In the Fauni's Garden.

(This took a bit longer than anticipated because I had to come up with a name for the devil, and when I couldn't come up with a better one I then had to get permission from John Wigger over at Zombie Roomie since he did it first.)

So after a moment of confusion, Sul and I found ourselves in a sort of folded space containing a large garden.. of plants a bit more fantastic than the rest of the arboretum, very similar to most plants but infused with magic.

"Soooo..."

"Yeah magical garden."

"Sense anyone?"

"The cat you were talking about...and...something else. I think you can handle this."

And with that Sul patted me on the shoulder and stepped backwards through the portal we'd  gone through, leaving me alone in an unknown location with at least one unknown entity. And so I stepped into the unknown... didn't take me long to find them though since John's energy is rather... unique compared to most people,  and so I walked past a pair of, I think they were some type of banana trees flanked by birds of paradise to find him and another person playing cards... Well person is simplifying it, he had the torso of a man with legs like a goat and a deer antlers growing out of his head....And they were playing cards.

"So... I think I've walked in on a joke of some sort....but I'm guessing this is a friendly get together."

The cat tilted his head in my direction before speaking to his companion across the table"Aye, so this is the one I was telling you about Sam, the new up and coming magical beastly being, so what brings you here kiddo?"

"Patches sent me to find you, said you'd been gone longer than usual and she was worried."

"Her worried for me? Aw tha's cute.... must'a been gone longer than I thought.. so what do you think of my friend?"

"Hmmm....well if I were a little less knowledgable of the world I'd say he was Old Scratch... but I'm thinking a Fauni?" I turned to face him he stood up walked over and pulled me into a hug crying. "..I'm sorry?.... did I make a mistake?"

"No not at all it's just been ages since someone didn't mistake me for Lucius Morningstar." After a few mome moments he let me go and turned back to the cat "...so take five on the game I'm sure he has questions of me."

I nodded as John shrugged "Based off context....that's Lucifer?"

"Yup."

"Interesting tidbit... so is Lucifer and Satan the same?"

"Nope, two different devils."

"Honestly that's all I could even think of for right now, mind if I sit and watch?"

"not at all, any friend of John's is by extension a friend of mine... except for that one that tried to take my horns.. fuck that guy."

And so I sat talked, and after a while got dealt in on a few rounds of cards, found out that the plants were in fact bananas, but unfortunately the non-edible kind, and eventually reminded John that Patches was in fact worried enough to send someone to find him.

The Witch's second task.

When you sleep like the dead, it takes a while to wake up.

To say the least, I am out of practice on this..... As I recall I returned to the campus without much of an issue despite how late it was, brought the requested items and was told I'd done a decent enough job and sent on my way. It was.. I think a week later when Patches called for me again.

John had gone missing... as in completely missing, from campus and from her ability to scry him. So this job was to go where his energy was last sensed and see if I could ferret things out where she'd failed. Patches suggested that I see if I could convince Sul to assist me since Patches was bound to the school.. for some reason.


Ultimately it took a bit of convincing as Sul is wary of anyone and anything that hasn't actually been seen, and Patches is someone that hasn't been seen, ultimately it was an appear to the curiosity of things unknown that brought the D'jinn along. And so, it brought us to the school arboretum on a mostly foggy, and mostly moonlit night. One of those weird nights where the moon is mostly full, but you can also see most of the stars. And then we stumbled through a rift in space into an even larger garden.

Back in this world.

You could say my sudden and unexpected absence was noted.. or not noted.. honestly not sure. I don't even remember what I was posting about last...

Of all the things to have been caught and trapped in a mason jar...was unexpected, much less being forced to compete in a twisted battle royale by a warlock was also not expected.

Though I doubted he expected an alliance between myself a tiny manticore and a miniature minotaur to end the fighting and all of us escape, however that all is another story for another day.

So if you'll excuse me I'm going to sleep until either I wake up again or someone blows up the sun... probably be awake again this weekend.

for now, I leave you with the musical stylings of  Tobuscus.