Something Familiar (MK.2)
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Something Familiar (Mk.2)
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Chapter 15
"Girl-Not-On-Girl"
AKA
"The Yuri Strikes Back"
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It was the first and only dream she had ever had. It was probably the only dream she would ever had. Things like her weren't meant to dream, not any more than they were meant to hope. However, this one thing had been etched so deeply into her that she didn't have a choice. It was a memory that she put a great deal of effort into ignoring while awake, but was left defenseless against in her slumber.
She dreamt of blood.
Hot and sticky. Fresh. Covering her hands and chest. Face drenched in it. The copper tang of it filling her mouth. It was still seeping slowly from the body at her feet. It did so half-heartedly, most of its strength spent. It wasn't surprising, considering how much had already escaped.
Even her hair was soaked in it. It fell down her back in a tangled mess, ends easily reaching the street. They'd made the trip through more than one puddle of blood. The streets were awash in it.
She hadn't had time to do anything with it since yanking it free of its braid. It had been hastily done, the word 'yanking' being used in a very literal sense. It felt good to be free of it. She'd always hated it, hated the way it made her look like The Bitch. She never would have worn it normally, but her Heart knew nothing of The Bitch and had loved the style. It made her Heart smile in a way that flooded her with warmth.
There was no reason to wear it now. Her Heart had been stolen. No more warmth in her chest. Just cold hatred.
She reached up to brush a finger against the silver bell in her hair. She had no idea how many times she had done that, checking that it was still there. It was an absurd thing to do. Tied securely in her ribbon, there was no way it could fall without her knowing.
She dreamt of fire.
So much fire. Fire everywhere. Normal fire of orange and red. Not-so-normal fire of black and purple. It was the kind that ate stone and was all the hotter for it. It was nearly impossible to put out, and would burn for three days or until it felt the touch of blessed salt.
She absently touched the bag slung at an angle across her back. A much more practical action, as it contained at least 10 kilos of salt. It was worth a not inconsiderable fortune elsewhere and would go a long way to help her here. She wished she could have taken more, but a larger pack would have impacted her mobility.
She dreamt of smoke.
Her hair would smell like it for weeks. Smoke and blood. Not unfamiliar. At one time it could have practically been her perfume.
The entire city was burning. The streets ran red with blood. The people were dead or dying, aside from the lucky few that had escaped. Many lost in the initial, unexpected attack. Even more lost when they exited the escape tunnels carved into the mountain, only to find a mass of hungry Horrors waiting.
Betrayed, and now dead.
Was it even worth helping now?
The Horrors were mostly ignoring her, as they usually did. Occasionally one would regard her curiously, or even edge a bit closer, but a warning growl was all it took to send them scampering off. She had nothing they wanted.
Though docile at the moment (toward her, at least), killing one or two would bring every nearby beast down on her. Considering how few humans were left alive, it hardly seemed worth the effort.
Her hHart would want her to help them. She would want her to save as many as she could, even if it was just one. Standing by and doing nothing would make her eyes dim with disappointment.
But her heart's eyes didn't shine at all, now. The rings of luminous silver were tarnished and dull.
Why bother?
She dreamt of a song.
She could hear them now, if only barely. Two voices that somehow pierced the chaos and panic. The source of the purple and black flames, she'd guess. They sang a haunting tune, an eerie melody that made you feel like it was wrenching at your soul.
Well, so she'd been told. She had no first-hand experience with such, so she took it on faith.
The song belonged to one of the highest classes of Horror. More like a psychic keen than an actual melody, it could usually only be heard by their intended target It was like echolocation, but with soul instead of sound. It was the last thing many would-be heroes heard before their horrific deaths, so it had become associated with grisly demise. Many felt ending your life the moment you hear it was a far wiser choice than trying to stand and fight.
Angels.
They were likely the source of the hollow flame. Killing them would snuff the purple and black death. Who knew how many people that would save?
She dreamt of joy.
Not true joy. Not the joy she'd had just a day ago. Not the joy that had filled her with warmth. Not the joy she had kept in her heart, along with all the other good things.
It was the joy of tearing muscle and bone crunching in her jaws. It was the joy of blood, violence and rage. It was the joy of making those who wronged you suffer, even if it hurt you in the end.
It was her joy, not her Heart's.
She'd be joining the angels, it seemed. She hoped they wouldn't mind, though they probably would. No one liked being shown up, after all, and there was a reason she bore their name.
It was because she sang it better.
She silently bid farewell to this chapter of her life. It was too bad, because she had almost felt like a real person for a while. Not enough to dull her edge, but to at least polish her to a fine shine.
Turning, she barely noticed a tear escape the corner of her eyes. She did, however, notice the slim finger that ran across her cheek and wiped it away. It was enough to make her smile, despite the horrible…
Wait…
That never happened!
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Angel's eyes shot open.
The fingers of her free hand curled, bringing her nails around to an angle that would take a nasty hunk out of just about anything. Her eyes darted back and forth at the same time. They bounced around the room in an efficient and calculated pattern, easily drinking in the details despite the low light.
As it turned out, it wasn't very hard to spot the culprit at all.
Hand relaxing, Angel sighed and settled back down. "Don't you know you should let sleeping tigers lie, Orchid?"
Orchid looked down at her quizzically. The slim girl was, oddly enough, kneeling on the floor next to her redheaded friend. It was a seating arrangement that would be perfectly normal for most, but was decidedly odd for someone who spent as much time on or cuddled against her partner in crime as possible.
Actually, the arrangement was a bit weirder than Angel registered at first Belatedly, she realized that her head was actually resting in Orchid's lap. How the other Familiar had managed that without waking her up, she had no idea. One of her hands was in her lap, fingers resting against Angel's temple like she was rubbing or stroking it. The other was locked in what very well could have been a literal death-grip. The alura une's fingers were trapped in Angel's vice-like grasp, the thin digits being squeezed so hard it was actually deforming the rest of her hand.
Realizing what she was doing, Angel hastily released the pale fingers. "Are you stupid? I could have hurt you on accident!" she hissed. It was a lot closer to an actual hiss than the human version, but still got the point across.
Looking down at her, Orchid flashes a momentary smug smile, as if to rub in the fact that Angel was reflexively worrying about her wellbeing. It was little more than a curling of the corners of her mouth, though, and quickly faded into a more serious and concerned expression.
Okay?
"I'm alright. It was just a nightmare," Angel replied, sighing. She closed her eyes and took several slow, measured breaths before opening them again. "I get a case've the bad dreams sometimes. I'mma gonna have to find somewhere else to sleep for a couple've days."
What?
Angel thought for a moment before replying, "Mmmm, it'sa bad dream that really happened."
Orchid cocked her head to give her friend a confused look.
Which?
"Silly Flower. It'sa thing that happened and its a bad dream. That's the worst kind," Angel answered. "Course, that's just what peoples've told me. I only have the one dreams, so I wouldn't know."
Orchid pondered this, frowning as she stared into her hand. The extremity was once again an extremity, but she was regarding it with a fair degree of puzzlement.
"Flower? What's wrong?"
Orchid hesitated for a moment, suddenly wondering if she should have been a little more subtle. Hiding it may have been the better option here, but it was no use now. Concealing it was not an option.
With some degree of trepidation, she turned her palm to face Angel. It quickly became obvious what the alura une had been examining. It was hard to miss the cut that ran across the breadth of her hand. Running diagonally from edge to edge, it just barely penetrated the layer of flower petals to reach the latticework of thin branches beneath.
Perhaps most noteworthy of all was the fact that, contrary to what normally happened when Orchid was injured, it wasn't weaving itself shut.
Hurts, she declared. There was more than a little confusion tingeing the hallucination.
"Oh noes! You got the cuts!" gasped Angel, rolling away from Orchid and into a kneeling position. This action very obviously caused her significantly more distress than the wound did. Much to her surprise, the horrific murder-plant of village-massacaring had discovered being the cuddler was just as nice as being the cuddlee.
There'd have to be some more tests, of course. She would definitely have to follow what her Keeper's friend called the Scientific Meth-Head. She wasn't sure where The Girl had encountered a Methmold plant, or what junkies had to do with it, but she easily grasped the concept of trying things repeatedly to see if you get the same result.
Let's see…
Location was a definite variable, so she'd have to figure out how to drag the redhead around to a bunch of places. Duration of the cuddle was also important to test. Should she bring the water-thing to enforce the eight-hour test? She made a pretty good restraint, mainly because Angel wouldn't actually hurt her. That meant sharing, though, and Orchid didn't know if she was up for that.
Unaware of the impending doom (DOOOOOOOOOOOM!), Angel sighed in relief and released Orchid's hand. This action also caused more distress than the actual wound.
"You're lucky. It's not too bad. You should be able to heal it in a day or two," Angel said quietly. "That's exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about, Orchid. I could've slashed you a lot worse."
Plants, Orchid declared, gesturing down her body. It was quickly followed by her pointing at Angel's chest and stating, Heart.
Angel's breath caught for a moment, the word sending an unexpected twinge of pain through her. Not for the first time she wondered if answering the Summoning was a good idea. The connection with her boy - or maybe just interacting with people on this level - was dragging some nasty things out.
"I don't care if your heart's right here," Angel retorted. She absently tapped her top, the edge of her nail bouncing off the firm vines. "How do you think it would feel to take a few of those across the face?"
There was no response to this, which wasn't unexpected when you consider that Orchid had barely even registered the question. The entirety of her attention was focused on the spot Angel correctly identified as her heart.
She had felt her friend touch it. Since she was always aware of her heart, even when the bulk of her was elsewhere, it was hard not to. The feeling of Angel's touch was doubly hard to miss, so she had noted the tap quite clearly. It had been quite a firm one, the edge of her nail pressing into the vine ever so slightly.
What she didn't feel was a cut.
"Flower? What're you doing?" Angel asked in her normal, sing-song tone. "Where are you looking at? Why're you being so weird? You're not even looking at my boobs!"
The pale girl looked up from Angel's chest to give her a brilliant smile.
It wasn't a sly smile or a perverted smile, both of which were quite common. It wasn't one of the multitude of "come hither" smiles that seemed to be stock for any alura une. It wasn't even the vapid, pleasantly confused smile she used to escape the consequences of her actions. Most notably, it was… well…. more notable than most of her expressions.
For someone that was still pretty early into figuring out things like emotions and emotional expression, it was bright enough to bleach a used tampon.
Angel gaped.
Nothing, Orchid lied as her face went back to a typical expression. In her case, kind of a vacant and welcoming stare. She normally would have gone the "confused plant" route at a time like this, but she wasn't sure she could manage it at the moment.
"You… are the Weird Flower. The Weird, Weird Flower," Angel groaned. Shaking her head, she quietly rose to her feet and looked around.
Everyone in the dormroom was passed out hard. In fact, 98.2% of the humans in the castle were probably in the same state. There were a couple of wild cards in there, but only enough to sway the count by 0.9% at most. The majority of Hogwarts' furry, beast, and other population had a considerably larger portion awake, but few of them interested her.
Asmatarta was normally okay, but out of the question at the moment. The naga was okay to hang out with most of the time, but could still be a royal bitch. Since last time Angel had passed her she smelled like it was "that time of the month," she was probably a no-go at the moment.
For about the two-millionth time, Angel thanked Stone she didn't bleed. Just the thought of slapping things over… or even in… made her want to gag.
Waking someone up was a possibility, but also probably a no-go. Her Boy got pretty grumpy when she rattled him awake prematurely. The same applied to Orchid's Keeper - so he was a no - and the two dorks weren't much fun at all. You could only deal with people giving your chest slack-jawed looks for so long before it got annoying. It was pretty stupid, too, considering how often they saw them bare.
It should go without saying that Ron wasn't even in the running. The boy himself was disgusting and ignorant, but his partner was worse. The damn rat gave her the creeps for some reason. Maybe she just couldn't shake the image of what he had looked - and smelled - like before his Master (shockingly) took the time to clean him up. There was just something wrong with that thing.
There was another group of first-years across the hall, four in total. One of them smelled like he was a hop, skip and jump into puberty. She had been toying with the idea of 'accidentally' turning up in his bed naked for a while now, but had decided to save it for a special occasion. You could only get away with that sort of thing so many times, and she didn't want to blow her load early.
Heh.
The twins and the one that smelled like hot metal weren't an option. She had heard them sneak down the stairs a while ago, which meant they were probably going wherever they went when she couldn't track them. It was an annoying talent they had that was, quite frankly, embarrassing to her. It was far from impossible for the quarry she was tailing to evade her, but there was no way in hell a trio of thirteen-year-olds would have the requisite skills. They would turn a corner and vanish as if by magic, only there was no lingering scent of spatial manipulation. It was just the normal clusterfuck of failing enchantments, some of which would have been disturbed by any kind of displacement.
There was also the possibility of temporal magic, the very thought of which made her shudder. It was staggeringly powerful stuff, but left no traces she could detect. It was theoretically possible that they were escaping her by that route. Not really realistic, though.
After all, you'd have to be an Olympic-class moron to give a thirteen-year-old access to temporal magic.
Her last option for entertainment was currently kneeling at her feet and looking up at her curiously. It wasn't a particularly bad option. The alura une had a considerably larger place in Angel's heart than the Familiar was likely to admit. In fact, it was large enough that it worried her a little. Caring for her Master was to be expected, given that the Bond forced it, but having any degree of affection for someone else was unanticipated.
Her Master couldn't leave her behind. Anyone else could. She had no desire for that to happen again.
She could practically feel things lining up in her head as the thought swept through it. They were shifting and moving, pushed around by her rising despair. It was like a set of gears arranging themselves to mesh into a machine that actually made sense.
It took the psychological equivalent of several solid swings with a sledgehammer to knock them back out of alignment.
Distraction.
She needed a distraction.
Holding out her hand, Angel chirped, "C'mon Flower! Lets go play inna woods!"
The alura une stared up at her for a moment, studying the outstretched hand in confusion. The offer was both sudden and unexpected. It didn't match how the redhead tasted at all. In semi-accurate mundane terms, her emotions tasted cold, salty and just a bit sour, a flavor Orchid wasn't fond of. The attitude and actions she was presenting now was more consistent with a sunny, bunny-viscera and gentle cinnamon feeling.
Why did meat-people do this? Acting one way and feeling another… it was just confusing. Life was so much easier if you were just honest. Having to deal with this crap was one of the few things Orchid lamented about becoming more human and it was a bit disappointing to discover that Angel did it too.
More than most, even.
The plant spirit allowed herself to be hauled to her feet.
"Okays! I found these funny little fox thingies yesterday. We should go eat some!"
Orchid considered for a moment, then asked, Rest?
If Angel was looking for a distraction, Orchid had certainly provided it. Never mind being knocked out of alignment, the alura une's request sent the gears bouncing across the floor. At least a few ended up under the couch, one slid under the refrigerator, and one actually slipped between the floorboards and into the apartment below.
"Uh… what?" Angel muttered. She regarded her friend with a shocked and slightly freaked-out stare. I'd say it was like she had grown a third head, but that wouldn't actually be odd at all. It was more like… the spirit told her she had made a mistake on line 47 of her tax documentation and, by the way, she took the liberty of paying the cable and electric bills, since they had been left a while and she was getting worried. "Can- can you do the talking again? I think I got it wrong…"
Orchid frowned, an expression that was far too cute to be applied in the proper context. She had been quite clear, composing the communication carefully, and Angel was usually better at communicating than anyone but her Keeper.
What the hell was wrong with her today?
Rest? she asked again. This time she even spiked the air more than normal.
Angel slowly blinked at her. "Nope. Got it right the first time."
The question was shocking for reasons that went far beyond the spirit turning down the opportunity to massacre a new, unfortunate lifeform.
Every request Orchid had made involving the two of them thus far had involved twitching, still-warm shreds of animal and blatantly perverted activities. No, I didn't get the conjunction wrong there, it's supposed to be and. Every now and then it would be an either/or suggestion, but that was uncommon. Angel's primary theory was that this was an attempt to indulge her primal feeding instincts. They did involve a lot of blood and a lot of sex, after all.
For the first time in nearly two months, the suggestion Orchid relayed involved neither of those things. It was totally devoid of lustful or violent activities of any kind.
It was perfectly innocent. It was too perfectly innocent. It was the kind of perfectly innocent that, when uttered by a plant spirit from a place that makes Hell look like Happy Bunny Sunshine Land, is devastatingly horrifying by sheer virtue of being devoid of anything devastatingly horrifying.
It was a simple image of the two of them somewhere in the forest, or maybe elsewhere the castle grounds. The background was a bit too blurry to identify, which generally meant Orchid didn't care where it was. The two Familiars were of course there together, but very little was happening between them. In fact, it was so little that it was almost not worth mentioning.
Angel was laying on the ground, her head resting in Orchid's lap. Aside from that, the only other thing going on was Angel occasionally singing for her friend. Oh, and now and then the alura une would touch the redhead's temple or forehead.
Freaky, huh?
The image was enough to make Angel momentarily acquire a taste of wary suspicion and uncertainty, This, in turn, prompted a vague sense of annoyance to fill smaller girl. It was a bit confusing, since it wasn't the outright anger she had occasionally felt since becoming a Familiar. It didn't make her want to tear something to shreds. It did, however, make her want to be a bit difficult and maybe do something she normally wouldn't do.
So when Angel replied, "I dunno, Flower. That's kinda… weird," her thoughts turned in a somewhat malicious direction.
It only took Orchid a moment to recall that she was supposed to be more human now. It was Angel herself that told her so, and that it meant she could do human things. It was an idea she was only just starting to have a slight grasp on, but the understanding she did have was deep enough to set her about quickly evaluating the human behaviors she'd seen. It only took her a moment to come across one that seemed to fit the situation quite well.
It also fit her identity as an evil, carnivorous plant.
Somehow it just didn't occur to her that she hadn't even the slightest understanding of the concept of evil just a few months ago.
Orchid gave Angel another smile, this one so full of faux maliciousness that it made the redhead shrink back a bit. She slowly raised her hand and turned the palm to face her. Pointing at the deep cut there, she tilted her head and declared, Hurts.
Angel stared at the cut for several long moments, her mouth hanging open slightly in shock. Then, after the full implications of the situation hit her, she let out a loud snort. It was followed by a bout of laughter that she just barely managed to muffle with both hands.
The strange actions got her a confused look from the other Familiar. Weren't people supposed to be upset when you did things like this to get your way?
Finally, Angel managed to calm down enough that she didn't need to silence herself.
"Okay, fine. You win, Orchid. Let's-"
Not!
Angel stared in confusion as she was cut off. "Uh, what?"
Taking an unnecessary breath (something she'd seen humans do to calm down), Orchid tried again.
Not.
This time Angel managed to get the message. She asked, "It bothers you? That much?" in disbelief.
Orchid responded with a slightly petulant nod.
"Oh. Fine. Let's go have a rest in the Forest, Flower," Angel tried again. This time she got a slight, happy smile in response.
Shaking her head, Angel couldn't help but wonder at the degree of change Orchid was going through. Alura une were extremely uncommon in the Other Place, but she'd been around long enough to meet several. Like most of Sea's children, they had little interest in harming her. It made interacting with them safe and, having considerably more curiosity about the world than most of her kind, she had done so whenever she could.
She had never met a Black Orchid, White Lily or Ash Ivy, which wasn't surprising considering that all three were renown for both their rarity and their ability to blend in with human populations. Even so, it was hard to believe that they could act like this. The Lily was known for her cruelty and maliciousness, while the Orchid's defining trait was the massacre of entire small cities. There wasn't much said of the Ivy, other than that she could blend in with humans so completely that only a complete dissection could discover her, but it would be surprising if she was any better. A predator like that had to be on a whole other level, and Angel had always suspected the species was more dangerous - if not outright more powerful - than the other two.
It was probably a good thing she hadn't found a single reference to the species ever existing here. If one was born in this realm, it wouldn't be plagued by the illness afflicting Orchid and herself. That would mean things could go very badly if they ever met one.
There was a tap to her forehead. Starting and looking up, Angel discovered Orchid looking at her expectantly. She was still waving her hand in front of her.
"Right. Let's…" Angel trailed off, shaking her head. A moment later she began again, lilting, "Let's go take a nap inna forest then, Sneaky Flower."
There was a brief pause.
"I kinda feel like I could have the sleep a little. Maybe."
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Author's Note
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Okay, this chapter is definitely a little shorter than my norm. Sorry about that, but I felt like it was a pretty good stopping point. A third scene at the end, assuming it was one of the ones I'm planning, would have clashed a little bit.
I'm not sure if I've mentioned it in this version, but anyone who read my notes in Classic may recall me saying that my characters sometimes do things all on their own. They will take actions I didn't plan, or develop in ways that I didn't intend for them to. It probably seems odd to those of you who don't write, and maybe some that do, but that's the case.
This chapter was a pretty good example of that. Despite my earlier jokes about yuri, I really didn't intend to have there be any kind of relationship between Orchid and Angel. Not beyond friendship and Orchid's continued perversion towards her friend, at least. I feel like there's already too many gratuitous F/F relationships in fanfiction as it , not nearly as many as M/M, but still too many.
Note that I mean gratuitous same-sex relationships. Relationships that don't server any purpose in the plot and make y ou scratch your head in confusion. So many are completely pointless and, even worse, make zero sense. I mean, if you want to put two characters together, but have to completely change their personalities to do so, what's the point? At that point you're not actually putting them together, just two characters that have the same name.
It also has to make sense in-universe. Like if I tried to put SF Nev and SF Harry together, that would just be stupid. Harry's unpredictable and impulsive nature wouldn't go well with Nev's developing sense of superiority and moderate need for order. Either Hermione or Fred would be a lot more reasonable, but you probably won't see that happen.
Why? Because the very thought scares the hell out of me. They do enough damage as is.
Luckily, I feel like Angel and Orchid do make sense to a large extent. The unrestrained (albeit perverted) Orchid shows is something that would benefit Angel. I'm pretty sure I've shown enough that I can say she's had a very long and mostly unhappy life without spoiling anything. On the other side, Angel makes a good mitigating influence on Orchid - especially while she's dealing with new feelings - and can demonstrate constructive affection. I think It's clear at this point she has a lot more restraint than you'd think.
Yes, the whole thing with her thoughts and heads does have a reason. Hopefully I'll get to the point I want to reveal it, but no promises. That's a ways off.
I'm already working on the next chapter of this, but also working on revising 1 and 2 of Unheroic and completely rethinking New Game Plus. It might be a while before any of them are posted, given the way I bounce around.
Anyway, this one goes out to my buddy Shenny. They've been a really positive influence on this story, and someday we've gotta do the collab thing we talked about. Shenny's also writing a pretty sweet Fate/Stay x Game of Thrones fic at s/13584666/1/A-Study-of-the-Impact-of-External-Variables-on-a-Closed-System. cuts off the first part of the link, but it should be pretty obvious what goes there. I recommend checking it out.