094: Lived all our best times, left with the worst

[Sierra]

<El-Cideon> After the resurrection, everyone goes back to their homes for the rest of the day, the Queen goes back to her cell, and Rosemund settles in for a presumably fraught conversation with her revived aunt. The next morning the party reconvenes in Rosemund's living room, where Rosemund and Leah sit drinking tea. Rosemund's magical disguise is down in the comfort of her own home, and one may presume (or hope) that whatever Leah has to say about this has already been said, but the curtains are significantly drawn when you enter. "So, Rosemund tells me that you've all been very busy," Leah says, in a tone which could range from suggestive to ominous depending on the listener's personal level of guilt.
<Franceska> "There are slavers wherever we go, and we have been crushing them under our foot," Franceska asserts, refusing to shrink back from Leah's clear anger.
<Julia> "I wouldn't even know where to begin, so much has happened," Julia says with an earnest nod as she claims a seat.
<Steph> "Yeah, I was just out shopping," replies Stephanie, brightly. "Look what I bought!" She touches a sparkling diamond amulet around her neck; a loveheart has been stenciled on it in some runic ink.
<El-Cideon> "Is it a love charm?" Rosemund presumes eagerly. Whatever the contents of her private discussion with Leah, she's not letting it get her down.
<Steph> "It's an amulet of wellbeing, but I got them to customize it. They've assured me that with this, I won't die before marriage!" she affirms.
<Julia> "It's nice to have that sort of certainty," Julia approves.
<Franceska> "So that's two of you aiming for immortality?"
<Steph> "My family name will live forever!"
<El-Cideon> "If only all of us could so confidently make such claims," Leah says tartly to no one in particular.
<Franceska> "We've met with setbacks," Franceska says openly. "But you were brought back from the dead, the guilty were punished and whatever physical changes might have happened, inside everyone is still that same person. So I would call it a favorable outcome?"
<El-Cideon> Rosemund happily nods agreement with Franceska's assurances, and Leah doesn't seem inclined to openly contradict anything that doesn't obviously bother her niece. "In any event, Rosemund tells me you've been directed toward a wayward priest. I thought possibly I could try finding him if need be? Finding things our adversaries would rather we didn't was essentially my function during the war, after all."
<Franceska> "Just as long as you don't go off on your own, it would be a welcome help," Franceska muses. "Would it take long?"
<El-Cideon> "That depends on how carefully hidden he is," Leah says. "If he's cheated Hell, one presumes the answer to that would be very well indeed. I can't say I knew the man to speak personally, but I met him on a couple occasions in strategy meetings. Before someone got on to his game, that is."
<Franceska> "I'll just stay over while you do this?" Franceska offers. "I wanted to talk to Rosemund as it was."
<El-Cideon> "Talk all you like," Leah says, standing up. "I could hardly keep her all to myself forever." She sweeps out to get a proper scrying together, leaving just Rosemund with the three of you. Rosemund gives everyone an apologetic smile.
<Steph> Stephanie floats onto a couch. "People sure bounce back quickly, huh?"
* Franceska shrugs. "I expected to be murdered when we returned like that before, so it really is a step up from my expectations."
<Julia> "Leah always did seem the practical type," Julia muses, though she does look at Rosemund in case she's off there and it's just a mask.
<El-Cideon> "Some people are scariest when they are quiet!" Rosemund assures you in a conspiratorial whisper.
<Franceska> "You did tell her that I'm looking for a way for you to turn back, if you choose that?" Franceska feels compelled to ask, shuddering. "I'm confident I could find a way."
<El-Cideon> "I've learned to like having wings," Rosemund says, "although I admit that they could look better. But still, I could hardly live the rest of my life worrying all the time about what other people will think. I told her as much. She, ah--do not tell her that I said this, but she cried more than she yelled," Rosemund adds quietly. "I think she feels as though she has let down my parents. I do not think we can convince her otherwise so we will just have to demonstrate that this is wrong over time."
<Franceska> "Maybe the sun god will get around to changing the way your wings look one day," Franceska muses. "In any case, since I am not about to die in the near future I wished to ask you to go graverobbing with me one more time at your earliest convenience."
<Julia> "Oh?" Julia suddenly perks up.
<El-Cideon> "But who else do we have to dig up?" Rosemund asks, bluntly in surprise.
<Franceska> "If you could resurrect my mother, I might find it within me to forgive elfkind for their crimes," Franceska offers magnanimously. "And my father should know where she was buried, so it has suddenly become viable."
<Steph> "We need a body? Is that right?" asks Stephanie, after a moment.
<Franceska> "A part of hers. I studied on the requirements properly." She frowns. "I might also get sentimental when it is time, so I would welcome the help."
<El-Cideon> Rosemund blinks. "Oh, your mother, I nearly forgot--that is to say, it has been a very long time." She nods to Stephanie. "That is correct. Or at least, enough of it to say that we have a part of her."
<Steph> "Uh, a part of her..." Stephanie shifts. "I gotta go somewhere, I'll be a bit," she says, turning and heading out the door.
* Franceska palms her face. "Clearly, no help from there. And you, Julia?"
<Julia> "Of course I'll be there to lend a shovel-arm and moral support," Julia declares, standing up.
<El-Cideon> "If you can find her, I will do my best," Rosemund promises.
<Franceska> "It is not so much the death, you understand," Franceska attempts to explain. "I've had ample time to get used to that. But rather her fate, and anything that follows. Especially after visiting the lower planes. Once we bring her back she will do better, I am certain. Or find a method of immortality." At Rosemund's words, she asks, "Can you please use a Sending to my father to ask him for
<Franceska> the details? Between him and your aunt I might learn where to go."
<El-Cideon> "I think I will see what your father has to say first," Rosemund says, "before telling Auntie that I am moving on to revive people she would not approve of," she adds apologetically.
* Franceska nods, prepared to wait as long as it takes.
<El-Cideon> After pausing some time to relay Franceska's request across the planes, Rosemund reports back. "Er, they had to bury her rather quickly in the woods while they were on the run. He thinks that he can give us directions. He does not think that it would be appropriate for him to be there."
* Franceska waves her hand. "He got on with his life, I don't really care about any of that. Can we leave right now?"
<El-Cideon> "Um, if you would like," Rosemund says. "But I thought that we could wait until Leah is done instead of either disappearing without explanation or interrupting her to say why." As gently and charitably as she possibly can, Rosemund adds quietly, "I am sure that she will wait for you these few minutes longer, Franceska."
<Franceska> "Of course."
<El-Cideon> After about an hour's seclusion, Leah reappears to report. "I saw sickly ocher skies with a string of moons scattered about like filthy, cast-off pearls," she says colorfully, before concluding, "I think your man is in Carceri."
<Franceska> "That's terrible," Franceska says, taking it in stride.
<Julia> "The prison plane. I suppose it's one way to deter people coming after you."
<El-Cideon> "Well I wouldn't want to disrupt the pace of your journey with anything unexpected," Leah says to Franceska, adding, "High canyon walls prevented me from getting much a view of the landscape, so I don't believe I could say with certainty which layer he is on. But he was tending a garden."
<El-Cideon> Rosemund chimes in: "Auntie, if you describe it very well, I am sure that I could guide the ship there."
<Franceska> "Teleporting can do the rest," Franceska adds. "Quite a difference from how we started out."
<El-Cideon> Leah nods and, with some reluctance but an apparent realization that nothing's about to stop Rosemund from doing anything, relays as detailed a description as she can to her niece. "Of course," she feels obligated to point out, "just because you can use magic to reach him doesn't mean that you can get out again."
<Julia> "Getting out will be the hardest part," Julia agrees. "We need to figure that out before we go in."
<El-Cideon> OOC: K:P applies here if anyone's got it
<Franceska> roll 1d20+10
<Rei-chan> 6,0Franceska rolled :6,0 1d20+10 --> 6,0[ 1d20=5 ]4,0{15}
<Julia> roll 1d20+17
<Rei-chan> 6,0Julia rolled :6,0 1d20+17 --> 6,0[ 1d20=18 ]4,0{35}
<Julia> "I don't know if our ship is actually seaworthy, but I think the river Styx is the most reliable way out," Julia says after giving it a moment's thought. "It'll take us to Hades and we can plane shift from there."
<El-Cideon> "We can fly right over that nasty river!" Rosemund promises. "We do not need to sail on it at all."
<Julia> "I'm not sure it actually works if we're not in contact with the river. I mean, planes are infinite in size aren't they? It has to be a special property of the river itself that transports its contents across planes."
<Franceska> "We can test the ship beforehand, and if it sinks I think I heard of a spell that can keep anything afloat?"
<El-Cideon> "It must float," Rosemund says confidently. "It is made of wood! What is the use of a ship that cannot float?"
<Julia> "It's more the general seaworthiness I'm concerned about. Will it spring a leak? Will it get swamped by waves? Considering what the water there does, we'll need to avoid any exposure."
<El-Cideon> "Well, er, at the very worst it can fly most of the way and then it just has to sit on the river long enough where the one world turns into the other world to go to the other side?" Rosemund hazards.
<Julia> "Hopefully," Julia nods.
<El-Cideon> It's afternoon by the time the group finds the purported gravesite of Franceska's mother. Directions are all well and good, but there are only so many references to trees that can be useful either coming from or going to someone that isn't home in the woods to begin with, and it's only after a lot of tiresome hiking and repeated stops to reference Derek again for clarification that the group is able to stop, weary and no doubt scratched up from nettles, in front of a hurriedly hewn wooden plank marking the resting of one "S. D." Rosemund nods. "This must be it," she says. "Your father said that he did not write the full name so that no one from town would deface this if they found it."
<Franceska> "Lovely."
<El-Cideon> "About that," Rosemund says awkwardly. "I have been thinking, she will be very confused about this, will she not? She cannot just go back into town and live in your house again as though nothing ever happened..."
<Franceska> "Of course not. Well, she could actually stay at the other house-- but really she might want to go to Air?"
<Julia> Julia is already quite worn out from all the hiking and is leaning tiredly on her shovel in a manner that suggests she'll be little use in wielding it. "It would be... quite a shock," she agrees, gasping a little.
<El-Cideon> "I suppose," Rosemund admits. "It would be quite a shock living in the sky if she had never left home before."
<Franceska> "Better than living on a dretch farm or something equally disgusting," Franceska decides. "It's a shame I can't ask Marina for help, but her home is... well, you know."
<Steph> Stephanie floats around in midair, having kept out of the conversation for the most part. If she's here, it must be for Rosemund, that is it!
<El-Cideon> "I am not sure that elf heaven is the first place that your mother would wish to stay," Rosemund says, as diplomatically as possible.
<Franceska> "Obviously. It has elves, after all."
<Steph> "Beats hell, though."
<Julia> "Hell had elves too. Or an elf at least."
<Franceska> "It must have had many more, all terrible."
<El-Cideon> "I should think that everything does," Rosemund says to Stephanie, taking the shovel from Julia's no-doubt unresisting arms and starting to work.
<El-Cideon> Rosemund quietly goes about her work, alone if no one else is inclined to pitch in. Finding the actual body is somewhat difficult--there's no proper coffin down there, just a collection of bones. "Well, I hope that this is her after all," Rosemund says, kneeling down by the half-unearthed skeleton to make a plea to her god.
<Franceska> It would be quite terrible if someone had dug her up only to replace her with another body. Would anyone even go to such lengths? Maybe the more desperate devils, but surely not humans.
<El-Cideon> Rosemund proceeds through the ordinary chants and prayers called for in services, familiar to the group from just yesterday. It's when she gets to the end of the ritual that she's markedly more formal than she had been with Leah: "We understand that this woman was not among your faithful and did not follow your commandments, and through the pursuit of her own desires did some harm to the people around her," she admits, without regard for Franceska's sensibilities. "We are calling her back so that she might have the chance to make amends that was denied her in life. Please grant her the opportunity."
<Franceska> Hardly offended by the truth, Franceska nods her agreement. It really is the best, most efficient outcome one can hope for.
<El-Cideon> Leah's body had been comparatively unspoiled, but in Sandra's case the god of sunlight has to rebuild her from the ground up. It's with lightning speed (yet still perhaps not fast enough for those easily unnerved by biology) that Sandra's body is rebuilt from bone outward until, within a couple seconds, there is an intact and, eventually, breathing body lying in the place of dry bones. There's little question of parentage here--she has Franceska's characteristic white hair. Blue eyes blink open, and a rebuilt throat croaks out, "I feel as though I have walked...a very long way." She looks around. "Where am I?" And, not without suspicion as she looks everyone over: "Who are you?"
<Franceska> "You are right where you were killed and buried," Franceska tells her matter of factly, placing a cloak over her mother's shoulders before rummaging for spare clothing in her pack.
<Steph> "And then you went to hell. Apparently, you were a slug."
<Franceska> "I refused to accept it, so at the first opportunity I got...."
<El-Cideon> "No doubt our benefactors sent you to bring me back," Sandra assumes with a nod of complete confidence in her own importance.
<Franceska> "They sort of abandoned everyone," Franceska admits. "In fact, they sent you off to a fairly terrible life and fate without so much as a second thought."
<Steph> "You weren't counting on goodwill from devil-lovers, were you? Really?"
<Julia> Having watched curiously as the body was rebuilt, Julia keeps quiet as Franceska and her mother share an emotional and heartwarming reunion.
<El-Cideon> "I should hardly think so," Sandra says skeptically. "We had the city finances whirring along quite efficiently. They should have no cause for complaint about our services." She seems to shake off some of the confused stupor of being dead for twenty years, and another possibility occurs to her: "Then who DO you represent?"
* Franceska tilts her head, playing with a lock of her hair. "You're smart, you'll figure it out in no time. Oh, it has been almost two decades since your death."
<El-Cideon> Sandra examines Franceska carefully for a long moment. "What happened?" she eventually asks, with much less strident assurance.
<Franceska> "Elves killed you, Dad ran off to Hell and really sort of decided the best thing he could do is forget about us, which in retrospect was the best choice he could have made. The survivors got ruthlessly betrayed and murdered, or worse. The dead, like yourself, were put to use in Baator. You, specifically, were in a Malbolge birthing pit. It seemed like a dreadful place, and no one really
<Franceska> cared about you enough to do much with your soul. Under the circumstances, I'm hoping you would reconsider an allegience to such masters who think nothing of you?"
<El-Cideon> Sandra considers this soberly for a moment, then stands up and pushes Franceska away. "That isn't possible," she insists. "We're more clever, and we are more ruthless. Amaranth--that's just a setback. We *will* reclaim the city. After all the time I spent clawing my way to the top, if anyone thinks they can keep me out then I will bring Hell to THEM. I don't see why I should believe anything you say." She looks around the tangled woods. "Where is Derek? Why isn't he here?"
<Franceska> "Ah!" Finally finding her spare clothing, Franceska offers it to her mother. "Don't worry, it fits the wearer. I really should have been more prepared, but I don't make a habit of going around resurrecting people. You know, I read your file in Hell's library, and they don't think you were actually committed to their cause. Boy, are their faces red now!" At her mother's question, she says,
<Franceska> "He moved on, and with a maid at that. I'll never understand the appeal."
<Julia> "I thought there'd be a lot more hugging and crying," Julia whispers, leaning over to Stephanie.
<Steph> "Who knew? People who go to hell are horrible."
<El-Cideon> "I had everything I could have wanted," she says with a mix of insistence and despondence. "Why shouldn't I have been committed?" She pulls a cloak around herself despite the warm spring air. "I don't understand. What happened? How could we have lost? Who rules instead?"
<Julia> "King Aric the second," Julia speaks up. "People fought against Hell and the Abyss until both their efforts became untenable. They lost."
* Franceska frowns, and then places the clothes on the ground beside her. "Having been to Hell and the Abyss, I can say with certainty that all of their natives are retarded in the extreme. When humans rely on them and look towards them for guidance, nothing good comes out of it. If it makes you feel better, everyone lost? And really, why do you even want the city? Are you going off the sunk
* Franceska cost fallacy, instead of looking ahead towards the future?"
<El-Cideon> She laughs, bitterly. "What is it that I should look towards? You are telling me that everything I worked for is gone!" She's lost for a moment in fierce reminiscence. "You can't understand. Everyone looked up to me. They HAD to. Tell me what's left."
<Franceska> "I guess there's me?"
<El-Cideon> Sandra's jaw works silently for a moment. "I suppose you grew up well," she admits grudgingly.
<Franceska> "And, really, you're young and smart and you know just where that course lead you. If you're really happy being a lemur or a dretch or something disgusting like that for a few centuries before working your way up to a desperate devil librarian, it still waits for you when you die. But maybe I was hoping you'd come up with a better idea for what to do with your life." Franceska shuffles
<Franceska> awkwardly. "If it's money you need, I can get that pretty easily. If it's people looking up to you, just hire a few maids. I don't really understand the specific appeal, but there are socially acceptable ways to get there."
<El-Cideon> Sandra responds well to flattery, however many caveats it's laced with. "So what is it that you do, exactly?" she asks with an air of appraisal.
<Franceska> "I'm a barrister, although recently I've been gaining fresh experience traveling across the planes and killing any slaver I come across in horrible ways. I've found that I really do dislike their kind on a personal level." She puts her hand around Rosemund's shoulders. "And this is Rosemund. She brought you back."
<El-Cideon> "I suppose that I owe you some gratitude," Sandra acknowledges with some apparent effort and the most restrained respectful nod possible. "It's good to hear that my progeny maintains a proper profession, at least," she says to Franceska. "Do you live in the city still? Oh, I hope they didn't seize everything I'd earned after we fled, I can name so many ingrates that would've been happy for the chance."
<Franceska> "They most certainly did. As for myself, I do maintain a residence in the city and one out in the countryside. Perhaps you would be more comfortable staying on our ship for now, however, and then finding a good place to live? Out of all the planes I've been to, Air had been the nicest, and not just because you can fly there."
<Steph> "Can you please get your mother to rein in her attitude, Franceska? It's making my ears bleed just listening to her."
<El-Cideon> "What is that?" Sandra asks Franceska. "And why are you friends with it?"
<Julia> "And it's getting worse," Julia observes.
<Franceska> "She's Rosemund's friend, and she kills everything for me and trips any traps we come across."
<El-Cideon> "Hmph." Sandra just sniffs but ultimately doesn't look askance at making the proper use of a good tool. "But what ship? We're hardly near the ocean." She looks around. "Well, unless someone took an unforgivably long trip before burying me."
<Steph> "No, really. This is not the time to act like a snob. You know, if you're serious about making sure she doesn't go to hell again, you're gonna need to do something about her idiotic way of thinking," Stephanie says, peering down at Franceska. "Give her money? Hire maids so she can play the lady and act all arrogant? You're just confirming her self-image."
* Franceska looks torn, and glances over at Rosemund.
<El-Cideon> "I think we should get her away from home at least," Rosemund agrees in a whisper. "Anything that reminds her of being rich and powerful could not help very much."
<El-Cideon> "Do you always let your hirelings question you in front of others like this?" Sandra asks Franceska, quite ignoring Stephanie herself.
<Julia> "Well, showing her how the world's moved on without her and her allies might be useful?" Julia points out to play devil's advocate.
<Franceska> "It's a flying ship," Franceska voices, addressing her mother. "And I'll take us there, and then give you a chance to read what Hell's records had to say about you and dad. Let's start with that. More than anything, I want to get the point across that they've used and discarded you, and would do it again without a moment's pause. That's not someone you feel loyalty towards."
<El-Cideon> "They were useful to me so long as I was useful to them," Sandra says, going on to consider out loud, "Though if they've failed as thoroughly as you suggest it may be that my allegiance was misplaced."
<Franceska> "I really have no reason to lie. Besides, you probably saw the best of them, the ones they sent over. Not those living right there in Hell. It was just uncanny, the neediness-- well, Stephanie could tell you all about that."
<El-Cideon> "Could she?" Sandra sounds dubious.
<Steph> "That's just it, you stupid bitch. They failed, but even if they succeeded, they'd still have used you the same bloody way," replies Stephanie, touching down next to Sandra and staring at her in the face. "The devils used you. The devils sent you to hell. The devils raped your soul and flung it into one of their deepest, blackest pits. The devils would have ground you down to nothing and
<Steph> used you as slobbering, useless little beast with no original mind. No original thought. No you. By Pelor's blessing, you are permitted to walk the world again even though you would've consigned everyone else on it to the same miserable little fate. The least you could do is show some fucking respect, and acknowledge your own goddamn failure!"
<Franceska> "See? Devils are one of her favorite topics."
<El-Cideon> Sandra freezes and looks at Stephanie as though she'd been slapped. "I'll consider everything you've said in due time," she says coldly, acknowledging Stephanie directly for the first time and then promptly deleting her from attention once again. "For now," she says to Franceska, "perhaps we could get to this ship of yours? These woods make me itch."
<Franceska> "I've got it," Franceska voices. "Gather around."
<El-Cideon> A quick trip back to the ship leads to a quick trip back to Air. Sandra flails at first with the lack of consistent gravity but figures it out soon enough. Rosemund steers the ship to the asylum first, to deliver Auranelle back to her place of confinement.
* Franceska wonders how things would have gone if they had never met Ione. Probably poorly.
<Steph> "You know, we've got to be able to get a thingy made!" remarks Stephanie, hovering around Auranelle. "Like an item that'll help you tell time, and something that can teleport you straight back here when midnight's close- you know, so you can go about normally without a worry! There's a bunch of wizards around here, I'll make one make things like that!"
<El-Cideon> "Oh, could you?" Auranelle says appreciatively. "I worry very much about Her getting loose. But I shouldn't like to spend eternity in a cell either if there isn't absolute need. I'd hoped to talk her around to some reasonable accommodation eventually...I'm aware that this may take an age, but I do have one at my disposal, don't I?"
<Julia> "That's a good mindset to have, your Majesty," Julia approves. "Hopefully I'll have a similarly long time so whenever you need a hand I'll be happy to lend it."
<El-Cideon> "I'd suggest you decline if the cost is anything near so substantial as mine," Auranelle advises Julia, as respectfully as possible.
<Julia> She wonders what an evil Julia would be like. "Hopefully not, at least."
<El-Cideon> Ione receives the queen back into her care graciously. "I trust all went well?" she presumes.
<Steph> "'Hopefully?'" replies Stephanie, eyeing Julia. "Uh, you'd be way scary if you turned all bad, you know."
<Franceska> "Sort of."
<El-Cideon> Ione contrives to convey the impression of raising an inquisitive eyebrow without any such anatomy being visible.
<Julia> "I would, wouldn't I?" Julia agrees, picturing some of the havoc she could wreak were she less enlightened. "I'm sure I'll be able to keep myself in check, though."
<Franceska> "Ione, I find myself needing to ask for a favor," Franceska tells her, suppressing a shudder at the terrible prospect raised by Julia.
<El-Cideon> "Yes?" she prompts Franceska.
<Franceska> "Rosemund resurrected my mother for me. Even though we're practically strangers it is still all very strange and awkward for me. I would very much like to have her avoid the Malbolge birthing pit in the future, and it is, in a way, the sort of life counseling you provide your guests. Can I presume you offer the service to those not actually committed to the asylum as well?"
<El-Cideon> "Do you believe that she'll listen to me?" Ione asks first. "Not all Material residents are so cosmopolitan as yourself."
<Franceska> "She has nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Also, she has no money. I will pay for the necessities, if you could provide the right environment for her? Since we're going to Carceri, I don't believe it would be in her best interest to tag along."
<El-Cideon> "Sometimes it's more difficult to convince the aggressively sane of the error of their ways than it is to reach the insane," Ione points out, but promises, "but I'll do what I can."
<Steph> "Hey, is your mother a witch or anything?"
<Franceska> "No."
<Julia> "Does she have any fantastic skills other than accountancy?"
<Franceska> "I wouldn't know."
<El-Cideon> "I'll endeavor to find out," Ione says. "Recovery proceeds best with actual accomplishment."
<Steph> "Yeah, that's just it. If she's crazy good at something, she'll probably just ditch the therapy and make bank on her own." Stephanie shrugs. "Not that that's my problem or anything."
<Franceska> "Good. I don't really know what I can say myself," Franceska admits. "I think her course led her astray, but I can hardly suggest my own way of just becoming a strong enough mage to ignore Hell's wishes altogether."
<El-Cideon> ~