Act 3: The Ball - Back in Emerald

7:01 AM, 8th of April 422
On the Vulcan, near the coast of Emerald

May, Samantha and Nick suddenly find themselves transported from the deck of the Happy Frog to a completely different place; laying in bed, wearing different clothes, in cabins that look completely different from the ones Captain Oldturn gave them.

And something about their bodies feels different.

Samantha

After everything, Sam's feeling like she's simultaneously at her best, and like she doesn't want to get up. She'd rather stay in bed all day today. But, duty calls, so she opens her eyes... to a completely different cabin. And one that might not even be on the same ship. Is this the Captain's cabin? Wait. Her clothes are different than what she sleeps in normally. Her heart races as she wonders what happened, and finally explores that very strange feeling, having very dark thoughts about what happened while she was asleep, by looking under the sheets and feeling her crotch... to find a...sensitive, unnatural growth above where her genitals should be (and aren't) - that is currently straining against the seat of her pajama bottoms!

Thinking it would be best if she wore clothes appropriate to her new... situation, hopefully temporary, she starts to get dressed in men's clothing. It's extremely awkward, and oddly familiar, and as she dresses, she starts to wonder how she got here in the first place...

And then, it all comes back to her. Once she's dressed, she sits back down on the bed and puts her head in her hands, just mentally exhausted within minutes of waking up. A few more minutes pass, as she ponders the events of the previous day. The screams, the death, the man howling in pain after being skewered in the shoulder by her side-sword. Hurt not by a true fencing weapon, but by her knowledge and practice with the art itself. Marcus, charging forth to confront the enemy soldiers, and how she anchored herself to his resolve.

She eyes the bathtub in the cabin. Loathe as she is to look at her new body again - although, honestly a little curious in spite of this - she gets up and walks over to the cabin door. Moments pass before she gathers up the courage to turn the knob, to greet the new day, and look for someone familiar to discuss being "awake", as well as how to run the bath.

Nick opens his eyes. Bright golden light streams in from somewhere, like it's the crack of dawn. There's a gentle rocking – he thinks – most likely fair weather. A strange lethargy creeps over him, as if his body doesn't want to move. Not the usual drowsiness, he'd gotten past that in Basic. It's something... unpleasant. He closes his eyes again, then the memories start to form. The Embassy, the Docks.

The carnage.

The look on the faces of his allies as he slammed the door on them with the certainty that he was leaving them to die. The feeling of bearing his weapon down on an unsuspecting target, looking into their eyes, and pulling the trigger. The crushing wave of darkness tearing through the soldiers' bodies. The screams. All those screams.

His eyes snap wide. He feels his breath quicken and a cold sweat forming on his back. He sits up, holding his head in some vain attempt to stop the memories from coming back. It's no use.

He gets up, hoping to somehow walk it off, and that's when ne notices. The look of the cabin, the large Greatsword resting in a reinforced scabbard against the wall right next to the bed. The gap in memory from when he was just standing on the Frog's deck only a minute ago. The subtly different feel of his body, from the tighter muscles to the odd patches of scar tissue on his chest. The very faint hint of bangs of black hair at the edge of his sight. And the part of him usually up and about, now asleep in Magic.

A black flame erupts next to the wall opposite the bed, though lacking the aggressive flair it had last time. Now it was melancholic, almost sad. Smirk materializes in the cabin with nary a sound. He blinks in confusion, not used to the sensation of waking up for years now. Then Nick's memories become his, and his jaw drops as his body deflates.

"Well, shit..."

Nick sits back down – "Yeah..."

Smirk looks around the cabin, raising his hand at one point to shield from the sunlight hitting his face from the viewport before finally slumping against the wall with his arms crossed. He spares a glance at Waterglass – "I like his taste in weaponry."

"I can't wield that."

"Yeah, 'cause you're a pussy."

"Hmm..." - he concedes, while pensively flexing his new hand.

"We're not stealing his body." - Smirk blurts – "We've done some fucked up things recently, but that's where i draw the line."

Nick drops Mihai's hand and looks up at Smirk – "How can we stop it? I tried pulling the Orb out, thing wouldn't even budge. Couldn't even feel it there."

"I dunno, maybe..." - he reaches over and grabs Nick's forehead, trying to pull the Orb out himself to no avail. Giving up, he reflexively sighs in exasperation.

After a moment of quiet, Nick muses – "Wonder what happens if we did it. Like, it's just lights out? Like being dead? Mihai gives the Orbs to Marcus, and there we sit. Not knowing any better until he gets us some bodies off the Asylum."

"Gross."

"You don't want that?"

Smirk shakes his head – "I dunno, i..." - he trails off – "I wanna go home, watch Connie summon Sasha and let her prance around while she sprinkles all the flowers. You know, how she can make a little rainbow when the sun's just right? Kids go crazy when she does that."

Nick cracks a smile – "I know."

Smirk manages a chuckle – "Yeah, and..." - then reality hits, and he goes somber – "...and she's dead now, isn't she? All of them, two hundred years... if the Bastards or that fucking Mirror Ball didn't get them, then time..." - he trails off - "And either way, next time we saw her, she probably tried to kill us."

"Maybe we Orbed her." - Nick offers.

Smirk lights up – "You think?"

Nick shrugs optimistically - "I wouldn't be shy about asking Jacob, who knows. After all we pulled off, won't be too much to ask."

"Yeah, i..." - then he trails off as something comes to mind – "Nick, i uh... i don't want a medal, man. Don't think i can stomach it. Just, tell them whatever bullshit will bow us out of that one, alright?"

"Sure, but... we're probably gonna had this conversation all over again already."

Smirk snorts, bringing back a little of his trademark cheer. Then once again, something comes to his mind that threatens to undo it all – "Hey, um..."

"Yeah?"

"How long do you think we lived after that?"

"I, um... don't know."

"Couple years? Think we reached old age?"

"Could be. Why?"

"Eh, it's just... wonder if Edward was always like that. What if he was more like us, and all this just wore him down to the point that he didn't care anymore? What if the longer we go on reliving those memories, we start becoming assholes too?" - a hint of real fear creeps into his voice – "What if we agree with this fucking body-snatching thing of his when it's all over?"

"Fuck that." - Nick affirms decisively – "We won't. That ain't gonna happen! And if it does, we undo it!" - he asserts, releasing a shaky breath he didn't know he was holding – "And we're taking Anne back. Whatever he told her to have her agree to his crap, we're undoing that too."

His brave face seems to have an effect on Smirk, as he regains his determination – "Fuckin'A, we are."

May suddenly jerks awake, knocking a weight off her right arm and almost shoving a notebook into a stack of papers set out to dry nearby. She yawns and stretches, smacking her lips and making a sour expression at the taste of tea in her mouth, making up her mind in that moment to wash it out with some wine post haste. That's when she notices the pen in what should be her hand, a discovery that leads to some shocking revelations: she didn't recognize this galley, but more importantly, she didn't recognize her body either.

She pats herself down in mounting horror, eventually stopping at her crotch in surprise. Not only was she taller, heavier, and slower, but she was male!

"What happened? Are we under attack?" asks a worried fairy in Imperial, still wiping the sleep from his eyes. It dawns on May that he must have been the weight on her arm.

"No, but it is vorse in vay," she answers in her broken Imperial as the memories of last time come rushing back. "Mein name is May Brauer and this is Steve's body. Who are you?"

Samantha

The Imperial rogue steps onto the main deck and immediately recognize the fairies flying about the ship. Several of them greet her with a merry "Good morning, Captain!" before they turn away and return to work. The landscape however is different; they're not docked at Odwaz anymore, but sailing along a coastline that she doesn't recognize. The Sphere protrudes over the horizon behind it, a permanent landmark that everyone in the Archipelago can see, wherever they are.

"Hello, Konrad," a soft voice calls out from behind her. "How are you this morning?"

When she turns around to look at her, Sam realizes that this is the same woman she woke up next to last time she was here.
____________

Nick and Smirk

It is a faint feeling, but it is unmistakable: the Strong Binding that Nick just forged with Smirk has pushed away Mihai's personality further into the recesses of their shared mind.
____________

May

Fluffle blinks in confusion at May, still a little drowsy after being woken up like that, but then stands up and approaches her until he's right by her arm again. "Hi, I'm Fluffle," he says. "I'm a friend of Steve, Mihai and Konrad. You're May, right? They told me you might show up again. Are you okay?"

He leans towards her, his brow wrinkled in worry.

They both feel it - "Oh, shit..."

Smirk steps forward and grabs Nick's head - "Oh no no no, i didn't mean for that to happen. Mihai, come back man!"

Samantha

The greeting by the group of fairies, a bright spot in this confusing crisis, causes Sam to smile. When she turns around to see the young woman, she addresses her like one of her girl friends from Shieldline. "Fine, thanks. Better, after I get a bath." She pauses. "Uh, is 'Mihai' up yet? I need to tell him something."

Deception 31 (AP)

May

"May feel heavier. Slower. Steve not vork out as much as May," she says, poking at her new bicep. "You vouldn't happen to have some vine, vould you? May vould be very grateful for some."

Nick and Smirk

Nothing happens, except that Mihai's consciousness seems to fade into the background. Nick realizes however that it's only his perception of it, which was heightened only for a brief moment when the Strong Binding was forged, and that his personality is still somewhere in the dark corners of their mind; it's just that the light that he shined on it has diminished and now disappeared.

A young teenage woman suddenly opens the door and enters the room, her eyes wide in worry.

It's Amber.
____________

Samantha

The woman slightly raises her left eyebrow, almost imperceptibly so, but then says, "He should still be in his cabin. Steve is in the galley, should you wish to talk to him too."
____________

May

"Uh, yeah. It's in the cupboard over there. Let me go get it for you." The fairy rises in the air and soon comes back with a corked jug of wine, which he carries with his telekinesis power. "It's a wine we picked up in Myr," he explains. "Only a few among the crew like it though."

Nick's jaw drops and Smirk takes a step back - "Uh... Amber i... i'm sorry, i was just in Emerald and suddenly i was here, i..."

They both look like she just caught them hurting her brother.

Samantha

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Sam hesitates, feeling as though she should say something else, given that this lady and Konrad obviously shared a bed and got freaky. The young woman can't be a sailor, she's not rough or buff enough, but she's got a professional air to her. A mage? Does she scout? This isn't just a regular sailing vessel. The decor of Konrad's room screams "mercenary".

At any rate, Sam settles on, "I'll talk to you later," pivots, and leaves the woman to go below deck, to find Mihai.

Spellcraft 21
Sam wants to find out if the young woman has any talent or training with magic, starting with Green Magic.

May

May shrugs, pops the top and starts guzzling it down until she needs air. It isn't until she loudly burps that she finally tastes it. "May hates this. It is crime against vine." She guzzles some more before burping even louder than last time. "Fluffle vant some?"

Nick and Smirk

"What happened?" Amber asks. "Why were you shouting just now?"

She looks back and forth between the Aspect and the man inhabiting her brother's body.
____________

Samantha

The woman nods at Sam and then walks towards the stairs leading to the quarterdeck.

Sam:

____________

May

"No, thank you," the fairy says, a little disconcerted by May's mannerisms, which are completely different from Steve. "...So, what now?" he asks. "You're not going to take over Steve's body forever, right?"

He looks at her while fiddling with his hands.

Nick and Smirk look at each other. Nick gets up - "We uh... well, we used to be Perma-bonded. Sort of figured we shouldn't do that anymore, because well..." - they gesture toward each other - "There's the Bastards out there, and could be bad for Mihai back here, but we thought it'd be ok to just give the Bond a little boost. And... sort of suddenly felt Mihai recede back a bit." - Smirk finishes, looking ashamed.

Nick smacks him - "Don't scare her like that!" - and hastens to add - "He's still here, just... a little... i'm sure he'll be back soon."

May

"Is process. First, May drink vine." She takes one more mighty guzzle from the wine jug, burping yet louder one last time. "Next, May get dizzy und try not to erbrechen." She shakes her head and slaps her cheeks for a bit, working through the buzz and her upset stomach until they are sufficiently under control. "Finally, May get up und ask for help from first person who know's vat they are doing."

She attempts to stand but almost immediately falls back down onto the bench. After poking at her legs in confusion she says to Fluffle, "May think Steve's body not as good at drinking vine as May use to." She sips some more while she tries to figure out what to do next.

Nick and Smirk

Amber stares agape at Smirk when he tells her that Mihai's consciousness has been repressed, but quickly frowns when Nick raises his voice. "Ssh! Not so loud!" she admonishes him. "There are people on this ship who can't know about this—any of it. Understood?"
____________

May

"What if we went to talk to Konrad and Mihai about this?" Fluffle suggests. "They might be able to help."

Samantha

Sam closes the door to the lower decks behind her and starts hunting down Mihai. Wait, where even is Mihai's room, if he's asleep? Screw it. Time to knock on some doors. As she looks at what must be the guest cabins, Sam notices one door open ajar, and peaks in, and notices something impossible - Smirk, hanging out with Mihai and another young lady, who looks even younger than the first.

Gaping, she turns around and closes the door behind her before facing them again, adding up what she's seeing. "Smirk? Is that you? Hello there, I'm Sam. Mihai, did you summon him? Are you a Green Mage? Dammit, what the hell is going on?"

The two almost stand at attention - "Uh, yeah..."

Then Sam-rad makes her entrance. Nick's eyes go wide while Smirk's jaw drops - "Sa--" - Nick starts, but then remembers what Amber just said and lowers his voice - "Sam...? Oh shit, you're a guy?"

May

"Oh, May knows them. Is this their ship then?" She tries to stand again, burps, and leans on the table while maintaining her grip on the wine jug. "Lead on, Floofle. Flurffle. Fluffle." She laughs and almost falls down again. "Fluffle is good name. Lots of good names." She sips some more wine.

May

"Oh, thank you! I like it too." The fairy hovers in the air, a big smile on his face, and then heads over to the exit. "Come with me; we'll wake up Mihai first and then head over to Konrad's cabin. He's the captain of this ship, so it should be safe to talk there."
____________

Nick, Smirk and Samantha

Amber stares incredulously at Sam and then says, "...Merde."

Okay. That answers her first three questions. Although perturbed by the reminder of her scarred masculine face and what's between her legs, Sam lowers her voice too.

"That's not important right now. We are all 200 years in the future, where the Emperor's plan and Howe's invention, have both failed, and currently in possession of other peoples' bodies, and apparently that doesn't stop Nick from being able to summon."

She turns to Amber. "Excuse me, Miss. You seem to be in the loop. Could you go and bring everyone else who is?"

Smirk groans. Nick is quicker - "Y-yeah, i know. Amber knows too. We all know, except for the whole rest of the boat."

"There's not many other people who know about this," Amber says, dumbstruck. "Just Steve, Femke, Segel and—"

There's a light knock at the door. "Mihai? Are you there?" a soft-spoken voice asks. "It's about Steve. He's drinking a lot of wine right now."

"What the—oh no."

The teenager opens the door and reveals two people standing in the doorway: a young male fairy that Sam has never met before, and a drunken mage who sways to the rhythm of the ship.

"Oh, you're all here already," Fluffle says before his eyes settle on Smirk. "...Oh."

"The Power of Darkness commands you to walk in and shut the door. And stop freaking out Amber."

May is guzzling more wine and waves at everybody, before attempting to enter the cabin. She falls face first to the floor and starts hiccuping and laughing. Loudly.