unforgotten

“I’m going with anyone who’s off to meet Allegro.”

“I wanna bug Pro.”

“…I’ll go with you, Heefen.” Citopixe was a heathen.

“I’m staying with Quill.”

“As am I.”

“I’m with Pro!” She hasn’t stopped bleeding.

“I will go to Dmavil with Pro, Misae and Citopixe, then.” She clearly doesn’t want to go anywhere near there, judging by the tone of her voice.

“Where Brook goes, I go. Count me in.”

“That’s one person, then. We just need to find more.”

“That was easy.”

“Definitely. If there’s one person in the world who’d be determined to skin Brook alive who isn’t in some way, shape or form Ash, it’d be my Allegro.”

“…You get exiled to a different universe, and then you come back with a small army. Color me impressed.”

“…So you’re not going to kill us on sight?”

“Do you want me to?” Phi’s somewhat offended.

Misae wipes her face off, continuing to bleed out of her facial orifices afterwards and chewing on the green-stained hankerchief thoughtfully, even cheerfully. 

Fearful shriek! Pro immediately goes to Misae’s side despite being horrible at healing magic.

“Shit!” She wasn’t allowed to die!

…The entire group has been spotted.

“I feel amazing!” The sheer head rush from casting such a big spell is enough to perk her up, somehow, if only on sheer adrenaline.

She pulls herself up into a sitting position. “Three Ashes! Haha!”

Shit, that was Ash. “A-Ash. Let me explain.” Hooh. She hadn’t expected to come face-to-face with phir immediately. At least she was a familiar face? Sort of? Had phi heard she was a traitor...?

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

…Ash stands near Misae.

As do Pro and Allegro.

Quill lifts Tempest, placing phir on her hip before standing beside Allegro, taking his hand with her spare hand.

Within seconds, Misae is looking less Misae than Zutar - the demonic energies leaking in a fog which engulfs the travelers, and the universe-travelers slowly fade from view from those who chose against travelling.

“…Let’s hope it doesn’t happen again.” Very, very worried.

“Everyone coming, gather around!” She bounces into the center of the room, tossing her hair in a way that had been completely learned from Iris.

“Are you ready, Tempest?” Quill’s voice is gentle.

…Leans into Quill.

“It’ll be fun! And also, sometimes, I pass out and bleed out of a lot of my facial orifices after I do it! That only happened once, though.”

“Boring! What’s the point of going somewhere new if I can’t cause havoc?”

“…I’m going, too.” Phi stands beside Quill.

Wraps her arms around Tempest.

“If we do send people there, we should be extremely careful and cautious. That’s a given, though.”

“I’m actually quite interested in meeting the version of me from Quill’s universe.”

“I want to cause chaos and destruction in other universes!”

“You’re not allowed to do that!”

“I want to see zhir again.” 

“Chaos and destruction in other worlds isn’t as fun as in your own, Citopixe. Sorry.” Speaking from experience.

“Misae, your alternate self may be someone you don’t want to see.”

“…Alternate universes don’t abide by any specific rules. Anything could happen, though it seems like the milder people aren’t as violently different.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“It means you scream too much, and you’re a big whiny dorkface!”

“No, silly! Pick me to bring people there! I used to be able to travel a little between universes as Zutar!”

“Why didn’t you say so like.... seven months ago?”

Pro is standing in the center of the living room with a whiteboard behind ir.

“You all may be wondering why I’ve brought you here today.”

“I’m just wondering where you got that whiteboard.”

“It was in my room. Anyway, I’ve brought you all here today to discuss something very important: Quill’s universe and the version of Brook that came from there.” Ie crosses ir arms.

“After comparing people from this universe to what we know about people from Quill’s universe, I think we can safely say that Quill’s universe, to some extent, is a reversal of ours.”

“…A reversal?”

Ie nods. “Take Brook, for example.” Ie turns to the whiteboard and writes Brook’s name, drawing a line underneath it and listing qualities. “From opinions gathered by Daniel, Brook’s good qualities are selflessness, kindness, and responsibility. His negative qualities are gullibility, bad combat skills, and…selflessness, according to Saria.”

“I said what I meant, and I meant what I said.”

“…Anyway.” Ie turns back to the whiteboard and writes A.Brook on the other side of the board, repeating the process. “From what I’ve been told about the alternate Brook, we can say that he’s selfish, malicious, and pretty much a huge bully. However, he’s also shown to be very good at combat.”

“…He used curses and dirty tricks. Our Brook just uses a sword.”

“And the other Brook is a war criminal, too. All of these traits put together make the alternate Brook pretty much the opposite of ours.”

“…How do we know this isn’t just a coincidence?”

“Tempest is a murderer who’s completely taken on the role of a cursed child, while Ash has sworn off murder and is trying to accept the fact that the curse isn’t real. Tempest has repeatedly said that Ichorite is a corrupt goddess and is still alive in phir universe, implying that she’s taken on the role of either Seroh-Edici or Malice. Tempest apparently attacked the alternate version of Saria and lopped off one of her arms, as opposed to Saria attacking Ash.”

“…I-I see your point. What do we do about it, then?”

“We find a villain that’s absolutely horrible at just about everything, and then we find the alternate version of them so they can help us. Preferably, someone outside of the oracle clans.”

“So...me?” Heefen mumbles.

“I think you’re all gettin’ this a little bit off. People there are different, yeah, but they’re not complete reversals. The only thing different between the Allegros is the level of confidence. And Shade and Alyse are only much different because of this world’s Aasa’s actions - and what Shade says about his dad, that world’s Aloden? Only real difference is that Aloden is demony, and I’m starting to doubt this Aloden isn’t.”

“Y-you stop that!”

“You’re gonna propose to Benivere!?” Gentle surprise!

….!!!!!!

There Dad went. Good. But now she was dying. She stammers out a fraction of a word before the sheer head rush from the blood going to her cheeks makes her swoon - but it looks like a nod.

Stains. Stains were hard to get out of clothes.

A portal opens up in the wall. Dysmas has arrived.