Amy: “How many?”
-pause-
Violet: “10”
There’s a sudden storm of motion. My nap box suddenly appears in the middle of the room where my blankie and stuffies just were. I’m audibly popped out of Gwab’s foodies, rushed over, set down, and abandoned faster than I can blink. All the motion makes me so excited I grab the edge of my nap box, forcing myself as tall as I can get to watch.
Pretties are flying around the room. Colorful banners of cloth and brushes appear, with beautiful scrawls appearing on the cloth in moments. Furniture is moved, stacked and arranged in a dazzling magical formation around the room. Banners get hung and the pretties cluster into different groups under each banner.
Holy poop in my pants what just happened?
Rapidly split into their many corners, three of the pretties come to stand around my box in a triangle as if they planned this, nod at each other and turn to face the others.
Gemma bellows out, “The teams have been formed. Myself, Amy, and Fia have chosen neutrality and will be your refs. Until our hero, our champion, our little one has a name worthy of him, this debate will continue. The deciding factor is unanimous opinion.”
She pauses and looks at the assorted teams, then the notepad from Violet, then frowning, around again.
“Sakura, you have betrayed Koda and thrown your allegiance to Raiden. As such, Koda will be stricken from the options. Ladies.”
Amy and Fia charge over to the banner with no pretties under it. Fia grabs Amy by her hips and lifts the tiny woman half her size up to untie the corner of the banner. The banner sadly flutters down to hang vertical - looking defeated.
Gemma gestures across to where Sakura, Linshee, Ingrid, and Nia are standing. “As the first to abandon their team and throw their vote behind a different name; Sakura, tell us why you believe Raiden is a fitting name for our little one.”
I feel like I’m seeing something new in the pretties and I like it! They, one and all, are standing strong as warriors. Their proud stances, sharp eyes, solid postures, and thrust out chests demonstrate their stalwart belief in their ideals and willingness to face all challenges. I especially like the very displayed food.
While staring, I notice that all of them have sharp and playful eyes. For some reason I seem to find myself less interested in food and more interested in what is happening around me. I can feel my heart beating stronger, my grip tightening, and a feral grin spreading across my face.
“The little one is definitely a force of nature. He, like the coming storm that he most assuredly will be, will be heralded by Thunder and Lightning!” Sakura shouts across the room, hands on hips and chin pointed to the ceiling.
Sa’gaga is always so quiet and soft and sweet. This Sa’gaga is strong. I clap my hands to let her know of my approval.
Oops. Letting go of the edge I promptly fall on my butt with an undignified “Pwah.” Fia helps me stand back up.
“Plus, Raiden definitely sounds cooler than Koda.” Sakura finishes with a flourish of her robes.
“There you have it. The real reason.” Gemma is making movements and everyone is laughing. Wheee!
Gemma picks her announcing back up, “Raiden and Lucien seem to be the current favorites with four supporters, but Leif, Andreas, Alessio, and Ori, are all tied with three. Idris, and Mateo each have two. The current holdout is Aurelio. Hilda, you will have one chance to persuade a sister to join you before they go on the attack. What is your reasoning?”
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Hilda steps forward with one leg, twists her body, lifts her head, and - looking down her nose at the tiny pretties while up at the big ones… somehow - proclaims, “Wisdom carries the color of gold. To emphasize his bravery, his aura, his daring, his future learning, and to let all the land know of his gentle embrace, I declare that he should be named Aurelio! Plus it is a very well organized name with every vowel, no repeated letters, and symmetrical consonant vowel placement. Pure, refined elegance.”
Some of the pretties, getting ready to pounce on her with their remarks, seem to pause - in mid motion, mouth open, fingers wilting - and consider what she said. A few faces look genuinely concerned and confused, warring in their minds, looking at Hilda’s banner, back at the others, then at each other.
There is silence for an entire three seconds before Alice pipes up, “Yeah, but its three syllables and there is no way I’m going to be scolding him for getting into trouble by screaming Aurelio,” she shrieks the word, “across the room, or to other people, or in a pub.“
The other pretties that had stopped their arguments start nodding and muttering ‘yeahs’ and ‘what she saids’.
Hilda smirks, looks at me, opens her mouth to speak, pauses, closes her mouth, turns around, climbs up, and unties one side of the banner. It too flutters down defeated.
She then stomps over to Peach, Priscilla, and Xanthe - who all hold out their fists. After a moment, and - with a bit of theatrical pouting - mutters ‘fine’ and bumps the other’s fists with hers.
“Ohhhhh! And just like that Aurelio is out of the running! We are now down to 8 options!” Gemma is definitely having a great time. “Alright ladies, select the next prey.”
The pretties hands all snap up and point at where either Aaliyah and Esmeralda, or Violet and Gwen, are standing. Amy and Fia quickly point at the two groups separately, look at each other, nod, and quickly tally the fingers.
Amy, done way quicker than Fia, announces, “Mateo has been selected by majority.”
Gemma turns a viscous smirk on team Mateo, “Violet and Gwen. You each may speak your reasoning for choosing Mateo.”
Gwen steps forward. In her soft spoken, meek voice says, “He was brought to us by Cleric Strongjaw. If one of the strongest Clerics in Bastion brings you a child and says he was saved by The Fist is he not a gift from our patron Deity himself?”
“Also! The child was still-born. Mother and babe both dead upon Strongjaw’s arrival. The little one came back to life without outside influence. Is that not a miracle in and of itself?” Violet proclaims boldly.
All the pretties start talking at once, the volume growing louder and louder as they start shouting over each other.
*BANG BANG BANG* Gemma smacks on the side of my nap box to restore order.
I’m so popular.
Each group of pretties takes a little time picking one to talk and then saying things to Gwen and Violet. While they make different arguments, each one is some variation of ‘then why didn’t he come with a name’ or ‘that shouldn’t be the basis of who he is’. I’m not really sure though because they’re using big words. By the end of it Violet and Gwen both seem to have run out of defenses.
Violet and Gwen give each other a look, smirk, and move to join with Aaliyah and Esmeralda.
“In a sudden shift we have a new four way tie for first! Lucien, Raiden, Alessio with the addition of Hilda, and now Idris with Violet and Gwen.” Gemma hollers around the room.
I start clapping and laughing some more. This time, I catch myself before I fall, regain my balance, and clap again. After a couple rounds of doing this I forget to clap and have started seeing how long I can stand before I have to grab or fall.
Feeling satisfied that I’m learning a new skill I stop and go back to the show. Everyone seems to have stopped what they were doing to watch me. I smile as big as I can and then let go to show off, holding it as looooooooooooooooooooooong as I can before plopping down on my butt.
There’s a round of clapping which I of course join in on. I know, I know. I’m amazing.
I look at Fia and wag my arm at her. She seems to perfectly understand me because she helps me to stand back up so the show can continue.
Before Gemma has a chance to say anything Ruth and Alice both step forward and point at Peach, Priscilla, Xanthe, and Hilda.
Ruth lets loose with a rapid fire, “If Aurelio was deemed unworthy then how can you bring yourselves to support Alessio. That name is even worse for scolding. Worse than that though, imagine if he was your lover and you wished to cry his name out in bed. Alessio~ oh Alessio~. Gah, no.” Alice is nodding along, pauses, and morphs from arrogant to horrified.
All the pretties pause, look at each other, look up at their banners, and then start hollering, howling, growling, and making all kinds of strange noises while wiggling in odd ways.
After a few minutes Strawberry, Cosmia, Delphine, Alice, Elodie, Maeve, Peach, Priscilla, Xanthe, and Hilda all untie their banners. Some of them move couches to the middle of the room, others tables, while Patricia, Peach, and Hilda (after Patricia and Peach put on robes) head out of the room with a, “We’re gonna go get drinks and snacks.”
Wait, I just realized Patwisa didn’t vote for a name. Where was she hiding? How was she hiding? She’s as big as Gwab!
“And just like that we are down to the final four! Ruth is Ruth~less in this competition.” Gemma finishes.
Greyward turns around, looks at her banner, looks down at Ruth and Niamh, “You know what, I just don’t think ‘the Great Hero Ori’ is all that impressive.” Then walks over to team Raiden.
Ruth looks shocked and appalled, until Niamh says, “Greyward has a good point. I mean, Ori means ‘my light’ while Lucian just means ‘light’. It feels a bit less selfish, yanno?” before walking away to team Lucian, leaving Ruth looking utterly betrayed.
She splutters a few times, looks between the banners, then throws her hands in the air, “Fuck all of you. I’m going to get drinks and snacks with the nudists.”
Fia and Amy shrug at each other and take down the banner for Ori. Most of the banners now look defeated and sad, but the remaining three all feel strong and proud.
Gemma limply states, “Well that’s one way to bring down a competitor.” She blows a small raspberry and looks between the remaining three.
“Is anyone else carrying verbal doomsday devices in their small clothes?”