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makes no difference who you are
Revelations abound
Permalink Mark Unread

"...real Arthur?"

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"His copy?"

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He looks away.

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Fenris does not mention the part about three other mageborns. Instead he asks. "Jessica, is your driver at all capable of dealing with this?"

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"My driver is a baseline human with martial arts and various sorts of gun training. I don't think so."

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"I... I should turn myself in."

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"Don't. Ar- Don't do it. ...What is she? A witch-queen?"

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"I have no clue. Arthur-or-whatever-your-name-is, do you wanna explain?—the other mageborn is me, for the record. Shapeshifting. Except I'm not born I got it from a—I'll explain it later."

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"Is it working?" Fenris asks.

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"I-it-it..." His breathing is unsteady and he's actually crying. "It can't be true. It's impossible!" He buries his face in his hands.

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—she hugs Arthur. "It's—it's not. I tried."

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He hugs her. "I'm sorry."

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<Unhand him, shapeshifter scum!>

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"He's hugging me back, you racist bitch," she calls.

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She sighs angrily. <Stop the deception. I know they are coming- Okay, everyone out of the car now.>

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"Um, no? You're pointing a thing at us, the limo is bulletproof?"

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<Good thing I'm not planning to use bullets.>

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"Still safer here than outside by any reasonable measure!"

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<Incorrect. I can zap the energy out of you regardless of physical barriers, using it a third time will knock out everyone already exposed and make carrying my rescuee more awkward.>

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"And so because of that we should make it easier for you by just walking out of the car and being standing targets?"

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"What do you think is going on here?"

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"I actually would like to know that too. You seem to think that they're conspiring against me or something and..." He closes his eyes.

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<Arthur's uncle sent reptoid shapeshifters after you and his other uncle. This group decided to take you to them tonight, there are dozens of them in the road up ahead and around your house. I don't know how the skymages fit in.>

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"Lady I've been dating Ar—him for over a month, if I wanted to kidnap him I'd have had lots of other situations to do it. If someone else wants to kidnap him though I want to avoid that as much as you do, stop being so antagonistic on so little information."

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"She is right."

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They can actually feel the telepathic ellipses.

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"Look. There is no reason to kidnap him in a freaking limo or keep the pretense this long."

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<Fine.>

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"Great! Progress! Now do you have the time to explain further or should we just be figuring out how to run away in the other direction as fast as possible? Is Arth—his family okay?"

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<I don't know about his uncle. But Arthur is not->

She is interrupted by the sound of police sirens.

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They can see the police cars fast approaching from all directions. "It's okay. We called them."

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"Oh yeah we did that. Oops."

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The police cars pull over and they can hear the megaphone. "Put your hands in the air where we can see it. Drop your magical weapons now."

They hear a telepathic burst of static and then Vii drops to the ground. A cop came from behind and shot her with a taser.

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"...I think that was uncalled for. Uh, should we get out of the car and explain?"

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"Yes. Hopefully in a way that doesn't make them think we are crazy."

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"I will get out first." He does that.

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Dayo goes after him.

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Tentatively and with very deliberate movements Felix also leaves the vehicle. Followed by Fenris. One of the officers approaches them.

"Evening, ma'am and men. S-" The officer clear his throat. "Sorry about the inconvenience. This one escaped the asylum a couple of days ago. Real nutcase, I hope she didn't try her spiel about alien abductions on you."

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"Felix if your magic is working knock them all out immediately please."

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"It's not working." Fenris says before slipping past the officer they are talking to, trying to reach Vii.

The "officer" snarls and changes into a scaly-skinned humanoid and tries to reach for Felix.

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But he and Fenris knock the "officer" down with a tackle.

The other officers also shapeshift and move to attack. A total of five of them.

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Well shit. She doesn't exactly have any martial arts training. She ducks.

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Jessica is still in the car so she uses a door to hit one of them, at the same time as the driver quickly opens his door and jumps out, a gun in his hand already pointed at another reptoid—

—but it doesn't fire. Cursing under his breath, he jumps at the one he was firing at and tries to use the butt off the gun to hit him.

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The one that got hit by the car door lets out a rather pathetic. "Ouch!"

The tackled reptoid breaks away and shoots a long tongue at Fenris, causing him to slowly collapse to the ground. The reptoid takes Fenris' shape, including the wings. The Fenris-impersonator tries to fly at Dayo but falls to the ground.

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Felix reaches where Vii has fallen and grabs something from the ground. Something metallic and wand-shaped which he tries to aim at one of the reptoids, but another one tackles him to the ground.

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Victor on the other hand is rather ruthlessly effective. He isn't impaired by the lack of magic and he moves like a precise machine of pain.

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The one that Jessica hit is quickly taken down by Victor. The Fenris-impersonator tries to turn to him, but the-one-they-have-been-calling-Arthur starts punching him fiercely.

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Felix decides he doesn't want the reptoid to get whatever magical device Vii was using and throws it away. It doesn't land close to Dayo, but Dayo is closer than anyone else.

The reptoid gets fed up with Felix and tongues him, taking his shape as well. Felix falls inert to the ground, eyes unfocused.

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Dayo lunges at the thing, while Victor makes use of the fact that he's better at punching and dodging than not-Arthur to engage that reptoid.

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Vii is rising slowly.

Jessica feels something cold wrap around her ankle. The reptoid that she hit with the door wrapped his tongue around her leg. A numbness and cold quickly spreads through Jessica's body and her senses blur.

The Jessica-impersonator quickly stands up, apparently unharmed from Victor's beating. He joins the fray by trying to land a hit on Victor.

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Dayo reaches the thing, but Felix-impersonator uses a wing to bat it away. He then makes his own attempt at grabbing the thing for himself.

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Victor: is pretty damn good at dodging. He tries to go for obvious weak spots: solar plexus, knee, back of head, chin, even throat if he can find an opening.

(But Jessica still goes out like a light.)

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Dayo now lunges for the impersonator to try to grab the thing.

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The Jessica-impersonator and Fenris-impersonator disengage for a moment and simultaneously have the idea of tonguing Victor.

Jessica is still very groggy, but she is coming back to herself and so is Fenris.

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Not-Arthur doesn't see who tongues him, but he falls to his knees.

Vii jumps at the Felix-impersonator. There is a horrible cracking sound of a wing being broken and the reptoid turns back. Dayo finally grabs the damn device. It's metallic but warm to the touch.

"Quick!" Vii shouts from where she is holding the reptoid down. "Throw it at me."

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Victor would normally be able to deal with two combatants but the tongues are something he wasn't trained for. He goes down.

Dayo, meanwhile, throws.

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Vii reaches for the thing. She would've grabbed it, but one of the other reptoids grabs it with his tongue. One of the Victor-impersonators hits Victor's head hard against the asphalt. Then Vii gets tongued. The other Victor-impersonator tongues Dayo. The last coherent thing Dayo sees is Vii's miserable expression.

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And she's out.

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The cold and numbness take hold and everything becomes blurry and distant. Her perception comes and goes in flashes. Including her sense of time.

"-managed to kick it to the-" Darkness. "-can't retrieve it-"

Very far away there is the sound of footsteps and maybe those are boots. "-mess."

"Sssorry, massster. We sshall kill-" Darkness. "-take them?"

"Yes, buffoon. They need to disap-" Darkness. "-put them to good use."

"Yesss, massster Jamessson."

Dayo is abruptly moved. This too is in flashes. One moment she is on the ground. Then in scale-covered arms a clawed hand gently brushes a hair lock away. Then in the backseat of a vehicle, feathers brushing against her arm. Then a long stretch of nothing but dark roads. Finally there is a syringe stab somewhere she can't even tell and the darkness becomes deeper and complete.

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Felix jolts into conscience. There is loud music around him and the sound of conversation, just in the other room. A party, a large one by the sound of it. He is in a large corridor of reddish brownstone. The light is provided by torches, and by what he can sense there are torches everywhere in this building.

Weirdest of it all: He is holding a food tray-

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A young woman - who Felix immediately recognizes - comes through the door. "Felix? Is there something wrong? Are you going to bring the food? People are waiting for you."

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"Oh. Sorry, Vera. I feel like I forgot something... Do you know where everyone is?"

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"In the next room, silly."

They walk into the room. The party is massive. Some people are playing with fire, some are on fire, but this appears to leave them completely unharmed.

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There is no sign of Fenris or their genderfriends. And soon Felix is distracted by the sight of people on fire.

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Fenris is flying as fast as he can.

In the back of his mind he notices a small confusion. His mind is telling him that he just crossed a portal but he can't remember the event itself. The recollection feels like a detailed memory of a memory. And the next memory is him flying.

He is holding two people by the hand. His parents. Except they are ethereal and thin. And getting thinner by the second, like ghosts that are somehow starving. And the sense of urgency to save them is much greater than the desire to check that small confusion in the back of his head.

Over there, there is a cluster of boulders floating above the frozen sea. So close-

A giant sea serpent emerges from the ice, its body black and slick with teeth like daggers. It snarls at Fenris and his parents. Fenris needs to dodge and only barely doesn't drop his mother. That would be the end of her.

Fenris circles around and a second serpent emerges. He goes up and flies towards the boulder cluster in an arc. Almost there, his parents are barely there, but they are almost there.

Then a third serpent sneaks up on them and Fenris dodges.

Fenris doesn't know if he let go or if they ran out of time, but his parents turn into dust and then into nothing.

He would've stood still if the serpents didn't decide to converge and attack him at same time. Avoiding them was easy, he just went further up in the sky.

There he saw another... vision. It wasn't his grandfather, but it looked like him. The vision stared at Fenris and with just his eyes conveyed a message.

"You failed."

 

Fenris observes the serpents and with a simple feint manages to land on a boulder unharmed.

The thing is the size of a house, bare gray rock with nothing growing on it. Not even moss. It's barren and with a single feature.

There is a spring perpetually dripping water, which overflows and runs into a little canal.

If Fenris hadn't failed his parents would've drunk from it and-

Fenris drinks from the spring. It changes shape, the stone grows and becomes smoother. It gains a purposeful form. The cylinder of a fountain adorned by a stone statue. It depicts Fenris, looking forward with what might be called determination. But to the real Fenris it feels like the expression of failure. Absently, Fenris makes the boulder float higher than the serpents' reach.

He solved one limitation. Now he needs to figure out what to do next.

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She opens her eyes.

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White. Pure whiteness expanding in all directions. There is light, but no sun, just white luminescence with no visible source coming from the white sky. She can't even tell where the horizon is. It blends with the ground, which is covered in fine white sand.

White like a blank canvas turned into reality.

No tracks on the sand and no features or clue to tell her how she got here. The question of how she got here feels somehow meaningless.

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...the ground feels solid. It's how she can tell there's a ground. After a minute of staring at nothing she crouches and touches it. Fine sand, fine enough that it gets stuck in the creases of her skin, and the solid ground beneath it. She tries to dig her hand into it but there's no give.

She stands up again and wonders idly how she's not blinded by the light, there's so much of it. She knows she's not blind because she can see her hand, her self.

But everything else is so empty.

She starts walking.

Permalink Mark Unread

Whiteness update: still white. Is she going to stay at it for hours?

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No. This is giving her a headache (it's not really but it feels like it should be). She needs something. Why is there nothing? There should be something. It makes no sense for there to not be anything, nothing—this featureless empty eternal nothing—nothing is crazy. There are—molecules. The ground must be made of those. They must've come from somewhere. Everything comes from somewhere—the Big Bang, ultimately. The great soup of everything in an inflationary period followed by the rapid cooldown—soup of matter, too energetic to even be called elements, coalescing in random locations due to gravity, forming the very first stars, the simplest thing made of matter, the place where all matter comes from, and if there's matter then there should be stars

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The sand shifts and moves like being carried by the wind. It's hard to see the white on white, but she can tell something happening up in the sky and then darkness starting to spread out from the middle of the whiteness, moving much like sand. It's quickly followed by color that paint beautiful nebulas. The cosmic clouds then quickly form stars dotting the heavens. She can see a galaxy overhead for a solid moment before it's replaced with a star that grows larger and larger and then... there is a sun hanging from the clear blue sky.

Permalink Mark Unread

...that's more appropriate.

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Fenris thinks that the memory of crossing the portal wasn't real, but trying to fly beyond the edge of the dimension proved useless (he just kept being turned around). After some effort he locates the point in the sky where the portal stands and uses this portal's opening key. Make the wind go in a circle and then rise up. Just like in his memory. Fenris flies through it.

He doesn't find himself on the other side, instead he wakes up on some sort of cheap hospital bed in a poorly lit room. It smells terrible in there.

Fenris keeps his eyes shut for a moment, before peeking through them very briefly. A reptoid is in the room, but turned away from him. There are at least two other people in the same room, both unfamiliar and both in similar beds, sleeping.

Fenris takes a few moments to observe the reptoid. Two people pass outside the room and the creature tenses.

"This delay is unacceptable!" hisses someone.

"Ssorry, massster. We will be ready to explore their pocket dimensssions sssoon. Your nephew isss troublessome." Says someone, obviously another reptoid.

They move away and Fenris can't hear the conversation. The reptoid in the room relaxes marginally and Fenris observes what he is doing...

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...Apparently the reptoid has a pen and a book and is drawing or writing something while sitting on the floor. He casts furtive glances at the door every so often.

Fenris considers his options. His powers are back, but he can barely feel the sky which means he is somewhere underground or very closed. The air feels dry and the terrain feels flat. A desert? They most likely have been moved from Florida then. He also considers his... dream and what it implies.

Very carefully, Fenris removes the pillowcase from his pillow. He picks a moment where the corridor is quiet and the reptoid is distracted. With a swift but quiet movement, Fenris flies and then stuffs the pillowcase in the reptoid's mouth. While the reptoid is still surprised, Fenris immobilizes the being. That part doesn't go as quietly as desired. The creature panics and starts kicking. Fenris hoped he could get some information, but he probably should get on the move.

Fenris lets go off the reptoid and then causes the air around the scaly being to get so hot as to make anyone pass out. Fenris leaves the room and flies close to the ceiling. Searching for Felix, Dayo, their mutual boyfriend, Jessica, Victor and Vii. There are more people on beds, but no one he recognizes. Mostly pale and old.

Fenris has no idea what is going on here. He thinks he spotted Vii through a door's window, but upon closer inspection... a room with at least two dozen white-haired people. Most puzzling of it all: they are wearing or holding various metallic objects with the apparent magical effect of assembling common electronics like smartphones. They all look scared, starved and miserable.

Fenris lingers too long searching for Vii among them and one of them spots him. He is out of there in a flash, but that's not fast enough, he can hear shouting behind him. Fenris finds the stairs and moves up. Reptoids start pouring into the stairs and Fenris catches the brief glance of an open window and bull-rushes past a pair of reptoid creatures.

There is a brief moment where Fenris thinks he made it.

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Something pounces on him from behind, sinking sharp teeth in his neck. Much bigger than the other reptoids and with clawed hands that feel strong enough to break bones. There is some kind of poison spreading out of it, which causes Fenris' vision to blur and his blood feel like it's on fire.

Worst of it all, whatever what is holding onto him is making almost orgasmic sounds at the taste of his blood.

Fenris half-falls and half-tries shrug the thing off. But that only earns him an embrace that probably did break something as they both crashland-

 

Even as the blood causes him to lose consciousnesses, Fenris tries to not just give up, even if he thinks there is an alternative, he doesn't know if it will work... He just needs to keep trying anyway...

Darkness takes hold of him again.

Permalink Mark Unread

She's small. She's so small. And the house is big. It's naturally big, like a mansion, bigger than her parent's place, and made even bigger by the fact that she's so small.

"Mom?" she calls. "Mom, I don't know where I am."

No one answers.

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There's wind, now, and a sea.

Planets are ejected matter from stars, right? Balls of molten rock and iron, elements coalescing randomly into stuff big enough to be approximately-spherical under its own weight. That's how rocky planets are formed, at any rate, and she's clearly on a rocky planet, so that's what must have happened. But the ground is solid and cool, this isn't molten rock, so it must've cooled off. The core is still molten, of course, but that's far away.

And there must be water, right? That's an important part of temperature regulation, is water—and the microorganisms in water, converting carbon dioxide into oxygen, which is then hit by ultraviolet light that turns that into ozone. The ozone layer and the atmosphere keep the temperature stable and breathable. So this planet must have water, and an ozone layer, and the water must be salty—an ocean—because it's always in contact with the rock. The rock on which she's standing, for instance, in the middle of the ocean.

Permalink Mark Unread

Atmosphere and ocean, very important to sustain complex life.

Like the ones in those three motorboats over there. They're heavily covered in protective gear, but they look like reptoids. At least a dozen in three boats, one of which is going straight to Dayo.

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What.

Those don't make sense.

So the ocean starts trying to make sure they're not there.

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The waters become turbulent enough that the boats starts zigzagging. One is briefly caught in a whirlpool and turned around. Another capsizes. They're still trying to approach.

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No they don't understand this world is not ready it makes no sense for them to exist here. They should come back later.

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Now the ocean is really violent, to almost impossible levels. The capsized boat is swiped aside, one of the reptoids actually goes flying up in the air and lands closer to the shore. But the waters are dragging most of everyone else away. Some are going under and not coming back.

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Yes, that is at it should be. This world cannot contain these things yet, they don't follow from what exists.

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The reptoids change their minds and turn around. At least the ones that are able to.

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And the ones that aren't will become raw material that fits with the rest of the world.

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Such is the nature of the universe. Or at least this one.

Several minutes later. Several portals appear around her out of nowhere, showing some kind of frozen wasteland on the other side.

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That... makes some sense?

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Well, her confusion doesn't dispel the portals.

In fact a tighter ring of portals opens around her. Then two- no, three more portals right on top of her. It's going to get hard to move at this rate.

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...she's not even actually moving though. She's just. There.

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Well, now she literally can't take a step without going through a portal.

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She wasn't taking any steps anyway.

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Was she moving at all? Because now the portals are preventing her from doing that.

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She's god she doesn't need to move.

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If she says so. The portals will close in tighter on her.

 

What is that black thing over there in the frozenlands? There are shadows moving over there.

She can see a reptoid running, being pursued by... a giant black sea serpent that slides in and out of the ice like it's liquid. The serpent is missing an eye. They are moving her way.

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Huh. Interesting.

Maybe she should try to close these portals before they get here. But she's not sure how.

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Something, maybe a wisp of sand, stirs... but to no visible effect.

In fact another portal opens right up close to her nose.

And then the wind blows and she can even see when a strand of hair connects-

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And suddenly she finds herself in Felix's arms.

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And she—wakes up, for lack of a better word, and collapses into his arms. "—what—what's happening—what's—going on—"

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They are in a dark room with four beds. Jessica and Victor rest on two of them. A reptoid is face down on the floor.

"Dayo," Felix sighs in relief. "I don't know, I woke up in this place and there are more reptoids about. None of you were waking up and I have no idea where Fenris is."

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"I—I—I had a dream—it was—" She looks around. "How did you knock that reptoid out?"

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"My powers are back."

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"Oh—"

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"—mine are too."

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He nods. "I think it has been days. ...We are somewhere desert-like. We should wake the others up and find the others."

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"So many others," she agrees, smiling faintly. "Okay." Can she try to wake the ones around them up...?

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No dice. "I can't carry two people. I could fly you out if there is an exit and come back for them?" he asks grimly.

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"...I can carry multiple people. Probably."

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"Oh, what's the limit to your shapeshifting-?" He starts asking. "We don't have time. And you know what you can do."

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"I do," she nods.

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Felix goes over quietly to Victor's bed and figures a good angle to carry him.

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"I'm going to need more space than here—we should try to find the others."

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Nod. "Maybe we should leave them here and do recon first? Or I could go do recon by myself..."

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"Your magic is probably more useful for that, but I'm wary of leaving them here alone..."

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Felix thinks. "Yeah. It's probably not a good idea to come back for them. I can probably pay attention to air currents and knock out anyone that sees us."

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"Yeah. Do you think you can find everyone else?"

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"I have a better chance than someone that isn't as mobile or as capable of defending himself."

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Nod.

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Hug?

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Hug indeed.

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Now, time to get on the move. Felix checks the corridor and it looks clear. He carries Victor and after pausing for a moment he decides to go left.

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Dayo takes Jessica; she's not as strong in this shape as when she's a boy and she's conserving her energy.

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Another turn, then Felix goes very still and walks back. "I think," he whispers, "there is a large room that way, but I think I also heard voices from there."

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"Could you make out what they were saying?"

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Headshake.

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"We should—try to figure it out. Is there a closed door or something? I could try to listen in and you keep watch."

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"There is. I can probably knock them out faster than they can talk, but someone might see them."

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"If they see us that's still better than nothing. Let's go, then."

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They creep closer to the source of voices, which have the particular exaggerated hiss of reptoids.

"...Busssy with the mothersship. Not gonna notisse," says one reptoid in a loud whisper.

"Masster will!" answers another, fearfully.

"Then our ssscaless are gone anyway. The commander sssaid that our dreamsshaper iss too much trouble. Massster will kill him. No more ussse."

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"...what's a dreamshaper?" Dayo mouths.

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Felix shrugs to show he doesn't know. He guesses it might be what caused the weird dream.

"How many dead?" the reptoid continues.

There is a moment's pause. "Too many drowned."

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She shrugs slightly.

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Felix mimes. Should they stay listening or should they leave?

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She taps her ears. Then she mouths, "How many inside?"

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Felix listens in and raises three fingers in one hand and five in the other, then he makes a "so-so" gesture.

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"All of them reptiles?"

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"Can't tell. My weather sense is not that good."

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She nods, then continues listening.

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Felix nods. There is a lot of hissing whisperers. It turns out to be a list. "And almosst everyone from nine."

"Ssissu iss dead?!"

"No. That'ss why almosst."

The following hiss is somehow exasperated. Pause. "Sstraight up and sstand guard."

"I think someone is coming," Felix whispers.

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She carefully puts Jessica down.

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Felix puts Victor down as well.

"Ssissu!" Someone hisses.

Someone else starts speaking. "I-I heard you ssaying my name

"Go away, imbessil!"

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...this doesn't sound super useful.

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It really doesn't. And after a pause there is a strong hot wind rushing past the hallways towards the other side of the door. They hear the sound of bodies falling to the ground.

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"Was that you?" she whispers.

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Nod nod.

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Sloooowly open the door?

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Three knocked out Reptoids.

One reptoid looking around the corner alarmed. It blinks at them. Felix manages to recover from the surprise fast enough to knock the creature out...

...but not fast enough for them not to shout at the top of their lungs.

"Fuck." Felix says as the creature's scream die down.

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"—well, this place is big enough, certainly. We need to find everyone else, though—"

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"Someone might've heard. We should either bolt or find a place to hide..."

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"Place to hide sounds best—"

Anywhere likely around?

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There are more rooms. The place appears to be rooms and doorways. "This is quite huge for a place so empty," Felix notes after they found a room with two exits. He rests Victor on the floor.

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"Yeah. I wonder what it's for. Or where it is."

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"And how they got a bunch of mageborns that we never heard about, whatever is the deal with the Arthur we know ...I wonder if we are on a pocket dimension and closer to home than I previously guessed."

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Shrug. "No clue. Okay, how do we find the others, now?"

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Felix grimaces and looks away. "I think I have a better chance if I do it alone. I can create a fire shield around me... How flexible is your transformation? Could you turn into something sturdy that can swallow Jessica and Victor whole?"

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Tiny, tiny Jessica finds herself suddenly stepping through a tiny, tiny portal.

She manages to wake up to hear "-can swallow Jessica and Victor whole?"

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"NO ONE'S GOING TO SWALLOW ME!" Jessica cries, sitting up suddenly.

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Felix covers her mouth. "Be quiet. No one is going to eat you."

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She blinks and looks around, then nods minutely.

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Felix listens for sounds of people approaching while whispering, "We woke up here. We don't know where the others are. You and Victor were not waking up. We are trying to find a way out."

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She nods again.

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Felix waits a second to see if Victor wakes up. "We should move. Dayo, would the swallowing trick have worked?"

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"No. You'll have to ride me."

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Nod. "Okay, let's take Victor and try to find an exit again."

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Nod. Onwards!

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And Felix tries to guide them through the corridors. They start hearing movements about. Felix directs them to the left- nope! Backtrack! Backtrack get in this dead end corridor.

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Yep okay dead end corridor hidey hide.

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Hide hidey hide.

The sounds keep coming closer. Felix turns towards the dead end. "I think there's a draft coming through this wall," he whispers.

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She tries to look for where it could be coming from, exactly.

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It's hard to notice, but there is a line near the corner. It looks painted over, but maybe it's something she could pull...

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And if she does pull?

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It's a bit stuck, but it's opening. Felix notices and tries to help her, until...

There is a burst of flame from the other end of the corridor. Felix created a wall of fire. "They found us."

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"...you know what, whatever. I'm gonna rescue us. Take a few steps back."

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Felix does that. Then he focuses on the door. Maybe he can use air pressure to make it easier to open? He tries that.

Various reptoids turn around the corner.

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Jessica takes a few steps back, too. "What are you gonna do?"

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"I'm gonna rescue us, I just said."

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"How?"

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She grins dangerously. "I'm a motherfucking dragon."

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And she turns into a dragon. It's huge, easily serving for all of them to ride with a lot of leftover space. She's red, and she glows with barely contained fire from the inside. They can feel the heat from where they are, emanating from her body and her breath. Her scales shimmer with the movement of her muscles, and her eyes are ablaze with yellow-orange light. This has, of course, the expected effect in the architecture.

"Mount up," she growls, somehow not needing to make the proper mouth shapes to speak.

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"Wow," Felix says helping Jessica and the still-sleeping Victor onto the dragon.

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"Holy fuck you never told me you could do this this is so cool—"

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"I know," she growls smugly. "Now we go."

And then she roars, a deafening sound that shakes the foundations of the building, and stretches out her wings.

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The place gets way less structurally sound than it once was. The walls and ceiling start cracking. Felix blows away debris.

"Dayo, go up! Break the ceiling."

Reptoids advance on them, trying to tongue Dayo. It feels like lashes of cold water against her scaly, glowing-hot carapace. The reptoids experience something much more unpleasant, holding their burned tongues or convulsing on the ground.

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"Cover yourselves," and she can headbutt the ceiling.

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Felix's wings cover Jessica and Victor. He will also take the opportunity to shoot some fire towards their assailants. To intimidate.

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And now the ceiling is out of their way.

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She breaks through the ceiling and through the roof, sending tiles in all directions (with some help from Felix's wind).

Whatever this place is the surrounding area is a pitch-black desert with no obvious direction to go.

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"You wouldn't happen to have a handy magnetic sense, would you?"

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"I don't." Felix hops from Dayo's back (which is surprisingly much cooler than the rest of her dragon body) and takes flight.

He circles around the place looking for a direction-

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-then something drains the air out of his lungs and he drops from the air.

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She wouldn't be a very effective dragon if she didn't have the athleticism to catch him mid-air, would she?

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Regardless, she manages to catch him.

He is limp on her back.

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It's not hard to spot what caused this reaction from Felix. The desert lacks features and all that red is rather attention grabbing.

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"No no no no no norefuse—"

She flies all the way to him.

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One wing torn out, the other five limbs bent in odd ways. The skin very pale. The eyes unfocused.

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Felix half-falls half-dives away from her. He approaches and checks for any sign of life...

His scream is raw and primal.

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So is her roar.

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The sands stir around her. Then Felix's attention snaps and he raises a curtain of fire.

It's not quite fast enough to block what it was supposed to block.

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The what tries to take a bite out of Dayo's wing bits.

The what is wearing Fenris' shape with a half-burned cruel smile in his lips.

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The what will find her wings are significantly sturdier than they look. And they will bap it with enough force to, possibly, bury it several inches into the ground. And then burnt for good measure.

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The Fenris-shaped entity is swatted and is thrown in the air.

And then stops.

Apparently, it's not just the shape that's being copied. Dayo gets a blast of sand to the face.

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A wind in the opposite direction sends that blast away.

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Which is a great opportunity for a shapestealer to take a bite of the fragile skymage.

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She roars again and swats the shapestealer out of the sky once more. And more fire.

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More fire.

He- he can't bring himself to actually make the fire swallow the other one whole. It would be so easy.

But he can't.

He is not even angry. He is just... hollowed out.

"We should try to run, more might be coming."

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She makes an affirmative grunt, and starts flapping her wings again to bring them aloft.

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The wind picks her up.

Felix looks down. He feels weak over being unable to do it. He feels weak over wishing to do it at all.

Fire, fire everywhere, except around the living being who is trying to fight it with cold and by gathering electricity to form a thunderbolt. Felix counters both.

Killing is something he is unable to do. But burning away most of the oxygen in the area is another story.

They put distance between them and the inferno below.

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Can she find an obvious direction to fly in?

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The desert remains a vast sea of darkness with a single island of raging fire.

Felix suddenly blinks.

"I think this is a pocket dimension and we are nearing the edge. The weather is weird upwards."

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"Show me the way."

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Felix points and after a moment he remembers how dimensional edges work and lands on Dayo's back. He uses the wind to guide their direction.

Soon enough the pure blackness is replaced by a sudden fog, a sense of something missing that grows around them, more and more...

And there is a moment where gravity fails and there is nothing in the universe but each other's presence...

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...then it all comes back at once. Compared to the absolute darkness of before, the night sky above them is practically an explosion of light. The stars shine in unnatural blues and purples.

Under the moonlight there is a city beneath them. Skyscrapers standing very tall, reflecting the stars like dark mirrors.

There is no sound of people. No cars. A few dozen points of artificial light scattered around the windows.

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"...wait, are we still in a pocket dimension?"

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"I think so..." He looks up. There are twin lines on his face reflecting the starlight. "Yes. Is everyone alright?"

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"I'm okay... Victor's still asleep, though."

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Dayo growls affirmatively.

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That's good. Felix wants to check on Victor, but instead his legs buckle and he collapses on the floor like an useless idiot.

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"Don't do things that make me want to hug you, I can't shift back," Dayo huffs annoyedly. "Come on, we need to find a way out of here too and back to Earth and figure out how to set fire to all of them and steal their things."

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"Um."

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"Long story, I get dragon psychology when I turn into a dragon."

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"I am sorry." He stands up and mounts Dayo. He indicates the dimension's edge again.

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She flies.

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Once again, the dimensional-crossing weirdness.

The sky here looks much less impressive. The terrain beneath them is a combination of treetops and water.

"This is another pocket dimension."

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Dayo grumbles something unintelligible in her dragon voice and flies on.

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This one Dayo will find remarkably familiar.

Including the fact that a cluster of portals starts to open around them.

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She stops moving forward, flapping her wings to stay aloft. What the...?

"I—this is the place of my dream."

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Felix looks through the portal. A vast frozen space extending as far the eye can see.

"I... saw portals to that same place in my dream as well."

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"Me too..."

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Suddenly, the portals around them wink out... and are replaced by six portals, trapping them in a cube.

"That... pretty much prevents us from flying out."

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"Then we don't," Dayo huffs again, flying through one of them.

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And the portals close as soon as they are through.

There is nothing but pale ice going on and on in all directions.

"The... the sky is weird. It shouldn't- it's hard to explain, but it shouldn't be like this."

The sky looks foggy-blue, but not otherwise weird.

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"Got a direction for me or do I just fly at random?"

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"I don't know... this dimension is much smaller than the rest? And-"

A portal opens near them, but instead of standing upright it's horizontal and parallel to the ground. Then another opens, and another. They form a straight line of six portals and then two more portals open to the left and right of the second-to-last portal. Then yet another two portals open aligned to the third-to-last portal but further away. It's very obviously a shape...

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"Someone's drawing a fucking arrow with portals," she growls. "Grand. Guess we go in that direction, then."

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The portals vanish when they get too close. But their destination becomes pretty obvious soon enough. The other large portal arrow was not necessary. The cluster of floating rocks up ahead is literally the only feature around.

Except maybe for the giant black sea serpent things. They dig through the ice very easily and snap jaws at them, but the group and the rocks are far too high to be reached by the creatures.

The floating rocks are large, boulders the size of a small house each. Six in total... featureless except one of them has... something... a statue?

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Sure statue why not because her day couldn't get any fucking weirder.

Is there enough space for the fuckoff huge dragon to land?

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Plenty. As they get closer it becomes obvious the statue is surrounded by a fountain of sorts, simple and circular. The entire thing is made from the same stone as the rock.

Felix hops off suddenly. He takes a look at the statue and takes a step back. He looks at the fountain and his confusion doubles.

The stone statue's face is the same as Felix's, but the wings are like Fenris'.

And there is a red bubble inside the fountain and inside it there is something that could be a fetus of some kind.

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Jessica hops down and looks at it. "What the fuck."

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Dayo merely cranes her neck to get a better view. "My thoughts exactly."

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"Maybe it's a grave?"

Another portal arrow shows up nearby. The portals are smaller than average, but they are not that great for signals. This one points to the next floating rock, which happens to be floating close enough to make it easy to walk over.

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Or hop over, if you happen to be a fuckoff huge dragon. She gets Victor down first, though.

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The fountain has a spring, burbling water that runs away in a rivulet and down off the rock. The arrow appears to be pointing at the spring or at least at the water.

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"'Nother fountain," she calls. And because of dragon psychology, she laps some water up from it.

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The water is very refreshing, almost delicious. It seems to reach deep into her fiery being and quench her soul.

Also, she suddenly finds herself the possessor of a few new senses and her previous senses get an edge. Which isn't all that helpful when she is suddenly experiencing a twisting pain in her wings, which appear to be cut a thousand times. From the inside. Her awareness expands outwards and she can feel the sky: air pressure, movement, temperature, humidity and electric charge are obvious like colors in a painting. And she gets that there is something wrong with the sky here, it's... too still.

Also, her wings are now covered in red and black feathers and the floating rock is under her command.

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"Well, guess I got new powers again or something," she laughs.

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"You're a skymage."

And she can tell that Felix is one too. There is a bubble of magically controlled air around him.

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"Skymage dragon, that's one for the books. Come here, Jessica, drink from it."

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"Um... Dayo... Not to put too fine a point on it, but you're acting freaky."

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"It's the dragon psychology, I told you."

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"That's just words."

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She sighs. "It's complicated. When I shift I get the psychology of whatever I shift into, more and more over time. I don't know what a real dragon's psychology would be like because they don't exist and I don't want to go all the way into full dragon."

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"Is the mental effect permanent? And can you change it back? What-"

There is a rumble and the spring shifts and changes, the stone warping into a shape. There is a circle containing the water and a shape growing amidst it... a dragon shape.

"...the hell?"

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"...uh. Hey Jessica come here and drink from this?"

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"...fine."

She does.

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It tastes... like water. And there is a noticeable absence of wings on Jessica.

"Maybe if you drink from another spring? I think the statues mean that they are... claimed."

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"Yeah that's what I thought."

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"—wait, does that mean I get cool-ass wings? .......wait, does that mean Fenris got that one?"

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"Sounds likely."

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"But why? And how?"

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"I don't know? Maybe this where skymages truly come from? But we should give you and Victor the water anyway. ...More powers."

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"Victor's still asleep," she says, but makes her way to another island to get the water.

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The water tastes much better. At least in the second it takes before her wings start growing. That's possibly the worst pain she has experienced in her life and also the briefest.

Now Jessica has a pair of blue-green wings sprouting from her back,her irises turn white, and she gets a keen sense of the sky surrounding her. She in fact can tell with good-as-eyesight precision the shape of things in a few meters around her. She can feel the water too, as something under her direct control.

There is something off about the sky, and it's pretty obvious a property of this particular pocket dimension. The air just stands too still.

She can also feel the rock under her feet as something she can move. A statue starts emerging from the spring after a few moments.

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"Oh. I have wings."

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"—anyway, as I was about to say, the psychological changes aren't exactly permanent, if I switch back I start reverting to my normal thing. My fear is only that if I go full dragon I might not want to get back."

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Nod nod. "Please, don't-"

He turns around to check on Victor.

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Lying there on the ground.

"Are you gonna try drinking from one of the fountains?" She makes the closest rock island move closer for convenience.

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She can move her own claimed rock and nudge another towards them. They collide and the ground shakes, but no one is thrown off balance

"Did you do that? I already have skymagery..." he does not say that Fenris didn't look changed despite drinking from the water, "...but I guess the reptoids could come here and take it and that would be one less power in their hands."

He hops to the floating island and drinks.

"This tastes good, but I am not feeling- wait, you can control the rock with your statue on it?" he asks as a statue starts emerging.

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"Yeah, apparently."

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"Okay... They are kinda slow, but we should be able to crush things with them." Pause. "Should we get going? Back to Earth?"

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"I suppose so. Why is Victor still not up—whatever, mount up."

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Jessica looks at the sleeping body of her driver and waits for Felix's help to hoist him back onto Dayo's back.

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Yes, he can do that. "Remember that we need to be touching while crossing the dimension or we will land in different places."

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"We're all touching Dayo anyway."

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Once they're all up: hup.

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"Yes, but you can fly now and cross it on your own."

This one is a ruined city, the dawn is rising with a crimson sun.

Knives appear in everyone's hands, even Victor's. Felix looks at his own knife surprised.

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Dayo also has a knife. It's tiny in comparison to her body.

"Where is Earth?!" she roars, and speeds up her flying. "This is ridiculous I'm tired of these pocket dimensions I want to become a human and hug my boyfriend and figure out how to rescue my other boyfriend and cry."

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Felix hugs Dayo's back. Which probably can't be felt through the thick hide. "We really ought to have found Earth by now... fuck, the probability- there is no place outside the conflux with this many pocket dimensions overlapping."

The next dimension has a colorful forest, dotted by the occasional cottage. Felix groans.

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She is not going to set anything on fire. She is not.

Maybe the sky. She might set the sky on fire.

Hey can she use her shiny new magic to fly faster?

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It turns out that wind control is a great way to make airborne objects move where she wants. There's still a delay when they cross the vanishing point, but it comes faster.

They appear on a desert that's too bright.

Floating islands above a desert.

Floating geometrical crystals, above a swirly colorful void.

Above a non-floating castle that's on fire.

"Wait a minute, I recognize this place from my dream."

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"Oh?"

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"Yeah... same style, it was even on fire too. We should put it out."

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"I'm not good at making fires stop."

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"I think you got the greater gift of fire. You can just... tell the flames to not burn once you're close enough."

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"...hm. Okay then, let's try that."

She flies lower and tries that.

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It's simple enough, she might miss some stray sparks or the heat might rekindle the flame, but the fire starts going out.

There is a group of people huddled in the flames. They are not screaming despite the fire around them.

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Okay, now there is no more fire around them. She lands.

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Well, she is a large dragon, so they scream.

But then Felix lands next to her and one of them comes forth. "Felix! Where did you go? There are monsters attacking us." She hugs Felix.

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He hugs back. "Vera? You... are real?"

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"As opposed to?"

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"We are real. And there are monsters trying to attack us. Cover us with fire again, it destroys their venom."

The group does look remarkably not-carbonized.

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Felix hesitates for a moment. Then he creates a small flame in contact with his little finger. "Huh," he covers the group, "it's just like my dream. Fire only consumes or harms things if you tell it you to." He blinks alarmed. "Where is everyone else?"

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"I think it only harms if a skymage tells it to. And some were taken by the monsters and some are scattered."

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"Can someone explain what's going on here?" she grunts.

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"I would like to know it myself. Felix vanished after touching a portal and then a bunch other portals opened and reptilian monsters showed up trying to round everyone."

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"No, see, you've already lost me there, this is the first time Felix has come here outside of a dream."

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"He... wasn't dreaming. I mean, he was actually here."

"Wait, is that Dayo? And Jessica?" asks someone else.

"Why are you a dragon and a skymage respectively?" asks a third.

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"Long story... and how do you know them? ...and how do you know me?"

"We... are friends?" someone offers.

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"...hey Jessica you're kinda insane do you wanna try to come up with an explanation here?"

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"Gee, thanks," she says, then blinks. "But what if pocket dimensions are created from dreams?"

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"That... huh, that would explain why none of us remember anything before the party started. I guess we were created recently."

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"What? Does this means that I created them?"

"Sounds likely," says one of them who has yet to introduce themselves.

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"Oh yay I helped!"

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Dayo does a distinctly draconic snort.

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"Okay, then... what does this mean? We got kidnapped and then we dreamed about these pocket dimensions? How? And why?"

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"Well, where do they even come from? And why'd we all dream them?"

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Felix stares at the people he might have created. "I don't know. But we should find the others in this dimension too."

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"Good thing the three of us can fly then."

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"And presumably have better ability to defend yourselves than getting covered in fire. Which is specific to this dimension so remember to put yourselves out before leaving."

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"Yeah, should we split up? Ah, Dayo, you should be able to stick permanent shadows on people's eyes to blind them. And I don't know if either of you got the lightning gift, but I don't think you should experiment with using it just yet."

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"I'm fireproof anyway," Dayo says, giving a draconic shrug.

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"Splitting up is probably a good idea, yeah," says Jessica, eyeing Dayo.

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"One or two of us," she indicates her own group, "per skymage and maybe leave the rest here taking care of your sleeping friend?"

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"Maybe leaving Jessica here too. She would notice people coming and catch them by surprise with her water." Felix starts pulling condensing water from the air into clouds, presumably for Jessica's use.

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"Yeah can do." She grabs it.

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"Who wants a giant flying lizard ride?"

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"I do. We can focus on spotting people from the outside and Felix's team can go inside."

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"I do think I recognize the layout of this place. Sort of."

Two people volunteer to go with Felix and they start moving away the rubble that was blocking pursuers from accessing this balcony.

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She's a dragon, she can help with that.

But after that: up, up, and away!

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With Vera on her back. They circle around the place and Vera indicates where to check for people in need of rescuing. "Could you tell me what happened?"

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"We were kidnapped for some reason, apparently one of my boyfriends is someone's clone, who knows what's up with that, then we all had bizarre dreams, then we woke up and I turned into a dragon and rescued us and now we're trying to find Earth again."

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She is about to ask. But then she spots a gazebo that they should check out as a hiding place.

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So they can go check it out as a hiding place.

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Vera checks and sighs. "It's just a statue that fell-" abruptly she falls to her knees.

Dayo can feel a familiar lash of cold trying to take hold on her tail.

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Good thing her tail is sufficiently large to knock the fucking reptilian out. She sweeps it and turns around, roaring. "Either you leave or I will bake you. You have two seconds to decide."

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Well, there is a scream, which appears to be trying to get away in the orange glow. So that's an answer.

"Do you think we should try interrogating one of them?"

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"I think maybe a human or something closer to a human should be making these kinds of decisions. How are you even awake?"

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"Their saliva-thing burns when on fire, but it still works for a moment. And I think the monsters might know something. Their attack was organized."

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"Sure. Like I said, not sufficiently human right now to make this kind of decision, so if you wanna decide that for me feel free."

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"Okay, then." She looks where the reptoid was. "Well, that one made themself scarce enough that I think it might be a good idea to take to the air again."

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Up, up, and away.

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The castle is surrounded by gardens. Beautiful and large enough to count as parks.

They spot the light of a lantern at the edge of one. It wasn't there a minute ago and Dayo can tell it's near the dimension's edge.

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Well, they can go there slowly.

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"Be careful. I am pretty sure it's a reptilian monster."

And as they get closer it does look like a reptoid... actually, two reptoids, except one is apparently unconscious and being dragged by the other. The conscious reptoid spots the massive dragon and yelps and does their best to run away while carrying the other.

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The dragon is faster and can knock that reptilian out with a tail then try to pin it down.

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Reptilian meets the ground. It doesn't even try to tongue them.

"Please! Please! Don't hurt us." There is a distinct lack of hiss in the voice.

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"—wait what?"

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"Don't hurt us," says the whimpering reptoid.

"Huh..."

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"Okay please correct me if I'm wrong but are you reptoids? Or is this place making it look like you're reptoids?"

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"Yess."

"Yes, what?" Vera asks.

"Yess, we are reptoids. Don't hurt uss mighty one." The reptoid is bowing like Dayo is a deity or something.

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"Well why not, you were hurting us first."

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The reptoid flinches. "Jusst obeying orderss from masster. And not you. We were at the white place looking."

"Your friends for sure hurt us."

The reptoid flinches again.

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"What white place? Looking for what?"

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"For thingss that the masster might want if there were any."

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"I asked two questions," she huffs, exhaling smoke from her nostrils.

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Flinch. "We we-were sssent to recon new dimenssionss and one was jussst white before it got thingss. We were sswept away by wavess."

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"Wait, what?"

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"Sorry?"

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"Was—was there anyone there? A girl?"

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"Yess. Dark-brown skin." Flinch.

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"Well. Fine." She looks at Vera. "I'm not human right now, I don't know what to do, figure it out before I eat it."

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The reptoid flinches and trembles.

"Okay, you... do you have a name?" Vera asks.

"S-sissu."

"Sisu? Well, wait a second and don't do anything stupid." Vera turns to Dayo and waves her to get her head closer. "Are you okay? Did something happen in the white place?"

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"It's mine, just as much as Felix's place is Felix's, and I think I might have killed people there, and I am pissed off at them for making me do this but this is mostly the way my dragon psychology is dealing with the fact that I am horrified in myself. Gods, I am going to be so traumatized when I turn human again," she sighs.

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Pat pat. "How long can you put that off? Or that isn't how it works?"

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"That isn't how it works, I'm fine as long as I'm a dragon and not near anything flammable that we don't want to set fire to. But I really don't wanna stay a dragon for long so I'd like to rescue my other boyfriend and fly the fuck away."

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Vera nods. She turns back to Sisu.

"Okay, you mentioned a Master?"

"Masster Jamesson," Sisu confirms.

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"Who's master Jameson, what are all these places, why is he kidnapping us, where is my boyfriend and the person he's a clone of?"

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"Boyfriend?" Sisu inquires.

"Sisu, just answer the questions to the best of your ability."

"Okay... Masster Jamessson iss in charge of usss. He tellss uss to explore placess for him."

"What are those places? Why did he kidnap them?"

"They are pocket dimensionss... Masster kidnapss people to make dreamshapersss and ssend usss to the pocket dimenssionss."

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"What are dreamshapers, how are they made, what's their relationship with pocket dimensions?"

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"Masster makess dreamsshaperss."

"Okay, but how? Also the other questions."

"I don't know. Dreamsshaperss make dimenssionss, they dream them and make them grow," Sisu pauses, clearly remembering something, "once masster joked about them being made out of ssomesone's sssoul."

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".........okay that explains so much. Pocket dimensions are artificial? They belong to people?"

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Frenetic nods.

Vera pauses for a moment. "Do they often make people?"

"Ssometimess..."

"Where are they?"

Sisu flinches and doesn't answer.

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"Am I gonna have to threaten to bite your head off every time to get you to answer her questions, 'cause this is getting real old."

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"Mosst are kept... sssome are kept," Sisu looks down. "They kill mosst. Cooperative oness are ussed."

"For what?" Vera says with a fair bit trepidation.

"To do sstuff. Usse magic if they have good magic."

"Jesus."

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Dayo growls, a low, rumbling, menacing sound that emerges from the depths of her chest. "Magic person slavery. Yay. Are you guys magic slaves too?"

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Sisu gives her a confused look, like he never actually considered the question.

"Do... do they pay you? Would they be able to get away with killing you?"

"Yess. But that iss... how reptoids are. We sserve the ssstrong."

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"Is that so. Then you serve me now."

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Sisu is very still for a moment then practically throws himself before Dayo.

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"Great. Now you'll help us figure all of this out. And then I won't eat you."

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"Yesss, masster."

"Today it's mistress."

"Yess, misstresss!" Sisu hastily corrects.

"How about your friend? Are they going to be this cooperative once they wake up?"

Sisu nods.

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"Fantastic," she drawls. "What now?"

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"It's probably not a good idea to search for more people. At least not until we have a better place to keep Sisu and friend. Which, name of your friend?"

"He isss Ssalo."

"Okay, find somewhere we can hold Sisu and Salo. And grill him for more details. Do you know where they are keeping all these people? The magical slaves and dreamshapers?"

"I know where. But I don't know many."

"Estimation? More than fifty? More than a hundred?"

Sisu starts counting on his fingers and gives up. "Lotss."

"More than you can count in your fingers."

Nods. "Dreamsshaperss are thirty before you came. But the otherss are lotss."

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"Hey how about we go save all of them and burn whoever stands in our path?" she growls, her scales bristling.

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Sisu throws himself to the ground. "Yess, misstress."

"Okay. I guess we can put you and Salo on Dayo's back and if anyone tries anything everyone will fall out of the sky."

"Yess."

Sisu hastily gets up to do that.

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And once people are on her back she can take flight again.

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They go back to Jessica. Felix is already there with a dozen more people. Some injured and being tended to.

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And the dragon lands.

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"—hey Dayo you got something on your back."

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Yeah, several people react to the two reptoids. Sisu throws/falls himself from Dayo and bows. He is shaking.

"We found them. That one told us some things." Vera gives a summary of the conversation.

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"...uh, wow."

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"Yeah yeah whatever we gotta save people including my boyfriend."

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"Okay, do you know the place's layout? Could you draw it."

Sisu nods frenetically.

"Do you know where they would keep someone important? Or important things in general?"

More nods.

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And impatient huffs.

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With Sisu's help they figure out the base layout. Most dreamshapers are kept in this area on this level. Artifacts stay locked up over there. Other enslaved people stay over there.

"The Arthurss might be in the mothersship. I think..."

"Mothership?"

Sisu needs some coaxing to explain. The mothership is in Arthur's - the original one - dimension. Something happened and the original Arthur locked himself in there, which is related to how they needed the other Arthur.

Felix nods. "Can you explain the mageborn you have around? What can they do?"

"There's the White who are our ancient enemiess. They don't need to sleep or rest."

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"—the white haired people?"

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Sisu nods. "Arthur makess them."

Felix is thoughtful.

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"Who else?" Vera asks.

"There  are ssome that can ssing to control birdss. And ssome who are jusst pretty and fall in love with you."

"But anyone else that could be dangerous?"

Sisu shakes his head.

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"...so what now?"

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"We figure out how to evacuate the people here, including the other captives. Including Ar- our boyfriend. And his original. Then we go to the authorities?"

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"Sounds like a plan. Let's go!"

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"Alright. Is there a convenient portal out? Somewhere that we can sneak out without drawing attention and lead people to safety. Away from here."

"There iss a portal to crasshlandss. There iss a path there to village."

"An Earthside village?" Sisu nods. "Alright, lead the way. Can we go from that portal to the mothership?"

"Yess, but on the oppossite direction."

They start moving people. Descending the stairs and following Sisu.

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"We probably should split up? Injured folk going one way and people that are going to do the rescue to the other?"

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Dayo can step up to one side. She's definitely on the "rescuing people" side.

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Well. Jessica doesn't really... trust Dayo's faculties right now. She's gonna go rescue people too.

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Felix absolutely will help with the rescue. "What should we do with Sisu? And his companion? Do we take them with us?"

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Growl.

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"Dayo is not, uh, super tactically minded right now. I could try to take her place?"

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Felix looks at Dayo, looking concerned. "Okay, let's... maybe stash Sisu's companion somewhere out of sight and bring Sisu himself with us. Is there somewhere to hide your friend in the Crashlands?"

"Yess," Sisu answers quickly. "Many cavess."

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"That sounds like a good plan!"

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They arrive at where the portal is. It's a hallway that looks like it has seen better days (well, hours, it's not that old yet).

Sisu opens it with elaborate hand gestures. The other side reveals a gray rocky desert. There is a military-looking truck that looks like it has been forgotten.

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They walkthrough."We can take the truck for the injured people," Vera suggests. "Which way we are we supposed to go?"

Sisu points. "Portal openss if you do thiss," he makes another complicated hand gesture. "Mothersship iss that way." He points to nearly the opposite direction.

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"It's so weird that there's a mothership."

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"It's so weird to have been born today. Or created. And I didn't want to mention, but Sisu is kinda like an incompetent evil henchman."

Sisu flinches hard at that and almost starts kneeling down to ask for forgiveness.

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Felix raises a hand. "Don't... worry." He tells Sisu and then to the others. "Okay, are we ready to go?"

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"Don't be mean to the incompetent evil henchman. He'll become a competent good henchman!"

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"Let's just go."

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And go they go. Three skymages (one a dragon) and two evil henchmen (one passed out). They opt to have Dayo walk while Felix and Jessica fly low to the ground, since they need to spot caves. The terrain is rocky and irregular enough that they have a couple of false starts, but eventually they find a place.

"Dayo can't get inside like this, but if I am reading the currents right there is a pit that is hard to get out of if you can't fly." To Dayo. "Wait a minute and don't do anything harsh?"

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Huff. "Fine."

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"You'll be fine," says Jessica, patting Dayo's flank.

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Snort.

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They take the second reptoid off Dayo's back and make their way inside.

Sisu decides to just throw himself on the ground and tremble.

Inside the cave, the initial passage is narrow and twisted, but they soon find themselves in a large domed chamber. Felix creates a light for them and looks down at the ground.

"Okay, this does look good enough to leave Salo behind. I think he can even climb out, but not in a timely manner. Help me carry him down?"

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"Sure!"

She does.

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They take Salu down by way of a controlled fall. Felix makes the wind swirl around them, and they land on the packed dirt. They are about to lay the reptoid on the ground when a section of the wall moves on its own and spits a glob of something viscous at Felix's back.

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Jessica screams and tries to tackle him out of the way.

Not a whole lot else she can do actually.

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She manages to tackle Felix in time, but now she, Felix and Salu are a heap in the ground.

It is too dark to see, so Jessica feels their attacker through her new skymage sense. It is changing shape; it is similar to a reptoid, but shaped more like a frog-man than that.

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—oh okay in which direction is it—also can they get up fast—

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Between the tangle of body parts (including new body parts) and the general confusion of the situation?

The creature manages to spit up slime on both of them. It hits her in the neck and Felix's across the face. He produces a gurgled strangled sound.

And all Jessica's senses turn blurry, things don't go dark, but everything feels smudged and out of focus. And... and... is that her family over there sneering at her? No, wait it's the frog-creature. No, it's her family-

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Oh. Okay she's hallucinating.

That's stupid and she hates it.

But hallucination or not she can like. Still. Try to get up. No matter what those assholes are saying she still can get up, she always could, she knows she can—

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Weakly, Felix tries to help her stand up. He helps mostly by getting out from under her, but his attempts to prop her up more get in the way than not.

Her mother (?) looks down at her (it looks so much like Jessica herself). The revulsion and disgust are like physical things dripping from Jessica's skin. "We never wanted you. From the day you were born it was a child too many, and through the years what happens? We are proven right!"

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"Fuck. You," Jessica growls, pouncing in her "mother's" direction in any way she can.