---

---

Yue gasped audibly, grabbing Archer's shoulders and shaking him with excitement as her Anime dreams were coming true. Archer sputtered and giggled uncontrollably for a long minute before regaining his composure.

"Careful, you're going to make her explode," he snickered. "As for not having to experience loss to the ravages of time... I guess marrying into our fucked up family is a solution, although that won't necessarily spare you: we live mortal lives. On the other hand, if you manage to hook up with the one or two of us who aren't fucking crazy, or get one of the nutters to like you enough to keep you... you'll have the added benefit of getting to raise your spouse's new incarnation in regular intervals. Also don't forget the possibility of your wife occasionally growing up with extra equipment," he grinned.

"Mythology is real, there's fucking Gods and Yokai wandering around in the world and you two want to talk about boring romance? Tell me about the DRAGONS!" Archer sputtered while taking a drag on his cigarette and broke into a choking laugh.

"Seems we've forgotten that Gods and Yokai aren't commonplace for our guest."

"Ungh. Am I gonna get to sleep at all tonight?" Wolf's voice came muffled through the door as she slapped something rhythmically against her steel palm. After a few minutes of struggle and swearing she jammed something with the crinkle of thin plastic in her pocket, lifted an object to her mouth, and struck a match in a fluid motion.

"U-uh..."

"Fuck off, I'm under a vent," she quipped tersely.

"What? No, the patient's neural activity is picking up. She's coming to."

"Oh. Fuck, I'm sorry. It's been a long day," she muttered, and exhaled a tired sigh. "Status?"

"Escalating neural activity. Still no vitals. No heartbeat. No respiration."

"It's not the weirdest thing I've run into... but it's pretty damn weird. How's Jade?" Asked Wolf with a note of concern, and another deep sigh.

"Stable again. If she hadn't..."

"Yeah, we'd have all been fucked. I know."

"Oh. Wait a tick... this says her bed is empty."

"Oh God Damnit! Somebody find her before she melts her stupid brain doing something else reckless!" The sound of running footsteps echoed from outside the door, and Wolf lingered for a moment longer to swear under her breath. "Everyone is going to rest and recover today if it fucking kills me, I swear," she muttered, stomping down the hall in the opposite direction.

For a few long minutes everything was silent in Jemma's infirmary room, and then the air stirred. A weight flopped onto the end of Jemma's bed. A weight attached to a girl, who was smoothing out her rumpled, sandy blonde hair and tying it back out of her eyes. Her skin was pale, and stained with ruddy crimson streaks down her cheeks where she'd either been crying or bleeding... or both. She had been cleaned up recently, but there was still dried blood residue at the corners of her mouth, ringing her nostrils and collected in her ears. She met Jemma's eyes with her own vivid green ones for a long time, chewing on her bottom lip in apprehensive thought.

A pile of neatly folded, recently cleaned laundry was tossed onto Jemma's abdomen, and the girl snarfled loudly, rubbing her nose on the back of her arm and leaving a red streak on her skin. She tried to rub it off with an expression of mild annoyance before returning her attention back to Jemma.

"Hey. Um... I'm Jade. Are...? I brought you some clothes. And a drink," she explained, opening a bottle of water absently and chugging half of it. "Awwww... shit, I'll get you another one. My head is... a little melty," grunted Jade, trying awkwardly to find a place to put the half emptied bottle before she chugged the remains. She threw the bottle haphazardly across the room, and a gust of air carried it smoothly into a chute labeled with the recycling icon. Her eyes and head dipped for a moment before she jolted back to alertness and jumped off the bed.

"Right... what was I doing?" Jade paced across the room for a moment before ending up over Jemma, peering down curiously. "Are you a zombie? If you're a zombie... and I ask about it? Don't lie, 'niether. I'm psychic," Jade informed, with a note of suspicion.

Raudd was fully fueled by the energy that both Yue and Archer radiated. One like a kid in a candy store, the other the candy store owner showing the kid all the kinds of special candy they have and handing out free samples. He had wanted to comment back to Archer about the mortality and changing nature of his family, but before he had any chance Yue's pent up energy burst out.

Archer got a little grin from Raudd as he reacted to Yue's words. "Dragons you say, well sorry to disappointing you, but they are just the people of ancient times trying to make sense of the giant dinosaur bones they happened to come across and filling in the blanks with their imaginations." He opened up leaving just long enough of a pause for Yue to react before continuing. "... At least most of the time."

"Now, how about I tell you a little tale about how Jörmungandr, the Midgard serpent came to be? But first I want you to know that most of Norse myth has gone through ages of mistranslations, creative retelling, and some exaggerations, the real stories are often more spectacular in other ways." He asks the giddy girl getting an enthusiastic nod almost immediately.

Raudd resettles him on the edge casting his gaze into the 'mountain face' in across the pond. "Long ago there was a tradition that the powerful men of the North were to set sail on the first day with favorable weather of the year, each tasked with bringing back the biggest bounty from the seas. Testing the waters for the common folk whether it made sense to go fishing yet, if you will.
As such three men of the Æsir lineage, Odin, Thor, and Loki prepared themselves for the trip when that fateful day of the year came, except Loki had been drinking till the early hours of the morning and was about as sober as a fish in a whiskey barrel. He knew that if he were to set foot on a boat that day he would be in for a seriously horrible time, which lead him to 'preparing' in another way." He said with a grin on his face. This was one of the genuinely funny stories of the horrible, bad, and stupid crap Loki managed to get himself into or caused willingly.

"When the time came to set sail Odin and Thor met at the beach both arriving in their boats, only to find Loki on the shore without a boat in sight. He yelled to them "Look we can't go sailing, there is a wyrm blocking the sea." pointing to line of scales barely coming out of the water. Enraged by what clearly was shenanigans from Loki Odin and Thor sailed around the island to find a way around the wyrm, both to force Loki to concede and to maintain the tradition, only to find it ringed the entire island and had bitten it's own tail to prevent any gaps existing in the obstruction. Thor even sailed to the head of the wyrm and smacked it with the oars of his boat in hopes of making it lose grip, it only made the creature hiss in anger which lead to Thor swiftly choosing not to pursue that option any longer." He said while animating the movements of hitting some large creature in the head with a long oar with a little chuckle.

"What followed after was a long argument between the three with Loki unwilling to give in without getting out of the fishing trip all together... Eventually as the sun had started to get low in the sky Odin decided to give in and grant Loki's wishes for the sake of upholding the tradition himself. Loki then whistled to Jörmungandr and it let go of it's tail to dive under water. Almost as soon as the wyrm was out of sight Odin and Thor set on their way with Thor boasting he would get the largest catch this year within earshot of Loki. Who then egged Jörmungandr on to follow the boats and snatch any bait Thor set out."

Raudd unable to hold his laughter chuckles as he tells the last part of the story. "Unfortunately for the wyrm, Thor was a tiny bit stronger and faster than it expected and Thor indeed caught the biggest catch as he hooked the wyrm and managed to reel in what he thought to be a really big fish up until the point that the wyrms head broke surface. A struggle occurred as the wyrm also hadn't forgotten the oars to the face it had gotten, both sides taking blows left right and center. Right up to the point that Odin intervened and the wyrm spewed a cloud of poison and dissappeared to the depths. In the years that followed the wyrm grew quite a lot larger, though never to the size of circling 'Midgard' as attributed in the myths. Of course even though the wyrm had managed to escape, the same couldn't be said about Loki who had to deal with a severely pissed of Odin that had had a few days to stew on that anger on the seas."

He finished the story then looked over to Yue. "It's not quite an epic story, but it's quite a bit more interesting than just being the love child of a trickster god and a giantess. Quite a bit more silly though."

Rat stared at Doll for a long minute while he tried to process what was happening, narrowing his eyes with a hint of suspicion that the boy might be trying to usurp him as the Templar's guide. His whiskers twitched as the mental cogs turned... the grinding and smoke was nearly palpable.

"STHSTHSTH. Fine! Rat is Doll-Child's guide," he conceded, after losing the staring contest with the child and blinking hard to clear the stinging in his eyes. "Away from underfoot!" Rat commanded, shaking a fist before scurrying out of the alley and around a corner. He poked his head back around at them.

"Come along. Come along! Rat guides you. Rat is your guide! First to Drowsy-Cap. He will know Big-Man, and Shiney-Plates. Watch! He will!"

Rat vanished around the corner again, though he didn't allow himself to get too far ahead of the group. They were led across town through side-streets and alleys to what appeared to be a residential area, and then to a particular property that towered over the other buildings. Rat paused as he approached the house his nose wrinkling. The ground was littered with broken glass, and the shattered remains of a night stand that had yet to be cleaned up.

"Here. It is here. Rat guides you. Rat is your guide. The Nest of Drowsy-Cap. Sends many packages to Stoneworks. YesYes. Rarely leaves," he explained, affording them a healthy pause before allowing them past to approach the door... which opened as they arrived.

"Thanks for breakfast," ID called back inside as she stepped out, closing the door behind her. She flinched as she turned around to meet the gaze of Rat, and then Doll and up to Maire. Rat and Maire she recognized immediately from their confrontation at the Stoneworks. The child... ID had seen him around occasionally in the markets but had never spoken to him. She always wore her mask and cloak while in town, and didn't really interact with the locals beyond what she needed in the market... something she'd be much more cautious about now since not wearing it had caused so much trouble.

"Umm...," she flustered awkwardly in the doorway under Rat's hard gaze. The rodent squinted at her for a long minute, and ID's burgundy eyes flicked towards Maire once. Did Rat recognize her? Was this going to turn into yet another confrontation?

"Out of the way!! Here to see Drowsy-Cap!!" Rat shrieked, shaking the sword at ID.

"O-oh! Sorry," she mumbled, though her stance relaxed visibly. ID gave them a nervous smile as she released the door and moved to step past.

Máire stepped to the side as the woman moved to leave, cutting off her path. Something was... odd about her. Familiar, though Máire couldn't quite place it. She leaned forward, her face coming close enough that their noses nearly touched, so close that the woman could see the ever so slight, ever so subtle back and forth rotation of reticles in Máire's pale yellow eyes.

This woman, her hair, her eyes, that color...

Máire held her position for a long moment, their breaths intermingling in the small space between them, Máire's cold, the other's hot. Máire knew this woman, had seen her somewhere, somewhere important, but she couldn't quite pin down the memory. And even if she could- no, it was ridiculous. Máire didn't know anyone in the Undercity, and the woman she had come to find wouldn't be dressed so casually. And given the effort it had taken just to reach this point, she certainly wouldn't reveal herself just like that.

"Apologies," Máire said quietly, stepping away. "I mistook you for someone else." She slipped past the stranger, disappearing through the door.

Jemma… Jemma tried extraordinarily hard to focus on the woman in front of her. She really did.
But the world kept shifting. Astral eyes prying open and slamming shut. The woman, Jade, was a beacon of light that was almost blinding. Around her flowed currents of the concept of wind, to say nothing of the leakage of [PAIN] and [DISORIENTED] that radiated off of her in waves.

Jemma coughed once. Blinking in surprise at the ink that leapt from her lips and struck Jade across the cheek. Then once more as ink pulsed through the flesh of her face.
Jemma continued to stare at the woman across from her, processing and yet not, her words. Ink whirled on her cheeks, spreading across her entire face before settling into a bright array of colors and contrasts. Red that centered around her eyes, with pinks and blues and purples settling over her cheeks, forehead, eyebrows, and lips. White and black settled into the background, with floral patterns giving rise to a rapidly formed ‘Sugar Skull’ on her face.

Her irises shifted, colors rapidly rolling through before settling on a startlingly normal chocolate brown. Her pupils contracted to pinpoints, before exploding outward into four-pointed stars.
She took a breath…
“Wh- A zombie? No. I’m… I’m not, I don’t think? … Where are we?” She questioned, glancing down at her blanket covered form. “Why are… Why am I restrained? What’s going on? Am I allowed to leave? I want to leave.”
She continued, voice shifting between pauses, as ink pulsed at her throat and settled on… something familiar.

She tried to sit up again, yanking on the straps of nylon and steel buckles that kept her limbs still. “I want to leave. Let me leave. I want to leave! Let me go!”
Her skin thrummed, eyes slowly going wild as observational machinery began beeping and chirping in alarming tones. Jemma yanked again, slowly beginning to wail as she thrashed in place.
“Let. Me. Go! I want to go! Let me go! Alex?! Alex! Alex help! I want OUT!”
Jemma yanked once more, shrieking indignantly. The strap on her chest strained, pulling against her skin before snapping abruptly. Muscle mass that had formed in a bout of hysteria ached for a moment.
Then her forehead collided with Jade’s.
She paused, staring into Jade’s eyes for a brief moment. Just… staring!

And then her head sailed across the room with all the ceremony of a sneeze.

---

---

Yue took the last drag on her cigarette and allowing Archer to collect the stub in his foil pouch. She exhaled slowly, savoring the dwindling aroma.

"That doesn't align with what I understand to be the generally accepted telling of that mythos, which is interesting. Reminds me, since my family are generally accepted as practicing Shintoists. However, contrary to traditional Shinto, our family's worship focuses on five specific Kami: Amaterasu, Tsukuyomi, Sarutahiko, Susanoo, and Ryujin. Five dragons representing the Sun, Moon, Earth, Sea, and Storms. There are other notable Kami in our family's cosmology, and other differences from traditional tellings of the mythos, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind," Yue mused, swinging her feet over the ledge rhythmically as she leaned back on her palms.

"The only Greek 'dragon' that immediately comes to mind is the one wrapped around Hecate's pinky," Archer chuckled, snapping his fingers and materializing a blank tarot card in his hand and whipped it out over the pond with a flick of his wrist. It arced back around and Yue caught it gingerly between two fingers.

"Was that completely necessary? I'm sitting right next to you," grunted Yue. Archer just smiled without answering as she turned the card over in her hands. It read [7-The Serpent], and featured an enormous serpent with emerald green scales entangled within a massive tree dotted with golden apples as it breathed acid down on some minuscule figure. "Oh! Ladon!"

"Correct!" Archer chirped. "The myth goes like... something something twelve labors, something something Hercules, something something Garden of Hesperides," he gestured dismissively. "Zeus was conducting some alchemical research in a laboratory which he'd kept secret from the other Olympians, which he had guarded by a monstrous serpent he claims he tamed. Well Zeus got busy doing Zeus things and forgot about his pet, and Hecate found the lab following Ladon's cries. The creature's distraught emotional state was so powerful it had stained the local Manascape and attracted Hecate's attention so... she went to see what was going on and found Ladon trapped in Zeus' tree," Archer giggled, taking a moment to collect himself following something he clearly found incredibly amusing.

"Well Hecate has a thing for adopting neglected or abandoned spirits, it's kind of become a running gag," he giggled. "Zeus had since cleared out his lab there so all that was really left was the tree and Ladon, and Hecate is furious but doesn't know who to confront. So... she brings it up to Zeus over family dinner one day and I've never seen him sweat so much!" He snorted, unable to contain himself.

"Oh my God," Yue giggled.

"He made up some bullshit and swore the rest of us to secrecy," Archer laughed. "Her hunt for the owner of the garden became so notorious that the rumors just could not be quelled, and Hera eventually took over tending it so she could give out the fruit that grew there as gifts."

"Your family is too much."

"We've had a long time to do dumb shit and collect stories."

---

---

ID froze as the Templar captured her gaze, and it became noticeably warmer in an instant. Her hand darted to the hilt of a sword that wasn't there. She couldn't suppress the flicker of amber that pushed at the edges of her burgundy irises, nor the near imperceptible slither of crimson scales forming against her spine. ID held her fingers poised to snap a spark from the flint skin of her fingertips.

She hoped a fight wasn't about to start, especially right after she promised she wouldn't cause any trouble in town... however, ID wasn't about to back down from the Queen of Swords if she was threatened. Just as it felt like Dean would have more windows to replace, the Templar apologized and moved past.

"No worries. Happens all the time," she informed in a flat tone, without turning to face Maire. ID hesitated for a couple more moments before continuing down the street, unable to release the tension from her shoulders and back until she'd made it a few blocks away. It was definitely time to leave.

"Wait!" Shrieked Rat, scrambling after Maire. "Born in a barn?! Have to knock! Even Rat knows!!" Rat instructed, knocking at the door hurriedly before poking his head in behind her.

"Lazy-Cap! Rat is here!! With... Guest."

---

---

"Ugh," Jade winced as Jemma's voice began to pick up. "I-It's- You're in The Den you were... y-yes-I mean no? Probably no... agh- yelling- yelling in my head, inside voices inside," Jade stammered, clutching her ears as fresh blood weeped from her eyes.

"I-I can't! I c-can't! I can't touch I can't," Jade muttered in response to Jemma's pleas to be released, shaking in place, too stunned to back away, and doing her best to avoid eye contact. "Alex... yes? No. B-big big man, big man, no yelling, I can't touch, inside voice inside," Jade groaned against the assault, clutching her head.

Blood dribbled freely from Jade's nostrils as Jemma's shriek... it was loud, and grated against her ears through the crushing grip of her palms, and shredded her already frayed mindspace. Her eyes snapped wide to meet Jemma's gaze as their foreheads collided, bloody tears streaking down her cheeks in that tangible moment of silence.

"N-," Jade squeaked, trying to jerk away.

Psionic energy crackled over her skin for a split second, and the whip-crack of air violently tossed her ponytail over her shoulder and into her face, causing her to flinch and blink involuntarily. When her eyes opened, only the stump of Jemma's neck remained, sliced with surgical precision as though by a monofilament blade. The door opened to the high pressure spray of ink and viscera splattering against the bulkhead and the violent hiss of an air stream ripping through an impossibly small space at some extreme velocity.

Jade stood there dumbly, staring at the carnage as she was ushered roughly into the adjacent room. Wolf was pushing her, firmly but without malice towards one of the beds, using her organic hand to shield her face from the rapidly multiplying flechette shards of steel being gouged out of her cybernetic arm. Jade flopped limply at the bed, staring at the ceiling vacantly.

"Shit," spat Wolf, as she carefully plucked metal slivers out of her skin. "Jade. Are you okay?" She asked, with uncharacteristic softness, as she sat on an adjacent bed a safe distance away.

"I was, I woke up... new guest, new... (face) she looked cold, I brought her clothes I... I just wanted...," Jade trailed off.

"To help. I know," Wolf sighed, gazing back into the other room at the physician who was standing sheet white over Jemma's headless body. What do you even say to comfort someone after something like that? "Hey hon... you're hurting, inside and out. It's... you saved all our lives yesterday. We're all grateful, focus on that... and get some rest," she ordered softly, pushing herself to her feet and striding into the next room with a deep sigh to help clean up the mess.

The body was limp. Which was certainly a thing now. Silence had abruptly reigned supreme, as astral eyes suddenly shot open in the absence of proper sight.

Deep in the chest of what was and is Jemma, a core of pitch-black ink pulsed in place of a heart. Time slowed to a crawl, sped to a mad dash, and then settled on familiarity. She watched in limp silence as a figure composed of [RESIGNATION] and [REGRET] bustled in swiftly, taking away the blinding beacon of [THOUGHT-WIND].
Mana swirled around the ‘familiar’ shape of Jade, but also… Didn’t. It was as if she both was and was not in that space. Like the smell of rain within the deepest caverns. There and yet not.

It didn’t really make sense to Jemma. And so she ignored it for the time, focusing instead on how the [MANA] shifted around the two. They were leaving. The figure that was guiding Jade had a blank spot on its arm. A limb replaced by unliving metal. How interesting.
That was beyond the point.

She could think now that she wasn’t trapped. The swelling of fear and phobia fading rapidly. Another shape came upon her, unlatching the restraints at her hips and ankles. Probably meaning to clean up. As if she was just a corpse. A body to be removed. Well, that couldn’t stand for long!
And so, with not too terribly much aplomb…
Jemma sat up.

The spray of blood and ink came to an immediate end, not but moments after having started. Her body shifted and stood, astral eyes unblinking as she walked to the familiar mana shape of her head.
Hands came into contact with finely cut neck flesh, and ink pulsed from the fingertips. It spread over the head in organic, fractal, patterns. Then it began sinking in, like hot knives through butter, spreading further all the while.
Within the span of ten seconds at most, the loose head was gone.

Ink throbbed at the stump of Jemma’s neck, before rushing up and out, coalescing into a brand new skull.
Then into new muscle. New flesh came soon after. Then hair.
She turned around, blinking twice at the physician who stared back at her.
Before the woman began a short lived scream.
And then promptly passed the hell out.

“Uh… Oops?” Whispered the newly healed woman. She frowned, focusing on her feet as a foreign-familiar sensation pressed against her mind.
More fractal-spreading ink, over walls and floors and cloth. Blood vanishing and leaving no trace to having ever once been there beyond the smell.
The shapeshifter shuffled from foot to foot. Nervous. Oops!
Oh.

The woman with the metal arm was back, had been back. And was now just… Watching.
“Hi! Sorry! That- uh- that was a huge mess, huh?”

At Rat's outburst Máire reached one hand behind her as she entered, rapping her knuckles lightly against the back of the door. "Pardon the intrusion," she called without any sense of remorse in her voice.

There was an open space inside, likely to accommodate some sort of vehicle or workshop, and a flight of stairs in front of them leading up to a separate door that probably led to the house proper. The space was cluttered with all manner of tools and bullshit, warmly lit by lanterns hanging overhead next to chimes that sang softly with the draft of the open door. Máire glanced over the floor plan only once before ascending the staircase up to the front door proper.

She reached for the handle, but after a beat her hand shifted to knock against the wooden frame instead. Máire glanced back down the stairs to where Rat had his head poking through the door. She didn't see the child; had he wandered off, then? No matter. Máire turned back toward the door and knocked again, more firmly this time.

"............Lazy-Cap," she called through, after a moment's hesitation of realizing she didn't know his name. "I was told you're the one to speak to about finding someone."

Th physician's limp thud from the adjacent room drew Wolf's attention as she comforted Jade, allowing her enough time to watch as the dead girl propped herself up, dissolved her severed head, and then grew a whole new one. Wolf felt the stinging heat of HK's processes running behind her right eye as she stood up and leaned against the door frame. Things were never dull in the Den. HK was taking an uncharacteristically long time to feed any information into her HUD. "[Processes Running] . . ." burned into her retina long enough to leave an artifact in her vision when it finally blinked out.

[Appropriating Resources]
[Searching Archives] . . .

[Run Facial Recognition] . . .

[Considering New Parameters.]
[Processing] . . .

[Subject Identified - ShieldTown-ResidentFixer-Dove - Visual Match]
[Returning Host Processes] . . .|

Wolf raised an eyebrow. "Dove" was ShieldTown's Chrome-Fixer, and a friend of Alex's. She'd disappeared about two years previous. Wolf knew this because because Dove used to regularly help maintain her cybernetics, and HK had sent the Interceptor to follow her after calculating that there was a high probability that she'd been headed towards the Graves. The Interceptor was fast but had limited range, and hadn't been fully fueled yet from its most recent sortie. A second drone was dispatched to cover Dove, one with the range and armaments to cover her for a long time, but there was a gap in the coverage between when the Interceptor had to return and Albatross 2 arrived on site.

It couldn't have been more than ten minutes or so... but that was all it had taken for Dove to vanish into the Graves. She'd patrolled the area both in person and with her suite of drones for days, but eventually had to be called away to prepare for the impending Hunt.

"Good news, Jade! You didn't kill anybody," Wolf chirped.

"Oh lovely... Good news, good...," Jade trailed off as the tension audibly left her body and she fell into exhausted unconsciousness. Wolf quietly dimmed the lights in Jade's room and shut the door behind her.

"Pardon," she approached Jemma, nudging the physician with a toe once before stooping to lift her up and put her on one of the other infirmary beds. She sat down on an open bed with a sigh and let her legs swing for a long moment. Her black furred ears perked up and turned towards the girl, cyber-cochlear implants listening for and recording any involuntary sounds her body made... Wolf already knew she didn't really have vitals, which wasn't concerning in the least. Nope.

[Vocal Analysis Standing By] . . .

"Dove?" Wolf asked pointedly... no point in hesitating: if this was a Stranger, both HK and she would know pretty quick. The red of HK's attention glowed dimly behind the blue of Wolf's right eye. "Do you remember who I am?"

"Yeah, the stories you all know are mostly... Quit polluting my garden with magic, miss extra equipment. It's gonna take days for this mess to clear up." Raudd said before taking a long drag on the cigarette burning it down to a stub as well, handing it to Archer for collections after smothering the flame between his fingers.

He listened with delight to the story Archer told about Ladon, despite all the efforts of the rest of the pantheon Zeus tended to feature as the main troublemaker in most of Greek myth... Made you wonder if that still held true, or that time and therapy had managed to get a handle on his behavior.

"That's the case for most of the ancient deities, the Norse pantheon is still causing trouble... Just not on this branch of the world tree. Even with Odin's attempts as the head you really can't manage that headstrong bunch." He corroborated to Yue after Archers statement about his family.

At which point he turned to Archer "On the note of trees and golden apples, could you please request Hera to not approach our garden in the future? Zolya would really prefer not having to explain to Iðunn, or Freyja for that matter, why her golden apples are gone. We really don't need that cross pantheon myth." He ends with a laugh imagining the mess that would create.

"Do you remember who I am?"
What an interesting question. Memories flashed through Jemma's minds' eye as she stared into open space for a moment or so. An early interaction with the woman in front of her, asking for maintenance on her cyberware in return for a favor. And then forever returned, "You do the best work, after-all." Wolf had said then. Both a long time ago and only just yesterday. Huh.

Jemma's face twisted into a frown, as ink pulsed to the surface of her skin. Wolf's sensitive hearing was treated to a cacophony of whispered sounds from deep within Jemma's chest.
There were whispers of twinned voices, cries of many different types of beasts, and the rushing boom of waves on a beach. All of it no louder than a whisper heard behind a doorway. The pitch-liquid settled around her chest, legs, and arms. Feathered wings, colored like amber with prismatic smears running through, gave her a semblance of modesty. Exposed skin was covered with 'tattoos', which occasionally writhed and shifted in shape. Sometimes, it was patterned as if she was a skeleton, with bright white bones shining against pure black skin. And other times, it was as if she were awash in lines of blue, purple, silver, and gold, vibrant and bright against her skin in an unnatural way.

"I... Yeah, duh? You're Wolf! I used to 'fix-up' your ware! You uh, helped me kick my cigarette addiction. Oh!" She stopped rambling, taking a moment to snap her fingers, "You once threatened to cut off my ex's giblets because he wouldn't let go of my arm!" Jemma chirped with a smile.
The ink came to a stop, as did the nearly silent sounds from within her chest. She shifted her weight from foot to foot, already antsy and needing to pace. "It's only been... Uh... Huh. It feels like its been about six hours, maybe? What day is it? I haven't, uh, really been keeping track of time! Haha..." She trailed off. If her heart was beating, if she HAD a heart to beat, it would've begun to speed up with barely contained panic.
Her face gave her emotions away anyways, as the panic got worse. She remembered both a lot, and a little. And the world was spinning with astral shapes, emotions, memories, impressions, and pure [MANA]. It was a lot!

"I also said not to run your mouth about that," Wolf quipped with a grin. She forced her ears to stay up and recording in spite of the fact that what her implants were picking up sent chills slithering beneath her skin. Oddly, the phantom sensation even traveled the length of her cybernetic arm. She normally felt cold void when the sensors on her steel palm and fingertips weren't telling the lizard part of her brain that registered touch she was, indeed, holding something and it was [71.1 degrees Celsius]. Wolf set down the coffee she didn't remember picking up back on the nightstand.

"If Alex caught wind that I was threatening to castrate people in ShieldTown, he'd make the 'Upsetti-Spaghetti' face, and I just wouldn't be able to cope."

"Hey hey," Wolf comforted, pushing herself off the bed after a moment of hesitation where here eyes flicked up and to the right as if that would make the voice-print confirmation and HK's message in the corner of her HUD that her target was [75% Emotionally Distressed] easier to read. "You're in a safe place. I'll make sure nobody can hurt you here uh," Wolf paused, taking an involuntary glance back towards Jade's room as she slowly approached Jemma. "Jade is new and doesn't really have a handle on her new abilities yet, you'll have to forgive her."

"Vi is another new face... well... she never takes her fox mask off, so she'll be a new mask and... she has lots of chrome for you to work on! I'm sure she'd appreciate your expertise, and... Hey," Wolf stopped a few paces away and held her arms open loosely, inviting Jemma in for an embrace, ignoring the [Warning] that HK flashed in her HUD. Clearly there was something more there than just the Dove she knew, but they hadn't told anyone about the ex-boyfriend incident. There was enough of Dove there for her to justify the risk.

"We don't have to talk about all that right now. There's a safe haven for you here for as long as you need it."

There was an attempt by the two men to give Ash some form of farewell before she left. They didn't manage a single word before the door closed. Alex having been confused as to her sudden rush, and Dean had only just gotten himself off the floor from his laughing fit.

"I'm just gonna clean." He went about the kitchen as various utensils and such were telekineticlly moved about with a practiced ease. Dean having only just brushed himself off and pushing the chairs back under the table before Alex spoke up while his back was turned. "Was she a brute or something? what was with the leaving bite marks on me comment?"

Dean did his best to stay strong. He held it in so hard he curled in on himself and gently planted his forehead onto the table. "No clue dude. Maybe she just thought you were a snack." He had to quickly dance away from a few half-hearted bolts of blue energy lazily slapping into his previous location. "It is a wonder how you are still single if you ask me."

Alex flipped Dean the bird without turning around. "Could say the same to you Jackass."

"I'm just in no hurry, at least I'm not clueless when someone is being so obvious." Dean stood still this time as more bolts came but didn't come anywhere close to him before fizzling out. Despite the banter, the air in the house couldn't be any more carefree now. finally felt normal again. Neither of them would hold it against her, but that Templar falling down here seemed to have kicked the proverbial hornets nest so bad it started a chain reaction that didn't seem to have calmed down entirely just yet. Even with the current mirth, there was an underlying tension. Word through the grapevine was that not all the other outer settlements had done as well as Shieldtown, the Forges, or Stoneworks. one of the smaller time Rogues was MIA, and two on the far side of the graves were out of commission. The Undercity proper wasn't that bad but that wasn't saying much given that there was apparently a resurgence in Ripper activity on top of new sighting from the Cult of Flesh.

Dean gave the big guy a look and sighed to himself. Sometimes he wished he had just [initiated] Alex and help out . . . just a little. couldn't catch this mage dead wearing a costume. Even if they got Silver Fang back topside in the next few days there was still gonna be a mess down here. And Alex might start suffering from the fucking Haze he's been storing up on his own somehow. Still not gonna let himself go for not noticing that detail sooner. and a Hedge Mage is supposed to be always cautious and prepared.

That's when someone knocked on the door. "Finally, someone with some manners. I swear if Ash somehow left something I'm gonna fucking laugh."

Alex cocked his head to the side to listen. "I think its Rat, You didn't leave the garage open did you? don't need him poking around in there. And I'm not making any more coffee or food for anybody today!" He was only partially serious on that note though and Dean probably knew that.

"No . . . No I did not. But i think there is someone else at the front door." Dean made his way into the living room and turned towards to the front door. "Just a sec." He opened the door to find a rather striking and fairly intimidating woman standing at his front porch. Though given his history with dangerous women he wasn't all that phased. "Sup, How can I help ya?" Dean kept a hand in his pocket around a piece of his jade, but for the most part kept his usual lazy demeanor and leaned against the door frame. Luckily the kitchen and dining space were offset in another space to keep Alex, or Aegis if there was trouble, out of sight.

"Oh that's the wonderful thing about Magic," Archer snickered. "You can't ever truly escape it. Even in this place, low levels of Mana seep into the area from the plants, water, stone, and local fauna. Even the air you breathe carries trace amounts," he explained, taking the final drag on his cigarette and putting it out in his foil pouch.

"The ripples in the pond from acute manipulation will settle quickly, and my ability doesn't produce any Haze so there won't be any lingering disturbance... you have more to worry from our guest here, who involuntarily burns Mana and constantly produces a low Haze, even in her sleep," Archer grinned. Yue immediately blushed, flinching like she'd been struck at the realization she was polluting Raudd's sanctuary.

"Oh fuck! I'm sorry, I-I didn't- I can't turn it off, I just needed to be someplace... 'dim' to collect my thoughts, I didn't even think," Yue flustered as she hurried to get up. Archer laughed. "It's not funny!"

"Settle down," he chirped. "Part of the reason I came out was to help clean up. Wouldn't do for us to leave our trash laying around this beautiful garden."

Yue paused and took a deep breath to settle her spike of anxiety. She resumed walking back towards the house after a moment, flicking Archer in the back of the head as she passed, eliciting a smirk from the man.

"Well. Regardless, it's getting late. I don't know if I will sleep, but some quiet time to read is in order at the very least. New book and all, you know how it is," she teased. "Good night."

Archer stood up, dusting himself off and stretching for a moment before he lifted his hand towards the center of the garden. A breeze picked up, rustling the leaves of groomed trees and shrubs, and blowing ripples across the pond below them. The leaves, grass, flowers, stone, and water all seemed to respond. For a fraction of a moment [Artemis] was there, at the center of the gentle vortex. Nature's primal beauty, and visceral danger pulled Yue's lingering haze to [her] palm where it formed into an arrow.

[She] pointed a finger, and the tattoo on the back of his hand pulsed, an intangible bow flickering into existence for just a moment, just long enough to loose [her] shot. Unerring, the arrow carved a path over the garden and through the door to the manor, navigated the 90 degree turn and whipped out of sight nearly faster than the eye could track. A fraction of a second later the crystal chime of the arrow striking the Manor's Arcane Drain and Yue's "Ooh!" of wonder echoed softly into the garden.

Archer snapped his fingers. It resonated through the [Immaterial] as he sat down, and the Astral Sea surrounding the garden, and for some distance beyond became as tranquil as though it had been untouched and unexplored for years. Even Archer's presence was difficult to detect: if you weren't looking directly at him, one could easily forget he was there.

"I don't think you'll need to worry about Hera," he chimed in after a long minute of silence where he just gazed out over the manor at the cloying darkness overhead, probably longing for the days when the curtain of night wasn't blotted out by the progress of mortals. "Our tree has since been relocated to Elysium," he gestured above them in the direction of the tower.

"And if you really are serious about marrying into the pantheon I'm pretty sure Apollo is single right now," he grinned, unable to hide the expression of amused mirth spreading across his face. "He doesn't usually go for the outdoorsy handsome type, but he might come around once he finds out you're immune to the relationship ending by dying horribly."

"Trust me I'm fully aware of that, the world around me is never 'silent', mana or otherwise. But there is a difference between the low hum of these plants here, the slow roar of a bonfire from the sun, and the violent screeching that magic and some deviants produce. Something about the way they bend reality I guess." Raudd explained with a sigh as he noticed Yue getting flustered and getting up.

"Don't worry about it, would have done the same thing if I were in your shoes. I'm only annoyed at the one knowingly polluting the area." He said with a slightly annoyed glance towards Archer, who proceeded by reassuring her himself and draining away some of the annoyance on Raudd's face as he explained he would clean up the place.

With Yue getting up and walking away to head to bed, explaining she would probably get little sleep and would likely be diving into the book she had just gotten. "I'll swing by in an hour or so to give you a little nightcap, sleep is important to the mind. Helps one to take in the day's events so to speak." He said as he watched Archer pull more of his magic shenanigans, though this time he seemed to be cleaning up like he said rather than add to the tumultuous waves the two of them had created in the garden.

"That's... At least one worry less with all the magic bullshit going on around here." Raudd replies with a sigh after Archer gives his a little startle by speaking when his presence has been mostly erased and masked by the background noise of the magic he just used.

"You know with the history he has with tragedy befalling those he takes a fancy in... I think I'd rather stay away from his peripherals, he might actually perform the impossible. Not to mention we both know this curse of yours isn't going to last and within the next few incarnations you'll both return to your preferred form and call me superficial all you want, but I'm not going to bet on that cointoss." He says with a little bit of jest as he makes his way towards a particular piece of shrubbery. "Besides, love has to grow naturally, not even magic can change that... For me at least."

At the end of his statement he bent over grasping one of the branches of the shrub besides him, pinching it off with his nails rubbing it between his hands before handing it to Archer. "Put this one in the vase with the lavender, a little fresh rosemary should help her calm her mind. Anyways I'm gonna head into the kitchen, gotta make a few nightcaps for the ladies in our midst or they would work themselves till dawn. Could I interest you in a warm cup of ginger, honey, and turmeric infused milk as well?" He asked as his feet began dragging him to the entrance of the garden and towards the kitchen.

Máire's eyes went from the beanie, to the droopy eyes, to the hoodie, before flickering briefly over the college burnout's shoulder to another life sign her HUD was tagging further in the house. Was this Lazy-Cap's... roommate? Sugar baby?

Wait, no. "Lazy-Cap". This man in front of her was wearing a beanie and looked unemployed. Rat's mind seemed to be too literal for the appellation to be some clever figuratism for anyone more respectably presented.

God damn it.

"...Lazy-Cap, I assume," Máire greeted coolly, crossing her arms and shooting a look back at Rat. "I've been reliably- somewhat reliably informed you're the one to speak with about finding people." Her eyes went over his shoulder again. "May I come in, or does your girl need more time to get dressed?"

Boy was Dean familiar with that look the woman was giving him. Oh right, it was the same kind of look some of his family would give him. this was already going to be fun. Staying in the doorway, noting the use of Rat's nickname for him and the request about finding people. "Depends who you are looking for." There was a pause when two and two were put together as to who present company meant by his "girl".

Spirits he was so damn close to falling over and laughing again. A mental note was made to potentially tell Alex about that tidbit. Definitely telling everyone else though.

"No no, just give them a second." Dean turned his head inside. "HEY AEGIS! MAKE YOURSELF PRESENTABLE WE GOT WORK!" There was a loud banging sound followed by a minute of silence before Alex walked into view in his new bronze armor. Dean suppressed the urge to whistle. Certainty look leagues more professional then his old getup. With the big man all suited up Dean looked back to their "Guest." "Sorry, Aegis and I weren't expecting any jobs today after . . . everything that happened yesterday. Dean moved out of the doorway and motioned the woman to come in.

There was a nod shared between the too man before taking up spots in the living room. Dean flopping onto the couch while Aegis kept his helmeted visage squarely on the stranger. "So, who went missing?"