Something Borrowed: Greed/Chapter 5

Inside the box of vials is a complex set of retroviruses. The discs are storage discs with warning labels reading encrypted data.

Selene gives a low whistle as she examines the contents of the box. "Say what you will about the discs... pretty sure we should destroy the box o' retrovirus."

Having slowly gotten over her moment of mourning Cilan asks grimly in her booming voice, "So.. what's in the case that was so worth biting off my old friends head than just restraining her?" she asks it to noone in particular.

Rihko slips the disks into Balina's water-proof bag, then slings the bag over her shoulder. She waves Balina and Selene over, giving Sienna's corpse another angry glare as she rubs at the scales along her chest, still experiencing some lingering phantom pain after Selene's healing. "You two are better with this nanostuff than I am. And how are we going to get Cilan out of that shape? She's not going to fit on the bus like that."

Balina looks over the contents of the box, occasionally grabbing a vial, shaking it, and holding it to her ear. "The discs are probably what we came for, but somehow I doubt they're for some master nanite control program," she says, sniffing a different sample. "These things... not sure yet. Give me a bit; not sure I've seen any of these before, assuming they're even nanite-based."

Cilan glances at Rihko, "Who said I cant shift?" she asks before setting the headless corpse aside and closing her eyes, while her limbs begin to shrink, they quickly turn back to her original shape, much to the surprise of Cilan.

Balina looks up from her work at Cilan's attempts. "Okay, fine. I admit that the virus approach has its own unique terrors. All the more reason to figure out what's up with these things, I guess."

Selene headtilts as Cil proves unable to shift out of giganto-dragon form. "That... could be problematic."

A soft groan escapes Cilan's throat as she clenches at her stomach as she shifts back, "Ugh.. remind me not to do that again.." she asks, "Now.." she glances over to Balina this time, ".. again, what was in the case that was so worth biting off my friends head? You know?"

Rihko leaves the vials in Balina's care, and looks over at Selene, then up to Cilan. "Maybe if you got back into a bubble, the nanites could work it out..." she offers. Then she points at the ex-friend, stepping between Cilan and Balina. "Your friend stuck a knife in me, Cilan. She cut me open, and if it wouldn't have caught on a rib I'd be dead. If your wife hadn't used some Namidian magic on me I might have bled out. I would have torn her throat out myself if Balina hadn't beaten me to it."

Selene looks up at Cilan. "Love, I know she was and old friend... but she betrayed us repeatedly. Her entire reason for bringing us here was clearly not what she claimed. And then she tried to murder Rihko."

Balina growls, "We only restrained her for the case," before Rihko steps in. Holding one more vial up to a light source, she concentrates on it intently, though that may simply be an attempt to keep herself quiet for a bit. "These... aren't infection vials," she says, eventually. "At least, not like I was hoping. I need to get them somewhere I can study better, but I think it's closer to the canvas that was used to paint Dragon-Cil."

Cilan's head tilts slightly as Rihko explains what had happened, a soft shuddering sigh escapes her throat before she looks to Sienna, "Little sis.." she says, ".. wrong target." with that she waves it off and says, "Anyways.. even with the constant betrayals, she still deserves to be buried.." after a while she muses to herself, "Would you have still turned out like that if I hadnt abandoned you?"

Balina adds, "Now that I think about it, if they're just viruses... maybe we can practice a little eighteenth century medicine. Take a sample, kill what's inside, instant vaccine."

Rihko sighs, and looks around. "Alright. You bring her with, Cilan. We'll do a quick once over of the nest, see if I missed anything important, then let's get the hell out of here. As cozy as the cave is, I think we're better set up to figure out what happened to Cilan back in Fairhaven." She moves to check the slag-pile in the nest, giving the cave a quick look over, bagging any finds, then heading back towards the water. "I want to get home. And cuddle up with Tag."

Selene joins Rihko poking through the remains of the nest, looking for any more infection vials of the same nature as Balina has. The last thing needed is for that crap to get out into the world too.

Amoung the pile of junk, honestly it's not junk. Each and every part is something valuable from inside the lab. Amoung them includes lots more data, vials, information on the virus in printed form. And even enough equipment to build what is needed for a vaccine amoung it all.

Selene picks up a few of the notes and gives them a cursory readthrough. And then pauses. "Hey, huys? I'm not one hundred percent on this.... but I think we could use some of this equipment to make a vaccine. I mean, we've got a ton of samples, notes on how they created it, and all the equipment of several top-of-the-line bio research labs. Worth a shot, I think."

It's not a big bed of gold, but these days random lab equipment might as well be encrusted with gemstones. Balina begins standing back up toppled machines, checking others, then turns to Rihko. "You got the door powered earlier; think you can hotwire some of these?" At the mention of notes, the wolfcow makes her way over to begin reading over Selene's shoulder. "How incredibly convenient. Glad our host didn't feel the need to destroy the paperwork."

Selene shrugs. "Guess he considered it of value as well. Must've been one of the researchers before he got all draconic. Kept enough of that to view all this research and equipment as valuable enough to make into his hoard."

Rihko blinks a couple of times, and whistles. "Sure. Might even be able to use the hummer, if it has any fuel left; if it doesn't have an adapter in it, we might have to make one but it should be doable." She whistles. "Lucky for us." She nods and gets to work helping as well.

Over her shoulder Cilan says, "Fine, while you go do.. whatever it is you're doing I'll move some of the larger stuff." glancing at Rihko and listening to her comment before saying, "Hummer included.. Sori might need it, and it could be a fitting apology for leaving her in charge of Sai, and Anala.."

Selene giggles at that. "I think it's gonna take more than a hummer for her to forgive us for sticking her with the nibblers, love!"

Balina whistles. "Think we can fit Cilan into the toy factory when we get back? We'd get a pretty amazing plush dragon out of it."

Cilan glances to the hole in the ceiling and utters, "Wont be large enough for me, /or/ the car.. out the old fashioned way then.." she utters before opening the humvee door's, sticking Sienna inside the gas-guzzling beast, closing it and diving into the water, vehicle included.

Selene blinks as Cil vanishes with the hummer. "Uhm... I thought we were gonna just do it here, rather than try and ship all this stuff elsewhere?"

"Right, right. Sorry, bad time for jokes, I guess." Balina begins idly flipping through notes, trying to get more of a handle on what the group is going to attempt. "While it's on my mind, let me know if you find anything talking about capsules, or-- oh! Rihko, bring my bag back over here a second."

"OK. That is what I had thought too. Oh, well." Rihko shakes her head, and starts packing things up. "Let's just get home, then. And try to keep her from breaking anyone, or anything." She does bring the bag over, and nods to Balina. "Yea?"

Selene moves about over the pile of stuff, grabbing all the notes she can find. And a few choice pieces of equipment, as well as a vial or three.

Balina draws out a small pouch, itself containing what looks like a few tablets of cold medicine, and a PDA. "Found these in the wreckage of the vault. Didn't want to let Sienna knew I found 'em, but that's not a concern now. No clue what the capsules are, but hook up a fresh battery, and we can see if there's anything useful on the computer."

Selene deposits her pile of potentially useful things near Balina, and then goes rooting about for power sources. "I'm sure there's a generator or something like that down here somewhere. Just gotta root it out." she pauses for a moment, and tosses something to Bal. "Try taking the battery out of this one!" she calls, as the PDA flies towards the wolfcow.

"Fantastic," Rihko says. She digs through the hoard a bit more, searching for the bits and pieces she needs, and continues getting it all set up then. She starts whistling to herself as she works, her wisps providing light as she assembles and tinkers.

On the PDA, is an enormous amount of critical information. It shows the plans of what RSX was trying to accomplish, and complex data on how the virus works, and was going to be applied. One might wonder why such valuable, critical information would be on a PDA... it appears the person who owned it was working for... Zephyr?

Balina goes between awe, anger, disappointment, and back again to awe as she pages through the data. "Anyone want to pretend to be shocked that Z's hand was in this mess, too?" she calls. "I think I found a pretty handy little guide in here, but we're waist-deep in the sort of information that's going to get us killed now."

Selene shrugs. "They worked together on one project that wrecked the world, why stop at that?" She grins darkly then. "I'm sure if they try to kill us, they'll find it's an extraordinarily difficult task."

Rihko thinks about that for a moment, her tails twitching. "Fix Cilan. Burn the evidence. Plead ignorance," she says. "The dragon destroyed it all. Right?" she offers. She smiles. "I think that'd work."

"I vote for keeping the PDA. Never know when it might be handy." Selene says.

With a torrent of water Cilan emerges from the pool and climbs out, this time without the hummer close by, "Fix me?" she asks Rihko with an incredulous tone of voice, "I do not need fixing, Rihko.. if anything, I am perfect. The feeling I have, the power I contain.. imagine.. imagine what I could do to shadow, let alone /anything/ that tries to stand up against any of you?"

Balina sighs. Heavily. "I was really hoping to not blow this place up, but we're going to need plausible deniability later." Looking to Selene, she regains her more chipper, stolen-research-fueled demeanor. "After, of course, we figure out how much we can pull back with us, yeah. This little thing probably just saved us a lot of trouble." Flicking back through displays, she starts making a checklist of what's going to be needed for a vaccine/treatment for-- aw, crap.

Balina mutters, "Kaiju stage one: delusions of godhood," to herself, head slumped under her arms on a counter.

Rihko gives her head a little shake. "Into the fires of Mount Doom. Do you want to risk someone finding out? Trying to kill you over it? Kidnapping your children and holding them hostage?" She crosses her arms, and her ears twitch a moment. Then she looks back over her shoulder at Cilan. "Cilan. Think of your children. Would they be terrified if they saw you, as you are right now? I think they would want their mother," she says, quietly.

Selene looks at Cil with more than a little concern. "Love. You're enormous. We can't bring you back to Fairhaven without causing a huge panic and/or a concerted attack against you. You're far, far to big to fit in the Lot, let alone the Pub. And how will you interact with our babies? How will you hold them, cuddle them, play with them, when they're so tiny compared to you? Please, love, let us try to fix this!"

Cilan's head tilts slightly, "Panic? I do not think they'd panic, afterall.. look at the other giant forms running around? Kaiju, That giant robot thing.. and.. uh.. well, I guess thats it, but.. they'd not panic, frankly they'd probably think I was just another addition to the giant's protecting the city!" though she stops and thinks on the concept of holding Sai, and Anala, "My.. children.." she muses to herself.

Rihko looks over at Balina. "Alright, what else do we need to do to get things running here?" she asks the infections expert.

Selene nods, noting the hesitation. "Yes Cil. Our children. Our tiny, adorable little babies. Ours. And if you stay like this. If you stay as an enormous dragon. You'll terrify them. And you won't be able to interact with them at all. Do you really, truly want that, my love?"

A hopeful look crosses Cilan's features as she looks to Selene, "Then.. then become like me! There is enough here to bring perfection to all of us! Not to mention we could make more!" she asks, though does not force the fact on her fiancee.

Balina pulls herself together. Right. One idiotic crisis at a time. "Most of it practically does itself, we just have to get it started. There should be a stimins' autoclave around here somewhere; find that and we can get the first step done, at least."

Rihko nods her head. "Gotcha." She sorts through the pile, looking for the autoclave, then gets it hooked up and ready. She glances over at Cilan and Selene as they talk, hoping Selene can handle this.

"Been there! Got the t-shirt! Regretted it afterward!" Balina calls, unasked. "It stops being fun the moment your conscience kicks in!"

Selene tries to hide the horror Cil's suggestion brings. "You would want me to be kept from our children as well, Cil? Or, you would inflict this on them? When they're so young, so innocent, you would forcibly change them? What's wrong with you, Cil? The Cilan I love, the Cilan I want to marry... she would never suggest such things!" Balina begins to work through the list, aiming towards making as much vaccine as the equipment will allow, staggering batches if need be. It's going to take a rather unholy amount to get through Cilan, after all.

The time spent working on the vaccine is tiring, but surprisingly fast considering all the data and equipment. Maybe 6 hours worth of work before they have a workable vaccine. It won't kill the virus completely, it'll still be in her, but it will stop it from overriding changes.

Cilan staggers back as Selene speaks, "N-no.. I.. I just want whats best.. best for all of us! But.." she says after a moment of thought, ".. but.. Im.. sorry, my love.. so, so, sorry." a soft, mournful groan escapes her throat, not unlike the one upon realization that Sienna was killed, ".. do what you think is best."

Selene smiles softly and nods. "Thank you, my love. Lie down and make yourself comfortable, and we'll have you back to the woman I love in no time flat."

Balina takes a large sample of the finished vaccine, holding it up to the light with some matter of satisfaction, then setting it down and scavenging for a delivery method. "By any chance, did anyone spot any comically-huge hypos around here? I don't know if we want to wait for it to get through Cilan's digestive system."

As per Selene's request, Cilan lies down, while waiting, a small plume of sulphur-smelling smoke escapes her nose on occasion, while on others she nudges her lunerin mate with her muzzle playfully, grinning at her love shortly after.

Rihko pieces through the lab, then comes back to Balina and shrugs. "Probably just need to set up an IV." She goes over to Cilan and pats her shoulder, then gives the big dragon as much of a hug as she can. "I'm sorry, Cilan." Then she smiles, and leans against her. "And we're agreed, when we are done here, we destroy the evidence? Nothing to hang over us later?"

Selene giggles and shakes her head at Cil. "There you are, love." She pats Cil's muzzle gently, and nuzzles. "You sit tight, and we'll have you back to normal in no time flat."

Cilan avariciously roars, "Suppose so.. s'what we came here for, afterall. Destroy the data."

"I still thik we should keep the PDA. Easily hidden, easily destroyed if we have to, but an absolute walth of information. We don't have to do anything with it... but it could make a good bargaining chip somewhere down the line." Selene says to Rihko.

"Destroying research wastes all the time and effort that went into it," Balina says, loading the vaccine into a fistful of syringes and bringing them over to Cildor. "And without it, we'll never know if there was anything else we could have done. At the very least, maybe we could figure out a large-scale deployment of the stuff. Sneak it into Fairhaven and Woodfield's water supplies. Insurance through sewers."

Selene grins at Balina. "I wouldn't really be able to condone actually deploying the stuff. Or even letting RSX or Zephyr know we have it unless it's absolutely necessary. But neither can I countenance outright destroying it." she says, her gaze shifting to Rihko for the last sentence.

Rihko thinks for a long while, then sighs. "Fine. But someone sensible should be the one holding onto the stuff." She eyes Balina for a moment. "You want it, or should I keep it somewhere?"

The easiest way to inject Cilan is inside her mouth, her tongue specifically. Either that... or somewhere that isn't mentioned.

"Deploy the stuff that protects you from the rest of the stuff! Big difference," Balina nods, grabbing one of the finished syringes and eyeing her options. "But yeah, I'll hang onto it for now. I've got a few machines I keep off the grid for a reason. Open wide, Cilinator."

Cilan nods slowly to Balina and opens her mouth wide, showing off the teeth that are easily the size of a small human.

Injecting Cilan causes... no reaction at first, and then suddenly there's a violent reaction, she begins to struggle, and roars out in both pain and anguish. Thrashing about, as if the creature that Cil has become is trying to resist. And eventually Cilan begins to change back to her old shape.

Balina watches from the convenient safety of the lab equipment on the other end of the cave. "Aww. Just like getting infected the first time!"

Selene darts over to Cilan, and enfolds her in a loving, comforting hug. She nuzzles into her neck and whispers "Thank you, love. Welcome back to the tiny side." before giving her a brief kiss on the lips.

Rihko watches, letting Selene be the one to comfort Cilan. When all's done, she goes over and offers Cilan her coat. "Come on, everyone. Let's get home."

Balina is, as always, happy to not be in the presence of giant monsters, and decides to spend a little more time rummaging while the happy couple finishes being reunited. "Dibs on any idols," she muses.

Cilan roars out in intense pain as the vaccine runs through her system, though soon after all of her thrashing, her voice softens, no longer the booming voice from before but her regular feminine self, she looks around after her moment of transformation though is quickly cut off as Selene kisses her, "Th-thanks love.." she says, "Uh.. have you seen my clothes anywhere?" she later whispers to the lunerin.

Selene giggles and hands Cil Rihko's coat. "I'm afraid you kinda... exploded them, love. They couldn't handle you suddenly being skyscraper sized. We'll get you some new ones back home." she says, as she picks her up in a bridal carry. "Everyone got everything they need?"

The group return to the bus, and the bus returns to Fairhaven, bypassing the place they stopped before heading directly back to the Lot.

Emerging from the bus, the four have exited when there's suddenly an explosion of blood. First Balina, then Rihko, go down, Cilan next. Apo manages to realize what's happening when she is also struck, in the heart rather than the head. A woman walks out from behind a nearby building, wearing pure white. She strolls casually up to the four corpses, and looks through the contents of their belongings, looking for... something. She finds the PDA, boots it up, and grins. "Thank you all for saving me the trouble of dealing with that... thing." speaking to the corpses with a pleasant tone in her voice.

Cilan's body begins to twitch on the ground, and her eyes snap open, slitted.

Cilan avoids death by becoming the titanic dragon, and quickly rises to her feet, once more. Scales soon form on her features and her body undergoes a sudden growth spurt. Cilan roars angrily towards her would-be assassin and charges towards her, grabbing the woman she lifts her face, so the woman can look into the eyes of the person who will kill her. With that she begins to squeeze her hands, crushing both the woman, and PDA.

There's shouts from inside the pub and around fairhaven as the noise reaches inside.

Sori comes out, following the noise; She sees the carnage and screams down into the Den: "WE'VE GOT TROUBLE!" She then heads for the wounded, hoping to get people help before it's too late!

Blue fire ripples over Selene's body, concentrated around the hole in her chest, as her magic tries to repair the damage before it's too late.

Sori sees the glow around Apo, and goes to the next victim; Rihko. She hesitates as she sees the injury, then concentrates.

Ex-Rihko lays in the street where she fell, fur soaking up the kitsune's blood.

Cilan glances next to Balina, the only one who's not being healed and quickly remedies that, first discarding the pulped assassin, and channeling her life force into the wolf-cow before its too late.

Wind and her puppies materialise around Selene, soon followed by the rest of the ethereal pack. As one, they raise their heads and howl, as the glow around Selene intensifies. And then it's gone, and the wolves are gone, and Selene is sitting up groggily.

Three being worked on by magic, wounds begin to knit, even in dragon shape Cilan's still able to channel her magic, appearing as a strange golden aura around her.

Sori looks at the bloodied dragon, but dismisses it as a threat due to it aiding Bal. She starts looking for any other threats, and goes into the bus; there is a whirr of servos, and the turret spins as she watches for targets.

Balina slowly comes to, working her way up onto all fours, then with some confusion eventually parsing that she's more or less people-shaped. "That's... new," she manages, groggily. Eventually standing, she begins taking inventory, feeling tender regrown skin and whistling at her own addition to the bus' paint job before realizing her pack isn't balanced like it normally is.

Cilan barely even seems to notice the golden aura around her as she reknits Balina's skull and grey-matter back together.

Selene shakes her head, and stands up a little unsteadily. "Ugh. That's three times now. Getting kinad old, I think."

Cilan's voice booms out, "I wonder if death is just gonna give up on you one of these days, knowing full well he cant take you.."

Sori stays in the turret, watching for any further trouble. She flips on the loudspeaker and says, "Are you all okay? Where's Cil, and who's the dragon?"

Balina groans as she goes through her pack, both at the realization that the PDA is gone, and that, yes, she was really, really out of it a moment ago. "Man, that's what dying is like? One moment, you're stepping off a bus, next moment you're wondering why you fell asleep in the lot? Also, anyone see where that little computer landed?"

Selene calls up to Sori "Cil -is- the dragon! Long story!" She looks over to Balina. "At a guess, it's gone with the person, or people, who shot us."

Rihko remains laying in her own blood puddle, staring up at the sky.

Balina rushes to the goo that was probably a person wearing what used to be a very nice white dress, crying out in despair as she pulls out a few fragments of electronics. "It's gone. All of it," she wails, digging through to find any single piece of *anything* larger than a quarter.

Cilan's wings flare open as she takes to the sky, going on a mission to find her would-be assassins and end their collective lives.

The loudspeaker sounds again. "Cil, come back!"

<Player Judge> Crystala Gives Experience Points to the room as a reward, including: Sorien.

The dragon is able to find a few fleeing humans below, and dives down and eats them without much of a thought.

Selene launches herself after Cil quickly. "Cil! No! Stop this! Stop letting the dragon take control! Please!"

Cilan as the last human is eatten she breathes a sigh and continues back to the pub, along the way saying to herself, "Rest in peace, Sienna. Rest in peace.." as she reaches the lot again, her body undergoes its shift and she returns to the familiar, and once again, naked self she was before leaving.

"Ahhh... Shit." Comes over the loudspeaker, then the turret locks and powers down. Sori comes back out, and goes to Rihko, knowing that she should be okay, but she's not moved. "Rihko? Hey..." She gently puts a hand on her friend's head.

[RP/Official] Balina rolls 2d20+0 and gets 16 16 for a result of 32.

As soon as her body shifts, she attempts to cover herself with the white feathery wings, and inch herself towards the bus, and a fresh change of sweatpants and a hoodie.

Rihko lays there quietly, staring up at the sky. Eventually, though, she makes a soft, quiet noise. It builds, growing into a quiet growl, and the air around Rihko suddenly jumps ten degrees hotter. " Selene sighs as the lands with a soft thud behind Cil, and makes her way into the bus, returning with some clothes for her. "Here, love. Put These on for now" she says with a little smile.

"Ack, Hey. Hey! Rihko!" Sori backs off as the heat rises, but still tries to get her friend's focus back to the here-and-now. "Sweetie, you're safe. You're SAFE!"

Cilan grins and complies, putting the clothing on and moving to Rihko's side as its finished, "Hey, Rihko.. you alright? You had us worried for a minute there.." she says in a soft voice, apparently the sudden change in head not bothering her.

Balina throws down the gibs in disgust. Nothing worth finding, no identifying anything, and there's not even much to smell here. Sighing, she picks herself up, makes the universal, pointless gesture of dusting herself off (doing little more than spreading gore over herself), then suddenly notices a glint a good five yards from the body. Upon closer examination, it appears to be a portion of circuit board, which appears to still contain an intact chip! Tucking it away *very* carefully into one of her salvage pockets, she does a fist-pump, then turns around and immediately loses her groove. Cupping her hand around her mouth, she calls, "Rihko! Chill before you hurt someone!" from a safe distance.

Selene pads over and kneels beside Rihko, hugging her tight. "Rihko, it's alright. Calm down. It's over, you're safe and sound."

Rihko keeps herself under control, slowly sitting up. "Right." She gets up to her feet and looks around, particularly eyeing the pool of blood at her feet. "Safe." She looks around, then growls and stalks off down the street, waiting until she is a safe distance from everyone before she cuts the flames lose and incinerates everything she walks past.

Selene sighs sadly as she watches Rihko go. "First time is never fun." she mutters.

"... Rihko?" Sori watches as she walks away, burning. Sori turns to Apo and asks, "Dare I ask what happened to you all?"

Cilan says, "Long story, mom.. I'll tell you over a beer, and when tempers are low.."

Balina watches Rihko go, wincing slightly. "We get all this way, and then the actually bad part happens when we're safe at home," she sighs, before working her way back over to the group. "The short answer is that we were ambushed here. Long answer is going to require us to get some drinks." Selene looks at Sori. "We got shot when we got off the bus. Three neat little headshots, then they got me in the heart after I avoided teh headshot. If you mean on the trip in general... that is a tale for another time."

"Gods. Well, come on inside. The twins are at my place, being watched by Mara tonight. Did you get what you were after at least?" Sori asks.

"Sort of. Not really. Part of the long story. I want my babies." Selene says quietly.

Sori nods. "Okay. I'll go get them, sweetie. Is Rihko gonna be okay?"

Balina grins, patting her backpack. "Not what we were after, but we have some stories, at least. Ancient temples, forbidden gods, dire conspiracies... who do we sell movie rights to these days?"

As she trudges into the pub, Cilan adds, "S'what we were killed for.. destroyed now, dragon made sure of it.." she says simply, apparently oblivious to Balina's discovery.

Cilan trudges down the stairs, and moves to the bar, along the way she can be seen as heavily worn out, and annoyed about something, a few murmured thoughts being said before she looks to, and asks the current Tagling bartender, "A beer, please.. dark lager."

Sorien comes down a while later, bearing the twins for Cil and Apo; she'd been in the den and quiet until sound from outside drew her out. MORE noise, a yell, then silence followed, and now, a short time later those who participated are entering.

Catalina is still sitting there, raising a hand in greeting to both Sorien and Cilan, "Whatup?" she offers, not adding another word to what she said.

Sorien softly churrs, "Hey Cil... Look who's here!"

Cilan looks over her shoulder to the twins and smiles at the girls, setting her drink aside so she can rise from her seat and collect them from their grandmother, "Hey, and how're my two princesses doing?" she says in a warm voice, looking to Sorien she asks, "I hope they didnt give you too much trouble? If so, there's a helicopter out by an old Hard Rock Cafe that could serve as an adequate apology.. treat her with respect, huh? An.. an old friend who's no longer with us built it.."

Balina steps down, running clawed fingers through frosty fur. Taking her mug from a Tagling with a smile, she settles down as near to Sorien as seating allows.

Sorien nods. "They weren't too bad. I had my friend stitch up some leather stuffed critters for them, and that slowed their deadly teeth."

Cilan nods slowly, "Ah.. good, good.." she says, though it seems that her mind is elsewhere, only to be brought back out of it by Anala's constant grabbing, again her hair is the victim, "Ack! Hey.. thats not yours!" she says in a playful tone before looking to Sorien, "Well.. helicopter's still yours, I'd hate for it to just be abandoned.."

Balina is trying not to interfere too much, or at least not too quickly. Still, obvious questions, and all that. "What about Sienna's place? That's not going to remain abandoned for long."

Sorien softly churrs, "... Huh. I've never worked on a chopper before. But then, before here I'd not woeked on buses or hummers before either! I bet I can handle it."

Cilan says, "S'already fixed, and flight ready. Unless you meant taking it apart?" looking to Balina next she adds, "I'll head there when I'm able, take care of her stuff.. might even find info on that company she was running from.. unless that was part of the lie as well?""

Sorien hands over a pair of obviously chewed-on leather stuffed critters- a triceratops for Anala, and an anklyosaur for Sai.

Catalina's ears flick as she listens to the others talk. She turns at the mention of a whirlybird, but dosn't say much at first, "Good to have somthing that can go /over/ trouble, And you've got plenty of room to land here, well, after you pratice hov'ring and such." She says, adding, "Depending on what kind it is, parts should eb easy, too..." She goes back to her tea, sipping lightly.

Sai and Anala take the toys for Cilan, seeing as her arms are currently full by the previously named babies, and while Sai just holds onto it as she constantly looks around with her large blue eyes, Anala gets back to quickly biting at the stuffed animal in her grasp.

More obvious questions. Balina leans forward, reaching for Cilan's shoulder. "Also, I'm sorry about Sienna. That wasn't my call to make."

Cilan breathes a soft sigh and nods, "Whats done is done.." she responds before turning her attention to the babies, taking them both to one of the loungers close to the fire and settling herself down.

Balina watches Cilan, deciding that if she's going to say anything more on the matter, it'll wait for later. Turning instead to Sorien, she puts on a braver face. "You wanted to know how it went, other than us dying in the lot, right? How long a version do you want?"

Sorien softly churrs, "Uh... I think basics would be good. Details I can get from the people it affects."

Balina nods, leaning back to collect herself. "It's only been a couple of days, but feels like a week. Do you remember what we went out to go find?" ooc Now I get to waddle and look ridiculous!

Sorien softly churrs, "No, I wasn't told, sweetie. Cil just grabbed the lot of you and I gave you the bus-keys."

Balina appreciates the presence of eyebrows, and quirks in celebration. "See? That's why I ask. Supposedly, we were going to go look in an old RSX lab for evidence of a program that would let anyone control all the nanites, everywhere. A master control program for the entire global swarm. Hence Cilan being so hush-hush and taking a small strike force."

Sorien blinks. "Holy crap. Did you find it?"

Sorien puts a hand on her belly, then curls up in the lounger to listen to Bal's tale.

Catalina's tea leaves her nostrils at high velocity, "Wait, did someone say 'dieing in the lot'!? Knowing this lot of people my master and I keep... I'm inclined to take that literally..." She turns to look at Balina with a bewildered expression that would've made Russ laugh.

Balina shakes her head, then leans forward again to rest her elbows on the table. "Not even close. The lab didn't even study nanites, near as I can tell. It was all, get this, viruses. They mutate, but no control, and no bubble required. Nasty business." A finger is raised to Catalina; "All in good time! Dying comes really late in the story, and I hate to spoil the ending!"

Sorien softly churrs, "It... Was dealt with, Cat. I'm sure Bal will get there."

Selene pads down the stairs, fur and hair damp, having showered and changed out of her armour. She makes a beeline for Cil, nuzzling her, before giving both babies a kiss on the forehead and relieving her mate of Anala. She whispers to Cil "We need to get some more vaccine made, somehow, love. There's no knowing how infectious you are, and I don't want any of us to suddenly find ourselves giant raging dragons."

Balina moos, "For now, keep all your fluids to yourself. We'll have more info tomorrow, promise."

Cilan blinks at Selene's statement, "I.. never thought about that, and yeah.. definately.. but how, PDA was destroyed.. right?"

Balina moos, "Narrative! I will get there, promise!"

Selene shrugs. "I'm sure Bal remembers enough of the process to bodge some more together."

Sorien softly churrs, "Let her finish, sillies!"

Selene tickles anala under the chin, making the baby giggle happily and grab at her finger, nuzzling against it. Selene beams down at the little baby adoringly, rocking her gently. "I missed you, my little angel."

Cat's ears perk as Balina discribes the weapon, her face showing more intrest now, "Mutation without a bubble, innnntresting..." she considers.

Cilan nods slowly to Apostasy and turns to Sorien, adding, "Sorry, Sori." resting her head on her mates shoulder shortly after, though her attention is currently on Sai, who's now, both held close, and is cradled in both her arms. "My little princesses.." she muses softly to the two children.

Balina picks up on the general impatience, and skips a few steps. "So we dig through the lab, outside the bubble, I should add, find some vague things, and eventually break into this big vault. Only to find out that something BIG had broken in a different way. And broken through the majority of the floors in the same fashion."

Sparhawk meanders in round then. "Hey," shi says to anyone who glances hir way, ambling through the cloud of narrative. Not any funny shapes today, just regular old twelve-foot-long bird.

You softly churr, "Hey! Hi sweetie! You evaded the chaos!"

Anala giggles happily and swings her arms about, her legs kicking as well. The leather triceratops, held by the tail, becomes a small flail that beats against her mother, who giggles happily and says "Hey, hey, calm down you! I'm not going anywhere!"

Catalina listens to the story, saying, "Huh, so somthing they where holding in a pen, or somthing that got in there in the first place?" she asks, tilting her head this way and that.

Sparhawk has a half-grin. "Good, a pile o' stuff to keep from exploding. Anybody here in need of some peppercorns? I found some in a sealed bottle still."

Sorien softly churrs, "ooh. Me!"

Balina waves, having gotten herself entirely too tied up in retelling adventure. "Ancient temples! Dragons! Hoards of treasure! Conspiracies! Betrayal! Twist endings!" she calls. "I'm still looking for someone to ghost-write the script for later, if you're up for it!"

Sorien softly churrs, "Wait, betrayal?"

The door to the Den opens, and a gust of hot air wafts in and down the stairs, as though it were midsummer out and not mid-November. Rihko slowly pushes the door shut behind her, and then wanders down the stairs. Her fur is matted with caked blood, and she reeks of blood, death, and what can only be the stench of charred flesh. Her ears flick as she looks around, then gives Balina a little nod before she continues up to the bar.

Sparhawk raises an eyebrow. "I sense at least one person in need of a battered fedora by the end of this. What happened?"

Cilan breathes a sigh and nods, "Yes.. apparently so, lets just drop it.. alright? Wait until the movie is published and then we can watch what happens.." she later murmurs, "Hopefully they cast someone good to play as me.."

Sorien glances at Bal as if to say, 'wait a bit' and gets up, going over to Rihko. "... Can I do anything, sweetie?"

Balina settles back down, at least relatively speaking. "I'll have you know, my fedora and bullwhip were left in my dorm room. The whole apocalypse just happened to catch me off-guard, okay? As for what happened, one sec while I rewind..."

Anala giggles some more as she finally quiets down, having managed to firmly grasp Selene's finger with her free hand. She doesn't put it in her mouth, amazingly, seemingly content to just have a hold of it. Selene murrs happily and wiggles the finger a little, much to Anala's delight.

The dragon known as Loki had not moved from the spot he was at when the group left, having elected to coil about a chair and wait till they return. He seems a little relieved when Cilan and Balina enter, the dragon seeming to loose a sigh of relief, though his attention goes back to the stairs as if waiting, and its hard to tell if he is listening to the conversation. As soon as Rihko enters, he seems to uncoil, though he winces at seeing her state, a small frown crossing his face. He uncoils from around his chair and seems to shamble over to the kitsune, his head tilted to the side, refraining from asking a verbal question.

Balina does give a nod to Rihko as she goes by. She knows the mood too well to pass judgement.

Cat's attention from Balina is broken by the sight (and scent) of the entering Kitsune, "Geeze... You Okay, Rihko?" she asks, very quietly, and then issues another cautious glance around the pub.

Sparhawk fishes out a spice bottle, rattles it around a little, the leaves it on the bar. "Could be a little underdone, but a little pepper improves a flame-broiled kitsune every time."

Having refreshed the new addition to the group, Balina plows on. "So we do the obvious, and start following the trail of destruction back out. We emerge about a quarter-mile from where we started, only slightly wiser and with me ahead on loot. That's when *bam*! Dragon out of goddamned nowhere!" The last part is accentuated with a solid paw against the table.

Sorien starts a bit at the sudden sound, ears flicking, but she retains focus on Rihko.

Cilan leans forward to playfully nibble at Sai's ears and tiny nose, much to her enjoyment, later nuzzling the tiny Lunerin for a little while before her nose is grabbed by one of her tiny hands. Which she releases as she is startled by the sudden bang on the table.

Rihko flags down the tagling and, with the utmost level of curtesy and politeness, asks for a bottle of whatever is strongest. Then she turns to Sorien. It takes her a little bit to remember the intricate muscle movements and posture cues involved, but eventually she gives Sorien a smile. The kitsune brings her hands together in front of her, bows her head to the skunk, and then turns to accept her bottle from the tagling. "Yes, I am perfectly fine, Sorien. And thank you, by the way. Thank you very much." She waves a paw to Selene as well. "And thank you as well, Selene." She turns back to Sorien. "I apologize for my abrupt departure earlier." She finally turns to Loki, and nods. "Hello, Loki. All is well?"

Sorien puts a hand on Rihko's shoulder, and unless stopped pulls her gently into a quiet hug.

Rihko does absolutely nothing to stop the hug, and even reflexively returns the gesture, smearing Sorien's skunk stripe with soot.

Loki seems to loose a breath of air as Rihko begins speaking, though he frowns at the way she speaks, his tail flicking behind him, his frown increasing as she goes on. He doesn't speak either, and seems a little concerned when Rihko returns the hug. He instead remains quiet and elects to stare at Rihko instead, head still tilted as if she was being absolutely absurd.

Balina looks around, only now realizing that, yes, her audience is lost. Nodding again to Rihko, she manages, after choking down some light embarrassment, "You going to be okay? Need anything?"

Catalina's ear turns at the loud sound, but then her ears point back to Rihko. She drops them next, not adding another spoken word, though her mouth moves slightly.

"You hang in there, okay? We're here for you." Sori holds the hug for a bit more, then lets Rihko loose. She looks at Rihko, nods and returns to her seat... But not before hugging Spar as well. This hug is more spontaneous, and briefer, and then she takes her seat once again.

Balina is suddenly reminded, pulling up her comm and making a quick call. It's either a request for one of her daughters to check the plumbing in the bathrooms, or a badly-encrypted code phrase to up the guard duty an order of magnitude.

Rihko gives Sorien a pat on the shoulder as she leaves. "Yes. You hang in there too, Sorien," she offers. Her smile fades to a blank expression for a moment, but then she grins at Balina. "Oh, I will be fine. Perfectly fine. I'm going to wash the stench out of my fur. Probably have to burn these clothes. Then relax in bed with my bottle of whiskey." She nods, and then starts staring back at Loki. The look isn't challenging, or inquisitive, or, really anything... just staring back at him. "And you, Balina?" she asks, her attention not shifting from the dragon. "Are you OK? Do you need anything?"

Loki frowns once again at the reaction Rihko presents, the dragon loosing a small sigh as he shifts more in place. He speaks low, finally breaking his silence, tail lashing around behind him this time.

Balina sighs to herself as she puts her comm away. "Yes," she answers, "I'll be fine, too. I don't think I took it as seriously as you did, but I've been down THAT path often enough I cover it in half the time. I want to talk after you've calmed down, okay?"

Selene sighs softly at Rihko, and shakes her head. Not much she can do about it. She's distracted from her impending melancholy by a sharp little bite to her finger. Anala had decided that the time was right to strike, and had taken a good nip at the digit, smiling happily around it. Selene giggles and says "You little monster!" before nuzzling the baby gently.

Eithne meanders down the stairs, humming a rather jaunty little tune... and then stops as she takes in the atmosphere and Rihko's appearance. She blinks for several long moments, before shaking herself into motion once more. She gives Rihko a brief pat on the shoulder, and a soft smile, as she moves past to get a mug of coffee. "I won't ask. I'm around, though, if you want anything." And then she glances around, eyes skipping from person to person. "So, I take it something happened? I always seem to miss these things."

Sparhawk looks around at people being generally sober and recently-on-fire. "Be nice to have a comedian in here. Maybe a jester to go with the decor." The sun rises, dispelling the chill and fog of the night in favor of a new day.

Sorien softly churrs, "Hey, Eithne... Yeah, weird shit once again has visited us. "

Catalina blinks, and Sparhawk get's an expression of confusiong, "Good sir, I'd be honored to run my smart mouth for the amusement of all, but I'm so confused that humor is a little short in supply..." She blinks, "So... I'm guessing I was right... From before, folks got to see the hearafter for a spell, apperantly... Ya'll need to put vacation homes in hell, at this rate..."

Rihko stands there and considers things a moment. Then she shrugs. "Balina, I assure you, I am calmer now than I have been at an-... almost any point in the last three weeks. If you would like to talk, I am perfectly willing to talk a bit." She nods her head towards the balcony. "Shall we take it somewhere where we won't disturb the patrons?"

Caeli tries to scramble up on Rihko, but slips and falls off. Balina points! "You are NOT calm. You've gone through angry and into the other side. If you want to go calm down, then please do so. I know that tone."

Loki shifts a little, the dragon nodding to the girl. He looks to the balcony and shifts a little more, the dragon pondering something as he looks back to Rihko, his frown replaced with something neutral, his tail even stopping.

Catalina covers her head, half expecting to hear yelling and the like.

Sparhawk remains disappointingly unresponsive to most stimulus, not keeping Sorien in place for an allohug. Shi slips the bottle of whole peppers back in its bag murmuring something about somebody nicking it.

Eithne nods as she settles at the bar. "I really do need to swing around more often. I keep missing things. I'm also good for free hugs, if anyone needs one, or a shoulder to cry on. Or babysitting."

Sorien tries to catch Spar's eye, indicating that shi should come sit by her.

Rihko gives Balina a grin, her ears perking forward. "A calm is a calm," she points out. She turns to Sparhawk, eyes hir for a moment, then gives hir a short bow. "My apologies." Then she crosses back to the stairs, and heads up, to wait for Balina and Loki.

Sparhawk dutifully pads next to Sorien and sits a couple times. "Some calms are before storms, some are after. And some are right in the middle." More murmuring follows, "First time someone's apologized to me for moodkilling..."

Selene extricates her finger from tiny baby mouth, and replaces it with leather triceratops. "So, how far did Balina get... oh, right. Dragon. So, should I coninue?"

Loki quickly follows after Rihko, the dragon not far from her heels.

Sorien kisses Spar when shi arrives, and leans against hir. "You okay there? You seem off-put."

Balina watches Rihko go, then looks about to the assemblage. This doesn't really require deep contemplation. Getting up, she bows to Selene, muttering "Thank you," before darting up the stairs.

Sparhawk looks down at the non-structural skunk. "Your ability to read my moods hasn't changed, I see?" An ear points toward Apostasy and-or Selene in preparation.

Sorien softly churrs, "I'm wrong again? Bah. "

Sorien softly churrs, "I don't know why I have such a hard time; I get everyone else pretty well."

Selene gathers her thoughts, idly tickling Anala. "Right, so. Dragon. We all run for cover, except Sienna, who panics and gets spotted. Naturally, I ran out to try to help her. Turns out building-sized dragons are somewhat tricky to take out. He captured me, and was gonna eat me. Until I got all fiery. Then he decided to take me to his hoard.

"I've no idea what the others were up to at that point, but he dives into this lake, and we come up in a cave where he's made a nest out of lab equipment and shit. Starts saying how he's gonna turn me into a dragon like him. I stalled for a while, and then Cil and the others showed up. Cil turned into a massive dragon somehow - I'm guessing Sienna had something to do with that. Dragon threw me into a hummer - that really hurt - and fought Cil. Cil tore his throat out after a while." Selene continues, and then pauses for questions.

Catalina watches the others leave, shifting around like she was considering the option of leaving. The vulpine turns to listen instead to selene, her ears pointed forward to take in the information. The vulpine finally gets up, moving a little closer to the others, and finds a chair to curl up in a ball in.

"Sounds comfy," comments the science-headed bird. "Although possibly more pointy than the traditional pile o' gold."

Sorien softly churrs, "... Geez. We never seem to get 'normal' adventures, do we."

Eithne sips her coffee, nodding along. "I see. Hrm. I've missed alot - I'll get it later, no need to repeat it again now - but how was he going to turn you into a Dragon...? And is the method intact? It sounds like something fascinating to study, since I caught an echo of it not involving a nanite bubble."

Sorien scritches Spar, partly curled against hir and the chair. Selene looks to Eithne. "Retrovirus. No samples left, we torched them all."

Sorien softly churrs, "It sounds to me that it may be wise to go back and burn the place out top-to-bottom."

Crys slips quietly into the den, having gone for a long walk, needing the fresh air in her blood stream. She seems less nauseous than she was earlier, but moves for tea once again. She blinks when she notices strange scents, and her eyes focus on her daughter. "You're back!" she manages to say, dropping the cup and moving over to embrace Selene and Cilan.

"Anyway. Cil killed the dragon. But while she was fighting it, Sienna apparently stole some stuff form teh hoard and tried to pull a runner. Rihko and Balina stopped her, and then she stabbed Rihko in the gut. Balina, uh, ate her head as payback. And then I fixed Rihko. But now we had the problem of giant dragon Cil. Thankfully, the dragon had used all the research notes and equipment for his nest, so with the aid of a fortuitously located PDA with all the relevant data on it, we were able to make a vaccine. After I talked Cil into -wanting- the vaccine, that is. We made up lots, injected her, and poof, normal Cil again. Job done, we torched all the other stuff, headed for the bus, and came back here. Though we took that PDA, since it had all the research on it. And then we got off the bus, and bang bang bang, Balina, Rihko and Cil went down from headshots. I dodged the headshot and got hit in the hearts instead. No idea what happened then, for obvious reasons, but it seems Cil dragon'd out and smooshed someone. And then ate more someones. And then we were here." selene says, finishing the tale.

Selene embraces Crys, careful to avoid squishing Anala. Who instead grabs hold of Crys' robes, as is discovered when Crys trys to move away. "Heya maata."

Catalina darts her head up, "WAit, a virus that can be used to shift folks... And you torched it?" She blinks... "Damnit all, immunity for the masses, and down the drain it goes..." she flops back on the couch, muttering, "At least is shows the method works, though... I'll have to tell Russ to get that to his people over in biotech, if he dosn't mess with it, himself." She sighs.

Sorien softly churrs, "Hi Love; you missed storytime. I'll fill you in later."

Cilan says, "A virus RSX had been working on.. and yeah, Sienna had injected me with it when she had found me in the cave.. burned like hell when it went through my veins though, like my blood was boili-.." her sentence though is cut off as Crystala hugs her, the woman promptly wrapping her own arms around Crystala and saying, ".. yeah.. we're back, sorry we took so long, mom!"

Sparhawk's thoughts drift a bit, thinking about creating soap bubbles on command. At the end of a storychunk shi says, "More headshooting? I know Zephyr sells basic combat helmets. I might need to administer some with superglue."

Eithne blinks, nodding along dazedly at that part. "Bang, bang, bang? Did you find out who was behind the shooting, or just deal with the shooter...?" And then she shakes her head, sighing. "... Can I see the PDA?"

Sorien gently pokes Spar. "You're not wearing one, silly."

Crys squeaks in surprise as the little grabby hands find her nipple. "No dear, not your mother." she blushes under her fur. She then bends over and kisses Anala on the forehead once she disentangles, and moves over to her mate to kiss her, "Sorry for interrupting" she says.

"PDA's busted.. the dragon made sure of that!" Cilan calls over her shoulder.

Selene looks coldly at Catalina. "No, it didn't provide immunity to nanites. It turned you into a big dragon. Don't be an idiot." She looks voer to Eithne. "Sorry, but apparently the person Cil smooshed had already stolen the PDA, so it got crushed as well." She burst into a fit of giggles at Crys predicament, and licks her cheek. "Sorry maata!"

Sori kisses back. "You're never interrupting, love." She gently pulls Crys down, so that Sori is sandwiched between Crys and Spar. The result seems to make her quite happy.

Sparhawk shrugs to Sorien and says at the standard quiet-but-loud-enough-everyone-with-big-ears-hears-it level, "My head is ablative and replaceable. And...Mickey's still out of town, wearing something would only disappoint her when she returns."

Eithne frowns, and nods slowly. "... Hm. There /might/ be something recoverable, depending on how smushed. Or is it smushed into itty fragments smushed? I hate that kind of smushed."

Selene giggles. "Itty bitty fragments."

Sorien softly churr, "Liquified, Eithne. It was nasty."

Sorien softly churrs, "So you want me and Crys wearing a helmet whenever outside?"

Cilan breathes a soft sigh and nods, at mention of her handiwork, "Yeah.. dragon made sure nothing existed afterwards.. even the runners didnt get a chance..."

Eithne snaps her fingers, sighing. "Darn it. I /hate/ that kind of smushed. I can't work with it. All that useful research, lost. Sure, it could be horrifically misused, but there were potential beneficial applications to that kind of thing. Imagine if we could get it to work with Zephyr's mental buffer nanites...?" A long look skyward, and then a sigh as she turns back to her coffee.

The vixen whines, "I got that part, but Immunity's a genetic thing... splice that virus with the gene for immunity instead of a... Big... Dragon... Thing..." She flails her hands about, "I've not had time to learn anything about the bio-techy stuff... Maybe I'm wrong... But all I've seen so far as far as viuri go, is a horridly slow and miserable death... Form shifting virus denotes other possibilites, yes?" She asks, "Or... Do I just sound like Loki, now?"

Selene rolls her eyes at Cat. "Loki."

Catalina sighes, and says, "Awwwww.... Okay...." She just looks down, feeling midly defeated.

Sparhawk nods in agreement. "Loki. Mouth running on before the brain gets there, and you backtrack and say you are unsure of everything ever."

Crys' face shows a completely blank expression, shes' lost, as often is in these kinds of discussions, and missing most of the tale doesn't help. She settles down with Sorien, nuzzling her, and looks over at her kids, and grand kids. "They were quite well behaved when I had them while you were gone. Two little darlings."

Selene grins. "I bet the leather stuffed toys helped with that!" At the mention of the toys, Anala decides to start flailing her mother with teh triceratops again, giggling happily. "... Other than eating their stuffed critters. And my tail. And several of Crys' tails, and Mara's...

Sorien softly churrs, "... Other than eating their stuffed critters. And my tail. And several of Crys' tails, and Mara's..."

Selene grins bashfully. "They'll grow out of it! I hope."

Cilan looks to Crystala and grins, the frown that had pulled its way across her lips at the mention of the dragon's handiwork quickly fading, "Im glad to hear that, mom!" she later giggles at mention of Sai and Anala's nibble-fest and quickly nuzzles the daughter held carefully in her arms.

Sorien puts a hand on her belly. "I should get used to it; we've at least two coming."

Sparhawk looks over at the newest tiny-size babies in the room, staring carefully a bit. "So noted, no nibbling on Sparhawks is allowed. I'll be outside tinyarmsreach whenever possible."

Eithne nods at Selene. "I hear they often do, Apo. It generally takes some time, however." Her expression is, briefly, bitter-sweet as she observes mother and child playing so, before a soft sigh and a more normal sigh speads across her face.

Selene giggles as she's flailed, and gently restrains Anala. "Little devil, aren't you?" she says playfully, kissing the babies nose. And getting a tiny hand entangled in her hair for her troubles. "Sweetie, let mommy's hair go.... please..." she says gently, fighting giggles.

Russell stays silent, ears back as she listens to the others talk about the twins again. The vulpine looks at the floor for a moment, before standing and moving close enough to look at the children more closely, almost curious in her expression, "They are cute." she says, finally.

Anala lets her mother's hair go as Cat comes closer, reaching out little grabby paws at the new person.

Sparhawk arranges a bit into a better taur-backstop of skunk and snowvulpine. "Children chew holes in narratives too!"

Selene grins at Spar. "I finished the narrative!"

"Children are the narrative of the world. They are what make it work, and be worth working at all." Crys adds to Spar's comment.

Sorien softly churrs, "Narratives, toys, furniture, people... (giggle)" Sparhawk nods to Crystala but keeps attention on the winged wolf set. "Bus ride was uneventful? Didn't fire the uncivil cannon at anyone?"

"Utterly uneventful" Selene says, nodding.

"Good," concludes Sparhawk. "Not much of note happened back here, just your ordinary nanite hiccups and such."

Selene nods. "That's good, now?"

Cilan says, "Nope.. I was quiet the entire bus-ride home.. bus-ride there was full of navigating and chatting with Sienna about the old days.. talk on how she owed me a beer.. but nothing special."

Sorien starts scritching Crys as well as Spar. "I'm getting fat, that's the only thing." (giggle)

Eithne shakes her head, quietly. "Sienna sounds familiar, but I can't for the life of me recall where from. Might I have a refresher, please?"

Anala and Sai both start getting fussy, and Selene fetches the modesty blanket to start feeding them. She gets Anala set up first, before collecting Sai from Cil. A little wince as they both bite a little too hard, before she settles back with a contented look as the babies feed.

Sparhawk beeps Sorien's nose lightly. "I diagnose too many onion rings! Don't make me weld your jaw shut too!"

Cilan turns to Eithne, "She was a person I fought alongside in Afghanistan.. when we came back home and got conscripted, we fought again in San Fransisco, trying to hold a failing quarantine.. you can see how that turned out though.." leaning back she continues, "Fought alongside her a little bit more, but after a while.. we had a falling out, never seen hide, nor hair of her for two long years.."

Sorien eeps!

Catalina chuckles as grabbyhands are made, keeping just out of reach before Selene starts feeding them. "Getting fussy, are they?" she asks, flicking her ears a little, and chuckling. Her head moves to glance around the pub at the others, her form more relaxed now that her loki/russ brained moment was over. "Hrmmmmmm"

Eithne nods. "I was..." A blink, and a frown. "Nevermind. Let's turn the subject to happier places." She points at the babies feeding from Selene. "I haven't been introduced to the young ones, I don't think."

Selene looks up at Eithne. "Hmmm? Oh! The white furred black winged nibbler is Sai, and the black furred white winged nibbler is Anala."

Sorien softly churrs, "Together known as the Terror Twins. (giggle)"

Selene sticks her tongue out at Sori. "Nyah!"

Cilan nods, "Yeah.. better things, right.. like how we're gonna have Sori take you to the tailor, love! Definately time to get our dresses designed and sewn up!" she says with a grin followed by licking Selene's nose playfully.

Sori grins. nop

Selene squeaks as her nose is licked, and quickly cleans it off. "Ack! Careful, love. Still potentially infectious!" She nuzzles back affectionately, though.

Cilan blinks, "Eep! S-sorry love.. forgot!" she says in a fearful tone, one giant dragon is enough, without adding another to the mix!

Sorien softly churrs, "Ooh. That reminds me... Spar? Have you had time?" " Sparhawk is distracted from thoughts of adding more rules to Tag's sign by Sorien's question. "Sorry, what? I have had both time and space in irrevocable quantity."

Sorien softly churrs, "The dresses, silly. The saris."

Eithne settles back, nodding, and gets a refill for her coffee. That bittersweet smile resurges as she watches the new family.

"Oh, right. The dresses for the nebulously-designed wedding." Spar grins, once. "Had some success with colors, harder to practice fitting things."

Sorien softly churrs, "This is true. And we're BOTH getting bellies. (giggle)"

Sparhawk sighs melodramatically. "At this rate, standard pub wedding gear will involve overalls and shotguns!"

Sorien softly churrs, "Yeehaw. (grin)"

Catalina smiles a little at the pair and their mothers, looking to Cilan with a concered expression. "You... You don't think that you're contaigious over the air, right?" she asks, looking to Sorien for an explination. Sparhawk gets a blink, and then the vixen falls over, "Oh my, the mental image reminded me of Russell's family reunion, hehehehe."

Cilan answers with a shake of the head, "No.. has to be bloodstream, I had a vial of the contagion break next to me, and nothing happened, so we're all safe.."

Selene says "We know bloodstream, but we've not experimented with the effects of Cil's various bodily fluids on other people via mucus membranes and ingestion and such, so we'd rather not find out the hard way."

Sparhawk offers, "I know someone who makes handy EMP things. Might not be directly transferrable, otherwise I'd hand one over right now."

Selene looks to Spar. "Not so sure EMP would impede a retrovirus, Spar."

Sorien softly churrs, "I'm fairly sure if something was gonna happen, it would have by now, Cat. Just don't go biting Cil and you'll be fine."

Cilan adds to Selene's statement with a nod, "Yeah, and frankly Id rather limit the only person to suffer with.. well, /this/ is me.. meaning, no blood samples, no studying me, no chance of this infection branching out.."

Sparhawk shrugs, therefore. "Musta missed that part. I'll refrain from further advice on more things that are difficult to test non-catastrophically."

Sorien lllicks Spar's cheek.

Sparhawk carefully disentangles from grandparents to pad toward Cilan, murmuring "Yes, like that," to Sorien. "I kinda know how that goes, Cil. If you need someone to commiserate, we can share stories about being terrified to bleed on people later," offering a hand to shake.

The feral says, "Well, I don't see myself trying to take a bite outta 'er, unless brushing or water without my prior consent is involved..." She sticks out her tounge, before saying, "There's ways of getting those samples safely, I'd wager, at least see if there's a cure." she says, then turning to smile at Selene and the twins."

"It sounds like a fascinating infection, though." Eithne offers tentatively, but she doesn't push the issue beyond that - in fact, she leans away a bit as she throws the comment out there, wearing an apologetic smile.

Sorien softly churrs, "Aw, heading out for the night, sweetie?"

Devon stretches and yawns, having drifted off for a moment, and rubs his eyes. "Mmmmh."

The babies finish feeding, and Selene passes Sai back to Cil for burping, doing the same for Anala - who thankfully refrains from spitting up. She cradles the baby gently, rocking her slowly as she looks down at her. "You're a little angel when you're not trying to eat everything in sight, you know that?"

Balina comes back downstairs, a little wearier and a little warier, taking a seat again and glancing around. "Did I miss all the good parts?" Crystala pages, "RP wise, it'll be good for her to have something like that to struggle with :)" to you.

Sorien softly churrs, "Naah, just talks and some understandings. "

Cilan reaches out and takes Sparhawk's hand in her own, giving it a good firm shake before pulling back and saying, "Uh.. I might take you up on that offer, some time.. thanks." she says before grabbing Sai and like her other mother, Cilan drapes a cloth on her shoulder and begins to carefully burp the little girl, unlike her sister though, Sai does spit-up, and is quickly cleaned off by a clean portion of the drop-cloth before cradled once more in Cilan's arms.

Sorien ughs. "That's one thing I'm not lookin' forward to."

Rihko comes back down the stairs from the balcony, still as messy and in need of a shower as before. She pauses a moment, eyes scanning the room, and her ear twitches as her gaze passes over Sparhawk. Then she continues across the room, for the back hallway and her haven.

Devon looks around from person to person, and can't help but chuckle a little bit at the child-rearing antics. "I wonder if I'll ever have kids." he muses.

Sorien watches Rihko go. When she's out of sight, Sori says, "I'm worried..."

Eithne shrugs at Balina. "Apo finished off the tale, yes. I couldn't work out if anyone had figured out who was behind the shootings, though, or about how they even knew about the PDA." She drums fingers on the counter-top, thinking. "Wait, someone mentioned something about Sienna trying to take some of the equipment... You think she was working with an organization and radioed ahead?"

Cilan turns to Sorien and asks, "You're worried.. heh, imagine what Taggart'll do when he finds out Im the one that took her on the mission that made her like that?"

Sorien shakes her head. "Tag won't do a thing. He understands independence. But yes, I'm worried about Rihko.

Sparhawk nods to Cilan but doesn't try to squeeze any more words out of the reticent soldier, going back to supporting Sorien. Shi meets Rihko's gaze with about one pair of eyes along the way.

You page, "Hm... I think yellow is better for the trim-color of a wedding dress. :)" to Crystala.

Catalina looks around to the others, and then waves to Balina and rihko, sighing a touch as she watches them walk in. "Heya guys." she offers, before waving a bit to Devon, "You are male, so I do believe a female you be in order first off..." She looks to Sorien and Cilan, "I hope she'll be okay...." Devon blinks at Catalina. "Well, yeah." he acknowledges, before shaking his head. "I dunno. Maybe I should go." Yet again, that feeling that he's intruding. nop

You page, "The dresses are saris, which are sort-of a wrap-type dress. Crys' will have yellow as the trim and the shoulder/collar area, with Sori's being light blue in those areas. Otherwise they're white.  :)" to Sparhawk.

Sparhawk pages, "The ones you get will have faint red patterns in the white sections akin to Namidian floaty tattoo things." to you.

Cilan breathes a soft sigh and shakes her head, "I hope she'll be okay as well. But even still, what happened out in the field took a lot out of her.. both the stabbing from Sienna's betrayal, and getting shot in the head.." she then looks to the back hallway Rihko had escaped into and says, ".. it'll definately take some time, thats for sure though.."

Balina waves Rihkoward, even if the kitsune is long gone. "She'll be fine. The anger was less about the act as the location. If it had been a block sooner, we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Sorien softly churrs, "Gods."

Eithne sighs, shaking her head and focusing on her coffee.

Sorien softly churrs, "Yeah... She got hit at HOME. That's horrid."

the vixen blinks, "She was shot... In the HEAD?" Her eyes bug out, "How is she-nevermind, I really don't want to know... But that, wow, I can see that being stressful, if it happened so close to home..." She looks to everyone present, and then says, "If... If somthing like that happens to me... Do me a favor... Don't bring me back, I don't wanna have to go through that, and live to talk, or sulk about it."

Sorien forbears comment on Cat's comment and request.

Cilan shrugs, "S'the strange thing about living in a bubble, death hardly matters anymore.. getting shot was my second time dying.. third time for Selene.."

Balina contemplates the table. "I didn't even know what it was until I woke back up. Just one moment, stepping out of the bus, next moment WHOOPS! Why am I on the ground?"

Eithne reaches out to pat Balina on the shoulder, trying to be reassuring. And then she pauses, and glances to Cilan. "... Selene? Wh-" And then over to Selene herself, and a blink. "... Did you change your name, Apo, and I just missed it?"

Cilan looks towards Selene and grins, "Mm.. yeah, I have to agree.. second would be our sudden and painful shift into.. well, goo! While first is ofcourse your unfortunate self-cremation to resurrect Crystala.."

Selene grins at Eithne. "Yup. Started going by my real name just recently. Decided it was time." She turns and nuzzles Cil. "Yep, you got the order right, love."

Balina reaches up to meta-pat Eithne's hand. "I'm fine. Almost disappointed, really. Gonna move that this doesn't count, anyway; I'm sure I'd have woken up a few hours later even if someone hadn't patched me back up. And yeah, people dropping fake names these days confuses me, too."

Eithne nods slowly, humming. "... That'll take getting used to... Selene." And then another slow nod to Balina. "Quite. I haven't, thankfully, had to go through a proper rebirth-in-fire yet, and I hope to keep it that way for some time. And an Eithne is an Eithne, so I don't think I'll be changing my name anytime soon. Too fitting, these days, besides."

Catalina blinks at the discriptions of death being so casual, "Y-yeah... I'd like to be dead once, not alive and kicking in fifteen minutes like it's some sort of sick nanite COD Frag Match" She shudders at this, curling up tightly, "Though, I'll be honest, I make it a point to avoid death when I can... I'm sure that's everyone here, though." She chuckles.

Sparhawk sighs and starts standing up again. "This is what modern psychology called a 'triggering conversation'. Have fun discussing the many deaths of a hero, I'll be around somewhere sometime."

Sorien softly churrs, "Huh? Hey... (Sigh) Well, See you soon, sweetie? We still have a talk waiting. (hug) "

Cilan nuzzles Selene and says, "Well thats it.. you're cut off from dying, missy.. I think three is the limit!" she says in a joking manner before resting her head on Selene's shoulder.

Selene giggles and nods. "Yes dear. Honestly, take all the fun out of things, why don't you!" she says with a laugh.

Balina gives a wave as Spar slowly begins organizing hirself for transport. She has plenty of time. "See, that's why I was trying to keep it from counting. Death inflation is going to ruin our economy one of these days if we don't stop it now! Minor loss of brain, nothing more. Hardly more pressing than losing parts of any other appendage."

Sparhawk coughs a little. "Yes, Sorien does indeed not understand me at all. This is me leaving before I go on a rant about someone embracing entropy and injure people who don't deserve it."

Sorien softly churrs, "No sweetie, I'm not fighting you leaving, nor trying to predict anything. I just love you and hope we can talk later, as we'd discussed. I just don't like you upset- and you ARE upset here, regardless of reason."

Catalina seems progressively more distressed as Sparhawk gets up to leave. She eyes the group, mainly Sorien, before curling up in a ball.

Eithne shakes her head, but doesn't offer counter-comment to Balina's black humor. She merely gives the moowolf shoulder a squeeze before reclaiming her hand. "Moving swiftly along, then! Besides this recent event, how has everyone been doing?"

Sparhawk points at Catalina in passing. "Anyone who tells you death is inevitable is lying." Then shi shrugs again and says to the stairway, "See what I mean?"

Balina decides that this is a wonderful time to make her own awkward exit, as well. Mug is ferried, and equipment is checked. "I would expect that defeating entropy would have little value if it were banished; the right to choose when or if you die should be the one true choice a person is entitled to."

Rihko makes her way back out of the back hallway, entirely human, in a clean shirt and skirt. Her hair is still damp from her shower, and she's still carrying around the bottle of whiskey. She takes Taggart's stool behind the bar, puts a glass on the counter, and finally opens the bottle, pouring herself a drink. She looks up and over the pub crowd as she slowly raises her glass, sighing a little and smiling as she sniffs at her drink, then takes a sip.

Selene nuzzles Cil. "I'm going to bed, love. Want me to take the babies?"

Sorien gets up and goes over to Spar, and hugs her tight. "See you soon, sweetie."

Cilan nuzzles Selene back and nods, "Please.. but then again, I might join you soon.." though a moment passes her before she says, "Actually.. I might end up just sleeping elsewhere.. dont want to risk it, knowing my infection.."

Eithne takes out her sketchbook, shaking her head. "See you Bal, Spar. Don't be strangers." Click-click goes her mechanical pencil, and she begins roughing out an image in graphite.

Selene sighs softly, and kisses Cil's forehead. "We'll fix it, love. Don't worry." She gathers both babies into her arms, and heads up the stairs, alling out "G'night folks!"

Rihko raises a hand to wave at the departing crowd. "G'night!" she calls back cheerfully. Then she leans on arm against the bar and sips at her drink, people-watching.

Cilan offers one last wave and says, "Good night, my love, sleep tight!"

Catalina looks to Sparhawk, "I sure hope it is, for me, when my rightful time comes." she says, then looking to Cilan, "Be well, Cilan." she then looks to Rihko, "Shower felt good, I bet!" she offers, tail waving and ears perked, trying her best to be cheery.

Sparhawk leans into the hug a bit this time, at least. "Whatever does not kill me makes me stranger!" A whole lot of approach-avoidance conflict keeps hir dragging hir feet, progress far from juggernaut-y.

Sorien pats Spar's back. "Get rest. The next day will be better."

Balina nods to Eithne. "Tired, but ask me again tomorrow," she says, then leans in closer to whisper something else. Smiling, she makes her way out, with one final nod and a "twenty-four hours" to Cilan as she passes.

Cilan glances at Catalina and asks, "Be well? I aint going anywhere for a while.. might end up just having a shot, maybe two.. one for me, another for Sienna. Ah well.. time to start trying to forget about our mission."

You softly churr, "Actually.... Crys? We should rest too. Walk with us, Spar?"

Eithne gives Balina a salute. "Will do. See you around." And then she turns back to her sketching.

Rihko snickers and shakes her head a little, then she looks over at Catalina. She nods. "It did. It felt very good. I won't feel truly clean until tomorrow, but I'm good enough for now. I changed mind mind about drinking in bed, figured I'd come hand out here for a bit."

Crys nods, coming over to Sorien at the stairs. "We should fetch Kay from Mara as well."

Sparhawk continues draped in spots and stripes even in motion. "The next days have been all the same for a while now. It's a strange feeling."

Sorien softly churrs, "Well, we'll see. Night everyone!"