"I dont think we're done playing yet," Nicole's smile turns more sinister as she tightens her grip. Harmonia gasps in pain and tries to bite Nicole's neck. She lets her. As Harmonia tastes hadal blood, a pair of dark upside down webbed wings spread out from behind Nicole.

"Wow that's boring," Spider sighs.

"Ooooh fuck I forgot about that-' Harmonia tries to spit out the blood in an attempt to stave the effects. The effects slowly start to kick in. Nicole lets go of Harmonia's arm, but the teeth let go from her hand and stay in Harmonia's wounds. Nicole's blood tastes like oranges.

"Hnnng-" Harmonia stumbles back, falling down, "Loud.."

"You know we could use some music to help you focus a bit better~" Nicole snaps, and a sped up version of Poker Face plays on the distant speakers.

"Help-" Harmonia holds her head and whimpers.

"So you're a cartoon villan and you have shit music taste, noted," Spider chuckles.

"Come on, Spi, it's a fucking bop," Nicole does a silly lil dance.

"And what exactly are you trying to achieve by calling me that? Cause it isn't working I'll tell you that now," Spider rolls her eyes.

"November called you that, yeah?" Nicole keeps jammin'.

"A lot of people call me it," Spider sighs. Harmonia's just laying on the floor in front of Nicole, teeth in her arm, her foot bleeding as she holds her ears.

"Oh, whoa, oh, oh~" Nicole walks over on the beat as she picks up the gun.

"What, you're going to kill us?" Spider asks. Nicole spins the gun in her hand before shooting Harmonia in the shoulder to the beat of the music.

"And once again you show how original you are," Spider drawls.

In Nicole's other a hand, a queen of hearts card appears as she flicks it at Spider's face. Doink. Harmonia looks like she sees something as she tries to get up and walk away from both of them.

"Better go get your dog back before it runs away!" Nicole says.

"Excuse me?" Spider asks, ignoring the card. Harmonia's stumbling into the darkness.

"November come back.." she mutters.

"Oh thats funny! Ooo thats grand! HA!" Nicole laughs watching Harmonia stumbling away. Spider sighs and clicks her fingers, teleporting Harm to her side and grabbing onto her wrist preventing her from going anywhere. Harmonia takes her phone out.

"So, you wanna play too?" Nicole asks Spider as she tilts her head.

"Depends on the game."

"NOVEMBER, COME HERE," Harmonia yells, pointing into the distance. Spider winces at the noise, and the mention of.. his name, but doesn't let Harmonia go. Nicole walks over and kicks Harmonia in the face with her combat boots. Harmonia gasps in pain, leaning against Spider.

"I see you've hit the emo teen phase, Rose, I mean that certainly explains all this," Spider says.

"You know all the talking is boring right?" Nicole replies.

"Nah, this is actually quite fun," Spider jokes. Nicole flicks Spider on the nose.

"Calliope???" Harmonia looks at Spider in confusion.

"Harm stay here for me yeah?" Spider sighs.

"Don't let the teeth get me..." she lays her head on Spider's shoulder.

"They won't if you stay still," Spider lets go of Harm's wrist and gently moves her head off her shoulder, before stepping forward and looking at Nicole, "So Juliet, you wanted to play?"

---

"Who is she? Nicole? Rose? Juliet? The heart cycle? Or someone else. I'm assuming someone else. This sucks."

"...I don't know for sure. But I think 'she' is our true villain." Luna cracks her knuckles. She's been waiting for the return of Her.

"Well, it'd make sense for it to be Nicole, right??? The, quote unquote heart of the operation?? I mean, it's obviously not that simple...Fuck."

"...Again, I don't know. I have theories on who it is of course, but I'd rather not present then be made a fool."

"Oh, christ, Luna. You've heard the shit I've put up for everyone to hear. I doubt it's less crazy then 'Oh, Michael's actually the chessmaster but in the past!' like we're in some goddamn doctor who episode. I doubt it's that insane."

"Well the issue is I'm not sure if this person I'm thinking of is even alive. They were a prominent Divulgar and the old divulgaric crown of the Moores in the OG timeline."

"...riight."

"But...with Lock in play, Torva Messor, it makes some sense as to why she'd want to burn the manor down. I believe we may have Nyx in play. And Nyx was very interested in the whole 'game' scenario."

"I see... Wait, wait wait wait. Divulgaric crown, right? Datrrsable?"

"We could try? We have the sudo.....nevermind."

"Why?"

"I was wrong. Apparently Nicole put him up to this."

"He could be. Lying," Orpheus sighs.

"Rose is part of this mess," Luna says, "I don't know what to think."

"Look, we have the sudo. We can try and connect to whoever we want. We can blacklist and unblacklist whoever we need to. /override is a command in play now. If it doesn't work? So what. I still think connecting to Nyx is worth a shot."

"I think you're right. We'll finish up with Jack then swap to Nyx."

"Right," Orpheus says, Luna looks shaky as hell. It's like her focus is start to overwhelm her a bit. Orpheus looks to her, "..You can take a break if you need to."

"No no, I'm going to continue. I don't think we're getting anything else from Jack, wanna swap to Nyx?"

"Sure...you can hangup without unlocking right??"

"Yeah."

"What's ts mean?" Orpheus asks.

"Troubleshoot."

"..right. If you need the Sudo just ask, I've still got it Copy and Paste'd"

"And... as I thought, Nyx is dead," Luna says, "So my theory that Her would be back was wrong."

"Hopefully this question doesn't fuck anything up."

"It shouldn't."

"...It's still bothering me. Like, I get it. Funny biblical symbolism...Or I could be seeing something that isn't there. But the Sudo didn't change. So It's always, ALWAYS been K instead of J. That's just...Bothering me."

"Pie ark."

"I... Never thought of including Pi in that. It is sort of weird how It's the 4 suites on either side. Then Ark. Pi is kind of out of place."

---

"Mhm," Nicole grins.

"Well if we're playing a game I need to know the rules," Spider smiles back at Nicole, a dangerous and unsettling aura starting to radiate off her.

"Blah blah blah blah blah."

"Oh so you don't wanna play after all? I am surprised!"

"Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah"

"Once again, showing off how creative and witty you are, Rose," a blast of green distortion barrels towards Nicole. It sends her flying back into the darkness. Spider's body crackles with green distortion, "Harm, I'm gonna send you home yeah?"

"Okkkkay," Harmonia replies, disappearing. Nicole's giggling can be heard from the darkness.

"And you thought the talking was boring?" Spider rolls her eyes. Strings begin to drop from the ceiling, surrounding Spider. She gives a fake, exaggerated yawn but otherwise ignores the strings. That is, until they start falling over her.

---

"..Today has been a lot and it's getting even MORE," Orpheus says, "So... like. That's gonna be fun to deal with."

"...this is so fucking much," Luna replies.

"I want you to know I feel a little lied to, Luna! You said Hadal Masks would be.. like. A worse experience than the blood. But like??? I dunno they're like cool looking and make you wanna hide your face. That's nothing new for me!...I'm half joking. OH THAT'S. OHHHH. LUNA THAt...Right. Yelling. Sorry."

"...wha?" Luna isn't even focused on the yelling.

"Now I remember why Nicole sounds familiar," Orpheus says, "Harmonia mentioned Nicole like.. the first time we met...so."

"Nicole is Rose but in a different body, Rose as in the person who performed the Hadal ritual back in September."

"Right. I feel kind of offended that she compared me to her...I was an asshole at the time, but like.."

"Oof, I'm sorry."

"I think I was under his influence.. I feel bad about everything I did. Like, obviously. Egh, now's not a time for self reflection."

"You're fine, Orphie, I promise," Luna smiles. Harmonia appears on the ground. Her arm looks to have been bitten into, the teeth still stuck in her arm. Her foot is bleeding from a gunshot wound and so is her shoulder.

"Fucking christ yikes???" Orpheus looks at her, wideyed.

"Oh god, what the hell??" Luna exclaims. Orpheus puts his phone on the couch and gets up.

"I can't heal for shit, buuut..." he takes a deep breath and the floorboards near Harmonia get pushed up slightly, a vine poking out and slithering towards her. It wraps around her leg and painlessly digs into the wound. She feels her strength drain a bit then return as the vine retreats back underneath the floor. The wound isn't healed at all, the bleeding has just stopped!

"Helpp.." She mumbles, looking at Orpheus with unfocused eyes.

"Hang on, I'm gonna go get the first aid kit." Luna disappears.

---

"I thought you wanted to play, so what's wrong? Worried you finally met your match?" Spider chuckles. The parts of Spider's body that the strings touch become numb, "So you're cheating now?" The strings fall through her as she goes translucent, the distortion flickering and intensifying as her voice becomes echoey and slightly distorted. Nicole just sits there, doing nothing. Spider attempts to search for her but finds nothing.

"So what happened to wanting to play?" Spider asks mockingly, "Well this is boring so if you're gonna be like this I'm just gonna leave." No response. "Riiight," she snaps her fingers attempting to teleport Nicole in front of her, but it doesn't work. She asks, "So since when were you able to control the strings?"

No response. Spider sighs and disappears.