A Little Vice (Trans Magical Girl fic)

wetodet · Apr 1, 2024

LampWitch said:
Snip

Wait, how can she summon forth a Blahaj to fight on her behalf when Temperance is already right there? Is there no rule preventing more than one being present at once?

LampWitch · Apr 1, 2024

I mean, primal summonings prevent more than one instance of a primal, but won't prevent similar ones. So, "legendary knights" or "trans sharks" can exist at once.

Iris-Iven-Ibis · Apr 1, 2024

LampWitch said:
I mean, primal summonings prevent more than one instance of a primal, but won't prevent similar ones. So, "legendary knights" or "trans sharks" can exist at once.

What is Elisa sin?

LampWitch · Apr 1, 2024

None. She's using tree shit in another way. She hates Beasts too much to join them. She'd just eject the seed like that guy from the Spongebob movie.

GreatWyrmGold · Apr 1, 2024

LampWitch said:
A dark scheme brews in the White House to perform their own summoning, while the Saints wonder how to make the trip. Michael must hide, as the IRS is on her tail.

...did the President make a strategic alliance with Hell?

"Knock it off with those rumours of Temperance being the daughter of a crime lord. No way that's true."

Yeah, who ever heard of the Atwater crime family? What, will they make you sleep with the fishies?

"Right. Like that time you spent days looking for themomethers that are put in the mouth? Asking in pharmacy after pharmacy?"
"Look, why would it be on so many shows set in the current day, if it didn't exist?" She huffed, embarrassed.

...are those not a thing any more?

Anyway, really thinking on that HSR crossover now.

A lot of stories set in the USA could benefit from a crossover with high-speed rail.

Anyway, how do you all think Inessa would react to someone talking about Invidia Bat as an horrible villain?

We already know the answer to that question. How she would react to someone other than Chiro doing that is, admittedly, still up in the air.

LampWitch said:
None. She's using tree shit in another way. She hates Beasts too much to join them. She'd just eject the seed like that guy from the Spongebob movie.

Superbia: "I sense great pride in you, young lady. Pride which could fuel your rise to my right ha—agh, my eye!"

RiceRockRekt · Apr 1, 2024

Hi there, folks of...Elemental Pentagram? It's time for yet another shot at finishing this really goddamn big final chapter. Chiro got L+Ratio+You Really Think You Could Have Succeeded Against Castitas Without My Help+Cope and Seethe'd by Superbia because she actively tricked him into saying as much, it was funny.

Shadell said:
And it was like that, lost between my own thoughts and temptation Avaritia had given me, that I ran into the Saints.

"Ow," I said, stumbling.

Diligentia's catchphrase may have been 'steadfast as the earth' but 'hard as steel' might have been a more accurate descriptor.

Oh you're just. Constantly in this loop girl.

Okay so right after she says "God when is the rescue gonna happen", it happens! And Chiro gets rung like a bell just bouncing off Ida, wonderful start to the day's events.

Shadell said:
Three sets of eyes—two human and one plushie—turned to stare at me. Diligentia was geared for war, her shield on her arm as she led the group, dark eyes glancing to and fro for any sign of an ambush. Even so, she remained a steady presence, a bright yellow light amidst the omnipresent gloom of the Forest. Temperance followed, a plushie perched safely on her shoulder. As always the Saint of water was impassive, blending into the background, ready to strike at a moment's notice, for all she had not summoned her weapon.

That "plushie" is ARCHANGEL MICHAEL, show some respect.

Yet again, Temperance has this Clear Thing about not using her halberd more than she's forced to.

Shadell said:
I should have been focusing on the more important things, but I couldn't help but wonder what they thought seeing me like this. I felt my heart crack in my chest, the seed of envy pushing out of its shell in a silent offer.

Were they staring at me as a traitor? As Chiro unveiled? As the one responsible for Inessa's suffering? Or were they looking at the changes to my body and drawing conclusions about what it meant? I wasn't sure what would be worse.

"Chiro," Diligentia said, somewhere between acknowledgement and accusation.

"That's not, I'm not… I mean… I'm not really her. She was never real."

Temparantia sighed and Michael looked at me curiously.

Girl. Somehow you continue to make this situation about "But I'm not a GIRL girl okay" rather than the seven billion more important things you could be focusing on in this scenario.

God can you imagine if getting better mental health somehow makes her stop? That would be crazy. Unrecognizable human being.

I felt my heart crack in my chest, the seed of envy pushing out of its shell in a silent offer.

Fucking stupidass Seed thinks it gets to break its shell just because this egg won't crack her own smh.

God Ida has to carry this "You hurt our feelings" plot entirely on her damn back Temperance is just offended by Lupin's shoddy work.

Shadell said:
I hunched my shoulders and sunk into myself. I'd been aware of my body, stretched out and wrong in all sorts of ways, when I was dealing with Mr. Noir. But it had been easy to set it aside then, to take his disgust as a given value, a way of manipulating him.

"Chiro," Temperance said, with surprising force.

Temperance is just a good person.

This needs to be said.

Shadell said:
"I'm sor—" I stopped myself. Apologies were easy. Being better was hard. "That's not important right now. Castitas beat me, but then Superbia's trap activated and he has her captive. We need to save her."

That 'we' was nearly as indulgent as the almost-offered apology. I had already done enough. And yet, it felt sweet to act like I could be part of this, even if the disaster was of my own making.

I shook my head. That was the kind of thought I'd promised to leave behind. I would help. I was helping.

You're helping! Genuinely! The first step in helping is not constantly castigating yourself for making the decision to help!

Shadell said:
"Why should we trust you?" Ida crossed her arms, standing firm. I could hear the hurt in her voice, the exhaustion. They'd ventured into enemy territory to save Inessa. They'd believed we had her. But that didn't mean they had any reason to believe this wasn't all a trap.

Temperance started to speak and cut herself off, deferring to her taller teammate.

This is one of those interesting little moments where you can see Temperance's troubles balancing her desires lead her to surrendering initiative so that someone else can put their more certain opinions first.

Just a neat little hint of "Temperance is more sure that they can trust Chiro, but also knows she's biased and Ida has like, the right to take this reassurance from Chiro herself."

Shadell said:
It hurt. Of course this would be the betrayal that made them give up on me. I wasn't owed tolerance, for all I couldn't let the guilt crush me.

"I don't deserve it," I admitted, then shook my head. "I mean, I haven't earned it. But this isn't about me. For once. Inessa is here and she's suffering and…" I choked.

"She wouldn't give up on me," I said it at last. "I wanted to end things—to make her end things—and I kept fighting her and hurting her and trying to make her do it and she kept sticking out her hand."

"And…" Even after everything else, it still hurt to say, to let them see that spikey emptiness at the heart of me. "I promised her I would change. That we'd work together and change and I don't know if she still wants to do that after I got her hurt again, but she's right there and she's suffering and we can stop that, so…"

This is such a. Really interesting foiling to a certain moment:

Shadell said:
"Hey," I greeted everyone, earning a hi from Ida and a nod from Temperance. I winced, Temperance hadn't told me she was transgender and I'd accidentally pushed her into revealing that when she wasn't in her right mind. I owed apologies there too.

More importantly, Inessa didn't say anything and, in fact, made a point of looking away from me.

"Umm, Inessa," I knew what I had to say. I'd gone over it enough that I couldn't really mess it up.

She did not respond.

"I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry for earlier!" Slowly, Inessa's gaze swung to face me, but her mouth remained pressed in a thin line.

"I really shouldn't have said that and you're not childish. If anything, I'm the childish one who can't do anything. You're really great. I admire you a lot actually and I really shouldn't have joked like that around Lupin as hard as it is for you to talk to her."

A small smile worked its way across Inessa's face before turning into a blush. "H-hey! I'm not that bad!" she flailed.

"And, umm, if there's anything I can do to make it up to you, please let me know. Again, I'm so so sorry, you shouldn't have to do anything so if you want me to go hang out somewhere else or something, that's okay and…"

"C!" Inessa cut me off, looking a lot more alarmed, "It's okay! I'm not really that angry. Look, I was a little hurt that you just said that in front of Lupin like that, but it's not like it was on purpose or anything and you don't have to make it up to me and we definitely don't want you to leave!"

A lot of times, Chiro asks to have her wrongdoing held against her, feels like her agency isn't being respected when she's absolved of it, but always, whenever this does happen, she takes the most extreme interpretation of the impact this has on her relationships and trips over herself to assume that her friends want to cut contact and never see her again—

It hurt. Of course this would be the betrayal that made them give up on me. I wasn't owed tolerance, for all I couldn't let the guilt crush me.

"I don't deserve it," I admitted, then shook my head. "I mean, I haven't earned it. But this isn't about me. For once. Inessa is here and she's suffering and…" I choked.

"She wouldn't give up on me," I said it at last. "I wanted to end things—to make her end things—and I kept fighting her and hurting her and trying to make her do it and she kept sticking out her hand."

"And…" Even after everything else, it still hurt to say, to let them see that spikey emptiness at the heart of me. "I promised her I would change. That we'd work together and change and I don't know if she still wants to do that after I got her hurt again, but she's right there and she's suffering and we can stop that, so…"

—And here, even though she definitely still thinks this is something she can't really expect forgiveness for, Chiro makes the effort to actually keeping this about her desire to fix the harm done, rather than focus on a dramatic gesture of self-castigation to sooth her guilt, which is clearly a Whole Damn Fight she has to jab back her complexes with a stake for the entirety of, but it's probably the most telling promise that Chiro can change, and that she'll do her best to.

I believe in this sopping mass of gelatin.

Shadell said:
It was hard to tell how they took the words. Somehow I'd started crying, tears stopping me from seeing whether I had reached them. I rubbed away them away to get a better look, only to freeze as something warm and much softer than recent experience would have suggested wrapped around me.

"It's okay." Ida's voice carried as much hope and determination as I'd envied in Inessa. Where Castitas was a bright-burning font of passion, Diligentia was sturdier and stabler, confident in her ability to bear all the evils of the world. "We've got this."

OUUUUUUUGH IDA WHYYYYYYYYY.

MY EYES WERE COMPLETELY DRY THIS ENTIRE TIME AND THEN YOU DID THE HUG DAMN YOU.

Shadell said:
Then she stepped back, and Temperance spoke, calm as still water.

"Chiro," she said yet again, refusing to drop the name despite my objections. "I'll trust you."

Aww, Temperance, you—

Shadell said:
I stared. It wasn't fair. I shouldn't have been able to resolve their doubts that easily. A few tears, and they choose to believe in me.

"But," Temperance added with characteristic apathy, "if you betray us, this will be the last time."

Something in Temperance's eyes told me exactly how final a betrayal here would be. In a way, that was an easier response to accept.

"So," Ida said, nearly as scared of Temperance as I was. "What's the plan?"

—Jesus.

Okay I guess I know why you let Ida talk first, you.

You.

Man Temperance has never stopped being fucking mad.

Ira Shark would have been scary but honestly the Wrath Seed probably would've just diluted the purity of the rage we're seeing here.

Shadell said:
I wiped away my tears and tried to focus. They'd put their trust in me. Avaritia had put eir trust in me. And yet, it wasn't like I could do anything to help.

"Superbia has her in the throne room. I tried to distract him and get him somewhere else, but he was really insistent on not leaving." If only I had been able to pull him away, this would have been an easy task.

"Avaritia isn't going to interfere," at least I assumed ey wouldn't. My partner wouldn't betray me after helping this much, but if ey was going to help, ey would have come back with the Saints.

Chiro you really do not appreciate that you're a solid chunk of this team's tactical braintrust.

Lupin's on the sidelines for this.

I still verrrrrry much wonder what ey'll do when the White Knights puts the Black King in Check.

Shadell said:
"But," I glanced at Michael, "there's someone else helping Superbia. I don't know much about them, but they go by the name Uriel and, well, I think they're probably dangerous."

"I see," Michael said, barely seeming to register surprise at this revelation. "I do not believe Uriel would personally join the fight. But, if they have begun to act, that may complicate matters in the future."

Both of the Saints stared at Michael, mirroring my own confusion. It was no surprise that the two were related, but it was a disquieting feeling to see that admitted so easily. How much of the conflict around us remained beyond our understanding?

Oh okay! Just upfront about the fact she knows and doesn't feel the need to hide whatever this angelic civil war is!

Uriel, Uriel, why is it Uriel?

...Wait, no, Uriel is the one who guards the Gate of Eden...The Angel of Repentance...Hm...

Shadell said:
"Okay," I managed. "If that won't stop us from saving Inessa, then can we set it aside for now?"

Ida nodded and Temperance failed to object, which was agreement enough. I continued.

This is so funny.

"Well is this lore relevant now?" "No." "..." "Alright, so, just gonna set this down..."

Shadell said:
"Superbia's strong, terrifying even. But, he's not perceptive. He sees what he wants to see and we can use that." I wondered if I was right, or if I was going to ruin everything yet again. I kept talking anyway.

Bro you are literally on the top of the list of people who can say "Superbia is just. Kinda a bimbo, okay."

Shadell said:
"So if you two distract him, make a show of fighting and let him push you away from the throne room, then I can sneak in and try to free Inessa and we can all retreat together."

Ida frowned. "What, just pretend to fight him? We're here, he doesn't have anyone to help him and we have him outnumbered!"

I looked to the other two, hoping for a save. Temperance met my eyes, bit her lip, as she looked me over.

Honestly Ida outright saying it is probably the clearest sign that maybe Superbia is legit tough (and Temperance not immediately backing her up being another—Well, accounting for. Personal trauma, perhaps)).

Shadell said:
At last she spoke.

"Could you even defend yourself if he attacked you?"

It hurt to have her, of everyone, see my outside my beautiful disguise. She'd always known it was me. She, more than anyone besides Avaritia, had wanted me to be Chiro. And now that I'd failed, what? Was she dismissing me, writing me off as useless?

A root pushed its way out, growing thick as it supped on my emotion, gently promising what I could still pretend to be if only I would abandon my pretensions of change.

"No," I admitted instead. "But you can't just fight him. He's…"

Girl. She values your life. Come on.

Chiro's fight against the devil on her shoulder is like a really good back and forth. Makes me want hedge clippers also.

Shadell said:
Temperance looked past me, silently conveying something to Ida. The other girl frowned at Temperance, then clapped her hands together. "You wait here with Michael. I'll distract him and Temperance will rescue Inessa, then we can all run together. If we have to run fast, you won't be able to keep up like you are now, so…"

There was an apology in Ida's words, as if she should feel bad for pointing out how useless I'd made myself. I expected the admission to keep stinging. But I'd shared with them what I needed to share. I'd helped. Letting my own need to matter rule me wouldn't do any good.

I would live with that. For Inessa's sake, for our promise, I would have to be able to live with that.

OH. WAITING HERE WITH MICHAEL.

Yooooooooo this is like the perfect time for that, huh?

Chiro is fighting her inner demons and I'm not talking about the bitchass bat that was baby shit compared to the Hero Complex.

Shadell said:
"Okay," I said. "I—" My voice cracked. "It scares me. No, it's not fear, I just hate being powerless." I forced the words out, every admission making the next more bearable. "But that's the best I can do to help right now, and we need to save Inessa, so, just, please stay safe."

"Of course," Ida answered with the same confidence she'd had when she promised to help. Temperance merely smirked and waved.

Then Saint Temperantia led Diligentia toward the throne room and Michael and I found ourselves in the hell of waiting and hoping that the Angelic Saints would be okay.

Oh my gosh she finally said it with real actual words that she doesn't like feeling powerless to her friends...

Anyway I'm not actually sure Ida and Temperance will like. Get their asses beat or anything, but this is definitely the ultimate setup for Michael to make. Well.

Shadell said:
"That's a great idea! Honestly, we really should be trying to recruit the other Saints if we want to win this, and C would be totally amazing as a teammate." Inessa leapt on Temperance's suggestion with immediate enthusiasm.

Michael stared at me. Deeply, I looked into the gemstones that served as her eyes and I saw, if only for a moment, what struck me as an unfathomably ancient kindness carrying wisdom I would never fully understand.

Then the moment passed.

"I'm sorry," Michael looked away first.

"Oh," I said, struggling to smile. If I didn't look hurt, no one was allowed to feel bad and it was silly to have wanted in the first place.

"Your desire to help is true, and you have the potential, but.." the angel considered me for a long moment as if deciding whether to say something, "you are not qualified."

Shadell said:
"I," she hesitated, "I mentioned before that Michael said I wasn't qualified at first. Inessa was the first and Temperance is special, but I had to work to prove I was good enough to help. It made sense to me that Michael would say I wasn't worthy," she shrugged. "I'm not bad, but I'm hardly special. I just pushed through and kept helping. Inessa helped me get into shape, and I guess that's how I won her approval in the end."

This foreshadowing blossom.

Alright, gotta call it quits for the time being, ohhhhh how the anticipation is KILLING me.

I really like this team okay.

NemoMarx · Apr 1, 2024

You know, Michael, you could easily just use the wording "you are not currently qualified" or "not yet" or something and no one would have fits of self doubt about it. It's happened twice, Michael! You gotta figure out the pattern!

Bea · Apr 1, 2024

NemoMarx said:
You know, Michael, you could easily just use the wording "you are not currently qualified" or "not yet" or something and no one would have fits of self doubt about it. It's happened twice, Michael! You gotta figure out the pattern!

she is still figuring out humans pls understand

Iris-Iven-Ibis · Apr 1, 2024

NemoMarx said:
You know, Michael, you could easily just use the wording "you are not currently qualified" or "not yet" or something and no one would have fits of self doubt about it. It's happened twice, Michael! You gotta figure out the pattern!

How dare you underestimate our troops!

Nerdorama · Apr 1, 2024

Maybe angels have a different concept of time and causality than we do.

Or maybe her brains really are cotton fluff.

We will never know.

GreatWyrmGold · Apr 1, 2024

RiceRockRekt said:
—Jesus.

Okay I guess I know why you let Ida talk first, you.

You.

Man Temperance has never stopped being fucking mad.

Ira Shark would have been scary but honestly the Wrath Seed probably would've just diluted the purity of the rage we're seeing here.

AU where Ira Shark gets pissed at Superbia Dragon and takes his place as Big Bad instead of joining the heroes. (This AU has a body count.)

Bro you are literally on the top of the list of people who can say "Superbia is just. Kinda a bimbo, okay."

I would put Avaritia above her, but ey're also on the bottom of the list of people who would say "Superbia is just kinda a bimbo, okay."

Bluespark9 · Apr 2, 2024

NemoMarx said:
You know, Michael, you could easily just use the wording "you are not currently qualified" or "not yet" or something and no one would have fits of self doubt about it. It's happened twice, Michael! You gotta figure out the pattern!

Do you think that would have helped with the ocean of self denial that was C? I doubt it would have done much for their rejection, though Michael does need to get better about this if they want to actually talk with humans about things without making everything so much more complicated.

GreatWyrmGold · Apr 2, 2024

I wonder if Inessa used to be that self-doubtful, causing Michael to internalize the idea that humans will keep hating themselves no matter what she says.

Iris-Iven-Ibis · Apr 2, 2024

GreatWyrmGold said:
I wonder if Inessa used to be that self-doubtful, causing Michael to internalize the idea that humans will keep hating themselves no matter what he says.

You got the pronouns wrong

LampWitch · Apr 2, 2024

Oh, you all fine with two omakes in one post? It works fine, but I was wondering if it looked weird

LampWitch said:
The "SVAH characters react to their own story" omake comes closer and closer.

I totally forgot it, damnit.

Shadell said:
Could the Saints trust Michael if another of her kind was here working with Superbia? I didn't want to say no; just because she probably had some connection to Uriel didn't mean that they were working together. Besides, there were more important things to worry about. The heroes could figure that out on their own once Inessa was safe.

Weird assumption there, Chiro. They're just the same species, as far as you know.

Shadell said:
"You may go do whatever it is you have to do," Uriel said dismissively. Whatever fey curiosity that had made them approach seemed satiated for the moment.

"Have to do" What do you mean, Chiro.

Shadell said:
Slowly, I raised my hand to touch my lips, feeling the phantom of an event I was half-sure I'd hallucinated. What had that been about? Was that a friendship thing? A particularly silly way of reassuring me that I was still cute even if I couldn't be Invidia? A goodbye?

Aaaaah, the density. Honestly, I hadn't expected Avaritia to be so into her.

Shadell said:
Castitas didn't look much worse for wear, for all that she was bound hand and feet in manacles of light and suspended off the ground. And yet, even beaten and bound, wearing an angry snarl that seemed entirely off on her, she was radiant. Her eyes sparkled with determination and her wings stretched behind her, having returned to their original almost cartoonish pure white. Even like this, she was beautiful enough to send my seed into a frenzy, putting out hair-thin roots until I tore my eyes away from hers. As I did, I saw the briefest flash of recognition on her face.

Chiro doesn't get, how much rage Inessa can feel.

Shadell said:
So, convince me this is better for my partner."

It was unusual of em to be so confrontational. The paternalism wasn't new;

Shadell said:
"The important part! What does that person in the mirror look like in the end?"

Shadell said:
I cleared my throat and put on my most fearful expression. It didn't take much acting. For all he hadn't even noticed my existence, Mr. Noir's presence filled the room, a cold radiance that tolerated no light but its own.

Cool imagery for his power.

Shadell said:
He turned his head, the full force of his attention shining down on me like one of those desk lamps they use in interrogations in all the movies.

Him having a lamp head is funny image.

Shadell said:
He was a hollow shell of a man, beaten and chained and so desperate to prove he was neither that he'd kept his heart in his prison long after his escape instead of doing anything to change the world. Even if I had been the kind of Beast he wanted, I would have never been more to him than a bit of reassurance. For all his power, the Beast of Pride was as pathetic as any of us.

Here we have her capacity to understand others, at full power.

Shadell said:
And yet, he refused to act himself in every instance, hiding in his little burrow instead. If he wanted the Saints defeated, he would need an instrument to act out his will.

Good justification for him hanging back.

Shadell said:
I stopped myself. Apologies were easy. Being better was hard.

Finally! She's finally being self aware and dealing with her self-harming tendencies.

Shadell said:
Something in Temperance's eyes told me exactly how final a betrayal here would be. In a way, that was an easier response to accept.

I like how Temperance is. She loves Chiro, but won't let her keep fucking around and hurting those she loves.
Also, no one shipping Temperance x Inessa? Fertile ground here!

Shadell said:
"Superbia's strong, terrifying even. But, he's not perceptive. He sees what he wants to see and we can use that." I wondered if I was right, or if I was going to ruin everything yet again. I kept talking anyway.

The guy with the light element is the most blind.

Shadell said:
"At last!" The angel smiled brightly. "Then, allow me to present another option. Some powers were never meant to mix and doing this may still lead to unexpected outcomes. But your own life will not be in any danger."

Shadell said:
"You have not overcome it," she admitted. "But, it is easy to be kind to those you love. Forgiving those you loathe more than anyone else, that is the conduct of a Saint."

Michael is so happy! She must have been really worried for Chiro, hoping she'd turn back from the path of self-destruction.

Shadell said:
She floated around me, pushing her head into my chest until I stumbled back. I turned and began to move.

I for a moment thought this was an awkward hug by Michael that Chiro ended quickly.

Shadell said:
None of them noticed me as I crept toward the vain little snake. The wind helped me, pockets of air softening my steps as I approached. Ida saw me first, looking on with profound confusion as I raised my tool as high as I could. Then, with a hop and my loudest scream, I brought it down against the back of Superbia's head with every bit of strength I had.

Most hilarious entrance into a fight ever.

Shadell said:
I'd been fighting all day to avoid throwing my life away. For all this was just as doomed, it felt different.

Yes! Swing the idiot blade of want! Dethrone the twisted viceroy!

Shadell said:
I strummed the lyre.

I had been wondering for a long time which weapon she'd get. None I thought fit, and I never considered an instrument. The closest was some tuning fork sword.

Shadell said:
that I wasn't so deeply aware that this too was another masquerade for the pile. And yet, just for now, with doom mere moments away, perhaps I could let myself enjoy the play with everything I had.

What is a lie, but that which hasn't happened yet? I wish I could say something deeper about truth and existence, but my brain isn't up for it right now. Later, then.

Shadell said:
I did my best to dodge another searing beam of light, biting back a grunt of pain as glanced past the back of my hand, leaving a burnt trail in its wake. And yet, in the time it had taken him to move, Ida was there, bracing herself on a raised chunk of Earth as she struck him with her shield with all the considerable force she could muster.

He stumbled back and lashed out, kicking her away with enough raw force to send her crashing through her rocky supports. Temperance's next attack struck him in the back before he could follow up, and he stumbled once more. With a growl he turned to face her, abandoning Ida for the moment.

He was losing control. Here and now, he'd finally taken the stage, finally committed. And he'd won. Then I'd stolen that from him. He was lashing out in shock, for all his attacks were each terrifying, they weren't focused. He was letting us lead him, responding to each of us in turn instead of actually eliminating any of us.

He's a terrible fighter, geez. An unskilled stats stick. Also loving them ganging up on him.
Michael, happily wiping a tear: They're finally embracing the angelic techniques of "jumping the enemy" and "stunlocking"! I'm so proud! Too bad they aren't going for the kneecaps, though.
Chiro, in between spells: Uh, doesn't seem very Saintly...
Michael: They might run into people who want them dead. Such as Superbia, or some other bigot. If my charges must fight like this to survive, or protect the vulnerable, I'm very fine with it!

Shadell said:
Temperance talked about the war; about what you're running from! It doesn't have to be like this

Oh, he has war PTSD. That's so, "mundane"? Compared to the magical stuff.

Shadell said:
Or maybe she'd simply found the resolve to act now and prevent whatever Superbia might do in the future. Either way, I didn't like it. I didn't have any better ideas either.

After everything he did to people she cares about, Inessa is totally ready to end him.

Shadell said:
"Well then," Inessa spoke slowly, her lips curling into a fox-like smirk, "since I lost a brother, I guess you'll just have to be my sister instead."

Fox-like grin. Luxuria Fox rearing her head, eh?
Anyway. Glad you got to finish this, but sad this thread will be ending. It was, honestly, a highlight of the last few months, and I enjoyed spending time with you all.

Nerdorama said:
Hey check out how hard I can cry

A weapon to surpass metal gear: the tears of ALV fans.

Renu said:
"And yes, dear viewers, with the Angelic Saints defeated, it seems that Superbia's victory is- oh, but what is that? It's Humanitas, HUMANITAS COMING IN WITH THE LYYYYYYYYYYRE!"

Image is gone?

Lain said:
Had Temperantia her seed purged away before/after joining Saint squad?

Maybe it's crawling around, waiting to turn into an evil doppelganger.

GreatWyrmGold said:
My perspective is that, while there doesn't need to be a balance between Michael and Superbia, that's in large part because Michael is pretty balanced. She encourages Diligentia to take breaks and doesn't say a word when Temperantia eats a small mountain of snacks, to name two obvious examples. The only time I can think of when she objected to one of the Saints violating a strict definition of their virtue is when baby Temperance tried to eat her, and I don't think that was a "gluttony bad" thing.

She's quite proud, actually. But very good at admitting mistakes.
On handling Chiro. Michael may have insight into human minds, but I think she's awkward. That scene where she rejects Chiro gives that feeling.

GreatWyrmGold said:
I think part of the problem is that Michael doesn't quite understand how teenaged humans will interpret and respond to things she says until after they respond. That's an assumption based on, like, two data points, but it fits her origin.

Yeah.

HeWhoAdds said:
I think the cutest solution here is that Michael is studying to become a therapist in the background of the show. Imagine, a cute little plushie reading psychology textbook larger than she is, taking notes with a pencil held in both hands...

Adorable!

Shadell said:
What Michael thought she told Chiro that first time around and what Chiro took from that conversation were pretty different things.

Like, Ida cleared it up, or would have if the trans girl did not have terminal brainworms, but the fact of the matter is that Michael is just very bad at explaining things.

Confirmation!

Nerdorama said:
I will admit on the shipping front that I am happy to bury my torch for Inessa/Chiro since they're both going all in on sisterhood.

Yeah, it seems a decisive final blow. And there were no omakes of the ship prior, so it never really had a chance. It's superdead.

Iris-Iven-Ibis · Apr 2, 2024

Shadowhisker said:
i just wanna see chiro kiss a girl

Good news!

She kissed someone
Bad new!

They aren't a girl

LampWitch · Apr 2, 2024

(Cleaning up my omake post a bit, and transferring stuff here.)
Anyway, really thinking on that HSR crossover now. We've recently had revealed that people who touch the shadow of Nihility (the class I had previously assigned Chiro) start losing their being and fading away into nothing, and I'm thinking of that in relation to Chiro seeing herself as no one. Also, the caracter Aventurine focusing on a theme of shows and a stage as he tries to goad the heroes into killing him, also quite similar to our bat. And he ends up provoking Acheron, an emanator of Nihility, to unleash her power on him.
Anyway, how do you all think Inessa would react to someone talking about Invidia Bat as an horrible villain? I've been thinking on that ever since I wrote the Missed You omake. I had a joke of, after whatever Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny happened, people would sometimes speak ill of her, and Castitas' account would jump in to defend her. Engaging in a bunch of arguments.

GreatWyrmGold said:
...did the President make a strategic alliance with Hell?

A really funny idea that I like. But the intent here is that they're summoning the Founding Fathers as FFXIV primals.

GreatWyrmGold said:
Yeah, who ever heard of the Atwater crime family? What, will they make you sleep with the fishies?

Michael Atwater, imitating the Godfather, petting a Blahaj plush and making as many puns as she can.

GreatWyrmGold said:
...are those not a thing any more?

Were they an actual thing?

GreatWyrmGold said:
A lot of stories set in the USA could benefit from a crossover with high-speed rail.

Yeah, lmao. I believe one of the purposes of the Astral Express Crew was to create and maintain roads. So they could really help here.

Hestia&theCourt said:
So JackAttack got us thinking about how we might go about designing our own ALV MtG cards (genuine thanks for getting us on that train of thought, by the way!), and now several hours later, we have a small batch of cards that people in this thread might be interested in. Are they balanced? Probably not!

We had fun making them, though, so that's what counts.

Oh, I love the quotes! I imagine some secret bossfight against Michael, where she says them. Maybe using the Saints figthing styles. Then, her final, true style is when she talks about Humility?

NemoMarx said:
That was one of the most trans ish subtext quotes from Revolutionary Girl Utena, yeah.

I need to look for trans Utena fics. I only saw, like, a one-shot about the blue hair guy from the council coming out as a trans girl.

Firehawk242 said:
Worm is (slowly) losing its chokehold on both SB and SV. I realize it may not look like it, but it is. Part of that's because of how Ward wasn't well received, but mostly? Worm is just... old. It's over a decade old at this point. People are moving on.

And I don't think there's much new for the fandom to create? A massive chunk only knows the (distorted) lore from fics, and the fics tend to focus on the first part of the plot, eventually dying to Leviathan's ruthless attacks.
Funny. Thanks to April Fools, Familiar of Zero has bigger presence here than Worm. Repect the elders, indeed

Iris-Iven-Ibis said:
A Persona crossover would be real fun and funny

Nerdorama said:
You'd need to fire half the writers at Atlus to get a female protag, let alone a trans one.

I support this btw.

Yeah. I want a transfem persona protagonist so so badly.
At least give female costumes to all mcs. You can get one in P4, but you need to wait until the beauty pageant event. Well, all male party members. Teddie's Alice costume gives me such envy.

GreatWyrmGold said:
Inessa is the Wild Card, the one who gets the Velvet Room treatment, the protagonist. Ida (Strength VIII) is probably her first party member, with a simple and straightforward internal conflict that can be resolved in the tutorial. They end up entering symbolic dungeons for several of their classmates, such as...

Temperance, Temperance XIV, which doesn't really fit but I can't help myself. (The Star might fit better, but she's not named Stella.) She's a recent defector from the antagonists, torn between guilt over what she's enabled and guilt over abandoning her friend(s).

C, ~~Wheel of~~ Fortune X. Something between whatever was going on with Naoto and (gestures as the thread)

Lupin, The Lovers VI. Ey'd probably be the last party member recruited, so we'd need to invent a couple characters between em and C. Or maybe one before C and 1-2 after?

Assigning other Arcana to other characters:

Michael: Hermit IX, or she could switch the Star with Temperance. Either way, she's the "mission control" character and might get recruited later on, like what happens with Teddie.

Mr. Noir: The Hierophant V. He'd be an interesting twist on SMT morality, being an Order character cloaked in the rhetoric of Chaos.

C's dad: Uno Skip Turn card. You don't get a social link.

Fidget Spinner: Za Warudo XXI

Nerdorama said:
C in Inessa's initial impression is so flagrantly the Yosuke/Ryuji - first friend, inferiority complex, terminal monster bait for the starting antagonists - that the first clue something is weird with her to the player would be the fact that she isn't the first person to get a Persona and join the team alongside the mascot.

Where you'd go with her has potential to be interesting because, well...Invidia is the Shadow here, and she actually wins and dominates over the Ego for quite a while rather than a forced confrontation leading to resolution as in P4 (with the defeat of a Shadow) or P5 (with the theft of a Treasure). This is something that is possible in Jungian psychiatry and which Persona occasionally nods to with its villains but has never really developed with anyone who can go from THAT depth to turning it around to being a hero. I think given the premise of redemption here for Tempe, Chiro, and probably Avaritia eventually that you'd have a different kind of setup that mixes elements from both 4 and 5 or does something else entirely to put emphasis on saving people from their own twisted cognitions but also those people turning around and using that perspective as strength.

Also Superbia is totally some low tier mass cognitive manifestation pretending to be Lucifer when he's actually closer to just being some dipshit Incubus or something.

Shadell said:
Somewhere between 4/5 is probably right, with dungeons themed after the party members shadows as some strange force (the Beasts really) pushes people to give in. You probably have everyone after Ida (who sorta falls but doesn't) kinda overtaken or replaced by their shadow archetype, with either an evil twin running around or just kinda turning evil.

Alternatively, there's a somewhat broader cognitive world with each new Beast showing up and making your exploration there harder until you track down their real world self, identify their issues and then beat them/their dungeon in a sequence that convinces them to accept themselves and join the party. This'd work with Invidia being the one to break all the way and go full Shadow in the real world too.

The bigger thing is that Superbia kinda screams midboss, but the Persona dungeon/month wouldn't let the year timeline quite work out as neatly as you'd like with that so you'd probably need to start introducing a second round of bigger antagonists before his defeat.

Probably setting up something of a messyish three-way conflict between the more supernatural final boss' side appearing as early as Temperance's dungeon (hinting at her ties to the Forest more broadly), the very human sins of the Beasts and the protagonists slowly eating the second faction?

Yeah, making it into a persona story would be interesting, but require messing with the conventions a bit. Also love how Superbia is such a midboss.
Chiro really would be a cool subversion of the best friend. I like Temperance as magician, because we haven't had a female magician since the first game.

ArlequineLunaire said:
A Persona Quest that Chiro and Inessa really wouldn't want to be in...

Why?

Renu said:
Persona's a game, not an anime (well, they have some adaptations as well, but the game's better). Persona 4 would be the most relevant to this story, in case you want to try one (each are stand-alone entries).

Heard the P3 movies and P4 animes were good, but P5 had a terrible adaptation. I used to look at clips of P4 the animation all the time, but seems a chunk is gone from youtube, or unfindable due to how search works now.

ArlequineLunaire said:
Obviously green was picked for its links with envy and air, so the Tommy link was probably a coincidence, but still neat.

Why is green associated with air element?

RiceRockRekt said:
Alas, "perfect" gets in the way of "done", so I gotta compromise and put my back into starting so I can put my best foot forward and make it much more manageable to finish when I come back for round two.

Do I know it, brother.

RiceRockRekt said:
This is not the name you'd pick for an ANGEL in REBELLION.

Oh bros the Angelic Saints are gonna have to Attack And Dethrone God huh?

Michael's fun little plan to assassinate and devour God. Or God has been absent, and some angels are ruling the others.

RiceRockRekt said:
Now I'm wondering if Chiro's gonna learn to be comfortable with her height or if she's gonna get magical spine replacement.

You just made me think of Mortal Kombat characters as wholesome doctors.

RiceRockRekt said:
To be clear tho. This tiny dream that could flicker and die within a breath means everything.

I love this imagery.

RiceRockRekt said:
Like it's an important step even though Avaritia is fighting for something more Concrete, like, this isn't a question with an end result you can turn on/off with a switch, it's a path of self-discovery, it's taking a journey and becoming someone who can be satisfied looking in the mirror, whatever form that ends up being.

Becoming Invidia made a decisive statement of what Chiro thought she would be better looking as, but that was just, Inessa's recolor, which would mean always being trapped in the shadow of what Inessa made her feel, rather than being "Herself", in whatever sense that became so.

A lot of what comes with Beasthood seems to be, the temptation of certainty, knowing what you are (a loathsome sinner who is reviled yet powerful) rather than traversing the confusion of learning to like yourself and act as you believe a human being should.

Yeah. At the same time Avaritia is asking her to finally choose to take what she wants, ey also think the path is too unsteady. It's best, more immediately comforting to sink in the mire and accept it as their place than to truly struggle for happiness and a better life. Leaving Superbia is both abandoning eir only family and going into the great unknown.

RiceRockRekt said:
CHRONICALLY DIVORCED DOG.

Epic divorce dog

RiceRockRekt said:
Oh, bro, don't worry, Uriel couldn't give less than two shits.

Gotta admit, Gray Robe has really won me over, just some cryptid having a lark.

They're calm, thriving. Life's good.
Meanwhile Michael is stressed worrying for a bunch of kids, including one who never had a single good parental figure, and one whose good parent is gone. Chiro at least had the Brandts once she comes back.

RiceRockRekt said:
It's fascinating how for all Chiro doesn't respect or tolerate Superbia, she's really the character empathizes the most with him, it's just, those are all the things she doesn't like about herself, so this clarity on his issues being probably a step beyond even Avaritia, as people with this really fucking sophistic worldview in response to their suffering, only translates into wanting to beat him over the head with a golf club.

RiceRockRekt said:
Someone else who can't bear anything but decaying in a hole, too afraid to step into the future.

Superbia Chiro AU. It's funny, my omake where she becomes lady of the castle also has her hiding and decaying in the same place he does.

Hestia&theCourt · Apr 2, 2024

LampWitch said:
Oh, I love the quotes! I imagine some secret bossfight against Michael, where she says them. Maybe using the Saints figthing styles. Then, her final, true style is when she talks about Humility?

Thanks! Though we were picturing less of a boss fight and more of a "kid's show has to state their lessons explicitly" kind of thing, if that makes any sense. Like, to explain why Castitas qualifies as a Saint, to explain why Ida had to improve to become a Saint, to explain what the difference between Temperance's previous gluttony and her current temperance is to the watching kiddos who might not be able to pick up on the subtext. Just, those were parts of the episodes we didn't get to see.

LampWitch · Apr 2, 2024

Oh, I see! Very good. Yeah, would be a good idea in the hypothetical show to make things explicit.
I just said the boss fight thing because the quotes reminded me of a game, haha.

GreatWyrmGold · Apr 2, 2024

Iris-Iven-Ibis said:
You got the pronouns wrong

One of these days I will remember. (Or more likely, I'll stop posting about the girl angel named Mike.)

LampWitch said:
Weird assumption there, Chiro. They're just the same species, as far as you know.

Definitely an assumption, but Uriel is the kind of name you only see on archangels and things pretentiously named after archangels, and there aren't that many household-name archangels. So I understand why Chiro would assume the apparent archangel is working with the angel named after an archangel.

I had been wondering for a long time which weapon she'd get. None I thought fit, and I never considered an instrument. The closest was some tuning fork sword.

...
That sounds like a fun idea for a ridiculous weapon.

He's a terrible fighter, geez. An unskilled stats stick.

Why should he need to train? He's already great.

LampWitch said:
Were they an actual thing?

Oral thermometers? Yeah. Not comfortable things, but they exist. Or existed?

Yeah. I want a transfem persona protagonist so so badly.

Man, Persona's ludonarrative structure would fit queer stories so well.

Why is green associated with air element?

In what I suspect is ascending order of significance: Hinduism associates wind and the color green with the element of air, Taoism links wind to the element of wood, and the other big colors have more strongly associated elements. Water's blue, fire's red, earth's yellow or orange, but Western works usually don't have wood as an element so that's free.

Nerdorama · Apr 2, 2024

Oral thermometers were the main kind until very recently, and I've definitely used one at a doctor's office in the last couple years. They've definitely been displaced by much more comfortable tactile thermometers now that the latter are sufficiently accurate, but it's weird to my boomer (Millennial) ass to think there are kids who aren't familiar with them.

ArlequineLunaire · Apr 2, 2024

LampWitch said:
Why?

Put simply, Persona: The Beautiful was about getting roped into a really bad crowd. Though if you can deal with Superbia, I suppose you can deal with the All-Aces.

LampWitch said:
Why is green associated with air element?

Reportedly due to the Anahata or Heart Chakra being represented by green and the air element. Then again, the Svadhishthana Chakra has the colour orange and element of water, and you don't see those being paired together at all

LampWitch · Apr 2, 2024

Nerdorama said:
Oral thermometers were the main kind until very recently, and I've definitely used one at a doctor's office in the last couple years. They've definitely been displaced by much more comfortable tactile thermometers now that the latter are sufficiently accurate, but it's weird to my boomer (Millennial) ass to think there are kids who aren't familiar with them.

Well, they aren't common in Brazil. My mom thinks they don't exist. My thermometers when young were mercury ones.

GreatWyrmGold said:
Man, Persona's ludonarrative structure would fit queer stories so well.

Yeah.

ArlequineLunaire said:
Put simply, Persona: The Beautiful was about getting roped into a really bad crowd. Though if you can deal with Superbia, I suppose you can deal with the All-Aces.

Reportedly due to the Anahata or Heart Chakra being represented by green and the air element. Then again, the Svadhishthana Chakra has the colour orange and element of water, and you don't see those being paired together at all

I see. I never got around to reading Persona: the beautiful.
Interesting. Orange and water doesn't seem like a good combianation.

"Chemicals in the water making the sharks fucking gay!"

RiceRockRekt · Apr 2, 2024

You know, this year's April Fools gag was weirdly timely with my progress through a magical girl story, but it's time to leave that in the dust, we're at the midpoint of the chapter, Chiro left behind by her friends with a mascot character who definitely can't contribute to this pivotal emotional arc paused at a standing crossroads, mhm, mhm.

Shadell said:
We waited, and waited, longer than it should have taken. Longer than I could bear. I clutched the purse tightly. I could almost feel it through the fabric, offering me power without realization, a chance to transform myself in ways that would let me help. I wished I could have thrown it away, but if things went wrong, I might have needed it, and that meant I had to endure the silent temptation. Until I did.

Worse, this section of the Forest had walls decorated with all sorts of mirrors. No matter which way I looked, my own face stared back at me. At least it was a distraction.

This really be some damn. Shaft Cinematography.

Entire castle is going "Hey look at yourself hey look at yourself hey look at yourself" like it wants Chiro's brain to pop.

Hm, I do wonder is Temperance and Ida are like, Definitely getting clapped trying to take on Superbia without help, or if there are more complications to this wait time.

Shadell said:
I touched my reflection, trying to force myself to stop imagining dead friends and think about what it would be like to see the person Avaritia had demanded I envision instead. Who were they?

At the start of this year, I would have only seen myself, a person I couldn't even admit I hated with every fiber of my being. A week ago, I would have seen Invidia, too beautiful, too perfect and undeniably fake. Avaritia had invited me to imagine the person I could become, months or years in the future, for all they remained a blurry mess.

But there, in that hallway, it was impossible to name the person I actually saw. They weren't Charlie or C. But they hadn't been able to make being Invidia feel real either. They had yet to become someone new.

The process of becoming...

Shadell said:
And yet, Inessa's promises made me want to try; Avaritia's demands had kindled the faintest spark of hope. All I had to do was wait, trust in the others and then I could work with them to discover just who that person was, to discover just who she was.

I couldn't see in myself what others seemed to find so valuable in me. But, for all that the seed called to me, for all that I could feel its siren song urging me to earn my redemption through sacrifice, that thread of hope was enough to keep it at bay.

Ough.

"She."

Chiro's starting to admit it.

Man, we've been cockblocked for straight up 16 chapters just to set up this, huh?

Shadell said:
"Are you going to use it?" Michael asked, once I had finally torn my eyes from my own reflection.

"You know?" My voice faltered as I spoke, wondering why Michael hadn't said anything about the seed for however long we'd been waiting in silence.

"It is as obvious to my kind as the dawn. Will you use it?" The plushie's tone was oddly intense, as if she desperately needed me to answer.

Yo.

Oh yeah start this shit UP Michael, I am ready for the Final Temptation As Adjudicated By An Angel.

I like how everyone's kinda "Hmmmm, I don't Quite know what's going on here", and then Uriel and Michael are clearly operating from several leagues above, it sells the tension of the divine weighing in.

Shadell said:
"Would it even work?"

"Yes," Michael said with complete confidence. "Using a second seed carries grave risks. In your present condition, there would be permanent consequences Perhaps even your own destruction."

The angel floated toward me, ancient eyes seeming to see right through me. "But wouldn't that be what you want?"

"What?" I stepped back despite myself, making some distance between myself and the plushie. She had always been kind, if oddly intense, and the sudden starkness of her words made them land like needles in my back.

"To save them all, to show them what you can do; would that not be a perfect excuse to hurt yourself once more?"

Yo.

SUDDENLY CHIRO HAS TO CONTEMPLATE THAT SHE EVER WENT "Yeah do I really believe this plushie is Archangel Michael?"

Calling it how it FUCKING is.

Let's fucking gooooooooooooooooo.

Shadell said:
My hand was shaking. How dare she. How dare she legitimize every temptation I was fighting against.

"It would be a perfect excuse," I admitted, feeling my seed push even more, vines extending through my chest.

"I see," she stated solemnly. "But you don't. You have resisted this temptation, denied everything that drove you to sin. What gives you the strength?"

Why was she pressing me like this? I bit my tongue and clamped one hand over the other before I did something that could interfere with our escape, clenching inwardly to stop the growing network of roots inside my chest from spreading any more than it already had.

BECAUSE A SAINT IS ONE WHO DEFIES TEMPTATION.

Oh I love this.

Michael reading the room and realizing she can't do this the nice way she has to make Chiro spit fire to prove it to them both she can be kind to herself.

Shadell said:
"I can't," I said at last. The roots finally gave up, retreating into the seed. I forced myself to relax. "I mean, if it's absolutely necessary, that's different. If I know I need to do it or they're all lost, I will. But… I promised to at least try to change, even if I don't quite know what that looks like. Using it now, when I'm not sure I have to, would just be another way of hurting myself. And I promised Inessa."

"At last!" The angel smiled brightly. "Then, allow me to present another option. Some powers were never meant to mix and doing this may still lead to unexpected outcomes. But your own life will not be in any danger."

.

Oh my god.

"Wonder, now we have the perfect opportunity for the Virtue-Vice Combo Power Up!"

MARKETABLE ACTION FIGURE BUSINESS STRATEGY LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

"At last!" The angel smiled brightly. "Then, allow me to present another option. Some powers were never meant to mix and doing this may still lead to unexpected outcomes. But your own life will not be in any danger."

I can't believe this Michael was JUST as annoyed about having to wait for Angelic Saint Humanitas she's straight up chomping at the bit to make some cracked out Mahou Shoujo Nephilim-chan.

Shadell said:
Without giving me a chance to react, the angel flapped her wings and a ball of soft green light emerged, floating toward me until it shattered, revealing the bracelet within.

"I–what!?" What was she saying? This wasn't fair, not after everything, not after I finally decided to make my peace with my own incapability.

"You are qualified," she said by way of explanation.

IT'S SO FUNNY.

IDA LITERALLY SAID "You know you can win over Michael after she says know, that's a thing" AND YET THIS IS STILL AN ABSOLUTE SUCKER PUNCH TO THIS GIRL.

Shadell said:
"Stop it," I snapped. "After all of this you don't get to torment me with something I'm not. You said I wasn't worthy, gave me all the time I needed to figure out why that was true and now I finally, finally, get how right you were. You can't just turn around and offer me everything I wanted in the first place!"

Michael stopped and considered for a moment before speaking. "Perhaps I have been unclear. The talent to use the tree's gifts was always yours and you have always been kind. You see the virtue in others, admire and care for them. And then, again and again, you twist that same insight into a cudgel to hurt yourself. Self-hatred overtook whatever capacity for compassion you might have had, blinding you to anything you saw save in ways that you could use to better flay your soul."

"That hasn't changed." An irrational part of me wanted to throw the bracelet away, to march right up to Superbia and use the seed in protest. My hand refused to move.

Oh my god.

Oh my god Michael just said that. It wasn't a secret. It's just that no one fucking bothers to ask.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh my god.

LITERAL RIGHT HAND OF GOD AND COMPLETELY UNPREPARED FOR HOW LITTLE MORTALS UNDERSTAND THE OBVIOUS MESSAGE OF RELEVATION.

Shadell said:
"You have not overcome it," she admitted. "But, it is easy to be kind to those you love. Forgiving those you loathe more than anyone else, that is the conduct of a Saint."

Holy shit.

Michael is so fucking goated I'm losing it.

Shadell said:
Something close to laughter, hollow and broken as it was, made its way out of my throat. This couldn't be happening. It couldn't be denied to me at every turn, forcing me to face all my own desires and move past those petty self-aggrandizing dreams only to be offered to me here, at the end of everything.

"I apologize for the harm this realization may have caused, and the distress that was needed to push you into the right admissions." Michael said, far more gently than her prior words. "The choice is in your hands, but they will need you either way."

MICHAEL I LOVE YOOOOOOOU and also Chiro I'm so fucking sorry but you're in a magical girl show.

You are LITERALLY in a magical girl show that's what they always do.

YOU CAN'T BE A SAINT BECAUSE YOU THINK IT'LL REDEEM THE AWFULNESS OF BEING YOURSELF!

YOU BECOME A SAINT BECAUSE YOU ARE SOMEONE WHO CAN BEAR THE STRUGGLE OF BEING GOOD WITHOUT GREATNESS OR REWARD!!!

Shadell said:
She floated around me, pushing her head into my chest until I stumbled back. I turned and began to move.

My footfalls were agonizingly loud as I jogged toward the throne room, still uncertain of what to do. Michael was mysterious and she seemed to know things she shouldn't. I trusted her if she said I was needed.

But I didn't deserve it. Not after everything. Maybe, maybe, I could listen to Inessa and try and hope that one day I could become the kind of person who could be a heroine with pride. Then and there, I was a liminal freak who wouldn't go back to being C; who couldn't even imagine who else I might become. I wondered what the others would have said about it.

A LIMINAL FREAK.

This is like yet another hateful line to herself but I love liminal freaks, excellent quote.

Shadell said:
Ida would have reminded me that she wasn't worthy either at first. She had to work for it and change, so why couldn't I do that too? I would have told her that I wasn't like her, but I wouldn't have been able to find the words to make the rebuttal convincing.

Temperance would have joked about the girl part, and maybe I could almost let myself be someone who could go along with that game of pretend.

Avaritia would have grumbled and glared and made some obligatory comment about how sin was still better before telling me to just take what I wanted instead of finding reasons I couldn't have it. Ey would have reminded me of that person I wanted to see in the mirror and told me to go meet them.

And Inessa… Before everything, I think Inessa would have told me that I deserved it, that she'd have been happy to fight by my side. That would have fallen flat. But, the Inessa who'd crushed me was different.

She would have told me to fake it. So what if I couldn't be Chiro, C or anyone? So what if I wasn't a hero? She would have accepted those concerns with a laugh and told me to do it anyway. Even if I couldn't earn the name of a Saint, she would have had me wear it.

I opened my eyes and found myself outside the doors to Superbia's throne, still toying with the bracelet.

This is incredible.

"What would any of my friends think about this?"

[Montage of all the ways her loved ones supported her]

"...I guess, I know the answer already."

FINALLY LETTING THE FRIENDS IN HER MIND BE AS KIND AS THE FRIENDS OUTSIDE IT.

Shadell said:
"I see you have decided," said the plushie angel sitting comfortably on my shoulder.

I nodded, then put the bracelet onto my wrist.

"Just this once," I said weakly, as if I could let it be a one time thing.

I love this I love this I love this I love this.

Chiro CONTINUING to be a sucker who has to pretend like she's ready to lame out at the drop of a hat and it is STILL. HER. CHOICE.

Shadell said:
Then I raised my hand to the sky, quiet words coming to my mouth unbidden.

"Branch of virtue, awaken!"

And the bracelet began to glow.

It was a gentle green light, soft and weak enough that the wrong thought might have snuffed it out completely. But it embraced me all the same.

Envy had scoured me into its own image. Kindness had no such power. Instead, it took and shifted and accentuated, pulling here, pushing there, granting me a set of long slimming gloves.

It caressed my face and left me wondering if the makeup it left behind actually made me beautiful, or if I only felt that way because I had no mirrors in sight. But it was already working on my chest, leaving a giant ribbon to accentuate what I could barely admit was there and a beautiful green skirt that must have looked awful on me for all it felt like it gave me actual hips.

At last, it reached behind me, shaping itself into a pair of wings. I didn't have to look to know that next to Invidia's amazing, beautiful, and transcendentally perfect bat wings, these were merely the wings of an angel, and ones that barely deserved the name 'wings' at that.

They lifted me up anyway. The wind drew inwards, the bracelet reforming itself into a shining circle of green light behind my head.

I giggled, because how couldn't I giggle even when everything about this should have stung? Then I held out my hands and waited.

THE WAY THIS IS SO LOVING AND ASCENDING WHEN INVIDIA WAS RAPTUROUS YET DEGRADING.

The weak light of dawn is still such a cleansing thing...

Shadell said:
My weapon took shape; the tool that would allow me to best use what virtues I could muster.

Slowly, it descended into my hands. It was small and wooden and curved and, for all it wasn't what I'd have expected, I knew exactly what I had to do with it.

TAUNTING US.

WHAT IS IT DAMN YOU.

Shadell said:
A part of me wanted to hide in shame, to recoil at how fake I must have looked in a skirt that couldn't have fit as well as it felt like it fit and run away from everything. Another part of me wanted to bash open the doors and announce myself in all my glory.

I did neither. I wasn't Inessa with the power to outshine the sun. My virtue was small and fragile; a gentle push, not divine judgment. That meant I had to use every advantage I had.

I pushed the doors as gently as I could, trusting the wind to muffle any noise.

I love that she's just "Actually my super power is being sneaky and underhanded. Kindness bitches."

Shadell said:
Superbia stood there, gloating. Fortunately, he was looking away from me. He pressed Temperantia's head into the floor with a single foot, as if he was stomping on a bug. Were it not for her ineffectual struggles, I would not have known she was conscious. Nearby, Ida was crawling toward her shield, one leg trailing limply behind her. Inessa watched in quiet horror, free, but too battered to transform, much less fight.

KILLING YOU.

KILLING YOU WITH A ROCK SUPERBIA.

Anyway wow this did not go well.

"Superbia stood there, gloating" man Chiro you will literally not internalize anything this man says unless you can help it.

The wind turns off her ears if a terf is speaking.

Shadell said:
Of course I was late. Of course I got so stuck in my own issues again that I was late to where I needed to be.

I shook my head. I was late, but I wasn't too late, and I would have to be able to live with that.

Ohhhh, the way she's choosing Kindness Kindness Kindness in every breath now.

Shadell said:
None of them noticed me as I crept toward the vain little snake. The wind helped me, pockets of air softening my steps as I approached. Ida saw me first, looking on with profound confusion as I raised my tool as high as I could. Then, with a hop and my loudest scream, I brought it down against the back of Superbia's head with every bit of strength I had.

He stumbled forward and crashed into the ground, as much surprised as he was wounded.

Only then, as every eye turned toward me, did I announce myself.

"Gentle as a spring breeze," I plucked at the strings of my lyre, "Angelic Saint Humanitas takes the stage!"

.

.

.

MY GOD???

SHE'S THE BARD!?!?

Made her entrance whacking his fucking head with it holy shit.

Ida just. Just has to live like this.

Has to live like the only one who saw that shit before it had any chance to make sense.

Oh my fucking god Humanitas having a musical instrument to replace Invidia's scream so Chiro gets to keep her sound powers this is the SHIT.

SHE'S GOING TO BE THE BUFF/DEBUFF CHARACTER THIS IS THE SHIIIIIIIIT!!!

Shadell said:
"Gentle," groaned Temperance as she scrambled away from Superbia and, struggling, pushed herself to her knees. Even then, she seemed to place more emphasis on appropriate sarcasm than her own survival.

Temperance. You are just like this ahahahahahahahahahaha.

Shadell said:
"A kindness to myself," I said, my voice laden with divine compassion. My hands were covered in sweat, the reality of our imminent demises crashing against the joy at being there like this, at finally striking out against him. I'd been fighting all day to avoid throwing my life away. For all this was just as doomed, it felt different.

CHIRO YOU FUCKING CLASS ACT PFFFTAHHAHAHAHA.

Are you that doomed if you get to bonk your bastard evil dad stand-in over the head? Really?

Shadell said:
"And, for my next act of kindness…" I strummed the lyre. I shouldn't have had a clue how to play. But my hands knew what to do, so long as I let them work. The notes that echoed through the room were soft and melodic.

"Humanitas Invigorating Winds!" As miracles went, mine was so very small. I could not summon a storm that would blow all evils from the world. The best I could offer was a gentle push, a healing breeze to soothe pains and give the real heroes that little bit of energy they needed to rise again.

You literally cannot help yourself and clearly you are going to have a Support Main Complex going into the future Chiro, but I love that you're going to be a smarmy bard through out.

Shadell said:
Ida laughed and rose to her feet, momentarily unsteady on a leg I couldn't fully mend. She picked up her shield and took a stance anyway. I smirked at her, doing my best to pretend that the banter was easy; that I wasn't so deeply aware that this too was another masquerade for the pile. And yet, just for now, with doom mere moments away, perhaps I could let myself enjoy the play with everything I had.

FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT THEATER GIRL.

Shadell said:
"YOU DARE?!" Superbia shouted with might that shook the Forest itself as he recovered himself.

He was trembling. Facing a challenge here, at the center of his power, after he had already won, after he had decided things were going just as he wanted them; what must that be doing to that pride of his? Worse, that challenge came from me, the failed protege, the one he'd written off as worthless.

Wait does Superbia even know this is Chiro? Like clearly the identity hiding magic hasn't popped in for the Saints since this isn't like Immediately Incoherent to them, but I do find it funny that Chiro might have to like. Clarify that Yes, Superbia has lost a SECOND Beast.

Oh man I love psychological gambits where hitting someone in their primary emotion of power fucks them up.

Shadell said:
"I'm terrified," I admitted. "Even with three of us, I can't imagine beating you. But, I'm more terrified of what would happen if I didn't do this. Of what you would do if no one stopped you, of what I might become if I didn't change. So we'll just have to win anyway"

He growled and his form shook, wings going larger, his eyes subsuming themselves into cool pools of silver light.

"So what? You think you can overcome your own limits and stand against me? You?"

"No," I admitted honestly. "Ever since I was little, I've admired heroes. I wanted to be like them, to be brave and strong and courageous and, well, you're right. I'm not that kind of person."

Now, at the grandest I'd ever been, it barely hurt to admit.

"But." I grinned at Superbia and he stared at me, confused. "Just because I'm weak doesn't mean I have to be alone. Even if I can't do anything by myself, I can still support them!"

Yooooooooo, foils foils foils!

Chiro throwing away her pride because she's decided she'll do her best with what she has and Superbia couldn't even imagine living with himself if he did that, this is fucking sick.

Shadell said:
Ida, recovered as she was going to get, punctuated my remarks by throwing herself in front of me, just in time to deflect a blast of light that might have torn a hole through my throat.

Temperance stretched out her hands and called a jet of pressurized water that forced the dragon to flare his wings and brace himself to avoid tumbling again.

I giggled and plucked my lyre and asked the wind to give them that little push they needed.

Fan the flames fan the flames fan the flames (just before Inessa comes back in to make this a real wildfire)

I love. This Team.

Shadell said:
"So what?!" Superbia roared as he stepped toward Ida, an errant fist striking her shield with enough force to send the Saint of Earth reeling, only to spin and vaporize Temperance's next burst of water with a horrifying breath of light.

"So what if there are three of you!? It won't matter!"

I did my best to dodge another searing beam of light, biting back a grunt of pain as glanced past the back of my hand, leaving a burnt trail in its wake. And yet, in the time it had taken him to move, Ida was there, bracing herself on a raised chunk of Earth as she struck him with her shield with all the considerable force she could muster.

He stumbled back and lashed out, kicking her away with enough raw force to send her crashing through her rocky supports. Temperance's next attack struck him in the back before he could follow up, and he stumbled once more. With a growl he turned to face her, abandoning Ida for the moment.

Oh this is a straight up kaiju rumble.

Unironically Superbia makes this a really fun fight by being unambiguously kinda beastmode and pushing the Saints to limits we didn't even know they had.

Shadell said:
He was losing control. Here and now, he'd finally taken the stage, finally committed. And he'd won. Then I'd stolen that from him. He was lashing out in shock, for all his attacks were each terrifying, they weren't focused. He was letting us lead him, responding to each of us in turn instead of actually eliminating any of us.

"Humanitas Invigorating Winds!" I called again, pushing every little bit of power I had into giving the others whatever they needed to keep on their feet, to keep fighting.

"You know, I think we were both wrong about something!" I said, looking past the smug little snake. There was an opportunity here, a way to turn the tables if I could just hold his attention for a second.

CHIRO PRESSING [TAUNT].

THIS MIGHT BE EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE BUT ALSO BLOW UP IN HER FACE.

I appreciate how much her inclination for self-sacrifice is being replaced with making Superbia really fucking mad.

Shadell said:
"Do you honestly think that this little farce means you can truly stand against me?"

I wasn't a hero. I wasn't the kind of person I'd wanted to be. And maybe, someday, I could fake it until I made it, pretend to be a good person until I could be just a little bit of one. But maybe I didn't need to. Maybe I could find a me that was enough, a me that could support the real heroes.

"Actually, I just mean—"

"CASTITAS FLARE BARRAGE!"

"That there are four of us," I finished belatedly as dozens of fiery arrows embedded themselves in Superbia's wings.

INESSA RUINED HER LINE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

MAYBE SHE CAN FIND A "ME" WHO'S ENOUGH.

Chirooooooooooo.

This is so fucking goated.

Shadell said:
He'd discounted her, treated her as drained and defeated, her powers expended. But when has a real hero ever needed more than a second wind to get back in the fight?

Lol. Lmao. L.

Chiro is gonna be SO fucking annoying with that newfound smidgen of self-respect. Fantastic.

Shadell said:
"Humanitas~!" Angelic Saint Castitas let her bow fall to her side to wave at me instead of following up on her attack.

"I, umm…" Suddenly I was incredibly self-conscious. "Hi."

"Look at you!"

Of course Inessa would be silly enough to focus on that instead of the ancient monster she'd just shot in the back.

I love them.

INESSA KEEP BEING LIKE THIS FOREVER WORLD EXPLOSION BEAM.

Shadell said:
"You're Ignoring me!?" Superbia's shrill voice grew even raspier and I reconsidered my evaluation. Maybe Inessa's instincts were dead on after all. Superbia was a creature of pride. He had to matter, to eclipse everything in his sight. Even now his presence eclipsed the four of us together. But, as large and radiant as it was, with each slight, with every act of defiance, it was shaking.

Oh my god Inessa straight up pissing in Superbia's cheerios is legitimately even worse.

Can you imagine.

Living in the same universe as Inessa.

Knowing you are just never going to match up for her "Hey Bestieeeeeeeeeee" energy?

FINALLY SUPERBIA LIVES LIKE INVIDIA HAD TO!!!

Shadell said:
"Diligentia Crushing Earth!"

Ida slammed her shield into the ground, sending shockwaves toward Superbia that sent him stumbling just as he tried to rise and attack once more. The Saints had fought together again and again. Any opening Inessa created would never go unused. All we had to do was stop Superbia from recovering his footing.

"Temperantia Cascade!"

Temperance followed with a crushing jet of water, slamming him back into the ground.

Team attack team attack team attack.

Actually huh, I was gonna mention how this is the first time we've seen either of Ida and Temperance's named stock attacks, but it's interesting that Temperance's isn't three words like the rest of the team, even total newbie Chiro.

Shadell said:
"We trusted you," Temperance said, stepping forward as she finally summoned her halberd. "You saved us in the forest and we believed in you. Avaritia trusted you." Her voice cracked. Even now, months after leaving, her grief was shockingly raw for the overwhelmingly collected girl.

None of us spoke. Whatever Superbia had done to me, whatever grievances I felt on Avaritia's part, Temperance had borne worse for longer.

"And you couldn't let us in." But she had never been one to speak at length. She stabbed out with her weapon, throwing herself at the dragon with everything she had.

With a desperate scream he shoved the blade aside, letting it tear through the scales on his palm. He grabbed the blade anyway, forcing Temperance to contest him for the weapon as he punched her with everything he had. She careened through the air, crashing heavily into a wall.

. Yo.

That's like the coldest most heartwrenching death threat we've ever gotten from Temperance.

MAKING HIS SCARED FOR HIS LIFE BECAUSE THIS BETRAYAL IS THE FIRST!!!

Shadell said:
With nothing in the way, Inessa was able to assault him with another wave of arrows. He rolled forward blindly, only to be sent sprawling backwards via a shield to the face. I swallowed and continued to play my lyre, focusing on patching up Temperance as best I could.

The dragon roared and sent a blast of light radiating around him in all directions, forceful enough make Ida fall back. I couldn't help but smile even as my winds helped steady her. He was bleeding; he'd stopped gloating. Slowly, surely, the palpable aura of pride was starting to fray.

Oh this is breaking down dragon boy is getting run ragged like a fucking dog.

Based Based Based Based.

Shadell said:
"Ey still loves you like family," I said to him as I followed his explosion by dashing in myself. I wouldn't fancy my odds against any of the other Saints. Closing with a disoriented Superbia to keep the pressure on was a risk. Still, the winds accelerated me, lifting me up enough to bring my heel down on his head in a perfect axe-kick. He blocked with both hands, sliding back a few inches anyway, then he reared up to swipe at me.

I dashed away again, floating out of his reach before he could. Behind me, I could hear Temperance panting as she picked up her weapon.

"Ey loves you like family and you hurt em and used em and threw us all away to avoid admitting that maybe you were part of the reason you'd failed and now you have no one left to save you." He'd hurt me, twisted me and pushed out the worst of my worst impulses. What he'd done to my partner was far worse.

I should have said more, could have tried harder to reach someone unreachable. Instead, I fell back to silence and watched as Superbia struggled to rise, to hold onto the shreds of his battered pride.

Saint of Kindness making sure it fucking hurts.

TAILWIND KICK.

Shadell said:
Inessa struck again, then Temperance. Whenever he gathered himself enough to strike, Ida would be there, blocking just enough with her shield to keep him from scoring any decisive hits.

Even then, he would have crushed us by inches were it not for my songs and the winds they channeled to give us all the strength to keep moving.

At last, he could stand no more. Superbia collapsed against his throne, his wings crumbling to dust as he stared at us, unable to move, unwilling to admit out loud what the failure of his power told us he already knew. Pride's Beast was broken.

This was so fucking sick.

Ground him down like diamonds turning glass back to sand.

Shadell said:
"It's not too late," Inessa said as she raised her bow. "You can change! Temperance talked about the war; about what you're running from! It doesn't have to be like this!"

"Never," he said the word like a curse. "Whatever you take from me, I will never bow to virtue's light."

Man. This is all he has left, isn't it?

A war he never won, and ruined pride that's the only thing to keep him going.

Shadell said:
Chastity's Saint looked to the rest of us, but no one had an easy answer.

It's a little sobering. What can you do with someone like this that isn't just the end they were always expecting?

Shadell said:
"Do it," Superbia said for us from his throne, the last proclamation of a broken monarch, the last vestiges of the pride he valued more than his own life.

It was as cruel as any of his demands. Superbia wasn't a resinner. He wouldn't go back to normal and become a better person from this. None of us were killers.

Like, really! What else is there to do when someone who has promised to never ever change only leaves the options for death, and the same imprisonment for however many eons that made him reach the point he'd really, actually prefer death in the first place?

I've definitely been expecting this ever since Chiro started taking Superbia's pathos seriously this chapter, though.

Shadell said:
Inessa, as always the strongest of us, raised her bow, fire sparking around her as it grew and grew. Maybe she had a magic in her that would destroy only his seed. I'd seen her work greater miracles for me. Or maybe she'd simply found the resolve to act now and prevent whatever Superbia might do in the future. Either way, I didn't like it. I didn't have any better ideas either.

Ah, a proclamation we'll never see the answer of, huh?

After all—

Shadell said:
"Castitas!" she shouted in a voice that called out for any other solution. "Empyreal!" Just before she could finish her attack, something crashed into her from above, a purple blur of fangs and claws.

Inessa fell to the ground under Avaritia's weight. None of us had seen em arrive; none of us had the strength to follow as ey dashed toward Superbia and then moved for the door, cradling him in eir arms.

—The loyal hound has been waiting in the wings.

Ahhhhhh. Where is this all to go now?

Shadell said:
"Avaritia!"

Determination alone was holding me on my feet. I wouldn't have had the strength to chase em if ey ran.

Luckily, ey stopped instead, facing me with a smile so forced anyone would have tried to help em.

"Looking good, partner." Ey looked me over, then nodded to emself. "A bit more femme. It suits you."

I blushed and stammered, and ey took the opportunity to retreat another step.

Chiro why are you FUCKING like this.

A man almost died.

You are maybe trying to make sure he dies.

Have some dignity.

Avaritia is allowed to cheat here because ey're deathly terrified eir dad is going to die.

Shadell said:
"Join us."

To my surprise, it wasn't I who had spoken the thought aloud. Temperantia advanced toward her oldest friend, stretching out a weary arm.

Ey looked to her, then back to me, then to the shaking mass cradled in eir arms.

"Someone has to stand for sin," ey whispered. As if choosing eir principles, however twisted, over companionship could ever satisfy eir greed.

Temperance's hand dropped to her side.

Temperance...

Everyone hurts you.

YOU'RE NOT STANDING FOR SIN AVARITIA. YOU JUST DON'T WANT YOUR UNCLE TO DIE. SAY THAT. SAY THAT DAMN YOU.

Shadell said:
"I get it," I found myself saying, somehow putting one foot in front of the other. "I didn't know anything about what I wanted or what I needed. I just stood around killing myself by inches until you put the seed in me."

There were words to be had over that, the refusal to explain first, that unrelenting insistence that ey knew best, the pains my envy had inflicted. I was more grateful to Avaritia than I could ever say, but ey bore some blame there too.

"And it consumed me, pushed me down deeper and deeper and…" That wasn't what ey needed to hear, not quite. "Even now, if I try to imagine what I want to become, it's envy that tells me who I want to be like, what I need."

Ey didn't respond. The skirt I wore and the feathered wings on my back were enough to give lie to the idea that I'd chosen to affirm my sin. Still, Lupin didn't retreat either. I continued to advance.

The way. You have to choose to be kind when you want someone to be okay. Even knowing their flaws. Even knowing they hurt you.

The thesis...

Shadell said:
"But sinking into it forever wouldn't help either!"

Ey started, and even Superbia broke himself out of his fugue, his face twisting into disgust. A few more steps. A few more steps and I could reach em.

"I can't tell you to abandon your greed, not when it saved me."

I stopped, just out of arms reach.

"But why not let us see your charity too?"

Ey froze, little more than a deer caught in the headlights of my kindness.

THE THESIS TO A LITTLE VIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!!!!!

Superbia Slinky in the princess carry having to hear this Care Bear nonsense is really, so special.

Shadell said:
And that was too much for Superbia to accept. Defeated, denied his dignified end, then rescued by a servant he'd dismissed as useless; any of these was beyond his capacity to accept. To be ignored by his rescuer, to have em talked around to the other side, was an order of magnitude worse. The snake screamed and kicked his way out of Avaritia's arms, shoving the wolf aside as he glared at em with more intense loathing than he'd shown any of the rest of us.

CAN'T BELIEVE WE'VE REACHED THE POINT LETTING INESSA BUST A CAP UP HIS ASS WOULD'VE BEEN NICER.

I deadass can't even look at this. Straight up keeping him alive just to do more babboon shit to him.

Shadell said:
Avaritia reached out, struggling to take hold of his hand, only to find eirs slapped aside.

Temperance lunged, finding energy I didn't think she had to move for a decisive thrust.

Instead of meeting her, Superbia ran, vanishing into the twisting hallways of the Forest. Temperantia didn't give chase.

Avaritia's eyes followed him, making a quiet keening noise in the back of eir throat. But the wolf did not follow.

Just. A really miserable end to all of this.

Temperance really would have stabbed him though.

Cannot stress enough that she was given motive and would have shish kebabbed a man.

Shadell said:
"Lupin…" I couldn't find the words, suddenly knowing how powerless everyone had felt to talk to me about my own dad.

Ey smiled at me, winked, and—just before I could find the words to make em stay—ey made eir own way into the Forest's twisting halls.

Just like that, it was over.

Lupin.

Everything is wrong with you.

Why.

Why can't you ever let yourself feel sad?

"Lupin…" I couldn't find the words, suddenly knowing how powerless everyone had felt to talk to me about my own dad.

YEAH THAT SHOE IS ON THE OTHER FUCKING FOOT AIN'T IT.

Shadell said:
I looked at the Saints—the other Saints—then sank to the ground as my transformation unraveled.

Inessa followed suit without even bothering to sit up.

Ida and Temperance at least managed to remain standing as their own costumes fell to light. The others looked even more exhausted than I felt. None of us would want to move for days.

You guys are BUSTED UP.

You gotta love. Big fight collapses.

This won't fix everything but you four really could use a group hug, group hugs help a lot.

Inessa: This is my floor. It was made for me.
Temperance: You don't want this floor. The interior decorating sucks.

Shadell said:
And yet, we'd won. Inessa was safe. I'd proven, in some little way, that I could change. There was more to do of course. We would have to find Superbia again. I still had so much to say to Avaritia. I would also need to figure out how I was going to survive without going back to dad, and what I was going to do about having missed so much school. But, for once, none of the looming challenges of the future felt insurmountable.

The silence lasted a few moments, long enough for Michael to make her way to the throne room and begin fussing over us.

This is nice. It's really nice. Michael the fussy bird.

Not an ending, but a new beginning.

Shadell said:
"Hey, Humanitas," Inessa said, and I wondered how long it had taken her to decide what she could call me, as if this name was somehow better fitting than any other.

"Yes?" I asked, pushing myself to a sitting posture. It wasn't like Humanitas was worse than anything else either.

"You saved me!" Inessa's voice was effervescent for all she still hadn't managed to pull her head off the floor or actually look at me.

Wah.

Man I guess we are gonna have to call her Humanitas until we figure out if Chiro is actually gonna stick to Chiro, huh?

But for real this is stunningly cute Inessa loves her bestieeeeee.

Shadell said:
"It was all my fault to start with." I owed it to them to admit it. I struggled to separate self-flagellation from contrition, but I owed them the latter.

"I… I became Humanitas because it was desperate," I admitted. "But, you don't owe me forgiveness just for fixing something I messed up. It wouldn't be fair to ask you to trust me, not after everything, so I can just give the bracelet back to Michael and you can find someone better and…."

Even I knew that voice inside my head saying they'd never want to see me again was probably wrong. They were heroes; they would accept me and I would have to learn to live with that at this point. But I couldn't start forcing myself to act like a better person than I was by running away from what I'd done, what I had to make up. It needed to be their choice to forgive.

HUMANITAS I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE DOING THIS AGAIN.

Shadell said:
"I just wanted to say that I'm really sorry for earlier!" Slowly, Inessa's gaze swung to face me, but her mouth remained pressed in a thin line.

"I really shouldn't have said that and you're not childish. If anything, I'm the childish one who can't do anything. You're really great. I admire you a lot actually and I really shouldn't have joked like that around Lupin as hard as it is for you to talk to her."

A small smile worked its way across Inessa's face before turning into a blush. "H-hey! I'm not that bad!" she flailed.

"And, umm, if there's anything I can do to make it up to you, please let me know. Again, I'm so so sorry, you shouldn't have to do anything so if you want me to go hang out somewhere else or something, that's okay and…"

LIKE I SEE AND APPRECIATE THE GROWTH THAT YOU'RE AWARE YOUR FRIENDS DON'T HATE YOU AND TRYING TO REMEMBER THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHIP YOURSELF OVER IT, BUT COME ON. SECOND VERSE SAME AS THE FIRST.

Shadell said:
Temperance marched toward Inessa in a herculean display of effort, then fell to her knees and began to whisper animatedly to the other girl. Inessa looked confused at first, then slowly began to smile before contorting her face into a blank mask.

"Of course we don't—" Whatever Ida had been about to say was cut off by a loud shush from Temperance, who continued to conference with Inessa.

Helplessly, Ida shrugged and resigned herself to watching the show.

Idaaaaaaaa. The only straightman here.

God, Temperance is making the effort to guide Inessa's bowshot, this is going to be terrif—

.

OH.

OH THAT WOULD BE THE REDEMPTION SHE ASKS FOR, WOULDN'T IT BE.

TEMPERANCE W NOW AND FOREVER.

Shadell said:
Finally, Temperance nodded and helped pull Inessa to a sitting position.

"So, Humanitas," Inessa said, deathly serious.

"You hurt us a lot, you know. Keeping everything inside, pushing us all away, fighting us and everything," Temperance chimed in to list my crimes, as smoothly as if they had rehearsed their delivery of the verdict.

At least she didn't say the worst of it, that even after all that I'd still gotten Inessa caught.

"And, really," Inessa spoke again, her voice taking on a mournful quality. "C was like the brother I never really had, you know." She was starting to tear up a little. "He was family and you took that away from us."

Something caught in my throat. She wasn't wrong.

"That's fair," I said at last. "I understand if you never want to see me again or anything." I wasn't sure where I could go, or what I would do, but I owed her that much.

Inessa flailed and nearly fell over again. "No! I mean, no, never, of course I want to see you again, you're…" Temperance pinched her. Inessa managed to school her expression.

I can't believe.

They're building this much set up for what it's going to be.

Temperance has to keep Inessa's chicken noodle soup heart from spilling over.

I'm in TEARS.

Shadell said:
"What I mean is, you owe me, right? And you'd do anything to make up for that, if you really want to change, that is."

"Anything," I said, wondering when the trap's jaws would close around me.

Temperance snickered. Inessa grinned. Ida looked profoundly confused. Michael watched on serenely from on high.

"Well then," Inessa spoke slowly, her lips curling into a fox-like smirk, "since I lost a brother, I guess you'll just have to be my sister instead."

I blinked.

.

Oh.

Shadell said:
Inessa panicked.

"Or umm, Temperance said to say 'sister' but if you want sibling or brother or whatever really! I mean, umm, not, you can be whatever you want!"

Something warm slid down my cheeks and I tried to fight back the sniffles enough to respond.

THEY'RE SO CRINGE AND LOVING I CHERISH YOU SISTERRRRRRRRRRRS!!!

Shadell said:
"I'll probably mess up," I warned her. Changing demanded I face myself. A lifetime of self-hatred wouldn't be overcome in a day. And, the day I thought change was easy would be the day my seed took me again. "I want to try, but I'm not a good person and I can't just pretend like I heard some good speeches and did the right thing once and I'm better now. Besides, won't your parents want me gone?"

Inessa shook her head. "If you turn back into Invidia, we can talk it out together, or I can just beat you up again. And yeah, Mom and Dad are upset with you, but they're mostly worried because they love you too, you know? And we'll find a way to explain everything to them one way or another."

"I…" What was I supposed to say to that? "I guess I don't really have a choice."

Temperance and Inessa shared a high five.

THIS IS BEAUTIFUL.

INESSA AND TEMPERANCE AND HUMANITAS W FOREVER AND EVER.

(Ida is off to the side very confused because no one actually explained the trans overtext to her)

The way it's just..."Yeah you can become a werebat whenever, I'll just beat it out of you again, our parents will still love you" like that isn't striking me DEAD ON THE GROUND.

Shadell said:
"And your name can be Kindness Sweetwind." Temperance offered her own inestimably unhelpful contribution.

TEMPERANCE ATWATER THE TERRIBLE TERRIBLE NAMER.

Shadell said:
"No." I glared at her. "I-if I have to have a name that I pick and I am, well, umm…" Was I going to go back to being a boy? It felt weird to do that if I was going to be allowed to stay as a magical girl after everything.

"M-maybe. I, umm, I don't want to be a guy." I admitted. "Maybe I don't like that at all, if I'm going to be a magical girl. And, umm, okay, so my body has definitely changed at least a little and we'll need to explain that, so, what I mean is that, if I'm going to try and become somebody new, maybe I could just…"

OH MY GOD!

OH MY GOD HUMANITAS IS FINALLY MAKING A DIRECT SELF-AFFIRMATION OF HER GIRLNESS.

PIGS ARE FLYING! PIGS ARE FLYING!!!

Shadell said:
Words were hard, but no amount of filler would get me out of the fact that I'd started saying it.

"Maybe I don't really like boys or being one. Maybe I want to be more of a, you know." Why was Temperance grinning like that?! At least Inessa and Ida both had the decency to look appropriately confused.

Inessa knows Humanitas is a girl (her sister!!!) so she's just confused that apparently this is. Like a continuing discovery for her too.

Temperance smells blood in the water.

It is SO fucking over.

Shadell said:
"And, like, if I'm faking being someone I want to be anyway, then, maybe, even if I'm not actually a trans girl or anything…" My tongue caught on that once more. Life would have been so much simpler if only that were true.

Some invisible force tore the smile from Temperance's face. Her mouth dropped open in shock.

"Maybe I can just, you know, umm, fake being a girl instead? To, like, help explain everything to everyone." Was that allowed? It didn't feel right. And yet, when I imagined the person I wanted to be looking back in the mirror, she had to be a girl.

.

I can't believe you ruined this for her.

Bro...Bro why...

Shadell said:
The world paused. Everyone stared at me, without so much as a blink.

"Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that—" It was best to say it before they told me how ridiculous I was being. Finishing it made it just a little realer. "Even if it was fake and it doesn't really feel like my name, bats are actually really cute and I like the name Chiro, so I'm staying with Chiroptera!"

Chiro.

Chiro you are so stupid.

You had a wholeass Transgirl Werebat Madoka Rebellion Arc and you STILL HAVEN'T CRACKED THAT EGG.

I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU.

I CAN'T FUCKING BELIEVE YOU.

WHY.

WHY!?!?!?!?

Shadell said:
I couldn't imagine what the future would hold. It was hard to imagine that I'd ever really be able to think of myself as Chiro or Saint Humanitas or Inessa's sister, much less all three at once.

I had given myself to envy, and that wouldn't go away. The seed was still there, a dark bitter spot in my heart. It felt like I would always hate myself, no matter how kind I learned to be. It was impossible to imagine looking at my friends without feeling that sense of bitter impossibility about everything they were that I could never have.

But I was going to try anyway. And there, sitting exhausted in the throne room, that was enough to make me smile and laugh and hope for tomorrow.

You motherfucker.

DON'T HAVE THAT FUCKING CHARMING MAGICAL GIRL END CAP NARRATION LIKE YOU LEARNED A DAMN THING YOU DIPSHIT!!!

I can't.

Shadell.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZPx14BlW_0?t=27

How could you.

Shadell said:
NEXT WEEK ON SHINING VIRTUE ANGELIC HEART!!!

With Superbia and Avaritia nowhere in sight, the Saints finally have a moment to rest! Inessa struggles to help Chiro make amends for her wrongdoings as the pair finally begin to heal. But! Between a mysterious new stranger lurking around the school and shocking news about an old friend of Michael's, it seems like this peace may be short-lived.

Tune in for Episode 30: Stormy Horizons, Inessa's Got a New Sister!

...I just...

Shadell. You are a writer I respect a lot.

I would sincerely ask you to go to hell.

Waiting warmly for the epilogue!

wetodet · Apr 2, 2024

RiceRockRekt said:
You literally cannot help yourself and clearly you are going to have a Support Main Complex going into the future Chiro, but I love that you're going to be a smarmy bard through out.

I dunno, my experience with Support Main Complexes - or maybe it's just healer mains - is more along the lines of "burning hatred of all that lives due to how many times they've had to pull some moron's arse out of a fire they voluntarily got into" than "but how will I know if I'm doing enough?"

A Little Vice (Trans Magical Girl fic)

Interested-Idiot-Immortal

Backalley Watchdog

Happy Holidays for Maria

Interested-Idiot-Immortal

Goddess of Magic and Passion

Interested-Idiot-Immortal

Interested-Idiot-Immortal

Turns out we're plural too.

The future's now, old man! (Avatar Art by me)