My Mind Is Blown [End]

[The Jenn]

PAIN.

Horrifying, mutilating, mind-numbing PAIN.

Leona remembered almost nothing from the past few moments beyond an overwhelming and completely engulfing sense of agony throughout her entire body. Nothing so far in her life had ever prepared her mind or body for an experience as terrifying as the one she found herself muzzily recalling. What... what had happened?!

She walked through the Outer Bazaar, old enough now to be trusted in the Capital with supervision. Their attendant had gone with her sister to purchase something from a nearby shop that had caught Sophie's eye, or at least to look at it, and had asked her to remain within view of the store window for a few moments. She had. For a few moments. And then something about a block away had caught her eye, something intensely strange. A giant black pot, twisting and steaming, and then exploding.

Yes. The pot had exploded. But then what?

Her neck burned with pain. Something had choked her half to death. It still stung and ached and made her wonder if it bled. Nowhere near what it had been before.

Her back had... everything... it had broken, hadn't it? BROKEN. Her back had...

And then everything else...

And...

Wings...? She had... wings...?!

Something on her head. There was something on her head. And strange spells suddenly assaulted her mind.

She wailed once, sharply, in a moment of blinding terror before collapsing to the ground again in an unconscious pile.

---

Winged Mutation Blast: The cauldron seemed to twist in on itself as the last item was tossed inside. An odd noise, like a cat being squashed, rang from the iron depths as an explosion of incredible force was hurled out of the pot at the nearest creature - Leona.

She will feel an intense blast of pain as her entire body begins to change as a result of the magical energy. A thin wire or harp string winds around her neck and burrows into the flesh, winding tighter and tighter until it sinks in through the flesh of her throat.

A pair of tattered and misshapen wings merge almost seamlessly with her back and begin to move and writhe with her. They flail for a moment, and then fall fully under her control, tattered membranes whistling as the air tears through them.

Then a sharp crack will ring out as poor Leona's spine appears to break. Paralyzed, she will fall to the ground, twitching spasmodically as her body begins to lengthen, neck, middle, and tail extending away from her body as she is infused with the powers and old magic from the chipped vase. Her body and genetic core change as she becomes a Wolverine/Serpent mix, and her Realm mix changes to Solandria/Highland, though the only Highland apparent in her manifests in the almost Kirin-like smatterings of white scales on her body, at least they match the Highland wings attached to her back. Almost as suddenly as the pain came on, it will vanish and she will regain control of her body. As she stands, she will become aware of some new abilities as well.

Once a week, she is able to call forth a small insubstantial serpent, about as long as her forearm. This serpent will be in existence for about three hours and can be used to parrot messages to other people, and bring messages back to the caster. This serpent is a beautiful misty white with ruby red eyes; it twists and writhes in the air and can be dismissed or (once in a very great while) trapped by other powerful magics and forced to spill its secrets. Powerful listening or truth telling spells can sometimes waylay it without even meaning to. Ex: If Sadie were to use her truth-telling spell and the serpent was within 50 miles of it, the snake would be sucked there instantly and begin to speak in Sadie's presence. Depending on what she asked it... she could learn quite a bit...

Once a day, she is now also able to cause any musical instrument she sees to be silenced for a full hour by whispering the word "Cease". The harp string in her neck vibrating the word as she speaks it.

She is also now capable of singing with the most incredibly envious voice any Card ranked 10 or lower has ever heard. Cards ranked higher can still appreciate her voice for being amazing, but they can still judge for themselves whether or not it is the best they've ever clapped ears on.


Opal Encrusted Mask and Headdress: This beautiful mask is shaped like the top half of a mythical dragon's decorated skull. Large horns shaped from a bone-like material and an incredible mane formed of silver fibers trail down the back, and stiff, wing like structures spread across the wearer's shoulder blades once worn. The eyes are meant tot be seen through, though when placed on, they give the appearance of large, opalescent dragons eyes.

When placed on, it molds to the wearers head at once, easily removed whenever they like, but they are the only ones capable of removing it. Please try to avoid sleeping, or passing out in said mask as others will not be able to remove it from your unconscious body.

When worn, it allows the wearer to have complete and utter control over the physical forms of objects it does not own or have jurisdiction over. They may be split without harm to the original object, moved to another location instantly, changed shape, and/or color. This ability may be used on living objects, though that is not generally recommended, and after being use don an object, will render that change permanent and impervious to any future magical interference.


Opal: This large opal tingles slightly when touched. It allows the owner to, once a week freeze a person for a full hour. While frozen they are unable to be harmed in any fashion. They are unconscious, unfazed by their surroundings, and re-awaken assuming that nothing has happened and are often heartily confused by the time displacement.

[Nako]

"Your balls, mister, will be -mine- if you do not find a shorter route. You hear me? If I'm late for this meeting I will hunt you down and EAT YOUR BALLS FOR MY SUNDAY BRUNCH." The ocelot's ears flattened at the verbal barrage from the avian in the back of his carriage. He'd dealt with the abuse as long as he could; normally the cab driver had quite a tolerance for this kind of treatment.

This guy though.. was a whole new level of awful. With a huff, he jerked on the reins of the equine aces, veering them down a different path. The guy wanted a shortcut then fine; he'd take him down the seedier parts of town. Where people went... missing.

Funny, as if to emphasize that point, the horses screeched to a halt, hooves scrabbling on the cobblestone before rearing in fright. There was a body sprawled out in the streeth.

"The FUCK is wrong with you?" An angry voice spluttered back from the floorboard of the back. The cabby couldn't help but smirk, spitting between his teeth before gesturing at the pile of fur and scale on the ground. "Be lookin' like cleanup not be comin' round these parts, gov'na."

Richard picked himself up from the floorboard, feathers absolutely ruffled. "Uneducated little shit-monger, drive around it!" Well, he'd screeched that... until he saw the crumpled heap was in face a card. The cart had begun to move again, and he screamed once more. "Are you fucking INSANE? That's a person! Stop, STOP!"

"Make up ye bloody mind.."

Richard attempted to flag down some passers by as he stepped from the carriage, but anyone within yelling distance had conspicuously ignored him. Where the hell were they, anyways? He'd never seen this part of town.. and with a black cauldron in the center of the courtyard. Something fishy likely happened around here...

Though somewhat strange looking because of the mask, the crumpled heap couldn't have been older than thirteen. Solandrian.. or at least mostly. Where were her parents? Fucking unfit parents leaving their kids dead in the streets... but no. Richard put his claw forward, and could feel breath from her nostrils.

"What the hell are you waiting for? We need to get her in the carriage!!"

"Whuh abou' that important meeting?" The carriage driver queried, narrowing his eyes.

"You really -are- a slice of dumb shit pie, aren't you?"

----


"Hm. Strange. It won't come off." Stepping back from the girl, the corvie physician tapped his claw on his beak. "Heartrate. It's fine. Slow, but fine. Blood. Circulation. All good. Hm." Even in biped form, this man flitted about, making Richard grimace.

"Well, what's wrong with her?"

"Stress. Fatigue. Pre... existing medical condition perhaps. Ah, we can ask her for ourselves. She is coming to. "

[The Jenn]

Leona's mind took a little while to return from the horrors visited upon it. Instead, it chose to meander in a land of fog and strange, indistinct nightmares that slipped away when she tried to remember them but left her whimpering a little bit in her sleep.

Slowly, she woke to a body free from pain. For some reason that surprised her. Why had she expected to wake up hurting?

Her eyes groggily opened half-way, the opalescent sheen visible to her observers and completely unnoticed by her. She took a few deeper breaths, eyes flicking one way and then the other, the motion practically invisible beyond a waver in the sheen.

Two faces looking down at her, one a green Corvie and one a very distinct Morganberry. She blinked slowly, and then several times more rapidly. Then she coughed, an odd 'buzz' in her throat when she did so that remained inaudible. What...?

"Excuse me," she whispered in a dry-sounding voice, "but... where am I?"

That was the safest question. Much safer than "why does my spine feel a mile long?" or "why is my neck craning this far?" or "why do I have wings on my back?" Much...

[Nako]

Richard let out a sigh of relief, looking up hastily at the clock. "Good. She's alright. I might make that meeting after all."


"Not so fast. You sir, are the one who found her. I may have further questioning." The wren said hastily, bringing up a clawed hand to gesture the avian back to his seat.

Legal trouble was the last thing he'd wanted; and for all he knew, the girl could somehow lie and incriminate him in some way for compensation. One had to be careful when they were running a business.. and who knew if that cabby had ran over some part of her body when they were going around. The corners of his beak turned down in a grimace, but he sat himself back down in his seat.

"You are in my office on the corner of Twenty-Third and Moreland Street. I am Doctor Sulos. You must have fainted in the streets, so you were brought here. Take off your mask, perhaps, if you can. I should check for eye dilation.... reflexes."

[The Jenn]

Leona didn't quite understand what the avians were discussing at first, but at least the... the doctor answered her question, and with a clipped sort of efficiency that gave her confidence he was at least a doctor.

"I'm sorry. I don't know where that is. I'm not from around here," she whispered, trying to keep a tremble out of her voice. This was terrifying. What exactly was going on? From what he said, the thing on her head was a mask of some sort. But she had no conscious memory of how it ended up there.

Gingerly, she reached a paw up to slide the thing off of her head, blinking and staring down at it as the silvery thing sat innocently in front of her. She didn't recognize it. At all. "I've never seen that before. Ever," she said, voice now clearly trembling. "And I don't know why I fainted. I remember... pain... and... my throat... my back... something happened."

She looked up at the pair of them, brown eyes starting to fill with tears. "P- please. Can you find my sister? I was here with her and Mister Altimede. Her name is Sophie. We were... I don't know what street we were on. I- I don't..."

[Nako]

Sulos' face wasn't exactly the most expressive one, with dark, near black green eyes that flitted this way and that in their sockets. "Hm. Strange. Amnesia, perhaps?" He murmured almost to himself, a claw going under her chin as he shined a light in her eyes. Proper dilation. She was fully conscious with no concussion. No bleeding in the brain to be seen. Heart rate... quickening. Fear, perhaps? Hm.

"This is the Outer Bazaar. Perhaps.. you had not meant to find your way here. Very... out of sorts." He would have continued his diagnosis but the girl was beginning to get emotional. His eyes stared at her, unblinking before turning toward his instruments.

"Patient becoming volatile. Perhaps, a sedative." He said, low enough that perhaps the only one who could distinctly make it out would be the Morganberry.

Richard sucked in a breath, pushing the biped's hand away from his instruments with a hushed barrage of curses. "The fuck do you think you're doing?? We don't know who she is! Whose -daughter- she is! You're going to get our asses sued!"

"Will be less stressful if... the child is put under."

Richard threw his wing up to silence him. "Look, if you want your mangina stretched a mile wide in prison then -fine-, but I won't let you do this while I'm in this room."

There was silence, and a long moment where Richard began to feel a bit of dread at the stare the doctor was giving him. The kind of feeling that maybe this guy could actually do something pretty fucking sinister to him if they were the only two in this room. Funnily enough, Sulos was considering how easy it was to stop this man's heart with the right concoction of chemicals. Finally, Sulos gave a sigh, gesturing to the girl.

"Then provide... alternative. Bedside manner is not my specialty."

Figures; no matter what situation, Richard had to save the day. Was everyone else around him really so incompetent?

"Hey.. kid.. look. It's alright. We'll find your family. I'm Richard, the guy that found you? Yeah.. I'm a hero, your welcome no problem. Anyways.. This guy needs to give you a complete lookover before he's going to let you over to -anyone-. Doctor's code and all that." That was -much- nicer than saying 'Quit your goddamn whining or he's going to shove a needle in your arm and make you go nighty night', right?

Sulos lurked behind the Morganberry, pressing his hands together in thought. "Perhaps... you should recall what happened? You seem to remember family. What is your name? Do you know the date? Do you remember what happened before the collapse? These answers... would be very helpful."

[The Jenn]

Yes, Leona felt out of sorts. No, she didn't even want to consider the possibility of amnesia. She hadn't lost that much time, had she? Just a few minutes? Right? She swallowed hard and kept her throat as tightly closed as she could for a moment so that she didn't start crying loudly or anything ridiculous like that. Her long... long throat. It and all of its longness felt bizarrely familiar and foreign to her at the same time.

She couldn't hear their hissed argument, staring down at her own paws and trying to come to terms with the white, scaly patches she saw on her formly beautiful Solandrian limbs. Why was this happening to her? What had she done?!

The girl looked back up when Mr. Richard spoke to her directly. He reminded her a little bit of a Court official with his mannerisms. Or one of the merchants who came to deal with them. They all acted alike, a lot of the time. Maybe it was just a Morganberry thing. "O- okay. Thank you... Mr. Richard."

If he hadn't seemed like a doctor before then he certainly did now, with those questions. Her forehead creased and she stared at him, working very hard to stop the tears leaking out the corners of her eyes and trying to focus. "My name is Leona. It's Tuesday the twelfth. I was standing outside the store my sister and our attendant wanted to visit because I didn't like the smell of the incense but Sophie wanted to try and buy something she saw in the window. I stayed where I was until I saw this big black... pot, I guess. I saw it steaming a little bit away. I walked closer to get a look, but I didn't get any closer than twenty feet! I swear! And then it... exploded. And something happened to me. Please can I see a mirror? Please can you contact the police? I'm sure Mr. Altimede already went there. If he doesn't return with both of us, Mother will probably fire him, and I like him."

[Nako]

The wren nodded slowly. "Mental faculties.. in order. There is no need to be alarmed, the proper authorities will be notified."

"Just shut up and give her the mirror already.." Richard grated, pushing past the stoic man to grab a rolling mirror from beside the wall. Hobbling on one foot, he pulled it to where the girl could see into it. He had no idea what this girl looked like before, but he knew that if he'd just went through what this girl was trying to describe... well. He'd expect people to stop asking so many damn questions and do as he said.

"No -damage- can be found. All organs in working order. No wounds.. sores. Scars.. none. For all that is worth, you appear to not have suffered from what is considered... a malformation." The doctor offered, as if this would be what would solve any problems with self image.

[The Jenn]

So the doctor would contact the police and she wasn't crazy. Great. Wonderful. Fantastic. Leona stared at Richard pleadingly as he brought her the mirror. "Thank you." And then...

...then just stared. And tried very, very hard not to scream. A pathetic little whimper made its way out of her, but that was all. She started shaking a little bit. One wing flexed and then flopped back against her. She arched her neck - gods, her neck - and she took a good look down her side and her tail.

"I look like a snake," she whispered in quiet horror. Then she whimpered again. The wings tucked as tightly to her body as they possibly could. "I was a pure wolverine like my mother. And a pure Solandrian like my father. I- I wasn't this."

So she wasn't a Solandrian anymore. So there went that lifelong dream. Her heart slowly sank to the pit of her stomach and she swallowed hard.

"My mother is the Queen of Spades," she said in a small, miserable voice. "If you could just get me home, I'm sure she would appreciate your help."

[Nako]

And so he would! It took many assurances on his part that he would send a letter immediately to the Queen, informing her that he'd found a girl who claimed to be her daughter and that he was returning her via the first carriage he could hire. And he did, by way of a Diamond who had a rather impressive flight ability. That didn't mean he'd bother the Queen with coming all the way down. He shelled out a pretty penny not only to pay for a -proper- carriage ride, but one that was driven by a man who was just as well known for his capacity as a bodyguard.

He wasn't sure about all this babble about being pure wolverine…. but he knew that if she was telling the truth then it would be in his best interest to return her to her mother, even if she seemed frightened into hysteric babbling. (well, perhaps not hysteric, but crazy babbling for sure.)

((If you'd like to pick this up again, I'm -all- for it. Otherwise just let me know and we can close it. I'm -totally- for waking this back up. Sorry it took me so long to reply :<))