"Holy crackers!" says Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits. That's right, said [i]Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits.[/i] No sack of potatoes, this! Why, 'twas a heroine all along! Beautiful and cunning! Four-tailed and Mint colored! Only vaguely smelling of tubers! She emerges in floofy triumph from her burlap disguise and shakes herself free of dust and dirt as only a foxgirl can. As she settles, she beholds the grand palace of Tellus. Her first reaction is to kinda stare at it. Y'know, heroically. Heroinically? No wait, that sounds more like heroing ironically. Wow this is tougher than I gave it credit for. Kat rubs at the back of her head, fluffing her hair a little with a motion that's as effortlessly alluring as it is adorable. Anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah the staring. Sure is a palace, huh? Very... grand? Like obviously it is impressive! The thing's huge! [i]And[/i] shiny! No self respecting foxgirl could look at it and not lick her lips at least a little bit. But it's also just... well, I guess there's really no point in dwellin' on it. It'll all be what it is, and nothing else. Now, her second reaction? That's to listen to her phone ring. The recording's a little bit worse for wear these days, what with her old phone getting an axe through it and the need to redownload all of her favorite stuff. Sometimes you just can't quite find where you went the first time, right? And other times, the lofi kinda midi chiptune quality of an alternate pressing just speaks to you a little more, slightly different person that you've become in the time since you first made favorites. Kat smiles and bobs her head, waiting for the one bit of vocals that mean she's running out of ring: [i]"Should the end of the world come You and I are together one."[/i] "Y'ello?" "...I swear to god I told you I didn't want to call her! She always does this! Ring ring ring, gotta listen to my stupid music! Some of us are BUSY, Fluffybiscuits!" "Oh gosh, hi Cy! How long's it been now?" "Since you STOLE MY TAIL you little hussy!" There is the sound of a fox doing a pushup just barely audible on speaker. Kat blinks and shrugs it away. There's bigger skyfish to fry here, after all. She's a tail thief? Since when? Like sure she woke up with two extras at some point but wouldn't she [i]remember[/i] what should by all rights have been the coolest moment of her entire life? At least if she's the one who did it? "Ahahaha. Ehe. Uh... so! Um!" Though! On the other hand! Maybe it was [i]such[/i] a good heist that she was able to hide it even from herself? That's probably something a four-tail could do! She should ask Act...i...a. About... oh, beans and buttons. "And another thing!" Cyanis cuts across the thought like a hot knife through thinkies, "Do not put in the narrative that I got mad! I am the least mad anybody has ever been!" "...You sound pretty mad to me." says Kat. "I am [i]aggrieved![/i] It's a very different emotion, which you would know if you ever opened a book!" "Hey that's not very fair! I’m pretty sure I’ve read every book in my house!” “Oh yeah? Oh [i]yeah?[/i] Is Lovely Hearts: Kissy Connect a challenging read these days? Did you look at all the pretty pictures, too? Ugh, do NOT get me started on what passes for a library in that ditzy, fritzy-floofled, buck-toothed–” “Uh,” uh’s Kat. “Well hello to you too, Cyanis.” “ADKFHAJOLHALIHD!!! What! What is [i]she[/i] doing there?!?! Were you even going to [i]warn[/i] me, Kat?! You traitor????” Bella’s chest heaves with the effort of her fury. Her scream still bites in her throat, as her fingers curl into tight fists only to splay outwards again to threaten the air with her claws. Her tail lashes ceaselessly at every ghost threat and every familiar smell that filters through her nose. Her eyes dart this way and that, looking for something to vent her heat and her betrayal into, for something she can hurt. But Nero doesn’t answer. Nero does not come. But worse than that by far is knowing that she will not come, and that she never even meant to. After clinging to the throne for so long, after dragging everyone along without saying a [i]thing[/i], in the end it was just… this? A distant goodbye, and nothing more? Was she, too, meant to be exchanged for Humanity’s Imperial ambitions? Was there another Servitor Candidate waiting up there to take her place? Or was she supposed to, to, to… [i]want[/i] this? To rule over a new Empire as Redana’s right hand? Trained and toughened up and then dumped on top of an empty throne in place of goodbye? It’s so like that insufferable bitch to plan like this, but is that even it? She’ll never know. She’s not meant to know. The gesture and the Empire is all that she ever cared about. Bella hisses as she hunches low to the ground. Her claws dig trenches into the earth and she is shivering, tensing, ready to roar and pounce and rage and kill as only an assassin of her ilk can. Hot tears sting her eyes and hot breath steams from her gleaming teeth and hot saliva drips from her lips and everything is heat, heat, heat, [i]heat[/i] and the racing of her heart and her every breath smells of blood and she needs it, and she [i]wants[/i] it, and she’s going to– But her ear bends backwards. There’s a… noise? It pulls her short, immediately. She feels it hit her, icewater on all of her fire, leaving her a sculpture of hardened magma and would-be lethal intent. Even still, her claws itch with longing. Even still, she feels the swoop of irritation in her stomach, and the desire welling inside of her to spin around and rip this stupid noise in half, instead. At least to kill [i]something[/i] with all of this anger, and if it’s something beautiful then so much the better. But when she turns her eyes in the direction of her ear, even that fizzles into empty steam. Because what she sees is, to her, impossible even after everything she’s seen on this planet. The source of this noise, this undignified and too-earnest-by-half laughter is… a fox. Not a Pix, mind you. Not a Servitor. Not a dragon or a Princess who admits after the fact that she used some kind of weird magecraft to alter herself without biomancy. All of these things she’d seen before in some capacity. No, this is different. She can see it. She can smell it. This is just… a fox. Who is a girl. And surrounded by all of the horrors of Tellus, she is holding a phone in front of her and giggling like a river. It’s so beautiful that it steals Bella’s breath. All she can do is stand there, transfixed. Slowly, she turns away. Slowly, she pushes forward. And then suddenly, she seizes Redana around the waist and lifts her bodily into an embrace. Why she does these things she does not understand. She simply holds her wife and carries her back so they can witness the miracle together. “This is going to take forever if I let it,” a new voice carries through the phone, “Katherine, where ARE you?” “O-oh! Actia! Uh, hi? U-um. On the advice of, uh, my lawyer, I decline to answer the question?” But the one named Actia only chuckles. “Is this what it feels like to be proud of someone else? I wonder.” “Proud of her? You’re [i]proud[/i] of her?! Actia do you have any idea how hard it is to fly this thing???? Just find her already so I can crash it and get this over with!” “It’s like she said. We were pulling a job, but one thing lead to another and knowing you with everything that just started happening we thought you might appreciate a rescue.” “You seem like a better influence than Cyanis,” says Yue, “Would you like some tea when this is over?” “You’re not going to… anime it, are you?” “Nnnnnnnno?” “Thanks butI, uh, don’t want to be rescued,” says Kat. “You don’t?” “She doesn’t?!?!” “No. I want to save the world.” A pair of foxes sigh a pair of foxy sighs. They sigh in a foxlike manner, that is. I mean I dunno, maybe they also sigh in a sexy way? They’re foxes, they can do both probably. You can’t prove they can’t! “Well! I mean! I figure this whole ghost castle business is pretty much our fault, so…” “Our fault?” scoffs Cyanis, “How could [i]anything[/i] about this be our fault? Or anything ever, for that matter?” Kat floofs her hair and glances around, nervous-like. She’s gathering an audience, which is a bit nerve wracking since she doesn’t really know too many of them. But what’s a girl to do in the face of an audience other than perform? She smiles. “Well I mean, think about it right? The world had this whole weird ritual thing ready to go, fulla ghosts and warriors and ghost warriors, y’know? And we kinda snuck in and set it off early, right? And then we, like, kinda sorta blew the whole thing up???” “Completely irrelevant.” says Cyanis. “Self defense.” adds Actia. “And besides, YOU said that would save the world!” sniffs Cyanis. “From US, yeah! But what’s left to save the world from the thing it was really for? Other than this giant muscle mommy catgirl I guess?” “What the fuck did you just call me?” “Who the hell is that?!? Kat what is [i]happening[/i] right now? Did you manage to summon MORE of them?!” “Oh! Uh… I dunno actually! Hold on, I’ll ask! Hi, Missus Miss Kitty! Sorry if this is a rude question, but uh, are you dead?” “I… was. H-how did you?” “Neato gatito! Yeah, looks like it!” “Well, great. Is she bigger than the sharkgirl?” “Oh goodness goshies, no. She’s tiny compared to Ivar. I mean, like, regular huge.” “Well that’s something I guess. But why should [i]we[/i] get involved? We just got out of that business!” “I can’t believe I’m saying this after everything else, but I’m going to have to agree with Cyanis. An extraction is one thing, but flying into more danger with no plan isn’t my idea of profitable risk. What are you scheming, Katherine?” Kat giggles, a little bit proud of herself. Her teeth twinkle in the spooky death castle town light as she looks up at Yue. She clutches her phone tight and speaks with a smile in her voice. “Well, see, if we’re the ones who fix this, we get to take credit for it! Think about it, right, no monks, no Princesses, just us foxes! Oh, and my mom. And her friends. But mostly us! They’ll never be able to send any of us to Cutie Fox Island ever again!” “Wait. Wait wait wait wait wait. Wait.” “Is that really how it works?” “Oh, I guess you guys don’t know ‘cause you’ve never been house foxes. But good girls? Get [i]treats[/i].” The sound of Actia furrowing her brow is audible even over the sound of assault helicopter blades. “Have I… been going about this whole thing backwards? This entire time?” “Girls?” “Oh no, not [i]backwards![/i] Just different! But right now I’m the expert so you should–” “...Girls?” “-Doesn’t make any gosh darned sense how could-” “Girls! As much as I appreciate not needin’ to carry anyone, don’t we already have a car? Just have them meet us there.” “Oh, [i]mom.[/i] You’re so old fashioned! You weren’t there when I saved the world, remember? It’s not like it was in your day where you just kinda walked everywhere. Now we need cool transportation! And theme music! And idols!!” Yue turns a little pink and very quickly finds a cloud to watch instead of continuing this conversation. Kat takes that for victory and hops exactly twice in celebration. “Ok! So we’re… actually where did you guys get a helicopter, anyway?” “We stole it from Qiu.” says Actia. “From Princess Qiu??” “Uhuh!” chirps Cyanis with obnoxious pride, “I figured, every time we steal from her we wind up running from these things? So why not cut to the chase? I figure this thing must be worth at [i]least[/i] three wallets.” “...You are such an idiot. Why did I let you make the plan? Did I get kicked in the head when I lost that tail?” Blades cut through the air as a miracle approaches from the horizon. But what makes it a miracle isn’t that it’s a way to get everybody where they need to go before it’s too late. It’s not that Hermes’ perfect, ages old scheme missed a pack of flooferdoodles in its calculations. It’s not even the possibility that love, that real actual and honest to goodness L O V E might still manage to triumph on the day. No, it’s laughter. Bella howls again, doubling over so hard that she drops Redana straight on the ground. And just like that, she’s free.