Fantasy Cursed Island

[Fangs9090]

"Glass. And pieces of stuff. It's kinda shiny."

Fia watched Beri from a distance, but she really couldn't think of how to help him, so she figured it was best to let him figure it out himself.

 

[Darkling0096]

Nyah picked up a shard and frowned. Adran probably wasn't going to be happy that Shuffle was just playing with the glass bottles like this. She waved her hand over the pile and repaired the bottles with Mending. "We don't want to cut anyone up, now do we?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle blinked. “Oh. I guess so.” The shards were less pretty when they were whole again.

 

[Darkling0096]

"Hmm," Nyah didn't want Shuffle sad, so she tried to think of something else to be able to entertain her. "Ooh, I wonder if there's any other shinies hidden around the grove?"

Around that time, back at the pools, Jerry surfaced again, walking out of the pool and flicking water off of her wings and tail and toweling herself dry. Redressing herself as best she could without Poli to perform the part of nearly the entire outfit.

 

[Fangs9090]

Shuffle flicked her ears and glanced around. She seemed to brighten up a bit as she headed off to go look around.


Asta had picked a pool where he could more or less keep an eye on Jerry’s pool. He was washing himself the best he could, but that mostly meant moving around and soaking for a bit. Most of his usual grooming with just done with his tongue anyway.

 

[Darkling0096]

Nyah sighed, that had worked. Now all she had to do was sprinkle assorted shiny things around to keep Shuffle busy.


Jerry ducked when she saw Asta, trying to make her way back to the camp quickly and quietly and seek Veo and Erina's council like she had at Asta's initial confession.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta had his head under when Jerry came up. By the time he looked, she’d headed back. Since he didn’t see her yet, he continued washing up.

 

[Darkling0096]

When Jerry returned to the campsite, she hurried to find Veo and Erina and ask to see them in Erina's tent. Her tent was a disaster and she didn't want either of them to see or be able to joke about what had happened.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina glanced over from her loom as Jerry went by. She glanced at her work before stepping away to see what Jerry needed.

 

[Darkling0096]

Veo likewise hurried into Erina's tent when Jerry came up to ask for it. "What is it?", Veo asked, sitting down on the chair at Adran's worktable.

Jerry paced for a few seconds, trying to figure out how to phrase what had happened, and she ended up just blurting out events, she was drunk, she didn't know what to do, it wasn't supposed to get this complicated, it was like when Asta said he wanted to father Jerry's kids all over again, but somehow worse.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina settled herself onto her bed as she listened to Jerry’s tale. “Oh dear. I have been there before... I didn’t mind having the relationship though. I take it you have mixed feelings?”

 

[Darkling0096]

"Yes! No! I don't know!", Jerry threw her hands up, "I don't know!"

"I still don't understand," Veo shook her head, "He's head over heels for you, you seem to like him, or you'd just stab him and move on with your life."

"He's in love with me because I threw a love philter down his throat."

"You what?"

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina nodded. “Ah, right. I joined up with this group shortly after that. Before then, he and I lived near each other and had a few disputes over territory. He couldn’t speak at the time as he was a base chimera.”

 

[Darkling0096]

Now Veo just looked confused. "I didn't expect him to become intelligent, I was just trying to tame him," Jerry explained hastily.

"Well you sure succeeded!"

 

[Fangs9090]

"So, it seems like you feel guilty about that potion. Perhaps some part of you believes you don't deserve the affection he gives?"

 

[Darkling0096]

Jerry snapped her fingers, "Exactly."

"Well, Jerry, I don't know what we can do for you, here." Veo shook her head, "But what you've done is what you've done, this is the aftermath. What are you going to do about it?" There was no way to un-love potion something, without another love potion and a new object of affection. "Asta loves you, whether you think you deserve it or not, you've more than earned the respect of half the party. Half of us wouldn't be alive without your strategies." She got up and brushed off her knees, "But you deserve love, everyone does. Why don't you take the time we're here to talk things over with him, find out where things actually stand, and go from there."

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina nodded, standing up as well. "Better to not let this sit for too long as it may become harder to deal with. Think it out, figure out your emotions, and talk to him."

 

[Darkling0096]

Veo nodded, "I'm sure you'll make a good decision, you usually do." She gave Jerry a pat on the shoulder, "But you're gonna have to go clean your tent up. By your story it's a disaster." Jerry nodded.

-----------------------
Outside, now that the group had more or less split off into their various activities, Joanne found a corner to talk to Poli. "For what do I owe you?"

Beri, seeing Jerry return but not Asta, padded off to the pools to go see if the chimera was available for what he needed.

 

[Fangs9090]

Erina gave Jerry a smile before heading out to get back to her work.

----------

Poli shivered at the memory before giving a summary of what they'd seen.

Asta had finished with his own bathing was just shaking himself off before going to check the pool Jerry had been in.

 

[Darkling0096]

Joanne's expression reached higher levels of confusion than was normal for the group's antics at Poli's relay. "I see." That definitely warranted some kind of compensation for putting the mimic through that.

-------------
Jerry wasn't in the pool she'd been in, as she'd already returned to camp. Instead, when Asta pulled his head out of the water he saw Beri's new color palette padding towards him. "I require your aid," the leopard said.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Be glad you didn't... If you have a way for me to unsee it, I'll accept that. Otherwise...I'm not really sure what I'd need."

----------

The area was safe and Jerry was competent, so Asta figured she'd just left when he wasn't looking. He was a bit disappointed but not worried. Seeing Beri approaching, he shook the water off his head. "With what?"

 

[Darkling0096]

Joanne nodded, "Consider it a favor owed."

-----------------

"I have..." Beri flinched at the shower from Asta shaking himself off, some water steaming off of him. Whether that was corruption or just heat wasn't really clear. "Fia believes I have absorbed the full power of the phoenix that used to inhabit this cave, and I do not know how to control it's fire." He looked down at his paws for a moment. "Fia believes it may be linked to my rage, and you are the only one in the group can grapple with me to test that theory."

As he was saying that, Jerry briefly appeared to retrieve the washing barrel.

 

[Fangs9090]

"Alright, deal."Poli glanced around before going to find someplace out of the way until they were needed again.

----------

"Mm..." Asta glanced at Jerry, reassured that she was fine, before looking at Beri again. "Very well."

 

[Darkling0096]

Beri nodded, waiting for Jerry to leave with the box before padding to the woods on the edge of the pools for Asta to follow, so they'd be away from the pools.

------------

Back in the camp, once Jerry had reappeared with the barrel she vanished with it into her tent to start cleaning up the mess in their tent. Furniture needed to be folded up and returned to the deckbox so the magic could repair it, with every object that could be washed going in the barrel to be washed. The smell of liquor and sweat wasn't as easy to clean out, she had to take out her stylus and experiment, but ultimately just ended up Etching something in the doorframe and pushing the smell out with her wings so it went through the Etch and came out the other side as clean air.

 

[Fangs9090]

Asta followed after Beri.

----------

Emil, having finished his food and checked his lute, went over to check on the violin again. He didn't see any more steam rising from the pot, so that was a good sign. He just hoped being in water hadn't damaged it.