ringmaster-midori

[ringmaster-midori]

"Wheeeee!" Midori giggled as Nisha spun her.

❗❗❗

The kiss is greeted with a happy, if somewhat muffled, squeak, as Nisha picks up Midori and spins her around.

[ringmaster-midori]

"Oh.

"Oh, my.

"I guess I DON'T have to use my imagination. That's...um...quite the picture.

"Hmmm, so THAT's what he likes." Midori absent-mindedly ran the pad of her thumb over the sharp points of her teeth in her narrow snout. "Oh, no, that would never work out for us...."

[ringmaster-midori]

Connie opened the hidden doorway under the stairs, revealing a cubic metallic structure, resembling a modern art piece studded with gold and jewels. Mechanisms began to spin and move as the device hummed to life. A translucent ring of magic runes coalesced around the device as a mental blast pierced the minds of the adventurers.

"My head!" Midori held her cranium between her two hands. "That mind-control device is knockin', but it can't get in! Ow! But it sure does hurt!" She stumbled toward the device with her thieves' tools out. One look at the complicated mechanisms told the kitsune that she would have no luck disarming it. She moved back and threw Fizzarolli at the box, shouting, "Here, you try!"

Just then, Eagle Garrison soldiers, each with the same translucent ring of runes around their heads, swarmed into the room. One struck Midori, and Zookdar responded with a retributive strike against him. Midori shouted, "AAAH! Get away from meeee!" and kicked at the soldier, missing him entirely.

Another soldier ran up to Midori and hit her twice. Zookdar bashed him with his gnome flickmace, and Fizzarolli missed him with his ranseur.

Connie ran up to Midori and laid hands on her to keep her in the game. "Don't die on us today, doggie! We need you for this fight!" She cast a Life Pact on the party.

A third soldier came at Midori with his sword, slicing at her arm and back. The kitsune could only call out weakly, "Help!"

A fourth soldier approached the group, ready to strike.

"This doesn't look good, guys," Zookdar exclaimed.

[ringmaster-midori]

*giggles* Yay!

Your going in snuggle jail!

Midori ponders, "Is that where I get locked up for snuggling too much, or where I get locked up to be snuggled?"

[ringmaster-midori]

Hmm. Intriguing.

Your going in snuggle jail!

Midori ponders, "Is that where I get locked up for snuggling too much, or where I get locked up to be snuggled?"

[ringmaster-midori]

Well, I almost died today.

Didn't, though.

[ringmaster-midori]

"I...I dunno...." The kitsune hesitated. "Like Faerûn? Eorzea? Or is there some place nearby that's fun?"

*picking her up* smol.

[ringmaster-midori]

[Fast-forward to recent events....]

Midori sighed. "Well, Kairo, we had him in the first half, not gonna lie. Then he pulled some sneaky shit. He stopped time an' went invisible on us! I went through all the trouble of turnin' into an empyreal dragon an' breathin' my breath weapon on him only to find out Dyzallin didn't have a weakness to spirit damage!

"It was a massacre! He shot me out of nowhere with a crossbow bolt, an' I couldn't recover. Then he took the rest of us all out one by one. Total. Party. Kill. So we didn't defeat him, but at least we were able to absorb the resonant reflections from the aeon orb while we were there.

"An' next thing we knew, we all awoke back up on the surface back at the Circus!"

"We'll be safe! We just need to defeat Dyzallin Shraen. He's this undead drow guy who ran away with the last aeon orb. He looks old an' fragile. Should be a pushover! Then onward to victory!"

[ringmaster-midori]

"Huh," Midori thought for a moment, "maybe I'm just sayin' it wrong. Remember the night before my adventurin' party left to break the siege of Willowside? You know, THAT night?" She gave Nisha a sly grin and a knowing look. "Well, that night I told you I was undead. A ghost. No longer alive. But stuff has happened lately, an' I guess I got better because I'm 'alive' alive again."

"Nisha!" Midori shouts excitedly, "I'm alive!"

"Hooray!" Without thinking too much into it, Nisha picked Midori up in a hug and swung her around happily.

"....wait, did you almost die or something?"

[ringmaster-midori]

Wait, Galra can purr? Ooh! I gotta find me a fuzzy Galra to pet...so I can confirm that. ...yeah.

[ringmaster-midori]

I'm tryin' out a more realistic style, too! Here's a work in progress that needs some fixes here an' there. But look how pretty my humam-form face is! I spent a lot of time in front of the mirror like this so I could draw it.

I need to get better with hats. I'm thinkin' maybe an angle more like this.

[ringmaster-midori]

Midori shouted, "HOLY...!" She looked around. It's so dark an' empty out here...." She didn't know much about this 'space suit' she wore, but she assumed that her voice would somehow reach its destination.

*picking her up* smol.

[ringmaster-midori]

"Ooh!" Midori pointed with her drink hand, careful not to spill the precious liquid in her glass. "There's a soft, comfy chair over there. Let's share!"

She broke into song, attracting some curious looks from the other tavern patrons:

🎶🎶🎶 Share the chair Over there If you dare There's room to spare! 🎶🎶🎶

[Starter for @wxlfbound ]

Midori, dressed in a green V-neck T-shirt and blue jeans, took a large swig from her even larger glass as she walked unsteadily across the tavern. The kitsune squinted as she saw a person she recognized. She called out, "Lupe? 'Sss that you? Are ya hhhere to join me for drinks?"

[ringmaster-midori]

"Oh, well," Midori thought for a moment, "what I meant is that I'm now standard kitsune body temperature again. So I'd better watch out in case one o' those alien predator hunters with the heat-sensitive vision starts trackin' me down! Ha ha!

"When I was undead, I was pretty much just at room temperature. Cold when it's cold. Warmer when it's warmer. Bein' cold didn't hurt. It wasn't uncomfortable. I was just...aware of the cold. An' that was a bit depressing from time to time. It gave me the feeling of bein'...incomplete, empty, you know?

"So it was always nice when I got to sit close to a fire, or bathe in a hot springs, or have somebody cuddle with me. Stuff like that so I could feel warmth again. It reminded me of bein' alive. But now I'm alive an' I don't need the reminders anymore! (Well, I still like doin' all of those things, though.)

"The weird thing is that now I'm messin' up my right an' my left all the time. I was right-handed before, but now I find myself doin' everything with my left hand. Strange, huh? Maybe that's just part of the...resurrection process...or whatever it was that brought me back. (Nobody in the party really knows what happened to us.)

"Wait, you're experienced with things an' stuff. Do you know what causes that right-left thing?"

"Pari!" Midori shouts excitedly, "I'm alive!"

"HOLY SHIT! I didn't know you weren't alive. Thank goodness you are. Ese this would be horrifically awkward.. How are you?"

[ringmaster-midori]

Midori blinked. "Oh! You didn't know? Hmmm...though I'd mentioned it in passing before. Yeah, I've been dead for like a year an' a half. Undead, specifically. A ghost. OoOooOo!" She held out her hands and wiggled her fingers spookily.

"But I got better! I'm feelin' lively! It's...really nice to be able to generate my own warmth."

The kitsune grinned at her friend. "But, anyhow, how've YOU been?"

"Pari!" Midori shouts excitedly, "I'm alive!"

"HOLY SHIT! I didn't know you weren't alive. Thank goodness you are. Ese this would be horrifically awkward.. How are you?"

[ringmaster-midori]

Midori bounces up and down with excitement. "I mean I was dead for, like, a year an' a half, an' now I'm alive again! I got better!

"My fate isn't tied to the Circus of Wayward Wonders anymore! (I mean, I'm still the ringmaster an' I'm gonna keep makin' everything better an' better, but I won't disappear once we achieve greatness.)"

"Eive!" Midori shouts excitedly, "I'm alive!"

@the-faramir

"Hey, Mido, it's been a whi-" She blinks. "I..." Should she even ask? "That's good to hear, Mido. Did anything happen again?"

[ringmaster-midori]

"It feels great to be alive again! But I tell ya, Fen, I don't miss poopin'. Or pissin'. And I do miss havin' the ability to eat an' eat without gettin' full when all the food I'd eat would just...disappear."

Midori patted her belly twice with both hands. "Oh! I just realized! My period should come back, too! No idea when, though. Huh. But you know what that means? With functioning lady parts, I might be able to have babies!"

Midori gesticulated wildly with her hands. "Have you ever thought about what the babies would be like of you an' I got together, Fen? Boy, I sure have!" She looked up at Ferenir, eyes wide and with a huge grin on her face. "Imagine, Fen! DRAGON KITSUNE BABIES! Ohhhhhh, with my looks an' your looks combined, they'd be the most beautiful people ON THE PLANET! They'd be smart! They'd have magical powers! They'd be strong—MIGHTY, even! They'd be talented. Everyone would love them. Why, Fen, they could RULE THE WORLD! HA HA HA!"

The kitsune smiled mischievously. "Hey, Fen, don't give me that look! I'm not trying' to rope you in, to tie you down with family! I don't even want babies. I don't think I even have a maternal instinct. (Well, I am still only nineteen.) Just thinkin' out loud." She shot Ferenir a wide, happy smile.

"Fen!" Midori shouts excitedly, "I'm alive!"

The blacksmith raises his head with weary eyes but a soft smile.

"Yea, and I'm glad to see that. Every time." He raised an eyebrow after a second though.

"Wait...you mean as in, you're still 'alive', or as in no longer in your half ghost state? Did the cursed get undone?"