//------------------------------// // Chapter 10: In Plain Sight // Story: We Three: With You In Spirit // by Eyeswirl the Weirded //------------------------------// Vote count as of 2/20/2018: Go home- 1 Go to Fluttershy's place early- 3 Look for a job at the mall- 8 Bumming free grub off the Rainbooms sounds good and I'd kind of like to just kick back for a bit, but I figure while I'm here, I might as well secure my lifestyle or something. Just in case something happens and I'm hurting for money soon. I mean, I could probably convince Adagio to let me just musically mug somebody if it was really an emergency, but getting a huge bundle of money out of nowhere never looks good on anyone. Can always quit and snag a new job elsewhere if I feel like it. Glancing over my shoulder, I think about seeing if the arcade is hiring, but I don't know what I'd do besides go around collecting coins outta the machines, sweeping up crumbs and wrappers, and probably having to talk to random dorks all day. I probably wouldn't get to play games during my shift, anyway, not without some pretty noticeable brain-washing. I've got no urge at all to work at a clothes shop or any of the other places we went today, but I still take a quick look around, ponder my options, and while I've got some thoughts about the tattoo parlor, I end up going to the local spa. I'm not even in the doorway when the smell of flowers and fruity body cream hits me like some kind of preemptive strike against stress with chemical warfare. It might even be working, because I'm feeling pretty smooth and confident about this already. I walk up to the counter and look the receptionist dead in the eye. "Hey. How much would you pay for someone that could sing your customers into Nirvana?" The receptionist, a light-beige, blue-eyed girl with long, purple hair, blinks at me. "Uh, could you run that by me again?" "I've got cords like an angel," I say while bringing a hand up to my neck, "and if you let me, my singing can melt your patrons' brains and make them forget their pains, their troubles, and their names." She raises an eyebrow, making a face like she's about to step in something. "I'm, I don't mean to call you a liar, but your voice sounds..." I feel my face heat up as Sonata snickers behind me, but I try to keep the scowl down. "My singing voice is great! Need a demonstration?" Humoring me, she nods (which is good, because I was gonna do it anyway), so I open my mouth and start a soft, soothing vocal melody. No lyrics, because I know this stuff has gotta be background noise and specific words draw attention, but the 'Aaa-aah, ahh-aaah-ah' thing should do the trick here. I can already see that it's having an effect as she smiles, resting her head on a propped-up hand on her desk less than a minute into my performance, her eyes even closing by just a few millimeters. And then I start singing with a little magic. There's nobody alive in here right now but me and her, and my ghostly sisters will tell me if anyone's coming, so I give it some juice. The effect is instant, and while I doubt she even realizes it, she's already melting into her seat, her eyes closing a little further as she drifts into a happy, sleepy haze, the look on her face telling me she'd let me do this for hours. She stays that way even after I stop singing, which, after a minute of awkward silence on my end, I'm a little worried about. "I'm sure you can snap her awake," offers Adagio, "if they haven't closed yet, she has a job to be doing." I shrug and touch the girl's shoulder, which she reacts to as though she had been straight up sleeping. "Oh, sorry, I..." She's still smiling and looking sort of Bedroom Eyes as she sits up and stretches. "Goodness, that was a treat! I don't have the authority to make anything final myself, but I'm sure we can find room for you." Because I'm betting I can pass it off as just being proud of my work, I wear a bright smile all the way to the back room where the others (her bosses, maybe her sisters from how similar they all look) are waiting. --- I used my magic at all partly because I wanted to get this thing in the bag, partly because I've been itching to enchant someone again ever since the Battle, and having my old power back feels amazing! More-so because I can do it pretty much out in the open, the other two spa girls none the wiser as I win them over in the same way. Before I know it, I'm all lined up to work here on the weekends and any shifts I can manage on school days. They're sympathetic to student workers, which I learn when I see that Bulk Biceps works here too. I kinda wish I could like, harness my ghost sisters' power to channel their strengths when I needed to, because I might have been able to mask my reaction a little better that way. "Miss Aria," asks Aloe, a pink lady with shiny, blue hair, "iz something wrong?" I can't place her accent, but it sounds somewhere between French and Russian. "Yea," I manage to spit out as I desperately try to pull myself together, "just, didn't think I'd run into someone else from CHS here." And am definitely not having a tiny freak-out that he might see me doing my magic and report it to the Rainbooms. My new boss titters. "Oh, yes, most customers are startled when they learn he will be giving them massages, but he really does have a soothing touch." "When he is not breaking things," adds Lotus Blossom, who looks just like Aloe with blue skin and pink hair. "Yes," deadpans Aloe, "when he is not breaking things." I smile a little, which I'm pretty sure can be read as more amusement than nervousness. As usual, Adagio isn't fooled. "Bulk Biceps isn't the brightest bulb to begin with and may not even notice anything amiss, but just in case, you can most likely control him if you're discreet." She's got a point, and I might even be able to implant the right ideas in his head on the job, but Sonata, grinning cheekily, has another idea. "Orrr, you could undo the top button of your uniform, bat your eyes, and ask him pretty please not to tell on you, maybe even say something about a private session if he's a good boy." I'm lucky Lotus and Aloe are preoccupied working something out with Vera (the one I talked to on the way in here), because I have no feasible explanation for why I'm blushing this hard while filling out paperwork. To my surprise, Adagio doesn't immediately detract from the idea. "That might suffice," she says thoughtfully, one hand on her chin, "he is a teenage boy and you're a very pretty girl. Although, we must consider that he spends time around other girls that he's known longer than us, and if he isn't immediately being pressured by you, he could easily break." Sonata shrugs. "Maybe, but it's a magic-free way to keep him quiet, as long as the rumors at school aren't true and steroids haven't shrunk his-" "Okay," I say out loud as I suddenly stand up, startling the spa workers, "gonna go try on the uniform. You said you had an extra, right?" "Ehm, y-yes," answers Aloe, "the locker room is yust around the corner." I go, trying to think about just how dangerous my predicament here is. Backing out now would raise questions if anyone saw me and I don't know if I'm strong enough to totally erase their memories the way Adagio did with our slaves back in the city, but Bulk is the only problem here. Maybe I could sing to him, maybe I could get him fired, maybe I could... go with Sonata's idea. And knowing what Bulk looks like, I'm kinda tempted. Anyway, I like the uniform for this place! White pants, shoes, a close-fitting shirt that goes down to my thighs like a miniskirt, and scrunchies to tie my hair up (they said I could keep the twin-tails, but pointy star hair clips aren't the most soothing image), all of it made of the softest stuff. I don't know cotton from silk from polyester, but these clothes are snuggly! There's a white headband, too, but I don't think I'll wear that part. Don't wanna be mistaken for one of these girls' sisters, if that's not what's already going on here. The outfit looks damn good on me, though! They're more or less closing up here soon, so I hang around for a while, get the rundown of the place, get familiar with where stuff is and what it's for, what I can do other than sing to customers, and then I change back to my own clothes and set out for Fluttershy's place. --- When I get to her yard, I feel weird that I left a spa to come here, where things are just... How do I even say it? If people at each others throats kicked up negative energy, just standing near Fluttershy's house would be like a wave of the exact opposite stuff. The lawn isn't just carefully kept, there's plants that don't normally grow near houses all arranged like something out of a painting, flat, rounded rock things leading up to the front door, even garden gnomes and stuff that just make the place feel all... homey. And that's just the front yard! The way the house is built even looks different from the rest in this neighborhood, with smooth, curved windows that make me think more of a cottage than a house. When I look at this place, I can practically hear children laughing and smell fresh-baked cookies. With the permeating sense of lived-in-ness, I wonder if this place was standing since they first built the town, like it's just been a lasting monument to happy families for centuries, or if Fluttershy's is just that... soft. Adagio, Sonata, and I were royal family, and we never had anything that felt this nice. I'm not sure what that says about anyone here, but I think that's why she was the one sent to bring me home from the hospital. Anyway, I walk up (stepping on just one of the rounded stones at a time, because that's what they're there for), ring the doorbell, and wait. Within a minute, I hear soft, but hurried footsteps on the other side and Fluttershy opens the door. "Oh," she says with surprise, "h-hello, Aria." We stare at one another in silence for a minute, her looking like she's waiting for me to demand something of her, so I clear my throat and remind her of yesterday. "Is that invitation still good?" "Oh!" She brightens up immediately. "Y-yes, please, come in!" I follow her instruction, walking to the living room with her. "We'll be getting started soon, did you eat before coming? Because if not, we have plenty of leftover pie." "Pie?" "Applejack and Pinkie were helping in a bake sale this week and didn't know what to do with the extras, so please, help yourself! We have the character sheets ready, too, which has made things much easier than when we all used to bring ours separately and-" It's kind of amazing how much more calm and confident she gets when we're at her house, but I guess playing host and Sewers and Sphinxes are passions of hers. She leads me into the living room, where Sunset, Nerd Twilight, Rainbow, and my new, brawny coworker are all arranged around a big ol' table covered in papers, rulebooks, colorful die of various shapes, and a few snacks/plates of half-eaten pie here and there. They all stare at me like Fluttershy did, only they're quicker with the smiles. "Hey," says Rainbow with a casual wave, "glad you could make it!" I find myself smiling a little as I silently wave back, taking a seat between her (so we can talk strategy if necessary) and Fluttershy. Sunset's smile is as obvious in its effort to cover something up as the little strain in her voice. "We were just going over what happened last week, and..." For a second, I worry she's about to cry, but she holds together pretty well for a pony. "I guess we can say Nau Thrak and Jissibil were hired by another, distant kingdom? Where they lived happily ever after?" Nau Thrak the Orc Priest (I didn't know you could play a full-fledged orc, but she made it work) and Jissibil the Dark Elf Sorceress (best known for her vanity and Elisabeth Bathory tendencies) were Adagio and Sonata's characters, respectively. I nearly make the mistake of asking them, but they're already floating where I can see them. Adagio studies her nails. "That works." Sonata shrugs. "Yea, sounds good." Looking back at her passively, I nod. Glancing at the others is the first hint that they're all apparently uneasy, so I just come out with it. "Like I said before, I've done my grieving, and it's not like we've never lost anything important before. I'm moving on." There are a few looks of shock, but most of these girls, and Bulk, are as young as they look, so that's kind of expected. Rainbow is the first to respond verbally. "Heh," she says with a faint, regretful smile as she scratches her head, "Dagi was supposed to be DM-ing this week, wasn't she? I'm kinda sad we'll never see it now." Adagio just rolls her eyes, but I think I see a tiny smile. Sunset was the one running the game since we came back to Canterlot High (maybe before, I don't know) and there was a mild argument last week. See, Fluttershy and Bulk like to really get into their characters, Sonata thought that looked fun and went for the same play style. Thing is, she rolled a Chaotic Neutral psychopath with a particular fondness for lavish jewels and killing things with their own blood, no matter the consequences. Sonata, or 'Jissibil,' being an unpredictable lunatic (selling villagers into slavery so we could justify killing and looting the people she sold them to and charge the local mayor for returning his citizens, infecting a gnome with lycanthropy in the hopes of getting a were-puppy (which literally bit her character in the ass a few times), trying to convince a cyclops to take up piracy and wear an eyepatch, etc.) caused some chaos during Sunset's campaigns, Sunset getting annoyed about her inflexible plans being derailed every hour or so, Sonata shooting back that Adagio's campaigns never got thrown off no matter what she did (because I'm pretty sure Adagio made stuff up as she went and had long gotten used to Sonata being Sonata), Nerd Twilight asking a few questions, Adagio, put on the spot, tentatively answering, and the lot of us coming to the agreement that she'd DM next time. That was supposed to be this week, but... Well, I already tried having her ghost-DM, but even if I weren't the only one that could hear her, I don't think that'd go over well right now. Still, I think I might know how to defuse the atmosphere in here. I smile a little, leaning over the table to prop my head up with one arm. "I don't think you'd really want that." They stare at me in surprise before I go on. "You guys wanna know what Adagio's games were like?" "YEAH!!" I'm probably not the only one that got startled by that, but everyone looking at Bulk gets a sheepish smile before the Rainbooms look back at me, encouraging smiles on their faces. Just because it feels necessary, I spare a quick, subtle glance at Adagio and find her giving me a little smirk, which I take to mean 'Oh, go on then.' I clear my throat. "As manipulative and underhanded as she could be before, being able to make villains for Sewers and Sphinxes games gave Adagio a whole new outlet for her evil ways, letting her make imaginary people do things far more horrific than anything we'd ever pull in the real world. In our first campaign, there was this medium-sized town with a really weird hospital. I don't know if old-timey swords-and-dragons fantasy dark-ages had hospitals, but whatever. In this hospital, some patients would just disappear in the night, gone without a trace. Over in the childrens' wing, though, there were a bunch of kids with a fatal disease that hadn't quite kicked in yet... for about two years. She feeds us the exposition that the disease is supposed to kill within weeks, but these kids have held on and stayed relatively healthy anyway, and that it's treated like a miracle by the local church, celebrated as giving the town hope in congregation. We investigate the hospital to learn why people are disappearing, head down some stairs, break down some locked doors, and find a morgue full of desiccated zombies and a few of the hospital's staff. Some combat-related dice-rolls later, we corner the head doctor in a room with a huge, powerful monster (waiting for its master to say "Sic 'em!"), some kind of spirit-sucking demon that we know has to consume souls every now and then to survive in this plane, and we assume he's been feeding the missing patients to it this whole time. Adagio has her demonic witch-doctor laugh at us, explaining that those undead husks we cut through to get to him were the remains of the patients once he'd harvested their organs to sell on what amounts to Ye Olde Black Market for transplants, dark rituals, feed for unholy pets, whatever the customer shelled out for. He tells us that he knew just zombies and a few medics wouldn't be enough to protect him the day someone came kicking down his door like we did, so he wanted extra security. The powerful, soul-eating monster, he reveals, is actually kept alive by tethering its soul to many living, human hosts in a harmless, symbiotic relationship of shared spirit energy; the sick kids upstairs that he infected with that disease himself. We're told that if his security monster dies, the spell will be broken, the links severed, and those kids will die in just days, if not sooner. So he gives us a choice, which Adagio delivers with a wicked grin; fight his big, strong monster and inadvertently kill those innocent, helpless children, destroying the town's source of hope in this bleak little world (and kill him and loot his lair, are the unspoken parts), or walk away, let him continue his operation (no pun intended) in gory, nightmarish peace, and get a cut of that month's profits to leave town without saying anything. It's a good thing I don't really do that 'in-character' stuff in these games, or I might have felt bad about what we ended up doing." When I'm done, there's a particular kind of silence, the horrified stares making me defensive. "Don't look at me like that, there were only two of us, we'd just fought through a whole basement of zombies and some medics that got in a few lucky hits (something about surgical knowledge giving them boosts to bleed damage), Sonata sucked at managing health potions-" I ignore her indignant scoff, "-and we were practically wiped!" They vaguely accept this, so I go on. "Anyway, when we get to the next town with our ill-gotten gold, we hear that all the kids suddenly died, the hospital had to shut down on account of half the doctors getting slaughtered in the basement, and the witch doctor guy is gone without a trace. My point is, Adagio is a fuckin' vicious DM, and I don't think you guys would have done that much better." "I'd have held back a little against these girls," mutters Adagio, "at least until I could harden them a little." Nerd Twilight scratches her head, visibly perturbed. "Wow. I'm aware that moral choices are part of this game, but that was..." Rainbow raises an eyebrow. "Why didn'tcha just kill the kids?" As the rest of the girls, and Bulk, look at Rainbow in open-mouthed shock and disgust, Sonata scratches her head. "Why didn't we think of that?" Adagio giggles. "Hey," Rainbow defends, palms upraised as if to fend off actual blows, "I'm just saying, if they were gonna die anyway if the monster died, what difference does it make? Besides, it's not like they're real kids!" Sunset tilts her head. "Other than it being cheap, cowardly, and most likely requiring that they stab a bunch of children in broad daylight? If the witch doctor played his cards right, they'd have needed a pretty good Speech check to not wind up executed by the city guards." "They could have brought the authorities down to the morgue and pointed them to the monster," offers Twilight (screw it, she's just "Twilight" now), "but it sounds like the doctor was planning to cut and run the minute they caught him." "That's, that's terrible," says a slightly tearful Fluttershy, Adagio doing an unseen stage bow with a delighted grin, "there must have been some way to save the children!" I shrug. "Maybe if we'd had some kinda super priest or uber-spirit specialist in our party, but it was just me, the wizard, and Sonata, the rogue, so..." I look away, occupying my mouth with a nearby chunk of pie. Bulk's eyes are wide and unfocused. "I'll never look at Nau Thrak the same way again..." This draws a few snickers, then table-wide laughter, Bulk included, and I don't even know what's funny about it. My first guess would be that dopey people are just naturally funny, but I hardly laughed at anything Sonata ever said. "So," Fluttershy says while wiping a tear away, "I-I think we were in the Swamp King's lair?" "Ah, yes," answers Sunset as she sets up her little dividing-wall thingy to look over her notes, "with the green emblem back where it belongs, the stone doors slide open for the first time in centuries, allowing passage to the dark, flooded tunnels below..." --- A good dungeon-crawl and some murky, lizard-man regicide later, we're counting up spoils from the treasury and XP from our righteous murder-frenzy. I got more kills than Rainbow again because she always insists on going for the big, 'important' targets first, and I snag the killing blow on those about half the time anyway. Sucker! It always takes everyone a while to get their next level-up sorted out, but by the time Rainbow and I are done, Twilight is, of course, still going anal about which feats work best with the exact ratio of health/spells she has in regard to the rest of the party (the loss of Nau Thrak and Jissibil seems to have really thrown a wrench in there somewhere), and Fluttershy and Bulk are in a quiet, in-character discussion about something the Swamp King said in his last moments. Nature and expansion of settlements or some boring crap I wasn't listening to just before I rolled to swipe his pricey-sounding crown. Turns out it wasn't a hat, but Rainbow figures we just need to clean it off and somebody'll buy it. Anyway, Sunset takes this opportunity to excuse herself for a bit, and the rest of the pie being in the kitchen, I take the chance to do the same. I'm standing there indecisively staring at two tins of apple and blueberry when Sonata floats in front of me, smiling. "Havin' fun?" Taking a quick look around and not seeing anyone, I bring up my phone just in case. "Yea, it's..." I feel myself smile a little. "still pretty fun, I guess." Adagio is wearing a calm little grin, but I don't think she even looked at Sunset the whole time the game was going. "Do you think you'll be back next week? None of them seemed to suspect you of anything, so this may have practical purposes." "Yea. Unless something happens, I could probably-" "-ll on this? We've had a big, touchy talk about it twice already!" I don't move, but I definitely hear Rainbow's voice from another room, followed by Sunset's. "I know, I know, just... seeing her after what happened and... it's harder than I thought it'd be." Preeeetty sure they're talking about me there, and it sounds like Sunset is feeling guilty after all. "Come on, Sunset, we went over all of this. It's not your fault, they did it on their own, the-" "You could keep standing there and maybe gather some information," Adagio says somewhat urgently, "but it would be bad if someone caught you eavesdropping. You should head back to the others." Looking in the direction of the sounds, she grits her teeth. "I hate to pass up an opportunity like this, but Sonata and I can't even listen in for you, because we'd have to present you with information you couldn't have known otherwise and we risk exposing you if it ever comes up that you know what they were saying tonight." I don't move right away. Flutters and Bulk are probably in their own little world and Twilight'll need a cattle prod to get her out of Min-Max mode, so I'm pretty sure I'm safe to just listen for a bit. I even have an excuse; who wouldn't tune in when they hear people talking about them? I look at Sonata to see where she leans and am surprised to see her frowning. "H-hey," she mutters, "do ya think you could, like, go talk to her? She sounds really sad." Adagio deadpans. "You're joking." Sonata shakes her head. "I'm not! I mean, she's... she could like, think you've gotta be good if you comfort her, right? You could be Rainboom-free from now on!" "Or they could figure that that's exactly what she's up to," Adagio says with an eyeroll, "if they don't decide it makes her one of 'theirs' from now on." I'm pretty sure Sonata just doesn't like people crying, at least when it doesn't directly benefit us, but she's got a point; I could win some big Rainboom points if I step out and say whatever she wants to hear. Then again, I don't know how Sunset really feels about the aftermath of the ritual, and this is the best chance I've had to find out... unless somebody spots me and asks (out loud, thus tipping off Rainbow and Sunset that I was here the whole time) why I'm just standing in the kitchen. I have to think fast, don't have much time to dawdle here...