A world that exists inside of Mara-Kuru's mind. Her secret place, where all of her weaknesses can be found if one looks hard enough. The landscape flows in eerie patterns of volcanic rock flowing with lava, gas jets shooting out seemingly at random, whereas in the distance an apparent city of glass stands in awkward, jutting architecture. It is almost the picture of hell, save for a few quirks. The lava is cool, and tastes rather like chocolate. The gas jets smell of flowers, the volcanic rock is soft, and the glass city's walls are hollow, and full of bouncing balls. Other structures can be seen in the distance from the typical entry point.

---

Helantri Deru

---

Ting blinks when she and her mother materialize on Mara's mindscape. "Heeey...this is kinda...dark."

Felina smiles a bit at her daughter. "There's more to your aunt than you know. But, you're the one who's, as she put it, on her wavelength."

"Hey, the lava tastes like chocolate! What'd'ja say?"

It's going to be a long day.

"Hey, she touched the lava!"
"Did she? Let me see?!"
"No way, that's lava, you'd have to be a total idiot...!"
"It's not really lava, you know."
"It could be."
"Wha?"
"If it was cold chocolate lava."
"Anyway there she is! Grab her!"
"I can't, she's a girl!"
"So are you!"
"Come again?"
"Lava-eater!"
"I'll grab her!"
"Me too!"
"Me neither!"

The voices all come more or less at once, in three or four apparent groups, as an entire troup of porcupines surround the Serinians, pouring out from several holes in the ground.

One of Felina's eyebrows twitches.

Ting squeals. "Cuuuuute!" She's about 1.3 seconds away from pouncing as many porcupines as possible. She'll find a way.

"Wait!" Another porcupine, this one waddling around on two feet and dressed like a Hawaiian king, waves his grass-stick at them. "We are indeed cute. What your business be here? Come steal chocolate?"

"Nope! That just happened 'cause it's so gooood." Ting grins. "But it's not why we came here, nope. We're here...hm. Why are we here again?" Ting looks over at her mother.

"We're here looking for a powerful creature that doesn't belong, and is creating a disruption. We need to take it back where it came from."

"She wants the big guy."
"So do you."
"I just want pictures of him bench pressing me. Fun stuff."
"Shut up, you two, we're trying to look imposing, Chief's even doing the foreigner-speak."

"Powerful creature? Ahh... you mean The Great Rooster." The leader points off towards the glass city with his staff. "He stand all day on mountain top, looking. Sometimes he flap wings, stir up sugar on road. Sticky."

"Not a rooster! It's a..."

"Rooster. Sounds right." Felina nods, and bows. "Thank you for your assistance.

"Hmph. Rooster. Chicken burger, if you ask me." Ting's still in a good mood, though, and wiggling back and forth. She still wants to pounce of one them in the worst way, and is still debating the ramifications of pouncing the guy with the staff.

"Aww, they're leaving!"
"Dude, we're all over the place, you'll see them again."
"But I almost got a hug."
"Next time we'll pick a form without quills."
"Like a blowfish!"
"Exactly like a blowfish, except you're an idiot, and not like a blowfish at all."
"I am so like a blowfish."
"We forgot to tell them about the big step."
"They'll figure it out."
"... you're fired."
"But I didn't work for you."
"Want a job?"
"Sure!"
"Good! You're fired."
"Aww..."

As Felina and Ting head towards the glass city, the ground grows progressively harder. Stickier. More licorice-esque. The intriguing part about this is that a stairway rises from within the licorice, made entirely of feathers and stuck together with resin, a stairway that seems to lead to nowhere.

Felina looks up it, pondering briefly before...

"Up the stairs! Sticky feathery chicken stairs! Heehee..." Ting is having a grand time in this bizarre setting. She scampers towards the stairs.

About halfway up the visible stairs, Ting vanishes from sight. She has not teleported or anything, so much as stepped into a n illusion that prevents the place she has gone from being seen. Full of clouds that support her feet even as they bounce and puff, it is a place of rainbows and trees, and rivers where the alcohol flows like water. Several gingerbread buildings stand there, along with a huge fence that reads 'no trespassing, badness beyond'.

The gingerbread buildings are clearly labelled. "Emshei" is nearest to Ting, followed by "Amilei and Korliss, Kaies, Bob and Dingo, Blue, Ting and Dewei, Ai, Gabriel, Saea, Saea," and finally, the largest building by far, "Felina". Gallery-esque, each building bears a portrait of whomever's name appears above the door.

"Ooo...hey mother, cool colours up here! It's a happy place! Heeey...you know, the Kaies guy and the Emshei dude both look a lot alike and a lot like Makyon."

Felina, of course, isn't far behind Ting, lest there be something bitey nearby. "Kaies and Emshei are nether doubles. Makyon's a longer story. Kaies had more than one body in his life, since something happened to one...Makyon is the reanimation of Kaies's first body."

Ting wrinkles her nose. "Creepy! No one that hot should have a backstory that creepy." She jumps on a little cloud, and grins when it poofs. "Hee. Hey, I wonder what's in the house with me and Ding on it?" She heads off towards the house with her picture on it, humming a merry tune. Felina, true to her word outside, follows.

The innards of the house stretch on, and on, and on, far more than the outward appearance would suggest. However, what is inside is fairly predictable... portraits of various scenes pertaining to the person named outside line the hardwood walls, along with replicas of various things dear to that person. A box of purple cookies sits at the entrance to this particular place. Pictures of all sorts of things - good and bad - can be found there, including Dewei's first training accident, Ting's seventeenth, and each of their various pouncings over the years.

"Hey," calls a man's voice from outside, "you're in the wrong house, sister. Yours is over there." A stately ostrich steps inside, looking to Felina. "Oh. Visitors? Wild."

Ting turns around, and grins. She doesn't have quite the same pouncing urge as with the kee-ute porcupines as before...but a talking ostrich is still bloody cool!

Felina turns, and bows politely. "That's correct. A pleasure to make your acquaintence."

Ting bounces. "We're looking for a giant rooster seen one?"

"Other than me? Or did you mean a literal rooster?" The bird tilts his head and clacks his beak. He bows his head way low, after a moment. "I'm Anansi, by the way. I'm kinda the security guard for Mara-Kuru's mind, and I'm also the only one who lives here who really knows this is Mara's mind."

"A literal one! Or...a dragon. Maybe with feathers? But maybe not. It can kind of be anything...." Ting ponders this fiercely.

Felina looks to Anasi as her daughter pops a brain cell. Maybe two. "I'm Felina Deyono, and this is my daughter Ting...although, you've likely gathered that. You may be just who we need to talk to. We're here seeking a powerful creature that doesn't belong, a chament, so that we can return it to the outside world and deal with it properly."

Anansi nods, ponders. "Ah, right. I think you were on the right track. The stairway moves around, but I believe you were en route to the glass city, eh? The Simulacra is there, brooding. I think he doesn't like flowers, or something. Mara's mountains each contain no less than twenty-five metric fucktons of flowers."

Felin's lips twitch towards an amused smile at that. "All right. So, this 'Simulacra' is very new to Mara's mind, then?"

"Time runs strangely here. It depends on what Mara thinks about the most." Anansi pecks a section of the wall, watches it turn and turn until the portraits are gone and a map replaces them. "See? Mara's mind is cut into primary emotions. We're in 'thoughtful' now, which includes the emotions that she thinks about having. To the west is 'primal urges' which is where her drinking and flirting and such come into play. To the north is her imagination, the biggest section, and then to the east is the smallest part. Mara's fears, hatred, and her dark side. You've seen it, I'm sure. The Simulacra has been there since this drinking binge." He points to Ting, Orrin, and Mara's picture on another wall.

"That sounds about right, yes."

"Yup! Off to the dark side we go. They have cookies!"

Anansi honks an ostrich honk. "Just keep in mind that Mara isn't all sugar and pie crust. It is dangerous in there. Only the porcupines seem able to get in and out without a fight, and there are other things there besides the Simulacra."

"In every section of a person's mind, if you walk the plane that is, you can find that person represented as a particular facet of emotion. Generally they are spread apart, but since Mara's dark side has shrunk considerably over the years, those facets can sometimes congregate. When she's upset, facets from other regions can go there, too. Just watch out for them, huh?"

Felina nods. "We will. So. Back to the staircase, and we should be able to find our way there?"

Ting's looking at the pretty pictures.

Anansi scowls. "You sure don't scour for information, do you? Yeah, down the stairs, but make sure you don't step in resin. That stuff is sticky this time of day."

Felina brushes off most of that. "Duly noted. Is there anything else we should know?"

"Nope. Bye." Anansi ducks his head, turns, fluffs his tail feathers, and lopes away.

Ting wrinkles her nose. "He's a touch rude, ain't he?"

"Maybe. But, I heard your thoughts, too. 'Turkey turkey turkey turkey turkey turkey buzzard.'" Felina smirks at her daughter.

Ting grins. "Hee. Well. He is! So there. And...off to the staircase?"

"Sounds like a plan." And they head off that way.

The stairs are as before... feathers and sticky. This time, however, the lead off straight into a lake, which is certainly not where they were before. The landscape is more normal here, very desert-in-the-distance-plains. A massive flickering marquis reads "East to Scary, North to Whoo, west to Dullsville, if you can read this you don't need glasses".

"So. East?" Ting wrinkles her nose. "I want to go to Whoo. But yeah."

Felina smiles, and nods. "Right."

Ting, in typical fashion, bounds right out onto the lake.

Which promptly bounds up to catch her in a jello-like glove of gooey water.

"Whee!" Ting bounces up with a squeal of joy. "Heehee yay!" Bounces again. "Stuff's a fricken trampoline!" She pokes it. "Hey, can you take me to Scary, stuff? Pleeeeease?"

"See, I told you this water form would work."
"Yeah, yeah, we're all impressed."
"How's she supposed to hug water?"
"The same way you hug chocolate, I suppose."
"With a straw?"
"Icky!"
"Shut up! She'll hear you!"
"Hey, which finger am I?"
"Does it matter?"
"... nope."

"I could always cast a freeze spell on you that would work," Ting notes, still gleeful at the bouncing water. "Come on, mom!"

Actually, she's glad Ting's leading. Bizarre...and more bizarre. She jumps after her daughter, landing beside her. "Can do."

"Two of them. Just like before! What do we do?"
"I say we chuck 'em!"
"Chuck?"
"Heave."
"Heave?"
"Toss."
"Toss?"
"Is there an echo here?"
"I just don't want to vomit them."
"... you are so fired."

A water-porcupine rises up in front of the two Serinians. "We have decided that throwing you would be the fastest way there. You look like kitties, so you ought to be able to land okay, right? It's only eighty miles."

"That works." Felina nods once.

"Whee! Let's go!" Ting grins.

"All right!" The porcupine nods. "Good luck!"

The fingers of goo close slowly around Felina and Ting, and then shake back and forth.

"Hey! They're not dice."
"Sorry."
"Heave ho's!"
"that was so uncalled for."

All at once, spheres of goo surround the Serinians from head to toe, encasing them in stuff. The hand rears back and flings them with uncanny might, the strength of two dozen wet porcupines working in unison, to send them streaming over the countryside of Hmyeah, towards Scary.

Ting squeals delightedly. Felina folds her legs and sits for the ride, a bit amused at her daughter's delight. Throwing can only go so fast, and..well...eighty miles. Yeah.

It is not such a great distance, however, in Vertigris. About five miles into the trip the horizon begins a much quicker approach, growing larger, and larger, and larger, until at last Felina and Ting crash through the facing of a massive painting of a background.  The spheres roll through to the other side, stopping cleanly in front of a sign that reads "Scary: Ten feet thisaway". Behind, the ripped sections of an on-paper painting can clearly be seen in the sky.

The half-dumen shakes pieces of scenery out of her hair, grinning delightedly. "That was so cool!"

Felina smiles. "It was interesting, yes. Shall we?"

"Hell yeah!" And then they both walk ten feet to Scary.

The town border is something of a clash of the town itself. The green grass of thoughtful gives way to the cold, barren ground of Scary without any fading or transition. It simply... stops. The houses are mushroom-shaped huts of mauve and dark gray, the fences rickety and swaying in the bitter south wind. Another resin stairway, this one decorates with bones and hair, floats along to the north. No one is out walking, except for a lone red-haired Serinian in a black dress.

Felina lets out a slow breath. Right then. "All right, Ting," she begins softly...we needto take this very carefully, as we're not quite sure..."

"Heeeey Auntie! Yoo hoo! And you hoo too!" Ting whistles, waving over her head in a wide, excited arc.

At Ting's excited shout, Mara-kuru yips and leaps behind a trash can, peeking out after a moment. Her ears are shaking, red eyes warbling in fear.

"Who are you?" she hesitantly inquires.

Ting blinks. She's so confused. "Ooo...is this a game! games are good. I'm...a buffalo! Yes. We'll go with buffalo. No! Emu. Final answer." She grins her best idiot-grin, one that always amuses Mara just because Mara taught it to her. Nothing wins a fight--or an enjoyable night--like the other guy thinking you're a dipstick.

"An Emu?! Oh no!" And her head disappears. Her signature is still there, though, hiding behind the trash can. "Stay away, I-I-I... Emus...!"

"What's all that noise?" Another red-haired Serinian steps out from a nearby mushroom, looking around. She, though identical in appearance to the other Mara, is dress in what looks like a sneaking suit of some kind. "Who's scaring Guppy?"

"I think I did but I don't know how." Ting's round ears are drooping a little. "Something about emus." Bounces around to face the other Mara. "Hi Aunt!"

The new Mara turns to face Ting, head tilted. "What's your damage, kid?" A decidedly 'tough-guy impression' look comes to her face.

Ting just looks befuddled. "Damage? Well, I did just land on my head. Does that count?"

Felina walks up behind her daughter and puts a hand on her shoulder, looking to the second Mara. "We're not from around here, Miss. I apologize for any upset or confusion we've caused. May I inquire as to your name?"

"I'm Hackles. That's Guppy." This Mara looks over the hill, and points to a spot far off in the distance where the glint of light off a telescope can be seen. "That's Peepers. Whow are you, why're you here, and who's going to fix the sky?"

"We're friends of Mara's."

"She's my Auntie!"

"My name is Felina Deyono, and this is my daughter Ting." She glances up to the newly torn painting. "We can fix it, if you like. Really, though, we're here looking for a creature being called the Simulacra."

"Ah... You must be this Felina that everyone's been talking about then. Hey, Shoot!"

Another Mara hops out from behind a bush, with a toothpick in her mouth.

"Yeah?"

Hackles looks at Ting and Fel. "This is Shootingoff ATM. she can help you."

Felina bows to the newest Mara. "A pleasure to make your acquaintence, Miss."

"Hi!" Ting chirps. She's getting so very bored. "Heya Shooting what's ATM stand for, anyway? You don't look like a money pooper."

"Yeah, well who the hell asked you?" Shooting transfers her toothpick to the other side of her lips. "It stands for At the Mouth. Shootingoff At the Mouth. It's a pun, get it? No, you're an idiot. Jeez."

"Pun? I figured it referred to the oral herpes you try to stave off with that toothpick." Ting smiles sweetly. "You're right. I am stupid."

"Hey!" Hackles points a gun that isn't actually there. "Be nice! You're making me agitated."

"Stop fighting...!" Guppy peeks her head out. Squeaks, and vanishes again.

Shooting just laughs. "She's alright. So you're looking for a simulacra, right? Okay listen up, cause I'm not repeating myself. Go all the way down this road, take a right up the mountain path. Now when you see a big fucking dragon, you might have found it. But if you're still unsure, take another left, go six feet forward, turn right, and walk up your ass."

Felina nods.

"Does the dragon like cookies?" Ting inquires.

Hackles blinks. "You're kidding, right?"

"I dunno. I guess that depends on what the answer is."

Felina puts a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "What she means is, is there anything else you'd be willing to share about it?"

Hackles shrugs, and is about to answer, but stops. Another Mara approaches, dressed much unlike the others in a fullbody suit of perfectly functional black body armor. The other Maras, the ones who aren't already hidden anyway, step away in unison.

"Hello," the armored Mara greets them, "get out. Don't care why you're here. Bye bye."

"Of course you don't. You don't know it yet. We'd very much like to remove the Simulcra from this mind, for Mara-Kuru's sake." Felina turns to face the knew person. Her bearing's marginally different, and she's glad that she, not Ting, is in front. This is a respectful but strong, no-nonsense sort of manner by which she approaches other warriors.

"Look," The newest Mara answers, giving Felina a strangely exciteable expression, "I don't know who this Mara-kuru is, but you aren't going to start messing with things around here. So."

Guppy, who has crawled around towards Fel and Ting since the onset of this meeting, tugs on Ting's foot. "Don't say anything! Sadist is mean!"

Ting blinks at guppy. She isnt' quite sure how to respond...mostly because Ting really doesn't want to scare the lil Mara.

"We're not going to start anything. We're going to finish what's already gone wrong." Felina's wary of Sadist, but that doesn't show. And she's not truly scared. "If Mara ceases to be, then this whole plane of existance will cease along with her. I'm not asking you a favor for us. Or Mara. Or even them." The serinian gestures to the other Maras with her head. "Turning a blind eye to our presence for a a few minutes is in the best interests of your own self-preservation."

Sadist nods. "Okay. Too much talky, now I cut out your teeth." Guppy squeaks, and hides behind Ting.  Shooting is just sort of talking to herself. Hackles has fainted.

Felina mentally nudges her daughter back, widening her stance just the tiniest bit. She holds out a hand, palm up. "Try it."

Sadist licks her lips. At her side is a decidedly unpleasant-looking whip, which she flings free of its windings to lash at Felina's face. She's fast, too... not quite Mara fast, but still admirable.

Felina is Mara-fast. Sadist is nothing to scoff at, but whips she knows how to deal with after a weapon phase of Ting's. She steps just the slightest bit off to the side, not moving more than necessary...her clawed fist snaps shut soundly around the end of the whip. The other meets it, and a well-placed counter-tug is meant to send Sadist flying somewhere unpleasant.

And so it does. Sadist is laughing, though, as she flies through the air rips through the sky above them, vanishing into who knows where.

Guppy is up in a second, her arms around Fel and hugging like its going out of style. "Thanksha thanksha thanksha she was scaring me! She's mean and scary and you smell good."

Felina's taken aback, of course...but laughs softly. "Right. Well, it was no trouble, dear." She pats Guppy, amused. Sadist will probably be back. If she knows anythign about Mara's sadistic side, it's as masochistic as anything else. "But, we really do need to go and see to that Simulcra."

"I can show you," guppy offers, "if you keep the others away from me. They scare me. So do rocks, but I can't get away from them."

Felina smiles, and nods. "If you're willing, miss Guppy, that would be most appreciated, thank you."

"Yay!" Ting, who's absolutely twitching with bottled-up energy, finally pounce-hugs Guppy. "Hee. I liked you anyway. And now you get to come!"

"EEEEEEK!!!!!" Guppy screams like Mara does, oddly enough. "Don't hurt me don't hurt me don't hurt me!!"

Ting laughs, and just hugs her. "Aww. I ain't gonna hurtcha. I'll just beat up anything that tries to eatcha, how's that? I'm her daughter, ya know, I'm good at tht stuff." She grins, ears wiggling. She blows some hair off of her face.

Guppy finally calms down enough to nod, though she still looks like she's going to shiver her head off her shoulders. "'kay... that's good, right? So I'll show you, only thing is there are some things in the way. There are more redheads." She nods, looks at Ting, then at Felina. "Suhalm is the first one, and Secret is the second. They're trouble. Suhalm is like you, sort of," looks at Ting again. "Her name used to be letters, too, SHLM, for Super Happy Love Machine. But we couldn't have two acronyms."

"That's my aunt, then!" Ting knows the concepts at work here, somewhere, but they aren't totally sinking in. "Hee...well...sounds like fun. We can handle it anyway, right mom?" the mutt inquires as she helps lift Guppy to her feet.

Felina smiles a little, face fading from thoughtfulness, and nods. "Of course. Shall we go, then?"

"S-sure." Guppy nods. She takes the first step, pausing at Peepers's telescope glint, and heads towards the mountains. The trail is basically like Shooting suggested, and gets rocky in a hurry. Nothing like vegetation is around, and much of it is burned, though that is probably the work of the Simulacra.

"S-s-s-s-s-so who are you again? What is this place, if one person losing makes it all go away?" Guppy asks this question -shockingly- with a fearful voice.

"Well..." Felina's keeping a close eye on their surroundings as they walk, though she doesn't appear particularly wary.

"Oh, you don't know? It's kinda cool! It's mmph...!" Ting finds herself telekinetically gagged for a moment.

"Consider carefully, first, Guppy...whether you really want to know. The basic nature of one's existance can be quite unsettling if you're not ready for it, especially if it's handed to you. Take that from me." She grins a little at the mini-Mara.

Guppy tilts her head. "Is that... a funny way of saying you have to pee?" Okay. So Guppies aren't that bright, either.

Felina smiles. "Maybe in a little bit. Hey, look, a flower!"

Ting, picking up on things, is quick to retrieve the little purple flower and hold it out to Guppy once she doesn't sense dnger from it. "Pretty! I like flowers do you?" She's the smartest ditz around.

Guppy holds out her hand, warily examining the flower. "I do," she admits, "but some of them scare me. Like that one." She points down the way, where a house-sized vine nest exhibits a dozen toothy maws within yellow flowers. "Venetian man-traps. Secret planted them."

"She sounds like my kind of gardener!" Ting laughs.

Felina's quietly amused at listening to them...really, despite her mind being on the situation and its potential dangers to a very real extent, a large part of her is just proud. Very proud to be walking along doing something like this with her daughter, and very proud of that daughter.

Guppy tilts her head. "They'll eat your face. You like face eating?"

Subtly, but still noticeably, the horizon up the path begins to brighten. A rainbow shimmers into view, just past the voracious botanocarnivores.

Ting has to grin broadly at that, a very "Mara" expression. "Ooo...goodness, dear. A bar, some liquor, and the right company, and the face eating can go on alllll night. Hey, rainbow!" She bounces.

"A wha...???" In a blink Guppy is hidden behind Felina, peeking between her arm and torso. "Rainbows don't happen here. That must be Suhalm."

"Hee...still pretty!"

"Suhalm?" Felina inquires.

Guppy blinks. "I told you already, right? SHLM?"

"Oh, right...sorry, was thinking of something else." Felina smiles, and nods. "Well, forward, then."

"Yus!" Ting is already bouncing off after the rainbow.

Guppy smiles a little bit, and starts to lead again. She's skittish, but not so much as before, and starts bouncing a little with each step about the time they come up to the top of the hill. 

"Looky," she points into the valley on the other side. Over the ridge the astral dragon is clearly visible, roosting in a pond. Two Maras are in its presence, one sitting quietly next to the beast, and the other doing Mara's trademark 'check me out' dance.

"Ooo...it's pretty!" Ting bounces excitedly.

Felina just nods as they approach. She's 85% sure that Ting won't jump the gun and try to attack the dragon if she doesn't caution against its strength, since the halfblood scampering that way is smitten with its appearance.

Guppy takes her position hidden behind Felina. The dragon scares the daylights out of her, but then, so do water fleas.

The dancing Mara looks up at Ting as she approaches. Much unlike all the other Maras, this one is dressed in a tie-dye suit similar in makeup to Felina's. "Hiiiyeeeee!!" she calls, waving excitedly.

Ting is thrilled to finally find a Mara acting like her aunt does around her, and bounces, waving both arms enthusiasticlly. "Hi hi I'm Ting!"

"Ting, huh?" Suhalm bounces to a halt in front of Ting, ears perked. "You're cute. And smell okay. Wanna chase the dragon's tail?"

"Okay!"

Felina rolls her eys a little, though a smile teases one edge of her lips.

Suhalm grins, eyes sparkling. "Okay. But first..." A pounce and a vicious hugging later, Suhalm skitters towards the dragon and the other Serinian, who is watching with a sort of bemused indifference.  The dragon, far from indifferent, whips its tail harmlessly about for them to chase.

Ting is having a grand time with the tail. Occasionally she pounces Suhalm instead.

Felina watches this a few moment, eyes quietly amused, before she takes a slow breath, and approaches the dragon at a respectful pace from the front.

The dragon whips its tail for Ting and Suhalm, amused more than anything else, though its eyes do not miss Felina. The Serinian sitting next to it is reading, apparently not paying attention at all.

"I thought you might come," the dragon notes, "after I came here. You were everywhere."

Felina smiles, just a little. She nods, and bows her head in greeting. "Yes. Mara and I have been through a lot together, for a very long time. She no doubt has a similar presence in my own mind."

"I doubt that." The dragon's tail whips upward. "So why are you here again?"

Predictably, Ting pounces upward.

"Because your continued presence on this mindscape is neither beneficial to Mara nor safe for my family. I do understand that she attacked you first and that this is the second major inconvenience in a day, but the need remains. I would be more than happy to help you find other suitable accomodations."

The dragon shakes its massive muzzle back and forth, just about the time Suhalm comes to pounce Ting from another direction. "I am not causing a disturbance. I like it here. The landscape has tempered me. All I ever do is forage and play with her personality aspects. This one was reading to me."

The quiet Mara turns a page.

"And I apologize for interrupting. While this does seem perfectly idyllic, the fact remains that a consciousness completely outside of Mara's lashed at my son through her body earlier. Were there not shields already in place, he may have been injured. Your presence is the only very recent change on her mindscape."

The dragon lowers its head. "If your hand turns green with sickness, and when you look there is a butterfly sitting on it, would you then blame the butterfly? Please do not misunderstand. I haven't the slightest intention of leaving here, but I do not with to have to defend my presence."

"Are you aware of another disturbance on this plane, then?" Felina isn't an unreasonable person, she really isn't. Well. Usually.

"No. Other than you two." 

Another page turns.

"I am a disturbance!" Suhalm breaks away from her chasing of Ting and tail to leap squarely for Felina, squealing happily.

Felina smiles lightly, and catches Suhalm. "That you are. But, I really need to investigate elsewhere for possible sources of an upset." She certainly hasn't discounted the dragon as a suspect...but that source of entrapment could have permitted something else entry, too.

Suhalm squirms a little. "No fair no fair no fair yay hug!" And she does. "Hey. If you'll be nice to me I'll tell you a Secret."

The other Mara turns yet another page.

Felina has to grin just the littlest bit...Suhalm's a lot like the mood Mara most often chooses to show, and pats the other serinian's head. "I'm nice. What's the secret?"

"She is." Suhalm jerks her head towards the reading Mara. "That's her name. Secret. She knows everything about everything about everything. And more. She's all..." her hands shoot up. "I am the mega brain with ears! Still cute though!" 

The dragon snickers, which sounds like a horse's snorting in a way.

"Oh!" Ting grins at that, and bounces to right in front of Suhalm. "Then hi! Hey Auntie Mara's kinda acting kinda freaky scary crazy do you know why?"

"Hello. Yes." Secret turns another page, though she does cast a serene glance at Ting. "Relax. You are stirring up Mara's brainwaves."

Ting snickers. "Darn. Though that sounds fun. Anyway. Tell? Pleeease?" She gives Suhalm her best kitty-cat eyes. "We really want to make it better, yes."

Suhalm wiggles. "She's so cute! Can I keep her, Secret? Please?"

"Technically she is your niece, you know," Secret answers with a shrug.

"I don't have a niece."

Secret sighs. "Ignorance must be nice."

"Yup!"

The book closes. "Do you understand who we are, exactly?" Secret looks from Felina to Ting.

"Nope!"

"Not with as much precision as I'd like." Felina nods. She's been on enough mindscapes to have an idea, but would love detailed surety.

"Sit." Secret looks at Suhalm. "Go play, honey. Take the dragon, okay?"

"Aww, but they look fun too and-"

"Suhalm."

"Yes, yes, come on scalybutt." Grumbling, she takes off running, laughing again before the third step hits the ground. The dragon follows her, seemingly complacent enough. 

Secret looks back to them. "The Mara-kuru versions you have met are the separate aspects of Mara's personality. The most prominent ones have the most prominent traits. Suhalm is in a tired mood today, or she would not have bothered asking permission for Ting here, as Mara-kuru is promiscuous and happy-go-lucky all the time. Unless she is afraid, which is the third biggest trait."

"Mm. So we have two of three. What's the third? Loyalty?" Felina theorizes, sitting on her feet near Secret. "Brashness" is possible. Still, she'd guess 'loyalty.' Mara is nothing if not doggedly true to everyone she's ever so much as smiled at...to Moorn despite everything. To her, though thick and thin. To the twins, to Solomon, even to her father despite how he'd treated her.

"Well." Secret smiles a little guarded smile. "Loyalty is the sort of personality trait that is supplemental. All of the Maras are true to their loyalties, you see... like 'cuteness' they simply all have it. Keeping in mind that Mara's third most prevalent trait is actually very subdued -you met Guppy, I saw her cowering over the hill - you can imagine that the second is as well." She holds up the book, which is so thick that holding it with one hand proves unwiedly for her.

Ting is really bored, and standing on her head. "Are you the second?" she chirps.

"Yes. Sit down, dear." Secret opens the book, flips to a certain page. "This book is everything Mara. There's even a creedo for you, dear." She opens the book towards them, displaying a page that clearly reads, 'pretty people should strike a pose and shut the fuck up'. "Pose."

"Aww, you think I'm pretty!"

"I do, you're my niece." Secret looks to Felina. "I am the only facet of Mara's personality that understands my origins, so I feel all of Mara's feelings toward you both. But since I am mara's virtue, everything remains rather blunted on an emotional level. Which is why I am unconcerned that Mara's essence is unwinding." Smirks. "What? Did you think her father would have made her as eternal as yours?"

Ting stops rocking on her head, dark eyes wide. She tips over.

Felina frowns lightly. "No. I always suspected that that was the reason for one of the discrepancies between us, along with the fail-safe," disabled by the two of them some years ago, "but she never wanted me to prove it for any reason, adn wouldn't let me do so..." stating facts, however unnecessarily, killing time as she thinks. "Most normal immortality formulas won't touch this...."

"Mara is such an interesting creature." Secret crosses her legs, kicking them idly. "I have a theory, as does she by proxy, that the unwinding of her essence will not kill her. She believes that there what is coming undone is only an exoskeleton. A protective measure, wrapped around her father's creation. An accident." She smiles.

"An exoskeleton. What did it protect from...or contain?"

Ting scrunches up her nose in consternation. "Aunt Mara is a bug?"

"No. Though she sometimes pretends to be a butterfly." Secret's ears wiggle. "Mara-kuru was designed by her father to rule. That's why she has such a wicked intelligence hidden behind her goofy exterior. And, whereas Tel-tiono sealed certain parts of his library to prevent Felina here from reading what she was not yet ready for, Ahmin Rei-ono instilled Mara's cowardice to keep her away from situations for which she was unprepared. Suhalm is here because he believed Mara would never make it long enough to become strong and smart enough to rule without being lovable and friendly. Ruthless being die young when they are weak."

Felina's very quickly drawing some conclusions that she doesn't like...but doesn't voice those yet. She nods. "Of course. This unwinding essence, then...it's only going to be the essence supporting certain facets of her personality, yes? If it dissipates, they'll lose strength or fade, leaving the ones that Ahmin Rei-ono had intended to surface at this time to take dominance?"

"Quite. Suhalm and Guppy both have been experiencing fatigued spells. And, since they are essentially avatars for her personality... yes. Mara will never be evil, per se, by most standards. But she'll become more like you would be, Felina, if it weren't for your unwavering sense of justice."

More like Moorn, she observes inwardly, wryly serious. "My father was nothing if not moralistic...how long do you estimate this unwravelling will take to become irreversible?"

"Negative thirteen years, forty seven days, eight hours, twelve minutes, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen seconds." Secret smiles a little. "You saw the man traps, I guess. I never would have planted those before."

Ting's very quiet through this, just listening back and forth. Losing her aunt...?

"I see. For my clarification, the dragon didn't trigger any changes?"

"Not exactly. Mara's method of imprisoning it, however, did open her mind enough to let those changes start showing in earnest. Might have sped up the process, too." Secret bites her lip. "Sorry."

Felina nods slowly. "I think...before moving any farther...we need to relate this back to Mara proper, and the very few others who should know, too." She hates to admit it...but deciding to mess with this or not isn't her choice to make.

"Mara already knows. That's how I know." Secret nods. "She just couldn't tell anybody. You'll almost certainly have to kill her, you know. At some point. But yes, good plan."

Felina only nods. Not to the "killing Mara" part, to the rest. She desperately wishes that Ting hadn't heard the last bit...she stands, and helps her daughter gently to her feet. Lifts her there, more than anything. "Come on, Ting. It's time to go."

The half-dumen just nods numbly.

Secret opens her book, and continues reading. "Use the pool to get out," she informs them, "the water is empty. You'll fall right back to wherever you are."

"Noted. Thank you for your assistance." And, quiet, Felina leads her daughter that way, and they step into it.

Secret lets them go. "Well..." she looks over her shoulder. "Suhalm. Quit crying. Felina figures things out better than we do."

"I'm not crying for that," Suhalm mopes, "I wanted more hugs!!!!"