Interlude #1

Dearest Four of Hearts and friends: if any of you have somehow learnt Samsaran and are reading this: I would like to remind you that plants do not care for the health of the living and will gladly steal your oxygen as you rest. Faraahi is not the only one who can suffocate mortals, nor is that the only avenue of vengeance available to me. Respect my privacy.
 
How exactly am I to sum up a short trip that began with us taking a fourth-tier immortal to dinner? I don't think my group knows how to do anything normally.
 
I think it's best if I begin at... the beginning.
 
A few days ago, an announcement explained that the Loaded Deck would be docking in the Capital of Acrea for their version of the international games. As an independent organisation, we were invited as guests. I asked Sef if we'd be meeting his parents there. He apparently doesn't want to see them until he's 'proven' himself. I think he's just scared. Two important things happened as we decided to check out what events we could do:
a) We met Morwenna again, and invited her out to dinner because we're apparently trying to seduce a Fourth-Tier Immortal as a group now. I doubt it'll work, but she seemed amused at least.
b) Secondly, I caught sight of the Nature's Folly. One of the high-ranked Tesmeri ships. And by 'high-ranked' I mean we later found out that the Lord-Protector himself was there. I urgently need to write this down: when he stepped upon the stage for the Opening Ceremony, I felt a wave of unease. I couldn't tell if the others also felt strange, but if they didn't - what caused that feeling? Was he connected to one of my past selves, or is nature warning me against him? It would be so much easier if there were fewer possible causes of such a feeling. I'll investigate it when I can.
 
Oh! Faraahi and Collier met up again, too. We found out that he has a boyfriend! I think Aahi is jealous, and a little upset. If that translates into her performing some godforsaken experiment that leaves our room stinking of burnt hair again, I'm going to either freeze the room or summon something into her bed. I wonder if I can trigger a nightmare by meditating on... certain topics, too?
 
Immaturity aside, I was meant to be recapping. Before we took Morwenna to dinner, we first signed up for some events. Our options were a magical performance (as a group), an obstacle course, a duelling tournament, a non-magical performance, a battle against some sort of beast, and a race. I entered the obstacle course and race, and we all entered the magical performance. I say 'all', but Siegfried wasn't part of our little group at this point.
 
Before anything else, though, we watched the Opening Ceremony. Acrea's Grand Judge Arcosis (leader of their Judges and apparently a very important person right underneath their ruler in power) and Grandmaster Shendu (who I believe is similar to one of the Arch-leaders of the Protectorate) both appeared on stage as representatives of Acrea. Sef looked a little starstruck. I imagine if his leader were to have appeared, he'd have fainted. High Commander Sykes joined them as the Loaded Deck's representative, and Morwenna Gwynne (I may as well write her last name too) represented the Pleuyans, I believe. I've already mentioned that the Lord-Protector showed up. I'm still debating what that unease meant. I'm sure having five 4th-tier immortals is something that most of the crowd were in awe of, but really, we've met demigods, concealed things from certain other powerful beings, and chatted to Mephistopheles at this point. I'll respect their power, but to hell with being reverent.
 
Then it was time for the games! Let's go over them in order:
The obstacle course was horrible and I'm not entering something that doesn't allow me to use magic again. Without the ability to fly or change myself, running through fire was fairly painful. I quit by wildshaping and leaving. Sefris apparently got stuck in the first obstacle - a wall we could climb over or slide under - and Logan ended up in the top three. I don't remember how Faraahi did, but it took her a while.
 
The magical performance was entertaining! Faraahi and I used nature-based magic to change the arena into a dance floor with a booth for Sefris, and we combined elements to create a reflecting ball that cast light across the icy floor we'd made. Logan used some of his own magic to help with that. Some clever use of invisibility and darkness let us set Sefris on fire (harmlessly) so that he could use paladin magic to call forth song from the Outer Planes, and in our finale, we combined balls of fire, water, ice, and electricity in such a way that the invisible flaming gnome, now lit up by my spotlight, could call forth a spear from the heavens that would penetrate them in an explosion and continue on into the skies.
 
I think I can call our performance 'awesome'. We came first, understandably. We also, regretfully, let Faraahi choose our group name. Apparently we're known as Dracula's Daddies now. I'm not thrilled with her decision, and I suspect Sef is even less so.
 
The others then utterly humiliated a giant in the Trio VS Beast contest. I took the opportunity to enjoy the peace, and also fed Meteor so that he didn't try to eat Sef again. That's gotten more frequent. I think he finds it entertaining? He's still bashful about having Morwenna speak to him, too. He's such a silly bird. It's going to be fun when he hits his growth spurt, though - he'll need a little more room than normal.
 
Anyway. Day two. The race, the standard performance, and the duels. The race was first, and as magic was allowed... well. Firstly, I shifted into the form of an antelope. And then I cast Cheetah Sprint (multiple times, actually, since the course was larger than expected).
I am very surprised that I survived that race. I apparently broke the sound barrier and caused enough attention to draw some of the 4th tiers over to see what on Eulea I'd done. However, I came first by a fair amount. Apparently the others either couldn't travel 2400ft in 6 seconds, or they weren't foolish enough to try it. As much as I tease Sef about his homeland, they do provide good healing - otherwise I imagine I'd not have been able to watch the duels later on.
 
Faraahi tried entering the standard performance and did something weird with a flute. I'm suppressing this memory. It wasn't great.
 
The duels were next. Amusingly, Sef ended up in the semi-finals against Collie. Collie's gotten better since we last fought him! He defeated Sef quite thoroughly. I'm surprised Sef even survived. Thankfully, he was healed enough to watch Faraahi brutally storm her way through the competition by suffocating and traumatising her opponents. Aahi and Collie were the final two competitors. I mentioned earlier that Aahi was upset with Collie for having a boyfriend. She made that resoundingly clear by utterly humiliating Collie until he begged her to stop messing around and just end it. Somehow, I do not think that relationship will be repaired - which is likely a good thing for both of them, they'd be a terrible couple.
 
The closing ceremony for our tier was amusing - they called all of our group on stage and awarded us with a bonus prize for our successes, and because of Aahi, had to call out our party's name. Unsurprisingly, nobody attempted to read our individual names out - one of the announcers had already tried with Sef's and failed, so they did have forewarning there. We're sharing some of that additional gold with Siegfried to be nice.
 
Sef and I received invitations to watch the higher-tier stages from the Grand Judge's box. It seems to be an open invitation, so we might be able to bring the others, but... it's a little unnerving that we're the ones named. I'd imagine Sef's invitation is related to something Imperial, and have to assume my own is due to the sonic boom. I'll need to be very careful in that conversation. I can't imagine being 'heretical' to a powerful entity's face is a fantastic idea, even with the Lord-Protector around.
 
I'm just going to have to save up the teasing for when we return to our quarters! If I can make Sef leave the room, I win. It is a game with no players, but why should that change anything?
 
I'll write more later; I can hear Meteor trying to peck through a wall again.
 
Signing off,

Lunaria Isatis Annua