#had the mage not keep sniping her h

[serueur]

angelina dotter,,

[gem-quest]

[ SIDEQUEST 03. — INFERNA & NEDDY ]

neddy doll by @bebemoon​ on urstyle! story is an optional read, as it’s just a continuation/spinoff that fanfan & i felt like writing <333

in which neddy and inferna share a single brain cell ;DDD

It wasn’t long after Ace had left when Inferna got a response from Neddy: let’s meet up!

And there was a picture attached, to help Inferna navigate the snowy forest.

Inferna sighed, swiping her inventory closed as she prepared to go over to the copse of pine trees that Neddy had indicated. She had a few bars of chocolate; she was thinking of melting them in order to make a gooey approximation of hot chocolate (it was a shame that she didn’t have any marshmallows with her, though). And even if they couldn’t find anything dry enough to make a fire with, that was a non-issue with Inferna’s totally swaggy fire-mage powers.

I hate the fucking cold, Inferna thought to herself, disgruntled, as she trudged through the snow, keeping half an eye out for any other Yetis who were in the mood to terrorize some rando who was dumb enough to have her hair dyed a glittery bright orange. Even in the real world. Winter as a concept can go fuck itself.

Inferna finally arrived, about ten minutes later. “Sup,” she greeted, pushing through branches and pine needles until she was also standing in the clearing.

She gave Neddy a once-over. The Moonstone player had been wearing her signature flowy fabric-y thingies when they were separated, which Inferna would never ever wear in her life because 1) she would freeze to fucking death, and 2) she would tangle herself in all the floating bits of wispy cloth and fall on her face like a scrub. But now, Neddy had somehow copped herself some kind of...ice armor? Pretty ice armor, too.

But, no, there was also something else that was different...

“Hey!” Inferna said, abruptly. “What the hell happened to your hair?!”

Neddy looked miserable. “Be real with me,” she replied. “Is it the geriatric travesty I think it is?” 

Inferna scratched her head, consideringly. Neddy’s lilac hair had somehow turned itself white - did she use a hair dye potion, or something?

“It’s...definitely something,” she said, then grinned, picking her way through the snow until she was standing by the other girl (waving hi to cute lil’ smol Jack as she did so. He looked more like a puppy and less like a dragon, when he was shrunken down like this!).

“Okay, yeah, it looks wack. What’d you do to it?!?!”

Neddy emitted a small plaintive sound. “I don’t know,” she whimpered. “It’s something to do with this-” 

She pulled out a crystally ice dagger. Inferna frowned.

Shaking her newly-white head, the other player threw her free hand up, clueless. “I pulled it out of a tree and now I look like this!” 

“Huh,” Inferna said, leaning closer, curious. “Can I see?”

And, because Inferna was - and one cannot stress this enough - a total fucking idiot, she reached out to take the crystalline dagger from Neddy’s hands.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH! What is it doing to me?!” she shrieked, pulling her hand away from the dagger.

Too late: there was already a thin veneer of ice creeping up her legs, over her boots. It felt - cold, like all those times rainwater had soaked through her shoes while she trudged to class without an umbrella because her 0 IQ ass could never remember to check the weather. She frantically shook one leg, then the other, trying to somehow get the ice to just go away and leave her alone...!!!

“Oh!” Neddy shrieked, too. “Oh my god!” 

Inferna watched as Neddy, who was just as horrified as Inferna, immediately dropped the dagger into the snow and tried to help her in the only way she knew how- by breathing warmth onto her. Great misty plumes of breath billowed into the wintry air, doing- as one might imagine- fuck all to actually stop the ice-spread. And the ice was enveloping her entire body, like the scene with Anna in Frozen!

“Why do I have to be an ice sculpture, I hate the cold, why couldn’t I be a cake sculpture instead, at least I’d be able to eat my way out,” Inferna wailed miserably, lifting her hands up to watch as the ice hardened over her fingers. “This is bullshit!”

She swung her gaze wildly around the clearing. “D’you know if Jack can do anything that melts ice???” she said to Neddy. “I mean, he’s a dragon, right? Dragons can do cool shit?”

“He breathes poison!” her friend screeched, anxiously flapping her hands. “That definitely will not help!”

“Why can’t he breathe fire?!” Inferna also screeched. “How am I supposed to use my Tearoom coupons for free scones if I’m a fucking ice sculpture!!!”

...wait a second. Breathe...fire? 

Inferna could do that, right? Well, she couldn’t breathe fire, but she could still summon fire…? Because, you know. Totally swaggy fire-mage powers???

Oh. Duh, she thought, belatedly.

So, Inferna raised her ice-covered hands again, and concentrated. The layer of cold that had spread over basically her entire body dampened her powers a bit, but they still worked.

After a few seconds, her hands began to warm up, and they started emitting a faint orange glow. A few more moments passed, and the ice had begun to crack and melt.

“Hey! Shit, I think it’s working!” Inferna exclaimed, holding up her palms for Neddy to see.

Neddy clutched her chest, looking just as relieved as Inferna felt. “Oh, thank god,” she exhaled. 

When the ice over her hands was gone, Inferna continued melting the ice off her body with the small flame hovering over her palms, grimacing as the frigid water soaked through her clothes. Once the ice was all gone, she grabbed her player-plexus and swiped open her inventory, dragging out about half a dozen H-rank “hair dryer” potions.

She uncorked one of the glass vials and dumped the gaseous contents over her head. There was a poof! of lavender smoke as the glass vial shimmered out of existence. 

Inferna felt...drier than she had been, but not 100% back to normal. Which made sense - the potions were specifically made to dry hair, after all. She continued dumping potions over her head until she was completely dry, then turned to face Neddy again.

“So, what’s up with the new look? How come you didn’t turn into an ice sculpture???”

“Trust me, if I knew I’d tell you,” said Neddy. She bent down to very cautiously take the dagger up again. Inferna watched as she stood up straight, unharmed, and frowned down at the weapon. “I don’t know.” 

Inferna frowned, too. “Well, do you want some hair dye potion to try to turn your hair back? I have a ton.”

And then she giggled, just a little bit. “But that white-haired look is still pretty great, I gotta say.”

Neddy made grabby-hands, and Inferna laughed again. “Please!” Neddy exclaimed, so Inferna pulled her player-plexus up to snipe a quick picture of Neddy with her white hair - grinning the entire time - before she swiped open her inventory, scrolling over to her H-rank cosmetic potions. 

“What color do you want? I’m not sure if I have your exact lilac color, but I have some other pretty purples.” And she held her plexus out so that Neddy could see.

“Ah. Well, the palest purple you have will do,” Neddy answered. 

Inferna squinted at her purple hair dye potions. She had a very light, washed-out violet-indigo color, so she dragged it out and examined the glass bottle thoughtfully, gently swirling the semi-gaseous substance inside. “You wanna try this one?” she asked.

The other player nodded tentatively. “Sure. Let’s- let’s try it.” 

Inferna shrugged. “Aight, here goes,” and she upended the contents of the glass bottle over Neddy’s head.

There was a flash of purple smoke and silver sparkles as the hair dye potion settled over Neddy’s hair. The bottle disappeared, magicked away into nothingness, and Inferna switched her plexus camera function into selfie mode and passed it over to Neddy so that she could see what she looked like.

“You think it worked?”

With her lips in a line, Neddy turned her head this way and that, getting a good look at the colour from every conceivable angle. Then: “It’s a little bluer than before, but...yeah. Yeah, it worked. It’s better than the white, at least.” 

Inferna grinned. “Lit! We should go find somewhere to sit down, then. I want to make hot chocolate.”

She took her plexus back, dragging out a tin can filled with sugar cubes that had a small tray attached to the inside, filled with Inferna sauce - sort of like the set-up for the Nutella to-go thingies that Inferna loved - and carefully dipped a sugar cube in the sauce before tossing it at Jack.

“Errrrpf,” the dragon purred, and Inferna beamed at him. She leaned down to scratch him behind his ears, then scooped him up in her arms, her player-plexus in her free hand.

After she was ready, she said, “C’mon, let’s go!”

“Right behind,” answered Neddy, and they set off at a brisk pace (well, as brisk of a pace as she could get in the stupid six inches of snow covering the ground), Inferna hugging Jack to her chest and letting his head settle on her shoulder. They walked for a few minutes before Inferna found a small clearing with a few large-ish, flat rocks that they could comfortably sit on. 

She brushed the snow off of them and plopped down, patting the spot next to her for Neddy and letting Jack settle in her lap before she started scrolling through her inventory.

“Do you think you have any water or milk or something in your inventory, for hot chocolate?” Inferna asked. “I definitely have the chocolate we’d need.”

In response, Neddy swiped into her inventory, humming a question. Inferna watched her scroll for several seconds before stopping on an item. 

“Dragon’s milk is all I have,” she said, a small wrinkle forming between her brows. “Don’t suppose that would work?” 

Inferna paused, and considered. “Will it give us cancer?” she asked, dragging out two cups and the chocolate she bought the other day.

Neddy blinked and looked back at the Plexus screen as if it would provide the answer. “Er, not- no, I don’t think so,” she replied. 

Inferna gave a nonchalant half-shrug. “Okay, let’s try it then,” she said, taking the chocolate out and setting half of it in one of the cups. She summoned a ball of fire and balanced it on her open palm, holding the cup above the flame and waiting for the chocolate to melt, occasionally putting out the fire to use her hand to stir the chocolate.

Once the chocolate had turned somewhat gooey, Inferna threw Neddy a glance. “You have the milk?”

In response, the other player produced the little glass stoppered bottle of milk from the Plexus. A cartoonish blue dragon was emblazoned on the item.

Inferna grinned. “Pour some in?”

And once Neddy had filled the cup the rest of the way with the dragon’s milk, Inferna let the hot chocolate sit over the flame for a few more minutes, stirring the entire time, before she extinguished the fireball. “Ta-da!” she exclaimed, handing the hot chocolate to Neddy. “Tell me how it tastes? And ooh - be careful, it’s hot.”

Neddy accepted the cup gratefully and blew at the billowing heat coming off of the mug. She took a sip and hummed. “It’s not bad, actually!” she said, a note of excitement in her voice. “Can’t even taste the...dragon.” 

Inferna quickly made another cup of hot chocolate for herself, and took a sip. “Mmm, you’re right,” she replied. “It just tastes like regular hot chocolate.”

She grinned. “Good to know that dragon milk has its many uses!”

They sat in silence for a while, drinking the hot chocolate - with Inferna feeding Jack sauce-covered sugar cubes every few minutes or so, to the dragon’s delight - and Inferna had just polished off the last of her drink, her player-plexus already in her hand as she began scrolling through her inventory to see what else she could make, before a Yeti burst through the trees and into the clearing. 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Inferna shouted, as the Yeti roared and advanced. “Can’t we ever get some peace and quiet in this damn game?!?!”

Inferna jumped up - displacing Jack as she did so - and pulled one of her flaming daggers out, bringing her free hand up and firing off a quick succession of mini-fireballs at the stupid Yeti. A few ash-gray spots bloomed over its torso, the fur smoking and charring as it came into contact with fire, but the attack didn’t do much to slow it down.

“What now?” Inferna heard Neddy shout, and when she whirled around to face her, the panic was evident on her face.

Inferna shot a bigger fireball at the Yeti. “Uh, I don’t know?!?!?!” Inferna yelled in response, shoving Neddy out of the way as the Yeti responded with a blast of icy magic. “Do you have any ignitium potions??? I’ve already used mine up!” 

They were behind the Yeti, now. Neddy swiped quickly through her Plexus inventory.

“Er, it’s not something I usually collect!” she answered, evidently coming up with nil. 

“Fuck,” Inferna said, with feeling. Jack scurried over the snow to hide behind Neddy’s legs, chittering with distress.

The Yeti was turning around, but slowly. It gave Inferna enough time to lob a fireball at its eye, which set off a cacophony of obnoxiously loud roars.

A thought occurred to her, just as the Yeti reached out to grab for them. Inferna darted to the left, shoving Neddy to the right, and the Yeti's comically large fingers closed over empty air. “You think your weird ice dagger thingy will do anything?” Inferna yelled over her shoulder as she held both her palms up, blasting fire in its direction.

Out of the corner of her eye, Inferna could see Neddy quickly feeling around her person before coming up with the dagger, which had been tucked into a special slot in one of her gauntlets. Hand visibly quaking, she handled it blade-down; like an icepick, rather than a melee weapon. 

“I, er,” she called nervously, “just give me a second, okay?” 

Inferna gritted her teeth. “Make it quick!” she shouted back. 

Inferna continued to batter the Yeti with flames, and it was doing something, because she could tell that it was slowing down. But at this rate, Inferna would run out of steam long before the Yeti did.

Shaking her head, frustrated, Inferna yelled a warning in Neddy’s direction - “You better be ready with that stupid ice sculpture dagger!” - before she quickly darted below one of the Yeti’s swinging arms and slashed the Yeti in the gut with her flaming daggers.

“Now!” she yelled at Neddy, flicking her daggers away and bringing her hands up to shoot jets of fire into the Yeti’s face. She gritted her teeth again as Neddy stumbled a step forward - and seemed to hesitate a moment. It looked like she was gripping the dagger so tightly her knuckles were white. 

A heartbeat passed, then another. 

“Hurry the fuck up!” Inferna yelled again, sweat trickling down the side of her face, despite the chilly temperatures, and she watched as Neddy shut her eyes, breathing out. 

Then, Neddy shifted. Her courage became suddenly evident in her posture. Her eyes flew open and then- 

She leapt...

...and plunged her ice dagger thingymabob into the Yeti’s back. 

“Fucking finally!” Inferna exclaimed as ice began to form over the Yeti’s fur. She shot off one last bit of fire before she threw herself away from the Yeti, landing on her butt in the snow.

She looked up, panting, as the ice continued to spread across the expanse of the Yeti’s torso, down to its legs, up its arms. The Yeti didn’t seem to like it one bit - it continued to roar and thrash, even as the ice solidified over its neck and head, rendering it immobile.

All was still in the clearing.

Then, Jack climbed into Inferna’s lap, squawking something in dragonese, and nudged at the tin can of sugar cubes that had spilled out of her satchel in the melee.

“Holy shit,” Inferna breathed out, automatically feeding Jack one of the sugar cubes. She re-directed her gaze to Neddy, and grinned wildly. “That worked! That actually fucking worked!” 

Neddy appeared just as stunned at her own handiwork. Her mouth hung open. “Wow,” she muttered.

Inferna got up and gathered her things - some of which had been scattered all over the clearing, thanks to the stupid Yeti - before scooping Jack up again and making her way over to Neddy. She punched her in the arm, playfully. “That was badass!”

The other player’s face unstuck at that, and she grinned, putting the heel of her palm to her forehead in awe. “I’ve never done anything like that before,” Neddy laughed. “Wow!” 

Inferna grinned back at her. “Come on. Grab your ice dagger and let’s get out of here, before the Yeti figures out how to escape!”