The "Best" RPG Ever-118

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---

Nora awoke to the bizarrely familiar sensation of another girl clinging to her, with a soft, fluffy tail lying over her own, half-curled-around it. Yet in the first groggy moments of half-consciousness, she thought there was something off: Zack seemed shorter and a bit bustier than usual...Oh, right. That was because this wasn't Zack.

"Lupa.." She gently ruffled the small wolf-girl's hair to rouse her, knowing that her impressive strength might make it difficult to get out of her grip otherwise.
"Rrfh." Lupa wriggled her head cutely, the tip of her tail wagging slightly. "..Ah!" Then her eyes popped open and she grinned brightly, the wagging accelerating quite a bit. "Morning! Hi!"

"G'morning," Nora replied. "Think you could let me get up?"
"Okay!" The wolf-girl quickly desengaged from the hug, then proceeded to roll out of her side of the bed onto all fours on the floor.

Nora giggled softly as she got up in a more normal fashion, sitting up on the other side of the other bed. But as childishly as the wild girl acted at times, she was still very much an adult in some ways...

---

Katherine took the last watch of the night, taking advantage of being awake earlier than everyone else to cook a big breakfast. This left the other adventurers to have 'normal' dreams for the rest of the night, and Zack had to sleep alone for a bit, but he insisted that he'd be fine—his instincts had already been satisfied enough for one night. Besides, there was also the beneficial side-effect that the smell of food woke everyone up, so the psion didn't even need to use telepathy for that.

Clera gave Karl a brief checkup, and declared the venom mostly gone from his system. He still needed some rest, but was no longer in danger of dying from it.

Once they had eaten their fill, the caravan started out once again on the road. They were in a relatively hilly region now, but there was mostly a clear enough view in all directions to make an ambush nearly impossible, even without Rayna and Katherine both having abilities that would let them detect almost anything nearby regardless. On top of all of that, Clera occasionally took to the sky to scout the next bit of their journey. So, while they did remain on guard, everyone felt a bit less tense than the day before.

A short while after sunrise, the psion gave Zack the mental equivalent of a slight nudge. I know, I know, he grumbled mentally, making his way over to Peregrine. He noticed, of course, and smiled warmly at the knight in greeting.

"Good morning, La—ah, Zack," he quickly corrected.
"Morning." His tail was wagging, and his cheeks felt slightly warm; he kept his ears straight and bit back some irrational anger, maintaining a neutral expression on his face through sheer willpower. "...Look, I'm—sorry," he said after a pause to fully compose himself.

"Whatever for?"
"You might've noticed I get...annoyed. Or frustrated. Sometimes. Around you. It's—not you, or..a-anyway, you're not doing anything wrong." Zack paused, taking a silent deep breath through his nose and trying to make his heart stop pounding so hard. "It's just—something personal, I don't think I can really explain right now. But it won't affect how I do my job here."

The prince waited a moment to speak, seemingly in case Zack had any more to say. Then he said, "Very well. I, confess that I do not entirely understand, but I suppose that is to be expected. Regardless, I will endeavor to respect that. Thank you for taking the time to inform me, either way."
"...Of course." Zack nodded, then moved away at a somewhat brisk pace, making for the opposite side of the caravan. He'd delivered the message as Katherine had suggested, and he felt like he'd taken all he could for the moment.

---

Everyone got their own breakfast, but they all wound up at the table around the same time anyway—even Rose, who'd come back through the door after sleeping in her forest. "I need to go looking for Fazren, and speak with him if he is still here," Nora was saying.

"Well, I fed the sword plenty yesterday," Aria said.
"Yeah, and even before you did, you were sane enough even with the sword out to quote doom guy," Mira pointed out.
"Glad somebody caught that," the shifter giggled. "Anyway, guess we could just take today off, unless something comes up?"
"Mhm," the witch agreed. "We got paid for rescuing Rast and the others on top of the spiders being a bonus over what was offered for the lizards. And, I've got a couple spells to practice, and curse theory to study."

"I'll prolly go back to the forest to do some gardening, then~," Rose said cheerfully. "But, lemme know right away if anything does happen!"
"Of course," Mira nodded. "Don't forget you've got a landmark tree to feed some magic, though."

"Oh, yeah, of course! Uhhm, after lunch I think."
"Speaking of going out into town, this seems like a pretty good opportunity to commission my second round of logic circuits too," Aria said.

"So, what'll you do, Lupa?" Nora asked the wolf-girl.
"Go with Nora?" she asked. "Want to meet tall fox for real! This one was only a wolf before."
"I suppose that's all right," she said, nodding.

---

Clera went up on another scouting flight, and this time almost immediately landed again. Rayna, she thought toward the fox-girl, along with a direction. Taking a look that way herself, Rayna saw the trouble right away.

Uh-oh, we better stop, she had Katherine broadcast—but especially send toward the prince.

What's wrong? he asked, already giving the signal to halt.

You see those two blobs waay out in the distance? she asked, the thought including a direction to look in.

...Somewhat?

That's ogres. Two of 'em. Those guys could trash the carts if they get up close to us.

What do you think? Katherine asked, Keep the caravan invisible and the rest of us go get rid of them?

Sounds like a plan! the illusionist said, going ahead with the first part—and 'silencing' and 'de-smelling' the entire caravan as much as she could while she was at it. Clera can fly back if there's trouble here, right?

Yes, the winged girl replied.

---

"Hunting~, tall fox~!" Lupa sang happily as they walked away from the door to town.

Nora giggled softly. "You do know we aren't planning to attack him or anything, right?"
"Yes! But, finding is hunting. So, where first?"

"I believe this town has a garden of Haestra somewhere..I was, avoiding it before, out of fear of meeting someone I knew, and then I suppose I just had no reason to go there, but..."

"Fear? Of meeting?" Lupa headtilted.
"Mmh. You remember the conversation I had with Fazren before?"
"Some."

"To put it simply, I ran away from home originally. I was concerned I would be taken back to them by force."

"Hmmn, weird fear. If not want to be part of pack, leave. No one chases," the wolf-girl said.

"Human—or, I should say, 'people' society—is a bit more complicated than that," Nora advised her. "Ultimately though, that was somewhat true in my case; they were sad to see me go, I think, but understand now that I needed to. That I should have been allowed the freedom to leave a while before that. Or—at least Fazren understands, anyway."

They stopped at the guardhouse to get directions to the garden of Haestra, and then went that way. It wasn't far from that end of town, and before long she could see the old Vulpin sitting cross-legged on a clear patch of grass near a field flowers, eyes closed and posture loose.

"Ooh! Is that—?"
"Shh," Nora interrupted. Then, quietly: "That is him, but we shouldn't barge in loudly. He's meditating."
"Or, taking a nap?" Lupa said, tilting her head slightly.
"No, he's definitely meditating. Come, we can wait for him to finish," she said, walking toward a bench on one side of the garden.

However, as they came closer to the bench, her presently fox-like ears picked up a distinct sound from Fazren's direction. She stopped not far from the bench, turning toward him. "...Never mind, he is napping. Maybe without meaning to? In that case, I suppose I should wake him." She got out her bracelet with a blue crystal on it and drew out a bit of water, flowing it over to in front of the old Vulpin's face before tossing it forward, splashing him.

"Bwaah!" He jumped to his feet, immediately taking on a battle-ready stance as he glanced around, before spotting Nora and the wolf-girl, and relaxed again. "Ah. You know you shouldn't disturb an old fox who's meditating like that," he said.
The fox-eared elf crossed her arms. "Why, because he might be sle—"
"He might be sleeping! Hahah..ooh, you got ahead of me on that one. Now, how might I..?"

It evidently took him this long to actually recognize his fellow Weaver. "Ahh! Nora," he said, smiling brightly and coming over to them quickly. "My, I didn't recognize you at all at first, between the sharp tongue and being so much shorter...so, you've managed a fox form as well, have you?"
"Mmhm," she nodded.
"Easily the best of the three, isn't it?"
"Well. It's, not so good in combat, but for whatever reason, I don't trip over my words in this form..for the most part," she said.
He reached the two of them at this point. "Oh, that's wonderful news! And," he said, looking to the wolf-girl now grinning brightly up at him with her tail wagging rapidly. "Who's this pretty girl? I don't think she was around when I visited you before."

"Hi! This one's Lupa," she said, putting up a hand for him to shake. "This one was around, but as a big wolf then!"
"Oh?" He took her hand, shaking it gently. "Well, I am pleased to actually make your acquaintance then, miss Lupa; my name is Fazren. I, take this to mean someone personified you?" he said, tilting his head to one side slightly.

"She personified herself," Nora said. "It was rather a surprise for all of us."

"This one is much stronger than before, too!" Lupa bragged.

"Good for you," he said, reaching over to ruffle her hair a bit. "You're also much easier on the eyes, at least in this old man's opinion."

"Heheh!" she giggled, enjoying the bit of petting and blushing happily from the compliment.

He turned back to the other Weaver. "Now, I suppose you didn't only come looking for me to introduce us, did you?"

"I, did want to come see you just to talk," Nora said, "at least, if you were still in town. But a few things have also come up that I'd like your help with..or, that I at least need to speak with you about."
"Very well," Fazren nodded. "If anything, I am elated to know I can still be of use. I would guess that you've surpassed me in ability by now, if you hadn't already by the time of my first visit."
"Erm..I, don't know about that," Nora said.

"No need to be humble for my sake! Come," he invited, leading them over to where he'd been 'meditating' before, "let's take a seat and we can discuss whatever you like."

---

While the four adventurers went off to take care of the ogres, the prince assigned his soldiers positions all around the caravan, placing himself just next to/in front of the illusionist presently leaning against a cart near the center-left. Her intuition was that he intended to keep their lifeline—her—safe as possible. She knew he was right to consider himself the most capable fighter, at least stat-wise, of the lot of them, but it was still a bit sad for the escorts to be of less use in combat than the noble they were meant to be protecting.

Around the time they got far enough away to be out of hearing distance for animal ears, Peregrine sighed very slightly. It wasn't an expression he really meant anybody to hear, just for himself, but of course Rayna could hear it. "Anything wrong?" she said, and he looked back at her briefly with an expression of slight, apologetic surprise that she'd heard it.

"Er—not at all, really," he said, putting back on a smile. "I have seen more than enough evidence to put my faith in both your and their capabilities to keep us from harm."

"Well, I didn't think that was it," the fox-girl said. "I'm keeping our present conversation muffled if there's anything else you want to vent about, though."

"Vent?"

It took her a second or so to realize he meant that he didn't understand her use of that word, making it another 'Earth-ism'. "Ah, pardon me—talk about to someone else, just to sort what's in your own head—without necessarily having any answers or solutions replied back at you. Must be a more local expression than I thought," she said as an excuse.

"Ah. In that case...w-well...." He cleared his throat politely, turning to face the front again, taking on a ready posture.

Still facing away from her, he said, "I am...somewhat conflicted. But I'm uncertain whether it's appropriate to discuss it. And it isn't anything important, at any rate."

"I can keep a secret," she said. In fact, Katherine was stretching the distance of her telepathy a bit to listen in for any distress calls from Rayna, but the 'sensation' of that listening in was faint enough that it was unlikely she was picking up full sensory information and surface thoughts the way she usually passively did to anyone nearby. And even if she was, the psion was vastly better with secrets than everyone else, anyway.

"I..do not know how I should interpret L...er, miss Zack's behavior or words. That is, how I ought to respond to them. The most obvious course of action is to respect what seem to be her wishes and not disturb her further, unless it concerns your job of getting us to town safely."

"That seems like a sensible choice," Rayna agreed.

"Indeed. But...at the same time, I cannot help but notice that she, ah..well, here I am uncertain what should be said."

"She's blatantly attracted to you?" the fox-girl said, making him glance back at her briefly. "It's not exactly difficult to tell."
"Perhaps. Ordinarily I would think so, but she also seems irritated by my very presence. As if I am reminding her of something or someone else whom she loathes. Whatever she feels is obviously not as clear-cut as attraction."

"The reasons for that are obviously not mine to say," Rayna said. "But—are you attracted to her?"
Peregrine paused and cleared his throat again. "I, can admit to finding her physically attractive, at the very least. I also admire her courage, the way that she protects everyone around her. Her care and empathy toward others is incredible, for as much as she seems to put on a rough exterior to hide it. But it's..fair to say that I do not know enough about her to even consider any form of courtship. She also seems, mysterious, which is..rare for me. Ordinarily I can make sense of another person fairly quickly, with only some observation."

"Zack is among the most straightforward people I know," the fox-girl pointed out. "I guarantee she isn't trying to be mysterious, but I see what you mean."

"Right. I think an artificial air of mystery would not..have the same effect," he said.

"To be clear, I do not mean only in her behavior, but..who she is, and what she is doing in the frontier in the first place. Knights exist as members of orders, which are tied to particular countries. There are no lone knights, at least not actually ordained ones with holy and healing magic at their disposal. None of Kyzerath's knights are posted out in the frontier, besides the fact that she has already implied she is not from anywhere near our country. Yet she clearly has the upbringing of a noble, along with equipment and training that only a knight could resaonably be expected to have. That is...a Gem of Brightness is not so difficult to come by, but hers is clearly too well-attuned to have been only recently linked, and it looks to be of exceptional quality. I presume the reasons for this are not yours to say, either—I only mention it to explain myself."

"What would you say all of that meant, if you heard it about somebody you hadn't met?" Rayna asked.
"I suppose...my first guess would be a disgraced knight, perhaps a deserter, as otherwise I don't see how her equipment would remain with her. But I rule that out on the grounds of her behavior," he said, shaking his head. "A deserter would not go to the frontier to fight even harder battles except, perhaps, out of financial desperation. She would not gather such trusting companions, especially not a psion who would be able to tell her personality at a glance. She would certainly not volunteer to help escort me, a noble who might work all of this out."

"Hmn.

"Soo," Rayna said, channeling Lynn just a bit. "I can tell you that this isn't the case, but just hypothetically—what if she was just some commoner who picked up a dead knight's equipment, figured out some way to make it all work, and then carefully adopted a knight's mannerisms, all to make a name for herself? Or worse yet, someone who killed a knight just so she could pretend to be one?"
"I couldn't believe that," he said. "But all the same, I think I would feel the same way about her. Her actions since I have met her, besides her reputation by association with Lady Ezra and the four of you who work alongside her, speaks for itself. In my eyes, she would be a true, worthy noble even if she isn't one by birth."

"That's a pretty nice compliment, coming from royalty," Rayna said. "You still might want to avoid saying that to her directly—in that hypothetical situation, I mean."
"Indeed...

"...It would be best not to mention any of this to the soldiers," he said. "I believe their confidence in your team is boosted by believing that a noble, especially a knight, is leading you. Although I'm certain they would still follow your advice either way as a mere matter of survival, if not out of respect for me...belief is a powerful thing."

"Like I said, I can keep a secret," Rayna said.

---

Nora explained to Fazren as best she could what had been happening with chaotic magic apparently driving people mad, Jacob's spells to deal with it, and Mira's theory that a Weaver might be able to imitate their effects to some extent. Lupa stayed quiet for the most part, aside from interjecting that she could 'eat bad magic' when Nora mentioned the spell for moving chaotic magic from one person to another. At the end, the old priest of Haestra nodded solemnly.

"I knew there was some reason I was compelled to remain here," he said. "What you suggest is..not impossible, I think, although I have never attempted something like that myself. There are...some records of those blessed by Haestra turning away 'normal' magic with their gift, which I suspect is something similar. I may be able to ask if anything regarding such a technique survives back at our home temple—the principle should be the same, if so. In the meantime, you and I should experiment on our own," he said. "Between your talent and my experience, way may well stumble upon something."

Nora nodded. "Thank you. I..know that dealing with this kind of magic is probably something of a taboo."
Fazren chuckled. "It is not our actions the gods judge, I have learned, but our intentions and results. Perhaps it would be frowned upon by the less flexible priests out there, but what they don't know won't hurt them."

"Mmh."

"Apart from that, I also have a..." Nora paused. "I am, not really certain what to call it. An..offer, a request, a blasphemous suggestion, perhaps?"
Fazren chuckled. "I certainly hope it's that last one, it sounds like the most entertaining!"
"Well, all right. Erm.."

<hr />

Rayna glanced around, and saw an encounter approaching from behind the caravan. It was...very, very low-level, thankfully. "Hmn." She walked that way to look, and the prince followed her, sensing that she'd spotted danger enough to draw his blade.

"Is something the matter?"

"...Off that way, three goblins," she pointed. "Not big guys, just the small ones. They can't see or hear us, but they're coming along the road, and I can't keep them from literally bumping into us or the cart unless we move it off the road pretty quick. And if we do that, they'll be ahead of us and we'll just have to deal with them later anyway."

"True...while it is a smaller number than those we encountered before, I am still somewhat apprehensive," he said.
"You'll have a much easier time just from being on the right side of the element of surprise," Rayna said. "But you know—you said before that belief is a powerful thing. I am no ordinary illusionist; in my hands, that's even more true. Call a couple of the soldiers over, keep the rest watching out for anything else to appear."
Peregrine nodded, giving the order; Isarac and Jehora joined them.

"Sire!" they saluted, and he gestured to the fox-girl to give direction.

"Got a few goblins coming our way," Rayna said. "When they get close, you three can take them out." Her eyes began to glow much more brightly than before, enough to easily be seen in the sunlight. She boosted their strength, agility, and dexterity, distributed to shore up whatever was weakest—spending more of the 'points' she had available to give on the soldiers than the prince, since their actual stats were lower in the first place. "You will now feel stronger because you will be stronger, thanks to my magic—but it's only temporary, so don't do anything crazy."

Peregrine nodded carefully; the two soldiers were busy looking down at themselves, trying to make sense of the strange feeling of suddenly being stronger and faster. "Wow.."
"This is incredible!"

"Yeah, I'm pretty awesome~," Rayna said. "Now, they can't see, hear, or smell you, so when they get close, attack in a way to kill them before they know you're there. Got it?"

"Ma'am!" the soldiers said in unison, somewhat clumsily saluting at her. The prince just nodded again.

---

"So, in short, you're asking an old man whether he'd like to try something that would almost certainly let him become—and remain—young again, with only the cost of being potentially stuck as a young woman?"
"With, some other complications..yes?"
Fazren chuckled. "Perhaps you don't have the proper context for this, being an elf and all, but getting old is a rather unpleasant business. I doubt there are very many who wouldn't jump at the chance, and I'm hardly very different from any of them in my opinion on this."
"You're not..concerned that it's unnatural?" she asked.

"Nora. Civilization is unnatural. Wearing clothing is unnatural. Farms and gardens—" (he gestured around him) "—and great temples built of hewn stone are unnatural. The gods do not begrudge us these things just because of that. Haestra's desire is that we live, as much as possible, in harmony with nature, not destroying or exploiting it in harmful ways. If something can save or improve a life, and does not actively destroy the natural world in the process, there is no objection to be found there."

"You're right. I'm..uncertain why I didn't think of it that way," she said. "And the...demonic magic involved?"
"Intentions and results," he said, nodding. "I have hardly had a conversation with her, but I know by reputation that miss Mira is a kind person. It seems to me that the stigma against demonic magic has robbed people everywhere of the potential it has to do good, and I would gladly seize the opportunity to help erode that stigma by demonstrating one particular mircale it is useful, and possibly required, for."

"If there is one concern I do have," he said, "it is that this potion aims to acheive its effect by slightly 'tuning' the connection between one's soul and their magic. That connection is almost certainly where a Weaver's power lies, and I would not want to diminish my ability to serve the gods with those powers by 'damaging' them. However, I admit I don't know nearly enough of the theory to determine whether or not there is any risk of such a thing. Did Vaedin mention anything of her own magic being changed or diminished as a side effect?"
"Well...no, but I have the impression that she doesn't have much of a talent for casting spells in the first place," Nora said. "It would be an unknown to her, I think."
He nodded. "In that case, I have a proposal of sorts. I will beseech the gods' wisdom, through prayer and meditation, on this matter. I merely want to know whether that risk exists, and whether they would disapprove of my taking this potion for any other reason. If I do not receive a clear objection by the time it is prepared, then I will take this silence to be their approval, and take it."
"You really think they would answer you?" she asked, and Fazren shrugged.
"At least I can say that I tried," he said. "If my power and being is unimportant enough to not get an answer, then that is a kind of approval in itself."

"I..admit that I rationalized something similar, when I decided to leave," Nora said. "I waited some days, and had no word telling me not to—and nobody was forewarned to stop me from leaving, either, I suppose."
"Perhaps it just means that you were right to go," Fazren said. "Although I would say none of us being prompted to stop you comes down more to the gods' respect for free will, of course."
"Right..."

Minor Miscommunication

Here's a follow-up to the previous caption. It's even longer than that one, so I tried widening the image a bit to keep it from being ultra-tall and narrow; hopefully that works better for readability. Let me know, especially if this is actually worse. (EDIT: I made it a bit thinner and touched things up a bit, including a larger text size; hopefully this is better.)

Also, the working title for this was "little cute wolf".

---

Further edit: Okay, maybe this was a totally failed experiment. I'm tired of fiddling with the image, though, so below is just a "story version" of this.

---

Kane's life had improved significantly of late. Granted, things had been pretty alright before, but over the last couple of months things had really taken off. And it was all thanks to just one person..or what some pedants might call two.

He was a tall, buff werewolf with deep brown hair and fur (aside from a cream-colored underside in forms that had fur there), and bright red eyes. He had a gig as a trainer at a local gym that paid pretty well and let him show off those looks, although he mostly just liked looking and being looked back at. Or at least that was what he thought, until one of his friends suddenly turned into a smoking hot catgirl.

Well, okay—it was more complicated than that, with his pet cat having been a cat spirit and they somehow managed to accidentally combine into a single person, now calling herself Zona. But to Kane, the precise reasons and details weren't as important as the fact that the guy who he'd been good friends with one day had suddenly become a snowy-white-furred bombshell of a woman the next.

Zona had most of Oz's mannerisms, and favored tight pants or short shorts as bottoms and either tight t-shirts or tank tops or, semi-frequently, some of the shirts that had fit her as a guy which now fell very loose across her figure. Everything looked great on her, of course, and perhaps the loose-fitting shirts were the sexiest of all in Kane's eyes. And while she absolutely was a woman, blushing and giggling receptively in response to the stares of most of her male friends, she was also quite a tomboy, not acting much more feminine than before. The biggest contribution one could easily see from the "cat side" of her—that is, the originally female one—was instead a newfound tendency to express herself in feline noises and sometimes casually show off the ridiculous acrobatic skill and flexibility her body now had with impressive stretches, leaps, cartwheels, flips or the like. It was hard to tell—and inconceivable to ask—whether these movements occasionally exposing a bit more skin than whatever she was wearing normally would was deliberate or accidental.

And Kane knew from the day he saw her like that that he had to be the one who claimed her. That's not to say that he thought he owned her or anything, especially right then; rather, Kane intended to pursue her as hard as he could, and hope that either she chose him or it became clear to both that they weren't romantically compatible. Fortunately, it was the former; his initial flirting was eagerly returned, and within a couple of weeks they were officially dating. As he got to know her better, they really clicked, becoming far closer friends than before, too. Around a month after the transformation, Zona was officially the werewolf's girlfriend, and they would get together fairly regularly just by themselves. Her body felt amazing holding on to his in an embrace; her fur was soft in his hands, and her hands knew just how to pet his ears; her tail quickly developed a habit of teasingly brushing against his whenever they stood or sat close to each other; certain kinds of sexy looks from her were enough to practically paralyze his brain function for a moment; and when they kissed...right from the very first time, there was passion and heat for both to enjoy, with the consistent end result of each one panting heavily, still holding on tight.

And now, a little over two months since the change, and nearly as long into their budding relationship, they were on their way out from hanging with the rest of their friends (and putting up with the usual jokes about cats and dogs getting along) when she came up next to him, lowering her ears and grinning up at him. "Hey," she said, knowing full well that this expression mostly broke his ability to focus. "You, wanna come to my place tonight? I'm, getting pretty confident with using my magic now, and..I wanna try something out with you."

"Uh..s-sure." Kane's tail wagged rapidly, his own ears low in an equally friendly expression. He kind of missed the part about her magic until he'd already agreed to come along, but it was difficult for him to imagine this invitation leading to anything he wouldn't enjoy. So he drove to her apartment and followed her up the stairs, watching her hips swing and tail whip around excitedly the whole time.

She glanced back at him as he came into the doorway. "Oh, it's a little chilly, so you might wanna keep that sweater on," she said. Kane was wearing a red sweater with 'Big Bad Wolf' written across the chest; someone had bought it for him as a joke last winter, but he'd worn it regularly from then on anyway, deciding to own it. "Come to the couch with me?"

"Um, sure..." He shut the door, and briefly looked around as he came to sit next to her. Even when they'd both been male, Kane hadn't come by here before; it was a bit too small for a bunch of guests, after all. He thought to himself, if they stayed together to the point of marrying, he'd offer for them to either move into his place, which was way bigger, or even a new place altogether. Nonetheless, it was pretty nice for its size.

She patted the seat next to her on the couch, and when he sat down she quickly scooted up next to him, pulling an arm up around his waist. "You wanna kiss first?" she asked casually.

"Y..yes." She giggled and then pulled herself over him, pushing her face onto his lips-to-lips and treating him to one of the deepest, most intense kisses they'd ever had together. In the process they both got to petting each other, her tail swiping across his when it could catch it—busy as it was whipping back and forth in a happy wag. After about the halfway point, she started maneuvering him around until he was lying on his back underneath her. Only once both of them desperately needed to come up for air did they stop, Zona pulling her lips off of his with a loud smack.

"Hff..yeah, you're amazing," she said, high and breathless.

"You—ffh—too—fhh—cutie," he answered between rapid panting, thinking to himself that this was a real test of his physical stamina.

"Aa~aahnn, I feel so good, with you. I wanna...let you know, how you make me feel," she said, running a hand through his hair. "Okay?"

"Uh..sure..?" Kane didn't understand what she meant by this at all. In his defense, both when she'd mentioned her magic and now were times when most of his mental facilities were mostly occupied with..appreciating her beauty.

"Okay, mrrh," she purred happily. "Just stay there and enjoy~."

The catgirl lifted herself off of him enough to look very clearly down at his chest—or more specifically the text on his sweater. She drew an index finger sideways along the text (which he also felt across his chest), murmuring "Big bad wolf..." It made him shudder slightly as he felt a curious tingling spread out from the area of contact, racing up and down and all along his body. Then she drew closer again, her hands rubbing his ears and her tail curling closely around his. "Oh~, what soft, fluffy fur you have," she said, her high, warm voice seeming to mesmerize him alongside the tender touching of his fur. He felt his ears and tail tingling much more sharply than his skin had, and could actually feel it changing too: The fur of his ears growing thicker and softer, and his tail's fur fluffing out suddenly much bigger and shaggier. "And what long, silky hair you've got," she added, running one hand through his hair while the other continued working on his ears. Kane's scalp tingled sharply too, and he had the curious sensation that her hand was "pulling" or perhaps "lifting" more and more hair out, teasing it down along his back and across his shoulders until he could feel some loose, wild, soft locks touching his forehead and cheeks, shoulders and running all the way down to nearly his waist in the back.

"Mrr, rrfh, rr~rufh..!" Kane was barking softly and affectionately; part of him wanted to lean up and nuzzle her, but somehow he felt like he shouldn't or couldn't..just yet, maybe? He was still too hypnotized by her touch and her melodious voice to really contemplate what was happening to his body, as she now drew both of her hands down through the longer hair to gently massage his shoulders. "What a small, slender frame you have, oh bi~ig ba~ad wolf," she murmured in a deep, sexy voice, and he felt his body melt in a way it never had before from her touch: A warm pressure spreading from his shoulders down through his whole torso, making it compress inward. His broad shoulders shrank narrower, his waist slimmed and flattened, and his height slid down, down, down...Soon he could feel her hips, once up at his waist, down across his own, her legs on his legs. He felt so small all of a sudden, with not just his sweater but all the rest of his clothes having become awfully loose on him, and even though some alarm bells went off in his head that this was strange and unexpected, he was also enjoying it—and enjoying her touch—too much to even worry, much less complain.

"And what a small, round, cute face you have," she continued, moving a hand up to run across his cheek.

"Mrr~rrrfh!" the soft bark that came out as his eyes fluttered closed was higher than all the ones before, and the pitch of his voice shifted in the middle of it too. The way her hand traced along the skin of his face made him realize that all of its hair was simply gone now, replaced by soft, smooth skin, and the warm pressure that had changed his body so much just a moment ago now spread along his face, changing it in a way he couldn't see but felt was making it smaller, rounder, and cuter—just like she was saying.

"Rr~rr, rrfh! Y-yip!" A surprisingly high yip came from his mouth when her hands returned to his ears and went back to work petting them. His face had never really cooled down from the kiss, but now it was warming up to a blazingly hot blush, as he began to notice a peculiar tugging, slipping, tingly sensation down between his legs. With how hot it was making him, he had to stop vocalizing to pant, mouth open.

"Oo~oh, looks like you're huffing and puffing, big bad wolf," Zona teased. "What's going on with your little boy, hmm~mn?"

If anything could've snapped Kane out of it, it was her calling this out particularly. He did register mentally that his manhood was, in fact, shrinking all the faster now that she'd pointed it out, but it just felt so..good as it did so that he still couldn't bring himself to protest. "H-hfhh, rr~rrfh...!" Instead, he gasped for air and barked a few more times, hearing his voice take on a deep, womanly alto tone when it wasn't coming out in high, adorable yips. And soon enough, the werewolf could feel his manhood melting away completely, drawing an extremely feminine "Ooo~oooOOohh..!" as his sex completely changed and she was immediately barraged with an intense, fuzzy feeling down there—a girl's pleasure presenting itself to her in full.

"Aa~ah, y-yip, a~aahnn..!" She squirmed and thrashed in the catgirl's arms, still holding on tight to her.

"Mrr~rh," Zona purred, "Thaat's it. Oh, r-right: What wide hips and long, shapely legs you have," she said, her voice going back into that mesmerizing tone again. This, of course, prompted such a change in the werewolf girl, making her lower body spread out: Thick hips and thighs, and a big, round bottom pressing into the couch beneath her.

"Rr~rrfhh! Y-yip!" Kane now found her hands reaching up to pet the catgirl's ears and run through her hair, gently tugging her head down not to force, but to physically beg her to come down into nuzzling range.

"Mm~mnh..and what huge, round breasts you have.." the catgirl murmured as she gave in to this request, her face sinking down onto the wolf-girl's.

The effect was immediate: As the werewolf began vigorously nuzzling Zona's cheeks and the catgirl returned the gesture eagerly, she could feel her chest tingling and pressing forward, suddenly-sensitive skin rubbing across the material of her shirt and soon pressing into the catgirl's own impressive bust. And Zona..seemed to have slipped her bra off when Kane wasn't looking, too. "A~ah, aa~aahhnn..! Rrfh, rRrrro~oowfh!" This bombarded Kane with wave after wave of girlish pleasure, drawing panting gasps and girlish sounds of pleasure and barks and yips out of her one after another. She could feel her new breasts getting bigger and bigger, and both enjoyed the sensation and encouraged the growth—feeling and hearing the intensity of Zona's enjoyment of what she was feeling from this too, besides just her own.

"Rr—rrfh, yip," the wolf-girl let out, and then with one final, hard push and deeply intense pulse of pleasure, she howled, a wolfish "AAA~AOOOOOO~OOWWHhh!" that might've echoed throughout the apartment complex if the walls of the apartment hadn't already been magically soundproofed. The end result was a deeply curvy, fluffy-furred werewolf girl lying under the catgirl, her enormous breasts squished close under Zona's own. Both of them held on tight, petting, nuzzling, and enjoying each other's touch, for at least as long as the transformation itself had lasted—until, finally, Kane's mind began to return to her out of the part-hypnotic, part-physical-pleasure, part-instinct-driven haze it had been in since just before her transformation began.

"Rrrffh..ffh, ha~ahff..w-whaa.."

"Mrrowh?" the catgirl gently pulled her head up, mewing questioningly.

"Z-Zona, what..? G-get, hff, getoff, lemmeup!" she demanded suddenly.

"Oh! Uh, okay."

She disengaged and got up, quickly taking a few steps back as it registered that something was wrong. This let Kane jump to her feet, looking around and down at herself in a sort of half-panic. "Whaa...w-w-what..?" Her pants slipped off, falling audibly around her feet; her wide hips kept the boxers just barely on. Her sweater seemed to have changed its size enough to fit her slim frame, but it was too long both for her arms and her torso, hanging down so far as to hide her hands and hug most of her hips respectively. The t-shirt beneath seemed to have not changed at all, which would've left it quite loose and overlong if it wasn't squeezed inside of the sweater at the moment.

"What did you..?" She lifted her right hand up enough for the sleeve to slide off of it, observing a small, delicate hand with long, manicured, red-painted nails: A very, very girly hand, overall. "H-how even..?"

"You made me a girl!?" she finally yelled, mortified, at the catgirl—who was now no more than an inch or two shorter than her, reflecting an extremely drastic loss of height for the little werewolf. "WHY!?" She frowned deeply, feeling some tears well up in her eyes and start to make their way down her still-blushing cheeks.

"Uh, um, I-I uh.." Zona was no less distressed than the wolf-girl, holding up her hands and lowering her ears apologetically. "Icanchangeyouback!" she said quickly. "I'm sorry! I thought you, and I'd uh...I..."

As upset as Kane was right now, seeing her girlfriend get steadily more heartbroken as she stumbled through the apology compelled her to take a deep sniff of breath and calm down some herself, for the sole purpose of hopefully consoling her. "U-uhm, change me back? So, you weren't planning on m-making me stuck this way?" she said.

"Y-yeah!" Zona seized on this quickly. "I um..I just...you make me feel really good, when we're together, and I..wanted to share that with you? Like, literally let you feel the kinda thing I do...but, I guess I really didn't explain that too well, did I?"

"Y-you.." The werewolf sniffed again. "H-heheh, no, you didn't explain that at all, silly! The words 'I want to use my weird cat magic to turn you into a girl' did not leave your lips! Neither did 'temporary' or 'turn back' until I was already crying!" Even though she was yelling this, anything resembling anger was completely absent. Rather, she was speaking between increasingly loud giggling.

"Yeah uh..heheh...ooh man, I'm really sorry," Zona said as the giggle fit calmed down. The wolf-girl had some new tears on her face from that, and now wiped all of it off with a sleeve. "Are you, okay? D'you, want me to turn you back now?"

"I uhm.." Kane tugged at her sleeves, pulling them up to the wrists to free her hands, and ran one through her hair—finding herself suddenly curious about long hair like this. There were...plenty of things about being female that she found herself curious about now, or perhaps had been before but the opportunity hadn't so boldly presented itself. "Well—h-how long were you planning to keep me like this?"

"Um, j-just till morning, maybe?" the catgirl said. "Or, if you asked to turn back sooner, then..."

"That's um...that's, fine.

"So you just..wanted me to know what it's like?" she said, folding her hands across each other over her belly. "Feeling uh, good, as a girl?"

"Y-yeah. Well I mean um, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious how you'd look as a girl, too, which uh—wow. " Zona admitted, blushing and folding her ears down again. "You're really pretty..."

Kane smiled, feeling her cheeks warm and her tail start to swish back and forth behind her. Now that she was no longer upset, the wolf-girl found it strangely natural to act more and more feminine herself; being called 'pretty' and especially getting blushed at like that felt very much like a compliment. "Awwh, that's..actually really sweet." It was starting to show in the way she worded things—and her body language, too, now clasping her hands happily together, along with her tail, of course, wagging eagerly back and forth behind her again. But it didn't worry her; she was kind of enjoying it—besides the fact that Zona visibly thought it was super cute! "And, a little pervy, but—I really can't judge you for that..." She leaned forward enough to rub the other girl's ears, drawing a soft purr from her and letting her know without words that all was forgiven.

The catgirl took a few steps closer. "Y-yeah, I mean, kinda 'more than half of me' was a guy for..a long time, so I don't think I'm over a certain obsession with pretty faces and big boobs," she said, prodding the wolf-girl's chest gently with a finger and making her yip softly.

"O-oh, is that all?" Kane grabbed the hem of her sweater in her hands and boldly pulled it up and off, tossing it away to one side. She had the feeling that it was soon going to be a little too warm to wear something so thick for long—and badly wanted to tease Zona with the sight of her shirt being tugged halfway up her torso by the motion, followed by the sight of her in just the loose, ill-fitting t-shirt and boxers.

This more or less had the intended effect, making the catgirl blush and let out a soft, high "Waa~aahh." Then she said, "Oh, w-wow, you've got girl abs! And, you still look really strong too, now that I'm really looking..."

"Heheh, thanks. So you like your girls strong~?" Kane said, letting her voice go deep and sexy, as she grabbed Zona, picking her up into a close, tight hug, and making her mew helplessly in assent.

"Moow~wrrhh!"

"Mm-hm! Rrfh!" That tail was already busy curling around the werewolf's again, but she controlled herself enough to start walking; the way the other girl was clinging on to her now made it easier to do this while still carrying her. "You mind if we go to your bed? The couch is nice, but it's not great for lying down for a long time."

"N-no, that's fine! Heheh!"

Zona's giggling proved infectious, and Kane kept giggling and laughing along with her even as she set the white-furred catgirl on the bed, first sitting down, then guided backwards far enough for the werewolf to be kneeling and hugging her with her knees on the bed straddling a leg, and then finally pushing her down onto her back with her head against a pillow. In no time at all they were in something of a reverse of their previous position—that is, petting and nuzzling each other breathlessly, but with the wolf-girl on top this time. Both of them quite vocally enjoyed this for a long while, before finally coming up for a bit of air, Kane loosening her grip on the smaller girl and pulling herself up just enough to give the space to breathe between their faces.

"Mrr~rrh...eheh..." Zona was gently brushing a hand down through Kane's long, dark locks, making her shiver slightly. Maybe..her base, male form could use some longer hair, she thought, half-imagining the sensation this gesture would give 'him' then. "Y-you know, I'm a little relieved you didn't wanna turn straight back. I-I mean uh, of course I could, b-but, Mina wasn't a very powerful cat spirit...I think doing two changes that big one right after the other would've strained my magic some."

"Rrfh..soo, a night's rest is enough, though?"

"Mm-hm! Pretty sure, mr~rowh. A-anyway, it'll get better with more practice. I mean...if you're okay with being a girl again sometimes?"

"Okay!?" Kane stroked the other girl's cheek, making her purr. "You're being silly again, little kitten~. Maybe sometime, you could be a boy again and lemme know what a kiss feels like from this end?"

"Oh..m-mrr~rRRRrh...a-absolutely!"

"Good..rrfh.."

The werewolf dropped her head back down again, pressing her nose into the catgirl's cheek again and nuzzling it. While this gesture was returned, along with some generous mutual petting to follow, and both of them did blush and let out some girlish and animal sounds of enjoyment in response, this was much calmer than either of the previous times. Zona's stamina was obviously a bit drained at this point—possibly from both the transformation and what had come after—and Kane had to admit she was getting kind of sleepy, too. She helped the catgirl's body relax and calm down enough to sleep, and then let out a quiet, low "Aww~wh" when she heard Zona making breathy, high mews in her sleep before giving that soft cheek one last gentle nuzzle and drifting off herself.

It was nothing like what he'd imagined from the invitation, but on the balance...the experience had been even better than anything he could've! In the end, it was the first of many nights that wound up that way for them—that is, as two girls lying in bed together petting each other—and Kane eventually came to mark that night as when their relationship began to really get serious.

Midnight Merger

This one turned out kind of long for being a caption, but I was determined to actually, properly put out a caption, so here it is anyway. If it proves annoying to read, let me know; I can edit in a "story" version later if it's needed.

EDIT: If you saw this right when it was posted, you might not have been able to reach the image; google has once again screwed things up even worse, this time with how it generates an image link within a blog post. I think I've got it fixed now.

Battle Vixens! - 96

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Episode 96: The Midnight Summit

"Another world lost?"
"Indeed," the Watcher nodded. "Their most powerful would not accept my help, and now it is devouring them, one by one. While the world has not yet been entirely consumed, the dominoes are falling quickly. As per the terms of our agreement, I have offered the survivors a way out and am temporarily housing those who take it."

Her host groaned. "I'll find somewhere to put them—but, you should know that I'm really disappointed. It's been forever since you visited me without bringing horrible news!"
The Watcher smiled. "Your reaction to bad news is always much more entertaining."

Her host did something of a double take. "...Watcher?"
"Hmn?"

"Are you...crying?"
"Well. This body has tear ducts, unlike yours."

"Indeed. But. I've never seen you use them before."

"Is that so?" She smiled again. "Well then, have your fill. You may never see it again."
"Aannd it's, too much to hope that I'd ever learn their origin, I suppose."

She paused, sniffed gracefully, wiped her face on a sleeve, and the tears stopped. Then she seemed to change the subject instead of answering: "The people of that world gave me a name with the meaning 'Peaceful'.

"...Do you ever hate what you are now?"
"Hmmn." Her host thought about it for a moment. "Fairly often, yeah, early on. It was more that I hated what I couldn't yet do, that was always so easy back when I was human."

"I despise peace, you know. Tranquility is so very tedious and dull, compared to conflict."

"Huh. In some respects, I agree I guess—to be alive is to struggle and fight to stay that way. If the day comes when there's nowhere left to run, when the Beast devours the last universe, and there is nothing left but you and it—that's when there will be eternal 'peace'."

"And it will be very, very boring. That thing has no imagination, so even its best efforts at torment will turn repetitive swiftly.

"I'd like to commission something from you—a device with a particular purpose. You're far better with technology than I, after all."
"That's only 'cause you always brute force everything with magic! You've had several times my expected lifespan to learn already."
The Watcher shrugged. "It's one of the few things I can do resembling force, and so I savor it. All the same..."
"Well, okay—I like to tinker anyway, so if it'll help a world survive, I'll give it a shot. What do you need?"

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When they were both through eating, Amory and Blake changed to their vixen forms, and she helped Light relax some more with the less logical means of some petting. This resulted in the white-haired fox-girl taking on her softer, curvier appearance, which obviously had to be undone before they went to bed, but there was still some time until then. She stood up, stretched, and thanked the small, cute vixen before heading back to her room to "play a game, or read, or..something," to take her mind off of things for a while. Amory herself didn't change back at any point between then and going to bed.

She awoke in the dream-space, and once she had hopped down out of bed she found her clothes rather unlike usual. Instead of something fit for sleep, it was a somewhat flashy, kimono-inspired dress in a bright color scheme. After briefly picking at it and wondering just how this place 'decided' what anyone was wearing in the first place, she went to the door and knocked on it gently, deciding to get Rowan 'up' first. After a moment it opened; the blue-haired vixen was also not in bedclothes, instead appearing in a dark blue evening dress. She was barefoot, but Amp could spot some very high heels in the bedroom behind her that looked like they'd just been kicked away.

"Well, uh, hey."
"Evening." Her expression was largely neutral with a hint of serious. "I spent the past two hours or so memorizing a number of things, including the list of everyone 'invited'. Hopefully I don't forget anyone important."

Amp nodded. "I guess I'll get Light now?" Rowan nodded back, and they went to a newly-appeared door to do that. Light answered the door in black dress slacks with a slightly loose, sleeveless white shirt tucked into them.

"Hi again," Amp said slightly cheerfully. "You ready?"
"As much as I can be." She tugged at the shirt, looking between the two of them. "You know what's going on with our clothes?"
Amp shrugged. "I guess this is better than everyone meeting you in just a t-shirt, though."

"Maybe."

Rowan cut in to this conversation: "Before we start bringing everyone in, we need to discuss venue. It would be ideal for everyone to fit in a single room, but this one is the largest available, and it is unlikely to fit the full population. At the bare minimum, everyone should be capable of hearing a single person speak."
"Hmmn, yeah. There's not exactly much seating here either, is there?" Amp put a finger to her chin and tilted her head, thinking. "Well—we haven't had anything but bedrooms before 'cause it's just been one to, like, five people meeting at a time. And, we've all been in super informal clothes 'cause we were just meeting people we already sorta knew, again in small groups. So maybeeee..." She went over to a third door out of her bedroom, trying the knob. It turned and opened into something that was not a bedroom.

The three of them walked into a giant conference room of sorts. It was decorated about as garishly as the bedrooms usually were, and it had a towering ceiling lined with massive chandeliers. The majority of its floor space was taken up by an impossibly long, unbroken rectangular wooden table lined with ornate chairs, including four along each short end. There were also numerous doors along the walls of the room, ready and waiting to be 'linked' to the invitees' own rooms.

After they glanced around the room briefly, Amp put her hands together, grinning: "There we go!" This'll work great, right?"

"It should," Rowan said. "It also appears to possess favorable acoustics for being heard across the room without the aid of microphones and speakers."
Light crossed her arms. "This is unnaturally convenient. Did this place always 'exist', waiting for us, or did you 'make it' because we 'needed' it?"

Amp shrugged. "I dunno if there's a difference here. I mean—don't forget we're literally in a dream. Either way, it does what we need it to do."

Rowan nodded her agreement to this, then said: "We have a large number of 'guests' to bring here. Amp's presence is necessary, as is my knowledge of who the delegates are, but there is no reason for you to walk around endlessly along with us. You could take up a chair and wait here, if you like."
"Yeah...I'm not opposed to hiding in a corner for a while," Light admitted.
"I will be certain to introduce any interested parties to you directly," Rowan said, then proceeded to the nearest door not already in use. Light went to get one of the chairs next to the table and bring it to the corner opposite the door they'd come from.

"We'll begin with Tenpo and Shuriken, since they are already familiar with you and this place. It is a shame that it's too late to introduce you by another name that doesn't suggest the true nature of your powers," she commented.
"It technically isn't, but I don't really mind," Amp. "I don't think I'd come up with anything good on the spot, just 'the Dreamer' or something."

Rowan looked over at her for a moment. "...That would work. You didn't actually give your name to anyone you woke the other day, did you?"
"Err, I don't think so? But we told Tenpo and Shuriken I was 'Amp'."
"They can be sufficiently discreet."

After a bit, the two of them came back with the Japanese vixens in tow. Rowan followed them as they came Light's way, while Amp went back to another door to get someone else. Light stood up. "Miss Light," Tenpo grinned eerily wide as she put out a hand to shake. "We haven't actually met before. Shadow-play seems to think much of you."

"Sha..oh. Is she, doing okay?" Light took the offered hand, shaking it gently, and then gave the other vixen the same.
"Some small pieces of her memory are returning," Shuriken replied. "It is slow, but recovery seems to be in reach."

Amp had been sent to get one of the vixens she'd woken up—who in turn knew the actual delegate from the UK. She opened the door before too long. "Aah, it really is you!"
"Eheh, yeah." 'Phase' had a powerset that let her freely move through solid (nonliving) matter, which had been enough of a problem when a monster ate her—much less the risk of the Puppeteer or someone equally murder-prone getting access to something like that.

"Oh, ooh! Is Light here too?" She leaned sideways to try and see through the doorway, being one of relatively few vixens shorter than Amp was.

"Yeah, but, we need to get Lumberjack first. If you don't mind?"
"Oh, no, not at all. What do I need to do?"

Rowan would, obviously, profess to anyone who asked that she selected the order to bring people in more or less as she remembered them—more or less randomly, in other words. In actuality she took some consideration to begin with the ones whose ties to the VI were essentially rock-solid, in hopes of them helping to project an image to the more tenuously committed members of the coalition that everyone else was unified. This had the side effect that the first delegates brought in included a number of generally friendly people who fell into the two camps of "not at all to only slightly interested in meeting Light" or "huge fans of hers". As it turned out, Light didn't have much difficulty dealing with members of either group, and slowly one small crowd gathered around her while all the others split off into smaller groups around the room.

"How'd you track down Ning with only light powers? Are you an expert tracker in real life or something?"

"I think I can sorta show you. Close your eyes for a sec..."

"...Well, it's not really teleportation. I'm just, turning into light briefly and moving around as light."
"Hm. I suppose I can see why that'd be taxing. I can, like, turn my skin into steel briefly to block attacks, but it's..."

"Can you teach me to go Super Saiyan like you did on that big Shiva thing?"
"Uh, trust me, you don't wanna have that happen..."

"Hey, how come Gemma's not here too? Can I meet her some time?"
"She's—nervous around crowds. Me too, honestly, but uh...a-anyway, probably. We'll have to ask, uh, Dreamer to help arrange it some other night..."

"Can you sign my scarf?!"
"Uh, I don't have a pen and, I don't think stuff here 'carries over' into the real world..."
"Awwh, too bad. It'd sell for hundreds online."

"There are thousands of fakes out already. How would you even prove it's authentic?"

"Uh, wait, people are faking my signature? I've never even signed anything—I mean, not as 'Light', anyway."

"I know, right?!"

Amp stopped near the next door, turning to watch the flow of conversation around Light. She seemed a little overwhelmed by all of the attention, of course, but still relieved—maybe even happy. For the most part, people were staying away from questions she couldn't answer, and a surprising number of them apparently just wanted tactical advice for fighting mist monsters, or her suggestions on creative ways to use their own powers. A lot of the crowd around Light weren't actual delegates, come to think of it, but instead some of their 'go-betweens' who were supposed to be ushered out of the room when it came time for the 'actual' meeting. Amp thought, maybe she could find them all a side room to continue the conversation in, and hang out with all of them there herself.

Rowan came out of the door next to her, bringing with her a couple of vixens from Italy. They left after a brief conversation, and she turned to Amp.

"So, how many do we have left?"
"We're over halfway through the list." The blue-haired vixen sighed. "At this point, we must invite Espadas."

"'Kay," she nodded, not particularly questioning this.

"We arranged a reliable sequence of go-betweens after my last call to you today." Rowan went off to one side of the room, waving to one of the other South American vixens who'd apparently been standing by, and now walked up to knock on the door. They went through a chain of five or six others, the last of which knocked on what would become their target's door before stepping cautiously back.

The person who Amory had shown Blake a picture of that afternoon opened the door not long afterward, wearing something fairly resembling a formal military dress uniform, complete with a hat, but with the contradictory inclusion of a short skirt and stockings. She was around Amp's height, and looked around briefly after opening the door, nodding briefly toward Rowan before addressing the blond-haired vixen. "So it seems that you are real," she said; there was enough of a Spanish accent to her voice to make it clear she was actually speaking English, and was apparently pretty fluent with it. "You're cuter than on television."
"Eh, thanks? I'm 'the Dreamer'," she said. "My power mostly consists of doing, uh, this."
"And you are not the Giver herself?"
"No."
"Las Espadas," she said, offering her a handshake, but giving it perfunctorily when it was accepted. Then she briskly swept by Amp to get to Rowan.

"Not many in here, but I hear quite a few voices around. We won't have to hold the meeting in a maze of rooms, will we?"

"Something more convenient showed up," Rowan said. "I'll take you there."
As they left, Amp decided to follow a short ways behind them. "I trust you were able to persuade Light to attend?" Espadas said.

"I was. I'll introduce you," Rowan replied.

After a few twists and turns, they came out to the conference room and began moving through it. At first things seemed normal enough, but Amp noticed some heads turning Espadas' way a few times. Around half of the way to Light, one of the Italian vixens angrily stepped directly in front of them.

"And who invited this butcher here!?" she gesticulated angrily. "Is all of Mexico not enough for you to terrorize?"

Espadas stopped, appearing completely calm. "If you want to make me leave, you are free to try," she said, a number of her 'light-swords' appearing in the air around the one who'd challenged her, all with their tips pointed down at her. "I would be happy to test whether this place truly prevents violence, if you provoke me to self-defense."
The Italian vixen growled and didn't respond otherwise, but stood her ground.
"..Too bad." She waved her hand, dismissing the swords. "But if you must know, I was invited by the VI personally. Is that not right?" she turned her head Rowan's way.

The blue-haired vixen took a small step forward. "Las Espadas is officially recognized as the representative of Mexico's empowered population, by the Mexican government," she stated. "Even if she were not, she has not killed anyone since the attacks began. And the VI's goal is to keep our world from being destroyed, not punish murders over which the US would have no jurisdiction in the first place."

"..None that you know of," she retorted, but moved aside.

After they had moved away from the site of the confrontation, Rowan glanced the dark-haired vixen's way. "I am not disappointed, nor even surprised," she said in response to this glance. "You don't need to worry—I have no unrealistic expectations of a warm welcome here."

The crowd around Light parted as they came to it, all of them having gone silent after hearing the yelling and seeing what it was about. Several of them were giving Espadas mostly fearful looks, obviously not keen to test her earlier threat. Eventually she stopped in front of Light, who..was trying her best at a neutral expression, but going by her ears and tail, she was more nervous than anything else.

"Light." The short vixen offered her a hand, and she took it, shaking.
"Las Espadas..."

She gave what appeared to be a very warm, genuine smile. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Uh, likewise, I guess."

"...Heheh," she chuckled. "There is no need to be so tense! I only want to talk for a moment."
"O-kay..." Light crossed her arms, apparently unconsciously. "Thenn, let's talk. What about?"

"Some congratulations are in order, to begin with. You and your friends did good work, killing that insect Tobias. It is a shame her moment of death was not recorded for all to see."
"You think so?" Light's ears folded back slightly. "The one who actually killed her wouldn't agree."

Espadas didn't seem particularly bothered by the increasingly hostile body language. "Do you think he was wrong to slay her? After she had murdered so many in cold blood, and his wife last of all?"

"No. We didn't have a choice. But that didn't make him feel any better about it."

"...I admire you, you know—as do many others, no doubt," she said, gesturing vaguely to the surrounding crowd. "But I knew you wouldn't approve of what I have done."
Light made a visible effort to pull herself back to a more netural expression. "No, I..can't see how I ever could."

Las Espadas nodded. "The world needs heroes like you to look up to: Idealists and 'dreamers' with unbreakable moral principles."
The attempt became unsustainable at this point. "And, what, you think it needs people like you, too?" she all but snapped.
"Maybe not forever. But someone must be willing to hunt down those monsters wearing human skin before they do so much harm that someone like has 'no choice' but to slay them. I am willing to bear the world's hatred if I can still make it a better place."
Light's fists were clenched at this point. "You've killed innocent people."
The short vixen put out her arms. "I can't deny that without arguing over who really is 'innocent'—and I know we won't agree on this. But then, I have only done so to survive."
"...You can stop someone from killing you without killing them, you know."
She tilted her head slightly. "Maybe so. I imagine that you have some experience with this."

Instead of responding to this verbally, Light took some deep breaths through her nose, managing to calm down again. Espadas seemed to take this silence as a sign that she didn't want to say anything more on this particular topic, and seemingly changed the subject instead: "Do you know what I wanted, when all of this began? I wanted revenge. To drive a sword through the heart of the man who killed my family, years ago. To watch the light go out of his eyes, just as I had seen in my mother and father after he shot them down in cold blood. But when I had received this power, and went looking—" She chuckled again; it sounded the same as before, but there was still something distinctly bitter about it this time. "He was already dead.

"I should have felt happy, or angry, or at least disappointed, perhaps—but instead I felt only empty. For a moment, I thought that everything was pointless. But then I realized that I was far from alone. What I did after that, was avenge other families lost and lives ruined by their kind. My goal is to stop such atrocities from being committed, ever again—ah, but now who's talking like an idealist?"

They were both quiet again for a moment, and Light's expression slowly changed again. By the end of it, she didn't look angry exactly, but Amory thought she'd only seen this expression once or twice before—and always when she was obviously thinking about the Watcher. It was a cold, distant stare, communicating something beyond hatred and closer to disgust. If Espadas could feel the chill from that, she kept herself standing firm and confident anyway.

"...Did you count them?" she asked (way too) calmly.
"Hmn?" The short vixen tilted her head slightly, the antecedent of 'them' not being immediately obvious to her.

Light took a small step forward. "How many people you killed? How many families you might've torn apart, or lives you ruined?" Her voice grew steadily louder and less calm as she continued, and at this point she took a slightly larger step toward Espadas. "Did you even care what you were doing enough to keep track of how many people you stabbed, or cut down, or tore apart!?" The shorter vixen flinched slightly, but didn't summon her swords or move to a tenser posture. Light seemed to respond to seeing her flinch by drawing herself back to her original position and taking another deep breath to calm down. Then, at a more conversational volume, she said: "Anyone can change, while they're still alive—but if you kill someone, then that's it—they don't get a second chance."

The pause before Espadas' reply suggested to Amp that she hadn't expected the conversation to go exactly this way—but it still didn't look like it had particularly bothered her. "...I suppose you are right; I admit I don't know that number at all. Perhaps you, or someone like you, will see that I pay for them with my own life someday," she said with a hint of solemnity. "But for now, if nothing else, at least we can agree to work together against those monsters which do nothing to hide their nature?"
"..The black mist things? That's..a given, really. But—" Light exhaled slowly. "It's more likely to be someone like you."

The short vixen was briefly confused before she understood what this was in reference to, then chuckled in a warm, friendly sort of way again. "I suppose so. It has been a pleasure, Light." She smiled, then turned and left, striding away just as confidently as she had walked up.

Once she was gone off toward the other side of the room, Light sighed. "You know, I..wasn't really sure how I felt about antiheroes. Guess everyone knows, now," she half-mumbled, seemingly mostly to herself. Then she looked at Rowan. "Sorry for, kinda blowing up at her," she said.
"She did not appear offended by it at all," Rowan said. "If anything, I would guess you lived up to, or else surpassed, whatever her original expectations were. And, you said nothing I disagree with." Then she turned to leave, gesturing for Amp to do the same—they had more people to bring into the meeting, after all. As they headed out, the crowd around Light erupted into various exclamations of how cool she'd been, and/or how terrifying Espadas was, before settling back into a similar flow of conversation to before.

After they had brought out another several delegates into the main room, Amp paused in front of a door leading to a now-empty bedroom. "Hey, you mind if I check something real quick?"
Rowan shrugged. "Go ahead." So she went in and shut the door, then opened it again and waved for the blue-haired vixen to come in with her and did so again. The noise of the crowd from the meeting room immediately vanished, as if it wasn't on the other side of the door at all.
"You're gonna need somewhere to put everyone who's not actually a representative, right?" she said. "I bet I could summon a 'lounge' or something to stick us all in, and we won't even hear any secret stuff this way."
"That seems..sensible," Rowan nodded. "Worst case, one of the larger chains of bedrooms like this would suffice."
"Mm-hm!" the blonde vixen nodded cutely, then opened the door again.

No sooner had the last of the delegates arrived to the main room than everyone heard a familiar voice from above them: "Good evening, my blessed ones." It didn't sound like it was particularly loud, but it somehow carried a presence of overwhelming power which almost immediately silenced the room and turned all eyes to the source: A semicircular balcony in the upper part of the center of one of the long walls of the room, with a tall, throne-like chair on it and no apparent means to get on to or off of it (if one couldn't fly or climb walls, at least). Obviously, the person sitting on that throne was the same many tailed-woman responsible for giving everyone present their powers in the first place. None of this had been there before, of course.

"Do pardon the interruption," she said, "But I just couldn't resist, with so many of you here at once, and finally beginning to take advantage of the potential of this place. Someday, it will no longer be mine at all, and belong the Dreamer instead—but even before then, you may consider it an extra gift of mine, to all of you." She grinned widely. "After all you've certainly been far from boring thus far.

"Now, make the best of the night, for the enemy awaits you tomorrow," she continued. "Like many intelligent species, you bear the contradictory natures of cooperation and competition. The conflict between the two in a crisis is always something to behold, and it matters not to me which one allows you to survive. Just remember: I will be watching you." She smiled wide, showing off her razor-sharp teeth, and then vanished in an imitation of the Cheshire cat, leaving only her teeth behind—then having those disappear last of all. The balcony and the throne set upon it remained, apparently as a reminder of her invisible presence in the room.

"...Since the Giver was kind enough to quiet the room," Rowan said, speaking with enough volume that all could hear her, and without a hint of audible sarcasm, "this is a good time to ask that we convene the meeting which we were all brought here for in the first place. Would those of you who are not designated representatives of the VI's allies please follow the Dreamer into an adjacent room? If you wish to leave, she should also be able to wake you on an individual basis upon request." Amp nodded, confirming this, and waved people to come to where she was standing, next to one of the room's many doors.

---

"Here we are." The Watcher's host presented her with a device resembling a big cylindrical shell of metal with an antenna rising out of the top and large openings on the sides. Inside was a somewhat cushy, immobile chair—like a resaonably nice computer chair with the legs cut off—and a sort of domed, metallic hat attached to a hinged metal arm hanging above it; other than that it was mostly full of electronics and wires all just barely tucked out of the chair's legroom. "Fun to pull this old thing out to work on again. I hardly touched it since I first prototyped the psionic interface system."

"Back when you were human?"
"Mm-hm. Anyway," her host walked closer and patted the side of the strange machine a couple of times with a hand. "It's self-powered like I said, and should now have no problem hooking up with their internet wirelessly and acting as a secondary server if needed. You got somewhere you can hide it picked out already, I assume?"
The Watcher nodded.

"Heheh. It's a little funny to imagine how you'll use this. I can't say I ever thought of spamming DM's back on my homeworld.

"...I admit, I was surprised to see you actually take those masks."
"Well—" The Watcher produced the items in question from one of her sleeves, fanning them out like a hand of cards and pointing to each in turn with the other hand: "These two were terribly broken—so I save them the trouble of repairs—and I simply couldn't resist this other one when I saw it..."

"Hm." Her host leaned in to examine them closer. "That...really looks a lot more like a cat than a fox to me."
"Exactly! I don't imagine they'd want such an inferior product anyway."

"Guess you already know who's gonna get them, too?"
"Likely. I've left some room for improvisation, as always." She folded the masks back into a single stack and tucked them into a flowing sleeve, where they seemed to disappear again.

"So..." The Watcher's host crossed her arms. "You think they're gonna make it?"

"I hope so."
"Really?" She tilted her head. "Someone once told me, 'the only thing the Watcher hopes for, is a good show.'"
"Perhaps that person was right. But it would be unsatisfyingly pathetic for them to fall now."

"Maybe I don't need to tell you this, but—they have quite the audience now. At first it was just a few concerned parties—and those who thought the whole 'game' would result in a disaster and wanted something to laugh at. But since the attack began in earnest, word's been spreading. If you wanted to appeal for more help from our stingier acquaintances, they might be more receptive than usual—at least, so long as it went to that particular Earth."

The Watcher shook her head gently. "That wouldn't be fair, would it? Besides, deus ex machina is even less enjoyable than tragedy."

"I'm just reminding you, the option's on the table if things get desperate."

"Desperation is where they shine their brightest. It would truly be a shame to hinder that."

---

Phew, this one was tough to write. The first issue is, obviously, that this episode very much breaks my rule of keeping a tight focus and not going out into the larger world too much, which means inventing a lot of people very fast and dealing with all of the logistics for this whole meeting thing. The second was getting Espadas' personality/behavior just right, as well as Light's reaction to her. Overall I had kind of a basic plan for this, but needed to work a bit to fit all the ideas together just right. And now, with this part done, I should be able to get back to a relatively tight focus for a bit, so hopefully the next few episodes won't be so difficult for me (nor, consequently, take so long to finish!).

Also, in case it isn't clear, the first part of this is an expanded version of the scene at the very end of Episode 80.