Interactions: Sloane @Atrophy, Trevor @Punished GN, Jack (Text) @Blizz The Bar that Ruins Hopes and Dreams, The Halloween Festival
Well, I guess I'll stick with you, even though my heart, soul -and other parts- belong to your friend! I'm a superhero, y'know, and I could not live with myself if something happened to her.
Anya felt like she was going to throw up. She didn't want any of that. She'd rather Trevor took it all and kept it far, far away from her… when she'd agreed to one date to get information she hadn't expected this. He was talking as if they were anything, which they certainly were not and never would be. The suggestion that she needed him specifically to survive was laughable.
Also, did he really think Sloane was interested in him? That that was why she asked him to stay? That anyone would be actually interested? His ability to see things that weren't there was so strong that perhaps it was an abstraction itself.
Maybe she should finally do what her parents suggested, and find a rich husband (preferably one happy to have a loveless marriage) to scare Trevor away.
Anya shuddered, torrential downpour soaking her through in moments. The insects she’d so painstakingly painted on her face were nothing more than black lines down her cheeks. She was thankfully she’d braided her hair - it looked slightly less bedraggled after being soaked through. It was cold, and she automatically moved a bit closer to Sloane too… While looking at Trevor with the polite smile that had never quite left her lips.
”While there may be a killer on the loose, I'm not so helpless that I wouldn't be able to walk over to there,” Anya pointed to the visible bar, where Bianca seemed to be chatting up the lady serving her rather than getting drinks, ”without getting stabbed. Thank you for your concern, Mr ‘Superhero’, but if anything I'm more at risk every night when I'm at home alone than I would be walking out of your sight.”
Something she very much wished to do. And maybe if Father Wolf appeared and stabbed her, it wouldn't be so bad. At least she wouldn't have to suffer through more Trevor reenactments of what he did to people, or what was maybe a joke or maybe serious about being bulletproof. She couldn’t tell. It certainly didn’t make her laugh. It did make her consider murdering him, but she pushed that thought aside. Too risky.
Anya gratefully took the drink from Cindy, and took a sip. It was pleasant. She put it down on the table in front of her and considered how to proceed. They could leave, but she had a feeling Trevor would follow them. She could make awkward small talk until there was a reason to leave… Perhaps the rain was enough. But what was to stop him following them to ‘protect her’. Anya reached for the pineapple margarita, something she desperately needed, only to find it wasn’t there.
Sloane had stolen her drink again.
For the first time in a while, Anya got genuinely annoyed with her friend. Sloane was so drunk that she could stop drinking now and would barely register what was happening, but Anya was about as sober as can be. If anyone needed that drink to survive this situation, it was her. So much for friendship. Of course, this seething didn’t reach the surface, Anya’s expression was still perfectly amicable.
“Anya! We need to…urk…”
”We need to what?” Anya asked patiently, watching as Sloane jumped up and almost fell without commenting on it. The slight entertainment she got from that was enough to wash away the annoyance at Sloane drinking nearly half of her drink.
Though what followed was a near tragedy of Sloane seeming to come to the point while almost knocking everything off the table. With a speed Anya didn't know she had, she moved all of the glasses out of Sloane's reach.
”Jack can teleport, he's safer than most of us,” Anya said evenly, lightly patting Sloane's shoulder in what was meant to be a comforting gesture. She suddenly felt like she had a child, a fully grown drunken one, and found herself hoping Bianca would be back with their drinks soon. She was perhaps the lesser of these three evils. At least, she was the one Anya could handle easiest.
Sloane wasn't letting up about Jack, to the point that she was kicking Trevor under the table like a petulant child annoyed at their sibling. Not that he didn't deserve it. But how would Trevor know who Jack was? If there was someone he wasn't able to trace it was Jack, with his ancient iPhone that had been to the void and back.
”I'll message him,” Anya said placatingly, pulling out her phone. She considered apologising to Trevor, but decided against it. What Sloane while drunk was doing was around the same level as everything that ever came out of his mouth.
With great difficulty thanks to the rain, Anya sent Jack a text. To Jack: Where are you? Sloane's worried Father Wolf got you. She's very drunk. To Jack: We’ve been ambushed by Trevor. Help would be appreciated.
”There, done,” Anya said to Sloane, hoping she’d put her head back down on the table and maybe take a nap. Though there was the question of getting her home if she didn’t sober up… that could be tackled later. ”I’m sure he’s fine. I'll let you know as soon as he replies, alright, Sloane?”
While waiting for Jack’s response, she might as well attempt some further information gathering. She turned back to Trevor with a diplomatic smile. ”Your boss and her… friend talked like they were close with Emily G. Reed and Vashti Nour. I know they helped with your… previous leader. Have you been working together since then?”
Anya redo 3.0 except I changed her fourth lux type with permission
@Punished GN Most of the new stuff is under the living dream with a few other adjustments. I think the current weaknesses can / should stay since they're mostly for dream weaving, and you can give me some more for the new summoning stuff?
Paranormal-Abilities ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "How naive to think you’re safe from your dreams."
ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Anya’s main speciality comes with the ability to manipulate dreams. She sees dreams as a way into someone’s soul - to find out information they wouldn’t otherwise divulge, to manipulate their opinions and to ultimately control them. It took her a while to come to this conclusion, and discover her affinity.
Dream Weaving ⫻ Anya's main spell discipline, Dream Weaving is the art of entering and manipulating dreams. It's a unique combination of Anya's purple and pink lux, allowing her to physically enter dreams. She essentially teleports into the dream. The target must be asleep and dreaming for her to enter their dream world.
Dream Visit ⫻ The primary spell to Anya's Dream Weaving discipline, allowing Anya to enter a specific person's dream. This hinges on two conditions. First, the person must be asleep and dreaming. Second, she must have met them before. Once these conditions are met she can enter someone's dream. This takes both time and concentration, and she then teleports into their dream world - her physical body is in there, so her body isn't left behind. Entering a specific dream takes a lot of energy, so she can generally only visit two before she need to rest (either a minimum four hour sleep, or ten hours outside of the dream world). She can exit the dream at will, either to her previous physical location (where she entered the dream) or to another dream.
Dream Walking ⫻ A more dangerous variety of Dream Entry, where Anya can walk through the dreams of anyone. It’s much like walking down a dark path - she doesn’t know where she’ll end up, and can only pick a direction. She can move from dream to dream like this, not being limited in the number she goes to as it doesn't take as much energy as entering a specific dream, but it's risky. It's much easier for her to get trapped doing this or to walk into a dangerous dream and get hurt. She can exit this in the same way she does dream entry.
Dream Manipulation ⫻ Anya's primary and strongest spell, this allows her to change the dream she's currently in. It's possible for her to change any element of the dream. She can shift the dream to an entirely new location, or bring in a specific "person" (a dream version). She can manipulate the narrative of the dream, change the events going on. Each change takes time, and the amount of time is dependent on how large the change is. She can only change one aspect at a time - she can't change the environment while also removing the presence of something. She needs to layer them change by change, with each one taking energy and time. It's easier to manipulate a dream to something similar to what it already is. However, she's very adept at this spell and it's one of her best. She's been working on it for ten years to get faster and more efficient at manipulating it, to the point she can fully change a dream during the hours she's in it.
Dream Interaction ⫻ A passive spell that comes by virtue of Anya physically being within a dream, rather than accessing it with just pink lux. Anya can physically interact with the dream and the dreamer, just as it can interact back with her. This means she can move things in the dream, interact as if they were real ect. She can talk to and interact with the dreamer. But it also means that if anything in the dream hurts Anya, it's hurting her physical body. If she dies in the dream she's properly dead.
Dream Damage ⫻ A more advanced version of Dream Interaction, which allows Anya to interact with and damage the dreamers physical form through hurting them in her dreams. Any wound she inflicts on the dreamer will appear on their body. With active concentration, this will be damage caused by her or anything she holds. With more concentration and energy she can allow the dream itself to interact and damage the dreamer. In the case of the blind, it would be possible for the dream to kill them. She has never tried this before.
Subliminal Messaging ⫻ Based on pink lux knowledge Greyson Devola passed on to her, this is essentially Anya's version of dream 'More Than a Feeling.' This is unaffected by emotional fields, as she's already essentially infiltrated. This works by leaving subtle suggestions via the dreams, directly influencing the dreamer to wake up feeling inclined to follow the suggestion. These are typically simple messages, pushing people to return to her shop and purchase more of her wares. Or for them to wake up feeling content. Given enough time, she can paint much more intricate subliminal messages through the dream imagery in combination with her dream manipulation. This is quite energy and time consuming, compared to more simple suggestions. This is heavily based on the dreams themselves, and how likely the target is to follow through on a suggestion - as dreams often reflect their moods, and anything to jarringly different won't be followed.
Dream Exit ⫻ A spell that Anya is currently working on, but hasn't made any progress on. The aim is for it to allow her to exit the dream at the location of the dreamer, rather than from where she entered which is the 'default'. She wants to be able to choose which of the two to exit from. So far her attempts have been unsuccessful.
Dream Companion ⫻ Another spell Anya is working on, which would allow her to bring another person or physical object into a dream with her. Right now she is practicing with objects. She's been able to bring up to something as big as a tennis ball, but nothing larger. She tried a teddy bear recently, and the results weren't pretty.
Dream Boost ⫻ The third spell of her dream weaving Anya is working on, born from her own selfishness. She wants to be able to boost her own abstraction using the dream itself. This would essentially allow her to drain part of the dream to strengthen herself, thus allowing her to be more powerful within the dream itself and be able to manipulate it better. She is yet to succeed at any attempts of this spell.
Dream Inducement ⫻ This spell that Anya can use in the waking world to induce dreams in someone, rather than waiting for it to happen naturally. Anya either has to touch the person to induce dreams, or have something “anchoring her to them”. Specifically, they must have an object with a specific dreamer locator spell on it. When Anya induces a dream she can choose the general type of the dream - whether it's a good dream, or a nightmare. She can’t choose anything beyond that, it's otherwise the same as a normal, natural dream.
Dream Devices ⫻ Anya's second discipline, focusing primarily on using her orange lux to infuse objects with the aid of her other lux to enhance her dream weaving use, along with objects to manipulate dreams in her place.
Dream Inducer ⫻ A spell to infuse a small object with a dream inducer spell. This induces dreams in someone when they're asleep but not dreaming. This object needs to be close to them, at least within a metre. For example, put on a bedside table. Its useless if its too far away. This infusion lasts for approximately a week.
Nightmare Ward ⫻ Anya infuses a small object with a weak nightmare ward spell. If kept close enough this will reduce the number of nightmares someone has. Like the dream locator, it must be placed within a metre of the user. It only reduces nightmares. It doesn't keep away other bad dreams, such as stress dreams, nor does it guarantee good dreams.
Nightmare Inducer ⫻ The opposite of Nightmare Ward, Anya infuses a small object with a spell that increases the number of nightmares someone has. It has a slightly larger range, just having to be in the same room as someone (unless it's a really big room).
Dream Encapsulation ⫻ The main spell that Anya is working on, which would allow her to store a specific dream within an object. It is essentially her dream manipulation spell infused into an object, with specific dream "settings" chosen upon infusion. At the moment, she can infuse a tiny dream influence into an object - something like a plant appearing. The aim is for her to have three different types of Dream Encapsulation infusions, as follows:
Generic Dreams ⫻ The simplest type, which she is currently working towards. This would allow her to create objects with a basic dream stored in them. This object would then influence the dreams of a nearby dreamer, like Anya would within their dreams, to turn it into the stored dream. This would be generic scenarios without any person specifics - such as a nice picnic in a field, going to a beach, or a space adventure.
Specialised Dreams ⫻ A more complicated type, this infusion would include more complicated and tailor made dreams. This would include elements that only a specific person could have in their dream - people they know, for example. It could also be an incredibly specific scenario: for example, going on a date with a specific person at their favourite restaurant, with the music from a specific band playing. She hasn't made any progress on this part.
Variable Dreams ⫻ The most complicated type, combining white lux with the dream manipulation infusion. This would allow her to infuse a stone with a variable dream manipulation spell, with pink lux reading the users mind to tell what they want to dream about and then manipulating their dreams to follow their wishes that night. This is her ultimate aim, so that she no longer has to manipulate every dream herself. Currently she's very far away from making it happen.
Dual-Teleporter ⫻: Another spell Anya has been working on, but has no success with. It's technically unrelated to dreams but will allow her to return to a specific location after using dream exit to step out at a dreamer's location. The aim is to infuse two objects, with one acting as a location and the other an entry point. She would then use the entry point, on her person, to teleport to the location object. This would allow her to use basic teleportation where she otherwise can't. So far, she's been unsuccessful with it.
A Living Dream ⫻ Anya's third and final discipline, she has primarily focused her efforts on developing this over the last ten years. It taps into the gold lux she was unable to use during the battle against the Stygian Snake, much to her frustration. Her first success with a summoning spell was eight years ago. This discipline allows Anya to create creatures from her own dreams, nightmares she visited or a target's dream in the waking world.
Dream Creation Control ⫻ A key spell to Anya's living dreams, using her gold lux with a small amount of pink lux to allow Anya to fully control and manipulate her creations. She can give them commands telepathically, and they will follow them to the best of their ability. She can give any kind of command, but the creation won't neccesarily be able to follow them.
"Your Worst Nightmare Brought To Life" ⫻ Anya's primary summoning spell, she can create a creature from or based off one of the last two nightmares she visited. It's easiest to directly create something that was in the nightmare, such as creating a werewolf that she saw in the last nightmare she visited. She can form more abstract nightmares into a living nightmare - such as a nightmare about fire, allowing her to create some kind of monster made of fire. This takes more effort and concentration compared to directly creating what already existed. Anya can only summon one living nightmare, but is relatively unlimited by size. The larger it is the more difficult the spell is to cast and the longer it will take. A small to medium sized living nightmare would take a minute, and larger could take up to five. These living nightmares are completely solid, able to interact with the real world and fight like a creature of that type would. However they're also limited by the real world and have no emotional fields. Technically Anya could manipulate nightmares to include creatures she wanted to summon, but nightmares are incredibly dangerous environments for her and the risk would generally be too high.
"My Dreams Are Reality" ⫻ Anya's secondary summoning spell, which is both more potent and limited. It allows her to create something from her last dream. Now, Anya can easily manipulate her own dreams (within reason) just as she would anyone else's. She can manipulate her dreams to include a dream creature that she know's she'll need, and then summoning it when awake. However she can only summon from her own dream for up to two hours after waking up. This severely limits her, to the point that she can rarely use the spell efficiently. She can summon one large creature from her dreams, or multiple smaller ones - which is often her main use to help her tidy up her shop in the morning. Otherwise, it works like her living nightmare spell.
"Show Me Your Dreams" ⫻ A spell that Anya is still working on, this allows her to create a living dream directly from a target's last dream. This uses her pink lux to read the target's last dream from their mind, and then create something based off of that. She has to be able to see whoever she's targetting however emotional fields don't block it, as she's barely intruding. At the moment she can only use this to create a small minion, and she can't choose what it will be - it's completely random based off the dream.
From the time of her kindling event at age ten, until she went through her rebellious phase at sixteen and subsequently joined the coven, Anya primarily learned spells from her older siblings and parents - struggling to create her own. She has lower affinity for most of these spells, and basically doesn’t use them anymore due to them being weaker and having more limits.
Illusion Creation ⫻ A spell that would allow the caster to create a full illusion, Anya can only create a tiny and very subtle illusion. For example, the sound of something falling, or the illusion of a fly. She learned this from Nisha.
Portal Creation ⫻ Learnt from her mum, Anya can created a portal to somewhere else. To where, you ask? Well, Anya doesn’t know until she steps through the portal.
Telekinesis ⫻ Learnt from Kiran, Anya has a very rudimentary telekinesis spell. She can use telekinesis on an object up to 20g of weight.
Sharpen Object ⫻ A very basic version of a spell her dad could use, Anya can make an object sharper. The object has to already be sharp, though, or it doesn’t do much.
LIMITS ⫻
Dream Weaving ⫻ There are some general limits to Anya's dream weaving spells. She can only be in any dreams that aren't her own for five hours, and one specific dream for up to three hours. To enter a dream, the target must be asleep and dreaming. If they wake up she's forcefully teleported out. Since Anya is physically in a dream, she can be hurt by it. She could be hurt enough to get killed. While Emotional-Field’s generally don’t affect her spells (being non offensive in nature), Paranormals can sense something’s off with their dream. It's possible for them to even notice her presence, realise she’s not part of the dream or actively seek her out in their dream.
Dream Visit ⫻ Anya needs to have met whoever's dream she's entering. She can only enter two in a night before she needs four hours minimum of sleep, or ten hours outside of dreams.
Dream Walking ⫻ Anya can enter about ten dreams during dream walking, before she needs four hours minimum of sleep, or ten hours outside of dreams. Anya can't choose where she's going, only the direction she's walking in. The dreams she walks into are completely random, and she could walk into a dangerous situation.
Dream Manipulation ⫻ Dream manipulation takes time and energy. The bigger a change, the longer it will take. Adding in a new element will take seconds for something small, to minutes for something large. Bringing in a dream person could take up to ten minutes. Changing the entire dream, such as a peaceful dream to a warzone, would take an hour or two in total for all the elements to be changed. There's a risk of "overloading" the dream if she adds too many conflicting elements, which could rebound and hurt her. The dream doesn't pause during the manipulation. Changes also take energy, and the larger changes she makes the more likely she is to exhaust herself and have to leave a dream early.
Dream Interaction ⫻ Anya is physically limited by how she can interact with a dream. She can't interact with something that's outside of her reach. She can't do anything she couldn't do in the real world if she's not using her dream manipulation spell.
Dream Damage ⫻ Using this spell is incredibly taxing on Anya. Hurting someone through a dream is difficult, and will exhaust her enough that she'll likely have to leave the dream immediately afterwards. It requires complete concentration. Emotional-fields protect against it, she can't just kill someone with them in their dream.
Subliminal Messaging ⫻ Anya can only leave one subliminal message, and it can't be anything too complicated. If the suggestion conflicts with what the person would normally do or their personality, it's likely it won't be followed through. Something jarringly different from the rest of the dream will also be ignored. These suggestions or emotion changes need to be done through dream imagery, which can be time consuming for anything more complicated.
Dream Companion ⫻ Currently, Anya can't bring anything bigger than a tennis ball and she hasn't tried it with anything sentient. It's more exhausting to bring something into a dream with her.
Dream Boost ⫻ The boost will directly correlate to the amount Anya drains from a dream, and eventually she will run out of elements to take. It takes time to draw the energy from them. At the moment, she can't use this spell.
Dream Devices ⫻ Anya can currently infuse about five a day of her first three dream objects. The rest she can't properly do yet, but will be slower when she can.
Dream Inducer ⫻ This infusion last approximately a week. The object needs to be within a metre of the person for it to work.
Nightmare Ward & Nightmare Inducer ⫻ The object needs to be kept within two metres to be effective. The infusion only lasts for two weeks. It only increases or decreases nightmares, it doesn't guarantee a major change in dreams.
Dream Encapsulation ⫻ Anya currently can't really use this spell, and it takes a lot of energy to use. She can only infuse an object so that it makes very minor, near neglible, manipulations to dreams. It needs to be within a metre to be effective.
Dream Exit ⫻ Currently can't use this spell.
A Living Dream ⫻ There are a few general limits to her living dreams. She can only have only have a living dream summon from one dream - so if she creates from her own dream and then wants to do something from a nightmare, she must dispell the one from her dream. Her creations only last for up to thirty minutes, but anything past fifteen starts to physically drain her to the point she could pass out. The larger her living dream the more energy she will have to use to create it, and control it. She has to be able to see her creation to be able to control it. Her creations don't have emotional fields, making them weak to magical attacks. They can be killed / destroyed just like a human could, though they might be stronger or more durable depending on what they are.
"Your Worst Nightmare Brought To Life" ⫻ Anya can only create one living nightmare. A small one, about half her size, would take a minute to create. One of her size a couple of minutes, and anything larger up to five. While these living nightmares generally recognise their creator and won't hurt her even if she isn't controlling them, that isn't guaranteed. The larger, the more unstable. Abstract nightmares made into creatures double the time taken and use more energy, compared to a direct creation.
"My Dreams Are Reality" ⫻ This can only be used within two hours of her dream, making it severely limited. She can create multiple small, identical creatures, or one larger one. She can only use this once, before she needs to sleep and dream again. It takes about two minutes to cast.
"Show Me Your Dreams" ⫻ This spell is quite limited at the moment. She can only create a small minion based on the dream she read, and doesn't choose what it is from the dream - instead it's relatively random. She has to see the person she's reading a dream of. It's quite a risky spell as she doesn't really know what she'll get until it exists.
Anya is pretty shit at most of these spells to the point they are practically useless.
Illusion Creation ⫻ She can only create really small illusions, three times a day, which last for up to five minutes.
Portal Creation ⫻ Anya can’t choose the location of the exit portal. It’s two ways, but only lasts for five minutes. She can only do it once a day.
Telekinesis ⫻ Anya can only levitate an object of up to 20g of weight. It's blocked by emotional fields, but she couldn’t use it on any person anyway.
Sharpen Object ⫻ A non sharp object won’t be affected by this spell. It can only make objects such as knives cut a bit better. Emotional fields completely block it, so she can’t sharpen a table knife and then kill a paranormal with it.
WEAKNESSES ⫻
Attempting to exert excessive control or make too many changes within a dream could destabilize the dream environment. Anya's manipulation may introduce conflicting elements or disrupt the natural flow of the dream, leading to instability within the dream realm and possibly collapse - ending the dream then and there and forcing her back to the real world. Anya's attempts to manipulate dreams may provoke resistance or backlash from the dreamer's subconscious. If the dreamer's subconscious rejects Anya's alterations or perceives her presence as a threat, hostile anomalies within the dream could manifest and force her out of it. Overloading the dream environment with excessive changes or manipulations can lead to unintended consequences or unforeseen outcomes. Anya's alterations may also create unexpected scenarios that escalate out of control, leading to the collapse of a dream. The more Anya interacts with nightmares, the greater the risk of succumbing to their malevolent influences. Prolonged exposure to nightmares can corrupt her thoughts, emotions, and perceptions, blurring the line between reality and illusion. She may struggle to distinguish between dreams and waking life, experiencing hallucinations or delusions that threaten her grasp of reality. If Anya is injured in a dream, the injuries transfer to the real world, and if she is killed in someone's dreams, then she dies in real life.
Also, there is a chance that Anya may randomly enter the Dreams of the dreaded Trevor Obott. The more dreams Anya enters a night, the more likely she'll accidentally enter his dreams. Even if Shimmer's Trevor is dead, due to magic bullshit I won't explain; she'll just enter the dreams of an alternate Trevor. And every one of them is just as terrible as Shimmer's Trevor.
Interactions: Sloane @Atrophy, Trevor / Meifeng @Punished GN The Bar that Ruins Hopes and Dreams, The Halloween Festival
”Two nights ago-” Anya started under the gaze of her captivated audience, ready to jump into the interesting details of a dream she’d wandered into, when she was rudely interrupted by the last person she wanted to hear from again.
Like a mechanical doll, her head jerked around in three sharp motions, creaking practically audible. For a moment she wondered if it was possible to drown in a cup of alcohol. Or perhaps if she fell the right way, she would break her spine. No. Her will to survive was strong enough to withstand this. She could survive his awful flirting, horrible voice and strange hair playing. She had already been through it all while alone on a supposed 'date.' Of course, she'd hoped that would be the end of it. She would meet him again if her hand was forced, to protect her own life... but she was beginning to think that perhaps dealing with him was a fate worse than death. He was certainly making her lose the will to live, which was something of a miracle.
”How could I forget you?” Anya intoned, flashing a very forced smile towards Trevor. Not only had he suggested that it was fate that they’d ran into each other once but he also threw out what Anya supposed was meant to be a pickup line but felt more like a threat. She’d rather he wasn’t her anything. How he'd gotten it into his head that he could be anything like that, she didn't know. ”Oh, I feel so much safer already with you here to protect me. Why don't you go find some armour that can do the job?”
There was a subtle sarcasm to her words that would likely bounce right off Trevor's thick skin and be easily picked up by anyone with half a braincell. However, she was quite hopeful about him going to find a knight costume and giving them an opportunity to leave before they returned.
"Oh man, this is brilliant," Bianca snorted as she watched the whole thing, covering her mouth to stop herself from bursting out laughing.
Anya ignored the rest of the PRA, Bianca included, and focused on Meifeng. What she said was incredibly irritating. Unprofessional. Their lives were at risk and she’d decided at face value that Sloane was going to be annoying by asking for help? Knowing these people were the ones ‘protecting the city’ in an official capacity had her feeling less safe than if they hadn’t been around at all.
”Don't worry, Meifeng, I'll forget all about how you push us onto a junior- no, trainee, is it not?- agent when we were merely looking for help with a very murderous problem,” Anya smiled pleasantly, eyes creasing slightly - the picture of genuine joy even as her words were as sharp as a knife. ”At least Bianca seems to have the necessary protection. I wouldn't want us all wiped out. Truly, Bea, it's lovely to see you again. Properly. How was meeting Linqian again last week? I hope you had a pleasant catch up. She certainly seemed to enjoy it.”
”Oh, it was good,” Bianca smiled back. ”It was nice to catch up with an old friend who had no interest in my work. I'm glad you cared enough to ask.”
Anya’s lips curved into something closer to a sneer, head snapping back round as Sloane’s hands slammed down on the table in a delayed reaction (ah, she was so drunk). It was easy to read what was such an openly expressive look from Sloane (to Anya, likely not to others). What was she sorry about? Why did she… no, she wouldn’t think about that bit. But Sloane even moved around to block the free seat next to Anya, preventing Trevor from taking it. Was she not-
Oh. Sloane invited Trevor to join, and then proceeded to give one of the worst shows Anya had seen in her life, ending in her own drink being stolen. Generally she enjoyed finishing her own drink before the end of a performance, quite quickly during the starting act if the quality was like this. But she understood what Sloane was doing. She was trying to give Anya a way out, with an incredibly clumsy execution. She didn’t want to abandon Sloane, of course, but she couldn’t turn down her so awkwardly set up plan.
A small amount of warmth unexpectedly sparked in Anya’s chest, and her smile softly lit up her eyes.
”Alright, I won’t be long-” As she went to stand, a tanned hand landed on her shoulder and pressed her back down.
”I'll get you both a drink,” Bianca interrupted cheerfully after stopping Anya from standing up, hand still on her shoulder. What Sloane was doing was painfully obvious, and she wasn't going to let her see Anya (with bonus Sloane) suffer plan fail. Not when Trevor was coming out with such insanely cringey lines. ”On me, since we're old friends. I wouldn’t want you to be dragged away from poor Trevor so quickly! What do you want?”
”... Old Fashioned for us both,” Anya gritted out, unable to push up past Bianca’s grip. She was surprisingly strong. Or perhaps Anya herself was weak. Her smile wavered for a moment. Not only were Sloane’s efforts going to waste, but she was going to be forced to stay in Trevor’s company. For a moment, she considered throwing away everything she’d been working for, the carefully built up image she’d made for herself, and stabbing Bianca with a hairpin for stopping her.
No, jail would be much too uncomfortable. She would just ruin her dreams later.
”Got it,” Bianca grinned, finally letting go of Anya’s shoulder and making her way over to the bar with a slight skip in her step.
After following Bianca's back with a narrowed eyed look, Anya leaned in towards Sloane, voice dropping to a whisper. ”Thank you for trying.”
”Well,” Anya straightened back up and turned around to look at Meifeng, gesturing to the seats in front of her and Sloane. There were two, after all. ”Why don’t you join us too, and prove that you weren’t just trying to play the matchmaker? I’m not looking to discuss much business, but it’s only fair you get to know us after your immediate judgement of Sloane.”
And perhaps Trevor would be a tad more restrained around his both. At least, he would stick to horrible pickup lines over all the weirdly sexual things he discussed on their ‘date’.
“Alright, I’ll be right back… Linqian, was it?” Sabrina turned her head towards Linqian. “You said you were going to help?”
"Yes to both." Linqian turned to Henri, pointing a finger at him. "Don't do anything stupid."
"Yeah, yeah," Henri held up his hands with a grin, carefully taking a seat on one of the sofas.
Linqian didn't entirely trust him, but from the looks of things Edict and Britney were going off somewhere together (gross) and she could probably leave him with Layla. Probably. She walked over to Sabrina, smiling slightly. "I work in a bar, so carrying drinks is my speciality."
“Noted,” Sabrina answered as she led Linqian through the kitchen to the “wine cellar.” She threw the door open to reveal a fancy case of different liquors. It had wines, whiskeys, vodkas, and even some weird stuff. Sabrina walked over and traced her fingers across the case window, and then opened it. “Great, my alcoholic sisters didn’t waste it all in one night.”
She grabbed two of the requested drinks—white Wine and Scotch—and handed them to Linqian. “We don’t really have much beer because my sisters aren’t the wine-drinking types,” Sabrina awkwardly chuckled. “But, we have a wide selection of other things, so… help yourself.”
"I can see that." Linqian held the two bottles she'd been handed carefully, while looking around with slightly widened eyes. Of course, she saw a large selection of alcohol everyday - but never anything this fancy. She knew what the expensive shit was… and this was it. It really made her not want to drink it, even if Sabrina told her to help herself. "Doesn't surprise me with what I know if Trisha- y'know what, I'll share the Scotch with Greyson for now."
She held up the bottle, still looking around at the selection. "Then after maybe I'll be up for trying some of your more interesting drinks…"
“Are you sure?” Sabrina asked with a shrug. “ really no skin off my back if you want to try a bottle or two. This isn’t anything to a Vanburen.”
"Must be nice," Linqian muttered, biting her lip to clamp down the more visceral reaction that jealousy threatened to bring out. She needed to not snap at someone as rich as Sabrina, who she'd only just met. As much as her financial situation fucking sucked, she would hate having sixteen half siblings even more. Still, she'd stick to the Scotch… because if she had the same drink as Edict she could maybe control where he sat a bit. Primarily away from her brother. But the option of something else for after was tempting…
"I'll have the Scotch first, but no harm in bringing another bottle in case I want to swap right away." She said louder. She looked through the case, gaze pausing. It wasn't an unusual drink, to her, but it was one she hadn't had since Jinhai graduated from his bachelor's and they bought some to celebrate. She pointed to a bottle of Baijiu with a smile. "I'll have some of that as well, since you're offering."
Sabrina shrugged as she grabbed the bottle, and carried it herself along with the other drinks. “Let’s head back,” Sabrina slowly sauntered back to the others. However, she had a question, “So… I hope it’s not an intrusion on your business, but Sycamore is trying to put an end to the murders, right? How’s that going?”
Linqian couldn’t help but laugh at that. But she didn’t have any issues with answering the question, it wasn’t like they’d gotten anywhere at all. ”Awfully. So far we’ve followed one ‘lead’ that got some of us shot, and the meeting after didn’t even start before the PRA came down on our asses. We’ve learned shit all about it, besides ‘Father Wolf’ only targeting people when they’re alone- which I’ve known for fucking weeks. Nothing else.”
“Oh dear,” Sabrina rolled her eyes. “I was hoping you all would have made some progress by now… but I can say that maybe things will go up from here, yeah?”
She shook her head.
“I… who is the leader of the Sycamore Tree Coven - if you don’t mind me asking?”
”It can only get better, coven meeting wise,” Linqian derisively. ”Auri Auclair… Some leader. She fucked off when the PRA raided us before telling us shit. Not that anyone else could do the job. Britney, maybe, but people aren’t too happy with her.”
“I heard..” Sabrina trailed off, “Well, I have plenty of resources, and I was considering offering some help to Sycamore.”
She began, letting that hang in the air before she asked another question.
“How receptive do you think they will be of me?”
”As Britney’s friend? Not particularly,” Linqian shrugged. It was difficult to say with how they struggled to even accept their own members. ”As a Vanburen with plenty of resources? Well… They’re more likely to hear you out, so long as you distance yourself from Trisha. She was pretty fucking nasty when she left. But if they- we- could stop bickering for a bit, and you had some solid help, I’m sure they’d be receptive. Probably.”
“Oh, Trisha won’t have anything to do with it,” Sabrina laughed. “Could you - if you don’t mind - bring it up the next time you meet? ”
”Thank fuck,” Linqian smiled slightly. ”Sure, I can try. Can’t promise anything… I’m less likely to get kicked out than the other two, but I’m not that popular either.”
“Don’t worry,” Sabrina said, “I’m sure it’ll work out… do you all have anything you could use in particular? I’m no miracle worker but I do have my ways…”
”Well, I could use a shit ton of cash,” Linqian joked, smiling more to make it clear she wasn’t being serious. Just in case. Much as she had money problems, she wouldn’t stoop that low. ”Main thing we need is something to bring us together… You’d think a bunch of us dying would do that. Aside from that, leads. Literally any information about it. And maybe somewhere to meet. Auri’s banned us from her shop and Greyson burnt down the last place.”
“Hehe…” Sabrina laughed. “I can’t help with bringing you all together, nor do I have any information - that is up to you all - but… I can easily give you all another lair.”
She paused.
“... Long as you all don’t, you know, burn it down.”
”No promises,” Linqian laughed. ”But I’ll try my hardest to keep Mr Pyromaniac under control.”
“You’ll have to,” Sabrina shook her head. “The place I have in mind can not be destroyed… but, let’s get back to the others, yeah? They’re probably worried sick.” She laughed.
”Yes… I need to make sure my brother hasn’t done anything stupid while I was gone.”
It didn't settle with her at all, watching Britney and Mr. Devola slink away. So, when Sabrina and Linqian went off to grab drinks, Layla stood from the couch and hastily said with a smile, “I gotta use the bathroom.”
And she slunked off. Down the hall, where the lights were on and a bedroom door was left open. Murmured talking. This was it. Layla crept closer, careful to keep out of sight.
“...hurt you. Because of what happened with her...”
Layla immediately stiffened, despite feeling silly and untouchable. Were they… no, the couldn't be… Was Mr. Devola talking about her?
Feeling a bit sick to her stomach along with incredible delusions of happiness, and knowing she absolutely couldn't risk getting caught, Layla slunk back, trying to hide her shaking hands.
When everyone else left, and Layla made her way back on the couch, Henri turned to Layla with a massive grin. "Soooooo… how old are you? Oh man, I don't mean that in a creepy way, just you look a lot younger than the rest! Like closer to my age… I'm eighteen, by the way. A lot younger than my sister, I know, but that's just how things work. Her and Jinhai practically raised me anyway! Anyway, I'm just surprised cause Jie always talked about the group of friends she was with like they were all the same age… hanging out, supporting each other, having wild parties. Studying. Did you have like siblings there? Or do you just look really young?!"
Henri said all this with a massive, friendly grin. Once he started talking, he really didn't know when to stop.
Layla sat there on the couch just trying to collect her thoughts, feeling her heart race while she couldn't shake the smile on her face. She felt ecstatic. She felt unstoppable. The logic simply didn't work that she could be in danger.
Mr. Devola spilling all her secrets? Were they really such bad secrets to begin with? And Britney was a friend, wasn't she? Layla didn't have to have her guard up around friends, right?
Despite the alarms of dread ringing around in her head somewhere, Layla felt the wonderful weight of a stoned feeling racing through her body, assuring her everything was fine. Made it especially hard to concentrate.
So, while Henri spoke, Layla slowly felt her body reluctantly slink towards that fight or flight feeling. A feeling of anxiety that one can get when their THC hits just a bit too hard. A dizzying euphoria that tied her down to her seat, waiting to face whatever dreadful fate awaited her for when Mr. Devola and Britney returned.
Was she scared of Britney?
With how she had witnessed Britney wield the Noble Vow, she wouldn't be surprised.
Layla took a long, deep breath, and tried to collect her thoughts as Henri looked at her expectantly.
“Uh, not at all! I'm uh, twenty, I think. You know, these things you just kind of lose track of,” She said with a laugh, trying to settle her nerves again.
For a moment, her face grew soft, staring at Henri. He seemed to really admire his sister, but wasn't included in the ‘know’. That was fine. She wouldn't say too much, then.
He made her think of her old ties in the coven. It made her smile in a forlorn manner.
“I did have close family in her circle of friends, a cousin that was older than me, bridged the gap, you know, that sort of thing. His name was Nick. Nicholas. He's been gone about, ah, ten years now.”
She smiled, starting to unwind a bit at the thought of sweet memories, and Mr. Devola's influence came back full force, paralyzing her sweetly to the couch.
“You know, Henri… I think I could eat a whole house. I'm famished. What's your favorite food? I like any fast food myself. It's totally terrible, I know, but I… it's tasty.” She admitted sheepishly.
"Ohhh, I'm sorry for your loss. It's difficult. I lost my parents ten years ago too, though I don't really remember them," he rubbed the back of his head with a sheepish smile.
Layla gave an understanding look. “That’s terrible, I'm sorry to hear that.”
Henri continued. "Oh, I'm starved too, if it's food you want I can hook you up."
He raised his eyebrows, grinning mischievously. Linqian had stupidly left her handbag right next to him so he crouched down and opened it. Thankfully for Linqian the gun inside was completely covered by her clothes, with the remaining tupperware and beer at the top. Henri grabbed both along with the chopsticks, swiftly closing the bag without revealing what else was inside. "Here!"
He sat back down, right beside Layla, and opened the container. Inside was a noodle dish, similar looking to chow mein with loads of vegetables in it. He held it and the chopsticks out to Layla. "Go on, have some. Jie made it, I swear it's amazing. Do you know how to use chopsticks? If not I'll show you, it's pretty easy! And let's share this before they get back!"
He shook the can of beer, before opening it with one can. He took a long drink and grinned. "Oh yeah, my favourite food- uh, don't tell anyone, but it's fast food too. If Jie finds out she'll kill me that I didn't say her cooking."
Layla gave a hearty laugh, looking a bit dazed as she stared at the dish. It really did look amazing, it made her mouth water just staring at it. Henri was really okay sharing this? And Linqian had made it? Layla's smile only widened, her cherry-coated happiness turning to hungry enthusiasm.
She looked at the chopsticks held up to her as she moved closer to the held out dish, and hesitantly took the utensils. She had only seen others use these, and didn't really have much experience herself. Dismally, she attempted to pick up anything in the container, and only managed a single noodle, which she slurped up.
Her eyes widened.
It was delicious.
“Your sister knows how to cook. It's no wonder she wouldn't let you praise any other food, as good as fast food is…” She said, then let out an exasperated laugh, holding up the chopsticks.
“Chopsticks, uh, aren't my strong point. How do you hold them, again? And please, have some yourself! All that walking around the festival is tiiiiring, right?”
"Yeah, she really enjoys cooking, I missed eating her food when I was at college!" Henri laughed, watching her use chopsticks and realising he'd never explained it to anyone else… he went back into his sister's bag, and thankfully there was another pair. Perfect. He pulled them out and turned back to Layla.
"So, if you hold one between your finger and thumb," he demonstrated, putting one chopstick between his pointer finger and thumb. He curled his other fingers so it rested on his ring finger. Then he put the other one between his pointer finger and thumb too, rested on his middle finger. "And the other one like so. Then you use your first two fingers to move it."
He demonstrated by going in for some noodles, moving the top chopstick with his middle and index finger and grabbing a large amount of noodles. He stuffed it in his mouth and grinned, swallowing it quickly. "Yeah walking around was exhaustingggg, I went around the whole festival like twice… I'd never been before, so it was pretty cool, but tiring! Nothing that can't be fixed by food, though! Did you get to see much of it?"
Layla watched carefully, mirroring his moves with her own chopsticks. She adjusted her hand so the chopsticks lined up a bit closer to the right places, and she tried again. After a few empty attempts, she managed to pinch a few more noodles, which she heartily ate with a smile.
She bobbed her head along to the music playing as she took another biteful, listening as Henri spoke. As he mentioned the sights of the festival, Layla made a playfully pained face. Nothing could get her down at the moment, after all.
“Well, to be honest, not really! We were about to head to the haunted house, but we were uh, stopped. By someone who doesn't really get along with our group of friends.”
“Damn, that sucks, but there’s always next year!” Henri said.
She ate another mouthful, then motioned for the can of beer, hopeful that Henri would share a bit of that as well. Her head tilted curiously as she swallowed some vegetables.
“If you don't mind my asking, how much of Linqian’s group of friends did she talk about?” She tried to laugh off her prying.“She talked well about us, right?”
"Oh yeah, her and Ge- uh Jinhai, you know her twin, my brother, who was also in the group- talked about you guys all the time! Always good stuff!" He took another drink of the beer before holding it out for Layla to take. Layla eagerly took a sip and returned it. "Who did she talk about… well I asked about it all the time, I loved hearing about them. She'd mostly talk about some guys called Sully, Drake and Jasper, oh and Greyson- oh! That's this Greyson! Ge got a funny look on his face when she mentioned him, must've been cause he's so cool. And he'd always talk about Britney, and Jack, Sloane and Anya… oh Jie would get a weird look on her face when he mentioned the last two! Like she'd eaten something real sour. Normally she had, I think."
Henri took another portion of noodles after dropping a lot of information very haphazardly. "Oh, they did complain about this guy called Leon. Dunno I once overheard Jie saying he had a 'stick up his ass' or something. They'd always talk really well about the whole group! I think they both missed everyone a lot."
Layla's eyes warmed at the mention of familiar names. She found herself nodding along. The great Sycamore. Yes, the great, truly. Sully got along with everyone, Drake had an endearing hero complex, Jasper was an artist. Her eyes widened at the mention of Greyson - Mr. Devola. Yes of course, a cornerstone of the Sycamore.
“Yeah, everyone calls him Greyson, but I met him when I was really young, always called him by his last name, myself.”
Layla's expression turned to a mix of fear and uncertainty, with just a glimmer of hope when Henri mentioned Britney. Her friend. At the mention of Jack, Layla actually turned her face away, eyes closed and chin up in aloofness. Sloane and Anya, well. Sloane, it had been years since Layla had really spoken with her. And Anya seemed to be on Layla's side when Layla suggested a change in leadership.
At Void's suggestion.
Then Henri mentioned Leon, and Layla's face took on a unique completion as she nodded eagerly. Leon was good. Yes, he may have had a stick up his ass, but he had been trying to help her.
“Leon… that's a special one there. I have a lot to owe to that big guy,” Layla said with a calm smile.
She chuckled. “Wow, she really- they both, really talked well of us. That's, well, nice to hear. It's been a bit of a rocky road to get to this point, but some of us would give up anything for the other, ya know?”
She nodded to herself. “I guess that's what being friends is all about. Doing anything you can for them, right?”
She took another portion of the noodles. There was only a little bit left now, to her shock and theatrical horror. It was so delicious. She wished the container had a never-ending bottom, so she could just eat this forever.
Yes, the perfect thought. Eating Linqian's food for an eternity. Layla sat there, holding her cheeks as she murmured sweetly to herself, totally lost in her daydream of eating delicious food forever.
Before she snapped out of it.
The container was empty.
“Ahhhh, that was so tasty.” Layla said with a huge smile, placing her chopsticks in the container.“Now I'm not dying. Thanks, Henri. You and your sister and lifesavers.”
”Glad you enjoyed it! Maybe I can convince Jie to cook for you sometime… Oh man, when she has time to make a proper meal it's amazing,” he grinned, putting his chopsticks and shoving the container out of the way.
”I get it with the friends thing, though. It’s why we’re back here. After Ge was killed… Well, I think she wanted to be around people she’d been through a lotta shit with. Not to get all sappy ‘bout my sister, but she’s really done a lot for us- me over the years. Like, she thinks I don’t know, but she’s working two jobs just so I don’t have to. She never lets me do anything… But it’s nice to know she’s got you guys! That, y’know, you’re all a big group that’ll look after each other.”
His expression swapped from strangely neutral at the mention of his brother’s death, to full of sunshine again.
”Everyone’s going through shit, yeah, it’s the people you’ve got around you that really help you get through it. I dunno where I’d be without her, that’s for sure! I’m sure she’d do a lot for you guys too.”
"What’re you saying about me?" Linqian reappeared, holding two bottles of alcohol - Sabrina was right behind her. She placed the white wine on the centre table, while keeping hold of the Scotch. Her gaze flickered over to the empty container, lips twisting down onto a scowl. She glared at Henri. "Han Huanyi, that was my fucking dinner."
”Shouldn’t have left it unattended!” Henri replied cheerfully, leaning in towards Layla to say in a hushed tone, ”she’s using my full name to pretend she’s mad, but she’s not.”
Layla nodded quietly as Henri spoke, suppressing a burp as Linqian's dinner settled in her stomach.
"You think I can’t hear you? I’m not mad, but I’m annoyed." Linqian rolled her eyes.
“Well, uh, it was really quite tasty, Linqian.” Layla said shyly. “Sorry about that!”
Linqian grabbed her bag from beside Henri and looked around for a glass. Finding one, she took a seat a fair distance away from her brother - in the opposite corner of the practically circular couch. Her bag went at her feet and the bottle of Scotch stayed in her hand. Her thinking was that it would force Edict to sit next to her (and not near Henri), or at least go through her to get a drink.
“We can just… buy some pizza,” Sabrina shrugged as she poured herself some scotch whiskey. She had a seat. “Or Uber something. Whatever you’d like, on me.”
Layla gave an excited gasp.“Pizza?! Again?! Sign me up.”
"I'm good with anything, so long as it's edible." Linqian poured herself a glass of scotch and drank half of it in one go. The alcohol burned as it went down her throat, but it was a nice feeling that followed. The warmth of the alcohol and instant relaxation it brought led her to finishing her first glass in seconds, pouring another one. An additional benefit of keeping hold of the Scotch bottle like a hostage to keep her brother safe. "You weren't talking shit about me while I was away, were you?"
"Noooo," Henri held up his hands before turning to Sabrina with a grin. "Ooo, I vote for pizza!”
“Pizzaaaa.” Layla echoed.
"You just ate my fucking dinner," Linqian glared at both of them.
"Heyyyy, I'm suggesting pizza cause I know you like it," Henri defended himself with a shit eating grin. "Pizza's easy, everyone likes it."
“... We can order other things, you know?” Sabrina said as she pulled out her cellphone. “Everyone in here don’t eat pork? Anything you all don’t eat? I can order a couple different pizzas… maybe just a bunch of cheese pizzas?”
"Something covered in meat!" Henri said immediately. "Wait, that's the pizza I want, not something I don't eat. I mean, I eat pretty much anything, but if it's got too much veg on it what's the point? I was forced to eat soooo many growing up. Supposedly meat's expensive, but it's so much better than vegetables. Whenever we got pizza it was always what Jinhai wanted first, then me… so it was always covered in vegetables! Awful!"
"I'm not drunk enough for this," Linqian muttered, even though she was the only person in the room used to Henri's inane tirades. She finished her second glass of scotch and poured another one. "... Maybe some cheeses, a vegetable one and a meat one? Keep everyone happy or whatever."
“See, that’s all you had to say,” Sabrina laughed… awkwardly looking to the side and typing in a few different things before she dramatically placed the send-order button. “Alright, it should be here in about twenty minutes. I got pizza, wings, mozzarella sticks… Maybe I should have gotten some dessert, too…”
"It's fine, this is a party, not a fancy dinner," Linqian waved her half empty glass. "Pizza is plenty."
"Ohhhhh but some cookie dough would've been real nice, or some cake-" Henri started.
"Yi-er," Linqian glared at him. She then looked over at Sabrina tiredly. "Sorry about him, he's… a teenager. You know how they are. Always pushing the boundaries."
"I'm just asking for dessert!"
“I know a good ice cream spot that does Doordash…” Sabrina shrugged. “... But my generosity ends there, unfortunately. What flavors do you all like?” She asked.
"You don't have to indulge him," Linqian said.
“I could go for some ice cream myself you know…” Sabrina answered.
"Mint choc chip!" Henri cheered, completely ignoring his sister. "Thank you sooo much… Sabrina?"
“Yup, Sabrina Vanburen,” She answered. “It’s a pleasure to meet you a second time.” She smiled.
"You too!" Henri grinned, rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry, I ain't good with names, and there were quite a few."
“Britney calls me Bean, if that’s easier,” Sabrina answered.
Layla blinked as she listened.“I uh, can help with the order if it's too much. This is quite the big party after all,” She said, smiling sheepishly at Sabrina.
It was no lie that she was eagerly looking forward to the party food headed their way though. She stood from the couch, found a glass in the kitchen, shrugged a bit, and poured a bit of white wine for herself.
“What a treat… Uh, Bean, I think you're spoiling us.” She said with a wide grin, staring at the wine as she sat before taking a sip. It was crisp, fresh, and made her smile even more as she sat there in a giggling mess on the couch.
[Maybe later idk. Depends on if you want to respond or not] “Oh!” Sabrina suddenly said, “Would anyone like to get out of your costumes…?”
Sabrina awkwardly paused.
“... I mean,” Sabrina coughed into her hand. “My abstraction allows me to change someone’s clothes with their permission. I can change you all to something else? Maybe a different costume? Maybe we can have a whole pajama party…”
"Oh, a pajama party! Sounds like loads of fun, I'm in!" Henri jumped up, before looking at Sabrina in confusion. "Wait, whats an abstraction?"
Sabrina’s jaw dropped.
“Nothing,” she answered. “I said I have plenty of clothes you all could change into… you just need my permission. That’s all.”
"Ohhh, I see," Henri nodded, seeming to be completely fooled. Linqian was very glad in that moment that her brother was, in fact, a fool. "I would love to change outta this outfit, it's cheap and itchy."
"I'm good," Linqian said. She'd been panicking for a moment, ready to grab her brother and drag him back home, but it was fine now. "I put in all that effort changing into this toga, I'm not getting out of it."
“Yeah, I’m shocked you just… bared it all there for a moment,” Sabrina laughed. “Well, some are just more bold than others, I presume… ha…”
"Well, you know what they say, if you have it, show it," Linqian smirked. She didn't have many qualms when it came to stuff like that… and was more than happy to talk about it now that she was multiple drinks in.
"Jie, that's not what they say. It's if you have it, flaunt it, and they don't mean about…" Henri giggled. "Stripping."
"Whatever," Linqian shrugged, finishing off yet another glass. And pouring herself another. The first one had been enough to push her to that point of tipsy when she had no inhibitions about drinking anymore. "Point still stands. I'm hot enough, so what's there to hide?"
“I mean…” Sabrina’s demeanor returned to that somber one. “You’re confident. That’s all that matters.” She shrugged.
Layla's eyes were glowing as she sipped her wine on the couch. A pajama party?! It had been years since she had indulged in anything so fun, so simple, so… free from the worries and burdens of life.
She watched Linqian hammer away her drinks, and couldn't help the giggle that escaped her throat. Linqian seemed to he enjoying herself, despite having her dinner devoured. That was good.
Her eyes turned to Sabrina.“If it's alright, I'd like to get out of this bee costume. Pajamas sound really, really nice right now. Can you uh, hook me up, Bean?”
Her gaze flicked to Henri. Did he… Was he in the know about abstractions? From his comment earlier, Layla had to assume no. So, her head tilted as she added, “We can use a different room, if it's easier.”
"Yeah, use a different room," Linqian half waved her glass, eyebrows raising slightly. She wasn't sure how to signal that her brother was Blind, but hopefully him saying he didn't know about abstractions would be enough.
"Oh yeah, I'm a guy, you shouldn't be changing in front of me!" Henri piped up, nodding.
Sabrina flatly looked at him.
She reached into her pocket and - created a black sheet in her hands - seemingly pulled a giant black cloth that would bulge out of the pocket of this dumb bee costume. She quickly threw it at Henri, and it covered him.
"Gwah?!" Henri let out a confused sound when a black sheet was thrown over his face from nowhere.
She laughed for a moment before she faced Layla and said, “We can go into the kitchen real quick, the guest room is… occupied.” She glanced at the room Edict and Britney were talking in. She quickly led Layla to the kitchen… and then she stuck out her hand, and Layla’s stupid bee costume was replaced with some probably more comfortable pajamas.
Layla heaved a sigh of relief, shifting around and flapping her arms a little in the new pajamas. A striped pale green and white color. Soft material. She smiled, “Oh wow, Bean. These look so nice!”
"Yeah, they're taking their SWEET ASS time in there!" Linqian said, raising her voice loud enough for Edict and Britney to hear her. She finished off her… well she'd lost count of the number of glasses, but another glass of Scotch. Shit was surprisingly good when she got into it. "Better hurry up before I finish the wholleeee fucking bottle of Scotch."
“There. Like the color? Need any adjustments?”
Layla softly shook her head as they made their way back to the living room, giggling at Linqian's outburst. Her eyes glanced at Sabrina. “No, no, these are perfect. I feel much more in the spirit for a slumber party now, thank you.”
“Anytime… Let’s head back,” Sabrina calmly walked back over to the living room and back to the party.
”I don't think anyone wants to see my magic staff, Linqian, so you better put the fucking cap on it and have a little FUCKING PATIENCE!” Greyson called out and down the hall, a playful tone in his voice.
Layla had sat back on the couch with her wine, and half spat out the contents of her mouth at Mr. Devola's rebuke.
"Get that out in front of my brother and you know exactly what'll fucking happen to it! Save that for later, yeah?" Linqian shouted back, rolling her eyes and laughing loudly. "I'm afraid the literal cap's already fucking off, and there's maybe about, hmm, half left?"
That was a lie, of course, she'd only had about five glasses. But there was no harm in making him worry.
Layla stared down at the Scotch bottle, a plan forming in her head. Yes, a great plan. the best plan of plans. With a grim playfulness about her, Layla dutifully peeled off the rest of her wine glass before approaching the scotch bottle. The bottle was cracked open once again, and another glass was poured for herself, filling her wine glass up to a crazy amount.
She stood there triumphantly, holding her glass up to the hallway, and yelled. “Less than half!”
She tossed back her glass, and her face held the most exquisite reflextiveness that only a non-drinker could possess as she held the brew in her mouth, and swallowed, tears beading in her eyes. A hissing groan escaped her lips as the world swayed, and Layla sat back down, her hurrah at a standstill momentarily with the mix of wine and Scotch in her system.
“They'd… better hurry up… or I'll drink… all of it.” She said shakily, raising her free hand defiantly before it flopped back down on the couch, and the world swayed.
"What the fuck?!" Linqian considered jumping up and grabbing the glass, but then couldn't be bothered to. Whatever. She rolled her eyes, leaned forward and grabbed the bottle of Scotch. She hugged it against her like she was cradling a child. "I'm keeping this, alright, fuck- you just drank way too much. I'm not watching you when you choke on your own fucking vomit!"
“... You know I have another bottle,” Sabrina flatly noted. “My sisters are alcoholics.”
Layla half-laid there on the couch, waving a hand as nonchalantly as possible. “I'm fine, I'm fine.”
A few moments passed before the Scotch started to hit her system, mixed with the wine and the Pink Lux. Layla drew herself up on the couch, glass held carefully in hand, before her eyes locked on Linqian.
“Linqian, Britney's my friend, right? Bestest of friends, riiiight?”
She paused, before she set her glass down and crawled over to where Linqian was sitting, holding herself up by the couch.
“You're my friend, right? Riiiight, Linqian?”
"What the fuck?!" Linqian shook her head, tilting herself away from Layla. She did not like dealing with drunk people like this. The drunk people she liked dealing with were a all over her in a completely different way- and that was fine! Normally she was just as drunk. "Yes, yes, I'm your friend!"
Layla stared, glowing at Linqian. “Really? Really, really?!”
Layla was just a radiating ball of joy after hearing Linqian's words, like everything in the world was right again.
”Yes, really!” Linqian twisted away, setting her glass down on the table. In a quick, very much not sober decision, she opened the bottle of scotch and took a big drink. Then she hugged it against her body, twisting away from Layla just in case she tried to go for it again. "GREYSON! BRITNEY! Come sort out your fucking- just come fucking in here right the fuck now!"
"Can I take the sheet off yet?" Henri said quietly, confused about the whole thing.
“I got you…” Sabrina said as she walked over and lifted the black sheet off of him, and neatly folded it into a square, and left it on the table. She sat back down on the sofa, put her feet together and her hands over on top of that.
”... Hey now, we were just fixing the sheets!” Britney laughed as she walked out… holding Edict’s hand.
Layla turned and stared, half in the grip of trying to gun for Linqian's bottle, jaw dropping at Britney and Mr. Devola. Namely their hand-holding.
“Please tell me you weren’t…” Sabrina groaned, and got a wink in response from Britney.
”Oh my goodness,” Britney began, giving everyone a wide smile. ”We step out for like oooooooone minute and it turns to straight up pandemonium!”
Edict was still holding Britney’s hand right up until he managed to put two and two together. Linqian, the bottle, boozed up Layla… ”Linqian, what the hell!? She’s still not old enough! God dammit, fuckin’-” Moving to his coat, Edict pulled his channeler from the pocket and palmed it, but figured it’d be a bit too subtle for the group. He could at least give them the courtesy of not bullshitting them tonight. So he slipped them onto his forehead, up and away from his eyes but still touching enough to cast. ”Layla! Homegirl, let me see the cup. You’re drinking my booze all up, and it ain’t fair.”
Layla Instinctively pulled back, moving to hug her cup, “Noooo, it's miiiiine.” She waved her hand at Mr. Devola in a weak attempt to keep him from her precious glass.
She piped up, not realizing she may be throwing Linqian under the bus with her next sentence. “Linqian said I can have as much as I want!”
”Are you fucking with me?! What the hell?! I didn’t let her fucking drink it, she just took it, look I’m preventing her from drinking any fucking more!” Linqian gestured to the Scotch bottle that she was holding tightly against her chest, like it was the child she’d always wanted. Linqian’s scowled, shooting a heated glare in his direction. ”You fucking go into another room to get all fucking lovey dovey and suddenly it’s all my fault one of the two minors are drunk, fucking hell, Greyson, go fuck yourself.”
She then spun around to glare at Layla. ”And you- I said you could have as much as you wanted? I did? Fuck off. I wouldn’t waste expensive fucking alcohol on a kid- fuck, does my brother look drunk to you, I’m a responsible fucking adult- I’ve actually raised a child, fuck!”
Layla shivered in spot, getting absolutely throttled by Linqian’s words. “B-b-b-but…”
”Uh, you let me have a beer earlier,” Henri very unhelpfully said.
”Huanyi, keep your fucking mouth shut.”
Sabrina facepalmed.
“... There. Is. Another. Bottle.” She shook her head. “And it’s fine if Layla has a drink or two… long as it all remains here.” Sabrina pointed both of her index fingers downward.
”Oh lord,” Britney rolled her eyes. ”Everyone. Chill out over some fuckin’ drinks…”
”It’s not fucking about the fucking drink,” Linqian hissed, using her free hand to point at Layla then Edict. ”It’s about the false fucking accusations.”
Layla pouted, clearly at a loss and oh-so-very-wounded in her daze-like state. “Bu-bu-but, you said at the island I could have some.”
”Look,” Britney began, letting go of Edict’s hand to raise both of them, ”Everyone just chill. We don’t need this kinda energy right now.” She rolled her eyes again.
Layla simmered down a bit, eyeing Britney and Linqian, before her smile returned as she beamed at Sabrina. “Beaaaan, you're the best. Of course it’ll stay here, where else would it go?! I'm not gonna go tromping around in the back yard with the Scotch…”
She got sidetracked, eyes widening in disproportionate and slightly sloshed glee. “But maybe if we make a toga line-”
“... I’m good,” Sabrina said.
Edict frowned at the situation. He hadn’t really wanted Linqian all pissy like this, but that’s how the booze worked. Turning to Sabrina, he held his hands up and shook his head. ”I guess another bottle probably isn’t the thing we need, since some people, Layla, can’t manage a whole lot of responsibility when they’re given the chance. Big difference between a drink or two and guzzling an eighth by herself.”
He grabbed the drink right out of the drunken girl’s hands, sitting down next to her. ”Now, for the sake of a good night, I’ve got homegirl here. Linqian?” he said, frowning.
“Noooo…” Layla said, watching Mr. Devola take her drink.
”I’m sorry for getting accusatory. If I had a magic wand, I’d wish that comment away, but now I can only apologize. So, please forgive me, and can I please have the beer I paid for back on Cracker Island?” he asked in a slightly playful tone.
”Fine. Apology accepted.” Linqian pinched her nose, taking a deep breath in. She really wanted to enjoy tonight… fuck. She’d lost it and she’d sworn at her brother too. Double fuck. She uncurled herself from the fetal position she’d ended up in around the bottle of Scotch, putting it back on the table. ”Let me just get it-”
Linqian froze as she bent over and looked through her bag. There was no beer. She then looked up and spotted the empty can… right beside Henri. Stay calm. Stay fucking calm. Gritting her teeth, she grabbed the two bills Edict had paid for them and held them out instead of the beer. ”It looks like my darling little brother drank it, so here, a full refund. I guess you’re just going to have to drink all this fancy as fuck alcohol rather than the cheap ass beer I wrangled from my ot- my boss.”
Edict grinned wildly at the development, and he rumbled his communication spell across to Henri. It was a very simple image: A fistbump. He held his hand up to Linqian.. ”Don’t worry about it, dude. It’s… Honestly the money is worth the giggle.”
Henri’s eyes widened at the fistbump - he couldn’t respond! He glanced at his sister, who wasn’t looking at him, so he subtly moved one of his hands into a thumbs up. So cool!
Layla had to giggle a bit. But then she felt bad. As bad as one could get under a rainbow sun. The beer she had shared with Henri was, in fact, Mr. Devola's. The realization elicited a small gasp, and Layla raised her hands to her lips.
”Seriously?” Linqian raised her eyebrows. She didn’t really want to accept the money, because it felt like it was for free, but he was refusing to take it back. What should she do about that? Linqian shrugged and put it back in her bag. Then she picked back up her glass, shifting around the sofa to get to the Baijiu she’d picked out. She poured herself a glass, and then paused. ”Ah, does anyone want a glass? It’s considered rude to drink this alone back home.”
“Meeeee!” Layla said without thinking.
”Me, Jie, I want to try Baijiu!” Henri grinned.
”Anyone except Layla and Yi-er,” Linqian forced a smile at both of them. She held up the bottle. ”It’s pretty strong, meant to be a toast and then drink thing. I’ll drink it alone if not- isn’t like there’s anyone to know any better.”
”Jie, you just explained the whole thing, so we all know better,” Henri pointed out. ”You could’ve just had a drink.”
“It’s my bottle technically,” Sabrina chuckled at the whole thought. “But sure,”
“Never had that before, but I’m always down to try a new thing!” Britney chipped.
“Aww.” Layla said, a slight pout to her face before she simply leaned back, eyeing her old glass Mr. Devola currently held hostage. Eh, maybe if she was patient enough, she'd get it back. For now, she let the world spin while the ‘adults’ enjoyed.
“What's the ETA on that pizza, anyway?” Layla asked, a grin creeping over her face once more.
“Oh yeah,” Sabrina pulled out her phone, and checked. “It should be here in about five minutes… give or take.”
Edict pulled the drink back, downing the wine glass full of scotch in three clean, smooth gulps. He grinned at Layla, finally handing her back the empty glass.
Layla looked at Mr. Devola, then down at her empty glass, then back up.“Welllll, at least my plan worked.”
She shot Linqian a mischievous look. “And the Scotch bottle is all the better for it now, much lighter in weight. A worthy sacrifice!”
”Eh?” Linqian gave Layla a confused look. What plan? Honestly, she didn’t care. She just wanted someone to either have a drink with her, or everyone to say no so she could feel like she wasn’t going to have all of her ancestors haunting her dreams for daring to breach drinking Baijiu etiquette. She awkwardly shook the bottle as if that would help her, or anyone, understand. ”Sure it did.”
”Hey, Layla, quit antagonizing. It’s not nice.” he gently batted her arm. Layla only giggled, hiding her face as she was found out.
Pulling himself up off the couch, he pointed his fingers at the two younger people from his eyes, the classic “I’m watching you” imagery. But he sat down next to Linqian and patted his legs. ”I will drink the psycho chinese rice liquor. I hear it's strong as hell.”
”It’s not that bad, this one's only 50%,” Linqian’s lips curved into a teasing smile. She poured another glass - since she hadn’t bothered to find any shot glasses, she was only pouring a small amount into the normal ones. She took her own and held it up in her right hand, clearly indicating for Edict to do the same. ”You have to down in it one. 干杯... don’t try repeat it, just do it in English.”
Edict held up his right hand with the glass in it as expected; he’d seen a few different Asian drinking ceremonies, and while he didn’t know the intricate details, he’d certainly seen a man beaten to death for using his left hand. ”A toast to… A magical evening?”
Layla watched on, eyes full of drunken awe.
”Right… to a magical evening,” Linqian narrowed her eyes at him questioningly, but decided to go with it… because drinking was more important. She tapped her glass against his, with hers just slightly lower, before knocking it back in one shot. It burned slightly as it slid down her throat, but it was a feeling that she was used to. She smiled, carefully watching how everyone else would fair with their own.
Britney grinned, as she raised her glass of wine. “… Every day is magical when you are one of us!” She glanced at everyone here, before she said,
“A toast to friends, old and new,” Britney said. “May our adventures from here on be extraordinary!”
Sabrina tapped Britney’s glass, before she said, “I really look forward to seeing you all again and getting to know you.”
She paused, “Let me not get ahead of myself, let’s enjoy the night first and foremost.”
”Yeah, let's have a fucking good night, after all that shit at the festival,” Linqian grinned, clearly in a good mood again. Her mood swings, it seemed, were quicker when drunk (though she'd argue she wasn't there yet). She held up the bottle again, leaning forward as if to pour into everyone's glasses again. ”Another? Technically your glass is never meant to be empty.”
"Is that why you came home drunk all the time when you worked at that bar… the uh, I don't remember the name. The place where most of the staff were Chinese too." Henri furrowed his brow as if trying really hard to remember.
Linqian winced. That hadn't been a good workplace. ”Yeah… but it did teach me to hold my alcohol.”
Layla wanted to try some. She really wanted to try some. So she did the most logical thing. She slid off the couch and leaned her elbows on the coffee table, shooting the biggest puppy-dog eyes at Linqian. “Linqiaaaaaannnnnnnnnn…”
It was clear Layla needed a toy of some sort. Perhaps if the pizza arrived, she would be properly occupied instead of feeling left out while the ‘adults’ partied.
”What?” Linqian glanced over at Layla, eyebrows raising. The puppy-dog eyes didn't work on her - she'd spent the last ten years raising Henri, master of puppy-dog eyes. Layla's had very little effect on her. She didn't care if she was bored or wanted the alcohol. But it was beginning to feel like she'd gained another fucking little sibling, with all the annoyances that came with that. ”You're not getting any.”
Layla intensified her puppy dog eyes to no avail. Linqian was an iron fortress.
"Hey," Henri 'whispered' at the same volume as his normal voice, following Layla's lead and sliding off the couch. He knelt beside her. "I've got a technique that always works."
“Really?” Layla gaped, watching as Henri came to join her, physically and metaphorically. “What is it?”
A shit eating grin pulled up his lips. "Call her Jiejie- it means big sister. It always works. Repeat after me, Jee-eh Jeh."
He tried to draw out the pronunciation, but it wasn't quite right. It was difficult to describe sounds that came so naturally to him, being brought up with the language.
Layla gave an excited gasp, mimicking him as best she could under her breath. “Henri, you're a mad genius.”
"Hehe, I know," Henri grinned, giggling.
She tried it. She put on her best sweet grin, scrunching her eyes, and said nice and loud for Linqian, “Jeeeee-ah Jeeeeeeee~! Please can we have some? Just a liiiitle bit? Pleeeeeease?”
Shs raised her hands in a pleading manner, like a beggar asking for a scrap of bread.
Edict took a long sideways look at the two younger people as he held out his glass for Linqian to add more to. ”Guys, come on… Moderation: You've both got your whole lives ahead of you where you can get shit faced whenever you want. Consider your current privilege, and be happy that Ms. Bean is kind enough to let you drink in her home.”
This was entirely uncharacteristic of Edict, who was usually the absolute worst influence ever. But with Linqian drinking, he didn't want to deal with the aftermath.
"Aww but I've only had a couple of beers! Layla had way more than me!" Henri pouted.
”Your pronunciation is off, anyway, not happening, come back when you've perfected Chinese,” Linqian laughed, before pouring Edict and herself another glass. She clinked his glass against his immediately, and knocked hers back. She was solidly drunk now, but it wasn't obvious - she was sitting and talking no worries. "干杯. Fucking feels like I've got a second adult kid now. One was enough!”
She rolled her eyes, glancing at Layla, then Edict. ”Didn't picture you as a fucking strict dad, though.” Wait, shit. That sounded like she was suggesting… they were parents together… no fucking way! ”I mean of Layla. Hua-Henri's mine. Well not actually, but legally- fuck, anyway, that's why you've not had a bunch of Scotch, Yi-er, because I'm a responsible parent.”
Layla just kind of melted there on her knees, staring up at Linqian and Mr. Devola. Did… did she actually mean it?
No. It was the feeling Layla was getting. A strict dad and mirroring mom. Patching over something in her heart that she had lost a long time ago.
Her eyes misted over, hiccuping back the tears that threatened to fall. She was just so emotional!
Edict glared at Linqian. ”You know, he's kind of right though. Henri did drink quite a bit less than Miss Troublemaker over here. Besides, all young Warlocks need good memories. Let them split one? he suggested, face tilting slightly. He scattered an image across Linqian's Emotional Field of the two of Henri and Layla passed out on the couch, leaving the elders to have a nice relaxing evening eating pizza and watching movies.
Layla listened, blinking back the tears as she fist pumped the air. “Yes, yes, that's a great idea!”
She paused, before her bottom lip stuck out a bit. “I'm not a trouble maker…”
“Yeah, I agree!” Henri also fist pumped the air. “... wait, is Warlock some kinda slang I don’t know.”
”Also, Layla? Isn't it just about time for your medicine again?” he asked, tilting his head lazily to look at the young woman.
Britney shot her gaze towards Edict.
Layla froze there like a deer caught in the headlights, her heart skipping a beat. Nothing quite explained this feeling. But it was true. The rainbow sun was fading a bit, and the embrace she felt, the security blanket was losing its hues of color. Had so much time passed already?
Her gaze dropped to the floor, hesitant and nervous for the briefest moment, before she swallowed and looked up.
She could trust Mr. Devola, right?
The alcohol swirled around in her system, softening any logic she had into hot butter. Of course everything was fine.
She nodded her head, a somewhat tense smile on her face. “R-right. Yes, Mr. Devola. I suppose it is about that time…”
She swallowed again and tried to relax. That's all she needed to do. Everything would be fine. And hopefully no one would question her about this. She was sworn to secrecy, after all.
Linqian raised an eyebrow. She knew exactly what Edict planned to do, and she really couldn't care less if he was going to go smooth Layla's brain out more. Maybe it would make her quieter. Maybe he could smooth the loudness out. But she didn’t trust the image he’d shown her. It was appealing, sure, but her brother’s safety was more important than anything. Sure, he would be coming home with her… She glanced over at Henri, who widened his eyes and tried to look cute.
Of course, it worked better than normal with the amount Linqian had drunk. ”Fine. One between them. I’m pouring it.”
She got another glass, and poured a small amount in the bottom. A bit less than she’d been pouring for them, as she’d likely been pouring more than a normal Baijiu glass amount. She then held it out to Henri first. ”Don’t even think about drinking more than half. I’ll know, and I’ll cut your allowance, got it?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Henri grinned and took it from her. Once the glass was out of her hand, Linqian poured herself yet another glass and clinked it against his, before downing it. She then watched her brother with hazy eyes. Henri followed suit and drank half as best he could, expression scrunching up at the strength of the alcohol. “Ewgh, I prefer beer.”
He then held the glass, and the remaining alcohol in it, out to Layla with a grin.
Layla grinned back, momentarily forgetting her trepidation at their shared small victory. She wasn't just holding a cup of Baijiu, she was holding the hopes and dreams of all minors when left to their own devices.
“Bottoms up,” She smirked, and toasted the glass in Henri's direction before tossing it back in one full gulp. The shivers that wracked her body after from the strong taste were to be expected, as well as the scrunched in face. It was strong. In a completely different way than the scotch.
“T-to family.” She cracked out in a hoarse whisper, gently setting the glass on the table. Then she crawled back onto the couch, and let herself deflate a bit, head spinning.
“Thaaaanks, Jee-ah jeeeee.” She mumbled happily, quite content to relax there on the couch until the end of time. Or at least until Mr. Devola decided to move forward with ‘medication time’. Or when the pizza arrived.
”I really wish you hadn’t taught her that, she’s really butchering it,” Linqian muttered at her brother, with a half hearted glare.
“Oh, the pizza’s here,” Sabrina said as she got up. “Could someone give me a hand? I know I’m tall but there’s only so much I can do.”
Linqian was about to volunteer herself, putting a hand on the table to push herself to her feet. But as soon as she did she was hit by a wave of dizziness, swaying slightly. Ah, fuck. How many drinks had she had? Like… eight glasses… maybe. She immediately sat back down.
“I’ll help!” Henri jumped up, surprisingly fine after drinking the half shot of Baijiu. “I’m taller, so I’ll be able to carry even more! Let’s go!”
“Henri, you're my hero.” Layla called from her deflated position on the couch, entirely focused on how, exactly, the world was swaying as she half-slumped there, comfortably.
While that was going on, Britney pulled out her cellphone… with a glass of wine in the other hand. She decided to change the song since she was still connected to the Bluetooth and, and nobody had protested yet. So, she decided to play a little something…
As Henri and Sabrina left the room to get the pizza, Edict nodded and slid his glasses on. He didn’t need to look at the girl or anything, rather it would be much easier this second time to just get things over with. He’d developed a power word specifically for situations like this.
”Alright, Layla… We’ll clear some of the alcohol poisoning out too, bring you back to your senses a bit. Anyone else want a bump?” he grinned at Britney and Linqian. ”Just kidding. This is for business, unfortunately.”
”Pink Lotus’ Guiding Principle: Power Word Refresh.” The spell crawled into her brain through the same opening as before; a backdoor installed since he figured this would be happening again tonight. Tendrils roamed around, though with no reason to suspect her, he didn’t check her recent memories to catch her spying. The effects of the spell bubbled up again, suppressing Layla’s fear and anxiety over her powers and reinforcing her feelings of friendship and love toward those present. In addition, he managed a quick scrub of the front part of her brain, cleansing the haze of drunkenness she was hitherto locked up in.
And then it was done, and Edict pulled his glasses up again before the pizza had even been paid for. He cleared his throat. ”All done!”
Layla blinked. In an instant, she felt it, and it was. Over. It seemed easier for him this time. That was strange. Would it always be like this?
She took a breath to steady herself, feeling the smile creep over her features again, and a sense of relaxation that wasn't marred by drunkeness. This was who she was, wasn't it? Just a friendly girl among friends, strong, confident. Just friendly. Why had she ever felt so scared and anxious long before this?
The new information shone through her eyes, a new Layla, piece by piece, being formed.
“Thanks. Uh, Mr. Devola.” She said with a smile.
Britney’s eyes narrowed at Edict… However, she was silent. Dead silent.
In a very delayed action, Linqian flipped Edict off. Anyone else want a bump, fucking asshole, as if. ”You are never fucking getting in my head again, I’m not a fucking-” she gestured to Layla. ”You know.”
Wait, shit. She glanced at Britney. ”Pretend you didn’t fucking hear that.”
”Oh no, I heard everything,” Britney said, before she looked at Edict.
Layla blinked at Linqian, utterly confused. “What do you mean? You've… you've taken the medicine before too?”
”Fucking hell no,” Linqian lied with a very forced smile. ”I’m just joking around. My life is fucking perfect, my mi-body healthy as shit, no fucking way.”
Layla tilted her head, before her eyes squinted for a long, long moment. She wasn't entirely convinced. Was Linqian- Jiejie, hiding something…? She let her silence hang in the air, hoping Linqian would continue talking.
Edict shook his head toward Layla. ”Nah, Linqian’s never needed the help.” he waved her off, furrowing his brow at her reaction. A little snappy, not exactly what he’d expected.
Layla stared for another long moment, before she sighed and smiled, letting it go.“Alright.”
Her gaze glanced from Mr. Devola to the front door, sitting up a little straighter in her seat. There were more important things to worry about. Like how delicious this pizza was going to be.
Britney smiled at Edict, baring her teeth.
”... Greyson, could we have another little private talk?” Britney tilted her head more and more as she spoke each word.
Layla's eyes widened a little. She'd never seen Britney like this before.
”Heh, someone’s in trouble,” Linqian side eyed him and smirked.
Edict quickly stood to join her, closing his eyes in vague frustration. ”Of course, whatever you want.” He didn’t bother reaching for her hand; Linqian was right. Clearly, even though it was for her sake, Britney didn’t want him using his magic so brazenly.
However, at this point, Sabrina came back inside the room with a stack of pizzas in hand, and Henri was behind her holding some food himself. She placed the stack on the table, and then separated each box into its own stack depending on what type of pizza it was. “I got pepperoni, plain, supreme, meat lovers…” Sabrina trailed. “And some sides like mozzarella sticks, wings, garlic knots, et cetera…”
She stood straight up, and then clapped her hands together.
“Dig in. You can take home what’s left over.” She shrugged.
“Thank you!” Henri grinned, grabbing a piece of meat lovers and immediately stuffing a large amount into his face.
“Wow, this looks amazing. Thank you so much, Bean!” Layla immediately pulled out her phone and started snapping photos of the pizzas, before she got a cool idea and snapped a few candid photos of Linqian, Mr. Devola, Henri, Britney and the rest. For the memory!
”Really?” Linqian’s eyes went wide as she glanced over all the pizza. She started to mentally calculate how much everyone would eat. Henri had a large appetite, but he’d also had some of her actual dinner before… he’d probably eat about half a pizza. Edict had cleaned the plate when she cooked for him, so she estimated half for him too. Britney and Sabrina, she had no idea. Hopefully Layla wouldn’t eat much after having her noodles… Perhaps a pizza between the three, and a little more of another? If she only had one piece tonight, she could maybe take a whole pizza home. That could be her lunch for three days. Even half could last two.
Linqian reached out for a piece of plain mozzarella pizza. This would be enough to sustain her for the night. She’d gone on less. She took a bite, and immediately regretted it. No, it was fine. She ate another couple of pieces then stopped, putting the slice down. Intense nausea hit her. She gritted her teeth, and turned to look at Sabrina, asking in a strained voice, ”where’s your bathroom?”
Layla was halfway through a cheese pizza slice herself, looking up in surprise at Linqian. A chew and a swallow, before her brows furrowed. “You don't look good, Jee-ah jee.”
”I’m fine,” Linqian waved her hand at Layla, pushing down the nausea. ”Just need the toilet.”
“It’s right there,” Sabrina pointed at a door that was at the start of the hall. “… Clean up when you are done. Please and thanks.”
”Don’t worry, part of my job,” Linqian managed to get out. She stood up with help of the table, swaying very obviously, before beelining for the toilet. Well, it was a very not straight line. The bathroom door slammed loudly behind her, obviously not locked, and muffled retching could be heard shortly afterwards.
“Oh fuck, not again,” Henri said, gaze following his sister. He held out his hand towards Layla in case she tried to follow. “She won’t want you to go check on her, believe me, she barely let Ge in whenever she was sick. Shit, I’m making her sound like an alcoholic, it hasn’t been like that recently. She used to work at this place that’d make everyone go drinking… She’d never eat during work, then when she got home drunk would have dinner and get sooo sick.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry about this. She’ll be fine, I promise!”
Layla tensed a bit, staring at the hallway and bathroom door, before dragging her eyes over to Henri. What he was describing sounded awful.
“I… I didn't know it was that bad. That sounds… Really rough.”
She bit her lip, hesitating, before gently shrugging Henri's hand aside and stood. The world didn't sway nearly as much thanks to Mr. Devola's intervention.
“I'm gonna check on her.” She glanced at Henri, and frantically waved her hands. “I won't go in, I'll just knock.”
And she took off down the hall.
Fuck. Linqian leaned back against the bathroom wall after slamming the toilet lid closed, making sure to flush it multiple times. She’d give it a proper clean when her head stopped swimming… fuck, what a pain. She shouldn’t have tried eating. This always happens. Should’ve just drank herself into a coma!
She groaned, head falling onto her knees as her chest tightened. This was the bit she hated the most about drinking. The inevitable fucking shitty feelings that welled up as soon as she was alone. The crashing waves of hopelessness and despair that her sobriety held back.
There was a sudden knock on the door, and a soft voice spoke. Layla. “Jee-ah jee? You okay?”
"Fine, fuck off," Linqian snapped, not really caring if it upset Layla. She just needed a moment alone… well she didn't fucking want a moment alone, but she needed it to collect herself. It was easy to make herself sound normal, voice not shaking even as she felt her mood dropping. Just in case, she reached up and locked the door. She frowned, forcing herself to say something else. "Pizza just didn't agree with me.'
Layla paused for a moment there at the door, then spoke again. “Alright… if you're sure.” And she retreated, returning to the couch.
Linqian let out a slight sigh of relief, burying her head back in her knees. She needed to not fucking be like this. At least the nausea was a good excuse, no one would know she was curled up in the fucking bathroom trying to hold off a drunken breakdown that was long overdue. Jinhai, Henri being here... fuck.
She should’ve gone back to the toga line. Dealt with the temporary embarrassment for something that would help her forget everything. She knew just where she’d be if she had - with Vashti, getting so utterly destroyed and she did the same in return. She’d be embroiled in a pleasure so violent that there’d be no room for thoughts in her mind.
But she was here, in Sabrina Vanburen’s bathroom, trying not to cry and trying not to throw up again. Fuck. It was fine. She’d get her shitty emotions under control, go back out, and drink herself into a coma.
Britney led Edict back into the same room they had their conversation in, and she scowled as she crossed her arms and shook her head. She faced out the window, looking at the sky - or what little of it she could. ”Greyson… Greyson, what the fuck? Okay, I understood why you happy-pilled Ms. Deeby-Downer - and maybe that’s for the best - but I’m not going to sit here and let you mind-fuck all of our friends, okay?”
She shook her head. ”This stops.”
”What, with Layla!? I told you, it's for your sake - your safety!” Greyson paused, looking at Britney with dispondance in his eyes. He’d pocketed his channeler knowing how important it was that he distance himself from his magic when talking to her.
”Whatever you want me to do, fine! I’ve got no interest in arguing or-or… Or being a dick. I don’t wanna fight with you, Brit. Just… What? Who friend? Linqian?” he finally asked, eyes narrowing as the alcohol started to dissolve through his bloodstream.
Britney facepalmed.
”Look, Layla… I don’t care about, keep her high as a kite long as she’s not causing problems,” Britney began. ”Linqian? I care about her. And I don’t want this to go any further than that, alright? That’s it.”
Greyson closed his eyes, nodding like a child caught in the cookie jar. ”Listen… Alright. No sex, nothing like that, but… Technically she’s my employee. I promise we won’t hook up, I won’t even look at her. Nothing like that. Purely professional. But… We did spend a night together. I know she doesn’t want anything serious and you know I wouldn’t either! But, it's important for me to have eyes and ears that aren’t mine, Brit! You know people won’t just let me in like that, it’s like I’m some fucking goon to most of them!” He put his finger up, closing his eyes. Deep breaths.
”I will not hook up with her and I will not use my magic on her without her consent. She’s plenty capable of denying me, and we had one night of nothing: But I know for a fact that she needs the extra employment, and I need the help. If you can’t accept that, then I will dump it for you because you are what matters most to me. So make it clear as day to me right now how you feel, because a no from you means changes to a lot of plans.”
“Look, I mean far as digging in people’s head with your Pink-Lux,” Britney shrugged. “It’s not my place to tell you what you can do with your penis.”
”I’m not dig-” Greyson gripped his eyes, rubbing the bridge of his nose as he took a deep breath. ”-You got it. No digging, no rooting, no nothin’. I was only in her head in the first place because we were in the middle of things; you know how it is. The Lotus Blossom must unfurl.” he gave Britney a sideways grin.
”Now, is that all?
”... Do you want to try my new herbal tea?” Britney asked with a devious smile. ”If so, that’s all.”
A lot more thought and effort had to be put into the answer of this question than Greyson felt it deserved. If it were anyone else, the answer would be a no-brainer: Yes, I want your new herbal tea. I love tea. With Britney, new herbal tea could mean a leaf that constipates you and leaves you buckled over the toilet hurling shit out of your mouth. It could also mean falling asleep for the next forty-eight hours and losing contact with the outside world.
It could also be the best damn tea you’ve ever tasted in your life. There was a chance it was real tea, and it was good tea.
But why would she offer such a thing up right now? He took a deep breath, tilting his head back as he felt the alcohol pump through his system. It was in his brain… He hated it in his brain. ”Only if you’re drinking it too, Brit… And I pour…”
”Well, there goes my plan to lace it with laxatives!” Britney laughed. ”Let’s get back out there; I don’t want Bean to think we’re fucking in here again. She’s probably itching to dose the room with Lysol like she’s got a firehose!”
”Ahhh, same old Britney. I told you a dozen times you were meant for The Life. You’re like a razorblade.” Greyson proudly declared, ushering her back out to her friends and the cast of teens they’d managed to pick up along the way.
After Layla returned to the couch, she felt a ding in her pocket. Patting down her pajamas to find her phone, she pulled it out and saw a text from someone she wasn't expecting contact from so soon.
I need your abstraction. Send one of your ghosts over. I'll be behind the Haunted House.
Layla's heart skipped a beat. How did Luna know about her curse? Well… Layla stopped and thought about it logically as she sat there on the couch. Luna was always known as a spy, wasn't she? Did they have intel on her?
…How far did that intel go?
And how was she even going to convince-... No, no she had to be strong. Her medicine told her that she could handle her powers, she would find a way to convince the entities somehow. If Luna needed them, it must have been serious.
Tilting her head in thought, Layla sent a quick text back.
They don't play nice, but if you're sure, cut your hand a bit. It'll help them find you. I'll try to convince them to visit. No promises, okay?
Layla waited for a reply, which came a few moments after.
Okay.
That was the confirmation she needed. Taking a breath to steady herself under the rainbow sun and sugar-pop joy, Layla stood from the couch once more.
“I uh, need a smoke break. I'll be right back!”
A terrible lie, but she was hopeful her friends would only think Layla needed some air. If Linqian was faring poorly, it wouldn't be too suspicious if she suddenly felt poorly too. Slipping on her shoes, Layla opened the front door and stepped into the cold street.
Alone past the gate, Layla kept walking until she was out of view of Sabrina’s fancy house, and came to a stop under a street light. It felt a little awkward to be standing there in pajamas, but she figured people would assume it was yet another costume on this auspicious night.
Layla raised her hands together, cupping them, before a tiny seed began to form. It grew, glowing white, before a single, thorny stem burst from the seed, bulb opening up into a beautiful crystal rose.
Near instantly, the light from the street lamp cut out, plunging Layla in darkness. She shivered there, her breath coming out in puffy white mists, before she felt a gloved hand on her shoulder.
Layla gave a strangled shriek, spinning around to see Mr. Riil standing there, trench coat and hat looking blacker than pitch. He tilted his chin up arrogantly, arms crossing over his chest.
“You call with no sacrifices. You know what that means.”
Layla stammered as she stood there, then clamped down hard on her tongue. No. She wasn't weak. She wasn't scared! The medicine told her that she didn't have to be afraid of this!
Heartbeat pulsing in her ears, Layla clenched her fists and spoke.“I need your help.”
Mr. Riil stared, then laughed. “My help? You think you're in the position to ask for my help.”
“It's not for me, it's for someone else. Please, it's urgent!”
Mr. Riil stood there, unamusement radiating off of him. Before he got an idea, and a wicked chuckle emanated from his chest.
“Beg me.”
“What?”
“Beg. Me.”
Layla stood there, stunned. Would she really stoop so low? Would she really beg the entity that had near full control over her life and her bloodline?
Layla grimaced as she stood there.
Luna was counting on her, wasn't she?
Layla’s grimace increased, and she quietly knelt in front of Mr. Riil.
“Please.” She whispered.
“Louder.”
“Please!”
“Please what?”
“Please go to Cracker Island and find out what Luna needs.”
“I'm not convinced.”
Layla gritted her teeth and gripped the hem of Mr. Riil’s coat. “I'm begging you, please.”
At that, Mr. Riil chuckled. A dark, arrogant chuckle. He gave Layla a soft pat on her head. “Fine. I'll go and see her. Now go back to your party, my dear.”
Layla held her breath until Mr. Riil disappeared, then blindly made her way back to Sabrina’s house. She let herself back in, took off her shoes, and curled up on the couch once more, trying to hide the tremor in her hands.
“I’m back… What did I miss?”
"Not much!" Henri shrugged, glancing down towards the bathroom. "Jie's still in there but she texted me to say she's just worried she'll be sick again, and doesn't want to get it everywhere. Just been me and Bean and the pizza."
He held up his fifth slice with a grin. “Want anymore?”
“Maybe one more slice for now, yeah…” Layla said, trying a smile as she reached for another slice of cheese pizza.
“We were just… relaxing,” Sabrina began. “Say, Layla… you were apart of the same group that Britney, Linqian, and Greyson were apart of, right?”
Layla seemed to relax a bit at the question, leaning back into the couch with her pizza slice. “Yep! I was real young at the time, though. So it's not a surprise they still uh, treat me like a… Well, child.”
“Oh man, I get that!” Henri piped up, munching on his pizza. “Jie still treats me like a kid even though I’m eighteen… I mean I moved out and everything! Sorta. Like I’m back home now, but that’s because of… y’know. Anyway! I think we should rise up against them treating us like children! Show ‘em we’re not!”
“I feel like there’s a reason for that…” Sabrina mused.
Layla felt her tension melt a bit more, giggling at Sabrina's comment, and half-heartedly pumped the air with her fist. “Yeah! We can handle responsibility like everyone else! The best way to show that, though?”
Layla lapsed into thought for a moment, before her eyes sparkled. “We could polish off one of the bottles! Truly the epitome of responsibility.”
“Yeah! I like your thinking!” Henri grinned, the alcohol he’d had completely destroying the tiny amount of common sense he had. “Showing we can handle our alcohol is truly responsible… but not the Baijiu. Jie will kill me if I drink all of that without letting her have more. Let’s finish off the scotch!”
“Scotch it is!” Layla said with a triumphant whoop, beelining for the remaining scotch bottle and bringing closer to their side of the coffee table.
“I uh, don't want Jee-ah jee feeling even more worse than she already is, so yeah, we won't touch her Baijiu.” She said with a beaming smile.
She cracked the bottle open, poured a half glass for Henri, and the same amount for herself, set the bottle aside and gave Hanri a quick toast.
“To responsibility!”
“To responsibility!” Henri grinned, raising his glass.
Her eyes glanced at Sabrina cheerily, “You wanna join in on this toasting, Bean?”
“... You’re definitely not showing a lot of responsibility right now,” Sabrina quickly laughed. “You all should be toasting to not vomiting all over my furniture. I dealt with enough alcohol-fueled tomfoolery from my sisters to last a lifetime, heh…”
“We'll be careful, I promise!” Layla laughed.
“To not throwing up all over your couch!” Henri laughed, knocking back about half of the Scotch in his glass. He winced a bit at the burn against his throat, before taking another sip. “Don’t worry, I learnt from the best, Jie,” he gestured down the corridor towards the bathroom, “always makes it to the bathroom before spewing.”
“See? Absolute pro.” Layla mused happily as she sipped slowly on her own scotch, careful not to rush this time. She was feeling much better after her medicine, after all.
Britney, and by proxy Edict, returned to the living room as Sabrina was dealing with the two younger adults. He stared at Layla, then at Henri, and shook his head at the both of them. ”If there’s any kind of throwup on these couches by the end of the night, it better come from a person who can legally drink.” he barked at them, harkening back to his younger days as a teen getting harped on by the older Made guys. Hypocrisy came naturally as breathing air.
Layla immediately felt the strictness in his tone, and felt a bit sheepish with her glass. Still, she couldn't help but smile. “Yes, boss!”
Britney sat down next to Sabrina. ”Yeah, I can tell you two ain’t drink before… I know she’s going to be regretting her choices in the morning, ha!” Britney laughed as she threw a thumb Layla’s way.
Layla vigorously shook her head, giggling, “Never, not at all!”
“Heyyyy, I already promised not to throw up on the couch!” Henri grinned, completely unaffected by Edict’s tone - after all, he wasn’t really as scary as an angry Linqian (or the rare angry Jinhai he’d witnessed). “And Jie already avoided throwing up on the couch by getting to the bathroom in time, so surely it’s alright if I do it in her place! I won’t! But I totally could, she’d be fine with it, I swear.”
”Henri, you know damn well she’d explode. Now, scooch a cheek and lemmie sit down.” he playfully bumped into Henri, jostling him around. As he did so, Edict got a bit closer and held him steady. Nice and close. ”So she doesn’t know, huh? How long?”
“Ohhhh, of course she doesn’t know, how would I tell her that I have magic?” Henri whispered, leaning in closer and glancing at the others. “She wouldn’t believe me! It’s been, hmm, two months or so. Happened back in September, whoa, it was wild.”
”Listen Kid… I’m gonna blow your mind. But we’re gonna keep it a secret, okay?” Edict patted Henri’s shoulder like a friend would. ”She’s a witch. I’m a Wizard. Everyone in this room knows magic. There’s a room in this house full of sixty thousand bees magically controlled by some dickhead somewhere out in the city right now.”
Layla's eyes shimmered over her glass as she watched for Henri's reaction. He would finally be in the know.
“No way,” Henri’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open rather comically. He just stared at Edict for a while, seeming to be processing it. It was a lot to take in. “She… what? Is that what she meant about the bees- wait, so this whole time she’s- and Ge- uh, Jinhai- too?”
Edict waggled his eyebrows. ”Jinhai was one of the best of us. Skilled and powerful.” He spun his head slightly to look at the hallway, then back to Henri when he knew for sure Linqian wasn’t just hovering there. ”Listen… I’m a Warlock first, okay? But, my business outside is… Unsavory. Linqian won’t want you hanging out with me. But, I think you deserve to know more about our world than what’s been hidden from you. So, let’s meet up some time, eh? I can tell you stories, take you to people to learn about your powers… What do you think?”
Henri considered it for a moment. He didn’t want to do something Linqian didn’t want him to… but she protected him too much! If she’d hidden magic from him this whole time, she wasn’t about to start teaching him it. He made his decision, looking at Edict with shining eyes. “Yeah, I’d love that! I’ve just been figuring it out myself so far, which is hard when I was living in dorms till last week- And I really want to hear more about what Jie and Ge got up to with their magic.”
Edict proudly smiled and patted his shoulder again. ”I’ll show you everything I ever saw in high definition, Henri. It’ll be good for you. How about you give me your number, and when I know I’ve got a bit of free time I’ll give you a call and we’ll talk about what comes next?”
“Sure!” Henri grinned, before listing off his number just like that. “Oh, should I write it down, would that be easier? Also, I’m free like all the time, though Jie does want me to go to therapy… But right now, I don’t have anything on! So I’ll definitely be available. Well, I sometimes hang around her work, but I’m sure I can make an excuse and leave… heh, she’s too busy to pay attention anyway.”
Edict grinned and shook his head. ”No paper. In fact, you’ve gotta learn to make sure that she has no idea we’ve talked ever after tonight. I bet you when you’re sober tomorrow, she’s gonna give you a big lecture about how you shouldn’t ever talk to any of us. She’s real protective of you, y’know, you’re all she has left, Kid. Be good to her.”
“I know,” Henri rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m gonna become responsible enough that she doesn’t have to protect me- but just now, I won’t tell her. Promise.”
”Good, then you can start by not drinking anymore tonight.” Edict finished, finally sliding away and leaning his back against the couch to relax. However, meat lovers pizza hit his nose, and he tore open a box like a ravenous animal to devour the remaining slices of it.
“Responsibility…” Layla murmured under her breath. Mr. Devola was stepping back into his father-like role, and she quietly held onto her own glass, hand half hiding it. She preferred her own sense of responsibility, after all.
Henri pouted, but nodded slightly and put down his half drank glass of Scotch. It was perfectly timed, the sound of the bathroom door unlocking coming from down the hall.
Linqian reappeared, looking a lot worse for wear. The skin underneath her eyes was flushed and slightly puffy, her lipstick smudged, and her hair now tied back in a single, messy low ponytail with a few stray curls falling over her face. She silently made her way straight for the Baijiu bottle, crouching down to grab it and an empty glass. With the bottle in hand, she slumped against the sofa near Edict, immediately pouring herself a glass and downing it without much care. Her goal was very clear - drinking as much as possible as quickly as possible. There was no way this group would be able to distract her from all the fucking annoying thoughts she was struggling to ignore, and she needed a little bit more to even engage in conversation with them again.
“Jie, should you really be drinking more?” Henri asked.
”Absolutely. I need to replace what I threw up.” Linqian poured herself another glass. Her nose wrinkled at the smell wafting over from the pizza, but she was just about able to ignore it.
“... Should you really now?” Sabrina rolled her eyes.
Layla stared for a long moment at Linqian before she shrugged, holding up her own glass with a smile. “Cheers, Jee-ah jee.”
She took a small sip. Maybe this was what responsibility was. Going slow as heck with your alcohol. Fates knew she didn't want to mess up the refreshing Mr. Devola had given her.
She stared between Linqian and Henri. A smirk played at her lips. Now they all shared a secret that excluded Linqian, directly involving her own brother. Guidance was always helpful, and she remembered her own induction into the coven. Mr. Devola’s help was exactly what Henri would need.
Her mind drifted briefly, and she pulled out her phone. No response from Luna. Just what was going on at Cracker Island now?
Layla repocketed her phone, reaching for a mozzarella stick. A single bite, and she sighed happily. “This is the best. Good food, good company.”
”... And good people!” Britney said with a smile as she poured herself some wine and raised.
”And good booze,” Linqian added, holding up her glass.
“And hoping this night doesn’t go south...”
Layla smiled, surrounded by friends. It was comfortable, like she was where she was supposed to be. She took a sip of her drink before passing a palm over her lips, lost in thought for a moment.
“Well, there's a way we can test that theory about our night…” A mischievous grin passed over her lips. Oh, they'd love this, surely.
“Truth or dare, anyone?”
And the rest of the night continued like this, warm and friendly among companions.
They/She | 26 | Dutch-American | 5’1” | 103lbs _______________________________________________ Inscrutable _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "Be careful. You wouldn’t want my knife to slip and cut your carotid artery, would you?." ___________________________________
Dark Humour ⫻ Saskia would count their dark humour as a talent. When used at the right time, their sarcastic and morbid jokes can be quite funny. They’re less talented at actually using them at the right time.
Human Biology ⫻ Saskia has an in depth understanding of the human body and anatomy, sometimes to a disturbing degree. They know a lot about the best ways to kill a person and far too much about how quickly someone will bleed out depending where you cut them. Their interest in it is quite morbid. It’s useful with their abstraction, of course, allowing them to cut places that won’t cause them to bleed out. They use this knowledge in their spell development (along with anime inspiration).
Singing & Bass Playing ⫻ Saskia is a talented singer, along with having learned to play the bass guitar. They’re very good at both and want to make music in the future… Or at least, they wanted to. They tend to play more rock and metal music.
Bone Collection & Identification ⫻ Another morbid hobby of Saskia’s, they spent a lot of their free time collecting bones of dead animals. Because of this they can identify what animal a lot of skeletons are of, and know how to take care of bones to make them last.
Knife Use ⫻ While they’re not going to be winning any knife fights, Sakia is very talented at cutting things cleaning - whether its skin, or when cutting something up for cooking (which she’s not very good at). They’ve gotten very adept at using a knife.
Sketching ⫻ Saskia mostly sketches for an animal bone diary she keeps, along with anatomical sketches. She's very good at human anatomy and drawing people as a result, but has no talent in shading or colouring. She tends to stick to pencil or pen sketches.
Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Don’t mention my height."
Saskia is short and slim, often found with a deadpan expression. They’ve not got many curves to their body, flat just about everywhere - something that really doesn’t bother them at all. They’re fair skinned with blue eyes that look grey in certain lights. They have a smooth, diamond face shape. Saskia has shaggy, dyed blonde hair (naturally its brown) cut to fall just below their chin. It’s choppily layered and often covers up their ears and the side of their face. They tend not to do much with it, at most pushing it behind their ear so it’s off their face. Saskia has a long scar down their right thigh, where they cut themselves in a last desperate attempt to survive. They’re most commonly found with a grumpy looking expression, even though they really feel this way.
Saskia wears a mixture of clothing, depending on how they’re feeling on the day. Most days they’ll dress quite androgynously, with baggy trousers and men’s tank tops or band t-shirts. They’ll add an undershirt, hoodie or sweater sometimes - and a dark brown leather jacket if really necessary. They prefer neutral tones or blacks. They’re slightly less emo than they were as a teenager, but still like to dress more in that style. They rarely wear any non grayscale colours, outside of jeans and the occasional red or brown. On the days they’re feeling more feminine they’ll mix things up a little with gothic skirts or the rare dress. Saskia enjoys adding accessories to their outfits - necklaces, rings and chains. They have three lobe piercings, and normally wear a stud earring in two and a ring in the other. They often wear platform boots to give them a boost in height, because they dislike being short.
Psychology ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Am I unhappy? No. I’m frowning? That’s just what my face looks like.”
MAIN GOAL ⫻ Primarily to live again. After they get brought back to life, Saskia wants to start a rock band. Their ideal would be to make it into their career.
PHILOSOPHY ⫻ Saskia believes in freedom - for people to make their own choices, to express themselves and to love whatever they want to love. Whether this is boring and normal, or weird and dark. They believe that nobody should be forced down a path they don’t want or into something they dislike. You should pursue your own dreams rather than those of someone else. They also believe you have to accept that life is shit sometimes, and embrace that - not necessarily through positivity, but it’s easier to deal with if you expect things to be bad sometimes.
SECRETS ⫻ While not a secret to friends, Saskia kept their gender identity secret to their parents. They knew they wouldn’t take it well, so they haven’t come out. They’ve also been hiding a longterm crush on their closest friend Ella - very, very well (it helps that Ella’s pretty oblivious too). They’re also hiding just how much their own death traumatised them, because they don't want to worry their friends when they’ve experienced similar.
SEXUALITY ⫻ Pansexual with a preference for women. While Saskia’s had a longtime crush on their friend Ella, they’ve had a couple of others at the same time and is fairly certain they’re polyamorous.
FEARS ⫻ Saskia fears being constrained, and never getting to live the life they want to - doubly so now they might not even get a life at all. They also have claustrophobia and get incredibly panicked in closed spaces, adding to their fear of being trapped. They fear that they’ll never actually be good enough for the life they want to live or for anyone in their life, just like they weren’t good enough for their parents. They fear dying again much more than they’d like to admit. But most of all she fears losing Ella and having to see her dead body again.
REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ Saskia’s overall reputation in the coven was negative. Unlike some of the other weirder members they didn’t have friendliness or positivity to make up for their dark sense of humour and grim interests. Plus, their abstraction was solely based in gross body manipulation. Most people outside of a small group didn’t particularly get on with them, and they were mostly seen as a tagalong of Ella.
ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Saskia acted as one of the many front end fighters. While using their abstraction was always risky it was strong, allowing her to fight off many apparitions with only one or two others. Them and Ella often worked together to sweep through groups of apparitions and keep the other strong groups safe while fighting the snake.
FLAWS ⫻ Saskia often says the wrong thing at the wrong time. They don’t know when to tone down their dark humour, whether making an edgy joke when they shouldn’t or just straight up upsetting others. They’re quite blunt as well, not really holding back on her opinions of others. Saskia isn’t the best socially. They struggle with understanding other people and aren’t the best at reading social cues. If someone doesn’t tell them what they’re feeling they won’t know, and they can be quite insensitive. Also Saskia themself is very difficult to read - they often have a ‘resting bitch face’, but not on purpose. They just aren't very expressive and their neutral expression appears grumpy to other people. Beyond their actual facial expressions, they're very bad at expressing their feelings in words too. They’re just not particularly emotional either. Saskia has some confidence issues thanks to their parents - mainly not truly believing they’re worthy of their friends or of success. She also has very little qualms about hurting or killing people, often in increasingly disturbing methods. Often she thinks about what she'll do to her enemies, without any guilt or discomfort on her part. She's lacking in empathy somewhat, beyond those she views as friends.
Backstory ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I won’t let her die again."
Saskia was born the only child of two Dutch immigrants. Their mother was a teacher while their father worked in finance. They had high hopes for their only child - hopes they hadn’t been able to fulfil thanks to having to make a life for themselves in a new country. From the day Saskia was born, their entire life had been planned out. They would get the best grades through school, go to the best schools they could afford and get a well paying, high status job such as being a lawyer or a doctor.
This wasn’t so bad when they were younger. Saskia was a bright kid with a natural interest in the human body, so they excelled in at least biology. They also loved reading, often having their nose stuck in a book far too violent for someone of their age. But as they grew up those expectations got more and more difficult to meet. They started to struggle in subjects they had no interest in - which was most of them - and their grades started slipping. This resulted in their parents getting harsher and more controlling. Saskia’s only escape was their books and the heavy music they liked to listen to. They had very few friends at school and wouldn’t be allowed to hang out with them once school was done either. Most of their life was spent reading and studying. They always felt trapped - both in the life that their parents wanted for them and the gender roles pushed on them. This only grew worse with puberty.
Once they reached middle school Saskia began getting bullied for their strange hobbies - most other kids weren’t reading intense horror novels or picking up the bones of dead animals at the side of the street. This just led Saskia to believe that they didn’t need other people. Their bullies didn’t keep it up for long, either, since they never got a reaction out of Saskia… which of course, they were taunted for as well. Instead they just ended up isolated.
Then they started highschool and met Ella Brooks. Ella was Saskia’s first friend and introduced them not only to two more friends, but also anime. It was a whole new media for Saskia to explore - filled with all sorts of edgy ones they enjoyed, and more mixed ones they could watch with their new friend. Thanks to Ella, the light in their life, Saskia began to push back against their parents. They snuck out of their house to hang out with friends and started to experiment with their gender - going with only they pronouns at first, before getting more comfortable in still being aligned with femininity. Ella supported them through all of this.
It was on an unapproved trip to the arcade with Ella and their two other friends that they first experienced the Stygian Snake’s terror. Their two other friends were enthralled and Saskia kindled, using the blood from a cut their friend had given them to fight her off and get away along with Ella. They ran into Sycamore Tree members and decided to join… Well Ella did, and Saskia followed her.
Using their favourite anime and love of anatomy, Saskia began to develop blood spells and later bone based ones that allowed them to be on the frontlines fighting the Stygian Snake and its apparitions. They were constantly pushing themselves to get better and were almost always found with Ella on the front lines, covering each other's backs. Saskia was also reluctantly a member of the ‘Magical Girl’ group - reluctant in that they didn’t really fit the cutesy aspect, and weren’t really a girl.
But then the worst happened.
In the week leading up to the Eclipse they were spread thin, and Ella went off to fight a group of apparitions by herself. Saskia was caught up fighting apparitions herself and by the time they were able to catch up… it was too late. All that was left was Ella’s mauled body. After that, Saskia was a shell of their former self. They barely talked to anyone and just threw themselves into the fights, pushing themselves further and further. On the day before the Eclipse, when Drake Blackmore’s recklessness led them into a fight against the Stygian Snake they weren’t prepared for. Saskia was trapped by a large group of apparitions and completely separated from the rest of the coven. They managed to fight them all off, but used too much blood in their desperation to win and succumbed to their wounds, bleeding to death.
The next thing they knew, they were resurrected by the Hound along with Ella and Lisa. Saskia was super suspicious of him, but he said that they could return to their previous life if they became his “Agents of Death” and completed some missions for him. So they decided to follow his orders for now.
Plus, Agents of Death is a much more fitting name than Magical Girls.
Paranormal-Abilities ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "... Do I have to? Alright, fine… Magical Girl Haima reporting for duty."
ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Inspired by all the edgy anime they watch, Saskia has developed spells for blood and bone manipulation. The first is her primary and strongest group of spells, with the latter developed later on.
THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM ⫻ Saskia’s primary system of spells, which mainly focuses around controlling her own blood. Saskia has to have access to her blood to use this power via some kind of wound which she normally makes herself.
Blood Blade ⫻ Saskia forms a long, sharp blade on the top of each of their hands. She can choose how long this blade is within reason. It’s slightly curved, and it formed from her blood from an open wound. It’s incredibly sharp and can cut through materials such as steel, and easily cuts through flesh like an incredibly sharp sword.
Blood Tentacle ⫻ Using more blood than the blood blade, Saskia can create a long tentacle made out of blood from her back. This has varying uses. It has a longer range, and can deal blunt damage by hitting things or piercing damage with the tip. She can also use it to pull her up places, or give her a boost from underneath.
Blood Bullet ⫻ Saskia forms essentially a bullet of blood at her fingertips or in the palm of her hand, and shoots it towards a target. This moves at an incredibly fast speed, piercing flesh just like a real bullet would.
Blood Whip ⫻ Saskia creates a long, thin whip made out of her blood from the palm of her hand. This can be used as a ranged weapon just like a normal whip, with a length of up to ten metres. It can also be used to wrap around enemies or objects, with more precision than the blood tentacle but less overall strength due to its thinness. It can also be used to pull herself towards things.
Blood Armour ⫻ Saskia can use her blood to form a protective layer around her body. This is a thin layer of blood that’s hardened, and more resistant to attacks. She can either form it around specific body parts, or all of her. This is strong enough to block most light weapon attacks and protect against paranormal attacks. However it uses a lot of blood, and she risks blood loss very quickly if she uses it in combination with any of her other blood based spells.
Blood Regeneration ⫻ a spell Saskia developed to be able to use their blood control spells without passing out, it allows them to regenerate her own blood at a faster level than normal. Without it, she would be dizzy from just using their blood blade and probably pass out from making anything larger. It doesn't protect them from major blood loss, it only slightly lessens the effect of it and allows them to use their blood control spells without instantly running out of blood.
Blood Return ⫻ Saskia returns any undamaged blood out of her body, that’s still attached to her, back inside her body and clots over the wound. She can also use this to quickly clot any wounds she doesn’t need for her spells, preventing blood loss.
THE MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM ⫻ A series of spells currently focused on bone growth and manipulation.
Bone Spikes ⫻ Saskia can generate sharp, spike like bones from anywhere on her body. She can generate two spikes at a time. The process is instantaneous, she can choose to grow and retract them at will. These spikes are very sharp at the end and blunt otherwise. They can be used offensively as weapons, or used as a surprise attack.
Bone Lightening ⫻ Saskia manipulates her own bones to make them hollow, thus making her much lighter and faster. This increases her speed and agility, with the downside of making her physically weaker and her bones frailer.
Bone Breaking ⫻ A gross spell that Saskia tends not to use because people (Ella specifically) hate it, but Saskia can forcibly break her own bones. This allows her to get through spaces she shouldn’t be able to. She can choose the specific bone she wants to break and break multiple at a time.
Bone Regeneration⫻ Saskia can heal and regenerate bones much faster than normal. A broken bone is nothing to her, she can heal from it in a matter of minutes.
Musculoskeletal Wings ⫻ From her back, Saskia grows a pair of twisted and grotesque looking wings made purely out of muscle, sinew and bone. The tips have curved, sharp bone points that can be used as a piercing weapon. They are a total of six metres in length and she can conrol them like another set of limbs. They can be used to wrap around herself as an extra shield, as a blunt weapon to knock people over or a piercing weapon using the sharp bones at their tips. The wings are strong enough to allow her to fly at a pace similar to her walking at her normal weight, and much faster in combination with her bone lightening spell. The wings are versatile, and she can manipulate their appearance when they grow to best suit her needs.
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ⫻ A series of spells focusing on nerve manipulation, both her own and other people's.
Nerve Connection ⫻ Saskia pushes her own nerves out through the tips of her fingers, and can embed these into someone, allowing them to tap into their nervous system. Those without emotional fields have no protection against this. Those with emotional fields can more easily get rid of the connected nerves, but they are still able to create the nerve connection, just with a dampened effect. She can create a nerve connection per fingertip, and each can connect to a different person or body part.
Paralytic Nerves ⫻ Once connected to someone's nervous system, Saskia's able to cause paralysis or sluggishness by disrupting the target's nerves. They can immediately paralyse the limb their connected to of someone without an emotional field, and cause this paralysis to spread across their entire body. The longer she's connected the longer this paralysis will last. For someone with an emotional field, at first they can only cause the limb they're connected to to act 'sluggish', having a delayed reaction to the nerve commands given to it. Eventually, this will lead to paralysis, or the spread of sluggishness if she chooses to prioritise this.
THE BODY SYSTEM ⫻ Saskia's final discipline, containing the spells that don't neatly fit into one type of system, along with all joint casts - representing the people that make her a 'whole'.
Spit Shot ⫻ A spell Saskia developed in the Pit to counter Autoknights, but can also be used on other types of machinery or metal objects (such as guns). Saskia uses her spit, in a highly accurate and relatively long ranged shot. It sticks to anything it touches and expands to coat the nearby surface. At first it's incredibly sticky before rapidly hardening - blocking up joints, clogging up gears, preventing bullets from being shot ect. While the radius it expands in isn't massive the can shoot it very accurately, and can use it continually. It sticks incredibly well to metal, making it difficult to clean off.
The-Magical-Mecha-Spider! ⫻ A Joint-Cast between Lisa Turner, Ella Brooks, and Saskia Otten., creating a colossal metal spider that the three of them pilot like some type of weird Mecha. When the three of them get together, Lisa summons a notable swarm of metal spiders imbued with Ella's Orange Lux that build the Mecha's frame, and Saskia creates a massive armor made out of blood around it. When it's complete, the Mecha-Spider is enormous, thirty feet tall, and very odd yet menacing. Each girl operates a different function within the Mecha-Spider: Lisa controls the spider's movement and repairing it, Ella manages the offensive systems, allowing the Mecha-Spider to fire a powerful beam of light, and Saskia handles the defensive systems, controlling the Blood Armor and other projectiles. Saskia controls a cache of "blood missiles" in the spider's legs. These missiles are launched at enemies and explode into a mass of "Blood Bullets" that shoot in all directions. When the Spider is damaged, Lisa deploys a unique team of spiders that weave metal like silk. Despite The-Magical-Mecha-Spider!'s potential, it can only be maintained for thirty minutes before it falls apart, and the girls will not be able to use it for the rest of the day.
The-Discombobulate-Healing-Field! ⫻ Yet another Joint-Cast between Lisa Turner, Ella Brooks, and Saskia Otten, designed in the Old Coven to create a massive healing field in the fight against the Stygian Snake. The three girls stand in a triangle, aiming their hands at the center of the triangle, combining their unique Lux types to form a healing zone that is a testament to their diametric personalities. The field is a potent source of regenerative energy, but it also has a disturbing aspect. Still, all three combine their Green-Lux and insert a different aspect of their personality. Ella provides a bright, rainbow-colored light that illuminates the entire area with a vibrant glow and otherwise does nothing. Tiny spiders made of blood are automatically summoned throughout the field's radius and home in on anybody nearby. Once they reach their target, they burrow into their skin, releasing a healing compound that promotes speedy healing. The longer they remain in the field, the more these spiders will burrow into their skin, and the Trio can keep the healing field going as long as they stand in a triangle.
Super Prism Spear Gun! ⫻ A potent, if crazy, joint cast between Saskia and Ella. Ella imbues Saskia with a prismatic light, using her orange lux to enhance her abstraction and emotional field temporarily. Saskia creates two massive, strong bone spears out of her fists. Ella then picks up Saskia and throws her towards a target, with Saskia's hands above her head, like a human spear surrounded by light. Saskia is thrown fast enough to easily pierce any armour with her bone spears, with an incredibly strong impact.
Vivid Blood Sphere ⫻ A joint cast between Ella and Saskia that combines Ella's vivid sphere spell with Saskia's blood bullet to form a massive sphere of blood and bright colours. The two have to stand side by side, hands held out to form the Vivid Blood Sphere between them. Together they shoot the sphere at a target - its strong enough to rip through flesh like a bullet while hitting as hard as a massive steel ball. Upon impact it explodes into a rain of blood and bright colours, burning whatever the target as if it was acid.
Super Prism Blood Weapons! ⫻ Using her light manipulation combined with her orange lux, Ella imbues Saskia's blood weapons with prismatic lights. She can imbue any one weapon spell (or the armour) at the time. Her and Saskia have to hold hands as Saskia creates her blood weapon and Ella imbues it, covering them in a radiant, prismatic light. This makes her weapons much stronger - more durable and harder to break, sharper, and much stronger for a short period. This makes her attacks much more devestating, or her armour more protective.
Light Speed Attacks! ⫻ Combining primarily their green lux, Saskia and Ella hold hands and cast a spell to enhance Ella. Saskia uses her bone lightening spell to make Ella much lighter, faster and more agile. Their combined green lux strengthens Ella to combat the brittleness of her bones. This makes Ella much faster and harder hitting for a short period of time, allowing her to use her normal attacks to a much more potent, damaging level.
Blood Rain ⫻ A potent and incredibly disturbing Joint-Cast between Lisa and Saskia. The spell begins with Lisa summoning massive, pulsating spiders with bloated sacs full of blood into the sky. Then, Saskia channels her magic through these spiders, causing them to explode and rain blood down on the environment. These blood droplets are far from ordinary; each carries corrosive and binding properties. The blood can melt through armor upon contact, and after a few moments, it solidifies, binding whatever it touches and creating a hazardous zone.
The Death Blow ⫻ A Joint-Cast so brutal it borders on being a war crime. To execute this spell, Lisa conjures a massive spider while Saskia simultaneously forges a colossal bone spear. The two synchronize their efforts; Saskia loads the spear into the spider's maw, and Lisa commands the spider to launch it with incredible force toward their target. Upon impact, the spear embeds itself into the foe and explodes into thousands of bone shards that spray acid in all directions. This devastating attack shreds the target and ravages the surrounding environment, ensuring the brutal death of anything lacking particular durability and annihilating everything nearby.
Laceration ⫻ When this spell is cast, Saskia creates two special blood blades infused with Green Lux and hands one to Lisa. The two must coordinate and attack their target simultaneously. If they strike the target immediately, their combined Green Lux penetrates the victim's Emotional-Field, forcibly tearing open a massive wound. This wound will spray copious amounts of blood into the air like a geyser, as the Green Lux generates extra blood for dramatic effect.
LIMITS ⫻
THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM ⫻ The main limit of all these spells is the amount of blood she has in her body - she can’t use anymore than that.
Blood Blade ⫻ Saskia can form a blades with a maximum length of 30cm. While they easily cut the blind, paranormal are more protected against her blood blade, making it more like a very sharp knife. She can’t just cut an apparition's head off with it, for example.
Blood Tentacle ⫻ The blood tentacle can go a maximum length of 2m, with the longer it is the less time she can keep it up. She has to be bleeding already to use it, and it takes a few minutes for all the blood to gather and form it. The blood tentacle is less precise - she can try and hit someone with it, or grab a ledge, but she can’t pick something up with it. It can be damaged just like any part of her could be.
Blood Whip ⫻ The blood whip has a maximum length of 5m. It's long and thing, making it not very durable or strong - she could use it to wrap around someone, but it would be easier for them to break out of it than her blood tentacle.
Blood Bullet⫻ The blood gun has a range of twenty metres. It can only hit one target at a time. Saskia can’t put this blood back into her body like she can the blood blade or tentacle. The further away a target is, the harder it is to be precise with it. She can only use it about four times before getting lightheaded.
Blood Armour ⫻ This can block small arms and weaker paranormal attacks, however it can also be damaged. If it’s damaged properly then Saskia can’t reuse the blood. She feels any pain from getting hit like normal, it just doesn’t hurt her. She can generally only do this once before properly replenishing her blood.
Blood Regeneration ⫻ Saskia can replenish about a pint of blood (plasma) per hour, and complete regenerates lost red blood cells for that pint in 24 hours.
THE MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM ⫻
Bone Spikes ⫻ Saskia can only create two bone spikes at a time and she has to retract one before creating another. She can only create them out of her own body. They can be made up to 40cm in length, but the longer they are the thinner they’ll be. While strong enough to pierce flesh they wouldn’t be able to get through steel. They can also be destroyed or damaged, which would hurt Saskia. If they’re broken they need to be regenerated by her regeneration spell.
Bone Lightening ⫻ Saskia can only lighten her bones for ten minutes at a time.
Bone Breaking ⫻ Saskia can only break one bone at a time, so she has to do each one individually.
Bone Regeneration⫻ It takes Saskia a minute to heal a small broken bone, three a medium sized, and five a larger bone. She can’t cast this spell along with any other spells, outside of her blood regeneration.
Musculoskeletal Wings ⫻ The wings take about a minute to grow fully. They can be used when growing, but it will hurt Saskia and she can't fly with them until they're completely grown. They require constant energy to maintain.
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ⫻
Nerve Connection ⫻ Saskia can only form a connection with one person. It has to physically burrow into their skin. It takes a few seconds for those without emotional fields, longer for those with.
Paralytic Nerves ⫻ The paralysis lasts double the time Saskia was connected - so connected for a minute, it'll last two further minutes, ten minutes it'll last twenty ect. It doesn't paralyse those with emotional fields unless she is connected for a long time. It takes ten minutes of connection to completely paralyse someone without them.
THE BODY SYSTEM ⫻
Spit Shot ⫻ Saskia can shoot this up to 10 metres. The further away its shot the less accurate it is. It spreads to about double the size of the amount of spit used, hardening in about 5-10 seconds.
The-Magical-Mecha-Spider! ⫻ The creation and control of the Mecha-Spider drains a considerable amount of energy from Lisa, Ella, and Saskia, leaving them physically and mentally exhausted after its use. The Mecha-Spider can only be maintained for thirty minutes before it falls apart, leaving them vulnerable. The three can only cast this Joint-Cast once a day.
The-Discombobulate-Healing-Field! ⫻ The field has a radius of 40 meters, and drains significant energy from the three. Eventually, they will collapse due to exhaustion. The three can only cast this joint cast once a day.
Super Prism Spear Gun! ⫻ Saskia can only be thrown in a straight line to maximise the potential of this spell, anything else will mean she'll lose speed and not hit as hard. She can be thrown up to thirty meters. Once she's thrown, she can't change direction. This spell can only be cast once every half an hour.
Vivid Blood Sphere ⫻ The Vivid Blood Sphere has a range of forty metres, but it slows down in the less ten, making it less strong. It can only be used once every thirty minutes.
Super Prism Blood Weapons! ⫻ The enhancement from this spell only lasts about five minutes, with a cooldown of five minutes before it can be used again.
Light Speed Attacks! ⫻ This spell can only be used for five minutes, before needing a ten minute cooldown.
Blood Rain ⫻ The Blood Rain spell can be cast anywhere within a hundred-meter radius, and covers a twenty meter radius. Blood Rain requires a certain ambient moisture level in the atmosphere to function effectively. Its potency is reduced in arid environments, limiting its effectiveness in certain locations. It can be cast once every thirty minutes
The Death Blow ⫻ While the venomous bone shards of The Death Blow are devastating upon impact, their potency diminishes rapidly over time. After a short duration, the acid loses its lethality until it's completely harmless. The Spear can only travel up to forty meters, and once it goes outside that range, it will embed into the ground but will not explode. They can only cast this joint cast once an hour.
Laceration ⫻ The success of Laceration depends on Lisa and Saskia's ability to coordinate this attack perfectly. However, they only have a brief window of opportunity to synchronize their strikes, making precise timing crucial. If their timing is slightly off, they will fail to penetrate the target's Emotional-Field, rendering the spell useless.
WEAKNESSES ⫻
THE CIRCULATORY SYSTEM ⫻ The main weakness to Saskia’s abstraction is blood loss. She’s using her own blood from her body, and her blood regeneration spell doesn’t help this much. After forming her blood tentacle, which uses the most blood, she’ll feel slightly lightheaded. When using more she’ll start to get all the symptoms of anemia: tiredness, weakness, difficulty bleeding, dizziness, headaches ect. If she keeps using more blood this could lead to a heart attack, stroke, or even death (which is how she originally died). Water is another weakness - it causes the red blood cell membrane to tear, making it much less controllable.
Her blood blade, tentacle and whip are essentially an extension of her body. She feels pain if they’re hit, they can be cut off like a limb ect. If they’re cut off that blood is completely lost to her and she can’t put it back into her body. She’s also weak to fire, ice and temperature attacks, which will essentially boil or freeze her blood. Any kind of disease based abstraction will hit her harder, as she essentially has to have an open wound to use her abstraction. In general this makes her more vulnerable to any attacks, and any other wounds will lead to her bleeding out faster.
THE MUSCULOSKELETAL SYSTEM ⫻ Using these spells hurts. Her bone spears have to literally tear through her skin which isn’t painless. While she can clot over these wounds they’re still there and incredibly painful. Any damage to these spears hurts her just as if her normal bones had been broken. Her bone lightening makes her bones much more fragile. They break easily and while she can regenerate them, it’s painful. Her bone breaking spell has an obvious weakness - she’s literally breaking her bones and feels all the pain of that. Plus it leaves her vulnerable because, well, she has broken bones. Her bone regeneration spell is even more painful - she feels double the pain she did when the bone was broken. It also leaves her vulnerable as she can’t use any other spells along with it. Her musculoskeletal wings make her a much easier to hit target - anything that hits them hurts her, even if they're much more durable than her. Growing them is incredibly painful as they push physically through her back, as is pulling them back in. The added weight of them slows her down on land, making her less agile.
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM ⫻ Because of the nerve connection, Saskia essentially is an extension of the person's nervous system. She can feel what they do... including things that would hurt Saskia. The connecting nerves themselves are exposed and damage to them would cause intense pain to Saskia, along with other possible side effects - temporary numbness and paralysis, all the way to permanent nerve damage.
THE BODY SYSTEM ⫻
Spit Shot ⫻ Saskia can dehydrate herself by using too much spit. While she regenerates it faster, and could technically to it as much as possible, eventually she'll start to be hurt by it. In extreme cold, or when hit by ice attacks, the spit freezes and can be easily shattered & removed.
The-Magical-Mecha-Spider! ⫻ The The-Magical-Mecha-Spider! is incredibly large and slow, it has little mobility options to off-set this, so against a faster opponent it's useless. The Mecha-Spider's frame is not structurally sound, and its components are prone to malfunction or collapse under stress, posing a risk to the Magical Girls inside.
The-Discombobulate-Healing-Field! ⫻ The healing field can only be sustained as long as the three remain in a triangle formation, limiting their mobility options. If too many healing spiders burrow into a single target, it can lead to unintended consequences such as accelerated cell growth, causing mutations or uncontrollable regeneration. The Field will heal everyone within the field, friend and foe alike.
Super Prism Spear Gun! ⫻ While in the air, while fast Saskia is technically vulnerable to any attacks, especially ones large area ones that go into her path. It can easily go wrong if she hits something like a wall, or even hitting what she intended to could cause her bones to shatter. While preparing the spell, the two are vulnerable. This also puts Saskia right beside enemies, leaving her possibly vulnerable.
Vivid Blood Sphere ⫻ The Vivid Blood Sphere requires fuel from both Ella and Saskia - in the form of colours from Ella and blood from Saskia. If Ella doesn't have enough colour around her to draw on, then Saskia will be forced to use more of her blood to fuel it, leading to typical weaknesses that come with lack of blood. They aren't immune to the splash of the sphere upon impact, nor are allies.
Super Prism Blood Weapons! ⫻ Saskia's blood weapons are still weak to fire and temperature attacks, and come with the normal risk of blood loss. While Saskia's weapons are imbued, Ella temporarily can't imbue herself - meaning she can't use her Super Prism Kick! attack, or her Iridescent Improvement! spells.
Light Speed Attacks! ⫻ Ella is still more vulnerable to injury when fighting with this spell, more likely to break her bones when hitting something too hard. Saskia is also under the same effect for the duration of the spell, and is unable to use her bone regeneration spell while enhancing Ella.
Blood Rain ⫻ Lisa and Saskia are not immune to the effects of the Blood Rain, and can be easily affected by it if they are not careful. Casting Blood Rain drains a significant amount of Lisa and Saskia's blood, leading to physical weakness and potential fainting if used excessively. The Spell can be considered socially unacceptable and alienate their allies due to its brutality.
The Death Blow ⫻ The two are vulnerable while casting it as they need a few minutes to prepare the spell, and if interrupted they will have to start over. Faster opponents can speed-blitz them, and dodge the bone spear. They are not immune to the toxic fragments and can easily kill themselves if they use this joint cast in close quarters. After casting this spell, all of their spells will be weaker. The Spell can be considered socially unacceptable and alienate their allies due to its brutality.
Laceration ⫻ By penetrating someone's Emotional-Field, they will drop their own Emotional-Field for a short period and leave themselves vulnerable to external magic. After casting this spell, all of their spells will be weaker. The Spell can be considered socially unacceptable and alienate their allies due to its brutality.
Other ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I like the name Agents of Death. Suitably dark, I think."
Saskia’s fluent in dutch. Also she'd write song lyrics about Ella, and other people she had crushes on, that included... certain details. She destroyed any evidence after. She also loves sketching little gorey scenes.
"Be the light in the darkness! Share your brightness with everyone!"
_______________________________________________ Ella Rene Brooks
She/Her | 26 | African-American | 5’9” | 167lbs _______________________________________________ Radiant _______________________________________________ Skills & Talents "So in Sailor Moon R episode 8, during the school festival, about fifteen minutes in she-" ___________________________________
Anime Knowledge ⫻ Being a massive weeb, Ella has in depth knowledge of many anime - with a particular speciality in magical girl ones. But she watches all sorts of genres, always trying to keep up with the popular anime of the season even if she isn’t into it. If you want to know what anime to watch, just ask her, she has recommendations for everything. Don’t know what anime a character is from? Ask Ella, she’ll know. She spent more time watching anime than she did studying or doing literally anything else with her life.
Quote Memorisation ⫻ Ella has a very good memory when it comes to quotes. After a few watches of an episode she’ll be spouting all sorts of quotes from it. She probably remembers more anime quotes than she does actually useful information.
Sewing ⫻ Before the Stygian Snake, Ella had another nerdy hobby - cosplaying! She’d make all sorts of anime outfits for herself and her friends… Which she doesn’t really have to do anymore because she can transform her clothes, but it’s still fun!
Art ⫻ Ella is quite artistic, and has gotten quite good at drawing. Normally she draws in an anime style inspired by the ones she enjoys watching. A lot of her art is of characters and… relationships between characters.
Appearance ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "What’s the point in wearing something if it doesn’t look cute?"
Ella’s bright cheerfulness is visible in all aspects of her appearance - from her wide smile to her pink hair. Ella is a bit of a bigger girl, a bit taller than average with some weight to her from a generally sedentary lifestyle (outside of being a magical girl). She’s quite curvy, with a sizable chest and hips. She has medium brown skin which is quite smooth and lacking in marks.
One of the most noticeable things about Ella is her pastel pink hair. Left natural it's normally quite coily (type 4b to be exact), but right now she has them in box braids that fall midway down her back. She styles these in all sorts of ways - with her favourite being two buns on the top of her head and half the braids left loose. She’s always found with at least one, if not multiple, brightly coloured hair clips in her hair. Along with her colourful hair, Ella loves wearing bright makeup. Her lips are always a glossy pink or red, with bliss on her cheeks. She uses various shades of pink and glittery eyeshadows and loves to do fancy eyeliner designs when she has the time.
Ella is always found in cutesy clothes. Most of her clothing is pastel shades, with the occasional brighter colour thrown in. Her favourites are pink and purple. She loves wearing pleated skirts and wide legged trousers, with crop tops or baggier t-shirts tucked into them. Knitted jumpers and cardigans of a variety of designs are a staple in her fashion. She loves all sorts of designs - butterflies, flowers, cute fruits, or just geometric ones. As long as it's cute she’ll wear it. Ella loves to accessorise, with colourful necklaces, bracelets and rings. She has multiple ear piercings - two lobe ones on each ear, an industrial in her left ear and a flat piercing in her right. She normally wears cute earrings, especially with heart or butterfly designs. Ella wears a pair of large, gold rimmed glasses. She’ll sometimes wear contacts, but generally just sticks with the glasses.
Psychology ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "If you try your best and have friends by your side, you’re guaranteed to succeed!”
MAIN GOAL ⫻ Ella’s primary goal right now is, obviously, getting a second chance at life. Once that’s done she wants to catch up on all the anime she’s missed, and go to Japan. Also she’d like to become a school teacher, and maybe find some kind of romance… she’s never exactly had the chance!
PHILOSOPHY ⫻ There’s always light in the darkness, no matter how difficult things seem. Ella believes in optimism and always moving forward even in the worst circumstances. Sometimes you have to become that light for other people, and help them see the good in the world. Ella literally thinks in the power of friendship and that by working together you can do anything. She’s always trying to do her best by other people, aiming to motivate and support so others can live their best lives. That together even the worst, darkest hours can be overcome.
SECRETS ⫻ Ella’s an open book, and doesn’t really have any secrets. Honestly, she’s probably too open about things she should keep to herself.
SEXUALITY ⫻ Ella identifies as a lesbian, being attracted to women and more feminine aligning nonbinary people. She realised this as a young teenager… however she's yet to have a crush on a real person, as opposed to someone who's fictional.
FEARS ⫻ Her favourite manga getting adapted into an anime only to get cancelled after one season. Her favourite manga getting cancelled early. Her favourite anime or manga getting poorly localised and misunderstood. She’s also scared of needles and amphibians. Another thing Ella fears is not being able to be there for other people - that she’ll slack, and everyone will crumble. She feels she has to hold up everyone else, to keep them happy and positive, and fear what will happen if she doesn’t.
REPUTATION IN OLD COVEN ⫻ To most members of the coven, Ella was an absolute weirdo. She was incredibly vocal about her interests and always said the cringiest shit while using her abstraction. Among the more nerdy members she was very well liked - incredibly bright and friendly, with no discrimination towards their interests. Though she did force all of them to watch Sailor Moon on multiple occasions. But nerdiness aside she was one of the most positive and supportive members of the group.
ROLE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST THE STYGIAN SNAKE ⫻ Ella acted as one of the heavy hitters on the coven’s front lines, fighting directly against the Snake’s apparitions. She had some versatility thanks to her lux type combination, offering healing along with strong attacks.
FLAWS ⫻ Ella is very scatterbrained and easily distractible. She has a tendency to just zone out sometimes, getting lost in her own little world. She’s also quick to switch her attention, getting completely distracted by something else mid conversation or mid task. Sometimes she’ll completely focus on one thing to the point she ignores literally everything. Once Ella starts talking about something she’ll never stop, especially if she’s passionate about it. She can be quite oblivious, both to what's going on around her and other people’s reactions. Ella can also be incredibly emotional. Little things make her cry, and she can have quite extreme reactions to things even if she bounces back quickly. She can also often be self sacrificial, both mentally and physically - prioritising being that support for others over caring for herself.
Backstory ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "Discovering anime was the best thing that ever happened to me!"
Ella’s life before Sycamore Tree was quite mundane. She was the second child of two overworked but trying their best parents. Her parents tried their hardest with both her and her older brother, but they didn’t have the time to go along with all her whims. Where her brother was always playing with kids that lived on the street, Ella was more introverted when she was younger. She always had her nose stuck in a book.
Then, one day her life changed. She was given access to the internet, and stumbled upon this forum post about something called anime. She decided to give it a try… and discovered a whole new world! Ella fell in love with anime, spending every free moment watching it. Her favourite was Sailor Moon and other magical girl anime, but she tried out all sorts of genres. She wanted to watch everything she could!
When Ella started highschool she broke out of her shell - becoming bright and friendly where she’d been shy before. She made her first friends, three other anime fans, including Saskia Otten. The four of them formed a little weeb group and watched anime together, recommended manga to each other and constantly talked about it. They were an eclectic mix but they were close.
One weekend the four of them were at the arcade, playing games together and goofing around. Out of nowhere people around them started acting… strange. Then the other two friends did too. It was like they were possessed, and out of nowhere one of them pinned Ella to the ground and started trying to choke her. This triggered her kindling event and she kicked the girl off her with a glowing, strengthened leg, running away along with Saskia. They ran into a group of people saying they were with the Sycamore Tree coven, and the two of them decided to join because they didn’t even know magic was a thing before then!
Inspired by her favourite anime, Ella developed a series of spells to turn herself into a magical girl. She was strong enough to be on the front lines, using her green and red lux combo for powerful attacks against apparitions, but as useful as she was she was still seen as a weirdo. After all she was always shouting the cringiest lines during battle, because it was mandatory for her abstraction! She just couldn’t use it without that, and she always needed to be in her magical girl form.
Ella was part of the self dubbed magical girl group (by her) - which was her, Saskia, Lisa and Kari. While Ella was the most squeamish of the group, she was able to get over it for her friends! She fought side by side with them… until the week leading up to the Eclipse. With the group spread thin thanks to others going off to different dimensions, Ella took on a group of strong apparitions by herself. She was too confident and wasn’t able to fight them all off, being brutally killed by them before any help could arrive.
It should have all been over, but Ella was resurrected by the hound along with Lisa and Saskia. He needed them to go on some mission for him, making them his “Agents of Death”... which is a name Ella really dislikes. It’s so dark! They’re magical girls! Ella has no idea what to think about the hound, but she wants to live again.
Paranormal-Abilities ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "As Magical Girl Aurora, I’m here to end darkness! I’ll shine light on all evil and vanquish it!"
TYPE ⫻ Adept
ABSTRACTION ⫻Green, Orange & Red Lux. Channeler: a sailor moon wand replica
ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Inspired by all of her favourite magical girl anime, Ella has developed a series of spells to become a magical girl herself. She has her magical girl transformation spells, a series of light and colour based spells and enhancement based spells.
Magical Metamorphosis! ⫻ The first spell Ella developed, and necessary for all her other ones to work. Using a combination of all of her lux, Ella transforms into a magical girl. This happens much like the magical girl transformations in an anime - she yells out a phrase (varying depending on the fight), and her whole body glows with a prismatic light. She dramatically (and unnecessarily) poses throughout it as her clothes change into a white leotard, purple miniskirt and a tiara with a shining purple gem at the centre. Her hair grows longer and changes into a bright pink to purple gradient. She dramatically poses at the end with her channel crossed in front of her (also unnecessary for the spell to work). The whole transformation sequence takes about thirty seconds.
Prismatic Powers! ⫻ A series of light and colour based spells primarily using her red lux, with some combination with her green and orange lux.
Prismatic Sun Beam! ⫻ Ella flourishes her channel, and sends out a beam of damaging, rainbow light. This is a focused, pinpoint laser beam. It burns through human flesh and most materials along with damaging apparitions. It’s her primary and strongest attack.
Aurora Flash! ⫻ Ella turns her hands into incredibly bright, colourful lights. This light is as bright as the sun and causes temporary blindness to anyone who looks at it. It doesn’t cause any physical damage, it’s just a blindingly bright light.
Prismatic Healing Beam! ⫻ The opposite of her sun beam, Ella shoots a beam of healing, rainbow light from her channeler. This can heal one person hit by the beam at a relatively fast rate. If someone is minutes from dying it won’t save them, but otherwise it will heal them quickly enough to stop them from dying.
Super Prism Kick! ⫻ Using a combination of red and green lux, Ella empowers one or both of her legs with shining rainbow light. This makes her leg much stronger and harder, along with being coated in a magical, damaging light. She generally then performs a powerful high kick with her leg, but she can also use it for other things. This is her most damaging attack, but much more limited in range and more risky.
Polychromatic Punch! ⫻ Ella draws colours from bright objects on her, and infuses her hands and forearms with them. These colours make her fists extra hard, varying by the brightness of a colour. The brighter something is, the harder her punches will hit. A dull colour will make it slightly stronger than normal, whereas a incredibly bright colour will be as strong and hard as steel. When she hits, she can cause some of the colours to "splash" onto her target, burning them like weak acid. As a cosmetic effect, her skin turns the colour of whatever she absorbed.
Vivid Sphere! ⫻ Using pre-existing bright colours, Ella can launch a ball of colour. The size of this is dependent on the amount of colour Ella uses. It does blunt damage, with a strength dependent on the brightness of a colour. A dull colour would be like being hit by a tennis ball, but an incredibly bright colour like being hit by a brick.
Shimmering Snow Blast! ⫻ Ella hold out her hands and shoots a blast of freezing cold snow. This shoots out in a cone shape, giving it a bit of a radius, and has a range of about 8m. The snow is shot at incredibly high speeds, making it feel like being shot by multiple, icy particles. It is incredibly cold, making it do not only blunt trauma damage but also damaging any exposed skin - things like frostbite, hypothermia being a risk when hit by its full force. Also, in combination with Ella's light magic, it can be made blinding with light shining off the snow. This effect is more exerting on Ella.
Prismatic Electro Ball! ⫻ Taught to her by Lupe, this is a red-green lux version of her Neon Dash spell. Ella transforms into a large, vivid ball of rainbow light. She is imbued with both light and electricity, shooting off short ranged sparks of electricity. She moves as if she was running without the physical exertion. Anything she touches will be burnt as if hit by an incredibly hot light, and anything close enough will be hit by the electricity. While limited in range, its a potent spell for brute force attacks by slamming into enemies.
Fluorescent Fireball! ⫻ Taught to her by Lupe, Ella can conjure a pastel pink fire in her hands. She can manipulate this fire's size, making it small to use as a torch, or massive. She can shoot it out as a spurt of fire or create a large fireball she can throw at things. She can shoot out a continuous stream of fire up to a metre, and throw a fireball up to five metres away - with an explosive area of effect.
Lustrous Lightning! ⫻ Taught to her by Lupe, Ella can conjure lilac electricity in her hands. She can use this to coat her fists in an electric aura, allowing her to deliver devestating electric punchs to enemies. She can keep up this electric aura for ten minutes. She can also use the lightning as a devestating ranged attack, shooting lightning up to ten metres away from her. This is precisely targetted to one foe, but if multiple are close together it could bounce between them.
Iridescent Improvement! ⫻ A series of enhancement spells primarily using her orange lux, with support of her red and green lux. She’s not as practised with these spells as she is with her Prism Power spells.
Colour Absorption ⫻ A new and improved version of Ella's colour absorption spell, which she's finally perfected. Ella absorbs colours to enhance both her abstraction and her physical strength, depending on the brightness of colour and the amount she absorbs. Now, a little bit of colour will slightly enhance both her strength and abstraction. Colour from a bracelet will increase her strength from normal to being able to lift something 50kg heavier than she normally could, while making her other spells more damaging. The amount of colour from a t-shirt would allow her to lift something 500kg heavier and increase her other spells strength, and so on. It is now quicker, with rings taking a few seconds, a bracelet under a minute, and a t-shirt a couple of minutes. Within this spell, she has developed a few 'subspells' where she can choose to take on specific enhancements based on the colour absorbed, along with the generic enhancement (which is less enhanced to compensate). For these she can only absorb that colour, as opposed to absorbing any colour with the base spell.
Potion Pink! ⫻ Absorbing pink while using this subspell allows Ella to heal herself. The amount she absorbs directly correlates to the amount she heals. A small amount of pink absorbed will heal small wounds, a medium will heal broken bones or more serious wounds, and a large amount would be required to heal fully after a bad fight or for life threatening wounds.
Protective Purple! ⫻ Absorbing purple allows Ella to boost specifically her emotional field, with the spell no longer boosting her abstraction itself. This makes her able to withstand magical attacks, especially of the mental variety, more easily. The amount its boosted corellates to the amount absorbed, as with all parts of this spell. This can't be used with Prismatic Protection to negate the weakening of her emotional field caused by it.
Brave Blue ⫻ Absorbing blue, Ella can sacrifice some of the physical strength enhancement to instead enhance her endurance. This allows her to keep going even when she should be exhausted, and she can push herself more than she would without it. As will all absorption, the amount she's boosted is dependent on the amount she absorbs. Feasibly, with an infinite amount of blue she could go on forever without sleep or rest... but of course, she'd need to absorb a lot of the colour for that.
Prismatic Protection ⫻ Primarily using orange lux, with a small combination with red, Ella can enhance the emotional field of one friendly target. She can only do this for someone she cares about (mental block), and coats them in a soft prismatic light to boost their emotional field. This makes them more resistant to magical attacks and able to take more hits from them, while taking less damage.
Magical Girl: Squad Up! ⫻ Using primarily her orange lux, Ella transforms her friends into magical girls to match her. Cosmetically this changes their outfit into a magical girl one like her own, of any colours or design she chooses (though if its a new one, it takes a bit longer to do). These magical girl outfits are enhanced to be more durable than normal clothes, with the ability to survive and protect the wearer from moderate attacks. They will protect against knives and anything weaker and are unlikely to tear. The transformation takes about thirty seconds and if someone has an emotional field, they have to consent to it. Ella can use it on up to three friends.
Magical Girl Binding! ⫻ Taught to her by Yoko, Magical Girl Binding is a potent binding spell thats exactly the same as Eternal Binding with a different name. Ella starts by drawing Kanji symbols on the ground, forming a circle around the target Apparition. Then objects inscribed with these kanji are put at each cardinal point of the circle. Ella chants the ancient incantation (in Japanese!) and the objects and symbols glow bright pink as her orange lux flows through it. At the climax, Ella full channels Orange lux to form a barrier around the target and pull it into the centre of the circle. With the final chant its sealed into a chosen object. This spell is stronger than regular sealing, and more reliable. It doesn't require as much weakening of an Apparition, and the seal is imbued to make it more difficult for Apparitions to break free. A powerful Apparition could be sealed with less weakening where it might normally take one battle.
Flash Focus! ⫻ Taught to her by Yoko, this spell allows Ella to infuse her five senses with Orange Lux (and a little green) to perceive even the smallest details in her surroundings. It enhances her senses so that they're both more extensive, with the ability to see things clearly in the distance or listen to conversations she wouldn't be able to otherwise, and more detailed, such a being able to see the texture of nearby flowers. She must be still to use this spell.
Radiant Block! ⫻ Taught to her by Yoko, this spell allows Ella to tank and block both spells and physical attacks. She uses her orange lux to envlope herself in a protective aura to reinforce both her and her belongings, while green lux is used to harden her skin. With red lux, she is coated with a translucent rainbow light - purely cosmetic. While the spell is active she is much more durable, able to take stronger attacks without significant harm, but it is the only spell she can cast at the time. It is purely defensive, and a use of any offensive spells or other movements stops the spell.
Blinding Bonds ⫻ Ella's joint casts, representing her strong bonds with others.
The-Magical-Mecha-Spider! ⫻ A Joint-Cast between Lisa Turner, Ella Brooks, and Saskia Otten., creating a colossal metal spider that the three of them pilot like some type of weird Mecha. When the three of them get together, Lisa summons a notable swarm of metal spiders imbued with Ella's Orange Lux that build the Mecha's frame, and Saskia creates a massive armor made out of blood around it. When it's complete, the Mecha-Spider is enormous, thirty feet tall, and very odd yet menacing. Each girl operates a different function within the Mecha-Spider: Lisa controls the spider's movement and repairing it, Ella manages the offensive systems, allowing the Mecha-Spider to fire a powerful beam of light, and Saskia handles the defensive systems, controlling the Blood Armor and other projectiles. Saskia controls a cache of "blood missiles" in the spider's legs. These missiles are launched at enemies and explode into a mass of "Blood Bullets" that shoot in all directions. When the Spider is damaged, Lisa deploys a unique team of spiders that weave metal like silk. Despite The-Magical-Mecha-Spider!'s potential, it can only be maintained for thirty minutes before it falls apart, and the girls will not be able to use it for the rest of the day.
The-Discombobulate-Healing-Field! ⫻ Yet another Joint-Cast between Lisa Turner, Ella Brooks, and Saskia Otten, designed in the Old Coven to create a massive healing field in the fight against the Stygian Snake. The three girls stand in a triangle, aiming their hands at the center of the triangle, combining their unique Lux types to form a healing zone that is a testament to their diametric personalities. The field is a potent source of regenerative energy, but it also has a disturbing aspect. Still, all three combine their Green-Lux and insert a different aspect of their personality. Ella provides a bright, rainbow-colored light that illuminates the entire area with a vibrant glow and otherwise does nothing. Tiny spiders made of blood are automatically summoned throughout the field's radius and home in on anybody nearby. Once they reach their target, they burrow into their skin, releasing a healing compound that promotes speedy healing. The longer they remain in the field, the more these spiders will burrow into their skin, and the Trio can keep the healing field going as long as they stand in a triangle.
Super Prism Spear Gun! ⫻ A potent, if crazy, joint cast between Saskia and Ella. Ella imbues Saskia with a prismatic light, using her orange lux to enhance her abstraction and emotional field temporarily. Saskia creates two massive, strong bone spears out of her fists. Ella then picks up Saskia and throws her towards a target, with Saskia's hands above her head, like a human spear surrounded by light. Saskia is thrown fast enough to easily pierce any armour with her bone spears, with an incredibly strong impact.
Vivid Blood Sphere ⫻ A joint cast between Ella and Saskia that combines Ella's vivid sphere spell with Saskia's blood bullet to form a massive sphere of blood and bright colours. The two have to stand side by side, hands held out to form the Vivid Blood Sphere between them. Together they shoot the sphere at a target - its strong enough to rip through flesh like a bullet while hitting as hard as a massive steel ball. Upon impact it explodes into a rain of blood and bright colours, burning whatever the target as if it was acid.
Super Prism Blood Weapons! ⫻ Using her light manipulation combined with her orange lux, Ella imbues Saskia's blood weapons with prismatic lights. She can imbue any one weapon spell (or the armour) at the time. Her and Saskia have to hold hands as Saskia creates her blood weapon and Ella imbues it, covering them in a radiant, prismatic light. This makes her weapons much stronger - more durable and harder to break, sharper, and much stronger for a short period. This makes her attacks much more devestating, or her armour more protective.
Light Speed Attacks! ⫻ Combining primarily their green lux, Saskia and Ella hold hands and cast a spell to enhance Ella. Saskia uses her bone lightening spell to make Ella much lighter, faster and more agile. Their combined green lux strengthens Ella to combat the brittleness of her bones. This makes Ella much faster and harder hitting for a short period of time, allowing her to use her normal attacks to a much more potent, damaging level.
Prismatic Swarm ⫻ Or "Crack Spiders," as Lisa likes to call them, is a Joint-Cast between Lisa and Ella that imbues Lisa's spider minions with Ella's Prismatic lights. The Joint Cast begins with Lisa summoning her spiders, and Ella imbues them, making them glow with pulsating multi-colored waves of light. With this imbueing, the spiders are far faster, stronger, and tougher for a short period, which can make all the difference in confrontations.
Radiant Arachnia ⫻ A combination of Ella's Light Manipulation, and Lisa's mastery over spiders, this Joint-Cast begins with the two of them facing each other and then they join hands. Once activated, they are surrounded by a robust weave of iridescent lights that form a web-light barrier around them, and they can create the barrier in any shape they can imagine - they have to be in unison with its shape, or else it will fall apart. This barrier is powerful enough to tank most physical attacks, but that's not all; anything solid that touches it will get stuck. The barrier takes shape, and the two of them can emit powerful flare-like projectiles that burst in a blinding light - and can be used to stun foes or illuminate areas.
Magical Girl Ascension! ⫻ Yoko performs a ritual that temporarily grants Ella an extraordinary power surge, boosting her Abstraction and physical capabilities. Yoko begins by drawing a complex circle on the ground, using her Lux to inscribe Kanji symbols that glow with a yellow light onto the ground, and Yoko stands at the circle's center chanting. As the ritual climaxes, a beam of yellow light descends from above directly onto Ella. Her body begins to glow with a golden aura, her muscles puff up, and her eyes become a light show. Ella’s Abstraction is boosted to new heights, allowing her to achieve feats never seen before. Simultaneously, her speed, strength, and reflexes are amplified. Her movements become a blur, her strikes capable of shattering stone, and her aura crackling with raw power. The transformation lasts for a limited time, during which Ella becomes a force to be reckoned with, but once the effect wears off, she returns to her normal state.
The Lightning Barrage ⫻ A unique display of Yoko and Ella's impeccable coordination, unfolds. They lock eyes, a silent understanding passing between them, synchronizing their breathing, focusing their energy. Yoko darts forward, unleashing a flurry of rapid strikes infused with her Lux. Ella steps in with her barrage of attacks, punches, and kicks, a blur of movement. The two fighters continue to alternate, never giving their opponent a moment to catch their breath. The Lightning Barrage culminates with Yoko and Ella launching their final blow, combining their energies for a decisive finishing move that should finish the opponent.
Radiant Annihilation! ⫻ Yoko and Ella, in a testament to their unbreakable bond, combine their Abstractions to create a massive ball of light that detonates with the force of a bomb, devastating everything in its radius. Yoko begins by channeling her Lux into her hands, creating a sphere of yellow light. Ella places her hands over Yoko's, adding her energy to the growing sphere. The light intensifies, becoming blindingly bright as the combined power of both Adepts merges into a single blast. With a final push, they launch the sphere into the air. It hovers momentarily, growing more significant and unstable before exploding in a blinding flash. The resulting shockwave levels everything within a considerable radius, leaving behind a scorched and barren landscape.
Dragon-Uppercut! ⫻ Yoko performs an incantation that imbues Ella with a burst of power, allowing her to deliver a super-strong attack, typically an uppercut. Yoko stands behind Ella, reciting an ancient chant, and a visible aura surrounds Ella, crackling with energy. As the chant finishes, Ella feels a surge of strength coursing through her. She launches herself at the target with newfound strength, delivering a devastating uppercut amplified by Yoko's Orange-Lux. The force of the strike is so immense that it shatters stone and sends its opponent flying.
LIMITS ⫻ The limit of all of Ella’s spells is that she needs to be in her magical girl form to use them. This is a mental block she could overcome, but won’t.
Magical Metamorphosis! ⫻ This spell is mostly cosmetic, so doesn’t have many limits. Ella can only stay in her magical girl form for two hours at a time before needing a half an hour break.
Prismatic Powers! ⫻ Most of Ella’s prism power spells are single target. The only exception to this is Aurora Flash, which affects any people in the area (including herself). Emotional fields protect against Prismatic Sun Beam, meaning she can’t just burn through those with them, and reduce the damage from Super Prism Kick and Vivid Sphere.
Prismatic Sun Beam! ⫻ This can technically be used for as long as Ella wants, but the longer she uses it the more physical strain it puts on her and eventually it will start to damage her too. This spell has a range of up to ten metres.
Aurora Flash! ⫻ This is a short range, area of effect spell - the light shines for about 3 metres around her. It can be easily avoided by closing your eyes or just not looking at it.
Prismatic Healing Beam! ⫻ Ella can’t use her healing beam on herself. The healing isn’t insanely quick. She can make most people stable within minutes, but larger wounds or broken bones could take hours to heal. She can’t use it at the same time as her sun beam. This spell has a range of up to ten metres.
Super Prism Kick! ⫻ Ella’s leg isn’t entirely protected from damage, while strengthened. She can still damage it depending on how hard whatever she kicks is - for example, kicking a brick wall would damage it. If she keeps using it while damaged, she could eventually break her leg. It's limited in range, because she has to get close enough to kick whatever she’s trying to attack. She can keep this up for about fifteen minutes, before needing a five minutes break.
Polychromatic Punch! ⫻ Ella has to use pre-existing colours with this attack. The strength of it directly correlates to the brightness of a colour and she needs enough coloured things to infuse her fists - the surface area of the colour directly correlating to the surface area of whatever she's covering. She can only do it for ten minutes before the colour disappears. Along with this, the colour splash directly takes from the colour and the more she uses it the faster she'll use it up.
Vivid Sphere! ⫻ Ella can’t create the colour of this attack, she needs to get it from somewhere. The size and strength are dependent on the amount of colour and the vividness of it. The size directly correlates - a small amount of colour will make a small ball, and it gets bigger the more colour is added to it. A dull colour will make a weaker, less hard sphere whereas a very bright colour will be as strong and damaging as a brick or very heavy metal ball. This has a range of about 6 metres.
Prismatic Electro Ball! ⫻ Ella can only stay in this transformed form for ten minutes, before needing to take a fifteen minute break. Its limited to a short range, and she doesn't move much faster than she would normally - fast enough to have an advantage thanks to green lux and light enhancements, but not quite supernaturally fast.
Fluorescent Fireball! ⫻ Ella has a range of five metres with the fireball, only one with a spurt of fire. Often the fire is powerful but uncontrollable. She has more difficulty with the smaller flames. Water dampens the intensity of this spells potential.
Lustrous Lightning! ⫻ The electric fists are short ranged, and the lightning bolt has a longer range of ten metres. It can only target one foe. Continuous use of shooting lightning will drain her faster than just using the electricity to coat her fists and punch foes, and she can't keep it up continually for long. This attack can be dampened in less conductive enviroments.
Iridescent Improvement! ⫻
Colour Absorption ⫻ This spell is still relatively slow. It would take Ella a few seconds seconds to absorb the colour from a ring, about a minute to absorb the colour from a bracelet and couple of minutes to absorb the colour from a t-shirt. She can’t use any other spells while she’s absorbing colour. The duller a colour, the lower the effects of the enhancement. By absorbing from a brightly coloured bracelet Ella will be able to lift something around 50kg heavier, and her spells will be stronger - for example her vivid sphere would cause more damage even with a duller colour, her healing beam will heal at a slightly faster rate. The enhancement lasts for about ten minutes before she has to absorb colour again. The colour specific advances all come with limits. If specifically absorbing pink to heal, it doesn't enhance her. Purple doesn't boost her abstraction at all, only her emotional field. Blue doesn't enhance her stength as much, only her endurance.
Prismatic Protection ⫻ This has a range limit - Ella can only cast this one someone within three metres of her, and if they go more than ten metres away from her the already cast spell will drop. She can only use it on one person, and she has to be friendly with them. She can’t cast it on someone she doesn’t know. It lasts for about ten minutes.
Magical Girl: Squad Up! ⫻ Ella can only transform three people into magic girl outfits. They have to consent to it, and it takes up to thirty seconds. They protect against most non magical attacks, but won't protect against stronger magical ones or guns. They last for 30 minutes, and then she can't use it again for another 15 minutes.
Magical Girl Binding! ⫻ Stronger Apparitions still need to be weakened for this spell. As Ella is a three-type Lux, this isn't as powerful as Yoko's version - a powerful Apparition would still need to be weakened a fair amount, but less than with regular sealing. This uses a lot of Orange Lux on Ella's part, leaving her vulnerable and drained. It takes significant time to cat. The kanji symbols and objects can't be disturbed during the ritual, otherwise the spell will fail.
Flash Focus! ⫻ Ella needs to remain completely still to use Flash Focus.
Radiant Block! ⫻ Block makes Ella immobile, and means she can't use any attacking spells or move while the spell is active. She can use it for almost five minutes at a time before she has to deactivate it, and wait to use it again. She could still be grabbed or thrown.
Blinding Bonds ⫻
The-Magical-Mecha-Spider! ⫻ The creation and control of the Mecha-Spider drains a considerable amount of energy from Lisa, Ella, and Saskia, leaving them physically and mentally exhausted after its use. The Mecha-Spider can only be maintained for thirty minutes before it falls apart, leaving them vulnerable. The three can only cast this Joint-Cast once a day.
The-Discombobulate-Healing-Field! ⫻ The field has a radius of 40 meters, and drains significant energy from the three. Eventually, they will collapse due to exhaustion. The three can only cast this joint cast once a day.
Super Prism Spear Gun! ⫻ Saskia can only be thrown in a straight line to maximise the potential of this spell, anything else will mean she'll lose speed and not hit as hard. She can be thrown up to thirty meters. Once she's thrown, she can't change direction. This spell can only be cast once every half an hour.
Vivid Blood Sphere ⫻ The Vivid Blood Sphere has a range of forty metres, but it slows down in the less ten, making it less strong. It can only be used once every thirty minutes.
Super Prism Blood Weapons! ⫻ The enhancement from this spell only lasts about five minutes, with a cooldown of five minutes before it can be used again.
Light Speed Attacks! ⫻ This spell can only be used for five minutes, before needing a ten minute cooldown.
Prismatic Swarm ⫻ The enhanced abilities of Lisa's spiders granted by Ella's Prismatic lights only last for a short period around five minutes, and there's a cooldown of five more minutes before it can be cast again.
Radiant Arachnia ⫻ The Radiant Arachnia's barrier can only be maintained for a short duration before dissipating, leaving Lisa and Ella vulnerable to attacks once it collapses. Maintaining the barrier requires a significant physical and mental effort from Lisa and Ella, causing exhaustion and fatigue if sustained for too long. The barrier's effectiveness diminishes if Lisa and Ella lose line of sight with each other, making it essential for them to maintain visual contact to sustain it. It can be cast once an hour.
Magical Girl Ascension! ⫻ The boosted Abstraction and physical capabilities granted by the ritual are only temporary. The transformation lasts for a limited time, typically ranging from a few minutes to an hour, depending on how much effort Yoko puts into the ritual. Performing the ritual requires a significant amount of Lux energy from Yoko. If she is not prepared or if the ritual is interrupted, it could fail or result in a less potent transformation for Ella.
The Lightning Barrage ⫻ The effectiveness of the Lightning Barrage relies heavily on the synchronization and coordination between Yoko and Ella. Any miscommunication or disruption in their teamwork can prematurely end the barrage or leave openings for their opponents. Performing the Lightning Barrage consumes significant energy from both Yoko and Ella. They cannot sustain this level of coordinated assault for an extended period without risking the depletion of their energy reserves.
Radiant Annihilation! ⫻ Generating such a powerful blast consumes a tremendous amount of Lux energy from both Yoko and Ella. They can only use Radiant Annihilation sparingly, as repeated use could exhaust them entirely and weaken the potency of future spells for a brief period. Creating the massive ball of light for Radiant Annihilation requires time and concentration from both Yoko and Ella. They must channel and merge their Lux carefully to form a devastating blast, leaving them vulnerable during this preparation phase. They can only cast Radiant Annihilation once an hour.
Dragon-Uppercut! ⫻ Yoko must remain close to Ella while performing the magic for Dragon-Uppercut, limiting their flexibility during combat and potentially exposing them to danger. There is a brief cooldown before they can cast Dragon-Uppercut again, so if they miss they are out of luck before they can cast it again. The surge of strength from Yoko's incantation is short-lived. If Ella doesn't execute the attack quickly, the enhanced strength diminishes rapidly.
WEAKNESSES ⫻
Magical Metamorphosis! ⫻ None, low powered.
Prism Powers! ⫻ Ella’s light spells primary weakness is darkness, especially magical darkness that can entirely negate them. While she creates this light herself it’s much harder to do it somewhere that’s completely dark. Her colour spells weakness is greyscale - if there’s no colours to use, she can’t cast her spells. Both the light creation and colour spells physically ‘drain’ a bit of her. The more she uses any of them without a break the weaker she gets, and she could cause herself serious damage. The longer Ella uses her Prismatic Sun Beam the more she’ll exhaust herself, and can start physically damaging herself. After a minute of constant use she’ll start to burn herself too - starting at her hands and working their way up her arms. She has no protection against her Aurora Flash and can blind herself too, or at minimum temporarily lose her vision if she looks at it. Her healing beam drains her own life force. The longer she heals someone the weaker she gets, until physically fatigued. If she heals any major wounds she’ll feel sick and exhausted afterwards. For the Super Prism Kick she can very easily hurt herself, same with Polychromatic Punch. While her leg is strengthened it’s not resistant to damage. She can’t kick through steel, and kicking anything too hard will damage or break her leg - perhaps irreparably. Because of the light based nature of all of Ella’s spells, the longer she uses them the more she’ll be affected as if she was staring directly at a light - light spots across her vision, burning eyes and difficulty seeing along with physical pain and nausea caused by that. Prismatic Electro Ball doesn't differentiate from friend or foe, so anyone that gets near Ella will be hurt. The longer she stays in the form the more drained she gets, and it can start to damage her - creating nasty burns when she transforms back. It doesn't protect her from harm, and if anything makes her a much more obvious and easy to hit target (she's a massive ball of light after all). For Fluorescent fire ball, Enough water can extinguish the fire Ella uses and make it comlpletely useless. If used to much Ella can and will burn herself with the fire, potentially set things on fire, and hurt friends and foes alike. This spell is bright, and draws attention to her. In water Lustrous Lightning is more than just useless - it's actively dangerous. Ella could electrocute herself with it easily, or have the lightning backfire on her. The lightning is loud and bright, possibly interfering with her own sight and hearing, along with being impossible to use stealthily.
Iridescent Improvement! ⫻
Colour Absorption ⫻ While absorbing a colour Ella is left completely vulnerable, needing to stay stationary and unable to use any other spells. This means she can easily be attacked while doing it. She also has to concentrate the whole time or the spell will be broken. Once the enhancement is over, she’ll be temporarily weakened for a few minutes.
Prismatic Protection ⫻ Ella essentially sacrifices her own emotional field to boost someone else’s. Her emotional field is still in place but just barely, and it’s much weaker. This makes her much more vulnerable to magical attacks and she could easily be taken out, hurt or killed.
Magical Girl Binding! ⫻ This spell significantly weakens Ella, leaving her unable to use her spells afterwards. This can take from hours to a day depending on how stronger the Apparation was, and how much they were weakened. Uniquely, it takes even longer for her to regain the use of her Orange-Lux - rendering her unable to use any spells that rely on it for at least an hour longer than her other lux types.
Flash Focus! ⫻ Ella is vulnerable attacks while using this spell. It's possible for her to be overwhelmed by all of the sensory input, leading to difficulty process it all, confusion, or extreme sensory overload.
Radiant Block! ⫻ After Radiant Block is lowered, Ella is temporarily weakened with lowered defences. Along with this her skin, previously hardened, is much more fragile and likely to tear. Due to the light aura, she essentially makes herself a bigger target while using the spell as well. She is also temporarily slowed immediately after using the spell, making her an easy target.
Blinding Bonds ⫻
The-Magical-Mecha-Spider! ⫻ The The-Magical-Mecha-Spider! is incredibly large and slow, it has little mobility options to off-set this, so against a faster opponent it's useless. The Mecha-Spider's frame is not structurally sound, and its components are prone to malfunction or collapse under stress, posing a risk to the Magical Girls inside.
The-Discombobulate-Healing-Field! ⫻ The healing field can only be sustained as long as the three remain in a triangle formation, limiting their mobility options. If too many healing spiders burrow into a single target, it can lead to unintended consequences such as accelerated cell growth, causing mutations or uncontrollable regeneration. The Field will heal everyone within the field, friend and foe alike.
Super Prism Spear Gun! ⫻ While in the air, while fast Saskia is technically vulnerable to any attacks, especially ones large area ones that go into her path. It can easily go wrong if she hits something like a wall, or even hitting what she intended to could cause her bones to shatter. While preparing the spell, the two are vulnerable. This also puts Saskia right beside enemies, leaving her possibly vulnerable.
Vivid Blood Sphere ⫻ The Vivid Blood Sphere requires fuel from both Ella and Saskia - in the form of colours from Ella and blood from Saskia. If Ella doesn't have enough colour around her to draw on, then Saskia will be forced to use more of her blood to fuel it, leading to typical weaknesses that come with lack of blood. They aren't immune to the splash of the sphere upon impact, nor are allies.
Super Prism Blood Weapons! ⫻ Saskia's blood weapons are still weak to fire and temperature attacks, and come with the normal risk of blood loss. While Saskia's weapons are imbued, Ella temporarily can't imbue herself - meaning she can't use her Super Prism Kick! attack, or her Iridescent Improvement! spells.
Light Speed Attacks! ⫻ Ella is still more vulnerable to injury when fighting with this spell, more likely to break her bones when hitting something too hard. Saskia is also under the same effect for the duration of the spell, and is unable to use her bone regeneration spell while enhancing Ella.
Prismatic Swarm ⫻ The enhancement granted by Ella's Prismatic lights is temporary and unstable, causing Lisa's spiders to undergo unpredictable changes in behavior or physiology during combat.
Magical Girl Ascension! ⫻ The transformation puts a strain on Ella's body due to the rapid increase in physical capabilities. Prolonged use or frequent transformations could lead to exhaustion or even bodily injury. The ritual drains Yoko's energy significantly, leaving her physically exhausted and vulnerable afterward. After the transformation wears off, Ella experiences a backlash of weakness and fatigue. Her muscles ache, and her reflexes slow down significantly, leaving her temporarily unable to fight effectively.
The Lightning Barrage ⫻ Missing the initial hit of the Lightning Barrage can leave them open to counterattack, and it's extra vulnerable to long ranged attacks. The rapid, high-energy movements during the Lightning Barrage place immense strain on Yoko and Ella's bodies. This can lead to muscle cramps, joint pain, and a significant drop in physical endurance.
Radiant Annihilation! ⫻ After casting Radiant Annihilation, both Yoko and Ella experience a prolonged period of weakness and vulnerability. Their bodies struggle to recover from the immense magical expenditure, leaving them defenseless. The explosive nature of Radiant Annihilation poses a risk to Yoko and Ella and a high risk of collateral damage or outright harming themselves.
Dragon-Uppercut! ⫻ The sheer force behind Ella's enhanced attack puts immense strain on her muscles and joints. If the attack misses or is blocked, Ella risks injuring herself due to the intense physical exertion. The surge of amplified energy surrounding Ella's attack makes her movements predictable and reduces her agility, making it easier for skilled opponents to dodge or counterattack.
Other ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "I can’t wait to get back and catch up with all the anime I missed!"
Ella always keeps a large number of brightly coloured objects on her - most often tons of bracelets that she wears or swaps out as she uses them for her abstraction. Also before she died Ella was a fanfiction writer, writing all sorts of stories for her favourite pairings… including spicy ones.
Interactions: Sloane @Atrophy The Halloween Festival
Anya almost couldn’t hold Sloane’s gaze. There was an unconditional love there that brought back that irritating little feeling of ugly guilt. It was overwhelming. She knew that Sloane admired her and viewed her as a close friend, but this open, intense affection went beyond that. It was difficult for her to process how she felt about it. There was a certain sense of security. Sloane was unlikely to doubt her, and their friendship would be safe unless Anya betrayed her… something she didn’t plan to do unless there were extreme circumstances pushing her to it. But there was also that guilt - a tiny, niggling guilt in the back of her mind.
But what was there to feel guilty about? She cared about Sloane as much as she was capable of caring about anyone. It wasn’t her fault that she didn’t feel it as strongly as other people would.
She was still glad when Sloane’s eyes closed briefly.
”Then we won’t talk about it.” Anya reached around with the arm Sloane wasn’t holding onto to awkwardly pat her shoulder. It was supposed to be comforting, but Anya didn’t really know how to do that. Having Sloane holding her hand and resting her head on her shoulder was already a lot, which Anya normally wouldn’t tolerate. But she was feeling quite cheerful, and drunk Sloane was… quite cute. Again, a strange thought.
Another drink sounded good. She'd mostly sobered up while talking to Ezra - well, moved from near drunk to tipsy. Enough that the alcohol wasn't affecting her head, which was how she generally preferred it. But with her business so to get a major investment and Sloane already so drunk, what was the harm in letting loose a little? It was just the two of them now, anyway. The risk of her slipping up and saying something that would ruin everything was very, very slim.
”A drink it is then, I was hoping to get another one, but-” she narrowed her eyes slightly, looking at the actually drunk Sloane. ”I’m not drunk at all, you’re drunk. I’m perfectly sober-” Was there any pointing in arguing about this? ”Your painting?”
Anya glanced over at the painting Sloane had drawn her attention to with strange arm shakes. A completely blank canvas. She highly doubted it, or whatever had been on it, was actually drawn for Sloane. But if she thought so, who was Anya to argue? ”Jasper did? That really doesn't surprise me, you're correct, he is obsessed. After all, you’ve featured in his dreams quite a few times.”
It wasn’t technically a lie, but it wasn’t the whole truth. Sloane had been in his dreams, but only when he was dreaming of the coven itself. It was never just about Sloane.
Anya gently removed Sloane’s hand from her arm, moving around her and bending down to pick up the blank canvas. She then stepped back to Sloane’s side, wrapping her free arm around Sloane’s shoulders - because she probably wouldn’t be able to walk without support with the way she’d barely gotten to her feet. ”Let’s go. They were putting up parasols at the bar just past this tent, so we can get a drink there and be protected from the rain…”
Slowly, Anya led and supported Sloane out of their hiding spot and back into the main festival area. She went straight for the popup bar, pausing for a moment when she spotted some… familiar figures. Meifeng, her second in command, Bianca, and a few power rangers. The PRA. Thankfully, she didn’t spot the one PRA agent she wanted to avoid for the rest of her life. She wasn’t in the mood to talk with them, not when she’d made up her mind to enjoy the rest of the night without thinking about more business. That business wasn’t so important to her personally anyway. So, she would just ignore them.
She took Sloane to a table a few away from the PRA group, as the area was sadly too small to get out of their sight. She made sure Sloane was seated, with the blank canvas placed on the seat beside her, before going up to the bar and getting them both drinks. An old fashioned for Sloane, and a long island iced tea for herself. Thankfully with the rain there were less people willing to stand in the line, so she got them relatively quickly.
”Another old fashioned for you,” Anya smiled, sitting opposite Sloane and sliding the drink over to her. She then raised her glass towards Sloane. ”To us. Let’s enjoy the rest of our night. No thoughts about the boys, or anyone else. Though…” her smile turned just the slightest bit playful. ”I have seen some rather interesting dreams recently, and haven’t been able to talk to you about them yet. I think you'll find them very entertaining.”
Bianca Manalo
Interactions: Trevor @Punished GN Cracker Island Cracker Bar
”I’ll catch you another time!” Bianca waved to Lynn as she and the rest of the coven left, with a brief appearance from Ken. She shrugged and went back to her drink. It had been nice to catch up with them for a little while, at least. She wasn’t sure what Lynn had been talking about with respect to Emily, and she wasn’t planning to jump up and find out. If Meifeng wanted to, sure, but otherwise? She’d keep her ass sitting right here.
Then, two more familiar faces appeared. Bianca raised an eyebrow as Anya and Sloane came out from behind a tent flap.
”Hey, Trevor!” She hopped up and moved over to Trevor, nudging him with a devilish grin and pointing over to where Anya and Sloane were sitting a few tables away. She didn’t speak loud enough that they’d hear her, but the rest of the PRA group would. ”Isn’t that the girl you went on a date with last week? You should go talk to her!”
Of course, Bianca knew her name, and knew very well who she was with. While Bianca would say she was neutral towards Sloane nowadays, she’d always disliked Anya. So what was the harm in making her night a little more… unbearable.
Finally... after about a week of work Anya's updated spellbook is here @Punished GN if you want to add any weaknesses
Paranormal-Abilities ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ "How naive to think you’re safe from your dreams."
TYPE ⫻ Adept
ABSTRACTION ⫻Pink, Purple, White & Orange Lux Channeler: a silver fountain pen
ABSTRACTION DESCRIPTION ⫻ Anya’s main speciality comes with the ability to manipulate dreams. She sees dreams as a way into someone’s soul - to find out information they wouldn’t otherwise divulge, to manipulate their opinions and to ultimately control them. It took her a while to come to this conclusion, and discover her affinity.
Dream Weaving ⫻ Anya's main spell discipline, Dream Weaving is the art of entering and manipulating dreams. It's a unique combination of Anya's purple and pink lux, allowing her to physically enter dreams. She essentially teleports into the dream. The target must be asleep and dreaming for her to enter their dream world.
Dream Visit ⫻ The primary spell to Anya's Dream Weaving discipline, allowing Anya to enter a specific person's dream. This hinges on two conditions. First, the person must be asleep and dreaming. Second, she must have met them before. Once these conditions are met she can enter someone's dream. This takes both time and concentration, and she then teleports into their dream world - her physical body is in there, so her body isn't left behind. Entering a specific dream takes a lot of energy, so she can generally only visit two before she need to rest (either a minimum four hour sleep, or ten hours outside of the dream world). She can exit the dream at will, either to her previous physical location (where she entered the dream) or to another dream.
Dream Walking ⫻ A more dangerous variety of Dream Entry, where Anya can walk through the dreams of anyone. It’s much like walking down a dark path - she doesn’t know where she’ll end up, and can only pick a direction. She can move from dream to dream like this, not being limited in the number she goes to as it doesn't take as much energy as entering a specific dream, but it's risky. It's much easier for her to get trapped doing this or to walk into a dangerous dream and get hurt. She can exit this in the same way she does dream entry.
Dream Manipulation ⫻ Anya's primary and strongest spell, this allows her to change the dream she's currently in. It's possible for her to change any element of the dream. She can shift the dream to an entirely new location, or bring in a specific "person" (a dream version). She can manipulate the narrative of the dream, change the events going on. Each change takes time, and the amount of time is dependent on how large the change is. She can only change one aspect at a time - she can't change the environment while also removing the presence of something. She needs to layer them change by change, with each one taking energy and time. It's easier to manipulate a dream to something similar to what it already is. However, she's very adept at this spell and it's one of her best. She's been working on it for ten years to get faster and more efficient at manipulating it, to the point she can fully change a dream during the hours she's in it.
Dream Interaction ⫻ A passive spell that comes by virtue of Anya physically being within a dream, rather than accessing it with just pink lux. Anya can physically interact with the dream and the dreamer, just as it can interact back with her. This means she can move things in the dream, interact as if they were real ect. She can talk to and interact with the dreamer. But it also means that if anything in the dream hurts Anya, it's hurting her physical body. If she dies in the dream she's properly dead.
Dream Damage ⫻ A more advanced version of Dream Interaction, which allows Anya to interact with and damage the dreamers physical form through hurting them in her dreams. Any wound she inflicts on the dreamer will appear on their body. With active concentration, this will be damage caused by her or anything she holds. With more concentration and energy she can allow the dream itself to interact and damage the dreamer. In the case of the blind, it would be possible for the dream to kill them. She has never tried this before.
Dream Scrying ⫻ A spell that allows Anya to gain specific information from a person dream. This could be about their current emotional state, the environment of the dream, about them as a person - all sorts of things. She essentially manipulates the dream to show her the answer, so she gains the information visually in a small, localised dream manipulation. She can only get one piece of information at a time. The more the dreamer doesn't want to 'share' information the more difficult and time consuming it is. Trying to find out how they're feeling would be easy and only take a few minutes, but trying to discover a secret someone is keeping would take the majority of the time she's in a dream.
Subliminal Messaging ⫻ Based on pink lux knowledge Greyson Devola passed on to her, this is essentially Anya's version of dream 'More Than a Feeling.' This is unaffected by emotional fields, as she's already essentially infiltrated. This works by leaving subtle suggestions via the dreams, directly influencing the dreamer to wake up feeling inclined to follow the suggestion. These are typically simple messages, pushing people to return to her shop and purchase more of her wares. Or for them to wake up feeling content. Given enough time, she can paint much more intricate subliminal messages through the dream imagery in combination with her dream manipulation. This is quite energy and time consuming, compared to more simple suggestions. This is heavily based on the dreams themselves, and how likely the target is to follow through on a suggestion - as dreams often reflect their moods, and anything to jarringly different won't be followed.
Dream Exit ⫻ A spell that Anya is currently working on, but hasn't made any progress on. The aim is for it to allow her to exit the dream at the location of the dreamer, rather than from where she entered which is the 'default'. She wants to be able to choose which of the two to exit from. So far her attempts have been unsuccessful.
Dream Companion ⫻ Another spell Anya is working on, which would allow her to bring another person or physical object into a dream with her. Right now she is practicing with objects. She's been able to bring up to something as big as a tennis ball, but nothing larger. She tried a teddy bear recently, and the results weren't pretty.
Dream Boost ⫻ The third spell of her dream weaving Anya is working on, born from her own selfishness. She wants to be able to boost her own abstraction using the dream itself. This would essentially allow her to drain part of the dream to strengthen herself, thus allowing her to be more powerful within the dream itself and be able to manipulate it better. She is yet to succeed at any attempts of this spell.
The Waking World ⫻ A discipline of spells that Anya can actively use in the waking world. These are primarily spells to support her dream weaving, or create images based on dreams.
Dream Illusions ⫻ Anya can create basic illusions based on things from the last two dreams she was in. These illusions are visible to anyone that could feasibly see them. They are intangible and relatively easily dispelled. She can only make visual illusions. They make no sound, and are destroyed upon being touched. Those with emotional fields can easily see through them.
Dream Hallucinations ⫻ This spell targets one person, and causes them to hallucinate. The images they see are chosen by Anya and must be something she saw in one of the last two dreams she was in. These can be both visual and auditory hallucinations. For the blind its near impossible to tell they're hallucinating. Those with emotional fields have an easier time seeing through them.
Dream Inducement ⫻ This spell is the ability to induce dreams in someone, rather than waiting for it to happen naturally. Anya either has to touch the person to induce dreams, or have something “anchoring her to them”. Specifically, they must have an object with a specific dreamer locator spell on it. When Anya induces a dream she can choose the general type of the dream - whether it's a good dream, or a nightmare. She can’t choose anything beyond that, it's otherwise the same as a normal, natural dream.
Dream Alert ⫻ A simple spell that allows Anya to 'check' on someone who she knows, and find out if they are currently asleep and dreaming.
Dream Information ⫻ A spell that Anya's currently working on to allow her to discover the details of the last dream a person had. She needs to be close enough to the person, and touching them makes it easier. Currently she can only get the most surface level information - that they had a bad dream, that it was about work, ect. She can't get any details.
Dream Devices ⫻ Anya's final discipline, focusing primarily on using her orange lux to infuse objects with the aid of her other lux to enhance her dream weaving use, along with objects to manipulate dreams in her place.
Dream Locator ⫻ A spell to infuse a small object with a locator spell. This allows Anya to induce dreams without touching someone, or to perform other spells (such as dream hallucinations) through the locator as if she were there. This object needs to be close to them, at least within a metre. For example, put on a bedside table. Its useless if its too far away. This infusion lasts for approximately a week.
Nightmare Ward ⫻ Anya infuses a small object with a weak nightmare ward spell. If kept close enough this will reduce the number of nightmares someone has. Like the dream locator, it must be placed within a metre of the user. It only reduces nightmares. It doesn't keep away other bad dreams, such as stress dreams, nor does it guarantee good dreams.
Nightmare Inducer ⫻ The opposite of Nightmare Ward, Anya infuses a small object with a spell that increases the number of nightmares someone has. It has a slightly larger range, just having to be in the same room as someone (unless it's a really big room).
Dream Encapsulation ⫻ The main spell that Anya is working on, which would allow her to store a specific dream within an object. It is essentially her dream manipulation spell infused into an object, with specific dream "settings" chosen upon infusion. At the moment, she can infuse a tiny dream influence into an object - something like a plant appearing. The aim is for her to have three different types of Dream Encapsulation infusions, as follows:
Generic Dreams ⫻ The simplest type, which she is currently working towards. This would allow her to create objects with a basic dream stored in them. This object would then influence the dreams of a nearby dreamer, like Anya would within their dreams, to turn it into the stored dream. This would be generic scenarios without any person specifics - such as a nice picnic in a field, going to a beach, or a space adventure.
Specialised Dreams ⫻ A more complicated type, this infusion would include more complicated and tailor made dreams. This would include elements that only a specific person could have in their dream - people they know, for example. It could also be an incredibly specific scenario: for example, going on a date with a specific person at their favourite restaurant, with the music from a specific band playing. She hasn't made any progress on this part.
Variable Dreams ⫻ The most complicated type, combining white lux with the dream manipulation infusion. This would allow her to infuse a stone with a variable dream manipulation spell, with pink-white lux reading what the user wants to dream about and then manipulating their dreams to follow their wishes that night. This is her ultimate aim, so that she no longer has to manipulate every dream herself. Currently she's very far away from making it happen.
Dream Anchor ⫻In conjunction with her dream exit spell, Anya is working on a spell that will allow her to infuse an object to "anchor" her. Essentially this will allow her to teleport out of a dream to where the object is. It acts as a location marker for her dream exit, since she can only exit to the dreamers location or her previous location. Currently she hasn't made much progress with this spell.
From the time of her kindling event at age ten, until she went through her rebellious phase at sixteen and subsequently joined the coven, Anya primarily learned spells from her older siblings and parents - struggling to create her own. She has lower affinity for most of these spells, and basically doesn’t use them anymore due to them being weaker and having more limits.
Psychometry ⫻ A spell to gain information from an object by touching it. By using it Anya can find out how this object was last used, which is generally useless information. She learned this from Nisha.
Portal Creation ⫻ Learnt from her mum, Anya can created a portal to somewhere else. To where, you ask? Well, Anya doesn’t know until she steps through the portal.
Telekinesis ⫻ Learnt from Kiran, Anya has a very rudimentary telekinesis spell. She can use telekinesis on an object up to 20g of weight.
Sharpen Object ⫻ A very basic version of a spell her dad could use, Anya can make an object sharper. The object has to already be sharp, though, or it doesn’t do much.
LIMITS ⫻
Dream Weaving ⫻ There are some general limits to Anya's dream weaving spells. She can only be in any dreams that aren't her own for five hours, and one specific dream for up to three hours. To enter a dream, the target must be asleep and dreaming. If they wake up she's forcefully teleported out. Since Anya is physically in a dream, she can be hurt by it. She could be hurt enough to get killed. While Emotional-Field’s generally don’t affect her spells (being non offensive in nature), Paranormals can sense something’s off with their dream. It's possible for them to even notice her presence, realise she’s not part of the dream or actively seek her out in their dream.
Dream Visit ⫻ Anya needs to have met whoever's dream she's entering. She can only enter two in a night before she needs four hours minimum of sleep, or ten hours outside of dreams.
Dream Walking ⫻ Anya can enter about ten dreams during dream walking, before she needs four hours minimum of sleep, or ten hours outside of dreams. Anya can't choose where she's going, only the direction she's walking in. The dreams she walks into are completely random, and she could walk into a dangerous situation.
Dream Manipulation ⫻ Dream manipulation takes time and energy. The bigger a change, the longer it will take. Adding in a new element will take seconds for something small, to minutes for something large. Bringing in a dream person could take up to ten minutes. Changing the entire dream, such as a peaceful dream to a warzone, would take an hour or two in total for all the elements to be changed. There's a risk of "overloading" the dream if she adds too many conflicting elements, which could rebound and hurt her. The dream doesn't pause during the manipulation. Changes also take energy, and the larger changes she makes the more likely she is to exhaust herself and have to leave a dream early.
Dream Interaction ⫻ Anya is physically limited by how she can interact with a dream. She can't interact with something that's outside of her reach. She can't do anything she couldn't do in the real world if she's not using her dream manipulation spell.
Dream Damage ⫻ Using this spell is incredibly taxing on Anya. Hurting someone through a dream is difficult, and will exhaust her enough that she'll likely have to leave the dream immediately afterwards. It requires complete concentration. Emotional-fields protect against it, she can't just kill someone with them in their dream.
Dream Scrying ⫻ The amount of time and energy it takes to get a piece of information depends on how much information there is, and how much the dreamer wants it to stay hidden. A simple thing would take seconds, something they keep well hidden hours. She can't use other spells while scrying.
Subliminal Messaging ⫻ Anya can only leave one subliminal message, and it can't be anything too complicated. If the suggestion conflicts with what the person would normally do or their personality, it's likely it won't be followed through. Something jarringly different from the rest of the dream will also be ignored. These suggestions or emotion changes need to be done through dream imagery, which can be time consuming for anything more complicated.
Dream Companion ⫻ Currently, Anya can't bring anything bigger than a tennis ball and she hasn't tried it with anything sentient. It's more exhausting to bring something into a dream with her.
Dream Boost ⫻ The boost will directly correlate to the amount Anya drains from a dream, and eventually she will run out of elements to take. It takes time to draw the energy from them. At the moment, she can't use this spell.
The Waking World ⫻
Dream Illusions ⫻ The illusions are easily dispelled by touch or magic use. If anyone paranormal observes them more than casually it will be obvious they're illusions. If blind observe them closely it will be obvious. She can only hold the illusion for about ten minutes. She can only create illusions of something from the last two dreams she visited.
Dream Hallucinations ⫻ These target one person and she can only use it for about ten minutes. The hallucinations need to be based on something in one of the last two dreams she visited. These can be visual and auditory, but not sensory. Blinds can't tell they're hallucinating, but it's possible for those with Emotional-Fields to see through them with a lot of effort or something like white lux.
Dream Inducement ⫻ Anya either has to have physical contact with the person to induce dreams, or they have to have a “dream locator” infused object nearby. She doesn’t choose the specific dream she induces outside of whether it's good or bad, instead just putting them in a dreaming state.
Dream Alert ⫻ Anya can only check if someone she knows is dreaming, and the further away they are from her the longer it will take to get that information.
Dream Information ⫻ This spell takes concentration, and she must have the target in her line of sight and be within a few metres of them. Touching them speeds it up. The more indepth information she wants the longer it'll take. Currently she can only get surface level information.
Dream Devices ⫻ Anya can currently infuse about five a day of her first three dream objects. The rest she can't properly do yet, but will be slower when she can.
Dream Locator ⫻ This infusion last approximately a week. The object needs to be within a metre of the person for it to work.
Nightmare Ward & Nightmare Inducer ⫻ The object needs to be kept within two metres to be effective. The infusion only lasts for two weeks. It only increases or decreases nightmares, it doesn't guarantee a major change in dreams.
Dream Encapsulation ⫻ Anya currently can't really use this spell, and it takes a lot of energy to use. She can only infuse an object so that it makes very minor, near neglible, manipulations to dreams. It needs to be within a metre to be effective.
Dream Anchor ⫻ This spell just doesn't do anything right now.
Anya is pretty shit at most of these spells to the point they are practically useless.
Psychometry ⫻ The only information Anya can get is how an object was last used. Not who by, but how. For example, she’ll know a pen was used to write. Nothing more than that. She can only do it once per object, and twice a day.
Portal Creation ⫻ Anya can’t choose the location of the exit portal. It’s two ways, but only lasts for five minutes. She can only do it once a day.
Telekinesis ⫻ Anya can only levitate an object of up to 20g of weight. It's blocked by emotional fields, but she couldn’t use it on any person anyway.
Sharpen Object ⫻ A non sharp object won’t be affected by this spell. It can only make objects such as knives cut a bit better. Emotional fields completely block it, so she can’t sharpen a table knife and then kill a paranormal with it.
Interactions: Sloane @Atrophy, Jack (Brief Smile) @Blizz The Halloween Festival
Anya didn’t have to wait long to get a response from Sloane. As efficient as always, sending a direct location pin. She was surprisingly close - perhaps she’d looped around and ended up nearby after walking off her irritation. Anya could only hope she would be in a better mood. Though, Anya was in a very good mood herself, so she could handle Sloane however she was.
It didn’t take her long to reach Sloane’s location… but she paused behind the tent flaps that separated Sloane’s private spot and the main festival when she heard Sloane talking.
There was a hint of… guilt when she heard Sloane called her and Jade being her best friends. Of course, Sloane was Anya’s best friend too, by virtue of being her only friend, but it wasn’t quite the same. Sloane’s friendship was selfless and genuine, hers not so much. Of course, the feeling didn’t last long. It was probably just the alcohol she’d consumed, anyway. Thankfully the rest of what Sloane said about her was nonsense. Anya didn’t spend time with her out of pity. She wasn’t the pitying sort. It was a shame Sloane didn’t see her own value.
She silently listened. Some of it she already knew. Sloane told her practically everything in her life. What she didn’t know must be recent discoveries - Jinhai being in a shoebox in Linqian’s linen closet being one of them. Was that what Sloane and Linqian had discussed at the start of the night? No wonder she’d been so upset. It was an unpleasant surprise. After Sloane, Jinhai had been the closest to being her friend too. While he wasn’t allowed to keep contact with her traditionally thanks to his failure of her sister, they spoke in his dreams often. She had been sad that he’d died, and disappointed but unsurprised that she wasn’t invited to his funeral.
But his ashes being stuck in a cupboard was much worse.
Anya exhaled softly, waiting for Sloane to stop talking before stepping through the tent flap separating them. She stood out of the way as Jack talked, and smiled at him as he went past. Perhaps she’d have to mend what had been broken tonight, but now wasn’t the time.
”You know, I’d likely be hated by the majority of the coven even if we weren’t friends,” Anya finally said, approaching Sloane. She very carefully lowered herself down to be at eye level with her - making sure not to sit on the ground, instead perfectly crouching with her legs pressed together. She shrugged one shoulder. ”I heard the end of what you were saying. I’ve never been bothered by how they view me. It’s not our fault they don’t understand what we do for them. It would be rather lonely to both be hated alone, wouldn’t it?”
They weren’t just empty words, Anya knew her position in the group very well, Sloane aside. While Anya was much better at playing the game of pretend now, adjusting herself to be exactly what was needed, she hadn’t been quite so good at seventeen. It was harder to hide her ego as a child and unfortunately what she’d let slip had solidified poor opinions with a fair amount of the coven. There were some who disliked her more than they did Sloane - Lynn and Linqian, for one. Sloane probably didn’t realise that.
She carefully considered what to say next. It was difficult to tell when Sloane was drunk like this - it wasn’t a Sloane she’d dealt with before. Best to leave things open. Don’t push her to open up about everything she’d dumped on Jack, but don’t cut it off as if it didn’t matter in case she did want to open up. A careful balancing act.
”Ah.” Anya smiled apologetically. The rain was beginning to wash away the spiders painted on her face, black lines running down her cheeks as if they were crying. ”Sorry for not immediately following you. I wanted to make sure you weren’t going to suffer for ignoring Ezra Vanburen, but it seemed I worried unnecessarily. He was quite reasonable. I also thought perhaps you needed to talk to Jack alone, so that he could make amends, so I sent him after you… a miscalculation, I admit. Even I make those occasionally.”
It was a nice excuse, of course, and one she was sure Sloane would believe. With her business well and truly taken care of, she was quite happy to spend the rest of the night concentrating on whatever Sloane needed to feel better. ”We can talk about all of... that, if you’d like. Or not. There’s still plenty of time to enjoy Halloween. Perhaps we could have another drink, or go back to mine and watch some halloween movies. Whatever you want.”
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[color=SeaGreen]They/He|UK(GMT)
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Mid 20s. Been here a long time, generally only join friend's rps. Constantly tired. Masc nonbinary, preference for they pronouns but he are ok too!
<div style="white-space:pre-wrap;"><div class="bb-center"><img src="http://i.imgur.com/uUydHWE.png" /><br><font color="seagreen">They/He|UK(GMT)</font><br><a href="https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/162255-fernstones-character-archive/ooc"><font color="mediumseagreen">Character Archive</font></a></div><hr class="bb-hr"><hr class="bb-hr"><br>Mid 20s. Been here a long time, generally only join friend's rps. Constantly tired. Masc nonbinary, preference for they pronouns but he are ok too!<br><br></div>
Mixtape Ghost N
Zombiedude101
Atrophy
Estylwen
Blizz
AtomicEmperor
NoriWasHere
Silly
Snowdrops
BlazingBark
