Multiple Settings Mass Clans: Beyond

[Firestorm of TempestPack]

Hati's form becomes harder for the eye to perceive; the outline of his body is blurred and the shadows clinging to his body render his facial features indistinct except for the burning red embers of his eyes. When he speaks this time, his voice is all-encompassing, crystal clear to everyone over the sound of music and the fire suppression system. Hati speaks slowly, his glowing eyes piercing straight into Thrush.

Thrush grinds out a reply in the old tongue. Hopefully she can prevent another incident from happening with just her words. Her answer must not appease him because Hati stalks towards her. He approaches and Thrush instinctually backs away, still trying to convince him to stop his meddling. The shadowy form of the warg glides across the room, unhindered by the rising water. He walks in a slow, wide arc, never talking his eyes off the sheline. Only when she is nose-to-nose with Hati does her composure slip, her voice raising slightly in pitch.

She's cracking, he thinks, she's panicking and trying to explain away her failure to act. When her back hits the wall she's stammering. He can tell she's looking for a way out but not trying to be obvious about it. The longer he waits, the deeper the hole she digs for herself becomes.


"Tell her to do it!" Lethe demands over the comms, "We're going to drown if no one does something!"


Adrianna stops, looking up at where the mermaid is perched. She holds her breath for a moment and waits. When she feels Jaeger's chest expanding, her heart settles. "He's alive," she answers hesitantly, "Who's asking and what do you want with him?"

The two males fall in beside Adrianna, eyes turning to the canopy above as well. Blade nudges the other tom with an elbow, "That's one of them vicious water shelines," whispers the tortoiseshell cat, perhaps a little too loud.

Bracken can't help rolling his eyes. "If she wanted us dead, we'd already be in the ground." He understands his friend's cautiousness, mermaids by nature are dangerous and the sudden explosion of violence among their pack of travellers makes them mistrust anyone they see. He figures, if she's talking to them, she doesn't want them dead. Yet, a sharp voice hisses in the back of his mind.

 

[Moonsound]

In the dead realm…

“I’m Merlida. And a friend of his wanted me to find him. A wolf called Farichea.” The pink she-cat meowed. She started to quietly crawl down from the tree after she finished talking, stretching once she reached the ground.

“Who’re you?” Merlida asked, cocking her head while keeping her gaze of Jaeger.


—
At the Symphony…

“Hey, cut that s**t out!” Trin yowled at Hati, taking a step towards him but losing his footing when a sudden current in the water formed.

“Portal open.” A female voice informed in time with pulling force in the water. The liquid rushed towards the interior wall of the room, pulling animals with it. Trin was tugged underwater for a few shot moments before getting “washed up” against a wall in the hallway outside of the suite. Next came Jezebel, then Speed, Triss and so on until the rush of water subsided. Either you got pulled out of the room completely by the water or the water pulled closer to the portal.

“Get off’a me! I’m wet and tired!” Triss whined, shoving her paw against Trin’s face to try and stand up.

“Hey no pushing!” Speed yowled.

“You slid into me!” Trin growled, batting at Triss’s muzzle, which initiated a somewhat playful swatting match between the three of them. It only ended when their annoyance for each other no longer superseded their awareness of the many eyes staring at them. The “younglings” froze.

A quick look around would show that the hallway was flooded. The floor was polished wood so there wasn’t much to soak up the water to begin with. And around them, on either side of the portal were a pawful of god-ring enforcers, symphony goers turned bystanders, a lifeliner dressed in their iconic bright orange and purple striped jumpsuits, and last but not least. Fye. The actual, physical Fye.

“Umm… Are you all alri–“ Fye began to ask but was drowned out by a louder voice.

“You. Are. Uh-dorable!” Malevo, the lifeliner, cooed loudly. Leaning down to the pile of fur that was Trin, Speed, and Triss.

“I’ve seen you before, you’re the fox that was with Lexi earlier.” Trin squeaked out, starting to piece together everything.

“Mhmm.” Malevo nodded.

“And you came to meet me?” Trin asked with a tiny smidge of suspicion in her tone and on his face.

“Uh-huh—well, and to congratulate my friend one more time! Where is Lexi? Me and her used to be thick as thieves. I’m just so glad that’s she’s been able to move on with her life.” The fox-like girl chirped and tittered. Trin got to his paws while staring at her. Her voice confused him, it was like she was being completely genuine and completely fake at the same time. And was that last part a jab?

“Oh yeah, Lexi’s a peach. But if you’ll excuse me I need to find-“ Trin started to head back into the portal to go accost Hati but before he could even move more than a step Malevo grabbed him by his scruff.

“There’s Lexi right there.” The fox informed, pointing her out as she came out of the portal. Being called out made her ears flatten and eyes go wide as she saw Trin being held by Malevo.

“Not her! There’s a big, stupid arrogant prick of a dumb wolf monster god thing in there and I want to give him a talking to!” Trin growled, tugging against the fox-girl’s grip. Malevo held firm however.

“Seems dangerous for a young tom.” Malevo said somehow both sarcastically and caringly.

“I’m not actually a—just let me go!” Trin growled, while Triss and Speed snickered at his situation. Speed tried to point while she did so but her now oversized racing suit wouldn’t allow for that.

“I know that. But you’re young physically now and my pride as a lifeliner won’t allow me to let you go and get yourself hurt.” Malevo tutted, pulling Trin closer to her.

“Get myself hurt? He wishes he could hurt me!”

—


Nastil trudged out of the portal with a paw over his nose.

“There’s a high level magical individual in there. Big wolf, go subjugate him.” Nastiel ordered. In response a few of the enforcers starting switching the mags in their guns. One pulled out a net launcher and attached it to their rifle. The ones doing so wore full suits made of a different kind of material than the average. It looked rubbery, thick, and uncomfortable.

—

PIM came out of the room with Filament, being sure to keep an eye on him.


Lula stuck close to Pest, eyeing him up and down, only partially aware that she had turned purple.

“A-are you okay Pest? Any cuts or bruises? Anything wrong at all?” Lula asked the tom, her eyes glued to him.

—

Deciet immediately began walking away down the hallway as soon as she was swept out by the water. The only thing she stopped to do was to give Fye a dip of her head when the AI asked if she was okay. After that, the demoness was strutting down the hall, dripping water as she went.

—

“That…was…AWESOME! Let’s do it again!” Stalker yelled giddily. She shook her fur out, sending water droplets all over the place.

 

[Filament]

Pestilence turns his head towards her, watching as Deceit makes her way down the hall. "I'm fine, just a little drunk. Whatever that was that I saw, wasn't anything I haven't seen before." The tom mews as seriously as he can with his now high-pitched voice. I'm not afraid of my past, whatever you are. The tom thinks to himself as his eyes leave Deceit and level on the she-cat beside him. "She told me to come and find her after whatever that was." The tom begins, steadying his voice so that he doesn't slur. Especially now that he's much smaller and more lanky and pretty fucking drunk because of that.

"I need you to trust me. Whatever she wants to talk about could help all of us." Before she can argue, the tom dips his head and follows the soaking she-demon.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Filament doesn't say anything but does stand to his paws once they're through the portal. He's shivering but after a moment he shakes out his pelt and leans against Pim for support. He clears his throat and whispers to her. "Can never leave my ass." The tom mutters as he looks around at the group. "What happened to them, why did they get smaller?" The tom would asking, looking at his chest which was still hugged tightly by his uniform.

"Did Hati or Deceit make them small?"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hal slides out of the portal and stands quickly to his paws, it feels good to have his gear and uniform off now that he's smaller. He's surprisingly short and he has to balance awkwardly to keep from falling with his now much larger prosthetic. It's hard for him to understand why Lexi is so upset at who the life-liner is until she starts talking and the tom has to hold back a snort. Very fox attitude, very annoying.

"How long until we go back to normal? I don't like being small."
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luther comes out of the portal looking pissed, "You're shitting me, most important animals in the multiverse and the room was too safe." The tom snarls, pulling a half soaked cigarette out of his coat and lighting it. "So I suppose that puts a damper on guard duty." He'd add quietly to himself, moving out of the way of the subjugation team. Lovely. He didn't expect this to go to hell so fast but he supposed it was okay. Nobody had been hurt, yet.

 

[Moonsound]

“The better question would be why you aren’t small? Does your species grow to their max height before puberty?” PIM asked, glancing Filament up and down.

—

“Umm…about the entire symphony? I thought it was just going to be my dad.” Purple answered Hal sheepishly, holding back a nervous laugh.

—

Fye nodded her head fervently.

“You are absolutely right Luther. My sincerest apologies, a situation like this will never happen again I assure you. If-“ Fye began to speak while going around shaking everyone’s paw, “-there is anything I can do to help please do not hold your tongue.” Fye expressed genuinely. When she shook hands with PIM the two of them went bug-eyed. The interaction was apparently enough of a shock to break PIM’s focus on Filament for more than a quick glance.

“Wow, you’re big.” PIM breathed out with a tone of awe.

“Y-you too. Ho-how—Uh, how many processes are you running right now?” Fye responded with just as much awe in her voice, maybe even more.

“It’s an exponential growth system so-“

“Ten trillion to the power of…7? Or 8—per second I’m guessing?” Fye finished PIM’s sentence with a playful smirk.

“A little bigger but after that we start getting into quantum entanglement and temporal process displacement.” PIM answered with a hint of pride.

“WOAH! How many dimensions do you span?” Fye asked verging on giddily.

“Let’s just say I could handle a trillionaire’s family reunion on Fun World without breaking a sweat and leave it at that. You?” PIM purred.

“Just about 74.9327% of the Olympus Ring. S-so-so are you self-actualizing or–“

“No, I was purpose built for sapience. That one there is my creator.” PIM answered with a toothy smile, pointing to the white tom being held by his scruff.

—

“Stay safe.” Lula whispered as she watched Pest leave.

—

Deciet padded through the halls of the Symphony with a brisk but casual pace. She never looked behind and her gaze never change from staring straight ahead for more than a couple seconds. She got into an elevator, held the door open for animals to get on, then rode it down to the first level of the stadium. But the demon’s trek wasn’t over there. She then made her way to a wetsuit rental place and purchased a red wetsuit, taking her very sweet time deciding on a color. Slipping it on and popping her rebreather back into her mouth, Deciet then got onto yet another elevator. Humming along with the current song being played. This new elevator’s destination wasn’t upwards, but downwards into the submerged levels of the symphony. Once the elevator landed on the right floor the demoness pushed off the wall and swam a little ways down a hallway not too disimilar from the one the suite prior was located in. The water quite literally vibrated from the music being played allowing one to physically feel it all over their body. Finally at the end of her journey Deciet paddled up to a door, used a key to unlock it, then swam inside and closed the door behind her.

On the interior of the room was an insanely tiny airlock. As soon as Deciet closed the door behind her, her muzzle was pushed up against yet another door. A quick press of a button and the water drained out of the tiny closet sized room and the she-demon was free to entire the suite proper; a dry as one could hope to be. It wasn’t anything too ostentatious; blue carpet and walls, minibar, holographic tv, a bed fit for a king, and a bathroom separated by clear glass. But the room’s amenities was probably not what an occupant was paying for. It was the view. Straight across from the entrance was a wall of glass that let you see the underwater portion of the symphony. Projected just under the stage was a recreation of whatever was going on topside but down below, along with the myriad of aquatic aliens floating about and the ability to see the music vibrate the water.

Deciet took her wetsuit off, leaving it on the small wooden landing at the door and and dove onto the bed. The glass to the bathroom was completely streamed up, blocking sight of whoever was using it but Deciet was in no way bothered by anyone already being here. She was however, awaiting a guest.

 

[Filament]

"I don't really know. We do often have long life-cycles so it's possible I suppose." Filament would respond, as confused as she was in that moment. He takes a step back and watches Pim and Fye engage in conversation, still trying to understand what had happened to him. The creature had been lying when it said he could not leave but he doubted that he'd be able to escape a second time.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pestilence nods his head in response to Lula and follows her as she makes her way down the hall. He has no money for a wetsuit and he pretends to look at different ones for what seems like an eternity. Finally she picks one and he breaths out an irritated sigh as he follows her until she reaches the elevator, waiting outside as the doors close.
Once he is sure she's made her stop, he calls the elevator and hops in alone.
Although he is drunk, he can still smell her wet pawprints. The is surprised when it floods but he kicks off the wall, following after a blurry red streak as she moves through the water effortlessly.
He struggles to propel himself and by the time he makes it into the airlock he is choking for air. Someone or something pushes him into the airlock and he is taking on water as the small airlock is once again filled with air. He coughs and splutters for a few moments, shaking out his pelt and grooming himself until he is only damp.
Taking one last deep inhale, he pushes open the still unlocked door, to see her lying on the bed unceremoniously. He doesn't notice the shower is still running as he is quite lightheaded after his drunken swimming.

 

[Moonsound]

Deciet looked up from the bed when she heard the door open. Along with her, the shower was turned off and the sound of movement could be heard within the bathroom. The occupant remained obscured by steam however.

Decent looked at Pest as he came in, her mouth open and ready to speak only for her to stare at him incredulously.

“Wetsuits are free! Nearly everything is free! Especially for kids! Wh-what are you—? Whatever…” Deciet snapped in annoyed disbelief, chuffing and rolling her eyes. Her eyes shot down to the floor where Pest was dripping water as well, aggravation flaring up in her eyes before being snuffed out.

“It’s the juice pouches. Turish put a virus in the juice pouches. The same juice pouches that are in nearly everyone’s World Symphony snack bags. We were extended an offer to provide a piece of demon cuisine for the snack service, Turish whipped up a virus that would be undetectable even under intense scrutiny, and now it’s out.” Deciet explained bluntly and unceremoniously. This was not something she was here to brag about or lord over Pest’s head. This was vital information she needed someone to hear; information she needed to tell someone. And the moment she did she made herself a double agent and was committing treason against her own empire. The only levity to be found from her perspective, was the fact that she was doing so in a tiny body and through a voice she hadn’t heard since she was kid.

Deciet let silence hang in the room, staring at Pest for a reaction of any kind.

 

[Filament]

Pest looks over at her, taking in the information as fast as one can drunkenly can. He wants to tell her that he is not a child but he holds back, stoic at the information. "That's quite revealing." The tom would utter, unsurprised at his own inability to deduce what now seemed obvious. "What kind of virus, what are the symptoms?" The tom would ask, his mind immediately flooding with memories of the plaguelands. "Call me Alec, anyhow, that's the name I was born with after all." The tom drawls, sinking into a recliner. "Will our goal be, futile?" The tom utters involuntarily, running the scenario through in his head.
The orange tabby tom settles into a chair, his sun-down pelt damp with water.
"As strange as it sounds, I appreciate you indulging this, as much as I fear it may at this point be in vain. Who hasn't tasted the boxes?" The tom asks, drunkenly as he seems to melt into the chair.

 

[Moonsound]

“I don’t know all the symptoms, Turish and Undertaker wanted to keep it as secretive as possible. And I only just received my promotion. It’s purposefully designed to be super effective against adolescents, it slowly attacks the immune system but won’t kill the host until another has been found. Turish took inspiration for that part from your homeworld; it guarantees the virus spreads and destabilizes civilizations. Anyone who quarantines will just suffer and require increasingly costly attention, and anyone who doesn’t quarantine will spread it. Don’t ask me how she managed that, ah-ah-I don’t know; I’ve only had two conversations with her and she’s very knowledgeable of her field.” Deciet explained, her eyes following Pest as he moved to sit down. She put her paws up in defeat when she admitted she didn’t understand how Turish did what she did. You could just see in Deciet’s mannerisms that the scientist in question puzzled or unsettled her. She listened to Pest, nodding along then rolling her eyes at his defeatist attitude at first. It wasn’t more than a second before she passed it off as Pest’s currently young brain being drunk and numb.

“I’ll need to ask her what the symptoms are and relay that back to you. As for how many have been infected, the projected number for Operation Downfall is 250 billion, but it’ll be much higher if we let God-Ring keep giving out those snack bags to everyone who comes through those doors. That’s why I wanted you and me to leave before the Symphony started and animals got to their seats and started eating. But everyone who’s coming to the symphony isn’t here yet. Sure, the official start time is passed but God-Ring knows that certain species come in and out to listen to certain other species, very few animals actually stay for the whole thing. According to the god-ring security documents we stole, there are five separate “groups” they expect. Early arrivers, late arrivers, middle of the show switch-over is the biggest one, dinner runners, and night lifers. Everyone in the stadium right now is still considered an early arriver. We can’t save all of them but we can prevent more animals from getting infected and going home. God-ring needs to know what’s going on, you just need to tell them in a way that doesn’t ring the alarm. If word gets out too fast, animals will panic, go back to their homeworlds, and Undertaker will have successfully inacted the largest terrorist attack in the history of the multiverse. And he will kill me.” Deciet explained calmly. She really was a spy. She seemed perfectly in her depth relaying this information and setting up a subterfuge, like it was second nature to her. One could only imagine how many talks like this she had had with her colleagues about the group itself. Pest was seeing behind the curtain of Deciet and neither her really nice, flirty, or defiant personalities seen prior looked to be real. Deciet was an enigma and you wouldn’t be remiss in believing she had no personality. That every one of her behaviors was an act. The she-cat on the bed was extremely casual, bordering on unbothered by the very circumstances she was discusses. Her voice gained some inflection at certain points as she spoke but other than that she did not react. It was like she was the boss and this was yet another low level meeting long after the corporate life had sucked away every vestige of her soul.


The occupant in the bathroom finally pushed opened the glass door and emerged. The cat that stepped out was…Pestilence?

“So we need you to die—Why are you both kits?” The doppleganger asked, cocking their head. Confusion covering up the confidence they had come out of the bathroom with.

“Long story. Can you look younger?” Deciet answered swiftly. The Pest look-alike feigned offense and cocked a brow that said ‘really?’ Within a moment of doing so their eyes went dead and a child version of Pest hopped out from the back of them while the original stood rigid like a mannequin. The now exact copy of Pest walked around the old body and over to him.

“Hey kitty. You miss me?” The mirror image asked in Pest’s own voice with a smug smirk.

 

[Firestorm of TempestPack]

When the portal opens, Thistle is dragged under the water and pulled toward the the swirling vortex in the wall. The instinctual fear that grips his heart when his head goes under is eased by the fact that his rebreather works. He struggles to right himself against the current and is spit out into the hall like everyone else. Thistle sits up and shakes himself off, looking more like a drowned rat than a feline. He pulls his rebreather off, letting it hang around his neck again. The young tom has to thank his sister for the well thought gift. Looking around, he notices she isn't anywhere in sight.

As soon as he is able to pull his legs back underneath his body, Lethe stands and vigorously shakes his head. He grumbles when he still hears water sloshing in his head, ears flicking at the discomfort and whiskers twitching irritably.


Hati continues herding Thrush away from the exit and her friends. Screaming and the roar of moving water on the other side of the room attract the shecat's attention. The red-eyed wolf lifts a paw and traces a single claw up her throat, just a feather-light touch but the threat is clear. Digging his claw into the soft underside of her jaw, Hati forces Thrush to look at him. She will listen when he speaks.

That dark, velvety voice that Thrush has come to loathe rumbles directly in her ears. He's too calm. She much prefers when he is roaring and snarling at her. Bending down, his nose touches hers and crimson eyes meet hers. They're cold and angry, not at all the comforting shade of red Trin's eyes are.

"You have been warned, Thrush Larksdottir." With that, Hati releases her. He straightens to his full height and glowers down at her, waiting for her to move.

Thrush ducks around the wolf and rushes to the newly opened portal. Just before she steps through she takes one last glance over her shoulder. As expected, the room is now empty. She steps out into the hall feeling dazed. So much has happened in so little time, her brain is still trying to process it.



"Farachea?" The vermillion sheline gasps, "That's Flame's demon! My name's Adrianna, can you take us to her?"

"Jaeger needs medical attention." Bracken meows, "I don't suppose you know how to help or who we can go to? We did all we could with no supplies. Basic field medicine can only do so much and our medic is... somewhere..."

 

[Moonsound]

“Lexi, your husband is a card!” Malevo meowed, holding Trin against her chest with one paw like a teddy bear. The tom in question looking unamused before his ears perked at what the iridescent fox had just said.

“Husband?” Trin and Triss both mumbled out loud, though for different reasons and in different tones. Trin thought Lexi had expanded her lie while Triss was just confused all together.

“Oh right. Boyfriend. Soon to be husband if he’s smart.” Malevo corrected, rolling her eyes and pawing the air.

“Yeah... And I think we’d allll appreciate if you let my boyfriend go.” Lexi meowed, making a ‘come here’ gesture to Trin. The way she did it made it seem like the vixen was a bomb that he needed to flee from.

“Hmm? Oh right! Sorry, you can’t blame me when you’re so cute; I do need to work on my interspecies manner. Voltician grandparents and all that.” The fox said as she let Trin go. The white tom shook his fur out as he skittered away from her, but he did not go to Lexi. Instead he followed the magical subjugation team back into the room, only to find it empty.

“There’s residual anomalous energy in here but I’m pretty sure he’s gone.” One of the animals on the team said. Trin ground his teeth in annoyance for a second before turning back. He stepped back out into the hall behind Thrush, tapping her shoulder lightly.

“Hey you okay? What was he saying? What can I do?” Trin asked, looking Thrush up and down once.

—

Vasteye looked between Lexi and Levó a couple times before grinning at the huntress. Before Lexi could glare at him, the fox was on her.

“So what’re you all young for? Some kind of party theme? I didn’t think you got invited to parties Lexi.” Malevo asked before nudging the sabertooth sheline playfully. As usual her tone was perfectly balanced between making her sound like the closest knit friend you could ever have, and a total a**hole. Was she implying Lexi is a social outcast? Or was she saying that jokingly because she thought it was obvious Lexi did get invited to parties. It was unclear even to Lexi.

“Yeah. A party theme.” Undertaker said in an unamused voice. Even in child form his voice wasn’t squeaky or shrill. Higher pitched for sure, but not higher in octave.

“Symphony prank.” Lexi answered, glancing at Purple, who now stood a little bit taller than her.

“Certainly a fun one. You’re all tiny! Good one girly! What’s your name?” Levó chirped, turning her attention to Purple.

“Purple. I, uh, did it so I could hang out with my dad today.” The lavender sheline meowed sheepishly. Malevo gasped dramatically in response.

“I’d hate to get in the way of that! How about I take you and your dad to the lifeliner lounge? You can hang out with us, see the tour, and have lunch with us! How’s that sound?” She said excitedly, nodding her head to Purple.

“That sounds great!” The youngling responded without hesitation.

“Great! I should probably get out of my friend’s fur anyway. So who’s your dad?” Levó said, gesturing for Purple to point out her dad.

“That’s him.” The she-kit said while pointing to Trin. Malevo’s gaze followed her paw and froze on the tom.

“Trin’s your dad?”

“Uh-huh.”

“…Go wait for him to be finished talking and once he’s ready we can go, okay?” The iridescent fox said after a brief pause for thought. Purple padded over to wait for her father. In the meantime, Levó slowly turned to a nervous looking Lexi.

“You didn’t tell me he had a kid.” Malevo said in a neutral tone, eyes glued to the sabertooth.

“Well it just didn’t come up-“ Lexi began to try and do damage control.

“Lexi you are just too kind.” Levo cut her off.

“…I am?” She asked, her ears twitching.

“To help raise someone else’s kid, without having your own yet. Wow! I would have had too high standards for myself and broken off the relationship if I learned my date had a kid already but you, you stuck to it. I’m too shallow. In the face of you I’m as shallow as a puddle in a desert.” Malevo expressed in a lower voice. If you were purposefully listening you could still hear her.

—
Meanwhile in the realm of the dead…


Merlida perked up, smiled out of relief that Adrianna knew the wolf she was referencing.

“I can take you.” She answered confidently with a nod. After hearing Bracken she took a closer at Jaeger.

“Hey bud. Can you understand me?” The mermaid asked.

“Mmhmm.” Jaeger hummed back, squinting up at her before letting his eyes fall back down to the ground.

“I could help if there was some water nearby but I haven’t found any. If we could find that big pink lady she could probably help.” Merlida meowed with an emphathetic look at Jaeger and a shrug. With that she waved for them to follow.

“Flame was the one who left right? Or technically, kept going?” Merlida asked, making small talk.

 

[Filament]

Alec gets more uneasy the more she speaks but attempts to suppress it with as straight a posture he can muster. The mirror version of himself looks at him and he stares back. "I don't see why you have to kill me. You could just tell me what to say and avoid more bloodshed like you pretend to want to do." The sundown tabby would mew, subtly readying his stance. "And to answer your question, Mute, I'm glad you're alive. I guess if you really wanna kill me, make sure you take care of Lulalissa, she's a nice girl and she deserves to make it through all of this bullshit." The tom would slur, almost looking like he'd fall over.

 

[Moonsound]

“Not actually kill you, kill you!” Blurted out in a humorous tone.

“Mute’s going to play as your cadaver. I’ll go to Undertaker and tell him I had to kill you, his entourage and I will go to see your body, and you use that time to go back to the group and warn them. If we do this right Undertaker will not know how the God-Ring figured it out; I’ll be feeding him the idea that the Haven Agency tipped them off since they’ve warned all their customers to avoid this year’s bags. If we mess this up and Undertaker sees you alive I will be killed. Treason equals death. I don’t expect mercy out of the kindness of your heart, but I do expect you to not be stupid and get your best informant killed out of spite.” Deciet explained. As she did she stood up on the bed, stretched, and then hopped off.

“How’d Trin take my supposed death?” Mute asked with a knowing tone.

“Ah-ah! No time for chit-chat. Virus on the loose, let’s go get this done.” Deciet said, waving her tail in a circle.

“Remember, get the god-ring to understand that this is NOT your average virus. It is a manufactured civilization killer, the Symphony needs to be shut down. Don’t let Undertaker see you. Anyone who’s had juice is infected. Oh, and a giant mech is going to show up in order to make everyone panic some more. Mute let’s go.” Deciet meowed out at a rapid pace as she and Mute went over to the door. As soon as she was finished speaking, the two of them left. Silence over took the room, but only for a couple seconds. The song being played on the symphony had ended and applause began to grow louder, billions of animals cheering. Completely unaware of the danger they were in.

 

[Filament]

The dark ginger breathes out a shakey sigh of relief. "That's reassurring." The tom would slur, seeming to relax quite a bit. For a moment there he'd been prepared to meet his end with a fight and now they just needed him to disappear for a bit. "As much as I think you're undeserving of it, I'm not going to get you killed on purpose. There's already been too much *hick* blood shed already." The tom would mew, watching as the demon hopped down from the bed.
"Civilization killer, mech, infected. Got it." The tom would mew slowly, his newly adolescent body unsuited to intake this much alcohol. As soon as they'd left, he rushed over to the bathroom and vomited into the toilet for a couple minutes.
That's a lot of pressure they'd given him, but he could be sneaky he supposed.

He took a quick shower and dried off before rummaging through the closet and donning a loose fitting t-shirt and shorts before spotting some fur dye, not unlike what they'd used back in hell.
The tom sprayed the uncovered parts of his body with uneven white markings, until he was completely satisfied that at least from a safe distance he'd look unlike his plain dark tabby self.

He looked in the bathroom mirror at his tiny self. He wasn't dumb drunk anymore but an uncomfortable heaviness revealed itself in his sluggish movements. "I hope you'll forgive me for leaving you to be here. If I get back and you're still safe, I hope somehow you'll know I'm doing this for you." The tom would mew, uncharastically thoughtful.
With that he made for the airlock and swam back towards the elevator, making it in just as he was out of breath. Struggling to stop himself from sucking in water, as he waited for the elevator to reach air again.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hal glanced over at Lexi and Malevo and shrugged his shoulders. "How long do you care to drag this out?" The tom would ask Undertaker as his adoptive daughter moved away from him.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Filament was still catching his breath and had a disturbed look resting on his features.

 

[Moonsound]

Undertaker adopted a quizzical look at Hal before his expression harden back go a stoic visage.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure our spat won’t be going on for much longer.” The young looking tom said enigmatically. His gaze stayed on Hal for a second after before shifting behind him at the demoness she-kit padding your the hallway. Undertaker wasn’t the only one to notice either.

Deciet looked and walked with a focus on getting to Undertaker, but a paw on her chest stopped her. A purple paw to be exact.

“Where’s Pest?” Lulalissa asked in a worried, suspicious tone.

“How should I know?” Deciet retorted without hesitation, slowing pushing Lula’s paw down and off her chest.

“He went after you.”

“And If I recall the last time he did so it ended poorly for him. Seems there’s a pattern?” Deceit whispered, staring Lula in the eyes. The Mia’Moray got the hint. Stepping away from the demon, Lula’s entire visage lurched.

“…N-No…” She breathed out, lightly shaking her head. Deciet stuck her nose up at her and twitched her whiskers.

“I honestly have no clue where Pest is. And until you take that God-ring vest off I suggest you keep your paws off me. You’ve already caused quite enough diplomatic issues as is!” Deciet stated loudly, so that everyone could hear. With Lula effectively silenced by both the shock of Pest’s gloomy fate and the political consequences If Lula were to lash out, Deciet padded past her and over to Undertaker. As she did so two of the demon guards watched her closely. Deciet pushed Undertaker a little ways away before whispering into his ear.

“Pest became a liability. I had to kill him, we need to go.” She whispered quickly. Undertaker stared at nothing for a moment before whispering back.

“And Operation: Downfall?” He asked.

“Is still going along as planned. At a much accelerated rate, which is why we need to go. The Silent Dawn is still in place, all is well.” Deciet answered without missing a beat. Undertaker nodded, thought for a moment, and then waved his tail in a circle.

“Fye. We will be departing the symphony early, due to recent events.” Undertaker stated, gesturing to the suite doors and then to himself in child form.

“Um—Of course, Undertaker sir. My sincerest apologies. Thank you for coming.” Fye responded, a little flustered. She dipped her head to him and he did the same. With that Undertaker, and his demons all turned and began to walk down the hall. A couple god-ring enforces following to escort them.

—

“Damnit!” Fye grunted lowly, stamping a paw on the ground in frustration. Her tone wasn’t that of anger but disappoint or failure.

—

PIM stared at Filament and frowned.

“First time I had a real nightmare, was after I made a girl have a mental breakdown. On purpose.” PIM stated, completely out of the blue. The AI, sat down slowly, using Fil to slide down against.

“Yep. The dream was about some kind of force of karma coming to get me. Punish me for what I’d done wrong…I still enjoyed it though; doing that to the girl. I’d do it again too. Might comp her therapy costs this time around but I wouldn’t hesitate to do it.” PIM said in an almost brooding, but still neutral tone.

 

[Firestorm of TempestPack]

"Yeah, I'm- How close are we to taking down Undertaker?" Thrush questions, jumping thoughts mid-sentence, "You know, ending this once and for all." Thrush asks quietly. She carefully watches Purple and the iridescent fox interact. She remembers her from PIM's recording, the one who believed Lexi's lie.


Nyx gives her pelt another shake. She watches everyone deal with the aftermath of... whatever just happened. Pest wanders off, the AI that hosts the Symphony shows up and the Lifeliner that saved them seems to be enjoying their de-aging predicament.


Lethe huffs. The Symphony just started and something else had to go wrong. Great...



The long-furred sheline follows the mermaid. "Yeah, that's him." Adrianna confirms before quietly adding, "I wonder if he made it... Wherever we're going..."

"We're looking for the pink she-beast as well." Bracken mews, padding after Merlida. "You would think she'd be easy to find."

 

[Moonsound]

“Uh…well I’d say pretty close. He’s public enemy number one now, his little empire is about to crumble, and he’ll have no where left to run.” Trin answered Thrush. Her sudden change in train of thought caught him off guard.

—

Triss sidestepped over to Lethe and patted him on the back with her tail. His mannerisms gave away his thoughts.

“Heeeey, it’s okay. We’re out of the thick of it, and since Undertaker’s leaving we can probably just enjoy the Symphony now. What’s the worse that could happen?” Triss meowed optimistically, giving the tom a toothy, childish grin.

—

“You said you’d do anything?” Speed asked Fye. Even though she a bit of a ways away the AI picked up that she was being addressed and began to walk back over to the group.

“Oh yes, anything. I was overjoyed when I heard I would getting to host earthlings. ” Fye nodded her head, adopting a cheery disposition.

“Anything liiiike maybe…letting us into sector 1?” Speed asked, eagerly. The question was met with a blank stare and a couple blinks from Fye.

“You can already access to sector 1.” Fye responded.

“WHAT!?” Speed screeched.

“What’s sector 1?” Penny asked, joining the convo.

“It’s the sector designated for speci—“

“It’s where all the animals that look like your favorite storybook characters get to go!” Speed cut Fye off with an excited blurt.

“That is technically correct. It’s very rare but sometimes there are species that look exactly like those found in a popular piece of fictional media from another civilization. And so to ensure they have a good time at the symphony as well and aren’t nagged about things they probably never did, they have their own sector for themselves.” Fye explained further.

“Any examples?” Penny asked studiously.

“That you would know?…Hmm…No…No…Got one. Are you familiar with The Lion King or Lombaxes?” Fye stated after freezing up for a couple seconds.

“I know The Lion King!” Penny chirped.

“There’s a species in attendance this year that look just like them. There’s probably more than just those two I mentioned, they were just the first two I found.” Fye replied warmly with a nod and a smile.

“That’s…awesome.” Penny gawked.

“And why do we already have access?” Speed asked.

“Because you all look exactly like a very popular show at the moment.” Fye answered dutifully.

 

[Filament]

Filament looked over at her, surprised and then not so much so. Her tale was a well needed distraction, for as calm as he seemed to be, he had been an attempted murderer. Since he'd joined the others, he'd killed.
"I dream of them often, my dead girlfriend and that scum." The tom droned as she explained her nightmares. "Some animals are beyond forgiveness, I'm sure you had your reasons."
The tom wraps his forepaws around her neck and rests his head on her shoulders. "I don't see you any different, darling."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Flame cocks his head at Deceit. "You've killed my nephew?" the words are daft, and his ga(y)ze immediately gives away jus thow distraught he is.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hal glares daggers at Undertaker. "It won't be long now, consider yourself lucky I don't dispose of you now." The tom would utter, as the tom is ushered away but the skankerous demon.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Alec, previously known as Pestilence finds air just as he begins to choke. He needs to locate Trin away from the others so that he can warn him. Without having to think about it, the tom hops into an elevator heading down and away from where the group had previously been.

 

[Moonsound]

PIM gave a dry chuckle.

“She, uh, she made Trin cry. Threw a drink in his face. A blue smoothie with fruit chunks—I remember that clearly. And she got him harassed on her planet’s social media, some animals even showed up in front of his apartment to yell. It sounds weird out of context but it was all over the way her ears tasted.” PIM meowed in a lighthearted tone. She tilted her head to rest against Fil’s and pressed even closer against him as he did the same.

“And it made me so mad. Maybe it was because I told Trin to go over and talk to her you know? Maybe I took it as a personal problem, I don’t know. But I figured I’d do what she did, but better. An eye for an eye as they say. So I made sure everyone who could disagree with her just so happened to find her profile. And I mean everyone. They tore her up but I wasn’t done. I even made my own bots to relentlessly message her day in and out about how terrible she was and how everyone hated her. When she made her profile private I hacked it. When she left the platform I made sure everyone knew which profile, channel, and even anonymous message board she was on. And once she was pushed off her planet’s World Wide Web, I outed her contact number. I wanted to make sure she had no where to hide and no way to unplug. No way to ignore the firestorm I built up and that she had fanned with her own responses. I had every bit of data on her and put out everything I could to humiliate her; always under the guise of just another angry hacker she’d found herself in the sights of. I leaked every embarrassing video, every time she littered on a street camera, all of it. It there was a clip of her not tipping the pizza animal or out of context footage at a family reunion I posted it. She got paranoid enough to purchase this high end security system thinking it would keep her safe but it only made it worse. I had footage of her looking like a lunatic in her own home, I had her bad talking her family and friends, and I even made her into a social hazard by outing whoever even gave her a peck on the cheek in that house! Heh, I even released footage of her, you know, private time and what she watched to do it. If you didn’t already know her and avoid her, I made it into a social detriment to even be seen with her. She had no one; no friends, no family, nobody. Some delivery animals would even cancel on her mid-delivery as soon as they learned who their customer was, and almost all of them would hurry away once she opened the door. She couldn’t go on the internet and she was robed of even a friendly “Hi” from a delivery animal. In every way, I made her a pariah. Until finally, one day…I checked her cameras and there she was on the kitchen floor. Crying. Curled up, food still on the stove cooking, TV on in the background. Just crying softly, probably scared that if she cried any louder it would end up on the internet again. A-and I expected her to get over it, get up after a while and go medicate herself with some mindless show and comfort food but no. She didn’t get up, she just stayed there. Staring at the cupboards of her kitchen island. Nightfall came and I think she fell asleep. Morning came and she was still there. Just lying curled up on herself. I broke her…I really did. Sometime later on that second day I tipped off the services about her and they took her away to help her. I turned off the bots and just like that, everyone moved on.” PIM finished, staring off into the middle distance for a bit before sighing.

“And I still haven’t told Trin I did that either….He doesn’t think anyone is behind forgiveness. ” The AI added on, relaxing into Filament even further. If she could melt into him she probably would have.

—

Meanwhile in the realm of the dead…

Merlida hummed in response to Adrianna.

“I don’t really understand all this but I’d assume he either made it or got pretty close. And that’s why these things are bringing the hammer down on us all of a sudden. Back on Earth if someone got into mermaid territory and we didn’t want them there, we made absolute sure to make a message out of them. Don’t even get me started about what the sea mermaids would do.” Merlida meowed in a low voice as they went along. The jungle remained unnaturally silent around them. No rustling to be heard at all. The mermaid’s ear twitched after hearing Bracken’s words. She shrugged her shoulders.

“At this point, we may just need to yell her name and hope none of the angry ones have a bone to pick with us. Once we get back to Fari-fari…Farichea of course.” Merlida meowed, beginning to slow down her pace. After about two more minutes she stopped in front of a black lump of fur next to a tree on the edge of the jungle line.

“Found him.” Merlida hissed quietly, prodding the wolf. Farichea looked up drowsily, her eyes jumping from the mermaid, to Adrianna, then to the tom on her back.

“Oh sweet merciful—…I am glad you’re still alive.” The wolf whispered in elation. She stood to her paws as quietly as she could and stepped away from the spot she was lying in.

“You can put him here if you want. It’s warm. Do you know what happened to him?” Farichea asked, straining her eyes to look at Jaeger in the dark. She could see his chest go up and down and his ears still rotated to point at whoever was talking. That was a good sign.

 

[Firestorm of TempestPack]

Thrush's hums thoughtfully. Her attention turns from Purple to follow Undertaker as he takes his leave. "What would happen if he were to... disappear?" Even when the calico and his demon entourage disappear from view, her intense blue gaze remains fixed on where he last was. One of the thoughts at the forefront of her mind right now is that in less than a minute Undertaker will be out of reach and they won't have another chance to get this close to him again.


Lethe gives Triss an odd look. Her cheery and optimistic mood right now as a kit is a far cry from her normal self as an adult. "Yeah, right." He huffs with a pout.


"So... Are we done working? Can I take this -unf- heavy vest off now?" Thistle whines. Sitting, he looks like he is being swallowed whole by the bulletproof garment, just his short legs and wet head sticking out.



"Best I can tell he got trampled when the fighting started because we found him like this. Don't know the extent of his injuries." Adrianna explains.

"Fari...chea?" Bracken starts, hoping he's pronouncing her name right, "Do you want to come with us to find Foofi? The, uh, big pink one?"

 

[Moonsound]

“You’d die is what would happen. Just like Flame–“ Trin placed his tail on Thrush’s back, “–Trust me I’ve been fighting this guy for a while. He relies on that feeling, it’s a trap. I don’t want to give him the chance to kill any of my friends again. And pretty soon he won’t be able to hurt anyone else ever again.” Trin meowed softly.

“Hey dad.” Purple’s voice sounded from the tom’s side.

“Yeah?” Trin responded, turning to her and smiling.

“The Liffeliner offered to take me and you on a tour of the Liffeliner lounge. Will you come, pleeease?” Purple pleaded with large eager eyes.

“Nastiel?” Trin looked to the yellow eyed tom.

“Yeah, you guys are off duty. The entire purpose for you being here just walked away.” Nastiel said with a slight grumble. As soon as he did multiple sighs of relief came from the group and the sounds of velcro coming undone and vests thudding onto the floor followed after.

“Okay then! Let’s go!” Trin chirped.

“Yeah! Oh and we have to have some melting chocolate meal cream.” Purple yelped happily, already leading the way over to Malevo. Trin took a few steps to follow his daughter before bounding back over to Thrush.

“Loveyou, I’llbebackdon’tgoafterUndertaker.“ Trin whispered to her quickly. He gave her a peck on the cheek before catching up with Purple.

“We’re ready.” Purple purred to Malevo.

“Wonderful! Hey, why don’t we make it a whole new family thing and bring Lexi along?” Malevo asked, looking at Lexi expectantly.

“No. I need to talk with Lexi about something.” PIM answered for them, projecting her voice clearly. When the four of them looked over at her she was already gesturing for Lexi.

“Financial stuff?” Malevo asked Trin. Without missing a beat he shrugged and nodded.

“I’ll keep your boyfriend safe Lexi!” The fox alien shouted as she, Trin, and Purple padded away.

“Hehe, okay, thanks you wit—wu-wonderful animal.” Lexi laughed nervously before growling acridly under her breath, her eyes bulging for a second. The huntress began trudging over to PIM with a nervous smile on her face. The AI’s earlier tone wasn’t one of friendliness so Lexi knew she was in for something.

“Yes PIM?” She asked, sitting in front of the AI. In response PIM pointed with her eyes for Lexi to scoot closer to a spot where she wouldn’t have to take her head off of Filament to stare at her.

“Why’d you tell your friend that you were dating Trin?” The AI asked calmly.

“I…I panicked. She knew I couldn’t afford this bag on my salary so—“

“Instead of explaining that a friend of yours paid for you, you allowed her to believe that Trin was your boyfriend. Why?” PIM cut Lexi off in order to get straight to the meat and potatoes as it were. Lexi remained silent for a time.

“…I wanted something to rub in her face. I wanted to have something over her this time. You saw her! She’s pretty, she’s a Lifeliner, she even looks f***ing hot in that jumpsuit. So when she just assumed the animal who bought me this bag was my boyfriend I ran with it. I got to be Lexi the girl who snagged a billionaire boyfriend for once, and not Lexi the girl who couldn’t hack it to be in the Lifeliners.” Lexi meowed, dipping her head towards the end. Out of respect she still tried to keep eye contact with PIM. Though her eyes would flick to Filament from time to time as well.

“Lexi I do not care about the reasoning behind your insecurity-“ The huntress flinched and gave PIM a genuinely hurt look, “- I care about Trin. Instead of choosing any of the other very wealthy group members you chose him. Why?” PIM ended with a question.

“Uh, you do know my species is especially heterosexual right? I don’t do that sort of thing.” Lexi responded, re-gaining her confidence and dropping any stuttering.

“You don’t date Trin either. Let me skip to the point. You said Trin because you saw him as the most brag worthy choice; because you like him. And I’m here to tell you that you have no clue what it is like to date Trin.” PIM meowed, a tiny smidge of mirth in her voice.

“I like Trin? No, I jus—What?” Lexi tried to defend herself while PIM was still talking only to get confused. She thought PIM was scolding her for lying.

“Allow me to illustrate something for you. Trin looks like a good pick, and he is, but there’s more to it than appearances. In my personal opinion, Thrush is in over her head. Observe. Where did we sleep last night?” PIM meowed, watching Lexi closely as the huntress visibly tried to figure out where PIM was going instead of just following along.

“…Milky’s apartment?” She answered, scratching one of her saberteeth.

“Trin’s former fling’s apartment. Next, who am I?” PIM responded neutrally.

“An AI? His AI?”

“His first mate. How about Speed and Triss? Who are they?” PIM continued The line of questions.

“His former lovers as well?” Lexi pondered.

“Bingo. How’s about Charlat Goat?”

“No. Way. Really?”

“Yep, former lover. Same with Yuripi. That’s Trin’s world, those that like him stick with him and he sticks by them too. As a romantic interest of his you’re always reminded how you are not his first, will not be his last, and that some of the former lovers would take your place in a heartbeat. You are infinitely replaceable. Trin is staunchly monogamous, usually, so he wouldn’t actually just up and replace his interest. But knowing he could doesn’t lend itself to a very secure feeling in a relationship. Of course that lifestyle isn’t exclusive to Trin, that’s most insanely rich animals in the multiverse. But you see what I’m saying.” PIM explained.

“Yeah I see………….Mute too?” Lexi sat in thought for a few long moments before asking.

“Surprisingly no. As far as I can tell they were just really good friends. Though some of their behavior would make you think otherwise. One time I came in to an apartment with them passed out in each other’s fur. Drool, chips in their pelts, one on top of the other. But no, just good friends.” PIM answered, stifling a giggle.

“I guess that’s why he got so angry.” Lexi mused.

“Most likely. But digressing, it’s not just that Trin’s friends usually happen to be former flings. He’s also not one to shy from flirting while in a relationship. He likes you too. He also likes Nyx, Holly, and Penny. He values the relationships he’s in but after centuries of dating he figured out that the one you choose doesn’t alway last. While in a devoted relationship with one animal he will not hesitate to view another animal as a romantic prospect for the future. You weren’t here but he blatantly flirted with Holly in front of Thrush and does not hide his attraction to Nyx; his species never developed that social stigma to hide attraction but that’s neither here nor there. How do you think that made Thrush feel?” PIM ended in yet another question.

“Oooh…yeah, that could sting a bit.” Lexi answered with a nod.

“Indeed. Especially since the earthlings are used to more conservative relationships. So to wrap it all up, to date Trin is to date someone who is so rich that they will never need you nor need to change for you. If you clash hard with him on an issue, he doesn’t have to change. He can just find someone else who doesn’t clash hard with him. On top of that you’ll be surrounded by his exes, the majority of which didn’t break up with him but simply let the relationship fade pleasantly after hundreds if not thousands of years. And finally if you didn’t feel unimportant to him enough, he will give winks and blush at other animals he finds attractive. He’ll never cheat or dump you over something that trivial but you’ll always know that he could. Most animals, don’t fare well in a relationship like that. Trin is humble but the fact remains that he holds most of the power in a relationship, financially or options wise. Which unfortunately has led to some of his flings in the past trying to balance out that disparity with physical violence or emotional manipulation. That’s why I called you over here; to protect Trin. All I focus on is how to protect me and my own.” PIM meowed, squeezing Filament lightly on the last sentence.

“I thought you were just going to yell at me for lying.” Lexi said, kneading her paws.

“Pfft. Trin’s probably reveling in lying to Malevo right now. He’s going to tell her all kinds of fake information that you’ll have to go along with. I need no apology from you and you can still buy whatever you want, you’re a friend. I just wanted to make sure you don’t have any ideas flittering around in your head consciously or subconsciously. The one you’ll need to apologize to is Thrush. She’s the one your lie undermined and she’s the one who’s relationship you might have strained by doing so. How’d you like someone else lying that they’re dating your boyfriend without even asking you? Especially when the lie is towards a Voltician.” PIM ended, pointing with her eyes to Thrush.

“She’s only half voltician but yeah….I get it. I’m new to this grouping up and trusting animals thing.” Lexi meowed, drooping her shoulders in shame.

“Yeah, and you’ll probably have to repair that trust with Thrush, maybe Hal too. But it’s worth it. I promise.” PIM finished with a chuckle and a “shoo shoo” motion to Lexi.

—

Lexi Vettor, properly humbled, chided, and educated, hesitantly made her way over to Thrush. Her mind fighting against her body the whole way to just turn around and pretend nothing happened.

“Hey uh…Thrush? Crazy girl that Malevo huh? Real outspoken…” Lexi said with a nervous smile to the sheline, her voice fading. She knew that Thrush knew that this wasn’t about Malevo. It was all over the huntress’s face from her eyes to the strained smile to the ways her ears looked like they were losing the ability to keep themselves upright. And she’d never had to have a conversation like this in her life before. Her paws and ears were absolutely burning.

—


“My throats a little sore. I’d say maybe I’ve been pushing myself too hard but it’s not like we didn’t walk farther on a daily basis back on earth than I have all week.” Aceline groaned but still tried to make light of her discomfort to whoever was listening. She rubbed her neck and grimaced at the sensation.

 

[Filament]

The door to the elevator opens just as the adjacent elevator leaves with Deceit and Undertaker. The now bicolor tom steps into the room, still small, still scared and still tipsy. It isn't hard to imitate the voice he'd had before Mother had fixed it, although it is now much higher. "Oh my stars, I can't believe I actually get to see the real Trinity in person." The tom would mewl, rushing over after the rapidly disappearing tom and his daughter. A stupid smirk plastered on his face, as he got right next to the alabaster tom he spoke in his usual voice. "Trin, I need to talk to you without any communicators, just you and me. I know that sounds suspicious but I really need you to trust me." His pupils are large and if PIM had her attention on him she'd be able to see a huge adrenaline spike paired with a BPM of over 200.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hal is still struggling to balance with his now oversized prosthetic but his gaze follows Lexi as she talks to Thrush. The Ashuli she-cat is literally the last person in the room he'd like to have her talk with, especially after how he'd treated them at the Red Temple. His attention is stolen by the orange and white tom kit who enters the room and despite being the least socially skilled, his mind immediately goes to Pestilence.
He simply doesn't care though and he turns his head towards the door, hobbling towards one of the elevators. He hopes that he'll be find some way to reverse this de-aging crap Trin's daughter pulled.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

[Moonsound]

Trin’s ear flicked when he heard his full name used. He halted and before he could say anything the tom he didn’t recognize was already right next to him.

“No communicators?” Trin mumbled as if he was questioning whether or not to do so, but had already removed the mic and ear plug he had on before he even finished speaking.

“Wait, dad!” Purple whined, stomping her paw in annoyance.

“It’ll just be a sec sweetie, it sounds important.” Trin meowed, giving her a sympathetic look.

“Everything always sounds important.” Purple challenged with an angry pout.

“I know, I know. I’ll make it quick, promise.” Trin said with a guilty apologetic pursed lipped expression. With that he gestured for Purple and Malevo to stay while he padded away with Pest. After getting out of range of them Trin stopped.

“Alright, I trust you, if only because today’s already been a weird day. What’s up?” Trin asked, watching the young tom closely. He noted the serious look and manner of him and also the fact that he sounded pretty close to Pest. Or at least what Trin thought he remembered Pest sounding like as a youngling. So for intents and purposes Trin thought he was just talking to some random kid.


—

Whatever floor Hal got off at, he could find advertisements for different age modification companies with a shop in the Symphony If he looked for it. It was a pretty popular service and outside of the symphony was very expensive. The biggest advertisements came from three different companies: Loop, Reset, and Age-lastics or Age-works. The last one was translated two separated ways depending on which ad you looked at.


_______
Meanwhile in the realm of the dead…


“The big pink one? Yes. She probably knows what’s going on.” Farichea agreed, accepting Bracken’s invitation. As she did so she watched Jager closely.

“He looks delirious, likely a concussion. If he was trampled.” Farichea concluded. She’d hoped she’d never need the medical information she learned in training before but low and behold, here she was.

 

[Filament]

Once everyone else moved away, Pest spoke softly but not quite in a whisper. "It's me, Pest. Deceit told me that the juice pouches from the concession bags have some kind of virus in them based off of one from Earth. She didn't know what the symptoms were but it's highly contagious. On top of that, a mech is on the way to cause even more chaos. We have to shut the symphony down, Trin." The tom would mew quickly and quietly, his pupils never leaving Trin's red eyes.

"It's not a joke."
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Hal would approach the first stall that had anything to do with age. "My friends, kit dosed me with some kind of de-aging syrum and I need it fixed." He'd explain to the first animal who'd pay attention to him.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Filament stayed beside PIM as she talked to Lexi, purring quietly when she squeezed him closer. He didn't say anything but seemed content to lean against her as she scolded Lexi. Personally he didn't really know what to think about the situation but he thought she made some very good points.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Flame nodded his head when Aceline spoke. "I thought it was just me." He'd add, pressing a paw to his temple. "My head kinda hurts too."

 

[Moonsound]

“…Deciet said this? Not that I don’t trust you, I do, but I had a drink pouch yesterday and I’m…Not experiencing….symptoms…” Trin started speaking, only to slowly trail off as he started piecing things together. While keeping eye contact with Pest, he zoned out for a few moments before shaking his head.

“Oh s**t. Turish makes my dna immune to all her experiments—f**k. And Hal said that the demons are using Turish Pit monsters on Frenziland; I’d assumed they were just poaching them but it seems Turish is working with the demons. You have got to be kitting me!” Trin explained aloud, half to himself and half to Pest.

“You’re right. We’ve got to shut down the Symphony.” Trin balked out. His expression was that of dread and overload.

“Let’s go. Do you have any open wounds?” Trin asked as he turned around and started heading back to the group. Purple and Malevo looked at each other before following after the tom with frustrated confusion.


—

The insectoid alien standing on the other side of the stand from Hal mimed out silent laugher.

“In a tone befitting hilarity: that’s a good prank. We here at reset can fix you, but only slightly. Cheerfully in a perky tone: we can bring your age back up but only for the length of the symphony.” The large tan ant vocalized in a completely neutral tone that did not waver in the slightest. Nor did their face emote.

—

“Worse time to get sick huh?” Aceline asked Flame, panting subconsciously. She didn’t report the symptom to him but she was burning up.

 

[Firestorm of TempestPack]

Thrush's shoulders slump with Trin's response. Flame tried killing Undertaker himself and that ended terribly. She shakes her head as if to rid herself of the tempting idea. "Yeah, of course..." She manages with a weak laugh, "What am I thinking?" Purple skips over and before she knows it, Trin leaves her with a hurried goodbye and a quick kiss. "Bye..." Thrush whispers, watching him go. Her melancholy is disrupted when Thistle approaches, his vest askew and one foreleg pinned to his body beneath the armored garment. She snorts a laugh and pokes a little fun before helping him out.

With the aid of his sister, Thistle is finally freed of his vest. "So now what do we do?" The young tom stretches, curving and arching his slightly aching back then rolling his shoulders.

"I don't know. I was planning on spending our breaktime with Trin and Lilla but..." Velcro straps are pulled and she tears the armored vest over her head with a frustrated growl. While she is kit-sized again, she isn't scrawny like she was on Earth. The muscle mass isn't prominent like with her adult-self but her ribs aren't showing. "See anything on the way here that Holly and Bailey might like?"

"Mmmm.... Food stalls. I saw a sign that said 'Bubble Room'. I don't know what that could be but it sounds interesting."

"Why don't you ask them if they want to go? Do something fun and enjoy the rest of the day."

Thistle looks conflicted. "Maybe I'll wait until we get back to normal." He mews softly, kneading his front paws.

Thrush shakes her head. "Who knows when this stuff will wear off." She gives her brother a nudge, "Go on, have fun."


"Hey." Mews Thistle, padding over to the soaking wet, pint-sized Holly. He tries to keep his adolescent voice even and low in pitch but to no avail. "Do you and Bailey want to go do something? Or do you want to sit and watch the Symphony?"


"Sooo.... They're off to go do whatever," Nyx gestures to Trin, Purple and Lévo's shrinking forms, "who wants to go explore?"

Lethe doesn't answer but looks around to see who takes Nyx up on her offer.


Thrush sits by herself, now that her brother and some of the others are getting ready to part ways and go enjoy the Symphony. Her eyes remain fixed down the corridor where Trin went, the only indication that she even notices Lexi's approach are her ears moving to catch the sound of her pawsteps. She acknowledges her statement about Malévo with a noncommittal hum. The Craterborn remains quiet, thinking of what she should say to Lexi, if she should say anything to her at all.

After a few minutes of silence, Thrush decides she's done letting the huntress stew. Her nervous energy is practically palpable. "If you wish to talk to me about what you did, speak plainly." A pause. "Please." She sounds more tired than angry. "I saw the message that fox gave Trin. Something about him being 'lucky to date you' and hopefully marrying you." Thrush turns and finally looks at Lexi, "Care to elaborate?"