The door opens to reveal Max standing on the other side. She is wearing a rather revealing, lacy red negligee, and she greets Shin with a grin. "Hell yeah, donuts! Connie and Femtite are in the other room, but come in. I'm starving!" she says.
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Femtite comes out wearing a pink robe covered in sakura petals and sleeping Jigglypuff. She is bear from upper thigh down with colorful nails on fingers and toes.
“We all slept very well, Horizon!” There is a fire blanket spread on the floor in front of the sofa. There are pillows and regular blankets strewn about. She thinks about clarifying ‘this is not what it looks like,’ but she doesn’t.
She doesn’t eat a donut either. “If I eat one, my nails will be ruined.” This statement arguably needs for clarification than the unsaid not-a-threesome, but Femtite offers none.
“I will heat up some tea.”
It takes Femtite about seventeen seconds to gather cups, pour water, and spread a choice of tea bags on a matching saucer. A sunbeam from her palm instantly heats that water to slightly hotter than drinkable, so the tea will be pleasantly hot after steeping.
"Mrgllll glrrm gl, rwlrwlrwlrw Gimme the phone."
Making a few more threatening and vaguely inhuman sounds, she grabbed her glasses and blinked hard to clear the sleep out of the way of her reading.
Lightning Thief: Hey we need to talk for real, no distractions, no flaking.
Connie: Look who found his phone!
Connie: Just come on over
Connie: (Still time to put a net trap up)
Her phone taken care of, she glared at the other intruder on her sleep.
"Why, Shin. Just why."
Shin's eyes widened at the sight of Max here, not having expected her to be in this room...or wearing what seemed to amount to nearly nothing. He stared up at the ceiling reflexively while handing over the bag of donuts. "Tea would be nice, Fem, thanks."
He steps inside, very much avoiding looking at Max while reaching under his sweatshirt to pull a nasal spray out from the thin utility belt underneath, and did a quick spray. His eyes watered, groaning as he pinched his nose. "Ohhhh, that burns so badly. Needed that. That look is like a cover of a pulp magazine, Max," He comments, glancing at Conflux. And he's blushing as well looking at her as much as he was glancing at Femtite and Max.
"But, since you are here as well, I would like it if I could have a run down of what exactly happened down in the Ninth Circle. Since I wasn't there. I'm sorry about that too. My...a member of the Duskguard, Gloaming, found me and distracted me from the mission. Dusk still has a vested interest in me...and apparently, still remembers this timeline. Unless he's lying."
”I’m glad you like it,” Max replies with a coy smile. It’s unclear if she’s actually teasing Shin or not...
Between bites of chocolate donuts, Max relates the story of exactly what went down in the Ninth Circle last night. ”Bottom line is the spirit of Violet is still inside of me, and if I can’t fight off her corrupting influence, then I’m screwed. And the city might be, too, if the three succubi sisters are reunited for whatever purpose they’re meant to fulfill. Someone, somewhere, might know a way for me to save myself. But the answers I was looking for weren’t at that club. Just misery and heartbreak.”
Femtite gladly kisses Connie on the lips. After Connie clips Love Bug, The into her hair, Femtite shrinks to about a centimeter tall and boards her craft.
** spoiler omitted **
With her mind focused on how to attend both dances without breaking their promise to Tyg, she notes in her subatomic state that time doesn't appear to move at the same rate in the fae realms as it does in the macroverse.
Perception and interest can stretch time to near infinite lengths, while boredom and malaise could cause time to speed up terribly fast. Assuming the All Hallow's Eve ball is of sufficient interest, there may be a window to sneak out, attend the school ball, and sneak back in.
The only problem is, Connie would need extra fairy dust. Obtaining more would probably require another fae debt.
Skyler props her head up with her elbow on the table as she listens to Caio talk about Connie. "That's good to have a person like that you can go to. I hope she -- uh, well, nevermind."
She changes the topic quickly. "So, uh, have you ever walked across the Edlund Bridge? I've never done it at night, but I think the Halcyon skyline would be amazing from that viewpoint."
Caio hasn't either been to the Edlund Bridge at night, so he takes up on Skyler's offer. Once there, he looks at the skyline for a couple minutes, enjoying her company a lot. "It is really beautiful here... not the most beautiful thing I can see right now, but still really beautiful."
Looking up, however, he has an idea. "How do you think the view from up there will look like?"
Skyler looks up -- and up -- to the top of the bridge tower. "You don't, like, happen to secretly have any flying powers?"
She paces back and forth for a moment, muttering to herself and working up her courage. "Uh, okay. ohmigod, I can't believe I'm doing this." She steps in close. "How do we do this? Do I just hang on to you? Are you going to one-arm it?" The smell of her nervousness and excitement is singing in Caio's brain.
"Do wolves fly?" He asks joking as he removes his shoes and socks and hides them nearby. He shifts his legs and his right hand into a claw, while also bulking up a bit because of the obvious effort it will take, but not enough to risk his shirt being shredded. "Right, just hug me and hang on." He then holds her tight by her waist, lifting her from the ground as if she weighted nothing.
"Ready?" Her excitement fills Caio like some sort of drug and before she can answer him, he jumps as high as possible, holding to the grates of the bridge, jumping thereafter from one point to another until they reach the very top of the bridge.
Femtite says to Max, “I didn’t want to bring this up last night, but I was able to sense Violet at the subatomic level. I felt her dark, cold energy assaulting you.
“I wasn’t sure what I sensed at first… I thought Violet was a different body. But now that I understand, I can find out now if her tie to you is stronger at the Gates of…” She doesn’t want to say. “Near the portal. The club is definitely near a very real portal.
“Anyway, DD, I would like to examine you at a subatomic level.”
She turns to Horizon. “Before I do, I want you to see this, and I’m under the opinion Whippoorwill should too.”
Fem grows the Bug again and shows the video from the moment she altered the lock, to when the door is busted open and Praetoria shouts down Connie, and takes a lot of convincing from Caio and Connie. This whole scene is viewed through then-fairy-sized Femtite, so everyone looks like a giant.
Of course, she also caught Caio, Connie and DD at moments that made them look like professional heroes, whereas Praetoria is raging.
“I’m forwarding this video to you, Horizon. My intent is not to embarrass Praetoria. I want assurance that she will stay away from our team. She has done nothing but damage to us, and this particular incident endangered us needlessly. If necessary, I can show you what Connie recorded as well so you can see proof that we rescued her and DD.”
Femtite blushes furiously. “But… it’s probably not necessary to show that one.”
"They're covered, c'mon in"
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Lightning Thief: Hey we need to talk for real, no distractions, no flaking.
Connie: Look who found his phone!
Connie: Just come on over
Connie: (Still time to put a net trap up)
Percy looked down at his phone and found himself gritting his teeth, Oh the nerve, first she stands me up multiple times, now she's making demands when i'm trying to save her from talking about it in front of Femtite.
He took a deep breath and exhaled sharply, before going about getting a shower and a fresh set of clothes on. Grabbing his things he rumbles out of his dorm room and towards Connie and Fems.
After some time a forceful triple knock emanates from the door.
Max nods to Femtite. "Okay. Will it hurt?"
She ooks away when Femtite plays the video again, not wanting to relive the scene a third time.
Skyler doesn't scream, but she doesn't take a breath until he's reached the top and her feet are on something solid. She clung to him desperately, squeezing hard around his torso for the whole ride up.
The wind is much stronger and colder at the top of the bridge tower. But the view is brilliant. The Tower District glitters in reds, whites, golds, and silvers. The Shuster Skyrail gleams like a ribbon winding through canyons of crystal and steel. Far off in the distance some lightning plays in some black clouds -- unless it's the signs of a super powered battle happening.
Skyler's jaw chatters in the cold wind and she hugs her jacket closer to her, but her eyes are locked on the City of Heroes.
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Percy opens and marches into the room, closing the door perhaps just a bit too forcefully behind him. And begins without even waiting for anyone, without a care of who he might interrupt since Connie didn't want to just come over and talk to just him.
"Well just so you know, Connie's dad is the manager of the Gates of Hell and who I talked to last night. And who we're going to probably meet with tonight at Knighthall. By the way he's storing back some of the residual aetherical energy being generated at the club and probably using it to fuel his own magic and who knows what else. Also he seems to really want my spellbook, which shocker means it probably belonged to Dr. Infinity at one point since he thinks I stole it."
He taps his foot impatiently looking over the gaggle of people with exasperation born of a mostly sleepless night among other things, "Truth be told, I don't want to have to kick his ass in a wizard one Vee one. But I also need to know what he's planning with all that built up energy. I don't think he's gonna tear another hole in the planar way, given that the current 'hell scar' is doubled up and gonna take exponentially more to punch through than last time, and that's if any of us are even alive for all the celestial alignments to come back around so probably not his end-game." Connie would perhaps even catch a slight tone of unease or perhaps even an inflection of fear in his voice. Along with the slightly darker than normal circles under his eyes it seems he isn't one-hundred percent certain he'd win a magical duet with the older mage even if he could probably use sheer power to bend him, it wouldn't come without severe risk to him and everyone around.
Even if Caio doesn't feel cold like normal people, even he can feel the cold winds, so he wraps his arms around Skyler, trying to warm her and protect her from the wind. He stays like this for several minutes, before asking. "Back in the rec center, when you asked me about who I'd look to talk when I needed, I felt you wanted to say something else..."
Shin is very concerned about the video and the implications that it has for Praetoria. "Send me the rest of the footage as well. I may not watch it, but Whippoorwill will want the full documentation to analyze for the Alliance. If what Max says is true and Violet coming to possess her fully will cause some kind of catastrophe, we'll want whatever data we can get to consider countermeasures." Though if her sisters were pin-ups like Max, it would be something he figured he shouldn't watch.
"As for Praetoria, she's not a member of the team. Unless circumstances require her involvement, we won't work alongside her," He guarantees to Femtite. "But she's also still a student in this school. Odds are that you will brush shoulders with her on occasion, if not be actively approached."
He's about to get into more specifics when Percy suddenly drops in, and drops a massive revelation that sends his head spinning. "Hold on, wait a minute, this is a lot," He says, looking at Connie to see what she has to say before committing his two bits.
As the minutes stretch, Skyler leans more and more into Caio but stays quiet. When he asks about the thing she just about said at the rec center, she stiffens. "I changed my mind. What I was about to say... wouldn't be helpful."
"I didn't know that."
Her hands clenched and writhed like her fingers were trying to burrow their way through her palms.
I almost stole that lanyard and he was right there! I almost stole it from him!
"Just- just how f@@!ing stupid are you, Perce!? You go and meet up with- And you're talking about getting in a 'wizard 1v1?!' The next f~%&ing day?! So you left me in the dark about this all f+%$ing night?! I thought you were just in a different go-go cage you a!*#$%#!
"I've been wasting my time painting f@*@ing toenails while you're out there painting your ass bright red and waving it around in hopes of finding a bull when you don't even know what to do if one charges?!"
"Nope, nope nope-nope-nope-nope. I don't- I don't know what the f#@~ to do with this, but I'm not doing it here."
Femtite laughs. “At one femtometer tall, you will be one-point-six quadrillion times my height, four quattuordecillion times my volume. The scale is more disparate than you compared to Earth.
“You will neither feel nor perc…”
Perc is let in before Fem can go on. After his big revelation, Fem gives DD the interstellar one-moment-please sign.
She moves to Connie’s side, just there for her—only Connie is…
”Wait—Connie?” Femtite grabs her Bug and shrinks it to hair clip size. She turns to Percy, “Nail polish is not a waste of time! This is our home, Percy. Have you any idea how hard I work to make our home a happy place?”
While curious and a bit worried, Caio respects Skyler's will and doesn't push her for answers. "Don't worry about it then."
Noticing she begins to shiver a bit, Caio grabs her hand. "I think you should close your eyes as we go down... it will not be easy as it was to climb up..." He says that in an apologetically way as he studies his path.
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"Oh yeah that's rich blaming me for keeping this from you after pretty much everyone had a s!$~ night. How could I be such a s@&~head" He tossed a hand up in the air in a display of feigned guilt.
"I wanted to let you rest because it was nice, because we could deal with this Today. I didn't go out of my way looking for him. I was there to help Max. And while 'Being There' for Max because she needed help, I happened to be noticed by your dad. So don't you dare act like I went out of my way searching for him."
He watched as she tried to gather her things to leave a pit growing in his gut and twisting. "And now when I try and talk yet again. So we can discuss a plan on how to NOT fight him you turn tail and want to run? Oh boy maybe if you'd actually come sooner and not ignored me we could have dealt with this sooner but noooooo~."
Anyone with the still hot tea in their hands would notice a sharp drop in room temperature as the liquid shot back to lukewarm, the faucet starting to frost up at the edges. "Connie wants to go on a date, Connie wants to play space princess. Connie doesn't realize she's letting her other friendships fall apart!"
His glare snapped at Femtite and there was something inhumanly menacing about the look in his eyes. Full of pride and hurt like she had stolen something dear to him.
"And just how long do 'You' think it'll be until you become the next thing on her list of discarded 'forget me nots'." The chill in the air took another localized nose dive, much to the dismay of anyone in pajamas causing the teacups to crack down the side, not breaking completely, the tea inside now rendered right out of the faucet cold.
Tears well in Femtite’s amethyst eyes.
“You… want to mock me? For what I was born as?”
Molten gold trickles down her cheeks.
“You say ‘space princess’ like I’m just a play thing. A privileged aristocrat whose feeling can be disregarded. Yet, had you entered our home with just a little basic manners, I’d be serving you right now.
“That’s what you learn when you are a princess, if you consider the feelings of others. My mother’s harem taught me how to serve. How to make a home happy.”
She turns to DD, “I did good, right? The tea and the throw pillows and not being cuddly with Connie in front of you so you wouldn’t feel like a third wheel?
“And Connie was in a place she could paint toenails.” The sobs grow louder, “She was in a place she could paint toenails, Percy! Do you fail to see the significance of that as you call yourself her friend?”
Shaken, she softens her voice, “Please do not use magic to cool the room. You do not want me to raise the temperature.”
Some part of Connie's mind heard what Percy and Femms were saying, cataloguing and filing it all away for her to review later, but all she knew she was hearing was the roar of blood crashing through her ears, and all she could focus on was a simple checklist that she'd drilled into her mind till she was fairly certain that she would have done it by mistake if she went into a trance.
She didn't take time to change out of her PJs or gather much more than a single already sealed duffle and then she was through the door. She cracked a single glowstick and dropped it as she passed the threshold. "Don't touch my stuff; it's not safe. Even you Perce."
”You did very good,” Max reassures Femtite.
When Connie storms out, Max crosses her arms over her chest and steps in front of Percy. ”Okay. Time out. Take a breath. I know that Connie can come across as...abrasive sometimes, but she didn’t deserve that blowup just now. Nobody does. There’s a lot of s+$+ going down, but we need to try to understand one another so we can have each other’s backs. Or we're all going to fall apart like Shin’s last team did.
“So, please, Percy. Sit down. Have some tea. Talk to me. I’m a good listener.”
“Connie…?”
Femtite turns to Horizon and DD. “I will follow her. Alone, if you please.”
To Percy, she says, “You owe us a new tea set.”
She flies after Connie, hoping the glowstick—which she guesses makes Connie invisible—won’t hide her from pixite eyes.
Shin presses his palms into his eyes firmly enough until he starts seeing spots as chaos seems to reign all around them. "I...cannot...handle this right now," He says. "Deal with it all on your own!"
That sharp statement is punctuated by him then marching out of Conflux's dorm room and leaving this fiasco that he had no idea how to properly deal with everything. He sent Whippoorwill the video package he had gotten from Femtite about what happened last night, then turned off his comm and went back to his room, away from any potential duties.
Femtite sees an empty hall, as she expected.
“You’re here, aren’t you?” she says as she walks down the hall toward the door leading outside. “I hope you are. I hope you’re listening… because if you want to get away from me by outsmarting me, then chasing you is futile.
“You’re the smartest person I know. So you know I will follow you anyway.”
She steps outside and descends the front steps.
“Because I care. Because I worry. Because if I have to go back in there with Percy I will say words I can never take back!”
She looks around, certain that no matter which way she goes will be the wrong way.
She removes Love Bug, The from her hair, then molten nail polish spatters onto the step as Femtite shrinks to fit into her tiny craft. She stews for a while, her body engulfed in flames.
She stares at the flashing button meant for emergency use. This is one! Femtite pounds the button so hard she destroys it!
If I end up back in the hall…
Femtite appears barely more than a dozen yards away on a straight line from the hall window to the nearest bus stop, but Connie's still nowhere to be seen.
The pixite unleashes a sudden fireworks display, loud, bright and entirely impossible for anyone to ignore.
A dust cloud kicks up from the ground a few quick strides from where Femtite had appeared, and a very crude stick figure-esque drawing quickly forms. The lines don't perfectly intersect as though whatever's drawing them isn't looking at what it's doing.
A woman standing in a shower.
A beetle... a beetle with a line through it.
A house, a clock, a smaller clock.
Fem sees the drawings. She grows to human size.
“No bug… back home in a little while? An hour and a half?”
Panic sets in. “I don’t know if I understand the first one… I might. Can I get a hint, or confirmation that I got the other two right? Please Connie… I CAN’T go back home. If I see Percy, I’ll add to the damage he’s done to our friendship, if you can even call it that.”
Getting no answer, Fem shrinks and flies in a straight line. If she hears the footfalls stop at the bus stop, she waits.
“You didn’t draw a bus.”
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Percy watched as yet another person fled from him. Just one more person who wouldn't help when he had issues, but he could make them stay, had every spell in the world to make it happen too. All he had to do was say the words make the gestures and will it to be. The sound of splitting ceramic finally brought him out of the supreme focus to reclaim something that was rightfully his. And with that the room started to return to normal and he wondered just what he had been so hyperfocused on.
He only caught the end of what Max had said everything else having been drown out by whatever that had been.
"Or we're all going to fall apart like Shin’s last team did.
Percy looks around the room, seeing the melting water tap and the now melting in broken teacup shapes tea and Max with her arms folded. Her ommanding presence was almost palpable. "Wh..wait." He played through the events in his head.
I came in told Connie about meeting her dad... she freaked out.. and everything else felt like a blur... why would I chase her off.
“So, please, Percy. Sit down. Have some tea. Talk to me. I’m a good listener.”
He shrunk away from her as if suddenly realizing that he'd done something wrong and being confronted by a Titan. Max had always been taller than Percy, but now she seemed towering.
Connie doesn't reply out loud, but when she and Femms halt at the bus stop, light pressure on the exterior hull suggests her hands are around Love Bug, The
***
The bus ride was silent and bumpy, but Connie never let go of the Bug. Finally they got off at a slightly dingy gym/rec center and quickly made their way to the gym showers. Connie set Femms and the bug in the little shower basket, followed by several piercings. A large ziplock bag appeared and gradually filled with her clothes, and then with a somewhat suspect squeak, the shower nozzle opened, outlining hints of her body in the spray. She left the provided soap alone, but a stringent cleansing smell filled the room nonetheless.
The water shut off and a hotel branded towel wrapped around the gradually appearing Connie. Her eyes were hooded and her shoulders were hunched with tension as she carefully studied her gear, one finger held up for silence.
She let out a long breath.
"Okay. We can talk."
Max follows Percy's gaze to the broken tea set. She frowns. "Okay. Poor choice of words, I guess." She looks back to the young wizard, seeing the guilt on his face. She reaches out and puts a comforting hand on his arm. "My offer still stands, though. Please, sit with me. Talk to me."
Femtite is still in the Bug in the basket.
She can see Connie is tense, covered in the towel. Despite the feelings Fem had prior to the bus ride, she calmed quite a bit being held by Connie.
Is she about to…?
Femtite sits on the edge of the counter, clad in her sakura-Jigglypuff robe as she gradually grows to her full human size. One leg crossed over the other, Femtite’s eyes fall to the towel, then rise to meet Connie’s.
“Yes, Connie. We can talk. You chose this venue for a reason, so… don’t be afraid.”
Shin finds himself walking past the gym before heading to his own dorm. He can hear the sounds of sports practice inside. If he checks, it's the volleyball team putting in some extra practice and to bring their alternates up to speed after the unfortunate departure of Ne'veah.
He sees that Grace is in top form. She'd been struggling to keep up the last few practices and games he'd watched, so it was good to see her strong performance.
Caio finds Skyler at the cafeteria grumbling about the vegan options in the limited weekend menu.
Shin knows he should be looking for Conflux, or dealing with the potential danger Indarius is posing, or reporting to Whippoorwill about the mission last night. He just doesn't think that he can do anything about it.
So he stops to enter the gym, waving at Grace as he takes a seat on the bleachers to watch. Ignoring the fact he was still wearing his jogging gear from that morning. Hating himself for being a constant failure.
When there's a break in the practice, he walks down to meet Grace as she grabs some water. "Hey. After practice, you want to come over to my dorm?" He asks her quietly. It's bolder than he's been. But he just needs this bit of normalcy right now, even if it's a flat rejection.
Grace raises an eyebrow and smirks as she drinks some water and wipes some sweat off her forehead with a towel. ”Oh? Yeah…sure,” she answers slyly. ”We got about another hour here. Then I’ll hit the showers and be over.”
Shin gets a knock on his door after an hour and a half. Grace is standing outside. Her hair is still damp, and she's wearing casual, form-fitting shorts and a tank top.
Sitting besides her, Caio once more sneaks a peck on her cheek, catching the grumbling and smiling. "So? Our deal is still up? Not scared about last night bridge adventure?"
Skyler tries to glower at him but fails. A smile tugs at her mouth. "You'll have to try harder to scare me away."
She stands up and tosses the packet of crackers. "Ready to go?"
Skyler is perusing the aisles, scowling at the "sexy" costumes. "This is just sad. I do not see why anyone would want to be a 'Sexy Ordnance'. Yeah, it says 'Sexy Alien Robot, but we know who this is supposed to be."
Shin has spent the better part of an hour meticulously cleaning his dorm room, vacuuming the rug and showering off. He's put on some slacks and a tight fitting T-shirt, taking extra time to reorganize his desk - first pencils to pens to markers, then scrapping it and going from shortest length to longest length.
When she knocks on his door, he opens it up and smiles before combing his fingers first through his hair, then reaching out to tuck a damp strand behind Grace's ear. "...you looked great at practice today. Please, come in."
"I'm real happy you could make the time for me today. Didn't know if I was crossing a line." He says as she enters, before closing the door. He grabs a sports drink bottle for her, passing over the fruity beverage.
"How long do you think you have before people start wondering where you are?" He asks. "I don't want to keep you too long. And I have..."
Seven thousand fires to try and put out on my own.
"...unexpected assignments to finish. They can wait though," He says walking over to his bed and sitting down on the edge.
Grace steps inside, looking the room over. ”Never been in your room before. Why am I not surprised it’s so clean.”
Grace steps in and does a brief look around and spin before turning back to Shin and stepping back towards him. She takes the bottle out of his hands and says ”Thanks,” before opening the bottle and taking a sip.
After he asks about keeping her too long, Grace looks at him with a knowing smile and replies ”They can wait, huh?” she says as she walks over to him and climbs up into his lap, a leg to either side of his own. ”Good!” she says as she leans down and buries his lips with hers.
"Oh, I did spend a little time tidying up before you got here," Shin admits, glad to see she noticed. Then very glad as she approached and climbed onto him.
Shin responds to Grace's kiss in kind with a desperate energy, needing this from her. His hands firmly planted on her sides as he pulls her down on top of him...
"I wonder if one day I'll see a 'Sexy version' of myself..." He comments and then quickly remembers about the actual sexy version of himself on the previous night.
With the visit on the bridge on the previous night, he actually forgot to tell this to Skyler. "...so, just remembered that yesterday I had to enter the nightclub disguised as a dancer... I hope there are no videos about it, but still..."
He grabs the clothes Connie had suggested for his red riding hood costume and shows them to Skyler, waiting for the shoe to fall.
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Max follows Percy's gaze to the broken tea set. She frowns. "Okay. Poor choice of words, I guess." She looks back to the young wizard, seeing the guilt on his face. She reaches out and puts a comforting hand on his arm. "My offer still stands, though. Please, sit with me. Talk to me."
Percy shies away from Max's touch and she grazes something rigid where there should be plane skin, on his arm. He puts his hands up and takes a step back. "N-no I... it happened again. I don't want to lose control Max. I need-" Hands trembling he pulls his arms back to himself almost afraid to point them at DD, "I need to go." He turns to leave himself, but looks at the door and the glowstick and he freezes up again. A distraction to hide oneself. For the time being he seems stunned with indecision.
"I wonder if one day I'll see a 'Sexy version' of myself..." He comments and then quickly remembers about the actual sexy version of himself on the previous night.
"You've never looked in a mirror?" Skyler mutters under her breath. If he reacts, she just smiles sweetly and acts like he imagined it.
With the visit on the bridge on the previous night, he actually forgot to tell this to Skyler. "...so, just remembered that yesterday I had to enter the nightclub disguised as a dancer... I hope there are no videos about it, but still..."
He grabs the clothes Connie had suggested for his red riding hood costume and shows them to Skyler, waiting for the shoe to fall.
"And he dances too..." she smirks. "'But still' what? If there are videos, do you plan to coast on your internet fame and live a life of luxury?"
Skyler holds up the pair of wolf ears and the fuzzy wolf tail up, comparing it to the red riding hood costume in Caio's hands. "Is this being too cutesy?" she asks, looking suddenly doubtful. "I was just messing with you the other day. And now it's like, we're getting to know each other, and you're really nice, and you've got this curse. And I don't want to rub it in your face, like I'm treating it like a joke. We could go as something else if you want."
Max sees how panicked Percy is acting, can almost feel the anguish and torment inside of him. These are feelings the demoness knows all too well. She can sense the power lurking within her soul. The power of Violet. The succubus's powers of persuasion might be enough to help Percy. Max knows opening herself up to Violet is dangerous. But... Surely that power might be used for good as well as evil, right?
Max takes a deep breath and opens herself up to Violet's influence. Her yellow eyes darken to red as she reaches out to Percy again.
"Percy. Please. Don't run away. If there's anybody on this team who knows what it's like to lose control, it's me.
"I can see you are scared. In pain. You don't have to be. Open up to me, Percy. I promise, there will be no judgment. No recriminations. Let me be your safe space. It's the least I can be for you, Percy. I want to help you. But you have to let me in."
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Percy feels himself calming slightly as another larger than him presence appears, gentler this time more coaxing at the very least, pushing whatever that other one was down and smothering it for the time being. He turns to Max, "I... don't want to hurt any of them... magic isn't a fix for everything." He motions to the room, the damage was little but still present. "Especially if it gets out of hand again."
He feels compelled to share something deeper with Max, or perhaps it's with Violet, he doesn't know which. Grabbing her hand in one of his he closes his eyes. ̸̲͌G̸̬͊u̶̬͋t̴̙͝ ̴̞̈V̷͓͝e̶͖̓n̴̲͂ ̷̛̥B̴̯͊o̴̢͝ He whispers and Max feels herself being pinched by an impossibly large force threatening to squeeze the air from her lungs and keep crushing. Until with a sudden pop they arrive as the pair are slung across the city in a matter of moments and she feels the pressure fade away to nothing, though the world still spins under her feet.
They are standing on a sky-rise across from Hyperion Hope Medical facility, Percy slowly lets go of her hand and walks to the edge pointing to a window with practiced ease, not even taking a moment to pick it out from the rest. "Tobias Finch, he was my first.... partner in crime so to say. A few years ago we both wanted to be heroes, after I found my spellbook. We were fighting Deaths' Head.. and well... we were just kids and I tried to protect him." Tears welled in Percy's eyes but he blinked them back again something that seemed practiced at this point, "Well.. he can't walk, I damaged his spine. He's alive but.."
He wrings his hands nervously, "Every mage can only be a conduit for so much aether... so if I ever really... really get out of control. Overflowing power burns them out. Even i've got my limits."
Caio chuckles at her muttering about him being sexy. "I was thinking about the Wolf actually..."
"...'Still' that I wanted you to know, by my own words, that for one night I had to dance covered in oil basically as a go-go boy. But nothing happened besides that." He says, equal parts embarrassed and serious. "I doubt I'd be famous with it and if any money came from that, I'd probably want nothing to do with that."
"Don't worry about it, I'm totally cool with our costumes, and yes, it is cute... You'll be cute nevertheless. I'm completely sure you are not making fun of my curse. It was my idea, right?" He shrugs. "I like the moments where my curse could be seen as a boon, like yesterday at the bridge, or when we arrive at the ball and people find our costumes funny. It kind of lift a weight of my shoulders."