What's That Like? 2

Here's the continuation from the first part! It'll probably still mostly make sense without reading that one, but you might enjoy them more together.

What's That Like? 1

 

 

Updates have been a bit slowly, largely because I have several things midway through or close to finished that I've been chipping away at. Sorry about that. But anyway, I had a rare bit of momentum recently and managed to go from finishing up this caption to writing a sequel, forming them into more of a two-part series. The next part will post tomorrow! (EDIT: Here's a link to it)

The "Best" RPG Ever-111

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A stream of fire poured out from the gem on Nora's bracelet, weaving itself carefully between the trees and burning through each web along the way until it reached the clearing with the spiders in it. There, it was more like an explosion, bursting out to hit all of them at once while still restraining itself from reaching any plant life—or the apparently still-living avian man whose entire lower body was now wrapped in a tight bundle of webbing.

This, of course, got the attention of all of the spiders present, apart from one which was already burned too badly to move. Seeing all of them, especially the biggest one, suddenly turn toward her, Nora made a soft, high squeaking noise and just completely froze. This didn't prove too disastrous, however, since she had just cleared a path for everyone else to use.

Mira, having recombined her weapon into a single large scythe, jogged carefully forward while chanting to prepare a spell. Aria unsheathed her sword and charged straight ahead, quickly passing the witch. Lupa moved carefully around to the terrified weaver's front, taking out the enchanted axe Tsaron had given her and readying it to throw at anything that got too close. The shifter jumped and chopped a spider's head in half, then raised her sword to catch another's bite, reforming the weapon into a flail with a large spiked ball at the end so that those spikes shot out through its mouth into its head. At this point Mira caught up, throwing a volley of green, demonic ice spikes into the side of the biggest spider to divert its attention away from Aria.

Two of the other giant spiders ran Nora's way; Lupa's axe buried itself into the neck of one, taking it down, and then she ducked aside so that it flew through the other's legs on its way back, cutting or bashing the four on its left side enough to topple it over momentarily. She let the enchanted axe skid along the ground after that and drew a big two-handed one for better reach, bringing it down through that spider's head before it could stand back up.

The larger spider turned on Mira, making a sort of loud hissing sound as it swiped at her with a foreleg. She backed away from one swipe, then hooked the leg in her scythe on the second one, cutting halfway into it with the blade. She brought out some inky shadow tendrils from her back to grab on below the cut and yank it the rest of the way apart with a loud snapping noise, yielding enough pain for the monster to take several rapid steps backward. This gave the witch the opportunity to see a few more spiders coming into the clearing.

Aria ran up to the big one, turning her weapon into a bunch of chains coming from the hilt, each ending in a small, bladed hook, "YOU ARE HUGE!" she yelled, whipping the hooks up onto its side to lodge as many into its flesh as possible and then quickly taking several steps back, until most of the chains were taut. "THAT MEANS YOU HAVE HUUUGE GUTS!" With the last word she pulled back, and enough of the hooks held to pull it down onto its side, violently flailing its remaining legs the entire way.

Another couple of spiders came up on either side of Nora, who had just managed to get her arms down to her side and start to shake slightly less. Noticing them didn't exactly help reduce her level of panic, but Lupa was still on guard duty, brandishing the two-handed axe and growling at the nearest one to make it hesitate, then throwing that weapon at the other, landing a hit to its abdomen that made it collapse. By the time her first target recovered enough to try to attack, she had drawn two more hand-axes and caught both its legs with them, which she followed up by backflip-kicking up into its head so hard that its neck audibly snapped.

Supposing that Aria had the 'boss' well in hand for the moment, Mira turned her attention to the other spiders, summoning exploding pumpkins and batting one at each with her broom to set each one alight. Once the giant spiders were all on demonic fire and running around in a panic, she moved in to pick each one off with her scythe and pull the fire back to herself before its heat could start burning the forest down.

The shifter pulled her weapon out of the monster and made a spear on a long chain, tossing it over the flailing legs to bury its spike deep into its abdomen while holding onto the back few links. It hissed and flailed even more violently, trying unsuccessfully to roll back onto its feet, as she invited the demonic weapon to feed on its blood (or whatever the giant spider equivalent was) and it greedily sucked it in. Before long the giant spider's movement slowed to a halt and it went completely limp, well and truly dead.

Mira looked around carefully, trying to listen for any more noise, but the woods seemed to have gone silent. She looked to Aria, who was busy pulling the spear back out to go start drinking the smaller spiders' blood (or whatever) before it went cold, and then to Lupa and Nora—especially the former, who still seemed tensed to fight. "Sense any more?"
"No," she shook her head. "Just cautious."
"Good. I think we might be rid of them, then. Uh, Nora?"
She took a long, shaky breath. The wolf-girl also gave her a concerned look. "Tall one, okay now? Big bugs all dead."
She nodded slowly, with some effort. "B-b-be better. Once, we're far away, from them."

"Fair enough, but I dunno how to do triage for this guy." The witch gestured to the half-bound avian, coming over herself to carefully cut the webbing off from around his legs with her scythe.

The weaver nodded, taking two slow steps forward and then moving to a semi-panicked run that carefully skirted around the spider corpses on her way over. Lupa followed, collecting her tossed weapons along the way. She closed her eyes and knelt next to the man's unconscious body, putting a hand on one of his wings and taking a couple of deep breaths again. "He's..n-n-not badly injured. Something in his..earth, plants...? Ah. I-I think some kind of poison...in him."
"Just keeping him asleep, though?" Mira asked.

"M-more like..um...p-paralyzed. But, also..? Something else to it, working against it to...make him process that more slowly...so he doesn't die from it."

"I guess it keeps their prey fresh until they wanna eat it," the witch guessed. "I don't suppose you can extract the poison from his blood or something. Or..I guess he might be stable enough to carry to town as-is?"

"Mmh..th-the first one, I think. S-shouldn't be too difficult..since, I've already identified which parts aren't 'him'. We'll need to..make a cut that, um, won't.."
Mira nodded, producing a knife she'd kept as a backup weapon. "This..isn't very clean," she said, offering it to Nora. Eyes still closed, the weaver took the hilt and swapped around her bracelets so that the fire one was on her opposite hand, drawing out a tight spiral of fire around the blade briefly, heating it until it turned slightly red; then she swapped out for a blue crystal, drawing some water out and using it to cool and rinse the blade off.

"No life on it now, shouldn't cause any infections..." Nora lifted the avian's arm. "Hold it here." Mira nodded, and she selected a particular vein and cut carefully into it, using the free hand to suppress the outward flow of blood. Then she handed Mira back her knife, using that hand to pull at the poison. The process of pulling out enough of it to make him safe to move took enough time for Aria to finish feeding the demon in her weapon, sheathe it, and come watch the last half-minute or so of the process.

Nora pushed the tiny blob of extracted poison a few feet away before letting go, and exhaled a small sigh of relief as it fell into the grass. Then she mended the small wound and slowly stood up, her eyes still shut but her body seeming perfectly calm otherwise. "His body has already processed..some of it, so he's still..unconscious for now," she reported. "But there should be no...permanent damage."
Mira nodded. "At the very least, I think it oughta be safe enough to move him. Lupa, you know how to carry a body without hurting 'em?"
"Uhhm."
"Here, I'll show you," the witch said cheerfully, kneeling to carefully lift the avian up out of the grass. His hair was around shoulder-length, and the same brilliant red color as his feathers. He looked to be a young man in overall good shape—not that that meant he was one, given avian life spans—and he was dressed in some bright cream-colored pants and a vest with a bright purple, sparkly trim.

"You holdin' up okay?" Aria said, waving a hand in front of Nora's face. "Your eyes are still closed."
"I can...'sense' more than well enough to get around," she said. "And...I think I'll be fine...as long as I don't have to see them again."
"Okay. Well, hey, you need a seeing-eye dog, though, I think we've got one." Although she wasn't certain Nora could see it, she was gesturing vaguely toward Lupa.
"Heheh...thanks."

---

"Soo um, do you have anywhere you like to go to eat?" Rose asked, a short way past the door into town. "Or—is it rude to assume you don't usually care much about what you eat as long as you stop feeling hungry?"

The fox-girl shrugged. "It would be a fair assumption. However, I recognized that I had an unhealthy tendency to treat food as a mere obligation some time ago, and deliberately cultivated a taste for bitter foods since those tend to be healthier. I tend to cook for myself these days, but occasionally I will pay someone to bring me something from a restaurant. I've never asked which one they get it from, however."
"I guess you usually can't leave for long, when you've got potions and stuff going?"

"That, and...I rarely venture far from my home in the first place, so I won't get lost," Vae said, following Rose. "I lived for far too long within the confines of a single magic college, and I fear my sense of direction is permanently locked to navigating those particular halls."

"Well, then—any place with a good selection of veggies, I guess?"
Vae nodded. "That would be more than acceptable. Is it fair to assume you prefer meat?"

"Yyyep. Dragons are mostly carnivores. I mean I like sweets too, but that's not like a meal. Oh! Uhhm." Rose realized something, the talk of navigation clicking a particular concept back to the front of her head. "We need to make a little detour, if that's okay? I almost forgot to take care of a thing. And there should be some good places near it!"

"Very well."

Rose quickly led the way to the tree she'd planted the day before, hurrying up to it and kneeling in front of it to check on it. "Aa~h, you're doing just fine~," she half-sang, pushing some of her magic to help it grow for the day. Her concentration was so focused on this task that she didn't notice someone sitting in a newly-placed bench a short ways from the tree getting up and walking over.

In short, Randall's greeting startled her. "Heyy, flower girl."
"Bwah!" Rose stood up and looked around briefly before leaning to one side to see him still standing behind the tree. "Oh, hi!"

The Felis man hiccuped and sidestepped into full view, leaning forward a bit. "Who's this foxy beaut with ya, eh?"

"This is Vaedin! She's aa, um—works with plants and stuff."
"Herbalist," the Vulpin said.

"Aand, this is Randall. He's aaan, earth mage or something?"

"Pfft, I'm far better'n 'something'," he said, stumbling a step or so toward them. "I'm—hic—the best there is." He spread out his hands briefly to accompany this announcement.

"You appear to be intoxicated," Vaedin said bluntly.

"Sharp, too! Heheh..I'm always intossif..inksoti..drunk. I do my best work this way!"

The fox-girl's ears twitched slightly. "I've known colleagues to make similar claims. Those who weren't fired died an early death."
"Aah, well, you don' need to worry about that with me," he said. "I'm old an' unemployed! Heheheh!"

"Weeell uh, we've gotta go eat now," Rose said. "You have fun sitting on a bench or drinking or..whatever."
"Aww, alright. You two have fun too, now." He waved and turned around to stumble back toward the bench. Rose waved for Vae to follow her and headed out of the partly-built park, onto the adjacent street that smelled the most like food.

Once they were probably out of earshot, Vae said, "He did not appear to be very old. He especially did not resemble a well-aged drunkard."
"Um, do you know how Ezra is like, mysteriously immortal and stuff?"
She nodded. "I have heard of that before, although it hasn't come up in my few conversations with her."

"Well, he's the same way kinda. They, like, knew each other way back or something."

She stopped next to a place that had its menu posted in the window, leaning a bit closer to read it. "Uh, hey, what do you think of this place? It definitely smells pretty good."
Vae walked closer, adjusting her glasses. "I can see some options I would enjoy. And, I admit my hunger has gotten worse since we left the forest. The scent of food all around only exacerbates the problem."

"Exassa-...what?"

"Makes it worse."
"Oh! Let's go in, then!" she said, quickly but carefully looping her index finger and thumb around Vae's wrist and trying to lead her inside by it. Thankfully, this gesture didn't get rejected, and the fox-girl followed along with her eager gait, perhaps expressing some impatience to get inside in her own way.

---

Around midday, the prince called a halt to the caravan, and with some fairly well-practiced movements, he and the soldiers brought the carts into a similar formation the adventurers had first found it in. Everyone convened toward the center, two of the soldiers carrying some crates of dry rations and water with them. "Not exactly a sumptuous feast, but lunch is served," Peregrine announced.

Everyone spread out, finding seating either on the ground or on the side of the carts for their meals. "I certainly understand the need for haste with this meal," Katherine remarked, "but I think we have the ingredients for me to make something a bit better tonight."
"Ah, you cook?" the prince said, following her to her seat on the edge of one cart and sitting next to her (but at a polite distance).
"Indeed," she nodded. "A master chef needs to juggle several tasks at once, and I can do that better than most."

Rayna followed after them, and Peregrine turned toward her, seeming to instinctively sense that she had something to say. "Your highness," she said once she had his attention, "I've kept us more or less undetectable since the goblins, but I really can't keep that up. Wide-range invisibility for a long period of time is not my specialty, and at this rate I'm concerned I might burn myself out. Anyway, I'd have to drop it to sleep."

"Understood," he nodded. "We will just need to be more vigilant from here on out. I'm certain we are all grateful for the reprieve you've given us so far. Take as long as you need to rest, as well."
"Thanks," she said, giving a brief curtsy before heading off to join Lynn near the center.

The prince ate in silence for a moment. Eventually he thought a direction 'loudly', and Katherine followed it to see Zack sitting alone, about as far away from them as he could. I seem to have offended Lady Zack somehow, the thought continued.

Maybe not, the psion tried to reassure him. That's just how she is with people she doesn't know.

He nodded. You know, I've always prided myself on quickly discerning what others value in themselves. But it's not so easy to tell with her. I only know that it isn't her beauty, as undeniably stunning as it is. Rather, I have the impression that she sees it as a curse.

Having a mind that worked unusually quickly allowed Katherine to keep herself from reacting to the word in any noticeable way. Instead she just said: You're not wrong about that. She's had some..bad experiences, let's say.

Sorry to hear that...so to speak. I thought it might instead be her strength or courage, but I didn't see much of a response to my attempts to compliment those traits.

Look, if there's one thing I know about Zack, it's that she doesn't like wasted words, Katherine said. She's likely to see most compliments as...empty flattery at best, or mocking her at worst. She'll probably be much more receptive to conversation that isn't about her.

I'll keep that in mind, he thought. Thank you.

Katherine nodded. If she could keep him from 'annoying' Zack—or whatever it was that had made him start growling earlier—again, that would hopefully be good for both of them.

You're thinking about something, Rayna discerned from a brief glance at her friend's face.

Lynn nodded. Ezra has an inventory, like ours.

That seems to be the gist of what his highness said earlier, she said, nodding.

Ezra is mysteriously immortal, and Clera essentially found no signs of age on any of us—even you or Zack, who probably should at least have some given your species and age.

Go on..

Ezra's supposed to be serving this world's gods. She literally received a dream-warning from them about that fire giant. Our best hypothesis for who brought us here, is also said gods.

...So what's your point?

Lynn gave her the slightly frustrated look of a professor who just gave his student several increasingly-obvious hints toward an already-easy answer. Cut me a break, my brain's fried from keeping up a wide-range illusion for hours on end.

It's not completely outside the range of coincidence, or the existence of some other, similar explanation, but: What if Ezra is a 'player', like us?

...I dunno. She doesn't act like someone from Earth.

Does Rose act like someone from Earth, most of the time? Do you?

Rayna shrugged. Yeeeah, I guess there isn't that much obvious difference. But then—if she is, then Tsaron and Randall..

..And the rest of their group, including that guy who made Mira's scythe and killed some of them, are players too, Lynn nodded. I hoped you might come to the same conclusion.

Well—they could just be people from this world, commissioned by the gods to do...something, Rayna thought. If 'inventory magic' comes from the gods in the first place, there's no requirement that someone be from another world to get it, and obviously they're powerful enough to make someone immortal if they want them to be.

Right, as I said: A similar explanation works, Lynn thought back. But what bugs me is that Tsaron already knows we're from Earth, and yet he was completely uninterested in that information. It seemed convincing to me at the time that he'd seen all sorts of things in other people's minds over the years, but I still think it's pretty far out for anyone in this world.

The illusionist nodded. From what I can tell, fiction here doesn't even have a concept of 'other worlds' the way ours does. Just, other versions of this world, more or less.

So why was that convincing in the first place? Lynn asked rhetorically. Why, with all of those other clues already in front of me, do I only think of this now? Well, there is an extremely powerful psion living in that town who might be able to subtly influence the thought processes of anyone reasonably nearby...at least, hypothetically.
The fox-girl tilted her head, taking on a slightly worried expression. You think...he was actively preventing us from even thinking of the possibility that they're from Earth?

Lynn shrugged. I'm just saying that, as far as I know, he could have done that. Brains are a tricky thing, so it's hard to really say whether he did or not.

Well—we can resolve to ask her here and now, then, Rayna thought. It's harder to be subtle about erasing an entire conversation we've had, right? Especially since it's in Kath's mind now, too. The psion mentally nodded to confirm this was the case.

---

Randall splayed back onto the bench after watching Rose and her new friend leave. "Bah, 'have fun drinking'...as if I've got anything better to do..."

"I doubt she intended that as unpleasantly as it came out." A level, calm, pleasant voice. He sat up and turned his head just enough to see its source: An old Vulpin man, unusually fit, wearing some sort of overly-revealing ceremonial robes. His expression was as annoyingly peaceful as his speech. Most likely...

"Wha' you want, priest? Here to get me off drink?"
"Oh, not at all; I've heard you do your best work inebriated. You don't mind if I take a seat, do you?"
The Felis shrugged. "It's a public bench."

The old fox sat down slowly and carefully, breathing out a happy sigh of relief to be off of his feet. Something about it all felt performative, however; Randall could just about sense a still-quite-capable fighter in there. "Since I believe I have you as a disadvantage: Fazren," he said. "And you're Randall, aren't you?"
"Yep."

"I am something of a parental figure to Nora, so I've taken an interest in her new friends. I believe you may have a different sort of interest in them, hmn?"
The Felis gave the old Vulpin a sidelong glance: Was that what this was about? He didn't recall saying anything particularly rumor-starting regarding them since coming into town. "I assure you my intentions are entirely—hic—honorable. No' like any ovvem have an 'int'rest' in me, anyway."

"Well, I can't give you my first suggestion to remedy that without making myself a liar," Fazren said, and chuckled.

He changed the subject slightly: "It seems as if you must know Lady Ezra quite well?"
"Hmmnh. How well would you say you know someone you hadn't met since hundreds a' years ago? Though, I guess none'o'us've really changed such mince then..hic."

"It seems strange to me that I hadn't heard of her before coming here, for all the reputation she has. But then, I also hadn't heard of you before, either."

"Well, I try to keep a low profile, is all. People hear 'bout an immortal cat and think I made some sorta pact with a demon...which isn't even a thing in the first place."

"I would suggest they don't think that of Lady Ezra because of her many heroic deeds...and because she isn't drunk all the time."
"Baah, people thinkin' I work for the gods woul'be just as bad for me," Randall replied.

He sat up slowly, staring at the tree in front of them. "Pray you don' get 'blessed' the way I am, Fazren. The world gets boring after long enough. An' after feeling pain, mourning, rage, heartbreak and fear for my life all for m'self..still nothin' beats out this kind of boredom. Livin' just so I don't have to die." He didn't add 'again', figuring Fazren wouldn't get that part.

"..Sorry," he said after a long pause, leaning back again. "Must be soberin' up too much, to make that kind of talk."
"It's quite alright. Believe it or not, an old priest gets pretty used to hearing people vent," Fazren said. "If you'll excuse a younger man's opinion, though, there is more to life than being entertained. One who has found a purpose and pursues it rarely has the time to get bored."
"Hmmh. Maybe tha's the difference between me and Ezra, then."
"Perhaps your interest in those young ladies isn't so ill-placed after all," the old Vulpin said, still smiling calmly. "I'd bet any one of them would whip you into shape."

He stood up again, stretching. "Aahh. Well, this has been a fine chat. But I should be going now."
"You have fun with your 'purpose', then," Randall replied. "And don' think I don't mean well by that."
"Of course. Farewell.

---

Lupa's keen, instinctive sense of direction proved sufficient to guide them back out of the forest, even bringing them fairly close to where they had entered it. Mira handed the unconscious spider victim to her about midway through the trip, trusting the wolf-girl's freakish strength would have her arms tire of carrying him far less quickly. As they came into the unobscured midday sunlight, Nora finally opened her eyes and looked around, breathing a sigh of relief. "Thank you for...protecting me before, Lupa," she said. "I shouldn't have...frozen up like that."
"Nora okay!" she said happily. "This one is really scared of something, too."
Aria gently clapped her on the back. "Hey, you pulled through when we needed a healer, at least."
"Mmh."

"Hey.." Mira pointed at a stream of white light headed skyward, and the others turned in time to see it gather into an explosion of light far up in the air, lasting several seconds before it faded. "Is it just me, or does that look like some kinda distress signal?"

"That seems extremely likely," Nora agreed. "We should..help."
"Okay!" The witch got out her broom and waved the weaver over. "The two of us'll fly there quick, and you two follow after." They got on the broom together. "Been a while since I ferried anyone, but we'll be fine. Just hold on tight!"

"..Right." Nora pulled her arms around the witch's waist, and they lifted off.

The "Best" RPG Ever-110

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I have a small announcement not specifically related to this story: I recently went and updated the tables of contents page, which can be found here. There's also a link to it a ways down in the right sidebar, so it should be accessible from any page. All of the major stories and a couple of series have been added in and everything should be up-to-date (or at least mostly so). Hopefully it's helpful, although a lot of the parts of TBRE have no description to go with them. If anyone wants to contribute a brief description for some of the numbered parts that don't have them, feel free to write it into a comment on that page.

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Mira carefully led the way through the increasingly dense forest, watching and poking the blade of her scythe ahead for spiderwebs and turning aside whenever one was directly in their way. She wasn't particularly worried about getting lost here; Lupa could probably follow their scent trail back with ease or something. Worst case, she could fly each of the others out on her broom once the monsters were all gone.

In this way, they had opportunity to see what else the resident giant spiders had caught in their webs. More deer, along with both smaller and more predatory ordinary wildlife was present, to be sure, but before too long they also happened upon a dark green, scaly tail hanging out of a particularly large bundle tied one-third of the way up one particular web. Near this was a small clearing with five more webs hung around it, each occupied by a similarly-sized bundle of web, and one mostly-intact giant lizard corpse lying on the ground.

The witch stopped off, staring at this clearing for a moment. "Say, Lupa," she half-whispered. "Monsters don't usually fight each other, do they?"
"This one's pack fought many other big animals that attacked," she said softly. "Buut, mud-men always kept distance, like...not want to fight."

"Mud-men..goblins?" Nora guessed. "Perhaps...there seems to be something of a difference in general...between monsters 'made out of animals'...and others, such as goblins and ogres."

"Well," Aria sighed softly, "I hate to say this, but even if the lizard problem's solved itself, we can't just leave. No blood here that's anywhere near fresh enough to satisfy."

"W-we um...we should...track down, the.." Nora struggled to actually say it.

"We should kill the spiders anyway, right?" Mira finished for her. "Since the point is really to make this area safer, and one gigantic ambush predator is probably no better than the other." The elf just nodded, visibly trying to keep herself from shaking again.

The witch turned and began to carefully pick their way onward again, going for several more minutes before Aria gently placed a hand on her shoulder to get her attention. Once she was looking, the shifter pointed off to her right, then at one of her presently giant, fuzzy ears. Nora gave a small nod to agree with the implied message, wringing her hands a bit. Mira turned in that direction and began to slowly lead them until she could hear it too, a soft skittering and clattering sort of noise.

There was no going around the webbing as they approached, so she split her weapon into two smaller scythes and used them like machetes, carefully clipping through the web while trying to make as little noise as possible. Eventually they came in view of a group of five or six spiders the height of a man, and another that was twice as big as the rest in the center.

Opposite their vantage point, one such spider was halfway up a web between two trees, busy spinning its web around a winged, humanoid body with brilliant red hair and plumage that seemed out of place in the otherwise gloomy scene. Aria had her sword out, but still sheathed for the moment; she tapped the back of its hilt a couple of times and pointed to that body, mouthing 'still alive'.

Mira pulled her weapon back together into a single scythe, and looked to Nora, who was quivering but had her right hand out, a bracelet with a bright red gem set into it on the wrist. The witch gave the weaver an encouraging grin and mouthed 'kill it with fire', which she replied to with a rapid double-nod.

---

When the carts stopped for a bit, the three soldiers driving the horses came out to stretch their legs, and the four in the sick wagon came out next to them. Everyone else moved that direction too, led by the prince. "Are you all well-rested?" he asked.
"Sure 'nuff, Sire," one woman said, saluting.
A man nodded, agreeing. "Not all perfect, but fit enough to fight again, I'd say."

Peregrine nodded. "Very well." Turning toward the adventurers, he said: "Allow me to introduce you—other than miss Clera, of course. Lady Zack, Katherine, Rayna and Lynn. These are Nils, Jehora, Leif, and Otrin." Each of the four nodded or slightly bowed in response to their names; Jehora and Nils were women, and the the other two men, but all were human and had more or less the same manner as the first three the group had met.

The prince moved with the party toward the front of the caravan, leaving the soldiers not on horse-driving duty to guard the back. Zack remained the farthest back, weaving back and forth occasionally to see that all were still present and keeping his ears peeled for anything unusual. Nothing much happened, however.

An hour or so after this, Rayna put up her hand from near the front. Hit my spot check, she thought toward Katherine as Peregrine correctly translated this signal into one for the caravan's present drivers and guards to stop. Looks like eleven of those guys hiding behind trees; none of the big boss ones thankfully.

Injured? Lynn asked as the five of them—four adventurers and one prince made their way in front of the real caravan, watching the illusionist's false one merrily continue onward into danger.

One or two. Nothing debilitating, unfortunately.

Everyone drew their weapons: Zack in dark from with Enceladus and his shield at the front, Katherine and the prince not far behind him, and Clera and Lynn between them and the illusionist. The catgirl had two knives in her hands and two more floating around next to her; Lynn notched an arrow and stepped out to one side where she'd have a clear shot; Clera didn't draw her sword, instead gently placing her hand on the necklace Tsaron had gifted her and mentally preparing a few low-cost spells in case they were needed.

Once the illusory caravan's was roughly centered between them, the goblins all yelled—nasty, guttural noises—and charged in toward it, poorly-maintained axes and swords and knives going into the false guards flanking it and briefly appearing to succeed in taking them down. Then an electrified arrow struck the nearest one in the side of the head, a spark arcing from it to the nearest two to send them into brief convulsions. Zack charged, Katherine following briefly before breaking off to one side; Peregrine, seemingly distrated briefly by looking at the knight's sword, followed after them. Clera maintained a position in front of Rayna to keep the illusionist protected, as well as to easily see if anyone got injured.

Not even Zack expected the results of his first swipe of the artifact sword's blade into a goblin's side—the weapon cleaving the entire way through, cutting it in half with the points which had contacted the blades white, firelike glow seeming to burn with the same same briefly as it fell apart. He hesitated only slightly, however, before continuing to stab it effortlessly into a second one, swinging the sword up through its head and acheiving a similarly instantaneous kill.

Katherine went for the stunned goblins, giving each one a psionically thrown and guided knife to the chest and setting off the magic in each one—burning one goblin, freezing a second, and re-electrocuting the third, this time with more fatal results. Then she swept the knives up to slit their throats, just in case. The prince continued past her, his foil sheathing itself neatly into the heart of another of the goblins and just as easily slipping back out as he kicked it forward onto its back. A second goblin came at him with an axe, and he dodged aside and away from its enraged, sloppy chopping before taking advantage of a particularly poor swing to catch the axe's blade from the bottom with his own and slip it out of the monster's grip entirely. A third charged at him with a knife, tackling at this point and rolling along the ground when he also sidestepped this.

After a third kill, Zack turned to see the prince's fight and quickly moved in, raising his shield as the just-disarmed goblin pounced with its arms out and aiming for the prince's throat. Peregrine was in no position to notice—much less deal with—this threat, as he had turned around and raised his sword to confront the one with the knife instead. The knight arrived just in time to bash the goblin off to one side and then stab the ground through its stomach, pulling the blade up through its body to take it apart. At the same time Peregrine took down his quarry, unaware of the danger until he turned around to see Zack finishing it off. Meanwhile, Lynn took down the farthest-off goblins with a series of various elemental arrows, so that overall the fight lasted under a minute.

Zack brought his sword vertically in front of his eyes, staring at it for a couple of seconds. Did you find a shop selling strength potions while we weren't looking or something? Lynn asked. I knew you were strong, but not 'cut flesh like a knife through butter' strong.

No, it's this sword, he replied, sheathing it. It was like I was still just cutting through the air.

"It appears I was rather careless," Peregrine said after taking about this long to survey the area and see that all of the goblins were dead. "My deepest apologies, and my thanks as well." He bowed toward Zack.
"...Just doing my job, your highness." He caught himself frowning for some reason, and wrestled his face back to a neutral expression. No, thinking back another second or two, his face felt slightly warm and his tail was trying to move, and the frown was because of that...weird. But, it had already quit, so he didn't dwell on it.

Meanwhile, those with animal ears could easily hear some of the soldiers' quiet commentary. "Gods above, that was.."
"Wha', you could actually see it? All a blur to me, mate.."
"Like I told you, the sort what survives the frontier are made of different stuff.."

Clera turned back toward Rayna to confirm: "No one is hurt?"
"Not a bit," she shook her head, and exhaled softly. "I'm glad to be rid of the fake caravan. Just making the real one invisible is enough work."

As they walked back toward the caravan, Peregrine changed the subject slightly: "My curiousity overwhelms me concerning your blade, Lady Zack. I don't believe I've seen anything like it."
"It's..on loan," he said. "I was told its name is Enceladus."

"Quite an unusual name, and yet...not one I have heard before. Enchantments of such potency are usually better-known, I would think."
"Well, its owner just had it sitting around gathering dust," Katherine chimed in. "One of those eccentric collector types, you know."
"I can only be grateful to this collector for placing it in such capable hands, then," the prince said, smiling and nodding toward Zack. This time the knight looked off to one side to hide a scowl as he tried to dispel it. His tail wouldn't quit moving for another few steps afterward, either.

Once they were more or less together, Peregrine stopped facing all of the adventurers. "So that it does not go unsaid: My thanks to all of you for dispatching these foes," he said. "Truly, all of you are as capable as you are beautiful. Do any of you require rest before we continue?"

"You're too kind, your highness," Rayna said. "But, honestly, these were somewhat small fry compared to the other threats we've encountered out here."

"We should be fine," Lynn added. "Just need to keep an eye out."
"But of course. Then, let us onward."

Zack made for the left side of the caravan as soon as he saw the prince head for the right. As they started moving, Katherine's voice came to his head: Are you..growling?

...No. Well, he wasn't anymore, anyway. She moved up next to him to give him a 'really' look, and he just shrugged.

Seriously, what's wrong?

Nothing. He's just. Annoying.

I don't think he's trying to be.

Yeah. That makes it worse.

Zack just wanted to be left alone and not think about it any more. Since she knew this, the psion shrugged and fell back to a position behind him.

Lynn stayed on the right side, along with Rayna and the prince. How are you holding up? Need a break from making us invisible?
...Soonish, yeah. I don't do sustained illusions like this usually. But I think I can keep it up long enough that the trail from those goblin bodies will be cold and nothing'll follow us too closely from behind.

"Pardon me, miss Lynn," the prince said, coming to her. "Do you still have your bow?"
"Uh..yes," she nodded, not immediately certain of the question's purpose.

"Yet it isn't visible in your hands, nor on your person," he pointed out.

"Oh. Well, uh.."
"I have heard tell before of a particularly rare magic, which allows the easy storage of a small number of items in no apparent location," he said. "In fact, Lady Ezra is the only one I have heard to be capable of such a thing before now."
"...Ah."

The fox-girl slid her way into the conversation at this point to rescue her. "This isn't something one can 'teach' so much as 'have'," she explained. "Or in our case,' borrow'. It is pretty handy, though."

"I can imagine," he nodded, deliberately not pressing the issue beyond this.

"Just...how well do you know Lady Ezra, anyway?" Lynn asked, both curious and eager to change the subject away from something she didn't feel it possible for them to fully explain.
"Well, I have not met her in person but once, and at the time I was quite young—no more than half my present height," Peregrine said, holding a hand out palm-down next to his own waist to demonstrate. "However, I came to know her reputation quite well over the years. Rumors regarding her abound, to the point where many of the best-accepted ones must be fact. I know that she is somehow an immortal human, and I therefore imagine she looks the same now as when we met those years ago. They say that she has been knighted or ennobbled by no less than a hundred countries, two-thirds or more of which no longer exist. Some say it is an honor to the country when she willingly attends such a ceremony, and Kyzerath was so honored quite a long ways back.

"She has been known to disappear for months or years on end, or even fake her own death sometimes, only to suddenly reappear during events of great import. Some rumors even say the gods themselves guide her actions, as she seems to have a knack for being in just the right place at the right time to influence such events. Lately—that is to say, at least since my grandfather was young—she seems content to remain in our frontier town for increasingly long periods, and in so doing has built it into the most stable patch of civilization out that way. It seems to be a sort of pet project of hers, perhaps.

"As far as knowing her personally, I can only claim what I have gleaned from our correspondence. When I began to attend the court of nobles—Kyzerath's ruling body, you understand—it seemed clear to me that our fair kingdom was neglecting its frontier town, failing to support it in even the most basic of ways even while reaping much benefit from it. Nearly as soon as I began to speak out about this, she made her first contact me. I have no idea how she learned of it so swiftly. We have been allies in this matter ever since then, with her letters constantly encouraging and advising my efforts. It is entirely her doing that I have been so effective a thorn in the sides of those who would rather pretend we had no frontier town to support and reap its profits alone. What we are on our way to deliver, I have been campaigning for for the past two years, and what finally won over the last of the detractors was the assurance that I would personally deliver our country's gift, along with suggestions from those who they thought to be equally weary of me that I may well not survive the trip.

"I never put much stock in the idea that Lady Ezra's hand was guided by the gods, but I must wonder at all of the coincidences I have seen or heard since coming into contact with her. Lately I hear that one of the foremost telemagus has suddenly made his way to our frontier town on other business, and has agreed already to help install our gift. As I understand it, this man was hired by a dragon once, and satisfied him enough to not only keep his life, but make profit."

"Heheh, yes, I've met the man," Lynn said. "He got us to you, in fact. He's rather down-to-earth in person."
"Imagine though," a nearby soldier—Otrin, she thought—chimed in. "Meetin' with a dragon."

"Yeees, that'd certainly be something," Rayna replied cheerfully.

---

"Are you hungry?" Vae said quietly.
"Uhhm, yes. Very, actually, now that I uh, notice." Rose pulled her face up off of the fox-woman's. "Sorry."
"We needed a reminder to cease this at some point," the herbalist said; her tone of voice was as calm and level as usual, but she was very clearly smiling and blushing still. She let go of the dragon-girl, allowing Rose to get up onto her knees. Then her head tilted just slightly. "Your wings..."
"Huh?" She glanced at one briefly. "Oh uh—I've pretty much always been able to do this. This is kinda what they 'really' look like, actually," she continued, tracing a hand along the edge of a wing. "The tiny ones are to make it easier to walk around places."

Vaedin sat up as the dragon-girl got up onto her feet, taking care to hop backward so her foot-claws wouldn't scratch Vae's legs. She looked up and around at the sky briefly before picking herself up too, carefully dusting off her clothes a bit. "I am also quite hungry. It must be..fairly deep into the afternoon by now." She produced her glasses and strapped them back on.

"Errm, I'm glad we didn't break those or anything," Rose said.

"There is nothing of that sort to worry about. I had them enchanted for durability not long after moving here. It wouldn't do to have a potion go wrong just because I, or someone else, broke a bit of fragile glass. I only thought they might feel rather uncomfortable..or, I admit, become dirtied."

"Heheh, yeah, theeey, probably would be."

Rose stood awkwardly in place for a moment with her arms slung behind her back, hands interlocked. It felt like Vae was staring at her quietly, but it was difficult to tell if that was it or she was just thinking about something and the resultant staring into space happened to be in her direction. Eventually she cracked: "Uhhhm, youwannagetlunchsomewhere? I mean, if it can be called lunch at this point, but—still. Like..food?"
"Certainly," she nodded. "I allotted the entire day for this visit, expecting a long trip here and back. But, I did not actually consider food at the time."
"Okay! Um, I'll lead the way, then!" Rose waved for the gorgeous Vulpin girl to follow, pushing her wings back to their smaller size as she headed back in the direction of the door.

When she opened that door back into the house, she found a small piece of paper affixed to the wall across from it and hurried inside, leaning in to read it while Vae followed at a slower pace.

Rose:
went to kill some things and feed Aria's sword,back late afternoon probably

Have fun!

It was signed with a sloppily drawn heart followed by just Mira.

"'Feed her sword'?" Vae asked, finishing her read-through of the note at about the same time.

"Um, yeah, she's got a demon-sword-thingy that's literally hungry for blood," the dragon-girl explained. "It's uhh, she kinda needs to feed it to keep sane. So, they prolly just went after some weak monsters or something."
"I..suppose it is a relief if that is their first solution to that problem."
"Anyway, I guess we can go on out, then! She'd definitely take the note down if they were back by now," Rose said, turning to close the door to her forest and open the door to town. Her tail was wagging a bit as she thought of what sort of place to bring Vae...although, come to think of it, it might be a good idea to ask what her tastes were first...

Battle Vixens! - 89

First / Previous / Next / Latest

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Episode 89: My Best Friend's Girl

still in apt?

Yes.

ok to bring emma in?
Fine with me.

The apartment had been silent for an hour or so, just Blake sitting in a living room chair reading. There wasn't really enough room for a collection of physical books, so he'd adapted to reading comics on a tablet a while ago. It wasn't quite the same as flipping the pages between his fingers, but it had its perks. There were a couple of weeks' worth of backlog on his favorites by now, but since finishing his "personal project", he'd already torn through that and moved on to some of the classics.

It was a little surreal reading other people's imaginary versions of something like his own experience. This had to be a taste of what it was like for cops to watch police procedurals or...something. Although, of course, the fantastical situations the fictional characters were in were quite distinct from the ones he was stuck with. One book was trying to be especially up-to-date by introducing a bunch of fictional vixens whose powers operated on a similar ruleset to the real ones on top of the "standard" superheroes already present in its universe, which was something of a glorious mess to behold. The writers didn't exactly have all of the more confidential information, so their idea of how things worked was mildly inaccurate and very inconsistent with itself in places where, perhaps, they had just now learned something they were wrong about before.

It didn't take very long after the texts for the key to turn in the door and open, Amory coming in followed by a slight shimmering in the air which took a moment to shut and lock the door behind it before dropping the invisibility. "Uhh, hi." It was, of course, Gemma in her combined form.
"Hey." Blake set down his tablet, standing up and turning to face them. "Date went okay?"
"Yeah! Very um. Very okay." The two-tailed vixen blushed and looked away. Amory just nodded his agreement, his face also slightly red.

"I uh, thought we might go ahead and test the theory that fusion doesn't strictly require my help," Amory said. "And, also see, you know, what happens in general?"
"Mmh." Blake nodded. "You want to try it?" he said, specifically to Emma.
"Um—yes!" She seemed pleased at the swift change of subject, coming closer. "I'm uh, is it weird to say I'm a little excited even? I mean, how often do people get a chance to find out what it's like to be each other, even a little bit?"

"I hadn't thought of that way," he said. "Okay.." Blake gestured for Amory to cover his eyes before speaking the phrase to generate a bright flash—and turn into a fox-girl yet again.

Light exhaled softly. "How...close exactly do we have to get, I wonder?"

"I'd guess 'physical contact' is required, at least," Amory said. Then, as both of them looked at him: "Would this be uh, easier if I was Amp?"

"Uh, m-maybe."
"Yeah," Light said at the same time.

"Okay then." He changed to the short, cute form, although this didn't actually seem to make Gemma's heart race any less from looking at her.

Light just tried putting a hand on her head and speaking her phrase, and 'felt' some sort of vague feedback that she was doing this incorrectly. "Nope. Not close enough, I guess. Prolly should've known..."

"Uh, it's okay, you um, totally have my permission to go for a hug," Emma said, but didn't actually sound that certain about it. Light just stepped close enough for a very loose sort of hug, turning her head off to one side and letting Emma return it about as loosely. Then she tried saying Emma's phrase again, and—this time, it worked.

Light's body glowed, turning into something like physical light the way it always did when she transformed or was boosted; Gemma gained a grayish glow about her. Both of them were semi-involuntarily drawn much closer together by the effect, until the light that was Light enveloped the other girl's body, becoming a halo all around it briefly before combining with the grayish glow and, together, absorbing back into her. A third tail burst from her back as she swiftly grew a half-foot or so taller, moderately curvier and more muscular.

The resulting person blinked a couple of times, looking around the room and particularly at Amp. Other than the growth spurt, she strongly resembled Gemma's combined form with an extra tail identical to Light's, except that her "plus" eye was green rather than blue and her "minus" eye was orange rather than red. Her outfit had shifted somewhat, clinging a bit tighter to her enhanced figure and leaning slightly more toward Light's usually tomboyish style. She opened her mouth in slow motion, preparing to say something and seemingly needing longer than expected to formulate it.

Finally: "Is it really like this all the time?!" Her voice bore similarity to Gemma's and Light's, its register landing at at higher alto. Now that she'd started, she continued with little pause: "I mean—wait, is this not normal? No, it's—I can't hear myself think over hearing myself think! Aagh!"

"Um—"

She put up a hand. "No no wait, sorry, hang on. I should—" Then she popped apart into two bodies—not Light and Gemma, but whoever-she-was's "Plus" and "Minus". Plus seemed to keep Light's tail, while Minus got an inverted-color version of the same; similar to the combined form, they both seemed to be more "mature" and muscular versions of the Gemma's usual appearances for the most part. They both looked at each other, then at Amp for a second, before saying simultaneously: "Why did I think this would help!?"

Amp gave them both a slightly worried look. "Um, are you okay?"

"Uhh, sorry—" "—Yes, I'm fine, it's just—" "—my head started spinning nonstop as soon as I fused or whatever—" "—like a processor thrashing between way too many threads and I—" "—can't seem to focus on anything for more than two—" "—nanoseconds without getting distracted by something else I wanna think about—" "—and like forty to sixty percent of it isn't even slightly important but my brain—" "—brains won't let it go anyway. And I'm used to this and I think it's normal—" "—and I know it's not normal because it doesn't usually do this—" "—so now I feel like I'm arguing with myself, which is super weird and total nonsense—" "—especially since I'm actually just explaining one thing but—"

"Hold it!" Amp put out an arm toward each of them. "Let me see if I can get this straight. 'One of you' is used to your mind working like that, and the 'other' isn't, right?"

"Uh..—" "—yes."
"Aand, I'm guessing Emma's the one who's used to it?"
"I...—" "—I think so.—" "—This is way more confusing than I think it should be." 'Combined Minus' poked at the tip of one of her ears.
"Look, if I understand how this works correctly, you probably have the processing power of three brains at this point, so maybe that's actually making it worse once you start panicking. Just..take a deep breath for a second and try to calm down?"

"Okay—" "—yeah.." They took deep breaths in kind of back-and-forth chorus for a second, one body inhaling whenver the other was exhaling. "Yeah. Okay, that—" "—that is better. I think 'Light' just isn't used to managing this. But um—" "—Once I made an effort to remember how 'Emma' handles it, it was almost trivial.—" "—Sorry about that."

"It's perfectly fine," she said. "I'm surprised Quinn wasn't way more confused about suddenly being 'one person', too. But..maybe my 'help' actually smooths that over somewhat?"
"Possibly...—" "—it could also just be that they've lived together long enough to know what the other is thinking to some extent, and like,—" "—they have so many experiences more or less 'in common' that it's easier to get used to it quickly." Both of them were pacing around in a wide circle that periodically exchanged their positions; the panic was gone, but it seemed the abundance of excess energy wasn't.

"It didn't help my confusion to look at you, and feel—" "—uh, how do I put this—" "—simultaneously um, 'attracted' and also—" "—not, exactly, repulsed or anything, but super weird about the idea of ever being attracted to you—" "—on Light's end, of course. But now that I think of it that's actually kinda reassuring, like—" "—makes my jealous fit before seem even dumber now that I get how I feel.—" "—Err, how 'Light' does, I mean."

Hearing this, Amp realized something, and said: "Wait..so, you have um, 'both' sets of memories, right?"

"Mm-hm. But uh—" "—I'm not exactly sure how to explain it—" "—there's a difference between what I remember and what I will remember,—" "—or what I'll..remember, remembering. There's kind of a—" "—mental 'box' that I can choose to put things I want both of me to remember into—" "—and keep things I don't wanna remember out of, or things I don't want me to remember, if uh, that makes sense.—" "—But I think whatever I experience directly like this automatically goes into said 'box',—" "—including anything I say aloud or hear from you, ssssooo." Both bodies gestured vaguely, their faces very slightly red.

There was a clear implication here: Emma didn't want the memory of what they'd been doing just slightly earlier that afternoon to get into Light's head, and Light probably also didn't want to permanently remember that. "I get it," Amp said, nodding. "Um, so what about your powers? Anything, special come to mind with that?"

"Ohh, yes!—" "—Totally!" both of them said at once eagerly. She seemed immediately excited to share her ideas, so Amp cheerfully braced herself for the inevitable torrent of words. "I uh, kinda already started some. That is—" "—almost as soon as I 'combined' and realized I was gonna have a freak out and maybe raise my voice, I thought to mute sound going out of this apartment.—" "—It feels like there is way more power for imitating Hugo to do that than I'm used to, so it's like nearly effortless and I hardly even need to think about it.—" "—So, thankfully, even our next door neighbors can't have heard a thing."

"Well, that's...good news. I guess," Amp said; she hadn't even thought of that issue, but of course Light would have. "Obviously you can do everything Light could, but do you also get stronger shadow powers for Minus?"

"Ooh, let's see!"

The white-haired vixen raised a hand, gathering the majority of the light in the room into a small sphere hovering over the palm; the other body then spread her hands out and succeeded in making the shadows this resulted in dance around a bit, raise from the ground as solid objects briefly, then go back to their usual locations. "..Yep. That didn't feel or uh, 'look' like an imitation power at all."

Meanwhile, the 'Plus' body was still looking into the sphere of white above her hand with a thoughtful expression. "Hmn. You know something?" Her other hand's index finger pointed at the sphere, and it turned instantly into a ball of electricity, chaotically arcing around and occasionally sending smaller sparks out from it. "It's just energy. Just..—" "—magic. So.." Spreading her fingers out, she succeeded in turning it into a fireball; then another couple of motions formed it into a distortion in the air (gravity or time magic, Amory wasn't sure; this one didn't stay long and seemed to lose size very quickly). Finally it cycled back to light and she released it, making a small flash as it dispersed. "Converting between one form and another should be easy, and it is. At least—" "—for 'me' it is, anyway. And I should be able to do the same thing with..." the dark-haired body trailed off, forming a small globe of water from vapor above her hand and shifting it to rock, solid shadow, wood, a bunch of spores, and then back to water again. "Yes! Okay."

"So, you can basically 'make' whatever element you want out of any other element?" Amp said.
"Sort of—" "—it's not a hundred percent efficient, and I feel like it's easier to switch between different kinds of 'energy' or different kinds of 'matter' than to go between energy and matter.—" "—It's just that, Light's powers have always involved being able to 'absorb' and 'reinterpret' light energy, in a way,—" "—so even Gemma's fairly limited control of a bunch of different kinds of magic benefits from that. Oh, and—!" 'Plus' raised her hand and formed Light's sword, then immediately it turned into a line of light and reshaped into a flail, a mace, nunchucks, a hammer, back to a sword again before dismissing it. "I usually—I mean, Light can't do this for some reason, but it's pretty easy like this."

"Cool."

"So..do you want a name for...'you', other than Light or Gemma?" Amp said. "Quinn claimed that any good fusion deserves its own name, but.."
"Um yeah—" "—it's actually one of the dozens of things I've been involuntarily thinking about in the background,—" "—and I think I have a good idea, too! A 'gem'...or uh, at least um, a kinda crystal-type thing that has to do with light, and with uh,—" "—converting or splitting things.."
"Prism?" Amp guessed.
"Prism!" both of her bodies excitedly yelled back at once. "Yeah, I knew you'd get it pretty quick," 'Plus' said. "I'm not as certain about what to call these uh, two separate bodies if it's relevant though.—" "—Plus and Minus still works, but I don't entirely feel like the me that's usually called those things, so it is a little odd."

"What about, 'Pitch' and 'Bright'? As in—pitch black, and bright uh..white?" Amp suggested.
Both bodies displayed her thinking about it briefly, and then the light-haired one said, "I think I like it, yeah.—" "—Especially since I'd probably wind up using a lot of shadow with this one and light with that one," 'Pitch' continued. "Helps they're not any longer to say, or..even a bit shorter, I guess.—" "—But if anyone forgets or just, hasn't been told, it should still be easy enough to remember which of me is 'Plus' or 'Minus' anyway." They stepped steadily closer to each other as they spoke, then recombined into the single, three-tailed body.

"You know, I wonder if fusions can fuse. Or just—stack as far as there are people available to combine with in general," Prism said. "Quinn got...two tails, right?"
"Yeah, both Clark and Rory's," Amp nodded.
"Yyyeah, so a lot of people combined would have an increased risk of those things getting really badly tangled. And there's a question of at what point the power gain is less useful than having more than one target for the monsters to take down..."

"Mmhm," the blond vixen nodded.

Thinking of something else, she looked up at Prism. "Hey, you uh..wanna see what you're like 'fully boosted'?"
She blushed, but said, "Uhhmmm, sure!"

"I also wanna check if this works without you needing to 'break apart' and 'recombine' for some reason," Amp said, stepping hesitantly closer and having some difficulty suppressing some heat in her own cheeks. She went for a conservative touch, just reaching her hands up to gently rub the tall girl's ears a bit and push her power upward. On reaching in, she could feel some confusion and internal conflict still there, but it also had a kind of overall stability to it built out of what the two people making her up had in common. At any rate, neither "side" of her had any problem with Amp's touch as such, and she quickly picked up the smaller girl in a light hug as her height and proportions swiftly grew, setting her down once it was done and taking a couple of steps back.

'Enhanced Prism' was, again, something like Gemma's combined and boosted form, with several inches more height, a slightly larger bust and a bit more muscle. She was smiling (with a slight blush still) and seemed immediately much more calm than before. "That's actually...much better," she said slowly, her voice mostly like Light's boosted form. "I dunno how to describe it exactly, but it feels way easier to focus now."
"Does this still enhance the 'price' too?" Amp said.
Prism put a finger up to the bottom of her chin, thinking. "Hmmn, I suppose. I could totally see myself running off right now if there was a monster attacking. Power-wise, everything just seems even easier than it was before. Uhh," Her left ear lowered a bit as she thought of something. "Wait actually, there's this thing I did when I got—uh, I mean Light did when Gemma got eaten once...you remember how I could make a sort of hologram of the outside of the hospital?"

"Sure," she nodded.

"Well, this is sorta similar..." The entire surface of Prism's eyes seem to glow a bright white. "Yeah, it's super easy like this." She was facing Amp and away from the chairs and couch in the room, and she raised a hand to make a small wisp of light go around behind her and weave around nimbly between all of the furniture. "It's..a little hard to describe, but I've got a sort of 'display' in front of my eyes now that shows everything in..well, everything in our apartment right now but I could probably push its range out pretty far if I wanted. I don't need to focus on any one thing like the way, y'know, eyes usually work, I'm just aware of all of it at once. The way it has to look to fit all of that 3D information at once would be totally incomprehensible if I couldn't um..'process' it fast enough, which I'm sure my—uh, Gemma's power specifically is helping out with a lot."

She stepped apart into two bodies once again, Bright maintaining the glowing eyes while Pitch's were normal. "I could probably just use this body's eyes for something else if I wanted," the latter said, "since I can already 'see' everything I need with that one."

"Maybe infrared?" Amp suggested.

"Hmmn." Bright made a gesture toward the other body's eyes, and they seemed to be covered over in black in a similar manner. "Yeah, it's just a simple shift of the spectrum after blocking out the normal visible light...I could also do a radar pulse or check for X-rays or whatever pretty easily."

Both bodies' eyes turned back to normal, and Bright seemed to sort of nod toward Pitch for some reason. "I think that's about all the playing around I need for the moment,—" she said, "—I mean no offense to myself with this, but my mind working like this nonstop just seems exhausting. I don't really wanna stay like this for a long period of time without a reason,—" "—like, y'know, something 'Prism' is needed to help take down. But there is one other thing to test..."

Both bodies closed their eyes, and the bright-gray combined glow that had appeared when Prism was fusing appeared around both of them; then the white and gray separated, the white from Bright exchanging with the gray from Pitch. Both bodies then quickly shifted, the former's white tail changing to Minus's usual dark one and the latter's tails combining into Light's. Bright's body changed back into a combined Gemma, and Pitch into Light, both still boosted. The latter breathed a short sigh of relief now that they were separate.

"Looks like it worked!" Gemma said happily.
"Yeah," Light nodded, her expression not unhappy, but much more neutral. "We can basically decide where to put each of us when splitting back up," she explained to Amp.

"We were um, a little worried that Light might only be able to 'come from' Bright, or that this would somehow invert her powers to be permanently shadow-based until we recombined and split again."

"..Or that it might just fail to work in some other way," Light added.

"But nope, all good!" Then they exchanged a glance for a moment.

"...This is weird, right?" Light said, folding her ears down a bit. "I still feel a little like I'm in two bodies continuing each other's sentences."
"Heheh, yep, that takes some getting used to," Emma said. "But—it's just 'cause we both remember what Prism was thinking."

"..Right."

"I had no idea other people's brains didn't work like mine!" she said.
Light said, "So, no one's ever—"
"No," Emma shook her head. "Um, I guess I do a pretty good job of faking it if what you're used to is the real normal."

"Well, we can't know that with only two data points," Light pointed out.

Emma paused awkwardly for a moment, looking like she wanted to deliberately change the subject away from that, and finally settled on: "Well uhm..It was kinda fun! Even if it is kinda exhausting."
"Yeah...and 'Prism' could be very useful in a fight," Light said. "I guess between that and 'Quinn', we're gonna make the VI come up with even more excuses for us, huh?"

"Probably!"