Winding down

[wants_the_phd]

WHO: Roses and ?
WHERE: Rose barn
WHEN: Post-ritual evening 54 through morning 55

[Whew.





Whew.]

Comments

[finalbows]

Ooh, Snakey's lost a wing AND an eye, I couldn't see the detail on the head so much before.

It depends on their position. Economic status... Humans that are well-known often requisition bodyguards to keep them safe from each other. Maybe he's used to fuss and is treating this as his big vacation. Wouldn't it be funny if he's some kind of prince slumming it in a sheep pasture, without even taking a position of local rule? Ah, wait, but he's too well versed with caring for children to be any kind of royalty...

[wants_the_phd]

Ah. Yes. I can think of some totally normal cat men who also fit that profile, now that you mention it.

[A microscope plonks into the hot spring.]



[Whatever she'll get it later.]

[finalbows]

Well, he is--

[ 'originally a human, after all,' he doesn't say. ]

A similar kind of stubborn, now that you mention it.

1/2

[wants_the_phd]

[She knew that. But she also knows he's been divorced from his humanity for many thousands of years.]



[...why is it that whenever she thinks about him, she feels so bitter?]

[Gross. She regrets thinking about him at all.]

[wants_the_phd]

[She slips under the water momentarily, then re-emerges, letting the water wash that topic away. She wipes the hair off her face.]

To change the subject, there's something I keep meaning to ask you.

[finalbows]

[ re-crosses his legs. lowers his opera glasses minutely. ]

Mm?

[wants_the_phd]

Why'd you send me blood that one time?

[finalbows]

[ with diction so crisp it could snap in your fingers, ]

I prefer to clean up after I play.


Oh, my. One of them's kept the presence of mind to summon a cube.

[wants_the_phd]

Oh? Can you make out who it's calling?

1/2

[finalbows]

[ squinting and pressing the glasses close to his face ]

There's a bunch. ...That's Minuet... Ananke...? The cube making the call is covered in feathers, so it's sort of hard to--

2/2

[finalbows]

--Eyebrows.

Snakey is the Lilylord!

[wants_the_phd]

Hot diggety. He had feathers on his dragon form too, now that you mention it.

[finalbows]

_{Like my darling Ginryu...}

Final bet on the other one before more start running over?

[wants_the_phd]

Well, Ananke and Charon are out by default, and the goopy black cat thing doesn't strike me as Perci...

I have no idea what Styx's dragon looked like, and I don't know any other Lilies. So I'm guessing Lethe.

[finalbows]

There'ssss.... recent new girl Lily, Styx, Lilylord, Perci, Ananke, A-- no, he's pink now, ah... Lethe... _{am I missing one? I feel like I'm--}

[ this is the face he makes when minuet just punches the cat right in the snout ]

My goodness. Watch out for Minuet's left hook.

[wants_the_phd]

[She can't see from here, damn]

Oh yeah, I think I met the girl in passing once. They have a blond guy now, too. Acheron, I think?

[finalbows]

Wonder what they're going to do when they run out of rivers.

[wants_the_phd]

Every new person brings a whole new world's worth of rivers.

...Unless they're more teen wizard boys from one extremely cursed learning institution. In which case it's the same set.

[finalbows]

I think Blossom has to have a trade deal with one of the staff, or something...

[wants_the_phd]

That or an open pit trap in a hallway that ejects them straight into a barn.



...If there were anyone here from your world, would you know?

[finalbows]

Depends on the world.
Gaia had a population in the hundreds of millions and immense biodiversity.


_{...When I was about ten, anyway.}

If they're Gaian, I might have to wait and see if anyone starts pointing and saying "You! You're the man responsible for the death of my people!" or something. If they're Terran...

...
With a Terran, it would be immediately obvious.

And... with where I was before I came here... it would also be obvious. We numbered less than the conversant populace of the pasture.

[wants_the_phd]

Where were you before you came here?

[She thought you were dead?]

[finalbows]

Seeing as you didn't believe in the soul when we met, I supposed I'm not surprised your mind doesn't immediately jump to the idea of eternal torment for the wicked and deceased, but where I really happened to be was--

Oh, the kitty-cat's turning back! My goodness. Over and done with. I wonder what Minuet force-fed it.

...

You don't think it was...

[wants_the_phd]

Honeysuckle? Wolfsbane? Drugs? Who can say.

So? Who was it?

[finalbows]

Hold on, they're still in the middle of resuming their previous skeletal structure.