(Also, shout out to Blade of Justice, who has been a HUGE inspiration for this story)
After about an hour, the screams of agony and maniacal laughter had stopped. The trio of goddesses were curious, but they were all afraid of stepping out and risk seeing Iris Heart in the middle of one of her so-called "lessons". Or worse, become the subject of said lesson.
Speaking of which, Neptune's eyes might have been playing tricks on her, but she could've SWORN she saw Segula cast a few glances out the door every now and then. And what was even stranger was that she looked like she ENJOYED watching it. Hoping that it was just her eyes, Neptune had asked Nepgear if she saw the same thing, and to her horror, she did.
Neptune would have to question Segula's sanity later.
Well, it was either THAT, or she was just checking Iris Heart out, which Neptune could totally understand if that were the case. And considering that Gear had said she was drooling at some point, it was most likely the latter.
After a few more minutes, Neptune's curiosity was peeked. She wanted to see what was going on, but she REALLY didn't want a lesson from Iris Heart either. Desperate, Neptune pulled her trump card.
"Hey, Nep Jr. You mind...going out and see what's up?" Neptune whispered to her sister, who in turn spat out the water she was drinking.
"A-Are you CRAZY?! I'm not going out there! Why don't you do it?" Nepgear had normally done whatever her big sister said without objection, but this...this was simply too much! No matter how much she begged, or plead, or cried, she would NOT help her sister out this time, despite her very instincts telling her to do so.
Neptune, surprised by her sisters rejection, got on her knees and started begging. "I'm scared! Please?!"
"And what do you think I am?!" Nope, still not budging. Neptune was shocked.
"Braver than me! Get out there!" Neptune started to push her little sister.
"Nooo! You can't make me!" Nepgear wasn't going without a fight. She got behind her sister and started to push HER towards the door.
"Can tooo-!" Neptune wasn't having it, and had ended up tackling Nepgear to the ground.
Segula could only watch in amusement as the Planeptune sisters wrestled each other over who had to go out first. Segula had half a mind to just do it herself, but she was certain that if she looked at Iris Heart's butt one more time, she would pass out.
When Nep and Gear looked like they were close to exchanging blows, they heard the handle turn, and the door opened, revealing a now un-HDD'd Plutia, much to the relief of Neptune and Nepgear. Segula...not so much. Plutia herself had a satisfied look on her face, she looked like she had achieved life itself and was currently rubbing it in her friends faces.
"Whew! I feel sooo much better now" Plutia said with a mischievous smile on her face.
"What about Noire?" Segula asked, and the mischievous smile on Plutia's face grew.
"Oh, she's fine...mostly" Plutia said that last part REALLY quietly, but Segula caught it. Curious, Segula entered the living room, only to be greeted by a broken Noire. She was standing in the corner, eyes wide in terror as she mumbled incoherent sentences to herself. The poor girl looked like she had seen the apocalypse.
"Geez..." Segula was a little horrified at the sight, but a part of her was a little curious as to what Iris Heart's "lesson" would be like. Considering the screams of agony she heard, probably not all that pleasant. But what did she know?
Neptune and Nepgear finally mustered the courage to step out of the room, and looked at the shaking Noire with sympathy, but a little relief too.
And unfortunately(?), Segula heard a knock on the door. When she opened it, she was greeted by one, or rather 2 unusual sights. They were both girls, one with brunette hair and green eyes, the other with blonde hair and orange eyes. They were staring at her with the same level of confusion as Segula was.
"Uh, can I help you two?" They must have been making a mistake, why would 2 normal girls be visiting Neptune's Basilicom? Unless they wanted to meet her?
"We should be asking YOU that, just who the heck are you?" The brunette asked. She was a little cynical, and didn't seem to be very polite. Of course she probably didn't know who she was, but that didn't make the comment any less rude!
"Well, I'm Segula, and I kinda live here" Segula didn't really know if she officially lived here or not, so she added the "kinda".
"What? Well we certainly would've seen YOU before if that was the case" The rude brunette said.
"Before...?" They came here before? When was this? What did Neptune get herself into?
This time the blonde spoke up "We're here to see Nep-Nep, have you seen her Miss Segula?" The blonde was far more polite than the brunette was, and she even called her Miss! That was a first! Also...Nep-Nep? Was that a pet name or something? Did that mean Neptune was dating? Was a goddess even allowed to date a human?!
The rude brunette spoke again, and ended up catching Segula off guard with her next sentence.
"So why are you here? Are you Nep's girlfriend or something?"
Segula choked, her face turned white as she waved her hands in front of her.
"G-G-G-G-GIRLFRIEND?! M-M-ME?! N-NEPTUNE?!" Segula's face went redder than a tomato as she desperately tried to fix the brunette's accusation. Neptune was the absolute LAST person she would go out with. If it had been PLUTIA however, well, chances were she wouldn't be denying that.
"Aww, Miss Segula looks so cute when she's embarrassed" The polite blonde said, torn between sympathy and amusement towards Segula's predicament.
"S-Shut up" Segula his her face in her hands, and looked away from the duo. Neptune, who had heard the commotion, waltzed over to the door and was greeted by her 2 bestest buddies in the whole world.
"Iffy! Compa! COME ON INNN!" Neptune practically dragged the 2 girls in, and caught them in a bear hug. Segula was left confused.
"Urk! Nep...c-cant...breath..." IF gasped.
"Going...towards...t-the light" Compa breathed.
After realizing that her friends faces were starting to turn purple, she let go of her friends and gave them a chance to breathe.
"Uh, just what the heck is going on?" Segula bluntly asked. This whole situation was making her head spin. Since when did goddesses start making friends with humans?
"Oh right, you never met these 2 before have you? So sorry" Neptune gave Segula a goofy smile, then continued. "The flat brunette on my right is Iffy, the buxom blonde on my left is Compa!" Neptune was still smiling, despite the reactions she was getting from her friends.
"F-F-F-F-Flat?!"
"B-B-Buxom?"
Both girls were incredibly flustered, and Segula was (poorly) holding in her laughter. And Neptune was STILL grinning like an idiot.
"S-Stop grinning like that! Your not any bigger!" IF chastised, but that did little to damper Neptune's mood.
"At least I'M not ashamed to admit it, unlike you, Iffy" Neptune shot back, her smile looking just a LITTLE more mischievous, but just a little.
IF growled. She had nothing to counter that. Leave it to Neptune to ruin the mood. They had such a good day planned too!
"Aww, Iffy, I was just messing with you! Come on, turn that frown upside down!" Neptune had grabbed IF's face and quite literally tried to turn her scowl into a smile. But that just made the brunette bonk Neptune on the head.
"Oww..." Neptune whined as she rubbed her head.
"Well, at least Iffy looks happy now" Compa said.
Segula just plopped down on the couch, smiling at the scene. Unfortunately, she didn't notice that a half asleep Plutia was sitting beside her.
"Poor Iffy, she's much more concerned about size then I thought" Segula nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard Plutia's voice, and to her horror(?), she saw that the sleepy girl was just inches away from her. Immediately Segula felt her face burn up and her heart beated far faster than she wanted it too. Thankfully, Plutia didn't seem to notice.
"What about you, Seggy? Does your being flat bother you?"
"A-Ah, me? Honestly, I don't mind" Segula had known that when she HDD'd up, her breast's would get bigger, so it was something that never really bothered her.
"That's...good..." Plutia had nuzzled her head on Segula's shoulder, and not even 5 seconds later, she fell asleep.
Really Plutia?
"Dont worry about that Seg, she does it all the time" Neptune said, having finally delt with the situation with Iffy and Compa.
"What, her falling asleep at random intervals?"
"Yep!" Neptune simply answered.
Segula sighed, and before she could say anything, there was ANOTHER knock on the door. Groaning inwardly, Segula (carefully) brushed Plutia off her shoulder, then went to answer the door.
What she saw was...strange, to say the least.
There were piles upon piles of games, topped off with consoles. Segula could only see the feet of Lowee's CPU, who was clearly struggling with the enormous pile in her hands.
"Hey! Would ya stop standing there like a dumbass and let me in!" Blanc yelled from behind the pile.
Segula obeyed by stepping out of the way, and Blanc nearly collapsed when she dropped the games on the floor. Behind her was Rom and Ram, carrying their own stack of games and DID collapse when they dropped their pile. At the end of this train came Vert, Noire, and Uni, carelessly dropping their own piles on the floor so they could breath.
"Goodness! What is all this?" Nepgear (yeah remember her?) asked.
"I'm glad you asked Nepgear" Blanc panted as she caught her breath. "You see, since Seggy here has been gone for a long time, we figured we should catch her up"
Segula's eyes widened at the mountain of games. They covered half the freaking room! "So, all of these are...?"
"Games and Consoles from the last 1000 years" Vert finished.
"And YOU'RE gonna be playing them all" Blanc grinned as she tossed Segula a controller.
"Woah, back up a minute. You expect ME to play all of THIS?" Segula pointed to the mountain of games. Blanc just nodded in response. "T-This is gonna take me days, WEEKS even!"
"Well, then you better get started"
"Oooo, Seggy's playing games? I wanna play! I wanna play!" Plutia, who had just woken up, overhead her friends conversation and got excited.
Segula knew she had no way out of this, so she sighed in defeat.
"Sure, why not?"
Plutia squealed in delight as she was given a controller. She sat herself on Segula's left, while Blanc sat on her right, and had begun their long gaming session. IF just looked in confusion before she herself sighed in defeat, no longer having any purpose for being here, despite Compa's reassurances.
Right off the bat, it had become painfully clear that Plutia SUCKED at 2D games. This became ESPECIALLY obvious during a play through of a game featuring a certain Italian plumber ("You got a Game Over on World 1-1?!" "I swear I jumped!"). But this had not been more clear than on one PARTICULAR game. Segula was doing great, but it seemed like Plutia was dying on purpose just to piss Blanc off! With each death Blanc grew more and more furious, to the point of veins popping. And when Blanc thought it couldn't get any worse, at the end of the stage Plutia was playing, instead of jumping off the cliff and hitting the goal, Plutia went left and fell to her death.
Needless to say, Blanc snapped.
"Plutia! PLUTIA!" Blanc yelled. She didn't care if she made her upset, this was unacceptable! "What...the hell...was THAT?!"
"Uh.."
"You only had to go RIGHT!" Blanc clenched her fists. She was dangerously close to choke-slamming Plutia right there, but Blanc knew that situation wouldn't end well for her.
"I-It was misjudgment!"
"MISJUDGEMENT?! HOW?!" Blanc's face was red, and she felt a headache approaching. "I-It was r-right THERE!" Now Blanc sounded like she was on the verge of tears. She rubbed her temples as Plutia restarted the level...
...only to immediately die in less than 10 seconds.
"Plu-! ARGH! DOES THAT GOAL -TERRIFY- YOU?! DOES IT GIVE YOU NIGHT TERRORS?!"
"...Night Terrors?" Segula asked, who had been watching the scene in pure amusement. The others had a hard time holding their laughter at Plutia and Blanc's antics. Even Blanc chuckled at the random crap she just said. Plutia had TRIED to access the next level, but Blanc stopped her.
"No, you are not going to the next level until you finish that goddamn stage!" Everyone was sure they had never seen Blanc more angry in her entire life, and that was saying ALOT.
Blanc sighed a huge sigh. "I...am disgusted. I don't even want to LOOK at you right now"
"Blanny..."
"Don't "Blanny" me! Just start the goddamn stage!" Blanc was having a migraine. She was going to wreck some shit when she got home. They were probably gonna have to replaster the walls by the time she's done...
When Plutia restarted the level, she ended up knocking a button that was needed for her to progress the stage right off the edge of the platform.
Blanc screamed at the top of her lungs, and very nearly grabbed Plutia's neck.
"...Hit start, and hit select..." Blanc whispered, not even bothering to look at Plutia. She was even sweating now, she was so angry.
Afterwards, Blanc had taken the controller from Plutia and examined the scene of the crime.
"It was right here. This was where you died. You went right, then you went left. Y-You only h-had to go r-right..." Blanc dropped the controller, and proceeded to hide her face in her hat as she went over her life choices.
"We're going to counseling." Segula joked, which made them laugh a little, but Blanc didn't budge.
After that, Segula had finally beaten the game, and the 2 girls looked at Blanc, who was rubbing her temples.
"You OK?" Segula asked.
Blanc sighed, then looked at the 2 with a defeated expression.
"...My fucking head hurts"