A Quiet Afternoon [FIN]

[The Jenn]

Femi sat down at the small breakfast table in the kitchen, holding her juice in both hands and sipping carefully from the cup. She didn't want to drop it and break anything. Cleaning up broken glass was always such a mess and she didn't want to make a mess for Kazifel to have to clean up.

"I'm sorry, I don't think I understand. Unless you need me to brerak or fix a doll, or to paint you something, I don't really think I'll be able to help you." She tilted her head and watched him with confused pink eyes. "I can reach things, though, if... it's my hand you need? I suppose? I don't guess that you get much reach in that body, do you?"

Still confused but trying, she held out her hand and looked at it before offering it to Honker and the mouth. If her husband had been there, he would have screamed.

[Kari Muffin]

Once the Queen reaches down to touch the protruding mouth after agreeing to assist Lythero, a sharp snap will ring through the immediate area.

The mouth will tear itself from Honker's body in a rush, pulling most of the poor boy's organs with it as it slams forcefully into the Queen. Honker will live for another ten minutes as Lythero drains all of his memories and knowledge of the world at large for his future reference before he finally dies.
The slam of the mouth into the Queen will kill her on impact, leaving an empty shell for him to inhabit, with access to all of her old abilities. Lythero will move into the body of the Queen, he will have access to her memories and be able to control her body fluidly as if it were his own and he had used t all his life.
Slowly over the course of a year, the body will become male, though it will remain a Squirrel and lightly built unless he gets some help from a mage. Until this happens, though, he is free to pretend to be the Queen and try to recruit members of a Tulgey resistance.


It was perfect. She was offering to help him, even offering her hand to him. Absolutely perfect. There was sharp snap that rang through the entire area.

Honker jumped, only he had no time to react to what was happening. The mouth violently tore itself out from his midsection taking just about all of his organs with it. The boy wanted to shriek but no sound came out of him as he collapsed from the shock. He wasn't going to die right away, of course. He was going to suffer as Lythero drained all of his memories for a long painful ten minutes.

Meanwhile the instant the mouth slammed into the Queen of Spades she was thankfully dead and he was left with the empty shell to take over. He was once again alive.

He was a squirrel... which was a downside... but he could get that fixed later. Right now he had to deal with that nasty outsider King.

Kazifel had heard the sound, and he immediately went to sprint down the stairs. Unfortunately with his injured foot the stairs were a bit more of an obstacle than he anticipated.

It hurt. Kazifel cursed as he pulled himself to his feet. He needed to get to Femi. He needed to know what was wrong. He shouldn't have left her alone with that monster.

He took a step into the kitchen, "Fem--"

Metal met with his face. He could feel his jaw crack as he hit the floor.

"Damn, this body is weak."

He heard... Femi? His eyes darted around the room. There on the floor was the swan dog, twitching with its organs oozing on the floor. Suits what happened? Kazifel slowly looked up to see the form of his wife hovering over him with a their metal teapot.

She smiled down at him. He was at a complete loss as to what was happening. And then she hit him again, harder. A yelp escaped him as he brought his hands up in self defense. It was too late, however, as Lythero in the form of his wife managed to hit him in the temple.

And the assault continued until Lythero was damn sure that the King was dead. There wasn't much left of half of the King's face when the Tulgey was done. It was a bit of a shame, he was sort of pretty even if he was an Outsider. The now squirrel sighed. Might as well have something to eat before heading out to try and put together an army right?

It was an hour or two before Lythero departed, leaving the broken bodies of the swan dog and the King exactly where they were. It was time to see who knew this Queen and who didn't.

[The Jenn]

Thyme laughed with her sister as they approached the house, making bets on whether Dad or Mom would be more surprised that two of them had actually come together, ohmigosh! She hadn't been aware of her mother's rapidly deteriorating mental state and had only learned about it from Rosemary on their trek through the Wood. She'd been to visit in that time, certainly, at least once... but it had apparently been on a 'good day' when her mother appeared as sane as she ever did, which wasn't very.

Oddly enough, she was looking forward to seeing her parents. She hadn't thought that she would be after all this time and with all their craziness, but she really did want a taste of home. Work had been stressful, she'd been feeling kind of crappy after her trip to the Golfam, and a hot cup of tea with Dad would be perfect to dispell some of that.

When they reached the house, however, something was off. Her nose - and more importantly, her butt - smelled old blood. Lots of old blood. She turned to stare at Rose in confusion. "Hey. Do you, ah... do you smell that?" The smell wasn't right at all. The hairs on the back of her arms and neck started to prickle as she knocked on the door.

After a moment, a crackly meow answered from the other side. She knew that sound as well as she knew her own Waffles's "meer" and she tried the handle. Open. Huh. Dad usually locked it.

An old feline Ace greeted her at the door, looking ancient and miserable and hungry. She stared down at Mr. Jingles in surprise, but the smell of blood was ten, twenty, a hundred times stronger with the door open. She couldn't stop her hackles from rising as she reached down to pet the Ace, who couldn't be a day less than seventy by this point. He was a bony old thing and he leaned into her touch like a lifeline. Sorrowful eyes looked up at her and gave her even more chills. Then he turned and walked towards the kitchen. She couldn't help but follow.

And scream.

[Kari Muffin]

Rosemary was happy to have her sister along. It had been a while since they had done so much together. And their parents would be thrilled to see them, bad day or otherwise, she was sure.

And then they made it to the door. As soon as it opened Rosemary could feel her hair standing on end. That wasn't right. Dad would have never left the door open. Suits, what... was going on?

He worry only grew when they were greeted by Mr. Jingles. What was he doing at the door? What was going on. She hesitated to follow her sibling and the cat. The smell... it was impossible to ignore when they were inside the house. What was going on?

The scream sent her running after her sister. She summoned her sword, only to come skidding to a halt.

She screamed bloody murder when she saw her father. And there was another dead body in the room. What? How? Why? Why was her father dead on the floor clearly beaten to a pulp.

The bloody teapot sat on the stove, still covered in blood. It looked as if the last person who was in the house had decided to have a cup of tea.

Rosemary was at a loss as she stared in horror, struggling to keep what little food she had eaten down. "Mom... what about Mom? Where.... and why....Suits."

[The Jenn]

Thyme didn't make any noise after her initial scream, only that of fast breathing. In her head, Gred wanted to jump to her side but she resisted. What good would a blade do? None. She ignored him hard for the time being.

The old cat sat down next to Kazifel's mangled corpse, looking down at it with tired eyes before looking back at her. Then he walked over to the pantry and did the same thing. The door was open and it looked as though he'd been in it, though very little was missing. A lifetime of being raised as a pet Ace, even one with normal intelligence, instilled a certain sense of 'right' and 'wrong'. Raiding the pantry for food was most definitely the latter. He'd only eaten enough to survive and he was very, very hungry. Also dehydrated.

Numbly, the King stepped around the bodies and went to feed the cat. She could handle that. She could process that. It was normal. But when she was done, everything else...

Everything else was still waiting for her. She rose from petting Mr. Jingles and looked at her sister, face pale and drawn. "Mom's got to be here somewhere. I- I should check upstairs. You check the rest of the house. She'd never be anywhere without Dad. So she's... got to be here too."

Suits. That was not a sight she wanted to see, just as much as her father and some stranger's mangled corpses. Almost more. Her mother had been sweet to a ridiculous degree. Pure, somehow, while the rest of the world was nuts. Nothing had sullied her view of the world. The thought of seeing red on that pale fur made her daughter physically ill.

Or maybe that was just her Dad. She swayed a little on her feet, and then her legs mechanically took her out of the room and towards the stairs.

[Kari Muffin]

Rosemary stared as her sister fed the cat. Of all the things to do at a time like this... that just didn't seem normal to any degree. She remained silent as Thyme spoke.

Check the rest of the house for Mom. Great. When her sister had left the room she summoned Forge in his human form. He slipped out of the room to search the rest of the house without her.

She sat down next to her father's corpse. "Daddy...." she whimpered as she reached out tentatively to touch him. She gripped the fabric of his coat as she could feel her tears. Who would... do this to him? It must have been another Tulgey. And who... was the other person in the room? Was he responsible for this?

Rosemary looked to the other body. She'd never seen a hybrid like that... and dear lord. Why was so much of it on the floor?

"Rosemary? Your Mom's not here." The voice of her weapons said from behind her.

She nearly jumped at the sound of his voice. "Then... she must be... upstairs."

[The Jenn]

Thyme's head wasn't letting her focus on the reality of her parents' deaths just yet... or at least, her father's. No, it was distracting her with what needed to be done. Feed the cat. Find her mother. Her numb mind didn't have to process much to perform those simple tasks, just move where her body took her and mechanically check through all the rooms. Bedrooms, bathroom, doll room... nothing. No Femi.

She stared around the room with glass and wooden eyes looking at her from all sides and leaned against the wall, slowly slipping to the floor. Which she then stared at.

Where was Mom? What happened here? Who was that strange Tulgey in the kitchen? A visitor at the wrong time, or an accomplice in that horrible act of violence, or something else that her mind wasn't able to produce in its frozen state? Who... who had killed her Dad?

There were ways of finding things out. Her eyes narrowed, prickling with unshed tears, and her fists clenched until the claws dug into the light fur of her palms. There were always ways. Nothing could stay hidden forever. There were no secrets without an answer. If Aunt Josephine had taught her anything, she had taught her that.

[Kari Muffin]

Rosemary's tail curled as she looked up at Forge. She couldn't just sit there and do nothing. They had to take care of Dad's body and... do something about the other one. Where was Thyme anyway? She should have been done with looking for... what if.... did she really want to think about it?

She swallowed hard, her ears pulling back. "We... Let's go get Thyme." The wolf mix walked out of the room with her weapon by her side. What were they supposed to do in a situation like this? Bury the body and walk away? What about the house? What about Mr. Jingles? What about.... everything? This was home... and someone had come into their house and killed her parents!

"Thyme!" Rosemary called out as she reached the top of the stairs. "Where are you?"

It didn't smell as bad up here... did it? She padded down the hallway peering into one of the rooms. Forge ushered Rosemary in the right direction. "Thyme, we need to bury... we need to get moving and clean this place up."

[The Jenn]

Thyme heard her sister calling and didn't respond, waiting for Rosemary to approach the open door of the doll room before looking up. Her eyes were bright, a few tears leaking out the edges despite themselves. "She isn't up here. She hasn't been up here since... whatever happened. None of the smells are strong enough."

Standing, she rubbed at her eyes with the heels of her palms and sniffed once to pull everything back. Then she stared around the room, shuddered, and turned back to her sister. "We need to figure out where Mom went. It makes me sick to say it, but I can't... deal with Dad yet until I know where she is. Or at least until I've looked. The scent's the freshest now that it'll ever be, this late. If I can follow even a trace of it then it might take us to whoever killed Dad and that stranger in the kitchen. And then put the fucking teapot back on the stove. If they haven't done anything to Mom yet, I can't wait. I need to try to find her first. If you want to come, that's fine. If you want to deal with everything here, that's fine. But I'm going looking for her. If I don't find her in a few days, I'll come back to help. But if I can catch... whoever it was..." Her look said enough. She would torture their mind with everything her aunt had ever taught her, everything she'd ever gleaned from her studies, and then rip them limb from limb with her teeth.

The voice in the back of her head was oddly silent. He rarely went so long without making sarcastic remarks, but even he could tell that now wasn't the time. And he couldn't exactly help her search without a more versatile form like his brother had.

[Kari Muffin]

Wait. What?

"WHOA NOW," Rosemary said far louder than she intended to after Thyme had finished. "You hold your damn Highlander horses. Have you forgotten where the hell we are and what the hell you are? This is Tulgey, even if you do find the trail when night falls you're dead. No one would be willing to let them stay at your house, and there's no way you could survive at night in the Wood."

Her ears went back, a pained whimper escaped her briefly. "The smart thing to do would be to ask the neighbors. They may be a little hostile but at least they know who you are and most of them won't want to stab you on sight. Someone must have seen something. And... we need to deal with Dad's dead body. I'm not going to let him rot on the floor like that."

Forge remained silent as he leaned on the doorway. Rosemary wasn't taking this well at all. How could she? And she was quite right about Thyme putting her life in danger. "I'll take care of your father while you two look for your mother. I'm sure my brother can keep you ladies safe. And this way you can prevent your sister from getting hurt with your amazing sense of direction and ability to talk your way out of being stabbed."

Rosemary looked back at her summons, she was on the verge of tears. This whole situation was just a nightmare.