Tea, Timegates, and Recapping Tales....

"Rei always had been one to put a LOT of effort into her efforts," the Victorian seeming woman sighed--a bit of pride in her voice-- before taking a sip of her green tea her hostess had provided for this get together.

The short skirted, key-staff carrying woman looks for a moment to be wanting to ask just the Victorian woman named Mina Quatermain meant by the gate of time at one but stopped herself. She recalled what she had seen during that brief time of floundering about--trapped in a pool of chaos energy--through a , trying to keep her head above the waves as the Incident she'd gone to investigate had blown up in her face and dragged her down and Sundered and Fused her in ways that . . .are hard to exactly describe.

IF she had even a slight inkling that the sudden removal of that magnet of chaos, Ranma Soatamane, had just been something of a trap for HER . . .

D*mn, but she hates Chaos demons in general like Randal Flagg.... And one SOB named Scott Chen of Game 3 in particular.

No, one thing at a time and let's not go off on tangents (just yet)... No, let us just get down to the recap of the story of our heroes for THIS interlude is basically for that purpose, ne?

Shuddering slightly, the short skirted staff wielder instead turned away from that disaster and concentrate on what Mina meant. Concentrate on the brief glimpses she had seen and on the ONE shining example of how much Effort the young woman named Rei Ayanami Quatermain can put into her efforts: the almost suicidal brave attack she had made in her damaged Unit 00 against the Neon Gen Angel of Might. She had hand delivered a N2 bomb (a nuclear bomb without the radioactive fallout banes) right up close and personal to the monster, setting it to detonate upon impact with the enemy (and too soon for her to get her Unit away safely). Didn't kill Rei (and didn't kill the Angel, alas) but it the biofeedback her Unit gave her put her (the Unit and Pilot's are linked, one feels the other's pain and all that) in a bad way. Could have even killed her! And she KNEW that danger...

No, Rei Quatermain isn't one to do things by halves, even NOW after the moderating influence of her adopted family and parents. It's just done in a much more . . .healthy manner. But still, it kind of gives you an idea of just how far she is willing to go given certain circumstances, ne?

. . .

Ah, but we might want to know what's going on here: those who've just dropped into the middle of things? Like who is Rei and what is this about sisters?

What is the deal with these elves the Victornian woman (Mina Quatermain) and the key staff yeilder (let us just call her Setsuna for now)? Welllll...

Good enough. We'll get to it in a moment. First we need to bring those who'd just come into the middle of things here up to date on what is going on with the people who are being VIEWS through the gate of time of Setsune's and THEN we'll get to the portal viewers, okay? Okay!

First, let us talk about the elves and their gryphon friend!

Hilda and Gilda are now elf women but that had not always been the case. They remember little to nothing of their original lives but originally they had been human beings. Gilda had been a noble male knight from the Great Kingdom of Allaria, tasked to slay the Dragon who’d been harassing his nation on his version of Terra. He had been soon captured and transformed into a small female pixie no more than three inches tall (re: 18251). Transformed, the now female pixie was offered two choices. One was to be teleported as she was to a nearby enclave of pixie, to live with them forevermore afterwards as one of them (and never to return). The other was to accept an unnamed mission from the dragon and upon completion of mission the transformed knight would receive a more human form. Ah, let us add that what exactly the form would be left unstated. Gilda (then still Fred) had no other options for the dragon had him (now her) over a barrel. However, before the transformed knight could give an answer the one who’d eventually be known as Hilda crashed the party.

Now, Hilda was from elsewhere. She had been a human woman named Astra Thessamer, but she was NOT from the transformed knights world. She'd come from another world and had been a fierce warrior princess from her version of Aqualaria, a nation of Amazons. Like so many other Astras, she'd been captured and stripped naked, to be found and rescued (after freeing her from her chains) by "her" version of Fred D'Honaire and "her" version of Velus, boy teen turned canine. Soon having been freed from her chains and coming along to aid as much as possible with Fred's quest (or to get OUT, whichever would have comes first for our brave but NUDE former princess) she got seperated and ran afoul of some magical item that transformed her into a blue skinned, female Faire Folk known as a Blue Fairy. Now, this wasn't for the one who'd eventually be called Gilda because of her fiery nature. Blue fairies are powerful (most powerful of the fey) but are also pacifist by nature and her new nature tried to convert her over. She soon found herself begining to see the dragon (who'd harassed and killed so many people) as a friend. Fearful, she sought out and found Fred and together they found a magical library which (small chance) might have been able to reverse what had befallen her.

Problem was this was the libary of the Dragon. It found and killed both Fred and Velus violently. In retaliation, the one who'd become Hilda killed the Dragon with the powers of the Blue magick. What happened after that?

That did not sit well with her fellow Faire folk once she got abducted by them soon after the “crime” she committed. Peers weren’t happy with this misuse (as they saw it) of the Blue. Horrified that it had been used to kill the murderous dragon and so stripped Hilda of her Blue powers and excommunicated her, basically. More to it than that but that’s enough for this setting. Still able to access magic (though not the powerful Blue), the now ex-Blue Fairy (excommunication made her a similar species, a pixy of some offshoot branch) suddenly found herself amnesia ridden and thrust into a new world.

Thus the Dragon who'd transformed Fred (soone to be called Gilda) into a three inch tall pixie had a six inch tall one to play with as well!! So the one who'd become Hilda got offered the a similar choice as Fred, except because of that mark of excommunication on her forehead whatever the Dragon would do if she did NOT accept the mission for the Dragon remained unsaid. However, whatever the consequences for turning down the mission would NOT be life forevermore living with her fellow Fey folk....

Well, after taking too long discussing between themselves and weighing options the Dragon lost patience with the dithering feys here and transformed and teleported them away.

Awakening in a tent, the females who now called themselves Hilda and Gilda awoke, naked and unaware of having been anything other than Frost Giants (for the moment). That state of affairs didn’t last long but we’ll skip that for the moment.

According to their new memories, Gilda had been the one who had been banished from the tribe for some indiscretion (not answering to the "advances" by the tribal leader), but her twin sister Hilda had gone along.

They spoke at the same time. Ate at the same time. Sometimes it seemed like they were two bodies sharing the same soul.

So it was with some surprise that it was Hilda who was the only one to first begin to feel that something was amiss. Her brown haired sister, Gilda felt nothing. It was soon after they’d washed up and dressed themselves when it hit both of them: the Mark of Excommunication the Fey had put upon not only appeared again on Hilda but Gilda as well. Er, seems that this particular Mark that Hilda and Gilda now shared was a particularly devious one. It had a tendency at warping or annulling certain types of magic cast upon it. Somehow the curse had warped something in the magics employed upon Hilda to transform her into a Frost Giant and it connected with Gilda. Now both have the same Mark and are linked by it in some weird way.

That may account for the reason that when the last embers of their old lives came up to the surface at night in dreams, it was a rather scrambled (and shared) dream.

1. They dream that they are Lady Astra D'Honaire, a dragon slayer knight in service to the Queen of the Amazonian Nation of Allaria. She had been tasked by her Queen to slay the mean old Dragon . . .

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