Plots: Serious, silly, random, oh my!

[[brackets lover]]

[Aiko's Bad Day]

"If you had a friend... Jump off a cliff once. Would you believe everyone... When they say... They jumped off a cliff once?" says Asami in an aside to Eddie as they walk through the hallway.

At Darko's explanation, Asami tilts his head in confusion. "What makes me not a human?" he asks curiously.

But now! Asami is being hugged, having no choice but to fire a counter-glomp that was all the more rigorous. Its Asami's motto that all hugs must be as intense as possible no matter whose on the other side.

After a bit, he peers over to see Mary, looking annoyed with her. "Oh, I solved the case," says Asami, a cartoony magnifying glass illusioning above his head, "Clearly, this is Brignole's fault."

[TeChameleon]

[Aiko's Bad Day]

Asami got a reaction from Eddie that was kind of unreadable under the hood, but his body language suggested confusion.

"Wouldn't you know better than anyone else how human you were or weren't?" the little golem asked. Eddie glanced back at Darko, wondering if the sleight-of-hand he had shown was somehow indicative of being in touch with a power other than magic, and if that could explain how he knew what Asami was.

Then Asami talked about jumping off cliffs, and... well, that wasn't the right metaphor to use on Eddie.

"Well, why not... wait, once? I'm not sure I've ever hung out with anyone who only jumped off a cliff once. The way they complained about it, it seemed to be every other day that they had to jump off a cliff to get away from some monster or other... or their mother-in-law, apparently... or to catch fleeing bandits, or some such nonsense. Or jump off a bridge, I guess. Or a building... or that weird tree-tower-thing that one... two, no... six?.. times..."

And then the group encountered the other two Aikos.

"Oh, good." was Eddie's response. "I was worried we'd have to hunt all over the place to find the third Aiko. Now we just need to work on re-integration."

He held up a hand. "And yes, yes, I know, you don't wanna, this feels wrong, yadda yadda yadda. This is the eighth time I've seen something like this happen, and out of the previous seven, six of those had bad consequences to the health of the split person. The one we didn't manage to join back together..." his voice became haunted, and the memory was clearly an ugly one.

"First idea I've got is just pushing them back together- even just putting your hands together and shoving might do it." He glanced at the mutual glomping between Koko and Asami, and added "Or we could just let Asameekune hug them all at the same time." '-kun' is not an honoriffic that Eddie was familiar with, so he had just kind of assumed it was part of Asami's name.

[quillpleasant]

Aiko's Bad Day

"Because you're a star in human shape? And a god?" says Darko, a little confused by Asami's confusion. Does he think he's human?

But that train of thought goes out the window at the sight of the entire entourage in the hallway. Well, that was a lot easier than expected. Three versions found!

Except now of course they have to figure out how to get them back together.

Darko waves at Juibi. Always good to see a friend! And with a meeting of this many minds, they're sure to get some good ideas flowing!

Like... smooshing them together? No... no, Darko doesn't think that's likely to work.

"Um, hi everyone!" he says cheerfully to the group, before stepping over to the Aiko with the sigils. "Hey, I'm Darko, I don't think we've met? Do you know what those symbols are?" Glowing magic runes feel like they could be connected to what's going on.

[bc56]

Aiko's Very Bad Day
Mary looks at the third Aiko approaching.
Wow, she looks awful. Thankfully the demon princess doesn't comment on that.

"Okay, there are three of you. Today just keeps getting weirder."
She looks surprised when Asami accuses her of being responsible for this nonsense. "What? No, I found her like this. It's the first time I've seen her today."
She considers the situation. "So we have an emotional Aiko, a brainy Aiko, and a neutral Aiko?" she questions, "... Isn't this that thing? That Freud thing? Id, superego, and ego?" Surprised Mary knows about that? She did take a class on oneiromancy. "Unless there are more of you."
When Eddie suggests shoving them together, Mary looks doubtful. "I don't think that would work. Until we know why she split like this, I don't think we'll be able to put her back together." Mary's not sure she wants to put them back together, they're all so much more pleasant when they're apart. How do they combine into such a nasty person?

[Rebonack]

[Aiko's Very Bad Day]

Juibi scarcely has time to process what's going on when Koko suddenly leaps off her to go hug Asami and then there's ANOTHER Aiko!

Three of her?!

And she isn't even supposed to split like slimes do!

"Hey Darko! Hi Asami! Hello new friend I haven't met yet!" Juibi the slime dragon calls out to the newcomers. "I have no idea what's going on!"

Then she sits down on her haunches and taps her chin thoughtfully. "Now I probably have the most experience in being multiple people of any of us, but that's only because slimes are SUPPOSED to split. I think we would have to eat each other to combine but that wouldn't be any fun. OH! Maybe Aiko needs to overcome whatever troubling emotional break caused her to split in three?"

[Ironsmith]

[Aiko's Very Bad Day]

"Does that not seem... presumptive?" The Aikobaz with the sigils on her hands notes. "That the three of us must be split from an original, as opposed to two warped copies of me coming into existence by some means?"

"It seems the most reasonable conclusion with the information we have available." The older Aikobaz replies. "Brignole and I seem to be thinking in similar terms. We all believe ourselves to be Aikobaz, correct?"

"...I suppose so." Sigil-Aiko concedes, tapping a finger to her chin. "But there's no way that could have happened, and that therefore can't be what happened, so I'm afraid I don't believe you. And please, address royalty as such. If you are my copy it would not do to have poor manners."

Meanwhile, Asami will find that his attempts to escalate the hug are met with escalations of their own. Koko squeels as the resulting feedback loop intensifies, until stopping with a loud, sudden pop from her back.

"Oooooh~!" The succubus trills. "That felt good! I don't know what was going on back there, but wow."

"Chronic stress, most likely." Old Aiko chips in. "We have never reacted well to it."

"Again, presuming we are all the same person." Sigil Aiko frowns. "Do you not have any proof?"

"Oh, dry up, you big green prune!" Koko calls, her arms still wrapped around Asami. "We're splits! Clearly! It explains everything!"

"It really does no-"

"Uhp! Nope! I'm not listening!" Koko shakes her head and leans in. "Asami, could you cover my ears for me? Please?"

Sigil Aiko blinks and stiffly turns her attention to Darko. "...I suppose that is an avenue worth investigating." She says. "But I doubt it will turn up any results. I can account for the symbols; they were placed on my person by the school nurse, when she noticed my aura had been depleted. It is a precautionary measure to ensure it does not deplete further. I do not believe they played any role in... this."

"Indeed." Old Aiko looks back toward Eddie and Juibi. "...It seems as though you two are the most familiar with this... general situation." She adds. "Miss Brewer, our mutual consumption seems unlikely to be a viable solution, as our digestive systems do not operate on the same principles as a slime. Do you wish to attempt it anyway?"

"We most certainly do not!" Sigil Aiko objects. "And that will be the last I hear of mutual cannibalism from any of you!"

[[brackets lover]]

[Aiko's Bad Day]

Asami is quite entranced by Koko's hug, the conversation becoming as background noise to him as a rainbow envelops the room. As such, a lot of stuff gets said and done without him having much input. He regretfully breaks away from Koko and sticks his tongue out impishly, interrupting the current conversation to air everything in his mind out at once without giving anyone a chance to respond save for inconsequential reactions. "You're honor, if you are what you eat, my client is an innocent man!" he declares towards Aiko, "Anyways, so Freud has come up a few times today, huh? What's the deal with that guy? I mean imagine you're at some psychology meeting and the one guy goes-" he beams through the hallway, dragging in a big, long wooden table with a graph at the end of it, "'Fellas, therapy sales are going way down. We need some fresh, new ideas if we're gonna beat the NAZIs.' And then this motherfucker Freud stands up and all eyes are on him and he's just like-" she beams over to the opposite end of the table, standing with pretend pride, "Gentlemen, what I'm about to tell you today will make you rethink everything you think about the think. I call it... The Oedipus Complex."

And another beam and the table is gone. "Anyways, about Aiko, if her 'aura' remains depleted, instead of entirely devoured, its likely some etheric body of her's separated from her and is having trouble returning. This mostly happens during dreaming, a form of planar travel." He pauses, paying attention to Mary.

[TeChameleon]

[Aiko's Bad Day]

"Blech, Freud." Eddie grumbled. "The proposal of the Westermarck Effect was published while he was still an associate, you'd think he'd at least acknowledge the possibility that his Oedipal nonsense was as idiotic as it sounds. Although I guess the kibbutzim studies weren't published until fifty years after Freud died, but even so..."

Shaking his head violently enough that his hood flapped around randomly, almost falling off, he grumbled again, this time a bit less coherently, before he got back on topic.

"Like I said, I've seen something similar happen seven times before. A couple of those times were just a temporal loop trap that my nitwit partymember tripped, and it cleared up after the loop closed. Probably not the case here, unless it's a more powerful thaumo-temporal effect than I've ever seen. Possible, but unlikely. One time we never did find out what happened, that was the time..." he trailed off, realizing just how young his audience was, and self-edited quickly "that things went badly. And the time that makes me think that we can't just leave it as-is." he said, adjusting his hood back into place.

"Oddly, one of the times I saw it actually happened because the poor twit actually had slime ancestry they didn't know about. That was one of the times that pushing them back together worked- one of them tripped while walking in front of the other two, and they tripped over the first one, and they landed in a pile that just sort of *blorped* back together. According to the rumour mill, you could hear the bollocking they gave their grandfather over the whole mess from three blocks away. I guess they weren't too happy about finding out like that." You could hear the smirk in Eddie's voice at that point.

"The other time that just pushing them back together worked was mostly because that was the condition of breaking the curse that split them; unfortunately for the daft bugger that cursed them, they had to try and be sadistic with glasteel walls so that the split-ee could see but not touch themselves after being broken apart, at least not without going through their gauntlet of horrible traps. Unfortunately for that particular mad wizard, glasteel doesn't hold up well when I punch it, so the whole thing got a bit abbreviated."

"Let's see... the sixth time was... yeh, it was Hecate pitching a snit-fit over being ignored, pretty much. Fate-moon-triune goddess-magic-blah-blah-blah. Honestly didn't take much to fix once we figured out what caused it- the Greek pantheon are, frankly, inbred simpletons. Two goats and a roast pig later and she was happy as a clam and got rid of the curse, especially when we pointed out that it was more than Zeus himself had had in centuries. My buddy Groganag the Magnificent actually got tri-casting out of the deal as her blessing once the dust settled, which cheered him up quite a bit after getting split and mooshed back together by some ditzy bored goddess."

"And time seven was a weird one." Eddie said finally, apparently quite oblivious to the irony of this statement. "Doofus went and tried to use a cathode-ray-tube TV as an image-cast teleportation focus, ended up split into RGB variants. Gave themselves five black eyes and two split lips before we managed to pull them apart. That one got fixed by adjusting the television, although what the VSync had to do with anything, I'll probably never know."

"Er... right." he said. "Basically, what I'm trying to say is that in my experience, it's a magic blunder, a mixed-magic mishap, some oddity of genetics, a curse, or some bored entity screwing with you. From what has been described so far, my best guess is mixed-magic mishap; maybe lucid prophetic dreaming running face-first into a dream demon."

Through the whole monologue, Eddie had gotten so pissed about Freud that he didn't even notice Asami's shenanigans didn't involve any magic.

[bc56]

Aiko's Bad Day
"I think Freud's theories are a lot older than Nazis," Mary comments to Asami.
She doesn't know much about Nazis, just what she's picked up from some of Khannie's Action Archaeology friends.
"I'd say Eddie 's right, but there are universes where things do work the way Freud thought..." Mary points out, and then stops paying attention when he goes into a longwinded digression about all the times he's dealt with people splitting.

She considers Aiko's situation. "Well now we know why your soul was drained," she points out, "The rest of it's there and there." She points out Koko and Old Aiko. "I bet my mum could join you back together," she suggests. Soul magic like that is in Sekhmet's wheelhouse, and it seems demon things have already been involved.

[quillpleasant]

Aiko's Bad Day

Darko has to laugh a little when sigil Aiko says that splitting isn't possible. "Ehhh... your majesty, if you'll forgive me, with magic anything is possible. If you try to rely on logic, unfortunately you'll be disappointed, in my experience." It's good to rule out the sigils as being relevant at least.

Everyone's talking a lot about Freud, and something that isn't seen? He's a little confused, but it's certainly not the time to derail the discussion for a history lesson.

"Hm... do you all have the same memories from before the split? Maybe think of some specific things no one else would know, to confirm that you really are all part of the same whole?" he suggests.

[Rebonack]

[Aiko's Bad Day]

Juibi knows little to nothing about psychoanalytics so the talk about Frued is totally lost on the slime princess.

"Oooh, someone with slime ancestry? That's neat! I haven't run into many other people with that problem," Juibi says, immediately curious.

But.

BUT!

Their focus is on something else right now.

Name?

Figuring out how to fix Aiko.

Which leaves Juibi pondering.

"Maybe we should try something simple first just to see if it works?" she suggests. "The three of them have a big group hug! And maybe they'll go back together again? Even if it doesn't work then at least they'll have gotten a hug out of it. Win win!"

She thinks this is pretty much the best plan. And if it doesn't work? Well, then they can try more complicated things!

"So the three of you were still one person when you left for the nurse this morning," Juibi points out. "What did you do during the last hour? Maybe if we know exactly what you did that'll help us figure out what went wrong?"

[Halae]

[Undertree Manor]

Lex stands tall at the challenge! "We can beat whatever you throw at us!" be boasts in typical hot-blooded hero fashion. Even though he doesn't have any blood to speak of. When the pair of mummies appears he draws his crossbow and fires a single bolt at the foe Skye DIDN'T charge at! A single bolt that will spread alchemical fire all over the undead!

Skye's foe is run through, its fragile body torn asunder by the force of the impact! Lex' target doesn't fair much better, burst into flames and collapsing into a blazing husk.

Huh.

That was really easy?

Two more mummies step forward, weapons raised. Where the first two shambled like an old man with back problems these two move with the confidence of a common mortal guard.

[Undertree Manor]

Skye regards them, falling into an easy stance as she extracts her spear from the first mummies, "This is a scaling test then. You want to see how much we can handle before we become overwhelmed."

[Rebonack]

[Undertree Manor]

"So endurance?" Lex says, drawing back his crossbow and loading a new bolt as he scampers a bit further away from the approaching before firing at one of the mummies.

This time around the mummy blocks the bolt with its shield! Though now the wooden shield is on fire and the mummy has to throw it aside lest it get lit aflame too.

"We'll want to pace ourselves then, right? Don't over-do it or waste resources we'll need when it gets harder."

The shieldless mummy falls in line behind the mummy that still has a shield. They both head for Skye, the shielded mummy first to try to draw her attack while the shieldless mummy circles to attack from another angle.

[Halae]

[Undertree Manor]

Skye isn't such a poor fighter to be defeated by two standard combatants, and so she brings her spear up in an overhead stab towards the shielded one, fully expecting it to block. It has to, or it'll take a spear to the face, and blocking will disrupt the flow of its attack. This is exactly what Skye wants, as it's a fairly simple but effective feint - the moment her spear collides with anything on the mummy still holding a shield, she suddenly moves forward, the butt of her spear meant to collide with the other warrior.

[Ironsmith]

[Aiko's Very Bad Day]

"...A hug doesn't sound like a terrible idea." Koko notes, spreading her arms wide. "Come on, me and me! Hug time!"

"No."

The other two girls look over at the Aiko with the sigils, who has her arms crossed. "That is a non-solution for three reasons. One, that succubus is still covered in slime, and I will not be touching her until she has had a bath."

"Jerk." Koko mutters, self-consciously wiping bits of Juibi off her seifuku.

"Two, I am covered in wards that are intended to prevent soul-draining. It is likely that they will also prevent re-merging; it would not be outside the scope of the spell to contain such measures as a means of preventing possession. We are past the window to remove the wards by hand, so until such a time as we can get them off by other means, any attempt at re-merging is likely to go poorly."

"Sound, if potentially flawed, reasoning." The older Aiko notes.

"And third, we have yet to properly establish that we are indeed a split, and therefore that re-merging is necessary."

"OH FOR FU-"

"Perhaps we should do as Darko suggests and present some common memories." The older Aiko crosses her arms. "D4. D5. C4. B6. Pawn takes D5. Do you recognize that sequence?"

"...Yes." Sigil Aiko sighs. "Queen takes D5. Aoimi then proceeds to chase me around the board for the next seven and a half minutes. At least she was gracious about it when she finally checkmated me."

"My turn!" Koko pipes up. "Remember how daddy always used to call us his little duckling? Because we'd follow him around everywhere? We used to play along, the other courtiers loved it!" The succubus folds her arms into her ribs and starts waddling forward, bobbing her head in a distinctively avian fashion. "Ga ga! Ga! Ga!" She quacks.

Sigil Aiko's cheeks flush. "Do not bring that up in front of other people!" She hisses.

"Are you convinced yet? Should we cite more information? I could mention-"

"No, no, no need for that, I am convinced." Sigil Aiko waves out a stopping motion with her hands. "I do not think everyone present needs to know exactly what is going on in my... well, I suppose I should say our head." She frowns, tapping a finger to her chin. "...Still. That does not truly explain how we could have been separated in the first place. I do not recall anything like what Eddie describes."

"I do." The older Aiko replies. "We were searching for a source of succubus essence, after our initial dose wore off too quickly. We employed our usual prophetic dreaming technique to explore the possibilities, which led us to a succubus in Riverside. She offered to sell us the supply we needed, pending-"

"-pending a deal with putting a certain trinket in what we thought was probably Brignole's house." Sigil Aiko finishes. "Right. I do recall that now. We were... out of focus. I seem to recall us briefly experiencing multiple versions of that dream at once." She crosses her arms. "...I remember refusing. It was too big a risk, for myself and for Her Highness. I woke up back in the nurse's office right afterward."

"...I remember accepting." The older Aikobaz frowns. "We were in the process of establishing the details when the dream... overlapped. That is when I met Koko." She gestures toward the succubus. "We had a brief discussion, and then I woke up in the library."

"...I, um..." Koko kicks her feet awkwardly. "...I, don't, um... I..." Her face turns a bright orange and she stares at Mary with tears in her eyes. "...Okay, I said I'd do it!" She admits with a sniffle. "I needed that essence! Like, really needed it! With everything going on and I didn't want to let my friends down and it felt so good to be pretty again and she promised she wasn't going to hurt anyone and and and-" Her hands go over her mouth, stilfing a sob.

"Koko. Breathe." The older Aiko advises, putting a hand on the succubus's back.

Koko nods and takes a deep breath, which sounds to be about fifty percent mucus by volume. "...She gave me ten vials to start out. I opened them, right there in the dream, and... and that's when we met."

"...Disgraceful." Sigil Aiko frowns, glaring at her crying counterpart.

[[brackets lover]]

[Aiko's Bad Day]

"Your MOTHER is a lot older than NAZIs!" Asami helpfully points out to Mary, raising his hand in front of Darko for a high-five.

Asami snickers at Koko and Sigil-Aiko's antics, amused by the image of her childhood. Koko crying, however, demands Asami's full attention. He joins in with the older Aiko in patting the Succubus' back. "There, there..." he comforts, glowering at sigil-Aiko. "Oh, I can remove the wards no problem. But what's the rush, am I right? Even if you rejoin now, you'll still be the same person and make the same mistakes," he lectures, looking between the Aikos, "If you guys don't feel like you're gradually fading out of existence at the moment, why don't you take some time to actually sort out your feelings on this situation?"

Asami puts his hands in his pockets and takes a step back, looking admirably at Koko. "Oh, and pretty- I mean, u-uh," he stutters, scratching the back of his head and tilting it downwards a little, "Succubus Aiko-senpai. So, uh, new you, huh? That's pretty cool. I'm sure you must have a lot to talk about. Waddya say we ditch these lamers and play minecraft on the library computers together?"

[TeChameleon]

[Aiko's Bad Day]

Eddie rolled his eyes, creating an interesting strobing effect in the shadows of his hood.

"You do realize that she's still you, right?" he said pointedly to Sigil-Aiko as he gestured to the crying succubus. "If the need arises, like Asameekune wandering off, I can drain the wards as well, although it would probably take a while."

"And what I'm worried about happening is..." Eddie shifted uncomfortably. "... squelchier than just fading out of existence. So I have to advise very strongly against separating any more than is strictly necessary. I have to say, I'm not sure how decisions made with only a portion of one's personality will be an improvement over decisions made with a whole self. Although granted, if you were feeling conflicted enough about a situation that you actually formed separate selves, reconciling your feelings might be simpler if you can talk to the embodiment of those feelings rather than wrestling with them inside your own mind."

He made a wry noise. "Or it might just result in a screaming match or you beating one another senseless. Hopefully we can avoid those, one way or another."

[Rebonack]

[Undertree Manor]

Skye's spear thrust forces the first mummy to back off and the thrust floors the second, which Lex quickly pounces on with his side-sword. It turns out mummies don't like getting stabbed with swords slicked with blazing alchemical fire.

Who would have guessed?

With one mummy burning to cinders the other tries rushing Skye with shield raised.

As it turns out this isn't a great tactic since raising one's shield like that makes it hard to see and, thus, to defend from attacks properly.

[quillpleasant]

Aiko's Bad Day

Darko returns Asami's high five, more out of a sense of loyalty than anything as he has no idea what he's talking about.

But now the Aiko's stories are starting to make more sense. He's also quite pleased that his suggestion of synchronizing memories was helpful. So this all ties back to a dream- and a succubus merchant. Succubi are demons, right? Darko doesn't know a lot about demons, but he does know that they love to make deals that end up going wrong. It seems like there's a pretty obvious course of action here, and he's surprised no one is suggesting it.

Addressing all three Aiko's together, he smiles nervously. "Hey, don't you think that Riverside succubus might know something about what's going on here? I could go talk to her if you like, it might help get to the bottom of this. I can get there really quickly." He doesn't have Asami's superspeed, but he can enter the Theatre in one city and exit in another one without too much trouble.

Plus, this many people is starting to get a little overwhelming. He can barely even think over all the debate and history being thrown around.

[bc56]

Aiko's Very Bad Day
Mary considers Koko's confession. Aikobaz, insecure? What a complete surprise and not at all obvious. She sighs. "Listen, Aiko. I know how that feels," surely the empress remembers the way Mary was during freshman year; small, timid, and unassuming. "But messing with succubus power isn't safe." Mary got burned hard as a cost for her newfound beauty, but she'd never talk to Aiko about that.

Asami is just ignored. Mary is actually trying to solve the problem, she doesn't have time for petty insults.

Then she has to sort-of glare at Darko talking about asking whatever succubus would be Aiko's source and not the much more trustworthy succubus in the room right now. "You're talking about asking a drug dealer for help, not to mention a demon." Mary shakes her head, "The only succubi you can trust are me and Mum."

[Halae]

[Undertree Manor]

Skye's spear thrust forces the first mummy to back off and the thrust floors the second, which Lex quickly pounces on with his side-sword. It turns out mummies don't like getting stabbed with swords slicked with blazing alchemical fire.

Who would have guessed?

With one mummy burning to cinders the other tries rushing Skye with shield raised.

As it turns out this isn't a great tactic since raising one's shield like that makes it hard to see and, thus, to defend from attacks properly.

[Undertree Manor]

Which results in Skye stepping up and sweeping the head of her spear up into the mummy's torso from below the shield. You don't have to target the head with every strike - center mass from an oblique angle is easy enough.

[Rebonack]

[Undertree Manor]

Welp. That mummy just got stabbed really well and collapses in a heap. Lex is bouncing on his toes, anticipating the next round. He draws out a volatile looking potion and waits.

The earth begins churning as two more mummified warriors begin to rise, only for Lex to lob the potion at them. The bottle bursts into a raging inferno that quickly consumes the next round before it can even start.

Without missing a beat two more warriors arise near instantly and leap into action, both moving with alacrity boarding on supernatural to surround and stab Lex.

[Halae]

[Undertree Manor]

Moving to defend Lex, Skye moves in to intercept one of the warriors, ensuring the slime dragon only has a single mummy to worry about while she deals with the other. Supernatural alacrity is a dangerous thing, but nothing Skye can't deal with, When he raises his sword, she suddenly surges forth, carried by essence, and drives the haft of her spear up into the mummy's sword hand, where it'll knock painfully into the knuckles and catch the guard, preventing the sword from coming down - assuming he doesn't drop it outright due to having his fingers smashed.

[Rebonack]

[Undertree Manor]

Lex responds to the mummy stabbing him by...!

...getting stabbed?

The sword sinks into him, but there really isn't much in there to stab. And when the weapon punches into the slime his macrovesicle reorients itself, swells with acidic slime, and then blasts the attacker with a stream of goop with enough force to send the warrior staggering back. Not only are they dissolving from the acid, but the material is rapidly hardening into caustic resin that's making it more difficult for the warrior to move.

It also seals the wound on Lex so it can heal shut again.

"Aaww, you tried! Gold star!" Lex laughs, apparently not terribly bothered by getting wounded.

Meanwhile, Skye decks the hand of the other warrior with enough force to send its sword flying! The skeleton rolls with the momentum, gripping its shield with its free hand and trying to smash it into Skye.

The OTHER mummy is struggling with the fact that it just got slimed and is having quite a bit of trouble moving.

[Halae]

[Undertree Manor]

Ah, a shield bash. Exactly as Skye predicted.

She was already stepping to the side to avoid the strike when it was wound up, and using the momentum of her sidestep to bring the bladed head of the spear down on the mummy's head. Efficient, deadly, with both offense and defense in the same maneuver. Skye feels her father would be proud.

[Rebonack]

[Aiko's Very Bad Day]

"I don't think looking for the drug dealer demon is a good idea, either," Juibi points out to Darko, patting him on the shoulder with a tentacle. "But this is progress, right? Somehow the dream popped out into reality? That sounds pretty neat but I have no idea how that would work! I haven't taken any of the dream classes."

Strange dreams definitely aren't on Juiblex' list of core subjects. Not for Cursed Heroes generally and definitely not for her specifically.

But then!

Koko starts crying!

And Sigil Aiko acts rude!

"Hey! You should be mean to yourself like that!" Juibi says, unconsciously spreading her wings slightly to look bigger. "She already feels bad about it and it was just a dream, right? You were just trying to find out what would happen but then you split because we're not sure yet."

[Rebonack]

[Undertree Manor]

Spear goes in the head and down goes the mummy.

This isn't so bad, right?

The next pair of mummies appear in twin bursts of flame and sunlight, carrying with them the oppressive heat of summer. They don't charge out heroes, not at first. Instead one of them raises its shield and bombards our heroes with a burning blast of brilliant light to dazzle them moments before the second moves to attack Skye from the flank while she's busy blinking away spots.

Or, at least, that's the plan.

[Halae]

[Undertree Manor]

Skye gets a flash to the face, but rather than sit still, she rapidly backs up, boosting herself away with the same type of launching movement that carried her closer before, to land upon a fence grate. It makes little sense; the fence is too thin, too slippery, too rounded, even too pointy in places for someone to simply stand on it, but the Exalted don't give a damn about logic when there's an advantage on the situation to be gained.

And she needs a moment to clear her eyes. Hopefully this gives her a chance to do so without putting lex at undue risk.

[Ironsmith]

[Aiko's Bad Day]

"That was an avenue neither of my counterparts should have explored." Sigil Aiko frowns, tilting up her nose inperiously. "We have standards. We are better than that and it is nothing short of shameful that we agreed to that risk, even if we later regretted it."

Koko sniffs and steps back behind Asami, visibly shaking. "...Y-yeah, let's go play Minecraft, I really don't want to be here..." She whispers, her cheeks still a little ruddy from Asami's attention.

"It hardly matters now." The older Aiko points out. "Knowing what we did is wrong does not change that we did it or the consequences of our actions. Perhaps we should keep our focus on the implications for our reunification?"

Sigil Aiko stares at the old woman for a moment, before settling back a little, rolling her shoulders irritably. "...Very well. But you will do nothing without my saying so, is that clear? We cannot afford any more blunders."

"Understood."

"...Understood...?" Sigil Aiko trails.

"...Understood, your excellency."

"Good." Sigil Aiko returns her attention to the group. "...I find myself in agreement with Her Highness, we can not risk going back to Circe. Her price for ordinary merchandise, if in abnormally large quantities, was already too high to consider. It is unlikely her price for a cure to our condition will be any lower."

"...Agreed. However, I am not certain that going to Her Infernal Majesty is any more likely to work out well for us. From her position, she could-"

"Irrelevant!" Sigil Aiko snaps. "We made a mistake and we are going to fix it, even if it comes at a significant personal cost." She frowns and adjusts her collar. "...And she inspires more confidence in me than does anyone present. If nothing else, we could appeal to her as one queen to another."

"No, we could not. She does not view us as a queen. Nobody views us as a queen, not even-"

Sigil Aiko fixes her with a pointed glare, silently commanding her not to finish that sentence.

"...The point still stands."

[[brackets lover]]

[Aiko's Bad Day]

As Sigil Aiko continues to talk, Asami stands confidantly in front of Koko. He curls his fist, the camera panning up to him gritting his teeth with his eyes out of view.

FLASH-WOOSH! The swiftness of Asami's movement appeared as nothing more than a flicker from a strobe light to everyone nearby, ending up behind Sigil Aiko holding a harisen.

After a brief dramatic pause, a PAP! sound emits from Sigil Aiko's forehead as if from thin air, causing her to feel a smack hard enough to bring a grown woman to tears.

A satisfied grin on Asami's face, he runs forth away from Sigil Aiko, grabbing Koko's hand on the way. "Mmkay, lets go!" orders Asami. As he leaves, however, he turns back towards the group and calls out, "If anyone asks, Mean Aiko-senpai started it!"