Fantasy DIFFERENT BODIES ⋮ SAME SOUL | ( *starboob && syntra )

[Syntra]

'Inna. Inna, Inna, Inna,' the queen whispered as she traced her face with her fingers, both gentle and not. (Somehow, her voice reminded her of autumn leaves-- how it was everywhere, perhaps, or maybe the way in which it cracked. Or was it her who had cracked, actually? For that, she would have had to be whole first, though, which honestly sounded fake. '...once, once, once...' something within her cried, but the memories from that time seemed distant, and shrouded in fog. Might as well have been a fucking myth, indeed. You know, kinda like the prospect of bitches such as her ever finding fucking love! Or home, or friendship, or other silly things like that. That shit was fragile with a capital fucking F, and bitches... bitches were experts at reducing fragile stuff to shards, really. Just look at Liora.) 'Inna. Don't you know, dear Inna, that debts are to be paid? And, oh, you still owe so much to me! Hmm, hmm. Whatever shall I take from you?' thoughtfully, E-keysmash rubbed her chin.

'I don't have much left,' the blonde defended herself, in a tone that sounded fucking pathetic even to her own ears. 'Can't you, like, wait? Till I regrow stuff. Afterwards, you can have as much of me as you want!'

'Tempting,' the queen admitted. 'Or, you know, I can take it all now. How would you like that, huh? To belong to me completely, and fulfill your destiny. To join me on my throne. Am I not owed that, at least?'

'No. No, stay away!' Instinctively, Inna extended her arm to erect a barrier of sorts between her and the other woman, except that, whoopsie! Her arm was a part of her, too. The detail had escaped her attention before, but it seemed fucking obvious now, with the way it was being dragged closer, closer and closer to the queen, and shit, she couldn't stop it, and--

-- and suddenly, the queen wasn't the queen any longer. Instead of her, fucking Liora was standing there! Liora whose chest had cracked open, only to reveal nothing at all. Just... flesh and ribs, really, and a gaping hole where her heart had used to be. 'What the fuck are you looking for? You've taken it all already, you dumb bitch. I'm not the fucking Prometheus, if that's what you're asking.'

'What? B-but Liora, I don't fucking want anything from you!'

'Oh yeah? What are you doing, then?' And, to her own horror, Inna realized in that moment that her stupid hand had crawled into that empty space-- that, regardless of what she wanted, it was searching and probing and inspecting, for new things it could claim for itself. (For new ways in which she could fail the other woman, too. Probably.)

'That's not me,' she tried to explain, oh so feebly, but Liora just laughed.

'Who is it, then? Motherfucking Santa Clause? Spare me the spectacle and kill me already, you traitorous bitch. God fucking knows it will be a kinder fate than being stuck with your useless ass--'

With a gasp, Inna opened her eyes and looked around. Which, where the fuck was she?! Was this some hyper innovative torture technique, based on sensory deprivation? E-keysmash sure as fuck had upped her game, huh, with these bare-ass walls and a Liora-shaped mannequin and-- oh. Oh, okay. This was Liora's apartment, wasn't it? It had to be, because Liora was Liora and nobody could fucking replicate her poor design choices this faithfully. (A few weeks ago, the blonde would have laughed, but as it was? Her facial muscles must have turned to stone, for she couldn't remember how to do that. Hell, she couldn't even remember why anyone would want to do that! Laughter served no real biological purpose, as far as Inna was aware. If anything, it only made you waste more air, which struck her as terribly fucking inefficient. Would it not make more sense to hoard your resources? Every fucking species on this stupid Earth seemed to grasp that concept, but nooo, not humans! Special fucking snowflakes, really.)

"I, um. I'm..." I'm what? Fine? Terrible? The boundaries between the two states seemed surprisingly blurry, and Inna had no fucking idea where she fell on that spectrum. What kind of criteria were they using, even? "I don't know," she finally admitted, observing Liora with those vacant, expressionless eyes. "Do you have like, an official chart with symptoms? Or something like that. I mean, no problem if you don't, but knowing how I should feel would be helpful. I think. How do you feel?" ...in fact, how did anyone fucking feel? Feel, feel, feel-- such a stupid, nebulous verb! It could have meant literally anything based on who fucking said it, and so the question triggered flashbacks to all those times she had taken an exam without studying for it. And, no, they weren't pleasant!

"I don't... really care for my things," the blonde shook her head. "It's fine." (The fact she couldn't gather her strength to care about literally anything at all seemed like something BadTM, though, so she chose not to dwell on it. No point in making Liora worry, right? Right.) "Toast, though. I'm sure I loved toast. I... I mean, toast is made of fucking grain, and grain is a staple of human food, and... only weirdos hate it, really. Weirdos who are too weak to make it in this world! Which I'm not, thank you very much." It wasn't that she was hungry, of course-- her stomach was growling, yeah, but Inna figured that had to be some power move. ('Rawr, don't even try to touch me,' or something like that, probably. Humans were weird and territorial and shit, so that sorta checked out.) Still, Liora had gone through the trouble of making it, so Inna should at least appreciate that effort, shouldn't she? So, with no further commentary, she fucking stuffed the toast into her mouth-- without bothering to chew, as that was for the weak.

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Liora has always know that Inna is a complete and fucking weirdo––at first she thought this quality of the blonde's made her absolutely annoying and insufferable, with all her needless tangents and weird metaphors that usually only made a vague amount of sense, but at this moment the blonde is acting downright alien. Or, at the very least, extremely unlike Inna. Something about her seems vacant, like her soul isn't there anymore and something else entirely is operating in her place. The woman's brows knit together, her lips pursing together as she tries to place exactly what she is feeling. 'Well, at least her eyes aren't mirrors and she's not like reduced to fucking 'yes' or 'no' responses. That's probably good, right?' She scoots further onto the bed until she is sitting at Inna's feet. "Um, no... Should I? I can probably look one up, but I don't know how much literature there is on recovering from being a demon. Sol might actually have a lead on that, but I doubt her sources are all that credible," she rambles, fidgeting with her hands and unsure of what to do with them or where to even look. Looking directly at Inna is difficult for a myriad of reasons, but she doesn't want to avoid her completely. To some degree, she did miss staring at Inna's stupidly attractive face, but it's like all that longing has changed into something way more confusing since Inna's return. Logically, she knows it's not even been 24 hours, but still she expected this reunion to feel different. More triumphant? But she doesn't exactly feel that way.

"I'm fine," she says, waving the question away with an expected answer, because really she doesn't even know how she is feeling. Or how she should feel about this. Her crying sessions have not helped her at all either. They just leave her feeling like she has a gaping hole inside of her chest and there's no way to ever fill that void. "I took a shower so I guess I feel fresh too?" Is fresh even a feeling? Probably not, but it's not like even a Liora at her baseline could have answered this question in a remotely human way. That Liora doesn't think she has feelings and yet this Liora is discovering that she has quite a lot and she doesn't know how to dump them away like she used to. It's almost as if she's run out of emotional repression jars. (That can't be good.) She pulls out her phone from her pocket and begins searching for lists of feelings, eventually landing on a feelings chart and shows it to Inna, "Here, maybe this will help. It's color coordinated too, which I think is really nice. Based on this, I think I feel confused."

However, as Inna continues to speak, Liora's concern only grows as Inna's strangeness increases at an almost exponential rate. Where Liora knows she over explained toast out of pure nerves, what Inna is doing in return seems completely off. Like, even if she were trying to riff on Liora's nerves, explaining grain the way she had––as something human, as if she is not that too––completely throws the woman off. Especially when she suggests that not liking toast is equal to being a weirdo who won't make it in this world. Liora tries to not let the worry show, because she doesn't really want Inna to know she is concerned, suddenly uncomfortable with the idea that Inna might know she is vulnerable. "Wh-what are you doing?" she asks, unfortunately not able to hide the feelings that seem to wrap each syllable. Each one telling Inna that she is unsettled by the display. "That's not how you eat." Liora tries to think about all the times she has eaten with Inna and whether or not shoveling food into her mouth is part of her M.O. But, no, that doesn't come to mind and she knows she would have made a note or comment about it before if that were the case. Something like that would have been hard for her to miss. "You don't need to eat it like I'm going to fucking steal your food, okay? You can, like, chew it, you know? I don't want you to choke. I'm not CPR or first aid certified and I'd feel really uncomfortable trying a medical procedure like that in a potentially life or death situation... Did you forget how to eat?" the question actually doesn't come off as judgmental at all. In fact, Liora sounds uncharacteristically earnest.

The woman runs her fingers through her hair and sighs. "I'll have to get groceries and shit at some point, so if you want to come with we can also find some shops for clothes. I mean, you can borrow my stuff too, but you seem to really hate that I wear only black. I can get you purple stuff. I remember that you like purple. You said it was your favorite... Unless you've changed your mind? I guess you can change your mind about that stuff. Like I used to really like pink..." she decides that's enough embarrassing herself for the next five minutes. 'Jesus fucking Christ, Liora, you know how to fucking have a conversation! Be fucking normal, goddamn.'

 

[Syntra]

A color coordinated chart, huh? It was nice, Inna had to admit, in the sense that looking at it felt vaguely good. Fucking satisfying, even! Kinda like picking a scab, except not like that at all because it didn't involve self-harm. Just... man. Why did metaphors have to be so fucking hard? You had to, like, think of stuff that resembled some other stuff, but wasn't that other stuff, actually, just so that you could brag about noticing the shared features. How weird was that? And yet, despite realizing the nonsensical nature of her actions, Inna couldn't seem to stop herself. "Do you think that humans are magpies in disguise?" she asked her companion, completely serious. "With some minor evolutionary differences, of course. Like, instead of fucking shinies, we collect colors. Except that... hmm. Some humans are obsessed with collecting shinies as well! And they are the ones who fucking make the world worse for everyone else, so maybe they're the overtly villainous magpies. I dunno. Anyway..." the blonde finally leaned over the chart, "...confused, huh? That must be a nice way to feel. Or not? I, uh, don't think I remember what that really entails. Is it like, biting into something and discovering it doesn't fucking taste like it's supposed to taste?" Did she not taste like she was supposed to taste? Liora hadn't bitten her, yeah, but she hadn't really bitten into anything, so Inna figured this probably had something to do with her. You know, via one of those fancy, fancy metaphors! ...or something. "I... think I may be feeling confused as well," the blonde finally decided. (Whether that was true or not, that didn't fucking matter-- she just happened to remember that humans were stupid, and so they also bonded in the most stupid ways imaginable. Such as, you guessed it, mirroring! Something about it, Inna guessed, made them feel as if they weren't completely stranded on this island of chaos, and at the mercy of some random numbers generator. 'It has happened to someone else as well,' their lizard brain sighed in contentment, 'so this must be normal, actually. And normal = good!' Pathetic, truly.)

(...and, no, Inna wasn't going to discuss why she felt like bonding with Liora. It, um, just brought her some semblance of peace, okay? Much like crawling under her favorite blanket and closing her eyes, or like watching her favorite movie for the nth time, or... or lying in bed and knowing she had nowhere important to be. Concentrated comfiness, indeed! On some level, she felt the woman to be a part of her, and it only made sense for her to try to keep it that way-- Inna's past self had deemed it ImportantTM, you know, which meant she had to take her analysis into account. Only fools dared to ignore the wise words of Inna Orlovskaya, after all! ...or thoughts, or conjectures, or feelings, or whatever the hell they were.)

With the toast still hopelessly stuck in her mouth, Inna dared to glance at Liora-- in a way that looked completely fucking defeated, too. (Just, what the hell, man. Had she just failed at eating toast? Wasn't that like, Being Human 101? If the blonde couldn't even eat toast, how the fuck was she supposed to do her laundry, or apply for bankruptcy, or hide a dead fucking body? All the normal human experiences were locked behind the impenetrable barrier of bread, and nobody could help her scale it, and-- and-- oh, okay. Apparently, chewing was mandatory. Who would have fucking guessed? That fact that this stupid body came with no manual was an affront, and one Inna was willing to go to court for, too. ...could you, like, sue the Creator? 'Cause Inna had about one thousand of different bones to pick with her.) Reluctantly, she let go of her toast. "...I guess I may have? When you're a demon, you don't really need to eat. You feed in human misery, or something like that. Personally, I think the queen was just being fucking dramatic, but, you know," the blonde shrugged. "I will need to, uh, re-learn shit."

The concept of favorite colors did freak her out a bit, though she tried to ignore it-- the previous Inna must have enjoyed discriminating against certain shades of the spectrum, and everything her past self had okayed was a template to follow. So what if it made the other colors sad? The bitches could choke for all she cared! "Purple... purple sounds good, I suppose. I mean, no, it sounds goofy, but like, that isn't the color's fault? In Russian, purple is fioletova, for example, and I think that word is much better. Much more fancy. Much more purple in spirit. I bet English fucking tried to assassinate the color, but it was too strong for these silly games. Too... purple." She was babbling at that point, even Inna could recognize that, but wasn't silence the worst enemy of love? Words = understanding, bitch, and without words, there was no fucking understanding! So, clearly, the blonde had to word vomit till Liora liked her again, and till she re-learned what liking a person actually meant.

Hmm, hmm. Shared experiences, right? Speaking of shared experiences...

"Sol. Sol's your sister, isn't she? I do remember that, at least," Inna announced, in the triumphant tone of a pupil who knew the answer to one (1) question on her test without studying for it. "I have a sister, too, I guess. Or had? Well, she's dead, but I like to think I still have her," she shrugged, matter-of-factly. "Makes it feel less lonely. Anyway, did I ever tell you she was my first kill? Accidental, sure, but I sure as hell started early, man. It's a funny story. I was like six, I think, and I was babysitting Stasia because... because my parents had more important things to do, apparently. She was sick and I was, too, and I didn't know you could choke on your vomit, okay? Like, nobody briefed me on that, so I left her there because it was too gross and I felt like vomiting as well." Bitterly, Inna chuckled. "That's roughly when I decided I wasn't ever going to be responsible for anything in my life again, too. It's just... the perfect fucking microcosm of everything that's wrong with it, you know? They just fucking push duties onto you and don't tell you shit, and yet they somehow expect you to handle it all. Well, not me! I'm so over that."

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Everything about this new Inna crushes Liora. This is not the Inna that she knows and grew to... like-like. Nothing about her seems the same as before and the woman doesn't even know if there is a way to return to before. (Or if that should even be the goal.) She cannot even determine whether or not Inna is satisfied with all these new personality developments and she imagines that asking won't get her very far. The blonde barely knows how she feels or what a feeling is––that much is clear in the way she answers the fucking question. Of course, that rattles the woman because to hell if she knows how to explain what feelings are; mostly, she knows that you're supposed to feel good most of the time. If you start to feel bad instead, then people want you to try out prescriptions to level out the chemical imbalances in your brain. At worst, then they get you to pay some "doctor" to talk about these feelings as if that can fucking help solve anything! So yeah, sending Inna to therapy is not what she's going to look into because that certifiably fake and for people who are so fucking hopeless they don't have friends to gab with about their problems. (And, no, this isn't even a concern for Liora because she doesn't have problems to gab about AND she does have a friend. Sort of. She doesn't know where she stands with Inna, really, but she would like to believe they're sort of friends again. Hmm, can she count Sol? No, no, she won't even entertain that thought for longer than three seconds, because her sister is a dumbass who probably doesn't know anything other than how to make an orchid bloom.)

"Yeah, confusion is basically when the expected doesn't happen. Or when you don't understand something," she shrugs, deciding not to scoff at the blonde for not knowing this pretty basic piece of information. Ages ago, she might have mocked her or anyone who claimed to not know what something as simple as confusion is or even how one is feeling, but with Inna in this state she just cannot bring herself to be cruel. Even if that would offer her infinitely more protection from having to be vulnerable. Ugh.

Again, Liora frowns when she realizes just how much being demon fucked with Inna's ability to be human. She really hadn't thought the transformation would have had such far reaching effects––after all, they both are half-demons so she assumed switching between the two states would be as easy as flipping a switch. But, then again, based on what Inna is saying, demons are so infinitely different from humans that she can somewhat wrap her head around why it's not so easy. It's not like they're just super powerful evil humans––they're an entirely different species (which makes her wonder how being half-demon even affects her biology. So far she hasn't experienced any weirdness in her human form, but she can feel that energy sleeping within her). "I'll, um, help you. I have a lot of experience being human," she says, not realizing how odd the statement is to make, because, duh, she has a lot of experience! She's been human her entire life and has only spent a short fifteen minutes as a demon. Anyway, she decides to pull up a blank note on her phone and starts to create a list of all the human experiences Inna may have forgotten (e.g., brushing her teeth, clipping her nails, fixing the bed so that looks nice, writing thank-you notes, etc.). 'Oh, maybe I should teach her how to do her taxes. I remember Haenel told me she was hopeless with those. That could be fun, actually...'

Liora also takes note to introduce Inna to colors again. With the barrenness of her apartment, she won't be able to show her very many examples, but she can find some color swatches to help her identify a favorite color or group of colors. That could be interesting, she supposes. Inna doesn't seem entirely sold on purple, based on her ramble, but also maybe Liora is reading too deeply into the subject entirely. This is just colors that they are talking about, not anything vital or life altering and yet, Liora wants to get this right. (To be honest, she didn't think that Inna would even need human rehabilitation when she came out of her demonic state––the Mistress had never mentioned that when she had convinced her to steal Inna's powers using the orb that Inna destroyed––so that Inna isn't her usual self is unexpected. And Liora would like to help her get back to her old self, if that's what she wants. But again, it's difficult to even tell what she wants and Liora doesn't want to just... boss her around. (Shocking, we all know, but part of what she liked about Inna is that she's not someone who you can easily boss around. If this rehabilitation ends up being Liora bossing Inna around then it won't really be like trying to get the old Inna back. It will be like trying to model a human in Liora's image and while she would love to take advantage of that opportunity with some people she knows, Inna is no longer on that list.))

However, when Inna starts to talk about her sister (???), Liora sets aside the list the she had been making to give the other her undivided attention. Especially because she hadn't know that the blonde had one––she never once mentioned her and when Liora had been gathering intel on the blonde, this never once came up in her research. Though it soon becomes clear why. And she doesn't even know how to respond to that reveal. For a long while Liora is just silent, nothing passes over her features either but she isn't judging the blonde. There is nothing for her to judge even if that is her usual state of being. Rather thoughtlessly, her hand moves to cover her heart and her perpetual frown deepens. (It's also completely unsettling how Inna delivers this information in such a cavalier manner––as if entirely disaffected by her past and yet something tells Liora there must be some guilt somewhere... Given that this event seems to connect to Inna's disinterest in responsibility.)

Liora brings her legs up onto the bed, sitting criss-cross in front of the woman. Part of her wants to reach out to touch her... companion? colleague? Ugh, the label doesn't matter. What matters is that Liora is stuck deciding how she wants to reach the blonde and ultimately, she doesn't provide any physical comfort. There's still a shiny newly reformed barrier protecting her from acting on those desires. She doesn't know what to say and she doesn't know what is even the right thing to say, but she can think of so many wrong things to say that there seems to be a finite number of acceptable responses. (She almost debates pulling out her phone to figure this out, but thinks that would be entirely insensitive.) She'll have to trust herself on this one––something she doesn't feel entirely capable of doing what with her recent revelations on being useless and unable to ever provide decent results.

"That's pretty fucked up," she says, rather lamely. "I mean, what happened. I don't... I don't blame you, like, at all. You were fucking six, that's way too young to be left unsupervised and responsible for another child. Like that's babies taking care of babies for Christ's sake." Ah, shit, she's pretty sure she's fucking this up and that thought alone only makes her want to try harder––because she has to get this response right! "Do you want ice cream? I don't have any, but I can get some."

 

[Syntra]

It was... nice, Inna guessed. Like, not being judged and shit! Of course, she'd have to consult Liora's handy chart to truly understand what the hell was going on with her wacky emotion-o-meter today, but she assumed it was mostly positive-- since, you know, good stuff was supposed to generate good feels, while bad stuff allegedly generated bad feels. The logic seemed pretty sound to the blonde, at least! (...now she only had to figure out the difference between 'good' and 'bad', though, for shit to be just peachy. But like, Rome hadn't been built in a day, right? The learning curve spared nobody, not even people with her level of awesomeness, so Inna had already accepted in her heart that this would be... uh, interesting. Yep, interesting! The same brand of it, really, that came with hiding in a fucking atomic bunker and wondering whether the walls were thin enough for the blast to kill you right away, or several years later down the line when the radiation devoured you from the inside. Ah, variety truly was the fucking spice of life! ...could one's life be a little overseasoned, though? Because, if so, Inna would like to speak with the bitch of a cook who had prepared all those stupid, uncalled for plot twists. Like, enough was enough, man!)

The following days were... a challenge, to put it lightly. (All those times E-keysmash had referred to humans as weak cattle that needed to be culled? Dude, it was obvious she just hadn't walked a mile in their shoes! Despite her propaganda, you see, humans faced tons of danger in their day to day lives-- like, when she'd still been a demon, the blonde hadn't had to deal with invisible flames while cooking, nor had she almost been swallowed by the hellish fucking instrument Liora called 'the toilet' while, uh, answering the call of nature. Just!!!! Why the fuck had they designed it to be such a goddamn death trap?! If nothing else, this proved that humans were way more hardcore than demons, actually. Not even kidding. Demons at least fucking left you alone when you needed to Take Care of BusinessTM, but humans, in all their wickedness, used that moment to strike! ...fearsome, indeed. No wonder they'd taken over the whole goddamn planet.)

Anyway, regardless of all those new discoveries, Inna slowly began adjusting to her new normal. Usually, that consisted of waking up sometime after 10 PM, almost killing herself accidentally shortly afterwards (note to self: bleach =/= milk), and then following Liora around like a faithful puppy. (Liora, at least, seemed to be the sole constant in her life-- no matter who or what attempted to murder her, the woman was there to serve as her shield. Perhaps she likes me, Inna concluded after she'd saved her from death by drowning in their bathtub for the nth time that week, and like... not to brag, but the hypothesis seemed pretty fucking foolproof to the blonde. Plus, it also pleased her! That had to confirm its validity, right? Because truth = good = pleasing, and Inna was reasonably sure that her feelings regarding that concept were positive. Like, maybe 90% sure. Yeah, yeah, 90% was practically 100%, but leaving that small room for doubt seemed important to her for some reason, okay? Mostly because the feelings shit was fucking confusing, and Inna would hate to make a complete idiot out of herself via misreading her own signals.)

One day, however, their peaceful routine got shattered-- or rather, it was a visitor who shattered it. A woman! A woman who wore a red mask, so Inna couldn't really confirm whether she was hot or not, but her voice sounded soothing, if nothing else. (Judging a chick's hotness was one of the skills she retained, it seemed. Liora, for example? Fucking off the charts! ...too bad the blonde couldn't remember what to do with that information, though.) "Liora," the visitor reprimanded her once she entered, "why haven't you contacted me sooner? Or, to be precise, why haven't you contacted me at all? I'm sure you can see how serious Inna's condition is." Gently, the Mistress took Inna's face in her hands and looked her in the eye-- there was some adjusting, as if she was a precious stone and the woman wanted to see her from all the angles to judge her worth accurately, but in the end, she only tsk-ed. "Just as I thought-- living as a demon for such a long time has left scars on her psyche, I'm afraid. Ah, if only we'd gotten the Myaensa! None of this would have happened then," she sighed, oh so sadly.

"However, my child," the Mistress turned to Liora, "fear not. There is still a way to save Inna. To restore her back to her former self, even! Her blood is... hmm, unique, in many respects. Did you know that the demonic component comes from the creatures known as the domovoy, for example? The easiest explanation would be that they are household spirits, basically. That means that a piece of Inna will always remain in her childhood home-- her phylactery, if you want the technical term. Now, what do you think will happen when you locate it? Why, the item will help her to find herself once again!" Eagerly, the woman leaned closer. "Well? What do you think? Of course, if you have a better idea, I can leave you to your devices."

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

On Liora's end, the week has only provided her with new challenges. Ones that she does find pleasing to address and ameliorate, but, at the same time, they fill her with grief. Like mourning a person she has already mourned a thousand times over at this point––her soul at least has, of that she is certain. Where she can find some amusement in saving Inna from things only a fucking baby or toddler would kill themselves with, it usually only reminds her that Inna isn't really herself anymore. (Like who unironically mixes up bleach with milk? Had Liora come into the kitchen a moment later the blonde would have been on a one way trip to Hell, because let's be real, neither of them are getting into any version of Heaven. And to think, Liora almost purchased Inna a gun before realizing that would be like giving a, well, gun to a toddler.) Not to mention, helping her adjust to walking again has been an especially bitter endeavor if only because it shows just how far from herself she is––she doesn't even want to imagine reteaching someone how to ride a bike for probably the first time in human fucking history. Still, Liora doesn't let any of her worries show more than needed and she certainly never shares her concerns with the other openly. It's partially because she doesn't want Inna to be concerned about her wellbeing, but also because it's scary to admit that she cares. It's terrifying to recognize how deeply she's invested and just to what ends she'll go for the blonde. Even if this has already become an established fact through her more heroic and life-saving deeds, in the calm of her apartment there isn't really a reason to be going to all these lengths to rehabilitate her sort of friend. At least, she doesn't think so. It feels as though she is trying to grasp onto a ghost.

Although, she will admit that she did have fun purchasing a new wardrobe for the blonde. While she did, at first, try to get something of an opinion from Inna, when she realized the former demon was still confused around what she does and doesn't like, Liora decided to go for things she remembers the old Inna wearing. And perhaps to connect her to Ivy, as if maybe that might stir the old Inna back to life, she started to keep sunflowers around her apartment. Which sort of made her realize how barren the place looked... Though that realization was not enough to get her to do anything more than add more vases with sunflowers through the place––to the point her apartment now smells like a field of them.

But other than that, the week has been mostly quiet and when Liora isn't trying to keep the blonde safe or explaining to her what indoor plumbing is or how the television works, she has mostly occupied herself with, well, studying. Boring as it is and how it doesn't even seem that important with the needle in the back her mind telling her that she should be preparing for E-keysmash's eventual return, she presses on and manages to expand her vocabulary by... ten words. Ugh. Studying isn't going as well as she had hoped either. So, deciding that if she stares at another useless fucking word she will, in fact, end up fighting the Educational Testing Service her fucking self, she breaks from her studies. She had been planning on re-introducing Inna to "anime"––against her better judgment––until the Mistress decides to come knocking at her door. (Perhaps sensing the disturbance that would have been caused had Liora reintroduced someone to their weebish ways. A great sin among anyone with a brain.)

"Oh––" she starts, stepping aside to let the older woman into her home, surprised to see her but also possibly relieved. "I just didn't really think I had any business with you, to be fucking honest," she says with her usual grace as the Mistress inspects Inna and Liora has to hold herself back from pulling the woman's hand away from the blonde––not in any possessive manner, mind you, the woman just has a hard time believing that anyone in this shit ass world isn't trying to harm them. It takes her a second to realize that the Mistress is more or less an ally and Liora has grown to like the woman, for all her generosity. (Honestly, she had been surprised when the Mistress did not accept any of her payments when she had tried reimbursing her for her stay at the villa and for all her guidance––not just with her powers but with Inna. Apparently something about her devotion to Vie and Ivy and all their endeavors meant that... well, Liora doesn't remember. The point is, even if out of devotion to a version of herself she hardly knows, the small kindness seems to have made a lasting impression on the woman.)

"Like, I told you that I'm done..." her voice trails off as the Mistress continues on, explaining more about Inna's condition and it's only for a moment that Liora can feel crestfallen––not that she's a psychologist or anything fake like that, but she assumes that psychological scars are not as easy to fix as the regular keloids, because she's pretty sure there aren't any laser scar removal services for those that are metaphoric in nature. (If fucking only, she supposes.) She sighs and takes a seat next to her sort of friend, listening carefully to the drop of hope that the masked woman is offering. Eagerly, Liora wants to accept this assignment, because more than anything she does want the blonde to at least feel at home in her own body and she also still wants her companion to have a say. So she turns to Inna, "Well, how does that all sound to you?" Then she thinks about all the other times she has tried to figure out Inna's opinion on literally anything these days and decides to at least share her own. "This is... This is your life, you know, and I think if there's a shot at bringing some of your old self back, it's worth trying. But, like I said, it's your life and if you'd rather try to relearn all this shit with just me, then that's fine too. I'm here for whatever you want," she says, trying with all her might to not assert her opinion and shift Inna's in any way. 'This has to be her fucking choice, Liora. Even if you know better, she... she's still a person, right? Right. So she has to choose... Even if she doesn't know how. Fuck. Maybe I shouldn't have asked. Shit.'

At that, however, the Mistress interjects, maybe reading Liora's thoughts or more or less wanting them to both end up in rural Russia. For whatever reason. "Oh, yes, working this out at home, I'm sure would be splendid as well. Very old school and I can appreciate those wants, dearest Liora, but the kind of damage that's been wrecked upon Inna's psyche will not recover on its own. This is magic we are talking about and magic, though I know you are doubtful, does have its rules. The likelihood of Inna coming back to herself on her own, even under your care and guidance, my darling, is so nominally low that I wouldn't chance it. She'll be lucky to remember how to run with scissors safely in a year's time. "

 

[Syntra]

Well? Did she actually want this? 'Recovering' and getting better' sounded inherently good, so in order to chase after the remnants of her humanity, Inna probably had to say yes-- since, you know, the dumbasses were so fucking obsessed with """good things""". Maybe because of the childish duality of good and evil? (Let's just say that the fact that fairy tales seemed to be one of the most popular genres wasn't a fucking coincidence, friend. In fact, from what the former demon had seen, they were pretty much the blueprint to human desires. Happy endings? Check. Obvious villains in dark cowls? Check. The demonization of... uhhh, demons? Check, check and check! All of those were considered good in the human cultural canon, and that only proved how fucking shallow the creatures truly were. ...still, Liora was one of them, so maybe belonging to the same club wouldn't be so bad. You know, don't knock it till you try it and shit!) Either way, there didn't seem to be much of a fucking dilemma here-- unless that was what they wanted her to think, of course. "Hmm, I just don't know," Inna sighed. "I mean, what if my old self sucked? I don't wanna suck. Like, I doubt that she was terrible, because on some level, she was still me, but didn't she have some pretty bad features?" Wait, no! According to her personal vocabulary, 'features' could refer either to one's appearance, or to the tricks various machines could pull off to please their masters. What was the correct word here, again...? "Traits," the blonde corrected herself, beaming at Liora. "She did fucking abandon you, after all, and, um. What if I want to abandon you, too, when I return to my former self? I don't want to do it," mostly because Liora was warm and hot, and also told the best stories, and had also saved her from that porcelain beast like four times now, "but what if it was caused by the inherent Inna-ness inside of me? What if it's, like, my own personal Pandora's fucking box? Or Inna's box, I guess, though that doesn't sound as dramatic."

"Inna, my dear," the Mistress sighed wistfully, "I assure there was nothing wrong with you. There was nothing wrong with either of you, in fact. You just used some... hmm, inadequate solutions to a very unorthodox problem. That's fine. We all make mistakes, you see? Liora contributed to it, and I failed in my own way, too. My failure was the most dramatic one, too, for I was supposed to protect you. Won't you at least allow me to assist in bringing the old Inna back, then? Since I would like to pursue my redemption as well, child."

...hmm. "Well, if you say that there wasn't anything wrong with the old Inna--"

"--there wasn't!"

"--then I would like to try, I think. Knowing stuff on my own would be good, I suppose. I mean, I do like asking Liora questions, but," Inna furrowed her brow, as if she was trying to solve an especially difficult equation, "I guess I can still do that even after I'm okay? Is that right?"

With a seemingly infinite supply of warmth, the Mistress laughed. "Yes, Inna! That, indeed, is right. If Liora doesn't mind, that is, but I have an inkling that she doesn't. Now, listen carefully what you need to do is..."

A long-winded explanation followed-- blah, blah, blah, something about 'chasing magical energies', 'possible teleportation issues' and 'Russia being particular about certain things'. Frankly? Most of if went right over Inna's head, but since that seemed to be her default fucking state now, it didn't bother her too much. ('Don't worry your pretty little head,' she'd heard someone say on the TV, and the phrase had stuck with her. Like, her head was pretty, right? And comparatively little as well, since she wasn't all that goddamn tall. Now, if this meant that pretty little heads weren't meant for worrying, Inna basically got the carte blanche for unloading all of her problems on Liora! Real fucking appealing, if you asked her.)

"Uhh," the blonde raised her hand when the Mistress spoke about her 'old home,' "I don't think I remember where that house is, though. And like, maybe it doesn't exist anymore? It was old even when I was a kid, so it wouldn't fucking surprise me if they demolished it."

"Even if they did," the Mistress smiled under her mask, "that piece of you would still be there, Inna. There is no need for you to worry! It is not something that can be destroyed easily, after all. A homeward pulse resides within your soul as well, so Liora can just follow that thread. It's... not exactly GPS level-accurate, so you shall have to spend some time looking for it, but that shouldn't be a problem. Taking a vacation from the duties the Creator placed on your shoulders can be nice from time to time, don't you think? Perhaps you can use this opportunity to learn more about each other, and the world as well. Oh yes, yes! Many aspects of it are worth saving, as you will find out."

Ah, awesome, more mysterious bullshit! Inna wasn't going to think about it, though, so checkmate, fuckers. Implications were useless if you didn't care about the shit they were ~implying~, you see, and in her version of reality? In her version of reality, people who couldn't communicate clearly fucking deserved to have their messages ignored. Anyway, if she understood this right, Liora was to create one of her... whortles? No, no, portal was the right word!

And, yep, that was exactly what ended up happening. With the other woman's help, Inna entered the tear, and... um. Were they supposed to end up in some tiny-ass wooden hut? Because that was exactly where they emerged! Right next to a bubbling fucking cauldron, too. (The air was heavy with smells that Inna couldn't recognize-- flowery, but also vaguely bitter, and something about it reminded her of the apothecary in which they'd used to buy their medicine when she'd been little. ...wow, that had been a long-ass time ago, huh. How come she still remembered, even?)

From a different room, an old woman stumbled out-- Inna really wanted to be more diplomatic about it, but with all those warts covering her face and her left fucking eye missing, her brain assigned the label 'hag' to her automatically.

"Ah-ha!" she shouted and pointed her stirring spoon at Liora, as if she'd just caught her red-handed while... while engaged in something bad enough to give you red hands, probably. Shaving kittens for fun? Yeah, that seemed deplorable enough. "I knew you stupid villagers would come around. You've come to beg for my mercy, huh? Well then, don't just stand there and go harvest those children for me. I prefer the plump ones, in case you don't remember. Afterwards, I'll look into lifting that curse for you."

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Okay, there already is a lot going through Liora's mind at the current moment––for example, thinking and overthinking the implications behind Inna's earlier statement that she doesn't want to abandon Liora and how she even seems concerned that she'll fuck her over again. Maybe she would like a little more time to process what that meant in full and how it makes Liora feel, especially as she has been warming up to the blonde's presence over the course of the week. However, how-fucking-ever, it is impossible to think properly and investigate one's own internal processes and place them in their appropriate categories and boxes when being scolded by some fucking hag in a language she distinctly does not know. Like what about her made this woman think she knows fucking Russian??? Liora barely remembers what she learned from her high school French lessons (a language she sorely regrets trying to learn, because it makes no fucking sense and every fucking word has useless fucking vowels and it's like it's only meant to be spoken by alcoholic wine moms) so to think she can just pull Russian out of her ass? Ugh, she is sort of impressive but even she isn't a Rosetta Stone.

Though before she can get any more annoyed by this woman and before she can even think to turn to Inna for a translation, she hears Declan whispering in her ear and explaining the hag's desires. Which only moves Liora from the annoyed category to the not amused category, though she isn't even surprised she would manage to teleport them to another fucking clusterfuck. She isn't here for fucking sidequests! She's here to help Inna get herself back––if that's what she still wants, because she guesses people can change their minds whenever they want and from what she remembers about the old Inna, that Inna certainly loved being consistently inconsistent.

Her arms automatically cross over her chest, with her hip popped to the side. "Listen, lady, I don't know what the fuck you're talking about," and to her surprise, the words that leave her lips are automatically translated as she pushes them out of her mouth––and for once, she doesn't think having a magical destiny is all that bad. (She's already thinking about all the people she can cuss out now.) "We're not fucking villagers and we're not child murderers. Now, if you happen to know––"

"Pah! No, no, no!" the woman says, wagging her finger at the woman as if she were some unruly dog (or perhaps that is only Liora's projection of the action). "Not those children, the other ones. The naughty little brats that spend all their days stealing from shops. Fetch me those, the louder they scream the better, and perhaps I will lift the curse! Don't keep me waiting, deary, I don't have the time to waste," she says, circling her finger around her face to indicate her clear old age and that death is probably waiting to kiss those disgusting lips of hers.

Ugh. Liora doesn't have the time to argue with some old witch or even correct her about them not needing to worry about a curse since their business is distinctly not saving this shit fucking town that can't apologize to an old woman on its fucking own. "Fine, fine––whatever, by sundown you'll have your fucking children to eat or whatever," she says, waving her hand away and motioning for Inna to follow her out of the shop. (Not at all realizing you probably should not make promises, even if half-hearted, to old witches who live in houses with chicken legs.)

When she steps outside of the weird little hut, making a mental note to ask Declan how to not open portals into mysterious old ladies' homes, she didn't know what she expected to see, to be quite honest. She's never been to Russia and hasn't even really looked at pictures of the place. But instead of a bunch of snow and buildings with mushroom-ish heads, this town looks entirely ravaged by something straight from E-keysmash's imagination (she assumes). Like she's pretty sure random steam vents aren't supposed to open up from the ground at random and boil people's flesh off; and giant flying creatures aren't supposed to swoop down from the skies and carry their latest victims away, but maybe she's wrong. She's not the resident expert on Russia. So she turns to said resident expert, tempted to grab her hand and then decides against it––in fact, she shoves her hands into her pockets to prevent the urge from taking over her pathetic mammalian brain that craves touch or whatever. "Um, is this... normal? Do you remember?" that her guide is only half-reliable does make her worry, but she also figures navigating this weird town shouldn't be that hard. (Is this even Inna's childhood town?) "Does sorta feel... like home? Or your old home, I guess..."

 

[Syntra]

Uh. Was that a good idea? You know, the whole 'making promises with unforeseeable consequences to old ladies who totally weren't witches' shtick. (Vaguely, Inna was aware that this was a Bad ThingTM-- much like most humans knew instinctively that antagonizing a giant-ass snake with venom dripping from its fangs was, at best, the fastest route to the local hospital, or that the police uniform was a visual fucking shorthand for 'hi, I'm a violent bastard with the IQ of an empty cola can.' On the other hand, Liora was doing this, right? And Liora always knew best! Like, had there been an official job description for the role of Liora, the blonde was fairly sure it would have contained shit like 'being the fucking well of wisdom' and 'picking the best clothes for your Inna'. Such a person couldn't really be wrong, now could she? No, no, that would have gone against everything Inna knew to be true! So, with that in mind, she shoved all of her worries under the metaphorical carpet.)

"Ummm," the blonde looked around, taking in the hellish scenery, "I guess? I mean, I don't remember it being like this, but if that homeward pulse thingy led us here, I presume it happened for a reason. And, like, I did want to leave, so perhaps that was why?" Inna would have liked to think she wouldn't have forgotten such an important detail as, you know, her hometown literally being a portal to one of the circles of hell, but hey, anything was possible! Especially since she had somehow managed to lose herself as well, apparently. (That, from what the blonde understood, wasn't really a common occurrence. A soul =/= car keys! An important fucking distinction, indeed.)

"But where do we find kids here?" Inna looked around, almost as if she hoped for one of them to just spring up from the ground like mushrooms after the rain, but nope! Duh, as fucking expected. The village remained just as desolate, with the occasional dog howling in the background. (Stylish as fuck, she had to admit, but unhelpful. Like??? Had the witch sent them on a fool's errand, solely to enjoy their confusion? E-keysmash had mentioned something about feasting on human emotions, though Inna had always assumed she had meant, like, existential dread, and not mild annoyance. Not to shame anyone's dietary habits, of course, but that sort of thing just didn't seem nutritious enough to her-- it was the frozen fucking pizza of feelings, as far as she was concerned. Which, poor witch lady! At her age, didn't she need a more balanced intake of calories? Again, Inna didn't know much about the struggles of keeping an old body alive, but it did seem logical that it would require some extra care. Wasn't there, like, specialized dog food for old dogs? Once, when she had accompanied Liora to the supermarket, the blonde indeed had seen something like that! This shit being sorta analogous for humanoids only felt logical, really.)

"Besides, didn't she specifically wish for us to capture some brats who steal from shops and shit?" the blonde pursed her lips. "I dunno, Liora. The lady seemed like the type to know what she fucking wants, and I'm not convinced we'd get away with giving her literally anything else. Like, would brats who burn ants with a magnifying glass count? What are the fucking conversion rates here? Three ant killers for one shoplifter, or vice versa?" Hmm, hmm. What an ethical dilemma, indeed! Were the lives of ants worth less than some groceries? Inna supposed that would differ from country to country, and in Russia, that would probably depend on whether the stolen goods contained vodka or not. But, aaargh! How to fucking confirm something like that, especially in a hypothetical scenario? The bitch of a witch hadn't bothered to clarify, of course, so Inna had to deal with the ocean of possibilities on her own.

It seemed, however, that the universe decided to show them some mercy-- mostly because, out of fucking nowhere, a tiny store fell from the sky. (One would have expected it to shatter, but obviously, that person would have been a fucking idiot. Like, why the hell would you expect the natural laws to actually work here? This territory belonged to chaos!) "Whoa, mate!" Inna took a few steps back, and instinctively grabbed Liora's hand. With wary eyes, she looked at the shop sign, and... "Hell's Spells?" the blonde read, incredulous. Well. Those... certainly were words, and they even fucking meant something, but as for what it was? Inna didn't really dare to guess. Just, her brain went on a fucking vacation! "I suppose that this is a shop," she finally concluded, "so like, if we wanna find some shoplifters, this seems to be the place? Let's... let's just go inside. To fucking investigate, I guess." What was the worst thing that could happen, right? Presumably, they were fucking stuck in there-- bound either by the curse, or by Liora's spoken fucking contract. Taking steps to free themselves from the predicament seemed like a solid choice, really! ...the only one they had, unless they were ready to build a cozy fucking cottage in the middle of a cursed wasteland. (Inna wouldn't really mind, but what about their old apartment? The sunflowers would die of thirst with nobody to water them, and man, that would be too fucking sad.)

So, once they entered? There was, uhhh... an old woman kneeling on the ground, suspiciously similar to the one they'd encountered in the hut. (Twins, maybe?) Dramatically, she was covering her ears, and wailing so loudly even people living on different fucking continents could probably hear her. "Ah, damned brats! Why oh why must you steal my ear medicine? What have I ever done to you?!"

Giggling, a ghost child flew over her head and disappeared behind the counter, doubtlessly to do something terrible there.

"And, no, killing you doesn't count," the witch clarified. "Your parents sold you to me fair and square, which... Oh! New customers. Welcome, welcome. Or... are you the help I've been awaiting, perhaps? Did Oksana send you?"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Yeah, yeah, okay, honestly Liora is not actually planning on searching this weird ass fucking hellscape for some bratty children for that witch lady. She is not here to do that and she prefers to not waste her time with stupid little side quests. Like, she hated them before when Chett assigned them to her and she still hates them now when serendipitously assigned by hags. She only "accepted" the quest as a means to get the fuck to leave her alone and so that they could leave that creepy hut. Mostly, she wants to find Inna's old home and help her––per the Mistress's instructions. However, when Inna starts to actually take the quest seriously, Liora decides to just go along with it. It's not that she doesn't have the energy to refocus the blonde on the task at hand, she seems to have an endless supply of that given their week together, but since she is taking it seriously... Well, Liora decides it's best to capitalize on this energy since she doesn't exactly know when Inna will ever take something seriously again. This is a rare and precious moment, even Liora can recognize that and so she decides to not ruin it with their actual agenda. Besides, what's a few hours hunting down brats? (Even if does feel a bit immoral to hand over children to a witch––like certifiable folklore villain material. Then again, why should Liora even care about that in the first place? She's ended several lives before and has been able to (not) sleep at night just fine. Bratty children probably turn into shitty adults so she reasons this can be like cutting out precancerous growth.)

"Well, first we'll have to locate the downtown area, because that's where shops and shit go... At least, that's the way it works in most areas," she says, as they meandering down a random street in a direction that may or may not lead them deeper into a neighborhood or take them towards the storefronts. She figures asking Inna for direction will be about as helpful as any other time she has tried to get information from the blonde, so she doesn't bother. Especially as it becomes clear that Inna is confused regarding whether or not this is even her own hometown––only trusting that the homeward pulse is what guided them here. (Although, now that Liora is thinking about it, she wonders if she somehow fucked up teleporting; it wouldn't be the first time and she does recall accidentally ending up in the demon realm when she tried to trace Inna's signature before... But this doesn't feel like the demon realm despite some of the similarities. Not enough glass or general sharpness in the air. This is probably at least Russia. It's just a matter of figuring out if they landed in the right part––the country is fucking huge and if Inna is confused about her hometown then maybe her homeward signature is too? Ugh, she can't think about this. 'Just focus on encouraging Inna's commitment to responsibilities; solve the riddle of where we are later.')

Anyway, when a storefront falls from the sky à la something out of the Wizard of Oz and lands right in front of them, the woman jumps backwards as her heart jumps into her throat. At first, she doesn't pay attention to what kind of store this is, instead staring at Inna's hand that appears to be attached to her own. A stampede rushes through her chest that fills her ears with its thunder and even colors her cheeks; memories fill her head of all the times she had reached out for Inna or when Inna reached out for her and how she had found so much comfort in the small form of touch. Even now, she feels that bubble up inside of her, but she ultimately pulls her hand away. "My hands are sweaty," she mutters by way of explanation, placing them back in the safety of her pockets. (Which is technically true! She isn't lying. She just happens to be withholding the other reason behind why she doesn't want to hold Inna's hand. You know, just the logic inside of her that says she cannot put her comfort and safety into anyone who isn't Liora Trihn... or the Mistress, she guesses.)

She steps into the store and rather unimpressed looks around the place before spotting the old woman on the ground. 'Oh, Jesus fucking Christ, is this bitch seriously fucking following us?' because Liora is not convinced that this woman is different than the last one they ran into. Like, did the Creator really put that much effort into making two identically ugly fucking bitches? She highly doubts that.

Even if she is wary of any close proximity to Inna, she does lean closer and whispers, "Do you think ghost children count?" If not, then she's turning the fuck around and she'll wait for the next random storefront to rain from the sky.

Then she finally turns to address the old woman. "Oksana? Is that your fucking name?" she asks, cautiously approaching the witch.

"What? Don't be foolish, why would I refer to myself in the third person? I may be old, but I still have my mind," the woman says, nodding as she rises from the floor and hurries behind the counter. "So if you are not here to help me, are you here to purchase? I just got a fresh shipment of virgin's blood."

"... Right," Liora says, obviously very skeptical of everything that is happening and unsure of how to even respond to all of this strangeness at once. Though, in light of spotting that ghost child from earlier, she figures to go along with the witch's hope that they are here to assist. "Actually, I guess we are fucking here to help. You said some brat stole your ear medicine? Some hag asked us to bring her brats, so... Where is it?" And, as if summoned, the ghost child reappears above the old woman, holding a large rock that he is probably going to drop on the woman's head. Even with that hypothesis, Liora doesn't say anything to warn the woman, completely and utterly startled by his appearance at all. Evidently, it doesn't matter whether or not the woman gets a warning, because, like something out of a comedic movie, she moves out of the way just as the child releases the stone and it crashes straight through the floor.

"Eek!" the woman shrieks, jumping further to the side as she shoots some form of magical energy from the tip or her fingers. Too bad she's too late and the child disappears once more. "That brat has been tormenting me for centuries! A lazy, filthy little mongrel who I definitely overpaid for. Even while alive he was insufferable. Had I known his ghost would be as much a troublemaker as his alive self, I would have thought twice before turning him into a pie. Anyway, if you really are here to help, could you please trap him in this jar," she says, producing a generic mason jar from out of thin air and sliding it over the counter towards the two women. She then produces... bagpipes and hands that item to them as well, "He likes music. That ought to lure him out."

 

[Syntra]

Solemnly, Inna nodded. Like, that really did sound insufferable, you know? Just recently, Liora had explained the concept of buying shit to her-- basically, if she'd understood it right, it meant that you had to hand over precious resources in exchange for other precious resources. And to find out that you'd gotten ripped off during such a transaction? Infuriating! (Children shouldn't fucking be allowed to annoy you even after their deaths. The blonde had sorta accepted that they had the license to do that, mostly because their tiny fucking brains made them literally incapable of acting in ways more dignified than that of shit stuck to the sole of your shoe, but like!!! It fucking had to end at some point, didn't it? The bastard should fuck off to the goddamn purgatory, or wherever it was that dead children went. ...hmm. Were their souls recycled, or did they end up in some cosmic version of junkyard? The blonde would argue it was the latter-- it wasn't like children had had the time to develop anything even slightly resembling an actual personality, after all. Like, what was there to recycle? The tendency to fucking cry till they got what they wanted? Yeah, there certainly wasn't any shortage of that.)

"Alright," Inna agreed, "we can do that. I, um, think we can. Right, Liora?" Her companion didn't look all too scandalized by the request, so she figured this was fine. (Who even cared about brats, right? Judging by the state of the public transport, there were way too many of them, anyway-- most places looked straight up infested with the small creatures. Besides, given how quickly humans reproduced, the blonde sincerely doubted that the parents even managed to build any real emotional attachment to their fucking kids. Like, did a spider momma care about about the thousands and thousands of eggs that she laid every goddamn month? Probably not, and the same principle applied here!)

Still, that didn't solve the most basic of the problems they were facing-- namely, that Inna had no fucking idea how to play the bagpipes. "Do you know what to do with these?" she turned to Liora, question marks in her eyes.

"No, no, no!" the hag protested. "You play it, blondie. I can sense that you have the, um, right amount of talent for it. Don't worry about the formalities. Just grab the pipes, and follow your heart!" ...weird, but probably not dangerous. Like, playing an instrument was one of those things that couldn't possibly get you killed, correct? Unlike the treacherous toilet, there were no depths that could swallow you whole, nor were there any liquids that could burn you from the inside. So, okay! Okay, why not. The lady seemed as trustworthy as anyone, and the blonde also happened to believe that supporting small entrepreneurs was important-- like, imagine some soulless fucking corporation seizing control over the magical industry. Before you knew it, you'd be forced to buy randomized spell packs instead of the shit you actually wanted, and of course you'd get the one you were shooting for on your, like, 11th try! No, Inna Orlovskaya didn't want to live in such a future.

So, without further ado, the blonde took the bagpipes. (Hmm. Was it just her, or were they vibrating? Not like a washing machine would, mind you, but still enough for it to be pretty fucking noticeable.)

"That's just leftover magical energy," the hag explained, as if she'd read her mind. "According to the Magical Empire laws, every single thing in this shop needs to be enchanted. Something about 'not contaminating the goods with mundanity,' or so the president claims. Apparently, it's supposed to work like radiation? As for me," she placed her hand over her heart, "I think she's just being a control freak, but it's hard to argue with the one who has slain the Three-Headed Arch-Wyvern. ...bitch," the woman muttered under her breath, "saved the world once and hasn't shut up about it since."

And, by that point? Inna's instincts were screaming at her that, if she didn't act fast enough, the hag was probably going to offer them her entire back story-- you know, with exposition and shit. Which, given how old she was? They themselves would grow old here! Her best years would be wasted on trying to digest all the details instead on making Liora happy, and that just wasn't a fate she was comfortable with. Nope, not at all! "Okay," Inna spoke before the old woman could continue, "I guess I'll fucking try. Let me know if I'm doing it wrong." Hesitantly, the blonde blew into the mouthpiece, and... ooof. Suddenly, she was looking at her own fucking body? Like, from an outsider's perspective? Not that she didn't welcome the opportunity to truly appreciate just how hot she was, mind you, but this felt, uh, mildly disconcerting. Kinda like grabbing your hot gf's hand only to discover that she had died when you hadn't been looking, or something!

"Don't worry," the hag smiled at Liora, "that was supposed to happen. You see, the brat likes music and undead friends, so Inna here is playing the bait. It's one hundred percent safe, so no need to fret. I'll return her to her body when the brat's in the jar. But, oh! Make sure he doesn't drag her away to his hiding place. I'm not sure what it is exactly that he does to his companions while they're visiting, but the last one returned with her own finger stuffed in her eye socket, and... well, you don't want to know where her eye was, trust me. He truly is a vicious little thing."

As the witch spoke, though? The boy materialized out of fucking nowhere, his eyes shining with something that resembled joy. "Oh, sweet! A new toy for my collection! Wow, and it's the prophesied savior/destroyer of the world, too. I think they only ever made two of those? So, a super limited edition." ...who was he addressing, actually? That probably didn't matter, however, since he proceeded to grab Inna's hand. "Come with me," he grinned at her, "I have candy!"

"Well," the blonde shrugged, "I guess I have no fucking choice, then. Bye, Liora!"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

'I have a bad feeling about this,' Liora thinks as the items are placed on the counter and their task is made to sound deceptively simple. After years of just, you know, existing the woman knows to take any and everything with caution especially when something seems too good to be true. Not that this is exactly like that, but still she is wary of what will happen when the hag realizes neither of them can play a fucking song on the bagpipes. At least not one that would lure a child out––like she's pretty sure her piano lessons will not translate over to a weird fucking wind instrument. Fuck, an accordian probably would have been better because at least that has keys! Okay, maybe she can somehow fake this with Declan's help...

Except that the witch seems insistent that Inna be the one to lure the child out and immediately Liora trusts this woman even less. Her protective instincts automatically start firing off and before she can even grab the blonde's arm to pull her out of this shitty little store that probably only sells cursed items, her newest hypothesis is instantly proved right before her eyes. Thanks to whatever ghostly abilities she's been granted, she knows exactly what's happened and can still make out the projection of Inna's spirit even while separated from her body. 'Jesus fucking Christ.' She frowns, but before she can even try to rectify Inna's out of body experience, the hag starts giving her a warning... which of course means that Inna does just the opposite. 'Jesus FUCKING Christ!'

Seriously, looking after Inna must be like what it's like to have an insufferable little brat tormenting you for centuries so she somewhat sympathizes with the hag––not that she's looking to kill Inna or anything like that. Like, been there done that and it didn't turn out that great the first time. Plus, at least Inna's antics are endearing and that makes up for how annoying they are––this little kid doesn't seem to even have an endearing quality about him. He's also not that cute so she can understand why the hag didn't let him get away with nearly as much and had to resort to turning him into a pie. (She refuses to think about the further implications of that claim.) Anyway, without time to even fully form a plan, Liora grabs the jar from the counter and latches onto Inna's collar, intending to yank her backwards; she mostly assumes that her connection with spirits and ability to touch the constructs she makes from them should allow her to make contact with Inna. A sound and correct assumption, certainly, but unfortunately when she does grab onto her collar, that is the same moment the boy takes Inna to his hiding place and Liora by extension.

They land in a realm that, to put it lightly, resembles something of a demented toybox. Mostly because classic games such as Operation seem to be a little more... real than they should be. Lego people are having their plastic limbs torn off and somehow, it's a gorey ordeal. There's also an active war happening between some tin soldiers and mutated stuffed animals. "What the..." she mutters, letting go of Inna's collar and clutching the jar close to her chest by way of comfort.

The little boy, hearing a new voice, turns around and upon spotting Liora his eyes widen. "Hey! You're not supposed to be here," he pouts, then walks up to Liora and searches her face. "But, the more the merrier! It will be way more fun to play tag if it's more than just me and my new toy here. Although," he says, tapping his chin, "You're not like my new toy. No, not at all. This just simply will not do. In order for this to be fair, I am going to have to chop off your leg so that you do not have an unfair advantage!"

Yes, absolutely, Liora should be worried about the prospect of having her leg chopped off and yet. Yet, she's so fucking perplexed about this dark version of Toy Story that no one ever fucking asked for that she doesn't exactly back away from the little boy or even try to negotiate perhaps not having one of her limbs cut off at all! By the time she actually figures out what's happening, one of the mutated stuffed animals is huffing down her neck and restraining her arms. 'Shit.' "Woah, woah! Wait, how is that fucking fair at all?"

"That's naughty language, miss. Mommy says that filthy mouths must cleaned," the boy says, nodding sagely as a saw materializes out of thin air along with a knife. "So once I am done with your leg, I will have to cut out your tongue. Don't worry, my sister's barbie needs a new leg so it will not go to waste. Sergeant Fluffy, please bring my new toy to the Operation table."

 

[Syntra]

Candy, candy, candy! That candy was always fucking good was something Inna had learned pretty fast-- unless it was like, licorice, which must have been invented by Satan herself. So, logically, the boy couldn't be that vicious, right? He was offering her a Good Thing, which automatically excluded him from the ever-expanding pool of Bad People. (With a smile on her lips, Inna imagined all the delights that were awaiting her there. Did he have ice-cream? Man, pistachio ice-cream was the best, though she also wouldn't complain about cherry or strawberry. And what about chocolate, huh? Would there be those fancy chocolate fountains over which she had drooled a few days ago when they'd shown them on the TV? No, I mustn't let my imagination fall into the trap that Hollywood set, Inna decided. The boy commands literal goddamn magic, so if there aren't rivers of chocolate at the very least, I will be really fucking disappointed!)

Disappointment apparently was to become her new best friend, though-- not only was his hideout tragically candy-free, but the scenery also reminded her of some of her more colorful nightmares. Like??? (This only proved that children were sociopathic monsters. Tearing toys apart, limb from limb? That Inna could understand, sort of-- it was good practice for killing actual people, after all, and god knew that this shit planet needed less of them. Manipulating toys into murdering each other? Well, that was basically capitalism simulator from the Boss' POV, so the blonde could only assume people considered that to be Model Citizen BehaviorTM. Promising her candy and then not delivering on it, though? That was some supervillain-level bullshit!) "I came with you for a reason, friend," Inna frowned, trying her best to ignore the death screams in the background. (Wow, who would have guessed that dolls could be so fucking loud? Hers had always been silent, even when she'd ripped their heads off!)

"So, I'm gonna be real with you. Do you fucking have chocolate or not? 'Cause like, I'm way too pretty and popular to spend my time on chocolate-less kids. Well, maybe I'd do that for Liora," she clarified, oh so thoughtfully, "but last time I checked, you weren't Liora. Or did you inherit her identity? ...wait, no, I'm pretty sure she'd have to be dead in order for you to inherit something that belonged to her. That means that there isn't a drop of Liora-ness in your incorporeal fucking veins!" Speaking of Liora, though? Somehow, her companion was here with her, too-- namely, she was lying on the table, and waiting to have her leg chopped off. Wow. Talk about excessive fucking cosmetic surgery! Like, Inna could sorta empathize with not wanting to have warts and shit, but legs seemed important. (Wasn't that one of those things pretty much everyone agreed on? You know, an axiomatic truth on the level of statements such as 'man, having oxygen at one's disposal sure is nice' or 'I would enjoy it if a masked killer didn't murder me when I return from work today.' And someone like Liora, who was a notorious trousers wearer, must have enjoyed the benefits of owning two legs as well! Just, wouldn't it look ridiculous if the other leg sorta... hung behind her like a cape, but one that was part of her fucking pants? Could that even be described as a cape anymore? Ah, so many questions, and no time for answers! Mainly because, you know, it seemed that the boy was about to hurt her. As in, hurt her Liora.)

And when that realization sank in? Something grim settled in Inna's gaze-- it was as if you flipped a switch, really, except that, instead of the room suddenly drowning in darkness, it was being strangled by the Murderous IntentTM. (Her inner demon, maybe? Normally, the blonde would have gone on a ten minute tangent to investigate the source of that darkness, but since the boy wasted no time in positioning his saw, something told her it wasn't really a good idea.) "Leave Liora alone!" Inna shouted, indignant. "She's gonna need that leg, okay? And her tongue as well. I fucking like listening to the stuff she says, and... and besides, the old Inna could bake. So, once I remember how to bake, I want to make delicious things for her, but this sort of shit is hard to appreciate without a tongue, and, and, and!!!"

"Well, too bad," the boy smirked. "Shut up, or I'll take your tongue as well. Good toys don't complain. Also, also, I'm actually doing this for your benefit. You're broken, so she should be, too, don't you think? To make it fair."

Inna narrowed her eyes then, in a way that spelled clear warning, and-- slap! The brat stumbled backwards, with a red imprint of her hand on his cheek. Immediately, his eyes filled with tears, but the blonde didn't give a fuck. "Never speak like that about Liora, you disgusting little parasite. If I'm broken, then that shit is my fault-- she had nothing to do with that. Now get out, before I break your goddamn spine!"

The onslaught seemed a little too much for the boy, to the point his knees buckled under him. "Graaaaanny!" he wailed. "Granny, the new toys are mean to me. You promised that this year's birthday would be more fun than the last one!"

"I'd say it still is," the witch's enlarged face appeared in the sky, almost as if their world was a box which she was peering into from some other fucking dimension, "I mean, you did die on your last birthday. Nonetheless, this is unacceptable. Don't you know that hitting kids has no educational benefits, you brute? You're only going to damage his personality!" she accused Inna. "And on his birthday, too. Truly, both of you are wicked women, and should be ashamed of yourselves. But, very well. Cavalry of Plush, to arms! Defend your master!" And with that, literal guns appeared in the toys' hands. Uh oh.

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Well. Why is Liora even surprised at this point? Is it not already fucking obvious that nothing will ever go according to plan ever again? Maybe that's a little fucking dramatic, but when reflecting on the facts it almost seems like a goddamn understatement. The only glimmer of hope in all of this would be that at least nothing seems to go according to plan for anyone and the game really is about surviving until the next disaster. With that in mind, Liora just needs to think about how to escape the clutches of Sergeant Fluffy because there is no way she is going to get surgery from someone who is definitely unlicensed––since she highly doubts this kid is some Doogie Howser. (And the implication she would be more okay with this were he licensed? Don't read into it. There's a lot on her mind right now!)

'Alright, alright, think, Liora. Think––' What does she have at her disposal that can potentially help both her and Inna out of this demented toybox? Magic! Of course. How she always manages to forget about her power is truly beyond her but if she can just... Wait a minute. For whatever reason, instead of continuing to thrash against the mutated stuffed animal or even resist as her limbs are bound to the operating table, she is distracted by Inna. Not incredibly surprisingly since Inna is a pretty distracting person (and a pretty distracting person), however usually she would be able to tune out the blonde when focusing on a task that requires all of her attention. But what Inna is saying... Somehow Liora doesn't expect that from her. She doesn't expect Inna to really care about her safety or want her to be wholly intact––not that she believes the blonde wants harm to come to her, she just doesn't... doesn't really believe that Inna also cares about her. Or that is what she has assumed in an effort to keep her emotional distance from the blonde. 'She wants to bake me more things?' Maybe not what she should be thinking about but the sentiment touches her nonetheless.

Even the way Inna defends her comes as a shock and while Liora might not condone corporal punishment, this brat fucking deserves it for insulting Inna and then trying to cut off her leg and tongue. Her gaze softens looking at her companion, feeling her chest electrify and push tingles throughout her body. It's just nice knowing that she isn't totally alone in this. Before it sort of felt that way with Inna being how she is now and herself being so unsure of how she feels, and wanting to put up protective barriers around herself as a result. This takes some of her confusion away. That pesky little emotion-chart feeling she's held since bringing the blonde in her home.

Too bad she can't spend more time getting mushy over her feelings with the new wave of stuffed troops coming forward loaded with only the latest military grade weaponry. 'Christ...' she thinks, moving her single free arm to undo the latches that keep the rest of her retrained. Once free, she hops down from the table and grabs Inna's arm with the intention to teleport them out of this hiding spot––because, that should be a fucking reliable way to escape from Point A.

Instead, however, they land flat on their asses at the center of those fucking armed fluffy toys. (Now she sort of understands why Declan has wanted her to push the limits of her own imagination, because this current environment could be considered admirable. Personally, she never would have thought to combine the body of T-Rex with the head of bear and yet that does look like a fairly formidable opponent. Not that this is an appropriate time to be taking notes since she may not even get to apply her notes!) "Shit... Inna, you don't happen to remember how to fight, do you? Because I don't think I can teleport us out of here," she doesn't even want to think about how there's nothing in here for her to manipulate either. Whatever magic the boy is using to animate all of his toys, it's not spirits... though she'd venture to guess that taking him out will take care of the army. If only the army were not protecting him.

Anyway, with a circle of guns pointing at them their prospects of escape are not looking extremely great, but if this is the imagination of a child, distraction can't be that hard, right? "Oh, my god!" she exclaims, trying to recall everything she has ever heard about acting and applying it to this moment. "Is that, uh, Charizard?" she points towards some nothing in the sky and, to her surprise, the stuffed toys look up giving the woman enough time to knock to grab a grenade from one of the toys and pull the pin out. She may not be able to teleport out of this dimension, but she can still teleport within it. So the second she lets go of the grenade? Her arms wrap around Inna and she blips them to the top of a Lego castle.

Haha, wow, she hadn't planned to land on top of Inna but, hmm, she isn't against this position. Interestingly enough. "Um, uh," she starts, scrambling to roll off of her friend, face turning bright like a stop sign. "Okay, oops, sorry––anyway," she clears her throat, smoothing her hands over her clothes and hiding her face behind her curtain of hair, "we need to get that fucker into that stupid jar. I think if we do that, I should be able to actually teleport out of here. Any––"

"Hey! That's cheating! You're not allowed to use my grenades against me!" The little boy shouts, appearing on the back of what looks like a dragon, lion, frog hybrid animal. Weird. "Time for you to say 'ello to my little friend!" (It's a bazooka.)

 

[Syntra]

Oh man, they were going to teleport, weren't they? Inna still felt a bit bummed about the non-existent candy, but teleportation was the next best thing! It didn't really taste as sweet, nor did it have that chocolate-y rush to rush to it, but fuck, were there endorphins involved. For teleportation to happen, you see, Liora actually had to touch her! Which she didn't really do all that often, or at least not as often as before-- unless, of course, her own memories were lying to her. Hmm, hmm. Was that a thing? Like, could your own mind bamboozle you? Considering all those weird, self-sabotaging mechanisms governing the human body, it wouldn't even surprise Inna. (...maybe her brain cooperated with some sinister forces, actually. A lot of people wanted her dead, apparently, and also some people who weren't people per se, so the blonde imagined the bounty on her head would be pretty fucking high. Like, skyscraper level high! In the light of that, what if her brain had gotten tired of formulating all those brilliant plans and groundbreaking hypotheses, and instead decided to spend the rest of its life drinking cocktails on some fucking Bahamas beach? Why, killing the blonde off would be the one way to achieve that! Since, you know, the rest of her body seemed to attract catastrophes perpetually-- living inside of her, Inna imagined, must have been like trying to get comfy in an apartment that got flooded by you fucking neighbors every five fucking minutes. Nope, not what you'd call a stimulating environment! And, honestly? She got it. It didn't even seem like a hard thing to do! The brain only had to crack her skull, in the same way a fledgling broke its egg, to follow its dreams, which... which it had decided to do via making her think Liora had treated her in a different manner before, apparently. Wow, what an interesting method! ...still, it was her brain, and Inna figured it knew better than she did. Someone fucking had to!)

"Fight?" the blonde raised her eyebrow. "Well, I dunno, Liora. Like, I don't remember the details, but how hard can it be? Idiots kill other idiots all the time." That, at least, was what she had learned from watching the news-- those were always an endless string of murders, occasionally interrupted by an armed robbery or two and, like, a video of cute kittens at the end, probably to prevent the watchers from killing themselves. Ah, what a funny species humans were! So inherently violent and yet scared of those impulses, as if they weren't what had allowed them to claim the Earth for the first place. (And, no, signing fucking peace treaties with lions and such wouldn't have worked, so fuck off, hippies! Humans may have lucked out with wolves, but that had been mother nature's limited fucking offer.) "I mean, I just gotta destroy their bodies, right? I'm good at destroying stuff." Like herself. "You could call me Inna the Destroyer," but, hmm, that didn't sound awesome enough, actually. Could it be that coolness resided in alliteration? It gave it that little oomph factor, that was for certain, and maybe she should use that to her own advantage. "Inna the Incredible. Inna the Imposing. Inna the... uh, Improbable?" There were only so many adjectives that started with i, after all, and-- oof.

Ooof, indeed, described her feelings pretty well at the moment-- ending up underneath Liora sure as fuck struck her as oof-y. (Where did that fall on the emotions chart, huh? Somewhere between 'fascination' and 'bewilderment', Inna guessed, which was an, uh, interesting combo. One that she wouldn't mind exploring, over and over and over! Wasn't that how science worked, after all? If you made an important discovery, you had to look at it under the magnifying glass!) "Do you think we could, um," Inna almost smiled, and one got the impression that she would have, had she remembered how to control her facial muscles, "do this shit more often? It seems like something we maybe should do, I think." Perhaps she would have added an explanation, too-- something about it being a terrible waste to have such nice arms and not use them to act out hot fanfic scenarios via pinning pretty girls to the ground, most likely. 'Would haves' and 'should haves' mattered very little, though, because they were dragged back to the plush warfare!

"Oh shit," Inna gasped as she looked up, only to find out the little gremlin had apparently pulled a whole mutated dinosaur out of his ass. (Just, wow. Yet another entry into her 'Stuff That Tried to Kill Me' encyclopedia, the blonde guessed! At least she couldn't complain about the Creator being... uncreative. Ha. You see what she did there? Comedy fucking gold, as always.) "So," she shouted before diving behind a barricade of massacred plush bodies, "the jar, huh? We just gotta... gotta trap him in the jar?" Somewhere above her head, a rocket exploded, and the sound was so sharp that her ears were ringing. "Okay," Inna nodded, the very picture of determination. "You can still teleport here, can't you, Liora? Then teleport on the dinosaur's back and catch the bastard! I'll, uh, distract him." Without waiting for her companion to agree to the plan, Inna emerged from beyond the barricade.

"Woo hoo, I am here~!" she practically sang. "Don't you want to use a stupid blonde for target practice? Unless, of course, you're too afraid of outing yourself as a complete fucking amateur."

"What!" the boy shrieked. "I am the king of this world, and you shall take that back!"

"I won't," Inna pursed her lips. "And if you kill me, then you lose, actually, because I will be incapable of ever taking it back, too. My defiance will be eternal!"

"But-- but--" the gremlin muttered, the cogs his underdeveloped brain turning visibly. "I thought murder was supposed to translate to victory!"

"Yeah, and I once thought ice-cream grew on trees. Get in with the times, pal," Inna rolled her eyes. "Now, do you have, like, some proof that you don't fucking suck? A PowerPoint would be nice." ...yep, she did remember some of the lessons Liora had taught her, kind of you to notice!

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

There are a few things buzzing through Liora's mind at the moment. The first being that Inna has a surprisingly large vocabulary when it comes to adjectives that start with the letter "I," almost as if she's trying to script some advanced episode of Sesame Street where the letter of the day is "I." And there is some comfort knowing she still has her nonsensical commentary trait relatively intact––something Liora cannot even believe she is grateful for, but beggars can't be choosers and when it comes to restoring Inna back to her full Inna Orlovskaya self, you find it in you to even appreciate her most annoying (endearing) quirks. Second, she's still processing that the blonde is also bold enough to remember to proposition her, something she will absolutely not entertain (despite the deep red hue lighting up her entire face). Like, of all the old Inna qualities that are back apparently running off on tangents and being that fucking way are part of her factory presets. (And that Inna had almost fucking smiled when asking her? Well, Liora is kind of glad she hadn't erupted into a full blown beam because there is no telling how she might have responded were she living in that reality. Like, Inna's smile is probably her favorite fucking thing, not that she will ever admit that out loud, and so had she flashed it then... No, Liora can't think about what she would have done in that scenario. It's inappropriate and distasteful and doesn't even make any fucking sense since her feelings for Inna are not like that anymore. Or she's trying to make them not be like that anymore, but that has been a surprisingly difficult task.) And third, and most important, Inna came up with a plan. On her fucking own! Like if there were ever a time to dish out gold fucking stars, now would be that time.

Though, despite wanting to celebrate all these little Inna-wins, the world around them doesn't stop moving in its ever-terrible direction and Liora, a victim to the Creator, must attend to the outside world rather than her private one. She ducks with Inna behind a barricade and pops her head over just to get an eye on their target. "Yeah, I–I think I can do that," she says, part of her wanting to squeeze Inna's hand for good luck or reassurance or a silent promise or something but, just as before, she decides against it lest she confuse herself. "Just promise me you'll be careful, okay? I, um, don't think our healing powers work anymore," an untested hypothesis but one that is sound enough she doesn't think they need to kiss to test it out. (Though if Declan recommended it or, better yet, the Mistress, she might entertain the idea of experimenting. She just wouldn't want to do it so needlessly since, for some reason, kissing Inna is overwhelming in ways that kissing other people has never been.)

With Inna setting up her distraction, Liora grabs the discarded jar and tucks it under her arm. She peers over the pile of fallen plush soldiers and eyes her target carefully. Quicker than the eye can blink, Liora is disappeared from her spot next to Inna and reappears on the back of that mutated dinosaur-thing. While the boy is busy bantering with her companion––and, yes, she does recognize that Inna has been taking notes on her important lessons for life and living––she opens the jar brings the mouth over the boys head. Maybe it's the Creator giving them a fucking break, because rather than doing absolutely nothing, the jar actually swallows the boy up the second it touches his head. Once the lid is sealed, the entire toy box falls apart around them––the mutated plush soldiers fall to the ground, the lego castles crumble, and the whimsical landscape changes into a plain wooden panels. Then, suddenly, the box around them shrinks (or maybe they're growing?) and they burst through a toy box, arriving back in the witch's wooden hut.

"Oh!" the witch starts, sounding pleasantly surprised. "Splendid, splendid! You did manage to capture that little snot-nosed brat––"

However, Liora is not on the same chipper mood as the hag. As soon as she can she's climbing out of the box, eyes full of fire, and grabbing onto that old hag's collar, slamming her up against the wall. "Give me one good fucking reason why I shouldn't fucking kill you, you fucking fuck! What the fuck was that?"

"Eek! Wh-whatever do you mean? I told you to capture the brat. It's not my fault you followed him into his hiding spot and proceeded to be bitches to him. I told you not to go there. Now unhand me you insufferable––"

"Inna, can you drag that cauldron of boiling whatever over here? I'm fucking tired of listening to this hag and I'm not in the mood to get fucking tricked again." Besides, they're supposed to be finding Inna's childhood home! Getting distracted by ugly witches is not on their to-do list. (Maybe boiling her alive is a little overkill, but when you're part of the mafia for x number of years, you learn a thing or two about painful deaths. If this witch hadn't threatened the safety of her Inna, then maybe these measures would not be necessary but Liora feels this is entirely justified. Just don't fucking mess with her or the few things/people she cares about, dammit!)

"B-b-but, if you do that she'll never return to her body! Please! And, and, that means you won't complete your mission."

 

[Syntra]

...wow, wow, wow. Was Inna fucking dreaming? Because, the last time she had checked, Liora had been categorically against eating people-- something about it being 'a crime against humanity' and 'unacceptable, unless you happen to be in a plane crash and you don't want the corpses of your co-travelers to go to waste.' (To the blonde, all of that had seemed terribly arbitrary. Like, a 'crime against humanity'? Who the fuck had decided that? Had all the humans merged in the past, forming a single hive mind that had decreed that this shit, in fact, wouldn't fly? If so, they hadn't invited her, for Inna didn't remember being part of such an organism. And, and, and!!! The plane crash exception implied that there wasn't actually anything wrong with human meat per se-- aside maybe from the fact that it took an annoyingly long time to cook it properly, really. Back in her demonic phase, she had had to spend soooo much energy on fucking making it tender! Cost-wise, it wasn't the most practical meal, either, but frankly? The blonde did miss the taste, a little bit. ...hmm, hmm. Would Liora allow her to eat it from time to time if she claimed it was, like, for research purposes? This career thing seemed important to her, so perhaps Inna could get away with insisting that she was planning to write her own fucking cook book. So, what would be some good titles? 'The Anthropophage?' 'A Guide to Humanitarianism for Dummies?' 'Cannibalism for Everyone?' All solid choices, she thought!)

Anyway, that was a dilemma for some other time-- since, you see, living in the moment seemed like the more important concern to the blonde. Like, Inna hadn't even celebrated their grand escape from the toy prison properly, and yet life was already throwing more opportunities to rejoice at her! What if she fucking missed them all, huh? A terrible fate, not dissimilar to the prospect of her, say, buying a bullet and then never putting it into anyone's brain. Like, what was the point??? Inna may not have known much about humanity, but she had decided early on that those who couldn't appreciate the small joys, such as the hag soup, were basically living corpses, for all intents and purposes. Only those would be able to regard everything with the same dull non-surprise! "Sure, sure," Inna nodded, obviously happy to be of service, "right away. I'm just going to... ouch!" she howled, blowing vigorously on her fingers. Dramatically, the blonde lifted her hands to her eye-level, and watched them get covered in blisters. "Stupid fucking hot surfaces," the ex-demon frowned. "How the hell am I to remember that fire = pain, apparently? Fire is my best fucking friend, except when it suddenly isn't, and man, is that shit confusing. Like, do you wanna marry me or get a restraining fucking order? Make up your mind, bitch."

Still, despite the incessant complaining, Inna grabbed some gloves this time (yay for learning!) and dragged the cauldron to the spot Liora had designated. "Okay," she rolled her sleeves up, "we're gonna throw her in there. Three, two..."

"What about your mission, though?" the hag shrieked. "Do you not wish to--"

"No," Inna informed her matter-of-factly, because Liora didn't care and Liora always knew best, "...aaand one!" With a loud splash, the body landed into the concoction, and... oof. You know how, whenever you drained water from a sink, it left in this whirlpool-y way? Well, the same thing seemed to be happening with reality now! Before her very eyes, the insides of the hut twisted and turned, expanded and shrunk, and-- and--

Suddenly, Inna found herself standing in a completely normal street, surrounded by a completely normal scenery. (Her body? It seemed to be back, too. Come to think of it, maybe she had never left it in the first place-- not that she had had a lot of experiences with the way humans worked, of course, but so far, shedding one's mortal shell seemed to be pretty fucking difficult. Like, leaving one's house > abandoning one's body! The anchors that bound their souls to their physical forms seemed stronger than those traditionally used by demons, and so it kinda sorta made sense that the hag would resort to illusions. They were cheaper, you know? The same principle thar inspired some people to buy fake Luis Vuitton handbags instead of the real ones! ...and, no, Inna didn't get such a behavior. Like??? Had the handbag had some special features installed, such as a pocket flamethrower, maybe, she would have understood, but even the most outrageously expensive ones just... served as containers for holding more stuff, really. Ah, humans were a mysterious species, indeed.) Anyway, birds were chirping, dogs were barking, the sun hung high in the sky-- you know, the Mundane StuffTM! Except for, perhaps, one thing.

"This is it," the blonde exclaimed, tugging on Liora's sleeve. "I think, at least? Well, it's not here, but I can sense home-y vibes in the air. Kinda like, um..." she pursed her lips thoughtfully, "like the smell of cookies. You just know that the cookies are there even before you see them, I guess, so... yeah. It's similar." One would have expected her to be happy with the revelation, right? Well, that hypothetical person was wrong, because she seemed entirely uninterested-- whatever hints of Inna-ness that had been awakened in that hut were gone, just like last year's snow. Once again, she watched Liora with dead eyes. "Wanna go there? If you get a car, I could, uh... nauseate? No, no, navigate."

'Hmm, do you, my darling?' a familiar voice rang in Liora's ears. 'That, indeed, is a good question. Don't you know that Innushka belongs to me, after all? Restore her to her former self, and she'll return to me! She will, oh, she will. Personally, I can't wait to see that! But perhaps you are hoping for something else?'

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

With the hag taken care of and out of the way, Liora not at all feeling an ounce of regret or remorse over boiling the woman who had put Inna's life in danger, she is somewhat surprised when the hut disappears in a some cheesy real-life PowerPoint transition and they land in a relatively normal looking place. "Huh," she hums, stepping forward with her arm straight out, expecting to find some veil to pull that will reveal Sike! You're still in that creepy little village with identical hags! Except that nope, this place is entirely real. It feels real as well, too, so Liora decides to not question whatever dumb luck they've found in escaping. (If anything, Liora just assumes that destroying the hag must have destroyed that weird version of Russia that they had been trapped in––just like when they had jarred that annoying little brat and reappeared inside of the hut.)

When Inna reaches out and confirms that they are, in fact, closer to their destination, she knows she should feel grateful. This should be another major win for them after ending up in that first little hut, but it doesn't feel like a cause for celebration to Liora. It's just way too many "wins" in a row and that is just not how the fucking Creator designed this little universe. Nope, she had decided, for some fuck ass reason, that the two women she is entrusting to save her precious creation (i.e., the world) are going to live out their fucking existence being miserable and at odds with every fucking person they ever meet. Aside from their talking swords. (Because even with Alessia being a more or less neutral party, she is still annoying as fuck and manages to come in at the worst fucking moments! So if Liora were to find out she's behind their string of luck, she wouldn't be surprised and she would be entirely suspicious.) Anyway, she pulls her sleeve away from Inna and crosses her arms over her chest as she meanders down the street. Or, rather, 'road.' "If this is the place... I mean, you know better than me," she shrugs and looks over briefly at her companion, notes her sudden disinterest, and frowns. (Well, it had been stupid for her to hope that Inna was coming back to herself just because of their earlier antics, so this shouldn't be fucking surprising or disappointing. This isn't even the first time this has happened and each time, she has thought about what triggered the brief return and if there are ways to prolong it enough that she'll come back to herself, but so far she hasn't made any significant progress in figuring out how this all works. Hence taking the Mistress's suggestion to heart, believing that the older sorceress knows best and would not lead her astray.)

"Yeah, sure––getting a car shouldn't be too fucking hard." Especially with her magical abilities and whatnot. She motions for Inna to follow her and wanders down one of the roads until she finds someone's parked car outside of some store. Definitely not a car Liora would ever refer to as her baby, but it's decent enough that she doesn't fuss about trying to find another and simply places her hand over the lock and unlocks it. She settles into the driver's seat and starts the car, once more using magic, and peels out of the parking spot with some poor soul yelling and trying to chase them. Presumably the owner, but it's not like Liora really cares about their poor luck. "These roads are fucking shit... how the fuck does anyon––"

Abruptly, the woman stops her sentence as an uncomfortably familiar voice enters her head. Her hands tighten around the wheel with enough force that her knuckles might break through her fucking skin and her entire body goes stiff. Unable to see clearly, she mostly prays she doesn't run into anything. (Maybe the smartest decision would be to pull the fuck over, but that instinct does not occur to the woman as the demon queen's voice rings in her head and threatens Inna once more.) For unrelated reasons, her eyes start to burn. 'How the fuck did she get inside of my head?' she thinks to herself, keeping her eyes tunneled on whatever is ahead of her, refusing to even look over at Inna. 'She... It can't be real. This is just some elaborate manifestation of my fears. E-keysmash is somewhere in Hell and not in my goddamn head. Besides, she has to be lying. The Mistress said this would help.'

"Inna," she says, wiping the not-tears from her eyes and trying to distract herself from her inner worries that are not actually even real, "you said once that you like Russian pop. Um, maybe you can, like, tinker with the radio and see if there's a station for that?" She then points towards the stereo system in the car, figuring it's possible that the blonde doesn't remember what a car radio is. "Just like hit buttons until you find a station you like." That statement alone is enough to cause anyone who knows even a little bit about Liora to worry––like, come on, that woman has the instructions to every device ever memorized and would never instruct someone to hit buttons until something happens. But, with certain demon queen events developing in her fucking head, it's hard to remember the proper way to scan through radio stations. "Anyway, does... does this feel closer to your home?"

 

[Syntra]

"The roads being shit is an important part of Russian culture," Inna pointed out, with that dead-eyed lack of interest. (Judging by her stare? One would have said she was waiting in a queue at the local employment bureau, or, god forbid, listening to a fucking Economy 101 lesson. Indeed, it seemed that her whole-ass soul had left her body!) "I think, at least. Like, it's supposed to be, um, symbolic?" 'Symbolic' was one of those words, the blonde had learned, that you could use to justify just about anything. Had you eaten your friend's lunch without permission, for example? Just say it was a symbol for the worldwide food shortage, and suddenly, it was a noble deed! Because, you know, you were actually raising awareness and shit. Similarly, murdering one's boss could be seen as a pursuit of justice if you framed it as class warfare-- that way, stabbing an old woman because she didn't like the fact you were stealing cutlery from her restaurant was like, totally heroic. Man, could framing be a powerful weapon! "Symbolic of people being poor as shit, I guess. The tourists get to suffer with them, too, so they can enjoy a fully immersive experience." Hmm, hmm. Should she attempt to give Liora alcohol poisoning, too? According to the chart she'd provided, poison was distinctly bad for you-- kinda the equivalent of dropping a glass on the floor, really, with your body being the thing that would shatter. (Inna... didn't really get it, to be honest. Like, how could a few drops of liquid have such a dramatic fucking effect? One would have guessed that humans were more resilient than that, but nooo, sneeze in their fucking direction and they'd just die, apparently.) Anyway, while poison was unambiguously bad, cultural exchange was considered to be good, and like 90% of the Russian culture revolved around getting shitfaced in increasingly ridiculous ways. What a goddamn dilemma!

Music wasn't really something Inna was in the mood for, but Liora had requested it of her, so she punched a few buttons experimentally. "Did I really like this stuff?" she narrowed her eyes. "I mean, it's just... noise. I don't fucking think there's any material benefit to be derived from this." It reminded her of the whole colors business, really-- like, what was the goddamn point in preferring one of the two shirts, totally identical in function, with their only difference being their goddamn color? That made no sense at all! It was like... like insisting on eating red apples only, when green and yellow apples fucking existed and tasted roughly the same. Wasn't that unfair to the other apples? What if they'd built their entire identities about wanting to be eaten, huh? To the blonde, treating them that way seemed unacceptable-- they were all perfectly good sources of vitamins, thank you very much! "Why do people sing, actually?" she looked at Liora, wincing visibly when some singer's voice assaulted her ears. (Too fucking sharp, man! Some people, Inna decided, should have their vocal cords cut out before they could fucking inflict such a horror upon the world.) "I mean, it's an inferior fucking way of communication. Everything takes much longer, and it's harder to understand the words, and some people can actually hurt you with their terrible singing voices. So, why?"

'You can ignore me,' E-keysmash sang, 'but you cannot ignore reality. It has a convenient way of finding you, don't you think? Just look at Innushka, darling. She's not yours anymore-- too many pieces of her are here with me, and oh, are they waiting for her to come back. Even now, they're calling out to her. Can't you hear, Liora?' And, indeed, that seemed to be true! When Liora looked at Inna, you see, there were shadow horns attached to her head, and shadow claws growing from her hands. In fact, a whole Shadow!Inna rose from her companion's body, seemingly formed by black smoke. (The real Inna? Either she didn't see the phenomenon at all, or it seemed normal to her. Hard to tell, really, with her, uh, interesting interpretations of the world.)

'Poor, stupid Liora!' the demon queen chuckled, and that laughter echoed in her ears, over and over. 'Don't you see what you're doing? Like a lamb to the slaughter, truly, except that a lamb usually has the good sense not to weave its own noose. Are you this desperate to die? Do you perhaps think it to be your salvation? But, oh, not even that will change what you did to darling Ivy. Your soul will always be rotten, right down to its core!'

'Yes,' the shadow Inna agreed, showing her teeth in a wide smile, 'that is true. Once I regain my memories, I will start hating you again, Liora. How could I not? You murdered me. No amount of sunflowers in your apartment will ever change that. Now, I may have faltered when I was asked to kill you, but that only happened because I was overwhelmed--overwhelmed by, you see, not being as monstrous as you are. It takes a special kind of courage to kill your defenseless friend, you know? But I think I've developed it since then. Oh, I will feast on your flesh, alright. You will regret this bitterly. Unless...' the demon smiled and caressed Liora's hands, gently, before imprisoning her in her steel grasp, '...unless you see reason. Don't you think it would be wiser to preserve this moment, with me still so innocent? Just look at me,' she gestured towards the real Inna, who was still playing with the buttons, 'look at how pure I am. So free of worries! Do you want to burden my pretty little head with the knowledge of what you've done to me? The result will be the same, no matter what you do, so...' the demon began turning the steering wheel, right towards the trees lining the road, 'I advise you to end it, right here. This way, we can be together.'

"Liora?" the real Inna blinked, clearly confused. "Liora, are you alright?"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Inna is talking, Liora can hear that, but her voice sounds far away even if she can see her through the corner of her eyes sitting right next to her. She cannot make out anything discernible from what she’s saying and for once in her life she is actually trying to listen to whatever it is that the blonde has to say, anything to take her away from the fucking voices in her head! Voices she desperately does not want to be listening to, does not want to be hearing, does not want to be real but clearly they are and no amount of convincing herself otherwise is going to make it any less true. She can pretend all she wants, but E-keysmash is speaking to her and she knows that hers is not a voice she can trust. She knows that. Liora knows that. ‘But what if she’s right? The Mistress said... she said this would be okay, that this will help Inna find her way back home, but...’ She doesn’t want to continue down this line of thought and fill herself with doubt, but honestly ever since her last encounter with the demon queen and her subordinates, she hasn’t felt like herself. That husk she use to wear that gave her a protective air of superiority has been completed stripped to reveal the little girl hiding beneath all of that posturing. It probably doesn’t help that Liora hasn’t fully processed that experience yet beyond her daily crying shower sessions; she hasn’t even told anyone what happened. While she imagines that Delcan must know, the owl hasn’t said anything to her and she’s honestly grateful for that because talking about it is probably the last thing she wants to do. Ever. It’s just too embarrassing for her to voice and she figures it will go away on its own eventually and she’ll return to her old self-assured self. Right?

Except it’s difficult for her to even dream of her own recovery with the shadow of Inna sitting next her, reminding her of the demon that had consumed everything she might have grown to love. She can’t look at this version of Inna for fear that all those memories will bury her alive in an avalanche. Honestly, Liora is still hurt by everything that happened and she knows she shouldn't even feel bad about it or sorry for herself, because it was her fault. Everything. She fucked up. And maybe this shadow Inna is right to point out that she's rotten to her very core, because she sucked as Vie and now she sucks even more as Liora. There is nothing redeemable about her. Her own mother didn't want her. The mother that adopted her only tolerates her and probably... probably didn't even care when Liora had cut her off. She probably thought, 'Good riddance to that daughter of mine. Who ever knew that I would need to rely on the spare.'

(Somewhere, somewhere Liora remembers the reason Inna hadn't been able to kill her. It's difficult for her to recall it to the surface, but sometimes she hears it right before she drifts off to sleep––only to be jolted awake again with how it haunts her. Because Inna had said she had loved her and Liora didn't believe it. She still doesn't and it only makes it all the more confusing why Inna let her live. It only makes it easier to believe this shadow version of Inna. Especially since she remembers the moment right after she had given Inna a piece of herself to keep her intact and how sweet it had been; only for it to turn back into hatred the moment the rest of her memories came back to her. Why wouldn't that happen again?)

Liora doesn't fight the demon's grip on her hand. The trees, she realizes, are getting closer to them but she doesn't have the strength in her to get the car back on the road. In fact, it seems as though the woman has forgotten that she's driving or what she's doing at all. Her eyes seem as vacant as Inna's, save for the tears that have welled in them, but other than that she does seem to be in a trance. Though it's more likely that she is just stuck in her own head, with the company of the demon queen and her most loyal subject, Inna. (Even if they're both wrong about what will happen to Inna once she finds her childhood home, why is she so desperate to help this woman? Is out of guilt? Because if so that would be far less pathetic than wanting to scrap together that illusion of friendship they had had before. There are better people she can surround herself with; people with more social capital and capital in general. She shouldn't want––)

"Oh, shit!" she shouts as Inna's voice finally breaks through the thick cotton fog that has captured her sense. At the last moment, she realizes that the trees are getting dangerously fucking close to the car. She slams her foot on the breaks, automatically stretching her arm out over Inna's chest to protect her from colliding into the dashboard. The car jerks to a halt (and would have screeched had these roads been made of actual asphalt) and Liora still keeps herself focused on whatever is ahead of her and not next to her. She can still see the shadow's grip on her hand and feel all her cruel little smirks. "S-sorry," she stammers, "j-just got, um, distracted. Shit, shit––I need some air. I, um, I'll be right back."

The woman then jerks her hand away from the shadow, parks the car, and then stumbles out and into the forest of trees that line the road. With any luck, she'll manage to get lost and just never find her way back to the car. Yeah, that would mean leaving Inna, but maybe that's for the best? Since, you know, she's only ever existed to make Inna's life fucking worse. Justifiably, leaving her here would be pretty awful but at least it's where she grew up and she knows the language. Maybe she'll make a nice life for herself out here since Liora can never give that to her. No matter how hard she tries.

At this point, tears are flowing down Liora's cheeks in an endless supply that obfuscates her vision enough that she has to stop running (which, when did she even start running?). She braces herself against a tree for support and slowly slides down the trunk until she's crumpled into a ball on the ground, fighting through her fits of sobs. 'Get it together, Liora. Get it the fuck together. You don't fucking cry so just fucking stop, okay? This is fucking ridiculous––there isn't anything for you to fucking cry about goddamnit!' She curls her knees tighter into her chest and pulls her hood over her head as if that can serve as a protective barrier against the world.

"Oh, Liora are really so naïve that you think this will actually protect you? That never worked when you were seven and it doesn't hide you from me, either. You cannot escape your corruption and neither can Inna," the queen coos. "She is fated to serve me and me alone."

Liora only shuts her eyes tighter, pulls herself in tighter, and holds her breath. "Go away! Shut up! Get the fuck out of my head!" Jesus fucking Christ, why can't she just have, like, one nice thing? Why does everything she try to do just blow-up in her face? Those questions only open herself up for more tears, to the point she feels fucking hysterical.

 

[Syntra]

Hm. Not that Inna didn't trust Liora, but was this supposed to be happening? Like, she didn't really consider herself to be an expert on... uhhh, anything, really, but with driving, the rule of the thumb seemed to be that collision was something you fucking wanted to avoid. Few people, you see, enjoyed the prospect of being buried under tons of steel! (Yeah, yeah, humans were worms and thus deserved to be crushed, except that literal worms also didn't embrace their own destruction, did they? Actually, now that Inna thought of it, E-keysmash's teachings struck her as kinda unhinged. Why the fuck should a life form be killed just because some rando didn't approve of its form? Worms were important for the fucking ecosystem, the ex-demon was sure! They provided... um, nightmares? Along with spiders and snakes, they seemed to be the biggest fucking nightmare generators on the entire planet, and that was a big-ass deal, man. Not even exaggerating over here! Without them, a large section of the horror movie industry would fucking collapse, which would lead to ConsequencesTM. And those consequences? Why, with no natural predators to remind them, humans would forget what fear was entirely. Nothing would hold them back, so like locusts, they would ravage the Earth-- not that they hadn't been doing that already, mind you, but like, they'd also lose the pathetic scraps of restraint they still clung to as a species. So, if you followed that thread diligently enough? You'd discover that worms were all that stood between them and the total destruction of this dumbass planet! E-keysmash vs. logic, 0:1.)

Anyway, while solving this riddle sort of pleased her, it still didn't change the fact that the trees were getting real fucking close. Uncomfortably close, in fact. "Liora. Liora, what is this? Do you want us to die?" It would have made a lot of sense had Inna sounded frightened, but... well, she didn't. Not truly, at any rate. If anything, the blonde appeared to be mildly frustrated-- you know, like a kid who had been trying to understand a difficult passage in her textbook for hours and was this close to burning it in a fit of rage instead. Like??? Right now, she would kill for a fucking semblance of consistency, god fucking dammit. (Inna didn't understand a lot of things, you see, but the few certainties she could rely on sort of helped her in that regard. So what if living wasn't all that appealing, with the constant need to eat and breathe and keep her fleshy shell in a working condition? Liora appreciated it, and if she saw some meaning in it, Inna would fucking try to as well. That, at least, she owed to her companion! To the slayer of porcelain beasts, knower of all things, and holder of many titles in general. Tacitly, the blonde had assumed that if she followed her, the scattered mosaic of her own life would sorta rearrange itself to create a coherent picture-- something that fucking spoke to her, like it apparently happened to all the glamorous-looking people on the TV. Instead, though? The emptiness in her chest only seemed to grow stronger by the minute, and it bit, bit, bit into her flesh! Now more ferociously than ever, too, with the realization that dawned upon her. She really did want to kill us, Inna thought, with dull surprise. Why, though?)

...us. Us, as in she and Liora. What if that analysis had been wrong from the very beginning, though? Her memories were shrouded in fog, and retreated further into the nothingness whenever she tried to reach them, but she was aware of one thing-- all those weeks ago, she had hurt Liora. (Her past self? What a fucking bitch she must have been, really, to cast such a huge-ass shadow on the person she was now! ...sometimes, you know, Inna felt as if Liora didn't even see her when they interacted. It wasn't always true, of course, but when it did happen? Those moments stood out. Once in a while, there was a hint of suspicion in her eyes, or maybe her muscles tensed for seemingly no reason, or her hand flew to her scar, and... well. Those reactions belonged to the Previous!Inna, didn't they? To the one who had sold her fucking soul to the demon queen, probably because no other buyer had been interested in something that ugly. To the one who had shattered their bond, only to bathe it in Liora's blood. To the one who had left that scar on Liora's face, solely because she had fucking wanted to! ...so, how did that factor in? Was Liora watching her constantly, in the same way you might watch a bomb that hadn't exploded yet? Could that be why she kept her shields up, perhaps? ...or maybe, maybe she'd gotten tired of waiting, and decided to end Inna before that could happen. Oh well! No matter how she looked at it, that sort of thing seemed entirely fucking fair to Inna. (An eye for an eye, she guessed. Or a scar for a scar?)

After a few seconds of fiddling with the door, Inna figured the mechanism out-- clumsily, she stumbled outside, and followed the sound of... hmmm. Of what, exactly? It sounded like Liora, but it also didn't, mostly because it was soft and vulnerable and her companion wasn't any of those things. Always, always she'd been a rock for her to lean on! Except that, when she followed those mysterious noises, Inna found her in a state that reminded her of cottoncandy more than it did of rocks.

"Liora?" she asked, her own voice tiny and uncertain. (Where the fuck was that feelings chart when one needed it?! Because the emotions that were swirling inside of her were too much, too much, too much, and trying to identify them was like attempting to count the amount of drops in a fucking sea. Mostly, Inna could tell that she was sad, but for whom? For Liora, or for herself? For both, maybe?)

'See?' E-keysmash laughed in Liora's ears. 'She found you, you useless bitch. Game fucking over. Now Inna will see you for what you are-- a weepy mess who can't even drive a car without having multiple breakdowns in the process. Oh, I wish you could read her thoughts right now! Demons are attracted to strength, you see, and you are so damn weak that--'

"Liora, what are you doing?" Inna inquired before dropping on her knees. Quizzically, she grabbed the other's chin and lifted it up. "Do you... do you want a hug? I think I heard somewhere that hugs are fucking great when you want to cheer someone up, but... but if you wish to kill me, then that's okay, too. I mean, it's not like I have anywhere to go without you," the blonde shrugged. "And I guess I'd understand if you didn't want to do this anymore."

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Once, Liora had watched some over sensationalized television documentary about life in the ER and in that show, a man had stabbed himself in the ears with a icepick to get rid of the voices in his head. At the time, Liora, ever the empath to the suffering of others, thought that was a stupid decision to make and could not wrap her mind around why someone would do that to themselves. Now, however? She completely understands this man, because if she knew with certainty that putting an icepick in her ear would stop herself from hearing E-keysmash's voice singing in her head, she would craft one right this fucking second! Thankfully, she sort of knows that that won't work and will only result in her and Inna having to learn sign language together.

She doesn't know how the demon queen is accessing her mind or how far into it she can even reach, but she just wants it to stop. Obviously, no one really wants to be tormented by demons, not even half-demons, and she just doesn't know how long this is going to last or if it will ever stop. Will she have to go the rest of her life ignoring this woman? Listening to her taunt her and ridicule her? To add to the voices of ridicule that already exist in her head? Like, news fucking flash, but Liora does not need this shit! She's tired and she never asked for any of this; if she could, she would trade the entire last year of her life for literally anything else––even to be a fucking sociology student who is doomed to serve coffee for the rest of her life since she will never have any other career aspirations with a useless fucking degree. Yeah, that would mean trading in her life with Inna too but... honestly, she's not even sure if that's truly worth pursuing. They're both too volatile to ever have anything good. Like, they couldn't even get their shit together in their past life where they actually seemed so fucking comfortable around one another. She's not sure she'll ever get that with Inna. Not only because of how Inna is right now, but because of everything that Inna has been in the past few months. Maybe, maybe all she can fucking do is help Inna find a path to becoming whole again and then afterwards she should just... leave. She doesn't want Inna to hate her again. She doesn't want to be enemies. But if that's all they can be because Vie murdered Ivy and Ivy's upcycled soul rightfully cannot see past that? She'd rather fucking disappear before breaking Inna again.

Idly, she listens to the queen's endless criticism. It's never anything new, but it hammers in all the other truths Liora has known about herself thanks to her mother exposing them for her. Tears continue to come in their bountiful flow and she's pretty sure her eyes are going to swell shut; she doesn't even care how disgusting she must look and she can only hope that E-keysmash cannot see her right now. If she could, she'd probably think this is a suiting look for Liora, the worm.

Then there's a person right in front of her and she wants to tell them to fuck off; she almost even summons a creature to get rid of the intruder, but then this person turns out to be Inna and... and that's just fucking worse. Liora turns her head away, pulling herself away from Inna's touch as she squeezes her knees. 'What are you doing here? How did you find me?' she wants to ask, but can't. Her body is still shaking too violently, more so because of all the sobs she is trying to stifle. She doesn't want Inna to see her like this; like this is so fucking pathetic and after she already opened up to Inna only to have her turn her back on that? She doesn't want to repeat that! And what if that happens when they find Inna's home? Inna herself even worried about that possibility and, at the time, Liora had thought it was sweet knowing that the blonde wants to stay with her, but that's only because she hadn't been forced to face the reality that is their fucking cursed souls.

But she needs to stop thinking about all of that. She needs to stop thinking in general, because she doesn't want Inna to worry about her. She needs to get ahold of her emotions, which should not even be outside of their emotional repression jars, and calm the fuck down. A solid plan that is easier said than done, especially when Inna says all that. Finally, she looks over at the blonde and, yes, she sees the shadow of the demon outlining her body––mostly the product of her newly formed imagination muscle, but she still sees it. With every other blink it goes away, but the truth still remains. There's demon somewhere in Inna, in both of them, and Inna's wants to kill her.

"I–I told you," her voice shakes and cracks and sounds so far from Liora an alien might be operating her from a distance, "I needed some air. Just getting some air," and she could probably tell Inna that this is how you water plants and the blonde would probably fucking believe her! Because guess what!!! Inna isn't herself. Her brain is like swiss cheese with holes so large they cover entire important functions. "I don't want a hug and I don't want to kill you, either. Th-that's fucking ridiculous. Why would you think that?" Slowly, she scoots backwards until her back hits the tree and she allows herself to lean against it while stretching her legs out in front of her. At least trying to appear normal even if her cheeks are wet, her eyes are swollen, and she's sniffling every two seconds to stop the snot faucet from activating. It doesn't even cross her mind to tell Inna that she's hearing E-keysmash right now; even if it did, she wouldn't want to share this with her. Inna doesn't have access to Liora's inner world like she briefly had before. Never again.

Images then flash through her mind of Inna attacking her, but she blinks them away before they can hold any power over her. "We should... we should get back to the car," and then what? Go back to searching for Inna's childhood home? Inna deserves to not have a swiss cheese psyche and if her whole self still wants to hate Liora? Why should she be in control of that? Hasn't she already done enough to ruin Inna's life? "We need to find your childhood home still, remember?" she hiccups, gathering herself from the ground and wiping her tears away. They've since slowed and are coming to a stop now that she realizes she has an unwelcome audience in front of her. So that's a win, she guesses.

She doesn't wait for Inna or motion for the blonde to follow her after she turns back towards the direction of the car. Once she's there, she doesn't immediately open the door and get settled into her seat; she stares at her reflection in the window, focusing on the scar that draws far too much attention to herself. She squints at it and it blurs but doesn't disappear. "Inna, this is what you want, right? Y-you want to be yourself again?" 'Even if it means hating me.' "I, uh, I don't want to fuck this up and force you to do something you don't want... It's just hard to tell what you want anymore and I dunno. Maybe you'll regret coming here and..." her shoulders drop and she slowly she looks over at the blonde. "I just don't want your life ruined again... I don't want to ruin your life. Again."

 

[Syntra]

Inna's lips formed a thin line, sharp enough for Liora to cut herself on it. "Air? I was under the fucking impression that air is, you know, everywhere. Why would you come here to get it? Are you hoarding some special air that I cannot have?" That prospect hurt, mostly because the blonde wanted to share things with Liora, dammit, but it didn't hurt as much as the other explanation-- namely, that her companion was fucking lying to her. (Lies were another concept Inna didn't really get. Like, why the hell would you bother to do that? What did it matter that fucker X thought that statement y was true, when - watch out, plot twist! - it was actually statement z that was valid? Did those silly humans think they could rewrite reality like that? Well, newsflash, bitches-- true shit was true regardless of what you fucking thought about it. Want an example? Liora, with water streaming down her eyes, still looked like someone who was sad, and not someone who suffered from the sudden choking syndrome! ...vaguely, Inna recognized that it made her sad, too. Perhaps feelings were chameleons in disguise, actually? Just a few days ago, she'd read about the creatures, and apparently, they could change their color based on their surroundings. Now, if emotions were chameleon-like in nature, this would totally make sense! ...aside from the parts that wouldn't, but hey, willful ignorance was the recipe to handling pretty much every problem in existence, wasn't it? And, when it came to that, Inna had learned from the best. With enough determination, even a nuclear fucking blast could be ghosted! Ghosting her own damn feelings should be a piece of cake in comparison.)

"And... I dunno," the blonde admitted, her gaze glued to her shoes. (Her posture? It resembled a puppy that had been kicked, or perhaps a fucking hen that had stayed out in the rain. The proud demon who could set the planet on fire with her thoughts alone, then, seemed to be a mere night terror-- not even a memory, really, because it was too fucking divorced from reality. ) "It doesn't feel like you like me. Like, I'm not fucking complaining-- it looks like the old Inna was hard to like, and I'm... well, me. Useless." ...did Liora think she hadn't fucking noticed? Because, hellooooo, Inna's brain may have been empty, but it wasn't fried. It hadn't escaped her that her companion had to spend like 80% of their time on explaining shit that felt mundane to her, nor had it escaped her that the Previous!Inna had been the very definition of badass. Just, fire itself obeyed her, man! Meanwhile, the same couldn't be said about her own damn hands-- even tying her shoelaces was a fucking struggle, and sometimes, she forgot the difference between her thumb and her index finger. Wasn't that pathetic? The blonde had only learned what that word meant a week ago, but she was pretty sure that, yeah, this was the perfect fucking occasion for her to use it!

"Just, you didn't expect this when you took me back, did you? You wanted the Inna that was cool and strong and could bake and... and run with her scissors without killing herself in the process, or something." (The Mistress had mentioned something like that when convincing Liora to go, hadn't she? Inna didn't really know what she'd fucking meant by that, but it sounded badass, too. Way too badass for someone like her, actually! So, what if she never learned it? What if the ancient art of scissor running remained out of her reach forever, and she'd disappoint her friend yet again? A steel fist gripped her heart, but Inna decided to ignore it-- best get used to it, really, because something told her she was about to become very familiar with it. The old Inna had sacrificed herself on the altar of pointless fucking revenge, hadn't she? So, it was safe to say she couldn't be retrieved. There would be no cheesy metamorphosis, like in those shitty movies where a supposedly """ugly""" girl took off her glasses only to reveal she'd been hot as fuck all along. Nope, baby! This was her final fucking form, and the blonde had to learn to live with it. ...she could do that, probably. Why not? Her previous self was just a shadow on the fucking wall, and it mattered to her about as much as her last dinner did. The thing was, what about Liora? And there, ladies and gentlemen, was the root of their fucking problem.)

"So I guess you thought you wanted to kill me because being with me is a fucking drag, and not what you wanted," the blonde shrugged. "Like, no offense, but there is a... a president? No, a precedent," Inna corrected herself, clearly proud of her ever-expanding vocabulary. And that she spoke about her own fucking murder? Why, that seemed to bother her about as much as discussing a plot line from some book would! "I don't even mind," the blonde shrugged. "Like, go ahead. I still don't get what's so great about living, anyway. There are all those weird fucking rules, and the upkeep is so costly, and..." for some reason, a sob escaped from her lips, "... and if you're going to lie to me like this, you might as well go all in." Something stung her in her eyes, too, but the blonde figured it was probably the air. Like, it was just too fucking clean, dude! Once you'd gotten used to the noxious fumes of a big city, air that couldn't be seen basically became poison to your organism.

"I don't fucking know what I want, Liora," she hissed, and automatically, her left hand formed a fist. "Nor do I know what I should want, or what the old Inna would have wanted, or how close to that person I am. Like, if you asked a fucking fish whether she liked flying, what do you think she'd say, hmm? The real question here, I think, is whether you want this," the blonde said, uncharacteristically serious. "All of this, I mean. This journey, and me as well. You know better than me, so you should fucking decide."

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

In all honesty, Liora doesn't expect Inna to catch onto the fact that she's lying to her or that she's covering anything up. Maybe it's because she's gotten used to having to explain every basic thing to her that she assumes the blonde will believe anything that she says. Once that realization hits her, guilt soon follows because even though she had meant to lie, in an effort to protect herself, she also had not meant to treat Inna as stupid. Like, yeah, she usually would not hesitate to assign that label to her companion, but that had been when Inna really could think for herself. Now it feels cruel to use the word against her when it isn't her fault and she does have to rely on Liora's word as fact. She especially had not meant to lie to Inna after the last time, because that had ended in such a catastrophic failure and she has the scar to show for it. Even if this is a white lie and one meant to protect both of them more than anything else, she cannot help but to feel guilt just the same. She is trying to do better for Inna. She's even trying to be better, but she doesn't know how to do either of those things when she also does not trust her enough to be admit her own anguish. Which just means she's fucked up. Again.

Watching Inna, listening to her, only makes Liora realize how her lie had done nothing but sow this awful thought into Inna's head that she wants to kill her. That alone tugs at her goddamn heart. (Now, if only she could step forward and lift the blonde's chin up and be fucking honest with her––honest with why she is acting so strange. She doesn't know if Inna can see her unraveling like a ball of yarn in front of her or if she only realizes that Liora is keeping secrets from her. Either way, she figures she needs to give Inna at least something to hold onto because the thought that Inna believes Liora wants to kill her and that there is even precedent for it... it crushes her as if her heart were made of aluminium.) "Inna," she starts, not bothering to even try to hide the emotions that practically burst from her tone in the form of cracks and shakes. "Y-you're not useless to me. I mean, no, this wasn't what I thought would happen when I teleported us out of that place. But I took you out of there because I knew that the queen wouldn't let you live after you embarrassed her in front of her whole court just to... just to save me," the woman that had killed her own fucking friend––whose soul is so rotten, everyone can fucking see it. Why else would people keep goading her into killing Inna? It's like a scarlet fucking letter and she'll never be able to escape that. At least, she doesn't think so.

"I didn't want you dead then and I don't want you dead now." Then, with Inna sobbing in front of her, she feels her own eyes starting to form new tears and for some reason, she doesn't mind as much like she had before. Perhaps, feeling safer since these ones, she figures, are triggered by Inna's own despair. "I don't care that you're different now, you know? Like... Like it makes me fucking sad, yeah, because I know this wouldn't have happened if I just––if I just never was in your life at all... But I'd rather have you like this than not have you at all." She almost allows an entire waterfall to pour from her mouth, professing just how much Inna means to her, but she decides to stop there; still too uncomfortable with the idea of Inna knowing just how much she means to Liora. She isn't sure she'll ever be able to tell her, but, right now, she maybe starts to hope that she can someday.

She takes a half step closer towards the blonde and gently grabs Inna's face, brushing her thumb under Inna's eyes and sweeping away her tears. "I'm sorry for lying, Inna. I sort of didn't think you would notice," she admits, letting one hand fall to Inna's shoulder while the other rubs the back of her own neck. "And I didn't want you to worry... or see me like that. I don't like it when people see me all weak and shit, because I'm supposed to be fucking strong." And she's supposed to be in charge of carrying Inna through this all, but it's just so goddamn hard when there's shit she hasn't even digested yet. Not that she wants to, mind you, but within her deep self she knows that shouldering the weight of both their experiences is leading her to a breaking point. The reminder that E-keysmash is still out there, waiting to take Inna away again, does nothing to help. "I won't lie to you... but I also don't think I'm ready to tell you the truth. I just want you to focus on getting better, you know? And I don't think you knowing will help."

"Aw, how sweet, little Liora is concerned for Inna's wellbeing. I cannot wait for this to blow up spectacularly in your face when my Innushka returns to her place next to me."

Since she cannot eject the queen from her head, she grinds her jaw down and does her best to focus on Inna. Even with her worries about what will happen once they return to her childhood home, she does seem to remember, now that she's actually looking at the woman in front of her, that Inna had a chance to kill her and didn't take it. Liora even gave her her own sword to do it and she still rejected it. The illusion from earlier may have tried to convince her that Inna will only betray her again once she is restored, but when she tries to find the logic behind those words... She sort of realizes there is none. It had been digging into her worries and that alone made it seem believable in combination with the queen's message. But even if it turns out that the shadow had not been lying, Liora cannot deny Inna the opportunity to be whole again. If it turns out the shadow had been right, then maybe Inna will see it in herself to give Liora a quick death since she took care of her and helped her in the interim.

"I want to do this," she nods her head decisively, wrapping an arm around Inna's shoulder and helping her into the vehicle. "I want to try, at least. If this doesn't work and you're not you're old self... Then I'll just help you figure out who you want to be now," she shrugs, unsure if that is a particularly inspiring response. "A-and, if you do find yourself again and you remember that you don't want to, um, hang out with me anymore. Then that's okay too. It has been nice just having you around again. It's not like old times, admittedly, but I dunno. I still like your company." 'I still like you.'

 

[Syntra]

So, excuse her French, but... what the fuck, man? Before, Inna had thought she'd known everything there was to know about being human-- or, well, definitely not everything, but enough to pass the fucking Humanology 101, at least. The main takeaways seemed to be, in no specific order, that they were 1) obsessed with clothes to an idiotic fucking degree, 2) always ready to invent a new stupid rule for the sake of inventing stupid rules, 3) cruel. And, like, not cruel in the same way demons tended to be cruel, but in an almost thoughtless manner-- you know, one that allowed them to burn about 80% of the world's rainforests because hurrr durrr, 3444555555 shopping malls were a scandalously low number and they just needed to conquer the Amazon with their fucking brand. If she had to give it a name, then maybe 'casual cruelty'? 'Dumbass cruelty' would perhaps be an even better term, except that Inna didn't actually think a lot of them were dumb. No, more than anything, they just seemed fucking unconcerned about whatever the hell happened to people that weren't them, or who didn't share the same family name! So, perhaps unconsciously, Inna had assumed that apologies just weren't a thing. Like yeah, she had been aware the words relating to those existed, but she had sorta assumed they'd only been invented to be featured in fairytales, you know? In the ideal blueprint of the ideal world, complete with pretty fucking princesses and happy endings and villains meeting their deserved fates. Except that, with effortlessness so typical for her, Liora straight up murdered that hypothesis! Via apologizing to her, no less.

Somewhat stunned, Inna stared at her companion. (People... didn't really apologize to her, did they? Her brain may not have been working properly yet, but this seemed so jarring it had woken her up from the metaphoric fucking coma-- like, this defied all the patterns so fervently it could be compared to, uh, playing the chess and your opponent suddenly throwing a frisbee in your face. So, to say that she was surprised would have been an understatement! The tears that had welled up in her eyes called it quits, too, probably because the shock made them forget which direction they were supposed to fall towards. Even her knees felt like fucking jelly for some reason, so the blonde had to conclude that... well, she didn't fucking know what the conclusion was, actually. For actual hypotheses to be formed, you see, her brain would have had to do some fucking thinking, which was kinda hard to pull off with the 'Liora likes me, Liora likes me, Liora likes me' loop it was currently stuck in. ...hmmm! Maybe she wouldn't ever need different thoughts, though. As in, this was a fine sentiment to have, and Inna would be content with it filling her mind for the eternity. Kinda like a screensaver, but not obnoxious!)

Still, with the other woman baring her heart to her like that? Somehow, the ex-demon felt that some sort of ResponseTM was warranted. Which, fuck, fuck, fuck! What the hell was the protocol here? Should she thank her? Kiss her? Dance an elaborate Dance of Reconciliation for her, or some shit? Insulting Liora was the last thing she wanted to do, and the human rules were so complex, and-- and-- hell, the silence only grew more awkward the longer it lasted! "Um," Inna finally managed to say. "I... uh, thank you? Is that the right fucking thing to say? It makes me feel better, I think, so I feel it is worth a thanks. Anyway, I guess I understand. Not all of it, but like, if you're okay with me being like this, and with... with everything, then I'm fine with not really getting some of this shit. Just... you can take your time, too. I like your company as well, so I want you to feel..." the blonde shrugged, obviously looking for the right words, "the same way you made me feel. Accepted? Yeah, something like that. So, you don't really need to explain. I trust you, I think."

Hanging out in a forest wasn't something Inna had a problem with per se, but they were kinda on a mission, and Liora indicated it was important-- meaning they had to return to their car. Onwards to her childhood home, then! The journey itself was pretty uneventful, with only three drivers trying to push them off the road, so the blonde spent most of it observing the clouds. "That one fucking looks like you," she informed Liora. "And the next one... it also looks like you, but a version of you that's been through a zombie apocalypse. See, that's your head rolling on the floor!"

The homeward pull was buzzing in her chest, low but constant-- kinda like that annoying-ass feeling you got when you could fucking """hear""" an electronic appliance being on, even if it technically wasn't making any sounds. According to Inna, that should have been illegal! It wasn't, though, so she had to suffer in silence.

"Here," the blonde suddenly jolted in her seat, "it's fucking here, I'm sure. Stop the car, Liora." In this context, 'here' translated into an unimpressive looking village-- a sea of grey, only special in that it managed to look both dreadfully impersonal a la the modern mega city and desolate at the same time. (The best of the both world? Pffft, that concept was overdone. The worst of the both worlds was a much fresher take, apparently!) ...anyway, if Depression was looking for its townsona, this settlement sure was a pretty good candidate. Inna, however? Inna didn't seem to notice or care, for she headed towards one of the identical houses. "This one has to be it, Liora," she exclaimed, with something that almost resembled excitement. "I can feel it. I can-- ouch!" Ouch, indeed, because a fucking bottle landed on her head in that moment.

"What the fuck are you doing here, bitch?" some chick taunted her from the open window. (The bottle thrower, Inna presumed? The face didn't ring any bells, though it was so fucking ugly she may as well have suppressed the memory.) "Didn't I tell you to never return? Turn back before I call the goddamn police, Inna. Both you and your trashy fucking friend! I don't want any problems, and 'problem' is your second name."