"Characters die, dude." He says to the player of Eliana. "Half the fun in RPGs is the danger and the sacrifice of oneself for the good cause."
To Quency, Caio offers a hand to gesture peace. "It sucks to lose control. I can surely tell you that. How about we just order some pizzas to cool it off, uh?"
Quincy sulks in his chair, staring at the twenty-sided die in his hand.
"Wait, how'd you stay like that?" a player asks Max, a freckle-faced woman with frizzy hair. "You're still... a succubus?"
"No way! That's the devil girl! From that new super team!" another one remarks as recognition sets in.
The one lamenting his character dying looks up. "Wow. If that's her, then..." he gives a good look at the others. "This is that team, right? Where's the glowing one? And who's that?" He points to the obscured Shield Guardian.
"What are you talking about?" Quincy asks as members of the team are starting to get recognized.
"Dude, did you magic super heroes into the game? And make them villains?"
Quincy gets defensive, standing up and backing away. "They just barged in, and were talking smack! Like he was some Doctor Infinity wannabe!"
"And how'd that go?"
"Shut up! This is my place! My Dad let me crash here. He's not Doctor Infinity, but he was his apprentice! So they don't have the right to come in here and act like he's super wizard or something!"
========================
Conway nods. "Come over? Okay... and don't clean up. Got it. Did you find anything out?"
Max gives the other players an awkward wave. ”Yes. That’s me. Devil Diva. Uh, hello.”
She waits for somebody else to deal with Quincy’s temper tantrum.
”Great! See you in a few minutes.” After ending the call, she tells Connie, “I know we can be there in a minute. I just wanted to buy time in case you got any… vibes.”
Shin is listening to Quincy, looking over at Percy the crew, and walks over to the pixelated SG to speak to them quietly. "If you've got a way to mask up now, it would probably be a good idea in case Indarius' spell wears off," He suggests to them. "Sorry you got pulled into this too."
He then turns to Percy, approaching him and leaning in to whisper to him. "It seems like this guy is your only solid lead. If you want him to introduce you to his dad who probably knows more, you should apologize to him, sincerely. You did ruin his game," He says, looking at Indarius with concern and disappointment.
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"Not cool, man! I've been playing Eliana for three years! Since Level one!" says one of the other players, a man with a full beard, though he doesn't seem to be addressing anyone other than Quincy."Dude, why'd you even bring them in? I don't like PVP s%*~!" says another player.
Quincy is still staring agape at Percy. "How did you...? There's no way you should've been able to do that!" He looks over to the players who are turning on him. "That shouldn't have happened! I was in control! They shouldn't have been able to do that!"
Quincy sulks in his chair, staring at the twenty-sided die in his hand.
"Wait, how'd you stay like that?" a player asks Max, a freckle-faced woman with frizzy hair. "You're still... a succubus?"
"No way! That's the devil girl! From that new super team!" another one remarks as recognition sets in.
The one lamenting his character dying looks up. "Wow. If that's her, then..." he gives a good look at the others. "This is that team, right? Where's the glowing one? And who's that?" He points to the obscured Shield Guardian.
"What are you talking about?" Quincy asks as members of the team are starting to get recognized.
"Dude, did you magic super heroes into the game? And make them villains?"
Quincy gets defensive, standing up and backing away. "They just barged in, and were talking smack! Like he was some Doctor Infinity wannabe!"
"And how'd that go?"
"Shut up! This is my place! My Dad let me crash here. He's not Doctor Infinity, but he was his apprentice! So they don't have the right to come in here and act like he's super wizard or something!"
There was a part of Percy, that wanted to be sad that the whole situation was over considering he had a bit of fun himself. "On the bright side, your party isn't dead so you can always go through an quest to get Eliana resurrected think of every setback as a new branch in the story, besides Quincy is a good enough GM to pull that off." Thankfully only the lower half of his face is visible from beneath his enchanted cowl and he smiled at Quincy. "Honestly, that was pretty fun. If you promise that the villains won't stay dead next time, we can do this again and I'll not rip the game world apart. Giving me a little control on my lair was really cool too."
Shin is listening to Quincy, looking over at Percy the crew, and walks over to the pixelated SG to speak to them quietly. "If you've got a way to mask up now, it would probably be a good idea in case Indarius' spell wears off," He suggests to them. "Sorry you got pulled into this too."
He then turns to Percy, approaching him and leaning in to whisper to him. "It seems like this guy is your only solid lead. If you want him to introduce you to his dad who probably knows more, you should apologize to him, sincerely. You did ruin his game," He says, looking at Indarius with concern and disappointment.
[Provoke Percy to sincerely apologize to Quincy]14
Indarius looked over to Steel Guardian who was thankfully still enshrouded by his spell of obscuring. He taps his staff on the ground, W̶̮̘̓̂u̷͕̓l̸͚̏d̴͖͙͘ ̵̫̆Ṉ̸̌a̶̺̅h̷̟̆͂ ̵͙̈́K̸̬̇e̵̪͛ş̷̰͐̾t̴̞͋̈́
With that quickly handled he clears his throat, and gently pushes past DD over to Quincy extending a hand. "I truly thought that the game was great, and I'd love to explore more of it, sorry if anything got broken when I well ya know... that's a thing i'm still working on. It's also why I need those books from Dr. Infinity, and why I can't turn DD here back into a human. I just don't want to make things worse. Please Quincy, can you help us find those books? You're the only lead we've got on this now."
Connie looked off to the side, rubbing one thumb along her index finger."Yeah. Uh. Vibes... Okay, again, this isn't me trying to get the Conway-bird shot out of the sky or drowned by mermaids, but uh... Like, I did try to kiss you in front of him to give him a back off? Err... less of a back off, more of a heads up.."
She darted a glance over at Femms to see how she was taking it
"'Cause he's clearly into you, which hey, relatable, but... he's being weird. Like I feel like I was really clear about not moving things around? And tearing through your collection isn't like a thing you do normally, so either crazy stuff is happening that he's not telling us about, or he's doing it to give the appearance of crazy stuff or...
"I dunno. Too little data, too many confounding variables... But I don't like this situation, and he definitely does."
***
"So, Con Air, what happened here."
Quincy looks unsure. "I don't know. Dad and I aren't exactly on speaking terms right now. But maybe I can ask one of my brothers, see what sort of mood he's in." He starts resetting the table and picking the books up off the floor. "I'll think about it. About the game, too."
He stares in renewed astonishment when Indarius sends Steel Guardian away. "You... you did that with just your own power? Maybe Dad really will want to meet with you."
One of the players goes up to Devil Diva. "Um, hi. Sorry for trying to smite you. I'm Brian."
============================
"Hey," Conway says when the pair arrive. "I was... reorganizing. I'm sorry, I didn't know you didn't want me still not moving things around." He looks around nervously. His display of the lady superheroes were moved, and now the shelves have several of the Disney and Barbie special editions.
He sits down on his bed, looking up expectantly at Connie and Femtite. "So, what'd you find out?"
============================
Steel Guardian, in their civilian persona, appears in the campus. Thankfully, they were placed in between a row of hedges that blocked most line of sight, and no one was passing by at that moment.
"...Okay, that'll do. Also, make friends. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back before I'm missed," Shin informs the group. He does stop by Caio briefly, looking at him.
"...You killed that archer. That scares me you could do it so easily, even if it was a game. It's good for perspective, I think, if you ask her player how they felt in that moment," He suggests, before taking the stairs up two at a time.
Once he's out of the house, he takes to the skies covered in a vantablack envelope to disguise his clothes before flying off.
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Indarius stoops to pick up a few books and sheets of paper, particularly the ones that look like GM notes so that the other players don't get their grubby munchkin hands on them. Handing them directly to Quincy, his staff standing perfectly upright on the floor without him holding it. "So wait... if your dad isn't well you know, who is he?" Once all the GM notes were picked up he looked to the players "Well come on then your GM can't do all the work."
Once Percy sends SG away, Caio moves closer to where she was, picking a couple dice from the floor. He sniffs the air.
As Shin talks to him, Caio answers, but doesn't look Shin in his eyes. "I did it because it was just a game, and it was not just easy... is was also liberating. I hope you'll never understands this feeling."
One of the players goes up to Devil Diva. "Um, hi. Sorry for trying to smite you. I'm Brian."
”It’s all good. Just part of the game, right?” Max says with a shrug. ”Nice to meet you, Brian. So, you guys have been playing with Quincy here for a while?”
Ugggghhhhhhh. Pander more d%#@~@+.
Maybe if I show up in a 'She's not gonna f!%& you' t-shirt he'll get the point? Aside from being a time saver, it might help him identify when he's creeping? Obviously this is fully benevolent.
"Yeah, first thing's first. If we want to avoid weirdness, then step one is something you need to help with."
She pulled out a hammer and horseshoe and lobbed the horseshoe to him underhand. "Let's get hands-on, okay?"
”Oh… I kinda thought so, Connie.” Femtite reaches for Connie’s hand. “He’s not a threat to you, but I’ll let him know we’re dating before we leave his dorm.
“I… think it’s better not to call him out of his infatuation with me. But I don’t know how that sorta thing works here.”
Femtite slows her craft to a hover over Conway’s roof. She doesn’t yet open the dome. “There’s this young guard by the breech. She looks 18, always gives me a friendly wave when I come home. I don’t think she expects to be… with me. I just… wave back.
“It’s not the same as Conway though. She just waves. She doesn’t make me dresses.” Her eyes fall to her lap. “If I don’t tell him, I’m hurting him… aren’t I?”
“Oh, Disney princesses and fairies! I love these—Connie and I were just watching a Disney movie on our date!”
It wasn’t Femtite’s plan to blurt her relationship up-front, but better this than kissing in front of him.
…but in the interest of staying on-task she offers Connie her ‘hair clip,’ and asks, “If there was one spot I could examine up-close—as close as I can get—where would you choose?”
Horizon leaves out the front door and immediately finds himself confusingly in an alley that doesn't have a house behind him that he just left! But rather than concern himself with that mystery, he flies off toward the school.
Inside, Brian pauses to think. "Um, couple years, I think? Kara joined us a couple months ago, but Greg and Steve and me are the original group." He glances over his shoulder towards Indarius. "So, what he said, about turning you back? Is that right? That's messed up."
Quincy is mostly mollified but still acting pretty sulky that his game was busted. "I-- probably shouldn't say. If you want to meet with him, he'll let you know if he wants you to know. 'Names have power,' and all that."
He waves his hand at a side door almost hidden amongst the shelves and empty displays. "Feel free to look around at the old junk. Most of it is pretty lame or completely busted. I'm going to get these guys home."
========================
Conway flinches as the horseshoe is tossed in his direction and he clumsily drops it on the floor. "Ow! Let me know first if you're going to throw heavy stuff at me! Is that a horseshoe?"
He perks up when Femtite gushes over the princess and fairy dolls. But when she asks about where she should look up close, he throws his hands up. "How am I supposed to know-- Oh, you're asking her. Sorry."
"Yeah, sorry. Should've warned you. Along that line, before we even put up the horseshoe. I'm gonna need to get just a drop of blood from you."
Gingerly she removed an iron needle from a small sealed pouch and held it up for a beat before walking towards him.
"Gimme a finger. Or just close your eyes and wait for the prick."
Femtite is surprised by Connie’s need for blood, but she does know a lot about magic.
“It’s okay, Conway. She’s not going to hurt you. Connie knows a lot about magic!”
As for the unanswered question, Femtite decides she can use her own abilities while Connie uses magical knowledge.
(If Connie doesn’t take Love Bug, The, Femtite will shrink it to microscopic size and park it where the Imagerie doll was.
If Connie does take it, Mind-Link will be active.)
Femtite shrinks to become a subatomic spark. She gazes upon a universe of nucleus plants orbited by electron stars. The universe expands as Femtite becomes almost nothing…
Femtite encourages the boy to allow the needle prick, and then shrinks down to her tiniest mote she's able to reduce herself to. From there, her mind expands.
In this subatomic space where atoms are huge and the stuff in between is unquantifiable, Femtite sees that the flows of dimensional energy are strangely turbulent. Granted, they're always turbulent in Halcyon City, but this is stranger than usual. From this space, she recognizes a silvery tether tied to her -- the fey bargain has actual substance here, now that her body is more concept than matter. For some reason, however, there is a second tether stretching off of her. And she sees that same silvery aether swirling around here in the locale of Conway's dorm room. The realization hits her -- there's a gateway to the fey realm in his room!
Then, she realizes there's another pulse of energies running through the aether along with the fey substance. She senses it as mental energy, something on the scale that only a psychic could produce!
In big-space, Conway recoils from the needle. He stands and starts to back away, but then sighs. He shakes his head in resignation. "Connie, Connie... too smart, but not smart enough. You could have been part of my collection, too, if you weren't so damned efficient." The voice coming out of Conway is still his, but he's effecting some sort of European accent.
He looks annoyed. "If only this fool boy hadn't spotted those little details. I had to take him over sooner than I'd planned. You were going to be next, just to keep you and your girlfriend off my scent. Now, I think you'll just have to have an accident."
Suddenly, the space around Connie warps and stretches. The rows of doll packages on his shelves and walls stretch into impossibly long hallways, and the dolls and their packages grow bigger and bigger! Before Connie can react, she's surrounded by hundreds of life-sized dolls! Then they all turn their heads in unison to stare straight at her!
Conway laughs -- the distance is now stretched and there are dozens of dolls in between her and him! "You're clever, for a human. But you won't escape my pretties."
Conflux, what do you do??
"Pfft - I'm clever for all kinds of things. Cephalopods, cetaceans, ungulates..."
"Femms! Conway's taken over by the Dollmaker! Pretty sure it's original flavor Conway's body though, so don't burn him."
"You're really not helping the whole doll fan reputation with all this though. Have you even considered the dozens of large scale doll collectors who haven't ever killed, skinned, or eaten people? They deserve representation too. And mine are for work. Mostly."
Okay, okay. Endless hall of murder dolls. Not ideal. Or idoll-el? Terrible, that would have been more embarrassing for Femms to hear than the spanking stuff.
But dying while you think about which is more embarrassing is probably worse than both so....
She put up an immobile, all-purpose ward around herself to give her a moment to think. "Just need a plan...
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Horizon leaves out the front door and immediately finds himself confusingly in an alley that doesn't have a house behind him that he just left! But rather than concern himself with that mystery, he flies off toward the school.
Inside, Brian pauses to think. "Um, couple years, I think? Kara joined us a couple months ago, but Greg and Steve and me are the original group." He glances over his shoulder towards Indarius. "So, what he said, about turning you back? Is that right? That's messed up."
Quincy is mostly mollified but still acting pretty sulky that his game was busted. "I-- probably shouldn't say. If you want to meet with him, he'll let you know if he wants you to know. 'Names have power,' and all that."
He waves his hand at a side door almost hidden amongst the shelves and empty displays. "Feel free to look around at the old junk. Most of it is pretty lame or completely busted. I'm going to get these guys home."
Once everything is picked up Indarius nods, "Thanks Quincy, we'll check all that out now." While the group is getting ready to leave Indarius waves to the others before Unmirroring himself and DD. "That wasn't too bad yeah? I'm gonna send Shin and SG an apology real quick and then we can check out that back room."
He pulled out his Communicator and typed out a message on two separate tight-band private links.
Hey guys, thanks for the help sorry I pulled you into that. We're getting ready to look at what it was all worth, with any luck playing along will go a long way to help Conflux and myself with the research for helping D and Caio. I owe you all pizza or some kind of dinner later.
The fey are able to manipulate subatomic unstructures… and they stretch endlessly. And Connie figured it out too, or she wouldn’t have tried getting Conway to touch all that metal.
Only, if he figured out we’re smart enough—
Femtite grows as big as her mother can!
An impossibly tiny spark flies fast!
Connie feels Love Bug, The unclip from her hair. It starts to expand…
”Get in!” shouts now-inch-tall Femtite from the seat of her now–foot-long Bug!
”So, what he said, about turning you back? Is that right? That's messed up."
”Yeah, well, it’s not his fault. I’m beginning to doubt I’ll ever be able to get back to normal. I’m just...trying to come to terms with it,” Max sighs.
***
Once back in the real world, Max looks at Percy. ”Need us for anything else?”
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Indarius looked up from his communicator and then started towards the 'hidden' back room. "If you wanna share in this discovery, I mean.. come on how cool is this. It might not be a whole collection but, The Dr. Infinity's collection of mystical books and knowledge. Honestly this is what we came here for in the first place."
He would venture in and see what the prize was.
"I'd like to check the place, yeah... perhaps we do find something useful." He says, joining Percy.
Conflux activates her ward as the dolls loom around her. She considers her options, and realizes that even though Conway seems still human, he reacted with aversion to the iron. That, and he generally appears out of shape so unless the Dukkemager's powers have also juiced him up, Conflux could probably take him in a fight.
The sudden appearance of Love Bug, The forces the encroaching dolls back. As she's expanding from subatomic, Femtite loses sense of the strands of aether affecting her and the area around her but she notices one thing. The dorm room is normal until she becomes perceptible, and then suddenly the room warps into the nightmarish doll-lined hallway where Connie is.
Conway sneers when Femtite arrives. "I had hoped you'd be gone longer. No matter. You cannot stop me; you've accepted a gift from me." He snaps his fingers and suddenly, Femtite is wearing the poodle skirt clothing and finds herself stuck at the size of those clothes, unable to grow any larger!
"You're a fascinating creature, Femtite," he says as she struggles in the doll clothes. "Not mortal, but not faerie -- even though you like to pretend. Once I've had my revenge on this school and every last descendant of Horatio Walden, you will be an interesting subject of study in my triumph.
"Now all that's left is to deal with you, Connie." He waves his hand and a life-sized doll of Imagerie steps out from behind him. "Tell me, what do you fear most?"
========================================
Quincy pulls out a glowing bus ticket and holds it up against a bare wall. Suddenly, a doorway is outlined, which opens up revealing a municipal parking garage on the other side. He turns back to Quincy and says, "Check back here in a week. I'll let you know then if Dear Old Dad wants to meet with you."
Brian and the other players reluctantly pull away from the conversations, and after saying goodbye they step through the mystical doorway. Then Quincy steps through and it closes up.
The side chamber appears carved out of obsidian-like stone. More wards and sigils lay across this threshold, but like the basement itself they are broken and inert.
The chamber is filled with old-looking trinkets and objects, many of which are broken. An old birdcage sits next to a hand-cranked phonograph player. There is a ribbon-fed typewriter, a rusted bicycle, a dusty snow globe depicting a tiny castle, and a stack of old Life magazines. A rusty dagger sits on a tarnished silver platter. A feather quill is stuck in a delicate champagne flute. A deck of cards is on another platter, and a set of scales are weighing a tiny glass vial with some sort of powder inside against a much larger clay pot. Somehow, the scales are balanced. A violin with no strings sits in a corner.
What do you do??
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As Indarius steps into the room he runs a hand across the old faded runes and feels a sort of sadness though he's not entirely sure why. After taking in a stock of all the things in the room he hums to himself, most of this looks like simple junk and Connie is perhaps the more experienced one to go to for artifact advice in particular. For the time being he walks around and examines the items without interacting with them pulling out a notebook and scribbling down the observed effects to share with Connie later. While the whole venture is interesting, he finds his want for adventure waning. Until the group can convene with Quincy's dad he finds himself admitting that perhaps its best to head on home and pay his dues a bit frustrated at the end results.
"Well... it's not much but cool that it's here at least. Maybe Conflux will be able to figure out what everything does truth be told she's better with artifacts. You two ready to go?" He asks Max and Caio but it looks pretty clear that he's ready to get out of here for now and probably go back towards the dorms. He does owe Shin and Steel Guardian after all as well as Max and Caio for coming on this little quest.
As you're about to leave, you notice an empty crate that has the typewriter sitting on it. There is still packing material inside the crate, like old straw and cloth. Whatever was stored in the crate left an imprint in the packing material that gives you a pretty good idea of its size and shape. And that size and shape looks very familiar.
The idol.
”Yeah. Sorry you weren’t able to find out more, Percy. Maybe soon.” Max pats Percy’s shoulder as they prepare to depart—
—and that’s when she notices the imprint in the packing material of the crate. The shape is unmistakable.
”Holy s%&@! Guys... this is where the idol came from! The one that changed me! It was right there!”
She holds a hand towards the empty crate and closes her eyes, extending her supernatural senses to try to get any sort of magical impression about this room, the idol, or who might have been here recently!
The crate has no residual aura inside it, so it is impossible to tell if it contained the same idol or one shaped exactly like it. The psychic imprint of the chamber, however, is different. The underlying purpose of the room was storage -- or imprisonment. However, a more recent visitor left a residue -- sin. It's a heady cocktail that makes Max's demon side flush and euphoric. Avarice, ambition, and pride are the main ingredients, but tied together with the sins of allowing innocents to suffer punishments in someone's stead.
Images erupted out of Connie's head in all directions like a demented birth of Athena. Dead-eyed strangers with hard hands and twisting fingers replaced the swarming dolls while a middle-aged Peter Pan soared above them as their leader, voice cracking between bass and soprano as he crowed.
She couldn't speak.
She tried to stem the flood, but more images flickered into her surroundings. Her teammates, Femms included, appeared amid the throng of strangers, either with faces locked in twisted revulsion or thoughts concealed behind dark, mindless passion.
Shadowy strands stemmed from the nape of all of their necks, leading up to a dark cloud too far away to make out any of the details.
Connie's heart was hammering in her chest, but she managed to pry open her lips just enough to whisper:
"These illusions really f+~%ing suck. Totally unconvincing. Amateur s&!!."
She braced herself for a wave of pain, or a flood of bitterness in her mouth to wash out her disrespect, but nothing came.
"Hey I get it, hard to juggle all the details when you're dredging up this much s%#@."
Maybe her fears had substance, maybe they could still kill her; either way she was still reeling. But it wasn't real.
Conway was.
Connie dropped her ward and sprinted, putting her back to her nightmares while she switched her focus, and her immobile all-purpose ward, to the Dukkemager.
Can't let him get away with that body.
Max puts a hand to her head as she swoons slightly. "This was a containment room. But somebody broke in recently... Someone who reeks of sin. Greed, and pride, and misplaced punishments. That's all I can pick up..."
"Sometimes, yeah. When I concentrate. Never felt it so strongly before. If it wasn't a demon who came here, it was somebody deeply in league with one..."
Max shakes her head. "It's too old. Dammit!" She kicks the crate, causing it to splinter!
Conflux fights through the visions assailing her and manages to lock down Conway's body. He stands rigid and in place while his eyes roll in the back of his head.
A small wooden figure climbs up onto the boy's shoulder. It's doll-sized, looking hand-carved and ancient like a toy from days of yore. Its face is carved into a nasty, spiteful grimace.
"Fine, then! I'll take the boy back later. I'll simply use my other lovely to deal with the two of you!"
And then the window and outside wall blows up.
=======================
Horizon is flying as fast as he can across the the city to reach Halcyon Prep. As he starts to slow down once over the campus, he sees his mentor flying near one of the dorms. She either doesn't see him flying in, or doesn't acknowledge him.
Then she draws a quill from her belt and throws it at one of the windows, blowing a hole in the wall!
Steel Guardian, hiding out on the school grounds, hears the explosion and sees Whippoorwill swooping into the building!
What do you do???
=======================
Framed by the outside light and sudden hole in the wall, the winged heroine Whippoorwill swoops in and lands next to Conway, who was protected from the explosion by Conflux's ward.
As soon as she steps inside, her image warps slightly, taking on the appearance of one of Conway's dolls!
What do you do??
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Max shakes her head. "It's too old. Dammit!" She kicks the crate, causing it to splinter!
Indarius jumps a bit at the sudden kick looking back to Caio and then to Max, "Comeon Max.. we'll find out whoever did this to you, maybe not today but we'll find answers I promise." He places a hand on her arm in an attempt to comfort her and lead her away.
What in the world?!
Shin puts away his comm as he flies towards his mentor, seeing her fly into a hole in the wall. "Sensei, what are you doing?" He calls out as he flies in following her, and suddenly gets a scene that he has very little context about. He quickly scans the room to try and figure out what is going on here!
Caio doesn't know how to help. Very used to wards and sigils, Caio takes a look on destroyed ones, trying to figure out if there was a clue there about what was being stored here. "Percy, give me a sheet of paper and a pen so I can copy the wards..."
As he works, Caio realizes that even without additional clues, the whole situation raised a couple questions."Max, you said months old... but Quency has been playing RPG with that group for a couple years. We need to track him. He might be either involved or know something about the one who came here."
"Another question would be 'why here'? The rest of the stuff here appears to be nothing but junk... do you guys think the idol was being stored here? If so, Quency's father would know about it... if it was not being stored here, what was here that caused the one behind it to come here to do whatever it did? This is not an easy place to reach."
Femtite sees Connie freeze up. She dives into the bag—observing other contents as she wraps her arm around a flashlight almost half her size… but before she can tell Connie her intent, Connie is sprinting into action.
She jams the light against her Bug’s cigarette lighter!
As the Sheeninatrix X-W3LL alters Love Bug, The’s headlights, Femtite responds to Conway.
“Yes, I suppose I am fascinating, just as I find humans and fey fascinating too. But you are a fool, Conway. Your collection shows you appreciate the human female form… and what do you do to the most beautiful human I know?
“You hurt her.”
She shines her headlights on Conway. A thread is connecting him to her because of the poodle skirt. Before she attempts to disconnect it, she needs to see it.
I can’t hurt him because I accepted his gift…
"I don't know. I don't know! There are so many questions and never enough answers!" Max laments.
She starts when Percy puts his hand on her arm, jerking it away. "I don't need your pity! Ugh, I just... I need to get out of here." She storms out of the storeroom.
Shin arrives and sees... a scene. His initial perception is a crowded dorm room with Love Bug, The crushing the door out to the hallway and beaming out a strange silvery light. Imagerie and Whippoorwill are there, along with a student Shin barely knows, standing rigidly in place. On his shoulder is a strange wooden puppet -- but seemingly to have a life of its own!
Then Horizon blinks, and the scene changes. The dorm room is replaced with a hallway filled with rows upon rows of life-sized dolls, all looking menacing. Love Bug, The is unchanged, nor is the silver light it's projecting, but Whippoorwill and Imagerie look like life-sized doll versions of themselves!
"More!?!" the wooden doll gasps when Horizon appears. "Kill them! Kill them all, my lovelies!"
"...I just wanted a quiet Saturday," Shin groans as he flies forward for the bizarre wooden puppet. He's got no idea how his powers will work here - he's not well versed in magic or why Whip and Imagerie were here (Or if was really them or just looked like them), but he powers up and tries his best to attack while avoiding his mentor and her teammate, firing blasts of concentrated light and heat out at the puppet!
He's not exactly hitting the mark, especially seeing as he has to aim to avoid hitting Whip and Imagerie! "Okay, what have I managed to wander into?" He shouts at Fem, assuming she's inside of Love Bug, The...
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Watching Max storm out only sours the venture further for Percy, but he gives in to Caio's request and fishes a fresh notebook and a thick charcoal pencil out for him to use.
"Just uh.. let me know when you're good to go back to the school.. I think Max might need some time to cool off with herself? This whole thing was alot."
Femtite is only a foot tall, clad in a 50’s Barbie poodle skirt ensemble. She’s clinging onto the control stick of her Bug, and her right foot can barely reach the leftmost thruster buttons.
She calls out to Connie, Horizon and whoever else shows up—“The supers are fake! The wooden boy is the enemy! And I can’t hurt him because I accepted his gift!
“Only now, I REJECT MY GIFT!”
Femtite becomes a doll-sized inferno! Apocalypsetime Barbie, Nuclear Summer Edition?
Caio watches as Max storms of, but doesn't follow. He could, and a couple days ago he would without thinking twice. Today he picks the notebook to copy the sigils and runes. "Uhum... sure, with herself." He answers without thinking too much, letting some of his recent frustrations to slip.
While copying one rune, he notices something stuck to the wall. Caio shifts a claw to help clean it, and as he does so, he discovers that the sigil that that rune belonged was in fact not destroyed like the others. "Hey, look at this... it appears to still be functioning... do you know what these couple runes mean? Never seen them before. Yesterday Connie..." As soon as he mentions Connie's name, however, Caio disappears in a flash of light, the notebook and pan falling on the ground!
Horizon follows his instincts and blasts at the small wooden doll, but a resounding crack! of Whippoorwill's whip sends his aim off! His attack goes wide of the wooden creature and is aimed right at Love Bug, The!
At that moment, Caio appears in burst of light and runic sigils -- only to get blasted back and into the Kirby-craft. The vehicle and the Bull get blown back by the force through the door and into the hallway of the dormitory!
The small, poodle-skirt-clad form of Femtite glows as hot as a fusion core for a brief moment, severing the silver thread of the fey's gift!
"You shouldn't be able to do that!" the Dukkemager screams. "Destroy them! Destroy them all!"
Imagerie gestures and fades into the mass of dolls arrayed along the walls. They start grasping and clutching at Caio and Love Bug, The!
The doll-like Whippoorwill turns to Horizon. She steps forward and delivers a kick that sends him flying outside! Her wings flap and suddenly she's outside as well, keeping him disoriented with countless strikes and jabs.
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Percy finds himself alone in the former living space of Doctor Infinity. Max stormed out, Caio somehow managed to get himself summoned away.
What do you do?
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Max finds herself alone on a suburban street. There's a Catholic church up the street, numerous brownstone houses lining the road.
Femtite dodges the attack without making a bigger mess of the dorm.
Her fire cools, leaving her naked as whatever 50’s Barbie was stripped for the poodle skirt ensemble.
”There are a lot of shouldn’ts happening in this room, Dukkemager. You shouldn’t mistake this body for your toy. I am Connie’s fiery space princess.
“And you shouldn’t have hurt her.”
Femtite double-taps the light punch buttons, taps the stick, taps the light kick button… then jumps on heavy punch!
Love Bug, The becomes a fiery bullet aimed at Dukkemager’s heart!