baby, I'll learn to touch you, I wanna breathe into your well (part LIII)

(Continued from part LII.)



"Is that the box?" Rusty whispered.

Emilly nodded, motioning him in. He walked over, looking down.

"It has a picture on it."

"That's the box..." She stared at the picture of the Duke, then shook her head slightly. "We need to get this to Caledon."

A short transit time later, the three were in the main room of the Caledon II estate. Emilly stared with some concern at the tentacle poking out of a potted fern by the fire.

"Oh!" Rusty said. "A piano!"



Emilly knelt by the box. "It should still work," she said distractedly. "I don't know if it's been tuned."

The poet followed her gaze to the fern. "Maybe I can generate another energy sphere..."

"Em?" came the partially mechanized voice. The same slight echo, the same everywhere-and-nowhere direction. "I can't see."

Em closed her eyes, breathing.

"...Em?" The voice was rising in pitch.

"It's all right, love. Just stay calm," she soothed the voice. "Can you answer a question?"

"I'll try..."

"Do you know where the temple is?"



"Uh..."

"It's all right. Just say whatever comes to mind." She looked at Justine and Rusty, worried. "He's not answering..."

The silence stretched on. "Hiro?" she finally whispered, putting a hand on the box.

"Dark Sea...the temple's in the Dark Sea...I think."

Emilly breathed out, shaking. Justine looked over.



"That sounded like an answer. We need to get this somewhere safe. Do you two want to head to the coordinates he gave, and I'll put this up in the attic and meet you there?"

"All right..." Emilly touched the box once more, then stood. "Let's go."

Justine nodded, picked up the box, and climbed the stairs to the attic.



She arrived first. It was dark. And wet. Instinctively, she sprouted gills, looking around. The black sands told her she was at the bottom of the Dark Sea. Staring at a...brightly lit temple, that she now briefly remembered seeing the first day of the attack.

She stepped cautiously into the temple, and hit a brief distortion field, dizzying her. Suddenly she couldn't breathe, and it took her a few seconds to realize that the field was keeping the water out of the interior of the temple. She made the gills disappear again.



What she saw was...puzzling. It looked like a jumble of machinery, some vintage, some merely dated. She sent ports to the other two and stepped forward. She pushed at a set of panels a bit, and they refused to budge, so she finally crawled under them. She heard the others arrive and called out.

"Over here!"



She rounded the corner, seeking open space, and stopped dead. Hiro! In a cryotube! She ran to the side, hands running over the chill surface, searching for control. Justine stepped up beside her.

"Words of power?" Justine asked. Emilly stared at her, before her eyes snapped wide.

"Oh gods, we lost track of Beta-El!"

"[Sh*t]," Justine muttered.

Emilly began searching frantically for the power buttons, and was then flung over the side by one of the power panels, starting to spin.

"ACK!" she yelled, fetching heavily against the side of the tube. She heard a pneumatic hiss behind her. She flung a hand up. "Watch out! The panels are turning!"



She whirled, staring at the open tube in shock. Hiro... She looked at the others. "Is he breathing? Tell me he's breathing!"

She leaned over, her breath visible in the cool air rising from the tube. She watched his eyelids flutter, then finally...open.

"Hiro!" She reached for him, Justine bracing his other side, helping him out of the cryotube. They got him standing, he pushed at their hands, took a step...and then fell forward. The poet caught him, looking up in concern.

"What the hell?"

Hiro shoved weakly at Rusty, his other hand reaching for a nearby suspension tank. Emilly looked over.

"But--no, we just got you out of the pod!"

Justine watched. "I think he had a plan..."

Hiro coughed. His voice was weak and thready. "It's...been...a while..."

Emilly half-leapt, half-fell off the other side of the tube. "Gods, help him in!"



Between the three of them, they got the tank open, and helped him inside. Before the door closed, he turned, meeting her eyes, then Justine's. "I need...to quarantine..."

Emilly just blinked at him.

"I wasn't awake since..." He breathed, swaying slightly. "I think the Middle Ages..."

"Since--WHY--but--the--WHAT??" Em said.

"It will take...a little detox," he murmured.

She bit her lip, nodding. "I...understand. Of course. Take all the time you need."

She watched the door close, wringing her hands.

"But it is...good...to be home..." he said. "I...can...lie...down..."



The tank sealed, the liquid rising up around his form, suspension gel filling his lungs. He closed his eyes.

"Can we...get you anything?" Justine asked.

Hiro slowly turned in the tank.

Emilly leaned over to whisper to Justine. "What do we do with Hiro in the box?"

"Do I have...a bedroom?" he asked. His voice was thick due to the gel, and the pickups on the outside of the tank seemed to occasionally pop with static. "In the mansion?"

Justine blinked. "Umm...Yes. Of course."

He opened his eyes. "Or...do we have a medical bay?"

"We have a medical bay on the Prometheus," Justine said.

Emilly nodded. "And we have the medical wing of Tannhäuser." She looked around at the odd conglomerate of machines, some covered in dust, some humming with life. "We'll make one if we don't, but...for right now? It might be safer--down here. There are...things...happening. Above the sea."

Justine nodded in agreement. "Probably, yes. Might be better if we just bring you what you need here."

"Until we're--sure, everything's back to normal."

Justine nodded. "Until...yeah. Everything is safe."

Emilly took a step forward, placing a hand on the column. "You're here, that's the important thing."

"Okay..." Hiro closed his eyes again, seemingly in thought. "How many of the back-ups have made it?"

Emilly thought, tapping her lip. "We're missing...three." She thought. "Wait, not counting you? Four."

Justine looked at her."Can we count the one Beta-El has? Because...we've kind of...lost her."

"We'll find her." She sounded sure. She wasn't.

"All four...made it?" he asked.

"No...just Beta."

"Um, not so much, no," Justine added.

"We can upload...Beta, and any others...to me in the Tannhäuser lab."

"The back-ups are still out there. We just need you to help us find them."

Emilly nodded. "Or go find them if you need them, but...after you recover. Yes." She looked from the pod, to the column, and back again, before looking at Justine. "I guess 'gives of herself' just meant 'be here'..." Something was missing. It bothered her she couldn't immediately see what.

Justine looked back at her. "I guess so?" She toed the ritual rug at her feet. "The rug here, though...almost looks like we were set up to conduct some sort of ritual?"

Emilly looked back at the tank. "Maybe we'll have to..."

Justine followed her gaze. "Use what we learned from 'Thaumaturgy in 21st Century Economies' to find the other back-ups."

Emilly nodded.

"And the Codex Magisterium," Hiro said.

"That's going to take a while," Emilly replied.

"Do we have a while?" Justine asked. Emilly shrugged.

"If this got rid of the rifts, all we'll have to do is clean up debris..."

"Hopefully, once we separated the two instances, that will close the rif...wait."

Emilly tilted her head, looking at Justine. "What?" She thought. "Oh, you're thinking Beta? Oh..."

"Is there a child in a rift?"

"No, I brought Athena back." Emilly said absently, then turned to look at the poet sharply. Had she told him that?

"Okay...Beta should go to..." Hiro trailed off, seeminginly in thought.

"No...were the creatures that attacked us the guardians of the backups, or were they sent by the adversary?"

"The Ringmaster?"

Hiro stared at them. "What...kind of creatures?"

"There was something about guardians, right?" Justine asked.

"Eye beasts. Interdimensional tentacles. Energy rifts. Sharktopi."

"Yeah, no, that is eldritch horror stuff..."

Emilly nodded. "That's...likely good, then. Means the path to the guardians is--"

"Sounds like either the Ringmaster," Hiro interrupted, "or some [a**hat] opened too many big rifts..."

Justine cringed. Emilly just sighed.

"That would be Lina, yes. Opened a HUGE rift on the site...."

"That's definitely going on her performance review." Justine said firmly.

(Continued in part LIV.)

coincidence has always been a friend to me (part LII)

(Continued from part LI.)

Emilly stepped forward.

"So, uh, cautions. Be careful around the garden."



He stared at her.

"I think there's...more than one there."



"And they're...fairly unhappy. And...Darktow may no longer be safe."



"But hey! Upper floor of the house seems fine!" She smiled tremulously. "Save for the eggs."

There was a sound of breaking glass from downstairs. Justine cursed and ran out. Emilly rolled her eyes. "I'm going to take up knitting for times like these, I swear."

Rusty went to the window and looked out. "Oh...that's...a lot of things..."

"They're native to whatever's in the main rift, yes." She pulled out a comm unit, opening the screen wider. "STAN, where did you say Hiro was?" The moment she finished she realized she wasn't sure which one STAN would pick.

STAN: THE DUKE'S STUDY

she read. "Oh. Upstairs."

"Did he say where?" Rusty asked.

"Hiro's private study."

"The room upstairs is the Duke's study?" Rusty asked.

Emilly nodded. "Come on, I'll show you." She walked out of Justine's suite and up the stairs to the very top, walking through the open entryway, across the metal walkway. She walked into the Duke's private study and froze.



"Don't...come in," she whispered to Rusty. She inhaled slowly, looking at the glowing blue letters, speaking three short phrases in Latin. The barrier ward dissipated.

Only the box was left.

"So, we need to get this to Caledon, to erase the dissonance of two instances of Hiro in the same locality."

"Will that work?" he asked.

Emilly shrugged. "I hope so..."

(Continued in part LIII.)

and I will never stop or turn away (part LI)

(Continued from part L.)



Emilly sighed, walking in to meet Justine in the hall outside the public study. "I have no idea what we're going to do about the eggs."

Justine looked at her. "Kill with fire?"

"Maybe?" Emilly shrugged.

"So," Justine said. "Lina got rid of some of the monsters by shunting them to an empty universe?"

Emilly nodded. "Along with three-quarters of the Gray Area. Some of it's still partially submerged, burning."

"Only three-quarters of the Gray Area?"

Emilly nodded.

"And in the process, opened us up to detection/incursion by hostile forces?"

"Yes..." Emilly opened the parlor doors, stepping through and going to the doors on the far side of Justine's suite. "If you're *careful*, you might be able to open your balcony door and see them, but...."




"See them?"

"Yeesh. Yeah. It looks like a shrike. Sharp and spiky."



"Sure, but the issue is, that's about...nine?...or more? Different beasts? And when they all attack? It is HARD to move."

"Oh, no," said Justine, eyes widening. She returned to the suite. "Is it time to test the offensive capacity of the Liberators?"

Emilly shrugged. "That...may be a problem for another day, though, unless you'd rather try to nail it down now."

Justine sighed. "First things first. Stopping that six hour timer. Removing one instance of Hiro from this timeline."

Emilly blinked. "The what now?"

"STAN said that was the problem--that we had two active instances of Hiro. Here."

The Duchess just stared at her. "But--then where's the--"

Justine shrugged. "[F*ck] if I know. One problem at a time. I figure, we get him far enough way, Caledon or someplace, so there's not the...instability, causing the rifts."

"So....where in Caledon?" Emilly asked. "I suppose we could drop him off above Stormhold. Let the box puzzle the kitties..."

"Or at the Cal II house."

"Ooh! Yes, that!"

"Can we take it to Mondrago?"

"What?" Emilly laughed, startled. "No, wait. We want access to it."

"I was thinking of witchbombs."

Emilly shook her head. "We don't want the witchbomb above Stormhold as it is. We definitely don't need the diplomatic complication of sending one to Mondrago." She thought for a moment. "Which reminds me, is the one still over Stormhold, over Stormhold?"

Justine shrugged. "We'll find out later."

Both women whirled at a sudden, low growl from outside.

Emilly ran to the window. "Oh, gods, what NOW?"



"Justine! There's more of them outside! And there are...shark...things..."

"What?"



"Justine, there's a LOT of them--"



The door opened behind them, and the poet walked in. "I ran into something downstairs--"



"How bad?"



He brushed at a tear in his suit. "Pretty bad," he murmured. They both nodded.

(Continued in part LII.)

who cares if it's white or black? (part L)

(Continued from part XLIX.)

Emilly went to the railing and pointed. "But, see where the fire's burning? That's what remains of the Gray Area. Lina pushed the rest into a 'door', she said, into a dead universe. I asked how dead, and...she said she didn't know."

"Which was the...?" Deebs asked.

Emilly shrugged. "I have no idea. She said something about Limbo...28? 38? Something..."

"No, sorry, I mean, what was the Gray Area?"

"Oh...the flagship of the Gearhaven fleet."

Deebs blinked at her. "...that's going to play havoc with the taxes."

"The Gray Area is the normal visiting ship, or the ship we send out on expeditions, while the Grown-Up Conversation is our more...ah...aggressive ship." Emilly considered. "Which he's actually brought to Haven, actually, and no one's said anything..."



Deebs looked out across the bay once more. "Is the electrical arcs and the like containment, or the edge of the Rift?"

"At any rate, we didn't bring the Gray Area to Haven. How would we explain flying a steampunk airship over a future settlement on a desert moon?"

Deebs smiled. "Aesthetics."

"Point." She followed where Deebs was looking.

"Near as we've been able to figure...those are the rift horizons. They fluctuate, but it seems to be between two and three at any given time."

Deebs smiled. "I have occasionally brought out my Martian flyer, just because of my history...May I?"

Emilly nodded, and the air shimmered, and a Martian flyer landed delicately on the balcony.



"Oh, she is a pretty thing."

"One of these days," Deebs said, "I am going to rewrite my picks to reflect all the versions of Mars that have been an influence on me. That, for instance...That is straight up Martian chronicles."

Emilly nodded. "Very cool. If you're planning a flyover, though, be careful!"

"It occurs to me that a Space 1889 vibe might be a good dressout for coming to visit."

"And there's still an active rift we need to take care of in the round tower in front, at the top..." She looked over at Deebs and grinned at her comment. "It might."

"This probably needs a dose of Mad Science, with the very best in advanced maritime technology. S: Something like the Nautilus, with her aetheric power plant to fuel a Gate-crasher."

"Ooh, indeed."

"How much of a hurry are you in, to clear this...nuisance?"

Were it done, t'were best it were done quickly, Emilly thought. But she simply nodded. "The biggest problem are the followers, because they DO follow, and at this point, the new ones cluster. The old ones, it was just one at a time, but that mass hits me and I can barely move."

"Hmm..." Deebs said. "To ADAPT a Nautilus, or build out a vessel...Do they respond to attack? Or gunfire?"

Emilly tilted her head, considering.

"I envision beams coming out of the Nautilus' 'eyes', sewing the rift shut at a distance, rather than going in and slugging it out."

"Well, Lina said they responded to a high amount of fire, but...she was the one burning, so I don't know how hot it was? I didn't see any char marks inside the house, which is good....but she did get rid of the two lurking on the upper level." She looked out over the flickering rift arcs. "I have no desire to explore the new rift."

Deebs nodded. "So des'."

She leaned forward, something catching the light. She angled her torso over the railing. Was she seeing flat squares of...energy? Over the water?

"Oh, what NOW, that wasn't there this afternoon...Ack--" She froze. "One of the tentacle beasts is on this side..." She began to breathe again when it didn't turn towards her. "It seems too far away from us to target."

"Now, would that normally work? Straight energy beam? Sounds slightly different. Or a pulse cannon."



Deebs pulled out a gun the Duchess didn't recognize, aiming it at the creature. A thick beam of humming yellow light hit the thing.



She shot again. It shrieked, but otherwise, didn't seem affected.



"Hmm." Deebs touched the belt of her silk tunic, a slim structure unfolding from her back. Narrow slight thrusters pushed her up, it seemed mostly with air, not solid fuel, and she got out a larger gun. This one shot a narrower beam of green, that sounded like radio static.

She settled back to the balcony, folding away the jetpack, as they watched the chunks of monster fall and sink into the dark waters.

"Or perhaps an Anbaric Orb--it could be used to channel ALL THE LIGHTNING."

"Well! That seemed to work. Thank you!"

"My pleasure. Those beasties really do need to Be Dismissed."

"They do."

She summoned the Martian flyer again, climbing in. "More on the flip! Because...SCIENCE!"

"Yes!" She waved as Deebs left, making sure she didn't attract the attention of the tower of flailing limbs by the lighthouse. Then she sighed, and returned to the library, to see what else they had on dimensional anomalies.

(Continued in part LI.)

any way you wanna love, don't keep your tongue tied (part XLIX)

(Continued from part XLVIII.)

Some hours passed. Hours of dodging tentacle beasts, trying to track down what they were, where they came from. Having to hide on the lower levels, only in certain rooms. The heights seemed clear, but the desert wastes were no help. Their research simply wasn't there.

But she heard a new voice on the comm.



"Just looking in, to see if I can be of aid. Just because, neh?"

Emilly looked up from the book she was reading. Deebs was a belt miner they'd met in Haven. She was also a registered Companion with the Guild. She was also from at least some multiverse's version of Mars, she thought.



"Depends. What do you know about tentacle monsters?!" she asked, somewhat hysterically. "But barring that, on Haven-based things? I think things are fine. I did have a chance to ask Cody a couple nights ago about the plan to park the weaponry on the roof, and he said yes, that can't be done. Also reminded me that's what the militia is for. Also reminded me my best 'help' is to hide in the store, or hide in the church during Reaver attacks."

She heard Deebs laugh.

"They really are trying to keep this from being the WAR zone. Of course, they should be stomping on the Pryxians, but it's not my moon, not my 'benevolent' monarchy."

"Mmhmm," Emilly said, slightly distracted. "Of course, it depends on how much the Pryxians are paying the UAP in rent."

"It's why I have several perfectly good Cutter, Corvette, and Frigate designs, in a storage cube in my inventory."

She tilted her head quizzically. "Hmm?"

"Strictly speaking, they SHOULD clamp down on my Belter side action...because if you're used to living in the Belt, and mining its resources, well...there's a LOT of resources."

"They should!" Emilly said. She could almost see Deebs' wicked grin.

"But I am quiet, and deft, and don't rock boats. Even the boats as should founder."

"Ahem." But she grinned. "It is true, though." She closed the book, thinking for a moment. "Hiro's more of a...make ALL the waves guy."

"I saw the big hunter-killer boats he did for y'all. Justine was so happy. And now...tentacle beasts." She paused a moment. "Are we talking alien menaces, hentai fun, or...?"

She shook her head. "Interdimensional monsters from an unstable rift, I think. But that's not Haven, that's....elsewhere."

She suddenly realized that, stealthing into Haven as they did, even their business partners, like Deebs, may not know about Gearhaven.

"I know too many things, actually," Deebs said.

Emilly was startled until she realized Deebs was talking about the monster invasion.

"The latest ones came through when our security pushed an airship through a rift SHE opened...and we're going to need to talk to her about that, that is a HUGE power set to have...."

Deebs chuckled. "Okay, are the monsters in this reality-plenum?"

She shrugged instinctively. "Well, at Gearhaven. Which..." She sighed. "So far, we're keeping separate from the Haven line of things. Because--that opens a can of worms we do not want James, et al, to wrestle with."

"Sound. Were your dimensional beasts here, they'd shut down the invading monsters instantly."

Emilly nodded.

"They had problems, BIG ones, with godmodders and power-stackers back when this was splintered rock. The sim owners and senior stakeholders Don't Want Warfare and HYPERPOWER anything. But I travel all manner of places."

"And the thing is, we don't want to godmod, we don't want to be superpowered, we just want to PLAY without James stomping on everything. Because if ANYTHING drives us into smuggling? That man will."

Deebs chuckled again. "As to the Duchy being planetary/system nobles, meeting the UAP on treaty terms--that would be a long time coming."

"It would. Though we are tempted to check into sovereign nation status, and what it would entail."

"Hey, are you in a locale that can receive visitors? Just for because."

She left the library, walking upstairs, carefully checking for tentacles, and moved to the study. "I think it's safe?" She brought her in.

"What's the dress code?" Deebs asked.

She grinned. "I'm standing in the public study of a steampunk tower on a sim with treehouses, a lighthouse, and face-shaped islands on a dark sea, I think we're fairly loose on dress."

Deebs appeared in front of her in a long, wine-colored ao dai patterned with flowers. She bowed deeply. "Your Grace."

Emilly shook her head. "Pish." She looked out on the balcony, wondering if it was safe.

"It's my first time in Gearhaven."

"Welcome to Gearhaven." She walked to the doors out to the balcony, stepping out and looking around. "Okay...I THINK it's safe."



She watched Deebs walk out, and take in the bay. The rifts, the arcing ball lightning, the bit of the Gray Area still burning. The tentacle beasts.

"That is quite a problem," she murmured.



"It is. And if you look towards the lighthouse, there's an...amalgamation of...things."



She looked, trying to peer around the bulk of the central tower. "No, can't quite see them from here. May be wise..."

(Continued in part L.)

we ain't the kind to turn away from a fight (part XLVIII)

(Continued from part XLVII.)

"Other...wait. You mean, the green-purple tentacles that have been hovering around the ship, those are some sort of...of...MOTHER creature??" Emilly put her head in her hands. "Oh, I hope you're wrong."

"Hmm," Lina said. "Okay, crazy idea..."

Oh, gods, what now?

"Umm...how fired will I be if I, say...push the Gray Area to a dead dimension? Say the same limbo I was trying to push these guys into. I think they'll follow. Think it over?"

"The Gray Area? The ship, you mean?" Justine asked.

"Yep. It's stuck to it."

"Right."

Justine sounded sure...Emilly was filled with dread. But she also didn't want to get closer.

"It goes in, they'll follow...I hope."

Emilly swallowed. "How dead?" she finally asked.

"It's a limbo. It's like what happened to mine, just nothing there. It's still space, just...nothing in it."

"Err..."

"If it helps, you can tell Hiro it was my idea when he gets back, and I'll take the blame, 'cause it will be me pushing it out of space and time."

Emilly sighed. "I'm not sure it can be rebuilt in this state, anyway."

"I'm used to cats giving me dirty looks. I have a Russian blue," Lina said. Which made Justine laugh, and Emilly blinked, thinking briefly of Hiro as a house cat glaring at the security officer.

"Well, I can help him build a new one," Lina said.

Meanwhile, Emilly crawled under one of the treehouses, through the stand of bamboo between them, under the other one, and edged her way around to the far side of the lighthouse, watching one of the tentacle beasts turn in her direction, and move towards her. She froze. It froze. She moved again. It began to move again.

"That's just...creepy," she murmured.

Lina sighed over the comm. "One right below me. So far, my flying is keeping it off me."

"Oh, THAT'S what's happening, I thought it was trying to find me!"

Lina laughed. "Sorry."

Emilly froze again by the stairs up to the top of the lighthouse, having not looked up before walking forward, and flattened herself against the ground as the one in midair flew over her. Slowly.

It reversed, and moved back towards Lina, who used her armor propulsors to back away. She took the opportunity to sneak over to the garden, and climbed the outside of the tower to check on the rift she already knew they had on the sim, pulling herself over the railing. And heard an angry hiss.

"ACK!" she yelled.

"What?" asked Lina.

"There's one right below me! It seems...trapped. And angry!"

"Okay, that's weird. There's two in the rift, so...so...." Lina paused. Emilly pressed against the door to the tower.

"Well, I say let's push the ship though the rift. Unless you have a better idea--I'm all ears!"

Gad, that seemed like an impossible undertaking, and Emilly said so.

"Well, that is that, but...umm...Just note, after I push the Gray Area through, I may, umm...pass out."

Emilly blinked. Edged towards the outside of the tower again. The hissing monstrosity followed her underneath the raised stairway, flailing wildly.

"It's a big job," she murmured finally.

"Yeah...So someone, please get me, okay? Woops--"

Emilly straightened. She looked. No idea where Lina was.

"Oh, dear--you didn't go through with it, did you?"

"Not yet, silly. I'm going to open the gateway under it and let it fall in, but...it's so big...it's going to take a lot of power to keep it open."

She carefully climbed back onto the tower, pressing flat to the metal, and edged around to the front, trying to get a better perspective.

"Okay," Lina said. "Here we go--"

"There's still a monster over my room!" Justine yelled.

"There are monsters everywhere," Emilly muttered.

"Okay, that didn't work out, quite....trying that again...in 3...2...1...Open sayyyys MEEEEEEEEE--"

Emilly wished she didn't sound quite so gleeful about that. She finally was close enough to the front of the tower, though. She saw a large gate of...light, she supposed...open up in the water, under half the Gray Area.

"G'bye, Gray Area, sorry I never got to fly ya--"

She watched, somewhat astonished, as three sections of the Gray Area slowly sank into watery light. She looked over, brow furrowing, as the fourth section tilted, sank further, but held.

Of course that's the section on fire, she thought. She watched Lina plummet from the sky into the bay.

Ah, hell...

She dove from the tower into the water, hoping she was quick enough to avoid the attention of any nearby tentacle beasts, put an arm around her, wheezed at the weight of the armor, and half-swam, half-dragged her to the junk anchored in the bay. She pushed her up over the railing, and then collapsed beside her, panting.

I have had enough today, today, she thought. Really, happy to be done with this at any time...

(Continued in part XLVIX.)

frying, burning, cuts-a stinging, bringing you the pain (part XLVII)

(Continued from part XLVI.)

"Anywho..." Lina finally continued. "Look, monster, you need to go, and this place is my responsibility to protect, so--off you go!"

Emilly tilted her head. She heard something--odd. A...hissing? Not exactly. A...very...organic...hum...a hum, she slowly realized, she knew. She swallowed, turning to Justine, putting a hand on her arm. "She opened a rift!" she hissed.

"What?"

"A rift! On Gearhaven!"

Back at Gearhaven, another thin, thin thread of sound in Lina's head.

{{Niis de a umadea...Ol zir g a clock umadea...}}

Lina gritted her teeth and pushed the second monster through, along with bits of the one she'd slided to collops with the net gun.

"I really hope no one's in that limbo, or I may get a rude letter, or whatever..."

Justine's eyes went wide. Rift? she mouthed. Emilly slowly nodded.

"All right, pushed the other monsters in. Armor mode off--eep!"

"Eep what?" Emilly said, panicked. "What eep?"

"Armor mode not off, repeat not off!"

"Why--"

A new voice heard over the comm. Male. Tentative. "I...think I may have drawn them off, or...I've been trying to..."

Emilly rubbed her forehead. The lighthouse keeper. Of course.

"Drawn them off...how??" she asked.

"Just by being outside, in range," Lokizen said. "I'm in the garden, trying to lead them away."

"Oh, no, they weren't in the garden yet..."

"Seems they don't want to follow me."

"'Course not," Lina said. "'Cause they want me to take my armor off."

Emilly blinked. "Gender-based?" She thought ferociously for a minute, before shaking her head. "Wait, that doesn't make sense, they chased Rusty into the music room..."

"I'm outside now," Lina said.

"Good--"

"Okay, how did they come back from limbo?" Lina asked. "They have to be dimensional-based..."

Unbeknownst to those in Stormhold, Lina kicked in her suit's thrusters, rising into the air. "What in the nine is happening in the sea?" they heard her ask.

"Everything," Emilly said dourly.

"Holy cats." Lina looked around. "Did an airship go down?"

"The Gray Area crashed...somehow."

"Yep...I think I know where the unwanted guests came from."

"Oh?" Emilly asked.

"Well, they are coming from it...I think the crash caused a rip in the fabric of space and time."

"I think you're exactly right, Lina." Justine nodded. Emilly continued to look concerned.

"Aww, crap, not again...I need to fly."

"We'll be home soon--" Emilly started.

"We will fight again later," Justine said.

"No, I fly to keep 'em off me--I mean, I'm in the air to try to keep one off me."

"Good luck, Lina!" Lokizen cried through the comm, and there was the subtle tic of that communication link closing.

"Umm, you too--say, how did the Gray Area crash?"

"That's what we're trying to find out!" Emilly said.

Lina sighed. "I am so fired...well, might as well take a look..." Another pause, and then "There's something green coming out the top of the ship in the water."

Emilly nodded. "It's fairly toxic." She made her apologies to the group, told Justine she was returning, and folded a bit of local space to rearrange her on Darktow. She swam across the small channel to the shore temple, turned around, and cried out in startlement.

"There are more of those things next to the island!" she said.

"They're all over the Gray Area, too," Lina said. "Umm...maybe I seen too many docs, but...what if they're here to save the green thing?"

Emilly blinked. "Green thing?" She peered around the back of the shore temple, and watched a new clump of tentacle beasts try to snatch Lina out of the sky. The previous ones had been black, these were...red, yellow, and...yes, green. What now?

"Am okay," Lina said breathlessly.

"Good..."

"I tried ta get close, but they really don't want me near the ship."

She agreed. "They really don't."

"So...that means they're protecting it."

"But why?"

"So, we either kill it, or put it somewhere else. That's what I'm tryin' to figger out--I mean, they look nothing alike..." Loud sound of disgust over the comm. "Goddess. I'm so dense..."

"What?"

"It's the mom...I'm willing to bet, or--the other sex of the species--"

Thin voice. No closer. No stronger. But present. {{Why do you think only one thing can access the rift?}}

(Continued in part XLVIII.)

tell mе what makes you quiver, shake and shivеr (part XLVI)

(Continued from part XLV.)

A yell over the comm as she was in transit.

"Gearhaven is under attack!" Justine said. "The second floor of Steam Towers is infested with tentacle monsters and face-hugger eggs!"

The Duchess nodded out of habit. "Yes! Do be careful, there are also wandering tentacle beasts that will harangue, if not actually injure."

"My rezday is the day before Guild term graduation day, coincidentally," Justine said in a dry voice. "Assuming I SURVIVE TENTACLE MONSTERS..."

She landed in Stormhold, moving quickly to the upper reaches of the library.

"Yes, and we should do something about that. The rezday, not the tentacle monsters." She thought, opening the door to the meeting room, seeing Justine. She tapped off the comm unit. "Well, we should do something about the tentacle monsters, too."

One of the readers in the group looked up, startled. "What kind of tentacle monsters?!"

Justine grimaced. "The handsy kind with no appreciation for personal boundaries."

"The hell," she heard Lina's tinny voice over the comm in Justine's ear. "Armor up!"

Oh, no...Not while we're away... she thought. Great. What else was going to happen? She touched her comm unit back on as she found a seat for the group.

"Where is everyone? I'm in armor and here!"

"We're in Stormhold at the What Are You Reading group," Justine murmured. "The monsters have to wait."

It wasn't like they were going anywhere, Emilly thought.

"Aww..." Lina sounded genuinely disappointed. "I was like...burn, monster, burn!"

Emilly nodded. "I get that! But, also pledged to be here."

Justine nodded. "Yes. I also want to burn the monsters down."

"Well, where the bloody hell is it?" Lina asked.

"Did you go up to my partlor, Lina? Where you and I were cuddling yesterday? They're in there!"

"Right," Lina said decisively.

But the next thing they heard was not comforting.

"Umm....well, damn..."

"What, Lina?"

"Umm...it's following me...Umm help..."

They facepalmed at nearly the same moment.

"What are you going to--"

"Netting it up," Lina interrupted. "Net gun attack--"

"Good idea!" Emilly said.

"That's it, demon mood fire...Fire, fire, raging higher..."

The Duchess began to worry about Steamopolis.

"Good on ya!" yelled Justine, and was shushed by one of the librarians.

Meanwhile, Lina was singsong chanting into the comm. "Fire, fire, raging higher, making music like a choir..."

Emilly was obscurely reminded of a scene from an old fantasy film, before the penny dropped.

"You're not--"

"I am the fire," Lina pointed out helpfully.

Oh, no.

"I can imagine fire saying that, yes..."

"Fire dancing all over me and burning the monster...'cause it will not stop touching me..."

"Lokizen might be there!" Justine said. "Please don't fry him!"

"Well, tell him to stop touching meeee--" Lina said.

Emilly tilted her head. "Isn't he in the Lighthouse? The Lighthouse looked okay..."

"No this THING is in the house and it's trying to get in my armor! Like I will let that happen, this is NOT a hentai, buddy!"

"Oh, good gods," Emilly muttered.

"This better not be Hiro as an Elder god!" Lina shouted. More sounds of firing as she spoke, or--just--fire??

Emilly shook her head. "Nooo, I doubt that."

"Good, 'cause I heard his voice in my head."

Emilly blinked. "What?"

"Hey, I know, I'll just push the monster into a dead zone in the multiverse--"

What??

"Hmm, which one," their security officer mused. "Ooh, yeah, Limbo 38..."

A thin, thin thread of sound from where Lina stood, carting monster bits to the shore.

{{Hello...Lina?}}

"Okay, now, I know you heard that--" Lina said.

Emilly looked at Justine. They both shrugged and said, nearly at the same time--"Heard what?"

There was a long, long pause.

(Continued in part XLVII.)

and you're not like the others (part XLV)

(Continued from part XLIV.)

Oh, this would not do, this would not do...



She stood, fretting. Little Athena had nearly instantly fallen asleep next to her brother. She noticed she'd broken several claws, and she wondered when that had happened. All too soon, her attention was drawn back to her sick boy, and her sleeping girl, because--Athena was now kicking in her sleep.



She knelt down, because she'd now tossed and turned enough to end up across the floor by some distance. She was muttering something. She leaned in.

"...addy...lp...lp Daddy...HELP--"

The last was a yell, freezing her in place. She'd discovered she had one remaining bottle of vitamins in her inventory, and she'd just set it up, and was about to start the feed, when Athena startled awake.

"Darling," she murmured. "Are you--"

"You have to help, Mama!" Athena pawed at her legs.

The Duchess tapped the vitamins, watching Enoch's progress, and invited Athena into her lap. "How can I help, kitling?"

The soft ping of the bottle emptying drew her eyes back, breathing a sigh of relief that he was better, rolling over and snoring lightly. Athena snuffed and leapt off her lap.

"Mama!" she demanded.



"Yes, dear?"

"Daddy's in danger!"

She sighed, nodding. "Yes, darling, but--"

"No! You need to find him!"

"We're trying--"

"Mama!" Athena stamped her paws. "I found Daddy!"

She nodded. "You did."

"But we came back here."

"Yes..."

"So you need to help! We would have gotten Daddy back if he hadn't been here!"

The Duchess blinked, confused. "What?"



Athena rolled her eyes, going to the basket of toys, batting one angrily into the room, and flopping down on it, squinching her eyes shut. Emilly watched, perplexed, at Athena steadfastly ignoring her, even more puzzled by Enoch wandering behind the door and peering at the wall.

What on earth....



Athena refused to talk to her past that. So it was several hours before she could get away, changing--with some difficulty--back to her human face, pulling on a dress that didn't smell of sugar, metal and brick dust, and descended down to Darktow Island.


It's always darkest before the dawn, she thought hysterically, the deep of night just starting to burn off with hints of early cobalt blue, and...what was she looking at now? The Gray Area in pieces, arcs of lightning around new rifts opened, toxic fog, fire, and...who was on the shore??


As dawn broke, and the sky lightened enough to see what was truly happening, she was not at all comforted. And--were those--tentacles?? Floating tentacles?

(Continued in part XLVI.)

now that you feel alive, now that you realize that you're not like your mother

So, this made my afternoon surreal.

[16:48] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I have a weird question!
[16:49] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): The first time my kittens got sick, I bought Get Well supplements for them. Recently, one of mine got sick, and I didn't have the Lindens, so I just waited it out, hoping that tip actually worked?
[16:49] Yxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: i have weird ansers!
[16:49] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr):



Well...he's fine now...but...now one of his legs is a different fur color??
[16:49] Yxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: if a cat has access to food, it will get well after 7 days w/o the vitamins

Which is definitely useful, for anyone that has KittyCats cats.

[16:50] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Right, but...what about the back leg?
[16:50] Bxxxxxx Bxxxx: put him into 2d mode and back out. His leg color should fix
[16:50] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I will try that!

Yep, that's kitten-shaped nightmare fuel.

[16:51] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Well, that's terrifying beyond all reason.

Whyyyyyy. But I popped Enoch back out again, after snapping a third pic (seen below).

[16:51] Bxxxxxx Bxxxx: It is your region, having lag issues lol
[16:51] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I'll restart the sim. :)
[16:53] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): And...nope. Leg still different color, but I'll check after the restart.
[16:53] xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: you can try either putting him in low prim and back to 3D mode, or sending him to the cattery and back for those kinda things too. SL is weird
[16:53] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Apparently! :)
[16:54] xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: that second pic really was terrifying hahahaha
[16:55] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I know!
[16:56] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I have no words.
[16:57] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I have put KittyCats into 2D mode before, and they were not like that!
[16:57] xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Rxxxxxxx: i haven't seen them like that before either that's super weird lol

It really is.



And why no ears?! WHY?!?

[16:58] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Sim restarts...sim comes back...leg still white.
[16:58] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Okay! May file a ticket, then. :)
[16:59] Oriana ღOreoღ Wild (djwildone): I had a kitty one time that appeared to be a different color that doesn't exist... I think it was [Fxxxx] came over and I even sent a pic of what I was seeing... when she came over she seen a completely different thing then I did... maybe get a second person to see it .. might be you need a cache cleaning or something
[16:59] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I can check that too!

Because the other explanation? Enoch's trying to shift his shape, and...he's bad at it. :D

I really hate you, stop getting in my way (part XLIV)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part XLIII.)

They arrived...somewhere else. It was fall. Evening. Scent of cypress in the air. She held Athena tight to her, creeping through mostly silent streets, slipping into shadowed passages whenever someone did pass by. She didn't immediately recognize the language.



Ahead, a half-completed temple. She inched up the stairs, still holding her kitten, crouching and peering through a gap between one nearly-finished wall and the doorframe. She could make out through fitful, flickering light stacks of wood, large, uneven bricks, finer-quarried sections of stone.

She had to get closer. She started to stand up, and crouched down again. Two figures approached the doorway. She slipped into the nearest hedge, watching them as they passed. They weren't...human, she didn't think--rougher features, reddish skin, and--did one have horns?

She watched as they walked to a cart nearby, each easily picking up a pallet of bricks and walking back into the temple. She waited a few heartbeats, then followed. She needed a closer look.


She crouched down again, behind another large crate of building materials, and peered around the side. And again, she was perplexed at what she saw. If she was correct on the general time period they were in...wherever they were...they didn't have access to highly refined metals, yet...she could have sworn she was staring at modern scaffolding.

But modern scaffolding aged and pitted, scaffolding upon which stood more of the...not human figures...and yes, at least two also had wings. What was...where was...she?

She crept out of the temple, mystified, and it wasn't until she was halfway down the stairs that Athena whispered "Daddy's here."

What?

"What do you mean, dearling?"

Athena nodded to a place behind the temple. She crept through the dense undergrowth, and finally stared in stupefaction at the shore, where a very bedraggled Hiro was partially out of the water. She looked up, and she could just make out overhead the Gray Area.

Wait. Two Gray Areas?? One was shimmering almost, but not completely, over the first. What could have caused--

And there was a bright light--

Swept into the air, spinning in circles, reaching--for Hiro, for ground, for the ship, even she didn't entirely know--with one hand, clinging to Athena with the other, spun in place to face the eerie purplish glow--



And she was through. Falling, doing her best to roll first, protecting the kitten with her own form, landing heavily in the silken mist still drifting on the floor of the tower. She blinked. Rift. Ghostly tentacles. Home.

"But Daddy--"

"Precious, we will find your father. I promise."

When she could stand, she took the stairs carefully down, tracked down the nearest port pad, and shot up to the nursery, where she settled Athena in, the others clamoring to know what had happened. They had no food left, and she dashed off to fill the bowls, and when she came back...

...Enoch had fallen sick.

What now?!

(Continued in part XLV.)