07.02: Sufficiently Advanced

[misfit]

Nuall gives an appraising look. "Hmmm...not quite the styles I'm familiar with, but very striking in a primitive sort of way. Nice use of available materials...and color...and mud." Chuckles "Daring enough to catch a man's eye, but fierce enough to make him think twice about pushing too far. I like it."

"We have allowed ourselves to be distracted by changing shapes and fashion, but as I recall we came in the first place so that we could talk. What exactly was it that we were supposed to be discussing?"

[Joshua]

Oberon looks at the druid who is clearly amazed at Sandie's transformation. Oberon shakes his head, "Hey now, dont' give our benefactor a heart attack." He smiles and nods at Sandie.

Oberon continues, "I had hoped to talk about your coming back with us. So we can get a feel for what you need and what will happen. If this is your power and not the spell, then we can walk where we need. Otherwise, we can find a place to set camp for the night."

[Sadie]

In her normal voice. "The shape-shifting appears to be my own power. The potion allows me to "speak" (yes she does the air quotes as apparently it does not quite fit her definition of true speech) in my natural form. As for coming back with you, I think I must. In many ways it seems you all and I are the same or similar. I certainly would not wish to be abandoned in some... shadow you called it? As for walking where we need, well I certainly hope so. It's my understanding we are heading out to adventure in a land of magic, to gain experience with such things. My boy Danny would freak if he knew I was going on a real adventure in a land with real magic and not just some table top role playing game. He's the one that gave me the name Mana that I'm using for this persona. I wasn't always Sadie you know... Was named Floofypuddle once as well, don't think I'll be making a persona for that one though." Somewhat embarrassed smile at sharing that, though there's also a momentary sad look in her eyes as if experiencing a sad memory.

"Oh and thank you Nuall, that's exactly what I was going for, I'm glad to hear I pulled it off."

She then switches back into the Mana persona, voice and all, "So are we going to just sit here, or are we going to see some action?" Now with one hand on hip, in a sexy pose, pointing towards Oberon using the spear in her other hand, with a fierce demanding look in her eyes and an impatient snarl on her lips.

[coldcandor]

After a few moments standing stunned upon Sadie's emergence, Solten gives himself a quick shake, grins widely, and says in a low growl to himself: "Oh there's a hunt alright, but who is hunting who?"

More loudly he says, with a bit of huskiness still in his voice: "Impressive. I think the adventure has already begun!"

((Apologies once again for the delay, I was both sick and distracted yesterday. Still can't think terribly well, so I'm keeping it short but hopefully still interesting.))

[Sadie]

Her ear twitches towards Solten when he whispers to himself, and a very very slight predatory smile crosses her lips, though she never turns to look toward him, her eyes instead remaining firmly locked with Oberon's.

[misfit]

"I have a question. If magic only works in certain...shadows will Sadie...or Mana...be able to change only in those shadows? If we enter a shadow without magic will she be forced back into her Sadie shape? I think it would be best not to be surprised by such things."

[Joshua]

"If she's actually a shapeshifter, infused with chaos, then it will function anywhere." The druid states. "If she is a worldwalker, then that is likely what happened. It is also possible she's a natural shaman and drew on the spirits in my hut."

Oberon shrugs, "So... Mana... do you wish to find out? We can always return here if you revert. Or we can just hit a local tavern, without walking shadow."

[Sadie]

The spear lowers slightly, her head cocks to the side as a frustrated, "really did you just ask that?" look crosses her face. In an irritated Mana voice, "Am I talking to thin air here?" Followed by her Sadie voice with a slight whimper, "Or is my grasp of language and ability to communicate really this bad?" Her gaze turning toward Solten with an almost, "save me look" in her eyes for but a very very brief almost unnoticeable moment as she then then sighs, grits her teeth, and before anyone can even respond with more than a peep, walks straight over to Oberon, with a feminine yet predatory determined walk, and in clear and obvious Mana mode, grabs under his chin, turning his head to down into eyes, and says with a clear, irritated, but obviously in character Mana voice, "Yes, a million times yes!" Then stepping right up to him so she's almost an inch from his face (Or chest or chin, she's really not very tall) staring directly up into his eyes. "Is this clear enough for you?" Ending in a slight growl as she then pushes his chin to the side scraping his face as she does with her nails hurting just enough to express irritation but not enough to do any actual damage. After which she sharply turns and walks over to Solten and without even waiting for a response from anyone grabs the front of his shirt. "Let's starting walking, hopefully he'll catch up and start actually leading us somewhere." She says as she drags him along the first step or two.

Subtext: While she's trying to play it off, using Mana to seem like she's only pretending to be frustrated and it's not really a big deal, she truly is actually really frustrated, as she clearly felt all this had been communicated already (on more than one occasion actually.) She's hiding behind Mana instead of just playing as is actually now feeling a little insecure that her grasp of language is really this bad. Yay amber psyches and ability to read subtext within subtext within subtext. Plus she's actually really bad at hiding her actual feelings. If no one else notices this, Solten will, because while her human body is putting on her show, her canine parts are making her actual feelings clear and obvious to anyone that knows how to read such things. She looks strong, but her canine language says she's actually really vulnerable.

[Joshua]

"Well, I can walk to try to strip the enchantments, or try to keep to shadows where the magic will stay." Oberon shrugs, "Better to know now I suppose." He looks to the druid, "Are you sure there is no payment you need?"

"There is nothing that was taken or used that I cannot replace, and replace without effort. Go with my blessing."

Oberon nods, and walks off. "So, we'll start off simple."
This walk is a bit subtler than the others. Those of you with higher psyches will notice that he's not shifting where you are, more so the rules of where you are. They start simple, places with more or less magic... The enchantment for speech on Sadie break within a half hour of this, but the shapeshifting does not.
(speech likely gets a little more difficult, like taking training wheels off a bike. but that's about it.)

Then, he steps it up, places with almost no magic, places where the local magic is hostile to foreign enchantments, places where magic is reversed so that enchantments implode and a few where magic is so twisted that it literally is repelled by living things.

None of which removes Sadie's form, and if you don't have a ridiculous psyche, none of which is particularly noticeable.

The non-psychic aspect of the trip is fairly bland, walking through light scrubland and plains where the color of the flowers, leaves and tiny berries change every so often. Although you might notice that you've been walking digging, and genrally awake for around 36 - 48 hours. (Quite an easy feat with even Amber endurance. Amber endurance lets you wage war for 24 hours strait.)

[Sadie]

After a bit of this Sadie stumbles a bit, a little overwhelmed, back into Solten for support, shaking her head. In Sadie voice, "Too many new confusing scents coming and going... Feeling a bit lost..."

Subtext: She's not really overwhelmed. And has a slight accent now, but not too much. She learned to speak through random sounds rather than just trying to speak, so her balance on the "bike" isn't that bad. Though it is off in a few places where she got it wrong.