Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

The man accepted the beer, and took a large sip, smiling. "Ah, that's better." While he did, Amber considered the distances. With the current, she could probably reach the island within a day. Maybe a little more to reach the shore nearby, as the current curved out away from the land as it approached the island.

That done, she asked further about getting there by more conventional means, among the shorebound. The sailor had to think about it a little longer, and by the time he answered he'd taken a few more large sips. "Well, you can see what's in our harbor. Ain't nobody taking you from here, not soon. Probably faster to go overland most of the way, if you've got a horse." The sailor, of course, wouldn't know that Amber could move through the water somewhat more quickly than most, much what about deep currents. "And, uh... can't remember any of the ports around there offhand. Little ones, what don't really seem to last long, what with the aliens in the desert and all. Stick to the coast and you'll find half a dozen of 'em, probably. Idiots always trying to push into Anudor."

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

"Hmm...I see..." Amber contemplated her options for a moment before deciding to swim at least most of the way to the island. She would decide as she got closer whether or not any of the ports looked like good places to pick up an adventuring companion.

"Again, you have my thanks. May you have fair weather and the current at your back through your journeys."

Amber then left the bar and collected up all of her gear. Once more, she made her way away from the port to get away from the prying eyes of others before heading out into the water. Once it was sufficiently deep, she shifted into her true form. It was true bliss to be a mermaid again, she was dreadfully sick of being forced to hide her actual lower body, and she hated the sluggishness of moving about on two legs. Things were so much better in the water where she was far more maneuverable, faster, and generally more at ease. As she navigated her way to the current that would take her to the island, she pulled out her clear stone and cast a light cantrip on it to communicate with the mad doctor. "Dr. Saben, I believe I have located the island of Illys Hayte and am on my way now." She tried to keep her eyes out as she swam, not wanting to chance into an encounter with the Fomori or predator that was feeling lucky.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Spoiler

Encounter: 9 - no encounter. Lets move this along, anyway...

Leaving the town this early in the morning presented few difficulties - the few people who were awake were mostly hard at work. Amber slid back into the water, reverting to her natural form, and sped off into the deep water.

The current was right where she remembered it. But after only a few minutes it was obvious that something was... off. It moved more quickly than it should, and seemed a little too cold.

That impression only grew as she continued. The speed seemed to vary, from nearly absent to twice as fast as it normally was. But the temperature only dropped. Perhaps that was why she saw little in the way of sea life, predator, formori, or otherwise. By the time she felt like she might be close to the island, an impression had grown into a certainty. Something was deeply wrong with the current. Such currents failed rarely, with catastrophic consequences for sea and land both. This one seemed on the edge of it. And given the situation with the seas in general, it seemed an awfully unlikely coincidence.

But Amber had another task, at the moment. In addition to keeping her eyes out for danger, the mermaid watched boats far above, when possible. Between that and a brief survey of the land near where the island should be, she quickly concluded that there weren't any ports along the shore, at least not active and heavily frequented ones. A longer search might find something... but a significant number of boats also seemed to be heading a little further out to sea. To a spot where both maps she had seen that morning suggested there were two islands. One map had left both unlabeled. The other had called the larger island "Abaco".

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

The strangeness of the current threw Amber off for a minute. She couldn't be sure if the difference was directly related to the the mages sealing Elric or if perhaps one of the titans was causing the disruption. Regardless of the cause, the mermaid figured that securing the gems was probably more important than fixing the current. Devastating as its loss would be, the failure to release Elric would be far more catastrophic.

Once Amber had gotten reasonably close to the island of Hayte she noticed a fair amount of boat traffic towards the direction of two islands. She had only seen a label for the larger one, Abaco. She realized the significance of that almost immediately. The slavers who had attempted to capture her wanted to send her to 'Little Abaco'. And the amount of boat traffic indicated it was far from uninhabited. After a moment's consideration and getting an idea of how much daylight she had left compared to her distance from Hayte's island and Abaco she decided to head towards the pair of islands for at least a brief investigation. It was worth the loss of time, she determined, because she got the feel she was rapidly nearing the end of what she could do on her own. Even her king had advised her to get help, whether from fellow mermaids or the shorebound.

As she got closer to the islands, Amber put some thought into how she might contact others of her kind that might be nearby. She couldn't really just go around telepathically shouting and hoping any nearby mermaids heard her, at least she didn't think she could, and certainly not without potentially alerting anything else nearby to her presence, which would not be in her best interests. Of course, after a few moments more she did have an idea worth trying, and she smacked her forehead with her palm in frustration with herself for not thinking of it earlier. Reaching out with her mind, she attempted to open a telepathic link between herself and the four searchers who had set out at the same time as her, while doing this she also wracked her brain to see if she could remember anyone else who had set been sent out to search for Elric. Hopefully someone was in range of her.

Once she had set the link she called out mentally. "Andrea, Melisa, Michael, can any of you hear me? I'm heading for the island of Little Abaco, currently a slave market, in search of help, counter-intuitive as it seems. I am almost certain I have found Elric's trail. I met a man who claims to have ferried mages to an island where he was imprisoned, as well as a man who claims responsibility for imprisoning him with the help of a handful of other mages. Can any of you join me?"

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Spoiler

With regards to the mermaid telepathy, I've talked to Tass and it's currently still almost unrestricted, and it probably won't change until DG4. The only caveats are that you have to be sufficiently familiar with the target, and that the target can 'block' incoming communications. Personally I think that's still pretty OP when applied to an entire civilization, but I'll probably mostly be getting around it by having most people too busy or too far away to help. Fighting to keep Atlantis from falling to the formor and whatnot.

Nearer the island, Amber considered her possibilities for aid. Unfortunately, there was little enough there. She knew a few warriors, but they were all involved in the final defense of Atlantis and its people. She also knew a good number of civilians, but even if they were able to reach her, they would be more of a liability than a help in any sort of conflict. Her best bet would be her fellow searchers, of whom she only knew three well enough to contact unexpectedly without knowing where they were.

Andrea was the first to respond. "Almost certain? His trail? I have found his prison itself! A pair of stone spires laced with subtle magic that hides a power so deep that I almost missed it. It conceals what must be an entire island, holding it outside the world. If I can only figure out the secret that lets me open the 'door'..."

Just before Amber could respond, another voice answered her call. "Uh... those both sound very interesting. I'd come help either of you if I could, but, um... I was with Michael and we... I saw him die, and I woke up... I can hear the sea, but... there are a few other women in here with me and they don't know where we are either except that we're all naked and a little bit tied up and I don't really think I can help anyone right now?" Melisa had started out quiet and hesitant, but by the time she was finished her words were running together and edged with panic.

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Amber's excitement that Andrea had found Elric's prison was dramatically tempered by the news of Michael's death as told by Melisa. She sounded disturbingly emotionless, perhaps a little confused, for someone who had apparently watched one of their kin die. Though she couldn't discount that the poor girl was in shock, and as she relayed her predicament Amber detected the hints of panic in her voice.. "Oh dear, I'm so sorry...we all knew it was dangerous, but still to have to see him die, I'm sorry Melisa." Using the context of the other girls, Amber suspected that slavers had captured Melisa. But could she be on the island she was swimming towards? She didn't know much about the slave trade, but she imagined that there wouldn't be many markets in one area. "Melisa, is there anything you can tell me about where you are? Are you on an island? I'm currently swimming towards an island the shorebound call 'Little Abaco'. Some slavers tried to capture me and told me that's where they were going to take me. If that's where you are then I will get you out of there! Now Andrea..."

Amber took a second to collect her thoughts before transmitting them again. "That's great that you've found his prison! I'm finding the gems that are the keys to it. I've already got two and..." Suddenly the location the other mermaid described clicked in her mind. "Umm...Andrea, I hate to break it to you but I think I've already been there. It sounds like the lair of one of the wizards who sealed away Elric. Look on the rock spires. There should be some spells traced on them if you look close enough, just some listening spells. If you think of the color purple while you swim through them, you will pass on to his lair. Don't bother though, I already got the gem from there, there's nothing but some booby traps left."

Thinking for a moment, Amber compared where she remembered the lair to where she was now and gave her some directions on how to get to the current she had used to get here as well as some directions to her more specific location. "I think we need to meet up here, then we can disguise ourselves and get on the slavers' island and free her. So I can start planning, what is your preferred fighting style? I use a mixture of destructive and illusion magic and toss in a little weapon fighting and psionic power from time to time."

Feeling the desire to comfort her kin, she spoke to Melisa. "Stay calm and keep feeding us whatever information about your surroundings that you can, Melisa. We are going to get you out of there. I won't leave you to be sold as a slave!" It was easy to say that she was willing to make any sacrifice like the interim ruler of Atlantis, but with her comrade facing a life in slavery it was suddenly much more difficult to say such things. Besides, she would need all the help she could get if she was to truly stand a chance against Dr. Saben when the time for that showdown came.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

"I... Island? I can hear the sea, but... I don't know. Let me see if any of the other women know where we are..."

Melisa's mental communication faded away, and Amber took the chance to continue talking to Andrea. For a few moments more there was no response. Then "Dammit. It seems... I couldn't imagine how a God as powerful as Elric could be held prisoner until I saw this. But if you're right then there's no point in going in, and if you're wrong I could spend years trying every possible code. Damnit damnit damnit."

The cursing continued to devolve, until the other mermaid finally pulled herself together. "Okay. I'm not convinced you have the right of it, but at the very least it's worth our time to free Melissa. After that... we'll see. I've always favored the spear, in combat. Never really got the hang of evocations, and don't have the creativity for illusions. A little enhancement, maybe."

There was a second's silence. "Um?" Melisa's voice was even shakier than before. "It's definitely a slave market, in a port. They took me out to... to teach me that I shouldn't talk. I'll keep listening for a name, but I can't imagine there are two places where they could... nobody even looked up..."

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

"By Elric...Melisa...I'm so sorry." The poor woman... She was an kind woman who deserved none of what was happening to her. If she found a spare moment, she would take pleasure in visiting death on the barbarians who did this to her. "Don't worry, Melisa, we'll get you free."

Shifting her focus to Andrea, she gave her directions towards where she was headed while she discretely trailed far beneath the boats, following them towards the island of Little Abaco. As she swam she continued to speak with Andrea, "Andrea, I think our best course of action would be to shapeshift into human men, because women don't seem to be as well-received here. We'll have to find where they're keeping Melisa, free her, and get off the island. Personally, I'd like to kill every bastard slaver on the island, however we can't risk our mission by going on a killing spree so I may just satisfy myself with killing Melisa's tormentors."

Amber spoke to Melisa again. "Melisa, dear, we're coming to save you. I need you to do me a favor and tell me what you look like so we can recognize you when we're on the island, and if there's anything you can tell us about your surroundings or your captors, that will help us find you too."

As she continued on towards the island, she asked Andrea, "About how long do you think it will take you to reach the island?"

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

"Human men? Can we even..." Andrea's voice trailed off for a minute. "Well, I suppose we probably can. I mean, I don't see why not. I'll be there at dawn."

"I'm just... like me, but with legs? And, um, naked, except the collar, and the gag." Melisa was about twenty five, with seaweed-colored hair, and breasts perhaps slightly larger than Amber's own.

Amber reached the island shortly after dusk. Little Abaco was largely protected by it's sister island, and the port was between the two, in a large, deep cove. A pair of watchtowers stood on either side of the entrance, and there was signs of recent construction at the foot of each. Still, nothing threatening or inhibiting to a mermaid, deep below the waves.

There were easily twenty or thirty boats in the port, and even before she passed the cove's mouth Amber could taste it. Rotting fish, oil and tar, various waste, all varnished with despair. The docks were new, well made, and full, though there were additional ones still under construction. A few ships waited out in the calm waters of the cove, anchored in place. The ship Amber had followed in joined them.

Peeking above water didn't help much, not with the sun below the horizon. The settlement on land wasn't very large - or at least the part with occasional lights wasn't - but it was impossible to make out details in the dark without actually going up on land.

Unfortunately, continued contact with Melisa didn't provide much more information. She was in a small, newly-built shack with only one door. The door and all the walls were solidly built of wood, and the floor was stone. It was a good ways from the sea, but not out of hearing. The captured mermaid stopped responding around dusk, and had sounded very tired just before.

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

"It might be a bit awkward, but I believe we would draw too much attention to ourselves if we appeared as women."

Once Melisa had described herself and her surroundings, Amber thanked her and tried to reassure her. "Thank you Melisa, don't worry. We will find you and get you out of there."

After taking some time to scout the area and losing contact with Melisa, Amber decided it was time to follow her example and get some rest. She had been quite busy lately and she wanted to be as sharp as possible before she attempted to infiltrate the island and free her comrade. With safety in mind, she went as deep as she could, not wanting to chance some lucky crewman or diver spotting her. She looked for a small cave, gathering of rocks, or growth of seaweed that would protect her from wondering eyes and errant currents while she slept. Checking in with Andrea one last time she told her where she would be making her camp and how to find it before trying to doze off and get some rest.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Spoiler

1d20 = 3; you don't notice anything useful about the town from the water.

Finding an especially dense patch of seaweed at the bottom of the cove wasn't terribly hard, and while it wasn't exactly the best sleeping arrangements she'd ever had, Amber was fairly confident that it would stop anyone accidentally discovering her in the night.

It was still slightly before dawn when the mermaid awoke to a mental message from Andrea, and by the time the pair had met and scouted out the shoreline, it was dawn. The older mermaid looked the worse for a sleepless night spent swimming to the island, but was perfectly willing to start the rescue attempt immediately.

Unfortunately, there was no really convenient place to go ashore. The entire shoreline of the cove was visible from the docks, already active with sailors moving to and from ships. They could risk being spotted coming ashore, or they could come in from the other side of the island, at one of the few safe places aside from the sheltered cove - certainly safer, but the walk from the shore to town might take a couple hours.

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

It wasn't the best night's sleep she'd ever had but at least she got some shuteye, and no one tried to abduct her so she had that going for her, which was nice. Linking up with Andrea, she was impressed by the older woman's fortitude. She had swum all night and was still determined to help.

Now they had to get ashore and into this settlement. Easier said than done though, the dock workers and anyone else could see most of the shoreline with an easy glance. Needless to say, even when they shape shifted to a convincing human forms, they would draw far too much attention simply walking out of the water. They could try coming ashore on the other side of the island, but that would waste precious time and risk someone buying and running off with Melisa before they could get there. She needed to produce a barrier between Andrea and herself and the prying eyes on the docks. It took a moment, but she remembered the spell she had used to get away from the dragon on the volcanic island.

"Well, no point trying to sneak ashore here. We should move further down. It'll be a little longer of a walk, but we don't want to get spotted coming out of the water. Depending on where we can find some on shore cover, we might not have to go all the way across... I will call up some fog so we can get on shore and behind some cover where I could disguise us as enterprising slavers. After that, we go find Melisa. Oh, don't forget to talk with a deeper voice. I can change how you look, but changing how you sound is a little more difficult, and harder to pull off convincingly. What do you think?"

If Andrea agreed with her plan, Amber would swim with her a little way down the coast, so that they had some distance from the docks, until they found a stretch of coast that led to some form of cover nearby, preferably brush or trees, but something else might do in a pinch. Once they were close enough to the shore to walk, she would shift her form to look like a human man with tough features. Once both mermaids had completed their shape change, she would cast call up a wave of fog to obscure them so that they could quickly make their way from the water to the on shore cover. Once they were in cover, she would cast a spell to cover their mer-armor of choice in illusory clothes so that they wouldn't draw attention to themselves. They were practical, if somewhat flashier to put on airs of successful and hard-bitten slavers. In addition to the clothes, she created a large if equally phony bag of denarii that appeared fastened to the inside of her vest to help convince people of her legitimacy as a slave-buyer. Lastly she cast a spell to give herself a more masculine sounding voice and drew a mean looking scar across her throat to give her a reason to have a strange-sounding voice to others.

"You know, Andrea, if you want to pretend to be my bodyguard, you could shapeshift away your tongue if you don't know if you can speak like a man. I'm honestly not sure if I could pull it off. It would make you look tough though. Up to you." Amber voiced her plan mentally as she checked to see if there was anyone heading their way. If she was confident they were alone she would begin to clear her throat, and work to make sure she could speak in a reasonably deeper voice more consistent with human males, getting some practice with her fake voice. If Andrea rejected the idea of being a mute for the time being, then she would give her a fake voice as well.

Spoiler

dat perception
Lv 4 spell for Amber to give her illusion all the bells, whistles, and hopefully voices. Lv 3 illusion for Andrea by default, unless she doesn't want to play mute in which case she gets a lv 4 greater illusion too.

Lv 2 Water 2 EP
Roiling Mists (Utility) [Fills an area of up to 200 square feet with mists, causing all creatures within it to take a -20 penalty to their Perception.]

Lv 3 Light 4 EP
Illusions (Utility) [Allows the caster to create minor illusions, such as making duplicates of themselves that stand close together, creating a soundless image of a single creature, or hiding something from view. Creatures get a Resistance check against the caster to disbelieve an illusion that they try to interact with.

Level 4 Light 6 EP
Greater Illusions (Utility) [Can be used to create more powerful illusions, including large numbers of creatures with sound, create images of oneself that can spread out and seem to attack on their own, ect. Creatures get a Resistance check against the caster to disbelieve an illusion that they try to interact with.]

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

ndrea's eyes went wide. "Oh! I didn't even think about my voice... losing the tongue is probably a good idea."

This couldn't be quite like escaping the dragon. There the idea had been simply to hide herself from sight for long enough to escape the dragon. But an instant pea-soup fog would be suspicious, and neither their shapeshifting such an unfamiliar shape nor the illusory disguises would stand up to too much scrutiny. Instead she created it gradually, covering as large a portion of the shoreline as she could, but only a few tendrils reaching up from the water, and unfortunately very little of the bay itself covered either, aside from the area just around the dock. There would be no hiding the fact that the fog wasn't natural, but with luck none would notice until the mermaids had time to get well out of it, so that suspicion wouldn't fall directly on them.

As the fog slowly rose, the town seemed to come alive. The details were increasingly hidden by the same fog that would hide them when they came ashore, but there seemed to be activity everywhere.

A few minutes later, smokescreen in place, the pair moved to the shallows near the edge of town, in a spot where the fog was particularly thick, changed shape, and walked up to the shore. Andrea was almost utterly unrecognizable. She was nearly seven feet tall, covered in layers of thick muscle, looking strong enough to lift a horse in one enormous hand. Her face looked grim, with half a dozen scars, including one that ran across one eye, and another that ran from her chin halfway down her chest. She opened her mouth, showing that she had indeed shapeshifted away her tongue.

But it wasn't perfect. She was perfectly clean-shaven, her chest - still impressive, if now in a different way - was free of hair. And the hair on her head, while much darker than before, almost black, still had a faint hint of its original seaweed-green if one looked closely. And worse, the traditional seashell bra she'd worn in the sea was still there. Sort of. Two straps had snapped as her chest expanded, and the broken remains hung from one arm. She looked down at herself and blushed - the expression strange on the hard-bitten face - and covered her nipples with both hands. Then looked further down. The dick was eight inches long even soft, and thick. The blush got deeper, and both hands moved, one now trying to cover both nipples, the other rather more futilely trying to hide the dick. Which had started to twitch upward, expanding as it hardened, as soon as she'd looked at it.

Andrea and Amber both were also dripping wet, a fact that would be difficult to hide even with illusion, given the trail of water they'd be leaving until they dried off.

Spoiler

52 HP, 64 PP, 56/68 SP; Disguised

 

[sturm]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

As Andrea changed shape, so too did Amber. Instead of going for the bigger and bulkier shape of an alpha-male she opted for more of a slight of build male with narrow, finer features, aiming to form features that would seem in line with the lighter voice that her magical spell could reliably produce and also not so big as to rip through her battle mage outfit. There were limits even to magic, and she knew that there was a limit to how deep she could make her voice before it would not be convincing, especially given how little she had actually spoken when telepathy was the primary form of communication for her people. That all aside, she darkened her hair and gave her eyes a more muted blue color that would not stand out so much among the shorebound before also forming her ears to what was also standard for those that walked on land. Almost as an afterthought she added an ugly scar down one side of her face and another across her throat that would hopefully cause anyone hearing her to discount her voice as a side effect of an old injury. When it came to time for her manhood, she decided that less was more and bestowed only a modestly sized shaft and pair of balls upon herself, nothing to rival Andrea's monster. It was still an unfamiliar feeling between her legs, but there was nothing for it.

As the two of them snuck up the beach to cover, Amber noticed Andrea's broken bra and grimaced. She encouraged her comrade telepathically. "I apologize, I should have warned you about that. Don't worry though, once I cast my illusion over you it will look like you are wearing the garb of a successful pirate. Remember to act confident. You are the biggest, toughest, most cunning pirate of your crew and I am your trusted second. You are now an alpha male. Don't show embarrassment or hesitation while we are out here. From what I've observed of these people, size matters. As long as you act like you are the leader of a tough crew of pirates, they shouldn't doubt you. I'll create a large, fake bag of denarii for you to flash at potential sellers, just try to avoid letting them touch it. I'll ask for green haired women, saying that's what you're into, and you just stand there looking intimidating."

While she was speaking, Amber was weaving a spell around herself, first darkening her hair all the way to brown before giving herself some loose-fitting beige pants held up by a rope as well as a light blue v-neck longsleeve top that fit loosely and had a pair of tails coming off that back that fluttered in the breeze. Lastly she put a magical filter over her mouth, humming to herself to get the pitch at what seemed right. Both of her garments were stained and had rips in them, hopefully consistent with what men had access to after a long time at sea. Then she went to Andrea and gave her an illusory outfit as well while she continued to 'calibrate' the magical voice filter.

First she pulled away the tattered remains of her bra. "Sorry Andrea, can't have this flopping outside of the illusion and blowing our cover." She sat the bra remains aside before crafting the illusion. Hers consisted of darker pants with pinstripes and a button down shirt that revealed her sinister scars on her chest. This was topped with a navy-colored coat styled after a navy officer's that had some gold embroidering and some a pair of shoulder boards that each sported a gold skull and crossbones. Andrea's outfit lacked the holes and stains of her own to reinforce her status as the leader, but she still put some frays and smaller tears in it to fit the look of 'man' wearing it. Before she forgot, she made Andrea's hair appear darker, hiding the last traces of green. The last things she bestowed on Andrea were two large pouches fastened to the inside of her officer's coat, one on each side, that she filled with about fifty denarii apiece. As an afterthought she slipped on the ragged footwear she had been wearing since before the volcanic island. "Ready? Can you think of anything else we need?" This she voiced aloud, making sure her magic was properly attuned. Amber waited to hear any concerns her mermaid friend had before continuing.

If Andrea didn't have any concerns, she would head in the direction of town, stopping partway there to throw some water on her face when in view of the town, acting as though it was refreshing, but mostly doing it so that they would have a reason to be wet, hopefully causing anyone who met them to give it no further thought.

Telepathically she reached out to Melisa and whispered, "Melisa, we are on the island and coming to get you."

 

[thetwo]

Re: Trouble in the Deep (sturm) GMed by thetwo

Andrea opened her mouth as if to answer, revealing a tongueless mouth and making a truly hideous sound. A moment later her voice chimed inside Amber's head, with its normal feminine inflection. "I'm assuming the plan is for me to just look intimidating and have you speak for me? I mean, hopefully we'll get through this without much talking either way, but... " While she spoke, she assumed a flat, intense expression that would have been quite frightening if Amber couldn't see through her own illusions.

In the pause, the other mermaid bent down awkwardly, and came up with her trident. "How about this? Is it okay to carry, or should I leave it here, or should I..." She waved her hand in a vaguely magical way at the weapon.

Andrea in motion still wasn't quite right - the illusion was fine, but her walk had a little too much swinging of hips, and she stumbled once as she again raised a hand to cover her missing breasts. She was getting better, but there was no way she'd stand up to extended scrutiny doing much more than standing still, not without practice.

Before they could move on, though, Melissa answered, sounding utterly unconcerned. "Oh. Good. It's a lovely morning. I wonder who will win?"