2017-12-23: Bleak December

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==========================<* Great Krosian Plains *>==========================

The bulk of the countryside around the capital city of Krosse consists of rolling, grassy fields, a stark contrast from the arid desert sands to the north. Every year, however, the desertification spreads, and more and more life is swallowed up by the sands.

As travellers near the capital, the grasslands transition into cultivated fields. The yields from Krosse's farmlands have given the kingdom the nickname of the breadbasket of Ignas, and the majority of its trade centres around grains, fruits, vegetables, and other foodstuffs. 

While its might pales in comparison to its larger neighbours, Krosse maintains a significant standing army to help deal with monsters and green-eyed neighbours who might seek to seize that bounty for themselves. These soldiers are kept active by frequent patrols and maneuvers throughout the Plains and major roadways; as a result, travel in the kingdom is safer than nearly anywhere else on the continent.

BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYbFnoRSW6M
<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

This is something that's been put off for a long time. Originally, Matilda was hoping to return home with additional power -- to face the danger she knew was mounting with something more than the nothing she felt like she had. Things... didn't work out that way, to say the least.

So instead, she's here -- but not alone. The thought of bringing others along for this has her a little nervous... but there's safety with friends, right? So Matilda makes her way home, at the head of a modest party of friends, acquaintances, and... concerned observers, we'll say. She's even reached out to the broader Drifting community a little bit!

This isn't like the other trips to this particular farmhouse that many of the assembled parties have made. Vines in the road, roaming groups of ambulatory tubers -- all of them seem to part for Matilda. This place has been waiting for her. She's heard enough about trips here from the others that this isn't entirely lost on her, either.

"... This -- wasn't, quite, what I was expecting to happen," Matilda offers, a little weakly. Alarm bells start ringing in the back of her head, but she carefully stuffs that down into the pit of her stomach. Whatever will happen will happen, she tells herself. "... Don't get comfortable with the way things are going here," she adds.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        Riesenlied is... ... I mean, which group is she in? Let's say a concerned observer. But after what she'd done with Matilda at the hangar, she felt the need to contribute... that, and the last time she was here, she'd felt... something. Something... or someone that she'd made a promise to. A voice that called her from beyond the veil, in the grip of her reverie as she marched through the chaff of the wheat towards the farmhouse...

        "Yes... this is quite the different reception than last time," Riesenlied murmurs, holding her hand tightly to the Tear as she marches along with the compounder. "The voice..."

        A pause, and she shakes her head.

        "No, nevermind."

        She glances towards Matilda again. She had to keep her safe.

        She promised That Person.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        Ethius is among the back of the party as Matilda leads a group of acquaintances and others back towards that eerie farmhouse. As is expected, he seems a bit too on the ball for threats he thinks are going to appear but don't materialize. There's no walking carrots at the expected points, no tools are flying around everywhere (there's a rusted-out spade that might have given a funny look but hasn't, like, pulled itself out of the ground a ways back).
        When the vines part, Ethius tucks into a rapid safety roll off to the left, holding his left hand out in preparation of readying and casting off some Symbological spell - precisely in time to Matilda's suggestion that one does not get comfortable with the way things are going.
        Ethius being Ethius, him being on edge all the time in a situation full of unexplained unknowns probably does pass for comfort... but he is giving most of the party a wide berth.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"That's weird," Kaguya says as the vines part. She is unabashedly standing up beside Matilda, walking as quickly as she's able with her cane. Her baggy clothes give a little more of a sense of size to the small young woman, but not that much; she looks too thin, as she always does. ...But she has a formidable-looking weapon, so it's good enough, right?

Her blunt statement is accompanied with a concerned look at Matilda, when she says it weakly. "...We won't let our guard down," she offers her instead. "We were able to get through this place before."

Riesenlied is back there too; Kaguya knows that. SHe's looked at her. ...It's less tense, than in the hangar, but she hasn't said all that much to her yet. This place is waiting for Matilda, though...

"If we're hearing voices then maaaybe we should watch out, 'kay?"

...She pulls her strange, white shotgun with one hand.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

         Rena is here because..

         ...Well, last time she was here, it was uh...

         Rena pinches the bridge of her nose. She just hopes 'ghost punching gloves' never have to be a thing again.

         Anyway. Right. Haunted mansion. Vines and everything are parting. That's unusual. Is this Matilda really that super special? IS SHE A GHOST!? Maybe she should've taken those ghost punching gloves....

         But no, Rena is patently unarmed, her arms at rest over the hem of her skirt. "Well... just be careful, everyone. Okay?" She offers a smile and keeps to the back, ready to heal anyone.

         Because that's her job apparently.

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

        Dean's here, of course. He might not be as close to Matilda as some of the others here, but he considers her a friend... and more importantly, he just recently learned and realized something big about her. He hasn't had a chance to follow up with Jay and Matilda about it, but all considered, it's only a matter of time. Besides, he'd like to support Matilda as she comes back home, now that he knows this place *is* her home. Or used to be, anyway.
        
        "That... *is* pretty weird," he admits when the tubers and vines and other threats of the Eerie Farmhouse part before Matilda. "But not that weird. Maybe they... recognize you, or something?" He shakes his head. "Anyway! We're all right behind you, Matilda, so don't worry!" ...He doesn't appear to be armed either, but that's okay. His ARMs come to hand literally whenever he wills them to. Impressive technology, for a country bumpkin.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline spoke with Matilda the other day. They had a chat, shared history, made plans for the future, and...made a decision. A decision to return to the farmhouse.

Jacqueline had said she would stand behind Matilda, and that the Caravan Kinship would remain as long as it needed to take care of whatever concerns Matilda had.

Jacqueline stood by this decision, even now as things become...strange.

"It's like they're welcoming us...or, perhaps you...in. But...there's no guarantee they'll let us out so easily..." Jacqueline comments with a frown, arms folded in front of her.

Jacqueline had made sure to adjust her array of Crests beforehand...and if that wasn't enough, she always had her potions. She might not be armed in the traditional sense, but she could defend herself well enough.

Dean speaks and Jacqueline nods, offering a reassuring smile. She doesn't know about 'don't worry' exactly, but...

"That's right. We're all here." She says. She just hoped it would be enough.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

        Shalune is uncharacteristically quiet as the group makes their way up the path towards the rather foreboding house at the top of the hill. She's here because... because a couple of days ago, she provided Matilda with a photograph she recovered from the farmhouse, silent and respectful and worried all at once when she handed it over. Because when she lost her parents, she went on a crusade off to Elru simply because she didn't know what to do with the pent-up energy.

        Because it's what you do, she sums up mentally, shrugging a little as she puffs out a breath and watches the plant part.

        "... I-- it's further in, right? There's a shed on the way, but the main steps up to the house are round on the right," she recalls softly, kind of hiding under the line of her bobble hat as she bites gently at her lip. "... we... burnt down some of this stuff last time, but it doesn't look like it-- took."

        She's not armed, per se, but she's dressed as she always is - big comfortable layers of sweater and coat and work jeans and sturdy boots. She's got a lot of pockets, and it's a safe bet her collapsed staff is in one of them, with who knows what else stuffed in the oversize coat.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

A pause, and Shalune frowns as she gently chides Riesenlied. "... no getting possessed by fugue this time, okay?" she lectures. ... what Riesenlied doesn't know is that she's got five gella riding on that with Janey.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        Riesenlied kind of shoots Shalune a faintly guilty look; it's not like she eagerly just dives headlong into posesssion situations! Gosh.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"It's fine," Kaguya offers, "I've got some rope if she gets possessed or something!" Pause. "...That doesn't really happen, right?"

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

         Rena softly clears her throat. "Please no one get possessed. We already have enough problems as it is." Frown! Because really, she does. Believe her.

<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.

Well it's about time honestly. Asteroid's been here enough times to find TWO deeply emotional photographs that were really depressing. Hopefully this time will be the last because she's tired of getting nibbled on by angry carrots. She's here because she considers Matilda to be a friend and, more importantly than a friend, a cool person AND, more importantly than a cool person, someone who gives her drugs. If she dies or something she stops getting drugs and that's bad. Also she's like close to Kaguya but whatever WHATEVER WHATEVER WHATEVER.

Asteroid the Kid says, "Yeah that's right," She tells the vines as they part for her or maybe Matilda (Asteroid thinks Asteroid). "You better run." She shakes a fist.

She gives Ethius a concerned look periodically because he's nice and all but has like issues and stuff.

She also spots Rena! She doesn't actually know much about Rena. She does know one thing about Rena though.

"Hey you, elf girl." She tells Rena. "Thanks for beating up Claude." Pause. "Also sorry I almost hit Claude with a meteor." Pause. "Actually he's not really a bad guy or anything but he was pretty insensitive at the Colonies." Pause. "But Rigdobrite's with him so he can't be too bad."

There, she thinks...

She thinks she has everything.

"Maybe someone among us is already possessed....and we just don't know it."

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"Ah -- thank you, everyone. I... I'm very grateful to have all of you here with me." Matilda takes a deep breath, looking to Kaguya. She puts the Veruni in so much danger... ... no, she can't think about that right now. Rena and Riesenlied get slightly strained smiles -- though it's Shalune who manages to tease a laugh out of Matilda.

As Matilda and friends near the farmhouse proper, the eerie green glow of the building -- the faint, unnatural hue that haunts the windows and doorframes and every crack in the wood -- starts to subside. There's a brief burst of it near the rear -- just barely visible to the investigators -- before it seems to subside, all at once. The overgrowth that spins around some of the windows, around the porch, withdraws. There is a stillness.

A woman strides out the front door. She is short, but not unreasonably so. Her hair hangs long and straight, like Matilda's, though it is a honey blonde; her eyes and nose seem... gaunt, sunken, as if with illness, but they're unmistakably a match for the compounder's. The expression on Matilda's face flicks from worry, to relief, to doubt, in short order. As if in response, a sickly-bright green stone worn as a brooch seems to glint a little too much in the light.

Matilda is the first to speak. "M -- mother?" she stammers. "I thought for certain that, if... if this had happened, you'd be..." She shivers. "... How are you still...?"

The answer she gets back is sharp, accusatory. "I've been waiting for you, and *that's* how you greet me?" Matilda immediately shrinks from the response. "It's good to see you again, of course. I've been waiting for you to come home, my darling Tilly. I see now that letting you go to Marze was a mistake."

"Marze? Mother, I've been in --" A root snakes out from the ground and *snaps* at Matilda as she speaks; she takes a half-step back, and recognition seeems to set in.

"Linga, yes, I know. But I meant what I said. I should never have let you go and learn your letters -- and I definitely shouldn't have let you ever play around in your little garden at night." Helena takes a step forward, and for a split second, one might swear to seeing a greenish afterimage behind it. "You should have stayed safe with me forever..."

"... Mother..." Matilda murmurs, a little helplessly. "This -- this isn't... this doesn't make any *sense*. When you last wrote, you --"

"I was an idiot! A loving husband doesn't matter if he's a kobold's dinner, and a brilliant daughter doesn't matter if you only see her twice in nearly a decade!" There's a swell in the ground; vines reach out and grab Matilda, and Matilda's mother begins, all at once, to... shift.

It's hard to process exactly how the changes happen; fingers simply exist one moment, and the next are replaced with tendrils. Blonde hair seems to bulge out briefly, then shift into a flower. Pale skin turns a sickly green. Legs twist into roots and dig into the ground, and much of the body seems to contort into a bloated, massive venus flytrap, some ten feet in height.

Matilda shrieks. It's all she can do as the vines meet the tendrils of the creature's hands, and then all at once stuff her back into the flytrap -- which slides shut with a terrifyingly wet squelching noise, drawing Matilda in the rest of the way with yet more viny tendrils.

Eyes beneath the flower look out at the remaining drifters with an almost animalistic awareness. "I have never had a quarrel with a Drifter, home invaders notwithstanding," comes the voice of Helena Whitehead. "Leave me with the family I have left." Vines lash out, indicating that -- despite what she says -- this is likely to turn violent no matter what.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        Riesenlied's face pales a little as she gazes upon the gaunt and thinned figure of Helena; the green brooch that emanates at her neck seems at times not dissimilar to the Dragon's Tear, yet it daunts her so. "Matilda, wait--" but she can't rightfully stop a daughter from speaking to her mother...

        But things turn much more sour, and in a hurry. Helena tears into her, figuratively, and yet also physically as the vines begin to wrap around her. "Matilda!" Riese's eyes widen, and she looks on with shock towards the woman.

        There's a flinch as her own Tear begins to react to what she perceives to be something deeply unsettling -- and she exclaims, "What happened to you -- what happened to this place?!" She has no time for questions, though, gazing up as the compounder is seized.

        She trembles for a moment, as she draws her own thin-sword and holds it up to the nearest vines, wincing. "That is not the wish of your late husband, Baldwin!" She trembles for a moment, then says, "You must listen to your own daughter...!"

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

What's danger to a dying girl? Kaguya came regardless; she's been here often enough to know how dangerous it can be.

...But she doesn't like the way the green glow bursts out in the corner of her vision, the way things seem... to stop. Things getting better always seems to be a sign of things getting worse to Kaguya. Well, if not always... then right now.

A parent showing isn't much better.

"Hey--" Matilda's mother snaps at her, and Kaguya's eyes narrow. Parents. She calms, sort of, except that she talks about... About... Not letting her go, staying 'safe'.

Kaguya reaches out for Matilda's hand, to brush against it with the one holding her cane. But the ground swells, and when Matilda is grabbed, Kaguya can do nothing about it--

"What--"

The tendrils come. The transformation comes, disgusting, terrible, and Matilda shrieks. "Atida--!" Kaguya's voice, despite her small size, is loud, high, almost shrill. But when the compounder is drawn within--

Strange, strange green eyes flare as the small Veruni stares at the monster above, stares into those eyes. She hasn't had a quarrel?

"You..."

She hisses, "You absolute wretch." Kaguya hefts her ARM, the TK-38K's plastics and metal gleaming in the light. "...You think you can hold her? You think you can keep her from living her life, just because you want to keep her safe, because you want her near you? You think you can do that to your child!?" Her voice starts heated, but grows... Loud.

"No way. I don't care if she gets angry. She's mine now, not yours." The Veruni snarls as with a hard clack she maneuvers a strange, glowing cartridge into the weapon's chamber--and aims straight for the monster's eyes. "And I won't let you take her!" A blast rips out of it, a scattershot pulse of hardened light that gleams sickly, that poisons.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

        "... ... I bet you were really kind once," mutters Shalune softly under her breath. "I mean-- the photos we found, they were really worn - but they were worn out of kindness and use, you know? Dogeared, kinda stained. They weren't just stuck in a box and left around," she explains to the open air, as she slowly sucks in a breath.

        Her hand steals to a pocket, withdrawing a slim white rod; she presses a button on the side, her eyes uncharacteristically alight as it extends into its full five foot length, as she takes a bulky container out of her pocket to slot it into one end with a satisfying clunk and the low whine of its mechanism powering up.

        She hesitates, biting at her lip - thinking of a kind if gaunt face, and vibrant red hair that started falling out too soon - and gently swallows. "... but-- there's no mom who wouldn't be pleased to see their kid go out into the world. There's no mom who wouldn't keep her husband's memory alive."

        For a moment, her focus wavers - she's old enough and streetwise enough to know that neither of those sentences are strictly true, but it's not like she can do anything but go with that impulse but go with her own beliefs. When the first of the vines reach for her she's snapped the staff up in a whirl, the first two spins batting the vegetation away; the last leaves it braced at her shoulder, her hands halfway down the staff's length and the thick canister at the business end - and when she thumbs a trigger, a gout of flame suddenly rockets forwards to fill the space in front of her.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

         Rena looks Asteroid and smiles sheepishly. "It's okay. I know Claude needs to be punches sometimes. Just... don't kill him, alright?" Or else she might have to do very bad things, yes? She smiles, but the implication seems to shimmer in her eyes. Scary.

         "Also, my name is Rena. It's nice to meet you." Another sweet smile, and she looks away to pay attention to the situation at hand. They get to the farmhouse, and... oh, someone's coming out. Rena's eyes, however, or fixed onto that eerily glowing green stone. ".... ......." She squints. "No way..." She murmurs, thinking back to the last time she saw something like it. ...Back in the church, Allen going mad...


 "Um..." She tries to get a word in, but Matilda and her mother? are quite busy talking. ...And then yelling. ...And then THINGS ARE TRANSFORMING AND VINES ARE SWINGING EVERYWHERE. Rena yelps and dives backwards, guarding herself with her arms.

         "OKAY I'VE DEFINITELY SEEN THIS BEFORE!"

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        As the party takes their turns reassuring Matilda as they approach the central farmhouse, Ethius seems to have his eyes almost everywhere except the prize. Every little detail that went wrong, every tiny thing that reached out and tried to kill them, every thing that defied reason. For all anyone knows, he might be one stroke of paranoia off from trying to interrogate a pitchfork leaning up too leisurely against the fence. Whatever mania drives this man to conduct himself as he does, how distant and out-of-place this man is... how easy it would be to simply remove him from the picture and affect so little of the social dynamics or the events taking place around him...
        When Helena arrives, those eyes of his turn sharply to her. Her, and that unnatural green glowing object. From his place at the back of the group, his approach to rejoin them is gradual and measured as to be silent. He says nothing through the mother's grievances and worries. When roots snap out, he already has one hand behind his back, eyes narrowing.
        The aged woman transforms into a tall plant-like hybrid. It defies reason, and just about anyone's expectations of normalcy or what is even possible.
        "Far Point!" Ethius calls, lunging forward with the quarterstaff as he stretches his body to the anatomical utmost available to the human body, stretched out so far he's damned near flat to the ground. Just like that, he's up there with the rest of the gathered.
        There is no appeal to a woman dealing with crippling loneliness and feelings of abandonment - only violence, as the very tip of his weapon looks to strike and aim true at the relative equivalent spot of where the strange brooch was when Helena still appeared as an aged human woman.
        Once more, Ethius flips the switch from 'strange, extraneous feature of scenery' into 'actor of decisive violent intent' without a pause to allow anyone to catch a breath or a call to action. He does not delay.
        He simply acts.

<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.

Asteroid the Kid rapidly learns that while her parents are truly awful, they are at least not 'eat her alive' awful. She squints her eyes at the green stone. Is that ... radiation? Asteroid the Kid doesn't exactly have a Geiger Counter to check. Nevertheless, she's frankly too scared to do much for a moment. "H..hey now..." She gestures up and down with a hand. "You know, I've got a thought. Let's flip the script a little. Maybe...maybe you... don't eat your daughter? That would.... be uncool." She's just a flipping scientist, she thinks, why does she keep getting thrust into these kinds of situations??

Asteroid the Kid says, "Wait you have? I'm pretty sure that kind of power source is not typical...Filgaian Tech? Maybe like Metal Demon War grade or Zeboim but why the hell would a country hick SORRY MATILDA IF YOU CAN HEAR ME have some shit like that?" She glances to Rena and adds, "Oh I'm not gonna kill him. He's like my #3 crush Ay Tee Ehm."

Wait is this the time to be talking about that?? Probably not! But Asteroid has really one offensive trick and that's 'throw rocks'. This has not been very effective against this monster before.

"Gahhhnn...." She says, rubbing at her head rapidly with her palms. "Ngghhaaaa!!"

Kaguya yells about how Tilde is 'hers' now.

"ugghhfuckit." Asteroid mutteres before charging full throttle for the creature. "LET GO OF MY DRUG DEALER!!"

She lunges for one of the vines and starts biting it. She has very very very very sharp teeth. "THIS WOULDN'T HAPPEN IF WE DIDN'T INVEST IN TRANSPORTATION!!! THIS IS WHY WE NEED REALLY GREAT ENGINEERS LIKE ASTEROID THE KID!!!!"

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

        Possession... Dean frowns, rubbing a finger under his nose, as the others discuss that for a moment. "I dunno about that..." But then, he doesn't really know anything about possession in general. He thinks about it a moment longer as the group continues to approach the farmhouse and its unearthly green glow--and then the front door bursts open.
        
        "Woah!" he utters, dropping into a combat-ready stance. "So *you're* the one who kept locking the front door back up! I knew it had to be *somebody*!" A pause. "...Wait, you're still *living* here?" he utters, the reality abruptly dawning on him. And--based on Matilda's reaction--it seems like this is her mom. She really doesn't look in good condition. And what's with that glowing green gem in her brooch? But then she's transforming, and her plant-self snaps out and gulps Matilda whole, and Dean's left with his mouth hanging open in abject surprise. When he recovers? His twin ARMs flash into his hands, fingers settling over the grips and triggers as if they were meant for him.
        
        "Let Matilda go!! You can't just--turn into a monster and swallow her whole! What're you trying to do to her, make her even more terrified?!" Dean demands. "I know you're her mom and all, but you can't treat her like this! It's not right!" Before he lunges in for an attack, though, Rena yells that she's seen this before, and he turns to blink at her. "You have? What should we do?! It'd be bad if attacking her hurt Matilda too!"
        
        Not that that stops SOME people. Or... really ANY people, so far. This prompts Dean to act as well, as he's the type to act first and think later anyway. *His* move is to charge towards the flytrap that swallowed up Matilda, then slam the combat rods emerging from his guns into his gullet in an attempt to get it to spit Matilda back up. Granted, given that it's ten feet tall, the gullet is pretty much all Dean can reach.

<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.

"This is why Riese is everybody's mom! All the other moms are bad at momming!! Do you want Riese to be everybody's mom?!" Asteroid screeches. "Riese is busy she can't be everybody's mom only some people's mom!"

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline follows carefully, an eyes kept on her surroundings. And then something surprising happens. There were many things she expected to see, but a living, breathing human wasn't one of them.

Jacqueline glances between the woman and Matilda with a hint of worry. There was something...off, about this. Matilda's mother doesn't speak like someone who's been living in a plant and plant-monster-infested home.

And then suddenly she changes, and captures Matilda. Jacqueline pales and backpedals, horrified.

"Matilda!" Jacqueline shouts, concerned, then turns her attention to Matilda's mother.

"We're not Drifters, Mrs. Whitehead!" ...At least by certain definitions of the term. "We're Matilda's friends...and I'm also her employer. Her safety is my responsibility. I don't want to have to hurt you...but I won't let you hurt her, even if she is your daughter!"

Unfortunately, even she can see that a fight is unavoidable here. Her friends have already begun to attack...

"Remember everyone, be careful with your attacks! She has Matilda!" Jacqueline warns before drawing a Crest.

Tendrils of earth shoot from the ground and rush forward to meet Mrs. Whitehead's own, to tangle with them and try to keep them occupied.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Riesenlied's words make the creature before them recoil briefly, then lash out with a long, tendril-like root with a razor sharp tip. "I don't *care!*" she insists, distorted, growling. "This is all I have left!" There's a bit of a whimper behind that insistent growl, though, and talking to her does seem to put her off guard --

-- which Kaguya takes immediate advantage of, blasting the flower and making it twist and then droop a little. This seems to put some of the immediate pressure off of Shalune, allowing her to clear some of those viny tendrils with fire -- and give Rena the space to hop back and guard herself, and Ethius the chance to strike with his staff. That gets a definite reaction; the tendrils that aren't on fire start to snake for Ethius now.

Asteroid gets a mouthful of vine which is not very delicious but does prompt the first visceral scream from Helena(?) so far, because jeez. Dean gets an opening that lets him give the flytrap a few good cracks in the gullet; it doesn't open yet, but it does seem to strain. Inside, Matilda lets out a sharp, wordless cry, as Jay's earth meets vines and roots.

There's a gross squelching noise from somewhere within the aggregate creature; atop the flower and the torso zone, damaged areas seem to knit back together and bruised areas de-crunch. "Fine, then!" comes the hissed response. "If you're not Drifters, you're simply home invaders!" The flower atop the massive plant construction seems to bloom and then tilt slightly forward; a haze of pollen sprays out, and seems to weigh heavily on Matilda's assembled friends. It'd be easier just to sleep, wouldn't it? To take a deep breath, and --

-- Oh right. The tendrils. While most of the roots and vines are tied up or burning, some still have the capacity to lash out. Lash out they do, of course -- whipping at all assembled yet again.

The flytrap just seems to shift a little. Another scream issues from inside, before the large leafy arms of the plant-thing -- previously unused -- lash out with vicious slaps across the whole group. Depending on the precise position, they might be more like slashes than slaps...

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        There's a painful, inflamed cough from Riesenlied as the pollen starts to scatter around the battlefield. While normal Metal Demons may not be affected by such measures, she certainly is, and her head grows groggy and cold as she... no...

        The light of the Tear starts to shimmer again as she raises it, concentrating as she expands a powerful burst over the field and tries to drown out the effects of the soothing pollen with her own clarifying power. "Stand strong, everyone!"

        She gazes towards the monster again, heeding Jay and Dean's concerns both; she looks to Rena to say, "There must be something influencing her -- I'll try to reach her and try to slow her down while you take care of it!"

        The Tear's emanation grows stronger still as she tries to shape the wave of the empathy field inwards -- and try to reach both Matilda and her mother, to try to pull their consciences into dialogue. It won't be easy, as even as she concentrates on her power, she's vulnerable to the razor-sharp slashes from the tendrils and that flytrap looms ever closer...

        "I heard your husband's wishes. She does not wish you to continue on this path!" she cries to Helena. "Dig deep into your own thoughts and push this influence aside!"

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Kaguya is admittedly a little curious about Asteroid's talk of #3 crushes... in the back of her mind. That's all gone now, subsumed into her anger at her new target. It... didn't take very long for that to happen, admittedly. It has her focus; the others' words though do get through; Asteroid rushing in to actually bite, talking about the drugs--well, she's Kaguya's dealer too, frankly. Not that she'd... Put it that way...

"Right!" Kaguya calls to Jay, "I'm not gonna shoot the container!" Rena says she's seen it before, and Kaguya snaps, "Then tell me what you do about it!" Riesenlied... Riesenlied is going to try to reach her. Of course. But that sort of goes past Kaguya as, as the creature is damaged, as the creature is healing... Wait. It's healing as--

A cough, at the pollen, as Kaguya stumbles before Riesenlied's abilities help her get through. "It's hurting Atida!" she calls, and then gets a slash of a vine up her chest for her troubles, the whip-like force leaving a bloody gash in her shoulder. "Gh--" It hurts. Of course it hurts. Doing this at all hurts.

"Fine then... You want to heal yourself, then--" Kaguya's usual approach against healers comes out--she steps back, and takes a hand from her weapon, her cane already forgotten in the chaos. There's a pulse of magic in the air, which most have never seen Kaguya wield; green light coalesces about her hand, and a sudden gust of wind crashes towards the creature, straight for the flytrap--bearing flowers with deep thorns, with jagged stems pointed straight towards plant flesh, not long enough to pierce through to Matilda... hopefully, but venomous enough to scythe through ill-gotten vitality.

It smells strange, heady, the wind. "Nothing to say to me!?"

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        The Far Point involves heavy physical commitment in terms of balance - the price to pay for its reach and precision. When a tendril snakes out for him, its first brush with the extended staff is strong enough that it could throw him right on the ground if he keeps hold.
        He doesn't. He allows himself to be disarmed in order to maintain autonomy of his movement.
        Helena has declared the lot of them as home invaders, which... in itself is a kernel of truth, considering what sorts of antics the lot of them got up to in their forays upon the farmland. Ethius, who is making absolutely zero appeals to any inner humanity or appeal to anything, expects and generally earns no mercy.
        As evidenced when the lashing tendrils do not stop with the staff, but start to strike and slice at him. There is a grunt that's muted by the flailing and the shouting. He tries to take a step back as Riesenlied calls upon the Tear's emanation, but one of those tendrils is now sharply squeezing at his left leg. With less blood circulating there, it grows ever number that his balance proves to be forfeit anyway.
        Pollen sprays everywhere. One hand goes to the bandana around Ethius' face, pressing against it in order to shunt out as much of the air as he can. Mustering what grit he has to do this while he suffers further wounding from flailing tentacles, Matilda's cries paint a sobering point. Almost anything they can do might bring her to serious harm. How can she be released?
        Ethius has an idea. He starts to chant--
        A tendril slaps him upside the face, and he stammers on a critical syllable and loses the current spell. He is forced on a defensive. One hand against his face to stop himself from breathing in the pollen that makes his eyes water, the eyelids heavy. The other trying to lay a hand against the tendril on his leg, trying to slur through syllables for a quicker, lower-yield heat spell with those fingers on the tendril fluttering in hopes of giving it a strong enough scalding to let go of his leg.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

         Of course Rena knows what it is. It's that damn rock. She frowns and shakes her head when Riesenlied addresses her. "It's that green stone she has with her!" She says to the Metal Demon, and just about everyone else to hear as well. "It has this weird effect on people." She explains, keep back, but beginnin to cast a healing spell. "It amplifies emotions and makes people go mad."

         "I've seen it happen before to a friend of mine..." Rena says, one hand covering her mouth to stave off the pollen while the other keeps prepared to help whoever needs it. "Get it away from her and destroy it. It's... I think it's a part of the Sorcery Globe!" Yes, the Sorcery Globe. NOT the Saucery Globe. Big difference there.

         "But, uh..." Blue eyes dart all over the creature. "... Youre going to have to *get* to the stone first. Wherever it is."

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

        Dimly, Shalune recognizes the way that her brain sarts to slightly fuzz; immediately in response to that, she pulls down her bobble hat over her face. It's not exactly the most stringent way to protect herself from the pollen, but it does at least seem to help slightly as she winces through the mist.

        At the very least, it allows her to pick out the way the arms begin to pull inwards, scything through the room in a wide-angled slash; she dives to the ground, feeling the blades pluck at her shoulders and back for a wrenching moment before the feel of a plank against her cheek is some cold comfort - at least she made it to a low position.

        And from there, perhaps there's something more constructive she can do, fishing in one jacket pocket. The pollen, heavier than air, is thicker here - and she realizes she's going to have to get back up onto her feet sooner rather than later. Still, she's got time to fish an arm out into her pocket, pull out something that looks for all the world like a blocky, unassuming pistol with a thick sphere on the end of the barrel, sight it in the rough direction of the plant-woman, and fire.

        There's a complex 'thwippp' kind of noise, as the bola-like wire that's rigged up to the makeshift ARM shoots forwards, the weighted cable seeking to tie up as many tendrils and arms as it can. "--we'll-- try to stop her moving, then!" she blurts towards the room at large. Maybe don't give away the plan, jeez Shalune!!

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

        "Right!" Dean calls back to Jay. He does his best to avoid the bulk that he assumes his Matilda's when he strikes, but it's hard if not impossible to tell if her scream is a result of his attacks or someone else's. Either way, it makes Dean step back a pace, which gives Monster Helena a chance to sprinkle her soporific pollen about. Dean breathes some on without realizing, and his eyelids... start... to get... soooo... *heavy*...
        
        But then Riesenlied sends out her power, and it's like a shot of cappucino. Dean jolts upright and shakes his head vigorously, which leaves him open to getting whipped and beaten by those vines. He yells sharply in pain before getting beaten back. That hurt like heck, but... Matilda's counting on them!
        
        They're just home invaders? "No, that's wrong!" he shouts as he gets back to his feet. "We came here because Matilda asked us to! And we're fighting because you're--you're--doing something horrible to her! Of course we want to protect our friend!!" He doesn't know anything about Matilda's father wishes, and as an orphan, Dean doesn't really know much about parents or families save what he's seen growing up from Rebecca's, but he does know that this just isn't how a mother ought to behave. "She's a person, not your doll! You can't just snatch her up without even asking what she wants!"
        
        Rena explains what's going on. Dean gapes at her. Although he doesn't know much about the Sorcery Globe, he's at least heard the rumors--how it crashed up north and attracted all kinds of monsters. "THE Sorcery Globe?! But I thought that wasn't anywhere near here!" Regardless, if it's true the green stone is doing this to Matilda's mother... "Then it's all that stone's fault! I'm sure she'll go back to normal if we can smash it!" Wherever that stone is. Dean turns back towards Helena. "She was wearing it around her neck before! Maybe... it's around... this thing's neck?!"
        
        Does this thing even *have* a neck. Dean stares a second longer. Then, with a fierce cry, he launches himself towards what looks the most like it might *be* a neck. It's his best guess, anyway, and if this thing continues to self-heal, they'll have bigger problems than just figuring out where Helena's weak point is.

<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.

"See??" Asteroid shouts. "She's even trying to be Matilda's mom's mom!"

This will get confusing quickly. Asteroid is the kind of lady who runs her mouth while terrified and since she's especially terrified she's especially running her mouth.

"Mystic!" Asteroid shouts, a shield rippling around Kaguya that should help keep the sleepy pollen off of her. It also cures status ailments and heals hp!

But her life expectancy is still short

That lowers her guard down enough for a second vine slices across her back, spraying blood out from her wound in Dragon Age Origins style before flinging Asteroid into the backwall--and she slumps forward and crashes to the ground, face first, aftewards.

"Ngughhh..." She says, drawing out her portal guns and firing portals underneath vines and roots, trying to tie them up against one another or confound the plant creature by sending its tendrils againts one another!

"Ethius!" She shouts. "We gotta get Matilda out before we set everything on fire! Rigdobrite can give you the power to extend!"

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

That cry from Matilda makes Jacqueline wince. She didn't know if it was from something they did, or if it was from something Mrs. Whitehead was doing, but she didn't like it...

Jacqueline can only contain so many of the vines at once. They lash out, striking at her like a whip. She recoils back, leaving her open to a slash from one of those leafy arms. And then the pollen washes over her, starting to take effect. Thinking becomes difficult, and she can feel her body starting to sag...her concentration wanes, and the tendrils of earth return to where they came...

But then, suddenly, she feels the power of Riesenlied's Tear washing over her, pushing away the haze over her mind. Quickly Jacqueline reaches into her bag, drawing out one of the filtering cloths she uses when she's brewing potions and wrapping it over her nose and mouth.

"Be careful not to breathe in the pollen!" If Jacqueline broadcasts that she has cloths, Mrs. Whitehead might try to focus on her...hopefully, people could put things together and come for them themselves.

And then Jacqueline moves, standing near Riesenlied.

"I'll cover you. Do what you can to reach her." Jacqueline says, drawing out a Crest. She doesn't cast just yet, instead readying herself to react with a defensive spell - a flame-based dome that should hopefully discourage vines from getting closer.

...The green stone? Jacqueline glances toward Rena as she explains what's likely going on here. Jacqueline frowns. Dean raises a good point. How would they get to it?

...Unfortunately, while Jacqueline did have fine control of her magic, she wasn't too confident in her ability to use it against their opponent without hurting Matilda. She would let the others handle that, and just keep an eye on anyone who might need one of her potions.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

As Riesenlied makes a desperate plea, the plant's efforts to wring more vitality out of Matilda seem to slow; the flytrap moves less, and Matilda's screams subside a bit. It's not stopping, but it does seem to slow... "Shut up!" comes the hissed response, with more comments cut off --

-- by Kaguya's jagged, vicious flower-on-flower violence. That gets a big reaction; one half of the flytrap is gashed open, revealing just a glimpse of Matilda's body. One vine seems to be stuck into her side... not that that's particularly a surprise, given the circumstances. "So you're the one she sent back about," comes that distorted voice again. "... I see no reason for you not to join her!" The tendrils that remain snake out for Kaguya...

... and Ethius's magic gets them to hitch for a moment, writhing in pain instead of grabbing Kaguya. Heat seems to work wonders on them -- and leaves the remainder to be wrapped up by Shalune, saving Kaguya for the moment. Rena's healing gives the group a solid advantage to press, at this stage, and Dean capitalzes with a bold move up the creature toward its 'torso,' just as Ethius had a few moments ago. Striking it once, Dean gets the reaction he'd have been looking for -- a full-body writhe. That has to be the spot! ... Or at least, one of the spots.

Dean gets a particularly insistent reaction back. "And why not?! She's all I have left!" comes the shout, both leafy limbs smashing straight down into Dean as Asteroid makes the monster's tendrils slap themselves into submission. ... Jay's there immediately with that flaming dome, too -- the limbs themselves strike it and then instantly recoil.

There's a pained gasp from inside the now cut-partially-open flytrap; the roots and vines briefly pick up -- but can't keep that momentum, and go still. Those massive, now-burning 'limbs' are now the creature's only avenue of aggression -- and the beast that was once Matilda's mother goes nuts with them, pounding the earth over and over before lashing out yet again.

The top portion -- the flower, and the 'torso' atop which it sits -- redoubles its efforts too; the cover of pollen only grows thicker, rather than stopping. This could get dangerous fast...!

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        The coughing just seems to worsen and worsen as Riesenlied drops to one knee, then the other; the thickness of the pollen is starting to overtake her own power to push back against it, but on Jacqueline's warning she grabs one of the cloths she hands out to cover her nose and mouth. It'll give her some time, vulnerable to such sensations with her poor fortitude as she is.

        "All right..." Riesenlied half-mumbles towards Rena as she confirms that destroying the stone would release her from that influence. She stumbles and gets rocked as the earth continues to shatter and tremble before them at the plant monster's vicious attacks.

        All she can do is to try to press the point in an emotional manner, to continue her appeal.

        She grimaces and -- raises a shield as she pointedly steps in front of Ethius, even though doing so has proven almost dangerous to her in the past in Kislev; but she seems to be insistent on defending the spellcaster in a time of need, raising a barrier of light for the both of them. "Continue your casting, Mister Ethius!"

        She turns once more to the monster with a wince, expressing, "You cry out for my silence because you know that there is care within you, still! This is not you! You are stronger than this influence upon you! Matilda, Helena!"

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Asteroid's magic shields Kaguya, and maybe it's Guardian magic which is terrible but it's Asteroid magic which is good and--wait, Guardian magic is helping her, and that realization gives Kaguya the biggest, smuggest look as she glares up at her opponent. "Thanks, Asteroid!" the small Veruni calls a moment later, except then she sees her hit--"Hey--careful--!"

Being told Matilda wrote back about her is something that would be better in other circumstances--for the moment Kaguya blinks as she hears it, while she's pulling a strange partial mask from her things as Jay's broadcast. She doesn't realize Jay has the cloth... But she does put the strange thing over her nose and mouth, black with some kind of filters in it. The pollen even so is very hard on her eyes, making them water quickly as it intensifies--

Because when she sees Matilda--"Atida!" ...Her guess was right, she's sure of it. And the vines came for her too. "Gh--I've spent enough time sleeping in cramped quarters, thanks--" The others have helped her, and she appreciates that. But... all she has left? "Gh--Fine. Fine, I'll go for the neck if that's where the stone is--Atida, I'm jcoming..."

She sees her, and that makes the worst of it. Kaguya pulls her weapon again, and brings it up to her face, staring over the sight as she aims straight for that 'neck'--and starts firing, shot after shot of strange green light. "You can care for my ass if you don't let her go!" Kaguya snarls at Helena.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        With help from others' offensives, Ethius is able to free his leg. His foot remains numb. The best he can manage is a side roll a ways away, as Asteroid chides him for his tactical choices. She mentions using Rigdobrite's power to Extend.
        Incidentally, in his rolling, the Star Medium manages to dislodge itself from wherever he keeps it. He may be a bit further back, but the intensifying pollen just seems to keep wafting out. Thicker and thicker. He coughs twice. He can't breathe while covering his mouth. He closes his eyes as he re-gathers his focus. The slamming, burning limbs spray soil all over the place. He might be just out of range of the slamming, but the dislodged dirt is problematic in itself as a distraction.
        He grasps the Star Medium. He holds it incorrectly against himself, the imprint of Rigdobrite upside down. He begins chanting a spell anew, at least reasonably confident that he won't suffer another concussive blow.
        Riese's acute awareness of what he's attempting sees him lean back a bit more, but he can't dwell on the detail. His free hand makes the proper gestures as he opens his eyes once again, in time for more soil to spray in his face.
        No. Keep focus. If there's one thing - among many - that unnerves people about Ethius, it's how he's willing to partake in shady activities and do things typically performed with a heightened sense of emotion (intent to kill, etc.) with a perfectly straight face and neutral disposition.
        This works to his advantage, too, as he finishes the final set of incantations and gestures as his body feels ever-heavier from kinda-seated position. Lights shine from what's visible of his tattoos, and around him - he gets the spell off.
        The name of it is lost in the chaos.
        What won't be lost, if he's aimed the spell correctly, is the sudden spray of dust flying into the flytrap. Clogging, foreign dust that threatens to tickle, irritate, and otherwise make the attempt to try and force the carnivorous flower to have to expel it out - and everything inside with it.
        For the ruthlessly pragmatic Ethius, a moment that seems blatantly out of character - an attempt to save Matilda's life, rather than go for the immediate kill while she is still trapped.
        While holding his Medium incorrectly and failing to invoke its power.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

         Sheesh, Riesenlied really isn't looking good there. Rena keeps the healing flowing with one hand, and with her other hand covering her mouth, she has a decision to make here. "....." There are more than enough fighters here for the elf girl to not have to dive in, fists flying.

         And though this pollen is dangerous, Riesenlied REALLY looks like she needs the help more than she does. And so, Rena takes her hand from her mouth and points her palm towards the Metal Demon. "Dispel...!" She calls, summoning up a font of soothing energy that helps fight off the effects of the pollen... But it doesn't benefit everyone. So while she does this, the blunette finds herself coughing a little bit more with each passing second.

         "Just... keep talking... you're getting through, I think..." A soft smile follows that. And then another cough. Oops.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

This isn't over yet... Jacqueline switches Crests, back to the tendrils of earth. This time she invokes them to defend herself, intercepting some of the flaming limbs. A few manage to get through, however, and the pounding of earth nearly causes her to lose her footing and succeeds in allowing a few of them through to lash out at her.

Jacqueline draws a recovery potion from her bags, undoing her mask for just a moment to down its contents. Riesenlied is shielding Ethius now, so for support...Jacqueline hurries over to Rena's side.

"Here, take these, quickly." Jacqueline urges, holding a potion(to fight off the effects of the pollen) and a filtration cloth out to Rena. It seemed like the girl was unable to heal herself while taking care of everyone else...Jacqueline might as well do what she could to help her. Those spells of hers seem more to reach their target more quickly than her potions do, anyway.

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

        One of the spots, schmone of the spots! As long as it gets a good reaction, that works! Now that Dean knows *where* to attack, he retreats a bit--there are leylines in here, as there are everywhere, and one of them blazes red with the power of fire...
        
        "You didn't even stop to explain to her you wanted her more around! You didn't let her say a thing! If Matilda's no better than a doll to you, then why not get an *actual* doll and let her live her life?!" Dean retorts to Helena. "It's okay, though! I know that weird stone is making you act like this! Once we've got it destroyed, you'll go back to normal!"
        
        That's quite a lot of confidence for something he just heard about. He swivels when he reaches the fire leyline hex, in time to see the pollen grow thicker. He pulls up his red scarf over his mouth and nose to protect himself, then calls upon his copy Sword Medium to channel the fire leyline power into conflagatory, concussive force back on that weak point. He's careful to target *only* that, leaving the flytrap mouth to the others. Hopefully this'll weaken Helena enough that they can get Matilda out safely. "Take this!!"

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

        In the back of her mind, Shalune makes a note: at some point, it'd probably be an excellent plan to invent the rebreather, if only because she can't really wear a gas mask and a bobble hat at the same time. On that note, maybe Lunata was onto something... lugging that mask around would be pretty useful right about now, ha ha...

        Doing her best to shake the fog from her head, Shalune winces, and hauls herself up to her feet with a concerned and worried noise of effort. Having the Little Dipper around would also be a great plan, but-- it's a bit cramped for that--

        --oh, that's a plan.

        Her staff goes back to her shoulder once more, the trigger squeezed down as she begins to gather as much power as she can - but this time she jukes backwards, away from Helena's body, and at the last moment whirls to place the tip of her staff against the wooden door of the farmhouse. It's long-since been covered over with vines in an attempt to trap Matilda inside and keep them from escaping, but Shalune's not about to let that stop her.

        "Watch out behind!" she calls over the din of battle, screws her eyes shut, pulls her free arm over her face-- and detonates the stored-up shot point-blank into the door, the explosion from it blooming across the front wall. The general idea is to blow the door open, but in a situation like this, Shalune will accept 'the rest of the damn wall' instead. Fine-tuned ventilation, this ain't.

<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.

Asteroid the Kid is knocked right off her feet and into the air. Even with a rock for a head, she's not immune to pollen attacks either and she convulses, retching out pollen speckled silver goo from her throat. She hits the floor a moment later, skidding and groaning. She squints her eyes and flips back onto her feet, wobbling her arms from side to side as she steadies herself. Why is he shouting at her anyway? Isn't violence the most...

...ahh, right... She is trying to be better isn't she?

She takes in a deep breath, steadying her heart more than anything else as she draws out her stone medium of Rigdobrite.

"I was so jealous of her..." Asteroid says, shining eyes narrowing as her spirit calls for the owner of the tablet to come, trying to distract the monster with her words while she's calling for aid from space.

"I was so jealous of Tilde... For having a happy family once. And...and for having parents who let her go to school to get educated instead of clinging to a religion and not helping anybody with it..." She curls her fingers inward. "Are you trying to make me feel better by ruining it? By welcoming her home now that she has finally had the courage to come back--by shitting all over her?! Even my parents wouldn't try to EAT ME! I mean I get it--you're lonely, she should call more, you know, she should appreciate you more... but now all she's going to think of you is how you tried to eat her! Is that what you want, huh??"

A star shines from above and a rock tumbles down towards Earth. Or at least, it looks like a rock, and it's acting like a rock--

--but it isn't a rock.

Rigdobrite tumbles towards the monster. It's not really aiming for the 'weak point' exactly so much as aiming for 'everything including the weakpoint' so odds are it'll probably hit the weird energy stone too if not stopped, diverted, or dealt with.

"She was scared to come back, but it's not like she hated you! What was the point of letting her learn things if she couldn't make her own mistakes, or get good at making drugs like really good at making drugs?? Did you do all those things for yourself!? Did you just want to make her into a really fancy and well crafted object to satisfy your own loneliness? Was all of this for you? Or was it so she could have a better life than you? So she could do anything she wanted! You raised one of the coolest people in Filgaia so why can't you just be proud of her?!"

Rigdobrite's eye opens up, staring at Helena as it comes closer, closer, speeding up and up and up and headed right for Mother Dearest.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

"No! No, I'm not!" the woman insists from within the creature. "I'm sick! I've been sick ever since Baldwin died! I'm not strong enough, so just let me have this!" It does seem to make her rear away again, though, and the flytrap component twitches, twitches -- almost for a moment looks like it's about to break, and even moreso as Kaguya strikes --

-- which lets Ethius attack the flytrap itself with dust, and sure enough, gets it to open a little further. Matilda's inside, of course, pierced through with numerous vines; she looks a little sickly herself at this point, to no grand surprise. The blunette keeps everyone safe -- though that starts to draw the eye(?) of the flower atop what was Mrs. Whitehead. Shalune opens the door and the flytrap in one go, and Matilda, mercifully, tumbles out, left lying on the ground in clear pain, still sporting some distinctly unfashionable vines.

Rigdobrite's material intervention smashes into the top of the flower-creature no sooner than Matilda is out, and what a coup that one-two is; the creature is downed, and Helena slumps to the ground. Kaguya and Dean are ready to follow up, of course -- and somewhere amid all of it, at last, there's a shattering noise from within it somewhere...

... and sure enough, Rena's guidance has done a great job of getting the group where it needed to go. The monstrous parts that remain start to... unbulge and untwist -- itself probably not much less terrifying than the initial process -- and what remains, within moments, is the semi-conscious form of Helena Whitehead, lying on the ground amid a handful of green shards.

Matilda starts to stir at about this point; she looks dazed, confused -- and still a little scared. She doesn't say anything just yet; it's unclear how much of everyone's kindness she actually heard, at that. Right now, she's just... trying to focus.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Asteroid was jealous... It makes sense. That's Asteroid. They're all saying things, many of them heartfelt, and Kaguya can hear them. Even Dean, saying it's the stone... Though Kaguya, for herself, isn't so sure. A parent acting this way doesn't need magic to make happen, after all. Maybe it's that..

Regardless, Kaguya has her own breathing help on her face at the moment, staying there as she shoots, as she looks. The healing helps. The shattering--

It's a disturbing process, seeing Helena... change, but Kaguya watches the entire thing, carefully, until she's just a woman on the ground--and it's at that point that she rushes back to Matilda, kneeling beside her and throwing her ARM down next to her as she puts an arm there to support Matilda, to help her sit up if she's trying. "Hey," she says, "Careful."

...She fully intends to shield Matilda as much as is necessary, turning to glare at the woman on the ground. "..."

Matilda, at least, can hear the small, strange whine of Kaguya's breathing apparatus against the pollen. It is... not technology familiar to most here, in its design. Too smooth, for one.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        There's a strained, laborious breath from Riesenlied as she feels like she might be on her last legs; even through the cloth, what she's inhaled seems to be particularly painful for her--

        --but she hears a voice, which feels like it's coming through a thick wall of cotton for her -- quickly dispelled as Rena casts her spell of restoration upon her. It's a magic unlike anything she's seen before, and she's astonished for a moment -- but her mind and body quickly clear up as she bows her head to say, "Thank you... yes-- I will try--"

        She starts to flinch again, and it's from the presence of the Star Guardian this time; her eyes are wide as she looks to Rena to go, "Take cover!" as she ducks out of the way of the enlarged meteor that Asteroid summons to devastate the creature... and when Kaguya and Dean are done, and with Shalune giving them air to breathe... Ethius' spell causes the flytrap to deposit Matilda out, prompting a wince from her as she sees the wounds the compounder has sported.

        As the stone shatters, she feels that sickly sensation seem to fade away -- and it's with a nod towards Jacqueline and Rena that she hurries to Matilda and Helena's side, checking one, then the other.

        She looks towards the green shards to frown and go, "... again... was it?" She shakes her head. "Even a shard of it is so devastating. I have seen what its core does up close... it is extremely frightening."

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        It's kind of a blur, and also a BANG thanks to the giant Rigdobrite-sized rock from space, but Ethius maintains some clarity of action and intent that sees him through matters of 'disoriented from pollen' and 'usual hesitance to let Riese get too close while she's exercising empath powers' to take off dashi--
        No, not dashing. The once constricted foot is still numb. But there is that sense of urgency to his actions not to rush over to pick back up the quarterstaff and instead get over to the quasi-conscious Matilda as she is tended to by someone she is far closer to. And yet, though Matilda sees the light of day, there is no denying that this man seems to cast something of an unwelcome shadow over both the xenoflorist and the compounder as he keeps a raised wrist pointed towards Helena.
        From silent, borderline uninvited presence to aggressive actor, back to being that looming and uncomfortable presence once again.
        Until Riesenlied talks.
        "You know what it is?" Ethius asks, gaze snapping towards Riesenlied.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

         Oh goodie. Riesenlied isn't about to fall over and die. Always an accomplishment.

         And then comes a meteor. "WHY DOES THIS SEEM FAMILIAAAAAAR!?" She cries when it crashes. She ceases her spellcasting and takes cover, waiting until the whole things calms down.

         Once it does, and the stone appears to be destroyed, the blunette sighs and stands up to her feet, brushing herself off. "Phew. Glad that's over..." And with that, she carefully steps forward and kneels down to check on the shattered fragments of the ominous green rock. "...Yeah, this is just like the time with Allen..."

<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.

Asteroid the Kid pants for breath. She lowers her head. She pockets the medium. She spits out more of that strange silver fluid before walking towards Helena. She steps on a shard of the green stuff and frowns faintly, picking it up and staring at it for a moment before saying, "Geeze... I got emotional and didn't get to study it." Of course Riese probably sees stuff like this all the time, she thinks bitterly. Ugh. How is she supposed to learn like this??

Still, there's the matter of Helena.

"Jay, I get it's like part her but it was probably part the rock talking. Can you help her with a potion or something?"

Asteroid doesn't have anything like that.

She doesn't comment on Rena benig accustomed to asteroids falling on them. When Asteroid is done with Filgaia, everybody will be accustomed to it!!! Well, not really, but.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

        Shalune doesn't come off lightly from her own attack - it was something of a kamikaze attempt, after all, the point-blank explosion picking her off her feet with a surprised 'wah' muffled only by the low 'thoom' that the attack generates - and the bobble hat still across her face, of course. She ends up in kind of a heap, but she's also quick to bounce back, springing up to her feet--

        --just in time to watch as the air eases, as Matilda falls out of the odd plant-woman, and as the latter recedes away to reveal a very shellshocked and confused sight.

        Immediately, Shalune bites at her lip, clutching her shotstaff to her; she doesn't really want to make a call on the woman's health either way, nor interrupt what really might be a final goodbye or something similarly unpleasant. "Ah--" she murmurs as everyone else busies into motion, and sort of shuffles her feet awkwardly.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline pales slightly at Matilda's state as she emerges from the flytrap. She looked awful...but it's too dangerous to approach just yet. But it's enough - through everyone's efforts, Mrs. Whitehead reverts to a human form, lying amidst green shards.

"I'll see what I can do. Even if it wasn't...I couldn't just leave her like this." Jacqueline says with a nod of agreement toward Asteroid. Very carefully she starts to make her way toward Matilda's mother, but first she stops by Kaguya and Matilda.

She doesn't want to interrupt their moment, but she does quietly set a healing potion on the ground before continuing onward to her original destination and kneeling down by her side...though she sends Ethius a warning glance before she goes any further.

She takes a moment to assess the woman's condition before speaking.

"Mrs. Whitehead - Helena - can you hear me? Don't be alarmed, I'm giving you some medicine." Jacqueline says, rummaging through her bags and drawing out a bottle. If she doesn't reject it, Jacqueline will attempt to apply it...but as she does, she glances toward Rena.

"I might need your help, too, Miss Rena..." She says.

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

        "Sick?" Dean echoes, momentarily thrown by Helena's cry. Then he frowns. "What's that got to do with anything?! I'm sorry you're sick," Dean probably misunderstands exactly what Helena means here, "but that doesn't give you the right to hurt anyone!"
        
        Especially since Matilda looks to be in bad condition. She's not just swallowed by that flytrap, she's pierced through with all those vines... Thankfully, she's soon ejected from it, though there's still vines pierced into her. Is she going to be okay...? Good thing Rena's around. Dean doesn't really know Rena, but he did see her healing earlier.
        
        Rigdobrite smashes down, Dean and Kaguya finish off the stone, and the monstrous parts unravel, leaving behind Mrs. Whitehead and shards of a green stone. Dean heaves a sigh, mouth still covered by his scarf; then his ARMs vanish. Kaguya seems to have Matilda covered, and several people are looking after Helena and the stone pieces, so he walks over to Shalune, who looks like she feels out of place for some reason. The pollen's clearing up, so he pulls down his scarf from his mouth. "I'm sure glad we got her out of there quick, huh?" he murmurs to Shalune, giving the others space. "Are you okay?" He turns a concerned gaze towards Matilda and Helena. "I hope *they* will be..."

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

         Rena looks up from her examination of the fragments and over to Jacqueline. "Huh? Oh, yeah, of course!" She stands up quickly and brushes herelf off before stepping over and kneeling back down. She raises both hands, a green healing glow forming on them. "Let's get to work then." And she proceeds to channel that energy into Helena helpfully.

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Matilda forces herself back to her feet, with considerable assistance from Kaguya -- though it's really more her knees. "Ah -- thank you," she says, a little weakly. She sort of hobble-scoots toward her mother, looking her over once; almost immediately, she's in 'medic' mode, Freischütz out and at the ready. She starts with some basic curatives, carefully injecting them with the weapon-slash-pharmacist's-tool. Jay is there to help too, and calls for Rena to do the same...

... It seems to be working -- kind of. The worst of the injuries starts to fade with care -- but Matilda's mother still looks gaunt and sickly. She does stir, though -- and it's with a bit of confusion in her eyes. "Matilda...? What -- I thought you weren't due home for weeks, yet, with the war..."

Matilda doesn't say anything just yet. She just hugs Helena close at first. When she looks to Dean, though, something seems to click. "I -- heard you were sick," she says softly. "These are my friends. And -- Kaguya, over there... the blonde --" she gestures -- "is the girl I told you about."

Helena's brow furrows. "I -- think I remember you telling me that...?" She still seems a little hazy; Jay and Matilda can tell instantly that she's feverish. When Rena gets close to heal, she'll notice too, and that one's new -- Allen wasn't, after his experience with an Energy Stone...

There's a pause, before Helena adds, "I knew Robert would tell someone. ... though I didn't think it'd be you," she says, still sounding weak.

Matilda, at this point, looks alarmed. "You -- you just..." Here, she pauses. Perhaps whatever just happened is interfering with her memory of -- well, what just happened. ... she decides not to press it. Instead, she holds her a little tighter.

Helena looks a little more directly to Jay at this point. "Are you one of Tilly's friends from the Academy, then? I don't know why she'd have brought you, if she knows -- no one seems to know how to treat this..." The immediate pleasantness of the medicine wears off, and she coughs a few times. "Some new disease out of the coasts and the badlands, apparently. And I'd thought it was just the fever of heartbreak..."

Matilda turns white as a sheet. She says nothing.

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        You know what it is?

        Riesenlied casts her eyes aside reluctantly, and admits, "Far to the east, in my homeland of Elru... a kingdom had been obliterated overnight -- by the Sorcery Globe. When my brethren and I came to investigate where it had consumed the landscape around it..."

        She lowers her head. "There were-- thousands... tens of thousands of monsters whipped into a frenzy... and..." She falls into silence, reluctant to say more, not out of reticience but out of the horror of what she's seen.

        Helena does awaken, however, and the talk of sickness comes up. Her eyes widen further, and she can't help but think of what had happened to Kaguya... and in a way, what she's experiencing herself, too...

        "Miss Helena," she suggests reassuringly, "You're very worn out, and this is no longer a place suitable for rest... we should get you to safety so you and your daughter can recuperate..."

        A new disease that had spread here... was it possibly Zopt Syndrome?

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

'I'm sorry you're sick, but that doesn't give you the right to hurt anyone!'

Kaguya hears that, sure. No question; waiting on Matilda to come around, eyeing the woman the others are trying to heal, it's easy to think about what Dean said in that moment. She glances over to him once, with her pale green eyes, looking seriously at him... But then looks away. Doesn't give the right?

She focuses on Matilda, and when she thanks her just says, "It's fine." ...Not that any of this is fine, but still. Kaguya follows now that Matilda is more or less up, there to support her if she needs it... But now that Helena is stirring, Kaguya can see how gaunt, how sickly she looks. She seems confused...

Kaguya should feel guilty for her unkind words, maybe. Instead she watches her close, sees her hug her--but Matilda introduces her. More or less. Helena seems hazy but Kaguya adds, "Yeah. I'm Kaguya."

She steps closer, close enough for conversation. She listens, ignoring her war-torn appearance, not bothering to go and find her cane. She can manage, for the moment.

'No one knows how to treat this', Helena says, and Kaguya's eyes widen, her lips parting slightly. A new disease...

Kaguya steps close, then, close enough to reach out a hand for one of Helena's. "...I have it too," she says quietly. "I understand."

Is it exactly the same? ...No. Definitely not. But could it be one like it...? She ignores talk of the gems, for now. SHe focuses on Matilda... and Helena.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        Ethius is familiar with that warning glance from Jay. He doesn't flinch. Many questions seem to flood his mind as he exhales loudly, coughing once more as his lungs continue to reel from how much of the pollen managed to get past his bandanna.
        "Overnight." Ethius repeats that specific timeframe, the word spoken calmly. His vocal cadence slows noticeably, even within the span of that one single word. His gaze sharpens, but he asks no further questions of Riese for the moment given talk of new diseases and interesting phenomena like the young blue-haired woman...
        That was Symbology, but its effect...
        No, he'll save it for another time.
        As it begins to prove clear that the older woman appears indeed completely clueless about what had just transpired through her own person, Ethius starts to step away. His shadow recedes from the side of Matilda and Kaguya. The Star Medium held in one hand disappears back under his poncho, as he disengages to go pick back up the discarded quarterstaff--
        "Miss Asteroid. Your advice proved invaluable." Aw, a nice compliment, except for one teensy issue - he didn't activate the Medium at all!! He was holding it all wrong, and...
        "May I see what it is you just picked up?" He extends a free hand. Looks like he wants a look at one of the broken shards.

<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.

Asteroid the Kid grits her teeth for a moment before glancing to Kaguya. She sees her eyes widen. She reads into it. Matilda must be a half alien. Suddenly a lot of things make more sense to Asteroid the Kid even if she's, let's face it, probably 100 percent wrong in her assumption here.

She looks away, biting into her hand--not enough to break the skin, just enuogh to keep herself from saying something stupid. She glances over to Ethius to try and read him with, let's face it, predictable results. "Guhhnn..." But more surprising is getting thanked. She is so startled by this that she totally hands it over to Ethius.

"This is completely curable," She tells Ethius. "It's gotta be. I saw what they had..." She trails off. Ethius will tell her to watch herself again, but she is still too annoyed to completely stop. "But they ain't sharing it. They don't care what happens to the people here. Whomever, whatever they are."

"So frustratin', knowing it exists, but not being smart'n'strong enough to steal it."

She glances back to Matilda. She is a great pharmacist. Maybe she can synthesize something.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lanford has posed.

         Rena is silent after it seems like she's done enough to help. But something Helena said makes her pause. "....." A hand comes to her chin and she looks thoughtful for a while. "Hmm... Allen didn't get sick after he used that stone... Is it advancing, or does it just affect people differently...?" She's more musing to herself, then actually asking anyone at this point.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline moves aside to let Matilda in. She feels some relief, as Helena starts to recover... Well, not fully. She still looks rather ill. She did say she was sick...and she's feverish, too. Not only that, her memory seems to be affected, as well...it doesn't line up with what she said before. That was the stone's influence, but...

Jacqueline frowns slightly, and remains quiet until Helena addresses her.

"I am her friend, yes, though I'm not from the Academy. I'm an alchemist with the Caravan Kinship - Jacqueline Barber." She replies. She doesn't know if she would've heard of them. She frowns, though, as Helena explains her illness...and Kaguya says it's the same one she has.

...Jacqueline has no medicine for this, it's true. No one does.

"I'm sorry. I can help with some of the symptoms, but..." Jacqueline murmurs. At present, a cure was impossible. Any comfort she could offer would be temporary at best. She glances toward Riesenlied then, and nods in agreement.

"Yes, this has been stressful for everyone..." She says.

<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.

"Think she was sick before the stone came upon her. It stalled the effects." Asteroid says to Rena. "But if it's radioactive then, yeah--it can get you sick." Despite knowing this she still totally unleashes radiaoactive attacks on people that's kind of mean. But luckily it's status effect style green radiation rather than cosmic cancer radiation. These are two different kinds of radiation.

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

        Whew. Just like Dean thought, now that the green glowy stone is broken, Matilda's mom is back to normal and not terrible. He catches the look Kaguya gives him, and blinks back at her. Huh. What was that about? He looks back over at Matilda and her mother, and gives the former a little nod. When Matilda introduces them all as her friends, he smiles and waves at Helena. "Hi! I'm Dean. Nice to meet you, ma'am."
        
        Huh... She seems really confused, like she doesn't remember anything. Rena wasn't kidding about that stone driving people mad... He frowns in concern. He hopes Rena's healing will be enough. But... then Helena mentions that her disease has no cure, and Kaguya comes forward and says she has the same thing. Dean shoots them both looks of alarm, then of concern and sympathy. Asteroid insists it *is* curable, but Dean doesn't understand everything about that, so... for now, he keeps his mouth shut and lets the healers and potion-makers do their best while Riesenlied suggests to Helena that they move somewhere else. That's *definitely* a good idea, in his opinion.

<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.

        Shalune swallows a second time, as the events of the day catch up to her; she smiles encouragingly when Helena sits up and seems lucid, but then her face falls again the moment she recognizes the telltale signs of long-term illness. Not that her mother ever had any fancy syndromes or anything, so much as just being always ill and love-lorn-- but she can recognize the feeling that hangs in the air all too well, and bows her head a little.

        "A-ah... hey. I'm with Jay here - we're part of the Carakin, you know, travelling with Miss'tilda," she explains gently and patiently. "Ah, we came along 'cause-- I guess 'cause it's what we do, you know? We just look out for each other, stuff like that, and it seemed like something was going down." It's not a lie at all, even if it's too generic to reveal anything in specific.

        Rather than fuss over the woman's wounds, though, she goes in a more oblique direction, and perks up before she grabs a couple of cushions from the nearest chair, stepping forward and kneeling down abruptly to help prop the woman up onto them. "Ah, here y'go, ma'am - you've gotta be careful, sleeping on the floor's no good on your back!" she chides, putting on a good-natured smile. "I mean, you'll get so many aches and pains that way, it'll really suck."

<Pose Tracker> Matilda Whitehead has posed.

Helena winces at Riesenlied's description of the destruction of the Elru continent -- then gets a closer look at her. "... Heh... so this is the company my daughter keeps." She laughs a little, though it's weak. "There are worse things, I suppose."

Kaguya gets a small nod -- but nothing more, for the moment. Matilda, for her part, gives Kaguya a slightly quizzical look -- but one which gives way to her injured form slowly but surely trying to get her mother and herself to her feet. "Ah -- Miss... Lanford, was it?" she asks, softly. "Could you give me a hand...?" Matilda's gait is unsteady -- she's definitely not going to be able to able to get Helena back to the Carakin on her own.

Helena looks to Jay again. "Ah -- the merchants. So that's..." She smiles. "That's good. It'd -- make sense, for you to have such a strange group with you, if that's the case... " Her feet aren't quite helping move her. Her head lolls back a little -- but Shalune is ready with a cushion, which is much to the good. "Ah -- thank you. ... my, aren't you cute," she adds, with a sincere smile. "Thank you... for watching out for my daughter." Dean's introduction prompts a, "Ah -- and so well-mannered, too..."

A slightly wracking laugh follows, as she looks to Rena. "... I'm not sure what day it is, but I have to have been sick for -- weeks, now." At least she's in good humour about it. ... kind of.

With the stone shattered, the strange mutations and twists of the farmhouse and the surrounding area start to subside. It looks almost livable again -- though the door is blown off its hinges, and there are... more than a few corpses. It's still pretty not great on the scale of not-greatness.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

Sure, Matilda wouldn't quite get what Kaguya meant--Kaguya looks sidelong at her at that look, her expression trying to say she'll explain later. That's about all that matters--Helena nods at Kaguya and that's fine, but... Well. GIving the others a hand is a good thing. Once Matilda's steady, only then does Kaguya look at her, and briefly break away, to pick up and holster her ARM, to pick up her cane so she can lean on it again too.

Shalune is pretty cute. Asteroid though--Asteroid has a point. Kaguya stays quiet for the moment, glancing at Dean with a little shake of her head, but...

"Yeah," she says, "Let's get out of here." ...Finally she thinks to remove the breathing mask she was wearing, shoving it into a pocket, and coughs at the still-polleny air. It's--kind of an ugly cough, and her hand comes away with flecks of red.

"Yeah we're all... Looking out for her," she offers after that.

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        All around them, things seem to be turning back to normal - in so much as they can be, in these parts. The haze of blight seems to peel away all around. The air above feels brighter (and hotter). The earth beneath does not feelso thick with a stillness that detests the violation of trespassing. The pitchfork leaning against the fence a ways off flops over noisil--
        Ethius casts and fires off a shot of electricity in the pitchfork's direction, which accomplishes nothing other than probably making everyone jump. He stares at the unmoving pitchfork for a few more moments before returning to what he was contemplating before the narrative even got around to describing it.
        The stone shard in his hand. Whatever it is, its function has since ceased... but he just looks it over, top to bottom, in and out, occasionally looking back to the older woman who seems to be in better humor and far better state of mind than when they found her.
        He eyes Asteroid's mutterings, but doesn't think to bring up the point. He sqeezes the shard in his hand a few times, and looks to the rest.
        "Leave no shard behind." Ethius says to the rest. "I will ensure it is disposed of as soon as we are ready to take our leave."

<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.

        There's a quiet wince from Riesenlied as Helena describes her shortly, but... she lets it go. How could she expect anyone to not react strangely to her? There's still a wan smile, though, as she watches the farmhouse start to recede. She looks to Matilda again, still full of deep concern for the compunder...

        She isn't really sure if it is the time, but... she did promise. "My name is Riesenlied. I was... led here... by the voice of your late husband. Matilda's father. He wanted me to tell you both that he deeply loved you both... ... I am sorry for your loss." To Matilda, there certainly is the implication that her father also wanted to see his wife be saved, of course.

        She pauses for a moment, holding her hand to the Tear again as she works out the last few coughs from the effects of the pollen.

        When they rise, she does help steady Matilda and her mother to their feet, nodding as she says, "Miss Jay's caravan is reliable and trustworthy -- I have no doubt they can help you with your recovery and with repairs to your farm."

        She thinks a little to the man she'd heard in her spiritual vision -- when this farmhouse had been consumed by a darkness so twisted... and it had come from the Sorcery Globe again. The Fell Dragon, and now this... it was a threat that could not be ignored.

        It preys on those in need, such as those that had been claimed by the Syndrome... not unlike Malevolence.

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline gives a good-natured chuckle. Honestly, she can't deny that their group is a little strange...and this wasn't even all of them.

"That's us. We're quite...eclectic, but we're all good people, I case assure you." Jacqueline agrees with a nod annd a smile. It looks like it's difficult for her to move... Jacqueline sends Shalune a nod of thanks for the pillow.

"Yes. We'll do everything we can to help you." Jacqueline says with a smile. "Now that the area is clear, I'm going to pull the Carakin up closer. I'll be right back."

And so, Jacqueline departs to do just that. It won't take her long to return with the vehicle, though while she's gone it'll give her an opportunity to observe the area in its current state. It looked much more...livable now, though it still had a ways to go...

<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.

"Well except for Ethius," Asteroid says. "He's kind of evil but that's okay."

<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.

Jacqueline...pointedly does not give a response to that.

It's probably for the best.

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

        "Aww, hehe, thanks!" Dean smiles broadly enough to squeeze his eyes shut, rubbing a finger under his nose and nodding, when Helena calls him well-mannered. Him, well-mannered! If only Rebecca were here to hear that! HE really hopes Asteroid's right about her sickness being curable. She seems like a nice lady when she hasn't been driven mad with a strange power stone!
        
        Speaking of which, Ethius tells everyone to gather up all the shards and that he'll dispose of them. Dean nods and gets on that--it would be terrible if they infected someone else. When Asteroid remarks on Ethius's evilness, Dean laughs, completely assuming she's joking. Haha, that Astie, always such a kidder!

<Pose Tracker> Ethius Hesiod has posed.

        I mean look at the guy, does he look trustworthy to you? All shady and hiding his face and lacking the social graces to actually introduce himself and give his name and also he's playing with the broken plot coupon...
        "Your assistance is most appreciated," he says to Dean in that manner of speaking where he says the words the same way he always does. Clearly, if not concisely, but without a great level of feeling behind them.
        He makes sure absolutely no shard, no matter how tiny, escapes him.

<Pose Tracker> Kaguya has posed.

"I dunno," Kaguya points out to Asteroid, "I think I like him."

<Pose Tracker> Asteroid the Kid has posed.

"I didn't say I didn't like him." Asteroid counters.

<Pose Tracker> Dean Stark has posed.

        "No problem!" Dean says to Ethius cheerfully, because he's a friend of Matilda's and any friend of a friend is obviously also a friend of his.
        
        He does not think to ask Ethius for his name. Obviously the others know who he is. That's good enough.