play drums and wear guyliner

Koa

While usually Koa would go to Safrin for all his celestial needs, Ludo had swept in to save his bacon, and he likes to pay his debts.

The shrine in the woods is appropriately eerie, even in the middle of the day. Shadows cast by moving branches give the clearing an almost swampy quality, the motes of light that peek their way through diffuse and dusty and dim. Pipsqueak leaps like a cat between them, snapping at will-o-wisps that blink in and out of existence, her footfalls light in the dense grass.

Koa watches and shakes his head before turning to the shrine. After a moment's deliberation he settles on the one on the left, reaching into his pocket to produce a pair of shiny dice. He hadn't really had a plan when he'd held on to the fingers of the zombaby after the fight, but over time he'd managed to sand them down into a pair of cubes beset with numbers, and thinks it's an apt enough gift.

"Hi, Ludo. I wanted to thank you for helping me - us - the other day, and to ask if you would help me again, with strengthening my shirt." Nervous as always around the trickster god, Koa stands rigid despite attempts to relax, half-afraid the raggedy being will teleport behind him and announce it's nothing personnel, kid.

---

Koa is requesting an upgrade to his mothman scale shirt! if he doesn't roll for a reply I'd like to use my level 3 quest reward, please!

then you come crashing in, like the realest thing

LUDO

Nothing happens, not at first. But then the unmistakeable clacking of dice can be heard, and if Koa looks down, it will be to see the little bone cubes rolling snake eyes, over and over and over again.

"Your dice are broken," Ludo announces, whether or not it's true, the raggedy deity swooping from where it had been crouched in unclear shapes over the toy and into the branches of the trees. Also, while it might have said your dice, Koa will definitely notice that they are now missing from the shrine, so at least he can rest easy in knowing his offering has been accepted.

Probably.

"Oh, your motheaten shirt? I can help with that," it trills, nodding and tangling two long rags over one branch, where they sway animatedly like a child kicking its legs. "Don't think I can do anything about the smell, though." Let Koa take that however he likes.

---

Koa has rolled high enough and does not need to use a reward for this shrine visit.

He has received a quest to upgrade his Mothman Shirt! He must:

1. Complete a training thread whilst wearing the shirt.
2. Complete a thread whereby you are hit with dark magic whilst wearing the shirt.
3. Complete a thread being punched, kicked, or otherwise hit in the shirt chest.
4. Complete a thread pretending to be the legendary Mothman. Must take place at night. Costume mandatory. Moths optional.

Koa

Snake eyes.

Snake eyes.

Snake eyes.

Nope, not ominous at all.

Koa swallows as he stares at the dice, which in turn stare back up at him... over and over and over again. A flash of movement has him blinking, hair on his neck standing upright as shadow coalesces into a raggedy figure which darts into the trees, taking the cursed dice with it. Forcing himself not to gape, Koa scrambles up onto his feet, his neck craning as he watches Ludo spill from the porcelain mask like a Rorschach blot, resembling either a nightmare or a puppy depending on your personal flavor of fucked-up.

"Great! Thanks!" Relief floods through Koa the acceptance of the task, though his expression freezes into a confused half-smile when the smell of the shirt is brought up. "Uh... okay." Is that a dig at the boy's own hygiene, or will his top now stink of scrambled eggs? Asking feels like a recipe for inspiring greater mischief, however, and Koa doesn't see a need to push his luck - especially in a game that's already rigged, if the dice are anything to go by.

So he backs away gratefully, nodding in a bow. "I'll get right on that, Ludo," Koa promises, making no attempt to linger and risk having his fortunes change.

[Fin]

then you come crashing in, like the realest thing