After nearly two years of constant abuse with no signs of stopping, Taylor begins to grow tired. Even months after being hospitalized from that locker incident, her bullies continue to escalate their torment, slowly grinding her hopes for a better future into dust. And now, as she lays alone on the cold ground, slowly bleeding out in a collapsing school hallway thanks to a terrorist bombing, she finds herself contemplating her choices in life, and comes to a bitter, painful realization.
In the end, she just wanted to stop feeling so lonely.
…Maybe she should've been more careful about what she wished for.
AN: Hello! Before we begin with this story, allow me to make a couple things clear.
First off, these are not based on the vtubers themselves, but rather based on their personas, with our own spin.
You won't see any of the girls talk about streaming or anything like that.
Because of this, some of the backstories of the characters will be a little different (Not too different, mind you!) so don't skim over stuff you think you know!
And finally, only the EN girls will be making an appearance. I'm sorry to those who wanted to see their favorites, but Hololive simply has too large of a cast! Can't fit everyone in!
Without further ado, I hope you enjoy the story!
And last, but certainly not least! @Chartic, who had made the original idea for this so long ago, and some people in Ursa Polaris' Discord!
Without them, this story would definitely not exist in the slightest, so go ahead and check them out! (And also say Hi to Ursa herself!)
Darkness. That was all that she saw. A warm primordial darkness that threatened to overtake everything. Oblivion in all directions, as the empty abyss of nothingness threatened to overtake her very being.
For a moment, Taylor thought she was dead.
Hell, some people probably preferred it that way, if that locker "prank" a few months ago was any indication of that. God forbid her abusers face any consequence for sending her to the hospital for a week. Instead, they got off scot-free while Taylor had to pick up the pieces once again.
But no, she wasn't dead. Would a dead person be able to think about the nothingness that surrounded her? Would a dead person be feeling cold, as an imperceptible chill breezed around and through her? Would a dead person be afraid of the inky darkness that surrounded her?
Hopefully not.
Taylor continued to stare at the abyss for a few moments longer.
The abyss blinked back.
With a sudden gasp, Taylor sprung into consciousness, taking several desperate gulps of air as she awoke from her nightmare. Her head throbbed with pain and her heart hammered in her chest as her eyes swiveled around, taking a note of her surroundings.
I'm in my room? Taylor thought, trying to piece together everything she could in her mind. Distantly, she heard the sound of rain outside.
She… didn't remember going to bed.
Taylor sat up in bed, wincing as her head started to pound a bit. She massaged her closed eyes as she tried to make sense of things and recollect herself.
Okay. I woke up, had breakfast, and went to school. Taylor had debated on skipping, to be honest. That was something she thought about quite often, lately. By now, it felt like there was barely even a point in continuing to attend school. Hell, her life would probably be a lot better if she didn't, because being there was essentially an elaborate form of self torture, at this point. But whenever she began to seriously consider it, she thought about her mother—about what she would say if she was still around.
As an English professor, her mother had raised her to have a healthy interest in academics and had always done her best to foster Taylor's endless curiosity, and desire to understand the world around her. Taylor couldn't help but feel guilty at the thought of dropping out of school—couldn't help but feel as if she'd be letting her mother down, and she just couldn't bring herself to do that. She couldn't afford to give up and let her bullies win.
And so, she decided to press on and go to school today, as ill-advised of a choice as it was. She had certainly inherited that same bullheadedness her father was known for, that's for sure. But it had been a mistake, in the end. Emma and Sophia had been worse today. Sophia almost made her trip down the stairs, and Emma brought up Mom. Again.
Taylor swallowed the lump in her throat and tried to ignore the tears gathering in her eyes. She needed to focus.
I was going to talk to my art teacher to try to explain what happened to my project, and then…
That's all she can remember. She felt like there was something important that she had forgotten, but whenever she tried to think about her last memories, her headache got a little worse.
…Why do I have such a bad feeling about—?
"Taylor?" A familiar voice calling out from outside her room broke her out of her thoughts and caused her to flinch, her gaze snapping to the door.
A moment later, the door opened to reveal her father. He was as familiar as he'd always been, but there were visible signs of stress that made him look older. A deep frown of concern marred his features.
"D-Dad—?" Taylor coughed, hard. She hadn't realized it but her throat felt horrendously dry, and her voice came out rough. Taylor felt a cup being pushed into her hands that she didn't realize her dad was holding, and a little hastily, she gulped down the cool liquid to soothe her sore throat.
"Easy, Taylor. You shouldn't drink that fast," her dad chastised her, rubbing her shoulders as she drank every last bit of water in the cup.
"What—?" Taylor cleared her throat again once she had finished, handing the cup back to her dad. "What happened? Why am I…?"
Her father sighed as he sat down on Taylor's bed. He looked really worried for her. "You really don't remember?"
"I… I remember going to school, and taking notes in class. Then I was walking down the hallway and…" Taylor recounted with some hesitation, leaving out some parts she'd rather not bring up to avoid unnecessary trouble, like when Madison accidentally spilled some water on her notes. "And then… I don't know."
Her dad continued to stare, his frown growing deeper and deeper. With another sigh, he spoke again. "Taylor… there was a bombing on your school."
Taylor silently stared at him, uncomprehending, and with a sudden jolt of clarity, she remembered.
The infrequent sounds of explosions that had been going off across the city, the anxious whispers of her classmates as they all discussed the newest brand of parahuman insanity to have come out of Brockton Bay: an honest-to-God serial bomber. There was some talk amongst the faculty to suspend classes and send the students back home, but before anything could be done about it, disaster struck.
She had been heading to art class at the time, before an explosion went off inside the school, and as everyone began panicking, screaming and running for their lives, one of the rooms in the hallway she had been walking through exploded as well, close to her. Far too close.
One moment, she was hurrying through the hallway, and the next, she felt pressure and heat course through her body, and suddenly she was on the ground, her ears ringing, vision swimming. She had nearly died.
"...Oh," Taylor numbly said, her expression going slack.
How was she even…?
"Yeah." Her dad nodded with a forlorn expression. With no hesitation, he put down the cup on the side and hugged Taylor close to himself. "I'm glad that you're okay. If anything had happened to you…"
He didn't dare finish the sentence. He didn't need to, Taylor understood. She didn't put her arms around her dad, but she leaned into the close contact, the warmth of his hug feeling slightly unfamiliar, but still comforting nonetheless.
"How am I okay, though?" Taylor asked when her dad had let go of her. She inspected her hands closely. "I wasn't hurt?"
In fact, besides her dry throat, she felt perfectly fine. No hints of bruises from anything Sophia did, no injuries from having stood next to a bomb as it went off, just… nothing. If anything, she felt like she had just woken up from a long nap.
Her dad blinked, seemingly confused before staring at Taylor with furrowed eyes. "If you were, you didn't seem like it. When your friend brought you over here and told me what happened, you almost looked like you were sleeping."
Taylor frowned, feeling uncertain. She definitely remembered being caught in the midst of the blast. The lingering phantom feeling of pain that she could remember was too vivid to be a hallucination.
…Wait. A friend?
"Taylor?" Her dad asked, taken aback by the sudden intense stare that Taylor was giving him.
"Emma brought me home?" she asked, the words laced with so much doubt, confusion, and fear that it made her dad pause. There was just no way, right? Hell, knowing Emma, she probably did this as a way to get Taylor in her deb—
"No?" Her dad said, derailing Taylor's thoughts entirely. "Don't worry though, I talked to Alan, and Emma got out of there safely, just like you."
"O-Oh…" Taylor frowned, trying to push back the combination of disappointment and relief she felt to focus on the bigger picture.
If Emma didn't bring me here, then, who—?
"I'll let you get some rest, okay, kiddo?" Her dad said, sitting up from her bed. "There's still some leftover takeout from yesterday. Your friend's having some, but there's still enough for you if you're hungry. Come down whenever you feel ready, but take it easy."
And with that, her dad left her room, heading downstairs, once more leaving Taylor alone to her thoughts.
There was something wrong here that she couldn't put her finger on. She didn't know what it was, but she just had a gut feeling that something was deeply wrong. She knew she had been caught in an explosion, she knew that she had been hurt, and she knew that she nearly died, but here she was, as if nothing happened.
And then there's my… friend?
Taylor didn't have any friends. Emma and her little gaggle of psychos had made damn sure of that over the last year and a half as they made her life a living hell. She was the school's pariah, a punching bag for those close to Emma in social status. Most of the people in Winslow would've happily left her to die, and yet someone had brought her to safety—back to her home, no less.
I need to get answers. Taylor thought, rising to get out of bed. Already, she was waiting for the other shoe to drop as she slowly made her way downstairs, mind racing trying to figure out who brought her back.
Did Emma tell someone where I live? Taylor frowned as she thought over who could've possibly known to bring her home. Sophia would probably rather die than save me, but Madison spends a lot of time with Emma, so—
Taylor's thoughts were derailed as she descended the stairs and approached the living room, finally getting a good view of the supposed friend who had saved her, and immediately freezing in place as she registered the appearance of the stranger in her home.
The person sitting on her couch talking to her dad, moving to take a bite of the leftover takoyaki from yesterday wasn't someone she had ever seen at school. An idle part of Taylor's mind noticed the TV turned on to the news, but she couldn't focus on that, as stunned as she was.
On paper, the girl herself looked rather ordinary. Asian features, glasses and dark, long straight hair that ran freely down her back. She was about a head shorter than Taylor, too—coupled with a conservative dress that simply made her think 'art student' more than anyone she'd seen back in Winslow. But, as she sat in her living room, acting entirely too innocent given the rest of her appearance, 'ordinary' might have been the last word Taylor would ever use to describe the unknown girl.
Not when the first thing she actually noticed were the tentacles.
Just a giant, enormous mass of tentacles hovering behind the girl, easily twice her size, seemingly emerging from her back, slowly floating in the air as if submerged underwater, and yet still reacting and moving in tandem with the girl. Moreso, she saw wings firmly wrapped around her hips, pointy ears, a small pair of… oddly fleshy horns sitting atop her head, some strange tentacles replacing the strands of hair that should've framed her face, and to top it all off, she saw an honest-to-God halo floating above her head, glowing and faintly illuminating her immediate surroundings.
Taylor's heart stopped as the monster cape casually sitting in her living room seemed to notice her, paused in her conversation with dad, and turned to face her.
"Hey, Taylor," the girl greeted her with a small wave and a smile. Her voice was soothing, even as one of her tentacles copied her hand's movement and waved as well. "Glad to see you're up! Are you feeling okay? Want to tako-bout it?"
Her father looked away from the girl, nodding at Taylor in greeting. "Taylor. I was just talking to… I'm sorry, what was your name again? I'm a little old, so my memory isn't as good as it used to be."
"Ah, really? You didn't look a day over twenty-five." The girl put down her food, giggling at her own joke. Regardless, she gave Taylor's dad a small bow. "Just call me Ina. It's nice to meet you!"
Her dad chuckled in return as he turned back to Taylor, not noticing how flabbergasted she was. "She seems like a nice girl! Why did you never tell me about her, kiddo?"
Taylor finally found her voice as she spoke up. "...Dad, why are you treating this like it's normal?" Taylor spoke with a panicked twinge, the too-casual conversation confusing and unnerving her.
Taylor's dad blinked, taken aback by Taylor's sudden concerns. "Taylor, what's wrong?"
"What's wrong?" Taylor gestured at the girl's clearly unnatural features adorning her entire body. "You don't see what's wrong with this? Any of it?"
Her dad blinked, eyes darting back to Ina, who had a small nervous smile on her face, and Taylor, who looked positively baffled. "Am… I supposed to see something?"
"What—but, you—!" Taylor stammered out, at a loss for words. How is he even ignoring the whole—why can't he see the mass of tentacles? "Dad, you need to get away from her—!"
Taylor flinched as one of the tentacles started to move, making her step back in surprise. It rose towards Ina—who stared at Taylor with an apologetic expression—and hovered around her mouth to mimic a shushing motion.
Taylor could only glare in response.
Was this some sort of power play? Was she doing something to her dad and making sure Taylor was aware of it as a way to threaten her? It had to be a parahuman ability of some kind, which meant the girl was a cape, if the inhuman features weren't already enough of a giveaway. But who in the world was this girl, and what the hell did Taylor even do to catch her eye?
"It's been a long day, so Taylor's still probably a little tired," Ina said, a stray tentacle getting closer to Taylor and gently taking her sleeve and tugging on it. Instinctively, Taylor tried to shake the tentacle off, only to find that she couldn't even muster enough strength to make her arm move—let alone the strange appendage. Very, very, reluctantly, Taylor let herself get dragged to the couch, the rest of the mass of tentacles shifting to accommodate another person. "I don't blame her. It's definitely been super stressful for us."
Taylor's dad sighed, abruptly looking a little tired. "Yeah, I understand. It feels like the city's going to hell right now. I have some errands to run before all the stores close down, so I think I'll leave you two alone for now."
Her dad made to move away from the couch, waving goodbye as walked towards the front door, umbrella in hand. "Taylor, if you're feeling hungry, the leftovers are in the microwave. You girls have fun, okay?"
"Will do, Mr. Hebert!" Ina waved back, as Taylor's dad left the house, leaving the two of them alone.
A brief moment of silence, and…
"...For a second there, I thought I was Ina lot of trouble," Ina joked again with a small smile, making another cringeworthy pun. "This is a pretty awkward way to start a relationship, huh?"
But Taylor was having none of it. "What do you want?"
Ina blinked, seemingly confused about Taylor's question. She tilted her head as she spoke up, "Huh? What do I want?"
Taylor clenched her fists, glaring at Ina once more. If she tried to run, how far could she go before the tentacles reached her? Not far enough, she imagined. "Don't act like I'm stupid. You come in here, acting like we're friends, and then you do something to my dad so he doesn't see… this." Taylor gestured at Ina's entire being to try to get the point across. Her voice came out bitter and pointed. "Just… you want something from me, right? Just say it already."
Ina stared at Taylor for a few moments, puzzlement and worry clear to see on her face. It was enough to make Taylor falter for a moment before Ina slumped down in her seat and sighed.
"Oh, um, how do I even...?" Ina muttered, sitting up straight in her seat. She took the leftover remains of her food and offered it to Taylor. "Want some takoyaki before I explain? Don't worry, even though I'm a tako, I don't mind if you eat this."
Taylor didn't move an inch, her face scrunching up as she registered the joke. "I'm good."
Luckily, she didn't take offense, putting down her food and putting her hand on her lap. Her eyes closed for a moment. "Let's see, where to start…? Well, I heard your call, kind of. You called out for someone to help you, I think, since you really looked like you needed it when I answered your summons."
Taylor blinked as she took in Ina's words. "I… what?"
"You summoned me." Ina tilted her head, patient in the face of Taylor's incomprehension. "I have to admit, I was a little confused when I got taken from my shrine, but I know the Ancient Ones wouldn't have let me be taken without reason, so I followed their guidance, got you to safety, and here we are!"
Taylor didn't know how to react to that. She brought over a random cape from who knows where that saved her from the attack on the school? That was…
Stupid. Insane. Did this girl really think she'd fall for that nonsense?
"The Ancient Ones?" Taylor asked instead of letting her feelings show, as the name struck a chord in her mind, for some reason.
Ina's smile grew as she nodded quickly, she seemed a little too excited about the topic. "Yeah, the Ancient Ones! If you're seeing my tentacles, then you've definitely been enlightened by them! Do you…"
Ina hesitated for a moment before lowering her voice to a whisper, "do you hear them, in the back of your mind? They're talking. They're always talking. Kinda like this."
Taylor continued to stare at the crazy cape in front of her. Her mouth opened, maybe to give a scathing remark in response, but then…
She heard it. The whispers. Somehow, she didn't notice, but they had been there ever since she had woken up, a nearly imperceptible white noise at the edge of her hearing. It felt so small, yet so vast once she started paying attention. The more she listened, the louder it got. It felt terrifying and calming, so complicated, yet so simple. It sounded like everyone she knew. It sounded like Emma, it sounded like her dad, it sounded like herself.
It sounded like her mom.
Hands on her shoulders dragged her back to reality as Ina looked into Taylor's eyes. "I know, it's a lot, but don't look too deep, okay? Here, breathe with me on three. One, two, three…"
Despite her lack of trust in Ina, she found herself heeding the enigmatic girl's words. It wasn't long before she finally noticed how her heart was practically beating out of her chest, and how faint her breathing was. A couple more deep breaths later, and her hands finally stopped trembling.
"Sorry, I shouldn't've asked you to do that so soon! They're not really the most, um, gentle. You'll get used to them quick, I pinky-promise." Ina's smile was small but apologetic. Once Taylor's breathing returned to normal, Ina took her hands off her shoulders, where she immediately pushed herself as far back on the couch as she could, away from the suspicious girl. "Don't worry! They'll never hurt those they've touched, for they are merciful, and their loving guidance will bring happiness to their flock!"
Taylor didn't know what to say to the girl suddenly waxing evangelical. Definitely add 'possible cult member' to the list of crazy this cape was packing. "So I… I brought you here to save me? And this… thing helped you get me home?"
Ina happily nodded, shifting in her seat a bit as Taylor tried to piece things together, despite her many reservations.
After all, she'd definitely seen enough just now to stretch her scale for the unbelievable. She doubted she would have survived without some sort of divine intervention, but…
"Did you heal me, too? I remember being hurt before I… fainted."
It was an insignificant thing to worry about, but she just knew she was missing something important. One moment, she was trapped under debris, a large part of her hopelessly resigned to death as she slowly bled out, and then…
She simply woke up in her bed, none the worse for wear.
Ina hesitated for a moment, her smile slipping for a second before she shook her head. "...No, when I found you, you didn't seem hurt? If I had to guess, it must've been the Ancient Ones' will for you to stay in this world, so they probably healed you and stuff."
Taylor stared at Ina for a few moments. In the background, the TV continued blaring on news about widespread damage caused to the city. She didn't pay attention to any of that as she continued to stare, her gaze searching.
"You're not telling me everything," she said like it was an immutable fact, a gut feeling of hers telling her that Ina was leaving out something.
"Taylor—"
"No, don't fuck with me." Taylor stood up from the couch, glaring at the girl. Her hands hurt with how hard she was clenching them. "I know when someone's lying to me. What. Happened?"
Ina had a concerned frown on her face as she averted her gaze from Taylor's glare. She didn't ease up at all, even as Ina stayed quiet for a few seconds.
"...Well, when I was brought to you, things were super chaotic." Ina started, folding her hands in her lap. "Lots of things were happening, and it was kinda a mess. But when I saw you, I could tell that the Ancient Ones' became really interested in you."
Ina stopped again, before patting the seat Taylor was sitting in a moment ago.
"You might wanna sit down for this, it's a little—"
"No, just fucking tell me," Taylor all but growled, cutting off what was probably another fanatical rant. "First you act like everything is fine, then you say I have this—this fucking thing in my head now, and not only that, you're messing with my dad, and pretending we're friends when I don't even know you!"
"Uh, Taylor, I get your anger, but you should really—"
"Why should I even listen to a single thing you've been saying?" Taylor threw an arm out wide, her gestures becoming more aggressive as her anger rose. "For all I know, you're the one making me hear this weird shit, trying to mess with my head! Why should I even believe that you'd—!"
At that moment, two things happened.
For an instant, the whispers intensified. Despite how quick it was, the feeling was enough to freeze her in her tracks and send shivers through her entire body. The sensation was alien, foreign, and yet somehow familiar, as if it hadn't been the first time she had experienced it.
Then, a wave of something rippled outwards from her, and a lamp next to the couch promptly exploded, causing Ina to flinch. It was so sudden, Taylor barely even registered it. One moment it was there, then the next, only shattered fragments remained, scattered around the living room.
Taylor and Ina both looked at the remains of the lamp, uncomprehending.
Did… I do that?
In the ensuing silence, she faintly registered the name of her school being mentioned. Almost mechanically, she turned to the TV.
"—was one of the schools targeted in the bombing and subsequently collapsed in the aftermath. The situation is still developing, with many witnesses giving conflicting reports as to what occurred. However, it is clear that the damages to the school were not entirely caused by the bombing, as something else played a part in it."
The scene changed to a shaky phone camera.
Taylor's heart stopped.
A large, inky darkness that blotted out the sun. Two large malevolent eyes, glowing sickly green in the light. A twisted, alien figure emerged from the remnants of her school like a sick parody of a chick hatching from an egg. Shadows that seemed to stretch out unnaturally like dozens of flailing limbs, ever reaching, ever grasping. The being on the shaky footage towered over the school even while sitting down and hunched over, dwarfing it entirely.
"Eyewitness reports are still coming in, but the PRT has tentatively given the creature the name of 'Nyx'. Not much is known about its origins, but as seen by this footage, it appeared around the time the bombs started going off in Winslow, only adding further mayhem and chaos to an already desperate situation. There is a lot we don't know about this 'Nyx,' but we will continue to do our best to—"
Taylor forgot how to breathe. She recognized that figure. That omnipresent darkness, the way the hairs on the back of her neck stood as she looked into those eyes, and the feeling of vastness she felt from its sheer size…
It was her.
She remembered.
Taylor's heart pounded in her ears as her breaths came out short again. Her hands came up to hug herself as her nails dug into her skin painfully, the whispers at the edge of her hearing becoming louder.
I-I can't—
The lights in the house began to flicker as the room shook. The old lightbulbs were making an unpleasant noise as they continued to fire on and off, and all the while the whispers became louder and louder.
She didn't even register the hands on her shoulders nor the voice desperately calling out to her, as the whispers drowned out everything around her.
With a sudden breakthrough, the whispers reached a crescendo, and she remembered everything.
…It hurts. It hurts so much.
That was Taylor's first thought upon regaining consciousness upon the destroyed school hallway, the dust from the explosion still settling.
A portion of the walls and roof had collapsed, parts of the debris falling on top of her and pinning her in place. Flames slowly spread across the hallway, filling it with smoke. There was an ever-present throbbing of pain that coursed through her entire body. It made it incredibly hard to focus, to think, to act. The only part of her body that was exempt from this pain were her legs, currently pinned under the debris.
She knew that wasn't a good thing.
Even though she knew it was futile, she tried her hardest to move, to get out of danger before things got worse. But it was no use. Even as she pushed past the agony to attempt to drag herself away from the smoke and the fire, she couldn't move the debris pinning her in place.
She almost couldn't see a single thing due to all the dust clouding everything, and her glasses having disappeared at some point during the explosion. But even without her glasses, she could still see cloudy blobs running away from the danger. Students and faculty alike, fleeing for their lives.
"He—!" Taylor violently coughed, accidentally inhaling some dust. Regardless, she tried again. "H-Help! Please! S-Somebody! Help me!"
And yet, the cacophony of screams, fire and panic didn't wane. She screamed as loud as she could for someone to notice her.
But nobody came.
…I'm going to die, Taylor thought with a terrifying clarity as she saw the flames slowly approaching. I'm going to die here, and no one will care.
She would just become another statistic. Another number to add to the pile of bodies lost to the endless gang wars in the city. She was going to die alone, as the world crumbled around her.
Tears started to fall from her eyes.
Why?! I did everything I could! I tried! I tried so hard to keep going, I did my best to be better, and—!
Taylor's vision started to wane, the strength leaving her as her blood pooled around her.
It didn't even change anything. No one here even cares, and—! And—!
Her short-lived rage petered out, and she sobbed, alone and forgotten. All she had left was a profound sense of hopelessness.
I just wanted someone to care…
And in that moment, the world broke, and she saw ██▄ṁ̸̜͈͘.
Her sight was replaced with visions of things beyond comprehension. At first, she saw a dance between two indescribable creatures. A waltz unlike anything she'd seen before as they moved amongst the stars.
But even their vastness was nothing compared to the beings that lurked in the dark space between the stars, beyond the reach of mortals and gods alike.
The pair of creatures—these strange, alien Entities traveling through space—fled as they encountered one such being. Something much greater than them. And yet, even their struggle was futile, for the darkness beyond the stars had left a fragment of itself hidden within these celestial parasites, one that would only awaken when encountering a worthy vessel.
And it had just done so.
The darkness spread across the cosmos, blotting out everything. Planets, stars, galaxies, T̸̝͗̚h̶̗̦͂▄▌ consumed it all, leaving only a void of eternal darkness behind T̶̟̈́͗█▄ṁ̸̜͈͘. A void in which only Taylor and T̸̝͗̚▄█▀ existed.
Within that infinite void, she was observed. Judged. Measured. And finally, deemed adequate.
Feverish and delirious, her overwhelmed mind could scarcely comprehend what was asked. Her desires? She could only conjure images of the pain she had endured, the betrayal she had experienced, the loss of that which she had once considered precious as it was twisted and used against her day after day, slowly wearing her down.
Unbidden, the words rose from within her, sincere and true.
I want to live. To have a chance to be happy. I don't want to feel powerless anymore. I don't want to feel so lonely anymore!
▒██ỷ̸̗͜ considered her wish, and with a sense of finality, her plea was accepted. The void receded, folding inwards, the cosmos unveiled once more as the darkness between the stars rushed towards her, suffusing her soul and becoming one with her. A blessing, freely given.
Suddenly, the vision ended, and she found herself within the burning hallway once again, changed.
It was like the dam that held her mind was gone, and let her consciousness finally become free. Her awareness melted across the hallway like a flood, committing every inch and crevasse into memory before carelessly casting the useless information away. The fire that threatened to burn her early looked so tiny, and insignificant, snuffed out in mere moments by her sheer drowning presence.
Even so, Taylor still felt constrained, like the emotions that she poured into her wish turned into power that threatened to explode within her, clawing upon her own fraying sense of self. It was all too easy to simply… let loose, and let the shadows take over.
Taylor wanted to laugh. No, she did laugh. Exhilaration rose within her as easily as she felt herself expand through rooms upon rooms, crashing through the walls that felt oh so oppressive and isolating—but not anymore.
Let loose? She never had control in the first place. "Taylor Hebert" was nothing more than a thinning fragment, a broken mind anchored to a storm: unchecked, unstoppable, and of dubious thought.
The shadows would only grant her wish, and so it would surge upon the school, through its halls, then through its people. It would destroy, then it would look. It would look, and it would look, and it would not find what it wants, for what it wants has never existed in this forsaken place, no one will care and no will start to care no one will ever care here not here never here n▒t in the way she would want becaus▒ of what it's done to her and the peop▒ with their hearts set will never change their mind so it would look through farther beyond the crack in its mind and turn it ██▄ a hole and sear it into its soul and call a██ c█l and CALL in█o the hole until the hole would answer ba▒▒ and push someone out—
"Waaaaaaaah—!"
Then, the heavy sound of a meaty impact rang out, and everything went dark.
Taylor stared in mute horror at the footage on the TV. That thing attacking the school and lashing out indiscriminately, was her.
She did that.
People were looking at her and thinking that she was a monster.
The lights continued to flicker before the bulbs finally gave out and shattered, raining bits of glass onto the living room. The TV screen cracked, part of the displayed footage being replaced with nothing but static.
Somehow, that was the thing that brought her back to reality. It was then she noticed Ina directly in front of her, hands on her shoulders as she spoke softly to her.
"—going to be okay. Please," Ina pleaded, rubbing Taylor's shoulders in what was probably meant to be a reassuring gesture.
Taylor stared at Ina blankly. She couldn't find the words.
"You shouldn't have found out like that." There was a mournful look on Ina's face. "The Ancient Ones kept you safe, but as powerful as they are, they tend to—"
"Get out, please." Taylor, feeling cold and hollow, shook off the girl from touching her any further.
Ina paused, eyes wide as Taylor spoke. Her frown grew a little bit before she tried to speak up again. "Taylor, I get that—"
"No, get out, right now!" Taylor's voice escalated to a screech as her repressed anger came out in an incidental shove as she all but dashed away from Ina's reach, the idea that she should be fearful of this crazy cape completely escaping her mind.
"Ah!" Ina cried out, surprised by the sudden force.
"I don't care about your crazy bullshit! I just wanted to be happy! I didn't ask for all this shit to happen to me!"
Taylor saw red. Despite the whispers that plagued the edge of her mind, she pressed on regardless, pivoting to wildly gesture at the TV.
"I didn't ask to be a fucking monster! To hurt people! I just wanted to stay alive! That's all I wanted! That's all I ever wanted! I just…!"
Taylor's voice abruptly died down in volume. She felt so tired.
"...Please just leave me alone."
A silence went through her living room. Neither girl wanted to say anything.
"...Sorry." Ina broke the silence first. She looked ashamed as she glanced down at the floor. If Taylor turned back around, she might've seen tears build up on the edge of Ina's eyes. "You're right, this whole thing is a lot. I'm sorry I can't really do much… I'll, um, leave you alone now."
The girl was as good as her word, immediately turning to leave, each of her steps taking her further and further away. She hesitated as she reached the door, looking back at Taylor with an indecipherable expression before she finally left the house.
Taylor didn't bother to look. She simply stood inside the empty home, surrounded by shattered glass, her mind racing in a spiral of negativity.
She shuddered as the high from her emotions left her, leaving her feeling completely drained. Her hands reached up to wipe away the tears blurring her vision. All the while, the news broadcast droned on in the background despite the sorry state of the broken TV, the sound coming out scratchy and corrupted.
"—almost miraculously, Winslow has so far reported no casualties in the aftermath of the attacks. And albeit there are many reported injuries, there have been no fatalities—which leads another train of thought to rise within some of the victims in the area."
Like a puppet with its strings cut, Taylor fell back on the sofa, staring almost listlessly ahead and feeling like an absolute mess.
"Was this 'Nyx' present at the school to attack, or to protect?"
"I don't know," was all Taylor could mutter, face twisting to reflect the spiral of uncertainty within her thoughts.
Anger and regret. Two intense emotions as starkly different as mountains and ravines. Where one bubbled within you like red-hot flames, the latter was the deep sea, dragging you down to drown in retrospection.
So, what do you do if you feel both at once?
"I-I thought my boyfriend was dead." Julia looked nothing like the girl who had laughed when Taylor had gum stuck to her hair. "I saw that thing reach for him and I thought he was gone for g-good, but…!"
Julia took a deep breath before she continued to give her account of events to the reporter on the TV, tears staining her cheeks. "H-He's okay. He went to the hospital to get a check-up, but he's safe."
Reality check came quick with a bucket, and jettisoned the disarray in her thoughts in a splash of some damning water. White-hot meeting ice-cold ends with smoke, and the lukewarm feeling of emptiness.
That might've been a good word for it.
Taylor stared at the TV. Empty.
How was she even meant to take this? That the rampage she could vaguely remember going through ultimately injured no one? For all that she should feel relieved, Taylor couldn't dismiss that tiny inkling that surfaced together with the revelation.
Even at the midst of her episode, Taylor Hebert was still too much of a coward to stop holding back.
Taylor massaged her temples trying to ward off the mental whiplash. It felt like a grueling headache, with the never-ending whispers being the exact opposite of a helping hand.
To think, it's been barely a few minutes since she woke up for the second time today. That was barely enough time to register that a bombing happened in her school, and she apparently almost—would have even certainly—died—
Taylor felt like a whole new world came and hit her dead-on with a semi. Reality check, with a vengeance.
"—and this is BBNN Bomb Watch, and I've been your ear to the ground, Ariel Li—"
She turned the TV off and threw the remote on the couch. She doubted she could hear another word right now, so she settled for shifting her stare up at the ceiling; at the broken bulb just hanging at the center of the room.
If they knew who this 'Nyx' was, would they talk about her like they've been doing now?
The question stuck itself upon Taylor's mind, grinding any other thought to a dead stop for who knew how long.
It was only the booming crackle of thunder that brought her out of her reverie, the nearby lightning momentarily flashing the living room until it quickly fell again to the darkness. Like a flash of inspiration of the more dangerous kind, it only served to emphasize the looming threat.
Invariably, her thoughts settled on their most recent visitor.
There was some insane cape terrorist bombing the whole city without any regard, and she was stuck outside, braving the storm, completely exposed to danger—all because of Taylor.
Some hero. 'Nyx' wasn't any sort of benevolent monster. She was just a giant asshole.
But that was enough of a spark to get Taylor to move. She all but dashed to the entrance, nabbing the umbrella by its spot next to the door.
She needed to be better than this. She thought she was better than this.
Her tentacles stand out, so it shouldn't be too hard to find her, right? Taylor thought as she got her keys, opened the door with her umbrella in hand, and—
"Ah," Ina said, crouched down in the grass of the front yard, freezing as her gaze met Taylor's. Her tentacles made a makeshift shelter for herself as she distractedly drew circles in the dirt with her hand and poked some flowers.
"...What are you doing?" Taylor asked, dumbly. She wasn't sure what she was expecting, but it wasn't this.
"I, um…" Ina's cheeks turned red as she looked away from Taylor. "I kinda just realized that I don't know anything about this place, so I uhm, don't really know where to go? Haha…"
Taylor took a moment to stare at Ina wordlessly as the rain continued to pour.
For some reason, staring at the lost, almost sad-looking girl under the rain dulled her lingering feelings of suspicion. Seeing her like this almost felt painfully familiar.
"...I'll let you back inside," Taylor said, her tone carefully calm. "Under one condition."
"Huh?" Ina could only tilt her head in response.
"Just… fix whatever you did to my dad." Taylor gestured with her umbrella at Ina. "That thing that made him completely ignore those extra parts, and think you were one of my friends."
"Oh." Ina's dejected realization was about as genuine as Taylor had ever seen. "That'll take a while to explain…"
Seeing the monster cape start twiddling her thumbs, already expecting some sort of rejection, made Taylor sigh and open the door to the house a little wider than before. "Alright. Just… get inside and tell me, then."
Ina's eyes went wide as she stood up from the grass. "Oh, no, it's okay! Don't worry about me, I can fend for myself pretty–!"
"No." Taylor looked away, only feeling more awkward by the second. "It's fine. I insist."
From the corner of her eye, she could see Ina hesitate for a moment. But soon, she was already walking towards Taylor, prompting her to open the door a little wider to let the shorter girl in.
"Thank you. It really means a lot," Ina said as she passed her, giving her a small smile.
Taylor didn't know how to react to that. Without further delay, she closed the door and turned around to face Ina again, who was crouched down on the floor, inspecting the shattered remains of the lightbulbs.
Ina hissed through her teeth. "Sorry about that! If you want, I can help you clean this up before–"
"Can you answer first, please?" Taylor interrupted, crossing her arms and not letting any sort of intensity seep through. She may be giving her the benefit of the doubt, but she had little patience for beating around the bush.
Her persistence was enough to bring the girl back on track, however. Though with a little hesitance on the side. "Oh! Right! Um. I didn't actually do anything to Mr. Hebert. His eyes just haven't been opened yet. Sorta."
"Go on," Taylor, try as she might, couldn't keep the skepticism out of her tone.
"Well, like I kinda said before. Only those blessed by the Ancient One's almighty presence can witness those of their kin. And since you're one such person…"
"I'm the only one who can really see it," Taylor finished Ina's sentence. In line with all the other supernatural heebie-jeebies, of course having some sort of third eye would be a thing. How silly of her to think otherwise. "And these… Ancients. They're the voices, right? Did they tell you to do… all of this? Take me home, pretend to be my friend?"
"The Ancient Ones," Ina gently corrected, tilting her head. "But no. They only really guide my path. In their benevolence, they let me come to my own decisions, knowing that I, too, believe in their will as they do mine."
Then, as if recalling some sort of momentous occasion, the strange girl closed her eyes, and raised her hands to her chest—almost in prayer.
"When I came to and saw how you protected the people through your own gifts, I figured you needed some help, too. Channeling like that always tires me out, haha!" The awkward laugh so plainly blew whatever kind of serene impression the monster cape was building, however.
"Sorry for getting your dad to think we've been friends forever, though… That was kind of totally unintentional." Said awkwardness continued to paint Ina's next few words, until she all but hunched in over herself, apologetic and ashamed. "...I just sorta kinda thought we could be friends."
Once more, the admittance left her feeling flatfooted, lost on how to respond. How the hell can she even respond to that?
Instead, she chose to ignore it for now and mechanically moved on to a new subject entirely, sitting back on the couch, where Ina swiftly followed—thankfully keeping her distance by sitting on the other edge. "So no one was really hurt?"
"The Ancient Ones are a lot of things, and they don't really do subtle…" Ina had a pinched expression before she shook her head. "But they don't hurt people for no good reason, and they didn't do it here either."
"And, uhm," Ina looked up at Taylor with some hesitation, slightly regretful. "I wanted to ease you into stuff, but I kinda messed it up, bad. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make everything worse."
Taylor took a moment to stare at Ina as she took in that statement. Was there any way to ease her into all of this? Even now, as her emotions cooled, there were still so many questions on her mind that she wanted answers to. That needed to be answered. One of which being…
"...How exactly did you get me back home, anyhow?"
"Oh! Tentacles. I made sure I was really sneaky, too!"
"Tentacles?" Taylor eyed the writhing, wriggling, mass of near-indescribable horror hanging just behind the admittedly very human-looking monster cape, and decided that in this case, discretion was, perhaps, the better part of valor. "...No, nevermind, please don't actually ever tell me."
"Okay!"
With another sigh, she made to rub her head, before pausing with a wince as she touched a bump right at the top of her head. The hell? Had that always been there since she woke up?
Ina also winced, apparently sympathetic to Taylor's pain. "Yeah, that bump looks a little rough. Does it hurt a lot?"
Taylor very slightly moved her head in a motion that could barely be considered shaking her head. It was then that something occurred to her. "...Wait, if the Ancients healed me, why do I have this bump in my head?"
Ina froze in place, before her cheeks grew slightly red and her eyes went a little wide. With a smile even someone like Taylor could tell was fake, she laughed awkwardly. "Ahaha, yeah–! You see–! There was–! There was a rock that fell on you all of a sudden! Yeah, it was totally weird!"
"...A rock." The less things said about Taylor's expression at the moment, the better.
"Yeah, these things just happen sometimes, you know!"
Taylor continued to stare at her. Ina kept fidgeting nervously, before absentmindedly rubbing her own forehead and letting out a wince that she unsuccessfully tried to hide from Taylor. Now that she was properly looking, she noticed something that suspiciously looked like a small bump on Ina's head as well.
Somehow, Taylor had a distinctive hunch that whatever caused this bump on her head was not at all related to a rock. However, for some unknown reason, Taylor also had no desire to pursue this line of thinking further and was about ready to bury it as Ina seemed to be.
A particularly loud burst of static thankfully diverted their attention as they both snapped their eyes toward the TV, which seemed to be malfunctioning due to its poor condition. It perfectly illuminated the damage of Taylor's outburst, as tiny little shards of glass littered the wooden floor. It merged with the broken lamp, bigger pieces mixing with smaller pieces. It was like a small hurricane had gone through the room.
—How was she supposed to fix this mess?
"We really gotta clean this place up before Mr. Hebert comes back, don't we?" Ina stood back up to take a better look around, somehow managing to pick up on Taylor's thoughts.
"...Not sure that'll solve the whole place being completely lightbulb-less."
"Ah! But you see, Taylor, I got the perfect solution!" In a flourish, Ina gestured in the air, making Taylor flinch as a floating book blinked into existence with a purple burst of light and a quiet woosh.
"...The Ancient Ones!" Ina cheered, presenting the odd book to Taylor.
It was, admittedly, a rather pretty book, dark purple with curving patterns etched into it, worn but well cared for, with a strange red eye symbol in the middle of the cover. Kinda looked like one of those tacky collector's edition fantasy novels that some of the expensive book stores at the boardwalk would sell. It even had a personal touch to it at the bottom, with Japanese lettering next to a cartoony doodle of Ina's face.
However, when she looked at it, the whispers in the back of her mind grew curious and slightly louder, and she knew that it was no ordinary book. "A… 'magic' book?"
It was the strangest thing. Out of everything so far, that's what Ina took a major offense to, gasping and drawing the book closer to her side.
"Ao-chan's not just any magic book! She's the repertoire of knowledge imparted upon me by the Ancient Ones! Also! The guide as to what awaits us next in our destiny! Probably."
Taylor cast her skeptical eye back to the strange book, and flinched. Was—was the thing glaring at her?
"I-I thought you didn't know why you were here," Taylor stammered despite her best efforts.
"Ah, well, you see, that's kinda the thing. I still, uhm, don't." Ina let go of the book, prompting it to hover over her shoulder, because of course it did. She clasped her hands behind her hips. "I was hoping that you knew more than me? But it seems like you don't, so…"
"...Right," Taylor lamely said, not sure what else she could say.
While she didn't exactly trust Ina, it was clear by now that whatever initial thoughts Taylor may have had of the strange girl had been wrong. She was clearly not here to threaten her, or force her into compliance, or whatever. And while she still wasn't quite okay with what she did as 'Nyx' (A part of her was anticipating the PRT knocking at her door any second now), she wasn't close to having a panic attack over it either. At least, not anymore.
"...Can I just ask why you're so okay with this?" Taylor asked out of the blue, finally bringing up the thing that had been bothering her the most. "I know you said it was because of these Ancients—"
"The Ancient Ones."
"—But shouldn't you be more upset about this? That I just plucked you away from your home into an unknown place?" Taylor brushed past Ina's insistence about the name to focus on her main point.
"Well, I have faith in the Ancient Ones. it's kinda their thing to be all quiet and mysterious sometimes, so I figured that I was brought here for a reason. It's not like I haven't had to do stranger things for them in the past, to be honest," Ina said, unaware of how crazy that sounded. Honestly, if Ina was hoping that Taylor would accept this without hesitation, she needed to—
"And besides, you seem like a good person, so I think I can trust you," Ina finished.
"...What?" Taylor didn't know how to respond, either to Ina's words, or the genuine smile the girl was giving her.
"The Ancient Ones don't hurt people for no reason. They wouldn't trust someone undeserving of their power. You were the one in control there. I admit, it wasn't perfect, but you saved people from whatever was happening." Ina's smile didn't wane in the slightest as she spoke. "That's how I knew I could trust you as much as they trust you."
For the briefest of moments, the suspicion and lingering animosity that Taylor had faded away, replaced by something else.
She really was at a loss for words. Taylor had treated Ina like a threat as soon as she woke up, afraid of whatever she could do or say, but despite that, she still trusted her? A total stranger?
That was—
"And besides!" Ina snapped Taylor out of her thoughts once more. Now, she had a slightly sly smile on her face. "I've never been Ina another world before, so this is definitely something exciting for me!"
Taylor paused again, for a good five seconds this time, as she processed the utter insanity of that statement.
"Uh, right." Taylor shook her head, trying to get back on track. "I'm… sorry for how I treated you, by the way. You didn't deserve all of that. It's just… Things have been rough lately."
Ina paused for a moment before her smile grew a little more. She didn't move, but her tentacles waved at Taylor, prompting a flinch from her. "It's okay! Water under the tentacle."
As if the universe itself had a sense of humor, a single drop of water fell to the floor, from the otherwise dry appendage.
"...I'm sorry, do you always do that?" Taylor crossed her arms, an odd mixture of feelings welling up in her. "Those are the types of jokes my dad makes."
"Ah, I see. He must be a very funny man," Ina nodded sagely, before starting to giggle to herself.
…She's not at all what I thought she was. Taylor didn't react to Ina's joke beyond a flat stare.
"Oh, and before I forget, I should introduce myself to you properly!" Ina perked up, clearing her throat. She made to bow to Taylor, before changing her mind mid-motion and holding out her hand.
"I'm Ninomae Ina'nis, Priestess of the Ancient Ones. Just call me Ina, though!"
Taylor stared at Ina's hand for a second like she had forgotten what a handshake was. Slightly hesitantly, she took Ina's hand and shook it. "Um, I'm Taylor. Taylor Hebert."
Despite the lack of enthusiasm in Taylor's voice, Ina looked satisfied. "Nice to meet you, Taylor! I would go for a hug, but you don't seem like the huggy type."
"Uh," Taylor stammered. "I guess not?"
"That's a shame, but either way…" Ina separated from the handshake. "Hope we can be good friends!"
Taylor let out a noncommittal hum. She doubted it, to be honest. Even if Ina seemed nice, there were still too many strange things (and even stranger explanations) that hung around the situation like an unpleasant air…
Hopefully she didn't just accidentally side with Satan, or something.
Taylor watched as Ina crouched next to the damaged TV, running a finger over the cracks of the screen carefully while humming in thought.
"...Can you really fix that?" Taylor asked, trying to quell the lingering bits of anxiety and doubt that were rising in her. Any second now, her dad would come home, and he'd have questions that Taylor would have no answers for.
Snapping out of her stupor, Ina stood up quickly, turned back to face Taylor, and gave her an enthusiastic nod. "Hmm! Believe it or not, fixing stuff like this kinda comes with being the Priestess of the Ancient Ones."
"And how are you going to fix it, exactly?" Taylor tried in vain not to let her discomfort show to Ina. Given all she had seen when she was 'Nyx', fixing things was the last thing Taylor would have guessed Ina to be capable of if she was connected to these Ancients.
Ina made a gesture in the air, prompting the book to appear from nothingness again. It floated down from behind her shoulder to land on her outstretched hand before it opened on its own accord and began rapidly flipping through pages.
"There's not much to it, really. I just need to find what I'm looking for, and it'll be good as new! Just let me work my…" Ina looked up from her book to wink at Taylor. "Magic, if you know what I mean."
"...Magic." Taylor's tone couldn't be more skeptical if she tried. "And you really believe that's what you're doing?"
"Oi, don't look at me like I'm crazy." Ina now had a mildly annoyed pout on her face, apparently unaware of the sheer irony of the statement. "But yeah, it's pretty simple! I don't know how it works for you guys, but I bet you'll change your mind about magic once I find—! Aha!"
Ina's finger stopped the rapid flipping of the book on a random page.
"Here we go! 'Warding school, repair and maintenance section: lesser area repair ritual'. I just have to cast it, and everything will be as good as new!" Ina gave Taylor an eager smile. "So, you ready?"
I have to be, don't I? Especially since I need to fix the mess that… I caused.
That thought just hit Taylor like a house of bricks. Since all of the stress from the day clouded her mind, it didn't quite occur to her what she had done until now. Somehow, while she was lashing out at Ina, she did something. Something that normal humans couldn't do.
…Was she a cape, now?
"Taylor?" Ina knocked her out of her thoughts, looking at her worriedly.
Taylor shook her head quickly. One thing at a time. "It's fine. Just do whatever you need to do."
"If you say so…" Ina muttered, looking at her with an odd expression before looking back at her book. With one last quick glance at her, she took a deep breath, let it out, and with a theatrical wave of her hand that caused glowing lines to etch themselves into the air, floor and walls of the room, she began to whisper words before—
Before the world itself started to shift.
It was like what she had felt when she lashed out and broke the lamp. She stumbled as the world swayed around her and the whispers in the back of her mind intensified until they utterly surrounded her. Taylor tried to shut out the noise, but it was in vain. It felt like an itch she couldn't scratch, demanding Taylor's attention and taking her from here to there.
Ina's voice was loud in the absolute silence of the house, but whatever she whispered was lost on Taylor. The syllables were audible, but the meaning of whatever incomprehensible language Ina started talking in kept scratching at the edges of her mind like it was daring her to find out their meaning.
The remaining lights in the house started to flicker on and off as the room groaned and shifted. For a while, it felt as if the concept of space itself was removed from Taylor's mind and she became unable to comprehend what was happening around her. Parts of the house seemed to stretch on forever, others seemed to be swimming as if they were made of liquid, while others were cast in pitch-black darkness or glowed unbearably bright.
Not to mention, as whatever the hell Ina was doing progressed, she felt a foreign, alien presence come closer and closer, brushing against her mind. What scared her the most was that she couldn't tell if the thing looking at her in curiosity was doing so out of malevolence, benevolence, or something else entirely.
Then, just as suddenly as it began, all those sensations vanished like they were never there to begin with.
"...And we're done, yay!" Ina said just as everything lit up again, allowing Taylor to see her child-like smile, and the lack of damage to her house.
The lightbulbs were on, and brighter than they had been before, like they were brand new. The lamp was clean and pristine, not a crack to be found, and finally, the TV turned back on again, showing a news conference where the leader of the Protectorate, Armsmaster, denounced the ABB's actions.
Taylor stumbled and placed a hand on the couch to steady herself, before taking a moment to get her harsh breathing under control.
"Taylor, are you okay?" Ina looked worried as she slowly took a couple of steps closer. "Do you need to sit down, or—?"
Taylor held out a hand, stopping Ina from approaching as she straightened up. "I'm—I'm fine."
For a given definition of fine, anyway. Because apparently magic was real. Holy shit.
With a shake of her head, she turned her attention to the TV again, looking for the slightest abnormality. It sounded clear as it did before, and the quality of the image was the same as ever. Had she not witnessed what she just had, she would have never noticed anything out of place.
"Hmm." Ina relented and stepped back, but not before giving Taylor another worried look. "Sorry, I'm used to this, so I didn't think about how spooky it would seem to other people."
"That wouldn't be the word I'd use to describe it," Taylor muttered, still on edge from… whatever that was.
Ina nervously laughed, rubbing the back of her head. "That's probably fair. I know you really don't believe in magic over here, but maybe you'll get used to it? I kinda cheated, since the Ancient Ones helped me out a lot, but-"
"S-Speaking of that," Taylor tried her hardest to keep the stammer out of her voice, to no avail. "What I did to the lamp and the TV earlier… that was magic?"
Ina blinked at the question before shaking her head. "That was more… the Ancient Ones responding to your emotions and stuff. You know how when you're angry, and you kinda just go-"
Ina brought her hands down in one quick motion as if she were slamming a desk.
"Yeah, it's sorta like that." Ina nodded, letting out a hum with each nod. "Since you're connected to the Ancient Ones in a similar way to me, you can probably do some of what I can."
"...And would that mean anything similar to what happened at Winslow?" Taylor asked, a little apprehensive of what whatever Ina was capable of. If Taylor caused all that damage at the school, then whatever Ina could do…
"Um…" Ina tapped her cheek a few times. "Maybe? It mostly depends on the person. For me, ever since I found the Ancient Ones, it's pretty easy for me to summon stuff and use warding magic, but I don't use a lot of other spells, since most rituals are good enough to do what I need to do."
Rituals. So whatever Ina did to fix everything here was a ritual? What did that even mean?
"When I'm channeling them, magic like that becomes easier because the Ancient Ones can help with it, but, uh…" Ina had a frown on her face. "You probably don't want to do that again, right?"
"...If 'channeling' means what I think it means, I don't." Taylor said, looking away from Ina with a scowl.
As a kid, she had always dreamed of getting powers, to be the next Alexandria, and soar through the skies while fighting off bad guys.
But that wasn't what she got, was it?
Yes, she wasn't the monster she thought she was, but to say she was happy about all of this couldn't be further from the truth. She didn't really understand what these powers were, but they were clearly not like the powers other normal capes had. That much, she knew down to her bones with complete certainty.
"Ah, don't worry, in that case, you can probably still use normal spells, like me!" Taylor turned back to Ina to see her humming while she nodded. That was something that seemed to be a habit of hers. "You'll have to like, sacrifice something if you ever want to do rituals, though!"
Taylor sighed, already putting Ina's advice out of her mind. "I'm not sure that—"
It was only when she had already started to respond to that sentence that she registered the words. With a blink, she looked back at Ina, who had a too-innocent smile.
"What?"
"You see, some magic comes at a cost, and it's different depending on the type of magic," Ina explained, pushing up her glasses while still keeping that smile on her face. "So I just kinda use my soul. Just a tiny bit!"
"...Your soul." Taylor did her best to not let even the slightest bit of emotion leak out into her voice.
"Yeah! Those grow back, you know!" Ina paused, before assuming a thinking pose, looking contemplative. "At least, I think? Pretty sure the human body can work without a soul, so you know, maybe I actually am soulless!"
She's fucking with me. Any word in the English language couldn't capture Taylor's expression. Stars would blot out before historians could capture what emotion her face was attempting to communicate. She's gotta be, right?
"That'd be really spooky, wouldn't you say so? Maybe I'm really a dark and troubled person." Ina's smile didn't wane in the slightest, but there was a certain edge to her that even Taylor could tell was devious. She put her hands up, as if she were clawing at Taylor. "Wah~!"
"The most 'troubling' thing about you is your sense of humor." Taylor had said without conscious input. There was no delay between her brain thinking that, and her mouth delivering the message to the girl she was facing.
Ina made a sound like she had been punched in the stomach, as she clenched her heart dramatically and slumped down. For the briefest of instances, Taylor again felt regret. "Th-That's the most hurtful thing anyone's ever said to me…!"
Taylor had absolutely no idea how to respond to this. Her atrophied social skills had rotten to such a point that she just stared awkwardly at Ina, like she had forgotten what words were. "...Sorry?"
"Anyway," Ina straightened up and abruptly dropped the act, looking thoroughly amused despite Taylor's lackluster response. "If you change your mind about magic, I'll try to teach you what I can! We can try and figure out what you're really good at, and maybe it'll help get us closer to seeing what the Ancient Ones want."
Somehow, Taylor didn't think that solving a problem that was caused by magic with magic was the best course of action.
That being said, Ina was pretty much the only source of answers Taylor had, and the only way she could learn how to get out of this situation. She highly doubted the Protectorate's Wards got magic lessons, after all.
"Speaking of," Taylor reflexively made to adjust her glasses in a tic of hers, only to realize that she hadn't been wearing one all this time, and yet, could see clearly despite it.
Did I—? No, stop. One thing at a time, Taylor.
"Do you have any guesses on what the Ancients would want with—?"
Taylor was interrupted by the sounds of the door opening, courtesy of her dad, who looked slightly soaked.
"Oh. Hey, Dad," Taylor greeted with a nod, feeling mildly annoyed by having her question cut off. Another time, then.
"Hello again, Mr Hebert!" Ina greeted more enthusiastically.
Her dad paused, seemingly forgetting about Ina's presence before he gave them both a smile.
"Hey," he said, closing the door, putting his keys in his pockets, and giving them both a smile. "You girls look like you're having fun, were you talking about anything interesting?"
"No, just about the news," Taylor said, quickly brushing past the topic of the conversation before he got too curious. Her eyes, against her will, darted to both the TV and the lightbulbs that Ina fixed. "Dad, was everything okay?"
"Yeah, I got caught out in the rain a bit, but I did what I needed to do without getting into trouble," If he noticed anything wrong, he didn't react to it before turning towards Ina. "By the way, it's getting late, aren't your folks getting worried about you?"
Ina's eyes widened, eyes quickly darting over to Taylor before she put on a smile meant to reassure. "Ah, don't worry, Mr. Hebert, that's…not really an issue for me."
Wait, did she imply that she's…?
"...Oh." Taylor's dad came to the same conclusion that Taylor did, giving Ina a more sympathetic look. "In that case, you'll be staying here for the night."
"H-Huh?!" Ina's eyes were as wide as a saucer.
"I can't let you go alone out there when there's still bombings happening." Her dad's voice held no compromise. He was putting on his stern dockworker voice, even. "It's the least I can do for a friend of Taylor's."
"Oh, that really means a lot, thank you, but I wouldn't want to impose..." Ina had a shy smile on her face.
Taylor sighed. While she wasn't completely comfortable with this, it would be cruel to just kick Ina out, considering she was only here because of Taylor's actions in the first place. "It's not a bother. And as Dad said, going out now wouldn't be a good idea."
Come to think of it, when was even the last time she had someone sleeping over at her house? It had been years…
Ina paused, before giving Taylor a quick smile. With a silent, 'Thank you' she turned back towards Taylor's dad.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Hebert. I really appreciate it." Ina bowed in thanks, her voice softer than usual.
"Call me Danny," her dad said. "And really, it's nothing. Though I hope you don't mind using the old guest room."
"Yeah, it's no problem. Definitely better than sleeping on a desk while you're drawing!" Ina nodded enthusiastically. Seems that her art student look of hers wasn't just for show.
Her dad chuckled. "That's good to hear. I'll go fetch some blankets to put in the guest room in the meantime. Taylor, you should probably get ready for bed soon too."
Oh, it was that late, huh? With all the mayhem of the day, Taylor lost track of time. "Yeah, I will." Taylor nodded as she watched her father leave the room.
With that out of the way, Taylor turned back and made to ask Ina one last question, whispering under her breath. "So you can't just…?" Taylor gestured at Ina's book, to try to convey her meaning. "And go back home?"
Ina looked down at her book in confusion, then looked back at Taylor. With a flash of realization and a big smile, she opened her mouth and…
"Nope!" Ina whispered, her smile not dropping in the slightest.
Taylor stared at Ina, waiting for her to elaborate.
Ina stared back at Taylor, not making a move to explain herself. There was no worry or shame in those eyes as she continued to stare at Taylor with that innocent smile still on her face.
It was then, and only then that Taylor promptly lost the last bit of hope she didn't know she had left. Mind utterly blank, she turned around and mechanically made her way to her room.
"I hope you sleep well, Taylor!" Ina said from behind Taylor, smile still clear in her voice.
Taylor didn't answer, on account of losing all will to stay awake. Though she might have grunted something along the lines of 'good night', so it worked out.
And with that, she made her way back to her room, exhaustion catching up with her every step until she limply fell on her bed.
The whole city got caught up in some insane terrorist's bombing run, she was possessed and turned into some kind of eldritch abomination that blew up her school, got stuck with a priestess from some kind of insane cult, and to top it off, said cult's deities apparently had plans. Because that's always good.
God, she was tired. All she could do was just wait for the other shoe to drop.
She would have thought it a dream at first, but this feeling of familiarity that kept itching at the back of her mind? The chill that had slightly subsided from the last time she found herself here?
She knew better at this point.
As she stared at something that was so incomprehensibly grander than she could ever hope to be, a single question rang through her mind. A question that was driven by her endless curiosity, worry, and trepidation.
What are you?
Nothing moved. Even the air itself stopped as if to contemplate the question.
Taylor's eyes opened, marking the end of her 'dream'. Raising from her position in the bed, she rubbed her eyes and yawned, taking note of the sun outside her windows. Birds chirped as they sang their song. Yesterday's storm had passed, and with it, a sunny day came about.
In the back of her mind, the very same whispers lingered, merging with the sound of the birds effortlessly. It was practically background noise, almost soothing, even.
Right, and finding the voices soothing is definitely a good sign. Not. Question is; is that the indoctrination kicking in? Or just the brain damage? Taylor grumbled sarcastically, pushing aside her blankets and noting the clock beside her bed. Even though she had been so tired yesterday, she managed to get up as early as usual, not that it mattered.
…Maybe it was selfish of her that she was a little happy that Winslow was destroyed beyond repair. People got hurt in the bombings, so it wasn't anything to celebrate, but she couldn't push those feelings of joy and relief down, even as much as she wanted to.
With another sigh, she finally moved out of her room, stepping down to the living room for breakfast.
It was only to her mild surprise that her dad was already up, watching the news on the repaired TV while eating some buttered toast, already in his work attire.
"Dad?" Taylor said, stepping closer to him. Usually, she was the one out of bed first, while her dad took quite a while longer to get ready for whatever he needed to do.
"Oh, morning, Taylor." Her dad shot her a weak smile that didn't seem close to genuine. Indeed, the obvious signs of stress were there, despite how he tried to hide them. "Did you sleep well?"
"A little," Taylor nodded, eyes darting over to the TV for the briefest of instances before she could help it. "Something wrong, Dad? You don't get up this early."
Her dad's smile dropped as he sighed deeply and leaned back on the couch. "...Yeah. Lots of places got wrecked real bad. We're helping with the clean up, but it's slow going. It'll take about a day, at least."
Taylor frowned as she tried to recall what most of the damage was from the bombing. It was a little hard, given how little she was paying attention to the news thanks to everything that was going on, but she remembered snippets of where the most damage had been done. Schools like Winslow, hospitals, power grids, and even police and firefighter stations.
That… was a lot of essential city infrastructure, now that she thought about it.
"...Sounds dangerous," Taylor replied, feeling a little awkward even talking about it. She wasn't sure how the ABB operated, but she wasn't naive enough to think the gang wouldn't try to do something to cause even more harm.
Her dad nodded, a small smile appearing on his face. "Hey, I'll be fine. Me and the boys are going to all be near James' shop at 6th street. Lots of damage over there."
"That's the place we order from, right? The seafood place?" Taylor tilted her head in questioning.
"The very same." Her dad nodded, but must've seen something in her expression as he continued. "Trust me, kiddo. We've all got each other's back out there, and your dad knows a thing or two about keeping his nose out of trouble, so you don't need to worry about your old man."
After that, he finished his buttered toast, and without a second of pause, rose from the couch and moved to the door, taking his keys. "Okay! Guess I better get going now." He paused for a second to look at Taylor and wave to her. "Have fun with your friend, but stay safe, you hear? I love you."
Taylor quickly said her own parting words before her dad opened the door, and shut it behind him. Already, his steps were getting fainter as he made his way to his car.
Taylor didn't like her dad being out in the middle of the danger like this, but she knew that arguing with him would likely be a waste of time, given how stubborn the both of them were. And if nothing else…
I'll get a chance to talk to Ina about what these Ancients want. Taylor thought, making her way over to the guest room.
As she did, her mind couldn't help but remind her of the times Emma slept in the guest room when she wanted to stay over. It wasn't often that she did that, given all those times they had slept in the same bed together, but those memories of running over to Emma's room as soon as possible to wake her up still played in her mind, as much as she wished it didn't.
She quickly shook her head as she approached the guest room, which had the door partially open already. Feeling a little bemused, she stepped forward, slowly creeping the door open, expecting to see Ina sleeping on the guest bed…
Only to be greeted with her sleeping on the floor instead, softly snoring as her blankets covered only half her body. Her hair and clothes all looked tussled up and messy as she mumbled incomprehensible words to Taylor's floor in her sleep.
Taylor took three seconds to just stare at her guest, who looked surprisingly comfortable sleeping on the floor.
With a sigh, she crouched down wearily, being mindful not to touch the tentacles still swaying behind Ina as she shook her shoulder. "It's time to wake up."
Ina didn't respond, but she grumbled as she curled away from Taylor's touch.
With another sigh, she shook Ina a little harder. "You can't sleep on the floor like this. Get up."
"やめてよ..." Ina muttered. She turned on her back, as her tentacles somehow melted into the ground like some sort of dark purple ooze. Her eyes opened the slightest bit to take in her surroundings, only to blink slowly when she noticed who woke her up. "...Taylor?"
"Yeah," Taylor said, getting up from her position on the ground and staring down at Ina, who was still blinking at her with squinted eyes. "We have a lot to talk about."
Ina took a full three seconds to process the statement before she yawned, slowly pushing herself up and slowly rubbing her eyes. "...Okay. Just let me wake up a little bit… and maybe wash my face…"
Taylor startled and took several quick steps back when those tentacles behind Ina's back sprang so suddenly into life, pushing her up into the air, and leaving her dangling in the middle of the room listlessly. With grace unbefitting what was a bunch of disembodied tentacles, they dragged Ina swiftly out of the room, the only evidence she was here was the blankets that fell off her body.
Taylor took a moment to breathe deep through her nose, hold it, count to ten, and then let it out.
One thing at a time, one thing at a time.
The monster cape didn't take long to finish her routine, and soon enough, they found themselves sitting at the kitchen counter, nursing their own preferred drinks.
Finally, Taylor would get her chance to deal with this problem as soon as possible. She didn't know how long she could take all these magics and mysterious plans, but the quicker she could solve the problem, the less trouble she'd have to deal with in the long run.
She'd preferred doing this earlier, but having some more time to herself did help with setting up a list of questions that can give her the most information. So, taking a deep breath, she began to ask the first out of many just as Ina finished taking another sip of her coffee. "So what exactly are these Ancients you keep talking about?"
"Mrgle?" Ina mumbled, the sounds coming out of her mouth not resembling any known language on Earth as she slowly blinked at Taylor.
"You kept talking about them yesterday, and I want to know, what are they?" Taylor repeated herself, crossing her arms as she fixed Ina with a focused gaze.
Ina took another moment to stare at Taylor, before putting her hand up to her mouth and yawning. "...They're the Ancient Ones," Ina said as she rubbed her eyes.
"...Be more specific." Taylor tried her best to hide the annoyance that came from Ina's answer. She wasn't sure if she succeeded, but she tried.
Ina hummed, before putting down her coffee, looking slightly more awake. "I guess the best way to put it is that they live up to their namesake? They've been around since the beginning, and they want to understand everything they can. For that, they need different perspectives and stuff. So people like us."
So the things invading her head, shaking up Taylor's life, and bringing one of their own followers to Taylor's world for whatever odd reason were just doing all of this to understand? How scholarly. Taylor didn't buy it for one second.
Was Ina leaving out details again? Taylor didn't think Ina was malicious at this point, but she didn't put it past the so-called 'Priestess of the Ancient Ones' to leave out some detail that she found unimportant or whatever.
And while Taylor was thinking over what Ina was saying, Ina's gaze surveyed the room around them with worried eyes. "Um, should we really be talking about this now? I mean, if Mr. Danny comes in and hears us talking…"
"Dad already left." Taylor nodded her head towards the door. "Union's got everyone working clean-up duty, apparently. So he won't be back home for most of the day."
Ina frowned at Taylor, looking a little worried. "For the bombings? Is he going to be okay? I'm not sure about what's going on, but it looked kinda dangerous out there."
"He's fine." Taylor waved off Ina's worries. Her dad wasn't alone, after all. He had all the dockworkers behind him, and if nothing else, he knew how to stay safe, even in turbulent times like this.
…Well, that's what she's telling herself, anyway. For all she knows, the situation could get even worse, and no amount of caution would save someone from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Taylor involuntarily let out a sigh. It's fine. He's going to be fine. At least with him being out of the house, I can ask Ina as many questions as I—
"Maybe we should check on them anyway, I don't like it when people are getting hurt," Ina said, taking another sip of her coffee before she made an 'aha!' face. "Oh, maybe we can also make some snacks for them! Something that they'll really enjoy!"
"Huh?" Taylor blurted out, stunned by the sudden change in topic.
"Yeah! I have the perfect idea of how to do it, too!" Ina said, snapping her fingers and summoning that book of hers again, making Taylor flitch. Without pause, the book opened in front of Ina, once again flipping through random pages. When the whispers started to intensify, Taylor started to panic. "I just need to find the right spell, and—"
"No!" Taylor quickly leaned forward as fast as she could and slammed the book closed in front of Ina's face.
Ina blinked.
Taylor blinked.
The book blinked.
"Taylor?" Ina asked, looking as confused and baffled as Taylor had ever seen her. "Um, what are you doing?"
Taylor took a moment to think, even as the book scoffed at her, offended. (Wait, what?)
"L-Listen, you want to make snacks for my dad and the dockworkers, right?" Taylor stammered out, feeling her face heat up slightly.
"Yes?" Ina said, tilting her head and looking at Taylor oddly. "I thought it'd be good to do something nice for—"
"I can do snacks, no magic book, or crazy rituals needed. Just—!" Taylor took a moment to breathe and lower her intensity, letting go of the book, which quickly hovered over Ina's shoulder. "I think we have enough stuff to make something like cupcakes or whatever, so just—hold off on the hocus-pocus, okay?"
Ina tilted her head, her oddly unnatural purple hair swaying to the side. "Are you sure? It'll be easier with—"
"Look, I'll… I'll even help you out with the baking." Taylor offered, doing her best to try to steer Ina away from doing whatever she was about to do.
Ina seemed to be a little taken aback, still staring at Taylor oddly before that confused look melted into that smile that seemed to come easily to her.
"...Okay!" Ina said, clapping her hands and getting up from her seat. "With the two of us together, I guess you could say this would be a piece of cake." Ina giggled, before moving to Taylor's kitchen, missing how Taylor let out a sigh of relief.
This could be my chance. Taylor thought, getting up from her seat as well. If she's distracted like that, maybe I'll get better answers.
After all, if Ina was lying, or purposely leaving things out, she'll have more trouble doing so when she's focusing on baking. Better yet, it also gave fewer chances of having all of the answers to her questions dressed up with evangelical mumbo-jumbo.
Now I'll get everything I want to hear.
"Yay!" Ina happily clapped, her voice alight with joy as she presumably looked upon her creation. "We did it! And they look really good too!"
Taylor heard the shuffling of cloth as Ina moved around.
"Taylor? Wanna be the first to try our Takodachi cupcakes out?" Ina offered, gently shaking Taylor's shoulder.
"...Not really, no." Taylor mumbled from face down at the table, no motivation to move her head up from the table as she sulked to herself.
She should have seen this coming. She really should have. Because of course this would happen to her. Even so, she expected to get something from the two-hour diversion she set Ina on. Maybe a deeper explanation of what magic was, a hint towards what the Ancient's actual goals were, or hell, even what Ina's world looked like in comparison to Earth-Bet. Questions like that are what Taylor bombarded Ina with.
And all she got…
"Other magic? Maybe? I always have Ao-chan around, and she's all the magic I need!"
"It's kinda like here, but…not as scary, and with lots of trees, and mountains… I guess not like here at all, actually! Haha!"
"Hmm, I never really thought about it? I always asked my handler for that kinda stuff…"
For two straight hours. To put it very bluntly, Ina was as clueless as she appeared. If anything, Ina got more out of Taylor than the other way around, as she asked questions about Earth-Bet and capes and the gangs and all that.
I don't know if I should be more mad at myself, or at her.
"Are you okay?" Ina muttered, once again shaking Taylor's shoulder gently.
"I wish I wasn't."
Taylor heard Ina hum before she heard a chair being pulled back. Finally gathering the will to look up, she moved her head up to look at Ina, who seemed mildly concerned.
"You know, since you're really curious about how things work, and upset that I can't give you what you want…" Ina put her hands on her lap while she talked, giving Taylor a small smile. "I can help you summon someone who could answer your questions! It might get us closer to fulfilling the Ancient Ones' desires."
Taylor frowned, sighing as she mumbled back into the table. "I like my soul to not be riddled with holes, thanks."
"It's really not a…hole lot of trouble, I can barely tell!" A giggle once again accompanied Ina's wordplay. Good to see one of them was happy. "But, um, shouldn't we go and deliver these cupcakes to the workers?"
Taylor just grunted in defeat.
"I'll take that as a yes!"
Brockton Bay was never really a nice place to be in. That was apparent to anyone with eyes. You didn't need to look far to see all of the rival gangs freely strutting around the city, the heroes, who struggle to do anything worthwhile, or even the amount of homeless people on the streets.
But now, it's different.
Now, Taylor felt like she was walking in a wasteland. Perhaps it was slightly dramatic to say that, but it just felt so lifeless. How the scent of smoke in the air weighed down on everything, how trash and debris lingered on the sidewalk, and simply how empty the streets felt as they made their way to their destination.
…I shouldn't have gone out at all. Taylor grimaced as she retreated to herself. This was a mistake. I should just turn around before—
"Ta-Taylor?" Ina muttered, knocking Taylor out of her thoughts and returning her to reality. By her side, Ina was struggling with the tote bags, which were absolutely filled with the cupcakes that they made. (Taylor had the same bag in her hands, and she wasn't tired, was Ina exaggerating?) "Are we getting close?"
Taylor nodded, trying to push her own depressing thoughts away by talking to Ina, rounding a corner on autopilot. "Yeah, we're almost—"
"No shit, Taylor?" A familiar voice said, startling Taylor out of her thoughts as she took in her surroundings once more.
Here, the dockworkers were out in full force. Chunks of debris decorated the floor as all the workers cleared out the roads. The street itself was a mess, with bullet holes littering the area, with lots of glass and trash on the floor.
And the person who had called out to them just now was…
"Kurt?" Taylor muttered, feeling a little anxious from seeing a familiar face.
"Damn kid, it's been a while. I didn't think I'd see you here, especially when the city is like this." Kurt said, crossing his arms as he approached them. His stern and worried look abated a bit once he spotted the bags that the two of them were holding. "You and your friend need help with those bags?"
"Please say yes," Ina desperately whispered, looking like she had been offered a lifeline.
Taylor sighed. "Yeah, we'd really appreciate that, thank you."
With that, Kurt promptly took some of the bags from their hands, (Something which prompted a sigh of relief from Ina) like they weighed nothing. Kurt took a moment to peak at the bags, before raising an eyebrow at the two of them. "...Cupcakes?"
"Oh, these are for you, Mr. Kurt!" Ina jumped in, now looking absolutely peppy like she hadn't been sweating up a storm. "We knew everyone was working hard, so we made these cupcakes for you to show our thanks!"
Kurt blinked for a moment before letting out a single chuckle. "Heh. Damn, kids. Going all the way out here for that? Takes guts, but I appreciate it."
"By the way," Taylor's next words were fueled by worry. "Is working here really safe for you? For the Dockworkers?"
After seeing the state the city was in, Taylor's fears only grew and grew. She could already imagine how things would get much worse until someone dealt with the ABB's mad bomber.
"Yeah, yeah, it's all good." Kurt nodded, before clearing his throat and nodding his head towards his fellow workers. "The damage here was bad, but it didn't do any crazy shit like some of the other bombs were doing. Not like any of us is suicidal enough to go near one of those things."
Kurt sighed, abruptly looking more tired. "Just when this city couldn't get any worse, huh? At least we're still alive and kicking."
For now, went unsaid, but it was crystal clear to Taylor's ears.
"But the heroes are going to save the day soon, right?" Ina innocently said, tilting her head. There was a small worried frown on her face.
Taylor had to pause to process the utter naivety of the statement. As if it were really that easy. If it were, half the problems in the Bay wouldn't really be a problem. Why did a girl who talks to eldritch beings have such a childish outlook?
Kurt just snorted, not taking offense to Ina's naivety. "Yeah, that's what we're all hoping for, kid."
Taylor, however, just had doubts. While they'd likely try to make sure that things don't get worse, she's sure as hell that they won't actually do anything to make the situation better for the Bay. If they hadn't achieved much when the city wasn't under an attack of this caliber, they wouldn't accomplish much now.
"Anyways, how about I make things easier for you girls?" Kurt lifted the bag in his hands to draw their eyes to them. "I'll help you pass these out to the rest of the people here. Not like a little bit of sugar is gonna kill us, and we could use something to keep us going for the day."
"Yeah, that's fine." Taylor nodded. Anything that got them back home sooner rather than later.
After that, they went around and gave the cupcakes to all the dockworkers helping out. It seemed like they had baked a little more than was necessary, given the amount of cupcakes they still had left over. While Taylor had only done this whole thing as a way to distract Ina, when she saw how pleasantly surprised most people were, she found herself not minding this diversion as much.
"Alright kids," Kurt said, dropping off much lighter bags off to Taylor and Ina. "I think we're done here. Much as I'd like to catch up, I have work to do, and you have to be going back home. See ya later." Without even waiting for their response, Kurt turned around and walked away, giving a backward wave to them.
Taylor sighed in relief, feeling mildly anxious at the prospect of even being here.
Ina hummed, getting Taylor's attention. "By the way, where's Mr. Danny?" Ina tilted her head, looking mildly confused. "Shouldn't he be here too?"
Taylor opened her mouth to respond, but as she did…
"Taylor?!" Her dad's voice sounded from behind her, making her startle and turn around.
Walking out of a seafood store, her dad was there, urgently rushing towards them. He looked even more stressed than he was before, and his work clothes were covered in dust.
"Kiddo, what are you doing here?! You know this place is unsafe!" His voice carried as he stood in front of them, a deep frown on his face.
"I—"
"Sorry, Mr. Danny, but we wanted to make sure you were fine, and we also wanted to do something nice for you." Ina jumped in, interrupting Taylor's stammering. With a quick bow, she spoke again. "We knew this was hard work, so we made cupcakes for all the workers here, to thank you for your service."
Taylor's dad paused, some of his concerned anger fading away as he looked at the two of them. "...That's why you're out here, Taylor?"
"Ye-Yeah." Taylor stammered, feeling a knot of tension in her stomach loosen up the slightest amount. "It—I thought it would be a good gesture."
Her dad sighed. "Listen, I really appreciate that you're out here for your old man, really, I do. But you didn't need to do this."
At this, Ina took the initiative, shaking her head. "I think we did, Mr. Danny. This is a dangerous situation, so I think you deserve something nice."
"She's right, you know," a third voice interjected into the conversation, stopping Taylor's dad, who was about to speak up.
"James?" Her dad muttered, looking confused at the large man approaching them, who Taylor faintly recognized as the owner of the seafood store.
"I overheard you guys talking just now, and you know what? I agree with the little lady." James nodded toward Ina, who gave him a smile in return. "We need to have each other's back, and it's not like it doesn't kill us to be nicer to each other, you know? God knows this city needs a little kindness sometimes."
"But that doesn't mean they should go out when everything is like this." Danny gestured at the street before them.
James nodded, crossing his arms. "I get it, but Danny, I'm sure we've all lived in the Bay long enough to know how to stay safe. I'm sure they'll be alright. Not like we Brocktonites aren't made of tougher stuff, you know?"
Her dad seemed to be at a loss for words before he sighed, most of his anger leaving him. "...I'm just worried. Who wouldn't be?"
"I have my family too, Danny, not like I don't get it." James gave him a wry smile before something seemed to occur to him. "And speaking of you guys deserving something nice…"
That's when James pulled out a large box of…were those shrimps? From what Taylor could see, they seemed like pretty good ones too. Still alive, even.
"This doesn't even begin to cover what you guys did for my family and my business, but I hope it's a start," he said as he offered the box of shrimps to Taylor's dad, who looked taken aback.
"...Listen, James, I really appreciate it, but I don't think I can accept this—"
"Hey, really, don't worry about it," James said, not taking 'no' for an answer. "Besides, I got nowhere else to keep it. My freezer's dead right now, too, so I've just been giving out my fish so someone could at least eat 'em."
With that appeal to logic, James finally won Taylor's dad over, with him sighing as he took the box of shrimp in his hand.
"Thanks," he said, sounding slightly exasperated, but genuinely thankful regardless.
"No problem. Just make sure you put 'em to good use, eh?" James chuckled, before making his way back to the store. "Keep up the good work."
With that done, Taylor's dad turned back to the two of them, sighing once more. "Guess I owe you two an apology, right?"
"It's…fine, Dad," Taylor said, turning away. Why was it so hard to talk to him like this?
"All is forgiven as long as you take a cupcake!" Ina said, reaching into the bag and pulling out one of the last cupcakes.
With a single chuckle, he took one. "Thanks. These look good. Looks like you even had time to decorate it."
"They're shaped like a friend," Ina faux-whispered to Taylor's dad, before promptly giggling.
"Sure they are," he said, looking mildly amused by Ina's antics. "But yeah, you guys should really go home soon."
"We will, Dad." Taylor nodded, having wanted to do just that for their entire trip here. Next to her, Ina nodded as well.
"And before you go…" He passed the box of shrimp to Taylor, who automatically took it. "Might as well save this for later. Don't want them to get bad, you know?"
He cleared his throat before he pointed a thumb toward the street. "I gotta get back to work. Do you guys need a ride back home? I can ask Kurt?"
"It's okay, Dad. We'll be fine." Taylor shifted the box around so it sat better on her arms, and spotted another dockworker walking towards them."Besides, I think they're looking for you already."
"Yeah, looks like." Her dad winced at the sight. "Well, at least get someone to walk you? It's still dangerous—"
"Dad, just go." Taylor exasperatedly sighed and tried lightly pushing her dad back to his work.
"Alright, alright! But you two better head straight home!"
And with that, her dad awkwardly walked away, leaving the two girls on their own. Still uncomfortable with the box, Taylor tried changing the way she held it once more, and—
—Hold on.
"Hmm, today turned out pretty well, wouldn't you say, Taylor?" Ina said, looking towards Taylor for her reaction, only to pause when she saw Taylor looking at the shrimp box with intense focus.
"Ina," Taylor began, switching her focus from the box to Ina herself. "Do shrimps have souls?"
"Huh?" Ina seemed pretty startled at the random question, before answering hesitantly. "I guess? Most living beings do. Why do you ask?"
"Because I think I have our ticket to summoning…"
Taylor shook the box, an unlikely key to her answers.
Woo! This one took longer then expected, but now we're here!
We did something a little experimental here, so tell me if you like it or not lol
Without further ado, enjoy the story!
The Seeker of Truth stood on the precipice of potential, where the threads of reality before her unfolded in an eternal, ever-expanding web of ifs, have beens, and could bes. A sight so familiar to the Seeker, yet nonetheless ever so intoxicating to her curious mind.
Again, she stood there to fulfill one purpose, the same as it always was—to solve a mystery.
This time, to find a missing friend.
The walk back home wasn't that long, but to Taylor, it felt like an eternity.
For a while, she had thought that she was doomed to be stuck playing guessing games with the creature in her head. That she might just get strung along like a puppet on a string towards some nebulous goal she wasn't even sure aligned with her interests—no matter how many reassurances Ina might give.
But now, I have a way around that. Taylor entered the house, shrimp box on hand, and made a beeline to the basement, with Ina following closely behind. There was nothing particularly special about what was down there, though the stacks of dusty, bruised boxes of forgotten junk sure did seem to catch the bookish girl's interest.
What was special about the basement, however, was what wasn't inside.
Attention.
As soon as she shut the door, she suddenly spoke up, surprising Ina who wasn't expecting her to speak up. "Okay, now tell me how we're doing this."
Ina blinked, before fiddling with her sleeves. "Well, it's not really that complicated. You just have to focus on what you want when you're doing the ritual." Ina said, doing that nodding-humming thing.
Taylor nodded, squinting down at the large box of shrimps in her hands. That's easy enough. Answers, and a solution.
Simple.
"...Oh, but, um." Ina's hesitance gave Taylor pause. "Maybe we should put this off for a bit? Don't you want to get used to doing magic, first? You haven't even learned what your powers are…"
"What?" Taylor's voice came out a little louder than she intended it, but she didn't care. Maybe if Ina stood in her place, she'd understand, too. That paradoxical feeling of being so wildly in control that you were out of control, where every fleeting thought and urge seemed to justify an unproportionate response, yet being so perfectly aware of her tenuous sense of self, it was—it was maddening.
Contrary to Ina's belief, it wasn't curiosity driving Taylor to act. She needed to know what they were after so she could get them out.
The thought of intentionally dipping inside that well, again and again… "Why should we do that?"
"I just feel like… maybe we're going a little too fast." Ina nervously laughed. "I don't think there's any harm in—"
"Ina, listen." Taylor cut off Ina's protest swiftly with a tone that brooked no compromise. "The longer we spend doing nothing, the more problems we're going to have. We can't hide all this magic stuff from Dad forever, and he's gonna have questions for you eventually, too. We can't just have you living in my house without telling him anything. How are we gonna explain that you're literally from another world? Then, when he knows, he'll just keep asking for more, and I doubt he'll take it as–"
Taylor stopped herself once she realized she was starting to rant and calmed down once more, letting out a huff. "We just don't have the time, okay? The sooner we get our answers, the sooner we'll get this entire situation sorted out, send you back home, and go back to living our lives."
Ina mulled over her words with a worried hum. "I… Yeah, that's pretty fair. I guess I'm just used to a slower pace. But, okay!" Ina nodded, hands balled up to her chest as she gathered her courage and put on a serious face. "If you're sure, then I'm down for it!"
"Good." Taylor let out a sigh of relief before taking a look around the basement. Hopefully this room survives a heaping of some mumbo-jumbo. "Okay, there's no windows down here, so no one will notice any sudden light shows. Think we can do it right here?"
"Um. Maybe?" Ina nodded as she started looking around as well, before tilting her head at Taylor. "But is it me you should be asking?"
Confused, Taylor opened her mouth to ask—
No ma▓░er how much she tr░es the hole will stay se▄red into her s█ul ░nd the hole will forever sta█ unt—
"R-right. Yeah… it should be fine here." Taylor gritted out, hand shakily combing through her hair as she tried to mask the fear in her voice. The pit in her stomach that she's tried so hard to ignore stretched deeper, ever colder.
"Great! Then show me how it's done, sensei!" Ina giggled. If she saw something wrong with Taylor, she sure didn't show it. "Your grateful student will follow whatever you sen-say, heehee."
…Taylor took a moment to calm herself. She could do this. Mind over matter. Or magic, whatever.
Hard to imagine that she'd thought magic just existed in fiction. If someone would've said that was real to her face yesterday, she would have thought they were stupid. It's still hard to believe now, if she was being honest. But it's all real.
Maybe someone else would be in awe of such a revelation.
To her, though, it felt like every step she took was one she couldn't turn back from.
"Before I do… this," Taylor crossed her arms as her shoe tapped the ground anxiously. "Are there any other details I should know? Anything at all? Like, is this going to attract any attention?"
She felt like it was a reasonable concern. Magic, in general, seemed to be the exact opposite of subtle.
Instead of answering her question, however, Ina serenely pressed her hands against her heart. "In their absolute magnanimousness, the Ancient Ones chose us as their eyes and ears, the window to our mortal plane for their ever-watchful gaze. We are their hands and their will, and so our actions shall be theirs as well. So you know, I think they'll be totally cool about it."
That's… going to be a lot to unpack. "Ina, I just meant if anybody's gonna hear us."
"Oh." Ina paused, before giving Taylor a thumbs up with both of her hands. "You're good ta-ko!"
…Tempering her response to roll her eyes at Ina's joke, she set down the box of shrimps on one of the plastic storage boxes littering the area. However, taking another look around the basement… she heaved a deep breath. It was simply too messy to do anything properly inside, as it was. "Alright. Let's get everything ready, then."
The two promptly went to work. For all the privacy the basement gave them—actual free space was a commodity they'd had to earn. Boxes needed to be rearranged, stray items had to be properly put aside, and with how unkempt the place was—some light dusting and sweeping to cap off the entire ordeal. Taylor chose to ignore the fact that Ina was using her tentacles to manipulate the broom and dustpan while she moved around some boxes, humming a cheerful tune all the while.
Soon enough, the two had cleared out a rather sizable space in the middle of the basement, and went about taking up spots on the floor, kneeling next to each other.
Feeling a little anxious, her eyes—for some reason—drifted to her side and met Ina's, who gave what was meant to be a reassuring smile in return. In Ina's hands, that magic book of hers was there, staying thankfully inert for now.
Taylor set the box of shrimps by her side, and pulled open the lid to use as she set a handful upon the plastic container to place in between them. With one last deep breath to try to calm the storm of feelings that this whole situation was giving her, she hardened her gaze.
"Let's do this."
She didn't know if those words were meant for Ina or for herself, but the whispers quieted down, as if to help her focus. The room went silent as Taylor tried to focus on the knowledge that she desperately wished she didn't have.
Only a small part of her wasn't surprised when words started to flow through her lips, unbidden. For a moment, Taylor felt like a passenger in her own body as she mumbled words that didn't sound like any language she knew. Next to her, Ina joined in on the chanting, mumbling much the same.
Okay, I have to… focus on what I'm willing to… sacrifice…
It was a little hard to do so, but she kept her eyes on the lid filled with shrimps, even as the room began to darken a little more than seemed normal. She had to make sure she did this correctly, so even as she felt the dread from the presence enveloping her, she tried to focus.
And next, intent. What… do I need? What do I want? That would be…
…What did Taylor want? Yes, she had done this to try to find some answers, but what if this was the wrong way to go about it? Maybe what she actually wanted wasn't answers, but an easy way out of this situation. God knows she would rather wash her hands of everything here and never think about it again. Could she cut this entire ordeal short by simply asking for someone that could send Ina back home and get rid of these weird powers she had been given?
In her desperate attempt to center herself, her mind achieved the opposite effect. Every one of her senses seemed to shout at her, begging for the attention she's forced to withhold. The presence of the voices grew heavier, tickling the back of her mind even in their repressed state. The worst of it all was the smell of the shrimps, becoming so pungently intense that her mind couldn't wean off it successfully.
No… F-focus…! I…I want to–!
And before Taylor could even finish the thought, the sound of shattered glass rang out, and a glowing crack in reality appeared before them. There was a stunned moment of silence as the two of them beheld the tall, glowing scar that remained suspended in the air, before it suddenly split open, and everything went wrong.
The moment the hole in reality opened, a great stream of water began to gush out of it like a broken dam, quickly beginning to flood the entire basement.
"Shit! Ina!" Taylor cried out as her eyes widened in panic, quickly turning towards the girl in question, only to find an equally panicked expression on her face.
Before she could react, Ina sprang into action and swept her up in her arms as her tentacles lifted them up and away from the goddamn river that was pouring out of the hole she had created, the sound of rushing water drowning out all other noise.
The two of them stood suspended by Ina's tentacles above the rapidly rising pool of water as they watched in stunned bewilderment as fish, algae, rocks and random sea detritus spilled out of the hole in reality and into the rapidly flooding basement, before the crack suddenly sealed itself shut, abruptly cutting off the stream of water and plunging the room into a dead silence.
Taylor stood in shock as she beheld the absolute mess she had caused.
All of the previously stored items in the basement were now scattered around the floor, soaking wet boxes with their ruined contents spilled all over the room, floating in a pool of water that came up to her shins. To add to the chaos, there were now piles of dead fish, bones, algae, seaweed, rocks and even coral spreading outwards from the center of the room, mixed into the entire mess.
Taylor's mouth flapped uselessly as her brain failed to come up with any sort of response to what had happened. A moment later, the awful, pungent smell of fish guts and seawater hit her nose, causing her to gag from the sheer stench of it all. Ina, to her credit, didn't react at all to the smell, just looking at the destruction of Taylor's basement with wide eyes.
"Taylor? I think something is–" Ina began, only to abruptly cut herself off as she froze, eyes wide as dinner plates as she stared straight ahead. Taylor followed her gaze, and froze as well.
The big pile of seaweed in the middle of the room was moving. Something alive was squirming underneath it, slowly shifting the whole thing. Abruptly, an arm shot out of it, a small clawed hand finding purchase against the floor and slowly dragging itself out of the pile.
The two of them stood petrified, not daring to make a sound, wide eyes watching in fear as a… a creature pulled itself out of the pile of filth before shakily rising to its feet, standing in a wild, hunched over pose. Most of its features were hard to make out due to the fact that its entire body was covered in seaweed, algae and fish guts, but Taylor was able to barely catch a hint of silver hair, gray scales covering what few parts of its skin were visible, and some sort of robe that at some point might've been white, but by now was mostly reduced to a ripped, stained mess of rags that barely clung on. A long fish tail of some kind emerged from its lower back, lazily swinging in the air.
The creature suddenly folded over and began to cough up water, and with a startling discovery, Taylor realized it was a person. A girl, even, judging by the high pitch of the coughing. The fish… person? continued hacking out a concerning amount of water out of her lungs, and even more was flowing out from the sides of her torso—were those gills?—until she was seemingly drained of all water. The girl then took a very deep, shaky breath, tasting air for what seemed to be the first time in a very long time, and Taylor watched in fascination as the few patches of gray scales she could see on the girl's body slowly disappeared, leaving behind pale human skin. Through it all, Taylor couldn't help but notice how small the girl looked, almost like a child.
The… fish girl? paused once her breathing settled, took a deep sniff of the air, and promptly froze, head snapping to the side in an instant, gaze homing in on the box of shrimp now sadly drifting through the flooded basement, and immediately lunging for it.
Taylor watched in morbidly horrified fascination as the girl dropped down on all fours and began to savagely tear into the box of shrimp, serrated triangular teeth and sharp claws violently tearing her prey apart before gulping it all down, plastic included.
The sounds of cracking shells, spilling shrimp guts, breaking plastic and messy, starved chewing occupied the silence in the basement.
What in the actual fuck.
Taylor felt like she was dreaming, that at some point through it all, the world simply stopped making sense. In a daze, her hand blindly rose to her side to repeatedly tap Ina in the chest as if to confirm she was still there, and to verify that they were seeing the same thing. She felt Ina's hands quietly take hold of her forearm and give it a reassuring squeeze, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw the girl's gaze was just as transfixed in the bizarre sight before them, unable to tear her eyes away.
Taylor's gaze reluctantly scanned across the basement, confirming the fact that yes, everything was still flooded, and yes, there was some kind of midget Swamp Thing lookalike devouring the box of shrimp she had set aside for her dad.
This was her life now.
Licking her dry lips as she thought of how to even begin to approach the situation, Taylor's gaze slid to Ina before returning to the bipedal fish too busy eating a fucking plastic container to even notice her surroundings, or the fact that there were two people in the room with her.
In the lowest possible tone of voice she could muster, Taylor whispered. "...Ina. Ina! What the hell is that thing?!"
Blinking out of her trance, Ina's gaze briefly met Taylor's, before both of them turned their attention back to their bizarre guest.
"I don't know! Something must've gone wrong with the ritual. Did you–" was as far as Ina got before she froze.
Ahead of them, the fish girl twitched in place before coming to an abrupt halt. She remained eerily still for a few seconds, before her head slowly turned in their direction.
Taylor's heart seized in her chest as she beheld something that would haunt her nightmares for days to come. Beneath the thick mat of seaweed and algae and muck hiding the fish girl's features, a pair of slitted red eyes glowed from within the darkness, staring directly at her. The moment their eyes met, Taylor knew down to her bones that there were no rational thoughts behind the hungry gaze of the predator standing before her. And with a horrified realization, she made another startling discovery.
That… is not a fish.
That's a shark.
Before she could even formulate another thought, the shark girl sprang to action. Going from standing completely still to leaping straight towards them in an instant, water splashing all over the place as she jumped with a mouth filled with razor sharp teeth wide open and angled in their direction.
Ina let out a terrified yelp as she held onto Taylor for dear life and dived out of the way, the shark girl intentionally sailing past them to land on the wall, only to immediately leapfrog off of it and straight towards the basement door as if that had been her goal all along, cracking the cement wall and smashing through the door in the process, reducing it into a million splinters.
Did she just juke us?!
Taylor and Ina tightly clung to each other, hearts beating a mile a minute.
"Are you okay?!" Ina asked, not even loosening her hold on Taylor, scared as she was.
"Y-Yeah, I'm…" Taylor muttered back as she pulled away from Ina, only for her hands to accidentally brush against something at her side. Looking down, she saw it was… a scallop, at first glance, marred with sand and muck from the shark girl, but the way it shone on the light revealed something more… metallic, for it to simply be an ordinary shell. Struck with a sense of suspicion from such an anachronistic sight, Taylor barely hesitated to pick it up off the floor. "...fine…"
Gold, it turned out with a wipe of her hand, inlaid the surface of the shell in a decorative fashion. In fact, the way it was styled reminded her, vaguely, of those Greek vases she saw in a museum once. But what got her interest the most was the hinge that replaced what would have been the seashell's natural ones.
A pendant?
That was as far Taylor's train of thought went, however, as the sudden sound of the kitchen window being shattered brought it to a complete stop.
The kitchen window that led into the backyard, and out of the house.
"Oh no…" Ina uttered in dawning realization.
Taylor felt the blood drain from her face in horror.
"We… We need to go after her…" Taylor faintly muttered, feeling as if her life was falling apart in real time. "I–We need–Ina! We need to go after her!" Taylor yelled, shaking the shocked girl out of her stupor.
"R-right!" Ina was quick to gather her wits, giving a determined nod in response as her tentacles quickly carried them out of the flooded basement and into the living room.
Once there, she deposited Taylor onto the ground and the two of them separated. Immediately, Taylor's worst fears were confirmed as she saw a trail of water and bits of seaweed leading straight to the kitchen window and out into the backyard.
"Fuck me…"
Taylor stared at the broken window that was just about as shattered as her mind felt right now.
Would they even have the time to fix it later? What if her dad finds out? How was she supposed to explain this, then?
'Keep thinking like that and you'll lose the shark, Taylor! Move!'
Shaking her head and finally snapping into action, she rushed towards the kitchen door that led into the backyard and quickly unlocked it, Ina swiftly following behind.
As soon as she threw the door open, she saw the shark girl already making good distance as she jumped over the wooden fence in one solid leap, already making it to the other side before Taylor could have a good look at her.
Taylor was already starting to move before Ina's tentacles attempted to wrap around her midsection. Moving away from their grip, she turned around to glare at Ina. "What are you doing?!" Taylor yelled, irritated at everything going on.
"Taking the Tako-express!" Ina said, nodding at Taylor as if it was a good idea. "It'll be our best shot at—"
"No! Absolutely no tako express, or whatever—no tentacles!" Taylor hurriedly replied, not waiting for Ina's response as she rushed to the fence, trying to climb over it frantically. Why on Earth would she take the risk to out herself in her own neighborhood?
Taylor was never really physically strong or agile, and it showed here as she clambered over the fence with all the grace of a crippled chihuahua, losing precious time. She only managed to catch a brief glimpse of the shark girl running on all fours like an animal across the street and jumping onto the walls of another house to climb onto its roof, not slowing down in the slightest, before disappearing between one moment and the next. Feeling her heart in her throat, she slipped through the alley beside her house as quickly as she could, noting the sounds of Ina making her own attempts to climb behind her.
This time, Taylor had a perfectly good view of the shark girl. Unfortunately for Taylor, she was done jumping between houses, and was now crouched atop the roof of a refrigerated truck that seemed to be in a hurry.
Uncaring for her destination, the girl sniffed the air, before crawling towards the back of the truck and clawing at its door until she managed to partially pry it open with a screech of bent metal. Hanging from the back of the large truck while upside down, she poked her head through the gap she had made, before hurriedly taking hold of the rest of the door and simply ripping the entire thing off in one pull. She casually threw the heavy metal door aside onto the street before diving into the heaps of food that must've been inside the truck's refrigeration unit, and began to ravenously rip through its contents like a starving animal. It was as if she'd completely forgotten about her pursuers… or knew that she had successfully evaded them.
Taylor was about a second away from screaming in frustration as loud as she could, damn the consequences, before she spotted a bicycle lying against a fence, looking perfectly unattended. The seat even looked big enough for two people.
Taylor took a moment to stare before she heard the sounds of labored breathing behind her, courtesy of Ina, who sounded like she had run a marathon as she hunched over and put her hands on her knees. "Ta-Taylor…where did she go…?"
Taylor tried to get herself back on track as she rushed forward, and got on the bike, a silent apology to the owner as she got on the seat. Thank god she knew how to ride a bike. "Ina, get on!"
"Huh?"
"She's over there, hitchhiking on that big truck," Taylor said, pointing forward towards where the girl was, feeling baffled about how the driver didn't notice the shark girl stowing away on their vehicle. "If we don't catch up to her now, we'll never find her!"
Ina took a moment to catch her breath before she did as Taylor asked, climbing on the bike and holding onto Taylor's shoulders for support. Thank God Ina weighed about as much as a feather, or else they'd be slowed down even more.
With that done, she started to pedal, pushing her legs as fast as she could to catch up to the truck ahead of her, adrenaline making the task easier than it should have been.
However, no matter how fast she pedaled, she couldn't stop the truck from gaining ground as it continued on its merry way, growing more distant by the second. Despite the magic she could do now, she was still human, and there was no way a human would be able to catch up to a speeding vehicle with a bicycle carrying two people.
If this kept up, they would lose the shark girl, and Taylor would be back where she started at the beginning of today. Lost and wanting for answers.
Fuck, if I can't find her—!
"Taylor," Ina spoke up. Out of the corner of her eyes, Taylor saw Ina's tentacles start to move towards the pedals. "Um, I think there's a way we can speed up, but… please hold on super tight? Also, don't hate me."
"What do you mean by—" Taylor cut herself off as soon as she felt Ina's cold tentacles wrap around her legs. Taylor yelped but didn't have time to react as she felt her legs be moved by the tentacles as they pedaled for her, moving up and down more quickly than her legs ever could on their own. Just like that, the bike sped up tremendously, like she had slammed the gas on a car. "—Holy shit!"
Just like that, Taylor broke records as she just barely managed to keep her balance on the bike, trying to focus on her main objective of catching up to the summoned girl. The singular thought process she'd dedicated to trying to keep everything down-low screamed at how unsubtle they were being, and how identifiable they might have been, so with one hand gripped tightly on the bike, Taylor pulled up her hoodie in a single panicked motion, trying to keep at least a hint of anonymity as she biked at superspeed.
In the distance, as if to remind her of the impending danger, she saw smoke rise up from afar. If she strained her ears a little bit, she could even hear the sounds of more bombs going off in the distance, making her tense up further in fear and apprehension as she realized the bombings were still ongoing.
I got lucky once. I won't get lucky again. Taylor thought, both hands back to gripping the handlebars so hard it almost hurt.
This time, with the help of Ina, she managed to slowly but surely catch up to the truck, feeling the wind blow past her as she continued to cycle at superspeeds, allowing her to finally get close enough to the shark girl.
She was still there, this time, contently munching on an apple while lounging atop the ruined remains of the packaged food the truck once held, blissfully unaware of the world around her. However, that all changed when she twitched, head tilting in their direction and pausing when she got a good look at Taylor and Ina again, causing her to snarl. With one arm cocked back, she threw the half eaten apple at Taylor's face, forcing her to duck as close to the handlebars as possible as she narrowly avoided the sudden fastball to the face. Behind her, she heard a pained squawk of protest coming from Ina, most likely due to being hit by said fastball. Taylor hardly had a chance to react as the shark girl crawled to the hole she had made in the back of the vehicle, crouched down, and—
And jumped to one of the passing houses, claws making a nasty dent in the roof as she did another jump in the same direction, intending to try a different strategy to get away from the pursuing pair.
As Ina's tentacles let go of her legs, allowing her to slow down to more manageable speeds, her thoughts started to race.
She's heading towards the boardwalk. Taylor said, recognizing where the girl's path would lead to. I can't catch up to her, even like this, but if I could cut her off…
"Taylor?" Ina's voice held a little bit of doubt as she rubbed her shoulder with a wince, her dress splattered with the remains of an apple. "I think I can just take us there using—"
"Ina, just speed us up again, please." Taylor said, focusing on keeping her balance as she started to turn towards the boardwalk.
When Ina did so, after a short pause, Taylor directed all her attention to the task at hand.
Once more, she dearly hoped Dad took his sweet time before he got home. Taylor felt like she was going to be a while.
Whatever happens, just please don't let this be traced back to me. Taylor thought as she continued to blaze through the city with a normal bike. It wasn't long before their impromptu chase led them both to downtown.
Taylor would have found it difficult to track the girl in any capacity as she ran away from the chasing pair, were it not for the claw marks and deep gashes in the side of buildings leaving an exact indication of where the girl was going. If this didn't attract the attention of certain individuals, she didn't know what would.
It felt like ages, and her legs were starting to seriously burn, but it wasn't long before she finally got another view of the shark girl, a…hotdog in her mouth while she ran on all fours. Seriously?!
"Wow, she's such a big eater for a small girl," Ina commented, hands still on Taylor's shoulders as she watched the shark girl somehow outrun their bike while scampering across the ground like a wild animal, trailing the dwindling remains of the seaweed, algae and filth that had covered her up when she had been summoned.
"Is now really the time to be impressed?!" Taylor shouted, all her focus directed on keeping herself steady while chasing the girl down.
However, this time around, instead of persisting in going the same direction, the shark girl abruptly switched course, heading for…
Wait a second. Right now, we're at 16th Avenue. So that means she was probably going for—
"Ina, stop speeding us up, right now!" Taylor ordered, making the tentacles stop their pedaling as she skidded to a stop, right in front of their destination.
The boardwalk looked so different. It was supposed to be the one bright spot of the Bay, or at least look the part—the one place that people would feel safe in without fear of a sudden gang member coming to ruin their day. Now, like many other places in the city, it was damaged. Abandoned stalls and ruined buildings, with an undeniable feeling of danger that was absent just a few days prior.
Despite that, there were still a decent number of people here. It seemed like some had wanted to help, giving out food and supplies to those most affected by the bombing. Lines of people were cued up to get food, water, or medical supplies.
And of course, because of Taylor and Ina's sudden high-speed entrance, they had attracted attention, as a multitude of eyes briefly focused on them. Not a lot, but enough for Taylor to take notice of, and enough for her anxiety and fear to worsen.
But despite that, her eyes noted the shark girl in the distance, who was now jumping across from building to building, but noticeably slower this time. Luckily, none of the people in the boardwalk had seemed to notice her yet.
She's getting tired. Taylor thought, feeling a little inkling of hope well up inside her. Good. If Taylor had to keep this up for a couple more minutes, she'd fall apart herself, too. Especially since she couldn't use Ina to bike their way over to her again. Not in a crowded area like this. If she wanted to keep any semblance of a peaceful life, she needed to keep it subtle.
Speaking of… Taylor's eyes landed on an abandoned Protectorate merchandise stall that was likely left behind in a hurry. It wasn't anything noteworthy, but one thing did catch her eye. Hung on the corner of the stall were several toy masks of the Protectorate and the Wards. They looked cheaply made, but if nothing else, they would do for Taylor's purpose.
Taylor took a moment to catch her breath before she got off the bike. "Ina, come on, we have to keep chasing after her."
She didn't wait for Ina's response as she made her way to the stall, swiped three of those masks, and went back to Ina, who was much slower to get off the bike. With one hand already putting on her Armsmaster mask, she handed a Clockblocker one to Ina. "Here, take it."
"Huh?"
"We don't want to be outed, remember?" Taylor stressed the last word as she pushed the mask to Ina, turning around to see another hint of the shark girl making another leap across a building. With another deep breath, she started to run forward, trusting that Ina would at least keep up. "Come on!"
"W-Wait, Taylor!" Ina yelped from behind her, sounding tired.
With that, Taylor tried her best to move through the crowds of people, chasing down the girl who would hopefully be her source of answers. She had more than a few eyes focused on her as she pushed through the crowd of people, but if nothing else, the mask and her zipped-up hoodie would hopefully keep her identity safe.
Things seemed to take a turn for the better as the shark girl started to climb down into one of the alleys, and into the less populated areas. At least Taylor would have less of a mess to clean up if she finally got through to her.
The chase continued as Taylor ran and ran and ran, watching the girl dart on all fours from one alley to another. Taylor faintly noted how she was slowly seeing more worn-down and damaged buildings. A good portion of which were damaged by the bombings, as the smell of smoke filled Taylor's nose. But that didn't matter now.
Taylor instead focused on how the girl was finally losing some steam after what felt like forever. It seemed like her persistence had finally paid off. She continued to run as the girl darted to one alley, prompting Taylor to follow her until—
Until she saw a dead end, a brick wall marking the end of her progress. The shark girl had no such issues as she jumped from wall to wall, clambering up and over a building and out of Taylor's sight once more.
Taylor felt too tired to even care at this point as she continued to catch her breath, hands falling on her knees as sweat dripped down onto the floor.
"Did we lose her?"
Taylor startled when she heard a familiar voice speak, just right behind her ears, startling her. "Holy shit—!"
—she turned around to be greeted by Ina, who looked absolutely fine despite having run out of breath at the start of the chase. Had Ina not spoken up, Taylor would have no clue that she was behind her at all.
"Taylor?" Ina asked, and Taylor looked down to realize that the cultish girl hadn't been, in fact, standing this whole time. No, instead she's been propped up high by a pair of tentacles that had mimicked a chair for her to sit on.
"...Have you… been using those… this whole time?" Taylor asked between gasps.
Ina tilted her head. "Um. Kinda? I know you don't like the Tako-express, but I'm not very physical, so rather than falling behind…" The tentacles underneath her gave an apologetic shrug.
…There goes not being outed. The masks should help, right? God, if these things didn't actually do anything for their identities at this point, she'll… she'll think about it later.
Taylor took another deep breath to put her shame and embarrassment away, before she resigned herself to taking the only option left. "...She made her way up the building. If you're gonna use those anyways, can you take both of us up?"
"Oh, sure! Tako time!"
For the briefest of moments, as the octopus girl happily nodded, Taylor felt a pang of regret. Of the few times she had to directly deal with Ina's appendages so far, her mind had rather been preoccupied with far more important matters.
That was to say, now without anything else to distract her, she could only look forward to the cephalopod-assisted ascension as it was—all ten stories of the trip—with all the enthusiasm of a woman facing her inevitable doom.
Don't scream, she tried to think, instead, as the grip around her waist turned into a lurch. Suddenly, everything was a nauseous blur to Taylor's vision as Ina rose up with her in tow, hovering mere inches away from the wall, with such smooth and silent motion that they would barely leave any hint of their presence behind.
Like a blast of wind surging upwards, and with how Ina kept to angles not so easily seen, perhaps nearly as invisible to the blissfully ignorant.
It's when they were about to reach the rooftop that Ina immediately stopped, before dipping back down. She whispered to Taylor, "I think I see her!"
Yeah, well, that's fantastic and all, but the only thing Taylor could see was brick.
"Whoops, sorry, hold on!"
The tentacles—they're so smooth and cold and undulating it feels so creepy—shifted around so that both their heads popped slightly over the ledge, finally letting Taylor get a good view.
She saw it, then.
The wasteland that Brockton Bay had become, stripped of the worn ruggedness it had. There was something to seeing it for yourself from up high, unhindered by a television screen or the grounded perspective on the streets.
Seeing the shark girl on the opposite ledge of the building, some of her body still covered in muck and filth as she overlooked that same destruction, contrasted against the scene—it made Taylor come to a very distressing conclusion.
Could she… accidentally summon something that could cause as much damage?
Goddammit. Fuck.
"How do you think we should get close?" Ina whispered to Taylor, snapping her out of thoughts. "We probably won't have another chance."
"Let me think." Taylor frowned. What cut the space between this building and the next—from where the girl was standing—was a highway, too wide to cross in a single bound, even with how far Taylor had witnessed the girl jump. Could that be the reason why she stopped in her tracks long enough for them to catch up?
Though that didn't mean exactly that she was completely out of options. She was agile, and fast, to a ridiculous degree. Taylor knew that if she was an actual cape, the PRT would have given her a rating appropriate to the feat. Not that she knew the exact one, clueless as she was to cape culture, save for the rare exception.
Nevertheless, it was clear. Even if they try to catch the girl in a pincer maneuver, she might just very well juke them again successfully.
There had to be a way to trap her, somehow… or, at the very least, bait her into getting caught?
"...I think I got something." Taylor dipped into her hoodie, and fetched her very recent collection.
Ina squinted at the thing in her hand, and made a confused sound. "Is that a seashell?"
"Yeah, some sort of pendant." Taylor nodded as she twirled the pendant around, making it glitter from the sun. "This is hers, I think. I didn't really look inside."
...Actually, this could be a good opportunity, couldn't it? Pawing around the lip of the shell gave her no way to open the pendant at first, until she incidentally depressed the tip of the shell, loosening some sort of internal hook with a simple click.
"Oh," Taylor breathed out, as she raised the now open pendant closer to Ina. "It's… a family."
A painting of one, to be exact. Hidden behind a cracked glass, a stern, bearded man with a regal air about him stood straight at the furthest, and leftmost side of the picture. On his right was a beatifically smiling woman, dressed in a vibrant blue toga, bedazzled entirely in glittering gems.
Sitting on her lap was a vaguely familiar child. A little girl garbed in white with a sharp, beaming smile, clothes similarly decorated by gemstones. With her silver hair—the same as her father's—she looked like an ethereal little cherub.
Taylor idly traced the crack in the glass with her thumb. For all the wear the surface of the pendant seemed to have, the contents inside were practically spotless, save for that one crack.
The girl, however she's acting now, must care about it deeply.
Her happy little family.
Something about it gripped Taylor's heart with a vengeance.
"Let's use this one," she whispered to her more eldritch-inclined partner.
"Are…are you sure?" Ina tilted her head, wary. Taylor was sure she'd see a frown there if she could see the octopus girl's face underneath the mask. "This pendant is probably really important to her."
"That's why we'll give it back," Taylor insisted, though her next words had significantly less heat in them. "...T-two birds, one stone, right?"
Ina kept staring at her for a few more seconds, before smacking a fist into her palm. "Okay! If that's what we're going with, I think I have a plan…"
Right… Taylor took a deep breath, as she stood on the same buildings as the shark girl. Her hand was gripping the pendant firmly, but not overly so. Ina was nowhere to be seen as she prepared herself for what she needed to do.
I'm ready.
"Hey!" Taylor yelled out, her voice successfully getting the attention of the shark girl.
The shark girl jumped, whirling towards Taylor, her sharp teeth on full display from what little she could see of her face as she growled, covered in seaweed as she was. She seemed ready to bolt once more, getting down on all fours and preparing to jump, but then she froze as her eyes locked onto the one thing in Taylor's raised hand.
Her pendant.
"This is important to you, right!? You want it!?" Taylor waved the pendant, taking no pleasure in the shark girl's fear and desperation as she frantically patted herself down. "Then come—!"
Taylor hardly had any warning before the girl leapt towards her, moving in the blink of an eye to take back what was hers.
She couldn't even brace herself in time as she was painfully tackled to the ground, her back and arms taking the brunt of the fall. She let out a grunt, but didn't have time to register what had happened before there was suddenly a shark on top of her, desperately making a grab at Taylor's hands.
Taylor tried her best to play keep away, grab the pendant as tight as she could, buy enough time, anything, but it was no use. Like it was nothing, the girl wrenched the pendant from Taylor's fingers in the blink of an eye, her petite hands carrying deceptive amounts of strength.
Taylor's heart seized as, once having retrieved what was hers, the shark girl grabbed her by the neck and slowly leaned in towards her face with a growl, angry red eyes drilling into Taylor's as her tooth-filled maw opened with a snarl, inches away from her throat. All the while, the horrible smell from all the filth and muck the girl was covered in assaulted her nostrils and made her want to gag.
Fuck, Ina, please hurry—!
At that moment, it felt as if time had slowed down.
Out of the corner of her eye, Taylor saw a familiar mass of purple emerge from the other side of the rooftop. Ina didn't let out a peep as her tentacles swiftly approached the two of them, intent on capturing the shark girl.
But at the very last second, the shark girl swiftly rolled off of Taylor, just barely managing to dodge the tentacles when they were an inch away from wrapping around her. Somehow, the girl's eyes were now focused on them, tracking the movement of the tentacles without issue.
What?! But I thought…!
Taylor watched all of this happen as if in slow motion, before the world snapped back to its normal pace.
Ina let out a gasp as the shark girl successfully evaded her grasp. "She's slipperier than my tentacles!"
"For god's sake, are you really saying that now?!" Taylor retorted, her aching limbs scrambling to get up, before Ina's tentacles helpfully pushed her to her feet.
With a sound of crunchy gravel, the shark girl stood on her feet, her hand protectively cradling her treasured memento to her chest as she backed away from the two of them, edging closer and closer to the edge of the building, growling all the while.
No, she's going to get awa—!
That was when the shark girl, having not watched her footing, stepped on a loose chunk of a roof, making her lose her balance. She barely had time to yelp as she went over the side of the building, falling out of Ina and Taylor's sight.
"No!"
"Oh no!"
The duo quickly rushed to the edge of the building, Ina's tentacles swiftly picking up Taylor as they both lurched forward, intending to save the girl from hitting the ground head-first.
And then, Taylor felt an electrifying wave course through them, before being followed by a loud sound that came crashing into their ears. Her ears popped at the impact, momentarily losing all hearing besides a tinny ringing that slowly resolved back… to a shrill scream.
Dread still clear in her mind, she hesitantly looked down, along with Ina, to find the source.
Fortunately, the shark girl hadn't hit the ground.
Unfortunately, that was also because she was caught in something else. A field, of sorts. The air itself seemed to distort and warp as dust and trash flew around randomly within it, with no gravity weighing them down. The girl hovered in the middle, twisting, spinning, moving around in wild abandon as she tried to move a single inch away from her spot, and failed.
Her efforts, combined with the run from before, had shaken off most of the detritus that clung stubbornly on her, enough so that her face could finally be partly seen, even from afar. There was such a naked expression of panic on the glimpses Taylor could see there as she flailed around and yelled, that it made her stomach twist.
The bombs. That must've been one of them.
She bit her lip, before turning to Ina, who looked just as worried.
"Ina," Taylor spoke up. "Can you take us down without getting too close?"
Ina nodded, her tone sounding serious. "Yeah, don't worry, Tako-express won't fail us now."
With that, the two scaled down the edge of the building, taking extra care not to touch the warped space as the girl continued screaming. It was nerve-wracking, but they had successfully made it to the ground floor without any trouble.
Notably, as Ina's tentacles let go of Taylor, she saw that pendant once more on the ground at her feet. The girl must have dropped it as she fell. There was a ugly crack on the outside, now, too.
"Taylor?" Ina's hesitant voice shook Taylor from her thoughts. "We're going to get her out of there, right?"
Taylor shook her head to get herself back on track, putting the pendant in her pocket once more and taking off her mask for now, prompting Ina to do the same. It should be fine now that they're in a secluded alleyway, right? "Yeah, we are. Can your tentacles reach her from there?"
Ina looked back at the girl, making a thinking pose as she put her fist over her mouth. "Maybe, but I don't think she'll react well. I don't know how she can see my tentacles, but she doesn't seem to like them, so…"
Taylor let out a sigh, her mind working on fumes as she tucked away the information for later. "Okay. How about this? Wrap them around me, and drag me to her. Then as soon as I grab her, drag us both back."
Ina frowned, looked at Taylor with no small amount of concern. "Are you sure? What if she lashes out at you? You could get really hurt."
"Don't worry about it, I'll be okay." Taylor lied, waving off Ina's concern. She was about as sure as the supposed priestess was, but on some level, she felt like she deserved getting hit by the shark girl.
The shark kid, really. Sure, Taylor wasn't the one who put her in… whatever situation she was in, back then. But the chase? And this bomb. This was hers, entirely.
Just another tally to put in Taylor's asshole moments list. How many was it, now? Two for two?
Regardless, Taylor turned around, missing how Ina's frown grew a little deeper at those words. "If it's our best shot at saving her, then it'll be okay."
Ina let out a sigh as her tentacles swiftly wrapped around Taylor's midsection. She felt a little proud of herself for not flinching this time. "Okay, if you say so, then I'll trust you." Ina shot a small smile Taylor's way. "You ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," Taylor said, taking a deep breath. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand as she approached the field in front of her. "...Let's do it."
Promptly, Taylor took a few steps back. She wasn't sure if her momentum would completely disappear the moment she entered the field, but if it didn't, a little extra push from a run might help her efforts.
With the tiny space she had to navigate with, it didn't amount to much besides a few giant strides to build up speed, then suddenly—she had found herself inside.
The electrifying feeling from before stuck close to her skin as she felt herself slowly rise up from the ground, a small sense of vertigo making her dizzy for a brief moment. The only thing stopping her from drifting ever upward was Ina's tentacles, tugging her back down, and gently directing her towards her main objective.
The girl was still screaming endlessly, spinning in place as she futilely struggled against the lack of gravity itself. Her eyes soon met Taylor's, prompting the girl to redouble her efforts.
"Wait!" Taylor shouted, trying her best to inch over faster to where the panicked girl was, stretching her arms forward to reach her. "We're just trying to—"
—Only for her hands to be rebuffed by a swipe from the girl, wrenching them completely to the side.
"You have to calm—" Taylor continued her efforts still, extending her arms again.
"Αφες με μόνην...!" The girl rasply screamed at her—the first time Taylor ever heard more than a wordless shrill or a growl from her—before her hands were angrily swiped away, again.
Pain.
It was the first time the girl had actually used her claws on her too, Taylor realized, as she looked down at the ripped sleeve of her right arm, and the now-bleeding gash from within, leaking blood that spilled oddly into the air.
Taylor entirely wasn't sure what she was thinking at that moment. Something insane, perhaps. But she couldn't deny something tethered at the edge of snapping at that very moment, and her hands surged to grab both the girl's wrists, somehow becoming strong enough to hold them in place.
"L̵͈̈ist̸en!" Taylor felt the slithering underneath inside her sleeves, but paid it no mind. "Listen," she repeated, taking deep breaths as the girl strained against her newfound solid hold.
"I'm… I'm sorry. I… know you don't want to be here, that this… place must seem so scary and dangerous to you," Taylor said as softly as she could, trying to make her voice as soothing as possible. "We just wanted some—no, we're just here to help out now, I promise."
She locked eyes as hard as she could with the girl, trying to convey her words the only way she knew how.
For a moment, she wasn't sure she got through to her. Taylor just heard the girl speak now, and it was a language nowhere near English. Why should she expect the girl to understand what she was saying?
But, surprisingly enough, the shark girl's struggles seemed to calm down a slight amount.
Ina must have taken that as some sort of signal, as Taylor could feel the appendage wrapped around her waist start pulling her back. Quickly, she dragged the shark girl even closer to her, securing her with a tight hug.
The girl growled, making Taylor tense up, anticipating retaliation. However, the girl didn't do much else other than that, as she continued making warning growls into Taylor's hoodie instead of attacking her directly.
Taylor didn't let herself relax the slightest bit until she felt the edges of the field touch her back, only then letting loose a relieved sigh.
…Until the shark girl realized that they were out, too, and started to go wild in her crutches.
"H-hey…! Stop moving…!"
Taylor's tenuous grasp couldn't hold against the girl's struggles as she broke out of Taylor's arms once more. However, owing to how tired they all were, the shark girl instead scampered off behind a dumpster, not making any moves to run away further from the two, watching them warily.
…Right. She still had to return it.
With a hand reaching into her pocket, Taylor once again took out the pendant. It made a slight clicking sound as she opened it up to show the girl.
"Here." Taylor's adrenaline finally ran out, making her painfully aware of the sheer exhaustion lacing her entire body. "You dropped this, earlier," she tiredly said, speaking gently as she kneeled closer. If she was being honest, it was more like her legs finally giving out than anything else. "It's pretty important, right?"
Tentatively, after a great deal of silence, the girl revealed her arm from behind the dumpster, gingerly taking the pendant from Taylor's hand.
It took even longer for the girl to crawl out herself, cradling the pendant close to her chest. It was clear she was still on her guard with the two, even with how she seemed to go out of her way not to glance at their direction. Ina, for her part, made no sudden movements or noises, looking on with baited breath.
Notably, the girl didn't look like she was primed to run away anymore.
Taylor took a long and deep breath as she finally let go of the last bits of lingering tension in her body.
Thank god, we did it… Taylor thought. She would have tipped over from sheer relief were it not for Ina catching her at the last second.
That's only when she realized how dirty her clothes had gotten. Wrangling with the shark stained the front of her hoodie something fierce—just leaving a giant murky blotch of foul-smelling mistake, all peppered with algae.
Taylor scrunched her nose in distaste. How many washes was this going to take to come out?
"Taylor?" Ina muttered, looking at the gash on Taylor's arms with naked concern. There was a certain tone to her voice that made Taylor feel worse, somehow. Guilt. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine…" Taylor let out, taking the opportunity to look at the injury on her arm as well.
Instead of the grotesque injury that she was expecting, however, underneath the gash of her sleeves was a perfectly unblemished arm. That… she was sure she got hit.
…I'll think about this later.
"Are you sure?" Ina continued to look worried. "Does it hurt somewhere? Even if it looks fine, you might've gotten slashed somewhere that's like, hidden—"
"I'm fine. See?" Taylor insisted as she rolled up her sleeve to show her unharmed arm to the priestess, trying to put on an unbothered face as she shakily stood up. "Besides, we have more important things to do."
Ina didn't seem the slightest bit appeased, but ultimately, she seemed to concede to Taylor's point as she turned back to the girl, who was still holding her precious memento.
"Hi," Ina quietly said, crouching down and making a friendly smile towards the shark girl. Somehow, the girl's odor didn't seem to bother her at all.
The shark girl jumped, like she had forgotten the two of them were there, before leaning back in slight fear, still holding the pendant tightly.
"Sorry for everything we put you through. We didn't mean to scare you." Ina's soothing voice seemed to do its job as the shark girl remained calm… or at least, unresponsive, even as she got closer. "I know this doesn't make up for this whole mess, but…"
Ina reached into her purse to take out a paper bag of cupcakes they had made earlier. They were a little disfigured, thanks to the sudden wild chase, but the girl seemed to barely notice, her eyes instantly darting to the cupcakes, mouth watering as she audibly sniffed at the sweet treats coming her way.
"You seem like a hungry girl, so maybe you'd like something like—ah!"
Ina didn't even get a chance to finish her sentence as the girl gleefully snatched the cupcakes from Ina's hand. She dug in without any hesitation as crumbs fell on her legs, devouring the entire literal bag in one go, packaging included.
Ina giggled in amusement, while Taylor could only blankly stare.
Given how thin she was, maybe Taylor shouldn't have been that surprised, but she still seemed like a black hole for food, somehow.
"Oh! You know, I don't think we told you our names, did we?" Ina asked, prompting the shark girl to look up from her food. "I'm Ina, and this is Taylor."
Predictably, the shark girl stared blankly at them, tilting her head like a confused dog, cheeks puffed up from the cupcakes she shoved in her mouth. Taylor was pretty sure at this point that the feral girl didn't speak a single word of English. That didn't stop Ina from trying once more, though.
"Ina…" She gestured to herself, before promptly gesturing at Taylor. "Taylor." Then, she repeated the motions a couple of times. "Ina, Taylor. Ina, Taylor. Do you understand?"
Taylor almost thought it a lost cause before the shark girl opened her mouth and…
"Guwa," the girl mumbled through her food, before swallowing and trying again. "...G-Gura," the girl, Gura, said, pointing to herself.
"Your name is Gura?" Ina asked, tilting her head, a growing smile on her face.
"Gura." Gura said, pointing to herself once again. Then, she tried her luck with other names, pointing at them as she tried to say it. "...I-na. Tay-lor."
Ina's smile was as wide as could be. "Well, I sea! It's nice to meet you, Gura!"
Taylor wished she could feel the same. She really did. All she felt now was exhaustion, dread, and a whole bunch of myriad feelings that she couldn't even begin to unpack right now.
God, I'm so tired…
I never expected today to be so… exciting! Ina thought, as she watched Gura finish off the last of the snacks she had in her purse.
Well, to be fair, this was basically a sentai world! Exciting chases and the like were probably par for the course here! Maybe this was a good excuse to do some cardio in case she needed to run without using her tentacles… but exercise is pretty heart work.
Stifling a giggle from her pun, she handed Taylor one of the masks that they got earlier. Even if she didn't need it so much herself—the Ancient Ones had their own way of helping keep the masquerade—Gura might find it more useful. Though with how she instantly tried to fiddle with the mask that Taylor just put on her face, she would probably need to get used to it a bit more, heehee.
Taylor, for her part, looked for a place to sit to immediately play as their lookout.
In the back of Ina's mind, the whispers intensified for a brief moment as she looked at Taylor.
'𝖂𝖍𝖆𝖙 𝖆 𝖑𝖔𝖓𝖊𝖑𝖞 𝖍𝖊𝖆𝖗𝖙. 𝕾𝖍𝖊 𝖙𝖔𝖗𝖙𝖚𝖗𝖊𝖘 𝖍𝖊𝖗𝖘𝖊𝖑𝖋 𝖑𝖔𝖔𝐤𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖆 𝖈𝖆𝖚𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖉𝖎𝖊 𝖋𝖔𝖗.' a facsimile of her own voice echoed, the clearest from the choir.
Yes, Ina could very much see that! Had most people been put in Taylor's shoes during the chase, they would have given up long before she did. It was no small feat that they managed to catch up to Gura when they did. Personally, though, Ina found that a little admirable, if nothing else. It seemed like the Ancient Ones picked a good candidate to bless with their powers!
And speaking of Gura… Ina looked back at Gura, who was currently crouched down and playing with a discarded wrapper. Once more, her own voice whispered to her.
…Huh. Ina thought, tilting her head curiously as she looked at Gura in a new light.
Admittedly, Ina didn't know what to think of that tidbit. She didn't doubt the Ancient One's blessing and knowledge, but to be told that this shark girl was someone she had been super close friends with in another life was really interesting!
Maybe we can be friends again, too!
"Okay…" Taylor took another deep breath, the frown in her face having stuck there ever since they've started chasing Gura. Yeah, she really needs a break after today. What could be a fun way for stress relief? Does Taylor like drawing? Drawing always helped her relax!
Ignorant of Ina's whole internal spiel, Taylor continued. "I think that's enough of a break. Now we just gotta get back home. One big problem, though."
She pointed at Gura, or more specifically… the giant tail sticking out of her legs. "How are we supposed to hide that? Gura's gonna stick out like a sore thumb."
Gura perked up at the mention of her name, and tried to follow where Taylor's finger pointed to, only to find her tail. She waggled it a little confusedly.
"Is it that much of a problem? Oh, we say that it's, like, part of her costume! Heroes wear crazy costumes all the time, don't they?" There was still like, all sorts of seaweed and plant goop and stuff that covered her tattered robe—they can probably pass her off as halloween-themed, right?
"It's… a bit too real to pass off as a costume, I think." Taylor crossed her arms in thought, and looked closer at the shark girl and her state of dress while scrunching up her nose, for some reason. Oh! Maybe she was starting to see it, too!
Of course, it turned out that Gura's tail wasn't just going to be their only problem.
"여기서 들었어요!"
Ina's ears twitched as she heard a voice in the distance. Some person talking to another in…was that… Korean?
It was then that Ina's worry grew a little stronger, as her mind tried to come up with a solution to their problem.
Taylor was quick on the draw, tensing up further at Ina's alarm and leaning in closer and harshly whispering to her. "What's wrong?"
"Someone's coming!" Ina whispered back, taking no pleasure in seeing Taylor's eyes grow wide as she swiveled around in a panic, the grimace on her face deeper than before.
Gura seemed to be aware enough to also recognize something was wrong, as she crouched down and let out a low growl, ready to pounce on anything she saw as a threat.
Although, that was exactly the problem, wasn't it? Taylor and Ina might seem normal, but Gura would surely break whatever source of normality this world had, and bring untold amounts of attention to them. She wasn't sure they could hide her actions behind a silly costume if that were to happen.
Ina had experience in hiding the occult from normal people back in her world. It was part of her duty as the Priestess of the Ancient Ones to keep up the masquerade whenever she could. But right now, she couldn't think of a clean way out of this, not with the amount of time they had.
What to do…
And then, Ina was startled as Taylor grabbed her and Gura's arms firmly, a grim look on her face.
"Hold tight and don't let go," Taylor whispered, her voice just barely on the edge of Ina's hearing.
Just as suddenly as Taylor grabbed them, they descended into the ground, disappearing into the shadow of the dark alley.
"I heard it from here!" Jaehyun said, running into the alley where he heard the sound coming from, his friends following close by. With anticipation building in his heart, he turned the corner to find…!
Nothing. The alley was empty, the only thing in sight being dirt, dust, food, and trash littering the floor. The anti-gravitational field in front of him was very much a surprise, and seeing one of Bakuda's bombs so close up to him was unnerving, but he didn't see a person anywhere.
…Wait. Jaehyun thought, squinting at the mess floating inside the field. The fuck is that? Seaweed?
He didn't have time to think about that as two of his men followed behind him, taking a look at the scene before sighing.
"Really, man?" Shin said in English, crossing his arms. He must've switched to it so Tenko could understand what they were talking about. "Why the fuck did you bring us here? Did you just wanna admire Bakuda's work or something?"
"No, listen, I know what I saw, and it wasn't fucking normal," Jaehyun replied, jabbing a finger at him.
It was just a blur, but he just knew he saw hints of something dart past him on his way to deliver his truck to Bakuda. Hell, had he not looked up at just the right moment, he would have missed it too, as quick as it was.
"Well, there's nothing here, bozo." Tenko groaned, always quick to get irritated.
Jaehyun let out a frustrated groan. "Okay, look, call me an idiot all you want, but I don't wanna be ambushed by one of those nazis fuckers. If there's a cape that's running around our territory, we gotta tell the bosses before—"
"Tell us what, exactly?" A cold, empty voice crept up behind Jaehyun, making him startle and turn around in a panic, just barely holding back his surprised yell.
The Oni looked deadlier than ever before, Bakuda's bombs strapped to his chest in a bandolier that was filled to the brim, ready to cause havoc at a moment's notice. However, the thing that creeped Jaehyun out about the Oni was how still he was. It was like he wasn't looking at a person, but rather a machine.
"B-Boss!" Jaehyun stammered, giving out a quick bow, alongside the two who were so gleefully taunting Jaehyun for his caution, likely as fearful of their boss as Jaehyun himself was.
"Why are you here?" The Oni tilted his head a minuscule amount. His tone didn't change in the slightest, but Jaehyun still felt his fear grow ever stronger. "Explain."
Jaehyun swallowed, before looking back at the two men who had followed him, who were purposely looking away from Jaehyun, throwing him to the wolves.
You fucking assholes!
"W-Well, I was doing the job Bakuda asked of me, and we were heading back to deliver the p-payload." Jaehyun recounted, trying desperately to tone down his fear and recount what he saw.
Come to think of it…I think I saw someone else, right?
Yeah, there might have been two girls he remembered seeing on the way here, too.
…At least, so he thought. In the heat of the moment, it wasn't like they looked in any way interesting. Some nobodies, definitely. They were so dull that he couldn't even remember what they looked like. He thinks one of them was tall? (Or was it short?) He remembers long hair, (but how long was it? Was it actually long?) but he couldn't pin down their appearance, try as he might.
Meh. They probably weren't important enough to remember.
The slight shifting from Oni Lee brought Jaehyun back to reality. Making him slightly panic as he discarded the unimportant train of thought to focus on what really mattered.
"And I saw…something move quickly through here, through the alleys. I thought it was a cape, so we went over to see what was going on, and we all heard a loud sound here, so we came to check it out, but all we found was…"
Jaehyun gestured his hand at what Bakuda would proudly consider art, the odd, murky field still making trash drift and spin through the air.
Oni Lee just stared at Jaehyun. "Instead of doing your job, you willfully took a detour. Even as time is of the essence, you felt this was important enough to impede your progress." Now, there was a slight change of emotion in the Oni's voice. Something that made Jaehyun sick to his stomach.
"I-I guess if you put it like that, boss…" Jaehyun tried his best to mask his fear, feeling slightly relieved when the Oni made to turn around, taking stock of the area, and making his way near the edge of the anti-gravity field.
It was a little dark in the alley, but now that Jaehyun's eyes were starting to adjust a little bit, he could see the little something that took the Oni's attention. Mainly, the little flecks of blood floating in the air.
In a slow, deliberate walk, he followed the tiniest trail of blood disappear into one of the corners of the alley, near a dumpster.
Everyone else looked at each other, dry throats and itchy palms all around. No one dared to even peep a word, despite the sudden worry they felt.
Silently, Oni Lee took out his knife, crouching down in readiness, prompting the rest of the group there to tense up, ready to reach for a weapon if there was really a cape hiding right there. He stalked towards the dumpster, not making a single noise, before reaching to move it aside, and…
…Nothing.
Just more seaweed, crumbs, and whatever else sort of trash that fell out of the dumpster. No person nor cape to be found anywhere.
B-But-! I know that I saw-!
He hardly had the time to blink before he felt himself pushed to the wall, a knife tickling his throat, courtesy of Oni Lee.
"You do all this…" Oni Lee's voice felt as cold as the Arctic, "...for nothing."
Jaehyun couldn't even breathe as he felt the knife break skin slightly, making the slightest bit of red drip down his neck.
"If you feel it necessary to waste our time again… you shall join the ranks of your passengers… understood?" Oni Lee said, his tone holding such certainty that there wasn't even a hint of doubt in Jaehyun's mind that he would follow through with the threat.
"B-but I wasn't wasting time!" Jaehyun pleaded, finally getting the balls to make his case. "While I was doing this, I told the other guys to round the assholes up! I didn't drop everything to fuck with a rando cape!"
Oni Lee didn't speak, making Jaehyun's fear spike for a moment. However, when Oni Lee released him, he knew that he was off the chopping block. For now, at least. The man didn't feel it necessary to speak, but he knew he was waiting for more, so Jaehyun spoke up again.
"If…" He rubbed his neck as he took several deep breaths, trying to stomp out the fear he was feeling. "If you wanna see how we're doing, I think we should have the truck packed by now, you want me to show it to you, boss?"
Oni Lee made a 'go on' gesture with his knife. That was enough for Jaehyun to get the memo and get his ass moving already.
"Right." Jaehyun looked towards the two dipshits who had lost all of their confidence, meek in the face of their boss' sudden appearance. "Let's go do that, then."
They all moved as one towards their delivery, Oni Lee trailing behind them, almost like a shadow of sorts. Even as he did, he couldn't help but feel a little depressed at the destruction that this whole situation had brought to the Bay. It was a shitty place, but now it looked shittier than ever.
Doesn't matter. He thought, shaking his head. Long as those shitheel nazi dipshits get out of our city, it'll be all worth it.
It wasn't long before they had finally made it to his truck. It was a fruit truck that the ABB had snagged a couple of days ago, easy for them to blend in, and it made taking care of Bakuda's requests easier than it would be otherwise.
Leaning on the door, the driver was there, taking a smoke break. For his credit, he didn't react much to Oni Lee besides a slight widening of his eyes as he threw the cigarette on the ground and stomped it with his shoe.
"Hey, boss," he said, with a short respectful nod. "Good timing. We got the truck fully loaded up and ready for Bakuda to do her… thing. Take a look."
With that, the driver quietly led them over to the back, to show Oni Lee the fruits of their labor. Luckily, the back door was open already, so Jaehyun didn't have to waste much time as he finally showed Oni Lee their hard work.
Blindfolded, gagged, and tied-up skinheads lined the interior of the truck, all desperately struggling against their binds.
These nazi fucks were about to have the worst day of their lives. Some of his men were still in the process of tying them up, even, making sure they wouldn't escape from whatever Bakuda had in store for them. If Jaehyun hadn't been so riled up in fear, he might have let a little vindictive smile show, imagining the fate of these assholes.
"So," he spoke up once Oni Lee really took in the scene before him. "You… You think this is enough, boss?"
"...No," Oni Lee said, making everyone there tense up in fear and apprehension. However, they all collectively relaxed when he instead put his knife away, his body language showing no scenes of what he was thinking.
"But as a start, this will be… acceptable."
This is unacceptable.
Colin looked at what remained of the food truck with a critical eye, trying to make sense of the mess before him as he inspected one of the many messes that had been called in today. This one, however, stood out due to its noticeably abnormal nature, likely unrelated to everything that had been going on in the city as of late.
The refrigerated truck had seen much better days. It was as if a wild animal had torn up everything in the back of the truck with no rhyme or reason to their actions at all. Food was spilled everywhere, all of the containers were broken and damaged, and that wasn't even mentioning the missing door that seemed to have been ripped from its hinges.
Though, the things that stood out the most was the salty smell of the ocean, and the seaweed and algae that were strewn across the floor of the truck haphazardly.
"I thought I heard a noise, but figured it was something else. I didn't think I was being fucking attacked!" The man who was driving the truck groaned as he beheld the scene in front of him. "Man, I'm so getting fired for this…"
Colin turned back to the man, letting out a considering hum as he organized his thoughts. "And besides this noise, you didn't figure anything else was amiss? Are you sure?"
The man groaned once more. "Yeah, I'm sure. It's not like I felt the truck get heavier or anything, and I was in a rush, so I didn't make many stops at all. I went as fast as I could so I could deliver the truck, but seriously, fuck, man…"
Colin turned his attention back to the truck, this time, carefully stepping inside the back, mindful of how the truck tipped due to the weight of his armor.
"Dragon," Colin said to thin air, eyes making a note of all the half-eaten food mixing with the gunk on the ground. "What do you make of this?"
A moment later, a voice rang out through his helmet. "I'm not too sure myself, but this couldn't have been the work of any parahuman we know. There's no one listed in the local registry that matches the damage done here. Closest match I could think of would be one of Hellhound's dogs going rogue, but they're too large to fit in here. I can't imagine this being anything but a sporadic action, either."
Colin nodded, crouching to make special notes of the bite marks and claws that left deep grooves on the truck's floor. "I agree. They're strong enough to tear that door clean off its hinges, yet light and small enough for the driver to not notice any weight added to the vehicle while he was driving."
Was it a new trigger? No cape in their right mind would cause all of this damage recklessly, even in a situation as dire as they were in right now.
Dragon let out a considering hum as Colin continued to inspect the area. "Most cameras are down, but if the door was ripped open for a long while, then I'm sure that—" Dragon interrupted herself when she noticed Colin's wince as he stood up from the ground. With a quiet sigh, she spoke again. "Colin, you really should be resting now."
"I'm fine," Colin insisted, moving on to see if there were any more clues to the identity of this mystery cape.
"Colin, your ribs are still healing, I've noticed you're still favoring your left arm over your right, and you've hardly slept at all. Your suit's the only reason why you're currently mobile." Dragon's concerned voice brought about a mild amount of shame to Colin, but he tried to dismiss it as he kept his mind on the scene of the truck. "If you keep pushing yourself like this, you'll fall apart."
Colin allowed himself to sigh. "I have to. We can't let the city be undefended at a time like this. There's no telling what damage the ABB will bring."
Especially since Lung had been successfully broken out thanks to Bakuda's little tantrum.
When he encountered Lung not too long ago, he thought It'd be a chance to show what he was truly capable of. He'd studied the notorious villain's moves and actions over and over, extensively to prepare for their inevitable fight. He held all the cards to a decisive victory.
Yet, contrary to all his expectations, it led to a fight that involved nearly all of the Protectorate. So many of his team left on the brink of death, barely surviving what amounted to what was essentially a disaster localized within a single block. Not to mention the collateral damage and the civilian casualties it took to finally get the infamous draconic cape apprehended.
Now it all went down the drain, leaving them with nothing, except the group of children that had caused the whole mess to begin with.
Dragon was quiet for a moment before she spoke again, her voice filled with resignation. "Fine. Just be careful, okay? The Bay needs its heroes now more than ever."
Colin paused for a moment before he gave another nod. There was a slight bit of guilt that he didn't let color his tone. "I will. You have my word on that."
If he recalled correctly, Panacea finally had made an appointment to heal them, right? He just had to keep this up a little longer, and he could afford to push himself.
"Console to Armsmaster. We have a Two-One-One in your area, over," a different voice spoke into Colin's radio, along with an address that he barely paid any mind to. Just another report out of… god knows how many on his list.
"Going back to the mystery cape on our hands…" Instead, he took note of a torn piece of white cloth, extremely dirtied up and worn out, but more of a hint than the repetitive gunk on the truck. "I'm designating this unknown cape as 'Seaweed' for now. It's a reductive name, but it'll do."
"As for their rating… a possible Brute 5, maybe. We don't know how easy it was for them to tear the door open, but it's best to assume a physical confrontation with this person would be unwise. Those bite marks and scratches on the truck can help narrow it down in the future, so we should pay attention to any new parahuman who has claws, or sharp teeth." Dragon said, thankfully moving past Colin's condition to focus on the bigger picture.
Even with how eventful Brockton Bay was in recent days, he wouldn't let himself falter in the presence of danger. He needed to show the city that the heroes were out there fighting for a better cause.
No matter what kind of monster he'll have to face.
What she felt diving deep into that darkness was… she could only describe it as a cocktail of conflicting emotions, grinding at the surreality of it all. The shadows bore down at her like she was sinking deep underwater yet her foot lay grounded, and her breath unburdened—perfectly able to breathe. In the inky black that drowned all sight, Taylor was ever-present, with every inch of the dark clear as day, sharper than she could ever see with her normal vision. But what burned amongst all those the farthest was that one prevailing impression.
It felt welcoming.
It felt like home.
Some magic required a sacrifice.
Had what she had done counted? What had she sacrificed? What had she lost?
It was a chill that enveloped her and refused to let go—
"—Taylor?" Ina's sudden voice snapped Taylor out of her reverie. The priestess was staring at her questioningly, as if waiting for a response… which, she probably was.
"Huh?" Taylor blinked and shuffled back a step from all the staring. "Sorry, just thinking. What was that?"
"Ah!" If the priestess was bothered by Taylor's momentary lapse in attention, she sure didn't show it. She simply leaned closer and conspiratorially murmured, "I was just saying, don't you think she'll look really cute in a dress?"
It was Taylor's turn to look confused until she followed Ina's gaze back to where it originally was.
"ἔνδον ἰχθύες ἐν τῷ κιβωτίῳ!" the young girl muttered incomprehensibly as she hugged the TV, face smack dab against the screen as it rolled footage from some old ocean documentary. Despite the giant shark tail swishing back and forth, Gura didn't quite so much cut an intimidating figure as much as she did an excitable child. Her eyes even seemed to shine like the ocean's deep blue, contrasting the piercing red eyes Taylor could've sworn she had seen before.
In fact, she looked positively harmless now—quite a change, for being the culprit of the entire mess they've gone through.
Taylor's mind wandered to when they arrived home. Tired, bruised, and cold, they slipped out of the shadow's embrace onto a nearby nook, away from prying eyes.
Small mercies Taylor lived somewhere quiet. She wasn't sure how she would explain what happened to her house, or Ina's ritual machinations to anyone without sounding insane.
As it was, the priestess worked in relative peace as she quickly restored the house back to its pristine condition. No broken window. No water flooding the basement. Everything damaged or destroyed returned exactly the way they had put it before the ritual, there was no algae, seaweed, or dead fish littering the floor, and even the dust was cleared, as if Taylor had vacuumed recently.
Though the knowledge of how it's all been done can't help but claw at her.
Just how easy it was to rely on magic.
Taylor gripped her arm, feeling out the gash that ruined her favorite hoodie, and the flawless skin underneath.
By all accounts, she shouldn't have felt this way. She was unharmed, with the only pain lingering on her body being the ache from all the exercise she had gone through on the chase here. She had managed to avoid a confrontation with the ABB, and she had succeeded in what she set out to do, but still…
Still, even so, she couldn't help but feel like she was… less like herself, somehow.
Some magic required a sacrifice.
She needed to stop. Stop making any excuses or justification, and stop dead cold, before it bites her on the ass.
"Something wrong?" Ina spoke up, again, this time with a little concern painting a frown on her face. "You've been really quiet since we got back."
"I… Maybe," Taylor offered hesitantly, unsure of how to phrase her next words. What could she say that the girl wouldn't take the wrong way—if there was even the right way to say it. Why was she even entertaining the idea?
In the end, Taylor found herself floundering, the half-complete confession dying before it even fell out of her lips.
"Are you worried about those bad guys?" Ina guessed, completely misinterpreting Taylor's woes, before trying to give her the priestess' most reassuring smile. "These things have their way of working out, you'll see!"
Then, she turned to the side, punching the air, trying—really badly—to mimic some sort of boxer pose. "I bet the heroes are gonna come soon to give them the good ol' tako punch!"
"I thought the tako stuff was just your gimmick?" Taylor couldn't help but give a little smile along with her rebut. It was honestly the farthest thing in her mind—but she supposed it wasn't exactly the worst guess.
"There's enough tako to share with everyone." Ina crossed her arms and nodded sagely… for a few seconds, until she broke down into a giggling fit.
Hearing the giggling, Gura turned around from the TV, brows scrunching at them in suspicion. "ἢ ὑμεῖς περὶ ἐμοῦ λοιδορεῖτε?"
Having no idea of whatever she said, however, Ina could only give her a friendly wave back. It at least seemed enough to placate the shark girl, who quickly lost her interest and went back to having a staring contest with a close-up shot of some giant fish.
"And I think we can take care of ourselves just fine, can't we?" Ina muttered with another gentle smile, and whatever weight that had lifted from Taylor's stomach dropped back down with a heavy, unyielding, thud.
Somehow, with just a single sentence, everything felt that much more uncomfortable. Taylor's fingers tapped her arm in a repetitive rhythm. Conflicting thoughts and ideas waged war in her mind. She opened her mouth to say something, but nothing came out.
Taylor turned away from Ina, missing the slight look of disappointment on her face.
Next to her, Taylor heard sounds of shuffling, nearly being snuffed out by the sounds of Gura making a delighted gasp as a shark swam across the screen.
For some reason, Taylor's mind drifted to the image in the pendant again. Taylor's mind couldn't help but wonder what world Gura had come from. What home she belonged to. Surely there was a place she belonged, right?
Another incentive for Taylor to fix her mistakes, then.
But some magic required a sacrifice.
More warring thoughts clashed inside her as the silence continued to reign until something else occurred to Taylor. Something that motivated her to break the silence.
"...Ina." There was an urge to fidget that Taylor suppressed with hard-earned experience.
"Taylor?" Ina said in return, tilting her head in mild confusion.
"Thanks for… today." Taylor's words were slow and stilted, but she had managed to get them out. "Things might have been worse without you, so… thanks."
While she didn't always see eye-to-eye with Ina, no matter how much she thought about it, Taylor didn't see any world where she managed to catch up to Gura on her own. Even if Ina did this just for some mysterious benefactor that held their own goals, at least it had been to Taylor's benefit.
Ina's confused stare held for a moment before a smile crept onto her face. Suddenly, it didn't feel so uncomfortable anymore. "Oh, well, you're welcome! What are friends for, right?" Ina's words came with such certainty, that Taylor had to pause to register it.
"R-Right," Taylor coughed, a hand coming up to cover her mouth. She cleared her throat and quickly tried to move on to other topics. "Anyway, we need to figure out what to do with Gura, and…" Taylor took an experimental sniff of her hoodie, her face scrunching up as the strong scent of seaweed and ocean still permeated the air. "And we all need a bath or something."
"...We do?" Ina innocently asked, blinking in surprise. Taylor's thoughts seized up once more.
It took a while for Taylor to find her words, but when she did, her tone was as flat as she could humanly make it. "Are you serious?"
"Oh, so that's why you looked at Gura like that!" Ina pounded her fist into her open palm, looking like she solved a great mystery. "Now everything makes scents!"
"Is your nose broken or something?" Taylor retorted, mystified by Ina's everything.
…Maybe losing your sense of smell is a side effect of losing your soul? It was a really ridiculous idea, but who knows? There could be some weight to that theory.
"But sure, I think that's probably a good idea!" Ina dodged Taylor's question like a champ, a bright smile on her face. She turned towards where their newest guest was, prompting Taylor to do the same. "Gura, how do you feel about…"
Ina trailed off, while Taylor froze up.
There were no signs of Gura anywhere. It was like she had completely disappeared from existence. Taylor felt a pit open up in her stomach, but before she could despair, she heard a sound from the kitchen. Instantly, the two rushed to investigate, only to find Gura crouched in front of Taylor's fridge, sniffing the air by the door.
"Phew!" Ina seemed as relieved as Taylor, slumping down in relief. With a sheepish laugh, she spoke again. "For a second there, I thought we were in big…"
That was then when both girls realized something at the same time.
Gura, the girl who had eaten at least a couple of tons of food in the last hour or two alone was staring at Taylor's stocked fridge.
For the first time today, Ina and Taylor were in complete sync as they both looked at each other, then Gura again before…
"Wait, Gura, no!"
"Don't!"
Gura let out a yelp as the two girls rushed forward to keep her away from the fridge, holding her back from her target. "τί δήποτε, δότε μοι βρῶσιν!" She complained, not that it stopped the older girls.
Taylor winced as she attempted to hold back the biggest threat to her livelihood.
A small girl who could probably eat thrice her weight.
Ina meanwhile, seemed to be struggling extremely hard, all of her tentacles either holding onto Gura or anchored around the room in an attempt to drag the shark girl back. "G-Gura…!" Ina let out, her voice strained. "You can't just—!"
And that was when Gura, in a last-ditch effort to get herself out of their grasp, went to bite Ina's fleshy orange hair… things.
"Aaah!" Ina instantly recoiled as soon as she was bitten, releasing Gura from her grasp. "Owowow…! Gura?! I'm friend, not food!"
"Bleh!" In a prime display of karma, Gura seemed to find Ina to taste extremely bad, scrubbing her tongue with her hands frantically, before finding that insufficient and going for the next best thing.
"Wha-?! Hey!"
Taylor's sleeve.
Unfortunately for Taylor, her protests didn't stop Gura. And no matter how she struggled, she couldn't shake off the freakishly strong girl from using her as a makeshift napkin.
As Ina gently cradled her hair, still wincing from the pain, and as Gura did her best to ruin Taylor's sleeve for the second time today, only one thought ran through her mind.
…I missed it when it was quiet.
Somehow, through some miracle, they had managed to get Gura to the bathroom after all that.
"ὁ κολυμβηθρὸς ὑμῶν ἀσθενὴς φαίνεται, πῶς ἂν ἐν αὐτῷ κολυμβήσαιτε?" Gura muttered as Taylor filled the bathtub full of water. Her tone seemed dismissive as she inspected the bathroom with narrowed eyes.
Ina was crouched down next to Taylor, still gingerly holding the part that got bitten by Gura. "Um, is Gura going to be okay with this? I don't want to be mistaken for food twice in a row…"
"I mean, she came from the water, right?" Taylor asked, not looking for an answer as turned back to Gura, who was now flipping the lid on the toilet up and down idly. "It's not like she's going to be upset at getting into more water."
Though Taylor somehow doubted Gura understood the concepts of soap, or shampoo, or anything like that.
As soon as Taylor felt like the bathtub was filled, she cleared her throat to get Gura's attention. "Gura," Taylor pointed down at the small body of water, making the shark girl's eyes follow towards it. "Do you know how to take a—"
Without further hesitation, Gura rushed forward, vaulted over the bathtub, and all but dived into it. She sat in the bathtub, content with the fact that she had splashed water everywhere. She hadn't even taken her clothes off.
"...Bath," Taylor muttered as water dripped down her face, her tone holding no indication of what she was actually thinking.
Ina also seemed similarly affected, taking off her glasses with a squint, before cleaning it off with a handkerchief she retired from one of her pockets.
Gura, after watching them for a few moments, looked almost smug as she sat contently in the bathtub. She looked like a little spoiled princess, even.
She did that on purpose. Taylor thought, her eyes meeting mischievous bright blue eyes in return. A moment later, however, she conceded the battle, letting out a brief sigh. It's not worth it.
Ina giggled. "I guess we didn't have to worry after all!"
"Yeah, well, we're just getting started. I doubt she's gonna make it easy for us," Taylor said, resigned to the task before her. "But it can't be any harder than chasing her down. Maybe."
After all, all they had to do here was give Gura a bath and clean her up.
Surely it wouldn't be that difficult, right?
"H-hey! Sit still, you're getting soap everywhere!" Taylor yelled to deaf ears as Gura trashed around everywhere, filling Taylor's bathroom with suds of soap.
Taylor's weapons against the dirty girl in front of her, (that being the soapy cloth and the disconnected shower head that was washing away the soap on Gura's body) seemed to only bring more discomfort to Gura.
As for Ina, she was nowhere to be seen, due to the two of them finding out quickly that another pair of hands just made things more complicated. Instead, she was tasked with finding clothes that would fit Gura, even with her extra parts.
"εἰς τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου ἐμπίπτει!" Gura eloquently retorted as she continued to struggle on. "πῶς σὺ χείρων τούτου ἢ ἐγώ εἶ?!"
While Taylor didn't understand whatever language that was, she understood sass perfectly.
Taylor felt no remorse as she hosed down Gura's face in retaliation, a small bit of amusement welling up as Gura sputtered and held her hands out to defend herself.
She didn't think she was that bad when she was a kid, was she?
Then again, Taylor had been pretty excitable back then, always bouncing off the walls and causing her parents to exhaust themselves in an effort to keep up with her. Faintly, she remembered her mom lecturing her about this exact thing several times.
…For all Taylor knew, however, Gura might have had the same dynamic with her family, once upon a time. She didn't seem to have time to grow up yet, did she? When did that picture get made?
Then, the bathroom door opened, distracting Taylor from her thoughts.
"All set!" Ina announced from the door, putting an old set of Taylor's pajamas on top of the toilet. If Taylor had to guess from a glance, it did seem to be Gura's size."Are you two finished?"
"Almost, just need to—" Taylor was then promptly cut off by an irate Gura, who quickly jumped out of the bathtub, soap suds still all over part of her body.
Taylor's attempt to grab her was nimbly dodged just as Ina's was before she darted out of the door, trailing water all over the floor and probably making another attempt at Taylor's fridge all over again.
Taylor sighed as she promptly stopped the water from running and stood up again, already moving with some haste to stop Gura, Ina following closely behind.
"Stop running away, it's just some—!" Taylor called out to her before she froze.
Gura wasn't raiding her fridge. Instead, she was staring at something outside the window, head tilted curiously.
That 'something' being Taylor's dad, who had finally arrived home, clumsily fishing the keys out of his pocket.
Fuck! I completely forgot about Dad!
"...Uh oh," Ina's voice held the same weight of realization, dread clear in her voice. That was what got Taylor to move.
Immediately draping a thick towel over Gura, she shuffled the confused and obviously unusual girl away from the window. "Ina, we need to hide her, now!"
"Where do I put her?!" Ina questioned frantically, eyes darting all around as she looked for hiding spots for Gura on short notice.
Taylor would have responded, but she was distracted by the sounds of the door unlocking. Quickly passing over Gura to Ina, she whispered again. "I don't know, just hide her anywhere!"
She turned away from Ina and quickly ran to the door, opening it up the slightest amount much to the surprise of her dad.
"Dad!" Taylor said with too much force. She promptly tried again, trying for a more casual tone. "...Hey, Dad."
"...Taylor?" Her dad blinked, not expecting Taylor to answer the door like that. "Is something wrong? You look… drenched."
"What? What do you mean? Everything's completely fine." Taylor lied as innocently as she could. It was honestly a miracle that her face didn't budge an inch from the biggest lie she had ever told in her life. She didn't emote at all as she heard Gura make some grumbling noises.
"O…kay?" Her dad replied, sounding more confused by the second. "Is something happening in there?"
"Nope. Nothing." Taylor nodded, as she heard Ina apologize about… something behind her.
Then a second passed in relative silence.
Then two, then three.
It was only on the fourth second that her dad spoke again.
"So…" He raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to let me in, kiddo?"
"Yeah, sure, just give me—" Taylor trailed off as she turned around to see how Ina had dealt with Gura. "One… second…"
Apparently, Ina's solution to this whole problem was to park Gura on the couch and hide the girl's tail in between the cushions, throwing a blanket on her to conceal as much of her body as possible. Gura glared at Ina, clearly displeased by the sudden accommodation.
Meanwhile, Ina, who spotted Taylor looking, gave Taylor a proud smile and two thumbs up.
How does that help us?!
Unfortunately, it seemed like her dad's patience was thin as he let out an annoyed grunt. "Taylor, I don't know what you're doing, but I'm coming in now," he said, pushing the door open against Taylor's wishes.
"Dad, you really shouldn't come in—" Taylor's attempt to buy more time wasn't acknowledged as the door opened fully, allowing her dad to get a full view of Gura.
"Uh," he let out dumbly, engaging in a staring contest with Gura, who did the same to him. "Who's this..?"
"She's… my little sister!" Ina jumped in, her eyes darting around the room frantically. "Ye-Yeah, I'm just babysitting her because I was asked to, and, um, Taylor was nice enough to let her hang out with us! Also, hi again, Mr. Danny!"
"...Hey." He numbly waved to Ina. Still keeping up that confused stare, he stepped into the house and closed the door. There was a healthy amount of skepticism when he spoke again. "You two… really don't look alike."
"Oh, um…" Ina's eyes met Taylor, who was frantically swiping her hand no. With a bright smile, Ina tried again. "She's adopted!"
Taylor's face promptly met her palm.
Now her dad just looked annoyed. "Okay, seriously, Taylor, what's going on?"
"Uh—"
And of course, that was when Gura had enough, her shark tail bursting out of the couch cushions and shaking off the blanket, startling her dad into silence, his mouth opening wide in surprise.
There was a moment of tense silence as Gura stalked over to Taylor's dad. Her dad flinched as she got closer, not finding his words as she continued sniffing him. Apparently not liking Dad's smell, she retreated to Taylor's back, watching him carefully.
It was then that her dad found her words. "Taylor… what the fuck."
"I-I," Taylor stammered out, her mind racing to say something, anything. "I can explain?"
"Explain?!" Her dad exclaimed, a hand passing over the top of his head. "How can you possibly explain why the hell there's some monster cape in the house?! What, did she break in or something?!"
"N-No! That's not what happened at all! She—!" Taylor stammered out, trying to come up with something. Then, she had an idea. "I… I brought her here."
"You… what?" Her dad asked, his brows furrowing as his voice's volume dimmed down just the slightest amount.
"Yeah, she… On the way back home, I saw her out in the streets, and she looked hungry and hurt, so me and Ina brought her in." Taylor's eyes drifted to Ina, who had frozen up once Gura had blown their cover. "Isn't that right, Ina?"
"O-Oh! Yeah! Um, we didn't see what happened to her, but she looked really scared and lonely. She doesn't even understand English." Ina had been quick on the draw, her voice holding real traces of sympathy. She looked down at her feet as she fiddled with her fingers. "...We just wanted to make sure she was safe."
Taylor's dad looked at the two of them with a furrowed brow. He then looked down at Gura, who was still giving Dad a distrustful look. He signed before he spoke again.
"So you guys just brought in her, just like that?" He crossed his arms, looking stern. "Listen, that's nice and all, but why not just call the heroes? We can't just take anyone off the streets."
"We can't, Dad," Taylor said, unable to tell the full story for obvious reasons. "Just… Trust us, we can take care of her fine."
Ina jumped in again, looking a little bit more composed. "I know it's a little bit to ask, but she's not a threat or anything, so if you don't mind me saying, Mr. Danny, I think it'll be fine."
However, Dad just shook his head as he fixed the two of them with an uncompromising look. "Kids, even if she wasn't a threat, we don't know the first thing about taking care of her. We have to call the Protectorate."
"Dad!"
"But—!"
However, neither Taylor nor Ina's complaints seemed to sway him. "I'm sorry, but we have to be realistic here. They're experienced dealing with monster capes, they'll—"
"Oὔ!!"
A yell from behind Taylor shook the room into silence, as they all swiveled to look at the shrill voice that objected.
Gura was still holding onto Taylor's hoodie tightly as ever, but there was a certain desperation in her eyes that demanded all their attention.
"...Oὔ!" Gura shook her head fiercely, before burying her face completely into Taylor's wet back. "οὐ θέλω ἀπιέναι!"
Gura…? Taylor's eyes were wide as she tried her best to get a good look at the girl who had given her so much trouble today.
She wasn't sure why it was so surprising to hear Gura speak like this, but it was. Maybe she understood what was going on, even if only a little bit.
Eventually, Taylor found her words again and turned around to speak to her dad again, spurred by the spontaneous action. "Dad, even for a little bit, please." This time, she put as much emphasis as she could into those words, her intentions loud and clear.
There was a dreadful bit of silence as her dad visibly considered what to do. He looked towards Taylor, who was meeting his eyes without any hesitance. He looked towards Ina, who had her hands balled up to her chest, and finally, he looked towards Gura, who's glare hadn't budged an inch. FInally, he let out a sigh.
"...Okay, fine. Just for a little bit, okay?"
Taylor felt her whole body relax as she unclenched the fists that she didn't even know she was making. A puff of air escaped her as she felt relief.
Ina let a smile come back to her face, as her shoulders untensed. Unnecessarily, one of her tentacles moved to wipe some sweat off her brow as she let out a "Phew!"
Because of course.
Once more, Gura seemed to be a little more aware than she appeared at first glance. Taking note of their combined relief, Taylor felt the hold in her hoodie relax a bit. Though, she didn't let go yet.
"...Thanks, Dad," Taylor's voice no longer held the intensity it did a moment ago. "I promise that Gura won't be an issue."
"Gura?" Her dad parroted, the unusual name giving him pause. "That's her name?"
"Yeah." Taylor looked back once more to check on Gura, who suddenly seemed wary at the mention of her name. "It… took a little bit to get it from her, but yeah."
Her dad took a moment to stare at the tiny girl, seemingly contemplating something before he let out a sigh. Taylor felt a little surprised when he crouched down to meet Gura face-to-face, a smile on his face that seemed cautiously sincere.
"...Hey. Sorry if I worried you, kid. You must be pretty attached to these two if you yelled like that. Guess this cranky old man scared you, huh?" He let out a self-deprecating chuckle. Taylor also realized, belatedly, that he was talking a little slower too.
Initially, Gura didn't seem to move an inch, though somehow, Dad's tone managed to put Gura the slightest bit more at ease as the frown in her face lessened a tiny amount.
"It's nice to meet you… even if I don't agree with what my daughter and her friend are doing," Dad said. Taylor was honestly a little glad his eyes were focused on Gura, because otherwise, he might have seen the frown on her face. He put out a hand for Gura to shake. "I'm Danny."
Gura didn't move from Taylor's back, staring at the offered hand with a decent amount of scrutiny. Eventually, however, she seemed to get the memo as she took the offered hand and gripped it, his large hand dwarfing her tiny hand.
…Despite that, however, it was clear who had a firmer grip, given the wince that appeared nigh instantly as soon as Gura started to squeeze. It seemed like she wasn't completely okay with Taylor's dad, and had still wanted to get back at him somehow.
Eventually, she let go of his hand, although Taylor noted that she seemed a little too smug about the way he shook his hand in mild pain.
"Damn," he cursed, raising up to his full height as he continued to shake his hand. "She's so strong for a tiny girl."
You have no idea.
"By the way," her dad spoke up, turning to Ina, "Ina, are you going to be staying over again?"
"Hmm!" Ina nodded ecstatically before her eyes went to Gura. "I guess I'll be sleeping with Gura today! I hope that isn't a problem, Mr. Danny."
Dad chuckled, waving off Ina's concern. "No, it isn't really. A while ago, Taylor's friend used to sleep over here all the time. It's not a problem at all."
Taylor let out a sigh that she wasn't sure her dad caught. Ina, on the other hand, leaned in a little closer, curious about her dad's admission.
"Well, I hope you girls don't mind if I got us some takeout again," he said, before turning to face Taylor and Gura. "I think we even have enough for… where is she going?"
Taylor was startled as she realized that Gura was no longer behind her. Instead, the feral girl once more tried to slink to Taylor's fridge, only to freeze once she realized she had been spotted. She stayed like that for a moment, before scurrying off to try her luck again.
"Gura, no!"
Taylor sighed as she laid down on her bed.
After stopping Gura from raiding her fridge and getting herself kicked out, her dad had been relatively accommodating, all things considered. Though of course, there was still a lingering bit of awkwardness as they all ate dinner.
They even managed to get Gura out of the ripped and stained rags she wore, which on closer inspection had turned out to be a toga of all things, and into one of Taylor's old pajamas, something which took a disproportionate amount of effort.
And now, as the day ended, Taylor couldn't help but feel like she accomplished nothing. She was in nearly the same position she had been yesterday. She still knew nothing about what was really going on, her other attempt to get answers just brought Taylor more problems, and finally…
Magic.
When most people thought about magic, they probably thought of whimsy. A way to shape the world in a way no one else could. It was supposed to be a fantastical thing, something that brought joy with its mere existence. Something out of reach, but wonderful.
For Taylor, it was the opposite in almost every way.
It was closer to a nightmare than any sort of dream. Something that you'd be glad was over the moment you wake up—but Taylor found herself attached to one in the living world, hounded by it in turn. Even whatever small amount of joy she could wrangle from this whole ordeal would always be tainted by the constant reminders in the back of her mind.
And yet, despite all that, it was all still so impossible to understand.
She wanted to keep pushing forward, to strive for an answer of sorts, to move on and get things back to normal. But even as stubborn as Taylor was, she couldn't just keep running into a brick wall in hopes that it'll eventually break.
Taylor sighed as she rolled to her side, facing the wall.
If there were an easier, or even different solution, she'd take it in a heartbeat. But it seemed like no matter how much Taylor thought about it, it seemed like there was only one way forward, and it made Taylor uncomfortable and uneasy.
…I just wish that—
Taylor's thoughts were interrupted as the door creaked open softly, making her startle slightly. Taylor sat up in her bed as soft footsteps approached, turned around, and—
"...Gura?" Taylor's words came out slowly as she watched Gura slowly shamble toward her bed, eyes dropping from drowsiness.
"Taylor," she sleepily drawled out, as she gripped Taylor's blanket and started to softly shake it, expectantly.
"Do you.." Taylor murmured, as she tried to puzzle out the girl's intentions. "Do you… want to get in?"
Of course, with Gura not understanding a lick of English, Taylor lifted the blanket invitingly to make things clearer, which the shark girl easily accepted, sneaking smoothly under the blanket and deep into Taylor's side.
"Hey," Taylor said with absolutely no heat in her voice as she was forced to raise her arm to accommodate her sudden guest, and awkwardly hovered over Gura's shoulder. She kept her hand floating there for a while, basically frozen, until she realized that the girl… was trembling. "What's wrong?"
Had Taylor not been so close up, she wouldn't have noticed.
Is… is she scared?
…Of course she was. She was in an unfamiliar situation, with unfamiliar people. Taylor could only hope to guess at what happened to her, but Taylor doubted anything of the sort would prepare someone for this. Why wouldn't she be scared?
Taylor could sympathize.
She came to a decision, though she wasn't sure if it was the right one.
Stiffly and slowly as possible, Taylor gently lowered her hand on Gura's head and tried to softly pat it.
When the shark girl remained unresponsive, Taylor feared that she had made the wrong decision, after all. However, eventually, when the younger girl turned around to bury herself into her chest, she felt her worries ease up.
Some magic required a sacrifice.
She continued to hold Gura like that for who knows how long, trying to soothe her as much as she could.
Taylor didn't notice herself dozing off. And she didn't notice how Gura's trembling slowly faded into a quiet snore under her embrace.
Some magic required a sacrifice… but this time, and only this time, as much as she hated it—perhaps it was worth it.
"ἔνδον ἰχθύες ἐν τῷ κιβωτίῳ!" = "There's fishies inside the box!"
"ἢ ὑμεῖς περὶ ἐμοῦ λοιδορεῖτε?" = "Are you guys talking smack about me?"
"τί δήποτε, δότε μοι βρῶσιν!" = "What the heck, gimme food!"
"ὁ κολυμβηθρὸς ὑμῶν ἀσθενὴς φαίνεται, πῶς ἂν ἐν αὐτῷ κολυμβήσαιτε?" = "Your pool looks super wimpy, how would you even swim in it?"
"εἰς τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου ἐμπίπτει!" = "It's getting into my eyes!"
"πῶς σὺ χείρων τούτου ἢ ἐγώ εἶ?!"= "How are you worse at this then me?!
οὐ θέλω ἀπιέναι! = "No, I don't wanna go!"
Drops chapter out of nowhere.
Sup.
Sorry for the long wait, everyone! This past month was, uh, kinda rough lol. Stuff didn't exactly pan out like I wanted it to, and this chapter went through a lot too. But hey, it's here now, so I hope ya'll enjoy!
Taylor saw an unfamiliar location.
It was like something out of high fantasy. A classical, brick-laden city that curved and intersected in every which way, its stone walls decorated with intricate designs amongst pillars and arches that absolutely brimmed with life—people draped in colorful robes and tunics, going about their day like any person would.
The only difference would be the extra aquatic appendage on their backs, which showed things were… not quite exactly the case.
Taylor's view pulled away, and she realized she'd been seeing everything through a window. A rather large one, perched atop one of the highest rooms in the city, even.
"Woocha!"
A familiar girl's voice echoed through the room, and Taylor couldn't help but twist to face towards her…only to widen her eyes in surprise.
"Yeah, that's right, buddy! Don't mess with me!"
There was a confident smirk on Gura's face as she stood within the empty room and pointed her blue trident—taller than her—at the wall. With a swift dash, she attacked enemies only she could see as she spun around with her weapon, jabbing, thrusting, and swinging it with supernatural agility. Despite the ease at which she wielded the large weapon, however, it was clear to all that she didn't know how to actually use it yet, dropping the trident once or twice as she went through her motions.
Even so, the shark girl seemed to be having the time of her life, her eyes shining with so much joy, it was like nothing could bring her down.
Much to her guilt, Taylor felt a painfully familiar pang ring through her chest.
"Hehehe! I'm gonna—!" Gura's fun was cut short when she incidentally managed to trip on her own two feet, sending her straight to the ground. "Ack!"
And just like that, she landed straight on her face, her trident falling next to her on the ground. Without even whining about the pain, she sprung back up to her feet in an instant. "I'm okay!" she announced to the almost empty room, save for the small shark creature that was bouncing excitedly in the corner of the room.
"Alright, watch this one, Bloop! Now Imma…!"
Unbeknownst to her, Taylor caught a few muffled words from a conversation that seemed to be happening right behind the only door into the room. Spurned on by curiosity, Taylor tried to open it—only for the door to remain completely frozen, handle and all, without even a single rattle. Not one to be deterred, however, she inspected its edges, and instead lowered herself so she was eye-level with the biggest opening she could find.
Barely enough to see anything but the folds of a dress, fuzzy and somehow… indistinct.
"She's playing with her trident again…" the person, a woman that Taylor—from what she could see—was sure she recognized somewhere, said fondly, despite her exasperation. "That girl… she really takes after you, doesn't she?"
Taylor could hear a man chuckling warmly, his voice deep, but somehow welcoming. "She's a natural. Perhaps she might even surpass me in no time!"
The woman huffed. There was some shuffling, but no amount of leaning showed more than a tiny glimpse of her crossing her arms. "Hopefully, she doesn't grow as stubborn as you! I fear that we spoil her too much. She should be preparing to take the throne."
The man sounded just as jovial as ever when he replied, practically booming with confidence. "It will be fine. A ruler's seat is one filled with a burden only those with wisdom—wisdom that can only be gained from a life well-lived—can carry. We have the luxury of time in this peaceful age. And, besides that—"
"Whoops!"
Taylor's heart nearly leapt out of her throat when, with a heavy thunk, a familiar blue trident appeared out of nowhere and pierced the door directly above her head.
"—Well, it's best to let children be children, don't you think?"
The man's final words whispered in Taylor's mind as she stared balefully at her ceiling, eyes bloodshot and completely awake.
Gura snored beside her, sleeping peacefully away as she spread eagle on the bed, having thrown the blankets off both of them sometime earlier. She giggled softly. "Wa…cha…"
Nevermind. She hated everything about this.
The smell of coffee greeted Taylor as she walked downstairs, Gura in tow as she grasped her hand. The second thing that greeted them was a giant mass of tentacles that Taylor was, unfortunately, becoming familiar with.
"Oh, good morning, Taylor! And Gura too!" Ina, in direct contrast to yesterday morning, looked much more awake than Taylor was, a tentacle waving at the two of them as she held her drink at the table. "I was wondering where she went."
"...She came up in the middle of the night to sleep in my bed," Taylor drowsily explained in lieu of a greeting, stifling a yawn as she approached the table. Gura had no such restraint and let out a long yawn of her own, smacking her lips loudly. Taylor pulled back two chairs and sat across from Ina, while Gura made to sit, but not before also planting her face firmly on the wooden table.
Ina giggled, putting down her drink to smile at both of them. "Sounds like she really likes you! That's nice. But I guess she got a little bit too lively?"
Did she get too annoying, in other words.
"No," Taylor shook her head, propping one arm on the table in opposition to basic table manners. "I just…slept badly."
Though, that was probably thanks to whatever that dream was, if it was one at all.
Taylor had anticipated odd things were going to happen due to this magic business, but that dream felt a little different from the echoing emptiness of the creature attached to her head.
A little less abstract. A little more to add to the mystery pile.
They say dreams are the brain's way of processing the information it gathered when a person was active—either their experiences, thoughts, or subconscious desires—doing its best to interpret the data that it receives in its own psychedelic way. Now, was this one some sort of abstraction, or an actual memory?
Was she gonna dream of Ina, too? See sunshine and tentacles?
In that short moment of silence, Taylor's gaze swept over the house, noting the absence of a specific person. "Guess I missed Dad today," she stated, completely unsurprised.
Ina's smile waned, making her anxiety spike for a moment ever so slightly. "Yeah, Mr. Danny actually caught me when I woke up, and he, um—"she pushed aside her drink to put her arms on the table,"—he was trying to tell me to call the heroes for Gura. And he wanted to see if I could talk you out of it, too."
Taylor let out a long-suffering sigh as she covered her hands with her face. "Of course he'd say something like that. So? What did you say?"
"I just said that I'd think about it, but he didn't look too happy." The priestess traced the edges of her cup with her nails, a pondering look on her face. "At this rate, I'm not sure how long we'd be able to keep the secret… Well, we can always use—"
"No magic!" Taylor answered automatically as she bit her lip, a pit opening in her stomach as she registered the impending sword of Damocles hanging over her head.
"We'll…" Her mind raced to think of whatever excuse she could use to delay her dad finding out about everything going on under his nose. "We'll deal with it if it gets to that point, alright?"
Had she just been forced to deal with Ina, that would have been at least more manageable for the time being, but with Gura being how she is, there was no telling what issues would pop up as she dealt with the feral monster cape child under her care. Would she out them to the world? Hell, Taylor wouldn't be surprised if they were already outed, to be honest.
And speaking of Gura…
"Gura." Taylor let out, her eyes drifting to the side to meet the girl who was attempting to sneak her way to Taylor's fridge. Again. "What are you doing?"
Gura froze, only to put her hands behind her back as her eyes drifted away from Ina's clear amusement, and Taylor's exasperation. And in a move that Taylor saw coming a mile away, she slowly inched her way to the fridge, taking some micro-step as if their vision was based on movement.
Taylor let out a long-suffering sigh as she got up from her seat, and approached Gura, taking her hand and pulling her away from the fridge again. Even though Gura gave off a nasty pout, she allowed Taylor to drag her away. "I'll make you a sandwich or something, just don't go into my fridge, okay? In the meantime…"
She guided Gura to the couch, picked up the remote, and turned on the TV.
…What did kids like again?
After a moment of silence, with a crackle of noise, the TV switched channels, now proudly showing a troupe of colorful mascots dancing to some inane-sounding song. She turned back to see Gura's tail already wagging as her eyes locked onto the screen. "Here, you enjoy this kinda stuff, righ—?"
Before Taylor could finish her sentence, she had already gone off the couch and decided to plant her face smack dab onto the TV once more.
"Oooh," Gura said, sated for now.
Taylor let out a puff of air. That was about what she expected. Promptly turning around, she made sure to be as good as her word, trying to keep her fridge from being attacked viciously. "...Ina, could we talk?"
"Oh, do you need my help?" Ina said, putting aside her cup and getting up from her seat. "Don't worry, with the two of us together, we'll be on a roll."
Taylor didn't resist the temptation to roll her eyes.
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but we're using sliced bread, not sandwich rolls," she said as she crouched down in her fridge to get what she needed, and passed it over to the girl.
"Ah, then I guess we'll be a slice above the rest!" Ina countered effortlessly, nodding and humming before bursting into giggles.
Taylor didn't dignify that one with any response. Instead, she grabbed the rest of what she needed and moved on to a more important topic.
"...About the ritual that brought Gura here," Taylor muttered, her lips thinning out as she recalled the sheer chaos and panic that one event brought to her life. "Is she who we're looking for? I know I don't have any idea how this is supposed to go, but…"
A look back at the TV showed the shark girl positively enraptured by the going ons within the screen. The only thing that maybe indicated that she was even aware of magic was the way she reacted to Ina's tentacles, but even that could be for some other nebulous reason—like, being a fish hybrid, or something. It'd fit just about as well.
"...I highly doubt she could help us."
Ina paused thoughtfully before she helped Taylor with the ingredients she placed out on the counter, giving off a small hum. "Well, I heard you can find the best answers in the places you'd never bother to look…"
The two of them paused to consider the shark girl again, who's crawled her way up on the television to try to peek at the back of it, somehow with all her limbs basically magnetically attaching to it.
Was she sniffing the TV?
"O-okay, well, I think I can find out what happened with the ritual, and see if things went wrong!" The priestess exclaimed with a wide smile, completely ignoring the sight before her.
Taylor could only give her the most incredulous look. Wow, she really wasn't going to bother justifying that, was she?
"You can?" She asked instead, tone laced with such naked surprise that even Ina registered the unintentional insult for what it was.
"Oi, what's that supposed to mean?" Ina pouted, before letting out a quick huff as she moved on to the next part of the explanation, clearing her throat. "Ahem! I'm sure that with the help of Ao-chan and the vast wisdom of the arcane the Ancient Ones magnanimously share through her, we can get right to the bottom of it!"
"...And how long is that gonna take?" Taylor asked, already anticipating an answer she wouldn't like.
"Um…" Ina tilted her head to one side, a finger on her lips. "It's hard to say, but I think, maybe… a couple days? Maybe more if I don't find out what's going on quickly…"
Taylor sucked in air through her teeth. That was exactly the last thing she wanted to hear, but she'd have to deal with it.
"Okay. Then, while you're doing that…" Taylor trailed off, hesitating to say what she was going to say. "I'll try to get something out of Gura, here."
It was a long shot, but she would rather cover all their bases than risk making a huge mistake. Maybe they were wrong, and the girl's presence here actually had some significance—it was worth trying to find out for real.
"Oh!" Ina blinked, seemingly surprised before she tilted her head the other way. "Are you sure? That might be a little hard."
She sure knew how to wrap her skepticism in a nice little blanket of understatement.
So Taylor went on to explain. "It's really either we learn how to speak that fish language of hers, or start her off in English. I'm thinking the second one. It's something she'll need eventually, anyways."
If she remembered correctly, they had some children's books that they could use to teach Gura stashed away somewhere. It wouldn't equate to fluency or whatever, but if the feral girl could at least understand them and communicate in kind, that would be a lot better than doing the worst game of charades in history.
"Just focus on doing your research, or whatever, and I'll focus on trying to get Gura to talk to us." There was something about sharing an actual plan—barebones that it was—that instilled a sense of confidence in a person. Taylor herself felt more reassured the farther in she spoke—like the once theoretical course of action was getting realized into existence, finally, despite only ever exchanging words.
It felt purposeful. Concrete. There wasn't a lot of that going around recently.
Ina seemed to be on board too, giving Taylor an enthusiastic pair of thumbs up. "Hmm! Okay, sounds like a plan!"
Taylor nodded in response, putting the finishing touches on the shark girl's sandwiches. Toasted cheese and tomato sandwich—a classic, in her opinion.
And, speaking of…
"Gura!" Taylor called out to the girl, making her finally tear her eyes away from the TV. Taylor held up a sandwich that she had made for the small girl to see. "Foo—!"
Almost predictably, Gura leapt over to Taylor in an instant, practically eating the sandwich right off her hand with one giant bite as she sailed over her head and crashed head-first into the floor on the other end of the room.
She clutched her fingers closer to herself reflexively—sighing in relief when she saw every digit was intact—while Ina giggled and gladly tossed over a second sandwich for Gura to devour, the shark girl leaping into the air and catching it with her mouth once again, almost like a dog.
" πλέον, παρακαλῶ!" The shark girl mumbled through the food in her mouth, making grabby hands in her general direction.
Right. Taylor could already feel the headache rising just from imagining how she'd get the girl to sit still.
No, no, it's fine. Her mother was an English professor, and she sat in so many lessons she practically took the course herself. Surely, she'd picked up enough that she could do a passing job teaching a child some basic vocabulary.
How hard could it be?
Murphy must've heard her thoughts somehow, as the following days seemingly took Taylor's naive statement as less a rhetorical question, and more an actual challenge that it was only so eager to accept. They basically took her hopes down some dark, forgotten alley to blow its head off with a shotgun.
The shark girl did nearly everything she could to rain down hell on Taylor's parade. Hiding whenever lessons were about to start, ignoring everything Taylor was saying for some new distraction, and even eating whatever teaching materials she'd brought along to help—
That is to say, sometimes, Taylor felt that it might've been easier to teach a pebble some math.
"Gura," Taylor groaned for the umpteenth time, trying to get the attention of the girl who decided that the sun shining through the window was of considerably more value than anything Taylor was saying. "Can you please pay attention?"
"τοῦτο ἄφρον ἐστί!" Said girl complained, tone doing a wonderful job of making her intent clear where her words failed to do the job. The chair underneath her squeaked as she brought her legs up to her knees and started rocking in place, just further punctuating her boredom.
Taylor sighed, putting a hand up to her face. "I know you're bored, but this is important. Just—"
"Blegh!" Gura gleefully interrupted by sticking out her tongue and blowing out a raspberry.
Taylor was stuck silent at the sheer audacity.
"I—" She tried to speak, only to get interrupted by Gura, again.
"You—" and again, and a few more times after that by the time Taylor could get another word in, her eye was twitching in barely-restrained annoyance.
"Oh my god, could you please, just—not," Taylor helplessly gritted out…
…Only for the shark girl to do it one final time. Longer, even, for good measure—holding on to the sputtering sound of her mouth for an entire minute before fading to a stop; a wide, mischievous smile on her face.
One that didn't even disappear under Taylor's disapproving glare. Her tail just swished faster in triumph.
Fine. If she was going to be like that, then Taylor was left with no other choice. There was really just a singular route of attack she could use to get revenge.
She stood up from her seat, and took the entire plate of cookies she'd brought along with her.
"If you're not gonna study, you're not getting any study snacks." she declared out loud, bluntly threatening the shark girl's precious food supply.
Unsurprisingly, Taylor didn't have to simplify her sentence to make the threat understood. Almost promptly, Gura froze before sitting properly, her hands in her lap.
Taylor sighed as she dropped back down to her seat. She could only hope that Ina's research would bear fruit, soon.
More days passed, and by now, Taylor should've really known better than to tempt fate.
Almost an entire week with nothing to show. How do you spend one week reading a book and not getting out of it?
'Sorry Taylor, but the Ancient Ones' knowledge might be a bit too vast, haha!' She remembered Ina saying, as she opened her grimoire in front of Taylor, and flipped through its seemingly endless pages. In the end, she closed the grimoire before she could even reach the other side of the book. 'Looks like it'll take a bit more to find a solution?'
And, when she'd asked for any ways to get results faster, the priestess was only too happy to ask for some freshly cut fingernails to use for… whatever ritual was creepy enough to ask for such a thing. 'It'll help really nail things down!'
The answer to that was, of course, a big fat no.
"Pfft, what do you know, stinky?" Taylor idly registered a character on the TV saying, who'd just put her hands on her hips as she smirked at her…friend? Being a person that hardly watched kid's shows made their story a complete mystery—but frankly, there wasn't much point to bother knowing it anyway.
"Stin…" Gura, showing far more interest in the show, sat in what was essentially her customary inch-wide distance against the TV screen. "Stin..key?"
"It means bad smell," Taylor robotically clarified, getting the attention of the smaller girl. As expected, the girl didn't seem to quite understand.
"Bad…" She tried a different tactic, talking slowly before making a show of holding her nose and mimicking a wafting odor with her other hand. "Smell…"
For good measure, she repeated the words and gestures a couple of times, just to make sure Gura got the memo, at least.
"Bad…smell…" Gura muttered to herself, mimicking Taylor's gesture for a moment, before her eyes lit up, a smile coming unbidden to her face. "Stinky…Stinky!"
Taylor nodded, crossing her arms as she watched Gura repeat the word to herself in what seemed to be joy. "Yup, you got it."
And why wouldn't she pick up more from TV than any actual lessons, it wasn't like anyone's wasting their time teaching her or anything, she inwardly thought, leveling a not-so-subtle look at the shark girl's back when she returned to watching the show.
Getting her to any level good enough to actually understand what they were saying… How long was that actually going to take? Taylor knew it was a long shot, but at this point, she might have to find better ways to get Gura to pick things up.
But she was already essentially on the cusp of total immersion. What else was there to try…
Whatever that train of thought might have led to became quickly lost as Ina came into the living room, drinks in hand, giggling at the simple joy that Gura had. "Guess she's a quick learner, huh?"
Taylor took the offered drink and said a quick word of thanks. "Don't let her fool you. She's nowhere near a good student." Taylor grumbled, taking a sip of her tea. "But…yeah, she is. Wasn't sure what I was expecting, but…"
But despite how adamant Gura was in her mission to make Taylor swear off teaching forever, it was without a doubt that she'd displayed real talent. While nowhere near the level of a prodigy, the girl absorbed words at an astonishing rate… if she could be bothered to pay proper attention.
Gura, privy to the discussion and not so much Taylor's inner monologue, stood up straighter and puffed her chest proudly.
"Heh…" She chuckled satisfactorily while flashing a smug smirk. "Me… Smort."
"Smart," Taylor automatically corrected, and raised an eyebrow when the shark girl promptly stuck out her tongue towards her.
"Hmm! Very smart!" Ina cheered on Gura, a big smile on her face that she promptly redirected toward Taylor. "If she keeps this up, she might even be able to like, talk to us soon and give us some more clues!"
"About that," Taylor sat up straighter on the couch, giving Ina her full attention. "How's the research going? Did you find out anything? Please tell me you found something."
As soon as Ina's lips turned downward, Taylor's small bit of renewed hope got taken to the same alley from out back to get blasted to smithereens like the rest of them.
Her hopes and dreams, that is.
"Sorry, nothing yet!" Ina shook her head rapidly, seemingly incredibly excited despite the mounting difficulty. "I can't believe trying to find a way to trace your magic would be this hard!"
That's what she was planning to do?
Though, with the face she was making, it was doubtful that was the only thing she wanted to say.
Taylor let out a sigh, putting down her tea. "Alright, what are you thinking?"
Ina's eyes lit up as she clasped her hands together, not that she needed to beg, as long as her request wasn't for fingernails again—
"I could really use some of your blood!"
…Taylor didn't utter a single word, nor did she move a muscle. That was actually somehow worse.
"Just a tiny little bit!"
She refused to break her self-imposed vow of silence.
The only thing that broke through the awkwardness was a digit suddenly being shoved in her face, making her lean back in surprise.
"You…Stinky!" Gura proudly declared, looking extraordinarily proud of herself while delivering that hypocritical statement.
While Taylor blankly stared at the offending digit, she heard a snicker beside her and instantly winced at what was about to come next.
"Guess she thinks you're a little fishy!" Ina giggled into her hand, wielding her bad puns with the might of a thousand dads.
"Come on, stop squirming…" Taylor muttered under her breath as she attempted to wipe spaghetti sauce off Gura's face, a white napkin in hand.
Gura—as was expected from her—couldn't find it in herself to sit still for a single second, grunting in displeasure everytime she got dabbed by the napkin, like some old grumpy cat.
"Wow," Dad muttered, putting his plate in the sink, his eyes glued onto the messy girl. "Does she have a vacuum for a stomach? I've never seen a little kid stuff as much food in there as a sumo wrestler."
You'll be surprised. That's her holding back. Taylor let out a small hum, sticking her tongue out as she focused on her task.
"She really is!" Ina said, following Dad's lead and putting her dish in the sink as well. Taylor tried not to flinch when Ina's tentacles phased through him like he wasn't there. "When we first met her, she ate all the cupcakes we had and still had room for leftover shrimp, too!"
"...Huh. I was wondering about that. Damn, I was actually looking forward to having some shrimp."
"Sorry about that. Gura's a little…shellfish, if you get what I mean."
Dad pointed his finger at Ina along with a small nod of acknowledgement. "Nice."
Taylor rolled her eyes and tuned out the cringe worthy jokes as best she could. Cleaning Gura's face wasn't going to take much longer—and soon enough, she stepped back from the angry-looking shark girl in time just before it almost got her fingers bitten off, again. "Okay, I'm done, you can go back to the TV now."
While Gura didn't understand most of those words, her eyes lit up as soon as she heard 'TV'. Immediately, she rushed over to the one thing that had any chance of keeping her still.
Taylor sighed.
I really hope she doesn't pick up anything too weird from watching that all the time. I'm not sure I can handle being responsible for creating the random reference-speaking abomination she'd turn into.
"...Taylor. It's been a week. We can't keep her here forever," Dad said as soon as the shark girl left earshot, his stern tone instantly making Taylor's hackles rise.
"Dad…" Taylor forced out, trying to keep her tone as level as possible as she stared her dad in the eye. Close to her dad, Ina seemed to grow a little uncomfortable, eyes darting back and forth between the two of them.
"Listen, I don't think she's dangerous or anything. That's not my issue right now." Dad didn't seem to budge an inch from this issue, his brows furrowing a bit. "But you know that this isn't the best place for her, right? We'll just—"
"Dad, you—!" Taylor's voice raised for the briefest of moments before she instantly forced the heat out of her tone. When spoke again, she didn't have to fake the hints of exhaustion and stress that laced her tone. "...Not now, please?"
For a moment, Taylor thought he would continue on, headless of her wishes, but when he let out a resigned sigh, she allowed herself to relax a bit.
"Okay, kiddo. But you have to think about it." He rubbed the back of his head. "Anyways! I guess we should get ready for bed soon, right? Oh, and Ina? You're staying over again?"
"Hmm!" Ina nodded, as thankful as Taylor was to move away from that topic.
His head tilted to the side, an odd look on his face that instantly made Taylor's guard rise. "...You've really been spending a lot of time with Taylor, huh?"
"Oh, is that like, a problem or anything?" Ina asked, blinking in surprise and mild worry. Taylor wasn't far behind her.
"...No, no, nevermind, it's nothing. I'll let you guys be. Don't let this grouchy old man keep you guys up. Talk to you both later." He said with a self-deprecating laugh, wiping away the expression with a smile and a wave as he walked away from them.
Good thing, perhaps.
He missed Taylor looking anywhere else but at him, arms crossed tightly, with a severe look of consternation furrowing her brow.
The severe, troubled look only grew later in the night, as Gura visited her bedroom again to sleep. Barely, she could hear the girl mutter as she burrowed deeper into her arms.
"Μάμμη…"
Taylor might've fallen asleep that night, but it was doubtful she got any actual rest.
"Feeling comfy, everyone?" Ina asked the pair, crouched on the basement floor with her book lying thankfully inert on the floor for now.
It had been a bit since they had all sat in a circle, and with Gura having a ticking time bomb of an attention span, Taylor doubted that would last for much longer—she'd better ask the reason why the priestess had all of them here, in the first place.
…Well, she would, at least, if all her attention wasn't taken by the small, eldritch creature on Ina's shoulder.
Said eldritch creature simply smiled at her, a fang proudly displayed at the top of its mouth, and gave a little wave with one of its many stubby tentacles.
Numbly looking back at Ina, Taylor found enough of her voice to ask, "...Ina. What is that thing?"
To be honest, it sounded more of a demand than any question.
"It's a Takodachi!" Ina cheerfully said, paying no mind to Gura as she stood from her spot to come closer and curiously sniffled the… Takodachi. "Remember when we made those cupcakes? I based it on them!"
"...I thought that was just a made up mascot in your world or something." Taylor rubbed her forehead with her thumb and index finger, the motion becoming unfortunately familiar to her. "Sorry, how does this…thing help you, exactly?"
"Haha, well…sometimes, when I'm doing big rituals and magic and stuff, I kinda need someone to help do the parts I can't. That's what I brought my little buddy for! They're also really great listeners!"
The Takodachi didn't say a word, but it did do a little hop of joy in response, its wide smile getting slightly wider upon it being addressed.
"See? But, um, they're kinda not so good at actual conversations, though…" Ina sheepishly admitted, before continuing to explain. "They also work like my Tentacles, so Mr. Danny can't see them, and if they're ever being a bad Tako…"
Ina, very gently, slapped the top of the creature's head with two of her fingers, making it jiggle and let out a squeak in surprise. "You bonk them, like this. Bonk!" she repeated the motion, before breaking out into giggles as the creature somehow pouted at her.
Taylor sighed. She wondered if it was a cosmic sort of irony that Ina was chosen to be the priestess to a bunch of eldritch creatures that likely were capable of horrible things.
"Okay, sure. Whatever. So, you called us down here for a reason. I'm guessing that you're getting close to finding out something?" With any luck, hopefully, Ina didn't need something else for this research.
"There's still a few things I need to check..." Ina tilted her head back and forth, before looking back at Taylor, giving her a resolute nod. "But yeah! I'm getting real close! I can feel my one brain cell working its hardest!"
Taylor let out an involuntary huff of air, finding herself to be mildly amused with the joke. "Right, well, good luck...?"
She started to leave, only to stop when her eyes noted the lack of a specific something. "Ina, where did your… friend… go?
Ina seemed confused, before looking at her shoulder, finding no traces of the little creature. "Huh? They don't run off on their own, where did they…"
Ina trailed off as her eyes happened to lock onto bright blue eyes innocently blinking at them.
"Mmprh?" Gura tried to say through her big puffed-up cheeks, before pushing up the little purple stub peeking out of her lips—
"Gura, why do you keep—"
After a while of teaching Gura English, Taylor's lessons were suddenly interrupted thanks to Ina, who barged in with a big smile on her face.
"I think I figured it out!" Ina proudly said, her magic book floating next to her.
"You have?" Taylor instantly sat up from her seat and approached Ina, taking no mind of the book that slid off her lap, or how Gura made to sneak as many snacks as possible without Taylor to guard them.
'Well, it's just a hunch, but I think I have a good feeling about it!" Ina nodded, fists balled up by her chest. "Um, so, when you summoned Gura, did you, like, focus really well?"
"Huh?" Taylor blurted out, stunned by the non-sequitur. Quickly recovering from the surprising question, she tried to answer. She thought she did, but in retrospect… "I thought I did, but—No. Maybe I couldn't."
The prospect of an easy way out, the weight of the whispers in her mind, and the dread of her magic that infused her very being.
They were just tiny, idle thoughts—but she couldn't deny they were distractions.
Taylor covered her mouth with her fist. She frowned in equal parts concentration and frustration.
"Ah, it's okay! I'm just a little embarrassed my one brain cell didn't think of it until now." Ina shook her head, a smile that was equal parts humor, relief, and embarrassment. She cleared her throat before speaking again. "When it comes to rituals and stuff like that, focus is super important. Things go wrong if you don't do it perfectly. I don't blame you for being new to all this, but, because of that…"
Taylor sighed, putting a hand over her face. "...I screwed up and brought the wrong person."
She should have figured. She had been so eager to be done with this situation, that she had just made more problems for herself, great. So much for Gura's English lessons, then.
"B-Besides the intent, I think your ritual went pretty perfect, though!" Ina's words cut through the commentary in Taylor's mind, nodding reassuringly and completely misunderstanding the cause of her shift in mood. "And you're just a beginner, too. I think you really have the talent for it!"
Unfortunately, the priestess' compliment only served to sour her mood even more.
It all just meant that she'll have a better chance if she ever tried it again.
And, of course, she'll have to. There's not much choice left if she actually wanted to fix the problem.
"Great," Taylor cheered with all the satisfaction she didn't have.
"Hmm!" Ina nodded happily. "I'm sure the Ancient Ones would want you to hone that skill, too. I think Ao-chan knows a couple of exercises we can do to get you better at using—"
"I'll think about it," Taylor dismissed, a warier thought worming itself into her consciousness.
There were a myriad of problems that could arise from summoning another person. Would they need to chase down whoever popped out like Gura? Would she have to hide this person from her Dad, too? How much would they threaten the small amount of tranquility she still had left in her life?
Ina's smile grew a little wider, entirely ignorant of her considerations, and took Taylor's concession as a win. "Whenever you're ready, okay? "
Taylor would have responded, but Gura interrupted her before she could.
"Μαγείη?" Gura forced out through a mouthful of cookies, pointing at Ina's floating book. When Ina just tilted her head, she swallowed her mouthful of snacks and tried again. "Ma…Magic?"
Ina blinked in surprise before her smile grew wide. "Hmm! That's Ao-chan! Gura, you know about magic?"
Gura took a moment to parse those words before an idea seemed to blossom in her mind.
"ὦ παῖδες, θέλετε ὄψεσθαι τι ἐνδιαφέρον?" She asked, before she took a step back, with a smirk on her face as she held her hand up. For a moment, nothing happened. Gura just continued to pose like a dork in the middle of the room…
…Until Taylor felt a new sensation as the air itself seemed to shift.
When Taylor had seen Ina do magic, she felt an unfamiliar scraping in the back of her mind, the distinct wrongness of Ina's magic impossible to miss. When Taylor had done her magic, it was a mess of contradictory feelings that threatened to envelop her whole.
Gura's magic was none of those things.
Her magic felt like a river. It flowed through the air, taking the shape it needed as it traveled through the environment smoothly, unburdened. Despite all of that, though, there was still a feeling of anticipation in the air, as if a dam was holding something back. Stability, but for how long?
Absorbed by the feelings in the air, Taylor could do nothing but stare as water started to gather above Gura's head. It continued to grow, stopping when it was as big as Gura's head, formed into a hovering sphere of water.
Ina let out a delighted gasp, putting a hand on Taylor's shoulder before lightly shaking her. "Taylor, she can do magic too!" She jumped, enraptured by the sight before her.
"Y-Yeah…" Taylor stammered out, stunned and slightly afraid of the revelation that Gura was as capable with magic as they were. "Gura, if you could do this before, why didn't you?"
Did her magic have a cost too? Gura was already pretty dangerous when she was simply aiming to run away, with strength that completely betrayed her small stature. But the thought of the shark girl being capable of much more made Taylor…worry.
Gura, not aware of Taylor's inner thoughts, just tilted her head, unable to understand the question.
…I'm not sure what I was expecting her to say there.
Ina giggled. "Gura, can you show us more?"
Managing to understand that, Gura nodded with an ever sharper smirk as the flow of magic seemed to become stronger. The blob of water was growing again, bigger and bigger before it thinned out into a distinctive shape. A weapon. One that Taylor had seen before.
As the form solidified, Gura clenched her fist around the water, making it burst, spilling water in all directions. And now, in her hand…
"A trident," Taylor breathlessly let out, stunned by the weapon in Gura's hand.
It looked nigh identical to the one in the dream, only with some noticeable wear and tear that had dulled the bright blue of the trident. Other than that, it looked nearly one-to-one with the weapon in Taylor's dream.
Ina, however, wasn't as stunned as Taylor, giving Gura a round of applause that had further roused her ego, making her smirk victoriously.
"That's so amazing, Gura!" Ina cheered, a wide smile on her face. "I guess you're sharper than we gave you credit for, huh?"
Gura's smirk grew to dangerous levels as she reacted to Taylor's stunned silence and Ina's cheers. And apparently deciding she didn't get enough adoration, that's when the feral girl decided to show off more, taking a stance as she pointed her trident at her wall.
"Wait, don't do anything—!" Taylor tried to preempt Gura from doing whatever she was doing, but it was no use as the short girl sprung into action.
"Hoocha!" Gura swung her trident around recklessly, making Taylor take a step back to avoid being hit by the oversized weapon.
Not for the first time, Taylor experienced a strange set of deja vu as she saw familiar moves being performed before her. And although Taylor knew nothing about fighting, there was something more…solid, about the way Gura moved, something that instinctively told Taylor that there was more to her than meets the eye.
Taylor couldn't do anything to stop Gura from her little show as she continued to show off to the two of them, adding a few spins and the like for no reason other than what seemed to be to impress them.
Gura continued to do those flashy movements, Ina watching raptly, seemingly impressed by the showmanship, while Taylor tried not to flinch whenever the butt of the weapon veered close to her. However, Gura's fun was put to an end when the trident hit one of the old pictures that they still had on the wall, knocking it to the ground.
"Gura!" Taylor instantly admonished, making the girl freeze in place as Taylor rushed over to pick up whatever broke.
From behind her, Taylor heard Ina inhale through her teeth, as worried as Taylor was about something being broken. "Oops, is the picture okay?"
With only a minor bit of anxiety, Taylor crouched down to inspect the frame that had fallen down. She let out a quick sigh of relief.
"...It's fine."
It was a picture of her with her parents. She remembers this one. They took this during someone's birthday party. It was relatively recent, as well, with her in the middle, while Mom and Dad were at her sides.
Guess Dad forgot to put away the pictures in the guest room…
Ina mimed swiping the sweat off her forehead. "That's good, I was afraid that I'd have to do another ritual to fix that, haha!" She joked until her eyes got a better view of what Taylor was holding, and tilted her head curiously. "...I see you and Mr. Danny in the picture, but is that your mom?"
Taylor hesitated for a moment, the urge to clam up at the forefront of her mind before she let out a small huff of air. It was suddenly a lot harder to keep eye contact with the priestess, and the word at the tip of her tongue felt heavier than any conversation had any right to be. "...Yeah."
"Oh, um…" Ina, perhaps sensing that something was wrong, proceeded cautiously, giving Taylor a small smile. "She looks a lot like you! Is she nice?"
"...Yeah," Taylor let out, a strong feeling of melancholy lacing her tone. "She was."
Ina seemed to be briefly puzzled by Taylor's word choice before it seemed to click for her, her eyes widening in surprise. That surprise quickly turned to shame as she looked away from Taylor, looking sad.
"Oh…" Ina voice was quiet, as she looked down at her feet. "Sorry. I shouldn't have said anything…"
Taylor let out a small sigh once more. "It's fine."
It wasn't like Ina could have known, after all.
Rising from the ground, putting the frame back where it was, she felt a light tug on her hoodie, making her look towards Gura, who seemed to understand that something was wrong.
"S-Sorry…" She muttered, looking down at her feet. Taylor felt a myriad of feelings well up within her.
"Gura, it's really fine." Taylor's tone carried as much sincerity as it could. "Just…be more careful next time, okay?" She asked, getting a meek nod in return.
Taylor gently pried the shark girl's hand from her hoodie, before Ina spoke, hesitant and unsure. "Taylor… are you okay?"
…That was a more complicated question than it should have been.
"Yeah," Taylor lied, keeping a straight face as she looked at Ina. "I'm fine. I'm just going to get some rest."
Taylor would have been as good as her word, if she wasn't stopped by Gura, who quickly darted over to the bed, and fetched the nearly empty bowl of cookies, save for one.
"Wha-Mmph?!" Taylor's question was swiftly interrupted as the cookie was shoved into her mouth, making her instinctively bite down on the snack.
Gura stepped back, giving Taylor a resolute nod, as if she had done something important.
And just like that, the weight in Taylor's stomach disappeared like it was never there. At the same time, Ina let out a surprised giggle, finding the spontaneous action funny.
Taylor took a moment to swallow the bit of the snack she hadn't bitten off yet, before she took out the cookie from her mouth, staring at Gura with a flat expression. "Cookies aren't the answer to everything. But…I appreciate it."
Gura gave her a smile…before the shark girl's eyes locked on to the treat in her hand, tail wagging idly in anticipation.
Taylor let out a sigh and passed the cookie to Gura, who devoured it in an instant.
"They really get along, don't they, Ao-chan?" The spectating priestess giggled, and whispered to her book loudly enough for anyone to hear.
Not that Taylor was willing to dignify that with a response, as she promptly left the room, electing to take a break from those two.
…Though, for some reason, even though she had been made the butt of a joke, she couldn't muster up anything other than mild annoyance.
Taylor reclined on the couch, the cushions of the couch giving her relief after what felt like a long day. Now feeling a little weight come off her shoulders, her mind wandered to her next step.
The ritual.
She knew that she had to bite the bullet and get this over with, but she was still far from willing to part with a piece of her soul, and she was noticeably lacking in live sea creatures due to one hungry girl who was currently spending time with Ina in the guest room.
Not to mention the pressure that she'd feel if she screwed up and ended up with the wrong person, again.
There has to be another way to do this. Something I'm not considering. Some—
Her thoughts were interrupted by the familiar sounds of the front door opening, courtesy of her Dad.
"Dad?" Taylor asked, sitting up from the couch. "You're back early."
"Yeah, wish I can say we got done early," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "But it's more like they kicked me out. Got told I 'looked too tired to keep working'." He shook his head, chuckling ruefully.
Privately, Taylor agreed. The ongoing bombings would do a number on anyone's mood, but her dad had been in the thick of the destruction for the past few days. That would be demoralizing for anyone.
And she didn't need to be a doctor to look at her dad now and see how he was basically dead on his feet. "I mean, I can see it too, Dad."
"What? I'm fit as a fiddle," he insisted, until he took a step and nearly lost his balance. "...Guess I can take a little nap."
"Told you," Taylor smugly said, before letting off a little yawn, herself.
"Forget me for a sec. Speaking of looking tired, are you alright, kiddo?" He asked, looking a bit concerned. "You look about as worn out as I feel. You've been looking like that for a while, even."
"I just didn't get enough sleep," Taylor lied, trying to hide her exhaustion. "Anyway, I'll get started on lunch in a sec. I think we have enough leftovers for everyone, even Gura, so we can—"
"Taylor." Dad interrupted, looking a little wearier as he crossed his arms, looking slightly stern. "Taylor, stop. You can't just keep passing this off."
Taylor sighed, annoyance bubbling up to the forefront of her mind. "If this is about Gura again—"
"It's not just about her," Dad said, his tone putting a stop to Taylor's momentum as she registered his words. "I'd let you be if you're not clearly running yourself ragged. Tell it to me straight. What's been happening these past few days?"
Her throat hitched in panic, her anxiety only growing while he spoke his next words.
"What's really going on, Taylor?"
(Reminder, Gura is speaking in Ancient Greek, so don't be surprised if things don't sound right!)
πλέον, παρακαλῶ! = More, please!
τοῦτο ἄφρον ἐστί! = This is stupid!
Μάμμη… = Mama...
Μαγείη? = Magic?
ὦ παῖδες, θέλετε ὄψεσθαι τι ἐνδιαφέρον? = You guys want to see something cool?
...Okay, now I'll try to be faster with these updates!
It felt like a bottomless pit opened wide inside her stomach. Like the secrecy that she thought settled at the bottom, in truth, bored a hole through its lining through the sheer persistence of its weight. Where it would only give when the floor wouldn't.
Yet it unfortunately did.
"I…don't know what you're talking about." Each word was like drawing blood from a stone. Taylor's chest tightened from the effort—even in her best attempts at keeping her words leveled she was sure they sounded strained.
"No, you know exactly what I'm talking about." Dad was uncompromising, disapproving stare and all. "We aren't living in the best of times, I get that. But every time this is what I come home to. When's the last time you had a good sleep? Is Ina making you do something to keep you at night? Do you guys sneak out or something?"
"Ina doesn't have anything to do with this—"
"Of course she does!" Dad raised his voice, interrupting, until he took a deep breath. "You can't just pretend the dots don't connect if you bunch it all up right beside each other, Taylor. I haven't shown up much, but I'm not blind. "
Taylor tried her best not to flinch.
"With how evasive she's been with our questions, how she never really left the house ever since we invited her in, how she basically spends all her time inside the basement—I remember how confused you looked after that bombing! I set it aside because I thought having a friend around might do you some good, but you can't say some part of this doesn't sound even remotely suspicious."
"That…" Taylor tried her best to come up with something, anything. "Of course I was confused, I didn't even remember the bombing when I woke up."
There wasn't any real heat she could muster to go along with her explanation. Acting so on edge back then wasn't all that helpful in retrospect, even if being cautious was generally an idea she abided her life by. How ironic that it only made things look more tenuous in this one specific instance.
Maybe her future self can call later and let her know how hilarious it was.
Her dad could only exasperatedly sigh. "Kiddo, I didn't even know she existed before she brought you home."
Please, how would you? It's not like you ever cared enough to ask before.
Even if Ina was a friend from Winslow, he wouldn't have known her anyway. He was only bothering with this because it's affecting him, too.
Some part of her wanted to say just that. Blowing up at her dad now, though, would do just the exact opposite of what she wanted.
Taylor bit her lip.
"Now you come back bringing someone else with you again, and here I am rethinking whatever you told me, and waiting for some good explanation that never came. We're already struggling when it was just us two. What do you expect happens with four? Taylor, something like this—I can't keep doing it out of the goodness of my heart."
He combed through his hair in frustration, pacing across the living room with a bubbling intensity.
"I've been trying to be understanding, really. But how can I when there's nothing there for me to understand? I don't know what's happening Taylor, only that you keep blowing me off whenever I ask! As your father, don't you think I'm at least a little entitled to know?"
The hand that she gripped her arm with only tightened its hold further.
It wasn't like Taylor didn't understand her dad's position. She did, she very much did. Things were just… so much more complicated than she'd wanted it to be. What would happen once she told him that she was the monster behind Winslow's destruction? What was his reaction going to be if she told all about the voices in her head?
It wasn't hard to imagine.
It'd make sense, too. Being haunted by eldritch creatures, using voodoo rituals or whatever was something just a step above freaky and unbelievable, even with everything Bet had gone through. She's the one going through it all, and she's still only halfway convinced that she hasn't gone mental yet.
Eldritch abominations were out… but what was eldritch than the unexplainable otherworldly?
And otherworldly—that was something Bet knows. They were so familiar with it they'd created laws regarding it. That was something Taylor could grasp onto.
…Mind made up, Taylor let out a breath to ground herself. "It's a long story," she warned.
His worried look relented the slightest amount as he saw Taylor concede. "We have time."
"So…she's homeless?" Her dad leaned forward from his spot on the couch, furrowing his brow. "Because of the bombings? I…thought it was something like that, but I wasn't sure."
Taylor shook her head. "No, not the bombings, dad. This is something else. She's…"
She took another deep breath. Moment of truth.
"She's not from Earth-bet."
Taylor forced out, trying as hard as she could to push back away the apprehension that had a chokehold on her throat.
Her dad, of course, didn't seem to be expecting that at all, blinking rapidly as he took in what Taylor was saying. "I'm sorry, kiddo, say that again?"
"She's not from Earth-Bet," Taylor repeated, finding the words coming to her easier a second time. "The bombings were… a complete coincidence. She's been trying to get back home this entire time. I've been helping her out, too, but it's a process."
Her dad took a moment to stare at her before he rubbed his forehead, his expression inscrutable. "This honestly sounds like a tall tale, Taylor."
That got a little wry laugh from her. They were barely under the surface.
"I know, I didn't believe her at first, either. But—" Taylor hesitated for a moment, "—she's the one who brought me home, got me out of Winslow before I got hurt or…"
Taylor swallowed a lump in her throat.
"Yeah. I figured she deserved some trust, even a little bit, at least."
Having no idea where you are, why you're suddenly in a completely different place entirely, and the first ever reaction you have is to save someone and bring them home. Taylor wasn't sure she would've been able to make the same choice, and the priestess did it without a second thought.
Did Taylor ever thank her for that?
Her dad seemed to be just as torn as the morbid reminder but seemed to accept her explanation a bit more, his shoulders slumping a bit. "Alright. I'll take your word for it. But you didn't have to keep this a secret, Taylor."
Taylor found herself looking away, feeling a little guilty at the look on her dad's face. "I just didn't want her to get in trouble. I read up on it in class a while ago. Ina just being here breaks some laws, did you know?"
"Well—"
"Same goes for Gura, too," Taylor stood up, cutting off her dad when he was about to say something, in a desperate bid to keep her momentum. "We don't know a lot about her yet, but we're sure she's not from here, either. Those two have homes to go back to, but they're stuck here, right in the middle of crazy town.
"The Bay's been a total mess ever since this whole bombing started, and I'm, what? Supposed to hand these two over to the police? Dad, they'd be both in jail and in danger! For an accident!" Taylor finally finished her impromptu rant, injecting as much conviction into her voice as possible. "And I doubt the PRT or whatever even has a lot of time to care about the difference!"
Her dad stayed worryingly still, continuing to stare at Taylor with an inscrutable expression. It was a stare she matched back, determination splayed across her face as she hoped dearly inside that she didn't make a mistake.
God, I hope I didn't just make everything worse.
When her dad's shoulder was fully relaxed and he eased back into the couch with a big, exhausted sigh, Taylor felt the knots in her stomach ease themselves up, just a little. "That's…a lot, Taylor. How am I supposed to react to this?"
Just like that, it felt like all the pressure crushing her disappeared. But she kept her face perfectly flat. Well, as flat as she was able. "Maybe by letting them stay?"
"Cute," her dad replied, before mirthlessly shaking his head. "I'd have to be cruel to let two girls out there in the bombing when they have nowhere to go. Christ."
Taylor sat back down herself, a slight feeling of catharsis welling up within her as someone finally acknowledged the craziness of the situation, even if he didn't have the full picture. "I just want everything to go back to normal."
"You and me both, Kiddo." He let out a short chuckle before he changed his expression to something more serious."...Don't think you're getting off scot-free, though. I still have a lot of questions on how exactly you're helping…" He trailed off as his eyes looked past Taylor. She paused and turned around to follow his gaze.
…Oh, speak of the devil.
"Ah," Ina let out as she was peeking from a corner, eyes wide upon being caught eavesdropping. Like a living comedy sketch, she slowly, awkwardly slinked away. If that weren't enough to give her away, Gura loudly prancing around the corner before doing a sudden 180 upon seeing Taylor and her dad would have done it.
"...Ina," Taylor's voice was as flat as she could make it. "How much did you hear?"
"Um…" Ina, realizing that there was no way out of this situation, slowly came towards the two of them. An awkward smile was on her face. "Enough?"
Taylor didn't have a single response to that. Heedless of that, Ina swiveled to Dad and gave him a bow in apology.
"Sorry for keeping secrets from you, Mr. Danny, I uhm, didn't think things would get so messy, haha…"
Dad seemed slightly taken aback before he rubbed the back of his neck. "Well, I guess I don't blame you. God knows what I'd do if I was in your situation."
Ina let out a nervous laugh, mimicking Dad for a moment. "I don't want to cause trouble for anyone, but it's been really confusing sometimes." What she said next took Taylor completely off guard, though. "Taylor's trying her hardest to help me, though! She's a good friend!"
Dad's expression seemed to lighten up a bit as he let out a single chuckle. "Is she now?" The distinctly warm tone the words were spoken in made Taylor's face scrunch up in embarrassment.
Ina was doing that on purpose, wasn't she? Given the many, many times she weaponized her bad sense of humor by making those bad puns, Taylor wouldn't put such a feat beyond her, to be frank.
Dad let out another chuckle as he reclined on the couch. "Right. Anyway. Kid, Taylor over there gave me a rundown on your problem, but I'm hoping you can clear up some things for me." He then paused, before turning to Taylor. "You should go to sleep while I talk to Ina. You still look like you really need it."
"What? No, no, I'm—" Taylor cut herself off as she tried her hardest to stifle another yawn. "I'm fine."
"Sure sounds like you aren't. Come on, take a break. Nothing bad's going to happen while I talk to Ina. Trust me," Dad stubbornly refuted, his voice taking on a certain hardness that meant he wouldn't back down on this specific issue.
She bristled a bit, but eventually decided to relent as her eyes met Ina's who was giving her a thumbs-up as if to say, 'Don't worry, we're just gonna Tako-bout stuff!'
…Oh great, now Ina's got Taylor thinking about those dumb puns. That was as good a sign as any to indicate that Ina had perhaps been here a little too long. What's next, would she start finding tentacles cute?
How in the world are those things supposed to be tacos, anyways?
Either way, Taylor reluctantly obliged. "Fine. I'll go take a nap, or something, " she said, immediately making good on her word by moving towards her room.
As soon as she went to her bed, she prepared herself to take that moment to rest, to just let everything wash over her as she thought about things she should be doing. An idea for what she could use for the ritual, if she was going to continue teaching Gura English, stuff like that.
Instead, what actually happened was that as soon as her head hit the pillow, she was out like a light.
Another one of those dreams…
The faint feeling of weightlessness marked her dreamlike state well and clear.
A small part within her worried. She'd never dreamt much, or at all, her entire life, and now she was having them nearly every day. Again and again, about things she shouldn't.
This dream wasn't any different.
She settled back to an open corridor that overlooked what she presumed to be Gura's… world. This time, even through the hazy details of the dream, she could feel a heavy air hang low amongst the idyllic masonry. The crowd that felt so lively were little more than imposing silhouettes, features so ill defined she could barely recognize they were supposed to all be people, walking ever so slowly, ever so cautious, in a single direction.
Why? Was Taylor's first question.
To where? Might have been her second.
Though it hardly left her time to think of more, as a subtle noise rose from the drowning murmuring of the background.
It was someone crying, Taylor recognized, as she turned around to follow the sound.
No. Taylor had to amend her realization. It wasn't just someone. It was Gura, stumbling behind her, tiny arm pulled by another familiar figure in her repeated dream visits.
"Ma…" the shark girl whined with tears in her eyes, her fear and discomfort clear. "I don't wanna go."
"Oh, my beautiful child." The figure—who must be Gura's mother, with how closely her unfocused features matched the picture in her pendant—slowed her frantic pace, but didn't stop. "We only have so much time."
"But papa isn't here yet," Gura pulled at her mother's hold as she pleaded.
"Papa's needed somewhere else, Gura," her mother responded, trying to push on through, and pointedly avoided looking back. Stood from the front like Taylor was, however, it was impossible for the matronly woman to hide her own frustration.
"...We're leaving papa?"
A flash of some other emotion passed through the woman's vaguely defined face, too complex for Taylor to have parsed, and their pace slowed to a stop.
Silence, for a moment, lingered loudly in the empty corridor. Gura, who'd been pulling away from her mother's grip all this time, suddenly found no resistance to her attempts.
"He's…" she choked out, taking a glance at Gura, but couldn't bear looking any longer than a moment at her bewildered expression.
"He-He's staying back so all of us can leave," she repeated, letting go of her daughter's arm to hold back a sob with both her hands. "I'm so sorry, my child. This was never something we… You deserve so much better, to pursue your happiness, to grow onto your throne a proper queen—but the time we thought we had so plenty of… was nothing more than a l-lie."
With a heavy sob, her mother suddenly twirled and pulled her into a tight embrace.
"Mama…" Gura's eyes started to water as the words slowly sunk in. "W-what's going to happen with Papa?"
"He'll always be with you, Gura. We'll always be with you, no matter what happens." Her mother soothingly ran her hands through Gura's hair. "So promise me that you must become strong."
Taylor turned her entire body away from the tragedy in the making, grimacing at the unwanted spectator she'd been forced to be.
…Just in time to see the waters suspended above crack like glass—
Before Taylor's eyes snapped open as the dream abruptly ended, making her sharp gasp as she found herself in her room again, rising from her position in her bed.
A̷h̸f̵'͝ ҉n͏'͠g͟ḩf͏t̢l̴l̷o͝i̷g͠ ̶z̀h҉r͟o͟.
The birds were chirping, the damn whispers were still there, and the sun was rising as it always was.
None of it could distract Taylor from the bitter taste in her mouth.
It took a moment for Taylor to get up from her bed and go downstairs, her mind still processing what she had seen. Already, most details of the dream were starting to fade away from her, but that last scene somehow seared itself into her memory.
It wasn't, of course, the first time she'd had such a dream. It wasn't even the second. Accompanying her water world dreams were visits to that shadow realm, just as strange and inexplicable as it had been at the beginning. Even then, however, this moment seemed to stubbornly stay with her, more so than the rest had ever done.
Maybe it made sense. Seeing a civilization's end firsthand wasn't something a person can easily brush aside.
…It's been a long time since I've seen Mom.
"Taylor?" Ina interrupted, startling Taylor out of her thoughts. Nursing her drink at the table, she stared at Taylor in concern. "Are you okay? You were kind of spacing out there—oh! Were the Ancient Ones finally able to enlighten you with their holy gospel?"
"Gospel, what—No, I was just…tired." Taylor shook her head, trying to get herself on track. She must have been really out of it.
Ina gave a small chuckle. "Oh, yeah! You really did nap the entire day yesterday! Still feel a little… out of fuel?"
Yes, well, that was thanks to a little troublemaker shark. For a variety of reasons.
Still, there was something about what Ina said that rang an alarm inside Taylor's head and made her squint suspiciously at the so-called priestess.
Well, whatever.
Moving to sit across from Ina, she instead asked an important question. "I guess. So, how'd the talk with Dad go?"
"Oh, I think it went well!" Ina's smile eased the doubts that were swimming in Taylor's mind. "He asked a lot of questions. Kinda like you, actually! But he got a little confused, I think? He kept asking me the same question!"
Taylor coughed once. Loudly.
"But other than that, I think we're in the clear!" Ina said as she slightly pumped both her arms in victory.
"Good." Taylor let out a short sigh of relief. She didn't think her dad would go back on his word to keep Ina and Gura around a little longer, but it was good to have explicit confirmation. "Since he's starting to know, though, I don't think we can take things slowly anymore. So…"
"Hmm?" Ina hummed, tilting her head in question.
Taylor let out another short breath, to try to smother her nerves.
"Today, we're doing the ritual. And this time, we're going to do it right." Taylor said, trying to hype herself up for the task ahead of her. No distractions, no fear, she had to be ready.
"Oh! Okay, sure thing!" Ina's eyes lit up at what was probably her favorite topic…besides puns, that was. However, her excitement suddenly dampened as she tilted her head at Taylor. "Hmm…what are you going to use as a sacrifice, though?"
"Not my soul, if that's what you're thinking." Nor would Taylor offer up her blood. Or fingernails. "But…I think I have an idea."
After all, if the ritual took shrimp as a sacrifice, then maybe—
Taylor once more found herself interrupted as the guest room's door slammed open, courtesy of Gura, who looked as out of it as Taylor felt.
"Ugh…" Gura groaned as she made her way to one of the chairs. She put her chin on the table and stared at both of them tiredly. "Are you guys talking about something actually cool? Or are you gonna start teaching me your dumb land words again? Idon'twannastudy…"
Taylor sighed, of course the first thing that Gura says to them in the morning, and it's that.
"English isn't dumb," Taylor patiently lectured, closing her eyes in exasperation. "It's necessary if we…"
Taylor's eyes snapped open. "...Gura, wait, could you say that again?"
Gura stared back, just as confused. "...You talk dumb?"
"Yes! I mean, no! Gura, we can understand each other! You're speaking English!" Taylor excitedly said, rising up from her seat. She turned towards Ina, who just rapidly blinked at the both of them. "Ina, you're hearing this too, right?"
"Hm?" Ina's confusion was palpable. Seemingly at a loss for what to do, Ina started randomly clapping. "Um, yay! You did it, yay…!"
For a moment, Taylor stared at her, also uncomprehending.
Ina, equally confused, only smiled cluelessly back at her.
No, wait, Gura didn't speak English, I…
"I'm speaking her language?" Taylor muttered to herself, a hand reading up to touch her lips, mystified by the words that were coming out of her mouth.
"...Wait, you are?" The shark girl's excitement seemed to grow alongside Taylor before she rushed over to her, taking her hands and jumping up and down. "You are!"
"I-I am…" Taylor let out breathlessly, astounded and overwhelmed.
How was this happening? She knew for sure that she didn't know a lick of whatever Gura's fish language was last time she checked, and now she's speaking it perfectly fine?
"This is so cool! We can talk about so much stuff—! Wait." Gura's cheers ended as she stepped back from Taylor, giving her a mild glare.
"Wh-What?" Taylor asked.
"What the heck? Why did you bother teaching me your dumb language if you could just do this the whole time, stupid?!" Gura asked, crossing her arms and giving Taylor a nasty pout.
…Taylor's hand met her face, hard.
It took a moment for everyone to adjust to the sudden revelation of Taylor suddenly being fluent in Fish.
Well, it took Taylor and Gura a moment to adjust. Ina accepted it pretty much immediately as soon as she realized what happened, treating it as nothing unusual. The sky was blue, the grass was green, and Taylor now knew Fish.
Gura herself just was excited to have an actual conversation, talking Taylor's ears off about her TV shows and what she thought the plot was, which snacks were her favorite, and asking, (Read: Begging) Taylor for access to the fridge.
On account of not wanting her stomach to cave into herself from hunger, that last request earned Gura a big fat no.
Either way, they had things to do. Important things, like setting up a new ritual for their purposes.
Now that she had done this before, it felt a little…easier, to get into the mindset of preparing to do magic, getting everything set up, moving boxes to make room, (something that Gura had, surprisingly helped with when Taylor had dared to ask, moving the heavier boxes with such an ease that it almost made Taylor jealous.) and, the most important step…
The small slice of cake lying in the middle of the floor.
Taylor didn't exactly know what would be eligible for sacrifice, but if shrimps were accepted, a good number of insects should also be eligible for sacrifice, right? All she needed to do was lay out a bait, and then she'd have something she could use. The only problem was that it was taking a while to attract enough insects for her purposes.
Ugh, why couldn't I get bug powers so I could speed this up already? Taylor groaned as she watched ants slowly appear in the middle of the room, trying to devour the sugary cake in front of them.
"Are you guys gonna do your magic thing already?" Gura asked, kicking her feet while she was lying on the ground. "I'm getting bored…"
"You're always bored," Taylor replied, raising an eyebrow as Gura stuck out her tongue in return.
Ina simply smiled at the both of them, putting one of the last boxes away. "You know, I'm almost jealous that you can talk to Gura like that. She's so fun!"
"Fun is…one word you could use to describe her, yes."
To put it kindly, 'energetic' was another word you could use, but to put it bluntly, 'exhausting' felt like it fit Gura to a tee.
"Still, you might not have to worry about that. For all we know, she could just start speaking perfect English all of a sudden, too," Taylor said, well aware of the fact that if that actually happened, it'd mean that all of the time (and snacks) used to teach and tame the troublesome girl was for nothing.
So much for the longest week of my life, though…
"I think I'd like that! Oh! Maybe I could teach her some of my jokes!" Ina said, clasping her hands together in excitement.
"...And suddenly, I hope Gura doesn't learn English now," Taylor said, her tone as dry as sandpaper.
Ina let out a dramatic gasp putting her hand over her mouth. "Taylor! Are you saying that you've had inaff of my jokes?!"
"Calling them jokes implies that they're funny." Taylor rolled her eyes, ignoring how Ina acted out being stabbed in the gut.
For lack of anything better to do, her eyes turned to Gura, who was…fiddling with her pendant, a melancholic look on her face.
Once more, that final moment in her dreams flashed again in her mind. She didn't know why her mind was so fixated on it, but the bits that she could remember and the things she could gather from that small, cherished picture in that pendant made her think.
"We will always be watching over you."
For some reason, that phrase struck a peculiar note in Taylor's mind. She had never been one to think about stuff like the afterlife or anything like that. But now, when confronted with the direct existence of something like magic, the question became, what else existed that was thought to be a mere fairytale? Were Gura's parents actually watching over their daughter, even in death?
…Was her own Mom watching her, right now?
"Taylor?" Ina's voice snapped her out of it, making her keenly aware of the concerned look on the priestess's face. "Are you okay?"
Taylor schooled her expression to something more neutral. "Sorry, just got distracted. Don't worry about it."
Ina expression didn't budge from Taylor's reassurance. She took a moment to keep staring before she spread her hands out wide. "...You want a hug?"
Taylor let out a puff of air, the edge of her lips slightly tugged upwards. "Because hugs solve everything, huh?"
"They can if you let them," Ina nodded with an extremely serious look on her face, her extremely serious arms still splayed out in a ready-to-hug position.
"Are we hugging?" Gura said, suddenly springing up from the floor to make grabby hands at Ina. "I wanna hug!"
Ina didn't need a translation to recognize what Gura wanted, gladly wrapping her hands around Gura…which she promptly regretted as soon as the shark girl started to squeeze, making a very strained smile appear on Ina's face.
"W-Wow, she's…such a good hugger…!" Ina's words and fragile smile only supported the glint in her eyes that showed that she was desperately asking for help.
"...I'm sure she is. I'll just, ah, stay out of this one," Taylor said, leaving Ina to the wolves.
The look of betrayal on Ina's face would forever stay seared onto Taylor's mind.
…Okay, everything should be ready now. Taylor thought, making a mental checklist. We have enough space, everything's been packed away, and I think those are enough insects to sacrifice.
Once more, she was on her knees, with Ina right beside her. This time, however, there was a new addition in the form of Gura who was starting to watch them intently from the entrance of the basement, curious enough to see their magic, but wary enough to know that something could go wrong.
In front of her, the insects continued to chew through the surgary treat in front of her, unaware of their impending fate.
Well, that's if they counted as a sacrifice at all.
A light touch on the shoulder made her turn towards Ina, who looked positively unruffled by the possibility of failure. "Second time's the charm, right?" Her words didn't hold much if any doubt in them at all.
Taylor took a deep breath in and out. "Second time's the charm," she repeated, the words helping to ground her to reality.
Okay, no more hesitating. It's now, or never.
Taylor didn't have to wait for the whispers to quiet down this time. Instead, she gave a small nod to Ina before she turned back to her sacrifice. There was a briefest moment of hesitation before she once more took a deep breath and let the words come to her.
She had only done this once before, but now, there was something different about the words she and Ina were chanting, about the energy in the air, about the thoughts that ravaged her mind. But all of that didn't matter. What mattered was completing this ritual.
Focus.
She couldn't have a way to know if she was doing something wrong, she didn't know, and yet, as most of her focus was on the small group of insects surrounding the cake, once she felt the almost oppressive weight on her shoulders, something in Taylor's stomach settle, even as the room got darker.
Now, the important part. Intent, I have to know what I want, and what I ▄▄█
The last time she had done this, she had been split between various thoughts and desires, as overwhelmed by the ritual as she was. In retrospect, Taylor doubted that there was a chance in hell that she'd get this right the first time. It was just too much. But now, she knew exactly what she needed.
She needed direction, a path, a way to move forward. She had been aimless and lost for so long, nothing tethering her to her desires, and she had to change that. She needed a goal that she could devote herself to so that she could make things right, and get her life on track. That was everything she needed.
A sharp gasp from Gura somehow cut through the fog in Taylor's mind. She wasn't looking at the smaller girl, but she could imagine the look of surprise and panic on her face. Yet, Taylor didn't hear her run away, even as the room's light seemed to dim to unnatural levels.
"We'll always be watching over you."
What Taylor wanted was to know more. More about other worlds, more about the world that Ina came from, that Gura came from. She felt lost and confused like she never had before, and it was driving her mad. Why there, why them. Was there something that made them special, or was it just the random whims of some unknowable entity? Taylor was drowning in that sea of mysteries, and she wanted a way out, but had no way of starting.
So, she'd at least start with wanting answers.
She wanted her mom to comfort her, too. To hold her and say everything's going to be alright, as she delved deep into—
—No. Focus..!
With a resounding crack of shattering glass ringing through the air, the ritual was finally complete.
The scent of burnt sugar started to fill the room, the smell so overpowering that it almost made her choke, as a fracture tore open in reality once more.
The first time seeing this had stunned them, and this time was no different. There was a feeling of anticipation in the air that threatened to crush all of them as they waited for something to happen.
In that brief moment, Taylor's eyes darted toward her impromptu group. Ina seemed to be on the same wavelength as her, anticipating anything that could happen at this point. Gura seemed to be frozen to her spot, blue eyes darting everywhere.
Taylor would have had some words for her, but she was interrupted as the tear in reality finally ruptured open.
Much like before, something flooded through the crack in reality. Not water this time, but smoke, coming through in such high quantities that it threatened to choke out the few remaining lights in the room, almost leaving them in complete darkness.
Eyes opened wide, Taylor scrambled to get up from her position on the floor, just as Ina thought to do the same. She took a step back as the smoke continued to surround her, ready to just bolt right then and there. However, she stopped as she saw something.
Red. She saw two red malevolent eyes, cutting through the right through the darkness.
Staring right at Taylor.
Taylor didn't even have a second to think about that before a voice spoke out of the darkness.
"You know…mortals can be quite foolish," The unknown voice drawled out, the words laced with trace amounts of disdain and mockery. "They play with forces beyond their comprehension, and don't even think about the consequences…"
From within the shadow that held those two malevolent eyes, something approached, the unknown figure slowly being revealed to them.
There was hardly anything Taylor could say. The figure was draped in a thick, dark robe that covered everything. Even if Taylor were to dare to get closer and try to peek under the hood, she wouldn't be able to see anything besides those eyes. The only thing that poked out of the robe was a hand holding the weapon.
A scythe. It was big. As tall as Taylor was, even. It looked extremely unwieldy, but the figure in front of Taylor wielded the impractical weapon so comfortably.
"Thinking you can somehow cheat death." The unknown person's voice was less muffled, making the hidden threat below those words even clearer than before. (A distant part of Taylor's mind noticed that the voice sounded vaguely female.) "Taylor Hebert…do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Taylor's heart was in her stomach. Her mouth opened, but no words came out, as paralyzed in fear as she was. Taylor was faintly aware of Ina, as pale as a sheet, or of Gura, who seemed to be shivering.
"Nothing?" The person let out a chuckle as she continued to advance towards Taylor, her voice seeming to echo off the walls. "You went through all of this, used a summoning circle to try to force a Reaper to do your bidding, and you can't even muster up a single word? Consider me disappointed."
Taylor's mind combed through the words this woman was saying, what she was calling herself. A Reaper? For a brief, blissful, instant, Taylor had thought it nothing more than a title. Something to go along with that oversized scythe she was holding.
But somehow, she just knew that it wasn't the case. If it wasn't the taste of iron on Taylor's tongue threatening to suffocate her, it was the way the whispers were quiet for the first time in a long while. There was a tension in the air, as if they were all a stone toss away from Death.
Because they were.
Finding her back against the wall, Taylor finally found the courage to act, to make her case, to do something. "I—!"
But all words died in her throat as she felt something very sharp touch her neck. The person, the Reaper, hung her weapon at Taylor's neck, the blade so sharp, that even the act of her breathing felt dangerous.
"Quiet," the Reaper commanded, her red eyes narrowing a bit. She tilted her head as she continued to glare at Taylor. "Tell me. Do you think of yourself above Death, Taylor Hebert? No matter who you are, it will come for you all…the…same…"
Taylor felt a bit of confusion well up alongside her fear as the Reaper trailed off all of a sudden.
For some reason, she wasn't looking at Taylor anymore. Instead, she was looking at her hand that was holding the scythe, bright red nails that belonged to what a surprisingly dainty hand.
Nobody dared to move, to breathe, even as the Reaper found herself distracted by something. That silence was promptly broken by…
"...What the hell?" The Reaper blurted out, voice no longer holding any of the pressure that Taylor felt weighted down on her. She inspected her other hand, which looked much the same. "What the fuck?!"
Frantically, she finally threw her cloak off her back, allowing everyone to get a good look at…
…Huh?
The person underneath that robe was not at all who she was expecting. An adult woman, though a few decades younger than her dad, if she had to guess. The black dress she was wearing would scream classy with its sleek, gold linings—if it wasn't in direct opposition to her tattered, teethed, cloak that was now sprawled on the ground. However, the most stand-out thing besides the elaborate outfit she was wearing was her bright pink hair, and her red eyes—which were wide in panic.
"What the actual fuck?! Huh?!" The woman continued to freak out, completely throwing out the fearful mood of the room as she started to pinch her cheeks and stretch them out, looking absolutely manic.
Everyone just stared at the woman dumbly. Just moments ago, they all felt like they were in great danger, and now…
Well, now, Taylor didn't know what to think.
Instinctively, she turned back to Ina, who met her gaze in kind. Ina seemed equal parts confused and…amused by the scene in front of her, her lips twitching, like she was resisting the urge to smile, even as all her tentacles coiled up behind her, as if ready to do something.
Gura—for once—seemed to be on the same page as Taylor, her eyes an…duller shade of blue before she looked back at Taylor, blinking twice as if breaking some kind of spell, looking back and forth at the woman and back at her as if to say, 'You're seeing this too, right? It's not just me?'
The three girls, bonded by mutual confusion and emotional whiplash, came to the same conclusion as the woman continued to hyperventilate, slowly stepping away from their imminent demise, quietly making their way to the stairs.
It might have even worked, were it not for the fact that they all found a scythe suddenly embedded in the floor in front of them in an instant, the sound of metal whistling through the air and lodging itself in the ground reaching them before they even registered the giant weapon.
"Uhbupbup! None of that, please and thank you~!" The woman's voice was oddly saccharine like she wasn't about to cut all their heads off. "So! First question! Mind telling me why the fuck I have skin and muscles and shit?"
…I think I messed up the ritual. Again.
Goddammit.
Thanks for staying for me for this slow first arc!
Now that Calli is here, things are finally going to start ramping up!
See ya in the next Arc! Hope y'all sticks with me!
...So, uh, I'm going to stop talking about release schedules now and just quietly avoid jinxing myself.
😓
Hope this chapter was worth the wait, though!
Quite a pickle, this was.
Quite a pickle, indeed. She'd looked up and down, to and fro, and all around, and yet the Seeker of Truth could see not a single speck of her friend to be found. Where could she be? When could she be?
The threads, the Seeker thought before, held the answers, but perhaps—she must look for something more?
But what else could there be besides the possibilities?
And lo, the Seeker was stumped.
…But not for long.
All she must do… was shift her path, and follow a different mystery.
Now—what should her new question be?
Taylor felt a couple of things as she stared down the dangerous woman in front of her.
Fear, for one. Even with that flighty performance diminishing some of that intimidation, Taylor could still taste the smoke in the back of her lungs and felt the cold steel prickling her neck.
Frustration, for failing the ritual. She had a second chance but had tripped over the finish line, with nothing to show but yet another problem to fix.
She tried not to show her emotions as she talked down Calliope, (The name she had given out when Ina had dared to ask) as best she could. The same person who was currently nursing her head, as if fighting a headache.
"...So let me get this straight," Calliope's tone held a sharpness to it, even as she rubbed her forehead. "You're trying to send people back… by nabbing more people."
Taylor bristled against her better judgment. "I didn't want to do this, alright? If I could do something else, I would, but this was the only way I could fix things."
Calliope didn't respond, directing her skeptical gaze to a surprisingly calm Gura, who seemed unfazed by the woman's presence, watching their talk with curious eyes.
Taylor swallowed back the defensive comment before it passed through her lips.
Ina, who had been quiet for most of the conversation, put a hand on Taylor's shoulder, giving her a small smile. It wasn't much, but it did allow her to regain her composure before she dug her grave too far.
"Right…" Calliope drawled, before shaking her head. "Well, even if you did send all of us back, our souls are too linked for stuff to go smoothly. You didn't think about how that'd fu—" she stopped herself at the last moment, her eyes darting towards Gura. "...f-word everyone up?"
Taylor blinked, as did Ina next to her. "Our…souls are linked?"
Calliope blinked in return. "I mean, yeah? Shouldn't you know? You're the one doing this whole shebang, right?"
Taylor didn't have an answer. Instead, she turned to Ina, who was briefly taken aback by being the center of attention. "Eh?"
"The ritual," Taylor hissed closer to the priestess's ear, who gave an enlightened gasp… then an embarrassed chuckle.
"Sorry, but, um… I think you'd know more than me on that front, h-haha! I've just kinda been following your directions all this time..?" Ina said, nervously laughing off both Taylor's ever-rising nervousness and Calliope's incredulous realization.
Seriously?
Ina, recognizing the expression on Taylor's face, explained. "Well, the Ancient Ones' ever-encompassing wisdom is beyond our understanding, and this was one of their blessings to you. Exploring it so that we may know their truths is just part of our duties as their heralds!"
The voices in her head seemed to get louder at the explanation, as gibberish as it ever was. As used to it as Taylor was, the whisper only received an annoyed twitch of her eye.
"...Of-friggin'-course," Calliope muttered, taking another moment to rub her forehead again free from Ina's sudden bout of evangelism. "Well, if you didn't know, then shi-stuff's worse than I thought. Everyone you brought with that ritual? Yeah, all their souls are linked together."
The blunt answer made Taylor's stomach drop. "Wh-what?"
Calliope nodded grimly. "Yep. Don't got a f-wording clue how your ritual works but, the way it's connected's an uneven ratio, in service to the summoner. Or, well…"
She pantomimed a line tethered to her chest, and traced it mid-air until her finger pointed to Taylor, and tilted her head. "You."
Taylor's dumbly stared at Calliope's finger, trying to understand the magnitude of what she was saying.
Some magic required a sacrifice. That phrase always rang through Taylor's mind when she did magic or any ritual. She was so scared of losing a piece of herself, of waking up the next morning, changed in some way with her none the wiser.
And yet, never for a moment did she consider the people she bought. How sacrifice might not just be on the side of its caster.
Their souls were linked, all to her? In favor of her? Was this her fault, that she had brought Ina, Gura, and now even Calliope under her servitude?! That was—!
"Oh!" Ina seemed unfazed by the info, snapping her fingers. "That actually makes sense! So, like, does this mean Taylor's going to start speaking Japanese because of me?"
…What? The inane question forcefully derailed Taylor's train of thought.
"...Uh, I guess?" Calliope uncertainty said, blinking rapidly in surprise. "Shouldn't you be more worried by—?"
That was when Gura conveniently interrupted by making popping sounds with her mouth, apparently completely forgetting that she was in danger in favor of just amusing herself in any way.
Calliope couldn't look more unamused as she stared at all of them. "...Wow, nothing fazes you guys, huh."
That short distraction, though unintentional, helped ground Taylor slightly. "You can fix this, right? Since you're the Reaper, you can do something about this, can't you?"
"Okay, first off, I'm a reaper, not the Reaper," Calliope curtly said, lifting one finger before lifting another. "And second, I dunno what you expect from me, but I'm not some soul sashimi master. The connection we have goin' on here's too deep, cutting it isn't a good idea."
Calliope paused for a moment.
"...Well, I guess unless you want me to take off pieces of your soul?"
Oh wow. That's amazing how quickly that idea got thrown off a cliff.
"Oh, so what happens if you do that?" Ina asked, her voice holding an unusual amount of curiosity, and not nearly enough fear.
"Oh, you know, the usual," Calliope said, before taking a deep breath and—
—started to list off various symptoms in a deliberately dull voice.
"—thinking you have three arms, thinking you're only supposed to have one arm, getting each other's physical traits—"
Though, as Calliope went on and on, she turned toward Ina, who looked like she was at the end of an interesting lecture, unafraid of what that implied about herself.
Like a walking, talking personification of fridge horror. But you just get more confused.
Oh, wait, now Ina was starting to look worried. Taylor couldn't help but wonder what exactly in Calliope's increasingly raspy speech had scared—
"Um, Miss? I think you're forgetting to breathe."
Wait, what? Taylor narrowed her eyes in confusion, turning back to Calliope, whose skin was slowly turning a decidedly unhealthy shade of blue.
Calliope blinked at them, eyes wide before she took another deep breath, making all of them watch as color returned to her face while she coughed to herself, putting a hand on her chest.
"These goddamn lungs…!" she rasped out as she beat her chest a few times before abruptly straightening up, clearing her throat, like nothing happened. "S-So, yeah, we wouldn't want any of that stuff to happen, do you?"
Taylor let out a sigh, not resisting the urge to slump. "Then what else can we do? I didn't want to link our souls together or anything like that. I just… want this to be fixed."
Calliope's glare softened up the slightest amount. After a moment, she let out a sigh and closed her eyes.
"Okay," Calliope said with some hesitance. "I can't do anything about this soul shindig, but you know what? I might be able to call for help from my boss."
That didn't stop Taylor from feeling hopeful and surprised. "You can?"
"Might," Calliope stressed. "Not sure if he's busy, but if anyone can fix this stuff, it's him."
Without further ado, she thrusted her arm to the side, prompting smoke to envelop her hand. It didn't take long before the smoke faded, showing—
Is that a phone?
There were no buttons or anything on it, but it at least resembled a phone well enough, minus the skeletal decor on its sides. Still, why Death required a phone to call her boss was a question that Taylor wouldn't have ever thought to ask in this lifetime, or in any other.
Promptly, Calliope put the phone to her ear, only for a dial tone to sound out before anything could happen.
"Huh, the call dropped. That's weird…" she muttered, pulling the phone away and staring at it suspiciously, before shrugging. "Guess I need a better signal."
No signal? Does a skeleton phone charge by the minute, too? Taylor thought. How oddly mundane.
"Alright, everyone! Time to go outside!" Calliope said, affecting that overly-sweet cheerful tone of hers from before as she took her scythe off the ground (Taylor tried and failed to ignore the large hole in her floor) and nodded her head towards the stairs. "If you could all just step in front of me, that'd be real great~"
Taylor blinked. "Excuse me?"
"You want to get this done or not?" The reaper raised an eyebrow at Taylor. "All together now~ Don't wanna be watching my back in case anything happens."
The insinuation that they were somehow any threat to her after she had them all at bladepoint and had kept them in this basement in the first place was aggravating. Regardless, Taylor knew was in no position to argue, so she forced down her irritation and moved on. "Fine. Let's go."
Ina didn't have anything to say as she happily went along with Taylor, as calm and unflappable as always. It was a little strange how she seemed to be at ease with Calliope's presence when just a few minutes ago, she had been quivering in fear. Like a switch suddenly flipped in her head, or something. Maybe it was just one of Ina's many quirks?
Gura reacted much more animatedly, jumping up from her seat and stretching. "Finally! I wanna go back to watching the magic box thing already!"
"...Do you mean the TV—Okay, I have to ask, why are you so calm?" Taylor asked, tilting her head.
"Iunno, I was just sorta waiting on you? But nothing really happened besides the weird old lady being weird, so." Gura shrugged, already prancing to the stairs without a care in the world. "Oh, oh! Is it time? I can pull a really mean growl!"
Taylor winced at the sudden reminder. "Let's, uh, save that for later."
"Okie-dokie!"
"I'm not that weird…" Calliope's whisper wasn't quiet enough for Taylor not to hear how oddly mopey she—
Wait. Did she just understand—? Taylor took a deep breath. Of course she would. Just move on, Taylor.
Awkwardly, their little group huddled up by the stairs and made their way up, with Calliope lagging behind a step or two.
Though, there was a short moment of pause as Taylor missed a step and stumbled on the stairs.
Ugh, guess I spent too muct time crouching on the floor. She grumbled to herself, pushing past the slight tingling in her legs.
With no futher fanfare, Taylor opened the door, stepped into her living room and—
"Dad?!" Taylor blurted out, freezing in place in surprise. Next to her, Ina let out a hiss of air.
Why is he here so early?!
"Hey, kiddo, yeah we finished earlier than I tho—" Her dad blinked as he put down his keys, before frowning at her. "Is… something wrong?"
"N-No, I, uh—"
That's when Calliope walked into sight, prompting her Dad to do a double take and the reaper to pause.
"Oh, uh, that your dad?" Save for a slight stammer, Calliope seemed suspiciously calm about being found out. "Guessing he don't know anything about this?"
"Know what?" Dad asked, his voice getting tighter. "And who are you? What are you doing with my daughter and her friends?"
Calliope froze before pointing a finger at herself. "You talking to me…?"
Of course he is! Who else could he be talking about?!
Taylor's dad didn't respond, only now taking notice of the large and sharp weapon hovering over their shoulders.
"...Oh shit he can see me," Calliope whispered, her eyes wide and locked onto Taylor's dad. Promptly, a shaky smile made its way onto her face. "Hey! Ah. Uh. This isn't what it looks like?"
There was a good three seconds of silence as her dad processed that statement, his expression not budging an inch.
"Sh-She's right, dad! This really isn't what it looks like!" Taylor stammered, trying desperately to get this situation under control.
His expression only got harder and more worried as he looked at Taylor. "Really? This isn't what it looks like? Then tell me, Taylor, what the hell am I supposed to be seeing."
Even if it wasn't outright yelling, the sudden raising of his voice made nearly all of them flinch.
"It's—"
"It's cosplay!" Ina hurriedly jumped in, panicked as the rest of them. "Yeah, um, C-Calli was just in cosplay, right?"
"Who– I mean–! Yeah, exactly!" Calliope hurriedly accepted the excuse, her smile looking painfully wide. "Just-! Um-! You know, fuc-messing around!"
"...Cosplay. Like a costume." His expression was painfully flat.
"Yeah, exactly, haha! So, Daniel, my guy. Can I call you Danny?"
"No."
"Right." Calliope only seemed to grow more nervous with each word. She waved her scythe around like a prop. "Listen, this isn't even real at all, see? It can't even—"
That's when the sharp weapon, still being wielded carelessly, cleanly sliced through a sofa placed nearby.
Calliope froze in place, red creeping up her pale cheeks.
Taylor, Ina, and Dad all stared at the sofa, now split in half.
"...Ah, shit," Calliope muttered.
Somehow, the awkward silence was the cue for Gura to burst out laughing, holding her stomach like she was seeing the funniest show in the world.
Well, at least someone was having fun.
Taylor's dad carefully, almost mechanically even, turned to his daughter, who could only brace herself for whatever was about to come next.
Just her luck for this to happen, wasn't it?
He took a deep breath, a rant obviously at the tip of his tongue. He stepped forward…
And then suddenly slumped to a standstill, before tipping forward.
Calliope was the first to react, quickly rushing forward and catching Dad before he fell to the ground. "Shit!"
Taylor, despite her wide-eyed panic, couldn't help but notice a peculiar sight just at the edge of her vision.
It was Ina, arms outstretched and palm faced towards Dad. A purple glow surrounded her body before rapidly dying out. Her expression was taut and panicked before she took a deep breath, seemingly collecting herself.
"Ina, what the fuck," Taylor said, betrayal starting to boil over into her voice.
Ina, perhaps sensing the heat in Taylor's voice, quickly turned to her with a startled expression. "Sorry! I—"
"What did you do?!" Taylor yelled out, stomping forward closer to Ina. "I ͡c͏a̕n't believe you! You used magic on my d͞a͘d̴?̵!̡ The hellis̸ wrong ́with ýo͜u͟?̕!̡"
"I–" Ina winced and tried to respond, but Taylor beat her to the punch.
"I eventold you, no magic at all!" Taylor shouted over her, even as the room began to ▄▄█ inside her senses. There was a █▄▌in Taylor's mind that felt eerily familiar as she prepared to hurl more scathing words toward the pries█es▌
"Taylor–!"
"No, you ĺi̸s̨t̢e͢n͘ to me! You ̛c͠ąn͘'͘t͜ ̴j̨u̡s̨t͏—!"
"—Your eyes are turning black," Ina quickly cut her off, curled up defensively with her hands held up in surrender.
…!
The priestess's words were like a bucket of cold water dumped straight into her broiling mind. Clarity snapping back, Taylor quickly twisted around, taking a step towards her kitchen to see her reflection on the countertop.
There was barely enough detail there to pick out skin from hair—the reflection too dark as it was—but there was no denying the eyes. All black, like Ina said.
It made her look almost unrecognizable—like a stranger.
No. A mons͜t̨e͟r͘.
The shadows in the room writhed and trembled all at once, their form stretching far beyond their cover against the light, crawling across every surface they could touch, as if in response at the sight. Like it was reacting to mere… th▄ught…
…Taylor closed her eyes, took a deep breath, held it for a second, and let it out. And did it once more.
She stood there, continually letting air fill and leave her lungs in such deliberate process until with every breath she could feel the (comforting) terrifying magic slowly ebb, returning the room back to normal.
Once she opened her eyes and saw that her reflection looked recognizable again, she slowly turned to face the rest.
Gura didn't look amused anymore, she seemed slightly freaked out, watching Taylor with some caution. Calliope seemed mildly surprised, more than anything. And Ina… didn't look afraid, actually. No, instead, she just looked concerned.
Concerned for Taylor.
Shame abruptly replaced the conflicting thoughts in Taylor's core as she averted her gaze from everyone, trying to keep her voice level. "...Ina, that spell you did. What was it?"
"Oh!" Ina jumped, before quickly replying. "It was just a really simple sleep spell! I didn't hurt him or anything."
"Is that all it did?" Taylor asked, one arm coming up to tug at her hoodie absentmindedly.
"I, um, think so?"
"Right." Ina sounded much less certain than Taylor would like, but she disregarded that in favor of doing something about her Dad, who was still being held in Calliope's arms. "Can you put him on the couch? I'll help you carry him."
"Nah, don't worry about it. I got him," Calliope refused, shifting her grip and taking hold of his legs, carrying him over to the broken sofa with surprising ease despite her dainty appearance, and gently setting him down.
...He didn't look exactly comfortable on top of the thing that dipped clearly in the middle without any proper support—but the sofa was soft, and a lot cleaner than the carpet.
"...Thank you," Taylor muttered, watching as her dad breathed in and out. It was like he really was sleeping.
He doesn't have back problems, right? He's not gonna get one if we do this, right?
…Let's just move him to his bed later.
"It's whatever," Calliope said, fidgeting a bit before pointing to the door with her thumb. "So, uh, I'm gonna go do my thing now."
The reaper didn't wait for a response as she quickly strode out the door, intent on making her call.
Once she was gone, everyone else stood in silence for a good while. Despite her earlier words, Gura didn't seem primed to swipe the remote, Ina wasn't making some stupid pun, and Taylor didn't feel like doing anything either.
"...Sorry again." Ina was the first to break the silence. "Things were getting sorta tense, and I didn't want you to get in trouble, but I shouldn't have broken our promise…"
For what seemed like the nth time since the start of this week, Taylor felt tired.
"No. Don't apologize. I'm…"
She shakily ran her hand through her hair. Dammit. Goddammit.
Why aren't you the one being angry? Didn't you just hear? Yell at me. Don't just look—
Taylor hastily stepped away as Ina got closer, unable to bear looking at the priestess's face.
—Don't just look so concerned for me.
"...It was a good call." She choked out. Why was it just so hard to say the words? "T-thanks."
"No problemo, friendo!" Ina gave her trademarked two-thumbs up, without a care in the world. Nevermind the fact that Taylor had ripped her out of her own world and practically made her a slave in all but name.
The smile that grew on Taylor's face at the sight was a bitter, rueful one.
Friend. If they were really friends, then Taylor must be the worst one in existence. "Right."
"Hmm…" Ina frowned at her reaction, before stepping closer again, this time spreading her arms wide. It's the most serious Taylor's seen the priestess be, and what she said next practically took her off-guard. "You look like you need a hug."
"It's okay— I'm good, really, you don't need to," Taylor quickly answered, rueful thoughts taking a backseat in favor of trying to step further back, only to realize she'd fall upon the ruined sofa if she did.
"No, you're Taylor," Ina seriously retorted back, fiercely determined to act upon her plan. "And you really need 200 ccs of emergency hugs, stat."
Taylor wasn't sure what Ina's obsessions with hugs were. Were those tentacles on her back subtly infecting her with the urge to grapple anything and everything? Even on the first day they met, she said she would've gone for a hug when meeting Taylor.
Today might've been that moment, if Taylor hadn't accidentally dropped to the sofa(and on her dad's legs), ducking under the girl's arms at the last minute.
Sorry, Dad!
"Maybe next time…?" Taylor answered hesitantly to Ina's growing pout, arms still crisscrossed from her failed attempt.
Ina puffed her cheeks. "Promise?"
"Maybe," Taylor repeated.
"I'll take it!" Ina beamed in victory, and the guilt in Taylor's stomach shook something fierce.
Unable to bear the sensation, she gingerly slid off her dad's legs to discover Gura, who…was sitting on the floor, hunched over at the other side, trying to pull open her dad's eyes…?
"Gura?" Taylor called out, making the smaller girl jump.
"I wasn't doing anything!" Gura quickly said, putting her hands on her lap and acting like the behaved kid she wasn't.
"…Sure," Taylor said, generously allowing Gura the chance to keep up the act.
Gura, sensing something in Taylor's tone, pouted at her before quickly changing the subject. "So, uh, when is the weird lady gonna come back?"
Taylor blinked, before her head snapped to the door.
"Taylor?" Ina seemed alarmed by her reaction.
"...She's been out there for a while," Taylor said as an answer.
And if Calliope was even a fraction as dangerous as her job indicated she was, what would happen if she decided to roam free…?
Taylor heard a sharp gasp from Ina, as she rushed to the door, hoping that Calliope hadn't run off. Gura squeaked in surprise as Ina quickly followed Taylor.
But when she threw open the door, it was to their massive relief to see Calliope with her back turned to them, standing stock-still as she stared out into the streets.
There was a question on Taylor's lips that died as soon Calliope turned around to face them.
Even if Calliope wasn't the Reaper, she was still a reaper, the personification of Death itself. So…
What on earth could've caused a Grim Reaper to look so freaked out?
"...There's something seriously fucking wrong with this place."
"What do you mean?" Taylor asked, a little alarmed. "Is something going on?"
"Is something going on? Yeah, look!" Calliope turned back and pointed to the sky. "Can't you see that? Are we actually in hell or something? Cause that's not fucking right!"
Taylor frowned as she tried to see whatever had given the reaper alarm. She couldn't see anything of the ordinary, though. For a brief moment, Taylor had thought she was talking about the distant trails of smoke scattered across the city, but something about that didn't feel right.
Taylor looked over her back to see Ina, who seemed just as confused as her, and Gura, who had decided to come out to see what the commotion was about.
"...Oh, right." Calliope's voice held a certain weight to it as she muttered. "You two are mortals. You wouldn't be able to see it."
Taylor traded a confused look for a worried look, walking closer to Calliope. "What can't we see? What's the problem?"
"It's nothing, don't worry about it. Reaper business." Calliope waved off their concern, pulling up her phone again. "Just gimme a second. I need to…"
They all watched as she tried again to dial someone, only to get the same results as last time. The dead dial noise felt more damming this time.
"Fuck's sake, can we not do this bullshit right now?" Calliope hissed through her teeth as she glared at her phone, becoming more agitated by the second. "Why can't anything ever be easy?"
"Um," Ina stepped forward, concerned about Calliope's reaction. "Are you okay? Do you need help?"
Calliope either ignored Ina, or didn't hear her as she continued to glare at her phone, before sighing, letting smoke envelop it again before it disappeared. Abruptly, she raised her scythe before her, making everyone back off.
"Okay, I got some shi—" Calliope sneaked a sideways glance at them, only to widen her eyes at the sight of Gura."—I-I mean I have some stuff to do, and I gotta do it now." She finished her explanation as she held her scythe in some sort of parade rest.
"I'll be back soon. Y'all behave now, alright?"
Taylor opened her mouth to protest, but couldn't get a word out before Calliope started to twirl her scythe, making a perfect circle.
And as she did, something in the air changed.
She didn't know if what she was feeling was Calliope's magic, or if something else had strung a cord in Taylor's soul, but that didn't matter.
No, what mattered was that Calliope was about to leave when there were still things Taylor wanted to know.
So, making a snap decision, even as Gura and Ina quickly backed up, Taylor stepped forward, intending to grab her attention, stop her, something.
But what happened instead was that as soon as Calliope spun the weapon a third time, the blade seemed to catch Taylor's eyes, for some reason, causing all words to die in her throat.
There was something about the blade's arc that felt so hypnotizing—like the entire world seemed to pause, as if to let it finish its motion.
The scythe finishes its third loop with a sharp, beautiful hiss. It was singing, Taylor realized, as she, too, held her breath, enraptured at the sight.
That's when it happened.
She had been so engrossed by the quick spinning of the weapon that, by the time it completed its fourth rotation, Taylor nearly missed the world seemingly tilting on its axis, rotating in and spinning them on the ground, before—!
They were in another place entirely.
Taylor couldn't even find it in herself to gasp as she stumbled backward and fell, scanning her changed surroundings with violent befuddlement.
What—?!
Everything almost looked the same as before, albeit with an endless fog permeating over everything, seemingly stretching beyond the horizon. Yet it was what it lacked that stood starkly different. Like suddenly reality was replaced with a Hollywood replica right before her eyes. Everything was too faded, too empty—less real.
While Taylor took in everything as best she could, Calliope had a different reaction, taking a deep breath before speaking to herself.
"Fuck yeah," Calliope muttered to herself, pumping a fist quietly in triumph. "Okay, so I can still do that. Good, I was gonna fucking scream if I—"
"What is this place?" Taylor breathlessly said, feeling words tumble out her mouth.
"Ahhhh! What the fuck?!" The reaper jumped a full foot into the air, her voice carrying through the empty landscape and also having a side effect of making Taylor flinch from the sheer volume of the scream before she turned around and locked eyes with her.
"How the fuck—?!" Calliope's scythe was quickly pointed at Taylor again. "Are you here?!"
"How should I know?!" Taylor defended, just as confused as she was.
"You don't—?!" Calliope abruptly stopped herself with a frustrated groan, before pulling the scythe away from Taylor and muttering to herself. "It's okay Calliope, you can do this, it sure as hell isn't part of the job, but…"
Taylor wearily watched as the reaper continued to pace left and right, mumbling anything and everything under her breath as she talked to herself.
"...And having to remember to breathe and blink and shit is exhausting…"
Eventually, her rant concluded as she took one last deep breath and locked eyes with Taylor.
"...You know what, whatever, it's cool." Calliope's voice didn't contain a hint of truthfulness, but she moved on anyway, gesturing to the area around her. "So, welcome to the Underworld, I guess…"
"...The Underworld," Taylor parroted back.
"Yep. The place where the dead hang around until their judgment has been decided," Calliope said, before frowning at the environment.
"...So this is purgatory, then?"
Calliope shrugged. "Kinda, yeah. Reapers and all sorts of other folks call this place their home, too. But, see, you wanna know something else?" She leaned in closer to Taylor, a frustrated frown on her face. "It's supposed to be impossible for a living person to come here, so how the fuck are you here…?"
Taylor frowned at the pointed question. "If I didn't know about the soul thing, why would I know about this?"
"And this place…" Calliope ignored Taylor's response, biting her lip in thought. "It's not supposed to be this quiet. Everything here is just… wrong."
Now that she brought it up, Taylor couldn't help but focus on the lack of noise.
Brockton Bay was never quiet. If you strained your ears, it wouldn't be hard to hear the sounds of cars passing through the road, of yelling neighbors, or even the occasional sounds of distant gunfire somewhere.
But that only made the lack of noise feel more deafening.
There was absolutely nothing. No sounds of cars, no buzzing of lights, nothing save for the very faint breeze of the wind that made the hair on Taylor's neck stand on end as she shivered. It was like she was isolated, kept away from the whole world, and it felt… unnerving.
Like she would start to lose her mind if she stayed here too long.
"Alright, it has to work this time…" Calliope muttered as she pulled up her phone again, only to receive no result. "Fucking—! Come on man, this can't be right…"
Trying to distract herself from the growing pit in her stomach, she turned around, a part of her half-expecting to see Ina and Gura, only to find no traces of them. It seems like she was the only one along for the ride after all.
…Wait. Taylor thought, looking at the reflection in the window of her house. Is that them?
Yes, it was. Instead of seeing herself, she saw Ina and Gura hanging around, confused and worried as they looked around wildly, trying to find any traces of where they went.
Taylor almost jumped as Ina's eyes seemed to lock on directly to hers, through the reflection, only for the priestess to shake her head, putting a hand on Gura's shoulder, and saying something to her.
"Hey, Hebert," Calliope called out to Taylor, making her jump as she turned around to meet the approaching reaper, who had an odd look on her face. "Where's the place with the most people?"
Taylor blinked. "...Downtown?"
"And I kinda have a feeling that you're gonna keep bugging me till you get answers or something, right?"
Taylor narrowed her eyes. "What are you planning?"
"Don't worry about it." Calliope folded her scythe behind her back as she got closer to Taylor. "Just point me to where downtown is, and grab on."
"Wait, hey, no! At least answer one—!"
Taylor was cut off when Calliope elected to suddenly pick her up in a princess carry and sprung up, making her yell as they pierced through the fog, quickly gaining altitude as they practically soared towards the tallest nearby building.
"—Afhgfbgh?!"
"I'll answer your stupid questions later, okay?!"
It didn't take long before they landed at where downtown would normally be in Brockton Bay.
The city looked different in the underworld. Instead of the normal, worn down and dilapidated buildings in varying states of disrepair and neglect, they looked like they were from a different era altogether, as if recently built. It was as if they had stepped into a painting, or a photo of how Brockton Bay was, once upon a time.
But even as Taylor had glimpses of the way the world was supposed to be by the reflection on the windows, there was still nary a hint of anything anywhere. That didn't change as she and Calliope continued to walk the dead streets.
Taylor felt the wind tickle her neck once more, making her shiver again.
"What are we supposed to be looking for?" Taylor asked, hands tucked to her pits, feeling mildly impatient. As of that very moment, the reaper had elected to answer precisely none of her questions.
"I dunno, anything, I guess," Calliope muttered, eyes darting anywhere and everywhere. "Spirits, spooky monsters, lost souls, literally anything. If it moves, point it out to me."
Taylor frowned. "And how does that help, exactly?"
"Don't worry about it," Calliope said, continuing to walk onward with a single-minded goal as she stared ahead into the empty streets.
Taylor sighed, and followed along, slightly twitching as she saw people walk by nearby reflections, snapshots of how the world was supposed to look.
"...When you said anything, did that include animals too?" Taylor asked after a few minutes of uncomfortable searching, and false positives.
"Wait, what? You saw an animal?!" Calliope's entire mood suddenly lit up from those words. Quickly, she turned to Taylor and put her hands on her shoulders. "You serious?!"
"What?! No!" Taylor said, trying and failing to free herself from the strong grip on her shoulders. "I just wanted to know if we're supposed to see those here!"
"Oh…" Calliope's mood did a one-eighty as she let go of Taylor. "Uh, yeah, they hang around too, but that's not really my department, though."
"As in, you don't usually go after animals?" Taylor asked, fishing for the littlest bit of info she could get.
"I mean more like, not my job to reap animals. That stuff is supposed to be the duty of…"
Calliope's lips thinned into a line.
"...of another reaper."
Taylor didn't know what to make of the flat tone the words were spoken or the look in Calliope's eyes. Instead, she elected to wordlessly move on with their search, trying in vain to see if they were the only ones here in this warped reality.
Something about this feels wrong, somehow.
More time passed, and their continued search failed to produce any results.
No matter where they looked, what dusty alley they squeezed through or what rooftop they jumped on top of, no matter how much they tried to see through the fog, there was nothing.
Taylor hadn't been feeling the best, but Calliope seemed to be growing more despondent as the search continued. Her frown became more obvious, her posture became worse, and at some points, it was almost like she had forgotten that Taylor was there.
Soon enough though, Calliope elected to suddenly stop her search, sitting down at a random wooden bench, and pulling out her phone once more.
Like the last couple of times she tried this, the phone didn't connect, the dull dial-up sound echoing through the streets. She slumped in her seat and let out a long, suffering groan.
With some hesitance, Taylor joined her on the bench. "What's the problem?"
Calliope didn't respond immediately, giving Taylor a side eye before speaking slowly and deliberately.
"...You wanna know what a reaper's supposed to do, Hebert?" Calliope asked. "Our job is to live in the Underworld, cutting the soul's attachment to the mortal world. We're supposed to be guiding them to their final resting place."
"It's not just some normal job. Without our intervention, a soul would be unable to escape the plane of existence in the real world, creating this small impression within the fabric of reality. Their fears, their regrets, and their worries, end up all still hanging around, mucking up the place," Calliope explained, her voice as serious as Taylor had ever heard it.
Taylor took in all the information with a furrowed brow. If she was following what Calliope was saying, did that mean that Brockton Bay was cursed somehow by evil spirits or something? Even now that she knew magic existed, she couldn't resist the slight amount of skepticism that bubbled up.
"But now…" Calliope's tone strung a certain cord in Taylor's mind. "Now there's no one here. There's no other reapers, no souls waiting to rest. Just…"
"Just me," Calliope said, with no hint of emotion in those words.
Taylor didn't know what to do, what to say. The questions she initially had died on her lips, like they were never there to begin with.
"Then how are you going to fix this?" Taylor asked instead, trying to focus on something else. "You're the reaper here. If you noticed the problem with the summoning, and… whatever you saw out there, you can probably do something about it, right?"
Calliope mumbled something under her breath, too quiet for Taylor to hear.
Taylor frowned. "...You can fix this, rig—?"
"I don't fucking know, alright?!" Calliope's words came out like the crack of a whip, loud and sudden. It was so sudden that Taylor jumped, her heart in her throat as the reaper directed angry red eyes at her. "You don't think I would fix this shit if I could?! I would! But—!"
Then, losing all steam from her angry yell, Calliope put her hands over her eyes, slumping forward.
"...I don't know what the fuck to do." Her words were delivered with a shaky cadence as she let out an unsteady breath. "I barely just started as a reaper, man. Nothing I ever learned told me about this. I'm stuck in this stupid body, everyone's fucking gone, and somehow I'm supposed to fix this? How the hell do I even start? I can't even call for some fucking help…"
As the reaper hunched down further into herself, Taylor found herself at a loss. She knew vaguely what she should do at the back of her mind…
Try as she might to speak, however, no words would come running out of her mouth. Instead it felt like every thought was like the tiniest bit of molasses running down to the tip of her tongue, so stubbornly, unwittingly stuck.
Comforting someone felt so much easier when she was a kid.
For lack of a better option, She hesitantly lifted a hand and put it on Calliope's back, patting her gently. Far from the best thing she could do, she'd easily admit, but something nonetheless.
They stayed there for a while, Taylor's discomfort building as the reaper herself recovered, wavering breath ever steadying until it fell back into an easy rhythm.
"God, I probably look like a mess," Calliope mumbled through her hands, shame and horror just bleeding through her quiet depreciation. "This is just so unprofessional."
Taylor couldn't help but flash through the entire catalog of her own outbursts these past few days alone.
It might have been the stress, sure.
But it doesn't make it any less right, does it?
"...It's okay, we all have our moments," Taylor softly replied.
That one at least got a chuckle from the woman. "For sure."
When the conversation died down once more, it felt as if the awkward air dissipated into a more companionable one.
Well, as companionable as talking with Death might be, at least.
"All right!" Calliope was the first to speak again, grunting as she bolted upright, away from Taylor's gentle pats. "Everything kinda sucks, but moping around won't do anything, would it?"
She stepped forward and clutched a closed fist against her chest. "This reaper's got a job to do, and goddammit I'm going to do it, one way or the other! I'm Death's first-fucking-apprentice, baby! I can do this shit!"
As Calliope punctuated her words by raising her fist up in the air, Taylor allowed herself a little bit of hope.
The second time might have really been the charm. The solution to her problem might literally be staring back at her face.
"Figured something out?" She asked, renewed and energized like she hadn't in ages—
"Nope!" Calliope answered easily, fired up from all the determination that Taylor suddenly instantaneously lost. "But I'm absolutely gonna! Trying to do that as we go!"
Taylor felt a little sigh escape her lips as she watched Calliope hype herself up. Still, before the reaper lady got too ahead of herself, she tried to pitch in. "...That's nice and all, but we still need a plan."
Calliope sighed, putting her fist over her mouth as she assumed a thinking pose. "Yeah, we need a place to start."
They both sat back on the bench to contemplate what their next step could be. And as though to spite their attempts of fishing for answers… fate came running past to catch Taylor's eye.
Quite literally, in the form of a figure dashing hastily across the display window of the store in front.
"...What's going on out there?" Taylor asked, peeking into the glass of other buildings around them with alarm.
What she saw in the reflections were… people running from one direction to another, fear clear in their faces. There wasn't much she could clearly make out, but was that… smoke she was seeing?
"Shit," Calliope muttered from next to her, squinting at the same sight herself. "Just what the hell is up with this city, Hebert?"
Taylor would have opened her mouth to respond but was taken aback as she saw a futuristic bike zoom past them, going directly toward the danger.
"...And did I just see Robocop?" Calliope muttered in disbelief.
Robocop? Taylor thought, before shaking her head.
"No, that was… the Protectorate leader, Armsmaster," Taylor clarified with a confused frown on her face.
"Yeah, I have no idea what any of that means."
Taylor let out an annoyed grunt. "He's one of the heroes of the city."
"Oh. Oh! Okay, so we're in a superhero world, got it." Calliope snapped her fingers, only to frown at Taylor. "So… what's the problem?"
"The problem is," Taylor said, anxiety continuing to build up in her gut. "If he's here right now, that only means…"
She turned back to look at the reflections. Slowly spreading fires and smoke rising into the air, the fear on everyone's faces, and even the somewhat close explosion she could hardly make out were all etched into her brain.
"...Big trouble."
Taylor bit her lip in anxiety and fear. She was simultaneously so close to the danger, and yet so far, but that didn't stop her from wincing as the people running let out silent screams as they continued to scatter.
The Underworld was utterly devoid of sound, but Taylor could still hear everything clear in her mind as if she were there. She could taste the smoke in her lungs, hear the crackling of fire, the weight on her legs while she coughed and tried to scream for help and—
"Hey, hey!" Calliope's voice made Taylor jump. "Kid. You doing okay? You went really quiet on me for a second."
Taylor took a shaky breath that she may have needed, trying to clear her head. "...Yeah, I'm fine."
Right, she wasn't at Winslow anymore. Here, in the desolate landscape that resembled Brockton Bay, she was safe and sound.
…But the same couldn't be said about the people outside. Even if Armsmaster was here, he was just one man. He can't save everyone. There was bound to be someone he'd miss.
Just like people had missed her.
The next words that came out of her mouth slipped out before she had a chance to think about them, but she found that she didn't disagree with what they said.
"We need to help them."
Calliope blinked, directing a surprised look at Taylor's way. "Hold on a sec, what?"
"We need to go out there and help them out, now." Taylor found that she agreed with the words more a second time. "We can't just leave everyone out there and hope they make it out alright! We need to step in—"
"Yeah, nah. Can't do that, kid. Sorry."
"—And…" Taylor's voice trailed off, she stared at Calliope. "What?"
"You heard me." Calliope put a hand on her hip, looking at Taylor sternly. "What's going on out there seems… pretty fucked, but I can't. My hand's totally tied here."
Taylor continued to stare for a moment before anger started to boil up inside her. "What?! Why?! Didn't you just talk about how you wanted to fix stuff? Make it better?"
"Yeah, I still do. Doesn't mean I can do whatever the fuck I want," Calliope said, not backing down in the face of Taylor's anger. "Reapers can't interfere with mortal affairs. That's just how it is."
"...So you're fine with letting people die, that's what I'm hearing?" Taylor challenged, glaring at the reaper.
"It's not my fucking job, dude." Calliope mirrored that glare right back. "I'm not a superhero, not like that guy over there." She nodded her head in the direction Armsmaster was heading. "You wanna ask someone for help? Ask him. The only people I deal with are dead people."
Taylor's fists were starting to hurt with how hard she was clenching them. Trying to keep her voice level, she spoke again. "...Fine, fine. What about accidental deaths, then? Shouldn't that make you step in? People dying before their time?"
"Nope, death is still death." Calliope shrugged. "Doesn't matter how it happens, who it happens to, or any of that stuff. It's just how things go, if it happens, it happens, can't change it, kid. Dying before your time ain't ever been a thing."
"...So there's nothing I can say to change your mind?"
"Unless you want me to reap people's souls, there's nothing I can do."
Wonderful. According to Calliope, a reaper was a being who guided others to the afterlife and prevented them from haunting the real world. They were ever-so-altruistic, and yet, when it came to an actual problem, they couldn't do a thing to act.
Fine. If she won't do anything, then…
"Okay," Taylor said, pursing her lips. "I can't force you to help out, so I won't."
"Good," Calliope sighed, seeming to lose some of her tension. "If it makes you feel better, it's not like I don't want people to make it out—"
Taylor interrupted. "Just take me out of here so I can."
Calliope's eyes grew wide from the sudden declaration.
"Are you fucking crazy?" She muttered incredulously. "You're seriously not thinking of going out there."
"I am, unless there's a rule against that, too?" Taylor said, not giving a single inch.
"Oh, don't give me that shit." Calliope raised her voice as her glare sharpened. "You're going to get yourself fucking killed!"
Taylor let out a scoff. "Oh, so someone dying matters now? Here I thought it wasn't your job to care."
That elicited a strong reaction as Calliope flinched, before going back to staring daggers at her. The reaper opened her mouth to speak, but got cut off once more.
"If you don't want to step in, then fine, I don't care." Taylor brushed off Calliope's ire. "But don't you dare stop me from helping out. Not when there's people out there that I can help, that I can save."
In the corner of her eyes, she could see the shadows start to move, controlled by her errant emotions. Taylor closed her eyes to try to get her thoughts in order.
But she couldn't. Her heart beat a mile a minute. Every single time she looked at those reflections she found herself back under that rubble—under all that darkness.
It made her shiver, and the worst thing about it was that she didn't know if it was from fright, or joy.
That was perhaps the real reason why she'd vowed to never touch that part of her ever again—and it was part of her now, for all that she rejected the notion.
That dreadful power-drunk monster she turned into. Whose stray instincts and rational thoughts blended like a soup of well-intentioned psychopathy one random choice away from catastrophe.
She remembered the news well enough. They said Nyx hadn't hurt a soul, but that destruction was real. Bakuda's bombs might've broken the wing she resided in, but it was her who finished the school off.
No part of Taylor wanted to control or be that monster ever again.
But… there's always a reason bigger than you.
And Taylor hated that feeling of helplessness that made her call on that monster even more.
If… if there was one less person who'd feel that exact same emotion, or two or three—then she'll turn Nyx into a bomb, herself.
This time, pointed squarely at the enemy.
…As long as it can save a life, then it's a cost I'm willing to pay. Taylor repeated to herself, trying to smother her unease as she glanced back at Calliope.
"...So, are you going to let me out?" She asked.
Calliope's glare didn't go away as Taylor made her declaration. Instead, it was like she was searching for something on Taylor's face, some doubt or hesitation.
"You're an asshole," Calliope sighed, putting a hand over her eyes before dragging it down her face. "Fine, whatever. I'll get you out of here. Don't say I didn't warn you when I have to reap your soul."
"You won't have to," Taylor replied, letting her anger bleed away in the face of Calliope's acceptance. Quickly, she turned to look at the reflections, to try to get a better look at the situation and to see if anything changed.
Nothing had changed for the better or the worse in the short time Taylor spent arguing, but the situation became a little clearer to Taylor as she squinted her eyes in the reflections to see the figure Armsmaster was fighting.
In the distance, he saw a figure draped in all black appear in two places at once before one of the copies exploded, sending shrapnel and fire everywhere, and causing more collateral damage. Oni Lee, she realized after a moment.
…This doesn't change what I have to do. Taylor shook her head as if to physically shake away the fear she was feeling.
Just means she'd have to be extra careful doing it.
The trip back to the real world was slightly less disorientating than the first time, but feeling the world be flipped back to its right position wasn't a feeling Taylor intended to get used to in the first place.
She stumbled a bit as the cacophony of noise washed over her. The emptiness in the Underworld made everything here feel more intense. From the smell of smoke in the air to the sounds of the explosion, and all of the screams lingering in the air.
Focus! Taylor chastised herself, trying to regain her bearings as much as possible.
"So, here we are," Calliope muttered, making to cross her arms as she leaned on the dirty wall of the alleyway they had chosen to appear in before looking down in frustration and letting her hands fall to her side. "Sure you don't wanna change your mind? If you want to back off now, this is your last chance."
Taylor met the challenging look directed her way with a glare of her own. "I'm not going to, so you can stop asking already," was her final say on the matter as she turned to face the danger.
People were running in groves past their little hiding spots, not peeking a glance at the suspicious people lingering in that alley. The fear on their faces as they ran past them both only solidified Taylor's choice.
It's now or never. Taylor took a deep breath and slowly let it out, as she finally stepped out of the dirty alley to merge with the crowd.
Calliope made to say something, but it was quickly lost to the cacophony of noise.
The sheer amount of people there threatened to bowl Taylor over, but she had managed to make her way through the waves, getting a good look at the damage up close. She saw toppled-over cars, glass all over the ground of the streets, and smoke just about everywhere. And that wasn't even mentioning what Oni Lee was doing.
He was moving fast, appearing from one place to another, pulling the pin on his grenades, before doing it all over again. The only thing slowing him down was Armsmaster himself, who was putting as much pressure on the man as possible, taking every chance to engage and stop the bomber, who seemed intent on avoiding a close-up confrontation with the man.
As long as he doesn't come back here again, I'll be fine. Taylor thought as she coughed into her sleeve, eyes darting everywhere.
Her mind was going a mile a minute as she thought about what to do. There were a lot of people who were confused and had accidentally been veering closer to the fight.
That first, then.
Quickly rushing over, she started the process of herding as many people away as possible.
In the eye of the storm, she made sure to get the attention of as many people as possible, and pulled those who had been left behind out of danger and into relative safety while trying not to be trampled herself. Meanwhile, she always kept in mind where Oni Lee was as she continued to run across the streets. It seemed like Armsmaster was slowly but surely managing to wear down Oni Lee, his sporadic attacks lowering in frequency.
Soon, the worst would be behind her.
"Mommy!" Screamed the little girl who Taylor had found hiding in one of the stores, letting go of her hand and running towards her mother. The mother didn't falter, instantly scooping up her child and running, not without giving Taylor a brief, thankful look.
Is there anyone else that needs help? Taylor thought, continuing to look around, and thanking that she didn't have to use glasses anymore, not with all this smoke around. The situation was still dire, but not so much that she had to risk delving deep to save a life. The monster (the shadows shiver in anticipation) didn't have to come out, not yet.
No, she shouldn't spend more time agonizing about her woes. There were still people in danger. Focus on them first.
Still,I'm not sure how much longer I can—
Suddenly, she froze as she saw a demonic mask looking directly at her.
In this whole chaos, it was easy to blend in with the crowd as she ran and ran from place to place. But as the crowd thinned? As Oni Lee slowly became more desperate to look for a chance to escape?
It was little wonder that Taylor stood out—so obvious she was standing alone, separated, in the open road.
There was hardly any time to think as she had her second close-up encounter with Oni Lee, one moment the man had dropped one of his bombs at Armsmaster's feet, and the next, he was right in front of her. The smell of smoke in the air had never felt stronger.
She wasn't quick enough, she stumbled back a step, buying herself only a single moment that she couldn't capitalize on. His left arm had his knife ready, while his right arm was reaching for her. In that moment, time slowed down as she watched the hand slowly reach for her.
There was no time to think, no moment spent for rational thought.
She needed to live.
To find the answers she had been so desperately craving. To get her life back into some semblance of normality.
Underneath her clothes, she could feel something (Slither) shift. It felt cold, yet soothing. As comforting as it was terrifying. Electrifying, even, in a sense—it was as if she had been dumped into an ice-cold bath after a long day.
A stark sense of relief that she couldn't help but revile.
Taylor wasn't sure what that sensation meant, even if she had her suspicions.
The answer would simply lay hidden as it were, thanks to an eye-catching pink she spied at the corner of her eye, falling dangerously fast towards the demon-masked man.
In that adrenaline-filled haze, Taylor watched Oni Lee slowly turn his head to his right—
—turning into ash at the same time a scythe passed through his arm, and the blade of the scythe passing through the air was just as mesmerizing as the first time Taylor had heard it. As time sped up once more, and she completed her stumble, she got a proper look at her savior, who kept a watchful eye on Oni Lee.
"I've had this heart for less than a goddamn day," Calliope raised her voice, before turning to glare at Taylor at the corner of her eye. "And you're already going to give me a heart attack, kid."
"I-I thought you weren't going to…"
"Yeah, I thought that too!" Calliope said, still pointing her scythe at a still Oni Lee. "Guess we're learning a lot about ourselves today!"
Oni Lee still hadn't moved from his spot. Instead, he was backing up while gripping the arm Calliope's scythe went through. The arm was completely limp, as if he were a puppet that had lost one of his strings. He continued to look down at his arm, before looking back at the reaper, and then…
Threw a bandolier's worth of explosives at them.
"Shit!" As quick as lightning, Calliope threw up her cloak against the bombs, as if to shield herself—or maybe just Taylor—from the effects of the attack.
Against all odds, the thin wall that was the reaper's ragged cloak had managed to successfully protect them from the barrage. Taylor could feel a slight wave of heat wash over them under the thundering boom of the grenades exploding right in front—yet, despite it all, no harm seemed to come for either of them.
Abruptly the barrage stopped, and the cloak fluttered to the ground allowing Taylor to get a good view of a rather futuristic halberd buried at the spot where the demon-masked villain used to stand.
No, not futuristic—tinkertech. A very familiar piece of tinkertech.
While Taylor might not know much about capes, every brocktonite worth their salt would know what the halberd was, and more importantly, who it belonged to.
Armsmaster. The leader of the Protectorate branch here on Brockton Bay.
The very same armored figure who rolled quickly past them—pulling the weapon out in one smooth motion, and brandishing it with a flourish the moment he was properly on two feet.
Oni Lee staggered but a few meters away, having dodged the thrown halberd, stared quietly at the two women.
Even as Armsmaster reached his position with rocket-boosted speed, he simply continued to stare.
Intensely. Unerringly.
It was only at the very last minute—when the armored tinker's weapon was about to hit its mark—did he disappear into a burst of ashes…
Only to seemingly reappear as an entire crowd, all perfect duplicates of himself, all set to pounce on the armored hero.
Armsmaster had barely any moment to react as he was suddenly engulfed by smoke. Yet, just as smoke expanded aggressively to cover both hero and temporary gaggle of demon-masked clones, sparks seemed to ignite within.
Whatever gears were turning in that demon-masked man's head—what was happening inside that plume of smoke was more than enough to keep him distracted.
An opportunity Calliope immediately recognized as she grabbed Taylor by the arm and ran.
"Come on!" She ordered, not wanting to waste a single moment.
Unfortunately, a moment was all Oni Lee needed.
Suddenly, he appeared at the edges of their vision—the smoke cloud in reality a distraction for everyone but himself.
Another cluster of bombs went out in a flash, ready to greet the escaping duo, only to get deflected away by another swish of Calliope's cloak.
Repeated failures didn't seem much to deter the man, relentless as he was. He continued to assault them with all sorts of explosives, only to find the reaper still rebuffing all of his advances.
It must've been enough to drive the masked man wild. Wilder than he was, anyway.
At least it would explain how focused he was on getting them.
"What did you fucking do to this guy!?" Calliope exclaimed, taking to spreading her ragged cloak over both of them like she was shielding them from the rain. If the rain was made of explosives hankering to disintegrate them to smithereens.
"I know him just as much as you do! I think you're the one who made him angry!" Taylor retorted, trying to make herself as small as possible under the reaper, as to fit within the confines of her cloak.
"Fuck my life," cried the reaper in dismay.
Her heart still pounding in her chest, Taylor forced herself to realize something.
Magic. The phantom sensation of the shadows still felt so clear underneath her clothes, centering her even more than the invincible tattered cloak ever could. Whatever cost it had, whatever she had given up, wouldn't matter if she didn't make it out alive. All it would take is one slip-up, and she'd leave the land of the living.
She needed to act.
Her breath thinned as she focused on the imagery that had such a grasp on her soul, the conflicting feelings acting as a conduit for enacting her will. She cleared her mind of every other thought besides one, tried to call the shadows into action at this very moment, and…!
…have her command receive absolutely no response.
She paused, before trying again.
The way the shadows refused to even move even an inch felt even more damning the second time.
What? Why isn't it working?!
Against Taylor's will, they had responded to her with ease in Winslow, slithered to her side with Gura, and even managed to creep into the Underworld.
But not this time. This time, she had been left alone.
However, before she could even think to despair, something in the air changed.
The assassin's single-minded focus had made him blind to Armsmaster bursting out from behind Oni Lee, the furious roar of his reacquired motorbike sounding his return to the fight, halberd perched by his side.
It must've been the explosions that gave the armored hero a path. Taylor wasn't sure how his motorbike would've been able to climb the sheer walls of a multi-story building otherwise.
But what she was sure of was the heroic cape's presence all but pushing Oni Lee into a different chase. One that hopefully led into a completely different direction.
Soon enough, the duo turned a corner, finally breaking away from the two capes.
Calliope let out a sigh, letting go of her vice grip on Taylor's arm. Meanwhile, Taylor herself slumped against the wall, her limbs aching as the effects of her adrenaline finally left her, taking deep greedy gulps of air.
"You…You saved me," Taylor whispered, looking up at Calliope with confused eyes.
"...Yeah. Guess I did," Calliope muttered, frowning at the ground.
"I thought… I thought you can't break your rules—"
"I know what I said, you don't have to repeat it." Calliope's glare was now pointed at Taylor.
If anything her reaction just made Taylor more confused than annoyed.
"I mean," Taylor slowly pushed herself up from the wall with unsteady legs. "If you cared about your rules so much, why did you come back?"
"I-I…! Well…" Calliope coughed into her fist, finding some random rubble to focus a troubled frown on. "I'm not exactly excited to see what'll happen to the soul link if you kick the bucket. Don't think too hard about it."
Taylor frowned, her mouth opening to ask another question, before—
"Cape!"
Taylor heard yelling behind her. With her heart in her stomach, she turned as quickly as possible.
A number of ABB gang members stood before them, emerging from the alley as they raised their guns in Calliope's direction.
Like before, Calliope was quick to get in front of Taylor, trying to shield her from the incoming bullets.
But she didn't need to. A second before they fired, a shadow fell over them. A hint of blue was all they saw before she saw a small, familiar figure blur into the man in front, slamming him to the ground with such force, that she heard something crack as the pistol fired on its own, the bullet hitting the wall.
The small Vista mask and shark tail were a clear sign of who this person was.
"The fuck?!"
"Holy shi—!"
Gura moved swiftly, darting to the next man in line and biting down on his arm hard, making him scream his lungs out. Taylor heard the smaller girl growl before she flicked her head in the other gangers' direction and threw the guy she was biting into his friends, bowling some of them over before they could shoot her.
"Kill this bitch!" The three remaining men in the back were quicker to react, forgetting about Calliope in favor of the more immediate threat, aiming their guns at Gura's head.
Had they noticed the person who had been slinking behind them, they would have succeeded.
The tentacles holding them up were even more obvious of a tell.
Ina's tentacles were quick to slam the remaining man to the side with such force that the wall behind them cracked, leaving them slumped.
Just like that, all of the ABB members threatening them were down.
It hadn't even taken more than a couple of seconds.
Taylor stared dumbly at the scene before as Ina came closer to them, a Clockblocker mask on her face.
"Taylor! Calli!" Ina yelled out as her tentacles gently deposited her near them. She wasted no time in running towards Taylor and grabbing her hands, looking at the both of them worriedly. "Are you two okay?!"
"I, uh… yeah," Taylor muttered dazedly.
"...Uh, hi?" Calliope, on the other hand, just looked at Ina oddly for a moment, silently mouthing something.
Gura promptly stopped her growling at the gang members to rush over to Taylor and bury her face in her chest.
"Taylor!" She yelled out. Then, disengaging herself from her hug, she looked up at Calliope and pointed at her. "Weird lady!"
"Wha—! Hey, stop calling me weird!" Calliope protested, responding back in Gura's language effortlessly.
"Stop being weird, then!"
Taylor, still feeling overwhelmed, ignored the byplay, and just focused on Ina. "How did you both find us? Why are you here?"
Ina gave Taylor a relieved smile. "When you disappeared with Calli, we looked for where both of you went. I didn't know how I found you, but I had a feeling…"
Ina tapped her chest.
"In here."
Is that because of our souls being linked? Taylor thought, her mind racing as she parsed all the facts.
"You're a real クソガキ, aren't you?"
"Hah! I don't know what that means, stupid!"
Taylor continued ignoring the byplay as she realized something.
They were all out in the open. In particular, Taylor and Ina were out in the open with a shark person and the goddamn Grim Reaper.
Shit.
"Taylor?" Ina asked, surprised at the sudden worry that passed through Taylor's face. "What's wrong?"
Taylor took a deep breath. "We need to get out of here right now." She stressed, her urgent tone making Gura and Calliope pause in their minor spat. "We can't risk people seeing us, we need to head home right now."
"Oh!" Gura exclaimed, before jumping in place. "Are you gonna do that weird spooky shadow thing that got us home the first time?"
Calliope squinted at the shark girl's question, before widening her eyes in realization. "...Wait a fucking second, you could've just left this whole time? Just like—?"
"It's complicated, I can't explain why, just—!" Taylor didn't have time to explain, she was already starting to see people slowly return. "We have to go, right now!" she called out as she quickly latched onto each of the girls and dragged them all together into the nearest alley.
Please, please, work this time! This can't fail. We need to get out, we need to get out, we need to get—!
And this time, she hardly even needed to think. With no further prompting, the shadows enveloped all of them.
Just in time as Armsmaster's motorbike rounded the corner, and slowed to a stop.
"Dragon." He held a hand to his ear. "Did you say this was that woman's estimated location?"
There was a brief moment of quiet as the man parsed whatever was said on the call.
"I see, keep me posted," was his only answer.
Another moment of quiet came and went as the armored tinker cast an analytical gaze across the site, as if he'd seen a glimpse of something. Something worthy of interest.
