023.3 "I'm on mop duty. Stupid Galariel!"

[Corwin]

[21:35] <Kotono> Home. Back at Aurora to rest and put the trials of the Screaming Gate behind you. Afina, Jaela and Ithea are walking in the officer's quarters, heading towards rest. Ithea's room just happens to be first. Of course, Ithea's room doesn't usually have Elena outside of it, a mop and bucket in hand. She looks downright perterbed, "Ithea!" she calls, "There you are!"
[21:36] <Jaela> It's so rare that Elena acts like a true maid, so Jaela savors the moment.
[21:36] <Ithea> "What's up, Elena?"
[21:37] <Afina> "Where did you get those?" Afina asks, wondering what an incorporeal blue girl is doing with a mop and bucket. If they're incorporeal... is she cleaning up after ghosts?
[21:38] <Kotono> "Galariel," she says shortly, "27 is going crazy in your room. Last time I peeked, he's written twenty-one all over the walls, the ceiling, the floor, everything! I tried to go in there, but uh..." Suddenly Elena shrinks back, "I suddenly realized it was a bad idea. A really bad idea. REALLY BAD."
[21:39] <Afina> "What does he write with, anyway?" Afina asks another question, somewhat perturbed. He has paws after all, not hands!
[21:40] <Ithea> "...He's defacing my room?" Ithea asks while making a face, as she goes to open the door.
[21:40] * Jaela snorts. "Can that thing even touch you, Elena?"
[21:40] <Kotono> "His paws. I don't understand how it works, but I've seen him. He uses a quill and it works." With a bit of a flounder, "I just assumed slaad." After that she looks to Jaela, "Of course not! It wa sjust...welll...a really bad idea!"
[21:41] <Kotono> Within Ithea's room is 21. 21 is written everywhere. Dozens of languages, some known and many not. But it's all 21. Twenty one is everywhere. 27 is sitting just past the door, staring up into Ithea's eyes. "Anarch," he says, "Twenty one. Twenty one is here."
[21:42] <Jaela> "So this is what ghosts are afraid of? Mutant frogs?"
[21:43] <Kotono> Turning around and seeing, "...suddenly I don't feel it's such a bad idea," Elena's voice sounds utterly confused and lame, "...I swear!"
[21:43] * Ithea blinks and scratches her head. "Okay, that's fine, but did you have to write all over my room?" Ithea asks the badger slaad.
[21:44] <Kotono> "Twenty one is here. You can kill them, Anarch. You can kill them." As you talk, there is a shuddering rip in 27's back! A pair of skeletal wings emerge, flapping once. "I'm happy." HIs entire body seems to swell, growing larger!
[21:45] <Afina> "Are you susceptible to... oh my..." Afina trails off at the badger's grisly mutation.
[21:45] * Ithea takes a step back with widening eyes, shocked. "Okay, wait, what?!?"
[21:45] * Jaela just has to know if that's an evil badger, even if she has nothing to say, so she takes a closer look.
[21:49] <Kotono> As it grows larger, there is a bloody thrust. Out of its armored heart another sword-tooth grows, just as long and sharp as the previous! "I can talk clearer now. You found 21. The password is everlasting mercy. When all else fails and you need a key it is limbo. Today, the Child of Lifasa was conceived. Nine months." With that 27 lies down on the floor and curls up, the heart-blade retracting
[21:49] <Kotono> back into the heart. In a moment, 27 has fallen asleep.
[21:50] * Jaela grimaces at this terrible reminder.
[21:50] <Ithea> "Okay, so apparently 27 gets even weirder when someone solves one of his riddles or something..." Ithea says, not sure exactly how to react otherwise.
[21:50] <Afina> "Oh... Oh!" Afina grimaces at the blunt reminder that her Queen was raped today.
[21:51] <Jaela> "Yeah I'm gonna go stab something," Jaela mutters, heading off. "Be strong against the badger, Elena."
[21:51] <Kotono> Elena just stares. "...say, Ithea?"
[21:52] <Ithea> "Yes?" Ithea asks back, as she examines the mess 27 made of her room.
[21:52] <Kotono> "Your taste in pets leaves much to be desired."
[21:52] * Afina silently flutters away to pour her hatred into some weapons that will hopefully be used to slay many devils in the near future.
[21:53] <Ithea> "Eh, he's housetrained at least," Ithea says with a shrug. Pausing, she goes pick up her mutant minion. "I'm going to drag him over to the medical bay since he usually likes sleeping there. Can you or Galariel do something about my room while I'm doing that, please?"
[21:54] <Kotono> Picking up 27 is far less easy now - he's heavier and bigger. "Yeaaaah," Elena sighs, "I'm on mop duty. Stupid Galariel," she mutters, "It'll be spic and span by the time you get back."
[21:55] <Ithea> "Thanks, Elena. I owe you one," Ithea says with a smile as she drags the heavier mutant slaad away towards one of the portals.