Nissa winces at the name ‘Souldrinker.’ “Is that the sword’s name or the swordsman’s?” She stops short of asking why drinking souls is even legal, but thinks it best to put on a brave face for her dad.
And also a brave face for Wand School..!
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Nissa echoes Unity’s sentiment. “I know you can win and show mercy to a foe.” She contemplates the fairies… “There are fairies who fight, and there’s magic that zaps them to a safe place so they don’t die. I want to see them about armor. Maybe they can imbue a sword with some kinda Mercy Magic. “That might not be the best sword-magic for winning, but I can ask anyway,” she offers.
"Four words.Theo.... Hot Dog Eating Competition. True test of modern humanity." “You win,” Nissa says, “no matter who my opponent is. “But if there’s ever a see-who-can-hold-their-breath-the-longest-in-space contest, I’m your girl!” Nissa’s glad the conversation has moved onto something light and casual. She just wants to enjoy breakfast with her friends before seeing them off when they head out to their next mission..!
Seeing that her friends understand her reason, Nissa perks up a bit. “I’ll miss you horribly, too… and going on all the crazy adventures with you!”
Nissa normally does not eat, even for appearances. But this morning, she has a tiny teacup and a plate of berries before her. The cup looks like a beer mug in her hands, and much of the plate is empty, for these wares are those used by the local sprites who are twice Nissa’s size. Whatever she eats is immediately burned. Her form fitting dress puffs a little after the third fairy-berry. Nissa leaves the fourth and fifth on her plate, intent on saving them for her next meal. Sarenrae provided her the gift of not having to eat (which does wonders for a supermodel), but this morning, Nissa felt that eating would be important. She crosses one leg over the other as she hovers with ease. On any other occasion, the girl can talk. This morning, she barely squeaks what she wants to say to the the team. “This is goodbye…” The word hits her harder than she expects. Having cried her eyes out the night before, she thought she might be able to spin this into a feel-good moment, instead of stammering— “—I mean, not like, goodbye-goodbye. I just need to stay here with L.C.—I mean—on Tarokh.” Mother says be honest. “…yeah, for the obvious personal reason. In part. But also, I gotta go to Wand School.” She seems a little intimidated by the idea of formal education.
After receiving the kiss, Nissa gives her father a pat on the nose. She remains seated on his finger and says, “You don’t need to kill anyone over a petty insult. But I appreciate that you seriously would take defending my honor that far.”
Nissa smiles at L.C. By the time the team is able to assemble, she’s already had her overly emotional moments either with L.C., or in a moment to herself (to spare L.C.)…
“Father,” she starts—more formally than usual, the way she addresses The Dawnflower as “Mother” in prayer. That’s not to say Theo will ever be Serenrea’s equal—not because he is a demi-god. Theo is present. He is of the flesh, and Nissa can speak to him, whereas her Mother has only spoken to her in dreams. Only now does it dawn on her how Theo gave her something she never had: a biological parent interested in being in her life. With this thought, she regrets what she has to say. And, she says it because she must: “I need to leave the team for a while.” She’s not sure how to explain it, but she knows when the thought first dawned on her. “Someone tagged a wall with graffiti that said I’m a slut. It depicted me… well, like in one of Pah’s filthy comics. It honestly bothers me less than it probably should. “But then these elves that discovered started dropping thinly-veiled jabs about my lack of Wand-training, and I was kind of half-ignoring them, half-agreeing but silently excusing by busy life. And—” Ensuring it’s just her and her dad before she says this next part. “—I was kinda distracted, hoping that obscene drawing of me might give L.C. an idea. Not the specific idea implied by the drawing, but… the gist of it. “Anyway…” Awkward pause. “…I came close to losing L.C. I almost gave up. I almost convinced myself that it would be better for her. That I didn’t want love. That this whole demigoddess thing—and the fairy body—made me so far from human I needed to just forget about love, and just be Mother’s instrument. I had this whole crazy idea that Sarenrae saved me so I could do her work—which is true, partly. “But when you left me with L.C., you said ‘have fun.’ I know you meant it casually, but it came off as Fatherly Advice that I didn’t even know I needed.” She doesn’t talk about her evening with L.C. But from the way she is blushing rosy-red, it’s apparent that she’s a girl who doesn’t kiss and tell. “So, unless my Mother appears to me in a dream, I’m going to stick to my Father’s advice for now.”
Eventually, Nissa’s time with L.C. is actually a talk… “Well…” Without getting into specifics of that past few hours, “…this bodily change is obviously different, and it seems we’ve figured out how to make this work. “But I think it might work better if I stop doing away missions for a while.” Nissa doesn’t bloviate. She gets right to the chase, that she’ll stick around on Tarokh. “—and I don’t want to get in the way of your duties, so my thought is to spend the work hours training to use the Wand properly.” Other thoughts include being on-call in case the team needs her wand to bail them out of a situation—“like how I helped those astronauts on Apollo 69 who were circling Uranus.” And Nissa proposes a vacation. “—to that all-female world. I think you’d enjoy meeting our alts. Of course I mean after I’ve trained more with the wand.” And Nissa does intend to rescue Alashine. But she wants to wait a bit on this proposal. Traveling to the moment Alashine’s soul was taken means she can time-travel from any point. So definitely, this mission will take serious preparation, a deeper understanding of World XX, and… she wants to be sure L.C. is comfortable with this rescue. After all, L.C. is still the Marshall. Alashine being brought to present day won’t disrupt any of that. She may want Darkstar’s opinion on this too. But this can wait. For now, she needs to tell the team… “What do I tell ’em? I mean, I really tried to stick with the team even when it…” The quiet part is: it almost killed our relationship. Nissa wants to say something to L.C. about putting her first. Instead, she just embraces her to the extent that a three-inch-tall fairy can.
Nissa says. “Your call, L.C. I should take a bath and lay down a bit.” Facing L.C., she gives her a look that—she hopes—makes her a lot more desirable than the porn-cartoon version of her.
“But if you want to ‘talk’” Nissa’s eyes flicker toward the graffiti behind her. “You know where I’ll be.”
L.C.: Nissa feels a glimmer of hope when L.C. says she doesn’t know for sure. “Maybe it is her, but she’s overtaken by a demon. Or maybe I was led to believe it was her—in the same way a Fake You body-shamed me and confessed to an affair.
“It doesn’t make sense that Tarantula would manipulate me that way… and if somebody could make a Fake You, they could make a Fake Her as well.” It sounds convoluted, as far as evil plans go… but then, “It really wouldn’t make sense for Tarantula to drop a hint by making the phallus a symbol of World 16. A dildo would’ve been easier to draw, and it wouldn’t point directly at her world.” Nissa grimaces as she pictures Greer commanding a starship, pointing to his planet with a fuchsia didlo and commanding his pilot, “Home, Tarantula.” Tarantula steers the ship homeward using a World-16-tower-shaped control stick. Getting back to all the fake stuff, Nissa wonders, “Did that portal to the field of Dawnflowers even exist?”
Nissa kind of ignores the chiding. Since Mother demands honesty of her, her knee-jerk reaction is introspection. She actually isn’t the best person to wield the wand, and she hasn’t made any effort to train properly… Her answer to L.C. is immediate. “No… and a fling would not have been fine. And especially not on World 16—I was worried about you, what that demon was doing…” Nissa thinks about how she and Tarantula were on that first mission. “I befriended her. I kinda guessed… well, y’know? I was right about you too, right? But she knew how madly in love with you I was. Maybe you remember saying some awful things to me before, but I knew then it was the demon.” She tells L.C. about her conversation with Tarantula… “I told Tarantula I found Void inside your brain—’my girlfriend’s brain,’ is how I put it—and she said ‘that’s cool.’ Awkwardly, y’know. And I told her about us. Then we talked about the women in the Aliens and I think we both agreed Vasquez was hot.” There isn’t any detail Nissa will leave out if encouraged to prattle on. She starts to tear up again. “I was trying to help her meet other women. I tried fixing her up with April… maybe that was a bad idea to meddle. But we were friends and I helped April change her life. They were cute together— “—And Tarantula knew about us. Me and her was just not a possibility. I wasn’t interested in her romantically at all. I just thought it was cool to have like a BFF I could talk to about stuff that none of the guys on my team wanna talk about.” She looks again at the graffiti. And she remembers… “The photo shoot!” Nissa’s aura glows red—definitely from embarrassment—as she recalls making those sexy poses on Greer’s helmet while Tarantula snapped photos. “I told Tarantula how my body was… well, I just wasn’t feeling confident about being like this. She said something about Tinkerbell getting whatever she wants from the lost boys, and she had me pose while she took pictures. She was flirty. I was clear about being faithful to you.” She flutters close to the word SLUT. “Is it because I refused your unwanted advances?” she yells at her own phallus-straddling image. “That makes me the opposite of a slut!”
Nissa’s heart sinks when she realizes what world this graffiti is from. “Why…? I was nothing but a friend to her.” She doesn’t want to believe it was really her. Maybe someone is framing her to look like it was… She dismisses her own thought even as it’s forming. “Wait.” She turns to Sillinamius. “A Wand can remove graffiti? Because if there are things the Wand can do, I should really learn how to do them. Can you teach me… or if not you, whoever’s coming here with that Wand?” Nissa’s red aura fades. She’s not even mad about the graffiti. If this personal attack prompts Nissa to take proper wand lessons, it’s done more good than harm, as far as she’s concerned. “Also, unless a Wand can tell me who did this—though I’m pretty sure it’s someone whose name rhymes with Sir Antula—I want a Sword of Truth or a Chalice. I want to get answers. The porn cartoon bothers me, but not so much I want it erased immediately. I want it erased after we use every tool we can to find out everything we can.” Nissa turns to L.C. “Do you agree, Marshall Preston, that we investigate this drawing thoroughly, rather than accuse…” She can’t even bring herself to say her name. A tear of molten gold falls. “She was a friend. I just want to be sure it was really her before I confront her… and I’d love to be wrong. I want to be wrong.”
Nissa groans, “Why does every creep think I’m straight?” Her aura glows red. Whether it’s from anger or embarrassment, she’s not even sure.
“Okay,” Nissa says, along with, “And I never heard that about your parents… but I’d love to know more about them.” Not now, of course. Galladhand and Sillinamius are apparently waiting for the right moment. While The Dawnflower forbids dishonesty, Nissa figures it can’t hurt to subtly slide her hand off of L.C.’s and flutter inches away, as if she wasn’t trying to have a romantic moment, for propriety’s sake.
She greets the men. “Good morning, gentlemen. I take it you have business with Marshall Preston?”
Nissa smiles. “It’s okay if it’s impossible, or only possible if I pay in favors.” She places a hand on one of L.C.’s fingers. “I guess what I’m saying is, I’m open to a very wide range of experimentation.” She doesn’t expect L.C. to be in the mood to ‘experiment’ first thing after the entire team suddenly appeared and interrupted her morning tea. But considering how her job leaves very little couple time, Nissa thinks it’s important to broach the topic.
Nissa snuggles close. Her dad’s ‘have fun’ is just Theo being Theo, but the timing was impeccable. “Last time we were here by the dawnflowers, you said fairies might have magic that could… transform me.” There’s a hint of remorse as she says this. Rather than make an excuse, she simply apologizes, “I’m sorry I wasn’t exactly receptive at the time, but now… I think I would like that.” Nissa remembers how the fairies always show up here in the morning. Every morning, she thinks. But did they already come today? She gives L.C. a chance to respond, hoping she’s still interested in this idea.
Nissa definitely needs sleep… but so does everyone else. Which means she’ll be alone with L.C., if she’d like. ”Before I catch up on sleep, can we talk? Alone?”
“Hey…!” Nissa says to L.C. She says nothing else. She simply hovers before L.C., looking dainty and adorable.
Nissa whips out the wand. “And away we go!”
Nissa replies, “I’d almost definitely get us lost going to an unfamiliar place, even without the time jump. But I can get us to G.D. anytime you’re ready.” Though she’s certain Henri shut down surveillance, she’s not certain that Dr. Moreau would have anticipated that move… so the wand will remain in its pocket dimension until it’s to be used. “Say when.”
Nissa can’t deny she’s hovering face to face with a madman. But he’s a helpful madman, and she doubts Unity would just lop his head off… or that it would do any good, considering what he knows of the Shuffle. He probably has a way to come back from his own demise, if he hasn’t done so already. (Nissa currently does not want to ask.) “If I were to rescue Alashine, it would affect her story… so she would be saved. And if I brought her to my current timeline, all that happened since her loss would make sense. Then only the future, which is unwritten as far as I’m concerned, would be affected. “…if we all go through with this.” To clarify, she adds, “Someday.” When Dr. Moreau speaks of a male god, Nissa simply nods. She doesn’t need to bring her mother into this. Technically, her paternal grandfather is a male god. And now she’s curious. She wants to know how the doctor could perceive DNA. She wants to know if her DNA would appear divine. She does not want to give him a sample. There would be jars of deformed Nissa-fairies, and she would definitely want Dr. Moreau to die screaming if she saw that. Careful, Nissa… this is not simply a mad scientist. He’s an evil genius. Perhaps the most intelligent and most evil the team has ever encountered.
"Young woman," says the Doctor, "I don't know what you are or how you are put together, but souls do not exist. If there was such a thing as a soul, I would have found it and improved it by now." “Funny,” Nissa flatly replies to the doctor, “I feared being reborn as a goddess’ daughter would go to my head, give a kinda superiority complex. But it’s actually been a humbling experience. The ego I had as a human didn’t die right away. It slowly faded.” The Dawnflower forbids lying. “Not completely.,” she admits. “But you, Dr. Moreau… you’ve been playing God so much that you think you’re as omniscient. You have all this brilliance, all this ambition, and the moment I say the word ‘soul,’ you dismiss it because you never got to experiment on one. “That is the point. It’s the part of someone that no mortal can harm.” And maybe Nissa wants to tell Dr. Moreau off. But what good would it do? Or a better question: could any good come out of proving a soul exists…? “I don’t know if I can prove a soul exists. But I have heard that there are creatures who can harm a soul… or perhaps they keep the soul captive. “It happened to a dear friend of a dear friend. It happened a few years ago and on another world.” Nissa tells Moreau the gist version of Marshall Alashine’s fate. “So… here’s where your knowledge is far beyond mine.”
“You know so much more than I do about the Shuffle. Is it possible for me to go to that world on that day and take Marshall Alashine from her fate—bring her to my time, so that nothing between then and now changes—at least not on other worlds? “The creatures who took Alashine’s souls would have to perish. I don’t know what the unintended consequence is.” She thinks about how saving April didn’t prevent Ms. Gray from killing Greel. “I only know that meddling in the past doesn’t span worlds, even when it should.”
Nissa can’t help but feel for the ‘specimens.’ “Dr. Moreau… leaving those poor souls in stasis is not a mercy. There is life beyond the flesh. I am proof of that if you doubt. “If you can’t save those wounded creatures, please end them quickly. Free them from their bodies.” Aside from that, she lets Unity do the talking.
Nissa keeps a lot of comments to herself, but she lights up (literally glows brighter) at the prospect of visiting the alternate Earth! …but she keeps quiet, not wanting to suggest a detour without knowing whether Unity is interested.
“The people were running out of livable space and sending 72-year-olds to die in the cold darkness. It turned out the blackness blocking the sun was a mass of rapidly-reproducing nanites. We couldn’t defeat them, but we found a way to teach the nanites the value of life. “The world is doing fine now”—she’s pretty sure Darkstar would’ve warned her otherwise, given the nature of her temporal intervention. Without skipping a beat, Nissa proudly adds—“and I have a daughter who’s basically a fairy made of two-and-a-half septillion nanites.” Nissa watches the 3-minute countdown and braces herself.
Nissa giggles at the insinuation. It often never is routine… it often never is routine… She stops giggling. With apologies to Mr. van Donk, Theo’s words may be the best fatherly wisdom Nissa’s ever received—even though Dad technically wasn’t talking to her. She chimes in, “So you don’t make giant chickens. But you must have made that machine that kept pumping out big-nose people and big-lip people and big-arm people and people whose forehead is more like a fourteenhead.”
“Free range? —waaaait – aaaa-minnit!” Nissa puts her hands on her hips as she flutters to the Real Montgomery. “Did you guys send that giant chicken to our world?”
Nissa whispers to her dad, “They haven’t done anything PhDestructive yet. Maybe I can sweet-talk them…” She makes a rather demure pose, crossing one leg over the other, smiling sweetly… “Hey there, boys and doctors… we’re rather late for long overdue appointment with Dr. Moreau.” Since deception is taboo, she clarifies, “I mean that figuratively. Literally, we’re walk-ins. “Would you be so kind as to point us in the right direction?”
"Uh, Nissa, we're pretty sure that screen is one-way," they say as she shows off. Nissa backs away from the screen. “Heh… don’t know what came over me.” Her aura reddens as she blushes, and she flutters into the door quietly, searching for off-screen fliers. At some point she is wearing her sundress again…
Nissa smiles back. “Great, Dad…!” And she leaves it at that for now, knowing the conversation can always continue later! For now, there’s a male equivalent of a valkyrie! Nissa notes the location, then flies up to the winged man. “Hi—Nissa van Donk—I used to don valkyrian armor when I first earned my wings!” As her body glows quasar bright, her sundress bursts into orange sparks. They dissipate. Sunbeams converge onto her body, covering her in a fairy-sized version of the original Subatomic Bombshell costume!
Even with her shiny fairy bod, the valkyrie motif still suits World Zero’s littlest supermodel!
Nissa gives Henri space as he meditates with the nanites. She recalls the nanites that were inside her. How she “birthed” them from her hand the way she was reborn from Theo’s. —and now Darkstar is growing up with no knowledge of her birth mother. Only resentment. She flies to Theo. “Dad… I don’t fear Zeus or Hera. I probably should, but I don’t.” Mother’s requirement of honesty makes Nissa feel freer than she ever did when she made buIIshitting an art form. Not that she ever lied to the team… but she kept her most awkward thoughts to herself. Now the truth flows naturally to friend and foe alike. “If we ever get a break, I want to meet my half-siblings. I mean… if visiting them wouldn’t compromise their safety.” —of course a door opens by the time Nissa has mustered the courage to say this!
"Didn't you come in that way?" asks the tigress, but she answers anyway. "That's the hall to the hexagonal room with six doors to different zones and a map of the station." Nissa recalls her past kneejerk reaction to bluff. So it *is* the same door, she’d have said so casually, so naturally, she even believed the lies herself. Now, she found herself biting her tongue—not to prevent herself from lying, which Mother disapproves of—but to stop herself from blurting a truth that need not be told. “Thanks,” she says sincerely, admiring the tigress. She flits to the door, ready to proceed to the map!
Nissa wonders, “If Dr. Lion-Guy was honest, the exit takes us to the map room, or an area between domes. I could pass through the wall and make sure it’s not a trick to jettison us into space. But first…” She flutters over to a cat-woman. “What, specifically, is beyond that exit door?”
Nissa thanks the lion-man, addressing him as “Doctor?” and the fox-man as “Doctor.” She then flutters over the river. She wants to magical-girl on a swimsuit, though she stifles that urge. She recalls her dip with Artemis and the nymphs, which is a beautiful memory… but she never really talked about that since Prince Fishdicks murdered the doctor and nurse while she was off having fun. And now the guilt has soured her mood. The beauty of the river has lost its appeal. Nissa no longer wants to swim in it. She flies along the bank, far enough from the water that she won’t get a glimpse of her reflection.
The beastmen’s playfulness comes as a pleasant surprise. Nissa finds herself laughing with them. “‘Fantasy’ …there’s a compliment I haven’t heard in a while! We’re actually looking for someone.” She’s not sure if she’s supposed to use names, but then, asking directions means the destination can’t be a secret. “First name: ‘Doctor.’”
Nissa tries to keep up, flying alongside the runners. “Emergency or exercise?” she asks. She smiles sweetly, hoping her appearance will draw attention.
Nissa flutters from Henri’s hands, now that they are safe. When the talk of guns comes up, she says, “I used to subdue with a nonlethal flamethrower.” She still fondly remembers shooting Agent Portly in the face with that gun. She considers Zellgato’s need for sunscreen. “Haha… I used to model for the top two brands, but I never actually needed sunscreen.” Noting the artificial light, she adds, “It looks like no one needs that here.” She wonders if this Dr. Moreau is from a story, or did he influence the one in the book they were just in. Is this space station familiar at all? Did it inspire any sci-fi she’s read or seen…?
Nissa can fly in, but she waits until others are able to reach the portal before entering. It may even be wise to sit on a shoulder to ensure she won’t be separated (fourth dimensionally).
Nissa is squeamish about the surgery. But it seems to have been a success. She answers to Z’s call.
Nissa admits, “I mighta got caught up in trying to fix things for the beastmen. That mirror…” She flies toward it. “We came here for a purpose. Can the sword or chalice tell us how to access the portal?”
Nissa eyes the sword, which has been thrumming a lot. “Or maybe your sword has the answers.” She doesn’t ask why they’ve been ignoring their sword all this time. “I don’t think we can stay in this world long. So if your sword wants you to go in the House of Pain, I suggest you do it now—and that we all stay together in case I need to wander us outta here.” She points to the unconscious Moreau. “—including him.. Maybe”
Nissa turns to Unity. “Moreau dies in the story, but… didn’t you want to talk to him?” She whips out her wand. “If so, I suggest we take the conversation elsewhere.”
Nissa calls out to the Sayer. “Why would you say their law?”
“He’s my father. I can’t and won’t talk him down.” She flutters above her flame and looks the nearest in the eye, hoping that the implication is enough to talk him down.
Nissa makes a circle of fire to keep the beastmen away from Theo and the sobbing wimp!
She reminds the beastman, “My father and I defeated the men. You did nothing. I don’t appreciate you or anyone joining a fight when the enemy has already been defeated. It dishonors our effort—which was saving your lives.” She glances at the Montgomery in his pathetic state. “Forget this weakling. Speak to Unity. I think you’ll find we make better allies than enemies. But by ‘allies,’ I do not mean ‘subordinates.’”
Nissa is relieved that there’s at least no chance of gunplay… so it seems. “Umm… Henri? Can you make sure the Doctor doesn’t die of fourth degree burns on his jaw?” She flies closer to the animals. “I get it,” she says. “I get you.” She stops at Unity’s side. “We both do. Unity perhaps more than I do, but lately… I’ve had my share of harsh reminders that I’m different. I’m a person, but I can never really be human enough. And I don’t even know if that’s what other people think of me…” She recalls how weird things have been with LC, ever since her death. Her inability to make it better. Her amazing talent at making it worse. “…or what I expect and assume from others. “I like being unique and hate feeling different. It’s a paradox, for me.” She turns to Unity. “So I can’t imagine how it is for a trinity such as yourself. But, take it from a body-proud model. You’re beautiful.” She turns to the beastmen. “All of you are.” Gesturing toward Theo, she adds. “What my dad just stopped is what is ugly. Men with guns. Men using their laws not to keep you safe, but to control you. “They are defeated. There is no need for bloodshed. Let us talk, but without chanting their rules. Please… speak freely.”
☀️ Nissa glares at Moreau. “That was not a surrender.” She glances down at the gun. “That was you shooting your best weapon. Your mouth.” —which is exactly where Nissa aims her tiny flaming fist.
☀️ Nissa hears Henri’s warning.
She attempts to create a literal firewall in front of the house—but not to the point the flames touch the house. Even if she gets there before he gets out, he could go around the flames. “Moreau… don’t force our hands. This isn’t our first time rushing toward a gunman.”
Nissa backs up her dad without interfering!
She flies a circle around the bad guy so he can’t flee from Theo without getting roasted! “Get him, dad!”
Nissa is pretty sure the puma won’t immediately die from her distraction now. So she asks the doctor “Why?”
She’s being sincere, as someone who herself had been changed and liked it… and as someone who saw the cost of Unity. —Charles Wilde! “Does the puma want this change? And if she’s to become more human… at what cost?” She glances at the Sword of Truth. And her next word is as much for Unity as it is the Doctor. “In matters of life and death, the Truth must never be ignored.”
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