PRP - Paranoia - ______

[DrDog]

I return from my hiatus, and apologies to all of you for not tagging, we will keep going on this thread until you free her, you fail to free her, you kill her, or you leave.

Ram's song echoes in the stone, and the stone echoes back. It sings of sand, and the desert starlight, and the gentle floods of the river polishing smooth a hard stone. (+2bonus to repair)

The clock is getting close to midnight, and time is closing. Even though there are no lights inside the house, it seems that there are shadows shifting and darkening as the night goes on. Ram has steadily watched the room darken.

Rhoades's text is in 20 parts, detailing all that could be found. Summarized, he couldn't place the name, but did find a similar name in an old Keralan fable, where instead of the Fae taking someone, a creature would come from an otherworld and take possession of a person. Take too long to expel them, and death was certain. In one story, Lönnrot found that the possessing creature couldn't stand the sound of laughter, and drove it off by laughing at his own jokes. In another, he insulted it until it fled.

[Ram]

Ram was surprised to Sonnie reappear. He had thought she’d wandered off and forgotten (or gotten bored) with the mission.

“Hey,” he sounded a little uncertain how to take her just nonchalantly being there, before deciding that if worst came to worst he’d rather have her present. “We’ve got a plan. Or at least steps that we’ll be trying to do. I’m going to try and fix the necklace. If you can help with that, it’d make things go faster. Leave more time for potential modification. Circe said it was some sort of prison for small gods. If I can repair it, maybe it will work again. Or at least show Frances I’m sorry.” Before he potentially had to kill her. He indicated the industrial clay machinery he had gotten his construction friends to send over to help with repairs. None of it looked like tools made for a tiny clay necklace, but Animation and Artifice had promised to help with that. “If that doesn’t work, Ellie will try to change the… shadow thing’s desires. And if that doesn’t work,” or makes things worse “I’ll try making a promise with Frances to let her see what things are really like. And if that doesn’t work,” he sounded like a broken record “We move her to the backyard. Hope it can’t follow us there. Or at least becomes subject to our rules.”

His phone beeped with an incoming message and Ram held up a finger for patients as he checked what Rhodes had to say. 20 texts worth. The Leaden crown needed to figure out that sometimes being succinct helped when you were low on time. But it was all important information. And he read showed it to both his companions. When they were finished, he read over it again, and sighed.

“I remember this starting when Frances took down the picture of her having an allergic reaction. It was something she always used to laugh about. But… if It already thought of her as its own, it might have taken it as insult when it was brought up.” Ram felt laughter was the safer and more likely option but he wasn’t sure. “What do you two think? It adds another option we can be doing through our attempts. Should we be trying laughter or insults?” It would be hard either way. Ram didn’t feel much humor right now and insults could distance Frances by making fun of her new ‘friend’. Not to mention the risk that the ‘friend might do more than slam a door in their faces this time.

While he let them consider he started working on the necklace. There was no time to waste. He let the echoes of sand and grit flow through him and the amulet. He didn't know exactly what he was doing or how, but he let Artifice fill in the gaps and allow for the large machines to work on the tiny piece of glazed clay.

3 successes

Date	Action	Roll	Result
2021-10-10 22:37:11	Ram rolls 7 to Brief Glamour of Repair Wyrd+Craft+2singing+2Knowing touch (10 Again)	3, 8, 3, 1, 9, 7, 8	3 successes

[Ram]

Bookkepping

[Titania]

"We need to shift that creature's focus from Frances to someone or something else. I believe the carrot to be much more powerful than the stick. Either way, the necklace should be our plan A", they didn't really have the luxury of many options. For now, they should make do with what they had.

[Sonnie Wu]

"Okay, cool," the Monkey nodded, wiping the dab of cheesy chili off her chin with a finger, "I know nothing about jewelry repair, but if we need to enrage an asshole god or whatever, I'm your girl!" She did have a talent for getting on people's nerves.

The spot of food on her fingertip went into her mouth. "What's this about allergies? Francis got hay fever?"

[DrDog]

Ram builds and shapes the stone, and the necklace is restored. And yet, it doesn't feel exactly like it did. There is something missing still, but this is as good as he's likely to get. To the others, it looks just like it did before he broke it.

The clock strikes closer to midnight.

[Ram]

“Lavender oil,” Ram clarified for Sonnie as he worked “They put a diffuser in the locker rooms to help with the smell when she first came to work. She kept the picture of her swelling reaction around to laugh at,” he couldn’t help but smile a bit at remembering how she’d been, sad that things had come to this. “Taking that picture down is when I really started to feel something was wrong.”

The Ogre held up his work. It was still missing something. Was it just the impermanence of the contract or something more vital? Should he break it and try again for a better artifice? In his bones he knew he could make the necklace last if he tried had enough, enough times.

He checked his watch, dawn still hours away there was time as they approached midnight and a new day… Shit. This thing didn’t play by their rules. It had said sunrise and to Ram that meant when it broke the horizon. However, for an alien shadow… what if the turning of the day was enough? What if the sun rising BELOW the horizon counted?!

He turned to his crew.

“I’m done. We should go in now. Remember the plan; necklace, desires, promises, backyard. Try to laugh as much as possible. Antics, self-deprecation, jokes, roasts, whatever you can think of.” He forced a smile that still felt nervous underneath with a single laugh that was more like a large exhalation of air. “Let’s save Frances.” Think positive. He remembered when he was on the Battlefield, laughing at the horror of war because when you were scared out of your mind by the overwhelming nonsense of everything… it was all you could do. He felt like that now.

He walked back up to the door and gave a hard knock.

“Frances?! It’s Andrew! We’re back and I made the repairs I could. Frances, do you want us to come in?” Not if they could, because they were coming in regardless.

[Titania]

It wasn't the best plan, but it was something. "The picture could have triggered this response, even though I wouldn't ascribe any magical effect to the act itself", she shrugs, the Wyrd worked in strange ways.
She steps by the door, standing behind the Ogre.

[Sonnie Wu]

"Lead the way, big guy," Sonnie said, content to go along for the ride and see how this all transpired. Plus, if things went south with this shadow thing, she wanted to be there to protect Titania.

So, there she was, standing off to the side of the Ogre, waiting for Francis to answer.

The chili cheese dog was long since eaten by now.

[DrDog]

"No!" Is the shouted reply, and then silence.
It seems she doesn't want any visitors this late.

Further knocking yields no change, and there are no lights on in the house to determine where she could be.