Now Presenting: A very special episode. Thank you to everyone who took the time to read my fic. Despite the name of the chapter being something like Christmas Special, there is gonna be some plot progression, even if there are no fights.
Happy holidays everyone! Stay safe out there.
Cyrus had a very nebulous understanding of Christmas, all things considered. His memories were faint at best, and only really gave him an idea of the aesthetics of the celebration- green and red, a big decorated tree, presents, and all that. Of course, there was probably a lot more depth to it than that, although their resident "expert" Harold probably wasn't the best person to get a deep understanding of the holiday from, given that he had a vested interest in selling as much stuff as possible.
The ghist of the holiday was gift giving and charity, along with spending time with family, and while no one in the village had real biological family around (with the possible exception of the Twins?) they were a fairly tight knit community. Even if they didn't exactly fit the definition of the holiday, everyone was fairly excited, especially given that they had a lot of new guests for their little celebration.
Three new guests all at once had to be some sort of record, and Cyrus had to move out of the sickroom even if Abigail wanted to keep an eye on him, as for the very first time they had reached maximum occupancy. Of course, Cyrus certainly wasn't lacking for nursing or care...
"Now I need you to move over just a little more…"
"Like this?"
"Yes, that's perfect. Now just sit back and relax."
"Ahhhh…"
Visca flushed. Whatever… degeneracy was going on in there, she couldn't let it continue! She wouldn't let Medulla get to Cyrus first! Wait, no! She was just going to make sure that Cyrus wouldn't be corrupted by Medulla's pernicious charms!
She pulled open the door ready to put a stop to whatever was going on in the bathroom… to find Medulla sitting behind Cyrus, carefully cleaning the parts of Cyrus' back and wings that were impossible for him to reach. Of course, this sort of bathing couldn't be done fully clothed, and Visca felt her cheeks heating up as she caught an eyeful of Cyrus' chest.
Medulla glared at her from behind Cyrus' icy wings, which looked majestic as usual, even if the effect was mitigated a little by the soap bubbles from Medulla's cleaning. "Hello, Visca. Did you have some business with us, or do you just enjoy slamming doors open?"
"Uhh, well… ahhh…" Why was she like this? Well, she knew the reason behind her sudden lack of proper speech, the issue was the way Cyrus left her tongue tied.
Medulla sighed. "Well, if you're here… grab a towel and start cleaning. The wings are incredible pain to wash, and I'd rather have you cleaning than gawking."
"I was not-"
"Grab a towel, please."
Cyrus' wings could be taken off and reattached at will, but he decided to keep them on almost full time, just to make sure he was always ready to face something unexpected (like the Frost Moon incident). It would probably be easier to clean the wings if they were just taken off his back and cleaned separated by Cyrus' paranoia wouldn't allow it, in addition to his dislike of the feeling of loosing two limbs.
They managed to finish cleaning Cyrus' wings without any really issue, although the conversation was dead.
Francisca would be one of the first to admit that she didn't have the greatest understanding of social nuances, but if she had to field an educated guess, jumping up and down in the middle of a door frame was unusual.
"Miss Cthylla, is there a reason for you jumping up and down right now?"
Cthylla turned, and Francisca could see the bough of a plant in her hands, with vibrant green leaves and small white berries. "I'm trying to hang this mistletoe. Nissa gave me some, but I can't jump high enough to get it onto to the door frame."
Francisca nodded. "May I help you with that then?" Cthylla looked up at the door frame again and sighed before handing over the sprig of mistletoe. Francisca had a number of extensions built into her arm, and one of them allowed her to properly hang the plant.
"I must ask if there is a reason behind the hanging of this plant, Miss Cthylla? Or is it like the other decorations which are just for the sake of aesthetics?"
"Oh, you're supposed to kiss someone if you meet them under a sprig of mistletoe… I suppose there's only one person I'd prefer to run into, but it's not like I couldn't kiss Cyrus any time I wanted…" As Cthylla pondered over how useful the mistletoe was for someone in a committed relationship, Francisca also thought for a few moments.
"Well then… Do we kiss now?" That question snapped Cthylla out of her contemplation and gave her face a rosy flush.
"No!"
Francisca looked up at the mistletoe again. "Am I misunderstanding what you meant then? We are both under a sprig of mistletoe, so I assumed…"
"Well usually yes, but… I'm in a relationship, so I can't! That's it!" Cthylla rushed off and left Francisca to ponder human social norms.
The first of their new guests to wake up was the one who came from the giant Christmas tree, the brunette with the green coat. When she finally woke up, she opened her eyes to reveal a pair of hazel irises which were complemented by a warm smile.
"Hello. I'm Picea, and I assume you folks were the ones who put a stop to my old form?"
Cyrus took her hand and helped her to her feet, and she swayed a little before gaining a solid footing. "Thank you kindly, Mister…"
"Cyrus. I'm Cyrus and the nurse who looked after you is Abigail."
"Well thank you very much, Miss Abigail. I appreciate you looking after me while I was… indisposed."
"It's nothing. Say, could you tell us about the others?" Cyrus asked, and when Picea's brow furrowed in confusion he gestured to the other two occupied beds.
"Ahhh, them… The one in the red dress with the white fur trim? Her name is Nicola, and the other girl, the one with the ice dress, her name is Crista. I think."
"Well Abigail says they're probably not going to wake up for a while, so would you like me to show you around?"
Picea seemed happy with the village, although the real highlight of the tour for her was the massive Christmas tree they had managed to set up.
"I suppose this explains my previous form? I know us monsters can tend to get a little… wacky, but I just didn't get why I used to be a giant tree covered in baubles until I saw this."
"That's strange. A lot of us- well myself and the other girls that came from defeated monsters have a similar trend of not having perfect knowledge. I still can't remember a lot of things, but I guess you girls have a reason and I don't. I just woke up in the forest one day with some vague ideas about life but no hard memories."
"Nothing at all?"
"I can't remember a thing before I woke up in this land, despite knowing a lot of other random things. I seem to remember what Christmas is, but I can't remember ever celebrating one."
Picea frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that. Have you ever searched for any way to restore your memory?"
"I've asked Abigail, but she had no idea how to approach the problem. Just about everyone I've asked and every dusty dungeon tome I've read don't say anything. I'm assuming that I'll probably never get my memories back, if I had them in the first place, and I've decided to live my life as best I can anyways."
Picea was silent, and Cyrus honestly couldn't blame her. There weren't many good ways to respond to that, and it was something of an unintentional conversation ender whenever he got onto the subject.
After a bit more awkward silence, Picea began to fan herself with her hands. "Phew. It wasn't so bad at first, but now that I've stayed in this room for a while, I'm getting awfully hot." She began to pull off her pine-green coat, revealing a very slim figure wrapped in stylish clothes. The most distinctive feature of her outfit was a cravat the same color as her coat, which still evoked a tree like image even if the coat was gone.
She smiled at him. "I'm glad that some of my first memories in this new form will be Christmas with everyone here. I can already tell this is the start of something wonderful."
Picea integrated herself into the town fairly quickly, and she and Aria got along like a house on fire, likely due to their shared plant-ish heritage. After a bit of needling, Cyrus agreed to work on a greenhouse for the two, after being reassured that Nicola and Crista still seemed to be deep in sleep and were unlikely to wake up immediately.
Building in the cold was always unenjoyable and it was only made worse by his lack of a leg. Sure, his wings more than made up for his leg on a mobility level, having to bunnyhop around to work made the wings less epic and more comical. Cyrus was excited for the end result though, as their supply of herbs, with the exception of Shiverthorn for obvious reasons, was running low. They could grow plants in pots of course, that's where they got the seeds, but to grow the plants in large quantities they needed a greenhouse.
Cyrus' unusual construction abilities meant the thing was done in under a day, although Nissa had joined Picea and Aria in waiting for the new greenhouse to be finished. Cyrus was still a little surprised that Nissa hadn't changed her outfit at all for the cold winter, especially considering that they had a tailor nearby (although a small part of Cyrus was very glad she decided to keep the leaves-and-vines aesthetic).
They got to gardening rather quickly, and Cyrus did had to admit there was something special about the greenhouse, the way the snow gently dusted the glass while they stayed warm and safe, a little bastion of life and heat in the cold (well, ignoring the glowing lights of the village, but the greenhouse was on the outskirts of their little complex). Gardening was one of the few things Cyrus really couldn't manage to do no matter how hard he tried, and he was both grateful for the girls and admired them for their gardening skills.
Speaking of skill, Cyrus decided to visit Lacrima next, and found her talking to Francisca.
"Okay, so do you think you understand the process now?"
"I believe so." Francisca was sitting in front of Lacrima's loom, a complex assemblage of wood that Cyrus made for Lacrima (or rather, Lacrima told him how to make it. He didn't understand anything about the machine, even if he built it piece by piece).
"Then start, just like how I showed you."
Suddenly, Francisca burst into a flurry of movement, her four arms blurring as she wove with tremendous speed, so fast that Cyrus almost worried she would break the loom, and Lacrima seemed to share the sentiment, looking on with wide eyes as Francisca worked at an incredible pace.
After a few minutes, Francisca finished with the long segment of deep red cloth. "Is this work acceptable?"
Lacrima let out something like a squeak. "You're doing… just great. Wonderful. Why don't you start working on the next bolt of cloth? We'll need a lot of red fabric for Christmas. Now if you'll excuse me…"
She walked off, upset, and while Francisca got back to weaving, Cyrus followed Lacrima.
Cyrus found Lacrima sitting down in a corner of their library (if their collection of ruined books from the dungeon could be called a library), and Cyrus sat down next to her.
"Are you alright?"
Lacrima looked up at him and sniffled a little. "Not really, no. I try to share the one thing that I'm good at with Francisca, and she beats me at it, like everything else."
Cyrus sighed. Honestly, he really couldn't fully understand her feelings of inadequacy, as he didn't have another person that was basically purpose built to be better than himself, while it could definitely be argued that at least in their boss forms, Francisca was superior to Lacrima in almost every way (not that he would say something that stupid to her face).
"That doesn't mean she could somehow replace you as a person, you know. Everyone here appreciates you for-"
"Can you stop it with that cliched 'we like you for you' thing? You like me for me, but not enough to go on and-" She flushed. "Forget I said that."
"Wait, you like me?"
Her face was red and her eyes were watery, but she still managed to glare at him. "Of course I do! Do you think I was just platonically touching your face during the bonfire?"
"Well…"
"Of course I fall for the most oblivious man on the planet. Good grief, how did Medulla and Annelida get through to you?"
"They just asked me if I'd like to start dating them."
"Of course! Of course. Did Cthylla just ask you too?"
"Well she asked Annelida first…"
"Is it as simple as asking?"
"Well, you'd have to get a thumbs up from the other girls, but basically, yeah."
"Maybe you should consider making a membership form."
"Oh come on, I'm not that popular!"
Lacrima sighed as they walked to meet the rest of Cyrus' harem, even if he refused to call a spade a spade.
After a bit of conversation, Lacrima joined the group, and already started plotting something to do with all that red fabric she acquired. Cyrus was a little concerned considering the excited giggles he would occasionally hear coming from his girls, and decided that he should probably go and check on the girls in the sickroom and see if they were any closer to waking up.
"Any news, Abigail?"
"Seems like they might wake up soon, but I also thought they would wake up soon yesterday. This could take a while."
Cyrus pulled out a chair and sat down before chuckling. "Sometimes it feels like I've spent more nights here than in my own room, or at least I've woken up in this room quite often."
Abigail turned to him and sighed. "You shouldn't be taking that so lightly, you know. Everyone's worried about you, and I worry that you won't come back."
Cyrus couldn't really think of a good response to that before she continued, stepping closer to him. "I know I act a little stand-offish sometimes, but I hope you know it comes out of a good place. I'm not sure if I could bear it if you went out there and died because you weren't prepared. In fact, I thin-"
Before Abigail could finish her sentence and make Cyrus' life even more complicated, Nicola, the girl with the Santa like aesthetic, awoke with a gasp. "Where am I?"
Cyrus walked over and reassured the girl. "You're in a sickroom in our little village, and we promise, you're safe."
She turned and looked at him with a pair of peculiar eyes, the color of amber. "Okay… Well, I'm Nicola, but you can call me anytime."
Cyrus cringed a little at that, but moved on quickly. "Well, I'm Cyrus and this is Abigail." Nicola nodded and stood up and stretched in a way that did… interesting things to her dress, which was already pretty short. Averting his eyes, Cyrus turned to the other ex-monster girl in the room, just in time to lock eyes with a pair of startlingly blue eyes, as beautiful as an ice floe.
Cyrus grinned. "Oh, and you're awake! Welcome to town. I'm Cyrus."
She stared at him for a few moments before getting to her feet. "Crista." Her tone didn't invite further conversation, and Cyrus didn't feel like attempting to break the ice at the moment.
"Well, the least I can offer you two girls is a tour of the place."
Crista gave a curt nod and Nicola grinned. "Why, I would love the pleasure of the your company, Cyrus. Perhaps you could give me the extended tour?"
"I'm taken, so could you please calm down a little?"
Cyrus felt a chill go down his spine as her smile only got bigger, and he knew in his gut that she didn't see that as a reason to stop- she saw it as a challenge.
Their two new guests were very tiring, although for different reasons. Eventually, after giving an extensive tour (to both girls, as Cyrus certainly didn't feel like spending any time alone with Nicola) he went down to dinner with the two girls in tow.
Cyrus took a seat and to his relief his girlfriends claimed all the seats near him before Nicola could claim one. Before Cyrus could start to wonder where Lacrima would sit, she plopped herself down in his lap, and Cyrus could hear Harold chuckling as a few whispers broke out. Dammit, Cyrus certainly didn't sign up to be some sort of entertainment!
Of course, Cyrus couldn't stand up and walk over to teach Harold a lesson for rather obvious reasons, and he really couldn't stay mad with Lacrima on his lap. Of course, there were other things that he couldn't do with a girl on his lap.
"Not to say that I don't appreciate it Lacrima, but I really can't eat with you sitting there."
"Then I'll just feed you!" She gave him a smile and wriggled in his lap a little as she turned to cut a portion of his food for him.
Cyrus froze, as he felt himself… reacting to Lacrima's presence, and he knew that she had to feel it too. She turned to him and smirked a little. "Apparently, you're very appreciative. Now open wide!"
Too mortified to complain, Cyrus complied, and he could see Annelida giving him a smug smile as his face flushed. Suddenly driven by a need to not be the only embarrassed person in the room, Cyrus managed to catch Lacrima's lips in a brief kiss as she turned to feed him another bite. She froze with shock, and Cyrus had to quickly wrap his arms around her waist before she tumbled off his lap.
After pulling back, Lacrima's face was as red as her hat, and she as she tried to give a response, Cthylla scooted over. "I call dibs on his lap next!"
Oh no.
The day afterwards was Christmas Eve, and Cyrus decided to take a bit of a day trip, in large part because the girls shooed him out while they worked on some project of theirs. Eventually, Cyrus decided a trip underground would be in his best interest, mostly to escape the bitter cold that covered most of the surface.
After quite a bit of meandering through caverns, he saw a faint blue glow in the distance, and he carefully approached, keeping his eyes open for any vicious monsters or traps. Something that glowed but wasn't lava was probably a bad sign, but when he entered the cavern, he was awestruck.
It was truly massive, nearly a dozen times his height and filled with massive tree-like structures made of thick white and blue mushrooms. Upon closer observation, the entire cavern was basically just mushrooms- they sprouted off the ground and were the source of the blue glow, and what he thought was blue grass was actually dense mycelium. The cavern was strangely warm and had a crisp sort of smell, and Cyrus wondered how all these fungi could grow without a massive amount of dead matter before he realized- magic.
A wizard did it may not be the most satisfying of explanations, but Cyrus really didn't find the idea of researching the magic behind mushroom blooms interesting. The magic that caused the cavern had a more unfortunate side effect though, as it created vicious wildlife that were a strange mix of fungus and animal. They weren't too hard to fend off, but he was reminded once again to keep his eyes open.
It was a little tricky to navigate caves with wings, but he managed to survive mostly off of using his hooks, and the massive fungal trees gave him a lot of surfaces to grapple from. After landing on top of one particularly sturdy looking mushroom, he scanned the cavern for any more creatures when he spotted a little worm, mostly gray with a blue tail, and he was suddenly reminded of one of Garret's notes:
The Truffle Worm is a small creature in the underground, notable for its speed and evasiveness, although its greatest property is serving as bait for fishing, where it serves as the only bait capable of summoning the strongest monster of the sea. It is exceedingly rare, and should be caught even if one doesn't plan on fighting immediately.
Nodding, Cyrus stood up and let himself fall over the edge of the mushroom's cap, kicking off as he fell and tucking his wings behind him to maximize his speed. Despite that, the worm caught on and tried to move out of the way, nearly managing to burrow underground before Cyrus snatched the creature's tail and pulled it up.
After recovering from his wild dive and landing, he pulled out a health potion from his bag and poured it out on the ground. He knew that Abigail worked hard to make them, but he didn't have any other bottles on hand, and didn't trust himself not to loose the critter, which wriggled and writhed as it attempted to escape his hands.
With that done, Cyrus decided to head home and make sure the worm was somewhere safe before starting to work on a fishing rod. He wasn't a very big fisher, but he was intrigued by this mysterious monster of the seas. At the very least, they could get a beach trip out of it, which sounded wonderful after days of snow.
When Cyrus returned home, he hid the truffle worm away somewhere secure and then went back to wandering around the village searching for something to do, before he remembered the hot springs they found a while back, which would really help with the chill.
Cyrus couldn't help but marvel at the teleporter, which allowed him to travel incredible distances without even having to step outside. He was under the impression that some of the other villagers would occasionally visit, but they hadn't made a big trip of it recently. Cyrus checked to make sure that nobody had say, left clothes before going in, in a stunning display of self preservation instincts.
Before he even entered the large cavern that housed their hot spring, he could hear a sound like rushing air, and when he opened the door he saw Regina flying through the air, executing complex spins and loops. Cyrus linked to think himself as an above average flyer (not that they had more than 3 people with wings around) but watching her execute complex aerial maneuvers he couldn't even name made him feel a little embarrassed.
After a few minutes of watching in dead silence, Regina seemed to notice him watching, and went into some sort of complex spinning dive that brought her perilously close to the surface before she pulled up, and she flying so low that when her wings flapped down, their tips would dip into the water, sending fine sprays of water into the air. Just before it looked like she was about to slam into him, she rose up and snapped her wings out to their full extent, slowing her down enough to come to a gentle landing just in front of Cyrus.
"What do you think? I come here to practice sometimes."
"That was incredible! How do you do it?"
"A lot of practice in addition to the thermals this hot spring causes."
"Thermals?"
She giggled a little, and Cyrus couldn't help but feel a little condescended to. "The hot spring heats up the air above it, and hot air rises. It saves you the effort of having to push yourself up with your wings. You'll see birds doing it sometimes, spiraling upwards on a thermal and basically catching a free ride."
"I never knew that…"
"Well that's what I gathered when you asked what thermals were. There was no reason for you to know something like that, and Bea's flight knowledge is very different from my flight knowledge, as my wings are more bird like."
"Can you show me a few tricks?"
She smiled at him. "Why of course I can."
Crashing into the water wasn't the worst part, honestly. The impact hurt, definitely, but the water was fairly warm; however, when he climbed out of the water onto solid ground to launch off from, the chill would suddenly make all that wetness a very bad thing.
Launching from the water was one of the few feats Cyrus couldn't manage to execute fully, a problem that was only exacerbated because Regina couldn't teach him how to do it, for rather obvious slime related reasons. The water so much more dense than air, and any attempts to try to turn a jump from the water into full fledged flight usually turned into horrible belly flops, in addition to exhausting him.
"Maybe we should try something a little less… futile?" Cyrus cringed a little at that. Sure, it was true, but she wasn't supposed to just go out and say it! "You made a bit more progress than you think, Cyrus, and you're very determined to work at it, but maybe we should start heading home? It's starting to get late and we don't need a case of hypothermia for Christmas."
Cyrus nodded and headed towards one of the changing rooms, and he suddenly felt very grateful that one of the first things Lacrima ever did for him was make him an extra set of clothes. As he finished getting all of the wet clothes off of him, he heard the door opening, and muttered a curse.
He turned to see Regina at the door, who seemed genuinely shocked to see him standing there, and she looked at him for a few seconds before blushing slamming the door shut with a shouted "Sorry!"
Cyrus chuckled a little before getting back to changing. As long as it was an accident, he didn't really see any reason why he should get mad. Yeah, it was an invasion of his privacy, but it was a very small mistake as things went and he didn't see any real reason to get unbelievably angry over it. After more apologies from Regina, the two of them used the teleporter to get back home for dinner.
Christmas Eve dinner was fairly uneventful, if extremely embarrassing, and Cyrus went to bed early because he knew deep in his heart that tomorrow would be exhausting. He wasn't sure what gifts the others got, but Cyrus had decided to just get a lot of chocolate for everyone with "help" from Harold. When he closed his eyes to sleep, he could still hear his wallet screaming.
Cyrus woke up later than he usually did, and stumbled his way downstairs, still in a bit of a sleepy daze, trying his best to balance on his one leg and using his wings to stabilize himself as best he could. The moment he reached the room with the Christmas tree, one of the twins rushed over to him, and her red eyes told him it was Tina.
"Cyrus! We've finally finished your prosthetic, sir."
"I'm pleased to hear that, and please, don't call me sir."
"All right… sir."
Cyrus groaned.
Cyrus certainly didn't expect his Christmas morning to be spent sitting in a chair while Meredith and Judith made final checks, but Cyrus was relieved to get some functionality back in his leg. He grew concerned when one of the Twins stepped out and pulled Abigail in.
"Umm, what do we need Abigail for? I certainly hope I won't need medical assistance."
Judith refused to look him in the eyes as she answered his question. "Ahh, well… we're going to need to do a bit of surgery to attach the leg, and while I'm good with machinery, I can't say I won't do more harm than good."
Cyrus nodded as Meredith finished one last adjustment on the leg and then carried it to him. It certainly wasn't the prettiest looking aesthetically, with lots of plain steel and bronze, but the prospect of being able to walk properly made it made it just about the most beautiful thing in the world to Cyrus (not counting his girlfriends, although he would never be able to say something so unbearably sappy).
Abigail took the mechanical leg and pulled out a scapel, and Cyrus cringed a little.
It certainly wasn't as bad as Cyrus thought, although he still felt a strange sort of ache from the stump. Ironically, the prosthetic intended to help him walk actually made it harder: it threw off his sense of balance, which just started to recover from the loss of his leg and unfortunately it wasn't one of the fancy prosthetics that the mechanical girls had which allowed them to feel things. Sure, he could tell when he was touching the ground, but he wouldn't be able to notice damage in the same way he would on his other leg.
Of course, that rose the issue of durability, and while the leg was a marvel of engineering, Judith and Meredith warned him that stressing it by putting too much weight on it could possibly break it. What that basically meant was that it would basically snap under his weight the moment he started pulling off the sort of acrobatics he used to fight bosses. He would still have to fight from the air, but at home he could walk around in a way that approached normalcy, although it was definitely clunky.
Cyrus gave everyone he met their appropriate chocolate, but he couldn't find a few people: Annelida, Cthylla, Medulla, Lacrima, and Visca. The first four were of course linked by dating Cyrus, which would sort of provide an explanation for where they had gone- they were plotting something together, but Visca was unusual. Unless… Visca went to join them, and asked to get in on the relationship as well?
That may have been a little presumptuous of Cyrus, but after sitting down and thinking about it, it seemed fairly obvious that Visca was at least a little interested. Of course, she could just be with them to lend a helping hand with whatever they were plotting, and Cyrus wasn't sure if he was over correcting for the obliviousness Lacrima told him about- was he reading into it too much, or was this him breaking through layers of density?
Well, he supposed that really didn't matter if he actually couldn't manage to locate them, and he eventually started to wonder around, asking anyone he bumped into if they had any idea where they were. After Nicola nearly managed to lead him under a doorway with a sprig of mistletoe above it, Cyrus started navigated the hallways with a lot more caution, determined not to get caught up under one of the little parasitic plants.
Eventually, it was Francisca who pointed him in the direction of Lacrima's little workshop/spinning room, and he headed towards the room, feeling a strange mix of dread and excitement.
Cyrus would occasionally visit Lacrima's room to get his clothes mended after a nasty fight, or to get a new set of clothes, if the fancy struck him, so he knew how to find the room easily. Before entering, he stopped to knock and got a response almost immediately.
He could recognize Annelida's voice even through the door. "Who is it?"
"It's Cyrus. I had gifts, and wanted to know if I could come in."
"Just give us a few more minutes, alright? We're getting your gifts ready." Cyrus wasn't sure if the liked the sound of that or not, but he had a few moments to mull over it before Annelida gave the okay and opened the door.
Cyrus stepped inside, and nearly choked. He was pretty used to the girls wearing basically the same outfit every day, usually what they wearing when the boss they came from was defeated. Cthylla had her white dress with hints of red, Medulla's lab coat, etc, so any outfit changes would have probably surprised him, but these outfits in particularly were especially shocking.
They were rather like what Nicola wearing, a short red dress with white fur trim, accompanied by a Santa hat. Cyrus was once again reminded that he was surrounded by very pretty girls, and that he had never seen some of them in short skirts before. He spent a few long moments just staring before he suddenly realized that one particular pair of legs was… slimy?
"Wait… Visca?" Cyrus looked up to see the face of the King of the Slimes, which was a deep purple shade due to her blush (did slimes have blood, or was it like a sort of chameleon thing?).
"Yeah…" She refused to look him in the eye and was twiddling with the fur hem of her skirt in a way that Cyrus thought was extremely adorable.
"She wanted join us!" Cthylla chirped as she wrapped her arms around Cyrus from behind. "In fact, there was something she wanted to ask…"
The purple blush was starting to spread down to her arms now, but she worked up the courage to look him in the eyes. "Well, I already asked the other girls and they said yes…" When she mentioned asking the other girls, Cyrus saw Medulla rolling her eyes, and figured she was the hardest sell, even if she did say yes. "So would you like to date me too?"
Of course. He called it! That certainly didn't make it a bad thing, though. "Of course, yes." Visca gave him a smile and came in for a kiss, which was certainly made weird by her general sliminess (not that he minded).
After pulling back, Cyrus sighed. "You girls went to all this effort, and all I got you is some chocolate. I'm sorry."
Annelida fished one of the bars of chocolate out of his pocket and looked at it for a second. "It looks good, and I know you must have paid Harold a fortune for this…" she moved in close and leaned in for a kiss. "I'm sure you could make it up to us somehow."
Dramatis Personae:
Cyrus: the player character, harem protagonist
Cthylla: ex-Eye of Cthulhu, in relationship with Cyrus
Annelida: ex-Eater of Worlds, in relationship with Cyrus
Medulla: ex-Brain of Cthulhu, in relationship with Cyrus
Visca: still insists on being called King of the Slimes
Bea: ex-Queen Bee
Lacrima: ex-Skeletron, clothier replacement, in relationship with Cyrus
Andrea/Andi: ex-Wall of Flesh
Asta: ex-Spazmatism
Tina: ex-Retinazer
Francisca: ex-Skeleton Prime
Regina: ex-Queen Slime
Ditra- ex-Destroyer
Aria: ex-Plantera
Picea: ex-Everscream
Nicola: ex-Santa-NK1
Crista: ex-Ice Queen
Nissa: the Dryad
Veronica: the Zoologist
Meredith: the Mechanic
Abigail: the Nurse
Judith: the Steampunker
Roxanne: the Stylist
Picea is the genus that spruce trees belong to, Nicola is a feminine version of Nicholas, and Crista is basically the word crystal. Also, I'm very happy to have fulfilled my mention of Santa outfits back in the AN of Chapter 8. They are king tier fanservice.
I was considering adding a mistletoe scene between Cyrus and one of the girls that wasn't dating him. I might make it an omake or something if people find it interesting? If you want that scene, just gib feedback. I love comments.
If you couldn't tell from the hot springs bit, I really hate the whole accidental peak and then getting violently assaulted trope harem anime are so fond of. I get that it's slapstick, but it never feels funny and in all honesty I couldn't date a girl who thinks hitting me is okay. Tangent aside, please tell me what you think about the story!
Next chapter will either be Fishron beach episode or a triple feature of some kind focusing on enemies that Cyrus hasn't faced yet. I've been thinking about including the Lost Girl/Nymph, the Flying Dutchman, maybe the Old One's Army? Dragon girls are hot, but I'm worried about character bloat. I'd appreciate some reader opinions about what you enjoy in this story, what I should focus on, etc.
Happy Holidays, and since I'm probably not gonna drop another chapter in this year, I wish you all a splendid start to your 2021!
