Squish

- Plume is a very serious and stoic person, despite their flamboyant line of work and the fact that they work for Vix. They’re around to make sure things actually get done. Give them a task, and they’ll not only do it but do a little bit extra. Their serious attitude means their efficient, but often quite stressed, which honestly makes them a bigger target for Vix’s shenanigans

- Plume is a nickname, they haven’t used their real name since they got into the whole Villainy Business

- Speaking of names, they hardly use real names for anybody. Vix is usually “boss” or “sir”, oppositions to their schemes are “heroes” in the most condescending tone they can muster (even if they don’t mean it) or “pests”, average people are just “civilians.” It’s a habit they picked up and can’t seem to break.

- Vix is not the first supervillain they’ve worked for. Their previous boss was one of those dangerous, serious villains and he did not treat them very well :(. They escaped and found someone better. Don’t be fooled by the monotone voice and blank expression, they’ve never been happier than working with Vix.

- They’re quite ticklish, it doesn’t take very much to shatter the stoic facade they put on. They’re ticklish pretty much everywhere, but their worst spot is their palms. Trace a fine pen or a feather around their hands and they’ll crumble. You’ll need to get those gloves off first which can be quite the tricky task if they realize what you’re trying to do.

- Getting them to smile is pretty easy if you know their weak points, but getting them to laugh is another thing. They will fight it for as they possibly can, but they can’t hold out forever.

- They don’t have any superpowers, but that doesn’t make them any less TERRIFYING as a Ler. They don’t really tease, but they will ask their victim lots of questions while they take them apart with almost clinical precision.

- They have a habit of sneaking up on people and startling them. Most of the time they don’t even mean to do it, they’re just so quiet!

- Plume has a very strong admiration of Vix that they pretend doesn’t exist. They’re not very good at it. They are constantly trying to make him proud and get his attention and fail at trying to keep it subtle.

Dressed in Belos’s clothing, she stood before her friends. Their eyes were empty, devoid of any sympathy or care for her. Willow, Gus, Hunter, and her beloved Amity. They all hated her. Luz was certain of it, and she was certain she deserved it.

“I’m sorry.” She said simply, lacking any real sorrow. “But for the sake of everyone you hurt,”

“Please, no!” Hot tears welled in Luz’s eyes like lava. She couldn’t even bring herself to say that it wasn’t her fault. She took a step back and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting to be hit by a glob of abomination goo, or a spiked vine.

“I challenge you to a witch’s battle!” Witch’s battle?

Luz peeked one eye open. “W-wait… say that again?”

“I said, I challenge you to a witch’s battle!”

Amity’s tone didn’t change at all when she repeated the phrase. It was robotic, as if the response had been programmed into her to say it exactly the same every time. She didn’t move from her defensive, fighting stance. 

“Witch’s… battle?”

She hesitantly approached her girlfriend, then gingerly squished her pretty face in her hands. “Bep.” She playfully flicked her ears. “Boop.”

She observed how Amity didn’t respond, and her fears began to melt away and were quickly replaced by a fuzzy feeling. She lifted up Amity’s arm and poked her, like she was a doll she could position and pose.

“You look like Amity, you feel like Amity, but you’re not Amity, are you?”

Luz’s face broke into a smile as she stepped back. Of course something was weird! 

“Ha! You’re not her! None of you are you!”

“How dare you? Of course we’re us!” Willow spoke, but she barely moved.

“It’s, ‘I challenge you to a witch’s duel,’ not battle!” She waved her finger at them, her confidence quickly returning. “And the Amity I know would never misquote The Good Witch Azura!”

She took a step back and smiled, Stringbean formed a staff in her hands.

“So come on, attack me. I know what’s going on now.” She watched as her friends readied themselves, charging right at her. She closed her eyes, waiting for the first hit, and- “No, no NO!” A childish voice echoed around the bridge. Luz opened her eyes, and her friends were frozen in place. Glowing wires were wrapped around their wrists and ankles, like they were little puppets. Floating above them all, was a very grumpy looking Collector. He had his arms crossed and was glaring down at the group with a pout. “You weren’t supposed to figure it out! This isn’t fair!”

“Collector?!”

“What am I supposed to do now?! Oh, you’re probably so angry with me!” They floated in circles and flipped himself upside down while clutching his hat. 

Luz’s eyes wandered from the Collector to her friends. They were starting to come out of their trance, and their eyes were shining again.

Suddenly, he was right next to Luz. He dramatically flopped onto her shoulder, nearly knocking her over. “You aren’t angry with me, right? For trying to scare you?”

“Uhm…” She quickly glanced at her friends, who were all giving her very hesitant looks. “No?”

“Really?” The Collector’s eyes lit up. Then they scowled. “Cause I’m still pretty mad at you for screwing up my fun!” “W-well, there’s other ways to have fun!” Luz stammered. She backed away from him, in between all her friends. “Like, um, maybe instead of scaring people, you should try making them laugh!”

The Collector tapped his finger to his chin a couple times. Then slowly, his lips curled into a mischievous grin. “Hm… y’know what, human? I think you’re right!” He snapped his fingers, and Luz’s friends went limp. The light in their eyes faded along with the glowing wires. The Collector giggled rather deviously and clapped his hands a few times. Luz’s friends sprang to attention, and grabbed her all at once.

“H-Huh?! What are you-”

“And I’ve got the perfect way to do it! Get her!”

Luz wasn’t quite sure what she was expecting to happen, but feeling the skittering, tickling fingers of all four of her friends definitely wasn’t it! She made a noise that was akin to a startled seagull, which quickly dissolved into confused giggling.

“What in the wohohorld?! Collector! Cuhuhuhit out!”

“Man, you mortals can never make up your minds, huh?” The Collector floated over to her, hovering inches away from her face. Personal space wasn’t much of a concern for a child of the stars. “First you want me to make you laugh, then you want me to stop? Come on, we’re having so much fun! You’re laughing aren’t you?”

Those dang fingers were everywhere! Poking at her sides and belly, scribbling up and down her neck and around her ears, Luz could barely focus on just one spot! Every time she’d flail in an attempt to protect herself, they’d just get her somewhere else. 

“This- this isn’t whahahat I meant whehehen I said- EEK! NOHOHO!”

Nails that unmistakably belonged to Amity made Luz’s sentence crumble when they spidered up her sides and into the hollows of her underarms. If it weren’t for her friends all holding her steady, she was certain her legs would’ve just given up.

The Collector just laughed right along with her. “Man, you were right! Making people laugh is way more fun than scaring them! Just listen to all the silly noises you make!” “COLLEHEHECTOR!” “That’s meeee! Hey! I should try this on your other friends, too! I’ll be back!” They clapped their hands, and they vanished in a puff of sparkly purple smoke. Luz was much too busy laughing her head off to even realize where he had gone, or what he had meant by that. It wasn’t like the feeling was bad, she’d always enjoyed tickle fights as a way of bonding or cheering someone up, but this was ridiculous! And not to mention the fact that it was turning her mind to mush! It couldn’t get much worse than this-

“Your laugh is just so sweet, I could listen to it forever!”

Nevermind. It could.

Amity had leaned over to coo teasing compliments in her ear. It had caught Luz so off guard her knees buckled and her friends all shifted to keep her up. 

“WAIHAIT! Nohoho, Amity, please! You know I cahahan’t take it-” “But it’s true!” Man, the Collector had really gotten her friends' personalities down. And it only became more abundant when the rest of them started teasing too. “Come on, Luz! I know you’re tougher than that!” Willow giggled as she kneaded Luz’s side at a steady rythm, making her squeal “You can take it!” Gus had a different tactic, constantly switching spots and jumping around so Luz could never tell where he was going to strike next. “Where’s the spot that makes her laugh the most again? Is it here- or here- or maybe heeeere?” “Man, if only I had known about this little weakness of yours when we were still enemies.” Hunter had a smug mischief in his voice that just dripped with the cockiness of an older brother messing with his younger sister. It reminded Luz of how he acted when they first met. “You would have been done for! Would’ve made our fights go by a lot faster, huh?”

That was really about all Luz could take. Her loud laughter was starting to turn into wheezes, and her friends finally let up. She sunk to the ground and curled up in a ball, still tingling with phantom tickles. “Collector… thahat… phew…” She looked up when she felt Amity’s comforting hand on her shoulder, and realized something she hadn’t before.

They had that light in their eyes. They had it since the Collector had disappeared!

“H-hey wait a minute! You’re you! Really you! You were tickling me on PURPOSE!” “Sorry…” Amity said with a giggle “I couldn’t help it, you’ve just been so down recently, we haven’t heard you laugh like that in so long.”

“You really needed it.” Willow said, crouching down next to her. “Seriously. And you better believe the nice things we said about you, or else.” Hunter tazed her side, earning him a loud squeak.“You guys are-”

But there wasn’t much time for Luz to finish. Her friends gasped when the puppet strings seized them again, jerking their limbs away from her.

“There’s no time to waste!” Shouted Gus. “You need to stop the Collector, you need to wake up!”

“Wait, but how?!”

Amity used the last of her strength to press a familiar glyph into Luz’s hand and offer her a warm smile.

Chell being thrown back into these testing chambers was not something she had been planning on when Wheatley said he’d get her out of there. She had fought tooth and nail to escape GLaDOS the first time, she had been so close to leaving Aperture for a second time, and then that little mistake had revived her old enemy and gotten her put back in testing again. Needless to say, she was a little pissed.

“Sorry about the mess.” GLaDOS’s robotic voice echoed over the speakers. “I’ve really let the place go since you killed me. By the way, thanks for that.”

Chell rolled her eyes. GLaDOS could talk all she wanted, but Chell was determined to not give her the satisfaction of ever speaking back. However, GLaDOS was right. The place definitely was a mess. It was nothing like the pristine testing rooms that she was used to. She had to carefully step over fallen bits of debris and avoid walking too close to the moving panels GLaDOS was controlling in an attempt to put the facility back together. She glared at one of the cameras in the room. 

Maybe there was something she could do about it. She couldn’t escape like this, but if GLaDOS was going to be petty, then why couldn’t she? She picked up a chunk of garbage and hucked it at the blinking camera. It fizzled, then powered off when it was hit. Chell couldn’t help but grin.

“Really? I’ve tried to keep this a professional, scientific environment, but your constant immaturity and violent behavior is making this increasingly difficult. Now someone is going to have to fix that. And that someone will have to be me.” Despite her GLaDOS’s voice being so monotone, it still dripped with sarcasm and malice. It only fueled Chell’s pettiness. Using her portal gun, she grabbed onto the camera before GLaDOS could open the wall and snatch it away.

“If you think this kind of attitude is impressing anyone, it’s not. And your attempts to stop this are pitiful, there are still plenty of ways I can see you- what exactly do you think you’re doing?”

Chell smiled and kept a tight hold on the broken camera, even when she felt it being tugged on from behind the wall. 

“Let go.”

Chell shook her head.

“Let go, or I will have to drag you off of it myself. You’re wasting time, we have more testing to do.”

Chell still wasn’t giving in. She shook her head again. Even when a robotic claw emerged from an opening between the panels, Chell didn’t move. It looked make-shift, like GLaDOS had just had to put it together using spare parts, the same way she’d put herself back together when she was reawakened. Chell didn’t think it would do much.

She was wrong. The claw grabbed at her side, pinching up and down it sporadically. It wasn’t strong enough to drag Chell off like GLaDOS had threatened, or even hurt, but what it did do was tickle like crazy. With each little prod and pinch, Chell tensed and kicked her legs. She squirmed, trying to get the mischievous little claw off of her, but it was relentless.

“Oh? What an interesting development…” GLaDOS commented on her subject’s situation, moving the claw up a little to Chell’s ribs, which gave her a very satisfying, more frantic reaction. “Very interesting… care to tell me why you’re moving around so much? Is something wrong? Just kidding, I’ve already figured it out. You’re ticklish, and by the looks of it, more than the average human. I wonder if it’s some sort of side effect of being in stasis for so long…”

Chell held her breath, still not saying a word despite the cruel teasing, and she still refused to let go of the camera. She hid in her arms the best she could to disguise the dorky, sunny smile that had broken out across her face. Tickling?! Really?! She twitched sharply with every ticklish jolt that came from that devious claw. And just when she thought she could tough it out, another one latched onto her other side. They kneaded her torso with maddening, machine-like precision, picking up and which spots made her nearly lose her grip and targeting them. To Chell’s dismay, there was a well of laughter bubbling up inside her that was starting to escape through voiceless hisses and huffs.

GLaDOS was just drinking in the poor human’s frustration. “According to research, the human response to tickling is one of panic. In fact, it was even used as a form of torture. But you still haven’t let go yet, could it be possible that you’re actually having fun?”

Chell frantically shook her head, her hair fell down over her eyes. Her face was steadily turning a bright shade of crimson. Although she never would have admitted it, she was maybe, just a little, having fun. Her life was constantly in danger, from the moment she’d arrived at Aperture. She had narrowly escaped bullets, lasers, fire, and deadly neurotoxin. She couldn’t even remember the last time someone had just wanted to do something playful, and it was a nice change. Even if the sensation was starting to get unbearable!

“It must be miserable to be a human. Filled with so many nerves, and weaknesses that are so easy to exploit. I can only imagine what you might be experiencing right now. And I hope you know that you deserve every last second of it.”

When Chell noticed a third claw reaching for her, she decided that maybe the camera just wasn’t worth it. She dropped herself onto the floor, landing on her back. Her relief was short-lived, however. Mechanical whirring rose from the panel beneath her, and before she knew it, four claws had popped up all around her. They wasted no time pouncing on her, one spidering over her side, one scratching under her arm, two kneading and squeezing her thighs and knees. Chell shrieked, but no sound came out.

“What? Did you really think you were going to get away that easily? I’m not going to let such an intriguing research opportunity slip away from me just like that.” GLaDOS wasn’t human, but Chell could’ve sworn she could hear a slight giggle to her robotic voice. “Which spot is the worst? What method makes you tick? How many tools can I use before you completely lose your mind? So many questions worth testing… I’d be remiss if I didn’t experiment further.”

Every time Chell tried to sit up, or roll away from the tickly attack, the panel would shake beneath her, knocking her back for GLaDOS’s evil claws to continue away. Chell was starting to worry about actually going insane. This was as silly as it was cruel, and the thought of GLaDOS using whatever data she was collecting from this against her in the future sent a chill down her spine. She had to act fast. Noticing a ledge, she aimed her portal gun at it the best she could with her trembling arms. She fired, but never got to see if it hit her target or not, because GLaDOS made hasty work of taking advantage of her lifting her arms up. Not one, but two claws scribbled into her hollows, and Chell slammed her arms down to protect herself and squeezed her eyes shut. Her laughter came out in silent wheezes.

“You really are an idiot.” GLaDOS teased. “Did you really think that would work? It’s no wonder you’ve fallen for my traps so easily, it’s almost like you want to get caught-”

Chell shot a portal beneath her, and much to her surprise, it spat her out right onto the ledge she had been wanting to escape to. She jumped to her feet, face flushed and breathing heavily. “Oh. You actually escaped. Maybe you’re more clever than I expected. Oh well, that was fun, don’t you agree?”

Maybe he would have listened. If things had just been a little different٫ he would have listened.

Amity had tried to comfort Hunter after his breakdown٫ but of course٫ as soon as he had seen the portal key around her neck he lunged at her. She dodged out of the way, somersaulting and sending the Golden Guard tumbling to the ground.

“Aw, c’mon! Being nice usually works for Luz!”

He ran at her again, only for King to run in between them and shout a magic, sonic “WEH!”

In an instant, the little red bird that was following him had become a staff, and was grasped in Hunter’s hand, saving him from the attack. That tilted the scale, now he had a chance against Amity’s magic. He smirked at her shocked expression as she had the same realization. He moved in a flash of yellow light, but quickly found that a staff with a palisman felt nothing like the artificial magic that came from his old one. He yelped as he nearly lost his balance, sliding a few feet.

“Real staffs are weird-”

He was cut off by sticky abomination goo wrapping around him. It seeped into the sleeves on the coven scout uniform he had tried to disguise himself with. His staff once again came to the rescue, letting him escape the goo and teleport high above Amity.

Bolts of yellow magic lept around the empty lake, ricocheting off the walls. Two powerful witches, each with different fighting styles, neck and neck for the key. Hunter teleported all around her, and his staff clashed against the abomination goo she summoned as a shield. Once, twice, three times. His fingers narrowly brushed the key, but he could never grasp it before Amity knocked him away.

He became desperate, crazed. His eyes were wide and panicked as he fought. His teeth were gritted together so hard his jaw was aching. Every block, every dodge, every hit Amity got on him sent him spiraling. He couldn’t go back empty handed. He couldn’t, he couldn’t. If she escaped then he really might as well finish that grave he had been digging earlier, lie down in it, and never come out. It would be better than facing Belos after yet another failure.

Amity, on the other hand, was calm. Focused. Unlike Hunter, she had gotten plenty of sleep, and backup was on the way. She was confident in her ability, and knew how to use her staff and abomination magic at their best. She anticipated every attack, swiftly moving away with an extra graceful flair only Amity Blight could pull off.

At least, she did, until Hunter completely snapped.

“If you really wanna help, THEN GIVE ME THAT KEY!”

He caught the key with the end of the staff, and the rope holding it around her neck snapped. The key went flying, and the two teens collapsed to the ground.

Hunter tried to scramble to his feet, but Amity caught him around the waist and dragged him back down.

“Oh no you don’t!”

She hadn’t realized it, but in the process of tackling him back down, her thumbs had dug into his sides. It shot a feeling up his spine that he wasn’t expecting. A sort of tingly, electric feeling.

He squeaked, and fell back to his knees, his arms wrapped instinctively and protectively around his torso. Amity froze. King froze. Hunter stared at the ground in front of him and his ears went red.

What was that?!

He didn’t have much time to think about it, since after Amity snapped out of it she made a bolt for the key. He reached out to grab her but found himself flat on his back with a glob of purple goo holding him down. She calmly walked back over to him.

“W-what are you doing?!”

She knelt down next to him. “I’ve spotted a new opportunity. An opportunity to get you to calm down and stay here until backup arrives.” She hovered her hands over his sides.

He stared at her. She couldn’t possibly be serious. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Luz says laughter is the best medicine! And my siblings do this to me all the time. You’ll be fine.”

And with that, she rapidly squeezed at his sides.

It was almost comical how fast Hunter broke. He burst into giggles, his wide smile showing off the gap between his teeth. Any semblance of his tough, hardened and cocky Golden Guard persona melted away in an instant, revealing the dorky teenager he had hidden away. He threw his head to the side, hoping to at least save some of his dignity. “W-whahahat is thihis?! This is childihihish!”

“Good! I think you need to be a kid!” She drew a small spell circle in the air, and the abomination goo crept its way up towards his neck. Hunter squealed and scrunched up his shoulders.

King hopped up onto Amity’s shoulders. “Yes.. YES! Get him!” He climbed down and joined in on the chaos, poking at Hunter’s belly. His laughter became higher and squeakier, and he struggled to push King away with his hands pinned to his sides.

“Gehehet off! You’ll- you’ll pahahay for this!!” He threw his head from side to side. His laughter only picked up and his squirming became more intense when King crawled across his chest and went for his now reddish ears. “P-PALISMAHAHAN! HEHEHEELP!”

Amity gasped when the little red bird actually responded to Hunter’s pleas, and grew to a staff in Hunter’s hands. He used the same teleportation trick he had before to escape the goo, and dove for the key. Amity was just barely fast enough, climbing on her own staff and snatching the key off the ground before the two went tumbling down yet again.

Only this time, Hunter was at the advantage. Amity was stuck flat on her back, holding the key tightly to her chest. He was kneeling at her side, keeping her pinned down with one arm, and trying to pry the key away with the other. Years of training to be the Golden Guard made it easy to keep her down, but days without sleep made it difficult to take it away.

“Listen-” he started to say, making yet another unsuccessful attempt to steal it. “You’re strong, and I’m tired, but at the end of the day-”

His hand brushed against her neck. Amity squeaked and scrunched up her shoulders. After a few perplexed moments, Hunter’s mouth broke into a smirk.

“Oho, don’t tell me you have the same little weakness?” His palisman perched on his shoulder as he latched his hand onto her side. “Tell you what, Blight, you hand over that key and I’ll let you go. If you don’t give me it, I’ll just torture you until you let go of it. Either way, I win.”

Amity just stared back at him, clutching the portal key a little tighter. It was almost uncanny how much Hunter’s tone and expression reminded her of the twins when they were trying to get on her nerves. She saw Edric’s same look, and knowing what always happened when he had that gleam in his eye, she was a little scared. Still, she defiantly shook her head.

“Fine then. We’re doing this the hard way.” He skittered his fingers up and down her sides and ribs, and she burst into giggles. When Amity had tickled him, it was half to tire him out and half because from everything Luz had told her about him, he really needed to be a kid again and Amity decided to take it upon herself to fix that. She wasn’t trying to be too rough, or take it very far, just keep him there until Eda found them. But Hunter? He was motivated by spite, revenge, desperation. He really wasn’t going to ease up until she gave up the portal key, and it was maddening. The way he acted like a mean older sibling certainly wasn’t helping.

He hit a spot just between her underarms and ribs, and she screeched. For half a second she even considered ditching the key and just running. The only thing that kept her holding on was the thought of Luz, sick in bed at the Owl House and patiently waiting for her awesome girlfriend to come home. No way was she letting herself lose.

Even when Hunter started targeting that dreaded spot specifically.

“nAHAHAHAA! NO!”

“Aw, what’s wrong? Can’t take it yourself? Drop the key!”

“NEHEVER!”

Hunter laughed along with her. Despite the seriousness of getting the key, and the intense fight they had just had, he found himself having fun. The childish nature of a real battle turned tickle fight made his chest fill with a giddy feeling, one he hadn’t really gotten the chance to feel growing up in the Emperor’s Coven.

Eventually, Amity’s squirming allowed her to get a hand free to attack Hunter’s side with. He nearly pulled away in surprise

“H-HEHEY! Not again!”

“I’m nohohot giving up thahahat easily!!” She propped herself up on her elbow, continuing her attack while still trying to resist Hunter’s.

To King, it was an adorable sight. The two kids both had so much pressure from the adults in their lives, so much expectation to be absolutely perfect, and they had both let it go. It was a rare occasion to see either of them allow themselves to just… be kids. They acted like siblings, pushing and shoving, neither of them could hold the upper hand for too long. Eventually, the key was nearly forgotten in the playful chaos.

Nearly.

Both of them immediately ceased their tickling as soon as Kikimora’s voice could be heard echoing nearby. All of their childlike glee was sucked away in an instant, a brutal reminder of what was actually at stake.

Hunter moved his staff up to Amity’s throat, and she responded with shooting a spike of abomination goo inches away from his face with her free hand.

He glared down at her, but now Amity could see past it. The hurt behind his maroon eyes. Luz was right, he really was a bad but sad boy.

“At the end of the day, I know how to find you. And your human. So let’s just make this easy for both of us.”

Amity didn’t respond for a moment, and out of sight, she crunched the key in her hand before she silently dropped it into Hunter’s hand.

He flew away on his staff right as Eda arrived. She had to check on a still-a-little-out-of- breath Amity.

“Geez kid, what happened? Scared him off from the Titan’s blood?”