"Mostly cold cases. Shard hasn't poked his head out for ages. I've been monitoring the Duskguard as well for any signs of activity. Other than that..." He looks at Femtite. "Well, you know the reason we called this meeting."
“Yes, I… just didn’t know if I’d be in the hot seat right away, or if you had other things that take precedent. Such as Shard, cold cases, Duskgaurd and whatnot.”
She hovers and crosses one leg over the other, as if taking a seat. ”Maybe just let me know when I’m on.”
Horizon doesn't respond right away, but does look back at her as he checks to see if anyone else has arrived right away. It seems everyone is running late now.
"...For the record, no one has perfect parents. I learned that my father helped develop a weapon that wiped out cities in his home country. It's not something that you expect to find out, but when you do it's life-shattering." He tells her. "...when everyone else gets here, you can start. Try to keep it simple and if you catch yourself trying to justify actions, roll it back. Let actions speak for themselves."
“Justify…”
Femtite’s eyes fall to the floor.
“Even the demons see her as evil. But she doesn’t. Mother sincerely believes…”
Femtite stops herself.
“You’re right, Shin. It’s better to explain nothing. Let the actions speak…”
Again, she trails off. She stands. Her aura that was a little pale a moment ago is gradually brightening to a vermilion hue.
“I’m going to work on the heavy bag until the others arrive,” she says, fiery eyes fixed on said target.
Her balled fists become engulfed in flame as Femtite hovers over to the bag, which is already mildly singed from last night’s ‘beating.’
Not even halfway to the bag, she stops.
“You’re talking about the atom bomb.” Her red hue calms to relatively yellowish. Her fingers curl open. The flames shrink in her palms and die. “Your father developed that?”
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Feya rises to her feet. "You shouldn't dwell overlong on your failures. Focus on what you can do differently now, to avoid something similar happening again. Otherwise, you can lose confidence -- and with the powers at your command, you do not want to lose control."
Indy looks at the ground, "I know I shouldn't dwell but it's difficult given what could happen." He takes a deep long breath before exhaling slowly. "No matter what I think right now I'm significantly more prepared than I was. Fool me once kind of situation."
He stood alongside Feya, "Well I don't know if there's any way I can help you right now Feya. If you think of anything please let me know Horizon called a meeting, but after we deal with that I think I'm going to just take some time and relax fix up this book and then see about finding the creatures that appeared from the tome."
Percy was there in his robes, but with his hood down since this was a more or less significantly private place already. Having finally set everyone up with their attunement to the runic safeguards. With what's been said so far he already doesn't think it's gonna go well if the subject is parents.
"That's.. news to me man. But you can't blame yourself for your what your folks did."
"One of probably a hundred other scientists that had been brought onto the project," Horizon tells her. "And as far as I know, the only one working on it under the idea that it might be used against his home country." He shrugs his shoulders. "It's not like he dropped the bomb. But in some way he was still responsible for what happened. I don't know what parts he worked on. But I'm not sure I could go back to my time and look him in the eyes the same way I did before knowing this."
He looks back down at his screens. "You should work out some aggression if you're still feeling nervous. I'll be doing some studying in the meantime."
The door to the layer bangs open as Connie bursts in. She still didn't have an official costume, but the sheer number of pockets on her pants and jacket make it very clear that she is loaded for bear despite Shin's text.
"Hey everyone how's it-" her eyes widen briefly in horror before she finally sees Percy. "Oh thank f~%&, there is someone here with absolutely no questionably requited feelings to sort through." The fear disappears from her eyes and she beams. "Blue Eyes! How's the new skincare routine going? I like the wards outside, better late than never and- Wait where are these anchored? You kept this s@+% away from my trashcan right? s%$! Gimme a sec."
She hustles over to her eldritch trashcan and immediately starts examining everything from sigil to dent to duct tape.
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Femtite is shocked by Percy’s appearance, but he seems to be taking it well, and his words are strangely comforting. She listens to Shin—whom she now realizes is definitely not one to judge over a parent’s action.
When he permits her to take out her aggression on the bag, she starts, “I think aggression is the la—“
Then Connie bursts in.
And reacts.
And only talks to Percy…
Yes. Now is definitely not the time for aggression.
She watches Connie rummage, debating whether to say anything. Gimme a sec, she said. Femtite decides to give her all the secs she needs.
Her aura pales slightly.
…seconds.
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Percy looks over to Connie as she enters, "Yeah I-wait.. what?" He watches as she takes off towards her room without providing more of an answer, so he follows after her, giving Shin and Fems a one second finger up.
"Back in a second."
He would follow Connie to her trashcan, "Hey, I kept things away from everyone's personal locations. With the obvious exception of my own. Just the normal areas of travel, entrances, lounge areas and the such. I really don't want to have to go through the whole process of explaining my innocence yet again and the nature of my magic."
Lowering his voice so the others wouldn't overhear even though they didn't follow he asks, "Also, what was that about? questionably requited feelings to sort through? The-eff happened now?"
Max leans against the wall as her teammates banter. She remains quiet as she waits for Shin to get to the point of the meeting.
"You know me Viserion, I'm simply irresistible. Catnip for men-folk, lady-folk, and other-folk in between or beyond. Would it even be a team meeting without entanglements? Can you even think of a time I wasn't being pursued like Daphne? How would I even know what to do with myself? Nah, I just wanted to make sure this wasn't a whole team meeting about my romantic life. It might get dire, but it's something one-to-two heroes should really be enough to handle. Unless maybe it's someone's birthday and we've talked about it first." She grins wickedly at Percy.
Don't know why I was worried that this was gonna be a whole thing from Femtite. She's obviously still giving me the silent treatment, and it's not like she'd call a whole team meeting anyways. Wait until I'm in the shower or taking a dump and then start banging on the stall because **that's** the moment she decided to actually have a conversation with me? ...That's actually terrifyingly possible. The girl does love charging full steam ahead without taking the temperature of the room... Oh f&*#, Shin might actually call a team meeting to helpfully inform us all that I didn't f*~$ him though. God if this turns into an informative meeting with bar graphs about how he might be emotionally compromised...
"...I hope he at least picked a cute photo for the feelings diagram..."
Femtite is about to speak to Shin—when DD comes in—and so she wants to thank her for last night, but then…
She approaches Connie.
“Hey… before we start, can you and I talk a little?”
Caio leaves the bathroom, his face betraying how relieved he was feeling after doing whatever he was doing there. He goes back and closes the bathroom door after seeing everyone was already there and then waves to everyone before sitting close to Max.
Seeing Femtite moving towards Connie and trying to talk to her, he gives his friend a look that both ask "are you ok?" and "do you want an exit?".
"Okay, now that we're all here," Horizon speaks up after he sees individual conversations dying down, "There's a couple of items on the agenda for tonight's meeting that I want to run through. Mostly to let everyone catch up with each other on current ongoing events," He says, nodding to Percy.
"I'll start. First, we have a new team name. I had to come up with it for the Alliance during my last meeting with them, but we're now First Class. Don't forget it, because the press release is going to be tomorrow on that. If you don't like it, I did give everyone multiple chances to vote on one, so I'm sorry that ship has sailed." Horizon tells the team as he types with one hand on the keyboard.
"Second, I'm starting a patrol log for the team. I know we have classes and everything to accomplish, but I think that it's important that we all get out into the field and make our presence known. Patrols will be in this district only, so you won't have to travel too far. I'd like us all to have at least one patrol done a week, preferably in pairs. If you want to sign up with someone try to work it so that we're not overlapping each other on the schedule." He brings up a spreadsheet that he's made for this purpose.
"Before I go any further, I want to open up the meeting to anyone who might want a chance to address the whole team," He says, glancing at Femtite, then Percy, and finally Max. "If there's anything to want to talk about or get advice on from the rest of the team, now's the time."
It’s clear that Caio wants to ‘rescue’ Connie… but he doesn’t have to. Shin’s already on it.
The meeting has started. “Later, okay?” she asks Connie.
She then floats to Shin’s side, and stands.
“I know you all think my Mother is a villain. And maybe you think I should have accepted the mountain of supporting evidence. But she’s still my Mother, and like it or not, my ability to protect this city will be considerably diminished if I turn on her.
“But remaining in her good graces doesn’t mean I defend the indefensible, that I cower before her throne and pretend everything is okay.”
She meets everyone’s eyes as she speaks, even if theirs glare back.
“I have attempted to confront her. Full disclosure, Shin was not impressed with the footage of said confrontation. I was successful at showing her that she erred… but she seems more concerned about her image than actually, well, apologizing to Connie.
“I’ve approached Shin, DD and Whippoorwill for advice. Whippoorwill believes there’s a chance I can pull her from whatever dark path she’s on… and advice from Shin and DD, as well as DD’s vision and my own, have given me something to work with.”
Femtite honestly does not want this Nanometeor issue to drag on endlessly. With that thought, she goes on,
“I don’t expect all of you care one way or the other about my Mother reforming—which is kinda why I’ve taken this long to speak. I thought, my family is my problem. But Not Talking About It is only hurting my relationship with the team.
“So I’m asking you for help. And to those not interested, I won’t ask twice.”
"I can't and won't speak for everyone else, but I do see your mothers, plural, as villains. Your Mother Queen might have been the one giving the orders, but without the genius of your Mom, Connie would not have been killed, body swapped and trapped." Caio states.
"If they were on Earth, I believe they should first answer for their crimes before any chance of redemption. You said it yourself, Femtite, that what your mothers did is indefensible... yet I totally see how this is hard for you because of the love you have for them." He says, trying to show empathy for Fems.
"What, exactly, are you asking from us? To help redeem your mothers or to make them answer for their crimes?" He asks, trying to gauge what is more important for Femtite: the love for her mothers or her sense of justice.
"Also, what is this footage? Can we see it as well? And what is this vision?" He asks, turning from Femtite to Max and back to the pixite. "We should not be making decisions before knowing the whole thing."
Fem immediately replies, “Redeem.
“Sorry, Caio.. and sorrier to you, Connie. But while I won’t defend the indefensible, I need to correct your misconception. My mother did not kill Connie. Connie and I entered the code to intentionally make her a pixite. Yes, this means the human body was deconstructed—it’s not possible to transform from an atomic structure to a subatomic unstructure.
“My Bug—the former, but the current as well—has a code in it that reconstructs Connie’s human form. It’s not necessary now, but the point is, what my Mother did wrong was to change what was supposed to be weekend getaway into a one-way trip.
“The crime, if on Earth, would be kidnapping… but this happened on the Nanometeor where she’s Queen. And her motive, to grant Connie immortality, would exonerate her as far as the other queens are concerned. She wouldn’t even need to step down from the throne to save face, and I’d be disgraced and possibly tried for treason for challenging her.”
She looks at Connie with empathy. I’m so sorry—you did NOT want to hear that.
“Sorry,” she says aloud, sincerely. “But Caio, think of when you lost control of the wolf and tried to kill Connie, how we all agreed you deserved a chance to prove that is not who you are—and since then, we’ve seen how wonderful and heroic you are.
“I’d like you to extend that courtesy to my family as well. I know there’s a lot of good in my Mother, but whether it’s insanity or villainy, I fear she’s on a dark path. I want to be the daughter who pulls her from it, not the traitor who pushes past the point of no return.”
To answer Caio’s question: ”My vision from last night is an overheard conversation. It revealed that Mother wants to prove to you all she is not a villain, she trusts me, and I have an older sister that I didn’t know existed until last night.” Femtite is definitely shaken when she mentions her sister.
To DD, “I have technology that can display your memory of the vision. You just need to remember it. The machine will record the whole visual, with audio. And optionally, with inner monologue subtitles. But I can toggle that off, if you’d rather not have that part recorded.”
"Femtite, you're veering hard into justification territory here," Horizon informs her. "Let her actions speak for her and observe them as if they were done by a stranger." He advises, looking over at Connie and hoping she'll stick around to listen further.
"Let's play the conversation for everyone first before we get further into this discussion. Take time to examine the evidence," He recommends, before leaning in to whisper to Femtite.
"Femtite, you do know that there's people who have used shirnking technology here on Earth, don't you?" He asks. "It might be the same as what you do but there's a possibility it can be used to reach Nanometeor..."
Femtite uses her device to play the conversation between her mothers.
MEL: "...certain? We haven't <static>"
Q.M.: "...only way. The humans of Femtite's team think of me as a villain. This will show them how wrong they are. This will <static> ... see."
MEL: "You haven't told her yet."
Q.M.: "Why should I? This will help Femi in every way. A glorious surprise for her and her team."
MEL: "But the process... it's <static> ... how you lost your first daughter."
Q.M.: "But not Femi. She'll come back to us. She'll always come back."
Femtite replies to Shin, ”I don’t know. Most atoms’ diameters are 100 times the standard pixite height. Electrons to us are like fireflies to you. It wouldn’t be simply shrinking at that point. There’d have to be changes—a form not made of atoms; a form not dependent on atoms.
“Connie was shrunk by fairy dust once, still human but scaled down. Her cells likely compressed, but she was still large enough that her lungs could breathe air.
“Anyway, I know you mean well, but who on Earth would want to go to my planet? This whole meeting was a mistake.”
Caio looks at Femtite, shocked and not believing the words he is hearing. Despite her denial, she is defending and justifying her Mother's actions and downplaying their crimes as if they were almost an inconvenience.
"They did not kill Connie... they just deconstructed her body."
"...my Mother did wrong was to change what was supposed to be weekend getaway into a one-way trip."
"And her motive, to grant Connie immortality, would exonerate her."
He shakes his head, looking at Connie and then Max, to check if they were hearing all that b&*@+%~* to. Caio then rolls his hands into a fist as she compares him losing control, scratching Connie's neck, and then apologizing at the same night to her Mothers planning and killing Connie's body, trapping her in the Nanometeor, and than even refusing to apologize.
Shin intervened just in time, so Caio takes a deep breath and backs down. "The worst blind is the one that doesn't want to see."
After the played conversation between Femtite's mothers, Caio asks again. "So, this was your vision, right? What about the conversation between you and your mother as you was confronting her?"
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Percy feels almost assaulted byt he swarm of people following him after Connie, After he just asked them for a moment of privacy. He gives Connie a look that reads Ah I see everyone here's into you except me. That sucks
He clears his throat at her though jist before returning to the others. "Damn, maybe it"s the angsty punk look you got, but damn they're all infected.. even Shin? Don't worry I got your back in your best platonic friend way. Let's just get through this first though."
Listening to Fems, then alot of people pile on, Percy wonders if adding his two-cents is going to do anything other than make things worse. Then the memory, vision, video thing is replayed and he can't help but give a trilling whistle.
"Yeah that doesn't sound like a huge ominous trap or anything. Sarcasm by the way. Also very co-dependant or maybe controlling of your mother to believe you'll always come back. Dunno maybe i'm missing some tonal evidence here because Pixites but we've seen plenty of cases of manipulating children because 'they'll always come back to mom or dad.' I don't know what they've go lt planned, but I'll probably just do another projection for myself if it calls for something like that."
All that said Percy really does hope that the queen and her mate have only good intention.
She approaches Connie.
“Hey… before we start, can you and I talk a little?”
Connie sighs. At least my underwear's not around my ankles... "...So small mercies, I guess. Later's fine."
Connie listens to Femms's explanation blandly enough, but when she turns to Caio's earlier attack, Connie stirs in her seat.
"Couple differences there, Firefly. Caio went out of his way to apologize to me for losing control and attacking me, and gave me the things I needed to protect myself and help stop him from hurting others. That's pretty far from... having planned and prepared to hurt me, never apologizing, and taking literally no steps to demonstrate remorse or make restitution. Hell, she doesn't even think she was wrong, right?
"What you heard or saw is obviously very important for you and your relationship with her. What do you actually want us to do about it?"
Femtite is ghostly pale, almost on the verge of freaking out—Caio says make them answer, Shin says send shrinkers, Percy says he’ll project.
Then Connie speaks. And not in anger (like Femtite was bracing herself for). Femtite’s glow brightens to a lemonade yellow.
“I want her to see that she’s wrong.” She pauses. “I don’t know what restitution would look like, but I think she owes you that. I don’t know if her ‘glorious surprise’ is restitution, and I doubt it will have the intended effect but anyway, she wants me to enter the sacred code in my Bug, then see what the team thinks.
“I promised Shin if not one of you wants me to enter this code, I won’t. And your reasons for not would be the feedback.” Pointing to the device, she adds, “And Connie, your letter mentioned a conversation you had with my Mother when you danced with her. If you could focus on that memory, my device could record it. I won’t play it here, but will play it when I next confront my Mother.”
Not ignoring the direct question, she replies, “Also, that overheard conversation is how I learned I have a sister. And from DD’s vision, I think she’s alive. Like you said, Connie,” Femtite humbly admits, “she’s kept secrets from me.”
"...Femtite. She said she lost her first daughter. In a similar or same way as she's asking you to do now." Horizon speaks up to her. "If I were to learn pressing a button is how one of my siblings disappeared and my parent were to tell me to push that button - no, it's actually worse because she didn't tell you."
He sighs, rubbing his temples. "She has kept secrets from you. She's also purposefully mislead you. And we're your friends telling you that she's done nothing to earn our trust. And I'm sorry, but I don't trust that she has good intentions for you. And you shouldn't trust her either."
He looks at her seriously. "We're all on your side here. But that's not the side your mother is on. So please trust me when I say using this code is a bad idea."
Maeve doesn't get much of a read on Chastity's mother. She doesn't initiate conversation with either Maeve or her own daughter except for providing instructions and expectations for when they arrive at the shelter.
Skyler initially looks confused at Caio, then giggles when she realizes he must be joking about his lateness from last night. "Jokes on you, I came straight here." She glances at her phone and then does a double-take. "That can't be..."
“she’s kept secrets from me.”
Obviously.
"Yeah you can see those memories when you like, Femtite... Did, umm, did your mother recognize that the last time she gave you a sacred code it was with the express purpose of deceiving and trapping me?"
Raising her eyes to the ceiling she muttered. "I can't believe I'm even gonna f@#~ing do this."
Connie took out a matched pair of pendulums, an exceedingly gaudy piece of bug-themed mall jewelry, and a page from an old game genie booklet.
"I'm gonna read the manual."
Femtite seems relieved by Shin’s words, though she’s absolutely certain “the code wouldn’t kill me.
“My Mother isn’t a killer Nanite King aside. My sister’s alive I think? But… as I said, my Mother wants feedback. Reasons why I should not enter the code are feedback.
“And…”
Femtite wants to be the perfect daughter.
Femtite won’t lie to a friend.
“…I don’t want to enter the code.”
She already regrets saying this aloud. Thinking it was bad enough.
“I won’t enter the code.”
Her fists clench, each wreathed in flames. It feels good to rebel (albeit from a safe distance and she can always say her teammates said don’t do it).
”Fornicate the code!” She regrets saying this even more. “Sorry. I can’t bring myself to say… can’t say.”
Of course, when Connie wants to look into the code, Fem says, “Oh—you wanna??? Haha… I left the Bug very far away anticipating you’d all say no to me entering the code. I’ll be back in under ten seconds!”
Femtite teleports—and faster than one can say ‘where the fornication did she go?’, Femtite is back holding a ‘toy’ Love Bug, Too like a suitcase-sized-football. She taps the hood so her Bug grows to full size and opens the magenta dome. Inside the craft is a neatly folded school uniform, like what Femtite used to wear when attending Halcyon Prep. Connie might find it odd that undergarments are included. (Surely, Connie knows Femtite just magical-girled underwear since the school only provided the uniform.)
She taps a panel, and outcomes that all-too-familiar controller that Connie used when she and Femtite entered that fateful code!
Conflux does her thing, magicking up a ritual to learn more about what the second Bug craft has in store with its code.
It takes a few minutes with everyone's attention focused on Conflux, long enough for imaginations to run wild and nerves to appear. Then her spell works and the booklet glows brightly, pouring golden light directly into Connie's face!
Sudden fear and revulsion twist Connie's guts as she sees Queen Millie's stern face staring straight at her in some sort of hologram or projection.
"Friends and allies of Femtite, I bid you greetings from the Lavender Spire," she begins, and it suddenly becomes obvious that this is a recording. "It pains me to know that there is a rift between my daughter and the rest of you. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to make amends. Even though I offered the greatest gift I could possibly bestow upon any being in the all the universes -- that of an eternity of love with my cherished daughter, and it was callously, coldly thrown back in the most spiteful way --" she fights her ire down and composes herself "I remain magnanimous. I offer a bridge of understanding between the Pixites and the Humans. I am willing to learn. So my next gift is for Femtite. I am certain she will use it well."
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Percy folds his arms skeptically, "I mean won't kill you is good and all. But that really doesn't stop 'accidents' from happening. The fact that she even considers using the same thing that caused your sister to disappear is well."
He shakes his head and blows a raspberry, "Probably for the best you don't do the code thing."
Seeing the golden glow, Femtite watches in awe. When the magic fades, she offers Connie, “You can display whatever you saw on the magenta dome, if you’d like.”
If Connie wants this, Femtite will (quickly!) hook her Alien Tech to the Bug.
Connie shakes her head. "I can summarize. She still blames me for spurning the 'gift' of an eternity of love I hopefully don't have to keep underscoring the reality of what she calls a gift. She's visibly angry about it - either she didn't bother to do a different take or this was the best take. She says the next gift is for Femtite, and that it's a 'bridge of understanding' between humans and pixites that would help her learn.
To me that sounds like she'd be hybridizing Femtite, but it's only a hypothesis. That kind of thing does offer plenty of ways to 'lose' someone though, and would count as a 'sacrifice'. You'd have to fill in the blanks of who Millie might have bridged to before, but we know she has contacts with other royal courts, so checking with Tyg might be a next step if you wanted an alternate source of information..."
She trails off. "Whatever. You already didn't trust this. I didn't see anything that makes me think for a second that you're wrong."
Femtite grimaces at the description. “I told her anger is counterproductive.”
Pointing out the clothing in her Bug, Femtite responds, “My guess was she’d make me fully human. And now that she’s calling it a Gift, I’m sure one of us is right. Also, I had wondered about my sister being a fey… although DD’s vision implies human. Or hybrid.
“Anyway, no to the code. And there’s no point in showing you the confrontation. I’d rather show you the next one.”
She looks back at Shin. ”I think I’m good now.” She leaves it up to Shin to press her for more, change the topic, or adjourn.
"This is a lot of complicated information that we're digesting now. I do want to thank Femtite for trusting us to make her decision based on our collective thoughts. I think that before we fully table this topic, I have to ask if you think that you'll be safe to go back to the Nanometeor if you've disobeyed your mother's command," Horizon asks her. "It might be a good idea to avoid returning there for a while as we consider the next steps to take..."
He looks up at Connie. "Thanks for checking the device as well. I'm sure it's a relief to everyone to know what this 'gift' was." He gives her a honest smile, lingering before he gets back to the business at hand.
"Does anyone else have anything they would like to talk about with the rest of the team? Diva? Indarius? Wolf - oh, should we use a new codename for you? I'll want to update the Alliance so they don't get that wrong in the press release..."
“I’ll be safe,” she says confidently.
Femtite crosses one leg over the other, more than happy to be out of the spotlight.
She'll be safe.
Connie raises her hand. "I think we should call him Human"
Max simply shakes her head. "Nothing from me, jefe. I'm eager to get back out there on patrol."
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Indarius raised his clawed silvery-white hand, "Actually I'd like to talk about the ley-line situation and the um... 'summonings' from the incident with s#&+-beard." He glanced to Caio and jabbed in, "Ah right and the 'relocation' of certain uninvited guests." It doesn't even seem to occur to him that the others might also want to know about his skin condition.
"Long story short the ley-lines that run through and around Halcyon are being very erratic right now. To the point that it's difficult to draw from them safely, Feya expressed to me that she's unsure if she can continue working with the Alliance in full capacity because of this. I'm at a loss as to how to fix that. Especially with the singular most important repository of ancient magical knowledge no longer existing, thanks to one s!#+-wizard." Indy almost laughed a bit hysterically at that notion.
He pauses for a breath, "During the event that almost destroyed the... here until further explored, barrier between normal Halcyon and the churning mess of Aether, that I'll call The Veil. You may have spotted some delightfully colorful guests absconding into our world. That is a problem." Indairus smiled letting that hang in the air as if it needs no further explaination, he clears his throat to continue and break his own implied no need to explain. "We don't want confused magical beasts and denizens wandering around causing havoc anywhere in the world. We don't want villains to get their hands on them, or harming them, or makeing doomsday weapons from their blood and body parts. We don't want them to start their own ruling nation on some ancient Sylvan plot of land which has been taken over by humans and cause a friggin war. You get the idea."
He laces his fingers together claws gently scratching the back of his palms out of worry and habit. "So if you hear any 'crazy' rumors of bandersnatches, pixies, not pixites, elves, changelings, gryphons, bigfoots, yeti, leviathans, and most certainly Dragons, SCPs, or other improbable terrors of mythology. Please take it seriously and report it so we can get a lockdown on things before they escalate. Good? Good." The tone and forceful end of that topic made it clear he wasn't about to negotiate further or back down on his 'demands.'
"Now." Indy's attention draws a bead on the Caio in the room. "The Wolf... is not exactly gone, probably not happy. Kind of the last line of defense for The Veil in the unfortunate case that I die. And just a teeny tiny bit pissed off at being chained to a mystical force or near infinite power without being consulted. Which also may or may not be fueling it to even greater heights of power." There's a sort of deadpan abrupt ending to his sentence which leads to him eyeing Connie and tossing the invisible mic to her. "More on your end to make sense of that one i'm afraid."
"Do you remember the exact path you took?" He asks, thinking about narrowing down the location of this strange event by comparing with his own path he took the other day.
Caio still has a couple points about Femtite's situation that he wants to clarify before they change subjects. "About our current topic, two things... first, Horizon, could you tell us about your impression of the conversation you watched between Femtite and her Mother?" He asks directly to Horizon, since he already asked twice to Femtite and was ignored. He then turns to Max. "Second, could you tell us about your vision, Max?"
As Horizon asks about a new name for himself, Caio pauses. "I believe it is about time for me to make a formal announcement... I'll be leaving the team." He lets his decision sink before adding some more. "It was never my goal or dream to be a hero. Deep down I never believed I'd be free from my curse, so I wanted to do some good to perhaps compensate all the bad I'd be doing when the Wolf would have assumed control."
"But I'm free now. I have dreams that do not involve a cape. I want to study, work, have a family eventually... all the normal boring stuff." He says, decided but a bit ashamed about abandoning the team. "I still have a couple loose ends that I'm working on tying, so I'm not 'leaving-leaving' right now, but that is my goal. I'm not going anywhere, though." He adds, looking specially at Connie and Max, and then to the others. "I consider you all my friends and I indent to keep seeing you as that."
Femtite was already surprised that the team gained a dragon… but losing the Wolf—not just the power, but the person?
What Percy brings up hits a little closer to home.
“I hope I am still able to meet with the pixies. I owe one a favor. Is crossing into the fey realm going to cause a problem?” she asks Percy.
Femtite shifts uneasily in the space that would be her chair, if she was sitting on one instead of simply floating.
”Aw… I don’t want a silver thread tethered to my soul forever because of an unstable magical door. I can see it at subfemtometric size. It’s shiny.
“Is Feya an expert on fey, fey law, fey gates?—not assuming because of her name, but… if she’s wondering what to do with herself now, her powers being dampened doesn’t take away from her expertise.”
Her glow brightens to a sunnier yellow.
Connie does her very best to smile through Caio's retirement announcement. "As team leader Shin's in charge of the cake, right. Probably a Fudgie the Whale or something now that Caio can eat chocolate again?"
She whips out her sharpie as she goes, scribbling down notes on her forearm/to-do list about the Wolf as well as Femtite's ongoing obligation, but stops short of actually offering her own expertise. It's not like she actually forgot how we got in contact with Tyg and them before.
"The vision was unpleasant," Max says to Caio. "I saw a scale over Femtite's head, with one side wreathed in flames and the other bathed in sunlight. You all were on one side of the scale, along with Chastity. But Queen Millie was on the other side. The scales were balanced, but then a demonic shadow dropped another figure down onto Millie's side, and the scales tilted all the way into darkness, and the fires consumed Femtite completely. That figure was hersister..."
When Caio announces he's planning to leave the team, she moves over to give him a friendly hug. "I'm happy for you. You deserve it."
Femtite’s eyes widen when Chastity’s name comes up. We already closed my topic—it was resolved! The very mention of Chastity links me to her new Irish BFF!
She did NOT want her topic re-opened. She was afraid DD or Shin might mention Chastity—exactly the reason she was glad everyone but Caio found the overheard conversation enough to work with. I didn’t even think of her name coming up until the topic was closed—CLOSED!!!
Femtite’s aura is paling from her distress. She can’t hide her discomfort (unless of course she were to just take her Maeve form!), so she follows DD’s mention of hellfire imagery—
“I don’t know if I told all of you about the doom prophecy on my world. It’s why I need to handle my Mother delicately. Just like you can’t arrest one of your mass-murdering leaders of certain Earth nations, unseating my Mother from her throne would be a coup or an act of war. The consequences would not be she goes to tiny jail, the good guys win and live happily ever after. My planet would be thrust into chaos, there would potentially be actual deaths and all those pixites blaming me for the end of my world world would be right.
“I’m happy you’re considering your future, Caio. Know that I’m considering mine and the fate of my world—which, whether I like it or not, is my burden.
“Not yours. Not the team’s. Mine.”
Apologetically, she glances at Percy, “And the floor’s not mine. It’s Percy’s. Sorry, Percy.”
She sits on the hood of her Bug, clearly agitated. She imagines shrunken superhumans arresting her mother, and pixites smarter than Shin’s dad preparing to retaliate as the queen is forcibly dragged across the bodies of pixite guards, all left on the floor of her mother’s home given the same respect any human would give to the husk of a dead insect.
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Percy quirks an eyebrow at the ensuing minor panic attack?
"The floor is 'Mine'...Uh... I mean... can I just point out that, I've been trying to handle Max and Caio's whole thing by myself. Lotta good that did, ten seconds of help from Connie and Caio's been wolf free without any signs of downsides uhhhh..." he casts a glance to the outwardly hale and hearty Caio Costa for confirmation. "Since that event. Max has had less good results but again, been trying to brute force that all by myself. Now i've brought this whole potentially world shifting, maybe ending, event to your attention and asked for help."
Percy's mind quickly cycles through the long conversation and explaination he'd love to go over. "Point is, clearly going it alone hasn't worked out so well for arguably the most raw powerful of us. No offense guys magic's just very versatile and well being literally tied to the entire ley-circuit of Halcyon...."
No, no, focus on the topic and stop listening to your own voice. Jackass.
"Hasn't gone well! So we aren't gonna let you take the burden of your entire tiny planet on your also tiny shoulders like some Alien Atlas. You'll get final say, but we're in this with you Fems. Also I wonder why Chas is on that whole vision? I mean if she suddenly developed powers and played some prophetic part in this all and-" He trailed off mumbling some convoluted nonsense to himself sort of lessening the otherwise honestly meant support.
Femtite stammers, “Yeah—that’s why I asked advice—just… ha! M-my classmate? Chastity really liked my presentation on my world. Can my turn be over now? I’m working with you guys. Just… maybe let me process the advice I’ve already been given and go from there.”
She wants to shrink away to nothing, but then glances at the clothing in her Bug. She can’t shrink her Bug to smaller than two feet with the uniform in it. So she stays at the meeting, aura reddening in her humiliation.
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"Oh god."
Connie tries to sit down and completely misses the chair.
"S~#$ sorry I- wow. I just- I did not expect Puff the Magic Dragon to actually already be looking to- to focus on teamwork like this. I thought it would take him weeks or months if he even ever decided to- to acknowledge how Caio was free cause that happened fast, even though there were obviously important external factors and- s%#+ Sorry, I am just verklempt."
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Caio returns Max's hug as he thinks about the reason Chastity was in her vision. As far as he knew, Femtite usually was good with making friends and he has seen she talking to many of them all the time in school, yet none were in Max's vision... was it possible that Fems was already trying to get into a new relationship? Seeing Connie making a mess kinds of clues him that she also got this idea.
Ignoring the farting elephant in the room, he pushes the gossip into a corner of his mind as he addresses Fem's other words.
"Fems, just to make it clear, while I do believe your Mothers should answer for what they did, I have no intention to enforce anything. As far as I'm concerned, they did what they did in your word and your world should be their judge... if your people ask us to help, we should consider that, but if not, I totally agree that we have no right to interfere. Doing so would be the same as Alcott came here to do."
Femtite’s posture is that of a cornered mouse… but as Caio compares an invading force of human heroes to Alcott, her glow gradually returns to its normal amber hue. Her posture relaxes.
“Yes… you understand how terrifying that would be to my people. Terrifying, and to many, expected.”
She looks back at Connie on the floor, then her eyes fall to her lap leaking tears.
There was a lot to address here, but Horizons focus was on making sure that people left the meeting with a sense of purpose. Getting everyone to help each other was the way he saw it, and he looked to Conflux first. He leaned over close to her where she was seated on the floor to talk to her, and give her a hand up.
"I understand there's a lot of info being dumped on all of us, but do you think that you could come up with some effective charms or equipment that would help in protecting the team or capturing any of these magical creatures Indarius thinks might have arrived in the city? The more we can prepare the better." He says as he pulls her up, getting in close enough to whisper.
"And I'm worried about you, too. Have you found anything different with your magic since the event?" He whispers to her to avoid drawing attention.