[we don't have time to unpack these insults to me. frankly breathtaking display of hypocrisy over here backlit in the lighthouse window. he allows himself to go on a bit of a face journey about it, because probably Minuet would, but snaps to more visibly at 'the Wolf King']
I'll have to touch base with him. How'd you know it was the Wolf King?
[ thinks nothing of it, Styx had already hinted that Minuet disliked messing with people's heads. ]
It's easier to just show you what happened.
...
But I know you've had a long week. It doesn't have to be now. He was huge, crushed the other mist beasts like ants, and said some pretty telling things like —
[ in his best Wolf King impression ]
"I SMELL HER. YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER. YOU WILL PAY."
That kind of thing. Zenith and I aren't exactly weak, but we both felt that we wouldn't stand a chance back there. So we fled.
I could try to draw him, but art's not exactly my forte.
[he knows it's controllable. he also knows from getting surprise launched into a mindmeld that it's risky. he does want to see; to know what it feels like actually driving that; to know if he could hold the reins. he has always liked power. the subtle kind; the not-so-subtle.
he might have given in to the temptation a few days ago. or he might have given in if it were higher stakes to get this information immediately. but he does have lines where it takes a lot to cross when they've been drawn, and he thinks Minuet will tell him within a day of getting more of the details.
also he just replaced half the lighthouse furniture, it feels stupid to potentially explode it again out of overconfidence.]
Eh...I think you've painted a pretty good picture with words, here. So he's...some kind of giant eldritch wolf? It's that literal?
Pretty much. We killed a couple of mist beasts, so maybe that's what brought him out, but I can't say for sure. What I can tell you is that Zenith and I are both at the upper speed limit in this place, and we barely escaped.
The mist beasts themselves aren't exactly a pushover, either. We cheated by flying. The one we fought was a literal sum of its parts — several beasts merged into one entity. Once we did enough damage to it, it split up and we had to fight those, and so on.
[you don't fight that shit head on, he considers saying. reckless approach to problem solving does not apply across the board. maybe you scout this, and this can be considered a scouting party. but trying to combat that kind of monster on its home turf where it has the advantage once you've ascertained that...no. you lure it. you build the eldritch equivalent of a pit trap in an area where you're at strength, and you tie Blossom to a stick for the beast to scent. or something.
anyway.]
Did they fight and chase all of you? --I guess if you had to hold onto her it was hard to tell...
Yeah, we were kind of stuck together. Hard to tell. We wanted to test something else, but... it wasn't really viable with this kind of movement restriction.
[ wry smile. he owes Styx a drink after this. but he did promise Minuet that he'd warn him about all and any mist trips, so ]
You're not gonna manifest feathers if I tell you that we're planning on going back in, are you? With a more... suitable weed. This time avoiding the shadow beasts.
[a slight pause. well he just got told and he's not manifesting feathers, so probably Minuet, who has had at least a hundred fifty years more practice, will not go full mcchicken at the knowledge]
Haven't really mentioned how you'll be avoiding them, when that didn't seem like it was on the table this trip.
Our real objective was to test shadow travel in the mist. We found out that stormclouds don't work, but... 'fanged beasts' aren't bound by the same laws as us. Maybe their powers don't have blanket restrictions.
Specifically — we wanted to test whether a weed could teleport from one shadow beast to another via touch. So we decided to kill one. I can't say for sure, but avoiding it did seem possible at the time.
We were going to do that too originally, but things got weird with the contact requirement. Either way, the option of avoiding that one multi-beast was there. And fleeing was still an option even after we'd started attacking it.
Angel Devil's coming on the next one. He has some sort of invisibility spell. I can't sense him through it. Who knows if the mist beasts will be able to, but... every little helps, right?
Try testing the power at the mist's edge, yeah? Put two things that cast shadows with each of you, enter it separately, get out again and regroup. You don't need to keep tight hold of someone for just that.
[stop overcomplicating the parts that don't need to be.]
Are you looking for anything specific this second trip?
[ possibly getting the birds to talk to the Wolf King on their behalf. but let's not go there, he promised that this would be quick ]
Should be a normal scouting mission. See what we can find without alerting anything, then retreat as soon as there's immediate danger.
...
Although. What do you think of bringing sheep with us? One from each barn, maybe. We don't know how those interact with the mist. I can hold them at a distance pretty easily.
If they can smell Blossom on us already, no need to involve those little guys.
[he can honestly see the merit -- you could spread them out as alternative bait markers, like the goat for the T-rex in Jurassic Park -- but there are probably a bullshit amount of beasts in the mist. also if mist beasts can possess or infect the barn sheep who can't really tell you when they've been a bit injured and have only barely and unpredictably started displaying sentience, that is some extra bullshit nobody needs.
also he thinks Minuet would cry at the prospect of having agreed to kill fluffy little sheep. bad deal all around.]
Fair enough. Just recon, then. No tests, unless we have to improvise. If we do, though...
[ Charon would actually be useful for this kind of planning but he's not gonna say that after flaming the guy. why does he have to be so inconvenient. ]
You wouldn't happen to have experience negotiating with eldritch monsters, would you? Since you were gonna summon a demon and all.
[Charon is also absolutely the guy you want talking with eldritch monsters if you don't want to leave loopholes, and to his knowledge Minuet does not have experience, unless whoever 'that other guy involved with deciding the fate of No Man's Land' merited negotiation and not just a metric ton of bullet lead.
Well, on the tiny chance that our canine overlord is willing to hear us out, I'm not above telling him I'd betray Blossom. Even if I'm not willing to turn against the pasture... I could pull that part off truthfully. Even then, I'd expect him to laugh at us and kill us on the spot, but who knows.
[ makes a face. this is clearly above his paygrade. this is clearly above Minuet's paygrade. god, why is Charon such a stringent dumbass. ]
— Anyway, on the tiny chance that a negotiation works... if he ends up sealing me in a way that forbids me from talking about it, we should have some kind of... code. My lighthouse doesn't work out there, so I can't exactly record what happens. And if it's a seal, then... looking might hurt you.
[deadeyes him right back. get perceived, loser who says the next trip is to get in and get out and then requests this in the next breath while calling other people reckless]
[ the lighthouse cube blinks into existence, projecting a video recording of the exchange that just happened, from "You wouldn't happen to have experience...?" until "What've you got in mind". dismisses the lighthouse straight after. ]
Once I'm back, ask me how it went. I'll play this immediately once we're in private. If I don't — or can't, without being able to explain why — you'll know something's up. Recording is fudged in the mist, but the only time I can't sense the lighthouse altogether is when my powers are off. And that situation would be obvious anyway.
Deleting footage only takes a split second. If I feel any sort of mind warping going in, I'm fairly sure I can delete that segment while it's happening.
[ unless his powers get turned off while the warping is happening but. no need to overcomplicate this further. ]
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featherduster) wrote2023-06-15 02:30 pm
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I'll have to touch base with him. How'd you know it was the Wolf King?
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Your... ability. Can you read memories with it?
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Any reason it has to be memories?
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It's easier to just show you what happened.
...
But I know you've had a long week. It doesn't have to be now. He was huge, crushed the other mist beasts like ants, and said some pretty telling things like —
[ in his best Wolf King impression ]
"I SMELL HER. YOU CAN'T HIDE FOREVER. YOU WILL PAY."
That kind of thing. Zenith and I aren't exactly weak, but we both felt that we wouldn't stand a chance back there. So we fled.
I could try to draw him, but art's not exactly my forte.
Re: -> later
he might have given in to the temptation a few days ago. or he might have given in if it were higher stakes to get this information immediately. but he does have lines where it takes a lot to cross when they've been drawn, and he thinks Minuet will tell him within a day of getting more of the details.
also he just replaced half the lighthouse furniture, it feels stupid to potentially explode it again out of overconfidence.]
Eh...I think you've painted a pretty good picture with words, here. So he's...some kind of giant eldritch wolf? It's that literal?
Re: -> later
The mist beasts themselves aren't exactly a pushover, either. We cheated by flying. The one we fought was a literal sum of its parts — several beasts merged into one entity. Once we did enough damage to it, it split up and we had to fight those, and so on.
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anyway.]
Did they fight and chase all of you? --I guess if you had to hold onto her it was hard to tell...
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...
[ looks him straight in the eye. contemplates. ]
On a scale of one to ten, how stressed are you?
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You ask that like we're not into imaginary numbers by now.
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You're not gonna manifest feathers if I tell you that we're planning on going back in, are you? With a more... suitable weed. This time avoiding the shadow beasts.
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Haven't really mentioned how you'll be avoiding them, when that didn't seem like it was on the table this trip.
Re: -> later
[ sighs ]
Our real objective was to test shadow travel in the mist. We found out that stormclouds don't work, but... 'fanged beasts' aren't bound by the same laws as us. Maybe their powers don't have blanket restrictions.
Specifically — we wanted to test whether a weed could teleport from one shadow beast to another via touch. So we decided to kill one. I can't say for sure, but avoiding it did seem possible at the time.
Re: -> later
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We were going to do that too originally, but things got weird with the contact requirement. Either way, the option of avoiding that one multi-beast was there. And fleeing was still an option even after we'd started attacking it.
Angel Devil's coming on the next one. He has some sort of invisibility spell. I can't sense him through it. Who knows if the mist beasts will be able to, but... every little helps, right?
Re: -> later
[stop overcomplicating the parts that don't need to be.]
Are you looking for anything specific this second trip?
Re: -> later
[ possibly getting the birds to talk to the Wolf King on their behalf. but let's not go there, he promised that this would be quick ]
Should be a normal scouting mission. See what we can find without alerting anything, then retreat as soon as there's immediate danger.
...
Although. What do you think of bringing sheep with us? One from each barn, maybe. We don't know how those interact with the mist. I can hold them at a distance pretty easily.
Re: -> later
If they can smell Blossom on us already, no need to involve those little guys.
[he can honestly see the merit -- you could spread them out as alternative bait markers, like the goat for the T-rex in Jurassic Park -- but there are probably a bullshit amount of beasts in the mist. also if mist beasts can possess or infect the barn sheep who can't really tell you when they've been a bit injured and have only barely and unpredictably started displaying sentience, that is some extra bullshit nobody needs.
also he thinks Minuet would cry at the prospect of having agreed to kill fluffy little sheep. bad deal all around.]
Re: -> later
Fair enough. Just recon, then. No tests, unless we have to improvise. If we do, though...
[ Charon would actually be useful for this kind of planning but he's not gonna say that after flaming the guy. why does he have to be so inconvenient. ]
You wouldn't happen to have experience negotiating with eldritch monsters, would you? Since you were gonna summon a demon and all.
Re: -> later
why does Blood Fiend have to be so inconvenient.]
There's a first time for everything, right...
Re: -> later
Guess so.
Well, on the tiny chance that our canine overlord is willing to hear us out, I'm not above telling him I'd betray Blossom. Even if I'm not willing to turn against the pasture... I could pull that part off truthfully. Even then, I'd expect him to laugh at us and kill us on the spot, but who knows.
[ makes a face. this is clearly above his paygrade. this is clearly above Minuet's paygrade. god, why is Charon such a stringent dumbass. ]
— Anyway, on the tiny chance that a negotiation works... if he ends up sealing me in a way that forbids me from talking about it, we should have some kind of... code. My lighthouse doesn't work out there, so I can't exactly record what happens. And if it's a seal, then... looking might hurt you.
Re: -> later
...
What've you got in mind.
Re: -> later
[ the lighthouse cube blinks into existence, projecting a video recording of the exchange that just happened, from "You wouldn't happen to have experience...?" until "What've you got in mind". dismisses the lighthouse straight after. ]
Once I'm back, ask me how it went. I'll play this immediately once we're in private. If I don't — or can't, without being able to explain why — you'll know something's up. Recording is fudged in the mist, but the only time I can't sense the lighthouse altogether is when my powers are off. And that situation would be obvious anyway.
Deleting footage only takes a split second. If I feel any sort of mind warping going in, I'm fairly sure I can delete that segment while it's happening.
[ unless his powers get turned off while the warping is happening but. no need to overcomplicate this further. ]
Re: -> later
Reeeeeeally would like if if there was an extra backup that didn't rely on anyone's powers altogether. Seeing as how they're erratic and all.
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