"Okay, so… what is this?" You've grown used to a certain degree of… strangeness from the council, but this was something else.
"We need another unbiased judge!" Baelz tells you, practically pouncing on the small desk that seems to have appeared from nowhere.
"And I'm the only candidate?" you ask, raising an eyebrow. You were a bit alarmed when you'd been invited to 'consult' on another Council meeting, especially after the first time.
"Well…" It seems you've taken a bit of the wind out of the rat's sails. "I guess maybe we coulda called somebody else, but…" Disregarding her, your eyes turn to Kronii.
"Is it a problem?" she asks you, as straightforward as ever. To be frank, not really—while you complained, it wasn't out of feeling overwhelmed or unwilling to do anything. Rather, it was more that you felt like your opinion wasn't really being considered, which was… well, probably to be expected, among a council of goddesses.
"I'll be fine," you tell her, and she nods. Baelz brightens, and practically skips towards the others, leaving you seated in front of the small desk, still confused as to what you're 'judging'.
"Grrrrrreat!" The chaos goddess cackles, spinning on a heel. "Then let's get started, right?"
"I don't know about this," Mumei murmurs, eyes on you. "I mean, it's kinda weird, right?" she asks, growing bolder. "And embarrassing," she adds, frowning slightly.
A beat passes, and the Council seems to reconsider this whole thing. For a brief moment, you hope they'll just let you go.
"We do plenty of weird things," Sana points out. The others nod sagely, like this is a valid point.
"Competitions like this help us avoid more open methods of cnflict resolution," Kronii adds. "Even really dumb ones." You guess that makes sense. And there were only so many times you could decide something via arm-wrestling.
"Yeah, I guess." Mumei swallows. "Alright. Fauna?" she asks, turning to the kirin.
"Right here." She raised a phial of some strange liquid. "Five drops," she told them, extracting a bit of the liquid with a small baster, setting the phial on the arm of her chair. She carefully counted five drops of the solution on the back of her other hand, and then brought it to her lips, licking it up.
All eyes fall on her for a moment—and when she doesn't start foaming at the mouth or screaming, the others unfreeze, breathing a sigh of relief.
"One thing," Fauna says, giving you a motherly smile. "Perhaps you should step out for a moment? I'm not trying to offend, but… it'd be more comfortable if you weren't here for this." Yeah, that makes sense. You're still not sure what exactly that liquid did, because nobody has explained it to you, but you're sure it'll be fine.
Before you can rise, however, you're pressed into the seat by an invisible force.
"It's fine. I'll handle it." Kronii waves, and everything blurs as time slows to a crawl.
"It still feels like he's looking at us," Baelz mutters, poking the frozen statue of a man. He doesn't react, obviously—his entire being is on pause—which always creeped her out, honestly.
"The point of asking him to leave was to avoid the awkwardness of doing this in a man's presence," Fauna states, shooting a look at Kronii.
"You don't think this is gonna be awkward?" she replies, gesturing at Fauna's chest as twin wet spots appear. She jumps, not even having noticed it as milk begins to dribble from her breasts.
"I… see your point," she admits, trying to cover her chest fruitlessly. "C-come get this," she tells the others. "I have to—I gotta deal with this." She rises from her seat, clutching her swollen breasts.
You come out of the 'pause' gasping for air, your lungs suddenly full of stale oxygen that chokes coming out. God, you hated when she did that. It always felt like Kronii was… well, whatever.
Checking for what's changed, you note a few things. Each of the girls seem a bit out of breath, faces flushed, and most of them have their arms folded over their chests—though you're not sure why.
The only other thing you notice is five paper cups before you—each of them filled with… milk? You look around, eyes flicking between the Council members, trying to put it together.
They all blush even harder as your eyes land on them, flicking between them and the cups of milk. Oh. Oh, Christ.
"These are… yours?" you ask, looking up at the girls in front of you. Fauna's face goes beet-red, and Sana hides a giggle behind her hand. "Oh god."
"It's simple!" Baelz, always the one with the least ability to feel shame, explains. "You didn't see us do anything, so you're not biased! You go one by one, and then tell us which one tastes the best!" She smiles smugly. "'S gonna be mine, though." You really don't want to know where this confidence is coming from, especially after last time.
"… alright." You're not sure how they know which one is which, but that's not your problem. "Should I start?"
"As quick as you can, please," Fauna tells you, letting out a tiny noise as she adjusts her position a bit. God damn it. Kronii was going to kill you one day if the others didn't stop being so erotic all the time.
"Get on with it, babe," your girlfriend tells you, seated high above on her throne. "Time is of the essence." Ugh. You suppress a groan at the pun, and grab the first small cup.
You're not sure what you expect it to taste like, honestly. Milk doesn't have much fo a flavor in your mind. Still, as the liquid touches your tongue—warm, slightly sweet, and with a taste you can't quite place—you realize that your former assessment of milk was incorrect.
"Ah. That's quite nice," you nod. Or at least, that's what you try to say. What actually comes out is "Hoc lac valde bonum sapit."
You, along with most of the council members, furrow a brow, confused at the shift. Mumei, however, gasps.
"Oh! That's Latin," she says, seeming excited. Then she pauses. "Really… really bad Latin," she frowns.
"Quid est? Quid agis?" Your mouth moves in sharp opposition to your mind—you'd tried to ask what was going on. Christ, this was creepy.
"Huh. I didn't think it would have that kind of effect," Fauna murmurs, stroking her chin with one hand as the other covers her milk-stained top. "It's like… a small portion of your powers were passed over to Anon when he partook of your essence?"
"Don't say it like thaaat!" Mumei complains as she clutches her cheeks. "That sounds so dirty!"
"Either way, it'll probably wear off in a little while," she explains, ignoring the guardian's complaints. "Maybe a few minutes?
"Can it go any quicker?" she asks, and you give her a quizzical look. "Uh, no offense! But your Latin isn't… very… good." She seems to be hoping you'd forgotten that she said it was, in fact, 'really bad', just a few moments ago. "Did you ever learn any?"
Unable to speak in a way that would be understood, you just nod, then bring up eight fingers. You took a class, in eighth grade, but obviously you didn't remember a lot.
"Huh. It might be because you haven't done it in a while?" She shrugs. "I dunno why it would happen like this." She pauses, and then her eyes shine, smiling down at you. "But it'd be real cool if you were able to speak other languages! It'd be nice having somebody to talk to like the old days…"
"And you're gonna keep feeding him glasses of this stuff so that you can do that?" Sana asks, a familiar teasing smile on her face. "Wow, Meimei. I didn't know you were that brave!"
"N-no!" she chokes, blushing even more as she covered her face with her notebook. "That's not what I meant!"
"Don't worry, babe," Kronii whispered to you, and snapped her fingers. Something shifted, and you tested speech again—it seemed your tongue was freed from the spell.
"Okay!" you exclaim, drawing attention back to yourself. "Do you want me to rate right away, or what? And on what kind of scale?"
"No, save it until the end!" Baelz tells you. "Judge however you want!" Her ouburst isn't contradicted by any of the others, so you shrug.
"Alright." Next one, then. You bring the cup to your lips, and feel a thick, creamy taste on your tongue—sweet, but also a lot heavier than the first one.
As soon as you swallowed, your sight expanded. Light shone brighter—the whole room was instantly illuminated, even the spots taht were formerly shaded.
However, your gaze isn't drawn there, but instead to the window. The night sky had exploded with stars, galazies, colors of all kinds. It was… exquisitely beautiful.
And between the stars… there was something else. A blackness that drew you deeper, enveloping you, cold and… hungry…
Visions of far-off places—impossible places—surge through your mind. Dark shapes—dark thoughts—touch your own, and you feel like your bones are shifting, your stomach roiling, threatening to revolt.
An endless void surrounds you—the council chamber is long gone, and your ability to feel your body fading with it. It was like drowning… like some gigantic octopus had a leg wrapped around your ankle, and was pulling you deeper… deeper…deeper still…
A sharp slap brings you back to yourself. Everything snaps back in to focus as your eyes are forcibly pulled away from the window, slamming against the ground, the chair knocked over by the force of whatever struck you.
Your head hit the tile hard, vision filling with stars, breath driven from your lungs. You try to draw in a ragged breath, but the weight on your chest makes it difficult. Clearing your vision, you realize Sana was the one that pulled you out of your stupor, and she's currently sitting on your stomach, her gaze practically boring a hole in your as she cehcks you over.
"Don't scare me like that, anon!" she hisses, gripping your shirt with both hands. "You're lucky I noticed so fast," she tells you as you blink, the light slowly receding back to normal levels. "You could've gotten hurt!"
"…ow," you groan, clutching the quickly-forming bruise on the back of your head. The normally-bright Speaker gasped, and scrambled off of you. "Fuck, that hurts."
"I'm sorry!" She tries to pull you up, but your legs get tangled in the legs of the chair. "I was trying to act quickly, and I—"
"'s fine," you croak, trying to shake off that… strange experience. It was unlikely you'd ever be able to forget it. "Is that… what it's like for you?"
"Most of the time," she shrugs. "The Ancient Ones are pretty nice when you get to know them, though!" She smiles, stars in her eyes—you always wondered what she was staring at, when she looked out the windows. "And the stars look really nice, too!"
"Right, well…" You manage to stand, unsteadily. "No offense, but I don't think I want to do that again." She giggles, a hand on your shoulder.
"No worries! If you ever want to try again, though, I'll be there to protect you!" She flexes a slim arm—she's surprisingly fit for how soft her body felt—agh! Stop thinking about that!
"Weren't you the one needling me about next times?" Mumei asks, her eyes narrowed at Sana. She just shrugs, heading back to her seat.
"Alright. Now that that's over with," you sigh, your head still aching terribly. Sana's rescue, thankfully, hadn't disturbed the desk, and you move on to the third cup.
You raise the paper cup to your lips, and… wow, this one is great. Maybe it's just your bias towards not being assaulted by visions of the void between worlds, but… it felt very comforting. The taste was like warm milk, with hints of honey and… somehow, it made you think of wildflowers, all the scents and perfumes of nature condensed into a few sweet sips.
"Wow," you murmur, your headache suddenly abating. Quickly, you check for the bump on the back of your head, but it seems to have faded in an instant—some form of healing power, in the drink?
A low level of euphoria buzzes in your mind, helping to draw you away from the horrors you'd just witnessed. Soothing away your worries, and bringing you… you shook off the siren song of sleep.
"Tasty and effective," you judge. A quick break between "tongue taken over by half-forgotten Latin lessons" and "horrors from beyond the pale pulling you into their domain" you suppose. Fauna colors in your peripheral vision, but seems happy. If you hadn't already been able to guess just by the taste, that was your confirmation it came from her, you supposed.
Not that you really needed to know. The idea of Fauna gently squeezing her own breasts to extract this honeyed ambrosia—no! Bad anon. Kronii was the only girl for you.
"You okay?" Kronii asks, a bit of concern in her voice. You stomp down the errant thoughts, but even as you do, your eyes can't keep from straying towards the keeper of nature.
"Not really," you admit, sweat beading on your brow. "I think, uh, that one had something extra." Focusing, you manage to keep yourself looking at the floor, and not imagining milk budding from Fauna's delicate pink nipples, almost begging for your lips to wrap around them. Definitely not imagining that at all.
"I could speed it out of your system again," she offers, already pointing a finger at you. You're not sure that's the best path—with your mind already full of fluttering feelings, what would happen if they were accelerated? A nightmare runs through you of your mind being crushed like an apple under the weight of whatever 'love potion' was in this thing.
"No thanks. But would you mind…" Your eyes flick towards the rest of the Council, then to her, and you raise a hand in a 'stop' motion.
"Fine." She twirls a finger, and everything outside of you two slows to a halt.
When time resumes, you're feeling much calmer. Kronii has returned to her seat, and she's even in the exact pose she was when she paused time—you never figured out how she does that.
"Ooh…" Still, Sana notices something happened, and wiggles her eyebrows at you. "Seven minutes in heaven?" she giggles, her gaze flicking between the two of you.
Kronii shoots her a glare, and the speaker relents. Still, a playful smile remains on her face.
"Let's just move on." Before anybody else can start anything, you're reaching for the next cup. Well trained by now to expect strange happenings, you're a bit nervous as you bring it to your lips.
As you take a first sip, your tongue instinctively recoils—it's sweet. Too sweet—like condensed milk, or so you'd heard. It was also a bit watery—as if whoever it was drawn from didn't have much to give. That alone let you narrow down the 'donator' of this sample, even without what happens next.
"Whew!" You blink—it had a hell of a kick to it, going down your throat. And there was a surprisingly spicy aftertaste… which was odd, since milk and spice were normally opposites. "That's something." It wasn't as delicious as the last one—well, okay, the overdone sweetness probably placed it at the bottom.
The room holds its breath as they wait for the 'side effect' to kick in—and you're included in that number. Despite being treated as a guinea pig for these things, you were a little curious as to how the rest of this thing would go.
You can feel something happening, for sure—a trickle of nervous energy, your leg bouncing restlessly. Wow, you felt a bit itchy all of a sudden. You scratch the itchy spot on your arm rhythmically, but every time you quash an itch, a new one starts up.
After a couple of minutes have passed, you're practically bouncing in your seat, trying to restrain yourself from itching as indelicate places in front of others. Your heart pounds in your ears, a pulse practically begigng you to get up, run, do something other than just sit there and be boring!
"Feeling it now." You nearly stumble over your words in your haste to get them out. "Lotta energy." You'll have to keep your sentences short, so that you don't end up biting your tongue or something.
"Ah!" Baelz brightens—ironic that she was so predictable, given the concept she ruled over. "Finally! Something interesting!" You're sure that her reaction has nothing to do with the fact that it's her powers you're sipping from at this point.
"Is it?" Fauna asks, still a bit chastened by the fact that Kronii had to pause time to deal with the effects of her dose. "I think having two Baes around would be… tiring." One is enough, her eyes say.
"Hey! I'm not that bad!" The rat straightens up—well, straightening for her is more like 'not slouching as much as usual'. "I do loads of helpful stuff! And I always get you guys coffee!" Ooh, coffee sounded good right about now. Decaf, obviously—you weren't insane. Were you? Would you go insane from exposure to the essence of pure chaos?
That sounded frighteningly possible. You hadn't even considered the idea that Sana's power would let you see the void between the stars, drawn in by whatever the hell the 'ancient ones' were.
And if you were to go horribly insane from direct contact with the primal chaos that existed before the universe was born, would Kronii even be able to reverse it? You knew there was a 'non-agression pact' between the Council members, at the behest of the gods who had shaped them. Would that bar her from interfering in something like that?
And speaking of that, how did they reconcile that pact with their tendency to settle arguments via whatever conflicts they could dream up? You supposed that obviously they'd be barred from direct physical confrontations, or using their powers on each other, but any other method of conflict resolution would be allowed.
But then again, filling… thousands of years, at least, with unique and creative ways to solve problems wouldn't be easy. Even things like this… well, you really didn't want to dwell on what you were drinking that much. But what you meant was that you were a ltitle surprised things had only gotten this wild, as compared to—
"Anon!" You're shocked out of your runaway thoughts by small hands on your shoulders, literally shaking you from your reverie.
"Huh? What's going—ow! I bid my dongue!" you groan, tasting iron. Baelz stands beside you, trying to keep you focused. Still, it's hard to keep your thoughts on one track, even with the rat saying something—her words went in one ear and out the other. Man, her eyes were weird, huh? Mainly blue, but with a wavering reddish-yellow highlight, like tiny fires burning behind her irises.
Speaking of fire—now that you thought about it, wasn't that one of the more pure expressions of chaos? As a major force of entropy, it—
"Pay attention!" the rat huffs. "Keep yourself focused. Kronii?"