Void Rift (rp) - Intermission

"Well done." Shadow Stephanie says sarcastically.

"Hey, it's not my fault." I say, before being dragged away from the group.

Caelia suddenly appears in Xlentia's chamber, a stronger green glow surrounding her for a moment before it dies down to her dress patterned with the shifting stars of a universe, her hand extended with me floating above it.

"So, you're the little pest who stole that watch." Caelia says, annoyed, casting her gaze down upon me.

"'Stole' is a pretty harsh word, I'd much rather say 'Borrowed from a corpse'" I say.

Caelia rolls her eyes, "Listen, Temporus wants that watch back, and I'll offer you something in exchange if you give it to me. Trust me, I'm being nicer than he will be." Caelia says flatly.

"I'm listening." I say, trying to lay back but ending up spinning backwards slowly.

An odd looking white gun-like device appears next to me, a blue glow coming from it.

"This gun will allow you to fire a pair of portals that will instantly link to each other and allow instant travel between them. No matter where you are, no matter what realm you're in, these portals will be linked until you fire another one at an appropriately sized object, or close the portals. The shots will travel until they hit a physical surface big enough to support them, which is when they'll open the portal. If not, the portal won't open. You can have it to keep if you give me that watch." Caelia explains.

"Hmm...let me think about it." I say, contemplating.

"God dammit Aj just give her the damn watch and take the gun!" Shadow Stephanie yells at me.

"Alright, deal." I say, dropping the Watch of True Time into Caelia's hand.

"Thank you. The gun is yours." Caelia says, letting me take the gun, before she disappears with the Watch of True Time and gravity returns to normal.

 

"Aj... why?"

 

"What?" I ask, gliding back over to the group.

 

"You said it was a gift, not something you swiped." She says.

 

"Did I?" I ask, pretending to be surprised to hide my shame.

 

Ihra sighs.
"Come on, that kinda soured a perfectly huggable reunion." She complains.

 

"Well, ok, the truth is I got it from the hands of a corpse inside of an extremely ancient, yet new, temple on one of my adventures long before I met even Aj," I explain, "It was just hidden in there, nobody was using it and nobody was exactly going to come back for it."

"Come on Ihra, let's do something fun for our reunion and leave Aj out of it for souring it." Shadow Stephanie says.

"Wha-, hey, I'm no criminal! I didn't even know Temporus wanted it back! I didn't even know it belonged to Temporus!" I say, trying to defend myself.

 

Ihra hugs Shadow Stephanie.
"Sure! Getting my staff back can wait." She says happily, pretending to ignore you.

 

(I totally missed this)
"Oh god. Here we go again."
He tries to control it.

 

Shadow Stephanie hugs Ihra back happily.

"Where can we get your staff?" Katie asks, curious.

"Maybe my mother could make you a better one?" Stephanie suggests.

"I know! We could show Ihra around Praecantatia's islands!" Shadow Stephanie says, smiling.

"Yeah! That sounds fun!" Katie says enthusiastically.

"Without Aj, of course." Stephanie says, nodding.

"Y-You guys..." I say, sounding depressed.

I just look down, before testing out my new portal gun. I fire a blue shot at the far wall of Xlentia's chamber, which opens up into an ovular blue portal. The colour in the gun changes to orange, and I fire the orange shot below me, which opens up into an orange portal that immediately links to the blue portal, which I fall out of on the far wall. The portals appear provide a view of what the other portal is 'seeing'.

I sit on my own on the far side of Xlentia's chamber, looking depressed as I close both portals with a push of a button on the gun.

 

Emerald shows up, handing Ihra her staff.
"Oh, thanks!" She says, hesitating.


Someone else, familiar, is nearby. Tears obscure your vision.

________________________________

There's not too much... yet.

You have some time to think before the next surge comes.

 

"Oh, we cured Emerald of her curse." Stephanie says happily.


I don't bother to look up, just looking at my portal gun, sad.

 

"Okay, I really hope this rock can hold."
He prepares himself.

 

...Silence.
This feels like the longest few minutes of your life.

"Cool! I want to see the islands, though."


"How ironic..." They mumble.

 

"We can go now, I have a ring that lets me warp to them." Stephanie says happily, showing her ring.

"Shouldn't we get Aj first? We're not really leaving him out, are we?" Katie asks caringly.

"Ah, fuck him." Shadow Stephanie says, not even bothering to glance over at me.


"What do you want?" I ask, not looking up.

 

Ihra slaps Shadow Stephanie.
"It's not as fun with less people."


"Nothing. Just wait."

 

"Ow, don't slap me!" Shadow Stephanie says, annoyed.


I glance up, sniffling a little.

 

"I thought shadows only respected strength! Besides, you wouldn't really leave the one who does all the royal work for you behind, would you?"


It's Ruby.
"One other thing; tell nobody you saw me."

 

"Oh fucking please, while he's pissing about stealing stuff from gods, I'm the one working both of our asses off making it viable for the pair of us to get long enough breaks to go on these adventures together." Shadow Stephanie says with spite.

"Sounds like you have some stuff you still haven't sorted out from when you used to date." Stephanie says, smirking.

"Shut up! We dated for a while and that's it! We found out we weren't working as a couple and decided to stay friends so the entire realm wouldn't freak out and break down." Shadow Stephanie says, annoyed.

"I heard your 'dating' was a lot more serious than how casual you make it seem, even when you broke up." Stephanie says, smug.

"Ok, one, shut the fuck up before I put you in a coma, two, who the fuck told you that!?" Shadow Stephanie asks, annoyed.

"YOU TWO! STOP!" Katie shouts, distressed, "We're supposed to be happy to see Ihra again! Why are you two arguing and making her feel uncomfortable!?"


"Heh...ordinarily I'd kill you right here for what you've done," I say, sniffling, "But...I'm not really feeling it right now..."

 

Ihra shrugs.
"I still don't get it. Shadows steal plenty of things, so why can't we all just go?"


"I know you would. I also know that right now, you can't. How dumb do you think I am?" She asks, smiling.
"Anyhow, you ought to go back and join your friends. Keep an eye out on Ihra for me, that shouldn't be too hard for you."