Ashley Price, Old Friends and New

If Jenny feels any amount of embarrassment at having assaulted the royal family of a magical realm, she hides it extremely well. Because while it's clear she is deeply relieved that you and Isabelle are not in danger and have not been kidnapped and are not about to be turned into grotesquely lewd flesh abominations, that emotion has quickly become supplanted by supreme annoyance. She's staying silent for now, but the way she glares daggers at you whenever you catch her eye seems to promise an epic scolding as soon as you're no longer among company. Company that, judging by the fact that the cheerleader has not loosened her iron grip on her baseball bat, Jenny still does not fully trust.

Isabelle shuffles awkwardly as you watch Donna ice down Rhys's battered hand, clearly eager to get back into Jenny's good graces. "So hey, what was that rainbow fire thing? That was cool!"

Jenny sniffs, leveling a look at Isabelle that immediately shrinks her back. At length, however, she lifts the bat up before her as it flares in a prismatic conflagration again. "I'm not entirely sure." She studies the weapon as she seemingly flicks the fire on and off at will, like an intensely bad-ass torch. "I just got supremely pissed off, and it sort of ignited."

Donna grins at Jenny, immune to her withering stare. "Fuckin' right you did! You smashed the hell out of Rhys! Whoosh, blam!" She mimes the attack with wide swings of her arms, then gasps as something occurs to her. She all but melts with amusement, bobbling on her toes in anticipation as she fixes her maniacal grin on her brother. "Rhys~! What was your sword's name again?"

The prince gives his sister a quirk of his eyebrow, his expression turning stricken as he follows her line of thought. He flushes a deep red, then reluctantly mumbles a response. "Um...it was Naellir ei Dorri."

The queen looks fit to burst. "And what does that mean~?!"

Rhys sighs. "....'Unbreakable'."

Donna cackles in fiendish delight at that, and now Jenny has the grace to look a little sheepish. "Er, sorry. Was it some sort of heirloom or whatever?"

The prince seems to be making a point to be magnanimous, waving away Jenny's concern with his un-smashed hand. "No no, not really. Not all that much. It slew a dragon or two; maybe six. Coronated the first Queen of the Elves. And, um, all the other ones."

Donna pipes up. "Wasn't it forged from the half the heart of Gwydr, the Crystal Giant?"

"Oh yeah. Guess that guy's dead now."

The queen shrugs. "He was a dick anyway."

Jenny is a bit taken aback. "Um...well, maybe we can say I ran it over with my car, and then my insurance will pay for it...?"

Rhys gives a quick grin, shaking his head. "You didn't do anything wrong. You were trying to save your friends, right? How could my sword stand against such a righteous cause?"

Your friend's concerns seem to be eased by that. Better strike now, before she remembers how pissed off she is at you again. "How did you even find us?"

Jenny cocks an eyebrow at you, huffing in irritation as her smile already begins to sour. "You guys left a big glowing portal in the middle of Isabelle's yard. There was a zero percent chance you dummies hadn't gone through it. The girls were still busy with the Ritual, so I was in after you as soon as I'd grabbed my bat from Isabelle's shed."

Isabelle tilts her head at that. "You have a baseball bat in my shed?"

Jenny scoffs. "Girl, ever since this shit went from insane to whatever the fuck is it now, I've been stashing baseball bats everywhere."

Well that explains why you found that Louisville Slugger in your closet. "Well okay, but how did you actually find us?"

Jenny airily waves her hand. "I just grabbed this obviously magical frog and made him tell me where you were."

Rhys makes a noise at that. "Huh. I guess Frog can talk."

The queen nods. "Nlossae was right to dump him." The girl shrugs a big 'oh well!' before turning towards you with a more serious expression. "So anyways. Do you think you can fix them?"

You think back to the still too fresh memory of the quivering masses of overgrown sex organs that had once been two human beings, shuddering again at the scene. So far in your dealings with the Book and all of its magics, you haven't come across anything with such an obscenely potent effect. Although...maybe you have? The image of a small vial of multicolored liquid with all the sexual power of an atom bomb flits through your mind. You glance thoughtfully towards your friends. "Do you guys think that the Mega Milk might have had an effect like?"

Isabelle hums in interest at that. "You mean if we'd used it on a normal person, instead of...whatever **** is?" You nod, and your girlfriend considers that. "Huh. Maybe? She did say it was far too strong for any mortal to withstand. There's really no way of knowing without learning more about what happened, and about how our magic works in the first place."

You turn back to the royal twins. "So short answer, No. Long answer....maybe? We hope so? We'll try?"

That seems good enough for Donna. "Awesome! So, how long are you guys gonna stay?!"

Jenny shoots you a glance. "What? Stay?"

The queen seems super excited as she bobs her head. "Yeah! The connection between worlds will only stay open as long as someone from either group is in the opposite realm, and we've got a shitload of stuff to work through over here before we're up to date. So we get to have a sleepover!" She practically shrieks in delight, bouncing up and down with an infectious grin. "Omigod I've wanted to say that literally my whole life. We can do makeovers! You can explain to me what popcorn is, and then we'll pop some! Ooo, we can read my Babysitter's Club books; I'm such a Claudia, obvs, and I bet you guys--"

Isabelle cuts her off with a firm but gentle tone. "Donna...we can't stay."

The elf girl did not seem to expect that, a few more seconds of excited bouncing going by before your girlfriend's words sink in. "...Huh?"

"We can't stay. We've got lives back home. Responsibilities. We have to go back to them."

Donna's face begins to fall. "But...but the pact! I thought...I mean, Mom said you were supposed too--"

You are the one to break in this time. "We haven't made any pact, Donna. We aren't part of the group your people dealt with in the past, remember?"

The queen has all but collapsed in on herself at this point, completely ignoring her green sunglasses slipping off her head as she nods forlornly. Aww, shit. She sniffs, quickly wiping her arms across her eyes before doing her best to put on a brave face and a smile. "Um, that's okay! I guess just...let us know if you ever figure out--"

This time it's Rhys who cuts in. "What if we went back with you?"

You blink. What? "Can you do that? There aren't rules about the Queen leaving? Or something?"

The prince nods, pulling his sister up to her feet to put a steadying hand to her shoulder. "Sure there are. Lots of them! Unless the Queen says there aren't?"

Donna sniffs again, staring at her brother in glum confusion as he leadingly bobs his head at her. Slowly, realization dawns on her face, and she hesitantly speaks. "I, um...declare that there aren't?"

Rhys grins. "Then I guess there aren't! We can totally go!"

The Queen of the Elves gasps in renewed glee at that before turning to sprint away, babbling all the way about all the things she has to pack. You start to ask Rhys if this is really the best idea, only to find the marginally more serious prince has also bolted to gather up his things. Isabelle and Jenny are staring at you, and you can only sigh. "Whelp. I guess they can stay with me."

The Ritual was still winding down when you reemerged in your realm, the barn still filled to the brim with fucking and milking. And while the two eager elves who came with you are ravenous to see everything this new world has to offer first hand, a barn was not at the top of their list. Honestly, it shouldn't be that much of a surprise where they begged to go first.

If the sleepy-looking woman behind the register at Taco Bell found anything odd about the midnight arrival of a pair of teenage time travelers with pointy ears who seem to greet their surroundings with an ecstatic joy, she doesn't show it. Actually, anything that can reasonably be explained by **** probably ranks pretty low on the Taco Bell Night Shift Weirdness Scale. Rhys can't seem to figure out what to do with his hands as Donna keeps approaching and then shying away from the counter, her fists clenched tightly by her face and looking as if she might burst into tears at any moment. At length, the woman decides to take matters into her own hands. "What do you want?"

The royal twins gasp at each other, Donna breaking into nervous laughter as Rhys tries to hide his watery eyes. "I want the most wonderful thing you have!"

The register woman eyes Donna flatly for a long moment, then glances your way. Right. "Just...give them one of everything on the Value Menu."

A few minutes later, the five of you are stuffed into a booth as Donna and Rhys behold the assortment of Mexican-ish food with a level of worship one might save for the Holy Grail. You'd been thinking about this moment, and after discussing it with Jenny and Isabelle have come to a conclusion. "So hey. We thought this might be the right time to forge a new Pact."

Donna's eyes well up at that. "Oh. My. God. That is so perfect I could just die. Rhys, couldn't you just die?!" The prince nods solemnly as he carefully lifts up what looks to be some form of bean burrito. You follow suit, and soon all five of you are holding Taco Bell value items aloft like goblets. The queen is nearly overcome by awe, quietly murmuring to you. "So what do we say?"

Fuck. You never remember to plan out what to say. Goddammit Ash you told yourself to start thinking out cool things to say for moments just like this fuck. Oh well, fuckin'...whatever. "We, um...swear to help each other? And such! So there!"

The others chorus their response, Donna and Rhys with full sincerity and Jenny and Isabelle with deep amusement. "So there!"

The oath now sworn, Donna and Rhys share another grin, tap their burritos together, and then each take a giant bite. You watch quietly as they chew for a moment, share another glance, then go back to chewing but much more slowly this time. At length, Donna lifts up a napkin to delicately spit out her mouthful as Rhys swallows with an air of dutiful resignation. The queen is the first to speak. "Hm."

Rhys carefully pushes his burrito further away. "Yeah."

Donna drums her fingers against the table for a moment, then at length offers her assessment. "I guess we're gonna have to rethink our religion."