Office Prankster

So, this is slightly different from usual. This caption again uses a generated image, but I actually produced this image while trying to come up with images for something else. I decided on a different one for that, but once I had, I thought it'd be a shame not to use this one for something, and tried to come up with a caption for it (which was, obviously enough, a successful attempt).

Battle Vixens! - 137

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Episode 137: Morning After Rain

Amory gently knocked on the bedroom door. He wasn't entirely sure, but it seemed fairly likely that Blake planned to skip classes today. Really, after the stresses of the day before, who could blame him? And the lack of an alarm going off for the past hour or so all but confirmed it, since Blake wasn't the type to accidentally forget to turn one on. Still, he wanted to be as certain as possible, so he knocked again, slightly louder. "Blake?"
A grumbling sound, in a girl's voice, carried through the door this time.
"You okay?"
She actually growled this time—like an actual, upset canine.

"Uh..just wanted to let you know, they cancelled classes for today and tomorrow. This came down from the governor, actually. I think they're hoping, you know, that tomorrow will be the last attack. With the stuff the Giver's been saying and all..."

Blake finally mumbled something else, and the light of a brief flash of light carried through the cracks between the door and its frame. Then he said: "I'm up."

"Oh..good! I'll, make you some breakfast?" Amory offered.
"...Yeah, I'd appreciate that."

He sat across from Blake in the kitchen a while later, watching him eat. The TV was halfway in Amory's view past him, its volume turned low. Blake looked...not tired, but not happy, either. "So uh...you sleep well?" Amory asked, hoping to probe the reason why. He—or maybe she—had gone to bed in pretty good spirits, he thought.

"Yeah. I had a..visit last night."
"Oh." Since Amory had been busy helping introduce Emma to Braille and the rest of No Evil (except for a member Lift said 'can't come here yet', which probably meant someone gifted a mask), there was only one other plausible visitor. "So...what'd she say?"
"She—" A flash of terrifying rage ran across Blake's face for just a split second. He exhaled, deliberately calming himself down. "I got angry. Really angry. Most of it was just, me screaming at her."

"Oh. Well, I can't say she didn't deserve it...right?"
"That doesn't—" Blake stopped short, shook his head. "I just. She was talking about how yesterday went and it was like, how someone talks about a big plot in their favorite show. Reducing all of our, hard work and effort, all of the stress and pain and...even the good parts, when we rescued each other...the realization I had...to just, a 'performance', for her. I couldn't take it anymore."

"You know that's just how she sees things," Amory said gently. "As wrong as it is, it's what I'd expect. So maybe she needs someone to blow up at her and show her it's wrong."

"That's not really...

"I wasn't trying to teach her anything. I can't, even remember exactly what all I said. I just went for whatever I thought would make her feel worse, hurt her the most. Because...because I knew I couldn't strangle her."

Amory suddenly sat up straight. "Blake..."

"When I was done, I kicked her out of my room, told her never to come back. I think she'll respect that. After that, I wanted to think that, I've never felt that angry before, like I absolutely hated another person and wanted them to just, die. But then I realized I have, at least twice. I wanted to put a sword through Tobias's throat. And, if I could've kicked Espadas's teeth in, I might've tried..."

"So you hate people who are unrepentant jerks, especially murderers. I mean—the expression you get when you're thinking like that is kinda scary, but is there really anything wrong with it?"

Blake didn't respond for a moment, instead deciding to eat a few bites of food before continuing.

"When she was gone, I was able to calm down and start thinking about what had just happened. And the first thing, when I was trying to process it all, I remembered her looking—just sad and hurt, all out of ideas for how to defend herself in my eyes, in her own—and felt...happy. And felt proud. And..." He sucked in a sharp breath. "That feeling, I know that was wrong. I should never be happy, that someone is hurt. That I've hurt someone. No matter who."

"Blake, come on. You can't hold your own emotions to a high moral standard. You feel what you feel, whether you want to or not."

He shook his head. "I just, can't let myself start thinking, that it's okay. Anyone can change. I was never mad at Ning, or Rowan, or Emma for attacking me with...basically intent to kill. But someone who's knowingly hurt innocent people, who isn't sorry, who doesn't want to change, just makes me feel...disgusted, and frustrated, and angry. But if I take it out on them—if I start thinking about people like that as no more than monsters, and so it's okay to hurt them any way I can, or kill them—then how am I any better?

"...I never used to feel that way, before."

"Well, you haven't exactly been around murderers before, either?" Amory said. "I mean, we're in pretty extreme circumstances overall compared to any of our lives before all this stuff started."

Blake shook his head. "Maybe. It's just—when that monster ate Emma, and I..." he waved one hand vaguely for a second. "I felt like something, broke. I never knew what it was exactly, but, I thought it healed. That's the first time, I remember feeling that kind of anger. Real hatred. I took it out on that monster, but it was more directed at the person—the people responsible for that happening in the first place."

"Eh, maybe," Amory shrugged gently. "It could be some weird magic stuff, sure, but I think Occam's razor says it's just, how you really feel about things. That anger caused it, and 'it' was just your 'limiters' breaking, and clearly they did come back, 'cause you haven't gone into that kind of 'rage state' since then. Look, it's okay to think and feel and want awful things. It's what you decide to actually do that matters, right?"
"...Right." Blake nodded, looking like he genuinely felt slightly better.

Amory noticed something behind him. "..Hey, can I turn up the TV for a sec?"
"Sure?" Blake turned around in his chair, curious what had suddenly caught his roommate's interest.

"...is announcing the opening of an 'outdoor training area'."
"That's right, Harris. Now that the underground utilities are back in working order—thanks in no small part to the VI's own Petra—they're planning to leave some of the land damaged by the attack of the giant worm last Saturday untouched, to function as 'rough, damaged terrain' for sparring and training. This is part of a larger effort to make a proper satellite base in the surrounding land for Light's team, and possibly other neighboring groups of vixens, to make use of."
"We reached out to Rowan for comment, but evidently he was unaware of this plan before today. To quote, 'this came from higher up.' Further investigation has found that owners of buildings and local businesses in the area slated to become this 'satellite base' were anonymously but generously bought out after the fight with the worm had all but destroyed their livelihoods. Including none other than Ms. Ning Nelson."

"Uh, that's 'Mrs. Nelson', Harris. She was married."
"Right, sorry..."

Amory turned the volume back down while they were cutting to an interview with Ning at her store. "I guess not everyone thinks this'll be over all that soon."

"It's not like we were promised this would ever really end," Blake said, a certain weariness in his tone of voice.

"Still, though, a local sparring ground doesn't sound too bad? The city vixens get a lot of use of the main VI's courtyards. They've got all these practiced, coordinated attacks, and generally know how each other fight really well to help work alongside each other. Maybe you could show Magus some moves in case she's stuck in a melee later on? Or even teach Rory some more advanced uses for a sword than just poking and chopping."
Blake nodded slowly. "Yeah, that'd be good...oh, wait." He sat up slightly. "This was Magus's idea in the first place, remember?"

"Oh yeah...well, I hope it works out better than the armor did. And, I guess Rowan was totally lying to the news?"

"Maybe just by omission, going by that quote. Someone 'higher up' had to be involved in buying up property, and apparently taking over part of what used to be a public road. Anyway, he already has enough to deal with..."

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"Dude! That was totally my idea! And they actually did it!"

Marcus was back in human form, eating breakfast on the couch in front of the TV. Actually, Thad had resumed human form too for a morning run, but was already back to being a catgirl now. "Guess you're...happy?" she said from a separate chair.

"I got a pretty vague reply to my texts. Didn't know if they were taking it seriously at all."

"So..did you call them or anything yet?" He'd been in the shower when Thad got back from the run.

"Huh?"
"About..?" she gestured at her current appearance.
"Oh, right! Um..I was gonna do that first thing after breakfast!"

"'Kay."

---

"Whoa, whoa, slow down please. I can—Mr. Rowe, I can tell you've—if could just—ah."

Dr. Brand gave him a questioning look, and Ezekiel waved to give him a moment. Someone had put a hand over Marcus's mouth, and a female voice presumably belonging to that same someone was—well, it was too muffled to be absolutely certain, but she was probably telling him to calm down. He winced slightly when he heard her using the word 'spaz' for this, loudly enough to make out over the phone. But at least it worked.

"Sorry, sorry. It's just—uh. Someone I know. The Giver gave a mask to? And it..and sh—that person got a power, to like enchant things. Like, make not magic things, into magic things?"
Ezekiel's expression didn't change, but his free hand adjusted his glasses slightly. Dr. Brand would know this to be a nervous tic of his, and so would infer the news was meaningful. "What kind of magic things?"
"Well, uh, she made a butter knife so it could work for me as a wand, like my sword. It even works for me in human form! And, made it so it could glow if you tap your thumb on the handle!"

"I see..." None of that sounded immediately impressive, but Ezekiel wasn't about to underestimate the potential. "Is there, any way you could persuade this person to visit us for some more, controlled testing? I believe Hephaestus may be able to discern more of what's going on, based on your description."

"Uh—yeah, totally! When are—when's a good time for us to come in?" Marcus sounded like he was suddenly inviting himself along, but Ezekiel guessed he'd pictured 'both of them' as who would be coming in the first place. Having Magus's input too wouldn't hurt anyway, he decided.
"Hold on." Dr. Bridges put a hand over the mic.

"Any room in our schedule?"
"Never," his colleague said. "We'll have to shove something aside. Not the meeting with the consultant this afternoon."
"No, certainly not. Later this morning? After the time delay of a drive from there to here..."
Dr. Brand nodded. "We can get half an hour, maybe."

"It'll have to do." He pulled the phone back to his face. "As soon as you can come, this morning ideally. Will that work?"

"Uh—yeah defintely! Right?" (he probably asked the other person after answering for her). Then: "Yeah!"

---

"Emma, darling!" As usual, April 'introduced' herself the instant the door opened by pulling her younger sister into a close squeeze of a hug for a few seconds, before gently spinning her forward out of it. Emma had been expecting and hoping for this, so she returned the hug just as vigorously for its brief duration. "..Goodness, it's a little strange not being able to pick you up," she remarked afterward. She was still the taller one, probably even when not in heels, but the height difference was markedly smaller now.
"Um, I-I guess my 'vixen' form is still..." Emma paused mid-speech, noticing something now that she was standing across from April instead of up against her.

April was always extremely fashionably dressed, and today was no exception: A gorgeous, bright-blue-colored dress with a skirt that stopped slightly past the knees, showing off some darker-blue leggings the rest of the way down to some sparkling high-heeled shoes. However, one part of her ensemble was...unexpected, and that was what Emma was looking up at. She had one of those..cat-ear?...headbands on. The band was well-hidden in her dark hair, and the 'fur' color matched the rest of the outfit well, but...

"Oh, dear." Seeing what she was looking at right away, April took them off. "This isn't, offensive, is it?"

"Um, no—just, uh. Unexpected?"
"Well," she idly tapped the headband against her free hand a couple of times, "accessories resembling fox ears and tails are extremely in right now. As I understand it, these sorts of things have been in development for quite a while thanks to the furries, and can get quite sophisticated if price is no object..some even being motorized to give the appearance of life. But they really picked up in general popularity over the past couple of weeks, starting with people wanting to show a certain solidarity with those fighting to save everyone's lives. I haven't sprung for anything more expensive than this piece just yet, but I hardly even thought about whether I should wear one at all today."

"Uh—that's okay. I just, don't really keep up with that stuff, so—it was a surprise, is all."

"Mmh." April gently set the band back on her head.

"But, speaking of accessories, did you...forget your glasses?"

"Um, no I—" Emma's voice caught in her throat. "I mean um.." She'd basically shut down the part of her brain dedicated to keeping secrets from people since yesterday's entire mess, completely forgetting that there were other secrets to keep. "It—uh..."

The real problem here was that her ready-made excuse of 'wearing contacts' would not work with a member of her family, who would know full well whether or not she'd been to an eye doctor to get a prescription. Realizing that had made her stop short of even making that claim. And April knew her well enough to make any excuse following this much stammering come off as a paper-thin lie. So she didn't really have a choice! But on the other hand...having someone else to talk to about this would be nice.

"Could you um..come inside, for a few minutes?" she asked, moving out of the way of the door.
April nodded, visibly sensing her sister's seriousness. "All right."

On their way in, Emma had to think about the best way to introduce the situation. She paused before going over to the now-empty bedroom's door, opening and gesturing to look inside. "So um..."

"Beryl's room is all cleared out, I see. Did she..leave?"
"S-sort of...it's...complicated. It—the..."

Emma took a deep breath and let it out. "All along the, the person we knew as 'Beryl' was actually..'the Giver', the person who, gave everyone their powers. A...human disguise of hers, I think one of many. She gave out some, uh, hints..and eventually I figured it out. There's um..there's a way to be sure, if a person is her or isn't. And once I'd tested that, and told her that I knew, and she admitted to it...she left.

"The whole thing was like, some kind of game for her? And by figuring out who she was, I 'won', and earned a 'reward'. So what she offered me was, the..temporary ability to just, decide how I wanted to look, and look that way."

"Hence the 'growth spurt'?" April prompted her after a brief pause, clearly wanting her to finish her story before commenting or questioning.

"Mm-hm. A-and that also turned out to include, um..." Emma gestured at her eyes. "So..long story short, I'm, not actually nearsighted anymore. But I, i-it's kinda hard to tell most people how that happened. I-I've mostly just been making the excuse that I'm wearing contacts..."

"Well. That's easy enough to fix, at least. We can just buy you some stylish false glasses to wear back home," April said with a slight nod. "I do think you ought to tell the rest of our family about this at some point, but I see no reason to rush it. But..Beryl was really that awful woman all along? It's a little difficult to believe."

"It's...yeah. I'm not, I still don't really know how to feel about it either," Emma said, going and slumping into a chair. "I was, so angry, when I realized, at first. Everything nice she did for me, or said to me..I don't know how much of it was just her playing a game. Pretending. After...after I confronted her, and she admitted to it...then she said she really thought of me as a friend. She said she was, sorry for hurting me, but seemed...surprised about that. Like it was wrong, for her to be sorry."

April went and took a seat on the couch close enough to lean over and place a hand on her sister's shoulder. Still hunched over, Emma slowly turned her head upward until their eyes met. "Back when we were first moving you in, I had a similar impression of Beryl, you know—just a kind, ordinary young woman with big plans on how to make the world a better place. She did ask me about you at the time, and maybe I'd have spoken to her differently if I'd known she was some kind of...extradimensional alien? But I told her: 'You'd better watch our Emma. She's tougher than she looks, and smarter than she thinks.' It seems she didn't quite take that warning to heart."

"H..heheh.."

Both of them sat up straight again. April said, "You know. It could be that she enjoyed her game, liked pretending..not so much because deceiving you was so much fun, but rather because the idea of having a friend, and being actually kind to someone, really did appeal to her.

"Now, is that settled enough for the moment?"
"I-I guess."
"Then we'll buy you those glasses later. But first—I believe you promised me a meeting with your new boyfriend~?" April said with a gentle, teasing grin.

Emma's face flushed red immediately. "Uh—r-right!"

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You should imagine April saying "the furries" as if she were talking about the citizens of an unfamiliar foreign country. At least, I find it funny to imagine it that way.