Starlit Heroics: A Spectrum of Hate

[Posted by Nyx]

Despite wanting to continue conversation about cute little god bunnies, the group found themselves distracted by their new visitor.

"Oh, hey there Midnight," Serafina greeted. "You uh... didn't feel like wearing clothes today, huh?"

"Right. Well, we should get going. Kingdomly business and all that," Kaj said, following Diana out the entrance of the castle.

"Oh typical man, can't even glance at a naked body without feeling uncomfortable..." Luna said. "But they've got a point. We've let sister and Bloodrain hanging for too long now. I'm sure they're wondering where we ran off to." She waved to everyone and hurried to catch up.

Meanwhile, Merrick plugged back into the conversation. "So I have definitely missed something but my interest is piqued."

"God bunnies?"

"...yes. God bunnies."

--------

Despite all her groaning into the pillow, Kaze still heard what Angel said.

"...eh?" She should have known better than to think there were no mind readers around. Or equivalent. "Aha... r-right now? B-but I mean the kids are here. We couldn't... you know... what if one of them needs something?" Kaze suddenly realized just how underneath Angel she was. She tried not to squirm too much, not like she didn't want it, but she was just in the middle of berating herself for such thoughts and now her girlfriend wasn't helping.

"We could uh... you know... um..." Well she was officially at a loss for words now and completely unable to voice her thoughts. Damn your ass, Angel. Damn that sweet ass.

---------

"Oh, I guess no one would choose to fall from the sky like that," Jack said, a little off-put by Candelabra's brusqueness. Still, she didn't seem like a foe, just a girl with attitude. But before he could comment further, he noticed her grabbing for her arm and grimacing.

"Are you alright?" Jack asked. "We can take you to a doctor if your arm's broke. Actually, we should take you to a doctor anyway. Just to make sure you're not hurt. Kind of surprised you survived a fall like that..."

----------

"So, what's your name anyway?"

Nintendria looked back at the girl riding behind him. Ethernealrus schools must not be doing a good job these days.

"Nintendria, Guardian of Balance."

The girl looked at him blankly for several seconds. "So uh, is that a last name or...?"

"It's a kingdom!" Nintendria crossed his arms.

The girl squinted. "So... your mother named you after a kingdom?"

"The kingdom was named after me!"

The girl nodded slightly and mouthed "okay," clearly unbelieving of him. Whatever, they were almost to the city anyway.

"Hey! Kingdoms are in Xephixir, right? If that's where you're going, can I come along? That's where I was trying to get to but I ran out of daylight and I don't really have money for a place to stay overnight that's why I was walking at sunset and I really didn't mean to go to the ruins I just took a wrong turn but I ran into you so it's alright..."

"Fine!" Nintendria grit his teeth. "I'll take you to Nintendria... But, what are you doing traveling without any money?"

"Well I had money, but I spent it all on food and a new sword."

Nintendria sighed. At this rate, she clearly wasn't going to be safe anywhere on her own. He tapped the side of his dragon's shoulder and gestured towards the portal to the Crossroads.

"Yes! Thank you!" The girl smiled. "I finally get to go to Xephixir! My name's Adanna by the way."

"You're going to be a handful..." Nintendria muttered.

[Posted by Flareth]

"Oh....uh.....hi Midnight." Minuki stammered. "Nice to see you out....and about."

She really should be more used to this.

"....Is this a normal occurrence?" Itsuki asked.

"....Yeah, pretty much." Minuki replied.

Cameron was busy sneaking glances over at Midnight's form. Not in a sexual way, but in a "damn, she's toned" way. She eventually averted her eyes, as so she would not give Astra the wrong impression if she had spotted her looking at Midnight.

----

"Yeah, we should get you to a doctor." Jax stammered. "There's one pretty nearby. Maybe on the way, you could possibly tell us what happened. I mean, if you know anything about why you may have...uh....fallen from the sky."

She grinned sheepishly.

"But...yeah." Jax muttered, "I guess we should head over to the nearest doctor?"

Zora was about to rebut. She was about to tell Telgard exactly what the hell 'interplanetary war' meant and the whole story behind everything. Then Midnight walked in naked and her brain shut off. This was the girl Sister had been eyeballing for months. Talking about how she wanted to 'hold her close and treat her like a princess and she deserves so so much because she's had so much bad shit happen to her'. But Zora knew. She knew her sister. She knew that she wanted to put a hole in that, too. That was how her crushes always started. She was a caretaker at heart to the point where Zora legitimately wondered why she was a Seer of Void instead of like, a Sylph of Hope. Maybe because they already had a Sylph. Zora also wondered why it was so easy to think back on back then now. Maybe the therapy was helping.

...Actually. Here was sister's crush. Right in front of her. Showing her hoo-haa to the entire castle. Slowly, she lifted up a phone she was given. Click. Click. Click.

All the while, Tempest stared down at her disapprovingly.

Midnight put a hand on her hip, not seeming to notice the impromptu photo shoot of herself, or maybe not caring. "So uh... what's this about god-bunnies?"

"Our new friends here are telling us about their universe." Tiamat stated plainly.

"...Their universe? Does that mean I gotta rent out more land? I dunno if I'm down for that. It's a nature preserve, not a fuckin' apartment complex."

"Doubt it."

From a bag she carried with her, Makvala pulled an old leather-bound journal and took a seat at the tea table, setting to work. She was intrigued, and now was as good a time as any to fill another page in this old notebook. If one were to look over her shoulder, they could see her sketching Telgard and friends.

----------------

"So, I'll tell you what." Angel crooned. "You and me take a little while to forget. How's that sound? Would that be okay with you? If it's not okay, I'll just get up and we'll forget this happened." In the back of her mind, she noted that it was weird for her to want to do this now, of all times. But she knew she wanted the distraction, and Kaze's sweet ass was a very nice bonus.

Eventually, Katarina's tantrum petered out, and she was left shaking on the fluffy dragon. Even still, that too soon petered out, and she was left... listless. Only now did her two companions approach her.

"Are you alright?"

"Mmmh..."

"...I guess it's better than nothing. You need help, Kat. You need it badly."

"...What I need... is to get stronger. Stronger for mother..."

"Do you know how you can do that? You can do that by finding a therapist, Katarina."

"I need to... I need to..."

"Shhh... we're going to get you help. It's going to be okay."

[Posted by Dan]

Telgard lets out a deep sigh and nudges Titania with his arm.

"You say something." 

"Uh? Oh sure." - She says as she puts the tea on a nearby table.

"We're from the planet of Divixus. It's an alternate world compared to this one, but things are sounding more and more familiar the more we stay here. I'm apparently the counterpart to the girl they call Ilia around here."

"You don't need to worry about housing for us. We'll figure out something ourselves." - Telgard remarks.

"You're all very interesting to say the least. Although I'll admit... maybe we're not the only ones who came here." - Queen Diana states with a sparkle in her eye.

---

"The fall didn't hurt. I've dealt with worse in my spare time... But I think I might have--" - Candelabra states until she notices the snapped off part of a nearby sign.

The sign was torn off at the center and the other half was buried beneath a nearby pile of snow. She takes a closer glance at the snow pile only to notice a pale, severed arm with long red nails in a black sleeve.

"... Oh jeez, that's where it went." - She remarks with a bemused tone.

[Posted by Nyx]

"So Midnight, what brings you out to the castle?" Serafina asked. She raised her voice as if to follow it up with "and naked" but decided it wasn't worth asking.

Meanwhile Merrick couldn't help but look over Makvala's shoulder when she started scribbling in her notebook. She had caught his attention with the mention of blood magic. But all she was doing was drawing this new Telgard guy. Gosh what a nerd. Though what was he expecting, sacred blood rituals?

----------

Kaze blinked several times. She was probably blushing. She was probably blushing a lot.

"W-well we should get a room first," she said quickly, not letting her brain get in the way. Her brain wasn't allowed to make any more decisions today. Shit, did that sound sure enough? Maybe she should be less submissive about it- No, shut it brain. Just shut.

-----------

Jack jumped back at the sight of Candelabra's severed arm. "Hoo shit!" he yelled, "you definitely need to go to a hospital! Or Denzia or Cherry. Something!" He waved his mechanical arm around. "It's fine, we'll get you one of these! They're super cool!"

-----------

Meanwhile back at Zempheriea...

Bloodrain picked up his phone that he left on the shelf. It had two unread messages, both from Diana. The first read, "Going zombie hunting with Kaj and Luna!" The second, received only minutes ago, read "On my way back."

"Looks like Diana kept herself busy," he said to Lutrine, sitting on a couch across the room from him and drinking some fresh brewed tea. Good, Bloodrain's meeting with Lutrine had gone on longer than usual and he started to worry that Diana would be left anxious. Guess not, she was good about keeping herself entertained. Even if it meant hunting zombies.

Lutrine smiled. "Well that's good. Your sister sure does like to tag along for someone with no interest in politics."

"I think she just enjoys the travel," Bloodrain said, pouring some tea for himself. He sat down across from her. Lutrine wasn't one for small talk usually, but today she seemed even more distant. He caught her staring off into space on more than one occasion after they had finished their business.

"How's Selene?" he asked. Lutrine didn't answer, but Bloodrain could see her grip on her teacup instantly tighten, almost crushing it in her grip. Oh, that bad.

"We're supposed to get the test results back today," she said, her smile from before completely gone. That would explain why today's meeting, Bloodrain thought. "She's still bedridden. Just gets worse every day... Only relief from the medicine Azurra provides."

[Posted by Flareth]

"...Y-yeah, what Jack said." Jax stammered, "We have prostethics...uh...people who can fix you up in a jiffy.....yeah."

Inwardly, Jax was panicking even more.

Dear gods holy shit why is this lady barely reacting to this? Is it adrenaline? Could be adrenaline.  Holy shit what if she's some druggie, not like Zora, not the weed, but into some hard-ass shit that numbs you from pain and causes you to....fall from the sky or something? WHAT IS THIS? WHY? 


"Uh....."

-----

"....Uh, yes." Itsuki said, making sure to look Midnight straight in the eyes. "This parallel universe thing does sound farfetched, I know, but it seems to be true. I mean, it is possible. Well, it's in the realm of possibility, anyway."

"But yeah, Telgard, Titania, Diana.....this Diana is a Queen, not our Diana..." Minuki trailed off, but then found her place again. "...meet Midnight." 

------

Meanwhile.....

A girl tossed and turned in her bed. She sighed. She just wanted to sleep.

Hell, she always wanted to sleep.

Groaning, she got up and worked her way over to the mirror. Same green hair, same green eyes she saw every morning.

And that same fucking lens over her right eye. You see, she had a condition which made her almost permanently blind in that eye, but thanks to the marvel of modern Xephixirian science, it could be easily fixed. 

I mean, the gods can't fix everyone with a dead eye. That's only for special people.


Her mind then wandered to what she was going to do today. But of course, she knew the answer. Sit around in a band t-shirt and a raggedy pair of jeans, binge watch Smashing Negatives and maybe start on Spies of S.W.O.R.D.  Heck, maybe even start on Lone Mountain or Lightning Bug. Everybody always fanboyed about Lightning Bug, right. 

Hmm...maybe Kit would like it....

She's probably already seen it. She probably binge watched with the girl after things got back to normal.


I guess Lightning Bug is out then.

Not that staring Midnight in the eyes would do Itsuki any good; without her blindfold on they were a terrible shade of red, and opaque, and she very obviously wasn't looking at anyone. She kind of shrugged a little bit. "Eh, I got bored. So I thought I'd come see what was goin' on with my favorite band of merry men. And women."

"...Without pants?" Tiamat figured someone had to say it.

"Shit. Did I forget clothes again? Ah well, you guys don't mind. I know you don't."

"At least it's warm out. You know, for you. 'Warm out' for me is anything above about one degree C."

Zora continued to take pictures to torment her sister with. "Hey important question. Okay, so back on Earth, 'C' stood for Celsius. As in, the guy who invented the system of measurement, which was based on the temperature that water freezes and boils at. Everything I can gather indicates that's the same here, but... what does 'C' stand for here? Celsius didn't exist here. I think."

"Cerphixean, I think." Tiamat looked over to her. "They were the ones who used this measurement system first back before Xerizero happened. Scientists have always loved it and sensible people started using it after the refugees from the Great Cataclysm started showing up."

"...Huh. So that's why the other one is 'X', not 'F'."

"Now you've got it."

"I've been trying to figure that out for months."

Midnight took a seat next to the nearest person she could tag on her aura sight. "I don't know nothin' about no fancy measurements. Just know it was warm out and so I didn't notice."

--------------

[Canoodling goes here. No I will not write this out. The OST is Careless Whisper, use your goddamn imagination.]

-------------

During the long walk back to Nintendria, Azurra started thinking about a lot of things. Selene was dying, and she might be the only one who could stop it. The only thing she regretted were the things she had to do to keep her alive this long. To anyone else, trying to extort the head of the Lumentian Mob was suicidal. Even her mob's former leader wouldn't have dared attempt it.

Lowe was a powerful, influential man with a lot of money and sway in the business world, owning one of Xephixir's most broad-reaching and thorough medical supply companies. If you were a medic of any kind, generally Silver Medical Supply was your go-to brand. Anyone who was anyone used tools with that logo on it. They had even oh-so-charitably donated a massive stock to the Cerphixean relief efforts.

And for as much trouble as their CEO was, their products were top quality. No one could deny that. They were also the only one who sold psionic inhibitors powerful enough to keep Selene alive. Unfortunately, Lowe was also a man who had his sights set on inheriting the Lumentian throne by any means necessary, and a narcissist to be sure.

This business had started off as tame as it could. A simple deal. Azurra paid him what she owed him, and she would take the inhibitors and care for her lady lover as she sought out a surgeon. Trouble started coming when the bill had started getting higher, and higher. Somehow, he had found out that Azurra belonged to the Royal Family of Nintendria, and had decided he could get more from her for what she was buying. Too much more for Azurra's taste. It became a matter of extorting him, or draining the Nintendrian vaults. It would have been so much better if she had been able to stay in his good graces. But so be it. Anything for Selene.

She made her way back down into the basement of the casino and froze as she laid eyes on the chaos she had left in her wake. The Xers were only now bringing themselves back together in full, and blood lay in a pool on the ground, shoeprints and a trail of drips leading out to a back door being the only indication that whomever was shot had escaped.

"Suzy, Holly?! What happened?!"

"Ugh... Cutie got away, is what happened..."

"How disappointing. Someone else came down while we were spattered everywhere. I think it was a cop. She looked Lumentian, but also like a spider. She got him in the shoulders, he got her in the stomach."

"Then someone else came down. Looked just like that singer from the Merry Murderesses! She dragged her off."

"So you're telling me he got away and not only did he shoot a cop, he shot my mother in law's favorite cop... Damn it."

Telgard and Titania tear their eyes away from Midnight and go straight to Queen Diana.

"Well, who else would have come along?" - He asks her.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Candelabra sees Jack and Jax freaking out but chuckles a bit in response.

"Thanks, but I don't need it. I'm more worried about the cold and the sign being broken than me losing my arm. That sort of thing happens a lot, actually. Now if you'll excuse me..."

She grabs the arm from the snow pile and places it back onto the area where it was severed. A sickening squelch noise rings out as the arm reattaches itself back onto the socket. The skin heals up to the point where there is no sign of injury or scarring. Candelabra curls her fingers into a fist and shows her recovered arm to Jack and Jax.

"See? Just fine." - She remarks with a calm smile.

"Excuse you, but the Xephirixean scale is so much better for livable temperatures," Serafina placed her arms on her hips. "A typical Magmarnian day can be anywhere from 70 to 100X, but in Cerphixian that's like... a difference of ten degrees."

But before this conversation could continue, Nintendria and the girl he was wtih walked into the castle.

"...so this is the royal family, they can take care of you until you get back on your feet... Okay who are all these zany new characters and why is clothing optional now?"

"Hi guys." Adanna waved, but Nintendria turned her around and started to push her out the door.

"Nope, nevermind, changed my mind. I'm not leaving you with all these strange people."

"W-wait, Mr. Kingdom!"

------

Jack was left awestruck. "Y-you just... Your arm..." He looked down at his own metal arm. Hell, as cool as it was, automatic reattachment wasn't a feature. Not that he was planning on needing it.

"What? How? Why? W-wait, who are you?"

-------

Back at Zempheriea, Diana burst through the hall doors. "Hello! I'm back! Sorry to keep you waiting!"

"Not at all," Bloodrain said while getting up from the couch. "Didn't even notice you had left."

"Oh gee, thanks 'Prince Rayner.'"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

As the two siblings bickered, Lutrine turned to Luna and Kaj, who also entered the room, but made less of a scene about it. She placed her hand on Luna's arm, grabbing her attention.

"Have you seen Monroe about?" she asked.

Luna nodded. "Yeah, he was sitting outside with the lions. Um, looked kind of upset. Didn't bother him."

Lutrine lowered her hand and her face went dark. "Oh... alright..."

"Mr. Nintendria, it's fine." Itsuki said. "We've gotten so new visitors that are apparently from another universe is all."

"....Midnight, maybe you should put on some clothes." Minuki muttered. "Before you freak out Ninty and his new guest. I mean, well, freak them out even more.

---------

"......I....how?" Jax stood there agape. "That.....I don't think....I don't think that's even possible? How????"

Jax began pacing back and forth.

"I'm so confused...." she began muttering to herself as she paced.

-----

Sephii sighed. Nope, nothing to watch. Nothing at all. 

"Guess I'm going outside." she mumbled.

Well, I haven't been outside in 3 days. I gotta keep up appearances.


But where to go?

Glacientyr was out (After all, that is my sister's "domain"). Nothing in Terrantia interested her anymore. She knew almost no one in any of the other Kingdoms.

Besides Nintendria.

Guess she was going there.

"Sir?" Zora piped up, completely dropping the temperature talk, "Sir. You really can't fault the blind girl for turning up naked, sir. She couldn't tell. Here. Here look I can fix it." She whipped off her signature violet vest with the dragons embroidered on the back and put it on Midnight. Backwards, of course, so no one had to witness the High Crime that is Boobage or something. What a farce, but whatever, she thought.

"What's the big idea?" Midnight objected a bit loudly. "I thought we were all collectively fine with-"

"Shhhhhhhh. Just go with it."

The blind thief grumbled, but settled anyway, leaving Zora free to send all those pictures to her sister. Oh, she was so dead but it was gonna be so worth it.

"...Anyway." Tiamat sighed. "The short version is, about a hundred years ago, hereabouts, a Chaotic Evil dictator god guy took over our sister planet and rendered it a dark, corrupt wasteland where survival was tough. He also mind controlled an entire race of people, except one, and the ones that escaped to Xephixir in time. Cut to a hundred years later, he decides to start taking pot shots at Xephixir. Now all of us, we ain't havin' it. We all set out to stop him, all eight kingdoms here. Somewhere in there there was something about having to go get that little shit out of a rift or something." She gesticulated a bit at Zora.

"Anyway, he decides to send an army one day, she destroys it, we send up our entire armies and a strike team goes to fight the man himself. I dunno what happened in there but somehow, she got de-godded, Skittles the Great got her powers, Cerphixen was purified and dictator god was killed. That's the story."

--------------------

The three mob members climbed out of the basement of the casino, the two Xer shaped as panthers as they had been before. As they emerged outside into the open air, they were greeted by the sight of a spectacular, highly decorated Light dragon soaring overhead, in the direction of Librata Memorial Hospital.

"...Oh, good. Someone's already told my stepmother, just to put the icing on the cake. I bet no one told her who did it either. She'd be in Lumentia Castle on lockdown if she knew. And he's still somewhere out there. I bet he'd jump at the chance to try to take her out... no... no, you said he got shot, right?"

"Yeah. Both shoulders."

"Alright... then maybe he's not running around here. He'll have run off to lick his wounds. Still... someone needs to say something. You two. Follow me. We're going to the hospital."

"... Huh. That sounds pretty crazy. You guys must have gone through a lot." - Telgard states with an impressed tone.

"Who was that guy that just came and went? He looked pretty cool." - Titania asks as she notices Nintendria outside the doors.

Queen Diana puts a hand to her chin as Tiamat recalls the story.

"Indeed. It makes me curious as to how things wound up so different than what's back in our home universe. It seems the only thing we have in common are some of the elemental kingdoms, which I'm impressed are still a thing even over here."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Candelabra puts her arm down and sighs as a cold breeze brushes past her.

"My name is Candelabra Tuleriit, but you can just call me Candy. Long story short, you could say I'm a demonic superweapon with the ability to absorb fire... but honestly I'd rather just sit around and do nothing but eat chips all day." 

"Sorry if I scared you, but I honestly don't know what's happening around here." - She remarks with a nervous smile.

Though Nintendria was nearly out the door, he stopped when he heard Tiamat recount the tale of the battle at the Lost Society Fortress.

"No no now hold on!" he said, teleporting his way over to the group. "Telling this story with such scant details is doing it a disservice! That battle may have very well been one of the most important events in history and you'd simply give the short version? Sit now and let me tell you this the proper way!"

"Oh boy," Serafina mumbled.

Nintendria held his arms out to his side, as if lifting the words into the air. "The battle was on two fronts: a massive invasion on the base of the Lost Society Fortress, and a smaller strike team to cut out the heart of the enemy forces itself, Xerizero. At the top of the highest tower, they met the evil god in their final showdown. First was Astra, still but a mortal, filled with vengeance for her people. And though she fought bravely, her foe was simply too great, and thus had to step in Ranthael. The two gods became locked in ferocious battle, until finally Ranthael dealt a grave blow to the evil Xerizero!"

Everyone paused, somewhat uncomfortably by those who knew the story and were waiting for it to continue. Dante coughed awkwardly.

"...And then Zora blew his wings out with a shotgun."

Serafina clapped slowly. "Wow, so this is what goes on inside your brain, huh?"

"That's so cool!" Adanna squealed. "You tell it like it actually happened!"

---------

"...Oh," was all Jack could really respond with. "I'm Jack. This is Jax. I have a friend who was supposed to be a biological superweapon, but he didn't cut the requirements so he just makes machines and eats chips all day too."

Jack just kind of blinked and stood there. "Um, why are you a superweapon?" he followed up with.

----------

Meanwhile in Zempheriea castle, Kaj ignored the melodrama in the room and tried to make his way to the back of the castle.

"You're off in a hurry," Luna caught him before he could exit the room.

"Mm, I guess I still don't think this necromancer thing is resolved. It just still feels really fishy to me."

"About that guy Konoko wanted?"

"Yeah... And the way she acted too." Kaj stroked his stubbly chin. He really wished he had more evidence, but all of his suspicions were just gut feelings. And possibly a paranoia about undead on the loose, but he was trying not to show that.

Minuki looked over to Zora and then back to Nintendria.

"You tried, buddy. But....dude, I think Zora is about ready to give you a Bad Time, so....uh, quit while you're ahead?"

A slight smirk crossed her face. Poor Ninty.

But then, another person entered the castle.

"Hey guys." 

It was Sephii.

-----

Jax pulled Jack back and glared at him.

"Jack, you....you can't just ask people WHY they're a superweapon!" Jax reprimanded. 'That's just plain rude...."

Zora's smile faded quickly into a confused grimace. Where was the part about her getting stabbed in the chest? Or the... godsplosion thing. She loved Ranthael like a parent but he did not actually have nearly the amount of credit Nintendria seemed intent on giving him. It was kind of making her angry.

"Okay, no. No, no no. No. That is not even remotely close to how that fight went."

Tiamat rolled her eyes. "Oh, here we go."

"Okay listen up. See, I don't know how the first half of that fight went because I was on my way up the tower. He's right about the two-pronged battle bit. I saw it. When I came in, both Ms. Astra and Mr. Ranthael were on the ground. Why I knew I had to be there is kind of a long and confusing story, but just bear with me. They were both on the ground. Now, I was pissed. So, I did the only thing I could do to keep him from killing them. I shot his wings off.

"Now him, he gives me the dirtiest look I think I've ever seen. I was gonna blow his head off, buuuut I ran out of ammo. So I did what I do best and started punch-fucking him. I totally rotted one of his arms off. That was rad. But then he stabbed me with some... awful, nasty attack thing. I'd heard about it, I knew it was bad. I couldn't even imagine how bad." Zora tugged down her shirt just far enough to show the scar on her chest, blackened around the edges.

"It felt like I was literally melting. I think I was according to what I heard. But then it stopped. And it turned into like... light. And then... well... I'm pretty sure I died. But I got better! Somehow. I don't know what happened in between either of those. When I woke up again, I wasn't all godly anymore, everything wasn't all corrupt and gross, and Ms. Astra was beating the shit out of him. And then she hacked off his head. And that's how that went."

Tiamat sighed, then looked over at the guest. "Oh, hey sup."