A/N: In which I piss everyone off.
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Bloom's ecstatic smile faded when Baltor opened the door and the full force of his exhaustion stared her in the face. He looked happy to see her, but there was a general distracted air about him, like he'd left the kettle on or was waiting for the drier to finish with a suit that he needed for an important meeting. He gave her a tight hug, expression unreadable. The feeling was enough, though, and Bloom didn't hesitate to push him up against the wall inside, murmuring an order to forget about the Cloud Tower girls, and shut the apartment door with her magic.
"Your food will get cold," he sighed, releasing her waist, much to her displeasure – the fluttering, pattern-less beat her heat had taken on when she'd gotten bold had finally settled into a comforting thrum, and she'd enjoyed being on top (well, only figuratively, since they hadn't been lying down, but damn, there was something about being the one doing the pinning!).
"Okay, what's going on?" Bloom asked, finally raising her voice, "We lived together just fine for eighteen years and now this!" She gestured at the air between them, "What's happened?"
"Nothing's happened," Baltor responded, moving past her to the not-so-rickety table (courtesy of a spell she remembered him teaching her back on Earth, when her favorite swivel chair broke) and dishing out portions of chow mein, juicy vegetables and glazed bird of some sort.
She snorted, but didn't refuse to sit down, pulling her plate towards her and working the steaming noodles onto her fork, "Oh, okay, liar. Seriously, what's the deal? I get that you have this big secret that you're unwilling to share 'cause you don't want me to be 'angered' or whatever, but how do the witches feature? I mean, they're only a couple years older than me; you're practically immortal."
He chuckled, "Something like that." She watched him chew a green bean (trade between Earth and Magix was illegal, because the Council had decided it was better to stay out of their business, but it seemed Baltor had found a dealer to supply him with familiar veggies), "…I'm not in Magix just to see you."
…Well, that was a blow to the ego. "So how come you're here?" Bloom asked, upset leaking into the neutral tone she'd been hoping to use. He sighed slowly, setting his fork down carefully and staring out the window at the streetlights casting a dim glow on the street, the smoky-blue shadows between the buildings cold, despite the margarita-red sunset in the distance. Bloom leaned back and swallowed, realizing that she'd hear what he'd been keeping from her (or at least part of it) now.
"If I was going to live somewhere, I wouldn't have chosen Earth. The first few years were hell. I had to keep my magic hidden, learn about all the damned documents – passports, licenses, birth certificates, photographs; it all had to be forged, and I needed to keep you alive and healthy during that time, too. I cast spells on civilians I saw, taking their money and looking through their things. We kept living off other people, and we moved frequently. I tutored you until you in magic, English and math until you were six years old, and then got a job, found you a school and rented an apartment." He stopped, staring at his plate with a mixture of relief and hesitancy on his face; I'm glad I started, but I don't know if I should keep going.
"Why didn't you choose a magical planet?" Bloom asked, feeling the need to encourage his explaining. A feeling of intense discomfort had settled over her at the revelation of his stealing; worse than petty thefts, actual meal's and wardrobe's worth of paychecks taken from other's pocketbooks.
"I didn't want to have anyone following me, and at the time, Earth was impossible to get to without certain requirements being fulfilled - " – Bloom frowned, picking up on the hidden information – " – so when the situation presented itself, you and I left and arrived here."
"Why didn't you want to be followed?" If he was unwilling to spill about the 'certain requirements', that was fine. He'd made it easy for her; she only needed to look it up.
"…Eat your Chinese."
She complied, acknowledging that he wouldn't share any more tonight. 'That's fine,' she thought, clumsily slurping a noodle that had escaped her fork, 'I have my first clue.'
[-M-]
"I am not going to ask him," Tecna said, crossing her arms and looking the other way deliberately, glaring at the wall.
"Tecna, I need this. You were the one who said it was suspicious that Baltor didn't want us to mention his name to Faragonda." Bloom whined, wringing her hands, "I don't want to get Faragonda's attention again; what if she gets really curious about my research?"
"Timmy is uninterested in me anyway; he won't bend rules so that you can look up Earth teleportation from twenty years ago," the tactician responded, standing up and moving away to her computer.
"Ugh." Bloom scowled spectacularly, fisting her hands and tilting her head up, "Stella! Tecna's refusing to acknowledge her feelings towards the guy who can set me up with unlimited access to an unlimited database!" Tecna sighed, mouth set in annoyance and continued typing as if she hadn't heard Bloom's shout. The red-head, however, looked around in confusion, "Where is she? She came in with me; I know that."
Bloom walked to the bathroom they shared, "Stel'? You in there?"
"Yeah! What's up?" The door opened and the blonde regarded her interestedly, rinsing her mouth with the whitening wash Flora had brought back from her last date in Magix with Sky (an excuse for all of them to give her shopping lists and change to buy them things with).
Bloom quirked a brow, "Odd time to worry about mouth hygiene. Anyway, I need Timmy's database, and Tecna's the one who can get it for me."
The princess shrugged and spat into the sink, "Get it yourself. You know where he lives."
"Now if that's not creepy…" Bloom said, but nodded in agreement, "Okay. When can I make the trip to Red Fountain?"
"Musa's meeting Riven tomorrow for a date-that's-not-a-real-date-because-of-them-not-actually-dating-date," said Stella.
"Um. Okay. Think she'll let me tag along?"
"Well, assuming you don't creep on them during the date-that's - "
"Okay. I'll go ask her."
As it was, Musa was fine with her coming, even with lending Bloom a few coins for the bus to the school. The musician eagerly told her about the bike ride Riven had suggested, not blushing at Bloom's waggling eyebrows (not done as well as Baltor could do, but well enough), instead making the Earthling's face turn tomato-red with her (incidentally correct) remarks about Bloom's evening with Baltor. The red-head failed at out-lech-ing the dark-haired girl, and resolved to do better next time, much to the singer's amusement. Together, they made their way up to the boy's rooms, Musa soon leaving for the garage with her beau and Bloom heading for 'Computer Lab A', where Sky had said Timmy was (passing her a note for Stella, too, of course).
Once she found the lab, she approached the male programmer with caution, wary of startling him like she knew Tecna could be when she was absorbed in whatever she was doing on the comp. It seemed, however, that the specialist was more aware of his surroundings than her pink-haired friend, because he turned as soon as she came near, hands in a defensive position that lowered easily when he saw it was her.
"Hey, Bloom. What're you doing here?" he asked, nervously scratching his cheek and face heating at the snickers from the guys around him. She hazarded a guess that computer geeks didn't get many visits from girls.
"Uh, well, I was wondering if you'd let me have a look at that infamous database of yours." She grinned imploringly.
"Alright," he said, "Just let me save this." Three clicks later, he was leading her into the library and to a small collection of screens near the entrance. "Just slip these over your eyes, like so," he said, removing his glasses and putting on a pair of goggles. Bloom complied, and waited for him to slide his ID through the sensor. A search bar and touch-screen keyboard appeared, blinking at her and Timmy in wait, "And type in what you need. The database will find it for you."
"Cool. But why the goggles?"
"It's in case someone's looking up something personal, like their parent's divorce papers or something," he explained.
"You can get that specific?"
"Of course. This is no ordinary Realm Wide Web," he said.
"But what about privacy?" She asked, feeling a bit miffed that her dorm number in Alfea might be exposed to any guy looking.
"That's why only certain people are allowed to have these," he pointed to his ID card, still in the reader, "The exam I had to take to get that thing was impossible. They do really extensive background checks on you, too, to make sure you never stole information or cheated or anything. Plus, most documents like that have a password to prevent people seeing."
"Hm," Bloom said, and typed her keywords.
"What do you want to know about travelling to Earth twenty years ago?"
"Well, I heard that it was really difficult. I want to know why."
"Doesn't Alfea's library have information about this?"
"Yeah, but…you know…this is so much better," she said with a nervous laugh.
He gave her a look but didn't press further. "Okay, well, I'm gonna go back to Lab A. When you're done, bring me my card, 'kay?"
"Okay. Thanks, Tim; you're a lifesaver."
"Uh…"
"Earth term."
"Right."
Bloom turned back to the screen and eyed the results. The first thing that popped up was a generic research database whose accuracy was approved by Tecna herself, and Bloom started here, tapping the screen and reading as the information popped up. Once she'd finished with that site, she moved further (one finding in particular causing her to raise an eyebrow), printing the information she thought was valuable to take back to the dorm and analyze with the help of the girls. With some satisfaction, she gathered her papers and removed Timmy's ID, moving back to where she'd found him and returning it with a hug.
"I'm glad it helped," he said, awkwardly adjusting his glasses (which, actually, never seemed out of place; she guessed he'd just formed the habit when there was nothing else for his hands to do).
"No problem. Now," she said, fixing him with a stern gaze, "I have advice for you."
"Um…"
"Ask Tecna out now or be single and uncomfortable in the presence of females forever." Snickers erupted around them and he blushed hotly, looking about to stutter denial. Bloom didn't acknowledge this, turning and walking out of the room and, without stopping, the building, an accomplished smile on her face.
[-M-]
"Alright, so, what'd ya find?" Musa asked, plopping down onto the couch the girls shared, Flora leaning against it and Tecna doing the same against the wall behind them.
"Around twenty years ago, Earth's dimension had a barrier around it preventing transportation between itself and other magical dimensions, placed there by the Magix Council, who had wanted to protect its purity or something. The only way to get there was through a portal made by this necklace-thingy," Bloom said, pausing incredulously.
"Yes, we know this already – we took tests on it back in grade school. The necklace of the Nine Nymphs of the Magical Dimension, which creates portals when waved over a mirror," Tecna said steadily, brow furrowing in exasperation when she realized where Bloom was trying to take it.
"…Is anyone gonna explain this to me?" The red-head asked, waving the papers and laughing a bit whilst blushing.
"They don't have nymphs back where you come from? They're like priestesses. They worship the Great Dragon and other deities by making love." Flora said in a genuinely interested tone.
Bloom stared, "Sex? As prayer?"
"Well, yeah," Stella said, "They disbanded after one of the nymphs died without electing a successor. That was the starting point of a lot of court trials and rallies. Eventually the government decided that they didn't want to keep going with the tradition, since those eligible tended to be overly loose and perhaps a teensy bit irresponsible."
"Who was eligible?" Bloom asked, actually curious.
"Unmarried heiresses with really good recommendations from their colleges who are photogenic, polite and outspoken – they have to be really good with politics, 'cause they have a seat on the council, as one entity," Stella said, "If they were still around, I'd be halfway there to being one of them."
"Seriously?" Bloom said.
"Well, yeah. It's really safe, respectful and it's not like it's prostitution – you're doing a duty to the realms."
Bloom shook her head, amazed at Magix' ability to be so strange. They had state-of-the-art technology, beyond-amazing educational facilities, but had kept the age-old tradition of sex-worship alive until eighteen years ago. Frighteningly enough, she could kind of see how it went, though – figureheads of religion stirred masses, and if the approval of the Great Dragon or whatever lie in the joining of two people, then the government was bound to take advantage of that. It seemed they just got all 21st-century and practical once the opportunity presented itself.
But that wasn't even the point – the issue lie with Baltor. How had he gotten one of the nymphs to make a portal to transport him to Earth with her? And what had he done that required their leaving the magical universe? For now, all she could do was keep researching the sex-symbols. She only hoped she'd end up with more than useless information.
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A/N: "Are you sick in the head?" Well, did it ever bug anyone that they kept using the word 'nymph'? Did the writers not know where that came from? And why not? - different religions have different viewpoints, and this culture seems a lot looser about sexuality than others (ahem – their fighters wear miniskirts). And like Stella said, it's safe, respectful and done for the common good. (If you haven't already, go read Shrine Prostitue in the IY archive. You'll get what I'm saying.) But seriously! I get that sex is really about passion, in-the-moment stuff, but it's also sacred (note: New Age religions!) and I think this is something that could go deeper than the original series.
And I'm happy to talk about this, too. So drop me a line! (Short chapter is short; I'll write more once I've connected some dots.)
