The pool of the ship is a happening place. The fake sun hanging like a disco ball shines loving warm rays all around. There are couples and crowds swimming, relaxing, and playing pool volleyball with a demilich sealed in a magic bubble. (She's loving it.)
Stretched out prone and naked in a beach chair is Luminița. The lycan drifts in and out of consciousness to the waves of the crowds' mirthful sounds. This bliss is interrupted by a shadow cast upon her.
"Take it," says Jevoi, dropping the bag by the side of Luminița's chair, "Where's my tome hidden?"
"What's your rush?" asks the lycan, her eyes refusing to open, "We'll do this after the cruise."
"Or we can do it now, while we're far from everyone."
"Nope, mourning," says Luminița, flipping onto her back, "My bunica was just sent to Hell."
"That's not my fault," says Jevoi, "And she was trying to kill us."
"Trying to kill you," says Luminița, eyes firmly shut, "Besides, you just want me to have the sheriff on my tail for the rest of the trip."
"No, I don't," says Jevoi, kneeling down closer to Luminița, "She has no reason to think you have it, she'll keep chasing me."
"Oi, Ling," yells a withered voice from the pool, startling Jevoi back up, "Fancy seein' you's 'ere."
Jevoi turns toward the disruptor: a decrepit old sea hag with wet leathery skin and in a tiny black bikini. "You're mistaken, miss, but you're not the first."
L: Salica, maybe? J: How am I supposed to know? L: She'd have been like forty; that's not old. J: She didn't look forty; she looked eighty.
"Really?" The hag crawls out of the pool, her seaweed hair dragging limply. "You look just like 'er." She slithers along the ground, limbs desperately trying to lift her water-logged body; her long claws scrapping as her hands search for footing. "You sound just like 'er." Her neck cracks as she twists her head to better look at the gex. Her smile is marred with broken teeth. "You smell just like 'er."
"Not willingly, I assure you." Jevoi steps back, scratching he wig. She looks about and spots, out into the pool, the volleyball game which has seemingly paused. "I think your coven's waiting for you. Shouldn't keep them waiting."
The hag jerks her head around to look, then she swings back. "They'll be- huh?" Jevoi is already gone.
The two continue to stare into the vast cosmic tapestry above them.
"I'd have thought a mortal would have seen this before," says Angustias.
Jevoi shakes her head. "We don't have stars down under."
"Aren't you from the Sesbia Archipelago?" Angustias tilted her head to the side.
"No, Inner Glow," says Jevoi, "My nana is from Sesbia, but I hatched in a crappy goblin town called Rankedge." She suddenly looks about nervously. "Eh, where are you from?"
"Brutalidad, Sathanica," says Angustias, "It's a city in Hell." She looks down to the stars below. "More like a big fort, honestly. Completely underground too, obviously."
L: Right, at the edge of the eternal war? A: The very same.
"What brought you here?" asks Jevoi, "I'm here from fighting a ghost."
"My cousin-" Angustias tries to say, but is cut off by the sudden intrusion of Luminița, and a spider crab making out, blindly throwing themselves through a nearby door.
L: Tell me more.
"Let's find somewhere else," says Jevoi, annoyed. She opens another door in. "Is this cor-"
Lurentooz has Tanglepork's head lodged into her mouth. The sheriff's body, half-undresses, twitches and kicks. Magic shifts between the duo. Lurnetooz eyes release purple sparks before her pupils break through, staring at the intruder. She attempts to speak, lifting her arm defensively. "Ah kahn ehkslayn."
"Don't bother." Jevoi shuts the door. She turns around, but Angustias has left. Dejected, Jevoi returns to her room to sleep; her knife not far from her hand.
D: You just left her? A: There's more to the story. Hold on.
"How are we on your list?" ask Luminița, "We fell from-" She looks up to the completely normal ceiling. She sputters in confusion.
Lurentooz smiles, as best as a cluster of tendrils posing can be considered to be. "Let me show you to your rooms."
In spite of being a trans-dimensional vessel, the Love Craft looks very much like an extravagant sea vessel. The fancy wood is clearly of alien origin, but still distinctly wood. The other main material is mysterious; it is as a hard white liquid, but neither earthen nor organic. Most of the vessel's exterior is made of this unnatural substance.
The trio has little chance to protest as they are led to their cabins and advised as to the hot mingling spots.
J: As tired as I was, I was not climbing into a strange bed in a strange world.
Feeling peckish, Jevoi makes her way to the dining hall. A veritable menagerie of beings sit at dozens of white-clothed tables. Merry feasting and conversations fill the room. The banter is incomprehensible to the gex for it largely is in languages she cannot speak.
Alone with her thoughts, a marilith in a sleeveless green dress sits picking at a piece of meat. Jevoi takes care not to stare as she crosses the room to the bar.
The bartender, a floating multieyed spherical creature, greets her with a smile. His ID labels him Yyzax.
"What can I getcha?" he asks, his central eye staying focused on her, while his eye stalks continue to observe the room.
In spite of (or perhaps, because of) her mother, Jevoi struggles to answer the question. "Something ...buggy?" she spits out.
As Yyzax mixes a drink with his eye beams, he says, "Saw you eyeing that lonely lady."
"Yeah?" says Jevoi defensively, "Is there a problem?"
"Nah," says Yyzax, sliding a cockroach cocktail to Jevoi, "Just saying what I'm seeing." His smile says a lot.
Jevoi takes the drink and then takes a drink. Its meat gives her a slight buzzing feeling. She looks at the demon again, a titanic woman. She's going to do it. She's going to talk to her. Just as soon as she can remember how.
Once again, the trio fell into a hole and, once again, they slammed into the ground one on top of the other: Tanglepork, Jevoi, and finally Luminița. The time, though, the floor is a hard wood.
"Get off," says Jevoi, pushing Luminița, "How did you end up on top again?"
"Why did you do that?" asks Luminița, climbing off of the gex, "You were safe. Why try to save me?"
"Don't get weird." Jevoi stands up. "I was only trying to save your hot a**e because you have my tome."
"What."
J: That is not what I said. G: That is exactly what you said.
"My book!" yells Jevoi, panic in her voice, "You have my book. Where is it?"
J: I was not panicking.
"...Back at the house," answers Luminița hesitantly.
"Excuse me," asks an until-now unnoticed woman a meter away, "Are you together?"
The duo finally pause long enough to take in their surroundings. They are in a boarding lounge of a large fancy vessel, polished clean and charmingly decorated. Standing here, in a sailor-esque suit, is a purple-skinned, tentacle-mawed biped holding a clipboard. She patiently awaits a response.
"Are we in Hell?" asks Luminița.
"Help me," mutters Tanglepork.
The woman raises a facial tendril in confusion. "No? What ever gave you that idea? You're aboard the finest interplanar cruise ship in the universe, a dream vessel of romance: the Love Craft. We'll soon be making another run, setting course for adventure." She takes a little bow. "I'm Lurentooz, your cruise director."
"That's... nice," says Jevoi, "How do we get back to Inner Glow?"
"We'll be stopping there in a few days," says Lurentooz, checking her board, "Kun, is it? We've been expecting you." Her eyes flash in realization. "Ling's daughter?"
"Of course..."
The skeletal remains whirl through the air. Jevoi covers her head with her arms and tries to keep running straight, Tanglepork attempts to evade by zigzaging, and Luminița attempts to swat the flying bones out of the air.
Gank emerges from the ground and slides back into Jevoi. 'Turn around,' she thinks, 'We have to keep her in place.'
'What are we doing?' asks Jevoi, skittering to a stop, 'What's the rest of the plan?'
'Run at her,' thinks Gank, 'Don't stop.'
With a frustrated groan, Jevoi abouts-face. 'Better be a good plan.'
Tanglepork runs past her without a word, but a look that says, 'You're gonna do something stupid, ain't ya?'
'We're sending Grammy back to Hell,' thinks Gank, bringing a subdue soulsight back into Jevoi's eyes, 'When you've got her in the circle, slap that b***h!'
Jevoi can now see Ioana's silhouette in the dust storm and the runes glowing inside the ground, now several meters behind the lycan. "Alright, you old biddy," yells Jevoi, running around along the storm's spin, "You want Ling? Well, I'm at least half Ling."
Ioana howls again. "LING! VENGEANCE!" She twists to pursue Jevoi.
D: Did she anything else? G: Most ghosts form from one extreme desire; they're actually really boring people. D: What was your desire? G: I guess, not die? I'm a special case.
Jevoi stops at the edge of the runic circle and turns toward the storm. She spreads her arms apart, low. "Come on, you broken clock."
The storm escalates in intensity and speed.
Jevoi holds her ground as Ioana approaches, Tanglepork and Luminița far away in the dark, then just as the ghost hovers inside the circle, she slaps it. "Go to Hell, fur-hag!"
The magic of the runes opens a gate under the ghost and forms a barrier around Jevoi. The gate begins sucking with far greater force than Ioana's storms, pulling her in. So too are the bones dropped like water in a drain. But the gate doesn't close; it keeps sucking. Tanglepork and Luminița are pulled into it.
Luminița digs her claws into the ground, clutching desperately to survive. Tanglepork snags the lycan's leg; her screams inaudible over the rushing wind.
Jevoi hops out of the bubble protecting her and grabs Luminița's arm.
'What are ya doing?' thinks Gank.
'She has my tome,' thinks Jevoi, 'The whole reason we're here!"
"I've got you," Jevoi attempts to say, but her voice is sucked away by the wind. Jevoi, unfortunately, would not be strong enough to lift Luminița in normal conditions, nor combat the vortex, so attempting both only has one reasonable outcome: down the drain.
The whirling dust around Ioana approaches Jevoi and Tanglepork. "I shall have vengeance!" howls the glowing counter-silhouette.
Jevoi takes off running. "Tell you what," she says, "After you kill her, I can take to my mum; you can kill her too."
L: Love ya, too.
"Don't leave me here!" yells Tanglepork, scrambling to her feet. "Give me my gun back!"
"Why would I ever?" yells Jevoi, trying to figure out the mechanisms of the gun. The odd rotating piece in the center confuses her. It would be easier for her to study it, if she weren't running toward darkness.
"Don't come at me!" Luminița yells at the other women, "I'm not involved in this!"
"AND I AM?" yells Jevoi, running with Tanglepork and Ioana hot behind her, "I don't even know this woman!"
"I'm going to rip you limb from limb, Ling!" yells Ioana. The light emanating off of her continues offer a view of what the mortals begin realizing may be an infinite plane.
"Love the enthusiasm, Madam!" says Jevoi, "Wrong target!" Jevoi thinks, 'Gank, do something, please!'
'Like what?' asks Gank in Jevoi's brain, 'Ya want me to fight her?'
'You're the only one who can,' thinks Jevoi.
'I have an idea,' thinks Gank, 'Keep her distracted.' She sinks into the ground, invisible.
"Just shoot her," yells Luminița, running further ahead.
"She's a ghost, you drongo!" yells Jevoi.
"Not my bunica, idiot!" the lycan yells back, "Tanglepork!"
Jevoi aims the gun backward and pulls the trigger, but the weapon does not fire. It doesn't even CLICK.
Tanglepork laughs and throws a bone off the floor. It hits the gun causing Jevoi to drop it. She scoops it up as the gun and pulls the hammer back. She eyes Jevoi and rubs her hand along the barrel; sparkles enter the weapon. She puts both hands on the grip, turns toward the advancing dust-storm (while running backward now), and fires a glowing shot into it. A silvery explosion distorts the cyclone.
"That's how you do it, kiddo!" laughs Tanglepork, turning away.
Ioana howls in shock and the bones on the floor rattle. They rattle and shake and bounce into the air. Each begins flying in the direction of the closest mortal.
"Mamaia!" yells Luminița, "How did you screw that up, Jevoi?
L: How did ya screw that up?
"What did you just say?" asks Jevoi, "Then where are we?"
"Take a look, Ling," says an old woman, her voicing echoing from nowhere.
With a flash, the area is bathed in green light. This allows Tanglepork and Luminița to finally see, but blinds Jevoi temporarily.
"F*****g b*****d c**t," swears Jevoi, "Why the b****y g******n hell?" She rapidly licks her eyes and Gank rescinds her soulsight.
D: Does that mean you're going to say what Tanglepork and Loomy looked like now? J: Oh right, yes.
Tanglepork is a small gnome woman with curly blonde hair and rosy cheeks. She's wearing cute pink gloves and pointed boots, a leather vest over a mustard shirt, a loosely strapped stetson, and a matching skirt over leggings. She is currently lying on the floor looking up at the source of light.
Lumița is a large lycan woman with thick brown fur with a blue patch around her left eye. She's still wearing her red cloak. Underneath it, she is wearing a dark corset with a long skirt. She is now several meters away from Jevoi.
The light spreads out roughly nine meters and faintly another nine from a point slightly in the air, highlighting the crude stonework. As Luminița had called out, the skeletal remains of several small humanoids are scattered across the floor.
The source of the light, and the voice, is a ghastly, green lycan. Her eyes are empty and her teeth are sharp.
J: I'd rather not repeat what she said next. I didn't need to hear it myself. L: I reckon I know.
"What language," says the ghost, "To think I let that foul tongue inside me."
Jevoi gags.
"Mamaia?" ask Lumița, "What's going on?"
"Traitor," snarls the ghost, "You side with my killers? This lecherous lizard and the conniving d***f?"
"Hiiiiii, Ioana," says Tanglepork, feigning happiness, "So glad you remember me. Yay."
L: I can explain this, but ya finish this first.
"I don't know you, lady," says Jevoi, "I'm not Ling. I can send the message."
Ioana howls, "You are the only of your kind!" The wind begins to whirl dust about. "I'd recognize that filthy wig anywhere."
"Great," mutters Jevoi, "Mum doesn't even have to be near me to keep ruining my life."
J: It was about twelve years ago. L: After that cult nonsense. J: Yes, Mum. One story at a time.
A lanky black-cloaked figure walks alone down a dreary forest path. The path is old and seldom used. The sun overhead shines upward illuminating the other side of the world, reflecting back down far dimmer and weak enough to blocked by the few clouds. The noises of the forest sing: the breeze through the trees, the chirping of bugs, the hooting of an owl, and the howling of wolves in the distance. The figure marches forward, boots stomping on dirt, as her mind wanders.
L: I figured. It's when you ran away from home again. J: Let me tell the story, Mum.
The trail leads to an abandoned home. Years of neglect have let nature tear it down. It's roof has largely collapsed, it's door broken open, and the tell-tale signs of animals litter the property.
A figure cloaked in red waits by the broken door. As the other figure approaches, she growls, "Are you looking for trouble?"
"I have seen enough of it," answers the first.
The figure inside leans her muzzle out and says, "Set them down there."
"Tome first," says the one outside.
"That's not how this works," growls the one inside, "You put them down and I'll tell you where your d**n book is."
"I'm not putting it down," says the one outside in a matching tone, "Until you prove the tome is here."
"Maybe you can just give them to me then?" asks a dainty, third voice from the trees.
"Were you followed, d******e?" yells the voice in the house.
"You really think I didn't know about your granny's old house, Luminița?" asks the voice in the woods, "You, in the black, let me see what you've got there. It's nothing illegal, is it?"
"Of course not," says the black-cloaked, "There's nothing illegal in these woods, Sheriff."
"True that," says the voice in the woods and then a gunshot rang out. The black-figure fell to the ground. "Shame your mommy couldn't bail you out tonight, Jevoi."
D: GASP! Is that how you died? J: I didn't die. L: Tanglepork? Hmm. J: Yes, Sheriff Tanglepork.
Jevoi remains still on the ground. Gank's ghastly hand gently places the bullet onto the ground and her eyes envelop Jevoi's. She can see the soul of a gnome hiding amongst those of the trees, sneaking toward the house.
"You want to run~, Loomy~?" asks Tanglepork, singsongly, "You can try~eye~!"
Jevoi can see the soul of a large bipedal wolf lurking in the house, poised to strike.