#but yeah Ophelia was really growing on me and I wish we got more of her after LB 2

[bluespiritfire]

Finished Lostbelt 2 and idk...there's something about the twisted dynamic between Ophelia and Surtr that I love in a tragic, painful sort of way.

[bunbeeplays]

Xander and Jaden are walking back home from the orthodontist. The appointment had gone well, and Jaden had been very brave.

Xander: Your mouth feel okay, short stack?

Jaden: It's a little sore but not too bad.

Jaden: It's better than having crooked teeth.

Xander: At least you're a good sport. I was your age when I got braces, you must get it from me.

Jaden: But I'm adopted.

Xander: What? Since when?

Jaden: Daaaad!

His dad is always cracking jokes! He's such a goof. Jaden likes it!

Xander: Alright, alright. How about we get some bike riding practice in? And we can get lunch in town too, since you've been so good about getting your new braces.

Jaden: Really? Yeah!

He loves his sisters, but it's nice to get one-on-one time with just him and Dad.

Xander: Mom mentioned something about a haircut too, we can go to the barber while we're in town.

Jaden: …Okay.

If Mom told Dad about it, she must really want Jaden to get a haircut. She's always been so good to him, he doesn't want to disrespect her wishes.

Xander guides Jaden through the process of riding a bike confidently, but he suddenly seems a lot less confident. He was just so excited, why does he seem so sad now? He looked less miserable when he was getting his braces on.

Something's wrong. Xander's Dad Senses are tingling.

Xander: Hey, buddy, can we take a break? I want to talk to you.

Uh-oh. Dad sounds serious. It's never good when he's serious. Did Jaden do something wrong?

Jaden dismounts and quietly tucks his bike into his inventory before faking a smile.

Jaden: What's up?

Xander: You seem bummed, kid. What happened? You were psyched a minute ago.

Jaden hesitates. He doesn't want to hurt Mom's feelings, but he doesn't want to lie to his dad either.

Jaden: Well, uh… Promise you won't get mad?

Xander: I promise. Now spill the beans, bud.

Jaden: It's not that big of a deal. I kind of don't want a haircut, so I'm a little sad, but I'll get over it. We can go back to bike practice now.

If Xander knows one thing about his wife, it's how she tries so hard to make each of them happy. Something's off here.

Xander: Jay, did you tell Mom you don't want a haircut?

Jaden: No. She says I need it though.

Xander: I think she's just used to you having shorter hair. Why didn't you tell her you like your hair the way it is?

Jaden: I… didn't know I could.

Jaden: You and Mom tell us when to go to bed and to brush our teeth. I thought this was like that.

Xander sometimes wonders if Jaden's upbringing with his strict biological parents had more impact than he lets on. Maybe it doesn't and Jaden is just trying to respectful.

Xander: Mom and I do have to make sure you get enough sleep and take care of yourself, that's our job. But you're growing up, and you're starting to care more what you look like. It's okay to tell me or Mom you'd like more of a say in this stuff, as long as you're being kind.

Xander: If your mom knew you were this unhappy about cutting your hair, she'd never made you go through with it. I can talk to her, if you want, or you can tell her how you feel.

Jaden: She won't be mad?

Xander: Over a haircut? Never.

Jaden: I-I think I'll tell her.

Xander: And don't ever feel like you can't talk to us if you think something is unfair. We might not always be able to change our minds, but we can always talk about it. We're here to take care of you, not boss you around just for the heck of it.

Jaden: Okay! Thanks, Dad.

Jaden doesn't remember much about his biological parents. He remembers being sad a lot. He remembers feeling powerless.

He might just be a kid, still, and he's not always going to have a say in certain things, but Jaden knows he's safe with the parents he always deserved.

While Xander treats Jaden to some lunch at one of the food stalls in town (his sister runs them, so they eat for free anyway), lunch at home is a lot messier.

Ophelia: My goodness, look at you, messy girl! Let's get your face cleaned off.

After setting Wren down for a nap, Ophelia sees her son and husband walk through the door.

Ophelia: Hey, your new braces look great! Did you and Dad have fun in town?

Jaden: Yeah. Can I talk to you, Mom?

Ophelia: Oh, sure, sweetie.

They settle down on the ottoman in the entryway before Jaden tells her the truth.

Jaden: I didn't say it yesterday, but the truth is, I don't want a haircut. I like my hair longer.

Ophelia, just like Xander said, takes it well.

Ophelia: Oh, okay. Why didn't you tell me?

Jaden: I thought I had to because you're my mom and you wanted it. I talked to dad and he said it was okay to tell you stuff like this.

Ophelia: Of course it's okay!

Growing up, Ophelia got told how to dress, how to do her hair, how to exist. She'd never want that for her kids.

Ophelia: I'm sorry I made you feel that way. I shouldn't have just assumed you wanted to keep your hair short. You're a big kid now, and sometimes I forget that. As long as you keep your hair clean and take good care of it, you can grow it out as long as you want.

Jaden: Thanks for understanding.

Ophelia: Of course. Your body is yours, and you should get a say in how you look. I'm sorry I tried to take control, I just thought I was helping.

Jaden: It's okay, it's not like I told you.

Ophelia: Well, we'll know better for the future.

Ophelia: Let's make a deal. I'll stop assuming what you want, and you don't bite your tongue and do something because you think it'll make me happy.

Jaden: Deal. Love you, Mom.

Ophelia: I love you too, sweetie.

Jaden couldn't ask for a more supportive mom.

Can't let her "twin" have all the spotlight, can we, Miss Gemma?

Gemma does some nighttime yoga outside, conquering her fear of the dark, as well as completing the Mind and Body childhood aspiration.

Gemma is now Headstrong! Valuable skill to have for future heir duties.

[danksimstho]

First | Previous | Next

When they got home General Buzz invited the headmaster over for dinner, hoping that putting Ripp in private school would get his grades up and make him more respectable. He did not have time to cook so he told Ripp to do it. Ripp burnt the soup and Buzz fell asleep in the bowl. The Headmaster was less than impressed.

Buzz was still asleep when the headmaster left and Ripp watched him leave from his window. He knew he would not be going to private school and he was pleased.

Ripp thought about going to school when the schoolbus came but instead of hopping on he kept walking, down the sidewalk and to the poor excuse for a strip mall near the abandoned military building. 

He quickly went into the women’s section and started looking at clothes. There wasn’t much that fit him, and what did was very colourful, but if he was confident enough to wear women’s clothing he would be confident enough to wear bold colors.

He tried on a blouse and a skirt but he felt off. It was too feminine, he decided. He passed for a woman too well, and he just wanted to look more neutral in his gender expression. He took off the clothes and put them back. He kept shopping and brought some of the clothes he liked home with him.

When he got home, he snuck into his room and locked the door before rooting around in his dresser to plan a new look.

He couldn’t quite see how he looked but he liked how he felt in the brand-new crop top. Satisfied with that he pulled out the hair dye he had bought and started to style his hair.

Using his hand mirror he dyed and styled his hair and played around with makeup until he was happy with how he looked.

He couldn’t stop grinning! He looked so cute! He always wanted to be considered cute, because sometimes he felt so gross and confined in his comfy casuals. He wished he could go and see Johnny, or Ophelia, but they were both away at college.

He called Ophelia on his cellphone, and luckily she was not in class. She had been working on her term paper when he called but it wasn’t due for another quarter so she felt she had the time to chat with him.

“You stayed home today?” Ophelia asked, concerned.

“Yeah. Is that so wrong? My grades have been improving… I can let them slip. I wasn’t sure I felt comfortable letting other people see me like this…”

“Like what?”

“I uh… put on some makeup. And a crop top. Dyed my hair…”

“Oh Ripp, what will your dad think?”

“Who cares? I’ll lock myself in my room for as long as I need to if he gets mad. I won’t live my life just to appease people anymore…”

“Well as long as you’re happy.” Ophelia said. “I’m sure you look adorable.”

Ripp beamed. “I… thank you Phe. Thanks for staying in touch, too. It’s more difficult to miss you guys when I hear from you so much.”

“I’m sure you’ll manage it. I miss you too. Johnny would say he missed you if he was here right now.”

“Where’s Johnny?”

“I think he’s down at the plaza watching the break-dancers. He’s not as focused on school as I am.”

“Breakdancing? That sounds like fun. Is the art community big at LFT?”

“Well there’s no easels at the student union but I’ve seen some Graffiti here and there. I know you always wanted to do that. Oh, and the Plaza has easels.”

“I really hope I get in. I would love to paint with other people, make some new friends, get to hang out with you guys all the time… Get away from my dad.”

“Has he been on your case a lot lately?” asked Ophelia.

“Actually he’s been buttering me up! He tried to get me into private school but I dodged that one. We still don’t like each other but hey, he hasn’t forced me to do laps lately.”

“Hmm, Maybe he’s been busy with work.”

Speaking of busy with work, Buck blew out the candles on his cake alone since his oldest brother was at college, his youngest brother was hiding in his room, and his dad was at work. He was always the forgotten one in this house.

General Buzz came home from work and patted Buck on the shoulder. “You’re growing up so fast young man. You look more like your mother each day.” General Buzz said.

“Thanks General.”

“You need to get more rest, though, you look like you really let yourself go.”

“Well, I don’t really…” care about my body. Whatever it want’s to do it can do, I have no part in it. Buck trailed off.

“Your hair is getting so long!” The general said. “You should really get it cut. I can take you tomorrow after work if you want.”

“No thanks… It’s kind of the one part of my body I don’t hate…” he mumbled.

“Hate? Well maybe you’d be more confident about yourself if you worked out more. There’s some work-out DVDs by the player if you want to use those.”

“I dunno. I think I’d rather paint.”

“Well at least you have a strong beard! Most boys your age can’t grow any stubble.”

Buck looked frustrated. “I… I have to go do something.”

“Okay.” Buzz said. “I’ll start dinner.”

Buck ran up to his room and shaved his stubble. God I look hideous. He thought. I look like a hermit who never talks to people. I mean, who would want to talk to me anyways. But he found he liked how he looked without stubble. He liked “his mother’s freckles” on his face.

Then he had a thought. Why not practice makeup again? He hadn’t tried it much since he got scolded for it as a kid but he had been drawing designs in his notebooks at school.

Okay, maybe he went a little overboard. He started with eyeliner, then he put on blush, and lipstick, and foundation. He was still so unhappy with how… masculine he thought the lower half of his face was. So he decided to hide it with a mask. Then he pulled out some of his mother’s clothes that he’d been saving and tried them on. He was delighted with how he looked. No… She was delighted with how she looked. She wanted so desperately to look like this all the time, no matter how much trouble it was; she wanted to be a girl. She wanted to like herself, and when she looked in that hand mirror she saw someone she could like! 

It had been two days since his children had come out of their rooms. He left food out for them but other than that they were skipping school. He was worried a social worker would come by, so he asked the internet for help on what to do.

Knock Knock.

“Ripp?” The general asked.

“Go away.”

The General clenched his fist. That’s not how you talk to your father. “Please, let me in. I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine where I am. Leave me alone.”

“I’m not going to break the door in, but I’m not leaving you alone. I’m not leaving until you open this door.”

Ripp spoke between mouthfuls of macaroni. “I don’t need your help. Your “help” is really just yelling.”

“I’ve been reading some books… I’m not going to yell at you.

“Please, talk to me. I want to know what’s wrong. Why haven’t you gone to work or school?”

Ripp was silent.

The general sat down next to his son’s door. “Please let me in. I promise I’ll accept you. I’m sorry… about what I said before. Johnny makes you happy, right? So… I won’t keep him away anymore.”

Ripp unlocked his door.

“Can I come in?”

“M’kay.”

As soon as The General came in Ripp started crying. He was so scared of what The general would say about his hair and makeup. What The General, A man who was supposed to be his Dad, supposed to support him and love him, would say about who he is as a person.

“Ripp…” The general began. “You look… nice.”

Ripp looked at him in disbelief.

“I’m.. I’m trying… The internet talked about… are you… Gender Queer?”

“You say that last word like an insult.”

“it’s not. I mean, I don’t try to make it sound that way. It’s okay if you are. Apparently there have been signs.”

“I don’t know what I am. I’m still exploring myself. But you never created a space for us where it felt okay to do so.”

“I’m just glad you don’t hate me.” The General said. “It’s hard to raise children into adults without trying to make them like you. I thought you would come to like growing up the way I was raised. I thought you would want to follow in my footsteps. It worked with Tank.”

“But… You know I’m not like you. I’m not like mom either. I’m just me.”

The General spoke softly. “That’s… That’s okay. I know we don’t always get along, and there is a gap of respect coming from you… but… I love you.”

“I love you too Dad.”

“I’ll go to school tomorrow, okay?” Ripp said. “If you can be respectful of my expression then I’m sure my shithead classmates can.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” The General asked. Ripp just gave him a look.

“You should go see Buck. Just, brace yourself.”

The general came in and saw his daughter asleep in her bed. He was shocked to see her looking totally different from how he usually saw her. He quickly left her room and stood in the hall.

“what am I going to do?” He thought. First | Previous | Next

[takerfoxx]

So long as I'm getting caught up on all my stuff, here's the next installment of the Walpurgis Nights girls watch The Rebellion Story, this time stretching from Homura shooting herself in the head to her talk with Sayaka the vague-poster!

Reminder:

G=Gretchen

H=Homulilly

Op=Ophelia

Ok=Oktavia

Ca=Candeloro/Mami

Ch=Charlotte

...

=still screaming=

G: Turn it off, TURN IT OFF!

Ok, panicking: I got it, I got it! Off!

=TV winks out=

Ch: Sweet Christ!

=long pause, and then Gretchen gets up and runs off. Homulilly quickly follows=

Ch: This was a mistake.

Op: What. The fuck?

Ca: I should have known. I should have known it would go this way.

Ch: Candy, there’s no way you could have-

Ca: No! There was! I knew how bad it could get! I knew how far we could have fallen! I shouldn’t have let you guys see any of this.

Ok: It’s not your fault.

Ca: I still should have known. I should have at least screened this!

Ch: Yeah, one of us probably should have.

=another long pause=

Ok: So, uh, are we, like, done?

=suddenly Gretchen reenters the room, followed by Homulilly. They silently return to their seats=

G: Okay. Play it.

Op: Gretch, are you sure?

G: I need to know. I need to know what happens to her. I need to know if we turn out okay. Play it.

=everyone exchanges uncomfortable glances, and then look to Homulilly, who slowly nods=

Ok: Okay, if you say so…

Op: We’d better ease it with the commentary. I mean, this isn’t something we can-

G: No! Please, no. The talking…and the jokes…well, it makes it easier.

Op: Sure.

Ch: It’ll be kind of hard to find anything funny about this.

Ca: We can try to do what we can.

=they start the movie, and silently watch as Homura falls in slow motion, blood and brains spewing out. And then…=

Op: Wait, hold up! How is she still moving?

Ca: As I said, something like that won’t kill her. You would need to destroy her soul gem.

Op: So she can straight up just blow her own head off and walk it off?

Ca: So long as the act of healing didn’t use up too much magic, yes.

H: Okay, but why? Why would I do something like that?

Ca: Let’s find out.

…

Ok: Uh…Ooooh.

H: Oh. Really?

G: What’s going on?

H: I couldn’t get rid of the ribbon on my ankle. Every time I tried to shoot it off, Mami would just grow it back. So I tried shocking her so badly that she wouldn’t think to regenerate the ribbon long enough for her to be caught in the time-stop.

Op: By shooting yourself in the head?!

H: Clearly, I have a considerable amount of emotional issues.

Ch: You know, it’s really starting to concern me how you keep referring to her as yourself just now.

H: I apologize. I will try to differentiate between my alternate selves.

Ok: Oh great, now I’ve gone cross-eyed.

…

Ch: So…this is really uncomfortable. Again.

G: Is she going to shoot Cand-I mean, Mami?

Ca: I mean, there’s clearly a moral struggle.

H: Well. At least I didn’t turn out as a complete sociopath.

Ok: This is seriously gross. Can we just skip this part?

Ca: No.

Ok: But-

Ca: No.

Ok: Okay.

…

Op: In the leg. Well, I guess that’s not as-

Ok: HOLY!

G: What’s happening? What’s going on?

Op: Sweet flames, she’s…a ribbon monster? The fuck?

=pause, and then Charlotte starts laughing hard while Candeloro just sighs=

Ok: Charlotte! Explain! Now!

Ch: She did it! She actually did it!

Ok: Did what?!

Ch: You’ll see!

H: Wow, I am…I mean, she is just all tied up now.

G: Wait, Mami’s there? But I thought…then what was…

Ca: Oh, good grief.

Ok: Wait. Wait a second, you can clone yourself?!

Ca: It’s…not so much a clone as it is a puppet.

Ok: Since when could you do that?!

Ca: Um, well, I had figured it out a short time before our, um, deaths. I was training with Kyo…with Ophelia, and we were practicing with her illusion magic. You know, the duplicates?

Op: Uh-huh.

Ca: Well, she suggested that perhaps I could do something similar with my ribbons, since I could use my ribbons to form other objects. And, well…it worked.

Op: Ooooh. Okay, that’s actually kind of awesome.

H: I was fighting a copy the whole time?! How is that fair?

Ch: You can literally freeze time!

H: Hey, wait. How do you know that she could do that, Charlotte?

Ch: How do you think?

Ca: Like we said: our therapist suggested building positive associations around my change. We had to get creative.

Op: Oh, come on, that’s not fair!

Ok: Wait, you were the one betting on her!

Op: I’m not talking about that! When I do my duplicate trick all I can do with them is give Tavi a show! It’s not like she can touch any of them!

Ok: Babe. Relax. It’s honestly fine.

Op: All I’m saying I should be able to give you a lap dance while the striptease is going on.

G: TMI! TMI!

Ch: You, uh, do know that you can give her the lap dance and let your illusions handle the striptease, right?

Op: Do you know how hard it is to handle two kinds of dancing at the same time when you’re horny?

G: Please, I am begging you to stop!

…

Ch: So…I think someone owes me and Fee-Fee some talents.

Ok: Fight’s not over yet!

Ch: It clearly is…

G: You don’t know that! Maybe Homura will drop a hand-grenade to blow the ribbons up! Or maybe Kyoko will come to save her.

Op: Look, if other-me tags in, that’s an automatic forfeit. This is supposed to be one-on-one, and that clone trick is stretching things as it is.

H: Wait, wait, shut up. Wraiths? What are wraiths?

Ok: Dunno.

Ch: Did we miss something? I get that that nightmares replaced the witches, but what are wraiths?

G: Maybe…after I erased witches, wraiths are what replaced them!

Op: We should’ve just watched the damn show first.

Ch: Do you really think it’ll make things make more sense?

Op: Probably not, but at least we’d know about half of these names!

Ch: Jesus Christ, the fuck is that?

Ok: The sky wants to eat that giant walnut, apparently.

Ch: I can see that, but what does it mean?!

G: I think that’s an eye, actually.

Ok: An eye with teeth.

Ch: None of that answers any of my questions.

Op: Nope, this would still be just as weird even if we watched the show.

…

Ch: And here comes the rescue! Via…fire extinguisher for some reason. Sorry girls, Mami takes this.

Ok: Fine, fine. Thanks a lot, Homulilly.

H: Not my fault. None of us knew about the duplicate thing. I had her beat until then.

Ok: Wait, is that a sword?

Op: Guess it ain’t me with the steel chair, then!

G: Well, of course not. It’s a sword.

Op: That’s not…never mind.

Ok: It’s me! I’m coming in to save you!

H: I’m touched. But…why?

Ok: Because I had fifty talents riding on you, and you let me down.

H: Oh, don’t start.

Op: Wait. That ain’t your voice, Tavi.

Ok: Who else has a sword?!

G: Um, who is that?

Ch: Some kind of kid. Candy, do you recognize her back from before?

Ca: No, I really don’t…

Op: Wait, BEBE?!

Ch: Excuse me?!

H: Um…this is…a turn.

Ca: Don’t look at me, I’m as bewildered as you are.

Ch: Oh, so first I’m a creepy idiot doll, and now I’m a fucking child?!

Op: What is this, some kind of alternate universe bullshit?

Ok: I mean, basically. Uh, you okay over there, Charlotte.

Ch: Nope!

Ok: Wanna take a break?

Ch: Yes!

…

=everyone returns after half-an-hour=

Ch: I think I’ve figured it out.

H: Oh?

Ch: Butterfly effect. Like, okay, in this universe, Madoka somehow erased all witches, right? I mean, made it so magical girls don’t turn into witches anymore, right? And did it all through history, right?

H: Presumably.

Ch: So that means that there has to be major repercussions! Like, like, this girl doesn’t turn into a witch fifty years ago, so she doesn’t eat some random passerby, and that rando goes and marries someone that would have married someone else in the original timeline, so they have a completely different set of kids, so the kids they would have had originally don’t get born! So somewhere down the line, things got all screwy and I ended up being born a few years later!

G: Wow, that actually makes a lot of sense.

Op: I guess we’re all super-lucky that we got born at all. And that the rest of us ended up more-or-less the same. Um, no offense.

Ch: Right. That’s all it is. Different timeline, things happened differently, and I’m a little girl in this world. That’s it.

Ok: So…are you okay with this then?

Ch: Oh, absolutely not! But I can at least deal with it now!

Op: Bet’cha anything that good ol’ Bebe here still has a major crush on Mami.

Ch: Oh, God! Don’t even go there!

Op: I’m just sayin’…

Ca: Ophelia…

Op: Stopping, stopping.

H: Shall we continue?

Ch: Yeah, I guess. I’m gonna need major therapy after all this is over, though.

G: We all will.

…

Ok: Okay, I know this is probably a bad time to point this out, but Sayaka has style!

Op: I mean, you’re not wrong. Look at you, being all effortlessly cool! Not that you aren’t already.

Ok: Nice save there.

Ch: Haha, Sayaka’s got it right! Taking on Mami was a dumb idea. Speaking of which…

Ok: Oh, come on! That clone trick was dirty and you know it!

Ch: Oh, I’m sorry. Are you upset that she so happened to have something that counters Homura’s extremely unfair timestop power?

Op: She’s got a point. A bet’s a bet.

G: All right, I guess it’s official. Mami won.

=Candeloro smirks=

H; You don’t have to be all smug about it.

Ca: True. I don’t.

…

G: Wait…

Op: So, what, Sayaka knows what’s going on?

Ok: Of course I do! I mean, I’m the brains of the bunch!

=Homulilly coughs=

Ok: I heard that.

H: I didn’t say anything.

Ch: Well, finally some exposition!

G: I do sort of wish that she’d just tell Homura what is going on without being so vague about it.

Ok: Look, I’ve been pretty much on the wayside this whole movie. Let me have my monologue.

Ch: What’s she getting at though?

H: Oh.

Ch: Huh?

H: I think…Never mind.

G: What is it?

H: I just had sort of a realization, but I’d rather not say it now.

Op: Eh?

H: Hang on. Let’s just watch a bit more.

…

Op: Jesus, Tavi! No need to show Homura up like that!

Ok: Let! Me! Have! This!

Ch: That was pretty cool, though. Shwing! Stopped her cold!

G: Wait, so one of us is the…

=voice trails off=

G: Is it me?

H: Um…

Op: Oh.

Ok: Oh.

Ch: What? Oh, okay. I get it now.

Ca: I sort of put it together too.

G: What? What are…Oh.

=everyone looks at Homulilly=

H: Well, it only makes sense. I guess.

Ch: You don’t seem all that upset about it.

H: Well, at least I get to become my best self in this movie.

G: But…how though? I thought I erased witches or whatever!

Ok: Let’s find out.

Ch: If your other self can ever get to the point.

Ok: Shhh…

…

Ca: Wait, I’m the witch? Is that what she’s implying?

Ch: Pretty sure that’s just a red herring.

Ok: You know, it’s nice that Sayaka is actually being all sympathetic toward witches. I mean, it’s kind of fucked up, isn’t it? That even the magical girls that know the score still hunt down witches instead of trying to help them.

G: I mean, it can’t really be helped, can it?

Ok: I know, I just like that I’m saying it.

G: The Law of Cycles? What’s that?

Op: Probably whatever trippy business you replaced the witch stuff with.

H: Oh, now I’m finally just saying it out loud! Madoka erased witches. Took us long enough to get to that point.

Op: Wait, sacrificed herself? Only Homura remembers her? What?

Ch: Pretty sure this was all explained in the show.

Op: Well, that’s what we get for watching this first. Should we go back and-

Everyone: No.

Op: Cool.

…

Op: Oh, freaky!

Ok: Wait, so I’m the witch now?

Ch: Could mean that in this timeline you turned into a witch before Madoka did her un-witching…thing.

Ca: That is what you looked like. Right before you became one with Charlotte, I mean.

Ch: Er…

Ok: Phrasing…

Ca: Oh, for Heaven’s sake. It is literally what happened. You turned into a witch while we were fighting Charlotte, and then the two of you fused. Then I became a witch and fused with that witch. And then Ophelia became a witch and we all fused together.

Ok: Yeah, but the way you said it…

…

H: Where’d she go?

Ok: Clumsy? You have the gall to call me clumsy? Who just saved who’s ass, just now!

H: Cut me some slack, it’s been a long evening.

Ch: Y’know you still got blood and brains all over your cheek, right?

H: I am certain that Homura does not care.

Op: I am certain that Homura is about to blow the brains out of the first punk-ass that looks at her wrong right about now.

Ok: Headshots for everybody!

H: Except Madoka.

Ok: Except Madoka. She can be the token un-brain-slushee.

G: Gee. Thanks.

Ca: I’d like to just point out that Homura came very close to turning me into a brain-slushee, but changed her mind.

Op: I doubt she’ll let you off so easy a second time.

Ch: Easy. Hey, may I remind you who won that fight?

H: You’re not going to let that go, are you?

Op: Tell yah what. Losing party treats the winners to dinner at the Tradewinds. Fair?

H: Fair.

Ch: Seriously? With the prices they have down there it’ll be cheaper just to cough up the fifty talents.

G: Yeah, but onion volcanoes!

Ch: Hard to argue with that logic.

Ok: So…on a scale of one to ten, how badly is Homura going to flip out when she realized that she’s the witch.

H: I will accept nothing less than a massacre.

Ok: Cool. Just so long as it’s not of us.

Op: I don’t know. The way this movie is going I wouldn’t be surprised if this turned into a straight-up snuff film.

[peakywitch]

Jane - John Shelby

Warnings: none

Word count: 1.5k

Author’s Note: NOT proof read. If you see any mistakes, please let me know! <3 This will have quite a few parts. Maybe 4. <3

masterlist

Jane woke Y/N with a loud crying. Instantly, she knew: the baby was hungry. She sighed frustrated; the poor woman could not rest more than five hours. She sat on the bed, trying not to suffer from the cold, and took care of feeding her daughter.

“Jane… I know you are cold. Me too, but tomorrow I will improve our life. I promise, love. "

When the clock struck six in the morning, Jane was asleep while Y/N changed. She was putting on her ocean blue dress, the same as always. While it did fit a little tight, it was the only one that fit: Her other three dresses had been transformed into various pieces of clothing for Jane.

Y/N looked at herself in the mirror while combing her hair. Her tiredness was strongly evident on her face and her body was heavy. She looked at the pressed powder and the single red lipstick, now nearly empty, on her dresser. The small amount of makeup she had, she had saved it for a day like today. Then it was decided: it was a matter of life or death, literally. She used a little bit of powder and with, her ring finger, she painted her lips red and then stained her cheeks pink. She tied her hair as best as she could and smiled. Today everything would change.

"Good morning, Stella" greeted Y/N, sitting at the table in the private room, where the prostitutes had breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"Good morning, Y/N." she greeted, while lifting Jane And good morning to you, beautiful princess." Jane started to laugh when Stella filled her with kisses "Did you sleep well?"

Y/N sighed, pouring herself some coffee in an old mug.

“She slept and then woke me up before the sun did. So yes and no." Y/N sat at the table with her cup, handing Jane a bottle of water.

"Anna told me you have a job interview, Y/N, is that true?" Stella asked, as she made her tea.

"Yes, Lizzie Stark left her job and ..."

"Lizzie Stark quitted the Shelby Company?" Stella yelled, interrupting Y/N.

"Yeah, Tommy Shelby problems Anna told me. And I…"

“Y/N” Stella began, as she sat across from the young woman “Don't go near the Shelbys. You... Jane…"

“Stella, I know who the Shelbys are. I know they kill, Stella. But either I join a gang or my daughter and I will die on the street."

Stella pursed her lips, Y/N was determined to death that it would work, whatever the circumstance. She helped with the cleaning in that hellhole, but it was not enough. It wasn't that Stella didn't want to give her more money, it was that she couldn't. Many of the prostitutes had left work, leaving the brothel with only five women: Stella, Y/N, Anna, Sarah, and little Jane.

They finished their breakfast in silence, Stella was not angry, she was worried to death. What if the Shelbys hurt Y/N? What about Jane? What if she didn't get the job?

"Well" said Y/N, bundling up to leave "Wish me luck." Y/N yelled at Stella from the doorway, having already greeted Jane and Stella in the kitchen.

"Y/N! Wait!" Stella warned, approaching her with Jane in her arms "I..." she sighed "Don't leave without Thomas fucking Shelby giving you a job, eh?" Stella smiled and Y/N hugged her.

"Okay." She smiled

.

The drive to the Shelby Limited Company office was cold. The weather and her nerves made her nauseous. With what excuse would she explain to Tommy Shelby the rumor she had heard? The path seemed longer than it really was, the little snow on the ground scared her. She didn't want to fall.

After about five minutes, she arrived at the company. The tall black door intimidated her. Was it a good idea to come? She wasn't sure, but she would find out. She knocked on the door with a nervous hand, she was freezing without gloves.

"Yes?" asked a woman with a serious look on her face.

“Hello ma'am, my name is Y/N. I would need to speak to Thomas Shelby, is he available? "

Y/N's delicate smile only hardened the woman's gaze.

"Come with me."

The woman let Y/N through, closing the door behind her.

“You will refer to Thomas as Mr. Shelby. If he offers you a whiskey, you accept. If he invites you for a cigarette, you accept. If he asks you to leave, you leave." She stopped in front of a glass door, turning to look Y/N in the eye "Got it?" Y/N nodded nervously.

The lady knocked on the door and walked in, leaving Y/N alone, outside Thomas Shelby's office. She stared curiously at the gold letter on the door that bore his name. The lady came out again and spoke to her.

"Mr. Shelby will see you now."

The woman did not open the door for him, leaving it closed and walking away. With a knot in her stomach, Y/N knocked on the door.

"Come in!" was heard. Y/N's shaking hands turned the doorknob, revealing Tommy Shelby standing with his back to her, then watching him turn with two drinks in hand.

"Excuse me, Mr..." Tommy sighed in frustration.

"If I hear you say Mr. Shelby, I’ll throw you out with Ophelia, Miss Y/N." his tone of voice was so monotonous that it surprised the girl, everything that was said d e he was true "You can call me Tommy."

"Okay, Tommy..." Y/N smiled softly, as Tommy handed her the Whiskey "Excuse me, I know what Ophelia said about not denying you a Whiskey, but I can't drink. I have a baby…” Y/N braced herself for Tommy's contemptuous look and some comment. But it never arrived.

"Oh, don't worry. Water?" he asked, Y/N denied. Nerves were consuming her.

"What brings you here, Miss Y/N?" Tommy asked, sitting down in her chair.

“Tommy, I’m sorry for being so… direct. I am friends with Anna Preston. As you well know, Anna is a friend of Lizzie and… I think you already know what I'm here for. Lizzie quit, and I have a daughter who is just three months old. I am living in the room in which a woman used to prostitute herself, dressing my daughter in my clothes. I am very afraid of staying with my daughter, Jane, on the street. So Anna told me that I could ask you if I could fill Lizzie's position…” Y/N spoke quickly, anxiety growing exponentially in her body.

"Miss Y/N..." Tommy started. Y/N interrupted him.

“Before you say no, you should know that I went to one of the best schools. I do not have the best body, I know it, but I am very skilled with mathematics, I can read and write fluently in English and French. Speaking with the accent is a bit difficult for me, but I'm willing to improve it. Also, I will never be a minute late, I am extremely punctual. I am very neat and…"

"Y/N..." Tommy spoke again, Y/N's nerves continued to interrupt him.

“And I will not pay attention to any of your workers, I will not be distracted by men. I just…” Y/N's body froze, begging for air. Y/N breathed "I just need to keep my daughter alive."

Tommy watched her. He saw the weariness on her face, her despair, and her dress pressing against her body.

"What is your daughter's name, Miss Y/N?" asked Tommy, pulling out a cigarette. “Do you mind if I smoke? She asked again, placing her cigarette on her lips.

"Jane. Please, it doesn't bother me…” Y/N sighed nervously.

Tommy lit her cigarette. After patiently inhaling and exhaling, Y/N was sure: Thomas Shelby would send her to hell.

"You are single, right?" he asked, the lump in Y/N's throat prevented her from speaking. She could only nod while looking at her hands. "Your accent isn't from around here, you're from London, right?"

“King’s College, London. The bastard abandoned me and spread lies all over bloody London. My parents kicked me out of my house, with only three dresses and a hundred pounds I came to Birmingham. I already owe Stella money. I don't want any more debt. I also don't want to die on the street and for Jane to have to... I want to give my daughter a good life, Tommy. And I am willing to do anything.”

“You ever been to Camden town, Y/N?” Tommy asked, drinking a little bite of his alcohol glass.

“Yes, Tommy. Quite a few times, actually.”

“Do you know who Mr Solomons is?”

Y/N thought about that last names for a few seconds.

“What’s his first name?” Y/N asked.

“Alfie.”

“Yes, I do know him. He owns a bakery, makes amazing sourdough bread.” Y/N smiled at the memories that where flashing through her head.

“Wait. Alfie, the Jewish baker… has business with a Birmingham gang?” the look on Y/N’s face made Tommy chuckle.

“Bring Jane, Y/N. We are going on a trip with my boys.”

[capricornsims]

Strangetown Mystery 13: Trapped

     Days turned into weeks and the imprisonment of the Smith family became known throughout Strangetown, much to their dismay. Lola and Chloe rallied alongside other townies to free Pollination Technician 9, waving picket signs about uniting the world. “ He did nothing wrong, he’s just raising his family!” Lola shouted out, and the crowd agreed, remembering PT9 as a friendly family man, and not the evil invader General Buzz Grunt was making him out to be. Despite the protests outside of the bunker, the Smith Family would continue to be entrapped in the concrete underground, unable to hear the rallying cries of their family members. Restlessness and fear hung over everyone as their fate was left to the unknown as the syndrome got worse. Johnny, especially, couldn’t stand the extended stay in the bunker, knowing the untrustworthy intentions of Buzz Grunt...but he couldn’t do anything if he was stuck under Tank’s surveillance. 

To add to Johnny’s misery, his other physical alien traits began to appear, clouding his emerald green eyes over with an inky black shade. He was appalled by his appearance, unable to comprehend why his eyes decided to change at a moment like this! He knew his skin was going to get greener as he grew older, but his eyes were the only thing that made him feel human enough to live amongst his friends. Now he was considered more of a freak compared to before, vulnerable to the same prejudice his father and sisters faced. His emotions ran rampant through his brain, staring off into grimy mirrors, picturing his horrible future. 

Johnny: Why does this have to happen to me now, why couldn’t I have changed after this. What if I get experimented on by mad scientists? Bullied more by Tank? What if Ripp and Ophelia run away because I’m such a freak... A freak of nature…

His insecurities manifested as the day wore on, it didn’t help that Tank commented on his changed appearance or that his family looked at him differently.

He split apart from his parents, escaping to the furthest point of the compound to hide away from the world. Unfortunately, his effort to conceal his condition was useless as footprints approached him 

PT9: Son, your mother told me what happened,

Johnny: …

PT9: Why don’t you want to talk to your old man about it? 

Johnny: I don’t want to talk right now! 

PT9: I understand that you teenagers are going through a lot of emotions, but I’m here for you. I watched you grow up on Earth, and I know how hard it’s been for you, Johnny. 

Johnny: I don’t think you understand, dad. You grew up with other aliens...but here I had to grow up with other humans and they just suck! 

PT9: I know, son, but compared to them, you are stronger. Your eyes may have changed to look like mine, but you are the same young man everyone loves. Once we get out of here, you’ll be able to show the world how great you are. 

Johnny: IF we get out of here! We’re stuck here because *you* think Buzz Grunt is trying to protect us! Can’t you read minds !? We are trapped here and we can’t get out! 

PT9: I don’t want to argue about this, Johnny. I love you, and I want to keep all of you safe. 

Johnny: We are not safe here, dad, we are prisoners! Look, if you don’t make an effort to find a way out sooner I will! 

PT9: I wish you luck on your endeavor, I will keep doing my part if you don’t mind.

 Johnny stormed away from the conversation, an uneasy tension forming between him and his father. His father’s tone about keeping them safe did not sit right with Johnny, his fatherly demeanor stiffened and his face grew cold when he said they were trapped. It was like his father knew what the true evil was and kept it a secret for their sake and it had to be something threatening if he entrusted his life to his enemy.  Either way, he did not want to be a part of his father’s secrets and consulted the general store clerk for help. 

Ripp: Hey Johnny, I see you escaped my dumb brother. Can I get you anything like a soda or a magazine? 

Johnny: Freedom. I’m going to attempt an escape and I need help. 

Ripp: It’s going to be hard to stock in my store but I think I can get that for you, Johnny. 

Johnny: What really!? 

Ripp: Yeah, we just need to make a plan first and figure out how to get past those gates without being chased by Tank. 

Johnny: And once I get past Tank I will make a run straight for the nearest town, Deadtree. Ophelia said she was staying at her family’s meeting house so maybe I can hide in there until things blow over. 

Johnny: This place is dangerous, I have to get away before I become some alien experiment.

Ripp: It sounds like a plan, dude, I’ll make sure you make it to Ophelia in one piece. I promise...It’s the least I can do since my father locked your family in here.

Johnny: I owe you my life, Ripp. Thanks for helping me.

                                                 The Sublevel 

The sublevel lay beneath the laboratory of the bunker, shrouded in a dim red light upon entering its dark corridors. The only sound that emitted from this strange area was the whirring of the ventilators and clunking mechanical noises beyond the threshold of the massive vault doors. Every sound that was made echoed eerily off the walls and the hall seemed to grow narrower as it neared the entrance. No one knew what the doors protected, or what it concealed beyond vague notions of science experiments and surgical equipment. Whoever built this bunker had intentions to keep the contents of the vault in secrecy so why was General Buzz Grunt so eager to show PT9 what lay beyond it?

Buzz: Pollination Technician 9, you have helped immensely around the lab with the scientists, but I cannot trust them with this experiment. Therefore, I trust that you will do this experiment perfectly without error, understand? 

PT9: I understand, I just hope this experiment won’t take too long. I just want to be with my family. 

Buzz: Don’t worry, your family is being taken care of. After all, I am the one protecting them. 

They entered the sublevel slowly, PT9 hesitated to pass the open doors but he had no choice but to follow the general into the secret laboratory. At first, he noticed the smell of chemicals, coming from the surgical room, the odd glowing of preservation tanks, and the deafening white noise of the entire area. His heart skipped a beat when he heard the vault doors slam shut, cutting him off from the rest of the bunker. He turned to gaze at Buzz Grunt and noticed the smile on his face which beckoned him closer to the small room he was motioning to. He hobbled into the cubical room and looked around for any lab equipment. There wasn’t any! He whirled around and the door slammed shut in his face, backing him against the glass walls of the cell. Buzz only continued to smile, mocking the alien behind the glass, as he locked the doors shut with the keys in his pocket. 

PT9: Buzz what is this? You can’t do this? 

Buzz: You know what this is, alien. I’ve been watching you for years and you managed to convince the entirety of Simnation that you’re nothing but a retiree alien looking to raise a family. Heh, but I’m not stupid, Smith. Oh no, I knew that you were plotting something the minute you stepped foot into Strangetown. I know you planted the first seed of the bizarre plant, I know you and your friends are trying to turn us, humans, into zombies for your experiments!

Buzz: You should be thankful I’m keeping Jenny and your kids away from danger, away from you! 

PT9: You’re a madman Buzz! I didn’t plant any seeds or turn anyone into zombies, I’ve spent the last eighteen years of my life providing for my family and trying to fit in with you humans! I’m innocent! 

Buzz: IM MAD AND YOU’RE INNOCENT!? Tell that to Glarn Curious and every unfortunate creature that you experimented on PT9! I know your secrets, I know everything you’ve done to this place! And I’m saving Simnation by getting rid of you! 

PT9: I haven’t done anything! 

Buzz: We are done here Pollination Technician 9. I will take care of Jenny and your dumb kids. At least now they will have a bright future ahead of them. For now, I will hand you over to my colleagues…

PT9: No...not them! You said you would protect me and my family! Buzz please, I have another one on the way at least wait until I can see them!

Dude in Black 1: It’s a pleasure doing business with you, General, we will take this alien off your hands now. 

Dude in Black 2: We have already begun preparations to send PT9 to Sixam, Strangetown is safe thanks to you. 

Buzz: I am glad that I was able to keep Simnation safe from yet another threat. Thankyou for your work agents. 

PT9: Liars! All of you are liars! 

[themoonandotherslikeit]

Holding On and Letting Go - Chapter One

The sequel to The Hand That Reaches for God

Emerson was always told that time heals all wounds, but whoever said that must’ve not lived in the world that she lived in. They must’ve lived in the time before, when the world its self wasn’t this bleeding, throbbing wound, and that time did nothing but drag out the never ending pain.

The Maklen sisters and the Winchester brothers were inseparable, their whole lives, and when the world turned red they did the one thing they knew how to do-- be together. But now, the same world that pulled them together, seemed destined to rip them apart again and shatter something that was so fragile in the first place.

Chapter One

“Yes, I have burned to smoke and ash for the ones I have loved. I have been devoured, slowly, then spat back out. And probability suggests you are likely to ruin me too. But here, have my heart. Take it. I'd like you to." - Beau Taplin

-3 Years After-

It was Christmas. At least it would be Christmas, if they celebrated shit like that anymore.

Emerson was crouched on the roof, her gun resting on her knee as she kept watch. The world was blanketed in a soft, pink snow. She kept expecting the rain to go back to normal, but sometimes it still came out bubblegum pink. It gave the world some kind of awful candy land feel that made her nauseous. The sun was setting in the distance, kissing the horizon, creating a warm glow across the frozen landscape in front of her.

She needed time to think, but there was never enough time. Not really. It never got any easier, no matter how much she thought it would. She half expected the pain to fade over time, but her pain was chronic and counting the days wasn’t helping.

It was fucking cold out, and the wind whistled through the trees and bit at her cheeks, but she didn’t mind. She yearned for the nostalgia that she couldn’t bring herself to feel. She closed her eyes and let her cheeks sting and tears bite at her eyes. She used to feel like snow was fresh, a sign of innocence and rebirth-- but now she wasn’t so sure. That felt too hopeful, and if she was being honest, there wasn’t a lot of hope left to go around.

The town was quiet, just like it had been, but she knew better than to let her guard down for even a second. Plus, she was already itching to leave and move on. She didn’t trust staying put. The only thing that she could count on was that things changed, and standing still when the rest of the world was spinning and shifting around her was a really fast way to get dizzy and fall down.

She ran her fingers through her shoulder-length, chopped hair to shake some fallen snow out of it. Her eyes shifted to a frozen bird's nest that was tucked in the gutter of the roof, the blue speckled eggs just broken shells barely poking out of the snow. All of the birds flew South for winter. Without feathers they wouldn’t survive a night in the below zero temperatures. She just wished the Rogue’s would do the same. The cold didn’t seem to bother them, their blue lips still biting mindlessly. It sort of made sense, you couldn’t really kill something that was already dead.

She should go back. It was time. She had been out in the cold long enough, and she knew that he would be worried. What a turn of events, that Dean had become the worrier of the two of them. It was almost laughable. If she felt like laughing. She didn’t. She felt like screaming, punching something, blowing the head off of a stray Rogue. Emerson had violence within her, pulsing through her veins the same way her blood did. It was infecting her, eating her alive.

“Em?”

Sam hoisted himself onto the roof and settled next to her. “You’ve been gone for a while, you doing okay?”

“I’m great,” she said, staring off into the distance. Why couldn’t they just give her some space?

“Dean was just…”

“I know,” she said with a tight jaw. “I know, Sam.”

“We’re all having a tough time, Em. Cut him a break.”

“I just can’t fake it all the time, you know?”

He let out a sigh next to her, and she glanced at him in time to see him nod, just barely. “Yeah, I do.”

They were one in the same, Emerson and Sam. They never had much in common growing up, but they always had one thing, and it was the biggest thing.

They loved Ophelia.

“I miss her, Sam.”

The tear that rolled down his cheek glowed orange in the sunset. “So do I.”

Emerson scooted closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder. “I don’t know how to do this without her.”

“Me neither.” He forced a sad smile and wrapped an arm around her. “But I think we have to. For each other and for Dean. He doesn’t deserve this. He loves you.”

It was sort of incredible how fast things changed.

She pressed her palm to her chest, rubbing the space above her broken heart. “I don’t know if that’s enough. It wasn’t enough for Phel.”

“You aren’t the only one that misses her.”

“I wasn’t trying to say I was.”

“Sometimes you’re just so selfish, Emerson. All you care about is you.” When he spoke, he barely sounded like Sam.

“Dean?”

Sam’s face was turned, looking down at her, and she recoiled instantly. She attempted to pull away from him, but his fingers were wrapped tightly around her wrist. Skin seemed to slosh off his face, exposing his teeth and muscle underneath. Bloody drool fell from his open maw as he tilted his head to the side. “So selfish,” he hissed, more liquid falling from his mouth.

Emerson thought she was going to throw up. She pulled back from him, trying to yank her arm, but his grip was absolute. She cried out in pain, wincing as her skin gripped under his fingers. She pulled again, desperate to get away from him, completely degloving her hand. She stared at her own fleshless fingers and began to scream.

"Em, hey, wake up," Dean said, nudging her awake. She was sobbing in her sleep again, screaming. It was a nightly occurrence.

She reached for him, allowing his arms to snake around her and pull her closer. That was her safe place, in his arms. As much as she hated to admit it, she’d always felt that way. “Dean?” She squeaked, her voice completely raw from crying.

“Hey, I’ve got you.”

And she knew that he did.

She cleared her throat. “I’m fine.” She sat up, the RV showing up as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Her feet touched the floor. She was still in her boots. Sometimes she felt like she lost track of what her toes actually looked like.

Dean sat up behind her and kissed her bare shoulder, and she stiffened. “Talk to me,” he insisted, his voice soft against her skin as he kissed her again.

“I hate this.”

“This?”

“I hate that this is the world that we’re in. I hate that this is how we had to start… I hate…”

“You can say it.”

“No I can’t,” Emerson huffed quietly. “Not yet. Not now.” She turned toward him, examining his tired face in the darkness.

The time had aged him. The young man she fell in love with was different. His jaw was rough, and his nose was littered with a thousand freckles. His hair was shaggy, in need of a cut, and unkempt. She reached forward and wiped some dirt off his cheekbone with her thumb. She wanted to be the woman that he needed. She wanted to be the woman that she needed, but she couldn’t. She was barely functioning.

“Can we just… be together?” She asked, her voice a little desperate.

“Yeah,” Dean said quietly, and he pulled her to him, and he kissed her. He pulled her face to his and as their lips brushed, Emerson felt her heart crack a bit. She pulled him closer, pressing herself closer, as if she was trying to blend into him and disappear completely.

-8 Years Before-

“Em?” Pheli asked as she bursted into their bedroom.

Emerson pulled her quilt up over her naked chest, her eyes still heavy from sleep. She sat up quickly, perfectly aware that she was completely alone. She looked around for a note, for anything to tell her what happened. Maybe he was in the bathroom. Maybe he didn’t abandon her after they had sex… after she… She felt sick to her stomach.

“What’s going on?” Her sister asked, her eyes scanning the scene. “Did you? Oh my god. ”

Emerson’s eyes stung as she realized, pretty damn quickly, what happened. If she had any question about Dean Winchester, it was answered in the cold space next to her. She woke up alone, when she went to bed next to another person. She thought they would be something. She thought they already were.

She was so fucking stupid.

“I just fell asleep after my shower.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Ophelia asked, crossing her arms, challenging her.

Emerson wasn’t in the mood. She was too tired. She was too hurt. “Yes,” she whispered desperately. “I do.”

Pheli’s expression softened, like it always did, and she gathered her sisters clothing up in her arms and walked them to her, handing them over. “Do you want to talk about it?”

“No.”

“Are you going to be okay?” She asked as she sat next to Emerson on her bed.

She sucked in her breath, the sting of her tears pinging in her chest like electricity. Her eyes welled up, and her voice cracked as she barely managed, “no.” She pulled her shirt over her head and allowed her sister to pull her into a hug, and Emerson cried.

“Boys suck,” Phel said insistently. “I’m going to kick his ass.”

Usually Ophelia knew the right thing to say, the perfect thing, but this time her words just melted into Emerson’s hair, into nothingness.

Dean left her. After he said all the right things, after he stripped her down physically and emotionally. What a bastard.

“Don’t bother,” Emerson said, her voice so much more broken than she wanted to allow out. “He was leaving, he was always going to leave.”

She was in love with him. She probably had always been in love with him, and in that moment it felt like the biggest mistake she had ever made. Love begets pain, emptiness.

“But this…”

“I will always have you,” Em said, interrupting her sister. “You and me, right?”

“Always. Let’s order take out and spend the whole day in bed.”

Emerson smiled, tears stinging her eyes. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, Phel.”

“Probably die.”

“Probably,” she agreed.

-3 Years After-

Sex had this amazing way of wiping away pain like a magic eraser, like a numbing shot that made everything tingle-- Emerson never was able to shake off the pain completely, but when she was alone with Dean, sometimes she could push it to the back of her mind and tuck it into a dark shadow. Sometimes she could convince herself that it wasn’t real, even just for a moment.

Snow was falling outside of the windows on the RV, quieting the world around them. “Where’s Sam?” She asked, her voice a soft whisper.

“He left a little bit ago, I think he just needs some space.”

“Hm.”

She sat up, holding the blanket to her chest and tried to look out the window, but it was fogged up from their breath. She drew a little heart in the fog, her chest squeezing. She wasn’t the person that drew hearts on windows, Pheli was, but the absence of her sister weighed so heavily on her that she felt she needed to fill the void herself.

Dean sat up, wrapping an arm around her middle, and pressing a soft kiss to her shoulder. “What's going on in that head of yours?”

She put her arm on top of his and closed her eyes, willing the pain to bury itself back inside of her. “Mostly darkness.”

“Should I turn on a light?” He asked with a soft chuckle, just to remind her that he was joking, since apparently she wasn’t capable anymore.

When everything happened, her first instinct was to push him away and recoil into herself. He wouldn’t let her, though. All they had was hope, and the moment that flame burned out, there would be nothing left.

They were already on borrowed time, as far as Emerson was concerned. “Not safe,” she muttered to herself.

“I know.” He kissed her shoulder again, because there wasn’t much else he could do.

Dean Winchester was strong. He was much stronger than she ever was, or could ever hope to be. “How long are we going to do this, Dean?” She asked, squeezing his arm tightly.

“As long as we have to.”

He didn’t have to say it out loud, but she still heard it in his voice, his voice echoing in her mind. Until we die.

And she cried, because she didn’t know what else to do.  

-106 Days After-

Bang!

The realization hit Emerson like a car wreck, like a ton of bricks, like when she was ten and she tripped down the stairs and cracked her front tooth. “Was that…”

“A gunshot,” Dean said, finishing her sentence. His green eyes had snapped out of that wrecked look they had a moment before, and were now the eyes of a soldier. “Get dressed.”

Emerson felt sick, like she could throw up, like her heart was ripped right out of her chest but she somehow wasn’t dead.

A thousand thoughts ran through her mind, racing, running and spinning out of her grasp. She couldn’t hold on to anything, but Dean still reached out for her, like he always had and he always would. He wrapped his fingers around her hand and pulled her up. She got dressed hurriedly, sloppily, and with too much difficulty. Dean helped her zip the back of her dress and slide into her shoes. They grasped hands and began to run toward the sound.

Bang!

Another shot rang out in the air, cutting through the trees, the silence, their skin and bones. Somewhere, discarded on the ground, was  Dean’s ipod that still played a quiet song of a different life, a life that they only got to enjoy for a single taste. As they ran still, they ran further and further away from the life they almost had, and as they ran to a life that was destined to be full of pain and deep, profound loneliness.

Because, if Dean Winchester knew anything, he knew that the sound of a gun firing never ended well. There was no happy ending for them, they knew it the moment the bomb went off and turned their lives upside down, and they were reminded once more when the bullet spun, leaving the barrel of the gun.

-----

Chapter two

Catch up on Part One Here

Tag List:

@hanaissupergirl

@deans-baby-momma

@cpag7

@tftumblin

@squirrelnotsam

@formulafun

@thatgirl1456

@wildfirekitten

@ceisbill

[writingsofawonderer]

Rivalry — Part 5

Word Count: 2.18K

Warnings: None

A/N: Guys, I know it’s been like six months I’m so so sorry.

Masterlist

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

The tension between Olivia and her twin was thick during the car ride to her apartment. Both too prideful to break the silence, neither of them said anything until they reached the parking lot. Olivia reached for the door handle, but stopped herself from getting out. “I know you mean well, but I really don’t need you hunting me down and almost getting into a fight for no reason.”

“It wasn’t for no reason. I saw that video of Hood telling that guy to leave you alone.”

“Yeah, he was protecting me. And, anyway, the guy left. I was fine. You must’ve seen that in the video, too.”

He frowned. “I told you, I don’t trust Hood. Why were you even there? You know how he feels about me.”

Olivia bit her lip. She did know how Calum felt about her brother. And she was seeing him anyway. “Cara’s dating one of his best friends. I have to hang out with him sometimes.”

“I know.” He frowned, clutching the steering wheel. “But a party? Really?”

“Just…” Olivia sighed. “I’m sorry if me being friendly with him feels like a betrayal, but I can’t just cut him out for you. I love Cara, and she wants me to be friends with Luke, which means being around Calum. But you don’t get to use me as an excuse to start a fight.”

With that, she got out of the car. Once she was upstairs and safely in her apartment she pulled out her phone, seeing a few texts from Cara. Among the ones asking if she was okay and how things went with Oliver, there was one that let her know that the guys had found out about her and Calum’s relationship. 

Olivia felt a ball of nerves grow in her stomach as she remembered all of the times Michael taunted her brother during an argument. She wondered if her name would come up the next time they saw each other. She hoped not. She didn’t know Michael very well, but hoped his loyalty to Calum would be enough to keep him quiet.

She rubbed her eyes and sighed, more than ready to go to sleep, but then Jessie stepped out of her bedroom. Apparently, Oliver wasn’t the only person who’d seen the video. Jessie, who had been at work and couldn’t go to the party with them, had a lot of questions about what she’d missed. Olivia did her best to fill her in and finally came clean about Calum. As much as she didn’t want anyone else to know, she knew that Jessie would be hurt if she found out that Cara knew and she didn’t.

After swearing her friend to secrecy, Olivia went into her room. She changed into some pajamas and sat on her bed, leaning against the headboard as she called Calum. As tired as she was, she knew that he deserved to know what happened. She couldn’t leave him in the dark. She hoped he would still be up, but it was nearing three in the morning, and he probably had training the next day.

It only rang once before he answered. “Liv?”

“Hey, Cal. Ollie sure knows how to crash a party, huh?”

He chuckled, but when he spoke, she could hear the nerves in his voice. “How was the ride home?”

“Tense. Neither of us really said anything. I was expecting a lot more yelling.”

“Did I come up?”

“Of course you did. He despises you, Cal. But if you mean did we come up, then no.” When he hesitated, Olivia took a guess as to what he was thinking. “I still… I don’t want this to end, if you’re worried about that. Oliver showing up was unexpected and, frankly, scared the shit out of me, but I don’t want to give up before we’ve even given us a chance.”

“You don’t?”

“No. I do feel like a shitty sister for dating a man who can’t stand my twin brother, though.” She took a deep breath, not sure she was ready to open the can of worms that was their rivalry. “Why do you guys fight so much, anyway?”

“Wouldn’t have a problem if he didn’t go out of his way to fuck with me. You and I both know he’s the one that started all of this shit.”

Olivia sighed. She wanted to stand up for her brother, even though she knew Calum was right. “Let’s just… not think about him for now, yeah?”

“Okay.” Olivia wasn’t sure how to respond. All she could think about was her brother. It was a relief when Calum continued. “Let’s talk about our first date instead. How’s next Wednesday?”

“Perfect.”

❁❁❁❁

That Sunday, as Olivia was getting ready for their next match, she stopped in front of her mirror. She looked at the jersey she was wearing and bit her bottom lip. She’d never really thought about it before, but she wondered how Calum felt seeing her in it; in her brother’s colors instead of his.

After a few moments of consideration, she decided that she should support him somehow. Even if no one would be able to tell. She thought about putting on bright red lipstick, but that would be too obvious. If there was even a stitch of red on her, Oliver would undoubtedly throw a fit. She wanted to do something, though.

She finished getting ready and hurried to the stadium to meet her family. When she got to their usual seats, she frowned. Her younger sister, Ophelia, was sitting there alone, texting. Olivia looked around as she took her seat. “Are mum and dad not here?”

Ophelia looked up and sighed. “Sick. Someone gave dad the flu and mum caught it from him. Didn’t stop them from making me come, though.”

Olivia chuckled at the younger girl. “You know how Oliver would react if we missed a game.”

“He’s so dramatic.” She groaned. “Doesn’t he know that I have more exciting ways to spend my time?”

Olivia laughed at her sister’s complaints, even though she’d felt the same way when she was sixteen and had been forced to go to his high school games. The girls looked down to where their brother was on the field. Olivia frowned as she watched him turn to where Calum and his team were warming up. She didn’t hear what he said, but judging from the way Calum’s face twisted, it had been something provocative.

“He’s starting a fight again.” She sighed, hoping that Calum would take the high road.

“Of course he is. He hates Calum. I probably would, too, if I was him.” Her sister said, calmly. “Calum Hood is a sexy son of a bitch. He’s probably jealous.”

Olivia burst out laughing. “Lia!”

“What? Mum’s not here.” She smiled cheekily. “Besides, I know you think so, too.”

She found herself blushing. In the past, when they talked about guys that they found hot, Calum had been a pretty regular topic of conversation. Ever since she moved out, they didn’t really see each other one on one, and their girl talks had stopped. She missed talking to Ophelia; she wished she could tell her why she was concerned about a fight breaking out.

Her eyes trailed to Michael, and she remembered her fears from after the party. She knew that if Calum and Oliver got into it, he would jump in to take some of the heat off of his friend. She just wasn’t sure where he would draw the line. There was a real possibility that their secret would be out by the end of the game.

As they talked, she kept her eyes locked on the men on the field. Thankfully, after a short discussion, Calum went back to whatever drill he was practicing with Michael, and Oliver stalked back to his own team. As if he could feel his eyes on her, he looked up and immediately found them. She saw his attention move down to her chest. His focused expression morphed into a scowl, and Olivia found herself smirking; she had her answer. He hated seeing her in those colors.

Normally, when they were playing each other Olivia had no problem keeping her eyes off of Calum. Her attention would stay on Oliver because he was her brother and he was the one she was rooting for. During that particular game, though, Olivia found it difficult to stop looking at him. She wasn’t sure if it was because their relationship had changed or something else, but at one point, when he maneuvered around Oliver and scored, she’d even cheered and started to stand before she realized what she was doing.

She quickly sat back down, and Ophelia gave her a strange look. She shrugged and turned her attention back to the game, hoping that no one else had noticed. For the rest of the game, her focus was more on keeping her eyes on her brother than actually seeing what he was doing.

Calum’s team won. When her sister wasn’t looking, she sent him a text that promised he’d get a congratulatory treat later. Thankfully, as the teams packed up and left the field, neither Calum nor Oliver said anything to each other. 

Olivia and Ophelia made their way out of the stadium once both teams went to their respective locker rooms. Most of the time, they would all go out to eat after a game. On days that Oliver lost, though, he tended to be a little too worked up to be in public. Especially if it was Calum that he lost to.

They decided to wait at Olivia’s car while he changed and showered. Once they got away from anyone who may overhear them, Ophelia raised her eyebrows. “So can we talk about you cheering for Calum?”

“I was zoned out. I wasn’t paying attention to who scored.” She defended, hoping that her sister would believe her.

“Oh.. Okay.” Ophelia sounded skeptical, but didn’t question the older girl. “Hopefully Ollie doesn’t find out. He was already upset enough about you being at that party the other day.”

“How do you know about that?” “He wouldn’t shut up about it. He was so mad, it was like he’d found you in Calum’s bed or something.”

Olivia let out a deep sigh. “He needs to get laid.”

Ophelia snorted. “For real. Maybe we can set him up with someone. Jessie’s single, right?”

“Gross, no. Not my flatmate.”

“Okay, fine. You have to know someone, though.”

“Why does it have to be my job? Why can’t you find someone?”

“Everyone I know is sixteen.” Liv pressed her lips together and mentally facepalmed. Ophelia grinned. “Let’s get coffee and make a game plan. Wednesday?”

Olivia nodded. Her date with Calum wouldn’t be until that night, so a midday coffee date with her sister would work. They talked for a little longer before Oliver stormed over, tugging his coat on as he mumbled to himself.

Olivia felt a weight on her chest. Oliver’s shoulders were slumped with the defeat as he approached them. She and Ophelia shared a knowing look. If he couldn’t even fake a positive attitude for the walk to them, there was no way he could handle the jeering from Calum’s fans that would inevitably follow them wherever they tried to eat.

“Why don’t we go back to my place for lunch? I’ll cook for us.” Olivia suggested when he finally reached them. Oliver didn’t say anything, but she saw his shoulders relax slightly as relief filled his eyes.

It turns out that a nice, calm lunch with his sisters was just what Oliver needed. It wasn’t long before the loss seemed to be completely forgotten, and they were all laughing and joking. After they ate, Ophelia suggested that they play some board games. The twins, who had always been competitive eagerly agreed, and began arguing about what to play. Olivia didn’t want to play monopoly because it takes so long, Oliver didn’t want to play scrabble because Olivia (an english grad student) had an unfair advantage, and neither wanted to play a card game, so they ended up settling on Sorry.

It had been a long time since the siblings had hung out. Olivia wished that she could enjoy it more, but there was a hole in her chest preventing that. The girls tried their best to keep Oliver’s mind off of Calum, but every once in a while a comment would slip out, and Olivia had to fight the urge to stand up for him. She just didn’t understand what had made Oliver hate him so much. They’d always been competitive, but it had been playful, friendly until one day when Oliver came home pissed about something that he’d overheard Calum say. He never told her what it had been, but she knew her brother well enough to know that he was being overdramatic, especially to have kept the grudge for so long. Maybe if she could figure out what Calum had said, she could talk to them both and they could work everything out.

❁❁❁❁

Taglist

@gosh-im-short @notsooperfect @kikibelle

[four-loose-screws]

m!Corrin / Ophelia (Married) Festival of Bonds DLC Translation, Part 2

I got a request a while back to translate m!Corrin / Ophelia’s married conversation from the Festival of Bonds DLC. This DLC tragically was never localized, so it’s more important than anything else to make sure these convos get great fan translations!

Thanks @yukiwrites for waiting so long!

A couple of fabulous translators over at the Festival of Bonds Translations blog actually already translated this convo, but they left out an interesting cultural tidbit that helps non-Japanese understand the conversation a bit better, so I still decided to do my own translation. But I suggest ya’ll check out their’s as well, as I didn’t discuss everything they did, either.

Click here for those translations: Regular Convo - Married Convo

———————————–

[カムイ]

どうでしたか？　オフェリアさん。

装飾の意味はわかりましたか？▼

Corrin: So how did it go, Ophelia? Did they understand the meaning of the decorations?

[オフェリア]

うん…▼

Ophelia: Yeah…

[カムイ]

浮かない顔ですね。

誰も意味を知らなかったんですか？▼

Corrin: You look upset. Did no one know the meaning?

[オフェリア]

いいえ、違うの。

聞いたら嬉しそうに教えてくれたわ。▼

そしたらね、

カムイさんの言うとおりだった。▼

どっちも子どもの成長を願って飾る、

大切な装飾なんだって。▼

それで、一纏めにされてるお魚たちは

好敵手じゃなくて…家族なんだって。▼

一番上と二番目のお魚は、

私たちとおんなじ、夫婦なの。▼

Ophelia: No, that’s not it, they did know. When I asked, they happily told me. And they said that you’re right. Both are important decorations, used to wish for children to grow. And the fish that are bundled together aren’t rivals… they are a family. The first and second ones are husband and wife, just like us.

[カムイ]

そうだったんですか…▼

Corrin: So that was it…

[オフェリア]

ごめんなさい…カムイさん。

さっきは私の遊びに付き合わせて。▼

私、恥ずかしくなっちゃった。▼

そんな大事なものに

勝手に妙な意味をつけて遊んだりして。▼

あれは伝説の魚とか、

すごい聖域じゃなくても…▼

最初から大事な意味を持った、

素敵な装飾だったのに。▼

Ophelia: I’m sorry, Corrin… I made you go along with my game. I’m so embarrassed. I played around and selfishly gave such important objects such a strange meaning. Even if they aren’t legendary fish, or a great sanctuary… they are still amazing decorations that have always had important meanings.

[カムイ]

落ち込まないでください、オフェリアさん。

気づけたのなら大丈夫ですよ。▼

自分から意味を知ろうとしたことも、

偉かった���思います。▼

私なんてオフェリアさんに言われるまで

見ようともしていませんでしたからね。▼

そちらの方が恥ずかしいことですよ。▼

Corrin: Please don’t let it get you down, Ophelia. You care, and that’s what matters. I also think it was very admirable of you to try to come up with the meaning on your own. I didn’t even try to look at the decorations until you told me about them. I’m the one who should be embarrassed!

[オフェリア]

そんな…今は戦闘中だし

仕方ないよ。▼

ありがとう、カムイさん。

私のことをフォローしてくれて。▼

流石は私の選んだ運命の人ね。▼

Ophelia: Well… we’re in the middle of battle, so that couldn’t be helped. Thanks, Corrin. You went alone with what I was saying. You really are my chosen person of destiny.

[カムイ]

どういたしまして。▼

ではこの桃の花を、

オフェリアさんに差し上げます。▼

Corrin: You’re welcome. Here, these peach blossoms are for you.

[オフェリア]

わあ…綺麗！

ありがとう！▼

でも、いきなりどうして？▼

Ophelia: Wow… they’re pretty! Thank you! But this is so sudden! Why?

[カムイ]

私もオフェリアさんに倣って、

屋台の店主に話を聞いたんです。▼

そうしたら、女の子の成長を祝う時は

桃の花を飾るのが決まりなのだと。▼

最初に見た時は、

まだ本当に小さかったのに…▼

よくここまで成長しましたね。

おめでとうございます、オフェリアさん。▼

こんな素敵な女性になって、

それから、私と結婚してくれて…▼

…ありがとうございます。▼

Corrin: I did the same as you, and asked the cart owners about the meanings. They told me that they use peach blossoms as decorations when they celebrate the growth of young girls. The first time I saw you, you were still really small, but… you’ve grown so much. Congratulations, Ophelia. You became an amazing woman, and then married me… …Thank you.

[オフェリア]

…いいえ。

私こそ、ありがとう。▼

あなたが私を選んでくれたことは

人生でいちばんの幸せだよ。▼

私、ここに来られてよかった。▼

大人になって…

あなたのお嫁さんになれてよかった。▼

Ophelia: ...No, I’m the one who should thank you. The fact that you chose me is my greatest happiness in life. I’m happy I came here. I’m happy I grew up… and became your wife.

[カムイ]

オフェリアさん…▼

ははは…

こういうの…照れますね。▼

そうやって花束を持っていたらオフェリアさん、

まるで花嫁さんみたいで…▼

Corrin: Ophelia… Ha ha ha… You’re… beaming. Carrying that bouquet, you look just like a bride…

[オフェリア]

えへへ…そうかな？

いつかちゃんと結婚式もしようね。▼

それまで、この天女の加護を受けし

伝説の桃花…じゃなかった、▼

普通のかわいい桃の花も、

大切にするよ。▼

Ophelia: Tee hee… Think so? Let’s have a proper wedding ceremony someday! Until then, I’ll cherish these peach blossoms of legend, blessed by an angel… I mean, these normal, cute peach blossoms.

[カムイ]

ありがとうございます。▼

でも…結婚式ですか。▼

私はずっと外の世界を知りませんでしたし、

今は戦争中ですから、▼

正式な結婚式というものを

見た事がないのですが…▼

このお祭りのように、

華やかな感じでやればいいのでしょうか？▼

Corrin: Thank you. But… a wedding ceremony? I’ve never known about the outside world, and now I’m in the middle of a war, so I’ve never seen a “proper wedding ceremony,” so… is it as extravagant as this festival?

[オフェリア]

そうね。

本で読んだけど…▼

結婚式にもたくさん、

意味のある装飾やしきたりがあるそうよ。▼

例えば、暗夜の花嫁はどこかに

黒天馬の翼をつけておくと幸せになれるとか、▼

式場に白銀の槍を飾っておくと

邪なるものを寄せ付けないとか、▼

鉱石を指輪の裏に嵌め込むと

絆がより強固になるとかね。▼

Ophelia: Yeah. I read this in a book, but… wedding ceremonies also include meaningful decorations and customs. For example, in Nohr, if a bride pins a black pegasus feather somewhere,  then she’ll be happy; and if the venue is decorated with a silver lance, then it will ward off evil; and if ore is set in the inside of the ring, then the bride and groom’s bond will be even stronger.

[カムイ]

へえ…さすがはオフェリアさん。

物知りですね。▼

Corrin: Wow… You’re like a walking dictionary, Ophelia! Not that I expected any less of you!

[オフェリア]

そりゃそうだよ。

カムイさんと結婚してから、▼

結婚式のことは

いーっぱい調べて…▼

…あっ。▼

Ophelia: Of course! After I married you, I spent a loooong time researching weddings… ...Oh!

[カムイ]

そうなんですか？▼

Corrin: What is it?

[オフェリア]

うう…ごめんなさい。▼

戦争中だし、あまり浮かれるのは

いけないって思ってたんだよ？▼

でもやっぱり…

乙女としては、憧れちゃって。▼

Ophelia: Um… sorry. We’re in the middle of a battle, so I shouldn’t get too lost in thought, should I? But, of course… as a maiden, I admire them so!

[カムイ]

いえ、謝ることではありません。

憧れるのは当然ですよ。▼

本当ならあの石で

指輪を作ったあとすぐ、▼

結婚式が出来れば良かったのですが…

待たせてすみません、オフェリアさん。▼

お詫びに今日はオフェリアさんの

わがままを何でも聞きますよ。▼

Corrin: No, you don’t have to apologize. Of course you would admire them. If that’s true, then it would have been better for us to have the wedding ceremony right after I had your ring made with that rock. I’m sorry to make you wait, Ophelia. To make it up to you, I’ll listen to whatever selfish thing you have to say.

[オフェリア]

わがままを…何でも？

ほんとに？▼

Ophelia: Anything… selfish I have to say? Really?

[カムイ]

はい。▼

Corrin: Yes.

[オフェリア]

じゃ、じゃあ、ちょっとかがんで！▼

Ophelia: Th-Then lean over a little!

[カムイ]

え？

こ、こうですか？▼

Corrin: Huh? L-Like this?

[オフェリア]

ええ。

そのままじっとしててね…▼

そう、そのまま…▼

Ophelia: Yeah. Stay still, just like that… Yeah, stay there...

[カムイ]

…っ！！▼

Corrin: ...Ah!!

[オフェリア]

…………▼

Ophelia: ..........

[カムイ]

あの、オフェリアさん、今のは…▼

Corrin: Um, Ophelia, what did you just do…?

[オフェリア]

好きよ、カムイさん…▼

今のはその…婚姻の儀に倣った

愛の刻印を刻みし輝ける盟約…▼

つまり、誓いのキスだよ！▼

Ophelia: I love you, Corrin… That was the pact that seals our love and makes it shine, just like a couple would do at their wedding ceremony! In other words, it was a kiss that finalizes our vows!

[カムイ]

……誓いの……▼

Corrin: …...our vows…...

[オフェリア]

い、嫌だった！？▼

Ophelia: Y-You didn’t like it!?

[カムイ]

嫌なわけありません！▼

その…すごく…嬉しかったです。

愛する妻がそんなことをしてくれて。▼

Corrin: That’s not it! I, uh… I’m very… happy that the wife I love would do such a thing for me.

[オフェリア]

な、なんだか照れちゃうわ。▼

でも本当の本物の誓いのキスは…

カムイさんからしてね？▼

Ophelia: Y-Your face is all lit up! But the real kiss that finalizes our vows… needs to come from you, right?

[カムイ]

はい…もちろんです。

その日が来るのを、楽しみにしています。▼

綺麗なドレスを着て、

隣で笑うあなたを見るためにも…▼

戦いなんて早く終わらせないと

いけませんね。▼

Corrin: Yes… of course. I’m looking forward to that day, when you’ll wear a beautiful dress, and I’ll see you smiling next to me. To see that day come… we have to end this fight quickly.

[オフェリア]

ええ、そうね！

そうと決まれば戦いに戻りましょ！▼

見ていなさい賊ども！

あなたたちにはこの、星の加護を受けし夫婦…▼

カムイとオフェリアが相手よ！▼

Ophelia: Yes, we do! Now that that’s decided, let’s get back to the battle! Watch out for us, thieves! We, Corrin and Ophelia, who have received the stars’ divine protection, are coming for you!

[カムイ]

行きましょうオフェリアさん！▼

私たちの燦然たる愛の力の前には…

どんな傀儡も敵いはしません！▼

Corrin: Let’s go, Ophelia! No enemy, no matter how evil... is a match for the power of our brilliant love!

[justice-duwang]

Eightfold Way

“Hey, Therion,” Alfyn said suddenly.  “For some reason, I don’t think I like Cyrus.”

Therion nodded.  “Me neither.”

The offending scholar was currently surrounded, speaking to several local women about the town’s history. They hung onto his every word, captivated by the teacher’s charisma.

Naturally, Cyrus was completely oblivious to it all.

“That was a surprise,” he said after the ladies left, giggling to themselves.  “I had no idea this town was so appreciative of its culture! I’m quite impressed!”

“ . . . Yeah,” Alfyn nodded. “I don’t like Cyrus.”

The thief grunted in agreement.  While he had his fair share of disagreements with the apothecary, there were things both good agree on, such as the fact that apples were better skinless, Ophelia looked better with her hair down, and Cyrus definitely did not deserve the attention he got.

“You two . . . .” Olberic sighed.  They turned to see the warrior shaking a disapproving head in their direction, accompanied by one amused Primrose.  

“I don’t know, Olberic,” the dancer said.  “I think it’s kind of cute.”

“Shut up!” Alfyn and Therion said in tandem.

The party of four had met the others in a tavern in Rippletide.  Primrose and Olberic had been traveling together ever since she had left the desert, while Cyrus had ventured out from Atlasdam on his lonesome. At first, the three separate groups paid the other little mind—it was only a commotion in the town square, thanks to a pack of pillaging pirates, that had drawn them together.  They even gained a new member from that incident—a young merchant girl, eager to reclaim the valuables they had stolen.  She was all ready to charge off on her lonesome with her cask of drugged wine, but Alfyn, Primrose, and Cyrus weren’t having it, running off after her without a second glance.  Olberic and H’aanit eventually followed after making sure their more hotheaded companions didn’t get themselves hurt recklessly.  Ophelia tended to the townsfolk injured in the scuffle.

Therion, as he saw his teammates (by force) dash off without him, shrugged and sat back, flagging down a waiter for another tankard.

By the time the six returned, Therion was two drinks fuller, several hundred leaves richer, and the recipient of a particularly long lecture by Ophelia concerning the sins of theft which he mostly tuned out.  Upon their re-arrival to the tavern he quietly slipped away upon the priestess’ momentary distraction, smirking smugly to himself as he walked away, her indignant protests fading into the background.

Unfortunately for him, the next day he woke up to discover that the three groups had since joined forces, with an additional member consisting of the merchant girl from the previous day.  

“My name’s Tressa!” she said, sticking out her hand for Therion to take.  “I’ve already met the rest of your group!  I hope we can get along!”

“ . . . Therion,” he said, ignoring her outstretched arm.  

That didn’t seem to put a damper upon Tressa’s spirits.  “So, what do you do?  Your pal Alfyn says that everyone here is some kind of adventurer, right?  So you gotta be one too!”

“I’m . . . just an adventurer,” he said cautiously.  “Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Aw, come on!” she whined. “Tell me!”

“No.”

“Come on!”

“No!”

“Please?”

Therion glared at her. “No means no.  There’s nothing more to it.”

“He’s embarrassed because he’s a thief,” Primrose said smugly from behind her fan.

Therion already didn’t like the dancer.  He liked her less now.

Tressa immediately backed away from him, glaring daggers in his direction.  Therion gathered that she hated thieves.  Internally, he shrugged.  Thieves and merchants were natural enemies, after all.  Not much he could do about that.  So, he ignored her, and sent his own glare in Primrose’s direction, whose smug aura seemed to brighten the more he glared.  Out of the corner of his eyes he caught Alfyn trying to mask a snicker with a disapproving expression and failing.  He sighed, already wishing he had never got out of bed that morning.

Tressa continued to be wary of him for the next day, and the next day, and the next, all the way until they reached the town they currently resided in.  It had gotten to be quite annoying, really, as every time he ended up close by her in battle she scurried away, oftentimes placing herself—or him—in danger.  Olberic lectured her about that, and, while she stopped endangering the party with her actions, she was still on-edge around the thief.  

Therion didn’t really care what she thought of him.  He did, however, care about how Primrose knew he was a thief.  He was able to deceive the other three—so what was with her?

He asked her as such, and his suspicions were confirmed when she pointed out the band on his wrist. “Your reputation proceeds you,” she had said, “but you must not be that good if you got caught.”

Therion found himself beginning to hate Primrose.  

Still, she wasn’t the worst of his new unwanted companions.  Aside from the aforementioned thief-hating Tressa, there was the ever-stern Olberic, who watched his every move with hawklike eyes. The knight generally stayed out of his way, but he could tell that the big man was less-than-fond of him.

Then there was Cyrus, the current cause of Therion’s frustration.

“My dear boy!” Cyrus said, clapping Therion on the shoulder.  The shorter man sighed wearily.  “Might I see that bangle upon your arm?  I’ve heard tell of its significance, but I simply must see it for myself!”

How did he even know?!  Therion cried internally.  Externally he jerked his arm away.  “No thanks,” he said curtly.  “Did Primrose set you up to this?”

“Hm?  Ah, no.  I simply happened to notice the bangle during our last fight,” Cyrus explained.  “I thought this would be a rare chance to study such a thing!”

“Well, you thought wrong,” Therion replied.  “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have places to be.”

He caught Alfyn’s eye as he made his escape from the overbearing scholar.  Alfyn gave him a sympathetic nod, and Therion felt himself nodding in return.  Really, his old group wasn’t so bad in comparison to the new people he had to put up with.

---

Tressa sighed as she closed the inn door, shrugging her pack off of her shoulders as she collapsed into a chair.  Today had been particularly bad for her in terms of business—not only had she barely sold a thing, but it had been terribly hot.  Also, a dog had run off with her lunch.  All in all, it wasn’t a good day.

She waved down a waiter and got something to drink.  She was halfway through it when Ophelia approached.

“Hey, Tressa,” the priestess greeted kindly.  “Do you mind if I take a seat?”

“No problem,” Tressa scooted over slightly as Ophelia took a seat beside her.  “What brings you here?”

“Just wanted to see how you were holding up,” Ophelia replied.  “It was a hot one today, after all.”

“Tell me about it,” Tressa grumbled.  “Not only that, but I couldn’t sell anything!  And a dog stole my lunch.”

“Oh no!”

“Don’t worry, Alfyn came by with something to share,” Tressa reassured her.  “He’s a really reliable guy.”

“Indeed he is,” Ophelia agreed.  “He’s always taking care of us.”

Tressa sighed.  “As opposed to that thief.”

“Tressa,” Ophelia scolded lightly.  “Therion is a fine man once you get to know him.”

“But he’s a thief, Ophelia!” Tressa repeated.  “The natural enemy of us merchants!  We can’t get along!  We’re like dogs and cats, oil and water, Cyrus and recognizing that he’s ridiculously good-looking!”

Ophelia blinked. “Wait, repeat that last one.”

“My point is,” Tressa enunciated, with just the barest hint of a blush upon her cheeks, “that you can’t trust a thief.  I’ve seen my fair share of pickpockets in my time, so let me give you some professional advice.”

“Well, Mr. Therion has been perfectly good to us so far,” Ophelia stated firmly.  “I won’t have you slandering him behind his back.”

“But he’s a thief!”

Ophelia sighed.  It looked like getting the party to cooperate was going to take a while.

---

The party of eight were on their way the next day.  Their destination was Quarrycrest—Cyrus had some business there, and they meant to stop at Saintsbridge on the way there.  They were a mere two days away from Saintsbridge when they found themselves ambushed.

They were surrounded by a number of rather large, monstrous frogs, lead, it seemed, by a small, bipedal cat carrying a sack.  They were more than a score in number, and steadily advanced upon the party’s position.

Cyrus and Ophelia immediately began to conjure their respective magic while the rest of the party formed a circle around them.  Olberic—legendary knight that he was—charged ahead with a mighty shout, his massive sword sweeping aside the Froggens’ own blades.  H’aanit dove into the fray alongside Linde, covering her companion’s attacks with a hail of arrows.  Primrose hung back to protect the casters, slinging her own spells at the creatures. Alphyn, having partially frozen a frog halfway solid, leaped off of the incapacitated monster and cleaved another’s arm right from its body.  Therion disappeared, reappearing to slit an amphibious throat before vanishing amongst the chaos again.  Tressa, for her part, hung back near the casters and jabbed at any incoming frogs with her spear.  She’s not as used to battle as the others are, but she’s learned a little from traveling with them, and she begins to grow confident that things are looking up.

That’s when, of course, things went wrong.  

All of a sudde, a harsh buzzing filled the air.  Tressa glanced wildly about, startled by the noise.  Alfyn pointed and shouted from atop his icy perch, and then Tressa saw it: a swarm of massive, yellow wasps.  Stingers bared, they divebomb the party.  Tressa tried to whirl about to face them but realizes with a frightened jolt that her spear was still lodged in a froggen.  She tugged and tugged but is unable to yank her weapon free.  The wasps get dangerously close.  She braced herself.

The pain never came. Instead, she heard a sickening thud, and she opened her eyes to see Therion standing over her with stinger in his shoulder as he drove his knife into the wasp’s brain.  It fell to the ground, dead, gravity causing it to rip its barbs from the thief’s shoulder with a splatter of blood and a gasp of pain. Therion grunts as he collapsed to the ground.  Tressa gasped and scrambled over to him, forgetting her spear in her panic.  

“T-Therion!” she stammered.

“Leave it,” he hissed through his teeth.  “Don’t get distracted!”

Shakily she unlimbered her bow, remembering at the last second she packed another weapon with her. She fired at a wasp, but it went wide, and only served to aggravate the insect.  Panicking, she thrust out her hands and summoned a razor-sharp blade of wind and flung it at her advancing opponent.  It sheared off a wing, sending it tumbling to the ground, where Therion finished off with a thrown knife.  

“Therion!” Tressa knelt by his side, helping him up.  “A-are you okay!?”

“Just fine,” he grit.

They fell back to Ophelia, where Therion collapsed by the priestess.  She immediately knelt and began administering aid, coating the wound in the holy light of the Sacred Flame.  Tressa nocked another arrow and managed to hit a froggen in the shoulder this time.

Things were turning out for the worse, however.  The party had been driven back to a tight circle, the frontline fighters surrounding the mages and the injured.  Their foes advanced, encircling them.

Tressa noticed that most of the rest of the party were sustaining injuries of their own—Linde’s coat was matted with blood, H’aanit’s arm dangled by her side, Alfyn had blood running down his face, and Olberic—well, Olberic was positively coated with wounds.  His overcoat was ruined, blood was splattered all over him, and he even had a knife sticking out of his back.  Tressa gulped.  

“Thank you, everyone!” Cyrus announced suddenly.  They looked at him, surprised to see him positively glowing with magical energy.  “Brace yourselves!”  He swirled his hands bout in the air before pointing towards the sky.  “By the power of thunder, make yourself known!  Come, tempest!  Nothing will quiet the storm!”

The air explodes.  Tressa screamed in a rather dignified fashion as a massive lightning bolt tore through sky to slam in all of its electric glory into the small army gathered before them.  Thus, as soon as it had started, it was over—the travelers stood above the remains of their ambushers, startled by the suddenness of their victory.

“Ah, that one’s getting away!” Alfyn shouted.  Olberic hurled his spear like a javelin, nailing the fleeing cait sith in the back. Tressa still had her hands clapped to her ears, waiting for the world to stop ringing.

Ophelia and Alfyn patched the group up, and the were once more on their way—after looting the monster corpses for anything salvageable.  As they walked, Tressa fell silent, reviewing the just-transpired events in her head.  Eventually, she shook her head, adopted a determined expression, and marched up to Therion.  

The thief noticed her presence.  “What do you want?” he asked testily.

Tressa met his gaze with her own.  “Mr. Therion, I misjudged you.  You’re not just a common thief after all.”

Therion’s eyes widened. Clearly, he had not been expecting that. “Er, thanks?  What are—”

“You may be a dirty sneak thief, but you’re a good guy,” Tressa admitted.  “So I apologize.  I’m sorry.”

“Hey,” Therion interjected, unsure whether to be insulted or complimented.  Before he could get another word in, Tressa dashed away, her massive pack clanking.

Ophelia sighed.  It’d take some work, but it was a start, at least.

---

“So Cyrus,” Alfyn began casually.

“What is it, my dear boy?”

“Next time could you warn us before dropping a massive frickin’ lightning bolt from the sky?”

“ . . . I can see how that can be unnerving, yes.  I’ll be sure to warn you all adequately next time.”

“Please do,” Primrose complained.  “I still can’t hear out of my right ear.”

“Er, sorry.”

[anna-tariel]

Daisy, Fitz and Aida/Ophelia for the character ask!

First of all, thank you! :)

DAISY⦁ how i feel about this characterI adored her in season 1! She was funny and entertaining. But when she went through terrigenisis she started to change. I mean, I love her. She is badass and awesome, but I don’t love her as much as I did before. There are things she does and says that now irritate me.⦁ all the people i ship romantically with this characterGrant Ward: I’m a massive Skyeward shipper (yeah, you can all throw shit at me! *I don’t care*) I love how it started with him not being interested, or at least trying not to show it, then he became her S.O. and the attraction started to grow. I wish some things had gone in a different way so they would have had a better chance, or another chance to start something.⦁ my non-romantic otp for this characterFitz: I love those two! They are cute! I loved how he protected her when she first found out she was inhuman. I found it adorable! For me it’s a cool brother/sister relationship!Jemma: “Us against the wolrd.” Nothing else to say!⦁ my unpopular opinion about this characterI think they shouldn’t have thrown the powers thing so early. I really enjoyed hacker Skye. I miss her! She was fun and dorky, and after she got her powers, she started to change and at some point I barely recognized her. 

I also wish they hadn’t put her in a romantic relationship with Lincoln. To me it felt forced and didn’t make sense. They could have gone with a friendship/kind of “mentor” path and I would have liked that better.

Don’t know about other people, but I hated it when she shot Ward in season 2, it was unnecessary. He was trying to help her get out and she shot 4 times him just like that. I also wish she had never said the quote “You should have run faster” to him. You don’t say that to a suicidal person who already tried to kill himself. It was plain awful.

Her suicidal/rebel phase was a bit too much for me. Yeah, she lost Lincoln but I don’t know, that part kind of irritated me.⦁ one thing i wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

I wish she had had a better relationship with Ward (for that he should have been redeemed but oh it didn’t happen!). 

I wished they would have showed a sparring scene with Ward. I needed it!

And I wish to see her doing more thinking/hacking instead of always fighting and using her powers. 

FITZ⦁ how i feel about this characterWhen I started season 1, he kind of annoyed me along with Jemma. It took me time to get used to his accent and I don’t know. I found him weird. As the season went on, I started liking him. At some point it turned into pure love! Now I think he is amazing! If I still keep on watching it’s because of him!⦁ all the people i ship romantically with this characterJemma. It’s not like I’m the biggest Fitzsimmons shipper, cause I’m not. I like them, but don’t love them. It’s an okay ship.⦁ my non-romantic otp for this characterWard: I love the older/little brother dynamic they had. I loved them together!Daisy: Another amazing bropt! Too cute!Hunter: These two together are freaking awesome! They are a funny pair!⦁ my unpopular opinion about this characterI don’t know if it’s unpopular but I enjoyed seeing him as The Doctor in the Framework. It was great. Complex and different.

I hate how he reacted to the whole Jemma/Will thing. He seemed to be okay just because he loved her and I don’t know. I expect another reaction. I get that he tried to save him though. He would not leave Will behind after he saved Jemma but I wanted him to reach differently when he found out about it.⦁ one thing i wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.I wish we had seen more of him with Ward. And maybe Ward trying to train him so Fitz knew how to defend himself in the field. That would have been awesome!

I also wish they would have addressed better the post Framework situation. How he dealt with the trauma and so.  I think they let that go too easily. 

AIDA/OPHELIA⦁ how i feel about this characterI didn’t dislike her, but I didn’t love her either. In the Framework there were moments that I wanted to slap her but she was a good villain, she gets that!⦁ all the people i ship romantically with this characterNo one really. I didn’t ship her with Fitz, just my opinion though.⦁ my non-romantic otp for this characterFitz. I liked her relationship with him at the beginning before she came up with the Framework thing.⦁ my unpopular opinion about this characterI think that part of her had good intentions but her obsession with Fitz drove her mad. ⦁ one thing i wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.Right now I can’t come up with anything.

give me a character and I’ll break it down

[secretkidcolor]

This Scene Takes Three: The Retrograde Gathering of Fun Seekers

Continuation of a series I started a year ago whoops! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Brady had sprayed and wiped at the spot on the table five times now, and it still hadn't gone away. He wasn't sure what it was from. It was about the size of a quarter and easily noticeable against the dark wood. If he had to guess, it was from a glass. Normally they just ignored it, or if necessary covered it up with a place mat, but this time was different. They had guests coming over, and Brady had been taught from a very young age that guests deserved only the best.

Owain had a different mindset however. "Sweetheart," he said gently, stopping Brady's hands with his own, "as much as I admire your dedication to perfecting our home, I don't think a couple of eight year-olds will so much as notice a spot on the table."

Brady sighed and set aside the rag he was using. "Yer right," he sighed. "I just want the house to look perfect. Ophelia hasn't had a play date here in a couple of months. It's always been at someone else's house. What if she's just embarrassed of people seeing where she lives? What if-"

"Ophelia's been talking non-stop about all the things she and her friends are going to do today," Owain reminded him. "It's been the only thing on her mind for the past week. She wouldn't do that if she was embarrassed of the house."

To emphasize the point, he glanced around the kitchen. The house actually belonged to Brady's mother, as Owain was still looking for work and Brady's hours at the hospital were shorter now that Ophelia was out of school for the summer. They would have been more than happy to get an apartment, but Maribelle insisted she do this for them. She had dipped into some inheritance from a rich uncle or maybe her father, her entire family tree just confused Owain, and bought them the house. It was a gesture they were extremely grateful for, even if it made Brady anxious about keeping it clean.

While she was a doting mother, Maribelle wasn't going to hand everything to her son. Owain and Brady were in charge of paying utilities and any other upkeep, but Maribelle's name was on all the other paperwork. And of course they had to deal with her almost daily calls or visits to look at the house.

A door could be heard opening upstairs, meaning the third member of the family was now up. Brady lowered his voice. "What if," he said, "what if it's not the house she's embarrassed of. What if it's us?"

Owain's smile faltered. This had been a common worry of Brady's since the day Ophelia didn't need him to walk her into her classroom at school. It was a natural worry, his own mother had told him, that children were growing up and might not need their parents around.

"Ophelia would never been embarrassed by us," Owain said firmly. "Why would she? We're great!"

Before Brady could give a response, they heard the pitter-patter of feet running down the stairs. Ophelia burst into the kitchen, still in her pajamas.

"Good morning my little Chosen One," Owain greeted, opening the pantry to retrieve a box of Ophelia's favorite cereal. Brady didn't like buying it, said it had more marshmallows than actual cereal pieces, but Owain couldn't deny her something like that.

"Morning Daddy!" Ophelia said, climbing onto a chair and sitting on her knees so she could look taller. Owain handed her a spoon and poured some milk into her cereal bowl. "Do you know what day it is?"

"Hm..." Owain said, thinking for a long time. "I'm not sure...dear do you know what day it is?" Ophelia rolled her eyes and turned to look at Brady.

Brady raised an eyebrow, but quickly caught on. "Oh...uh...it's Tuesday. Right?"

"Noooooooo," Ophelia said with a huff. "Today's the day that Soleil comes over!"

Owain gasped. "Oh! Is that today?" He asked. He made a show of looking at the calendar, where the day was neatly marked with the words "Ophelia's Friends Come Over". "By the gods, it is! What a glorious turn of events."

"I can't believe you forgot," Ophelia said, shaking her head and crossing her arms. "When's Soleil getting here?"

"Not until later darling," Owain answered. "And remember, it's not just Soleil who's going to be here."

"Oh," Ophelia replied, looking down at her cereal. "Yeah...and Nina." The kitchen was silent for a little bit before Ophelia spoke up again. "Why does she have to come here?"

"Nina's your friend," Brady pointed out.

"No," Ophelia corrected, "she's Soleil's friend. And all they do is fight."

"Nina invited you to her house that one time," Owain reminded her. "It's honorable and polite to invite her over to your house in return."

"Okay..." Ophelia sighed. She finished her cereal and hopped off the chair. "I'm going to go get ready!"

"What are you going to do during yer play date?" Brady asked.

"Daaaaaad," Ophelia groaned, "they're not called 'play dates' anymore. It's called 'hanging out'."

"Oh, sorry," Brady mumbled, "well what are you going to do while yer hanging out? Have a tea party or something? I can make you some real tea-"

"Go on an adventure!" Ophelia declared excitedly. "An adventure so great and mysterious I won't even know what to name it until after it's over."

Ophelia had developed a habit of naming things nobody would think needed to be named. It was Owain's fault, always spending time naming scenes or characters from whatever play he was interested in. It had quickly rubbed off on Ophelia and Owain was too proud to tell her to stop.

Ophelia ran upstairs to go get dressed. Owain gave Brady a smile. "A tea party?" He said with a laugh.

"That's what I did when I had play-" Brady sighed, "I mean, when I 'hung out'. I better go make sure she's wearing somethin' nice an' not an old Halloween costume."

Once Ophelia was, begrudgingly, dressed appropriately, the process of waiting for her friends to arrive began. Ophelia waited impatiently in the living room, glancing out the window every five seconds to see if a car was pulling up in the driveway. Ironically, it was when she had taken a break to use the bathroom that a minivan appeared in front of the house.

Owain opened the door and walked down the front steps. Two little girls, one wearing an ornate headband in her long pink hair and the other with two dark blue pigtails, ran out of the vehicle and toward the front door.

"Inigo my friend!" Owain called to the main getting out of the van. "While I am happy to see you once again, I had been hoping that Niles would be dropping Nina off separately so we could catch up."

Inigo just laughed and shook his head. "Always one for wasting words I see," he said. "Niles called me last minute and asked if I could drive Nina. He was caught up with something at work and Corrin had to take Kana to the doctor."

Owain frowned. "Well I hope he's alright," he said. Niles' work wasn't the safest at times, and getting caught up with something could mean a number of things. "Anyways, it's good to see you again."

"It's only been a couple of days," Inigo chided. "You couldn't miss me-"

"SOLEIL!" Ophelia cried, running out the front door and into her friend's waiting arms. The two girls jumped up and down excitedly for a couple of seconds, leaving Nina awkwardly standing off to the side. "Oh, and...hi Nina." Owain glared at her. She glared back before grabbing both girls' hands and pulling them into the house where Brady was waiting.

"I wish we had more time to talk," Inigo admitted, "but I've got to get going, dance practice and all." He looked off to the side and then squinted. "Is that...is that Severa?"

Owain turned to look in the same direction, and sure enough a candy apple red sports car was indeed speeding down the street. It came screeching to a stop at the end of Owain's driveway. The driver's door was thrown open and out stepped a woman who was clearly pissed off about something. Her large, red twin pigtails shook vigorously as she opened up the passenger side door and helped someone else out of the car.

At first, both Owain and Inigo thought it was Severa's mother. It took them a few seconds to realize that it was just a young girl that looked like Severa's mother.

"Um, is there a problem?" Severa asked as she and the girl walked up the driveway. The girl watched Severa, trying to copy the angry way she stormed up the cement slope, but ended up stumbling and almost falling completely.

"Is that your daughter?" Owain asked.

Severa rolled her eyes. "No," she said, "it's some random girl I kidnapped and brought to your house. Any more stupid questions?"

"I"m Caeldori," the girl said brightly, sticking out her hand to shook Owain's hand, and then Inigo's, before looking back at Owain. "My mom took me to see one of your shows. You played the man with the trumpet. That was really funny!"

"I didn't know you went to see that show," Owain exclaimed. "Why didn't you say something?"

"Must have slipped my mind," Severa mumbled, her face taking on a slight pink tinge. "Anyways, this is my daughter. Now you've met. I'll pick her up at three." She put her hand on the girl's shoulder, but didn't look at her. "Be good." Owain and Inigo exchanged glances. "What? Aren't you going to show her inside?"

The front door opened and Brady stepped outside. "Hey are you guys done talking- oh hey Severa!"

"Oh gawds," Severa sighed. "Caeldori, that's Brady, remember me telling you about him?"

"Is he the one that helped you become less shy in school?" Caeldori asked.

"Gah, yes, b-but that's private!" Severa said, getting flustered. "Just go inside!" Caeldori nodded obediently and walked toward Brady, who paused for a second, before kneeling down to talk to her before leading her inside. "What now?!" Severa snapped, since Owain and Inigo were now staring at her.

"Did you just dump your kid at their house?" Inigo asked, folding his arms over his chest. "That's low even for you."

"We're always happy to have guests over," Owain said, stepping between the two. He then gave Severa an apologetic look. "But we would have appreciated you calling first. Ophelia made plans to have some friends over today"

"Fine," Severa huffed, not making eye contact, "sorry I forgot you two were Parents of the Year. I have to work and it's not exactly appropriate to take your daughter with you to a domestic abuse shelter." She sighed. "I just...knew she'd have a potential friend here."

"Where's Mr. Perfect?" Inigo asked.

"Work," Severa said, glaring due to the nickname, "I was going to have him drop Caeldori off but given how wonderful the last time the three of you were together went-"

"Hey we apologized for calling him...Suckbaki," Owain said, holding back a laugh.

"And Subadouche," Inigo added, "although punching him in the face is something we didn't apologize for."

"I was there," Severa said flatly. "Anyways, I'm sorry for the short notice or whatever. I only work until two-thirty and then I can come back and pick her up."

"You know she looks a lot like," Owain began, but Severa's narrowing eyes made him stop. "Right, she'll be just fine in our care. Brady and I will watch over her with honor and guard her with our lives should the need ever arise-"

"I get it, gawds," Severa interrupted. "Geez, this is why I never tell you when I go to your shows. You're so damn extra. Nice seeing you, jerks!" With a super aggressive wave, she stormed back down the driveway, got in her car, and sped off.

The two men watched the now empty spot in the street for a few seconds, before Inigo mumbled "Suckbaki" under his breath and the two burst into a fit of laughter. Inigo bid Owain farewell and left for his dance practice, and Owain returned to his house.

Brady was waiting for him in the living room. "Everything alright with Severa?" He asked worriedly.

"Fear not my love," Owain said, grinning and wrapping his arms around Brady. "Our dear friend is merely occupied with her honorable duty, and must entrust her daughter with us for the day."

"So she's fine then," Brady said, only cracking half a smile. "I'm glad. I showed Caeldori to Ophelia's room. I think Ophelia was glad to have a fourth person so she doesn't feel left out when Nina and Soleil start to argue."

"Excellent," Owain said, arms still around Brady, "that means we can just sit and-" He stopped as he noticed Caeldori coming down the stairs. Owain let go of Brady and walked over to the girl.

"Excuse me Mr. Owain," Caeldori said politely, thinking over each word before saying it. "Could you tell me where the bathroom is?"

"Sure," Owain replied, leading Caeldori to the bathroom. She thanked him and went inside. Owain returned to Brady in the living room. "Hard to believe she's so polite and yet she's Severa's daughter. You know she looks exactly like her mom. It's uncanny."

"I wonder what Severa thinks of that," Brady said softly. "I can't believe we've gone this long without seein' her. She's only two years older than Ophelia, and the last time I remember seein' her was a couple weeks after we brought Ophelia home." Owain vaguely recalled seeing a small toddler with bright red hair accompanying Severa, but nothing else.

There was some excited yelling coming from the upstairs, followed by Ophelia, Soleil, and Nina running down the steps. "We're going to the backyard!" Ophelia called out as she ran to unlock the backdoor so the three girls could play.

"Don't get all muddy!" Brady hollered back, but knew there was a good chance they would ignore him. A few seconds later Caeldori wandered back from the bathroom. "The rest of the girls just went outside," Brady told her.

"Oh," Caeldori said softly, "okay." She turned to look out the window and see the three girls playing around in the grass.

"Is everything okay?" Owain asked the girl. "Are the other girls taking turns and everything? If not I can go out there and make sure they're playing fairly."

"No they're taking turns," Caeldori reassured, "I just...don't play with a lot of kids. So I don't know how to play a lot of their games."

It probably doesn't help that Ophelia does nothing but make up her own games, both Brady and Owain thought. "Well," Owain said, "even if you don't know how to play them, I'm sure Ophelia would love to explain it if you asked." Caeldori just looked down at her feet. Apparently she was more than just physically similar to Severa's mother.

"Just watch them to start," Brady suggested. "If they're taking turns, offer to go last so you can see what the other three do. Then you can just try and copy the other three to figure it out."

Caeldori's face perked up. "I can do that!" She said, turning to run to the door to the backyard. As she opened it, she turned back to Brady. "My mom was right, you really are good with helping people!" Before Brady could stammer out a response, the girl had joined the others in some wild made up game of Ophelia's invention.

"I didn't know you gave so much advice," Owain teased.

"I just helped her get over a few things," Brady said, blushing. "It was nothin' important. At least, she didn't say it was or nothing'."

"Well what sort of advice would you have given me?" Owain asked curiously. "I had my fair share of things to get over."

Brady snorted. "Yourself maybe," he said. Owain feigned a hurt look. "Naw, I think you were perfect just the way you were. And still are." He leaned over to kiss Owain and nearly jumped as he saw a face pressed against the back window. He relaxed once he realized it was just one of the kids.

Nina was staring intensely at the two men, until Brady awkwardly waved and she dashed away from the glass. "Does she normally do that?" Brady asked, having not been around the child that often.

"I don't think so," Owain said, shrugging. "Niles is just a weirdo. His kid probably picked up his whole lurking thing too. Speaking of which, she's back."

Nina was now up in the tree in the backyard, poised on a branch that allowed her to see through the top of the window. Her pigtails gave her away, however, dangling below the cluster of leaves. Owain made a funny face and she nearly fell out of the tree.

"Be careful," Brady warned. "What do you think she's doing?"

"Probably just one of Ophelia's adventures," Owain said. "Maybe we're the bad guys in this one. Come on, let's go surprise 'em." The two men got up from the couch and walked over to the garage. It had a door that led to the backyard that was hidden behind a couple of shrubs. They quietly entered the yard and watching.

"Somebody come save me," Ophelia said in fake distress. She was standing sitting on a lawn chair with her hands behind her back, pretending to be tied up. "If only somebody could save me!" Then there was silence. "Soleil that's your guys' cue-"

"RAWR!" Owain bellowed, running out from behind the bushes and toward Ophelia.

"Oh no a giant's attacking!" Ophelia cried, actually screaming in surprise. Brady came following behind Owain, albeit not as dramatic. "Oh no there's two giants!"

"Uh, is this part of the plan?" Caeldori asked. She and Soleil were standing near the shed, holding a plastic golf club and a bucket respectively.

"I don't know," Soleil said with a shrug. "But we need to go save the girl and get our kiss, so let's go." She ran toward Ophelia and Caledori, not nearly as enthusiastic about recieving a kiss, followed. Soleil made it over to Owain, who had now picked Ophelia up out of the chair, and began hitting his leg with the plastic bucket. "In the name of all that is cute," Soleil yelled in as deep a voice as she could muster, "be gone!"

Owain took a fake stumble and set Ophelia down on the ground. Soleil, satisfied, grabbing Ophelia's hand and took her away from him. Caeldori, not sure what to do, tapped Owain's foot with her golf club. He made sure to seize dramatically to show he had been "hurt" and she ended up laughing before joining back up with Ophelia and Soleil.

"Daaaaaaad," Ophelia said once she had been rescued and given Soleil a kiss on the cheek, more so the girl would leave her alone about it, "there weren't supposed to be any giants in that story. Now I'll have to think of a new name for it."

"Sorry sweetheart," Owain chuckled, "but it looks like you're missing a member."

Ophelia looked around. "Ugh," she said, "Nina where are you?!"

The bushes near Brady rustled, making him jump back. Nina came tumbling out of them, a few scrapes on her arms, legs, and face. "I'm right here," she said.

"What were you doing in there?" Ophelia asked, putting her hands on her hips. "You were supposed to be rescuing me!"

"I was distracting the giants," Nina said, looking at Owain and Brady, "but they got past me. Sorry!"

"Okay," Ophelia sighed, "let's go back inside. I can show you guys the new doll I got. I got to name her all by myself." The girls went back inside, Soleil with her arm around Ophelia and Caeldori next to them actually listening to Ophelia's explanation of the name.

"Nina let's get you cleaned up first," Brady said, helping the girl to her feet. Nina just nodded and walked back inside. Brady helped her sit up on the kitchen counter while he got some bandages.

"I'm sorry for spying," she blurted out.

"Is that what you were doin'?" Brady asked as he gently wiped at the scrapes with a damp cloth. Nina nodded. "Well that's okay, unless something was wrong."

"No," Nina said, her voice barely above a whisper, "but...Ophelia's the only one I know with two dads." Brady stopped and looked at her, waiting for her to continue. "Um, besides me," Nina added. "I like knowing I'm not the only one. I just wanted to see if...if...if you guys were like my dads..."

"Ah, I see," Brady said. He reached into the box of child bandages and held up two bandages with different patterns. "Flowers or kittens?"

"Kittens," Nina said, pointing at the one she wanted.

"Those are my favorite," Brady said with a nod, making Nina smile. He began to cover the scrapes with the bandages. "So are we like your dads?"

"Kind of," Nina replied. "You smile at each other a lot, which is nice. And you hug and stuff. Daddy doesn't like to make as many jokes though. Papa makes him laugh though."

"That's good," Brady told her. He didn't know much about Nina's fathers. Owain knew Niles from a few years back, and Brady had met him several times. Corrin was a relatively new person in Niles' life, based on what Owain had told him. Niles had actually gotten custody of Nina before he met Corrin. It had been a few years now, but Brady understood Nina's curiosity.

"If you have any questions about it," Brady said gently, "you can always ask Ophelia."

"I don't think Ophelia likes me very much," Nina admitted.

"'Course she likes you," Brady promised. "And I'm sure if you asked she'd tell you all about it." He put on the last bandage. "Alright Miss, yer patched up."

"Thanks Mr. Brady," Nina said, letting him help her off the counter. She ran upstairs, leaving Brady in the kitchen, away silently sitting at the table, smiling.

"So Soleil's next up right?" Owain joked. Brady rolled his eyes. "I'm just kidding, if she's anything like her dad she's having the time of her life."

"She's eight," Brady scolded. Owain just laughed.

The two settled in and watched some TV, occasionally checking in on the girls. At lunch they served the girls sandwiches, applesauce, and animal crackers. Ophelia insisted on making the animal crackers "fight" by mashing two different shaped ones together.

"What about like this?" Caeldori asked, pressing an elephant cracker and a lion cracker together with her palms, making them break. Crumbs scattered all over her plate and onto the table. "Oh, sorry!" Instead of pointing out the mess, the others just laughed.

"I want to try it like that!" Ophelia said, clapping her hands together and smashing up two animal crackers. "Cool!" Nina and Soleil tried as well until most of their animal crackers were nothing more than a fine powder. Owain just squeezed Brady's hand to keep him from going over and cleaning up the mess. There would be time for that later.

The hours after lunch went by much faster, with the summer heat keeping the girls inside for the rest of the day. Soon Owain and Brady were greeted by Niles showing up at their door, ready to take Nina home.

"Did you have fun?" He asked his daughter, picking her up.

"Mhm," Nina replied, hugging Niles tightly.

"Woah!" He said with a laugh. "Did you miss me that much?"

"No, not really," Nina said, sticking her tongue out.

"Alright let's get you home," Niles said, shaking his head. He bid his friends farewell before getting Nina situated in the car.

Severa was next, this time in a surprisingly better mood. She didn't say much to her friends this time around, but her expression seemed grateful as Caeldori began to happily tell her what she had done all day. Inigo appeared shortly after and practically had to drag Soleil away from her best friend.

"I don't know how you two do it," Inigo chuckled, "four kids at once. I hope she wasn't too much trouble for you. I know she can get...intense at times."

"The other ones kept us on our toes, but Soleil was pretty relaxed the whole time," Brady admitted.

Inigo gave a full laugh this time around. "Well that's good to hear," he said, trying to keep Soleil from squirming out of his grip. "Let's do this again sometimes!" He gave them one final wave before carrying his daughter out to the car.

Brady and Owain fell back onto the couch, thoroughly exhausted from the day, but it wasn't over yet. Ophelia slowly came down the stairs and climbed onto the couch, sitting between her dads.

"Did you have fun today sweetheart?" Owain asked, grabbing her hand.

"Yeah," Ophelia replied with a yawn, "tons of fun. So much fun I was able to come up with a great name for today. The Retrograde Gathering of Fun Seekers!"

"Sounds like a perfect name," Owain declared. "Although now I think I need a nap. How about you Brady? Brady?" He looked over at Brady, who was snoring on the couch. Ophelia was also dozing peacefully. "Hey no fair!" He curled up on the couch and, making sure he wasn't going to fall onto his daughter, fell asleep with his family.

[nightmaresxandxdaisies]

🌸 for everyone, its late and I can't think rn, love me

Send 🌸 for three things my muse likes about yours.

V is evil therefor this is going under read more so there’s actually room for other things on the dash

Victoria about:

Franco:

 That he shows what he wants, and doesn’t make me have to guess?

 He looks good, what can I say? 

I mean, I guess… Well. Who doesn’t like rich guys?

Bailey about:

Zachary

Musician, duuuuh?

He’s sexily tall and I love it

He’s not afraid of playing dirty. I like that.

Eric

A handsome face, ofc.

He’s a naughty boy, just the way I like it

Not afraid of playing my game, which is oh so important

Emma about:

Adrienne

FAVORIIIIIITE SISTER

Uhm hello have you seen her? She just oozes niceness

She’s really amazing to cuddle!

Samuel about: 

Ophelia

Well first of all, she is gorgeous

She has a bright mind, which is something I adore in people.

I think she seems like someone who has a bright future ahead of her.

Bjorn about:

Adrienne

She’s one of my best friends

She’s someone who I can always trust 

I never have to doubt her

William about:

Neriah

She’s a good boss

She calls me out on my shit, which not too many do.

She’s one of those few people I’d trust to take care of one of my regular subs, if I couldn’t at that time.

Max about:

Mercia

Gorgeous as hell

She seems genuine, actually genuine

she’s a smiling emoji. What is there to not like?

Autumn about:

Neriah

She’s got my back, and I know it

She’s a good worker

She’s fucking scary when pissed. She’ll torture you to death, I’ll just torture you.

Lavinia

Pretty little lady

A fun person to mess around with

I think she’d be someone I could easily call to come distract me in the office

Aidenabout:

Mercia

She’s a cosy girl

She has excellent taste in movies. Better than me at least.

She lets me steal her fries do I really need to say more?

Bluebellabout:

Zahara

I like that I can hide behind her even if she’s not my sister.

She’s pretty?

She is a goodworker and I think she does good to represent the dryads.

Oscarabout:

Killian

My nephew… Yeah, I guess I like that we’re related.

He was a funny kid.

I guess he is is a good-ish kid when not ending up in jail or stressing Celia out.

Celia

I fear she’ll stab me if I say anything but the best sister in the world.

She’s clever, that’s for sure.

Fucking dangerous when pissed off.

Sophieabout:

Elias

DON’T TELL HIM ANY OF THIS. But he’s sort of pretty

I guess I like that he actually listened to me?

He’s pretty tall. That is nice. 

Neriah

She’s nicer than she seems

I guess it’s nice that she is willing to try and help?

She’s still freaking scary and terrify me but at least she terrifies everyone more than cops do too.

Valeriaabout:

Neven

I mean, he is practically my son at this point Or brother. It depends on the day.

He is a sweet and charming man under the outer, and I’m sure he’ll charm someone once he opens up.

He’s a good friend, he’s a nice support to have.

Ophelia

My precious niece. 

Even though I didn’t get to be around when she was a newborn because I was in active duty, I am adoring to see her grow into a grown woman with her own wishes and desires.

She’s a clever, clever young woman and anyone who says anything different will have with me to do.

Elizabethabout:

Neriah

I mean, she is my favorite to hire, so what can I say? she’s good.

She’s a woman of power, and I respect that.

She lets me bitch as I please. 

Moiraabout:

Emilio

I mean, I do like that he gave me a chance again when met me once again?

I like that he’s nice and polite.

I like that he’s creative?

Angelabout:

Darius

Oh there’s so much. His respect, is one thing for sure.

How comfortable he is to relax against while reading a book

How he’s willing to taste most anything I cook

Charlieabout:

Minnie

She’s pretty, that is for sure

I guess I liked that she liked me even at my worst behavior.

She’s a nice lay?

Padmaabout:

Franco

I hate you for making me say a single nice thing about that family.

He’s clever to still be alive. 

i guess he’s ok appearance wise.

He has good language skills? You are asking me to compliment a guy who is in the family that ruined my life. Fuck off.

Venusabout:

Dina

If you think for even just one moment that I can limit it to three things… You’re a fool. She’s my soulmate and everything about her is perfect. 

Cesare

My sweet little nephew! He’s the cutest, isn’t he?

I like that he can take down things for me from high shelves. 

Have you looked at him? He’s a precious little baby

Camilleabout:

Cyrus

Ugh, making me talk about exes? Aren’t you a fun one.

He’s hot

I guess he was a nice enough boyfriend. We just crave different things. He craves to take care of people, I crave to be fucked up. 

Uhm. He’s a good worker? Maybe? 

Fayeabout:

Lola

My big sister

She’s insane in all the best ways.

She exhausts my son and I could not ask for a better babysitter

Coraabout:

Mercia

she’s so precious. It’s like an innocent little kitty

I’m not even going to tell you how cute she is in class though. You’d get jealous.

She’s nice!

Yes I toally did just those that knows the other enough to actually know what they like

[takerfoxx]

RD Walpurgis Nights 8, Part 12

Then…

The further they got into Freehaven, the happier Kriemhild was that this was to be their new home.

It was…nice. Oh, it was beautiful. It was strange in a mystical sort of way. It was lovely and peaceful-looking and fascinating and just seemed like a wonderful place to live.

But overall, it was nice. It was pretty weird, but it wasn’t over-the-top with it. It was beautiful, but not intimidatingly so. It felt kind and welcoming, if a city could be said to be kind and welcoming. And as strange and wonderful as it seemed, it also felt like a place where people actually lived.

Most of the building were tall and pretty close together, but the place that they were led was wide and open. There was a large, three-story building that sat in a white-stone plaza. It had the same white walls and red roof that the rest of the place did, though it had a high tower in the front, and two more towers on either side. The area surrounding it reminded Kriemhild of a school, with sports courts, a swimming pool, a grassy field, a garden, and a concrete quad with tables and umbrellas.

“That’s it,” said the woman leading them. “The Freehaven Integration Bureau. That’s where you all will be staying for now.”

“For now?” said one of the girls. “Like, for how long? And doing what?”

“A little of everything. It’s there to help girls like you learn about your new life and get used to things. And it doubles as a school so you won’t lose out on your education.”

“What! Seriously? We’re supposed to be dead! We still have to go to school even though we’re dead? Like, how is that fair?”

“We’re not dead, don’t you believe it,” muttered another girl.

The woman smiled patiently. “This way, please.”

“Come on,” Kriemhild said, tugging on Homulilly’s hand.

After the bad encounter on that plane…helicopter…thingy, Homulilly had managed to get her hands on a pair of full-arm gloves, ones that covered her all the way from her shoulders to her hands. Personally, Kriemhild felt that she shouldn’t need them. After all, they had already seen several people just as weird as she was walking openly. Heck, Kriemhild herself was just as weird, and no one gave her any problem with her legs.

Still, that was Homulilly’s choice to make, so Kriemhild just held her hand and kept her near. She had a feeling that her friend was finding everything to be a lot scarier than she was.

One of the other girls, a white girl with long, blonde hair, kept glancing at them. As they entered the building, she sidled up to the pair.

“Hey,” she said. “You guys are witches too, right?”

Kriemhild brightened at that. “We sure are!”

“Cool! I was afraid I was going to be the only one. I like your…legs, by the way. Bet you can get some distance with those.”

“Oh, well, yes.” Gretchen bobbled up and down a bit. “It’s pretty exhilarating. What’s your thing?”

The girl smirked. She tilted her head to one side and tapped her neck. “You know, I think I’ll save that for later. But trust me, it’s a riot.” She stuck out her hand. “The name’s Lucy, by the way.”

Kriemhild had already started to bow in greeting, but then stopped. Oh yeah, that was how people from other parts of the world greeted each other. “Er, Kriemhild Gretchen!” she said as she shook Lucy’s hand.

Lucy stared back. “Krimpled Gretchen?”

Homulilly, who had been hanging back, suddenly looked up.

“No!” Kriemhild said with a laugh. “Kriemhild!”

“Uh, okay. Hey, is it okay if I just call you ‘Gretchen’? Because your first name’s kind of a mouthful.”

“You can’t learn her name?” Homulilly said. “Why is that so-”

“Homulilly, it’s okay!” Kriemhild said. She turned to Lucy, who looked a little taken back by the sudden antagonism. “Sure! I was actually thinking of just going by that anyway.”

“Er, okay!” Lucy coughed into her hand. “Nice to meet you!”

As she hurried away, Homulilly turned to Gretchen with a frown. “Why not just have her use your full name?”

Gretchen made a face. “Er, I was actually going to talk to you about that.”

“Huh?”

“I was thinking of just going by ‘Gretchen.’”

“What? Why?”

Gretchen shrugged. “Well, because I think it sounds kind of nicer. Besides, I already had like three people mess up ‘Kriemhild,’ so it’ll just make it easier.”

Homulilly didn’t respond. She just stared.

“But you can call me whatever you want!” Gretchen said hastily. “I don’t mind!”

“Huh,” Homulilly said. “You really rather be called by your second name?”

“Kind of. Yeah.”

“Oh. Um, okay. I guess I can get used to it then.”

Gretchen smiled and gave her hand a squeeze. “Come on,” she said. The ground was starting to get pretty far ahead. “Let’s go see what this new world has for us.”

…

Now…

All in all, Ophelia did not consider herself to be missing out on whatever biological functions she had lost when she ceased to be, well, biological.

Periods? That was one of the first things they learned to get their bodies to stop doing. Aging? Forever young, hell yeah! Boys? Girls were so much prettier and they had boobs. Injuries that didn’t just fix themselves in a few minutes? The constant risk of death itself? Surely, it need not be explained why neither of them were missed.

Still, if she were to be truly honest, the one thing that she couldn’t fault those she knew for feeling cheated out of was the opportunity to become a mother, even if it wasn’t something she herself felt strongly about. Sure, it was probably a lot of hassle and heartbreak and way too much responsibility with no real guarantee that things would even work out, but there really was something attractive about creating a tiny person, helping them grow and mature, watching them develop an actual personality and interests of their own, seeing them make the same mistakes that you once made and deal with problems that you once thought world-ending but now feel trite in hindsight. And as someone who knew enough about her past to realize that her own upbringing had been…spotted, she did at times wish that she had the opportunity to correct that karma wheel, to do the good by her own child that wasn’t done for her.

However, being a parent had several significant drawbacks that she also had to acknowledge, and one of them was having to deal with the fallout when your kid had gone and done something really stupid and gotten themselves into an incredible amount of trouble. And as she approached the Militia headquarters to collect a certain Kriemhild Gretchen and Homulilly, she realized that she had never felt more like a parent than she did in that moment.

A very angry parent.

On the bright side, at least they weren’t locked up. Instead, they were sitting together along the wall in the front lobby, with a slightly bored marshal standing watch over them. The two had their heads bowed, and Gretchen’s legs had twisted themselves into so many knots that it would be a wonder if she was even still able to walk.

As Ophelia entered the lobby, Homulilly reflexively glanced up. As soon as she saw who it was, her face reddened and she quickly looked down again. Gretchen just gave her the quickest of glances and winced.

Ophelia, however, did not immediately look away. She stared right at them, eyes narrowed, until the weight of her gaze literally started to bend their shoulders. Oh yeah, they knew that they were in trouble.

Then she turned her attention to the receptionist, who looked just as bored as her coworker.

“Hello,” Ophelia said, her tone cool and professional. “I am Ophelia, and I am here to collect the two smog vapors in the corner there.”

“Hmmm. Hoe-kay.” Not even bothering to correct her slouch, the receptionist tapped a couple keys on her terminal. A pair of marshal reports suddenly materialized in the air in front of Ophelia, one of them containing a very unhappy looking Homulilly and the other an equally morose Gretchen. Next to each of their pictures was a rundown of the charges, which amounted to misdemeanors for breaking and entering of the Freehaven Integration Bureau and participating in the sabotage of their security system, and another for absconding with a special case new arrival, reduced from a felony charge due to the new arrival’s quick return.

“Bail for the pair comes out to seven thousand talents,” the receptionist said. Ophelia winced. It was certainly affordable, but also far beyond the amount she was used to dropping all at one time. Another readout appeared next to the girls’ records, this one providing details of their bail requirements. “As the poster you will then be responsible for the defendants’ behavior until their court date, which you will be notified of within twenty-four hours. I assume that they will be in your care until then?”

“Oh, most definitely yes.” Ophelia pulled out her bank card and slid it into the glowing receptacle on the desk.

“Mmmm-hmmm. Mark here.” A flashing octagon appear at bottom of the holographic display. Ophelia pulled off one glove and stuck her thumb into it. The octagon turned green.

The receptionist swiped her hand through the hologram, and it all immediately collected into a tiny glowing ball hovering over her thumb. She picked up a data crystal and stuck the ball into it. The crystal started glowing orange.

“The defendants have been fitted with tracking implants, and will neither be allowed to leave the city nor enter the FIB protected zone until told otherwise,” the receptionist said as she handed the data crystal to Ophelia. “Any further misdemeanors in that time will result in immediate incarceration with a new bail of nine thousand credits, and another two thousand for each additional misdemeanor. Felonies will result in the complete removal of bail entirely until their court date, and will be judged alongside the current charges.”

“Okay, but what if they behave themselves and show up when they’re supposed to? Can I get my bail back?”

The receptionist shrugged. “If found innocent, then yes. But considering they were kind of caught red-handed, then that’s up to the courts.”

“Ah.” Ophelia cast a sidelong look at the two defendants in question. Both of whom, it must be noted, were finding the patterns of the floor tiles to be extremely fascinating. “I see.”

Moments later Ophelia was seven thousand talents poorer and a great deal angrier. She pocketed the data crystal and made her way over to the pair. The marshal standing watch over them simply tilted her head toward them and shrugged before departing.

However, Ophelia didn’t leave with them immediately. She had just paid a hefty amount of money for her moral high ground, and by whatever nameless prehistorical magical girl that had wished her world into existence, she was going to get her money’s worth.

So she stood there, looming over them with her arms crossed, the fingers of her right hand tapping out a rhythm against her bicep.

As cheery and flamboyant as Ophelia normally was, she prided herself on having a fantastic glower, which she was now turning the full force toward the two criminals now under her care. And they felt it too. Their heads remained bowed, but their shoulders seemed to drop a few centimeters, Gretchen’s legs untangled themselves to lay flat like soggy noodles, and the petals of Homulilly’s flower actually started to wilt.

Ophelia kept the heat on until their discomfort was as palpable as her anger. Then she kept it going for another thirty seconds.

“Okay,” she said at last, making Gretchen visibly flinch. “Let’s go.”

She turned and headed for the door. She didn’t need to check to see if they were following. She could hear Homulilly’s heavy footsteps and the patter of Gretchen’s legs.

The Militia headquarters was nestled in the heart of the city, sitting on the boundary of the FIB protected zone, so it was a pretty long walk back to Ladoga. Sure, they could have taken the roofways, or even called for a zipper. But Ophelia needed time to stew, so they walked.

And walked.

And walked.

Partway there, Gretchen suddenly cleared her throat. “Um, O-Ophelia. I-”

Ophelia whirled perfectly on her heel and stamped her other foot down, bringing herself to a sudden stop after a hundred and eighty degrees.

“What?” she barked.

Gretchen winced. “N-Never mind. Sorry.”

Snorting, Ophelia turned back around again and plodded forward without another a word.

Finally they left the tall buildings and narrows streets and entered the winding cobblestone paths and thick foliage of Ladoga. Ophelia remained silent as she led the pair all the way to the fence, down the front path, up the patio stairs, and opened the door.

Oktavia was in her mechanized chair next to the stairs, and Candeloro was sitting in her easy chair. The two of them immediately straightened up as the trio entered, their faces full of questions.

There would be plenty of time for that later. Her hand still on the knob, Ophelia stood to one side and motioned with her hand for Homulilly and Gretchen to enter. They did so as slowly and heavily like the soon-to-be condemned that they undoubtedly felt like. Once they were fully inside, Ophelia shut the door and locked it.

“All right,” she said to the pair. “Sit.”

Homulilly and Gretchen hesitated for half a second, and then hurried over to the couch. They sat down with their heads bowed and hands in their laps, exactly the same way as they had done on the Militia bench.

“So,” Ophelia said as she removed her hat and placed it on the waiting hatstand. She walked over to stand across from the pair with the tea table between them. “This is an unexpected turn. You’d think I’d be used to them by now, considering how our week has been going, but honestly the two of you getting yourselves arrested is a new one. I sure as hell did not see this coming.” She glanced over to her girlfriend, who was parked right next to her. “How about you, Oktavia? You see this coming?”

“Nope,” the mermaid said. “Absolutely blindsided here.”

“Completely out of the blue,” Ophelia agreed.

“No warning whatsoever.”

“We just-” Gretchen started to say.

“You just wanted to find Charlotte because you were worried that she would leave us and be gone forever,” Ophelia coldly finished for her. “You felt that if you could get to her, you might be able to talk some sense into her. But since you had no idea where she was, you decided to start using your friend Hitomi Shizuki’s powers for good and get taken straight to her. Do I have the right of it?”

Gretchen’s head dropped again. “Yes,” she mumbled.

Ophelia sighed. “Well, congratulations. It worked. Charlotte called about an hour ago, and she and Candeloro are meeting face-to-face tomorrow.”

“But…then it worked!” Homulilly said, perking up. “We saved the family!”

“Yes. It worked,” Ophelia agreed. “You know what else worked?”

“Uh…” Homulilly and Gretchen said in unison.

“You successfully getting that intern that you shanghaied into helping you fired! There goes her chosen career. And probably someone else as well once they’ve finished their investigation! You two now have a record, so that’ll make any future job prospects kind of difficult. You made Hitomi take you to Charlotte without even knowing where Charlotte even was! What if she was someplace incredibly dangerous? What if you had gotten attacked? And…” Ophelia pulled out the data crystal and summoned up the list above her palm. “Oh yeah, the FIB was really pissed about this one. You roped one of the newly arrived, someone who has already proven herself to be extremely fragile emotionally and possibly even mentally, into your scheme!” She closed her fist, banishing the floating readout. “Do I even need to list all the different ways this could have fucked her up in the long term? Say what you want about all the things she’s done, but I thought we all agreed that the best place for her was at the FIB, getting help! But as soon as she was actually doing that, you go and yank her right out! Do you have any idea how fragile the trust is between them and her is right now?”

Homulilly opened her mouth. “But-”

“Take the whole last week out of the equation,” Ophelia said. “Take yourselves and your history with her and put it aside. Now, think back to your own time in the FIB. Think about all the times you’ve seen the newly arrived and how messed up they were over losing their family, losing their homes, and oh yeah, having fucking violently died pretty recently. Now, imagine that you heard that a couple of jackasses from the town decided to sneak into where one of the worst cases was being kept and twisted her arm into using her powers to help solve one of their personal problems. What would you think of those people.”

Gretchen winced. “Well…”

“YOU’D THINK THAT WAS A REALLY FUCKED UP THING TO DO!” Ophelia all but roared.

“But we just asked!” Homulilly wailed. “We didn’t force her or anything.”

Ophelia fixated her glower upon her. “Oh yeah? So you didn’t use her history against her at all? I know you have your own issues with the kid. You’re going to tell me that you didn’t use any of that to help, ahem, convince her.”

To this she got no answer, which was enough of an answer for her.

Ophelia continued. “And here’s another thing: I know we’re all upset over Charlotte having come down with a bad case of the stupid, but it’s CHARLOTTE! Yeah, she can get really stubborn and pigheaded, but odds are that after she had some time to herself to cool down and think about things, she would have come back on her own!”

At this, Homulilly scowled. “Do you know that for a fact?”

“No, I do not!” Ophelia snapped. “Just like you didn’t know that your scheme wouldn’t have gotten all three of you hurt! Or that you wouldn’t have made things worse and driven her off completely!”

Okay, now Ophelia’s smoldering anger was starting to erupt into white-hot fury. So she plopped down into her big red chair and slumped forward, fingertips pressed into her temples as she slowly breathed in and out, gradually getting her emotions back under control.

Once she felt that she had cooled off enough, Ophelia said, “Look. I know you two had the best of intentions. I know you got good hearts and were only doing what you thought you had to for our sake. But good intentions and good results don’t necessarily excuse bad actions. And I’m betting you knew that going in. You probably told a lot of people that if you did get caught, you two would take all the blame. Am I right?”

Gretchen swallowed. “Yes,” she said in a small voice. “We’re prepared to accept whatever consequences you might have for us.”

“Me?” Ophelia sighed. “Aw fuck. What am I gonna do, ground you?”

Then Oktavia cleared her throat. “You know, you technically can.”

“Huh? They’re adults now! Besides, they’re not my kids, I don’t own them.”

“How much did you pay to bail them out?”

Ophelia hadn’t thought of that. “Huh. Well, that’s a good point. I guess I do own you now.”

Gretchen let out one of her frightened squeaks. Homulilly said nothing at all, though her face was now almost the same shade of white as Charlotte’s.

Ophelia mulled on that possibility for a bit, but then shook her head. No, grounding was for kids. This was an adult situation, which called for an adult response.

Besides, as pissed off as she was, she couldn’t deny the results.

“All right, I want you to understand that I am still very angry and very disappointed,” she said at last. “And I don’t like being either of those things, so that makes me frustrated on top of everything else. But I would be lying if I said that I’m also not…” she sighed, “incredibly grateful that you pulled it off. Despite anything I might have said out of anger these last few days, I wanted Charlotte back as much as anyone else, and it looks like that’ll happen.

Both of the girls started to relax a little, but they froze when they saw the look that Ophelia was shooting them.

“But that still doesn’t let you two off the hook,” Ophelia said. “So, here’s how it’s going to go: when we finally get your court date, you two are going to show up, apologize profusely, and accept whatever consequences they give you. Maybe they’ll just let you off with a warning and probation, though considering that the FIB is involved and they take this sort of thing very seriously, I really doubt that. So maybe you’ll have to pay a fine. Maybe you’ll be given community service. Hell, maybe you’ll have to do a little time.

Homulilly gulped. “We might go to jail?”

“Yah,” Ophelia said, staring at her. “That’s what happens when you fuck with the single most protected class in town. They’re probably going to completely revamp security in that whole zone, so future generations will have you girls to thank for the sudden lack of freedom.”

“We didn’t think of that,” Homulilly said, her petals wilting.

“Yeah. Hey. No shit.” Ophelia looked from Homulilly’s face to Gretchen’s. “So, we in agreement here?”

“Yes,” Gretchen said without hesitation.

Ophelia nodded. “That’s one of you. Homulilly?”

“Agreed.”

“Thank you. Now, after the dust have finally settled-”

“But,” Homulilly said, interrupting her. “I’d still do it again. If it meant getting any of you back, I’d do it again.”

Ophelia straightened up in her chair. Her fingers dug into the armrests. She said nothing.

Neither did Homulilly. She returned Ophelia’s stare without blinking.

While that was most definitely not what Ophelia had wanted to hear, she had to admit to being a little impressed. Homulilly had come a long way from the quivering little girl who hated to even go outside by herself. She had some real tough vapors in her gut, Ophelia had to give her that.

Ophelia considered making an issue of that little comment, but then decided against it. She had said her piece. Arguing further wouldn’t help.

“As I was saying,” Ophelia said at last. “Once the dust has finally settled, let’s also agree to put this whole dumb dumbness behind us. In the meantime, I have a lawyer to talk to.” She stood up and headed for the door, grabbing her hat on the way. “Jesus, I need leashes for all y’all, just to keep everything from devolving into pure anarchy! I’m supposed to be the rebel! When the hell did I stop being the rebel?”

With that, she was out the door, slamming it hard behind her.

…

Back inside, Homulilly and Gretchen finally let themselves relax a little. Holy crap, they knew that Ophelia was tough, but they hadn’t known her to be that scary.

“That…I guess it could have gone worse,” Gretchen said.

“Not by a lot,” Homulilly muttered.

“Still. At least she didn’t kick us out.”

Homulilly didn’t respond to that. The now very real possibility of going to jail was still looming all too fresh in her mind.

She glanced up at Oktavia, who was still reclining in her chair, watching the pair with a mixture of pity and disappointment.

“Well, don’t look at me,” Oktavia said. “I’m on her side.”

“I’m sorry,” Gretchen said. “We didn’t-”

“Ugh,” Oktavia said, making a face. “Let’s wait until we know what’s going to happen before we get to that. Though, uh, Homulilly?”

“What?”

“Now that you also did something really rash because you didn’t want to lose someone you loved, how about you give Hitomi a break if she ends up becoming a part of our lives in the future?”

Homulilly slowly breathed out. “I already talked to her about that. We’re fine. No more grudges.”

“Okay, good,” Oktavia nodded. She touched the control panel on her armrest, moving her chair in motion toward the door Ophelia had just stormed out of. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m headed to the studio. Ophelia did all the yelling despite promising that I’d get in a lick or two, so now I got all this angry aggression to burn off. I’m thinking…thrash metal.”

For the second time in half-an-hour, the door slammed. Homulilly and Gretchen were left alone.

Alone…with Candeloro.

Candeloro, it should be noted, had been sitting in silence the entire time. She had stayed silent during Ophelia’s entire lecture, she had stayed silent when things had gotten heated, she had stayed silent when Homulilly had started to talk back, she had stayed silent when Ophelia had left, and she had stayed silent when Oktavia had chimed in with her own piece.

But now that the two of them were gone, she finally raised her head and turned toward Homulilly and Gretchen.

Unlike Ophelia and Oktavia, she didn’t look the slightest bit angry. Quite the contrary, she was positively beaming. It was the first time Homulilly had seen her happy since…their graduation day, actually.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I’m not mad at you,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “Thank you. Thank you so…”

She couldn’t finish the sentence, but she didn’t need to. They understood. Homulilly and Gretchen exchanged a quick look. Then, as one, they got up and went over to where Candeloro was crying and embraced her.

“Do you want us to come with you?” Gretchen whispered.

Candeloro shook her head. “No. She said she just wanted to talk to me. But, um, when you talked to her, did she say why she…”

Homulilly shook her head. “She doesn’t really believe that you’re Candeloro. She thinks that you’re just Mami Tomoe.”

“I thought as much,” Candeloro sighed. “How did you get her to change her mind? About talking to me, I mean.”

Gretchen winced. “Um, guilt trip, basically.”

That made Candeloro laugh. “I guess I can’t argue with the results.” She wiped the tears away from her eyes. “I just hope that I’m as effective.”

Gretchen sat up on Candeloro’s armrests. “You know her better than anyone alive,” she said, squeezing Candeloro’s shoulder. “Well, I mean, better than anyone living…existing…you know what I mean! Just make her see you as you.”

Candeloro swallowed back the lump in her throat. “What if I can’t though? I do know Charlotte, and you know how stubborn she is!”

Homulilly sighed. She straightened up on the other armrest. “Then…I don’t know. I guess if she won’t listen now, then just say something that’ll get stuck in her head, something that’ll make her change her mind later. I mean, Ophelia did say that she might just need some time to think about things.”

“I hope so,” Candeloro said softly. “I don’t know how I’m going to face all this without her.”

…

The next day…

The first time Candeloro and Charlotte had gone on a date, Candeloro hadn’t even realized that it was a date until about a third of the way in.

It had been a few months since her friends had bound together to intervene in her cycle of depression and drunkenness. Getting her to get off the drink had taken a lot of coaxing and support, but they had succeeded. Unfortunately, it hadn’t done much for her feelings of shame and self-loathing, and since she no longer had anything to drown them with, they had filled her every waking moment, until it had started to become too much of a chore to even get out of bed.

That had been when Charlotte had stepped in. One day, she had told Candeloro that they were going for a walk, and that was that. Candeloro had been fully prepared to ignore her, but Charlotte had insisted, coaxing her out of bed, to get cleaned up, to get changed, to eat a full breakfast, and then to go with her out the door. And Candeloro had gone along with it mostly because she couldn’t summon up enough willpower to resist. What did it matter?

The walk had ended up being a lot longer than Candeloro had thought it would be. Instead of around the facility grounds Charlotte had led her all the way out of the protected zone and down to the town square. Charlotte had talked nonstop, going on and on about their classes, about some new book she had read, about something funny that Oktavia had said, about some weird alien fact she had just learned about.

Candeloro hadn’t been very responsive at first. She was mostly just humoring Charlotte, after all. But after a while Charlotte ended up saying a few things that she found interesting. Then she began to respond. Then she began to engage. And before too long, they were having an actual conversation, like they used to have before Candeloro had made her big mistake.

By then Candeloro had started to feel much better. And by the time they gone out for lunch she almost felt like her normal self again. But it wasn’t until they had stopped by an ice cream stand and walked along the boardwalk while the sun set over the beach that Candeloro became aware that this walk was becoming a lot more intimate than hangouts they had had in the past. Furthermore, Charlotte was holding her hand.

Right about then was when she started to put things together.

It was one of her happiest memories, in part because for the simple fact of being their first date, but also because it was a time of pure happiness following the darkest point in her life. The town square always had a special place in her heart after that.

It was darkly fitting then that after being the place that her relationship had begun it would end up possibly being the place that it shattered to pieces.

The town square was a large, open plaza that lay nestled in the stretch of flat land between the foot of the hill and the beach, ringed with a short brick wall with a wide fountain in the middle. It was a popular place for town events, concerts, holiday celebrations, and pretty much anything that would require a large outdoor crowd. During the summer, the fountain would essentially become a small water park, with people splashing in the shallow water and playing among the shooting water jets. In the winter, magic would be used to make it snow in the plaza, the fountain would be frozen over into an ice skating rink, and a massive Christmas tree would be placed in its center.

Despite being in the dead of tourist season, the place was actually much less populated than usual. The storm had chased off most of the visitors that had been unlucky enough to be caught when it had hit, and had discouraged new ones from arriving. There was still a fair amount of people wandering about, but only about a third of what there normally would be. Candeloro was perfectly okay with that.

Candeloro got there at about 11:50, a full ten minutes before Charlotte said to meet her.

She stood at the entrance to the square and looked around. Per usual, people were going about their pleasant day: strolling, talking, laughing, flirting, playing, and overall just enjoying the sun, all of them completely unaware that an extreme anomaly in this world of freaks was among them. Had they known what she was, what had happened to her, she would no doubt would be swarmed by throngs of the curious, and that was if she was lucky.

On the one hand, she was thankful that nobody knew. That kind of attention was the last thing that she needed. And yet, on the other hand, she couldn’t help but be a little resentful. Her entire world had been upturned, both without and within, and here everyone was just having a nice time while being completely oblivious to the turmoil she was having to deal with. She knew it was unfair to be upset about that, but there wasn’t a whole of fair happening to her at the moment.

There was no sign of Charlotte, so she walked around until she found an empty bench and sat down. And then she waited.

And waited.

And waited.

It was only ten minutes, but the perception of time was a subjective thing, and every second seemed to crawl at a snail’s pace. She could feel her hair growing. She was aware of every itch on her skin, most of them concentrated on her new arms. She tried to lay her hands on the bench’s boards on either side of her, but that felt awkward and unnatural. She then placed one on the twisting metal armrest and the other across her lap, but they wouldn’t stop twitching.

She checked the time. To her dismay, it had only been two minutes. She had worked entire full time shifts that hadn’t felt this long!

Speaking of which, she still hadn’t figured out what she was going to do about her job. She hadn’t officially quit yet, and she certainly didn’t want to, but she kind of had to, didn’t she? There was no way she could hide her new condition from her coworkers, but she also couldn’t let them in on the secret. They had already called the house twice inquiring about when she was going to come back, the first time genuinely concerned and the second a little more on the impatient side. Ophelia had taken the call both times, letting them know that Candeloro was feeling out of sorts.

She needed to let them know that she wasn’t coming back, but she really didn’t want to. They needed to know so they could find a replacement. It wasn’t fair to keep them short-handed for so long. But she felt that if she cut that part off from her life, then she would lose her last bit of her old life. Her sense of self was gone, her wife was gone, and now she was going to lose her job and all her friends there as well, one that she genuinely enjoyed. It wasn’t fair at all.

She checked the time again. 11:46. Bleh.

Wasn’t time supposed to go faster here than it was in the world of the living? Apparently, her entire life as Candeloro had been squeezed into only a few weeks over there. She wasn’t really clear on what the exchange rate was, but that meant that this infuriatingly long ten minutes was contained within the tiniest fraction of a millisecond over there.

And that meant that her new existence as Mami Tomoe had lasted only a handful of seconds probably, if that. Someone alive somewhere on Earth had probably felt a sneeze coming on when she had made the change that still hadn’t come out yet. Or maybe it had. She didn’t know.

11:48

What if Charlotte didn’t come? What if she changed her mind at the last minute? Somehow, that would be far worse than if Charlotte had shown up just to tell her that she didn’t love her anymore and didn’t want to ever see her again. At least that meant that she cared enough to do it in person. But to have Charlotte simply disappear out of her life without so much as a goodbye? That almost made Candeloro regret not just simply letting her get eaten by the karnuk. At least then she could have been recovered and not turn her back on everything once she was hauled out of the beast’s stomach.

Almost.

Candeloro’s legs started bouncing. She was wringing her fingers together and couldn’t stop. Charlotte wasn’t coming. Candeloro was going to lose her without even being given the chance to fight.

Then a tingle went down her back.

It was sort of strange how it felt to be joined to someone on a spiritual level. She and Charlotte spent so much time together that they didn’t even notice the feelings of peace and contentment that the other’s presence brought them, but the longer they spent apart, the more that the other’s absence gnawed at their minds. Spending a few hours on their own to go to work or run errands or anything like that wasn’t a problem. But after a day or two feelings of unease would start to grow, like a persistent itch that they were unable to scratch. The last few days weren’t the longest period of time they had spent apart, but they had been by far the worst. At least with the other instances Candeloro knew exactly when she would be back with Charlotte and still talked to her daily. But the constant yearning for her while not knowing if her wife was ever coming back and knowing how much she was repulsed by her had been absolutely unbearable.

But by the same token, it did mean that they both instinctively knew when the other was near. Candeloro remembered stepping off the elysian from her trip to Ordo’s Furnace and entering the Freehaven skyport. Even though she hadn’t been told where the others would be waiting for her, her head had turned automatically in their direction as she had passed by a junction. And sure enough, there they had been, with Charlotte standing in their midst like a pink-haired angel.

Candeloro did not hear Charlotte’s footsteps over the sound of the fountain. She did not see her coming. But she still knew.

Sure enough, a moment later the space next to her was filled. Candeloro glanced over. There she was, wearing tight white pants that ended right over her calves, a pink-and-black striped shirt, and pink sneakers. She had on a pair of large-lensed sunglasses and was wearing a backpack.

Save for the backpack, all of that was part of Charlotte’s usual fashion sense, and none of it had come from their closet or dresser. Charlotte had bought new clothes. She was truly prepared to leave.

Candeloro swallowed back the lump she felt forming in her throat. Charlotte was there, but she wasn’t saying anything. She wasn’t even looking at her. She was just sitting there with her hands on her knees, gaze directed out toward the horizon.

Finally Candeloro couldn’t take it anymore. Someone had to be the first to break the silence. “You came,” she said softly.

Charlotte winced visibly behind her sunglasses. “Yeah.”

“I was starting to think you weren’t going to show up at all.”

“I…” Charlotte sighed. “I almost didn’t.”

Candeloro swallowed. “Why? Because…I’m not worth it? Because you still think that I’m just Mami Tomoe, that I replaced Candeloro?”

“That’s…I don’t know. Maybe.”

Candeloro looked down at the ground. “I’m not, you know. I’m not just some…”

Her voice trailed off. This wasn’t working. She had worked on what she had wanted to say, had rehearsed it in her head dozens of times, but now that she was actually there, now that Charlotte was finally here, she couldn’t seem to get the words out. Her throat felt thick, and her chest seemed to tighten every time she tried to talk.

The two sat in silence, watching everyone around them as they had fun. For once the place wasn’t oppressively crowded, likely due to the aftermath of the hurricane, but there still was a lot of people milling around, the sound of their voices talking and laughing mixing with the crashing of the surf and the calls of the gulls.

It all seemed so…normal, as if nobody was at all aware of the changes that had happened in Candeloro’s life. And how could they? To them it was just another pleasant day out in the sun. How could they know that the ninth official de-witching was among them? How could they not that only a few days prior, the two of them had done battle with the alien sea-monster that had caused the beaches to be closed? How could they know that one of their most tight-knit families was on the verge of falling apart?

Change. Change and fear. It really came down to that. Their life had been one where change had been gradual and only came when expected, and fear had been practically non-existent. But throw one major curve-ball at them, and things just collapsed. It really made her question how strong those bonds had been to begin with.

“So,” she said. “Do you, uh, want to go first, or…”

Charlotte sighed.

Then she suddenly stood up, making Candeloro jerk away a bit.

“Let’s go for a walk,” Charlotte said.

…

Spying on someone in Freehaven wasn’t exactly smiled upon. Stalking was, of course, illegal, but keeping an eye on someone wasn’t, not really, though where the line between one and the other wasn’t all that well defined. Still, following someone that really would rather not be followed could get you into big trouble with the marshals, assuming that you didn’t get found out and beaten senseless first. With death a non-factor and most injuries barely worth remarking on, bodily violence actually ranked far below harassment on the felony scale, so that was always something to keep in mind.

That having been said, while stalking was a bad idea, there was nothing stopping the gang from keeping an eye on things. And since Homulilly, Gretchen, and Oktavia weren’t in any position to go anywhere at the moment, Ophelia had become the designated scout.

She stood on a rooftop in the shade of a potted palm tree, chewing on a stick of taffy as she watched the town square. She had on a pair of contacts that functioned as adjustable binoculars. All she had to do was think it, and they would zoom in and out on anything she wanted.

“Okay, Candy’s still just sitting there,” she said into her phone, which was sitting on the pot and was on speaker. “No sign of our little runaway.”

“What’s she doing?” Oktavia’s voice asked.

“I just told you, she’s just sitting there, looking all nervous! And…”

Suddenly she caught sight of a very shapely brunette with a pair of equally lovely redheads, all of them wearing the absolute minimum of clothing walking by, and judging by the way the brunette was hugging the pair of redheads close to her it was pretty evident that their shared relationship was a few degrees beyond being simply friends.

“-oh, hello!”

“What? Is it her?” Gretchen said.

“No, I know that tone,” Oktavia growled. “Ophelia! Stop checking out girls and do your damned job!”

“Sorry, sorry.” Ophelia refocused on Candeloro. “Okay, still no sign of…hang on.” She turned her attention to one of the side entrances to the square. “Oh, wait, wait, wait, there she is. The jackass is in the house.”

“Is she with anyone?” Gretchen said.

“Nope. Just her, and a really stupid pair of sunglasses.”

“I don’t think anyone that wears your kind of hat is in any position to make fun of anyone’s taste in fashion,” Oktavia said.

“Shut up. My hat may be stupid, but I rock it.” Not today though. Her big, red slouch hat was too much of a giveaway, so she had on that baseball cap she had gotten from the Aurora Borealis. “Okay, she’s seen Candy. And…yup, she’s heading right for her. This is happening.”

Ophelia watched as Charlotte walked over to where Candeloro was sitting and took the seat next to her. Unfortunately their backs were to her so she couldn’t make out much beyond that.

After a few seconds went by Oktavia said impatiently, “Well? What’s going on?”

“Nothing,” Ophelia said. “They’re just…sitting there. I don’t even think they’re talking.”

“What? Why not?”

“I don’t know. Awkwardness, I guess. And…okay, no, now they’re talking.”

“About what? What are they saying?”

“How should I know? I’m like half a kilometer away!”

“Just move and download the lip-reading app! It’s not that expensive!”

“No! I told you, I’m just keeping an eye on them, not…okay, wait. They’re getting up together. And now they’re leaving the square.”

“Where?” Homulilly’s voice demanded. “Where are they going?”

“Hush. Let me…let me see…”

She tracked their movements as they moved from the square and started heading up the hill. It was one of the center streets, so it was wide enough for her to keep them in sight.

Then she saw where they were heading and sighed. “Uh-oh.”

“What?” Oktavia said. “Why uh-oh? What’s going on?”

“I’m about to lose them.”

“You know that already? Why?”

“‘Cause they’re heading straight for the Rising Gardens.”

…

The Rising Gardens was located a little bit up the hill. It functioned as a nature walk, but also had kind of a twist, in that it was sort of a three-dimensional hedge maze. The whole place was a tiered structure made of wooden mesh and had went up about four stories, and those four stories were crammed with vines, flowers, fungus, shrugs, ferns, grasses, and even tree trunks that extended down through all four stories to rise up and spread their branches over the gardens. The paths were winding, rising up and down via random staircases, and no matter where you went you were surrounded by exotic plant life. Special hidden devices filled the maze halls with sunlight, and enough separation had been enforced between the roots, trunks, and vines to keep the interior from feeling claustrophobic. Non-pest insects such as butterflies, moths, and bees flitted everywhere. It was a wonderful place to just go and let yourself get lost in.

“Homulilly and Gretchen said that they found you in Old Town,” Candeloro said as they walked along.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Figured it was the best place to lay low while I figured things out. Still not sure how they managed to find me.”

“Well, uh…” Candeloro wondered how much she ought to reveal. Her younger friends’ legal troubles weren’t exactly appropriate conversation material.

Then she sighed. Oh, to hell with it. Charlotte ought to know what they did on her behalf. “Well, basically they broke into the FIB and convinced Hitomi to take them to you.”

Charlotte came to a sudden stop next to a vibrant patch of pink-and-violet orchids. “What.”

“Yes. And they apparently botched their return and were arrested.” Candeloro made sure that she had a good view of Charlotte’s face. “Ophelia was on her way to go bail them out when you called last night.”

Sure enough, Charlotte looked positively horrified. “Homulilly and Gretchen broke into the FIB, absconded with Hitomi Shizuki, and got themselves arrested? Them?!”

Candeloro shrugged. “Yes.”

Charlotte’s face seemed to go to war with itself. Her mouth kept forming itself around words that seemed unable to emerge while her cheeks, brow, and eyes tightened and loosened in response to the many conflicting emotions she was probably feeling. “But that’s…they couldn’t have…don’t they get how-”

Candeloro laid a hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. “I don’t think you’re in any position to judge them,” she said. “They did it for you.”

Her face falling in defeat, Charlotte sighed. She gestured helplessly and shrugged.

Then she glanced at the hand on her shoulder. She didn’t say anything, but her face did clench up.

Wincing, Candeloro moved her hand away.

“Sorry, it’s just…” Charlotte motioned toward Candeloro’s arm. “I’m not really, um…”

“It’s okay, I get it.”

Shaking her head, Charlotte started walking again.

“They said you had a flight out of here,” Candeloro said after a bit.

“I did,” Charlotte said with a nod. “Still do. Just…rescheduled. For later today.”

Candeloro winced. “Why? I mean, I understand if you needed some time to yourself. But why were you leaving town?” Well, it was time to broach the question that had been hanging between them from the start. “Does me being…this really repulse you that much?”

“I…” Charlotte pressed the fingertips of her right hand against her forehead. “Ah, damn it. I guess there’s no gentle way to put this. Mami, you scare me.”

Candeloro wasn’t sure what hurt her more: the idea that her own wife was scared of her or that she was still thinking of her exclusively as “Mami.”

“I mean, a witch turning all the way back into a Puella Magi? That’s…you have a better chance of going full witch than you have of that! It’s such a remote possibility that it’s not even worth thinking about, it should have never had happened! But it did. And now you’re here.”

Candeloro shot her a look. “Me being…?”

“Oh, don’t start that. You know exactly what I mean. You being Mami Tomoe!” Charlotte threw her hands up in the air in dramatic fashion, scaring away a few pigeons that had been nesting atop a nearby vine-covered statue. “Mami Tomoe, Puella Magi! The one who got caught up in the Incubators’ stupid system and turned into a witch! The one that’s supposed to be dead! The one that Candeloro was made from!”

Candeloro winced. Thankfully no one had really taken notice of Charlotte’s outburst, or if they had, they were making sure not to pay attention.

To her credit, Charlotte also seemed to notice that she had made a poor decision, if the grimace she was wearing as she looked around was any indication. She lowered her arms and stuck her hands into her pockets.

“So, is that what you think?” Candeloro said after they had walked a ways. “That I’ve…replaced Candeloro? That I’m really not her?”

Charlotte huffed. “I can…accept that you think that you’re Candeloro. I can accept that you might have your memories.”

“I do. And I can prove it.”

“You don’t need to-”

Candeloro took a deep breath. Then she said, “Your name is Charlotte, but your fans call you Charlotte Walpurgis, a name that Ophelia dared you to take because you refused to believe your publishers would take it seriously, and you ended up owing her ten talents when they didn’t even bat an eye. We all went to school at the Cloudbreak Public University, and you used to get into fights with Oktavia because she wouldn’t stop playing her keyboard when you were trying to sleep. You got a Masters in Classic Literature and figured that was enough to get yourself a job at the library.

“You like listening to vaskergoros folk and vekoo jazz, but can’t stand heavy metal no matter what species it comes from, despite going through a very loud punk phase when you were in your second-to-last year. You go into weird fits whenever you come within spitting distance of cheese, something we found out when you literally dove over the lunchline back during our first year and had to be dragged out by your ankles. When we got our parrot, we all threw dice to decide who got to name him, and you won and named him ‘Cheese’ as a joke. You’re allergic to green beans for some strange reason. You and Ophelia once spent an entire month waging war on one another for no logical reason whatsoever, and it only stopped when Ophelia accidentally hit me in the face with a snowball she had been keeping in the freezer. You once tried to prank Oktavia and I into going on a terrifying ride at Sardi’s Land of Miracles, only for it to backfire and you passed out on the ride. We had to replace the kitchen window once when you started showing off throwing darts during a barbeque. You’ve been arrested twice, once during our FIB days for getting drunk and breaking into the pool after hours to go skinny dipping with your friends, and again two years after we all graduated when you, once again, got drunk with your friends and broke into the FIB pool to go skinny dipping. Oktavia was with you both times. And they say I have a drinking problem. You flunked Physics our Senior year and begged Ophelia to tutor you so you could get through the makeup course. She waited four years to call in that favor, and to this day I cannot get any of you to tell me what she made you do, I just know it was kind of illegal and Oktavia was involved somehow. Also, you enjoy having me tie your arms to the bedframe whenever we make love, and having me leave a trail of kisses all the way from your forehead all the way down to your-”

“Stop it,” Charlotte growled. “I get it.”

“I just wanted to prove to you that I’m still me.”

“So I’ve heard. Homulilly even told me that you’re still using her name.”

The constant attacks to her identity were making Candeloro’s stomach sour. “But?”

“I can’t accept that she is the one in the driver’s seat. That you’re really her, instead of someone who just slipped back into your skin and took over.”

“Why?” Candeloro demanded. “Why are you so sure?”

Then Charlotte was taken over by a rage and fury so pure and so hot that it made Candeloro recoil. She had seen Charlotte angry before, but never like that, not with her face twisted up in hate and grief.

“Because she felt you coming back,” Charlotte snarled. “She was terrified of you, terrified that you would wake up and take away everything from her! Remember? Do you remember the day I went to talk to Hitomi Shizuki and learned everyone’s old names? Do you remember what happened that night?”

…

Then…

“Candeloro? Are you all right?”

It was late evening. Most of the household had gone to bed, though Charlotte doubted that any of them would be doing much sleeping. There was just too much weighing on their minds. Hell, Charlotte had learned exactly nothing of her own past, and she was expecting to be kept up for several hours through empathetic insomnia alone.

As if only to prove her point, instead of going to bed after undressing, Candeloro was standing at the window, staring out at the neighborhood. Ladoga was pretty quiet as far as streets went, and most of their neighbors had turned in for the night as well, so most of the lights were out. They had always liked how the neighborhood looked at night, with the heavy foresting and curving cobblestone streets and the graceful, elfin streetlamps. At night, when the lights went down, the streetlamps went on, and the night insects came out, it looked like something out of a fairytale. When they had first moved in, the two of them would often just spread a blanket on the roof and lay there in each other’s arms, listening to the sounds of the night. They still did that on occasion, when they mood took them.

But that look of peaceful allure wasn’t what she saw in Candeloro. Instead, her wife looked pensive, almost haunted. It was pretty troubling.

“Candeloro?”

Instead of turning to her, Candeloro continued to stare out the window while saying, “Do you know what the strangest thing about all this is?”

Charlotte pursed her lips. “Uh, the fact that one of Gretchen and Homulilly’s old buddies just so happen to show up right on their graduation day and not only knows most of our old names, but major details about our pasts as well? Because that’s pretty damn strange.”

“I mean besides the obvious.”

After mentally sifting through just about every possible answer to that question, Charlotte shrugged. There was so much strangeness going on that she didn’t even know which one to pick first. “Okay. Shoot.”

“It’s that…it’s despite the fact that I am still technically dead, I’m the one that feels haunted. I mean, that’s strange, right? According to every objective scale, I am a ghost.” Candeloro laid the end of a ribbon against the glass. “But I can’t shake this feeling that the dead are watching me. Calling out to me. Isn’t that weird?”

Charlotte pursed her lips as she thought on that. “Nah,” she said after a bit. She shook her head. “It’s not weird at all. I mean, if you think about it, you’re not the dead one.”

Candeloro glanced at her from over her shoulder, her face troubled. “How do you figure?”

“It’s just something I read in a book once. You can’t be dead in your own world. Every world has its own version of alive, and when you stop being alive in that world, you go to wherever you’re supposed to be next, right? So if this world was made specifically for people like us, then according to the law of the land, we’re the alive ones. But our past selves?” Charlotte shrugged. “Well, they up and died in that other world. So they’re dead and we’re not. What you’re feeling is perfectly logical.”

She actually got a small laugh from her wife for that. “Oh, good Lord,” Candeloro said with a roll of her eyes. She left the window to finally head over to the bed. “Leave it to you to try to take apart an existential crisis with literal terminology.”

“Yeah, that’s me. ‘Charlotte Walpurgis destroys identity angst with facts and logic!’”

Candeloro made a face. “Is that from something? Because it sounds insufferable!”

“Ah, I got it from this anti-witch idiot’s channel on GalacWork. Most of her holos have stupid titles like that. On the one hand, they really are as stupid as they sound. On the other…comedy. Gold.”

Candeloro shot her a very familiar look.

“Yeah, I guess now’s not the time,” Charlotte sighed. She held the bedcovers open, letting Candeloro slide in. “Sorry.”

Candeloro laid her head back into the pillow and stared up at the ceiling. “Do you remember back at the FIB, how we’d sit around talking about what kind of people we might have used to be, making up lives for our past selves, that sort of thing?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Remember how I told you that I would have given anything to know my story? To know what happened to me, what that car and all those tea pots were all about?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, now I do know! About the car at least. And I can find out almost everything I ever wanted to know! I can ask you her name right now and I’ll find out.”

Charlotte pressed herself close to Candeloro, nestling her chin on Candeloro’s shoulder and wrapping her arms around her torso. “But…you don’t want it anymore?”

“No,” Candeloro said after a pause. “No, I do not. In fact, I kind of wish that I didn’t learn what I do know. It feels like everything I learn wakes her up a little bit more, and if I keep going she’ll…” Candeloro shivered.

Charlotte’s brow furrowed. “She’s dead, Candy.”

“I know. But…”

“She’s dead. Her story’s over. And everything that’s left of her is living a perfectly happy life in you. And if you ask me, she probably prefers it that way.” Charlotte slipped an arm behind Candeloro’s head and gently turned her face toward her. “So stop worrying about something that’s not going to happen. Worst that could happen is that maybe we’ll have to go into therapy for a bit if spiritual dissonance starts to happen. And that happens all the time. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about.”

…

Now…

“So what am I then?” Candeloro demanded. “Some kind of parasite?”

“No, you’re the host,” Charlotte said flatly. “I fell in love with the parasite. You know, seeing how I’m one myself. Then you exterminated her. Took your body back, took your name back, took back everything. Well, fine. It was yours to begin with. And if the others are so willing to just let you slip in and replace her, then that’s on them. But I don’t have to be a part of it.”

Candeloro slowly breathed in and out. “Charlotte, that might the single ugliest thing I have ever heard you say.”

“I tell it like it is. And you’ll notice that I’ve done most of the talking here. Weren’t you supposed to try to convince that I’m wrong, that you really are still Candeloro, just with some kind of expansion pack or something? Some kind of upgrade? Candeloro+ or something? Candeloro MK II? Candelmami? Mamiloro?”

“Stop it!” Candeloro cried. “Stop it right now! This is tearing me up enough as it is, and you’re making jokes?”

“Then get on with it already!” Charlotte said with an impatient roll of her wrist. “Convince me!”

At that moment, a trio of girls appeared around the corner, oohing and aweing over the flowers. Candeloro and Charlotte froze in place and then tried to look inconspicuous. If the trio had noticed the argument taking place, they made no sign as they walked right past them and headed up a nearby stairway to the upper level.

Once they were out of sight, Charlotte sighed and said, “Well? Go ahead.”

Candeloro opened her mouth…and then closed it again. She looked down at the ground, tears prickling her eyes.

Charlotte tilted her head to one side. “Well?”

“That…That’s just it,” Candeloro said, her voice shaking. “As terrible as it is, I’m not sure you’re wrong.”

…

“Well?” Oktavia demanded. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know, because I can’t see them!” Ophelia snapped back. “They’re way deep in the maze!”

“Then follow them!”

“No, you pushy voyeur!” Ophelia said down with her legs crossed Indian-style and her arms folded. “I’m going to sit here and wait until one of them comes out! That’s it! Go read a book or compose a diss-track if you’re so bored!”

…

“Okay,” Charlotte said after the silence between them had gone on long enough. “What exactly do you mean by that?”

Candeloro tried to wipe her eyes with her fingers but found them too stiff and too shaky to really do the job without potentially jabbing herself in the eye, so she used her wrist instead. “Right after…right after the change, the whole, um, Candeloro and Mami dichotomy was…pretty stable, I guess. I still had my sense of self, I still had my old impulses and reflexes and tics, I just had this part of me opened up. A-And while all those memories were…painful, I figured I would get used to them in time. And while we were on the Aurora Borealis I had too much on my mind to really give much thought to sorting that out-”

“You mean me,” Charlotte said.

Candeloro sighed. “Yes, you. Being rejected by my wife was a little distracting, yes.”

“Fair enough.”

“Besides, the memories were all fresh then and hitting me all at once. I thought that once I was home, once I was someplace familiar, things might…settle into place.”

Charlotte frowned. “I’m guessing that they didn’t?”

Candeloro shook her head. “That, or they decided to settle in the worst way possible.”

…

Then…

“Only thing is, he won’t tell us the last part! How do you make it? I have to know!”

Despite having spent most of the day walking around in a silent, robotic trance, that actually managed to pull Candeloro out of her funk, at least enough to feel a small trickle of amusement. The recipe that the marshal was referring to actually was not one of her own, or Charlotte’s. Rather, it had been a fairly standard recipe that Ophelia had read out loud to Cheese from a cookbook in a vain attempt to break him of his swearing habit. The marshals could probably just search up the name of the cookbook and get the rest without trouble.

Then Cheese, who had been happily walking back and forth across Ophelia’s shoulders as she talked to the marshal, suddenly took notice of Candeloro.

Candeloro was admittedly not all that close to the family bird, at least not as much as the others. Oh sure, they liked each other well enough, and she did her part to help take care of him, but he always seemed to prefer the company of the two other couples than to her and Charlotte, which had been fine with her. He was great fun to have around, but he tended to be pretty needy when it came to attention, and he had almost developed a bad habit of chewing on her ribbons until they managed to break him of it.

Still, they did get along just fine, and she was honestly glad that he was okay. However, as soon as he saw her, he suddenly straightened up, all of his feather flaring up. Then he started flapping his wings in agitation, squawking loudly.

“Cheese! Hey! Knock it off, you asshole!” Ophelia shielded the back of her neck with one hand while shoving the other arm against Cheese’s legs to get him to step on so she could get him away from the back of her head. “Jesus, what has gotten into you?”

Candeloro said nothing. She was wearing a pretty bulky hooded jacket and had her hands nestled in the front pocket, so if anyone who knew her saw her they wouldn’t notice that something was amiss without taking a really good look.

But still, Cheese somehow knew that something was off.

“Wonder what got into him?” said one of the marshals, who had been in the process of leaving when the bird’s fit had brought her to a stop.

“He’s…moody,” Homulilly told her. “Sometimes he just throws temper tantrums for no reason. I’m surprised he didn’t act out when he was staying with you girls.”

“Well, he was kind of a handful, but I thought he’d calm down once you all got back.” The marshal shrugged. “Animals. Who can tell, eh?”

Candeloro glanced at her and shrugged.

Then she did a double-take.

The marshal was a witch. Physically, she looked to be a short, petite girl with dark skin and straight black hair. A jagged blue line divided her face in half, starting on her forehead over her right eyebrow to zigzag down between her eyes, over about two-thirds of her nose, past her mouth, and down her chin to disappear into the collar of her uniform. Everything on the left side looked perfectly normal, but the entire right looked like it had been carved from an opal. The color seemed to change as she moved, sometimes being marble-white, then sea blue, then pale green, then blood red. The part of her lips on the shimmering side also changed color, but to whatever the opposite her skin happened to be at the time. One dark eye looked perfectly normal, while the other was jet black with a bright golden iris.

Although she knew what she would find and dreaded it, Candeloro’s eyes went down toward the marshal’s arms. Most of them were covered with the thick brown sleeves of her uniform, but she could still see her hands.

They were blocky and made of yellow-painted steel, with gleaming pistons running down her arms into her wrist and across each finger and cables stretching from jutting poles, like a construction crane arm.

All in all, the girl’s witch remnants were striking, but hardly noteworthy. Candeloro encountered people just as strange every day, and not too long ago would have been thought of as just as odd. But seeing the girl had jogged something inside her, something from a long time…

…the massive crane-arm slammed into the steel girders that Mami had been standing upon. Had she not leapt off when she had, she would have been crushed into a pasty smear.

Still, she had dodged just in time. Unfortunately, she had been rather high up at the time, and didn’t have destination in mind when she had jumped; she had just been trying to get away from the witch’s attack.

And once she was in the air, there was nowhere to go but down.

Mami had been nine stories up the skeletal network of catwalks and girders, a little more than halfway to the witch’s head. And with the structure lacking walls, ceilings, or more importantly floors she found her trajectory headed somewhere hard, painful, and quite possibly lethal.

Arms and legs flailing at nothing, she started to fall.

“KYYYYUUUUUUBEEEEYYYYYY!” she screamed as the girder and pipes whooshed past her and the concrete floor rushed up to meet her.

“Your ribbons!” Kyubey called to her, speaking in her head like he always did. “Use them to break your fall! Hurry!”

Her ribbons?

Oh, right. She had those now.

Mami thrust a hand out. In response, a yellow ribbons materialized, one end clutched in her hand and the other wrapped around a girder. With a painful jerk her trajectory was suddenly redirected as she stopped falling and started to swing out.

Too late she realized that swinging outward when surrounded by so many steel beams was just as potentially lethal as falling straight down.

Her ribbon hit one such beam and she was sent hurtling. In desperation she created another and managed to pull herself out of the way before smacking headlong into a girder.

Then one of the witch’s crane-arms came down, hitting where the ribbon was connected and severing it.

Mami was again tumbling through the air, but this time had half-a-second more to react. She thrust her hands right in front of her, created a spiral of ribbons between her and the beam she was about to fly into. They absorbed her momentum, slowing her down. Then, before she could be hit again, she thrust another ribbon at a nearby girder and launched herself through an opening in the beams, sending her safely outside of the witch’s body.

Her landing was still rough, but not nearly as painful as it would have been otherwise. She tried to stand, but her legs buckled under her, and she fell fully onto her back as the world spun around her.

Adrenaline was still coursing through her veins, and her heartbeat was pounding away in her ears. This was only the third witch she had fought, and it was easily the craziest. The other two hadn’t come nearly as close to getting her as this one had, nor had she had any kind of escape quite so…thrilling.

“Uh, hey!” the marshal said, suddenly breaking Mami from her trance.

Mami stared back at her. “Huh?”

“I asked you what was wrong. You just…started staring at me. Are you all right?”

Mami didn’t answer. She just stared.

“I said, are you all right?”

A fluffy white blur was bounding toward her. “Mami! Are you all right?”

Mami shook her head to get everything to stop spinning. Then she looked up.

Things were still…weird. The “sky,” if it could be called that, was in actuality a canopy made up of blue balloons painted with white clouds that clustered tightly together. The “sun” was a massive yellow spotlight that was pressed through the balloon, which sent a single glaring beam straight down at the witch, which was a bit on the…large side.

Most of the witch looked like the steel gridwork of a skyscraper still under construction: fourteen stories of girders, beams, and catwalks. Twelve construction cranes protruded from its edges, four on each edge, which were surprisingly fast, considering their size. And suspended on a crisscross of cables top and center was a huge dome-shaped magnet, such as the kind used in junkyards.

Stuck onto the magnet was a metal ring, which in turn suspended a glass bowl the size of a house, full of some kind of clear liquid. And floating in that liquid was the witch’s head.

Half of it looked like a child’s doll, with dark plastic skin, dark straight hair, and a dark plastic eye that swiveled crazily in its socket. But the other, divided from the plastic side with a jagged line, gleamed like mother-of-pearl, its colors constantly changing. Its mouth was open, and it seemed to be reciting an endless deluge of mathematical equations in a disconcerting monotone voice, which were broadcasted throughout its labyrinth courtesy of the megaphones stuck through its body’s framework.

Mami leapt to her feet. “I’m fine,” she said as she started running toward the witch again. Climbing its body so as to get a clear shot at the head hadn’t worked, but she was already formulating another plan. “Kyubey, you said that the weapons conjured up by my ribbons are limited only by my own understanding of those weapons internal workings, right?”

“Correct,” Kyubey said as he bounded after her. “That is why you have had so much success with muskets. Their mechanisms are simple and therefore easy to replicate.”

Mami nodded. She deftly dodged two strikes from the cranes as they tried to impale her and darted into the gridwork. “Okay. But is there anything that says I can’t make something similar to the muskets, only…larger?”

“Nothing at all. Why?”

This time, instead of heading upward, Mami went inward, heading to the center of the structure until she was directly beneath the suspended bowl that held the witch’s head. There were still plenty of beams crisscrossing between her and it, hence her previous attempt to get closer.

But even if she had gotten close enough to get a clear shot, she doubted that she would be able to do much damage. She didn’t know how much in common with real steel its body had, but it was probably close enough to blunt her bullets, magic though they were.

“Because sometimes, you don’t need to get closer,” Mami said as she backed up until she found a point of trajectory that was relatively clear of steel beams. Then she held out a hand. “Sometimes you need to get bigger.”

As was the case whenever she summoned up her muskets, her ribbons twisted around each other, only this time there were many, many times more of them, and they took on a much, much larger shape. When the thing solidified, she was holding into the grips of a cannon that any battleship would be proud to display on its prow.

Mami took aim. Then she fired.

Her gleaming, golden cannonball shot straight and true. What steel beams and cables that did get in the way were shredded in its wake without stopping its momentum. It struck the side of the glass bowl, covering it with cracks and sending the magnet swinging.

The cables holding the magnet snapped, and the whole thing fell: magnet, bowl, head, and all. It struck several of the beams along the way, each one shattering or denting it a little more. Mami rushed out of the way to avoid getting hit by the glass shards.

The witch’s head wasn’t nearly so lucky. By the time it hit the ground, it was already a cracked and broken mess, one that fell to pieces upon impact.

Then, just as the other two witch labyrinths had, this one shimmered and fell apart, and Mami found herself standing next to the steel factory in the city’s industrial zone where she had tracked the witch.

And sure enough, at her feet was a jet-black grief seed.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Mami knelt down and picked it up. Using that giant cannon took considerably more magic than her muskets, so this would be of great help. Still, the cannon made for a great finishing move. She should probably keep using it. Though she probably ought to come up with a cool name for it though. Something like that was too good to go unnamed.

“Uh, hello? What’s up? You’re kind of freaking me out.”

Ursula the Construction Witch’s patchwork brow furrowed in concern. She waved her mechanical crane hands in front of Mami’s face. “Hellllloooooo?”

Mami jerked abruptly out of her stupor. “I, uh, s-s-sorry…”

Then Homura took her by the arm. “I’m sorry, she’s been feeling a little out of sorts. She got real seasick on the way back and spent the whole trip throwing up, so she’s still a little woozy.”

Ursula took a reflexive step back. “Ah. Say no more. Hope you feel better.”

“Right!” Homura started to move Mami toward the front door. “So let’s just get her inside so she can get her inside and-”

“Wait, hold on.” Ursula suddenly moved herself in front of Mami. She leaned for a closer look. “Have we…met? Because I am getting the weirdest sense of déjà vu right about now.”

Before either Mami or Homura could respond, the marshal that had met them at the door called out, “Sully, seriously? Of course she does! Their photos are all over the house!”

“Nah, that’s not it. I swear we’ve met…”

Mami’s tongue felt like it was glued to the top of her mouth.

Then Ursula shrugged. “Oh well, probably just ran into you…somewhere. Sorry about being weird.”

“No problem!” Homura said with a nervous laugh. She started leading Mami away again. “Um, thank you for looking after the house! Owe you one!”

The others quickly fell into place around them and moved Mami fully inside the house. Once she was inside, the spell broke, and she start trembling.

No, not Mami, she thought. That’s not my name anymore. I am Candeloro. She is Homulilly, that is Ophelia, and Oktavia, and Gretchen. Get a grip. Just because you killed that witch years ago is no reason to…”

“Okay, what just happened?” Ophelia said. “You all right?”

Swallowing, Mami managed a shaky nod. “I am. Sorry.”

“You sure?” Ophelia said, not looking in the slightest bit convinced. “Because-”

“Just a weird. I’m fine. Really.”

But she wasn’t. She was very far from being fine.

…

Now…

“Okay,” Charlotte said. “You’re telling me that seeing this girl not only triggered flashbacks to when you killed her, but it also triggered a full-on identity crisis?”

Candeloro sighed. “Yes, Charlotte. That’s exactly what I’m saying.”

“Ah.” Charlotte’s hand fidgeted, the fingers tapping out an anxious rhythm against her thigh. “That…Wait, just seeing her face kicked this off, but hanging out with the others didn’t? I mean, you knew them when you were all alive.”

Candeloro fell silent.

“What?”

Candeloro slowly breathed in the humid, earthy air. “That’s just it. Once that one happened, the others did so as well.”

…

Then…

“I’ll…I’m just going to go take a nap,” Candeloro said as she wearily made for the stairs.

“Anything I can get you?” Ophelia called after her.

Though she was grateful for the offer, Candeloro just shook her head. After her little episode, all she wanted was sleep. She started up the stairs, one hand laid flat on the bannister. She reflexively tried to wrap her whole hand around it before remembering that she didn’t have that level of flexibility anymore, so she settled for just stiffly curling her fingers around it.

As she walked upward, she heard Ophelia say to Homulilly and Gretchen, “Um, let me know if anything in your room is out of place, I guess. I’m going to go check on the garage.”

Candeloro paused halfway up. She glanced down to watch Ophelia walk into the kitchen.

Ophelia, Witch of Flames. Ophelia, whose lifestyle was as eccentric as her choice of dress. Ophelia, diligent engineer and accomplished dancer, who paradoxically balanced a juvenile sense of humor with a strong sense of personal responsibility, whose attitude was so childish in some ways while being the most grown-up of them in others. Ophelia, to whom Candeloro had lost her virginity during a very poor string of bad decisions but still remained one of her closest friends years later.

But that wasn’t all she was.

Candeloro started up the stairs again. She tried not to look at the framed pictures that hung on the wall to her left, but one did give her pause.

It was all of them back during their time in the FIB, long before any of them had really figured out who they were. That had been a very chaotic time for all of them. Everything had been so new and fascinating, but also kind of scary, full of new surprises and strange oddities.

Everyone looked pretty much the same as they did now, thanks to the benefits of never aging. And yet they all looked so different, mainly due to their evolving tastes in fashion. Candeloro herself had on a pair of black shorts and a midriff-revealing top that she was kind of embarrassed about now. She was of course comfortable with her own sexuality, but it had been a long time since she had felt any need to flaunt it. Her final two years there had been kind of a wild time.

Of all of them, Charlotte had probably changed the most. She had really been into some…very interesting kind of music back then, and was wearing a leather jacket with several band patches sewn on that was probably still at the back of their closet, a pair of faded jeans with a studded belt, and a shirt bearing the main character of a cartoon famed for its racy humor. Her hair was also much different, in that it had been gelled up into some kind of hawk. Also, she had on way more makeup back then, especially around the eyes, and had a lip ring. Candeloro had actually liked that lip ring, though Charlotte had stopped wearing it when it had accidentally gotten caught on Candeloro’s lip when they had made out just a little too enthusiastically.

As for Oktavia, well, she hadn’t gotten her cap then, but she looked more-or-less the same. For some reason she had never deviated from the short, boyish haircut she had shown up with. Candeloro supposed that having short hair made all her time in the ocean easier. At any rate, here she was just a pair of aviator sunglasses and shirt decorated with colorful seahorses.

As for Ophelia, this had been long before she had settled into what would become her trademark style of dress. Instead, she was wearing a simple black tee-shirt, a pair of cut-off shorts, a dark blue denim jacket, a pair of calf-high boots, and black baseball cap bearing the logo of a wrestler she had been a fan of. She was standing with one foot resting on the edge of a low wall, one hand on her hip, and the other touching the brim of her hat as she half-grinned at the camera, her fang showing prominently.

Candeloro stared at her in particular. In her mind, the denim jacket morphed into a green hoodie, and the cap was replaced by a long, flowing scarlet ponytail tied back with a black ribbon.

I’m Kyoko Sakura. Thanks. If hadn’t come by I would have bit it.

Mami reached up and gently pressed her fingertips to the image of the hat, so that Kyoko’s face stood in stark relief.

You saved me. Wow. I never knew there was such an amazing magical girl here in Mitakihara.

Her eye twitched, and she hastily moved the rest of the way up the stairs.

Unfortunately it was too late. Now that her mind had focused on that particular set of memories, they wouldn’t shut up.

So long as we’re talking about selfishness, I wanted to ask you: may I please become Mami-san’s student?

Mami quickened her gait, as if moving faster would allow her to outrun the downpour of memories that were threatening to bury her.

If that’s the case, I’ll be fine then. Ever since I was small, I watched my father and thought about how I wanted to bring happiness to everyone. I guess my wish to make my father happy was the first step towards making that a reality. To protect the happiness of everyone, that’s my wish.

Her hand didn’t tremble in the slightest as she tore the door to her (and Charlotte’s) room open and bolted inside. She slammed it shut and collapsed with her back to the door.

They’re gone. It was my wish. I just wanted them to have happiness, but it broke him. He found out what I did and it broke him!

Her legs buckled out from under her, and she slid down to the floor, her fingertips digging into her temple and forehead.

Huh? What the hell do you know? There’s a difference between losing your family in an accident and losing your family because it’s your own damn fault! It all happened because of my magic! So you know what? I’m never going to use my magic for anyone else’s sake again! I’ve decided that all this power is only for me to use, for my sake.

Mami half-crawled, half-staggered her way over to her bed. She didn’t bother to undress before she hauled herself onto her side.

I’ve had it with you! Our partnership is now officially done!

Her hand instinctively reached out for Charlotte’s, but she then remembered that Charlotte was gone.

Being lonely is a hell of a lot better than putting up with you all the time!

Instead, she seized up Charlotte’s pillow and pressed it down over her head, but nothing would drown out the angry shouting echoing in her head, or the sound of fists connecting with flesh.

Now take that!

And that!

And that!

…

Now…

“Ah,” Charlotte said. “Well. Um, I don’t really know what to say to that.”

“Her father had just murdered her mother and sister before hanging himself because he found out about her contract,” Candeloro said flatly. “She was not exactly in a good place at the time.”

“No kidding. Was she the only one?”

Candeloro sighed. “No. Not by a long shot. It just kept happening.”

…

Then…

“Well, hey,” Oktavia said. “Look who’s up. How you feeling?”

Candeloro walked out into the backyard. There, Oktavia was lounging in one of the lawnchairs, reading a book. “Better,” she said. “A lot better.” She plopped down in the chair next to Oktavia.

“Well, sometimes all you need is a really good night’s sleep,” Oktavia said. “God knows, none of us were sleeping well on the boat.”

That much was for certain. “Can’t argue with that,” Candeloro said. “Um, hey, Oktavia. I don’t suppose you guys have heard anything about…?”

Her question trailed off, but Oktavia obviously knew what she was talking about. Grimacing, she shook her head. “No, sorry. Still no word from her.”

“Oh.”

“But don’t sweat it! You know Charlotte, sometimes she gets all moody and stubborn! Once she’s come to her senses she’ll come right back, probably on hands and knees just begging you to take her back!”

“There’s an interesting image,” Candeloro said dryly.

“Eh, it’s what I do,” Oktavia said with a shrug. “Besides, you know how love is. It-”

“-sucks!”

“Huh?” Candeloro said.

“I said love’s complicated, you know?”

“Really? I thought you just said it sucks.”

Oktavia shot her an odd look. “Nooooo. It’s messy sometimes, but-”

“-I can’t believe she would do this to me! Now! I thought we were friends!”

“Well, sometimes even the best of friends don’t always see the whole picture,” Mami said. “She probably thinks that she’s doing you a favor.”

Sayaka’s face twisted up in confusion. “Candy, what the hell are you talking about? Why would Charlotte be thinking that she’s doing me a favor?”

“But you know what the worst if it is? Maybe she’s right. Because there was a moment where…where I regretted saving her from that witch! Isn’t that awful? How could he love someone who thinks like that!”

“Don’t think like that!” Mami cried. “It’s not your fault. It’s not-”

Then she blinked.

Wait.

What?

Sayaka (no, no, no, no, no! Not Sayaka! Her name was…was…was Oktavia now!) was staring at her in bewilderment. “Er, Candy? Uh, sorry, I know you’re going through a hard time right now, but you are making exactly zero sense. The hell?”

Mami shook her head. “I…I’m sorry. I just had a really weird episode.”

“I can tell,” Saya…Oktavia said. “Um, do you want me to get Ophelia or something?”

“No,” Mami said as she hastily stood up. “No, I just…need to clear my…”

Then she quickly moved back into the house, all the while echoes continued to bounce around in her head.

Some hero! How could I think to be worth anything if I have that in me! How could I ever think I could be like you!

…

Now…

“And happening.”

…

Then…

Candeloro reached for the bathroom door. Before she could touch it, the door opened, and Gretchen stepped out.

The younger girl was obviously just freshly showered and changed, if her still-damp hair was any indication. “Oh!” she said, seeing Candeloro. “Sorry, let me get out of your way.”

“Not at all,” Candeloro said, moving aside so Gretchen could scuttle past. She was about to enter the bathroom herself when she heard Gretchen clear her throat.

“Um, Candeloro?” she said.

“Yes?”

“Are you…are you doing okay?”

Candeloro swallowed. “Well, as well as can be expected, given the circumstances. But I am fine, thank you.”

“Okay. It’s just that Oktavia said you, uh, had kind of a weird…”

“Yes. I had a strange flashback. Just…still need to sort these new memories out, I guess.”

“Okay, because if you ever-”

“I’m fine,” Candeloro said, and then she winced. That had come out a lot more harshly than she had wanted.

“Oh,” Gretchen said. “Sorry.”

“It’s-”

But Gretchen had already scurried off to her and Homulilly’s room.

Sighing, Candeloro went inside and closed and locked the door. She looked at herself in the mirror.

The face of Candeloro stared back at her.

She looked like a horror. Her eyes were sunken, her golden hair a frightful mess. And after snapping at Gretchen, she felt pretty horrible too.

Oh, Gretchen, Gretchen, Gretchen. The sweetest girl Candeloro had ever met. Even as she had grown older she had never lost her kind heart.

Of course, it had come with the territory. She had always been kind to a fault, selfless and caring and…

No!

No, she couldn’t go down that path again! She couldn’t let those memories creep up, memories like-

I’m sorry for crying.

No! Not again!

Don’t be. It’s a scary thing, the first time you get hurt. Now hold still. Magic might speed up the healing process, but we still need to disinfect the wound. This’ll sting.

Stop it! Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!

I just wish I could be as brave and strong as you. Or Kyoko-chan! Or even Sayaka-chan! I just feel like I drag you all down sometimes.

Candeloro pounded her fists against her head. It did no good.

Madoka, don’t think like that. You have by far one of the kindest hearts I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. And I want you to stay like that. That is your strength.

Please, make it stop!

We’re in a fight against monsters, against curses born from the worst kinds of hearts. We need someone like you. So don’t ever change who you are.

Who you are.

Change.

Change…into a…

Mami looked back up at the mirror. Her face was no longer a mess, her hair no longer disheveled. Rather, she was properly made up, and her hair neatly tied up in a pair of drill-tails on either side of her head.

She jerked back in surprise and looked down.

When she had entered the bathroom, she had been wearing a pair of jeans and blue blouse. But now she was wearing her Puella Magi uniform.

Mami pinched the hem of her skirt with shaking fingers. Then she lifted her gloved hands and squeezed them. When had that change happened? She didn’t recall wanting to change into her uniform, and yet here it was.

She closed her eyes and gripped her hands into fists at her side.

Go away, go away, go away, go away!

When she opened her eyes again, her old clothes were back, and her face was a proper disaster again.

But so was the rest of her.

She sat heavily down on the toilet lid, her face buried in her unwanted hands.

“I’m Candeloro,” she whispered. “I’m Candeloro! The Ribbon Witch! I don’t want to be Mami, I don’t want to be Mami, I don’t want to be Mami…”

…

Now…

“And happening!”

…

Then…

To her complete lack of surprise and no small amount of irritation, Candeloro couldn’t sleep.

She tossed. She turned. She opened the window and counted backwards from a hundred. Nothing worked.

Tomorrow she was going to meet face-to-face with Charlotte. Tomorrow she might end up losing her wife forever. How the hell could her mind not obsess over that?

Finally she got up with a growl and left her room.

It was a little past two in the morning and the house was dark. She didn’t know if anyone else was asleep though. Ophelia and Oktavia were probably still up, playing some video game or watching a movie.

Even so, Candeloro kept her steps light as she tiptoed down the stairs and into the kitchen.

To her surprise, there was a light coming from the kitchen. Specifically, the refrigerator light. Someone had it open and was rummaging around inside.

The door closed with a click, and a dark-haired silhouette straightened up and turned around.

“Oh!” Homulilly said, jerking up. The cup of water she had in her hands slipped from her grasp.

She tried to grab it, but Candeloro already had it covered. A ribbon shot out from her hand to lasso the cup and jerk it back toward her into her palm with barely any spilt.

“Here,” Candeloro said, handing her the cup. “Sorry for scaring you.”

“It’s…okay,” Homulilly said. She tilted her head to one side. Though the lights were out, Candeloro knew the curious look she was wearing. “So, uh, the ribbon-whip thing. That’s…”

“My Puella Magi power, yes,” Candeloro said.

“I thought you had guns.”

“It’s…a little hard to explain,” Candeloro said wearily. She quickly changed the subject. “You can’t sleep either?”

“Not really,” Homulilly admitted. “I’m not surprised that you can’t.”

“Well, it’s not something you can face without having some kind of nervous breakdown,” Candeloro said as she went over to the fridge to remove a pitcher of cranberry juice.

“I bet. Mind if I turn on the light?”

“Sure.”

The kitchen light stung Candeloro’s eyes a bit. She blinked a bit and shook her head.

Homulilly was already sitting at the table, her cup nestled in her hands. “Just juice, huh?”

“Just juice,” Candeloro confirmed as she poured herself a cup. “After what happened last time, I’m staying well away from alcohol.”

“Hmmm. But, uh, you still kind of…”

“More than you can believe,” Candeloro sighed. She sat down across from Homulilly. “Thank you again, by the way. For what you did.”

“Of course. I just hope it was worth it.”

Candeloro nodded. “Me too. Um, hey, Homulilly. I hope I’m not prying, but may I ask you a question?”

Homulilly frowned. “Um, sure?”

“Say you were in Charlotte’s position, and Gretchen had turned back into Madoka Kaname. What would…how would you react?”

Homulilly sighed. “Oh, I’ve been asking myself that question longer than Hitomi Shizuki’s been around.”

“Oh. Um, and?”

Homulilly’s skeletal finger tapped against the side of her glass. “Gretchen is the most important person in the world to me,” she said softly. “If she…became her old self, and didn’t remember me anymore, or at least only remembered Homura Akemi, it would…it would hurt a lot.”

“Would you leave?”

“No,” Homulilly said after a pause. “Because…it would still be her, right? How could I leave her? And if she still…still wanted me around, even if it was just as a friend, then that would…” She swallowed. “That would be enough.”

Candeloro sighed and took a small sip. “Yes, you always were very-”

She blinked.

“Very…what?”

We need to talk.

Candeloro shook her head. “Uh, sorry, I just-”

What about, Akemi-san?

Oh no.

You put Madoka in danger. Your plan failed, and she was hurt.

“Candeloro?” Homura said in puzzlement. “Are you all right?

This is unacceptable. You are our leader. Therefore, Madoka’s safety is your responsibility as much as it is mine.

Mami grabbed her head. Not again. Not again!

Akemi-san, it was an accident! I did everything I could to look after her, but fighting witches is inherently dangerous! You can’t prepare for all-

Enough.

“Should I call for help?” Homura asked, rising. “Let me get Ophelia-”

“No!” Mami said hastily. “I’m-”

No life matters more to me than Madoka’s. I helped you convince Sayaka Miki to make a contract for Madoka’s protection. I brought back Kyoko Sakura for Madoka’s protection. If you cannot ensure her safety despite having all that at your disposal, then perhaps a change of leadership is needed.

“Uh,” Mami stood up, and did so too quickly. Her elbow knocked over her glass of juice, spilling it across the table.

“Oh, damn! Shit!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Homura quickly grabbed a handful of paper towels and began mopping up the spilled juice.

“I should-”

“No, I got it,” Homura said. “Look, you’re in a bad place. Let me help, okay?”

Mami nodded numbly. “Okay. I’d…better go to bed, before I knock over something else.”

“Okay. And, uh, Candeloro?”

“What?”

Homura smiled at her. “It’ll be okay. You got-”

-no right to be acting so reckless. So, keep that in mind.

But-

Keep it in mind, Mami Tomoe. Speak to no one of our conversation, do your job and keep Madoka Kaname safe, and we shall have no problems.

“-this, okay?”

Mami numbly nodded. Then she turned and practically fled back up the stairs.

Remember my warning, Mami Tomoe.

Remember my warning.

…

Now…

“Holy shit,” Charlotte said, staring.

“I know,” Candeloro groaned. “It just…I never know when it’ll happen next, it just happens! And the more time I spend around them, the more it happens!”

“Yeah, I bet. Jesus.” Then Charlotte’s brow furrowed. “Still, this just proves my point! We were better off without any of that! We didn’t need to learn our names or our histories or any of that! We should have just said ‘no’ and left Hitomi alone!”

“I know that, Charlotte! But we didn’t! We took that risk, we opened that box, and now we have to deal with the consequences.” Candeloro looked down at her shaking hands. “And they scare me. I don’t want these memories. I don’t want this name. I don’t want to feel like who I am is just…I feel like my entire sense of self is like water in a shallow glass bowl sitting on the tip of a pin, and the slightest push can cause it to tip over and pour me out! I thought I could just g-get used to having this part of me opened up, but it’s more than just remembering everything I used to be. Because whenever these memories hit, then…I don’t know, but my sense of self starts…flowing. I feel less like Candeloro and more like Mami, and it takes longer and longer to get it under control!”

Now Charlotte’s hands started to shake as well. “So you’re telling me that the Mami half is slowly taking over, and when it does there’ll be nothing of Candeloro left?”

“I don’t know! That’s the point, I don’t know how this works, I don’t know what’s happening to me, I don’t know how it’s happening, I don’t know where Mami ends and Candeloro begins or if there even is a divide, I don’t know anything!” Now the tears were flowing freely. “I don’t know, and it scares me, Charlotte! You talk about how much it scares you?” Mami slapped her new hands against her own chest. “What about me? It’s happening to me! And right when I need you the most, you’re just going to run off on me? How could you?”

“I…”

“We were supposed to be together forever! Together, keeping each other strong through the centuries. I love you. I love you so much that the thought of you leaving me hurts more than the storm inside my head. And I thought you loved me too! So why, Charlotte?”

“Because…” Charlotte was starting to shake with agitation. “Because…uh…”

Candeloro reached for her, but Charlotte flinched away.

“I can’t,” Charlotte said as she backed away. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. But I just can’t.”

“But why? I need you!”

Shaking her head, Charlotte kept back further and further away.

“Charlotte,” Candeloro pleaded. “Please. Don’t.”

“I just…” Then Charlotte turned and fled, running to disappear into the mists. Candeloro was left standing alone, arms that she had never wanted still reaching out, with her eyes wet, her throat clenched up, and her heart heavy.

…

The Rising Gardens were intended to be lost in. There were maps you could pick up that would always keep you informed of your location and marked out the quickest way out, but Charlotte had neglected to grab one. And now that she really, really wanted to leave, she found that she couldn’t.

Every turn just led to more turns, every staircase seemed to just plunge her deeper into the woman-made jungle. It was like being lost in a real jungle, one just as thick and dark.

Come on, come on, she thought as she ran. Where’s the way out?

“Come on, come on!” she said out loud. “It has to be around here-”

Then she turned a corner and came to a sudden stop.

She was staring at Candeloro’s (no! Mami Tomoe’s!) back. Somehow, she had ended up just coming back around again.

Sensing her, Mami Tomoe turned around. Her golden eyes were wet and bloodshot from crying, and her face was scrunched up with pure misery.

Mami Tomoe saw her, and her eyes widened. With hope.

Before she could speak, Charlotte spun on her heel and headed back the way she came.

There had to be a way out! The Rising Gardens had exits on every level! So where were they? Where was the damned-

The next thing she knew, Charlotte was bursting into sunlight.

She was standing on the second level, staring out at Freehaven. Though the sun overhead was nice and warm, she was still shivering.

Charlotte started running again. She hopped off the gardens entirely and ran for the facility exit. As she did so, she had her new phone out, fingers hastily calling for a zipper.

…

“Hey, wait a second!” Ophelia yelped as she leapt to her feet.

“Finally!” Oktavia said. “What’s going on?”

“Charlotte just ran out of the garden!”

“Alone?!”

“Yes, alone! And she looks kind of terrified!”

“Huh? What, did Candeloro summon up those silver guns of hers and try to take her head off?”

“Uh, probably not? Can’t blame her if she tried though!”

Then Charlotte leapt to the street and kept running. Ophelia’s eyes narrowed.

“Oh, hell no,” she growled.

“You’re going after her!” Gretchen’s voice cheered.

“Damn straight. Candy shot her shot, now it’s my turn!”

Ophelia dove right off the roof she was standing on. She hit the street in a parkour roll and came up running.

Charlotte was fast. Her slender body and long legs were well-suited for speed. But she didn’t do a tenth of the cardiovascular exercises that Ophelia did daily. Ophelia’s toned legs became a blur as she took off like a rocket, weaving between what people she could and leaping fully over those that she couldn’t.

Unfortunately, Charlotte still had a considerable lead on her. And overhead, Ophelia could see the distinctive silver glint of a descending zipper.

Hell no!

“Hey!” she called as she shot toward the fleeing Charlotte like a bolt of lightning. “Stop!”

If Charlotte could hear her she didn’t make any indication. The zipper landed in a circular designated pick-up point and opened up.

Zippers were essentially egg-shaped shells that surrounded a ring of four padded seats, with a large luggage space on the bottom. But only Charlotte was in need of one, so only one side opened up. Charlotte zeroed in on it and increased her speed.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Ophelia snarled. She increased her speed…

…only to be brought to screeching halt when an entire bike team came riding right across her path. And wouldn’t you know it, there was a bridge overhead that prevented her from leaping over them.

“Shit!” Ophelia bounded upward, hoping to clear the buildings entirely before Charlotte got in.

She managed to reach the roof in a manner of seconds, but by the time she reached a vantage point, Charlotte had already reached the zipper and was climbing inside.

“No!” Ophelia leapt onto the road again, well past the bike team, and took off sprinting. “Charlotte! Stop!”

The side of the zipper closed up.

“Wait!”

Then it shot into the sky. Ophelia reached the pick-up spot mere seconds later, just in time to see it vanish over the rooftops.

…

Charlotte collapsed into her seat a panting, shaking, and sweating mess. “Go!” she shouted. The door closed shut, and the zipper launched into the air.

Oh God, she had not expected that. Having Mami Tomoe try to argue with her that she was still Candeloro? Yes. Yes, that had very much been expected and prepared for. But for her to say that she was still Candeloro, but the Mami Tomoe part was slowly taking over and for her to beg for Charlotte to stay and help her fight it off? That possibility hadn’t exactly occurred to her.

Still trembling, Charlotte leaned back…only to scowl. She quickly slipped her backpack off her shoulders and tossed it into the seat next to her before finally slumping back with a sigh. Why had she done that? Why had she run? That hadn’t been the thing that had stolen her love away from her and was wearing her face. That had been her love begging her not to let the thing take her away in the first place! That had been Candeloro all right. If Candeloro and Mami Tomoe were supposed to be the same soul, then Candeloro would be able to tell if it was Mami Tomoe lying. And she hadn’t been. That had been the truth.

Of course it was, said the irritated voice in her head, the one that had been yelling at her all week, the one she had been arguing with or trying to ignore. But you ran away anyway. You coward. You idiot.

“Shut up,” she muttered.

No! You know I’m right! You’re a coward and an idiot who ran out on her family and-

“I said shut up!”

“I’m sorry,” said the digitized voice of the zipper’s AI. “I didn’t quite get that. Where would you like to go?”

Charlotte sighed. She ought to have had this thing waiting with preprogrammed coordinates. “Freehaven Skyport,” she said wearily. “Terminal seven.”

“Acknowledged.” The monitor lit up with the flight route and estimated time of arrival, which was about seven minutes.

Charlotte slumped back into her seat. She blinked. And then she blinked again, slower this time. She hadn’t slept well at all the previous night for obvious reasons. Come to think of it, she hadn’t been sleeping much all week. And though she had expected to pass out on the elysian, she had thought that her nerves would have kept her awake until then. But her lack of sleep was catching up to her in a bad way. This was bad timing too. With such a short trip, nodding off now wouldn’t give her any sort of rest.

But surely it would be all right if she just closed her eyes for a bit…

…

The storyteller was confronted by the griever…

Charlotte finds herself in the inoffensive yet chillingly sterile waiting room of a hospital emergency room. She is sitting in one of the chairs, waiting for her name to be called. There are other people waiting in there with her; she can see them in her peripheral vision, can hear their muted conversations. But every time she looks up to focus on any of them in particular, she sees nothing but empty chairs.

She sits anxiously, hands clutching the sides of her seat. She can’t remember exactly why she was there, but she knows that it’s important. She is visiting someone, someone who is very ill, someone who isn’t expected to make it. She hadn’t been visiting them like she had promised, and that made her feel terrible.

“Charlotte? You can go in now.”

Charlotte sighs and stands up. She heads for the entrance to the hospital halls only to remember that she wasn’t sure of the way. Stopping by the receptionist’s desk, she turns toward the older lady that had called her name to ask her for directions.

“Excuse me, but which was to-”

Then she stops. The chair behind the desk is empty. Furthermore, all the hospital staff that she thought were working behind the counter are all gone.

Charlotte turns back toward the waiting room. As she does so, the muted babble of whispered conversations coming from the other people waiting dies off, as does the sound of the television. There is no one else there, and the television is off.

Blinking, Charlotte shakes her head and walks into the halls. As she does so, the conversations resume behind her, as does the patter of the hospital staff diligently working and the sound of the newscasters’ voices coming from the television.

As Charlotte walks through the halls, she passes many people. Doctors, nurses, security guards, midwives, patients, and other visitors, all of whom simply vanish the moment she gives them her full attention. She nods at the aging man at the security booth and stops to see if he knows the way, only to find the booth empty. She sidesteps a male nurse pushing a young woman in a wheelchair, only to see a solitary wheelchair sitting by itself by the wall. She approaches a nurse’s station with three middle-aged women chatting as they work, only to find the station unmanned. It is like she is trying to find her way through a world of ghosts. But who is the ghost? Is it the people that disappear all around her, or is she the one haunting the halls?

Finally she turns a corner and sees a recovery room down the hall with its door open. A bright line is shining out. That has to be the place.

Charlotte hurries toward the light. As she does so, the shadow people around her start to recede entirely, as does the rest of the hospital. She can feel the halls start to come apart around her while deep, loud rushing builds in her ears, like a consuming flood burst from a dam.

She hurries into the recovery room and slams the door. The rushing stops.

There are three curtain-shrouded beds in the room, two of which are open and empty. The curtain is drawn over the third bed, the one at the far end of the room. Behind it, she can see the silhouette of a young woman sitting in a chair.

Swallowing, Charlotte cautiously makes her way toward the curtain. She lays a hand on the curtain, hesitates, and then slowly pulls it open, half-expecting the woman to disappear like everyone else did.

She doesn’t.

The young woman is sitting in a blue chair next to the hospital bed, her legs crossed and hands clasped over her knee. She is wearing tight green pants and a frilly white blouse decorated with pink and blue mice. Her pink hair is done up in a pair of messy twintails, and her eyes are of the same color. Freckles dust her face, and she has a slight overbite.

It’s her. It’s clearly Charlotte. Granted, the woman’s skin is of a normal human hue rather than alabaster white, the freckles are new, their eyes are of different colors, and the other woman doesn’t have a tail, but other than that they are the same.

“So,” the other Charlotte says. “There you are. You kept me waiting.”

The spell of vague uncertainty that hung over all dreams broke then. In a rush Charlotte remembers everything. She understands what it is that is going on.

“No way,” she says. “Really?”

“Yup. Really really.”

Charlotte fumbles around until she grabs a nearby empty chair and sits down before her legs gives way beneath her. “But…I-I heard that the others, um, that the others-”

The other Charlotte crosses her legs and folds her arms over her chest. “Talked to their past selves in a dream or somesuch. Yeah, I know.”

“But…they all spiritual dissonance, right? Something that woke all that up? I never did though! So how-”

“Well, you know what they say,” the other Charlotte says with a shrug. “Sometimes you get woken up by the sound of your name, but sometimes you get dragged away by the irresistible need to slap a stupid bitch.”

“What?”

The other Charlotte stands up. She walks over to where the dumbfounded Charlotte was sitting and sticks out her hand. “Hi there. My name is Nozomi Momoe. You’re my witch, and you are also the idiot in the driver’s seat, because your stupidity was literally powerful enough to drag me back to life. Pleased to fucking meet you.”

Then before Charlotte has time to process that little revelation, Nozomi’s hand flies, striking Charlotte across the face.

Normally something like that would be enough to jolt Charlotte awake, likely with heavy panting and her illusionary heart racing. However, this was not that kind of dream.

“Got your attention?” Nozomi says.

Charlotte lifts a hand to her cheek. For a dream, the stinging sensation is impressively realistic. “The hell was that for?”

“You know,” Nozomi says with a derisive snort. She walks back to her seat and sits down. “All right, let me clear things up for you and answer everything you’re about to ask. Yes, I am your past self. Duh. Yes, this is really happening. Yes, we are the same person. Same soul, continuation of consciousness or whatever you guys call it. So when I say ‘I’ or ‘you’ or ‘we,’ don’t take it too literally. Yes, this is happening due to supernatural circumstances. No, I’m not telling you how. No, I’m not really real as a separate entity. This is all one big metaphor for how Nozomi would actually feel about what your dumb ass is doing right now. But yes, what I am saying to you comes from a very fucking real place. Are we clear?”

That…really did cover most of what Charlotte wants to ask, though not being able to ask them was kind of frustrating. Hell, she was still in need of a moment to really think on the whole “Nozomi Momoe” thing. “Wow, okay,” she says. “You’re…throwing a lot at me right now. And frankly, I don’t even know where to begin-”

“Great! Because I do.” Nozomi leans forward so as to glower at her more efficiently. “Why exactly are you listening to that big wad of dumb you got lodged in your head and throwing away literally the best thing to happen to you, to happen to us, to happen to me?”

Charlotte scowls. Oh, so that was what this was all about. “This is about Mami Tomoe, isn’t it?”

“Eh.” Nozomi waggles one of her palms. “Half right. This is about Mami Tomoe and Candeloro. Which, incidentally enough, do qualify as the same thing, if you want to get technical about it.”

Charlotte scowls. “I don’t have to explain that to you. I don’t have to explain it to anyone.”

“I am you, of course you don’t have to explain it! And you already had that whole deal torn down! What I want to know is why that even after realizing that you’re wrong, you’re still running away!”

“What, you expect me to be able to deal with…whatever that is? You expect me to be able to deal with any of this insanity?”

“No shit, I do! Because that’s what wives are supposed to do! Love and support in sickness and in health! She wants us to help her, she needs us by her side, and you’re just gonna go run away.

“Well, whatever. I owe you anything, and you don’t know-”

“Yeah, I’m just going to cut you off right there, Cheese-Brain.” Nozomi says, holding up a palm. “I do, actually. Been living through you for sixteen years now, so I know you pretty damned well.”

“Do you? Fine.” Charlotte leaned back in her chair, one arm draped over the back, legs crossed, while she gestured with the other. “Then by all means: explain it to me.”

“Fine. You’re running away not because you really believe that Mami’s gonna completely replace Candeloro, but because you’re scared of what she represents. Because all this time, things were set in a certain way, and you liked it that way! Sure, maybe all your friends had some kind of group dynamic back in the day, but who cares? Right now, everyone’s a witch, you’ve got a new group dynamic to which you are essential, and life is good!

“But then Hitomi Shizuki showed up and changed all that. Suddenly there’s new names being thrown around, reveals about past relationships. And things started to crack. They started to crumble. In just a few short days, people you thought you knew start making bad decisions, start drifting apart, started behaving out of character.

“And that scared you, didn’t it? Not just because it meant that this perfect life you’ve built was falling to pieces, but the thing you were dreading was coming back. Their past. Their group, the group that you were not a part of. And despite all evidence to the contrary, you couldn’t help but wonder, ‘Well, if they all do go back to being who they were, would there still be a place for me? Would they even want me?’” She snorts. “Talk about paranoid.”

“It’s not paranoid!” Charlotte shouts. “It did happen! One of them did come back, and she’s taking the place of my wife!”

“Yeah, Mami Tomoe did come back. She came back to save you, because you were in danger, and now that you wife is in the most trouble she’s ever been, when she needs you the most, you just selfishly abandon her? Because you were afraid that Mami would reject you?”

“No! I don’t care if Mami wants me or not! I care that the person I loved is gone!”

“She’s not gone, you idiot! But she is in the most pain that she’s ever in! She made a choice for your sake, and now she’s struggling with something big and terrifying, and instead of staying by her side like you should, you’re just going to abandon her and the rest of your family! You’re so afraid of change taking away everything you had that you’d rather throw it all away first, just because of a possibility! And you’ll run out on the woman you love more than anything in her time of need! She begged you to stay, she was weeping for you to stay, and you turned your back on her!”

Nozomi then thrusts a finger at the hospital bed next to her. And for the first time, Charlotte notices that it’s not empty. There is a body in it, that of woman. She is not that old, just a little out of middle-age, but she is so frail and withered that she could have been mistaken for being past eighty.

“I had a chance to save the only thing that mattered to me, but I refused to see the situation for what it was and lost our mother. Because of an assumption! So I will be damned before I let your fear hurt the ones that matter the most to us now! I’m not letting you run away!”

“I…” Charlotte struggles to find her voice. “But I…”

However, Nozomi is not letting her have the chance to speak. She thrusts her hand into the air, and suddenly the small space is filled with a burst of dark pink light. When it clears, Nozomi is wearing a sleeveless, double-breasted black tunic with gold buttons in the shaped of wrapped candy and a high collar; a tight black-and-white striped shirt under with frilly wrists; brown fingerless gloves; a knee-length pink skirt; black-and-white striped tights; and dainty ballet shoes. In her hand is a long black pole studded with pink polka-dots, topped with that wrapped candy shape.

Nozomi charges. Charlotte tries to dodge, but Nozomi thrusts her pole out, and golden wires erupt from the tip to ensnare Charlotte’s legs and yank them out from under her.

The next thing Charlotte knows, she’s lying flat on her back with legs straddling her chest, staring up at a face that looks so much like the one she sees every day in the mirror, only it is glaring down at her in pure hatred.

“No, you don’t get to run!” Nozomi screams. She strikes Charlotte across the face, causing her head to snap to one side. “You bitch!” She hits her again from the other side. “You coward!” She hits her again.

Then Nozomi is just raining blows down on Charlotte, from the left to the right to the left to the right again. “You! Won’t! Run! Away! If you do, I swear I will haunt you every time you go to sleep! I will make every second a waking nightmare! You can’t escape me, and you won’t-”

…

Charlotte jerked awake with a gasp. Her hands were in the air to ward off another attack, the screams still echoing in her ears.

There was nobody there. She was back in the zipper.

Charlotte slowly lowered her hands. Then she checked the time. To her shock, she saw that she had only been asleep for less than thirty seconds. The zipper was still moving above Freehaven toward the skyport.

Stupefied, Charlotte struggled to collect her thoughts. Though the details of the dream were swiftly fading away, the terror of it was not, nor was the sense of immense shame, guilt, and self-loathing.

She knew what had happened. She had heard of the others and their dream-meetings with their past selves, and how they had all made peace. And she had finally had her own. Only hers had been anything but peaceful.

And she knew exactly why.

Charlotte felt horrified. Oh God, what was she doing? How had things gotten this far?

“Wait!” Charlotte hoarsely called out. “Stop!”

The zipper paused.

“Cancel the trip! Take me back!”

“Trip cancellations incur a fee of-”

“I don’t care, charge me whatever, and just do it!”

The blue digital face shimmered, and the zipper turned around.

…

“Damn it,” Ophelia groused as she slouched her way across the rooftop. She kicked a pinecone that had somehow gotten up there. “Damn it, damn it, damn it. We were so close. So close. So-”

Then something zoomed past her head, something silver and shiny.

Ophelia froze. No, it couldn’t be. It had to be some other zipper. There were plenty of those coming and going all the time. There was no way it was…

She ran to the edge of the roof. The zipper had dove down to the same pick-up spot that Charlotte’s had departed from. Her illusionary heartbeat pounding away, Ophelia watched as its side opened up.

And then Charlotte stumbled out.

“No way,” Ophelia said. As she watched, Charlotte took off running, heading back toward the Rising Gardens.

Things still sucked a whole lot, but Ophelia couldn’t stop grinning. She pulled out her phone and reentered the group. “Hey guys,” she said. “Cancel the funeral. Guess what just happened!”

…

Sniffing, Candeloro slowly exited the Rising Gardens. She felt more miserable than she had ever felt in her entire life.

What was she going to do? What was she going to tell the others? Oh, they would feel bad for her, try to comfort her, say many bad things about Charlotte, but that wouldn’t change anything. She had gone to bring her back, to heal their family, but she had failed. In the end, Charlotte had rejected her.

Maybe she should just let the Mami Tomoe part take over completely. Mami Tomoe had never been married. Mami Tomoe hadn’t been abandoned by her wife. Maybe that would make things easier to-

“Candy! Wait! Stop!”

Candeloro made a sound not unlike air escaping a bike tire. She spun around, almost not daring to hope.

Charlotte was there, running toward her.

“What?” was all Candeloro could think of to say.

Charlotte looked like she was reaching out to grab her, but then stopped herself at the last minute. She looked at her outstretched hands, swallowed, and let them drop.

“So, uh,” she said as she stared down at the ground and shuffled her feet. “I…kind of just had a change of heart.”

Candeloro’s jaw dropped. “How? It’s been…like five minutes!”

“I know. But you know how your perception of time gets really weird in a dream and you could feel like it’s been hours when it’s only been like a couple minutes? Like how you wake up ten minutes before your alarm goes off and drift back to sleep and then have like this whole adventure that seems like it takes…” Charlotte seemed to realize that she was babbling and cut herself off. “Um, well, I kind of fell asleep in the zipper, and got yelled at by my past self, and she beat me up. Like, a lot.”

“Huh?”

“I finally met my past self,” Charlotte said. “You know, like the others did. And she was pissed.”

Candeloro had no idea what to think of that. “Really?”

“Yes. And…” Charlotte sighed. “Candy, I am so sorry. I’ve been an idiot, and a coward, and kind of a cruel one at that.” She ran her fingers through her sweat-soaked hair. “I don’t know what got into my head, I don’t have any kind of real excuse. I just got scared and freaked out and made a really, really bad choice.”

Candeloro was finding it very hard to put her thoughts to words. She was finding it very hard to have articulate thoughts at all. “Wait, are you saying…”

“I’m not leaving you. I should have never left in the first place. And…okay, this whole thing that’s going on with you still scares the crap out of me, but I don’t have the right to abandon you, and-”

The rest of her apology was choked off: not by tears, but by Candeloro’s arms. Specifically, the ones she had thrown around Charlotte’s neck.

“Thank you,” Candeloro wept into Charlotte’s neck. “I don’t know what I would have done if you had gone.”

“God, way to make me feel worse,” Charlotte muttered, but she wrapped her arms around Candeloro’s back as well.

It felt so good to be held by her again. Candeloro was still a little angry about almost being abandoned, but the relief she felt was so much more powerful.

But then she drew back with a sigh. “But you know I’m still messed up,” she said. “I don’t know even where to begin to fix this.”

Charlotte grimaced. “Yeah. I…I can see that.”

“I mean, there’s no one in Freehaven with any experience with this kind of thing.”

“Yeah, this is kind of way above their pay grade,” Charlotte agreed. “I mean, sure, they can help an angry teenager who lost her family or someone who’s not adjusting well, but this is kind of…”

Suddenly her eyes went wide. “Wait, hold on!” she gasped. “Maybe there is someone!”

…

“Okay, confirmed!” Ophelia said into her phone. “Huggies have stopped, and C1 and C2 are on the move!”

“On the move back home, right?” Homulilly said testily.

“Uh…can’t tell yet. They’re…oh shit.”

“What?”

Ophelia dove behind a planter. “They’re headed for the roofs. Almost got spotted just now.”

“But that means they’re headed back, right?” Gretchen asked. “You go to the roofs when you want to get somewhere in a hurry, right?”

Ophelia peeked out. Then she frowned. “No, wait, they’re going the wrong way for that.”

There was a heavy pause, and then Oktavia said crankily, “Well, then, where the hell are they headed?”

“I dunno. North…eastish? Hey, I’m gonna just tail them for a bit. I’ll call you when I have some idea of what’s going on.”

“Wait, what about-”

Ophelia hung up. And then she got up to follow.

Keeping up was a lot harder than it sounded. Sure, she could probably run either one of them down, but she didn’t want to catch up, she just wanted to keep them in sight, while making sure that she stayed out of theirs. So she had to stop periodically to dart into some kind of shade and hang back until she was sure that they weren’t going to look in her direction.

Fortunately, they didn’t think that they were being followed, so they weren’t glancing over their shoulders or anything. And before too long they came to a stop and dropped down to the streets.

Ophelia came to a stop too. She had figured out where they were headed, and now that she did it made perfect sense.

“So hey,” she said, reentering the group. “I figured out where they’re heading.”

“Well?” Oktavia said. “Where?”

“Probably the one place in town with anyone that understands what Candeloro’s going through.”

…

Despite living in Freehaven her entire life, Candeloro had only been to the museum a handful of times. There had been the obligatory trip back during her integration days of course, and the odd daytrip just for the heck of it scattered over the years. She had always enjoyed the visits and had learned much, but that sort of thing had always been more of Charlotte’s thing than hers, so she had never just gone on her own, and she certainly had never had a one-on-one conversation with the museum’s curator, Astrid.

Astrid, it should be noted, was not her usual calm, unflappable self. Granted, Candeloro hadn’t even seen her during every trip, so she supposed that she didn’t have much experience to really get a read on the older woman, but she had not expected to see Astrid as shaken as she was when Candeloro and Charlotte had shown up during what had no doubt been an otherwise uneventful day looking over the exhibits and answering menial questions about the artifacts and anxiously requested a private conversation on account that she was the only other person that had gone through the same thing Candeloro had that they had any sort of access to.

Still, she had agreed, and had asked her girlfriend to keep an eye on things while she took the pair to her apartment at the back of the complex. Candeloro hadn’t known what to expect of that. Maybe a place filled with as many strange relics of the past as the museum itself was? Or maybe the exact opposite, a place with minimal comforts and Spartan trappings.

As it turned out, it was neither. Instead, the furniture was old, yet comfortable and well-used. There were a great many colorful plants sitting on shelves, on windowsills, and in corners. Several paintings were hung on the walls: some of them landscape, some of them abstract, some of them humorous caricatures, even a couple of nudes. There were several open windows, letting in plenty of sunlight.

There were a number of cats wandering around. They immediately headed for the door as Astrid entered, but upon seeing Candeloro and Charlotte behind her they froze and then bolted, all of them leaping out of one of the windows, somehow managing to avoid upsetting the two potted plants sitting on the sill.

“Are those yours?” Candeloro asked.

Astrid started a little at the question. “What, the cats? No, they’re all strays.”

“Strays?”

Astrid shrugged. “We, uh, learned a long time ago that permanent pets…get kind of depressing after a while, so we just keep the place open to local cats and sometimes birds. That way, there’s always someone fuzzy and warm about, but they don’t, uh, you don’t come home to find their, er, bodies every few years.”

Candeloro had no idea how to respond to something like that, so she said nothing.

“Uh, sit down!” Astrid said, indicating the wooden dinner table. It was covered with a white table cloth and had a vase of yellow flowers in the middle, and its wooden legs were covered with years and years of animal scratches. “Can I get you guys something? Tea, maybe?”

“Thank you,” Candeloro said as she and Charlotte took their seats. “Ginger, please. If you have it.”

“Got it. Be right back.”

Astrid hurried into the kitchen. Candeloro tried to sit still as Astrid put the kettle on and moved around the cabinets. She must have used magic to heat the water, because the kettle started singing in less than a minute.

The Norse woman returned, carrying a tray with an old but quite charming blue tea set. She set it down, handed a cup in a saucer to each of her guests, and poured them each a cup.

“Sugar?” she said.

“No, thank you.”

Astrid nodded. “So,” she said, sitting down. “Let me see if I have this right: you…are a witch,” she said, gesturing to Charlotte.

Charlotte looked down at the pearl-white skin of her hands. She glanced over her shoulder to where her tail hung down through the bars of the chair’s back. “Looks like.”

“And…you are…not,” Astrid said with a look toward Candeloro.

Candeloro took a deep breath. “No. Not anymore.”

“But you were.”

“Until about a week ago. That’s right.”

Astrid slowly breathed out. “Right. When, where, and how?”

“During the storm,” Candeloro said. “That big one that hit recently?”

“Right. We lost some trees and had some minor roof damage. None of the exhibits were damaged, fortunately. But, um, was it the storm itself, or something that happened during the storm, or…?” Astrid rolled her wrist, indicating for someone to fill in the blank.

Candeloro sighed. “It was…a very strange combination of different things coming together all at once.”

Keeping her descriptions as short as possible, Candeloro told her of the events that had led to her transformation, from the sudden arrival of Hitomi Shizuki to the subsequent problems with spiritual dissonance that they all started to feel to the battle with the karnuk and finally her own change.

“I don’t know exactly what happened or who I talked to,” Candeloro said. “I just…know I talked to someone, and they gave me a choice. And I said ‘yes.’”

“Ah. I see.” Astrid slowly stirred her tea with a small silver spoon. “Mine was…rather similar, actually.”

“I know. Th-That’s why we’re here, actually.”

“I figured.” Astrid steepled her fingers and tapped the tips against her nose. “Okay. Well, this is…a lot to take in. Does anyone else know?”

“Well, there’s us two, of course,” Charlotte said. “And the rest of our Walpurgisnacht.”

Astrid’s brow rose at that. “You’re a Walpurgisnacht?”

“Yes. Us two, and two others.”

“Ah. Well, that’s four. Who else?”

“Two close friends who also live with us,” Candeloro said. “And, uh, Hitomi Shizuki apparently figured it out.”

“I see.”

Candeloro looked down into the murky liquid in her cup. “And…everyone on board the Aurora Borealis, I guess.”

Astrid’s fingers froze in mid-tap. “The aquatic research facility?”

“Yes.”

“Ah. Well.” Astrid slowly laid her hands flat onto the tabletop. “That is a lot of names.”

“I know,” Candeloro said.

“I assume you’re trying to keep this quiet?”

Candeloro felt her right eyelid start to twitch. “Trying to.”

“Understandable. I…imagine it must be…very stressful.”

“You imagine?” Charlotte said, her tone incredulous. “You went through the same thing! That’s why we’re here! She needs help! Advice! Anything!”

“Advice?”

“Yes,” Candeloro said. “Y-You see, I was friends with everyone in our Walpurgisnacht. And with our two other friends as well. I mean, back when we were alive, I knew all of them and they knew me. And…these flashbacks keep happening. They don’t remember any of it of course, but I’ll just be talking to them or even just look at them, and suddenly I’m back, reliving something significant about our past relationship, usually something tragic, and I feel…” One hand went to her temple, the fingers digging into her skin. “I feel like the other half of me is trying…trying to be all of me. I lose sense of myself, my name starts…” She slowly breathed out. “I don’t know how to handle this. I don’t know when the next flash will come or how hard it’ll hit. I just know it gets harder and harder each time to reestablish who I am.” She looked pleadingly into Astrid’s pale silver eyes. “But you had to have gone through the same thing, right? There has to be something you can do to help me!”

“I understand,” Astrid said. “But you have to understand…my change was literally centuries ago! And…I was a little preoccupied with escaping the Withering Lands at the time.”

Candeloro and Charlotte both stared at her in dismay. “So, you…didn’t have those flashes? You didn’t struggle with your sense of identity?”

Astrid let out a long, belabored sigh. “I…didn’t encounter anyone I had known in life. There was no one to trigger any of those flashbacks. Occasionally someone would say something or I would see something that would bring an old memory into stark relief, but those were rare. Besides, after Zoya and I had stolen that boat and headed off to sea, there was a very, very long and uncomfortable trip before we wound up in Freehaven. Let’s just say I had plenty of time and space to really sift through my memories and come to terms with myself.”

Candeloro felt a lump start to form in her throat. She stared back down at her reflection in the murky liquid. “And you decided to go b-by Astrid.”

Astrid shrugged. “My time as Sif was pretty miserable. Granted, my life as Astrid wasn’t exactly fantastic either, but it was at least better. It was an easy change to make.”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t want to make that change,” Charlotte said. “She wants to stay being Candeloro, at least in her head. So is there anything you can suggest? Any…tricks or some kind of meditation or something? I mean, part of your job is to help people like you!”

“Yes. Other runaway Void Walkers,” Astrid said. “There aren’t very many of the un-witched coming by Freehaven. In fact, you would make number two.”

“What about the others?” Candeloro said, perking up.

“The others?”

“Yes! The other…the other un-witched. You know them, don’t you? Can’t they help us?”

Astrid made a face. “Shared experience doesn’t necessarily mean we’re friends. Actually, you and I are the only humans that have done so.”

“So? I have alien friends.”

“So do I. But when they’re from species that don’t exactly get along with Freehaven, it makes establishing any kind of rapport a bit of a problem.” Astrid scooped up a spoonful of tea and slowly let it spill back into her cup. “Also, just because someone is on the record of having un-witched sometime in the distant past doesn’t mean that they’re still around. Two of them ended up becoming Void Walkers and have since been released.”

“Oh,” Candeloro said.

“Or at least that’s the official story anyway. And of the others…Filsa the nask ended up getting kidnapped and was never heard from again. Nitrogen and Blitzkrieg the calliopes…well, Nitrogen served as dance leader of her territory for a number of years before retiring. I suppose I could look her up, but she’s something of an attention whore, so if you want to keep your condition under wraps, she’s probably the last person you want to talk to. And last I heard of Blitzkrieg, she’s currently running a cult somewhere out in some remote territory where she’s worshipped as a god.”

“Oh,” Charlotte said. “Huh.”

“As for the others, well, Ostilk Misanti Viskero the andalite is apparently something of a recluse. She didn’t care much for the fame her condition brought her, and her current location is a closely guarded secret. And you know andalites and their secrets.” Astrid sighed. “Honestly, your best bet would be to contact Silvet the dockengaut.”

Candeloro nearly leapt out of her chair. Charlotte actually did so. “Wait, the last of the un-witched is a dockengaut?” Charlotte said, her voice cracking.

“Yes, believe it or not. And she’s actually on our side, as such things are judged.”

“What,” Candeloro said flatly.

Astrid spread her hands. “There are a small number of dockengauts that do not subscribe to their species’ predatory values. A few even defected after those videos went out. You know the ones, right?”

Candeloro shuddered. Apparently, once the dockengauts’ cannibalistic nature had been made known, several species had banded together in an attempt to intimidate them. The dockengauts’ response had been to send each and every one of them a video showing them devouring a member of each of the species that had allied against them, in graphic detail. Candeloro had never seen any of the infamous recordings, but apparently Charlotte had. And she had stalwartly refused to ever divulge what she had seen.

She glanced over to Charlotte. Sure enough, her wife looked like she was going to be sick.

“I see that you do,” Astrid said with a grim smile. “Anyway, believe it or not, there were a few dockengauts that didn’t care for that attitude, and ended up running away. One of them was a dockengaut witch. And she ended up, well, un-witching during her escape. I’ve only met her a couple of times, but she seemed…pretty decent. A bit shy, actually.”

“Excuse me?” Charlotte said. “A decent dockengaut? And she’s shy?”

“They do exist. Though the rest of their species tend to regard them the same way regard sociopaths. You know, as someone who is critically mentally ill. Anyway, last I heard she was working in Budbrekka. It’s a Norse encampment in the foothills far to the north, one of the last ones. I still try to keep in contact with them, as there aren’t many of us left. I can probably arrange-”

“No, thank you,” Candeloro said hastily. “I’m sorry, I’m sure…she is a very lovely…swarm of cannibalistic spiders, but I’d rather not talk to a dockengaut right now.”

“I thought not.”

Charlotte slumped back into her chair. “Well, I guess that’s that. I’m sorry to bother you.”

“Hold on,” Astrid said, holding up a hand. “Now, my experiences may not line up with yours, but I do pride myself as a practical woman. You have to be to last as long as I have.”

“Your point?” Charlotte said.

“It seems to me that part of the problem is that you’re too close to things that are closely connected to your past. You’re constantly exposing yourself to memory triggers, at a time when the wounds are still raw.”

Candeloro swallowed. “So, uh, what are you suggesting?”

…

When Candeloro and Charlotte got back to the house, they found everyone already gathered in the living room, waiting for them.

Candeloro entered first, with Charlotte nervously hanging behind. “I’m back,” she said as she stepped inside. “Well, we’re back, and-”

Then she saw all four pairs of eyes staring expectantly at her.

Candeloro paused, her hand still on the doorknob. She looked at each face in turn before sighing and saying, “Were you spying on us?”

“Yes,” Ophelia said without hesitation.

“So you heard everything?”

“No. Your talk was your talk, so visual only.”

“Well. Thank you for granting us that measure of privacy at least,” Candeloro said in a clipped tone. “Then I guess this part doesn’t need explaining.”

She stood to one side and motioned for Charlotte to enter. Wincing, Charlotte stepped inside the house.

“Um, hi guys,” she said.

“Hi,” Gretchen said. No one else returned the greeting. Ophelia and Oktavia both leaned back in their seats, Ophelia with her legs crossed and arms behind her head and Oktavia with her hands folded in her lap. Homulilly just sat with her arms crossed, waiting.

Her head bowed, Charlotte shuffled her feet. “I guess…I owe you some kind-”

“Motherfucking, bitch-ass traitor!” Cheese suddenly screeched from the kitchen.

Charlotte paused. “Okay. Harsh. But…fair, I guess.”

“Who taught him the word ‘traitor’?” Candeloro asked.

“I did,” Ophelia said. “Or rather, the last wrestling PPV I watched did. Major heel turn. I was pissed.”

“Right,” Charlotte said. “Um, so, like I said, I owe all of you a huge apology.”

“You mean for straight-up running out on us without so much as a text message?” Oktavia said.

“Yes. For that.”

“For abandoning your wife when she needed you the most,” Homulilly said.

“Also that. Yeah.”

“For completely shutting us out so that Gretchen and Homulilly had to go commit actual crimes and get arrested just to have some sense talked into you?” Ophelia said.

“W-Well, that wasn’t exactly-”

“Ahem!”

Charlotte sighed. “Okay. Yes. For that too. And everything else.”

“Okay,” Ophelia said. “Well, say your piece.”

Charlotte swallowed. “Look. I don’t…have some kind of well-reasoned, logical reason for doing what I did. I got scared. Like, really scared. I guess I really do have a lot of issues about, you know, our past selves, about how I wasn’t actually part of your group, and about any part of that coming back. Yeah, I know you told me that it doesn’t matter, but…I don’t know. I got a bad case of the stupid.”

“Mmmm-hmmm,” Ophelia said.

“Yeah.” Charlotte sighed. “And…when Candy changed, I thought that, you know, the Candeloro part was gone for good. That it was just Mami Tomoe that was left. I thought my wife was gone, and I couldn’t…”

“Okay, okay, question,” Oktavia interrupted. “Look, we know that already. We figured that part out right away. But why the hell wouldn’t you talk to anyone of us? Why wouldn’t you try to find out if you were right or not? Why just assume that it’s true and split? Wouldn’t you, um, want to at least verify before you lock all your friends out and throw your life away?”

“Ugh. I know, I know! It was stupid! I guess..” Charlotte shook her head. “I guess that…once I had calmed down and started to think about it, I guess I got scared that I was wrong. And if I was wrong, that meant that I turned my back on my family for nothing.”

Ophelia coughed into her fist. “Whichyoudid.”

“Ophelia,” Candeloro said, warning in her voice.

“No, she’s right,” Charlotte said. “But I just kept telling myself that I was right, that I really had lost Candeloro and that meant I was justified in leaving. You know, the universe had conspired to take away the person that I loved the most, so what did I owe it?”

“We’re not the universe,” Homulilly said. “We’re…us.”

“I know! I know! But…imagine if Gretchen had been replaced with someone else. Like, the girl you loved was gone and never coming back, but there was someone that still looked like her, that talked like her, that acted like her, but it wasn’t her, and everyone was openly accepting this new Gretchen in the place of the old one, and they wanted you to just take the new Gretchen when you knew that the one you loved was gone for good.”

“But…that’s not what happened!” Oktavia protested. Her tail started bouncing in its support apparatus, a tic that kicked in whenever she was agitated. “She wasn’t gone! She was just…you know, sort of expanded upon in a kind of disturbing way.”

“I know that now! And I guess I knew that then! But…oh, I don’t know, I was really scared that it was the way I thought it was, so I just kept telling myself that it was that way until I half-believed it!”

“So I guess Homulilly and Gretchen showing up at your hidey-hole wasn’t enough to make you think otherwise,” Ophelia said.

“No,” Charlotte admitted. She glanced over to where Candeloro was standing. “I mean, yeah, they convinced me to at least talk with her before I left, but I still went in thinking I was right.”

“And seeing how you kind of ran away after all that, Candeloro didn’t have much luck either.”

Charlotte’s mouth set in a straight line. “I mean, sort of? She told me some things that I wasn’t expecting, and it scared me, so that’s why I ran.”

“Huh? What’s that mean?”

“I mean she kind of showed me that I was being an idiot. Kind of hard to lie to yourself after that.” Charlotte ran her fingers through her hair while her tail roped itself around her upper thigh. “Also, it’s kind of hard to lie to yourself when yourself is straight up calling you out on your bullshit while she punches your face in.”

As expected, this pronouncement was met with mostly confusion from her housemates, mainly in the form of more blank stares and the scratching of heads.

“Huh?” Gretchen said, tilting her head to one side.

“You’ve lost me,” Oktavia added.

Charlotte swallowed. “Um, you know those dreams you guys apparently had back on the Aurora Borealis where you all met your past selves and made peace or whatever?”

“How’d you know about those?” Ophelia demanded.

“Word got back to me. Anyway, after I got into that zipper, I kind of fell asleep and, well, had one of my own. And it turns out my past self didn’t really approve of recent life decisions and decided to tell me. And she beat me up. Like, a lot.”

“Okay,” Ophelia said after a very long bout of silence. “Where exactly does the metaphor end and stuff that actually happened begin here?”

“I don’t know, it was weird!” Charlotte groused. “But that…that was kind of the wake-up call I needed. So that’s why I turned that thing around.”

“And that’s when you decided to go to the museum, to get advice from Astrid!” Oktavia said, her tail excitedly bouncing.

“Yeah.”

Gretchen looked up, her face hopeful. “But you’re back now, right? I mean, what you just said was extremely weird, but you two made up, so we can…start fixing things now? Go back…well, get used to how things are and be a whole family again, right?”

The younger girl’s voice was so full of hope that Candeloro hated herself for what came next. “Not yet.”

“Excuse me?” Homulilly said. In sharp contrast to Gretchen’s, her voice was full of steel and poison, the sort of tone that not lightly offended.

“Listen,” Candeloro said. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate how helpful and accepting you all have been. You’ve all been wonderful. But-”

“You’re leaving,” Homulilly finished for her. When everyone stared at her, she looked around at everyone and rolled her eyes. “What? That’s what she’s saying, isn’t it? We went from losing one member of the family to losing two! That’s the opposite of what was supposed to happen!”

Candeloro said, “Homulilly-”

“No!” Homulilly leapt to her feet and thrust an angry, bony finger at her. “Listen to me! Gretchen and I went and got ourselves into a lot of trouble for you, for both of you! We might go to jail! But okay, that would have been worth it if it got you and Charlotte to make up and everyone was home. But instead, you’re both going away! How is that fair?”

“Hey, I agree with the floral skeleton,” Oktavia broke in. In contrast to Homulilly’s cold steel, she sounded like she couldn’t decide whether to start yelling or burst into tears, but it was no less angry. “What the hell? We’re family! We’re a Walpurgisnacht! Our souls are literally connected! Now you’re just gonna, what, go away? After everything? Charlotte was the one that walked out on you! Why are you choosing her over us?”

Charlotte openly winced at that. “It’s not like that!” Candeloro said quickly. “I-It’s true, we do need to leave for a while, but we’re not going away forever! Probably not even a full year.”

While all this was going on, Ophelia was merely sitting still, upper body leaning forward with her skinny arms crossed over her knees, scarlet eyes boring holes into the two of them. “Explain,” her voice having all the steel of Homulilly’s and all the fire of Oktavia’s.

Though it was hard to keep her voice steady and not to trip over her words, Candeloro did her best to explain the slips of memory she had been experiencing, starting with the one with the marshal and then detailing the ones she had been having with all of her friends. She told them about how her sense of self was far more fluid than she would have liked, and how it was happening more and more often.

“…and the more it happens, the harder it is to regain my sense of self,” she finished. “And yes, you have all been wonderful, but staying here only makes it worse. These memories just keep getting triggered, and I don’t know when the next one will hit.”

“You know there are quite a few qualified people here in Freehaven to help with that,” Ophelia pointed out. Her anger seemed to have cooled, though the firmness had not.

“And none of them can help me with this!” Candeloro said, her voice cracking. “I’m sorry, but they can’t! Not even Astrid could! Besides, I can’t talk to any of them without risking blowing my secret!”

Homulilly inhaled sharply through her teeth. “Well, I mean, between us, Astrid, Hitomi, and like at least fifty people over in that science boat, I’d say that’s a ticking time bomb already.”

“Exactly! That’s another reason why I need to just…go somewhere else for a while. Wait for things to blow over.”

Ophelia tilted her head to one side. “And Charlotte?”

“Look,” Charlotte said with a sigh. “I got scared and did a bad thing. And this whole deal still kind of scares me. So, we both have a lot of things we need to come to terms with.”

Gretchen had mostly remained silent during the whole exchange. She had watched with a thoughtful look, privately musing over everything that was being said. And now she spoke, doing so carefully and with great deliberation. “So…you’re not really leaving us. You’re just getting some space to help you deal with these new problems so that when you do come back you’ll both be healthy.”

“Yes,” Candeloro said with a grateful sigh. Leave it to Gretchen to give things the best spin possible. And it wasn’t like she was wrong. “Thank you. That’s it exactly.”

However, Oktavia was less than mollified. “But what if you don’t?” she said, her voice nearly rising to a shout. “What if you don’t come back? What if you get scared like Charlotte did and you don’t ever come back?”

“It won’t! I promise-”

“No! No promises right now. You don’t know what’s going to happen, none of us know what’s going to happen, so don’t promise something you can’t keep! Like, half a week ago we were all set to have our family get bigger! Then all this shit happened, and now you have to leave! What if something new happens?”

“Tavi, babe,” Ophelia said, rising to go over to her. “It’s okay. You don’t-”

Oktavia swatter her hand away. “No! Don’t tell me it’s going to be okay when you don’t know it’s going to be okay. You don’t know that, no one knows that!”

“Oktavia,” Candeloro said. “I-”

Now openly crying, Oktavia roughly grabbed the controls to her chair and wretched it around. “No. I can’t deal with this right now. I’m…I just can’t. Not now.”

Everyone watched as she stomped off toward her and Ophelia’s room. A moment later the door slammed.

“Well,” Ophelia said after a long while. “Look. I’ll talk to her after she’s had some time to cool down. But tell me honestly: do you really have to go?”

“For a little while,” Candeloro said. “Yeah.”

Ophelia’s jaw clenched up. “But you are coming back? Once you two got all your issues worked out, you’re coming back to us. Right?”

Everything in Ophelia’s voice made it clear that they damned well better.

“Yes,” Candeloro said. “I swear.”

“I see.” Ophelia looked down at the ground, and then up at them. “You’ll keep in touch, at least. Right?”

“Of course we will! It’s not like we’re falling right off the map.”

“Heh. There’s probably places where you can literally do that.” Then Ophelia let out a long sigh. She walked over to the pair and laid a hand on Candeloro’s shoulder.

“Okay,” she said. “But you get better. I don’t care what you’re calling yourself when you come back, I know it’ll still be you. Just get yourself better, okay?”

Candeloro swallowed. She wanted to reassure her that she most definitely would, but she suddenly found herself unable to speak.

So she settled for grabbing Ophelia in a tight embrace instead.

There came a low patter of incredibly thin legs, followed by the steps of two perfectly normal ones, and soon two more pairs joined them. Candeloro, Ophelia, Gretchen, and Homulilly all stood there, wrapped up in each other’s love.

Then without releasing her grip or raising her head, Ophelia said, “Charlotte, you waiting for a written invitation. Get in on this!”

“Oh!” Charlotte said in genuine surprise. “Uh, right away!” Soon her arms were holding the whole group from behind Candeloro.

Then they heard a door open in another place of the house, followed by the whine-hiss of Oktavia’s chair. The mermaid herself appeared a moment later.

Everyone paused, and then turned to look at her. Oktavia’s eyes were red and wet, and her nose looked raw, as if it had been blown very hard recently.

She moved her chair closer. “Okay, look,” she said. “I’m still mad at you, and I’m still going to yell at you later. But I really need a hug too, and you guys don’t get to have one without me!”

“Well, come on then,” Homulilly said. Oktavia came in closer, and Homulilly and Ophelia both lifted her up by the arms and brought her in to join them, completing the set.

Candeloro sighed. Genuinely happy moments seemed to be hard to come by as of late, but this most certainly was one.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank-”

“-you.”

“Hey, don’t sweat it!” Sayaka said with a happy slap onto Mami’s back. “I mean, we’re a team, aren’t we? You woulda done the same for any of us.”

That much was true, but Mami still was grateful. She had gotten a little cocky during that last witch fight, and had nearly lost her head as a result. Had she been alone, she would have surely died.

But she wasn’t alone. Not anymore.

Madoka rushed up to her and clutched her hand with both of her own. “But please be more careful, Mami-san!” she said. “You scared me back there!”

“I will,” Mami promised. “I guess that just goes to show that even when you have a lot of experience, you can still get careless.”

“A hard lesson to learn,” Homura Akemi agreed. The dark and mysterious new member to their group held out her hand. There was a flash of violet light, and she was suddenly clad in her normal clothes again, her soul gem reduced to a small, silver ring. “Still, I am glad that you’re unhurt.”

Then she smiled. It was a rare thing for Homura Akemi to smile, but here one was. Mami just wished that she hadn’t needed to endanger her own life in order to see one.

“Come on, I’ll race you guys back!” Madoka took off running, heading up the road toward Mami’s apartment.

“Hey, Madoka! Wait up!” Sayaka ran after her. A moment later Homura followed.

Mami didn’t run after them. Let them have their fun. She would catch up soon enough.

Besides, it wasn’t like she was alone.

“That was a kinda dumb move,” Kyoko remarked as she started to walk beside Mami. “Seriously, what were you thinking, showing off like that? The kids are already impressed with you. No need to drop your guard like that.”

“I know. You’re right. I’ll…set a better example in the future.”

“Hmmm.” Kyoko pulled out one of those boxes of pocky she always seemed to have on hand. “Still, don’t tell the others I said this, but I’m glad you’re okay.”

She opened the box, and held it out toward her.

Mami blinked. She looked down at the pocky, and then up at Kyoko.

“Well,” Kyoko said, giving the box a jiggle.

Smiling, Mami took one of the candy sticks and bit into it. It was good.

“I’m glad you came back,” she said as the two started up the hill together.

“Hey, don’t go getting all sappy on me,” Kyoko said as she stuck a stick into her mouth. “I just didn’t like the thought of you going crazy all by yourself. You kinda go to pieces when you don’t have anyone around to watch you. It kinda sucks to be alone, you know?”

“I know,” Mami said. She looked up the hill at their juniors. “But I’m not alone. Not anymore.”

Her arms still entwined with those of her loved ones, Mami’s eyes welled up. Again her sense of self had shifted, but this time she didn’t try to fight it. Because there were happy memories mixed with the bad, and if Mami Tomoe and Candeloro were to be the same person from now on, then at least she was getting those as well.

…

So, um.

Writing this…was a journey, and if I do end up doing a look-back on the Hitomi/Mami arc, this chapter will get a very long section all to itself.

Jesus Christ.

Anyway, this is it. Epilogue goes up next week, hopefully.

Until next time, everyone.

[ericbrandonrp]

warrioroflondonbelow:

ophelia-hendrix:

Sitting on the fence post Ophelia could hear the two boys. Eric seemed angry about Richard coming to tell Eric her sister was looking for him. Instead of staying she walked across the fence and jumped down on the other side. She didn’t want to see Richard and Eric argue again over something stupid. Sometimes it was best to just disappear for a while and come back when everything had calmed down. 

She could feel the wet grass beneath what she could call her paws when she walked across the neighbours lawn. They didn’t know her family even lived there, or that the Hendrix family had lived in that house since the early 19th century. If anyone knew there was a house there for all to see then they were long gone. 

Emilia looked up as Eric came in. She couldn’t help but smile as she saw the young wizard and it didn’t fade with the tone of his voice. “I just wanted you to myself,” she smiled as she got off her bed and walked over taking Eric’s hand to pull him into the room. Emilia’s room was decorated diffrently than her sisters. She had darker colours, proudly showing her Hogwarts house and with a kick of her foot she shut the door. 

“I hope you chased that digusting vermin off our lawn,” she ran the back of her fingers down his cheek before pulling him for a kiss. 

Shit, thought Richard, as he bit his lip. He did interrupt something. “Sorry. I just-…” but Eric didn’t stick around for his full apology. To be fair, it wasn’t Richard’s fault, not entirely, at least. He was just the messenger. It was Emilia who was pulling Eric away from Pheli, once more. Some summer this was turning out to be. All it seemed like the three would do was bicker and makeup. Perhaps, that’s just what growing up was? Or maybe it was because of hard times? It didn’t matter. Richard wished it could be like old times. No, Emilia to come between them. No Death Eaters. None of this Voldemort pish and bollocks. Just the three of them hanging out without a care in the world. If ever, the only thing that mattered back then were exams. Oh, how Richard wished it was that simple.

Before the Hufflepuff even had a chance to follow Ophelia, Mark and Harry came by, both placing a warm hand upon Richard’s shoulders. “You aren’t still upset about Em, are you?” asked Harry, as he began to pat Richard a bit on the back.

“Yeah, don’t worry about her. She just woke up on the wrong side of the bed is all,” shrugged Mark as the three took a seat upon the grass.

“Nah. Don’t worry about me. I’m fine,” said Richard, offering a smile at the two of them.

The boys couldn’t help but chuckle. Ever since he was younger, they had always known Richard to be that way- The passive type, despite their world crumbling about them. “Good!” beamed Harry. “Besides, I think Em really did wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Heard her voice last night.”

Richard went a little pale. “R-Really?”

“Yeah. Maybe she was sleepwalking again? I had no idea,” shrugged Mark.

“What makes you say that?”

“It’s just Harry and I heard voices in the hall last night. Hushed voices. We couldn’t make out what Em was saying, and who she was talking to. Who knows with that girl anymore,” grumbled Mark, as he lay down upon the grass with his hands cushioning his head.

“See. Told you, Rich. She’s just grumpy in the morning, is all. Besides, just think in a few hours you, Pheli, and Eric will be taking the train back to Hogwarts. You won’t have to deal with any of that nonsense there, right Mark?” 

Mark stayed quiet. His gaze remained plastered upon the white clouds drifting by. “Not exactly,” he muttered, after a beat or two.

“What do you mean?” asked Richard.

“Times have changed, Rich. There are rumours floating around that Hogwards isn’t that safe anymore. Supposedly, the place is crawling with Death Eaters. They haven’t revealed themselves, but they’re there. It will only be a matter of time before….”

“Stop scaring him, Mark!”

“I’m not! Richard is old enough to know the truth. Especially, for somebody like him.”

“What does that mean?” coaxed Richard, rather anxiously.

Mark sat up before schooling the young Hufflepuff a sincere smile. “Nothing, Rich. Nothing,” he assured him, before ruffling up his eternal messy hair. “All I’m saying is watch yourself this year, okay? And above all, keep your friends close. You’re safer in numbers.”

( @ericbrandonrp )

Eric couldn’t help but frown at Emilia’s words, but before he was able to say anything in return, she had already pulled him towards her and claimed his lips with hers. As much as he was longing for a kiss right now, though, he didn’t want it from her. Not now. A disgruntled groan broke from his throat a moment before he pulled away from Ophelia’s older sister, the frown still furrowing his brow.

“Vermin?” he asked in disbelief. How could Emilia call her sister, her own blood, a vermin? She was cold at times, he realized. Then again, there were moments when her heart was opening, when they were lying in bed with their arms around each other. Those were the moments with her that he loved and missed - and longed for. Unfortunately they were quite rare. “Why d’you call her that?” The Slytherin boy moved away from her, stepped to the side, his gaze shifting over a pennant on the wall. It was, of course, held in green and gray colors, a snake in the middle, and with the simple lettering “𝐒𝐋𝐘𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐍 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐃𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐌”. She wasn’t part of it, but she was always rooting for their team, especially because her boyfriend was their Seeker.

Emilia returned the frown, her hands sinking down again as she watched him. Angrily. How did he dare pull away from her?

Eric turned around to her, one hand balled to a fist. “She’s not a virmin.” With that, he stormed out of her room again, leaving the door open, before he headed downstairs and back into the garden. He had to talk to Ophelia. Now. The young Slytherin froze, though, when he noticed Richard and Ophelia’s two brothers. They hadn’t noticed him, were too busy talking. “What d’you mean, ‘somebody like him’?” Eric asked when Mark had ended. He inched closer to the trio. Damnit, where was Ophelia?

( @ophelia-hendrix )

'Wands, Broomsticks, and Cauldrons' Eric, Richard and Ophelia

[storycfanotherus]

|| Chapter One ||

The summer had been endless for Lily. Not because she didn’t enjoy staying home and spending time with her parents she hadn’t seen all year, but as older she got as more she enjoyed spending time with her friends. And since she was staying at a school along with her friends the entire year, she was starting to miss them when they were gone. To her own luck, it would be only a few more days until she would see them again. August was passing by quickly, and on September 1st, the new term would start. And she would be gone again. Until then, she had promised to focus on her family, and on the time she had left with them. Lily sat at the breakfast table, along with her parents. Ophelia had been gone, meeting with some old friends she knew from her previous school. Lily barely stayed in contact with the people she used to call her schoolmates already four years ago. She wasn’t missing any of them, if she would be honest, she barely remembered what life was like going to a normal muggle school. All she remembered were the magical moments she experienced, the first time she ever hold her wand, the first time she tried out a charm in class and all the things she had learned at school. It was amazing and she never wanted to miss out on any of it again.

”Did your school letter already came in?” Adam, her father asked Lily as he was eating his scrambled eggs on his toast and baked beans. Lily gave him a nod, on her plate the same.

“Yesterday. Ophelia’s came too.” she spoke, her hand grabbing for the glass in front of her, filled with orange juice. Her father nodded, finishing off his plate within a few bites. 

“Oh good. How about we go to Diagon Alley today and get them. I have the day off.” he suggested and Lily’s eyes lit up. She gave a quick nod, and even her mother agreed on it. 

“But what about Ophelia? I think she won’t be back until later...” Lily said but her father simply shrugged his shoulders. 

“I can take her on Monday. I’m off then.” she suggested and Lily started eating the rest of her breakfast super fast. She couldn’t wait to get back into her own world, the world she belonged in as she liked to call it. 

Lily Davies, a young witch from London. Growing up with an older sister and her parents in a small but beautiful house, Lily never really thought she was missing out on something. Yet, there was always this feeling inside her. The feeling of craving more than the simple life she got offered by the muggle world. And yet, she didn’t think that life offered such a reveal for her. The chance to go to a school that would teach her magic. Spells and charms, myths about creatures like unicorns and goblins that she thought only existed in books. No, it was all real, it was all true.

After breakfast, she got up and ran up to her room. She made sure to get changed into some better clothes, the usual washed out jeans and a shirt of the band Queen she was wearing when she was home. The blonde quickly collected her things, like some of her own money, her walkman along with a few cd’s to listen to. And of course her letter. The ride from Dalmerlington down to the Leaky Cauldron wasn’t that long. But her father usually enjoyed listening to the radio when he was the driver. And she clearly didn’t enjoy that. When she had everything she needed, she made sure to bring all of her hair up into a ponytail before she jumped down the stairs, ready to leave. Her father had just gotten out of the kitchen after doing the dishes. Lily felt a little annoyed. She felt like she was the only one excited to leave.

“Come on, dad. We need to leave now.” she spoke, leaning against the wall. Her mother walked right into the small hallway, giving her a look and Lily pushed herself off the wall. She wasn’t allowed to lean herself against the wall, making them dirty and looking used. Her mother hated it. She mumbled a small ‘sorry mum’ before said person disappeared into the bathroom. And then, her father finally walked out, a cup of coffee to go for him and a tea for Lily. 

“Let’s go.” he spoke, grabbing for the keys and the two head off.

An hour later, the two finally arrived in front of the Leaky Cauldron. Normally, the ride wouldn’t take longer than thirty minutes but the London traffic could be the worst, especially during that time. As soon as the car parked, Lily got out of it, her backpack thrown over her shoulder. The two walked inside the dark looking pub. Barely visible for the muggle world outside. On the inside, they already got greeted by witches and wizards who were enjoying their stay at the Leaky Cauldron. Without another word, the two walked passed them, right into the back where they were able to go through the brick wall by tapping the stones that would open the entrance to Diagon Alley. And as soon as the wall had parted, they finally walked through. It revealed lots of people. Young witches and wizards who were up to buy the same things she needed a few years ago, she recognized some of her school friends but more than a small wave was everything they received from her. The last thing she wanted was for her dad to embarrass her. They went from shop to shop before they stopped by around lunchtime to grab some food. And that’s when saw and old face she actually enjoyed to see. 

“Harry!” she suddenly called out, making her father jump a little. She raised her hand, waving at him and the dark haired boy walked over to them. Harry Potter, a wizard who was one year younger than her. Joining Hogwarts the same years as Fred and George’s brother Ron. Both got sorted into Gryffindor. And though, Lily had met him a few times at school, a proper introduction only followed last year when she had spent a few days at the Burrow. And back then, they became friends. Lily even went to visit Harry once during this summer, knowing from George, who knew it from Ron that Harry was having a miserable life at home. And since both were living not that far away from each other, and Lily was bored most of the time, she had once again talked her father into driving her.

“What are you doing here?” the blonde asked him as she moved her things aside to make space for him at the table they were sitting. Harry took seat smiling, looking at Lily, then at her father and back at her.

“I’m lucky to say that I’m staying at the Leaky Cauldron right now. Far away from the Dursley’s.” Harry replied. He decided to leave out the part were he blew up his aunt. Not everyone needed to know that. And he was sure, Lily was probably going to find out as soon as Ron would get here. What he didn’t know, Eleanor had already told her about it. Lily remembered how she had mentioned it in her last letter that she knew from her father, who was also working for the ministry of magic that Harry was staying there right now. Eleanor couldn’t go more into detail in her letters, it could get her father in trouble, not to mention herself. All she knew was that Harry had a small magic incident at his home and now he was staying at the Leaky Cauldron. Nevertheless, Lily had never thought she would’ve met him right away.

“And you? Are you getting your things for the new term?” he asked her, and Lily nodded. 

“Yeah, me and my dad came here today. He was off and I was just too excited to come here.” she spoke with a grin. Both, Harry and Lily understood the other quite well when it came to Diagon Alley. Both, growing up in the Muggle world, not knowing about their magical blood until they received a letter. And the first time you would come to Diagon Alley was special for every young boy or girl. The two continued to chat. Harry explained to her that he had been there for already a few weeks, that he was waiting for Ron and Hermoine to get there and that he was slowly starting to grow bored. And Lily got an idea. She turned to her father, who was most of the time listening to their conversation. 

“Dad, may I stay here with Harry until the new school year starts?” she asked him. And she could tell by his face that his answer would be no. Why would she need to stay if she had a home not far from there. But with a little pouting and begging, he finally agreed. Harry was happy to know he would have some company, and Lily was looking forward to spend more time in a place that offered magic. And it were only a few more days anyway.

“I will see you on Monday then.” she smiled at Harry. They said their goodbyes and after they got everything what Lily needed, the two of them returned home. 

As soon as the two were home, Lily went straight to her room, bringing all of her new things inside. She then heard a scratchy sound, turning around to see Errol. He had brought a little letter and she knew too well who it was from. As soon as she took it from him, she let him inside. He flew over to the little bowl filled with water to drink something. She opened the letter and read it.

Dear Lily, Egypt is amazing. You would love it here. The sun is always shining, it’s super hot and there are tons of scary things.  Hope you’re doing well. Need to go. We’re trying to swap Ron for a camel.  See you in Diagon Alley.

Fred & George.

With a smile, she was quickly pulling out a piece of parchment from her desk, taking a quill and writing down an answer for them. Lily knew by her heart that it was George who was writing the letter to her. After all, he happened to be her best friend and when it came to Fred, she always assumed he didn’t like her very much. That was toal nonsense, of course. If Fred wouldn’t like her, he would definitely show her. That’s something George always assured her. And Lily never knew if she could trust him on that or not. He was his brother after all. 

Dear George & Fred,

it really sounds great. Wish I could see that place too. Be nice to Ron, he’s your brother. And greet the rest of your family. Don’t miss me too much.

Love, Lily

She rolled the parchment and made sure to place it around Erol’s leg before he flew out again, making his way back to his owner. She knew Fred would be annoyed by her using George’s name first when she wrote to them. And she was sure he was going to bring this up as soon as they would meet.

The weekend passed by, Lily packing everything she needed for the new school year. Ophelia had decided to stay along with Lily at the Leaky Cauldron for the next two days, makign sure her little sister was well. On Monday noon, her mother, Ophelia and Lily herself made their way back to the Leaky Cauldron. As soon as they arrived there, Lily’s mother made sure to check in her children, bring their things up to their room and make sure they were settled in before making their way down Diagon Alley with Ophelia and Lily. Lily made sure her cat Porky was fine. He was laying on her bed purring. On their way down, she met Harry at the table that was right across from the bar. Lily decided to stay with Harry, letting her mother and sister go alone to get her things. She wasn’t sure what the two could be able to do, the first thing that dropped to her mind was going out and showing him a bit of London. But despite all her words, Harry denied every single time. He had promised to stay at the Leaky Cauldron, due to the fact that a mass murderer was on the loose. It would only freak her out. Suddenly, the door to the pub went open and a young brunette female walked in. Eleanor. As soon as Lily caught eye of her, she nearly forgot she was talking to Harry right now. 

“Eleanor!” Lily cheered out as she got up from her seat and walked towards her. The brunette was caught by surprise, not knowing she would meet her friend there. It was that time before the new school year where everyone would come to Diagon Alley to get their things.

“Lily” the brunette spoke and walked towards her friend. The two girls embraced each other, hugging the other tight. The two hadn’t seen each other all summer, sadly when they had actually planned to do so. They had written each other a couple letters, making sure the other was well while they both enjoyed their summer with their families. 

Eleanor was a year younger than Lily. The two saw each other the very first time on the train to Hogwarts. But a proper meeting happened just a while later when the older girl helped the other to find the next classroom. It was nothing more but it was the beginning of a very strong friendship.

“What are you doing here? -You two.” Eleanor asked. Harry had appeared behind Lily, hugging Eleanor as well. The two shared classes together, normally not exchanging more than a few words with each other. While hHarry was a Gryffindor, Eleanor was sorted into Slytherin on her first day. That wouldn’t be really a problem, there were quite a few Slytherin who were actually nice company. It was more the fact she was friends with Draco, though she would never really declare it a friendship. Not after what he had done to her when they were kids.

“Well, Harry’s staying here until the new term starts and I arrived today, talked my dad into it.” She grinned, looking at her friend with happiness. “I’ve missed you so much.” Lily spoke, hugging her once again before finally calming down a little. Harry laughed.

“Wanna sit with us?” he asked and Eleanor nodded, the three walking back to the spot Lily and Harry had sat a moment ago. The three started chatting, Eleanor talking about the things she did over the summer which wasn’t really much. She spent most of her time alone, writing letters to her friends and attending events her father took her and her mother along at the ministry. The place where she met Draco a lot. And then it was Harry’s turn once again, talking about all the exciting things he did since he had arrived, Lily looking at him in amazement, a feeling, Eleanor couldn’t really share. For her, it was normal to do all these things, to be in this world. But that didn’t go for Harry and Lily. And that’s why she was even happier to see how much they enjoyed this world. She was indeed really happy for them. A quality Eleanor received from her mother. A bit later, Eleanor finally decided to get the things she needed for the new year, Lily and Harry joining her. They spent the rest of the day together until her father came to pick her up again. Lily stood across from her, taking her into her arms once again.

“Ask your dad if you can stay.” Lily spoke, not wanting her friend to leave. Eleanor smiled but she slightly shook her head.

“I doubt he will agree. He’s already a little mad about me taking all day.” She answered. She couldn’t quite understand why he was so upset, after all he had been spending all his day at the ministry, he hadn’t even a proper to be annoyed. “I will see you two around.” she spoke, finally turning to Harry and say him good bye too. She gave a small nod towards them before she walked towards her father and the two left.

Monday passed by and Lily and her sister found themselves waking up to a new morning. It was the last day of the holidays which was a little sad, yet they were going back to Hogwarts tomorrow. It was still very early when the two girl got up and went down to have breakfast. The food at the Leaky Cauldron wasn’t the best but enough to silence their hunger. Lily was the first to take down the steps and she could already her voices coming from downstairs. Voices she would recognize everywhere. Her eyes searched through the room, stopping as soon as Fred looked at her. Her heart started racing a little faster, she was suddenly a little nervous to meet her friends again. Fred nudging George’s shoulder to make him notice she was there, their eyes met and Lily jumped down the last few stairs to rush over to them. 

“Well look who’s there.” Fred said, his tone cheeky as always. Lily would’ve usually rolled her eyes but this time, she let it be. She was too happy to see them again.

“Someone was already awaiting our arrival.” this time it was George who spoke to her. But Lily wouldn’t be Lily if she hadn’t the right words upon her sleeve. 

“I was just starting to enjoy the quiet atmosphere a while longer before you two would arrive.” she replied. But there was no way she was going to last a moment longer without hugging them. She took a step towards them, her first embrace going towards George who hugged her back just as tight. When the two pulled away and she looked up at Fred, she was hesitating for a moment but then, the two found themselves in the others arms. Fred wouldn’t admit it, but he had missed Lily terribly over the summer. The reason why he was making sure to put his name under the letters whenever George was writing her. He wanted to know how she was doing and what she was doing while they were gone. George had told him, he had asked for permission to invite her once over again this summer, but they went to Egypt instead. Not a bad way to spend your summer either. 

“It’s so great to see you again, the summer seemed forever without having you around.” Lily said then when she pulled away. Her heart was racing fast and at this point, she wasn’t sure if it was just the happiness inside her that caused that feeling, or if it was something else. 

“Every summer without our company seems forever.” Fred corrected her and George grinned. This little comment made Lily blush a little, but she cleared her throat to be ready to say something. But George was quicker.

“What he’s trying to say is that we missed having you around too.” He spoke then and Lily gave him a soft smile. “You would’ve really liked it where we were. Egypt is amazing.” the ginger spoke and smiled. “We even got you something.” George announced and Lily’s eyes gleamed up with joy.

“But I fear you need to wait until your birthday to get it. Especially after you put George’s name first in every letter you wrote us.” Fred spoke and gave her a look. Like she had believed, he would bring it up. He wouldn't be Fred if he would’ve simply dropped it. “How many more times do I have to tell you, Davies? George and Fred sounds terrible. Everyone says Fred and George.” he spoke, his arms crossing in front of his chest as he was just being a little teasing towards her. He couldn’t care less about which order she put the names in, though he wished she would think of him first instead of his brother.

“I don’t know. I don’t think you can tell me often enough to actually get me to use it the order you would like it too.” she gave back, just grinning at the taller male. Fred shook his head, being impressed by how sassy she could be. 

“You need to tell your sister to be nicer to older guys.” Fred spoke as Ophelia appeared behind Lily. But the older girl, who shared classes with the twins just shrugged her shoulders. “I think she’s doing just fine with you two.” she replied back. Together, the four sat down and while the twins started talking about Egypt and everything they experienced, the two girls were eating their cereals.