Ok this? This is entrapment. Fox Entrapment! The [i]exact opposite[/i] of Fox Enrichment, which is what we're [i]here[/i] for, Dol[i]ce![/i] If that is your real name! Which I very much suspect that it [i]is![/i] Ha! Huh! Nyeh! Bleh! And Ha! a second time. Jerk. What's the world even coming to these days? What ever happened to honor among floofs? To think that an innocent foxgirl should live to be hoisted upon her own Duper! Because what is Kat supposed to do in this situation? We're so far off script here it isn't even funny! But that one miserable little rassin' frassin' sheepy beepin' comment about [i]p a t i e n c e[/i] and everything is suddenly a referadoodad on whether or not she can stay quiet and wait her turn! What other choice does she even have?! Risk [i]not[/i] being called a super duper good girl???? Even worse, what had been a simple sheepnapping (kidsheeping? No, no, that's surely something different) has turned into one of those Spooky Space Conversations about infinity and the lathe of justice and blah blah blah yip yippy arf. This is bad news for our heroine and no mistake! What if that was [i]his[/i] Giant Space Crab Battle Goddess and now he's out for revenge? Oh nyo! Ok, ok, let's not panic. Everybody knows the crab got [i]got[/i], but nobody saw the face of the beautiful, graceful, charming, and altogether wonderful heroine who did it. It could've been anyone! Maybe it was Ivar the Boneless, yeah! She seems like the type doesn't she? Ok then. Ok. So all a good girl has to do is breathe (through her nose, ok?) and sit just [i]sooooooo[/i] sweetly and listen to the boring people do their boring talk about absolute power and the obligations of the strong and the wise or... whatever this is. But, well. Good Girl is as Good Girl does. And a Super Duper Good Girl is more than patient. She listens for realsies. She even tries her best to understand what she's listening to. And there's something about what this crazy old lady is saying that clicks inside little Kat's brain, and something about the Clearly Evil Space Sheep that makes her want to help him. Ha. At the end of the day she's a pretty sorry excuse for a foxgirl, isn't she? "Oh, yeah, totally," she supplies in her Most Helpful Voice, "That really reminds me of the any% run in Azure Drive Voltblade Connect: Pretty Hearts." She swallows daintily but nervously as she endures a pair of very blank stares. "Er. Y-y'know, the... the speedrun? Wh-where you play as the, um, pretty blonde girl in a trench coat? And, and there's magical idols and stuff? And they, and they, and they... sing... songs and... look whatever it's just like that! It is! It's the same as the Luxcalibur route! 'Cause, like, it's intuitive to skip it right? You have to do all of this long, slow quest stuff to unlock it. So obviously it'd be faster to skip it right? When I got my PB I even posted my comment with it as colon three! Colon [i]three![/i] That's how confident I felt! But then someone found out that if you tap down on one specific frame during its attack animation the Luxcalibur blade actually does a triple hit? So even though it costs [i]so much time[/i] to pick up, if you were clever about routing and good at the special attack you'd actually... y'know, be faster. "A-and that's. Erm. In-impermanence and. Y'know. Stuff. And not, like, clinging to old... um. Nev, never mind." ...This is why I told you this place is evil, Mister. (One. Two. Three. [i]Now.[/i]) ***** One. Two. Three. [i]Now.[/i] It is very tempting to believe that your story belongs to you. After all, isn't it your story? Yours goes here, Dolce's goes up there, Redana's is down a little ways. I don't even know what to say about Bella. But that's how it feels, y'know? Isn't that how it's always felt? One, two, three, four, occasionally five or six threads all stretched out next to each other. Close maybe, but definitive and separate. But Dyssia... that just isn't true. Every story belongs to a bigger whole. Even if your entire journey took place in a tunnel sized just for you, even if I put a collar around your neck so heavy that all you could do for the rest of your life was stare at your own belly button, no matter what you'd still be connected. To your friends, certainly. Their tunnels are all kissing the edge of yours. They twist and tangle together and dump you on top of one another. Other eyes are staring at that cute tummy of yours, even if you don't notice. Dekal's story (remember her?) is your story. Your story is Dekal's story. You're actually just a bit player in little Brightberry's masterpiece, bein' honest. Your shadow is cast over an enormous chunk of Bella's road. And it goes further than that. These were stories that began in the underworld. These were stories that began [i]here[/i], at the end of a years long journey. Of course they were! It is, after all, the same story in the end. And now your story is Yin's, too. She would disagree with you about whose role is larger. Maybe [i]that[/i] surprises you. I don't know. I'll keep asking until I learn. Even absent the power of a sunshard, Yin's aura has not diminished. She leans against that tree and watches you with eyes so sharp it's a wonder they don't cut you. Actually, it takes you a moment to correct yourself: she [i]did[/i] cut you. Without a blade, without even a sweep of her empty hand, she has sliced you very nearly in half and exposed your heart to the world. You do not bleed, of course. This isn't that kind've wound. In fact it doesn't hurt at all, because this is a wound that lets stuff in as opposed to out. That's how you realize that you have [i]not[/i] been dancing to music that doesn't exist. That's just silly. No, you've been dancing to music that hadn't been [i]for[/i] you. But now it's leaking into you layer by layer: the heavy drum beat going dum dum DUM dum dum dum DUM dum. The flute that whistles overtop of that, and the strings that sing so madly they almost feel like the howling of animals. The chorus in a language you do not know but which most be words pouring over the whole composition like rain and seeping into every musical crack. Now you dance, Dyssia. Now you dance for real. You touch the ground so that your swaying has meaning. So that you can leap. Yin's dancers shift formation again, surrounding you and diving at you from all sorts of angles but never doing more than expertly, teasingly brushing against your skin. A fingertip here, the kiss of a hip there. It is very much the same sort of feeling as going to war, except that it leaves your body feeling fuller and fuller instead of emptier. Your heart hammers inside your chest, your senses are overwhelmed by sound and even light, your body vents heat as hard as it can, and you do not stop moving. Ever. In a way it is really more like flying than the grav-rail. Probably anyway. Not like I've taken one of those for a spin (or like I'd even know how). With gravity exerting her terrible pull on you, there's so many sensations of movement that have your appreciating your sudden freedom from it when you lunge, roll, and leap properly as the choreography demands. You too drift in and out of the range of other dancers. You too have the opportunity to reach out and touch a pretty girl as you pass. Y'know, if you've got the mind to. This continues for a full three quarters of an hour without any pause. The music ebbs sometimes but it never ceases, and always crashes down even harder than before in an even greater crescendo. Yin never takes her eyes off of you. Until finally she blinks, and all at once there is silence except for the sounds of breathless laughter and students too worn out for even that dropping to the ground to reach for desperately needed bottles of water. The air around you radiates Contentment. Yin does not smile. "Not terrible," she offers (you'd think her voice would be as intense as the rest of her, but while she's not yelling it's actually quite soft and lyrical like), "Who's your referral?" ***** "One. Two. Three. [i]Now.[/i]" "One. Two. Three. Nnnoowww." "What in Hera's name are you doing?" Yue follows through on her lunge, turning her sword in the air as though trying to slice something in reaction, even though there's nothing there to cut. Her blade whistles in the windless woods, and she hops lightly out of her stance and sheathes it after only two attempts to line it up right. "Oh, y'know. Just cleaning up a bit. Making sure everything connected so it'll fit together better tomorrow. It's good practice: it's a variation on a technique Princess Qiu used on me when I first met her. But her way doesn't suit me much so I've been playing around with it ever since. It's not like we can go anywhere til your wife gets back, right?" She follows Bella's gaze up to the bend in the trees and smiles. This is the third time Redana's shot off in front like this, and it makes the whole walk longer because of course she doesn't know where she's going. Not even what she's looking for. But neither of the other two really seem to mind it. It's amazing to Yue, to see someone who has lived a life full of more adventures than she can contemplate still be so hungry for more that she has to make new ones out of a cool rock she thought she saw or a patch of flowers that's not quite the same as the last one. It's just... nice, to see someone love your home so much. For Bella it is much simpler. This woman with such wanderlust is who she loves. She has already paid her dues and fought to master herself and come at last to a place that understands what 'I love you' really means. And now that she's here, Redana can go anywhere. As much as she likes. Because Bella already knows she'll come back. "[i]I will follow forever My Darling, My Darling Lead the way and I’ll follow Because that makes me yours Just a night’s ride behind you My Darling, My Darling We’ll be this close forever To swear that I’m yours Till the day my feet fail me My Darling, My Darling Till they grow weak and fail me I will make myself yours I will love you forever So keep me, my darling Please carry me with you My Darling, My Moon[/i]" Yue blushes. She hadn't meant to sing but watching the scene had just pulled Sis' old lyrics right out of her brain and then what else could she do? She's not very good. She hopes nobody minds. Without waiting for her company for once she scampers on ahead to collect herself, and since Bella has that weird super sniffer that can smell anything for miles, that's enough of a trail to be getting on with. It is the dead of night when you catch up to her, the both of you. Yue is standing on a stone walkway with her many, many swords arranged in a circle around her. She is lit entirely in moonlight, and surrounded by the sounds of rushing water. It cascades endlessly from pipes at the top of this huge stone structure, pooling in channels that form beautiful patterns spreading out and around the walkway and a large, weather worn statue of a woman standing above everything. Wearing a dress that even smoothed over by time, looks a lot like Yue's. With a sword planted imperiously at her feet that looks a lot like Yue's, too. The girl bows serenely to the stone woman, and stoops to fetch something out of her day bag. A bottle of wine, and four cups. She pours them all carefully in turn. The first, she sets at the statue's feet. The next two she hands to her guests with a quiet smile. The fourth she holds herself, glancing down at it but waiting to bring it to her lips until she's sure she'll be the last one to try it. "What do you think? Isn't it beautiful here? This is where I got my very fir... well second actually come to think of it but still! It's where I swung a real sword, and I was just, oh gosh I couldn't think of a better place to have a duel if I tried. And tonight a full moon and everything, eeeeeee! It's so [i]romantic![/i] I wish we could clash blades over a beautiful maiden's heart or somethin', then it'd be worth a story I bet. But I guess we're all taken, huh? Hahahaha! "Well, uh, anyway. Hey Dany could you do me a favor? When you're ready would you mind pickin' out a sword for me? I've been tryin' to figure out a handicap to give Bels here and I figure if her very own wife gets to choose her opponent's style that's a pretty neat one right? Oh and I'll only fight with one hand of course, so feel free to use that against me too!" Bella sniffs at her wine and sets it on a nearby rock without drinking a drop. In the moonlight, her blue-black hair seems like something out of a fairy tail. Her whole body glimmers: powerful and more beautiful than anything in the universe. She squeezes a fist shut and sneers. Her fangs flash like daggers in the pale light. "You keep talking shit like this and I'm going to beat your ass so hard you won't be able to walk anymore. And the gods as my witness I will be [i]justified.[/i] Redana, give her something good. I want to laugh in her smug little face when I snap it in half." "Ohohooooo! Well I can't wait to see you try it, cutie! <3"