On the road again.

[Anonymous]

Zan blinked.  Then she squeezed her eyes shut so hard that anyone watching her might think she was trying to bury her eyebrows into her cheekbones.  Which is what Juk thought when she began doing so.  

"You ok?"  Juk asked.  Just closing your eyes didn't make the undead go away from you.

"If world is part of my imagination, then I want it to work right!  I want girl here and Diamond alive so we can be happy."

Juk wasn't quite sure how to answer that.  So he just patted her head.

E. looked over his shoulder at Juk and Zan, then back at Aylin and Diamond and finally up at the sky.  It didn't look like they were going to be doing much more traveling today.

Diamond sighed, a bit too dramatically.  "Why can't anyone I want to want me want me." she muttered.

E. raised an eyebrow.  Apparently Aylin was infecting Diamond somehow.  Maybe it was related to that becoming one business.  There was no telling what sort of freaky thing Aylin was.  He heard of a fairy that effectively 'became one' with another being by thumping it on the nose.  That other creature was one of the Boss' little alter egos, the one that made his eyes go reddish gold.  Not only did the fairy brag about it afterward, but the ego (who wasn't quite an ego then, more of a complete being) brought a fairy child to term in his nose.  He wondered if Aylin used any sort of preventive methods when she and Diamond became one.

Diamond blinked, completely confused.  Inside... Aylin?  Diamond lifted one hand and sniffed her fingers.  Finding nothing satisfactory on them she did the same thing with her other hand.  "The hell did you mean, inside you?  I don't have the parts for that."

[Anonymous]

The raven haired little crazy perched on Diamonds lap could only tilt her head at the woman sniffing her fingers for to apparent reason. Perhaps she wanted to know if they'd make good eating.

"The hell do you mean parts for that?" she retorted. "You have a soul, and a very tasty one too. We're soul mates!" A big lump of Aylin hit Diamond again she hugged her, eyes closed and grinning. She didn't mean soul mates in the 'love at first sight' sense, but rather in the 'I ate your soul then vomited it back into your mouth' sense.

Releasing the hug she sat back up, still not particularly wanting to get off. "We're on the wagon now!" she exclaimed, "Can we go now Patchy?" An innocent smile touched her lips while she looked at him, clearly excepting compliance.

If he didn't, she would cut him, oh yes. Slice him this way and that, make him bleed and then, just before death, take his soul and preserve him in endless darkness.

[Anonymous]

E. didn't need any encouragement from Aylin to cluck to the mule and get the little caravan moving again.

Soul mates?  "WHAT?"  Diamond yelled.  If there was a God, she'd faint again and wake up once they reached Ketra.  She knew there was a God, but he didn't care about her, so she stayed wide awake.

--

For the whole entire afternoon.  At least Aylin tried to talk to E. more than herself.  Diamond still wasn't sure how she managed to get free of her clinging.  Soul mates... honestly.  There wasn't a more garbage term ever invented.

The caravan stopped when the sun was halfway down.  It would be too risky to move Zan's damaged cart off the road so they stopped in the middle of the road.  There weren't any other travelers on the road, and any bandits were probably off where they were.  They could afford to leave the wagons on the road and hobble the mules in the grass.  The only thing that wasn't good about their campground was that there was no water nearby.  From the look of it there was some sort of body of water ahead of them.  Too far to reach tonight, but close enough so that they wouldn't die of thirst trying to reach it the next day.  

Once the animals were taken care of, Juk unlocked the door of his carriage and E. brought the bundle of blankets from his wagon.  The blankets were tossed around the seat of the carriage, which curved like a U with the open end facing the door.  Dinner was a couple bites of jerky, with a couple sips of wine from a bottle that turned up amidst the piles of stuff in E.'s wagon.  Once it was through, E., Juk and Zan all climbed into the carriage and claimed a spot.  Though there was more than enough space for them to sprawl out, they all huddled relatively close to one another, Zan snoring softly as soon as her eyes closed.

Diamond stayed outside.  It was time to report in to Natchia.  She shuddered, went to E.'s carriage to retrieve her jacket and the belt that went over it.  Once both were on and secured, she pulled a crystal pendant on a chain from the jacket's bottom pocket and began to swing it back and forth, chanting softly.

A blue circle of light opened up in front of Diamond, who thrust her head up as high as she could carry it and prepared for the worst.

[Anonymous]

After a while Aylin decided that her pet had been given enough cuddles, and went to talk to the Cyclops instead. She learned his name was E., which was perhaps the fifth oddest name she had ever encountered.

Unfortunately for E., Aylin did not discover much more from him, as for the rest of the journey she barely paused for breath as a torrent of drivel spilled from her mouth.

She fell off the wagon once, bouncing on the ground before running to catch up, already fully healed by the time she plonked down next to E.

When they stopped, Aylin hopped happily down again and started to help. Unfortunately for the others Aylin's idea of helping was to shout confusing orders and slap the mule's on the rump, sending them into a panic. Despite Aylin's 'helping' they did manage to sort everything out, and soon she was happily munching on a strip of jerky and drinking more than her share of the wine.

Aylin huddled up next to Zan, slipping under her robe to spoon with her. Zan was the big spoon. Unfortunately it didn't take long before Aylin was up again, having carefully slipped out from the wagon. "Gotta pee gotta pee gotta pee," she mumbled to herself softly, hoping form one foot to another.

Darting away from the carriage, she froze, noticing something strange. A pretty blue light coming from the wagon. Like a moth to a flame Aylin wandered towards it, wide eyes filling up with it and mouth hanging open. The need to pee was forgotten, pushed under the weight of the pretty.

Silent as an owl, Aylin snuck up into the wagon, creeping up behind Diamond and planted herself behind her. Peering over the woman's shoulder, she gazed at the circle, watching the goings on without making a sound.

[Anonymous]

Diamond was sitting on her heels, her hands balled into tight fists over her knees and a line of sweat running down the back of her neck.  She was so focused on the blue portal that she didn't notice Aylin creep up behind her.  If the other woman Diamond might have noticed, but now she couldn't afford to let her attention be focused elsewhere.

Then, like a window, the blue light suddenly filled with an image.  A red chair that obviously knew it was the comfiest thing ever made and seemed to demand butts to enjoy it.  Or at least it would if it wasn't occupied, so it sent out at 'I'm comfy and you're not sitting in me nyah~' vibe.  The person in the arrogant chair was dressed all in white with a doll-like face, long white hair hanging loosely over their shoulders and brilliant green eyes.

Diamond's eyebrow twitched.  "Ah-ah-ah."  She bit her bottom lip and blinked, her fists trembling.

"Hey kid," he winked.

[Anonymous]

Peering over Diamonds shoulder, Aylin looked at the window in awe. The white man on the other side was weird looking, sitting there all white. She backed up a little, out of the window's glow and into the darkness, still watching the little window as if something wonderful might happen and she didn't want to miss it.

A little man made of straw hopped silently up onto the wagon, pulling some of Aylin's attention away from the window momentarily. She heard Diamond stammer and the man in the window talk to her, but the stick man started making gestures that dragged her attention to him.

Nodding silently she pulled on the loose knot holding the criss-crossed string at the front of her dress tied, then tugged the corset open a little, exposing her breasts. The stick man nodded and disappeared, leaving Aylin grinning happily.

Sliding her dress down and stepping out of it she tossed the garment off the wagon, leaving it in the dirt. The stick man had never lead her astray before, so Aylin stood there, naked as a jaybird, with no idea why.

Silently stepping closer to Diamond again, Aylin took advantage of her squatting and hopped onto the woman's shoulders, arms hugging Diamonds head into her stomach and peering over to look at the window. "Who yah talkin to Diamond?" she squealed gleefully, toes just touching the wooden floor.

[Anonymous]

Diamond licked her bottom lip and took a deep breath.  "Ah-Aznimal?  What's going on?  Did something happen to Natchia?"

Aznimal chuckled.  "If only... If only.  Apparently it's been crazy here this past week.  Either he doesn't want to deal with you or he's actually resting somewhere in here."

Diamond knew Aznimal was leaving out a reason, both of them were aware that Natchia sometimes let Aznimal or Enki have control if he wanted to sit back and observe how others reacted when they thought he wasn't aware.  As much as she'd love to think that Natchia was aware that this wouldn't work with them, they could never let their guards down.  

"Everything alright up there," Aznimal continued.  "You don't look so-" his eyes suddenly became reddish gold and looked up above her.  "Di.... why's there a-"

Then something very warm grabbed onto Diamond, who would have started shrieking.  Would have, because she heard Aylin's voice soon afterward and figured there was no use yelling, because she'd just be inviting E., Juk and Zan to her murder.  Why didn't she plan for this to happen!  Why did she just assume that Aylin would stay sleeping!  Diamond tried to contain the urge to foam at the mouth and faint.

The person in the portal now had one eye that was bright green and another that was reddish gold.  He looked confused, both arched eyebrows trying to invade his hairline.  "Well I'll be damned..." the reddish gold eye's eyebrow crossed all of a sudden.  "That was awful Aznimal... just awful."  

Diamond, convinced she could open her mouth without churning up a frothy mess of spit to drown herself, said weakly.  "Aylin, please put your clothes back on, you can hang around and watch me err... talk... but please put some clothes back on."

[Anonymous]

"I can't Diamond!" Aylin said gleefully, not loud enough that anyone should wake up, "They ran away and I don't know where they got to." She giggled, watching the man's eyes change colour with unrestrained joy as she balanced perfectly on Diamond's shoulders.

"Who are you Mr. White and why for are you inside this little hole? Did you fall in?" To help the man get out she stretched out an arm, hand touching upon a hard, invisible surface. Her fingers pushed against it but the thing didn't budge, though the window did get somewhat wider as she touched it. Her mouth taking on  a disgruntled slant, Aylin pulled her hand away, causing the window to return to its former size. "Hmph. There's something in the way," she pouted.

Clinging to Diamond tightly with both her hands and her thighs, Aylin gazed into the window like it was a puzzle that needed solving. Maybe it was a window into another world. A world in Diamond's left shoe. Yes, it all made sense now.

Potato.

[Anonymous]

"Clothes don't run away," Diamond hissed.  "This' for your own good!"

"Aaaaw, I never thought you'd give up on 'philia," the man in white smiled brightly.

Diamond's eyes widened.  "Duh-don't smile like that with that face.  It's creepy..."

"Ah, not denying it."  "Stop teasing her already, look how red she's getting."

Diamond's jaw dropped and was quickly snapped shut.  She pouted and didn't say anything about talking to the portal.  Mr. White was a pretty good nickname for Natchia... she wondered if he'd ever gone by that name in the past.

"You mean me?" The man pointed to the green eye and then moved his finger to the other eye.  "Or me?  Or..." He ran a hand through his hair, twirling his hand slightly as he moved it.  "This body?  We're all in another place, this is portal, so Diamond can talk to him," he petted the hair again.  

Diamond felt it best to explain Aylin, before she could try to explain herself.  Especially if the crazy girl was going to start by saying that they were soul mates.  That was the last thing she needed.  "She's just a passenger we picked up.  Gonna show us the way to Ketra so we don't get lost.  Nothing more.  Nothing."

The man leaned back in the chair a little, propping one foot up on his knee and smirking a little.  "I don't think so Diamond."

Diamond's shoulders shook a little and she was a lot more tense than she was before.  The man's eyes had turned from bi-coloured green and red to bright blue in one blink.

[Anonymous]

Aylin's jaw dropped.

Philia. The name rang in her head. Some other person had staked their claim on Diamond's tasty soul. How darethey?

While they all talked she just perched there, fingers clasping Diamonds hair with increasing tightness, glaring at the window. She heard it all, took it all in on some level, but it was just background noise compared to the rage.

When Diamond shivered beneath her, Aylin snapped out of it and yanked on the woman's hair, pulling her head back and giving her an accidental face full of boob. "You're my soul mate Die-Die," she screeched, face twisted in anger that made her look quite frightening, much like a murderer would look just before the kill. "Who is this...this Philia?!" the name came out like a curse word, "And what have they got that I..." She trailed off, suddenly sniffing at the air.

Loosening her grip on Diamond's hair, Aylin leaned forward, towards the portal. She sniffed at it, tilting her head this way and that, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

"Who are you? And why are there so many of you in there?"

She could smell them, even through the window. The distinct taste of several souls, how many she couldn't determine, but there were definitely more than there should have been in that body.

[Anonymous]

Diamond tried not to look distressed as Aylin began pulling at her hair.

Then she was yanked.  She should have expected a yank to come, Aylin was gripping tightly enough to yank, but they always seemed to catch her off guard.  She would have squeaked in dismay, but her mouth was full of flesh all of a sudden.  Boob flesh.  Urgh, she didn't want to talk about 'philia now.  Not now, anytime but now.

The person in the portal looked like a kitten who just had a mouse with a broken back set in front of it.  

Diamond took a deep breath, her shoulders tensing up to contain a shudder.  She opened her mouth to apologize for... damn, everything.  Bringing 'philia up, skipping Essrym, the wagon wheel breaking, not brushing her teeth tonight, getting a blis-

Then Aylin was leaning forward, she was sniffing the portal.  She was making herself even more visible.  Oh no.  Oh no.  Diamond reached up to grab Aylin and pin her to the ground, but she was already talking.  Oh no.  This was not going to be good.  If it wouldn't have drawn too much attention to herself, Diamond would have curled into a ball, shut her eyes and waited for someone to kick her awake in the morning.

The man in the portal raised an eyebrow when Aylin's face loomed closer.  He leaned forward, propped his elbows on his knees and his chin on his palms like he was talking to a little kid sitting by his chair.  "I have extraordinary luck.  How do you know Diamond?  Are you her new infatuation.  Lie to me if you have to, I could use some good news about now."

[Anonymous]

Aylin pondered over just how lucky that man was having more than one soul, her mouth beginning to dampen at the thought of all that tasty soul in one gulp. It'd be a feast of epic proportions!

Her nose hovered an inch away from the window as she answered the white man. "I am Aylin!" she beamed. Oh wait, he didn't ask that question. "I know Diamond because she broke the wheel before and I helped fix it and I gots a free ride from it and then I ate her but she's ok now cos I un-ate her and that makes us soulmates!" Her face was the picture of happiness, frozen with eyes wide and a huge grin. She had no idea what 'in-fat-choo-ate-on' meant, so she gave the best answer she could think of.

"Yes. Yes I am. Unless you mean it in the metaphorical, metaphysical metabolic sense, in which case maybe."

"Uh! Ooh ooh!!" she squeaked suddenly, remember a question she'd wanted to ask of an authority figure. As she squeaked, she fell backwards, tumbling off Diamonds shoulders and landing on her back.

Scrambling over, she wriggled in from of the woman and sat on her knees between her and the window. "Mister," she chirped, "Before, Diamond was on E's back and he did this," she twisted a hand behind her and moved it about, hitting Diamond in the stomach, "and then she want "He's just-FUCKEN TEASE!"." Her Diamond impression was flawless, mimicking the exact sound of her voice. "What did he do?"

She stared at the window with a puzzled look. If Diamond had a secret, magical button that could make her squeal, Aylin wanted to know about it. She could push it whenever she wanted Diamond to do something.

[Anonymous]

[center:2qtz2hwf]It's about to get pretty un-kosher in here.

You have been warned.

Proceed at own risk.[/center:2qtz2hwf]

[Anonymous]

A voice in Diamond's head encouraged her to throw Aylin off her shoulders, start running and keep running until something caught her or until she died of exhaustion.  The only problem with that scenario was that Aylin would probably roll over and grab her ankles as soon as she tried to run off.  It would be embarrassing.  

"Wait a moment!" she burst when Aylin said she broke the wheel.  "I didn't break any- ate?  You liar!"  Diamond snarled, her lips raising up far enough that her gums were visible.  She calmed down in the next second, but was noticeably shaking.  "Natchia, please ignore her."

It was no use, 'Natchia wasn't paying any attention to her.  His attention was completely focused on Aylin.  Diamond considered running again when Aylin flopped off her back.  If she was lucky she might be able to make it into the carriage and lock the door.  Depending on how persistent Aylin was, it would either doom E., Juk and Zan to a slow death by dehydration, or they could go back to finding Essryn in the morning when her short attention span dragged her off somewhere else.

Now that Aylin was in front of her, she could definitely make it.  She couldn't do it though, her hands felt like they were made of out cement blocks, her knees sticking fast to the ground like they had roots.  Diamond bit her lip and took a deep breath when Aylin began asking about that - as if she was reading her mind and picking out the question that would lead to worst possible outcome.

She should have clapped a hand over Aylin's mouth.
She should have tackled the other girl to the ground.
She should have shut down the portal.

What she did was stare ahead, dumb and motionless and trying not to look as scared as she felt.  She didn't even react when Aylin jabbed her in the stomach.

'Natchia laughed out loud at Aylin's Diamond impression.  Excellent, a mimic.  He could see the appeal a mimic might have when you were long for someone else.  Somehow, Diamond must have shown her what 'philia's voice sounded like; without even letting her know whose voice she was mimicking.  That or she was going to.   He grinned.  "It'd be best if I showed you.  You might not understand if I explain it," he purred.  He took a pocket watch from his pocket, opened it-

-and was there, standing next to the portal instead of sitting inside it.  He closed the watch and put it away.

[Anonymous]

Aylin knew what was going to happen before he even said anything. Something deep inside her made her look away from the window and divert her gaze to the blank space beside it, which was soon filled with Natchia's face. She'd picked up his name earlier, without realising it.

Standing up to look at him, Aylin moved to one side, no longer blocking him from Diamond. With a regal wave of her hand she commanded, "Very well. Demonstrate."

Her attention wandered between Diamond, and eyeing the pocket that the watch had slipped into. That watch was shiny, and did fancy things. She wanted that watch.

[Anonymous]

Diamond regained control of herself long enough to look in Aylin's direction, her expression still blank.  She didn't trust herself to make a face.  She'd lose it.

'Natchia bowed when Aylin directed him to Diamond, sweeping his arms out to the side.  "My pleasure."  Once he straightened up, he looked at Diamond, who looked away from Aylin and up at him slowly, like a sunflower reaching for dawn's light.

"Diamond," he turned a hand palm up and raised it, Diamond rising to her feet.  Her eyes were vacant.  'Natchia's finger crooked and she lurched forward, swaying slightly.  "Now," 'Natchia turned around, standing in front of Diamond.  "Climb on my back, pretend I'm the little sword boy."

Diamond obeyed, wrapping her arms loosely around 'Natchia's neck and sliding a leg clumsily up his.

"Watch closely," 'Natchia snapped the fingers of the hand closest to Aylin, then twisted it around and slowly stroked Diamond's thigh.  Once his fingers got to the hem of her skirt, Diamond's breathing got a little faster.  "It could have been as simple as this, but that's not our little E. Tierny T.  That one thinks subtlety is the word used to describe Juk's beard before he shaves in the morning.  Come closer, this is what E. did."

'Natchia hooked his thumb around the hem of Diamond's skirt, letting his fingers fan out.  Then he hooked his middle finger up and under her skirt, Diamond's next breath was ragged.  The rest of his fingers soon followed.  Diamond's breathing didn't change, but it didn't go back to it's normal pace either.  

"Do you understand now little one?" 'Natchia smiled pleasantly.  "Or do you need to take a closer look?"

[Anonymous]

The watch was so preeeeeetty and so shiiiiiiiny. She wanted that watch, wanted it bad. She'd kill him for that watch.

How dare he steal her watch and put it in his pocket? She'd just have to cut his hands off so he couldn't do it again.

Her attention however was, as was typical, easily swayed to a new target. The man seemed to have a great level of control over her pet, which intrigued Aylin to no end. She must know how to do that. Perhaps Mr. White could be persuaded to teach her the skill.

Persuaded with bananas.

Dark curls tumbled off her shoulders as her head tilted, her curiosity well and truly piqued. To better see Aylin got down on all fours, crawled over to the pair and squatted squarely behind Diamond. Looking up seemed the best vantage point from where his fingers were heading.

As commanded Aylin peered up, leaning in closer. She watched as the man's fingers disappeared one by one, mouth twisting in increased confusion, until she slumped back down again.

"I don't get it," she moaned grumpily. Looking first at her hand, and then down at her own nethers she enquired, "Where did they go? And....this still doesn't explain why she screamed afore." A sullen pout fixed itself onto Aylin's face, eyes peering up for answers.

[Anonymous]

'Natchia tilted his head back to watch Aylin, effectively bracing his head on Diamond's shoulder.  To Aylin, it would look like two of his fingers had disappeared completely into Diamond, one was bent and rubbing and the little finger was curled.

A slow smirk spread across his face at Aylin's round of questions.  "I'm afraid why Diamond was upset is a lot easier to explain than how.  In the literal sense, he rubbed her the wrong way.  Or," he laughed.  "Maybe she just didn't want him there."

Diamond's nostrils flared slightly.

"The how," 'Natchia began to sink to the ground, sitting on his heels and finally kneeling, taking his hand out of Diamond and crossing both on one raised knee and twisting around to look at Aylin.  Diamond swayed and nearly fell over him, looking down nervously.  'Natchia laughed softly.  "I'm not so good at explaining the how.  It's not something that can be explained easily."

[Anonymous]

A lot of things didn't make sense to Aylin. Where the sun went when the moon chased it away. Why the leaves were purple. What ever happened to that dog, Scarl. These things rarely bothered her, they just were so she accepted them, but this, this was irritating.

She could see his fingers, see where they went, but two were just gone, like what happened when she put her fingers in someone's mouth, they disappeared. But that wasn't Diamonds mouth.

"Like when you pet an echidna wrong," she nodded, then after he clarified, "Like when you pet a bombnewt at all." She'd lost her arms a good dozen times playing with bombnewts.

Diamond wobbled and Aylin grabbed her by the hips, saying firmly, "No, bad Diamond, you stand!"

Slapping the inside of Diamonds thigh with the back of her right hand, Aylin made her spread her legs a little more, looking determined. "Hold still, I'm a find yer magic hole."

Her tongue touching her upper lip as she concentrated, Aylin took her hand and crept up Diamond's leg like a spider. Reaching her groin, Aylin imitated the white man, her pinkie pulling the woman's underwear aside while her index and middle fingers forced their way into Diamonds magic hole.

[Anonymous]

Diamond had disassociation down to an art form when 'Natchia was involved.  As long as she stayed grounded enough to respond to little signals like being grabbed or smacked and paid attention to her name, she could take her mind away from whatever was happening.  The less she could remember in the future, the happier she'd be...

'Natchia watched Diamond's expression as Aylin copied him.  While her eyes were open and her breathing was heavier, the lights weren't on upstairs.  Her eyes were completely vacant, her mouth parted slightly and her head looked like it was about to loll to the side.  There were a few things that could yank Diamond from la-la land, but 'Natchia wasn't in the mood to share them.

In the carriage, E. was awake.  Tonight was the night he'd make contact - he planned to do so after Diamond got back in after making her report.  The first thing E. noticed after he got up was that not only Diamond was missing, but Aylin was as well.  It made sense, sort of.  Aylin seemed to have permanently attached herself to Diamond.  E. wasn't sure how Aylin's presence would affect the meeting.  

Shifting a little, E. pulled himself toward one of the carriage's windows, pulled the curtain back a little and peeked out.  It looked like the report was long over.  Diamond wasn't worth the trouble that would follow if he decided to go out and help her.  Eventually they would get bored, or they would stop watching the carriage and he could creep off.