This branches into two storylines, with the alternate one marked with an A

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The Tall and Short Problems of a Cute Gamer Girl

[21]
For the Alt Branch [21A]

Dale and Gwen didn’t have a comparable experience when informed by Giselle that she thought Hanako and her sister were not dark and demonic creatures as the beast that attacked them expressed, but rather closer to angelic ones. She carefully qualified her claims for the sake of the realm inside her head that they weren’t literally angels but that was a suitable analogy. However, the two of them could agree in principle that the monster that came through the walls definitely didn’t seem like a moral authority compared to the young girl and unseen child that protected them.

Rather, everyone ganged up to fill Hanako with encouragement and good feeling about the anxieties of what had burst open on the top of her head. The store didn’t have many options for headwear better than what Hanako already had, but they managed to get creative with what was available. Flowers. Pendants. Scarves. And other pleasant decorations were offered up for Hanako’s noggin. And Finn was the greatest advocate.

Checking each change in the mirror brought wide-eyed emotion from Hanako. It was like they were able to transform her a dozen times over from a shy girl with lacy ornaments fringing her hair to a bewildered kid with a ribbon sprouting above her radiance to an awestruck princess with glittering jewels twinkling against her magical power.

That emotion burst like a miniature supernova that Giselle could sense and wafted back into Hanako with a modest share feeding into the warmth at her side. Finn also delighted and noted that it felt like multi-faceted, gorgeous fireworks in a 3D alpha radiation cloud chamber to her right side. That was another one they had to Google.

The dress-up antics died down when they finally found a secure but pretty wrap for Hanako‘s head which did the job while delighting her and everyone else’s senses. For Mari, Giselle begrudgingly went over to Blessin‘s residential section of the store on everyone else’s suggestion and queued up the first few episodes of the Simpsons based on the login information that had been left. Dale and Gwen took turns watching the still sleeping Blessin for signs of rousing. Nothing in that first season particularly clicked with Giselle and she honestly thought it felt more like someone’s independent YouTube creation. But she did get a few laughs in and some emotional responses, which flowed towards her hip.

Conveniently, they just finished the third when Gwen shouted that Blessin was awake. She was quite shaky and out of it when trying to sit up on the lounger but immediately called for paper to write with. Only after 10 minutes of nonstop writing did she lean back and get a sense of the room.

“I wasn’t able to gather much”, she solemnly reported. “Giselle is…was an 11-year-old girl in that universe. She just randomly kicked the toilet seat containing the sister. Over there, it’s Olivia for Hanako and Athena for Mari. Olivia was very different though. She looked like Giselle‘s sibling with light blonde hair and fair skin. Rachel was still Rachel and seemed like her mom. They were attacked by Cerberus not too long ago and Giselle lost her right hand but gained an occasional energy-based blue one that seemed to be from Athena. I couldn’t figure out much about the moment of bifurcation with kicking the seat. No idea what she may have done. Sorry.”

Reciprocating this dump of emotion, Giselle and the others soon relayed the impressions they had around Hanako, and Finn cheerfully recounted the visible experience through the place where her eye was missing. With this and other snippets, Blessin took further notes down on paper. She didn’t have a whole lot to say about the invocation of angels but she appeared to agree with the notion that Cerberus was a piece of shit and the girls had more clear, objective goodness in their left pinky fingers than his entire monstrous body.

After copious notes, Blessin shut her eyes and presented, “I have a theory about how we can not only beat the bastard but destroy him. Love. Yeah, love.”

She twirled her pen and looked divisive with her own expression. “Love is truly powerful. And that’s not just an aphorism. Agape is something I genuinely consider powerful. Not to press anything on anyone else but I felt truly protected during the last encounter.” She cradled her cross with a deep breath. “Meanwhile, you all are friends, whether you know it well or not. Some of you also share a heartfelt, sacrificing, and trusting love. We are strongly equipped right there. But I also have a browning bolt action rifle, an M4 a relative got me for show, and plenty of handguns. Love, but I’d also love to blow the fucker straight back to Hell.”

Gwen and Dale also had some personal weaponry to offer but Finn and Giselle were not interested in any of that. Hanako promised to absolutely keep Finn safe as heartfelt recompense for not protecting him before and added that Mari would keep Giselle protected in kind. Blessin casually asked about the Simpsons episodes that Giselle had watched so far and advised her to keep an open mind because the second season was when it became the recognizable show of the 90s. Giselle was polite but didn’t have a whole lot to say on the subject.

Once everyone was on the same page, Giselle packed her vehicle, a silver Ford truck with not only weapons but first aid, water, and a lockbox full of precious crystals and trinkets. It was clear that they couldn’t make the trip to DC comfortably at this hour, but Giselle knew that they could call on one more friend to augment the team.

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“Hmmm. Certainty of death. Small chance of success……What are we waiting for?” Finley grinned widely through his beard as he used a stray spoon on the store counter in place of a pipe. His immense shop, Take Your Shot Gaming (we got your backlight), adjoined what used to be a flower place. Finley had recently bought it out and turned it into a makeshift arcade with about thirty freshly serviced cabinets and growing. Hanako marveled at the many sights, even a simple handheld electronic one with silhouette characters. Finley took a shine to the kid and let her borrow his Nintendo Switch to play while they talked.

A lot of explanation was required but Finley didn’t need more than to know that his friends needed his help, and he was willing to bring his full armament with him again to protect them in some unknown situation. After the shop closed up for the night, they had a big meal of barbecue ribs at a place down the block.

Hanako looked particularly intrigued by the chocolate and peanut butter spiral ice cream behind the counter but had no interest in the meats. Everyone gave her samples of their sides. She enjoyed the mac and cheese and the collard greens but settled on the sweet potato casserole as her favorite. She consumed little more than a spoonful of each.

For overnight, they considered a hotel room using Lily’s worker discount. Giselle‘s mom worked at one of the bigger hotels with all manner of beauty, spa treatments, and hair care at her disposal. But Finley resolved to put the group up for the night.

He had a big place with multiple guest rooms. The biggest, separate and discrete from the main house, was given to Giselle and Finn. Dale and Gwen had separate beds in one of the side guest after resolving their drives home weren’t worth it. Blessin just sprawled out on the biggest couch with enough blankets and Hanako curled up on the smaller end.

The evening culminated with a little talking and a few rounds of Smash before everyone started to get drowsy. Blessin was absolutely ruthless with wielding Kirby against anyone in her path. Giselle, as always, spammed Ness and Finley delighted in using Snake to make her pay. Finn also brought a few brutal KOs with Peach. Hanako mostly watched and observed what others did. When she was invited to play, she did so with Robin for the sake of his/her appearance. She didn’t do that great or survive very long but she wore a pleased expression when they wrapped up.

Hanako didn’t have any smell, so when Giselle gave her a light bath, it was more for the experience of it. She appeared wary of being naked and cold but accepted it with Giselle nearby. Wrapping up fully and deeply in all the towels was her favorite part. With the floof of her pale hair, the horns cast a warm sky-like radiance. Finley had ignored the cloaking decoration on the kid’s head, instead focusing more his concern and horror at what happened to Finn. He also overlooked the strange, supernatural, and world-ending statements that slipped out amongst the group. Finn attempted makeshift eyepatches but ultimately gave them up.

After showering with the calm passing of each other naked, Giselle and Finn met in bed. When he started as a man, Finn wielded his key difference as though he imagined it as a vast loaf of French bread that might take someone’s eye out if he wasn’t too careful. It was difficult in other ways because so much beneath was missing as reciprocation for what Rachel didn’t have. Getting something going required a lot of effort and manipulation. But he managed to glide through that and into the warmth of his spouse. Giselle spread her legs and welcomed him.

They were each tense in their own way. Giselle had a bundle of worries looming about where they were going and what they might find. But at its core was the faint, earnest begging that the one she loved didn’t deserve to sacrifice even a sliver more. She lavished her affection even though she was supposed to be the submissive one. She guided her husband and urged him onward. They wept together and huddled in relief and release. Catharsis over and over until it finally felt at an end. Finn couldn’t physically ejaculate but she made sure he felt as good as possible.

Afterwards, they gently touched each other’s hair and talked about a million senseless things that had nothing to do with the morning or tomorrow or whatever may come.

In the morning, they got up a little early to take another shower and make sure that the bed linens were washed. Breakfast was composed by Finley and assisted with Blessin’s skill. While Blessin played coy, the others noticed the little comments between them with more laughter than necessary and playful references to beards. Giselle actually gathered at one point that Finley knew what Blessin kept on the down low and it not only wasn’t a problem, it was one of the points of interest. Elvish allusions to her richly golden hair also popped up.

It was darn early when they had to get going but Thanksgiving was approaching, and the number of daylight hours wasn’t too far from the hours of travel time it would take them to get there with stops and breaks.

Most of the trip was quite uneventful. Giselle worried at one point that some shadows in the forested roadside were not wandering animals but spies or pieces of Cerberus. Fortunately, they soon passed whatever it was and didn’t see a reoccurrence. Virginia managed to be the Virginia she remembered from all of their previous trips, which meant police cars stationed at seemingly every single junction between city and road, lurking like hungry sharks waiting for the least slip out of line or unwary traveler from another state. It brought her on edge even more than the dangers that loomed before them.

When they finally arrived, it was hard to miss their target. The damn thing looked like it could be seen from space. It had the swath of a regional distribution center or one of those immense Amazon facilities but was cloaked in a shade of dark brown that bordered on black. It loomed in all directions with a surprisingly pristine parking lot flanking all sides. And it was shuttered. A large, black ten-foot, industrial aluminum fence with spikes atop enclosed the perimeter. Fortunately, the end facing the street was just secured with a metal chain and a simple small padlock.

About a block down the street, they found a parking structure with unlimited overnight parking. The neighborhood was far from the nicest even for the area, but they parked on the top level by the elevator, clustered together by the nicest other cars, and armed their alarms. Their walk wasn’t much better but at least they were all armed.

Hanako asked regular questions and Giselle resisted telling too much. She just alluded to the fact that what protection measures she may have done as a spirit sometimes needed to be honored here as well. She vaguely understood what the weapons they held would do but asked, “There are humans who want to erase you from existence?”

Finley gave Giselle a quick look about that. It hadn’t occurred to Giselle until then to claim to him that Hanako was somewhere in the autistic spectrum or highly imaginative. It was a thought, but she didn’t like misleading him. She answered, “We don’t know. It’s better to be prepared for any possibility.”

“Is this the sort of thing we should be prepared for on a regularly?”

“God, I hope not.”

Silence followed for a while as they made their way to an intersection and then across the street during a lull.

“I have noticed mentions of a figure you invoke…called ‘God’? What is this figure to you? Why do you invoke them?”

With all the mentions of demons and angels, Giselle figured that Hanako picked up the whole God thing along the way as well. Following the thought, she asked her about demons and angels. Hanako pouted and remarked that she asked first. Feeling more like a parent than ever before, Giselle pivoted and assuaged her that she just wanted to best understand her question and how to answer it.

Despite some wariness, Hanako told her, “I gather that demons are bad. They hurt. They take. They want only to destroy. They are like the human version of what we have in the monsters that wish to plunge us into the cold darkness eternally.” Finley hustled up to the front of the group, so it provided Giselle and Hanako a little bit of privacy. Giselle confirmed that this was mostly accurate but clarified that demons were typically depicted with goat horns protruding from their head, red skin, forked tails, and claws. Hanako lingered on her cloaked horns but started to relax as the other details failed to apply.

Pressing her point, Giselle focused on angels instead. For this, Hanako recounted, “Your parents have cherubim on their walls, and you have talked about angelic things and angel food. They embody good. They show warmth and light and knowledge. They protect, share, and hold back the darkness.”

That seemed pretty spot-on to Giselle. She added, “They’re made by God. They can do battle against the forces of darkness. They can fly. They have beautiful wings made of feathers and a lot of other details like a halo and stuff I don’t remember. They also can look kind of complicated with eyes all over and wheels within wheels, but let’s not dwell on that.” Hanako had a flicker of concern but slowly nodded.

Giselle focused, “You may have what you have, but when I looked at you and I felt where I touched, my sensations were like knowing beauty, thinking of those images in my parents' house, and feeling radiance and glowing wings around you. Like Finn said and saw. You are beautiful, Hanako. And so is your sister.”

Hanako stopped walking and turned slightly to face Giselle. Delicate, jeweled tears rested in her blue eyes. Softly, she asked, “Permission?”

Giselle was uncertain, this didn’t seem like a good time for her or anyone to transform with Finley already confused and suspicious. Hanako shook her head and clarified, “Permission… to hug you.” Giselle gladly gave it. Hanako‘s modest body carried immense warmth.

Closing the initial question, Giselle asked what Hanako had been able to glean about God.

Again, Hanako seemed quietly suspicious that Giselle was asking a question rather than providing an answer, but she complied. “Someone strong. Someone who can help. Someone with a never-ending supply of love, as Miss Blessin Cross alluded to. Someone you aren’t sure is there, but you hope they will be when you need their help.”

“Yeah, that about sums it up for me too.” Blessin looked back from the group with a skeptical squint but didn’t say anything. Hanako reflected on this and didn’t have any further questions.

Soon standing together as a group in front of the fence, Giselle checked down the street while Dale looked up. No one coming, and no other cars at this hour. From Blessin's advice, Finley brought along a bolt cutter, and it took him plus Finn and Dale working on it to finally slice through the metal. With a slow rumbling groan, the fence creaked open with everyone pushing on it.

“Here we go…” Blessin smiled and stepped through first. 

[Since this is meant to be interactive, feel free to suggest ideas and prompts for future/alternate branch storylines. Some branches are already written but this will allow me to best pick new/alternate ones. I'm currently just rolling dice.]

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