You page, "And down to arden, 'n stuff. *wg*" to Chris.

Lian has arrived.

Kanna OOCly says, "Righto, I'm as ready as I'll ever be... Lesse, I've
had my brain cleaned/healed/looked over/debugged/etc by
sis/Lian/Tofu/Jessica et.al., and confirmed good to have walked the
Fire Pattern as well to REALLY get everything cleaned and backed up,
yes?"

Davros says, "OOC Yep, you spend some time getting yourself cleaned
out, you're good to go."

Kanna OOCly says, "Coolness.  So what day this put us on?  42?  43?
Good either way, but I'd like me and Lian to have breakfast with Mom
so we can fill her in on how the assault went, she can tell us what's
happened in our absense, and fill her in a bit on upcoming plans."

You page, "(and this gives mom a chance to inform us about, oh, JuriAv
and Gideon getting home, etc. ;)" to Akemi.

Davros says, "43, I think."

Kanna OOCly says, "Works for me!"

Lian . o O ( Assault on 41, cleanup and heal on 42, breakfast on
43. :) )

Kanna OOCly says, "anyway, ready."

Lian . o O ( OOC:Bwah. Computer died. )

======================================
======================================

Okay, we'll skim over most of the breakfast, as you going over what
you already know with an NPC isn't very exciting, and go to the part
of the breakfast where we get into things where the give and take of
not-skimming will be more important and/or interesting, like your
future plans and your mother's news for you.  So... :)

After you fill her in on your recent adventures, your Mother says,
"Well, I got some good news recently."

Kanna washes down her breakfast with some orange juice, clad in jeans
and t-shirt (STOMP THARKOLD) and vest, with a jaunty eyepatch over her
left eye.  "Yeah, mom?"

=====
=====

Akemi pages, "Best we recap for dead computer woman...ahh. good." to
you.

=====
=====

Lian munches happily, wearing a similar outfit, except that her
t-shirt says 'NUKE THARKOLD' over a mushroom cloud. "Good news ... we
haven't had those for a while now."

Kanna grins.  "Well, hey, we stomped Tharkold, with minimum casualty
on our end... that's a start..."

Corrine says, "Well, Shizumaru had some adventures in another universe
where he met two of Avalon Juri's siblings, and we got some news of
them."

Gabrielle blinks. "Shizumaru went to another universe and didn't
invite us?"

Kanna blinks at that.  "Wha?  Holy..."

Corrine says, "Apparently, this strange device called the 'Gloom
Machine' or some such thing yanked Shizumaru, Joan, and Walker into a
universe where Chaos was having a Civil War."

Lian stops in mid-chew and looks at Corrine. "Bwa?"

Kanna just stares at her mom a bit with her good eye.  "... shit, the
damn thing can pull people across -universes-?"

Kanna says, "... that explains what happened to Cousin Shizu back
then, and I know he's back -now-..."

Corrine says, "He returned through the Cave of Worlds.  "

Kanna nods.

Corrine says, "Apparently, Juri and Gideon and Roderick did make it to
Avalon, but they spent decades stranded in another universe on the way
there."

Kanna stares.  And then grins.  "Hot -damn-.  They made it home."

Gabrielle beams. "Yay!"

Lian asks, "Dad and aunt Juri spent decades in yet another universe on
the way?"

Gabrielle says, "Maybe I should see about using Beowulf's new Construct
to boost a trans-universal Trump call."

Kanna says, "Well, there -were- the accident reports... whatever Black
Unicorn Fiona did to them must've stranded them there until Gideon
could've push things closer."  She then looks at Gaby.  "You mean he
carried through with his plans?  Even better." She grins.

Corrine says, "apparently, the Outsiders trapped them in a universe
where the Outsiders won during those decades."

Gabrielle says, "Well, i shouldn't NEED help." She looks
frustrated. "But the only two people I know how to call are Roderick's
father and one of his uncles, and that doesn't help."

Kanna pauses.

Lian winces.

Kanna says, "... ooookkay, THAT part isn't happyfun."

Kanna says, "that's just... -ugh-."

Lian asks, "They survived okay though?"

Kanna bites down on a piece of sausage.

Corrine says, "They survived, and now Juri and Roderick have a
daughter named Horatia."

Kanna grins.  "Yay, growing family."  She looks at Lian.  "Congrats,
you've got another cousin."

Lian smiles slightly. "Poor girl, though. I mean, Horatia?"

Gabrielle says, "I think it's a pretty name."

Gabrielle says, "It's greek, isn't it? It sounds greek. "

Kanna shrugs.  "Hey, I don't get the entire 'Horatia' thing.  Then
again, mom here gave me the middle name of 'Darako'..." She grins.

Corrine says, "I think it's a nice name."

Corrine says, "Roman, though, I think."

Kanna chuckles.

Lian shakes her head, amused, though there's a shadow in her eyes
since Corrine mentioned the Outsider universe.

Gabrielle says, "Well, it's good to hear. Maybe when we resolve some
of the current crises, you can go visit."

Kanna glances over at Lian, and mms, reaching over to squeeze Lian's
hand.

Corrine says, "But they got home okay, and that's the important
thing."

Gabrielle says, "I'm sure Lian and I together could build something."

Kanna says, "-YES-."

Corrine sighs.  "Shizumaru, on the other hand, is now in jail in
Chaos."

Kanna mmms.  "Yeah... I'd heard about the trial from Bey."

Lian stays quiet, occasionally taking a bite, but mostly listening.

Kanna says, "At least it's not death or life, but..." she shakes her
head.  "... Rimururu must be taking it pretty hard.  Same with
Moriya."  She sighs.

Corrine nods

Kanna says, "Well, I'm sure he'll think of something, but with that
and the trouble I've heard about Alars grabbing Justice a while
back.." She looks to the ceiling and mutters about politics.

Kanna says, "Though I suppose Motoko being this 'Bridge of the
Serpent' will help." She grins a bit.  "Anyway."

Kanna says, "Er, bride." She coughs.

Gabrielle says, "The Serpent's kinda nice, I hear. "

Lian asks, "Bride of the Serpent?" She shakes her head. "Unicorn
... what else did I miss?"

Gabrielle says, "The Logrus is a big loony freak, though."

Corrine says, "Now, now, the Logrus means well.  Sort of."

Lian winks, "You should get along well then ... two birds of a feather
and everything."

Gabrielle says, "Hey, I may loony, and a freak, but I'm definitly
not... umm... what was the third thing?"

Kanna says, "Well, it had something to do with how Bey and Moriya and
Motoko and all took out Ebesncrux.  I'm not clear on the details,
myself."

Lian says, "As long as they managed to take it out ..."

Kanna looks at sis, and deadpans.  "About to ask Urd why she was after
Cousin Shizu?"

Kanna nods to Lian.  "As far as those constructs go... Ebenscrux, Dino
World, Gauntman's place, Heart of Ice..." She ticks off on her
fingers.  "Four down, five to go."

Gabrielle says, "Urd was just weird. Plus, I think she was a
Ghostwheel."

Lian says, "Not quite. Four constructs gone, but five heralds."

Kanna says, "Point.  So five Constructs left, four heralds."

Lian says, "Maybe fewer if this Black Crown provides manifestations to
more than one potential herald."

Kanna says, "And we know at least some of those still remaining... the
egyptians after Beowulf, etc." She nods to Lian.

Corrine asks, "Will you all be coming to Marching?"

Gabrielle nods. "The Outsiders seem to be hedging their bets this
time. Instead of putting everything on one guy -Annadil- and hatching
a grandiose scheme, they're taking a scattershot approach."

Gabrielle says, "Lots and lots of little fish, hoping one succeeds."

Corrine nods.  "With the idea that we won't notice them all."

Kanna says, "I'm planning to, yeah, mom." She grins.  "After all this,
I could use some fun and dating and dancing."  She then hrms, blushes
a bit, and looks towards Lian.  "... Lian?  How long would it take for
Mechanus to grow me a new eye and get it in?" She points at her left
eye.  "I want to be binocular by the time the day comes.  Yeah,
fasstime and all, but still curious."

Kanna nods to her mom and sis.  "Yeah, but it begs the question how
their constructs got installed/built in place so fast under our radar.
Unless it was a reserve plan, or something." She shrugs.

Corrine says, "In infinite shadow, there's infinite room to hide
things."

Kanna says, "Right, right, point."  She looks sheepish.

Lian says, "I plan to be there for Marching ... " She hms and looks at
Kanna. "Not that long, if we jump in, drop of the data they need to
regrow the eye, hop out while they grow it in fasttime, and we hop in
again to actually implant it."

Gabrielle asks, "Will it be a CYBERNETIC eye?"

Kanna says, "That sounds ideal, then." She grins.  "Today or tomorrow
go in and get it done, then?"

Lian says, "A cybereye we could build in a day, Gaby. No, a real
biological one."

Kanna glances at Gabrielle, and deadpans, "No, siiis..."

Gabrielle hmmphs. "Cybernetics are cool."

Lian nods to Kanna. "Go in today, get it tomorrow, I'd suggest."

Lian says, "Only until you're stranded in an extremely low tech shadow
where magic doesn't work, Gaby."

Kanna says, "Sounds good to me.  Also allows me to be a -little-
piratical downstairs."  She winks.

Lian says, "Want a parrot? I can make you one."

Kanna says, "That'd be overkill for this, I think."  She grins, and
then hrms.  "So... run around downstairs most of today, catch up on
what people've been doing, let Uncle Tylor know about us having
reduced Tharkold to flinders... bop to Mechanus to get my eye
started... got a little bit of reasearch I need to do myself..." She
scratches her cheek.  "You got any plans on investigating where the
Heart of Ice originally was?  See if the stoned folks are still there?"

Lian says, "I was planning to boom in for a quick look and unstoning,
yes. If the tharkoldu haven't smashed them to pieces, that is."

=======
=======

You page, "Oh, has Ruka asked me out already yet, or has that been
lost in the shuffle over the past few days?  I know Kozue mentioned
she was going to let Ruka know it was okay to do so, back when we had
the big revival of folks after Gauntman..." to Akemi.

Akemi pages, "He hasn't had a chance to get hold of you yet." to you.

You page, "Right. Well, I'll be waiting for his appearance or call,
then." to Akemi.

=======
=======

Lian says, "Apart from that, I just have some research planned, and
most of that can be taken care of in fasttime."

Kanna nods.  "Mostly planning to stay in Amber/Ember for up to
Marching, and then..." She looks thoughtful, idly rubbing her neck.
"Might need to do some training in fasttime in Shadow.  'cause
Pyricorn knows taking these things down ain't -easy-."

Lian grimaces slightly, nodding in agreement.

Gabrielle says, "Well, I'm having fun. This is actually less stressful
than the whole Annadil thing."

Kanna just arches an eyebrow at sis.

Gabrielle exclaims, "it is! There hasn't been ONE squid!"

Corrine says, "Well, none of these people seem likely to succeed,
unlike Annadil."

Kanna says, "Okay, I'll give you that, sis."

Kanna snaps her fingers.

Lian says, "Still, I have this silly feeling that this is just the
diversion. That we're supposed to find them and take them down while
someone, somwhere, prepares the real strike."

Kanna says, "Oh yeah, mom?  Uncle Drake might be around eventually to
ask about your adventures with the damn squid."

Gabrielle says, "Wait a second... Logrus Squids... Chaos... dammit. "

Corrine looks amused by something, but doesn't say anything.

Kanna nods to Lian.  "Could be.  Hrm.  Either the Lion's Heir, or..."

Kanna looks at sis.  "Eh?"

Gabrielle says, "Oh, I got something from that trump-trap you and
Jacqui wanted me to put on Bumpy's little blonde barbarian
bodyguard. It slipped my mind until now."

Gabrielle says, "She reports to someone in House Nurgal."

Kanna arches an eyebrow again.  "Hrmmmm.  I forget, is Nurgal allied
with Helgram, or against?"

Corrine says, "Against."

Gabrielle says, "Maybe we should ask Motoko."

Kanna racks her brain, and mutters something about needing to get
good, up-to-date status report on Chaos Politics, given their
prevailence lately, and wondering if Anthy could give her a good
recommendation on a Heraldry College down there..

Kanna hmmmms at that news.  "Iiiinteresting.  Guess somebody on their
end is trying to keep Lowen from trying to take Bumpy down."

Kanna says, "Or just keeping an eye out for possible leverage
potential later."

Kanna nods to her sis.  "Next time I see Moriya and Motoko, I'll ask."

=======
=======

You page, "(oh, why was mom looking amused when Kanna mentioned Drake
and the Squid? :)" to Akemi.

Akemi pages, "You'll find out later :)" to you.

You page, "Yaaaay. *wl*" to Akemi.

=======
=======

Lian smiles, "What else happened while we were off doing some
constructive de-constructing?"

Corrine says, "Not much, really."

=====
=====

Corrine says, "OOC As you were only gone for 2 days :)"

=====
=====

Corrine fills you in on the gossip which the GM can't keep track of
whether you know or not...

Kanna considers her empty plates, and claps her hands together.  "So!
Any other nuggets of hot breaking news to drop on us, mom, or is that
it?  ..." She ohyeahs, and looks over at Lian.  "Heard from Hiko that
Morgan's gone questing for the Blade of Air, since she supposedly met
Aunt Juri.  Dunno if she's been -successful-, but..." shrug.  "I'll
have to collar her as well."

=============
=============

Kanna OOCly I think that's prolly about it all, then.  The rest can be
handled with char encounters down in Amber. *wg*

Lian . o O ( OOC: Yup ... so, head to Amber with a quick stop in
Mechanus to get those samples necessary for regrowing an eye? )

Kanna OOCly says, "Works for me!"

Corrine says, "OOC Okay, you go to Mechanus and get eye samples, then
head to Amber. "

Corrine asks, "OOC You wanted to see Beowulf, right?"

Kanna OOCly says, "I beleive it was more he wanted to see -me-, so
it's dependant on whenever he trumps. *wl*"

Corrine says, "OOC Ahh, right :)"

==============
==============

Kanna ohyeahs, once they get the samples taken, and looks at Lian when
they're relatively private.  "... oh, Lian?  You okay?  You looked a
little shadowed when mom mentioned where Other Aunt Juri and Uncle
Roderick and your dad ended up."

Lian sighs. "Uncle Fuyutsuki was right ... too much knowledge about
the Outsiders can be a Bad Thing. I can imagine how it must have been
for them there ... and the scary thing is that my imagination probably
won't do justice to their reality."

Kanna shudders, sighs, and nods.  *q* "Even with what little I've
picked up from hanging around you and overhearing, and seeing in the
field..." She shakes her head.  "... -nobody- should have gone through
that.  save that they did."  She closes her eye. "... at least they're
rightly -HOME-, now."

Kanna then hrms, and gently hugs Lian.

Gabrielle says, "Well, this is why we live in an enormous bubble that
keeps them out."

=========
=========

Akemi pages, "Someone is trying to trump you.  It is Beowulf." to you.

Corrine says, "OOC Go into Skippy where Beowulf is. :)"

You page, "I accept it, o'course." to Akemi.

=========
=========

Kanna then hrms, tilting her head.  "... huh.  Bey-call."

Lian returns Kanna's hug, then blinks. While she lets mostly go of
Kanna, she stays close.

===============
===============

Lian has left.

In The Belly of the Beast

You're inside a Logrus Squid!

[Exits: Arden. ]

Contents: Lian, Windir, and Spellvis.

===============
===============

Beowulf comforts his mother a bit more, then takes his leave and
starts looking for Kanna and Lian.

Beowulf decides to try trumping her. "Kanna?"

Kanna looks up as the trump contact opens.  She looks about as she
normally does... well, save for the eyepatch jauntily over her left
eye, and she's wearing a t-shirt under vest that says "STOMP
THARKOLD".  "Hey, Bey... what's up?"  She smiles a bit, but the smile
is subdued... even more as she notices Bey's own appearance.

Beowulf BLINKS at Kanna's appearance. "What *happened* to
you... right. We can talk about it elsewhere... do you have a free
chunk of time? And have you seen Lian?" He pauses. "I think we're
going to need your notes."

Kanna asks, "She's with me right now... shall I pull you through, and
I can then take us to my rooms in Ember?"

Kanna says, "We've goot a decent free chunk of time... I'll fill you
in once we're face-to-face."

Beowulf nods. "Right. Can you pull me through?"

Kanna nods, takes Beowulf's hand, and pulls him through.

Beowulf says, "Well, whatever-it-was doesn't seem to have affected
your *strength*, anyway..."

Kanna chuckles a bit.  "Well, we ran into a detour taking out the
Heart of Ice.  Sis?  Gate to my rooms?"

Beowulf smiles at that. "Aeris? Want to see how a long-termer does
it?"

Lian is indeed with Kanna, dressed similarly in jeans and t-shirt,
hers saying 'NUKE THARKOLD', and showing a mushroom cloud.

"Sure!"

Gabrielle opens a gate to Kanna's rooms to the tune of 'Beds are
Burning.'

Beowulf looks back and forth between the shirts. "Um? Do I want to
know?"

Gabrielle says, "Oh, you brought your little girl. Neat." She smiles.

Kanna just grins.  "Tharkold was our detour."

Kanna then leads folks through to her rooms in castle Ember.

Beowulf says, "I... see." He turns to Gabrielle. "Have you already
met, then? I was hoping to introduce you."

Gabrielle says, "Oh, every new Construct gets a free e-mail address
and one month's free usage of Construct.net."

======
======

Kanna OOCly says, "is Aeris visible right now?"

======
======

Beowulf chuckles at that. "Even the Heart of Ice?" He smiles and taps
the badge. "Aeris? Want to come out for a formal introduction?"

Aeris pops out and curtseys.  "Hi, everyone!"

Lian smiles at Aeris. "Hi."

Gabrielle nods. "Even the evil ones."

Gabrielle beams. "Hello, dear."

Kanna smiles.  "Hey there, Aeris."  She chuckles, and reaches over to
gently ruffle her hair.  "How you liking the big wide world so far?"

Beowulf smiles. "This is cousin Kanna, friend Lian, and Kanna's sister
Gabrielle." He grins. "I hope you'll find a few things to talk about."

"It's very nice!"

Kanna then goes and gets drinks for folks from the fridge.

Kanna says, "Anyway, about our T-Shirts... we went to take out the
Heart of Ice as we planned... save that the shadow leading to it was
-already- being invaded... by the folks who lived here."

Kanna points to Tharkold on her tee.

Beowulf turns to Kanna and Gabrielle. "I was hoping your mother might
have a bit of fasttime to give her a checkup while we're back in town
for Marches... I doubt there's anyone better than Doc Corrine." He
smiles.

Beowulf blinks. "Already? I... see."

=====
=====

The_Prof pages, "They weren't kidding when they said how tricky it was
to put the bottom shell back on a TiBook. :p" to you.

=====
=====

Lian nods.

Kanna says, "We managed to disable one of their technodemon minions,
found out THEIR boss had a construct manifestation, the Black
Runestaff, and changed plans.  Gave Lian's Legions a workout and half
of mom's spacefleet something to do, and took down the place."  She
looks wry.  "Apparently Kranod's construct wasn't native... but they'd
managed to TRANSPLANT the Heart of Ice to their homeworld.  So Cousin
Hiko nuked it from orbit while the fleet pounded the defenses and me,
Lian, and Uncle Drake went down on the ground to take out
Kranod... and Jadis."

Kanna points to her patched eye.  "Hence the eyepatch." She looks wry.

Beowulf raises an eyebrow. "Hence the eyepatch? And how did you
acquire *that*, my oh-so-active cousin?"

Kanna then grins.  "And I'm sure mom'll love to meet Aeris."

Kanna says, "Basically, took down Jadis in single combat.  Bitch
shoulda stayed dead when Lian axed her, damned if I know how she came
back... but when I ran her through she got two fingers in my eye."

Lian asks, "Might have become a RoboJadis ... why waste a good body?"

Beowulf winces. "Ouch. Remind me, next time I'm getting carved up by a
Patternblade? Maybe that wasn't as bad as I'd thought."

Kanna says, "And a degenerative brain disease, but Doc sis and Doc
Lian and Doc Tofu were able to clean me up and Pattern was fine."  She
looks wry.

Kanna says, "Um, no, I think being burned away from the inside is
worse."

Kanna says, "Good point.  You did say she had a jack of some sort."

Kanna says, "But anyway, Tharkold and the Heart of Ice are now a large
cloud of space dust."

Beowulf says, "Well, if you do it like uncle Touga did..." He sighs
sadly. "It wasn't nearly so bad for me... are they? GOOD."

Kanna says, "Oh, and the Second Sun and the Windwalker showed up, but
Hiko sealed the one, and I think the other fled before sis's might."

Beowulf...'s

Kanna says, "Tharkold's construct is still out there, but its herald,
Kranod, is dead."

Kanna says, "And Jadis is now VERY dead."

Beowulf asks, "...right. Are we going to have to face them *every*
time we take out an Outsider construct?"

Kanna says, "We've had an active couple of days, you can tell." She
grins a bit.

Lian says, "After we destroyed the planet, she better be."

Kanna says, "I HOPE not, but it seems that they're kept in reserve if
you seriously try to take 'em out."

Kanna says, "I am SO effing glad we brought Hiko in on the mission."

Kanna says, "And Uncle Drake?  He kicks butt."

Lian nods. "He's got a cute one too."

Lian says, "... I didn't say that."

Kanna just chuckles at that.

Kanna says, "Suuuuure you didn't, Lian."

Beowulf shoots Lian an arch look. "Really? Well, if you say so."

Kanna hands out drinks to those who want before sitting down with a
coke for herself.

Lian tries to look innocent as she inspects the ceiling.

Beowulf sighs as he backtracks a bit. "...Hiko." He sighs
again. "She's a good cousin, and it sounds like it's a darned good
thing she was there, but -- she and Morgan just haven't had good luck
with House Alars."

=======
=======

You page, "You know, I need to draw Kanna and Lian in those costumes
now..." to Chris.

In a page-pose to you, Chris snickers. "Give in ... surrender to the
dark side ... " ;)

=======
=======

Kanna blinks at that.  "Eh?"

Kanna asks, "What happened?"

Lian blinks and looks back at Bey.

Beowulf says, "Well, I'd gone down to Chaos to try and return some of
the Master's artwork. And the last bit of it turned out to belong to
House Alars."

Kanna says, "All right... Do a good turn for 'em, I suppose, help take
the heat off a bit..."

Beowulf says, "Heck with taking the heat off; it was the right thing
to do." He smiles sadly. "And Lord Alars' wife, Kodachi, seemed very
happy to have it back; I returned it without telling them our names."

========
========

You page, "From my info/readings about the crisis/mom/shizu/etc, does
Kodachi ring a bell as one of the Elemental Priestesses?" to Akemi.

You page, "(I suspect I know mom's unconfirmed suspicion about Rei
having been actually from Ember, but it was something...)" to Akemi.

In a page-pose to you, Akemi nods

Akemi pages, "Yes, Kodachi was Wood" to you.

========
========

Beowulf says, "Unfortunately, it's probably all for nothing. Lord
Alars trump-attacked Morgan a few days ago; Morgan had found the Sword
of Air somewhere, and they were apparently fairly evenly matched. He
badly wounded Morgan; Morgan killed him."

Kanna says, "..."

Lian agrees with Kanna. "..."

Kanna decides that just staring with one blue eye as she digests that
infodump is the thing to do.

Gabrielle says, "Well, that ain't good at all."

Kanna says, "well.  fucking shit."

Beowulf says, "He -- he appears to have been stuck in male form while
he heals -- trumped me from House Aesir, while I was with Bessie."

Lian says, "Ummm ... no, Gaby, it isn't."

Kanna coughs, and looks apologetic at Aeris, if she's still
manifested.

Beowulf shoots Kanna The Look over his spectacles.

Aeris eeps and plugs her ears.

Kanna looks at Beowulf.  "Sorry, sorry."  She blushes.

Lian grins briefly. "Go on, Bey."

Gabrielle snorts. "I hung out with Shaft when I was younger than
her. Believe me, she'll pick it up fast."

Beowulf says, "Gabrielle, could you show Aeris around Ember a bit?
Maybe introduce her to your mother, if she has time?"

Gabrielle says, "Sure!" She picks up Aeris. "Come on, dear. We can go
see the Pattern."

"Yaaay!"

Kanna says, "Do we have -any- idea of how to spin or damage control
this?" She then nods, as something else percolates.
"Wait... Kodachi.... Kodachi... wasn't she one of the Elemental
Priestesses?  The one of Wood?  Though I have no idea what she looked
like, just the one of Fire, Rei.  Though it's probably a Shadow..."

Kanna smiles at the two.  "Have fun, you two.  Sis, show Aeris mom's
workshops, I'm sure she'll love all the trumpstuff there."

Beowulf says, "Yes; Moriya was with us, and we took a look at the
records in House Gainax on that."

Gabrielle takes Aeris off to do cool things. There'll be
explosions. Where? She cannot see.

Kanna looks at Beowulf.  "... And?"

Beowulf looks a bit disturbed. "She married Lord Alars at about the
same time as three other people married Chaos lords; one who matched
Shizumaru's description of Rei. One who married Balor, and who could
have been the Priestess of Air. And one who married the head of House
Tremere."

========
========

Beowulf says, "OOC Sorry I can't be more precise at the moment, logs
are on the laptop which is being backed up."

Kanna OOCly says, "no probs."

Random says, "OOC: Treme married Rei (we had no description of her,
just the name); Balor married Afura Mann.  Darios married Mina."

Random says, "OOC: (says Alan, who was there)"

Kanna OOCly ahs.

Kanna drinks her coke, quiet and thoughtful.

Beowulf says, "OOC Don't remember, exactly, was two or three decades
ago. Some time after the Annadil Crisis, IIRC."

Alan says, "OOC: 30 years."

=======
=======

Kanna says, "... how long ago, Bey."

Kanna drinks her coke, quiet and thoughtful.

Beowulf says, "30 years ago."

Kanna mmmms.  "10 years after the crisis.  Again... could be shadows,
could not be, but the synchronicity..." She shakes her head, frowning.

Beowulf asks, "It does seem rather suspicious -- if they were shadows,
why all at once?"

Lian says, "Strange, yes ..."

Kanna says, "-Especially- with our theory of Balor holding Mithos, and
some other ancient house holding Rathos."

Beowulf says, "Right. 'An ancient house of Chaos she rules from
shadows'? Certainly would fit..."

Kanna considers, and gets up to head to her bookcase.  She peers, and
pulls down one of the books.  "Especially with Passions being a
flame-themed spikard."

Lian hmms ...

Beowulf asks, "...I'd forgotten about that. Rei? Wasn't she the
priestess of Fire?"

Kanna heads back to the group, and flips the book open (it's quite
obviously well-read), to a folio section of drawing/paintings.  "Yes."

Kanna says, "The one mom suspected, but never had a chance to confirm
or deny, since they never met face to face, of being one of the lost
Princesses of the first Ember."

Kanna says, "This one."  She points to one of the folio pages.
"Cousin Hiko and Shizumaru said she looked like this."

Beowulf asks, "House Tremere. Wonderful... oh?" He blinks. "A lost
princess of Ember? That would make even more sense --" He stops, and
listens to what he just said. "A *lost princess* of Ember?"

Kanna nods.  "Hey, Ember got totaled, but there's nothing saying that
survivors couldn't have escaped.  The Fire Highway's been there since
forever, dunno about the rest of the Pyricorn Threads."

Beowulf ahhhs. "I see. But to end up *there*? Under the sway of the
Outsiders?" He shudders.

Kanna says, "Even without shadow travel... mom just knew of Queen
Shayla, her last husband, and a group of decayed but reproduceable
paintings down neart the Pattern Chamber... she was able to place
faces to the names she'd found in the ruins."

Kanna breifly shows the cover of the book to Bey and Lian... it's a
treastie of archeological research on the Prehistory of Ember, written
and illustrated by, yup, Corrine.

Beowulf smiles and shakes his head. "The more I know about your
mother, the more she amazes me."

Kanna asks, "Well, if the Squid was remembered by Rei... Annadil sold
his soul due to the damage the damn thing did to Chaos, who knows what a
traumatized priestess would do?"

Beowulf sighs. "True, true."

Kanna says, "I think mom's been meaning for me to try and search for
'em, but more immediate stuff's always come up."

Lian says, "IF she was a princess ... a common enemy, the Squid, might
have led them down a common path, yes ..."

Kanna says, "Just to put to rest the lingering questions."

Beowulf grins. "Yes... though more immediate stuff always seems to
come up." He rolls his eyes ruefully.

Kanna nods.  "Yeah."  She hehs a bit, and hands the book to Bey.
"There's sketches of what the place looked like before mom redrew the
Pattern... makes what we did to Tharkold look almost -nice-."  She
sighs.

And indeed, there's architectual and landscaped renderings of Ember
before the reconstruction... well, totally -devestated-, with
scale-indications showing gigantic 100-foot holes PUNCHED through
structures and even Vesuvius and the castle.

Beowulf flips through the sketches; anything his archeological
training can tell him about them?

Lian looks over Bey's shoulder at the book.

You've found ruins like this in shadow; no one knew their origins.

Beowulf hmmms. "Interesting... this matches some ruins I've found out
in Shadow. No one knew where they came from... perhaps we've found
out?"

Kanna says, "Ember lucked out the second time the squid came, thanks
to mom and Other Aunt Juri and Aunt Juri fighting the macfinndos in
that damn thing."

Kanna considers.  "Probably.  It ate fire patterns and other stuff,
wouldn't be surprised."

Kanna shudders.  "Logrus-Charged tentacles in a mile-long destructive
cross-universe package."

Lian nods, "Not fun."

Beowulf says, "Oh, lovely." He shudders. "I hope we don't run into
anything like that again."

Kanna nods.  "But anyways, that's why mom's wondered perhaps... just
maybe... the few survivors fled into Shadow."

Beowulf says, "It's always possible."

Kanna says, "As Amber itself, perhaps save for Grandpa, Aunt Anthy,
and Great-Grandpa knew."

Kanna says, "Well, didn't know of Ember, -period-."

Kanna says, "But backing up... yes, if the real elemental priestesses
that were at the Keep when it was Outsider Controlled ended up down in
-chaos-... Mmmm.  Could be coincedental, could be very bad.
-Especially- with this latest debacle."

Kanna rolls her good eye.

Lian sighs. "Yay."

Beowulf says, "Oh, yes." He sighs. "I think... did you hear about our
meeting with Alars' daughter after the trial? I told Morgan about it,
and at least it seemed to give her some pause thinking of what she'd
done."

Kanna shakes her head.  "No, I hadn't."

Beowulf says, "Ah. Well, at Shizumaru's trial, there was a young girl
sitting in the audience, watching; Motoko sat next to her, but there
was otherwise a ring of empty seats around her. "

Kanna sits back, and listens, sipping her coke.

Beowulf says, "I went over to talk to them after the trial; it turned
out to be Alars' youngest daughter, Suu. We talked for a little bit --
it was heartbreaking, to hear her talk so calmly about all the family
members she'd lost when Hiko Akira'd the House -- and I apologized for
all of the destruction to her family."

Kanna murmurs, closing her eye and rubbing it.  "... oh good pyricorn.
and now her dad's dead."

"Yes," Beowulf says softly. "And now he's dead."

Lian shakes her head. "Sad."

Kanna says, "dammit, dammit, dammit... it may've been self-defense for
all I know, on morgan's part, but -still-... -shit-."

Beowulf sighs. "Yes. Self-defence, patternblade on patternblade, any
mistake could have been fatal... given the attack, I'm not sure how it
could have come out otherwise. But it's a tragedy no matter how you
slice it."

Kanna says, "I need to corner the guy and get the skinny on what he
did to -get- the sword... as I'd heard from Hiko that he'd managed to
-shadowshift- to Cathuria, and meet Aunt Juri, who asked for the sword
to defeat an invasion of the undead."

Kanna nods.  "And if Alars wasn't happy at us -before-..."  She
groans.

Beowulf says, "Yes. Alars now has the Air Sword, Morgan said."

Kanna facepalms.

Lian says, "..."

Lian says, "... owwie."

Lian says, "So she not only killed him, she lost that damned blade
too."

Kanna says, "Take it as given that I will swear in a Darakoish fasion
for the next minute or so."

Beowulf nods.

Kanna asks, "Where's Morgan now?"

Kanna says, "Oh, right, Aesir."

Kanna says, "At least that's a safe haven... somewhat... given Shinobu
Minor's ties, but -still-..."

Kanna groans something unpleasant about politics.

Beowulf says, "He should be up in Amber by now; I pulled him through
to CAFAM while I was there and gave him a trump to the castle. You
might want to talk to him; what he told me about the trip to Cathuria
did match my own experience."

Kanna blinks at Beowulf at that.

Kanna asks, "-You've- tried going to Cathuria, bey?"

Beowulf chuckles nervously. Ah-heh... "I did mention Bessie, right?"

Kanna says, "Bessie... bessie.  Wait."

Kanna asks, "Wasn't that the cow that was stuck in the Vortex?  The
one mom had Madoka wish to bring aunt Juri back?"

Beowulf says, "I was down in House Gainax that night, was going to try
trumping Great-grandfather to see if he could help me get some
Keystone Cops tapes to the Logrus, when I came across a couple of
trump cards that had mysteriously shown up in my deck."

Beowulf says, "One of them was a castle, that I haven't investigated
yet. The other was of a giant cow. Bessie, as it turned out."

Kanna whistles.

Beowulf says, "(Er, the night after returning the artwork to Alars.)"

Kanna nods.

Beowulf says, "Bessie was standing at the edge of a great chasm,
looking stuck. Lily whipped up a translation spell that let us talk to
her; she said she was still looking for Juri, and that she was across
the chasm."

Kanna says, "... good pyricorn."

Kanna says, "That's one dedicated cow."

Beowulf says, "So I conjured up a flying carpet big enough to hold us
all, and we started across the chasm. Which turned out to stretch
across Shadow -- shadow after shadow of the ground out of sight,
covered by mists. Which hid some fairly nastly little winged serpents;
they were pretty easy to take out at first, but their numbers started
doubling every 10 minutes of shadow-shifting."

Kanna nods.  "Somebody doesn't want casual folks to get to Cathuria,
it seems."

Kanna says, "Which'd make sense, given the stories... pattern wouldn't
allow you to -get- there."

Kanna says, "Which was part of why I figured we'd need Merehallow in
the -first- place."

Beowulf says, "Lily finally had to put up a Someone Else's Problem
field to keep us from being overwhelmed. Which may have been a
mistake; Morgan said she had to fight through the same progression of
things, and at the end the borders of Cathuria opened up and people
came out to help, then brought him in."

Kanna says, "Huh."

Beowulf says, "Though since he was family, they might have done more
for her than they would have for us."

Kanna says, "Mmmm."

Beowulf says, "In any event, we cruised along without any further
problems under the SEP field, until Bessie couldn't get any further;
she was stuck going in a wide circle around one shadow, presumably
Cathuria."

Kanna scratches her cheek, thoughtful.  "Wonder if the same would
apply for me, or not.  I mean, I -am- Aunt Juri's niece 'n all." She
looks wry.  "Dunno if Cathuria has an automatic relation detector on
the horizon."

Kanna then nods at bey.

Beowulf says, "I suspect it wouldn't work if you did it deliberately,"
he says with a slight smile.

Kanna good-naturedly fehs at that.  "Then that begs the question how
the heck Morgan GOT there deliberately."  She shrugs.  "Again,
something I need to ask him directly."

Kanna says, "Pyricorn knows -I've- tried Shadowshifting for Aunt Juri
and just gone in circles."

Kanna drinks her coke.  "Mebby it's a destiny thing, I dunno, but..."

Beowulf says, "Morgan trumped me for the first time at that point, and
told me about Alars. After we finished talking, I trumped uncle Miki
and uncle Tylor to let them know about Alars, let uncle Tylor know
about Bessie (I know he was worried about her), and see if either of
them had any suggestions about getting in."

Kanna says, "Okay, good that they know, then." She nods.

Kanna asks, "About both situations.. you want me to heads-up mom about
Alars situation, too?"

Beowulf says, "Miki didn't have any ideas; uncle Tylor said that a
DemiJewel might do it, but he couldn't think of anything else. He also
confirmed the progression of flying serpents as he approched
Cathuria."

Beowulf says, "Yes, it would probably be good. And let her know about
Bessie."

Kanna says, "Ah-hah.  Again, I suspect Merehallow might allow it to
work as well."

Kanna says, "As from my research, it's rumored that the Patternblades
allow their associated powers to work even when normally blocked."

Beowulf says, "Morgan said something about having a Phoenix that would
get her through -- again, you should talk to him. Oh, and uncle Tylor
said that the serpents were enemies of Cathuria, not guarding it."

Kanna then forces a smile. "Of course, right now, the sword's down in
the middle of chaos with a house that'd just as much likely shoot at
us as talk to us if not declare all out -war-."

Kanna ahs, and nods.  "Got it."

Kanna says, "There was a Phoenix that brought Aunt Juri's last letter
when she made the pledge, and it left an egg.  Haven't gotten around
to fully researching it, but it was one of my candidates for 'Phoenix
be your guide to find her.'"

Beowulf sighs. "We'll have to see. When I returned the artwork, Lady
Kodachi invited us to tea; I had to beg off, because Motoko was
working on her speech for the memorial service and we wanted to help,
but I promised to come back some day when I had time. Even with this
-- well, perhaps especially with this -- I do feel a duty to honor
that promise. And perhaps we can talk then, assuming she doesn't shoot
me on sight."

Kanna nods, gets up, moves over, and gives Bey a gentle hug.  "You've
had a long several weeks, bey.  Hopefully she'll be willing to parlay,
recognizing not ALL amberites are murderous scum or somesuch."

Lian says, "Hopefully. Better wear a bullet- and sword-proof outfit
though."

Kanna says, "Yah.  Especially with them having two patternblades."

Lian says, "And keep a way out handy. Or several ways out, in case
they can block some."

Beowulf shakes his head. "I hope so. And -- well, Hiko and Morgan used
too much overkill, but even they were in the middle of a rescue. I've
never appreciated Ghandi more -- 'An Eye for an Eye leaves the whole
world blind.'"

Kanna finally lets go.  "Good Pyricorn..." She shakes her head.
"... and even as we were making progrss on the Amber/Chaos relations
front, from what I've heard from you about Motoko et. al."  She sighs.

Beowulf says, "As far as the armor -- well, I doubt there's much that
would be good against a patternblade. I suppose I'll have to trust in
fortune."

Kanna says, "I dunno if I can pass judgement on cousin Hiko... it's
complex in her case... but Morgan... all I can think of is that I
don't know if Aunt Juri would've approvied.  Especially with the
overkill."  She shakes her head. "Damn."

Beowulf sighs. "Yes, even as." He thinks for a moment. "I wonder --
would your mother be willing to help sponsor a project? "

Kanna tries to drink her coke, realises the can is empty, casually
compresses it into a little ball, and flicks the sphere into a trash
can across the room.

Kanna looks over.  "Hm?  What sort?"

Beowulf says, "After doing the Courts of Chaos and of Amber, it's not
likely I'll be able to return the rest of the stolen artwork. I've
been thinking about using it to start a museum, dedicated to the
people it was stolen from. After this... if we put it halfway between
Amber and Chaos, around Yig, it could serve as a neutral place for
peace talks. Somewhere where the peoples could mix, and find common
ground."

Kanna blinks at that, and then slowly smiles.

Kanna says, "... I think.... mom would be -very- good for sponsoring
that."

Kanna says, "I mean, cmon, you should see the art grant budget for the
kingdom." She winks.

Kanna says, "Float it by her, but I can pretty much garuntee she'll
put -somebody- good on it."

Kanna says, "If not herself personally."

Beowulf grins. "I see." He thinks for a moment. "And take up a
collection around Amber, and talk to great-grandfather down in Chaos."

Beowulf says, "I was thinking Lady Yumi might be a good person to run
it; she has connections in both Amber and Chaos, and as the Arbiter of
Etiquette..."

Kanna nods.  "Sounds like a worthwhile thing to set up."

Kanna says, "Something like this, in the face of all the strife and
discord..." She looks rueful.  "Well, it's a nice counterpoint."

Kanna asks, "Why'd the Master steal all the art, anyway?  Just greed?"

Beowulf nods fervently. "I certainly hope it would be. Though... well,
I've got the idea, and can help round up support, but I think someone
more neutral should do the actual set-up and run the place. It would
be more palatable to everyone. Perhaps the Forestals could suggest
someone?"

Beowulf shakes his head sadly. "Just greed, I suspect. He was that
kind of man."

Lian shakes her head. "Are there only power-hungry fools out there?"

Kanna says, "Probably." She mmms, and sighs.  "Still need to figure a
way to make up to them me twlling the two of you about Yig..." She
looks wry.  "Perhaps this would be a way.  Since it'd be in their
relatively-near baliwic and locus."

Kanna says, "No, there's also ignorant fools."

Kanna says, "Though perhaps that's a subset.  Or superset?  Anyway."

Kanna shakes her head.

Beowulf looks sheepish. "Erm, on that subject..." He shrugs. "I was
planning on dropping by Yig sometime soon, talking to the Forestalls,
and see if there was anything I could do to... well, clear myself for
the info? Do something to make it appropriate for me to have it, and
thus take some of the burden off of you?"

Kanna sighs, and shrugs.  "I... don't know.  Pyricorn knows it's
helped us get a jump on things... perhaps I should poke around Amber's
library a bit to check the lore of Yig and others who've hung."

Beowulf says, "Perhaps. And, speaking of prophecies..." He takes a
deep breath.

Kanna asks, "I'm probably going to just have to knuckle down and go
and see them... or seek in shadow for something to placate 'em... then
again, I haven't trumped/traveleled near there in the past month, but
-you- folks seem to have been fine... eh?"

Kanna blinks her good eye at Bey again.

Beowulf says, "When I talked to Uncle Tylor, he said Mother was
looking for me."

Kanna nods.

Beowulf asks, "Have you heard yet about the annotated copy of the
Black Heart prophecy that Nausicaa brought back from Taylor's castle
in Leng?"

Kanna blinks.

Kanna says, "No, I hadn't even heard she'd gotten -back- from Leng."

Beowulf says, "Annotated by Taylor, yes." He blinks.

Kanna says, "I knew she'd -gone-, but..."

Kanna says, "I'll need to pick up a copy, then."

Gabrielle comes back into the room, Aeris in tow. "... and if you open
the Trump Portal just right, you can cut a person into four
equally-sized pieces." "Wow!"

Beowulf says, "She gave a copy of them to Jacqui, since the
annotations mention Jacqui by name."

Beowulf blinks at Gabrielle. "And just how are you corrupting my
daughter?"

Kanna raises an eyebrow at Gaby, and then nods.  "Cute." She scratches
her cheek again.

Aeris says, "She showed me the planet of the boiling lava gravy!"

Beowulf gives his annotated copy to Aeris. "Can you make copies of
this for Kanna and Lian?"

Kanna says, "Then again, if Taylor was after Jacqui and her dad, if
there was stuff in there for him or her..."

Gabrielle beams. "I'm teaching her how to use Trump." She ruffles
Aeris' hair. "Although she'll probably be much better at it than I am
one day."

==========
==========

Beowulf OOCly d'ohs. "What'd you miss, Chris?"

Lian . o O ( OOC: The last two minutes or so. )

Beowulf. o O (OOC Ack. Did you hear me talk about Tylor having me talk
to Mother yet?

Lian . o O ( Nope. )

Lian . o O ( Last I saw before comp went poof was something about Bey
wanting to talk to the Forestals re: reaction to Kanna telling
people. )

Kanna OOCly says, "Gimme a second or 3, and I can megapage Chris to
catch up."

Beowulf says, "OOC Good 'nuff; will give me a minute or two more to
struggle with this laptop shell. ^_-;;"

==========
==========

Beowulf says, "OOC Dang, but they packed things in here tight. o.o"

Kanna OOCly hehs.  And does the megapage.

==========
==========

Lian hms. "I'd be -very- interested to see those annotations ... "

Kanna nods.  "You're not the only one.  I was doing some correlations
myself from what we'd encountered before, while prepping for
Tharkold."

====
====

Beowulf says, "OOC After Aeris makes the copies:
<http://www.dkcomm.net/rhea/AmberRPG/UnicornSeishi/Temp.html>."

====
====

Kanna gets up, heads into her bedroom, and returns with one of her
notebooks.

Beowulf passes out the copies to Lian and Kanna.

Beowulf says, "Let me know when you've finished reading it."

======
======

Kanna OOCly says, "(this is the annotation mailed to Chris and Travis
a while back, what Kanna was working on... fwding to Merc and John.)"

======
======

Kanna nods, and starts reading.

Gabrielle entertains Aeris, keeping one eye on this newstuff.

Lian looks over the copy, smiling at some annotations, frowning at
others.

Kanna just reads, looking studious, not eliciting much reaction at the
moment...

Beowulf waits nervously for them to finish.

Lian puts it aside and looks at Bey.

======
======

Beowulf asks, "OOC Ready, Phil?"

======
======

Kanna finally speaks, murmuring quietly.  "Some of these are so
blatantly wrong... and some of these are... good pyricorn, how did he
KNOW?" She then pauses.  "... if this is not just random ranting and
raving... it's implying that the Lion's Heir... Taylor... is Shaft's
-son-?"

Kanna looks up at Bey.

Beowulf says, "It... well, it certainly looks like *he* thought so."

Gabrielle hmms. "This is a pretty nice annotating job."

Beowulf says, "Of course like your sister said, a lot of it is just
blatently wrong, but..."

Kanna says, "HE's also a loon."

Kanna says, "Okay, sure, go ahead, use and abuse Outsider Power, and
try NOT to become used by them..."

Kanna shakes her head.

Gabrielle says, "I think you may have made a mistake about this bit
with the Logrusfoil Fear, though."

Beowulf says, "Anyway -- Nausicaa gave a copy to Jacqui. Jacqui took
it to her grandmother and my mother to see if they could help."

Kanna nods to Beowulf.

Kanna glances at Gaby.  "Taylor's annotations, or my own?"

Beowulf says, "When I called Mother... she looked very worried, and
asked if I was all right."

Gabrielle says, "Your own, Sis." She taps it. "Yig doesn't exactly
qualify as 'the lands of Order,' does it?"

Kanna says, "Hrm.  Point.  But it's the one that leaped out at me,
given Hanged Man."

Gabrielle says, "I'm thinking Drake."

Kanna then looks at Beowulf, offering a hand.  "Go on..."

Kanna says, "Hrm.  Maybe.  Dunno."

Kanna says, "But... point."

Beowulf says, "She..." He takes a deep breath. "Mother thinks I'm the
Unicorn's Heir."

Kanna blinks.

Kanna looks at her notes again.

Kanna says, "That.... could fit, actually."

Lian blinks, then hms and looks at Bey.

Kanna says, "You seek knowledge, but you reject outsider Lore, and
you're what we see... and you're polite and good natured, but you're
-damn- good in a fight."

Beowulf says, "'Seeks knowledge' -- well, yes. 'Rejects the Lore?'
Damn straight." He nods to Kanna.

Lian nods, "Fits you, yes ... "

Beowulf says, "I don't want to believe it myself, but it does fit."

Gabrielle asks, "Hunh. Does she have any other reasons?"

Gabrielle says, "I mean, not to cast aspersions on you, Wolfy, because
I think you'd be a GOOD Unicorns Heir, but this is really ambiguous."

Gabrielle says, "And not one of those things you want to get wrong."

Kanna says, "Hm... I suppose if one looks at the succession rules in a
certain way, you'd perhaps be most legitimate as an 'Heir' to the
crown.  Or you could be destined for happy Unicorn/Pattern Lore."

Beowulf looks very uncomfortable. "I know... still, Mother seemed very
sure."

Beowulf twitches at what Kanna says.

Lian arches an eyebrow at Bey's reaction.

Beowulf says, "Um, could you hang on for a second? Motoko is trumping
me."

Gabrielle blinks, and turns to Kanna. "I thought the succession rules
made TOUGA most likely heir."

Gabrielle says, "Legally, at least."

Beowulf tunes them out for a moment as he takes Motoko's call.

Motoko asks, "Hello, Uncle Beowulf.  How have you been?"

Kanna says, "Well, it depends.  I think at one point, due to
primogeniture, Utena and Wakaba were closest, since they'd never been
exiled/bastardized/etc."

Kanna says, "I'd need to double-check my notes."

Kanna looks wry, and then just glances over at Bey in the middle of
his convo, and shrugs, not butting in.

Kanna then glances over at Lian, and squeezes her hand.  "It's times
like these when I agree with Cousin Hiko.  'Not More Prophesies.'"

Lian says, "Unfortunately, the prophecies find us anyway."

Gabrielle says, "These things come in cycles, from what I hear. The
past couple hundrd years have been BUSY."

Kanna nods.

Gabrielle says, "Tylor says he can remember times when you could kick
back for a century and nothing would happen."

Kanna asks, "Would anybody object if I go out and smackdown the next
group of prophesy writers?  For the good of future generations?"

Gabrielle says, "Didn't YOU write down a whole bunch?" She smiles.

Lian says, "If you need guns or bombs, call me."

Kanna coughs.  "That was different, sis..." She blushes.

Kanna says, "And personal.  Well, pretty much.  Annnyway."

Kanna says, "Yeah yeah, I know, I know." She grins a bit.

Gabrielle says, "You should spend some time with Tylor. And Touga, for
that matter. They're very old, and remember a lot of things that never
gor writ down."

Kanna says, "I try to." She smiles a bit.

Kanna says, "Hell, I've listened to Uncle Tylor's stories about trying
to get to Cathuria, and stuff... he's a damn good storyteller."

Gabrielle hmms. "We should probably throw some kind of huge shindig
for Tylor's one thousandth birthday. That's coming up soon. Well,
relatively."

Kanna chuckles.

Kanna hms, and tucks this sheaf of prophesies into her notebook.  "Oh.
This Taylor thing reminds me... how'd the force-trumping thing go to
try and grab him?"

Gabrielle's fist tightens. The table cracks a little. "We got one of
his blood creatures he'd gimmicked up to deal with Trumpers. It was
having sex with Kozue."

Gabrielle says, "Jacqui knifed it to death after we were done
questioning it."

Kanna says, "...."

Kanna says, "oh," quietly.

Lian stares at Gaby. "... sex ... Kozue ... Jacqui ... knifed. To
quota Kanna here ... bwa?"

Kanna gets up, and moves over to sit next to her sis.

Gabrielle makes it really clear from her manner she'd rather not talk
about Taylor.

Kanna nods and decides to drop the subject for now.  But still sits
close, anyway.

Kanna mmms quietly, and looks ruefully over at her unfinished canvas,
and sighs, smiling a bit.

Lian says, "Wait ... one of his blood creatures. That implies there's
more of them out there."

Gabrielle grunts. "Yes."

Kanna says, "Yay."

Lian asks, "Interesting ... if you happen to find more, would you mind
capturing them instead of killing them on the spot?"

Kanna glances at Lian, eyebrow arched.

Gabrielle says, "We saved some of the blood, if that's what you
mean. After sucking the freak dry of it's pertinent information."

Lian shakes her head. "I need a complete one. More than one, if
possible."

=======
=======

You page, "This is Kanna, getting that 'Iiiii think Sis does NOT like
Taylor,and it's become personal for her' feeling..." to Chris.

=======
=======

You page, "Having fun convoing? *wL*" to The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Not really. o.o Did you hear about Moriya and Motoko
at CAFAM?" to you.

You page, "Yeah, that I had, of them getting to Discworld.  OOC,
mind." to The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Apparently, they found the Discworld there, and got
the chest containing Hoard. And now Moriya wants to negotiate with Bey
over who gets teh spikard." to you.

You page, "Well, I WAS warned to keep it -away- from you... *wl*" to
The_Prof.

You page, "What -is- it with various characters having much more ease
with some quests than others who've been involved since the beginning?
:)" to The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Ayup. Sometimes it makes me wonder about the fairness
of things... oh, well. <wry g>" to you.

The_Prof pages, "If you *trust* the old man, which is a very open
question at the moment. And OOCly, you saw what the Unicorn said about
the Lion's Cub..." to you.

You page, "This is true.  And yes, I did." to The_Prof.

=======
=======

Lian says, "I've got an idea or five about growing new bodies for a
blood creature ... understandably I don't want to experiment on
Touga. But if you would kill those Taylors anyway ..."

Gabrielle untenses a bit. "I could give some of Nagisa and mine's
notes."

Lian says, "That might help too."

Kanna gently pats Gabrielle's hand, smiling slightly.

Lian shivers. "The way Touga almost exploded into flame ... a most
unhealthy state for him, that."

Gabrielle says, "We did som extensive research into bio-artificing."

Kanna shudders, and nods.

Kanna nods.  "The three of you should team up."

Kanna says, "If you two alone could produce, create Shinobu Minor,
who's VERY real..."

Kanna grins.

Gabrielle blushes a bit. "Well, it was really hard. My 'body' is just
a force projection. It can't exactly carry children to.. umm.. term."

Gabrielle says, "I can show you the incubation chamber in the
Lighthouse, though. It's just ticking over idle now."

Kanna chuckles, and squeezes Gaby's hand.  "So?  Mom didn't carry you
to 'term', but you're here.  And she loves and cherishes you."

======
======

You page, "Engage Corrine/Kanna natural instinctive reassurance mode!"
to Chris.

In a page-pose to you, Chris chuckles.

======
======

Kanna says, "The method of creation doesn't matter.  What does matter
is that you -did-."

Gabrielle sighs, and hugs Kanna. "It's good to hear someone say that
out loud once in awhile, sister," she whispers.

Kanna hugs back, blinks, and blushes.  But she very much hugs back,
and whispers back, "I won't pry if you don't want me to, sis.  But if
you want to talk, I'm here.  Always.  You're my -sister-, for cryin'
out loud."  She smiles a bit, and then kisses Gaby's cheek.

Lian leans back, watching the others.

Gabrielle sighs. "Sometimes it gets lonely, being a Pattern Machine."

Beowulf closes the trump contact, then leans back and cries silently.

Gabrielle says, "It didn't help that Nagisa and I had to keep
everything secret for so many years."

Beowulf says, "OhGODIhopetheydon'tfindthisoutfrom Tylor and Miki..."

Lian blinks at Bey and comes over to hug him, Kanna having obviously
rubbed off on her. "Bad news, Bey?" she asks softly.

Kanna mmms, quietly. *q* "More than that, sister.  Oh so much more."
She rocks Gabrielle in her arms a bit (which she can easily do),
stroking her hair, and then looks over at Bey, eye wide.

Beowulf smiles sadly up at her. "Well, yes, though there's a bit
of..." He sighs. He also looks over quickly at Gabrielle, having
caught her comment about lonleliness as he came out. "I understand,
Gabrielle; that's part of why I made Aeris. So you could have a friend
on your level."

Gabrielle grins. "Well, she's much nicer than Morgenstern."

Kanna chuckles softly, even as her eye looks at Bey with concern.

Beowulf says, "That... was Motoko," he says, turning back to the
room. "It seems that she and Moriya had talked to Lord Alars at the
memorial service... He wanted them to thank me for returning the
artwork, and asked them to apologize to me for his earlier attack." He
starts crying again.

Kanna squeezes her eye shut.

Kanna says, "thricedamnation to brand's maelstrom."

Beowulf whispers, fervently, "*DAMN* the fatest that lead he and
Morgan to fight. DAMN them."

Kanna squeezes Gabrielle tight, lets go, and moves over to hug Bey,
now.

Gabrielle shakes her head. "I'm not exactly the biggest Chaos booster
in the world, but... hell and damnation."

Beowulf just sits there and shudders for a moment. "Just when you
think you have a chance of making things come out all right..."

Kanna nods.  *q* "Yeah, sis.  this... isn't at ALL what was needed."

Lian sighs and moves somewhat aside to let Kanna participate in the
general Bey-hugging. "... someone comes along and destroys
everything. Fate must hate us."

Kanna murmurs, quietly.

Beowulf keeps going for a moment, then sighs and pulls himself
together. "Oh, and the mixed news? Moriya and Motoko found the
Discworld, and the chest with Hoard in it, at CAFAM. And now he wants
to negotiate with me about who gets to keep it."

Kanna says, "we make our own fate.  we make our own miracles.  and by
the five elementals and the primal, by the sign and by the tree, we
-will- set this right.  How?  I don't know.  But somehow, we will."

Kanna pulls a hankercheif out of her pocket, and hands it to bey.

Kanna then blinks.  "that's a curveball."

Beowulf says, "I tried to tell Motoko, as politely as possible, that
now was *not* a good time to discuss it, and to wait until after
Marches."

Lian shakes her head. "Ohboy."

Kanna nods.  "I hope to the Pyricorn she took the hint."

Beowulf says, "Though I may go down and unlock at least one of the
locks before Marches; she said the Luggage is getting restless."

Kanna says, "when the news about Alars gets out..."

Beowulf says, "...maybe she'll understand. But with all that they've
been through... I didn't tell her, and I hope she doesn't find out
from Miki or Tylor."

Kanna says, "Ever have somebody in the family who's, well... family,
but you want to clock 'em one?  I'm having one of those moments now."
She sighs, and shakes her head.  "Nevermind it wouldn't -help- the
situation any."

Lian says, "Never had that problem ... but then, mom's my only family
here."

Beowulf sighs, and nods to Kanna.

Kanna quirks a rueful smile.  "Or extended."

Kanna says, "'cause..." she takes a deep breath.  "... 'cause damnit,
I may as well say this now, if I haven't before, but I consider you as
brother and sister to me."

Beowulf just smiles through the water in his eyes, and hugs them
both. "Thank you. Sibs." He hugs them tighter for a moment.

Lian smiles briefly and hugs back.

Kanna chuckles softly, a slight smile on her lips, and joins in the
mutual hugging.

Gabrielle beams. "Expect more hugs in years to come."

Kanna helps Bey wipe away the tears and stuff.  And hehs at her
sister.

Gabrielle says, "As well as a wide array of thoughtful, yet pragmatic,
Christmas and birthday gifts,"

========
========

You page, "I do admit, I hadn't expected this to develop with the
Bey/Lian/Kanna thing. *wl*" to Chris and The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Ayup. :)" to you and Chris.

Chris pages, "A bit of a surprise, but hey ... :)" to you and
The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Ayup. o.o ^_^" to you and Chris.

========
========

Beowulf groans softly. "Right," he says, smiling just a little.

Gabrielle says, "I think decade, Mom has been into juicers."

Lian chuckles softly. "Uh-oh ... should we be afraid, Gaby?"

Kanna says, "Well, it's either that or paintings as the old standby."

Gabrielle says, "They're nice juicers! Well, okay, the one
exploded. But that was my fault."

Kanna quirks a grin at that, loosens her grip on Bey and Lian, and
stands up to take a deep breath.

Kanna also stretches a bit to get the damn tension out of her body.

Beowulf also stretches and grins a little bit. "Now. Where were we?"

Lian sits down again and hms. "No idea ... "

Kanna laughs softly at that.  "Well, we've been run through the
wringer AND the spin cycle... immediate plans, perhaps?"

Gabrielle says, "You could all spend a few days at the Lighthouse with
me Nagisa before Marching. We never entertain."

Kanna says, "It's four days to Marches, after all."

Kanna says, "Hmmm." She nods to that.  "Just might, at that.  Though
got a bit of running around in Amber to do... and get my new eye in
tomorrow." She looks wry.

Lian says, "Well, we need to go back to Mechanus tomorrow to put your
eye in, yes."

========
========

Beowulf asks, "OOC I forget, did Aeris leave the room?"

Beowulf says, "OOC Assuming she's still in the room:"

Wakaba says, "OOC She's pretty much gone back to 'idle' mode, as I was
doing too many things at once :)"

========
========

Beowulf says, "Well, I at least want to continue an earlier
thought..." He gets up and hugs Gabrielle and Aeris. "I hope you don't
mind having a new friend to keep you company." He steps back a bit and
transfers his hug all to Aeris. "And I'm sorry for locking you out for
a moment like that; I... just had another bad shock."

Lian says, "And I want to get started on some research at least
... but I can fasttime Mechanus for that, so we can still take a few
days off."

Kanna nods.  "After marches... I may be heading off into Shadow to
train a bit.  Have the Pattern send me to an appropriate place,
fasttimed, to cut out the middleman."

Kanna says, "As -after- Marches, good Pyricorn, we thought we were
busy -before-."

Beowulf tries to remember if he's gone through all the information
about the Prophecies, and things. Bessie's in the pasture, right...

Beowulf says, "Oh, about Bessie; we left her in a nice safe pasture
shadow, telling her she was a good lady and that we needed to try and
figure out a way in."

Kanna smiles.  "That's good."

Kanna says, "She should be fine... she survived fourty years in that
damn Vortex, that pasture should be a well-earned vacation."

Gabrielle says, "Pastures are nice."

Beowulf says, "Oh, Aeris, could you show Gabrielle where she is? It
might help if she needs to check on her."

Aeris shows off where Bessie is.

Gabrielle memorizes.

Beowulf asks, "Actually, do you want to go over some of Taylor's
annotatons before we split up?"

Kanna hehs a bit and nods.  "Sure."

========
========

Gabrielle says, "OOC: That depends on if phil wants to sleep, I
suspect."

=======
=======

Kanna says, "We can all laugh behind his back."

=======
=======

Beowulf asks, "OOC True... how you doing, Phil?"

Kanna OOCly is staying on until we split, dammit.

Kanna OOCly says, "I can gloss with John tomorrow before Marches on
what Kanna does and learns up to the big day."

Wakaba says, "OOC Sounds good.  Send me an email, Phil, on what you'll
be doing."

Kanna OOCly shall do that.

=======
=======

Kanna pulls out her notes and Taylor's notes again.

Kanna says, "For one... for somebody who's deep into Outsider Lore and
wanting to mess stuff up, he sure doesn't want to become an Outsider
butt-toy."

Beowulf blinks at the first annotation. "Taylor's a Doors fan? I
thought the Doors were for better taste."

Beowulf says, "Yah, Kanna. Which is why I think they were calling him
a fool."

Gabrielle says, "Hey, the Doors aren't about exclusion, Wolfy. They're
about love."

Kanna says, "True."

Lian says, "He probably didn't fully realize what becoming Herald
would mean."

Beowulf smiles. "I know, I know, Gaby." He winks, using a familiar
nickname for the first time.

Beowulf says, "Although he did have moments when he seemed to catch a
clue... and then completely ignored it." He frowns.

Gabrielle hrrms at the list. "We're making really good headway on this
stuff."

Kanna arches her eyebrow at that, but just smiles.  "We've been over
the Heir/Cub/Heir thing..." She then nods.  "Given he was going into
this before everything started going down, some of the stuff 'obvious'
to us wouldn't be clear to him."

Kanna says, "Like the spikards, the herald candidates, and the
constructs."

Beowulf says, "True enough."

Beowulf says, "He *really* had a Jacqui fixation, though."

Lian nods.

Kanna nods.  "If he's shaft's son, somehow... obsession over the one
who got really recognized?"

Gabrielle says, "Yeah. I think he cared about her."

Gabrielle says, "In the weird, sick way that annadil cared about
Anthy, though."

Kanna says, "Or that.  Hrm."

Kanna says, "Joy."

Beowulf says, "I'd tend to think he really did care about her. Like
you said, in a sick way." *He* looks sick for a moment.

Kanna mmms, and reaches over to squeeze Bey's hand again.

Kanna says, "He got some things, but not others, had a possible early
lead on the blue light, but missed the boat on the herald competitors.
I mean, I'd like to think our family'd have more -sense-."

Kanna says, "Interesting that he knew of Lucien, tho."

Beowulf frowns a bit. "Yes."

Lian says, "He seems somewhat ... insane."

Gabrielle says, "He missed the utensils, too."

Kanna says, "Well, those weren't included in the Black Heart, those
were in mine."

Kanna looks wry.

Beowulf snorts. "*Somewhat* insane?"

Kanna says, "He gets a bit close, but he doesn't expand his
search/consideration paramaters in the Herald/construct section."

Kanna says, "Then again, neither did we... but we weren't immediately
thinking of immediate family."

Lian hms, and takes her crystalcomp from its belt pouch, calling up
her version. "Same handwriting. So it was probably him who took all
the books."

Kanna says, "And he -doesn't- seem pleased with the refs to the Outer
Gods that came after the construct/herald bit."

Kanna eyerolls.

Gabrielle says, "I'm inclined to think we're holding the line rather
well."

Beowulf murmurs, "How could someone so powerful be so clueless?"

Lian says, "One would use it for kicks."

Beowulf snorts again. "True enough."

Lian says, "He probably only read the interesting parts that promised
power, not bothering with the small print that explains the price."

Kanna nods, and hums a bit of Nine Inch Nails.

Kanna says, "o/~ bow down before the one you serve/ you're gonna get
what you deserve..."

Kanna then shakes her head, sighs, and continues reading.

Kanna says, "He mixed up a bit on the patternblades, didn't even TRY
doing his research, I think."

Kanna asks, "The smiling slayer... hm.  Perhaps Kuonji?"

Lian asks, "You travelled with him ... what do you think?"

Kanna says, "nice, polite, smiled all the time, and very quite willing
to kill without a second thought."

Kanna says, "If he was packing a logrusfoil, though, you'd think me
and sis patternsighting him would've picked it up, though."

Kanna then pauses, and snaps her fingers.  "Oh!  right.  About
Kuonji."

Kanna says, "Well, -A- Kuonji, don't know if it's the same one."

Gabrielle says, "Or at the very least, picked up the Psychic Null item
he'd need to carry to onceal it."

Kanna says, "I think you were... yeah, you were there to see Shaft's
Patternghost, Bey."

Kanna says, "But I asked him about Kuonji Ukyou, and he -had- known
one during his training years out in shadow."

Kanna says, "Okay, so he also slept with her, but..."  She rolls her
eye again.

Kanna says, "Not sure if a shadow or not, but I also asked Shaft-Ghost
if he'd had any plans to slay outsiders, and he said no, given his job
and taking care of Jacqui."

Kanna says, "Did try to find Stagger Lee once, but went in circles."

Kanna says, "But that's that little tangent to the mystery of Kuonji."

Gabrielle says, "Ukyou is probably on the side of angels, I think. I
mean, he did free Utena and Wakaba."

Gabrielle says, "He's just one of those loner types. Then again, I've
been wrong before."

Kanna nods.  "It'll all come out in the wash, somehow."

Lian says, "Might have been the same Kuonji ... those of the blood do
tend to live long." She just looks at Gaby. "Trust noone. Keep your
patternlaser handy. And mysterious rescuers who do stuff for whatever
reasons of their own are suspect anyway."

Kanna says, "And as you said about the Hanged Man, sis... now that I
think about it more, it does sound like Uncle Drake."

Kanna says, "Make note, I need to ask Aunt Anthy what she knows about
the names and functions of the Logrusfoils."

Kanna says, "And it -would- be the sorta toy he'd like to keep a hold
of."

Gabrielle nods. "You know, after Marches, we need to do something
REALLY NICE for Anthy."

Kanna NODS.

Kanna says, "Damn straight."

Gabrielle says, "everybody has been using her as their own personal
lore repository and reference center for the past four decades. I feel
real guilty about that."

Lian says, "I'll talk to Drake about the Logrusfoil thingy ..."

Kanna says, "He's seen the black heart, at least.  The unannotated
copy, that is."

Kanna says, "And Mr Lion's Heir continues to wonder who the Cub might
be, same as we..."

Kanna says, "As for the seeker, as well.  Plenty of candidates for
that."

Lian says, "Might actually be Moriya."

Kanna points to the hanged woman line.  "Still wondering -how-..." She
shakes her head.  "Could be."

Kanna says, "Then again, mom knew, even though I didn't tell her." She
coughs and blushes.

Lian says, "He stands within the Keep, and that is definitely a bane
for the outsiders."

Kanna nods.

Gabrielle says, "Well, prophets have ways of finding things out."

Lian says, "He was no prophet."

Kanna says, "Point.  But meaning more the ones who read and research."

Kanna says, "As I sureashell wasn't advertising that I did."

Lian asks, "Maybe he passed through when you were on the tree?"

Gabrielle says, "Oh, right." Shrug. "Any half-way decent mage, a
telescope, and a Temporal Scryspell could have picked us up."

Kanna says, "And I'm still not, and trying to keep it that way, what
good it does... hrm, point."

Kanna says, "Ahwell.  No use crying over spilt plasma."

Kanna says, "And the last part.... mmm."

Kanna says, "He's running scared from somebody else... perhaps Kuonji,
even if he doesn't know it's him that's hunting him. "

Lian frowns. "'I'll have to do some skull-diving make sure Dear Jacqui
and I are alone'?"

=======
=======

Mercutio pages, "Phil, I don't think I got acopy of TAYLORS
annotations. just yours." to you.

You page, "The Taylor annotations are HTML'd. :
http://www.dkcomm.net/rhea/AmberRPG/UnicornSeishi/Temp.html" to
Mercutio.

Mercutio pages, "Ah." to you.

=======
=======

Kanna says, "Mmmmm.  Sounds like psychic probe time.  Or worse"

Lian says, "The wording is ... strange."

Lian asks, "How would probing someone guarantee that one is alone with
someone?"

Kanna considers.

Kanna asks, "Merging, perhaps?"

=====================
=====================

Beowulf OOCly AARGHS. :P

Kanna OOCly says, "hm?"

Beowulf says, "OOC Last thing I saw before getting disconned was you
saying Kuonji was 'nice polite,' etc."

Kanna OOCly says, "ack.  Right.  Hold for me doing the mega-pose,
then."

Kanna OOCly says, "(er, page.  You know the deal.)"

Beowulf OOCly rolls his eyes. Ayup.

Kanna OOCly says, "We can say he was just being quietly thoughtful and
digesting all this time.  Mass-paging now."

====================
====================

Beowulf looks up. "I wonder if that was the time she went missing,
just before... Shaft died."

Kanna hrms.

Gabrielle hrrms. "Taylor was... really fixated on the family."

Kanna says, "... that would make sense.  Find a private shadow, make
sure he wasn't disturbed."

Lian looks to Gaby, "Out of curiosity ... what did you get out of the
fake Taylor?"

Gabrielle asks, "Besides emotional catharsis I'll not soon forget?"

Kanna nods to sis.  "He clearly's done his research, given we've never
met him as 'him' per-se.  But with Shapeshifting and logrus and
outsiderstuff..."

Lian says, "Yes, besides that."

Gabrielle says, "Not much. He knew about his little facet of the
Project, and not much else."

Lian asks, "Can you tell us anyway?"

Kanna raises an eyebrow.  "So there's a little hoard of Taylorclones
running about doing their master's whim."

Gabrielle says, "He mentioned things weren't going as planned,
though. None of his minions have seen Taylor in weeks, and Shaft
wasn't SUPPOSED to die until Marching."

Kanna blinks at that.

Kanna says, "Yeaaaah, that would've hit -hard- if it'd happened now.
Good pyricorn."

Gabrielle says, "If you REALLY want details, you can ask Mikage. He
ripped blood-boy's soul out of his body once Jacqui killed him."

Kanna says, "Ah."

Beowulf shudders a bit. "Indeed it would have hit hard." He ponders a
bit. "I wonder... you said he was *missing*?"

Lian says, "I'd rather not deal with Mikage ... the man scares me."

Gabrielle says, "Mikage is okay once you get past his personality."

Beowulf asks, "Do you suppose someone took out the original Taylor,
and then subverted whatever clone was supposed to kill Shaft, talked
him into doing it early?"

Gabrielle says, "you should be VERY afraid of Nemuro Hall, though."

Kanna exclaims, "Never been there, don't intend to go there, next
subject!"

Kanna grins.

Beowulf says, "...Riight." He grins back.

Kanna looks at Bey.  "Perhaps?  I don't know.  I'm not up on the
degree of independance of bloodcritters."

Gabrielle says, "Their independence in direct proportion to their 
intelligence."

Gabrielle says, "Constructs work the exact same way."

Kanna says, "I mean, I was starting to -suspect- we were having as
such what with Moonshade's report of one trying to get to Valinor,
then the one who was with the Gaunt Man, then this recent one at
Shaft's apartment, supposedly."

Kanna nods.  "Makes sense."

Beowulf nods.

Kanna says, "But this just adds confirmation."

Lian closes her copy of the prophecy and rubs her eyes. "I don't want
to think about this sad business anymore for a while. Without some
more clues ... "

Kanna nods, and tucks her own in.

Gabrielle frowns as she reaches the end of Taylors
annotations. "Hunh."

Lian looks up at Gaby. "Hm?"

Kanna says, "Yeah... know the feeling." She shifts over and gives Lian
a quick hug.  "Focus more on the immediate.... like what you plan to
wear to Marches."

Beowulf says, "I suspect we've all had a bit much of that for the
day..."

Gabrielle pulls out a clipboard with 'Jacqueline Tenjou' written on
the top and consults it.

Gabrielle says, "Mmm. It's- hunh. MIGHT be possible... but JACQUI? It
wuld have to be about ten million times worse than was ever
documented..."

Kanna asks, "Hmmm?"

Lian asks, "What, Gaby?"

Beowulf asks, "Eh?"

Gabrielle shakes her head and puts the clipboard away. "It's too
far-fetched. I'll need to talk to some professionals."

Kanna says, "Uh, right.  Whatever."

Lian hrms.

Beowulf blinks at Gabrielle. "If you say so."

Kanna . o O (prolly has something to do with Super Pattern Stuff.
-Way- over my head.)

Lian says, "Try telling us anyway, Gaby. Now I'm curious."

Beowulf asks, "Oh, one bit -- d'you think he was right on the Mobius
section, calling them fanatical anti-Amberites? Or was he mixing them
up with the City of Brass?"

Gabrielle bites her lower lip. "Does your mother have a degree in
psychiatric medicine, Lian?"

Lian says, "I never asked her, but it wouldn't surprise me."

Kanna thinks.  "I'd be incined to think mixed up with the City of
Brass... as I haven't heard much about Pharoah Mobius, but the City of
Brass's had a serious grudge against Amber ever since Grandpa Gendo
kidnapped their one leader in a bottle."

Kanna says, "Cousin Hiko and Aunt Juri stealing one of their religeous
artifacts didn't help things much, either."

Kanna says, "Given we just had 'Burn Hiko In Effigy Day' a few weeks
back."

Gabrielle hunhs. "I should talk to her, then. And probably a Chaos
doctor, too."

Beowulf says, "That's pretty much what I thought; it's always possible
Mobius' shadow would hate Amberites fanatically, but the other seems
more likely."

Kanna says, "As long as Ember stays totally on the pure trade level
relation, we manage to avoid most of the flak from it."

Lian begins to look frustrated. "Would you -please- be a bit more
precise, Gabrielle?"

Gabrielle says, "I'd rather not. Unless one of you is an expert on
Disassociative Identity Disorder. This is REALLY out there, and almost
certainly not true."

Beowulf asks, "You think Taylor might be an alternate personality for
Jacqui?"

Kanna says, "... that would be... yoi."

Gabrielle blinks. "Well... yes, actually."

Lian hms. "I'm not an expert, no ... but it would explain the
skull-diving to make sure he and Jacqui are alone."

Beowulf says, "Hm. It has a certain scary plausibility, but... I don't
think so."

Kanna says, "IT'd explain a lot, like how hard it is to find
him... but at the same time..." She nods.  "Without more info, it'd be
hard to evaluate."

Beowulf asks, "Although... one interesting thing -- Gabrielle, Mother
said that the blood creature hadn't seen Taylor since the day Rebma
reappeared?"

Gabrielle says, "Well, there's one thing you don't know, Beowulf."

Beowulf looks inquiringly at Gabrielle.

Gabrielle says, "Jacqueline is missing slightly less than a quarter of
her life."

Kanna says, "... ow."

Lian says, "..."

Gabrielle says, "It's just GONE. "

Beowulf's eyes widen. "...I see."

Kanna looks down at her notebook again.  "I -could- see part of it, if
personality swap and body-change, then blood creatures to talk with
Jacqui when she was back to normal.  But.... pyricorn's horn..." She
shakes her head.

Lian says, "Unfortunate that you got rid of the Taylor remains ... a
blood test might have shown something."

Kanna asks, "What in the four heraldric beasts could've started the
entire thing in the first place?"

=======
=======

The_Prof pages, "Didn't someone say *twin* brother? I was wondering
about that... Suppose in the years she was missing, something split
off from her?" to you and Chris.

You page, ".... maybe." to Chris and The_Prof.

Chris pages, "Twins of the same flesh, blood-Taylor said. Which is why
I asked Gaby just what blood-Taylor told them." to you and The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Ah. I like the idea of an analog to 'spring of
drowned Twins' myself. Of course, Gaby's idea will probably be munched
when we ICly hear what the Unicorn said about Derith killing the real
Taylor." to you and Chris.

You page, "Perhaps... perhaps not, if the split happened before,
Taylor gained independant existance, and THEN he got spacked." to
Chris and The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "True." to you and Chris.

Chris pages, "Derith killed Taylor when he caused the Jewel to use the
closest person of royal blood to get out." to you and The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "...that's one way of looking at it, I suppose. o.O"
to you and Chris.

You page, "Ah-hah.  Which was, apparently, JAcqui...." to Chris and
The_Prof.

Chris pages, "'s my pet theory. :)" to you and The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Though still think the Unicorn would have put it
differently if that were the case. o.o" to you and Chris.

Chris pages, "Getting the JoJ purged all Logrus influence from
Jacqui." to you and The_Prof.

You page, "There -is- that." to Chris and The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "True. 'Burned out that section of her brain', didn't
they say?" to you and Chris.

Chris pages, "Ayup." to you and The_Prof.

Chris pages, "And remember what effect the Logrus has on the people
going through it?" to you and The_Prof.

You page, "And if that part was 'Taylor', tied to logrus (perhaps even
spawned by the Logrus after walking)? .... gyah. O_o" to Chris and
The_Prof.

Chris pages, "Gyah indeed." to you.

You page, "Would fit with 'Taylor d'Arden' having been conceptualized
by Rod, too... *wl*" to Chris.

You page, "(sure, go ahead, top trisha for freaky things done to a
character on PURPOSE at the start of the game...)" to Chris.

=======
=======

Gabrielle says, "Well, that's why I want to talk to a doctor."

Beowulf says, "There was that one time that she vanished when she was
growing up..."

Gabrielle says, "I don't think we should tell anyone about this,
guys. Even if it's not true -amd it probably isn't - the mere
possibility could cause some damage."

Lian asks, "Do you need a doctor or a psychatrist?"

Kanna nods.  "Got it."

Kanna says, "My head's starting to swim as it -is-, sis."

Gabrielle says, "Both, if possible. And a Chaosian doctor would be
nice, to."

Lian says, "You'll want mom, then. I'm a qualified doc, but I don't do
the head shrink thing."

Kanna says, "I don't know any chaosian doctors, don't lookit me."

Kanna smiles, wryly.

Gabrielle nods. "And I'll talk to Motoko about the second."

Kanna nods.

Beowulf nods to Gabrielle. "She'd be a good choice."

Kanna says, "Annnyway. We've diverged into rampant freaky speculation
zone...."

Gabrielle says, "Yes, yes we have. I'm sorry. I can be needlessly
dramatic at times." Blush.

Beowulf grins wryly. "I suppose so." He sighs. "Though I do want to
talk to Jacqui, especially after reading this; I'd also like to see
how Benji is doing for her."

Kanna chuckles a bit. "No problem."

Kanna smiles a bit.  "Well, we've got 'bout half a week to take a
breather and not dwell on this -too- much.  As jumping straight in
given our current states..."  She looks wry.

Beowulf says, "I'm not sure how much *choice* we'll have," he says,
grinning, "But we'll see."

========
========

You page, "Oh, what sort of presents does Anthy like?" to Akemi.

Akemi pages, "She likes candy and flowers." to you.

You page, "Yay!" to Akemi.

Akemi pages, "And books and gardening tools." to you.

You page, "Kanna tries to make things less-transitory, so books and
tools for flowers, gotcha." to Akemi.

========
========

Lian asks, "I think I'll be heading home again. Check on the eye, talk
with Drake, do some research ...  see you tonight, maybe?"

Kanna pauses, and chuckles.  "Perhaps I should hit CAFAM soon, anyway.
I've been getting woefully behind on my shopping for things for
various people." *pause* "Benji?"

Kanna nods.  "Should be able to, hopefully."

Beowulf says, "Sounds good, Lian."

Kanna says, "Works for me."

Beowulf says, "Yes, Benji; when I made that psyche barrier for you and
Moriya and myself, I also made Jacqui a replacement for Fred."

Kanna says, "Ahhhhh."

Kanna says, "Oh yes, forgot to thank you properly for that."

Kanna kisses Bey on the cheek.

Kanna then winks her good eye.

Beowulf says, "Doesn't have any power-drawing capabilites, but it
should help her."

Lian stands and briefly hugs Kanna and Bey. "See you later." She then
steps away from them. "Vec, one to boom home."

Beowulf blushes. "Um, thanks."

Kanna hugs back, and waves.  "Later, Lian."

Beowulf says, "Take care, Lian."

Gabrielle shakes her head and smiles. "Vector is exactly like I would
expect someone built by Lian to be."

Lian vanishes with the usual BOOM (tm).

Beowulf asks, "Oh?"

Kanna chuckles softly.  "Hey, more positive variety is good.  You two
worked well together on the assault."

Gabrielle nods. "He has a lot of potential. "

Beowulf asks, "What is Vector like, then?"

Gabrielle says, "He's very computer-y. That tends to be a
characteristic of Constructs that don't manifest bodies."

Kanna hrms, and gets up, and puts her copy of mom's Pre-Ember
archeology book ack on the shelf.  "Oh, bey?  If you ever want to read
any of mom's writings, you can find 'em in the top-floor Royal Reading
Room in our Royal Library.  Ask Dr. Schtaulbaugh, he can point you to
'em."  She smiles fondly.  "Used to spend lotasa hours there reading
mom's stuff."

Beowulf smiles. "Right enough."

=======
=======

Chris pages, "Suggest Juri's guides so he can make Lily happy. ;)" to
you and The_Prof.

You page, "*cough* He can find that by homself, thank you very
MUCH... :)" to Chris and The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Eh? o.o" to you and Chris.

You page, "[Kanna] . o O (why would Bey and Lily need a complete
abridged guide to woman/woman foreplay?)" to Chris and The_Prof.

You page, "(though, in all likelyhood, Yumi prolly has a copy.)" to
Chris and The_Prof.

Chris pages, "[Lian] o o O ( It'll teach even a man what is fun for a
girl. And you need to be more careful with your thoughts, Kanna. )" to
you and The_Prof.

The_Prof pages, "Yumi probably *wrote* the thing. o.o" to you and
Chris.

You page, "[Kanna] . o O (D'oH!  Gomen, gomen, good point, jut look at
mom and dad *COUGH* .... nevermind.)" to Chris and The_Prof.

========
========

Gabrielle says, "Aeris has a lot of potential, too, Beowulf. I'm
grateful to see you've installed the high-level mental processors for
her."

Gabrielle says, "Many people are scared of giving Constructs that much
power."

Beowulf smiles a bit. "Well, we tried to do right by her."

Kanna smiles.  "She's grown up well so far from what I can see." She
grins.

Beowulf says, "Though I sometimes wonder what she'll be like when she
grows up, since she's getting a steady diet of old-time radio and TV."
He grins. "What do you think, honey?" he asks, giving Aeris a hug.

Kanna says, "Who helped in raising her, originally?  Sis here had the
entire kingdom as her playpen..."

Gabrielle says, "Well, Mom and Dad has some VERY severe lockouts on me
until I compiled certain critical levels of data to 'turn over.'"

Beowulf says, "Well, Lily, Mutsumi, and myself were the main builders;
Mother, Mitsune, and Miki helped."

Kanna considers, and nods.  "Would make sense, though, given I have a
feeling mom didn't know what she was -quite- getting into.  But it
worked out, neh?" She grins.

Beowulf smiles. "I did talk to your mother about it; she didn't have
time to help herself, but she did pass on a lot of useful information
to Mutsumi."

Kanna then nods at Bey.  "Good group there."

Kanna says, "The family just keep growing, in good ways, in leaps and
bounds..." She smiles a bit.

Beowulf says, "Well, I'm delighted with her." He hugs Aeris again.

Beowulf looks up at Gabrielle. "Did the two of you get a chance to
talk with your mother, now that she's up here?"

Gabrielle nods. "Mom likes her very much."

Gabrielle says, "Of course, she likes everybody. Even Kozue."

Beowulf smiles. "And what's wrong with that? Even Kozue has a good
side."

Kanna says, "'zactly." She grins.

Kanna says, "Midn you, tolerance levels -can- flux... but note I'm not
trying to strangle Jacqui anytime soon."

Kanna says, "As she's been through a lot.  But anyway."

Beowulf nods. "Oh... speaking of tolerance levels..." He looks
sheepish. "What do *you* want to do about Hoard?"

Beowulf says, "You do hold one key, after all."

Kanna takes a deep breath.  "-Me-, Particularly?  On a personal level,
if my key IS indeed one of the keys and I didn't get it swapped by
Kuonji... you'd best have your grandmom check yours... put it to the
most usefulness for the greater good.  I myself wouldn't have -use-
for a spikard... there's the stuff you were saying a while back about
feeling you were being -directed- to it by Anno.  There's the stuff
where the ghost was saying you should be kept away from it, but I'm
very much waffling on wether to trust it anymore.  AND there's the
possibility of it being given to King Ishmael or whoever to smooth
over relations when we desperately -NEED- such."

Beowulf nods. "If it turned out that I was being set up and should
keep away from it... then yes, using it to help smooth relations with
Chaos was one thing I'd had in mind for it. "

Gabrielle asks, "Umm. Can I hold it for a few minutes after you get it
out?"

Kanna sighs, and tilts her head back, looking up at her ceiling and
running her hands through her hair.  "I'm afraid I'll need to think on
it some more, mull things over in my mind.  As I get the feeling I'm
more a courier or pawn than a full participant."

Kanna asks, "You mean when we go and try to unlock?"

Beowulf says, "(One problem with the way this came up so suddenly is
that I haven't had the chance to check out how that vase ended up
being sent back to me, which I'd planned on doing before making the
final retrieval.)"

Kanna asks, "Well, Bey'd still need to get the one key from Spellvis,
I think?"

Beowulf says, "Yes, I do."

Kanna says, "Well, that gives a bit of a window... make a round-trip."

Kanna says, "Roll together tasks, etc."

Gabrielle drums her fingers on the table. "the King of Chaos is names
Ishmael, mm?"

Beowulf says, "I suppose... what bothers me about Motoko just trumping
me out of the blue was the the implicit assumption that of course we
would cooperate with them. It just... seemed arrogant, somehow, after
all the time and effort we've put into it."

Gabrielle says, "I think your mother met him once, Beowulf."

Beowulf says, "That would make sense, Kanna, although I suspect it may
take a little while to find out exactly what was going on."

Beowulf blinks. "Yes, his name is Ishmael... and she did?" He blinks
again. "Well, I suppose they are cousins..."

Kanna says, "Mmmm.  Well, if they were feeling that things were all
hunky dory.... perhaps it's kinda the same feeling I'm having about
Morgan and Merehallow."

========
========

Motoko says, "OOC: Well, it wasn't exactly easy retrieving the bloody
Luggage from the Temple of Really Bad Dead Things, thank you very
much.  :)"

========
========

Gabrielle thinks hard. "No, it wasn't like that."

Gabrielle says, "Wakaba was kidnapped by Chaosians for use in their
experiments a long time ago. I think."

Kanna says, "Though in Morgan and my case, we've had and known of each
other's desire to find Aunt Juri since... hell, back since I was a
ranger."

Gabrielle says, "I was like, ten, when Utena told the story. And
Annadil took a shot at me right after."

Kanna hrms at Sis's words.

========
========

You page, "Does Kanna remember the story, later retold by Corrine
and/or Utena?" to Akemi.

You page, "Since it tied into her geneological studies." to Akemi.

Akemi pages, "Utena didn't want to talk about it and Corrine would
have respected her privacy, I think.  You know only vague techniques"
to you.

Beowulf says, "OOC: And I'm not saying it wasn't... just that it
seemed a rather cheap thing to have happen, after all the time we've
spent on it. <wry look at GM>"

You page, "Okay, 'nm." to Akemi.

========
========

Kanna huhs.  "Hadn't heard of that.  If mom ever did hear, she never
said."

Beowulf says, "...kidnapped?" He blinks, and looks sick for a moment.

=======
=======

Wakaba says, "OOC Well, they could have sat back and let the KODT and
a Taylor Blood Creature take it if you would prefer that."

Beowulf OOCly ums. "I see. o.o"

Wakaba says, "OOC AS they went after it to keep it out the hands of
other people."

Beowulf says, "OOC right, then. Like us with Tirthos. Understandable
enough. :)"

Kanna OOCly says, "(see, all we need is the Full Story, and it all
makes sense!)"

Beowulf says, "OOC Saying that to begin with would also have helped
make Bey more amenable. :)"

=======
=======

Gabrielle nods. "It all came out during the extended drama of shaft's
youth."

Kanna says, "Ah... huh.  Okay.  Well, that would explain much."  She
shakes her head, sighing something about Annadil.

Gabrielle says, "It didn't sound nice. There was lots of blood and
death."

Beowulf says, "I, well... I suspect it's the sort of thing she doesn't
want to talk about, or remember."

Kanna nods.  "Yeah.  Annnyway."

Beowulf asks, "Yes. Anyway?"

Beowulf asks, "You were going to say something about Mother and the
King of Chaos?"

Kanna says, "I think she did, actually."

Gabrielle shrugs. "That's all I know."

Beowulf says, "Oh. Never mind, then."

Beowulf asks, "Anything else anyone wants to do?"

Kanna says, "Yeah." She looks thoughtful, and then wry, scratching her
cheek.  "Other than one last hug before splitting up and each of us
going on our various errands?  Not really." She smiles.

Beowulf says, "If not... well, we've had enough mind-munching for the
nonce." He smiles.

Kanna nods.  "Indeed." She gets up, and stretches again, and helps
Beowulf to his feet.

Beowulf says, "Actually, after seeing Motoko and unlocking the one
lock, I should see if I can help Lily. I've kept her away from Amber
all this time, and she's probably got a lot of work on Marches to
catch up on."

Beowulf stands up, with a grin of thanks to Kanna.

Kanna chuckles and nods, adn gives Bey a quick hug.  "I'll give mom
the heads-up on the Alars situation, and your idea for the museum near
yig, if that's all right?"

Beowulf says, "Thanks. I'd appreciate that. I'm sure she'd be
sympathetic, but right now, I'm a little too fried to go over it
again."

Beowulf looks around. "And shall we be off?"

Kanna nods.  "Let's."

Beowulf picks up Aeris, and smiles. "See you all later, then." He
looks up at Gabrielle. "And don't you two --" he grins, and tousles
Aeris' hair -- "Get into too much trouble, OK?"

Kanna says, "Sis?  Aeris?  In trouble?  Never happen."

Kanna says this completely innocently.

Gabrielle beams happily.

Beowulf rolls his eyes, and starts looking for a nice place to hide, a
few universes over.

And so we close this scene.

===========================================
===========================================

Wakaba says, "OOC I hope you two don't die tomorrow morning."

Kanna OOCly says, "So do I. *wg*"

Gabrielle asks, "OOC: Hey, when does Marches start?"

Kanna OOCly says, "And once AGAIN, we have an extremely long IC
Bey/Kanna/Lian catchup session!"

Beowulf says, "OOC Yup... but some good RP work, I think."

Kanna OOCly says, "Marches is 4 days away in gametime> (today's
mid-morning day 43, Marches day 47.)"

Kanna OOCly says, "PLAY-time, it's technically -tomorrow-."

Beowulf says, "OOC Nope... technically, *tonight*. :p"

Beowulf asks, "OOC what time were you wanting everyone to show up,
John?"

Wakaba says, "OOC Doh, wrong room.  830 PM my time"

Wakaba says, "OOC If you can't come then, come when you can."

Beowulf says, "OOC So 7:30 Central. Works for me."

Kanna OOCly nods.  Righto.  We shall see what shall happen.

Kanna OOCly says, "And with this, I shall be heading to bed.
G'night."

Motoko says, "G'night."

Beowulf says, "Sleep well, Phil."

Kanna says, "Will try. *wl*"

Gabrielle says, "Night, Phil."