The flight from Auntie Cheng's den is surprisingly uneventful, though the loss of the crime boss' ledger would surely be noticed quickly. It is not difficult for Ohm to find a suitable abandoned building to hole in and rest, and she settles in to do just that, still wearing her stolen skin. However, it is not long before her ears twitch to warn she is not alone -- though she feels no sense of danger.

"Peace, moth-child, skin-thief," the raspy, guttural voice is easily recognizable from the clandestine meeting. "We wish to talk-parley, yes?"

OhmSun half raises from her relaxed position leaning on the wall, though she quickly returns to reclining against it. "Seems I've been followed. That certainly makes it simpler. I was considering going back to get you, anyway. Sorry for wrapping you up in my little scheme."

Running a hand over one of her wounds, Ohm considers for a moment. "But I'm afraid you've got me at a bit of a disadvantage, here. Would you mind if I turned on a light?" She taps the centre of Sun's forehead, indicating that she means her anima. If the creature knows she is a Lunar, hopefully that will be clue enough.

Ohm notices the thief huddling in the shadows at the corner of the room, twitching restlessly. She notices a head tilt from the figure, before she speaks. "Noticed you at meeting, yes yes. Followed after, saw murder-stab of flesh you wear. This one does not-not like light, but show of trust, yes?"

Ohm gives her best attempt at a comforting smile to the huddled creature. "I can definitely understand wanting to stay in the dark. Hard for things to hurt you when you can't be seen. But I appreciate the willingness. A sign of trust, indeed."

Eyes closing with a momentary focus, Ohm's essence suffuses her body.  She immediately feels it beginning to knit her wounds closed. That very same essence seems to seep out of her pores, wreathing Sun's dark skin in a thin coat of silvery flame. Simultaneously, her moonsilver tattoos stretch out, drawing across Sun's skin in curving patterns that seem to trace the sinewy flow of his muscles. Atop her brow, a brilliant white disk forms, starting at one side and then sliding across, like a moon waxing to full splendour.

Ohm lets out a sign as the pain of her self-inflicted wounds fades, then opens her eyes to see her little pursuer face-to-face.

The thief visibly flinches as Ohm's anima flares, clearly not having expected it. She's small, roughly the size of Ohm's own true form, huddled in heavy black garments that cover most of her body, though in the moment of flinching Ohm notices fur at the edges of her arms and legs, shaggy and grey, almost dirty-looking, and quite different from Ohm's own fluffy fur. As Ohm's eyes open, however, the thief is already throwing herself to the ground in a sign of prostration, stammering "A-Apologies god-king, I meant no disrespect-offense, please-please don't hurt-harm us!"
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:53, Mon 31 Aug 2020.

Ohm smiles, a much more gentle, more genuine display, the unconscious warmth of a mother bear to a cub. Wounds knitting closed, she leans forward, bringing an upturned palm down to rest just above the floor next to the creature's face. A gesture of peace, at least in her own wild way, offering up her scent and her skin as proof of goodwill. "No offence taken."

The thief raises her shaking hands, and slowly, lightly grasps Ohm's outstretched hand. "Gracious-kind god-king, yes yes." Her hands are fleshy claws, and as she makes her movement her hood falls down, allowing Ohm to get a glimpse at her features; her face is furred with a long snout, and with Ohm's experience with the Wyld she can clearly see that the thief is a rat-kind beastman. The thief's yellow eyes, a dull color closer to piss than any sort of golden beauty, nevertheless shine in the dark, reflecting the lingering glow of Ohm's anima.

Ohm slides her hand up through the claws, rubbing it across the beastgirl's furred face in a gentle caress. "We've enemies enough without being enemies to ourselves," she responds. "And... I can't help feeling guilty. After my own bit of pilfering, it seems Cheng has decided to be rid of you. 'That pet has reached the end of its usefulness,' so she said." Ohm tisks, the motion oddly feminine on Sun's chiselled lips. "Pet. As if other people are things to be owned. Though perhaps I understand some of her impulse." Her hand tilts the girl's chin up to meet Ohm's gaze, and the Lunar's soft smile that the rat had hidden herself from. "You are very cute."
This message was last edited by the player at 01:15, Mon 31 Aug 2020.

"Gracious-kind god-king, yes yes," the ratgirl repeats, nodding. "Auntie Cheng is criminal leader-boss, yes? Eshin has no need of her. Means to an end, easy way of getting jingly-shines only."

Eshin -- the ratgirl's name, evidently -- shrugs, though Ohm notices a slight tightening of her features, as if perhaps she is more concerned about the news than she wants to let on.

"Eshin has no love for ruthless man-things."

Ohm returns to leaning back against the wall as her wounds finish knitting closed, leaving her skin blood-smeared but otherwise perfectly intact. "Ah, I've gone and made life difficult for you, haven't I, Eshin?" She rubs her hand over Sun's chin, thoughtful. "Tell me, what did you need the jingle-shines for?"

Eshin hesitates, her head twitching around as she ponders whether to trust the shining god-king.

"Must take care of the nest-home, gracious god-king." She looks up at OhmSun, the decision to trust the Lunar making her body relax and lessening the twitching somewhat. "The man-things don't give food without jingly-shines, and the younglings can't hunt yet, yes?"

Ohm contemplates Eshin's words. "So you have a warren near the city? And children? Hmm. It seems I've caused you even more trouble than I'd thought." She lets out a sigh, rubbing her temple. "Well, I'm not going to put a whole brood in peril for the sake of a convenient plot. I'll shelve that for now, then."

"Tell me, Eshin," Ohm says to the little rat, "is your warren down here in the tunnels?"

"Yes, in the tunnels, yes yes. Many abandoned-deserted paths, many places to hide-sneak. Guards not very watchful, but most also don't like the dark-shadows." She chuckles at that, the idea of not wanting to live in darkness clearly alien to Eshin. "Other advantages, too! Children-brood can go in the city and play. Eshin can show kind god-king, yes?"

Ohm gives the ratfolk an encouraging smile. "Of course. Creation's getting dark on the margins, we can all use more friends." She leans back against the wall, her corona flickering across the stone. "Before that, though, I'll have to ask that you give me some time for my light to go out. Not much point sneaking through the dark when I'm glowing like a torch, mm?"

After waiting a few moments for the anima to settle, Ohm follows Eshin through the tunnels. The ratgirl moves with great speed, scurrying down side tunnels and less-traveled paths with the ease of someone who does this regularly, at a pace that a common mortal would be hard-pressed to match. With Ohm's natural direction sense, she realizes that Eshin is leading her back towards Jianta proper.

After a while, Eshin starts leading Ohm through visibly abandoned tunnels. At some point she grabs a torch from one of the sconces still near the populated tunnels, muttering that Ohm would need light to see, before leading the Lunar further into the tunnels. It is not long before the ratgirl stops in front of a rotting wooden door, the front of a long-abandoned underground house. She opens it with care, ushering Ohm inside before closing it behind them again. The house is truly abandoned, and there is no sign of it being lived in for a long time.

"Come-come, kind god-king. Not far now."

With those words Eshin takes Ohm to one of the rooms in the underground house. There is debris scattered everywhere, but Ohm's perceptive eyes notice that at one corner of the wall the dust seems more disturbed than everywhere else. Indeed, Eshin moves towards the corner, and pushes stones and pieces of furniture away, revealing a large hole in the wall; barely large enough for Sun's wide frame to pass through.

Ohm ducks her newly-enlarged frame to look into the hole, nodding at it appreciatively. "Quite a clever hidey-hole." Not feeling abundantly enthusiastic about crawling through a rat tunnel with the pointlessly-large body of an adult man, nor with introducing herself to more people while garbed in blood-strewn rags, Ohm releases Sun's form.

Sun's clothes fall about his form as he shrinks away, muscled arms waning and then splitting in two. Fur grows up his arms and legs and over his back as the second set of arms crawl along his sides and back and then settle next to his — her — spine. Ohm shakes her true form, dislodging dried blood in a puff of dust, her tiny body surprisingly competent at casting away filth.

"After you," she says, looking to the ratfolk and gesturing a three-clawed paw towards the tunnel. In her reduced form, her golden eyes catch the torchlight, glittering like gems in her dark face.

Eshin nods, and scurries through the hole. Ohm follows into a small entrance-hall styled room with clear signs of habitation, and she can hear faint voices coming from deeper into the nest. Eshin takes Ohm deeper into the house, to a larger room from which the voices were coming from. The place is illuminated with several candles around the corners and a large oil lantern at the center; spread around the space in pairs or trios are a gaggle of human children, playing together or otherwise doing as children do. The oldest don't seem older than 10, though Ohm is not the best judge of these things. As the two nonhumans enter the room, the children go silent, turning to the newcomers. They don't look afraid, but the older ones look apprehensive, staring at Ohm with curiosity.

"My younglings, gracious god-king." Eshin smiles, scratching at a spot in her neck, looking at Ohm expectantly.

Ohm straightens up into a standing position, looking slightly ungainly with her over-long back limbs hanging awkwardly at her sides. She channels a brief flare of essence, kindling her Cask mark like a candle. A thin crescent of silver appears upon her brow, then unfurls like a ripening moon into a brilliant silver disk. The mark of her divinity blazing on her forehead, Ohm offers the children a shallow bow, her foremost limbs clasped in front of her, claws over fist. "I am Ohm," she says in her best Serious Godkind Voice. "I have come to help." As quickly as it had appeared, the mark vanishes again, flickering into nothing like an actual candle being blown out by the wind.

Her rather flashy introduction completed, Ohm drops down to all sixes once again, sitting down on the stone floor of the room. "I suppose, first, I need to know what all of yours' story is."

The children sneak glances at each other and at Eshin, seemingly unsure of how to respond to Ohm's declaration. Then, one of the older-looking girls steps forward. She, like the other children, is wearing rough, fraying clothes, but Ohm can also see clearly that they are clean despite what associating with a rat-folk might bring to mind; as are the children themselves, some sporting dirt from playing around in the ground but none being filthy. In truth, Eshin's own clothes, while a bulky mishmash and clearly designed to help her hide and scurry, are not soiled either.

"We don't really have a story to tell," the girl says to Ohm, her body posture hesitant. "Some of us are orphans, some of us fled from... bad places. Eshin took us in and takes care of us."

Ohm's smile tightens, drawing into an unsteady line — not because of sadness, but rather because she is suppressing the urge to hug these precious kids kids and their precious rat mom. I want to protect them.

Ohm wrestles her maternal instincts back into order, mostly, before speaking. "I will do what I can to help you. Eshin is one of my people, and my actions have made her lot harder. I will not be able to do anything immediately, but as soon as I can, I will find you somewhere safe, open, and free." Despite her bold words, Ohm is visibly nervous at the promise. It is a lot to offer, more than she can currently achieve... But she'd heard of what the Empire did to beastfolk. Chains and death wasn't a fate she would let any other living thing suffer under, not if she was there and could stop it.

"Kind god-king," Eshin says in response to Ohm's pledge. "You don't need to worry yourself on account of us, no no." The ratgirl looks over the children, and hesitates; Ohm can see that she cares about her charges, and would actually welcome any help that the Lunar could give. "We are beneath your notice, yes yes."

Ohm reaches out a hand, placing it atop Eshin's head and giving the rat-girl a gentle pat. "I was chosen by Luna to shine her glory upon Creation. What greater glory is there than kindness?" She pulls her pawn away, returning to sitting upon the floor. "Besides, this won't be a one-sided gift. I have other things I need to do in the city, and you seem wise to its hidden routes." She lifts upon a paw, flattening it as if holding her words aloft like a dish. "For example, you stole a dagger from the... Ah, what did he call it? Sand trap? Of the city. There is someone in his palace I need to meet with, and I can't think of anyone better to help me get into a Dynast stronghold than someone who has already done so. Also, I'll need clothes. I don't want to meet this person wearing nothing but bloodsoaked rags... funny as her reaction might be."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:39, Sun 25 Oct 2020.

Eshin turns her head sideways at Ohm's mention of a "sand-trap", then nods in understanding. "Yes, we plucked the ornate dagger from the big palace, yes yes. Many guards, but no match for our scurry-sneak, our knowledge of the city's tunnels. Many paths unguarded, unseen. We can help." She then looks at Ohm's bloodied clothes, and frowns. "As for the clothes... We have some spares, yes? Not much, and the children need them." A hint of defiance enters the ratgirl's voice then. "Will not let them go without, no no. Can lend, yes, but will need them back."

"Ah," Ohm holds up a hand, waving it from side to side, "No, no. Not for me. For the bigger skin I was wearing before. The palace has servants, right? If we can steal whatever uniform they have, that will work."

Eshin turns her head to the other side, posture relaxing. "Ah. Yes, that would be easy." The ratgirl nods, scratching at her neck. "We can lead-guide you to the palace, hidden tunnels, back tunnels, to the servant quarters, yes yes. From there, should be easy to find-steal large clothes, and find-meet your friend, yes."