Outpost Caltrop
Four glittering shards of crystalline material join together at a central point, forming a structure that, from a distance, looks like a strange and delicate structure, at once beautiful, yet sharp and injurious. Seen against the backdrop of the Lotus Nebula, one might imagine it as a pendant resting against a ruby evening gown of some noble woman, her features disappearing into the shadows of the starry expanse. This is no bauble, however, but rather a structure conceivably large enough to house a city, if its translucent interior were devoted to such a purpose. Instead, it serves as a docking port for gas-mining trawlers, and the occasional merchant freighter come out to the fringe of explored space, and home to the generations of creatures that service the visiting ships and depend upon them for sustenance.

The return to Outpost Caltrop is a busy one. Gabriel and Mr. Invention set out to acquire some long range communication gear (to replace the gear they'd taken out of the mining base, ironically) and a few other similar supplies. Tia is off to see Mrs. Teatime about three new galactic IDs for the off-brand siblings and to retrieve what personal things she had stashed away in the townhouse. Hakeber goes about rousting the Phins and the Lapis, and Tasha is left to deal with shopping (can't have too many naked people running around, especially without spacesuits) and hunting down Katie and Shojo to find out when the mercenaries will be ready for their next bit of training. Miss Necessity has already agreed to come give human lessons, and Reeka is probably going to be showing up at some point, to represent Titanian interests. Oddly, none of the Titanians themselves have asked to come along.

Tasha's shopping trip is much like her other shopping trips, except with a decided sense of being off to a degree. After all, all her copies are herself, but off to a degree, and while many might say she's usually off and to many degrees, this time it's a off about separation rather than being unhinged. The trip starts with measuring all three as well as herself, then taking inventory of what she already has. Most of what she has for Vartan interests would fit Vasha, but she decides she ultimately needs those for her own disguise work. Thus, she has the unusual task of figuring out what she'd want to wear, if she wasn't quite her. At least she has experience not being quite herself, repeatedly.

Vasha is the easiest to shop for; Tasha looks at styles popular with surface Vartans of her apparent age, and then buys a wardrobe of them. These range from basic outerwear, to underwear (including some risque items because she's still herself, even if she's another one of her), and two space suits because she often breaks space suits. For Sharon she looks to the Humans for advice and assembles a small and respectable wardrobe, feeling Sharon will want to shop for herself in the near future. Finally there's Sasha, who is very strange to shop for. She must figuring out what she'd wear as a male and, more so, think about his special interests. She queries the Karnors now and then, and hopes what she bought is enough.

Since it's more than one person can carry, the townhouse is being used as temporary storage, and also for meeting up with Katie and Shojo - or Katie at least. "What's all this?" Katie asks as she pokes through an earlier drop off of clothing. She's the only one in the suite when Tasha returns with the last load. "Are you planning on opening a boutique on Daltoona?"

Tasha sits among boxes and bags. It makes her look like a gift imp. "Nooo. You didn't hear, did you? Because we didn't tell you." She distinctly remembers Sasha's desire to avoid Katherine, and where she is, but decides here must be safe enough and Katherine will find out sooner or later anyway. "You know how I needed a disguise? Well modifying me is hard. Making more of me, as it turns out," here she taps her fingers together Mariel-style, " ... is easier."

"Wouldn't that take a long time though?" Katie asks. "Even if you're already pregnant.."

Tasha barks a laugh, then shakes her head. She pats her tummy. "No not that way, they made a few of me using stuff from elsewhere. Based on who I'd been. There's Vasha, a Vartan, Sharon, a Human, and Sasha a Karnor. A male Karnor. Please don't tease him."

Katie is quiet for a moment, then says, "First: How? Second: is Sharon the Human you were before being put back together, and Third: Nora will be livid that you found a shortcut. Unless they melt if they get wet or something? They're not robots?"

"They're made from the Unformed, where everything, um, isn't. You might think of it as primal chaos, or where the waveform has settled. Anyway, it really wants to be something, and this time it's me. I think Tia and Kai called them Changelings. They don't have an existence of an identity until given one. They're also linked to me, I can, um, piggyback. Or tae control. We can sync." Tasha rubs her nose a moment, then leans back to use the packaged clothes as a pillow. "Sharon is based on me from that time, but she has more recent memories. So me back then, but modern memories."

Katie goes quiet again, and furrows her brow. "So, if you link up.. are they technically 'involved' when we're having sex? Have you tested that already?"

Tasha's ears flick; she goes through a series of emotions that are, together, hard to read as a whole. "I think so? I mean, I have Sasha's memories since we synced, sooo ... " She spreads her hands wide in a shrug and smells distinctly embarrassed. "I guess I'll have to get used to it?"

"And can I get you and 'Sharon' together at the same time?" Katie asks, grinning wickedly now.

Tasha rolls her eyes, but her tail wags. She sits on it. "I suuuuppooose you can. If you're good." She nods but can't quite look Katie in the eye.

"Do I need to seduce her though?" Katie asks. "Or.. well, I'll worry about that later. Where are they, still on the ship?"

"I will leave it to her discretion. They're me, but still autonomous and they have their own way of doing things. If she says okay, well ..," Again the hand shrug. I suppose I'll just have to have a threeway with myself, myself, and a supermodel. Burdens. "Still on the ship, they are very clothes-devoid at the moment and I wanted to remedy that ASAP."

"It would probably be too traumatic if I showed up and said hello before they had clothes then," Katie says. "We're going to run out of bunks soon. What sort of state is the mining station in? Will we be able to use it for Shojo's team test?"

"It's, um, hyperdimensional now. Sooo ... yes? It extends in to the Unformed, in to a pocket universe that used to belong to an elf lord. He's impaled on the throne; don't remove the unicorn horn." Tasha squints. "Why are you looking at me like that? You know my life. Anyway, there's a base in there we can use. It's nice."

"With a dead lord on a throne and a very uncomfortable unicorn," Katie sort of repeats back to Tasha. "I wish I'd visited Sinai now, where this sort of thing probably makes sense and is nothing fantastical."

"No, it's mostly fantastical back home, too. There are very few beings who could be called unicorns, and most of them are very highly placed in society. It'd be like impaling someone with the head of a ... do you have senators? A senator. Only rarer. An immortal alien senator." Tasha wrinkles her nose at the analogy, but presses on. "Also, and this is very important, the lord is not dead. He's immortal. Sometimes all you can do with an immortal is put them in a box."

"No he's in the old castle. I'll probably seal the castle up at some point, so there's more protection than exists. The base itself is a ways away near the lake and the hyper universal gateway." Tasha nods, confirming the facts to herself. "Shojo and gang will be tested there. Me, I'm going to who-knows-where to find a dragon library."

"Alright, that's rather important information," Katie notes, nodding. "Dragon library? To check out a dragon?"

Tasha grins at that. "I don't think they let you do that, though maybe I will if I can. It's a library ran by a dragon, an old and probably very mystical and memetic one, like it's element is books or something. You know, like Hake." Tasha smiles. "Kai thinks there might be useful information there, since certain beings can't go there, at all."

"Oh, so you're taking Hakeber then?" Katie asks. "No know how she is about libraries."

"No, it'll just be me. Ancient august dragon libraries apparently have significant security and connection requirements. You know, like universities." Tasha shrugs; what can you do.

"Do you know how libraries work though?" Katie asks. "Although maybe it's the sort that doesn't let people actually look for things, but just asks them what they want and someone else goes and gets it.."

"It's an ancient dragon library, who knows how it works. Maybe the whole library is just a really old dragon that likes to talk. I'm sure Kai knows how it works, because I can't imagine she'd drag -- no pun -- me out there for no reason. It's that or letting Tia and the Niss try and extract information from the special Library, and that has its own problems." Tasha sits up and shakes her head. "No, the dragon library is the safer first try. Tia is still unstable and mentally wounded, and who knows what's in that wood ball."

"When did Sam become the stable one out of your collection of magic weirdos?" Katie asks the ceiling. "Well, Shojo will back in later. Shall we move this stuff to the ship? Are we all going with you or is still stuff you need to set up before we let loose the soldiers?"

Tasha laughs at that. "It just gets weirder and weirder, doesn't it? But at least Tia and Kai are tied to me with more than a obligation by their boss. That's important." She peers at the packages, then starts gathering them up. "That depends when Kai is ready to go. I'll be leaving ASAP, since I don't know when I'll get back and I don't want to delay the mission."

"And we now have spares," Katie teases, and picks up some boxes. "We should call a robot wagon to load all of this into."

"Just remember: I know what they know. I am everywhere! Or, at least, in four places." Tasha taps her wrist and requests a robot. Soon they're off, pile of luggage in tow.

It was quit an ordeal loading everything, as there was much more than just Tasha's shopping. There was considerable equipment and supplies from Gabriel and Mr. Invention. Katie was a bit disappointed that the other Tasha's weren't on the ship (due to the whole lake of spacesuits thing), but she had to go let Shojo know to start preparing for space training. Kaa and Moka were back, and also Miss Necessity. Tia was the last one to actually show up with her compressed belongings and word that Mrs. Teatime will have the new credentials ready in a few days. Then it's back out again to the asteroids. "So what's the big surprise?" Moka asks as they make their final approach to the asteroid.

"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise," Tasha says with the calm, collected certainty of someone taking the piss. She even folds her hands on her lap in what could be considered 'diplomatically'. "I'm sure we'll see soon."

Tia arrives on the bridge, and looks around. "How do I tell Kaa where to go?" she finally asks.

"Most females just tell him to go t-to Hell," Moka says, followed by dolphin laughter.

"Like this." Tasha leans forward dramatically, cups her hands to her muzzle, and shouts, "GABRIEL. TELL KAA GO TO ASTEROID." She leans back, nods, and turns to add to Tia, "Except you have to ask me to tell Gabriel. Chain of command."

"It should be something obvious on the surface," Tia tells Gabriel then. "We just have to get very close first."

"See, it's very easy. Maybe even too easy." Tasha puts her arms back behind her head and leans back in her console. "I should notify the others we're coming."

And then Tasha notifies the others using the same communications she uses for Tia and Kai.

"I'm working with Kai now to open the way.. ah.. there!" Tia points through the viewing area to.. a crater on the asteroid. "Belly down into that. And don't stop no matter what."

The Dark Horse 'hovers' above the dark crater, and Kaa asks, "What do you mean by 'no matt-ter what' exactly?"

"Won't we slam in to the ground on the other side?" Tasha thinks to ask, but she doesn't look alarmed. In truth she is alarmed, but alarmed may as well be he natural state of being these days. "Yeah please clarify for Kaa."

"Ignore whatever your instruments tell you," Tia explains. "But don't go too fast. We'll come through above the lake."

"It's a special lake, it could go on forever," Tasha considers. She settles back in. If she's about to die again she may as well die comfrotable.

So Kaa guides the Dark Horse straight down into the crater. It isn't a very deep one, and the spotlights show the bottom of it. Collision alerts sound as the lower mast begins sinking through the surface.

Tasha remember Kaa striking something with the ship before, but refrains from commenting. It's not wise to interupt the pilot while he makes his first shunt in to what may as well be legend. Instead she asks Tia, "Anything you need while I'm at the library?"

"I don't know what it has, or what is along the way," Tia says, watching the displays very closely. "You've spent more time in Faerie than I have."

"I'm also way more whimsical and scary, so maybe I'll be an expert someday." Tasha instead looks to Gabriel. "Want any souvenirs? Dragon nudie mags?"

"Aren't dragons always naked?" Gabriel asks, as the alarms suddenly stop and the external views show the surrounding valley and the lake beneath. "A lake!" Kaa announces.

"And that's not all! Gabriel, if you would." Tasha does not answer if dragons are always naked. They are, of course, but she has other matters to think about now.

"I don't know if the salt was added yet or not," Gabriel says. "There's a pier.. try to get lined up there. Hopefully the truck is ready to start unloading things. Oh, and Don't Go In The Castle. It's haunted."

"Yes very much don't go in the castle," Tasha agrees. "In fact I'm ordering people not to. It's dangerous. Regular dangerous."

The Dark Horse 'lands' in the lake, and nudges up to the wooden pier. A flat-bed, open-cab vehicle arrives from the airbase, driven by Lacci and with Vasha at her side. No doubt to help unload things.

Tasha gestures towards the display and her other self. "By the way, there's four of me now. I'm still the main one and -- not to be too modest here -- but cutest and most impressive, but there's four of me now. The Vartan beside Lacci is Vasha." Tasha unstraps and retracts her chair, then hops out. "Well lets go unload. Gabriel, how about some time off for Moka and Kaa, if the lake is ready?"

"Did you pack lots of jerky?" Kai asks Tasha after the unloading and stowing has been done, and Sharon and Sasha have clothes of their own. "I'm not sure it's safe for you to eat faerie food."

"I might become even more unstable and whimsical, and I don't think any of us can handle more of that," Tasha agrees. So she walks over and bends down to pat a craete of food bars. "I ahve better! Galactic survival rations, balanced for your survival, and in five funtastic flavors. All mediocre."

The crate pops open, and Reeka looks up out of it, with several food bar wrappers in her lap. "I found you!" she says, then leaps out of the box and runs off.

Tasha, who had her hands up, let her hands fall and peers in to the box to see if she has any left. "This is the kind of mystical craziness we have back home."

"Aww, I almost had a new fur rug. Well, mission isn't disrupted. We can proceed." The crate gets closed -- and locked, not that it will help any -- and Tasha turns to Lacci and Vasha. "So here's Vasha. The Human is Sharon, and the male Karnor is Sasha. You're welcome to interact with them as much as you want. Short of massive betrayal or attempted non-localized suicide, I don't have any problems with anything." And she leaves it at that as she turns back to Kai.

"Yes and yes." Tasha walks to a leather bag which adfter being removed reveals a sword tip and the handle of a strangely long whip, to the point of almost seeming impractical. "My armor's in here too in case 'high fantasy' is the right look for this."

"I also have a gun!" Tasha makes finger gun shoot motions at various random objects.

"Anything that makes you harder to chew is good," Kai says. "And I've got gold."

"I have a bag of mixed modern gems and gold as well, in the same bag as the rest." Tasha pats the bag, then slings it over her shoulder. "It's been a while since I used a real sword. Anything else we need?"

"Luck, mostly," Kai says. "I haven't checked where the caves go yet, so we'll need to see where they lead."

"I hope we meet Wolf again." Tasha looks around a moment, then nods to the pile. "We should finish loading, take a break, then we're off if no one has any objections."

Tasha gives Gabriel an exaggerated head shake in the no she won't kind of way. "Lucky for me I'm super dangerous!"

"You're going to look for a library run by a dragon," Gabriel points out. "I was under the assumption that they were generally dangerous creatures, and not cute little things like Charon."

"I mean, that's true, but so far every dragon I've met has just loved me. We have a lot lot things in common," and so Tasha starts ticking off on her fingers, "Love of shiny things, deadly anger, kind of mythological, try to do everything ourselves, often surrounded by heroes, wings, teeth, we eat a lot, we both think Charon is cute,we're very stubborn, and no on really believes we exist from stories." And so she nods. "I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Oh a lot of them hate me or want to trick, eat, or trickeat me. Especially certain elves. The rest are okay." Tasha shrugs. "It's fairyland, it's just like in the fairy tales."

"The old fairy tales were full of horror, specifically to warn against dealing with faeries," Gabriel points out. "So.. be careful. Extra careful. Avoid crossroads."

"I'm a bit fairylike myself, I know how it is. Anyway, we'll be going as straight there as possible, and after serving time in the Mentor Legion hopefully they'll know not to mess with me, at least casually." Tasha glances at Kai. "Should we avoid crossroads?"

"Well, that depends on the time of day and if you're looking for a fight," Kai notes. "The moon is almost always full out there."

"I like that. No wonder Wolf is so strong. I've never even seen Terra's moon and still I feel it. Might be Nora, though." Tasha then looks around, and then claps her hands. "Welp! Lets get this stuff packed away, take a rest, and we're off."

The nearest cave is behind the base. It's not quite natural, as the entry is made of two bluestone pillars and a dolman across the top, with strange symbols carved into them. "No depictions of tentacles," Kai notes. "Should be safe enough."

"Do you know what the language is, and says?" Tasha asks as she stares at what she assumes is a sign. She's dressed in her full leather armor kit, but has a modern cloak thrown over it made of very cut resistance materials, which is actually just anti-spalling cloth cut to fit. Her sword and whip are at her side, her gun is under her arm, with a satchel at the wasit and bag between her wings to be safe. her booties are work booties, rated fro hazard, and so are her gloves. "Did elves give straight answers to each other?"

"Eh, it's old so may not be a language," Kai says. "Elf lords liked to be pretentious, so a lot of their stuff is meant to 'look neat' rather than be practical. This entry looks pretentious. Only way to see where it goes is to.. go."

"I guess wealthy people are the same everywhere," Tasha remarks, shrugging. She then starts off in to the cave, hand on her sword hilt. Just in case.

The cave is dark at first, then eerily lit with green veins in the rock, then dark again before they exit. This puts them on a sort of sandbar in a river, with the 'cave' being in the side of a large boulder. There are lots of willow trees, and they have odd glows moving through their branches in the twilight. "You don't want to mess with willows," Kai says ominously.

"I really don't." Willows, she has always thought, are somber plants. They look like they're morning something, but in a regal, plant-like way. Regal, somber, and mourning are not traits she wants to mess with in a planet, and the fairy wilderness seems to take such things to extremes. "We'll just leave the majestic and gentle trees alone. Where to next?"

"We try another cave," Kai says. "You never want to be in a willow-world at night. This was just the closest one. Might have been a nice place before the willows got here."

"So, what do they do, and can you tell me in a way that won't offend and aggravate them?" Tasha follows Kai, and sticks to her. Of the pair she's the more powerful and traveled, and Tasha sisn't sure she could find her way back without her.

"Well, they're like cosmic monster parasites," Kai says as they return through the cave. "The Unnamed are attracted to them, and worse things. Things that change people if they don't eat them instead. We're blocking this cave up, so they can't come through."

"So they lure in big dangerous things an eat them? And what comes, is worse. I imagine you and I are potentially on their menu, too, even if we're relatively small meals." Tasha hurries along, eager to get away from the strangely quiet, deadly dangerous forest. "Is it just the willows? Are they sentient?"

"They're.. symbiotic, I think. They move around when you aren't looking." Once they're back in the valley, Kai.. makes the cave go away. Even the entry stones. "Next one should be near the old standing stones. We can fly."

"I feel like I should write this down." And so Tasha does, pulling out a little notebook and writing notes about the willows. "There. Alright. Flying time." And so she nods in the direction they're going and starts that way.

The second cave they try is long and twisty and dark, but eventually turned upwards into an odd structure of overlapping stone slabs. From there, with a bit of rock pushing to clear the entry, the pairs finds themselves outside of a barrow surrounded by forest. The sun is high (although it could be stuck there) and the air is warm and a bit moist. "This looks more promising," Kai notes, as she looks for any obvious paths. "Never fly over a forest though," she warns.

"I assumed that was the case, fae creatures are bound to have any number of weird abilities, and forests are just vertical alleyways." Tasha looks around, the notes the barrow they seem to have departed for. "Some kind of burial place? Out here? Or maybe something like the buried idea of something, a conceptual place?"

"It's traditional," Kai explains, and selects a likely path. "The way into the otherworld was often through barrows, burial or otherwise. It's where the faeries get the name Sidhe." She pronounces it like 'sheed', and notes, "That's then of the hills the entries were believed to be in. Another name for this realm is under-the-hill, or Underhill."

"Oh. We have myths like that back home. I grew up on a terrestrial world a little like this, although most of the caves I saw throughout my life were very far from the underworld." The first among the red women peers around some more, nodding. "I guess I can see it. Spooky cave, leads down, some people bury the dead in the ground, and weird stuff is in the ground."

"Wait, does that means this one actually leads to the afterlife?" Tasha turns to eye the cave again. "Not that either of us seem to have much use for that."

"Well, there are probably some versions of legendary afterlives out there," Kai suggests. "There are no bounds on this realm, and others than the fae have carved out pieces of it for themselves. The Dreamlands and the Dragonlands are fairly unique though, different from the fae realms, which can be small and personal or large and populous."

"That sounds very useful. It's like it's another universe that can contain and bud off further universes. Primal chaos." Tasha follows after Kai as she continues to look around, having accepted, if not gotten exactly used to, the idea of infinities of different sizes. "Why are the Dreamlands and Dragonlands so unique?"

"Their origins are lost, and they aren't so malleable," Kai explains, then pauses to look up into the branches of a tall tree. "They're more real, I suppose you could say, despite both being linked to dreams. More memetic if you will. Watch out for spider webs."

"Spiders are bad no matter where you are," Tasha agrees. Getting spider webs out of feathers and hair is something she does not want to have to do again, the stables could be full of their analogues. "Real, but linked to dream. Like an anchor that keeps them from becoming a reality like where I come from, that and the memetic part. I remember visiting a world inside the Dreamlands that had a city that really liked cats. It's a shame I didn't stay long."

"The Dreamlands have a lot of rules for visitors, especially those touring in the flesh," Kai says. "Hopefully it hasn't been too churned up by now." She also looks over at Tasha, and says, "We should get some training in while we walk."

"You want I should beat up them spiders?" The line is a (bad) paraphrase from a Abaddonian radio drama Tasha liked to listen to, full of gravely voiced Humans (and their Karnor sidekicks) often solving crimes, or causing them. "Or am I doing magic?"

"First comes breathing," Kai says. "But I don't want to walk you through it, so come closer." She waves Tasha over while also making a spinning gesture to get her to turn around.

"No hugging, I'm fragile." Tasha walks over, eyes Kai, then slowly turns around while keeping an eye on their surroundings while Kai is distracted. "And no tickling."

Human fingers brush through Tasha's hair, then make contact with her interface studs. There's something like a mild static shock, and then Tasha is.. breathing differently. Vartans have big lungs, naturally, but Tasha has seldom breathed so deeply. It's like flying at high altitude where the air is thin, only the she's doing it where the air isn't thin, so at first it makes her feel slightly drunk.

"There, breathing from your stomach is key," Kai notes. It feels like she's breathing down to her tailbone though.

Tasha can't comment what with all the deep breathing, so instead she glances back and gives a thumbs up.

"Let me know when you feel clear headed again," Kai says. "But be warned: there's such a thing as being too clear headed. For now though we can pick up the pace." And with that she breaks into a jog.

Tasha assumes this means she can breath again, but makes sure to memorize the breathing steps so that she can replicate them in the future. Once she's back to normal she says as much, adding, "No one has ever accused me of being too clear headed." And then she starts jogging as well, having to move her legs a bit more to keep up. "Do I need to do the breathing now?"

"New breathing, got it." Gabriel is going to look at her funny, but that's how it goes. She's already learned to layer Blue around her brain, she suspects breathing deeper won't be quite as arcane. "Annnd done."

Tasha also breaks in to a run, although she's not nearly so graceful, nor so good at it. She's not bad, but when you can fly rapid locomotion tends to default to that; running is for short bursts, narrow places, and is an ancillary rather than a primary mode, as it is for Humans.

To further complicate the act, Tasha has to focus on keeping her wings from spreading reflexively for take-off. Especially with trees to either side. So it comes as a surprise when she's suddenly out in the open, on grass. There's a an open field, which is apparently part of a farm. There are sheep, which are like Rug'rhats if they were made into stuffed toys. A primitive looking barn and a hovel are there, as well as something like a short fence that is in a straight line and not very long that doesn't actually fence in anything.

"I. Don't. Trust. Any. Of. This," Tasha pants as she jogs along. The Rug'rhats are very cute, which may as well be 'incredibly dangerous' written all over them, here in the fae lands. The farm is equally suspect, and too sedate, lacking any real defenses despite the horrors of the the strange wild reality.

"Hmm, telling," Kai says, and immediately heads for the farmstead. "You shouldn't be panting. It means you still need more breathing practice."

"I probably need more breathing practice," Tasha agrees. She's still not entirely sued to this body, nor her cloven hooves and shorter, lighter gait. It's probably making this harder, she decides. Still she follows to the barn, reservations on breathing and idyll barns not withstanding.

The barn has a stable in. There is a large horse, that is outside of it, standing in the middle of the barn and staring at Tasha and Kai. There's a fancy looking saddle and barding piled up rather haphazardly in one corner.

"I bet that horse can talk," Tasha asides, while she eyes the horse. "I've seen them before! We have horse-people where I come from, so when I saw my first original-horse, the four legged kind, it was very unsettling. The same was true for seeing wolves for the first time. Also, that bridle is fancy! And these pens are awful! That means whoever lives here has little fear -- and that is concerning!"

"Most horses don't talk, but maybe this one does," Tasha says, a bit huffily. She slows from run to jog, and approaches the horse. "Hello probably-a-horse! Are you a talking horse?"

The horse stares at Tasha. Horses always look a bit insane when they do that. It clacks its teeth loudly, but doesn't talk or nod or anything.

"Well that's a bit disappointing. Are we going to try the house?" Tasha glances at Kai, but never quite takes her eyes off the horse. She's worked with enough large animals to know that's never a good idea, and she has -- or had -- the scars to show it.

"Yes, perhaps there is a talking badger in there or something," Kai suggests. "Be careful, that's a warhorse. Probably killed hundreds of bipeds in battle."

"Oh of course, I mean, look at this place. This is where a warrior-god goes to retire," Tasha points out, gesturing widely. "I mena, look at that fence, look at all this laying around. This screams 'I'm not afraid of you and I'm both capable enough to keep living like this and strong enough to protect it'." And so she jogs from horse to house. "I'm going to knock!" And so she does that too.

The door swings open at the knock, and there's snoring inside. There's no artificial light, so what light there is come from holes in the thatched roof. "I don't think that's a fence," Kai says. "Pretty sure it's a list."

"A list? A list of what? Go check it out," Tasha suggests, then she just starts knocking on the doorframe instead.

There a growl of sorts from inside, but the snoring stops. "Godsdammit I'm not in the mood, feed yerself," the growler claims, just before a dagger flies out of the darkness and embeds itself in the doorframe near where Tasha was knocking.

"Ooo free dragger, also, free food. Okay," Tasha tries to pull the dagger out, planting a hoof against the frame and calling out, "He says we can feed ourself!"

"Don't eat anything!" Kai calls back as she heads for the hovel. "I know where we are now."

"You do?" Tasha pushes with leg and pulls with hand until she wrenches the dagger free, then takes the time to look at it as she steps away from the house, closing the door with her tail as she goes. "Where are we anyway?"

"Lyonesse," Kai says. "Sort of faerie-adjacent, part of the Undying Lands." She looks at the dagger, and notes, "Good, we'll need that."

"Hopefully not in a destructive way, it's a neat souvenir." Tasha tucks it away next to her sword, patting the weapon. "Well, off we go then?"

Tasha reluctantly hands over the dagger. "Back when I worked as a tavern wench, I'd keep things that were thrown at me. Sometimes, things that weren't."

Kai checks the hilt. "Sir Percival, I think." She then whispers to the blade, "In the name of the once and future king," while laying it flat on her palm. The dagger starts to turn on its own, until it stops pointing more or less along the direction they were headed anyway.

"A knight, then. The knights I remember back home were a lot more tidy. And, well, mostly dog-people or people in scary armor." Tasha gazes out across the way at where the dagger points and while navigation by dagger is new, she's long past questioning such things. "That way then. Well, lets get going before he misses the thing."

"Lyonesse is a land of warriors," Kai says as the walk past the farm towards another woodland. "Always training for the day their king calls them to battle. The king usually lays in eternal slumber though. Most of the warriors either get sick of endless training and battle or just get drunk off their assess all the time. The dagger will point us to Avalon, where we can hopefully take a shortcut to the Dragonlands."

"I feel like I've heard the name Avalon before. Was it a ship name? or the name of a bar somewhere? Maybe I've heard it in more than one place. Terran, though." Tasha picks up her pace again after stowing the dagger. She decides to give it to Gabriel, since he'll probably appreciate a dagger from the land of warriors.

"Mystical land of lesbian witches, the fates, some faeries.." Kai rattles off. "And magic swords."

"Most of those sound great. I bet Katie would appreciate a land of lesbian witches," Tasha remarks, grinning. Her tail wags, then gets handed the dagger because she's been curious if she can do that. "I kind of do, too. And the magic swords. You can't really have enough different kinds of magic swords."

"Say that when they're being lobbed at you along with a destiny that never ends well," Kai, and starts jogging. "Breeeeathe!" she calls back.

Tasha laughs at that. "Like I'm unfamiliar with cursed swords with brutal attachments," she notes. She then checks her breathing and she's off with Kai down the way.

The path through the woods is more worn and wide enough for a cart. "The fey are very big on paths," Kai explains along the way. "It's why we can't just fly. As soon as you leave the designated route, you get lost. I think it's just to make it harder for armies to get around easily." So far, the woman's appearance has been changing subtly. Her ears are pointier and her build has become a bit more slender. It's the cat-slit pupils though that make the strongest impression. "These woods are always full of monsters for the knights to slay too. And unicorns. They're the worst."

"It seems like they like repetition, and a certain sense of rote and pageantry. Even with access to so much they don't seem very different from the legends across worlds. Maybe they're timeless, so change can't happen?" Tasha has remained the same except for the extra breathing and her souvineer knife -- or souvinife as she has started to refer to it internally. This of course means all of her makes an impression. "Maybe I should get in to slaying things. It's probably good practice. I'm sure the woods have a lot to slay. And what's wrong with unicorns? Are they highly-placed officials out here, too?"

"They're stuck up, certainly," Kai notes. "And they'll stick you up too. The legend goes that they can only be approached by innocence. Anything else they straight up murder. I have no idea how they wash the blood out of their fur. I suspect they just gather together to lick it off of one another. As for repetition, yeah.. that's typical. Myth and magic are very dependent on stories. The Lore. Plus they're ancient and crotchety, so change bothers them."

"Makes sense. I wonder if I'll be like that some day. Right now, I'm young and excitable." And so Tasha lifts her arms more and goes from walk to strut, strutting down the way. "And if any unicorn messes with us, well, I guess I'll have another souvineer."

"It wasn't easy getting one's horn," Kai notes. The road seems to be widening, and they reach a crossroad while still in the forest. An armored figure stands in the center of it. The armor seems too clean and shiny, with lots of gold inlay and even some gems here and then, especially on the pommel and grip of the broadsword.

"I guess they're more dangerous than they look?" Tasha eyes the man as they approach, giving Kai a sidelong glance shortly after. "Some sort of shiny fancyman crossroads knight? Do we have to fight him?"

"It's not even close to midnight.." Kai notes, then thinks about it. "I assume there's night here. Knights come out at night. Just try to ignore him."

And so Tasha resumes strutting. "At least the weather's nice. I wasn't expecting some warrior-heaven to have nice weather, I was expecting, hmm, like snowstorms. And rain. Fire from the skies. Maybe lava here and there. And mud. You know, strife."

The knight clears his through, which echoes in the helmet as they try to pass by. "'Tis dangerous for wenches to travel unescorted through the Tulgy Woods," he bellows. Unless it's just the acoustics of the helmet.

"How did he know I used to be a bar wench?" Tasha asks Kai, ears going up and head tilting in that canine way. "Besides, aren't we the dangerous ones? Maybe he should escort the monsters." The knight does get a little wave though, it feels rude to Tasha to ignore him completely, especially since he seemed to want to help.

"Eh," Kai goes, and tells the knight, "Yes, and we will be sure to tell any we come across. As you can see, my friend here is a.. gryphon-wolf. Well known for being able to chase anything up a tree. Because of the wings you see."

The helmet turns a bit to face Tasha some more. It's very shiny. But also too shiny. It feels fake.

"I'm also extremely bitey, and not every wench is safe around me," Tasha adds. She's about to say more when she get stunned by the glare -- and then disappointed by how fake it ends up seeming. She tries to poke it.

"What ho, beasty!" the knight reacts to the poke attempt. Part of this reaction is to raise up the fancy looking broadsword. "I cannot abide one who claims to be a danger to delicate maidens. And wenches."

"Dangerous in the fun way, not the murder way," Tasha insists, but she does hop back and shift her hands closer to her weapon. "And as a actual knight, I am somewhat offended at this pretentious and ineffective display of shiny armor. We.. gryphon-wolves are well tuned to a proper shine."

"You know, um, what's a old-timey fantasy word for.. Oh! Debauchery. Less so now, but more so before. Maybe a lot more so soon, because I am multitudinous now." Tasha waggles her eyebrows. "So, in that sense, I am very nice to maindens, indeed. I am even on a quest to save one from an.. evil curse."

"A quest, you say?" the knight asks. He hasn't really relaxed his guard though. "What is the manner of this evil curse? And is she a fair maiden?"

"She's a pretty nerdy and slovenly maiden, but I love her, she's my best friend." Tasha hasn't dropped her guard either, and if anything seems to have experience being a smartass in tense situations. Some faux-shiny knight isn't going to get the drop on her. "Curse is, uh, servant of ancient worlds-spanning evil. You know, dark gods, demons, that kind of thing. Orderly devils."

"Not a witch or a sorcerer then?" the knight asks, sounding a bit disappointed.

"Be not so dismissive, elf-wench," the knight says, back to bellowing again. "Such things are of grave import and significance."

"They really are. Actually, she's right though, about the dragon and the thing and saving the wench. All very important. So thank you for your time Sir Crossroads, we shall be off to attend our great duty, and you to yours, and fair thee well." Tasha tips her hed, but doesn't remove her eyes, and slowly begins to back away in the direction Kai had been doing. "Good luck on.. what you were doing!"

"Elf-wench," Kai mutters. "You're an elf knight, obviously. Looking to challenge warriors at a crossroads. Under the full.. sun."

The knight doesn't move to stop them from backing away, though he seems like he wants to.

"He probably made a vow, and is stuck there until a worthy opponent or quest comes along," Kai says. "Let me see that dagger again."

"That sounds rough," Tasha admits, handing over the dagger. "I know how burdensome taking on a job too big for you can be, especially once you realize you're stuck with it."

"Probably got tricked into by his drinking buddies," Kai notes, and does her little trick with dagger. It points down one of the roads, so she hands it back to Tasha and heads in that direction.

Tasha follows after, tucking the dagger away as she goes. "I'm glad my drinking buddies are a lot more trustworthy. Besides, if I get in too much trouble everyone else has to do what I do, and no one wants to do that. Tia thinks she can replace me, but I wonder." And so she shakes her head. "Oh well, at least the walk is nice."

"Replace you?" Kai asks. "That seems a bit bold for her." The path actually narrows, but the trees become more regularly spaced while still seeming wild.

"Very bold. She's mentioned it several times. I'm not even sure why. To protect me? Because she believes in what I'm doing?" After they're well away from the knight, Tasha adds, "Or, as I suspect, she sees me as an early-stage, replacement, Kainudy, and wants to walk in her mother's shoes. Or, since I'm Kainudy's student, use being me to get closer to her. Whatever the case it's at odds with her goals and her choices. Being me means having to do violence, and decide on violence, and it's like the opposite of what she wants. You know she even told me I'm just like her?" Tasha throws her hands up in a shrug. "How did I get in to this, anyway?"

"Didn't you fall down into a pit of snakes or something?" Kai asks, then turns and walk backwards. "Or, you could still be in the recover tank."

"I had my soul chewed on for a while and went on a rampage. And yeah, maybe. I stopped asking that question a long time ago, I just base how I proceed on the evidence around me," Tasha answers, shrugging again. "So what's up with Tia? I know she's mad I stabbed her, but I feel like there's more to it, like I'm a surrogate for Kainudy on some level."

"She's a weird kid that tried to grow up too fast and ended up not really growing up at all," Kai claims, waving a hand. There are hissing noises coming for the very orderly forest to either side of them.

"Yeah, I keep thinking of her as being little-sister like despite her being far older and bigger than I have ever been. Maybe I should go easier on her, and stop seeing her as quite an adult. I never really meant to hurt her, but it's strangely hard to say so and say I'm sorry when she's so.. " Tasha gestures vaguely, "Bratty? Self-righteous? Something like that. Anyway, we have noises." The young woman moves her hand to her sword hilt, and her offhand to her whip. "Hissy-noises."

"Hmm, I think this is a graveyard.. of sorts," Kai says, looking at the trees. "So there are probably grave tenders. Or it could be the trees themselves."

"Time to be extra-respectful and moderately somber then?" Tasha keeps going, but doesn't remove her hands. "And does anything really die out here?"

"Well.. immortality is sort of a spectrum," Kai notes. "It can be good, or it can be horrific. Especially for half-breeds. I think that's what these trees are for. The offspring of mortals and fey, which can't be reincarnated or go to any sort of afterlife when they die. So their fey parent sticks their soul into a tree."

"Well, that's awful," Tasha says with ears back and a tone of distaste. "I hope it's a comfortable and peaceful rest, for their sake. If not, well, maybe I can destroy them."

"These were probably heroes and champions," Kai says. "The sort you usually get when gods and mortals go at it. Fey women tend to fall for mortal men a lot."

"Well, then it's awful and personal, you know, since I'm a mortal going at gods and such." Tasha wrinkles her nose at the trees as she passes, not wanting to end up like this. "Are they.. aware?"

"The trees are pretty harmless, until they drop a branch on you," Kai says. "But no reason to linger in this part."

"Yeah, lets just.. go." Tasha starts walking faster, eager to be done with this area. "I hope the next part is better."

The path starts to open up again, and Tasha can smell water up ahead. More sky becomes visible as well. "The next bit will be tricky," Kai warns.

"Smells water-tricky," Tasha remarks, sniffing and snuffling at the air. "Waterfall? Rain? Angry free floating sea?" She's eager to find out. The faewild may be many things, but it's rarely boring.

"It'll be the Lake," Kai says. Then leave the forest finally for a somewhat gravelly beach. And mist. Lots of mist. It makes it difficult to see how big the lake is, since visibility is a few yards at best across the water. "Now.. we have to find a path across it."

Tasha takes a moment to peer at the Lake. "I take it falling in is bad. Also, the mist is bad. It doesn't contain the souls of the lost or is made of childrens' tears or something, right?" There's more peering. "If there's a hidden path we could scatter beach sand to find it, or use a stick to probe. Or both, so we can backtrace."

"You really think they'd allow something like that?" Kai asks, and gestures to the water. "The mist represents the passage between life and death, the immortal and mortal realms. And so on. It's also where strange women bestow magic swords on the worthy, allegedly. We have the dagger, that should show us the way."

"I guess it'd be a bit too easy that way," Tasha agrees, but she doesn't have to sound happy about it. "I do tend to cross the line the hard way, both for others and myself." She hands the dagger back so Kai can do her thing.

"This.. will be a little more difficult," Kai notes, twirling the knife in her hand. "It was the last time. But you're technically a hero, right?"

"I've saved quite a few people and things now. I've fought monsters a demigods. Most of the time I win. A great space whale was so impressed with me she put me back together. My armors are very shiny. And actually armor." Tasha gives Kai a thumbs up. "Aside from the other stuff, I'm pretty great."

"Ah, good," Kai says. "We'll need your blood. Are you right handed or left handed? And if neither.. just pick right or left, and that's the direction we'll try."

"Right handed. And everything seems to need my blood." Tasha steps forward and holds out her right hand. "Just don't damage the body, it's basically brand new."

"Right it is, then," Kai says, pointing the dagger that way and leading down the shore. "Is it good on pancakes or something?"

"Probably not. It's just needed for a lot, even metaphorically." Tasha follows along, rolling her shoulders and stretching her wings. "Also, I've died once, so maybe it'll be easier for me to cross over."

"It's more the hero thing that's important," Kai notes. After a few hundred steps, she stops and looks back over the water. Then at the pebbles of the shore.

"It's nice to think I'm a hero. I try very hard, so being recognized is gratifying sometimes." Tasha watches Kai look back and forth, then looks back and forth herself. "See something?"

"No, which is good in this case," Kai says, and turns to Tasha. Her smile is a bit disturbing in the fog. "Let's go with your left hand then," she says, making come-closer motions with the hand that isn't currently holding a possibly magic dagger.

"I feel like you've had a thousand years to practice that ghoulish smile and now I'm trying not to see Kainudy do it. Is that what I look like when I decide to start destroying things?" Tasha does walk over, and only with a moment's hesitation. She sticks out her left hand. "I guess if we use your blood they'll close the door and send some bouncers?"

"I don't qualify as a hero," Kai notes. "And it wouldn't matter, because I can just walk on the water, but you need to step in your own blood." She then almost casually runs the blade across Tasha's unfurred palm. It's not a scratch, either, she really tries to coat the blade in Tasha's blood. And humms a bit while she does it, as if she were making a sandwich or something. At least the blade is sharp enough that it doesn't really hurt. Then she turns and flicks the blood off of the knife onto the water. It spreads out but doesn't just dilute into nothing. It makes something like a red lily-pad. "Ah, promising!" Kai says, nodding.

"OW," goes Tasha, who over-enunciates the whole thing. She's already digging out a medical kit with her right hand while Kai is busy making pond art with her blood. "I see why what with the painful stabbing of friends and such. I'll just bandage that after you're done." She wrinkles her nose, but does at least wait patiently, even if she wants to punch Kai while doing so.

"Oh, don't, you'll need the blood," Kai says, and offers the dagger back. "You have to walk on it."

"Stupid heroic trials," Tasha grumbles. She tucks the small medkit between her breasts and then starts walking towards the water with her left hand out, frowning a very intense frown. "I would like to complain this is not very heroic. Heroic blood should be spilled doing something heroic, not proving yourself to aquatic formations and making nautical art."

"Well, in the Olde Days you would have had to sacrifice an enemy or something, probably," Kai says. "But you won't run out of blood."

"See, enemy sacrifice I can do. I gave Wolf a bone. That was fun. And Wolf's great. That's a very wolf-positive sort of sacrifice. I should ask him for a tooth or a lock of fur or something and carry it around." Tasha reaches the edge of the water and gently prods a blood lilly with a cloven hoof. "So my blood is being magically sustained? If we wanted to be really obnoxious we could just get blood everywhere, couldn't we?"

"Oh no, you're definitely using it up, but you shouldn't pass out before reaching the shore of Avalon," Kai claims.

Tasha tsks. "Another bloody fun day idea lost before it began. Well lets get going before you have to use me as a raft to get there." And so Tasha hops on the blood lilly.

Kai is right behind her, stepping in the same places. "Thoth didn't complain this much," she notes.

"Thoth's an energy in a bird suit and thousands of years old, if not more. I have the power of youth, I have so much energy to complain. Let me see, what else can I complain about.. oh I know!" And so begins the journey of Tasha across lilies as she complains about each and everything she can think of; if she has to bleed by the hand, Kai can bleed by the ears, or so she thinks and so it amuses and distracts her.

She does feel a bit dizzy by the time she sets hoof on solid (well, pebbly) ground again. "If you'd been doing your breathing exercises you'd probably feel better," Kai notes.

"I was doing them. It just takes a lot of breath to complain that much. I do feel better though! Wheee-- ..ooh." Tasha stumbles, clutches her head, and shakes it out. She then plops right down and begins doing first aid on her hand. "And you know how I know how to do this? Sasha knows how to do this, so now I do, too. He can now also complain as well as I can, we all can, so let that sink in."

The fog is still thick around them, but does seem to be thinning out some. "Now we just wait for your.. greeter.. to show up," Kai says. "It can't go worse than when Thoth arrived."

"Wow, what sort of sour faced wizard types did he get? I like Thoth, but you know hwo he is sometimes. Also, his staff won't let me pet it." Tasha finishes bandaging and gives the two strands of the knot a tug with teeth and hands. "There. I should have learned to do this a long time ago, but there never seemed to be time. And I forgot."

A figure is approaching through the clearing mist. Tall, with a lot of darkness and some paleness. When it's close enough, Tasha sees a tall, thin woman. She has raven hair and eyes just as dark. The hair frames her face, and falls across a cloak of black feathers. Her lips are also black, and her hands and the rest of her are hidden within the cloak. Her movements are sharp though, as she looks at Kai, and says, "Ersbet. Is this another lost demigod?" The voice is as gravelly as the beach.

"Ah.. crap," Kai says. "It can get worse. Hello, Badb. You're looking.. less crone-like than usual."

Tasha has to scoot around on her butt to see who is coming fully after getting an over-the-shoulder look and deciding she really needs to be facing the approaching woman. She then hops up and dusts herself off, then tilts her head. "She has good taste in cloaks at least. Badb. I don't know that name." Tasha's head tilts the other way. She's met a lot of strange old crones lately, what with the very green one that hated Thotep, Kainudy, Kai might count, and she'd add Nora but only if Nora could hear it, otherwise it's no fun.

Tasha then suddenly blinks. "Wait, am I a demigod, now?" Her tail twitches and she frowns. "Did I get upgraded without looking?"

The tall woman is on Tasha in a blink, and pulling her left hand up so she can smell the blood. Her nose is a bit beaky. "I smell a resurrection," she claims, and turns her head slightly while hunching over to get a closer look at Tasha's face.

"So another part-bird person. That's alway nic-- WAH CLOSE," goes Tasha when Badb appears next to her. Her tail goes up and she starts, eyes wide, ears up, and tail too. Her hand twitches for her weapon but she stops it before instinct goes too far. Instead she tries to calm herself, allowing herself to be inspected. "More like.. the fast crow." It's a little lame.

The tall woman smells of blood and ashes. "Ah, before you go too far, she's not a candidate or anything," Kai interjects. "We're just passing through. Need to get to the Great Divide, and on to the Dragon Lands.."

Badb lets go of Tasha's hand and steps back, but her too-big, black eyes narrow a bit. "I don't like her scent," she says. "What is really going on, Elsbet? The Great Divide is in revolution. I feel the pull, the urge to sow chaos among the combatants. But I doubt they would notice."

"A candidate? For what? Mayor of Avalon? Not more politics," Tasha complains, she even gives Kai a look when she complains, because she knows. As for the smell, she finds she doesn't really mind it, it's a familiar enough smell by now. She is much less okay with hearing her scent is not approved of. "I did wash, and my shampoo smells like strawberries. But you probably mean something else, something more metaphysical. I'll just be quiet now and.. over here." She does, indeed, move away and over there to watch. At a distance. Not that she thinks it will help.

Badb and Kai appear to be in a staring contest. "So what's got the Divide in a twist?" Kai asks in a flat tone. "The Harlot has laid claim to the vacant throne," Badb replies in just as flat, if harsher sounding a tone.

"Not our problem," Kai claims, and gestures back the way Badb came. "Just. Passing. Through."

Tasha's ears shoot up at the mention of The Harlot again; it could mean Kainudy won, or at least The Harlot somehow came away from things with an advantage. Then again Tasha knows the Harlot was in the Dreamlands, so why is she now in the Great Divide? Unless they're the same, and she doesn't know it. She almost agrees with Kai, but then changes her mind at the lasts second, "The Harlot, did she claim this.. thone.. suddenly? Like she gained a great deal of power, or a powerful ally, recently? Is it related to the Dreamlands at all?"

Badb turns her head sharply to Tasha. It's wonder her neck doesn't snap from it, thin as it appears. "The Queen of Demise has awakened.. and vanished, along with the Crawling Chaos. If either returns, the Harlot's claim may be disputed. But her claim is already challenged, for the nightmare lords and old gods of the Dreamlands are without end."

"Vanished.." Tasha lets out an exhale, reaching up to run her hand through her hair and scratch at the back of her neck. The gesture doens't belong to her, or any of her, but all of her, a confused mess as she processes this new information. "What do I make of 'vanished'..? Were there.. Did anyone else come with The Harlot? Were there any other survivors? Or.. losses?"

"Hmmph," Badb snorts. "The Harlot has her own army, and they are all that fight for her. Were you expecting someone?" The war goddess is right up in Tasha's face again. "The Queen of Demise has no subjects, and the Crawling Chaos needs no army. They are not fighting in the Dreamlands, which is scant relief to the inhabitants at this time."

"The big bad god of madness versus the walking extinction event," Kai comments. "Yeah, they'd go somewhere else to fight."

"I'm looking for three, maybe four beings. Two demigods with avian forms, an avian-like man with black feathers and, um, maybe gold pants. And a large moving statue in the shame of a bird," Tasha explains, deciding saving people is more important than secrets right now. "Maybe they.. went where ever the big two went."

"The Dreamlands are likely full of such beings.. wait," Badb says, and turns her head slowly towards Kai. "An avian demigod? Elsbet.. what do you know?"

Tasha is silent, but she does give Kai and apologetic and rather sheepish shrug of her shoulders; it was important to ask.

"I brought one demigod through here!" Kai says, raising her hands in the air. "One! Am I now the source for all demigod news?"

"I'd think there'd be more," Tasha agrees, in the hopes it diverts the subject matter.

"You brought the Demigod of Knowledge, Elsbet," Badb notes. "And shortly thereafter, a war such as has never been seen before breaks out, and you vanish. Where have you been for the last thousand years?"

"Wait, what?" Tasha perks her ears and frowns, turning to look at Kai as well. She knew she brought Thoth through here, but not about the war, unless time has synced up strangely between Kainudy's universe, her own, and whatever is going on in the Great Divide -- whatever that is like. "

"Away from the biggest, ugliest war ever, that's where," Kai claims. "I'm not one of the Tuatha de Danaan. I'm just a regular elf."

Badb turns back to Tasha, though seems less harsh in her expression. "You are not trying to be an Eidolon then? What are you seeking in the Dragon Lands, why have you attached yourself to.. this poor excuse for a guide?"

"It's not war related, so why should you care?" Kai says to the back of Badb's head, but the crone doesn't turn away from Tasha.

Tasha blinks when faced again, fast at Badb is. It reminds her of zero frame difference sin video feeds. "Me? I don't even know what an Eidolon is. I'm just dealing with my own problems and I need to go where I'm going to handle them. This," she makes a circle motion with a finger and her tail mimics it, ".. isn't my territory. I'm just an outsider that needs something in the Dragon Lands."

"As for her, well, I've gotten this far, so she can't be that bad of a guide," Tasha adds, of Kai. "A guide takes you where you want to go, and it's not like a lot of other beings are lining up, you know?"

"Hmm," Badb says. "You are not a soldier, not a king, not.." The beaked nose takes another deep sniff of Tasha. "There's an old scent to you.. nearly gone.."

"I have a lot of old scents. This is also a bit rude," Tasha insists, and very carefully, and deliberately without moving quickly, she tries to push Badb's nose away from her. "You are being very.. nosy."

"Past lives don't count, those are the rules," Kai claims quickly. "I need to get some food into her to make up for the blood-loss, since you won't allow boats. And I know where to take her to get food that safe for her to eat. So I know you're probably bored because you can't go play in the latest stupid war, but we're on a schedule."

"I could start complaining about things endlessly, Kai really enjoyed that, and you probably would too," Tasha offers, helpfully. Her tail even wags. "It's even easier when I'm dizzy."

"I don't trust you, Ersbet," Badb says to Kai, but then straightens up and wanders back into the mist.

"Gods are so unpleasant," Kai claims, and takes Tasha by the arm to help steady her. "The city is this way.."

"Thanks," goes Tasha, who realizes by this point she really is dizzy and so the remark comes off especially grateful, even if she intended some smartassery. As they walk, she asks, "So Badb is a god? I definitely got the 'this woman can beat me up in a million different ways' feeling from her. I liked that she is part bird. It was kind of nostalgic. Wow, I could use a burger."

"One of the Tuatha, the old fey gods," Kai says. The mist clears, but things still seem out of focus. Then Tasha feels paving under her hooves, and things are suddenly brighter. Her first taste of culture shock happened when she arrived in Dianus, the too-clean city of marble. Now she's amid more marble, and gold and other materials she can't name, with tall slender towers of ivory and spun glass. Avalon is something out of a dream or fairy tale. Impossible architecture, and everything having a very feminine feel to it. Except for the statues, which all seem to be of men (at least the humanoid ones). The sound of fountains and wind-chimes or glass bells seems fill the air, along with the scent of flowers.

Tasha is silent for a long moment, then admits, "I think I passed out already." She tries sniffing things to see if it confirms either way, and she further decides if she has passed out her tastes and sophistication have improved greatly, which is probably good. And that's nice. "This place is nice. It's very smooth. My ears are ringing."

"It's the music," Kai says. There are people beginning to gather, at a distance. Tall elfin women, short.. also elfin women. Things that are well dressed but not particularly elfin. Goblins? They're all too pretty and shiny. Kai lets Tasha sit at the edge of a fountain, and goes to try and shoo away the onlookers. "No portents! No fates! No prophecies! And if I see one stupid sword stuck into something like a stone or a giant's hand or a dragon's ass I will take a hammer and chisel to this place!"

Tasha takes the opportunity to lay down along the fountain's lip, cat-like. Maybe if they think she's a cat or a pet they'll leave her alone. The last portent she received showed a massive pile of dead her and caused her old lover to go insane, so she'll pass on those. She probably already fulfilled some prophecies. She needs more food to be sure. She thinks about taking a nap but decides it's probably not a good idea, she could fall in the fountain, or maybe someone will poke her. She'll miss the food. It's really comfortable here. She likes the music.

"Hmm, wait here," Kai says, her shadow falling across Tasha. "If anyone comes to talk to you, just.. bark at them or claim to be an itinerate prostitute or whatever you normally do to make people leave you alone. I'll get you something to eat. There's a gargoyle I know that prepares mortal food. Sort of. Should still be around, that type tends to stay rooted to a place, and it's not like anything ever changes around here."

"Cargirl has food. Bark at strangers. Okay." Tasha lays her head in the crook of an arm and makes like a ball, tucking her wings in. She yawns, cavernously. "hurry back."

It isn't clear how long Tasha's nap lasts. It only feels like a moment, but it's change in warmth that rouses her. It no longer feels like the warmth of the sun.

Tasha wakes to the sudden thought she has -- or had -- food bars on her, and was about to eat one when she fell asleep. She was waiting for Kai to leave, because food bars are, of course, gross, and she wanted to try this 'mortal food' which sounded a lot like a burger of some sort. Or maybe kababs. BBQ, perhaps. She fumbles to pull out a bar and hopes she didn't wake up dead again, for lack of blood, that would be embarrassing.

The fumbling soon uncovers that Tasha is.. uncovered. She resting on a sort of flexible surface, and she can see her hair drifting a bit as if underwater. The lighting is also suggestive of being underwater, with a shimmering ring-shaped surface above her.

Oh great, another weird place to wake up. It's though in the banal sort of way, Tasha wakes up in so many strange places it's becoming routine. The first thing she's learned to do is don't panic, the second it to check her surroundings, which she does now.

The edges of the space she's in fade into darkness.. except for another lit area some distance off to her left. The surface she's resting on doesn't seem to exist, or is invisible. "You've awoken," a distorted sounding voice says from somewhere above her.

"I often do that, sometimes, I even yawn after," Tasha replies to the latest mystery voice to go with her latest mystery wakeup. "So am I captured, interrogated, merely questioned, do you not know who made me or where I come from, what I'm doing, do you like my hair, ... "

There's some distortion of the light up above, which becomes more pronounced over time. Eventually Tasha makes out a transparent elfin form. "I couldn't leave you dozing on the edge of the fountain," the figure claims.

"Oh I bet you couldn't," Tasha remarks, sensing the beginnings of real danger. "So are you going to let me out of where ever I am?" She suspects it may be Kai, but if it's not Kai, she probably shouldn't mention Kai. Not yet.

"Out where it's dry?" the figure asks. "There are heroes up there. It's dangerous. You should go to the between place, it's safer."

"The between place sounds distinctly stuck and prison-like." Tasha looks around again, frowning. She had better not have ended up in someone's collection or something. "And what's wrong with heroes?"

"They would try to rescue you, or woo you, or hunt you," the watery creature notes. "They spill things in the fountain. Sometimes they vomit."

"Those things are pretty much my everyday, you know. Am I trapped inside the fountain? Are you some kind of fountain spirit trying to eat my soul or something?" Tasha isn't sure how she feels about getting eaten by a fountain. Water sculpture had never been high on her threat list,m but she might have to update it. "And what does the in-between place get me, it sounds a lot like the afterlife, or worse."

"I am the rusalka of Avalon, but I'm not allowed to drown people," the figure explains. "Otherwise they will take away my kelpie. The between place is where the elves bathe." She then points off towards the only other place visible, the lit area in the distance.

"Are you trying to set me up with elves? Do I look elfish to you?" Tasha reaches up check and make sure she is not, in fact, elfish at the moment.

"Set you up?" the rusalka asks. "It is where your attire is, if you still need it."

Tasha does sort of need her attire. "Fine, send me to where the elves are at." She makes flapping motions of hurry and get to it, and hopes she isn't about to enter in to a bath room battle against angry, naked elves. It's probably something Gabriel would enjoy hearing about, forever, but still.

So the translucent water spirit embraces Tasha, and she's soon rushing towards the lit area. She doesn't spot any legs in the water, at least. When she breaks the surface, suddenly she feels wet. There's also a solid surface under her hooves. There's a lot of steam, and a surround bench below the water for sitting on. There are only two elf women in the chamber, which has marble columns and a sweeping open-air view of the city. She doesn't immediately see her clothing, though. The two elves stare at her. One has human-looking skin and dark hair, and the other has wooden-looking skin and green hair.

Tasha decides to try being exciting and have a flashy entrance this time; it's important to her that she try new strategies and tactics after all.

"Here I am!" Tasha slicks back her hair, arches her back, and spreads her wings. Then she flops back down on a seat and folds one leg over the other, hands going behind her head. "Just where I intended to be!"

"Who art thou?" the dark-haired one asks. Since she's naked, she can't exactly reach for a weapon.. but then maybe she can just magic one up on demand. The green-haired one is quiet still.

"It's rude to demand someone else's introduction without first offering one yourself. Themself? THYself," Tasha replies spreading her palms in a how can I deal with these people sort of hand shrug before they go behind her head again. "I'm Tasha, by the way."

"Myn," the dark one says, and the green one follows suit with, "Tea." Her voice is a bit more resonant and musical, and she actually has holes in her left arm, and uses the fingers of her right to dance across them while speaking.

"Nice to meet you. I don't usually pop in to pools of naked people, but I always hope." Tasha barks a laugh, looking around as she does so as if it were all a great amusement, when in actuality she's looking for danger, and her clothes. Soap and shampoo are also high on her list. "So together you're Myn-Tea?"

"Maybe, maybe not, I guess it depends on what side of a sword you're on and your personal beliefs. In a way, everyone's a hero." Tasha spreads her hands again. "Maybe inside, I'm my own elf."

"Heroes are not usually so glib," Myn notes. "Are you seeking a patron and a quest?"

"Oh goodness, no. No magic swords, stuck in what-have-you like a dragon's arse, no portents, no fates, no-" here Tasha wiggles her fingers in what she presumes is a magical and doom-some fashion, and may actually be that here in this world of magic, "-doom-some portents or prophecies. I have fulfilled quite enough of all of those, thank you."

"Then why are you in Avalon?" Myn asks, and approaches the bath. Tea follows a moment later.

"For the bathing of course, have you see all my fur? It attracts a lot of dirt and blood. I also heard they have mortal food, and I was hoping for a nosh. By the way, where's the soap and shampoo?" Again Tasha makes as how of looking around, and again she looks for the same things.

When the other two are in the bath, Tea whistles something and several bird-sized flying faeries fly in through the open wall, bearing flowers. The flowers are then crushed worked into their hair. Two of the creatures land on Tasha's shoulders. They look elfin but have childlike bodies and Korv legs. "You have wings," the right one says. "You have fur," the left one adds.

"Right you are.. " Tasha does not know their names. ".. One and Two! I also have a tail!" And so she sneaks her tail up and tries to playfully grab one of the little creatures, the right one.

The faerie giggles madly, and Lefty starts working flower-soap into Tasha's hair.

Tasha lets Righty go so that she can do her work, too. "See? probably harmless," she tells the elves. "By the way, have you see an obnoxious and kind of sassy red head named, uh, what was her name actually ... a bit taller, Badb gives her a hard time, seems to have a lot of clout, kind of pushy and a bit sinister ... " She had lost a lot of blood when she heard that name, and not in a way that allowed for note taking or painfully long last words.

"Dryad do not turn red-haired until Autumn," Tea says, blowing bubbles as she does for some reason.

Tasha assumes the woman must talk via her arm, musically, which is something she'es never seen before, which is neat. At the name she snap the fingers of her left hand. "That's her name. I was supposed to meet her and fell asleep, she promised me food and she has failed me utterly. Now, I am, um.. " Again she looks around. "Bathing. In anger and disappointment."

"She seems like a troublemaker and, as I said, quite sassy. But I need to find her sooner or later. After my bath, or after she storms in her looking for me. Whichever happens first, really." Tasha rolls her shoulders in a shrug.

"She ist not a proper patron," Myn says. "Always finding the most pathetic heroes. And the last time she wast here she took that boorish demigod, Thoth-Amon. He was such a nuisance. She ist a corrupting influence and best avoided. And never lend her anything."

"That sounds like her," Tasha says, trying very hard to keep smiling through the 'pathetic heroes' jab. "And like Thoth. Well, whatever, I need her right now, so I do what I must."

"What sort of curse or doom art thou suffering that you would need seek at that wretch?" Nym asks, scooting a bit further away along the bench, in case whatever Tasha may have is contagious.

Tasha barks a laugh at that, too. "Oh just some information. I have some gods to deal with and demigods to maybe-deal-with-maybe-not. They're a nuisance, and so terribly resilient. Who do they think they are? You're very lucky they can't even come to this place." She reaches out to indicate all around her. "Maybe I should look for some property here, like a nice apartment. I could use a vacation spot."

"Why aren't you at the fountain?" Tasha hears in her head. "Are you taking a BATH?"

Tasha sits up straighter suddenly, then rolls her eyes, points at her head, and makes a blah-blah-blah talking hand gesture with her left hand. "I fell asleep and the nice water rusalka took me to the baths. My clothes are here. It was this or the hero version, and this one seemed closer to real power. Also the shampoo faeries are nice."

"Mortals should not stay o'er long in this realm," Myn warns. "Else thou will not be able to return."

"I guess that's my queue to get going then. Okay faeries, you heard the darksome elf, lets speed things up, then I need some help finding my clothes." Tasha makes a chop chop double clap, then despite her urging for haste, settles in. She can be hasty when her fur is clean and her hair smells nice.

There's a dressing room adjacent to the baths, where one of the tiny faeries leads Tasha. "The lounge is through that door once you're dressed," she helpfully points out.

"You've been very helpful," Tasha tells the fairies, reaching over to gently finger pat each one on the head, one hand for each. With that done she heads in to the dressing room to find out if her clothes are, indeed, there.

They are, along with her pack, stashed neatly into a cubby. There are some velvet-looking dresses that probably belong to Myn and Tea as well.

Tasha decides to not take the dresses, since they didn't get thrown at her and the two women were relatively polite, for elves. A bit haughty, but polite. She does take her things and, after dressing, departs for the lounge.

The lounge is actually a rather large area. There are tables and chairs that look like spun glass out on the balcony, and a variety of comfortable (and not so comfortable) looking furniture inside. There are a lot of cornucopias overflowing with fruits, and platters of what might some sort of powdered jelly treats as well. It's deserted at the moment, save for a small scaly creature wearing a purple vest. It blinks double-lidded eyes when Tasha enters, then seems to focus on her wings.

"Nice vest," Tasha tells the mysterious scaly creature as she enters. She then heads for the nearest table and begins seating herself, hanging her pack on the back of the most comfortable chair of the lot. "Have you considered a fez?"

"I can't read," the reptilian notes, but gestures to a nearby harp. "I play instrument. Would you like?"

"Sure, why not?" Tasha kicks up her feet and folds her hands on the table. She is still hungry, so she pulls out a ration bar and begins unwrapping that.

As the creature begins to play something soft and dreamlike, Kai appears on the balcony, with what might be a human Titanian behind her. "There you are!" she calls, and holds up a paper bag and a large paper cup. The cup has a straw sticking out of it.

Tasha throws the bar right back in to her pack and makes a gimme motions with her hands, reaching out once her hands are free.

The bag does indeed hold food. In this case, less hamburger and more steak sandwich. But there are fried potatoes with it, and a milkshake.

It's everything Tasha hoped and dreamed. She begins to quite literally wolf the steak sandwich down, and there's even some growly-snarfing noises to drive home the point. Her teeth may be smaller and face dainty, but she can still wreak meat. She doesn't even stop to talk until the steak sandwich is done, or even drink.

Once the sandwich is demolished, she lifts a hand to greet the Human and the Faux-Elf. "Hi." This is followed by a long and obnoxious slurp of milkshake via straw.

"Try not to get abducted by faeries again," Kai says, and gestures to the man, saying, "This is.." But she doesn't get to finish before the man speaks up.

"I am Wulfgaar of Stribor, Seventh Son of a Seventh Son," he booms. "I have trekked past seven hills and seven valleys, seven lakes and seven rivers, seven forests and.."

The man has hard gray eyes and long stringy black hair, held back by a metal headband. The hilts of two swords appear over his shoulders, and his skin is nearly the same color as the leather straps that cover his chest. He's got some sort of animal-skin pants on, and furry boots.

"That guy really likes seven," Tasha tells Kai before popping a fry in her mouth, which may as well have fallen in to the void because she barely stops talking during the motion and the fry is nowhere to be seen after. "And I didn't get kidnapped, I was relocated in the interest of public safety."

"I was asleep, so I'll go with maybe." Tasha shrugs her shoulders and again ceases to exist a fry. "So who is our friend? Is he your seventh friend? On his seventh quest? Seventh random guy you asked for directions? He looks distinctly and suspiciously heroic."

"He was hanging around Gus the gargoyle's restaurant," Kai notes. "Stuck up elves and gods have a dress code or something, or just the heroes with particularly noteworthy destinies. I'm not sure Wulfgaar's people have writing yet. But look at him!" She poses her arms if presenting a statue. Wulfgaar seems confused, then makes his pecs bob up and down a bit as if it were his party trick.

"He is very impressive. I feel like I might not be meeting your standards or something," Tasha remarks, nodding slowly. "But you know I'm not big on Humans. I suppose that might change, however."

"He's not for you anyway," Kai says. "But he's very distracting, which is handy. And he needs a quest!"

"Oh, well, that explains everything." Tasha stares at Kai as she throws a wad of fries in her mouth, one of which bounces off her teeth. She leaves her mouth open until she retrieves it -- without looking away -- and tosses that in to. Then she chews, ponderingly.

"I will see Princess Tasha of the Fenrir safely across the nightmare lands to the Brass Desert," Wulfgaar claims, crossing his thick arms across his chest.

"Well now I feel extra-safe." Tasha nods approvingly. "And I also feel like I've been here before, somehow. Well, no matter. I'll take the help. And this food. When do we go? Any answer that's not 'after the food' will be rejected."

"You can't eat and walk at the same time?" Kai asks, looking disappointed. "Eat faster."

"Fiiine," goes Tasha, who slings her arm under her pack then scoops up her food so she can eat and walk. "Lead the way -- but we're getting another sandwich and fries and milkshake on the way out."

"Don't freeze your brain," Kai says, and heads back to the balcony. It extends around the apparent tower in a spiral. After taking three steps along it, Kai vanishes.

Tasha walks right along, it's not like she's new to extra-dimensional fairy pathways or anything. She suspects soon she'll find mere doors to be quaint, and wonder why anyone uses them.

Sure enough, after just starting down the ramp, Tasha finds herself suddenly at the bottom. Then Wulfgaar appears right behind her. Apparently he's been long enough to know to stop before walking into someone.

Tasha did not know that part, and is glad it didn't result in losing her lunch, one way or another. "So Avalon's pretty nice," she remarks to either or both of her traveling companions. "A shame you can't stay long."

"It's dull, but clean," Kai claims. "Way too self-serious though." She waves for Tasha to follow, and heads off down the lane. The place is not laid out logically, since faeries just can't resist twisty paths.

"Nice if you want a no-nonsense vacation, or would be, if it wasn't some kind of mortal trap. Why is that, anyway?" Tasha slurps a long milkshake slurp, ears going up for the answer.

"Nobody wants a bunch of sweaty, violence-prone men hanging around," Kai explains. "It leads to half-elves, which don't do that well in the long run, as that cemetery illustrated."

"That makes sense. But what about the women?" Tasha looks around, trying to see if she can find any mortal heroic women. "I'm hardly violence prone. Unless provoked. Or driven mad. or if you take my food. Sometimes, when woken up early."

There seem to be a lot of twists and turns to this path. It seems to be away from the main avenue though, so it isn't crowded with fortune tellers, goddesses and destiny-seekers.

"Heroines usually get visited directly by gods and such, rather than have to slog through whatever obstacles the men do," Kai says. "It makes sense, since no woman is going to waste all that time just to be given more work as a reward."

"And there are very few obvious lesbians. It wasn't Badb, was it? Was that the lesbian?" Tasha sucks on her straw and shakes her head sadly. She then nods to the point about women. "Yeah, I mean, I had things to do. A pack to protect, supplies and a cave to deal with, then a whole ruin under a mountain. The rest came along the way."

"Elven women aren't particularly romantic," Kai notes. "Well, these ones aren't. Trying to emulate their ancestors, which isn't difficult when a few of them are still kicking around the place, like Badb. She may be out of fashion at the moment though, otherwise she would have snatched up Wulf here. Part of it is an act to keep the mortal heroes from getting too familiar."

"In case we get killy?" Tasha makes a stabby-stabby motion with a fry, then pops it in her mouth. "Resent all those quests and think, hey, power is fun, and if you can skin a something and wear it's hide, can you do the same with gods and immortals?"

"Less that and more getting knocked up," Kai explains. "It doesn't do a god's image well if they get pregnant. But, at the same time, lots of Kings and wizards are born of faerie women and mortal men. The same doesn't hold true of the heroines. Some go on to become queens, but they tend to have fully mortal offspring."

"My grandsire tamed and bedded a fierce she-bear to found my lineage," Wulfgaar claims.

"How boring. I guess the men have to get something, after all. Or we have all the power." Tasha then glances at Wulfgar, pops a fry in her mouth, chews slowly, and replies, "I think my ancestors were just wolves bedding wolves, birds bedding birds, and monkies bedding monkies until one of those got smart and made the rest smart, too."

"See, he gets it. Wolf would like him." Tasha nods approvingly, reaches fir more potatoes and sees they are gone. She turns a very sad look upon Kai.

The finally reach what might be a 'back alley' of sorts. The city walls are plainer, the architecture older and less fanciful. And Tasha can smell grease.

"This also feels familiar. I partially grew up in a place like this." Tasha does have ehr shake still, so she sips that like a addict taking a dose. "I guess I'm not surprised faeries also need to feel better than other faeries. They're like smug super humans with long ears."

"Yes, but mostly they're jaded immortals who use mortals as.. I'm not sure what," Kai claims. They come to a stone structure that looks like it might have started out as a stable in ages past. But now it serves 'authentic mortal food' and 'kafe'.

There are few not-quite-hero types inside. Probably hero-adjacent squires or attendants. A lot of them have eye-patches and come in either young or grizzled. There's even a middle-aged woman. There's a stone counter, and behind that is Gus the gargoyle. He looks like a winged, stone golem with a fixed, toothy grin.

"I like this place already." Tasha walks up and puts her trash on the table, pointing down at it. "I want more of this. Maybe it a double of this. Also: hello. I'm Tasha. Also a wolf. That should explain everything."

"Some dried rations too, Gus," Kai adds, and turns to Wulfgaar. "How about you?"

"I'm decidedly a mammal, or at least, mostly one," Tasha offers apologetically. She does wonder, though, how gargoyles go at it. Slowly, she suspects.

"Chocolate chiller for me," Kai adds, and fishes out an assortment of coins and gems.

"I guess you pay a premium," the red woman notes of the gems. She then walks over to have a seat at the farthest table, just to be unpredictable.

Leaving Wulf with the task of waiting for the order, Kai goes to join Tasha. "This place doesn't have a name, but I like to call it the Sidekick Saloon," she tells Tasha. "From here Black Gate is close, and past that is the Shimmerwoods. Full of old gods and monsters, or course, to weed out any heroes not good enough to be brought through the Silver Gate."

"There sure are a lot of gates and a lot of judgments. Can I just woman at them and tell them I don't have time for them? What ever happened to proving yourself by doing something useful?" Tasha's head shakes and her arms cross.

"Heroes do heroic, legendary things," Kai points out. "Hardly useful things. And we take the Black Gate because that's the direction we want to be going. I just made up the name 'the Brass Desert' because I don't think it has a name that translates well from draconic."

"I feel like draconic is a very self important and growly language. The kind where you can refer to yourself in third person with honorifics and it sounds fine." Tasha taps her nose, the nose knows she knows. "And no wonder those elves said you came with terrible heroes, all the ones here are entertainment-only types."

"I try to find the interesting or useful ones," Kai says. "Like Thoth. He kept getting lost searching for a library, and the elves really did not like him. They aren't fond of letting other pantheons onto their turf. They treated him like a rube."

"Although really, I think it's because he was asking things they didn't know and couldn't do," Kai adds, leaning in a bit.

"he can be a little off putting at times. The serious act only goes so far, and unlike the elves, he didn't gain a refined sense of smartassry and questionable fun with age." Tasha then nods to the second point. "I can imagine feeling powerless and out of the loop doesn't appeal to people who feel on top of everything."

"Never show up an elf in their house," Kai recites. "Hide your talents, and let them do most of the work. They like to show off."

"Yeah, maybe I don't need to vacation here after all. So, what are the Shimmerwoods like? Shimmery I suspect." Tasha arches a brow; Kai knows how she likes shiny things.

"Dark and broody and full of traps, monsters and forgotten gods," Kai says, rolling one of her hands. "The usual thing. Stay on the path, don't walk over or between any carved stones. Don't whistle, don't pick flowers, don't chase after deer or women who are probably deer-women and will kick the crap out of you. Don't drink from pools. Don't bathe in them under the moonlight. Don't spit."

"I'm familiar with deer women," Tasha says in a slightly offended tone, leaning back. "So basically just follow the road and don't do anything fun. These realms remind me a lot of shops I used to get taken to early in my adventures. Don't touch anything. Get glared at."

"Oh, there's a lot of fun stuff you can do," Kai says. "You can yell, shout, taunt the monsters, sing, screw, drink, dance and read poetry."

"Most of those do sound fun," Tasha agrees. She takes in a deep breath, exhales, and leans back some more. "A bit nostalgic. Well, we can plan more once our food gets here and Wulf gets back."

Things are crowded outside of the Black Gate. A high stage has been erected amidst the sprawl of tents, beasts and supporters. A lot of the 'heroes' look to more in common with Wulfgaar than princes and knights with great destinies.

A fancily dressed elf (no doubt a High Elf, due to his or her tallness and the fancy circlet on their head) calls out, their voice magically amplified: "Hear ye, oh brave heroes. The great Lord Fael'wynn offers you a place in a great quest for the Seelee Court. The Dreamlands are in chaos, and only mortal adventurers may pass through the borderlands. The Court wishes to know the state of those tumultuous lands and to obtain information on the dread god Nyarlothotep and the apocalyptic Queen of Demise. Great honor and wealth await the brave souls who undertake this Royal Quest."

"That sounds like a sucker's quest," Tasha deadpans, even as her tail wags. Still, she finds herself interested, even if she doesn't dare raise a hand -- after all lord such-and-such may lord of the army she helped put to the sword. Rather than volunteer herself, she finds the closet hero (who isn't Wulfgar) and asks, "So, no one knows anything at all about what happened the Dread God and the Demise Dragon? It seems strange to lose track of two of the big names."

"The fey can't enter the Dreamlands, and can only go so far into the borderlands," Kai explains. "And that fancy lord up there? He's the Queen's Security Advisor. He's sweating under his glamour. He's got good reason to want to know where the Queen of Demise is. Since he's the one that conspired against Kainudy when she held his position. Turned the Court against her after the War, while she was still vulnerable. We should go along with them, so I can kill him when we reach the borderlands."

Most of the heroes in attendance seem eager for the quest, since they've likely been looked over for such in Avalon, like Wulfgaar. "What are those things the bodyguards carry?" the barbarian asks.

"Sounds good to me. Can I have his stuff afterwards? It's bound to be magical and interesting. Maybe I'll help. Was he one of the ones who planned the attack? I bet he is." Tasha puts her arms behind her head and leans back to look at this lordling. "So just go along right, join the quest?"

"Yeah, it's not like he's going to pay close attention to who signs up," Kai says. "He doesn't expect many to return after all. And those things are automatic rifles. Spelled, probably firing elf-shot bullets since they won't use iron. Like slings that fire stones very very fast one after another."

Kai slaps him on the back, and says, "Go sign up. We're your retainers, no need for us to sign anything."

"They also make loud 'pow pow' noises," Tasha adds helpfully. She makes a two gun shooting motion, then flashes Wulgar a thumbs up and a grin. "Good luck Wulf."

"Would we not then be obligated to seek out what the elf lord wants?" Wulfgaar says. "Quests are binding."

"Oh, we'll be looking for the same information anyway, no conflict," Kai claims.

"I'm generally doing that anyway, and if we find either, let me talk to them. They can be difficult." Tasha gives another thumbs up, but with her other hand.

As Wulfgaar joins the line of hopefuls, Kai looks around the other encampments. "Lord Fael'wynn brought epon," she notes, pointing out the fey horses. Compared to the mundane ones of the adventurers, they are leaner and more elegant.

"Elf horses. I suppose they must have a elf-ified version of everything. It's not nearly as amazing as, say, wolf or bird-ified everything. They're missing out." Tasha stays where she is, even here she suspects she might stand out a bit, and someone the the elves she spoke to before the battle departed with knowledge of what she looks like. Part of her is a little disappointed no one is even asking about her, but she supposes it;s hard to find out next to a chaos god and a doom dragon.

"They can travel through space," Kai notes. "It's how the elves settle other worlds. Their horse can leap to them in a single bound. They are unfortunately very devoted to their masters though."

Tasha lays her ears back. "You got me so excited to have a space horse with a warp drive and then you ruined it. Some day I'm going to figure out how to travel worlds myself in the same way. I know so many entities that can. I feel left out."

"First you need to master a few basics, especially if you want try for a contract to get access to some entity's power," Kai notes. "So for now we'll try out what it would be like to have a contract with me.. which you can't actually have because I'm technically already contracted to Kainudy for most things. But not all."

"I'm also contracted to Hasss- Mr. Yellow, probably not to Thotep. I don't think. Either of them seem like they could do it, Mr. Yellow ate a planet for me at one point. Or maybe he wanted a new one to go with Carcosa. That place is monochrome." Tasha plants a hand on her hip and leans back, scratching her nose. "And there's you too, then. How would it work?"

"I can create a link between us, similar to the ansible," Kai notes. "Or just do this," she says, and touches the back of Tasha's head (or rather the studs hidden in her hair). Tasha can now see through the glamour of the elves, and Lord Fael'wynn does indeed look nervous. She's also suddenly aware of everyone around her that holds any lascivious curiosity about her, and which ones suspect she's some sort of demon or familiar.

"Well that's handy. It's a lot easier than asking." Tasha takes the time to scan everyone she can see, both to test the power and out of sheer curiosity. "I see that once again someone suspects I'm some sort of demon. Gabriel thought that too, did you know that? When we first met. What's a familiar?"

As for lascivious thoughts, Tasha admits, "I'm a bit better at sensing what those looks mean. I mean, I used to wait a bar."

"Something conjured up by a sorcerer," Kai says. "A fake demon, generally. This sort probably cut their teeth defeating sorcerers. This is base-level psychic awareness. This how the psychic invisibility works, by targeting and suppressing others notice of you. With some tweaking, it should be able to detect cameras as well."

The assorted heroes and others aren't using any glamour, but some of them may have magic items on them. There aren't any spell casters in the immediate area, as these sort aren't the types to attract clerics and wizards to their sides.

"How did I ever get anything done without these things?" The feeling is a lot like when Tasha discovered advanced technology for the first time, learned about computers and electronics. Everything before that moment seemed terribly dull and tedious, like having hauled a cart yourself before covering dromodons. "Nice to see my sisters represented. I guess tavern wench is an entry to grand adventure on a lot of worlds. It must be the constantly changing clientèle."

"Wizards get lonely too sometimes," Kai says, nodding. "It can't all be shiny bunny princesses. While this is handy, it's still a first step. Next will be focusing empathy. It makes it a lot easier to manipulate people when you know what they're feeling."

Wulfgaar rejoins them, and the awareness effect fades when Kai takes her hand away. "Was next to last to sign," he reports. "They were only accepting fifty for some reason."

"I feel like my empathy has taken a hit. I don't know when it happened, but I went from caring about everyone and everything and wanting to save everyone to still wanting that but feeling very tired about it, and being empathetic was nice but, well, I'm tired." Tasha rolls her shoulders in a shrug. "I suppose that's what war, ultimate horror, and coming back from the grave does to someone. Always something missing and all that."

"Coming back from death usually makes people more empathetic," Kai points out. "And fifty is probably the number they think they can defeat if everyone turns on them."

Tasha turns to Wulfgar and raises an eyebrow. "Only fifty? Maybe to keep the party small, and avoid notice. Or to move fast. Or all of that. Or he just doesn't have enough coin or is cheap." She stuffs her hands in her jacket pockets and shrugs again. She glances to Kai and asks, "Really? It does? Wow, what's wrong with me then?"

"My tent is this way, we should pack it up. They want to leave as soon as possible," Wulfgaar says, and heads into the maze of activity.

Tasha follows along, taking extra big steps for some reason and trying to seem especially casual. "I mean lacci said I seemed very different. I wonder what it all means."

"You didn't recover cleanly," Kai suggests. "It's generally near-death experience that does it, whereas you were cobbled back together by a child who couldn't figure out all the puzzle pieces."

"I was definitely that. Then I had to fight again, and Mr. Yellow had to jump start me once I'd won. It was really kind of a mess." Tasha looks over at the offer and chuckles as if Kai had made a great joke. 'No, I can do that myself, thank you.'

"I wouldn't do it before the fifth date anyway," Kai claims. They reach Wulfgaar's camp, which is a dome-shaped tent covered in hides, a bit of cookware, a cold firepit, and a goose.

"We already have kids though, I suspect we're long past the dating phase. That's how it went with Gabriel and I. Just deep adventure, terror, sex, then mates. No dating." Tasha does indeed mind the goose. As a bird herself, she is familiar with the violence of feathered beings. "I'll just stay here, then."

"You never went out to dinner with him?" Kai asks. The goose hisses in warning. It's all black feathers with a splash of read on it's head and around its eyes.

Wulfgaar is very efficient at tearing down and packing everything up. He apparently doesn't have any actual supplies.

Tasha knows a demon bird when she sees one and stays well back. "Sure we did, but a lot of it was functional. Meet these people, work that out, talk to some big wigs, mostly I got ignored and he felt everything seemed quaint and backwards. To me it seemed exciting and futuristic, but also condescending. It was a strange time, but sometimes I miss it and the people.'

"Well, just about every native you meet here will be condescending if that helps," Kai says. "When they aren't trying to kill you. The road we take is notorious for leprechuans. Like your.. roving gangs of Kavis but with curses instead of small knives."

"Terrible. I will be glad when we've moved on. I almost miss the cosmic horrors," Tasha admits, nodding slowly. "At least it's pretty. A girl can only handle so much eyes, teeth, and tentacle stonework."

"It's pretty in the daylight, yes," Kai notes. Wulfgaar is packed up, and the goose leashed and muzzled. There's a general movement of the expedition members towards the forest now. One of the smaller parties are even riding on some sort of wingless, sharp-scaled dragon nearly twice the size of a dromedon. It's hauling a big covered wagon that makes lost of clattering noises.

Tasha tilts her head towards the dragon-thing. "So what's that? And is it me, or do dragons come in a a lot of different varieties? They're like the utility tool of pan-dimensional species."

"There are a lot of varieties of dragon," Kai explains. "That's a beast dragon. Basically.. just about anything can be considered a dragon, so long as it's powerful. I'm technically a dragon, I just don't look like one. So is Tia. The one we're going to see is a True Dragon, one of the semi-divine sorts."

"Wait, I'm a dragon, too? I am slightly powerful. And I have teeth, can fly, and I have scales. I used to have a powerful voice." Tasha scoots a little closer to the beast dragon to peer at it for a while. "So what makes a True Dragon a true dragin, anyway? More power?"

"I've been called a dragonslayer but I've never actually slain any dragons. I seem to end up getting along with and helping them instead. I have slain a demi-god. Or maybe an arch-demon. Demonslayer is probably more accurate," Tasha asides to Wulfgar.

"True Dragons or more like elemental avatars, and their mere presence alters the world around them," Kai explains. "You are a chimera which doesn't fit into any supernatural or fey categorization. Your original origin was supernatural though. A creation of a demigod originally, and reborn again by way of a dragon.. I'm not sure where Persephone falls on the spectrum."

The expedition has organically organized itself as necessary for the narrow road. The elves take the lead, with their retainers and guards, followed by those on foot (and the big dragon-wagon), with the mundane mounted warriors at the rear.

"I'm kind of a hodge-podge I suppose. It can be difficult figuring out who I am when what I am isn't even certain. I suppose that's the unique challenge of being both unique and the first of my kind: I have to create culture, history, identity, and definition from scratch. I'll make a note about it for later." Tasha scratches her nose, no note taking occurs; perhaps she'll do it later. "Persephone did seem very dragon, or perhaps whale. They're hard to figure out, the Waymakers. Definitely at or near the top of organic life." For her part Tasha stays near the wgaon, since it looks like it can absorb a lot of firepower, and act as cover. Besides, she's used to being near large animals, and no one messed with her when she had a ptera in tow.

"And you need to found a Holy Order of Battle Barmaids," Kai suggests. There are lot of smells coming from the heavy wagon, and people seem very intent on protecting it.

"I would not have taken you for a tavern wench," Wulfgaar notes to Tasha. But his tone doesn't make clear if he didn't think she was the type, or if he wouldn't have 'taken her' in a tavern.

"I have been thinking of founding something like a military order. We do a lot of fighting, but we never have enough people. Something for the future, maybe." Tasha leans over to snuffle at the wagon. She does pause to wink at Wulfgar. "I've been and done many things," she offers, vaguely, then returns to sniffing.

Wulfgaar raises his brows at that. Probably because 'done' is as vague as 'taken'.

There's the sent of cured and smoked meat, and also.. beer of some sort. Other scents that are unfamiliar but most likely food related.

"Food cart. Dragon food cart," Tasha declares as she returns to the group. "We have something like these back home, often made of folding wood with lots of hanging bits and bobs for meats and what-not. They'd visit the docks a lot."

"A chuck wagon?" Wulfgaar asks. "A prize to be protected. I know that the faeries can curse food."

"That is a terrible crime. Why would anyone curse food? I think the idea would bring Hakeber to faint." Tasha just shakes her head at a world where food can be cursed.

The woods to either side of the road look very inviting, with pools of sunlight between the trees, birdsong and so far no annoying insects (although there are glimpse of small figures flitting between the trees).

"Leprechauns like 'pranks' like that," Kai says. "Making food rot when it touches your lips. So if you see a big banquet table set out amid the trees, no matter how starved you are, don't take the bait. Same for frolicking nymphs, overly attractive horses, or satyrs."

Tasha knows one rule of fairyland: Anything that looks safe and inviting isn't; things that look scary and dangerous are exactly that. She suspects the only thing truly safe in fairyland are things that are average, boring, and otherwise unremarkable, largely because no self-respecting fae would find them interesting, nor craft such an illusion unless they needed something to seem plain. Even then, she suspect they'd be a bit annoyed about it. "Yep, I have fully absorbed the 'if it looks inviting run away' aspect of fairy. And if it looks scary and foreboding, it's twice as dangerous, because then they can't even be bothered to hide their raw malice. Like many demons."

"Be wary of fellow adventurers at night," Kai adds to the list. "I'll set up the glamour piercing in you when we stop to make camp."

"I've done so before, but would rather not draw that sort of attention to myself," Kai replies.

"I do both but I don't feel like it. I have a lot to think about and I need to talk to Kai. Despite my happy-go-lucky attitude, I am taking this quite seriously." Tasha gives a nod to her own seriousness, hands on her hips. "Besides Kai's right, we'd rather not draw attention."

"Alright, the others will probably do something then for entertainment," Wulfgaar says. There's several miles into the woods now, and the the light is fading above. But the forest is still being lit by other sources. Will-o-wisps, fluttering aerials, and ominous glow eyes that wink out as soon as you try to look at them.

"Nice to see all the tales weren't misleading. My world has its own magic, so many of the stories weren't allusions or ancient references to some other world, but I remember some Terran stories from my contributing components and they're a lot like this. It's like being in a museum or gallery, except the gallery is a real world and will kill you." Tasha considers making faces at the lurking eyes, but decides that would get attention by being interesting, and she'd rather not have to break out her nastier tools -- and she's not sure lesser tools would do the job against magical beings.

Soon they begin to pass tall stone markers, covered in strange symbols. As the start to get more frequent, the road widens. "Campsite ahead," Wulfgaar guesses. His height gives him a better view of the head the line.

"Some kind of magically warded travelers' location," Tasha guesses, looking to Kai for confirmation.

"They look like protective standing stones," Kai confirms. "So yeah, probably a campsite ahead."

Tasha wags her tail for her correct guess. "Well, some rest will be welcome. Passing out from lack of blood wasn't comfortable, and neither was the stone. Lucky for me I'm equipped with portable blankets."

There are horns from the head of the line, as the elves stop and begin to make camp. The others make their way into the space as well, which isn't really big enough for the entire group. "This is why the limit," Wulfgaar surmises. "May need to double up for everyone to fit."

The chuck wagon continues to the center, and the walls begin to unfold to reveal the kitchen.

"Under the cart," Tasha suggests to Kai. "It's well shielded, the cart is well defended, it will block rain, and if we have to escape we have a cart full of supplies and a dragon," Tasha suggests. "It will also be near the center. Also, we'll be near the food."

"There should be safe well for water," Wulfgaar says. He drops his pack and sets a stake to tie the goose too. "I will find that."

"Can I eat from the cart? Is it mortal-approve?" Tasha heads for the card, so she can lay her stuff under it and therefore claim that space. "It'll also be warmer!"

There's space under the wagon, but it isn't all that high off the ground, so crawling will be involved. The other groups don't seem to be in a rush to set up tents, although the elves have erected a small pavilion for Lord Fael'wynn.

"I'd assume it's safe," Kai says, and spends her time watching the other adventurers. The kitchen is still setting up, with one monkey-furred humanoid carrying a pole with several buckets off to find the water source.

Tasha hunkers down to put her bag down there, then waits for Kai. "I'll grab some food if you want to wait here. Or I can wait here and you can grab food. You know this place better than I do."

There's activity in the exposed kitchen now, but it seems to be from a cone-shaped creature with a lot of tentacles that sprout from rings along the surface. Each ring of tentacles ends in a different sort of manipulator. It also has a chef's hat atop it. There aren't any obvious eyes or other sensory organs though.

"Even here, things can change after a thousand years," Kai notes. "You go deal with food, I won't be needing any. Going to take a little walk and see who we're with."

"Food duty it is then. I'm curious what they have. I could go for a sausage.. or two. Maybe three. Or four.. " Tasha rubs her hands together and stalks off towards the line.

Tasha finds herself next to a large, stocky woman with short blonde hair and wearing a variety of furs and bits of armor. She has a heavy looking square bat or mace slung over her back. The 'chef' is doing a dozen things at once, from lighting the stove to set out ingredients and selecting various implements.

Once again Tasha feels short next to the heroes of the day. So in Galactic space, so to in fairyland. "Hi," she greets the woman, having nothing better to do at the moment than talk and wait.

The woman turns to openly examine Tasha. "You are interesting," she says. "I am Hera, daughter of.. eh. Used to be a tavern wench. You're with Wulfgaar and the elfess?"

"I am pretty interesting," Tasha agrees in a matter-of-fact way and without any modesty. "I used to be a tavern wench, too. My name is Tasha. I am indeed here with Wulfgar and the elfess."

"You seem a bit lightweight for this mob," Hera says. "So I will guess your skill." The woman really looks Tasha over now, mainly her clothes. She even sniffs. "Not fey, not demon," she eliminates. "Scout or sniper then?"

"Again with the short and small commentary," Tasha says with a marked sigh after. Her ears even wilt and her tail rattles, like one might shake a fist. "I do a little bit of everything, and I'm stronger than I look.Always learning new things, you know? There's always new obstacles and new tricks."

"You're Wulf's.. uh.. squire then?" Hera asks. "He already has a dangerous pet, so you couldn't be that. And you are not his type either. So are you actually a cursed princess then?"

"Cursed princess or princess curse, that sounds about right. Maybe I should put that on my business cards. Owner. Operator. Cursed Princess." Tasha nods, she likes the sound of it. There's a balance to it.

"So, double questing," the warrior woman says. "What's with the elf then? She with you or with him?" The chef has begun cooking things and kneading dough, while the monkey-attendant has returned with water that is soon set to boil. Another monkey person has gotten the dragon down on its side and is.. giving it a rather intimate massage. That's one way to get the loyalty of a big beast, apparently. At least, the male ones.

Tasha blinks at the dragon massage, brows going up, as she leans around the woman. Her head shakes and she leans back. "Oh, she's my guide, taking me places and meeting the faces. I think she's interested in Wulf but who knows."

"I hope she's sturdy then," Hera notes. "Words of advice: don't buy any ale. Let the men do it for you. There's only room for so many tents, so everyone will be trying to attract a tent-mate."

"I am content to find a place where I can curl up and sleep; I'm not that big on Humans. And, I'm surprisingly not in the mood, which is unusual for me." Tasha gives a who-knows sort of shrug. "I do plan a date with a platter of food, however. I might have to rethink my sleeping spot if that dragon is too frisky."

"Oh, that's probably to put it to sleep," Hera says. "You really need to worry about its gasses. It eats a lot of grass."

"Yep, time to pick a new sleeping spot. Maybe there's a tree in the circle somewhere. Or I can sleep on top of the cart." Tasha's left ear flicks, along with her tail. She looks friendly but surprisingly intent and blank at the same time.

Some food is already being set out (there must be some alien magic at work to make dough rise like that): meat pies. That food that is also its own plate, and pretty standard fare. There seem to be different varieties as well: bird based, mammal based, lizard based, and with a choice of gravies and spices (some of which may be very spicy). At the other side of the wagon, the monkey-boy is setting up a bar.

Tasha steps up to get a lizard and a mammal pie, and the bird pie for Kai because of the earlier injury offer. She briefly considers some ale, but after her bout with blood loss, a talking fountain, and getting kidnapped, she suspects it will end badly, and opts for the water in her canteen.

At least the elf lord is footing the bill for the food (if not the ale). Wulfgaar is back at their goose-guarded pack pile, with refilled water skins. "Did you ask about sleeping under the wagon?" he asks Tasha.

"I changed my name after some information was revealed to me," Tasha admits, and she passes the bird pie to Kai. "So I suppose I'll be staying here unless I find something better."

Kai takes the pie and immediately passes it on to Wulfgaar, who sets it on one of his metal pans to cool. Away from the reach of the goose.

"Looks like the usual mix of fighters," Kai notes. "There'll be a central fire lit, but no small ones. A few tents, but most will sleep in the open."

Tasha settles down (away from the goose) to let her own pies cool, putting her pack down after and digging out her water supply. "Any idea how far we got? And that's fine, I know some of the types; I may sleep in the open, too. It'd be wiser if I slept out of sight, though."

"I can set up the tent then," Wulfgaar says. "We left when we did to reach this camp by nightfall. We will probably move faster in the morning. There is a latrine at the far end, where the stones form an alcove into the woods."

Despite the hub-bub of the camp, there are still noises from the woods. Or rather sudden, abrupt silences, which are only broken by the sound of distant (or sometimes very close) laughter.

"The usual then. I wasn't always as pampered as I am now. Being a cursed princess can be very draining, you know." More ear flicking at the laughter. It's disconcerting, but then it's supposed to be. More mind tricks by the fair realm, something they share in common with demon kind, Tasha knows. "Think we'll be safe here? I know, I know, I asked about safe, but you know."

"Stay inside the stones," Kai says. "I'll watch as you sleep, in case you start sleepwalking because of piping music. You're probably extra attractive to satyrs."

"It's the bifurcated hooves, isn't," Tasha asks, stretching out a leg and wiggling her cloven foot. "I admit they're a lot better than the last ones, even if they make me look more demonic. Luckily the rest of me counteracts that a bit."

"Better for climbing rocks," Wulfgaar offers, then starts eating his pie. Someone is playing a lute or similar stringed instrument now, and people are converging at the central fire pit. "I will set up the tent soon," the man says. "This close to the warding stones, we should be left alone."

Tasha takes this as queue to start eating her own pie. She brought utensils, but is wolf enough to eat it with her hands instead. "Will the fae out there try anyway?"

"Of course, but don't worry," Kai says. "I'll set up one of my own protection circles around the tent, but I'll moving about during the night. I want a certain someone to have some nice nightmares, and the fey are vulnerable to non-magical telepathy."

Wulfgaar collects the scraps and crumbs for the goose once he's finished eating, and begins to set up the tent.. which is just some sticks tied together a certain way with hides draped over them.

"Don't kill him without me, I still need a better apology portfolio than what I had when you-know-who kicked us out. And if a lack of leadership is a problem I might have to play princess some more, heroes love princesses." Tasha give a mock salute, then takes another bite of meat pie.

"My plan was to drive him mad until he kills himself," Kai notes. "I can't explode him Court or anything like that, unfortunately."

Once the tent is finished, it looks like Tasha and Wulfgaar could fit if Tasha can pull her wings in tightly enough. Bawdy songs are being sung at the fire now, but nothing that seems worth attending.

"I suppose I can't tackle an entire retinue myself, either. Not by myself. Well, maybe I can say I helped in spirit. And mad dead is still dead, so I can lead if I need to." Tasha looks up, around, then back to pie. "Anything you need me to do?"

"Be sure to use the privy sooner than later, there's bound to be a rush in the morning," Kai suggests, as she starts stripping off her clothes. "Otherwise it'll have to be by the side of the road during the trek tomorrow."

"I remember the old traveling tricks," Tasha agrees. She finishes her pie, tosses the remains to the goose, and then stretches. ""I might as well go to bed early so I can use the privy early, too. Hanging out with too many Humans keeps bringing up Sharon's awkwardness in my soul and it's awkward."

Once naked, Kai begins to do a dance of sorts, a bit like ballet but with more arm and hand gestures as she circles the tent. Wulfgaar spreads out one of the furs on the ground so that the tent is between it and the rest of the camp, and then begins to undress as well. "I will be dressed again when I come in to sleep," he assures Tasha.

"I don't mind what you do, just no touchy," Tasha explains, stretching her legs out and massaging them each in turn. "I'm used to naked men, but I'm also a lot more dangerous than I look. Not that I think you'd try anything, you seem respectful. But just in case I'm wrong."

Kai finishes her dance, and announces, "Protection cast." She then falls into Wulfgaar's arms and.. well they aren't exactly subtle, writhing about on the bearskin almost immediately. At least they're doing it outside the tent.

Despite that, Tasha feels Kai shut off her ansible access, so nothing 'spills over' into Tasha.

Tasha's used to this, too. She has enough of it back home that it's no real surprise, although it is between Humans which, as she has said, isn't her thing. She wonders if that will change with Sharon around, or if the others will change her somehow, not unlike Atum and its fragments. Whatever the case is, time will tell. For now she heads for the tent to get some sleep, her old sailor habit of sleeping whenever she can is always close at hand. The others may think her lazy, but that's what she's doing, and now she's going to do it again.

It isn't dawn that stirs Tasha from her sleep, but a scream of distress. Wulfgaar is taking up the other half the tent, and apparently is a much deeper sleeper than Tasha as he doesn't seem to react to the scream. Even the goose outside is quiet, and she doesn't hear any sounds of alarm from the rest of the camp.

This, of course, makes Tasha suspicious, but then again she's heard very real communications that no one else -- or felt, experienced, been drafted in to, and so on -- so she can't just ignore it as a hallucination or trap, either. And so Tasha uncurls her wings, draws her sword, and very carefully edges to the end of the tent to have a look, and a sniff, around.

There are some interesting scents coming from the forest, as well as several glowing eyes looking back at her from beyond the warding stones. Since the tent flap isn't facing into the camp, she can't see if anything is happening in that direction, but there's no sign of Kai in the area that she can see.

Tasha ignores the scents from the forest, those she assumes are all traps and even the ones that might not be may as well be traps. She scoots out more, trying to get a look in to the camp and suspecting Kai may be up to her assassination tricks. In hindsight it seems early to take down the lord, but it's too late for her to say so and they can probably manage without him.

The camp is quiet, from the part Tasha can see. She spots someone standing guard, but they don't seem to be alarmed by anything, and in any case are watching the forest.

And so Tasha cautiously stands up, then begins to wander the camp. Her first stop is to check if the guard is, in fact, the guard and not a replacement trying to make all seem well.

It's actually one of the security elves, in shiny armor and carrying a shiny rifle. He turns his head at Tasha's approach, silently watching her out of the corner of his eye.

Tasha makes a finger to the lips gesture with her free hand, then nods to the camp and heads off, still searching. She hasn't heard the noise since, so maybe she did dream it. Fairy land is, if anything, a place where frightening dreams take place on a regular basis.

A few of the adventurers are awake, though only one of them is human. They're spread out, and quiet, so probably standing watch for whatever group they seem to be with. Tasha gets a nod from one of the wolfier ones. She does finally spot Kai though, who is strolling around naked but nobody seems to notice her.

Tasha returns the nod, she then adjusts her course until she's walking beside Kai without appearing to be doing so, as if she just happened to patrol in that direction. I heard a scream, Tasha informs Kai over the ansible.

"Yes," Kai replies. "Since we're linked you wouldn't have been hidden from you. You didn't have any nightmares about being flayed alive did you?"

"Not today," Tasha replies, still looking around but feeling she's found the source of things for now. "Some of your midnight vengeance, then?"

"Just the start," Kai notes. "A nightmare. He may not even remember it in the morning, but he'll be more paranoid and jumpy than before."

"Then I'll try to remember to stay out of his sight," Tasha notes. One more look around, then she looks back towards the tent. "I'm going back to sleep unless you need me for anything?"

"No, get your rest," Kai says when they get to the tent again. But she keeps on going past the stones and into the woods. "I need to talk to someone, but I'll be back by morning."

"Don't get lost, and bring me back a cute satyr woman, all this sex is distracting." Tasha breaks off to head inside like she had always intended to, returning to her spot, sheathing her sword, and returning to being a ball of feathers.

A few hours later, Wulfgaar stirs, as does the rest of the camp. It isn't due to the early morning sunlight or any other special sense. It's due to the chuck wagon preparing breakfast.

And of course Tasha stirs, because it's just what you do when you smell food in the morning. She's pretty sure Sharon does it too, despite being a wolf only in soul and spirit. And so Tasha rises with a yawn and a stretch, then pushes the tent flap aside and gets drawn along by the smell of things to eat.

There are two lines already, one for the coffee on one side and the food on the other. Those not in line are already breaking down tents and packing up bedrolls and collecting any garbage. There are elves going in and out of the small pavilion set up for Lord Fael'wynn, but they aren't giving off an air of alarm (although that could be due to glamour).

Tasha takes note of all of these things, but casually, in the same way she pays attention but never actually seems to, her own kind of glamour. As for the lines, it's a tough decision, but food wins out over coffee, and she waits in that line.

There is quite a buffet. There is a variety of meats, soups, breads and bread-adjacent patries as well as fruits and vegetables. A lot of it seems to be fried. Some folks are filling up multiple servings, probably to take some back to those packing things up.

Tasha gets a steak and puts the steak between two slices of bread roll, then nabs a bunch of sausages, some grapes, and two more rolls so Kai and Wulfgar can make their own sausage sandwich. She's bring more but she can only carry so much, which is the saddest part for her about getting morning food. This she brings back to the tend before seeing about beverages.

Kai is back, and dressed. She's got what appears to be a little dragon perched on her shoulder as well. "No waffles?" she asks Tasha, while Wulfgaar is packing up the tent and animal skins.

"Ask a wolf to get food and you're getting meat of some sort," Tasha replies. She hands Kai a roll and two sausage links, some assembly being required. She then hands her another set, "For Wulfar." Suspiciously, two more sets remain on top of her meatwich. It's also now that she eyes the little dragon, then tries to feed it a sausage link. "You have a guest."

The dragonet greedily grabs the sausage and begins scarfing it. "Now you've gone and fed it," Kai laments. "You should never feed a wild mini-dragon."

"Being who you are you should know by now I have a weakness for small dragons, so the fault is entirely yours." Tasha watches the scarfing with great amusement, tail wagging.

"Glarp," the little dragon replies once the sausage is gone, and then flies back into the forest. "What about flying kittens?" Kai asks Tasha.

"I've never seen one of those, but I assume I'll have a similar reaction. So why did you have a tiny dragon?" Tasha sits down to eat, deciding she can fill one of her canteens with coffee later and drink it along the way. Now is food time.

"An old acquaintance," Kai claims. "That's as big as he'll ever get, and he's older than I am. Was catching up on some gossip," she says, and nibbles on a sausage. "There's one more camp along the way, but it's not out in the open. Moderately safe. Things will get more exciting once we're out of the woods. I'm going to have you practice being invisible and super visible along the way."

"It's nice to know we little versions can do well and live a long time. And okay, so maybe trouble, so we practice. I can do that. I'm fed and will have coffee." Tasha takes a big bite from her steakburger, nodding in agreement with herself. "And I thought I was always super visible, but I guess maybe not here."

"I may add challenges to the lessons," Kai points out. "Depending on how well you do. Or how badly you do."

"You never know which one it'll be either, so I guess that's a challenge for you," Tasha agrees. More bites, more swallows, some water to wash it down. "So what's next after the forest? Grasslands of Terror? Field of Woe? Highway of Lost Dreams?"

"I think it's the bridge at the end of the world," Kai says. "The end of the fae territory, and beginning of Nightmare which divides it from the Dreamlands and Dragonlands and.. other lands. Think of it as a nexus of worlds. Or rather, the sewer that drains the nexus of worlds."

"I'd have been surprised if Nightmare was the bright metropolis of the worlds." Tasha finishes off her sandwich and starts nibbling on what's left of the sausage. "And of course it'll be filled with nightmares, which I assume are like fae but they don't even try to hide their malice. Speaking of Dragonlands, what's the relationship between the two? I've seen a lot of dragons hanging around Fae armies, and ou-know-who is a dragon, too. Is it some complicated enternity-spanning history I'm making you summerize in a short paragraph?"

"Dragons can pretty much go anywhere," Kai explains. "Which is why they seem to be recognizable everywhere. Even the more fey dragons can go places the regular fey cannot. It means people either fear them or want to bribe them, since having an agent that can go anywhere is a powerful position to be in. Take it from one of those agents, namely me."

"I get it, they have universal appear and transit passes. And they're often quite formidable, too. There's a lot of value there." The last bit of sausage gets put away, namely in to Tasha, and she pats her belly. "I get similar roles sometimes."

"I always like being more dangerous, I keep meeting more dangerous things, and you know, it makes me feel left out." Tasha's pout is the practiced pout of someone who knows they're cute in a multitude of ways, and knows how to use it. "Well, shall we get going then?"

Most of the camp has been packed up by now, and even the chuck wagon is being closed up. There are no leftovers. Someone prods the dragon-thing awake, and the whole expedition is on the move again. There's no indication from the front that were was anything unusual, but Lord Fael'wynn is not riding on his epon, so is probably in the carriage.

"It looks like Lord Problem isn't feeling so well," Tasha thinks at Kai. Meanwhile she says, "Off we go! Adventure, danger, weather, all the usual things, really."

The 'not an ansible' link is reestablished between Kai and Tasha, and with it the awareness of just who is noticing her. "So, pick someone that's thinking about you," Kai instructs. It's a bit tricky just because attention is something that comes and goes when people are watching for lots of different things.

Tasha decides to pick one of the canine-types, thinking they're the most similar to her and some of the hardest to fool. She also knows some or all of their senses, making it easier for her to home in on their focus. "How about this one?"

"Alright, now hide from that person," is Kai's only instruction. Presumably she doesn't mean 'hide behind someone' but 'make him no longer notice you.'

Tasha does this by not looking at him, by slowing down so she is partially obscured by Wulfgar, and by maintaining as boring an expression as possible. She studies her nails. She yawns. And as she suspects some mental trick, she tries to project a mental sense that she's kind of bland, uninteresting, that she just blends in.

That latter seems to work, as the moments of interest get fewer and fewer, until she doesn't sense any interest from him for several more minutes. However, notice from others also dips over time.

"Or we've gotten into the marching mentality," Kai notes. "Now, I want you to move closer to that guy so that you're in his field of vision all the time. Then make him ignore you despite being right there in front of him."

Tasha nods to this, then she simply walks off as if she were inspecting the lines. not interfering, but simply making sure everything is in order. She's told people she's a cursed princess so she may as well act like one. This brings her in front of the target, which she remains in front of as she inspects the line, and then the countryside, as if taking a break.

His attention is fully on her now. There's genuine curiosity this time. He may be watching her tail.

Tasha considers stopping her tail but that might be cheating; she knows she's supposed to do this mentally somehow, but not how that's supposed to happen. So she tries new things. Her first idea is using her own emotions as a kind of blueprint. She stares at something really dull and tries to project how dull looking at this thing is, like a bland miasma.

The problem with that is she looses track of who is noticing her. "Remember, you need to also be able to function and get things done," Kai pops into her head. "Push back at his attention. Make it slide off of you. He should be more aware of the person in front of you than of you."

"Got it." It's a lot more for Tasha to go on, certainly. And she does just that, trying to project a forcefield like sense of deflection, as if his gaze were a beam and it diffracted against her shield and scattered on the elf beside her. She also stops watching the landscape and returns to only seeming to do so.

This at first causes the target to focus harder, because he's clearly noticing that something is happening. So maybe Tasha is putting too much effort into it this time.

Tasha tries easing off against her instinct to bite harder when a problem is being intractable, and therefore, dampens her projection.

There's more of a surge in focus again, probably just to make sure he wasn't drifting off, and then it slowly begins to fade. Tasha can't tell if he's forgotten she's there, but he certainly isn't paying attention at the moment.

To test things, Tasha lets the deflection drop, while continuing to seem to stare off in to the distance with the bland ennui all leaders seem to possess in time of solitude and thought.

Sure enough, the lad begins noticing her again (possibly because of the dullness of everything else).

And then Tasha goes back to projecting again! It feels a little like playing with a ball to her.

The interest slowly fades out again. "Think you're getting the hang of it now?" Kai asks.

"Yes, unless this is all a coincidence. Am I actually succeeding or does it just seem like I'm succeeding?" Tasha keeps juggling the focus though, for practice, and out of curiosity as to what happens if she does.

This makes Tasha's hackles go up and her ears shoot up. She has enough self control not to jump, but it's alarming. "I think I just discovered how to make someone sneeze with psionic power."

"The key to this is to not cycle up and down," Kai explains. "You want to be completely ignored for a specific amount of time or while performing an action. Being invisible all the time is harder. So, try to make everyone that is noticing you ignore you. They won't be looking right at you, usually, but they will be aware of you just by being aware of their surroundings. Try that, and then I will teach you a trick."

Tasha internally nods, more of a sense from her she understands. So then, for her own next trick, she resumes the barrier but tries to spread it around herself, as if everyone's awareness was light, and the shield around herself were a warp in space-time around which their attention flowed to things past her.

The results are mixed. For some, the already fleeting awareness diminishes further, but others react by noticing the attempt to deflect their notice, which makes them suspicious instead.

Tasha is somewhat perplexed by this, so tries a different approach: rather than trying to redirect their notice she tries to dampen her own presence. Instead of diverting the light, she absorbs and fails to reflect it, like she were an attention hole that gives nothing back.

This has a bit more success. Notice diminishes, but it's also takes a bit more effort on her part, which makes it harder to maintain for long.

"I can't keep this up; is this the correct way, or am I on the wrong track?" After all there's no way for Tasha to know without potentially years of experimentation.

"Now comes the psychology," Kai says. "People don't like looking at things that will upset them, or which they feel a need to take action on. This is something you can take advantage of. It's called Somebody Else's Problem. You need to project that feeling, so people will put you out of their minds. It works best when moving through a changing crowd, where you're only being ignored for a few seconds. It doesn't work if your presence is unavoidable. It requires that you keep moving, or that you are still and others are moving past you. Like how you might turn away from a drunk throwing up in an alley."

Tasha considers this, then considers how she might impress Kai by using this knowledge to be ignorable while still surrounded. After all, unlike Kai who always hides her true self, Tasha has spent years being the strange thing in the room. Strange things can be exotic and alluring, but they're also strange and can be unsettling. And somewhat unique to her, she tends to pop in to people's lives and create a sense of danger and and overwhelming feeling, even among her closest friends and comrades. This she tries to use, amplifying that she's probably a problem of some sort and best avoided. And as she's dealt with princesses before, she adds what she remembers from that time, and how authority and self-absorption can be off-putting. She's probably a lot to deal with!

It's an odd mix. And the results are also mixed, but that can simply be due to the nature of the people around her. These are folks who seek out danger, and probably princesses. It's clear which time this garners more attention from.. and which seem to put her out of mind. Specifically, the supporters ignore her more thoroughly, while the adventurers seem to notice her more. With a more domesticated, civilian crowd, she would probably be ignored more. But she also needs to keep moving around to get the best effect here.

Tasha is surprised at herself for forgetting she's among adventurers, but she realizes she may never have been around another adventurer before, but simply dedicated people who followed the adventure that is her. She'll have to investigate that later, and beyond that, it remind sher of a question. And so she she starts walking around she asks Kai, "Kai, I have an unrelated question: if you were able to make bodies for me to control, copies of me, does this mean you can make a body for a soul without one?"

"Well, a body is just meat," Kai notes. "But I cannot create a living creature that does not develop a soul over time, I imagine. I'm not sure how I myself was created, or how I'm animated. So I suppose what you really mean is a living robot."

"I know of several beings who are stuck being wizardly projections that house their souls. We were able to create child clone bodies for them, but at least one of them isn't very happy with having to be a child again. You'd like her a lot, by the way." Tasha keeps walking and now tries the same style of projection, but tries focusing on just the being a pain to deal with part.

"Ah, you want new bodies for those that have lost theirs?" Kai asks. The 'this is an annoying person to deal with' effort is a bit more successful, as it starts alienating the adventurers now. "That only works if you can recreate the original bodies very closely, otherwise there is a chance of existential rejection, of feeling that they are now trapped in a corpse. By creating a child, which is still learning how to fit into their body anyway, and going through the usual changes of growth, you can bypass those risks."

"Nora's a strong woman. Her spirit would go on to become a demi-god, and she endured a lot of suffering and hardship both before and after the tragedy that eventually killed her. Fred's maybe not as tough, but he's still a Karnor Elite, the best of the best of the Karnors. Mariel would be my only concern, but she was first to try the child route, and that's probably best for her. I think Nora would accept the risks." Tasha maintains the aura since it seems to work, wandering around as she think-talks.

"Nora and Fred were in their early thirties," Tasha replies. She now tries saddling up to one of the adventurers, not directly, but taking a path that gets her rather close as she tries to avoid one of the mounts.

"I know I know," Tasha says, holding her hands up. She projects soothing thoughts at the horse as an experiment.

"And already accomplished. But their personalities may be key. Are they outgoing, easy going extroverts? Not the anxious or self-conscious types?" Kai probes further. The horse clacks its teeth in response to Tasha's attempts to soothe it.

"Nora is a driven alpha-type who does not give up easily, or at all. She sees everything as a challenge, and she has av adventurous spirit. I could see her as a captain as easily as a space pirate. She does have doubts, but she's the type to overcome them if she puts her mind to it and is aware of them. Fred is much more easy going, I feel like you could put him in almost any body and he'd make it work, but I'd have to ask." Tasha meanwhile backs away from the horse. Maybe fairy horses can sense psionic mind games.

"Well, I've never tried to make a body for someone that's been dead," Kai notes. "For your alternates, we had you to work from, and you'd already had the experience of being these people, which helped them adapt to new bodies."

"Well, for a while I thought maybe I was Nora, so, what if we pulled from that memory? Nora created me, she's my maker, there must be something in me that links me to her. And that something might allow her to take control of my copy that is her. Or, well, maybe she can fill a blank copy of me? If I can be her, maybe she can use my body type and existence, since she was the one that engineered it to exist in the first place." Tasha decides she's mind controlled people enough for now and rejoins Kai.

"I'd have to meet these people as they are now," Kai notes as Tasha rejoins her. "The next level of invisibility requires minor telekinesis to work," she says. "It is more challenging to practice."

"I think I need to rest for a while. I'll do better once I'm fresh. Trying to suppress the whole camp was tiring, and I think everyone hates me now," Tasha admits, tail flicking. "And as for the others maybe you'll get your chance. If I can walk between worlds, maybe we can visit my home."

"Depends on accessibility," Kai notes. "Perhaps you need more incentive to keep people from noticing you."

"Accessibility may be hard. The Sifra rule there, and they're among the highest level wizards in our universe," Tasha admits, then she turns and raises an eyebrow. "Am I about to get lynched?"

"Oh no, but for the final leg of our march, I may ask you go naked," Kai says. "That will make you put on your best effort at not being noticed." She actually smirks a bit.

"This feels very familiar all of a sudden," Tasha complains, ears drooping. "I'm not even very good at it right now, what if I just attract attention? I think I annoyed a fairy horse with mind beams."

"Well, you will need to work up to using telekinesis first," Kai explains. "Through muscle flexing exercises."

"Oh does this mean I can throw things at people using my mind? Because I always wanted to be able to do that." And now Tasha wags.

"You can do that with your arms already," Kai points out. "The focus for this would to do things you couldn't normally do."

"But tit's not my mind-- Oh, fine. Yes lets focus on that." But Tasha still pouts and her ears still wilt.

"The targets will be small to start, but you will get more use of it," Kai says. "Specifically, you will be trained to control the contraction and dilation of people's pupils."

"So there's no difference between controlling a rock and the body of a living creature? I'd have thought that would be harder, since their will might interfere," Tasha admits, turning to study' Kai's eyes now.

"Actually it's much easier to control living things, because living things are used to being controlled by their brains," Kai explains. "Also, very small changes can have large effects, such as putting someone to sleep."

Tasha nods to this. "That's something I've been noticing. You could say I'm like a virus or a bacteria to a lot of powerful beings, but just like with us, the right amount of power put to a small part of them can take them down just as it can with us. Thotep really likes that sort of thing. It's like his hobby."

"Plus, you can do this," Kai says, then reaches an arm and snaps her fingers.. along with everyone else in the procession, along with Tasha. Nobody seems to notice it however.

"Alarming. And ostentatious. And here you were lecturing me about doing fun things." Tasha peers at Kai as she lowers her arm. "I thought you couldn't kill the lord so directly, you can't just make him punch himself to death?"

"Oh, I can make his head explode," Kai admits. "But I want him to go insane. It lasts longer and removes him from influence, instead of just letting him start over with a new life."

"Oh, well, that seems efficient. I'm glad my way of dealing with things isn't so complicated, I just focus on removing or obliterating things. Simpler. Plus, I'd probably feel bad." Tasha gives a little shrug.

"Feel about about which, obliterating or consigning to decades or longer of torment and the destruction of all one has worked for?" Kai asks. Perhaps she actually can't see the distinction.

Tasha assumes Kai cannot from what she has told her before, so answers honestly. "The latter. Once a problem is gone, it's gone. Letting something dwell in torment tortures them, but also me in a way. And I'm not here to humilitate, torture, and-or rob my enemies of all they hold dear, I'm here to remove their threat to me and mine, and my universe. I might be brutal sometimes, but I just want the danger removed, destroyed. I don't really enjoy torturing my enemies, someone would have to truly upset me for me to want them to suffer like that."

"Ah, so if Lord Fael'wynn was a threat, I would dispose of him," Kai admits. "I didn't do it when he was actually a threat though. This is just revenge for what he did to Kainudy."

"I see. Well, revenge is okay, too, I don't like the idea of allowing a being who has caused me or mine great harm to continue to profit from it -- such as by existing -- and immortals who are resiliently immortal are more difficult to harm in a lasting way. I suppose it makes sense in this context, because ways I would find more appealing don't function with this type of enemy." And so Tasha nods. It does make sense. It's not pleasant, but enemies rarely are, and she's well past the point of second guessing the need to fight.

"The amount of necessary cruelty rises exponentially with the resilience of the target," Kai claims. "Because the overall capacity for suffering increases at the same rate."

"I guess it's like what Fred said about engineering and choices, you have to balance, and it's give and take," Tasha observes, head tilting. "Maybe simplicity can be a better defense than complexity in many areas."

"Complexity is fragile," Kai agrees. "This is why gourmet cooking is difficult to master."

"I notice people value it more because it's difficult, but I wonder if it's only valuable because of the rarity and that sometimes people forget application and use. But what do I know." Tasha shrugs her shoulders. "By the way, since you're Kai, did you ever meet the Null? Or.. kainudy's mate?"

"I remember him when he was alive, back on our version of Terra," Kai says. "When I was first created to mingle with humans."

"What was he like? I met him briefly, I think a few times but only once directly, when he saved Tia and I from beign eaten by a rampaging, uh, you. Kainudy," Tasha admits as they walk along. "He asked me if I didn't want to work for him anymore after that. I was a mess, and he still helped me. Now I perpetually feel like I failed him and his faith in me."

"He was a nice person," Kai says. "The most powerful slave in that reality. I may be biased."

"He seems like a nice person," Tasha agrees, ears flattening. "I hope some day I can make it all up to him. To show him his faith in me wasn't misplaced. The same is true for Thoth and Horus, even if they're probably not as nice. That's why I'm going to find Kainudy if she doesn't show up again, once I'm ready. Dying coming after her would make her feel bad." A pause. "So he was a slave, then?"

"They both were," Kai claims. "Daniarood controlled them, and had installed limiters on them. She was furious when they created the stelya-rhian, which she did not have control over. And it was one of them, Persephone, that ended up freeing Kainudy from her control."

"Persephone is a nice person, too. I don't really comprehend her, but I know that. And I feel like I failed her too, somehow. It's really a mess. I'd been doing so well, too." Tasha sighs, then reaches up and ruffles her hair up, frustrated. "I guess that you're here with me and not trying to kill me shows I haven't failed completely. Tia's here too, for all she resents me.It's hard not to fail people when under so much pressure. I think Kainudy would know how that feels. It seemed like the pressure broke her mroe than a few times, like she lived under the weight of a mountain."

"Perhaps, but I wouldn't know her thoughts," Kai says. "She isn't the woman I remember anymore. I don't really suffer from expectations. Not my own or others. Nobody has expectations of me, anymore than you would have expectations of a hammer."

"That's not true, I like having you around. And I think you like having me around, too. And not just because it's me or Tia as a choice to control you while Kainudy is away." Tasha gives Kai a thumbs up. "Sam doesn't have a soul either, but he's OK. Neither does Tatha'hem. Neither did my halitool, but I was fond of that, too. I felt bad when I didn't take care of it."

"So you aren't worried that I will go full monster and rampage?" Kai asks. "I have been left to my own devices before, but always with a mission."

"Well, that's a danger for me, too, isn't it? And you're made from Kainudy, so ultimately you just do what she does. If I want people to understand my monstrous side, then I can't exactly judge you, not unless you attack me and mine. Then it's more about safety and defense. I'd prefer if you didn't slaughter relative innocents or that sort of thing, but even i can't always control myself. Soooo.. Well, life's complicated." Another shrug and Tasha frowns. "For a hero I'm not very heroic sometimes, am I?"

"Heroic heroes tend to become dead heroes before their time," Kai notes. "Most of these people are unlikely to come back from this expedition."

"More's the pity. That all the good people die just leaves everyone else. I'm never quite sure it's worth the sacrifice, that's why I won't throw the lives of my own away for a cause, I'm not a person who believes in the many over the few if the few are my friends and family. To me, that just makes me wonder what the point it. Not that I've always been good about keeping to that, mostly with not throwing myself away." Tasha sniffs, then rubs her nose self-consciously. "And of course I did die before my time. Maybe.. Maybe I should try and save these heroes."

"Save them from their own ambitions?" Kai asks. "They are here to be heroic, rather than just being heroic because it's who they are."

Tasha nods to this. "I see. Well, if it's their goal I won't stop them. It's the ones who die to try and make things better, or save people, or who had more going on than dying to be glorious that I should try to save."