Night 30
Izzie loves her life with Yuo. What was a simple bakery is now a cafe of purples, blues, and silver, with just a touch of pink and gold. The Starlight Cafe, where she can spend all day putting smiles onto the faces of others and where Yuo’s smile never seems to fade.
She brings out a fresh tray of cupcakes dressed in their colors with sprinkles of gold and silver. A treat after closing for her dearest friends. Mie, Keanu, Chantie, Sparrowhawk, Micaral, Faram, Pip, Pop, Pora, Patha, Astril, Roe. One cupcake for everyone, and two for Yuo! Yuo’s smile as he delivers the cupcakes to the table is dazzling, leaving Izzie skipping after him with the tea balanced in her mage hands. The chatter of her friends turns to compliments before the chatter turns inwards again at this massive collection of tables pushed together. The perfect arrangement of hanging star-shaped lights behind Yuo seems to form a halo as he pulls her close and sits her on his lap. She can’t help but be dazzled by him. He looks dashing in his uniform and her nearly bare bottom is sitting on his lap.
He laughs to himself, his voice ringing in her mind “See something you like?”
“Of course I do!” Izzie replies mentally as she kisses him. He kisses back. His mouth tastes like sweet tea. Even when the kiss is broken, he keeps his head low and nuzzles her hair.
Mie can’t contain the smirk on her face “You two can’t hold back for a second, can you?”
Izzie blushes sweetly as Yuo answers “Well, we are still newlyweds. It's only right to want to spoil my wife.”
That’s right. They bought this cafe together. Mie and Keanu helped them move into the space above it. Mie and Keanu will start work here tomorrow morning as baker and waiter, respectively. It’ll be their first day. Everyone is here to celebrate.
Mie sighs “I hope you two are successful. If this place gets trendy maybe I’ll meet someone.”
Izzie’s eyes went to Keanu who sat across the doubled up tables and didn’t hear Mie at all. They never ended up hitting it off. Keanu was wrapped up with some elven girl he’d met by chance. Mie was still single.
Yuo was petting Izzie’s head now, making Izzie speak up “You won’t need to rush. You’re a beautiful Starlight legend.”
Mie blushed and mumbles, the words lost under the din of conversation. Yuo pulled Izzie back into his gaze with planted kisses atop her head, prompting her to huff that he was very distracting. As she turned her head to him she found his eyes half-lidded with a sensual sort of heat to them. Like he was gazing into her being. His thoughts were loud in her head now that she could only focus on him. “I can’t wait until everyone files out. You’re just so cute in this outfit..”
Izzie thought about the feelings transmitted through those words. The implications of the tone of his voice. It felt like she was short-circuiting.
Izzie wakes up with a longing in her heart she doesn’t understand.
Night 31
Sending wasn’t working, that was odd. She couldn’t seem to contact Yuo. Maybe he was busy. A quick call to Faram had things sorted, at least. “Hey Faram, we’re about a days out. Let Yuo know when he’s in, alright?”
“Al-alright lass. We’ll be ready to sail by the time you’re all aboard.” That was weird. Why did Faram sound so nervous? Was something going on? Maybe it was a surprise. That sounded like Yuo.
As she came aboard the Motley something felt weird. There wasn’t any excitement.
“Quartermaster Izzie reporting for duty captain!” She shouted, and then saw Faram with a very guilty body language. As if trying to make myself smaller. “C-Captain.. Where’s Yuo?” the tears were already in her eyes.
“Well lass, he went out on a little adventure of his own and.. He didn’t come back.”
“What.” Izzie was already losing control. She felt Mie’s hand on her shoulder but also felt her forced to let go as tentacles slid free. “No.. Why?! WHY WOULD HE DO THAT?! WHERE DID HE GO?!”
“Izzie!” She heard like a chorus as Mie held her tightly to her “Calm down!” There were tears in her eyes too “Y-you can call him. He might still be-”
“I tried, Mie.” Izzie sniffled as all of her painted in dark purple and orange “He never picked up. He’s dead and I was gone and I didn’t protect him and I should have been there and.. And..”
“If it helps lass, I’m pretty sure the lad was going after McMuttons, after what all of ya had experienced there.”
Izzie’s power flared from her eyes, her voice deep and unlike herself. “Galbeth dies.”
And then she started to vomit slime, forcing Mie to pull away as the trauma hit Izzie in a wave. Yuo is gone. Yuo will never smile at her again. Yuo is-
Izzie wakes up with a start and tears down her cheeks. She can’t remember what even upset her so badly.
Night 32
Izzie is snuggled up to Yuo enjoying the solace of night on the astral sea. The joy of their safe return has begun to wind down and all is quiet. “I’m still shocked you guys managed to get a kirin.” he says quietly, pulling Izzie closer. His arm around her waist feels so warm and reassuring. Her tentacles wrap around his waist and shoulder in turn with her hand entwined with his. She burns his gentle smile with that dazzling purple flower crown on his head into her memory before putting her head on his shoulder. His wings appear, keeping her even warmer as they stay close like this.
Her voice is quiet, afraid to disturb the moment “The whole thing was pretty unreal. She gave me a little shock when I got to touch her the first time. I hope my nature didn’t spook her any.”
He gives a little exhale of amusement “I’m sure she trusts you now, Iz. You’re hard not to like. A celestial like a lesser kirin can definitely tell you’re a good person.”
She can’t help the smile that spreads across her face. Getting to hear Yuo after being away feels so nice. “I just hope Squishy doesn’t get jealous. Cazzie is pretty and deserves good food too. We’re getting a lot of very intelligent non-humanoids on the ship.”
“I’m sure he can get used to having a new friend around.” Yuo says, and Izzie can feel his smile without looking.
“Yuo..” Izzie says as she lifts her head, and as he turns to look into her glowing eyes with the radiance rings of his own, she kisses him with the quiet desperation of lovers who had been parted. She can hear the ichor of her being rushing in her ears. She can’t bear the moments alone, how did he ever withstand that week without her. How did she ever exist without this sweetness in her life?
Their lips part, and he has a wicked grin “Heh, I didn’t get to properly thank you for the flower crown, did I?”
She laughs nervously “I-I guess not.”
Yuo allows their foreheads to be oh so close, his third eye nearly touching her slime. “Thank you Izzie, for always thinking about me.” He goes for the kiss-
Izzie wakes up groggily thinking about how much she misses Yuo’s big tired looking eyes.
Night 33
Izzie, sleepy, comes out of her tent still clutching her Yuo doll unthinkingly.
Keanu sners “What’s that, Izzie? A doll? Aren’t you kinda old for that?”
Izzie clutches it closer. “I-It’s perfectly acceptable for girls to enjoy dolls!”
Roe shakes his helmet “No, Lady Izzie, the lad has a point. Its unseemly for a woman your age to have such trinkets around.”
She’s tearing up. She likes the doll. It helps her feel less lonely in the morning when the longing is its worst.
Chantie looks confused “Only left for few days. See Yuo again soon. Why have doll?”
She shifts it into the Philosopher instinctively.
“I’ve been letting you have it, but it *is* pretty weird.” Mie says.
Izzie is crying, clutching the doll so close. She hears it speak as her father “I’ll always be proud of you.”
And then it shifts to Yuo “I love you”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
She remembers Yuo’s approval of it. His gentle teasing. He helped her with the lines..
Izzie wakes up feeling anxious.
Night 34
Izzie walks up to Yuo with her hands behind her back, which is always a good sign she’s up to something. Yuo’s smile brightens when he sees her, and even gets a little smug when he realizes she has something planned “What’s up? You want something?”
“I, ah, well, I got to preen Mie’s wings while at that little resort, and I can’t stop wanting to do yours now! Can I pleeeassee?”
He gives a little chuckle “Of course, let’s go to the bunks then so I can spread them out.” He takes her hand in his and somehow this little act still makes her heart pound. When he lays out on the bed, his stomach down as his wings spread open, Izzie can barely swallow. She takes out the feather comb from his belongings and sets her position above him. She tries very hard to both ignore the feeling of him under her and the throaty noises Yuo tries to hold back while being preened. Izzie’s innermost slime feels hot. She didn’t consider how scandalous this would be.
When she gives in to the urge to touch his feathers directly and tease the loose down free, he moans out and blushes deep. She turns her tentacles into more effective combs and the sensation like being nibbled makes Yuo squirm with pooled heat. Izzie leans into him to keep him still, her body pressed to his, and he whimpers “I-izzie-”
Izzie shoots awake. Nope. No. Not an appropriate dream to be having.
Night 35
“It’s too cold!” Izzie pouts, bundling up tighter.
Yuo laughs a little at how cute she is “Why do you hate the cold so much, anyway?”
Izzie huffs with indignation “It’s making-” Izzie pauses and speaks quieter, as if ashamed “My slime freezes..”
Yuo pulls her close, his face touching hers “Don’t worry, I won’t let you become an Izsicle.” and as she blushes he looks a bit concerned “Jeez, you really are cold. Do you want me to try something else to warm you up?”
“L-like what?” Izzie asks, fearing the answer
Yuo blushes “W-well, I hear body heat is pretty effective..”
“Like, n-naked bodies, pressed together?”
“N-not entirely naked, and we’d have thick blankets, b-but, something like that..”
Izzie’s cheeks burn bright enough to glow. She doesn’t want to say no. She wants to touch their bare bodies together if only because touching Yuo feels delightful. His every scar hers to caress. The way their bodies fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. The safety of his embrace. She wants to-
No. Bad. This is not something a proper girl should want. This is something Izzie has to decline. Has to be proper. Survival be damned, there is nobody allowed to see her bared down. She will never marry, so nobody will ever have the right. But she thinks about that, and why can’t Yuo see her bared down, just once? Where’s the harm in a bit of joy in her short life? She thinks, and her answer is..
Izzie wakes up with a quiet groan. Her dreams have been making her feel weird lately.
Night 36
She is the monster. Her vivid purple slime oozing as her humanoid form is lost. Eyes are blossoming across her as she fights to pull it in. Nobody wants to see this. Nobody will ever accept ths-
She sees her friends backing away. Retreating. Their voices are distant as if underwater, but she knows the meaning. Izzie calm down, they say. Don’t do this Izzie, she can hear from Keanu. Izzie please, Izzie no, Izzie stop, Izzie calm.
“I-I’m still me! I’m fine! Please! I-it’s just my body, please don’t go! Yuo! Mie!”
The aasimar she cherishes are backing away from her. She looks down at what could cause them such fear. She is blackened and the eyes on her have turned red as a white silk-like cloth wraps around her to make something like a wedding dress. She’s so much taller now. She looks up and Yuo has come back with his hands on his sword.
“You’re still you, aren’t you, Izzie?” He says with a look of trust. “Please, don’t make me regret coming back for you..”
“O-of course I’m still me” She says desperately. She brings him close and holds him despite her new height. He looks up, and his eyes are hazed over in the red of enchantment magic. She did this to him. She tries to dispel it, she whispers “Rozwiac” over and over, but it won’t disappear.
He holds her, and he mumbles to her “I love you, Izzie. I’ll always love you. Your slime feels so nice, so soothing and warm. Please wrap your tentacles around me as much as you’d like. I’m yours. You don’t have to hide what you are.”
She buries her face into his neck, an action shes usually too short for, and then hears a sickening crack. She looks up. His neck is broken and his eyes are dull with death. She realizes everyone is dead. Her friends, the tecroliches, the githyanki, the guru, the monks, Leto, Raimon… They’re all here. The dead are all around her. She cradles Yuo’s body, weeping that she didn’t want this.
Theres a whisper that is everywhere and nowhere at once “You The Destroyer of Everything. Who Carries The Duty Of Envy. You Who Think You Can Escape Your Burden By Pretending To Be Normal. You Who Carry The Chains Of The Monster.” the whisper distorts, sounding much like deep speech and yet not “There is no care for us. You can’t escape.”
The black-clawed thing Izzie summoned before stands there now amongst the dead “Because I’ll always be part of you. Waiting to strike.”
Izzie senses a presence, she turns around and sees the First Lord “Because you will always carry my sins. You will always be at fault.”
Yuo speaks, still dead, still unmoving “Because you want to ---- them.”
She hears a voice, mangled with an echoing chorus “Make peace then, as all will…Sister.”
Night 37
Izzie feels the dread instinctively. She turns her head and sees Yuo lying against an invisible wall in the darkness, his scar bleeding down his face. Dead githyanki and tecropolis ‘zombies’ are scattered around with matching bloodstains. Izzie steps to look behind herself and sees a window into a glass maze-prison where Ahjii wanders crying out, her body shriveled with starvation and dehydration. Below this window Izzie sees petals that blow away on an unfelt breeze. Guru Divit sits under the petals as a man, holding his lover. They’re both dead, torn apart by magic so strong that petals fall from the wounds instead of blood. Izzie turns the only direction she hasn’t looked, and a crying ‘Dutton’ Raimon is against the wall holding onto his dead friends. Izzie hears a rush of wind as she looks forward once more. She knows what this all means. What it wants her to think.
“This blood on my hands can’t be washed away..”
Mie walks into view in her powered-up form. Her black wings overly large, her hair blackened, her eyes a shining, glowing red. A scythe of black wood and a blood-red blade is in her hands.
“The Raven Queen always backs the Angel of Death.”
Izzie shakes her head “I know, she watches us for a reason. We’re murderers, no matter how it’s justified. I just wish.. I just wish this got easier.”
“All killers must harden their heart to death, you are no different.”
Yuo touches her shoulder with a bloody hand, his scar still bleeding down his face. He smiles. His eyes are glowing with their usual radiant ring, his wings fanned out as one closes in to touch her other shoulder.
“You’re the only one who came here with clean hands. Does it feel good to be more like us?”
Izzie isn’t sure how to answer, and the confusion is what brings her senses back to the terrible noises. Back to reality as she wakes and forces herself to be pried from Mie.
Night 38
She’s with her friends walking around a village together. There is life here despite the destruction. Her hands are clasped with Yuo’s and Mie’s. She feels so safe with them, either of them. They feel familiar, more familiar than the others. Their personalities fit together so seamlessly. She is a missing piece in their lives.
“Sorry, Izzie.” Yuo says. She looks up at his face and he’s bleeding from that scar. Izzie gasps. She tries to reach out to fix it, and suddenly Yuo’s hand isn’t in hers. He touches her outreached hand to stop her. “Don’t worry about me.”
“But..” She barely manages a reply as he turns around and walks away. Mie is still holding her hand, leading her away from the direction Yuo is going. She suddenly hears it. The wet noise of a blade meeting flesh. Yuo! She tries to let go of Mie to go after him, but her grip is suddenly like a vice. “Mie! Stop, I need to-”
“Sorry, Izzie.” She says, and Izzie is horrified as she looks at her. Her grip let’s go entirely as she too walks away. Izzie turns around and hears the wet noise again despite never seeing why. Yuo and Mie are corpses in the street. All the people are gone.
She turns to her friends “Guys! Mie and Yuo are-” She stops, because her friends aren’t there anymore. She is alone. Her most beloved friends are gone. The village is in ruins. There is no life here. She drops to her knees and weeps as the darkness overtakes her.
Izzie wakes up with an ache in her heart.
Night 39
“You are a shard of Acamar, but you are not Him..”
Sehanine’s hardening smile burns into her. Like heartbreak, like disgust, like so many things she has imagined and known.
"Had I deigned myself to meet with you earlier... I would have shamed myself to say I would not have trusted any of you."
Because of her.. Because of her, this goddess wouldn’t have trusted her friends. May have even smote them.
Smote her.
Sehanine raises her bow and notches an arrow of moonlight.
Izzie doesn’t know where to run, where to hide. Could she, when she falls under the domain of this goddess? Would Roe try to save her like he saved Cernach?
"A beast that dangerous should not be permitted to live" She hears Oberon’s voice echo. “Go ahead and take the shot."
The arrow is loosed. It impacts with all the force of moonbeam. The radiance burns, and her form explodes out. Her tentacles everywhere, her slime oozing in a mess. She can’t hold her form at all. She’s a monster…
Sehanine “So you were hidden by the Philosopher..”
Izzie cries out in agony “m-my lady, mercy, please.. I’m not Him! I’m not Him!” she’s never been so scared. To be looked at so coldly by a god-
Izzie wakes up, groggy and confused, only to remember she is wedged between Mie and Kaze tonight, and one of them is petting her hair. Izzie eases back into sleep…
She dreams a kinder dream, of staring up at the stars with Yuo’s hand in hers. She points out all the stars she knows. Alloth, Chertan, Fomalhaut, Izar, Kraz, Maia, Merak, Naos, Okab, Pollux, Rotanev, Sargas, Tejat, Tureis, Wezen, Zosma.. And those were only some! She feels a little longing look at some of the stars. Azha, Beid, Keid, Cursa, Ran..
Izzie wakes up feeling a longing in her heart.
Night 40
She’s sitting with Yuo so happily, her head on his shoulder and his head atop hers. Then she starts melting. Dripping She’s getting it on his clothes. How? Her slime has never stuck to anything before. She looks up at Yuo in a panic, and is shocked to see what seems to be disgust as he tries to get the slime off. She tries to summon a tentacle to help dab it away since her hands are nearly nothing, but suddenly many of them unleash. Her entire back erupts into writhing self-thinking tentacles that grab onto Yuo with feelings she doesn’t understand. She doesn’t understand what they’re asking of her, but the feeling is only getting stronger.
Izzie looks betrayed as Yuo starts to squirm away and then manages to duck out of her grasp “N-no, please, help me! I don’t know what’s happening!” the tentacles thrum and throb a want, a wordless command like a chant. Hold onto him, don’t lose him, don’t let him go. Touch him, know him, inside and out. He is ours, ours, ours..
She grabs onto him again. She can’t block out the noise of the tentacles. She barely realizes she’s knocked him down and he looks scared. She doesn’t want him to be scared, but, is it for her, or because of her? “I.. I need you. Don’t abandon me..”
She wants.. More. To be touching more. To know more. To know him like she knows Mie..
The mere thought of seeing him in a hot spring, bared utterly, strikes her like lightning and forces her off of him. Her form pulls together in an instant.
‘No no no no…’ she tells herself. She can’t do that. She doesn’t know why she can’t do that, but she can’t.. Mustn’t. She’s never thought much of nudity before, but that was before Yuo, and before Mie. The thought of Mie’s bare skin fills her with butterflies, but the thought of Yuo fills her with so many she could choke. She looks back at Yuo..
They’re in that room. The one where they showered each other before getting in. Mie is waiting for them. Yuo is about to finish stripping down, that piece of clothing she’s never seen him without-
Izzie wakes with a gasp and wipes the yellow blush from her cheeks.