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

[Syntra]

"For the last goddamn time," Inna sighed, "you are not going to call me Yshaaaaranamar. No, I don't fucking care that it won in your pathetic poll! Does this look like some lame-ass democracy to you? It's queendom, not... not presidentic." Like a blend of 'president' and 'republic', geddit? And, no, the blonde didn't give a shit that that wasn't an Actual WordTM-- she was a queen, for some unfathomably stupid reason, and so she got to call the shots. So, if Her Highness Inna Perfect Orlovskaya pretended there was nothing wrong with it? Why, entire reality bent over itself in order to accomodate her delu... ehm, ehm, interpretation of events. (Honestly? Inna kinda sorta understood now why Li enjoyed this so much. Like, yeah, when their demonic subjects had first announced that they were to become queens, she may have tried to change her identity and start a new life in Netherlands, but as it was? Hey, she really could get used to this! To hot chicks massaging her feet, feeding her grapes like in one of those cheesy commercials, and, composing odes about her awesomeness. Yeah, man, that was the life. All those sob stories revolving around the royalty working hard, and sacrificing their personal lives for the Good of Their CountryTM? Mere propaganda, as expected. Since she'd become a ruler, Inna had done n o t h i n g aside from... haha, fulfilling her marital duties. Man oh man, who knew she had it in her to be this diligent! Helia would have been proud of her daughter-in-law for discovering such a strong work ethic.) "You know damn well they'd just end up calling me Y-keysmash," the blonde continued, "and that's not the kind of legacy I'm trying to embrace here." E-keysmash was rotting in the ground, you see, and the only acceptable reason to ever bring her up again was to ask where her grave was so that you could shit on her corpse. In a fit of classiness, Inna had marked the place of her final rest on all the maps, for that exact reason! 'You are looking at E-keysmash's grave,' the tombstone said. 'By royal fucking decree, leave your refuse here.'

"But, queen Inna," the demoness pouted, her full lips red and luscious. "Queen Liora promised!"

"And? Were you born yesterday? Newsflash, bitch-- politicians lie. Welcome to reality, I guess. Now get off your ass and leave us alone. Don't you see we're still in the middle of our honeymoon?"

"Yes, but--"

"Honeymoon, you dumbass! Not annoying-subordinate-moon. A tiny distinction, I'm aware, though apparently not tinier than your non-existent fucking brain. Anyway, why are you still here? You trying to join us in the bed? Tough luck, pal, because this is an exclusive fucking club for two."

"N-no," the chick's eyes widened, "I wouldn't dare. I, ah, apologize for my intrusiveness. I imagine we may discuss this later?"

"We may," Inna agreed graciously, "if you are comfortable with listening to 'no' over and over again." At that point, the demon's willingness to argue had dried out, it seemed, because she disappeared in a puff of smoke-- a cheesy exit, as far as the blonde was concerned, but thank the fucking god. Ah, sweet, sweet privacy! She'd almost forgotten what it felt like, with all those demons and world-saving/destroying quests and alien diplomats begging for their assistance in wars that took place entire-ass galaxies away. (Did they really have nobody else to bother? Certain things, she assumed, didn't fucking change. Once the Creator's chew toy, always the Creator's chew toy!) "Where were we, again?" Inna leaned closer and kissed her wife's neck. "That's fine. I don't mind. I mean, we have the eternity to vandalize shit to our heart's content, right? I can wait for a bit. Listen, Li," she gave her a bright smile, "how about we go destroy Stonehenge next? The fuckers are soooo proud of the one piece of culture they didn't fucking have to steal, so I'm thinking it would be a terrible, terrible shame if something were to happen to it." ...what? The bastards had destroyed so much that Inna was basically acting as the fucking personification of justice here! Destruction could only ever be answered with destruction, and so on and so forth. Wasn't that, like, written in the manual? The Manual of Life? Presumably, something like that just had to exist.

...wait, wait, wait. What? Why the fuck were they staring at their past selves, again? Not that Inna hated either of them at this point, but they distinctly hadn't received their Good Ending, and she wasn't in the mood to drown in the not-so-sweet nostalgia. Like, why the fuck should she be forced to think about her own death during her goddamn honeymoon? Inna, as a good Christian girl, simply wasn't into that freaky shit. The past should stay in the fucking past, god fucking dammit!

As usual, however, reality continued to ignore her. "Hmm?" Ivy looked up, a sweet smile on her lips. "What is it that you're saying, Vie? I'm right here. And, like, I know that you lose your coins often, and also that I am rather rather small, but I am not coin-sized. No matter how I look at it, I imagine that it would be pretty hard to lose me!" Oh, wow. How had this girl figured out how to fucking walk and breathe at the same time, again? To her, that must have been peak intellectual effort!

"But," Ivy raised her finger, "I suppose that your fears may be valid. I mean, what if an enemy turns me into a coin? Then you could lose me, I guess. Then again, Vie... I don't think that I'd remain lost for long. You'd never allow that, I know. You're just one of those people who always try very hard, you see? And I bet that, for my sake, you'd move entire mountains if it meant you could be with me again. There is nobody I'd trust more with my safety." For a second, it appeared that she was mulling something over-- an unusual sight, perhaps, but also an adorable one. And, a few moments later? The metaphorical light bulb indeed appeared above her head! "I don't want you to feel too pressured about this, though. Like, you're pulling the weight on your own and that isn't fair, you see? So, Vie, let's do this differently. If we ever separate... well, tell me where you will go, and wait for me there. I will find you if I can. Pinky promise!"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

There is something undeniably sexy about Inna Orlovskaya when she's telling off that demon and being something close to diplomatic. It's almost like watching her be responsible. Like, Liora can practically see her wife in a power suit––not HRC style, more like Gigi Hadid––blowing up at their subordinates for not artfully destroying the Empire State building. Mostly, though, she imagines what happens after that meeting... like ripping that suit off her wife's body and laying her down on the boardroom table. After which she will spend a lot of time appreciating her wife's thighs. Jesus fucking Christ, why is this hotel room so fucking hot all of a sudden? It also doesn't help that said sexy wife is now kissing her neck. Shit. She hopes Inna isn't getting her to agree to dying her hair pink, because she is absently agreeing with whatever it is that the blonde is proposing. "Y-yeah, that sounds great."

(Also, Liora doesn't think Yshaaaaranamar is that awful. It's at least mostly pronounceable unlike Eys... E-keymash's name. She also likes it more than what their subjects had voted for herself, Xyzsvs. Like, she'll have to take a whole fucking course just to learn how to pronounce her own fucking name. For some reason, rejecting the name change had not occurred to her so, yes, Xyzsvs is about to become her official demonic name. At least she'll know to ignore the people who call her that.)

Anyway, her eyes flutter open when Vie starts her confession––which, what is this? A fucking Shakespeare play? God, she is so embarrassed to share a soul with that nerd. She's in the middle of rolling her eyes and pretending that the confession isn't all that when Ivy chimes in and... Okay, having met the woman, she does adore her. She thinks that Ivy is an absolute dear who should be protected at all costs, but then she catches glimpses of that woman's past and it's just really hard for Liora Judgmental Trihn to, like, not judge her for being such a dumbass. (At least her upcycled soul is much smarter. And hot. And sexy. And looks really good in bikinis. Shit. She's not paying attention again.)

Vie chuckles at her friend's simplicity and, to Liora's surprise, it actually sounds pleasant and not evil. "You are right, my darling. I would not leave a stone unturned or a bank unrobbed to find my precious coin, Ivy." She reaches for Ivy's hands and rubs her thumbs over the other's woman's knuckles before she kisses them. Then her palms. "That is a most excellent idea," she beams (but, like, a Vie version of a beam) and she doesn't even sound shocked that her obviously dumbass counterpart has actually been able to get the rusty cogs in her head to turn. "Do you remember when we slayed those bewitched centaurs? And how, afterwards, you asked to explore the forest for rare mushrooms? We may not have found those mushrooms, but we found that beautiful crystalline lake and spent the night on the shore, looking up at the stars. You made up a constellation for us... I will be under that constellation. You can find me there, always."

Then, the strangest thing happens. As the memory is beginning to fade out, Vie turns around. She turns around and looks directly at Inna and Liora––there is no denying the way her eyes hook into their very souls. "Find me," she repeats and suddenly, the disaster duo (demon queens edition) are swirled into an entirely new landscape. Groan.

It's lush. It's green. There's a lake that looks like crystals under the sun. It's probably that place Vie was talking about when Ivy made up that constellation. Big whoop, though, because Vie isn't here. Like, no one is here except for them. "Well," she starts, not even sounding irritated about their predicament. In fact, there’s even a mischievous smile on her lips. "Since she's not fucking here... Do you want to finish what we started earlier?" she asks, nipping at Inna's earlobe. (What? It’s a reasonably romantic location and Liora, contrary to popular belief, is not a prude.)

Well, unfortunately, Liora doesn’t get further than slipping her hand up Inna’s shirt before the ground starts vibrating and when she turns around? There’s a cottage sprouting from below the earth––complete with the straw roof and everything. The garden in the front is blooming with yellow, orange, red flowers of all types and, in Liora's opinion, it looks rather unkempt and wild. It's still cute, she guesses... Or would be cute if it were not for the large amorphous abomination that's just appeared out of seemingly nowhere and decides to just fucking destroy the place. (Okay, is Liora supposed to care about this? Last she checked, they've been destroying a lot of shit as of late and much more impressive shit than some random cottage.) She is about to whisper some snide remark to her wife, but then the abomination wails and starts crying? Mind you, the thing is still destroying the home, but it's definitely hysterical and its tears seem to be made of acid because they are destroying the garden.

"I..." she purses her lips together debating what the options are or should be. "Do you want to blow it up or should we... help?" She will admit, helping does seem off to her given that they have officially decided to become the problem they were meant to stop, but, well... Vie did call them here (presumably) and this is maybe why she wanted them to visit? "I kind of think we're supposed to help."

 

[Syntra]

Long, long ago, when she still had had much more energy to spend on pointless rage, Inna Orlovskaya would have been livid. Like, why the hell did every supernatural fuck on this godforsaken earth think that they had the right to teleport them wherever they wanted? Phones existed for a reason, mate, and the reason was not so that you could use it as a fancy fucking paperweight. A normal, civilized person would have picked it up, called her and been like: “Hey, Inna, do you maybe have time to meet me at some point today? How does three pm sound?” And Inna would have been like: “Sure, sure, Miss Well-Adjusted, I guess I can make some space in my busy schedule and slaughter my enemies at five pm instead. You think we will be done by then?” “No problem, chief!” So, you know, a nice, civilized interaction-- 10/10 experience, would recommend to friends. Instead, though? All the demons, angels, or whatever the fuck their taxonomy happened to be, simply summoned the inter-dimensional taxi for them and threw them inside without their fucking consent. At this point, however? Sad as it was, the blonde had kinda gotten used to things simply being Like ThatTm. Somehow, this was her life now, and complaining about it would have made about as much sense as being a fucking cop and wondering wtf you had to shoot your fellow citizens. (Plus, getting angry was actually… hmm, rather exhausting? Like, your heart had to pump blood through your veins that much faster, all your hormones went fucking crazy, and Inna wagered that all that nonsense couldn’t be good for you. So, why not enjoy the scenery instead?) “I swear, you’re reading my mind,” she turned to her wife, with a bright smile on her face. “Plus, I’d argue that that doing so is, like, our moral duty. Whoever kidnapped us wanted to ruin our honeymoon, don’t you think? Obviously, we gotta ensure that that doesn’t fucking happen.”

Like, yeah, it was kinda annoying that there was no bed for them to rest on, mostly ‘cause Inna wasn’t a fan of getting ants into her clothes, but what could you do? Moral duty was moral duty, and you couldn’t fucking abandon it just for the sake of your comfort. Just, sheesh. Where the hell would they have gotten as a species had they ignored challenges solely because they were difficult? No, the unknown villain could not steal their honeymoon! The blonde would die, happily, before allowing that to happen.

…or not. Not that Liora and what she did with her hands wasn’t, uh, distracting as fuck, though you know what was even more distracting? Few things, though a large-ass monster on a weird rampage surely made the list! “Oh my fucking god. Great, awesome. A fucking Godzilla look-alike is exactly what we needed in this goddamn economy!” Speaking of economy, what about copyright? Would they also have to deal with some fucking director suing them because a monster, who was probably technically their subject, violated the stupidest law in existence? Ugh, the idea of that almost made her want to resurrect E-keysmash and be like “haha, this is your problem now, bitch.” Although… hmm. Perhaps they could dig her out, preserve her via embalming techniques, and use her as a meat puppet in negotiations where they didn’t want to be present? Desecrating an enemy’s corpse was something Inna hadn’t really done properly yet, so this would earn her additional villainous brownie points as well!

But then… “Is it fucking crying?” Inna blinked in disbelief, as if she thought that resetting her eyes would make the weirdness disappear. (Which, spoiler alert, it fucking didn’t! The blonde hadn’t thought there was a room for her life to get even weirder, but man, the Creator seriously kept outdoing herself.) “Help?” she turned to Liora. “I mean, I thought that the traditional thing to do with a monster was to fucking kill it, though… yeah, I do agree it looks a bit pathetic. Very pathetic, actually. Hey, you there!” the ex-demon shouted, with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. “What the fuck are you doing? Leave the cottage alone, mate. No idea who wronged you here, buuut I’m pretty fucking sure the building is innocent. Why waste all that goddamn effort? Someone cared enough to build it, so just imagine how they’ll feel upon finding the smoking ruins…” Oh. Oh, okay. Inna wasn’t really an expert at soothing hurt fee fees, though even she understood that she’d fucked up here-- the monster, you see, seemed determined to produce an entire goddamn ocean now. Sooo, that probably hadn’t been the right thing to say? For some arcane reason.

“I dunno, the thing seems pretty inconsolable to me,” Inna shrugged. “C’mon, bitch,” she tapped the beast’s shoulder, somewhat awkwardly. Like, what the fuck was she supposed to do her? Schedule an anger management class for their Godzilla Lite and then… force it to go there? Hold its hand? Sheesh, the fact that the Creator had provided zero (0) manuals for bitch-ass situations such as this one should have earned her an eternity of damnation. “Why the waterfall? You sad because you lost your cool?” ‘Lost your cool’ seemed like quite a bit of a euphemism-- only fucking ashes remained of the once-beautiful garden, to the point one could easily mistake it for a warzone. “Sucks, I guess, but like, one temper tantrum doesn’t mean that it’s over. As someone who has had a lot of temper tantrums, I’m kinda the living proof of that. What really matters is deciding to un-fuck things, y’know? Deciding to do that and then actually doing it, since it sure as hell isn’t going to un-fuck itself,” the blonde announced, with the expression of a buddhist monk imparting ancient wisdom onto his students. “Sooo… I suppose that you should start working on re-planting those flowers. Some of them can still be salvaged, I’m pretty fucking sure! Do you need help with, like, removing the debris?”

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

While it had been Liora's idea to help the strange creature, she had not thought that her wife would so eagerly step up to the task and start shouting whatever it is she thinks is affirming. (Mind you, Liora's technique would not have been any better. It would have been the equivalent to the Useless Coach classic, "There's no crying in baseball," except, "There's no crying in the demonic destruction of random fucking cottages, you fucking zygote." So, actually, maybe it is better that Inna stepped up first to take care of the current clusterfuck their life is throwing out them. Besides, Liora has always found Inna's pep talks peppy enough for herself so maybe this abomination has been cut from the same cloth? That's probably wishful thinking.) You know, despite Liora's apparent reservations about her wife's approach she does nothing to stop her and actually seems to join in, because wives who support each other, rule Hell together.

"You fucking piece of shit! You're destroying those azaleas and who ever fucking grew them is going to be fucking pissed. I know I would be," she adds, taking Inna's hand in her own, because showing a united front is important. Though what she says and what Inna says does absolutely jack fucking shit to soothe the monster. In fact, its seems to be getting worse? Like the level of destruction per second is rather consistent, given the beast has to wipe its eyes every other second to see what to smash next, but it is growing in size and Liora sort of assumes that the monster's condition is, in fact, getting worse. Fuck.

But then, something strange happens when Inna approaches the abomination and places her hand on its shoulder. For one, the abomination responds to the touch and it appears to be the first thing it actually acknowledges since their arrival to this spot. Second, the beast's eyes, which seem to be placed like fucking Picasso designed it, seem full of recognition and perhaps even disbelief. It's hard to say––fuck, it's even hard to figure out what is going through this thing's head and maybe Liora is just projecting her hopes? Because honestly, the closer they get to wrapping up this little favor her past self wants them to take care of, the sooner she can drape Inna's legs over her neck like a scarf. Just, Jesus fucking Christ, is that too much to ask for in this officially confirmed godforsaken existence?

Anyway, the abomination looks at Inna and, at least for now, stop its demolition of the cottage. It then falls back onto its ass (?), shaking the ground, but doing no more damage to property other than crushing the few flowers that had yet to perish. It even nods along to Inna's spiel on temper tantrums. (Okay. Okay. What the fuck is going one? Like, Liora doesn't mind that this little detour is going over smoothly so far, it's a welcome change of pace, but, uh, no offense, she sort of thought the thing was without brains. As in, not capable of complex comprehension.) And, because the rate at which shit keeps getting stranger is always exponentially rising when it comes to the disaster girls, the abomination pats Inna's head, then gets up and starts picking up what used to be the straw roof.

"Alright, so I guess... Nevermind, great work, babe," she says, kissing her wife's cheek then creating tiny little helpers to clear away the debris and salvage whatever they can of the garden. She doesn't get a cheesy tingly sense of joy or purpose helping this abomination un-fuck its own fuck-up; in fact, it feels beneath her, given that she is a queen, but even queens must remain humble, she guesses. (Not that Liora is actually even lifting a finger. Her little helpers are doing all the work and she is reaping all the reward.)

Slowly, too, the abomination shrinks as it cleans up the mess until it's only about a foot taller than Liora. Oddly enough, once much of the debris is cleared, the abomination grabs onto Liora, then grabs onto Inna, and drags them into the half demolished house and sits them down in the not destroyed kitchen. 'What the fuck is going on...'

If the patterns of fairytales follows, she has reason to believe they're about to baked into a pie or something. But it actually appears as though the creature is preparing tea? "What the fuck?" she whispers to Inna. She's not exactly getting bad vibes from this situation, but she is fucking concerned about how long they are going to be stuck here. She has a wife to please and monuments to destroy––can this little adventure just wrap up already?

The abomination holding them hostage (sort of), sets down a pot of tea and pushes two full cups towards the demon queens. Then... then it fucking talks? At first it sounds like any adult character in a Charlie Brown special, but the creature clears its throat (?) and suddenly her speech is understandable. "Apologies, dears, for the mess. I have not a clue of what happened. A tornado must have come through while I was away. How are you? How is this life treating you, hm?" She then, um, reaches for both Inna and Liora's cheeks and... pinches them? "So supple... I believe I had flesh like this once. I must have misplaced it. How are you? How is this life treating you, hm? You are Ivy and Vie, correct? I am in great, great need of your help."

 

[Syntra]

“I know,” Inna grinned. “Like, have I ever been less than fucking perfect?” A few occasions came to mind, but only to those who didn’t fucking care to examine them in their full context-- since context, bitches, changed everything. E v e r y t h i n g! Would you, for example, want your surgery to be performed by a medical student? No matter how hot, smart and blonde the student was, she was still a fucking student, which meant that you couldn’t expect miracles there. Nope, nope, nope. In fact, you were probably lucky if she… uh, didn’t sew a scalpel into your belly or something, ‘cause she hadn’t passed her Not Leaving Medical Equipment Where It Doesn’t Belong 101 course yet. And, similarly? Similarly to that, Inna Awesome Orlovskaya’s fuck ups had been caused by her not knowing how to human just yet! (Just, ugh. How the fuck was she supposed to know that having a meltdown of epic fucking proportions at every minor inconvenience wasn’t generally the route to a healthy relationship? In her family, that was how issues had been… well, okay, not solved, but approached, let’s say. Wounds had festered instead of being treated, and, for the longest time, the blonde thought that had been normal. Like, what else was there to do? If the Creator/god/insert whatever deity of your preference didn’t fucking want this to happen, after all, then they would have removed the ‘fester’ functionality from the repertoire of Human ThingsTM entirely. Using a fucking band aid, you say? Pffft! Clearly, that option was for weaklings too pathetic to survive some hardship, and… and it felt good, Inna had found it. Right, even. With the right person to hold you through the healing process, it didn’t even feel like something to be ashamed of! Which, wow, wow, wow. Could it be that some of the lessons she had absorbed during her adolescence might not have been entirely, hmm, ideal? A mind-blowing concept, truth be told.)

Anyway, once Inna had made her grand discovery re: (in)appropriateness of her coping mechanisms, she had moved from ‘almost perfect’ to totally perfect’. The universe must have agreed with that, too, because really, why else would it have turned her into the fucking queen? Its official validation machine had run some fancy tests, determined that there was nobody more suitable for the position, and chosen her. From rags to riches, bitch! (Speaking of which, maybe wealth wasn’t so bad. Yeah, yeah, the exploitation of the working class was sad and everything, but maybe Inna just liked having nice things? Nice things were a real fucking strong argument, no matter the angle from which she viewed it. Hmm, hmm. Okay, perhaps the world could afford to house two demonic capitalists--someone had to ensure that new ones wouldn’t start cropping up like fucking mushrooms after a hard rain, after all, and she and Li were uniquely predisposed to a task like that.)

“I don’t think so, love. I don’t think so.” Removing the debris was neither arduous nor time-consuming, mostly because she and her lovely wife weren’t some superpower-less suckers. Letting water carry it all away was surprisingly effective, y’know? As long as you didn’t care about pointless shit like ‘destroying your surroundings’ and ‘long-term ramifications of transforming the local ecosystem.’ (Pfft, as if it could result in anything truly bad. The hippie types kept running their mouth about how water = life, didn’t they? Her advanced knowledge of mathematics told her that more water = more life, which was unquestionably good. New species would probably be introduced into the area, too, and good for them! Had the old critters been taking better care of it, Inna wouldn’t have had to intervene at all. Like, those were their living quarters, man. Being a fucking squirrel didn’t excuse inaction-- when a bloodthirsty monster turned up to fuck shit up, you had to team up with its neighbors and give it the ass-beating it deserved.)

…and, you know what? Maybe the ass-beating would still happen. Instead of being properly grateful to their reluctant savior, the monster… kidnapped them? Did it count as a kidnapping when they were only forced to go inside of the cottage, even? Like, Inna had only taken about three additional steps, so the label felt a bit drama queen-y. “Fuck me if I know,” the blonde whispered. “You think they have those cheesy hidden camera shows in the demonic world? I could see it being some entry level-ass prank.” Truly, demons and their kindergarten-tier sense of humor. How often would she have to explain that, no, finding a fucking cobra in her bed wasn’t her idea of fun? Liora was the only thing she ever wanted to find there, god fucking dammit! …anyway, the situation only grew more and more absurd.

“A tornado?” Inna raised her eyebrow. “Is that your fucking stripper name? Like, I understand that some people have memory issues, but this is fucking excessive. So, newsflash, dumbass: it was you who destroyed the cottage and the garden and… everything, really. I even gave you some advice on how to amend it, and it was good fucking advice, too!” Ahhhh, okay, okay, okay, now it sorta made sense. This was some Ivy-Vie adjacent bullshit, wasn’t it? Had the monster told them from the very beginning, Inna could have at least braced herself in advance-- with those two involved, it was always going to be a fucking shitshow. “Well, fine. Let’s play that dumbass game, because why the fuck not. What is it that you need, pal?”

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

A... A cheesy hidden camera prank show? Liora had not considered this as a potential explanation to their current conundrum, but she doesn't think it's entirely out of the realm of possibility given that whoever is writing the script to their lives seems to have an anything goes type attitude. (One that Liora very much does not appreciate, but it's not like she can do anything about it since resistance has been fucking futile since day one. At least she has her Inna alongside her whenever they get dragged into all these adventures they distinctly did not ask to be a part of.) "They might," she replies, still whispering, "I haven't really looked into the television programs in the demonic realm," on account of them having spent most of their time destroying the mortal world since becoming demon queens. Really, she's only been back a few times and that has been with the express purpose to consult with demonic contractors. After all, she wants to make sure their mega-palace has no traces of E-keysmash and her disgusting ways. (She's practically having the entire palace demolished and rebuilt as a result. Oh, well. It's not like they're funding this remodelling––that is the job of their tax paying demonic citizens.)

While Liora is quietly scanning the kitchen for hidden cameras or invisible demons live-streaming this debacle, the monster seems to be studying them both very carefully as if there is passing recognition on her face. Though it's hard to decipher just what she is recognizing––probably that they are the reincarnations of Vie and Ivy? Like, what else could it be?

When Liora finally assures herself that they are (probably) not being set up for Punk'd: Demonic Edition, she returns her gaze to the abomination. She isn't entirely sure why they're still here or why she hasn't blipped them the fuck back to their hotel, but, she supposes, there is something strange about this entire situation (well, stranger than usual). Also, she guesses that the obvious connection to their past lives admittedly does make her want to stay. But she sort of thought this excursion would lead to her meeting Vie so that she can finally wring her neck for answers. Instead, she's sitting in front of some Alzheimer ridden amorphous mass that has presumably destroyed the home Vie had built for Ivy (if she had to guess). It's even weirder to think that this monster seems to believe that this is her place of residence––like don't monsters live in caves or under bridges or something? Definitely not cottages. The what the fuck just goes without saying at this point. She reaches for Inna's hand under the table and gives her a squeeze.

"Yes, a tornado. They ravage the area quite frequently and destroy my home... All my peonies, too. Have not a clue as to why. I thought I had been kind to the wind magicians," the abomination says solemnly. "I also... have not a clue what a stripper is? So I do not think that I am one. No, that does not sound familiar at all." The monster shakes her head, "In any case, you must have me mistaken for someone else for we have only just met! I think I would remember receiving advice from Ivy the Wise."

(Okay, okay. Just what the fuck is going on? Like, now that they aren't saving the world does the Creator want them to like... rehabilitate monsters with dementia? Because last Liora checked, she is not an expert on this subject and, quite frankly, she doesn't give a fuck. She can just bring a new monster to life and one without fucking brain damage. Yeesh. There are easier ways to solve the Creator's benign problems if she just got used to the idea of murdering useless subjects. But she supposes the woman is probably too attached to her 'art' to destroy it. Hence the disaster girls.)

"Oh, splendid, splendid!" the monster exclaims, clapping her 'hands' (blob arms) together. She leans in closer to Inna, "I have heard Vie is quite the stickler and so I am not sure that she will agree to help once she hears my case. Will you please reason with her? This is very, very important and I would not bother you if I had not exhausted all other options."

At this point, Liora is getting rather impatient, "Well, keep fucking stalling like this and the answer is going to be fuck no."

The monster shifts uncomfortably in her seat then takes a deep breath, "I need help finding my coin. I have turned this house upside down, made it forwards and backwards, I even moved every piece of furniture to find my coin," wait a minute, "and I just need this coin and I cannot find it!" the monster's eyes start to water and her body (?) starts to shake, "I am certain that it should be somewhere here, but... but I have searched for centuries and nothing, nothing has worked to bring my coin back to me. She is small and shiny. Or maybe... Maybe she is shiny and small? I do not know, I do not know! It has been so long..." the monster sniffles, trying to stifle sobs and failing miserably. Though, perhaps the disaster duo ought to be more concerned about the abomination's crying, because she is starting to grow in size and the last time she was large? Right, she had destroyed her own fucking home and fucking forgot about it. "Please, oh please, will you help me? Before the next tornado comes? I sense another is afoot."

 

[Syntra]

With every passing second, Inna's conviction that this was some sick fucking joke only grew. Like??? The monster had a goddamn monster, and had no right to act like your friendly granny next door who had happened to misplace her glasses! That was illegal, Inna was pretty sure. (And if not? Well, the blonde would make it so, because she was a motherfucking queen. Nobody's word was more important than hers now, bitches! If she pointed at the sky and said it was green, the pathetic army of fucks who followed her for no discernible reason had to nod, smile, and ask: 'What shade of green exactly, most precious of queens? Please, please, share your wisdom with the lowly worms that we are, for without your light, we shall forever be stuck in the darkness of ignorance.' Which, bwhahahaha!!! Yes, yes, and fuck yes, that was exactly the treatment Inna deserved. Before she'd received the crown, the blonde had been worried that her life would be consumed by, like, duties (ewww), but you know what? It turned out that if you were the one to decide who had to do shit, you could say it was everyone but you! Everyone but you and your hot wife, to be precise, because your role was to provide the super-important moral support-- without them just sitting on the throne and looking staggeringly beautiful, you see, the entire demonic realm would fucking collapse. No point to living in a monarchy if you didn't have mega gorgeous queens to fawn over, right? It was their privilege to die solely so that Inna could have slightly more fancy jewellery, thank you very much.)

...anyway, yeah. That weird-ass monster? It had harnessed the incredible power of stupidity in the most dangerous ways-- namely, via adopting unpredictability as her main strategy. Was she really dumber than a bag of fucking rocks, or could this be some sophisticated ploy? Playing dumb, maybe? As a certified idiot who had somehow seized a throne for herself, Inna knew better than anyone not to underestimate those types! It was surprisingly easy to hide behind a veil of dumbassery, only to reveal later that underneath, there was a mind sharper... uh, something sharp, probably. A knife? Look, man, don't fucking judge! Metaphors were hard. (Hmmm, hmmm, though. Like, not to pose as a living polygraph, but didn't the dumpster fire of a beast look kinda honest? You couldn't fake this level of distress without attending a prestigious acting academy, and the blonde was preeeeetty fucking sure that she would have seen it on the TV had a monster like that graduated from one of those. The internet, ever starved for controversies, would have taken care of that!)

"Ivy... the Wise?" Inna raised the eyebrow, wondering whether there hadn't been some sort of mistake. (A different pair named Ivy and Vie, perhaps? The chances of that were close to zero with those extra-ass names, but it still seemed more likely than literally any living organism on this godforsaken planet considering Ivy of all people to be wise. Like, Inna didn't hate her past self, of course not, but she had been... well, the type to swallow Tide pods because they resembled fruit, to put it diplomatically. Resisting lobotomy must have been one of her superpowers, truly, 'cause had they opened her skull? They would have found nothing there, Inna was convinced.) "You sure you're okay, not-stripper? Since, to me, it looks like you've hit your head pretty fucking hard. Tell me," she raised her hands, "how many fingers can you see?"

The impromptu medical examination didn't fucking go anywhere, though, because the monster... proceeded to ask for a coin. Okay, okay, okay! Inna had never wanted for anything to make sense, anyway-- order was for the weak, and the tax for chaos was that it sometimes claimed your life as well. So, in summary? This was fine. Reality turning into a fucking dadaist poem had been inevitable in hindsight, and... Wait, wait, wait. A coin? A fucking coin, a cottage, and flowers? Believe it or not, the blonde did own her Sherlock hat as well, and the ~juicy implications~ hidden in those clues made her put it on. A vision of Vie and Ivy preceded this whole incident, hadn't it? A vision in which Ivy had invented some lame-ass not-metaphor about a coin, of all things. (A coincidence, one could say, but that hypothetical person would have outed themselves as a total fucking idiot. Coincidences just didn't exist, mate! Or, like, they did, but only if you were unimportant enough-- of course that the Creator didn't fucking care to play tetris with all those random elements of your life when you were some soulless, dead-eyed fuck whose only concern was adding more zeroes into their bank account. If you happened to be Inna Orlovskaya, though? Inna Awesome Orlovskaya, a woman whose epicness was so off the charts that not even her literal death could stop her from kicking ass? Why, of course that every detail of her life would be MeaningfulTM!)

"Ooookay," Inna glanced at her hot wife, "there's something fishy going on, and it's not fucking salmon. You know what I spy with my little eye, Li? Some symbolism-filled bullshit. Like, it's awfully, awfully convenient that you want a coin, isn't it? A specific fucking coin, as if it was somehow important. I wonder how, really." (At that point, the ex-demon could feel it, too. It was cold and hot at the same time, and so, so full of... what was it, even? Resentment? Hatred? A desire to forgive, twisted by something stronger than itself?) Without thinking, almost as if she was a magnet dragged towards a really big pile of metal, Inna rose from her chair. She made one step, and then another, and then, when she was standing directly in front of the monster? She reached inside of her, only for her fingers to wrap around a tiny, rusted coin. "Is that it? Man, you really weren't careful with it," Inna shook her head, oh so disappointed. "Look how fucking ugly it has become! Ugly and useless, too. You wouldn't buy shit with it."

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

The monster continues her sniffling, but when it seems as though the disaster girls have agreed to help her, she starts to calm and with that her body returns to its usual size. She even brandishes a grin! Which maybe would have been cute were the monster not outfitted with shark teeth and her mouth not turned to the side. Actually, if she weren't a monster at all it would have been cute. Instead, it's just creepy and causes Liora to not so subtly scoot her chair away from the monster.

"You may not call me 'not-stripper,' for that is not my name. Instead, you can refer to me as..." the monster trails off, scratching the top of her head in thought, as if combing through the files where her name should be stored. "Admittedly, I am unsure of my name," she reports, rather matter of factly and seemingly not bothered that she has no name. While the monster may have had something to add to that thought, she gets distracted when Inna raises up her hands for her to count; she scoots forward a bit and narrows her eyes. "Ah, one, four, two, nine..." she mumbles, "Twenty. You have thirteen fingers and probably fifteen toes for good luck." (What?)

However, when Inna rises from her chair and approaches the monster? The monster actually cows back from the blonde, fear filling her eyes, but she does nothing to stop Inna from reaching into her center. Her lip trembles and tears sting her eyes when the other grips the rusted coin lodged inside of her. However, despite the tears and distress she does not grow this time. She grips Inna's wrist and holds onto the woman, as if she is her anchor. "Do not let go," she whispers. "Do not. Please," she begs.

Now, Liora isn't sure what's happening and, while that has been true for most of this detour and the past year of her life in general, this is starting to become even more concerning. A confused monster living out in the middle of the woods, who destroys a cottage and gets sad about it? Not the stuff of horror movies, that's for sure, but she wonders if it's about to be because she just does not have a good feeling about this. Her concern rises when the monster grabs onto her wife and that prompts Liora to rise from her chair and stand behind Inna, placing her hands on her shoulders. "What the fuck? Don't touch her," Liora snaps, glaring at the monster and not at all softening just because she has this pathetic lost puppy look in her eyes. "Let her go before your next chore is scraping your own brains from the ceiling."

"Mm," the monster squirms, not at all listening the dark haired woman, her eyes shutting tightly as something seems to be moving inside of the abomination. "Do not let go," she repeats again and again, with increasing urgency in her tone. The monster continues to struggle with herself, something inside of her clearly trying to break free and Liora isn't even sure if she wants to know what will happen next.

An arm is the first thing to burst from the monster's skull. Followed by another. The hands sprouting from the abomination then grip the seam of the opening and pry the casing (?) apart, all the while the beast howls and screams, trying to suture itself back together before its prisoner can escape. All the monster's efforts are in vain as a few minutes of struggle later, none other than Vie emerges from the mass. She's breathing heavily, as if the escape took a great deal of her energy and she collapses rather unceremoniously into her seat. When she finally recovers enough, she surveys the state of the cottage and grimaces. "Ah. I wager I was gone for two, maybe three, years this time."

Without so much as an explanation, Vie turns back to the women in front of her and reaches for the coin in Inna's hand, taking it from her and looping it onto a chain and fastening the object around her neck. "I thank you for helping me find my coin. Rather nasty things happen when I misplace it," she sighs, rubbing her temples and then snapping her fingers––prompting the cottage to put itself back in order. And when it is back together? Liora wonders if she did her magic wrong, because there are windows on the floor, doors on the ceiling, a staircase that is upside down... It's like one of those hokey mystery houses that you can pay $75 to tour and the tour guide makes the place seem haunted, but really it's all just optical illusions. "I hope that my grief was not too terrible to reconcile with. Sometimes she gets out of hand."

"Uh," Liora half-laughs in disbelief, "Is that all you have to fucking say? Is that the only reason you called us here?"

"Not entirely." the woman admits, crossing her legs as her eyes flit over to Inna, something close to nervous crossing her features before she quickly returns her gaze back to Liora. "However, I did need to break free of that prison first. It is getting more difficult and I fear the day I am stuck in that state. It is just so undignified to have half a brain cell at my disposal," she sighs, as if forgetting the woman she is or was in love with does not even have a quarter of brain cell. "I do sympathize with the inconvenience of being transported to wherever duty calls, as that was once my role as well. I hope that you believe me when I say I would not have taken such measures had there been another way."

"I did want to meet you," she admits, her gaze returning to Inna and still filled with that same nervous energy as before. "To know if this life has been better, if you have been fulfilled? ...I see you got married," her voice cracks on what might have been a sob. She closes her eyes tightly and she shoves whatever emotion to the side. "I should not be surprised, I suppose. Though I had been scared to even hope for it." Vie purses her lips together, looking as though she is debating whether or not to say something and, ultimately, she must decide to come forward. "What are you like now? Are you still angry?"

 

[Syntra]

The Creator, Inna had always suspected, couldn't be normal. Like, yeah, inventing bullshit was a deeply human drive and everything, but to actually go as far as to do something with your daydreams? To produce an entire fucking planet out of it, with lore spanning beyond millennia and world-building so intense that that Tolkien hack would cry with envy? Wack. Just, completely maladjusted behavior. Only a complete fucking no-lifer would have chosen to invest her time like that, and for that reason, the blonde also thought that the Creators happened to be a literature major-- since, you know, those guys had a pretty fucking consistent track record of wasting too much effort on total, off-the charts bullshit. (Sure, Karen, the curtains were blue in order to ~express the depths of sorrow~ of the generic male protagonist #234553! 'Cause blue was the very essence of sadness, you see, and couldn't possibly be there just because the author was trying to rack up their word count. Nuh uh. Every little word, no matter how insignificant, actually contained a clue to solving the greatest mysteries of the universe! ...seriously, just fuck off. If Inna, with her galaxy-sized brain, wouldn't have thought of it, then obviously, everything about that interpretation was fake and hetero. What so you mean, that the world didn't revolve around her? Provide e v i d e n c e of that statement, mate, and it better be good.)

Anyway, wanna hear about more evidence of the Creator's, uh, questionable choice of a major? This whole transformation that was taking place in front of their eyes, for some doubtlessly stupid reason. (What was it supposed to mean, even? 'Hurrr durr, Vie is chained by her monstrous tendencies?' Something like that, the blonde wagered, since the Creator did not do subtlety. Oh no, no, no. Every reference of hers was a fucking sledgehammer, and with it, she beat you over your head till your concussed ass drowned in your own vomit! ....and, yeah, she did feel some type of way when Vie emerged from her prison, like a fucking butterfly out of its chrysalis. This was the woman who had killed her, after all-- the woman who had made Liora carry the weight of her fucking sins, with her decision that the pair deserved a restart. Which, how unbelievably selfish! Maybe Inna would have enjoyed rotting in the ground, free from all the bullshit worries their reality was plagued with, but nooo, Vie simply couldn't have asked. That would have involved the risk of receiving a different response than she would have liked, and she couldn't have that, now could she? ...except that, shit, Inna also couldn't be angry with her. Not in any meaningful manner, anyway. The woman looked positively wrecked, for one, and kicking corpses just wasn't her style, y'know? That, plus the blonde also couldn't ignore the fact that her schemings had worked out. Had it not been for Vie's efforts, she wouldn't have had Li now, and that... that was an idea too fucking terrifying to even contemplate, actually. (What had she been doing before her, huh? In hindsight, that period of her life had felt like an endless fucking coma, only punctuated by the occasional stabbing and a sense of existential dread. A nightmare from which it was impossible to awaken, really.)

"Well, I guess that here we fucking are," Inna muttered, still too shocked for a proper reaction. Like, what the hell did Vie even expect? Should she scream theatrically and attempt to strangle her, solely to avenge the life of a woman she'd never fucking met? (It wasn't that the blonde didn't think Ivy was valid, of course. Judging by the memories, she had appeared to be positively delightful and almost as awesome as Inna herself, but... well. She was done identifying as her, you see? Hanging onto the old grievances had never, never brought her anything but pain, and if nothing else, Inna Orlovskaya did learn from her fucking lessons.) "Yeah, we did," she nodded. "It was an impromptu affair, but I'm not fucking complaining. I guess it was bound to happen, in one way or another. It just kinda... clicked, for a lack of better words? Like, before Li, the concept of wanting to spend your life with one person sounded fucking ridiculous to me. Holywood-tier nonsense. Now, however? Not doing that strikes me as ridiculous, really. This is the person that's meant for me, so why be half-assed about it? A coward's choice, if you ask me," Inna pursed her lips.

"And," she continued, irrationally feeling kinda sorry for the murderer standing before her, "I'm not. Not with her, and with you... I guess it's water under the bridge, man. It's been too long. You can't be angry for centuries on end, can you? Or you can, I guess, but you can also choose to do more productive things with your energy-- like, I dunno, destroying The British Museum. Sounds like a way better use of my precious time! You should have seen the faces of those fucks when they only found a smoking ruin in there, honestly. Better than anything I've seen on the TV in the last ten years. But," Inna tilted her head aside, "I have to admit, I'm fucking dying of curiosity over here. Why did you do it? Kill Ivy, I mean? You just seemed so fucking enamored with her in those flashbacks, my dude. So, why?"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Well, Liora supposes she is satisfied knowing what happened to her past self; not because she thinks the chains of her torment fit the crime—not at all; if Liora and Vie are the same, neither will ever truly be satisfied with repentance alone—no, she just is satisfied knowing that Vie is still out there. That her soul didn’t go to the shredder. It gives her a sense of hope, she supposes, because maybe her and Ivy don’t have to be sad forever. She knows it’s cheesy and not realistic and only something people who have no sense of reality would come up with, but, well, she kind of wants it damnit! Provided that Vie has a good explanation for her past transgressions, of course. If the bitch is cold and heartless then fuck her; she can rot and become her grief or whatever corny punishment she chosen for herself. Obviously, this reveals Liora’s own hopefulness that her past self wasn’t totally evil and she kind hates herself for having expectations. Like, may as well get the cushions ready for the blow to come. Sigh. When will she ever learn.

She loops her arms around her wife’s waist, resting her chin on Inna’s shoulder while Vie sort of explains what the fuck is going on. It reminds her of when Ivy had taken over Inna, except that it’s Vie and listening to her talk is not that fucking entertaining. She’s just so fucking boring in comparison to Ivy. Like, she really does not understand how they ended up falling for each other—not that she totally understands how she ended up falling for Inna. That’s not a complaint either, to be clear. Huh, does love really just happen?

It’s difficult to discern, because Vie must have somehow had all of her facial muscles removed or something, but she does appear relieved when Inna confirms that she isn’t angry. (The way Inna is talking reminds her of Ivy, too, and what she had said about her own anger. She is glad her wife doesn’t have that same fire anymore, not even for the obvious reasons, but because of how much pain it caused her. In hindsight, she sees that now and she doesn’t ever want Inna to hurt like that again.) Though when Inna asks the big question? The one on everyone’s mind? (Fuck, it feels like the goddamn Creator is watching this scene unfold.) Vie stills. Then blinks. Then nods, crossing one leg over the other with her hands clasped over her knee.

“I assume you are both curious. The short version is that I was manipulated—I assume by Eysjalanatshael or some other villain we were facing,” she sighs and gestures for the women to sit down, suggesting the length of the full story. “Back when I was alive, I had the ability to look into the future and, as I am sure that you know, the future is fickle and never set. My vision allowed me to see all possible futures. Usually, the more likely an outcome the clearer my vision. That made it rather reliable.

As we got closer to completing our task, our foes started to get stronger, more formidable as they realized their eventual demise. My visions, as a result, became numerous—so many of them I could see in staggering clarity. So many ways for us to win or lose. I was overwhelmed, admittedly. We both were and, for the first time since I gained my foresight, I did not know what to do. I felt lost and confused and I was so tired, yet sleep rarely came.

At some point, I had a vision of Ivy betraying me. Clear as crystal. I could not believe it and so shocked, I was, that I could not bring myself to confront it or her. But the vision kept returning, over and over, and soon it was the only thing I saw. An inevitability. Not only was she going to betray me, she was going to steal my powers and... I tried to reason with myself, really I did. I mean, Ivy betraying me? To steal my powers? Heavens, saying it aloud I can hear how ridiculous it is still! But I was so convinced. My visions had never been wrong before. So I formed a plan to prevent this, the only one my foresight said would truly stop her... I think you both know what happened next. The moment it was too late to save her? I realized my error,” she laughs mirthlessly.

“I should have known not to trust such a vision, because the thing about Ivy? She never showed up clearly in my foresight. Her heart is too wild, free, and unpredictable to have a set future. It is what first endeared me to her. Anyway, that is... That is why she died by my hand.”

 

[Syntra]

Finally, fucking finally, the mystery was going to be unraveled! Inna hadn’t really thought about this in-depth before, mostly because thinking was an activity that she rarely found the time for in her busy, busy schedule, but looking at the issue now… well, it really was fucking weird, wasn’t it? Like, Ivy had been Vie’s emotional support dumbass! And unless the culture surrounding relationships had been drastically different in the past, it wasn’t exactly normal to kill a person like that-- in fact, people generally did whatever they could to keep them alive, healthy, and safe from harm. Because, newsflash, bitch! It was kinda hard to derive emotional support from a goddamn corpse. (Immediately, countless theories emerged in her mind. Had Ivy, like, killed their puppy? Inna had no way of knowing whether they even had had a puppy, of course, but she assumed that her other self would have wanted one as well, and judging by her track record... uh, let’s just say that she would not have received the Best Pet Owner award for that stunt with the fish. Puppies were notoriously fucking fragile, too, so could you imagine what would have happened had she stuck it in a washing machine? The blonde certainly could, and yeah, she wouldn’t really fault Vie if she had shanked Ivy in response to that. Another option, Inna guessed, could be, um, Ivy eating Vie’s breakfast? Again, being a bit cranky in the morning was valid, and maybe she’d underestimated her strength. ‘Just gonna shove her around for a bit so that she remembers not to do it next time, haha, whoopsie!’ Except that this was Vie, so more than likely, it had been something like: ‘Oh, woe is me, I must punish her for depriving me of my precious sustenance.’)

So, yeah. Not wanting to fall into the trap of villainizing Vie again, Inna decided to just fucking listen-- it had served her well with Liora, you see, and presumably, the tactic wouldn’t fail her here, either. It’s not like it fucking matters anymore. Even if she did it because Ivy looked at her funny, it’s in the past. Past, as in not fucking present. No point in fucking dwelling on it, is there? Right, Inna only wanted some goddamn closure here! Her entire identity wouldn’t change if she found it that Vie had done it because, say, she’d needed to water her flowers, and Ivy’s blood had somehow been the only liquid available at that time. Nothing, n o t h i n g that had happened among them reflected on her relationship with Li! …but, of course, it wasn’t like that. Nope, mate. Arguably, the reason was even stupider, actually. “Ivy?” Inna raised her eyebrow. “That Ivy, betraying you? Are we speaking about the same woman who fucking broke down crying because she accidentally killed a fish?” Preposterous! Preposterous and idiotic, and as a Certified DumbassTM, Inna knew what she was talking about here. (It wasn’t that she didn’t understand, mind you. Your powers fucked with your perceptions of things, she had learned, and it was oh so easy to become way too reliant on them-- like, Inna actively had to stop herself from fucking burning every obstacle that had the gall to stand in her way while visiting the Human World. Was it so absurd, then, that Vie had believed what she’d seen? Especially since before, those visions had apparently always been fucking correct! …what a way to fuck with you, too. E-keysmash had employed a different strategy the last time she’d tried to turn them into bitter enemies, but had she done something like that… would they have called the bluff, or would they have fallen for it? In the initial stages of their relationship, understanding what was really going on might have been, uh, complicated.)

“Man,” the blonde sighed, “that fucking sucks. I can’t even imagine.” The prospect of killing Li due to some fucking misunderstanding? Inna had come close to it, several times, actually, and even if it had turned out differently… well, let’s just say that it had been her favorite nightmare for a while now. ‘Favorite’ as in ‘frequent,’ of course! (When the blonde closed her eyes before going to bed, she could see Liora standing in front of that ugly-ass altar-- her eyes were so, so dead, and E-keysmash was cheering in the background. Even if she fucking knew it was a dream, most of the time at least, her body still insisted on showing her the footage, you see? Maybe to discourage her from acting like a fucking clown in the future.) “Have you, I dunno, tried to talk to her?” That whole communication shtick was working out for her, so the blonde saw no reason not to recommend it to Vie, too. “I mean, Li said she was still around, sooo I don’t fucking get why you haven’t explained this to her yet.”

“Yeah,” Ivy materialized next to Inna, surrounded by this faint glow. “Inna is right, as always. Can you imagine how humiliating it is, having to learn all of that via spying on you?” The woman pursed her lips, much like the petulant child she probably was. “Why didn’t you even try to contact me, Vie? I mean, I was angry, but I was also waiting for you. Every day, I was like: ‘well, I guess she needs to feed her gerbils and that’s why she can’t come’ or ‘man, I bet heavenly tax collectors must be bothering her today.’ And to find out you’ve been avoiding me?” Ivy placed her hand on her heart, as if the mere idea hurt her grievously. “Do you just… not like me anymore, Vie? Could that be it? Have you made new friends who are cooler than me, maybe?”

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

For so long, the vague thought that Liora might one day betray Inna has plagued her mind since confirming that she, once, murdered her best friend in cold blood. With no explanation or reason for her to lean on, she's never known what caused Vie to snap. She has never known what might cause her to snap. Obviously, she doesn't think she's going to murder her wife. She's pretty sure that, by this point, they have established some pretty solid open communication skills. (Okay, admittedly, communication doesn't always work––case in point, Inna still leaves her crap everywhere no matter how many times Liora has told her to at least aim for the hamper; but, at least, with communication Liora now understands that her wife will never value cleanliness the way she does and that led to the ingenious compromise of making one of their subordinates clean up all of Inna's messes. God, being a queen really is fucking fantastic.) There is still that lingering worry in the back of her mind that she can't trust herself. So as much as Liora has wanted this explanation for Inna and Ivy, to settle their shared soul and give them the closure they so deserve, she wants it for herself as well.

When Vie offers her explanation? She has to take a few steps back and sit down. It's not that Liora's head suddenly fills with worries that she's going to see a vision of Inna doing something worthy of instant murder, because (1) she doesn't really get visions and (2) she's since learned to not trust anything that people tell her or show her unless it's coming from her wife directly. Still, knowing what actually happened in the context of everything that had been going on back when the world had been first scheduled to end? Well, she doesn't exactly know how to feel about the situation. There's a sense of tragedy mixed with anger and disbelief––shame, too, ripples through her and she wonders if it's from herself or Vie. If there is one thing that she probably shares in common with her past self, it's probably the unwillingness to forgive and it goes double when it concerns forgiving yourself. She can't imagine that the other woman has healed nearly as much as Ivy, who seemed relatively at peace with what had happened between them.

"She is still out there," Liora confirms, also wondering why her past self hadn't done something to confront Ivy. It doesn't really sound like her to give up––even on something as fruitless as soothing your angry best friend. After all, Liora never gave up Inna when she had gone demonic. She still held out hope that they could reconcile and worked so fucking hard to prove that she was fucking sorry and wouldn't ever hurt her the way she had in their past. So Vie just idling in this cottage and being passive? Doesn't really sound like her.

Then, when the woman in question materializes out of thin air? Liora and Vie's eyes both widen in unison and it becomes clear as day how these two women have been made from the same soul as they look nearly identical. Vie's mouth opens and closes several times, though no noise actually comes out. One hand goes to cover her heart and the other covers her mouth. So much confusion passes over her features––and not even Vie's version of a facial expression. So caught off guard, she actually emotes appropriately. "Ivy," she finally utters, saying her name like a prayer or a promise. The woman, former monster, rises and it's obvious that she wants to get closer to her counterpart, but she doesn't make any such moves to close the distance. "Ivy," she repeats, "I––I am..."

"I am so sorry. So, so sorry––I-I," she stutters, tears glistening in her eyes––which, Liora knows must be an even rarer sight than whenever she has cried, because everything about Vie's typical posturing melts under her stream of tears. Liora also notices the shadow at Vie's ankles growing abnormally large and starting to tower over the woman, but Vie shoos it away as she wipes the tears from her eyes and seems to collect herself. "If I could have come for you, I would have," she explains, finally taking a half step closer to the woman she has not seen in centuries. "If I could have sent a message, I would have sent a thousand, but... but when I died, with how I died and with all I had done during my life," including stealing several people's powers, magicking a family into thinking she was theirs so that she could inherit their wealth (and powers), countless murders, etc., "there was only one place for a soul like mine to go. To even have half a chance at seeing you again, I had to bind my soul to a location and become a spirit. I chose here with the hope that someday, you would come. That you would remember where I said I would be if we were ever to part.

"Never did I intend for you to feel forgotten or abandoned, Ivy. I tried to send messages, in all the ways I knew how, but with what I had to do to preserve some part of myself... they only ever came back to me. All I could do was hope and wait here, but I never forgot about you. Everyday I thought of you. I built this home thinking of you. I even remembered to include the upside down stairs so that you might be able to practice defying gravity and passageways to your favorite dimensions. I just did not know how to get you here," her voice trails off and she pulls her eyes away from the other ghost, looking out the window. "Ivy... I am so sorry for what I did to you. For doubting you, most of all, when you were the only sure thing I ever had in my life."

 

[Syntra]

Woo-hoo, a reunion party! Just her, her hot wife, and the ghosts of their past lives. Still better than the ghosts of their current regrets, Inna supposed-- not that those weren’t numerous, mind you, but so far, she’d been successful at shoving them into the metaphorical fucking locker and pretending that they weren’t even a thing, actually. Who would have thought being a high school bully would give you so much precious experience for real life? Internships her fucking ass! Throwing stones at the pigeons instead of attending her mathematics classes had been the best decision she had ever taken, end of. (Well, aside from marrying Li, obviously, but that hadn’t been her decision per se. E-keysmash had forced their hand, and while that may not have been the most romantic shit ever, it also felt… uh, weirdly satisfying? That her efforts to drive a wedge between them had only brought them closer, ultimately. Because, haha, surprise, bitch! Inna Awesome Orlovskaya always won at life, and what had transpired between them that day had been yet another symptom of that wonderful, wonderful tendency. Like, the villains shouldn’t even fucking try. What for, huh? At this point, she was reasonably sure that shooting at her would just result in the bullet bouncing off some wall and burrowing in the assaulter’s microscopic fucking brain!) Anyway, all things considered, this was really awkward. Like, awkward awkward. Running into two exes duking it out was always bad enough, but considering that one had murdered the other? W h e w, next level uncomfy, indeed. (Couldn’t they, like, invent some excuse? Maybe something about her beloved granny dying, and them needing to attend the funeral ASAP. Death waited for nobody, after all, and seeing your relative get swallowed by the ground was important because, uh, reasons. Totally fucking valid reasons, as long as they provided a convenient justification for Inna hightailing it out of there!)

Except that then, you know, Vie unironically started explaining shit, and leaving then would have been even more embarrassing. ‘Oh ho, don’t mind me! Just excusing myself as you are pouring your precious little heart out. Sorry about the creaking door, btw. Want me to, like, get you something from the McDonald’s while I’m gone? The discounted chicken nuggets might have pieces of human corpses in them, but on the bright side, those usually aren’t stuffed with antibiotics.’ Just, no. Nope, nope, nope! Inna’s relationship with tact may have been more than just a little rocky, sure, but even she knew not to pull this shit. So, in order to stop herself from exploding? Her hand found Liora’s, and clutched it for greater security.

Meanwhile, Ivy just stared at Vie. It was hard to tell what she was thinking, really, because her eyes were vacant-- not in her usual ‘the lights are out, nobody’s home’ sense, but in a way that seemed far, far more sinister. (A thousand miles look? Yup, that would be an accurate way to describe it, since it really felt as if she was looking at something that nobody but her could see.) “I waited for you, Vie,” she folded her arms on her chest, her tone accusatory. (Coming from her, it felt… off, somehow? Like a month old puppy growling, and trying to scare you out of your fucking mind. Needless to say, the effect wasn’t exactly impressive.) “Do you know how long I waited? One year, and then another,” she began counting with her fingers, “and another and another, and, and, and!!! I don’t even have enough fingers to cover the whole period, Vie. I’m pretty sure they haven’t even invented a word to cover that distance in time.”

“Uh,” Inna’s eyebrow shot up, “a millennium, maybe? Like, I understand your anger, mate, but that word does exist.”

“In my heart, it does not,” Ivy informed her, as if that somehow solved everything. (It probably did, in the bright, colorful Ivy-land that she was inhabiting. The real world was simply no fun, man!) “Anyway, I did spend an eternity waiting. It wasn’t fun. Actually, I can’t imagine anything that would be less fun than that. Slowly eating your own hand, maybe? But then you’d have the pain to distract you, at least, and I had nothing. Nothing but… nothing but the certainty that you didn’t like me anymore. I mean, people called me stupid,” and idiotic, and a dumbass, and all those other fancy words Ivy hadn’t bothered to remember, “but that isn’t a stupid conclusion to jump to, is it? You did kill me, Vie. After everything, you have…” The woman inhaled deeply, as if not flinging every single insult she knew at the other woman required all of her willpower.

“I thought I wasn’t angry anymore, Vie, but I guess I am. You don’t really stop being angry about these things. You’re sorry? Sorry? Well, I am sorry that you’ve never believed in us enough, or that you didn’t at least send me a message, or… damn, I could give you a whole list of the things I am sorry for, and it would be longer than my entire life. And, no, I don’t care that those don’t use the same units, Vie! In my mind, they do,” Ivy pursed her lips, petulant. Tears were glistening in her eyes, too-- tears that were both angry and desperate, both born of sorrow and absolute fury. “I don’t know,” she whispered, when the rollercoaster of emotions she’d been riding finally slowed down a little. “I want to forgive you, I suppose. I know there’s no point in nursing that hurt, but that doesn’t allow me to just shed it, you see? I’m not a snake, and this is not my old skin. It’s the only skin I have. I… I think you’re going to have to help me a little, Vie. Help me see the woman I fell in love with. Will you?” Ivy finally met her gaze, eager for whatever response she was going to receive.

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Cottages are supposed to be cute and relaxing. They are supposed to be things that any sad little worm can project all their pathetic fantasies about a simpler time, a life before capitalism (according to Sol). So they are not supposed to be full of tension so thick Liora isn’t sure there is anymore oxygen in the fucking place—maybe not a problem for their dead selves, but last she checked, her and Inna need to fucking breathe. It’s actually not until Inna reaches for her hand that she realizes she had actually been holding her breath and that there is still oxygen in the cottage. Still, that doesn’t get rid of the fucking questionable energy.

(Honestly, Liora does not envy Vie’s position right now. Sure, Ivy isn’t exactly a terrifying person when it comes to wrath, as she reads like a petulant toddler, but to even see her like this? Liora may have only spent a few hours getting to know the woman and even then she could tell that Ms. Happy Go Lucky doesn’t really do anger. Not like her Inna can and somehow that's even worse––like where Inna can sort of handle herself, hurting Ivy is like kicking a puppy and the guilt that Vie must be feeling? Again, she doesn’t envy Vie and she even wonders how the woman is even processing any of this because... well, it seems to her that both women have been waiting for this moment and this has been a long time coming.)

Vie, to her credit, does not cower under the scrutiny of Ivy’s gaze and that probably has something to do with a combination of shock, knowing who Ivy is as a person, and the belief she deserves all that is to come. She remains still where she stands and does not look away from her former companion, even though each scathing word is something she’ll think about later. (Scathing, obviously, being a relative term, but for Vie, who has never done anything to earn a first hand glimpse of her friend’s fury, it is another slow death to live through.) “I know, Ivy, and, and,” she stutters, her brow furrowing together as all the memorized speeches she had for this moment disappear from her memory. If she weren’t a ghost, she would have chewed a hole through her lip or dug her nails into her palms—anything to distract from the flood that is washing over her. Instead she is left in a heap of knots with so much to say and no way to say it all. “I know sorry can never be enough for what I did to you. For all you have suffered since because of me. I hardly feel right asking your forgiveness and quite honestly, I will not. I acted most dishonorably and I do not expect or anticipate grace.

“But, Ivy, I never forgot or stopped thinking of you and, as I said before, I tried to communicate with you. I cannot tell you all the different methods I employed—I even learned what an electronic mail is in one of my attempts at contact,” she stops herself abruptly, pursing her lips together before she motions for Ivy (and the demon queens) to follow her. She takes them into another room, this one made of glass, lit up by the sun, and full of hanging plants. From the corner of the room, she pulls out a trunk and opens it, revealing an entire chest full of letters and scrolls—some of them in envelopes, others in bottles, and all of them addressed to Ivy. “I have not a clue what half of these say anymore, but I wanted to keep them so you could one day read everything I have ever wanted to say to you. I did always have hope that someday you would find me here. So, you see, I did try and try and try.”

“I will spend the rest of my undead life proving to you that I still love you and all I have for you is love That am still that woman you fell in love with. Be angry with me all you want––it is not even the worst thing you could feel towards me, because at least it is not indifference," she says, taking a couple of the letters and placing them into Ivy's hand. She then motions for the women to follow her once more through the cottage.

"This cottage was in a better state before you arrived and I wish I could show you the garden I grew, but, alas, that I cannot repair with magic. However, I have a few flowers that I saved over the centuries. Ones that reminded me specifically of you..." she then pulls down a ladder from the ceiling, climbs it to open an ill-placed ceiling window, and crawls through the opening. The room she is in now is covered in ivy, from floor to ceiling, and floating in the air there are flowers encased in bubbles. Most of them are sunflowers, but there are also roses, carnations, peonies, and so on. Vie reaches for one and holds the bubble in her palm. "This is the first one I preserved. I remember I cried when I saw it, for I thought that you were smiling at me from some other place. Here is another," she reaches for one that looks like it's been trampled over, "that I thought you would want to rehabilitate one day. And," she grabs a rose, covered in frost, "this one bloomed in the winter. Have not a clue why or how, but it felt so special that I saved it so that I could show you."

"If you... if you wish, I know it may be much too soon for us to be as we were, but if you like to see if we can still try, I will need help replanting the garden," she finishes, asking a question without really asking it––even Vie is scared of Ivy's rejection. It probably terrifies her most of all.

 

[Syntra]

Aw, shit, shit, shit. Why the fuck hadn't she gotten out of there when they'd still had a proper chance? Inna was not going to play the fucking counselor here-- her track record for shit like ~supporting people~ wasn't great, for one, and she also had no idea how to talk a ghost out of committing suicide. Like, that was a real risk here, you know? Vie just fucking killing herself when Ivy inevitably sent her where the sun didn't shine! (Could you even commit suicide when you were already dead? Logic dictated that, no, this shouldn't be possible, but that only convinced Inna of it being an actual fucking thing. Like, since when had their lives been governed by logic, huh? Everything, e v e r y t h i n g that had happened in the past few months had spat in that concept's face! ...stupid Creator and her stupid, dumbass rules. Why even make them if you weren't going to be consistent with who had to follow them? Solely as some weird fucking powertrip? 'Hurrr durrr, look at me, I am a goddess uncreative enough to call myself the Creator, and I made you. Somehow, the fact that you can't do shit reflects poorly on you, and not me!' Fucking seriously, though. The bitch was like a five-year-old who owned not only a boardgame that everyone wanted to play, but also a tremendous fucking fear of losing-- that was why she """modified""" the rules so that literally nobody but her could win. Which, clap, clap! Even in the goddamn kindergarten, that behavior would have earned you a slap behind the ears.)

"Wanna get out of here?" Inna whispered to her wife, tightening the grip on her hand. "I can, like, pretend to collapse, and you'll have to carry me to the fucking hospital. It'll be the perfect crime, man. Or, or, or! I could call Vie anonymously and tell her that some fucking bomb has been planted in this cottage. That will give all of us the opportunity to hightail it out of there, and... fuck," Inna scrunched her forehead. "You think ghosts have cellphones? I would get one if I were her, mostly because hauntings could be that much more convenient if you didn't have to haul your ass everywhere, but you know how old people are with technology." 'Cause, yup, it was strange to think about, but Vie was a granny-tier being-- not in appearance, maybe, but she was fucking older than most existing buildings. Like, maybe even some continents were younger than her? Considering that it had taken some time for them to separate themselves from the supercontinent it had been initially, that was.

Meanwhile, The Disaster Duo 1.0 continued to ignore their presence. (Good for them! Honestly, had everyone's willful ignorance skill been this developed, the world could have avoided a bunch of nasty fucking wars.) With her lips pursed tightly, she listened to what Vie had to say-- her gaze practically hung on her former partner's mouth, Inna noticed. (What was she hoping to hear, hmm? Something that would place all of this into a new fucking perspective, and make Vie's actions less horrendous? A message from the goddess herself? 'Cause she was not going to get that, sadly. That wasn't how the world fucking worked. Forgiveness was a precious resource, god fucking dammit, and in order to get it, you had to search within yourself! ...or something. Look, Inna wasn't an expert.)

When Vie presented her with the collection of letters, though? Ivy's eyes widened, and in that moment, she resembled her sunshine self. "You... you kept these? You really did try to reach me," she whispered, her tone some combination of astonishment and disbelief. "I can't... wow. You'll have to read those aloud to me, Vie. Doing that much reading can't be good for your brain. Like, remember that one time when I almost set our hidden base on fire? That only happened because I tried to read The Iliad. The worst decision of my short life, I have to say." Ah. Uh. Fucking what? If nothing else, Inna supposed, Vie could at least be glad that 'the worst decision of her life' hadn't been, like, falling for her future murderer. Then again, Ivy appeared to suffer from a serious case of Interesting PrioritiesTM, so was that even worth anything? The girl seemed to change her opinions quicker than politicians did during their election campaigns, too, so who fucking knew.

Vie, however, wasn't quite done with her friend yet. "Oooh, a rose!" Ivy squealed, before grabbing the frost-covered rose. "It looks edible. Like, the frosting may as well be sugar, and have you seen one of those marzipan thingies? They can look very, very realistic. Once, I thought I was returning home, but then it actually turned out it was just the Creator, capturing me in a maze made of marzipan. Honestly, she's such a bully," Ivy sighed. "Apparently, my reactions are 'funny' and I should 'form a better relationship with reality.' Why, though? It has never done anything of note for me!" Inna's former self looked as if she was just a second away from stomping her foot, and, honestly? Good. If Ivy's best life included her acting like a toddler, then by all means, she should go the fuck ahead!

"But, Vie, the thing about not asking my forgiveness... that's not what I wish," she began, suddenly all serious. "No, you should ask it. Every day, as long as it takes. That's how I'll be able to believe that you really want it! We work for the things we want, don't we? I think it was you who taught me that lesson, long ago. And, restoring the garden..." her cheeks gained this suspicious pink hue, "that might be a fun first project, yes. I imagine it could get us to talk. You do want to talk, don't you? I, um, have a lot of things to say. I'd like to see what kind of person you became, too."

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

"Shh, shh," Liora whispers back to her wife's suggestions, not even willing to entertain her escape plan. Ordinarily, Inna would be correct in that they should immediately leave any location that they have been teleported to; as it is, these are not ordinary bullshit circumstances. This time, Liora is actually curious about how this is going to pan out and so she wants to stay. In fact, she has to stay. Otherwise she will spend the entire night wondering what happened with Vie and Ivy and if they were able to reconcile how their lives had ended. For Inna's own wellbeing, she should just stay with her wife otherwise she will be kept up all night as Liora comes up with random hypotheses over what happened (which would also probably not be good for Liora given that she married the queen of outlandish hypotheses (and demons)).

Sure, earlier, she also had wanted to leave and had strongly considered doing so––like she had been three seconds away from going blip. Then she found out what the monster was and her entire perception of the situation changed from annoyance to intrigue. And, also, admittedly, there are still a million and one things that Liora wants to ask Vie––like her favorite ways to use her powers, how she became so powerful, if it ever got to her head, her life goals, if she ever had issues with Ivy falling off the bed, etc. (Only the most important of inquires, naturally.) "I, um, kind of want to know how this ends," she finally explains, giving Inna a reassuring hand squeeze. "Look, if they start to, like, throw spells or whatever and try to kill each other, then I'll take us to some nice private spot where fuckers can't interrupt us. Maybe you can model that new bikini for me." (Now, that's a distracting thought. Why did she even bring that up?)

Liora's age appropriate thoughts aside, whatever passes through Vie's mind remains a secret to only herself and, most likely, Ivy. For how austere she appears right now, one has to wonder if she has an ounce of warmth for her former companion. Though a careful observer may notice the twinkle in her eye when she recognizes that look of sunshine light up Ivy's features––like seeing her again for the first time, except this time, unlike their actual first meeting, she doesn't feel annoyance. The woman's hand rises to her chest, clearly warmed or moved that perhaps there is hope for them even though Vie had all but given up on the prospect of ever knowing Ivy as she had. (One can't really blame her either––she waited alone for centuries for Ivy to return. Though, to her credit, it wasn't until recently that the grief became so unbearable that it started to have certain, hm, negative repercussions.)

"Ah, yes, I do remember that," she says, that twinkle in her eye growing into a sparkle, "I had tried to warn you that you would not be able to will yourself into understanding Ancient Greek, but you were so convinced it would start making sense if you concentrated hard enough. I have always admired your tenacity," she sighs, looking far away as if she wants to pull the past right to this present moment; to live in the timeline where she never would have needed to reincarnate their souls. "I shall read the letters to you. Ah, perhaps you might come over for morning tea before we start on the garden? I can read one to you then each morning," she suggests, her voice quiet and timid which really doesn't fit the woman who used to be known as Miss Zombie Apocalypse.

As she is looking up towards the other bubbled flowers in the room, maybe avoiding her former friend's gaze or trying to hide her freshly teary eyes, she sniffles and nods. Then she excuses herself by way of lifting a finger and turning around, wiping the tears from her eyes. (Centuries of crying alone have made it awkward for her to cry in front of others and, to be honest, she does feel weird about crying in front of Ivy now. Is Ivy even her confidant like that anymore? She doesn't know.) "You wish to forgive me?" she finally chokes out when she turns back around, her eyes even tearier than before and it's likely she just gave up on trying to suppress them. "I do want that. More than anything else in the world, aside from... Well, aside from having you back in my life or un-life," she says, the tiniest of smiles appearing on her lips because maybe she is hoping that Ivy will like calling it their un-life. "I will ask until you are tired of hearing that question and I will work hard to earn such a gift, because, yes, we work hard for what we want," she nods rapidly, covering her nose as the tears just won't stop. "I desperately would love to talk again, you do not know how much that would mean to me... I hope that you do see how I have changed from that paranoid woman into a free spirit like you." To illustrate her (questionable) statement, she lifts her skirt to reveal that she is wearing mismatched socks. (Honestly, Liora wishes that she didn't know what Vie thinks is free spirited.) "You were right. It is much more fun this way. A daily surprise, truly––"

"Ahem," Liora coughs, deciding she's seen enough to be reassured that these two are going to be just fine. "So, like, if you don't need us anymore... We're going to, uh, continue our fucking honeymoon? Not to, like, brag or anything..." Fuck.

"Oh my, I forgot that you two were here," Vie admits, startled. "Yes, do be off and visit when you can. Oh, and whenever convenient for you, I can go over how to change your demonic marriage so that it is an equal union. As in, there is a way for Liora to gain a heart again."

 

[Syntra]

“It hasn’t worked yet,” Ivy corrected, pure determination shining in her eyes. “That can only mean that my focus isn’t strong enough. And, Vie, what is the most important lesson we have learned from anime? That the louder you scream, the bigger your inefficient of power!”

“Did you mean coefficient?” Inna asked, her eyebrow perpetually stuck in the upward position at this point. (Just, what? Had Ivy always been like this, or had death straight up murdered most of her brain cells? In her heart, she knew the former to be true, but accepting that, with everything it entailed, was fucking hard. Like, imagine finding out that you were related to a goddamn hen. Yes, a literal hen, with her bok bok bok sounds and daily eggs and shit! Surely, you’d have questions, right? A lot of them would relate to genetics and what else high school teachers had been lying about, probably, but for the sake of the argument, let’s disregard those. Instead, you’d wish to know whether you’d start manifesting any hen-like characteristics-- whether you’d sprout wings, suffer from intense grass-related cravings and, uh… deal with the sudden desire to eat your peers alive? Look, Inna didn’t actually know shit about the pathetic birds, so google some hen-related trivia and fuck off. What she really worried about, as you could guess from the metaphor, was the chance of her picking up Ivy-esque traits! …oh, Jesus fucking Christ. Would this be her Demonic Phase 2: Electrical Boogaloo, where Liora had to teach her about the deepest secrets of toilet paper (spoiler: they weren’t so deep) and how to avoid death by bleach? Nooo, that couldn’t be! Inna Badass Orlovskaya could withstand a lot of humiliation, mainly because she had her inherent fucking awesomeness to sort balance things out, but the idea of returning to that mindset… Nope, nope, nope!)

“Anyway,” Ivy continued, blissfully unaware of the drama taking place inside of her other self’s head, “I doubt that Ancient Greek will be able to resist my charm. I’m an acquired taste, as you once said, but it’s hard not to actually acquire me! In that, I’m like a bubblegum-- before you know it, I am stuck to your shoe. You do know what bubblegum is, don’t you?” she looked up to Vie with her big, wide eyes. “I have to say, we really missed out by being born in an era that boring. The Creator shows me some of the things humans invented a hundred or so years ago from time to time, and let me tell you, they are amazing. Did you know that they have a type of candy where you have to lick, like, really lick, and when you get to the center, there’s this chewy goodness? That’s bubblegum, man. It’s a food that also isn’t really food, since you aren’t supposed to actually eat it. Nope, you just… keep it in your mouth and enjoy the flavor? I don’t know how the mechanism works, but it’s basically a portable, mouth-sized storage room of tastiness. But!” she raised her finger, apparently wanting to stress that whatever came next was ImportantTM. “I also heard that it can kill you. If you swallow it, Vie, it can shut your stomach down, and then you die of… the closed stomach syndrome? Yeah, that was it,” the woman nodded, all solemn. “So please, Vie, when we go out together,” when, not if, “promise me to be wary of bubblegum. The modern world is a dangerous, dangerous thing. Speaking of which,” she continued seamlessly, “yes, I agree! One letter per day. The one good thing about being dead, I guess, is that we don’t really grow older, so I don’t even mind if we spend an eternity doing that! Actually… that might be kind of nice,” Ivy blushed. “Spending more time with your thoughts, I mean. I’ve always found them interesting, in that monochrome-y way. Is monochrome-y a word? But, ah, Vie!” she squealed in delight, and placed her hand on her heart. “I didn’t actually expect that you’d ever progress to choosing your socks blindly. Truly, now I see that I must have left a great mark on your soul.”

…what? Did the two actually live in a dimension where basic-ass shit like that was seen as not desperate, but romantic? Wow, wow, wow! Clearly, between her and Ivy, she had been the one who had inherited the not-entirely-batshit genes.

“Do you think you could wear a random T-shirt for me tomorrow?” Ivy asked, wearing the expression of a schoolgirl who had just been promised more candy. “Like, just reach for it blindly and put it on. It’ll do wonders for your skin, I’m sure, because surprises = cute blushes. It is known. I have read it in an, um, scientific journal, and--”

Yeah, Liora was right. They sure as hell needed to get out of there if they hoped to preserve the pathetic remainders of sanity they’d somehow managed to hold onto! (Not that Inna valued it too much, mind you. “””Lucidity” was an overrated concept, dreamt up by fuckers too boring to daydream properly-- like, who the fuck cared that you saw the world as it was, man? Newsflash: everyone with a working pair of eyes did. Unless you suffered from some super rare medical condition, your brain showed you exactly what was fucking there! Those who saw beyond that were the true badasses, Inna thought.) “Wait, wait, wait. What? You just drop a fucking bomb like that this casually? Of course that it would be nice if Li had a heart of her own. Like, I’d carry it for her gladly, but I’m not that careful with it, you know? I like greasy stuff-- French fries are my fucking religion, basically. What if I get a heart attack? I am prepared to deal with it, but Li shouldn’t have to atone for my crimes.”

“A great mindset to have, Inna!” Ivy gave her a thumbs-up. “I see that I get better and better with every reincarnation cycle. I’m almost tempted to kill us all to see my next version, to be frank! No, no, just kidding. If both of you want that, however, then I guess there’s no point in waiting. Good luck, girls!” And, before Inna could say ‘what the fuck, man’? The all too familiar sense of being dragged through the fucking time-space continuum seized her once again, and when it relented… well, the disaster duo found themselves standing atop of an active fucking volcano. Awesome. No, really, why the hell not! The ground around them was shaking, the skies had been painted red, and somewhere in the background, countless voices were crying out for help-- the perfect venue for a wedding, in other words. “A wonderful choice of scenery,” Inna smirked. “What now, though?”

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA TRIHN ☉
​

Aww, Inna cares so much about her responsibility as Liora's heart container. Like, she doesn't actually think that her wife needs to be so concerned about a potential heart attack in the making, mostly because she assumes that having survived her actual chest being ripped open, their demonic side probably takes care of all coronary related afflictions. Besides, she acts as if Liora had been any better at taking care of that overworked muscle when she had it––like, the woman lived off of coffee and Soylent up until... well, up until Inna moved in with her, actually, and started cooking/baking for her. Still, she is touched nonetheless even if she never doubted Inna's own fitness to take care of the muscle.

Then when Ivy sort of threatens to kill them, Liora has to raise a brow and cross her arms over her chest––like, what the fuck? That joke isn't even remotely funny to her and she will fight with Ivy's ghost if she so much as lifts her finger in a dangerous way. She may like Inna's past persona, but she does draw the line at murder. As, um, most people tend to do. However, what the woman is not prepared for? She is not prepared to get melted into yet another setting. And where she doesn't mind volcanic islands, she sure as fuck doesn't want to be teleported to the top of an active fucking volcano. She can feel the heat wafting up from the ground, just looking at the magma hurts her eyes, and she's pretty sure volcanic gas and ash is supposed to be toxic as fuck to inhale... but they are demons, she guess. (Demon queens, in fact.) Even if this setting isn't necessarily toxic to them, she would have much preferred her wedding to take place in like Hawaii or Fiji, but, like far away from the volcanoes and they can just admire their beauty from afar. This shit, however, is fucking awful. Not how she would want to get married for a second time, but if this is where Ivy decided was the best location for their second demonic ceremony, she supposes she will just go along with it.

"Yeah, honestly, what the fuck do they think? That we have access to their apparent wealth of demon knowledge? Ugh," she complains, looking around for maybe a crumb of a hint that could be lurking in the corner. Idly, she laces her fingers together with Inna's and starts to walk around the perimeter. "Jesus fucking Christ, if those souls don't stop fucking screaming I will give them something to cry about."

"Oh, Liora... I suppose I should not be surprised you are so untrusting you would think even your own self and former friend would abandon you and leave you to figure out the ceremony for yourselves," Vie's voice echoes around them, "To equalize your demonic marriage, you must marry again, and this time with Inna as the sacrifice."

"Woah, woah––sacrifice?"

"Just as you were to be sacrificed to Eysjalanatshael," Vie continues, ignoring Liora, "Inna will be sacrificed to you. In order to start the process, she must drink a chalice full of your essence," Liora does have a gripping memory of E-keysmash forcing her to drink some disgusting bile before the ceremony and learning that it was probably her essence? That checks the fuck out. "Afterwards, you will draw a seal over her heart, then one over yours. Once she has been prepared, you will––"

"If you say nail her down to an altar and rip her fucking chest open, you're out of your goddamn mind––"

"Shut up, Liora, and listen," Vie snaps back, knowing just how to handle her own self's attitude, "As a willing participant, Inna will not need to be restrained and her heart can be accessed if you concentrate your demonic transformation to your hand. Demon claws have the ability to pass through barriers without slashing or cutting. You will simply need to reach into her chest and grab her heart. Remove it, eat it, and then bathe in the lava to cleanse yourselves. Easy as, what is the phrase... Easy as pie, I believe is what you say."

Okay. Okay. What the fuck. Why do demons have to be so fucked up about marriage––maybe Liora has not studied her own culture enough to appreciate these nuances, but this just seems really. Really. fucked up. She doesn't want to murder Inna! Like, isn't there a chance she might fuck up and murder her for real? What if, while holding her heart, Inna's body falls into the volcano and burns up before she can be revived? What then, huh? She cannot be the reason that Inna dies. In fact, she fucking refuses to be!

She moves to stand in front of Inna, with her arms looped around her neck, and worry clearly written all over her expression. "Uh, you know... we don't have to do this. I am totally fine with just having one demonic marriage and not having a heart. Like, apparently I don't need one so, like... you know. Just tell me where you want to go next and I'll take us right there and we can forget about this shit."

 

[Syntra]

"Yeah," Inna agreed, rolling her eyes. "Have they learned fucking nothing? One would have thought they'd learn not to count on us knowing, like, pretty much anything, but nope. Apparently, we were supposed to hit the demonic version of the Library of Alexandria during our honeymoon! Our honeymoon, Li. Doesn't that strike you as fucking homophobic? Everyone knows that the honeymoon is for bedroom adventures and tasting delicious foods and looking fucking glamorous, not for studying," the blonde spit the word out, as if it was a fly that she'd accidentally swallowed with her soup. "Scandalous! I'm thinking I'm gonna contact our fucking lawyers." That was what rich people said, right? And Inna was a rich fucking person now-- the richest of the rich, actually, since she also happened to have the most precious wife in the whole-ass world. "But, no, actually. Scratch this. I have a better idea: let's just execute some people that we don't like randomly. Like, the divine right of the monarchs is a thing, isn't it? That means that the Creator personally approves of each decision we ever arrive to," doubtful, but let's roll with that, "and also that she'll magically make the culprits fall into our clutches. Yup, yup. Can't wait to enact justice, man! I've always known, in my heart of hearts, that I was born for something at least as great as this."

Before the demon could pick the culprits among those who frequented their court, though? Vie's disembodied voice decided to explain the rules to them, which, uh... was honestly more than what she'd learned to expect, really. Like, pushing them into uncomfy situations with no manual seemed to be the Creator's most beloved hobby! "Ah, yeah, sure. That fucking makes sense," the blonde nodded. She, too, was behind on her demonic studies, but murder seemed to be pretty central to their culture-- the equivalent of buying your gf a box of chocolates, pretty much. Besides, considering how Liora's wedding with E-keysmash had looked like? Not thinking there would be some parallels, at least, struck her as pretty fucking naive. (Blah blah blah, death, blah blah blah, blood. Oooh, edgy! Were all the demons basically a bunch of thirteen-year-olds still stuck in their My Chemical Romance phase? So far, all the evidence pointed to exactly that conclusion, but in her heart, Inna had accepted it already. Still better than dealing with bootlickers who worshiped corporations, really! At least the teenage angst could be mildly compelling, from time to fucking time.)

Understandably, though, Li had her reservations-- you know, the whole culture shock of hesitating to kill the love of your life for... what? Third time now? Fuuuck, one sure lost track of those things quickly when death mattered about as much as a sneeze! "Li," Inna smiled at her before, before pressing a small kiss on her forehead. "Li, it's fucking fine. I trust you, okay? More than myself, 'cause you're Liora and you always know best. I may not always know best," to put it mildly, "but I know that you'd never fucking hurt me, you see? Besides, I think it's only fair for you to eat my heart-- I don't wanna any toxic-ass imbalances between us. If I get your heart, then you get mine. Like, you already have it, Li, so it's only a matter of claiming it. Okay? Okay. Plus, by now, you should know that I'd never die so easily. Even if I somehow did, I'd find a way to return, 'cause nothing, I repeat, nothing, can make me stay away from you. Death can go fuck itself."

"How romantic," Ivy giggled in her ear, infuriatingly loud. Ouch! Did she have, like, no sense of fucking privacy? The girl was lucky that she was dead already, really, 'cause the blonde might have been tempted to let her experience that status. "Alright, Inna. You know what to do. Drink her essence, and don't choke on it! Dying like that would be pretty embarassing, if you ask me."

"Fine, smartass, and where do I find it? In the local convenience store? Maybe I'm gonna out myself as a dumbass, but I haven't seen any bottled labelled as 'Liora Orlovskaya, drink with care' while doing my weekly fucking rounds of shopping."

"No, silly. Don't you know that 'chalice' is the oldest metaphor in the universe? And this is a wedding, sheesh. Just kiss her." Oh ho, now that was something Inna could get behind!

"Come, love," she smiled pulled her closer, "I've been suffering from a serious Li withdrawal, anyway." By that point, she must have kissed her at least thousand times, too-- once for every time they'd disappointed one another, really, and once for each promise that had left her lips. So, it should have felt like a charted territory, right? Like a path well-trodden? Well, it fucking didn't! Each and every time, it overwhelmed her, again and again, and this... this was no different, unexpectedly. (The taste of her lips was different, somehow. Sweeter. Was that Liora's essence? It reminded her cotton candy, and pistachio ice-cream, and all things delicious, and in that moment, Inna knew she hadn't made a mistake. No, this was supposed to happen. All her life, she'd been meant to end up her, by the dark-haired woman's side!) An eternity later, their lips parted, and Inna beamed at her wife. "Well, what are you waiting for? Take what is yours, Li."

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA ORLOVSKAYA ☉
​

"I wouldn't ever," she affirms, her eyes wide and her cheeks stained with a blush as her wife comforts her. It's exactly what Liora needs to hear in order to go through with another life threatening demonic marriage. (She still doesn't totally think that they need to have another wedding from Hell, but if Inna is certain that this is okay, it does warm Liora up to the idea. Besides, she figures that while it's nice to listen to Inna's double heartbeat in the morning, it's probably eerie for the blonde to listen to silence when she lays against her chest as they go to sleep every night. Her wife also brings up a good point that even while Inna never has and never would take advantage of the imbalances that E-keysmash had put into place during the first ceremony, that it would be nice for them to officially have something balanced.) Scary as it is to think about what it will be like to take Inna's heart away from her, her mind easily coming up with five different disaster scenarios, she does believe the blonde when she says that not even death can keep them apart. And honestly? It's not even like Inna is exaggerating when she thinks about how they fell for each other in an entirely new life as new people. Nothing can or will stop them from being with one another––it's like her soul's entire purpose and, oddly enough, that's the most fulfilling thing in the world to Liora. More than trying to chase after accolades that will only leave her feeling emptier.

Her eyes glisten as she looks at her wife, feeling more confident about the decision to marry/murder her again since Inna is giving her the express okay. And when Ivy tells them how to get her essence? She knows her wife will only get her sweetest parts. When their lips touch, colors that Liora has never seen before burst behind her eyelids as she pours a piece of her essence into her lover, moaning softly into the kiss. Even with all this practice kissing her partner, butterflies still somehow fly from her stomach to her chest as the kiss deepens. She raises her hands to cup Inna's face, keeping her firmly pressed into place, wanting this to last forever. It doesn't matter that she can spend the rest of her life kissing Inna, that she will never be in short supply of wife kisses, she wants this one to never end. When they do, eventually, part Liora keeps her forehead pressed to Inna's, her cheeks completely flushed. She nods, "Of course, my love."

Remembering Vie's instructions, she takes two fingers, summoning golden light to her fingertips, and traces a seal that comes into her mind's eye over Inna's heart; then she traces that same seal over where hers used to be. Looking deeply into her Inna's warm brown eyes, she smiles in spite of the small number of remaining nerves that tell her she is going to fuck this up. Her hand breaks into golden cracks, talons stretching from her fingertips, and she carefully dips her demon hand into Inna's chest. Unlike her own wedding, there is no cracking bones or blood necessary. Instead, the area where her hand is submerged in Inna's chest glows as she reaches for the muscle. Then when Liora's hand wraps gently around her heart, ribbons of light explode out from Inna's chest, and circle around them causing a rainbow reflection to shine over her wife's face. That only makes Liora smile even wider, as if this is the happiest day of her life (it might be, actually). "You are my forever and always," she whispers, wrapping her free arm around Inna's waist and with that, she pulls the heart from her chest in one fluid motion.

She tries not to think too much about Inna's lifeless body in her arms, because she knows that ultimately her wife will be okay. That she has not actually murdered her. While Liora is vehemently against cannibalism, she doesn't have much of a choice given their circumstances and the fucked up nature of demon culture. Her teeth sink into the muscle and where she doesn't expect Inna's hear to be disgusting, she had imagined that it would be rather tough. In actuality, however, it's quite soft and tender. It doesn't even taste like raw meat––it's more like a burst of citrus, vanilla, pistachio and that makes it easier to get past the fact that she is eating her wife (in a non-sexy way). Soon, the last bites of the muscle are gone, though the rainbow lights continue to intensify around them as she feels Inna's heart making a home for itself in her chest. Slowly, as if it is waking up from a long slumber, she can feel it coming to life in her own chest, resuming its comforting rhythm.

"Inna Orlovskaya," she whispers, pressing her lips against Inna's once more then peppering her face in small kisses, "do you take me, Liora Orlovskaya, to be your demonic wife, again? To rule over Hell and do whatever the fuck we want for the rest of our lives? 'Cause I fucking do."

 

[Syntra]

Inna expected it to hurt. Why wouldn't it? She wasn't a doctor, but splitting one's chest open indeed did strike her as the kind of thing her pain receptors wouldn't exactly approve of. Like, the bitches made a fuss when she briefly touched a hot stove, so the chances of them chilling out now were about as high as the chances of E-keysmash becoming a fucking nun! (Which, by the way, were zero. The church was weird both about dead people and demons, and the blonde couldn't imagine a version of reality where either of these factors would be laughed off.) As much as she hated to admit it, it made sense on a thematic level, too. Liora's wedding had been a pain-fest, hadn't it? And since they were equalizing everything about this union, Inna would get to enjoy her fair share of suffering now? Something something, Carrying the Burden TogetherTM. (Fucking bullshit, that was what this was. Like, did she have to whip out a ritual knife every time Li got a paper cut now? The blonde could just as well comfort her from the sidelines, but noooo, that just wasn't metal enough. Blood for the fucking blood good, etc. etc.! Terribly old-fashioned, if you asked Inna. ...still, at the end of that ugly, ugly road, Li would be hers, and she would be Li's. Wasn't that alone fucking worth it? The answer was a resounding yes, of course! So, using the gaming terminology, Inna just decided to tank it. Bracing herself for the agony, she closed her eyes, and...)

It didn't come. Instead of the talons ripping her apart, there was this pleasant, warm feeling-- kinda like the sun rays falling on your face, but like, infinitely more intense. (That made sense, too. Liora Orlovskaya was her personal sunshine, she'd seen the truth of that ages ago, that kind of thing was ~thematic~.) "A rainbow?" she chuckled when the sparks lit up Li's face, dancing across her skin. "Wow, I guess we really have been gay all along." Darkness embraced her then, and yeah, the blonde guessed that those were good enough last words-- exactly the sort of shit she'd want on her fucking tombstone, really. So, even if the ritual failed? Gg, ladies and gentlemen! G fucking g.

It seemed that they'd run out of catastrophes at this point, though, because when Inna opened her eyes again? She was looking at her lovely wife, not at the gleeful Creator ready to rub all of her failures into her fucking face. "I do," Inna beamed, so much that her facial muscles fucking hurt. "Like, I haven't come all this way to get cold feet now, you feel me? I love you, Liora Orlovskaya. Let's make this shit official, in all ways available to us." After all the fuckery they've gone through, bathing in literal goddamn lava didn't even faze her-- at this point, it was just regular Tuesday. What was next, slaughtering some god? Okay, okay, okay, just give her some time to grab a fucking snack on the way there! "Let's fucking go, then. I have to say, this shit is great! A wedding way more memorable than the ones where the biggest event is your fifty year old aunt getting drunk and trying to seduce the fucking waiter." The lava was sizzling, much like an angry cat would, except that angry cats didn't tend to obliterate you the second you dared to touch them. (...what if Vie had been, like, joking? 'Hahaha, the bitches can't be that dumb, so there is no way they'd actually do it? The idea of that woman ever uttering anything even remotely close to a joke was so utterly absurd, though, that Inna discarded it the instance it occurred to her.) "Um, alright. If this does get us killed, know that I really, really loved you. I mean, I'd say this is self-explanatory judging by the extent to which I'm fucking willing to go, but yeah." Closing her eyes, Inna allowed the fire to kiss her, and... it was fine. Pleasantly warm, really, rather 'oh, shit, shit, shit' levels of heat! Fuuuck, maybe the whole 'the floor is lava' game really had been a propaganda piece all along. "Come, Li. It's fine, you see? There's nothing to be fucking afraid of. With the two of us together, there never is."

***

After that, everything had kinda fallen in place. You know that satisfying, satisfying feeling when you finished a puzzle, and got to admire the picture? Inna kinda felt like this now, except it applied to her entire fucking life. With her wife and her dog by her side, there just... weren't any reasons to want more, really. (An unrealistic happy ending? Totally, but after the total shitshow that had been their past existence, and also a large section of their current one, the blonde dared to say they deserved it. They'd paid for that happiness, over and over and over! """Actions""" and """consequences""" could go to hell, but like, to the part of it that they didn't inhabit. They could go bully Anette, maybe? She'd been a fucking laughingstock since one of her sisters had discovered she'd started dating Alessia, anyway.)

Currently, Inna was sitting on her throne and letting her most loyal subjects feed her grapes-- a great act of kindness, obviously, since they all fucking loved her. (Having a ruler who wouldn't feed you to worms for looking at her funny was, like, a novel concept to these fuckers, you know? Thank you, E-keysmash, for making these people so easy to please. Inna didn't even have to do anything! Not doing bitch-ass stuff was more than enough, it seemed.) "Li, my love," Inna said, "I've been thinking." Uh oh! Every terrible suggestion began with those words, no fucking exceptions. "What if we destroyed the world? It sucks, anyway, and since Life Finds a WayTM, I'd bet that anything that would come after it would be, like, thousand percent better. We could declare ourselves its new goddesses, too. It would be real fucking easy to brainwash the new people into worshiping us, i think!"

 

[starboob]

☉ LIORA ORLOVSKAYA ☉​

Ever since their second wedding, Liora Orlovskaya has discovered a new purpose for herself in life. One that does not involve working at some cushy law firm, defending the crimes of her mother. Nope, this life is incomparably better, because in this one she gets to spoil her wife rotten and the reward of Inna's entire face lighting up like she's her own sun? God, she could fucking melt and die happy if that were the last thing she were to see. (Never, ever had Liora thought she'd meet someone as suited for herself as Inna. At first, sure, she vehemently hated the woman and had wished death upon her soul a thousand times over. But when they were forced into each other's lives due to a prophecy of cataclysmic circumstances that should only ever be found in fantasy novels written by depraved nerds for depraved nerds? She did start to warm up to her, oddly enough. It may have been an incredibly slow process and it has been endlessly rewarding. If there is one person who she lets into her inner sanctum, there is no one more suited that Inna Orlovskaya. No one has been there for Liora like Inna. Like, she murdered her fucking mom for her when she couldn't do it herself. She bakes her cookies when she's sad––not to mention she always tries to cheer Liora up even if her pep-talks are on the questionable side of the spectrum. Not to mention, she does actually give the best back massages in the world. Point is, Inna Orlovskaya is perfect and of course she, Liora Orlovskaya (formerly Trihn, formerly Rodríguez), would pick the perfect person to be her person. Like, that's just what Liora does. In short, life with Inna really could not be better. They're fucking queens, too, to top it all off.)

Anyway, since returning from their months long extended honeymoon/well deserved vacation, Liora has spent most of her days living out a fairytale she never thought possible. Mostly because she does live on the plane of reality and fairytales aren't fucking real so why would she ever have expectations beyond something dreadfully ordinary? Well, ever since becoming a hot, rich, demonic queen with powers most regular humans cannot even begin to comprehend? She has since decided to drown herself in all the luxuries of sitting on her royal ass and letting her multitude of servants cater to her every whim. And when those worms inevitably fuck up? She thinks it's fun to watch them get all squirmy since E-keysmash kept them all on short leashes. (She does think they'll have to eventually start governing in order to avoid a demonic coup, but that doesn't really concern her as she figures they have a few more decades before the demons start to realize that these queens are not fucking sadists. And when they do actually start taking the gig seriously? Well, it can't be that fucking hard if the Spanish monarchy lasted for as long as it did. Hell, E-keysmash's reign should have ended before it even began and that bitch ruled for millenia, apparently. So the Orlovskayas? Oh, she assumes they'll be the last queens of the demonic realm. If only because when they retire Inna will probably want to dismantle the entire system and run off with all the coin.) Ah, the joys of royalty.

Currently, the dark haired Orlovskaya is sitting on her own throne with Fluffinator curled in her lap (she's definitely getting too big to be sitting on laps, but who the fuck is going to tell their most perfect dog that? Not fucking Liora, that's for damn sure). Her fingers are lazily entwined with Inna's while she reads through one of the reports their subordinates had sent her. "Oh, hey, remember that package of fire-breathing/man-eating ants we sent to Chett? I just got confirmation that he's been ripped apart. So fucking glad we didn't have to stare at his ugly fucking face one last time. Like, I can't believe we worked for that man for years without teaming up to murder him," she shudders before returning back to the rest of the report.

When Inna starts talking, though? Liora closes out the report and turns to her wife, giving her absolute and undivided attention. Usually, when Inna starts her sentences like this, she knows that something good is going to follow. And she is not fucking wrong! Liora's own eyes widen as a grin breaks across her face, like Inna has just announced that she's found the lost city of fucking gold. "Why the fuck not? J-keysmash has been brushing me up on discrimination against demons and I think it's fucking time we show those useless bags who they should fear. Besides, I have been getting bored of being a queen and being a goddess might be even more fun." (Before, Liora would have questioned the supervillain desire to take over the world. Like, the world is really big, it is a lot of people to control, and she just cannot imagine it being very cost effective. But this was before she got super powers and realized anything is possible when power beyond your wildest dreams can be held at the tips of your fingers. That E-keysmash boost really went to Liora's fucking head). "Ambition looks so fucking hot you," she whispers, grabbing Inna's chin and pulling her closer, "Servants! Fuck off, your queens need some privacy."

...
​

So after that private moment? Well, Liora, being a literal gatekeeper, decides to open several of the old gates back to the mortal realm––accomplishing the very thing E-keysmash failed to do in eons long rule. Finally, demons can take back their ancestral home, the one that belonged to them long before the first human was ever shat out by the Creator on accident. Havoc and chaos break out across the globe as their subordinates crawl out from the depths of Hell and claim the mortal realm for the demon queens. The earth is scorched and from that, Liora knows, their world will be born. One where they get to be hot, rich, and worshipped. Really, there is not an ending more perfect. And that she gets to do all of this with Inna by her side? She truly could not be happier.

–– F I N ––​

​