Faith grimaces at the shriek of bronze on stone.
Áine sniffs, "This place has been sealed for a long, long time. ... At least until kinda recently."
After climbing the steep stairs, and on a long straight hallway, Áine puts out a hand and warns, "About halfway down that hallway is a pitfall. It fills the entire 10 foot width of the hallway and is about 15 feet long."
He reaches behind him, like he is about to grab a bag. Sighs, "Lost with the hold of the Jenivere."
Looking back at the goats, "Definitely more than a nursing mother and her kids. What does the herd size look like? You guys probably killed the primary alpha hunter, so culling the older beasties wouldn't be bad. There was this dish I had when in harbor in Vudrani, big clay cooking vessel," she uses her hands to motion something that would be about half her own size, "that was in the fire for hours. The meat was butter soft."
This time it is definitely a groan, "Jerky."
"If the water wasn't so rough we could at least get some mussels and clams for a fish stew." She really sounds hopeful. Her appetite seems to be more on point for the first time that you've been on island.
Her hand moves from the mark on his cheek, over his jaw, his throat. Her hand remains on Faith's chest, just over the beat of his heart for several long moments as she stretches her neck, her body sliding just a tad closer to Faith. Then her hand resumes its journey, moving in a quick rhythm that matches the pace that she felt in his chest. Eventually she gets back to where she was before the conversation about bellies.
She breaks the kiss, breathing heavily, to watch his eyes as she strokes, quietly, "Faith."
She squeezes his hand, "Once I got to talk to you, I wanted to talk to you more."
"Then when we got wrecked here, spent more time with you," she smiles, "I'm interested in you, Zaine."
Arcadia only looks slightly disappointed when the skeleton is decimated before she has a chance to beat it apart with someone else's leg bone. She shrugs and tosses the bone to the side.
"You can have this one, if you want! I'll even throw it at you, if you want the real experience." She waves the javelin she caught with her back in Faith's direction.
"I suppose it's safe to assume every room we pass through will have some nasty thing or another to stumble into," she says, gesturing to the pit ahead of them in the long hallway. "Thanks for the warning, Áine. I could ah... well. I could climb over it and maybe pull a rope across." She offers.
"Following Vildeis is all I have known. You might as well ask a fish how this eternal swimming works for her."
"I would ask that, if only I spoke her language." Another smile. "But I see your point."
Faith shrugs. "I'm not very zealous. This place is perfect for that." He fiddles with the straps on his breastplate. "Blasted hot, though."
She nods, continuing to fan her face. "I imagine it's hard to be zealous when you're wearing armor. I find I can't be zealous in such conditions, myself."
After his two questions, Arcadia is quiet for a long stretch. Which, for her, might have reached a minute of quiet.
"The most dangerous question I've asked? If I'm being glib, it's "I wonder what's in the Mwangi Expanse?", as that landed me squarely in a shipwreck. But outside of that, I think it was when I asked a masked man what his real name was." Her smile disappears as she speaks. "I'd been investigating a... well, a lot of things." She doesn't seem willing to divulge all the details. "A series of events, seemingly unconnected, all led me back to a man with the face of another man. A man who I knew, at that time, to be very dead. When I asked for his real name, he smiled, whispered the name of the aforementioned dead, and somehow got away from me. Not with smoke, nor with a fight, he just... disappeared. And after that, I had at least three attempts on my life. Three I was aware of." She shifts, looking away from Faith to stare at her shoes for a moment. "It's one of the few pieces of information I've been unable to find out, and I'm torn between wanting nothing more than to know, and wanting nothing more than to forget I saw a dead man's face."
Another longish stretch of silence passes, and her smile returns, as does her steady eye contact.
"The most dangerous answer I've learned? Oddly enough, the answer to a riddle in Infernal. I'd learned the language, but a lot of the nuance still eluded me. When I finally finished translating this old line of Infernal writing I'd found stuffed in the back of a dusty, unattended library, when I finally realized what the answer translated to? I went mad. I think I was mad for at least half a year, but really, it might have been longer." She grins. "Maybe I'm still mad." Another pause. "I'd tell you the riddle, but I think just hearing it might drive the listener to seek the answer. And I like you, so, I would not wish that on you. Suffice it say, it had something to do with the meaning of life."
"Has there ever been a time for you when you wondered about breaking your faith and pursuing another path?" She holds a hand up. "I realize this may be much the same as asking a fish if she no longer wishes to swim, but... work with me, here."
Granted Cheliax isn't hugely fond of us, so you probably haven't read any of the exploits of Devin Gest, but over half of the first hundred Chronicles has one adventure of his or another."
"I have not, although my curiosity is piqued. Perhaps I'll seek out the Chronicles when we get off the island." The "when" is spoken with confidence.
She look sympathetic as he reaches for the bag. "Habit, or do you have need of something?"
"Well I guess I can do a run and jump." Áine says, "Unless, anyone has a better idea."
"...I could ah... well. I could climb over it and maybe pull a rope across." She offers.
"Let's save that in case we really need it. I should be able to do this."
And she does, ...barely.Áine tosses a rope across, keeping a hold of one end to make it easier for the rest of the party to cross.
"We haven't had many traps before now," Sasha says her eyes measuring the distance, "anyone have the skill to jam it, if it is just a dead fall." Pause, "Presumably onto spikes. That would be classic."
Faith looks at Tulip. "How is she at leaping?" he asks Zaine. "I'm not sure I can carry her."
"Oh. Yeah. I guess that would be an option," Áine says, "as long as it isn't magic." She gives it a try.
...
And comes up smiles. "Okay, I think that did it." and walks across in order to test it herself, just in case.
Sense Motive
Faith looks at Tulip. "How is she at leaping?" he asks Zaine. "I'm not sure I can carry her."
Zaine eyeballs the distance. "Pretty sure she can make that."
Once everyone has careful moved over the defanged pit trap, a turn at the end of the hallway leads to... more stairs up. One more set of stairs and the passage branches. Both straight ahead and in the passage to your left you see traps similar to the one you just passed. Straight ahead 20 feet is a set of bronze blood-streaked doors and there's another similar door at the end of the passage to your left, that one 50 feet away. Both passages show signs of recent passage in both directions although the dust directly on top of the trap is undisturbed.
She look sympathetic as he reaches for the bag. "Habit, or do you have need of something?"
He smiles, "I had a few of the more popular volumes of the Chronicles in my bag, I was going to offer one to pass sometime."
"Wet paper isn't even useful in the restroom. "
Faith listens to Arcadia's answers patiently, sweat slowly rolling down the side of his face. He wipes at it with the back of his hand and absently flings it away into the undergrowth.
His face flushes, and the tattoo stands out more strongly. "I learned broken Infernal here. I probably wouldn't understand the nuance."
He chuckles soundlessly at her upraised hand. "I will work with you. I think about my faith a lot. I have never seriously considered breaking it. But I do ponder things. Vildeis rewards -- and sometimes demands -- sacrifice. I have sacrificed a few things already to do her work. But I have never been asked to sacrifice something deep and desperate. Not all of us rise to our challenges. Were that to happen? I would have to pursue another path. What path could that be?"
He bends at the waist, bowing toward Arcadia as he points to the top of his head. "Look at this head shape. Are there hat modeling jobs to be had in Magnimar? I wonder."
He straightens up, and breaks into a grin. "But seriously, that would upend my life even more than being shipwrecked."
"We could do a slow cook," Faith says. "Although anything beyond basic cooking is too complex for me. Probably a good idea to survey the herd and check it regularly. Don't know if it's worth trying to relocate them all. Definitely wouldn't do it with the Dragon around."
Faith taps the side of his forehead. "You've got me thinking. I might be able to forage up some clams or mussels. I just don't know where to find them. Crabs on the beach. Plenty of meat in the sky, but I don't think Sasha would approve."
"I think Áine might have a net for fishing. You get a different variety of fish that way. And I'm sure there are plenty of snakes around. No rabbits, though."
Faith gasps for a moment when Pakshee breaks the kiss. He tries to catch his breath, and finds it harder than he expected. His pupils are huge. He shudders slightly at a certain point in her rhythm.
His gaze moves to her hand, to his hand, back to her face. His mouth twitches and opens slightly, but he doesn't say anything. His breathing is heavier, and he still can't quite get it under control. He bites his lower lip. His eyes are shining.
His hand at her breast starts to journey downward. It reaches her navel and pauses, circling. "Pakshee," he says.
Zaine eyeballs the distance. "Pretty sure she can make that."
"Good," Faith says. "If the jamming doesn't work, I'm going to need a rope."
Zaine lets go of Sasha's hand with a bit of reluctance, and fetches his dagger. "So, you hungry?" he asks, ready to clean the fish.
"I think they're taken care of," Áine says, "but it might be a good idea to assume they're not just in case, and to get a handle of everyone's abilities for when we come across one I can't disarm." She looks both ways, "Which way should we go?" She begins to study the tracks a bit more carefully.
He looks over at Aerys. "They can be physically and spiritually cleansed. The unpleasant associations in our minds and our memories? That is harder to predict."
His free hand reaches down to Pakshee's sole article of clothing , and Faith attempts to work it down over her hips one-handed.
"Hmmmm," Faith looks closely at the tracks as well. "One door closer, but passage both ways."
After a bit of discussion and back and forth, looking at the faint traces of the same person's tracks in the dust, it is finally determined that one set leading straight ahead has a stronger edge, probably from slightly damp footgear, meaning that your quarry went straight most recently - over the 10-ft trap - and through the bronze doors.
That door makes the same awful bone-shaking screech as it opens. Either the rock of the temple has shifted just enough to make the doors not true in the same fashion, or it was intentional design.
An oval pool of what looks like softly rippling blood sits at the center of this octagonal room, filling the air with a metallic tang. Four round pillars support a ceiling decorated with crisscrossed supports and grooves, while ten two-foot-wide circular holes decorate the walls at chest level.
There is a faint transmutation effect worked into something in the ceiling. There is also a faint necromatic magic radiating from the pool.
Faith peers into the room. "That's interesting..."
She gets back with a decent supply of wood around the time the fish is gutted, takes a softer bit of found cloth and starts to gently clean the salt from Tulip's feather.
She smiles at Zaine over Tulip's back, "Hang out here until the heat breaks? Then head back to the lighthouse and present the oysters to Faith?" A mischevious smile quirks up her lips.
A pause, "Probably should run it past everyone before making food in them, though. Be a waste, if not everyone can eat it." A pause, "Unless you can do the purify food trick that most ship's medics can."
"Need to find some containers in the alchemist lab that aren't toxic for the cheese too."
"Survival goals.... once you've gotten past the basic survival."
At the same, Pakshee takes the chuckle as answer to her unspoken question and wiggles her way down the bed, leaving her clothing in his hand. After a very brief moment, Faith feels a hot breath.
Pakshee's eyes look up at his flushed face through heavy lashes, as she leans forward, licking while her hand moves down to the base of him.
Zaine nods at the suggestion quickly building the fire and setting out the meat to cook. "I mean, unless you wanted to eat a few of the oysters now."
"Life will be easier with acceptable pans and pots." He takes a look at the contents of the food cache. Dried flowers, dried fruit, fish, jerky -- all the miscellaneous edibles to keep together body and mind. "...and stew." He lets Aerys have first pick of breakfast.
He looks down at her and lets out an involuntary gasp as she leans in to him. The gasp turns into a groan as his hips start to move slowly, almost of their own accord, in time to her ministrations.
Faith tries to hold her gaze, but he can't. He closes his eyes and tries to focus on his breathing. Breathes in, breathes out. Breathes in, breathes out. Every iteration his breath is a little more ragged as the sensations reach in and nibble at the edges of his focus.
His hands clench and relax. He opens his eyes again. He starts to say something, but it just comes out as a soft moan.
"That looks... complex. Anyone got any ideas?"
She avoids the fish jerky, but Faith also notices she doesn't take anything that is low in supply.
She pauses for a moment, then dives into the water, swimming to the outer edge of the oyster bed before diving. Without a bag, she only comes back with small batch. Breathing heavily from the exertion, she hand the tiny bounty over to Zaine, dropping down on the edge of the sailcloth near him, but in the shade.
It doesn't take long for a pattern to emerge now that everyone can have their own space (as comfortable as the cave was, it was stepping over everyone else during the daily rainstorm).
Once the goats are brought into camp, Aerys takes the time to make friends enough to milk the mother once a day. She starts setting up cultures of goat's milk, trying to find the best place in camp for cheese production. After a few days, she asks people to keep a look out for bees. When she heads out of camp, she normally comes back with more fruit than is needed and starts playing with fermintation. She asks for some of the less hazardous looking containers from alchemist's lab for said experimentation. She's easiest to find in the guard tower watching the approach to the camp, her packet of papers near to hand.
Gelik takes up residence in the once butcher's area of the camp. After the first few days, the most noticable change is the lack of any and all blood stains from tables and floor. Should they become avaliable, he hangs a sailcloth on the open side to block the view of the depressing prison pit.
Ishirou seems far less comfortable in the camp than he did in the wilderness caves. He takes to patrolling around the edge of the camp several times a day.
Jask splits his time between the fires, making sure the small one powering the lighthouse is constant and the one outside is easy to stoke up if someone want to cook or heat water.
Before the arrival of the broken winged dinosaur, Sasha was either in the alchemy hut keeping Tulip company as Zaine worked or out of camp - gathering food or exploring whenever anyone needed a partner. The arrival of the dinosaur has meant frequent checks on the small creature though she seems conflicted.
Pookie, whose name turns out to be Pakshe, regularly goes to transport water to the camp and seems competent at collecting edible plants. Hunting, fishing, or harvesting sea creatures seems to confuse her though she gamely cooks anything given to her. She gives the ocean wide berth. In camp, she is blatantly obvious about her attraction to Faith.
Zaine spends some of his time in the alchemist lab, and when he does, the stench of brimstone comes billowing from the windows. He sleeps outdoors with Tulip, his head pillowed on the t-rex. On many days, he and Tulip leave camp and return a few hours later. He spends some of his time looking after the dimorphodon, and is generally an easygoing presence around camp.
"So you like Sasha, right? At least enough to tolerate her as my island fling?" Zaine shakes his head. "I mean, you can't see it, but she's extremely pretty. Like tough to look at."
When Sasha comes back, he offers a grin and a skewer of fish.
"I am ignorant on the subject beyond knowing that caves sometimes are involved."
"At least with the sea nearby, we have an endless supply of salt."
Faith takes a balanced (albeit small) meal. He does not avoid any of the food.
He finds his way to her, runs his hands lightly from her knees inward, to her center, checking that she is as ready as he.
A brief pause. He no longer has the patience to tease. He gives in and leans forward, hands planted on either side of her.
"That looks... complex. Anyone got any ideas?"
"There are buttons in the pillars on the side nearest the blood pool," Faith points them out. "I'm not sure what they do, but they may be connected to the magic in the pool or the ceiling."
Faith keeps his routine varied. He fishes. He forages. He assists in keeping the fires lit. He takes watch. He purifies food any time there is doubt (or upon request). He sets out seawater to evaporate for salt.
He wears his armor a lot more than is strictly necessary. As a result, he can often be found scrubbing it out. And he bathes rather a lot. Or at least he swims in the bay and claims it's bathing. He never swims where he fishes.
Áine again goes to the tracks they've been following. Which pillar do they go to first? Do they then go to the next pillar on this side?
Now that the buttons have been pointed out to her, she intends to push the buttons that the tracks get close to.
"Huh. I wonder if that's some sort of cage that lowers prisoners into the pool of blood. ... that thought kind if just popped into my head."
Áine peers at the contraption more closely.
If the footprints we've been following do not go to the buttons, then she does not press them.
Áine spends a portion of her time supplementing the group's food supply on anything the island provides that they might be short of. From time to time, she will check the crab traps. She also, spells Jask in making sure the fires are kept stocked with wood and lit. She takes care to bury over ripe fruit in any area where trees might be harvested for firewood.
She will be spending most of her time on her woodworking project involving large logs and will likely have sought your help in retrieving said logs to the camp.
First, however, she will travel to the large Banyan to consult with Aycenia on which trees might be okay to harvest and best for her purpose.
Áine again goes to the tracks they've been following.
The most recent set of tracks - the ones with traces of damp - do not go to any of the pilars, although they pass within reach of both pillars on the right side of the room. Earlier prints look to have passed on both sides of the pool and lingered by various pillars.
After hearing Faith and Aine's comments, Arcardia moves up. In the doorway, next to Aine, the two talk quietly for a moment. A few words trickle out of the conversation, [b]"brass locking sheets" "flensing run" and finally "bypass switch"
After the consultation, Aine moves into the room, pressing a nearly invisible button on the first pillar she comes to.
Nothing happens.
The liquid in the pool appears and smells to be blood, moving easily. Putting you hand near it reveals that while not warm, it seems to be maintained at body temperature. The room has ten small alcoves spaced equidistantly around the room. Although almost all of the alcoves are shallow, only three-feet deep with a hook near the top, the middle one on the western wall proves to extend much further. The small tunnel winds its way into darkness. You do find a few black hairs on the remarkably clean stone.
The door on the far side of the room opens with the same presence announcing shriek of bronze against stone, seemingly amplified in the quiet of the still air. Revealing a short 10-foot hallway ending in another set of
She uses the base of her knife to crack open one of the oyster, offering it to Zaine. Quietly, "Do we have a chaperone?"
"I feel like we're wandering into a dragon's mouth, and it's waiting until we're deep inside before slamming those jaws shut," Zaine says. "Wish she'd attack already. Give me something to shoot."
He reaches over and ruffles Tulip's feathers. [b]"I can tell her to get lost," he says. "She probably wouldn't mind goofing off a little more."
She bites her lower lip, watching Zaine's response. But also his mouth.
Zaine chuckles, shaking his head. "I used to have a horse like a sensible freelancer. This was never a problem with him. No matter what happens, Tulip does listen to me, so I wouldn't worry. And if you want private time, let me know. Discreetly, I mean. Unless you want to distract me more than you already do just by being all..." he gestures to her, "gorgeous and so on."
"I feel like we're wandering into a dragon's mouth, and it's waiting until we're deep inside before slamming those jaws shut," Zaine says. "Wish she'd attack already. Give me something to shoot."
”I should have brought some salt for our inevitable consumption,” Faith says. ”Complete error in judgment on my part.”
"Noted that taking off my clothes is not the best way to get your attention, all evidence to the contrary." She sounds mostly serious.
Judging from this cathedral-like chamber’s decor, this area must have once been a significant temple dedicated to some vile god. To the west, a few steps lead up to a shrine presided over by a ten-foot-high statue of a beautiful, fanged woman, save that instead of arms she possesses two upraised bat-like wings and instead of feet her legs end in talons. She looms over a glistening altar of blood-red stone that seems to weep blood into a trough below; this trough of blood runs the length of the room before disappearing to the east through a set of bronze bars in front of a wide opening in the wall that drops away into darkness. Stone pillars support the roof 25 feet above, and two dry fountains sit opposite each other against the walls in the middle of the room. Three large alcoves, one to the south and two to the north, contain complex wall carvings. The entire chamber feels unnaturally cold, and now and then strange disembodied whispers slither through the air.
As the door screeches its normal bone-chilling welcome, six skeletons step away from the wall where they had been motionless prior.
"I'm glad that you finally figured out how to get here," the snake headed person says in a low alto voice that you don't recognize. "I figured once you had slaughtered the human colony, you'd make your way here."
She puts down the scroll she'd been jotting notes on down in the alcove near where she is standing. "I saw a great deal of evidence of musket fire, but were you really that pivotal in those fights?" She asks with vague curiosity.
"Of course, if there are any little details that you've been over looking, please feel free to ask. After all it took you weeks with my notes to figure out how to operate my people's tidal stones."
"I have a question," Áine says sweetly, "how many of these wrecks around the island are you personally responsible for? And would Ydersius like you better if you were all sparkly?"
She casts glitterdust on the area surrounding the snake lady.
Zaine pauses, just coming to a realization. "I mean, I'm on a beautiful beach with an even more beautiful woman, so I'm living the dream. But anyway..."
He pauses, gathering his thoughts. "No, I liked you from the moment we met, but I just assumed that a woman like you wouldn't be interested in a man like me. Then you were, but like I said, it felt more like you were interested in Tulip. Then we shared that moment on the cliffs, and I thought maybe you liked me, but then every time I tried to flirt with you, you gave me clear 'I just want to be friends' signals. And if all you wanted was to be friends, I'd take that, and happily, but I am glad we've added kissing to what we do together."
Will save
If that fails, one round later as per Self Reliant:
Tulip will save (if she needs one)
Perception from Zaine
She puts down the scroll she'd been jotting notes on down in the alcove near where she is standing. "I saw a great deal of evidence of musket fire, but were you really that pivotal in those fights?" She asks with vague curiosity.
"I did all right," Zaine says modestly.
Arcadia can very easily be found if someone wants to find her. She spends a great deal of time in the alchemy lab, playing with potions and trying to improve on formulae she already knows. She also occasionally doses herself with any new poisons she finds.
She mostly keeps to herself with occasional forays into chatting with others, and she's very interested in lending a hand to anyone who needs it, particularly if it has to do with problem solving.
She also occasionally asks Áine for cooking tips and tries her hand at making food for the group, reassuring everyone she's washed her hands of whatever poison or potion she was handling before she touched any food.
She keeps a closer eye on Gelik, Ishirou, and Faith, though without asking, you would have no idea why these people in particular have caught her interest.
Arcadia smiles at the snake woman. "Are you responsible for the decor? It's just the right mix of ominous and intimidating, assuming that's the look you were going for."
He bends at the waist, bowing toward Arcadia as he points to the top of his head. "Look at this head shape. Are there hat modeling jobs to be had in Magnimar? I wonder."
He straightens up, and breaks into a grin. "But seriously, that would upend my life even more than being shipwrecked."
She laughs. "In the bigger cities, there are every type of job imaginable. I have no doubt you could model hats. In any case," she looks off into the jungle, "given what we've run into so far, neither of us is in danger of running out of things to do for our current professions."
She looks back, tilting her head slightly. "I had a question about Pakshee, if you don't mind my asking. And of course, you are not obligated to answer." The latter is almost formal, something she's said a thousand times before. "Do you think she has a chance of acclimating to more civilized places, once we get back? I haven't taken the time to speak with her myself, but ah... you two seem close."
He smiles, "I had a few of the more popular volumes of the Chronicles in my bag, I was going to offer one to pass sometime."
"Wet paper isn't even useful in the restroom. "
"I would argue it's the least useful in the restroom." She returns with a grin. "Well, thanks for the time, Gelik. I'd love to learn more about the Chronicles sometime."
"Eventually, when she's big enough, I'll ride her. I used to have a horse, but he was shot out from under me a little before Tulip and I met. I'm looking forward to being back in the saddle, and I have the impression Tulip will prefer knowing where I am at all times. She's a little, you know, clingy."
"And I imagine she'll be much harder to shoot out from under you." She says with a slight smile. She removes her hat, gathering mahogany hair up into a messy bun. "What did life look for you before the wreck? I have to imagine with the gun and mention of a horse, you worked outside of a city...?"
Faith frowns a little. "How do you release the tides?"
"Is ... is this a temple dedicated to Zura? I never thought I'd live to see one." He is smiling again. It's that smile.
"I'm not one to assume. I've met enough people who looked one way and went another and, well, better to ask than to embarrass myself." She shrugs. "Mostly I'm hired to find lost things or stolen people, or the other way around. I have an insatiable curiosity and a lot of free time on my hands in which to satiate it."
"I also moonlight as an alchemist. As much fun as that can be, it tends to play second fiddle to the poking and prodding I do into business that isn't mine. I imagine I could make a lot of money brewing things up for other people, but... I can't say I'm comfortable with not knowing how something I make is going to sit in someone else's stomach."
"How did you end up on the Jenivere?"
"I see what she sees. I've always preferred lovers a little more solid than not." Her grin is rakish, as jaunty as her hat. "I do not wish to discourage your learning, for I think there are few callings higher than educating ourselves. But I speak Infernal and would be happy to teach you further, or translate for you both, if you're interested?" She pauses. "If not, I am curious enough to ask her myself, and would not associate my question with your interest. This is a very unique situation, and I can't say I know how many ah, former cannibals might be wandering around more civilized parts of the world."
"Same way I wind up anywhere: asking a question and looking for the answer, with fewer dinosaurs to feed." Her smile is mischievous. "In this case, the question was, I wonder what's in the Expanse? Unfortunately, the answer has been 'things that want to kill you, eat you, or otherwise prevent you from unasking the question'."
She shakes her head. "The island is beautiful, and I suspect I could spend a fair number of years here digging up very interesting things. I would feel better about it were I able to take that information away and come back with a less sweaty set of clothing."
"I noticed," she says, "but only once." A smile quirks her lips. "But yes, swimming does help. I still think we may return wearing palm-patched clothing."
"You said you came here looking for work... was coming here the work, or were you hoping one of the natives might have some for you?"
"Why weren't you welcome? Did Tulip eat someone she wasn't supposed to?"