Spider and Harmonia appear in Jovian Hall. It's dark and quiet, as per usual.
"So where is she then?" Spider asks.
"Dunno," Harmonia shrugs. She walks into the room more, opening her arms, "C'mon, Nicole~" Harmonia and Spider hear slithering from above. Nicole is lowered from a throne of arms as she steps onto the ground. The arms let go and retreat back into the dark. Nicole wears the same clothing as before, plus the gun holster on her hip.
"I wouldn't be late to the party," she chuckles.
"What an entrance," Harmonia says, "You look good! Havent changed much, have ya?"
"Not visually, I keep the deck in hand hidden," Nicole replies.
"Interesting," Harmonia takes off her sweatshirt to show her muscular, yet scarred arms, "I'm guessing Jack's in the shadows over there?"
"Hiding like a piss baby."
"Yeah. So you wanna go first?"
"Playing poker?"
"Huh? We're gonna fight, right?"
"So much for hanging out," Nicole rolls her eyes.
"I mean we could just hang out?" Harmonia shrugs, "Whichever"
"Nah, that sounds more fun," Nicole pulls out the gun and shoots Harmonia's foot. Harmonia yelps and jumps before running at Nicole, knocking the gun out of her hands. Nicole smirks. Harmonia attempts to elbow Nicole in the jaw. Nicole gets hit, and Harmonia hears a crack as she grabs her jaw and snaps it back in place with a light giggle.
"What the fuck," Harmonia tries to grab Nicole's wrists. She doesnt fight any as her smile grows. Spiders just standing to the side watching them, ready to intervene if necessary. Harmonia shoves Nicole away, "You're fake arent you?"
"Oh, trust me, I'm the real deal."
"So what's the point of this then, Rose?" Spider asks. Harmonia's doing her best to ignore the pain in her foot as she attempts to drag her claws across Nicoles face.
"You wanted to hang out," Nicole takes the hit as she bleeds orange, "So we are hanging out."
"Orange? Since when..." Harmonia mutters.
"Since I got bored," Nicole replies, as the orange fades to red.
"I mean about the fire, about Michael, about these fucking crows," Spider says. Harmonia kicks at Nicole's ankles. She falls over.
"Why aren't you fighting back??" Harmonia asks.
"Letting you tire yourself out before I start fighting," Nicole says, vibing on the floor.
"Seriously," Harmonia sits down and holds her foot, "Spi could you snap me a bandage?" Spider clicks her fingers and a roll of bandages appears next to Harm.
"Thanks," she starts casually bandaging her foot. Nicole raises a hand and snaps as the bandage turns into a black mamba.
"That's just rude," Harmonia grabs it and snaps its neck.
"Wow how original," Spider sighs.
"Can't blame me for trying," Nicole stands up and stretches. Harmonia tosses the snake aside and stands up as well, watching Nicole.
"So, there is something I wanted ask you, Rose," Spider says.
"Spi, all you ever do is ask questions, so much talk!" A white iris fades in around Nicole's pupil as she smiles.
"Don't look at her eyes," Harmonia warns Spider.
"You think that's gonna affect me? Try harder bitch, anyways what was with the cat?" Spider asks. Nicole opens and closes her hand to mock Spider talking. Harmonia gets up and tries to stick her claws into Nicole's eyes. Spider sighs, "Wow, yeah, I can tell you didn't grow up. Though, being a lab rat tends to do that to people, I suppose."
"Blah blah blah," Nicole's hand grows teeth as she grabs onto Harmonia's arm, the teeth biting into her. Harmonia cries out and slams her leg into Nicole's stomach. Nicole gets winded, but keeps her smirk.
"Let go-" Harmonia growls, seemingly a bit lightheaded from the pain and her foot bleeding.
---
"I think we've made a ton of progress. I'd like to connect to Nell (penelope) at some point, find out what she knows. I still don't understand why she's part of this mess," Luna says.
"...Right..." Orpheus whimpers and brings his hands to his face, "I feel like I fucked up baddd is he really lying to me???? I don't even. Get what he's lying about."
"I'm not sure either."
"I like,, I get what they're mad about but.. Nothing makes any fucking sense if he needs our help why is he hurting you guys??? It has to be manipulation on that other guy's part...Also. If push comes to shove, /kill the chessmaster and see who dies."
"Honestly, I don't understand Jack's motive to attack us. He was practically begging us to break cycles to protect the manor. But it's almost like it has to be a game or else something doesn't work. Like something will fuck up if a game element isn't there."
"Michael is bothering me too. I don't get it."
"I kinda do, that's the worst part. He's always had this like... alter ego about himself. Like there's the goofy memer side of him, and then there's an ultra serious side of him that talks about judgment and fear of skinwalkers. We haven't had much of that ultra-serious side of him in this timeline, but in the OG, it was a decently common experience. I showed this to Cole and Chris last night, but I think you should see this too. Check the Drake server in a moment. I'm gonna upload something from my screenshots folder."
"Is that the fucking chessmaster then???" Orpheus asks, "I just. Ok, Luna. I..." He waits, "...I just don't get the timeline of events. Like, alright. That gif is Michael, right? We get Hayloft I + II, a song that's probably used to represent the burning of the manor, and then Soldier Poet King for Lock. We learn something is going on because of Lock, then LATER we get the image of Hadal Michael. But the thing that just.. doesn't add up is the banner. And the rethemeing to red."
"We need that full image. And seeing how there's a crutch, I think to unlock the full image, we're gonna need to talk to Madelyn. Sorry, I recognize the non-feral world is real, but there are points where it's easier to just treat it as a mystery game. A game in which someone is controlling the flow of information behind conversation points. If we want that full image, we're gonna need to unlock it."
"I just... I can't. Help. With that. Because she hates me and I don't expect I'm gonna be able to fix that."
"Then I'll handle it."
"...I'm sorry."
"I've been working with this investigation for almost a whole year now. I think I'll be able to handle chatting with Madelyn. It'll be a year in 5 days, to be exact. A year since some weird twitter account named pie writes started following me."
"I knoww that you've been doing it for a while, just... I. I dunno...I still don't know what happened to that mask..."
"which one? the crow one you wore?"
"Yeah. I...I. y'know. Still know where the.....You know. But that mask just vanished.."
"I have no idea, unfortunately." Luna replies.
"He owes me the truth. I saved his ass twice," Orpheus huffs, "Both times I went out of my way, by my choice, to help him...Fuck."
"I'm starting to think he might not know the truth. That perhaps Jack is nothing but a pawn. A pawn acting as King. A literal Jack."
"I guess."