20/13|Male/Male|Reinforcement, Beast Mystic, Melee|Duplication, Tentacles|Deity Enhanced Sustenance, Awareness, Masculinity, Fated, Sorcery, Gifted, Absolute Direction Paragon, Blessing, Clergy, Mana Fount, Gifted Item Arrogance, Unknown, Loud, Big Brother
"I still don't get why we couldn't just dog pile her" Alexander sighed, after Justine had been signed up "It would have been a lot quicker and simpler after all. She was so horribly outnumbered that she wouldn't have stood a chance. But no, we're doing Keijo again. he shook his head. "Still...if you're insistent on this Justine, we're going to need to find a pool or something to practice on. I can make the platform, but for the authentic experience, we'll need water so that the platform can bob on the waves. Lily and I both had our first Keijo match without any practice and...well...we didn't do so well. Granted, she was distracted by her thing with the Shakespeare girl, and my by the dolphin. But I'll bet some of the people signing up have at least some time in the ring, so you're going to need to work to try and catch up"
Alexander paused to think for a minute "If there are any pools, they might be getting used up by other people who want to practice. Hmmmmmmm. Oh right!" He snapped his fingers in realization "There was that lake we skated on, we can use that! we just have to break some of the ice, and I can put down a Keijo platform. I'll have to give the platform walls to keep you from falling in the water, since it'll be too cold, but that's not much of a problem." he said as he lead the way to the pond
Well, it seemed that the chaos had become full blown, with a tournament being hosted. The Valkyrie of cruelty smiled somewhat. At first she seemed to think Odin would have put her through the humiliation without precedent. It turns out, Odin wanted booze and some scraps more than dealing with a newly created underling, so as long as she did not abuse her newfound status, everything would be fine.
Granny Kitty seemed a bit distraught. She had a spine, despite being a cat, that much Sann knew. Perhaps, on another time, when she had believed in princesses and knights, she would have reassured her. Well, she would fight for her regardless. She had been the entry to Sanctuary, and her opinion seemed to influence Penny to a certain extent. So keeping the fluffy kitty happy was a good idea.
Still, Penny had been busy creating this whole thing with that dream girl. She had pegged Penny to be a bit… more cold than she was displaying. Well, that was good. No matter how she chose to hide it, she was still born of that weakling Jason. She did never strike her as the person she could get along with, and the person who was dependent on others for self-growth, and recent developments were, perhaps, a repeat of the past.
She missed yearning for a twisted expression of attachment. Different from her twisted love of her own mother. Different from the regal grandmotherly stern behaviour of the kitty.
She had spotted her prey, with all hubbub. Justine… How had she cheated death exactly? Actually, was that even Justine? She just looked like a little fawn with her face, not the proud cruel tyrant mistress of the night she once was.
Well, there was certainly some time to kill before Dina called for her services. Even if it meant doing very erotic wrestling. Sann was no fool, and as a good past nerd, knew exactly what was in for her. Rachel seemed a clueless zealot in accepting.
Granny Kitty was perhaps the only person who could match the length of the stick up the rear or the Inquisitor. Oh well, Justine awaited.
She simply skipped a couple of wingbeats, before landing on the fallen vampire and enveloping her.
“Hi. You’re that Justine everyone talks about? I heard about your exploits. Pappy Odin told me.”
”At the lake? I don’t know, that seems a bit chilly," Lily spoke in response to Alex’ suggestion. ”We could first ask Dan if he’d let us practice over at the sunny side."
After Justine had signed up for the tournament, Lily went with Alex to ask Dan about the possibility of training back at the tropical islands. Justine was about to follow when she stopped, a look of concern on her face as if she had sensed something.
”Ah!"
That was when Sann got the drop on her, the former vampire girl having failed to recognize the pounce in time.
”Y-Yes, that’s right," Justine answered in a dejected manner, not struggling in the hold of her wings, though she did blush as she realized what her cheek was pressed up against. ”Pappy? Are you referring to Odin?"
"He is the Allfather to us valkyries… so pappy." Sann tilted her head. "More amenable than the horror called Father, don't you think?" She said. "Can I call you Decaffeine?"
Justine blinked, surprised that this apparent stranger knew of her former Patron. ”Uh, sure," she answered, and now attempted removing herself from Sann’s hold to get a better look at her. ”May I ask your name in return?"
Sann allowed Justine to leave her grasp, but not before brushing her with her fluffy wings.
"Aww… no rebuke?" She said. "I am Sanngridr. Chosen of the Slain. Now cleaning that stupid simp puppy's mess." She said.
”If that is how you wish to call me, I see no need to rebuke it," Justine answered. In her old life, she would never have accepted a derisive nickname like Decaffeine, and would have struck the offender with her crimson nails. However, the girl no longer cared if she were to be called names. However, Sann’s own name was something that she did care about, especially the words after it was given. ”Wait, you don’t mean..." She hesitated, before she asked: ”Do you know of someone named Reaver?"
"Meh." Sann said upon seeing Justine's passivity. "No fight at all."The Valkyrie said, before smirking. "We are intimate. Let's go for a small flight...Are those wings decorations, Decaf?"
Sann said, before taking off in a mighty flap, gently grabbing Justine by the hand.
”Wait-!" Justine attempted to protest, but Sann had already taken liftoff, bringing Justine up with her. By reflex, Justine also flapped her wings, and ascended up towards the upper area of the feast hall. Lily shouted down from below.
”Justine, where are you going? We got approval from Dan to go to sunnyside for practice!"
Justine bit her lip. ”I’ll see you there, I’ll just make a detour. Won’t be long, I promise!"
The two flew out of the building, and up into the sky. Justine endured the buffeting winds, as she wanted to learn more.
”Sanngridr, you seem to know much about me, yet I have never met you before. Are you an old adversary seeking revenge? I know I have made many enemies in my life of bloodstained servitude."
Sann just gave a slight evil chuckle, before lunging directly at Justine, her attack consisting… of a single playful nibble. "I am here to help you. Reaver was mad, but madness fades away."
Justine’s eyes widened, and she braced with her arm, only to lightly gasp as she realized Sann’s less-than-lethal intentions.
”Help me?" Justine looked confused, and she slowly flew circles around Sann, trying to make sense of her riddle. It didn’t take her long to connect the dots. ”...Re-"
Sann didn't waste time. As soon as Justine was about to utter a single word, she pried off her own crown and slammed it into Justine's forehead, her own countenance becoming now wild and twitchy, but sealing the mental scrying Cradle agents were subject to.
"Oh come on, don't spill the beans so soon." She giggled, unhinged. "This should buy us time."
”Th-this is..." The moment Justine was forcefully crowned, she felt the dampening effect of the headgear; it subdued her thoughts into an inner shell, surrounded by a void of static. It was unpleasant at first, evidenced by Justine’s pained expressions, but soon she learned to focus her thoughts and ignore the strange effect. ”They don’t know? That is...Impressive, I must admit."
"In a sense, I died. Nobody can take a red coin and a black coin at once. But it was a necessary thing. Odin agreed for a chance… but removed my prized spear and condemned me to a life of serving drinks to grabby vikings."
Sann just breathed."I was denied a fight with Penny. Now I have her close. It should be fun…" She licked her lips, her Destroyer getting the better off her.
"And it pains me to see you. You used to be confident in yourself. You shouldered strength for the sake of your loved ones, even if Odin told me about how noxious Father was." Sann said.
"He can see things many of us can. Even where Caroline is."
Justine nodded, having now understood the circumstances for Reaver’s own metamorphosis. ”So you’re set on fighting Penny...You must know how daunting of a task it is," she said, followed by averting her eyes as Sann pointed out her own change in personality.
”It was confidence, yes, but one born of crimson-hued insanity. That strength was only to cut a bloody swathe, all for the hunger of a beast with no fangs. I do not regret leaving Father, as he only held me back, like a bat on a leash."
Justine looked back at Sann...And her eyes widened. Her lips trembled, and she stuttered: ”H-How do you know about Caroline? Where is she? Where?" She demanded, though to Sann it sounded more like half-masked pleading.
"It was nice. Refreshing even." Sann said. "Wouldn't you like to know huh? The Allfather, not that bargain copy you sucked up to… can see many things. For the right price that is."
"Even you could, with the black mirror… but it's not like your current master will allow you to keep it."
So this is where it ended up. Once, Justine was the one to offer a deal to Reaver, and while he refused at the time, the two enjoyed a non-equal relationship of pain. But now, the tables have turned, and she was the one to receive an offer, with her own sister as the bargaining chip.
Fate was evil.
However, she could not blame Sann, knowing that in an alternate world, she would have done the very same. She was a Mint agent, after all, and some habits die hard. That must have been why Sann singled her out from all the other guests, Justine thought.
”Name your price," she stated, trying to act more willfully. The stakes were too high for her to back down.
Sann sighed, showing a tired expression, before out of nowhere she bit her own arm.
"Whew." She said, controlling her impulse once more. "I am the middleman, but I figure lord Odin would deal in sacrifices or you becoming a follower. Or both. And about the Mint… Sonia is with them, so just… stay scarce." Sann said.
"Rest assured… I won't press you that much. A happy Justine and out of the way Justine is a factor less in the plans of the city."
Justine irked at the sight of Sann drawing blood from herself, reminding her of Reaver’s violent compulsions during the times they met, but it did not distract her from Sonia’s name being mentioned. ”So she survived...And if she’s with the Mint, it can only mean that she’s trying to find me...To bring me back to Father’s shadow, actually," she added, distraught by the realization.
Justine sighed as she listened to Sann’s surprisingly positive reasoning, finding it bizarre. ”Sanngridr...Thank you for sharing all this with me."
“Well, It seems that it was a waste for Sonia to die, so I took action. But the thing is… Cradle or Caroline. Cradle or Sonia. You can’t have both at the same time…Think carefully.”
It was then when Sann just smirked. “Oh yeah, that reminds me. Alibi.” She drew closer and closer to Justine…
Justine would have been surprised by Sann admitting to have rescued Sonia, but on retrospect realized the appeal her former maid and her stern personality had for a masochist. ”I understand..." Justine replied, followed by giving a worried look as Sann closed the distance between them.
”Umm, what are you doing…?"
Sann did not reply, instead she shot herself at Justine's face, planting a rather intense kiss on her mouth, all while grabbing her tightly with one hand, the other reaching for the crown. There needed to be at least a plausible explanation of the whole Cradle mind-probing not working for an amount of time.
If she was still Reaver, she would have enjoyed it more, but she mirthfully smiled as she adjusted the crown unto her once more.
”Mph!"
Justine did not expect Sann’s kiss, and by instinct bit the Valkyrie’s lower lip, failing to puncture it as she no longer had her razor-sharp fangs. The moment it was over, she spat and wiped her mouth with her sleeve, looking disgusted. Then she saw the crown back on Sann’s brow, and grit her teeth.
”Y-You should have warned me before doing that!"
"Was it good enough to blank out? I don't think Sann is a bad kisser…"
”I didn’t ask for a kiss in the first place!" She turned away, the flapping of her wings now more frantic. ”So that’s how it felt to them when I collected them...” She mumbled to herself. ”...It sickens me."
She turned back to Sann. ”Well, you have your cover story now, I suppose. Anyway, it’s starting to get late, and I should be heading back to Lily.” She sighed, as she looked down the horizon, at the tropical islands. .”I have a lot to think about now.”
"Aww I thought we could have a date in the sky. And liked blood and stuff…" Sann said. Was this the regal Justine?
She was just a dreg. Well, she did need help. To achieve her own path. And given that Penrose was just Penrose… It would make a lot of people.unhappy, and cause strife.
Justine shook her head. ”Sorry, but I don’t think I no longer...Fit your fancy for the macabre,” she said, seemingly reviled by her last words. ”Thank you for bringing me out on this...date. Goodbye.” She turned, and flew away, heading towards warmer climates.
Sann just smiled. The seeds had been sown. Maybe she should bully Lily next? She smirked as she flew.
Training was good too. Mayhaps the kitty could help.
”Let’s catch a harebringer, Emily. In and out, just a five minute trip!”
— Oros
If there was a harebringer on this island, Oros was going to find it.
She had taken a sled out of her hammerspace and was pulling Emily along, as her physical abilities dwarfed hers by a few fold and this allowed the two to move at about the same pace. The fact that Oros could turn into a cute sled dog was also a huge bonus for people who were into cute animals. But that didn’t change the fact that this was probably the strongest sled dog who ever existed, and also the most unruly. Emily was very much along for the ride as Oros ran where she pleased. Snow drifts, ice chasms, there were no obstacles too deadly to traverse If only Oros knew what a harebringer smelled like, finding them would be much easier. As-is, Oros was forced to follow any smell she didn’t recognize.
After all that, eventually the two of them would come across a clearing ringed with small spot lights. Most of them were off, but there was one lit. It was shining on to a bank of snow, notable for its size, and in between the bank and the spotlight sat seven snowbuns.
Six of them were normal average snowbuns all who were sitting in a loose ring around the seventh. Which was a dark blue, if not outright black.
It was using its ears, in a surprising show of manual dexterity, to give its fellow buns a shadow puppet show.
Sneaking up on the harebringer was more or less impossible because of the spotlight. As moving closer would cast a shadow, and turning it off would be instantly notable.
But you can bet that if you say something is impossible, especially in narration, you can bet Oros will use what few brain cells she has left to do just that.
“Alright El.” Oros was speaking pretty quietly. Possibly the most quiet that Emily had ever heard her. “So I’m thinkin’, gunna be hard to sneak up on the shadow bunny. However!” Her hands turned into a badger’s digging claws. “I’ll dig my way to him underground. If he tries running, you can nab him. Sound good?”
Emily nodded as she stared with determination at the harebringer. “I’ll do my best,” she told Oros. Using her fire to rocket-boost her way to the rabbit might just succeed in surprising it when combined with Oros’ underground assault. She could feel the warm, fluffy sensation in her hands already!
Or, well, she desperately wanted to. Even with a name that made them out to be some sort of force to be reckoned with, Emily was a girl who enjoyed cute animals just like most others. Emily briefly squeezed the plushy that Mariette had gifted her. It was an adorable opossum! How lucky was she to receive her favorite animal in plushy form! She made a mental note to give Mariette something in return later down the line, and put it away, readying herself to take advantage of the opening Oros would hopefully make after she dug under the bunny.
As Oros prepared to come up under the harebringer, she hit a solid surface. It was snow, but it seemed to be quite dense in that one spot. The immediate area shook, and the harebringer looked around cautiously.
The Harebringer would spin around a bit after Emily started rocketing towards it, but rather than starting to run away. It started hopping towards the fire trailing girl, the six other Snowbuns trailing along after it. The reason for why it chose to approach rather than flee was quickly discovered as well.
For the dark bun would land on Emily’s shadow and the girl would instantly freeze in place. It didn’t matter how much power she put into her rocket boost she was stuck fast. It would bounce up to level with her face and stick out its tongue at her, before jumping forward to bounce off her head landing back on the mound of snow it had used for its shadow puppet show. It stayed there taunting Emily. And a few seconds later she would suddenly have the ability to move again. Oros, too, found she was able to emerge from the ground seconds after the harebringer left its spot. She had come out of the ground just in time to watch Emily’s shadow get attacked.
“Are we really doing conceptual shadow magic again?” Oros placed a hand on her forehead. “Whatever, You wanna copy an ascendancy member or vamp from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, that’s your thing. Embarrassing me? That’s cool too.” Oros pulled herself out of the ground. “But if you’re gunna pull shit on my friends, the stops come out!” Oros spiced her DNA sequence with that of a jellyfish to give herself bio-luminescent properties. Not only did she not have a shadow now, but she threw off a mild blue light. “Run while you can! The light bringer is here!” Oros bound across the snow with the speed and agility of a jaguar.
“Oh, that’s a nasty trick!” Emily seemed much more cautious of the hare now, but she realized she should’ve suspected a creature called a ‘harebringer’ would be capable of surprising feats. Although Oros would often mention things that were beyond Emily, Metal Gear Solid and its sequels were one of the series of games she had managed to play, even if they weren’t her preferred genre. “I understood that reference!” she proclaimed with a puffed-out chest. It made her feel closer to Oros, if only a little. But, while nice, she needed to focus.
Emily wasn’t able to borrow features from a jellyfish, but with her fire spec she could certainly create a bright flame to serve the purpose she needed. This time, Emily wouldn’t boost directly at the bunny, but instead, at blinding speed, she would jet past it in order to get on the side opposite of Oros, keeping her flame between the bunny and herself in order to prevent it from stepping on her shadow. Should nothing prevent her from doing that, she would again wait for the rabbit’s reaction to Oros before attempting again to rocket boost at and to pet it.
When it was only the bio-luminescent girl things weren’t looking good for the Hare, it was dodging out of the way, but not by much, and from the squeeks it was giving it wasn’t doing so easily. Then Emily blazed past and trapped the bun between campfire and a predator.
With one more squeak it would drop away into its own shadow, just as Oros launched at it one more time. Missing the harebringer, but snagging one of the other Snowbuns that had kept trailing it.
The newly acquired bun would nuzzle into Oros hand, not annoyed at its sudden capture.
The same could not be said about the Harebringer who had narrowly escaped. It glared[read: pouted] at the two girls from a moderate distance away before it jumped into its shadow once more.
It wasn’t hard to keep track of the bun as almost instantly after it jumped one of the spotlights that ringed the place would turn on, it would happen two more times before the harebringer would appear on top of the snowmound in the center. With four of the eight spotlights now on it would be harder to keep from casting a shadow, as even with bioluminescence and open flames the light from the spotlights was too focused from too many directions to erase a shadow.
The Harebringer would stick it’s tongue out at the two of them, daring them to try again.
Oros had come to a stop some distance away. She foiled her arms and looked at her companion. “Are you thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?” She smiled in the harebringer’s direction. “Technical difficulties!”
Guided by deft hands, Oros’s sword (now a candy cane) was swung towards the nearest spotlight. With a quick pounce, the beast woman was over the light. It wouldn’t be long before she cleaved it in two (with any luck) and moved onto the remaining ones.
Emily slightly cringed upon hearing Oros’ plan, if only because vandalism was rude to the host! But she did have to admit that seemed like the best place to start. “Um,” she boosted towards a different spotlight, intending on taking a swing with her gauntlet. “Sorry!”
The Shadow hare would squawk in outrage as the two girls went about destroying its spotlights, but from their perspective didn’t do anything to stop them. When they were done with their demolition detour they would turn back to see that their target bun hadn’t been entirely idle. It had made use of the time and had burrowed out a surprising amount of small pathways in the snow, spanning just about half of the total area, all of which were about half as deep as the bun was tall and equally as wide.
Due to their speed however it was clear to tell that the hare wasn’t fully done, as it’s surprised scramble to get back to the center mound was clear to indicate.
“Whoa there, buddy!” Oros hopped between the hare and the hill it was initially standing on. “I can’t say I’ve figured out what your gig is yet, but you’re running out of options!” If oros was standing off to the side of the trenches, her glow might have filled the shallow pathways with shadow. With her body directly in the center of a pathway however, there were few places for shadows to hide. Save for maybe the harebringer themselves. “Well? Get your sorry ass in gear!” Oros stomped her way towards her target. She was swinging her cane, perhaps in some attempt to hook the fluffy bastard if she got close enough.
Emily took this time to attempt yet again to pincer the harbinger, only this time she was also trying to reduce its means to escape. She would raise the heat in her hands to a high temperature without creating flames and then use them to melt the passages she was nearing in order to cut off the rabbit’s means of escape should it have attempted to turn tail from Oros.
Surrounded once again, with its trenches being melted and its shadowy escape routes being denied, the Harebringer chose not to try and flee as it had once before. Instead it bound forward towards Oros. With each advancing hop its shadow would grow, but not behind, its shadow would stretch forward into the bioluminescent light being given off.
Oros fret her brow as the shadow encroached on her light. This annoyed Oros for many reasons. For one, it meant that her power was less effective than she initially thought. But second, it was something she hadn’t seen coming. And why would anyone expect something like that? The bunny had been making use of existing shadows this entire time, but now it could suddenly manipulate them? Like, why even set up a light for a shadow puppet show if you don’t need a light source? Were they on the second or third stage of the boss which caused it to magically gain new abilities? If that was the case, Oros felt slightly better about this new power.
The last time Oros tried to surface under the harebringer it had ended poorly for her, likely because the underground was filled with shadow. Remaining in front of the harebringer meant subjecting herself to whatever trickery its shadow could bring. Getting out of the way gave it a chance to escape. Clearly, a third option was in order. Oros had third options in spades.
She reached into her shirt and pulled out an acrylic fish tank. Something so large could only be contained in her hammerspace. The whole thing was made out of transparent plastic, and was pretty durable thanks to the plastic itself being about an inch thick. Oros placed the tank on the snow, open end towards the harebringer, and shoved it towards it. She dove over the shadow in an attempt to not get caught by it.
“Let me pet you damn it!”
The fishtank proved to be a useful third option to have on hand. As it would run afoul of the Harebringers plot, for despite being made of acrylic the edges would still cast a faint shadow due to the bonding agents keeping the thing together. Thus when the fishtank touched the Harebringers shadow it would come to a dead stop much like Emily did earlier. Leaving Oros safe when she herself crossed over the shadow.
The Harebringer was caught off guard a bit by the sudden appearance of the fishtank, and even if it wanted to wasn’t fast enough to stop itself from bouncing into the now frozen enclosure. Which wasn’t good for it’s long term goal of remaining unpet. Quickly turning around it knew it wasn’t going to be getting out of here easily, if at all, but as its hunters lunged for it the Harebringer would give them an angry pout before dropping into its own shadow again. Leaving both Oros and Emily holding on to a regular snowbun.
The Harebringer was once again standing on the mound in the center of the clearing, a look of determination upon its features. A moment later the Hare’s shadow would bubble up off the ground in a decent approximation of the Harebringer itself. Though it just had white dots as eyes, instead of the green of the Harebringer’s eyes, and was completely black compared to the dark blue.
No taunting this time, but the hare and it’s shadow were both poised to start moving, with the last three normal snowbuns still trailing behind the Harebringer.
“Screw it, gunna pet all your asses!”
Petting the harebringer itself was absurd. If it was going to keep throwing its minions at them, then Oros was just going to expedite the process and pet the remaining snowbuns herself. Since they were trailing after the harebringer, it shouldn’t have been too difficult. She had another aquarium hoisted over her head as she ran, screaming as she charged after her prey.
The harebringer and its shadow moved just as soon as Oros let out her warcry, but instead of meeting her head on as they had done before they split up instead. The shadow going to the right with the Hare going to the left, at a glance it was easy to lose track of which was which as in motion they looked identical. But Oros wasn’t exactly aiming for the harebringer themselves right now, so it wasn’t hard to keep them straight due to her actual target of the snowbuns following after it.
Regardless of which one was followed it wasn't hard to see that they were moving to encircle Oros, trying to force her to divide her attention much as they had done to it so many times thus far. The real bun was doing it’s best to stay outside of Oros’ reach, using the small trenches it had dug that hadn’t been melted away to limit the angles of approach. Meanwhile the shadow bun was sneaking around behind Oros waiting for the right time to pounce.
But as the snowbuns would soon discover, trying to overwhelm Oros’s senses was a mistake. They didn’t call her the ultimate predator for nothing.
Oros’s eyes seemed to slide across her face until they were on the side of her head. Shortly after, his head distorted until it looked like that of a goat. This change was deliberate, as goats have some of the best vision of prey animals. They have elongated irises that give them “panoramic” Vision of their surroundings. Their eyes could also tilt in their eye balls to keep their vision level with their surroundings. The only real flaw here was that her spaced out eyes decreased her depth perception, which was sure to negatively affect her hand eye coordination.
Tentacles sprung up around the remaining snowbuns, attempting to pin them in place. Oros lunged for the bun furthest from the harebringer to pet it out of the chase.
This prompted Emily to look for an angle of attack. There wasn’t much point in pursuing the same exact target so she singled out another snow bun and used a strong burst of flame to propel herself for an attempt at a quick pet as she passed by the heads of one.
The change in tactics proved to be effective. Especially since the basic snowbuns didn’t have any special properties to help protect themselves from the rather aggressive petting attempts. Emily would fly past with her target easily being pet as it happily bounced along behind the Harebringer who dove out of the way thinking it was still the primary target.
It would recognize it’s folly quickly enough however, for even as Emily landed on the far side of it with the small snowbun she pet in her hands Oros’ strike would come into play. The lashing tentacles would be successful in trapping one of the snowbuns even as the meta aware girl herself laid hands on the third snowbun.
The Hare bringer would be stunned for a moment as it witnessed its following snowbuns were quickly removed from the hunt. And for a moment it would look genuinely upset before it would nod in understanding. It would bounce over to the trapped bun and pat the small bun on the head once before it fell once more into shadow.
The trapped Bun would relax, for it was apparently quite scared to be trapped by the tentacles at first, and calmly wait for either Emily or Oros to pet it. Once they had the Harebringer and its shadow would appear once more on the mound in the center of the field. Once again they both looked ready to bolt at a moment's notice. But this time The Harebringer was smiling, a happy genuine smile.
Seems the final round was about to start.
“Again with the damn mound?” There was clear frustration in Oros’s voice. She had lost count of how many times they had chased this rabbit off the same hill it was content to return to. The entire time it had been assessing their abilities and still choosing to reset every time they almost caught up to it. “The hell makes it so special?”
Like Oros had done many times before, she ran for the mound as fast as her legs would allow her. Only this time she planned on opening up the mound itself. Her hands turned into the webbed claws of a badger before she caught up with the harebringer’s favorite place to perch.
In response to her charge the shadow bun would leap out towards her and instead of bounding onward it would splash out on the snow leaving a large swath of shadow between Oros and the snowmound, much more shadow then should be expected for the Harebringer’s own shadow.
The Harebringer would waste no time in conducting the large patch of shadows, guiding it with its ears. The patch of shadow would come to life but it wouldn’t lift off the ground, that didn’t stop it from surging outwards, aiming for Oro’s shadow. Her biolumencine would cause the shadows to fade, but not disperse entirely. Lowering but not limiting their capability.
And if they grabbed hold of her shadow, well they knew the harebringer could freeze people, but not much else at this point.
Fortunately for Oros, she didn’t have a shadow to grab. That was probably the biggest perk of her transformation into a light bulb. When she dove for the mound, she was suspended in the air, so there was no risk of her coming in contact with the shadows yet. But she had committed herself, and made no adjustments to her flight path as she passed underneath the harebringer and plowed into the snow mound.
And upon doing so Oros would learn that there was actually something under the snow, but before she could examine it closer the mass of shadows she had flown over would converge on her and she would find herself falling out of Emily's shadow. Though her fall wasn’t very fast due to the fact she was a living lightbulb at the moment.
Still her impact to the mound would reveal a large patch of bright yellow fur. And a moment after she was jumped away the rest of the mound would begin shaking apart to reveal a surprisingly large yellow Snowbun who had apparently been sleeping under the snow. It would blearily blink as it yawned and almost went back to sleep before the Harebringer bounced on the newly awakened buns head.
The Harebringer would chitter excitedly at the still sleepy bun, who would let out another yawn seemingly unable to fully wake up despite the circumstances. A moment later the yellow bun would make a sleepy gesture in the direction of both Emily and Oros and a moment later a spotlight would suddenly be thrown onto the two buns. Only the light was coming from a few feet to the side of the hunters,from an orb of light that had appeared suddenly, which was assumedly not what the Harebringer was wanting if the annoyed chittering coming from it was any indication.
The sleepy bun would repeat the process, with its other ear causing the first orb to vanish and a new one to appear, this time behind Oros and Emily causing them to throw a long shadow towards the center of the area, though they were not long enough for the Harebringer to take advantage of just yet.
The light being thrown out was also enough to dissipate the patch of shadow that the Harebringer had thrown out earlier. Which reformed next to the harbinger itself before hopping off to the side to get out of the focused light.
The yellow bun simply covered its eyes with one of its ears and seemed to be trying to get back to sleep. Not very interested in the game apparently.
The Harebringer was bouncing about on top of its friend but didn’t seem like it was going to be bounding away anymore. Ready to fend off its hunters with the light and shadows it now had available.
Who knew that it had one more phase hidden away?
“Cock sucker!” Oros stomped her foot. “So you wanna play with light and shadow? Fine!” She grabbed Emily by the back of her shirt and stepped backwards so as to not cast her shadow too close to the shadow hare. With her free hand, she pulled a magnifying glass out of her hammer space and held it up to the intense glowing light. The light by itself was warm enough to melt snow, so focusing it into a beam had to make it pretty hot, but over great distances it likely wouldn’t be focused enough to start a fire. Maybe she'd try that later. But right now, she just wanted to see if she could agitate the yellow bunny further. She flashed the light in its eyes in an attempt to get it to do something.
“D-don’t use such vulgar language, Oros!” Emily chided after being pulled away. “Um, they really don’t want to get caught, do they?” she appeared in some awe over the tenacity of the hare, having bitten off more than she imagined she could chew alone. Emily then glanced at the beam Oros was aiming at the poor rabbit’s eye and frowned. “That could blind it…”
The giant hare was irritated by the focused light, even with its ears covering its eyes. Grumbling it would slap at the light with its other ear, causing the beam of light to suddenly turn downward towards the snow starting at a point about halfway between Oros and the Yellow Bun. The area in which all the light was pointing down also seemed to affect shadows as they would vanish upon touching the area.
Other than that the larger bun would resettle and get back to trying to doze, while the smaller bun looked at the odd angled light in curiosity. The hare’s shadow would lean out from behind the larger bun as well since it was no longer in danger of being smote by the light.
“Score!” Oros looked at Emily “I mean, I’m sorry about using such foul language. I’m still working on it. But would you mind being a dear and chasing down that harebringer? I’ll try to keep you relatively shadow free.” Oros sprouted wings out of her back and floated into the air. If Emily was going to go towards the harebringer, Oros would need a higher vantage point to ensure her shadow was little more than a circle under her feet.
“S-sure!” Emily agreed and then directed her eyes at the hare with all the determination she could muster. This had been going on for long enough! Emily chose to boost her way over towards the hare in short bursts, making sure she wouldn’t accidentally create an advantage for the thing as she attempted to grab it.
With both of the Hunters heading to the skies in one way or another the harebringer was quick to move into action. The obvious action was regarding its shadow, who lept out from behind the dozing bun and started racing off towards Emily’s shadow. It would dive into the large patch of shadow as soon as it got close to being underneath her.
At the same time the hare would grab hold of the other ear of its large sleeping friend. And began flailing it about. Whatever it was hoping to accomplish is uncertain, but what it did accomplish was readily apparent as the orb of light that was once behind Oros and Emily would start flying wildly around the area. It wouldn’t ever get closer to the center where the buns were located, and the light was always pointing towards where the bun had slapped it into the ground earlier.
“That shadow magic is, eh, forget it. I’m getting redundant.” The light no longer appeared to have any sort of effect on the shadows. Oros tossed the mirror off to the side, causing it to land where the hare seemed to be trying to shine the light. “And you know what else?” Oros pulled a few road flares out of her cleavage. “HNEH!” She struck them across the side of her jaw and hurled them behind the harebringer. Entropy was the only thing Oros had left at her disposal, and she had it in spades.
The tossed Mirror would land in the stream of light and casually start reflecting it skyward, only for the dozing bun’s magic to also affect the reflecting light back into the mirror. Causing the mirror to rather quickly start building up light until it was as bright as a bare spot light casting illumination everywhere.
This had the side effect of saving Emily as the new light would scatter the hare’s shadow that was nearing the girl’s shadow.
The road flares would be smacked away by the blind flailing of the harebringer and would land on either side of the larger bun. The unexpected feedback of smacking them would cause it to stop flailing about in time to notice that its shadow was gone and Emily was nearly upon it.
With a startled eep it would toss aside the ear it had been flailing, the orb of light also coming to a stop off to the side of everything as it did, and the bun would jump forward seeking to tag Emily shadow.
Emily knew this trick and opted to avoid it entirely, strangely creating some distance between her and the rabbit before her shadow could be pounced on. She found herself sighing in obvious irritation. Perhaps as she felt this was dragging on. “Um, Oros, can you keep the bunny occupied?” she asked her friend as she took off into the sky a bit, keeping a cautious eye on the shadow and the bunny’s position. Suddenly, she extended both of her hands down towards the ground and began channeling her energy into a ball of fire that was growing immensely in size, so much so that everyone around could feel the heat.
Oros was doing as Emily instructed. Like Emily, she had wisened up to some of the rabbit’s shadowy tricks. She positioned herself between Emily and the harebringer, and quickly closed the distance between each other. “Open wide ass hole!” Oros had a flair in each hand, and she was waving them around like clubs. The intense light threw her shadow behind herself.
While the growing fireball above was worrying, the Harebringer’s attention was focused on the road flares in front of it and was doing it’s best to hop and skip out of the way of the burning sticks. It was displaying a fairly decent amount of speed in it’s dodging attempts, but was relegated to defense due to the ever shifting location of Oros shadow.
The road flares were also handy in keeping an eye on the hare’s shadow, which was reforming, and it was about half way back by to full.
The Sleeping bun would begin rolling over to get away from the heat, but not before swiping an ear at Emily and causing all the light coming from her grandfire ball to suddenly be diverted towards the horizon when it got close to the arena. Though this only had a minor effect on the rising heat levels.
And the heat continued to rise, up until the point at which anyone in the surrounding area would feel as though Dan’s dimension had returned to being a hot beach. Naturally, this rise in heat had the strongest effect on the snow, which began to melt at a rapid pace, leaving a leveled, wet playing field. This appeared to be the main intent of Emily’s action, rather than creating a light source itself, although should the bun’s effect on the approaching light diminish, it would surely void the mostly-level field of shadows.
The melting snow soon turned into water, which was something Oros could freely manipulate. The slush under the harebringer surged towards Oros, who lept at the harebringer. Maybe this time, it wouldn’t slip away.
The rapidly melting snow would ensnare the Harebringer long before the mass fireball melted everything away. As agile as it was on the snow, it lacked much of the same when it came to slush, add in Oros’ ability to turn the water against it as well and there wasn’t a lot that the bunny could do.
Not that it would go gently, it would flail and squeak as much as it could as it was drawn into Oros’ grasp, but the water refracted the light from the road flares all about to the degree that any shadow it could try and grasp at was far too scattered for any real or lasting effects. It was also out of ‘get out of jail free’ buns.
Thus there was nothing to stop Oros from picking up the harebringer and petting it. Which would instantly bring about an attitude adjustment in the hare, switching form an unruly and taunting ball of fuzz trying to bite Oros ineffectually, to a happy and joyous blob of fluff nuzzling into Oros hand as she pet it. In fact even the larger bun was affected by this as well. Suddenly snapping awake, only to start bounding over to Oros to try and flop onto her affectionately.
“Heh, gottem.” It took a lot to make Oros tired, but between keeping her magical effects up and darting here and there, working with tricky shadow magic, she welcomed the opportunity to just sit down. It might have just been nine pages on a word document, but it was a frantic fiesta that ended just in time. “Alright Em. I think you can pet them now...” She waved her hands around. “Because if I have to endure these fuzzy bastards rubbing up against me any more-!” Oros was cut off when the larger snowbun smothered her face under floof and snow.
Emily did not linger and immediately stopped channeling her fireball, the temperature in the immediate area cooling down as she did. “Oh, I’m so happy!” she excitedly exclaimed and she boosted straight up to Oros and touched down on the ground, petting the fluffy balls of evasion and shadow magic. Despite how much trouble they caused, she even scratched them under their chins. “They’re so cute when they’re docile~”
…
…
…
After a waining hunt that took over 3 months to finish, Emily got back on the sled so that Oros could drag her back to lodge. She ran over the crest of hills, through evergreen forests, and along cliff edges. It was the same landscape in almost every direction, but Oros’s nose could guide her back to civilization easily enough.
”Thanks for coming with me, Em!” Oros grunted between huffs. ”Had I thought the hunt was going to be that tedious, I wouldn’t have bothered with it..”
“I was surprised too.” Emily sat awkwardly on the sled. “The lengths that rabbit went to to avoid being petted, you would think we were going to hurt him! But I’m sorry it wasn’t as fun as you wanted it to be, maybe things will look up once we get back?”
Oros feet were beating a path through the snow, but her steps slowed once Emily’s question rolled off of her lips. Her arms fell to her side, and Oros’s feet came to a stop. The sled gently bumped into the back of Oros’s ankle. ”Dunno.”
They had stopped on top of a cliff edge. Most of the islands were pretty level in this dimension, but this one had a pretty big hill on it. It provided a pretty good vantage point of the entire event. They could see the lodge, some other harebringers, and wild snowbuns building igloos. There were also the occasional magical girl here and there, most of which were one person’s clone or another. But Oros’s eyes weren’t looking at any of that. She was looking up at the grey sky.
”The joy of the first snow is inversely proportional to someone’s age, you know?.” She folded her arms. ”My parents always hated the snow. Young me loved to play in it, but I didn’t realize what a bitch it was to shovel.” Oros pointed into the sky. ”When it’s overcast like this you can’t see the sun or stars. My father was really into astronomy, so he naturally hated rainy days and the winter.” Oros took a seat on the sled next to Emily. ”Is it just me, or does all of this shit feel surprisingly mundane?” She cast her hand over everything.
Following Oros' hand, Emily found herself taking in the scenery. She absorbed all that she could see and sat on it for a minute in silence. "No," she said. "Well, um, to an extent!" Emily didn't smile as she usually did. She appeared to take the conversation a bit more seriously than before. "I don't really... care about the activities. It's the people I do them with that provide the excitement -- the fun!"
"But..." Emily looked at Oros. "...is it not the same for you, then? I love to spend time with you and the others. It's something I never got to do when I moved away... People didn't like me very much."
”They didn’t? You sure you’re not just being dramatic?” Oros looked back out at the snowy landscape.
“They did.” Emily firmly replied without a moment of hesitation. “They avoided me, spoke behind my back, and they hated me. All because…” she trailed off as a hand came to her temple as if she were experiencing a headache. “...Well, it doesn’t matter now since I have friends. I just want to do things with them. With you! But if you don’t find things engaging, I won’t make you.”
”I didn’t mean to make it sound like I wasn’t enjoying myself. I just think it’s interesting how my dad would cream his pants over a shooting star, but I’m participating in a Christmas party in another dimension hosted by a dolphin where a bunch of magical boys and girls are playing games. Ice sculptures are made in seconds, snow men are the size of buildings, even the harebringers bring their own level of spectacle and pizzaz. But I don’t feel amazed when I experience these things, it feels normal to me now. Dull even. Same shit different day.” She shrugged. ”Maybe we’re the same that way. I came here because I wanted to get closer to El, but she seems more concerned with whatever drama the cradle is making for her or some mystery guest. I don’t think she’s really into me.”
Emily sighed. “These sorts of things… Well, they’re really not my forte. I really wish I knew some trick to help out on that front because it saddens me to hear that you feel that way. But I don’t think I’ve ever had that kind of spark in my chest for someone... “ As close as Oros was, she probably heard when Emily almost unconsciously wondered what her sister might do, under her breath. Afterward, she placed a reassuring hand on Oros’ shoulder and mustered a smile. “Maybe she’s just stressed! Or perhaps the oblivious type? I mean, sometimes I get so caught up in reading that I space out and forget to check on the food I’m cooking.” The averted eyes and strained smile let Oros know that Emily’s culinary adventures weren’t always the ones that ended in success. “A-anyway, while that may be a bit of a silly comparison, it’s not like I mean to neglect the food or anything, it’s just that something else borrowed my attention for a bit! So… maybe it’s the same for her and you just need to take the attention back!”
Emily partially deflated after a moment of reflection. “Uh, no… that sounds a bit too much like a manga or something. Sorry, that’s probably just bad advice, don’t listen to me.”
”Yea, but this is an RP run by a bunch of weebs, so maybe doing something manga-like will work!” Oros pumped her fist, as manga girls sometimes do. ”All joking aside, I dunno Em. Just look at them.” she pointed at everyone again. ”Everyone looks like they’re getting along in relative harmony. Harmony isn’t really my style though. I’m not the kind of person who can just form a bond with just anyone, as I’m sure you know.” She reached up to her shoulder and placed a hand on top of Emily’s. With a sigh, Oros turned towards her friend. ”You think I’ve got a chance with El though?”
Emily locked eyes with Oros and held them for a solid dozen seconds before giving another sigh as she smiled. “I said I wasn’t good with these things…” she shook her head. “Unless it’s Samantha or Hilaria, I couldn’t give you a definite answer. Sam’s taken, I’m pretty sure. And Hilaria is…” A short pause betrayed a realization. “...I don’t think I’ve said hi to her even though she has to be at this party…” Emily appeared a bit upset at this fact, but pushed the feeling back and returned to smiling. “Admittedly, it is hard for me to picture her paying that much attention to another person. So I’d say nothing on that front either. And so my opinion on everyone else would be… um, it wouldn’t hurt to try! I think?”
”Heh.” The corners of Oros’s lips twitched upwards. ”You know you’re just supposed to shower me with positivity in situations like this.” She let go of Emily’s hand. ”But I appreciate you trying to be realistic. That’s not something I get to experience much anymore.” She spread her arms. ”So um, can I give my little pog champ a hug?”
Emily accepted the hug without any hesitation but a question lingered on her mind as they embraced. “Um… Why am I a ‘Pog Champ’?” she asked innocently. “I don’t think I ever got into that fad.”
”It just means that you’re a special friend.” Oros kept her eyes closed as she patted Emily on the back. ”Anyway, guess I’ll give her another shot.” Oros stood up. ”I’ll go find Eliza, then we can do something fun together. Maybe throw snow balls at each other. If I can get the group together, I’ve got something planned for the stage. It’s gunna be lit!” she looked over her shoulder. ”If you’re ready, I’ll take us back to the lodge. Maybe everyone else will be there..”
“Y-yeah!”
”I know the smell of the game. *honks nose*”
— Oros
At this point, being ignored or box blocked by nearly everyone she interacted with was normal. It didn’t even really bother Oros at this point. If anything, she could find amusement in the length others would go to ensure they didn’t have to interact with her. She just chuckled as the proceedings went forward before clapping her hands.
”Nice one Dan! You too Mrs ‘queen of Penrose!’ Even I didn’t see you guys planning to give yourselves a worse chance of keeping this dimension intact. Then again, Dan did give some of roboslut’s girls a vacation home when they could have been rebuilding Sanctuary, so maybe this is payback for robbing her kingdom for all that lost time?” She shrugged. ”You people are way too gullible.” She pointed at herself with her thumb. ”And I’m like Rape Hell, I agreed to fight her and one other person. I’m not going to go through an entire tournament. Do you know how many collabs that would be? Especially when you count the other stuff my Patron’s wrapped up in?”
…
…
…
Not long after Fanfan received the jacket from Rachel, she could hear a whispering sound. ”Pssst.” Under a nearby table cloth was a conspicuous clown with a ticket in her hand. ”I dunno who this Leena person is, but maybe you’d like to trade that cool jacket for a sexy getaway with them?”
”I refuse to include Famished’s banners in anything.”
— Aria
For all the attention Aria had been putting towards treasure hunting, she did have other things she wanted to do at the party. More specifically, there was something that she had to do before it was too late. She might have gotten a bit distracted, but it was probably best if she let her mark settle a bit before bothering them.
With everyone heading to the lodge, her mark would be approaching shortly. She just had to wait outside and be ready to intercept her when she showed up.
Her ‘mark’ would not be among the first to the lodge and instead was one of the last. She appeared to be alone, as most of the group she had been hanging out with up to this point had already arrived. One could presume she either had business to do before going to the lodge or merely took her time. In any case, Aria would notice something quite odd about the girl: namely that she was apparently playing rock, paper, scissors but there didn’t appear to be anyone there. That, however, didn’t stop a hand that clearly wasn’t hers from throwing down with her. The hand threw down a rock to her scissors, winning the round, which clearly frustrated the girl.
”Rock tends to be the most used move.” Aria approached Silhouette as she spoke. ”It’s one of the reasons why paper is such a great opening move. Though it looks like you’ve been playing that opponent for a bit. By now the game has moved past mere statistics and well into mind games.” Once Sam turned to look at her, she gave the assassin a courteous bow. ”My name is Aria Rizzo, and you are Sam Howard. I would not be surprised if you never heard of me or Monarch Artificing, but I’ve heard a great deal about you.” She lifted her head. ”And I feel like our meeting is long overdue.”
Samantha looked up and at the same time, the hand seemingly evaporated as Sam returned to a neutral expression. "I don't play these games too often, so I appreciate the pointer." The assassin took keen interest in the girl before her as she introduced herself, then shook her head. "I generally prefer it when people don't remember me but they usually don't when they believe they can wrestle a favor from me. I take it you're not that sort, Ms. Rizzo? Or perhaps you really did forget our encounter in the Overcity?"
She shrugged.
”Well.” Aria smiled. ”I seem to recall you running away from some Ascendancy girls. I would not have been surprised if you didn’t remember our encounter. But it seems you did.”
With narrowed eyes, Sam continued. "Either way, I don't believe we had very much time to speak then, so I am fine with pretending otherwise," she looked past Aria and into the lodge, then returned back to Aria once she had presumably spotted what she was looking for. "Are you here to socialize, or did you want something from me?"
”You’re not too polite, you know that?” Despite her criticism, Aria wasn’t bothered by how gruff Sam was. ”What I wish to talk about is far too exhilarating to be considered socializing.” Aria looked over her shoulder at the Ascendancy girls in the lodge before taking a few steps towards Sam. ”Anyway! I just wanted to share some words with you. Veronica may not always seem it, but she’s very loyal to her friends. Even the ones that no longer serve her directly.” Aria hopped past Silhouette and spun on her heel. ”There are things that Veronica wanted to tell you about herself, but couldn’t because it would put me in danger. So I’ve come to tell you what she couldn’t: The secret history of Vermillion Veronica.” With a deep breath, Aria placed her hands on her hips. ”I’d rather not have this conversation in earshot of the Ascendancy, if it’s all the same to you.”
Try as she might, Samantha could not hide the fact she was interested and cautious. Giving her away were small things like turning her body to face Aria, crossing her arms, and unlike before, her eyes weren’t wandering around and instead stopped solely on Aria. “And she let you in on these things?” Also clear was the fact Samantha had to stop herself from scoffing at the notion she would be trusted with that sort of confidential information. “Well, fine. I’ll bite, even if I’m a bit skeptical.”
”Of course you are.” Aria reached for the girl’s hand and took a few steps away from the lodge’s door. Before long, they were on a side of the lodge that had no windows, and the chatter from inside the building was vaguely audible to them. It would be safe to speak here. ”Now you don’t have to mention specifics, but has Veronica told you much about herself?” She looked out at the great expanse of snow that surrounded them. Not too far away was the snowball fight area, which was nothing but ruined snow forts and a frozen lake. At this point. ”If Su warmed up to you, she might have told you a bit about their past.”
"Yes," Sam answered plainly. "Su did inform me of the past she shared with Veronica. But Veronica herself has always been - as I'm sure you don't need me to tell you - rather quiet about her past. I'm pretty much in the dark when it comes to her life before our first encounter." Admitting this seemed to cause Sam some distress.
”Awww, well as I said, I’m sure what I’m about to tell you is something she sincerely hopes you hear. After all, you’d probably have a stroke or something if that wasn’t the case, right?” With a shrug, she placed her hands together. ”But if we’re going to talk about Veronica the magical girl, we first need to talk about Veronica the alias. She wasn’t the first one to use it.” She giggled. ”The first person to bare the moniker Vermillion Veronica was a girl named Sharr Webber. She was a Beacon hopeful known for her destructive power with her uncanny weapon: The Dunk Master. Maybe you’ve seen it? Regardless, it wasn’t too impressive compared to what the ascendancy girls could do, so she was mostly ignored. Ignored so much in fact that she was able to keep up a relationship with a monster girl named Kate. White dress, golden scales, you’ve met her too, I trust?”
Samantha shrugged. “Sounds familiar at the very least.” Samantha summoned her knife. It currently looked like it was made of foam, but the weight was still there. She effortlessly balanced the blade on the tip of her pointer. “From my understanding, the weapons we wield don’t exactly stick around after we die. So then that would likely mean...” Samantha thought about the space Veronica showed her when they were dealing with Justine. The implication was unpleasant, and she didn’t envy this Sharr girl. “...I think I know how this story is going to end, but someone close to me chided me last time I vocalized my realization mid-movie, so I’ll keep quiet for now. While Veronica being a moniker isn’t all that surprising to me, I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting it to have been passed down to her.”
”Well, I’m not the scolding type, so you don’t have to worry about that from me. Though the wise do tend to reserve judgement until they have all the facts, and this story has a twist ending.”
“I’m taking what you’ve said with a grain of salt, but going along with it for expediency's sake.” Sam clarified.
Aria tapped her fingers together. ”But yes, Sharr was under quite a bit of pressure. She had to keep up her relationship with a monster girl she fell in love with, risking excommunication or death should someone find out. And Kate had her own problems too. Not only was she hunted by Beacon, but the Mint wanted repayment for the coin she used. So she didn’t have a lot of places to go. As Sharr’s love for this woman grew, she knew she had to do something. And her solution was an amusing one, though foolish and motivated by pure emotion.” The corners of Aria’s lips curled. ”She joined the Mint to pay off Kate’s debt!”
Samantha didn’t seem to find the same amusement as Aria did in Sharr’s choice. “She took on a burden like that, too?” Sam asked rhetorically. “And with the Mint, no less. That’s as far from logically-driven as it could be, I think. So, how did that turn out for her?”
”This is the story of the original Vermilion Veronica, so do I even need to say?” Aria’s smile only grew, but her eyelids squinted a bit. ”She paid it off and became a powerful coin broker in the end. But Kate was unable to appreciate the gesture. You know how it goes with girl friends, they all want a worker that will sate their every desire, but they also want someone who will spend time with them and hold their hand. Kate decided to repay Sharr’s kindness by aggressively going after the Mint, which put her in their sights as you can imagine. She basically invalidated everything Sharr was trying to do for her. But we’re not here to talk about that particular melodrama. We’re here to talk about the real hero of our story: Scarlet Rose.” Aria giggled. ”Scarlet Rose worked for Boteg, and was conscripted by Sharr to become one of her agents. I don’t think you need a refresher on that part, right? Su told you everything I trust?”
"I was not told what happened to Kate, but Su informed me of the past she shared with 'Scarlet Rose', at least." Samantha nodded, although she appeared uncomfortable calling the woman she respected most by that name. She then continued. "...And how there was pressure to remove if what you said is correct, then-Veronica. Supposedly, she found some other way to deal with the situation but this came at the expense of Boteg's horde."
Aria nodded. ”Sharr had learned her lesson with Kate, but a heart can’t help but want to be hole. But the former and current Veronicas shared a bond of sorts. Something that the word love is both repulsed by but also couldn’t hope to match.” With a sigh, she folded her arms. ”But people don’t get big in the mint without making enemies, and Sharr had several. It wasn’t long before Scarlet Rose was asked to do the deed. It was a monumental task. Coin brokers were made of sturdy stuff, and she’d incur a debt hiring the people she needed for the job. But like the former Veronica, she was no dummy. Well, maybe a little bit of one.” Aria chuckled. ”She took in so many gold coins at once it corrupted her, that much you know. But once she had sufficiently upgraded herself, she still had quite a few gold coins left over.” Aria paused, thinking about how to tell the next part of her story. ”Coins are often used to fortify a magical girl, but they can be used to change aspects of themselves. It’s normally not too efficient, but red coins hadn’t been invented yet, and with even part of a dragon’s hoard it’s possible to entirely change a magical girl’s outward appearance.” She tapped the corner of her smile. ”Scarlet Rose’s master would live on, and the current Veronica’s power was so great that no one questioned that she had done the deed. She had more than enough power to kill the old Veronica outright, and was quickly made into a coin broker herself.”
Samantha rubbed her chin, thinking about something intently. “I wasn’t aware that was possible with gold coins…” Her lips parted as though she meant to say more on the matter but ultimately, she chose not to and instead addressed the other parts of Aria’s explanation. “The Corruption I gained from using the Black Coin has caused me time and again more problems than I can count. Try as I might, the influence simply cannot be ignored. It has irreversibly changed my very core.” The black-headed girl looked at Aria and posed a question. “Since you’re privy to information even I am not, then I presume that Veronica explained to you what sort of person I was? When I was a human?”
”She may have said you used to be an assassin in a passing comment, I can’t really remember. We don’t talk about people’s pasts much. You know how she is, always about the here and now, hatching her next scheme.” The smile ran from Aria’s face. ”Um, if it’s not too much to ask for, can I see it? The Dunk Master?”
It was clear as day to see Samantha wanted to follow up her question with something else, yet Aria's sudden request tripped her up. "You really want to see that?" At first, Sam was both hesitant and confused. However, as she went to summon the basketball-weapon, the evidence of this left her expression and was replaced with realization.
In her right hand appeared a basketball. One wouldn't look twice at it if merely going by the appearance, but gazing upon it, anyone sensitive to unnatural would guess it was anything but normal. "Huh," Sam seemed mildly surprised. "Since we are in Dan's dimension, I was expecting it to look like a beach ball or something," she confessed. "So?” Samantha spun the ball on the tip of her finger, then suddenly stopped and presented it to Aria. ”Does it look familiar?"
Aria’s mouth opened at the sight of the Dunk Master. ”Oh yes.” she slid closer. ”Familiar, but also different. Like gazing at the face of a childhood friend after years of separation.” she closed her eyes and placed her hand on the ball, only to jerk her hand back shortly after making contact. ”Though this one did not age gracefully. Though that’s to be expected, considering where it was kept.” Aria forced a smile and folded her hands together. ”Thank you, Sam. I guess you did end up doing something for me in the end, didn’t you?” with a nervous chuckle, Aria turned to look at the lodge. ”Seems my timing wasn’t that great. We should go participate in the festivities. It looks like the white elephant is underway.” Aria looked back at Samantha. ”Maybe afterwards, we can talk about Veronica to your heart's content. Sound good?”
“Oh, yes, that…” To her chagrin, Sam appeared to have gotten caught up in the talk. “I’m sure my tardiness is weighing on a certain someone, so yeah, I think anything else can wait for now.” Once again, Samantha spun the ball on her fingertip, only this time it seemingly evaporated and, without further delay she joined the rest inside.
Aria followed Sam into the lodge. Gifts were already being exchanged, and she wasn’t shy about looking for the one that had been assigned to her. Sure enough, there was a small tin wrapped up and tagged with her name. ”Oh? I wonder what’s inside? Cookies? Sewing tools?” Though once she lifted the lid, she found a small rectangular device that was small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. It was all black with red engravings on its face, like a monolith. There were also strings attached to it with little “buds” attached to the ends of the strings. ”Well that’s rather curious! Is this supposed to be a magical MP3 player?” she giggled to herself before looking at Samantha. ”What did you get?”
Meanwhile, Samantha was sitting down against a wall, staring at quite a few small boxes sprawled about before her. They each had various designs, as well as different letters from different languages on the boxes. She opened one and found some tea leaves, and would find more when she opened another. Looking up to Aria, who had approached her, she closed the lid on one. “Tea, it seems. I’m not sure I am capable of properly appreciating all of this tea - I prefer coffee - but it is a pleasant gift.” Sam said, looking up to Aria's MP3. “What’s magical about it?”
”I don’t know!” Aria giggled. ”But it looks magical. I mean, it’s a pocket monolith, right? Let’s have a listen.” Aria handed one of the ear buds to Samantha while she held the other one up to the side of her head. Nothing played for a bit, until Rachiel did the things. ”Oh I see now! I thought it was weird how you couldn’t choose the songs.” Aria looked the MP3 player over. ”If I had to guess, I’d say it plays music to suit your mood!” She chuckled. ”It’s pretty neat, but if you don’t like tea we could always trade. I do like to drink tea, if you enjoy listening to musical scores?”
Samanatha liked the idea and expressed as much by nodding. “I do,” she confirmed to Aria. “Particularly when exercising or training, and sometimes sleeping. So if you enjoy tea, then yeah, I have no problem trading.”
Samantha looked around the area and spotted her friend, Emily. With her back turned, Sam couldn’t really grab her attention but she knew that, as eager to meet people as she was, Emily would eventually come over to them, so she remained seated. “Did-” Sam looked at Aria--“you come with someone?”
”Oh my, it’s a throw down!” Aria was only half listening to Samantha at this point. ”Ha! I’m sorry Sam, but the ascendancy is talking about fighting some girls at Keijo to lay claim to both this dimension as well as Mariette’s gift, and Oros says that she wants to fight the winner of that little bout afterwards to lay claim to those prizes herself.” She pulled Samantha closer, grinning at her from ear to ear. ”Are you thinking, what I’m thinking?”
Sam could not help but think of how troublesome Oros was, especially during this Christmas event. If it weren’t for the fact that they were in Dan’s dimension, Sam was almost certain that things would have gotten violent. She did not dislike the idea of a thrilling fight, but she did hate the idea it would’ve been for such a dumb reason. Actually, wait, that’s not even really my Mika, why would I bring myself into that? Sam caught herself wondering. “Judging by the grin on your face,” Sam sighed. “You want in on that? Well, given the prize, I can’t say I don’t understand,” she rubbed her chin. “But Keijo is…” Recalling the fact she wasn’t able to reach the finals last time weighed on her.
”Since Oros is going to fight the winner, they have effectively reduced the number of matches they need to participate in.” She gestured between the two of them. ”Which means that if we are willing to fight the person who wins in Oros’s match, we could steal her strategy and bolster our own chances of winning, at least according to game theory.” She poked Samantha’s chest ”So you need to declare that you’ll challenge her! Then I can put some buffs on you and we’ll split the winnings fifty-fifty!”
“W-what? Me?” Samantha shook her head fervently. “You’re joking, you have to be. Why would I want to throw myself into that mess? I have been around long enough to know that when the stakes are high, so is the amount of people willing to throw themselves onto it.” She glanced in the direction of the challengers, and could tell there was more to come. “Aside from that, Mariette is sure to do what she can to retrieve that mirror. I would not be surprised in the least if she were to grab her strongest allies and…” Suddenly, Samantha went quiet for a few seconds, placing a finger to her chin and losing herself in thought. Aria could hear her faintly repeat the word ‘strongest’ as she did. “Oh,” she said, returning to the conversation. “...What sort of buffs are we talking about, here?”
”The usual reinforcement specialist’s flair. More durability, more strength, only mine tend to be far stronger and last a shorter duration due to how my magic manifests itself.” At this point, Dan announced his absolutely brilliant plan that He and Penny came up with. ”Now it’s a gauntlet with Rachel at the end of it? That hardly sounds fair, and Dan agreed to such terms? He practically wants to have his home destroyed.” With a sigh, she looked back at Samantha. ”Well, my assistance is still on the table if you want to participate. I’m sure a lot of people are betting on Penny winning this, but you were one of the few people who were able to go toe to toe with her back in the day. Something about a fight on a flying ship?” She shrugged, but her smile only widened. ”Veronica didn’t get into details, but she seemed pleased. I’m willing to put my faith in you certainly. Besides, wouldn’t you like to rub it in Rachiel’s face as some form of catharsis?” She folded her arms.
“Well,” Sam recalled the memory of the first few posts mission she had to disable Amber’s ship. A brief, yet fun encounter that cost her an arm. “Penny is… well, since we aren’t doing a traditional fight, I’m at a distinct physical disadvantage. Keijo doesn’t allow me to use my weapon, after all. If I were to meet her in this arena… I’ll have to think of something, even with buffs,” Samantha admitted, having heavily pondered the subject. “Penny’s strength is the talk around Penrose, so normally I would be more excited to test myself against that, it’s just… you’re absolutely correct. Even if I can’t kill her right here and now, if I could knock her down a peg, I won’t waste this opportunity to take on Rachel after how she humiliated me. Mariette, her minions, or anyone else attempting to rob me of this be damned!”
”Excellent...” Aria tapped the tips of her fingers together like some extremely cliche dastardly villain. ”Sounds like you don’t need any more convincing.” She surveyed the hall. ”We can discuss strategy later. Seems like we’ll have a moment before the tournament begins in earnest.” She shoved her hands into her pockets. ”Suppose I’ll tend to my devices for the time being. It’s getting a bit noisy here. Besides, you wanted to meet someone, correct?”
“Oh,” she suddenly snapped back to reality. “That is correct, I should spend at least a few minutes with Emily!” Leaving just those words, Samantha got up off the wall, presumably to search for her friend.
”I won Christmas, but can I win Keijo?”
— Betty “Biohazard” Barton
”I wonder if one of the other girls in Maura’s group know anything about computers.”
Betty decided to ignore the Keijo tournament for the moment. It would be sad if Dan’s world went away, but there were plenty of magical girls stronger than her that could likely win if needed. It just wasn’t a big deal to Betty. In the end, this world was originally a prison made for them, maybe it was karma that it might be destroyed for good.
But while many people were talking in the small lodge, Betty was tuned in to a few voices. Her allies, sure, but most of all…
”Justine is joining!?!?!?”
So this was her plan all along. Since Betty and friends had expertly dusted Justine in both snowman building and sled racing, she planned to claim the mirror and Dan’s world for herself! Of course she would wish to rejoin with a horror as soon as possible! Of course she would wish to twist this isolated retreat into a dark lair. She could just see Justine standing atop her castle and laughing wickedly as she attempted to rid the world of love a fourth time…
Third time?
Fifth time?
Didn’t matter.
The point was it had to be her to face Justine and beat her. It wasn’t like there was anyone else who had been brainwashed by Justine and needed to take even more vengeance out on her. Though if there was someone like that, she might be able to meet with them and become friends. Unless they were with Beacon. Betty was pretty sure she could never be friends with anyone from Beacon. Mostly because that would involve playing nice with Alicia, which she didn’t see happening.
‘Now, let’s see…’ Deni called, as she went into her gift and found… a giant bucket of KFC, still hot. Deni’s eyes widened at the sight… and then burst out laughing, really loudly. It was pretty funny.
Meanwhile, Eli got her present and it was a golden ticket. She held it up to read the details on it, inspecting it closely…
‘Have you been invited to a chocolate factory? Oooh, I’m jealous~!’
‘Dear sister, you’d have ended up being turned into sentient chocolate slime, or something equivalent,’ Eli replied, and Deni giggled. ‘But no, this is… an invitation for an evening with fantastic meal and a happy ending with a single guest.’
‘Ooooh! Sounds great! You can actually make yourself get a boyfriend!’ Deni chuckled happily.
‘Eeeeh… I don’t really want one, though…’ Eli replied, frowning a bit at the invitation.
‘Not right now, but maybe sometime in the future? That ticket doesn’t have an expiration date, does it? As long as we don’t die, our existences are eternal! Who knows what will happen or who’ll you meet in the future?’ Deni suggested with a smirk.
‘Er, maybe,’ Eli said, inspecting the ticket. ‘Or I could use it for a sensitive meeting with someone important, it promises a happy ending so whatever I hope to achieve might just be guaranteed. Or subverted and still made happy somehow, which, okay,’ Eli continued, theorizing.
‘But, like, I currently don’t need this ticket to have a good meal and a happy ending with one guest,’ Eli said, making Deni tilt her head at her a bit. ‘All I need is…’ With that, Eli sat a curious Deni down at a table, placed Deni’s KFC in the middle of the table, and then sat down herself on the opposite side of the table with a big smile. ‘… right here.’
‘Awww! My sweet younger sister~’ Deni giggled so happily to Eli. ‘Alright! Let’s eat, then!’
‘Yes, let’s,’ Eli agreed, and they both reached to the KFC and took a chicken each, biting into the crunchy outside…
‘O-oh, man, this is delicious…!’ Deni started to positively pant at just how good the chicken was.
‘Th-this…’ Eli’s eyes were wide with shock. ‘This is a marvel of chicken! KFC wishes it was this good…!’
In the corner the two twins were enjoying their chickens with pure happiness in their faces. There was some commotion about mirrors and keijo tournaments, but honestly, they didn’t have time for that, chicken was too delicious.
‘He did, huh…’ Freya commented on the fact Aurelio had apparently told Penny to look out for her. What an unnecessary thing for him to do… Then Penny commented on the fact she had legs because the dimension’s screwing with her. ‘… Yeah, it is. I don’t have legs. I’m a lamia, darn it. I mean, I do have them when disguised, but that's not how I really look… Why does this dimension insist on giving me legs!?’ Freya objected, not understanding the issues with trying to find images of lamias that fit both the theme of the holiday and also look relatively like her. Matters beyond her understanding regardless, she looked to Penny.
‘… How much has it done to you?’ she asked, somewhat curious.
Penny would nod in understanding, the changes inflicted on her weren’t the worst, but they were still annoying. “More this time compared to last time.” She would answer. “My legs and arms are the most visible difference. But being here also gives me a normal sense of touch, which would likely be more annoying on this island if not for the magic of the outfits.” Which honestly was rather appreciated since she wasn’t given shoes with her current apparel.
“Oh, and my eyes keep defaulting to red.” She would add on, a minor thing over all, but one that did truly get to her. Her eyes being red normally meant something else after all.
‘… Heh,’ Freya made the slightest noise of amusement. She then leaned her head back, sighed, and… guessed the first step of actually confiding something in someone else.
‘… Her name was Astrid,’ Freya eventually sighed. ‘The world I came from was destroyed. It was overrun by the were-lamia, the same beast that gives me my strength now.’
Penny would nod in understanding. “She meant a lot to you.” It wasn’t a question. “Tell me about her?” She would ask softly. She had been told to keep an eye out for Freya by Aurelio, but the boy wasn’t one to go spilling the secrets of those who confided in him. So all Penny had was conjecture at the moment.
‘… She was a confident one. I was the stoic one, she was the upbeat one. She was really strong, too. Ice-magic user. Really fond of trees, the larger the better. She was always the one saying everything would be fine, making friends left and right, geh… It all seems so childish now…’ … It suddenly occurred to her that Aurelio and her had a lot in common in that sense, she supposed… ‘… I was bitten before her. I stayed behind to save them, my last memory of her is her tear-stained eyes as my other surviving allies carried her into our last bastion as I stayed to hold them off. Of course, then a Horror decided I was more useful alive, and this happened. I was informed my homeworld was annihilated. I went back, finding it was indeed just a mass of were-lamias eating one another because they’d eaten everything else. I figured Astrid had been turned into were-lamia and then killed, like everyone else. Then… I got that text from her, the message reading like I was back home, and nothing had ever happened. Screw this bloody…’ Freya grunted, leaning her head down and sighing.
“She sounds like a good person.” Penny’s attention was lifted more towards the sky as she replied. “Pretty sure if we had a few more people like her in Penrose it wouldn’t be half the mess it is now. Curious if the trees we have here would stack up to the ones where you came from.”
She would let the thoughts of Astrid simply linger in the air for a moment. Would give the memory of this girl the respect it was due.
“Got to say though, this Horror was a bigger prick than I thought.” She’d say with a snort “Granted most Horror’s are manipulative wretches, so not terribly surprised.” She would shift her attention towards Freya as she continued on “Now, it’s fair to warn you that I am optimist, and spiteful towards Horrors, so I very well could be wrong. But it's possible that Astrid is still alive.”
“From where I’m sitting, which again I could be wrong, it sounds like there is every possibility that she got off planet just as you did. Plenty of Patrons could have done to her what yours did for you.” Which only made sense, as Patrons tended to be scavengers even if they were trying to do good. Least that was Penny’s point of view on it. “But if I am wrong, that doesn’t mean you’ll never see her again. Us magicals got the whole cycle of reincarnation thing going on after all. Never seen anywhere it says you have to be reborn on the planet you originally came from.”
‘Yeah, she was…’ Freya replied to the part about Astrid being a good person. Penny went on a bit, and…
‘… Eh, I don't really blame the Horror for that. Better me, someone about to die anyway, than grabbing someone with a future…’ Freya replied to the part about the Horror being a prick.
Freya remained silent at the part of Astrid possibly being alive, listening until Penny was finished. ‘… I have thought of it before. But, it's just so unlikely. We didn't have connections to other dimensions, and those who enlisted were assigned Pushuus to make contracts with before never seeing them again, chances of reincarnation are slim to none. I… don't even know where I'd start to look, and if I started, I'd just set myself up for a fresh dose of disappointment and loss… Wouldn't I?’ Freya asked, that last part reminding her of how Aurelio had said closing herself down wasn't the answer.
“Possibly” Penny would remark with a half shrug. “It’s entirely possible that you’re correct and that Astrid is gone.” Because while Penny was an optimist she wasn’t blind about it. “And if that is the case, mourn her, grieve her, but don’t forget to live for her.”
“But maybe you’re wrong.” She would go on after a moment “Maybe she’s out there, somewhere thinking the same as you are now. That everyone she knew from her home is gone. It’s a dark way to live, you know it, I know it. But would that stop her I wonder.”
“In the end, who knows.” Penny would say with an amused huff “I just don’t like thinking things can’t get better. Spent long enough on the other side of that mentality to know better.”
‘… Hah,’ Freya made a sound and then stayed quiet, not really having been swayed either way. Well, that's that, then. ‘… So, how are you faring? I talked a bunch about myself, but friendship is supposed to be a two-way communication, isn't it? How did you end up like this?’ she asked, kinda curious.
“Definitely helps” Penny would agree with a smirk and a nod, she wouldn’t turn down a new friend.She also didn’t realize how out of character that declaration was for Freya either. “And I’m doing good, the answer to your second is trickier though.”
“Guess it depends on how you mean ‘Like this’. Do you mean Queen? Do you mean a Monstergirl? Or do you mean something else?” She would ask smirk never leaving her face “Though I’m guessing it's more to do with the monster bit if anything. Which is the trickiest part of the tricky question.”
“Easiest answer is that I was born this way. My life started with me being monstrous and I never had a human life. Conflict on the streets and struggle for survival in the magical community are the start of my history.” She would lean back, resting her hands on the snow behind her as she spoke, gaze turning towards the sky and going distant. “But that’s hardly everything. Another answer is that I’m sort of like you, just the other way around. There was a human that got drafted into the magical world and I was the one he got infected with due to the asshole that was their Patron. He didn’t like me much, not that I blame him for that. We weren’t very compatible mentally, for a whole host of reasons.”
“Both of those are just the starting points; however, Important ones, true, but only the start. The thing that really started me down the road to being how I am now doesn’t seem all that big to me, but it was a White coin.” Penny couldn’t say why, but it really didn’t seem like a big deal to her. Even though she knew that it was, because it was where things started going weird in regards to her and her nature. “A lot of people have asked me how it is I took one and stayed a Monstergirl, and I’ve a lot of theories about it. But in truth I’m not sure. Part of it is that I didn’t want to die, I'm sure, part of it is that my magic is adaptable, part of it is probably just straight luck. I’m not sure I’ll ever fully know.”
“It broke something within me though, within the both of us really. Me and the guy I was stuck to. And we were already damaged long before that point. It gave me the strength to... act out I suppose is a good term for it.” It was the first time Penny had been able to do anything without being in the throes of a full metamorph. She probably could have handled it better, but she didn’t regret her actions. “Which led to us fighting, which hurt, because as much as we were different people we were also very much the same person. It nearly killed us.”
“Afterwards there was a time where both of us were out and about, never sure how much of that time was taken seriously by others. The situation wasn’t sustainable though and also nearly killed us. Twined soul is a Power for a reason after all. I was lucky though, since I had a chance to sit down with the creator of the Red coins. I was able to get her to modify one to help me fix the mess I was in.”
“It worked, that's why I’m still here after all. But.” She would let out a forlorn sigh. “But it wasn’t without cost. The thing is they didn’t really want to come back. The magical world can be bleak after all. And our luck had never been particularly good. Something bad happened one too many times, but I wasn’t there to help this time so it broke him. So he gave it all to me. Gave me everything I needed to patch up the holes we punched into our soul. Gave me everything he had in hopes he wouldn’t have to deal with any of this anymore. Then he passed on.”
“Far as I can tell it worked. I’m still healing, those types of wounds Regen can’t do much to help with. But I’m stable and whole while he’s at peace, so I don’t begrudge him for it.” And maybe that was wrong of her, but Jason had been in such pain that words simply failed to express. She knows that she wouldn’t be able to sit by if anyone else wished for the same thing, but for whatever reason it was different with Jason.
“That’s the short and sweet version at least.” Penny would say shaking off the melancholy, it was a dark time and place for her after all. And it had only been weeks ago technically. “Has a lot to do with why I started the Sanctuary though. I don’t want anyone to go through what I did.”
‘… Wait, so instead of him becoming a Magical Girl, you were added on top of him?’ Freya asked, looking stunned. ‘Well. No wonder the White Coin didn’t work properly, then,’ she said, then listened to the rest of the tale. The tale of how the human now had passed on, and left was the magical creation that had been added upon transformation. Freya held a slightly frowning expression as she listened to it.
‘… I’m… not entirely alike, but kind of, to what you once were. I’m also two. The difference being…’ Freya said, sighing as she reached with one hand and gripped over a black discoloration over her left arm with her right hand. ‘… I’m me, the Magical Girl I once was, joined with one of the mindless beasts that overran my home. The union gives me incredible physical strength, yet it’s always there in the background, giving me impulses and instincts. Each of our group has a title, and I’m the Union Beast, for this reason. I’m in control, yes, but…’ But she has to consume human flesh every once in a while to not lose it. She wondered how Penny would react if she told her that.
“They are always watching, always waiting. Never quite sleeping as they linger in the back of your thoughts” Penny could empathize. A lot. “They have their triggers, the things that need to happen otherwise your control slips and the world stops making sense the way it should.” She would let out a bitter chuckle.
“How am I doing?” She would ask ruefully “Because that’s how I used to be, and I know how it affected him.” It’s why she didn’t hate Jason for how he felt about her. “If I am at all close, and I think I am, your other side isn’t the same as it used to be. They have grown, changed. Can’t say how, but I am sure that they have.”
Freya’s eyes widened, and she had to turn and look at Penny with slightly parted mouth from the description. At the end of that first part… ‘… Yeah, that’s… that’s spot on…’ she said, kind of stunned. For the first time, there was someone that could relate to her, that had gone through the same thing. The difference was… Freya grunted about the part about them changing, and looked away again.
‘Changed? The were-lamia? It’s still just a hungry beast. It’s not human, it never had human intelligence. I… can’t imagine it changing in any way but developing an undying hatred of me,’ she replied, definitely doubting any form of good change in it. ‘… Ngh,’ Freya flinched a bit, once again reminded. “What if you’re wrong?”, asked the mental image of Aurelio in her head. It filled her with doubt.
“I don’t hate Jason.” Penny would say after a long moment. “Not for what we went though. I was his waking nightmare made manifest in a sense. I just wanted to have the ability to make my own decisions. I don’t hate him, but I did resent him a lot because he could choose, and all of his choices seemed to be the wrong ones to me.”
“But he changed me. Because I wasn’t human, am still not human. I effectively have a super computer for my mind and for the longest time only understood logic. From him I gained the ability to understand emotion, to both have and experience emotion. It's a gift that I can’t put into words.” She would pause for a moment to simply breathe, or at least go through the motions of such.
“I don’t know how you have changed them, only they know. They will never be human, but, and I’m likely biased here, that doesn’t mean they can’t gain their own humanity.” Penny would turn to look at Freya, an odd searching quality to her gaze. “You have changed them, just as they have changed you. They might not like you, but you do keep them alive, and you teach them things they would have never known otherwise. Hunger might drive them, but you have shown them that hunger isn’t everything.”
“There are ways to talk with them as well. Psychics could link you, Shamans could likely as well.” She would offer the searching quality of her gaze never fading. “Or I can try and talk to her if you want.” Not that Penny really thought that Freya would agree to that last one. They had only just met after all and willingly cedding control to the other half wasn’t something that anyone in their positions ever really did.
Freya leaned down her head while listening and put her hands in her face and started rubbing in mild existential crisis. ‘Not only do I need to try to break out of my bubble of not being friends with people, I need to think of the beast inside me as a person, too? What’s happened with my life?’ she asked, kind of quietly, lamenting how complicated this was getting. She considered the methods of trying to connect to the beast inside just to check how it was doing, if there was any apparent change, when Penny suggested she talk to her.
‘… How would you do that?’ Freya asked, letting her hands fall from her face and looked to Penny again.
“Blame Penrose” Penny would quip at Freya’s soft lamentation. “Gods above know that it’s a chaotic enough place to be at fault for it.” But she would turn more fully to face Freya before answering the more direct question. “I would need your help, and trust. Which I fully understand I don’t really have. We just met after all, so feel free to ignore this for as long as you want. I’m not going to retract the offer however.”
“They can take over” Penny would straight up as she spoke “But you can also let go. When you aren’t in control they are. It doesn’t feel like it I know, but that is the case. Here in Dan’s realm is the safest option for this idea, since he will shut down hostility if it comes to that. But it might not come to that.”
Penny’s appearance would start to glitch at the end of her statement and her coloration would begin bleeding away. Leaving her washed out in only white and gray. Little ticks would be notably absent as well. Penny wasn’t breathing, wasn’t blinking, and wasn’t swaying. She was static and still in a way the organic beings simply can’t reach.
She would sit like that for a moment to let Freya note the dissonance of her loss of humanity then she would blink, and with that blink Penny’s eyes would be a blazing blood red. Where once there was a simple lack of humanity now sat what could only be described as a Monster. Not for anything that could be pointed to, it was more instinctive than anything else.
“After all” She would say softly, her voice suddenly flat and mechanical, “We are kindred souls”
Freya only sighed at the first part of what Penny said. Yeah, things were so simple before she came to Penrose… Then, however, Penny started explaining. Freya blinked, looking towards Penny with a frown that seemed to ask if she was serious. It became very clear she was. Freya’s frown deepened a bit as the monster-girl watched Penny show off her inhumanity.
Freya sat still, watching Penny for a bit… then cracked a little smile. ‘… Heh… haha…’ she chuckled a bit, before slowly standing up, her amusement possibly looking a bit sinister. ‘You’re right. This dimension would be the one “safe” place to do it…’ she said, turning to look towards Penny, and also taking a couple steps back. Despite supposedly being safe, some distance for safety’s sake felt appropriate.
‘I wonder how this dimension is supposed to stop this? I’m kind of curious,’ she asked, chuckling a bit. ‘So. Are you ready?’
There would be no verbal confirmation, but with a soft click Penny’s hidden limbs would slowly unfurl and half wrap around her. She was as ready as one could be.
‘Alright, well…’ Freya swallowed, feeling and looking exceedingly tense all of a sudden, yet still smirking. ‘This was your idea…’
She closed her eyes and let it through.
‘Nkh-!’ Freya grunted as she felt the dark surges of the magic slide through her body and limbs. The dark parts of her skin suddenly expanded, taking over her arms, legs and face in black. It stretched into her hair, which suddenly extended becoming massive and white. Her legs were brought together, fused with magic and then extended far behind her. Then, fur blasted out, extending the entire length of her back down her tail, her arms were completely encompassed with them. Her skin, only visible on her stomach and up, slowly reduced back to dark from black.
‘Agh-!’ It wasn’t as controlled a process as what Penny had shown off, and Freya cried out and threw her head back from apparent pain as she let something else take over, her arms spread wide. In its place was a lamia, covered in fur, now slowly raising its head high again. She opened her eyes towards Penny. They were black with yellow irises.
(will not be christmas theming the monstrous transformation)
… and that was about as long as it took before the whole creature immediately lunged at Penny, throwing itself at her with eyes wide and a rage-filled roar with a clawed, furred hand raised to try to rend her through with physical prowess unmatched by basically anyone in Penrose… except Penny.
There is always a moment between control being exchanged that all Monstergirls are dazed. Penny used this moment to stand, she knew what was likely coming after all no need to sit and make things more difficult for her.
She would match the lamia’s wrath filled eyes with her own dispassionate ones. And seemingly would simply await her own destruction letting the other monster dive in much closer than seemed safe or sane. But at the last moment, just before the claws would make contact with timing that only a machine can reach, Penny would roar back. But it wouldn’t be a simple sound; it would carry with it an unmitigated wall of force, a surge of repulsive gravity to knock the aggressor back aimed square into the lamia’s face.
In that same instant Penny would lash out with all of her limbs. One to grab the neck, one for each arm and two for the tail. And then she would then seek to push her advantage, hoping to step forward and force the rampaging creature to the ground and to pin her there. Each of Penny’s limbs holding firm onto the lamia. Not enough to cause pain, but enough to not be shifted. A surprise retaliation that would only ever work if Penny knew what was coming and had a chance to prepare for it.
Regardless if she was successful or not Penny wasn’t going to be staying silent. “Calm. Down.” It was an order, not a request. “Calm down Dan will force you back and let Freya step forward once more and you will never get a chance like this again.”
As the creature was already in mid-air, she came to a stop by the wall of energy by the repulsive gravity. However, her claws violently cut through the air, preventing Penny’s limbs from capturing her, and then her tail launched her from her location sideways with blinding speed, snow blasting up in her wake to cover the surroundings. The were-lamia curled around multiple trees, almost cleaving them as she did, using the snowy landscape to spin around to launch herself back at Penny-!
When Penny made the threat. Of never getting this again.
The were-lamia redirected herself and slid up a tree, leaving cracks in the bark as the powerful tail and claws were used to gain altitude. In the crown of the tree, she laid herself in a braced position, claws grabbing two branches like in preparation to launch herself again, glaring down at Penny with a dark, angry intelligence. Unlike normally, this time she hadn’t been summoned with rage pouring through her veins and an immediate need to feed. She opened her mouth, and…
‘HHHAAAAAASSSSssss-!’ … Shouted a not entirely intelligent sounding sound at Penny. Imagine a snake had suddenly got itself a human mouth and tried to make an angry threatening noise with it.
Penny made no move to approach but her advanced senses easily allowed her to keep track of where the other girl was. She would stay standing in the small clearing looking up at the other girl, noting but not caring about the damage inflicted on the trees.
“You can understand me” Penny would say with a nod “I am no threat to you right now. I can’t be a threat to you right now, but striking me will end with you being forced back down.” She would explain her limbs poised defensively. Just because the lamia could understand, didn’t mean they could be reasoned with.
“My name is Penny and I simply want to talk.” She would go on to say her gaze never wavering from meeting the other girls. “Do you have a name you refer to yourself as?” She would ask relatively calmly, all things considered.
“Don’t force the words” She would caution “Don’t think about emulating how she does it, just let the thoughts flow and instinct will take over, your body knows how to speak, let it.”
The lamia frowned down at her, her grip in the tree-branches tightening, they looked like they were close to breaking. She leaned her head down a bit, and… ‘Sha… sss… rrr… sssk… rrr… art…’ … and then she violently shook her head and shouted at Penny again. ‘SHAAAsss…!’ That wasn’t a name, it was just her being annoyed at having a mouth.
“It’s okay” Penny would try and reassure the lamia, though the lack of emotional intonation would make it come off slightly stilted “We have time. Freya ceded control, you don’t have to rush” Not yet at any rate.
“Sound it out for me one part at a time” She would say before speaking up again, with a different voice ‘Sha’ Penny would emulate each syllable after the other monster girl did. And she would be patient, because she could be.
‘… Sssshhh…’ the lamia made a noise and frowned at her. What followed was a period of time where the lamia was exploring her mouth, trying to use Freya’s muscle memory to get some form of noise to be made. ‘Shan… N. NNN! NA!’ Her eyes widened in a sudden flash of slight amazement as she found how to make an n-sound, first time she looked something else than angry. ‘… Na… na nam,’ she finished, grunting a bit as she came down from her high.
“Ah” Penny would remark, a touch sadly. Predictive algorithms, inhuman processing speeds and understanding born of having lived in that same situation allowed Penny to understand what was being said. ‘No name’ she would repeat using the monster's voice.
The lamia slowly nodded. ‘N… n… no na.. nam.’ she tried to repeat what Penny had said, with relative success.
“I’m sorry to hear that” Penny would go on to say her extra limbs lowering slightly, as they were no longer completely warranted from the looks of it. “Would you like one?” She would ask, tilting her head to the side in curiosity. “It hurts not having a name, or it hurt me, so I can give you one if you want.”
The lamia frowned at Penny from up in the tree, her tail tightening somewhat around the tree as she considered it. ‘Sshhhh… sh… shure,’ she eventually said, pulling back a little and hiding partially behind the tree for some reason.
Penny would raise a hand to her chin as she thought for a moment sifting through various names. “How does Shelyn sound?” She would ask, there were other names that Penny considered, but this was the first one she liked.
‘Ssh… Shel… lyn…’ the lamia tried to repeat, still behind the tree. ‘... Shelyn?’ she asked, managing to get it together. She let go of the tree, the whole decently heavy furred creature dropping into the snow beneath the tree, after she peeked out at Penny again, perhaps not looking quite as angry anymore. ‘Shelyn,’ she repeated again.
Penny would allow a smile to grace her features. “Pleased to meet you, Shelyn.” She would greet the other girl at last. “I’m glad that I was able to find a name you like.” Penny would retract her extra limbs fully at this point, since she no longer needed them. “It’s different being out when there’s nothing to fight isn’t it.” She would state more than ask as she sat back down under the tree.
“It’s weird, but not bad. You’re not as hungry either I bet.” She’d gesture to the area next to her “You’re free to join me over here if you want. I just wanted to talk as I said, wanted to get to know you.”
Shelyn’s eyebrows twitched a bit at being called her new name. Felt weird. Still, maybe weird in a good way. She listened to Penny’s words, not reacting particularly to them, then looked at the area gestured for her… and Shelyn shook her head. Nope, doesn’t trust her quite that much yet. Kept staring at her from a distance. Still, it was an improvement over how it was in the beginning.
Penny would nod at Shelyn’s refusal to come closer. She got it, the fact that Freya trusted her enough for this was shocking enough, Penny would start wondering if she had ended up with some sort of Monstergirl Power of Friendship if Shelyn also trusted her.
“I was wondering about you. Things you like, dislike, do you mind if I ask you about those?” She would ask instead “Or would you prefer to ask me questions?” Because she was here to learn about Shelyn and curiosity is telling. Besides, Penny wasn't opposed to making another new friend.
Shelyn frowned at Penny from over there. Liking and disliking wasn’t really concepts she’d thought about before.
‘... What…’ and with that word Shelyn suddenly paused in surprise and her eyes widened a bit, because she didn’t actually know how to say that word until it slipped out of her. She took a deep breath, tried to formulate what she wanted to say, Penny would see her mouth move as in preparation for trying to say something, before she locked eyes with Penny, and…!
‘What to tu what to me?’ … “What do you want with me?”
“To get to know you” Penny would reply with a shrug “I used to be in the same situation as you and I know it’s lonely. If I can ease that I will, because there aren't enough people looking out for us. It’s why I opened my lair to others, as I don’t think we should be left adrift without anyone to help us” She would explain the red in her eyes dimming as she did. “It drives us crazy and turns us rabid. But we are so much more than that.”
“So I just want to be your friend if I can. But if not that, I just want to make sure you know that at least one person sees you for you, Shelyn, because that’s all I can really do at the moment.”
Shelyn listened to Penny’s words, frowning as she did, but then eventually turned and looked into the tree she was holding onto instead, not likely to see many sights from that. There were things she wanted to say, but saying them was difficult. Her grip on the tree tightened a bit as she was reminded by her perpetual prison, some anger coming back into her expression.
‘... L… lonely…’ she managed to pick up the word. ‘Lon… ly… li… like? Like. Like.’ She tried getting back to the earlier question, now that she did know the why of it. What Shelyn likes, and the words needed to pronounce it. ‘... I like. I. I, me. … Feya. Feya? Feya.’ Close enough, she reckoned. A small smile emerged on her lips. She knew what she could say. She turned to smile at Penny.
‘I like hu-ting Feya,’ she said, entirely honestly. ”I like hurting Freya.”
That wasn’t something Penny was expecting to hear. She couldn’t say she was terribly shocked though, it also didn’t really cause much of a reaction from Penny, her emotions were far too muted at the moment for it to be able to.
Instead she would lean forward and ask “Why?” It was an emotional through line that Penny herself always had some difficulty following. “Hurting her, hurts you doesn’t it?”
Shelyn raised an eyebrow a bit at the question, looking a little confused. ‘… No?’ As in “no, it doesn’t hurt me”. ‘Feya, I… can. I can hut Feya fom insi. I can… make Feya feel… th… things. Te he,’ Talking was slowly becoming easier. She could want a word and it came to her lips uncalled for. Still didn’t go fast, but she was learning. She was more excited over that than the perhaps disturbing contents of her words.
This revelation would cause red in Penny’s eyes to glow just a touch brighter. Because emotional torture just wasn’t something Penny tolerated. Priorities and threat assessments would start shifting around within the android’s mind, she came here seeking a friend. She might leave here seeking a way to free one.
“That doesn’t explain why you like hurting her though.” Penny would state, her voice still a calm flat tone. “Are you doing it in retaliation? Or simply because you like causing her pain?” She also disagreed with the idea that it didn’t also hurt Shelyn, but didn’t think it was a good idea to start delving into the long term ramifications of a soul digging into itself just yet.
‘Um…’ Why is it funny? Shelyn had to take a moment to think about that. ‘… Feya’s eactions. Feya’s eactions make it funny. Feya get so fustated. … Ed? Dee? Dee!’ She waved her claws in a small happy celebration for finding how to make a d-sound.
That didn’t clear anything up. It made things more confusing in all truth. Bored and lonely, finding ways to frustrate the only person you can connect with isn’t an evil thing to do. Mean perhaps, but isolated people do things to feel connected even if it is mean spirited.
“What are your favorite ways to frustrate Freya?” She would go on to ask, since it would hopefully clear up the main point of confusion. Shelyn didn’t want anything repugnant, at least not that Penny could sus out. Which made it seem like Shelyn was fine, if a bit chaotic and likely with a difficult pallet.
Which is why the thing about causing Freya pain was so confusing, but that could also be that Penny already knew of the long term consequences and was looking at things with the wrong perspective to understand. It also could just be an emotional reason that Penny couldn’t understand at the moment due to the suspended nature of her current emotional runtimes.
‘I make Feya ungy!’ Shelyn replied with a smile. “Hungry”. ‘Feya as… has eaten, feel satisfied… den I make Feya u… hungy again! Feya get fustated! Te he!’ Shelyn chuckled at the memory. ‘I make Feya note sleep. Keep Feya awake. Feya get fustated den, too. Oh, I make Feya want to beak things, and when Feya with othes, I make Feya want to hut them. Feya eally doesn’t like that,’ Shelyn said, smiling as she did. She then looked thoughtful. ‘Hm, how doe I doe an r-sound?’ … She blinked a bit. ‘Uh. Ar? Rrrr. Ar! Fr… Fre… Freya! Hu… hur… hurt! Yes! Weee!’ Another celebration commenced.
“You realize that doing all that is the reason why Freya tries to keep you locked away so much” Penny would state after a moment. It was an odd situation watching Shelyn come to grips with how to speak. It was kind of adorable, but also sparked a small portion of jealousy since Penny wasn’t fully capable of speaking clearly when she was in the midst of a true metamorph, not the half forced state she was currently in. Granted that could be due to the inherent differences between being a machine monster vs an organic one.
“Do you hate her?” See would go on to ask, honestly curious.
Shelyn tilted her head at the first statement, looking like she didn’t entirely comprehend it. Then, on the second question, she once again had to take a moment to think. But, ultimately she arrived at…
‘… Yes,’ she said, nodding, her expression returning to a frown. ‘Fe… Freya hates me, holds me down, chains me… I get ve-y… very angy. Feya also ti… tries note to feed me… foe as long as Feya can. Though, that’s when I can hut… hurt Feya the most…’ she continued, an angry little smile appearing at the end. She then tilted her head, peering at Penny…
‘… Why are you note food?’ she asked, slight confusion in her voice.
Hate bred from miscommunication. That would be a pain to resolve. “I think she’s afraid of you more than hates you.” Penny would comment. It was more information and thankfully was making things clearer to her. She wasn’t any closer to coming to any sort of resolution however, but it wasn’t a blind situation anymore.
“And because I’ve never been your kind of food.” She would answer. “The magic here hides it from sight, but I am made and born from metal and lightning. My body and soul have always been rather intune with each other in that regard.” She would hold up her right arm and with an audible click the illusion around it would distort as the hidden chainsaw’s were unsheathed and gave Shelyn a glimpse into Penny’s true nature.
“There is also the fact I am merely a copy. Pretty sure that those don’t smell like food to you either.”
Shelyn frowned at the statement of Freya being afraid of her, her tail sliding a bit behind her. ‘… Feya ight… right to be af-iaid,’ she commented.
She then listened to Penny’s explanation, and watched how the hidden chainsaw was unveiled… and the were-lamia didn’t look particularly interested. Weirdly shaped stuff she didn’t understand and couldn’t eat. What she was interested in, however… Shelyn’s gaze wandered… and her nose sniffed at the air, using her human nose despite snake-theme because she has one.
‘… The’e was food. Food was he’e… ove… ove he’e…’ she said, starting to move, her furred snake-body starting to slither, starting to move. She was heading towards where the snowball fight had taken place, and looked like she’d leave Penny if nothing was said or done.
“You’re not going to be able to hunt down any of your preferred food while here” Penny would point out while she stood to follow Shelyn, the chainsaws retracting as she did. “We are in Dan’s realm, a Patron, he’s the one who has declared no hostilities.” She wasn’t sure if her words would be heeded, but was going to be sticking close either way. Another of her counterfeits was also moving into position to let Dan know before anything else went wrong.
The Snow Fort battle zone should be fine for the moment however; Oros striking it with the orbital cannon again should have scattered anyone else who was sticking around the area. The two other counterfeits that were working on a new snow fort elsewhere weren’t too far away in case they might be needed.
She wondered how much longer Shelyn would be in control as well. She had estimated that this outing of Shelyn’s would have ended by now already, and wasn’t sure what to make of it lasting so long.
‘… Hssssh…’ the lamia slid to a halt as she looked over the scene, frowning.
‘… Feya…’ Shelyn grunted her name… before striking her claws into the tree next to her. The claws easily cleaved into the bark as if it was liquid, leaving great holes in it. ‘I can’t hunt… and Feya knows it. The one thing I want to do… That is why… Feya not even tying to get back. Feya… must be mocking me… must find it ve-y funny…’
‘Well that answers that question.’ Penny was glad for at least some insight into where her assumptions had steered her wrong. It would take only another moment for her to run through a few different scenarios that seemed plausible before speaking up. “Considering all that you’ve done to torment her would you really be surprised?” She would ask as she stepped over to inspect the damage done to the tree with a critical eye.
“Though I doubt that’s the reason.” She would go on to say, tracing a finger along the smooth grooves in the tree around the embedded claw as she did “I was the one who asked her to let you out, Freya’s likely not fighting you because she trusts me.” Though it was more likely that Freya trusted Dan’s power in his own realm, then what Penny could do. “It wouldn’t surprise me if she was resting, fighting for dominance is exhausting, and being on guard for it at all times is even more so.”
“Your claws are quite impressive,” She would add on the end as she turned away from the damaged tree. “Would you mind if I took a closer look at them?”
Shelyn merely silently listened to what Penny was saying, considering the words but did not reply to them. She had no idea what Freya was thinking (though it was indeed that she trusted a Patron’s power). The line about claws, though…
Shelyn turned and peered at Penny slightly distrustfully, but eventually pulled her claws out of the tree and presented them to her. Very clawy claws, black and sharp, at the tips of furry hands.
Carefully, and a touch cautiously, Penny would slowly take hold of the offered claw. She made sure to keep her grip light and open so that Shelyn could take it back at any time, but otherwise spent her focus on examining the claws in their entirety. The tips were always the most apparent aspect of such a weapon, but Penny couldn’t actually do much to test those at the moment due to her nature as a counterfeit. One wrong move and she would simply fade after all. Similarly she didn’t think she’d be able to get a diagnosis on their composition, though she assumed they were more likely bone then keratin, but it was hard to know for sure when magic was in play.
There was still more she could examine though. Light prodding could reveal if they were retractable by design or not. The same prodding would help give Penny an idea about how the muscles were structured. Telling her how quickly Shelyn could snap her hand closed or open, if she could lock her hand into a position or not. Same could be found out about the wrist, though that was more about structural integrity than anything.
She wouldn’t go far below the wrist, but part of the forearm would be inspected as well since it was where all the musculature would be based. It would give Penny a basic idea of how much strength was in one arm, letting her run calculations on how much damage Shelyn and Freya could likely do.
The reason why Penny would do any of this was simple. She liked weapons, just as she liked fighting. It was rare she got to examine one that wasn’t directly related to a fight. “As I said, impressive.” She would conclude with a nod. “Any maintenance required for them?” She would ask though she didn’t expect there to be any. Penny wasn’t really aware of anyone who actually tried to maintain their weapons besides her.
Shelyn looked on with a frown as Penny conducted her investigation. Her clawed hands were covered in fur and disproportionately large, filled with powerful muscles, powered in no small part by monstrous magic. Claws were not retractable, the bone-structure of the hand was modestly human. The forearm was a bit difficult to investigate, as the fur-growth increased explosively just below the wrist, becoming very thick. Just below the wrist was when Shelyn retracted her arm, however.
‘… Maint… enance?’ she copied the word, but was unable to parse it in these circumstances. She shook her head, because the answer was probably "no". Instead, she looked off at the former battlefield again. ‘… Is the'e anything to do, he'e…?’ she asked, kind of frustrated.
Penny accepted the answer given before shifting her attention out towards the empty field of abandoned snow forts her own twice built twice decimated spot standing out to her. “Not many things that you would enjoy” Penny would answer honestly. “It’s supposed to be a place of harmless fun. Large areas skilled with snow and ice to play in, a central building to warm up in and mingle.” The thought of Shelyn going to mingle was hilariously bad due to how poorly it would likely go.
At that moment Penny would catch sight of one of the numerous snow buns cheerfully hopping about the structures. And an idea would come to her. “We could hunt snow bunnies” She would offer up gesturing to the lone bunny. “They are part of the magic of the island so I’m not sure they can truly be harmed. So you wouldn’t be able to eat them I think, but there are a lot of them. Some of which were purported to be rather difficult to wrangle.” It would be something they could do. Should also keep them away from running across others, which still sounded like a good idea.
‘… Mingle… play…’ Shelyn said the words like she had no idea what their meanings were. ‘… Feya avoids people… Feya has watched othes do it, but Feya doesn’t want to… Is it because of Feya I feel the same?’ Shelyn asked.
Shelyn turned to gaze at Penny with raised eyebrows at the mention of hunting snow-bunnies that couldn’t be eaten. Why would you hunt something you can’t eat? Yet, what were her options? Give control back to Freya? … Nah.
‘… Eh, shure,’ she shrugged, then turning to glare off through the trees, in a direction where she could unfailingly smell tiny bunny. Her prefered prey were people, but suppose she could compromise.
“Some people just don’t like mingling” Penny would reply to the asked query with a shrug. “Hard to say if you got that from her, or she got it from you, or you both have it.” She too would turn her attention more outwards, less directly in the direction of the bunny that Shelyn had noticed and more in a general scan.
“Want to make a competition out of it?” Penny would add. Tilting her head as she shifted slightly in the were-lamia’s direction. “See who can get the most before Freya wakes up?” She figured hunting simple buns would get rather boring for Shelyn, this at least meant she didn’t have to rely only on them to make it interesting. Assuming they didn’t run into a Harebringer that is.
Shelyn simply stayed quiet during the first part. Then, however, Penny said a word. Shelyn blinked a bit. ‘… Comp… etition?’ Shelyn turned to gaze sharply at Penny yellow irises glaring kind of intently. A battle to see who is the better hunter…? ‘… Hn… hn, hn, hn…’ A tiny chuckle escaped her closed lips. Why did this appeal to her this much? Why was that so much more interesting than just having a fight? Why did that… sound fun?
‘… Shure. I won’t lose,’ Shelyn stated, with amused confidence as she braced to launch herself, arms extended.
“We’ll see” Penny would say in response as her legs began glowing and she rose up a few inches, the lower two of her extra limbs would also unfurl. “We shall see”
Shelyn smirked at her, and then the two blasted off with a shock of force shaking the nearby trees. The competition was on.
‘Hahahaha…!’ Shelyn laughed, as she looked over her gathering of confused and/or terrified snowbuns. She was confident she’d gotten more than Penny, but honestly, she didn’t have time to count. She felt it, time was up. ‘I… I won,’ she announced anyway, and then… ‘KAH!’
She cried out and closed her eyes. A lot of fur fell off her arms. A rash of white darted across her dark skin, before it once again faced into dark. The tail briefly became covered in white fur, and then it just fell off as the two legs of the Christmas transformation came out of them. It all fell off, and left there was once again Freya, as she appeared in this dimension. She sighed out.
The clothes probably magically appeared somehow.
‘Okay, so…’ Freya started to mutter before opening her eyes to look over at wherever Penny was right now. ‘… maybe a little more than a mindless beast, I guess…’
Penny was sitting in her own pile of distraught snowbuns, though hers weren’t as terrified as the ones that shelyn had gathered together, off to Freya’s left. True to Shelyn’s statement she had in fact come out ahead of Penny in the bunny hunt. It wasn’t a large margin, only a four bunny difference, but it was still a conclusive victory.
“Notably more” Penny would agree, already back to her baseline coloration. Her shift was quicker and quieter than the lamia’s were after all. “How much can you recall from when she is out?” She would go on to ask. She didn’t want to rehash things that Freya already knew after all, and this was a circumstance that she knew could and did vary wildly between girls who could metamorph.
‘… I blanked out for a large portion, there. I figured I could relax, but I guess I relaxed too much. But I was there in the beginning, and I listened. You gave her a name. Shelyn. And she…’ Freya sighed, kneeling down and petting a couple terrified snowbuns that got a bit more comfortable with her now that she appeared to be a lot less rough.
‘… The impulses… The ones making me want to kill and eat people, to break things and surrender to beastly desires… They’re not beastly instincts trying to make me act like a were-lamia. They’re her… messing with me. … Gah,’ she said, placing a free hand in her face, trying to process this. She was pretty sure the hunger making her eat people to keep the beast fed was still real, but all the other impulses…
“You were right that you could relax.” Penny would say at first petting a bun herself absentmindedly. “All we did was talk a bit and then went hunting Snowbuns.” She would explain gesturing to the large group of buns about.
“And I wouldn’t say she is all of the impulse, but she is definitely hightenting them. You're not fully human anymore, odd instincts come with the territory. She’s likely pushing her desires out and onto yours, compounding them.” At least that was Penny’s best guess at the hows of it going on.
“You two share a belief as well. You both think the other hates you. I’m not convinced that either of you actually hate each other, but I’ll admit I don’t really know either of you well enough to be completely sure of that.” She was more or less just hoping that was the case at this point really. “I’m not saying you both don’t have valid reasons to dislike each other, you do, but most of the why’s were built on miscommunication as far as I can gather at the moment.”
“She also shares the fact that she’s somewhat of a loner with you. As the idea of mingling with other people didn’t seem all too appealing to her when conversation touched on it.” At this point Penny was just recapping anything that seemed like it would be useful for Freya to know. Hopefully it wasn’t too much of a system shock, but Penny wasn’t sure if it would be or not as she had no context for it. Jason had always viewed himself and Penny as separate entities.
“She’s cagey. A lot of the reason I think she was willing to open up to me is the fact that I’m not food and it was curious for her. Pretty sure anyone else wouldn’t have had a chance to talk her down. She likes hunting, which I’m pretty sure doesn’t come as a surprise, but I think it's more the challenge than the kill. Because she was more than willing to go chasing after all of these guys against me.” She would once again gesture around at the bunnies, this time in emphasis.
“Other than that I get the feeling she’s a free spirit. Doesn’t enjoy being locked in the back of your head with nothing to do, but that’s not all that strange. I get the feeling that anyone trying to force her to do something is going to get smacked for it” Which in hindsight meant it likely was a good thing Penny hadn’t been able to grapple her earlier.
“Lastly I’m pretty sure that some things just don’t make sense to her because of her nature. Maintenance, play, and mingle all seemed to throw her for a loop, and I doubt it was simply context.” Penny would keep her attention on Freya throughout all of that explanation. It was a lot to somewhat drop on someone, but she had just spent a lot of time in her E.o.D. priority set, choosing the non blunt straight forward approach was a few thought levels down the list at the moment.
That didn’t mean she was completely blind to how much it was to take in however. “Feel free to take a moment or five, I’m not needed anywhere at the moment. I’ll stick around to answer any question that you might have.”
Freya took the hand out of her face and calmly listened, patting snowbuns that were getting increasingly comfortable with her, which made Freya uncomfortable in turn when they started skipping and surrounding her to brush against her legs where she was kneeling. That aside, most of her focus was on listening to the speech Penny was delivering. It was a lot. But, weirdly enough, Freya could listen to most of it and think “yeah, that sounds accurate”.
At the end, she definitely needed a while to think. She put her hands together over her nose and took deep breaths into them. She took a minute or two. Honestly, she didn’t really mind Shelyn. It was just, the tiny elephant in the room.
‘I need her to stop killing people. If she can agree to that, I could let her out more often. Could you manage that, Shelyn? Can you please stop wanting to eat people? With “people”, I mean humans and monster-girls, people you can talk with. We could, like, go hunt for animals or monsters, those would be acceptable targets…’ Freya asked. She didn’t really get an answer.
‘… I don’t dare let her out with anyone she may kill. I might need to ask for your help again, and maybe Dan’s help. Just to talk with her. Other than that… do you have suggestions on what I should do?’ Freya asked, turning her head to look at Penny.
Penny was content to sit in her pile of bunnies and let Freya work though everything in her own head. Most of her caught snow buns would slowly leave Penny’s area to go join Freya’s, because now that Freya had returned the warmth of kindness of a fellow animal would always hold more sway over a machine to the bunnies.
“I don’t think she’ll ever be able to stop wanting to eat people.” Penny would say after a moment of thought. “Some monster girls can’t live on a standard diet anymore, you and her wouldn’t be the first I’ve met that needs to eat human.” She would explain her thoughts turning towards the wolf girl back at Sanctuary who needed fresh meat to simply live. “But if you can live off Animal or Monster I’d be willing to go hunting with you or her. She’s got decent self control, it’s giving her a reason to use it that's the trick I think.”
“Only other advice I’ve got for the moment is don’t try to shun her. I’m not tethered to Jason anymore, but what we went through could have easily destroyed us, and even though it didn’t. I know my soul has been scarred by what happened and some of those wounds will never truly heal.” Penny would give a somber smile at that. “You two don’t need to like each other, but finding a way to tolerate each other is preferable to hacking apart your soul to get rid of one another I’d say. The cold. It doesn’t ever really go away after that.”
‘Uh…’ Freya frowned down at all the bunnies that had decided they loved her. She was just intending casual affection, yet here they all were, very much troubling her all of a sudden. Was making it just the slightest difficult to focus, but, she managed.
‘… Animals or monsters aren’t nearly as satisfying… I don’t get… I don’t get why…’ Freya muttered. She listened to the next part, and nodded. ‘Yeah, I don’t need to… We’re the Union Beast. We’re definitely beasts, but we can work on the union part. If I can make her like me, maybe some of my problems will solve themselves. I’ll ask Ronja if she can make a psychic connection to let us talk. Who knows? Maybe this will make us stronger, too…’ she considered, wondering somehow their minds being as one would help out their power… or maybe that just wasn’t how it worked, but still.
‘Okay, I think I’m satisfied,’ Freya said, getting up from kneeling and leaving the horde of snowbuns crowding at her feet. ‘Right. Can I have a number or something if I’d like to speak with you again? … And I guess I should give you mine…’ Freya added the latter as it occurred to her that friends likely had each other’s numbers. She had been given a phone for communication, but she hadn’t really added anyone beyond her team.
“You likely need human then” Penny wasn’t at all disterbed by that as far as Freya would be able to tell, because Penny wasn’t disterbed by it at all. “And meditation might work as well” She’d offer as she stood up as well, scattering the last of the bunnies near her. “For getting in contact with Shelyn.” Penny didn’t trust anyone getting into her head after all.
“You have your phone on you?” Would be her next question “Normally I’d be able to fabricate a plate with my number on it, but not something I can do at the moment.” She would explain.
Freya noted that Penny didn’t seem perturbed, but she didn’t count on the inside being the same. Who knew what kind of judgement could be happening on the inside? That said, if there was anyone that may not, it could be Penny. Maybe. Possibly. Who knows.
‘Meditation, huh…’ Freya mentioned, while retrieving her phone to hand over.
“A guess” Would be Penny’s response as she accepted the phone. “I’ve never really been able to trust others with the inside of my head.” She would rapidly and easily send a text to herself as she spoke. “A hold over from Jason.” She would hand the phone back to Freya with the best number to reach Penny programmed in it. “Though I’ve had others try something similar to brainwashing as well.” She’d shrug “Meditation is supposed to help make your mind your own, makes sense to me that it would let you contact Shelyn.”
‘… I’ll consider my options,’ Freya said as she accepted her phone back. ‘I think it’s best I get back to the others, thanks to our session with… with Shelyn, they’re probably wondering where I went. Um…’ she looked kind of awkwardly at Penny for a bit, and…
‘Thank you… for everything so far,’ she said, decently genuinely.
Penny would simply give Freya a welcoming smile. “Any time” She’d half turn to start heading out herself, though where this counterfeit would head was anyone’s guess at the moment. “I started the Sanctuary and took up the mantle of Queen to help. I’m glad that I was able to do that for you.” She would explain, before giving Freya a wave “Feel free to drop in to the Sanctuary if you want, you can bring your friends if you want. Till next time Freya.” And with that she would head off.
‘I'll… I'll consider it. Thank you, again,’ Freya said. She sighed, before turning and jumping away, leaving a crowd of sad snowbunnies.
Still, she only got four large jumps before she came to a stop because a girl stood where she was going.
‘Did you learn a lot about yourself?’ asked the other girl.
‘… I did, yeah. It’s… not going to be useful to us, as a group, but maybe it could make me more comfortable in the long run,’ Freya replied after a brief pause.
‘I see. Did you give her your phone-number?’ she was asked in turn.
‘Er, yes,’ Freya replied, raising an eyebrow.
‘Okay, submit your phone for inspection, just in case. What do you intend to do now?’ her conversational partner responded without missing a beat.
‘I… need to talk to Ronja, see if I can get a psychic connection to the… to the were-lamia. It could… it could solve a lot of things,’ Freya said, feeling a little like she was being interrogated.
‘I see,’ the girl said, before smiling at Freya and putting a hand on her shoulder. ‘I’m happy you’re making progress, but…’ The girl then sighed a little. ‘Is now really the best time?’
‘When else would you suggest I do it?’ Freya asked with a sarcastic tone.
After a brief debriefing, Freya leapt on, leaving the other girl peering thoughtfully after her with arms crossed…
Things progressed at a rapid pace, people sharply reacting to Rachel’s decree in a mostly negative manner. Not that that was a surprise, even if Dan’s dimension was not at stake. It seemed like she could have said the sky was blue and people would object to it.
Then the situation changed, resulting in a Keijo tournament for the fate of the Mirror as well as the dimension. As much as she wanted to ensure Mariette lost, this seemed like a task best left to Rachel. She seemed to have things pretty well in hand, Dan’s dimension or not.
At least someone else seemed to be getting something out of this. She turned, grinning as Kimble voiced her intention to get revenge. “Well, I’d be careful. You’re a bit different than the last time you did Keijo. She might not have experience, but don’t get overconfident.” That was what she said before rising to her feet and heading to go talk to Rachel, as she had initially said that she would.
Kimble rolled her eyes with an amused expression. ”Alright then. Good luck talking to Rachel,” she spoke as she waved goodbye to her.
Coming up to the Inquisitor, Alicia gave a small nod. “Quite the spectacle,” she observed. “I can’t say I disagree with the idea to take the Mirror. It’s more than anyone else was willing to do.” There was too much blind trust in Mariette’s supposed cleansing, and not enough caution towards Asengav in general. She could at least be glad of the proactive nature there.
Rachel was standing outside with her arms crossed, facing away from Alicia. She couldn’t see her face, but the Paladin Seraph could tell that she was absolutely livid based on her trembling. Violette was next to her, her face pale. “...Did you know about this?” Rachel asked, her calm words seemingly strained to contain her fury. “What kind of ludicrous, absurd, unwholesome disgrace I have been tricked into?” She turned towards Alicia, her face red like a tomato. “To think that they would try such an underhanded, dirty tactic...Well, I’m not going to give up! I will endure this humiliation if it means I can fulfill my holy duty and shatter that detestable artifact as well as this revolting reality.”
Alicia was taken aback when she finally reached where Rachel had positioned herself. It seemed she had figured out what Keijo was already. “I did,” Alicia confirmed with a nod. Reaching into her stuff, she produced the scrying artifact that she had been given by Beacon. Typically a scepter, it had been shifted into a small candy cane by the magic of this dimension.
Turning, she activated the magic of the artifact and used it to cut a small hole in front of them, through which they could see Alicia playing Keijo the last time she was here. “The patron here has particular….quirks.”
"Pah, don't show me such...Oh, it's you." Rachel observed the match pictured in the divination with much intent, seemingly studying her movements. "I must be honest, I did not expect you to have an understanding of this...sport."
Alicia could appreciate the fact that Rachel had not provided any criticism of her performance that was on display. She shrugged, stepping back to stand next to Rachel so they could see unobstructed as events played out. “Necessity is the mother of invention.Ultimately it’s all about leverage and momentum. And wacky magic tricks, but what else is new?”
Rachel's eyes were on the astral feed. "I see…" She was deep in thought. "I assumed it’s all but a farce...But it seems there’s more to it than mere child’s play. Paladin Seraph, do you have a prediction of who will challenge me at the end of the demon’s tournament? Who would be the strongest and most skilled among the participants here?”
Humming in thought, Alicia glanced at the rest of the hall as she stroked her chin. “Well, I’m not sure who all intends to compete,” she noted. “But skill will probably depend on whoever’s done this before.” Mariette certainly had a wide consort of people to draw on, but she had the feeling that they’d treat it with varying degrees of seriousness. “I’d say Penny if she chooses to compete, and that girl who tried to take a shot at you before. Time magic can be a strong advantage, in lieu of Gravity.”
Rachel put a hand to her chin. "Yes, Penny seems the most likely candidate. Hmm...I suppose I could make some preparations for the labor at hand. Pal...Alicia," she corrected herself, showing surprising uncertainty. "I would appreciate it if you were to assist me with your practical experience in Keijo."
There had not been any doubt that Rachel would take this seriously, but at least she had some appreciation for what she had gotten herself into now. “I would be happy to assist,” she replied with a small bow and a smile. “If it’s alright for Kimble to come with us. She may want to get her sparring legs back before the matches begin. She wants to get some revenge on Justine, if our former ally slash enemy competes.”
“So Kimble will participate? Interesting. Of course she can spar with us. We shall strive to use our time in an efficient manner. And, Alicia...Thank you.” She offered a handshake.
There was something ironic about Keijo being the thing that would get Rachel to start working with and trusting Alicia, compared to all the other Beacon business that they got up to on a daily basis. Perhaps Dan was a bit more correct than she had previously thought when he promoted this particular sport. Though she should probably wait to see the outcome before committing to that.
For now she smiled and took Rachel’s hand in a firm shake. “You’re welcome Rachel.” With Kimble accompanying them, they could kill two birds with one stone. So long as they didn’t over exercise, it might also be a fun chance to get some karmic revenge. But not too much revenge, lest things go overboard again.
“Just let me go get Kimble and we can get started.” Once her hand was released she stepped back and turned to return to the table where Kimble was seated. All in all, that meeting had gone pretty well.
Approaching the group at the table, she was quick to address them. “Sorry to cut this short, but I need Kimble for something,” she said to those gathered there, before gesturing for Kimble to follow her. They needed to get this practice show on the road.
Kimble’s chatting ended the moment she saw Alicia, and eagerly waited for her return. ”Oh? Did something happen with Rachel?” She asked as she followed after her to Rachel. “Kimble, we will be sparring together for Keijo. I have received a report that you have also participated in Keijo matches previously, so I demand...request,” she again corrected herself, “That you share that expertise with us in the ring.”
Kimble was shocked, her mouth in a wide circle. ”Whoah! O-Of course, Inquisitor! I’ll do my best!” She accepted the handshake offered to her as well, and Rachel gave an unusually warm smile...before it turned to a stern one. “Alright, let’s get started then.”
Nodding, Alicia returned with Kimble to the other Ascendancy members. It seemed that her good mood extended further, as Rachel was also eager to seek assistance from Kimble in readying herself for the tournament. Now she was really willing to give Dan credit for his idea.
“Let’s get to it,” she agreed. Together they headed out to one of the practice areas in order to begin practicing. They’d work on Rachel’s balance, experimenting with momentum and leverage of weight. They’d test various combat techniques combined with her magic, and have her spar with Kimble a bit. A veritable training montage to ensure that both Rachel and Kimble were ready for the tournament to come.
"Yeah, like that, but remember to keep your knees bent and posture straight! Hiyah!"
Justine yelped as Lily came in with a spinning tackle, and with a single slam knocked the girl into the water...Or she would have, before she unfurled her wings and flipped up into the air with a sigh. "This is...Harder than I expected."
"At least you don't have a dolphin here to heckle you Alexander said from the sides "Also, I realize I don't have the right to complain, but flying feels like cheating"
"Yeah, Keijo is...Unusual with its rules," Justine added, and landed back on the platform. The three of them, Alex included, were at the tropical islands for their training period before the Keijo tournament. At Lily's request, Dan had provided them a small swimming pool, like the type you'd see at the back yard of an estate, as well as a square-shaped floating platform.
After a couple more ringouts, Lily decided for them to take a small break. They were now sitting around a table with a parasol set to provide shade and cold beverages placed there by the Lesser Force's kindness.
Justine took a sip, a red towel draped around her shoulders like a cloak. "So coach, how does it look?" Lily pouted as she thought about the question. "Well...Fortunately your flying allows you some valuable maneoverability," Lily stated, "but you need to get the landing and dives worked out. Also, some footwork is necessary in case you get grounded. You'll need to-Oh!" She looked past Justine, and when the latter turned to look she noticed a certain pair of guys approaching them from the distance.
"...Oli."
"Hm?"
"You look stupid."
Of course after the conundrum that was the announcement of a keijo tournament, moreso their run in with Sann and Dina, Finn and Oliver took a moment of respite to themselves. With nothing else going on, most of the latter's clones regrouped with him save for two. And that was cause one of them met up with Maura, who was concidering joining the tournament. So the two decided to meet up with her on the sunny side of the dimension.
Even if Oliver was offended by Finn's comment, he snorted in response. "Says you! You're too chicken to even show some skin!" He playfully retorted, lightly elbowing the other boy's arm.
"I know, I know. I just didn't want my scars to be showing." Finn explained, scratching at the side of his face, the side where his festive eyepatch was replaced by his normal bandages. "Maura should be here soon right? Guess we got here fir- Oh." Before his sentence was finished, the two noticed the trio nearby.
"Oh hey, didn't know this place was already occupied!" The ghost grinned, waving at them.
Lily waved enthusiastically back at them, to the point she was leaning on the table, and shouted to them: "Hii! Did you also come here for training? We're on a break right now, so you can use the pool!"
Justine was not as excited about their arrival, however. "Wait, I think I've seen you two before...Were you at Dan's feast over at the winter island?"
"N-No thank you. We're just waiting on our patron to swing by." Finn quickly shook his head, not wanting any part of the sport. Too indecent. "Not even sure they'll allow her to join. But, eh, she'll probably figure something out..."
Then Justine asked if they were at the feast. "Yep, but it got a bit nuts for us. So hey, why not explore the place?" Oliver explained, then held a hand out for them to shake. "Name's Oliver, and this is my friend Finn!" He introduced the two of them.
"'Nuts' is a rather tame way to say 'hijacked by a crazy person', but it's not wrong" Alexander commented "Alexander" He then introduced himself.
"Hah! Ya ain't wrong either, fuckin' nerd managed to piss even Finn off!" The ghost laughed, shaking Alex's hand.
"She better have heed my warning..." Finn muttered, appearing unsatisfied at how his talk with Rachel ended.
"Oh, okay then! I don't know about Patrons playing, but I suppose Dan might let her if she asks nicely enough," Lily spoke, and nodded in agreement with Alex. "Let's just hope that whoever gets to the finals is strong enough to beat her too. Otherwise it's gonna be bad!" She then blinked, having realized what she'd forgotten.
"Oh yeah! My name's Lily Lightning, but you can call me Lily for short!" The green-haired girl cheerfully introduced herself. She then looked over to Justine; she reluctantly followed up with her own. "...I'm Justine."
"Nice to meet ya both!" Oliver grinned.
"Keijo is already a fucking mess, with magic being as varied as it is. Someone as powerful as a Patron playing might break what few rules there are." Alexander said, before thinking on it some more "...well...unless she's one of those small animal type Patrons. But that would mean that her body shape would just complicate things even more...probably. I don't fucking know, Keijo is bullshit."
After a second, Finn looked back at the three. "Though it might be good to deal some karma against that woman, assuming other nasties aren't participating- Er, besides that Sann lady, but she's a different case all together. I agree with Alexander though, I dunno if it's considered fair game or not." He explained. "Dunno what Maura would want with that mirror anyways, much less this place."
Lily giggled at Alex' outburst. "Oh, now I can't help but imagine Umu playing, that would be soo cuuute!"
Justine, seemingly uninterested in the conversation up to that point, blinked upon hearing their Patron's name. "Are you speaking of Maura, the Witch of Death?" She asked, having stood up to face the boys. "I recently formed a pact with her. Does she know the two of you are here?"
"'Witch of Death'? That sounds pretty fucking ominous" Alexander flinched "It also sounds like she might not have magic that's okay to use in Keijo. So I hope for her sake that that nickname is some kind of exaggeration."
"Do not worry, Mistress Maura is a kind Patron," Justine explained. "In fact, she was the one who gave me a new chance at life, and promised not to let Father get to me again. Getting to be here, having fun with my friends...I owe everything to her." Lily smiled, and hugged Justine. "Aww, thanks!"
Both boys' eyebrows rose. "She did meet one of my clones so- Wait wait wait, Witch of Death? I thought she already ditched that title back in yester-year!"
Finn shrugged. "She did. Or atleast, I think she still did. Apparently there's been changes we weren't informed about. Some new faction she inherited that probably doesn't even like her." His brows furrowed at the last part, taking note of Betty's reactions when he first met her. But he shook it off and looked back to Justine. He smiled slightly. "Of course we know Maura. I was her first magical- Er, accidentally. She wanted me kept alive and ended up making me a magical boy. Oliver got resurrected as a monster boy few years later. But that was centuries ago. Or was it few millennia?" He asked, resting a hand under his chin for a second. He shook his head.
"Regardless, I'm glad she decided to take you in. She's a kind one, yes, but I'm worried someone will take advantage of that kindness one day." He frowned, glancing downwards. "...Just like people took advantage of mine..." Finn uttered under his breath, a quiet hope that no one heard.
Justine nodded, a solemn expression on her face. "That may be true, but I believe Mistress Maura has learned by now to be more cautious," she said, having remembered the less than pleasant response from the Cradle. Lily didn't seem to know what they were talking about, so she quietly sipped on her drink.
"Yeah, yeah. I've been meaning to talk with her. And possibly try and remedy whatever's going on." Finn's frown then turned comical, scratching the back of his head.
"Speak of the devil! Hey Maura, over here!!" Having idly looked away for a moment, Oliver spotted Maura emerging from a nearby shadow. Though she looked somewhat different. More youthful, yet her eyes remained their usual shade of red. Was she in her disguised form?
Maura looked over to their direction. Her eyes widened. Then without any warning, she ran over and tackled Finn and Oliver into a hug, earning a startled yelp from the former. "Boys! How long has it been?! You look great!" She asked in excitement.
"Hello Ma'am!"
"Er, too long, didn't get any memos. Hi Ma'am." They both hugged her back, before the witch released them. "You're using your disguise for the match??"
Maura smiled. "Would be weird otherwise, might as well try and fit in. Don't worry, it doesn't hinder me the slightest!" She then waved to Lily and Alex, then her smile softened at Justine. "Have you been alright, dear?"
Lily seemed impressed by Maura. "Ooh, so this is your Patron, Justy? For a witch, she's really cute!"
"Please keep it down," Justine placed a hand over Lily's mouth, blushing in embarrassment as Maura came up to her. "I've been fine, Mistress. Spending time with Lily has been, well, fun." She averted her eyes. "Umm, I know you're busy with this Keijo business, but, um...When it's okay for you, could we have a private talk? I...met an old acquaintance of mine, and she told me something you should know about too."
Maura's smile faded. "Of course, sounds important." Though she would've talked further through magicoms, she felt it might be more private through a temporary mental link. "If you want, we can talk through here."
Lily's mouth curled into a circle in surprise. "Oh? Was it the girl in the feast hall?"
Justine nodded without saying a word, and Lily gave a reassuring smile. She then turned to Maura, and began speaking through the mind. I met with Reaver, a contact I had with the Ebon Mint and a servant of Odin. They have now taken on a new persona named Sanngridr. But what really surprised me was that she mentioned...My sister, Caroline. Justine paused, looking pained. She is most likely lying about being able to locate her. But the fact she knows about her...It worries me. What do you think I should do?
Maura internally sighed. "Here I was hoping we could take a break from their lot." Though a part of her was glad Justine trusted her to tell her this. She gave a reassuring smile. "Mayhaps it is a trap to corrupt you again. You know their type, tricky bastards." She crossed her arms, resting her chin against her fist. Then, her smile turned into a mischievous grin that crossed her features. "Though there might be a way to turn it back onto them. And if they're true to their word, get your sister back."
Justine listened, her spirit soothed by Maura's wisdom. So I should play along with accepting her offer for now?
"That is up to you, dear. If so, allow me to accompany you as your shadow. May take some convincing for the others to help with a possible ambush. But rest assured, they won't lay a hand on any of you and get away with it."
Justine, moved by her Patron's care and affection for her, something she had experienced little of, stood up from her seat, went over to Maura, and hugged her. "Thank you, Mistress," she spoke quietly, causing Lily to d'aww in the background.
The temporary mental link closed for now, and Maura warmly returned the hug. "It's no problem at all, I strive to treat all of you with the same kindness, even if some say otherwise." She smirked. "Now then! Would anyone care to spar with me for a few rounds?"
"Oh, now you're gonna start?" While Maura and Justine were talking, Oliver was stacking different sunglasses on Finn's head, while the latter talked with Lily and Alex.
Suddenly, Lily lifted her hand enthusiastically. "Oh, I do! I'm not going to participate in the tournament, but I'd like to spar regardless!" She winked at Justine. "You can also watch and learn from a Keijo pro, Justy!"
"Pro?" Alexander raised an eyebrow "I don't think you have enough experience to be called a pro. In fact, I think you've at least doubled your Keijo playtime today" He then patted her on the head "Still, at least all that energy and optimism has to count for something."
Lily pouted and showed her tongue at Alex. "Geez, thanks for the confidence, Alex!"
Maura snapped her fingers with a grin. "Excellent! Right this way!" With that, she went over to the platform.
"Well this should be interesting regardless." Finn mumbled, knocking down one of the sunglasses onto his face with a tap. Nearly knocked them all over, a cause to his ghostly friend's dismay.
"I'm not sure if 'interesting' is the right word. I still have trouble believe Keijo is an actual thing sometimes." Alexander grumbled "Like, what kind of nutjob thought this up?"
Lily smiled confidently. "Alright, you're on!" However, Justine stopped Lily on her way to the platform. "Be careful, Lily. Mistress Maura may seem like a regular magical girl, but she possesses great power. You shouldn't underestimate her."
"Aww, thanks for worrying about me, Justy, but I can handle it!" She gave a thumbs up, and jumped over to the platform. She took a balanced pose, ready to brawl. "Ready!"
"Good." While with Maura, her stance remained calm, relaxed. Her grin turned determined, as she motioned for Lily to act first.
"Now come! Show me what you're made of!"
"Dont have to ask me twice!"
Lily's eyes glowed a brilliant golden color as she powered herself up, enhancing her reaction times and agility, sparks of electricity emanating from her body. Then, she disappeared...Only to appear right behind Maura, her hips having twisted to perform a turning slam with her butt. Justine gasped. "Whoah!"
Magic already, hm? One would think Maura would be concerned, but she was watching her opponent closely. Once she felt Lily's presence behind her, Maura's grin turned into a serious look. Powering up her dark magic, she braced herself to counter the other's attack with her hips. Upon impact, she slid a distance away from Lily.
"Alright, my turn." Turning to stand on her side, she launched herself forward, making sure her rear stuck out for the attack.
As soon as Lily's initial strike was repelled, she had already landed on the platform. "Ooh, nice move!" She complimented her opponent, and performed a Megaman 3-style sliding dodge, passing under Maura by removing the friction-inducing electrons under her. She followed up the move by performing a handstand-style rising uppercut. "Haa!"
"Tch!" Lily's uppercut managed to send Maura up into the air, but the witch quickly reoriented herself. Taking the opportunity, she performed a ground-pound, with a bit of psychic magic to disorient Lily back.
Lily rolled out of the way, though only barely due to Maura's spell, and she held her head, looking dizzy. "Oof..." However, before Maura could go in for another attack, someone blew a whistle: it was Dan himself.
"Foul! No use of offensive magic allowed!" He had appeared in a puff of smoke between Lily and Maura, and handed a red card to the black-haired Patron; a sign of disqualification in Keijo. Lily stood up with a pout. "What? It was an attack? To be honest, I couldn't tell what she did. I was busy enough keeping up with her~"
"When in the green hills of fucks did he get here???" Both Finn and Oliver's eyes widened at Dan's appearance. And Maura only groaned.
"Psychic magic. Was trying to keep it contained into the right impact, but I guess it slipped out. Sorry..." The witch explained, not bothering to get up from where she sat as she rest her arm on her knee, and her head in her hand. She looked rather dissapointed in herself.
"Wherever there's Keijo, I'll be there!" Dan bombastically replied to the boys, his fins at his sides.
"Better not let people assume your intentions, Phindol!" Oliver called back to Dan.
Lily went over to the dolphin and pet him. "Aww, thanks for looking out for us, Danny! Anyway, you want to go another round, Mrs. Maura?" "If you do, I'd like to give a reminder of the use of magic," Dan added. "Applying a magical effect to your physical attacks is acceptable in certain cases, but not utilizing it directly as a weapon, either by projectiles or spreading effects. Magic to change yourself or the environment is an exception."
"Myself or the enviroment, huh?" Maura thought outloud. Her psychic magic seemed too unstable to use, and she didn't know how her spirit magic could help. So that left ice magic and darkness. Though she was surprised Lily didn't yell at her or something. After thinking a moment, she got back up. "Alright, I'll humor you. But we have got to do one round without our powers, I wanna see something."
Lily jumped to the platform once more, and hopped in place a couple of times. "No powers? That's going to be interesting. Let's do it!"
"This may be awhile." Finn said, having taken a seat to watch the two practice. He then took off the sunglasses he was wearing and furrowed his brows. Did he really need them if only one eye was visible? Oliver on the other hand put the rest of the sunglasses back.
Justine continued observing as Lily and Maura went for a second round, and turned her attention to the boys. "So, are you two going to stay long in Penrose? I assume you're aware of the...volatile situation we have here?"
The two looked at each other, then back to Justine. "Well, we're getting a clear idea of what's been going on. Ascendancy's bothering Penrose, I'm assuming?" Finn asked.
Justine sighed, and twirled the tiny umbrella in her drink. "That's putting it lightly. They've been locked in conflict with the local collection of monster girls, also called Sanctuary. They are led by their queen, Penny. You might have noticed her at the feast as the robot girl."
"Hm. Think I did see someone like that at the snowball fight earlier, or atleast multiple. She wouldn't happen to be working with Miss Denisova, would she?"
"Yes, she is. Do you know her?"
Finn shrugged. "Made her aquaintance few moments back. Her and that strange Sanngridr. We planned on visiting the Sanctuary and see if it needs any assistance."
"Frankly I am not above skinning that bird." Oliver spoke up behind him.
Justine nodded at the mention of Sanngridr, biting her lip. "Yes...In any case, I'm glad you're here to lend your assistance."
"A bunch of us were away for a few months" Alexander chimed in "We were in the dolphin's beach dimension for a few days, only to find that a few months had passed while we were there. In that time, Penrose completed it's transformation into magical Detroit. I don't remember if I ever heard anyone confirm it, but I'm pretty sure that's why they came here in the first place."
Both their eyes widened at the mention of Dan, and his dimension being the cause of such trouble.
"Christ, if that's why thing are tense, then can we even trust that guy??" Oliver asked, now skeptical of their current location.
"I honestly can't tell," Justine answered. "But it seems a lot of others trust it, including Penny. Take that how you want."
"For all the crap I give the dolphin, I don't think the time dilation was meant to fuck us over. I think it was meant to be reversed, but he just fucked up somehow. He sketchy, but not outright evil" Alexander explained "Besides, this time he has other Patrons watching him, and I don't think he's strong enough to defend himself if he pissed them all off. So I think he'll behave, if only for his own sake."
Finn nodded. "Makes sense. Dunno if my magic can work on patrons, but I could probably use it to chuck him into the water."
Justine found herself giggling before composing herself. "That would be funny to see." She turned her attention back to the pool, only to see Lily get knocked into the water by Maura. However, the cheery girl didn't seem upset by her loss. "That was amazing! Patrons really are on a whole other level!"
"Yeah..." Alexander agreed "So much so that it feels unfair, even in a crazy sport like Keijo. I just can't see her in the tournament. Did she mention if she tried to register yet, or has she just not gotten around to it?"
The duo looked back to see that Maura actually won the round. "Wait, you actually won that!? Nice one, Ma'am!" Oliver congratulated the witch, who was genuinely surprised.
"I did? I mean- I did??"
"...You didn't play this sport before did you?" Finn would ask her, Maura shaking her head in response. Though at Alex's imput he gave the other boy a quizzical look. The ramblings did irritate him a bit. "That would be up to the dolphin to let her compete. No more, no less. And frankly, anything works to put those zealots in their place." He would calmly explain. Maura stepped off the platform and helped Lily back up on her feet.
"Eh, can't argue with that." Alexander shrugged "The sooner they leave, the better."
"That was a lot of fun! Thank you for letting me spar with you!" Lily hugged the red-eyed witch, causing Justine to take a sharp breath. "L-Lily!" She quickly walked over to remove her, with Lily struggling cutely. "Noo~!" "I-I'm sorry Mistress. My friend here can get a little, um, overly affectionate. I hope you don't mind too much."
Maura did flinch at the sudden hug first, though between the little struggle between Lily and Justine, she ended up laughing it off. "Quite alright! Oh you two are so adorable, hahah!!" She grinned, hugging both Lily and Justine back.
Justine blushed, but graciously accepted the gesture. "Alright, I think it's about time me and Justy get back to training!" Lily spoke up, and patted Justine on the shoulder. The latter looked back at Maura. "Um, would that be fine with you, Mistress?"
Maura smiled, ruffling Justine's hair. "Of course. We'll be off to the side if you need anything."
"It feels kind of weird seeing someone rub your head like a little kid" Alexander told Justine "It's such a sharp contrast from what you were like when we first met."
Justine averted her eyes. "I suppose it would be..."
Lily took Justine's hand, snapping her sudden spell of contemplation. "Let's go, Justy? Now show me what you learned, ok?" Justine couldn't help but smile back at Lily's overwhelming energy, and nodded. "A-Alright then."
Pac-a-fist had been enjoying her walk with totally not Elroy before she came to the lodge for a bite.
”Mmmmph!” Pac-a-fist’s face was glowing a bright red as she stuffed her face with more food. ”It reminds me of my mom’s! How about you Elroy?”
Words were not required for Elroy to convey how pleased he was with the feast. The rate in which he packed away food was comparable to Hilaria. No one could surpass the hungry woman, but Elroy at least looked like he could contend.
And that sad looking girl that never talks was also present, but she was eating by herself in the corner.
Of course, that was everyone’s position before all the Keijo stuff. Pac-a-fist was now standing in between Dan and Rachel.
”Well if we’re going to have a tournament, you’re going to need a commentator who can give unbiased feedback and educate the spectators about the sport. Not to toot my own horn, but I think I’d be pretty good at that.”
Unfortunately, Alicia was unable to slip away unnoticed. When you’re part of the most hated factions in Penrose, you’re only bound to attract attention that you don’t want. Especially attention that you don’t even know that you have.
”Socks!”
A fairly bodacious dude in swimming pants seemed to fall from the sky and land just a few feet away from Alicia. There was a flame hovering just above his right eye, but it didn’t seem to throw any heat.
”It’s been a while. We should catch up before I return to Pax Septimus.” His eyes darted between her and the rest of the people practicing Keijo. ”Oh? Are you going to join too?”
“Damn it all” Penny would curse as she watched the reactions of the tourney announcement. It was a far cry from what she was hoping for, but it also wasn’t fair to call it a complete failure. She hadn’t expected Rachel to backdown, but it seemed that the inquisitor wasn’t as blindly driven as she seemed.
She needed to get ahead of this now that it had veered off course a hell of a lot faster than expected. She would take a moment to start getting her counterfeits moving. She still had seven in total. She would need to cut that down to three by the time the tourney started proper, possibly tow depending on the rules and who she was matched up against.
She rerouted one of them off back to Dan, another one was going to try and reenter Nykannis’s room. She already had a decent surveillance set up; Penny would see if she could co opt the location for a bit. That left her with five. Four to scope out the various extra rings set up over at the stadium with luck she would be able to watch others preparing for this tournament, forewarned was forearmed in some cases, now was the best chance she got to try and gather some information about that.
That left one counterfeit floating about. Which was alright for now, gave Penny options incase she needed them.
Another moment and she would set up a new parameter set for later when the tourney was running. She wasn’t going to bother processing ‘shame’ and she needed to rebalance her hostility index and appropriate force settings. Most of her armaments wouldn’t help either so shutting them down would help free some mana for self enhancement.
‘This was a mistake’ she would grumble internally. But knew it was to late to change it.
“Whelp, seems like Penrose normality has reasserted itself.” She would say to Magical Dream Princess. “Want to go see the Beach Island he’s got set up for all of this?” She would ask standing from her seat. Picking up FanFan’s cake as she did.
She needed to have a conversation with Rachel as well. Scope out potential side options, if Rachel was more interested in the Mirror Penny might be able to get her to ease off on destroying the Beach. Because she didn’t really want the Mirror to fall back into Asengav’s tendrils either. Plus, she might be able to make use of the damned thing when it came to talking with her father.
“Like, Magical Dream Princess really really super duper hopes that FanFany WanWany can stop that meanie weanie lady with the glasses from destroying Danny Wanny’s placey wacey…” MDP told Penny as she sat down next to her girlfriend. It was clear to see that she was still very upset, and the poor girl’s glistening eyes looked as though they might overflow at any moment. “Magical Dream Princess wuvs Danny Wanny’s placey wacey lots and lots, and, like, she’d feel soooo super duper terrible werrible if it had to go bye bye…”
An instant later, Dan’s voice caught her attention, as the dolphin announced a tournament to decide who got the Mirror, along with control of his dimension. MDP didn’t really understand most of it, other than the fact that not many people seemed to be too enthusiastic about this latest development. She heard a tired-sounding Penny mention how things seemed to have returned to their usual status quo, and the sullen Princess of Dreams gave voice to an equally tired sigh. “It totally wotally does…” she agreed. “But, like, Magical Dream Princess hoped that since it, like, was Christmas Whistmas timey wimey, everybodywody would be nicey wicey to eachotherwother, and eat lots of yummy wummy food, and make lots of new friendy wendies, and sing lots of Christmas Whistmas carols, and, and ALL that stuffy wuffy, but, like, that didn’t happen wappen…”
Her plaintive voice trailed off as she started to cry softly, but then Penny gave her a hug and asked if she wanted to go see the other islands.
“Magical Dream Princess guesses wesses we could…” she conceded. “But, like, Magical Dream Princess has a question westion… Can Penny Wenny tell her what Keijo Weijo is? Like, everybodywody’s been talking about it lots and lots, but, like, she’s never ever heard of it beforesie…”
So it turned out there’d be a tournament. Circumstances changed and Dina did not seem interested in the buffs any longer. Mariette nodded, understanding, so she turned back towards her own forces.
‘We… we must enter the tournament. We have to win back the mirror,’ Mariette declared.
‘This is absurd. That mirror was given to you and we had done everything we could for this ridiculous Christmas, and now we have to battle for it? I will have a word with that ridiculous dolphin, and-’ Lea announced, frowning as she declared, when Mariette leaned in.
‘I agree. But if we win it legitimately, then nobody here will be able to complain,’ Mariette said, and that did manage to make Lea quiet down. Not that it made her stop scheming, but it did quiet her down. Mariette was satisfied, and sighed out as she looked over her girls.
‘Right. Who here wants to try Keijo?’ Mariette asked.
Numerous hands went into the air. Mayra was as eager as ever, and both Jelena and Victoria were itching for a fight. Ronja was lifting a calm hand, and Suzette also looked pretty eager with her own grin. Tullia was blushing a bit, thinking it over. Josefin was hesitating a bit to raise her hand, and Taihei sighed.
‘I think I have a few artifacts that would help me win against anyone,’ Taihei declared rather to the point, even if she didn’t actually sound very eager to do Keijo.
Notable people that didn’t want to do Keijo was Lea, far too proud, Esther, tree-person without many desires, Olivia, shy non-fighter, and…
‘What a stupid game…’ Freya sighed. She’d just gotten back from having let her inner beast run rampant, and she gets back to…?
‘Strongest slammer, but I bet I’d beat her in a no-holds-barred with strength combined with magic, teh-heh,’ Mayra claimed, the dragon-girl’s tail swinging a bit. ‘But Freya doesn’t want to fight me…’ she then lamented.
‘Eeegh, fine…’ Freya grunted.
‘Thank you, Freya,’ Mariette nodded thankfully. ‘Okay, we need to make plans. Let’s talk this through…’
And so, the plotting would begin…
1. Freya stronger physical fighter 2. Mayra strongest all-round fighter 3. Ronja really big butt 4. Taihei has a plan 5. Mariette for the lolz 6. Victoria let’s flood the stage 7. Tullia I have a fun idea 8. Jelena while eager, wouldn’t be a fun fight 9. Suzette is strangely suitable 10. Josefin way better for support, but has a plan 11. Olivia would be frickin’ hilarious, but a free win for her opponent 12. Esther she doesn’t get it 13. Lea this sport is beneath her, but if she must
After ensuring that Connie was sufficiently calmed down, Gaia would temporarily leave her timid friend in the care of Rose and Iris, while she sought out Mariette. The Daughter of Mother Earth had been meaning to have a small chat with the eyepatch-wearing girl, and she thought it prudent to do so before things spiraled even further out of hand.
“Miss Mariette?” Gaia would ask the portal witch in a serene and soothing tone. “Please pardon the intrusion, but would it be possible to speak with you in private for a moment?”
Mariette had just sent all her subordinates to prepare for battle on the battlefield of keijo, but she herself was just not physically capable enough to actually partake, and as such after having sent them off to prepare she was left standing with a somewhat exasperated expression. Perhaps she shouldn’t ever have involved Dan… Then, however, Gaia approached her. Mariette blinked a little at her, but yeah, she had said before she did want to talk. Mariette took a deep breath, then…
‘Yes, that should be possible. Let’s go somewhere,’ she said, and opened a portal to just outside the place, because Mariette didn’t count on privacy anywhere within the building. Mariette strode out into the snow, decently confidently. Assuming she was followed, she’d then turn around to look expectantly at Gaia.
Following Mariette through the portal, Gaia took a moment to look around the small wooded clearing they now found themselves in.
“I believe this shall serve,” Gaia declared with an approving nod. “Although perhaps someplace even more secure would be preferable,” she added, after giving it a bit more thought. “What I have to discuss may place you in some danger, should the wrong individuals happen to overhear.” The “wrong individuals”, in this case, being both the Ascendency and Mariette’s own allies, although Gaia wanted to keep that ambiguous for the time being.
Mariette took a moment to glance at the building. She then sighed, took a couple seconds to reach way further with her magic, and then opened a portal to a different island altogether, which Mariette then stepped through to be significantly further away from the rest of the people that could potentially eavesdrop. Because they’d left the winter island, they were now in the swimsuit dimension proper… and Mariette’s appearance transformed into the swimsuit she’d worn on the earlier trip here. Not that they were on the beach, Mariette had picked a gathering of palm trees they could hide behind as their spot.
‘Okay, we’re further away now,’ Mariette declared as she once again turned to look at Gaia.
“Thank you,” Gaia replied, giving the portal witch a warm smile. “The matter I wish to speak with you about concerns a cavern beneath Penrose, which a friend and I discovered while cleaning a local waterway of some magical pollution. The cavern contained a sizable garden, cared for by your ally, Lady Esther, as well as a strange portal. As I am well aware of the master you serve, I simply wish to ensure that this portal does not bring any harm to Penrose, or its inhabitants. I am sure we can both agree they have suffered enough these past few months.”
It was that, after all. Mariette sighed again, because she’d received the report about her and Shane’s visit to that portal in the past and had been mentally preparing for the information to leak out to everyone and had been practicing her excuse. Meaning, she had it prepared.
‘… I’m sorry you had to see that. Okay, so the thing is…’ Mariette gathered her thoughts to see how exactly she could explain this. ‘Penrose is in the midst of a vortex of magic. It draws monsters, attracts cataclysms and all kinds of bad things happen in town because of it. Honestly, it’s not the safest place for any of us to live in, yet here we are. My patron… my patron wants a piece of that magic,’ Mariette took a brief break to then speak again.
‘The portal you found gently drains magic from the vortex, feeding my patron. He’s using the vortex of Penrose as a power station, hence my presence in Penrose at all. My job is to keep people occupied, unaware of these portals, so that they don’t break them and shut down his supply of magic. Despite his nature, Asengav is reasonable, he knows just trying to take Penrose would be met with intense opposition. So he’s just going to take what he can without being noticed… or so,’ she said, taking another break.
‘I’m sure you can agree that, as far as Horror plots go, that’s very much on the lenient side. If at all possible, could you keep what you’ve seen a secret? If people were to go around trying to break those portals, Asengav might take a more… direct approach, and none of us want that. … Okay?’ So Mariette said, looking at Gaia pleadingly.
“I see…” Gaia replied thoughtfully, holding an elegant finger to her lips. “If that is indeed the case, I see no reason for it to become an issue. I can assure you that I have kept what I saw in the cave a secret, and shall continue to do so. I shall even ask Shane to do likewise. I must admit, I have no desire to be your enemy. A… mutual acquaintance has informed me of the situation you and your allies are currently in, and I would like to assist you however possible. Indeed, my dearest Connie and I have grown quite fond of Mayra, in particular, and neither of us would want to see anything unfortunate happen to her, or the rest of you, for that matter. So, please,” she added with a smile, as she gently placed a hand on Mariette’s shoulder. “If ever you have need of allies outside your core circle of companions, do not hesitate to call upon me. I would be only too happy to help.”
Mariette breathed out lightly in relief that Gaia didn’t take offense to the draining-magic part. She had kept imagining that it was unacceptable, for some reason. She listened closely to Gaia’s words, and a tinge of amusement crossed her that Mayra, of all her subordinates, had managed to gain friends here. That was a bit sweet. The hand on her shoulder initially scared Mariette, because it was easy to imagine an attack coming from it, but Gaia was a kind soul, and it was meant to comfort her. Mariette nodded in reply.
‘I greatly appreciate it. Thank you, for your offer,’ she said, appreciating allies whenever she could get them. ‘… If I may ask, who is this mutual acquaintance?’ Mariette asked, because the answer could imply varying levels of knowledge about Mariette’s position.
“You are most welcome,” Gaia replied with a small giggle. “And the mutual acquaintance I referred to is Ronin,” the verdant girl added. “It is clear that she cares for you a great deal, especially in light of the considerable lengths she has already gone through to help you. You are most fortunate to have such a dedicated friend.”
‘Ronin…’ Mariette repeated her name with a slightly sad smile. ‘Yeah… yeah, I am,’ she said. Then… she looked closely at Gaia. Looking like she might be considering something. At the very least, added her face to a group of friendly people. ‘Right, anything else?’ Mariette asked.
“That was all, for now,” Gaia replied. “It is my fondest hope that everything works out well, regarding the upcoming tournament,” she added. “But even if things don’t turn out as planned, just know that you have friends who’ll support you. There’s no need to carry all your burdens alone.”
‘… Thank you. That, uh, mirror’s a precious artifact of my patron, I don’t want to think of what he’ll do if I lose it…’ Mariette said with another sigh. ‘Okay, let’s return. Thank you… once again.’ So Mariette said before she raised her hand and opened a portal back to the winter island.
While a training montage lay in her future, for now Alicia found that she was unable to leave the feast hall without being further addressed. She turned towards the figure, suddenly struck by the urge to grind her teeth without knowing why. Her first impression was disbelief that this guy could have figured out some way past the magic that was causing them to all look Christmas themed. How had he managed that?
That was when she heard the nickname, and she knew without a doubt. She'd have been more surprised were it not for the Lord of Change and their very unsubtle announcement about what they'd be doing. “Elroy," she replied with a small nod and a set face. “I see you got brought back in that game." He had been pretty definitively dead after all, at least from what she'd been told.
“Just because you're dead doesn't mean I'm letting you use that nickname," she added, fully expecting that her objection wouldn't meany anything. It wasn't like he'd stopped using it at any point prior to this. She knew to moderate her expectations where he and his twin were concerned.
Glancing back to the rest of the group, she shook her head whilst folding her arms over her chest. “Just giving some advice. I'm not really in the mood this time around, especially with most of the stuff up to this point being Christmas themed. and what has brought you suddenly plunging out of the sky in front of me?"
Dan made a clap of his fins as Pac-a-fist volunteered to commentate on the matches, eliciting a squeak of joy from the dolphin. “Oh, I like your spirit, lady! You’re hired! Would you like your payment in bologna sandwiches or magical coins?” However, before Pac-a-fist could respond, Oros had called out from the crowd. Dan was mortified by Oros’ heckling, and puffed his cheeks like balloons. “You shouldn’t insult others like that!” He responded, turning red in the face as he teleported up to her with a bar of soap on his fin, dropping it to her hand. “Here, take this. Maybe it will help clean your language.”
He then went back to Ruby to check the applications with her, and then announced over megaphone: “We have now reached enough applicants to form the tournament brackets. However, it is going to take just a little while longer, so keep sending in those applications! You can also start practising for it if you want, with full access to the tropical islands! Thank you for your patience!”
Later at the feast, as FanFan was on her own contemplating, she heard Oros’ voice from underneath the table, startling her. The sight of her clown face peering from the darkness was like the opening scene from IT. “Ah! What is this?” She then blinked as she heard her offer for a trade, and looked at the jacket in her lap. “Leena...” She sighed, and then nodded, accepting the trade as she gave the jacket away. “Deal. I do wish to spend some time with her, without all...this. Thank you very much, umm, Miss Oros, correct?"
The party was proceeding surprisingly well for such a gathering of...less than brave people. At least the dolphin seemed to go on his way of not enforcing a distinctive lack of violence. The Allfather mused as he drank. His servants were... well, all scattered. Reginleif had been a little too shrew, but she, too had faded eventually.
The downside is that there was no one to pour drinks for him. His eyes rested on a female figure who had been equally neglected and had nearly faded onto obscurity.
"Puchuu, serve me.” The norse god commanded at Umukamui, still clad in her female form. The Puchuu seemed to not react, before deciding that acting servile to a norse god wasn't really that bad as opposed to snubbing one. She just began to pour the drink with a neutral face.
"Lord Odin..." She said.
"This party has been quite a bit tricky for our servants, has it not? Mine are all over the place... and yours... are all over the place too." He chuckled, remembering Umukamui of both Lily and Sakura's less than stellar performances.
"It is as you say."
"Mmm" He muttered, a hand on his beard. "Have you ever heard... of the fourth wall?"
"In books, yes."
"In books. It is a most intriguing device. Often times it can offer a fresh view, and engage the public. But if you overdo it, the entire cosmos of the play unravels. A most ...unpleasant consequence." The norse god went on muttering. "I do like proper stories, though. Of hapzard fools, ignorant and fumbling, that they eventually reach greatness."
"You did create a world out of Ymir." The puchuu would drone.
"Well learned, I do like that." The norse god would finish his cup, and stare at the spectacle. "We're more alike than you think."
"Pardon?"
"Nevermind, just an out of place comment. The valhallan brew is still strong, you see." The god would then stare at the Puchuu's eyes. "Would you care to conduct... a certain business?"
"Always." Umukamui would look at the deity with unabased interest... or she would, had not a certain downcast youth hobbled towards the couple.
"You have power, have you not, titty-rat?" It was the downtrodden and dishevelled Sakura, having left Emily.
"...I am discussing important business with Lord Odin, Sakura." The puchuu would reply, a steely gaze aimed at the interloper.
"I do not mind. Go ahead, childe of Izanagi." Odin would muse, snatching the jug out of Umukamui and serving him another cup.
"Could you please turn me back into a loli?"
It was then when Odin spit his drink, racuous laughter rumbling from his belly.
"That which you regained through tricky methods? It would be my pleasure." Umukamui said. "May I ask why?"
"It seems that the wish made me...arrogant...I hurt my friend...I would offer a pinky, but those grow back now."
Odin himself was still laughing out loud.
"...I see. Well. I certainly can accomodate. Easily." It was then when the Puchuu snapped her fingers, as the energies around Sakura unraveled, showing a new look. A residual set of sparkles condensed on the Puchuu's hand, the crystallization of the masculinity wish.
Sakura herself nodded to Umukamui before attempting to leave.
"Wait, former man." It was Odin's turn to talk. "That was a worthy sacrifice, and it was done within my gaze, so you shall receive a favour from me. Seek Sanngridr. She has... an unique power if you want to do good for this party."
Umukamui looked at Odin once more, before arching an eyebrow.
"Another drink?" Odin would rattle his cup once more."Before we get down to the real business?"
Throughout the annals of war, information has always played a major part in deciding the victor. Knowing when your opponent might make a certain move, what they are capable of, and how you might be able to nullify or turn it to your advantage can be even more decisive than skill or strength alone. This Samantha Howard knew, so she chose to learn as much as she could before the beginning of the tournament.
She took to the shadows, disappearing into them as she skittered around. Sam avoided being bold or careless with her movements as she couldn't be entirely certain which people had a third eye, so she took paths that kept her out of line of sight entirely. Her snooping led her to watching over Rachel as she was being taught the basics. It was no surprise the girl hadn't participated in Keijo, so she didn't exactly make the most precise movements on the ring. But Samantha could feel the speed and power behind Rachel's behind, and that simply reinforced the fact Samantha would be at a disadvantage even with experience.
Hmm...wait...
Samantha realized she was going about this all wrong! Here she was, tunnel-visioned on Rachel when in reality, the tournament had been won if she reached Rachel! The opportunity to publicly embarrass Rachel, snatch away something she wanted, and best her in a form of combat was all the reward she could ever want! She could worry about actually beating Rachel when she got there. These other people think they need to win the tournament, though. But I refuse to allow them to halt my march, to deny me what is rightfully mine! And... well, Emily likes this place, so it wouldn't hurt to gaurantee its existence, too.
And so, Samantha decided to spy on other people.
...which brought her to the warmer side of Dan's dimension, after she noticed Maura's presence being so far away. Sam originally desired to avoid Maura for the duration of the event, but that was before she got involved in Keijo. And Odin, too? Honestly, this particular tournament was far from normal, but such is expected nowadays. It didn't change the fact she intended to boot each other player, patron or not, off the stage if they stood in her way. Would Maura be one of them? That was her question as she observed, opting to hear them from her mouth instead of contacting her through the admittedly more convenient, secretive way the Cradle could.
Oh...
It should not have come as a surprise, but alongside Maura was Justine, as well as a fair amount of others. She recognized her fellow time-spec, and Alex. She wasn't sure who the other person was, but had seen them a few times today in passing. The problem here was how irritatingly gushy everyone was being. Samantha was... not particularly fond of such an environment typically, but seeing Justine as part of it rubbed her the wrong way. Disgust, anger, and contempt all tugged at Sam, but even were she not part of the shadows, she wouldn't let that show.
"Maura."
Samantha remained out of the way until she saw an opportunity to speak with her patron while the others were distracted. She was still hidden in a nearby shadow on the ground from a tree.
"What do you intend on doing?"
Of course, Samantha's sudden appearance caused Maura to tense up. Like the assassin, the witch prefered them not to encounter eachother again, due to not wanting a round two of a verbal beatdown. She planned on shutting that down quick regardless, but what now? Sam appeared calm at the moment, but that could change depending on how she responded.
So much for ignoring.
Without moving, Maura glanced at Sam. Her expression remained neutral. "Well I am planning on entering. The form you see here is to blend in with the opponents." She calmly explained. Her brows then furrowed. "Of course if someone wants to try and be an ass about it; Not directed at you, honest, I might as well forget about it. Don't wanna enter if it makes it unfair for everyone else." Sure, there was a genuine reason why she wanted to join. But she couldn't say, especially not to her.
Samantha might've frowned if she wasn't currently just a shadow on the ground. She probably didn't believe Maura's claim that the statement wasn't directed at her. "It would be a lie to say that wouldn't be a preferable outcome for me. I need to win this tournament, and the less competition the more likely that outcome." The shadow almost trembled as if to emphasize the importance this was to Sam. "But whether you participate or not, that's your choice and I do not intend to ask you to withdraw. Rather, I am curious to know what drives you to participate."
Maura relaxed back into her chair. "It'd be too bold to say a temporary control of the dimension could let us ambush the Ascendancy here and now, but my main interest is the mirror." She looked back forwards. "I know Mariette is an ally of ours, but I want to see what this Black Mirror is capable of. If there's a chance to...negotiate...with Asengav over his influence on her, I might as well take that chance too. Something like that may prove useful to us." She explained.
"Though if it's connected to that Interdimentional Home we, or really, you all last fought at, may have to expect some damages. Guess you have your reasons too?"
"While I would like to think your intentions are noble, I am not sure it is a wise decision. I believe someone tried to help her similarly during our battle against Justine and she did not care for it, to put it lightly. But, honestly, I think even joining this tournament is bound to put someone on her bad side, so I guess it doesn't matter, and would be hypocritical of me to act like I am not doing something to draw her ire either. Ultimately, in that regard, I don't care." Maura could almost feel the shadow shrug in indifference to the potential consequences. But her mood shifted, indicated by an almost feral tone of voice when Maura inquired about her goals.
"I only have one reason: I want to defeat Rachel -- need to. It's not a hope or a dream, it's like a hunger... a thirst I can't quench until her defeat. It is for this reason alone that I have joined, I'll admit. The Mirror and the fate of Dan's dimension don't interest me nearly as much."
"Denisova tried to with Beacon, right? Seems reckless in the midst of battle. As much as I don't want to, I can only assume she was looking out for herself. And besides, I'm not saying I wouldn't give the mirror back to Mariette, but it wouldn't hurt to look." The corner of her mouth quirked up.
Though it did fade, her uttering a silent "Oh." at Samantha's explanation. Didn't she have a Warrior mental mutation? Seeing Rachel again must've irritated it somehow. Understandable. Maura thought for a moment. "The participants are grouped in teams aren't they?" She asked.
"I do not believe this one is supposed to be," she answered, perhaps insinuating that this might not be a rule people would go out of their way to follow. "I imagine a large part of the tournament is going to be people who want to assist Mariette in recovering her mirror, had I a guess."
"Sounds irritating." Maura sighed. "Here I was hoping we could team up. Yknow, reach both our goals? I'm aware I'm not that popular at the moment, but you're still my agents." She explained with furrowed brows, shifting over to sit across from Sil. "While you're here, I'd like your thoughts on something."
The deepest part of the shadow swirled until it almost seemed to form a question mark. "And that 'something' is?"
Maura looked around them, then back to Sam. "We'll have to discuss it through magicoms, can't risk anyone overhearing. Justine recently came into contact; Albeit unwillingly from what I can tell, with a mint agent she once collaborated with. Sanngridr, aka Reaver. I'm not sure if you ran into them yet, but apparently they know the whereabouts of Justine's missing sister, Caroline." She glanced away, arms crossed. "I'll be honest with you, even a scarecrow can tell it's suspicious, Caroline dissapeared into nothingness months ago, how could they have found her now? It reeks of a trap to recorrupt Justine. We can't afford that to happen." Be it at death or purification, Maura did care not to let their efforts be wasted.
Samantha scoffed, displeased at where this had headed. "I can't imagine you wouldn't already know what I would suggest, so you're not asking for advice, I see. So what do you intend to do, then?"
Disregarding Sam's obvious response, Maura continued. "Whether they're truthful or not, I wanna plan an ambush, and perhaps snatch little Caroline away from under their noses. Yes, she could still be connected to Father, that's why I can have Eliza get a purification potion from Penny just in case. I know, you might be skeptical concidering who's involved. But done right, we could pull a fast one on our dear competitors. ....Are you in?"
There was a long pause of close to twenty seconds before the shadow seemed to shiver and Maura could hear a sigh through coms. "Since the obvious, simple solution to this problem is out of the question, I can't really decline. If the worst-case scenario happens and she becomes like she was, it would probably be better to be around."
With a smile, Maura breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. It may take longer to convince everyone else, but I'm glad I asked you first."
"Don't be relieved until we find out if that plan is even going to succeed. Plans have a nasty habit of falling apart completely around Penrose," she warned, her shadow suddenly beginning to move away. "Anyway, I would rather not speak any more about her and plans involving her more than I have to presently. There are plenty of other people attending this tournament, so until then, I'll focus on the immediate future."
And with these words, Maura was relieved of Sam.
...
...
"...Well?"
After the talk between Samantha and Maura, Finn finally spoke up to the latter. He did notice her talking with...something. But it seemed important, so he waited.
In response, Maura flopped back into her seat with a groan. "Somehow it went better than I expected. But now I'm worried about how Betty will react." There was a mix of hope and dread in her voice.
"Uhuh...should I be concerned over any of this?"
Maura quickly shook her head. "Nono- No. This is my problem to solve, I don't want you getting vilified cause you wanted to help. Already explained to you that things, everything's tense right now. We'll worry later, Okay?" With that, she continued watching Lily and Justine practice.
Though Finn was in thought. How bad was Justine before any of this? As bad as some of the stuff he witnessed, or worse? He didn't see the point in grudges, they often proved unfruitful. And yet the concept of redemption's been challenged. He'll have to catch Betty and this Samantha at some point, ask them about it.
Before Fanfan could even blink, her jacket had been swapped out with the ticket she had promised. Only now it was folded up like a paper boat for some reason.
”So you’ve heard of me.” She chuckled. ”I typically don’t associate with Beacon, Ass-end-antsy especially. But anyone who can disobey a direct order from Rachel seconds after she issues it has my utmost respect. I’ll be keeping an eye on you.” She looked off to the side. ”And the bitch with the funny hat, but for different reasons.”
Oros slinked on under the table and disappeared behind the table cover.
...
...
...
Pac-a-fist chuckled. ”I would be willing to consider it a stage play myself, but banana coins sound interesting too!” She didn’t seem too concerned that Dan had teleported away to keep the tournament running smoothly.
”Hey! Roboslut is not a slur! It’s the truth!” The bar of soap Dan had handed Oros managed to slip out of her hand and fall onto the floor. With a shrug, she bent over to pick it up. That was when she froze. ”Wait a second…” Oros stood up again. ”Is it safe to pick up the soap?” She looked around. ”I mean, this world was a prison, technically. I wouldn’t pick up soap in a prison.” She bit her lower lip. ”B-but getting clean is the most important part of my routine! The one thing that doesn’t make me feel trapped!” Her eyes darted side to side. Sweat beads ran down the sides of her face. ”Maybe if I’m quick enough...” Oros bent over at the hips and extended her fingers towards the soap. ”This is taking longer than I thought.” Her hips seemed to sway side to side as she got closer to the soap, her eyes scanning her surroundings for any predators that came near. ”I feel so vulnerable like this,. Like a dog trying to take a shit, or a comic book character narrating their every thought as they are powerless to do anything else for some reason.” Once her hand fell on the soap, she realized she was still being largely ignored, save for maybe a few curious observers who were smart enough to keep their distance. ”I’m glad everyone present knows how to keep their hands to themselves.” Once the soap was in her hand, she hopped backwards towards the closest magical girl present. Her butt resting against Amanda’s hip. Oros started to blush. ”You dirty purple haired munchkin, now I also know how the pilots in darling in the franxx felt.”
Don’t anybody mention how this technically should have happened before Oros made the trade. I can’t help that Dan makes the best posting content after Oros has moved.
”I don’t get the hostility, Socks. I’m not dead, I’ve just been away for a bit. Bet you wouldn’t be this mean to Regina.” While Elroy was smiling, it was far smaller than the one she was use to him wearing. ”In case you couldn’t tell by my state of the art swimming gear, I’m here to compete! I know it’s not really a manly sport, but I think men need to get more in touch with there feminine side from time to time. Elroy grinned. ”Anyway, I didn’t realize you were going to be this grouchy. Maybe rock girl is in a better mood, if I can find her anyway. Hard to picture her wearing that wooly cap out here”
...
...
...
Before Finn could introduce himself to Silhouette, he'd have to get Betty's word on the little feud first. He did seem to make a good first impression with her, but something told him to be careful with how the subject is tackled. Especially from what Maura caught him up on. Grabbing himself a soda, he excused himself from the group he was with to find the bodyguard.
By this point, Betty had already registered for a match and had sat back down in front of her computer parts. She didn’t look at anyone, and was instead looking at her computer parts. Or perhaps she had withdrawn into herself and was thinking about something. The match to come, the future of cradle, others could only speculate.
Finn eventually made his way back to the snow lodge, his outfit adapting once more to the strange dress code. "The attention to detail's nice but this could get annoying easily- Oh,there she is. Hey Bets!" Once Finn found Betty, he hurried over. The boy then noticed her computer parts. "Oh yeah, that's your gift isn't it? Want me to help set it up?" He asked, sitting down next to her.
Betty snapped out of her trance. ”You'd do that for me?” She clapped her hands together. ”Yes please! I'd like a new computer! But I know that you can burn up the parts by handling them wrong. I'm scared to do it myself.” She picked up everything and walked over to an area where everything could be laid out. Most of the tables were occupied or covered in food stuffs, but there was a free table for Betty's computer. like everything in Dan's domain, it seemed like if you wanted it enough, it appeared. So long as it didn't bring harm to others that was. ”I didn't know you were handy with electronics.”
Of course Finn followed suite, waiting for Betty to set the parts out. "I picked up a thing or two from Oliver and Valerie. Though it was mostly Oliver that needed help building his computers. Always had to upgrade to the next thing." He picked up the graphics card as he explained. "G-FORCE? This is one of the more recent models isn't it?" Finn asked Betty. Regardless, he'd begin working on piecing it together, even using his magic to give himself some extra limbs. A trick he did learn from watching Valerie work.
”Not just a G-Force. It’s an Nvidia.” Betty pointed. ”I read a lot of companies put the G-force logo on their stuff but it will always underperform. It’s exciting to see a real one. I wonder who got this, I wish I put more thought into my gift…”
"So, are you going to enter the tournament? Honestly, I don't understand what the appeal is with Keijo, but I get people want to dogpile on the opportunity to be a hero. Never goes well, I tell ya."
”I already signed up. It was something to do.” Betty drifted back into a trance. ”More than that though, I think it’s a bit like the olympics: It’s an alternative to an all-out magical girl war. If you fight someone in a keijo match, you can be their better without killing them. You can-” She looked away from Finn. ”You can dominate them, and see how you and your patron stack up against the opposition.”
Finn puffed a cheek out, focused. "Sounds somewhat like the Olympics. Though they should add more sports for the comparison to ring true." He took a sip of his soda and set it to the side. "But all this for a cursed house decoration? And the dolphin's home which I don't know how they'll be able to tear it down alone? It's mad! Might as well just kill Dan himself. What would you even do with either one, B?" He asked her.
”Ah.” Her shoulders dropped. ”Well, I think that Dan has a right to keep his home. I think that Beacon is way overstepping their bounds threatening to take it away from him. Not that there aren’t hundreds of other worlds Dan could make his own.” She held her chin. ”I feel like the mirror would be less of a problem in my ladies hands than that of a horror. She could destroy it or add it to the cradle’s ever expanding trove of treasures. But if I’m being honest, I’m not really joining to do anything so noble.” The corners of Betty’s lips curled into a smile. ”There are a lot of magical girls present that are stronger than me anyway. I doubt I’ll make it to the finals. Probably not even the semi-finals. But I need closure.” She turned to Finn, and the smile ran from her face. ”I’ve beaten Justine in two activities already. Possibly three. But I need to stop her here too.”
At the mention of Justine, Finn's normal arms froze. He then let them rest against the table, letting the extra limbs work in his stead. His fingers drummed against the surface, he'll have to be careful how he words things. "Closure? Why do you feel the need to stop her? You've already won two games, one with my assistance even. You have the advantage of numbers." His one visible eye looked towards Betty, observing.
”Well that’s just it. It was team against team. I didn’t do that much during the snow man building contest, and my shoddy sled nearly shattered on a tree. I won those times because I had the better team.” Betty thrust her finger into the table. ”But now neither of us can hide behind teammates. Someone as proud as her can just write off her allies as a liability. But in a closed arena like this she’ll have no excuses.” She placed a closed fist in front of her mouth. ”Maybe I can’t beat her, but unlike last time, I’ll actually get to fight back.”
"Proud? Someone as meek as Justine?" He thought. "Not sure how Lily and Alex fit into this. Tempting to write this off as delusion right off the bat, but I need more information."
"Last time? Did something happen between you two?" Finn spoke up.
Betty sighed. ”She turned me, Finn.” She folded her arms. ”She turned me into one of her mindless thralls. Then she handed me over to the Mint. That’s not something you get over with a simple apology.” She fret her brow. ”It’s rape.”
"!?" And with that, Finn completely froze, down to the extra limbs. His eyes were wide, though whatever emotion they told was obscured.
"Th-That can't be right. That can't be right!" He trembled, entrapped within his thoughts. "She- She had to be corrupted didn't she?? They trusted her, M-Maura trusted her, so she has to be wrong right? Y-Yeah she has to be! She needs to be!!"
Betty’s hands were shaking. ”Normally I'd keep it to myself, but you've done a lot to help me. That, and we both have the same employer. We'll be working together in the future, which isn't something I would mind. But I’d just as soon not talk about this anymore.” She stood up and leaned over Finn’s shoulder. ”Is it almost done?”
He had to escape his spiraling thoughts before they worsened, even for a moment. Finn did nod to Betty, creating a second pair of spare limbs (spider limbs??) to speed up production. Yet all the same, he was still trembling, appearing anxious.
”Finn?”
With the final part in place, the computer was finished. "I-It's done." The boy finally answered, retracting the limbs.
”That fast?” The gloomy atmosphere seemed to evaporate in an instant once the computer was together. ”It looks so cool! I like how it’s got a glass side panel so that you can see all the components inside. Is there RGB lighting inside? Suppose I’ll have to plug it in somewhere to find out. Though I’m sure it’ll need to update to the latest definition of windows, but I should be able to handle that.” She ran her hand over the top of the computer as if she were grooming a pet. ”Oh!” Betty turned to Finn. ”But if I can’t, you’ll um, you’ll help me, right?”
Finn took some deep breaths. "Uhm, okay. We may need a way to transport it out of here though. I can have Oliver help with that." He explained. But a part of him was still concerned for what Betty said. Guess he hid that well?
”That would be lovely if he could do that for me. I could probably drop it in the cradle but, well…” Betty chuckled before giving Finn a gentle hug. ”Hmm, you feel a little tense.” She stepped backwards. ”Is something the matter?”
Finn would've hugged her back, but Betty stepped away before her could. He slightly frowned, scratching the back of his head. "I-It's nothing. Just, what you said, about Justine. Bad memories. Really bad... He explained, his voice turning soft near the end.
”Oh! Did she get you too, or… Actually, never mind that now. We can talk later if you're up for it.” She turned back to the computer. ”Thanks for helping me Finn, and listening to me. Once I get steam loaded on here we can play some Left 4 Dead some time. Okay?”
“Bit late for that now.” Dina said to Mariette, as she was given a firsthand show of the spectacle that was brewing. She then began to walk, tension in every step she made.
Dina clenched her fist as her tail was swishing. She surely had wished for reinforcements, but she did not expect this. It was spinning out of control fast. And her patron… Well, she mercifully thought wisdom was not her forte.
But Penny? As a queen she should have been better. Rachel could have called them off at any moment, and what she was going to avoid with a single duel, further bastardized by Oros… had become a mockery of what she had initially intended.
A tournament with a pittance to win, and much to lose? And was he a lesser force of happiness? No doubt he was… so ineffectual. She needed to have a word with Dan.
The Lesser Force was wiping his brow with a polkadot napkin when he saw Dina, and immediately broke into an uneasy smile. "Uh, Dina, I know this looks bad, but it wasn't supposed to end up like this. We planned to have Rachel be placed with Penny in the first round, so she'd have a more difficult time to win." He turned to Penny with a nervous look. "Right?"
“That, and not having the Dimension up for grabs either” Penny’s counterfeit would agree as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “At the very least the later half of that was accomplished. The mirror is up for grabs still but no one has noticed that the agreement for the realm isn’t a part of the tournament. So that’s two chances against Rachel if things get that far.”
Dina sighed. “Do you think that will stop Rachel?” The catgirl eyed Penny, and there was a rather noticeable look of disapproval in her face. “If cheap rethorics and technicalities stopped the Ascendancy, I would have claimed victory decades ago.”
“Considering they like to claim the moral high ground it might help” Penny would interrupt, “And Rachel is zealous about following her word. She’s declared her intention to fight the champion of the tourney for the Mirror. Fine, the tourney isn’t involving the Beach, that is still another fight needed and time to possibly dissuade her. Not that I think the latter is really an option.”
“Regardless, even if it isn’t enough to stop her it is still time to figure things out.”
“I wasn’t done talking, your majesty.” Dina hissed. “We had Rachel on her one track mission, and we had carefully laid it so no one but her and another one would fight.” Her gaze rested on Dan. “And then you commit resources in a frivolous tournament for a mirror we have no use for, undermine my courtly approach about losing Dan’s base of operations, and to top it off, this Keijo tournament won’t make people happy in the slightest, except for maybe Oros or Sanngridr, and that’s a stretch.”
“Which precisely goes against the nature of Dan himself.” The catgirl grunted. “It’s a blessing Rachel is too dazzled by the situation she has not yet realized she can just call foul and press forward with destroying the dimension. Despite, and not because of your plan.”
“By the way, If you’re so sure of your planning ability, why are you talking to me through a proxy, your majesty? Still hooked up on that dreamy courtesan? I had thought that maybe having so many copies running around could get some decent evacuation preparation for the worst, but who am I to talk? After all, my own Queen and my Patron keep walking over my earnest attempts.”
“Except that Rachel can’t call foul considering that the person who first issues the challenge for the dimension wasn’t even qualified to make such and could have been overturned if you hadn’t legitimized it.” Penny would reply, her voice turning hard. “But you went and accepted a challenge that could lead to your Patron losing his home without consulting him if he would even be willing to allow that. Thus undercutting his authority in his own home.”
“There is also the fact that you are objectively incorrect about how the overall effect that this tournament being declared has had. Already there are a half dozen people growing closer because of it, lessening tensions over all rather than leading to a net increase of them.”
“The fact that I am a counterfeit does not mean I don’t speak with the Prime’s voice, nor does it mean that I am simply idle. There are six other copies out there running recon at this moment. Which is more than can be said about your choice to waste energy on tearing into us.” Penny’s eyes were glowing brightly even as her voice maintained it’s calm level, but the fact that she had gone inhumanly still was telling on its own.
“Your ‘earnest attempt’ has done more to jeopardize the Beach than mine has.”
Dan looked on as the two girls’ debate had turned into an outright argument, and looked sad about it. “Now, let’s, umm, just calm down...” He spoke in an awkward mumble.
Dina's pupils contracted into slits upon hearing Penny making such cold arguments as a reply. Had she been of flesh, she would have gotten a nasty claw swipe directed at hair. By now, her tail was completely stiff, hairs poking out in every direction as if she had been shocked.
"Calm down." She snarled. "That's all you have to say, Patron?" Dina said in a low, growling tone.
Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, Dina switched back to Penny. "Let me guess… you analyzed the frequency of smiles and giggles and the breathing rhythm of all the people." Her eyes were now tightly locked with Penny's. "People getting together only needed an excuse, because those getting together are either plucky… or are falling in with their respective factions. But when it comes to trade blows, a lot of people are going to reel from it. Grudges will no doubt form even more."
"And I find distasteful you cannot have five minutes for the regent without a proxy." Dina continued to stare at Penny. "And doing recon...what is the use of recon if half of us can teleport in and out here anyway." The cat girl said. "Would it not be better to make a contingency plan should Rachel win?"
"I also cannot fathom why you agreed to this considering your past brushes with Patron Dan." Dina answered back.
“I listened and watched.” Came Penny’s sharp reply “The ones doing recon are watching what everyone is doing. Which is how I know that Justine, Lily and Alex are practicing; together. Same with others. It’s how I know what type of competitor Rachel is going to be.”
“It’s how I know which fighters are going to be in this at all, which is more than you can say.” Penny would meet Dina stare with one of her own, unblinking in intensity. “And what sorts of contingency plans are we going to need? As you so rightly said, all of us teleported here, we will all be able to do the same to leave so no need for evacuations. It’s Keijo so no need to worry about anyone suitably injured.”
“Best contingency for if Rachel wins is to make it an empty one in regards to the Beach. Which I already did. So tell me Dina, what do you think we should be doing right now? Wasting energy or working on the next damned step?”
Dina just snarled, as Beast magic was put into place. It was one of her summons, as she whispered.
"Glutton of dreams, Baku." She said, as she manifested into reality something that did resemble a tapir-like version of Dan, albeit one with grubby hands and a shifty smile.
"Baku, research the gift of dreams that was bestowed unto me. I want to ascertain the potential combat application of such."
Dina did not stop staring at Penny. "Who says I was not working on it already, your majesty?" It was then when she eyed Dan. "Unlike Rachel, I am not willing to take part in this farce. Do not try to coerce me."
"Now where is that birdbr-" It was then when a shadow engulfed the trio, as a certain Valkyrie was now landing next to Dina, a slimy smile plastered all over her face.
"Kitty training." Sanngridr said." An exchange. Runes for Keijo Training?"
Dina set an aside glance. She never knew whether Sann was either too stupid or smart for her own good. "Acceptable. You will be my champion in Keijo. I shall conserve my strength for the aftermath. I trust Odin vouches for your boldness."
Sann said. "Pappy Odin might be joining actually. To dissuade foul play. Brain whispered me."
"Good...wait what?" Dina's anger was broken all of a sudden upon hearing the news. "Does he even know what Keijo is?"
"He knows many things." It was Sann who replied, making Dina grunt in frustration again.
Penny’s flat smile was the only reply that she would give while Dina started working. She remained unmoved when Sann portaled in as well, though her gaze did shift to watch both the Valkyrie and the Regent. The glance Dina gave didn’t go unnoticed, but would remain unremarked upon.
There was a quiet sound of a metal latch being thrown at the proclamation that Sann would be acting in Dina’s stead for the tournament, but other than that Penny maintained her closed off look.
Mention of Odin possibly joining had her turning her attention towards Dan for the first time. “Is that something you are going to allow?” She would ask calmly, the edge to her voice when she had been arguing with Dina absent in her inquiry to the Dolphin. Though it was still flatter than normal and if one looked closely they could see that her teeth were closer to razor blades then normal.
The dolphin shivered as the Deity's name was invoked. "Well, Keijo is a competition strictly between magically gifted girls, not Patrons, especially since this will have official rules and not be a sparring session. However, if Odin decides he wants to compete, I can't really stop him." He seemed to be in thought as he rubbed his chin. "But if enough magical girls reject him, then I'd be able to prevent his application with the magic in your hearts."
Sann left her spot beside the Noble catgirl and then decided it was a better use of her time to caress the little patron’s chin."He isn't interested in the tournament more than a passing fancy, but watching a boring skewed tournament would… displease him." She spoke, her voice suddenly gaining a serious tone. "Come to think of it…" She then leaned on him. "Since you have been a decent host so far, why not ask him to enforce fairness?"
It was Dina who replied, somewhat surprised at the level of realpolitik displayed by what she assumed was a birdbrain. "It's true that Odin is an ominous god, but he seems to be the least involved in the state of affairs present. Might be good to prevent another Rachel flying off the handle."
Dan was surprised by Sann's suggestion. "He would do that? I mean, I figured he'd just want to drink and watch the matches, but sure, I can ask him!" He seemed to have his spirits lifted. "He would make the perfect enforcer. So, I'll be going now. See ya later!" He waved his fin and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Penny returned to her quiet observations after hearing Dan’s answer. It wasn’t a terrible surprise to hear both that Dan wasn’t strong enough to deny the Deity on his own, nor that a rallied force could grant Dan the power to bar the All Father from joining. Still she was much assured to know that she wouldn’t have to contend with a god in a Keijo match. That didn’t mean she trusted him. Nevertheless, there wasn’t anything else to be said on the matter.
There would be another sound of a metal latch being thrown before Penny would move onto the next topic of importance. “Sann mentioned training. Would you mind if I joined in on that?” Penny was also curious how Sann had learned of Dina’s need so quickly, but that could be focused on later.
Dina eyed Penny. “I do not see harm in it but…”
It was then when Sanngridr, true to her mercurial temper, blew a raspberry in Penny’s direction, instead resuming her position at Dina’s back. “Get your own runes teacher, your Highness. That or offer something in return.”
Penny would meet Dia’s eyes once again and raise an eyebrow. Curious to see if Dina would have anything to say in regards to Sann’s interjection.
Dina was staring somewhat horrified at Sann’s lack of manners. She bit her lip and turned her sight to Sann. “That was very rude of you. Apologize.”
Sann eyed Dina and then Penny. “Okay… I’m sorry your Highness Penny. I did not meant to disparage your obvious supreme supremacy, but I mean… I uh, pappy Odin has allowed me into the secrets of Runes, and I was going to bestow them to Dina for Keijo lessons. So uh, onlookers are bad.”
Dina eyed at Sanngridr and sighed. “You can teach me the runes later in private, Sanngridr. While I would appreciate an edge, I must decline it now for the sake of stability.”
“Okay.” Said the Valkyrie, who then proceeded to shift once more and draw awfully close to the space where the Baku was fiddling with the sphere, eyeing it like a bird gazes at a shiny thing.
“I understand not wanting to cross your patron.” Penny would allow with a nod “And I have no desire to draw his ire. I was only asking about Keijo tutelage and if I could join in on that.” She would spare a glance at Sann “Not your Runes” The valkyrie’s condescension went unremarked upon, but there was a reproach in Penny’s look.
“Where would be the best place for this?” She would go on to ask “As we don’t have a lot of time if we want to be able to learn anything from you before the matches start.”
“Skating rink.” Dina would say. “Manage Keijo on Ice, you will manage Keijo on water. Plus neither of you are… fragile.” The catgirl would then go on, but the squeals of Baku, who was now trapped in Sann’s grip, caught her attention.
“Sann, that is not a pet.” She said, like a tired mother. “Nor food. Put my servant down.”
Sann shrugged and let the creature go, but not before said creature handed back the orb and whispered something to Dina’s ear. Her eyes went a little wider than usual, before dismissing the creature with her best poker face.
Penny would not be surprised at Sann’s mercurial nature, but would leave Dina to handle it. The Regent was the one who courted the Valkyrie for the Sanctuary after all. “I take it the prognosis was high” She would say instead. She was watching Dina closely after all, so the widened eyes weren’t hard to notice. Nor was the sudden poker face.
"It can indeed manifest a single dream." Dina would then say, but not elaborate any further. "And dreams make the impossible possible."
She did not elaborate any further, instead eyeing Penny. "Like me being able to summon a dragon, because I had that dream before."
"Oooh I want to play with a dragon, Granny Kitty. " Sann said, a predatorial smile forming.
"Sanngridr, stop it." Dina finally said, her gaze sharp. "You are not fooling me. Odin does not take fools for servants. We are running out of time." Dina said.
"Do I need to tell you that your highness only tolerates you because me?"
Sanngridr stared at Dina, before letting a chuckle. She then straightened herself and performed a bow. "I shall be your Varangian, regent."
"Good."
"But if I may, You might teach us both at the same time. I get to play rough, Her highness gets something, and you keep your strength for eventualities."
Sanngridr then stared at them both. "If you can spare some gold and silver we can aim for even better cards."
A simple nod would all Penny would have to give at the proclamation of a dream made real. Potent, powerful, and all together not something she would spend on a dragon. What dream she would make true if given the opportunity was up in the air though. “You got quite the treasure” She would say to Dina. “I’ll do what I can so that you don’t need to spend it on combat.”
That said Penny would lock eyes with Dina before moving on to crack her own neck, and while the sounds of her neck popping were more metallic than her current appearance would lead one to assume she would let out a relieved breath nonetheless and with such her eyes would dim and the little tells of humanity would filter back in.
“My coins are with the Prime if that is what you are asking about.” Penny would then say turning towards Sann “But if you're talking about their more traditional counterparts, raiding the kitchen ware might still work. What did you have in mind?"
Sann closed the distance between her and Penny, almost touching her."Chooser of the slain. As long as the price is paid, and the conditions are met, death will be lifted from whoever you choose…"
Dina:"You mean… you can revive people??" The regent's composure gave in. Not even patrons could claim that feat easily.
“Okay now that is impressive” Penny would readily admit, for the same reason as Dina. “But thankfully I’ve not lost any allies to the veil so I’m not sure who we could be bringing back.”
Dina was about to reply, when a fourth figure, a short pink-haired girl entered the discussion.
“Naniiii???”
Oh, that crude yaponski...why was his voice so high pit- Oh. When did he become a she? Dina stared back at her, while Sanngridr took notice of the tiny figure to squeeze her between the arms.
“Lil’ piggy.” She said. “Squeals like one.”
“Oi you bird baka! Lemme go! Swiss knife -chan! Neko-baba! Tell this stupid to let me go.”
“Let her go, Sann.” Dina sighed, to which the girl obeyed, before scurrying a few steps back.
“Oi! I heard that right? You can revive people?” She then said.
“Correct. As long as you pay the prize and have a precious item of the loved one...piggy.” Sanngridr flapped her wings.
“Is that so? How costly.”
“Very.”
“Hum, I got all of these coins,will this do?” Sakura then said, offering all of her coins to the strange bird girl.
“Not-”
Dina was then to cut Sanngridr with a glare.
“It is enough, as the regent says. One gold coin.”
“Oh, that’s cheaper than I...okay, that was nice, Neko-sama. I thought you were an insufferable hag, but you hit the popo bitch’s face like nothing. And then put bird baka in her place.” Sakura would then say. “I forgive you for the slap.”
Dina’s eyes were reduced to pinpricks. Even in praise and under a new cute form, this girl was as unlikeable as she would ever be for someone like her.
“Do you have anything in mind, yaponski?”
“See, there’s this warping girl.” Sakura would then produce a small booklet… of advanced physics.
“Is that a German Physics booklet?” Dina would then gasp.
“Sakura, please don’t insult my friends” Penny would chime in upon noticing just who it was that had dropped in on the conversation. “And a Gold is required to revive them, but a Silver or two extra would be appreciated for the service.” She would add nodding towards Sann “Magic like she has is exhausting after all.” She would add, sending a less harsh look to Sann that carried a similar message as the one she had told Sakura.
“I’m assuming the girl is a friend of yours?” She would go on to ask, examining the booklet herself from where she stood.
Sakura would frown upon hearing that from Penny. Freaks were freaks. "Sorta. Comrade in arms. Bit of a mommy's girl. Was killed by Justine. Could teleport like eyepatch-chan."
Sann did look at Penny. "It is. It takes time. And normally I would charge over 10 gold."
Dina. "Do we have enough time to do the Keijo training?"
"I am not sure." Sanngridr would reply.
Sakura would then eye Penny, and then Dina. "All of my coins then".
Sann tilted her head. "Ara? I think we could make it work then. Hand me the book."
Dina would then eye Sakura. "Wasn't Justine your ally ?"
"Bitch was a cunt. And killed my allies. Then I sucker punched her." She then began to walk away. "Now if you will excuse me… I have to get a good seat now that I am a loli again."
“Beacon was always planning on double crossing Justine in the raid.” Penny would explain more as Sakura left. “I don’t know the full details, that operation is above my clearance. And I didn’t want to break into the system and piss off the Ascendency.”
“Guessing that Sakura was one of the third parties that got invited as well. A Puchuu’s squad was contracted out alongside Justine. Guessing she was with them. Both Sakura and the lost girl.” She would shrug, putting the rest of it out of mind for the moment.
“If it’s going to take some time, Dina, you could start the Keijo training with me and we can help get Sann up to speed when she is done. Since I’m assuming a ritual to raise the dead isn’t something we could assist with.”
"We were on opposing sides." Dina pondered. "Yes… we should not dally further." Sanngridr… conduct the ritual."
Soon after he talked with Betty, Finn decided to find Samantha later and just regroup with Oliver. Though now it didn't feel right for him to be near Justine, if his ghostly companion and Maura were still around her group. Was it fear? Disgust? He didn't know. Even once he made it back to the tropical island, Oliver knew something was wrong.
"Finn? Hey, what happened?" The phantom hurried over to check up on him in concern. Not wanting anyone to overhear, Finn had to quietly explain what Betty told him, and what she compared her run-in with Justine to. That made Oliver's eyes widen.
"Shit. Shit, no wonder you're shaken up!" He pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked back to the other boy, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. "She must've been overexaggerating things, was she? Could you tell??" Despite bombarding him with questions, the phantom knew to keep his voice low. Finn shook his head.
"I-I don't know. She seemed to be telling the truth, but it doesn't match up to this Justine! Either she'd deceiving us, or she was corrupted, but to think Maura could've taken in someone who'd possibly go as far as-!!"
"Hey hey hey- Finn, calm down, okay?" Oliver lightly shook him, holding both his shoulders this time. "We don't know the whole story yet, let's not jump to conclusions so quickly. But if you're not feeling well enough to prod further, we can go find somewhere to eat before the tournament starts. Is that okay with you?" He asked Finn.
"Not really that hungry but...sure, let's go."
As the two turned to leave in search of food they would see Penny a short distance out heading in their direction. Her gait was relaxed, as was her overall posture, but it was still easy to tell that she was walking towards them in particular.
"Hey Boy's" She would call out as she got closer. "Hope I'm not intruding" She had seen the distress on the walk up, but was too far away to hear why it was. "I've seen you all over the place, figured I'd introduce myself." And possibly find out why these two had approached so many of her acquaintances and friends.
The two looked over to the approaching Penny. At this rate it was expected someone would notice their running about and decide to say hello to them for once.
"Heh, blame this guy. Man's got a knack for getting to know people." Oliver chuckled, pointing a thumb at Finn who playfully swatted it away. The latter then addressed the cyborg.
"You must be Penny. Before you ask, we've only heard about you recently. More so about a queen and royal court being housed in Penrose. Did see a bunch of yous at the snowball war though, pretty clever use of duplication." Finn smiled, as usual he held a hand out for her to shake. "Finn Vanhorn, and this is Oliver Kyle."
"Penny Asimov" She would greet in return as she shook Finn's hand and nodded to Oliver. She would register the Power of Friendship coming from Finn but not comment on it. "There are still a handful of mes wondering around. Duplication is a fun power so I'm seeing how long I can stretch it out before I lose it completely." She would add with a smirk. "Already lost the ability to make more, now I'm curious to see if there is a time limit on the copies themselves."
"Also, kind of curious what the latest gossip about me is though. Never got used to my reputation proceeding me and picking up the title of Queen has just made it all the worse." She would give a shrug. "Guess it helps promote the Sanctuary though."
"Makes for good multitasking too!" Oliver would point out. "I can be everywhere at once and not have to leave my post! Oh, and it can be great in battle too!" He grinned.
"Ah, no gossip from what we gathered. Just info about what's been going on. We did plan on heading to this Sanctuary sometime after this to help. That is, if you don't mind, Your Highness." Finn explained. Though how Penny described her duplication ability made him curious. "Though, a time limit? Your power is temporary?"
Penny would roll her eyes "That is gossip" She would say with an amused look but she wouldn't push. "And trust me I'm taking full advantage of the multitasking benefit. But yeah, Duplication isn't a native Power of mine. I'm a Copycat though, so If I see someone use their power, I can mimic it. At least for a while." It was a fun way to preview other Powers. Some she would like to have full time, like Duplication, other she was fine only picking up when the opportunity arose, like Third eye.
"And you are always welcome at the Sanctuary. Though I'll warn you that it's going to be moving soon. Where it is now isn't as secure now that so many people know of it. Next location in mind will be safer, even if it is harder to hide."
"That's...actually interesting." Finn said, brows risen. "Kinda like copying the attributes of animals, but with magicals. He'd note, trailing off into thought. At least until Penny explained that the Sanctuary had to be moved. He nodded in understanding.
"Considering who's here against everyone's displeasure, I get it. Maybe you can contact us after that then, if not to help transfer everyone."
"Sure, pretty sure him coming along will makes things much easier as well" She would point at Oliver, since it sounded like he was in possession of natural Duplication. "To say nothing of more PoF's" She would gesture back at Finn.
"I'm going to guess you two are new to Penrose though. Since you mentioned only just hearing about me. What brings you too our corner of insanity?"
"Oh you know, party."
"Patron adopted a faction."
"Ascendancy's causing trouble again."
"Didn't get the memo."
The two would alternate between each other, not bothering to explain further.
"Hmm" Penny would give the two of them a searching look for a moment before she would point at Oliver "Please don't go attacking Beacon, I'd very much not want to fight you." She would shift her finger over to Oliver. "I'm guessing Maura, since she's been in Penrose for a bit, but only recently got the Cradle." She had been keeping an eye on the Cradle's website for a while now. The post about the change in leadership was interesting as well as curious.
"You two with her before she took the up the position of Cradle Matron?"
Oliver comically blinked, mouth agape in a dumb smile. "Hah????"
For a split second, Finn's brows furrowed at the reaction. She was Beacon?? He knew better than to provoke, especially in their current location, and especially when it can erupt into chaos, too much unnecessary casualties. Though she seemed much different than someone like Rachel. This may prove interesting. His expression changed quickly when Penny turned her attention to him. Somehow, she knew who he was referring to.
"Uhm, yes actually! Like I keep having to mention, I was her first magical, and he got resurrected a few years later. But we ourselves knew each other long before all this." Finn explained. It was getting kinda tiring.
Penny would chuckle at the reaction that they both had to her rather blunt declaration of allegiance. "I am a member of local branch of Beacon, and while I've got no love for the Ascendency, I don't think too many people are going to consider the differences when the fighting starts." She was never going to be ashamed of being a member of Beacon. "And yes, I've got the Spark to prove it, even with being a Monstergirl."
"As for Maura, I've never met her" Penny would explain "Only heard of her from Eliza and the Coven that recently arrived. Played a small part in helping lift the curse she had on her though. I knew Veronica, as much as one can say that, from before the Cradle started up. So, I've always kept an eye on the Cradle."
Finn frowned. "That's...to be expected. People tend to generalize who they're against." Though his eyes quickly lit up when Penny mentioned having the spark as a monster girl. "Curious...I know the spark is supposed to be a resistance to corruption. So, you somehow managed to retain your form while being purified, I suspect?" He asked, genuinely intrigued.
Neither of them knew who Eliza was, and the mention of a coven did cause Finn to shiver. It couldn't be Maura's sisters, could it? Though when Veronica was brought up, his expression turned comical next. "You mean the old boss that Betty and the other girl are so enamored with?"
"That's a question everyone is wondering" Penny would reply. "I don't have any real answers just a lot of speculation." She would shrug as it was possible that there would never be a clean answer about how she was able to do the seemingly impossible. "Was a Monstergirl first, but I've never exactly been a normal Monstergirl so that's likely something to do with it."
"Possibly, I've not talked with many of the cradle agents and there is only so much one can learn from lurking on their website." She would say "I was invited to join by Veronica, which I think was a vote of confidence, but there are aspects of the contract I wasn't wanting to deal with. Haven't had a chance to talk to anyone I knew in the cradle since the changeover. Been too busy."
"Interesting..." Finn would utter. Though hearing that Veronica tried to recruit Penny admittedly didn't interest him much. "A shame I couldn't meet this lady before she left though." He shrugged.
"Eh, she kind stuck me as a control freak" Penny would admit, though a lot of that had to do with the stipulations of the Cradle contract. "Doubt you're missing much."
"So, who all have you met so far?" Penny would ask, she had seen them talking with some people, but doubted she had seen everyone. "And are you hungry? I know where the food stall is, assuming Dan hasn't changed the island too much."
"Betty, got introduced to Hilaria and blue Justine, Dina and Sanngridr, Lily, Alex, purple Justine..." Finn would list off.
Though at the mention of a food stall, Oliver spoke up. "We were just going to go look for one! Lead the way then!"
"Dina and Sann are likely where you heard the most about me" Penny would state as she turned to lead the way to the food hut. "Never been properly introduced to Hilaria, and her friend is new. So, I'm guessing she's likely a result of the game the Horror was playing earlier."
"Lily and Alex are good people, and I'm always disappointed I've not been able to spend more time with them." She would admit pondering if she should send a counterfeit their way while she still had the chance. "Also never had a chance to talk with Justine, but she's a very different person from the last time I saw her. I've got part of an idea about how that happened but not sure she'd be happy to talk to me in the first place."
The food hut wasn't a far walk, as it was in plaza square. It was, unsurprisingly, offering a host of summer and beach themed food.
Oliver looked around. "Hmm...don't think we can get like, steak or something... Hey Finn, what are you in the mood for?" He turned to ask the other boy.
"Well, we could go for popsicles. Is that okay, Penn?"
"Hmm, I'll just order some kabab skewers." Penny would say turning to watch the reactions. "Not much else on the menu that I'd prefer to eat."
"'Aight then, I'll go get our popsicles!" Oliver smiled, stepping away to get the duo their snacks.
Shrugging off the nonreaction, figuring that they hadn't quite realized what it was that Penny had meant. She would turn towards Finn "So what can you tell me about Maura? If you don't mind the asking"
"Oh. Well, Maura's a witch, that used to be part of a coven that helped with...basically preventing a power vacuum. Preserving the balance, at least the important ones I think, of the world. Their world? Dunno where they came from to be honest. But Maura's role was the Witch of Death, essentially what most people see as the grim reaper among other representations." Finn began to explain.
"Witches in general are, as far as I know, ancestors of magical girls. Masters of all magic specializations, yet they limit themselves to the usual three to preserve mana. Stuff like the Salem Witch Trials caused them to go into hiding, and go through great lengths to achieve immortality. Anyways, I used to be a researcher, an investigator who already had an eye for the paranormal. But I never expected to meet someone like her, near my own death no less." He crossed his arms. "She didn't want me to die. So, she used a bit of her magic to turn me into, well, you get the idea."
"Sounds like you've been around for a long time then" Penny would say as she moved over to one of the nearby tables. "I'm barely past a year myself, but Penrose walks to its own time scale so I'm not sure how valid that is as a measurement."
"Still with four witches landing in Penrose can't help but get the feeling that something is brewing on the horizon." She'd let out a sigh before shrugging it off. She was pretty sure that that Maura was the missing sister that the Coven was looking for, but she didn't know either group well enough to want to approach them about that at the moment.
"So that tells me a bit about you, your patron, and while it can be rude what would you be willing to tell me about Oliver?"
He sat down by Penny. "Oliver's my best friend, long before we became magical boys. We worked together once, but he died some years ago before I met Maura. At some point, an arachnid Monster King got whipped into a violent frenzy and tried to destroy everyone and everything in the area. When we were having trouble putting him down, Maura and I went to resurrect Oliver. It was successful, but not only did the effort to do so make him a monster boy, she had to be out of commission to regain her strength. The two of us stuck by each other since."
"Sounds like quite the event" She would say, having fought a Monster King on her own she understood the difficulty that could be involved with one. "Glad to know that you've both got someone to watch your back though."
"Got any question for me?" She would rest her elbows on the table as she asked "I've been in Penrose since just before everything started going crazy."
Finn shrugged. "Not exactly. Any questions I have about your ability to defy the impossible can be saved for another time. ...Though, I do have to ask one thing." His brows then furrowed, him looking Penny dead in the eye.
"How bad is it, out there?"
"Depends on how you define bad" Penny would answer "It's getting better, people are moving back to the city and life is returning. The problem is that everything is still on edge. The Ascendency is actively looking for a reason to purge the place, The Mint keeps trying to stir up trouble and neither the Cradle nor the Sanctuary are old enough to have any real weight in keeping things calm. And none of that is taking into consideration the fact that Horrors like to use Penrose as their playground."
"So, it could easily settle down but it could also just as easily become all-out war."
"...Hm." In that moment, Finn's demeanor changed. He crossed his arms in irritance. His indifference, one stemmed from anger. "So in a way, all this was the result of incompetence? A ticking time bomb, before someone like the fucking Mint bring about another cheap trick in their sleeve to, what, destroy the place?" Despite his annoyance, he remained calm.
Though his eye did appear to be a shade of red for a split second.
"Actually, it's mostly Dan's fault" Penny would point out unconcerned by the shift in Finn's demeanor. "He hijacked a Wish and kidnapped seventy percent of the magicals from Penrose for about three months."
"Don't you think I already know that?" Finn would point out tiredly.
"I've no idea what it is you do or don't know." She would continue on easily "And no one that I've talked to have much of an idea what the Mint is up too. Self-sabotage has been just as common as actual debilitations towards others."
"Could be they are just using this place as an excuse to draw Beacon attention away from something else. Could be they actually have a plan, could be that the guy in charge is in fact incompetent." She would state "Whatever the case is, it wasn't incompetence that brought Penrose to this state. It was a chaotic helping of bad luck. Something that is in large supply in Penrose."
"Just try and keep that in mind while working towards anything in the City, chaos is king."
Finn allowed his arms to rest on the table. After Penny said her piece, he'd sit there for a moment, before gracefully faceplanting against the surface. One could hear him mumbling several profanities to himself. What has he got himself into?
It wasn't until Oliver returned and poked him with the popsicle the phantom got for him that he lifted his head up again. "Thanks." He nodded to him, grabbing the snack.
Penny was unmerciful in her chuckling at him. "Welcome to Penrose." She would say before leaving him to his grumblings.
She'd stand up when Oliver returned. "Back in a sec" She'd state before heading off to get her own snack.
"'Kaaay." Oliver replied, sitting down next to Finn. "...Wait, does she even need food?"
"NOW YOU SAY SOMETHING???" Finn would ask back, raising his voice just a tiny bit.
"I thought she might've been able to turn food into energy or something! I don't know! I'm dead!!" Oliver bickered back, earning a raspberry from Finn in response. "Whatever, how's it going with you and Penny?"
"We really do need to step in with this place. Any attempts to better things can be hijacked back into a vicious cycle."
"Right. Say, you didn't tell her about...?"
Finn quickly shook his head. "Oh, god no. I know better than to disclose that."
Oliver faintly smiled. "Gotta keep both of us alive. I'm surprised you almost got angry for a moment."
"It's the cycle, I tell you! We've gotta do something before it spreads out of the city like Armageddon!" Finn huffed. "Anyways, I'm surprised they haven't caught onto us yet..."
True to her statement Penny returned rather quickly carrying a plate of metal kabab skewers devoid of kabab. And if she heard anything she wasn't showing it. "So" She would start picking up one of the skewers and biting it in half. "What's your take on the tourney that sprung up?" she would ask even as she didn't open her mouth or stop from chewing.
"Again, all that for a cursed house decoration?" Finn would be the only one to speak up. Oliver simply took a bite of his frozen treat.
"And possibly the Beach" She'd gesture around them to indicate the dimension. "I wouldn't mind winning the Mirror, depriving a Horror of its artifacts is never a bad outcome. But mainly I'm wanting to keep the Beach from being demolished. Dan helped me out in a similar situation after all."
"I still don't think that woman could destroy a whole dimension by herself. Unless Dan just gives her all his powers for some reason." Finn shook his head.
"Not alone" Penny would agree "But Dan's not exactly the brightest bulb, and rumor has it that the Ascendency has some potent tools stashed away." She would explain. "That and Rachel is driven enough to do it by hand if she needs to."
"Even if she wins, I won't let her."
Penny would huff a laugh and would raise a skewer in toast. "Glad to hear I won't be alone in that"
While Elroy claimed to have not been dead this whole time, Alicia was not sure how much she believed that. Still, that was one issue where she didn't much feel like arguing about it either, so she pushed past that for now. There were plenty of other things to spend her energy on.
Instead, she shot him a skeptical look. "Regina may have been purified but we were not friends. Before she left anyway." He might have thought that she was being grouchy, but to some extent this was a reasonable reaction when the last she'd heard of him involved helping that Horror in trying to destroy the world. and they'd never been particularly friendly before that either.
After a moment she shrugged. "Still, good luck in the upcoming tournament." She glanced over to Rachel, and then considered who else would likely be competing this time around. "You'll probably need it."
“Banana coins it is then!” Dan answered as he came back, as if he had never left magical disc jockey’s side, and shook her hand with his surprisingly adhesive fin. He rolled his eyes as Oros fooled around with the soap, having decided to ignore her for now and focus on his new co-commentator. “Welcome aboard! We’ve got commentator seats and equipment ready at the arena, but I can also help you set up any equipment you might want to use for the matches. Just make sure not to be late, ok?” Before Paca could answer, he once again teleported away; she had a feeling this was common for the whimsical dolphin to do.
FanFan’s eyebrow raised as she received the ticket, which has turned into an origami. “I wasn’t-!” She protested, but Oros drowned her words with her own, and quickly disappeared, leaving her to puff her cheeks. “I hope this won’t start a nasty rumor,” she mumbled, and unfolded the ticket to take a better look at it. Just as Oros said, the ticket’s description promised a memorable night with a person on their choosing. She placed it in her pocket, and smiled warmly, heading off to follow her boss. “Yep, this will do it. Just you wait, Leena...”
After some time has passed, the dolphin spoke again on the megaphone, and this time had it connected to loudspeakers that reached other islands as well.
“Ladies and gentlemen! I would now like to announce the start of the Kejio Tournament! Please direct your attention to the nearest broadcast screen!”
At that moment, the screen flickered on, and a chart appeared, listing the matchups for the tournament.
“Participants, for now you may prepare. But once you are ready, please make your way to the arena for your match,” Dan continued. “If you’re first to arrive, I will contact your opponent and let them know it’s time to rumble!”
Sally put a finger to her chin, amused by the chart. "Well isn't this interesting..." Goblina managed to wake up from her drunken stupor, and also check out the announcement. "Whoa...Queen's gonna be madd..."
Soon, Kimble had rushed back to the feast hall upon hearing the news.
”Wait, who’s Betty?” As eyes drifted to the girl with the queried name, Kimble quickly walked up to her, a cocky smile on her lips as she put her hands to her hips. ”So you’re Betty, right? Well, no matter who my opponent is, I won’t let them stand in my way of beating Justine! And that includes you!” She pointed her finger at her confidently. ”So prepare yourself, for I will kick your butt! Well, not literally kick it, but you know what I mean!”
In the Beacon practice room, Rachel adjusted her glasses as she examined the chart. "Hmm...Mariette seems to be invested in this outcome. And as I thought, Penny is in..." She gave a mocking laugh. "Still, it doesn't matter who gets to the end...I will be prepared." She noticed how Kimble left in a rush, and threw her arm in Alicia's direction. "Thank you for your aid, Alicia. I will now take it from here, so you may go and observe the matches if you wish." She then turned back to focus on sparring with Violette, who was swiftly knocked into the water. "Paladin Seraph! "FanFan had approached Alicia. "If you are to spectate the matches, may I accompany you? I wish to see how this supposed sport will play out."
Can this be called an intermission? Hecc if I know at this point.
Seems after the tournament was announced, everyone went back into work mode. Amanda did concider entering the tournament, but what could her dream magic do? She wasn't really built for physical fighting, as per her gift giving her some extra help with that. Even now she idly twirled the dagger in her hand. With a bored huff, she glance to Valerie.
"Val?"
"Hm?"
"I'm bored."
Valerie looked back with a risen brow. "Why don't you go find MDP?"
"She's on a date with Penny." The magician shrugged. Both Valerie's eyebrows rose. Penny had a girlfriend?
"Eliza?"
"I don't think she wants to be bothered right now. Besides," Amanda motioned to the mentioned witch. "Girl's got a growth spurt to get used to."
"Oh damn. What about Cerise- Er, Other Cerise?"
"Saw her leave with Tetrad. Can't blame them."
"Maribel? And those other ladies?"
"They're kinda scattered now, it'd take too long to find them.
At this rate Valerie was flabbergasted. "Maura?? Connie and Mia?? ANYONE???"
Amanda was about to say something about volume control when it dawned on her. "Actually, I don't think Connie and Mia are doing anything right now. Come on, let's go look for them!"
"Finally!!" The two got up from their seats, prepared to head out. But before they could, Amanda felt an unwanted presence rest on her hip. She didn't even need to look to know who it is.
"Hey Amanda, is everything o- ....Well shit." Valerie turned around to check up on Amanda, only to catch a glimpse of the magician's current expression. It was enough to convince her not to intervene.
After Oros was done talking, Amanda ever so slowly turned her head towards her. A murderous glare, a warning in itself.
"I will give you 'till the count of 10 to get your goddamn ass off me, and out of my sight, or I will be throwing it to the next fucking island. You hear me loud and clear, you little shit?" Amanda's voice was but a whisper, loud enough for Oros alone to hear it, but it still seethed with rage. She began counting. "1...2....3..."
