After having the same nightmare over and over and over for most of your life, it starts to become routine. Almost comforting, in a fucked up sort of way. Vienna didn’t like it, of course. It was still at the end of the day stressful and unpleasant. But at least she was used to it. Now that she was abruptly having new nightmares, she suddenly found herself developing a fresh appreciation for the old ones. Last night’s dream had been bad, in its own unique way. This one was shaping up to be more of the same.

And she was definitely dreaming. She had to be. That was in and of itself somewhat unusual – in the past, no matter how weird the dreamscape got, she’d never broken through to being quite as lucid as she was right now. Perhaps something about this particular dream broke her suspension of disbelief beyond repair immediately. There was the usual environment, of course. A surreal, twisted, nightmare version of Esterwood High School. But then there was a line, a hard divide between school and forest. That might have been enough, but Vienna was fairly sure she’d had weirder dreams and not cottoned to the fact that she was dreaming.

No, what did it was the fact that the wall from her dreams was standing in front of her. Only this time it wasn’t a wall. It was her. Like looking into some kinda fucked up carnival mirror. Her outline, her shape, but with the texture and colour of a brick wall, lines of white mortar crossing through her.

She also had a noticeable bulge, which Vienna wasn’t particularly pleased with.

“What do you want,” the rabbit snapped. She wasn’t particularly in the mood to be nice to strange figments of her imagination, especially ones that had tormented her for years.

“I owe you an apology.”

“Gee, it’s a little late for that.”

The wall winced slightly. “I suppose so.” It shuffled awkwardly, averting its face from Vienna’s stern gaze. Or the place where its face should have been. It didn’t really have one, not really, just more mortar in a vaguely face-like pattern. “I have a lot to own up to, but... I saw no other alternative.” It frowned, the lines that made up its ‘face’ contorting slightly. “I’ll start with the most recent, though. I apologize for not stepping in to help sooner, and I apologize for stepping in at all.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean,” Vienna said with a deepening frown. “You’re sorry you didn’t just let the giant angry bull monster kill my sister?”

“It’s-” the wall sighed, taking a moment to collect itself before starting again. “It’s more complicated than that. My powers have a cost. A steep cost.”

“Really? ‘cause I’ve been using them basically my whole life and I’ve not noticed any kinda cost.”

“Yes, you have, and I’m sorry for that, too.” The wall sat down directly on the line between forest and school, and motioned for Vienna to do the same.

“I’d rather stand.”

“Okay.” The wall looked up at Vienna, as sadly as a wall was capable of being. “I wish I could give you a more adequate explanation, but...” It sighed wistfully. “My memory is full of holes. I know some things, but the what and the why elude me.”

“Gee, isn’t that convenient.”

The wall looked up sternly at Vienna. “You seem eager to protect your sister. But would you be willing to die for her?”

“Yes.”

That seemed to catch the wall off guard. Vienna didn’t stop to think, didn’t hesitate even a moment. Its ‘eyes’ widened slightly. “Well, then,” it said, after a moment. “It seems that you and I have more in common than I had initially thought.”

“Fuck off with that bullshit,” Vienna snapped. “I have no idea what you are, but you’ve been making my life miserable for years. I don’t care what you have to say for yourself. The only reason I’m not telling you to get the fuck out is because right now? Superpowers are useful to me. The instant that stops being the case, you need to leave.”

“It’s not that simple,” the wall replied sadly. “Our kind can’t live in your world, not directly. We need a host. If I were to leave you without taking on another host almost immediately, it would kill me.”

It was Vienna’s turn to be caught off guard. “... oh,” she said simply, before sitting cross-legged across from the wall. “Well, uh. I guess that changes things. I don’t like you, but... I don’t want you to die.” She shrugged. “I guess you can stay, then. But we’re gonna hafta make some changes to how we do things. This is my body, and that means I’m the boss. No more fucking with my dreams without my permission. No more fucking with my social life. Understood?”

“Understood. I’m sorry.”

“Stop fucking apologizing.”

“Sorry. Um, I mean-”

“Ugh, forget it.” Vienna waved dismissively. “Anyway, it’s my body but they’re your powers so I guess if you don’t want me using them then I won’t. But only after we get out of this situation. Is that fair?”

The wall nodded slightly. “I suppose. It would be best to not use them at all. To not know I’m here at all, but-”

“But nothing. Remember, it’s my body so I make the rules.”

“I told you, it’s not that simple. You can’t just use my powers without paying the price.”

“I don’t care about the price. I’d rather not get killed by the crazy five hundred year old robot, and I’d really rather my sister and friends not get killed either.”

“Look at the situation you’re in!” the wall snapped back. “You barely tapped my full potential and it was enough to knock you unconscious!”

“That’s just a healing coma,” Vienna fired back. “In case you forgot, I dislocated my arm and sprained my ankle, and I was already exhausted because I didn’t exactly get much sleep last night and I haven’t eaten yet. Give me a few hours and a snack or something and I’ll be fine.”

“You can’t underestimate this! You don’t understand-”

“No! I don’t! Because you won’t tell me! I don’t even know what you are beyond that you’re the wall from my dreams!”

The wall opened its mouth to reply, but nothing came out. It slowly pulled back, uncertainly, shrinking into itself as it thought. “Edifice,” it said, after a moment.

“Huh?”

“My name is Edifice. I... can’t tell you what I am, I don’t remember. But I can at least tell you who I am.”

Vienna sighed, smiling slightly. “Well, uh, it’s a start, I guess.” She pulled herself back up into a standing position, and Edifice did the same. The rabbit held out a hand, and the wall slowly, tentatively took it. “Nice to meet you, Edifice. I’m Vienna.”

“It’s... very nice to meet you, yes,” Edifice said after a moment of thought. “I- hm?” The sudden opening up was interrupted by a tap on her shoulder. She turned in its direction, ready to ask what was going on and what the intruder wanted.

She didn’t get the chance. Her face was met with Erin’s fist, knocking her flat on the ground.

“That’s for last night. Asshole.”

~~~~~~

“Idiot! Idiot!” Ursula’s Kadabra shouted as Aubrey attempted to escape her clutches. “I would have expected this from the others! The one is a bleeding heart with more empathy than brains, the other is a self-sacrificing buffoon with a martyr complex. But you? You’re supposed to be smart! You’re the leader! This whole damn farce was your idea!”

“It was?”

“Yes!” The larger Kadabra was surprisingly gentle, considering how angry she seemed to be. She avoided shaking Aubrey, and while her grip was firm, it didn’t hurt. Whether that was because Aubrey was out and not Viola, the Kadabra didn’t know. And she also didn’t really feel the need to dwell on that fact. “How do you not know this?!”

“I’m sorry, I don’t... Remember,” she said after a moment.

The other Kadabra glared at her in silent contemplation, her expression slowly softening, if only by just a bit. “Right. Right, of course you don’t remember.” She sighed, gently putting Aubrey on the ground. “My own memory is full of holes, and I seem to recall you taking the brunt of the damage, also, so it would be surprising if you remember your own name.”

“I don’t. Do you?”

“Remember your name? No. Do you remember anything?”

“No.”

“Of course not, that would be convenient.” She sighed. “Well, we seem to have some time, at least. Once the others can join us I can, ugh, exposit.”

“Some exposition would be appreciated,” Aubrey replied warily. She had no idea if this other... whatever they were was trustworthy. Certainly, she’d not made the best first impression. Where Titania was kind and friendly, this one was abrasive and egotistical. She had also pointedly picked Aubrey up by the neck. Still, they apparently knew each other, and the new Kadabra certainly gave off that same vaguely familiar vibe that Titania did. Aubrey just wasn’t sure what to think. “Who are you, then?” she eventually settled on asking.

“I will happily answer any questions you have to the best of my abilities after the others wake back up,” Ursula’s Kadabra responded tersely. “For now it’s best for us to retreat into our hosts and stay there as much as possible.”

“A name would be nice, at least.” Aubrey’s tone was firm. “I would like to be able to call you something other than ‘Ursula’s Kadabra’.”

“Do you not even know- oh, fine.” She pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. “I’ll answer whatever questions you have, but I refuse to repeat myself so you’ll have to relay the information to the others.”

“A name would be fine.”

“Delphi,” she responded tersely.

“Thank you.”

“You might as well get the rest of your questions in now. I want to try and minimize the amount of time I spend Inked.”

“Inked?” Aubrey couldn’t help but feel a bit stupid. Reduced to repeating what Delphi said as a question. But, well, she needed to know these things. As much as it made her sound like an idiot, she couldn’t just not ask these questions.

“Inked. Like... coming out like this. How much do you know, anyway?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh. Boy. This is going to be interesting.”

“Why do you want to... not be Inked?”

“Because being Inked consumes prana. Everything we do consumes prana. It’s our lifeblood, like food and air for Hosts. And before you ask, prana is like... Life force. The more we use, the worse it is in the long run for the host.” She frowned, deeply. “We burn through other life forms, consuming their life and moving on to the next ones. That’s what we do. What we are. It’s wrong, but if we don’t do it we die. You and I and our fellows want to minimize the amount of harm we cause just by existing. That...” she paused. “That is the broad strokes of why we’re here. The specifics unfortunately elude me.”

It was a lot for Aubrey to take in. “I... see,” she said, after a moment’s silent contemplation. Delphi’s words hit her like a tonne of bricks.

“For now, the survival of our hosts in the short term is the most important thing. We can worry about the long term later, because if our hosts die and there’s no immediately available replacements, we die.”

“Okay. That... actually explains a lot.”

“Do you have any specific questions?” Delphi asked impatiently.

Aubrey had a lot of questions. What could Delphi do? What could she do? Where did they come from? What was she like before she lost her memories? They all danced in her head and on the tip of her tongue, fighting to be the first one to be asked. Not a one of them won. There was only one question that Aubrey could ask first. One that had been lurking in the back of her mind for a decade, ever since she’d first revealed herself to Viola. The only question more burning, more pressing than her name.

“What are we?”

Delphi nodded solemnly. “We,” she said simply. “Are Inklings.”

~~~~~~

“Erin what the fuck.” It was the first thing that came to Vienna’s mind, an immediate gut reaction. God dammit, she’d actually been making progress, if only a little. As much as she would really rather not have some sort of brick wall monster living in her brain, giving her superpowers and nightmares, for the moment they were stuck with each other and that meant it was in their best interests to get along. Which was going to be incredibly difficult if her friends were going to be starting fights with her.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Edifice said, waving weakly as she pulled herself back upright. “I deserved that.”

“Damn right you did,” Erin snapped before turning to Vienna. “Are you alright?”

“You know what, whatever. Are you even actually Erin or a weird dream manifestation of Erin?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m me, darling.”

“It’s the real Erin, I’m fairly sure,” Edifice said. “It’s kind of hard to explain, and I’m not the best person to ask. Especially with my memories in the condition they’re in.”

Erin glowered sullenly at Edifice, before turning her attention to Vienna. “What about you. Are you alright?” she asked again.

“I’m fine. Just need a bit of rest.” She waved dismissively. “I’m still recovering from earlier and the fight kinda took a lot out of me.” She hated to admit it, but Edifice had something of a point. Fighting off Asterion had left her exhausted. Perhaps if she’d been at the top of her game, things would have turned out different. Or if she was more experienced with using her – their powers to such a significant degree.

“Fight?”

“It’s a long story, we can talk about it later. What about you?”

“The same but moreso,” Erin said with a sigh. “It turns out that getting your arm removed, losing a lot of blood, and then regrowing your arm takes a lot out of you. To say nothing of...” She trailed off into silence with another sigh. “Well, let’s just say I’m getting the impression that Ami’s game isn’t actually going to be very fun.”

“No shit,” Vienna replied simply. “What about Viola.”

“She’ll be fine, thank god.” There was a tinge of guilt to Erin’s words that sparked intense anxiety deep within the pit of Vienna’s stomach.

“Okay I think now’s a good time to actually talk about what happened.”

Erin went first, recounting most of the events after the group’s last contact. She got right up to the end of the contest of riddles before freezing up, unable to continue on further. “Sorry, give me a moment to collect myself,” she said, hugging her arms tightly against her frail body. It was a side of Erin that Vienna hadn’t ever really seen before. It wasn’t just that she wasn’t her usual height, or lacked her usual curves. There was something more to it, a deep vulnerability. Like the facade she projected to the world had been torn away, revealing the real Erin beneath it. A large part of Vienna wanted to scream in her face to just get the fuck on with it. She wanted to know about Viola, god dammit.

But, well, looking at the state Erin was in, she couldn’t quite bring herself to. “Hey, it’s okay, take your time,” she said, in an admittedly awkward attempt to be comforting. It was clear that she was getting impatient, but she didn’t want to push Erin. “Uh, maybe your... Kadabra, you said they’re called?”

“It’s just a temporary thing until they can remember the proper term, but yes.”

“Well, maybe it can pick things up if whatever happened is too difficult to talk about.”

“Okay. I don’t... know where she is, though.”

“I’m here.” Titania’s voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. Or everywhere at once within the green and gold half of the dream. The forest blurred and then melted away, slowly coalescing into a vaguely Erin-shaped blob. “Sorry. Force of habit.”

“It’s fine,” Erin said quietly. “We, um. We can work on that.”

Titania nodded, before turning to Vienna and finishing the story.

The words hit like a punch to the gut, each one seemingly harder than the last. “So you-” she started, then stopped. “You just- You.” Vienna took a moment to compose herself. There were a lot of mixed emotions swirling in an uncomfortable maelstrom, and it was awfully tempting to latch onto one and throw it in Erin’s face. She wanted to scream at her even more than before. “You almost got Viola killed because of an inconveniently timed panic attack,” she eventually settled on.

Erin winced. “Yes,” she said weakly.

“And then you almost killed yourself to save her. Have I got that right?”

“I-”

“Don’t. You were clearly running on fumes. I know firsthand how going all-out with superpowers feels, and I didn’t just lose half of the blood in my goddamn body.” Vienna did her best to remain even-tempered. It wouldn’t do to explode at Erin – and, quite frankly, she still felt a little guilty about the previous night. Moreso, really – it was obvious that Erin had issues that she’d not told the others about. “I think you’ve got some explaining to do.”

“I-” Erin swallowed heavily. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t fucking give me that,” Vienna snapped, earning her a dirty look from Titania. The rabbit sighed deeply. “Look. Clearly this is a bigger deal than you’re letting on. If you’re gonna be having panic attacks out of nowhere over minor prodding at your childhood, I’d like to at least know why so I can see it coming next time.”

“I- I know, but...” Erin took several shaky steps backwards, clutching her head with her eyes shut tightly. “I can’t.”

“Look. Communication is kind of crucial for healthy relationships. I...” Vienna paused, looking slightly guilty. “We’ve kind of all been really bad about that, haven’t we?”

“I’m sorry.”

It was Edifice’s turn to give Vienna a pointed Look, and the rabbit sighed once again. “I’ll... I’ll come clean first.”

“Huh?” Erin slowly opened her eyes in confusion.

Vienna swallowed heavily. She could, in theory, have just willed her clothing away – this was, after all, a dream. And she tried, but couldn’t quite get it to work. So instead she just reached down, grabbed the dream manifestation of her sweater, and pulled it up over her head.

“Oh.” Erin tried her best not to stare, mostly failing miserably. “It’s, um. Very large.”

“That’s all you have to say?” Vienna had mostly gotten past her disbelief that the only person who viewed her as a freak for being intersex was Vienna, but it still felt weird that the first thing out of Erin’s mouth was that her dick was big.

“Well it is,” Erin retorted. “And, um. This is why you’re so-”

“Yes,” Vienna responded, blushing furiously.

“Okay.”

“Your turn,” the rabbit said perhaps a bit more snappishly than was warranted, putting her sweater back on.

“Yes... Yes, I suppose it’s only fair. Same as last time. Equal exchange of information so we can be sure our secrets will be kept.”

“I’m absolutely telling Viola and Ursula,” Vienna said. “Assuming you don’t. They deserve to know as much as I do.”

“Fine,” Erin said after a moment, slowly lowering herself to the ground. “Intermittent Empathetic Disconnection Disorder,” she said quietly, after a moment to gather courage.

“Okay. I don’t know what that is.”

“It’s a mental illness. That, um, that I have. Or had, at least. There was an... incident, and I spent a year undergoing Sensory Replacement Therapy.” She pulled her legs tightly against herself. “It’s not gone completely. But the symptoms are... more manageable. Or I thought they were.”

“Okay,” Vienna said simply. She sat down cross-legged, putting herself on Erin’s level. “What are the symptoms.”

“Extremely poor impulse control. Violent negative mood swings. Periods of severe dissociation. Issues dealing with emotions, especially anger. I would get very angry over very little. And, um. For some people that’s it, but for a lot of people who suffer from it, there’s also... Violent impulses.”

“Oh,” was all Vienna could think to say. Pieces slowly came together in her mind. Little details she’d not really thought were important until this moment. The way Erin had reacted to almost slapping her. The way she seemed to pick the worst possible time to reveal her decision to go to college in Locksmouth. God, it cast years of knowing her in an entirely different light. “I... Think that’s enough. You don’t have to go into any more detail. We can drop the subject if you want.”

“I think I do, thank you,” Erin said succinctly.

“Okay. We can, uh, go back to my problem. I guess. Such as it is. Because apparently it’s not a big deal that I’ve got a fucking penis to anyone other than me.”

“W-well, um,” Erin said, taking the opportunity to regain some composure. “Statistically speaking roughly fifty percent of the population have penises.”

“Oh my god why do people keep saying that!” Vienna threw up her hands in exasperation. “Girls don’t have penises! And like even ignoring that, Viola doesn’t have a penis!”

“Well, um. I recall reading that sometimes identical twins can be born with slight differences or even outright as different subtypes.”

“Yeah but you don’t ever see identical twins where one has a dick and the other doesn’t!”

“There could be any number of explanations, darling,” Erin said, trying her best to be reassuring.

“I’m a freak.”

“We’re all freaks. That’s how we became friends in the first place, is it not?”

Vienna sighed. “I guess.”

“Now come on, we’re probably going to be asleep for a while yet. Let’s lighten the mood a little.”

“That-” Vienna sighed. “That actually sounds kinda nice.”

Erin nodded before standing up. And up and up. Her body seemed to effortlessly flow back to its normal proportions. Possibly even slightly moreso. She was wearing the same clothing she’d been wearing in the waking world – a loose fitting jacket and sweatpants. Or, rather, they had been loose fitting on a four foot eleven inch tall Erin with no curves to speak of. Now, though, that she’d returned to her normal proportions, the pants just barely reached the middle of her calves, and the jacket showed off a good portion of her midriff, between her taller stature and her much larger breasts. “Now,” she said, turning to Titania. “Since we’re dreaming, I assume that using your abilities isn’t going to... cost quite as much?”

“Not at all,” Titania said. She had, Vienna noticed, mirrored Erin’s current proportions. Tall and ample. “In fact, it doesn’t cost anything at all because none of this is really happening! Sort of like a lucid dream practice room, great for getting used to using our powers.”

“I have something slightly different in mind,” Erin replied with a smirk that made Vienna feel things. “But first, this isn’t the best venue for what I have in mind. Perhaps a nice, large bedroom with a big canopy bed and some incense candles and dim lighting. Yes, this will do nicely.”

“U-uh,” Vienna stuttered slightly. She found herself sitting on the edge of a massive canopy bed, easily big enough for four or five Erins to share it with room to spare. Or one very big Erin, which she realized was quite possibly the point. “Erin, uh, this is-”

Whatever Vienna was going to say was abruptly cut off as the larger mouse leaned in and kissed her.

Vienna had never been kissed before. Still hadn’t, if she wanted to get technical. She didn’t really know what to expect, and the end result was... weird. Not a bad sort of weird, though. She wasn’t sure if kisses felt like this, normally, or if her brain was just filling in the gaps, or pulling from Erin’s experiences since this was a shared dream after all. She found herself not giving a fuck. All she knew was that it was good. Erin tasted good. The way their breasts pressed together felt good. The way Erin gently stroked the back of her head felt good. The way Erin’s other hand slowly wandered southwards to wrap itself gently around her shaft felt very good.

The mouse pulled away, a thin strand of drool connecting them. “If you feel uncomfortable I can stop,” she said.

“Don’t,” Vienna breathed.

“Good.” Erin pulled away further, kneeling in front of Vienna. She turned to look at the two Kadabras, awkwardly lurking in the corners of the room. “Would you two care to join us?”

“Um. No,” Edifice said, though her voice was uncertain. “I’m not particularly interested in your human mating rituals.”

“Well, more for me, then~” Titania said, sweeping over and kneeling beside Erin. “And really, we’ve been with our hosts for years. You should know what a titfuck is by now, Edifice~”

“I-I’m aware! I’m just not interested!”

“Suit yourself,” Erin said, turning to look at the prize. At some point her clothes had vanished, Vienna realized. So had Vienna’s, come to think of it.

“Now,” the mouse said, licking her lips eagerly. “Let’s turn this dream wet.”

~~~~~~

“Sorry for the imposition.”

“It’s fine,” Mary replied dismissively. She mostly seemed focused on doing the dishes. There were a lot more people in the household than normal, and while the washing machine could probably safely handle the fine china teaset, she had never really trusted it to. “You can make it up to me by helping Lisa to keep an eye on things while I’m gone.”

“Lunch date?”

“Something like that.”

Azalea took a sip of her tea. “Not the best timing for it.”

“I could use the distraction. Besides, she came all the way from the Ring, it’d be rude to stand her up unless it was an emergency.”

“I can understand that. Have you heard from Beth yet?”

“No.”

“No one’s heard from anyone,” Lisa interjected wearily. “If we could just get something. But it’s like... Locksmouth is just gone.”

“Mmm.” Azalea took another sip of her tea. Really, it was all she could do. “I’d rather not think about that right now, I think.”

“Yeah. We’ve all got someone in Locksmouth right now. No one’s gonna be able to rest easy until we get more information, but in the meantime it’s a bad idea to dwell on the worst case scenarios.”

Mary’s kitchen was spacious. Most of her house was, really – a concession to species. Not only was she tall, she was also fairly wide. To say nothing of her tail, which was almost as big as the rest of her. In a strange, paradoxical sort of way, it felt almost claustrophobic. The house was built for people like Mary, or Lisa, not a petite little bat. A side-effect of post-splice humanity’s great variation in size and shape, Azalea supposed. For Mary to be able to even fit in her own home, it had to be so massive as to dwarf her completely. It made her feel like a child, and not in a good way.

Still, Mary and Lisa’s presence helped mitigate that mostly. She didn’t particularly look forward to the former going off to socialize, but it was probably better than sulking in the Coniglio’s guest room. “Us teachers hafta stick together,” she said.

“Oh, speaking of which, how’s Dan holding up?” Lisa asked, awkwardly holding her own teacup that she’d hardly touched.

“He’s keeping busy,” Azalea replied with a shrug. “Clara’s roped him into helping out with the garden.”

“I thought she didn’t like him?”

“Oh, yes, but she says she could use the extra pair of hands.” Truth be told, Clara didn’t really seem to much care for any teacher. Every time either twin got a subpar grade in a class, it sent her on a furious tirade. Dan got the brunt of it – despite his best efforts, Viola had never done particularly well in PE.

“Well, that’s good at least. Gives him something to do.”

“I suppose. She didn’t seem keen to go easy on him, though.”

“Oof.” Lisa and Mary both winced. Everyone present was intimately familiar with the force of personality that was an angry Mama Coniglio. And, frankly, the poor woman had every right to be angry. They all did.

“How about Ursula? Is she holding up okay?”

“The girls seemed fine last night,” Azalea replied with a shrug. “Haven’t seen them today.”

Mary stopped her cleaning. “You haven’t?”

“They left before we woke up. Left a note, said they wanted to get some fresh air and pick up Ursula’s stuff.” She shrugged again, putting up a facade of nonchalance. “They’re big girls, they can handle themselves. I’m not worried,” she lied.

“I can’t imagine much particularly bad could happen to them,” Lisa said. “Unless they did something stupid like try and go to Locksmouth themselves. They’re not that dumb.” She paused, and Azalea gave her a pointed Look. “Well, okay, Ursula has an impulsive streak, but I can’t imagine the others wouldn’t stop her.”

“That’s true, I guess. The worst case scenario is that they get lost in the woods and hurt themselves. Compared to other goings on that’s barely a minor inconvenience. Besides, they’ve got their PETs. If something goes wrong they’ll call me, right?”

“Right,” Mary said, sounding unconvinced. The three women sat in awkward silence for a moment.

“... I’ll call her after I finish my tea.”

“Mm.”

Azalea sighed. “I know it’s probably fine, but... I just can’t help but feel like it’s not.”

“The last thing we need right now is for something else to go wrong.”

“I told them to be careful,” Mary grumbled, almost more to herself than the other two. “I specifically said to avoid dangerous situations.”

“Well, once they get back home I can assure you that Ursula at least is probably going to be grounded.”

The conversation seemed to mostly dry up there. Azalea pondered pulling up a book on her own PET, to keep her mind off Ursula and any potentially dangerous situation she might have gotten herself into.

Before she had a chance to make a decision, Lars rudely stormed into the kitchen, a smaller spider boy attempting to hold him back. “Dude, she told us not to say anything until the end of the day!”

“Shut up.”

“You heard what she said, I don’t wanna get hospitalized for a week!”

“Shut up,” Lars repeated, before turning to look Dr. Baas as dead in the eye as he was capable of given the significant size difference. “Viola’s missing.”

There was an uncomfortable silence. “What?”

“Rest of her pack went to look for her. Haven’t heard from them since. Tried calling them. Got no signal.”

Azalea dropped her cup. “Shit! Sorry, sorry, I can pay for that.”

“N-no, it’s fine.” Mary held a hand up dismissively. “When did you hear from them last?”

“Oh god, she’s gonna kill me,” Naveed muttered to himself. Lars elected to ignore him.

“About five AM. They said they were going to the Woods.”

“And nothing about leaving the dome?”

“Not that they said.”

“Right.” Mary took a deep breath. “Azalea, let Dan and Clara know what happened. Lisa, call up Mindy or Mike, we’re gonna need the Arbitrators to help organize any kind of search effort.” Both women silently nodded, and Azalea in particular left quickly, without a word. Satisfied, Mary turned to Lars. “Thank you,” she said simply.

The lion shrugged awkwardly in response. “I... I mean, we don’t get along, but I don’t want them to get hurt or anything.”

“Well, you did the right thing.” Lars nodded in response before turning and leaving, dragging Naveed along for the ride. “And you don’t have to do anything more,” Mary shouted after him. “Don’t go looking for them until we’ve got a proper search party organized! We don’t need anyone else going missing!”

She wasn’t particularly confident that Lars was going to listen to her, of course. He was a very headstrong young man when he wanted to be. Still, it was good that he’d left because she couldn’t muster up the strength to keep the brave face up any longer. She collapsed back into an available chair and buried her face in her hands.

“Are you gonna be okay, hon?” Lisa asked.

“I’ll be fine,” Mary replied. “I’m more worried about Azalea. Could you go check up on her?”

Lisa nodded, and hurried off without another word. Satisfied that she was alone, Mary fumbled through her contacts until she found the one she needed to call.

“Oh, hello, Mary! I wasn’t expecting to hear from you just yet. Are we still on for today?”

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Mary said wearily. She already felt exhausted – a portent of things to come, she assumed. “Listen, Linda? I think I’m going to have to take that rain check after all. Something’s come up.”

~~~~~~

Mindy Eckstein was, typically, a very punctual person. That she arrived at the office late was unusual. But, then, these were unusual circumstances. It felt like every single person in Esterwood was struggling to adapt to the situation, and it showed. The town was never bustling, but since yesterday it felt downright desolate. Mindy herself struggled to motivate herself to leave the Coniglio home at all.

Eventually, however, she had decided that she needed to do something other than mope. And it was almost certain that there would be a lot of work to do, given the situation. She didn’t want to just dump it all on Mike.

“Oh, you decided to come in? You didn’t have to, you know.”

Mike Luo didn’t particularly look like someone who wouldn’t have minded Mindy electing to take the day off. He was haggard. Given his species, it was impressive that the bags under his eyes were so immediately obvious, and he was hunched over a massive pile of paperwork that Mindy honestly couldn’t fathom the origin of.

“I didn’t want to leave it all to you.”

“It’s fine!” Mike replied, in a way that made it abundantly clear that no it was not in fact fine. “You’ve got family in Locksmouth, right? Right now it’s better that you take the time to get your head in the game.”

“Mike, you look like shit. I’m not letting you sit here and deal with this on your own.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ve ascended beyond stressed out into a state of manic psychosis.”

“Mike.”

“Okay, okay, fine. Stay, I can’t stop you. Give me a minute to get some coffee and then I’ll get you up to speed on how fucked we are.”

Mike pulled himself up slowly, lurching his way over to the coffee machine. He was a very lanky person. His limbs all seemed slightly too long and slightly too thin to be natural. The way his tired back bent forward as he shuffled made him seem like a scarecrow that had come to life. “D’ya want a cup?”

“I’ll grab my own at some point. How bad is it?” Mindy walked over to the desk and leaned over the disorganized pile of papers, trying to work out what exactly was going on.

“At least a full third of our adult population is unaccounted for. They’re all in Locksmouth. Of course they are! Everyone works in Locksmouth because the Esterwood job market is shit!”

“That’s... Going to be difficult to deal with.”

The lemur nodded a bit too enthusiastically before chugging his mug of coffee in one go and then swooping back to his desk. “After this blows over I’m gonna run a campaign encouraging folks to get jobs in Harbington. Nothing ever goes wrong in Harbington. Harbington is literally the most boring city on earth short of Esterwood.”

“And Beth is still on vacation, right?”

“In Locksmouth, yes. Because Murphy’s Law is real and it has a vendetta against me, specifically.” Mike wasn’t really alone in being overworked, of course. Things hadn’t been quite as bad as they were before, but then Llewellyn had passed a bit more than a year ago and it turned out he had been doing far more than his fair share of the workload. For as small and quiet as Esterwood was, one would think that the Arbitrators wouldn’t be as constantly overworked as it sometimes felt like they were. And, of course, no one seemed to particularly want to take Llewellyn’s place. Of course they didn’t.

“Ugh,” Mindy grunted.

“Tell me about it. I’m just sitting here waiting for the next thing to go wrong because you know it’s gonna get worse.”

Mindy took a deep breath and steeled her nerves. She had never, really, been that much of an Arbitrator. There hadn’t been call for competent politicians in Esterwood until literally this very instant. “No. No, we need to not dwell on worst case scenarios right now. Let’s just take things as they come.” It felt like the proper politician thing to say at least.

“Mm,” Mike replied quietly. “There’s this old pre-splice saying my dad used to say to me all the time. It goes somethin’ like ‘hope for the best, expect the worst.’” He slumped backwards into his chair. “We can stay optimistic all we want, but if we don’t plan for the worst case scenario then we’re gonna be fucked if it hits us. We can put on a brave face for the people, but we need to be ready for things to go south, y’know?”

“Are you sure you’re not just looking for an excuse to panic?”

“Maybe a little bit. It sucks, but I’ve gotta admit work hasn’t been this interesting since... Basically ever.”

Mindy sighed, but also smiled a little bit. “I suppose so. You go grab a nap or something, I can take over here.”

“No it’s fine.”

“Mike,” Mindy said firmly. “Sleep. You said it yourself, we need to be at the top of our game right now.”

“Bah, fine,” Mike said, waving dismissively as he pulled himself out of his chair. “Gimme a call if anything comes up.”

“I will. You go rest, I’ve got thi- Oh, hold on, I’m getting a call.”

Mike, for whatever reason, elected to stay for the moment. Mindy didn’t exactly begrudge him staying in his office for a few more minutes for whatever reason, assuming it wasn’t a call she’d rather take in private. Worse came to worse, she could leave.

“Hello? I- Mrs. Rothschild? Why are you calling me?” Mindy stopped talking as Lisa spoke to her. Her expression dropped, and the colour drained from her face. “I... I see,” she said after a moment. “I’ll... I’ll call you back later. Sorry. Thanks.”

She turned and gave Mike a Look. He had already returned to his desk. “Don’t tell me, let me guess,” he said, looking sombre. “The next thing’s gone wrong.”

~~~~~~

Viola was very, very, very tired. She didn’t feel like she had any right to be, of course. Not compared to the others. No sprained ankle or broken ribs, or severe blood loss. But it had been a long day. And it was only early afternoon – there was still plenty of day to go.

So instead she ruminated. There was a lot to ruminate on, after all. Everything Delphi had told Aubrey rested heavily on her mind. It was ultimately not that much information, but it was better than the nothing she’d had to go on so far. Aubrey was something called an Inkling, a creature from another world – another reality. That particular aspect of it mostly went over Viola’s head, really. They were aliens. That was what she understood. All that stuff about other realities could wait until they had more time to explain in detail. In addition to being aliens, the Inklings were also apparently in the middle of some sort of civil war, and Aubrey and her crew had apparently arrived on earth for reasons related to that. Anything more was frustratingly vague. Viola couldn’t really blame Delphi for that – she already knew more than Aubrey and Titania combined. Not knowing had to be just as frustrating for her.

Ursula didn’t seem to be faring particularly well, either. Understandable, Viola supposed. She’d just learned that there was an alien living inside of her for at least ten years, give or take. It was a lot to take in, and Viola had at least known about Aubrey during that time. The doberman sat sullenly near the edge of the impromptu campsite they had set up, nursing her wounds.

Or at least Viola assumed she was being sullen. She hadn’t said much after Delphi had retreated inside of her, merely wordlessly setting up a vague approximation of a campsite. Erin was laid on a park bench, with a bundle of spare clothing as an impromptu pillow, while Vienna was stuck with the ground. It made sense, Viola supposed, considering Erin was in much worse shape than Vienna. Still, it didn’t really seem very fair, so she had placed her twin’s head on her thighs.

She honestly wasn’t entirely sure who was getting the better deal, of the two, really.

“You doin’ okay, babe?”

“H-huh? Oh, um. Yeah, I’m fine. Just kind of tired. What about you?”

“Not great! Turns out fighting a giant bull monster with cracked ribs isn’t the best idea in the long run. I know I’m supposed to be on watch, but I don’t think I’m gonna be up to moving until I get some rest.”

“That’s fine. We should probably be safe for now. Probably.”

“Yeah, yeah, just don’t try and leave. Ha,” Ursula laughed bitterly. “The exit’s right fuckin’ there, too. I’m pretty sure that’s irony. Or at least kinda bullshit.”

“Mph.” Viola stroked her twin’s hair. Her chest rose and fell gently in time with her breathing. That was a good sign. She was just asleep, which probably meant she’d wake up sometime soon. Erin’s body, by contrast, was almost deathly still. Without close examination to confirm that her heart was beating, Viola would have assumed she was dead and not just in a healing coma. That was something added to humans by the splice – whenever someone got hurt seriously enough, their body would shut down everything but the bare minimum needed to keep them alive while it attempted to put itself back together. There was no indication how long that would take. Erin had lost a lot of blood, but Viola didn’t have any idea how serious Prana Burnout was. It could take her a few hours to recover, or days, or months.

If Delphi was to be believed, there was a very good chance Erin wouldn’t be waking up at all.

“Oogh.” Thankfully, Viola found herself not getting the chance to dwell on that particular line of thought, as Vienna picked that moment to wake back up. “What’d I miss?”

“Oh thank fuckin’ god you’re awake, now I can sleep.” Ursula flopped backwards onto the ground, wincing slightly from the impact. “Congratulations, you get to take second watch. Viola get over here so I can use your lap as a pillow.”

“Hey, gimme a break, I just woke up,” Vienna grumbled, rubbing her eyes slightly.

“Viola can catch you up on the basics I’m fuckin’ tired and I’ve got broken ribs so I think I deserve a fucking nap.”

“Can I at least have a snack bar or something before you make me take watch?”

“Okay, fine, grab one from the backpack. But only one, we need to be careful about making sure our supplies last.”

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t hafta tell me.” Vienna pulled herself up into a sitting position. “How long was I ou-ack!” Her question was interrupted by Viola tackling her from behind, knocking her over onto her front and hugging her tightly. “Oof. Good to see you, too. How’re you holding up?”

“Mph.”

“That bad, huh? It’s okay.”

“No it’s not.”

“Yes it is.”

“C’mon, get off’a me, I’m still a little sore.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Viola pulled away awkwardly, and the twins both stood up.

“Mph, that’s better,” Vienna groaned as she stretched. “I can’t remember the last time I felt so stiff.”

“You were lying on the ground for a few hours.”

“Yeah, that’d do it. Ech.” She turned and shuffled over to the backpack, which was acting as the centre point of the campsite. “Did Ursula fill you in on the whole giant bull situation?”

“She gave me the cliffnotes, yeah. U-um, what about-”

“Erin filled me in.”

“Um?”

“Yeah, uh, apparently we can share our dreams now? It seems to be a Kadabra thing.”

“Oh. Um. Th-they’re called Inklings. Apparently.”

“Inklings?”

Viola nodded, gesturing her head at Ursula.

“She has one too?”

“Yeah. Delphi.”

“Man they all have really weird names, don’t they.”

“Titania’s not too weird.”

“It’s a bit weird. And what kinda name is Edifice?”

“Edifice?”

“Oh, um. That’s mine’s name.”

“Oh.” Viola sighed. “I guess that means Aubrey’s the only one who doesn’t remember her name?”

“Hey, don’t worry, she’ll remember eventually, right?” Vienna smiled warmly, tearing open a protein bar and taking a big bite. “Why don’t you catch me up on what happened while I was asleep and then I’ll catch you up on what happened in my dream.”

“Oh, right, you talked to Erin.”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“So the secret’s out?”

“Little bit. Ursula already knew. Now, uh. So does Erin?”

It was Viola’s turn to smile a little. “Much more thoroughly.”

Vienna blushed violently. “Viola!” she yelped.

“Why are you shouting outta nowhere?” Ursula interjected. “Were you guys doing the Thing again?”

“Oh.”

“We might have been doing the Thing again.”

“Sorry, it just sort of happens sometimes.”

“Sometimes we don’t realize we’re doing it?”

Ursula groaned. “Okay, like, you’re twins, I get it, and I’m glad you’ve got a good relationship, but could you please keep the weird telepathy thing for when I’m not around? I’d like to be able to participate in conversations.”

“Right,” Vienna said, out loud this time. “Sorry.”

“And don’t fuckin’ shout.”

“Sorry,” the twins replied in unison.

“And stop apologizing! Geeze.” Ursula flailed vaguely, without actually getting up. “Now hurry up and eat so I can have a god damn nap.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Vienna said flippantly, quickly finishing off her protein bar. “What should I do with the trash?”

“Fuckin’ throw it on the ground, it’s not like we’re gonna get in trouble for littering.”

Vienna shrugged and did so. “Okay there I’m awake. Now you can go to sleep.”

“Finally. Viola, get over here, I need a pillow.”

“Use the backpack or something, Viola’s already had my head on her lap for however long, she’s gotta be sore.”

“Hey, you got to have a lap pillow, it’s only fair that I get a lap pillow,” she whined. “And I can’t use your lap as a pillow ‘cos you’re on watch.”

“Anyway,” Vienna said, pointedly ignoring the mere implication of Ursula using her lap as a pillow. “Viola needs a nap just as much as you do.”

“But it’s not faaaaaaaair.”

“Oh my god just go to sleep.”

“Fine, but you’re a big stupid butthead.” Vienna rolled her eyes, and the group was silent for a moment. But only a moment – it was quickly broken by a snorting giggle from Ursula.

“What on earth are you laughing about?”

“Just thinkin’ that if we were havin’ this conversation like a week ago it’d have turned into this whole big dramatic thing.”

Vienna stopped for a moment to think. “Yeah. Yeah, it kinda would have, wouldn’t it?” She shrugged. “Don’t see the comedy though.”

“It’s like...” Ursula took a moment to collect her thoughts. “I dunno,” she eventually settled on. “Maybe it’s not funny. It’s just that, like... Kinda surreal that we’re actually getting along, you know?”

“Yeah, I can see it.”

“It’s good,” Viola interjected firmly. “I like it.”

“Yeah, we should try doin’ it more often.”

It was Vienna’s turn to laugh, snorting sharply. “Yes. Yes we should definitely try not being constantly at each other’s throats more often.”

“It’s good for our mental health!”

“I just like being able to talk,” Viola said, smiling softly and brushing an ear out of her face. “Like normal, functional adults.”

“It’s pretty rad,” Ursula agreed. “Oh, hey, Viola, didja bring your cards?”

“Huh?”

“I figure that when Erin wakes up you can do some card tricks as a bonding thing. We’ve still got a few days before the deadline anyway and we could use the extra rest.”

“O-oh. Um. Yeah, I do.” Viola elected to not bring up her concerns that Erin might not, in fact, be waking up.

“You have your cards?”

“I was gonna practice some stuff in the woods. Um, b-before... this all happened, you know?”

“Yeah okay, fair.” Vienna shrugged. “Actually that sounds kinda nice.”

“Alright, then it’s settled! Now get over here, I wanna hug ya.”

“Go to sleep, Ursula,” Vienna said, rolling her eyes again.

“Yes, mom.” Ursula stretched, without actually standing up. “I’m getting kinda tired, anyway.”

“Weren’t you already tired?” Viola asked.

“Yeah, but like moreso.”

“Fair enough. I’m kinda tired too.”

“You both should probably grab some shuteye while you can, then,” Vienna said. “We wanna be at the top of our game when we actually hafta, like, deal with all this, you know?”

“Yeah.”

Vienna pulled out her PET, and prodded at the screen. “Ami said she was okay with us getting info from outside, I’m gonna see how far that stretches.”

“Cool. Try not to push things too far, tho.”

“I won’t,” Vienna replied with a slight yawn.

“Hey, don’t you go falling asleep too. We need someone on watch.”

“Yeah, yeah, I just woke up, I’m tired, sue me.” Vienna frowned slightly. “Actually, I’m really fuckin’ tired. You’d think I’d have gotten more awake by now.”

“That’s... That’s not normal, is it?” Ursula said.

“Maybe I’m in worse shape than I thought?” Vienna muttered. She reached back and scratched the back of her neck.

And then stopped when her fingers hit something.

“What the fuck?” She closed her fingers around... whatever it was. Small, a few centimetres at most, and cylindrical. It seemed to be made of metal, or something slick at the least. It was difficult for Vienna to get a grip on it, but when she did she yanked it out firmly. “Ow!”

“What?”

“I dunno, there was something in the back of my neck, I pulled it out.” She held the object in front of her eyes. Clearly some sort of dart, though it was very small. It was no wonder she’d not noticed it penetrating her skin. “What the fuck is-”

Her vision blurred suddenly. “Wh-what?”

“What’s wrong?” Ursula asked, suddenly extremely concerned. Clearly, now wasn’t the time for a nap after all. She quickly attempted to pull herself together and get upright-

Only to find herself unable to move. Her limbs felt like lead, and she could barely keep her eyes open. “What the fuck?”

Viola collapsed forward.

“Viola?!” Vienna stumbled towards her sister, collapsing onto her knees after the first step. Her vision blurred again, and she had to struggle to focus on anything – the bench Erin rested on, her sister, Ursula’s prone form, the backpack.

The pre-splice soldier standing at the edge of their campsite.

“Sorry about this, Boss’s orders,” Yuri said simply. “I made sure to use a small dose, just in case it does anything fucky with your weird animal person immune systems. You’ll prolly be back in action in like twenty minutes, tops.”

Makoto emerged from some cover, quickly moving over to Viola. She effortlessly picked up the prone girl, slinging her over her shoulders.

“H-hey,” Vienna managed to force out, attempting to pull herself to her feet. “Put her down.”

“Try anything and I break your legs,” Makoto snapped.

“Fuck you.”

“Fine,” the woman replied, rolling her eyes in exasperation. “Try anything and I break her legs.”

That was enough to give Vienna pause. She slumped back over onto the ground, giving up. “Don’t you dare hurt her.”

“We won’t, so long as you play by the rules.” Bob strode into the scene, quickly kneeling in front of Vienna.

“We haven’t broken any of your stupid rules.”

“Y’ain’t broken any of Ami’s rules,” Bob corrected. “Right now, though? We’re playing a bit of a different game.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Think of it as a minigame. We’re takin’ Viola here. Your job, once y’all’re up ‘n at ‘em again, is to get her back.”

“F-fuck you,” Vienna snapped.

“That’s the spirit. Keep that attitude up and you’ll get ‘er back in no time.” Bob smirked. “‘course, if y’all’re smart, you won’t.”

That was the last thing Vienna heard before darkness flooded her vision and she returned to slumber.