Twenty Questions Part 2

Dahlia cleared her throat, and leaned forwards, spinning the hand around until it landed on left foot blue. She looked up at Violet, then looked towards John and back again.

“Do you intend to become John’s wife?” Dahlia asked flatly.

Violet’s face turned red. “I… I want him to get to know me more, but when that happens… It would definitely make me happy,” she said, keeping eye contact with the fairy as she reached out and flicked the hand causing it to spin and land on right foot yellow. A smile with a hint of spite worked its way onto her still blushing face. “Dahlia, do you intend to become John’s wife?”

“What’s with all these kinds of questions? I thought we were supposed to be getting to know each other?” John asked in an attempt to calm down the seemingly heating-up situation.

Dahlia smiled at John. “It’s fine,” she said before turning to Violet. “I’ll do anything John wants of me. If that means ensuring his mother’s safety, that’s what I’ll do. If it means he wishes to use my body for pleasure, that’s what I’ll do. If that means he wants to claim me as his wife, that’s what I’ll do, and I will take pleasure in anything he wishes of me.”

Violet’s smile faltered as Dahlia’s reply seemed to have caught her off guard. Before Violet could attempt to make any comment, John decided to quickly take his turn, the hand landing on right hand yellow.

John thought for a moment, the words of Elina surfacing. “Dahlia,” he started with a softer tone of voice, “was Lani responsible for your imprisonment by the kobolds?”

Dahlia looked at John shocked and at a loss for words. “I, no. Of course not, why would you even think something like that?”

John recoiled slightly at her quiet outburst. “Sorry… we met another great fairy and she said that she was **** out of her flutter by a fae dragon, and I couldn’t help wondering if you had the same experience; whether that was why you were here instead of at the grove also crossed my mind.”

“No, I’m here on my own accord, and what happened in the mountain was my fault. We weren’t expecting to be ambushed the way we were, none of us were paying enough attention. Luckily I was able to create a diversion so that the others could escape,” Dahlia defended.

The faerie closed her eyes and calmed herself down a little, giving herself a moment to collect herself. She leaned in and spun the hand, allowing it to stop on left hand green. Her eyes flicked up at John as she thought. She let out a hum. “Okay, so you met my family at the grove. Who is your family?” she asked.

Violet jumped excitedly. “Oh! John doesn’t have a huge family. Obviously, he has Brenda, she’s so loving and wonderful. His grandparents… both his grandmas are stereotypical, they’d dote on John and wouldn’t dare leave without bringing out a Tupperware of baked goods for both John and Brenda. His grandpas are amazing too, Ray always has a story or joke to tell, it’s always funny to see him and Granny Jean because she’d hit him or scoff at his jokes, but you could always see her smile at them. Grandpa Joe is John’s dad’s dad, he’s really into art and would always bring supplies for John, and would try to help John with whatever art project he was doing at the time. Both sets of grandparents moved away for retirement, though. His father's parents went on a tour of Europe, a continent in this world, and they loved it so much they bought a house in Tournus, France. While Brenda’s folks live on the outskirts of Springfield half the year, and Canada the other half, to be a little closer to John’s aunt Alicia and his cousin”

Dahlia nodded before cutting in, “You mentioned John’s father, what’s he like?”

John cleared his throat, having sat back and allowing Violet to answer for him had been… odd. John thought he’d feel uncomfortable, and though there definitely was a slight hint of that, seeing Violet’s smile as she recounted things about his family warmed his heart. “As much as I like being spoken for, I’d rather cut this question off now. I really don’t wanna get into talking about him and I hope you don’t mind me saying I’d rather avoid questions about the rest of my family, so maybe just stick with the family living in this house.”

Dahlia nodded, noticing John’s shift in tone. Violet’s warm beaming smile dropped. “Sorry,” she said, her voice turning meak, “I wasn’t thinking. I should let you answer yourself…”

John sighed. “No, it’s fine, I’d rather just move on.”

Violet nodded before tentatively reaching forward and flicking the spinner. The hand slowed to a stop when it reached left hand yellow. She was quiet for a while, seemingly thinking of a question. The lull in the room persisted long enough for the awkwardness of the last question to fade, before the silence created its own uncomfortable atmosphere.

Violet’s gaze snapped towards Dahlia and she cut through the silence. “Why are you willing to just give your life up and become John’s ****?” the ghost asked.

Dahlia looked taken aback. “I-I’m not a ****!” she refuted in quiet frustration. “It’s called loyalty, he is my oberon, and if I’m not serving Leilani, then I should be serving him. Beyond that, however, John saved my life. I could have been left imprisoned by the kobolds for who knows how much longer and it didn’t seem like there was really any plan to come to save me in the grove so that in itself constitutes a life debt that I might have been willing to leave the flutter for. And lastly, I have a storm of emotions about my sisters in the grove right now and think it’s better I’m away for a while at least. John isn’t my only option for places to go to, but with the first two reasons, being with him makes the most sense.”

Violet nodded. “Furry muff,” she muttered.

John did a double take. “W-what?”

She looked up at John and smiled. “I said fair enough.”

John cocked his eyebrow before he leaned in and flicked the hand of the spinner, causing it to land on left foot red. He took a moment before having an idea for his question. “Okay, so, what magic abilities does everyone have?” he asked. “I’ll start since I asked.”

John explained his powers and abilities, going through each skill while both girls were added to his party; seeing everything and being able to skim over the ability descriptions themselves left little for the girls to question. Once finished, Violet gave a big smile.

“When I was alive my ability was kind of like gravity or time manipulation with a kind of delayed kinetic energy type thing. The easiest way to explain it is that I was essentially able to use the stasis ability from Breath of the Wild. I could also make myself extremely heavy and able to spread **** dealt to me across my entire body. Being stabbed by a knife is bad because it’s focused on a tiny point, but when you spread out that ****, it becomes almost nothing. Those abilities vanished after I died,” Violet said, a frown appearing on her face.

She smiled looking at John. “After I died, though, I slowly gained some ghosty powers, basically what you expect, like intangibility,” Violet began to slowly become see-through until she completely vanished. “Varying levels of transparency up to full invisibility, though being completely invisible is pretty uncomfortable. I’m not sure how to explain it, kinda like the feeling you have when you need to sneeze but it won’t come? I also have flight, though I’d probably describe it more like drifting, it’s like half my regular walking speed.”

John nodded. “What about that glowy thing you did in the Order barrier?”

Violet suddenly reappeared closer to John, now without the chain vest, the pauldron or her boots. “That I’m not sure about. I kinda did that by accident. I was worried you were going to get hurt and when I manifested myself I was glowing. I thought about testing it out in the goblin barrier but it would have taken time and with new powers like that I’d like to be careful so that I don’t possibly hurt you or anyone else. I’m sure I can spend some time trying it out another time, maybe tomorrow? Anyway, that’s it for me, I guess. Dahlia, what about you?”

John and Violet turned their attention to Dahlia. “Right. Well, my magical abilities revolve around the spores and pollen I produce. I can use magic to alter how the spores or pollen affect others. I can do something where I make people's eyes and throats sting and burn, I can temporarily blind people, cause them to be confused and disoriented, cause momentary paralysis, and even put people to sleep.”

Violet giggled. “She’s a Pokémon! Dahlia used stun spore!” She fell to the bed, using it to muffle her laugh.

John let out a snort and Dahlia’s cheeks puffed up in frustration at the outburst. John reached out and put his hand on Dahlia’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about her, it’s nothing to get bent out of shape from. There’s a popular game and the plant-like creatures in it are able to use abilities similar to what you said. Those are really interesting effects you can use. Something I’m curious about, how long do your spores keep their potency? Just as an example, could I ask you to fill a glass vial of your blinding pollen and then be able to use it a few days later?”

Dahlia calmed a little and shook her head. “Usually the spores and pollen are blown away by the wind too quickly, but even when I have tried collecting it, the potency lasts at most twenty or so minutes,” she explained.

John nodded. “That’s still really useful, and with that, I’m even more comfortable leaving my mom’s safety in your hands. Your turn to spin, Dahlia.”

She gave a half smile, and John wasn’t sure because of her pink skin tone, but it seemed like the colour deepened slightly. She flicked the spinner and the hand landed on left foot blue.

She thought for a moment or two. “You said you’d been around for a long time, exactly how long have you been dead?”

Violet sighed. “Well, I’ll be honest… I’m not entirely sure… that should probably be easy to tell you since I should be able to tell you my birthday, but I’m not great with dates and my memory is fuzzy. I remember a few birthdays. We often had snow, so winter is a good bet, but I can’t be completely sure. I also remember my nineteenth birthday, so I assume that’s how old I was before dying, but I could have forgotten my twentieth. One thing I do know is that it was before the world wars, and America was still kind of in its infancy, it wasn’t brand new but it wasn’t extremely old either.”

She laid down on her back looking up at the ceiling. “That’s still quite a big time gap, though.”

John let out a hum. “I remember the house you talked about earlier. It was really old. It belonged to Ray’s friend, they rented the place out for pretty cheap, though that could have been like a family and friends discount or something. It was a tiny stone house. I’m not sure but I think it was like two hundred years old or something,” John tried to recall.

Violet nodded and rolled over so that she could spin the hand, landing on right-hand green. She hummed, before rolling back onto her back, looking up at the ceiling. “I’ve got nothing, I’ll be honest, other than the stuff that happened to you this week, I probably know you more than anyone else, even Brenda. I’ve only had you and Brenda in my life for the past twelve years. Obviously, there have been guests and family members but the majority of my time I’ve spent with you guys… Can I just give you a dare? I promise it won’t be anything too outrageous, and I know you’re worn out so it won’t be something exciting,” she said, giving John a wink.

Her mention of her familiarity with him again caused a slight spike of unease. It was easily ignored but it caused him to think about how he’d spend his time if he was stuck in a house unable to be seen or talk to people who lived there. He wondered for a minute if a dare was a good idea or not. “Okay, but I can make you change the dare if I think it’s too much,” John stated.

Violet smiled and nodded. “Don’t worry, this one’s an easy one. I want you to pick up the cute faerie and sit her in your lap, then spend the rest of the game with your arms wrapped around her waist.”

John looked over at Dahlia, before looking back over to Violet. As he was about to open his mouth, Dahlia cleared her throat, bringing his attention back over to her. She sat with her arms outstretched towards him and a coy smile. John let out a gentle sigh before he scooched closer and pulled her over surprisingly easily.

She sat in his lap and John awkwardly began moving his arms around her. When she pulled them tight to her stomach, she looked up at him and smiled. “This is quite nice,” she said.

“Your turn,” Violet said, beaming at him.

Letting go of Dahlia with one hand, John slowly leaned to the spinner and gave it a gentle flick. John thought for a moment at what question he could ask Violet this time. “Oh, you mentioned that Walter was like family, did you have any family? Or have you tried looking up your descendants?” John asked.

“That’s quite a good question, and yeah, though my family was pretty small. Grandparents passed away when I was really young and both my parents were only children. I was really close to my sister… uhm… Fili…” She paused looking up at the ceiling.

“I wasn’t close to my parents, and they tried to drive a wedge between my sister and I. I was always the disappointment, while they doted on Fili. I never resented my sister because of how our parents treated us, but it does kinda weigh on you, you know?” She took another deep breath and paused. “I did try looking them all up when I learned to use the computer but couldn’t find much. I think Fili might have had kids, and though I found a small online presence, there wasn’t really enough to really get a feel of them.

“So yeah… there’s not really much else to tell you, honestly. When I got my powers, I was attacked the same day. Walter saved me and told me of the dangers the Abyss presented. I couldn’t risk Fili’s life, so I wrote her a letter and moved into the Order’s barracks… Dahlia? It's your turn.”

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