Kahli felt more than a little uncomfortable around alternative Froufrou, although she wasn't entirely certain why. Of course she didn't know that alternative Froufrou was indeed alternative Froufrou, she thought the rude, talking alternative Froufrou was just regular, normal Froufrou. This was not due to Kahli's aloofness, instead, it wholly hinged on the fact that alternative Froufrou was using alternative Kahli's [Tale Teller] [skill] to lie her way through the timeline. And, with that, they planned to enter their second scenario of the [checkpoint] together - the very same [checkpoint] that normal Froufrou had found herself caught in, nested inside her original [checkpoint]'s first scenario.
All that said, Kahli looked down at her big left foot to behold the bright, glowing energy of the second scenario.
[Now viewing scenario 2]
"You know what, Omar?" said Kahli. "Go ahead, take Froufrou, see if I care."
"Oh, yea. Go ahead and take me, big guy," hissed alternative Froufrou. "See how that goes for you, eh?"
Omar shook his head. "Okay, I'm confused. First, Kahli, you tell me you're okay with me killing your pet? You do realize that if I do that, you'll lose your system, right? And second," Omar looked down at alternative Froufrou with a grimace, "did this fucking thing just talk to me?!"
"Thing? You wanna come here, grab my purse, and look at me with that disgusting fucking excuse for a tauman face and you tell me that I'm a thing? What the hell kind of a thing are you, guy?" Alternative Froufrou writhed with rage. "By Theseosus' shimmering pincers, you look like a polished up pile of dung got stuck on a tauman body that had been stuck in a jar of vinegar for half a century! Shit, you look like you haven't leveled up in half a century! And why in the ever-loving fuck do you have a [skill] for summoning up cigars? Who needs that? What the hell kind of a [skill] is that, anyway? Hell, that's such a huge waste of systemic real estate that it makes me seriously question your judgement and indeed your [INT]. How high is your [INT], by the way? I see that you managed to obfuscate that, unlike your stupid fucking [skill] that I can only assume you're proud of. I bet your [INT] is fucking low. Hell, maybe your [INT] is negative. Aren't you the stupid motherfucker who burned up the scroll that activated me? Yea, that was real fucking dumb, you godsdamned punk. And I'm the thing the scroll spawned telling you that! Hell, you must be so dumb and useless that they probably gave you your job out of pity. Yea, curator? Curator of what exactly? Hot air? And I don't mean that in no complimentary way, mister fucking fire elemental. You know, I've never met another tauman who could toot their own keister as hard as you manage to every time you open your fucking unbearable mouth. Your ego must be the size of a fucking barge, no, hell, I bet it's the size of a fucking mega ultra giga dragon. With the way you behave, it really must be. And you know, you ought to be real fucking ashamed of yourself, but you're not. You feel no shame, no pain, no gain, no fucking nothing with you. Theseosus be praised you ought to fucking end yourself before you end me, you fucking psychopath."
Kahli's mouth was hanging wide open. It was all she could do in that moment to just barely keep herself suspended in the air with light kick, kick, kicks off her summoned big rock. Really though, she was in so much shock that her conscious mind nearly failed to function - the sheer incredulous insanity of what she'd just witnessed was akin to if her own vile id had been unleashed upon an unsuspecting Omar. Sure, she'd certainly thought of some of those things herself from time to time whilst dealing with him, but in general it had never really occurred to Kahli to actually say something like that to her former mentor. And yet, here it was that her [paired] companion had gone and done it for her. This was her [paired] companion, right? Somehow, this Froufrou didn't seem to match up with her other memories of Froufrou, and yet at the same time it seemed that Kahli couldn't rightly come to any sort of a conclusion as to what it was that seemed so different to her.
But Kahli didn't have much time to think about that, for as soon as alternative Froufrou - whom she of course was still quite convinced was indeed normal Froufrou - finished delivering her spiteful soliloquy, Omar raised his flaming arm up to his head voluntarily and set himself ablaze. Kahli wanted to try and save Froufrou, but it was rightly all she could do to hover there in the air and watch as both Omar and Froufrou sailed down, down, down through the air.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
[Omar is dead]
Kahli gasped even wider. But, was she really that surprised? He had set his head on fire, after all - and even fire elementals could only withstand so much of such a volatile element.
And soon enough, yet another notification plastered itself over the foreground of Kahli's vision.
[Froufrou is dead]
Kahli gasped so hard she almost choked. And then she gasped again, and this time, she did choke. She choked and choked, and as she choked, she lost balance on her big rock, and soon enough she was tumbling through the air and struggling to gather a breath of air.
[End scenario]
"Wow," said Kahli. She was shivering from shock and discomfort. She closed her eyes and thought up a soft prayer to Theseosus. Then, she spoke again. "That was a fucking nightmare."
"Meh, I've seen worse scenarios in my day," said alternative Froufrou as she hocked a loogie and spat it across the void from an opening on a nondescript part of her body. "Still, can't say it was my favorite. After all, love that we finally whacked that Omar guy, but I didn't appreciate the whole dying part. Work on that in the next scenario, Kahlizone, capiche?"
Kahli felt so uncomfortable around this Froufrou, but she didn't know why, and it pained her mind to try and discern what was so different about her [paired] companion now. Still, the awful, sickening feeling in her gut was persistently relentless.
"This is a grim sign," said the Supreme Time Protector. "So much death in your two scenarios, and only one scenario to go. It almost makes me wonder something. Froufrou, may I ask you a question?"
"Yea, go ahead, forget about it!" said alternative Froufrou with a chuckle.
"Sure, so my question is... is..." The Supreme Time Protector sighed. "By the gods, it's like my memory has been wiped. I have completely forgotten what exactly it was that I was going to ask you, Froufrou! It frustrates me to no end, as I know deep within my timeless soul that it was an ever pressing inquiry... and yet... I feel completely unable to recall what it was."
"Heh. Well, maybe you did have a question, maybe you didn't," said alternative Froufrou. "Them's the brakes."
Kahli's eyes started watering, and indeed soon tears were crawling down her face, but she really couldn't discern their impetus.
"Well, what do we say?" asked alternative Froufrou. "On to scenario three, eh?"
Kahli looked at the Supreme Time Protector, almost hoping that they might do something. It seemed like all of her scenarios were to end in someone's death. Things just didn't feel right. And yet, the Supreme Time Protector didn't seem to do anything. Well, okay, maybe the Supreme Time Protector was looking at Kahli, but if they were looking at Kahli, there was no rightful way for her to know seeing as their face was wholly obscured by their shrouded white cowl. It was, by all sense of the words, a grim situation.
----------------------------------------
"Would you like pumpkin muffins, cheese strudel, or cherry pie, your Squelchiness?" asked alternative Omar as he knelt before Froufrou, holding out a tray of delectable confectionaries.
Froufrou squelched in confusion. What was going on? And, more importantly, where was she?
Froufrou looked around and saw a velvet and gold clad room teeming with the finest refinements known to taumankind. There was the fanciest incense burning on the fanciest little incense table. There were the fanciest windows with indeed the fanciest stained glass, painted upon which were the fanciest designs - many of which included etchings of various Nomachiattan deities that Froufrou couldn't rightly recognize. Still, the entire thing, if summed up in one word, was sublime.
"Your Squelchiness? Would you please let me know what you would like?" asked alternative Omar as he jostled the tray lightly for emphasis. "They're freeesh!"
Froufrou felt a little uncomfortable just accepting this - well, of course she had these treats, didn't she? They seemed too good to be true. They looked so delicious.
Only, this was a [checkpoint] she was at, wasn't it? And even with this being a [checkpoint] that was wholly different than the [checkpoint] Froufrou had been in while living in her home timeline, this was a [checkpoint] all the same. Which meant that there had to be some sort of grave decision or action about to take place that could indeed trigger such a systemic event.
Understanding this impulse, Froufrou glanced around the room for alternative Kahli. Thankfully, she eventually found her alternative [paired] companion standing behind her like a watchful and attentive servant - which was similarly off-putting, but Froufrou had trouble arguing against such preferential treatment.
Froufrou shrugged some of her tendrils and outstretched another, grabbing the cheese strudel. It looked absolutely scrumptious. She lifted it to the nondeterminate consumption area she sometimes thought of as her mouth - although biologically it was anything but a mouth - and took a large chomp.
And indeed the strudel was quite delicious. So delicious, that it almost seemed dangerous.
[You've been paralyzed]
Froufrou squelched. It had been dangerous!
[You've been poisoned]
Froufrou wretched as alternative Omar stood up and ignited his flaming arm.
"Aha! I finally caught you, my nemesis - for I am not your humble food bearer, not at all! I am Omar the Destroyer, and I will end you!"
Froufrou squelched in fear. This didn't bode well for her mental health, that much was for certain.