Noah blinked as he got an idea, and started undressing and putting on his jammy pants he wore when he was in dragon form. "I just had a wild idea, God bless the French."

He clacked his teeth, "Fluffy, I know you can hear me murder cat. If you want to keep your singing lady safe come here. Ill need you to hop into a suit. If we can make Gasty look a fool your lady will be safe and you can hunt freely."

"And I'll buy you a whole Texas long horn to eat."

He whipped his head down and messed up his hair. He also pulled from his bag some of his instant Jitters coffee.

 Unfortunately, Mistral's appeal to the wolf spirits had roughly as much effect as Noah's appeal to Fluffy... who Mistral finally managed to start tracking because he'd grabbed a branch containing a 3ft long wasp's nest and said nest was now flying toward the mob at high altitude and velocity.

OOC: going to pause here because Mistral now has a bead on Fluffy's location even though he's not responding.

Mistral could only smirk when Noah summoned dragon-sized pajamas and Jitters jet-fuel coffee.  She had absolutely no clue what he had in mind, and she had long since learned it was better not to attempt to critically examine Noah's methods.  Looking too closely would lead to the (justifiable) temptation to temper the absurdity, which would be counterproductive considering that his most absurd plans tend to be the most wildly successful ones.  Mistral sighed with amused resignation, "Be about your nonsense, then.  Bonne chance."

It was unfortunate that the spirit wolves seemed to be of lower nature and not subject to reason, which made the unexplainable absence of a greater spirit leader all the more glaring.  It was likely Fluffy had simply eaten the cairn spirit, which would be unfortunate for any hope of peace talks.  Whatever the case, spiritual negotiation was a non-starter in the present emergency, so that matter must wait for later.

Just as she turned away from the spirit wolf pack Mistral detected Fluffy enroute to the mob bringing a hornet's nest, of all things.  It was a dangerous prank, but it showed signs that Fluffy recognized that a full-on massacre was not a good solution.  She reported telepathically to Noah, ~You will be proud of Fluffy.~  She psychically shared with him the live scried vision of what the clever murder-beast was up to.

Mistral took no action to stop what was happening... for now.

 Fluffy bombed the angry mob with a giant wasp's nest as he flew away but, rather than exploding in a cloud of angry wasps, the paper nest's trajectory was suddenly and wildly thrown off course, somehow managing to hit him in the groin even though it had been dropped behind him.

 There was an oof in the darkness, followed by a few seconds of silence, then a scream of unbridled agony as Gaston took off running into the woods swinging his arms wildly. Without the nest, Mistral could no longer track Fluffy and Gaston's departure did little to dissuade the angry mob... but Gaston himself was neutralized for the moment.

 That said, the mob was getting quite close to the decrepit castle.

Noah clapped his hands on a little portion of mana, scattering it like dust. He worked a bit of prime and infused the area with a phantasm. He painted a picture of a castle that just had a rich hiking couple camp within. Complete with a number of trade mark gadgets that marked them as American tourists, to feed the expectations of the French who lived in a tourist town.

"Step one in hypnosis, interruption expected patterns and subvert assumptions.
" If he could get the locals questioning what they had been told at all, it would be a gamble but it would remove trust from the wolves and hopefully get them to abandon the wolves.

Not to mention Fluffy could remain unseen, they could later work on his image. But for his plan to work he needed the wolves off center. So he fed a mana into his form just to boost the presence. Unlike humans he was counting on the werewolf supernatural senses.

This was going to be interesting...

Gaston was was dealt with for now, although Mistral expected he would be a problem later.  Mistral's prior efforts to subtly divert or dissuade the mob had failed, so now they were at the doorstep despite the loss of their leader.  Further efforts to stop them would necessarily be more severe and risking of mass disbelief or paradox.

In the hospital in town, Mistral's physical form was a forgettable background character awaiting the physicians who would see Belle.  As they waited she asked the girl, "<Have you much great attachment to the château?  It is rather in disrepair.>"  It was quite possible that Molotov cocktails may soon be flying toward it, and Mistral was considering the variables about whether the derelict structure was worth defending.

 Now in a hospital bed, Belle shook her head. <"No. I do not. I was merely taken there after escaping the monsters.">

 Meanwhile, the mob had reached the gate to the decrepit castle. They began to force their way in but Fluffy had returned. Unfortunately, Noah was largely unsuccessful in his attempt to divert the ire of the mob. The only reason he wasn't lynched was because of the large stone that came crashing down between Noah and the mob, sending dust flying and buying Noah a moment to escape.

Noah moved around to break line of sight. "Looks like they are not in the mood for a chat even in the slightest. Perhaps a rage power of some kind? Either way we will need to figure out if Guss Guss is the result for that infection. Cant have a bunch of dancers loitering the area."

"Shall we evacuate and reorient?"

 Noah's communication was interrupted by one of the villagers screaming ad he was dragged off into the night sky.

 The mob turned its attention away from Noah and toward the direction the villager was taken, giving Noah some more breathing room.

Once the abducted villager was lifted far enough up to be no longer visible to the mob below, the screaming individual suddenly winked out of existence and reappeared back in the village outside the door of whatever medical establishment may exist there.  Mistral wasn't aware of the extent of the fellow's wounds or whether the medics were in or not, but she had done what she could and had more pressing matters to attend to.

At nearly the same moment Fluffy's clicking ended suddenly in the sky above the château, then resumed far away in the chamber full of severed arms deep within the Ebon Pyramid.  The clicking would likely take on a displeased character as Fluffy found himself to be suspended in the air above the chamber floor, immovable even by gravity from that fixed point in space.

As soon as Noah had moved himself out of the mob's sight he would find his surroundings rapidly changed from the nighttime château grounds with a mob roaring nearby, to the stony halls of the Ebon Pyramid lit by Grey-power.  Mistral was already there brooding in the shadows of her hood and sighed with resignation, "That went rather worse than I'd hoped.  Belle and we are safely away and Fluffy is contained, at the least.  The mob may do as it will, now."  She turned to glance in the direction of the angry clicking echoing down the corridor.

---

 And, as suddenly as they'd appeared, they were gone, back to the safety of the Ebon Pyramid. Fluffy was indeed clicking angrily but, held as he was, there was no escape for him. His grabbing of the villager had been the only means to target him, but it had worked.

"They had to have some kind of mind spell on the crowd, they went real fast and did not spend a whole lot of time talking to them. Not to mention they just ignored a phantasm that should have grabbed them by the nose and held them."

"So some kind of werewolf shenanigans?" He walked up closer to Fluffy. "Buddy, buddy, you did good out there. You did real good. We have a line on the girl and she is safe and sound. Getting Patched up and you'll get to see her in no time. Trust me buddy, I know how it is with a gal and her monster."

"I'm really proud of you big guy. You've learned so much, come so far, and that was some brilliant preparation out there. Best murder cat ever."

"Oui, Gaston had some way to reduce the efficacy of willworking in his local space.  Plutôt vexant.  At least we dealt with him for the time being..."  Apropos of nothing, Mistral broke out in a dry sing-song voice,

"No one screams like Gaston,
No one flees like Gaston,
With pants full of angry bees like Gaston..."

She sighed and went on, "It will not be the last we see of him, I believe.  The spiritual malaise in the area is a result of his fear-mongering driving the populace to anger and loathing.  I would as soon drop him into the Gobi desert and wash our hands of him, but I imagine there is a better path."

To Fluffy, Mistral agreed, "You have done very well, Fluffy, and know that we do not blame you for this misunderstanding.  The people who came to hurt you and Belle were misled, and I only brought you away to ensure your safety.  The danger is passed and Belle is safe, so if you simply calm yourself and behave I will release you."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKJp_5lKiXI

 Fluffy's response was a bone-rattling roar that echoed through the pyramid. The congealed space made it (VERY) vaguely possible to see his outline attempting to thrash around within the suspended space. Despite soothing words, Fluffy was currently a very angry cat.


 Should Mistral look, the villagers had begun milling about in the castle, looking for signs of Fluffy to no avail. Then, when there was no outlet for their fury, they set fire to the accumulated brush inside and stepped outside to watch it burn.

 Gaston, for his part, had fled. Instead of finding him though, Mistral could only find another pair of severed arms sitting in the snow.

Noah put fists on hips and kept his smile for Fluffy. "Think you can make a mirror portal so Fluffy can hear Belle sing? He isn't going to calm down till he knows she is safe and that is only gonna happen if he hears her sing. Worst case is once they set her leg we can pull her here with the good doctor."

He turned around in full ascended dragon form. "I am going to take a lap or two around the apartments so the tower residents know it is all well under control. This is a safe place and they should feel safe."

Mistral inclined her head and raised a hand to trace out a small aperture in space just outside the spatial warp suspending Fluffy in place.  With the tap of a finger the aperture opened a view into a well-lit, pastel-colored hospital room where Belle sat up on the bed in a paisley gown with wounded leg propped up, speaking to a resident doctor while a nurse worked in the background.  Belle looked tired and in pain, but she smiled nonetheless as she spoke.  Sat next to the bed was an exact replica of Mistral, who was seemingly the only one in the room able to see the portal.  The Mistral in the Pyramid said to Fluffy, "She has just had her X-Rays.  The doctor explains to her the plan to set the bone and apply the nano-fiber mesh to immobilize the leg for recovery."

In the hospital room, Mistral glanced away from the small portal aperture visible only to her and listened to the doctor conferring with Belle.  After another minute the conversation had concluded, and the resident doctor departed to make preparations, leaving herself alone with Belle for perhaps twenty minutes before it would be time to set the bone.  After a pause, Mistral said to Belle, "Fluffy is safe away from those who wish him harm, but he is rather upset.  Would you sing for him, madamoiselle?  He will hear your voice."
This message was last edited by the player at 10:40, Mon 08 Aug 2022.

Noah landed attaching himself to the balcony outside, poking his head in. "Laps made, people look fairly ok." He smiled as Mist already had the ball rolling. "Its mind bending thinking on how you split your attention like that. Girl got skill." He would be in a coma and a half even trying.

There was a hope Belle could calm fluffums down. She would likely need to be adopted and added to the ever growing family. All the odd lot of the world connecting and growing. It was going to be a bright and fun future.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:24, Mon 08 Aug 2022.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLorDVbY6KM

 Fluffy had been practically vibrating in his suspended state. Spines from his body distorted the light immediately around him, obsfucating his form into a cloud (and, when the suspension was lifted, likely into a projectile volley in every direction). Though he was not able to actually escape, there was no doubt that anyone who crossed that threshold (or was in the same room with him when the suspension was lifted) would have a very bad day.

 He thrashed violently within the infinite space, trying to maul anything he could reach... that was, until Belle began to sing. Her voice was, in a word, beautiful. It filled both the hospital room and the apartment where Fluffy made his lair.

 It was only then that the thrashing ceased. By the end of the verse it had stopped entirely. By the end of the second verse, Noah and Mistral could hear purring.

 There was, of course, the volley of tranquilizer spikes that would be unleashed when the suspension was unleashed but... for now... Fluffy was calm.

Mistral waited in placid silence as Fluffy roared and raged within his prison of infinite space with a multitude of envenomed quills suspended dangerously in flight all around him.  Then, Belle began to sing beautifully, and the shift in mood was palpable.

Soon enough Fluffy was purring contentedly, and the stoic archmagess allowed herself a rare smile that only Noah was there to see.  As the last verse drew to a close Mistral beckoned Noah away from the purring murder-cat's chamber and said to him, "They make quite the team, non?"

In the silence that followed, she said to Noah, "We have a new problem.  It is Milo again."  Once Belle's song ended, there came a sudden staccato burst of loud impacts as dozens of envenomed quills struck the wall across from Fluffy's open door at high velocity.

Noah followed along and chuckled, "A girl and her monster, they do make a well-formed team." He well understood Fluffs anger. If something wounded Mistral he would likely flip over the local area like a coin to stop the threat.

"Well, Poe and Frank couldn't detect the connection that Al could. But that was a god putting it in Nef. I can talk to them, given the report I gave them showing there was a 'bug' in the soul they couldn't find they may be interested or shrug me off as I lost a fair bit of face with them."

"First step I would encourage is I can work a bit of necromancy and talk to him. I mean, who did the diagnostic? Nef doesn't know a soul from a toaster, all of her powers are either body-related or movement-related so far as I have cataloged. If he is in your domain let's pull the wood out of him and chat. I don't know all his powers but do you think he could get out of your core?"

"Yea... We need to check him out ourselves, figure out from there." He was still a bit careful having rushed to the big guns last time there was a soul issue.

Mistral scoffed, "Aucune chance.  He is noplace.  Nothing to be found and nowhere to go from within."  She stared into the middle distance and added somewhat less confidently, "As for his sire, I am somewhat less certain."

Noah proposed waking up Milo, which seemed a sensible next step, albeit a risky one.  She said, "It was Sal et Michael who alerted me to this circumstance and requested his safekeeping.  I did not receive the full tale from them, and I suspect there are rather large implications involved.  We must confer with them as well."

Mistral summoned a slate from thin air and called Sal and Michael on an encrypted line.  In lieu of a greeting she said to them, "Our impaled friend is secured, but I believe that to be far from a resolution to the matter.  Will you Messieurs join Noah and myself to discuss next steps?"

"Yea, even my best tricks will only slow his dad down. That guy is a bag of angry cats just waiting to knock everything over... No offense Mr. Wraith."

"The hard part is Milo is a beefy vampire in a supernatural sense. If there is something screwy with him its gotta be a hell of a spell. I've got enough prime to break the whole stack of the normal stuff. Let's burn some options prior to calling in Al, frank, or Poe."

"Sides, Milo knows we have his back. You don't just ho hum saving someone's life and helping him with Drac mudda fkkn ula."

 Wraith turned and looked at Noah with great disappointment on his feline face. "Maow."

 He reached around with his teeth to pull something invisible out of his posterior before dropping it on the ground in front of him. It was one of Fluffy's quills. However, the Reaper Cat seemed unperturbed by being tranquilized.

-----------

 Fluffy, for his part, seemed quite calm. So long as Belle was visible to him, Mistral could locate him via his purr. However, when the window closed, the purring ceased and the agitated clicking began. Three clicks later, there was a whoosh and Mistral had lost him.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:45, Thu 11 Aug 2022.

"Yeeeaaa, that tracks... If you had been hurt I'd not be sitting idle. Fluff is either heading back to the hide out or to the hospital to find her. It's what I would do."

He leaned down and offered Wraith shoulder rides. "I know you're likely good but it would be rude of me to not offer to look after you when you're out of sorts."

He smiled at her no place and the very concept of bent space. "You're power and control of space is both terrifying and admirable. The boys on their way?"

Mistral sighed with exasperation when Fluffy vanished once again in a whoosh of rapid motion.  She pinched the bridge of her nose and grumbled, "Is there no way to impress upon notre chat-meurtrier that Belle is safe and he may see her again in a matter of hours once she has been discharged?  This degree of codépendance is rather unhealthy.  Now I must prevent the destruction of a hospital."  She traced her fingers in gestures tracing a roughly spherical shape in the air while uttering cryptic syllables.  Then, she finished with no apparent effect and no explanation.


"Oh, quit it." Mistral said with the tone of flattered annoyance she usually took when Noah lavished her with praise.  From nothingness she produced a blue scarf and matching knitted beanie hat with a white fuzzy pom-pom on top.  As she donned them she answered, "Oui. We convene présentement."  A swirl of glowing mist delivered them seamlessly to a sunlit platform several hundred feet above, where they would meet with Sal and Michael.

OOC: Consider this the prequel to my post in Darkest Night, and moving over to there now :)