i might as well be the man on the moon

[truthwright]

Their Isabella having just gone to welcome a new Bell into the peal, Kas and Petaal snuggle up together and take a nap. They'll want to be well rested for the party.

When they wake up, she still isn't back.

[Jane?]

No response.

Kas teleports down to the Janepoint, Petaal wrapped snake-shaped around his shoulders.

The display reads: error 7788: lycanthropy

"...So that's new," he says.

"No shit," says Petaal. "Now what?"

He shrugs. She coils tighter.

"Hang around and wait, I guess."

Comments

[alicornucopia]

The snake rolls over, then rights himself, making a noise that sounds like "wheep!" He turns into a katydid and lands on his witch.

The middle daemon stops being a kitten and starts being a marmoset, and then a lungfish; he goes a few feet towards the water and is buoyed up slightly by the next wave.

[truthwright]

Kalavar flaps her wings triumphantly.

Kas and Petaal giggle.

[alicornucopia]

Katydid becomes sandpiper. He hops towards Kalavar, pecks inquisitively at her foot.

[truthwright]

Kalavar peers at him, and then nudges him with her nose.

[alicornucopia]

"Wheep!" Now he's a clam, digging under the sand.

[truthwright]

Kalavar nudges him again.

[alicornucopia]

He undigs. He's a sea turtle, itty-bitty.

Middle daemon is a seagull chick now.

[truthwright]

Kalavar flaps her wings.

[alicornucopia]

Eventually eldest witchbaby's mother scoops her baby into her sling, and the crane daemon puts the turtle in after her, gently-carefully, and off they fly.

[truthwright]

Helen and Kalavar keep playing in the sand. Kas and Petaal keep awwing at them.

[alicornucopia]

Ranata's enthralled too. She takes occasional pictures, and video snippets.

[truthwright]

After a little while longer, Kas starts writing a postcard to Isabella.

[alicornucopia]

Pregnant Witch drops by - with her husband, who's bundled up in several coats - to acquaint herself with Ranata and with the other witch baby's mother.

[truthwright]

But not with Kas?

[alicornucopia]

The husband appears to be trying to figure out who Kas is. "I know you're not Renata's husband or Luda's," he says.

[truthwright]

"I'm Kas," he says, and points at Helen. "She's mine."

[alicornucopia]

"I thought she was Ranata's? Maybe I misheard something."

[truthwright]

"She's not Ranata's kid."

[alicornucopia]

"Ranata's what, then? My honey tells me things, but it's hard to keep straight."

[truthwright]

"I'm the only parent she's got. Ranata's giving me a hand with the witch stuff."

[alicornucopia]

"Yours run off?" asks the fellow sympathetically.

[truthwright]

Kas shrugs and shakes his head. "It's kind of not my favourite subject," he says.

[alicornucopia]

"Sorry," says the guy. He produces a beach towel, unrolls it on the sand, and sits with his pregnant wife.

[truthwright]

"It's okay," he says.

[alicornucopia]

The remaining non-Kalavar witchbaby daemon turns into a cygnet, and then a lizard, and then a barn owlet.