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Post by littlekreen on Sept 22, 2020 18:31:33 GMT -6
While Flynn had a day job, such as it was with the repeated dismemberment, she had to stop to recover when it frequently took an arm or even one if not both of her legs. This last time was the latter which meant everything below the hips hurt in absolutely no good ways. Healing wouldn't happen in the shroud she'd crafted that knelt behind her. That human form a blood golem and husk that took the large portion of her income here. So she headed out to the reserve and paid a few werewolves to keep prying eyes out and keep their mouths shut. The last thing she needed was some idiot with a cell phone taking a picture of the "Dinosaur" with its feathered tail stuck out and plunked down in a lounge chair. Especially one with bandaged legs tinted blue in sploches still growing back their feathers.
Though she could keep the kids busy as caverns of split grass converged in the deeper part of the meadow. A cooler on each side the one next to her backpack bore a slingshot on top though it made soft noises. Flynn was busy reading a book bound in deep green with white writing and diagrams while she wrote notes down. It was the first time in ages she'd let them out more than a day without their glamours and the excitement positively boiled out of the grey fluffs. Flynn started to worry that they'd wander too far and couldn't catch them. While her legs weren't bleeding anymore they were really stiff so sent a text message to Molly.
Texting was easier than speaking English when she wasn't in the shroud, "Hey, do you have time to watch the little ones? Recovering, can't chase them."
If she got a response another message would go to the minders to expect a visior.
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Post by demikara on Sept 22, 2020 18:37:01 GMT -6
The response was immediate "Yeah sure. The usual place? Give me thirty minutes and I'll be there." Molly took the promised thirty minutes and arrived, walking through the tree lines and grinning at Flynn. They didn't spend as much time together as Molly would have wanted, and she really didn't know what Flynn got up to when they weren't hanging out. So long as she didn't cause a fuss on the plane though, Molly's job was done. Besides, she enjoyed spending time with the little ones.
"Hey Flynn! I visited a butcher for the boys before coming over." She had a plastic bag in one hand. She was pretty sure that the boys would be able to smell the fresh meat. They were small but very carnivorous. They probably had excellent noses. Hopefully she had let them out of their glamours for this. There was nothing as disarming as seeing a toddler stuff bleeding meat into his mouth.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 22, 2020 18:49:48 GMT -6
The jacketed female human figure behind her lawn chair was the glamor Molly had seen before but now knelt on its own while holding a cast iron goblet upward with its gaze down. The head raised on its own and stared at her with a rivulet of evaporating red trailing down from the empty sockets. Flynn's feathered head bent around the lounge chair back as the blue feather creast unfurled high above her head.
The Syrinx throat had difficulty producing english at the best of times but today it was a bit more melodic from stress, "Hello Molly! Good thing too! I only brought snacks for them but no good meal. They grow so fast and eat like catfish!"
The sound of their mother's voice brought two bouncing fledging fluffs sproinging their small heads above the field grass line. Though it took the little springs a bit to get their bearings while giving a throaty squeaking to find each other. Melodic notes sounded in short order as both noticed Molly near their clutch mother. The canyons of grass advanced as furry missiles sprinted through the grass. Rather inhuman persuit predators plus being children their stamina and speed were no surprise. Though as Thebus emerged from the grass line he tripped on a root and tumbled squawking end over end. Thebus took a sharp turn to prod at Quinn and pick him up.
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Post by demikara on Sept 22, 2020 19:01:35 GMT -6
"Hello Thebus. Hello Quinn." She grinned and took the meat out of the bag, opening up the package. It wasn't anything special, just some beef, but she had no doubt the two would devour it. "I brought you a snack." And between the snack Flynn brought, she was sure it would be a good meal. She looked up from the toddlers and eyed the glamour. It was always unnerving seeing the empty glamour. She didn't quite understand how they worked, but the fact that it could move independently of Flynn was down right unnerving.
"So how you'd end up injured?" She had noted the bandages. They weren't a good sign. The blue blood was also unusual, but Molly had definitely seen weirder. There was one race out there that had bright green blood. they were also entirely too stuck up for Molly's tastes so she tended to avoid that plane.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 22, 2020 19:24:01 GMT -6
Thebus and Quinn raced over having gained several inches and the beginnings of proper feathers. Their down having since fallen out no longer useful for camoflauge. Though clad in grey fluff and thin hairs the weaker one Thebus sports several fern fronds where downy pre-feathers ought to be. Peeping and whistling at each other in the early glimmers of language it was hard even for Flynn to understand the staccato melodies. They both raced over grass to Molly and bounced more than their own height in place out of a whistling excitement at the smell of meat. Their long small snouts feverishly juddering to chew the bits of meat though the molar-bearing Thebus had to hold the meat in his hands with their one good finger-claw. Flexible birth stubbs slipped on occasion as they both tore at red meat.
Flynn moved her legs though they shook from effort with a gutteral throaty noise that alarmed the two whelps with sniffing. Once she set them back down Quinn warbled then resumed eating.
Air through her conical teeth her legs settled then set her book down, "You might not die in a husk with the legs gone but you'll feel it coming out! I'm a blue blooded reacher so I can take a lot but it still hurts! What's the phrase the humans use, paying the piper? Though I try not to get the sanguine shroud damaged. Cost me a lot!"
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Post by demikara on Sept 22, 2020 19:29:42 GMT -6
"The leg gone. Flynn what have you been doing?" She appeared to have her legs now, even if they were heavily bandaged so that was good, but it still sounded like the other was doing something potentially very painful. The boys were getting bigger. She'd have to adjust their glamour some to account for the height change and what definitely appeared to be increased mobility. "I think I need to alter their glamour while I'm here by the way. They've gotten bigger and will outgrow the current ones limits soon." And that wasn't something they needed.
Right now, they looked half feathered and completely ridiculous. They were definitely growing though. Hopefully language of some sort would come soon. There was no telling for her. She didn't know how their species aged at all. Molly took a seat on the ground next to Flynn and looked closer at the bandages.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 22, 2020 20:13:29 GMT -6
The bandage rolls were largely pressing sterile gauze pads to the skin surface. Feathers grew back quickly through her denim skin though sutures in a faint green-red twine spring up all the way to her feet. Each closed up ragged wounds in the meat where translucent ectoplasmic scarring more common to undead than living beings mixed in with the angular scabs of blood along the edges of the sutures. Though past her knees some smaller open wounds poked out from under the gauze where she'd just put regular bandages over the top of them. As her knees had grown stiff from the injury she'd lost enough flexibility to suture all but the largest ones. Underneath them thin tendrils of ectoplasm shot across the gap as the reacher regrew flesh. The level of it in a Reacher's blood from extended time in the Dreaming gave her a regenerative constitution but not one quite so useful as other unseen with the ability. Though there was no discoloring of her flesh from bruising injuries more as if the crevasse all over her legs came from flesh that just ceased to be.
Flynn chuffed and breathed in sharply, "What I have to *Hhhh* to make money. Like the far and deep say! Stand firm, suffer gladly, protect your people! And I got some little people."
A flourish of her hand thumbed at the kneeling form behind her, "I can't work normal places without your enforcers noticing. If I get back home it will probably be in the farthest places of Losthome so I found something that makes enough money to make myself dreaming armor. It can suffer the eyes of the Children of Teeth. RrRrgh, they're elder chaos creatures. Armor against corruption."
Thebus went over to his clutch mother and sniffed at her with a sharp peep of his sopping red face. Quinn went to Molly instead curious as to what she was looking at and snuck between her and the lounge if he could fit. Personal space and whelps of dense-living pack hunters certainly didn't go together. Quinn loosed a pitched warble at Molly the mismatched eyes vying for attention.
Flynn brushed Thebus' head and his worried sniffs, "Their jewelry is in the cooler with the shroud slurry. The slingshot one is snacks. They won't speak for a while yet but they can hear their traveler in mirrors! I try to teach them words but they don't speak with intent yet. I think your invader said the word for 'Touch'. Their traveler only knows if it is a question or not!"
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Post by demikara on Sept 23, 2020 8:17:33 GMT -6
Armor against corruption was important at least. Molly could get behind that. "Well, just be careful okay? These two need you around." She grinned down at Quinn and pet him happily, running her hand over his back. She didn't mind touching him at least. He was small and fluffy. Though right now, he did look a bit ridiculous. "Do you know how much longer before you can take them back home with you? I don't want you to be caught by the locals."
She liked them well enough, but they really did need to get home. If MCU found out she knew about them, she might get in serious trouble. It was a nasty case of both her duties conflicting. Ultimately, her duties as a Ratatoskr came first.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 23, 2020 9:30:36 GMT -6
Flynn turned to look off toward the distance as her lip quivered from the effort and gave a slow breath for a wry humor, "Complicated as usual! I need the children at least old enough to take orders I can't carry them and cast through the shround at the same time."
A free hand picked up Thebus whom curled his tail up and leaned into Flynn's chest, "A little while ago my... ah.. sextant lit but that shouldn't be possible."
Quinn made a loose but simple melody at each contact of Molly's warm hands. The feathers were terrifically soft natural down at this age and few hard quills among them. A faint grey dust is left behind from their natural powder down. He bounced on his toes to lean into the contact with every stroke.
Their clutch mother though raised her journal from beside the lounge to flip to a particular page where it showed a plain concrete hallway with eclectic assortments of knicknacks piled about. At empty spots of the entrance various paragraphs in her own tongue describe where it led
"Followed the thread to an entry from the Underworks like this one but already fell in. Buncha shiny metal MCU after," eyes pressed tight her toe-claw twitches in pushing herself up straighter to strain out from beteeen her teeth, "but a cracking high iron already pounded his way in since there were metal feathers near. Looking for me."
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Post by demikara on Sept 23, 2020 9:38:18 GMT -6
That would take time. They were growing quickly, but they were still too little to take orders just yet. "So you think that's another person like you, looking for you? Do you know if they want to help or not?" Molly doubted that the other knew. "The metal feathers, are they from an allied group or not?" She didn't really understand at all how the others society was set up. But then again, there was still a lot lost in translation when the two talked. She had no doubt that the other felt the same way.
They weren't the same species. Their brains certainly didn't think the same way or process things the same way. She hoped Flynn and the boys would be safe though. "You know you can bring the boys to me if you need to hide them. I'll do my best to keep them safe." Though there were definite difference in communication.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 23, 2020 10:28:02 GMT -6
The black blue-veined eyes stare at Molly for a moment before realizing Molly wouldn't know this sort of thing, "You have... vampires, yes? I've been reading. They are lay or low iron to us by rank. The High Iron grow metal feathers and consume undead, living, or even the impure void-brood that rises if our bodies do not go to funeral feast or stripping of the meat. I don't know what your vampires are busy doing but ours rule from the Sanguinary."
She pet the small Thebus resting with fitful glances to his clutch mother, "A High Iron here means it's a taskmaster so, ally? Maybe. It's a strong word for a council cleaner. Turns out the human names they use are celestial things. Asmodel, Astrophel, Jeduthun. I don't know which. A tradition from before the Reachers knew what demons were. They will be here for me and kill my two half-breeds if they an obstacle."
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Post by demikara on Sept 23, 2020 10:47:26 GMT -6
"Then we'll have to keep you hidden and the boys safe. I can probably whip up some non-detection wards. They're stationary though." So they'd only work on places and not on people. But it meant there would be safe spaces for them to be. "And I'll keep an eye out for any reports of non-humans. Are they saurian like you?" Probably.
Molly continued petting Quinn, scratching under his chin at one point. Mostly she treated them as if they were cats, when it came to petting them. She wasn't sure how else to pet them, but it seemed to work out okay. "And we have vampires. They have their own courts, and tend to stick to themselves. When they aren't seeking more power, and hassling the local werewolves."
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 23, 2020 12:12:48 GMT -6
A finger pointed upward as one in particular was more Molly's height than Flynn's, "Yes they are children of the red lady though they may be of a larger breed. Far and Deep are at least twice me! Many can shift but the metal makes for sluggish adoptions of new shapes. So mostly have only one."
Flynn looked down at the worried Thebus and licked his small head. The ferns growing out of his skin flailed as he shook his head and they both seemed happier, "Non detection wards? Good. At least my little ones will be safe if I have to go home alone."
She raised one brow with her crest, "Though I could have used those before the idiot that stole my remediation cask. I hope the waste is stable dirt before they break into it. I've dealt with the werewolves they're not so bad. They told me about the vampires. We sniffed each other out wandering around the forests out here."
Quinn's pupils widen as the touch continued before a standing spring to clutch to the bottom of her arm. They still weighed very little having lost the heavy long hairs that once coated them. A happy soft tone in b flat started up as he breathed. They could sense their mother's injury by the blood and were on edge and the contact was reassuring.
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Post by demikara on Sept 23, 2020 12:21:27 GMT -6
Molly laughed and pulled Quinn close, cuddling him to her. "That's your happy note, isn't it?" Good, she was glad the kids were enjoying themselves. "I didn't think of providing the wards earlier. I really should have. Sorry about that." It hadn't occurred to her, though it really should have. She should have set everything up wherever Flynn was staying sooner.
It was difficult though, having to handle a case involving an extraplanar being like this. Especially on her own. Normally, she'd just escort them back to their own home. But Flynn could walk the tree on her own. She just needed the boys grown up enough to actually listen and to take orders. And who knew how long that would take?
In the meantime, Molly would do her best to cover for the other.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 24, 2020 21:21:16 GMT -6
Flynn's tail thumped on the grass with a lilting rhythmic trill, "RrRrRr! There's no bent balance. I forgot to put sigils I could track on my cask while protecting myself with blood effigy decoys. I didn't think the people here would be mad enough to bury the dead let alone steal my castoffs!"
"Anyway. I have a roof studio over an old warehouse paid in cash. Someone owed me a favor. so no neighbors and plenty of space for my tools but no heat." Flynn hugged the small one on her chest as Thebus buried his nose in his tail.
She points at Quinn as he instinctively curls his tail around Molly's hand when brought close, "The little ones can run with the curtains drawn but the nights are very cold for us. Your winter will be dangerous."
A long breath Flynn stared at Thebus, "They won't hear their traveler enough to understand me for at least another year though. I'm not sure what to do if the MCU or the High Iron finds me before then. He will have trouble tracking me down."
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