The full story of Reflective Silver Love and Justice!. This story was run from December 15th 2024 to July 12th 2025 and was originally posted on the Clockworksun Stories Discord server.
This story is 93 updates long, plus an epilogue, spread over 347 standard pages with a total of over 105k words.
Note that some reaction counts may not be exact, as voters may have changed their reactions between the close of voting and the time this story was scraped from the server.
Note that some reaction counts may not be exact, as voters may have changed their reactions between the close of voting and the time this story was scraped from the server.
@Story Notifications
Hello again; time for more writing! There are three prompts on the docket this time, so vote the one you want to see written out... or vote for two if you just don't like one of them. Or vote for three if you're an agent of chaos! I can't stop you! As usual, the prompts not chosen may come back later, be rewritten, or never be seen again. I'm also trying something different this time: usually, I put my thoughts about each prompt in #story_discussion, but I figured if I want you to read them, why not just put them in here right below the prompts themselves? So, I did that:
️ [NOVELLA?] Evil and You: A 12 Step Guide to World Domination
Action, Comedy?
High fantasy OR Present day
You’ve always had big plans. Real big ones. Now that you’ve got some superpowers, some minions, and a handy guidebook on how to be the best evil overlord you can be, it’s time to get going! Build a lair, defeat some heroes, and take over the world! ... Wait, why is the last step in this book “be defeated by the forces of justice?” Well, maybe you can work around that one.
Blah's notes: When I think of Evil and You, my man Skeletor comes to mind. Perhaps Bowser? Dr Doof? Evil, yes, but in a more lighthearted way. Sure, the evil overlord will steal the weekly mcguffin or kidnap the princess or plan to conquer the tri-state area, but then they'll stop by for tea and go-karting the next weekend. The story will focus on the evil overlord and their relationship with their nemesis (or nemeses), along with an escalating series of wacky-but-definitely-evil plans. But of course, given who's writing this, it's entirely possibly the comedy will slip into tragedy at some point if the guide ever recommends it... And there's nothing scarier than a permanent goofball finally getting serious. But for the most part, expect cartoon-level villainy and hijinks. It'll be fun!
---
️ [NOVELLA?] Evil and You: A 12 Step Guide to World Domination
Action, Comedy?
High fantasy OR Present day
You’ve always had big plans. Real big ones. Now that you’ve got some superpowers, some minions, and a handy guidebook on how to be the best evil overlord you can be, it’s time to get going! Build a lair, defeat some heroes, and take over the world! ... Wait, why is the last step in this book “be defeated by the forces of justice?” Well, maybe you can work around that one.
Blah's notes: When I think of Evil and You, my man Skeletor comes to mind. Perhaps Bowser? Dr Doof? Evil, yes, but in a more lighthearted way. Sure, the evil overlord will steal the weekly mcguffin or kidnap the princess or plan to conquer the tri-state area, but then they'll stop by for tea and go-karting the next weekend. The story will focus on the evil overlord and their relationship with their nemesis (or nemeses), along with an escalating series of wacky-but-definitely-evil plans. But of course, given who's writing this, it's entirely possibly the comedy will slip into tragedy at some point if the guide ever recommends it... And there's nothing scarier than a permanent goofball finally getting serious. But for the most part, expect cartoon-level villainy and hijinks. It'll be fun!
---
[NOVEL?] Limit of a Legend
Action / Relationships / Melancholy?
High fantasy
You are the hero of legend. You hold brilliant power to repel evil; no creature of darkness can stand up to you. Wherever you go, even in this bleak, war-torn world, hope follows.
But... you can’t be everywhere. You can’t travel instantly, and you still must rest and sleep like any other person. You can’t hold back the overwhelming numbers of the horde on your own, and the enemy continues to encroach wherever you aren’t. It seems, this time, a hero might not be enough to save the world. Unless you and those directing the efforts to fight back can find a way.
Blah's notes: The concept for Limit of a Legend came to be when I was thinking about stories where the main character is too powerful to be defeated. The obvious counters to such a character are to threaten those they care about who don't have such power, or challenge them in such a way that raw force cannot resolve the problem. So, in this story, the hero is basically invincible. Sure, they still have to sleep and could theoretically be killed, but assuming no catastrophic whoopsies, they aren't going to die. But they can't defend an entire kingdom on their own, no matter their powers. This story will focus on that dilemma, along with the hero's relationships with the royal family who they serve. Plus, there are wizards and golems in this one! It'll be fun!
---
[NOVEL?] Reflective Silver Love and Justice!
Superhero / Investigation?
Present day / Near future
Heroes are real. Whether you prefer to call them superheroes, mutants, wizards, magical girls; it doesn’t matter - they exist and they’re here to protect everyone from evil spirits with the powers of righteousness and justice. It’s been almost a decade since the first dark spirits appeared and only a little less time since the first heroes appeared to fight them. The status quo has mostly been established; for the average person, not a lot has changed aside from an uptick in supernatural encounters on the daily commute.
But when you’re chosen to rise up as one of these defenders, you quickly realize things are a little more complicated than the general public knows. What do these “angels” and “demons” really want? Where do they come from? Why do they clash in such a roundabout way, using humans as their champions?
Perhaps most immediately pressing, though, is how you’re going to balance your regular life with your new demands as a hero. That one, you’ll have to sort out right quick.
Blah's notes: Reflective Silver Love and Justice! is the fourth iteration of a superhero / secret identity story that I've wanted to write for ages, but never got a concept together that I was happy with until now. It will follow an ensemble cast of rookie heroes and villains, each granted their powers by a spirit of either dark or light, as they clash and... make friends? Wait, you can't do that; you're supposed to be enemies! Dear, oh dear, what will the powers that be think of that? The bulk of the story will be developing their powers and relationships, trying to figure out what these celestial interlopers actually want (are they really angels and demons...?), and potentially even challenging the status quo and much more powerful supers. Plus, it's got transformation scenes! It'll be fun!
(Winner: ) 3 2 6@Story Notifications
Alright, time to prepare for some Reflective Silver Love and Justice! Let’s start by figuring out a few things about the setting.
Due to the large number of characters and perspective switches, the story will use third person limited.
How much is understood about how superpowers work?
- Nearly nothing. Science is powerless to explain and the angels aren’t willing to say.
- The basics make sense and outcomes can often be predicted with enough data. However, applying technology or physics usually goes poorly.
- Superpowers are a field of scientific study and integrated with traditional research. Some universities even offer degrees.
How involved is the government with supers?
- Not much. Cops stay mostly out of the way and heroes tend to operate on a vigilante system.
- Contractor-like. The cops may request heroes for tough cases, and will often be involved to some degree in clashes between supers.
️ - Integrated. The federal government has a hero registry and a department to manage relations. Many of the most powerful heroes work directly for the government, though not all.
How dangerous is being a hero?
- Not too bad. Defense outpaces attack, so it’s hard to get seriously hurt or killed by villains.
️ - It’s a tough job. Defense and attack are balanced. It’s unlikely you’ll actually die, but being careless, unlucky, or just outmatched can put you out of action for days or weeks.
- Dangerous. Attack outpaces defense, so it’s easy to be seriously injured by a single flubbed dodge. Only powerful or lucky heroes make it to retirement.
(Winners: a tie between and - chosen by author discretion, a tie between and - the options will be blended by author discretion, ️ )
- Nearly nothing. Science is powerless to explain and the angels aren’t willing to say.
- The basics make sense and outcomes can often be predicted with enough data. However, applying technology or physics usually goes poorly.
- Superpowers are a field of scientific study and integrated with traditional research. Some universities even offer degrees.
How involved is the government with supers?
- Not much. Cops stay mostly out of the way and heroes tend to operate on a vigilante system.
- Contractor-like. The cops may request heroes for tough cases, and will often be involved to some degree in clashes between supers.
️ - Integrated. The federal government has a hero registry and a department to manage relations. Many of the most powerful heroes work directly for the government, though not all.
How dangerous is being a hero?
- Not too bad. Defense outpaces attack, so it’s hard to get seriously hurt or killed by villains.
️ - It’s a tough job. Defense and attack are balanced. It’s unlikely you’ll actually die, but being careless, unlucky, or just outmatched can put you out of action for days or weeks.
- Dangerous. Attack outpaces defense, so it’s easy to be seriously injured by a single flubbed dodge. Only powerful or lucky heroes make it to retirement.
(Winners: a tie between and - chosen by author discretion, a tie between and - the options will be blended by author discretion, ️ ) 2 3 3 3 3 1 1 5 2@Story Notifications
A double-tie in the very first choice, huh? Well, that just means I get to pick. At least, for the two that aren’t about how much pain and suffering the characters get to go through, for which you selected the moderate choice. Probably for the best that didn’t win if we want to get to know these people. Anyway, speaking of people, let’s decide some things about the characters.
How old is Brianna Whitman (aka Silver (aka the “main” protagonist (aka the “Silver” in Reflective Silver Love and Justice!))) when the story starts?
- 17. A senior in high school and on track to graduate this year. Hopefully becoming a hero isn’t too distracting.
- 18. In that awkward summer between high school and college. Becoming a hero will certainly spice that up.
Who is the first other super that Silver meets? [Silver has the meta-power of narrative perspective; for the main cast, we can usually only “be” someone once she’s met them. (But don’t tell her that or she might get nervous.)]
- “Granite.” A hero. A young man slightly older than Silver. Confident; chill. Will like her.
- “Violet.” A villain. A young woman slightly younger than Silver. Energetic; definitely not chill. Will really like her.
What do angels and demons look like to humans?
- Humanoid. Halos, horns, that sort of thing. Like you would expect.
- Humanoid, but also very small. For stealth, probably.
♾️ - Abstract. Orbs, unclear sensations, biblically accurate whatevers.
- Mascots. Cute; marketable. Probably squeak like plush toys if you squeeze them.
(Winners: , , )
didn’t win if we want to get to know these people. Anyway, speaking of people, let’s decide some things about the characters.
How old is Brianna Whitman (aka Silver (aka the “main” protagonist (aka the “Silver” in Reflective Silver Love and Justice!))) when the story starts?
- 17. A senior in high school and on track to graduate this year. Hopefully becoming a hero isn’t too distracting.
- 18. In that awkward summer between high school and college. Becoming a hero will certainly spice that up.
Who is the first other super that Silver meets? [Silver has the meta-power of narrative perspective; for the main cast, we can usually only “be” someone once she’s met them. (But don’t tell her that or she might get nervous.)]
- “Granite.” A hero. A young man slightly older than Silver. Confident; chill. Will like her.
- “Violet.” A villain. A young woman slightly younger than Silver. Energetic; definitely not chill. Will really like her.
What do angels and demons look like to humans?
- Humanoid. Halos, horns, that sort of thing. Like you would expect.
- Humanoid, but also very small. For stealth, probably.
♾️ - Abstract. Orbs, unclear sensations, biblically accurate whatevers.
- Mascots. Cute; marketable. Probably squeak like plush toys if you squeeze them.
(Winners: , , ) 2 5 1 6 2 1
3 5@Story Notifications
Reflective Silver Love and Justice!
It was. With only a few seconds to focus, light flared across her body and Bria was back, along with her normal outfit. Suddenly, the warning about keeping a secret identity seemed somewhat more dire. The battle form really did change her mindset, at least a little.
“Good. The last matter is that of your name. All hero aliases are based on colors or terms strongly associated with a color, for ease of registration and branding. It is advised to pick a term that matches your battle form, if possible.”
Although the Bria in the mirror was just her regular self now, she could still clearly recall the shiny, reflective dress of her battle form. Really, only one word immediately came to mind. “Can I be ‘Silver’?”
“There are no conflicting registrations within the neighboring states. Congratulations, Silver, on your selection. I will return tomorrow morning to commence your training.” With that, he immediately leapt back into the air to hover, fading towards transparency.
- “Wait!”
- Let him leave. Bria certainly has a lot to think about.
[If Bria asks Zeal to wait, what does she say?]
- “Why did you choose me?”
- “What kind of training?”
- “... Thank you. For choosing me.”
❓ - [Something else. Suggest in #story_discussion.]
(Winners: , )
- “Wait!”
- Let him leave. Bria certainly has a lot to think about.
[If Bria asks Zeal to wait, what does she say?]
- “Why did you choose me?”
- “What kind of training?”
- “... Thank you. For choosing me.”
❓ - [Something else. Suggest in #story_discussion.]
(Winners: , ) 6 2 2 6 2
1@Story Notifications
Scene 1
“W-wait!”
Zeal paused in midair, returning to opacity. “Yes?”
“Er, what kind of training? Just so I can prepare a little?”
“Combat training, of course,” he responded like it should be obvious. “You are now responsible, in part, for the wellbeing of your community and there are many dark spirits to destroy. We will start developing your skills quickly.”
“Combat training,” Bria repeated. “Right.” In fairness, it was obvious; that’s what heroes did. But without the confidence of just a few minutes ago, the idea of actually trying to fight something seemed a lot more farfetched. That’s what the training would help with, she supposed. “Like, magic powers and stuff?”
“Later, yes. But initially, we will focus on intent. That and general defensive measures. Attacking will come afterwards, including physical and magical variations.”
“Intent... so, what I want to do?”
“It seems you are intending to start your training early. While your zeal is appreciated, it is not yet the time; I must finish your registration before anything further can be accomplished. Please, await my return in the morning.”
“Right. Okay, I’ll wait.”
“Then farewell for now.” Zeal faded into transparency and was gone.
It was late. She should get ready for bed and prepare to wake up early tomor - wait, did she forget to ask him when he would come back? What if she overslept, or woke up too early and had to sit around for ages waiting?
“...”
Who was she kidding? Bria knew perfectly well she wasn’t going to have much success in sleeping tonight either way.
...
June 11th, 2028
“You’re up early today,” Bria’s dad commented as she hurried downstairs, already dressed and ready for the day well before noon. On a weekend during summer break, no less! “What’s the occasion?”
“Well-”
Does Bria have a summer job?
️ - Nope! Free all day, every day.
- Yep! [Specify below, or in #story_discussion.]
If she has a job, it is...
- Something food service-y.
- Something retail-y.
- Something teaching-y.
- Something outdoors-y.
- Something office-y.
❓ - Something else...y? [Currently set as "something library-y" based on discussion.]
(Winners: , ❓ )
️ - Nope! Free all day, every day.
- Yep! [Specify below, or in #story_discussion.]
If she has a job, it is...
- Something food service-y.
- Something retail-y.
- Something teaching-y.
- Something outdoors-y.
- Something office-y.
❓ - Something else...y? [Currently set as "something library-y" based on discussion.]
(Winners: , ❓ ) 2 5 1 2 1 3 1 5@Story Notifications
Scene 2
“-maybe. I do have a summer job, but it doesn’t usually start this early. How long will the training last?”
“As long as you have strength remaining,” he replied. “Or until you have other matters that require attention. It is paramount that you increase your power as quickly as feasible.”
“So I can help deal with the ‘dark spirits’ you mentioned yesterday?”
“Certainly. There is much to do. You will provide me with a list of available times.”
“Er, sure. My schedule is usually...”
After sorting that out, Bria’s summer was looking a lot busier. Zeal wasn’t messing around; he urged her to cram in extra training wherever it could fit, especially since she would be busier again in the fall. So much for relaxing, but it would be for a good cause.
“By the way, I was having some... um, trouble controlling my strength this morning. Would that whole ‘turning my body into magic’ thing happen to have anything to do with that?”
“Perhaps. Although all of your abilities are significantly heightened in your battle form, even your base form is somewhat improved in many areas. With some practice, you should be able to restrain your strength to an ordinary level again.”
“How much is ‘some?’ A few days or a few months or...?”
“Within the week, almost certainly.”
“Oh, good. I’ll just have to be careful for a bit...” Bria muttered almost to herself. Then, a questioning look around. They were walking (well, Zeal was flying) along the road right next to the train tracks. “Where are we going, by the way?” Surely not the station itself; it had only recently occurred to her how awkward it might be to have to interact with her dad as Silver. He wouldn’t be here for a while yet, but if they were staying around this area...
“Just over this way.”
“There is less of a difference with physical actions,” Zeal admitted, “as your unconscious intent to ‘behave as a normal physical body should’ is very strong. But as you learn purely magical abilities, the power of intent will become quite clear. Strong adepts can even manipulate their unconscious intent to overcome limitations of their physical bodies. But for now, it is enough for you to simply be aware of the concept. Consider how it applies to the actions you perform.”
“... Okay.”
“Now,” Zeal said, clapping his hands (paws?) together. “We shall work on your defenses.”
“Why does that sound mildly ominous?”
Several orbs of pastel-colored light appeared around the angel’s head, slowly increasing their speed as they orbited. “Your first task is to grow accustomed to your battle form’s reflexes and agility. I believe a reasonable analogue for this exercise would be the game known as ‘dodgeball.’ Simply dodge the ‘balls’ as long as you can.”
More and more orbs bloomed into existence; Silver quickly lost track of how many were spinning. “Ah. That’s why.”
- “Intent” starts to make sense after a few days.
- “Intent” still doesn’t really make sense.
- Silver is pretty good at dodging.
- Silver needs some more practice.
(Winners: , )
- “Intent” starts to make sense after a few days.
- “Intent” still doesn’t really make sense.
- Silver is pretty good at dodging.
- Silver needs some more practice.
(Winners: , ) 3 5 1 7@Story Notifications
Scene 3
June 17th, 2028
It had been a tough week.
Bria had been training with Zeal every day for the past six of them and, while she had learned a lot, it seemed like she wasn’t making much progress. But beyond that, it had also been slow going trying to get used to her regular body’s new strength. The extra stamina was convenient, sure, but tasks requiring delicacy or precision (such as quite a lot of what she had to do at work) got complicated fast. At least she hadn’t actually broken anything yet; just gotten close.
Whatever. She was making progress on that; the training was the real problem. Zeal was really serious about it. Or sadistic. It could be hard to tell sometimes.
It turned out that, while Silver was certainly faster and more agile than Bria, it was still very difficult to dodge around dozens to hundreds of magical projectiles at once. None of the hits hurt very much, but “not very much” did start to add up after cumulative hours of it. And that was to say nothing about all of Zeal’s other “games,” like the one where he used beams or spikes instead of balls, or the one where she wasn’t allowed to see, or the one where she had to block instead of dodge, or-
Bria mumbled into her pillow before slowly starting to crawl out of bed. Although damage to Silver’s clothes didn’t carry over to Bria’s (Zeal said that was because most items she had on her before she transformed were “stored as magic” until she changed back), injuries to Silver herself unfortunately did. She (either her) healed a lot more quickly than before, and Silver was impressively durable even before that, but - again - cumulative hours of this took a toll. She had to be pretty careful in front of her parents to avoid any concerned questions.
“Intent,” she muttered while getting dressed. “Intent...”
“It is not a matter of visualization, though the two are often paired. It is a matter of intent. You are not intending to destroy the target.” Zeal paused for a few moments, thinking. Silver wondered if he was frustrated. Good; she was too. “Perhaps... What is something you hate? A physical object or creature.”
“House centipedes,” Silver answered immediately. “Too many legs. Wait, you aren’t going to - eEK!”
As - in hindsight - probably should have been obvious, Zeal changed the abstract training dummy into a human-sized house centipede. It reared up on dozens of twitching legs, exaggerated mandibles clacking. “Now, destroy it,” he said calmly.
With another sweeping kick (she wasn’t about to touch that thing with her hands), Silver’s frantic attack landed right in the bug’s midsection. And, unlike any of her previous attempts, there was a weighty sense of power behind this one. No flashy lights or magical bursts; the centipede simply tore in half and scattered into fragments of pastel dust with the follow-through.
Silver stood there for a moment, eyes wide.
“Good,” Zeal said, still perfectly calm. “For that attack, you held an intent to kill.”
“Was that an intent to kill or just plain fear?!”
“You saw the result. Now, remember how the intent felt and do it again with the original target.” Zeal waved his paws (hands?) and recreated the first, more abstract training dummy in a matter of moments.
“...” Silver pulled back, still shaking just a little with the adrenaline from before, and...
- Destroys it.
- Gives it a better wallop, but still does not destroy it.
- Doesn’t do measurably better than before.
(Winner: )
- Destroys it.
- Gives it a better wallop, but still does not destroy it.
- Doesn’t do measurably better than before.
(Winner: ) 1 7 1@Story Notifications
Scene 4
The dummy wobbled with a new ferocity, half-tearing its head off before plopping back together with a jelly-like slurp. “That was better,” she decided. “Right?”
“It was,” Zeal nodded. “But more practice on intent is needed, along with your technique. We shall continue along this track for the remainder of the morning. After that, perhaps you may find it enlightening to attempt a magical attack. At least, if your physical attacks have progressed sufficiently.”
Silver continued to struggle with intent for the next several hours. The desire to hurt or kill just didn’t come naturally to her... unless she was terrified of whatever target Zeal brewed up. Giant bugs and horrible monsters? Sure, she could kill those in the moment. But if given time to think about it, or with more abstract targets, she really struggled to gather enough intent. It just didn’t seem right. And of course, the one human-like target he tried, she could hardly bring herself to even punch it normally. The illusion was unsettlingly good.
But it wasn’t all bad news. Her technique improved quickly - almost naturally - though it wasn’t any ordinary fighting style. Her battle form just seemed to know how to move in effective (though flashy) ways for combat.
“It’s intent again, isn’t it?” Bria guessed as they were taking a break for lunch. She was sitting outside at one of the cafes near the station, facing away from the building to make it less obvious she was talking to thin air (aka Zeal, hovering over the table). “I have the intent to know how to fight, so my body... figures it out?”
Pleased at her deduction, he settled down on the napkins like a stack of carpets. “Essentially. You are beginning to grasp proper direction of your body through practice with your base form alongside battle training. Intent to harm is not the only useful kind - the intent to fight on its own can help a great deal with technique.”
That didn’t really answer her question, but at this point Bria had run out of social courage to keep trying and just focused on lunch. She could have come right out and asked “Hey, where did angels and demons come from? (Was it the same place?)” but it was common knowledge that neither type of celestial was willing to talk about it, even to their heroes. It was widely believed that angels and demons were the same species - they looked very similar and had similar abilities, at least - but whether they actually came from “heaven” or “hell” was... an open question. Some religions believed so; others vehemently denied it.
Well, it wasn’t like she had any real chance of ending a decade of uncertainty with a few questions in a single afternoon. The curiosity lingered, but it was hardly her most pressing concern. That, most likely, was figuring out how to cast magic.
- Silver ends the day unable to produce a proper magical attack.
- Silver is able to cast a simple unattuned magical attack, though of limited effectiveness.
- Silver makes good progress with magic - better than physical, in fact. [This option is unavailable due to previous choices.]
(Winner: )
- Silver ends the day unable to produce a proper magical attack.
- Silver is able to cast a simple unattuned magical attack, though of limited effectiveness.
- Silver makes good progress with magic - better than physical, in fact. [This option is unavailable due to previous choices.]
(Winner: ) 3 5@Story Notifications
Scene 5
“And now,” Zeal stated once they were back from lunch and back in the park. “Magical attacks. We will begin with the simplest spells you can cast: unattuned attacks.”
He sketched the now-familiar jelly-like dummy in midair, preparing the target. “Unlike attuned magic, which is ‘flavored’ with your particular signature, unattuned attacks consist of nothing but raw magic infused with intent. No preparation or shaping is required, which makes them simple, cheap, and - above all - fast.”
Silver doubted they would be any of those things to start with, but hopefully she would eventually get there.
“You may find this process quite challenging to start with; many new heroes do, despite its simplicity. Perhaps because of it. In any case, an unattuned magical attack is very similar to a physical attack at its core: they both require directing a portion of your magical power towards the target. The difference is in the source and the flow.”
Silver almost interrupted to ask a question, but actually, she did know what was going on. Her physical attacks were magical because her body was magical. “Directing a portion of magical power” in that case was just a fancy way to say “throwing a punch” or the like.
“Instead of the source being the solidified magic that makes up your body, you will need to tap into the ether that binds it. You already do this when transforming, so it should not be a new sensation. And instead of the flow starting and ending with a physical motion, allow the magic to separate from you and impact the target. Otherwise, it’s the same.”
“Ha,” she repeated, catching her breath with hands on knees. “Wasn’t... a fluke.”
“Excellent work,” Zeal said frankly. “Many heroes do not get this far on their first day. With further training, we will work on reliability, speed, recovery, and refining the bolts into different forms. But for today, you should be satisfied with your progress.”
Silver straightened up again, unable to hold back a beaming smile. She had cast a spell! For real! She had just done that!
“I think I’m getting the hang of it now,” she said, aiming and - with a several-second pause - firing a third bolt at the target. This one was a little off-center, but it still hit. “How many of these do you think I can do in a row?”
“Given that you have been exerting yourself all day? I am somewhat surprised you are still standing.”
“One more, then.” Another pause; another bolt. This one missed entirely, breaking apart against Zeal’s safety net behind the dummy. Set up for exactly this scenario to make sure she didn’t accidentally hit a pedestrian through the trees or something. “Or two.”
“Silver, consider being satisfied with your progress and ending the day here.”
“I’ll stop once I hit it dead-on again, like the first time. C’mon...”
Another three bolts hit the dummy off-center, but with the fourth, Bria found herself unexpectedly returning to her base form in the middle of the attack. A wave of exhaustion hit her all at once and she fell to her knees, panting like she had just run a marathon.
“It seems you have depleted your available energy; you are too tired to maintain your battle form. It is recommended to rest.”
“G-got it,” she huffed. “Ow, ow; how am I sore in places that aren’t even in my body?”
[After another few days...]
- Zeal considers Silver ready to go out for a field demonstration.
- The field demonstration arrives of its own accord; ready or not.
(Winner: )
- Zeal considers Silver ready to go out for a field demonstration.
- The field demonstration arrives of its own accord; ready or not.
(Winner: ) 1 7@Story Notifications
Scene 6
June 21st, 2028
“By the end of this week, I believe you may be ready for some field experience,” Zeal said, again perched on the napkins. They were at the same cafe as last Saturday, though this time Bria wasn’t exhausted from training in the morning. Instead, she had walked here from the library where she worked to spend the afternoon training instead. After lunch, at least.
“Already? Even though I still can’t get the right intent to attack properly?”
“I believe it will do you good to see the type of monsters you will fight. It may help clarify your intent.”
“That’s ominous,” she decided. The crossing gates activated just like last time, though this train was coming from the other direction. “What kind of monsters will I be fighting, by the way? I don’t think heroes generally fight demons directly...? Is it really all villains, like they show in the news?”
“It is not. Confrontations with heroes of darkness are somewhat uncommon, though they are the most spectacular battles you will face. That is likely why they are reported upon; day-to-day activities are less newsworthy.”
“Day-to-day activities like...?” She found that he often did this when she asked multiple things at once. A lot of their conversations involved Bria just restating the question a few times.
“Most dark spirits are less powerful than full demons, so they cannot empower heroes and cannot hide from us as effectively. They do still cause trouble, however, so those are the monsters you will typically hunt. Assuming all goes according to plan, you will see one in the field by the end of the week.”
“And you’re not going to tell me now, I assume?”
“All will be revealed in due time.”
Bria slipped back around the corner, whispering to Zeal. “Th-that’s gotta be the villain, right?”
“Indeed,” he said at a normal volume. The privileges of being inaudible to anyone except Bria. “And her demon as well, though I cannot tell which one unless it reveals itself.”
“S-so, what do I do? It doesn’t seem like she’s doing anything, y’know, evil?” A pause. “And they’ve gotta be here because of me, right? She was talking about training!”
“Yes, it is likely your presence was sensed at some point. It seems plausible, given their current actions, that they intend to do something at 1:35. You may have until then to decide on a course of action.”
Bria checked her phone. 1:17. Just under 20 minutes. And, while she was there, she verified her suspicion on her transit app: the next inbound train was scheduled to arrive at 1:35. What were they intending to do with the train? Blow it up? S-surely nothing that extreme, but... surely nothing good! And why would she just be sitting around transformed until then?
- Transform. Confront the villain as Silver. That’s what heroes do!
- Just call the cops or something. It seemed she wouldn’t be happy about that.
️ - Stay sneaky. Keep watch until 1:35 and see what happens. [If something does happen that requires intervention, the higher of or will take effect then.]
(Winners: ️ > )
- Transform. Confront the villain as Silver. That’s what heroes do!
- Just call the cops or something. It seemed she wouldn’t be happy about that.
️ - Stay sneaky. Keep watch until 1:35 and see what happens. [If something does happen that requires intervention, the higher of or will take effect then.]
(Winners: ️ > ) 4 2 6@Story Notifications
Scene 7
...
“You think I could make this cape do air conditioning?” Violet asked, flapping the aforementioned cape against the heat. “It’s made of darkness or something, so it should be cold. But-” She rubbed the wispy, lightweight fabric(?) between her fingers for demonstration. “-It isn’t. It’s just as hot as everything else.”
Vanity plopped down on Violet’s head to inspect the cloak. Despite her dark purple fur - matching Violet’s outfit - the demon never seemed to have any problems with the temperature. “Maybe! If you wish for it from the very bottom of your heart!”
“Gghhh,” she half-sighed. “I’ve been doing that for weeks now.”
“Hmm...” Vanity mused. “Maybe you’re just not sure what you actually want?”
“Yeah, nooooope. Get this summer outta here. I could use a good snowfall right about now.”
“You’re not usually this complain-y,” the demon pouted, tugging on Violet’s hair. “We’ve gone out in the heat before; what’s wrong today?”
“I’m not being complain-y,” she complained. “I’m just... annoyed that whoever that new hero is hasn’t shown up yet. Don’t they care about what I might get up to without anyone to stop me?”
“Maybe they’re out of town today?”
“That’d be real bad luck. You said you’ve sensed ‘em every day for a while now; why would they leave today?”
“Well, you aren’t very lucky, after all.”
“What? Why’s that?”
“Your cat is black; I heard that means bad luck whenever you see one, and you-”
“That’s just an old legend! If anything, you’re probably bringing more bad luck than he is.”
“Why’d you say that?”
Violet looked up, trying to spot Vani on top of her head. “If you haven’t noticed, your fur is black too.”
“But I’m not a cat!”
“I feel like a demon is probably worse.”
“Well - well, if we’re going by that definition, your fur is black too!”
“My fur? I don’t have any - wait, you mean my hair?”
The demon patted her head. “It’s basically the same thing.”
The brakes re-engaged within moments (as the operator couldn’t see anything) and the train came to a stop in the middle of the crossing just beyond the station. “You aren’t going anywhere until someone shows up to stop me,” Violet declared (mostly to herself, as there was no one nearby to hear her). “Now, come on. You had better show up; I could be doing anything here. I could have just-”
“Stop right there, villain!”
Violet turned around to spot a girl about her age with white hair and a very fancy silver dress pointing at her from near the station building. “Oh, finally! You’re sooooooo late; did you get caught in traffic or something?” Wow, that’s a cool outfit. How’d she get it shiny like that?
“It doesn’t matter; I’m here now and I’m here to stop you! So... so stop whatever it is you’re doing to that train! Or I’ll make you!”
- Then she’ll have to make you!
- Stop whatever it is you’re doing to that train.
[And then...]
- Ask her name and such; be polite.
- Actually, just fight her. That’s what you’re here to do, after all.
(Winners: , )
- Then she’ll have to make you!
- Stop whatever it is you’re doing to that train.
[And then...]
- Ask her name and such; be polite.
- Actually, just fight her. That’s what you’re here to do, after all.
(Winners: , ) 7 1 5 3@Story Notifications
Scene 8
“Then make me!” Violet took a few steps forward, lowering her stance slightly to get ready to move quickly. Just in case. “Oh, but first, let me know your name? I gotta know who I’m about to beat.”
“What? No! I’m here to stop you, not talk to you!”
“Oh, come oooooon; are you really that boring? Look, I’ll even tell you mine: I’m Violet! Nice to meet you and all that. And you are...?”
“... I’m Silver,” she relented, only barely audible over the idling locomotive nearby. “N-now can we get on with it?”
“Silver, hm? That’s nice; it really suits your whole theme you’ve got there. And, hey, your hair matches your color too; is that part of the form or are you just using dye?”
“It doesn’t matter!” Silver shouted, then leveled her arm at Violet and released a bolt of simple light.
Unattuned, hm? Violet thought as she darted to the right to avoid it. That doesn’t tell me anything. Let’s try and get you to use your signature magic. It feels like you’re probably all bright and sparkly ‘cause of your outfit, so maybe if I...
“Shadow mist!” she called, pausing for a moment to generate a second bubble of darkness. She could only do two at a time, so any more than that would free the train anyway, but Silver didn’t need to know that. C’mon, use your light powers to dispel it or something.
But she didn’t. And unfortunately, Violet couldn’t see into the mist either; it was just as dark to her as anyone else. She was working on some sort of spell to fix that, but it was a lot harder than just making the mist. “Hey! You gonna do anything or just sit around in there? I thought you wanted to stop me, not take a nap!”
No response from the cloud.
“It’s not poisonous or anything; you just can’t see.” Another pause; something was wrong. “Seriously, what - agh!”
Metaphorically, she clarified to herself, as that dress didn’t have any sleeves.
- Silver breaks free and gets out of the cloud!
- Violet restrains her until she passes out.
(Winner: )
- Silver breaks free and gets out of the cloud!
- Violet restrains her until she passes out.
(Winner: ) 6 2@Story Notifications
Scene 9
The trick, as it turned out, was pretty simple. Whether intentionally or not (and Violet really hoped it wasn’t intentional since there should have been no way for her to know it was important), Silver managed to grab onto Violet’s cloak in their struggle and pulled the hood down. Which, of course, exposed her to the toxic effects of her own mist.
With an unexpected lungful of poison, Violet reflexively let go in order to pull her hood back up, and by the time she was done doing that, Silver was gone.
“Are you kidding me? Where’d you - agh!” She hurried out of the overlapping clouds, dismissing them both as she looked around. No heroes in sight. “She must’ve been pretty badly hurt,” Violet reasoned. “Maybe she ran away. Vani, you see anything?”
“She went around the corner!” the demon replied, fading into view on the station’s roof and pointing helpfully. “You really got her good!”
“Not good enough, I guess.” Violet hurried around the indicated corner, cautiously preparing to dodge another ambush, but no one was there. She looked around the empty platform a bit, but didn’t find anyone. “Can you still sense-”
“All gone!” Vanity interrupted, flopping back down onto Violet’s head. One of her favorite perches. At least she didn’t weigh anything most of the time. “You won!”
“... I guess?” Violet ducked into a little alcove beside a vending machine and swapped back to her base form, stretching as she walked back to a bench to sit down and recover. “She did free the train, though, so I guess she sorta won too. Or, well, that was sorta my fault, but - whatever.”
“I think you were super cool! But, was it fun?”
“Th - What, you mean fighting a hero for once instead of a training dummy or a random security guard?”
“Mm hm!”
“Well, yeah. I got lots of new ideas for what to work on next. I wonder if she’ll show up earlier if I come back...”
“Maybe if you’re dangerous enough!”
Violet hadn’t really taken their fight seriously either, messing around asking questions and trying to bait Silver into using magic she didn’t yet know. Why? Was she just curious about a new hero? Did she actually do real evil things somewhere else? Bria did some quick searching online, but there weren’t any mentions of a villain named Violet in the area, let alone one who was an actual menace.
“...”
Well, she didn’t know. But something told her that today wouldn’t be the last time she’d see Violet, so maybe she could just ask her later. After all, it didn’t seem like she had been in much of a hurry to fight today; Silver had attacked first.
Bria shook those thoughts out of her head. Most villains weren’t like that, right? That’s why Zeal kept trying to get her to want to hurt people. Monsters; truly evil villains. Not... someone like her.
Still, it didn’t quite feel right. If her intent shaped her magic, why did “kill” have to be the only option? Couldn’t she have the intent “to stop” or “to restrain” or something like that? Maybe unattuned magic wasn’t that flexible; maybe that’s what the “signature magic” Violet had mentioned was about. She still just didn’t know anything!
A breath. Patience, Bria. It’s only been a week and a half. Don’t get ahead of yourself; you’ll get there.
- Silver works on practicing that idea of intent “to stop” instead of “to harm.”
- Silver works on intent “to harm” like Zeal recommends.
️ - Silver tries to mix her workload.
(Winner: )
- Silver works on practicing that idea of intent “to stop” instead of “to harm.”
- Silver works on intent “to harm” like Zeal recommends.
️ - Silver tries to mix her workload.
(Winner: ) 5 1 4@Story Notifications
Scene 10
June 24th, 2028
“Your intent has not improved,” Zeal continued as they watched the train slow to a stop in front of them. Bria headed for an open door to board.
“I told you,” she said quietly, trying not to look insane as she climbed to the second level. “I’m trying less lethal but still effective intents. I think I can stop someone without having to kill them, and the dummy agrees.”
“The dummy lives up to its namesake,” he countered. “The only way to survive against your foes is with the desire to end them.”
“Violet wasn’t like that.”
Zeal sighed. “That girl was hardly a proper representative of the forces of darkness. You will learn that today.”
“And that’s why we’re heading into the city,” she concluded, poking through the app to activate her ticket. “I’m kind of excited; I get to check out my campus again and do some hero stuff.”
Zeal didn’t respond, but she felt like he was annoyed. Well, the feeling was mutual. He didn’t approve of her less-lethal plan, even though her attacks were having more effect on the dummy now than when she had been trying to “kill” it. He kept saying stuff like he just had - that true evil wouldn’t show her any mercy and she had to be willing to kill in order to defeat it. The lack of willingness to even consider her viewpoint had gotten a little grating over time.
So, today he was making good on his suggestion from earlier that she would be ready for field work by the weekend. It had been two weeks since she had become a hero, and now they were heading into the big city to find one of the truly evil monsters he had been talking about. Bria felt like she should be more worried about that than she was, but for some reason she actually felt more nervous about getting lost when they got to campus. Of course, that was assuming they actually got there at all; Zeal might notice something beforehand and pull her off track.
“I don’t know where that is!” she said quietly, kind of wishing she didn’t have to speak aloud to talk to him. “I’d need to find a staircase or probably have an elevator key or something to-”
“I imagine that person would be able to help you.”
“... The front desk?”
- Ask confidently.
- Ask nervously.
️ - It’s fine; it can’t be that hard to find.
(Winner:
- Ask confidently.
- Ask nervously.
️ - It’s fine; it can’t be that hard to find.
(Winner: 5 2 1@Story Notifications
Scene 11
“Official hero business, sir,” she told the doorman. “Could you tell me how to get to the mechanical room?”
On the face of it, her statement might seem ridiculous; she was a high school (college now?) student in a sparkly costume asking a fancy adult man to let her into the basement. She didn’t have any qualifications or even ID (even if her driver’s license would be useful, it had gone with her regular clothes and couldn’t be accessed until she transformed back). And indeed, she did still feel a twinge of awkwardness beneath the hero-ish exterior. But not enough to stop her.
And, whether it was her confident demeanor, the crowd outside, or perhaps that this particular doorman had been through something similar before, he didn’t need to see anything else. “Yes, though I will need to accompany you. May I have your name and the specifics of the issue you intend to resolve?”
“I’m Silver. And my angel says there’s a dark spirit in the basement somewhere near a mechanical room.” She looked up at Zeal, hovering serenely above her right shoulder. “Did you have any other details?”
“It is large and likely able to hide itself from ordinary senses. Though that ability should fade once you start attacking it.”
“It’s big and invisible,” she relayed. “Probably.”
He wrote a few notes, put up an “away from the desk” sign, and nodded. “Alright, follow me, please.”
Silver let him lead her into the elevator, after which he inserted a key and down they went. It was a brief descent, the doors opening to a short, much less polished concrete-floored corridor. Machinery hummed from behind several scraped-up metal doors.
“This is the mechanical room,” the doorman said, indicating one of the doors with a small window. “If you are to be fighting in there, I will stay in the hall for my safety. Please do not damage anything if you can avoid it.”
“Right. I’ll try.”
“It is an evil spirit,” he replied with an undertone of satisfaction. “It is what you must fight. It is what you must kill.” A slight change of tone, though she couldn’t place what exactly changed. “Destroy it, Silver. Show no mercy.”
Fingers emerged from pipes, leaving strange silvery droplets behind. Arms curled in, aiming to encircle her. The mouth made a strange whistling noise. Silver had to fight.
️ - Destroy it. Show no mercy.
- Intent to stop is enough. You don’t need to stoop that low.
- Flee; this thing is probably too much for you.
️ - Fight aggressively. Move fast; keep attacking. Don’t give it time to attack you in response.
️ - Fight defensively. Be aware of its arms; don’t let it cut you off or ensnare you. Attack when possible.
(Winners: a tie between ️ and , ️ )
️ - Destroy it. Show no mercy.
- Intent to stop is enough. You don’t need to stoop that low.
- Flee; this thing is probably too much for you.
️ - Fight aggressively. Move fast; keep attacking. Don’t give it time to attack you in response.
️ - Fight defensively. Be aware of its arms; don’t let it cut you off or ensnare you. Attack when possible.
(Winners: a tie between ️ and , ️ ) 4 4 1 3 5@Story Notifications
Scene 12
She started by backing up, ducking beneath the two swiping arms in her path and getting out of the thing’s melee range. From that position of relative safety, she could focus on an opening barrage of ranged attacks - aiming primarily for the spirit’s limbs and secondarily for its massive, squishy body.
Accuracy continued to present a problem; the arms were too thin and nimble to hit with any regularity. Silver scored a few hits just due to how many projectiles she launched, but most broke apart on thick rolls of flab, dealing minimal damage. Those that did hit arms seemed to be more effective, but it was clear she wouldn’t be able to do much with this tactic.
The spirit could move. It waddled slowly along with little wriggling motions near the base of its body, advancing towards the room’s center and expanding the area its arms could reach. But just because she was out of its melee range didn’t mean it was out of attacks. Fingers dipped into pipes without seeming to break the material, emerging coated in droplets of sparkling liquid. Not water, certainly; a silvery hue was the first she saw, but every color of the rainbow made an appearance on its dozens upon dozens of fingers.
Silver hesitated, watching it warily and trying to determine how to respond. Run? Duck? Jump aside? Find some cover? There was a - !!
The creature flicked most of its arms towards her, creating a targeted rain of multicolored liquid. Silver chose to leap behind one of the larger, sturdier freestanding machines for cover, listening to droplets splatter against concrete and metal. Only a few splotches got onto her clothes or skin, though the ones that did burned painfully. Wisps of smoke curled into the air.
Silver popped out of cover for a moment, just long enough to bait the thing into launching another volley of droplets at her. Then, after dodging most of them by retreating behind the machine and trying her best to ignore the remaining burns, Silver ran closer this time while focusing another burst of unattuned magic. She kept a close eye on the multitude of nearby hands, but as she had expected, most of them were busy digging through pipes to retrieve more ammunition. None of them just tried to reach out and grab her.
She shot the thing in the head.
It was an off-center shot, but it still hit with enough force to send the little blob spinning impossibly around, its mouth and nostrils doing three full rotations before slowing to a stop. A smoking, glowing wound burned on the right side of its head; a splatter of grey goo decorated the far wall amidst the glowing residue of her magic. Arms and hands went limp, flopping to the floor with a drawn-out series of slaps.
A pause.
“Did I-”
The creature howled with an impossibly piercing shriek; Silver covered her ears but couldn’t block out the sound. Arms went berserk, flailing and slamming into walls, machines, and heroes seemingly at random. Silver tried to crawl back, out of its reach, but kept getting slapped further towards its body. The shriek reverberated in her skull, making it impossible to focus on any magic. Hands whirled everywhere, some still dripping with various fluids. Silvery liquid smeared down her right side, causing more tremors as she tried to clean it off, protect her ears, and get out of reach all at the same time.
“Kill it,” Zeal whispered, somehow perfectly audible over the cacophony. “Show. No. Mercy.”
- Try to regain enough focus to shoot it again from here.
- Try to get up close and finish it off.
- Try to get out of range and to safety first.
⭐ - (Someone else shows up to help.)
(Winners: > ⭐ )
- Try to regain enough focus to shoot it again from here.
- Try to get up close and finish it off.
- Try to get out of range and to safety first.
⭐ - (Someone else shows up to help.)
(Winners: > ⭐ ) 5 1 1
4@Story Notifications
Scene 13
She extended her left arm, trying to aim through all the mess. The unending scream rang in her ears. Arms and hands slammed down around and on top of her. The right side of her body refused to cooperate.
Somehow, even with all the distractions, Silver managed to fire another blast of magic at the creature. It impacted in the upper body, near the head but not quite hitting it. Minimal damage. Enough to get its attention, however. The thing quieted down somewhat, which was a blessing and Silver quickly tried to reorient herself. Unfortunately, it had only done that because it was busy gathering all its arms for a single decisive -
...
“Downstairs, right?” Mahogany confirmed as he shouldered his way into the empty lobby. He could already hear something huge crashing around in the basement, but Justice always felt better to be involved.
“That’s right,” his angel agreed, zipping along beside him in his lightning bolt guise. For when he had to move fast. “Although I don’t see anyone here to provide the elevator key.”
“Who needs one?” Mahogany paused a moment to focus, causing plates of dusky grey wood to sprout and cover one leg. “This key works on everything.”
“Maybe-”
Crash. He kicked open the door to the stairs, severely bending the hinges and likely requiring the replacement of all three of them. Metal from the broken latch clattered down the steps. “Keep up! Gotta get there in time!”
“Oh dear.” Justice lingered on a few of the fragments as Mahogany leapt down each flight. “Unsalvageable. You simply must be more careful.”
“You were the one who said there’s a rescue to be made here! You want me to hurry or what?”
“Do hurry, if you please. I expect we will be in time, though only just.”
He barged through the basement door as well, rushing into a short hallway and startling some fancy guy who was apparently on his way back upstairs. “Comin’ through!” he yelled, sidestepping past. “Hero mission!”
“Oh, we should probably get upstairs if you’re good to walk around. J, you - yeah, you’re about done. Let’s go talk to that fancy guy. And then we can chat after!”
- After a chat, Mahogany offers to go monster hunting with Silver, and she accepts.
- As above, but she declines.
- Silver leaves right away without sticking around to chat.
- Zeal shows up at some point.
- ... but only to Silver.
- Zeal does not show up.
- Be Silver.
- Be Mahogany.
(Winners: , , )
- After a chat, Mahogany offers to go monster hunting with Silver, and she accepts.
- As above, but she declines.
- Silver leaves right away without sticking around to chat.
- Zeal shows up at some point.
- ... but only to Silver.
- Zeal does not show up.
- Be Silver.
- Be Mahogany.
(Winners: , , ) 7 1 1 2 3 4 5 3@Story Notifications
Scene 14
...
A good while later, Silver sat on a bench in a nearby park, trying to figure out how to eat a hot dog without getting her hero outfit dirty.
After wrapping things up with the doorman from the building (both heroes had to sign some papers to affirm the damages caused were from a legitimate battle - for insurance purposes, apparently), Mahogany had decided he wanted lunch. And thus, since Silver had already agreed to talk with him afterwards, she accompanied him to the park and waited for a bit while he found a hot dog vendor. She wasn’t sure if he had transformed back to actually purchase them or if he somehow had some money in his battle form, but they were both still transformed now, thus drawing some minor attention from the occasional observant passersby.
Mahogany’s outfit was just as flashy as Silver’s, or potentially even more so. He seemed to be a year or two older than her, with short, spiky, kinda maroonish hair. Really muscular, like “professional athlete” level, and it definitely showed through the reddish, not quite skintight bodysuit sorta thing that formed the base of his hero costume. Plates of grey wood accented it at strategic points for protection, or maybe just decency. In any case, the sleeveless design and shorts made it so he was probably showing more skin than her overall. Which Silver definitely hadn’t noticed.
Anyway, Justice was also here, hovering gently overhead and snacking on a bag of chips Mahogany had bought. It was kind of weird to have an angel just hanging out so casually, let along eating. Did he need to do that or was it just for fun? Zeal never ate anything during their lunch breaks; was he running off to the supermarket when she wasn’t looking? Speaking of, where was he? Silver wasn’t sure to feel a little worried or a little annoyed, so settled on a bit of both.
“So,” she decided to begin. “What did you want to talk about?”
“So!” Mahogany announced once they had finally wrapped up that and lunch. “What were you looking for today? Big ones like the arms guy or smaller stuff and you just happened to spot it? Oh, and around here or you wanna go somewhere else?”
- Big ones like the arms guy!
- Maybe some smaller stuff
- Around here works
- Go to her original destination, near the college
(Winners: , )
- Big ones like the arms guy!
- Maybe some smaller stuff
- Around here works
- Go to her original destination, near the college
(Winners: , ) 1 7 1 7@Story Notifications
Scene 15
“Well...”
They took the nearby train down to one of the stops close to Bria’s (future?) college, startling some other passengers and having several more pictures taken. Of course, that choice of location prompted Mahogany to ask if there was any particular meaning to it and Silver had to decide how much she wanted to share. But, given Justice’s reassurances that information shared as Silver couldn’t be traced back to Bria, she eventually admitted it.
Of course, the obvious follow-up question was - “So, what’s your major?” Mahogany asked.
Silver almost sighed, but she had expected it. “I don’t know yet. I’m just doing gen eds and some exploratory classes in my first semester and trying to figure it out.”
“Really? You can do that?”
This time she actually sighed; she didn’t like thinking too much about that topic. “Obviously. Otherwise I wouldn’t be doing it.”
“Seems kinda fun,” he commented, seemingly ignoring or not noticing her reluctance. “Gettin’ to figure out what you want to do. I just got a job out of high school; wasn’t too good at academics.” A pause. He glanced down one of the long open streets towards the water, but it couldn’t be seen from here. “I’d really like to make hero-ing my actual job. Like Aquamarine, you know? But it’s tougher than you’d think tryin’ to get paid without joining one of the big groups. And that’s not really my style either.”
“Really?” Silver was just glad for the change of topic. “Why not? It seems like you’ve been working together with me just fine today.” Well, at least for the past few hours, she added silently. And they hadn’t really done anything yet.
“Yeah. It’s just, a lotta heroes are real assholes. And in the big groups, you gotta deal with a whole lot of them. I’ve got a real limited tolerance for jerks, so it didn’t really work out.”
“You’ve tried before?”
A similar pattern repeated another four times before Silver noticed the time, decided she had been out long enough, and bid Mahogany and Justice farewell. Each time, they had only helped spot or corral the monsters, letting Silver handle actually dispatching them. She still suspected they had mostly been following her around to make sure she wouldn’t get hurt taking on another arms guy or the like, and Mahogany probably could have taken out all the little monsters way more easily than she did, but... she did feel maybe a little more confident having done it all (mostly) herself.
Speaking of doing things herself, actually, where the heck was Zeal? It was getting late and the angel still hadn’t returned. Was he mad at her? In trouble somewhere? She had no idea how to find him or even if he wanted to be found. Should she go look for him? Where?
Silver hesitated indecisively at the entrance to the city’s main station where she would catch the train back home. Surely he’d be fine and would just show up again at some point. He never seemed to understand (or care?) about his abrupt appearances and disappearances. Plus, it wasn’t like anyone could really hurt an angel. Right? She’d never heard of anything like that happening.
“...”
Yeah, it would be fine.
- Go home. He’ll turn up eventually.
- Look around where you last saw him.
- Be Silver.
- Be Bria.
- Text Mahogany about this. [Requires being Bria. Votes for this will be converted to votes for if wins.]
- Text Mahogany later.
- Don’t bother.
(Winners: , , )
- Go home. He’ll turn up eventually.
- Look around where you last saw him.
- Be Silver.
- Be Bria.
- Text Mahogany about this. [Requires being Bria. Votes for this will be converted to votes for if wins.]
- Text Mahogany later.
- Don’t bother.
(Winners: , , ) 3 4 2 5 5 2 1@Story Notifications
Scene 16
But...
Silver snuck into a secluded area mostly hidden by a row of decorative pillars and transformed back. Then, she-
“...”
Bria hesitated, sitting down on a nearby bench to collect herself. Silver’s confidence disappeared with the battle form, leaving behind the really quite terrifying memories of her encounter with the horrible multi-armed creature. Her body refusing to obey after being splashed with that silver liquid. The sudden spike of fear just as she realized she wouldn’t have time to avoid its dozen-armed blow. The more subtle worry of what it had even been doing in the pipes - Mahogany hadn’t seemed to care, and they never talked to the doorman about it either.
Why was she being so nonchalant about all this? She could have died if he hadn’t shown up, and that had been a total coincidence!
Okay, she thought, trying to slow her breathing. Being Silver affects my mind a lot more than I thought.
“...”
She definitely considered transforming back for a moment, just to get rid of the doubts and fears. In fact, she might very well have done so if a group of travelers hadn’t been talking uncomfortably close and she wasn’t sure if they could see or not. And, thankfully, by the time they sorted out their plans and left, the mental discomfort had lessened somewhat. She was okay; it’d go smoother next time. She’d get better after every try. And she’d never have to face a monster like that as Bria. Silver was much better equipped for that sort of thing, and she could be Silver at a moment’s notice. Did that even make sense? It didn’t have to.
Okay, she repeated. Where the heck is Zeal? Right, that was the problem at hand (and a good distraction from the lingering - stop it; be distracted).
“Zeal!” she whispered. “Where have you been?!”
“Here and there. Have you learned anything today?”
[Bria is mostly...]
- Glad he’s okay.
- Annoyed that he keeps doing stuff like this.
- Angry that he doesn’t seem to respect her.
(Winners: > )
- Glad he’s okay.
- Annoyed that he keeps doing stuff like this.
- Angry that he doesn’t seem to respect her.
(Winners: > ) 
1 6 4@Story Notifications
Scene 17
“Wh - yes? But no thanks to you; I was worried!” She glanced around to make sure there weren’t any people close enough to hear as long as she kept her voice down. Zeal didn’t respond in the meantime, so she just continued. “Why do you keep doing stuff like this - vanishing without saying anything or keeping secrets or leading me to a monster that I bet you knew I wasn’t ready for? It feels like - it’s just... annoying!” Sort of a lame finish; she lost her momentum towards the end.
“Wasn’t ready for?” Zeal responded, drifting down to sit atop the headrest. “It was chosen to be appropriate for your intended abilities at this point in training. The fact that your intent was insufficient to destroy it is due to your continuing insubordination with regards to morality.” A subtle shift in posture; a slight forward lean. “It is my task to ensure you are as effective a hero as possible, and accomplishing that goal requires my pupils to listen to me. The monster was chosen to demonstrate that your current approach is insufficient.”
Did he think that would make her feel less upset? Most of it was basically an accusation! “My current approach works just fine on the smaller ones I managed to deal with (mostly) on my own after the big one! If you could just be patient and give me a chance-” She cut herself off, realizing a potentially bigger concern. “Actually! You sent me in there on purpose to prove a point, you just said! I could have died! If a second hero hadn’t coincidentally been right nearby to help out, I probably would have! You even left me alone there; do you just not care what happens to me?”
Bria was having a hard time keeping her voice down at this point; she retrieved her phone to maybe look like she was just arguing with someone who wasn’t an invisible angel. No one seemed to be looking at her, but you never knew.
“The danger was controlled. Your risk of fatal injury was acceptably low.”
And that was enough to be proud of, don’t you think?
- Be Silver.
- Be Violet.
⌛ - ... On June 25th.
️ - ... On June 28th.
(Winners: , ️ )
- Be Silver.
- Be Violet.
⌛ - ... On June 25th.
️ - ... On June 28th.
(Winners: , ️ ) 2 6
3 4@Story Notifications
Scene 18
June 28th, 2028
“Mornin’,” Vanity yawned, showing off her fangs. “It’s too early, isn’t it?”
“It’s afternoon,” Lillian reminded her. “What were you doing last...” She yawned too, covering her mouth with one hand. Vanity snickered. “Okay, that was just because yawns are contagious. I’m not tired.”
Rain speckled the train’s windows as it gained speed, heading west out of the city. It was past noon, more or less, and this was the first train she could have reasonably made after her obligations in the morning. But... “You think they’re still gonna be out there today even in this weather?”
Lillian winced lightly. “Look, the forecast said 30% chance and it was dry this morning. I would have waited if I’d known it would actually hit that 30%!” She shook her head. “No, they’re still going to be there. You said her angel’s a really tough one, right?”
“That’s what my sources say! An old grump, unlike your fresh, friendly, f...elpful friend!”
“Really had to f-orce that one, huh?”
“Shush. So, what’s your plan today?”
She stared out the window, trying to determine how thick the clouds were. It was no use; visibility was too poor to tell. “I’m going to fight her again. What else?”
Vanity hummed, doing a flip in midair as she drifted over to the window to see what Lillian was looking at. “But why? You’re not even going to steal anything?”
“It’s evil enough to be sneaking around like this, right? I don’t have to find a proper target as long as she actually pays attention this time. Which is why we’re going to find her instead of the other way around.”
“But you aren’t gonna get anything out of it, right?” Vani asked, obviously confused. “Fighting a hero isn’t, like, evil; that’s just why they’re here. I think it’d be easier to just do your normal thing. You’re good at it!”
She crept closer, approaching a secluded clearing near the corner of the park. Lights became visible through the trees, glittering silver on droplet-covered leaves. Success; it was her. Silver was facing slightly away from Lillian, focused on an invisible presence that was thus facing slightly towards her. The angel, probably; she shied back a little.
“Okay, ready,” Silver said, raising both hands. There was a pause as her angel presumably replied, then an assortment of small glowing orbs appeared in midair and rushed towards her.
Hands up and coated in discs of faint light; she reached for each orb in turn. And at her touch, they quickly reversed direction with a quiet ping. Well, most of them; there were far too many orbs for her to get them all and a few impacted with similarly quiet smacks.
Reflection, Lillian decided. Her signature theme is “reflection” - it has to be. It fits; her outfit is like a bunch of mirrors!
“Huh?” Silver asked after the volley was finished, starting to turn. “Over where?”
“!” The angel must have noticed way faster than expected! Lillian had to-
- Run!
- Hide!
- Make some sort of excuse!
[And then...]
- Get out of sight briefly, transform, and head in for that fight.
- Get somewhere dry and clean up. Don’t fight right now.
(Winners: a tie between and , )
- Run!
- Hide!
- Make some sort of excuse!
[And then...]
- Get out of sight briefly, transform, and head in for that fight.
- Get somewhere dry and clean up. Don’t fight right now.
(Winners: a tie between and , ) 4 4 1 3 5@Story Notifications
Scene 19
-run! Or hide? Lillian couldn’t decide whether to sprint back down the path to get away or press further back into the foliage to get out of sight, split the difference, and ended up slipping on a slick patch of mud. And... splat.
Oh god no - just go!
She scrambled to her feet and ran for it. Silver called out from the clearing: “Hey! Who’s there; can I help you?”
Lillian didn’t respond, but just took a few sliding turns to get out of immediate sight, then focused on trying to find the way out. She wasn’t being followed, it seemed, so she slowed down to avoid another fall and looked down to see how bad it was.
“Ouch,” Vanity commented, hovering overhead. “That’s a real mess!”
“... Yeah, it really is.” There was mud all over her clothes from ankle to waist and on the arm that broke her fall. She could maybe clean some of it off with rainwater or something, but it would be super obvious. Oh, this was a really big problem. Why hadn’t she just turned around when it started raining? Or at least been a little more careful? Lillian took a few deep breaths, trying to calm down and not think about what would happen if she went home looking like this. Forget fighting Silver for the moment; she had to solve this problem first. “Did you see, like, a laundromat or something?”
“Nope! But I bet there’s one somewhere!”
“...” Lillian sat down on a bench under a little shelter, trying to wipe away some of the muck with her hands and assistance from the rain. It wasn’t working very well; she gave up and tried to do the reverse, wiping the muck off her hands to use her phone properly. This was mortifying; maybe it would be worth it to become Violet just for a change of clothes, Silver’s presence or not. “I’d have to walk ten minutes, and buy new clothes on the way, and not mess them up too with some other stupid idea.”
“Or steal them!”
“I’m not in the mood today,” she sighed. “I’ve never felt less cool in my life.”
“...” Weirdly nervous, Lillian slowly reached out. There was a slight resistance as her finger got close, but she was able to easily break through and successfully complete the poke. Her arm was surprisingly warm despite the chill rain - or maybe Lillian’s finger was just cold. “Y-yes, there’s a force. It feels like... like holding a weak magnet the wrong way, but not enough to stop me.”
“Huh; neat!” Silver looked at her arm and gave it a poke herself. “I don’t feel anything when I do it, so maybe the magic is excluding me by default? It’s so weird how intent works with signature magic; it’s so different from unattuned spells! Oh, sorry, that’s just the terms for magic that’s unique to me and magic that just about all heroes can do.”
Lillian quickly shut her mouth and muttered “Ah, thanks.” She had definitely been about to respond like she knew exactly what Silver was talking about - because she obviously did! But she had to remember she wasn’t Violet right now, so she couldn’t act like she knew all that much about heroes, angels, or magic. Just don’t be suspicious. I’m learning so much about her powers; just don’t blow it!
- Make the most of the opportunity; pry as much information out as you can. The anti-recognition enchantment should have you covered.
- Be more discreet; try to avoid sounding like you know too much. Best not to rely on that enchantment, just in case.
(Winner: )
- Make the most of the opportunity; pry as much information out as you can. The anti-recognition enchantment should have you covered.
- Be more discreet; try to avoid sounding like you know too much. Best not to rely on that enchantment, just in case.
(Winner: ) 3 5@Story Notifications
Scene 20
With that thought in mind, Lillian tried to focus on the more immediate objectives rather than directly interrogating Silver. To start with, that meant finding some new clothes.
The top was easy; even in this relatively quiet suburb, there were plenty of random souvenir or graphic t-shirts available all over downtown. But for whatever reason, souvenir or graphic t-shorts (what would that even mean?), or just regular pants, weren’t as common. Still, it wasn’t an impossible task and Silver was able to point out a smallish general store nearby that she remembered having something in stock a while ago. This turned out to be correct, which meant both the acquisition of a pair of stretchy, lounge-like sweatpants, and that Silver (or whatever her real name was) probably lived in this town. That had already been pretty likely given this was where she practiced all the time, but it was more evidence.
“You look good!” Silver decided after Lillian emerged from the changing room (the bathroom) in her new clothes. Nondescript grey sweatpants and a black graphic tee with a stylized lake and forest scene on it, if you were wondering.
“You don’t have to say anything; I know this is a dumb outfit.”
“No, I mean it! You look...” Silver searched for the right word. “Cozy?” A little half-chuckle. “But I guess anyone would look more cozy without being covered in mud.”
“... Y-yeah. That’s right.”
Then, it was time to load up the washing machine, do a quick search online for how to safely wash shoes since Lillian belatedly realized she had never done that before, and sit around for a while. Well, after picking out the most secluded spot they could find, since Silver stood out and didn’t want to disturb everyone.
Speaking of Silver, she stuck around for some reason even though there wasn’t an obvious reason for her to. “I know this is a little awkward, by the way, but I don’t think I ever got your name?”
“Maybe a little, but I thought you just didn’t like your new outfit?”
“... Maybe it is a little cozy - anyway, no, they just cannot find out I came out here and got covered in mud. I don’t even know what they would think I had been doing, but it couldn’t be anything good.”
“Sorry; that sounds tough. I know it would be really hard for me to be a hero if my parents were like that.”
You have no idea, she silently agreed. Windows of time to get out of the house as Violet for any significant duration were difficult to find - Wednesdays right after practice were usually her best bet, which was why she had come here two Wednesdays in a row. That was also why a lot of her villainous escapades were confined to the area around her hometown, which caused its own set of problems. But Silver definitely didn’t need to know any of that. “I can imagine. You must be out training a lot.”
“Every day, more or less. It’s a lot of work, but I think it’s worth it. Destroying monsters; defeating villains... someone has to protect people.” A pause; she looked away. “Soon, I’ll be strong enough to make a real difference.”
“...”
“... Maybe I should keep training, even if Zeal’s not here.”
️ - That’s probably a good idea.
- You can take a break if you want to.
- Fight her after you get your clothes sorted out.
️ - Just go home. You’ve kind of lost your motivation to fight her.
- Maybe challenge her to something else instead? [Such as?]
(Winners: , ️ )
️ - That’s probably a good idea.
- You can take a break if you want to.
- Fight her after you get your clothes sorted out.
️ - Just go home. You’ve kind of lost your motivation to fight her.
- Maybe challenge her to something else instead? [Such as?]
(Winners: , ️ ) 2 6 1 6 2@Story Notifications
Scene 21
“It’s okay to take a break if you want to,” Lillian suggested. “It’s not healthy to spend all your time trying to please some overbearing parent or angel.”
“... Yeah, but I kinda want to keep going on this magic for my sake too.”
“Well then do it! As long as you want to.”
“...”
“Or don’t; you can always start pushing again tomorrow. We’re not even a third through summer break yet; there’s plenty of time left before school in the fall.”
“... Right. The fall.”
“Are you not a big fan of it, then?” Her tone certainly hadn’t implied so.
“N-no; that’s not really it. School’s fine. I’m just starting college this fall, so it’s going to be a big change with moving and new classes and people and all that on top of my hero duties - it’s just a lot all at once.”
“Oh. Are you going out of state, then?” For some reason, the idea didn’t appeal.
“Actually, just downtown. But it’s still a big change from... here!”
“Oh! Y-yeah, it is.” Unexpected relief. She shouldn’t care, really; she barely knew Silver the hero and didn’t know her real self at all. But where else was she going to find someone willing to fight her who wasn’t way too strong? Thinking of fighting, actually, Lillian was somewhat surprised to realize she didn’t really want to. It had been hours and Silver was actually pretty nice and it would just feel weird to turn around and try to beat up this person who had just spent so much effort trying to help her when she hadn’t really needed to at all. Even if Silver wouldn’t know Violet was the same person, it would still feel weird to Violet.
... She’d have to think about this more.
Vani hummed a few measures from a pop song that had been playing in the laundromat earlier. But when she spoke, her tone was a little different than usual. Higher? Maybe just a little more strained? “I like you, Vi-o-let!~ But if you’re gonna be a villain, you gotta be evil! C’mon, get a good scheme going! Give me something fun to watch, or to help you with! Don’t just roll around like a... a rolling pin!”
She peeked up a little, trying to see Vani’s expression after the weird way she had said that. No luck; too dark. “Okay, okay. I’ll do something actually evil. Just let me think about it a little...”
“Okayyy!~ Make it something fun!~”
“...”
[If you have any ideas for evil schemes, suggest them in #story_discussion . Otherwise, Violet will come up with something on her own.]
- Make it something involving Silver.
- She’s messing you up. Make it something unrelated to her.
- Maybe you’re messing you up. Make it something completely fresh.
(Winner: )
- Make it something involving Silver.
- She’s messing you up. Make it something unrelated to her.
- Maybe you’re messing you up. Make it something completely fresh.
(Winner: ) 2 6 1@Story Notifications
Scene 22
June 29th, 2028
“Yo, Rod,” Hugo said, waving him over. “You better have a good excuse for bein’ so late.”
“Do I ever,” Roderik sighed as he sat down, sliding his backpack onto the bench. They usually met up for Taco Thursday at this very restaurant to take advantage of the weekly specials, but today he was over half an hour late. Hugo, he noted, had started without him. Guy had a bottomless stomach.
“You’re lookin kinda not-great,” Hugo observed. “Get into a fight on the way here or something?”
“Yes, surprisingly. And I’ll tell you all about it after I place an order. Just a minute.”
“Really? Not jokin’ around? Aaand he’s gone.” Hugo considered his options, then decided to get more food himself. Obviously it wouldn’t do to leave his friend the only one eating.
A bit later, returned to their seats and refilled on tacos, Hugo prepared to get the details. “Alright, fill me in. What happened? Who started it?”
“Okay, but keep it down. I know it’s loud in here, but-”
“Oh ho ho! It’s one of those fights.”
He semi-shrugged. “Yes, it’s one of those fights. What, do you think I’d get into a punch-up myself? No, it was a villain.”
“One I’ve heard of?”
“I doubt it; I hadn’t until tonight. Listen, do you want to hear what happened or do you want to keep interrupting?”
“Go on; I’ll shut up.” Hugo stuffed half a taco into his mouth to prove he could be quiet.
“Okay. I was heading here when Vigil sensed a villain nearby, around the north side of downtown. So I had to go check it out, obviously, and I was just in time to hear a really loud burst of wind, metal clanging, and a few seconds of an alarm before it shut off.”
“Daylight robbery?” Hugo mumbled almost unintelligibly through his mouthful of food.
“Chew,” Roderik reminded him. “When I got over there, I found a side door blasted open and a villain inside looking like she didn’t expect it to be so loud.”
Mahogany stretched, kicking against brickwork with his heels. “Why not? The dude’s this city’s number one hero; he hasn’t lost a fight in years!”
“His powers rely on water,” Justice said, spraying cards all across the rooftop with a look of mild disappointment. “Take it away and he becomes powerless. It’s surely no accident that he spends so much time by the lake.”
“Well, sure, but good luck getting him somewhere with no water,” Mahogany countered, picking up a few cards that had slid over near him. “There’s the lake, sure, but also the river, ponds, sewers, main pipes, water fountains; hell, I bet he could use the water inside a human body if he wanted to. Dude’s probably just too ‘good’ to do it.”
“Perhaps. But the mighty do fall.”
“... You’re bein’ kinda weird tonight; you know that?”
“Your target is nearby.”
“What kinda response is - wait, what?” Mahogany scrambled to his feet, narrowly avoiding falling off the building. “The rocker chick? She’s here?”
“Based on Vigilance’s description of her aura, I believe so,” Justice clarified, shoving all the cards into a little kangaroo-like pouch he manifested sometimes if he needed to carry things. “I believe you will shortly be given a more significant direction.”
“No need; I did my research.”
“Research? You?”
“I know; I know. I’m turnin’ over a new leaf.” Mahogany shifted his arms into large, membranous wings. Insufficient for extended flight, but very good for gliding. “C’mon; it’ll be right down the street. If I’m right, that is.”
️ - Fight her seriously. You don’t intend to lose to your new nemesis.
- Fight her, but also try to talk to her. You should get to know your new nemesis.
- Let the cops know.
- Meh; who needs ‘em?
(Winners: , )
️ - Fight her seriously. You don’t intend to lose to your new nemesis.
- Fight her, but also try to talk to her. You should get to know your new nemesis.
- Let the cops know.
- Meh; who needs ‘em?
(Winners: , ) 1 6 1 6@Story Notifications
Scene 23
The two of them slowly descended over the length of a block, Mahogany shifting his ears to increase their sensitivity along the way. And that shift was immediately proven useful when he picked out a muffled crack followed by a few clinks - like the shattered glass of a broken window, for instance. “Heh, right where I thought. Better hurry.”
He maneuvered into a dive and landed not long after, shifting back to his normal form. “See?” he asked Justice, pointing out the jagged hole in a nearby glass storefront. String instruments lined a display just inside. “I checked it out ahead of time. I can be responsible when I want to be!”
“Very impressive,” Justice agreed. “But where is our perpetrator?”
“Inside, I bet. Let’s go make friends.”
He hopped through the same hole, vaulting the display counter to land in the empty shop itself. No lights; no sound. “Hiding?” he asked at a normal volume. “Hey, where’s the villain who broke that window? Come on out; we gotta talk about what you did to my buddy.”
“...” They both listened for a few seconds. “Nothing, really? You afraid or something? Come on, get out here. I’m not gonna leave till you do.”
Another few seconds of silence. “Well, damn. Guess I’m playing hide and seek.”
Mahogany walked further into the shop, peeking behind the counter and into a few of the aisles. No one was around, though there were a few more doors. And, interestingly, one was cracked open. “Back room?” he wondered aloud, pulling it open to reveal a steep, narrow staircase. “Guess not.”
Mahogany tumbled across the floor and crashed into the opposite wall dizzy and bruised. To add insult to injury, the guitar he had been holding that whole tumble was unharmed and had ended up in his lap in the perfect position to play. Unfortunately, he had no idea how to. Plus, it probably wouldn’t work for him.
“Ready to calm the hell down and admit you’re in over your head?” she asked smugly, strutting confidently forward to lean over him, one hand on the guitar’s neck. “I’ll beat as many heroes as it takes till you all leave me alone!”
She tugged at the guitar, but Mahogany held it tightly. “Oh, you want this back? Guess you’d better-” A sudden shift let him shoulder Lapis away, tossing her inelegantly into a shelf, and run for the window while redirecting mass to his legs and still clutching her guitar. “-come get it!” Having a weapon may make you more powerful, but it sure makes for a big weakness when you can’t defend it!
The guitar dissolved back into light.
Mahogany stopped on the sidewalk, turning around to see Lapis peeking out of the broken window. “I can summon it back, dumbass,” she politely informed him. “You can’t steal it.”
“Ah,” he elegantly replied. “So that’s how it works.” Honestly, he hadn’t fought a villain with a weapon before. Most of his work was dark spirits and they didn’t follow the same rules.
“Yeah, it is. Can you fuck off now and let me get back to it?”
- Let her get back to it.
- Obviously not; get back in there and stop her properly!
❔ - Talk her out of it in some way. [Suggest in #story_discussion, or let Mahogany figure it out on his own.]
(Winner: ❔ )
- Let her get back to it.
- Obviously not; get back in there and stop her properly!
❔ - Talk her out of it in some way. [Suggest in #story_discussion, or let Mahogany figure it out on his own.]
(Winner: ❔ ) 1 3
5@Story Notifications
Scene 24
“No can do, I’m afraid. But I’d be okay with you leaving if you promise not to do it again.”
Lapis scoffed from the window. “You haven’t hit me once and you think I’m gonna run?”
“Hey! I knocked you into the shelf like a minute ago!”
“Doesn’t count; didn’t hurt. Come on, tough guy, can’t you do any better?”
Mahogany considered his options as she carefully climbed out of the window to face him, guitar reappearing with a glitter of light. He could charge her right now without thinking about it, but he didn’t really fancy his chances, despite his words. Even up close, if she could just yell and throw him that far? Ideally, he could convince her to leave peacefully, but diplomacy wasn’t his strong suit. He didn’t even know why she was stealing instruments at all! Wait, maybe-
“Look, why are you here at all? You just want a guitar for yourself? I can maybe-”
“Shut up!” Another blast of harsh sound, followed up by several more notes forming the intro to a vaguely familiar melody. All angled to catch him no matter which way he went, except...
“Hup!” With a full shift to his legs, Mahogany leapt straight up with enough power to crack the sidewalk beneath him. And even still, despite his incredible speed, the first blast caught his feet and spun him crazily in midair. Another rapid shift added wings to his legs instead of his arms - it would take too long to move the mass all the way up there - and he ended up with an unstable variant of the glider from before, angling down towards Lapis.
“Bank left,” Justice whispered an invisible suggestion, darting past his ear in the lightning-bolt guise. He didn’t think about it; just hurled himself in that direction... and dodged another set of powerful notes by inches; shuddering vibrations rippled through his wing membranes. “And dive.”
“...” Despite his trademark bravado, she was at least partly correct. He had blocked a good portion of the impact, but between the magic itself, hitting the street sign, and all the shifting to avoid damage, he was close to spent. But... “You’re lookin’ pretty tired too,” he noted, taking a few steps forward and causing Lapis to lift her guitar again. “Bet it took a lot outta you to use that attack.”
“...”
She didn’t respond before both of them heard something else: the rapidly-approaching sound of emergency vehicle sirens.
“I guess that was pretty damn loud,” Mahogany decided. “Okay, I’m willin’ to fight some more till the cops show up. In fact, lemme start!”
He jogged forward, slowly returning to his normal form as he had a feeling he’d need to transform back pretty soon. Once Lapis-
“Fine! Hell; you explain this to them.” She dissolved the guitar back into light, then ran into the alley right next to the instrument shop. Mahogany didn’t give chase; she’d transform back as soon as she got out of sight and he’d never be able to find her. Plus, even if he did, she might very well beat him. Ow. He found himself grinning again as he decided what to do next. God, she was great.
- Reluctantly stay and explain it to the cops as Mahogany.
- Transform back and get outta there. Go to bed as Hugo.
[Violet’s evil scheme takes place...]
⌛ - Roughly now, in fact.
⏰ - The next day.
- Skip it; pick up on July 4th.
(Winners: , ⏰ )
- Reluctantly stay and explain it to the cops as Mahogany.
- Transform back and get outta there. Go to bed as Hugo.
[Violet’s evil scheme takes place...]
⌛ - Roughly now, in fact.
⏰ - The next day.
- Skip it; pick up on July 4th.
(Winners: , ⏰ ) 3 5 1
7 1@Story Notifications
Scene 25
Mahogany did consider staying to explain to the cops; he really did. But they really loved to make him do too much paperwork and it was late and he was very tired after the fight. They’d figure it out without him. With that thought, he ducked into a nearby doorway, checked for cameras, and changed back to his base form. Then, Hugo departed the scene moments before the first few cop cars arrived. Right now, he just wanted to go to sleep.
...
“Anyone looking?” Lillian whispered, poised quietly at her bedroom door.
“Nope! All clear!” Vani answered, excited for the heist. “You should have a minute or two.”
Lillian nodded, eased open the door, and closed it just as silently. Then it was a quick but careful tip-toe down the stairs, across the dark, still house, through the garage, and finally out the side door into the humid and still annoyingly warm night air. She locked it behind her and hustled out to the street, finally returning to a normal walking pace after turning a corner to get out of any possible sightlines. “Phew. But now we have to hurry. The bus is...” She fumbled through her bag in the semi-dark between streetlights while half-jogging. “... Four minutes away. I can make that.”
“Go! Run for it!” Vani egged her on from above, yelling as loud as she wanted without having to fear attracting any attention.
Lillian tried to be a little more discreet, jogging with a balance between speed and stealth. But she really did not want to miss the bus, so speed won out as it got closer and closer to the stop on her tracker. It wasn’t stopping at all, which made sense at this time of night. It was well past 11pm; no one would be on board. She normally wouldn’t be on board either, and her parents definitely wouldn’t approve. Going out alone? At night? In the dark? Taking (gasp) public transport? No way, no how.
She just didn’t tell them. It worked as long as she was careful.
She grinned slightly, gaining just a bit of energy even at this late hour. “Y’know, maybe I can let loose just a little. It’s been a while since I’ve had just a solid scheme going on.”
- Let loose. Just a little. As a treat? Vani will approve, too.
- Try to keep it contained. If you go too wild, they probably will have guns next time. Vani will think you’re boring, though.
(Winner: )
- Let loose. Just a little. As a treat? Vani will approve, too.
- Try to keep it contained. If you go too wild, they probably will have guns next time. Vani will think you’re boring, though.
(Winner: ) 5 3@Story Notifications
Scene 26
July 2nd, 2028
The truck did not show up in ten minutes, but thankfully it wasn’t much longer after that; she didn’t want to run into problems with time. A pair of workers opened the loading dock’s door and helped guide the semi into position, eventually opening its rear door as well to get at the contents inside. Namely, boxes upon boxes worth of bread and bread-adjacent foodstuffs (pastries, doughnuts, that sort of thing) from the chain’s own brands.
Her original plan had been to somehow steal an entire pallet of bread and feed it to ducks at the park. But it had been hampered by two major concerns. First: how to actually move the pallet. She didn’t have telekinesis or super strength and it was quite a way from here to there. She couldn’t exactly bring it on a bus. And second: it turned out after some research that bread actually wasn’t good for ducks and she didn’t want to mess them up that much, no matter how funny it would be.
So the plan had shifted. If not the ducks, what else could she do with a pallet of bread? And if it was too hard to move it on its own...
Violet noted the truck driver yawning as he walked into the store to compare paperwork with the workers there. The grin from before came back.
... Well, it would sure be a lot easier to move if she didn’t take it out of the semi at all.
“Sleep mist,” she whispered, dispersing a cloud of the substance across the three visible workers. It worked very quickly on regular people, especially those who were clearly pretty tired already. Within moments, they were asleep on the floor.
Violet hopped down from her perch and scampered across the open area to reach the bubble, double checking to make sure her hood was up before crossing the faintly shimmering boundary. All good; she didn’t pass out. A huge bounty of high-carb food awaited her.
They made it about a half-mile down the road before encountering their first hurdle. After going probably a little too fast over probably a little too large of a bump, something very loud happened in the back. The mirrors weren’t adjusted properly for someone of Violet’s height, so it was initially difficult to see what had happened. But with some help from Vani, it quickly became obvious: the rear door had fallen open and a bunch of boxes had tumbled onto the main road.
Violet slowed the truck, intending to hop out and lock it properly this time (only now realizing she had forgotten to do that initially), when they encountered their second hurdle.
“It’s the fuzz!” Vani shouted maniacally, twirling in midair to indicate one of the rearmost-facing mirrors. Sure enough, red and blue lights flashed somewhere in the near distance. “Drive; driiiive!~”
️ - FLOOR IT!
- Crash the truck, either accidentally or as a distraction!
- The fuzz? More like... time for a nap, suckers!
- Ditch the truck and get out of sight, then transform back. [Not very villainous of you...]
(Winner: )
️ - FLOOR IT!
- Crash the truck, either accidentally or as a distraction!
- The fuzz? More like... time for a nap, suckers!
- Ditch the truck and get out of sight, then transform back. [Not very villainous of you...]
(Winner: ) 4 2 5 1@Story Notifications
Scene 27
Violet floored it, but that only dropped more stuff out the back and also made it way too risky to turn. She couldn’t keep that up without crashing the truck. So, a different idea came to mind. “Vani, take the wheel!” she shouted, rolling down the window to poke her head and arms out the side.
Wind whipped at her hair and Vani’s maniacal, unstable driving wasn’t making it any easier, but she could do it. The bubbles were large and her aim was good. Focus; get it exactly right, and...
“Sleep mist!” A translucent bubble sprang up in front of the line of cop cars, essentially invisible in the night. Some swerved or slowed, but they were still coming. Made sense; they were going fast and the cars would be blocking much of the mist anyway. But... “Sleep mist!” She could just... “Sleep mist!” Keep making more... “Sleep mist!” Until...
The lead car drifted too far right at the next intersection and glanced off a traffic light, spinning crazily to crash into a sturdy building just beyond. Several other cars met similar fates, tumbling over curbs or - in the most brutal of the crashes - missing a turn and slamming directly into a storefront. Flames spilled from the building. The remaining cars cut their losses and stopped pursuit. Probably their best option, given that it was certainly clear they were dealing with a villian of some description. Would they know who Violet was? Probably; she had caused trouble around here several times before. Never to this extreme, though.
The better question, however, was “what were they going to do about it?”
“Lemme take that back,” she said, sliding back into the driver’s seat as Vanity spun back towards the ceiling, cackling.
“Boom! Kapow! You got ‘em so good! So evil!”
“Good driving,” she commented. “Glad we didn’t end up like them.”
And she had to make it back to somewhere on that bus line... sometime soon, probably. What time was it? She didn’t have a watch and her phone was with her base form. She’d check after transforming back.
- Lose them in the town proper!
️ - Lose them in suburbia!
- Lose them in the trees!
- Lose them in the lake!
❓ - [Or suggest a different plan in #story_discussion ]
(Winner: )
- Lose them in the town proper!
️ - Lose them in suburbia!
- Lose them in the trees!
- Lose them in the lake!
❓ - [Or suggest a different plan in #story_discussion ]
(Winner: ) 1 1 7 1 1@Story Notifications
Scene 28
The helicopter was the biggest problem right now and there was only one nearby option that offered anything akin to a roof. Violet hurried towards the long, narrow band of trees that separated the mansion zone from the town proper and slipped under the canopy. Great, now it probably couldn’t see her anymore. But if she just changed back and popped out, she’d probably be taken in for questioning even if they didn’t make the connection between her forms. And that would be really, really bad for really, really obvious (parent-related) reasons.
So she had to get fully clear of the area and not just rely on the anti-recognition enchantment. Okay; it was fairly dark here outside of the town proper, at least if she got away from the helicopter’s searchlight. And the line of trees stretched quite a distance to wrap around the lake. The beginnings of a plan began to take shape.
“Shadow mist,” she whispered a minute later, three times over. Three bubbles of darkness (more than she could have done at once even a week ago) appeared in three careful locations, each bridging different gaps between this band of trees and one of several buildings where she could theoretically hide from the helicopter under overhangs or similar. “Which one are you going to check?” she asked the sky as she jogged up the band.
Apparently, it decided to check all three of them in order. South to north, based on its position when she had started this. Which would have been a good idea... if she hadn’t quickly crossed in the open while it was otherwise occupied, relying on the night’s darkness to hide her and her own darkness to act as a distraction.
It started circling to try and pick her up, and at this point another set of cop cars had arrived at the crashed semi, but Violet was fairly fast and had fairly good endurance; she could run for a good while to get out of range. All it took was that one initial leap to give her a minute to do just that.
Lillian was unable to get anything more out of Vanity, and had to run for the bus again as she had lost more time at the fire. She did make it on, but it wasn’t empty this time. A few other late-night passengers shared the ride away from town, presumably heading home from their respective Saturday nights / Sunday mornings. No one paid her any mind, but it again meant she couldn’t talk to Vani without seeming insane.
Instead, she had plenty of time to worry about...
- “Did I... kill someone?”
- The idea of super-strong celestials and Vani’s secret-keeping.
(Winner: )
- “Did I... kill someone?”
- The idea of super-strong celestials and Vani’s secret-keeping.
(Winner: ) 6 2@Story Notifications
Scene 29
Well...
Violet was a fairly new hero of darkness. She had met Vanity less than a year ago and had agreed to the deal because she just needed something to do where she didn’t have to be the person her parents wanted her to be. Going out and stealing from the box store, or causing some minor property damage, or putting down blinding mist in inconvenient but funny places - that was the extent of it. Just some harmless (well, minimally harmful) antics to get it out of her system, you know?
But over time, things had escalated. Just a bit, but it hadn’t felt as cool or rewarding or generally fun to do the same little things every time. Vani encouraged her to think bigger. More exciting. To branch out.
Even so, tonight had been a pretty massive escalation. She hadn’t intended to steal the entire truck in her original plan, and even after deciding to do so at the last minute, she really hadn’t intended to get into a car chase. But once she had...
Well.
Even just in her thoughts, the question “Did I actually kill someone?” was too difficult to ask. The image of those two white-sheeted bodies was too uncomfortable to recall. So, instead, she rationalized.
She couldn’t have. Her sleep mist only made people drowsy, then put them to sleep. Obviously. She hadn’t used her poison mist, or even the shadow mist that could have blinded a driver and caused a crash. The cars had some level of airtightness, and they were going fast, so it would have been given in small doses. They would have had plenty of time to realize what was happening, slow down, and give up. It wasn’t her fault, even if anything had happened. Even if anything had happened, it had been because they just didn’t make the right decision. That’s all.
Thoughts like this occupied her mind on the ride, then walk, then slow, careful climb back up the stairs to her room. Where, finally, Lillian could fall into bed and utterly fail to sleep.
“...”
Silver, Mahogany, and Granite were in the city, near the river, and specifically at one of the many firework festivals across the country today, the most American of all days. Fireworks attracted people, people attracted dark spirits, and huge crowds of people attracted huge crowds of spirits. Huge crowds of dark spirits, then, drew heroes to fight them. There were almost certainly other heroes - and likely villains - mixed in with the crowd tonight for similar reasons, so these three heroes had decided to stick together in order to track down and destroy as much evil as they could find. Preferably before it ruined anyone’s night.
- All goes well until it’s time for Bria to check in with her parents.
- Wait, who’s that?
- Wait, who’s that?!
- Wait, who’s that?
- Wait, who’s that?!
(Winners: a tie between and . Both were chosen by author discretion)
- All goes well until it’s time for Bria to check in with her parents.
- Wait, who’s that?
- Wait, who’s that?!
- Wait, who’s that?
- Wait, who’s that?!
(Winners: a tie between and . Both were chosen by author discretion) 2 1 4 4 2@Story Notifications
Scene 30
The festival was large, lively, and filled with enough distractions that even their group of three transformed heroes didn’t draw much attention. Beyond just the fireworks, the streets along the riverbank were closed to cars for the event and populated by many dozens of pop-up stands or performances of all kinds. Music overlapped from various instruments at conflicting tempos and volumes. The atmosphere wasn’t exactly harmonious, but it was still energizing.
“Hey, that reminds me,” said Mahogany as they followed a mostly-invisible Justice towards their first target. “I was trying to see if I could at least find the song that villain I told you about was playing, even if I couldn’t find her, but it didn’t work. As ya might expect.”
“Are you saying this band sounds somewhat familiar?”
He tilted his head, listening. “Maybe. S’pretty good either way. And their lead guitar’s pretty cute too.”
“Honestly,” Granite said, peering over the crowd to get a better view. “You’re quite tactless sometimes.”
“Huh? Why?”
“I don’t mind,” Silver reassured them. “As long as you’re not going to try anything weird with me.”
“Oh!” Mahogany figured it out. “Nah, all good. You’re cute, but not really my type of cute. Unless you’re secretly a badass guitarist?”
“... Nope.”
“Just hero pals, then. Like me ‘n Granite! You know, one time last summer, there was a limbo contest and-”
“I believe we’re here,” Granite hurriedly interrupted. “Justice?”
“Yes,” the angel affirmed, hovering about a story above their heads. “It appears to be a humanoid-type. Limited threat to any of you; low range.”
“Ha! How ‘bout you two show each other what you can do, then?” Mahogany suggested. “Since you’ve both seen my skills.”
Silver was a little nervous to be put on the spot like that, but Granite seemed to be fine with it, so she shrugged. “Okay. Er, before we go in, what can you do? Mahogany told me a little, but...”
“What is there to dislike?” he replied when she commented on his good mood. “You are performing well, building connections with fellow heroes, and finally heeding some advice about killing intent. By all means, continue as you like.”
Hum. She had clearly been killing these lesser monsters tonight, and it was hard to argue that wasn’t her intent. It didn’t feel cruel or mean or evil or really like she was intending anything more than the “to stop” verb she had made her default over the last weeks. But, well, the result was clearly death. The deaths of inhuman dark spirits in the process of feeding on - actively harming - real humans, of course.
“...”
Why did he have to say anything? And why was this “intent” thing still such a big deal to her? Now she couldn’t stop thinking about it!
- Silver gets over it pretty quickly.
- The nagging thoughts throw her off her game.
(Winner: )
- Silver gets over it pretty quickly.
- The nagging thoughts throw her off her game.
(Winner: ) 5 3@Story Notifications
Scene 31
But it turned out that “couldn’t” was a bit of an exaggeration; by the time she found a place to transform back and returned to the rendezvous point with her parents, Bria had mostly gotten over it. Again, the things were monsters. It wasn’t like she was killing people or innocent creatures. It was fine. Justifiable; heroic, even. Now she just had to check in quick to get back out there.
“Hey,” Bria’s dad greeted her as they finally found each other near the railing overlooking the river. “Having fun with your friends?”
“Yeah,” she admitted. “I’m gonna meet back up with them in a bit, if you guys don’t mind.”
“You don’t want to spend time with your parents? I’m hurt!” he asked jokingly.
“You know that’s not it. Tell him, mom.”
“I don’t know, Brianna. You’ve hardly been home all summer, even when you’re not at work! So busy with your friends or preparing for college! I’m going to have a hard time when you move out.”
“...” She fidgeted a little, feeling a bit guilty but still wanting to get back to hero-ing. “Okay, okay; I think the first show starts in just a few minutes. I’ll tell them I’ll be staying here for it.”
Mom nudged her. “Don’t let us stop you if you really want to go. But we’d appreciate it if you stayed.”
She stayed. The fireworks were pretty neat.
And at the end of the first show, when Bria had gotten her phone back out to figure out where Mahogany and Granite were going to meet her, she unexpectedly met someone new. A girl with long pink hair and in a fancy, frilly, ribbon-y white/pink/red outfit was working her way through the crowd, asking people about any monsters they had seen.
“Monsters?” Bria’s mom answered; Bria looked up from her phone, startled to notice this new hero. “I don’t think so. Surely there wouldn’t be any nearby, right?”
“Hopefully not, but that’s what I’m checking on. How ‘bout you?”
Her phone felt just a little warmer in her hand, the text message providing exactly that information having been delivered just a minute earlier. But she couldn’t just tell her that. How could she facilitate a meet-up without revealing her own involvement? “I think they were heading to the east, along this street? Maybe they’ll still be there, or someone will have seen them?”
“Okay, thanks! I better hurry; stay safe!” The pink hero lifted into the air and quickly gained speed to the east, leaving behind a glittery trail as she flew.
Bria stared after her, kind of stunned at the demonstration of easy flight. “I should, uh, probably go meet my friends, then,” she said weakly. “Make sure they aren’t in any trouble if there are monsters around?”
“You’re staying right here where it’s safe!” Bria’s mom decided, shaking off her surprise at that whole exchange. “Have your friends come here instead; they’re nearby, right?”
“Well-” She quickly typed a message to Mahogany, briefly explaining where he should go and who he should expect to meet. “Er, sort of?”
“Aren’t you texting them right now?”
“Y-yes? Look, I really need to make sure they’re okay-”
“You need to make sure you’re okay! You heard the hero; there are monsters that way!”
“...”
- Run off anyway.
- Hide and transform.
- Convince them to let you go. [Specify your argument in #story_discussion . Not guaranteed to succeed; the second place choice will be used if needed.]
- Stay put.
(Winners: , )
- Run off anyway.
- Hide and transform.
- Convince them to let you go. [Specify your argument in #story_discussion . Not guaranteed to succeed; the second place choice will be used if needed.]
- Stay put.
(Winners: , ) 1 4 4 2@Story Notifications
Scene 32
“He, uh, says it’s confusing with all the people around; the GPS isn’t working right. It’ll only take a minute or two, probably. And it’s not like I’d be going into spooky alleyways looking for monsters,” she brazenly lied. “It’s just a bit down the street!”
“You always were like this, weren’t you? Never willing to take ‘no’ for an answer when it comes to helping people.” Mom sighed. “Alright, you can go. But I’ll come with you to make sure you’re safe.”
“Y - no, mom! What about your legs?”
“They got me here, didn’t they?”
“Don’t push yourself,” Bria’s dad interjected. “I can go with her; it could be a lot of fast walking.”
“... Alright. But be back soon, okay?”
“Well, Bria? You heard your mom; let’s go.”
Well, she probably couldn’t wiggle out of this one. Using her phone as reference, Bria led her dad east down the street, leaving her mom still sitting by the river. She had health problems that kept her from moving around a lot, or quickly, but didn’t let that stop her. At least, not often. Still, for things like this, dad often offered to take her place.
“Who are we looking for?” he asked as they pushed through the crowd. “Anyone distinctive?”
“...” Two heroes in fancy, obvious costumes, she did not say. Could she even describe their appearance outside of their hero outfits? That probably wouldn’t work, since they probably looked about the same in their base forms. “Two guys around my age. They’ll be watching for us and hopefully looking lost.”
“Do these gentlemen have names?”
“Ergh-” Bria wasn’t cut out for this secret stuff. She was already starting to reply with their hero names and had to change course midway through the first syllable. “M... M-ike and, um, G-Gary.” A brief wince; that hadn’t sounded convincing at all.
“Mm hm. You’re sure you’re good friends with these two? Took a second to remember their names.”
“You tellin’ me the egg’s in the river?” Strawberry said, her voice overlapping with Zeal’s. “Why? God - my - do you have any idea how disgusting it is to dive in there? It’s also huge and we’ve only got like 10 minutes if we wanna kill the egg before it hatches.” A pause. “Which we do, btw. In case that wasn’t clear.”
“I’m happy to go for a swim!” Mahogany volunteered. “I can do flippers; I’m super fast!”
“And I can ‘fly’ underwater, so I’m fast too,” Strawberry reluctantly admitted. “It’s just gross.”
“But if we don’t know which section to search, it still seems unlikely even the two of you together could inspect the entire area.” Granite tapped the wall in thought. “Is there any way to get a better idea of where to look? Or do we just have to guess?”
[The top two choices will be investigated (one by Mahogany and one by Strawberry). If you have preferences on who goes where, specify in #story_discussion .]
- The river junction?
- The railway bridge?
- The car bridge?
- The pedestrian bridge?
️ - The ferry terminal?
- Right below the festival?
(Winners: , a tie between and ️ . ️ was chosen by digital coin flip.)
- The river junction?
- The railway bridge?
- The car bridge?
- The pedestrian bridge?
️ - The ferry terminal?
- Right below the festival?
(Winners: , a tie between and ️ . ️ was chosen by digital coin flip.) 2 2 1 3 3 7@Story Notifications
Scene 33
They thought about it for a minute, but really, the answer seemed obvious. “Why did we all come to this festival in the first place?” Silver asked rhetorically. “Because it’s full of people and is a big draw for monsters, right? So, wouldn’t it make sense for the egg to be as close as possible to right here? We’re basically right on the river.”
“You thinkin’ I should just jump off the edge and take a swim?” Mahogany asked, seeming excited about the prospect. “And if I find an egg, crack it up right good, yeah?”
“If you’re going to search somewhere, ‘right here’ does make some sense,” Granite began, nodding with a bit more vigor as he decided he actually did agree. “Sure, go right ahead. Call me if you find-”
“I’m on it!” he shouted, dashing towards the water.
“Now, since we do have a second hero who can search, we should send you off to a second location in case this guess is incorrect,” Granite continued, unphased by Mahogany’s sudden departure. “If we’re thinking about maximum potential damage...”
“There are a lot of big bridges around here,” Silver noted nervously. “If something big enough could break one...?”
“True, but how big would it have to be to reach all the way up from the river? Wouldn’t that be a little extreme?”
“I don’t know how big ‘something big’ will be!”
“Isn’t there a ferry terminal just a bit upstream?” Strawberry wondered, materializing her phone to check. “Yeah, right here! I bet it could knock some boats over; that’d be a super big mess!”
“Excellent,” Granite decided. “Off you go, then.”
“... But it’s so grooosssss.”
“Don’t people kayak and fish in the river? It can’t be that gross,” Silver tried to reassure her.
“Oh, it’s gross. You haven’t had to get river smell out of your hair. If you wanna go swimming with me, you’re welcome to come too and find out!”
“Er, that’s okay...” She shifted back slightly to avoid the proffered hand. “I’d probably just slow you down...”
[Not FPTP; more of a priority order. Feel free to vote for multiple.]
- “You sure seem to know a lot about Strawberry for someone who’s supposedly never met her before...”
- Follow up with your parents again so they don’t think you’ve died.
- Try to clear people away from the river a bit to make the scene a bit safer if a fight breaks out.
- Look around for anyone suspicious. Like a villain who might try to take advantage of the big monster?
- Get closer to the river itself by finding some stairs down. Maybe you can spot Mahogany?
(Winners: > = = )
- “You sure seem to know a lot about Strawberry for someone who’s supposedly never met her before...”
- Follow up with your parents again so they don’t think you’ve died.
- Try to clear people away from the river a bit to make the scene a bit safer if a fight breaks out.
- Look around for anyone suspicious. Like a villain who might try to take advantage of the big monster?
- Get closer to the river itself by finding some stairs down. Maybe you can spot Mahogany?
(Winners: > = = ) 3 2 3 3 4@Story Notifications
Scene 34
“Huh. You sure seem to know a lot about Strawberry for someone who’s apparently never met her before,” Silver mused.
“You think so? I try to keep tabs on most of the local heroes I might end up working with, and there’s a lot of public information available. I just like being informed.”
“I guess that makes sense,” she said, not entirely sure if it did. Maybe? “Anyway, shouldn’t we get down to the water so we can help Mahogany quickly if he needs it?”
“Sure. There have to be some stairs around here somewhere...”
It took a few minutes to locate the poorly-signed entrance in the dim lighting, especially with more crowds gathering for the second fireworks show. Thankfully, that meant there weren’t as many people down at the actual river level - you couldn’t see as well from down there - but it was still busy enough to be noticed. In fact, they may have actually been more obvious down here, since there was less activity to hide their outfits.
So people asked what was going on. Was there something to be concerned about? It was a reasonable question, with two obviously-in-a-hurry heroes pushing past.
“We’re investigating a possible disturbance,” Granite vaguely explained. “I would recommend going back above if possible, in case we find anything.”
A few people listened; a few people didn’t. Some weren’t even paying attention or didn’t notice their presence. Before long, though, someone else noticed.
“Pffwah!” Mahogany burst out of the river a few feet in front of them, clambering onto the path like a drenched dog. “Hey guys! Fancy meetin’ you here.”
Silver tried to ignore the distressingly blood-red slits that had grown in his neck, probably acting as gills. “Did you find anything? I don’t know how long we have.”
Too far away to help, Strawberry and Compassion could only watch as the eel made a slow, graceful turn in midair, then swooped down as its mouth opened to reveal row upon row of back-facing teeth. It slid along one of the two riverside festival streets, sending up a huge cloud of dust as stands, walls, and pavement were all pulverized in the face of its sheer scale.
“How many people did it just eat?” she wondered, almost stunned. “We - we gotta move!”
But as she shot forward, essentially blow-drying herself from the speed, there was a loud, obvious... guitar riff? The eel lurched, shifting back into the sky and raining debris. And from somewhere on the ground, a small person-shaped speck launched itself into the air on a blast of sound.
“Compy, who’s-”
“Not a hero of light,” she determined quickly. “This is Havoc’s partner. Be very careful; your flight is a bad match-up against her sonic abilities.”
“But if she’s attacking the eel too...?”
Compassion’s mood shifted in an instant. “Team-up time?”
“To be honest, I’m gonna need all the help I can get.”
[]
- Get ahold of the gang; strategize.
- Pick someone up to help you. You can carry one person, right? [Specify who.]
- Go make a new friend!
[]
- CHARGE IN FACE-FIRST YEEEEAAAHHH
⭐ - Do a special team-up move! [Specify with who and what sort of move. This option is very freeform.]
- You’d recognize that guitar anywhere; go impress Lapis!
(Winners: , ⭐ )
]
- Get ahold of the gang; strategize.
- Pick someone up to help you. You can carry one person, right? [Specify who.]
- Go make a new friend!
[]
- CHARGE IN FACE-FIRST YEEEEAAAHHH
⭐ - Do a special team-up move! [Specify with who and what sort of move. This option is very freeform.]
- You’d recognize that guitar anywhere; go impress Lapis!
(Winners: , ⭐ ) 1 3 5 1 7 1@Story Notifications
Scene 35
The eel banked up and right as Strawberry approached, doing a slow, lazy turn across the river and giving her time to set down and assess the situation. The street was a bit of a (lot of a) mess, with large strips of broken concrete and a cloud of dust obscuring most of the damage. No one was obviously torn in half or dying, though she didn’t have much time to assess. Instead, she shifted a slab of pavement off someone’s leg before spotting who she was actually looking for crashing back down from the sky to land in a ripple of pressure and a brief chord.
“Lapis; hiiii!” she called, waving as she jogged over. “It’s me again!”
The older hero turned. “Oh god, not you too. I just saw some other idiot down by the water; how many of you are there tonight?”
“At least four!” Strawberry sidled a little closer, keeping one eye on the sky as the eel swirled back towards them. “You’re fighting it too? Don’t monsters usually not attack darkness people like you?”
“Not this one. Had to transform right in front of everyone to - hell, why do you care? Go fly up there on your pretty princess ribbons and get rid of it! Don’t waste your time trying to start something with me!”
“I’m not trying to start anything...” she exclaimed, bouncing another step closer. “Except maybe a team-up!” A proffered hand, an innocent smile as if they hadn’t tried to kill each other just a few weeks ago. “I could really use your help, if you’ll give it.”
“And why should I trust you?”
“Cause we’ve got the same goal! I want that thing gone and so do you, so let’s take it down together and-”
“I could just let it eat you. That’d save me a hell of a lot of trouble later.”
Strawberry gasped dramatically, covering her mouth with a hand. “How rude! C’mon, if it kills me you’ll have to fight it yourself and that’ll be super tough and lame for you!”
“I could just get out of its way.”
“There may have been a slight oversight in this plan,” he admitted to himself.
️ - Silver is out of energy from the repeated reflections. She won’t die, but the landing will definitely hurt a lot.
- Oh, good, that angle sends her towards the river! Wait, isn’t water just as bad as concrete at high speeds?
- She bounces away like a wayward bouncy ball, covering a huge distance before finally coming to rest somewhere far away.
- She ricochets off a nearby skyscraper, conveniently angling back towards the eel.
- She manages to stay in the area and get her momentum under control, but is basically out of energy after landing.
(Winner: )
️ - Silver is out of energy from the repeated reflections. She won’t die, but the landing will definitely hurt a lot.
- Oh, good, that angle sends her towards the river! Wait, isn’t water just as bad as concrete at high speeds?
- She bounces away like a wayward bouncy ball, covering a huge distance before finally coming to rest somewhere far away.
- She ricochets off a nearby skyscraper, conveniently angling back towards the eel.
- She manages to stay in the area and get her momentum under control, but is basically out of energy after landing.
(Winner: ) 1 1 2 4
3@Story Notifications
Scene 36
He couldn’t do much more than watch her bounce off the street on the opposite side of the river, then ricochet off a skyscraper and arc right back towards the eel - in roughly the same direction as Mahogany’s launch. He couldn’t see Hog from here, given that he didn’t glow and was probably on the eel somewhere anyway, but he could certainly make out a tangle of pink streamers that indicated Strawberry had made it over there at some point. Silver would certainly have her hands full as she shot into that mess.
Granite stood there a moment more, hands on hips as he considered his handiwork. “Ah, everyone seems to have left me behind,” he realized. Now occupied with a roster of airborne heroes, the eel didn’t seem particularly interested in coming back down where he could hit it. Maybe if he got a little higher, though?
Another column of rock burst through the pavement and Granite launched himself back up to the main street level. He gauged the distance, considered just how far he could raise the ground, and... “Nope, not a chance. Good luck, everyone. Suppose I’ll help out down here.”
There was certainly plenty to do; the street was swamped in debris and who knew how many people were trapped just out of sight? With another glance towards the sky, Granite rolled up his metaphorical sleeves (his hero outfit didn’t come with any) and got to work.
...
Silver reached the top of her arc and began to fall. Somehow, she was above the eel now, despite several reflections and many seconds of bleeding speed to the air. Somewhere to the left, Strawberry and the guitar-playing villain Mahogany was obsessed with were doing an admirable job of keeping its attention while making occasional targeted attacks against its eyes. Somewhere nearby (though impossible to tell where in the chaotic dark), Mahogany was presumably about ready to start tearing it up. And somewhere just below, the eel’s slick, smooth flank writhed as it fought its attackers.
The eel shot her.
Embers of yellow light drifted in the air; Silver fell back against its skin, stunned. Fiery pain throbbed in her back where the laser had hit, but at least she was alive and out of the eye so it couldn’t do that aga - REALLY?
Silver screamed with effort as she tugged at her leg, somehow still stuck under the eel’s eyelid and now being crushed between them as it tried to blink her out. Heat bloomed beneath her foot as it charged a second laser, but now that she was lying down in the other direction, it couldn’t get an angle to hit her. Bolts of light flashed into the sky, doing no damage beyond heating her lower leg to an increasingly painful temperature. It was really stuck; she just couldn’t pull it out no matter what she tried! If the eel would just STOP BLINKING for a few moments maybe she could get a better grip, but- “AAAAAAAUGH!” she yelled, then half-collapsed into something resembling laughter as the situation’s sheer absurdity almost overwhelmed her.
“How’d you die?” an imaginary ghost asked her.
“My leg was stuck inside a giant eel’s eyeball and it microwaved me with its laser eyes,” the deceased imaginary-Silver responded, deadpan. Alive real-Silver thought that was very funny in the moment, though she certainly wouldn’t at any other time. “Seriously, I’m not making this up. How would YOU have gotten out of it, smart guy?” she asked the disbelieving imaginary ghost.
“Well,” it began.
- The ghost describes an awesome plan. [Write-in only. Or spin the roulette and have Silver think of something.]
- KABAM! Mahogany hurtles over and cuts her out.
- KAPOW! Strawberry and Lapis blow up the eye.
- KAZAP! The eel finally gets her out of its eye. Patience and lasers do pay off!
- She stays stuck there for so much longer than anyone would expect.
(Winner: )
- The ghost describes an awesome plan. [Write-in only. Or spin the roulette and have Silver think of something.]
- KABAM! Mahogany hurtles over and cuts her out.
- KAPOW! Strawberry and Lapis blow up the eye.
- KAZAP! The eel finally gets her out of its eye. Patience and lasers do pay off!
- She stays stuck there for so much longer than anyone would expect.
(Winner: ) 4 3 1 1 3@Story Notifications
Scene 37
“Given that I would have the ability to reflect any projectile if I were you, I simply would have had the eel microwave its own eye with its own laser.”
Silver snapped out of it, suddenly remembering that she wasn’t dead, the ghost didn’t exist, and she had just thought of something. It seemed obvious in hindsight, but she could make any number of excuses. She didn’t know if the laser was too strong to reflect. She might run fully out of magic and splat when she hit the ground. The reflected beam might fry her leg too. But really, she had just kinda forgotten. And it made too much sense not to try.
“Let’s see how you like a taste of your own medicine,” she murmured, still a little out of it from... everything. A lean back over, a confidently spread hand right over the eel’s stupid laser-shooting pupil. A series of lights pulsing towards the iris, a burst of heat and light, a flare of reflective power.
Silver shot the eel. Or the eel shot itself, depending on your perspective.
There was an immediate scent of burning eyeball and a sickly inner goo began to ooze out from a ragged, cauterized tear. The eye deflated enough to finally release some pressure on her leg and let Silver - at last - pull herself free. “Yes!” she exclaimed, sliding along the eel’s back, before very quickly remembering that she now didn’t have any obvious way to stay on the creature as it began a full-on loop-de-loop.
“No!” she revised, scrambling for purchase but coming up with only handfuls of slime. A blast of sound sent the eel whipping quickly in the other direction and almost twisting fully around itself, finally dislodging Silver entirely and sending her spinning into open air.
Mustering the last remains of her magic and without any other options, Silver bounced off the pavement with a burst of light, spinning back up and desperately hoping that air resistance would slow her down to a nonfatal speed before she completely ran out of power.
R-right. Only a couple dozen missed texts and calls from her parents. That made sense. In all the chaos, they would definitely be worried. She should probably tell them she wasn’t dead. “Still alive,” she typed, then deleted. Was that too flippant? “I’m okay” - was she really? Bria locked her phone, then unlocked it a second later. She had to say something!
A horrifyingly loud sound, like that of a foghorn taking the job of a tornado siren, distracted her. Bria covered her ears, looking up just in time to watch the eel fall towards the river in slow motion, burning with pink flames from its open mouth. Yellow liquid streamed from a number of destroyed eyes along its flanks. And in just a few more moments, it crashed into the waves, fountaining water well over the banks in an umbrella-like spray. It was dead. They had done it.
Which meant it was definitely time to send that text already. “I’m okay but stuck somewhere,” she wrote, trying very hard to not overanalyze it. “I’ll find you once I get out.”
That would have to be enough. And it was fairly true - she certainly didn’t feel like risking a fall from here and the only entrance to the building was locked with a hefty padlock. So, after recovering enough energy to feel like she could manage a transformation again, she hesitantly tried to get ahold of the only hero nearby who could easily come get her.
- Silver is quite upset with Granite and/or Mahogany for their very bad plan.
- She’s a little mad but it all worked out so it’s fine. Just maybe explain better next time.
- Honestly, it was pretty funny and/or effective. She’s not mad.
(Winner: )
- Silver is quite upset with Granite and/or Mahogany for their very bad plan.
- She’s a little mad but it all worked out so it’s fine. Just maybe explain better next time.
- Honestly, it was pretty funny and/or effective. She’s not mad.
(Winner: ) 1 7 1@Story Notifications
Scene 38
“Okay, I’m just gonna set you down here,” Strawberry said, gently touching down near the waterfront. “You hang out with the guys while I go pick up someone else, k?”
“Not a chance,” Lapis replied, wriggling out of the energy net within which she had spent the last many minutes. “I gotta go check on-” A pause. “-the street,” she decided.
“Great! They’ll help you check!”
Granite was already nearby and did a polite little wave. “I could certainly use some help here. Assuming you aren’t going to try to fight me again.”
Lapis seemed to figure out who he was. “This guy too? Unbelievable. You’re not gonna tell me I know your fourth hero too, right?”
“I don’t think so?” Strawberry lifted into the air, drifting to the south. “I only met her tonight. Silver, I think.”
“Good. Get outta here. And I’m not helping you,” she informed Granite.
“There are wounded civilians here,” he tried. “Can’t you put aside your-”
“Get going, pink,” she growled, seemingly ignoring Granite in favor of snapping a rush of air at Strawberry that sent her twirling further up. “‘Fore this guy’s friend shows up.”
“He’s by the water!” she called faintly, drifting away backwards. “Getting rid of the eel!”
“I don’t care! Leave!”
Strawberry left. But then she turned around and peeked out from behind a rooftop to grin widely. Lapis was helping, using her sonic powers to break apart a massive chunk of rubble so Granite could move it more easily. She just didn’t want to look friendly, but of course she was a softie inside! Strawberry did a little somersault in midair at her conclusion, finally darting off to actually go get Silver. Which building had she said, again?
“Compy?~” she called in midair. “You think Lapis is actually nice?”
The angel materialized from light, drifting serenely despite keeping up with Strawberry’s terrific speed. “I can’t say that; I can only comment on her partner.”
“Boo,” she pouted. “Kay, how ‘bout Havoc? That’s who you said earlier, right?”
“Not really. But there was a big police chase and a few explosions yester-esternight and somebody woke me up to go help.” She glanced pointedly to the side, where Compassion hovered invisibly. “Some girl named, Violet, I guess. She’s usually kinda small-scale, but this time she straight-up killed somebody. So I was gonna put a stop to that if I could find her. Figured this festival might be a draw for someone like that, and it’s real close to her last crime. But nope, found someone else instead.” A pause. “You okay? You’re kinda pulling on the net.”
“S-sorry; did you say Violet?”
“Yep. You know her?”
“...”
️ - Yeah. They’ve met.
↔️ - Nope, not really.
[If ️, will mention this to Strawberry. If ↔️, will be internal-only.]
- She was like that all along? Just hiding her true evil?
- There must have been some mistake; she wouldn’t do that.
(Winners: ️ , )
️ - Yeah. They’ve met.
↔️ - Nope, not really.
[If ️, will mention this to Strawberry. If ↔️, will be internal-only.]
- She was like that all along? Just hiding her true evil?
- There must have been some mistake; she wouldn’t do that.
(Winners: ️ , ) 6
2 2 6@Story Notifications
Scene 39
“Yeah, we’ve met. Once. She temporarily blinded a train driver and tried to make me fight her. But - but I don’t think she would have done something like - like actually really hurting anyone!”
“Why d’you say that? If you only met her once-”
“It just wasn’t like that! She didn’t - er, you know intent, right?”
“Yeah?”
“She didn’t have killing intent. Not when fighting me; not when doing anything to the train. She has, like, poison mist clouds and stuff, but didn’t use them on any civilians. And even with me, I think she just kinda let me go when I was stuck in a cloud? It just - I think there must have been some mistake.”
“I dunno; it was pretty brutal. I wasn’t there when it happened, but apparently she put a few cops to sleep while they were driving after her. One of them crashed into a building. There was a spark, the gas tank blew up, the fire department had to show up - it was a whole deal. But, y’know, who just puts someone to sleep when they’re driving? She musta known what could happen.”
“Maybe it was an accident? Or she panicked, or-”
“Not much better. Look, you know there’s basically two kinds of villains out there. Nuisances, and threats. If someone’s just messin’ around pranking people or doing a bit of shoplifting... who cares, right? But like, you start killing people; that’s when it gets serious. That’s when you gotta be stopped. Honestly, she should be happy it’s just me lookin’ for her and not someone more important.”
“... What are you going to do if you find her?”
“We’re gonna fight, I’m gonna win, and I’m gonna hand her over to the cops. After that, it’s not my problem. And, hey, if you see her again, you mind giving me a call? Maybe stall her a little? I’m pretty fast, so it shouldn’t take long to get there.” A pause. “Unless you’re, like, way out there. Where’d you run into her before?”
“N-not that far. On one of the western commuter rail lines, a little past the airport.”
And then, she left. Transformed back in the cover of some of the many piles of rubble nearby. Tracked down her parents, prepared for a serious scolding for running off earlier. But it had been worth it to save the day. After all, without the efforts of all the heroes (of light and dark) present, the night would have gone a lot worse.
... Right?
...
[Intermission]
- ???
- ???
- ???
- ???
- ???
(Winner: )
- ???
- ???
- ???
- ???
- ???
(Winner: ) 2 3 1 5 2@Story Notifications
Scene 40
??? ???th, ???
“You’ve chosen an interesting vessel for your gambit,” hummed a soft, rich voice. “I wonder how well it will serve you?”
“Why are you even here? Go play with your own toys!” responded a higher, sharper tone.
“My, my. That’s no way to respond to your elder,” the rich voice murmured with a dangerous undercurrent. “Why don’t you try that again?”
“Why don’t you leave me alone? I’m busy!”
“Why don’t you make me?”
A pause. Briefly, you wondered who you were.
“S-sorry,” muttered the higher voice. Something shuffled across a surface. Papers rustled. “I’m just... stressed.”
“Hmph. See to it that you recall your manners in the future. Though you may hold this role presently, your grip is weak. You need me far more than I need you. There are many who would replace you in a heartbeat.”
An even quieter tone. “Sorry...”
“Don’t be sorry. Be better.” A light tap of sound. “Show me.”
A deep breath; the higher voice recovered some of its strength. “This is it, so far.” A series of vibrations drummed on a rigid material right next to you. Briefly, you wondered what you were.
“This is all you’ve managed? It’s disgusting.”
“It’s more than what it looks like! Listen!”
Some rustling and a brief clank. “This isn’t a proper heartbeat,” the rich voice declared. “It’s malformed.”
“It is proper!” the higher voice protested. “It’s just got more chambers than humans do! It does a sort of 3-2 thing - look, I diagrammed it earlier. See?”
Some clicks, like keypresses. Briefly, you wonder why you’re here, listening to this conversation.
“Are they all like this, or just your malformed sample here?”
“It depends. Some of them are more normal; some are even weirder. Some don’t even use a heart at all; they’re more like giant cells that don’t even need a blood analogue to live.”
“It’s totally speaking!” the smaller figure decided, whirling back around to address the taller figure again. “It’s doing even better than I thought; see, with just a little help from my vessel, I could maybe even get ahead of the schedule. I promise I’ll make super sure she never goes back with anything - you can even check if you want!”
The taller figure sighed. “You can hardly be ahead of schedule when the current schedule is already years behind. Fine. You may enlist your vessel for assistance, but if anything goes wrong in any way, you must kill it.”
“P-personally?”
“Yes. If you cannot agree, you cannot bring it here.”
The smaller figure seemed nervous. “ygbsrplip,” you advised, trying to be helpful.
They glanced at you. “Okay. I... I’ll do it. But only if I have to.”
“Of course.” The taller figure turned, moving out of your field of view. “Begin immediately. Check-ins will be every week now. If you miss any more deliverables, you will be dismissed.”
A heavy metallic clank, as of a closing door. The smaller figure hesitated for a few moments, bringing their appendages up to their head and making several unhappy noises. Then, “It’s okay,” the smaller figure whispered in your direction. “You’ll make sure that doesn’t happen, right?”
“asgurmpj,” you affirmed, not really clear what they were asking.
⏱️ - Weeks later...
️ - Months later...
[
]
- The erasure is perfect.
- The erasure is imperfect, but someone is hiding it.
- The erasure is imperfect, but someone else is hiding it.
[Oh, hello Violet. Fancy seeing you here.]
- Silver intends to contact Strawberry as agreed.
- Silver has no intention of contacting Strawberry.
(Winners: ⏱️ , , )
️ - Months later...
[]
- The erasure is perfect.
- The erasure is imperfect, but someone is hiding it.
- The erasure is imperfect, but someone else is hiding it.
[Oh, hello Violet. Fancy seeing you here.]
- Silver intends to contact Strawberry as agreed.
- Silver has no intention of contacting Strawberry.
(Winners: ⏱️ , , ) 
6 1 2 4 3 1 6@Story Notifications
Scene 41
July 19th, 2028
Bria was starting to get the hang of this.
The two-ish weeks after the eel incident on July 4th were a lot quieter than the ones before, which was good. Despite her battle form’s enhanced durability and healing capabilities, she had legitimately injured her leg and had to keep weight off it for a while as it recovered. That meant a lot of sitting around at home, or at the library, or occasionally in a car while in transit to somewhere more exciting. Mom wouldn’t let her go anywhere on her own until fully healed, telling her to treat it like a grounding for running off in the crowd like that. Bria supposed that was fair.
This didn’t quite mean a cessation of hero activities, however. While she flatly refused Zeal’s prodding to go out anyway, she certainly didn’t waste all the time sitting around at home. Objects bounced all over Bria’s room at odd hours of the day as she learned new ways to control momentum. “Reflection” was turning out to be an extremely versatile type signature magic - so far, her biggest limit was just that the powerful stuff could only work from her hands.
Somewhat surprisingly, some of her hero friends kept in touch. Obviously, none of them could actually visit due to the whole secret identity thing, but she received texts, pictures, and videos of varying degrees of sincerity from everyone who had been present. Except Lapis, who hadn’t given out her number. But she did hear about her secondhand from Strawberry and Hog, who were both still chasing her down for ostensibly different but probably fairly similar reasons. The three of them got into a few more fights, during which Lapis won or escaped every time, but that didn’t seem to bother either of the heroes much.
But she hadn’t heard anything about Violet.
“Why are you here?” Silver responded, stopping just after entering the shade. “I won’t let you get away with it, whatever it is.” Wait, wasn’t I supposed to be asking her about the - I mean, how DO you ask about something like that? “Hi, did you mean to kill those people?” I can’t just say that!
“Aren’t you paranoid,” she needled, sidling closer. “What if I said I wasn’t here for a fiiiiight?~”
“I guess I’d ask again. Why are you here?”
“What if I said it wasn’t even anything eevviiiiilll?~” Another foot of subtle approach.
“Are you going to answer my question or not?”
“I wanna race!~”
“... Race?”
“To that crossing light,” she said, pointing. Silver turned to look, allowing Violet another few discreet steps forward. “The first one to touch the cross-thingy wins!”
“W - it’s called a crossbuck,” she clarified automatically, remembering her dad’s - hold on! “Hold on,” she echoed her thoughts. “Why?”
“Cause I wanna see who’s faster, duh.”
- Sure. Why not?
- No thank you. This has to be a trick.
(Winner: )
- Sure. Why not?
- No thank you. This has to be a trick.
(Winner: ) 3 4@Story Notifications
Scene 42
“Uh... no thanks.”
A pause. “Huh? Why not?”
“It’s gonna be some sort of trick, right?” Silver retreated back into the sun, suddenly aware of how close Violet had gotten in the past minute or so. “You’ll have trapped the route with an invisible death-mist bubble or something. Or you’re gonna try to attach some really high stakes. Or both!”
“So paranoid!” she accused again. “You really think I’d cheat like that?”
“I mean... yes?”
“How mean! After I came all the way out here, too!” She didn’t seem that different from the last time they had met; no visible guilt about what she had allegedly done. Energetic, probably trying to do more villainous things. Maybe Silver had been wrong, actually. Or maybe she should try asking. “So, what, you’re only here to fight me? That didn’t go great for you last time.”
For some reason, that comment just rubbed Silver the wrong way. After all the thinking she had done about Violet’s innocence, she just showed up here and antagonized her? Really? “I’ve gotten stronger since then.”
“Yeah? Me too.”
The divide of sunlight and shade mirrored the heroes of light and darkness facing each other under the edge of the station’s roof, although the symbolism was lost on both of them at the time. Even without being otherwise preoccupied, it would have been a silly thing to notice regardless. However, the sharp illuminative contrast certainly made it harder to make out quick details - such as a sudden motion from Silver that might have looked like the start of an attack, but was actually just an instinctive swat at an unexpected bug.
Violet raised both hands into the air, yelling something indistinctly as the shaded concrete between them swelled, rising up into an almost wave-like structure at a rapid pace. This pushed Violet back while bumping Silver into the air and giving her immediate flashbacks to the last time something like this had happened.
“See?” Silver asked, proud of herself but trying to seem cool. “Stronger.” A pause. Violet wasn’t standing at the station anymore. “Wait, where-” Another pause as she looked around. “Where’d you go? You can’t go invisible or anything, right?”
“...”
Warily, Silver looked closer at the station; there wasn’t anywhere else she could have gotten to in time. “Zeal, did she transform back or something?”
Hovering overhead and gently drifting towards the station along her sightline, he responded bluntly. “No.”
“So she’s still here somewhere,” she murmured, cautiously advancing towards the building. “Maybe she just went inside? Trying an ambush or something?”
“...”
“It’s really quiet,” she whispered, ostensibly to Zeal. “Weren’t there more people around before?”
He didn’t respond, so she just kept going. The station didn’t have much of an inside - just a small waiting area with some bathrooms - and windows provided a good look into everywhere public from out here. No Violet anywhere, though if she had managed to escape notice earlier, she could be just about anywhere nearby at this point.
“I don’t like this...” Silver muttered, glancing around in all directions. “Where are you?”
- Check the bathrooms.
↩️ - Check the back of the building.
⬆️ - Check the roof.
️ - Check the tracks.
- Oh well, guess she can play hide and seek on her own.
(Winner: ⬆️ )
- Check the bathrooms.
↩️ - Check the back of the building.
⬆️ - Check the roof.
️ - Check the tracks.
- Oh well, guess she can play hide and seek on her own.
(Winner: ⬆️ ) 1
2
6 1 2@Story Notifications
Scene 43
Maybe the roof? She could have gotten up there with her shadow bounce trick, probably, and wouldn’t be visible from the ground. But how could Silver get up? There wasn’t a staircase or convenient ladder that she knew of. Could she just climb up one of the posts? After one attempt, it became clear that she could not. Her battle form was stronger, sure, but not quite strong enough to climb without any decent handholds. But that did give her a different idea. It was something she had been practicing a little bit before getting hurt, but hadn’t got anywhere near proficient. But she didn’t have to be good to get just a few feet of extra height.
“Hmm...” Silver hummed uncertainly as she tapped her foot on the ground. This wouldn’t be good for it, but it would only be a few hops. With a quick leap, she jumped a normal height, then tried to time it so she extended her legs just as she hit the ground - to deliver maximum force in the impact. Although she was the one moving, not the ground, the relative momentum was the same and she could reflect herself back into the air for more distance, as if she were bouncing on a trampoline.
Of course, all that force went straight to her ankles rather than getting gently dispersed by a soft, stretchy surface. Like stomping on concrete from a foot in the air.
But, as it turned out, that didn’t matter. She changed tactics quickly upon seeing just how delicate they were, and returned to that whole-body barrier that had failed to stop the poison. Here, it was much more effective. Each streamer was too light to resist, but also not too small to just pass through entirely. With only the concentration needed to maintain the barrier, Silver was effectively immune to this particular attack.
“Ugh!” Violet yelled, standing up suddenly. “Why are you like this? How did you even know where to go?”
“I guessed?”
That just seemed to frustrate her more. A call of “shadow mist!” buried the roof in darkness; Silver shuffled sideways to get away from the edge. At least she could tell which way that was due to the roof’s slope, but not much else. Last time, Violet hadn’t been able to see through her own darkness (so it seemed, at least), but if she could this time, Silver would really be at a disadvantage. She couldn’t reflect the darkness away, and it would be too hard to react to any attacks by sound alone. She could jump off the roof, but that wouldn’t really help her end the fight. So... what should she do?
- Attack wherever you think Violet might be.
- Listen; attack when you hear her. If you hear her.
⏬ - Jump off the roof. Sure, it took a lot of trouble to get up here, but at least it’ll be safely on your terms.
- Ask what you want to ask. It’s a bad time, sure, but it’s looking less and less likely you’ll get a better one.
️ - Barrier up. It’ll stop any more of those snakes, though you’ll be distracted and poison or just regular unattuned attacks will still give you trouble. [Can be combined with other options; needs half or more of the unique votes.]
(Winners: , ️ )
- Attack wherever you think Violet might be.
- Listen; attack when you hear her. If you hear her.
⏬ - Jump off the roof. Sure, it took a lot of trouble to get up here, but at least it’ll be safely on your terms.
- Ask what you want to ask. It’s a bad time, sure, but it’s looking less and less likely you’ll get a better one.
️ - Barrier up. It’ll stop any more of those snakes, though you’ll be distracted and poison or just regular unattuned attacks will still give you trouble. [Can be combined with other options; needs half or more of the unique votes.]
(Winners: , ️ ) 1 1
1 6 5@Story Notifications
Scene 44
Well...
“Why did you kill those police officers?” was the best she could come up with. Inelegant and certainly poor timing, but at this point it was looking less and less likely she’d get a better chance. At least Violet wasn’t attacking her at this exact moment.
The response was immediate, almost cutting off the end of Silver’s sentence. “What are you talking about? I bet you don’t even know who it was.”
Okay, so she was still on the roof; she hadn’t run off again. Good. “A couple of weeks ago, you stole a truck or something like that. Two people died in the chase. I want to know why.”
“That could have been anyone. You weren’t there.”
“You don’t know I wasn’t, if you weren’t.” A brief pause, but she didn’t want to leave it at that. “I wasn’t there, though, you’re right. But the whole incident is real and a lot of people saw you. And a certain hero mentioned your name.”
“That fruit-themed-” A pause. “Is she on her way, then? I’m surprised it’s taken this long.”
“I didn’t tell her. I wanted to ask you what happened first.”
“Listen, I didn’t kill anyone. I was just trying to get away and I put down some mist on the road and it’s their fault they were driving so fast or that they kept going after or... or that they just didn’t know how to drive! All it even did was make people sleepy, not even poison or blindness or anything! There would have been so much time to realize and stop the car! It’s not - nothing even happened, but even if it did, it wasn’t my fault.”
Violet was clearly out of control. If Silver transformed back, she wouldn’t be recognized as Silver, but would that be enough to stop her opponent? Would Violet even think twice about murdering a random “civilian” in this state? Would she worry about murdering an actual civilian? There hadn’t been anyone around the station for some reason, but there had absolutely been a lot of people just a few blocks away. What if she went further into town?
She hesitated, listening to concrete snap and shadow-ribbons whistle through the air.
How was Violet this strong? Even with the “right intent,” as Zeal would probably put it, there was a limit to how much magic heroes’ bodies could store. He told her that. Draining too much power would cause you to revert back to your base form. How much was too much? How long could she keep this up? And even if Silver went back out there, could she even stop her?
- Get back out there. Save the day. This is why you’re a hero at all.
- Transform back. Stay hidden. You can’t stop this on your own.
- Maybe reconsider calling her. Some backup would be nice.
- You said you’d handle it without Strawberry and you meant it.
- It’s you or her. In a situation this dangerous, you have to be prepared to kill.
- You won’t do it. Not even now.
[If ...]
- Fight her directly. Win. You can do it.
- Keep her attention; try to tire her out. She’s got to run out of magic eventually.
- Calm her down. Help her regain control. [What will you say or do?]
(Winners: , , , )
- Get back out there. Save the day. This is why you’re a hero at all.
- Transform back. Stay hidden. You can’t stop this on your own.
- Maybe reconsider calling her. Some backup would be nice.
- You said you’d handle it without Strawberry and you meant it.
- It’s you or her. In a situation this dangerous, you have to be prepared to kill.
- You won’t do it. Not even now.
[If ...]
- Fight her directly. Win. You can do it.
- Keep her attention; try to tire her out. She’s got to run out of magic eventually.
- Calm her down. Help her regain control. [What will you say or do?]
(Winners: , , , ) 7 1 3 5 1 7 2 6 3@Story Notifications
Scene 45
Maybe she didn’t need to stop her. Maybe that thought from a few seconds ago would be enough; that heroes couldn’t access unlimited amounts of power. If Silver could just keep her occupied and make her waste all her magic, it’d be over. At least, assuming she could stay alive for however long it took to accomplish that goal.
More crashing from the main street. Car engines revved; there were other people here. Silver shook off her doubts and ran back into danger.
This is what it meant to be a hero.
Violet was a block further down the street, streamers of darkness wrapping around buildings, traffic lights, and a few unlucky cars in the middle of trying to reverse or turn around. Solid materials bent; cracked. The shadows were unreasonably powerful, even under the glare of a near-midday sun. Maybe even because of it. After all, darkness only grew more defined in the presence of light.
“Back here!” she shouted. “Didn’t you want to race?”
Violet didn’t respond with words, but her attention was certainly clear. Darkness dripped from her body, pooling around her feet and feeding into the network of streamers. Even more grew as she turned towards Silver, shouting something in overlapping tones too garbled to make out.
“What was tha - gaH!”
Silver sprinted back the way she came as Violet blasted off the road fast enough to pulverize a section of pavement. Streamers whipped at the gap as she overshot, pulling her back and seeking for Silver. Violet’s movement was becoming less reminiscent of a human’s by the moment, instead starting to resemble a sort of strange suspended puppet, pulled along by streamers of darkness rather than driven from a central body. It was creepy, sure, but more than that: it was fast.
“W-what do you mean?” she muttered. “I wasn’t-” A pause. She seemed to notice her clothes. Hair color. General form. “...No - you didn’t...”
“Lillian!” Silver exclaimed, finally remembering. “That’s right, Violet. It wasn’t on purpose, but I saw you transform back. And you know what that means.”
“No no no nono; no you didn’t... you don’t...”
“I do. Now, I think we have some things to talk about.”
[]
- Compassionate.
- Stern.
[]
- Contrite.
- Overwhelmed.
(Winners: a tie between and , )
]
- Compassionate.
- Stern.
[]
- Contrite.
- Overwhelmed.
(Winners: a tie between and , ) 4 4 2 6@Story Notifications
Scene 46
What happened? What was going on? Lillian could hardly remember how she had gotten here or what she had been doing for most of the day. However, at least two things were very clear. One: she had done something very bad, given all the damaged infrastructure and the very mad-looking hero dragging her along. And two: Silver knew her secret identity.
The thought alone was terrifying. It usually felt right to be Violet while Violet, but Lillian was under no impression that anyone else would feel the same way. Even her normal antics would be enough to land her in jail, probably, but this most recent stuff was way more extreme. If Silver told the cops - worse, if she told her parents...
She recognized their location now; Silver was leading her towards the secluded clearing in the woods where she had been training the last time they had met. For privacy, probably, but what was she going to do once there? Yell at her? Kill her? Lillian scanned the skies and lower branches, looking for Vanity but unsure whether her presence would be reassuring or not. That uncertainty was resolved in only a few seconds as she spotted the demon fluttering along behind them and immediately felt even more sick. Definitely not reassuring. What had she done? Little flashes were starting to come back, none of them good.
That was the point, of course - she was the villain - but that thought wasn’t very convincing right now.
There was a little stone bench with tiny tendrils of ivy growing up the legs. Silver sat her down on it, then stepped back, folding her arms. She looked a lot more intimidating like this than before. “... Okay, what changed?”
“... What?”
“You didn’t try to kill me last time. You didn’t turn into a horrible goopy shadow monster. Heck, the last time you were here - not Violet - we even had a nice little chat. What changed?”
“Trans-for-min~ doesn’t change your mind like that,” she explained, looking at Lillian but clearly talking to Silver too. “Can’t have you slan-der-in~ my good name, Vi!”
“Hold on,” Silver said before Lillian could decide how to respond. “It does, though. When I transform, I get a lot more confident and... I guess, used to dealing with dangerous situations? I don’t think I’d ever go fight a monster without that. What do you mean that’s wrong?”
“Nope, that’s right!” she said happily, spinning up in a loop-de-loop. “Battle forms give ya more confidence, focus, energy; that kinda thing. Makes ya better at fightin’, but also just more put together and sometimes even a bit hyper.” A pause; she swooped down to press against Lillian’s forehead. A bit of sticky blood came away on her fur. “But it never gives ya anything you didn’t already have. If you don’t like whatcha see, take a good hard look in the mirror.”
“That can’t be true,” she said softly. “I’m almost like a different person when transformed; I hardly even remember what happened today.”
“It’s truuuee~! Maybe you’re just so unconfident when you’re not transformed you don’t even recognize yourself! But it’s all there even right now; you just gotta dig deep.” She mimed shoveling motions to match.
“Maybe I should quit, then.”
Silence for a moment. “Woah woah woah; hold up. Whyyy, Vi-o-let~? You get to be so cool~!”
“I lose control; I’m not me. I...” She still couldn’t say it. “... hurt people.”
“I don’t get what the big deal is - but even if you think so, we can fix that~! Some gumption; some practice!”
“...”
[]
- Lillian should quit.
- She shouldn’t.
[]
️ - Lillian should quit.
- She shouldn’t.
[]
- Zeal has an alternate idea.
- He doesn’t care.
(Winners: , ️ , )
]
- Lillian should quit.
- She shouldn’t.
[]
️ - Lillian should quit.
- She shouldn’t.
[]
- Zeal has an alternate idea.
- He doesn’t care.
(Winners: , ️ , ) 1 5 7 1 6 2@Story Notifications
Scene 47
Silver considered it for a moment, both deciding what she thought about the idea and whether she should say anything at all. But, well, she was here and Vanity hadn’t stayed hidden from her, so she was part of the conversation... “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with not being a villain,” she eventually said. “If you’re hurting people now, and you’re saying how you lose control sometimes, maybe it is better to just quit. You get to just be yourself instead.”
“...”
“But then you’d go back to just being lame and boring and sad! Didn’t you say you wanted to be cool when we first met? Aren’t you cool now?”
“Sometimes...”
“Then you get to stay!” Vani declared as if she had just proven something. “And if you really want to change something, we can change it!”
“I don’t know if that’s going to work so easily,” Silver warned. “It seems like your battle form is really different from your real personality; like it’d be hard to try and put them back together...”
“You don’t know anything~ about this,” Vani called, still spinning and only seeming to be getting faster. “Why don’tcha keep your mouth shut, mmkay~?”
“B...because I think you’re trying to corrupt someone who’s clearly trying to do the right thing?” Silver replied, kind of taken aback by the question. “Like, why do demons even want to partner with heroes at all? To make more monsters; to cause more chaos; to make everything worse! You know that: look what you - er, Violet - just did right here! You can say no and start helping instead of hurting!”
“That’s not how it woooorks~! Plus, we’d have to split if you quit and that’d be real saaad~.”
“That’s not a real reason! If you’re going to say I’m wrong, you need to say why!”
Zeal had vanished somewhere, so she couldn’t ask him what he really thought about all this - not that he’d say anything helpful, anyway. Silver sighed, looking around before returning to Bria, then sighed more painfully as her leg throbbed from the additional effort she had put it through today. She had been so optimistic this morning, too.
- Lillian doesn’t tell Vanity about Zeal’s offer.
- She does.
(Winner: )
- Lillian doesn’t tell Vanity about Zeal’s offer.
- She does.
(Winner: ) 7 1@Story Notifications
Scene 48
“Sir? Someone at the door asking for you.”
A sigh. “I am not to be bothered for simple visitors. You know that.”
“She’s very mad. Says you did something to her vessel.” A pause. “Er, Vanity, sir.”
“Start with the name next time,” Zeal advised with a cold look. “You’ll save us both the trouble.” Then, he stood and departed from the lab.
“S-sorry, sir.” A pause. The figure noticed you. Crept a little closer, clutching a flat, dull-colored board to their torso. “What in the world are you...? He’s come this far in just the last few...? Are you... aware?”
You could reply, but Zeal had told you not to. You weren’t to reveal how advanced you were. Not to these figures, and especially not to anyone... orange-ish. This figure had a narrow band of the very same color in its orbs, darting this way and that as it took in your appearance. You would not reveal anything further.
“... No, I suppose not,” the figure breathed, seeming to relax. “Of course. Even he couldn’t... certainly not; not so quickly. G-good, of course...”
The figure departed not long after. And you quietly, sanguinely pressed one of your primary appendages to a thin, electrosensitive button left for this purpose. A nearby machine took note of your action and marked a certain timestamp for review when its master returned. In the near future, the orange-marked figure would return to the ether from which it was wrought. Obliquely; quietly; efficiently. And of course, quickly.
You didn’t like the orange-marked figures. Zeal had been quite clear with that directive. But you didn’t mind; how could you? That was, after all, the point.
...
Zeal hardly had a moment in the entryway before Vanity spotted him and rushed over, finally freeing up the flustered aide she had been previously harassing. “You!” she called, flaring angrily before him. “What did you say to my vessel? She’s been all grumpy and weird and isn’t telling me whyy~!”
“I do what I must in order to assure victory. Many agree. Even you agree, and that is why you aren’t striking me down here and now for my atrocities. Of which you are well aware. Yes?”
“... I don’t have to like it, though~.”
“No, I suppose not. As long as you see it through to the end. Now, off you go.”
❗ - Vanity remembers what she was doing.
- Vanity leaves.
- ... [...]
(Winner: ❗ )
- Vanity leaves.
- ... [...]
(Winner: ❗ ) 
4 2 2@Story Notifications
Scene 49
Zeal returned to the lab exasperated. “Honestly, that one is almost more trouble than she’s worth,” he muttered to himself, but also to you. He wouldn’t be speaking aloud if he didn’t intend for you to hear. “If she had even the slightest bit less ability to shape intent, it would be far simpler to handle her tasks myself. Yet there’s never enough time to handle everything on my own...”
You stayed quiet. If he wanted your input, he would ask for it.
“Regardless, let us pick up where - hm?” He noticed the flashing light on the machine, indicating you had pressed the button. “Him too, then? It’s impossible to get any reliable help these days. Fine; I’ll have him dealt with and-”
The sound of loud, repeated knocking on the door interrupted him. “Zeal, you massive jerk! I wasn’t done with you yet! Stop casting spells on me!”
Another long, drawn-out sigh. “You see what I have to work with?” he asked rhetorically, glancing in your direction. You nodded gelatinously; it seemed tough. “And yet...” A pause; he ignored the assault on his door. “Perhaps she could still be useful.”
Vanity stumbled through the doorway as Zeal suddenly pulled it open, nearly falling before catching herself on his shoulder. “Gah! Answer the door normally next time!”
He pulled her the rest of the way inside, then closed the door and carefully approached. “Stay still,” he ordered. “I need to verify your color.”
“You just won’t stop being rude, will you? You don’t even trust me, after all this time~?”
“It has been less than a year. I trust no one implicitly, much less one as unknown as yourself.” A pause; he didn’t see anything suspicious. “Face that way.”
“Oh my gosh it’s your little guy!” Vanity peeked down at you, taking in your appearance. And, much as the previous figure had done earlier, allowing you to examine her in turn. No orange. Not even a hint. You didn’t press the button. “Hiii~, how’re you~?”
“I’ll interpret that as an affirmative. Now, if you wouldn’t mind actually leaving this time?”
“No, I wanna know about your little guy!” Vanity crouched next to you again, pressing up close to your enclosure. “Why’s he look like that?”
With a flat, almost bored tone of voice, Zeal gave up and asked, “What are you referring to, specifically?”
“His eyes are so glittery and humongous~!”
“To properly detect corruption in the facility’s staff. And certain visitors, as well.”
“His skin is so shiny and wet!”
“The air inside the enclosure is at near 100% humidity, and the specimen is lightly misted every several minutes. The skin dries too quickly and cracks apart without it. Currently, we are focusing on improvements elsewhere as the workaround is sufficient.”
“He’s got a... weirdly human mouth.” She poked her own face. “Not like ours.”
“The specimen is grown using human cells as a base culture. Most of its features inherit from the human body template, except those that we modify intentionally - or change while modifying other features.”
“So that’s why his nose is...?”
“Yes.”
“Kay, last question. Why’s he got that big mark on his cute, weird, kinda...blobby head?”
“Surely even you recognize the metzmatan.”
“... Oh! Oh, it was just - from this angle, with the skin folds and - yeah, I getcha. Hehe~, that’s pretty clever. You’re such a his-tor-iiiiaann~.”
“That was your last question. Leave.”
“Kay, byee~!” Vanity twirled to the door, her energy seemingly restored by observing your cute, weird, blobby appearance. “I’ma go tell Compy you wanna talk to herrrr~!”
“I do not-” The door shut. Another long sigh. “For pity’s sake. To think she would be critical to this effort...”
You burbled encouragingly. At least she had the wits to appreciate how awesome you were.
[A few days later...]
- Be Mahogany.
- Be Lapis.
- Be Strawberry.
(Winner: )
- Be Mahogany.
- Be Lapis.
- Be Strawberry.
(Winner: ) 2 5 3@Story Notifications
Scene 50
July 22nd, 2028
“Come out with your hands up, villain!” someone annoying yelled from the street. “We know you’re in there!”
“Don’t you two idiots have anything better to do?” Lapis shouted back, blasting another set of furniture into pieces against the far wall. “Go hunt monsters or something!”
“You didn’t even know I was here!” someone equally annoying interjected. “I could have stayed home this time!”
“But you didn’t.” Lapis shot a blastwave into the ceiling; it wobbled but stayed intact. Damn. She’d probably have to leave soon; even these two could probably take her on if she were trapped indoors. “Seriously, why do you even care about this place? It’s an insurance broker, for god’s sake!”
Some conversation outside. The first annoying person eventually responded. “It’s still a crime! Now come out or we’re coming in!”
Lapis rolled her eyes, broke another computer tower in half with a swing of her guitar, then hefted it over her shoulder and headed for the window. “Fine, if it makes you feel better.”
As expected, Strawberry and Mahogany were in their dumb little hero poses waiting for her. All cool and collected; as if. “Those hands don’t look up to me,” Mahogany commented. He already had a set of armor plates across his chest, slightly deforming his costume. And, unlike the first few times, Strawberry had learned to keep her feet on the ground - at least to start with. That had been funny, swatting her out of the air like a pesky bug. “Are you planning on resisting?”
“What do you think?” She leapt forward, swinging the guitar with a simple overhead motion. Just to scatter them, to start with. He went right; she went left. Lapis, landing between them, chose to go for the less-mobile Mahogany first tonight; maybe she could knock him away before Strawberry could get any of her weird magic bubbles out.
None of the three spoke.
“Too scared, huh? Boring.” He kicked a broken chunk of concrete that had recently been part of a building. With a crack like a gunshot, it disappeared into an adjacent wall, leaving a crumbling hole through solid brick. All Lapis had seen was a streaked blur. “Say something.”
- Something inoffensive.
- Something complimentary.
- Something angry.
- “Something.”
- No.
- Team up and take this guy down.
- Well good luck with that, heroes. See ya.
- Help the idiots escape, too.
(Winners: , )
- Something inoffensive.
- Something complimentary.
- Something angry.
- “Something.”
- No.
- Team up and take this guy down.
- Well good luck with that, heroes. See ya.
- Help the idiots escape, too.
(Winners: , ) 5 1 1 4 1 1 3 5@Story Notifications
Scene 51
“Hated that building too,” Lapis commented, since it didn’t seem like anyone else was going to. “What do you want?”
“That’s better,” Umber said, picking up another piece of debris and angling it in his hand to inspect all the sides. “Just wanted to get a better look at you. Know who I’m killing.”
“Well, it sounds like you’ve got something very important to get back to, so we’ll just be on our way and you can... um, get back to it...” Strawberry seemed very eager to leave. Given the situation, Lapis didn’t blame her for that, but she did perhaps blame her for not listening properly.
The stone accelerated out of his hands, breaking through the wall of a building across the street. Wind from its passage stirred up Strawberry’s hair, making it quite clear he could have aimed just a little to the left. “You’re the target,” he explained succinctly. “I don’t care what your friends do, but you aren’t leaving here alive.”
“M-me?” she squeaked.
“You,” he confirmed, reaching down for another rock. “You can fight back if you want. Don’t just stand there and take it.”
“Hey, what do you have against Strawberry?” Mahogany found his voice, stepping sideways to stand between them. “You’re not gonna just ‘deal with her’ like she’s some checkbox.”
Umber exaggerated a yawn. “Try to stop me, then.”
“Maybe I will.”
No one moved for a few seconds. Then, Umber shrugged and raised his hand a little, aiming the rock just right. At the same instant, Mahogany hurled himself backwards in a sort of reverse-armadillo whirl of chitinous plates. Strawberry was swallowed up in the wheel and the rock zipped past just overhead, demolishing a wide window across the street. The two heroes spun crazily into the entryway of a business, set back from the street and just out of view for the moment.
“Fine,” Umber said, starting forward and glancing briefly at Lapis as he passed. “You’re the smart one, I take it?”
She didn’t say anything.
[]
- Distract him, then run.
- Properly fight him.
[]
- Help Lapis.
- Help Strawberry.
[]
- Fly away; escape.
- Run away; escape.
- Help Lapis and Mahogany.
(Winners: , , )
]
- Distract him, then run.
- Properly fight him.
[]
- Help Lapis.
- Help Strawberry.
[]
- Fly away; escape.
- Run away; escape.
- Help Lapis and Mahogany.
(Winners: , , ) 6 1 3 5 1 1 7@Story Notifications
Scene 52
A heavy blast of sound drove cracks into the pavement around Umber, shaking it apart and causing him to drop an inch or so as the ground sank. But he just stood there. Casually, hands in his pockets, watching her play as he simply wasn’t affected whatsoever.
Lapis stopped, more worried than she’d admit to anyone. Umber shook his head, stepping out of the section of broken road. “You’ll have to do better than that.”
“How’s he doing that?” Mahogany muttered, stepping up beside her on the roof.
“Dunno, but you better help distract him if you’re just gonna stay here. Try something else!”
“But he’s after her-” He nodded behind them. “I’ve gotta help-”
“I’m okay,” Strawberry assured them, taking a few steps forward. “But we need to get out of here.”
“Not if he can just snipe us with a rock from a block away.”
“Smokescreen? So he can’t see anything?”
“... Worth a try.”
A loud crack; the building jolted. “Hey, what are you talking about up there?” Umber asked as the entire restaurant lifted into the air. Its outer edges began to crinkle inwards, starting to crumple the whole thing up like a discarded wad of paper.
“Go find something to do that!” Lapis yelled as she blasted off to the side; Strawberry lifted Mahogany into the air in the other direction. “I’ll see if anything works on him!”
She had no intention of fighting him directly. The guy who could turn an ordinary rock into a railgun projectile? Roll up pavement like paper? Crunch entire buildings? No thank you. But Lapis had a feeling he wouldn’t just go away even if they did manage to escape this time; she needed to know what could actually stand a chance of hurting him.
“Havoc?”
“Here.” They materialized next to her, shaped long and sleek against the wind.
“Help me out here.” Lapis rarely asked for help directly, but here... “Who’s Despair? What can they do?”
“Used to be a demon. Now worse. He’s channeling near-unlimited strength into his partner.”
Pink-tinted sparkles dazzled and popped like little fireworks as clouds upon clouds of choking dust descended from who knew where. Vision was impossible, and it was too loud and choked with dust for hearing or smell to be of much use either in pinpointing anything. A heavy metallic clang resonated somewhere nearby, followed by a harsh, unpleasant-sounding crunch. Then a soft breeze from above and a low hum as someone pink and annoying bundled Lapis into a net for flight. Finally, a much louder pink firework exploded overhead, the scuffling sounds from nearby stopped, and as Strawberry lifted off the ground, Mahogany leapt up to grab onto her. His wings expanded to reduce her workload and they pushed into the sky, leaving behind a cloud of dust and an opponent that definitely could not, under any circumstances, possibly be able to aim after them.
Lapis passed out.
- She wakes up in a hospital.
- She wakes up in someone’s house.
- She wakes up somewhere unknown.
- He’s here.
- She’s here.
- No one is here.
(Winners: , )
- She wakes up in a hospital.
- She wakes up in someone’s house.
- She wakes up somewhere unknown.
- He’s here.
- She’s here.
- No one is here.
(Winners: , ) 3 5 1 4 5 1@Story Notifications
Scene 53
July 23rd, 2028
Anya slowly woke up. Her leg ached. Her head hurt. Her mouth was dry, her fingers tingled with mild pins and needles, and she generally felt like she shouldn’t be alive.
Good start. She opened her eyes.
She was lying in a plush, pastel pink bed within a traditionally girly bedroom. Something was bound tightly around her right thigh, where she had been shot, and she wasn’t transformed anymore. Bright sunlight filtered in through the blinds; it was obviously well into morning or even later. She’d been out for a while.
Soft, even breathing caught her attention just to her right. She carefully turned her head just enough to look in that direction.
Strawberry sat in a desk chair beside the bed, head drooping to one side and obviously fast asleep. Only, this wasn’t Strawberry, exactly. She looked very similar, but this wasn’t her battle form. She was wearing a simple grey smock or extra-long shirt or something, with evidence of hastily-cleaned blood staining her fingers and clothing. An open first-aid kit sat in disarray on the nightstand just beside her.
“...” Clearly, she owed Miss Pretty Princess for saving her life. Even if she hadn’t bled out then and there, Umber certainly would have finished the job without her being airlifted to safety. Although...
Anya scanned the rest of the room. Mahogany wasn’t there. That was either good or bad, but it certainly wasn’t neutral.
Well, there was one way to find out what had happened most quickly. She opened her mouth to ask what was going on, but instead just coughed with her dry throat. It did the job anyway; not-Strawberry stirred and quickly noticed Anya was awake.
“Oh, gosh! H-hi; good morning! I must’ve fallen asleep... How are you feeling?”
“I’m just glad it worked...”
“...” She considered something. “I can guess how he got it out of you, but how did he get it into-”
“OKAY SO AFTER THAT-”
- Hog went scouting for a more secret place to recover.
- Hog went to recruit allies.
️ - Hog went to grow his leg back.
[Later...]
- Havoc will explain.
- Compassion will explain.
- They’ll both explain.
(Winners: ️ , )
- Hog went scouting for a more secret place to recover.
- Hog went to recruit allies.
️ - Hog went to grow his leg back.
[Later...]
- Havoc will explain.
- Compassion will explain.
- They’ll both explain.
(Winners: ️ , ) 1 1 7 2 1
6@Story Notifications
Scene 54
There wasn’t actually all that more to tell. Strawberry brought everyone back here, they did their best to get Anya stable, and then Mahogany left to regrow his leg (a process that he warned was “messy and fragile,” and thus not one he wanted to undergo in less-than-ideal circumstances).
“So that’s what happened,” Yumi concluded. “But we still don’t really know anything about this Umber guy or what he wants or how he’s so strong. I was gonna ask Compy, but I was... a little busy last night.”
“Yeah, we gotta know what’s going on.” Anya pushed herself a little further towards a sitting position, trying to ignore the powerful ache in her leg. “Havoc, you there?”
“Yes,” they said, fading out of some shadows above the window. “I did mention something about that yesterday.”
“Tell her too.” Anya gestured to Yumi. “Like it or not, we’re gonna have to work with her and the other one, whenever he’s done regenerating.”
“... Very well.” Havoc didn’t make any obvious motion, but Yumi blinked and looked up a little; she could clearly see them now. “As I said, Despair is his partner. A demon at one point, now he has devolved into something worse.” A breath. “He-”
A second celestial materialized out of beams of light from the window. Compassion tackled Havoc, sending them both tumbling into the ceiling like a pair of angry, flying, wrestling cats.
“Hey! Whoa! What are you - they’re trying to help us!” Yumi called, standing quickly and reaching up as if she could knock them down. No luck; too short. Maybe if she jumped. “Stop it!”
“I’ve never seen an angel and a demon actually fight before,” Anya mused calmly. “Didn’t even know they could touch each other.”
“Get off the ceiling!”
They both vanished.
“...”
“I guess they’re off the ceiling.”
“I didn’t mean like that! Compy? You still around?”
No response. Havoc didn’t return either. “Did your partner know you were gonna bring us here? That why she’s so mad?”
“None of us stand a chance in a direct matchup.”
“So we’ll work together. Despair must be stopped and ideally destroyed. Conveniently, we already know he’s scared of you-” A paw-point to Yumi. “-because he chose to target you first.”
“Umber is not invincible. He is powerful and has quick reactions, but if taken by surprise or somehow prevented from defending against your attacks, he can be brought down,” Havoc echoed their words from last night.
“And when that happens, we can use the connection to Despair to force him to manifest.”
“And to be destroyed.”
That seemed to be the end of the two celestials’ presentation. “Confident?” Compassion asked, fluttering back towards Yumi. “You get to fight alongside your friends!”
“Questions?” Havoc asked instead, noting Anya’s expression. And Yumi’s, actually. Neither seemed to be fully satisfied with the explanation. And that was because, of course...
[This is ranked voting. You can select multiple.]
- “Okay but why were you guys just fighting?”
- “You’re lying.” [Which part? And, if you care, which human will make the accusation?]
- “You’re hiding something important.” [Which part and which human?]
- “We still can’t actually beat him, though.”
- “Do any of us look in any shape to fight him again?”
️ - “Why now? What changed?”
- “What about the more powerful heroes? Can’t they help?”
❓ - [Or something else. Submit in #story_discussion.]
(Winners: , > , ️ > , )
- “Okay but why were you guys just fighting?”
- “You’re lying.” [Which part? And, if you care, which human will make the accusation?]
- “You’re hiding something important.” [Which part and which human?]
- “We still can’t actually beat him, though.”
- “Do any of us look in any shape to fight him again?”
️ - “Why now? What changed?”
- “What about the more powerful heroes? Can’t they help?”
❓ - [Or something else. Submit in #story_discussion.]
(Winners: , > , ️ > , ) 4 1 3 5 5 4 3 1@Story Notifications
Scene 55
A pause. Anya was about to say something, but Yumi got there first. “If you guys agree on all this, why were you fighting like two seconds ago?”
“I don’t remember any fighting,” Compassion said innocently. Havoc shrugged in either agreement or disinterest.
“No, you can’t just say that didn’t happen; everyone saw it! Right?” She looked over at Anya, who nod-shrugged in agreement. “Right. Do you two get along or not? I - I mean, I’d kinda get it if you didn’t, but since we’re supposed to be teaming up and all...”
“I don’t hold any grudges against them. Only Despair... and maybe a few others,” she assured. Havoc shrugged again in a near-identical way.
“Then why did you just - okay, whatever. You’re gonna tell me this is all part of the ‘hero experience,’ aren’t you?”
“Who can say?”
“You can!”
“Yeah, they’re not gonna tell us,” Anya spoke up. “Think of it like a trust thing, if it makes you feel better.”
“It doesn’t!”
“Then don’t.” A breath. “Hey, anyway, your big team-up plan has a giant flaw.” Both celestials turned their attention to her. Anya pointed at her leg, still under the covers. “I don’t know if you were paying attention, but we got fuckin’ steamrolled last night. Didn’t stand a chance. And, I know this is gonna heal faster than usual, but I still can’t, like, walk for weeks probably. Let alone jump around or fly or, y’know, fight. Point is, you’re both nuts if you think we’re gonna be able to do jack about this guy, even if we do all your fancy power-of-friendship team-up magic. It’s not happening.”
“... I didn’t want to say anything, but I don’t think I can fly for a while either,” Yumi admitted. “I think I got hurt the least, but it was still a lot...”
“Alright, well, fair play I guess. That’s more than I thought you’d say,” Anya admitted. “But, even assuming we can beat Umber and whoever else has one of these ‘fallen’ partners, what’s stopping any more celestials from doing the same thing later? If it’s just getting more tempting, like you said.”
Again, the mysterious “Who can say?”
“Yeah, see, the problem is that this time, I actually believe you don’t know.”
- Be Silver.
- Be Violet.
⌛ - A few days later.
️ - A few weeks later.
(Winners: , ⌛ )
- Be Silver.
- Be Violet.
⌛ - A few days later.
️ - A few weeks later.
(Winners: , ⌛ ) 5 2 6 1@Story Notifications
Scene 56
July 26th, 2028
“So that’s what happened, basically,” Mahogany concluded, leaning back to lie on the grass. “Anyway, crazy that we both hurt our legs again like, three days apart. Oh, and Lapis too.”
“I don’t think mine is really on the same level as yours...” Silver disagreed, gesturing vaguely at her kinda-achey but still perfectly normal-looking leg compared to his... well. It was there, but way thinner than usual. He was hiding it with an extra pair of trousers over his normal hero outfit, though she could still tell how much mass was missing from how the fabric folded around it.
“‘Nother few days and I’ll be all good again! Just gotta keep up with my diet!”
“Right.” This was, ostensibly, why he had brought her out to the park again: more hot dogs to turn into more leg meat. “Wait, you’re not going to distract me. I kinda thought Strawberry was exaggerating, honestly. But, um, she definitely wasn’t.”
“Nope! If anything, she toned it down a bit.”
“So, what did you actually want me to do?” That was the big question. Strawberry had sent her a hard-to-follow and very hyper summary of what had happened, but now that Mahogany had filled in the details, it was pretty obvious that- “There’s no way I can do anything to him either, even if I tried reflecting his, um, bullets. There’s a limit to how much force I can do, you know; his railgun thing would just go right through me.”
“Really? But you could, like, bounce yourself off the ground from hundreds of feet in the air. I bet that’s tons more energy than in a little chunk of rock going at mach 1!”
“I don’t think that’s true...”
“Well, isn’t energy - wait, you said force. Is that a different thing? Do your powers work on force or energy?”
“Oh yeah, he did nail us with a telephone pole from a few blocks away,” Mahogany remembered.
“See?! I mean, how much does a pole like that weigh? Probably hundreds of pounds, which means we’re back to me getting killed if I try to stop it!”
“Well, the bigger stuff is easier to see coming and dodge out of the way...”
“You just said he got you from a few blocks away!”
“Yeah, he is a damn good shot...”
“You’re not selling this at all!”
“Look,” Mahogany said suddenly, sitting up a bit. “I know it’s gonna be dangerous, but I really think you’re about the best hero around for dealin’ with his - I mean, it’s basically just a gun with the little stuff. We can do somethin’ about the bigger stuff - Lapis and Strawb can fly pretty good and get us outta the way. Plus, all three of us lived through the fight and we didn’t even know what he could do at first! I’m not askin’ you to take him on yourself; I’m just askin’ that you help us out a bit.”
“... That’s a little better.”
- Agree to help.
- Don’t decline, exactly, but maybe dodge the question a little or say you need to think about it or something...
- Violet decided to stay a hero of darkness.
- Violet almost changed to a hero of light, but Vanity convinced her to stay.
- Violet changed to a hero of light, and Vanity couldn’t stop her.
(Winners: , )
- Agree to help.
- Don’t decline, exactly, but maybe dodge the question a little or say you need to think about it or something...
- Violet decided to stay a hero of darkness.
- Violet almost changed to a hero of light, but Vanity convinced her to stay.
- Violet changed to a hero of light, and Vanity couldn’t stop her.
(Winners: , ) 1 7 1 3 5@Story Notifications
Scene 57
“So you’re gonna help us? Great, I’ll tell you about-”
“I didn’t exactly say that...”
“So you’re not gonna help?”
“I didn’t really say that either...”
“Well, pick one or the other,” Mahogany said with a little huff. “But between you and me, you should pick the ‘help us’ option.”
“I mean, I’m not saying I won’t help; it’s just... fighting him directly is a bit...” She mumbled something indistinctly. “Just, maybe give me a bit more time to think about what I can actually do without just getting turned into a fine powder?”
“I mean, you got about as long as it takes me to grow this sucker back-” His leg, he indicated. “-plus for the other two to get better too. But even before that, I wanna get plannin’ to make sure it goes better the second time.” A pause. “Don’t you wanna be part of the biggest superhero team-up for probably years? Granite’s on board too, and I’m talkin’ to some other guys I used to know in another group. I bet it’d even be safer with all these friends and allies and stuff than on your own, right?”
“I didn’t say no!” she repeated. “I just - I need some time to think, okay? Plus,” she realized, looking down at the phone she had gotten used to summoning in her battle form, “I’ve gotta go now anyway. I didn’t have that long to talk.”
“Aw, you’re ditching me?”
“No, I really already had something else planned. I mean, you just texted me like an hour ago and I just happened to be going near here anyway?”
“Ditching,” he sighed, though not seriously. “Alright, see ya around. And hopefully see ya reflecting a pebble right into that guy’s smug face.”
“I’ll think about it.”
“...” What was that on his phone? Messages? But he wasn’t typing; who would just be looking at texts for minutes on end without replying to anything? Suspicious people, that’s who.
- Bria keeps an eye on this definitely suspicious guy.
- She stops staring at this probably innocent man.
(Winner: )
- Bria keeps an eye on this definitely suspicious guy.
- She stops staring at this probably innocent man.
(Winner: ) 2 6@Story Notifications
Scene 58
Bria was able to realize how ridiculous she was being before the next stop and looked away from the almost certainly innocent man. Honestly, she couldn’t just decide random people looked a little bit like she assumed Umber probably did (she hadn’t actually met him or seen any photos) and use that as an excuse to stalk them. If he showed up, she’d deal with it then. There wasn’t really much else she could do... aside from maybe joining up with whatever effort Mahogany and co were putting together. But with what Zeal said...
Every so often, Bria wondered why she had decided to accept Zeal’s offer way back then. Or, actually, it had been less than two months but it sure felt longer. Being a hero was very stressful, took up a lot of time, and carried a lot more risks than she had initially thought. There were still the ideals of justice and helping save people from monsters and stuff, but outside of when she was actually fighting monsters, those ideals (and the motivation they provided) felt a little more abstract than she might prefer.
Oop, this was her stop. Squeeze out through the crowd, descend into the hot, sunny streets below. She didn’t have far to go; her destination was, funny enough, another park. This one was just closer to the lake. Probably packed with people given the weather, although at least it wasn’t a weekend.
After a bit of walking, she found exactly who she was looking for at exactly the agreed-upon meeting place. “Hey, Lillian,” she said, lifting a hand in a little wave. “Sorry I’m a bit late; I - um, you good?”
“Are you talking to me? Do we know each other?”
Nothing. “This form doesn’t feel right,” Violet(?) muttered. “I’m going to change back before...” She didn’t finish her sentence, just disappearing back behind the tree and re-emerging as Lillian. “Is he here?”
- Hang out with her and try to help in some other way while you wait for Zeal. He can’t avoid you forever. Probably.
- Agree to call her back whenever he shows up. It could be a while.
- Try to get assistance from a less-unreliable angel. [Who?]
- Try to get assistance from a less-unreliable demon. [Who?]
(Winner: )
- Hang out with her and try to help in some other way while you wait for Zeal. He can’t avoid you forever. Probably.
- Agree to call her back whenever he shows up. It could be a while.
- Try to get assistance from a less-unreliable angel. [Who?]
- Try to get assistance from a less-unreliable demon. [Who?]
(Winner: ) 6 1 4 1@Story Notifications
Scene 59
“It doesn’t seem like it,” Silver admitted cautiously. “But I’m sure he’ll turn up eventually. It’s really rare he leaves me alone for an entire day.”
“How long do you think...? I have to get back home in a few hours.”
“I don’t know; maybe soon? Maybe not?” She sighed. “He’s unpredictable.”
“...”
Silver considered alternatives. “I do know some other heroes,” she mentioned. “I was actually just talking to someone else like half an hour ago; we could see if any other angels would be able to help?”
“... As long as it’s not that pink-haired girl,” Lillian said. “I don’t think she’d be happy after what I did.” Another pause. “Plus, I don’t know if I’d want to tell just some random hero about everything that’s going on; it’s a little much.”
Right, Strawberry. Silver had been thinking of Mahogany, since she had just talked to him, but he was friends with “the pink-haired girl” and he did like to gossip a lot. Could she trust him to keep something like this a secret? Maybe if she asked to just talk to Justice alone, and Mahogany went somewhere else? No, that’d be weird and he’d be too curious afterwards. Plus, Lillian was right; this whole situation would be a bit much to try and dump on someone else who didn’t already know what was going on. Maybe it’d be okay, but everyone was already busy and on edge with all these other problems, like Umber. Adding another weird thing to the pile...
“You might be right,” she agreed. “I can hang out with you until Zeal shows up or you have to go, though. If you’ve got some time, it’s pretty possible he’ll stop by just to complain at me or something.”
“It doesn’t sound like you get along all that well,” Lillian noted.
“But Violet needs - er, Lillian - wait, did you say Lavender-”
“No time for that,” he insisted, pushing gently at her shoulder to get her up and moving. “Hurry along or someone may get hurt. You wouldn’t want that, of course.”
“...”
- Take care of it quickly and come back.
- Refuse until he helps Lillian.
- Bring her with you.
- Have her help you.
(Winner: )
- Take care of it quickly and come back.
- Refuse until he helps Lillian.
- Bring her with you.
- Have her help you.
(Winner: ) 2 1 2 6@Story Notifications
Scene 60
“I’ll come too.”
“What?” Silver spun around to look back at her. “Don’t you have to go soon?”
“In another hour, but not right away. Like I said, if I’m going to be a hero, I should act like one. So, I’ll help you with the monster.” A brief pause; a slight pointing gesture. “Plus, if I don’t, I don’t think he’s going to talk to me.”
“...”
So that’s how it was that Silver ended up jogging down a busy street accompanied by an invisible Zeal floating ahead to show the way, and... “Is your hero name still Violet, by the way?” she asked while they impatiently waited for a crosswalk signal. Even if she wanted to go without the signal, there were too many cars in the way; she’d get run over. “Zeal’s been saying Lavender...?”
She half-grimaced. “It’s a lighter purple; I thought it might make more sense? But, no, I don’t know. There’s that registration process and I don’t know if it’s free or if I even want to change my hero name. Maybe I’d be able to figure it out if someone would talk to me!”
Zeal, predictably, ignored her. He wasn’t even visible to anyone besides Silver anymore. She hoped he’d be more helpful once they dealt with the monster.
“I guess if you’re not sure yet, should I just stick with ‘Violet’ for now? Or-”
“That’s fine.”
“Okay...” The light changed; they hurried across the street. “What’s this monster like, by the way?” Silver called ahead. “Should we be worried?”
“It is large and able to hide itself from ordinary senses,” he said, floating backwards above the sidewalk. “Though that ability should fade once you detect it.”
A twinge of deja vu, but she couldn’t quite place why. “Do you at least have a pretty narrow area where it could be, if it’s invisible or something?”
“Certainly,” he replied. “It is below street level, likely within or near a source of flowing fluid.”
“Like, by a pool? Or more like a water pipe?”
“Something like that.”
“Hup!” Her fist sank into something soft, squishy, and invisible. Rippling waves of light washed over a soft, gumdrop-shaped, grey-striped body larger than a good-sized pickup truck and topped by a comically tiny eyeless head. Hundreds of hands became visible spread across every surface in the room: floors, ceiling, and walls. They were already standing on some. “See?” Silver said proudly. “What did I-”
The creature attacked.
[]
️ - Destroy it. Show no mercy.
- Intent to stop is enough.
️ - Fight aggressively.
️ - Fight defensively.
[]
- Destroy it. Show no mercy.
- Intent to stop is enough.
- Fight aggressively.
- Fight defensively.
(Winners: , ️ , , )
]
️ - Destroy it. Show no mercy.
- Intent to stop is enough.
️ - Fight aggressively.
️ - Fight defensively.
[]
- Destroy it. Show no mercy.
- Intent to stop is enough.
- Fight aggressively.
- Fight defensively.
(Winners: , ️ , , ) 2 6 6 2 6 1 1 7@Story Notifications
Scene 61
Arms reared up from the floor and down from the ceiling to grab at Silver, but as they were all individually somewhat weak, she had little trouble reflecting each one back. Hands and fingers collided; joints tangled with their fellows. She quickly aimed a bolt of unattuned magic, trying to end the fight quickly, but the curtain of grey flesh was too dense; she could hardly even see its body, let alone pierce through with a single attack. One arm snapped from the impact, but dozens more replaced it.
“Try and distract it!” Silver yelled as she was bounced further away from the creature, having to reflect herself off the ground as fingers grabbed at her ankles from below. “I need a clear shot!”
Violet, for her part, had three immediate thoughts. First: this was, in fact, too many arms. Silver hadn’t been exaggerating at all. Second: she couldn’t simply reflect grabbing hands off her in the same way Silver could. She had to get off the floor. And third: the monster’s main body seemed very slow. It probably wouldn’t be able to get out of a nice cloud of mist very easily.
She kicked off the floor before the nearby hands - distracted trying to snare Silver - could change targets, then clambered on top of a stout cabinet. No hands on it, but she was under no illusion that they couldn’t get to her anyway. She’d have to keep moving. “Poison mist,” she started with, casting a faintly shimmering bubble around the center of the bulbous grey mass. Then, because she might as well get them all set up now, she followed up with a quick “sleep mist; shadow mist” as well, wreathing the monster in an overlapping cloud of various problems.
Several arms turned back towards its body, ripping and tugging at the air in a confused, futile attempt to tear the clouds away. Many more angled towards Violet, as the clear source of the problem. Good: she was certainly distracting it. Less good: she needed to move, fast.
The monster pulled her into the poison cloud too and Silver immediately started to choke on the air. Right; she wasn’t immune to that either. This was Not Good.
[Not FPTP. Options will be mixed based on votes.]
️ - Get Violet to dispel the poison so you can breathe.
- Get Violet to help you in some other way. [How?]
- Wriggle an arm free and shoot the damn thing properly from up close.
- Use melee unattuned magic; beat it up.
- Try that air-reflection filter thing again and don’t screw it up this time.
- Get Zeal to help you in some way. [How?]
- Use that bomb you’ve been carrying around. [Wait, what? Where did you get a bomb? Assures victory. Has consequences.]
❓ - [Or suggest something else in #story_discussion.]
(Winners: ️ , , > > )
️ - Get Violet to dispel the poison so you can breathe.
- Get Violet to help you in some other way. [How?]
- Wriggle an arm free and shoot the damn thing properly from up close.
- Use melee unattuned magic; beat it up.
- Try that air-reflection filter thing again and don’t screw it up this time.
- Get Zeal to help you in some way. [How?]
- Use that bomb you’ve been carrying around. [Wait, what? Where did you get a bomb? Assures victory. Has consequences.]
❓ - [Or suggest something else in #story_discussion.]
(Winners: ️ , , > > ) 4 2 4 3 4 1 1 1@Story Notifications
Scene 62
“Violet!” she coughed. “Drop the poison, please!”
No immediate response. Maybe she was too busy to dispel it; maybe she was too hurt. Whatever the case, Silver had to deal with it herself. And quickly. She did have that idea about an air filter sort of thing she had tried on the mist the last time they fought, but it hadn’t worked very well and she hadn’t been able to test any changes since then. Still, there was no better time than now.
Except... Silver shifted in the monster’s many-handed grip. She couldn’t split her focus like that in such a stressful situation; raising up the filter barrier would bring down the one that was currently keeping her un-crushed. But if she didn’t do something about that poison very soon, being crushed wouldn’t be her biggest problem.
She changed focus, pushing the deadly air away from her mouth and nose with an unconscious filter, since she obviously couldn’t interrogate each air molecule herself. Poison: reflect. Air: let through. Somehow her magic would figure out which was which. Air grew denser to her senses, making breathing harder, but there was at least a partial success. Less pain in her airways; less dizziness in her head. Not a perfect system, but an improvement.
Of course, pain from the monster crushing her torso quickly replaced any pain from the poison. Bad; maybe even worse. Silver tried to regain her earlier reflective barrier, but the filter wavered when she even thought about it. Too complicated; she couldn’t envision both at once. But there was a different kind of magic that was much simpler. Drawing on her unattuned intent to stop this horrible creature, Silver wreathed her fist in light and strained against the thing’s grip. By wiggling just right, she could contest each arm one at a time rather than all at once: a contest her enhanced strength could win.
She looked over at him helplessly; he could obviously hear her just as well as Bria could. But she still had to repeat the question before he would deign to answer. “How long?” she relayed impatiently.
“A while. Perhaps a day; perhaps a year.”
“... Can you be a little more precise?”
“Unlikely.”
“He doesn’t know,” she reported. “At least a few more days?”
“That’s not so bad...”
Bria winced internally at her choices of editing. Was it bad to give her this extra optimism that might not be true, or would it be worse to just accurately relay Zeal’s pessimistic and honestly kind of condescending answers?
- Edit his answers a little; be a tad optimistic.
- Relay his answers accurately, pessimism and all.
[If you have any other questions you want to ask Zeal about this topic, suggest in #story_discussion. Who knows if he’ll hang around like this ever again?]
(Winner: )
- Edit his answers a little; be a tad optimistic.
- Relay his answers accurately, pessimism and all.
[If you have any other questions you want to ask Zeal about this topic, suggest in #story_discussion. Who knows if he’ll hang around like this ever again?]
(Winner: ) 5 2@Story Notifications
Scene 63
It... probably wouldn’t be a good idea to tell her exactly what Zeal was saying, Bria decided. Lillian was going through a lot. And, because it seemed to be taking her a while to come up with her next question and Bria was curious too, she asked one herself. Quietly, just in case.
“Could you... also be her angel, as well as mine?” Bria sorta-whispered. Enough to hide her words, but not necessarily that she was speaking at all. “I don’t know how that would work, but...”
“It would not,” he declared decisively. “The partner bond is highly exclusive; attempts to share or shard it have always led to dramatic failures. In the simplest cases, it has caused a total blockage of magic flow between angel and human, resulting in a loss of regenerative ability, but it is certainly not unheard of to cause more extreme issues. Such as lattice degradation - where the solid body loses its cohesion and dissolves into an irrecoverable solution of unattuned ether - or even spontaneous existence failure.” He side-eyed her in a rare display of something adjacent to humor. “I imagine you could determine the symptoms of such a condition from its name alone.”
“You just... poof? Just like that?”
“Just like that.”
“M-maybe it’s a good idea to not try that, after all...” That doesn’t sound like a real thing. Is he joking? He doesn’t joke. IS it a real thing?
Lillian didn’t ask what question had prompted such a response, but she did have another one to follow. “Er, this isn’t something that would really help, but I’m curious anyway... Why do I still have my powers, if I don’t have an angel at the moment...? I was always told that the magic you use for your powers comes from your partner.”
Bria looked over at Zeal for several seconds before remembering how insufferable he was being. Begrudgingly, she repeated the question.
“How was I supposed to-” Bria cut herself off, trying to look sane as someone passed by on the sidewalk. “Fine,” she breathed. “It’s fine. And he’s gone.” Indeed, Zeal had vanished during the two seconds she had taken her eyes off him. Sometimes it felt like he dedicated his time solely to annoying her. Or worse, in this case.
“... What did he say?”
“Um...” God, what should she say? Being optimistic was one thing, but if Zeal was telling the truth (surely he wouldn’t be lying about something like this, right?), withholding too much information could be really, really dangerous. “You, uh, probably shouldn’t use your powers until you get an angel.” A pause. “... At all.”
“Why not?” The obvious follow-up. Despite that, Bria wasn’t ready with an answer.
“...” Be nice, but don’t hide anything really important. “You’ll run out,” she decided. “And if that happens, you might not have anything left if there’s an emergency or something.”
“So... I only get recharged by a celestial, but I still get to keep however much charge I had before?”
“Y-yeah. So don’t use it unless you really, really have to!”
“Even if it’s just going to be a few days?”
“Even then! Just in case!”
“... Okay.”
Phew. That was a relief.
...
- Be Zeal.
- Be Vanity.
- Be “you.” [Which “you,” I wonder...?]
- Be someone else...?
️ - Skip this celestial nonsense; move on to the next important thing that happens on earth.
(Winner: )
- Be Zeal.
- Be Vanity.
- Be “you.” [Which “you,” I wonder...?]
- Be someone else...?
️ - Skip this celestial nonsense; move on to the next important thing that happens on earth.
(Winner: ) 2 4 3 1 1@Story Notifications
Scene 64
“If it’s any consolation, the emotional responses are fully within-”
“Go away.”
A pause. “This is an interesting reversal,” Zeal continued, not going away. “Usually, you are the one overstaying their welcome.”
“I don’t wanna talk to you.” Vanity lifted her head a little, making out a vague outline that could be Zeal in the dim light. She swatted at him ineffectually. “How’d you even get in here?”
“Look at the state of this place,” he said distastefully, ignoring her question. “Embarrassing. Get up.”
“NnooooOOOooOOOOoo...” Vani didn’t really have the strength to resist as he pulled her upright. “Leemee aloonnneee!”
“No. Look here.”
He held a small metal tablet, about the size of a playing card, in her field of view. A familiar symbol was engraved on it, surrounded by dozens more in a linked, complicated pattern. “What’s this one - ghhuhgghhg-”
Light flashed and steam rose. He released her a moment later, now able to stand under her own power. “Feeling better?”
“What the hell, Zeal?!” Vanity shouted, pushing him away. She was in fact feeling better, and she didn’t want to be. “Can’t you at leeeaaaast just let me be sad in peace? Go AWAY!”
“No. We made an agreement that you have not been fulfilling.”
“It’s only been like a few hours anyw - THREE DAYS?!” She scrambled to find her gatescribe in the mess. “Is she even still alive?”
“Certainly. I would never be so careless. As I attempted to state earlier, her emotional responses are fully within the expected boundaries. All is going well; we should be able to induce the proper state at will at least once. Perhaps twice, depending on specific timing.”
“I still hate your plan,” Vani complained, locating the little inscribed object beneath a collapsed pile of notes.
“Then defect. See what happens to you and your precious vessel then.”
She didn’t reply. She knew what would happen.
“Then you will take the card and the mission?”
“Well...”
- “Yeah I will! Gimme that card.”
- “... Fine. But just because I wanna smack her.”
- “No. Find someone else to do your odd jobs, jerk.”
(Winner: )
- “Yeah I will! Gimme that card.”
- “... Fine. But just because I wanna smack her.”
- “No. Find someone else to do your odd jobs, jerk.”
(Winner: ) 1 6 1@Story Notifications
Scene 65
“... Fine,” she decided abruptly. “But just ‘cause I wanna smack her.”
A slight grin. He proffered the card again. “And this?”
Vani darted forward and snatched it. “And stop making these things. I’m siiick of ‘em!”
“Come now, do you really have so little trust in me?”
She just gave him a flat stare and left. Thankfully, it seemed he finally wasn’t following and would actually leave her alone. “What would you do if I actually went and joined them, huh?” she wondered quietly, away from anyone who could hear her. “Who’d you use for your dumb little schemes then?”
A pause. She rummaged for her gatescribe, preparing to head back above.
“Not that I would,” she reluctantly admitted to herself. “It’d be funny, but... yeah, not that funny.” Vanity disappeared into the gate, thoughtful. Meeting with Purity again? As cathartic as it might be to simply follow through on that smacking threat, it probably wouldn’t go well. She’d need some time to prepare.
...
July 31st, 2028
Vanity dropped down low, peeking around the side of a building to look for her target. Bingo; exactly where she thought. Purity - in her earthly form sorta resembling a rabbit - hovered alongside a somewhat small but otherwise very ordinary girl as she walked back from school. Cheerful, relaxed - cool backpack - in the way. Vani needed to talk to just Purity, not her vessel. She could wait, but patience had never been her strong suit.
“Okay, Vi, let’s-” she began, before remembering. She didn’t have a vessel at the moment - at least, not one she could talk to. Damn that Zeal. I hate his plans. Well, she didn’t need a human to cause trouble. And, really, the most direct approach was often the best.
“...” It was technically a secret project. Technically against a variety of regulations, laws, treaties, and the like. But every celestial knew that both major factions in this current conflict were working frantically on them, so no one dared to enforce any of those rules. “Yes.”
“Perfect vessels, Zeal says.”
“Y-yeah. But his won’t ever be perfect, ‘cause he’s too scared of progress.”
“You aren’t?”
Surprisingly, that was the question that finally got Purity to meet her eyes properly. “No. I’m not.” Then she looked away again, returning her gaze vaguely downward. They had been rising this whole time, though, so her vessel wasn’t visible. “I-if you’re really serious, and you want to g-give it another chance...?”
“...” Oh, it was so hard to lie to those eyes. Or was she even lying at this point? Focus. “I wanna.”
A relieved, happy smile. “I’ve been waiting so long to hear you say that,” she exhaled, spinning in place as her form threatened to revert to her upper version. “There’s so much I want to show you; so much you can do to help... i-if you w-want!”
“I already said I wanna!” she replied, getting a little fired up despite her sabotage mission. Preemptive guilt started to gnaw. Was this just due to the card? Had Vani just been overreacting all those years ago? “So let’s go already!”
- Vanity accepts some transformation / corruption (depending on who you ask) for greater information.
- Vanity does not accept any significant transformation / corruption, so misses out on some information.
- Vanity stays true to the beliefs that caused her to ally with Zeal in the first place.
- Vanity considers changing her mind.
(Winners: , )
- Vanity accepts some transformation / corruption (depending on who you ask) for greater information.
- Vanity does not accept any significant transformation / corruption, so misses out on some information.
- Vanity stays true to the beliefs that caused her to ally with Zeal in the first place.
- Vanity considers changing her mind.
(Winners: , ) 2 6 3 6@Story Notifications
Scene 66
July 32nd, 2028
“Malice is out at the moment,” Purity explained as they headed quietly down a long, wide hallway. “So this is the perfect time to bring you here for an introduction. She can be a... a little hard to deal with, sometimes.”
“Ah, like Zeal, huh?”
“No! Not like him; at least she lets me do things the way I think is best.”
“If she’s not mind-controlling you,” Vanity did not say. This was one of the reasons she had gone to Zeal in the first place: Malice, the “leader” of this group, had always been more than a little manipulative. But with her powers multiplied, she was now capable of bending minds to her will - and not just human ones. It was a scary thought, and Malice was absolutely not one who could be trusted with the power. Which made Zeal’s recent delvings into the same field of study even more concerning, because she super didn’t trust him with that kind of thing either.
It was certainly possible that Purity was being controlled to some degree, but it was unlikely to be a huge amount. Everyone knew that the more you controlled someone else’s mind, the more their creativity and problem-solving skills declined. That might be okay for regular grunts, but not for one of your top scientists. Purity certainly still controlled most of her own thoughts; her results proved that. (Although maybe a little less right this instant, with that card still in effect.)
“That might be nice,” Vanity actually did say, deciding to just agree. It would be nice.
“Also, I think Fortune’s gone too, but Despair might be here somewhere. We should, um, probably avoid him too. Just in case.”
“Good idea.” Despair scared her. He scared everybody, just by reputation alone. No other celestial had as much blood on their hands.
“Okay, this is the wellspring,” Purity explained, tapping gently on a plain white door. “I know how to do the blessings, so if you want... w-we can power you up right now.”
...
[Deal with Purity...]
- Pleasantly.
- Sneakily.
- Aggressively.
️ - Very aggressively.
[And then...]
- The wellspring...
- The guy...
- Malice...
️ - Despair...
[And how will you...]
- Embrace the light of change...
- Hold tightly to your convictions...
(Winners: , , )
- Pleasantly.
- Sneakily.
- Aggressively.
️ - Very aggressively.
[And then...]
- The wellspring...
- The guy...
- Malice...
️ - Despair...
[And how will you...]
- Embrace the light of change...
- Hold tightly to your convictions...
(Winners: , , ) 5 3 1 1 1 5 2 2 2 5@Story Notifications
Scene 67
Jorge 090st, 20288
A continuous stream of quiet giggling emanated from somewhere within the walls. Purity found this hilarious, but could only manage a few sporadic chuckles. She counted the stars in the ceiling, but it was difficult as they kept moving around and overlapping.
“You good?” Vani asked from the vague direction of a ventilation shaft far too small to fit any of her standard forms. This room didn’t need ventilation, anyway. “You look goooooddd.......”
An outburst of snickering. The lights bent out of shape; tied themselves in knots. Illumination became stuck. The ventilation shaft figured it might serve better as a door and became one.
“Where... even are youoouoooouu...???” Vani swam through gelatinous space, ducking between aberrant furniture. Something chortled. “Where even is... anything??”
Nothing presented itself, but it was not an acceptable anything. Vanity moved on. The ventilation door decided to try life as a window, complete with a cooling pie on the sill. Fragrant particles wafted through its duct-like corridors, passing into every corner of the facility. Nothing became infused with the scent of lemon-cinnamon. Anything laughed out loud.
“Puuurrrriiiii??......?” Vani called into the pie-galaxy. Something muttered under the wind. More illogical snickering. The ventilation window sprouted another pie. Apple-apple-apple mixed with lemon-cinnamon.
“Who left the lights...?” she mused. The tangle became flavored. Lemon-apple-cinnamon-apple-apple coated every surface in a brilliant glow. Something tasted it and laughed. Nothing responded in kind.
“What was I.........???” Vani couldn’t remember. All of the things chuckled, and snickered, and chortled, and-
Purity shifted her form several times in quick succession, trying to expel enough lingering toxins to be able to move. As usual, she found a human-like form most stable and easiest to maneuver. Most celestials did, since - well, it wasn’t totally clear. Shaking off the remnants of a probably terrible headache, she wandered the facility for a while looking for Vanity.
No luck. Uh oh.
With something approximating panic beginning to rise (not improving her headache or queasiness, by the way), Purity hurried back to the lab. She had been suspicious of Vanity from the start, right? Surely she should have been - but somehow she couldn’t remember doing any of the usual security checks. Had she even told anyone that Vanity was here?
“The door is a window,” she remarked to no one in particular. Maybe the pies. They were cold by now; this had been here a while.
[The guy...]
- Is gone.
️ - Is dead.
- Is just chilling.
[The lab...]
- Is destroyed.
- Is pilfered.
- Is seemingly fine.
[Next...]
- Go find Vanity!
- Check on your vessel!
- Get backup!
(Winners: a tie between and : was chosen due to synergy with other choices, , )
- Is gone.
️ - Is dead.
- Is just chilling.
[The lab...]
- Is destroyed.
- Is pilfered.
- Is seemingly fine.
[Next...]
- Go find Vanity!
- Check on your vessel!
- Get backup!
(Winners: a tie between and : was chosen due to synergy with other choices, , ) 3 2 3 1 3 4 2 6 1@Story Notifications
Scene 68
A portion of anxiety dropped away as the homunculus waved mutely from its enclosure. A quick examination revealed nothing obviously amiss: no fires, no missing equipment or notes, and no damage to the quasi-living template that formed the backbone of this project. She exhaled in relief. Maybe Vani had just had to go? But without leaving a note or something...? Besides, where would she be going? Not back to Zeal, if she had been telling the truth...
In the middle of trying to marshal her thoughts into something approximating a plan, Purity noticed a soft thump of pressure dispersing through the facility. The anxiety returned: Malice was back. Oh, no no no; she couldn’t face her right now. She had to hide this terrible breach of protocol, whether or not Vanity had actually done anything. Surely by now, this would be the last straw. She’d lose her position, and then...
No. Don’t panic. Malice couldn’t read minds - only change them - so as long as there wasn’t any evidence of a problem, she’d never know! That just meant Purity had to triple-check everything that could give it away, starting with the pie-window and anything else in the facility. But past that - she strained, but couldn’t quite remember. Had she told Vanity about her vessel...? Didn’t matter; she’d assume the worst. In just a few minutes, she’d have to go check and make sure everything in the lower world was okay. Just after dealing with the pie. And all these socks. Who had this many socks?
...
“Zeal,” Bria said flatly. “I’m not kidnapping a kid for you.”
“I said nothing of the sort. You are twisting my intentions to suit your narrative.” He was sitting on her shoulder today, which was kind of annoying because she couldn’t see him without craning her neck awkwardly. “To begin with, ‘kid’ is an imprecise term for-”
“What was she doing?” Bria muttered to herself. “And... Violet? Really? She’s just okay with her, after all that drama earlier? ... Or was it supposed to be a threat?” Was this a Zeal plan, did these other heroes really need her help, or maybe... both? And how did she know that the very next train was- The sound of the crossing gates lowering interrupted that thought and she upped her pace to race the train to the platform. -basically right now?
- Go help out with whatever crazy thing is going on.
- You’re not going to help Zeal kidnap anyone, even if he’s dragged all these other heroes into it.
[]
- Meet Silver at Union Station, no problem. Assuming Silver actually goes there.
- She might be a little preoccupied.
(Winners: , )
- Go help out with whatever crazy thing is going on.
- You’re not going to help Zeal kidnap anyone, even if he’s dragged all these other heroes into it.
[]
- Meet Silver at Union Station, no problem. Assuming Silver actually goes there.
- She might be a little preoccupied.
(Winners: , ) 7 1 4 3@Story Notifications
Scene 69
The train stopped; the doors opened. Bria hesitated as other passengers boarded and disembarked. This sounded like a trick, a trap, or generally just a bad idea. Yet, of course, there wasn’t really any way she could say no, was there? There were too many unknowns and too much to learn by going. And if Zeal was actually right, or if Strawberry was telling the truth (surely, right?)...
Bria stepped aboard, fishing out her phone to buy the unexpected ticket. Her friends wouldn’t lie to her. Would they?
...
Strawberry fell from the sky.
But that was okay, because she meant to do that. “We’re far enough!” she yelled to Mahogany over the rushing wind. “Next drop, kay?”
“You got it!” he shouted back, starting to shift his wings away.
Strawberry slowed and redirected her descent with a curved ring of pink energy, angling back into the air just as an entire tree whipped past. Her slide shattered on impact, spraying her and her passenger with fragments of dissolving energy and altogether too many pine needles. It’s fine; that’s what the redirection was for. Just one more clever trick and they’d be away.
Two more trees ripped themselves out of the ground, followed by a dozen more in a rapid-fire attack. Umber was getting serious, or at least she really hoped he was. If this amount of firepower was still him playing around-
“BRACE!”
The trees were huge. Even with her extreme midair maneuverability, carrying Hog increased her weight too much; she couldn’t dodge everything. A smaller side branch whipped past, breaking through her barriers and carving a shallow cut down her side with its remaining energy. Splintered wood and needles sprayed into the air. Strawberry let herself be carried along with the momentum of the hit, beginning to fall back towards the ground.
“Ready?”
“Hit it!”
And hit it they did. The ground, that is.
She really wished Silver would hurry up and get here. At least then she’d know someone. But alas, she was still several stops out. One of the suit-guys looked at her. A slight smile, but not really a friendly one. Perfunctory? One of the other guys glanced over too, nodding in a way that could maybe be interpreted as asking her to come over but could have just been a regular nod. Why were Lapis and Granite taking so long? Forget about knowing anyone; at least she had their names!
- Chat with the suit guys. They’re looking at you, so clearly they care at least a little.
- Stay right here until someone you know (or at least know the name of) shows up.
(Winner: )
- Chat with the suit guys. They’re looking at you, so clearly they care at least a little.
- Stay right here until someone you know (or at least know the name of) shows up.
(Winner: ) 2 6@Story Notifications
Scene 70
...
Bria disembarked and found a nearby restroom to transform. Strawberry and the others still only knew her as Silver, so she had better arrive looking the part. Of course, with Violet also involved, who knew exactly how many people would be here. Zeal hadn’t showed up again since she got on the train - presumably since she had been doing what he wanted - but he faded back into view as she hurried through the concourse looking for the way out.
“Your role will be primarily defensive,” he said without any preamble, hovering along backwards to match her speed and direction. “Prevent the enemy from interfering with those who will perform the extermination.”
“I’m not killing anyone for you either,” she commented softly. “Or helping anyone do it; that’s the same thing.”
“The target is a corrupted spirit, not a human. You should have no compunctions against such a task.”
“We’re attacking a monster? Then what was all that about the - waaaiit, this isn’t a lie like you said you should have done to start with, is it?”
“No. The vessel will be involved, but need not necessarily be harmed. As long as she does not interfere.”
“... I’m just gonna ask the others what’s going on.”
“Feel free. Just recall your role. Defend your allies; stay vigilant. Reflect any harm and do not attempt to perform any attacks, regardless of the situation.”
“Good. You’re the one who always keeps trying to get me to kill things more; I’m happy to not do that for once.”
There were more people than she expected.
“Er-”
“There! Get ready!”
- Buddy up with Violet.
- Stay somewhat separate. You can react faster like that.
❓ - Buddy up with someone else. [Who?]
️ - Do as you’re told. Defend.
️ - Just a little offense wouldn’t hurt, if you see a really great opportunity.
- Something about this plan doesn’t feel right somehow. Try to stop it. [What feels wrong?]
(Winners: , ️ )
- Buddy up with Violet.
- Stay somewhat separate. You can react faster like that.
❓ - Buddy up with someone else. [Who?]
️ - Do as you’re told. Defend.
️ - Just a little offense wouldn’t hurt, if you see a really great opportunity.
- Something about this plan doesn’t feel right somehow. Try to stop it. [What feels wrong?]
(Winners: , ️ ) 5 2 1 6 1 2@Story Notifications
Scene 71
Events moved quickly for a time. Flying heroes landed; people hurried around to get into prearranged positions that Silver had apparently been too late to learn. She and Violet got bumped a bit farther away to crouch uneasily behind a thick set of bushes surrounding a small park. Then, silence for slightly less than a minute. Silver very much wanted to say something - maybe ask Violet what she thought about this whole thing - but didn’t dare break the quiet.
Then, a cheerful but otherwise very normal-looking girl came into view wearing a backpack and carrying a slightly dirty cardboard box. An angel faded into view above the trees, pointed briefly, then disappeared. Silver held her breath anxiously; what was about to happen? What had everyone else agreed on?
Not all that much, apparently. Strawberry, as the closest in age and potentially the least intimidating, just sort of stepped out from behind her tree and stopped the girl. A quiet greeting, followed by a nervous “Who are you?” from the girl. Followed again by a significantly more nervous question as more of the heroes gathered in a loose ring around her.
“I don’t like this,” Silver whispered to Violet, now that other people were talking. “Are you sure they’re not going to hurt her at all?”
“I’m not sure about anything!” she unhelpfully replied. “I barely even know why we’re here or what she has to do with this really bad demon that everyone was talking about!”
“Should I stop them?” she asked, unfairly. Of course Violet wouldn’t have a good answer and she didn’t expect her to. But she needed to ask the question anyway. “But if everyone was telling the truth...”
“... I don’t know...”
- GET HER! She’s making the smoke! [You can specify how polite (or not) your “getting” is, if you’d like.]
- Talk to her. [What do you want to say? Be concise; the situation is “fairly tense.”]
- Steal the box! [Needs half of the unique votes; can be combined with any other option.]
- Steal the backpack! [Same deal.]
[Your general objective is to...]
- Keep trying to find your friends and help them.
️ - Wait for, and defend against, something worse.
- Help exterminate the “worse-than-a-demon.”
(Winners: , , ) 3 5 4 1 5 3 1@Story Notifications
Scene 72
“HEY!” Acting on impulse, Silver leapt forward as the girl stood, fumbling for the box. It had to be important, right? Maybe it was the source of the smoke? Silver lunged for it, snatching the cardboard away with just a quick tug; the girl seemed both to not be very strong and to want to leave as quickly as possible. She let go immediately and dashed into the smoke.
“What was - why did you do that?” Violet asked, approaching quickly. “Is it something magical?”
“I don’t know, but it sure seemed like it and there’s one good way to find out.” Silver put a hand on the lid, then glanced to the side. “Maybe stand back a little, in case it’s a bomb or something?”
“It’s not a bomb!”
“I sure hope not.” Squeezing her eyes nearly shut (as if that would do anything), Silver wasted no further time in opening the lid to reveal the box’s mysterious contents... a four-pack of perfectly ordinary flowers in their plastic protector thingies and a bit of loose dirt.
“... Are those petunias?”
“... I don’t know!” Silver shut the box again after a brief once-over to make sure the flowers weren’t hiding any bombs or the like, then turned back to Violet. “Can you find her again?”
“Maybe, if the cloud cooperates...”
Ugh, that was so dumb. I should’ve been more calm about it, not just stealing her flowers. Why does she even have flowers? Is it totally unrelated? Just buying some stuff for her garden? Or are they actually important for some other-
“This way!” Violet exclaimed, covering her mouth with her cloak. The smoke was getting truly atrocious; anyone without some way of filtering the air would be in serious danger of suffocating by now. Silver really hoped her friends had made it out of the cloud or had other contingencies, because she was doing a terrible job protecting them at the moment. To that end, the still-ongoing explosions seemed almost a positive sign: at least they meant someone was still fighting.
❤️ - Convince her logically. As you just thought, you can’t even try to stop the fighting like this.
- Convince her emotionally. With the smoke around, Purity could get killed too. It hurts everyone involved.
- Convince her physically. If she won’t stop the smoke, knock her out. That’ll do it.
[The battle was not bloodless...]
- Purity was slain.
- Strawberry was slain.
- Mahogany was slain.
- Lapis was slain.
- No one we know well was slain. [You can only delay the inevitable, not prevent it entirely. Choosing this option will dramatically increase the deadliness of a future battle. But everyone important will survive today...]
(Winners: , a five-way tie between all options)
- Convince her emotionally. With the smoke around, Purity could get killed too. It hurts everyone involved.
- Convince her physically. If she won’t stop the smoke, knock her out. That’ll do it.
[The battle was not bloodless...]
- Purity was slain.
- Strawberry was slain.
- Mahogany was slain.
- Lapis was slain.
- No one we know well was slain. [You can only delay the inevitable, not prevent it entirely. Choosing this option will dramatically increase the deadliness of a future battle. But everyone important will survive today...]
(Winners: , a five-way tie between all options) 
3 6 1 2 2 2 2 2@Story Notifications
Scene 73
“The smoke’s just going to be hurting Purity as much as anyone else,” Silver asserted, trying a different tactic. “It’s just causing confusion for everyone and she won’t be able to see attacks coming either. All this fighting can only stop if everyone can communicate and see what’s going on!”
“...” A very nearby explosion caused all three of them to flinch. Dirt and pebbles scattered nearby. “You have to promise you’ll make them stop! Both of you!”
“I will. Promise.” Silver looked over at Violet, though she couldn’t even see her face by now.
“Promise,” she said softly.
“Then... then hurry up and do it!” There was a rustling sound, then a loud whoosh as fresh, clean air blasted out from Snow’s open backpack. The smoke quickly began to thin, revealing the three of them, the fountain, more of the park, and then a very big problem.
Most of the heroes lay scattered across the park, burned and unconscious or worse. Only two were still moving: Strawberry slowly crawled towards someone partially hidden behind a tree, while Granite stood tall among a ring of celestials surrounding a fading, flickering fire.
“STOP IT!” Snow yelled, seeing the same thing and struggling to her feet. “STOP!”
Silver ran as well, noticing Violet hurrying beside but not outpacing her. “DON’T!” she shouted. “No one has to die!”
Less than five seconds, certainly. That’s about how long it took Silver and Violet to pass by the slower Snow and arrive at the ring of celestials. Once they arrived, they would be able to stop it. Do something. Grab Granite and pull him out of place? Convince all the angels to hold off? Physically intervene and reflect whatever killing intent would be used?
It only took Zeal three seconds to look back and speak.
“That is not your decision to make.”
No response.
“... please please please where are they...?”
- Granite arrives to help.
❓ - Someone else arrives to help. [Specify who. They must be nearby and awake enough to function.]
- Someone else arrives, but not to help...
(Winner: )
- Granite arrives to help.
❓ - Someone else arrives to help. [Specify who. They must be nearby and awake enough to function.]
- Someone else arrives, but not to help...
(Winner: ) 6 1 2@Story Notifications
Scene 74
“Move, please.” Silver stepped aside without protest, making room for Granite to briefly inspect the tree. “I can move it, but it will probably break. Can you two protect him?”
Nods. No words. Silver and Mocha moved around behind the shattered tree. She prepared to reflect any stray fragments; he prepared to catch any falling heroes once the pinning tree was removed.
Granite pushed a large column of rock out of the ground, crashing through the main part of the sideways trunk. Splintered wood sprayed in multiple directions; a huge segment of trunk slammed into the broken street. He breathed; moved a little closer. A smaller spire; a little more precision. More broken wood. Step closer. Again. Smaller. More precise. One more time.
The tree became unstuck and with a single loud crash, it finally fell away. Mocha leapt into the debris as Silver kept the fragments at bay. Mahogany could shift again. Could seal that terrible wound. If he had the energy. If he had the focus. If he was awake.
If he was alive.
“...” Granite felt for a pulse; for breathing. “He’s not gone yet,” he breathed with a surge of relief. “But I don’t know how long he’ll stay that way without help. Mocha, help me stop this bleeding; Silver, find those paramedics from before. West side.”
She ran off.
At this point, it was only the emotional enhancement from her battle form keeping her coherent. Silver located a second ambulance crew and led them back to the fallen tree. Mahogany was still unconscious, but Granite and Mocha hadn’t given up yet, so there must still be some hope. She couldn’t do much there besides just get in the way - she had no magical healing abilities and no medical training - so she returned to the fountain in the center of the park to sit down, calm down, and think about what had just happened.
“Finally,” Umber semi-grinned. “Someone who’s not a total pushover. Shame you’re a wimp, though.” He blinked; looked up and past the fountain. “Hey, is that pinky over there? Just lyin’ around? What have you chumps been up to?” He shrugged; rotated his shoulders a few times. “Welp, better kill her too real quick.”
Silver had to do something. She couldn’t just stand here and let this guy do whatever he wanted. There had been too much pain and death already today; it just wasn’t FAIR that he showed up now too! But what could she possibly do against the monster who could fire streetlights like bullets and crush entire buildings without breaking a sweat? How could she possibly keep anyone safe?
️ - Fight him. Violet will help you, as will Onyx and Mocha once they notice.
- Reflect his “railgun.” Have him shoot himself. Have the others evacuate those who can’t, instead of helping you fight.
- Zeal told you that you can’t win against him. Serious, for once. You have no chance; just run.
❄️ - He knows Snow somehow. Have her help you. [How?]
❓ - Come up with a different plan... [Specify in #story_discussion]
[Your priorities of who to keep safe...]
- Yourself.
- Violet.
- Snow.
- Strawberry.
- Onyx and Mocha.
- The other unconscious heroes.
- The nearby civilians and emergency responders.
(Winners: a tie between and ❄️ , > = = > ... )
️ - Fight him. Violet will help you, as will Onyx and Mocha once they notice.
- Reflect his “railgun.” Have him shoot himself. Have the others evacuate those who can’t, instead of helping you fight.
- Zeal told you that you can’t win against him. Serious, for once. You have no chance; just run.
❄️ - He knows Snow somehow. Have her help you. [How?]
❓ - Come up with a different plan... [Specify in #story_discussion]
[Your priorities of who to keep safe...]
- Yourself.
- Violet.
- Snow.
- Strawberry.
- Onyx and Mocha.
- The other unconscious heroes.
- The nearby civilians and emergency responders.
(Winners: a tie between and ❄️ , > = = > ... ) 2 4 1
4 1 4 4 2 5 3 4
3@Story Notifications
Scene 75
“S-Snow,” she exclaimed, finally finding her voice. “You said you didn’t want to hurt anyone - look what he’s about to do! If you know him, stop him!”
Snow shook her head again, only squeezing into a tighter curl if anything. She didn’t say a word.
Umber laughed, just once. “You think she’s gonna help you? After what you just did? Yeah, good luck with that one.” He reached down to pick up a smooth pebble from the ground around the bench, littered with many such stones. “Sit tight; I’ll be outta your hair in a minute or two. At least, unless you want to try your luck fighting back?”
A grin. He wanted her to start something. And - as he lowered his arm to point the rock straight at Strawberry’s barely-conscious form - Silver knew that despite Zeal’s warnings, he would succeed.
She stepped in front of him.
Violet reached out, as if to pull her back, but Silver took another step further away. “Get everyone else out of here,” she said with more calm than she felt was possible. A brief gesture in Strawberry’s direction. “Her first. I’ll deal with him.”
“You can’t - didn’t you hear what happened to-”
“Go!”
Another hesitation, but she went. Umber cackled, turning his attention to Silver. “Damn, what a turnaround,” he complimented. “From frozen stiff to all ready for a fight in, like, a minute?”
“...” She didn’t respond, just shifting to keep an eye on that rock in his hand. Her reflection had to be perfectly timed and perfectly aimed.
“Although...” He peered a little closer. “Think I’ve heard’ve you. Zeal, was it? You’re his vessel? Silver, right?”
“...”
“Boring,” he shrugged. “You were doin’ good for a minute there. Fine, I’ll just take care of you first. Try to at least make it interesting, will you?”
Umber raised his hand and released the rock. In an instant, it accelerated like a bullet from a gun, tearing across the space between them too fast for any human to react.
Silver reflected herself instead. Her trajectory changed in an instant, abruptly reversing with speed that would have broken every bone in her body had the rules of force and acceleration applied to whatever logic fueled her magic. Rushing air tore at her, whipping any loose hair or fabric into a frenzy. The park passed in a blur as shockwaves filled her ears, but she hardly even had a moment to consider what would happen next. All she knew was that she had to reflect again whenever she hit something, or she’d instantly die.
A wall exploded.
Silver fell to the ground, utterly spent and surrounded by scattered rocks and debris. She had reflected all her momentum into the wall of whatever unfortunate building she had collided with, which had resulted in - !! Silver half-scrambled, half-limped towards the street as the roof - now unsupported by the missing wall she had essentially annihilated - collapsed and took the remaining walls with it. A sturdy brick or concrete structure now lay in ruins before her.
Umber. Where the hell was he? Silver trembled with exhaustion and adrenaline, unsure how much energy she had left to fight. It couldn’t be much, surely. Had everyone else escaped by now? Could she run? Dare she return to the park to check? Where had Snow gone in all the chaos?
- You’ve done all you can. Run.
️ - You can’t leave yet. You still need to...
[If you return to the park, what is your goal?]
- Defeat Umber. You’ve had a sudden idea.
- Make sure your friends aren’t still in danger.
❄️ - Find Snow and get her away from him.
❓ - Something else. [Specify in #story_discussion.]
(Winners: ️ , )
- You’ve done all you can. Run.
️ - You can’t leave yet. You still need to...
[If you return to the park, what is your goal?]
- Defeat Umber. You’ve had a sudden idea.
- Make sure your friends aren’t still in danger.
❄️ - Find Snow and get her away from him.
❓ - Something else. [Specify in #story_discussion.]
(Winners: ️ , ) 2 5 2 5 1 1@Story Notifications
Scene 76
“...” Despite the churning fear and multiple warnings that told her this could only end in disaster, she just couldn’t leave her friends behind. If anyone was still being threatened by Umber, she had to help them. That’s what being a hero was about. Should be about, at least. What she could do about it was unclear, but...
Silver pushed herself into a shaky jog and returned to the park. There was an obvious path of cracked concrete and torn-up grass leading straight back to the former location of the fountain, just another indication of how unbelievably fast she had been moving only a minute ago. No one was nearby, whether hero, villain, or civilian, but she still had to check the rest of the park. Or at least the little temporary area where Onyx and Strawberry had been treating the others. And that was on the other side of the wide-open area in the center, destroyed by two battles in a row.
She slowed to a stop. Umber was still here.
He was talking on his phone with one hand, seeming quite annoyed at whoever was on the other end, while holding Snow’s hand with his other as she stood with head bowed and hair covering her face. She seemed unharmed, though covered in dust and water from the broken fountain. Silver briefly considered trying to hide, but there wasn’t anywhere to go and it was too late anyway. Umber noticed her quickly, made some excuse to the person on the phone, and ended the call.
“You’re back,” he observed neutrally. “What, you got a death wish or something?”
“Where’s everyone else?”
He shrugged. “Who cares? I got who I came for. But I could always finish our fight from earlier, since you came all the way back here.”
“... Why are you doing this? What are you going to do with her?”
“Found your voice, huh? Boring questions, though. Maybe I’ll answer if you manage to beat me!” He couldn’t quite hold back a cackle at the end of that sentence. “Yeah right. You can’t.”
“You don’t have to hurt anyone else,” Snow murmured softly. “Not when you’re with me...”
“Yeah, yeah. But it’s an order from the boss. Can’t just leave it unfinished. Even you can’t hide it now.”
She squeezed his hand; pulled him away. Umber didn’t budge. “You don’t have to...”
“I very much fuckin’ do,” he corrected her. “God damn why is everyone being so pushy today? Fighting back’s one thing, but the constant complaining...”
He picked up a rock with his free hand.
“Don’t!”
“Get out of my way.”
- Snow backs down.
- Umber forces her out of the way.
❄️ - Be Snow.
- Be Umber.
(Winners: , ❄️ )
- Snow backs down.
- Umber forces her out of the way.
❄️ - Be Snow.
- Be Umber.
(Winners: , ❄️ ) 2 6 7 1@Story Notifications
Scene 77
“No!”
“You really push your luck sometimes, tiny. Get. The fuck. Out of my way.”
Snow shook her head.
Umber half-sighed, half-growled. Then, he picked her up with one hand and bodily threw her out of the way. Snow tumbled to a stop a dozen feet back, dizzy and covered in dirt.
“No more distractions. Die.”
The rock fulfilled its purpose. Blood painted the ground. Snow had to look away.
“Let’s go,” Umber sighed, turning around to pull Snow back to her feet. “Don’t look so goddamn sad; you didn’t even know this one.”
...
Later that evening, Snow sat against the wall and rotated her bracelet around her wrist, over and over again. Technically, she wasn’t transformed at the moment so she had a different name, but that “normal” name hadn’t felt real in months. So, Snow.
Water flowed through pipes in the wall. Umber was taking a shower down the hall, but Snow was already all clean and nestled in her fluffy, comfortable robe. He always made sure of stuff like that; that she could shower first or choose what slice of cake she wanted or get new clothes more often. At home, he really was nice to her.
She spun the bracelet again. It bumped against that protruding bone opposite her thumb and stopped quickly. Why couldn’t he be like that all the time? Why couldn’t he see that he wasn’t doing the right thing?
Snow took the bracelet off and looked through it around her room. Dark; she hadn’t turned on any lights yet, so the only illumination was from the hall and the window. There were numerous tiny, precise glyphs carved all around the band, but she didn’t know what any of them meant. Purity had said they were just decorative, but she didn’t fully believe...
Somewhere deep inside, Snow understood it didn’t work that way. After all, she never could heal away her brother’s anger or desire to fight and kill, no matter how much she tried. All she could do was clear away Midnight’s mental shackles, but it was never enough to get him to disobey anyway. And if she couldn’t fix him, she certainly couldn’t fix herself.
She put the bracelet back on. Transformed. Tried it anyway: tried to clean up her feelings and wipe away the images she saw when she blinked.
Of course, it didn’t help. There was no “injury,” no matter how much it felt like one.
Someone knocked on her door. “You awake in there?” Umber asked gruffly. She hadn’t even noticed the shower shut off with all her racing thoughts.
↕️ - Yes.
↔️ - No.
- Yes, but you don’t want to talk to him.
- Pretend to be asleep.
(Winner: )
↕️ - Yes.
↔️ - No.
- Yes, but you don’t want to talk to him.
- Pretend to be asleep.
(Winner: ) 
1 2 4 3@Story Notifications
Scene 78
“Go away,” she mumbled. “I don’t wanna talk to you.”
An exasperated sigh. “Least just tell me if you’re going to school tomorrow.”
“...” Snow didn’t have actual school again until September, of course, but she had been helping one of her teachers over the summer. It gave her something to do that wasn’t magic-related, and sometimes pretty flowers to take home.
Today’s hadn’t made it.
“Fine. I’ll tell them you’re sick or something.”
“I’ll go,” she murmured.
“What?”
“I’ll go!” Snow said more loudly, then trailed off again. “Don’t want to sit here by myself all day...”
Umber paused on the other side of the door. “I can stay here tomorr-”
“STOP KILLING PEOPLE!” she screamed, surprising both of them with the sudden outburst.
It should have been a simple, easy request. But for Umber, it wasn’t. “I can’t. You know that.” Another pause, uncharacteristic of him. “I am sorry you had to see this one, though.”
“You can tell Despair you don’t wanna do it anymore. I can protect you from Midnight! We could-”
“We could WHAT?! Spend two days on the run before your magic ran out and I had to kill you myself? Hell, without Despair we wouldn’t even last an hour.”
“We could get help from the other side. Zeal and them aren’t...” She trailed off on her own before Umber even interrupted her.
“Stop living in a fantasy land,” he said in a low voice. “They wouldn’t trust either of us after all this and I sure as hell don’t trust them. And they can’t do anything against Midnight and Malice even if they wanted to. Remember why we’re here in the first place; what got us into this mess.”
She couldn’t forget. “Survival.”
“The wellspring team is gonna win. They’ve got too much power to lose. And we’re gonna survive by being on the winning team. Got it? Nothing has changed about that.”
“...”
“Fine. Stay in your room if you want. If you need anything, you know where I’ll be.”
“Even entering the same subrealm as the wellspring causes unrecoverable corruption. There is no other way but the yhvram.”
“... Z, the yhvram’s... it’s not... what it was.”
“I know that. If you have any other solution, present it immediately.”
- “We could bring Violet up here to fight Malice directly.”
- “You could become that Snow girl’s angel to counter their mind control.”
- “We could unleash the worst of the monsters to distract or break their vessels.”
- “You’ll think this is nuts, but...” [All of the above.]
❓ - [Or suggest a different plan in #story_discussion.]
[If Vanity doesn’t have another solution or you’d rather try your luck with the yhvram...]
- “... At least don’t go alone. I’ll come with you.”
- “...”
(Winner: )
- “We could bring Violet up here to fight Malice directly.”
- “You could become that Snow girl’s angel to counter their mind control.”
- “We could unleash the worst of the monsters to distract or break their vessels.”
- “You’ll think this is nuts, but...” [All of the above.]
❓ - [Or suggest a different plan in #story_discussion.]
[If Vanity doesn’t have another solution or you’d rather try your luck with the yhvram...]
- “... At least don’t go alone. I’ll come with you.”
- “...”
(Winner: ) 2 4 2 1 1 6 1@Story Notifications
Scene 79
A long pause. Long enough for Zeal to tsk quietly and return to his packing. Several plans occurred to Vanity during the gap, but none of them would solve the overall problem: that of raw power. It had taken nearly a dozen of them to defeat even a single one of the wellspring-infused celestials, and the feat had almost completely wiped them out. And there were so many more. Malice and Despair: the two most obvious. But beyond them: Fortune, Hatred, Envy - dozens more, and growing by the day. The wellspring’s influence continued to spread throughout the celestials who were less invested in this conflict. At this point, Vani wouldn’t really be surprised if some of their core group began to defect. It seemed so hopeless.
The yhvram could settle that power difference. It could destroy the wellspring. It could solve everything, if only it could be awakened and convinced to do so. For if the celestials were “angels” and “demons,” then the yhvram was “god.”
“... At least don’t go alone,” she said at last. “I’ll come with you.”
“Attend to your own matters,” Zeal repeated for a third time in as many minutes. “You will only interfere with my task.”
“Wh-whaaat? Come oooon, don’t be like that! I’m competent! I succeeded at my last mission!”
“Which only led to our collective ruin.”
“That wasn’t my fault!”
He shook his head. “It is too complicated and dangerous a mission to entrust to anyone unprepared. No one else will accompany me.”
“...” He didn’t have to put it in such blunt terms, but... he wasn’t wrong. Making a request of the yhvram wasn’t as easy as walking over to its office and asking a question. No, it had been deeply asleep for centuries now, only waking up once - about 90 years ago - to briefly bless the cohort of celestials to which Vanity belonged. Waking it up off-cycle would probably be impossible, and it likely wouldn’t understand any method of communication they had besides - as Zeal mentioned - the ancient glyphs.
“I’m already regretting it,” he sighed. “But you would find some way to follow along anyway, so I might as well keep an eye on you.”
A few minutes passed as Zeal finished his preparations and Vanity grabbed what she could from the shelves nearby. Then, the building shook from a massive - nearby - explosion.
“Wh - what was that?” Vani asked, stabilizing one of the shelves that was about to fall over. Debris rained from the walls and ceiling. “They’re not already-”
“They are. That was likely the exterior perimeter. Scribe the gate, now.”
The gate to this particular realm was trickier than that to the lower world. Vanity wasn’t that good with her scribe and had to keep restarting some of the more complicated glyphs. Zeal, beside her, worked quicker and more fluidly.
A second explosion knocked items off tables and caused cracks to appear in the ceiling. The lights flickered and one of them died entirely, leaving the room in a dim haze. “The inner perimeter,” Zeal noted neutrally, completing his gate. A disk of shifting colors formed in the air. “Give me that.”
In an impressive display of multitasking skill, Zeal took her gatescribe and finished her gate too, while still maintaining his own with his other hand. A loud humming noise culminated in a third explosion; one of the walls sagged towards collapse.
The second disk of colors snapped into place. “Go,” Zeal ordered, passing through his gate. Vanity followed a moment later, taking one last look at the lab. It wasn’t nostalgic, really, but it was one of the last fairly stable realities she would see for a while. Possibly ever, if things went poorly.
She vanished, too. Their gates snapped closed, expelling a brief burst of sparks as the realm’s ordinary reality reasserted itself.
A few minutes later, Malice entered the now-empty lab.
- Send a few expendable minions after them.
- Send a competent henchman after them.
- Send one of the top celestials after them.
(Winner: /)
- Send a few expendable minions after them.
- Send a competent henchman after them.
- Send one of the top celestials after them.
(Winner: /) 3 3 2@Story Notifications
Scene 80
August 4th, 2028
“I already quit. Stop coming back,” Yumi murmured softly, scuffing her shoes on the already-scuffed linoleum. The air carried a scent of disinfectant, which still made her tense up every so often. She hated needles, and thus hospitals. But today was much worse than just a few needles.
“Think it over again,” Compassion said, equally softly despite being inaudible to everyone else in the building. “Remember how much everyone is relying on you.”
“That didn’t change my mind last time and it won’t work this time either,” she replied, not raising her voice. The waiting area was quiet. Lights buzzed. Other patients and visitors shuffled or held muted conversations nearby. Someone coughed. “Look what my help did for them.”
“A setback is no reason to give up! You’re a hero; you’re peerlessly brave and you fight to save others! Things would have been much worse without you there.”
“Tell that to Silver.”
A pause. She wouldn’t have been there at all if Strawberry hadn’t called her.
Yumi continued. “And you’re wrong. I’m not a hero. I’m not brave. I didn’t fight to save anyone.”
“That’s not what you-”
“People can lie, Compy.” Yumi met her angel’s eyes for the first time in their conversation. “Just like you celestials. I’m lazy, I’m a coward, and I became a hero because I wanted to be awesome.” She did finger quotes around the last two words, hardly caring if anyone was watching. “If you want a hero, go find Aquamarine or someone. Don’t come looking for me.”
Compassion tried again. “The fact that you have these doubts makes you human, not a coward,” she said gently. “There’s no one else I’d trust more to be my partner.”
“I’m 16 years old,” Yumi said. “I’m supposed to be worrying about my first day back at school. Tests, crushes, stupid friendship drama. Not - not whether I or everyone I know will die tomorrow.”
“The burdens you take on are-”
She went home.
Took some pills.
Lied to her parents.
Went back to sleep.
And wished that she wouldn’t have to wake up.
...
- Lillian has given up.
- Lillian has not given up.
- Lillian has snapped.
- Be Lillian.
- Be Aquamarine.
- Be M███i██t. [████. You ███’t h███ ███ ████████...]
❓ - Be someone else. [Who?]
(Winners: , )
- Lillian has given up.
- Lillian has not given up.
- Lillian has snapped.
- Be Lillian.
- Be Aquamarine.
- Be M███i██t. [████. You ███’t h███ ███ ████████...]
❓ - Be someone else. [Who?]
(Winners: , ) 2 4 3 5 1 3 1@Story Notifications
Scene 81
Somehow, Lillian hadn’t given up.
Somehow, she kept up enough of an appearance to stave off questions from her parents. She went to lessons. She conversed at dinner. She got up on time.
Somehow, despite everything that had happened, she hadn’t broken. But really, when she thought about it, the reason she kept going was pretty simple: revenge.
Or, to think about it like a hero of light should: justice.
The wellspring didn’t really matter. Celestials could do what they wanted. Even her own angel-less status and Vanity’s silent appearance on the 2nd failed to add much perturbation to everything else. No. All she had left to do was to make Umber pay for his actions. And by extension, whoever directed him.
The only problem was that she had no way to do that. None of the other heroes would be of any help. She didn’t know how to contact most of them. Strawberry refused to help her, claiming Lillian should just give up and quit like she had. Lapis was in a coma or dead; she wasn’t answering her phone, at least. And S-Silver...
“...”
So that’s why she was over here, walking through a park towards the lakeshore on an insultingly beautiful (but at least uncomfortably hot) summer day. She was trying to find someone who could help her: the most powerful hero in the city. Even now, she still didn’t understand why the celestials hadn’t recruited him earlier. Aquamarine.
As a professional and famous hero, he of course had standard means of contact. An email, a form, PR staff. She had tried all that yesterday but had gotten nowhere. So, it was time to be a little more direct. Maybe she didn’t have much magic left. Maybe something terrible would happen when she ran out. But she’d give just about anything to destroy Umber and his nebulous masters at this point, so self-preservation factored in much lower than it would ordinarily. If she wanted to be safe, she’d have taken Strawberry’s advice. But that wasn’t what a hero would do.
Seemingly relieved that she had moved on, Justice finally did the one thing Lillian had never heard a celestial do before: he gave a straight, seemingly truthful answer. “By binding yourself to me via the partner bond, I will be able to transport us both to the upper world. We will infiltrate the complex within which Malice conceals the wellspring. And then, as I cannot enter its subrealm due to its corrupting influence on my kind, I will provide you with as much energy as I can before you enter alone to release the energy in an explosive burst to destroy it and ultimately end this war.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“There is no guarantee of success,” he admitted. “Should we be cornered by any of Malice’s lackeys, it is unlikely we would be able to defeat them. But if you wished to simply remain safely out of the conflict and allow Malice her victory, I doubt you would have been willing to listen for so long.”
“...”
- Agree to Justice’s plan.
- Reject Justice’s plan. [Specify your objections or alternate plan, if you’d like.]
[If he wants you to help him, he has to tell you...]
- ... whether you will survive this plan.
- ... what the deal is with Vanity.
️ - ... what the wellspring actually is.
- ... what the stakes are for non-celestials.
- ... how to bring back those who gave their lives for this.
❓ - ... something else. [Specify in #story_discussion.]
- ... nothing. You’ll save the world regardless.
- Try to get Aquamarine’s help.
️ - Don’t try to recruit Aquamarine.
(Winners: , ️ , )
- Agree to Justice’s plan.
- Reject Justice’s plan. [Specify your objections or alternate plan, if you’d like.]
[If he wants you to help him, he has to tell you...]
- ... whether you will survive this plan.
- ... what the deal is with Vanity.
️ - ... what the wellspring actually is.
- ... what the stakes are for non-celestials.
- ... how to bring back those who gave their lives for this.
❓ - ... something else. [Specify in #story_discussion.]
- ... nothing. You’ll save the world regardless.
- Try to get Aquamarine’s help.
️ - Don’t try to recruit Aquamarine.
(Winners: , ️ , ) 7 1 2 3 6 3 3 1 1 4 3@Story Notifications
Scene 82
“... Okay,” Lillian said at last. “I’ll destroy the wellspring. But only if you tell me what it actually is first. Plus, I still want to talk to Aquamarine.”
“Very well,” he said after a pause. “If that is your choice.”
“So.” Lillian felt a little bit more in control again, now that she had set some terms. “What is it?”
“I do not know.”
“...” She almost didn’t believe the gall. “I guess you’ll have to destroy it on your own, then.”
“Wait. While it is true that no celestial truly understands the wellspring - even those who partake of its power - there is perhaps some information that is known.”
Lillian folded her arms and said nothing.
“It is the core of an incredible power from the distant stars. Its origin, purpose, and true capability remains unknown. We can only say with certainty that it fell to earth slightly over a decade ago.”
“Right before when monsters and celestials started appearing to people?”
“... Yes. The events are connected.”
“Is the wellspring the source of the monsters?”
“... In a way. Dark spirits hostile to humans are native to this planet, but the wellspring’s presence has significantly increased the aggressiveness and visibility of such creatures. Still, even that would be of minimal issue with the hero program. The real problem is that the wellspring offers near-limitless power to celestials who allow themselves to be corrupted by its influence.”
“There are side effects, then?”
“Of a sort. The excessive power wishes to be used, but its very presence harms the global magical climate in a way analogous to the way that introducing an insatiable predator with no natural enemies would harm a local ecosystem. Too much power, but not enough methods to drain it. To maintain balance, some power must be consumed.”
“I... don’t think I get it,” Lillian admitted.
He looked a little closer. A stern expression. “I know you. Violet. That kid from the crash up the highway in early July. I do not allow anyone to take lives, even if it was an accident. If you want to be seen as ‘not an evildoer,’ you have some serious explaining to do.”
- You really didn’t mean to, you’re really sorry, and you really learned your lesson.
- You still feel guilty. You know you still haven’t made amends. You’ll do whatever you need to. Just, maybe after this crisis.
- You don’t think it was that big a deal. They were trying to stop you, after all, and it was their choice to keep driving.
- You’re not Violet. Look, you’re partnered with Justice, not Vanity, and your outfit is all different colors!
[In your opinion, your statement is...]
- Truthful.
- Not.
(Winners: , )
- You really didn’t mean to, you’re really sorry, and you really learned your lesson.
- You still feel guilty. You know you still haven’t made amends. You’ll do whatever you need to. Just, maybe after this crisis.
- You don’t think it was that big a deal. They were trying to stop you, after all, and it was their choice to keep driving.
- You’re not Violet. Look, you’re partnered with Justice, not Vanity, and your outfit is all different colors!
[In your opinion, your statement is...]
- Truthful.
- Not.
(Winners: , ) 1 6 1 2 7 1@Story Notifications
Scene 83
Ah. Somehow, she hadn’t expected him to recognize her. Or maybe it was just that she hadn’t wanted to remember it. “It was my fault; you’re right. I can say I didn’t mean to, but still... I did it anyway. I killed those people.”
“At least you admit it.”
“I still feel guilty,” she continued. “I quit being a villain partially because of it. I still think about what I could have done differently. But... I know I still haven’t done anything to make up for it, really.”
Aquamarine wasn’t saying anything, just standing there with his arms folded and the trident staying upright on its own.
“I’ll make amends somehow. I’ll do whatever I need to do to make things right. Promise. But just, after everything’s settled down a little; once I’m not needed to deal with this current crisis.”
A long pause. Violet fidgeted uncomfortably beneath Aquamarine’s discerning gaze.
“Fine,” he said at last. “I’ll hold you to that. What’s this crisis you’re talking about? What don’t I know?”
“There’s this thing called the wellspring...”
He let her explain. Justice appeared at some point to corroborate some of the information and correct or expand on some points she didn’t quite relay properly. Occasionally, Aquamarine made a brief comment to an invisible presence or asked for a minor clarification, but there wasn’t any disbelief or urgency. He simply listened to understand.
“So, this is all true?” he asked at the end, questioning his invisible angel. A few beats as he considered her answer. “A lie of omission is still a lie. We’ll have to talk about this in more detail.”
[How fond are you of Vanity?]
❤️ - ❤️
-
[When will you depart for the upper world?]
⌛ - Today. Retain as much time as you can.
⏰ - Tomorrow. Give Aquamarine a chance to do something.
️ - Later. [Specify in #story_discussion. Longer than a few days is probably a bad idea.]
(Winners: , ⌛ )
-
[When will you depart for the upper world?]
⌛ - Today. Retain as much time as you can.
⏰ - Tomorrow. Give Aquamarine a chance to do something.
️ - Later. [Specify in #story_discussion. Longer than a few days is probably a bad idea.]
(Winners: , ⌛ ) 3 4 6 2 1@Story Notifications
Scene 84
In the end, they left that same day. Lillian didn’t know how to explain what she was doing to her parents, much all the further questions that would inevitably arise, so she didn’t. Just left a note in her room in case the worst happened. Hopefully she’d be back and could remove it before they bothered to wonder where she was.
The re-bonding process wasn’t difficult, painful, or drawn out. It felt much like her original bond with Vanity, except without the body dissolution. From a certain perspective, breaking that original bond left a sour taste, like she had given up something important. But from another, it meant getting away from a duplicitous and untrustworthy demon. Her feelings towards Vanity were mixed, but not broadly positive. Not at this point; not after so much lying and having been ignored instead of explaining why.
Similarly, the gatescribe rite didn’t take long at all. A minute of carving an archway into thin air led to a shimmering, semi-stable portal. After taking one last look around her room in case this was the last time she’d ever get to see it, Violet stepped through and entered the upper world.
...
“Infuriating, isn’t it?” Zeal asked rhetorically as he knelt to examine the broken, partially-dissolved sealing glyph. Without it, the entire chain bound to it would be unstable and likely detonate once activated. Of course it was infuriating. “Make yourself useful and try to find where they went while I repair the sigil, will you?”
She stuck her tongue out, but wandered over there anyway. This whole place felt like a volcano, with rough, dry, dusty black stone underfoot and an orangeish haze in the air. The yhvram could have chosen somewhere nicer to sleep. A glance over at it - a mass of distorted haze, light, and mirages of unclear shape and size - didn’t tell her anything. Just amplified that tug again. That desire to return to it. It was right there; it would be so easy to just sorta... walk over.
“...”
“HEY!” Zeal shouted over the dry, slow breeze. “GET TO WORK!”
With a start, Vanity realized she had walked maybe a hundred feet towards the yhvram without even thinking about it. The inner portions of their glyph perimeter weren’t far off now, and the ground beyond began to melt and distort into strange, contradictory shapes and materials. She looked away and scrambled back, preparing to start scribing. Dangerous. Very dangerous. And it had only been a day; the sensation would only get worse as time went on.
Faintly embarrassed that Zeal had probably been watching her to make sure she didn’t do exactly what she had been about to do, Vanity got to work.
- Traps to capture.
- Traps to destroy.
- The traps are quickly effective.
- It takes a while longer.
(Winners: , )
- Traps to capture.
- Traps to destroy.
- The traps are quickly effective.
- It takes a while longer.
(Winners: , ) 5 3 6 2@Story Notifications
Scene 85
It didn’t take long at all to catch the saboteur(s). Just as Zeal had predicted, there was a heavy thump in the distance before he and Vanity had made it even a quarter of the way around the perimeter scribing new traps. The two of them quickly changed direction to hurry back and check on the damage.
“It seems it was your sigil that triggered,” Zeal said as they approached, noting the tall arrangement of iridescent spikes and brambles that had burst from the ground. “Perhaps we will be able to perform a minimal interrogation.”
“Hope so,” she huffed, out of breath from the run. “I wanna know what she thinks we’re doin’.”
They arrived at the bramble spire and rounded it to access the half-obscured control sequence. With that, Vanity could lower the thing towards the ground and peel back a few layers to reveal who it was they were dealing with.
“Youngsters,” Vanity declared as two bloodied forms were revealed. “You know who these chumps are, Z?”
He paid more attention to this kind of thing than she did. Zeal peered closer. “Temper,” he decided. “And Punctuality. Members of the newest cohort.”
“More like Punctured-ality,” Vani muttered. No one laughed. She raised her voice instead. “Yo, pincushions! Malice send you? Why d’you wanna blow up our glyph so bad?”
No response. Zeal gave it a try. “Speak or be returned to the ether. My remaining patience is extremely thin.” He touched one of the control glyphs, causing the thorns to constrict somewhat. A grunt of pain; without the ability to change form safely, it was far more difficult to escape the trap than it would be normally.
“Why do you think?” one of them yelled. Vanity wasn’t sure who, since Zeal hadn’t specified which was which. “You’re trying to wake up the damn yhvram!”
“Okay, so she figured it out,” Vanity whispered. “But why’d she send just these two then?”
“Perhaps.”
“Shouldn’t you two be concerned at all?!”
- Return the second celestial to the ether. See if this experiment is repeatable.
- Close the brambles back up. You don’t want to hear this idiot anymore.
❤️ - Eh, what does it matter? You’ll be done by the time anyone else can get in here. Let ‘em go. [Zeal will object. Requires more than a majority.]
- Don’t be concerned.
- Be a little concerned.
(Winners: , )
- Return the second celestial to the ether. See if this experiment is repeatable.
- Close the brambles back up. You don’t want to hear this idiot anymore.
❤️ - Eh, what does it matter? You’ll be done by the time anyone else can get in here. Let ‘em go. [Zeal will object. Requires more than a majority.]
- Don’t be concerned.
- Be a little concerned.
(Winners: , ) 4 3 1
3 4@Story Notifications
Scene 86
“I doubt it.” Zeal nodded to Vanity, as if prompting her to perform some action they had prepared in advance. Which they hadn’t, of course. “Why not see if that experiment is repeatable?”
“Ohhhh~. I getcha. ‘Kay!”
“Wait! WAIT!”
Vanity manipulated the control glyphs. Her brambles launched the second celestial into the yhvram as well. Returned to the ether.
Another delay as the glowing mass rotated. Vanity retracted her brambles, since they were now just in the way. “Does it look like it’s spinning faster to you?”
“Perhaps.”
A few more moments passed. “... Does it look like it’s getting bigger?”
“Perhaps.”
“So, I think that means ‘yes’?”
“Likely. I am, however, more concerned about those silver threads. Have you noticed they are the most ‘solid’ portion of its current form, and are the only portion to stay fixed in place?”
She looked a little closer. Sure enough, at the points where the celestials had entered its mass, glittering silver threads floated in gentle starbursts within the outer layer of light. Unmoving, as everything else swirled around them. “It’s a little weird,” she admitted. “Wait, you’re actually worried about those? That tough guy act was actually an act? Now I’m starting to get worried.”
“The issue is that the yhvram should be operating on such a high level of power that it should be unaffected by anything we could do to it, except perhaps awaken it with an extreme and specific rite such as this. But those threads have no ritualistic significance; they should not be. Even the top wellspring-empowered celestials are not anywhere close to the same category as the yhvram, and these two were far from the top.”
“...” She looked at the threads again. “Doesn’t seem like they’re doing much to it. Look, I think it’s even slowing back down. Maybe it’ll put the ground back in a minute.”
“It is possible there is no issue and this is merely a representation of the dissolved or dissolving solid ether.”
“There are four entrances I am aware of,” Justice said as they approached. “The main foyer, the service wing, the engineering wing, or the back gardens. From what I understand, there are multiple entrances to the wellspring inside, though they all lead to the same source. Unfortunately, I do not know the interior layout or where any guards may or may not be posted - aside from a likely assumption that there will be someone at the front entrance. Do you have any preferences for where to infiltrate?”
️ - The front door.
- The service wing.
- The engineering wing.
- The back gardens.
(Winner: )
️ - The front door.
- The service wing.
- The engineering wing.
- The back gardens.
(Winner: ) 1
1
3
4@Story Notifications
Scene 87
“The back,” she decided after a brief delay.
And so, that’s where they landed. Justice minimized his form again and hid somewhere behind Violet’s neck, stating “It reduces the chance that anyone will detect me by aura alone,” and basically just left her to find a way in on her own. After all, neither of them had been here before.
So she walked through the gardens for a while, heading generally towards the mansion visibly looming over the rows of opaque hedges that broke up the area. Fountains splashed and trickled. A pleasantly cool breeze meandered between grass and trees, spawned from nowhere in particular and heading right back there after its time in the garden. No one was here, and there really wasn’t any sign that anyone had ever been here, aside from the neatly trimmed plants and trails. No seating, furniture, or left-behind items. Just trees, flowers, and corridors of green as far as the eye could see. It wasn’t even a maze, either - although there wasn’t a straight path directly to the house, the way forward was never difficult to find and never presented any obstacle.
Unlike some of the side paths, which occasionally sported unsettling-looking vegetation waving in a breeze that seemed perhaps a little more frenetic than the calm, gentle one guiding the main path. Drooping, willow-like trees with blue, feather-like fronds. Straight wooden growths in a perfect circle, curving together into a banana-shaped tube. An oddly swollen reddish-orange fruit or gourd with a discolored protrusion leaking a sweet-smelling substance.
Danger, the side paths whispered. Violet believed them. She stayed at a distance.
Therefore, she passed through the garden without substantial issue, emerged into the larger, more open patio and lawn area adjacent to the back of the mansion, and almost directly ran into someone in a pale cream tunic.
“Gah!-”
They disappeared into the mansion. Violet considered her options, but not even three seconds passed before the gardener reappeared, carrying a tin of cookies and a round glass of translucent, mint-green liquid. “-”
“Here you are,” they said, sliding refreshments onto the table. “Enjoy! I’ll just be pruning that corner I told you about.”
“...”
Justice didn’t say anything; it was a minor miracle he hadn’t been detected already. The gardener was about thirty feet away, trimming the hedge with their forked mini-glowing-orb stick as they said. Violet looked over at the door they had just used, maybe thirty feet in the other direction. There was shortbread and a mysterious drink in the way of her gaze. Looked kinda good, actually.
What should she do?
- Sneak inside while the gardener is distracted.
️ - Use your powers to hide, then sneak inside.
- Run for it and lose them in the house!
- Attack the gardener, then go inside once they’re dealt with.
- Convince the gardener to help you. [How? Specify in #story_discussion ]
❓ - Or something else. [Specify in #story_discussion ]
- Have a cookie. What? They look good...
- Don’t touch the snacks.
(Winners: ️ , )
- Sneak inside while the gardener is distracted.
️ - Use your powers to hide, then sneak inside.
- Run for it and lose them in the house!
- Attack the gardener, then go inside once they’re dealt with.
- Convince the gardener to help you. [How? Specify in #story_discussion ]
❓ - Or something else. [Specify in #story_discussion ]
- Have a cookie. What? They look good...
- Don’t touch the snacks.
(Winners: ️ , ) 2 5 1 1 1 1 2 5@Story Notifications
Scene 88
Not get distracted by the snacks, for one. They could be poisoned or magical or otherwise some sort of trick. Despite the gardener’s generally pleasant demeanor, she didn’t trust them. Any celestials around here were those corrupted by the wellspring, she knew. The ones who supported Umber. The enemy.
But with the gardener so far away and distracted trimming the hedge (burning the hedge? The stick’s method of interaction with the hedge was unclear.), she had a pretty good opportunity to just sneak into the house without being noticed. There was always a chance they’d look over here, but she had magic to help mitigate that.
“Shadow mist,” she whispered, directing the shroud into position. There was a moment of hesitation, as if her new light-bonded form was confused how to process dark-bonded magic, but it was only a moment. The spell took effect quickly, blocking the gardener’s sight as Violet got up and hurried to the door.
“Goodness, it certainly has gotten dark all of a sudden,” they declared, looking back at the sudden cloud of shadow over the patio. “I do hope my respected guest isn’t attempting to do something silly, like sneak inside the mansion while obscured-”
Violet didn’t hear the rest. She had snuck inside the mansion.
“Hurry,” Justice advised her unnecessarily. “They could follow at any moment.”
“Which way?”
“Unfortunately, I do not have any knowledge of-”
“Fine!” Violet picked a direction at random.
The mansion’s interior wasn’t that of a mansion. The section right next to the garden itself seemed almost normal, with regular-sized rooms containing materials and machinery that might be useful outside, but just one hallway later things had already gotten weird.
“Fish? Why are there so many?”
[]
- Climb...
- Defend...
- Delay...
[️]
- Carry...
- Repair...
- Fight...
[]
- Destroy...
- Eject...
- Contain...
(Winners: , , )
]
- Climb...
- Defend...
- Delay...
[️]
- Carry...
- Repair...
- Fight...
[]
- Destroy...
- Eject...
- Contain...
(Winners: , , ) 6 1 2 4 3 2 1 3 5@Story Notifications
Scene 89
At least, until Justice returned to his human-sized form and rocketed her upwards on wide, majestic wings.
“You brought your partner, too?” the gardener’s voice echoed through distorted, crackling space. “How utterly unexpected.”
The floor vanished into a kaleidoscopic inferno. Smoke and embers erupted like a volcano. Justice flew faster. “You saw the door,” he observed.
“That way, I think-” she replied, pointing at one of the still-receding walls.
“I will delay their pursuit. Destroy the wellspring and their strength should fade.”
Power poured into Violet. Ether; magic like she had never known before. It felt like a static tingle over her skin, electric with energy and motion. She was only a temporary vessel for it; this power desired to be released.
“This is all the energy I can spare,” he said, seeming suddenly much more tired than seconds prior. “Recall the plan. Detonate the provided ether as close to the source as possible. Save our world.”
“... Right.” What else was there to say? He wouldn’t have any further advice, as he didn’t know what she would find any more than she did. All she could do was her best. And hopefully before anything terrible happened to Justice, herself, or anyone else still fighting against these wellspring-empowered celestials in the world below.
“Hello!” The gardener appeared out of a twist in the background colors, swiping forward with the forked stick. Justice turned in a tight spin to avoid it, still corkscrewing towards the door. “Much easier to find you when there aren’t all these walls in the way!”
“Brace,” Justice calmly instructed Violet.
“For what?” she hissed, but the answer to that was immediately obvious as he threw her, full force, out of the spin and directly towards the plain white door. Then, a twist; a flare. He pulled to a stop just before the gardener, blocking their path.
Several streams led towards the same point just ahead, in a small clearing. Violet walked carefully forward, pushing through glass leaves to investigate the small pool gathered on the jungle floor here. Was this the wellspring? The heartbeat had felt further away than this, but it was a pool... wait a minute.
She looked closer. The water was so clear she could see straight to the bottom, except there wasn’t a bottom. Instead, the pool displayed an upside-down image of a glass city, from the perspective of looking up from the middle of a street.
Glass roads, glass buildings, glass signs, mannequin-like glass people. All translucent, so she could see other glass things through them. The sky high above (below?) was a cloudy, rainy grey, and little raindrops pattered down (up?) on the surface of the pool, causing little ripples on this side too. A glass car drove past, sending up a brief fan of more water. The pool splashed a little, disturbed.
A heartbeat.
Violet stumbled, almost falling as she doubled over against the pain in her chest. The sound didn’t come from the pool; it came from deeper into the jungle. This... glass city was just a distraction, probably. But what was it?
- Investigate the pool and the glass city.
- Proceed towards the heartbeat.
- Leave. If this heartbeat continues, your heart will stop and you will die.
- Detonate the energy. Here; now.
(Winner: )
- Investigate the pool and the glass city.
- Proceed towards the heartbeat.
- Leave. If this heartbeat continues, your heart will stop and you will die.
- Detonate the energy. Here; now.
(Winner: ) 1 5 1 1@Story Notifications
Scene 90
Didn’t matter. This wasn’t why she was here. Keep moving; that heartbeat had to be it. Whatever it was.
Violet pushed deeper into the jungle.
...
August 5th, 2028
“It is complete.”
“Looks good over here too,” Vanity replied, trudging back towards Zeal and the little guy. “Consistent as can be.”
“Good. We will start momentarily.”
“‘Kay.” She sat down, winded. “Gonna take a little break...”
“Don’t get comfortable,” he warned. “The preparation will only take a few minutes.”
“Gotcha...” She nearly yawned, then decided she didn’t care what Zeal thought and properly did. Celestials didn’t need to sleep, exactly, but being awake, active, and focused for so long came with downsides. She was, bluntly, exhausted. He was too, though he wouldn’t admit it. And beyond even just ordinary fatigue, the yhvram’s presence had eaten away at their resolve over hours and days, drawing them closer and closer as they finally completed the gigantic glyph pattern that would awaken it.
Probably. Hopefully.
Zeal traced the metzmatan symbol on your cute, weird, kinda blobby forehead with a greasy off-yellow dust. Your skin tingled. It was already dry, cracked, and bleeding in places from the moisture-free air here, so the powder helped a little. You only vaguely understood what he was going to have you do. Stand here. That was about the gist of it.
“What do you think it’s gonna say?” Vanity wondered, staring at the ground but obviously referring to the yhvram. “‘Bout all this?”
“It is unlikely to communicate in any language we understand. Hence the extensive description scribed into the circle.”
“Okay, but what do you think it’s gonna do then?”
You did. A pulse of pressure spread from your feet into the ground, then the scribed lines and curves of the sigil in which you stood. Dust rose. Embers ignited. Glimmering lights snaked down the pathways of the enormous glyph pattern, invoking chains and carving out trembling channels in the air above.
A long pause as the spell came to life. Magic gathered strength and intensity. The repaired sections held, though lines in a few places grew near white-hot with constrained power.
Finally, another instruction was given. “Release,” Zeal said. And you did.
From three equidistant points, beams of light speared towards the pattern’s center. Two of them met at your circle, combining at your feet into a single blast of power as your body dissolved under the strain. You died, your lingering will shaping the spell’s direction straight towards the yhvram - and towards the last beam approaching from the opposite side.
Body, mind. And, finally, soul.
The pattern flared with light and burned to ash, the entirety of its stored power engulfing the yhvram at once. A deific blow, fit only for a deity. And other being would be utterly consumed.
Pulverized volcanic stone filled the air and rained from above. Thick, choking dust blocked any physical view. From within their circles of ash, Zeal and Vanity could only wait and hope that their titanic effort had been enough.
- The pattern works as designed.
- The pattern works, but there is interference.
- Sometimes, even the best effort is not enough.
- Sin. ████ ████████ ██ ███ █ “███.”
(Winner: a tie between and . chosen by author discretion.)
- The pattern works as designed.
- The pattern works, but there is interference.
- Sometimes, even the best effort is not enough.
- Sin. ████ ████████ ██ ███ █ “███.”
(Winner: a tie between and . chosen by author discretion.) 1 3 3 2@Story Notifications
Scene 91
Stones fell to the ground and dust settled. Little by little, the shroud fell away and the spell’s effect became apparent.
“Well,” Zeal said. Then, eloquently, “Shit.”
Rather, the spell’s lack of effect. The lights of the yhvram continued to whirl and spin exactly as they had before the massive detonation, although perhaps with less nearby ground. It was not awake. It seemed to have not even noticed the terrific blast. The only potential difference might have been a slight reduction in the silver threads where the previous two celestials had vanished, but that may have just been due to passing time.
“...” Vanity stepped out of her circle. It held no power anymore; it was merely a charred curve in the ground. She had never before heard Zeal swear (at least, not so crassly by using human terminology), but if any moment were appropriate, it would surely be this one. “It didn’t work.”
“No,” he sighed. “It did not.”
“...”
“...”
“So...” she tried to continue after that crushing failure. None of the last several days had mattered. The yhvram would not help them. “What now?”
“Now,” he replied, dragging himself out of his circle as well. “I suppose we should return to the upper world and determine a new plan. Flee, hide, or face our aggressors. Perhaps there are alternative avenues available. Or, I suppose, we could submit.”
“You wouldn’t give up...”
“No, I suppose not.” A pause as he wandered the ashen remnants of the great circle. Vanity joined him, scuffing up the broken lines and useless chains. “A pity Malice hadn’t come herself. This pattern could have been repurposed to annihilate her and any minions brought along. Even with this failure, glyphic magic again proves itself incomparably powerful.”
“... Maybe ‘what now’ can be ‘take a nap,’” Vani suggested. “After all this...”
“Perhaps.” A pause. “I suppose there is nothing left here. Ready your scribe to leave.”
“Right, right. ‘Fore we get eaten...”
A pause.
The only question left was what she was going to do about it.
- Wade through the pool to reach the tree.
- Stay at a distance.
- Climb some other trees, then jump over to avoid the pool.
- Detonate the stored energy. That’s why you have it.
- Attack it with your normal magic.
- Attack it physically.
- ... Listen. Feel. Join...?
(Winners: , )
- Wade through the pool to reach the tree.
- Stay at a distance.
- Climb some other trees, then jump over to avoid the pool.
- Detonate the stored energy. That’s why you have it.
- Attack it with your normal magic.
- Attack it physically.
- ... Listen. Feel. Join...?
(Winners: , ) 2 6 1 5 2 1 2@Story Notifications
Scene 92
But that wasn’t really a question either. The crackling, electric energy from Justice (was he even still alive, out there facing the gardener?) still lingered within and around her. The plan was to release it at the wellspring, and here she was: at the wellspring. It was time to detonate it, destroy the thing, and end the celestials’ stupid war.
“...”
The pool felt strange. Her blood hurt. Every throb of her heart - whether in tune with that horrible, white-crystal beat or not - brought fresh pain. She needed to finish this, now.
Violet gathered all her energy. Justice’s shared power, augmented with her own. She stood on the shore of the silver lake, raised a hand, and aimed directly at the heart. Held one last breath. Releas-
... The colors here reminded her a lot of a certain someone.
A moment of hesitation as magic danced across her palm. “... Silver...?”
The heart beat. She exhaled in pain, all at once like a punch to the gut. Her aim shifted; her concentration broke. The attack leapt forward: a gargantuan bolt of unattuned magic tore across the moderate distance and impacted... the white tree’s trunk.
Not the heart. A portion of its right side was somewhat charred; perhaps a delicate series of cracks spiderwebbed across an extremity. But it was not destroyed. Not even close.
Violet stood in stunned silence for a moment, hardly even noticing the throbbing ache in her chest. “Oh no...” she breathed. “No no no not at the very end...”
She had simply missed. Violet had never been particularly good at unattuned magic - and her recent lack of practice hadn’t helped either - but it had been the last-second distraction that had cemented her failure. Intent. She couldn’t keep a killing intent when wondering if this tree could possibly have something to do with...
“Curious.”
Violet froze, her thoughts breaking off unnaturally. A powerful, bass voice vibrated inside her head. Telepathy, but wrong somehow. Twisted. Barbed.
“I don’t know what that means,” she began to respond through coughs and splutters, but found she did know. Fragmentary knowledge bloomed in her mind from a distant source that felt cold, like an ice cube dropped into her brain.
She could die with the old order. Make a final, but futile, stand against the heart. It could kill her with a passing thought. She knew that now.
Or.
Submerge herself in the silver pool. Undergo a metamorphosis. Transform, into a battle form of sorts. Serve the wellspring. Ascend, as so many celestials already had. The process, it seemed, was available to humans as well.
To submit would save her life. But it would betray so many others.
- Die with the old order.
- Herald in the new.
️ - Perform one final, desperate attack. It gave you control of your body back. Use that control to destroy it. [Implies , though you may attempt to be duplicitous.]
- Reject the bonds of fate. Forge your own path. [Submit your own plan in #story_discussion. It had better be a damn good one.]
(Winner: ️ )
- Die with the old order.
- Herald in the new.
️ - Perform one final, desperate attack. It gave you control of your body back. Use that control to destroy it. [Implies , though you may attempt to be duplicitous.]
- Reject the bonds of fate. Forge your own path. [Submit your own plan in #story_discussion. It had better be a damn good one.]
(Winner: ️ ) 1 1 4 3@Story Notifications
Scene 93
She couldn’t do it. She had never been a good villain. To betray everyone who had fought alongside her and sacrificed so much to get here... she couldn’t do it. People had died to give her this chance, and she had already failed to use it. To simply turn around and join the wellspring would be a step too far.
But what could she possibly do otherwise?
Suddenly, every recent failure seemed to pile upon her all at once. Her first meetings with Silver. Stealing the truck. Becoming that darkness-wreathed monster. Leaving Vanity; trying to be a hero. Failing at that too. Going to the park. Leaving Silver behind. Learning what had happened to her...
And now, being categorically unable to make up for any of it.
Something cracked.
It was obvious. She couldn’t - wouldn’t - join the wellspring. But, right now, she was still alive. One more chance to make everything right.
A step towards the silver pool, then a second. As if she were intending to immerse herself in it and submit to the heart. Magic thundered through her veins, drowning out the beats that still throbbed with piercing pain. Don’t miss don’t miss don’t miss don’t
Die.
Violet fell into the silver pool. The burst of unattuned magic had struck true, but hadn’t destroyed the heart. A faint coating of dull residue slowly steamed away. What had she been thinking, honestly? After all that, to arrogantly believe she held the power to cut down such a presence? Of course, she had never had a chance. Never been good enough.
Something broke.
Her heart had stopped. Her breathing ceased. Electrochemical impulses stilled.
The blast was felt around the world, both upper and lower. Above, the damage was singularly extreme. The mansion and all its occupants entirely vanished, as did vast swathes of solidified dreams. But in the end, the greatest loss was that of the gatepillars. Of those seven ancient instruments - crafted by the yhvram in ages long past - that attuned subrealms and powered gatescribes, only two survived. Enormous portions of the upper world fell into the lower, or into the blackness between realms where the destruction was strongest or there was no earthly counterpart. The remaining pillars were so badly damaged that scribes and gates both failed quickly after, stranding celestials above and below.
Repair would be impossible without the yhvram, and it did not even stir in the wake of this latest disturbance. Without gatescribes to enter its realm, there was not even the remote chance of a second glyphic attempt to awaken it. Only in the far distant future, if and when it deigned to awaken again, could any mending be done.
Below, of course, few were aware of these complexities. No, the first things most people of Earth noticed were merely the initial booming report and the worldwide earthquake. Beyond that, events slowed down. It would take hours, then days, then finally months for the full repercussions to become clear.
[This is the last scene in the story. These choices will affect the epilogue.]
[Within hours...]
- The celestials had left.
️ - Ruins were discovered having fallen from the sky.
[Within days...]
- Heroes began to wither and die.
️ - Strange mutations began to appear.
[Within months...]
- The monsters had gone.
- New stars had appeared.
(Winners: ️ , ️ , )
- The celestials had left.
️ - Ruins were discovered having fallen from the sky.
[Within days...]
- Heroes began to wither and die.
️ - Strange mutations began to appear.
[Within months...]
- The monsters had gone.
- New stars had appeared.
(Winners: ️ , ️ , ) 2 6 2 5 6 2@Story Notifications
Epilogue
August 5th, 2028
Snow woke up feeling weird.
The sensation didn’t go away as she went through her morning routine, but it did change a little. It had been sort of a vibration when she first awakened, as if someone had been jackhammering just outside the building, but as time went on it condensed and localized. By the time she realized that Umber wasn’t awake yet and turned on the TV to eat breakfast, it was more of a strange oscillating change of temperature. Her blood ran hot, then cold, then hot again. Uncomfortable and probably worrying, but she very quickly had other matters to distract her.
The news was talking about an explosion; an earthquake. Early in the morning here, but apparently causing tremors across the globe. Now, investigators and recovery crews were discovering broken structures seemingly having fallen from the sky. Hundreds of angels and demons had vanished, and those who remained would say nothing of the event. People were calling the structures the ruins of Heaven, whatever that meant.
Having at least a vague understanding of gatescribes and the realms from her should-have-been-erased conversations with Purity, Snow could quickly guess that something terrible had happened, though she was at a loss to explain what exactly. When Umber came out of his room, saw the news, and casually suggested they go check one out, she initially declined. When he told her Despair was also missing, she really declined. But when he walked out the door anyway, she only stood there fuming to herself for a few moments before hurrying out after him. She had to make sure he didn’t do anything bad. Plus... she was curious too.