so that's what I got."
"Unless you mean my other name, Aldara, which means Winged-Gift. Or sacrifice," Tasha then adds.
"Mine is from a myth of a woman carved from ivory," Galatea claims. "It means 'she who is milk-white'. Which I was, originally. Does this world have a name?"
"Humans really love statues; so do ancient gods and demons, come to think of it. They last. Which, I guess, you have." Tasha's laugh is very self-amused. Then she looks around, twirling her brush indicatively, "This one?" She finds that she actually needed to stop and think where she was, that her life is such that she really needs to double check these things, or perhaps that her sense of presence has become less certain. It's a strange feeling, she decides. "Ymir. This world is called Ymir. It has giant trees and giant ocean."
Looking around means Tasha notices a figure sitting on a branch nearby. She's tall and looks human, wearing some sort of wrap-around golden garment. She has pale skin that seems to be flecked with gold as well, golden eyes like Wolf, and even a golden gem in the center of her forehead. Her long hair is also gold, and she's barefoot. "That is a pleasant name to say," she says. "Ymir."
"I think it's based on a knowledge-god," Tasha admits as she takes in the figure across from her. She considers painting, but decides now that this being has revealed itself, it would be rude for her to not pay attention to her or seem distracted. "I can see why you got your name. And we both like gold, which is nice."
"I don't always look like this, but it is my original form and makes world-waking easier," Galatea says. "Are you a native of this world, Tasha?"
"I can understand about having different forms for different purposes. I was a spirit-wolf with a bunch of eyes and other things a day ago, and sometimes I'm the brain of a giant robot or living thing." Tasha closes her paint bottles so they don't dry out, and also so faeries don't get any ideas. The brushes get put in water or disolvent as appropriate. "I am not. I travel the stars looking for our enemies, sometimes beyond the stars in to other universes and dimensions annnd I'm not always sure what the difference is, and if there is one."
"Semantics," Galatea claims. "A world is a world, the greater context it resides within is generally of minor impact. Most of the time. Sometimes it is of very critical impact. What brings you to this world then, Tasha? You do not seem to be in pursuit of your enemies, unless they are lethally adverse to art."
Tasha chuckles at that, hands spreading. "You know, maybe they might be? Shadow-beings can have some interesting rules about them." But her hands fall and she looks off, right hand rubbing the forearm of her left. "Remember what I said about dying? Well, that happened only a little while ago. A lot of the people I'm with suffered in other ways. We had a big success, but there were consequence we're still working through. We're deciding on our next course of action action now, while we rest and prepare."
"I suppose I am a ghost of myself then," Galatea says, and drops down from the branch. "Beings of Shadow? That sounds familiar."
This earns an odd look. "A ghost of yourself?" Tasha taps her brushes dry as she watches the other woman land. "Shadow-beings, things like the Ogdoad, Nyyy-arl-ath--tep," the red woman really has to work the name slowly, unfriendly as it is to muzzles, "Maybe Hastur? Sam. Blobs of nasty emotions with inner realities taht really like eye, teeth, and tentacle decor."
"Yes, those and their creations," Galatea agrees, then comes and sits down next to Tasha. She isn't exactly graceful, but she moves with an economy of motion. "Why are they your enemy?"
The movement reminds Tasha a little of Melchior. "Well, originally they seemed large and menacing with an indistinct threat to our universe and everyone and thing in it, although probably not the various deities, Shadow-or-otherwise, and other beings who only have stakes here. For them it'd just be a loss, but most of them hate loss, so maybe just as bad. The more I learned, the more of a real threat they became and less of a 'Tasha needs something big to feel big' journey they became. Now, it's kind of my job. A lot of other entities and civilizations recognized the dangerous, though, so I don't think we're wrong. They're eaters, the Ogdoad. They eat because they can; they eat because they are. And not kindly."
"So, they are not seeking revenge on those who drove them out?" Galatea asks. "Your demeanor suggests they are not particularly active, or are perhaps just patient in their plans. Is yours a very large universe, and the enemy numbers small?"
"They're sort of trapped in a black hole at the moment, which is an unusual state for beings such as they to be. This makes them vulnerable, but they are also timeless and likely not temporally bound, so they may have anticipated this. But the shifting tides of forever seem to me, now, to be just as hard to see clearly as the temporal future, with movers and shakers and rule breakers. Their gaze may not be perfect or accurate, or so we hope." Tasha looks off across the forest, frowning. "They've been trapped for a long while now, and their creations doing what they were made to, if slowly it seems. It's hard to tell with beings like this. A few have been destroyed; several by us. We are not the first to fight them and another civilization trapped the Ogdoad first, others have tried to fight them."
"And those who trapped them are no longer available to help?" Galatea asks. She doesn't blink very often.
Tasha is now reminded of Naga. "They're, um," Tasha wiggles her fingers in a very vague manner, "Difficult to deal with. They're their own problem. The last time they were captive they killed every other sentient in the universe for, as far as we know, a lack of desire to share resources. I don't even know what they look like, if they look like anything. What's worse, one of their old worlds is my home world, and I have friends and family there. I try not to antagonize the Sifra, but neither do I want them to rise again."
"Do you have any of their tools, or now how they controlled your Ogdoad?" the alien asks.
Tasha blinks at this, She never considered borrowing or stealing Sifran tools -- largely because of her 'do not anger the deity-trapping ultra civilization that owns where your family lives' policy. "I'd be worried they'd take offense," she admits.
"But you have other tools," Galatea says, and leans slightly towards Tasha. "Don't you?" The tone is a bit off. It comes across as a question, but there's also a hint of accusation.
Tasha frowns at this, leaning away slightly. "Maybe. Surely I must, if I intend to hunt them." She takes a moment to study the woman next to her more carefully, wondering if perhaps she's been to open about her plans in an effort to be friendly. This, of course, calls upon the utility of her third eye, which she uses to gaze on this 'Galatae' as well.
There doesn't seem to be any shadowy essence to her, but the gem in her forehead is very bright instead. "Hunt them?" Galatea asks. "They don't come after you first?"
It makes Tasha squint, inwardly. "Not usually. They're very languid, and they have special roles. Not all of them are equipped to go after anything. It helps they're nearly immortal and untouchable to most anything in our reality," Tasha answers. Then it's her turn to lean in and ask, "You're very intensely curious about this for someone who doesn't like fighting. Why is that?"
"Because you have something," Galatea says. "Something that nobody should have. Something of.. mine."
"I don't remember stealing anything from a Galatea," Tasha retorts, defensively. "Especially not one without any Shadow in her. I do have things nobody should have, but then I fight things nobody should fight, so what else am I supposed to do? What is this thing?"
The woman holds her hand out, palm up, and a golden marble appears in it. Sometimes it 'swirly' and sometimes faceted like a gem, but it is always gold. "You have an ansible. How did you get it?" she states, then asks.
"I am have sworn not to talk about that," Tasha insists, sitting up in a paying attention and not-to-be-pushed way, while making sure her hands are free. "I find it interesting you know what it is and that I have it, however. That it's ... yours."
For a moment Tasha's mind drifts back to a memory, all in reverse. There's a little dragon, it comes from the ansible, it's Kainudy's remote. She's pocketing the ansible; she's not supposed to eat it, it belonged to someone. A tree. A tree of a dead person. Kainudy's angst tree. She blinks; it can't be. And if so, why now, why her? Why not Kainudy or one of the Waymakers?
"If this is yours you have a name to go with it." Tasha reaches her left hand inside and begins tapping on the anisble quickly and incessantly, while trying to avoid making any noise doing it. "Who are you? Were you?"
"I'm a ghost, a lifeboat, a daughter. The last daughter of Lothrhyn, before the world was burned," Galatea claims. "Just a piece, but still her hope for survival. And what you have is mine. It has my signature. I knew the moment it was used, and came to find it across universes."
Tasha decides she really can't enjoy her break time, can she. The tapping on the anisble gets more intent. "Lets look at things from my perspective. Here you are, right here in fairy land, asking me lots of questions about the Shadows and the things I rightly keep secret, and now you're being a bit menacing if I may say so. I'd rather no hurt you if you are what you say you are, but if you're not, you must realize I may very well have to hurt you. This presents a dilemma for me. And I do believe I noted a fae tried to kidnap me just a few days ago."
"I am not fae, and I have nothing to do with them or their realm," Galatea says. "But I have a right to know where, who, or how you came upon that ansible, and how you intend to use it. You did not get to gnaw on your own bones when you died, but I will not allow anyone to gnaw on my bones either."
Tasha really wishes Kainudy would answer her quasi-magic pan dimensional super phone by now. She's quickly being pushed towards a possible confrontation with this being, and if she is who she says she is, Tasha decides she may as well go hide in her own pocket universe if she ends up killing her. That is if she can, her own advice about being careful around larger beings applies here and now. "I might have chewed on it a little thinking it was like a candy apple. In my defense, it looks like a candy apple. A magical candy apple. And I didn't know what it was when I got it, so it was an accident." It's not much of a delaying tactic, but she hopes it is enough.
The woman actually leans back and blinks. "Wait.. you actually gnawed on it?" she asks in surprise.
"It came from a tree," Tasha insists. "How was I to know? People hand me inexplicable things all the time. I nearly died to a soul-crushing kinetic sculpture, there was this time I pulled a giant Sifran-powered robot from under an ancient Temple and then had to fight it later when it was possessed, I go to so many worlds where people tell me 'eat this' and I just have to believe them, and then someone hands me a magical candy-looking apple and, well, I was hungry and sometimes I get the urge to bite things."
"A tree? Where was it?" Galatea asks, a bit less threateningly now. "Please," she adds. "I've lost my siblings. I need to know."
"This is all very insistent and I did tell you about the whole concerns and sworn to secrecy matter," Tasha says, more shrill now. She actually takes the anisble and begins banging it against some fixtures of her coat, out of view. "I can't just break my promises any time someone says 'please'. You know I fight beings of unfathomable darkness, lying is not the greates of their evils."
"You can't use it unless I allow it," Galatea tells Tasha, perhaps so she'll stop thumping it. "So, you must give me a reason to allow it. Someone has access to me. Do you understand what that means? Especially when someone battling eldritch monsters has it? What do you think burned me down?"
That this being can block the anisble is in itself suggestive, but Tasha assumes many beings of sufficient power could block communication. This requires a test. "Okay, look." Tasha takes her hand out and pats over where the anisble is. "You let me use it, and I will judge form there. How about that? If you take any sudden action, leap at it, fire head-crystal lasers, anything like that, I will promptly not believe you."
"That seems rather one-sided," Galatea claims. "What do you offer me to hold so that I may trust you? Clearly you intend to use it to contact whoever gave it to you, in some location I can't detect. I don't know if you know exactly what it can do. So you must give me something of yours as well."
"I do have both the ansible and the means by which to injure exceptional beings. Right now this anisble is my ansible, given to me by someone I have promises with. That means something; I do not betray those I have promised to and respect just because someone I just met asks. You are endangering that. Look ... " Here Tasha sighs, sad that she has to show force again, but here she is trying to paint and a mysterious ancient being wants her equally mysterious anisble from her almost as mysterious mentor, and she might well suffer for it. She steps back and the sword and shield alight to her hands. "I will not be bullied or equivocated at. I owe who I promised to, not you."
"Then you cannot use it," Galatea says, eyeing the sword and shield curiously. "I have no weapons," she points out. "Am I so frightening?"
"I am ever opposed by beings of miraculous and all-encompassing powers, I can't be too careful. And fae travel here. They're probably enjoying the show. Actually, I'm Molly-fied to think who they're telling right now about this. I'd hate to Mock this up, so someone around here should really play along." Tasha keeps her distance, ready, but doesn't move to otherwise attack. "And if you're so harmless and defenceless, you never could have taken this from me and all your pleases would be meaningless for lack of power, so you may as well trust me because it's what you have to convince me."
"I have asked you questions about it, and I have a legitimate claim," Galatea says, still sitting on the ground. She taps the crystal in her forehead, noting, "This and the fact I can disable it or detect it is proof of my connection. Nobody else could do such. I will not take it from you by force, and I am sympathetic to your cause. But your possession of it poses both a threat to me and.. I need to know where you got it from. A tree? You might have cut it out of the head of one of my brothers or sisters, but it is useless on its own, so there is another, or several. And I will not leave until I know the answers to my questions."
The idea of having a pan dimensional visitor follow her around and stare at her until she answers questions is both too familiar and too obnoxious for Tasha. For a seemingly peaceful world, Ymir is a hot bed of powers and dramatics. "You assume I can confirm that only you can do such things, out of, say, everything that could exist in the universe and want this." Tasha risks glancing around; eventually she'll grow tired, need to rest. Then she's out of time.
Persephone? If you can hear me, I could really use your help right now. Voice in the eyes of animals, can you get her please? Or ... Charon? Who would know Persepho-- Hades, I'll take Hades! Or Leviathan! Any Waymaker if that's all you've got, Tasha inwardly pleads.
"What are you doing?" Galatea asks, and then looks around. "Are you praying?"
"Maybe! It's a very mortal thing to do," Tasha replies, defensively. Thoth, maybe she can get Thoth.
"You need to calm down," Galatea says. "Your pulse and blood pressure are elevated, and I expect your adrenal levels are increasing as well. That sort of physical stress is unhealthy. Now, you should know, that other than just deactivating the ansible, I can do other things so long as you hold it. For instance, nobody else can detect you right now. Or see or hear you. Forgive me for being paranoid. But as I have said, this is a very personal issue for me. And if you are only learning to be a witch, where did the shield and sword come from? Is it some sort of technology?"
Tasha decides on the 'trust but verify' approach and immediately checks her arms system for communications access.
The connection indicator is active.
Tasha immediately attempts to contact Thoth. "Dr. Amun? Can you hear me?"
There's no reply, other than 'User is offline' in the message display.
Tasha's curse is muffled but extensive. She rolls her eyes back towards the being across from her and points her sword at her. "This is definitely not earning a lot of trust from me," she notes.
Galatea tilts her head slightly and raises her eyebrows. "Trust towards me or towards whoever you are trying to contact?" she asks. "I can't really effect technology directly. Does that use electromagnetic waves?"
"Yes let me tell you how all my items work so you can disable them," Tasha replies with pique. She shakes the arm she was using at Galatea. "I am trying to contact someone who can verify your story. Unless I can do that, I can't give you anything. Not information, not the ansible, nothing. I may even have to attack you for lack of options as you are essentially holding me hostage."
"Holding you hostage?" Galatea asks. "I'm very interested in these people you feel could verify my story. Are they the ones who gave you the ansible perhaps? But that brings up an interesting point: you say you promised not to reveal the information I require, but is that because the one who gave it to you is holding someone or something of yours hostage?"
"You are holding me hostage," Tasha answers in what could be a cry of frustration. Why, she asks herself, does she have to be so ethical. The old Tasha wasn't ethical, she could have gone back to painting. But then she could also botch this and ruin the universe, so she's back to having to rely on Tasha Mk. 3. "You know what? I am leaving." And so she begins backing away in to the forest. She can fly back and try to get someone's attention in the city.
"To be more precise, I am holding the ansible hostage," Galatea notes. "You are only affected so long as you hold it." She also seems to have sprouted wings, as if divining Tasha's intent.
/Oh /wonderful./ Tasha heaves a sigh, but keeps her weapons out as she walks into the forest towards her take off point, and heads back towards the docks.
It's a bit of a flight. Normally, you can't fly to the docks, since travel into and out of the harbor area must go through the Customs checkpoint. So Tasha has a choice of landing and doing things the proper way, risk setting off an alarm.. or find out how imperceptible she actually is.
Tasha decides to do things the proper way, Besides, if she is invisible, she can perform a few tests while she's there. So she alights near the Customs Station and stows the sword lest she condemn some poor commuter to a slow end via being a living corpse. All the while she tries to keep an eye on Galatea.
The alien woman lands right behind Tasha, and folds her wings into her back apparently, since they completely vanish.
The first attempt is Tasha trying to cut on line. She makes right for the check station and then plants her free hand on her hip, looking at the attendant expectantly.
There's a beep, and Tasha gets a registration indication over her com set, but the attendant looks at his own panel in confusion for a moment. But he never actually looks to the gate where Tasha stands.
Tasha tries stepping back and forth through the gate just to really push the results.
The attendant taps at his screen, and the woman behind Tasha asks, "Is there a problem? Can I go through yet? The red light is on."
Galatea is already on the other side, having walked through whatever invisible security fence there might have been.
So far, so bad Tasha decides. Se passes through the arch against and makes for her ship. "This is very annoying you know. You're not some sort of Ogdru-hem spirit of annoyance, are you?"
"I'm not the one who was holding up the queue," Galatea notes. "Your technology works and is detectable, after all. Just not you."
"You haven't won yet, space invader." Tasha stole that line from a holovid she watched last week, who had a remarkably similar problem. She has to wonder, as she storms across the docking port, just how many of those stories have origins in moments like this. She makes right for her ship, then stands next to it and waves her hands around.
"Who are you trying to wave to?" Galatea asks. "Why is your boat disguised?"
"For the same reason you're hiding yourself from everyone else despite the fact you're only supposed to be hiding me: To not scare the normals," Tasha explains with the same tone she might explain things to a small and exasperating child. When no one responds, she turns and walks towards the entry hoping that the real entry being a hyper-tech super-door will work for her today.
The door recognizes Tasha's com transceiver, certainly. Which is what it's supposed to do anyway.
Tasha heads right inside. "Hi can anyone see or hear me? Niiiiss, you're special, can you detect me? Sam? Thoth? Anyone?" Tasha's disgruntled hollering is loud and more than a little put upon. "A shiny woman is using some kind of magic or technology to hide me so she can bully me in to revealing seeecrets!"
"I'm not a bully," Galatea says.
One of the Jotoki, Rock, rumbles down the central corridor chasing after a cat, and veers aside just before he would have run down Tasha.
"The bully is trying to gaslight me!" Tasha walks through the ship shouting much the same thing, if with different variations and more creative titles to append to the being following her around. This suddenly stops when Rock dodges her. "Wait, Rock! Can you see me? You can, can't you?!"
The pentaped keeps going after the cat, which also doesn't react to Tasha.
Galatea follows along, and knocks on the walls. "These lights are not using gas," she points out. "And how do you keep from falling through the floor?"
"I took you to see the univ-- why am I bothering ... " Tasha sighs for what seems like the thousandth time, but is relaly the third, and heads to the elevator. "Whatever techno-magic you're using is really impressive, at least. And I don't fall through because I'm mostly phsyical."
"Ah, it's an elevator," Galatea says. "Do you know you have two demons on your boat?"
"Yes they're very nice," Tasha insists, a bit tightly. She exits the elevator and heads straight for Thoth's room.
"What do you feed them?" Galatea asks, and pauses when Tasha heads for the door.
"The ship one gets tacos, Sam got fed by Thotep a few days ago. He was small for a while." Tasha proceeds to simply barge in to Thoth's room, as this is an emergency and he did tell her to be direct with immortals. "Thhhoooth?"
There is a multicolored fog in the room for a moment, and then Thoth steps out of it. And looks around.
"Wow this is new," Tasha admits, waving a hand as she is both literally and figuratively befogged by events. Seeing Thoth doesn't seem to notice her, she steps up to him and tries to poke him. "Can. You. See. Me? I have a multi-universal problem here and the problem is bullying me with invisibility!"
Thoth looks down where he was poked, and reaches outward with one hand. And tries to push it through Tasha's chest.
Tasha stands her ground and hopes dearly that this isn't about to hurt.
It takes several attempts before Thoth seems notice something. "Is somebody there?" he asks the room.
"This person is strange," Galatea comments from outside.
"Yes!" Realizing this probably won't work due to the solid fact that it did not work the first time, Tasha then begins poking Thoth's chest with intensity. It even occurs to her to start poking in Morse code, which Nora insisted she know for emergencies and she originally thought seemed like a knock-off version of Hammersong.
Thoth backs off after a few moments of this, and stops trying to touch things.
"Why don't you try calling him on your thing again, now that he is here?" Galatea asks.
Hoping Thoth is as smart as she thinks he is, which is very smart considering he's a god of knowledge, Tasha waits expectantly for some magic. At the suggestion, she rolls her eyes but does attempt to make contact if just for something to do.
Thoth's eyes whirr, and he answers his com set. "Yes?"
"Hi it's me, can you hear me? Because I am right in front of you poking you in the chest," Tasha replies, waving her free non-communications-working hand. "A visitor from 'across universes' is bullying me to answer questions I can't answer about your, uh, fellow instructor. The one we took a walk to meet the angel with."
"Bullying you how?" Thoth asks. He seems to be ignoring the poking for now.
"Making me undetectable to anyone except, strangely, the communication system right now. She wants answers about the thing instructor two gave me and she's using it to make me undetectable somehow. She's actually here with me, uh, by your love seat. Can you magic us or something?" Tasha keeps a suspicious eye on Galatea all the while.
"So this being knows who gave you the ansible," Galatea says.
"Magic you to what purpose?" Thoth asks. "How are they rendering you invisible?"
"Now she's trying to pick apart our conversation and get me to admit things," Tasha adds to Thoth. "She's very stubborn. It's like being followed around by a frustrating stone statue from Terra. You know things, and I can't admit to things while I can't determine her identity, and she's preventing me from using the artifact and has control of it somehow. And you know I don't know how that kind of technology works, I don't even know if it is technology! You know, the little boy and the big monster mom kind?"
"Why is 'she' doing this then, exactly?" Thoth asks. He doesn't try looking around further, but just stares ahead.
"She says the thing used to belong to her, that she's the last daughter of, uh," Tasha glances at the figure again, "Lothernin. The burnt world. Said she died to a Shadow and is some kind of life boat, but you also know I can't answer her questions and I have been trying to reach someone who can identify her."
"That isn't the name of the world that died, that was me who died when the world I was on was burned," Galatea notes.
Thoth looks up a bit then. "Ah, I think I see her now. Human, pale white with gold accents," he says.
"Yes, I'm Galatea, and you are Thoth, and I am not allowing Tasha to use the ansible," the alien explains.
"Not allowing?" Thoth asks. "Is that correct, Tasha?"
"She's saying I got the name wrong and that she died when the world died," Tasha corrects. She's about to say more when Thoth identifies Galatea, and she practically jumps at finally getting through. "Yes! That's her! She's not any part Shadow, but I don't know what she is." She then steps aside even if it's probably pointless, and gestures to the alien. "She ambushed me while I was painting. I thought she was fae, but then she just started grilling me about the ansible. And yes, I can't use it! I've tried. This would be a lot easier if she'd let me, but she thinks it's 'too risky'."
"Tell me where Tasha got it from, and I will be more trusting," Galatea says. While she is apparently visible, Tasha still isn't.
"What is your connection to it?" Thoth asks.
"I swore not to reveal such things," Tasha explains, shrugging because she's just used to being animate while talking and isn't going to stop because she's invisible. "Like I told her, I won't reveal secrets entrusted to me just because another sparklily deity pops up and asks nicely. Or not nicely, as the case may be."
"It was created by my.. mother, but not before she died," Galatea explains. "Therefore it comes from one of my siblings, or else my mother is not dead. Tasha claims it came from a tree."
"I did say that. She was angrily ranting about not wanting her bones chewed on and I felt defensive," Tasha admits.
"I was not ranting," Galatea counters. "And she did admit to chewing on it."
"Did you chew on it?" Thoth asks. "Please remember to use your communicator."
"It came from a tree and looks like a candy apple," Tasha insists, and again, defensively. "And a little! I stopped when I was told not to. I'll have you know back home when being handed fruit from trees eating it is very acceptable." To be extra certain she's heard she holds her communicator up to her head, but maneuvers so she can watch Galatea anyway. Thoth, after all, is somewhat less likely to attack her.
"I see," Thoth says. "And you can exert control over it. I presume you can do more than make Tasha undetectable?"
Tasha feels the specter of doom pass over her at those words. "Please don't turn me in to a guy again," she insists.
"Yes," Galatea admits. "I can take the ansible at any time. But that will not answer my questions about its origin. I suppose there are other things I am capable of doing that have no bearing on the situation, and which I have no reason to resort to. Are you a god?"
"Retired," Thoth admits.
"He's also my teacher," Tasha adds. "A teacher who should be proud of me for refusing to give away secrets and for keeping my promises!"
"I can be very patient," Galatea points out. "I will not allow Tasha or anyone else access to the communication functions of the ansible until I have my answers. Where did she get it, who gave it to her, and what is it being used for?"
"Guess what things I'm sworn not to talk about? Those kinds of things." And so Galatea gets the stink eye.
"Very well," Thoth says. "Tasha is not going to tell you. She got it from a fragment of Lothrhyn that Kainudy has been cultivating in Temple of Danu in the Halfworld, where has sequestered herself and cannot leave."
Tasha lets out a long exhale and drops right on to Thoth's couch, head leaning back, but not so much she can't watch Galatea. She does not confirm nor deny anything, however, and simply watches.
Galatea steps back and looks like she's been struck. "Thank you," she says. "Tell her I have not forgiven her." And then she just isn't there anymore.
"It isn't a loveseat," Thoth notes to Tasha, looking at her now. "It is a chaise."
"Well, at least I didn't have to stab her," Tasha remarks, frowning at the inexplicable result. She glances over at Thoth and adds, "That's good, right? A chaise. Okay. Um. Right. Was that really one of them? A Waymaker's remote, from the one who died in the defense of ... Lothrhyn was it?"
"For it to be independent it would be more than a remote," Thoth notes. "The ansibles are the basis of the Waymaker abilities. I do not know all that could be accomplished with one."
Tasha pulls out the ansible and frowns at it, turning it in her hand. "Kainudy said it was some kind of shared universe communicator but never mentioned any other power other than being able to produce remotes, and that only came as a surprise later. Do you think we should tell her what happened?"
"It is not my concern," Thoth admits. "If she is not aware of Galatea's existence, it my be welcome. But Galatea clearly does not have good relations with her regardless. It might cause her to fall into depression again. It may make her rethink allowing you to have the ansible as well."
This causes sigh four. "I suppose I'd better, better that than hiding it from her. And if Galatea can pop in and do whatever with it, that could be a problem for the future. Besides, maybe I can do something about it. It'd be nice to give back to at least one of my mentors, right? I can't ride on Persephone's good will forever."
"Although I suppose knowing I swore things and are being taught by Kainudy won't help my relationship with Galatea, and I did sort of call her a bully as I horded her corpse. Horded for good reason, but still," Tasha adds.
"Her issue is with Kainudy, not with you," Thoth says. "She did not take the ansible afterall."
"I got the impression she could have destroyed me rather easily, which was very uncomfortable. But I kept my promise," Tasha admits, feeling suddenly heavy after all the stress. She slides down the chaise and flops on to her side. "Alright. Here goes. Tasha to anisble, come in Kainudy."
The sphere flashes a few times, and then a miniature dragon forms around it. "Yes?" Chibi-Kainudy asks. She sounds.. tired.
"Uhh," goes Tasha, who hesitates. She glances at Thoth, back to the dragon, to Thoth and back again, and just says, "Iiiii just wanted you to know I didn't make any progress with the fae and, um, I really appreciate what you're doing as my mentor." She then very awkwardly tries to pat the little dragon's head.
"You called to say thank you, right in front of your other mentor?" Kainudy asks, sounding suspicious. "Why do you look guilty? I'm very good at recognizing guilt. I'm very familiar with it."
"Oh I was, um, experimenting with the anisble and somehow I ended up invisible. Can it do other things? What is this? Can I use it to teleport?" Tasha does her best to look very genuine, ears up, really playing to Karnor trustworthiness. It helps she actually does want to know how the device works.
"What did you do to turn invisible? Why are you experimenting with it?" the dragonet presses.
"I'm very curious about things! Remember when I tried to bite it? That was very curious. And maybe the fae did it, I don't know how these things work. Maybe I made it work with my mind? Persephone did make me, maybe that's why. Or maybe it's the Shadow thing. I don't know how it happened," Tasha insists, finding it hard not to smile too widely after what happened. Family affairs between hyperdimensional ultimate beings was not how she envisioned her pa day.
"You aren't very good at lying," Kainudy claims. "You can use it to contact me. That is all you can do. Even I don't mess with timestone constructs, and.. I honestly don't understand them. But I've seen.." she pauses. "Just don't try to mess with it. Don't let Thoth do things to it. Don't let your demon handle it. Don't insert it anywhere."
"I can't use it to teleport, right? Not even to ... where it came from?" Tasha perks her ears. "Back to its source. The, uh, tree. That would be ... very useful!" Tasha smilies in what she hopes is an encouraging fashion. "Charon said it can do a lot, you know."
"I don't know if ansibles can do that," Kainudy says. "Maybe the Stelya-rhyan ones can."
"The Stelya-rhyan ones ... Yes, that makes sense. Yes." Tasha peers at the object, then tries to pat the dragon again. "Well that's all I had to say, I need to, um," she looks around, " ... not be in Thoth's room for one. Maybe I'll go ahve a talk with, uh, people."
"You're acting stranger than usual," Kainudy notes. "Getting things ready for your next lesson is.. taking a bit out of me, so I'm not going to press you on this. Is there anything more you need to say, or be awkward about?"
"No I think I've been awkward enough for one talk!" Tasha's trying to hard gets ever so tighter.
"Hmm," the little dragon grunts, and then it's just golden orb of the ansible again.
Tasha pockets the anisble and turns to Thoth. "I need a way to talk to Charon or Persephone. I don't think I can use the Marker to do it anymore. Any ideas?"
"They said they will not return to this universe," Thoth notes. "Without an associated ansible it seems unlikely. This one is apparently of a specific 'family' that others of that family can detect."
"I do believe that Kainudy has been able to contact Persephone before though," he adds.
"Frustrating. I can't exactly hop in to the Way, either. Or can I?" Tasha looks to Thoth again. "Can you? I've been there and have met Atum, is there no way to return?"
"I only know of the Wells that connect to it, so whatever entry you used could be the only one," Thoth says. "I've never had reason to use it."
"Powerful beings pop in to my life all the time, why can't I pop in to their lives when I need to?" Tasha huffs as she folds her arms and drops back in to the couch. "I am going to fix this. Somehow. If I can. I need a Waymaker to tell me how to use this thing so I can go to Galatea and float around bothering her with questions."
"Do you really want to become embroiled in family politics?" Thoth asks. "Why didn't you tell Kainudy about her?"
"I, um ... " Tasha spreads her hand sin a wordless shrug, searching for the words, then touches her pointer fingers together and taps them for a moment as she hesitates, "I didn't want her to ... feel ... bad. Worse. To feel worse."
"Galatea must not be able to eavesdrop or interject into the ansible connection," Thoth surmises. "Otherwise she would already have known about who gave it to you."
"Yes, and she seemed to have other limitations. like not being able to block the comms device. She admitted to not being able to influence technology directly. So this anisble must be magical, or, I don't know, beyond either one." The ansible comes out again, and Tasha peers at it. "Persephone did make me. I wonder if I can fake being a remote and use this? She said she could track it across universes, so I'm not sure she managed to travel without one. Maybe she has another one? She did have that head gem."
"That was likely her ansible," Thoth says with slight nod of his beak. "If she started as a remote, she would have to have one."
Tasha gives the little device a squinting. "So her's was the same size and allowed for that. Maybe I can jury rig it? It doesn't seem like Charon was that complicated, but then he did build an entire entity in a few hours, so maybe their talents extend in ways I can't see. And I have my spore, maybe that will help. Hmm." The young woman holds the anisble to the light, then peers in to it. "It's supposed to go in the head."
"Kainudy ask that you not experiment with or insert it anywhere," Thoth reminds. "You would not want the remote to manifest in your head."
"That would be bad, wouldn't it. Of course I never got anywhere not experimenting with weird artifacts, and it's for a good cause, but it's also clearly full of universe-level power. I could play it safe and do nothing, or I could try ... something." Tasha's head goes on her hand as she stares at the object, turning it. "Galatea did say I couldn't use it without her permission, so she thought maybe I could. So you can, because she would know."
"Perhaps," Thoth admits. "But you do not have the means to actually probe what it may or may not be able to do. If it has the ability to transport the bearing to another of its kind, that could just as easily send you to Galatea. There is also another consideration."
"Another of it's kind ... Maybe I'll try that." Tasha tehn looks over, ears perked. "Yes?"
"Titanians," Thoth points out. "They monitor for things like that, so while communication may be undetectable, moving mass from one point to another is something different."
"Oh, good idea. I need to coordinate with them for the Daltoona raid anyway, and let them know what we're up to and that it could go badly. I'll set things up." Thoth gets a thumbs up, but then Tasha looks suddenly wider of eyes, ears shooting up. "Oh that's right! You were right here and I ... Well I was going to save this for a better time, but I want you to know I appreciate you, too, as a teacher and as a mentor. Kainudy said you can be difficult to get along with, but I like you. You didn't have to expend power to bring me back and you did. I can tell you care."
"Thank you," Thoth says. "Please, do not barge into my room again."
"It was kind of an emergency and I was invisible, so, uh ... "Tasha hesitates, awkwardly, then spreads her hands. "Sorry, I'll try not to in the future. Is it the rainbow fog? Was that dangerous?"
"It is private," Thoth notes.
"Good enough for me." Tasha hops up to her feet, smoothes herself down, and checks her painting supplies. "Off I go then. I'll add the anisble idea to my list for the Titanians. And now ... I need a nap."