Battle Vixens! - 139

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Episode 139: Needle and Thread

"Why aren't you driving? You're the one who likes driving."

"Yeah, but I had my fun last night. Anywho, it might turn a few heads to see a catgirl in the driver's seat."

"You can't just, like, turn back?"

"..Nah. I ain't comfortable giving away my identity just yet. Speakin' of which—Thalia. Let's try that with the VI guys for now, huh?"

"Well uh..sure, fine, I guess. But—you really think a catgirl in the passenger seat is any less weird?"

'Thalia' shrugged. "You got tinted windows."

One drive later, they pulled up and walked inside. Thad was right about turning heads: Even with a raincoat hood pulled up over her head to hide the ears, some of the 'research department' people paused at the sight of someone who clearly had a slim, feline tail coming from her back, never mind the fact her folded-down ears made a pair of obvious lumps in the hood's material. Maybe she wasn't wearing it to hide her looks at all in the first place; the light drizzle they walked through to get to the door would've been enough to dampen her fur. Marcus at least knew how inconvenient that could be.

Dr. Bridges greeted them once they arrived at the appropriate office. "Hello again, Marcus. And—this is the person you wanted to introduce?"
"Yeah," he nodded while she pulled the hood off. "This is uh.." What was that name again? His brain just kept saying 'Thad' still.

"Thalia. Nice to meet ya, doc." She offered him a hand, and he shook it graciously.

"Likewise. Now—I don't want to be rude, but we don't have a lot of time here, so let's get to it. You brought the mask the Giver gave you?"
"Yeah, here." She pulled it out and waved it in front of him. "But—hope you'll get it if I don't want to hand it over. Only way I know how to change back."

"Sure, sure—hm." He leaned forward to examine it for a moment, then quietly nodded.

"It's—well, I should say it was, one of ours. We were under the impression it wasn't functional, but either it was after all, or she 'fixed' it. Regardless, it would be of no use to us now, and I'd have no intention of demanding it back anyway. Now—" He made a 'follow me' gesture, and led the way into an adjacent room, where a familiar, short vixen was waiting with her arms crossed and her face fixed in a bit of an impatient glare.

"This is Hephaestus; her unique powerset has her working with us for the moment. You brought the knives you said you enchanted before?" Dr. Bridges had misunderstood what Marcus said over the phone and asked them to bring 'both knives', so Thad had simply grabbed another of their (then-normal) butter knives and enchanted it to be like Magus's sword in barely any time at all.

"Yeah! Here," Marcus said, hurrying to get them out of his pocket and offer them to him. The fox-girl snatched them from him instead, and Thalia gave her a bit of a look.

"You'll get them back," she said curtly, holding one of them up in front of her face. Her eyes glowed a little bit brighter for a moment. "...Complicated. How did you make this?"

"I dunno, I just—tried to make it like Magus's sword, I guess?" Marcus hadn't really known which knife was which, but the catgirl and the foxgirl could both apparently tell at a glance.
Not really seeming to listen to the catgirl's response, Heph moved on to staring at the other one in the same way. "This one...barely has anything to it." She 'clicked' it on, its glow just barely visible under the room's overhead lights. "And yet it's functional." Turning it 'off' again, she thrust both back Marcus's way. So he took them back and pocketed them again.

"Not like my dude would lie about that," Thalia said.

Heph and Dr. Bridges briefly looked at each other, seeming to nonverbally communicate something. Then she undid the mask hanging off the side of her face, and held it out in front of the catgirl. "..This mask. Do you see anything in it?"
"'See'? I mean, it's cute and all, I guess..?"
"Like Magus' sword?" she said impatiently.
"Huh? Uh, no—it just feels, normal I guess? Like...there's nothing even tangled there."

"'Tangled'," she repeated flatly.
"People's powers are often quite individualized," Dr. Bridges said gently, turning and hurrying toward a nearby desk, rifling through a pile of objects. "So you two might perceive magic very differently, which may give you each a unique kind of insight into it. Here—is this what you'd call 'tangled'?" he asked, coming over and offering the catgirl a different-looking mask. This one she regarded with obvious interest, narrowing her eyes a bit and reaching out to take it and look more closely—which he gladly let her do.

"Uuh..dude, I dunno what to say. It's like..kinda..wound up. You know, how a spring is?"

Heph said: "Meaning?"

"Meaning—if I just, pull one thing, it'll snap back to..'normal', I guess? About right..here," she said, pointing at a spot close to the fox mask's forehead.

Dr. Bridges exchanged another brief, meaningful glance with the fox-girl. "Do you suppose you'd be able to..recreate that?" he asked, taking the mask back from her when she offered it his way. "With a 'normal' item, such as Heph's mask. Or a ring, or glove?"
"I mean...I dunno? It's pretty complicated. Feels like it'd be real tough to make something like this without it, uh, snapping back apart halfway through. I'd need like, five hands to hold it all."

"Could you alter a piece of paper that way? Provided the extra hands," Heph clarified.
"Hmm...nah? I don't think that'd work. Like, how do you even wear a piece of paper?"

"As a hat?" Magus interjected. "Like, folded up?"
Thalia seemed to take a moment to really consider that, then gently shook her head. "..No way. I still couldn't make it work."

"What else can you do, then?" Heph said. "You were able to recreate the effect of Magus's weapon. What about mine?" With this, she produced her own pair of swords. The catgirl squinted at them for a long moment.
"Uh...maybe? I'd need something super sharp to be able to, do that."
"Do you understand what they're capable of by looking at them?"
"Yeah, they like..cut stuff to make a path."
"They're swords," Marcus said.
"No—I don't mean like, paper or wood. I mean stuff," she said, gesturing emphatically yet incoherently.

"They indeed allow the temporary construction of portals between distant locations," Heph said, dismissing the blades again. "Testing has suggested a limit of no less than fifteen meters, but line-of-sight is necessary for accurate targeting. But—you claim that, given two similar, ordinary swords, you could enable them to achieve the same result?"
"I mean—man, I can't know that unless I tried. But, I'm sayin', to even try I'd need something like that to begin with. Magus's sword isn't as hard to copy, 'cause she kinda does all the work, you know?"

Dr. Bridges nodded, a satisfied sort of expression on his face. "It's a conduit for channeling magic, as opposed to needing to hold magic of its own. But you are able to give an object magic of its own—like that other knife. Do you think you could, say, enchant a ring so its wearer is stronger? Or faster?"

Thalia shrugged uncertainly. "Never done anything like that before, so I don't really know what it's supposed to feel like."
"Let's talk practicality," Heph said. "The armor developed for vixens so far has shown insufficient effectiveness in actual combat situations. Some," (the way she emphasized this word and paused seemed to imply that she had someone specific in mind—maybe even someone in earshot?) "have already ceased using theirs, deeming the protection not worth the loss of mobility. Perhaps you could attempt to enhance the durability of such armor, or else at least make it less of a burden to carry?"
"Uh—yeah, I guess that makes sense. Would be pretty sweet if it worked," she said.

Hephaestus nodded. "We happen to have a set here, 'donated' by a vixen after it was damaged in combat. Not mine—I am a non-combatant. I want to see you try."

Thalia glanced at Marcus, who gave a very exaggerated 'go for it!' gesture. Then she shrugged. "Alright. Fair warning, though, it took me a couple minutes just to get the knife to light up last night..."

---

Amory knew full well: Emma was the kind of person who, in a setting with others more eager to talk than her, preferred to stay quiet. For a while, he and April held a conversation without very much comment from her. However, April seemed to know this too—and, apparently tired of her younger sister's silence, eventually started trying to pull her into the conversation. About the third time this happened, Amory decided to try and help.

"Um, yeah, it's weird how..not-confusing it is. Like, I'm here and I'm over there, I can see myself from outside on both sides, but it just feels...normal? And, concentrating on doing two things at once is really easy somehow." All it really took was a gentle prompt from him for April to ask what the experience of having Emma's powers was like. "Um...o-one of the first things I did was...this is kinda dumb, but I played a game together, alone?" She was clearly still a little nervous about being the center of attention, even as one of only three people, but was holding up reasonably well.

"What about food?" April asked. "What's it like to taste two things at once?"
"Uh—pretty awful, actually. Or, at least, weird enough to not be pleasant. I guess if it was two of the same thing it wouldn't be so bad, but different stuff is still like having all of it in one mouth at the same time."

"Yet, you'd be able to hold two independent conversations. Or watch two movies at once?"
"Yes, and—probably? I mean, I've actually done that first one, and I can definitely read while doing something else. I-I guess it is weird that taste isn't like that, now that I think about it..."

While Emma continued on, April gave Amory a brief, appreciative smile. So, it seemed like his first 'meet the family' test was going pretty well.

---

"Hmm.." Thalia leaned over the recently-repaired armor sitting on the table for a moment, took a couple of steps to this side and that to view it from different angles.

Dr. Brand—or rather 'Hephaestus'—watched impatiently. Eventually, the feline girl actually put her hands out to just a few inches above it and got to work.

To someone with 'ordinary' vision, it seemed like she was pantomiming the process of pulling and moving around some thread, which matched the ideas of 'tangling' and 'winding up' she'd expressed earlier. But Heph's eyes could pick up the kind of faint glow she perceived from all magic appearing, then slowly rearranging itself and changing hue as she worked. For at least thirty seconds, the changes seemed undirected, and no sooner would she let go of a 'part' of what she was working on than its glow would fade to nothing. After a while, she 'let go', standing up straight and taking in and out a brief sigh, clearly wanting a break.

"Hey, quick question. This thing Zeno's?"

It was a good thing that Dr. Brand was reasonably practiced at not overreacting. "I don't know," she lied, and then said: "Why do you ask?"

"Uh, I dunno, it's just like—her powers are all like: light walls, shooting arrows, and stuff? Something just feels, kinda like that?" That didn't make any sense—the armor was demonstrably unenchanted, and nothing magical had even been done to it before; there should be nothing to feel. But then Thalia added: "Anyway, it's the right size, isn't it?"

Heph nodded. "I suppose so."

While the catgirl went back to work, she thought: The right size...of course! There actually was one bit of magic done to the armor, which was usually done to any 'natural' vixen's armor. Just as with ordinary clothing, they could use a certain part of their keyphrase to resize it into something that fit their bodies. This was a somewhat understudied part of their powers, considering it was something they all had in common..but even to Dr. Brand's enhanced perception, it left no trace of magic on the affected item. Then again...they could also return clothes to their original appearance. Which implied that 'altered' clothes somehow 'remembered' how they previously looked. It could be some kind of trace too small to register to her sight, or something residual...

Meanwhile, Thalia seemed to be having a little more success. Standing up straight again, she said, "Okay uh...I think this oughta be a little harder to tear up now? I dunno how to be sure without, like, testing it or something."
Looking closely, Hephaestus could see that something had actually taken. Similar to the glowing knife, the effect seemed relatively simple; in this case it was just 'do what you're supposed to do, but better'. But an enchantment like that could apply to just about anything, with varying effects...

"I believe it was successful. Could you recreate that on a different object?"
"I guess? Prolly a little quicker, too, since I've done it once."

Looking around quickly, Heph settled on a nearby coffee cup, going to pick it up and hand it over. "Try this."
"Um...okay?"

With only a brief bit of effort, Thalia was able to recreate the same effect. She said, "Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it's annoying to lose a cup, but you ain't got anything more important around here to fortify?"
"This is an experiment," Dr. Brand informed her bluntly, taking the cup back. "What would you say is a cup's primary task?"
"Uh..holding your drink? Hot stuff, in that mug's case?"

"Precisely." She headed out into the hallway for the nearest source of water—a fountain next to the bathrooms. Thalia followed her after a brief, confused pause.

There was no obvious difference while filling the cup—it couldn't hold more water, and its enchantment didn't appear to be doing anything. So Heph tried shaking the cup around a little bit. The effect was subtle, but the water at the very top seemed to have just slightly more surface tension, enough to hold it together so that less of it spilled out than expected. Heph's own vision was able to verify two things: The enchantment was now doing something, and it was, ever so slightly, fading from the 'effort'. She turned the cup upside down over the fountain, and it dumped its contents out into the drain without any interference from its enchantment. Naturally, drinking from or intentionally pouring out the contents of a cup were parts of its function...

"Was there uh...a point to all that?" Evidently, Thalia hadn't noticed anything special happening.

"The effect you've created is more general than 'toughening'," she said. "My hypothesis is that any object's usual use can be enhanced by it, if only slightly. However, the effect will wear out over time, and especially with actual use. Requiring further effort to maintain or reapply."

By this point, Dr. Bridges had caught up with the two of them, with Marcus also in tow. He concluded aloud: "So, incredibly useful, and that's only one of many kinds of enchantments you must be capable of! But, sadly, not very practical to try to have you enchant everyone's armor if you're just going to have to do it all over again as soon as they've been in one fight."

"Correct," Heph agreed, punctuating this with a slight sigh. "If you are willing to work with us, we will have to think of more efficient uses of your abilities. But it is probably better that you develop them on your own for now—as we are quite busy ourselves, for the moment."

"I...can't quite disagree," Ezekiel said. "As disappointed as I am we can't play around with enchantments all day. Maybe things will quiet down enough to properly experiment with this after tomorrow."
"One can only hope," Heph said.

With that, they were out of time for this particular meeting. Ezekiel began politely ushering them out, saying to Thalia: "Please, if you don't mind—have Marcus share the 'in-house' version of the VI app with you. It's a bit more secure than normal texts and calls, I'm told. So we can contact you that way, or vise versa, if you have any insights you'd particularly like to share."

"Yeah, alright."

---

After a reasonably long time talking, everyone ordered lunch. Amory was the last to finish his lunch, around the time April received and paid the bill. After someone came and cleared the empty plates and cups off the table, Amory said, "So, I've got a kinda weird question for you. Just something I'm curious about."

"What would that be?"
"It's, uuh..hm. Well, I don't mean it's bad or that I dislike it, but you've got a..unique way of talking? I guess?"
"Ah, well. I would hardly expect that to escape your notice," she said, nodding.

"But Emma doesn't talk that way, so I'm sure it's not like a, family or regional thing? So, I'm just curious whether there is a reason."

April nodded cheerfully. "I appreciate your interest—I don't get too many opportunities to say. Old movies, my dear."
"Old movies?"

"Very old ones, these days. When I was younger, I used to watch them all the time. Not that I don't still, but my free time is stretched rather thinner these days. I always adored the picture of opulence and order they depicted—the fashions, the sense of politeness and propriety. It always seemed to me a world of picturesque, pristine beauty, where most conflicts are resolved through wit and conversation, and only the nastiest of villains dare threaten to hurt others—only to be foiled not long afterward.

"Of course I grew up and learned that it all was a false veneer hiding no less ugliness than lies in our modern world, but the 'ideal' of it all has always stuck with me: If only the world could truly be so kind and just. And so...adopting a somewhat old-fashioned manner of speech based upon them has always helped me stand out a bit, and somehow I usually manage to make that a positive. You would think it'd be hard to keep it up, but for me the years of practice have made it a habit more difficult to break than to maintain. Not to mention, of course, that regularly taking inspiration from what many might call 'ancient' dress for my designs lends them a kind of timelessness...or at least I certainly hope so, and some of my clients appear to agree."

At this point, a slight rhythmic buzzing sound came from her purse: Her phone, on vibrate, giving some kind of notifiaction. She retrieved it for a brief glance and put it back in again, saying: "Oh, dear, just look at the time. This has been a wonderful chat, but if I don't head off in the next few minutes, I'll be late for that meeting."

The three of them got up and went back to the apartment complex together, talking a little more along the way. Once they arrived and it was time to separate, April grabbed her sister in a big, tight hug—which Emma evidently didn't mind, since she returned it with a big smile. "You be careful, love. Don't forget you have seven more people to introduce your beau to."

"I won't."

After the hug, she turned toward Amory. "As for you—treat her well. Not that I doubt you shall."
"Uh, well, I'll do my best," he said.

"That's all anyone really can ask. Ring me if you two need any advice—although, perhaps, our married siblings and in-laws will have the benefit of experience if that's what's needed."

Amory waved for a moment, watching her go. Once she had turned a corner out of sight, Emma said: "So..what'd you think of her?"
"She's really nice. I get what you meant about her being 'cool'—like she knows who she wants to be and is that person, regardless of what anyone else thinks. But—don't take this the wrong way—she's also a little weird."
"Um...try to get used to that. Most of them are. Carrie's the uh...normal one."

"What, not you?"
Emma gave him a brief, are you serious!?, kind of look. "You've met me."