Revision as of 23:48, 27 March 2022

Participants

Date

27/3/2022

Log

(Fenris) It is a beautiful day in Fairhaven! Not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket!

There is quite the gathering just outside the tanuki shrine on the western edge of the city. Word of the festival has gotten out and people of all sizes and shapes are milling about the trail to the shrine, currently blocked by a heavy rope hung with a sign saying "Closed for Event!" There is a feeling of excited anticipation in the air!

(Narwen) Narwen ambles on over on all fours, the skunk beast giving friendly nods and occasional waves of a paw. Despite the crowd being pretty dense, he still tends to have a little empty space around him, which helps with making progress towards the entrance. A casual observer would be able to track him easily, seeing his tail raised up above head height for most of the crowd, and if there happened to be another quadrupedal skunk around, the painfully colourful rainbow-striped shorts would surely be enough to identify him. Let's just hope he doesn't end up in a line-up. Peering up at the shrine and maybe not paying too close attention to where he's going, his shoulder bumps into someone, boomf. "Oh, sorry there," he rumbles.

(Junes) a winged chimera with squirrel legs and a low hanging tail walks in looking around almost looking for something but generally trying to seem inconspicuous they stay close to the walls

(Randel) Always the one to fit into a situation, Randel can be seen as one of the Tanuki about the place, walking around as if he is one of the joyous rotund raccoons. To help identify the shapeshifting agent, especially those without their COMMs at the ready, he has his lab coat on, opened, and with his Zephyr badge pinned to his chest. Along with the badge, he has a fancy golden, and very functional, Tanuki leaf clipped next to it! It seems like his form isn't just for show, with him actually being very much connected to the Tanuki as well! He is also wearing a pair of baggy jean pants, which do a surprisingly good job of hiding his no doubt Tanuki grade assets. While having such a pair is a matter of much pride among the raccoon dogs, he is here to party and not distract people with them. As with the rest of the Tanuki here, he is beaming a smile and eager to talk to others, and waving to those he recognize.

(Fenris) Despite his loud shorts, Narwen is hardly a point of concern for most of the milling mutants. Amidst all the hubbub, it seems that some kind of guest of honor has arrived!

A palanquin bedecked in silks and ornate carvings is hauled into the clearing on the shoulders of four large tanuki. Once the palanquin is set down, a tall, skinny man is helped out, escorted by a pair of the more common, small tanuki. All of them are dressed in traditional kimonos and they lead him up to the roped off path.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," a large, possibly familiar tanuki says, stepping up from the other side of the rope, "And all the rest of you! Welcome to Tanuki-fest 2022! We are so happy to see so many friends of Tanuki gathered for some fun and festivities! Please, enjoy yourselves, and be respectful of each other and our grounds! We have to clean up after you animals after all!"

The burly tanuki removes the barrier, his speech finished and allows the crowd in, led by the odd guest of honor and his little entourage.

Just a little way up the forested path, the quiet landscape gives way to what seems like a festival already in full swing! Tanuki of all sizes and description are all over the place and the shrine is filled with tents and booths and the street is lined with tanuki, dancing and singing and playing music, particularly a contingent of hapi wearing belly drummers to welcome the guests to the festival!

(Narwen) Narwen tilts his head, watching intently as the guest of honour is led on in. Does he look a bit familiar? But-- what would he be doing here? And then the crowd is surging forwards and even Narwen cannot play the immovable object, and so finds himself padding towards the festival, nodding and smiling a bit at the music, his steps unconsciously falling into the same underlying beat of the drums. His path crosses one of the Tanuki and he dips his head politely.

"Nice event, great job!" he calls, then a moment later does a double-take as his eyes flash across the badge. The face wasn't familiar but he's seen the name, Randel, before.

(Junes) closing a pot junes sighs and visibly relaxes but after looking around they see how everyone is wearing rather nice clothing decides to buy a purple and white kimono, afterwards they see a tall tail and curious about it decides to walk over

(Randel) It has been so long, too long, since Randel has really touched bases with the Tanuki. So when hearing about the festival, it seemed like as good a time as any to check it out. Goodness knows he could use a break to unwind and step away from the chaos that has been happening recently, having cleared his work schedule just for this event as soon as he heard about it. He looks surprised when seeing the large raccoon dog do the presentation, making him double take and wonder if he actually saw that correctly. He is going to have to check if that was Fenris the Tanuki he's met before, but he isn't going to hunt him down just yet. The entire place is quite the culture shock to him, and is a bit overwhelmed by it all. To his embracement, he doesn't know the raccoon dogs as well as he'd like, despite being just a follower; but this is a great time to find out! Though his train of thought breaks when noticing the skunk beast in loud shorts looks over at him, and waves back with a smile.

(Siaren) Meanwhile a certain fox girl is currently running a little late(TM) and ends up sneaking into the room where everything is happening at the moment before trying to catch up on what's happening and appear like she was here the entire time instead. At least she's not wearing anything squeaky to give away her movements.

(Fenris) There are shops and booths all over doing brisk business, selling clothing, food and souvenirs of all kinds. Many of the vendors seem a little uncomfortable with the electronic equipment for transferring freecred, but they are managing.

The burly tanuki who opened the festival has joined the lanky human and his party and is pointing out various attractions as other guests pour into the shrine.

"We could go see the drummers perform," he says, "Or get some food, there is a great takoyaki stand over there. Or we could get drinks, or see some feats of strength and agility! Oh! Or play find the tanuki! There is so much to see!"

The same goes for everyone else! There is so much to see! What would they like to do?

(Narwen) Narwen sure does have a tall tail! It wafts to and fro in the breeze a little, and then a little more as he catches a wave back from one of the Tanuki. The skunk lifts a forepaw in return. "Hey there! We met before, right? Back when we were figuring out how to set up classes? Narwen," he adds, gesturing with the paw towards his neck ruff where there is indeed, buried somewhere deep within, an ID badge bearing that name. "How've you been? D'you want to catch up over a bowl of tea, maybe watch the drummers? Oh-- wait, are you on duty or something?" His tail continues going tick-tock, tick-tock.

(Junes) almost mesmerized by the flicking tail junes makes their way over to the skunk beast and also sees the labcoat tanuki "wow tall tail you got there" looking lower junes points out "also sweet pants" and realizes "oh i always forget introductions im junes by the way nice to meet you both"

(Randel) With all the fancy robes the real Tanuki are wearing, Randel feels a bit underdressed for the occasion. Though to be fair he is wearing his own form of robes, albeit more functional than ceremonial. He glances over at all the things that could be done here, but then catches Narwen chime up. "Met before? Classes?" he answers back, looking concerned and worried. After a long and awkward moment, he then breaks out in a laugh after remembering where they met, "Oh wow! Really? You mean when we were getting the school up and going? Damn, that feels like it was so long ago. I've been... uh, busy? Stressed? Oh, and like heck I'm on duty right now! I'm here to take my mind off of things." he then looks around for a moment, and then adds, "Sure, tea and talk sounds nice." When seeing Junes, the Nanite Form researcher can't help but stop and look over the newcomer, saying "Hi! Wow, you look like you've been through a lot. Are you ok? You seem to be a bit... mixed."

(Siaren) Not sticking with the group immediately after arriving since she was still feeling under the radar Siaren goes towards the clothes selling tanuki and starts going through the different outfits they're selling. After all she needs something else to wear other than the one she's got on right now especially since she's pretty uninterested in nanite clothing due to it feeling like a hack. Plus she's sure the poor vendors could use moneys too. Next thing you know she's starting to dig into one of the piles, searching for a nice hadaka to start with.

(Fenris) The vendor smiles and nods at Siaren, taking note of her foxy form, but not seeming particularly put off. "Is there something specific I can help you find, miss?" he asks in accented English, "We have an excellent selection of kimonos and other festival clothing." In her digging, Siaren manages to dig up a very nice cotton fundoshi and chest wrap. Underwear. Though there is plenty of overwear available too.

Meanwhile, the others are making introductions and trying to decide what to do next as the human guest is led off to one side to watch a troupe of tanuki in hapi and fundoshi loincloths put on a rather impressive drum performance! They have no instruments but their hands and bellies, but their acrobatic performance has the same audible effect as a complex drum line! A gathered audience cheers and claps along to their antics.

(Narwen) Narwen does not feel underdressed. He beams, hearing his tail complimented. "Thanks, I grew it myself. The tail, not the pants. Well... uh, well hello Junes, I'm Narwen." He holds out a forepaw the size of a dinner plate that's entirely lacking in thumbs, but makes up for it in claws. "Nice to meet you too." He seems to be having a little difficulty deciding which set of eyes to meet, then sidesteps the issue by inclining his head towards the Tanuki with a grin. "And this inquisitive ball of energy is Randel, who is makin' me feel old. It wasn't that long ago, was it? Wait, was it? Are they gonna start graduating soon? Should we be giving them degrees? Um, I think I need that drink. Say, you wanna join us?" he asks the grey-skinned mutant. "Ooh, ooh, wait, first let's watch that!" His attention seems to have been grabbed by the drum show.

(Junes) shaking back the dinnerware paws junes smiles and hears randels question looking down worried searching for scratches but seeing the mixed parts realizes "ooh no worries i didnt get hurt or anything and oh are you two teachers?" and after listening hears narwen mention a show? "oh sounds fun lemme just grab a few quick things anyone else want some food?" * then walks over to a booth and buys aforementioned things and also a mask to wear on the side of their head plenty of food a few drinks and carefully escorts them back*

(Siaren) Unable to resist herself, especially given she doesn't really seem to have much need for freecredits due to living with her daddy and thus not having rent to pay, she ends up turning to the tanuki salesman and asks, "How much for all of it instead?" She's probably about to make one of the vendors a very happy mutant by the end of this. And without using succsucc at all!

(Randel) "Make you feel old?" the Tanuki follower says with smirk, "Unless you remember what things were like before P-Day, I don't think I could make anyone feel old." Then Randel sighs as he thinks about how time has passed, and says, "Yeah, if it is a traditional 4 year school, some of them would be close to graduating. If it was like primary school, there would still be quite a few years left, being twelve years long and all. Maybe Eight, given... Anyway, I'm rambling!"

Randel looks over the chimera and says, "I was a teacher for a while, and a doctor before that, but both of those jobs got more than enough help. I got myself stuck in government work, mostly as a file clerk, a nanite augmented file clerk at that, and have been kind of regretting it ever since." He then shrugs and smirks, "But hey, what can you do? I'm here right now to unwind!" When seeing Junes head off he says, "Can't think of anything just yet. Ha! So much of it is new to me that I just can't choose what to get!"

Junes spends 50000 Freecred to: bought plenty at the tanuki festival

(Fenris) The tanuki vendors are very polite and sell Junes paper cups of green tea and bamboo skewers of sweet dango along with a wooden tanuki mask for the very reasonable price of 400 freecred! What a steal!

The clothing sales-nuki blinks in confusion at Siaren. "You want to buy everything?" he asks, a bit stunned, "Well, uh," he looks at all his wares and shrugs, "I could sell you all of these clothes for seven golden taels." He produces an abacus and flicks some beads around, "That would be 70,000 freecred." The tanuki shakes his head and laughs, "It is quite an offer, but hardly necessary, Miss."

The drummers wrap up their performance with some particularly acrobatic tumbling to the approval of the crowd and the guest of honor is already being hustled away to a new attraction. Some of the group might recognize him as a Zephyr scientist. "You're going to love this next bit," the burly tanuki leading him around informs him, going toward a large tent.

Siaren spends 70000 Freecred to: bought out a clothing vendor

(Narwen) Narwen nods to Junes just before she heads over to the stalls. "Teach a bit, though, y'know, not efficiently," then turns to Randel as she vanishes into the crowd and grins. "Yeah, it is a bit overwhelming. I kind of want to see everything at once! And yeah, I do remember the olden days. Miss 'em, but -- well, I do like that we can have a fair like this again without anyone getting murdered or eaten or knocked up. Oh, oh, I know! Challenge time." He ambles over to the clothing stall. "Hello there, friend! Do you think you have-- oh, sorry, I'm jumping the queue. Please, you finish up first," he says to Siaren. "I was just gonna ask what he had that he thought might suit me. Givin' ya fair warning," he adds to the vendor with a grin.

(Junes) heading back with the goods junes sees randel but not the skunk beast and takes a chug of one of the green teas and offers randel some dango "mind if i ask about that thing on your coat?" pointing a pinky unoccupied by stuff to the leaf on his labcoat

(Randel) "Woo... What a performance." Randel says when seeing the finally of the drummers and claps. He then looks around the place during the lull in entertainment in a bit of a daze and says, "I barely recognize this place with all the festivities going on. I already feel a bit lost, and that's saying something." While taking in the sights and figuring out what to do, he spot Junes returning with drinks and perks up, "Oh, thanks!" and takes the green and sips. He makes a 'Mmmp' mid-way when asked about the Golden Leaf, swallows, and says, "It's a Tanuki Leaf, one of several types. This one is of course pretty special, and enchanted. Long story short, the Tanuki are shapeshifters and good natured tricksters, but are still quite honorable despite the deception. Their magic focuses around using a leaf for various things; like transforming into various things or illusions like passing simple leaves off as paper currency." He then points to where Narwen went and says, "Let's try to stay together, I get the feeling we're not going to get a chance to sit down." and walks over to the clothing stall.

(Siaren) Not that Siaren is really trying to be helpful to the tanuki salesman so much as figuring her daddy would quite like the new outfits especially given most of them were quite form-fitting save for the hadaka which was definitely an item she'd be using at home a lot. Meanwhile the foxy reaches into her top and starts rooting around, which probably gives the other mutant a small show when this causes her bust to move along, only for her to finally fish out the freecredits and start counting them out. Upon getting to 70k she hands them over to the vendor, figuring he'd probably appreciate not having to deal with eletronic payments for such a large amount. "I'll be sure to make my daddy come pick them up before the festival ends," she tells them.

(Fenris) A nearby vendor laughs as Narwen ambles up to the clothing booth. "Over here, my four legged friend!" he calls, beckoning the skunk over, "I think I have things that will suit you!" He shows off his wares, floral printed coats and shawls, along with carved stone jewelry in jade and some kind of soapstone. He also has a selection of carved wooden yokai masks that Junes was recently looking over. "No fine shorts like yours," he admits, shaking his head, but if there is something in particular you would like, I am sure I can accomidate you."

The vendor Siaren has been speaking with splutters and stares as the fox simply transfers the credits to the money device he barely understands. He finally recovers and bows low. "Very good, Miss," he says, "I shall have everything wrapped for you! Do you wish to have it delivered somewhere?" He waves frantically to a pair of other tanuki nearby and indicates that they should start folding and packing things up. He takes her information and nods and bows and scrapes obsequiously until she moves along.

There is still quite a lot going on! Barkers at various tents and stalls call out attractions. "Everything you wanted to know about Tanuki but were too afraid to ask!" "Guess the weight of the tanuki's bells!" "Are you as strong as a tanuki?" "Can you pick out the transformed tanuki! Come see the amazing shapeshifting power of the tanuki!"

(Narwen) Narwen dips his head in acknowledgement and makes his way to the nearby stall. "Oh, hey, these really are nice. I like the carvings -- d'you have something like an ankle bracelet in soapstone? I'd ask for jade but, uh, then I'd manage to break it and feel terrible. The masks are neat, but would they fit me? In fact, challenge for you," he adds with a grin. "If you've got a garment that fits me -- a real article of clothing, not just a hat or something -- I'll take two." Some of the other stalls were calling to him, but no: one thing at a time.

(Junes) hearing the mention of tanuki info is just what junes needed and seeing the table it just seems perfect for the time being and so steppin into the tent junes greets the tanuki asks about the general stuff about tanuki how they transform things small facts and the relationship between tanukinand kitsune then after junes concentrates and pounds on her chest like a baf cough and a plume of foxes tails appears "could i ask if you know how or where i got this?" looking perplexed

(Randel) Randel shouldn't have said it, but he did, and the idea is gnawing on him now. He can't tell if it is the form urging him on, or just himself, or a combination of both, but the idea was too tempting to not try! Tanuki followers don't get much in the way of illusion, but do get a great amount of transformation ability. But he does have illusion powers from another source, and has been itching to practice it since he got them. "I think I have an idea of what I want to do." he says with a sly smile in a slightly distracted tone, "We can meet up near the main stage a bit later, ok?"

The Tanuki adept then digs in his lab coat pockets and gets a small note pad and writes a few things on the pages, doing the same thing for several pages, and tears them out and folds them up tightly. Then he looks around the area for a suitable stall to practice on. He's got something to drink, and something to eat with it would be great, and eyes around looking for a Tanuki food vender having a poor time with the 'new-fangled' electronic currency system. When he spots one, he walks up and checks the menu he, waving politely, and saying, "Hi, how's it going?" in a happy tone before setting down his green tea on the counter.

(Siaren) Meanwhile Siaren decides she might as well make sure the clothes are actually delivered to her and her daddy's place since she still didnt' get a response from him though given the festival wasn't over for a while yet she ends up giving the tanuki salesperson her address and tells them, "I'll make sure to come back and tell you if he can't make it then," and holds the piece of paper with the address out to the vendor. Upon doing so she goes to put her freecreds back where she got them out of though this time it takes a little more effort and gives the other nearby mutants a bit of a show before she ultimately locates the rest of it. That done she heads towards the food one next, having gotten a little hungry by now.

(Fenris) The vendor at Narwen's booth laughs warmly, "We came prepared, my skunky friend," he says and pulls a few articles of clothing from a rack, showing the skunk beast a fine, flower embroidered coat that looks like it would fit on his feral form, along with a pair of loose trousers artfully sewn for a quadruped. He also shows off some wooden sandals that complete the look. "And we have all sorts of accessories, of course!" he adds with a smile.

The tanuki at the information desk holds up his hands in mock surrender. "Slow down, miss!" he laughs, "I can only answer so many questions at once!" He looks thoughtful, lining up his thoughts. "One, with henge, or transformation magic, tanuki can transform themselves INTO inanimate objects. The how is impossible to explain. How do you breathe? How do you know the difference between sweet and salty? It is something we learn by practice and feeling. Two, our kitsune cousins have a complicated relationship with the noble tanuki. We tolerate each other, bit tend to avoid one another, unless we are directly competing." He frowns at the tails, "Perhaps you have been possessed by a fox spirit?"

The food vendor frowns as he looks up from a modified comms unit. "Forgive me, friend," he says, giving a weary smile, "The local money tools are beyond this old dog's understanding. Can I get you some takoyaki?" He nods to the fox woman following, "And for you, miss? I have many delicious choices!"

(Narwen) Narwen can't help but laugh back, and slaps a forepaw on the ground in approval. "I think I've been outplayed. Well done, these are gorgeous! I don't know how or why you had them, but if you've got the stock I'll take two sets, as promised. And if they fit. I'll try wearing the coat and, er, sandals now, maybe, but will take the trousers on trust."

(Junes) Junes gulps "i sure hope im not posessed" they say holding a tail "it's not dangerous right?" after hearing out the tanuki junes thanks him and leaves a tip heading out to wait and generally just enjoy the festive atmosphere and looking between the tanuki spotting game and where that man that was being escorted inside was

Junes spends 5000 Freecred to: tip for the nice tanuki info guy c:

(Randel) "Nah, it's Ok." Randel says with a hand wave, "I've got some real money on me." though what is meant by 'real money' isn't elaborated on. He then looks over at the menu again, ironically in as much of a loss with the information as the poor merchant is with his point of sales system. While he feels a connection to the Tanuki on a spiritual level, good natured, proud, and big balled where it counted, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to make the connection with them, he was still painfully lacking in the finer details of the culture. With a deep sigh, he admits quietly, "Been so out of touch with things, I almost forget what real food is like. What are takoyaki again?" While listening he does glance around the stall, double checking to see if the vender does take any other forms of currency.

Junes spends 10000 Freecred to: this poor dude has some fucked parents he needs this

(Siaren) "Sure give me one of those," Siaren tells the food tanuki when they tell her of what they currently have on offer though she wasn't entirely sure what it is she's not really picky when it comes to eating things either which she gets off her daddy. Mostly since she still has no decided upon mommyfox to get it off of instead.

(Fenris) The clothing vendor shakes his head. "No, no!" he says, "You will wear the whole outfit! Allow me!" The chubby coon-dog takes the clothing and there is a puff of smoke as it disappears and a glittering green leaf appears in his paws. He reaches over and sets the leaf gently on Narwen's head between his ears and with another poof of forest scented smoke, the skunk beast is dressed in festival finery! "There you are!"

The information tanuki smiles and shake his head. "I am sure you are fine," he assures Junes, waving as she leaves. She notes that the tanuki's special guest was escorted to the Find the Tanuki tent.

The food vendor dishes out a bevy of some sort of little fried balls into a paper tray and covers them in a savory sauce and little flakes of spice and seasoning before passing them to Siaren. "Takoyaki!" he says, "The finest octopus balls! I also have dumplings and noodles and fine, grilled fish on a stick!" He proudly shows his wares then waves sheepishly at the machine. "My assisstant is better with these things, but I can take any sort of coin you might have if you do not have freecred."

(Narwen) "Oh! Well that's practical," Narwen replies, craning his head around to try and get a look at himself in this get-up. "Super. Well, I guess I will wear them all out." He takes an incautious step forwards, wobbles on a sandal, starts to topple forwards, scrabbles wildly, and somehow settles back into a stationary, if unstable, position. "And look, nothing even tore! I'll take 'em. Let's settle up."

And so, a few minutes later and happy with his purchases, Narwen goes a-wandering a little unsteadily through the festival a little more. He's lost track of the others, but no matter: they'll surely run into one another again soon. In the meantime, he pads towards one of the larger tents, looking to head into a surprisingly quiet opening that-- no, hang on, this isn't the main entrance, it's just a flap that's loose in the back. But maybe he could just peek inside and see what's going on? Just his snout and eyes. To start with.

Narwen spends 1000 Freecred to: Clothes that fit? Witchcraft!

(Randel) The not-quite Tanuki looks at the food being prepared with a bit of awe in his eyes, seeing they are a form of fried dumplings, and noticing it smells rather good. He holds his smiling expression when hearing 'the finest octopus balls', not wanting to crack from just how many ways that phrasing could be taken. After a moment of mentally recovering from the statement, he says, "It looks so good, I just have to! How much?" and digs into his pocket for his 'cash'. He isn't one for seafood, but then again before P-Day, he wasn't one for a lot of things, so why not try 'octopus balls'?

(Fenris) Beyond the tent flap, Narwen can see what seems to be a large, ornately decorated study. Well, half of one anyway. The room is bisected on the far side by a heavy velvet curtain. The room as it exists is populated by a trio of ornate chairs, a heavy wooden desk, and a number of bookshelves, filled with collections of books and assorted knick knacks.

It also contains four surprised looking tanuki, mostly in the middle of the process of turning into objects scattered around the room.

The food vendor looks at Randel with a smile, passing the fragrant dumplings over the counter. "They cost seven freecred for a serving," he says, "so if you have something equivalent, that would be perfect."

(Narwen) "Oh, are we playing Find the Tanuki? Don't mind me, carry on! Oh, nice fretwork, looks very real." Narwen scootches a bit further into the tent -- don't they say that if a skunk's head can fit though a gap, the rest of him will too? One shoulder bumps into the desk and sets things a-clattering, with one or two tumbling to the ground. "Sorry! That wasn't expensive, right? Don't worry, I can replace it! The show must go on. And, er, I'd better hurry." And he puts his paws onto the table -- teeter, teeter -- and concentrates, starting to shift shape himself.

(Junes) thinking over waiting for everyone or just playing the game junes decided to relax with the tea for now and taking a sip wonders how it would go with some gryphon milk, grabbing some from before she adds it to the cup and decides to chug the rest of the bottle and turning into *mostly* a blue gryphon after becoming a full one their tail feathers shake a bit and in a poof the tails reappear

(Randel) Randel blinks in surprise by the cost. Not because it was so high, but because it was so low! Have the prices he's seen while working in Zephyr skewed things so much, or does the poor vender not understand the cost of things here? The shock almost makes him forget his plan, almost feeling sorry for the trick he is wants to pull. However without skipping a beat, he focuses on his Nanomagic illusion, which feeds back what the person is expecting as what they actually perceive. "Yeah, right here..." he says, and pulls out the loose 'money', spilling it out on the counter. Along with the folded note 'money' paper, other small things like a pen, a couple of other Tanuki leaves, note pad, and other miscellaneous things. "Shoot, sorry." he says, his ears pinning back in embarrassment and worry, "Pull what is needed and I'll stuff the rest back. I should have put the change away before hand." and starts pulling the other items away, leaving the note paper.

(Fenris) The tanuki in the tent shake off their surprise and quickly go back to their shapeshifting into various items. A large globe, a fine violin, that blushes a little at the compliment on their fretwork, an umbrella in a stand, and a rather furry book end. Hmm. Someone got a little distracted.

Fortunately, none of the things that fell off the desk seem to have broken, but there is a stack of papers scattered on the floor along with some very nice looking pens and a particularly ugly paperweight shaped like an ogre's head. They definitely picked some wild decor in here.

Junes draws a few odd looks from a number of tanuki as she both adulterates perfectly good tea, and transforms in a way that is certainly unfamiliar to the non-Fairhaven tanuki. Though many of those also give sidelong glances to those foxy tails.

The food vendor raises an eyebrow in surprise. "Are those imperial notes?" he asks in surprise, picking up one of the illusion cloaked leaves and holding it up to the light. "I haven't seen one of these since I was a cub! They are not worth much, anymore, but certainly collectible!" He takes one of the leaves and passes the rest back. "I'll take one of these and toss in a bottle of our home made sake!" He reches under the counter and passes over a large gourd, painted with the kanji for sake. "Enjoy!"

(Narwen) Narwen fights the urge to stop and pick up the papers, first because paws, but second because this is serious art that both requires and deserves total focus and concentration. If he can pull this off, why that would be a real coup, a feather in his cap! Not that he has a cap. Or feathers. Perhaps they sell feathers here, though. Possibly peacock feathers, that seems in-theme. Why don't we see more peacocks in Fairhaven? Hee, peacock. Maybe it's the name. Skunks, though, at least you do see a lot of those. Something timeless about that colour scheme. Hm, yes.

(Junes) Junes sees the weird looks and decides to just go for the game and see when it starts or if its already happening and with a long stretch tosses a bit of trash away and walks over to the tanuki searching tent while scanning the crowd a bit for that familiar monochrome pole

(Randel) Randel can't help but smile, making the Tanuki's day, at least for a moment. While it is an illusion, the memory of the thing was very much real, and he was glad that it was happy one. Now he's got to do the other half of his scheme, or both of them will feel bad. But before he can say much, he gets offered a bottle of sake, which he barely remembers what that is from before P-Day hit as rice wine. "Oh, thanks! I... uh... don't know what to say!.. You shouldn't have." he stammers, caught completely off guard by the generosity. This is why he doesn't getting to the habit of telling lies! Things can get complicated fast, and this was painfully generous of the vender. He takes a bite out of the takoyaki to help stall things to think, nodding and making an approving 'Mmm~' in response, finding the seafood surprisingly alright! After swallowing, he says, "I couldn't help but notice you having a heck of a time with that electronic money machine. Maybe I could help with that. I'm pretty good with computers and teaching others how to use them."

(Fenris) "Get ready!" comes a coice from the orher side of the curtain, "Can you find the hidden tanuki? Count down with me! Ten! Nine!" The coundown continues as the tanuki settle into their hiding places. Narwen is going to have to hurry if he plans to hide!

Junes finds herself on the other side of the curtain, next in line after the guest of honor who is standing with his entourage in front of a closed curtain and a cheering crowd of spectators. "Just watch for anything that looks like it doesn't belong," someone is advising the tall human.

The food vendor waves a hand dismissively. "No, no," he says, "Not necessary. My assistant is quite handy with it. He should be back soon. I'm just glad you like the food! Try the sake! Tell me what you think!"

(Narwen) Narwen has been focusing, in his own fashion, on a good shape: one he knows well, and that's sure to impress. A microscope! His paws rest on the table -- except that those are not tough, leathery pads, but a rubbery underside; and the paws are now square, a solid base to support the instrument; and as he lifts up and forward the rest of him flows along too. It's intricate work: a tray for a glass slide, a long tube with a lens at the base, and even an eyepiece at the top where the user might look. He can't make glass as such, but one of his spectacle lenses is slipped in place of the slide, a single hair resting on it to serve as the object. Knobs jut out to the sides that one might imagine using to adjust the focus, though they don't really turn. The whole thing would be mighty impressive and convincing, were it not twice as large as a regular microscope, covered in black-and-white fur, and warm to the touch.

(Junes) excited that the game is about to start junes looks around and sees a tal guy with people around "oh hey i remember seeing you! good luck on the search" they say with a small friendly smirk and two fox tails wagging a little excited for the game to start and looks back at the curtain in anticipation ready to scan the room and pick (something) out wait can they turn into wallpaper? i sure hope not is the last thought before the curtains open

(Randel) "Oh sure, let's give this a try!" Randel says as he puts down his food and looks over the bottle again. "Got anything to serve it in?" While waiting for proper cups to be found, he says, "I do insist though on helping with the point of sales, especially with such a treat of Sake. It shouldn't take long. Used to teach in the local school for a while, and instruct kids on how to use the silly thing once they were ready for one. Don't worry; I won't be the one touching the buttons. That'd be rude to operate someone else's point of sales!"

(Fenris) Inside the tent, the tall human looks at Junes and blinks, not recognizing the mitant that has sidled up next to him. "Uh, thanks?" he says hesitantly, adjusting his glasses, "You too, I guess."

He wanders out into the room and looks around at all the things filling the space. He gives a long, hard look at the oversized, furry microscope, then dismisses it as too obvious. Besides, it is skunk colored!

He wanders slowly around the room and stops at the non-matching book end, reaching out and tapping it. There is a swirl of leaves and a pudgy tanuki is sitting on the shelf! "Got me!" he chortles, hopping down and taking the man's hand. "Let's get you a prize!"

The tanuki in the stands cheer and those on the floor make way for June to try and make a guess.

The food vendor smiles amiably. "You can just drink from the bottle," he says amiably, "Tanuki sake is best straight from the gourd." He shrugs at the machine. "If you have any tips, I will not say no."

(Narwen) Narwen is a little unclear as to what's going on, not having eyes at present, but he ain't been picked yet. He must be winning! So convincing. The microscope emits a low, slightly grindy noise.

(Junes) seeing the room junes is instantly drawn to the microscope (woah reminds me of narwen it must be lucky!) and so junes goes to grab the lucky microscope

(Randel) Randel blinks and tilts his head in realization went told to just drink straight from the bottle. Of course Tanuki do that! Why wouldn't they? "Right, of course." he says with a chuckle, opening up the bottle with a claw, and giving it swig. He is caught off guard by how smooth it is, tasting the alcohol, but also the other favors he just wasn't familiar with. He never was an expert in whine, but the combination of it honestly tasting good and his current form it natural just made everything feel right. He lowers the bottle, swallows, thinks about the taste, and gives it another swig! After downing that second swallow he says, "Fantastic! I think I found my drink for the rest of the festival!" and gives a hearty laugh. "Now let's see what you are having issues with, since I've got a bit of time." He then takes up the dumplings on a stick and says, "Let's do a practice run and ring up this and the whine." and then takes a bite, looking very much relaxed and at ease from the drink, and well before the alcohol could do anything.

(Fenris) There is a collective groan from the audience in the tent. "Oh!" the Emcee cries, shaking his head, "I am sorry, that is not a tanuki! But I suspect you have found a sneaky shape changer! You'll have to get your prize from them!"

The sake really is good, and goes down smooth. But it is oddly warm and has a distinct aftertaste of.... well, no getting around it, it tastes like ass. Not metaphorically. Like licking an anus. It comes through late, but boy does it come through!

"Alright," the vendor agrees, "But you've already paid for the food. Why ring it up again?"

(Narwen) For a moment or two after Junes grabs the microscope, nothing happens. Then, the air is filled with a swirling cloud of black and white fluff. Gradually it begins to settle, leaving a layer of hair across everything within a ten-foot radius, but also leaving the fox-tailed gryphon holding Narwen's snout. "Oh, hello," he says, then topples sideways, slips off the desk and thumps awkwardly to all fours, wobbling on the wooden sandals. He seems to have changed his outfit since she last saw him.

"Booby prize! Er, let me see what that might be. Actually, let's just step outside -- haha, all part of the games everyone, nothing to see here! -- and I will present it to you."

(Narwen) "Aww, what gave me away?" asks Narwen on the way. "Was it the ocular? I bet it was the ocular."

(Junes) Junes chuckles "honestly i didn't know it was you just saw the skunk stripe and knew i had to pick it" pulling open a bag junes offers narwen some confections "but man was i suprised to see it was you!" remembering the microscope itself they wonder what randel is up to right now...

(Randel) Randel waves his hand a bit dismissively and says, "It's to get the right muscle memory, and knowing how to cancel an order is just as important. Doing is more important than just listening." He breaks out his old COMMs unit and puts it down on the counter to help with the lesson, and then is hit with something unexpected, making him stop in his tracks. "Woof, wasn't expecting that after taste." and then gives the bottle of sake the side eye, holding off on drinking more until after he can gracefully pull himself away from the vender. The COMM he broke out has seen better days, the case bumped and scratched, screen scuffed and polished at least several times during its life, but like a renowned and reliable cellphones back in the day, this COMM is still going strong despite appearances. "Let's see this step by step..." he says with a smile, and leans over, with the dumplings on a stick in hand.

(Fenris) The crowd of tanuki laugh and cheer and applaud as Narwen changes back and waddles out of the tent. They love a good joke as much as the next person.

Following the guest group (did someone say his name was Elias?) out of the tent back into the sunlight leaves many more options and attractions! There's a "guess my weight" booth and more food and drink to try and even something that looks like a hall of mirrors set up!

The old food vendor watches with interest, noting the restrained disgust on Randel's face, though he tries to hide it. Then he starts to laugh! The vendor next door starts to laugh! Another patron, also a tanuki starts to laugh!

The sake gourd starts to laugh.

(Narwen) "What stripe?" asks Narwen. "Probably just a trick of the light. Anyway, I believe you were promised a prize, so, er, just a moment..." He stops to root through his pack, which takes a not inconsiderable amount of time since he has to open it with his teeth, poke about with his nose, scoop stuff out of the way with a paw, and so on; the whole thing is punctuated with little comments like "just a moment", "nearly got it", "oh, is that safe?" and so on. Eventually his head emerges with the stalk of a small leaf held gingerly between his front teeth. He lowers it gingerly to the ground, slowly and carefully, as though it might explode, and holds it in place with a claw.

"Now, this is for you. Normally I shouldn't, but-- well, it feels like this is the right place and the right time. If you're ever having trouble with a Tanuki, or if you want to pay them back for a prank, just rub this against their nose and see what happens. Er, not mine, though! Very important, and I stress this, not my nose. But, on that condition, it is yours." And he takes a half-step back, just leaving the leaf pinned in place by one claw, ready to be picked up.

(Junes) Junes looks at the leaf in confusion but smiles "not sure what that means but i appreciate it! and honestly its part of why i came here in the first place a tanuki pranked me before and i was curious about them and heard about this event and wanted to learn more about them and well" pointing to the nine tails wagging "these" and continues "and wow tanuki know how to have fun! and even if i didnt get some grand prize im glad i went with my gut"

(Randel) Randel can't help but notice the laughing around him, stopping what he's doing and looking around. After putting the events together, and hearing a chuckle from the bottle, he sighs and then chuckles and asks while poking the bottle, "Is this your ass-istant?" After that he lets drop the Nanomagic illusion, feeling as though he's been had and should probably come clean and get a good laugh out of it. The royal note's appearance turns back into note pad paper, with some writing on it. Reading it over, it is a cheat sheet on how to transfer freecredits, along with a crudely drawn leaf and 'Randel' written next to it.

(Fenris) It is probably a good thing no one was paying any particular attention to Narwen and Junes, because that particular kind of leaf could certainly cause some disruption.

After the exchange is made, they find themselves back near the food cart where they left Randel.

The old food vendor chuckles and taps the newly revealed fake money. "Hard to trick a trickster, young man," he says, then points to his spectacles, "I can see through most glamours with these bad boys. A special gift from a powerful friend. But I still appreciated the gesture."

The gourd in Randel's hands wiggles loose and falls to the ground before becoming a round little tanuki. "Good trick though, huh?" he chortles.

(Narwen) Narwen looks at the tails and raises a white eyebrow. "Er, were those there before? I think I would have noticed if those were there before. How... long have those been there? And, uh, what sort of prank was it?" He takes another half-step back so that he can watch on the tails and also on the leaf simultaneously; his eyes tend to follow the leaf in Junes's hand as though it was a stick of dynamite. "You might want to put that away, y'know, for safe keeping."

(Junes) after taking a quick sniff Junes puts the strange leaf away "oh sorry and yeah a while after visiting a shrine they sort of popped up and well after (changing) they pop right back up and about the prank well i was delivering some eggs and well someone opened a package early and things got WEIRD lots of eggs and singing nothing harmful but it was a bit scary especially after snapping out of a spell inside an egg transformed" rubbing the back of their neck"no clue who did it but it doesn't matter now"

(Randel) Randel nods and smiles, "Good to hear. It did feel a bit too easy. I was also surprised that you saw a royal note and not something much more local that a person like me would carry. That should have been my first clue something was up, but I was testing this ability out. I was counting on the nanite effect being a different enough kind of 'magic' than what most are used to. It typically does throw other magical users off. And thanks for calling me young. Glad at least one illusion is still going strong." He then looks at the assistant and sighs, "Kind of... I can do it too, but... What a way to ruin sake. Also it isn't healthy to take in alcohol that way. At least for humans it isn't." He picks up his COMM, turning it off, and stuffs it in his pocket, but oddly enough he still shows up as contactable by local COMMs. "But you did get me good there. Makes me wonder what would have happened if I didn't take a drink and took your friend here home! Say, you really do miss those royal notes, or was that part of the act?"

(Fenris) The vendor chuckles and waves the trio closer. He produces a new gourd of sake, and four flat, saucer-like cups and pours for each of the trio and for himself. "The illusion was good," he admits, "But your targeting was poor. You would have done better if you had told me what kind of money it was. Pro-tip." He winks at Randel, "And you are nearly five hundred years to early to start trying to compare ages with me! Last time I was here in your realm it was the Edo period. I did loke their bills. Beautiful work."

(Narwen) Narwen winces briefly when Junes sniffs the leaf, but when she fails to explode and puts it away he calms down and listens to her explanation. "Um, okay. Not quite sure what that was about," he says carefully, "but while about half of the mutants in Fairhaven are egg-fixated in one way or another, I don't think Tanuki are among them?" He tilts his head. "Egg-shaped things, maybe. Eggs for eating, sure. But, um, anyway. Tanuki pranks are usually pretty good-natured and harmless. Weird I can see, but if it was Tanuki I'm sure it wasn't intended to be scary." His nose is drawn to the proffered bag of confectionary, which seems a safer if less exciting option. His tail waves. "Say, uh, whatcha got in there? I wouldn't want to be rude and turn down an offer. We can eat as we head to one of the other stalls, if you like?"

(Junes) "sounds good! and ive got dango some carefully placed green tea and some other stuff like a granola bar" as junes rummage through the bag they mention "i think theres still a weight guessing game around but wanna see if we can find randel?"

(Randel) Taking the compliment where he can, Randel nods and says, "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind. I did work a lot on the code, so glad at paid off. I kept it vague because I didn't want to complicate it. I wasn't expecting many human lifetimes of memories and experience to foil things. Knowing the target helps. I'm more used to tricking ferals into thinking I'm one of them than anything else. Hehe, And I wasn't comparing age with you, I was using my own yard stick! I was a young man when P-Day hit. Now I'm not that young anymore." When seeing the saucer-like cups for the sake, he smirks and says, "That was what I was expecting earlier."

(Fenris) The food vendor laughs at the group. "He is right," he says, "There are some malicious yokai out there, but usually, tanuki are good natured in their pranks." He raises his own cup. "Kanpai!" He downs the sake with a happy sigh, then goes back to preparing food for hungry festival goers.

Meanwhile, the clump of tanuki around Elias has moved around to a few different attractions and are now heading toward the hall of mirrors. A large sign hangs over the front that says, "See Yourself the Tanuki Way!"

(Narwen) "Ooh, those ball things," Narwen exclaims. "I was thinking about trying one of them. On the other hand, green tea sounds nice but I don't think I should drink it on the move because, y'know, the other hand is a paw." He lifts one, upturned, to illustrate. Then, thinking on it, he opens his jaws wide and twitches his eyebrows hopefully towards the dango.

Once that's dealt with, he rambles on. "Weight-guessing sounds like a classic trap, but what the heck. Oh yeah, you're right, we should see if we can find Randal first." The skunk sniffs at the air, but apparently turns up a blank. "Maybe we'll run into him? Ooh, what's that over there?" The gathering crowd by the hall of mirrors seems to have caught his eye.

(Junes) looking in the direction narwen faces junes agrees but before that "im gonna ask that one vendor if he can tell anyone in a labcoat that were in the hall of mirrors" walking over to someone selling food and thanks them before going back to narwen amd over to the hall "man its been too long since ive been to one of these!"

(Randel) "Kanpai" Randel says, a bit delayed and takes a drink. He then bows and says "Been a pleasure. I should catch up with my friends and check out the rest of the place. Good Luck!" and then drops off the cheat sheets, "Here, in case anyone else is having problems. I'm not going to be pulling off that stunt anytime soon. Not here anyway! Ha!" and then picks up his green tea, taking a big drink to waste out the memory of the bad aftertaste, and munches on the dumplings on a stick.

(Fenris) Randel manages to rejoin the others as they all enjoy their snacks and move toward the hall of mirrors.

This attraction, like the others, is a temporary tent, like the others. The shrine is usually a pretty austere place, after all. People are moving in and out of the tent, most laughing happily as they exit. Elias, the apparent guest of honor is talking with a large, familiar tanuki at the entrance. It seems that the rest of his entourage have scattered around for a break. Now might be a good time to meet the man who was the inspiration for this party!

(Narwen) Narwen was vaguely hoping that food might make its way into his muzzle, but a companionable walk is good too. He taps out a somewhat laborious ping to Randel on his comm bracer, then ambles after Junes over towards the hall of mirrors. Apparently they timed it right: the other Zephyr agent is just coming around the corner. Narwen hails him with a paw. "Hey Randel! Sorry for wandering off, but: look, new outfit!" He gestures to himself with a paw, sandal still hanging from it. "And I think I'm getting the hang of walking on these things. Say, d'you want to check out this thing? Or, er, ooh, I think I know that guy. Wasn't he was on one of the proposal review committees! Er, but I'm sure he's just been very busy. Maybe I should just ask about the status? Or would that be rude? No, that'd be rude. I'll just give him a friendly greeting, like between colleagues. Hello, colleague," Narwen calls, raising a forepaw again.

(Junes) taking in the sights junes realizes they forgot to actually give the food to narwen and then notices hes talking to that tall guy from the tanuki game and as narwen is talking junes bends a bit to offer narwen some dango to eat and holds green tea in the other hand and after theres a bit of silence while they talk i mention "oh i forgot to introduce myself before im junes by the way" tails flicking about as they feed narwen food and drink

(Randel) Randel makes short work of the snack and drink as he goes, still wanting to bury the taste of tainted sake. At least the food was technically free, though at the cost of being the butt of a joke. He knew he shouldn't have tried to trick a trickster, but something about the idea was way too tempting. While walking, he does almost an about face as his internal COMM from his N.I.C.E. unit mentally pings, telling him where the others are at. After a bit of walking around, he finally he sees the familiar faces he ran into earlier, or at least one of them. Seems like Junes has shifted again, making him a bit concerned for the protean person.

"Oh nice!" the Tanuki-like agent, but doesn't get to say much as the poor skunk beast rambles on, not sure how best to step in. Then Junes steps in with food, giving Narwen a much needed snack, and making him look around awkwardly while waiting. As he is getting his bearings, he then notices the large familiar Tanuki there with a Zephyr scientist. The juxtaposition making him look down at himself, being a Tanuki Zephyr scientist, smirks in amusement, and then steps up to the two and says, "I thought it was you, Fenris. How's it going? You throw a pretty good festival here!"

(Fenris) Elias looks away from his conversation at Narwen's greeting.

"Oh, hey. Uhh, Narwen, right? From R&D? Heard you went subcontractor," Elias is a nice guy and tries to know his coworkers' names. "Nice to see you," he says, "You look... um... well." Names were one thing, but smalltalk is hard.

Fenris waves to the arriving trio. "Hey all!" he says amiably, "I was just telling my friend Eli here how much the tanuki way has helped me. I am glad you are enjoying the festival!"

(Narwen) Narwen beams. Someone remembered his name, and then someone else restored his sugar levels! "Feeling well, thanks! And how're you doing? Isn't this event great? Food is A-plus, you should try some of these sweet ball things. Thanks, Junes." He takes a slurp of the tea. "Good to see you too, Fenris." He finally shuts up, leaning amiably against Randel for a moment.

(Junes) giving a sort of head nod similar to tipping a hat "nice to meet you fenris im junes any friend of these guys is a friend of mine" while holding food junes uses a tail to carefully offer randel a granola bar "hey do you two want some food too?"

(Randel) "Yeah, the Tanuki do have a good prospective on life." Randel says in agreement, "They were the first supernaturals I ran into, and haven't regretted it. The real shame is not keeping in touch with them. This festival has been really great in catching me up on what we have in common." When offered the food by Junes, he says, "Oh thanks." but pockets it for after the talk is done. He then gives a smile and a nod to Eli and says, "Hope the experience has been fun, and not overwhelming. Can't believe how lively this place is."

(Fenris) Elias listens to Randel and looks thoughtful. "They do have a good perspective, don't they?" he says, seeming to be rather relieved to hear someone say it. He smiles at Narwen. "I am doing well. This festival has been fun, and it has eased my mind about some things." He looks around at the others. "Do you all want to join us in the hall of mirrors?"

(Fenris) Fenris perks up at the mention of food. "I could go for a snack," he says, "And ditto for the invite. Why don't you come along?"

(Narwen) :beams at Elias again. "Glad to hear it! And sure, that sounds good. Gotta say, I'm curious to see the hall of mirrors -- I mean, when you're starting from this," he continues, gesturing at himself with a paw, "distorted is all relative. But the Tanuki have been super accepting -- a good model for Zephyr sometimes," he adds, dropping into a skunk-beast whisper. "Not everyone there is as welcoming as you were."

(Junes) Junes gives fenris dango and a granola bar and looks to the house of mirrors about to ask a question but deciding against it and says "so anyone wanna see who can make it to the end first?"

(Randel) Randel pauses for a moment, having just gotten the taste of the last prank out of his mouth, and is left wondering what a Tanuki made hall of mirrors is going to be like. To be fair, he was asking for it with the stunt he pulled, but this was still a hall of mirrors set up by a group of magical supernatural tricksters! "Oh boy... Hall of mirrors... By Tanuki" he says slowly, getting himself ready, "Sure, why not! This should be way more fun than your mundane hall of mirrors." and gets ready at the door.

(Fenris) Fenris laughs and leads the way. "It's not that kind of house of mirrors," he says to Junes, "It's the kind with mirrors that change your reflection." He leads the way to the door and steps inside. "It's meant to be thought provoking and introspective" He turns to face a mirror just inside the door where his reflection has turned around to slap its butt at him in a rather offensive manner. "And to be kinda ridiculous," he admits."

The Hall of Mirrors is pretty much exactly as advertised. It is a long hallway, rather longer than the tent would suggest, with mirrors hung on the walls, creating a kind of art gallery where the art is reflections.

As each person looks in a mirror they see a different reflection.

Randel sees himself as a short, nearly round tanuki, sitting atop a beanbag chair sized set of testicles, smoking a long pipe and laughing.

Junes sees herself as a matronly tanuki in a kimono with several cubs frolicing around her.

Narwen sees himself as a large, enormously fat tanuki leaning against a gourd of sake as big as he is!

(Narwen) Narwen grins and moves towards the mirrors for a closer inspection, stepping from one pane to the next to see his reflection follow him. "Well hello, dumpling. You are actually making me feel svelte, which doesn't happen often." Sure, he's talking to himself, but this seems like the sort of place where he might get a reply. "You know what, I want to see what you do with that." Somewhere in his pack he has a jug of wine -- not real sake, but with its own little touch of magic -- and opens it and laps a little toast from the neck. "Your health!"

A pang of curiosity strikes him, and he turns to peek at Elias's reflection, just from the corner of his eye.

(Junes) the excitement from the prospect of a race is replaced with intrigue and they follow along the group and look to see themselves as a raccoon dog and curiously there are cubs playing around! "aww cute! and wow this is some cool magic!" the sky in the reflection looks like a rain has passed and the sun had come to warm the flowers around (i didnt get to talk to that other guy muh i wonder if i can see what his reflection is?) and so looking at an angle they look at the mirror fenris is looking into

(Randel) Randel's fuzzy ears pin back and looks worried when Fenris mentions it is supposed to be introspective. Having spent a lot of his post P-Day life fighting himself, and helping other with their issues, he knows all too well how ugly things can look in a mirror. Soul searching wasn't something he was expecting to do just yet, and hoped that whatever shown in the mirror wasn't visible to others. The worst goes through his mind as he gets to the first one... and it does catch him off guard, but not the way he expected. He can't help but laugh at the sight of him on huge balls, relaxed as heck, smoking... something. Obviously something good! He gets some ideas on how to relax with that one! He goes to the next one, and is several times his normal size, somehow! But it is a familiar size, something he feels powerful and safe in. He's reminded about how he doesn't really get to exercise his abilities more for himself, and just have fun with them. He poses a few times in the mirror, which almost tricks him into shifting into that actual size a few times! Next he goes to another one, which looks a bit cloudy. Looking closer, he realizes it isn't on the glass but behind it, as if there is a fog. He peers close into the mirror, past his normal self, and then sees a fox standing behind him. It is a rather shapely one at that, almost too perfectly attractive, with black fur from pointed ear to toe, and looking at him with hungry yellow glowing eyes. He jumps away and looks behind himself out of reflex and then back at the mirror again to verify, but can't spot her anymore. Did she have more than one tail? He then realizes that was a shadow vixen of some sort, which are notoriously sex hungry, thoughfonot as waist thin. He shakes his head and then looks at himself in the mirror, wondering if his lust is really far closer than he realize.

(Fenris) Other patrons are wandering the hall as well, most laughing at the strange reflections, but some are considering the distorted, probably magical images with deep interest. It seems that each mirror reflects only one person at a time, everything else becoming hazy and indistinct. Generally, at least.

Fenris is one of the former, moving from mirror to mirror and grinning at what he sees. Currently, he is admiring a reflection of himself as a rather small tanuki wearing what appears to be a nearly ten foot long, electric blue scarf that billows in a breeze that does not pass the frame.

Elias is one of the latter. He is standing in front of a mirror and looking at a tanuki that is very much like himself. Shorter, yes, and much chubbier, but recognizably Elias. He wears a lab coat and goggles and is making lights dance around his chubby paws.

Narwen's next stop, after his reflection returns his salute and takes a long drink, shows himas a portly, obviously male tanuki wearing a trucker hat and bowling shirt with his name stitched on the breast.

Junes finds a new image of herself as well. This one a lantern jawed brute wearing her kimono. All of the images are strange and disparate, but identifiably the observer, regardless of the differences.

(Narwen) Narwen is just shuffling to the side to admire his reflection from another angle, trying to peek at it around the corner from the next mirror -- and is taken a bit aback when he sees something entirely different. He moves his head back to the left: enormous Tanuki with gourd. To the right: bowling-shirt dadnuki. Left. Right. A forepaw reaches up to touch his chest, where the stitching would be, and he is momentarily surprised when he feels fabric instead of fur. He stares down in shock -- but oh, right, it's that new coat. Back up to the mirror. "Enjoy your game," he calls, unconsciously wiggling the paw that would, theoretically, hold a bowling ball. Wanting to see more, he steps over to the next mirror. This one revelas a slender, somewhat short Tanuki wearing a lab coat and carrying a clipboard; probably male from the shirt and pants but not entirely clear. "Oh. You're less fun. The other guy wore it better." He's about to move on, but stops. Something about it looks familiar.

(Junes) glancing shortly at an empty mirror they see a broad version of them (heh i remember when i looked kinda like that except well not a tanuki) then goes over to fenris "man these mirrors are cool i wonder how they even work?" moving two fox tails around but seeing the reflection only move the fluffy tanuki tail back "do you know if theres anything else like this? i wouldn't believe it if it werent right here"

(Randel) After the shock of the two mirrors, Randel sees a few more fanciful and whimsical themed ones. He goes through several of them at a pretty quick pace, seeing himself in different outfits and shapes and sizes, poses, and activities. Half way through, he subconsciously tries to shifts to try to match the body the mirror is portraying, which is like trying to chase shadows, as the image shifts when he does. He catches himself shifting out of reflex and reverts back to what he was, and keeps going on. Then he catches a mirror with two of himself, and the second one waves back and grins knowingly! He is pauses in place, looking dumbfounded and reaches for his other self in real space via the mirror, with the mirror double jumping away and waves a finger. "Caux?" he says quietly to himself, which causes the other to smirk and nod. "Wait how... Nevermind... magic." He then slowly looks around to see if anyone saw the effect, and slowly moves to the next mirror, with the extra 'self' making a lewd gesture before going out of sight, but likely not out of mind. The next mirror catches his attention, seeing an all too familiar and sad sight. Whatever it is, it is off in the distance, making him look behind himself to see if it was there, which if course it wasn't. He almost touches the surface, but dares not to at the last moment. He is lost in thought as he stares for a long while...

(Fenris) Fenris turns and smiles at Junes. "Magic!" he says, wiggling his fingers, "And not just nanites. We're close to Tanuki's realm here and that kind of expands the kind of magic that can happen here." He waves at the mirrors. "Mostly, it is just fun," he explains, "Dreams and illusions. But for some, the magic here can show the past, or the present, and sometimes the future." He sobers a bit, his grin softening to his normal, gentle smile as he stops to put a hand on Randel's shoulder. "Best to be cautious when interacting with what we see in mirrors," he says, though there is no way he could have seen what Randel saw.

He gives a glance to Narwen, just to be sure he is alright, then steps up behind Elias. "What do you think?" he asks the man, "You like what you see?"

The man seems hesitant. "I am a man of science," he says, "I've been working with Zephyr's nanite technology since almost before it existed." He contemplates the mirror with something approaching awe, "But this? This is a world away from my laboratory? Is... is it worth the change? Worth the risk?" He seems on the brink of a monumental choice and could go either way.

(Narwen) Narwen takes a step towards the mirror, to get a closer look, and his reflection takes a step matching step _back_, looking a little fearful. "Hey, c'mon. You're me. I'm you. Don't be like that." Another step. The reflection scuttles back further and backs into an indistinct wall, splaying its arms out against it. A little growl trickles from Narwen's throat. "Hey, seriously, I just want to see you." He takes another step-- and bonks right into the mirror. The figure drops into a protective crouch, arms up, eyes squeezed shut.

The skunk sighs and puts a paw over his face.

"Okay, fine, fine, sorry. I'll just... let you be. In the mirror. Anyway, let's see what's in the next HOLY CRAP!"

Narwen jumps right back, recoiling from the next reflection and skittering cartoon-style on his wooden sandals for a couple of seconds. He had been pressed right up against the mirror, and from that point of view it had contained an enormous, gaping set of razor-teethed jaws. From a few feet away the view was not much improved: he could now make out the red, glowing eyes, each bigger than his head, and the long, dripping tongue. After a few seconds of panting, he comes to the conclusion that it is not going to jump out and eat him. A quick sniff confirms that, thankfully, he has not hosed down the room in panic either. Still. He ducks back to the previous mirror where the slender Tanuki is still cowering.

"Hey, uh, sorry? We've got issues, haven't we? Lemme just, um." He clears his throat, turning his head to Fenris. "Uh, yeah, all good here, A-OK! Just, y'know, happy Tanukis! And a bit of introspection. Might have accidentally learned something. But, um, think I'm ready to move along, see the next thing. Or have a drink. Don't mind me."

(Junes) hearing the question junes answers elias "in the end its your choice but magic is amazing" hearing movement junes check back and sees their two companions and goes back to comfort the both of them and ask what happened

(Randel) In the mirror Randel saw was himself, not as a Tanuki, but as a human. He isn't even dressed in lab clothes, more like the clothes he used to wear before P-Day hit. The distance and darkness helped obscure the details he knew were there, and didn't want to think about. The pale and dead looking skin and flesh gave enough details he'd care to see; it was a zombie form of himself. Being an early shapeshifter of Zephyr has had some consequences and quirks with the early Nanite Adept project, with him shifting involuntarily at times when under certain strong emotions. Depression was one that got to him the most, and the form that got stuck to that feeling was the zombie after a trip to Woodfield. It was as if his reflection just didn't want be a mirror, it just couldn't for the life of him move to do his job. He looked on, trying to willing it to move, to not be stuck there, slumped against a wall. He wondered for a moment, pained by the sight, how this mirror could be helpful. What good was it if it just showed him what he already knew? As soon as a few people stepped up to the mirror, like when Fenris put a hand on his shoulder, their forms got added to the display. They walk over to the poor guy and couch down next to him, looking as if they were talking to the near dead person. The zombie's head soon tilts side to side, as if thinking, and reluctantly raises a stiff hand up and is lifted to his feet by the others, arms put on their shoulders. Randel covers and rubs his nose, unable to help recall how much that form stinks, and yet seeing others bear with stink. As the zombie gets close to the mirror's surface, it slowly shifts into a Tanuki as well as looking a bit more alive. Finally, near the end, the image stands on his own, with the mirror perfectly matching the scene of Fenris' hand on Randel's shoulder.

"God damn it..." Randel mutters, and leans into Fenris side, "A doctor make for a terrible patient. I need to learn to accept help when it is offered." He steps away from the mirror, sighing deeply, and says "They are far from mean. Heck, met one Tanuki that was about 500 years old, and still joyful as ever. Out of all the time I've been with them them, I haven't seen any malicious intent in any one of them, and they all seem to want to help." He looks at the very sobering mirror again, which still acts like a normal mirror to him for now, and says, "And I regret not visiting them sooner."

(Fenris) Elias listens to each of the people around him weigh in, though it seems a rather mor extensive argument goes on behind his eyes.

"Well then," he says, "I suppose I had best decide where my loyalties lie, I've played this game for quite long enough."

A short time later, there is a cheer from the gathered tanuki outside as Fenris presents the newest tanuki dedicant and special scientific advisor, Doctor Elias Thomas! The new tanuki waves shyly out at the crowd, and the festival continues with song and food and dancing throughout the day and into the evening!

As for the others, they are given special treatment for the rest of the day, wined and dined for being witnesses to a new dedicant to the tanuki way of life!

(Randel) With a lot taken off his mind, at least for now, and a renewed sense to just having fun, Randel had much better time enjoying the rest of festival. When leaving the hall of mirrors, he shifted to about Fenris' size, feeling more comfortable matching the other great Tanuki's height, and immersed himself in the festivities. He chatted with the other Raccoon Dogs, sharing insights and history, talking about each other's form of magic, and got the most use out of his object shifting leaf than he has ever had. Though, he occasionally pokes at unknown sake bottles with suspicions, still remembering the taste of that one... Maybe he'll be able to spot the Tanuki reliably, eventually.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 /3/2022
 =Log=
-<div></div><div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) It is a beautiful day in Fairhaven! Not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>There is quite the gathering just outside the tanuki shrine on the western edge of the city. Word of the festival has gotten out and people of all sizes and shapes are milling about the trail to the shrine, currently blocked by a heavy rope hung with a sign saying &quot;Closed for Event!&quot; There is a feeling of excited anticipation in the air!</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen ambles on over on all fours, the skunk beast giving friendly nods and occasional waves of a paw. Despite the crowd being pretty dense, he still tends to have a little empty space around him, which helps with making progress towards the entrance. A casual observer would be able to track him easily, seeing his tail raised up above head height for most of the crowd, and if there happened to be another quadrupedal skunk around, the painfully colourful rainbow-striped shorts would surely be enough to identify him. Let&#39;s just hope he doesn&#39;t end up in a line-up. Peering up at the shrine and maybe not paying too close attention to where he&#39;s going, his shoulder bumps into someone, boomf. &quot;Oh, sorry there,&quot; he rumbles.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  a winged chimera with squirrel legs and a low hanging tail walks in looking around almost looking for something but generally trying to seem inconspicuous they stay close to the walls</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Always the one to fit into a situation, Randel can be seen as one of the Tanuki about the place, walking around as if he is one of the joyous rotund raccoons. To help identify the shapeshifting agent, especially those without their COMMs at the ready, he has his lab coat on, opened, and with his Zephyr badge pinned to his chest. Along with the badge, he has a fancy golden, and very functional, Tanuki leaf clipped next to it! It seems like his form isn&#39;t just for show, with him actually being very much connected to the Tanuki as well! He is also wearing a pair of baggy jean pants, which do a surprisingly good job of hiding his no doubt Tanuki grade assets. While having such a pair is a matter of much pride among the raccoon dogs, he is here to party and not distract people with them. As with the rest of the Tanuki here, he is beaming a smile and eager to talk to others, and waving to those he recognize. </div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Despite his loud shorts, Narwen is hardly a point of concern for most of the milling mutants. Amidst all the hubbub, it seems that some kind of guest of honor has arrived! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>A palanquin bedecked in silks and ornate carvings is hauled into the clearing on the shoulders of four large tanuki. Once the palanquin is set down, a tall, skinny man is helped out, escorted by a pair of the more common, small tanuki. All of them are dressed in traditional kimonos and they lead him up to the roped off path. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;Ladies and Gentlemen,&quot; a large, possibly familiar tanuki says, stepping up from the other side of the rope, &quot;And all the rest of you! Welcome to Tanuki-fest 2022! We are so happy to see so many friends of Tanuki gathered for some fun and festivities! Please, enjoy yourselves, and be respectful of each other and our grounds! We have to clean up after you animals after all!&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The burly tanuki removes the barrier, his speech finished and allows the crowd in, led by the odd guest of honor and his little entourage. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Just a little way up the forested path, the quiet landscape gives way to what seems like a festival already in full swing! Tanuki of all sizes and description are all over the place and the shrine is filled with tents and booths and the street is lined with tanuki, dancing and singing and playing music, particularly a contingent of hapi wearing belly drummers to welcome the guests to the festival!</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen tilts his head, watching intently as the guest of honour is led on in. Does he look a bit familiar? But-- what would he be doing here? And then the crowd is surging forwards and even Narwen cannot play the immovable object, and so finds himself padding towards the festival, nodding and smiling a bit at the music, his steps unconsciously falling into the same underlying beat of the drums. His path crosses one of the Tanuki and he dips his head politely.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   &quot;Nice event, great job!&quot; he calls, then a moment later does a double-take as his eyes flash across the badge. The face wasn&#39;t familiar but he&#39;s seen the name, Randel, before.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  closing a pot junes sighs and visibly relaxes but after looking around they see how everyone is wearing rather nice clothing decides to buy a purple and white kimono, afterwards they see a tall tail and curious about it decides to walk over</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) It has been so long, too long, since Randel has really touched bases with the Tanuki. So when hearing about the festival, it seemed like as good a time as any to check it out. Goodness knows he could use a break to unwind and step away from the chaos that has been happening recently, having cleared his work schedule just for this event as soon as he heard about it. He looks surprised when seeing the large raccoon dog do the presentation, making him double take and wonder if he actually saw that correctly. He is going to have to check if that was Fenris the Tanuki he&#39;s met before, but he isn&#39;t going to hunt him down just yet. The entire place is quite the culture shock to him, and is a bit overwhelmed by it all. To his embracement, he doesn&#39;t know the raccoon dogs as well as he&#39;d like, despite being just a follower; but this is a great time to find out! Though his train of thought breaks when noticing the skunk beast in loud shorts looks over at him, and waves back with a smile. </div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) Meanwhile a certain fox girl is currently running a little late(TM) and ends up sneaking into the room where everything is happening at the moment before trying to catch up on what&#39;s happening and appear like she was here the entire time instead. At least she&#39;s not wearing anything squeaky to give away her movements.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) There are shops and booths all over doing brisk business, selling clothing, food and souvenirs of all kinds. Many of the vendors seem a little uncomfortable with the electronic equipment for transferring freecred, but they are managing. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The burly tanuki who opened the festival has joined the lanky human and his party and is pointing out various attractions as other guests pour into the shrine. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;We could go see the drummers perform,&quot; he says, &quot;Or get some food, there is a great takoyaki stand over there. Or we could get drinks, or see some feats of strength and agility! Oh! Or play find the tanuki! There is so much to see!&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The same goes for everyone else! There is so much to see! What would they like to do?</div><div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen sure does have a tall tail! It wafts to and fro in the breeze a little, and then a little more as he catches a wave back from one of the Tanuki. The skunk lifts a forepaw in return. &quot;Hey there! We met before, right? Back when we were figuring out how to set up classes? Narwen,&quot; he adds, gesturing with the paw towards his neck ruff where there is indeed, buried somewhere deep within, an ID badge bearing that name. &quot;How&#39;ve you been? D&#39;you want to catch up over a bowl of tea, maybe watch the drummers? Oh-- wait, are you on duty or something?&quot; His tail continues going tick-tock, tick-tock.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  almost mesmerized by the flicking tail junes makes their way over to the skunk beast and also sees the labcoat tanuki &quot;wow tall tail you got there&quot; looking lower junes points out &quot;also sweet pants&quot; and realizes &quot;oh i always forget introductions im junes by the way nice to meet you both&quot;</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) With all the fancy robes the real Tanuki are wearing, Randel feels a bit underdressed for the occasion. Though to be fair he is wearing his own form of robes, albeit more functional than ceremonial. He glances over at all the things that could be done here, but then catches Narwen chime up. &quot;Met before? Classes?&quot; he answers back, looking concerned and worried. After a long and awkward moment, he then breaks out in a laugh after remembering where they met, &quot;Oh wow! Really? You mean when we were getting the school up and going? Damn, that feels like it was so long ago. I&#39;ve been... uh, busy? Stressed? Oh, and like heck I&#39;m on duty right now! I&#39;m here to take my mind off of things.&quot; he then looks around for a moment, and then adds, &quot;Sure, tea and talk sounds nice.&quot; When seeing Junes, the Nanite Form researcher can&#39;t help but stop and look over the newcomer, saying &quot;Hi! Wow, you look like you&#39;ve been through a lot. Are you ok? You seem to be a bit... mixed.&quot;</div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) Not sticking with the group immediately after arriving since she was still feeling under the radar Siaren goes towards the clothes selling tanuki and starts going through the different outfits they&#39;re selling. After all she needs something else to wear other than the one she&#39;s got on right now especially since she&#39;s pretty uninterested in nanite clothing due to it feeling like a hack. Plus she&#39;s sure the poor vendors could use moneys too. Next thing you know she&#39;s starting to dig into one of the piles, searching for a nice hadaka to start with.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The vendor smiles and nods at Siaren, taking note of her foxy form, but not seeming particularly put off. &quot;Is there something specific I can help you find, miss?&quot; he asks in accented English, &quot;We have an excellent selection of kimonos and other festival clothing.&quot; In her digging, Siaren manages to dig up a very nice cotton fundoshi and chest wrap. Underwear. Though there is plenty of overwear available too. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Meanwhile, the others are making introductions and trying to decide what to do next as the human guest is led off to one side to watch a troupe of tanuki in hapi and fundoshi loincloths put on a rather impressive drum performance! They have no instruments but their hands and bellies, but their acrobatic performance has the same audible effect as a complex drum line! A gathered audience cheers and claps along to their antics.</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen does not feel underdressed. He beams, hearing his tail complimented. &quot;Thanks, I grew it myself. The tail, not the pants. Well... uh, well hello Junes, I&#39;m Narwen.&quot; He holds out a forepaw the size of a dinner plate that&#39;s entirely lacking in thumbs, but makes up for it in claws. &quot;Nice to meet you too.&quot; He seems to be having a little difficulty deciding which set of eyes to meet, then sidesteps the issue by inclining his head towards the Tanuki with a grin. &quot;And this inquisitive ball of energy is Randel, who is makin&#39; me feel old. It wasn&#39;t that long ago, was it? Wait, was it? Are they gonna start graduating soon? Should we be giving them degrees? Um, I think I need that drink. Say, you wanna join us?&quot; he asks the grey-skinned mutant. &quot;Ooh, ooh, wait, first let&#39;s watch that!&quot; His attention seems to have been grabbed by the drum show.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  shaking back the dinnerware paws junes smiles and hears randels question looking down worried searching for scratches but seeing the mixed parts realizes &quot;ooh no worries i didnt get hurt or anything and oh are you two teachers?&quot; and after listening hears narwen mention a show? &quot;oh sounds fun lemme just grab a few quick things anyone else want some food?&quot; * then walks over to a booth and buys aforementioned things and also a mask to wear on the side of their head plenty of food a few drinks and carefully escorts them back* </div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) Unable to resist herself, especially given she doesn&#39;t really seem to have much need for freecredits due to living with her daddy and thus not having rent to pay, she ends up turning to the tanuki salesman and asks, &quot;How much for all of it instead?&quot; She&#39;s probably about to make one of the vendors a very happy mutant by the end of this. And without using succsucc at all!</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Make you feel old?&quot; the Tanuki follower says with smirk, &quot;Unless you remember what things were like before P-Day, I don&#39;t think I could make anyone feel old.&quot; Then Randel sighs as he thinks about how time has passed, and says, &quot;Yeah, if it is a traditional 4 year school, some of them would be close to graduating. If it was like primary school, there would still be quite a few years left, being twelve years long and all. Maybe Eight, given... Anyway, I&#39;m rambling!&quot;<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Randel looks over the chimera and says, &quot;I was a teacher for a while, and a doctor before that, but both of those jobs got more than enough help. I got myself stuck in government work, mostly as a file clerk, a nanite augmented file clerk at that, and have been kind of regretting it ever since.&quot; He then shrugs and smirks, &quot;But hey, what can you do? I&#39;m here right now to unwind!&quot; When seeing Junes head off he says, &quot;Can&#39;t think of anything just yet. Ha! So much of it is new to me that I just can&#39;t choose what to get!&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">Junes spends 50000 Freecred to: bought plenty at the tanuki festival</div><div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The tanuki vendors are very polite and sell Junes paper cups of green tea and bamboo skewers of sweet dango along with a wooden tanuki mask for the very reasonable price of 400 freecred! What a steal! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The clothing sales-nuki blinks in confusion at Siaren. &quot;You want to buy everything?&quot; he asks, a bit stunned, &quot;Well, uh,&quot; he looks at all his wares and shrugs, &quot;I could sell you all of these clothes for seven golden taels.&quot; He produces an abacus and flicks some beads around, &quot;That would be 70,000 freecred.&quot; The tanuki shakes his head and laughs, &quot;It is quite an offer, but hardly necessary, Miss.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The drummers wrap up their performance with some particularly acrobatic tumbling to the approval of the crowd and the guest of honor is already being hustled away to a new attraction. Some of the group might recognize him as a Zephyr scientist. &quot;You&#39;re going to love this next bit,&quot; the burly tanuki leading him around informs him, going toward a large tent.</div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">Siaren spends 70000 Freecred to: bought out a clothing vendor</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen nods to Junes just before she heads over to the stalls. &quot;Teach a bit, though, y&#39;know, not efficiently,&quot; then turns to Randel as she vanishes into the crowd and grins. &quot;Yeah, it is a bit overwhelming. I kind of want to see everything at once! And yeah, I do remember the olden days. Miss &#39;em, but -- well, I do like that we can have a fair like this again without anyone getting murdered or eaten or knocked up. Oh, oh, I know! Challenge time.&quot; He ambles over to the clothing stall. &quot;Hello there, friend! Do you think you have-- oh, sorry, I&#39;m jumping the queue. Please, you finish up first,&quot; he says to Siaren. &quot;I was just gonna ask what he had that he thought might suit me. Givin&#39; ya fair warning,&quot; he adds to the vendor with a grin.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  heading back with the goods junes sees randel but not the skunk beast and takes a chug of one of the green teas and offers randel some dango &quot;mind if i ask about that thing on your coat?&quot; pointing a pinky unoccupied by stuff to the leaf on his labcoat</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Woo... What a performance.&quot; Randel says when seeing the finally of the drummers and claps. He then looks around the place during the lull in entertainment in a bit of a daze and says, &quot;I barely recognize this place with all the festivities going on. I already feel a bit lost, and that&#39;s saying something.&quot; While taking in the sights and figuring out what to do, he spot Junes returning with drinks and perks up, &quot;Oh, thanks!&quot; and takes the green and sips. He makes a &#39;Mmmp&#39; mid-way when asked about the Golden Leaf, swallows, and says, &quot;It&#39;s a Tanuki Leaf, one of several types. This one is of course pretty special, and enchanted. Long story short, the Tanuki are shapeshifters and good natured tricksters, but are still quite honorable despite the deception. Their magic focuses around using a leaf for various things; like transforming into various things or illusions like passing simple leaves off as paper currency.&quot; He then points to where Narwen went and says, &quot;Let&#39;s try to stay together, I get the feeling we&#39;re not going to get a chance to sit down.&quot; and walks over to the clothing stall.</div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) Not that Siaren is really trying to be helpful to the tanuki salesman so much as figuring her daddy would quite like the new outfits especially given most of them were quite form-fitting save for the hadaka which was definitely an item she&#39;d be using at home a lot. Meanwhile the foxy reaches into her top and starts rooting around, which probably gives the other mutant a small show when this causes her bust to move along, only for her to finally fish out the freecredits and start counting them out. Upon getting to 70k she hands them over to the vendor, figuring he&#39;d probably appreciate not having to deal with eletronic payments for such a large amount. &quot;I&#39;ll be sure to make my daddy come pick them up before the festival ends,&quot; she tells them.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) A nearby vendor laughs as Narwen ambles up to the clothing booth. &quot;Over here, my four legged friend!&quot; he calls, beckoning the skunk over, &quot;I think I have things that will suit you!&quot; He shows off his wares, floral printed coats and shawls, along with carved stone jewelry in jade and some kind of soapstone. He also has a selection of carved wooden yokai masks that Junes was recently looking over. &quot;No fine shorts like yours,&quot; he admits, shaking his head, but if there is something in particular you would like, I am sure I can accomidate you.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The vendor Siaren has been speaking with splutters and stares as the fox simply transfers the credits to the money device he barely understands. He finally recovers and bows low. &quot;Very good, Miss,&quot; he says, &quot;I shall have everything wrapped for you! Do you wish to have it delivered somewhere?&quot; He waves frantically to a pair of other tanuki nearby and indicates that they should start folding and packing things up. He takes her information and nods and bows and scrapes obsequiously until she moves along. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>There is still quite a lot going on! Barkers at various tents and stalls call out attractions. &quot;Everything you wanted to know about Tanuki but were too afraid to ask!&quot; &quot;Guess the weight of the tanuki&#39;s bells!&quot; &quot;Are you as strong as a tanuki?&quot; &quot;Can you pick out the transformed tanuki! Come see the amazing shapeshifting power of the tanuki!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen dips his head in acknowledgement and makes his way to the nearby stall. &quot;Oh, hey, these really are nice. I like the carvings -- d&#39;you have something like an ankle bracelet in soapstone? I&#39;d ask for jade but, uh, then I&#39;d manage to break it and feel terrible. The masks are neat, but would they fit me? In fact, challenge for you,&quot; he adds with a grin. &quot;If you&#39;ve got a garment that fits me -- a real article of clothing, not just a hat or something -- I&#39;ll take two.&quot; Some of the other stalls were calling to him, but no: one thing at a time.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  hearing the mention of tanuki info is just what junes needed and seeing the table it just seems perfect for the time being and so steppin into the tent junes greets the tanuki asks about the general stuff about tanuki how they transform things small facts and the relationship between tanukinand kitsune then after junes concentrates and pounds on her chest like a baf cough and a plume of foxes tails appears &quot;could i ask if you know how or where i got this?&quot; looking perplexed </div><div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel shouldn&#39;t have said it, but he did, and the idea is gnawing on him now. He can&#39;t tell if it is the form urging him on, or just himself, or a combination of both, but the idea was too tempting to not try! Tanuki followers don&#39;t get much in the way of illusion, but do get a great amount of transformation ability. But he does have illusion powers from another source, and has been itching to practice it since he got them. &quot;I think I have an idea of what I want to do.&quot; he says with a sly smile in a slightly distracted tone, &quot;We can meet up near the main stage a bit later, ok?&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The Tanuki adept then digs in his lab coat pockets and gets a small note pad and writes a few things on the pages, doing the same thing for several pages, and tears them out and folds them up tightly. Then he looks around the area for a suitable stall to practice on. He&#39;s got something to drink, and something to eat with it would be great, and eyes around looking for a Tanuki food vender having a poor time with the &#39;new-fangled&#39; electronic currency system. When he spots one, he walks up and checks the menu he, waving politely, and saying, &quot;Hi, how&#39;s it going?&quot; in a happy tone before setting down his green tea on the counter.</div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) Meanwhile Siaren decides she might as well make sure the clothes are actually delivered to her and her daddy&#39;s place since she still didnt&#39; get a response from him though given the festival wasn&#39;t over for a while yet she ends up giving the tanuki salesperson her address and tells them, &quot;I&#39;ll make sure to come back and tell you if he can&#39;t make it then,&quot; and holds the piece of paper with the address out to the vendor. Upon doing so she goes to put her freecreds back where she got them out of though this time it takes a little more effort and gives the other nearby mutants a bit of a show before she ultimately locates the rest of it. That done she heads towards the food one next, having gotten a little hungry by now.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The vendor at Narwen&#39;s booth laughs warmly, &quot;We came prepared, my skunky friend,&quot; he says and pulls a few articles of clothing from a rack, showing the skunk beast a fine, flower embroidered coat that looks like it would fit on his feral form, along with a pair of loose trousers artfully sewn for a quadruped. He also shows off some wooden sandals that complete the look. &quot;And we have all sorts of accessories, of course!&quot; he adds with a smile. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The tanuki at the information desk holds up his hands in mock surrender. &quot;Slow down, miss!&quot; he laughs, &quot;I can only answer so many questions at once!&quot; He looks thoughtful, lining up his thoughts. &quot;One, with henge, or transformation magic, tanuki can transform themselves INTO inanimate objects. The how is impossible to explain. How do you breathe? How do you know the difference between sweet and salty? It is something we learn by practice and feeling. Two, our kitsune cousins have a complicated relationship with the noble tanuki. We tolerate each other, bit tend to avoid one another, unless we are directly competing.&quot; He frowns at the tails, &quot;Perhaps you have been possessed by a fox spirit?&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor frowns as he looks up from a modified comms unit. &quot;Forgive me, friend,&quot; he says, giving a weary smile, &quot;The local money tools are beyond this old dog&#39;s understanding. Can I get you some takoyaki?&quot; He nods to the fox woman following, &quot;And for you, miss? I have many delicious choices!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen can&#39;t help but laugh back, and slaps a forepaw on the ground in approval. &quot;I think I&#39;ve been outplayed. Well done, these are gorgeous! I don&#39;t know how or why you had them, but if you&#39;ve got the stock I&#39;ll take two sets, as promised. And if they fit. I&#39;ll try wearing the coat and, er, sandals now, maybe, but will take the trousers on trust.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  Junes gulps &quot;i sure hope im not posessed&quot; they say holding a tail &quot;it&#39;s not dangerous right?&quot; after hearing out the tanuki junes thanks him and leaves a tip heading out to wait and generally just enjoy the festive atmosphere and looking between the tanuki spotting game and where that man that was being escorted inside was </div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">Junes spends 5000 Freecred to: tip for the nice tanuki info guy c:</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Nah, it&#39;s Ok.&quot; Randel says with a hand wave, &quot;I&#39;ve got some real money on me.&quot; though what is meant by &#39;real money&#39; isn&#39;t elaborated on. He then looks over at the menu again, ironically in as much of a loss with the information as the poor merchant is with his point of sales system.  While he feels a connection to the Tanuki on a spiritual level, good natured, proud, and big balled where it counted, otherwise he wouldn&#39;t have been able to make the connection with them, he was still painfully lacking in the finer details of the culture. With a deep sigh, he admits quietly, &quot;Been so out of touch with things, I almost forget what real food is like. What are takoyaki again?&quot; While listening he does glance around the stall, double checking to see if the vender does take any other forms of currency.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">Junes spends 10000 Freecred to: this poor dude has some fucked parents he needs this</div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) &quot;Sure give me one of those,&quot; Siaren tells the food tanuki when they tell her of what they currently have on offer though she wasn&#39;t entirely sure what it is she&#39;s not really picky when it comes to eating things either which she gets off her daddy. Mostly since she still has no decided upon mommyfox to get it off of instead.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The clothing vendor shakes his head. &quot;No, no!&quot; he says, &quot;You will wear the whole outfit! Allow me!&quot; The chubby coon-dog takes the clothing and there is a puff of smoke as it disappears and a glittering green leaf appears in his paws. He reaches over and sets the leaf gently on Narwen&#39;s head between his ears and with another poof of forest scented smoke, the skunk beast is dressed in festival finery! &quot;There you are!&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The information tanuki smiles and shake his head. &quot;I am sure you are fine,&quot; he assures Junes, waving as she leaves. She notes that the tanuki&#39;s special guest was escorted to the Find the Tanuki tent. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor dishes out a bevy of some sort of little fried balls into a paper tray and covers them in a savory sauce and little flakes of spice and seasoning before passing them to Siaren. &quot;Takoyaki!&quot; he says, &quot;The finest octopus balls! I also have dumplings and noodles and fine, grilled fish on a stick!&quot; He proudly shows his wares then waves sheepishly at the machine. &quot;My assisstant is better with these things, but I can take any sort of coin you might have if you do not have freecred.&quot;</div><div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) &quot;Oh! Well that&#39;s practical,&quot; Narwen replies, craning his head around to try and get a look at himself in this get-up. &quot;Super. Well, I guess I will wear them all out.&quot; He takes an incautious step forwards, wobbles on a sandal, starts to topple forwards, scrabbles wildly, and somehow settles back into a stationary, if unstable, position. &quot;And look, nothing even tore! I&#39;ll take &#39;em. Let&#39;s settle up.&quot;<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   And so, a few minutes later and happy with his purchases, Narwen goes a-wandering a little unsteadily through the festival a little more. He&#39;s lost track of the others, but no matter: they&#39;ll surely run into one another again soon. In the meantime, he pads towards one of the larger tents, looking to head into a surprisingly quiet opening that-- no, hang on, this isn&#39;t the main entrance, it&#39;s just a flap that&#39;s loose in the back. But maybe he could just peek inside and see what&#39;s going on? Just his snout and eyes. To start with.</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">Narwen spends 1000 Freecred to: Clothes that fit? Witchcraft!</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) The not-quite Tanuki looks at the food being prepared with a bit of awe in his eyes, seeing they are a form of fried dumplings, and noticing it smells rather good. He holds his smiling expression when hearing &#39;the finest octopus balls&#39;, not wanting to crack from just how many ways that phrasing could be taken. After a moment of mentally recovering from the statement, he says, &quot;It looks so good, I just have to! How much?&quot; and digs into his pocket for his &#39;cash&#39;. He isn&#39;t one for seafood, but then again before P-Day, he wasn&#39;t one for a lot of things, so why not try &#39;octopus balls&#39;?</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Beyond the tent flap, Narwen can see what seems to be a large, ornately decorated study. Well, half of one anyway. The room is bisected on the far side by a heavy velvet curtain. The room as it exists is populated by a trio of ornate chairs, a heavy wooden desk, and a number of bookshelves, filled with collections of books and assorted knick knacks. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>It also contains four surprised looking tanuki, mostly in the middle of the process of turning into objects scattered around the room. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor looks at Randel with a smile, passing the fragrant dumplings over the counter. &quot;They cost seven freecred for a serving,&quot; he says, &quot;so if you have something equivalent, that would be perfect.&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) &quot;Oh, are we playing Find the Tanuki? Don&#39;t mind me, carry on! Oh, nice fretwork, looks very real.&quot; Narwen scootches a bit further into the tent -- don&#39;t they say that if a skunk&#39;s head can fit though a gap, the rest of him will too? One shoulder bumps into the desk and sets things a-clattering, with one or two tumbling to the ground. &quot;Sorry! That wasn&#39;t expensive, right? Don&#39;t worry, I can replace it! The show must go on. And, er, I&#39;d better hurry.&quot; And he puts his paws onto the table -- teeter, teeter -- and concentrates, starting to shift shape himself.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  thinking over waiting for everyone or just playing the game junes decided to relax with the tea for now and taking a sip wonders how it would go with some gryphon milk, grabbing some from before she adds it to the cup and decides to chug the rest of the bottle and turning into *mostly* a blue gryphon after becoming a full one their tail feathers shake a bit and in a poof the tails reappear </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel blinks in surprise by the cost. Not because it was so high, but because it was so low! Have the prices he&#39;s seen while working in Zephyr skewed things so much, or does the poor vender not understand the cost of things here? The shock almost makes him forget his plan, almost feeling sorry for the trick he is wants to pull. However without skipping a beat, he focuses on his Nanomagic illusion, which feeds back what the person is expecting as what they actually perceive. &quot;Yeah, right here...&quot; he says, and pulls out the loose &#39;money&#39;, spilling it out on the counter. Along with the folded note &#39;money&#39; paper, other small things like a pen, a couple of other Tanuki leaves, note pad, and other miscellaneous things. &quot;Shoot, sorry.&quot; he says, his ears pinning back in embarrassment and worry, &quot;Pull what is needed and I&#39;ll stuff the rest back. I should have put the change away before hand.&quot; and starts pulling the other items away, leaving the note paper.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The tanuki in the tent shake off their surprise and quickly go back to their shapeshifting into various items. A large globe, a fine violin, that blushes a little at the compliment on their fretwork, an umbrella in a stand, and a rather furry book end. Hmm. Someone got a little distracted. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Fortunately, none of the things that fell off the desk seem to have broken, but there is a stack of papers scattered on the floor along with some very nice looking pens and a particularly ugly paperweight shaped like an ogre&#39;s head. They definitely picked some wild decor in here. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Junes draws a few odd looks from a number of tanuki as she both adulterates perfectly good tea, and transforms in a way that is certainly unfamiliar to the non-Fairhaven tanuki. Though many of those also give sidelong glances to those foxy tails. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor raises an eyebrow in surprise. &quot;Are those imperial notes?&quot; he asks in surprise, picking up one of the illusion cloaked leaves and holding it up to the light. &quot;I haven&#39;t seen one of these since I was a cub! They are not worth much, anymore, but certainly collectible!&quot; He takes one of the leaves and passes the rest back. &quot;I&#39;ll take one of these and toss in a bottle of our home made sake!&quot; He reches under the counter and passes over a large gourd, painted with the kanji for sake. &quot;Enjoy!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen fights the urge to stop and pick up the papers, first because paws, but second because this is serious art that both requires and deserves total focus and concentration. If he can pull this off, why that would be a real coup, a feather in his cap! Not that he has a cap. Or feathers. Perhaps they sell feathers here, though. Possibly peacock feathers, that seems in-theme. Why don&#39;t we see more peacocks in Fairhaven? Hee, peacock. Maybe it&#39;s the name. Skunks, though, at least you do see a lot of those. Something timeless about that colour scheme. Hm, yes.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes sees the weird looks and decides to just go for the game and see when it starts or if its already happening and with a long stretch tosses a bit of trash away and walks over to the tanuki searching tent while scanning the crowd a bit for that familiar monochrome pole</div><div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel can&#39;t help but smile, making the Tanuki&#39;s day, at least for a moment. While it is an illusion, the memory of the thing was very much real, and he was glad that it was happy one. Now he&#39;s got to do the other half of his scheme, or both of them will feel bad. But before he can say much, he gets offered a bottle of sake, which he barely remembers what that is from before P-Day hit as rice wine. &quot;Oh, thanks! I... uh... don&#39;t know what to say!.. You shouldn&#39;t have.&quot; he stammers, caught completely off guard by the generosity. This is why he doesn&#39;t getting to the habit of telling lies! Things can get complicated fast, and this was painfully generous of the vender. He takes a bite out of the takoyaki to help stall things to think, nodding and making an approving &#39;Mmm~&#39; in response, finding the seafood surprisingly alright! After swallowing, he says, &quot;I couldn&#39;t help but notice you having a heck of a time with that electronic money machine. Maybe I could help with that. I&#39;m pretty good with computers and teaching others how to use them.&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) &quot;Get ready!&quot; comes a coice from the orher side of the curtain, &quot;Can you find the hidden tanuki? Count down with me! Ten! Nine!&quot; The coundown continues as the tanuki settle into their hiding places. Narwen is going to have to hurry if he plans to hide! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Junes finds herself on the other side of the curtain, next in line after the guest of honor who is standing with his entourage in front of a closed curtain and a cheering crowd of spectators. &quot;Just watch for anything that looks like it doesn&#39;t belong,&quot; someone is advising the tall human. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor waves a hand dismissively. &quot;No, no,&quot; he says, &quot;Not necessary. My assistant is quite handy with it. He should be back soon. I&#39;m just glad you like the food! Try the sake! Tell me what you think!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen has been focusing, in his own fashion, on a good shape: one he knows well, and that&#39;s sure to impress. A microscope! His paws rest on the table -- except that those are not tough, leathery pads, but a rubbery underside; and the paws are now square, a solid base to support the instrument; and as he lifts up and forward the rest of him flows along too. It&#39;s intricate work: a tray for a glass slide, a long tube with a lens at the base, and even an eyepiece at the top where the user might look. He can&#39;t make glass as such, but one of his spectacle lenses is slipped in place of the slide, a single hair resting on it to serve as the object. Knobs jut out to the sides that one might imagine using to adjust the focus, though they don&#39;t really turn. The whole thing would be mighty impressive and convincing, were it not twice as large as a regular microscope, covered in black-and-white fur, and warm to the touch.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  excited that the game is about to start junes looks around and sees a tal guy with people around &quot;oh hey i remember seeing you! good luck on the search&quot; they say with a small friendly smirk and two fox tails wagging a little excited for the game to start and looks back at the curtain in anticipation ready to scan the room and pick (something) out wait can they turn into wallpaper? i sure hope not is the last thought before the curtains open</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Oh sure, let&#39;s give this a try!&quot; Randel says as he puts down his food and looks over the bottle again. &quot;Got anything to serve it in?&quot; While waiting for proper cups to be found, he says, &quot;I do insist though on helping with the point of sales, especially with such a treat of Sake. It shouldn&#39;t take long. Used to teach in the local school for a while, and instruct kids on how to use the silly thing once they were ready for one. Don&#39;t worry; I won&#39;t be the one touching the buttons. That&#39;d be rude to operate someone else&#39;s point of sales!&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Inside the tent, the tall human looks at Junes and blinks, not recognizing the mitant that has sidled up next to him. &quot;Uh, thanks?&quot; he says hesitantly, adjusting his glasses, &quot;You too, I guess.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>He wanders out into the room and looks around at all the things filling the space. He gives a long, hard look at the oversized, furry microscope, then dismisses it as too obvious. Besides, it is skunk colored! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>He wanders slowly around the room and stops at the non-matching book end, reaching out and tapping it. There is a swirl of leaves and a pudgy tanuki is sitting on the shelf! &quot;Got me!&quot; he chortles, hopping down and taking the man&#39;s hand. &quot;Let&#39;s get you a prize!&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The tanuki in the stands cheer and those on the floor make way for June to try and make a guess. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor smiles amiably. &quot;You can just drink from the bottle,&quot; he says amiably, &quot;Tanuki sake is best straight from the gourd.&quot; He shrugs at the machine. &quot;If you have any tips, I will not say no.&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen is a little unclear as to what&#39;s going on, not having eyes at present, but he ain&#39;t been picked yet. He must be winning! So convincing. The microscope emits a low, slightly grindy noise.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  seeing the room junes is instantly drawn to the microscope (woah reminds me of narwen it must be lucky!) and so junes goes to grab the lucky microscope</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel blinks and tilts his head in realization went told to just drink straight from the bottle. Of course Tanuki do that! Why wouldn&#39;t they? &quot;Right, of course.&quot; he says with a chuckle, opening up the bottle with a claw, and giving it swig. He is caught off guard by how smooth it is, tasting the alcohol, but also the other favors he just wasn&#39;t familiar with. He never was an expert in whine, but the combination of it honestly tasting good and his current form it natural just made everything feel right. He lowers the bottle, swallows, thinks about the taste, and gives it another swig! After downing that second swallow he says, &quot;Fantastic! I think I found my drink for the rest of the festival!&quot; and gives a hearty laugh. &quot;Now let&#39;s see what you are having issues with, since I&#39;ve got a bit of time.&quot; He then takes up the dumplings on a stick and says, &quot;Let&#39;s do a practice run and ring up this and the whine.&quot; and then takes a bite, looking very much relaxed and at ease from the drink, and well before the alcohol could do anything.</div><div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) There is a collective groan from the audience in the tent. &quot;Oh!&quot; the Emcee cries, shaking his head, &quot;I am sorry, that is not a tanuki! But I suspect you have found a sneaky shape changer! You&#39;ll have to get your prize from them!&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The sake really is good, and goes down smooth. But it is oddly warm and has a distinct aftertaste of.... well, no getting around it, it tastes like ass. Not metaphorically. Like licking an anus. It comes through late, but boy does it come through! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;Alright,&quot; the vendor agrees, &quot;But you&#39;ve already paid for the food. Why ring it up again?&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) For a moment or two after Junes grabs the microscope, nothing happens. Then, the air is filled with a swirling cloud of black and white fluff. Gradually it begins to settle, leaving a layer of hair across everything within a ten-foot radius, but also leaving the fox-tailed gryphon holding Narwen&#39;s snout. &quot;Oh, hello,&quot; he says, then topples sideways, slips off the desk and thumps awkwardly to all fours, wobbling on the wooden sandals. He seems to have changed his outfit since she last saw him.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   &quot;Booby prize! Er, let me see what that might be. Actually, let&#39;s just step outside -- haha, all part of the games everyone, nothing to see here! -- and I will present it to you.&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) &quot;Aww, what gave me away?&quot; asks Narwen on the way. &quot;Was it the ocular? I bet it was the ocular.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  Junes chuckles &quot;honestly i didn&#39;t know it was you just saw the skunk stripe and knew i had to pick it&quot; pulling open a bag junes offers narwen some confections &quot;but man was i suprised to see it was you!&quot; remembering the microscope itself they wonder what randel is up to right now...</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel waves his hand a bit dismissively and says, &quot;It&#39;s to get the right muscle memory, and knowing how to cancel an order is just as important. Doing is more important than just listening.&quot; He breaks out his old COMMs unit and puts it down on the counter to help with the lesson, and then is hit with something unexpected, making him stop in his tracks. &quot;Woof, wasn&#39;t expecting that after taste.&quot; and then gives the bottle of sake the side eye, holding off on drinking more until after he can gracefully pull himself away from the vender. The COMM he broke out has seen better days, the case bumped and scratched, screen scuffed and polished at least several times during its life, but like a renowned and reliable cellphones back in the day, this COMM is still going strong despite appearances. &quot;Let&#39;s see this step by step...&quot; he says with a smile, and leans over, with the dumplings on a stick in hand.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The crowd of tanuki laugh and cheer and applaud as Narwen changes back and waddles out of the tent. They love a good joke as much as the next person. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Following the guest group (did someone say his name was Elias?) out of the tent back into the sunlight leaves many more options and attractions! There&#39;s a &quot;guess my weight&quot; booth and more food and drink to try and even something that looks like a hall of mirrors set up! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The old food vendor watches with interest, noting the restrained disgust on Randel&#39;s face, though he tries to hide it. Then he starts to laugh! The vendor next door starts to laugh! Another patron, also a tanuki starts to laugh! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The sake gourd starts to laugh.</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) &quot;What stripe?&quot; asks Narwen. &quot;Probably just a trick of the light. Anyway, I believe you were promised a prize, so, er, just a moment...&quot; He stops to root through his pack, which takes a not inconsiderable amount of time since he has to open it with his teeth, poke about with his nose, scoop stuff out of the way with a paw, and so on; the whole thing is punctuated with little comments like &quot;just a moment&quot;, &quot;nearly got it&quot;, &quot;oh, is that safe?&quot; and so on. Eventually his head emerges with the stalk of a small leaf held gingerly between his front teeth. He lowers it gingerly to the ground, slowly and carefully, as though it might explode, and holds it in place with a claw.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   &quot;Now, this is for you. Normally I shouldn&#39;t, but-- well, it feels like this is the right place and the right time. If you&#39;re ever having trouble with a Tanuki, or if you want to pay them back for a prank, just rub this against their nose and see what happens. Er, not mine, though! Very important, and I stress this, not my nose. But, on that condition, it is yours.&quot; And he takes a half-step back, just leaving the leaf pinned in place by one claw, ready to be picked up.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  Junes looks at the leaf in confusion but smiles &quot;not sure what that means but i appreciate it! and honestly its part of why i came here in the first place a tanuki pranked me before and i was curious about them and heard about this event and wanted to learn more about them and well&quot; pointing to the nine tails wagging &quot;these&quot; and continues &quot;and wow tanuki know how to have fun! and even if i didnt get some grand prize im glad i went with my gut&quot; </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel can&#39;t help but notice the laughing around him, stopping what he&#39;s doing and looking around. After putting the events together, and hearing a chuckle from the bottle, he sighs and then chuckles and asks while poking the bottle, &quot;Is this your ass-istant?&quot; After that he lets drop the Nanomagic illusion, feeling as though he&#39;s been had and should probably come clean and get a good laugh out of it. The royal note&#39;s appearance turns back into note pad paper, with some writing on it. Reading it over, it is a cheat sheet on how to transfer freecredits, along with a crudely drawn leaf and &#39;Randel&#39; written next to it.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) It is probably a good thing no one was paying any particular attention to Narwen and Junes, because that particular kind of leaf could certainly cause some disruption. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>After the exchange is made, they find themselves back near the food cart where they left Randel. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The old food vendor chuckles and taps the newly revealed fake money. &quot;Hard to trick a trickster, young man,&quot; he says, then points to his spectacles, &quot;I can see through most glamours with these bad boys. A special gift from a powerful friend. But I still appreciated the gesture.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The gourd in Randel&#39;s hands wiggles loose and falls to the ground before becoming a round little tanuki. &quot;Good trick though, huh?&quot; he chortles.</div><div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen looks at the tails and raises a white eyebrow. &quot;Er, were those there before? I think I would have noticed if those were there before. How... long have those been there? And, uh, what sort of prank was it?&quot; He takes another half-step back so that he can watch on the tails and also on the leaf simultaneously; his eyes tend to follow the leaf in Junes&#39;s hand as though it was a stick of dynamite. &quot;You might want to put that away, y&#39;know, for safe keeping.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  after taking a quick sniff Junes puts the strange leaf away &quot;oh sorry and yeah a while after visiting a shrine they sort of popped up and well after (changing) they pop right back up and about the prank well i was delivering some eggs and well someone opened a package early and things got WEIRD lots of eggs and singing nothing harmful but it was a bit scary especially after snapping out of a spell inside an egg transformed&quot; rubbing the back of their neck&quot;no clue who did it but it doesn&#39;t matter now&quot;</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel nods and smiles, &quot;Good to hear. It did feel a bit too easy.  I was also surprised that you saw a royal note and not something much more local that a person like me would carry. That should have been my first clue something was up, but I was testing this ability out. I was counting on the nanite effect being a different enough kind of &#39;magic&#39; than what most are used to. It typically does throw other magical users off. And thanks for calling me young. Glad at least one illusion is still going strong.&quot; He then looks at the assistant and sighs, &quot;Kind of... I can do it too, but... What a way to ruin sake. Also it isn&#39;t healthy to take in alcohol that way. At least for humans it isn&#39;t.&quot; He picks up his COMM, turning it off, and stuffs it in his pocket, but oddly enough he still shows up as contactable by local COMMs. &quot;But you did get me good there. Makes me wonder what would have happened if I didn&#39;t take a drink and took your friend here home! Say, you really do miss those royal notes, or was that part of the act?&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The vendor chuckles and waves the trio closer. He produces a new gourd of sake, and four flat, saucer-like cups and pours for each of the trio and for himself. &quot;The illusion was good,&quot; he admits, &quot;But your targeting was poor. You would have done better if you had told me what kind of money it was. Pro-tip.&quot; He winks at Randel, &quot;And you are nearly five hundred years to early to start trying to compare ages with me! Last time I was here in your realm it was the Edo period. I did loke their bills. Beautiful work.&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen winces briefly when Junes sniffs the leaf, but when she fails to explode and puts it away he calms down and listens to her explanation. &quot;Um, okay. Not quite sure what that was about,&quot; he says carefully, &quot;but while about half of the mutants in Fairhaven are egg-fixated in one way or another, I don&#39;t think Tanuki are among them?&quot; He tilts his head. &quot;Egg-shaped things, maybe. Eggs for eating, sure. But, um, anyway. Tanuki pranks are usually pretty good-natured and harmless. Weird I can see, but if it was Tanuki I&#39;m sure it wasn&#39;t intended to be scary.&quot; His nose is drawn to the proffered bag of confectionary, which seems a safer if less exciting option. His tail waves. &quot;Say, uh, whatcha got in there? I wouldn&#39;t want to be rude and turn down an offer. We can eat as we head to one of the other stalls, if you like?&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  &quot;sounds good! and ive got dango some carefully placed green tea and some other stuff like a granola bar&quot; as junes rummage through the bag they mention &quot;i think theres still a weight guessing game around but wanna see if we can find randel?&quot; </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Taking the compliment where he can, Randel nods and says, &quot;Thanks, I&#39;ll keep that in mind. I did work a lot on the code, so glad at paid off. I kept it vague because I didn&#39;t want to complicate it. I wasn&#39;t expecting many human lifetimes of memories and experience to foil things. Knowing the target helps. I&#39;m more used to tricking ferals into thinking I&#39;m one of them than anything else. Hehe, And I wasn&#39;t comparing age with you, I was using my own yard stick! I was a young man when P-Day hit. Now I&#39;m not that young anymore.&quot; When seeing the saucer-like cups for the sake, he smirks and says, &quot;That was what I was expecting earlier.&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The food vendor laughs at the group. &quot;He is right,&quot; he says, &quot;There are some malicious yokai out there, but usually, tanuki are good natured in their pranks.&quot; He raises his own cup. &quot;Kanpai!&quot; He downs the sake with a happy sigh, then goes back to preparing food for hungry festival goers. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Meanwhile, the clump of tanuki around Elias has moved around to a few different attractions and are now heading toward the hall of mirrors. A large sign hangs over the front that says, &quot;See Yourself the Tanuki Way!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) &quot;Ooh, those ball things,&quot; Narwen exclaims. &quot;I was thinking about trying one of them. On the other hand, green tea sounds nice but I don&#39;t think I should drink it on the move because, y&#39;know, the other hand is a paw.&quot; He lifts one, upturned, to illustrate. Then, thinking on it, he opens his jaws wide and twitches his eyebrows hopefully towards the dango.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   Once that&#39;s dealt with, he rambles on. &quot;Weight-guessing sounds like a classic trap, but what the heck. Oh yeah, you&#39;re right, we should see if we can find Randal first.&quot; The skunk sniffs at the air, but apparently turns up a blank. &quot;Maybe we&#39;ll run into him? Ooh, what&#39;s that over there?&quot; The gathering crowd by the hall of mirrors seems to have caught his eye.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  looking in the direction narwen faces junes agrees but before that &quot;im gonna ask that one vendor if he can tell anyone in a labcoat that were in the hall of mirrors&quot; walking over to someone selling food and thanks them before going back to narwen amd over to the hall &quot;man its been too long since ive been to one of these!&quot;</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Kanpai&quot; Randel says, a bit delayed and takes a drink. He then bows and says &quot;Been a pleasure. I should catch up with my friends and check out the rest of the place. Good Luck!&quot; and then drops off the cheat sheets, &quot;Here, in case anyone else is having problems. I&#39;m not going to be pulling off that stunt anytime soon. Not here anyway! Ha!&quot; and then picks up his green tea, taking a big drink to waste out the memory of the bad aftertaste, and munches on the dumplings on a stick.</div><div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Randel manages to rejoin the others as they all enjoy their snacks and move toward the hall of mirrors. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>This attraction, like the others, is a temporary tent, like the others. The shrine is usually a pretty austere place, after all. People are moving in and out of the tent, most laughing happily as they exit. Elias, the apparent guest of honor is talking with a large, familiar tanuki at the entrance. It seems that the rest of his entourage have scattered around for a break. Now might be a good time to meet the man who was the inspiration for this party!</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen was vaguely hoping that food might make its way into his muzzle, but a companionable walk is good too. He taps out a somewhat laborious ping to Randel on his comm bracer, then ambles after Junes over towards the hall of mirrors. Apparently they timed it right: the other Zephyr agent is just coming around the corner. Narwen hails him with a paw. &quot;Hey Randel! Sorry for wandering off, but: look, new outfit!&quot; He gestures to himself with a paw, sandal still hanging from it. &quot;And I think I&#39;m getting the hang of walking on these things. Say, d&#39;you want to check out this thing? Or, er, ooh, I think I know that guy. Wasn&#39;t he was on one of the proposal review committees! Er, but I&#39;m sure he&#39;s just been very busy. Maybe I should just ask about the status? Or would that be rude? No, that&#39;d be rude. I&#39;ll just give him a friendly greeting, like between colleagues. Hello, colleague,&quot; Narwen calls, raising a forepaw again.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  taking in the sights junes realizes they forgot to actually give the food to narwen and then notices hes talking to that tall guy from the tanuki game and as narwen is talking junes bends a bit to offer narwen some dango to eat and holds green tea in the other hand and after theres a bit of silence while they talk i mention &quot;oh i forgot to introduce myself before im junes by the way&quot; tails flicking about as they feed narwen food and drink </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel makes short work of the snack and drink as he goes, still wanting to bury the taste of tainted sake. At least the food was technically free, though at the cost of being the butt of a joke. He knew he shouldn&#39;t have tried to trick a trickster, but something about the idea was way too tempting. While walking, he does almost an about face as his internal COMM from his N.I.C.E. unit mentally pings, telling him where the others are at. After a bit of walking around, he finally he sees the familiar faces he ran into earlier, or at least one of them. Seems like Junes has shifted again, making him a bit concerned for the protean person.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;Oh nice!&quot; the Tanuki-like agent, but doesn&#39;t get to say much as the poor skunk beast rambles on, not sure how best to step in. Then Junes steps in with food, giving Narwen a much needed snack, and making him look around awkwardly while waiting. As he is getting his bearings, he then notices the large familiar Tanuki there with a Zephyr scientist. The juxtaposition making him look down at himself, being a Tanuki Zephyr scientist, smirks in amusement, and then steps up to the two and says, &quot;I thought it was you, Fenris. How&#39;s it going? You throw a pretty good festival here!&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Elias looks away from his conversation at Narwen&#39;s greeting. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;Oh, hey. Uhh, Narwen, right? From R&amp;D? Heard you went subcontractor,&quot; Elias is a nice guy and tries to know his coworkers&#39; names. &quot;Nice to see you,&quot; he says, &quot;You look... um... well.&quot; Names were one thing, but smalltalk is hard. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Fenris waves to the arriving trio. &quot;Hey all!&quot; he says amiably, &quot;I was just telling my friend Eli here how much the tanuki way has helped me. I am glad you are enjoying the festival!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen beams. Someone remembered his name, and then someone else restored his sugar levels! &quot;Feeling well, thanks! And how&#39;re you doing? Isn&#39;t this event great? Food is A-plus, you should try some of these sweet ball things. Thanks, Junes.&quot; He takes a slurp of the tea. &quot;Good to see you too, Fenris.&quot; He finally shuts up, leaning amiably against Randel for a moment.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  giving a sort of head nod similar to tipping a hat &quot;nice to meet you fenris im junes any friend of these guys is a friend of mine&quot; while holding food junes uses a tail to carefully offer randel a granola bar &quot;hey do you two want some food too?&quot;</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Yeah, the Tanuki do have a good prospective on life.&quot; Randel says in agreement, &quot;They were the first supernaturals I ran into, and haven&#39;t regretted it. The real shame is not keeping in touch with them. This festival has been really great in catching me up on what we have in common.&quot; When offered the food by Junes, he says, &quot;Oh thanks.&quot; but pockets it for after the talk is done. He then gives a smile and a nod to Eli and says, &quot;Hope the experience has been fun, and not overwhelming. Can&#39;t believe how lively this place is.&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Elias listens to Randel and looks thoughtful. &quot;They do have a good perspective, don&#39;t they?&quot; he says, seeming to be rather relieved to hear someone say it. He smiles at Narwen. &quot;I am doing well. This festival has been fun, and it has eased my mind about some things.&quot; He looks around at the others. &quot;Do you all want to join us in the hall of mirrors?&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Fenris perks up at the mention of food. &quot;I could go for a snack,&quot; he says, &quot;And ditto for the invite. Why don&#39;t you come along?&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) :beams at Elias again. &quot;Glad to hear it! And sure, that sounds good. Gotta say, I&#39;m curious to see the hall of mirrors -- I mean, when you&#39;re starting from this,&quot; he continues, gesturing at himself with a paw, &quot;distorted is all relative. But the Tanuki have been super accepting -- a good model for Zephyr sometimes,&quot; he adds, dropping into a skunk-beast whisper. &quot;Not everyone there is as welcoming as you were.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  Junes gives fenris dango and a granola bar and looks to the house of mirrors about to ask a question but deciding against it and says &quot;so anyone wanna see who can make it to the end first?&quot;</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel pauses for a moment, having just gotten the taste of the last prank out of his mouth, and is left wondering what a Tanuki made hall of mirrors is going to be like. To be fair, he was asking for it with the stunt he pulled, but this was still a hall of mirrors set up by a group of magical supernatural tricksters! &quot;Oh boy... Hall of mirrors... By Tanuki&quot; he says slowly, getting himself ready, &quot;Sure, why not! This should be way more fun than your mundane hall of mirrors.&quot; and gets ready at the door.</div><div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Fenris laughs and leads the way. &quot;It&#39;s not that kind of house of mirrors,&quot; he says to Junes, &quot;It&#39;s the kind with mirrors that change your reflection.&quot; He leads the way to the door and steps inside. &quot;It&#39;s meant to be thought provoking and introspective&quot; He turns to face a mirror just inside the door where his reflection has turned around to slap its butt at him in a rather offensive manner. &quot;And to be kinda ridiculous,&quot; he admits.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The Hall of Mirrors is pretty much exactly as advertised. It is a long hallway, rather longer than the tent would suggest, with mirrors hung on the walls, creating a kind of art gallery where the art is reflections. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>As each person looks in a mirror they see a different reflection. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Randel sees himself as a short, nearly round tanuki, sitting atop a beanbag chair sized set of testicles, smoking a long pipe and laughing. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Junes sees herself as a matronly tanuki in a kimono with several cubs frolicing around her. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Narwen sees himself as a large, enormously fat tanuki leaning against a gourd of sake as big as he is!</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen grins and moves towards the mirrors for a closer inspection, stepping from one pane to the next to see his reflection follow him. &quot;Well hello, dumpling. You are actually making me feel svelte, which doesn&#39;t happen often.&quot; Sure, he&#39;s talking to himself, but this seems like the sort of place where he might get a reply. &quot;You know what, I want to see what you do with that.&quot; Somewhere in his pack he has a jug of wine -- not real sake, but with its own little touch of magic -- and opens it and laps a little toast from the neck. &quot;Your health!&quot;<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   A pang of curiosity strikes him, and he turns to peek at Elias&#39;s reflection, just from the corner of his eye.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  the excitement from the prospect of a race is replaced with intrigue and they follow along the group and look to see themselves as a raccoon dog and curiously there are cubs playing around! &quot;aww cute! and wow this is some cool magic!&quot; the sky in the reflection looks like a rain has passed and the sun had come to warm the flowers around (i didnt get to talk to that other guy muh i wonder if i can see what his reflection is?) and so looking at an angle they look at the mirror fenris is looking into  </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel&#39;s fuzzy ears pin back and looks worried when Fenris mentions it is supposed to be introspective. Having spent a lot of his post P-Day life fighting himself, and helping other with their issues, he knows all too well how ugly things can look in a mirror. Soul searching wasn&#39;t something he was expecting to do just yet, and hoped that whatever shown in the mirror wasn&#39;t visible to others. The worst goes through his mind as he gets to the first one... and it does catch him off guard, but not the way he expected. He can&#39;t help but laugh at the sight of him on huge balls, relaxed as heck, smoking... something. Obviously something good! He gets some ideas on how to relax with that one! He goes to the next one, and is several times his normal size, somehow! But it is a familiar size, something he feels powerful and safe in. He&#39;s reminded about how he doesn&#39;t really get to exercise his abilities more for himself, and just have fun with them. He poses a few times in the mirror, which almost tricks him into shifting into that actual size a few times! Next he goes to another one, which looks a bit cloudy. Looking closer, he realizes it isn&#39;t on the glass but behind it, as if there is a fog. He peers close into the mirror, past his normal self, and then sees a fox standing behind him. It is a rather shapely one at that, almost too perfectly attractive, with black fur from pointed ear to toe, and looking at him with hungry yellow glowing eyes. He jumps away and looks behind himself out of reflex and then back at the mirror again to verify, but can&#39;t spot her anymore. Did she have more than one tail? He then realizes that was a shadow vixen of some sort, which are notoriously sex hungry, thoughfonot as waist thin. He shakes his head and then looks at himself in the mirror, wondering if his lust is really far closer than he realize.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Other patrons are wandering the hall as well, most laughing at the strange reflections, but some are considering the distorted, probably magical images with deep interest. It seems that each mirror reflects only one person at a time, everything else becoming hazy and indistinct. Generally, at least. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Fenris is one of the former, moving from mirror to mirror and grinning at what he sees. Currently, he is admiring a reflection of himself as a rather small tanuki wearing what appears to be a nearly ten foot long, electric blue scarf that billows in a breeze that does not pass the frame. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Elias is one of the latter. He is standing in front of a mirror and looking at a tanuki that is very much like himself. Shorter, yes, and much chubbier, but recognizably Elias. He wears a lab coat and goggles and is making lights dance around his chubby paws. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Narwen&#39;s next stop, after his reflection returns his salute and takes a long drink, shows himas a portly, obviously male tanuki wearing a trucker hat and bowling shirt with his name stitched on the breast. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Junes finds a new image of herself as well. This one a lantern jawed brute wearing her kimono. All of the images are strange and disparate, but identifiably the observer, regardless of the differences.</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen is just shuffling to the side to admire his reflection from another angle, trying to peek at it around the corner from the next mirror -- and is taken a bit aback when he sees something entirely different. He moves his head back to the left: enormous Tanuki with gourd. To the right: bowling-shirt dadnuki. Left. Right. A forepaw reaches up to touch his chest, where the stitching would be, and he is momentarily surprised when he feels fabric instead of fur. He stares down in shock -- but oh, right, it&#39;s that new coat. Back up to the mirror. &quot;Enjoy your game,&quot; he calls, unconsciously wiggling the paw that would, theoretically, hold a bowling ball. Wanting to see more, he steps over to the next mirror. This one revelas a slender, somewhat short Tanuki wearing a lab coat and carrying a clipboard; probably male from the shirt and pants but not entirely clear. &quot;Oh. You&#39;re less fun. The other guy wore it better.&quot; He&#39;s about to move on, but stops. Something about it looks familiar.</div><div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  glancing shortly at an empty mirror they see a broad version of them (heh i remember when i looked kinda like that except well not a tanuki) then goes over to fenris &quot;man these mirrors are cool i wonder how they even work?&quot; moving two fox tails around but seeing the reflection only move the fluffy tanuki tail back &quot;do you know if theres anything else like this? i wouldn&#39;t believe it if it werent right here&quot; </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) After the shock of the two mirrors, Randel sees a few more fanciful and whimsical themed ones. He goes through several of them at a pretty quick pace, seeing himself in different outfits and shapes and sizes, poses, and activities. Half way through, he subconsciously tries to shifts to try to match the body the mirror is portraying, which is like trying to chase shadows, as the image shifts when he does. He catches himself shifting out of reflex and reverts back to what he was, and keeps going on. Then he catches a mirror with two of himself, and the second one waves back and grins knowingly! He is pauses in place, looking dumbfounded and reaches for his other self in real space via the mirror, with the mirror double jumping away and waves a finger. &quot;Caux?&quot; he says quietly to himself, which causes the other to smirk and nod. &quot;Wait how... Nevermind... magic.&quot; He then slowly looks around to see if anyone saw the effect, and slowly moves to the next mirror, with the extra &#39;self&#39; making a lewd gesture before going out of sight, but likely not out of mind. The next mirror catches his attention, seeing an all too familiar and sad sight. Whatever it is, it is off in the distance, making him look behind himself to see if it was there, which if course it wasn&#39;t. He almost touches the surface, but dares not to at the last moment. He is lost in thought as he stares for a long while...</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Fenris turns and smiles at Junes. &quot;Magic!&quot; he says, wiggling his fingers, &quot;And not just nanites. We&#39;re close to Tanuki&#39;s realm here and that kind of expands the kind of magic that can happen here.&quot; He waves at the mirrors. &quot;Mostly, it is just fun,&quot; he explains, &quot;Dreams and illusions. But for some, the magic here can show the past, or the present, and sometimes the future.&quot; He sobers a bit, his grin softening to his normal, gentle smile as he stops to put a hand on Randel&#39;s shoulder. &quot;Best to be cautious when interacting with what we see in mirrors,&quot; he says, though there is no way he could have seen what Randel saw. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>He gives a glance to Narwen, just to be sure he is alright, then steps up behind Elias. &quot;What do you think?&quot; he asks the man, &quot;You like what you see?&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The man seems hesitant. &quot;I am a man of science,&quot; he says, &quot;I&#39;ve been working with Zephyr&#39;s nanite technology since almost before it existed.&quot; He contemplates the mirror with something approaching awe, &quot;But this? This is a world away from my laboratory? Is... is it worth the change? Worth the risk?&quot; He seems on the brink of a monumental choice and could go either way.</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen takes a step towards the mirror, to get a closer look, and his reflection takes a step matching step _back_, looking a little fearful. &quot;Hey, c&#39;mon. You&#39;re me. I&#39;m you. Don&#39;t be like that.&quot; Another step. The reflection scuttles back further and backs into an indistinct wall, splaying its arms out against it. A little growl trickles from Narwen&#39;s throat. &quot;Hey, seriously, I just want to see you.&quot; He takes another step-- and bonks right into the mirror. The figure drops into a protective crouch, arms up, eyes squeezed shut.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   The skunk sighs and puts a paw over his face.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   &quot;Okay, fine, fine, sorry. I&#39;ll just... let you be. In the mirror. Anyway, let&#39;s see what&#39;s in the next HOLY CRAP!&quot;<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   Narwen jumps right back, recoiling from the next reflection and skittering cartoon-style on his wooden sandals for a couple of seconds. He had been pressed right up against the mirror, and from that point of view it had contained an enormous, gaping set of razor-teethed jaws. From a few feet away the view was not much improved: he could now make out the red, glowing eyes, each bigger than his head, and the long, dripping tongue. After a few seconds of panting, he comes to the conclusion that it is not going to jump out and eat him. A quick sniff confirms that, thankfully, he has not hosed down the room in panic either. Still. He ducks back to the previous mirror where the slender Tanuki is still cowering.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   &quot;Hey, uh, sorry? We&#39;ve got issues, haven&#39;t we? Lemme just, um.&quot; He clears his throat, turning his head to Fenris. &quot;Uh, yeah, all good here, A-OK! Just, y&#39;know, happy Tanukis! And a bit of introspection. Might have accidentally learned something. But, um, think I&#39;m ready to move along, see the next thing. Or have a drink. Don&#39;t mind me.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  hearing the question junes answers elias &quot;in the end its your choice but magic is amazing&quot; hearing movement junes check back and sees their two companions and goes back to comfort the both of them and ask what happened</div><div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) In the mirror Randel saw was himself, not as a Tanuki, but as a human. He isn&#39;t even dressed in lab clothes, more like the clothes he used to wear before P-Day hit. The distance and darkness helped obscure the details he knew were there, and didn&#39;t want to think about. The pale and dead looking skin and flesh gave enough details he&#39;d care to see; it was a zombie form of himself. Being an early shapeshifter of Zephyr has had some consequences and quirks with the early Nanite Adept project, with him shifting involuntarily at times when under certain strong emotions. Depression was one that got to him the most, and the form that got stuck to that feeling was the zombie after a trip to Woodfield. It was as if his reflection just didn&#39;t want be a mirror, it just couldn&#39;t for the life of him move to do his job. He looked on, trying to willing it to move, to not be stuck there, slumped against a wall. He wondered for a moment, pained by the sight, how this mirror could be helpful. What good was it if it just showed him what he already knew? As soon as a few people stepped up to the mirror, like when Fenris put a hand on his shoulder, their forms got added to the display. They walk over to the poor guy and couch down next to him, looking as if they were talking to the near dead person. The zombie&#39;s head soon tilts side to side, as if thinking, and reluctantly raises a stiff hand up and is lifted to his feet by the others, arms put on their shoulders. Randel covers and rubs his nose, unable to help recall how much that form stinks, and yet seeing others bear with stink. As the zombie gets close to the mirror&#39;s surface, it slowly shifts into a Tanuki as well as looking a bit more alive. Finally, near the end, the image stands on his own, with the mirror perfectly matching the scene of Fenris&#39; hand on Randel&#39;s shoulder.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;God damn it...&quot; Randel mutters, and leans into Fenris side, &quot;A doctor make for a terrible patient. I need to learn to accept help when it is offered.&quot; He steps away from the mirror, sighing deeply, and says &quot;They are far from mean. Heck, met one Tanuki that was about 500 years old, and still joyful as ever. Out of all the time I&#39;ve been with them them, I haven&#39;t seen any malicious intent in any one of them, and they all seem to want to help.&quot; He looks at the very sobering mirror again, which still acts like a normal mirror to him for now, and says, &quot;And I regret not visiting them sooner.&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Elias listens to each of the people around him weigh in, though it seems a rather mor extensive argument goes on behind his eyes. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;Well then,&quot; he says, &quot;I suppose I had best decide where my loyalties lie, I&#39;ve played this game for quite long enough.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>A short time later, there is a cheer from the gathered tanuki outside as Fenris presents the newest tanuki dedicant and special scientific advisor, Doctor Elias Thomas! The new tanuki waves shyly out at the crowd, and the festival continues with song and food and dancing throughout the day and into the evening! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>As for the others, they are given special treatment for the rest of the day, wined and dined for being witnesses to a new dedicant to the tanuki way of life!</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) With a lot taken off his mind, at least for now, and a renewed sense to just having fun, Randel had much better time enjoying the rest of festival. When leaving the hall of mirrors, he shifted to about Fenris&#39; size, feeling more comfortable matching the other great Tanuki&#39;s height, and immersed himself in the festivities. He chatted with the other Raccoon Dogs, sharing insights and history, talking about each other&#39;s form of magic, and got the most use out of his object shifting leaf than he has ever had. Though, he occasionally pokes at unknown sake bottles with suspicions, still remembering the taste of that one... Maybe he&#39;ll be able to spot the Tanuki reliably, eventually.</div>
+<div></div><div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) It is a beautiful day in Fairhaven! Not too hot, not too cold, all you need is a light jacket! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>There is quite the gathering just outside the tanuki shrine on the western edge of the city. Word of the festival has gotten out and people of all sizes and shapes are milling about the trail to the shrine, currently blocked by a heavy rope hung with a sign saying &quot;Closed for Event!&quot; There is a feeling of excited anticipation in the air!</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen ambles on over on all fours, the skunk beast giving friendly nods and occasional waves of a paw. Despite the crowd being pretty dense, he still tends to have a little empty space around him, which helps with making progress towards the entrance. A casual observer would be able to track him easily, seeing his tail raised up above head height for most of the crowd, and if there happened to be another quadrupedal skunk around, the painfully colourful rainbow-striped shorts would surely be enough to identify him. Let&#39;s just hope he doesn&#39;t end up in a line-up. Peering up at the shrine and maybe not paying too close attention to where he&#39;s going, his shoulder bumps into someone, boomf. &quot;Oh, sorry there,&quot; he rumbles.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  a winged chimera with squirrel legs and a low hanging tail walks in looking around almost looking for something but generally trying to seem inconspicuous they stay close to the walls</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Always the one to fit into a situation, Randel can be seen as one of the Tanuki about the place, walking around as if he is one of the joyous rotund raccoons. To help identify the shapeshifting agent, especially those without their COMMs at the ready, he has his lab coat on, opened, and with his Zephyr badge pinned to his chest. Along with the badge, he has a fancy golden, and very functional, Tanuki leaf clipped next to it! It seems like his form isn&#39;t just for show, with him actually being very much connected to the Tanuki as well! He is also wearing a pair of baggy jean pants, which do a surprisingly good job of hiding his no doubt Tanuki grade assets. While having such a pair is a matter of much pride among the raccoon dogs, he is here to party and not distract people with them. As with the rest of the Tanuki here, he is beaming a smile and eager to talk to others, and waving to those he recognize. </div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Despite his loud shorts, Narwen is hardly a point of concern for most of the milling mutants. Amidst all the hubbub, it seems that some kind of guest of honor has arrived! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>A palanquin bedecked in silks and ornate carvings is hauled into the clearing on the shoulders of four large tanuki. Once the palanquin is set down, a tall, skinny man is helped out, escorted by a pair of the more common, small tanuki. All of them are dressed in traditional kimonos and they lead him up to the roped off path. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;Ladies and Gentlemen,&quot; a large, possibly familiar tanuki says, stepping up from the other side of the rope, &quot;And all the rest of you! Welcome to Tanuki-fest 2022! We are so happy to see so many friends of Tanuki gathered for some fun and festivities! Please, enjoy yourselves, and be respectful of each other and our grounds! We have to clean up after you animals after all!&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The burly tanuki removes the barrier, his speech finished and allows the crowd in, led by the odd guest of honor and his little entourage. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Just a little way up the forested path, the quiet landscape gives way to what seems like a festival already in full swing! Tanuki of all sizes and description are all over the place and the shrine is filled with tents and booths and the street is lined with tanuki, dancing and singing and playing music, particularly a contingent of hapi wearing belly drummers to welcome the guests to the festival!</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen tilts his head, watching intently as the guest of honour is led on in. Does he look a bit familiar? But-- what would he be doing here? And then the crowd is surging forwards and even Narwen cannot play the immovable object, and so finds himself padding towards the festival, nodding and smiling a bit at the music, his steps unconsciously falling into the same underlying beat of the drums. His path crosses one of the Tanuki and he dips his head politely.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   &quot;Nice event, great job!&quot; he calls, then a moment later does a double-take as his eyes flash across the badge. The face wasn&#39;t familiar but he&#39;s seen the name, Randel, before.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  closing a pot junes sighs and visibly relaxes but after looking around they see how everyone is wearing rather nice clothing decides to buy a purple and white kimono, afterwards they see a tall tail and curious about it decides to walk over</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) It has been so long, too long, since Randel has really touched bases with the Tanuki. So when hearing about the festival, it seemed like as good a time as any to check it out. Goodness knows he could use a break to unwind and step away from the chaos that has been happening recently, having cleared his work schedule just for this event as soon as he heard about it. He looks surprised when seeing the large raccoon dog do the presentation, making him double take and wonder if he actually saw that correctly. He is going to have to check if that was Fenris the Tanuki he&#39;s met before, but he isn&#39;t going to hunt him down just yet. The entire place is quite the culture shock to him, and is a bit overwhelmed by it all. To his embracement, he doesn&#39;t know the raccoon dogs as well as he&#39;d like, despite being just a follower; but this is a great time to find out! Though his train of thought breaks when noticing the skunk beast in loud shorts looks over at him, and waves back with a smile. </div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) Meanwhile a certain fox girl is currently running a little late(TM) and ends up sneaking into the room where everything is happening at the moment before trying to catch up on what&#39;s happening and appear like she was here the entire time instead. At least she&#39;s not wearing anything squeaky to give away her movements.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) There are shops and booths all over doing brisk business, selling clothing, food and souvenirs of all kinds. Many of the vendors seem a little uncomfortable with the electronic equipment for transferring freecred, but they are managing. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The burly tanuki who opened the festival has joined the lanky human and his party and is pointing out various attractions as other guests pour into the shrine. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;We could go see the drummers perform,&quot; he says, &quot;Or get some food, there is a great takoyaki stand over there. Or we could get drinks, or see some feats of strength and agility! Oh! Or play find the tanuki! There is so much to see!&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The same goes for everyone else! There is so much to see! What would they like to do?</div><div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen sure does have a tall tail! It wafts to and fro in the breeze a little, and then a little more as he catches a wave back from one of the Tanuki. The skunk lifts a forepaw in return. &quot;Hey there! We met before, right? Back when we were figuring out how to set up classes? Narwen,&quot; he adds, gesturing with the paw towards his neck ruff where there is indeed, buried somewhere deep within, an ID badge bearing that name. &quot;How&#39;ve you been? D&#39;you want to catch up over a bowl of tea, maybe watch the drummers? Oh-- wait, are you on duty or something?&quot; His tail continues going tick-tock, tick-tock.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  almost mesmerized by the flicking tail junes makes their way over to the skunk beast and also sees the labcoat tanuki &quot;wow tall tail you got there&quot; looking lower junes points out &quot;also sweet pants&quot; and realizes &quot;oh i always forget introductions im junes by the way nice to meet you both&quot;</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) With all the fancy robes the real Tanuki are wearing, Randel feels a bit underdressed for the occasion. Though to be fair he is wearing his own form of robes, albeit more functional than ceremonial. He glances over at all the things that could be done here, but then catches Narwen chime up. &quot;Met before? Classes?&quot; he answers back, looking concerned and worried. After a long and awkward moment, he then breaks out in a laugh after remembering where they met, &quot;Oh wow! Really? You mean when we were getting the school up and going? Damn, that feels like it was so long ago. I&#39;ve been... uh, busy? Stressed? Oh, and like heck I&#39;m on duty right now! I&#39;m here to take my mind off of things.&quot; he then looks around for a moment, and then adds, &quot;Sure, tea and talk sounds nice.&quot; When seeing Junes, the Nanite Form researcher can&#39;t help but stop and look over the newcomer, saying &quot;Hi! Wow, you look like you&#39;ve been through a lot. Are you ok? You seem to be a bit... mixed.&quot;</div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) Not sticking with the group immediately after arriving since she was still feeling under the radar Siaren goes towards the clothes selling tanuki and starts going through the different outfits they&#39;re selling. After all she needs something else to wear other than the one she&#39;s got on right now especially since she&#39;s pretty uninterested in nanite clothing due to it feeling like a hack. Plus she&#39;s sure the poor vendors could use moneys too. Next thing you know she&#39;s starting to dig into one of the piles, searching for a nice hadaka to start with.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The vendor smiles and nods at Siaren, taking note of her foxy form, but not seeming particularly put off. &quot;Is there something specific I can help you find, miss?&quot; he asks in accented English, &quot;We have an excellent selection of kimonos and other festival clothing.&quot; In her digging, Siaren manages to dig up a very nice cotton fundoshi and chest wrap. Underwear. Though there is plenty of overwear available too. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Meanwhile, the others are making introductions and trying to decide what to do next as the human guest is led off to one side to watch a troupe of tanuki in hapi and fundoshi loincloths put on a rather impressive drum performance! They have no instruments but their hands and bellies, but their acrobatic performance has the same audible effect as a complex drum line! A gathered audience cheers and claps along to their antics.</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen does not feel underdressed. He beams, hearing his tail complimented. &quot;Thanks, I grew it myself. The tail, not the pants. Well... uh, well hello Junes, I&#39;m Narwen.&quot; He holds out a forepaw the size of a dinner plate that&#39;s entirely lacking in thumbs, but makes up for it in claws. &quot;Nice to meet you too.&quot; He seems to be having a little difficulty deciding which set of eyes to meet, then sidesteps the issue by inclining his head towards the Tanuki with a grin. &quot;And this inquisitive ball of energy is Randel, who is makin&#39; me feel old. It wasn&#39;t that long ago, was it? Wait, was it? Are they gonna start graduating soon? Should we be giving them degrees? Um, I think I need that drink. Say, you wanna join us?&quot; he asks the grey-skinned mutant. &quot;Ooh, ooh, wait, first let&#39;s watch that!&quot; His attention seems to have been grabbed by the drum show.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  shaking back the dinnerware paws junes smiles and hears randels question looking down worried searching for scratches but seeing the mixed parts realizes &quot;ooh no worries i didnt get hurt or anything and oh are you two teachers?&quot; and after listening hears narwen mention a show? &quot;oh sounds fun lemme just grab a few quick things anyone else want some food?&quot; * then walks over to a booth and buys aforementioned things and also a mask to wear on the side of their head plenty of food a few drinks and carefully escorts them back* </div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) Unable to resist herself, especially given she doesn&#39;t really seem to have much need for freecredits due to living with her daddy and thus not having rent to pay, she ends up turning to the tanuki salesman and asks, &quot;How much for all of it instead?&quot; She&#39;s probably about to make one of the vendors a very happy mutant by the end of this. And without using succsucc at all!</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Make you feel old?&quot; the Tanuki follower says with smirk, &quot;Unless you remember what things were like before P-Day, I don&#39;t think I could make anyone feel old.&quot; Then Randel sighs as he thinks about how time has passed, and says, &quot;Yeah, if it is a traditional 4 year school, some of them would be close to graduating. If it was like primary school, there would still be quite a few years left, being twelve years long and all. Maybe Eight, given... Anyway, I&#39;m rambling!&quot;<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Randel looks over the chimera and says, &quot;I was a teacher for a while, and a doctor before that, but both of those jobs got more than enough help. I got myself stuck in government work, mostly as a file clerk, a nanite augmented file clerk at that, and have been kind of regretting it ever since.&quot; He then shrugs and smirks, &quot;But hey, what can you do? I&#39;m here right now to unwind!&quot; When seeing Junes head off he says, &quot;Can&#39;t think of anything just yet. Ha! So much of it is new to me that I just can&#39;t choose what to get!&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">Junes spends 50000 Freecred to: bought plenty at the tanuki festival</div><div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The tanuki vendors are very polite and sell Junes paper cups of green tea and bamboo skewers of sweet dango along with a wooden tanuki mask for the very reasonable price of 400 freecred! What a steal! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The clothing sales-nuki blinks in confusion at Siaren. &quot;You want to buy everything?&quot; he asks, a bit stunned, &quot;Well, uh,&quot; he looks at all his wares and shrugs, &quot;I could sell you all of these clothes for seven golden taels.&quot; He produces an abacus and flicks some beads around, &quot;That would be 70,000 freecred.&quot; The tanuki shakes his head and laughs, &quot;It is quite an offer, but hardly necessary, Miss.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The drummers wrap up their performance with some particularly acrobatic tumbling to the approval of the crowd and the guest of honor is already being hustled away to a new attraction. Some of the group might recognize him as a Zephyr scientist. &quot;You&#39;re going to love this next bit,&quot; the burly tanuki leading him around informs him, going toward a large tent.</div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">Siaren spends 70000 Freecred to: bought out a clothing vendor</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen nods to Junes just before she heads over to the stalls. &quot;Teach a bit, though, y&#39;know, not efficiently,&quot; then turns to Randel as she vanishes into the crowd and grins. &quot;Yeah, it is a bit overwhelming. I kind of want to see everything at once! And yeah, I do remember the olden days. Miss &#39;em, but -- well, I do like that we can have a fair like this again without anyone getting murdered or eaten or knocked up. Oh, oh, I know! Challenge time.&quot; He ambles over to the clothing stall. &quot;Hello there, friend! Do you think you have-- oh, sorry, I&#39;m jumping the queue. Please, you finish up first,&quot; he says to Siaren. &quot;I was just gonna ask what he had that he thought might suit me. Givin&#39; ya fair warning,&quot; he adds to the vendor with a grin.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  heading back with the goods junes sees randel but not the skunk beast and takes a chug of one of the green teas and offers randel some dango &quot;mind if i ask about that thing on your coat?&quot; pointing a pinky unoccupied by stuff to the leaf on his labcoat</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Woo... What a performance.&quot; Randel says when seeing the finally of the drummers and claps. He then looks around the place during the lull in entertainment in a bit of a daze and says, &quot;I barely recognize this place with all the festivities going on. I already feel a bit lost, and that&#39;s saying something.&quot; While taking in the sights and figuring out what to do, he spot Junes returning with drinks and perks up, &quot;Oh, thanks!&quot; and takes the green and sips. He makes a &#39;Mmmp&#39; mid-way when asked about the Golden Leaf, swallows, and says, &quot;It&#39;s a Tanuki Leaf, one of several types. This one is of course pretty special, and enchanted. Long story short, the Tanuki are shapeshifters and good natured tricksters, but are still quite honorable despite the deception. Their magic focuses around using a leaf for various things; like transforming into various things or illusions like passing simple leaves off as paper currency.&quot; He then points to where Narwen went and says, &quot;Let&#39;s try to stay together, I get the feeling we&#39;re not going to get a chance to sit down.&quot; and walks over to the clothing stall.</div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) Not that Siaren is really trying to be helpful to the tanuki salesman so much as figuring her daddy would quite like the new outfits especially given most of them were quite form-fitting save for the hadaka which was definitely an item she&#39;d be using at home a lot. Meanwhile the foxy reaches into her top and starts rooting around, which probably gives the other mutant a small show when this causes her bust to move along, only for her to finally fish out the freecredits and start counting them out. Upon getting to 70k she hands them over to the vendor, figuring he&#39;d probably appreciate not having to deal with eletronic payments for such a large amount. &quot;I&#39;ll be sure to make my daddy come pick them up before the festival ends,&quot; she tells them.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) A nearby vendor laughs as Narwen ambles up to the clothing booth. &quot;Over here, my four legged friend!&quot; he calls, beckoning the skunk over, &quot;I think I have things that will suit you!&quot; He shows off his wares, floral printed coats and shawls, along with carved stone jewelry in jade and some kind of soapstone. He also has a selection of carved wooden yokai masks that Junes was recently looking over. &quot;No fine shorts like yours,&quot; he admits, shaking his head, but if there is something in particular you would like, I am sure I can accomidate you.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The vendor Siaren has been speaking with splutters and stares as the fox simply transfers the credits to the money device he barely understands. He finally recovers and bows low. &quot;Very good, Miss,&quot; he says, &quot;I shall have everything wrapped for you! Do you wish to have it delivered somewhere?&quot; He waves frantically to a pair of other tanuki nearby and indicates that they should start folding and packing things up. He takes her information and nods and bows and scrapes obsequiously until she moves along. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>There is still quite a lot going on! Barkers at various tents and stalls call out attractions. &quot;Everything you wanted to know about Tanuki but were too afraid to ask!&quot; &quot;Guess the weight of the tanuki&#39;s bells!&quot; &quot;Are you as strong as a tanuki?&quot; &quot;Can you pick out the transformed tanuki! Come see the amazing shapeshifting power of the tanuki!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen dips his head in acknowledgement and makes his way to the nearby stall. &quot;Oh, hey, these really are nice. I like the carvings -- d&#39;you have something like an ankle bracelet in soapstone? I&#39;d ask for jade but, uh, then I&#39;d manage to break it and feel terrible. The masks are neat, but would they fit me? In fact, challenge for you,&quot; he adds with a grin. &quot;If you&#39;ve got a garment that fits me -- a real article of clothing, not just a hat or something -- I&#39;ll take two.&quot; Some of the other stalls were calling to him, but no: one thing at a time.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  hearing the mention of tanuki info is just what junes needed and seeing the table it just seems perfect for the time being and so steppin into the tent junes greets the tanuki asks about the general stuff about tanuki how they transform things small facts and the relationship between tanukinand kitsune then after junes concentrates and pounds on her chest like a baf cough and a plume of foxes tails appears &quot;could i ask if you know how or where i got this?&quot; looking perplexed </div><div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel shouldn&#39;t have said it, but he did, and the idea is gnawing on him now. He can&#39;t tell if it is the form urging him on, or just himself, or a combination of both, but the idea was too tempting to not try! Tanuki followers don&#39;t get much in the way of illusion, but do get a great amount of transformation ability. But he does have illusion powers from another source, and has been itching to practice it since he got them. &quot;I think I have an idea of what I want to do.&quot; he says with a sly smile in a slightly distracted tone, &quot;We can meet up near the main stage a bit later, ok?&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The Tanuki adept then digs in his lab coat pockets and gets a small note pad and writes a few things on the pages, doing the same thing for several pages, and tears them out and folds them up tightly. Then he looks around the area for a suitable stall to practice on. He&#39;s got something to drink, and something to eat with it would be great, and eyes around looking for a Tanuki food vender having a poor time with the &#39;new-fangled&#39; electronic currency system. When he spots one, he walks up and checks the menu he, waving politely, and saying, &quot;Hi, how&#39;s it going?&quot; in a happy tone before setting down his green tea on the counter.</div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) Meanwhile Siaren decides she might as well make sure the clothes are actually delivered to her and her daddy&#39;s place since she still didnt&#39; get a response from him though given the festival wasn&#39;t over for a while yet she ends up giving the tanuki salesperson her address and tells them, &quot;I&#39;ll make sure to come back and tell you if he can&#39;t make it then,&quot; and holds the piece of paper with the address out to the vendor. Upon doing so she goes to put her freecreds back where she got them out of though this time it takes a little more effort and gives the other nearby mutants a bit of a show before she ultimately locates the rest of it. That done she heads towards the food one next, having gotten a little hungry by now.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The vendor at Narwen&#39;s booth laughs warmly, &quot;We came prepared, my skunky friend,&quot; he says and pulls a few articles of clothing from a rack, showing the skunk beast a fine, flower embroidered coat that looks like it would fit on his feral form, along with a pair of loose trousers artfully sewn for a quadruped. He also shows off some wooden sandals that complete the look. &quot;And we have all sorts of accessories, of course!&quot; he adds with a smile. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The tanuki at the information desk holds up his hands in mock surrender. &quot;Slow down, miss!&quot; he laughs, &quot;I can only answer so many questions at once!&quot; He looks thoughtful, lining up his thoughts. &quot;One, with henge, or transformation magic, tanuki can transform themselves INTO inanimate objects. The how is impossible to explain. How do you breathe? How do you know the difference between sweet and salty? It is something we learn by practice and feeling. Two, our kitsune cousins have a complicated relationship with the noble tanuki. We tolerate each other, bit tend to avoid one another, unless we are directly competing.&quot; He frowns at the tails, &quot;Perhaps you have been possessed by a fox spirit?&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor frowns as he looks up from a modified comms unit. &quot;Forgive me, friend,&quot; he says, giving a weary smile, &quot;The local money tools are beyond this old dog&#39;s understanding. Can I get you some takoyaki?&quot; He nods to the fox woman following, &quot;And for you, miss? I have many delicious choices!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen can&#39;t help but laugh back, and slaps a forepaw on the ground in approval. &quot;I think I&#39;ve been outplayed. Well done, these are gorgeous! I don&#39;t know how or why you had them, but if you&#39;ve got the stock I&#39;ll take two sets, as promised. And if they fit. I&#39;ll try wearing the coat and, er, sandals now, maybe, but will take the trousers on trust.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  Junes gulps &quot;i sure hope im not posessed&quot; they say holding a tail &quot;it&#39;s not dangerous right?&quot; after hearing out the tanuki junes thanks him and leaves a tip heading out to wait and generally just enjoy the festive atmosphere and looking between the tanuki spotting game and where that man that was being escorted inside was </div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">Junes spends 5000 Freecred to: tip for the nice tanuki info guy c:</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Nah, it&#39;s Ok.&quot; Randel says with a hand wave, &quot;I&#39;ve got some real money on me.&quot; though what is meant by &#39;real money&#39; isn&#39;t elaborated on. He then looks over at the menu again, ironically in as much of a loss with the information as the poor merchant is with his point of sales system.  While he feels a connection to the Tanuki on a spiritual level, good natured, proud, and big balled where it counted, otherwise he wouldn&#39;t have been able to make the connection with them, he was still painfully lacking in the finer details of the culture. With a deep sigh, he admits quietly, &quot;Been so out of touch with things, I almost forget what real food is like. What are takoyaki again?&quot; While listening he does glance around the stall, double checking to see if the vender does take any other forms of currency.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">Junes spends 10000 Freecred to: this poor dude has some fucked parents he needs this</div> <div title="Siaren" style="margin-top:2em">(Siaren) &quot;Sure give me one of those,&quot; Siaren tells the food tanuki when they tell her of what they currently have on offer though she wasn&#39;t entirely sure what it is she&#39;s not really picky when it comes to eating things either which she gets off her daddy. Mostly since she still has no decided upon mommyfox to get it off of instead.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The clothing vendor shakes his head. &quot;No, no!&quot; he says, &quot;You will wear the whole outfit! Allow me!&quot; The chubby coon-dog takes the clothing and there is a puff of smoke as it disappears and a glittering green leaf appears in his paws. He reaches over and sets the leaf gently on Narwen&#39;s head between his ears and with another poof of forest scented smoke, the skunk beast is dressed in festival finery! &quot;There you are!&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The information tanuki smiles and shake his head. &quot;I am sure you are fine,&quot; he assures Junes, waving as she leaves. She notes that the tanuki&#39;s special guest was escorted to the Find the Tanuki tent. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor dishes out a bevy of some sort of little fried balls into a paper tray and covers them in a savory sauce and little flakes of spice and seasoning before passing them to Siaren. &quot;Takoyaki!&quot; he says, &quot;The finest octopus balls! I also have dumplings and noodles and fine, grilled fish on a stick!&quot; He proudly shows his wares then waves sheepishly at the machine. &quot;My assisstant is better with these things, but I can take any sort of coin you might have if you do not have freecred.&quot;</div><div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) &quot;Oh! Well that&#39;s practical,&quot; Narwen replies, craning his head around to try and get a look at himself in this get-up. &quot;Super. Well, I guess I will wear them all out.&quot; He takes an incautious step forwards, wobbles on a sandal, starts to topple forwards, scrabbles wildly, and somehow settles back into a stationary, if unstable, position. &quot;And look, nothing even tore! I&#39;ll take &#39;em. Let&#39;s settle up.&quot;<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   And so, a few minutes later and happy with his purchases, Narwen goes a-wandering a little unsteadily through the festival a little more. He&#39;s lost track of the others, but no matter: they&#39;ll surely run into one another again soon. In the meantime, he pads towards one of the larger tents, looking to head into a surprisingly quiet opening that-- no, hang on, this isn&#39;t the main entrance, it&#39;s just a flap that&#39;s loose in the back. But maybe he could just peek inside and see what&#39;s going on? Just his snout and eyes. To start with.</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">Narwen spends 1000 Freecred to: Clothes that fit? Witchcraft!</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) The not-quite Tanuki looks at the food being prepared with a bit of awe in his eyes, seeing they are a form of fried dumplings, and noticing it smells rather good. He holds his smiling expression when hearing &#39;the finest octopus balls&#39;, not wanting to crack from just how many ways that phrasing could be taken. After a moment of mentally recovering from the statement, he says, &quot;It looks so good, I just have to! How much?&quot; and digs into his pocket for his &#39;cash&#39;. He isn&#39;t one for seafood, but then again before P-Day, he wasn&#39;t one for a lot of things, so why not try &#39;octopus balls&#39;?</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Beyond the tent flap, Narwen can see what seems to be a large, ornately decorated study. Well, half of one anyway. The room is bisected on the far side by a heavy velvet curtain. The room as it exists is populated by a trio of ornate chairs, a heavy wooden desk, and a number of bookshelves, filled with collections of books and assorted knick knacks. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>It also contains four surprised looking tanuki, mostly in the middle of the process of turning into objects scattered around the room. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor looks at Randel with a smile, passing the fragrant dumplings over the counter. &quot;They cost seven freecred for a serving,&quot; he says, &quot;so if you have something equivalent, that would be perfect.&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) &quot;Oh, are we playing Find the Tanuki? Don&#39;t mind me, carry on! Oh, nice fretwork, looks very real.&quot; Narwen scootches a bit further into the tent -- don&#39;t they say that if a skunk&#39;s head can fit though a gap, the rest of him will too? One shoulder bumps into the desk and sets things a-clattering, with one or two tumbling to the ground. &quot;Sorry! That wasn&#39;t expensive, right? Don&#39;t worry, I can replace it! The show must go on. And, er, I&#39;d better hurry.&quot; And he puts his paws onto the table -- teeter, teeter -- and concentrates, starting to shift shape himself.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  thinking over waiting for everyone or just playing the game junes decided to relax with the tea for now and taking a sip wonders how it would go with some gryphon milk, grabbing some from before she adds it to the cup and decides to chug the rest of the bottle and turning into *mostly* a blue gryphon after becoming a full one their tail feathers shake a bit and in a poof the tails reappear </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel blinks in surprise by the cost. Not because it was so high, but because it was so low! Have the prices he&#39;s seen while working in Zephyr skewed things so much, or does the poor vender not understand the cost of things here? The shock almost makes him forget his plan, almost feeling sorry for the trick he is wants to pull. However without skipping a beat, he focuses on his Nanomagic illusion, which feeds back what the person is expecting as what they actually perceive. &quot;Yeah, right here...&quot; he says, and pulls out the loose &#39;money&#39;, spilling it out on the counter. Along with the folded note &#39;money&#39; paper, other small things like a pen, a couple of other Tanuki leaves, note pad, and other miscellaneous things. &quot;Shoot, sorry.&quot; he says, his ears pinning back in embarrassment and worry, &quot;Pull what is needed and I&#39;ll stuff the rest back. I should have put the change away before hand.&quot; and starts pulling the other items away, leaving the note paper.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The tanuki in the tent shake off their surprise and quickly go back to their shapeshifting into various items. A large globe, a fine violin, that blushes a little at the compliment on their fretwork, an umbrella in a stand, and a rather furry book end. Hmm. Someone got a little distracted. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Fortunately, none of the things that fell off the desk seem to have broken, but there is a stack of papers scattered on the floor along with some very nice looking pens and a particularly ugly paperweight shaped like an ogre&#39;s head. They definitely picked some wild decor in here. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Junes draws a few odd looks from a number of tanuki as she both adulterates perfectly good tea, and transforms in a way that is certainly unfamiliar to the non-Fairhaven tanuki. Though many of those also give sidelong glances to those foxy tails. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor raises an eyebrow in surprise. &quot;Are those imperial notes?&quot; he asks in surprise, picking up one of the illusion cloaked leaves and holding it up to the light. &quot;I haven&#39;t seen one of these since I was a cub! They are not worth much, anymore, but certainly collectible!&quot; He takes one of the leaves and passes the rest back. &quot;I&#39;ll take one of these and toss in a bottle of our home made sake!&quot; He reches under the counter and passes over a large gourd, painted with the kanji for sake. &quot;Enjoy!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen fights the urge to stop and pick up the papers, first because paws, but second because this is serious art that both requires and deserves total focus and concentration. If he can pull this off, why that would be a real coup, a feather in his cap! Not that he has a cap. Or feathers. Perhaps they sell feathers here, though. Possibly peacock feathers, that seems in-theme. Why don&#39;t we see more peacocks in Fairhaven? Hee, peacock. Maybe it&#39;s the name. Skunks, though, at least you do see a lot of those. Something timeless about that colour scheme. Hm, yes.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes) Junes sees the weird looks and decides to just go for the game and see when it starts or if its already happening and with a long stretch tosses a bit of trash away and walks over to the tanuki searching tent while scanning the crowd a bit for that familiar monochrome pole</div><div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel can&#39;t help but smile, making the Tanuki&#39;s day, at least for a moment. While it is an illusion, the memory of the thing was very much real, and he was glad that it was happy one. Now he&#39;s got to do the other half of his scheme, or both of them will feel bad. But before he can say much, he gets offered a bottle of sake, which he barely remembers what that is from before P-Day hit as rice wine. &quot;Oh, thanks! I... uh... don&#39;t know what to say!.. You shouldn&#39;t have.&quot; he stammers, caught completely off guard by the generosity. This is why he doesn&#39;t getting to the habit of telling lies! Things can get complicated fast, and this was painfully generous of the vender. He takes a bite out of the takoyaki to help stall things to think, nodding and making an approving &#39;Mmm~&#39; in response, finding the seafood surprisingly alright! After swallowing, he says, &quot;I couldn&#39;t help but notice you having a heck of a time with that electronic money machine. Maybe I could help with that. I&#39;m pretty good with computers and teaching others how to use them.&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) &quot;Get ready!&quot; comes a coice from the orher side of the curtain, &quot;Can you find the hidden tanuki? Count down with me! Ten! Nine!&quot; The coundown continues as the tanuki settle into their hiding places. Narwen is going to have to hurry if he plans to hide! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Junes finds herself on the other side of the curtain, next in line after the guest of honor who is standing with his entourage in front of a closed curtain and a cheering crowd of spectators. &quot;Just watch for anything that looks like it doesn&#39;t belong,&quot; someone is advising the tall human. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor waves a hand dismissively. &quot;No, no,&quot; he says, &quot;Not necessary. My assistant is quite handy with it. He should be back soon. I&#39;m just glad you like the food! Try the sake! Tell me what you think!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen has been focusing, in his own fashion, on a good shape: one he knows well, and that&#39;s sure to impress. A microscope! His paws rest on the table -- except that those are not tough, leathery pads, but a rubbery underside; and the paws are now square, a solid base to support the instrument; and as he lifts up and forward the rest of him flows along too. It&#39;s intricate work: a tray for a glass slide, a long tube with a lens at the base, and even an eyepiece at the top where the user might look. He can&#39;t make glass as such, but one of his spectacle lenses is slipped in place of the slide, a single hair resting on it to serve as the object. Knobs jut out to the sides that one might imagine using to adjust the focus, though they don&#39;t really turn. The whole thing would be mighty impressive and convincing, were it not twice as large as a regular microscope, covered in black-and-white fur, and warm to the touch.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  excited that the game is about to start junes looks around and sees a tal guy with people around &quot;oh hey i remember seeing you! good luck on the search&quot; they say with a small friendly smirk and two fox tails wagging a little excited for the game to start and looks back at the curtain in anticipation ready to scan the room and pick (something) out wait can they turn into wallpaper? i sure hope not is the last thought before the curtains open</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Oh sure, let&#39;s give this a try!&quot; Randel says as he puts down his food and looks over the bottle again. &quot;Got anything to serve it in?&quot; While waiting for proper cups to be found, he says, &quot;I do insist though on helping with the point of sales, especially with such a treat of Sake. It shouldn&#39;t take long. Used to teach in the local school for a while, and instruct kids on how to use the silly thing once they were ready for one. Don&#39;t worry; I won&#39;t be the one touching the buttons. That&#39;d be rude to operate someone else&#39;s point of sales!&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Inside the tent, the tall human looks at Junes and blinks, not recognizing the mitant that has sidled up next to him. &quot;Uh, thanks?&quot; he says hesitantly, adjusting his glasses, &quot;You too, I guess.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>He wanders out into the room and looks around at all the things filling the space. He gives a long, hard look at the oversized, furry microscope, then dismisses it as too obvious. Besides, it is skunk colored! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>He wanders slowly around the room and stops at the non-matching book end, reaching out and tapping it. There is a swirl of leaves and a pudgy tanuki is sitting on the shelf! &quot;Got me!&quot; he chortles, hopping down and taking the man&#39;s hand. &quot;Let&#39;s get you a prize!&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The tanuki in the stands cheer and those on the floor make way for June to try and make a guess. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The food vendor smiles amiably. &quot;You can just drink from the bottle,&quot; he says amiably, &quot;Tanuki sake is best straight from the gourd.&quot; He shrugs at the machine. &quot;If you have any tips, I will not say no.&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen is a little unclear as to what&#39;s going on, not having eyes at present, but he ain&#39;t been picked yet. He must be winning! So convincing. The microscope emits a low, slightly grindy noise.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  seeing the room junes is instantly drawn to the microscope (woah reminds me of narwen it must be lucky!) and so junes goes to grab the lucky microscope</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel blinks and tilts his head in realization went told to just drink straight from the bottle. Of course Tanuki do that! Why wouldn&#39;t they? &quot;Right, of course.&quot; he says with a chuckle, opening up the bottle with a claw, and giving it swig. He is caught off guard by how smooth it is, tasting the alcohol, but also the other favors he just wasn&#39;t familiar with. He never was an expert in whine, but the combination of it honestly tasting good and his current form it natural just made everything feel right. He lowers the bottle, swallows, thinks about the taste, and gives it another swig! After downing that second swallow he says, &quot;Fantastic! I think I found my drink for the rest of the festival!&quot; and gives a hearty laugh. &quot;Now let&#39;s see what you are having issues with, since I&#39;ve got a bit of time.&quot; He then takes up the dumplings on a stick and says, &quot;Let&#39;s do a practice run and ring up this and the whine.&quot; and then takes a bite, looking very much relaxed and at ease from the drink, and well before the alcohol could do anything.</div><div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) There is a collective groan from the audience in the tent. &quot;Oh!&quot; the Emcee cries, shaking his head, &quot;I am sorry, that is not a tanuki! But I suspect you have found a sneaky shape changer! You&#39;ll have to get your prize from them!&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The sake really is good, and goes down smooth. But it is oddly warm and has a distinct aftertaste of.... well, no getting around it, it tastes like ass. Not metaphorically. Like licking an anus. It comes through late, but boy does it come through! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;Alright,&quot; the vendor agrees, &quot;But you&#39;ve already paid for the food. Why ring it up again?&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) For a moment or two after Junes grabs the microscope, nothing happens. Then, the air is filled with a swirling cloud of black and white fluff. Gradually it begins to settle, leaving a layer of hair across everything within a ten-foot radius, but also leaving the fox-tailed gryphon holding Narwen&#39;s snout. &quot;Oh, hello,&quot; he says, then topples sideways, slips off the desk and thumps awkwardly to all fours, wobbling on the wooden sandals. He seems to have changed his outfit since she last saw him.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   &quot;Booby prize! Er, let me see what that might be. Actually, let&#39;s just step outside -- haha, all part of the games everyone, nothing to see here! -- and I will present it to you.&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) &quot;Aww, what gave me away?&quot; asks Narwen on the way. &quot;Was it the ocular? I bet it was the ocular.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  Junes chuckles &quot;honestly i didn&#39;t know it was you just saw the skunk stripe and knew i had to pick it&quot; pulling open a bag junes offers narwen some confections &quot;but man was i suprised to see it was you!&quot; remembering the microscope itself they wonder what randel is up to right now...</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel waves his hand a bit dismissively and says, &quot;It&#39;s to get the right muscle memory, and knowing how to cancel an order is just as important. Doing is more important than just listening.&quot; He breaks out his old COMMs unit and puts it down on the counter to help with the lesson, and then is hit with something unexpected, making him stop in his tracks. &quot;Woof, wasn&#39;t expecting that after taste.&quot; and then gives the bottle of sake the side eye, holding off on drinking more until after he can gracefully pull himself away from the vender. The COMM he broke out has seen better days, the case bumped and scratched, screen scuffed and polished at least several times during its life, but like a renowned and reliable cellphones back in the day, this COMM is still going strong despite appearances. &quot;Let&#39;s see this step by step...&quot; he says with a smile, and leans over, with the dumplings on a stick in hand.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The crowd of tanuki laugh and cheer and applaud as Narwen changes back and waddles out of the tent. They love a good joke as much as the next person. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Following the guest group (did someone say his name was Elias?) out of the tent back into the sunlight leaves many more options and attractions! There&#39;s a &quot;guess my weight&quot; booth and more food and drink to try and even something that looks like a hall of mirrors set up! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The old food vendor watches with interest, noting the restrained disgust on Randel&#39;s face, though he tries to hide it. Then he starts to laugh! The vendor next door starts to laugh! Another patron, also a tanuki starts to laugh! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The sake gourd starts to laugh.</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) &quot;What stripe?&quot; asks Narwen. &quot;Probably just a trick of the light. Anyway, I believe you were promised a prize, so, er, just a moment...&quot; He stops to root through his pack, which takes a not inconsiderable amount of time since he has to open it with his teeth, poke about with his nose, scoop stuff out of the way with a paw, and so on; the whole thing is punctuated with little comments like &quot;just a moment&quot;, &quot;nearly got it&quot;, &quot;oh, is that safe?&quot; and so on. Eventually his head emerges with the stalk of a small leaf held gingerly between his front teeth. He lowers it gingerly to the ground, slowly and carefully, as though it might explode, and holds it in place with a claw.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   &quot;Now, this is for you. Normally I shouldn&#39;t, but-- well, it feels like this is the right place and the right time. If you&#39;re ever having trouble with a Tanuki, or if you want to pay them back for a prank, just rub this against their nose and see what happens. Er, not mine, though! Very important, and I stress this, not my nose. But, on that condition, it is yours.&quot; And he takes a half-step back, just leaving the leaf pinned in place by one claw, ready to be picked up.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  Junes looks at the leaf in confusion but smiles &quot;not sure what that means but i appreciate it! and honestly its part of why i came here in the first place a tanuki pranked me before and i was curious about them and heard about this event and wanted to learn more about them and well&quot; pointing to the nine tails wagging &quot;these&quot; and continues &quot;and wow tanuki know how to have fun! and even if i didnt get some grand prize im glad i went with my gut&quot; </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel can&#39;t help but notice the laughing around him, stopping what he&#39;s doing and looking around. After putting the events together, and hearing a chuckle from the bottle, he sighs and then chuckles and asks while poking the bottle, &quot;Is this your ass-istant?&quot; After that he lets drop the Nanomagic illusion, feeling as though he&#39;s been had and should probably come clean and get a good laugh out of it. The royal note&#39;s appearance turns back into note pad paper, with some writing on it. Reading it over, it is a cheat sheet on how to transfer freecredits, along with a crudely drawn leaf and &#39;Randel&#39; written next to it.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) It is probably a good thing no one was paying any particular attention to Narwen and Junes, because that particular kind of leaf could certainly cause some disruption. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>After the exchange is made, they find themselves back near the food cart where they left Randel. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The old food vendor chuckles and taps the newly revealed fake money. &quot;Hard to trick a trickster, young man,&quot; he says, then points to his spectacles, &quot;I can see through most glamours with these bad boys. A special gift from a powerful friend. But I still appreciated the gesture.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The gourd in Randel&#39;s hands wiggles loose and falls to the ground before becoming a round little tanuki. &quot;Good trick though, huh?&quot; he chortles.</div><div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen looks at the tails and raises a white eyebrow. &quot;Er, were those there before? I think I would have noticed if those were there before. How... long have those been there? And, uh, what sort of prank was it?&quot; He takes another half-step back so that he can watch on the tails and also on the leaf simultaneously; his eyes tend to follow the leaf in Junes&#39;s hand as though it was a stick of dynamite. &quot;You might want to put that away, y&#39;know, for safe keeping.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  after taking a quick sniff Junes puts the strange leaf away &quot;oh sorry and yeah a while after visiting a shrine they sort of popped up and well after (changing) they pop right back up and about the prank well i was delivering some eggs and well someone opened a package early and things got WEIRD lots of eggs and singing nothing harmful but it was a bit scary especially after snapping out of a spell inside an egg transformed&quot; rubbing the back of their neck&quot;no clue who did it but it doesn&#39;t matter now&quot;</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel nods and smiles, &quot;Good to hear. It did feel a bit too easy.  I was also surprised that you saw a royal note and not something much more local that a person like me would carry. That should have been my first clue something was up, but I was testing this ability out. I was counting on the nanite effect being a different enough kind of &#39;magic&#39; than what most are used to. It typically does throw other magical users off. And thanks for calling me young. Glad at least one illusion is still going strong.&quot; He then looks at the assistant and sighs, &quot;Kind of... I can do it too, but... What a way to ruin sake. Also it isn&#39;t healthy to take in alcohol that way. At least for humans it isn&#39;t.&quot; He picks up his COMM, turning it off, and stuffs it in his pocket, but oddly enough he still shows up as contactable by local COMMs. &quot;But you did get me good there. Makes me wonder what would have happened if I didn&#39;t take a drink and took your friend here home! Say, you really do miss those royal notes, or was that part of the act?&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The vendor chuckles and waves the trio closer. He produces a new gourd of sake, and four flat, saucer-like cups and pours for each of the trio and for himself. &quot;The illusion was good,&quot; he admits, &quot;But your targeting was poor. You would have done better if you had told me what kind of money it was. Pro-tip.&quot; He winks at Randel, &quot;And you are nearly five hundred years to early to start trying to compare ages with me! Last time I was here in your realm it was the Edo period. I did loke their bills. Beautiful work.&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen winces briefly when Junes sniffs the leaf, but when she fails to explode and puts it away he calms down and listens to her explanation. &quot;Um, okay. Not quite sure what that was about,&quot; he says carefully, &quot;but while about half of the mutants in Fairhaven are egg-fixated in one way or another, I don&#39;t think Tanuki are among them?&quot; He tilts his head. &quot;Egg-shaped things, maybe. Eggs for eating, sure. But, um, anyway. Tanuki pranks are usually pretty good-natured and harmless. Weird I can see, but if it was Tanuki I&#39;m sure it wasn&#39;t intended to be scary.&quot; His nose is drawn to the proffered bag of confectionary, which seems a safer if less exciting option. His tail waves. &quot;Say, uh, whatcha got in there? I wouldn&#39;t want to be rude and turn down an offer. We can eat as we head to one of the other stalls, if you like?&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  &quot;sounds good! and ive got dango some carefully placed green tea and some other stuff like a granola bar&quot; as junes rummage through the bag they mention &quot;i think theres still a weight guessing game around but wanna see if we can find randel?&quot; </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Taking the compliment where he can, Randel nods and says, &quot;Thanks, I&#39;ll keep that in mind. I did work a lot on the code, so glad at paid off. I kept it vague because I didn&#39;t want to complicate it. I wasn&#39;t expecting many human lifetimes of memories and experience to foil things. Knowing the target helps. I&#39;m more used to tricking ferals into thinking I&#39;m one of them than anything else. Hehe, And I wasn&#39;t comparing age with you, I was using my own yard stick! I was a young man when P-Day hit. Now I&#39;m not that young anymore.&quot; When seeing the saucer-like cups for the sake, he smirks and says, &quot;That was what I was expecting earlier.&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) The food vendor laughs at the group. &quot;He is right,&quot; he says, &quot;There are some malicious yokai out there, but usually, tanuki are good natured in their pranks.&quot; He raises his own cup. &quot;Kanpai!&quot; He downs the sake with a happy sigh, then goes back to preparing food for hungry festival goers. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Meanwhile, the clump of tanuki around Elias has moved around to a few different attractions and are now heading toward the hall of mirrors. A large sign hangs over the front that says, &quot;See Yourself the Tanuki Way!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) &quot;Ooh, those ball things,&quot; Narwen exclaims. &quot;I was thinking about trying one of them. On the other hand, green tea sounds nice but I don&#39;t think I should drink it on the move because, y&#39;know, the other hand is a paw.&quot; He lifts one, upturned, to illustrate. Then, thinking on it, he opens his jaws wide and twitches his eyebrows hopefully towards the dango.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   Once that&#39;s dealt with, he rambles on. &quot;Weight-guessing sounds like a classic trap, but what the heck. Oh yeah, you&#39;re right, we should see if we can find Randal first.&quot; The skunk sniffs at the air, but apparently turns up a blank. &quot;Maybe we&#39;ll run into him? Ooh, what&#39;s that over there?&quot; The gathering crowd by the hall of mirrors seems to have caught his eye.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  looking in the direction narwen faces junes agrees but before that &quot;im gonna ask that one vendor if he can tell anyone in a labcoat that were in the hall of mirrors&quot; walking over to someone selling food and thanks them before going back to narwen amd over to the hall &quot;man its been too long since ive been to one of these!&quot;</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Kanpai&quot; Randel says, a bit delayed and takes a drink. He then bows and says &quot;Been a pleasure. I should catch up with my friends and check out the rest of the place. Good Luck!&quot; and then drops off the cheat sheets, &quot;Here, in case anyone else is having problems. I&#39;m not going to be pulling off that stunt anytime soon. Not here anyway! Ha!&quot; and then picks up his green tea, taking a big drink to waste out the memory of the bad aftertaste, and munches on the dumplings on a stick.</div><div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Randel manages to rejoin the others as they all enjoy their snacks and move toward the hall of mirrors. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>This attraction, like the others, is a temporary tent, like the others. The shrine is usually a pretty austere place, after all. People are moving in and out of the tent, most laughing happily as they exit. Elias, the apparent guest of honor is talking with a large, familiar tanuki at the entrance. It seems that the rest of his entourage have scattered around for a break. Now might be a good time to meet the man who was the inspiration for this party!</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen was vaguely hoping that food might make its way into his muzzle, but a companionable walk is good too. He taps out a somewhat laborious ping to Randel on his comm bracer, then ambles after Junes over towards the hall of mirrors. Apparently they timed it right: the other Zephyr agent is just coming around the corner. Narwen hails him with a paw. &quot;Hey Randel! Sorry for wandering off, but: look, new outfit!&quot; He gestures to himself with a paw, sandal still hanging from it. &quot;And I think I&#39;m getting the hang of walking on these things. Say, d&#39;you want to check out this thing? Or, er, ooh, I think I know that guy. Wasn&#39;t he was on one of the proposal review committees! Er, but I&#39;m sure he&#39;s just been very busy. Maybe I should just ask about the status? Or would that be rude? No, that&#39;d be rude. I&#39;ll just give him a friendly greeting, like between colleagues. Hello, colleague,&quot; Narwen calls, raising a forepaw again.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  taking in the sights junes realizes they forgot to actually give the food to narwen and then notices hes talking to that tall guy from the tanuki game and as narwen is talking junes bends a bit to offer narwen some dango to eat and holds green tea in the other hand and after theres a bit of silence while they talk i mention &quot;oh i forgot to introduce myself before im junes by the way&quot; tails flicking about as they feed narwen food and drink </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel makes short work of the snack and drink as he goes, still wanting to bury the taste of tainted sake. At least the food was technically free, though at the cost of being the butt of a joke. He knew he shouldn&#39;t have tried to trick a trickster, but something about the idea was way too tempting. While walking, he does almost an about face as his internal COMM from his N.I.C.E. unit mentally pings, telling him where the others are at. After a bit of walking around, he finally he sees the familiar faces he ran into earlier, or at least one of them. Seems like Junes has shifted again, making him a bit concerned for the protean person.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;Oh nice!&quot; the Tanuki-like agent, but doesn&#39;t get to say much as the poor skunk beast rambles on, not sure how best to step in. Then Junes steps in with food, giving Narwen a much needed snack, and making him look around awkwardly while waiting. As he is getting his bearings, he then notices the large familiar Tanuki there with a Zephyr scientist. The juxtaposition making him look down at himself, being a Tanuki Zephyr scientist, smirks in amusement, and then steps up to the two and says, &quot;I thought it was you, Fenris. How&#39;s it going? You throw a pretty good festival here!&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Elias looks away from his conversation at Narwen&#39;s greeting. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;Oh, hey. Uhh, Narwen, right? From R&amp;D? Heard you went subcontractor,&quot; Elias is a nice guy and tries to know his coworkers&#39; names. &quot;Nice to see you,&quot; he says, &quot;You look... um... well.&quot; Names were one thing, but smalltalk is hard. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Fenris waves to the arriving trio. &quot;Hey all!&quot; he says amiably, &quot;I was just telling my friend Eli here how much the tanuki way has helped me. I am glad you are enjoying the festival!&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen beams. Someone remembered his name, and then someone else restored his sugar levels! &quot;Feeling well, thanks! And how&#39;re you doing? Isn&#39;t this event great? Food is A-plus, you should try some of these sweet ball things. Thanks, Junes.&quot; He takes a slurp of the tea. &quot;Good to see you too, Fenris.&quot; He finally shuts up, leaning amiably against Randel for a moment.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  giving a sort of head nod similar to tipping a hat &quot;nice to meet you fenris im junes any friend of these guys is a friend of mine&quot; while holding food junes uses a tail to carefully offer randel a granola bar &quot;hey do you two want some food too?&quot;</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) &quot;Yeah, the Tanuki do have a good prospective on life.&quot; Randel says in agreement, &quot;They were the first supernaturals I ran into, and haven&#39;t regretted it. The real shame is not keeping in touch with them. This festival has been really great in catching me up on what we have in common.&quot; When offered the food by Junes, he says, &quot;Oh thanks.&quot; but pockets it for after the talk is done. He then gives a smile and a nod to Eli and says, &quot;Hope the experience has been fun, and not overwhelming. Can&#39;t believe how lively this place is.&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Elias listens to Randel and looks thoughtful. &quot;They do have a good perspective, don&#39;t they?&quot; he says, seeming to be rather relieved to hear someone say it. He smiles at Narwen. &quot;I am doing well. This festival has been fun, and it has eased my mind about some things.&quot; He looks around at the others. &quot;Do you all want to join us in the hall of mirrors?&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Fenris perks up at the mention of food. &quot;I could go for a snack,&quot; he says, &quot;And ditto for the invite. Why don&#39;t you come along?&quot;</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) :beams at Elias again. &quot;Glad to hear it! And sure, that sounds good. Gotta say, I&#39;m curious to see the hall of mirrors -- I mean, when you&#39;re starting from this,&quot; he continues, gesturing at himself with a paw, &quot;distorted is all relative. But the Tanuki have been super accepting -- a good model for Zephyr sometimes,&quot; he adds, dropping into a skunk-beast whisper. &quot;Not everyone there is as welcoming as you were.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  Junes gives fenris dango and a granola bar and looks to the house of mirrors about to ask a question but deciding against it and says &quot;so anyone wanna see who can make it to the end first?&quot;</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel pauses for a moment, having just gotten the taste of the last prank out of his mouth, and is left wondering what a Tanuki made hall of mirrors is going to be like. To be fair, he was asking for it with the stunt he pulled, but this was still a hall of mirrors set up by a group of magical supernatural tricksters! &quot;Oh boy... Hall of mirrors... By Tanuki&quot; he says slowly, getting himself ready, &quot;Sure, why not! This should be way more fun than your mundane hall of mirrors.&quot; and gets ready at the door.</div><div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Fenris laughs and leads the way. &quot;It&#39;s not that kind of house of mirrors,&quot; he says to Junes, &quot;It&#39;s the kind with mirrors that change your reflection.&quot; He leads the way to the door and steps inside. &quot;It&#39;s meant to be thought provoking and introspective&quot; He turns to face a mirror just inside the door where his reflection has turned around to slap its butt at him in a rather offensive manner. &quot;And to be kinda ridiculous,&quot; he admits.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The Hall of Mirrors is pretty much exactly as advertised. It is a long hallway, rather longer than the tent would suggest, with mirrors hung on the walls, creating a kind of art gallery where the art is reflections. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>As each person looks in a mirror they see a different reflection. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Randel sees himself as a short, nearly round tanuki, sitting atop a beanbag chair sized set of testicles, smoking a long pipe and laughing. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Junes sees herself as a matronly tanuki in a kimono with several cubs frolicing around her. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Narwen sees himself as a large, enormously fat tanuki leaning against a gourd of sake as big as he is!</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen grins and moves towards the mirrors for a closer inspection, stepping from one pane to the next to see his reflection follow him. &quot;Well hello, dumpling. You are actually making me feel svelte, which doesn&#39;t happen often.&quot; Sure, he&#39;s talking to himself, but this seems like the sort of place where he might get a reply. &quot;You know what, I want to see what you do with that.&quot; Somewhere in his pack he has a jug of wine -- not real sake, but with its own little touch of magic -- and opens it and laps a little toast from the neck. &quot;Your health!&quot;<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   A pang of curiosity strikes him, and he turns to peek at Elias&#39;s reflection, just from the corner of his eye.</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  the excitement from the prospect of a race is replaced with intrigue and they follow along the group and look to see themselves as a raccoon dog and curiously there are cubs playing around! &quot;aww cute! and wow this is some cool magic!&quot; the sky in the reflection looks like a rain has passed and the sun had come to warm the flowers around (i didnt get to talk to that other guy muh i wonder if i can see what his reflection is?) and so looking at an angle they look at the mirror fenris is looking into  </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) Randel&#39;s fuzzy ears pin back and looks worried when Fenris mentions it is supposed to be introspective. Having spent a lot of his post P-Day life fighting himself, and helping other with their issues, he knows all too well how ugly things can look in a mirror. Soul searching wasn&#39;t something he was expecting to do just yet, and hoped that whatever shown in the mirror wasn&#39;t visible to others. The worst goes through his mind as he gets to the first one... and it does catch him off guard, but not the way he expected. He can&#39;t help but laugh at the sight of him on huge balls, relaxed as heck, smoking... something. Obviously something good! He gets some ideas on how to relax with that one! He goes to the next one, and is several times his normal size, somehow! But it is a familiar size, something he feels powerful and safe in. He&#39;s reminded about how he doesn&#39;t really get to exercise his abilities more for himself, and just have fun with them. He poses a few times in the mirror, which almost tricks him into shifting into that actual size a few times! Next he goes to another one, which looks a bit cloudy. Looking closer, he realizes it isn&#39;t on the glass but behind it, as if there is a fog. He peers close into the mirror, past his normal self, and then sees a fox standing behind him. It is a rather shapely one at that, almost too perfectly attractive, with black fur from pointed ear to toe, and looking at him with hungry yellow glowing eyes. He jumps away and looks behind himself out of reflex and then back at the mirror again to verify, but can&#39;t spot her anymore. Did she have more than one tail? He then realizes that was a shadow vixen of some sort, which are notoriously sex hungry, thoughfonot as waist thin. He shakes his head and then looks at himself in the mirror, wondering if his lust is really far closer than he realize.</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Other patrons are wandering the hall as well, most laughing at the strange reflections, but some are considering the distorted, probably magical images with deep interest. It seems that each mirror reflects only one person at a time, everything else becoming hazy and indistinct. Generally, at least. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Fenris is one of the former, moving from mirror to mirror and grinning at what he sees. Currently, he is admiring a reflection of himself as a rather small tanuki wearing what appears to be a nearly ten foot long, electric blue scarf that billows in a breeze that does not pass the frame. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Elias is one of the latter. He is standing in front of a mirror and looking at a tanuki that is very much like himself. Shorter, yes, and much chubbier, but recognizably Elias. He wears a lab coat and goggles and is making lights dance around his chubby paws. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Narwen&#39;s next stop, after his reflection returns his salute and takes a long drink, shows himas a portly, obviously male tanuki wearing a trucker hat and bowling shirt with his name stitched on the breast. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>Junes finds a new image of herself as well. This one a lantern jawed brute wearing her kimono. All of the images are strange and disparate, but identifiably the observer, regardless of the differences.</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen is just shuffling to the side to admire his reflection from another angle, trying to peek at it around the corner from the next mirror -- and is taken a bit aback when he sees something entirely different. He moves his head back to the left: enormous Tanuki with gourd. To the right: bowling-shirt dadnuki. Left. Right. A forepaw reaches up to touch his chest, where the stitching would be, and he is momentarily surprised when he feels fabric instead of fur. He stares down in shock -- but oh, right, it&#39;s that new coat. Back up to the mirror. &quot;Enjoy your game,&quot; he calls, unconsciously wiggling the paw that would, theoretically, hold a bowling ball. Wanting to see more, he steps over to the next mirror. This one revelas a slender, somewhat short Tanuki wearing a lab coat and carrying a clipboard; probably male from the shirt and pants but not entirely clear. &quot;Oh. You&#39;re less fun. The other guy wore it better.&quot; He&#39;s about to move on, but stops. Something about it looks familiar.</div><div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  glancing shortly at an empty mirror they see a broad version of them (heh i remember when i looked kinda like that except well not a tanuki) then goes over to fenris &quot;man these mirrors are cool i wonder how they even work?&quot; moving two fox tails around but seeing the reflection only move the fluffy tanuki tail back &quot;do you know if theres anything else like this? i wouldn&#39;t believe it if it werent right here&quot; </div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) After the shock of the two mirrors, Randel sees a few more fanciful and whimsical themed ones. He goes through several of them at a pretty quick pace, seeing himself in different outfits and shapes and sizes, poses, and activities. Half way through, he subconsciously tries to shifts to try to match the body the mirror is portraying, which is like trying to chase shadows, as the image shifts when he does. He catches himself shifting out of reflex and reverts back to what he was, and keeps going on. Then he catches a mirror with two of himself, and the second one waves back and grins knowingly! He is pauses in place, looking dumbfounded and reaches for his other self in real space via the mirror, with the mirror double jumping away and waves a finger. &quot;Caux?&quot; he says quietly to himself, which causes the other to smirk and nod. &quot;Wait how... Nevermind... magic.&quot; He then slowly looks around to see if anyone saw the effect, and slowly moves to the next mirror, with the extra &#39;self&#39; making a lewd gesture before going out of sight, but likely not out of mind. The next mirror catches his attention, seeing an all too familiar and sad sight. Whatever it is, it is off in the distance, making him look behind himself to see if it was there, which if course it wasn&#39;t. He almost touches the surface, but dares not to at the last moment. He is lost in thought as he stares for a long while...</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Fenris turns and smiles at Junes. &quot;Magic!&quot; he says, wiggling his fingers, &quot;And not just nanites. We&#39;re close to Tanuki&#39;s realm here and that kind of expands the kind of magic that can happen here.&quot; He waves at the mirrors. &quot;Mostly, it is just fun,&quot; he explains, &quot;Dreams and illusions. But for some, the magic here can show the past, or the present, and sometimes the future.&quot; He sobers a bit, his grin softening to his normal, gentle smile as he stops to put a hand on Randel&#39;s shoulder. &quot;Best to be cautious when interacting with what we see in mirrors,&quot; he says, though there is no way he could have seen what Randel saw. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>He gives a glance to Narwen, just to be sure he is alright, then steps up behind Elias. &quot;What do you think?&quot; he asks the man, &quot;You like what you see?&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>The man seems hesitant. &quot;I am a man of science,&quot; he says, &quot;I&#39;ve been working with Zephyr&#39;s nanite technology since almost before it existed.&quot; He contemplates the mirror with something approaching awe, &quot;But this? This is a world away from my laboratory? Is... is it worth the change? Worth the risk?&quot; He seems on the brink of a monumental choice and could go either way.</div> <div title="Narwen" style="margin-top:2em">(Narwen) Narwen takes a step towards the mirror, to get a closer look, and his reflection takes a step matching step _back_, looking a little fearful. &quot;Hey, c&#39;mon. You&#39;re me. I&#39;m you. Don&#39;t be like that.&quot; Another step. The reflection scuttles back further and backs into an indistinct wall, splaying its arms out against it. A little growl trickles from Narwen&#39;s throat. &quot;Hey, seriously, I just want to see you.&quot; He takes another step-- and bonks right into the mirror. The figure drops into a protective crouch, arms up, eyes squeezed shut.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   The skunk sighs and puts a paw over his face.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   &quot;Okay, fine, fine, sorry. I&#39;ll just... let you be. In the mirror. Anyway, let&#39;s see what&#39;s in the next HOLY CRAP!&quot;<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   Narwen jumps right back, recoiling from the next reflection and skittering cartoon-style on his wooden sandals for a couple of seconds. He had been pressed right up against the mirror, and from that point of view it had contained an enormous, gaping set of razor-teethed jaws. From a few feet away the view was not much improved: he could now make out the red, glowing eyes, each bigger than his head, and the long, dripping tongue. After a few seconds of panting, he comes to the conclusion that it is not going to jump out and eat him. A quick sniff confirms that, thankfully, he has not hosed down the room in panic either. Still. He ducks back to the previous mirror where the slender Tanuki is still cowering.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>   &quot;Hey, uh, sorry? We&#39;ve got issues, haven&#39;t we? Lemme just, um.&quot; He clears his throat, turning his head to Fenris. &quot;Uh, yeah, all good here, A-OK! Just, y&#39;know, happy Tanukis! And a bit of introspection. Might have accidentally learned something. But, um, think I&#39;m ready to move along, see the next thing. Or have a drink. Don&#39;t mind me.&quot;</div> <div title="Junes" style="margin-top:2em">(Junes)  hearing the question junes answers elias &quot;in the end its your choice but magic is amazing&quot; hearing movement junes check back and sees their two companions and goes back to comfort the both of them and ask what happened</div><div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) In the mirror Randel saw was himself, not as a Tanuki, but as a human. He isn&#39;t even dressed in lab clothes, more like the clothes he used to wear before P-Day hit. The distance and darkness helped obscure the details he knew were there, and didn&#39;t want to think about. The pale and dead looking skin and flesh gave enough details he&#39;d care to see; it was a zombie form of himself. Being an early shapeshifter of Zephyr has had some consequences and quirks with the early Nanite Adept project, with him shifting involuntarily at times when under certain strong emotions. Depression was one that got to him the most, and the form that got stuck to that feeling was the zombie after a trip to Woodfield. It was as if his reflection just didn&#39;t want be a mirror, it just couldn&#39;t for the life of him move to do his job. He looked on, trying to willing it to move, to not be stuck there, slumped against a wall. He wondered for a moment, pained by the sight, how this mirror could be helpful. What good was it if it just showed him what he already knew? As soon as a few people stepped up to the mirror, like when Fenris put a hand on his shoulder, their forms got added to the display. They walk over to the poor guy and couch down next to him, looking as if they were talking to the near dead person. The zombie&#39;s head soon tilts side to side, as if thinking, and reluctantly raises a stiff hand up and is lifted to his feet by the others, arms put on their shoulders. Randel covers and rubs his nose, unable to help recall how much that form stinks, and yet seeing others bear with stink. As the zombie gets close to the mirror&#39;s surface, it slowly shifts into a Tanuki as well as looking a bit more alive. Finally, near the end, the image stands on his own, with the mirror perfectly matching the scene of Fenris&#39; hand on Randel&#39;s shoulder.<p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;God damn it...&quot; Randel mutters, and leans into Fenris side, &quot;A doctor make for a terrible patient. I need to learn to accept help when it is offered.&quot; He steps away from the mirror, sighing deeply, and says &quot;They are far from mean. Heck, met one Tanuki that was about 500 years old, and still joyful as ever. Out of all the time I&#39;ve been with them them, I haven&#39;t seen any malicious intent in any one of them, and they all seem to want to help.&quot; He looks at the very sobering mirror again, which still acts like a normal mirror to him for now, and says, &quot;And I regret not visiting them sooner.&quot;</div> <div title="Fenris" style="margin-top:2em">(Fenris) Elias listens to each of the people around him weigh in, though it seems a rather mor extensive argument goes on behind his eyes. <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>&quot;Well then,&quot; he says, &quot;I suppose I had best decide where my loyalties lie, I&#39;ve played this game for quite long enough.&quot; <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>A short time later, there is a cheer from the gathered tanuki outside as Fenris presents the newest tanuki dedicant and special scientific advisor, Doctor Elias Thomas! The new tanuki waves shyly out at the crowd, and the festival continues with song and food and dancing throughout the day and into the evening! <p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p><p style="height:0.5em;margin:0"></p>As for the others, they are given special treatment for the rest of the day, wined and dined for being witnesses to a new dedicant to the tanuki way of life!</div> <div title="Randel" style="margin-top:2em">(Randel) With a lot taken off his mind, at least for now, and a renewed sense to just having fun, Randel had much better time enjoying the rest of festival. When leaving the hall of mirrors, he shifted to about Fenris&#39; size, feeling more comfortable matching the other great Tanuki&#39;s height, and immersed himself in the festivities. He chatted with the other Raccoon Dogs, sharing insights and history, talking about each other&#39;s form of magic, and got the most use out of his object shifting leaf than he has ever had. Though, he occasionally pokes at unknown sake bottles with suspicions, still remembering the taste of that one... Maybe he&#39;ll be able to spot the Tanuki reliably, eventually.</div>[[Category:RPLogs]]

Difference between revisions of "Tanukifest 2022 - RPLOG"

Revision as of 23:48, 27 March 2022

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