Setting up home base

On comms "I'm pretty much blind here. Releasing her is a gamble in that she may not prove as peaceful as she sounds. There is no way to tell. I personally have no intention of keeping her bound in any case, so it's not like I wasn't going to risk it anyway."

"Feeding her is another thing entirely. What she asks is no small thing, and yet I'd not charge her for a meal if I was going to feed her. I strongly advise caution, as I said before. If there is something you want bad enough to take the risk... You have my support and promise of help should things turn out badly."

To the Oni "You cannot restore lost Ki, but can you heal someone infected with HMHVV? Ther is no known medical cure, and I believe it's victims lose Ki all the time though the disease itself allows for them to take it from others. There are some here who might very well feed you for a cure"

Taishoko makes a face and says, "Their ki is forever tainted. I would want to feed upon it no more than you would want to feed upon beef from a cow that has been infected with a terminal disease. Curing their disease is within my power, but their ki has already been damaged by the condition. I cannot restore that. The power of one wish would be enough to cure one of them, should you wish it.

"Still, if your intent is to release me regardless, I would appreciate being released as soon as possible. We can discuss your desires once I am no longer bound by these chains, flowers and circle."

On the comm, Sun texts the group. "In an episode of Mystery Mike and the Magical Motorcycles they found a wish-granting monkey paw. Even if this demon truly means it when she says she will grant a wish, we gotta be careful it won't backfire. I'd say we check the computer out for any info. Chougou, can you get into it?"

Over coms. "Um we should see if she could instead of curing one person could she give us a physical cure in a bike or bottle? That way we could synthesize more!" So how much ki/essence are we talking about here?

((@Torpor - not sure if that was meant to be an IC question to her or not, but will assume it was))

Taishoko says, "Just a small amount. Not enough to significantly impact your life if your ki is strong and healthy. I will let you know if you are in any danger from the feeding before I do it. I cannot tell you until these restraints are removed, however. So, can you please release me?"

Over comms." Im willing to sacrifice my essence for a bottle/vile of hmhvv cure

WuJen goes over to the computer to see if he can pull up any notes or research files.

"I know you are anxious to be released. Please bear with me. I promise that regardless of how dangerous you are, we were not keep you locked up in here like this. The people who set this up were clearly terrified of you, and I'm betting with good reason. They went to substantial effort to keep you here. Before I start messing with that I'd like to know what we are dealing with, both in terms of your nature and in terms of what they did to keep you here. We have already seen they had some sort of toxic gas trap set up, there could be more safeguards. Do you know what they wanted from you?"

Sun eyes the demon suspiciously: "If we release you, there's nothing keeping you from taking all ki of each of us...

Taishoko says, "They summoned me and thus had very good reason to fear me. Had I the opportunity, I would have slain every one of them for summoning me and they would have deserved it. Unfortunately, I never did get that opportunity. Well... other than with this one..." she gestures to the skull and bones within her circle, "He tried to use me for a wish to save his hide after doing all this to me. I drank deeply of his ki, but my restraints and the flowers remained.

"From the chatter I heard among my captors, one of the subjects downstairs escaped and caused some trouble. I do not know what exactly, but the people here were speaking about it. They said, 'She got out of her cage.' I recall that. Something about a lab accident on the first floor too. I could not hear what was said, but I do remember hearing the word infected. There were some alarms some screaming about, then the gas killed everyone here.

"They never told me why exactly they wanted me. Usually when I am summoned, it is to grant a wish. But they never asked for a wish. At least not until they died. They just studied me and kept me prisoner."

To Sun she says, "As I said before, you must offer your ki freely or it is of little sustenance to me. There would however be nothing stopping me from simply slaying you all. You only have my word to go on that I have no current desire to do so. I have no desire to slay my saviors.

"To release me, you need only unlock my collar and damage the binding circle. It would not take much. Simply scratch the circle with anything. The flowers do nothing to restrain me. They merely weaken me so I cannot break free of my restraints."

Chougou asks over the commlink to have them to ask her if she can make him taller.

"Really? Just go to a Body+Works and have them do that sort of cosmetic job"

Over comms Torpor says, "Technically if you have up ki to feed her, we would lose essence, but could gain more magic in the process, I'm assuming."

(ooc: not sure how that works. Magic is limited to Essence+initiation grade. So I guess if you were not maxxed out you could do that. I don't think she could do it for me, without effectively granting me initiation grades since I am maxxed out, and I'd be forced into geas on top of that. Adepts can also straight up buy power points independent from magic score, so she can probably hook that up too)

Over comms " We ready to release her? Could mean a fight if she isn't as peaceful as she claims."

Torpor, draws his other pistol and loads the green clip, then with a gun in each hand he says over comms, "I am ready when you are."

WuJen takes up the key to her collar and says "Ok, there are some who may want to offer a meal nearby, but regardless keeping you in there isn't the sort of thing we do. Sorry if our hesitation seems rude, it's just that almost nothing we have found here today could be described as benign"

With that he unlocks the collar and carefully breaks the circle, trying to preserve it for later study.

The chains noisily fall away from her and she stiffly steps out of the circle. Everyone is tense for a moment as she stretches her neck. She moves slowly and deliberately as if extremely weakened by her time in her prison. Once she is out of the circle, she takes a deep breath and says, "That is much better. For whom shall I grant a wish?"

(ooc: Not it!)

Chougou says that he will be right in over the commlinks

"I know that I could get modifications...but I...I want to be normal. Or at least as normal as I can get. Ask her if she can make me a larger but more proportional size to...well to you guys. I don't want to be as tall as Wujen necessarily, I will take whatever I can get."

Chougou leaves his van and runs as fast as his tiny legs will carry him.

Looking up from his commlink, Sun says to the demon: "A friend of ours is taking you up on your offer. He would like to have a normal body, taller and normal proportions. He'll be here any time soon now. Mind you, if you hurt even one hair on his little head, we're gonna have demon for breakfast tomorrow."

While putting his commlink away, Sun accidentally pocket dials Sanji.

Taishoko says, "His hairs will not be harmed," as she glances at the dead bodies on the floor. "But if he runs in here without protection, I believe his organs shall suffer significant failure."

She walks over to several corners of the room and picks up some crystals that are pretty small and easy to miss. Holding them together, she easily crushes them in her hands despite her apparent 'weakness' and says, "The warding surrounding this room is now destroyed," before stepping out of the room and heading outside.

By the time Chougou has made it up the stairs, Taishoko has made it outside to meet him. She winces a bit at the brightness of the slowly setting sun in her face and kneels so as to be at roughly the same height when he approaches. "State your wish," she says, "and it will be granted."

Meanwhile Sun's pocket repeatedly says, "Hello?"

Torpor watches carefully from the stairs up to the next level.

in a light whisper. "well so much for a chance at a cure."