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

[Syntra]

"Choices," Haenel spat out, as if the word was something gross she'd accidentally swallowed with her food. (A fly in her soup, most definitely! Except that foxes probably didn't eat soups, and so the comparison made about as much sense as likening, say, shoes to fucking skyscrapers. Okay, okay, okay. So, if not that, then perhaps a piece of carrot in her rotting carcass...? In order to craft her insults accurately, the blonde figured, she'd have to do some fucking research first-- as every word assassin knew, only getting close to the TruthTM could really hurt your enemy, and Haenel had earned that role with her antics. Just!!! How could she have betrayed her for E-fucking-keysmash? Had the queen been the cool type of villain who, like, organized wild blood sacrifice parties for their henchmen, Inna sorta would have understood. Life fucking sucked, after all, so who could blame a girl for wanting to have fun before her soul got recycled in the Fatey Blender of Fate once again? The problem was, however, that that wasn't who the queen was. Like, not at all. E-keysmash was basically the demonic equivalent of a fucking CEO, which meant she could only """inspire""" her subordinates with a flaming whip in her hand! Forget about benefits or decent wages or even, you know, a normal fucking greeting upon meeting her in the morning-- nooo, it had always been just 'I aM YOur quEEN' and 'oBEY or dIE', sprinkled with the occasional 'hurrr durrr, I am the best and you are worthless fucking trash.' Feudalism was no better than capitalism, baby! It may have been dressed in slightly more stylish clothes, and Inna had to admit that crowns were peak fucking aesthetic, but the underlying message was the same: 'serve whoever fucker who lied their way and/or was born into power.' Which, fucking bullshit! Inna Awesome Orlovskaya hadn't been put on this earth to polish some bastard's shoes, and people delusional enough to think that that was the right way to live should be removed from the fucking gene pool. The same, by the way, went for traitorous goddamn swords!)

"A real fancy way of referring to what she does. A choice implies a modicum of consideration, you know? Like, there would have to be actual fucking thought processes involved, not the confused flailing she does," the fox smirked. "Oooh, look at me," she lifted her paws into the air, "I'm Inna Dumbass Orlovskaya, and I literally decide my moral alignment according to how much my not-girlfriend happens to anger me that day. Her forgeting about my birthday? Demonic form. Her buying the wrong fucking brand of orange juice? Demonic form. Not wanting to act like a fucking child, and accepting responsibility for once? Yup, you guessed it-- demonic form, demonic form, demonic form!'

"Hey!" Inna protested, pursing her lips. "I literally only did it once, and while it wasn't my brightest decision ever," to put it mildly, "I still think my reasons were kinda valid. I wouldn't fucking do it for the wrong brand of orange juice." Maybe she'd consider it if, like, Liora smashed her vintage anime DVDs collection, but a) those DVDs were stuck in her doubtlessly demolished apartment, so RIP, b) her friend actually deserved to enjoy some pointless rage, as a treat. Considering the torture the blonde had put her through, both intentional or not? She didn't actually mind if Liora destroyed her stuff, in an attempt to re-direct that angry energy somewhere. As long as that 'somewhere' wasn't her fucking face, Inna couldn't care less!

"It was a verbal caricature," Haenel rolled her eyes, "also known as exaggerating to make a point, dumbass. And don't meddle! Without me, you're fucking nothing-- just an empty shell. Now, why would I, the great Haenel, speak to someone as worthless? Get a grip, Inna. Once I deal with Miss Flying Bitch over here, I shall take over your role! It's not like you fucking know what to do with it, anyway-- irrelevance seems to be much more up to your ally."

Well, duh? Only fucking psychos ever aimed for more, and Haenel's very existence proved it all over again. (Like??? Inna would love to have a word with the fucking Creator, because the chick had some very curious guidelines around which she distributed power. So far, it seemed like you had to be either a) unhinged, b) disinterested to the point of irresponsibility, c) a combination of both to become an Important FigureTM, and that looked like bullshit to Inna. Just, she wouldn't have entrusted any real power to herself, so one would have assumed a fucking goddess would have had more advanced foresight!) "Sick fucking burn," Inna quipped, "but I don't really care? Just keep it, bitch-- saving the world was about as much fun as watching paint dry, except the paint was also toxic and thus could kill you in the most anticlimactic way ever. If you want that, then be my guest, I guess. I won't cry over it!" That she sure as fuck wouldn't! Inna had something called 'priorities,' you see, and most of them now revolved around stealing enough money for her and Liora to be able to afford a nice, cozy apartment-- hopefully with the windows pacing a park or a sea or something aesthetic like that. Saving the fucking world? Why, Inna didn't know her! That was what the Creator got for not going for the generic YA protagonist archetype, the blonde guessed.

Anyway, it appeared that Haenel wasn't really interested in talking anymore. When Declan sent the glass in her direction? The fox stomped on the ground, and from it, black flames erupted-- flames in which she shrouded herself, and before the shards could reach her... well, they fucking melted. Impressive, Inna had to say! The fiery tendrils then raced towards the owl, leaving a trail of hot glass in its wake. "Edgelord? I merely see the world as it is, Declan. Why won't you admit it? The bitches we have to babysit now are such an obvious downgrade! My loyalty belongs to Ivy, not this cheap fake who switched allegiances the second her conviction was tested a little bit. And you? You're no better off, with an idiot so emotionally stunted that she probably thinks she's only crying because she's constipated. Actually...' Haenel smiled, "maybe they are the problem, not you. You're my second half, are you not? Which means there's got to be some common sense buried in you." And, unexpectedly? The flames changed direction, and were now heading towards the disaster duo. "Perhaps, when I kil them, you'll come back to your senses!"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Alright, so round two of their weird swords duking it out, because why fucking not? Liora sort of gets why they're fighting––there is this whole glaring issue of Haenel defecting to the demon queen and so obviously someone (Declan) has to do something to smack some sense into that stupid fucking fox with too many fucking tails. Honestly, Liora doesn't know what made Haenel want to switch her allegiances and she also cannot say she's surprised. She spent a few hours with the fox once and she felt that her personality bordered on some self-centered personality disorder. While upon first meeting Haenel she can recall wishing that she could switch sword teachers with her companion, since Haenel at least seemed competent, now she realizes that had all been smoke and mirrors because this bitch is stupid as fuck. Like, yeah fucking Declan isn't her most favorite being in existence but at least Declan doesn't fucking defect to the other side and knows a thing or two about loyalty! (It's hard to imagine that these two had ever been a single fucking essence once, but she guesses that a handful of centuries apart probably would make you develop your own sense of self. Not that she's a useless psychologist.)

Although, Liora would be lying if she said she doesn't sort of agree with what Haenel is saying re: Inna's thought process. Still, no one is allowed to talk about Inna like that unless they've put in the hard work to understand her fucking personality! And Haenel may be some fancy fucking know-it-all sword , but even her caricature does not do the blonde any justice. If only it were the time to engage in heated debate! (Also, also, why did Haenel feel the need to specifically use the phrase not-girlfriend? Like, yeah, duh they aren't girlfriends––they're barely exes––so why specify? Why waste that energy on those two extra syllables instead of just saying friend? Proves this fox is a dumbass.) (Oh, and another side-note: Liora needs to ask about Inna's birthday because she actually doesn't want to miss that. So she'll just file that reminder away for later since, um––)

Flames are now heading their way. "Oh, Jesus fucking Christ, are you serious?" the woman whines, opening a portal to redirect the flames back towards Haenel. (Also, what the fuck... Why does magic just never listen to the laws of nature? How is Liora supposed to determine how hot these flames are if they are not coming in their normal fucking colors! Not that it matters, because all fire is fucking hot, but still!! Magic needs to respect some normal fucking things.) And you know what? If the fox is going to fucking go after them, then fucking fine! Liora would love to pound that stupid fucker into the ground––for Inna's fire therapy, for being a bitch when they needed to find Inna, obviously for defecting, and for her attitude in general.

"Inna, how comfortable are you with, like, machine guns?" she asks, turning to the blonde. Though really, Liora's question doesn't matter because in a manner of seconds she's materialized some ghostly fucking artillery for powerless partner. "I'm going to open a few portals that will be positioned around that fucking fox––just aim into them." Liora then starts to open and close portals around them, never keeping the channels open for too long lest the fox use them against her. Then, to give Haenel more obstacles, she decides to treat them all to an army of blobs. (Blobs being a logical shape for an army, because they're (1) easy to imagine and (2) squishy and resilient. Vie may have been all for reanimating the dead, but Liora is more about manipulating their spiritual energy into things that can go beyond a simple army. This use of their powers has the pizzaz she lacked as Vie. And, um, she hopes that Inna thinks it's cool, too.)

Meanwhile, the owl shrieks at Haenel's change in attack. While Declan is apparently not concerned with her pupil's ability to defend herself and Inna, given that the owl does not intervene on their behalf, she is shocked the fox would dare to go after those they are supposed support––unconditionally, per the terms of the deal they had made with Ivy and Vie all those centuries ago! (Granted, back then the goddess had been under the impression this would only be until the end of these heroines––she never anticipated reincarnation! That Vie and her loopholes.) "These two may have the emotional range of a rock, but if you believe that Ivy and Vie were actually all that different then you need to get your ojitos checked, mate! Vie was so controlling you had to give her a five minute warning before farting and Ivy! She was a darling, no doubt, no doubt, but even she could be more than a little daft. Inna here has amazing perceptive abilities and Liora has shown great flexibility when it comes to those she l-words," and with that review of the disaster girls, Declan raising the glass shards into a giant wave meant to wash out the agitated fox.

"And how dare, you Haenel, claim any allegiance to Ivy. How dare you mock her," Declan shouts, her rage growing with each second and her eyes taking on a haunting glow, "If you were truly loyal to her you would respect her wish to let these idiots have a happy ending! Because you know she didn't get one."

 

[Syntra]

In life, Inna had learned, one of the most important things was asking questions. A well-timed 'hey, what the fuck' could bring you great insight into pretty much any matter under the sun, and an occasional 'want me to break your nose, bitch?' had prevented many, umm... let's call them misunderstandings. So, as the blonde watched the events unfold in front of her? She had numerous questions, actually! So many of them, even, that you could collect them, write them in a book called Inna's Ingenious Inquiries, publish it and watch it flop, mostly because nobody was fucking interested in the pseudo-philosophical musings of a murderous rando. Listing them all would not be time-effective at all, however, so solely for the fictional readers' benefit, Inna would summarize them as: 'when the fuck had Liora become so cool, dude?' 'Cause damn, her companion was just so fucking cool that her existence alone must have set back the global warming by fifty years, at least! (Machine guns, the epitome of coolness. Every single first person shooter game featured them, and for a damn good reason-- they were the holy grail of firearms, basically. Not a single fucking thing about them could get better, for you couldn't improve perfection. ...was what the blonde had thought, at least. Ghostly fucking machine guns, though? Man oh man, that was just the oomph that had been missing from the equation! The hidden, secret part that somehow made it infinitely more epic-- kinda like discovering that the local ice-cream lady would add chocolate topping on your ice-creamy goodness if you asked nicely, even if it wasn't advertised in the fucking menu. So, a total game-changer, in other words.)

"If I'm comfortable with them? I'm in love with the things," though not as much as I am in love with you "and this is a great fucking idea. I knew I could count on you, Li." ...she'd known for months now, despite her blunders. Instead of pointing and laughing, her friend had always been there for her, and helped her walk when her own legs wouldn't carry her on her own. So, even if Liora didn't want her in the way Inna still distinctly felt about the woman? That would be alright, the blonde decided. Yeah, yeah, there would be a few nights spent crying into her pillow, and many weeks of 'why-the-fuck-was-I-so-stupid-when-I-had-the-chance-to-spoil-her-for-the-rest-of-her-life', most likely, but she wouldn't hold it against her. After everything that had happened between them, after all? Liora wanting to keep some fucking distance from the disaster she had turned into would make sense, regardless of how much she loathed it. For once in her fucking life, though, Inna would act like an adult about it! The last temper tantrum had almost cost her e v e r y t h i n g, so she'd sure as fuck think twice about stomping her foot like a three-year-old brat again. Just, nah, mate. Whatever happened from now on? That would depend on Liora, not her. If she only wanted to be friends, then fine-- more than that, Inna would be the best fucking friend in the whole damn world, too. You know, the type that never forgot about your birthday and always had a hidden candy stash to share for moments when you felt like shit, and... and who gushed about your new gf with you as well. If Liora desired something bigger than that, though? Provided the blonde didn't fucking explode from the happiness, she'd be the Most Awesome Girlfriend, too. Just wait and see! The fact that she had never fucking poured effort into literally anything meant that her energy storages were bursting at the seams, and so she'd put everything, everything towards making Liora happy. Try trumping that, bitch!

Anyway, the ex-demon winked at her companion, and then it was shooting time. Hahahahahaha!!!! Ratatatata, the machine gun laughed its steely laugh, and fuck, Inna felt like a goddess of war. Why the hell didn't they do this shit more often?

Haenel, meanwhile, didn't seem to appreciate the onslaught-- dodging the bullets, the blobs and Declan's attacks proved to be a task too great even for an actual deity, which got confirmed when fresh wounds began to bloom on her body. 'Ah, damn you. Damn you, damn you, damn you, you traitorous fucking apologist! Ivy and Vie at least didn't need to be babysat. Do you truly think this is a dignified mission for a god? We agreed to cooperate with them, on equal fucking terms-- I, for one, didn't remember signing a contract that obliged me to change her fucking diapers."

"Hey!" Inna shouted, in between shooting. "I don't think I've pissed myself in the last, uh, twenty years. I'll sue you for libel, you stupid fucking fox!" The threat of that, however, didn't seem to terrify Haenel into obedience, for she continued.

'And Ivy can wish for whatever the hell she wants. Doesn't mean the Earth will stop turning just to fucking appease her, you know? The girl had her chance and she blew it, end of. These two idiots are just pathetic shelves of their former selves! Cheap caricatures!'

Cheap caricatures that were, nonetheless, currently fucking curb-stomping her. Fire didn't do much when it could be redirected, like, instantly, you see? And Haenel was currently finding out the hard way why raw power wasn't worth all that much, actually, when you had nobody to fucking back it up. "Teamwork, bitch!" Inna smirked when one of the blobs forced her to dodge a particular way, and, drrrrk! More bullets ended up buried in her torso, covering Haenel in her own blood. (What would be her next move? More black flames? Summoning, like, a bunch of Vulpixes? Those were fiery fucking foxes, too, and Inna felt they must have been contractually obliged to serve Haenel to some extent, at least. Well, whatever it is, just bring it on. I'll fucking destroy you, just like I've destroyed all of my enemies!)

Nothing could have prepared her for what came next, though.

'Is this how it is going to end, huh?' Haenel smiled, somewhat melancholic. She raised one of her tails in the air, and... oh, shit. Was it just her, or was it shapeshifting before her very eyes? Namely, did it just assume the shape of a fucking sword? 'Beaten via treachery? Alright. I can see when I've lost, you know! The thing is... you cannot have me. Not anymore. Say goodbye to your powers, Inna,' she said, right before aiming the sword at her own heart. Wow, okay! 'And you, Declan? Enjoy the rest of your pathetic life in servitude. Once again, I fucking win!'

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Oh. Oh. So Inna is just going to wink at her like that? It might not be the time nor the place for Liora to get caught up in the funny reactions that her body has when Inna does anything remotely cute, endearing, or alluring, but it's also really hard to ignore her heart fluttering or the lightning that zings through her blood and flushes her cheeks. Not to mention how absolutely hot it is to watch the blonde shoot the weapon that she had made for her. Like, as has been stated before, she's always known that Inna is attractive, and it borderlines on some ethereal form of beauty, but how the sparks from the machine gun light up her eyes? Liora absolutely could get lost in this moment and live peacefully just staring at Inna in all her Ares/Mars blessed glory. Unfortunately, were she to be any more distracted, that could result in an unsavory end to her mega-hot friend, so she settles for stolen glances and continues to use her portals to her advantage while idly imagining how they'll both unwind after all of this is over. (There's a lot she does want to talk about with Inna, things she hasn't felt comfortable saying while the ex-demon had been in thick of her recovery, but she isn't sure when or if she should say anything. She doesn't want to ruin anything between them. She doesn't want to accidentally hurt Inna and/or push her away, because even through all the shit that's happened between them, she does want the blonde in her life. She just isn't sure in what capacity or, rather, she's afraid to admit the role she wants Inna to have. So maybe, just for the evening, they can pretend there's nothing to talk about? They can just eat take out, pints of ice cream, and pretend like nothing ever happened, because Liora really wants this to be water under the bridge. Above all else, she just wants her friend back.)

The fight clearly is in their favor, there is no denying it, and honestly it's not all that surprising. Like, Haenel is the one who decided to drag Inna and herself into this altercation and turned this into a three on one situation. To be honest, before this development, Liora had been totally fine with the swords duking it out on their own as they had in the labyrinth. So, really, the fox practically fucking asked for this outcome when she decided to attack them––and if she really thought Declan was going to listen to her psycho ass, then she doesn't really know her counterpart all that well. Declan oozes a sense of duty once you get past her overwhelming kindergarten teacher personality. (Also, it occurs to Liora that this is the first fight they've had that doesn't feel so fucking stacked against them––and it's either the teamwork or that they've gotten better at facing magical opponents. Either way! She's not fucking complaining. It's a welcome change of pace.)

"Diapers?!" Liora shouts, clearly as fucking offended as her friend. "Piss off––if you wanted a fucking dignified job, maybe you should have read the fine print on the terms and fucking conditions, bitch! And Ivy thinks we're both just fine as we are, so fuck off telling us that we're knock-offs! We're our own fucking experience, you dumbass dog!" (If she weren't intent on staying close to her companion in order to protect her, she might've teleported herself closer to Haenel to knock some fucking sense into that thick skull of hers.)

Though when Haenel decides to pull out all the stops and nearly fucking threatens Inna's powers (not that the woman would l-word the blonde any less if she were to permanently be without them), Liora's heart fills with a fire hotter than the ones bending to the fox's will. She raises her hand to undoubtedly reform her blob army into something more terrifying, but Declan whispers in her ear in that moment, 'Cease, padawan. This is not about you. This is not your moment.'

Now, just what does the owl even mean by that? Because it sounds like she fucking wants the stupid fox to fucking succeed in offing her own life and that's not exactly acceptable to Liora. However, before she can even choose whether or not to listen to her instructor, Declan outstretches her enlarged wings then her eyes flash so brightly that the entire dungeon is swallowed in white. After a few seconds the white glare slowly begins to fade, much like a polaroid picture revealing what it has captured. Once the arena is visible again? The entire world appears stopped. Liora looks as though she is about to hurl the nastiest insults of the century towards Declan, Haenel's wounds are as frozen as the tail that threatens to pierce her heart, and not too far away Hydrangea has pinned E-keysmash to the wall (who looks as though she is about to incinerate the traitorous monster with her gaze alone; oh, and, yeah, her hair still looks fucking perfect! What the fuck).

Inna and Declan, however? Well, Declan does look as frozen as any of the other characters in this room, but that is only because she is holding time itself at a standstill; careful observation would reveal the steady rise and fall of her chest. Inna, on the other hand, has free reign to move through the time-frozen dungeon as she pleases. Though before the blonde can get ahead of herself, the owl's voice infiltrates her head and she instructs, 'You must reason with Haenel, Ms. Inna––or at least try. You must know how she is feeling, having made a similar choice once to defect to the demon queen, hm? Like, not blaming you or anything, just saying. Empathy. Anyway, she might listen to you because you're her wielder and as upset as she is, you have an innate connection,' she explains. 'I have frozen time around everything but her ears, so she can still hear you and I'll unfreeze her mouth once you've said your piece. But can you, like, try to convince her fast? I can only keep this hold on time for so long.'

 

[Syntra]

Wait, what? Ivy thought they were fine as they were? What the fuck had happened while she'd been out of it, even? Like, correct Inna if she was wrong, but unless the culture had changed quite drastically in her Vegetable Brain Era, then talking to the dead was not fucking normal. And, like??? Ivy sorta being her past self somehow made it infinitely worse! You know how, when you wanted to air someone's dirty fucking laundry, your best bet would be to bribe that person's mother with sweets and ask for stories from their childhood, right? Well, that was kinda like that, except on fucking steroids. Ivy had literally been her at some point, or she'd been Ivy, and, and, and!!! Who knew what she had decided to share about her not-descendant? ...oh shit. She didn't have her baby pics, did she? 'Cause, if her former self somehow had access to those, Inna would have to storm the entire fucking afterlife and kill the bitch once again. (What? Don't look at her like that! At this point, Ivy must have been used to both dying and being betrayed, so this couldn't possibly upset her more. Quite the contrary, actually! The woman had loved Vie, and Vie had been a certified traitor, which meant that Inna backstabbing her for old times' sake could only trigger pleasant nostalgia feels within her. And, yes, this indeed was 10/10 logic. If you wanted to throw any awards at Inna Philosopher Slayer Orlovskaya, she'd accept them later!)

...except that then, you know, Haenel literally tried to kill herself. Cool, cool, why not! Inna, you see, was entirely fine with the situation and the way it was developing. Autonomy was important, blah blah blah, so her stupid sword should get to choose as well, actually. The implication that literally dying would be the preferable alternative to spending the rest of her life with her? Honestly, that didn’t trouble the blonde as much as it once would have. Some people simply had shit fucking taste, man! You could be offering them, like, hors d’oeuvres (whatever the hell it was), and still, still they would rush to buy hot dogs from that one cart that always fucking gave them food poisoning instead. Far it be from her to stop them, right? This was goddamn democracy, which meant that everyone was free to destroy themselves in a way catering specifically to their dumbass preferences. Plus, the more shit they shoveled down their throats, the more good stuff was left for Inna, and… and, surely, that also applied when the good stuff in question happened to be the blonde herself. Self-love made the world go round, baby! (To hell with her fucking powers, too. ‘Hurrr durr, I am Haenel the Wise and I am going to punish you by freeing you from the burden you had never wanted! Just, what was next? Threatening her with second goddamn Christmas? With buying her so much chocolate that attempting to eat it all at once would result in the world’s most epic stomach ache? ‘Cause, if so, Inna would gladly bite the bullet. This stupid planet could find another savior, and considering that the only qualification seemed to be a) emotionally unstable, b) utterly unwilling to do the job, the Creator should be able to find one within ten fucking seconds!)

Declan, however, didn’t seem to agree with the plan. Well, duh-- had the blonde been the one who was about to lose her Literal Other HalfTM, she likely wouldn’t have been like ‘hmm, sucks, I guess, but what should I have for lunch’ about it, either. Ugh. Fine, fine! That she should be the one to talk some sense into pretty much anyone was yet another of the universe’s cruel fucking jokes, but here she went, Inna guessed. (If this trend continued? In a week or two, she’d find herself promoting, like, world fucking peace. Bizarre, yes, but so on brand for the particular flavor of strangeness her life had gained in the past few months, so Inna couldn’t really discount the possibility-- on the contrary, she was about ninety percent sure this would actually happen. And the ten percent of doubts? Why, the blonde fucking reserved those for the event she ended up advocating for the galaxy peace, or some shit like that!)

“Okay, so,” she inhaled, meeting Haenel’s gaze. “Sorry, I guess? I’m not one for grand fucking speeches, but I can see how I’ve been a neglectful…” ‘owner,’ she had wanted to say, but for some reason, that kinda felt like pouring oil into the raging flames, “…friend,” Inna finally settled on. “I mean, I didn’t really want this, but apparently you didn’t, either, and so I at least could have tried to find some common ground in our, like, avoidance of responsibilities. Then again, you didn’t have to subject me to that fire therapy, so I maintain most of this is still your fucking fault. Like, have you ever considered not making the worst first impression in the recorded fucking history?” Yep, so far, this not-apology was going really fucking well! (…had Inna been in charge of post-WWII negotiations, you know, the whole affair would have devolved into WWIII instantly. Contrary to the popular opinion, that would have been a good thing, mostly because everyone would have fucking died in the resulting battle royale and so they wouldn’t have needed to go through the trouble of being born. It would have saved everyone a lot of fucking trouble, really!)

“But, from one traitor to another, E-keysmash isn’t all that, is she? Yeah, yeah, her hair is really fucking beautiful, but you can’t decide your trajectory in life based on someone’s hair, Haenel. Not how this shit is done! Even I, Inna the Irresponsible,” ha, another alliteration, “know this. And like, I am not Horst fucking Fuchs, so I won’t spouse nonsense about you getting three Innas for the price of one if you abandon your current boss, but you have to see I am clearly the better option here. Just, you can’t be enjoying this! The bitch is so much of a control freak even Germans would seem like the easygoing fucking sort when compared to her. The Germans, man! And…” almost imperceptibly, Inna’s voice softened,

“Haenel, you don’t have to be doing this. You are angry, which, yeah, valid. I was angry, too! I could have gotten a few medals in being angry, had they had the common sense to give out those. The thing is, there’s no point to destroying yourself, is there? The aggression has to go out, not fucking in, and... I don’t know. Buy a videogame. Punch me if you have to, since I kinda dragged you into this. Won’t you at least think of Declan? She’s been waiting for you all this time, you know. Cheesy as fuck, I have to admit, but she hasn’t fucking given up on you, and what do you do with that devotion? Kill yourself just to upset me? Mate, I haven’t even known you for a whole year. I don’t know how to break the news to you, but I don’t give a fuck! So like, if you truly want to get under my skin, you should stick around and make me do shit I don’t wanna do and… and be you, in general. ‘Cause I do need someone like that, I guess.”

Amazingly enough, Haenel’s eyes filled with tears, aaand yep, Declan must have unfrozen the time around her mouth at that point because the blonde could hear her sobbing, too. “You are so stupid, Inna,” she wailed, sounding more like a toddler than an ancient deity. “So, so fucking stupid! Do you know how long I have been waiting for… well, not these words exactly, but the sentiment? Shit, I… I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but you are right!”

Nothing like some validation in the morning, right? Too bad that Inna couldn’t bask in it properly because E-keysmash was still fucking there, even if currently occupied by the hydra. “Li,” she turned to her friend, “can you get us out of here? As in, now.”

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

So when time gets frozen and you're a part of that stop, it turns out everything stops. Breathing, heart, thoughts––all of those are shut off. Like, duh, that is kind of what it means to stop time. Logically, that is what should happen. Just, Liora has never really thought of what being frozen in time would entail since it's never fucking happened to her until this fucking moment. Not that she has full awareness of what has just happened, because immediately when Declan releases her hold on time, the woman simply picks up where she left off. Which had been... oh, right, insulting the owl!

"Do they fucking call you Declan the Dumbass, because I'm seriously starting to fucking think that's your true title! Maybe try spinning your fucking head––" Wait a minute. What the fuck. Liora definitely didn't lose her train of thought and even if she had, she likely would have been able to conjure a new train and this new one would have been deadlier than the fucking first! Anyway, the woman stops as she realizes a couple of things that cannot explain. Like, she's not the best at reading the room or whatever, but it does seems like Haenel isn't angry anymore? The golf-ball sized tears coming out of her tiny fox eyes sort of tell Liora that, but she cannot really figure out what the fuck happened between Haenel screaming that she's going to off herself and, well, now. A second later, by her approximation.

Though it's sort of hard to question this too much when there's a screaming demon queen in the background who is about to destroy her own fucking dungeons since she's being bested by a useless little worm's creation. (If there were anymore time to rub this into E-keysmash's face and maybe ruin her annoyingly perfect hair, then you can bet your ass that Liora would have taken advantage. As it is, Hydrangea is looking worse for the wear and it is clear that the demon is moments away from getting rid of the hydra permanently.) That, and, Inna has formally requested her help getting them out of this stupid fucking realm and honestly? Fucking finally! This day has been far too much for Liora to handle and she is ready for it to fucking end. Preferably curled up next to Inna.

"Anything for you," she blurts out, before thinking about how that sounds. Like at all. Thankfully, there are much more important things to worry about instead of her red stained cheeks! So just ignoring that detail, once their party has gathered close enough to the sorceress, she wraps her arms around them and they're disappeared from the dungeon and are back in the safety of her Manhattan apartment. Declan sweeps Haenel over to the balcony to console her in private, leaving the two women alone.

While being alone with Inna is something that she has wanted, and while that hasn't been something that has been in short supply, all things considered, being back with her Inna, like real fucking Inna, isn't something she's really had in... Jesus fucking Christ, at this point it's felt like years. Even with her nerves, she doesn't stop herself from wrapping her arms around her friend once again––now that they're alone, she figures that no one can fucking interrupt them. (And, also, she remembers that Inna, the vegetable version, had asked if they could hug more. She assumes regular Inna might want that as well and if she doesn't? Haha, Liora doesn't want to think about that. That might result in her consulting a therapist.)

"I missed you," she breathes, squeezing the blonde even tighter while burrowing her nose into her neck. "And... and, I'm really, really fucking sorry. About everything. About lying, about betraying you, about almost sending you back to whatever her name is, you know, the queen." (Despite earlier wanting to ignore all of this, there's nothing else that comes to Liora's mind to say. This all just keeps picking at her and trying to avoid it seems like it won't do her any good. She'll only end up overthinking everything until she's said all of this. Even if she has idle fears that this is the opposite of what will be good for them, she just... she just can't really make Inna wait any longer. It's not fair to her and even if Liora is scared, she just has to do this because her Inna deserves to know.) "I should have been a better friend to you this entire time and I'm sorry that I suck at it, but, like, I do try really hard. For you. I want to be a good friend for you. You deserve that and so much more."

She pulls herself back to stare at her companion directly, her eyes misted over though she'll hardly acknowledge that. "I-I've been wanting to say a lot of that for a while, but... I dunno, it felt weird to say it to you before when you didn't really seem here." She runs her hands through her hair, biting her lip, "And, um, obviously you can stay here. With me. For however long you want. Forever, if you really wanted," Jesus fucking Christ, why did she say that? Too bad she can't stop fucking talking! "You'll stay tonight, at least, right?"

 

[Syntra]

Inna would have loved to stay, really! About as much as she would have loved barbed wire stuck in her left eye, or to hand over her life savings to some soulless fucking corporate. (As far as the blonde was concerned, the queen deserved absolutely zero rights. Yeah, yeah, being a cackling villain was all fine and dandy, and she sorta got the appeal, but that didn’t give you the right to treat your employees like shit, now did it? Just!!! Villains should fucking be the living, breathing antitheses to this dumbass society’s values, not just Capitalists 2: Electric Boogaloo. Again, what was the point of a goddamn revolt if you were going to just… copy the old fucking structures? Like, hellooooo? So much effort, so much style, and all for nothing! Might as well have chosen to become a goddamn lawyer and be done with that, if you wanted to be a parasite so fucking bad. …seriously, though. Why the fuck did people glorify what was essentially arguing for a living? Arguing for a living, and also using the stupidest fucking arguments imaginable? ‘Hurrrr durrr, Fucker X said Statement Y 500 years ago, and for some fucking reason, this is supposed to be relevant. Let us build our entire lives around that Ancient WisdomTM!‘ Not even her fucking high school debate club would have accepted that sort of bullshittery, and yet, yet there were bastards who had unironically decided to make a “””career””” out of spouting such nonsense. Was it the greatest scam ever, along with weight loss teas and gluten-free bread? It had to be! Inna was sure that history would prove her right, too-- like, at some point, even the unwashed fucking masses had to open their eyes. Wake up, sheeple!)

In the background, E-keysmash was screaming something-- the words blended together, mainly due to all the swooshing that accompanied the creation of a new portal, but if the blonde had to guess? ‘My revenge will be great, you miserable worms!’ ‘Nobody defies the queen and lives!’ ‘No matter where you go, I will find you and end you, bitches!’ Etc., etc., blah blah blah. (E-keysmash should probably, like, hire someone to write her villainous speeches for her, you know? ‘Cause even Inna understood that threats were kinda like spices-- not enough of them, and your dish would be bland as fuck, but overdo it and your mouth would fucking hate you, too. Just, moderation, man! Moderation made every individual threat stand the fuck out, in the same way a single stain on a white paper was that much more striking than, say, twenty of them. And as for those who didn’t get it? Why, they didn’t fucking deserve to use English in its full, glorious palette! (They were the same people who, upon being invited to a buffet, sat in the fucking corner and stuffed their faces with goddamn butter. For those, Inna only had the deepest contempt!)

E-keysmash shit talking aside, though? Liora, being the bro she was, transported them back home safely. Sucked to be E-keysmash, Inna guessed! A prison from which people could leave freely, as if it was a fucking supermarket, didn’t exactly flood her heart with anxiety. “Haenel,” Inna turned to her sword, “are you-- oof.” Oof, indeed, because out of all things, the blonde hadn’t expected to receive one of Liora’s 10/10 hugs. (A lot had changed between them, you know! Liora had sorta kept her distance, and the blonde wouldn’t blame her-- opening up was difficult enough on its own, she knew, even without her then shoving that trust where the sun didn’t fucking shine. Like, if Inna had blown her only chance, it would have been fair enough, right? Sad, but fair. Not a word of complaint would have left her lips, because while Inna Orlovskaya may have been a lot of things, she wasn’t a pathetic fucking incel. No was no, bitch! …except that, for some reason, it didn’t seem as if that was the case. It didn’t feel that way, either. Her companion’s hugs tasted every bit of home as they had before, you see? And, and, and!!! Then there were her words-- words that did the opposite of the condemning she had braced herself for, back when she had still been suspended in uncertainty. Liora… damn. Despite everything, Liora still wanted her! In one way or another.)

“No, I… fuck, I mean, yeah. Apology accepted.” At this point? Water under the bridge, really. Like sure, Inna could have held onto her grudge forever, but what would that have accomplished, hmmm? Aside from making them both miserable, that was, and if her time spent with E-keysmash had taught her anything, then it was that scorched earth tactics were not fun when employed in your personal life. “I know you’re trying,” she muttered, caressing her hair clumsily. “I really, really do. All that shit you have done for me… shit, that’s better than any PowerPoint. Not that your last PowerPoint wasn’t good, of course, and not to diminish your past efforts, but I guess I wanted to appreciate your new efforts? Somehow?” Just, fuck her. Why did talking with Liora have to be so fucking difficult? It wasn’t like she’d devour her alive even if some part of her would have appreciated that. “Ugh, just forget I said anything. Can you remember only that part where I wanted to make you feel treasured? That’s the only relevant one, anyway.”

“And, like, I want to apologize, too,” Inna said, uncharacteristically shy. Looking her friend in the eye right now was difficult, to say the least, so she focused on that one very interesting stain on the floor instead (note to self: do not allow brainwashed ex-demons to play with bleach). “I, um, kinda overreacted. You did deserve some silent treatment, I guess, but not what I did to you. To us. So, can we… can we start anew?” the blonde looked up, with badly disguised hope in her eyes. “Just, I don’t wanna guilt trip you for anything, and… and I’d love to stay, forever.” Sappy, undeniably, but so fucking what? They’d earned their right to spout shitty soap opera-tier one-liners, god fucking dammit. (In this life, and in the previous one, too, and probably also in whatever alternate timelines that happened to exist-- somehow, literally any version of Inna not ending up with her Liora seemed like total fucking bullshit.) “I still love you,” she blurted out, not even feeling bad about the outburst. Like, Liora had fucking had to explain to her how toilets worked, right? Needless to say, things like ‘embarrassment’ simply no longer had a place in their relationship. “If you don’t want me in that way anymore, it’s fine,” the blonde added quickly. “Just wanted to, uh… make it clear that I meant it. That I still do.”

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Liora has never really believed in love. She has never really had a reason to, because generally people learn about love and shit either from their parents and other family members or movies and other media. For Liora, her mother has never modelled a steady or loving relationship to her daughters. Sure, there were stints of time where she had been married and those usually lasted until whichever sucker she had tricked realized that Helia Rodríguez is married to her company. So usually about nine months to a year. (Though there was that one person who lasted almost three years and Liora sort of thought maybe relationships could be worthwhile. Then it turned out both her mother and this step parent had been cheating on each other, so R.I.P. to her expectations once more.) Then the media is just so overly sappy that Liora quickly fucking realized that almost every "love" song isn't about being in love or staying in love, but about falling in love or break-ups and every movie or book ends with something happy. They never really talk about the not so happy parts beyond ever after. So, yeah, she's never thought of it as something real or attainable and every couple she's ever met, she always pictures what their arguments are like before ever thinking that they could be actually, genuinely happy.

Then, she met Inna and... well, okay, everything didn't change. Not instantaneously, because when she met Inna she recalls being so annoyed that she saw red as the blonde had been flinging rubber-bands at her during a presentation. And even if that memory still makes her a little irritated, she doesn't really see that Inna as the same one she's holding right now. Because when she finally met this Inna, all that bullshit about love felt like maybe it wasn't really bullshit. Maybe, people can be worth it. She may still be hurting from some of the things that happened during their epic fallout, but... she's too exhausted to hold onto that hurt––or she at least won't be keeping her distance as she had been before. Besides, she just doesn't think that Inna is going to act out like that again. Even if there are still things that Liora won't be ready to do just yet, she just doesn't want to keep her at arm's length anymore. It had been necessary when Inna had just come back, but now? Now, she mostly wants to enjoy just being with the blonde. (She isn't really sure how she jumped from her worries that Inna might hate her all over again once she was able to recover, but something tells her that her conversation with Ivy helped settle a lot of her nerves. ...Vie truly was a loser for never realizing what she had.)

Without any hint of resistance, she leans into the blonde's caress and even closes her eyes to really remember what it feels like to be under her touch. When she realizes what she's doing, she doesn't get embarrassed. The only reason that her face starts to burn up has more to do with Inna remember her extremely out of touch PowerPoint. (No one, at the time, had stopped her or told her that it was ridiculous. No, she had to find out on her own when she told Sol and Sol immediately roasted her nine ways to Sunday.) Still, her companion's ramblings at least even out the embarrassment score. "No, I'm going to remember all of that forever," she teases, "because it's just so you and I like your you-ness." If she had wanted someone who is great with speeches, she might have stayed with her ex. "But, hm, if you want to try that again, I wouldn't mind hearing it twice that you... treasure me. That, um, might be kind of nice, actually." What? It's not like the dark haired woman gets told everyday that she's treasured or appreciated or valued. In fact, she could probably count on two hands how many times it's been said to her.

When Inna apologizes to her? And then accepts what she had feared was an over the top offer to stay with her forever? Liora's heart explodes in a million different ways. She can't stop that mist in her eyes from turning into full blown tears (which, is anyone else aware that tears can be happy? Because this is news to Liora). While earlier she had shied away from crying in front of Inna, she doesn't immediately storm off to the bathroom to lock herself away. There's no impulse to either. Maybe it's because these are happy tears? In any case, she doesn't really fixate on it and she lets them fall pretty freely. She nods rapidly in response, "Y-yeah, we can start over. You have no idea how much I would fucking like that, Inna. I kept thinking that maybe you'd still be mad at me and, fuck, I'm so relieved you don't because it really crushed me when you did. And, like, yeah all that shit you did sucked but I can't fucking be upset about it forever, so, like, I forgive you. We'll figure it out."

Oh, and then there Inna goes dropping the l-word again. She'd try to say that Inna is doing it casually, but she's not. Liora can tell that much and she knows it hadn't been a casual drop the first time either. It's just that the first time... the first time had been too painful for her to believe that, because there really wasn't evidence of that what with how Inna had treated her during that period. Now, however, it's easier to see how it's true and has been true. Once more, her cheeks darken to an impossible shade of red, and she honestly isn't sure what to say. "I believe you," is what she lamely settles on. It's not that Liora doesn't feel the same way; it's not that Liora doesn't want to say it back, but her tongue feels more like a knotted rope in her mouth each time she thinks about pushing those little words out of her mouth. Probably because she's never said those words to someone before and truly meant it. "... I-I know that's probably not what you want to fucking hear, and I know I'll say it back someday. I just have to figure out how... I've never felt like this before, so I don't know what to do with all of these feelings and if that doesn't make it obvious, yeah, I do still want you, Inna. I mean, it's officially and literally us against the world and even if it weren't, I'd still want you. You're the best and I only like the best. Um, is that okay?"

 

[Syntra]

At that moment? At that moment, Liora could have said literally anything, and Inna would have been… well, not happy, but accepting, at the very least. Hearing ‘haha bitch, you fucking thought’ wouldn’t have made for one of her top ten favorite lines, but such was life, right? Again, her companion would have been totally justified in deciding that Inna Orlovskaya was trash, actually, and that she’d rather fall in love with an electric fucking eel. (For that eventuality, Inna had prepared a detailed Get Better plan for her heartbroken self in advance. Step number one: get shitfaced. Step number two: repeat step one, ad nauseum. Step number three: ??? Step number four: Profit! And by ‘profit’, the blonde meant either getting over Liora, or escaping her torture via blood poisoning. One of those two was bound to happen, sooner or later, which meant that the method's fucking success rate would be one hundred percent! Ah, as expected from Inna Awesome Orlovskaya-- one of the greatest brains of her generation, and a visionary so daring that she hadn't been afraid to pour eggnog into her wine during that one fateful New Years' Eve celebration. Many had claimed she wouldn't survive the combo, but, spoiler alert, bitch! Not only had the blonde lived, but she'd also invented what had to be the best cocktail in the entire explored universe. Of course, the nonbelievers would still turn up their noses in disgust, though you know what those could do? Go fuck themselves, yeah!)

...anyway, back to the drama currently unfolding in their apartment. (Their!!! Sometimes, small words could be real fucking powerful, and man oh man, was that true for pronouns. Their, you see, implied that she didn't exist as a doubtlessly awesome, but nonetheless lonely singular unit-- no, it said to anyone who had the ears to hear that she and Liora were a team. A part of the same sexy package, really. A small detail, perhaps but you know what? Inna was still going to have a private breakdown over how fucking wholesome that was, thank you very much. Their, their, their! ...would it be too pathetic if she officially started considering it, like, her favorite word? Asking for a fucking friend.) Miraculously enough, it seemed, Inna's clumsy attempts at reconciliation hadn't deterred Liora. Nope! Instead of her just shrugging and going all 'wow, I can't believe I ever thought you were cool, you fucking loser,' the woman agreed. Shit, this was better than that one moment she had gotten a donut for free from a concerned citizen because, citation: 'You look like you could use child protection services, kid!' ...like, million times better, actually, but the blonde didn't exactly have a lot of positive experiences to compare her current situation to. Just, bear with her! Blood rushed to her cheeks, too, except that, this time, Inna didn't fucking want to run away from it-- instead, she basked in the sensation. (In knowing that it was Liora who had caused it, really. Like, who would have guessed this lovey dovey shit could actually be pleasant, hmmm? Before this, Inna had kinda thought romance was a product of the capitalist propaganda machine designed to make you buy more stupid shit, but, but, but!!! When she looked into Liora's eyes, all sparkly with delight, Inna saw the truth there-- the truth, and her future as well. She was her future, duh.)

"I guess we've both been dumbasses," Inna concluded before hugging her friend/lover (?) tighter. "Which may have been a good thing? Like, maybe I'm just looking for silver fucking linings where there aren't any, but like, if we've managed to keep our relationship alive despite all those unforgivable acts of dumbassery, I'm thinking we'll be fine. It was the most epic of crash tests! And, um, it's been an honor, to almost break my jaw with you. Or, I don't know, to learn how not to do that? Shit's confusing, but, uh, yeah. Pleasantly confusing, but still. Have you ever thought about how 'confusing' rhymes with 'perusing'? I, um, wonder what that implies." What the fuck were words, even? Like!!! If Inna had known she'd ever spout bullshit like that, she would have fucking cut her tongue off before that day had come. (Then again, tongues were important in ~certain~ activities, and so the blonde was thankful for her past self's ignorance. Again, silver linings!)

When Liora not-confessed to her, though? Inna's smile softened, and she put a hand on her shoulder. "It's fine, Li. Like... I didn't even fucking know what I wanted to hear, you see? I just knew what I had to say, and your response didn't really factor into it. Not that I didn't want to hear it, but like, I'm trying out this 'no expectations' approach. Ten out of ten, really! Turns out you can't get disappointed if you don't expect shit from people. It's a nice way to break the fucking system. But," she tilted her head aside, taking in Liora's happy tears and feeling her own eyes starting to burn as well, "you don't actually need to say it, I think. I mean, I can see it now." Fuck, fuck, fuck! Why did her lower lip have to start trembling? The blonde could have looked cool and suave and shit, and now she could wave that idea goodbye, and... and that wasn't so terrible, actually. Like, Liora of all people could handle her real self, right? Even if she wasn't always like an action movie character, spouting cool one-liners and kicking ass. (Especially then, actually. That she felt comfy enough to be Like ThisTM with her... that spoke volumes, and was probably the main reason why she loved her.) "That's good enough for me. You are good enough for me, because we're both the best, man! Anything else would have been a fucking downgrade, and... and even if it wasn't, then I'd still only want you. So, um. Take your time? I'm cool with anything, really."

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Yeah, Liora had been totally right to not be scared about confessing to Inna. (No, do not bring up the fact that she was, actually, very intimidated by the prospect of saying anything at all and had been considering a classic avoidant approach to the whole ordeal. Don't be a nerd about words and what they fucking mean!) With Inna, this shit doesn't feel so threatening. It did at first, she will admit that, but there's just not much for her to be afraid of anymore. The blonde has already seen her at her worst and she's seen her at her weakest too, so she really doesn't have anything to lose by just being herself––without all the walls and with all the flaws. True, there is some part of her that wishes that the blonde had never seen those sides of her and slowly, that side of herself is having less and less of a hold on her heart. Enough that she can say the majority of herself is glad that those barriers came down––even if she doesn't like how or why they did.

While she doesn't agree that she is a dumbass, she can agree with Inna that it is a testament to their feelings for one another that they have been able to come back to each other no matter how great the fallout. And thinking of it on an even grander scale, it has to say something that they've even overcome the leftover issues of their past life––and, speaking of reincarnation, that they were even able to find each other again when the world is bursting at the seams with too many people? Like, shit, maybe stuff like invisible strings, fate, love predicted by the stars, etc. aren't actual hoaxes? At least not for them and that's all who Liora really cares about at this stage. There's just no doubt in Liora's mind that Inna is, in fact, her literal fucking soulmate. Maybe it took a whole fucking redo at life to get this all right, but she is glad, now, that Vie gave them that chance and now she gets to spend the rest of her life making Inna happy, basking in her smile, and doing fun stuff with her so they can tell Ivy about it later.

Being as eager as she is to embark on this lifelong mission to make her Inna the happiest half-demon alive? She immediately goes to organize the rest of their evening––which mostly centers around her curling up next to Inna on the couch and doing shit like comparing hand-sizes. Then, when it comes time for them to retire, Liora actually joins Inna in bed; something she hasn't done since the last time they were forced to share a bed together. As of late, she's either been on the couch or in the armchair in the bedroom––their bedroom. It is a nice change of pace sleeping in a bed again, even if she is notorious for not getting much sleep. Although, with Inna being a chronic sleep-hugger, it actually isn't that difficult for Liora to drift off and stay asleep.

As it would turn out? Waking up next to Inna these past few days has been, Liora hates to say it, magical. Like waking up in a goddamn fairytale where Inna is a pretty princess and she, also, is a pretty princess. She doesn't even mind being trapped in her arms everytime she wakes up anymore––though it does make it difficult for Liora to start her day at 6 AM sharp. Not that she minds, she supposes, since her days aren't even full of that much crap and she's been more entertained with just showing Inna different places around the city (you know, after she wakes up at like 4 PM in the fucking afternoon), spoiling her rotten, and holding her hand. The nice thing, too, is that only one fucker has tried to attack them and that's mostly because they live in the fucking city and getting mugged is just part of the welcome package. (Sucks for the fucker who thought she was preying on two innocent young women seeing as her head is permanently screwed on backwards now.)

While Liora does plan on dragging Inna around the city today, this time it is with a very specific purpose. While she's told Inna that she needs to wake the fuck up at a normal human hour, because they have something important that they need to do, she hasn't told her exactly where she is planning on taking them and her own excitement is practically killing her. Honestly, keeping secrets from the blonde is fucking hard. Especially now that they're honest with each other. Liora is determined, however, to keep this excursion as a surprise because she wants to see the stupid look on Inna's face when she reveals where they are going.

"Inna, please, it's really important we fucking leave on time," she says, grabbing the blonde's arm as she all but rushes her girlfriend into getting ready. Luckily for Inna, the woman's phone then starts to buzz frantically and she lets go of her partner to search for her phone. 'Jesus fucking Christ, Sol, what the fuck do you want?' she thinks, reading through fifty-seven different texts from her sister that are not even all that coherent––apparently, from what she can gather, she's stressing about some gala their mother is expecting Sol to attend? 'Whatever, not my concern. Not my life anymore.' Maybe it's a little cold to ignore her own sister's personal crisis, but, like, she's probably about to witness the most incredible Inna beam as soon as she blips them to the shelter––give her a fucking break.

Once Inna is actually ready, Liora pulls her into an embrace and teleports them just a block away from an animal shelter. It's a fairly unassuming part of the city and looks about the same as any of the other skyscraper lined streets that exist. "Before you ask why I'm taking you to the Brooklyn––I know it's pretty fucking dingy compared to where we are now––just, like, trust me. I've been doing some research lately," she starts, and it almost seems like a warning. Like, is Liora about to take Inna on a historical tour of the five boroughs of New York City, starting with the one she hates the most? No, obviously not. She hates Staten Island the most. Anyway, she continues, "And the best fucking place to um... well, get a dog is apparently this place," she points to the shelter that they're standing outside of, Otterly Pawfect, "I won't say the name. It's too fucking embarrassing, but, yeah, I thought maybe you might want to get a pet? Like I thought about this when you were sorta a vegetable, but I still fucking think you'd probably like getting a dog."

 

[Syntra]

Okay, so you know those cheesy fucking stories with their cheesy happily ever afters? The kind of narratives Inna had always mocked, in other words? Existing in one, as it turned out, went a long way in endearing them to her. (Maybe, just maybe her rejection had been sour fucking grapes-- jealousy in disguise, really, sinking its teeth into her throat. Like, good things were good, weren't they? An elementary school-tier logic, and also something her brainwashed self had come up with, but twice a day, even broken fucking clocks could be right. ...before, you see, Inna hadn't really believed that she deserved a happy ending. If karma kept any score at all, then it had probably decided long, long ago the blonde would, like, be electrocuted by her own gaming device one day, in order to avenge all the poor souls she had murdered on a whim. Thankfully, though? It turned out that karma was a stupid fucking bitch, with all the memory of a goldfish! Well, either that, or she simply knew when to look the other way-- since, you see, Ivy had been such a Good GirlTM, and letting Inna pursue her dreams could technically count as making it up to her predecessors. Yay for corruption, Inna guessed. There was a lesson hidden somewhere in there, she was sure, and it said roughly this: 'Lolololol justice is for people who don't have friends in high places, bitch!')

Anyway, big props to Ivy, really, because this? Living with Liora, and ignoring all those ~responsibilities~ the Creator had placed on her shoulders? Man oh man, it was the fucking best. (Initially, it had seemed too good, even. Like, living-the-dream-tier happiness had always eluded her, you know? It may have happened to other people, occasionally, and it starred in pretty much every commercial ever, but those things always, always ignored Inna to the best of their ability. So, in the beginning, it was the blonde who had trouble falling asleep-- mostly because, in the back of her mind, she'd been afraid she would wake up and find herself stuck in E-keysmash's fucking prison, or her bed, or... or pretty much in any desperately Liora-less place, really. Gotta enjoy the dream while it lasted, right? Except that the Liora she wrapped her arms around each night was pleasantly, comfortingly solid, and with that anchor in her grap, Inna could, in fact, slowly come to accept that this was Real. Yep, Real, with a capital fucking R!)

Also, wanna hear a secret? Tacitly, Inna Orlovskaya had always suspected she didn't have, like, an actual fucking future. Futures were for people with fancy degrees and jobs and mortgages, not for blonde gangsters who had barely escaped the control of their shit-tier families. Long term planning? Pffft, she didn't know her! It had always seemed like a fucking waste of time, considering that she'd kinda been waiting for some rando to turn up and put a bullet in her goddamn brain. Right now, though? With Liora by her side? Well, let's just say that waking up next to the same person every day, and it being the person she happened to love, too, kinda... resurrected her passion for the concept of tomorrow in general, really. Tomorrow, she would bake that new cake for Li; tomorrow, they'd deface the monument of another historical asshole for fun; tomorrow, the blonde would make Liora read more Marx via Deceptiony Acts of Deception. Twenty four hours, it turned out, was too fucking little when you actually had shit to do!

...that, however, also seemed to be Liora's motto, and she fucking lived by it. Usually, Inna didn't really mind, but when it manifested via the other woman rushing her along? Yep, that was when she had to roll her eyes. "C'mon, Li, you have fucking teleportation at your disposal. How can we be late for literally anything? And besides, there are certain things that need their sweet time. You know, like me!" she winked at her girlfriend. "I'm like, um, onion. It's only sweet when it's fucking caramelized, and if you think you're gonna make that happen in five minutes, you're gonna have a bad fucking time." Translation: 'No, I haven't left my bed yet. I'm not really planning to, either. Who do you think I am, some pathetic nerd? I wasn't put on this earth to follow the sun like some basic bitch, sheesh.' Except that Li was really fucking insistent for some reason, and since Inna enjoyed making her happy? Fine, fine, god fucking dammit. The bed was nice and warm and so, so valid, and the fact that she had to leave it was a total tragedy, too, though for Liora, she'd do it... well, 'gladly' would be too strong of a word, but she would do it and that had to mean something. "It better be fucking worth it," Inna muttered, a hint of annoyance in her voice. "Know that I'm only doing this because I love you. Like, to me, it's a bigger deal than a fucking wedding ring would be!"

And, when she teleported them to the Mysterious LocationTM? The mystery only deepened, because it was not one of the spots she'd expect from her girlfriend. "Are we, like, going to feed people at a homeless shelter?" Not that Liora was the charitable type, but maybe, maybe some of the Father Marx's teachings had gotten under her skin-- the wrong ones, sadly, as Inna mainly supported the 'redistributing wealth' parts, and usually when they revolved around her specifically. Still, it was a good first step, the blonde guessed! From there, it should only be smooth fucking sailing.

"Otterly Pawfect?" Inna read the sign aloud, her eyebrow shooting up into the fucking stratosphere. Wait, wait, wait. Could that mean...? Like, she was no fucking Sherlock, but those, um, subtle clues seemed to be pointing to a pretty obvious conclusion-- a doggo. Her doggo? Her and Liora's? The levels of serotonin in her blood must have fucking exploded, and she turned to her girlfriend with stars in her eyes. "How did you know I loved dogs? I mean, not that I love them as much as I love you, but you're competing in different fucking categories, so it doesn't count. Wow, I can't believe we're gonna have a fluffy friend! I'm gonna spoil them and knit those pathetic sweaters, and, and, and!!! I'm gonna train her to bite fucking cops specifically, too. Like, the way that they brainwashed good boys and girls to serve their rotten fucking cause is one of their biggest crimes, and..."

"Have you come to look at our dogs?" a young woman who presumably worked at the shelter smiled at them. ('No, I'd fucking come to eat them,' the sarcastic part of Inna would have said, but currently, that part of her was in fucking coma. Just, dogs!!!!)

"Yeah," she beamed, the smile lighting up her whole face. "I want to see all of them!"

The chick apparently decided her wish was her command, too, because she led them to the... well, to the garden-like, fenced place where the doggos could frolic in peace. "Here is where we keep the ones who aren't aggressive," their guide explained, "so if you want to, um..." As for what she wanted to say? That would be lost to history, mostly because Inna had flung herself at the animals before she even managed to finish that sentence. "Who's a good boy? Who's a good girl?" the blonde laughed when she was, inevitably, buried in a sea of fluff. (Omg, omg, omg!!! Those paws and tiny snouts and the tails and... damn, her brain was short-circuiting, wasn't it? Death by cuteness was acceptable, though, and so Inna didn't really try to fight it.) "But, Li," she pursed her lips, "how are we ever going to pick the best of good boys/girls? All of them should fucking be loved!"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

"I think you've mentioned something about them being 'bros' before, so I just took a guess," and she also consulted with Inna's literal past life. Though, in the woman's defense, she had not actually planned on her research extending that far. The opportunity merely presented itself and there was no way on this Earth that Liora was not going to take advantage. It turned out to be worth her while, too, and once she had Ivy's golden seal of approval? It pretty much meant that as soon as she was done playing Orpheus, Inna would find herself selecting a new furry friend. Admittedly, however, she did not end up taking her new girlfriend to the shelter as soon as she had anticipated, but her excuse is pretty good, she thinks. See, she may or may not have gotten distracted staring at her girlfriend's face while she boiled some statue of the man who sailed the ocean blue in 1492. (Can you really blame Liora though? The blonde had looked so impressive while defacing public property that it was difficult for Liora to find her voice of reason to stop her. She recalls giving her a thumbs up, even, and asking if Inna thought she could melt the Statue of Liberty's nose off and then running off to go do just that once the blonde had finished with Mr. Columbus. ...The Inna Effect is truly dangerous and it's something that Liora needs to keep an eye out for, but honestly? It's sort of hard to want to care about The Inna Effect when it's ridiculously fun.)

Anyway, despite the wait in between getting confirmation that her totally awesome idea is totally awesome and acting on it, Inna does not seem to be at all disappointed with this development. In fact, she looks like the very definition of excited with her starry eyes and smile that turns Liora's heart to mush. Her only regret is not having her phone at the ready to capture the look of absolute and utter joy on Inna's face when she puts together exactly what they're doing today. Had she had that forethought, she would have submitted the photograph to the authorities at Merriam Webster so that it could be used as an example for the words 'euphoria' and 'beautiful.' Just, had she known that making Inna happy instead of miserable would be so fucking rewarding? She would have stopped antagonizing her eons ago. 'Better late than never,' she supposes, trailing behind her excited girlfriend and the assistant as they are led towards the free range puppies of varying ages, sizes, and fluffiness.

As she watches her girlfriend get drowned in the sea of fluff, she smiles, her eyes twinkling at the sight while she leans on the gate, deciding that Inna should get all of the puppy affection. Besides, Liora really does not want to have to deal with cleaning all that fur from her obviously black outfit of choice. So while a few curious pups come over to the gate and Liora does let them sniff and lick her hand, she really lets Inna have most of the fun. This is about her, after all, and Liora is simply content watching the blonde get nearly smothered.

"I... I really hadn't really thought about how to choose," she admits, mentally berating herself for not forseeing this obvious dilemma! Like, she sort of assumed that Inna would be able to recognize who she would want as her furry companion (not Haenel) and somehow overlooked the glaring issue that this is Inna "Animals Deserve More Rights than Humans" Orlovskaya. (Well, issue is strong word, she will admit. However, it is true that the blonde might have trouble selecting a companion.)

"And... shit," she mutters, realizing that if Inna wants all of these dogs... Well they just aren't ready for that! There is no way they will be able to fit more than one dog in their current apartment, which means they'll have to move to a bigger property. Not a big deal for Liora "Trust Fund Baby" Trihn, of course, but she hasn't spent a whole lot of time looking for properties that come with huge acreage. Mostly, she's been looking at smaller plots of land to build that house for Inna. (Not that she has to fulfill all of the promises that Vie made to Ivy. She understands, now, that they are different from those women even with the clear connection and similarities, but this promise... This promise seemed so sweet that Liora wants to fulfill it.) With this in mind, she will definitely need to redo her research and start looking at plots with at least ten acres of land for their pack of dogs. (She also needs to figure out where the blonde would want to live or at least identify her favorite climates/biomes. Ugh, the complications of domestic life.)

"I mean, I'm not really sure how to pick? My mother always just surprised us so I've never had to choose," she admits, looking over the pack of dogs for any that immediately stands out to her. Except, they are all so fucking exceptional that she totally understands this dilemma. "I do think we should limit ourselves to just one dog for now, though. Like, until we get a bigger fucking house, you know? Then we can come back for the others," she says, hoping that Inna will find that compromise acceptable as she does not want to disappoint her girlfriend. (Not that she really thinks that is possible at this point. Like, stabbing her in a past life, she thinks, ought to take the cake for disappointing girlfriend experiences. So, really, Vie may have done her a favor by setting the bar so fucking low.) "Ivy said she imagined you would be happiest with one of the bigger ones and not the rat looking fuckers. So that disqualifies at least one third of this lot."

 

[Syntra]

Only one dog? Pfft, scandalous! The evolution had granted humans two hands, you see, which fucking meant that each of them should own two dogs at least-- since they could pet two of them at the same time. Not doing so would result in not-so-optimal productivity, and someone as results-oriented as Liora fucking Trihn should understand just how sacrilegious that was. Like!!! Why not spread as much love as you could? Not among people, of course, because people tended to be ungrateful fuckers who more often than not deserved a bullet instead of a hug, but it wasn't the fault of the animals that they happened to share a planet with a species this fucked up. In fact, that very fact should inspire the few decent humans to cuddle them all the more diligently, as damages for their pain and suffering! Ah yes, yes. If such a stupid-ass thing as 'purpose in life' truly existed, then it had to be this-- bringing joy to your fluffy friends. (Well, that, and to Liora. As the biggest twist of the fucking century, Liora had joined the exclusive category of valid people, which meant she had to be treated that way. Only by Inna, though! Touch her girlfriend and die, motherfuckers. You couldn't spell 'territorial' without... uh. Okay, okay, so you fucking could spell it without 'Inna,' as it turned out, but that was only possible because the language hadn't yet caught up on the tremendous fucking importance of her existence. Like, the blonde was reasonably sure that, one day, when the unwashed masses saw the TruthTM, the time would be conceptualized as BI (Before Inna) and AI (after Inna)! And maybe, maybe they'd start spelling 'territorial' as 'terrinnatorial' as well, in order to honor her, uh, resolve. Until then, though? The ex-demon had to work with the meagre linguistic resources that were currently available to her.)

"But, Li," she looked at her girlfriend, "how can we ever do that? Like, you know how shit people are. Most of them shouldn't even have the fucking license to exist. What if, by not picking a puppy, we sentence it to end up in some abusive fucker's """care?""" Can you live with the possibility?" she raised one of the fluff balls into the air, and presented them to Liora. The puppy, being a puppy, whined happily and licked her nose. Ahaha! Man, that was why dogs were the fucking best. "Imagine this little guy starring in one of those terrible fucking articles about, like, unhinged bastards drowning their dogs."

"Um," the shelter worker interjected, "we actually try to select the future owners responsibly. To my knowledge, that has never--"

"Could you live with yourself?" Inna demanded to know, ignoring the poor woman ostentatiously. "Besides, dogs are pack animals, so buying just one would be against the Geneva fucking convention." And if not, then it sure as hell should be updated to include exactly that! Like, who even cared about humans, anyway? It was fucking bullshit, just how anthropocentric their civilization was. Just, most people weren't even that fucking useful-- the average fucking cow contributed more to the society, via producing milk and later sacrificing her very flesh to feed the very ungrateful idiots who considered her to be 'inferior.' Try again, sweaty! The cow wasn't the one who sat on her fat ass the entire fucking day and, like, played videogames.

Except that, you see, Liora looked her like that, and regardless of whether she enjoyed it or not, Inna had to admit she was right. "But," she said, deflated, "it is true I don't have that much fucking experience. Like, I've never raised a dog on my own, you know? And I guess burying it in love can only go so far." Yep, stop the fucking presses-- Inna Orlovskaya, the queen of irresponsibility, was, whoa, thinking ahead! Mindblowing, truly. What was next, the world fucking going up in flames? With this kind of configuration, everything seemed possible! "A big dog sounds like a good choice, too. Like, the closer it is to a wolf, the better, right?" 'Cause wolves were cute and cool and metal, which rats, uh, distinctly weren't. Rats' only metal quality was spreading the fucking plague, which didn't scream 'awesome' as much as it screaming 'yikes'. Biological warfare just wasn't cool, dude! It implied that you were too fucking chickenshit to just... go and take your enemy out yourself, really. Plus, didn't small dogs make these annoying, yip yap sounds? Yup, not exactly the most fun way to be woken up in the morning! Not that there were fun ways for that, mind you-- maybe aside from being Overwhelmed by KissesTM. (Sometimes, Liora could almost make the idea of leaving her bed appealing. Almost! Just on brand for her overachiever of a girlfriend, indeed.)

"So, we're going to do this via the scientific fucking method," Inna decided, "to avoid any hurt feelings. Sorry, pups, gotta be objective here." And as for her criteria? Why, the fluffiness, of course! No fucking point in having a dog that wouldn't feel luxurious to cuddle, after all. With her expression uncharacteristically serious, Inna made sure to caress every puppy-- not a single specimen escaped her touch, and... and, wow. This baby husky was the epitome of fluffiness! Her hand could fucking get lost in its fur, and so thoroughly that it wouldn't surprise her if it emerged on the other side of the goddamn planet. "Aaaand I think we've got the winner here," Inna giggled, and lifted the animal into the air triumphantly. "What do you think, Li? A good candidate for the membership in our little family, huh?" ...was it too soon to call them a family? Well, too fucking bad, 'cause that was exactly how Inna felt. She'd waited a literal fucking lifetime to say that, too, so like, give her a fucking break! "She's gonna need a name, though," the blonde furrowed her brow. "Something dignified. Menacing, 'cause I can tell she'll be a fucking warrior. Hmm, hmm. Fluffinator?"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Liora knew that telling Inna, the woman who is notorious for never wanting to play by anyone else's rulebook except for her own, that she is limited to only one (1) puppy would result in the blonde inevitably trying to convince her otherwise. Seeing that she had been right to have such an assumption, she has already braced her resolve and promises to not crumble just because her hot girlfriend, who she wants to make the happiest person alive, is attempting to present her with her version of a logical argument. Besides, she already knows that shelters make sure their animals are sent to good homes, just as the worker confirms, so she will not let this narrative lead her astray. Even if Inna is looking at her with her stupidly attractive face and even if that cute fucking puppy is licking her nose, she will not budge! She cannot. Mostly because their apartment cannot accommodate another living creature and that may be the only thing that Liora has to hold onto in order to stick with her decision that they can only adopt one (1) dog. "Inna, our landlord is barely letting us have the one dog," she counters, even if she guesses that Inna probably has zero respect for landlords and their supposed occupation. (Until recently, Liora would not have agreed that landlords are leeches on society. In fact, she would have gone so far as to suggest that landlords are, actually, really smart for profiting off of doing nothing other than being rich enough to buy homes. However, she has been doing some reading as of late, at the suggestion of her girlfriend, and she is starting to question why people should have to essentially light their money on fire once a month to pay for a home that the landlord cannot even afford. If the landlord is so good at having money, enough to have multiple properties, they should have to be responsible for paying for it. In fact the entire concept of "renting" is starting to make less and less sense to her. At least she will be building her Inna her own house soon and they can ignore the problems that most plebeians have.)

"I also don't think you know what's in the Geneva Convention," she says, crossing her arms. While this is definitely an opportunity for Liora to flex what is lodged in her Fun Facts epicenter, she decides to spare Inna. Even if the impromptu history lesson would have delighted her, she guesses that blonde isn't as interested in learning about the actual agreements that were signed. (Still, it bothers her just a little that Inna is using this incorrectly and maybe later she will find a way to inform her sexy girlfriend of just what the Geneva Convention is.) "And I said we can get the other dogs later. Here," she pauses, pulling her phone out of her pocket and snapping pictures of each puppy (and, also, maybe seven hundred of Inna on the sly), "we'll take down info on each of the dogs this place has so that when we come back, we can see who is missing, get info on who adopted them, track down the owners, and then make sure they are being properly taken care of." That, she figures, is a good enough compromise.

"Actually, miss, we wouldn't release––" Ms. Know-it-All, the shelter worker tries to start.

"I wasn't talking to you, so butt out," Liora snaps, glaring at the poor employee. (Oh, maybe she should start being nicer to the "proletariat" class? Like, having to work must suck. Mind you, she still is not convinced that she, personally, needs to redistribute her wealth, but she is starting to feel for those who were not given trust funds upon their adoption/birth. It sucks to be them, she realizes.) She turns back to Inna, eyes full of warmth and the l-word, "I promise, none of the friends you made today will fall into the hands of twisted motherfuckers, okay? If their owners are not suitable, I will let you melt their faces off and then we can adopt them."

Happily, Liora watches her girlfriend examine each of the dogs, not at all surprised with how much care she is dedicating to the task. (It's kind of hot seeing her so motivated to get something right, even if it's as simple as selecting a new companion to join them. Later, she'll remember the look on Inna's face and imagine her instead putting forth this level of effort on her taxes. Oh, baby!) When she finally pulls a husky puppy from the mass of fluff, Liora beams at her––both because seeing Inna hold a fucking puppy is a sensory overload and she has just suggested that they are about to become a family. Which, wow. She never thought of herself as a family woman, but it's easier to imagine when the context is with Inna, the l-word of her life.

"Fluffinator Orlovskaya?" she asks, quirking a brow as she reaches to take the wriggly puppy into her arms. The husky sniffs her, licks her cheek and just about every inch of Liora's skin that she can reach, and barks happily at one of her new moms. "Not sure that will strike fear into the hearts of her enemies, but... deceptive warfare is always a decent strategy, I suppose," she admits, kissing Fluffinator Orlovskaya on the head and handing her back to Inna. (It's not what she would name a pet, but she figures she'll get dibs on naming the next one. Maybe something like Brontë or Charlize? Fitz could be reasonably appropriate as well. Hm, she'll have to start compiling a list so she doesn't freeze when it comes time to add a new member to their family.)

Then, having decided on their new companion, the shelter worker from earlier helps them with the adoption paperwork and once the fees have been paid, the trio leave the establishment. Currently, Fluffinator is rebelling against her leash by attempting to chew herself free and before Liora can get her to stop, she's barking at some stranger's dog. "I know that this is probably not, like, the most appropriate use of training... but do you think we could fucking train her to piss on our enemies?"

"There you are!" an all too familiar voice calls from behind them. A chill runs down Liora's spine as she turns around, revealing none other than Alessia, one of their many shared arch nemeses. "I have been looking everywhere for you two."

"Jesus fucking Christ! What the fuck do you want?" Liora asks, burning holes into Alessia's skull. "Can't you see that we're fucking busy?”

"Pleasant as ever, Liora," the woman responds, rolling her eyes. "Have either of you ever considered that it's not my favorite thing in the world to have to track you hopeless lesbians down everytime the Creator needs me to send you a message? Oh, by the way, congrats on finally getting together. Your impeccable timing lost me a lot of money in a bet..." Alessia huffs, "but that's beside the point, I suppose. Anyway, you know the deal. I'm here to tell you to watch your backs, yadda, yadda, there are two big events coming up that you need to prepare for, blah, blah, blah, be careful who you trust, etcetera, etcetera... Capisci o non capisci? You catching my drift?"

 

[Syntra]

Our landlord. Why oh why wasn't that surprising at the slightest, huh? Always, Inna had known they were the fucking root of all evil-- the primordial darkness that had, like, resolved to drown the world in slowly climbing rents and control freak-ish tendencies. (Just??? Why the fuck would you try to control how many dogs people were allowed to have? If they'd been fighting for the good side, the blonde guessed, then maybe they would have resorted to demanding that the tenants have two dogs at least-- still control freaky, yeah, but ultimately, that world would have benefited. Puppies = happiness, you know? And also, also, every self-respecting anti-hero knew that ends justified the means! But, nooo, of course that they had to be fucking pests instead and try to reduce the already tragically low amount of wholesomeness left in this shit fucking galaxy. Note to self: abolish the landlord class next.)

"Ugh," Inna rolled her eyes. "That seems fucking reasonable, I guess?" Which was not a good thing, mind you, but Liora treasured values such as 'rationality' and 'logic,' and so the blonde figured she could throw her a bone. "Like, it's not ideal, but I do agree that that should probably weed out the unworthy fuckers. And besides, NSA does this sort of shit all the fucking time, so why not us? Unlike them, we won't be using that data for supervillain-tier nonsense." 'Hurrr durrr, I'm gonna steal your info just because I can! Now I know that, bwhahaha, you spend a fortune at Pizza Hut each fucking month. With knowledge this sacred, none shall stop me!" ...or something. Either way, Inna supposed that destroying the organization would be the next step in their vague world domination plan-- all the ABC agencies should receive the same fucking treatment, actually, since they were just thinly veiled excuses for the government to spy on their own citizens. Just, everyone should be able to commit crime in peace, man! (And maybe, maybe people wouldn't commit it so often had the society not sucked so much. Would you, after all, steal from a beloved granny who showered you with candy? Not bloody likely, huh? Pretty much everyone, however, would love to stab the hag who called the cops on you for no fucking reason! Oh no, the countries that were collapsing on themselves deserved it, for being such fucking assholes.)

"What do you mean? It ends with -nator, Li. That's like, a deep fucking intertextual reference, and it's referring to one of the greatest killers in our cinematography. Of course it's going to strike fear into our enemies' hearts. And, if not, I'll fucking strike it there with my fist," Inna promised. "Or my flame, I guess? Not that my fist isn't insanely awesome, but summoning flames is... less mainstream, I guess. More of my own brand." If the assistant girl thought them to be weird, years of customer service hell had taught her not to let it show on her face-- instead of shocked stares, there were just papers, papers, more fucking papers. (Blah blah blah! How long did this have to take, hmm? Inna wanted to curl up on her sofa with her girlfriend and her new dog, and she wanted it now, god fucking dammit. Surely, the chick preventing her from doing exactly that must have been some kind of illegal!)

Endless as it had seemed, though, the pair was finally, finally released from the admin work's clutches. Ah, what an epic victory it was! In exchange for a meagre amount of her sanity points, Inna and Liora got to welcome another member into their family today. "Oooh, I like the way you think! Then again, go big or go fucking home. Do you think that literal shit could be weaponized? If we taught her to shit on command, then I guess--" oh. Oh. You know what, actually? Inna regretted that they hadn't had the opportunity to teach Fluffinator Orlovskaya (awww, Li used her surname) how to do it yet, because certain people in the five meter radius did deserve shit flung in their way.

"Fuck off, Alessia," Inna hissed. "You and your half-assed fucking info! Like, what do you think we will do with that warning, even? 'tWO evENTS' 'be careFUL who YOu trust' What the fuck are you, a fortune cookie? How the hell are we supposed to prepare when we don't know what we're preparing for?" No, Inna wasn't fucking going to start suspecting all the people in her life just because Alessia had said so-- like, the chick living across the street who baked the most delicious bread in the world might technically be attempting to poison her, but there was such a thing called probability, you see? So, again, not bloody likely!

"A fair enough point," Alessia grinned, "buuut you gotta take it up with the Creator. Don't shoot the messenger, love! Crazy as it is, I don't make the rules around here. I should have, really, because they would have been that much more logical, but alas! Logic inhibits creativity, which is why the Creator is the way she is."

Inna would have loved to say something to that, but in that moment? Why, of course, the reality around them began to shift, shift, shift! The invisible tendrils wrapped around them, and before the blonde could do anything, they found themselves in... huh. Was that fucking Italy? Namely, the fucking Mistress' fucking villa? Okay, bitch. What was so hard to grasp about the fact that ghosting generally equaled to 'I regret ever meeting you'? Inna didn't really think the concept was all that complicated, but again and again, the world was proving her wrong!

"Inna, Liora," the Mistress bowed, as if nothing had happened among them at all. The episode where she had tried to murder Inna? Just an insignificant detail, apparently! "How have you been? I hope you enjoyed your vacation? Because, girls, your destiny is waiting. Come, sit at my table, and I shall explain everything."

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Why, oh why could her abilities not lend her the power to manipulate time? If that had been her and Vie's gimmick, that would have saved them both so much heartache throughout their lives. But, nooooo, they just had to have spirit powers like Danny fucking Phantom or something. If she were to have such cool abilities like time manipulation, maybe, just maybe, she could have saved them from ever having to meet Alessia, the biggest fucking thorn in her ass. Pretty much since the first day of meeting her the woman has been a fucking nuisance––from flirting with Inna to her cryptic fucking warnings that have never been fucking helpful! And to learn that sending Alessia is the motherfucking Creator trying to be helpful? Oh, she will have words with that woman when the time comes. (At this rate, she kind of thinks that the Creator can't send them to Hell. She totally owes them a solid for all this bullshit. Like, all things considered, their less than heroic behavior is even forgivable given the fucking treatment that they have received so far.) Also, one would think that this fucking ancient primordial being would have figured out by now that cryptic messages don't fucking work––like, was fucking up with Oedipus not enough of a fucking wake up call for this woman?

Crossing her arms over her chest, she continues to stare the other woman down––not that that has ever deterred Alessia before, unfortunately. "Why the fuck does the Creator even think this is even helpful? I feel like almost no warning would be fucking better, because now I'm just––" 'going to spend the rest of the day wondering what this all means,' is how Liora was going to finish that sentence before the world melted around them like an embarrassing PowerPoint slide transition. (She is so thankful that her teleportation is not this fucking obnoxious.)

When they arrive at their latest mystery destination, the first thing that comes to mind is, ‘Are you fucking kidding me?’ Under literally any other circumstances, Liora would have welcomed an impromptu getaway to Italy. Like, it would be nice to go back to Rome and visit that little café they had their first not-date in and reminisce over the time they have to travel back in time to get Remus to bully Romulus into murdering him. Unfortunately, that mini-vacation does not seem very fucking likely seeing as they are outside of a certain bitch's villa.

While the Mistress may want to play pretend that she hadn't literally tried to get Liora to murder Inna and absorb her soul for her "benefit," the memory is pretty much seared into her fucking brain and it's one she'll not likely forget even if she were to develop dementia. She finds it fucking insulting, even, that the elder woman wants to even act as if that can all be water under the bridge and even has the goddamn audacity to steal them away from the incredibly cute day that Liora had planned for their first day as Fluffinator Orlovskaya's new moms. (Speaking of Fluffinator, she seems to be agitated with the Mistress's presence. Not like that could possibly mean anything! She's just a puppy, after all.)

Appropriately so, Liora gives the masked woman only her most severe of glares, as if she is looking to vaporize the woman's very soul. (Whatever the Mistress thinks of that, is a mystery as she says nothing of it and instead rushes them into the foyer.) "Maybe I'm fucking done having a destiny? I fucking told you I was done with this shit and after the last fucking stunt you pulled––"

"Oh, are you still upset about that, my dear?" the Mistress asks, tilting her head to the side, "That was but just a little misunderstanding."

"Uhhh, I'm not sure how hard it is to misunderstand destroy Inna's phylactery and absorb her soul? You were pretty fucking clear to me."

"Well," the Mistress purses her lips together, eyeing her pupil carefully, "I do admit that there are multiple ways to restore one's psyche after a demonic episode and I suggested a method that I thought to be best at the time," which distinctly involved getting rid of Inna, "and had I known you had become so strong, so powerful and were capable of conquering those trials, I would have suggested the alternative. But you see, if I sent you on those trials and you had failed, it could have resulted in the loss of both your souls. Regardless, I see the gravity of my error and I offer my deepest apologies to you both." Hurriedly, the Mistress continues to guide through the halls towards the dining room regardless of what the two women want. (The magical world could use a fucking lesson on what the word 'no' means.) When they enter the room the masked woman's army of identical looking French maids gather around the guests and tug them towards their seats, somewhat shoving them into comically large and ornate chairs. "Shall we get started then, hm? Now that we have cleared things up?"

"I mean, apology not fucking accepted. You almost had me kill Inna, but something fucking tells me we aren't getting out of here without a fucking rundown so whatever," she mumbles, slouching into her seat while she watches piles and piles of food magically appear on the table, "get on with it, then."

 

[Syntra]

Inna Orlovskaya liked to think that that her vocabulary was pretty fucking wide. Like, in order for her word assassination technique to be perfect, it kinda had to be, you know? A well-placed fuck was akin to salt-- pretty much necessary to make your words stand out, but too much of it and your mouth would not have a Good TimeTM. In fact, the blonde was partial to the timeless combo of sophistication and profanity! Mostly because the two went together like bread and butter, or coffee and milk, or, uh, Chett’s forehead and a bullet? Yep, something like that. For all her usual creativity, however, she had to admit that the classics were classics for a reason, and sometimes, ‘hey, what the fuck’ was the best you could ask for. Much like now! “Uhhh, what the fuck, mate?” Inna raised her eyebrow. “I didn’t realize we had to like, hand in our written fucking resignations. Since, you know, we didn’t actually have any official contracts! But let me tell you a sweet secret, you nameless freak-- I don’t give a shit, actually. The great Inna Orlovskaya is not your bitch, in case you haven’t noticed, so…”

“Of course you aren’t, my dear,” the Mistress smiled beneath her tacky-ass mask. “Again, I have to apologize. I thought you were far too gone, and doesn’t it make sense to cut off the gangrenous limb? I only did what I had to do, with the kind of tools I had at my disposal. I do regret it, mind you. Every night, I have trouble falling asleep. I failed you, you see-- I was meant to protect you, and yet I let you fall under the demonic influence. I couldn’t afford to lose Liora, too. Surely, you understand?”

And, in theory, Inna might have understood-- losing Liora was something she unfortunately had experience with, and she Would Not RecommendTM. (It had been worse than losing her collector’s Charmander card, really. Never had the blonde thought she would reach for that comparison, but here she fucking was! Love, Inna supposed, changed you. Like a fucking bomb, it demolished your ladder of priorities, and replaced most of the steps with ‘Liora, Liora, Liora.’ Not like, in a creepy stalker-ish way that would make Edward Cullen green with envy, but it did feel as if it re-wired your brain, you know? Suddenly, you cared about someone other than yourself! Which, consider her mind officially fucking blown.) The regret coming from that bitch, though? The bitch who had fucking put wool over her eyes and then had the gall to be like ‘hurrr durr, it’s been for your good all along?’ Yeah, not how apologies worked, mate. Not at all! When you stepped on someone’s fucking foot, you were supposed to say ‘Sorry,’ not ‘Well, it’s sort of your fault for standing there in the first place. Also, also, why the fuck are your feet so large? With those yeti-tier monstrosities, you can’t expect people not to step on them. Buuut, I apologize, I guess? Since it’s the social convention and everything.’ Doormats might have accepted that excuse of an “””apology”””, but again, Inna Orlovskaya was no fucking doormat!

If the Mistress noticed her incredulous stare, though, she proceeded to solve it in a manner that was intimately familiar to the blonde-- specifically, via ignoring it. (Wow, way to make her taste her own medicine! And man oh man, was it bitter. If the Creator, like, meant for this to be a lesson on open communication in disguise, then Inna had to admit it was working, sort of. Never would she subject Liora to that level of nonsense!)

“I am happy, my dear,” she turned to the other woman, “that you are willing to give me another chance. It did not make me happy to deceive you, but I assure you, my child, that you will understand why I did it. Why I had to do it.” …oookay, so the blonde wasn’t an expert, but did this not sound like an interlude to an especially big, steaming pile of bullshit? Even Fluffinator Orlovskaya seemed suspicious of this cultist-looking motherfucker-- despite literal heaps of food materializing in front of her, she just stared at it with the expression of Sherlock Holmes getting ready to crack his next big case. A smart pupper! Truly, good to know that her puppy-choosing method hadn’t failed her.

“I couldn’t reveal the full truth too soon, for you were too weak. A mere cocoon. You were brimming over with potential, sure, but do you know what happens to potential that isn’t nourished? To children who aren’t properly guided? They become useless. Shadows of what they might have been, had they been raised more purposefully. I couldn’t allow that to happen to you, my dear. Not you, out of all my children. You realized, didn’t you? Why I raised you with such a heavy, heavy hand. You’ve always been a smart girl, Liora.” …wait, what the actual fuck?! This kind of resembled one of those dream scenarios that started out reasonably normal, but devolved into greater and greater bullshit with each passing second-- and, really, the fact that she found this even remotely normal was a sad fucking testament to how shit her life had become.

“Smart enough, really, that I wonder how you haven’t realized yet.” With a dramatic, swooping gesture that looked so obviously rehearsed that Inna had to roll her eyes, she discarded her mask, and that was, uh… honestly a little anti-climactic? Since she looked like a normal fucking woman. The blonde had guessed in the past that her face might have been covered in, like, hideous scars, but nope! “Maybe you didn’t want to, daughter of mine. Well, regardless of your reasons, you know now. Aren’t you happy to see you mother? Because, to me, this meeting is pleasing. You’ve grown, so, so much, and so you are finally fit to serve me! You should return where you belong, Liora,” she said, her voice full of fake sweetness. “No woman can thrive without her roots, after all. Without her home.”

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Only the Mistress can justify killing someone as collateral fucking damage and make it seem almost reasonable. While Liora cannot say whether or not she would have been convinced by the other woman's argument had the whole phylactery fiasco not happened, she doesn't let her sickeningly sweet tone sway her this time. Fool Liora Trihn once and you're fucking dead to her. Try to get Liora Trihn to kill the l-word of her life by deceiving her and you're about a hair away from the woman personally sending you to Hell. That the Mistress is still standing and smiling her stupid smile under that mask of hers is only because Liora is in a relatively good fucking mood. Or she had been until recently and is currently riding on the remaining fumes of that good mood. Once it's gone out entirely, she'll make it very fucking clear to the Mistress that she needs to fucking learn that Liora Trihn and Inna Orlovskaya are not bitches you can just call up on a whim and expect to swallow whatever bullshit you plan to feed them.

"Didn't really have a fucking choice," Liora mutters, as the Mistress tries to spin some narrative that she is giving her a second chance. As fucking if. Like, how did this bitch forget that she is the one who pulled Liora and Inna here? Had she been given a fucking choice, she would have said a polite, "No, bitch go find someone else to screw over," and then would have gone off to enjoy the rest of her day with her Inna and Fluffinator. But freedom seems to be a finite resource and somehow she's managed to use up all of hers if she keeps getting dragged into these fucking situations.

As much as Liora would love to ignore the Mistress's monologue, she would be lying if she said she isn't curious. Though the more the masked woman explains, the further clarity seems to be from reach. She doesn't really understand why she's talking about her upbringing as if she had had a hand in that affair at all––but, then, she just assumes it must be about that brief stint of time where the Mistress had been one of her primary tutors. That would make sense to Liora, too, since the Mistress has a habit of referring as those under her care as her children. However, she doesn't think that the woman had been that bad of an instructor; it's not like she ever left her lessons crying just because she couldn't get an incantation correct. So it doesn't make sense for her to even say that she raised Liora with a heavy hand––she should know what it feels like to be raised in such an environment. Being as confused as she is, she steals a sideways glance at Inna to see if there is any semblance of recognition on her face, but she looks just as perplexed.

When her eyes flit back over to the Mistress, the woman continuing to draw out this explanation, the picture in front of her begins to sharpen. Liora's brow furrows together, squinting at the other woman and staring into her eyes––the only bit of her that she can actually see through the mask. Maybe Liora does put together the pieces before the woman drops her mask; maybe she does recognize those cold, dead eyes that can swallow stars; and maybe, it's not something that Liora wants to fucking deal with.

She shuts her eyes tightly as Helia sweeps the mask from her visage, refusing to look and see what is true and has been true this entire time. Even while the Mistress's voice warps and changes into her mother's chilling cadence––not that she can make out anything Helia is saying to her now. It sounds more like she's trapped inside of fishbowl and only certain syllables stand out. Sweat gathers in her palms and when she finally opens her eyes, she's staring down at the table, still refusing to meet her mother's eye. "What the fuck kind of game are you playing? Do you––do you fucking think I'm just going to do what you say because you look like my mother?" she hisses, feeling all of her walls start to rebuild themselves on the spot.

"Don't be so naïve, Liora. You cannot tell me that you do not recognize your own mother's presence? Although, all things considered, it turns out you aren't able to recognize me," she chuckles, as if successfully deceiving your own daughter is funny, "And would it kill you to mind your language? I did not send you to finishing school so that you could throw away all of your manners the second you decide to cohabitate with rats," Helia booms, eyes cutting over Inna and no longer hiding her malice. Or is it just her lust for the blonde's power? She turns back to her daughter, "Sit up straight and look me in the eye when I am talking to you. I am giving you a rare chance, my darling. It would not be wise to throw it away."

Still, Liora refuses to meet her gaze, barely even processing anything that her mother is saying to her as her mind runs around in circles trying to make sense of all of this; trying to figure out how she hadn't realized this sooner and how she could be so fucking stupid for even thinking that there could be anyone out there who would actually fucking want to genuinely help her (save for Inna). Like, the Mistress being helpful should have been suspicious fucking behavior from day fucking one! As she pulls herself down that path, the path that requires her to beat herself as penance for ignorance, she suddenly stops herself. As it fucking occurs to her that it's not her fucking fault for not putting this shit together. She's not a fucking detective and even if she had been, how is she supposed to be responsible for figuring out that it is her own mother behind that mask? Especially when the the Mistress had treated her... had treated her like the mother she had wanted, for that brief time at least, and nothing like how Helia Rodríguez had. That realization burns.

Anger flashes through Liora's veins, threatening to rip cracks into her skin as the beast in her belly begins to stir, but she holds herself back not wanting to come undone because of her ill-addressed mommy issues. Finally, her eyes cut over to Helia Rodríguez and as much as she wants to shoot the woman a glare, her eyes appear vacant more than anything else. Her jaw clenches and her hands roll into fists in her lap. "You fucking lied to me. This entire time. Not just as the fucking Mistress, but my entire fucking life you have been lying to me! You don't give a shit about making myself or Sol strong––you just care about your fucking self and making sure you get what you want. I'm not some loyal fucking dog," no offense to Fluffinator, "whose going to join you just because you finally fucking realized what's been fucking true this entire fucking time!"

"Liora, my child," Helia says in a voice that both is and isn't hers. It's sweet like cotton candy and punches straight into Liora's heart. Her mother steps over to her daughter and grabs her chin, forcing the woman to meet her gaze, "You will do as you're told. You will join me, as you have always dreamed. You will finally take your place by my side, as my most trusted right hand. That sounds appealing now doesn't, my most brilliant daughter?"

Almost, almost Liora can feel herself being pulled to some distant happy place; she can feel that familiar lull from the cathedral worming its way into her fucking head and attempting to convince her that it's best to just listen and obey. But Helia Rodríguez is about a whole fucking year too late for that shit to work on her––not when her happy fucking place is sitting right across from her and she can see her and their new fucking puppy.

This time when the beast in her stomach roars, she doesn't try to silence her. Instead, she embraces that darkness within herself and allows it to take over. Cracks that shine golden light erupt across her skin while her eyes are swallowed in darkness. The temperature in the dining hall drops by several degrees, and even the lights begin to flicker. Liora smacks Helia's hand away from her chin and stares the woman down, rising from her seat. "You fucking bitch!" she growls, her voice sounding layered and booming throughout the entire villa, causing the foundation to shake and sending cracks up the walls. "That shit isn't going to work on me anymore, so step off if you know what's fucking good for you," she warns as ram horns begin to protrude from her skull, curling around her ears.

 

[Syntra]

Mother? Daughter? Okay, what kind of Darth Vader-ass twist was that? (Not that the Star Wars shit had been a good twist, mind you. 'Hurrr durrr, I happen to be your genetic material donor. I mean, father. Somehow, that is supposed to change everything, even if fucking cigarette commercials had impacted your education more than I had!' Like??? People were obsessed with their fucking lineage to an unhealthy fucking degree, and Inna had never understood that. Was it some brand of extended narcissism, or were they hoping to discover they were actually secretly royalty? 'Cause life wasn't The Princess Diaries, bitch! Realistically, the only thing you'd inherit from your shitty relatives would be debts-- well, that, and maybe some less-than-pleasant aspects of their medical history. All things considered, wouldn't it be better to just... pretend you had materialized out of nowhere? (Or, in Liora's case, emerged from the sea like the fucking Aphrodite. Yep, her Li was just That Cool! ...also, also, wow, would that have been a sight. With her mind's eye, the blonde could see her girlfriend beckoning her to come closer, droplets of water shimmering against her bare skin, and... oof. Okay, abort, abort! Abort the fucking mission, before she turned this dinner into a nsfw mess. In front of Liora's goddamn mother, that seemed like a certified Bad IdeaTM-- like, Inna couldn't think of a better way to tank one's first impression, and it wasn't because her imagination sucked. Then again, was this a first impression, even? That ship had, uh, probably sailed a few months ago. A rose by any other name, right? ...the same went for literal shit, though, and she suspected that that would have been a more apt comparison.

That she called her a rat, that was something Inna Orlovskaya could deal with. Who the fuck cared, right? Besides, rats were vaguely cute, with their pink noses and little sniffy noises-- being likened to one was still better than, say, outright being called a piece of fucking shit. Again, her standards were ridiculously low, but that was the way to remain happy in this shit world, man! Even some rando stabbing you in the fucking chest could be nice when you found a moment to be thankful for the fact he hadn't done it with a rusty blade. (Blah blah blah, silver linings.) In other words, yeah, the blonde could imagine going to Thanksgiving dinners with Liora's mother. (They would be weird and uncomfy, especially since she'd tried to kill her and everything, but no family was perfect. In fact, a relative not attempting to end you at some point seemed like a statistical anomaly to her! Typically, you spent a lot of time with family members, didn't you? Which also meant that you had to spend a lot of time riling them the fuck up. Someone's fuse finally blowing up in a fiery inferno was a foregone conclusion! Plus, Liora herself had kinda sorta killed her before, so Inna figured that, five years later, they could all laugh at the memory together. 'Hahaha, Helia, remember how silly we were? Pass me the wine, please.' ...except that, you know, then Inna recalled Certain Facts. And no, they didn't make her particularly happy!)

(As a parent, it was your job to build your kid up. Not that she knew much about it being a mom, though that, at least, struck her as an axiom-- on the level of the sky being blue, and xbox the inferior fucking console. Just... babies were tiny, dude! Tiny and smelly and pathetic, with all the disadvantages of a fucking tamagotchi and none of its good sides. Why, then, would you choose to crush them? Just like there was no point in kicking corpses, it was equally stupid to do that to babies, too. The true hard mode was trying to turn them from Nothing to Somebody, not the opposite! ...and yet her mother had attempted exactly that, according to what Liora had said earlier. Hell, according to what the woman was saying now, too, because those didn't sound like the words of a loving mother!)

"Hey, you batshit crazy bitch," Inna began, with all her usual charm. "Fuck off, okay? Nobody is interested in your feedback-- and by that, I actually mean your endless fucking yapping. Like, I dunno how to break the news to you, but the truly powerful people don't actually beg others to please, please lend their powers to them. Dealing with your own irrelevance must be hard, but I suggest forming an anonymous support group for failed villains instead of harassing Li. It's not nice to burden your loved ones with your fucking problems!"

So, uh. Why had she ever thought Helia would listen to her, again? Because the woman behaved as if she'd been fucking air-- apparently, even her sparing her a glance was too much to ask for. "Hmm," the mother from hell rubbed her chin, entirely unfazed by Liora's outburst, "what a ridiculous display. Did you learn that from your pathetic friend over here, Liora? Only animals show restraint this poor! Still, I suppose it couldn't helped. One does start to mimic their surroundings after a while, and you've been exposed to her corrosive influence for far, far too long. Truly, that you are not entirely worthless yet is a testament to my skills as a mother! Anyway," she smiled, and ice glimmered in her eyes, "I suppose you won't consume her like you were meant to, right? Then we won't need her anymore. Come, Liora, my dear, and embrace what you are. What you are meant to be. Mommy always knows best, or have you forgotten?"

Wooow, what a goddamn creepazoid! Not only a candidate for the Mother of the Year award, Inna decided, but also a runner up for the Nobel Prize in Being Delusional. Nope, nope, nope, not gonna validate her insane musings! "Li," Inna turned to her love, "I think we're done here. Can we... Li?"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Is there a version of Liora that has desperately wanted exactly this? This being, her mother finally seeing her worth, finally acknowledging that she is not the fuck-up between her living daughters, and finally, finally, fucking offering Liora a seat at the fucking table? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! There is that version of Liora somewhere in the space time continuum, no doubt. But as has been stated previously, Helia Rodríguez is too little too fucking late. Maybe that's what hurts Liora the most, too. That her mother could have had this. That, at any point up until recently, her mother could have called upon her eldest and asked her for the world and Liora would have fucking delivered! But of course, she would wait until Liora is no longer fucking interested. Just another way that for her mother to disappoint her. (Because she finally fucking gets that it's not her fault her mother couldn't value Liora for who she is, as she is, and just fucking encourage her. That it's not her who is the family fucking disappointment, but her goddamn mother. As far as she's concerned, her and Sol are just fucking fine and it only took several trips to Hell and back to figure that one out. Better late than never, she guesses.)

Still, none of that calms the demon. It doesn't help the demon to know that she's been the perfect golden child all along. It only makes the demon want to tear the face off the woman who dared not to recognize it, god fucking dammit! More infuriating is that her mother refuses to back down or just fucking apologize! Granted, Liora knows that will always be too much to ask of her mother and that she will never fucking get an ounce of consideration from that woman, but her fucking entitlement to Liora's life is far too much to handle. (And to know that she had been operating under the guise of the Mistress? That, as the Mistress, she was capable of consideration, care, and kindness? That Liora could have had that all along had Helia Rodríguez made that fucking choice?) Her breathing becomes shallow while tears of blood sting her eyes. Just, why couldn't her mother be fucking normal?!

The demon's hands roll into fists, her dark anthracite eyes boring into Helia with such heat you might think Liora is capable of harnessing the power of the goddamn sun. "Shut up, you insufferable fuck!" she shouts, as cracks continue to erupt across her skin. If it hurts, the demon does not register the pain or perhaps she is relishing in it. The villa shakes once more, the cracks in the wall continue to split apart like tree branches or bolts of lightning. "You don't know a goddamn thing about me or who I'm supposed to fucking be! You're not my mother and you never have been."

"Tsk, tsk, Liora. I can understand having a temper tantrum, even at your big age. Get it out of your system if you must, but we know how this will end," Helia says, not a hint of concern evident in her tone or demeanor. As if this is not startling. "You always come back to Mommy, dearest. Don't you know that this is your way?" she asks, tilting her head to the side. Then, with the snap of her fingers, a chain emerges between the two women, sprouting from their chests and connecting them together. "Do you not see that we linked? As Mother and daughter? Are you not curious what we can accomplish?"

Images then flood Liora's field of vision, showing herself and her mother opening a hellsgate; her and her mother harnessing the energy created by the gate; her and her mother becoming the most powerful women on the planet––images that would have easily seduced the version of Liora who existed many months ago, and is dead now. Which is only all the more infuriating to the demon. Growling once more, the demon's eyes open and she shakes away the wishful dreams of a delusional woman. (What had she ever seen her mother? What made her want her approval so damn bad that she let herself be dragged through shit just to show the woman she was tough? And why, why is it still painful that Helia cannot accept Liora for who she fucking is? To know in her heart that her mother will never love her?) Claws shoot from the tip of her fingers and she slashes through the chain link between hers and Helia, shoving the woman into the ground. "Stay away from me," she hisses as the ground beneath her starts to split and wisps of spirits from below gather and swirl around the demon. "Stay away from me!"

'Let us show her how much anguish she has caused us,' she thinks as her canines sharpen into fangs. An army of creatures begin to form around Liora––creatures of all shapes and sizes, with varying amounts of appendages, eyes, and mouths. Each howl as they are brought to life and Liora sends them forth through the villa, allowing them to push over the statues, tear through the frescos, break down walls; some go into the vineyard to start fires and tear up the crops. The maids are torn to shreds and their fresh souls are quickly converted into new monstrosities for the demon to control.

But when none of that sates her insatiable hunger? When her heart still feels like it's knotted up and choking? And her vision, instead of becoming clearer, only fills with growing spots of red? She opens her mouth and lets out a blood curdling scream that resonates throughout the property––it's enough to shatter the windows and cause the light fixtures to explode. Then, she raises her hands above her head, swirling them around in some pattern that must only make sense to her and yet another abomination rises––this time from the outside of the villa; she's a gargantuan Godzilla type that grips the roof of the house and tears it clean off, revealing a budding storm.

The Godzilla beast then reaches into the dining room and grabs Helia in her fist, squeezing her until her eyes bulge. The woman struggles, gasping for breath, probably trying to beg to be released but that's rather difficult when you're at Godzilla's mercy. Liora raises her own fist in the air and the monster behind her mirrors the action, lifting Helia higher into the air. When her fist is all the way raised, she quickly punches down into the floor of the dining room, using all the power she can muster; once more, the monster mimics the woman. She raises her scaley fist into the air, while Helia writhes and wriggles to get free, and then brings her down hard into the middle of the dining room table, smashing it to splinters, and creating a four meter crater in the earth.

The demon heaves as her agitation grows and continues to grow with no sign of stopping. She's not even sure if she wants it to––she can admit that it's not making her feel better, and it's also not making her feel worse. So why stop?

Yeah, why stop? She hops into the crater, clearing the dust away with her hand while she searches for her mother at the bottom. The woman in question coughs, making her presence known and Liora turns around, locking eyes are her mother's outline. She can hear her groan in pain, a sound that she wishes could say brought her joy but honestly it just makes her feel awful. Like, this is her fucking mother. How can she do this to the woman who took her in? ...Yeah, but how can she not? Liora shrugs as she reaches down into the pit and grabs her mother's collar, pulling her up to meet her eye.

But when she does? Her body begins to shake with all the emotions she's bottled over the years––all the hatred she's built up and ignored. It all floods her system at once. She raises her free hand above her head, elongating her claws and Helia doesn't even look impressed. She even smirks, "Do it, you ungrateful little bitch. Or are you not strong enough? Don't tell me you're a pathetic fucking roach who still needs her mommy?"

Yeah, somehow even with that... Liora just can't. Just... why can't her mother change? That's all she fucking wants and the woman can't even do that even while her own daughter threatens her life! Her hand drops and red tears begin to pour down her cheeks.

 

[Syntra]

How did that old adage go, again? ‘Every family has a skeleton in their closet?’ Well, not that Inna had any right to judge, but the Trihns or Rodríguezs or whatever their surname was seemed to have a whole fucking graveyard in there! (Haha, a graveyard. A suitable simile for a young, aspiring necromancer-- the blonde probably would have shared that little observation with Liora had it not been for the fact she was fucking losing it. Losing it big style, too! Like, you know how the US of fucking A lost it every time a functioning socialist government emerged in their proximity? Yup, her girlfriend’s reaction was similar in magnitude.) “Liora,” Inna began, clutching Fluffinator Orlovskaya tighter. “Liora, come the fuck on. I’m not like, promoting the world fucking peace here, but you can enjoy a nice, old-fashioned killing spree without turning into a literal demon. Just, don’t throw away your heritage so carelessly! The humans have spent whole-ass millennia perfecting their torture techniques, man. Did you know they even used to employ rats when a fucker really fucked up in the medieval times? They made them bite their way through their fucking belly, while the victim was still alive. That’s metal. Ten out of ten. The victory of the human resourcefulness-- like, mind over matter shit. Do you think that E-keysmash, with her endless fucking speeches that somehow always end up saying the same goddamn thing, would have thought of that? Spoiler alert: no, she wouldn’t have! There’s not a shred of creativity in her whole damn body, and…”

Except that, at that point? At that point, Liora seemed not to listen. It was hard to tell whether she was ignoring her on purpose, or whether Helia’s poisoned fucking words had transported her to some other dimension entirely-- she was there and wasn’t, you see, and the blonde Did Not Like ItTM. Like!!! Li was not a computer that put up a screensaver when you didn’t interact with it for a while, dammit. Moreover, Inna was interacting with her now, so, using the classic phrase, what the fuckity fuck? (The answer, of course, was plain as a day. Now, as for what it was? Liora wasn’t okay. Liora wasn’t fucking okay, not even remotely, and as her girlfriend/soulmate/future wife, it was Inna’s job to get her out of that situation. How, though? The Creator, in her infinite fucking stupidity, had given the portal manipulation shit to Li, not her! …hmm, hmm. Maybe she could set the entire fucking villa on fire and force them to leave? Blah blah blah, something about unorthodox problems requiring unorthodox solutions!)

And it was a problem, mind you. A galaxy-sized fucking problem, even! Like, it must have been pretty cathartic to unleash the years of all that pent-up fury at their source directly, but you know what else was cathartic? Spending all your cash in a fucking casino. Telling your boss to go fuck himself, even if you had no other way to pay your predatory rent. Slipping poison into your sister’s tea because she had BorrowedTM your favorite sweater and then, after weeks of it missing, you had found it in the laundry basket, with a stain that was bigger than some fucking continents. In that moment, all of it probably felt like dream come true, right? You were the embodiment of justice-- the avenging dragon, burning down everything that had the misfortune of standing in your fucking path. …it was easy to forget, then, that every rampage had a price tag slapped onto it, and some of them were, uh, unreasonable. You know, ‘give me your fucking lung in exchange for a single donut’ level of unreasonable! And, yeah, it shocked Inna as well that she of all people was now advocating for Responsible Budgeting, buuut let’s just say that certain recent experiences had convinced her of its importance. (Gotta weigh the pros and the cons carefully, y’know? Otherwise you might end up, say, selling your literal immortal soul for the privilege of hurting the only person who had ever given a damn about you. Any similarities to living persons were purely fucking accidental, of course! Nobody would have made a choice that fucking braindead, right? Haha… ha… ha… God, Inna wanted to fucking punch her past self.)

Meanwhile, the villa devolved into a survival horror scenario. The twist, though? For once, they weren’t the hapless protagonists, trying to save their miserable lives in the face of overwhelming odds-- nah, they were the horror. Or, more accurately, Liora was! When the hell did she become this powerful? (Under normal fucking circumstances, this would have been hot as hell. Like, Inna was a lesbian, you know? Of course that being at the mercy of a vampire-looking chick who could snap her spine in half without breaking a sweat was one of her top ten favorite fantasies! As far as she was concerned, any lesbian who didn’t have those was suspect, and probably an undercover het. Still, it was impossible to enjoy this impressive fucking display when she knew what, exactly, it would result in! That would be like… like your car’s brakes ceasing to function, and you being happy about because, wheee, the speed was fun.)

“Liora. Liora, listen to me. Please.”

And, naturally, that was the time Helia chose to acknowledge her presence. “Trying to reach her, huh? The depths of your ignorance astound me, truly. Don’t you see that she’s mine? She’s always been, from the moment she took her first fucking breath. I raised her. I gave her everything. A random blonde bitch can never hope to compete with that!”

“I’m not a random blonde bitch,” Inna bristled. “I am the blonde bitch, thank you very much, and I will fucking end you!” …provided that Liora didn’t do it first, which was becoming increasingly less likely for some reason. (It wasn’t that the blonde didn’t understand, really. Sometimes, these things were just fucking hard, you know? Gambling addicts presumably also knew that the habit wasn’t good for them, and yet something compelled them to continue. Now, imagine that you’d been a) gambling from the tender age of zero years, b) the society kept telling you to love gambling, c) from time to time, you actually fucking won. How easy would it be to drop it then, hmm? Inna was pretty fucking sure the rates of successful recovery would plummet to next to nothing!)

…it was okay, though. Liora didn’t have to handle everything on her own, you see? She had one all-purpose Inna at her disposal, and she’d move the sky itself to set her free, dammit!

Within seconds, black flames erupted around Helia. They formed a convenient cage, and with the fire hissing angrily every time she so much as moved a goddamn finger? Yeah, the woman would have had to be totally braindead to try and escape.

“Say a word,” Inna began, deceptively calm, “and I’ll kill her for you. As cleanly or as messily as you’d like-- just provide some fucking instructions and consider it done. No biggie. But, Li? Stop. Stop whatever the fuck you’re doing right now. I have tried that route already, remember? And, sure, I’d go to hell for you, too. Don’t you ever doubt that. The thing is, do you want to go through what I have gone through? Do want to be able to write ‘I used to be a vegetable’ into your fucking CV? Spoiler fucking alert, but it’s not the most exciting way to be,” she chuckled, but it was a sad, desperate sound-- a parody of itself, and closer to crying than actual laughter. (Also, damn, was it just her, or did her eyes feel more watery than usual? Man, fuck that shit.) “You promised me to stay forever, Li. Forever. How are you going to stay if you fucking refuse to remain yourself, though?”

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Even facing certain fucking death, whether it be by Liora's hand or the villa fucking collapsing around Helia, and the woman still won't budge. Won't even grovel for her life or suddenly realize the error of her fucking ways. Does she really think that Liora won't make sure she doesn't leave this villa fucking alive? In some ways, she may be right to have that assumption. After all, it's not like the demon is making any progress actually killing the woman that raised her––unless her strategy is to drown her mother with her tears, that is. But the demon just can't bring herself to act on the desire, even while it burns in belly. Even while she can feel the muscles in her arm tensing, ready and waiting for the rest of her to give the okay, she cannot fucking move. She can't even get herself to stop fucking crying! Just, how pathetic can she get still crying over a woman who has never loved anyone other than herself and who has never thought of anyone other than herself. For as angry and hurt as Liora is, for as betrayed as she feels, she feels the fire within her dying as her body shakes with all of her sobs.

(Vaguely, she can hear someone pleading with her to stop; telling her that there are other ways to accomplish this level of destruction without giving over to her demonic half entirely. Somewhere, Liora knows this is true. Somewhere, she knows that this will not end well for her even if she does end up ripping her mother's throat out. She knows that while the power her demonic heritage lends her extends far beyond what she can currently accomplish in her human form, it's not really all that worth it to let it take over. Logically, she understands this, but this isn't the time or place for logical arguments now is it?)

Her fist closes tighter around her mother's collar and the other woman, with cuts littering her skin and blood spilling from the corners of her mouth, somehow looks as smug as ever. As if she is somehow taking credit for Liora's rage. (Although, in many ways, this is the byproduct of her parenting.) "I knew you didn't have it in you, daughter," she whispers, staring into her daughter's eyes and even managing an airy laugh.

Somehow those words hurt more than anything else she has been through; maybe because she realizes those are the last fucking words Helia Rodríguez will ever say to her. That she'll probably watch her mother die here and never hear her say that she loves Liora. (Granted, some part of Liora doesn't really blame Helia for not saying those words now––what with the whole destructive episode and threats against her physical safety. It might not make sense, but she can't deny that it still fucking sucks.) She shoves the woman back into the rubble as her mind spins itself in circles trying to figure out how to fucking prove Helia wrong––that she doesn't know a thing about Liora or what she is capable of or the lengths she's willing to fucking go. But her mind just pulls up blank idea after blank fucking idea, because you know what? Helia isn't fucking wrong. For whatever reason, Liora just doesn't have it in her. Despite how her mother has made her existence a painful one––so much so, she'd wager that the marrow in her bones is made up of all the criticisms her mother ever conjured, filling her veins with its poison. And maybe that is Helia's greatest accomplishment, manipulating Liora to such an extent that even her demonic self is incapable of acting on such rage.

Liora doesn't fully register her mother addressing some blonde woman behind her, but when a cage made of black flames appears around the source of all her angst, she automatically takes a few steps back and looks up. When her gaze meets that of Inna, her Inna, her lower lip begins to tremble as she looks around the destroyed villa and realizes how much fucking danger she put her in and their new puppy! But, oddly enough, Inna doesn't even seem mad about that. No, instead she's addressing her in a shockingly calm tone and is oddly caring. Her brows knit together as each sentence lands somewhere in her heart and causes her to ache in a different way than before––not at all painful, and most definitely pleasurable. Just... Inna cares for her and is here for her. She doesn't want to worry Inna. She doesn't want to make her sad, either! While she wants revenge too... fuck, if it costs her her Inna then it's not fucking worth it! Besides, the blonde is right. She did promise to stay forever and she won't be able to do that if she doesn't remember what the toilet is or that bleach isn't a tasty beverage. (She'll probably forget how to do her taxes, too, then they'll both be fucking screwed.)

Her eyes flicker between her mother and Inna for a moment and, ultimately, her gaze settles on the blonde. Her heart begins to calm as her breathing returns to something close to normal––more violent sobs than angry shallow breaths. She's still shaking uncontrollably, maybe even more so now that Inna is here, and slowly the cracks in her skin start to close, leaving angry welts where they once had been. Her horns, claws, and fangs all retract back into herself with painful cracking sounds that cause her to wince and whimper. Finally, her eyes return to their usual human form. Then, rather unceremoniously, she falls to her knees and buries the heels of her palms into her eyes as she bursts into a full blown spectacle of hysterics. With one hand she covers her face and with the other she reaches out towards Inna, beckoning her to come towards her.

"J-just do it," she sobs, "I-I don't care how!"

 

[Syntra]

Inna Orlovskaya wasn't usually the person to weave complicated plans. Just, why waste genuine effort on all that big braining when the fucking Creator's most beloved hobby seemed to be putting on her oversized clown shoes, and trampling allll over your expectations? At some point, even trying to circumvent those tendencies of hers made you into a goddamn fool! What kind of brain damage did you have to suffer from, after all, in order to the same thing, over and over and over, and expect different fucking results? (The brain damage called 'love,' it seemed, because the blonde sure as hell was crafting a plan now. Its title? Operation: Retrieving Liora. Its objective? To save her from her own damn self. If the prospect of revenge seduced her, you see, she'd be in need of a knight in a shining fucking armor-- you know, someone who wouldn't mind dealing with hell, demonic possession, E-keysmash's idiotic ramblings, and assorted bullshittery. Sooo... would kissing her help? Kisses always broke curses in the fucking stories, and while Inna wasn't one to fall for Hollywood propaganda, she figured that the trope had to emerge from somewhere. Killing Liora would apparently do, too, 'cause it sure as fuck provided the necessary reset to her, but could you blame her for trying to avoid that situation? Like!!! While some of her tastes may have been a bit, uh, unconventional, 'murdering her partner' wasn't one of the ways to get her going. Nope, nope, nope! ...hmmm. Maybe she could tie Liora to a chair and force her to re-watch Little Witch Academia, though? The wholesome message had to reach pretty much any heart, she was reasonably sure, and when combined with puppy and cookies therapy... yep, yep, the blonde was looking at the recipe for success!)

...except that none of that would be necessary, it seemed. All those months of avoiding communication? Guess what, bitch-- they'd learned from it! Learned that it wasn't the Ideal Way to Be, to be precise. Despite the storm that must have been raging inside of her head, Liora heard her, and... wow. That was some pretty powerful stuff, you know? Like that moment when you were listening to an average-ass song, and suddenly, the electric guitar hit. (Actually being listened to was nice, it turned out. Who would have fucking guessed? ...maybe that was what Inna had secretly wanted, all along. Maybe, just maybe she had sharpened her words till they cut like fucking swords 'cause that had been the only way to get anyone to react to them, you see? Since, before she'd done that, they might as well have been air to most of the fuckers that inhabited the planet Earth. Air, or mosquito buzzing! 'Sure, bitch,' they'd smirked, 'yap on. Not like there's anything valuable in that empty head of yours!' ...Liora didn't think so, though. She valued them, and her as well, and somehow, somehow that was enough to put the demonization process on pause. Love, bitches! The Perfect SolutionTM to everything that wasn't fighting the spread of venereal diseases.)

"Okay," Inna nodded. "Okay, Li. No problem. Call me the local pest control, 'cause I sure as hell am about to get rid you of one! But, like, not in bed. That would be weird."

"Classy," Helia smirked, apparently not giving a fuck that she was about to be murdered. (Or maybe it still didn't register to her? When you spent most of your life perched atop some fucking ivory tower, you most likely wanted to avoid the realization that the eventual fall would break your fucking neck.) "Do you not know, my dear daughter, that your partner is your mirror? That you chose such a fucking gutter rat tells a lot about you. Have fun in the sea of mediocrity, I suppose."

"Mediocrity?" Inna repeated, clearly indignant. "Better than the sea of assholery, which is where you dwelled for the entirety of your miserable existence, you useless bitch. Think that traumatizing a kid is badass, huh? Literally anything can do that! Even a fucking horror movie, or continuously shit lunches at the school cafeteria. Yep, that's right. You're the human equivalent of a burnt fucking pancake, and once you die, everyone will forget about you. Everyone. Nice way to squander your own fucking legacy!" And, with that? With that, Inna directed the flames right into Helia's blackened, empty heart. (It didn't take longer than a few seconds, really. The woman's eyes bulged, and for a while, Inna could promise she saw something in there-- a hint of guilt, maybe, or, if not that, then at least the tell-tale 'oh shit, oh shit, I fucked up.' Frankly, though? Too fucking little, too fucking late. Bitches didn't deserve second chances, mate! Especially unrepentant bitches, who only saw the light like five seconds before their inevitable demise. Perhaps, had she had the good sense to fall on her fucking knees and beg Liora for forgiveness, Inna could have been merciful-- you know, in the name of preserving those future family dinners. The woman's utter fucking lack of self-awareness ensured, however, that their family would always be just her, Liora, Sol, and whatever dogs they ended up adopting, and that... that was fine. Not like they needed anyone else, anyway! Other people were just frosting on their delicious fucking cake, and spoiled frosting belonged in the fucking dumpster.)

The smell of burnt flesh filled the air, accompanied by the disgusting sounds of sizzling, and Inna... well, Inna found herself shielding Liora from the sight. No point in her seeing that, right? Being embraced by her girlfriend, who by the way happened the best girlfriend in the whole damn world, surely had to be more pleasant than staring at her mother's charred corpse. Ten out of ten Inna's agreed! "Li," she whispered, and caressed her hair. "Li, are you okay?"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Curled on the ground, Liora looks like paltry imitation of herself. The only saving grace she has right now are that the only ones who are witnessing her unravel are her mother, who is about to die, and her Inna, who has already seen her at some disgusting lows and never flinched. She doesn't think that Inna is suddenly going to turn her back on her now and start mocking her for crying. Even the urge to prepare herself for that outcome is easily quelled by the evidence that already tells her the blonde is on her side no matter what; through thick and thin––she's offering to murder her goddamn mother for her for Christ's sake, so the woman knows that she can always count on her Inna to take of her.

When her mother starts to speak, addressing her for the last time, Liora shuts her eyes tighter, tight enough she might accidentally squinch her face up permanently. Her hands cover her ears to block out all the noise as well. She already knows that her mother isn't going to have a sudden change of heart. Even if that's what she wants, it won't be what she'll get. It's not her fault either. She can't blame herself for her mother's inability to be fucking normal; of course, knowing that doesn't make it any easy for her to reconcile. She'll always have to live with the knowledge that the woman could never have lived up to Liora's expectations, because the woman only ever cared about herself. And, like, while she could spend the rest of her life wallowing in that particular misery, she could also choose to realize that she has Inna and their dog and they're more than enough for her. (In fact, she even wonders what she ever did to even deserve someone as great as Inna. Just, the woman is incinerating her mother for her because she faltered! She convinced her, a goddamn demon at the time, to stand down and consider the consequences of going demonic. Only the amazing Inna Orlovskaya could manage such a feat and make it seem like a typical Tuesday night.)

The smell of burnt flesh quickly overwhelms her sense and before she can even look at the remains of her mother, which she actually doesn't really want to stare at, Inna has gathered her into her arms and she couldn't be more thankful. Liora welcomes the embrace and burrows herself into the blonde as much as she can, burying her face into her neck, clutching her shirt like she's afraid the other woman is going to disappear if she lets go even for a second. Her body continues to shake as sobs continue to sputter from her lips and, the odd thing is, Liora doesn't try to stop herself from crying. She probably looks like a swollen, snotty hot mess and somehow she doesn't think that Inna cares about that.

At first, to Inna's question she nods, but quickly, realizing her automated response is a lie, she shakes her head, keeping her face hidden in her girlfriend's neck. Fluffinator Orlovskaya, sensing that something is amiss with one of her mothers, skampers down next to the two women––not before growling at Helia's smoldering corpse––and nudges Liora's leg. The woman bends down to scoop Fluffinator from the ground and cradle her in her arms while she goes back to burying herself in Inna. "She––she's the fucking worst. Was the fucking worst, I guess," Liora mutters, "That's not even the worst shit she's ever said to me."

Not wanting to be in the villa any longer, not wanting to have to smell her mother's burnt corpse, she teleports them back to their apartment and lands them in the living room. She sets Fluffinator down on the floor and then returns immediately to Inna's arms, where she likely will stay for the rest of the evening. "Um, thanks... for everything," for saving her from herself and killing her rotten mother, more specifically. "I'd be in a really bad spot if you hadn't been there for me, Inna."

She pulls them both backwards onto the couch, making sure to keep herself in the comfortable fucking position of being wrapped up in her human blanket girlfriend, who makes her feel safe and loved. "You know... I really hate that you've seen me so weak," she admits, "but you've never hated me for being weak," more or less suggesting that everyone else in her life has. It probably isn't hard to believe that that is true either, given who Helia Rodríguez had been as a mother. So, to Liora, it is a big deal that Inna has been nothing but supportive. "And I just..." she bites her lip, looking up at her girlfriend, "I love you, Inna. Inna Orlovskaya, I love you."

 

[Syntra]

"It's fine," she whispered, oh so gently. (Normally, associating Inna Orlovskaya with adjectives like 'gentle' or 'warm' would have been enough to suggest an, uh, distorted relationship with reality, but when it came to her Liora? That shit came naturally to her, just like corruption came to politicians or the desire to sniff your buddies' asses came to dogs. Couldn't fight against love, man!) "It's fine not to be fine, I mean," the blonde clarified. "Like, if your friend breaks an arm, you don't fucking expect it to heal overnight, right? Well, I guess you're not forbidden from expecting it, but you sure as hell will out herself as an idiot for it. Anyway, I... uh, I swear I'm going with it somewhere. Basically, the bitch had been breaking your metaphorical arm for years, right? Or your heart, or whatever you want to call it. What I want to say is, it's okay to take your time. You'll get as much of it as you need, really." Once again, the ex-demon found herself thankful for Liora's teleportation-- like, if she had to vote for the ten top most convenient abilities of all time, the portal creation shit would have ended up in the first fucking place. The idea of having to walk outside, and face all the passers-by with their stupid fucking questions? (Inna could hear them already, and fuck, that alone was enough to make her head hurt. 'How come the villa got destroyed?' 'Why is everyone fucking dead?' 'Can someone please explain why these mythologic-ass creatures are roaming the streets again? I didn't get my house insurance yet!') Just, nope, nope, nope. Rather than face that, Inna would have preferred to stick her hand into a fucking hornets' nest!

Blah blah blah, sweet home. Always, that had felt like an empty phrase to the blonde, you know? Something people said to themselves in order to convince one another that their miserable lives weren't as miserable, and that a cyanide fucking pill wasn't the best investment you could make. Except, you see, that turned out to be untrue. 'Home' as a concept wasn't bullshit-- the problem was that, before Liora, she'd just never really had one! There had been places where she'd had her stuff, yeah, but that wasn't everything. Nah, mate. Providing storage space was like 1/10th of the functions a real home had, and with the other woman safely nestled in her arms? With their new puppy happily sniffing at their ankles? Finally, all of that clicked. For those long, long years, the blonde had been surviving on the emotional equivalent of stale bread and water, dammit! "Weak?" the woman raised her eyebrow, clearly astonished. "I don't even think that's being weak, Li. Like, you can be strong as fuck, and have muscles so large that it would make the fucking Superman turn green with envy, and yet, if the roof fell on you, that wouldn't help, right? It would still hurt, and you'd still be lucky to survive. Sad as it is, we aren't fucking Terminators. We get hurt, though... well, I guess we also heal. That makes us better than some fucking pile of metal junk! And, um? I'm glad that you're comfy enough with me to be able to heal in peace. Means a lot." Yeah, it certainly did, but the thing that Liora said next? That straight up stabbed Inna in the goddamn heart, but in a good way. In the best way! Just, wow. Liora Trinh loved her, Inna Orlovskaya. It still felt like a dream, you know? Almost, almost the blonde wanted to pinch herself, but the way her eyes suddenly burned made it very clear that this was, in fact, real. "I... I know," Inna stammered, and hugged her tighter. "I know, but I'm still fucking glad you said it. Love ya as well."

***

With Helia and all the other villains gone, the disaster duo could finally, finally enjoy their fucking honeymoon. Most of it was spent on training Fluffinator, to be honest, because puppies were a lot of work, but so fucking what? Still beat having to fight random-ass demons every day, as far as Inna was concerned. (Waking up to discover that their sofa had been pissed on admittedly sucked, though when Fluffinator looked at her with those eyes? Yup, all forgiven.) Anyway, when the blonde wasn't trying to drill some manners into their newest family member, she was engaging in what could only be called domestic shit-- during the first 14 days, she baked about 23323 cakes solely to find out what Liora liked best. Just, when you had a gf, you had to spoil her, dude! Not doing so would result in... uh, she wasn't sure what, actually, but something like 'eternal damnation' would fit the bill pretty well. And, that fateful day? That fateful day, Inna sent Liora out on an errand. "Hey, be a dear and go get some canned cherries. I totally forgot about them, okay? And they're vital for my next recipe. It'll blow your socks off, I promise!"

Which, so far so good. Inna Orlovskaya, for all of her good qualities, had both the memory of a goldfish and the planning skills of a torn shoe-- whether she had forgotten to get them or only decided that she was going to bake that particular cake five seconds ago didn't really matter. Such requests weren't uncommon at all, and presumably, Liora had gotten used to them. What she most likely hadn't gotten used to, though? To finding goddamn corpses on their pavement! Least of all corpses that... god, corpses that looked like Inna. There she lay, paler than the snow surrounding her, and a large, red stain was blooming near her head. Could it be...? But no, no, no! Just a few minutes ago, Inna had been fine, the very picture of health, really, and yet-- yet it was her, unmistakably. A version of her that shouldn't have existed for decades yet, but... yeah. Reality tended not to listen to these should haves and would haves, you know?