"Amazing work everyone! Take five. Girls, come with me for some retouching and uh, boys, go suck each other off or whatever dudes do when on break." Abigail, the self proclaimed queen of the theatre of Nortonvale College, yelled out as the group was finally done practicing their next performance for the Grand Autumn's Ball, a prestigious event and fundraiser. Her blonde hair shone in the spotlight as she wiped her sweaty pale neck with a towel she was keeping in one of the pockets on her flaming red blazer.
She walked, her heels click-clacking on the tile floors of the College, her posse was right behind her and the taps their platforms were making on the floor turned into a steady rhythm. If this was a musical a number would have been performed, but they just got done practicing and they really didn't want to have to sing with their throats dry as a desert.
The five girls, Abigail included, stepped inside a sterile bathroom with their own self-care products. Abigail had the bulk, being the mom-friend of the group and also being in charge of makeup, she carried a plus-size pink luxury bag that contained all of the essentials.
"God, Anna, you were amazing. The voice, and your footwork was everything. Truly a yas-queen moment." Abigail commented, taking out different shades of lipstick from her bag.
"Abbie, talk normally, we're in the bathroom now. Stop it with the pop-culture icon thing. It was funny a few weeks ago but now it's getting a bit much." Jessie, a dark-skinned girl with box braids wearing a yellow blazer and leggins said as she checked for any kind of makeup imperfection.
"Yeah Abbie, it's getting kind of annoying." Chelsea, a brunette girl with wavy hair and skin pale as the moon, agreed with Jessie, helping her pick out the parts of her face that needed retouching.
"Boo, you guys were the ones that pushed me to do this. Don't back out now. Shit I think I left the eyeliner on the backstage vanity, do any of you four need eyeliner? No? M'kay then, cool. At least I don't have to walk all the way there alone." Abigail started doing slight adjustments on her current makeup.
The bathroom was silent for a moment, until Annie, a short pale girl wearing a blue jacket and glasses with no lens, piped up to start a conversation with the other four. It mostly consisted of the upcoming tests and the fundraising that the show they were participating in was a part of.
"I can't believe we're going to be performing live on an actual big-shot stage. God, this school is the best. I'm so glad I got accepted in. My past school wasn't super prestigious like Nortonvale so we rarely had any chance to perform for things like cancer research." Anna was putting on the finishing lip gloss and finally was finished with her retouch and stood to the side, talking with the other girls.
"I mean yeah, Nortonvale is in the top five academic institutions in the world. It's why the acceptance rate is so low. I mean personally I would definitely leave this place behind, absolutely amazing teachers, staff, and the curriculum is pretty much perfect too, but the tests and performance tasks man. I stayed up all night reviewing last semester's periodical but I only got a passing score." Donna, a tan tall girl with a high ponytail wearing all black and goth makeup complained.
"Oh my god, TRUE! Out of us five Abbie's the only one who got an A. What the fuck, did you cheat or something!? You were up all night playing Doom Crossing and streaming, not studying, how in the hell did you even pass???" Jessie loudly said as she put on mascara.
"SHE WAS DOING WHAT!? God you act like such a big airhead, so much so that I keep forgetting you have a full-ride scholarship, and even an allowance. Give me some of your brain cells, mine got fried spending all that time under the spotlight." Anna's voice shook, her mouth agape and looking at Abigail—who was giving her an amused grin.
"Look, I just girlbossed my way to the top. Just because I played all night doesn't mean I don't have a strict study schedule I follow during the day. Coffee has been running through my veins since high-school. Also, is it just me or does it smell like updog in here?" Abigail giggled as she helped Donna put on new fake lashes as hers were damaged during their musical practice.
"Strict study schedule being League of Champions and Banorant… No one's falling for that updog thing Abbie give it up." Chelsea muttered the first part under her breath, saying the second sentence louder and clearer.
"Chelsea stop exposing me, I'll look like a cheater. Which I am not. Look I play during exams week because I spend the whole week before that actually studying. It's why my status on Harmony is 'Do not disturb' a week before exams. You guys cram, I'm playing the long game." Abigail explained.
"Boo, you whore, can't believe you actually have healthy studying habits. Cram like us and enjoy the pain of all C's this semester." Jessie commented, finishing her own retouches and helping Chelsea with hers.
Just then, a loud alarm blared through the school. The deafening screams of students filled up the hall as gunshots resounded. The girls all looked at each other with horrified faces, trying to process what they're hearing and figuring out what to do. The first to move was Abigail, the blonde immediately moved to the door and locked it, and then comforted the panicking Anna.
"A shooting. Fuck, okay, we're on the first floor bathroom, I'll hold you guys up and escape through the window." Abigail instructed and pulled along a semi-calm Anna and helped her up, the window was situated near the ceiling but it was big enough that a plus-size person could fit through it easily, a testament to this school's sheer size.
"What about you??? The fuck are you gonna do?" Chelsea asked as she was helped up.
"Just pull me up, dumb bitch." Abigail said in a light-hearted tone, but this aside panic was clear in her voice, she helped the other two girls up and held her hands out for the others to take.
Chelsea and Jessie both grabbed a hold of her hands and tried lifting her up. They were succeeding when a loud gunshot startled them and caused them to drop Abigail back into the bathroom.
From inside the bathroom, the shooter could be seen, he had blown off the door handle and successfully got inside of the girl's bathroom. The monster was lit up in the glaring white lights of the bathroom, he looked at Abigail—who stared back in pure terror.
"shit. Shit. SHIT—"
Were the last words that Abigail would utter. Her head was shot dead center, killing her instantly.
Or, well, that's what she thought.
Abigail was reincarnated into Magamundo as a certain young divorakk named Lilianna. A tan girl with black hair and eyes that resembled the deep ocean. Born into a loving family, she loved her time and spent it leisurely. That said, her obsession with pop-culture has carried on into this world, and integrating it into the culture of this world was one of her two main goals. The other was accessing her old world in pursuit of the new trends and slang. An odd goal, but it was one she was passionate about. Born with the water, light, and by proxy, the refraction attribute, she was sure that one day she would be able to use this power to achieve her dream.
Lilianna stared at her parents as they were brought by the sea. Her arms and legs, bound in chains that prohibit magic. The nine-year old divorakk couldn't look away, she wanted to, oh god she definitely WANTED TO, but her parents were supposed to be an example of what happens to rebellious divorakks captured by bandits. Their eyes are gouged out and sold to nobles, apparently a rumour blossomed that divorakk eyes can lengthen one's lifespan if ingested.
She screamed, and she struggled, the chains that held her in a bind were making sounds that horribly complimented her anguished screaming drowned out by the cloth. She wanted to look away but one of her captor bandits wouldn't let her, a spell, nay, a curse, was put on her as she was made to watch her parents scream and writhe in pure agony as their eyes—heir beautiful eyes that Lilianna stared at every day before this one to remind herself of the setting sun and the rising moon—were gouged out with a specialized tool.
And as her despair reached a climax and the screams of her parents died down along with the rest of the dianians from their nest—all the adults staged a revolt, there were only four children in the nest and the other three were being forced to watch beside Lilianna—something inside the young girl bloomed. An anger, hatred, something virile and violent, a darkness she never had as Abigail and one that she has never encountered as Lilianna. Something so evil and corrupt, something that only wishes for all bandits to burn, no, all humans to burn.
As Lilianna's eyes burned with a tar-like substance and her soul was eaten away by violent hate, she wished. Oh she wished hard, she wished for their burning, for the bandits burning. To hear their screams and the sand beneath them cracking with the intense heat of their burning bodies mingling with the delicate sea-side sand. This was not Lilianna's wish, but the darker thing that spawned from the despair, Lilianna would never want this, Abigail would never wish for this. Lilianna was a good person, Abigail was a kind one, she would never hurt anyone!
And so she felt nothing but a twisted satisfaction as she watched the bandits' bodies burn. Unfortunately, the other three children couldn't take the heat of the burning hellfire her Witch Factor spawned, and consequently died.
The voice of the world—the system—informed her that she had germinated into the Witch of Despair. An entity that will go down in all history to be the worst villain the world has ever seen. But history is written by the victors, in this case, the victors are the humans that survived the Great Burning.
She kneeled by the beach watching as the tides ebbed and flowed, watched as the sand turned dark and the water turned black. Her sheer power, her despair, her wish, and her bloodied hands, spawned the Abyss.
She stood up from the ground, her eyes dark and soulless, snatching up the key from her captor's burned body and unlocked herself. She knew that the key should have been melted from the heat, but she couldn't care less about the intricacies of heat transfer and the liquidation of metals.
"I am no one now. No one. I'm a murderer… out of every single one of them why me. Why am I alive? I've already lived one life, why couldn't they get to live their own to its fullest…?" She questioned, though her eyes were emotionless, empty, and dull, it spawned tears. For the past few days all the crying she was doing was out of frustration and anger. But these tears were of sadness, were of despair, were of losing the last few lights of hope in your heart and being blanketed by a strangely comforting fabric of darkness.
And so she walked, she didn't know where she was going, she actually hoped that she would die of thirst or hunger before reaching her destination—wherever that is.
Until she retreated into the forests that lined the beach and found a lone bunny cornered by predators. She didn't know why, but she wanted to save this bunny, she wanted to help. Her traits, despite being a witch, were the words 'aid' and 'seamstress', maybe that was what was calling her to protect such an innocent creature. After all, why would a cold-blooded murderer like her want to save a bunny?
With a wave of her hands, the light refracted around the lupine predators that surrounded the bunny-like creature. Concentrated rays of light bounced all around the predators and killed them instantly, no pain, no struggle, a clean euthanasia. She stepped forward and stared at the bunny. On closer inspection it looked like a jackalope. Lilianna held it close, and bawled into its fur. The bunny was struggling and even hurt Lilianna but she didn't care, she hugged it tight and cried, no, screamed into its fur.
After she had finally calmed down, she said these words, the very words that she would live by, for the rest of her life.
"If I can't weave and stitch together a happy ending for me and my family. Then I'll do it for other people. I'll patch up the broken and stitch up the weak, I'll be a hallowed seamstress of fate and help everyone. To atone for my sins. To give happy endings."
"Lilianna. You're having a nightmare again." A dark-skinned, bald, priest-like man shook awake Lilianna—now a young adult—who tossed and turned in her sleep. Mumbling about happy endings and the like.
"...Aery? I said I'm fine, stop waking me up just because of nightmares." Lilianna complained.
"Aery stop being a worry wart. Lady Lilianna hasn't slept in days, give her a proper rest." A pale man in armor named Glacies spoke in a reprimanding tone against the wind spirit Aery.
"But Lilianna has told us numerous times to wake her up if she ever had nightmares." A woman named Alon talked back at the ice spirit.
"Alon I haven't slept in three days. I don't care if I have nightmares anymore, I just need rest." Lilianna told off the water spirit as she drifted back to sleep, lulled by the gentle turbulence of the carriage she was in. "Don't wake me up unless it's important. I'm serious, women like me need a proper beauty sleep to not look like a scary old haggard hag by thirty. I'm still trying to find a wife or husband so I would like to be as pretty as possible." Lilianna grumbled as she slipped into unconsciousness.
"You heard the woman, no disturbing. I swear you two will be the death of her." Glacies mumbled as he looked out the carriage window.
"I am just worried for her, is all. She has not been able to have a good night's sleep after getting cursed by the Witch of Slumber. It would be bad if the curse evolved through her nightmares or something of the like." Aery muttered.
"I am just following orders. Lilianna asked to be shaken awake when having nightmares. But now that orders have changed I will gladly let her sleep." Alon's tone was nonchalant as she observed the environment outside the carriage.
Currently, the four were travelling to the new fledgling Kingdom called Jija. Lilianna wanted to look around and see what the new kingdom was all about so she urged the three spirits to come join her on the tour. The three could not resist, Lilianna was their dearest friend after all and a reliable one at that, she rarely made time off for herself so they wanted to make sure she enjoyed her time there the best she could.
"This carriage was made by her stitching magic, right? I wonder what kind of tricks this one has up it's sleeves. I thought her magic was only about making clothes but apparently as long as it needed some sort of stitching, she could imbue it with her power." Glacies commented as she stared at the fancy needlework on the extremely comfortable couches of the very spacious carriage. Well, spacious on the inside, the outside looked like a normal cheap vehicle.
"Yes, most likely the distortion of space is from that relic she spent most of her savings on. Honestly this woman should be more careful with her finances and money. If she were ever to handle a city's economy I have no doubts that it would crash the second she is left alone with it." Aery sighed, remembering the numerous useless transactions that he'd seen Lilianna partake in.
"I disagree. I think she's being smart, the relics she buys and tries to find may have niche effects, but they also are solutions to a lot of niche problems that most conventional tools cannot solve. Though, I do admit that she most likely does not think that far ahead and only buys them because they are shiny tools with the title relic branded onto them. Remember that time she bought a useless metal stick for one gold?" Alon snickered.
"Oh, we're near the Jijian capital. Let us all get ready." Alon pointed out as she watched the towering walls of the newly-built Jijian Royal Capital finally came into view.
