Welcome back to Battle Royale Pichi Pichi Pitch, Alignments: Chapter 2! This chapter moves us closer to the reason as to why our heroes have been gathered.
Enjoy the story.
"Whoa! Steady!" Lila shouted, trying to balance herself. The young, black-haired girl found swimming easy compared to the kids that were in her neighborhood, but she was absolutely terrible at speed control. Not surprising, considering she was totally new to it and everything. The short girl saw a large pink castle in the distance and wondered to herself how in the world did people miss the construction on the ocean floor — it was enormous!
Starting to swim towards it with a new burst of speed, the young girl slammed into a current that threw her off course. "Ah!" she yelped. The force of the current hurtled her towards the ocean floor, where she could see about four creatures standing there. Lila winced, bracing herself for a rough impact. "Watch out!"
One of the four, a tall, black-haired girl wearing a dark cloak, snapped her head up and her hand shot out, instantly grabbing the tan girl by the shoulder as the younger of the two shot past, miraculously steadying the child. "The hell, kid?" she demanded in a sharp tone that seemed to have a light touch of a British accent.
The little twelve-year-old was whirred around to face the pale girl in the cloak. Immediately, Lila bowed her head a little. "I'm sorry!" she apologized.
"Casually meeting isn't even an option anymore?" A strawberry blonde mermaid with a reddish-pink tail asked, raising a brow. She sounded like she was joking, but the dry expression on her face made Lila unsure on whether it was meant as a joke or not. The mermaid swam over to the group, sighing.
The dark-haired girl examined Lila briefly, frowning. "You're right," she drawled in a deadpan tone, probably to the mermaid. "Something's up. Kid, touch my hand."
Lila tilted her head to the side curiously. Was the tall girl asking for a handshake? Whatever the case, the young girl smile and obliged, reaching out to touch the other. "Okay — ouch!" Instantly, the young girl flinched, pulling back as she felt like an ant bit her just under her waist — an ant that had a super-painful bite, that is. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch," she repeated, lifting up the hem of her light blue blouse, trying to turn her head and body to see what had bit her, but she couldn't see anything. "Does anyone have a mirror?"
The taller black-haired girl exhaled slowly. "Yep. Another one." She circled around Lila, and blue eyes briefly made contact with the young girl's. "Fifth," she read out loud, and promptly groaned. "Oh yes. Wonderful," she griped in a cut and dry tone. "Now I have to babysit a child."
"Fifth?" Lila asked curiously. There was a word on her back? Turning as far as she could, she managed to catch a glimpse of the 'F' in icy-blue, looping writing. "Oh… What does that mean?"
"Means that you're one of us or something like that, apparently," the black-haired girl replied, frowning. "Here." She extended her left arm to Lila, exposing a black mark in a flowing script with clarity.
"First?" Lila read. "Oh, it looks pretty." The short girl stared at the strange mark. It really did look pretty.
The taller girl frowned. "Uh… thanks?" It sounded much like a question instead of an answer. Kneeling down, the other girl looked Lila in the eye and asked, "Where are your parents, kid? You don't look like you're supposed to be out and about without adult supervision."
Lila shook her head. "Oh, I'm actually not from the sea," the girl said brightly. "I lived up on the continent but my dad had to move away, so he told me to come here." She noticed how the taller girl had knelt down to her level. She was a good person — Lila could tell. "I'm sorry for crashing into you."
The taller girl shrugged. "It's fine, kid, and you didn't crash into me. I grabbed you before you could hit me." She frowned. "You're Panthalassan?" she asked, a brow raised.
Lila tilted her head to the side. Panthalassan? She didn't know what that meant, though she had a small inkling of what exactly a Panthalassan could be from what her mother had told her before she vanished. But still, she wasn't a Panthalassan — whatever it was, anyway.
Maybe she should tell the girl what she was? After all, they were fellow creatures that could breathe under the sea, right? But both her parents had told her to be extra careful about things like this. "Well, I'm half-human, and half… um, angel?" Lila replied, brow furrowing. She had forgotten what the species was called, but if they had wings, why not?
The girl froze in her place. "Can-can you repeat that, kid?" she asked warily. "An…gel?" There was disbelief in her eyes, though it was joined with a certain sense of understanding.
"Half-human and half… uhh… I know it started with 'An', but I can't remember…" As soon as she finished saying that, the memory of her mother came to her. "Oh! That's right! Half-human and half-Ancient!" Lila smiled widely.
The half-Ancient girl suddenly remembered something. Whoops. "I forgot to say," she said, waving. "Hello. My name's Lila."
The dark-haired girl blinked once, twice, and then one more time. She looked somewhat surprised and finally, she sighed and shook her head. "I'm Jasmine," she finally replied cautiously. Slowly, the dark-haired girl stood up, looking stunned. "You're an Ancient," she repeated slowly, not seeming to be able to understand something. "An… Ancient."
"Hi Jasmine," Lila said brightly. "Yeah, I am." Aw man, Lila was running out of things to say. This conversation was definitely going to end awkwardly. Why was it so hard to talk to people sometimes?
"One of your parents… was an Ancient," the now-identified Jasmine continued slowly, staring at Lila strangely, like she had grown a second head or something. "And you're also half-human." The look in her eyes just all but screamed 'insanity'.
Lila nodded patiently. "Yes." What was so hard to understand? She was half-human, half-Ancient. What was so odd? "Are you okay?" she asked, looking at Jasmine with a frown.
Jasmine folded her arms over her chest. "Kid, you do know that the Ancient line was wiped out before Aqua Regina was even ascended, right?"
"What?" Lila giggled at the absurdity of it. "That's not true." Of course it wasn't — the young girl remembered her mother going out to meet some other friends that were just like her.
Jasmine's brow furrowed together. "Year 2004," she recited. "The last known Ancient, their ruler Mikeru, was learnt by the Mermaid Princesses to be nothing more than a fossil and was eventually defeated, returning to his fellows elsewhere. The Ancient lineage was proclaimed extinct, and no more Ancients were recorded to ever exist since." She gave Lila a pointed look and sighed. "I don't like the sound of this, but I need proof that you're telling the truth, and the Ancients have really returned to the world." After a beat, she sighed and said, "Wings."
Lila took a breath in. It wasn't easy, just doing something that she'd been taught not to do for almost all her life. But building trust was not always easy, she remembered. Lila exhaled, and she released the grip on her wings, letting them unravel in the water. It felt kind of funny in the sea, the cold water chilling but the feeling of letting her wings free being warm at the same time. It was so… relaxing.
Jasmine gaped at her. "So it's true," the tall girl breathed out. "Amazing." She took a step forward, and then back once more, looking not a little awestruck. "Beautiful." Exhaling slowly, Jasmine began to pace, slowly muttering to herself under her breath and shaking her head. She looked up, and suddenly, she scowled, eyes narrowing. "What are you still doing here?" she snapped, frowning.
The orange-haired girl with the red fins was staring at her with wide yellow eyes. There was a snarl of disgust on her face, and she held a wary look on her face. At Jasmine's words, she turned to where the other girl was looking and frowned. "What the hell is your problem?" She scoffed, a thick lisp in her tone.
"I wasn't aware that I had to answer to you. I simply wish to observe things, and am merely intrigued at the child with the wings." A man's voice sounded out.
Before Lila could see anything, Jasmine stood in front of her and held her dark grey cloak out in front of her. "As much as I hate to admit it, the kid's apparently one of us." The older girl's voice was sharp and cold. "Answer to us or not, you should stay away from her."
"When did I say I would mean her any harm?" the man asked again. "I simply am curious, and I have never seen one like her."
The pink-tailed mermaid was watching from the edge of the group, quietly fidgeting with her fingers. She was frowning — maybe thinking about something? Lila wasn't sure.
Jasmine snorted. "Oh, what's this? You don't know what she is?" she shot back. "Ever heard of the Ancients, Mask-Face?"
"As a matter of fact, no. I've been trying to keep out of the limelight by living in the human world. I'm afraid I don't know much about things beyond what happens in the seas." His voice faltered a bit. "It's the least I could do to make up for what our kind has done before."
Briefly, Jasmine glanced back at Lila, her dark blue eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed, with what looked like confusion written all over her face. "What the…" she muttered in a low tone. Looking back in front, she spoke up again, "You mentioned redemption earlier? What did you mean by that?" Her voice was tinged with curiosity, more so than harshness.
"You are aware of our people's history," the man stated, voice soft, far off, like he was remembering something. "The attempt at conquering the seven seas resulted in the previous Ocean Queen taking action and destroying our kingdom. I was… opposed to the path the elders chose to take when they led our once-great clan to war, and as such, Aqua Regina spared me from the destruction."
Jasmine's arm slowly lowered, and with it, her cloak fell as well. The girl's brow was furrowed, and there was a mild understanding in her eyes, though considering the masked man said 'our', Lila concluded that he and Jasmine were of the same species, and the taller girl probably knew whatever he was talking about.
"After the war ended, I exiled myself to the human world to live away from the remains of my home. It… was my way of atoning for what our kind had done." His hand slowly closed into a fist, and Lila watched from behind Jasmine as the man looked away. "Perhaps by helping to protect this world that our people tried to destroy, I can lift the weight of guilt from my soul."
Lila just watched the exchange curiously, slowly hiding her wings again as she looked on from behind Jasmine. She didn't understand half of what was going on, but from what she had heard, the small Ancient girl deduced that some kind of big-scale war had occurred before.
Jasmine shared a glance with the yellow-eyed girl with the fins. "Trying to save the world?" she asked carefully, her voice filled with skepticism.
The orange-haired girl scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Oh please. Your people and mine share a lot of our history. Being fucked over by a damn tyrant of an ocean goddess, that is. As if my kind hadn't been doomed to lurk in the depths too for the crimes of a few," she muttered, huffing. "Whatever. There's something strange going on, and it just might have to do with all this that we've been blabbering about. No time for damned poetic justice!"
Jasmine snorted, crossing her arms over her chest. Rubbing her temples, the girl looked back at the mermaid. "Not all of us are willing to lay our lives down for this world like you are," she muttered dryly. She bit down on her lower lip and sighed, turning to the man once more. "What do you know about this?" she asked, straight to the point and sounding completely blunt.
The masked man sighed. "Perhaps you're right, and we should address why we are all gathered here like this. I occasionally make trips into the ocean, but I try not to stray too far from land, nor approach so close to the mermaid kingdoms. In this situation… I was simply drawn here by the tides and the strange surges of power brought by the water," he concluded.
Jasmine looked around, counting silently. "Six," she finally announced, frowning. "Is it just me, or does someone think that this number is ridiculous?" The girl's brow furrowed. "The number doesn't explain that power."
The man nodded in agreement. "As a number, six holds no special significance," he noted. "However, if there was a seventh to join us…" he trailed off, shaking his head.
"A damn rag-tag gathering of seven people like this would be something that can't be fucking ignored," the orange-haired girl in the punk clothes finished up dryly.
"I could tell, Shelia," Jasmine drawled, rolling her eyes. "Seven princesses, seven pearls, seven kingdoms. Seven is an omen — a bad one."
"Perhaps we should move to a different location?" the man suggested.
Lila looked curiously around. "I support that," she voiced shyly.
Jasmine looked around, raising a brow at the other three. She sighed and said, "Well?"
Shelia — the orange-haired girl — nodded. "Well, yeah! Get the hell outta here before every single person in this damned kingdom is found to be part of some divine plot or whatever. 'Sides, it's a little suspicious to see a random group like this chatting out on the street, huh?"
Jasmine sighed. "My house is down the street," she said reluctantly. "It's a little Spartan, but I suppose it can fit all of us."
"My home is down this street as well," the mermaid piped up.
"You're intending on heading home as well, I presume, blondie?" Jasmine asked, looking at the pink-tailed mermaid as the black-haired girl raised a brow questioningly.
The mermaid paused, looking down at her tail as she fidgeted. Finally, she sighed and said, "I hope you have edible food in your house."
Jasmine chuckled with a small nod. "There's some food stock in the kitchens," she replied calmly. "You may need to cook for yourself, though. I am quite frankly, a horrible cook."
The mermaid tilted her head to the side, and Lila watched on in curiosity. "How bad?" She questioned, blinking.
"I…" The corner of Jasmine's lips lifted into a sardonic smirk. "…burn water."
"…what?" Lila gaped, completely taken by surprise. Did the underwater population somehow manage to circumvent physics? She was about ninety percent sure that that wasn't supposed to be possible.
The blonde's light blue eyes widened. "My mother… can't even do that…" Lila heard her mutter. As the mermaid looked up, she frowned deeply at Jasmine. "Don't ever cook again!" she all but demanded, voice sounding panicked.
Shelia had been looking on with confusion until she blinked. "Oh yeah, you guys need to cook your food."
Jasmine chuckled at the tone the orange-haired girl took and held her hands up in mock surrender to the mermaid. "Generally, I avoid cooking anyway," she pointed out.
The mermaid with the pink tail just sighed, rubbing her temples as she shook her head.
The white-haired other mermaid merely glanced at the blonde with a cold, calculating look. "You haven't given us a name yet." Her voice was dry, flat, and completely emotionless.
The blonde looked a bit spooked by her, inhaling sharply as she backed up a bit. "The name's Helen," she answered, a small, somewhat forced smile on her features. Lila decided that she looked better with the smile on.
Jasmine raised a brow at the white-haired mermaid. "Lay off Helen, Luna," the taller girl said with a sigh. "She's terrified as it is."
The white-haired mermaid — Luna — nodded curtly. With a dispassionate shrug, she turned around to leave, but paused and glanced back over her shoulder at the group. "Also, I'm going home."
"Erm… is that what you call a robot?" Helen wondered out loud, putting a hand to a chin and assuming a position that Lila thought was considerably similar to the French sculpture — what was it called again? The Thinker?
Jasmine simply shrugged, glancing back at the others in the group. Her eyes fell on Lila and she paused. "I suppose, I think?" She frowned. "I've never seen a mermaid like that before." Her dark blue eyes followed Luna for a while before she sighed and turned back to Lila and Helen. "Then again, that's a human invention, and I don't usually leave the water too much. I've been in land before, but not too much."
"Call me whatever you want." Luna's unfeeling voice pierced through the conversation. "I'm hungry and I'm going home. I suggest that you all do the same." The mermaid took off, swimming into the distance, and her white tail slowly blended into the dark water.
Helen nodded with a sigh. She paused, looking around, then after Luna again. "Hey… are we going to stand around here all day? Night, I mean," she amended. Her light blue eyes scanned the group once by one before she looked back at the mermaid in the distance.
"No," Jasmine replied flatly. "Something's going on, and we'd best stick together. I hope Snow White doesn't mind us following her," she deadpanned, jabbing her thumb in Luna's direction.
"Oh, I know that one!" Helen exclaimed excitedly. The pink-tailed mermaid quickly shot off after the white-haired mermaid with a wide smile.
"Me too!" Lila chirped up, smiling widely as she watched Helen swim off. The girl was really fast.
Jasmine sighed, her palm meeting her forehead. "Well," she muttered lowly, "let's follow them before they vanish."
Shelia groaned, running a hand through her already messy hair. "Ah, fuck it. Guess I'm not travelling home after all." She started swimming in the direction of the two before she jerked back and raised an arched brow at the remaining of the group. "C'mon then. Let's go!"
Jasmine rolled her eyes, starting to walk, a stark contrast to the way the others were swimming. "I doubt any of us are going to go home at this rate," she replied dryly.
Lila cocked her head to the side as a thought rang in the young girl's mind. "Uh… what kind of food do you all eat anyway?" If China had Chinese cuisine and Thailand had Thai food, didn't that make ocean food… seafood? Wasn't that cannibalism, in a way?
Jasmine paused to look back at her before she reached out and pulled the girl along. "No time to think about that, kid. Let's just go before we lose 'em."
"Okay!" Lila chirped, starting to swim at a steady pace beside Jasmine as they headed towards the rest of the group.
Battle Royale Pichi Pichi Pitch
Luna was swimming in the sea when she realized something was off. Very off. The unusual white-haired mermaid turned a bit, only to see something behind her with a cerise pink tail. She groaned — not that blonde mermaid again. With a growl, she turned back and swam off, heading towards her house at her fastest possible speed.
Once the mermaid arrived at her house, she turned around, seeing no one. Shaking her head, she stared at her house. It was quite large, though since it used to be an abandoned manor for a noble that had since moved away, it wasn't surprising. "Meh," Luna muttered, swimming up to the door.
The neighborhood was quiet, just like every time she was there. The other mermaids were terrified of her strange coloring, sometimes going as far as to call her a witch, especially for the fact that she resided in the reputedly haunted house on the hilltop. The exterior of the house was covered in some plants, and the walls, colored a soft magenta, were a bit greenish-looking from the ivy that draped the walls.
The mermaid removed a stone from the inside of the gate, picking up a golden key that she used to unlock the doors. As the door opened, she saw the other five from the group earlier come up from behind her. Not them again, Luna mentally groaned. With a scowl, she pushed the doors wider and walked through, knowing that she should just give up.
The inside of the house was far more welcoming than the abandoned-looking, scary exterior, the formerly pink interior changed into a very pale lavender and decorated with several pieces of Antarctic-made furniture and various paintings. It was by far more home-like than the witchy outside, though, and it reminded her of her home — well, her last one, anyway.
A soft chuckle could be heard, and judging from the voice, it was the Panthalassan girl from earlier — Jasmine, Luna thought it was. "I'm impressed," she commented. "Who's your decorator?"
Luna turned sharply to face the group, a fake smirk on her face. "Now why did you all come?" She shook her head. "Never mind. Come in. I decorate my house only on the inside — I don't bother with the outside, since folks around here think I'm a witch anyway." The white-haired mermaid turned and swam inside. "I'll make the meal, so make yourselves at home."
Jasmine chuckled again. "Nature then. I need to get her card."
The shortest of the group — was it Lila? — headed inside after her first. "What's wrong with being a witch?" she inquired. "That would always be cool. Although, that might be because I like black cats and magic." She giggled.
Luna laughed dryly. "Oh yes. A witch. I'll cast spells and cause misfortune on all those that have taken the blessings given to me." The mermaid turned, frowning as she headed into her large kitchen. With a sigh, the mermaid started to get to work, preparing a meal for the group of six.
"Kinda nice," she heard the demon — Shelia — say. There was a low chuckle and a pause as the demon presumably looked around, then the orange-haired demon continued, "Could be a bit darker, but yeah, really nice. Oh, I get called a witch too, not as much as I get called a bitch, though." There was a small snicker, then the demon stopped talking.
Luna continued to listen as she prepared the food. Reaching for a knife, she heard Jasmine note, "She has good taste." There was a sound of the soles of shoes tapping the floor, but Luna ignored that as she continued to make the meal. After a brief while, she finished her cooking and set the food on a couple of plates.
"I'm done with the food!" she yelled over her shoulder as she picked up the plates. She headed out, expertly balancing the plates in each hand and setting them down on the dining room table.
Jasmine was sitting on her pale purple sofa, an elbow resting on the armrest as she leaned her head against a fist. Her lips were twitched upwards as she watched the pink mermaid and the Ancient girl talk.
As she swam over, Luna could pick up bits and pieces of the conversation.
"—do we call that? Kuudere? Tsundere?" the blonde mermaid was asking.
The young girl paused for a bit. "The word is tsundere," she finally told the other.
Luna frowned — she didn't understand the terms used, but it irked her nonetheless. "Don't call me that," she cut in sharply. "I'm not this 'tsundere' or 'kuudere' or whatever it is."
Jasmine snorted. "I thought the word was bipolar," she drawled sardonically, a smirk lifting the corner of her lips. She blew a strand of dark hair out of her eyes as she snickered to herself and leant back in her seat.
Luna merely scowled. Her dark purple eyes went over the entire group, noting that the demon was lounging on the sofa next to the dark-haired girl, while the masked man was leaning against the wall, a mild frown on his face. The other two were seated on the other side, talking animatedly.
However, once she set the plates down, the blonde seemed to perk up and dashed over to one of the empty plates Luna had set out and placed one on her head, taking another and putting food on that one first.
The demon sniffed the air, a frown on her face as she wrinkled her nose. She made a face, turning her face away from the food. "No thank you," she stated dryly. "That's definitely not suited for my kind."
The black-haired girl that had the wings — an Ancient, as Jasmine had called her — took a dish, but before she did, she chirped up, "Thank you, miss Luna."
Luna forced a smile. "Sure, enjoy." She watched the two girls eat, noting that the other three didn't move yet, and once she heard the demon speak, she snorted. "Fine," she replied flatly. "Just tell me what you do eat, and I'll go and make it." As she said that, the white-haired mermaid felt an unnatural tug in her chest, something she couldn't quite put her finger on. It felt like… she actually wanted to be closer with the group. She didn't quite know why, but she knew that she had to get herself back to normal before it took over.
The mermaid held back a full-on scowl. "Excuse me," she stated coldly, moving to her bathroom, whereupon she searched for the knife she always kept under the counter. When she found it, she quickly sank the blade into her shoulder, not even giving a pause to consider the pain. It wasn't exactly a safe action, or even one that was considered 'not dangerous'. The blood that left the injury stained the water around her red, and Luna quickly removed the blade and stabbed herself again. A seventh time managed to let the pain take over her feeling of longing.
Luna winced, but put on a cold smile. She washed the knife and hid it away again before she quickly stemmed the bleeding, wrapping a bandage over the injured part and headed back out, ready to cook again. Idiot, she scolded herself. You don't need anything. Emotion is bad. Very, very bad.
As she passed the room where the others were, she heard the Panthalassan girl speak, though it was low and murmured.
Then, the demon replied, voice stronger. "Blood," Shelia replied simply. "From that direction." She pointed a clawed finger in Luna's way.
Luna blinked as she stared at the two, then her brows rose to her hairline. Right, the blood, she realized. I forgot the possibility that they could smell it. She shrugged inwardly. Oh well.
The blonde had said something, Luna was dimly aware, as Jasmine chided, "It's obvious, Helen." Then, her eyes zeroed in on the mermaid, sending a shiver down Luna's spine. "There," she muttered, jabbing a thumb at the white-haired mermaid. "That wasn't there a minute ago."
Luna forced a laugh. "What's wrong? My food not up to your tastes? I don't know what you're talking about." Inwardly, she was scowling. How did the Panthalassan see it when she was so far away? Plus, her hair was over the bandaged wound.
The demon Shelia got up and walked over to her in the hallway to the kitchen, grabbing her by the upper arm and tossing away her hair to inspect her bandaged shoulder. "You're wounded," she said firmly. "Don't play dumb. You can hide it from a mermaid, but not from a demon."
Jasmine looked at her as the Panthalassan joined the orange-haired demon, crossing her arms over her chest. "Not from me either," she simply noted.
Luna's dark eyes narrowed, glinting with mild anger and hate. "It's just a small cut. No need to worry." She forced a dry laugh. Why do they even care? It's not like we're even friends, she thought bitterly. And those that were my friends wouldn't even care about me too.
"And I assume it was 'accidental' too, wasn't it?" Jasmine deadpanned, voice dry.
Luna clicked her tongue. "Maybe."
The Panthalassan girl rolled her eyes. "It's pointless, Shelia," she drawled. "She doesn't want help." She turned to walk back to the room where the others were.
Luna managed a small smile, coldly triumphant. "If you're all done, I'll be in the kitchen doing the dishes. You can put the plates together."
Shelia scoffed, walking after Jasmine. "Mm. Best to leave it at that, then," she replied, her lisp stressing the 's' sounds in her words. She murmured something that Luna only vaguely caught the end off. "…don't see the point in denying the obvious."
Jasmine snorted, not looking back at Luna. "People like that don't want to be saved. 'Death seekers', we call them. Hold on." She suddenly turned back from walking and grabbed Luna by her arm. Yanking the mermaid down, she threw a punch straight into the white-haired mermaid's stomach before she released the mermaid. "Now I'm done," she confirmed.
Luna grunted in pain, doubling over as she held her stomach. "Fine," she hissed. "I get the point. No self-harm." She straightened and took the pile of plates on the table, and headed to the kitchen. Before she could, though, she turned and picked up one of the dishes, throwing it at the Panthalassan. "Clean that one for punching me. I can do the rest."
The plate soared at Jasmine, who caught it as it flew over her head, Luna's aim very much off. "Good," she commented. "You got that memo. But do that again, and a punch will be the least of your worries." Her voice was light, airy, and too casual, though the underlying threat in her tone was obvious. There was something that just screamed 'irritation' from her too.
Lila decided to poke her head around the corner at that moment, and in a sheepish tone, said, "Let's all calm down, please?" She offered the three a slightly sheepish smile.
Luna rolled her eyes, carrying the plates inside the kitchen while ignoring the faint pain in her shoulder and the lingering pain from the punch thrown by the Panthalassan. "Whatever you say — just don't forget the dishes!"
Jasmine merely lingered back something to Lila before she followed Luna into the kitchen, taking up a spare sink and washing up. It wasn't long before she was done, and she set the plate aside. "Done," she concluded, and the dark-haired girl turned on her heel, acting like absolutely nothing had happened.
Luna snorted, finishing up the rest of the dishes — there weren't much, considering that four of the six had chosen to abstain from eating. Wiping her hands, she headed back to the living room. "Is everyone done?" she asked flatly, not really caring if they were or not at this point. She felt sick to her stomach — was she actually enjoying this? Pretending like she actually had friends? It was absolutely revolting, yet there was some part of Luna deep inside that wished for the strange coincidence to be due to the Fates being kind to her and granting her friends through a terribly contrived plot.
"Yeah," the blonde mermaid chirped. Helen was balancing four plates atop her head, and by some miracle, the very fragile dishes managed to stay in a perfectly balanced stack. Thankfully so too — Luna had gotten those plates a while back at quite a high price. Breaking them would have been quite the loss.
Luna felt like laughing in amusement at the sight, but as the laugh was bubbling up her throat, she quickly forced it down, the only visible sign of it ever having been possible was the slight twitch of her lips upwards. Why do I want to let down my walls around them? Suppressing the urge to smile or laugh, she snatched all four of the plates, fumbling a bit with them as she dashed towards the kitchen.
As she went, she heard Jasmine speak up from the living room. "Well," she commented bluntly, "that was rude." There was a pause before the girl continued. "Snow White is a damned mystery," Luna heard her note.
"Don't call me Snow White just because of my hair color!" Luna snapped as she headed towards the sink, loud enough to ensure that the group overheard her. "As far as I know, she had black hair and is kind." The mermaid quickly put the dishes into the sink, not in the mood to deal with them just yet, and swam back to the room.
"—White is one of the classics up in the human world," Lila was saying with a bright smile.
"I almost made her laugh!" the blonde mermaid piped in, twirling around in a sort of silly victory dance. She held her arms out on either side as she spun around in place, giggling.
Luna scowled. "Did not!" she snapped. Still, there was a smile that was threatening to appear on her face, and for the life of her, Luna didn't know why.
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