Utterly Mad

Soon after their little reunion, Roxanne excused herself to Hector as she fetched her things. She reminded him that the two weren’t supposed to meet just yet and still had to take care of a couple things. After a goodbye kiss the knight, she put her mask back on and exited their shared room. Her destination wasn’t too far off yet she still didn’t quite know what to expected. Roxanne walked north towards a particular clearing in the dense woods near walkerville; she used to frequent it when she needed some alone time with nature but now she had a guarding looking over it and she wanted to check on him.

As Roxanne walked, her modified two-way radio sounded off; it was Leonard. “Hello, Leo? What’s up? Something holding you back en-route back to the tower?”, Roxanne asked

“Yeah… about that…”, Leonard responded, “We still haven’t moved… A little argument broke out. It seems Clara doesn’t want to meet without seeing her little brother and Christina is taking her side. Rey and Lucy don’t care either way but are pointing out you must have your reasons for us to go.”

Roxanne gave a deep sigh before answering. “Tell you what, tell them to stay put there for the night and tomorrow I’ll give them a tour of walkerville myself. As for Clara, make her take Void and Coalescence, give her a ride to the Hall and let her talk to Victor. While she is there, tell her to put the two pieces in the little warded drawer they have going; gonna need to ask Helen to help me make one some time soon…”

“Understood...just one thing if I may…”

“What is it?”

“Void and Coalescence won’t be too happy that you made them dormant and then put them in a drawer. They see you as their mother you know? Might make them...unstable…”

“Don’t worry about it; they have the mentality of children. I’ll deal with it later, just do as you are told ok? Luna and Grey out.”

The two way radio went silent afterwards and Roxanne put it back in its place. She have a deep sigh and rubbed the sides of her head. “It’s always something with you people...”

“Well, you don’t make things easier either you know?”

“Not now Eris! I am not in the mood...”

“Awwww, don’t want to talk to yourself either?”

Without saying a word Roxanne continued walking forwards as thoughts went through her mind; thoughts that were both her and Eris. She became more and more confused and needed clarification and what better way than talking to herself on the matter to see if she missed any little details.

“Hey Eris, you there?”

“Oh, look who decided to talk... Of course I am here, where else would I be?”

“Right right… Listen, there is something that I still don’t get...”

“There’s a surprise...”

“Shut up this is important!”

“Fine, what do you want?”

“Why are we still talking, pretending and outright feeling like we are two different people?”

“Oh that? Well, it’s kinda obvious from what Lucy said.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, we were two different people who became a single consciousness, and rather forcefully at that. We have different personalities and some aspect of that make us incompatible due to some differences we have. Think of it like the arcane version of Multiple-personalities disorder.”

“Right right… but how do we fix it? It’s starting to get annoying arguing with...myself of all people...”

“I feel ya sister! Well, Lucy said that it would naturally happen over the course of a couple decades which is when our personalities will coalesce into one.”

“Did you just say decades?! What?!”

“Calm down, that is just the default time frame. It can occur much sooner if we work out those difference of ours that are incompatible. If one can convince the other of the other of their point of view in all those fronts then we would be able to coalesce much sooner.”

“Huh, so we need to talk things over then… What sorta things?”

“Well, we have different values, belief and moral compasses so we should focus on those. We can either deal with them as they come or we can set aside time now and again to deal with them.”

“Eh, I can set aside some time to talk to myself some more. Anything we could discuss that comes to mind?”

“Well, one that comes to mind is that fact that you won’t allow me to mess around with neither guys or girls...”

Roxanne stopped in her tracks; another argument was about to erupt and she knew if she continue walking she would wander elsewhere. “Goddammit Eris you fucking slut! I already told you I am straight so I won’t allow you to fool around with girls. And we have a boyfriend!”

“Correction, you have a boyfriend. How is it my fault you decided to give up and settled down with the knight? Besides, you let him fool around, why can’t we?”

“Bitch, you know very well why! I am a ghost remember? I can’t really...you know...satiate his ‘needs’ properly… so if he wants to seek that elsewhere he is free to do so...”

“And what about our needs huh? Do those not count for anything?”

“Ghost remember, we don’t really have any.”

“Oh really now?” Eris forcibly took control for a moment; she took her right hand and jabbed her fingers on her upper chest where the main tattoo seal was. Right before she struck she handed over control to Luna again. Luna fell to her knees as the sensations form the jab took hold and she moaned loudly before plating her hands on the ground as well.

“Y-you fucking cunt! Do-don’t you ever...ever d-do that again!”. Roxanne exclaimed in between hard breaths.

“Awww, what’s wrong? Luna can’t take a little teasing?”, Eris responding in their mind not bothering taking hold of the body to let Luna feel everything.

“F-fuck off!”

“Anyways, I made my point. You can’t use being a ghost as an excuse anymore.”

Roxanne slowly go up and then dusted herself after regaining her composure; she adjusted her mask and continued in the direction of the clearing. “I am not having this conversation with you now… I have a mission to complete why thank you...”

“Fiiiine, but I am not dropping it...”

A while later Roxanne found the clearing in the woods. She walked towards it noting the bright sunlight that permeated through the trees signaling she was close. A bit of excitement took hold as she approached but that soon turned to dread and awe as she looked at the scene before hand. In the middle of the clearing was Jim just where Roxanne had planted him; well, a few things were off from when she last saw him…

First, Jim was bigger, much bigger. The once small desert triffid that lived in Roxanne’s pot had no grown to the size of a compact car and it appeared to have “bloomed” growing tendrils that borrowed themselves to the ground. Second, said tendrils came back up and would dig themselves again making a pattern that resembled a mat. The whole clearing was covered in this mat of tendrils that originated from Jim. Third, Roxanne realized that Jim wasn’t a “him” but a “she” because she recognized this as she uttered it’s name: “Triffid Grove...”

Indeed, Roxanne had accidently created a triffid grove about a couple miles away from the farm; and Jim was it’s queen. She just looked at what she had done with awe seemingly in a trance until that was cut short by vines slowly entangling her body. Roxanne had not time to react as they wrapped around her arms, legs and waist before they suddenly lifted her up. In futile desperation Roxanne attempted to struggle against them but to no avail. Through her mask, Roxanne witness as a mutant wasp flew by only for it to be pierced by a vine and then dragged down to the mat below. She gulped hard at this before her attention was shifted elsewhere.

A tendril rose from below and in front of Roxanne; this one was a little different than the other. It was thinner and also had what looked like a needle on it’s tip. It was transparent but soon it began to turned purple from the bottom up until a purple fluid spurted a bit from the tip. The tendril then lined itself up with Roxanne’s chest just above her breast where Eris had jabbed...well, herself… Roxanne gasped knowing what this meant and she didn’t like it. She knew that wouldn’t actually hurt her since it wasn’t an arcane attack but if that little jab had provoked such a reaction from her being stabbed in the seal would be so much worse. Her struggles resumed, this time much more violently which irritated Jim.

Seemingly out of nowhere, another vine rose up; this one was thicker than the tendril but not as much as the ones that made up the mat. Then without any warning it slapped Roxanne on the side of her head which immediately made her cease her struggles. This little act made her mask fall of onto the mat leaving her face exposed; Roxanne’s pink eyes looked at Jim with terror and somehow she knew Jim was looking back. She waited for Jim to pierce her chest but that never came; on the contrary, the tendril lowered itself and then then vines that held her up unwrapped from both her arms and legs but were still wrapped around her waist. Jim brought Roxanne close. “W-what the? Jim? I-it’s me… Roxanne, remember me?” Jim’s head tilted a bit before it did something Roxanne would recognize: it’s now massive maw opened and it gave a light yawn before closing again.

“Jim! It’s you!” Roxanne hugged the tiffrid with her now free arms. She held the hug for a minute before letting go at which point the remaining vine lowered her to the mat and unwrapped to her waist. It then picked up Roxanne’s mask and handed it to her; it seemed Jim had some sort of intelligence. “Oh Jim, you are so grown up! I am so proud of you! But… bad Jim! Bad! You have been a naughty bo- girl… girl apparently...” Roxanne gave a deep sigh of both relief and annoyance. “Oh you big dumb and adorable weed, what and I going to do with you? Hmm… wait I know! That catalina lady wants to talk to me still I hope… she has some pull in the center, maybe I can convince her to leave you alone… heh, worth the shot...”

---

Leonard once again pulled up to near the hall in his motorcycle being mindful to not draw any attention. However, he didn’t have Roxanne as his passenger this time but rather it was Clara. She got off the motorcycle checking her stuff.

“You have the swords with you?”, asked Leonard.

“Of course I do, it was part of the deal.”, Clara respond.

“Alright then, just making. We don’t want any mistakes you know?”

Clara glared at him while he remained looking forwards towards the road. “Listen here you undead fuck, you may think you are a big shot because you are Luna’s servant or whatever but I won’t all you to talk to me in such a tone, do I make myself clear?”

“...My apologies Miss Ironwood.”

“Good, now on you go. I’ll take care of my part of the deal…”

With that, Leonard took off again leaving Clara alone. She was wearing black jeans, a grey dress shirt and a black denim jacket. On her back were both Void and Coalescence which she was tasked to take care off for now. With little reservation, Clara have a deep breath and walked towards the door of Victor’s room.

---

Victor was sitting in a chair in the room pondering something, the note in the journal to be more specific and what Roxanne had told him before she left during their meeting a while ago. He remembered that she asked him something as she was exiting his room with her mask already on:

“Hey Victor, before I go, let me ask you something...”

“What is it?”

“If today was the end of the world, if this was our last day on earth… would you come back for me?”

Victor had smiled when he heard that, he had no memory of it but he recognized those word from the note and he responded to that as he had done all those years back. “To the end of the world and back…”

Roxanne had just laugh upon hearing that. “So you did read the note huh? Good, saves me a lot of time… did you tell Helen about it?”

“I can’t bring myself to do so… even though its something irrelevant now… the way things are going, why risk it?”

“Eh, I mean, that’s fair but… what if she finds out from someone other than you? That would hurt more wouldn’t it? Besides, you are no longer that person are you? You have a choice to make… The Victor I knew would have had burned the note already… what will you do?”

Those last words were what stuck to him, what would he do? Keep the status quo and risk what Roxanne said or bring it out to seal up the last wound? A wound he had no memory of from what was from all intents and purposes another life… That train of thought was interrupted but a sudden knock on the door. Victor’s attention was brought to his aura spell that revealed a single person behind the door. He was thankful they weren’t shielding themselves like the last two had.

Victor was about to ask who it was because he didn’t know who this aura belonged to but he didn’t due to a simple reason: the aura felt familiar and to the point he felt he could trust the person behind the door. Almost as if by instinct he opened the door to find a woman looking at him with both excitement and relief. She gasped and smiled before abruptly pulling him into a hug.

“Victor! It really is you! I finally catched up to you! It’s been so long...”

He was quite confused and pulled her off before responding. “Uhhh...who are you?”, Victor asked.

The woman looked at him confused. “It’s me, Clara, your sister… Don’t you remember me?” She knew the answer to that but she clinged to the hope that it wasn’t true.

“Sister? Oh… no...sorry...I don’t remember...”