"Don't worry, we'll deal with this group quickly," Shin said as he formed two vantablack blades in both hands, gripping them and flying forward in a spinning drill attack at the fungal spores! The blades expand outwards, as radiant energy condensed and focused into beams tears through them! He seems to be enjoying himself a little too much!
His actions push all of the spores together in a clump as they try to avoid him, giving Femtite and Conflux a good opportunity to deal with the rest all at once!
Connie scanned the front of the museum until she was satisfied nothing had broken in, then with a slightly crazed smile wove a thick, heat absorbent ward almost entirely around the remaining spores.
"Okay Femms," Connie said, lining up a laser pointer to help guide her flames, "Porthole's right there."
Devil Diva pounces upon the spore as it hits the ground, sinking her claws into its spongy body. The dark energy clusters around her hands as she drains the life force from the stunned fungus! She can feel herself becomes stronger and more hale as the spore withers beneath her.
She turns with a triumphant grin--only to see the protesters she had just rescued cowering and staring at her with fear in their eyes. She blinks and realizes how she must look to them. She looks down at her hands, surprised by the ability she just manifested. Just like in the mirror dimension, when the dancers fell to the stage....
"It's done. You're safe," she tries to tell them, but the words are hollow in her own ears. She turns and begins to walk away...
Femtite jets straight at the laser pointer’s red dot and does what every cat on Earth has consistently failed to do —kill the dot!
—the dot bursts into a fiery red hell! A sun that takes up the entirety of Connie’s ward, consuming every shroom within!
Caio tears the huge fungus from inside, causing as much damage as he can. Suddenly, he finds himself surrounded once more in the purplish vapors, now so concentrated that it is actually powder-like. Knowing of its effect, he closes his eyes, not trusting his senses as he continues to rend through the fungus.
Clawing his way out, Caio falls on the ground, a distance much shorter than he has anticipated. He looks back and sees the fungus on the ground defeated. Looking around, he recognises the protesters and Max, though they are not as he remembered them, and Caio quickly realises he must be under the effects of the vapors.
He concentrates beyond his anger, and shifts back to his human form in front of the protesters and the media. Caio closes his eyes once more and then touches his chest, arms and then legs, initially worried, but then he chuckles. Caio then opens his eyes, looking for Max while he works on his pants so it doesn't fall on the ground leaving him only on his under-wares.
"Hey Max... you are wonderful. Do not ever let me say otherwise, ok?" His pupils are dilated, his smile is a bit silly, and he is almost completely covered in purple powder. He seems very happy though, as if only he was understanding a big joke. "Can you help me? I can't trust my eyes."
Max turns as Caio calls her. Seeing him stumbling about in a daze, she quickly moves to his side and puts his arm over her shoulders. "Hey. I'm here, Caio. I'm here. Just focus on my voice. Tell me, what are you seeing? I'll tell you what's real and what's not."
Caio looks at Max again, holding a laugh. "There are rabbits everywhere... on top of the trees, on the roofs, on peoples shoulders. They are certainly not real, and..." he whispers to her, "...everyone is naked, including me and you. I also know this is not happening. Did I say you are wonderful, right?" He chuckles. "Aside from that, everything looks normal, but I can't be completely sure."
He motions his head towards the protesters and the media. "For the better or the worse, we are in this together I think. No more secrets for me. So... what is the plan?" There is some worry in his voice, even if he is trying to hide it.
Max follows Caio's motion as she looks at the protesters and media still cowering nearby. Normally, her instincts would be to flee from this difficult situation, to try to hide until the hubbub around her blew over. But she lifts her chin as determination blazes in her yellow eyes.
"We can't run away. We have to show them that we are heroes. Come with me, but stay quiet. At least until you can think straight again."
Before they head over, Max can't resist taking a little advantage of Caio in this vulnerable state. "So, everybody's naked? Who looks the best on our team? Aside from me, of course."
***
Max and Caio walk up to the crowd just outside the school. She puts on a brave smile and steps forward with open palms. "Hello. I'm sure none of you expected your day to go like this. You came out here because of me. Some of you don't like me. Many of you are afraid of me. But I'm here to show you that I'm just a normal person.
"There have been a lot of misunderstandings. People have made assumptions about me without even getting to know me. Well, I'd like to give any of you who want the opportunity to get to know me, now. Whatever you want to ask me. Whatever you want to say to me. I'm here to talk, and to listen. Maybe together, we can put these misunderstandings to rest."
Caio gets to his feet and when Max tells him about her decision, he hugs her. "I'm so proud of you Max. I truly believe you've made the right decision, even if this goes bad."
He then realises that by doing so he had covered Max in the fungus powder. "Droga... sorry. Ruined it." He is about to clean the spores before his face becomes reddish, since in to his eyes Max is gorgeously naked. As he jokes with him, he looks around, only really seeing Guardian nearby. "Damn! Guardian is strangely hot... I'm seeing a "furry she"... she is a hot dog?"
He sighs. "I'll just close my eyes. I won't be able to be serious in front of those vultures if I'm seeing them all naked." He offers Max his hand, but he falters. "If you take my hand in front of them, the media will think we are a couple. This was not how I was planning to ask you..."
Max leans into the hug, taking comfort in Caio's embrace. "Thank you, Caio. You're always there for me," she says.
She laughs at his response to her question, but she hesitates when Caio offers his hand. "But you were planning on asking, weren't you," she says. Max bites her lip. "Caio, I... I don't know... That's a lot for me to decide right now. I thought we weren't going to rush things. Just live in the now, right?"
She gives Caio a smile, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. "I'm still trying to come to terms with myself. Only then, can I consider what that means for us. Do you understand?"
"Femms, you should head right in and make sure everyone's okay. I'll be right behind you."
Once Femtite was gone, Connie pulled her arms out of the sleeves of her jacket and hunched over, twisting back and forth with her empty sleeves lightly flapping. "Comms sound clear, but can you check in with Big Bird, O Fearless Leader? If the wrong hero got spored the wrong way, we wouldn't see that from here."
|
After a good while Indarius gets back to his feet the stinky burnt spores still wafting down from the barrier. He saw that Horizon and Femtite were nowhere to be seen anymore and sighed openly. Picking up and pocketing his tome and using his staff more as a brace to walk over to the front edge where he had seen his other teammates he gazes down at DD confronting the protestors and other such individuals with Caio by her side holding his ripped pants on.
"Ohhh this isn't going to end well is it." He feels a bit light headed and decides to sit next to the edge peeking over it for signs of anyone else.
Comms: Hey, i'm just gonna chill on the roof for a bit. Not sure if I can pull a magic elevator out of my pocket right now. Thanks for just dipping by the way.
Caio lowers his hand, his eyes already closed, but he wasn't apparently sad. "Yes, I was, but that is Ok. Don't worry about it now... We still have to deal with them." He gestures towards the protesters as he puts his hand on her shoulder.
Shin has finished up with his slicing up of spores like mushrooms for soup, and lands down next to Conflux, rather surprised she managed to get here so far. "I'll check in with her," He agreed, keying up the comm for Whippoorwill.
"We've gotten the spores that have touched down near Halcyon Prep and by the museum, and it looks like you're driving off the big Death Cap?" He asks. "Conflux wants to ask if anyone on the big teams need assistance or have been infected by the fungus to help. We can come as fast as you need," He said, glancing at the smaller girl.
"Ever fly before? It can be scary if you're not used to it," He tells her.
"Citywide fight and all that, Perce. You'll have to settle for more than half of the team within spitting distance competitive spitting distance, obviously."
Connie looked up at Shin's question in honest astonishment and started cackling after a full beat.
"Di-did you not see how I just got here?! 'Oh No! Flying?! How will my frail heart take it?!'" she finished in a bad elderly and vaguely British? accent.
"Yes, if we're needed I can handle you flying. Ha!" Her jacket stopped rustling and she stood back up, arms in sleeves.
"Femms has had to shrink and grow a few times though, so even if there's trouble, I need to check in with her and her people to make sure she's not ditched and commless."
Femtite shrinks to a few inches tall. She hovers in front of Connie. Her red flames die down, but under the flames is the pink wasp-woman as seen the night before—still with her left antenna bent in a zig-zag, right in a perfect spiral.
Her glowing belly is quite plump!—much rounder than when she had a Thai mushroom the other night.
She places both hands over her heart and manages a smile for Connie.
She then shrinks to nothing…
* * *
…as she flies into the microscopic space used to enter the display case, she waves to the guardswomen. One young guard returns a friendly wave to the princess.
As she approaches the Lavender Spire, she is plasma. Fire. A picometer tall. Her mother is five times taller with her relatively tiny entourage flitting about…
<Mommy! I’m home! There’s so much to talk about… I don’t even know where to begin!>
Caio and Devil Diva face the crowd to see (sans hallucinations) a mix of astonished, frightened and downright hateful expressions -- along with a small number of television news cameras trained on them.
Max confronts them, offering to allow them to get to know her rather than react to her appearance.
It's met with mixed results. "You expect us to trust you?!?"
"You sucked that thing's soul!"
"Get behind me, demon!"
"People, let's hear her out. Aren't we supposed to forgive--"
"Go possess a pig!"
"That one's a beast, too!"
One of the reporters breaks from the crowd and walks up close, motioning for her camera operator to follow. She looks familiar. "Jasmine Jacobson, Infini-News. I'd love to take you up on your offer. Let's have an interview, where you can tell your side of things! Who is Devil Diva? Lots of things have been said about you -- now's your turn! It's been said that you were made this way. Are you possessed, then?" She holds the microphone up to Max, making sure it doesn't block the camera's shot.
=======================
Horizon gets a response from Whippoorwill. "We've employed countermeasures. If your section is secure, get your fliers together and do a sweep for stray spores. Bring any infected to Kirby Tower for anti-fungal injections. Gotta -- oof! -- gotta go."
What do you do??
=======================
Indarius watches the Death Cap get driven back off into space from a lovely spot on the roof. There's still a crowd gathered just inside the ivy-covered wall around the entrance to the campus. The students are starting to emerge from their shelters to get a chance to watch the cleanup.
Percy catches sight of a shock of pink hair, who suddenly looks up. Skyler makes eye contact and waves before heading back inside.
Connie gives a quick smile and nods as Femms shrinks away, unconsciously reaching up beneath her choker to a single burn mark on her neck.
Girl, you got it bad.
***
After Whippoorwill's report, Connie nods slowly, thinking through her options.
"Okay, fun as it was, I don't think my reverse bungie is a sustainable way to travel. Also, I will run out of bra straps and/or safety pins if I keep doing it anyways. Drop me off back at the school? You can gather the flyers there and I'll be able to get enough different samples to help clear any infections. And I promise, despite my terror, not to scream in your ear the whole way back. Unless it's funny."
Max weathers the slings and barbs of the crowd as she faces the camera. ”Thank you, Jasmine. Yes, that’s correct. Up until a few months ago, I was just a normal teenager. Somehow, a cursed idol made its way to me and changed me into this demonic form. But while my body was transformed, my mind and soul were not. I am not possessed, or corrupted, or anything like that. Beneath the frightening exterior, I’m just a person. A hero now, trying to do good in the world.”
Caio tries to keep calm and with his eyes closed, but it is something difficult to do. He can feel the anger in the people's voice, and he can also smell their fear, both of which could be dangerous and disastrous.
As the reporter offers Max the opportunity to speak, he whispers in her ear. "This interview could be great for you, but perhaps another day and in the privacy of a studio."
Before the interview, Max whispers back, "It has to be here and now. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to sway hearts and minds."
Seeing the space shroom fly off, Steel Guardian does the same, repulsors lifting them off into the air and away from Halcyon Prep.
"All right, but I got to balance the load or else I'm flying at a disadvantage, so..."
This was how Shin ended up showing up to the front gates of Halprep with Conflux held in a princess carry, landing close to where DD was being interviewed. He dropped her off and looked to the skies, speaking on comms. "Femtite is dealing with her homework, so it's you and me to sweep and clean up stragglers, SG," He tells the Janus. Flying up high he takes a moment to assess the situation. "SG, picking anything up?"
|
|
Comms: Well at least the view is nice... chair would have been nice though... talk about it later I guess.
After another few seconds and the crowd dispersing/paying closer attention to DD and Caio, Indarius stands and slides onto the edge where he conjures a floating disc. Stepping onto it he notes how much he hurts all over, almost like when someone pulls a muscle but on a metaphysical level. He also notes that the actual physical strain had ripped the scab that was forming on his arm and he needed to patch that up quick. It takes quite a bit of concentration just to get the disc and himself down to ground level safely to which he slinks back into the school.
He clinked through the halls hoping to avoid much notice and speaking of looking for anyone who may still be inside or harmed as his reasoning if approached. Keeping an eye out for Skyler as well, odd for her to come out only to look him in the eye and retreat.
Meanwhile outside Fuzzbat who had ruffled inside the tree that had been nastily balded by the sudden rain of fungal invaders swooped out to find a more suitable resting place. Spotting the ever mysterious Steel Guardian and it's miraculous ability to disappear it wagered that following them would lead to a great place to get some peace and quiet.
The reporter immediately switches focus to Caio when he whispers to Max. "This is our first good look at what some have called the Tattooed Terror! What should we be calling you?" She swings the microphone in his direction!
What do you do??
"Just 'Wolf' is good enough." He says as little as possible. "Like my friend, I'm no 'terror'. I'm no monster."
"Don't be deceived!!" shouts one of the protesters wearing a minister's collar, shoving his way into the interview. "A demon and a beast! These are not heroes! We cannot look up to these symbols of evil and corruption!"
Jasmine steps back as the cameraman pans around to get everyone into frame. "Please! Sir, I'll get to you, but I have to... have to..." Jasmine's eyes start to glaze over as she looks a bit confused. Just then, Caio and Max see a bit of the purplish fungal powder on the microphone!
"Oh, God! What are you!?! Get back!" she shrieks as she stumbles backward into the camera operator! The two go sprawling on the ground as Jasmine scrambles to get away from the visions she's experiencing!
"See?!? See!?!" the protester decries as more of the crowd starts shouting curses and epithets at the pair!
There's a loud commotion and screaming as Horizon flies in bearing Conflux, with Max and Caio seeming to be at the center of it.
What do you do??
"It's the spores! They're messing with your minds!" Max cries. She reaches for Jasmine, trying to exude pheromones to counteract the toxic spores like she did with the big fungus.
Conflux elbows Shin hard until he drops her next to the crowd. That's getting ugly, but Max and Caio can get out of there safely. Lil' Miss 'Worst-Location-for-an-Interview' is gonna get squashed.
She slipped in close to Jasmine and started bringing up a low-hardness ward to give herself some room to work, gradually thickening and strengthening it as she could see no one was getting squashed up against it.
"Oh f$~$ right off! This area was recently doused with hallucinogenic spores, Father Jackass." Her mouth contorted like she was tasting something unbelievably foul, and she quickly turned away from him to the fallen reporter, covering her wide eyes by fishing a thing of eyedrops out from one of her pockets.
With practiced ease, Connie got a good grip on Jasmine, despite the throes of a bad trip, and squeezed two drops into each of her eyes.
Her face still puckered in distaste, Connie tried to soothe Jasmine in a slightly raspy voice. "Focus in on my voice for me okay? I know there's lots of noise, but this is where you need to focus. You're gonna stop seeing things almost immediately, except the things that are actually here, this is Clearsight, not a blinding ointment, but my guess is you're still gonna be experiencing some heightened emotions for another 30 seconds or so. The biggest illusions disappear first, so fake feelings should go second, and after that you may experience a lot of clarity about your life, so uh, if you're big on self deception, hang on tight."
She sat with Jasmine until she saw clarity return to her eyes, then helped pull her to a sitting position.
"Okay, I've gotta bounce. This ward will be up for about 90 more seconds and then you'll be back in the mix. If that's not what you want, I'm gonna do a Stairway to Heaven out of here and you can follow me, but that is not fun if you're afraid of heights."
Jasmine recovers thanks to Conflux's magical tincture, and heads to the Infini-News van to start working on her story.
The protesters keep up their chanting and aggressive praying for a little while longer after the heroes depart. Eventually they start to disperse themselves, especially when a church bus comes along and picks up the majoring of them.
School is canceled for the rest of the day. The students all have to participate in a roll-call to make sure everyone's accounted for, though a few stragglers show up late causing lots of speculation.
As the religious fool starts to shout, Caio open his eyes to all the nudity and rabbittness around him. Believing that the spores covering him where the ones that ended up on Jasmine's microphone, he steps back and falls.
Without being able to help, Caio sees a very naked Connie dropping by to help Max, but as she increases her pheromones, Caio is just glad that he is on the ground... he rolls on the ground to cover himself, thinking of sad stories because the combination of a somewhat torn pants, naked people everywhere and a wave of lust pheromones are way more than he can handle.
With everything lost, as they retreat back to school, Caio turns to Connie, looking only at her face. "Hey Connie, how about you collect as much of this purple thing from me as possible? Perhaps we'll need to find an antidote... or you can save this for recreation. I'm not into drugs, but this thing is something."
Connie is going from Point A to Point B in as expedient a means as possible, mind generally on Other Things as it usually is. She is snapped out of her inner monologue by a sharp, "Hey! Bubble girl!" from a side hall.
Out steps a queen bee. Fashionable clothes, annoyingly gorgeous hair and skin, tasteful makeup, and piercing blue eyes. "Hey, um, that's not meant to be an insult, by the way," she says. "But I saw what you did, protecting the school. Which was pretty cool, I have to say. Not a huge fan of fungus, especially the outer space kind." She sticks her hand out to shake. "I'm Jade."
Shin texts the team after sneaking into roll call with enough time to not seem like he was missing in action.
Immediate threat is over, but stay vigilant. If you encounter any infected on the way home, bring them to Kirby Tower for treatment! Otherwise, everyone have a good night and rest up. If anyone needs me, text, don't call.
Once he's sure he hasn't been missed, Shin once again rushes off to go and change into his uniform and mask before flying off to patrol the area. He's sure some criminals might have taken the opportunity to smash and grab in the chaos, and stopping that fell into his duties.
"Yeah sure. Hold still for a sec before you lose all the fuzz."
She'd been holding his arm, carefully brushing and teasing samples from his fur and clothes, for a while when she suddenly realized just how long he'd been carefully only looking at her face.
"Ha! That's right! This time I wasn't the one who got a snoot full of Deedee's love musk!"
Tilting her head to the side, she turned her face into a mask of mock sympathy. "I'm so sorry. This whole situation must be so hard for you! Should I stop? To spare your feelings? I would never want you to feel uncomfortable around me just because of my ravishing beauty and your uncontrollable attraction to all of this." she waved a hand in front of herself in a big circle to emphasize her point, then stopped, put a hand to one side of her mouth and whispered as loudly as she could, "Should I just go get the cactus for you? Would that be more comfortable than this moment?"
***
Bubble Girl? I gotta get my name out there more, cause otherwise 'you f%#& one goat'...
"It's Connie actually. Or Conflux if I'm slinging the bubbles." Don't bring up the bubbles. You have literally one time used a bubble.
"But yeah good to meet you Jade, especially while there's not fungus among-us." Her face went back into recall mode before realizing that she simply hadn't paid enough attention to the cliques at her new school yet to pull up the answer herself. "I'm sorry, I know we haven't met-met, but I know I've seen you around in... Student Government? Varsity something? Just enrolled this semester and I'm still finding my way around."
Max grimaces as her efforts falter. Luckily, Connie is there to save Jasmine and snap her out of her hallucinations. Still, the mob has turned against her, and Devil Diva is all too happy to make her exit, stage left, even.
Once things have calmed down and the crowd has dispersed, Max seeks out her nearby teammates. ”Well, that could have gone better. But I didn’t know what I was expecting to accomplish. At least I tried, right?”
She shrugs and smiles, hiding her true feelings of hopelessness and insecurity. ”So... Sundaes?”
"Connie. I got hit pretty hard with these spores and I'm still hallucinating. I'm seeing a pink rabbit on your shoulder, and everyone completely naked... and about the cactus, you'd have to remove it first from its current home." He lets it sink before pointing to the spores. "It is really powerful shit."
---
Once Max asks if any of them wanted some sundaes, he nods but points to the bathroom first. "After I wash all this stuff from me."
Jade smiles, but it takes on something of a forced nature when she's not immediately recognized. "Student government, yes. I'm junior class president. And varsity cheerleader. But don't let 'cheerleader' give you the wrong impression. It's great exercise and gets me a front row view to all the games. And the football team's really tearing it up this year."
She looks like she realizes she's going down a rabbit hole, so she abruptly changes topics. "Anyway, like I said. Cool what you did. You looking to be, like, a full-time hero or something? I'm one of Kayla's besties. I could introduce the two of you."
Connie's face was the picture of confused disbelief. "Girl, do you think I don't know cheerleading is a whole-ass sport? Like, good for you if you also want to watch, like, the only more dangerous high school sport while you do yours, but you don't need to talk about what they're doing to impress me.
"That would be really cool to meet Kayla though. I am doing the hero thing, but I hadn't really planned on it for all that long, so I don't know all that many of the big capes, let alone personally, but... well even I know with her family she's definitely an A-lister."
And maybe she doesn't remember me from the hallway with Max? If a just and merciful god exists after all?
***
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't mock your obvious and irrepressible attraction to me 'cause seriously my dude, **everyone** knows that's what a pink rabbit symbolizes.
Somehow she smirked even more. "Go on, get outta here and take the cold shower you deperately need. I've got enough of the goop. Also, you really shouldn't take mind-altering substances recreationally while a werewolf. Sorry if that's unfair."
***
"God, a sundae would be fantastic. Could we uh, wait till Femms is here? I think she'd really like to come with."
”Of course. We can wait,” Max says with a smile.
When Caio goes to get cleaned up, the demoness turns to Conflux. ”Hey, Connie. I wanted to say thanks for helping out Jasmine Jacobson. I so wanted to be the one to play the hero there and snap her out of the hallucinations, but... I just couldn’t do it. If you hadn’t been there, it would have been so much worse. So, thanks.”
Femtite's return to her kingdom is heralded with great fanfare; pixites are abuzz as she flies straight toward her mother's palace. Love Bug, The is parked outside, gleaming and with a fresh electron shine.
Queen Millie is in the middle of her harem when Femtite arrives. She shoos them away and grows to 0.23 mm to speak in private with her daughter. "Femi! You are looking well-fed! And extra-hot! Are you trying the titans' food?"
Femtite giggles as her mom flies up to grow four billion times bigger!
Hovering above the mountainous amethyst, she places a hand on her belly. “The fungi I consumed was not of Earth. It was enormous and I had to be fire to defeat the invasive species.
“They tried to inject mushrooms into my titanic body? The irony—mushrooms entering me to consume!”
She gives her mother a hug. She holds her close, and says, “They attacked the area where the titans keep our world. I was worried, and guess who positioned herself by the museum door?”
Femtite pulls back from the hug, wide grin forming across her cheeks as she replays Connie’s heroic flight in her mind!
Queen Millie floats backwards a moment and gets an intense look. "That is a very telling expression, Femi!" The queen's eyes become thoughtful for a moment, then she takes on her formal queenly bearing. "You will convey to the titan Connie that the pixites are grateful for her willingness to impose herself between us and danger."
She pokes her daughter in her distended belly. "But before that, you will be telling me how you intend to thank her yourself."
Femtite starts to shrink a few dozen micrometers. “Haha… ummmm… wellllllll…”
Her aura and underbelly burn pink… in case the grin wasn’t telling enough.
”Oh, Mommy, I did tell you I feared kissing her would melt her face off—and then I told her… and then we…
”kissed.”
"Aha," Queen Millie says sagely. "I was wondering after our last conversation, if this would go the way I had feared. I believe I must speak with the titan Connie directly, so she can understand fully the ramifications of being a consort of a pixite princess -- and a member of the harem to an eventual queen. That is why I had Mel make a special modification to Love Bug, The. Simply have her enter the sacred code: up up, down down, left right, left right B A Start, and Love Bug, The will do the rest."
“Feared? Awww, Muh-mee, I thought you had given me your approval.
“Connie would absolutely love to talk to you, but not of consorting or being part of a harem. I don’t want a harem, Mommy.”
Femtite knows that commoners are known to fall in love, remain as couples—sometimes having met in a harem. Royals always have their harems, and the Lavender Spire’s pleasure done is second to none.
”Connie can’t fit in the pleasure dome.”
Really? I’m leading with that?
“We spoke of exclusivity, Mommy. She placed her body between the enemy and the world. And… I discovered something very special about her last night.
“When we kissed, I lost my ability to maintain my human shape. I tried to shrink from sight but, not enough… she saw my true flesh form.
“Her eyes teared with joy. She said I was beautiful and held me in her hands… under a fire blanket. She took precautions.”
Femtite tries to take her mother’s hands in her own while she speaks. Her own hands are trembling.
Queen Millie's eyes are unwavering as she looks piercingly at her daughter. "The titans' language is imprecise. 'Feared' as in, 'I anticipated the future with concern for your well-being and awareness of the problems your current actions would bring if they continued along their current trajectory.' Maybe you should try to introduce 'iafwcywapycawbitcatct' into their lexicon."
Her hands squeeze Femtite's. "She sounds special. Which is why she needs to know what the future will hold for her. You don't want to surprise her with something she's not prepared for?"
“But… but…
“Yes, Mommy. She is special. You’re not going to scare her away from me, are you?”
Queen Millie brightens considerably. "Of course not!! I wouldn't dream of it!! We just have to take special precautions so that your first and favorite consort will be happy here, once it's time for you to take on your harem!"
“Mommy… this is exactly how to scare her…”
She looks her mother in the eyes, her own tearing up as she does.
“Your harems have always been good to me, and… I know you’re happy and they’re happy.
“But choosing Connie, and her choosing me… it means no harem.”
Femtite’s eyes drop to the Lavender Spire.
“And she can never live here, Mommy. Even if she learns shrinking magic, she’s an air-breather. She can’t survive on the Nanometeor.”
She swallows. This must be hard on Mommy.
“Are you sure that when you said ‘fear’ you meant ‘iafwcywapycawbitcatct' …and not ’fear?’”
Queen Millie tilts her head as she regards her daughter. "Oh, Femi. You are so precious and beautiful. You know I only want what's best for you." She opens her arms wide inviting an embrace.
Femtite wraps her arms around her mother.
“I know, Mommy. You’re the best pixite queen ever… I know you’re the expert on regal stuff and running worlds.
“But I think you’ll enjoy meeting Connie if you don’t worry about all that stuff. Just find out who she is, and… I think you’ll be surprised in a good way.”
She smiles warmly. "I have no doubt. I greatly look forward to meeting her."
Femtite returns to the Nanometeor’s surface. Her Love Bug, The awaits in the Nanoplains.
“You’re the best, Mel! I’ll take off in a bit, just need to… y’know.”
Femtite shrinks to subatomic size. She exists as a particle dwarfed by every other particle. Even the other pixites are titans. Mel can not even perceive Femtite at all…
Yet, something is different. As if there is a meditative quality to existing as nothing.
AWOOGA!
The sound of Love Bug, The’s new horn announces Femtite’s triumphant return from the Nanometeor.
She is clad in a polka-dotted hair scarf, matching blouse tied at the midriff, little pink jeans-shorts, knee socks and imitation All Stars.
“Ohhhh, Connnnnieeeee! Gotta new feature in my sweet ride! Wanna give it a whirl?”
Jade smiles. It's a bright, effervescent smile that seems to make her skin glow. "Glad you know that. Too many people think that cheerleading is defined by which football player you're dating.
"So, Con... flux? Was it? I'll let you in on a secret. Kayla's super normal. She's been through a lot, but really? She just wants to be like a regular person when she's not flying or eye-beaming or whatever. So, I'll let her know about you, and you two can get to know each other and talk hero stuff. Cool, right?"
"What? Yeah of course I helped her. That's what we do, right? Of course sometimes that means sitting back and not taking the spotlight when it's not actually helpful. It's about results, not just playing the hero."
***
"Please, it's Con-nie if I'm not in the middle of slinging spells. And honestly, Kayla's got the right idea. It's kinda the same thing as being too obsessed with dating a jock whether in pads or pom-poms. There shouldn't be any one part of your life that makes everything else disappear."
Max nods at Connie’s words, taking them to heart.
She grins when Femtite rolls up in Love Bug, The. ”Aw yeah! Looking good, Femms!”
Caio rejoins the group a few moments later. ”Let’s go! To the ice cream shop!”
“Huh? But I—“
Realizing how selfish it would be to drive off with Connie and ditch the others, Femtite quickly shifts gears—
“—never tried ice cream before. Gimme a sec!”
”Yay! I can eat it! Let’s double-date!”
Caio rejoins the group after taking a bath to clean the spores. He had to go to his dorm for that, since he'd have to get clean clothes. Noticing Femtite and catching Max's unspoken question he shakes his head. "The bath helped a lot, so now I'm only seeing the rabbits. Between Connie and Guardian, Guardian won, even if they were a dog, also saw Horizon but..."
"What!?" He asks once Femtite mentions about a double date. He looks between Connie and Femtite before smiling. "Nice to hear about you two." Despite his back and forth provocations with Connnie, there is no malice or mockery in his voice. He does seem uncomfortable about something else at the mention of a "double date", however.
He notices Femtite is intending for them to ride Love Bug, The. "I think we should go to that small shop close to the park, by foot. Not sure if they have told you what happened after the battle with the fungus, Fems, but we should keep a low profile for the rest of the day."
As Femms pulled up Connie dropped her face into her hands.
Welp. My bisexuality just took a hard gay turn.
From within her hand she muttered, "We are-"
Not really dating?
Not official?
Not doing labels?
Friends?
Friends with benefits?
A Princess and one-girl harem? Except the harem girl isn't putting out?
Friends who can't stop thinking about each other?
Somehow **already living together**?!
Crazy about her already...
"-new and bad at taking things slowly. Not as bad as you two, but hey, exceptionally low bar."
"I say we take the Bug though. I think both of us might have to just accept that low profile is a casualty of what we're doing with our live and who we're spending them with. Currently! All kinds of things could do us part. Especially us. Disregard."
"...Ice cream!"
"And we'll deal with any a&@~#$~s that try to make trouble. Worst comes to worst, we move things back to the dorms, but I'm not gonna run and hide before someone so much as says boo."
Femtite adds, “But if you do want to hide—“
Suddenly a magenta dome slams shut!—concealing Femtite and her craft’s interior!
“—tinted window!”
The dome just-as-suddenly blinks open.
“Tinted to the point of opaque for you, anyway. No matter how human my eyes appear, I still cannot perceive magenta.”
She wills the door open for anyone who does not wish to literally hop into a convertible.
“Shall we?”
|
|
Indarius makes his way quickly through the halls trailing after Skyler who he signs towards.
"Odd to walk out only to dip back in the school. What's the situation in here, anyone hurt?"
Keeping the connection he dipped into a pocket to avoid some stragglers who were headed outside to view the battle damage, hoping they simply passed him by. While his guise of moving to help any students who might be injured was a good excuse in reality he just wanted to crawl back into bed for the rest of the day.
Indarius somehow manages to make his way back towards his dorm where he changes back into his normal clothes, once again cleaning the wound on his arm and reapplying the bandage. Taking some care to scrub his skin both normally and with a quick spell that caused any grime to just slough off. He recalled saying magic wasn't meant to be used for every little this and that back when they got the base, but figured possibly super deadly space-spores was a viable exception to the rule. While he was doing that he perked up and gives an open 'Huh' to his bathroom mirror. He goes through what information his familiar has gifted him but doesn't know exactly how he wants to use it yet nothing exact anyway... right?
Reporting for rollcall Percy pleaded that he had taken shelter in the bathroom stalls while the whole incident was going down since he had already been there. He pulls his phone out replying to Shin and also sending Connie a text individually.
Vorpal: Immediate threat is over, but stay vigilant. If you encounter any infected on the way home, bring them to Kirby Tower for treatment! Otherwise, everyone have a good night and rest up. If anyone needs me, text, don't call.
Wiz: Gonna get something to eat and then go check out a lead i've got on some genuine magic texts. I'll have to get those medi-books to you tonight if that's okay BBW
Percy: Hey you still down to check out this lead on Dr.I today?
Connie hopped in, muttering, "Doesn't really solve the problem of Love Bug, The being as uh, flashy a ride as it is, but... Well, it's not like I don't want to go for a ride in your T-Bird." She smiled at Femms from the passenger seat, sliding her thumb back up to stroke the skin beneath her choker.
Eventually she realized Deedee and Caio were in the Bug too, and, pinkening, she directed Femms to one of the best olde ice cream shoppes in Halcyon:
Freddie's Sweet Shop had been slinging scoops for over a hundred years, and everything from the vintage decor to the metal tins they still served the sundaes in, made that abundantly clear.
On the weekends you often had to fight your way through tourists, but it wasn't the trendiest shoppe. It didn't have exotic flavors or a constantly shifting menu, or heck, lactose free options. And all that meant that during the week, if you wanted simple, excellent ice cream, you had your run of the joint.
"...I've actually only been here once. We were celebrating... shit, it must have been after Dear Old Dad brought Septimius home to complete the 'family.' He got a... shit, what did he get, a.. something royal? Whatever, I remember Abram made sure I got in on one of the banana splits. It was... it was really good. Usually something like that was a reward, and would you believe I had a habit of 'Discipline Problems?' when I was younger? But yeah, I've only been the once, but it was really... really special."
***
Lightning Thief: Hey you still down to check out this lead on Dr.I today?
Connie: Ugh sorry
Connie: I am a shit and double booked myself
Connie: What was the lead again?
Connie: 'Cause the post office delivering to places that make no sense for them to keep up a route is just good government my dude
Femtite listens with interest to Connie’s mention of her family. “Oh, so your family lives either in or near Halcyon City? And what does it mean to be in on a…
“Is it normal to share the same ice cream? I don’t want to shrink and eat germs as a merciless fiery predator. I want to try and—the spoons aren’t plastic, are they?—if they have metal spoons, I want in on a banana split.
“The split would be approximately two percent for me, Connie, and hopefully ninety-eight percent for you. I’ll try not to vaporize the ice cream. Proper posture should nullify the possibility of that. With a clench for good measure, so as not to expel energy-waste and set my chair aflame.”