IC Date: 12/22/2025

Bacchus couldn’t say why his friend was so interested in learning the language of the Tuath. He’d hoped that Tempesti would lose interest in the notion and move on to something other than his world. Her own had enough work to do, it was ******** ridiculous that she was so determined to try to push through the problems on other worlds too. But as preposterous as this idea was, she refused to drop it like a sane person would. Even in the face of the thousand warnings he gave her on a daily basis she was unwilling to leave it alone. <******** lunatic.

It wasn’t the same kind of crazy the last Tempesti had but it was still pretty ******** crazy. Charging into a place like that without a care in the world, or any other world. OK she said there was a care in the world. She said that the spore ******** bullshit on Dagon was something they could try to replicate. Like it was something anyone should even want to replicate.

Alright, maybe the end result had been alright. ******** insulting, but alright. Everything that came before, on the other hand, was inexcusably shitty. Why the <********> would he want to repeat that?

He shoved down the voice that had called in shrieks and whispers from the back of his mind since that <********> music had snaked its way into his head but she insisted on amplifying it with every request. Every nagging little question for which he had no answer. Or no answer he was willing to share. Not everyone needs to know everything. No point in that.

“Don’t you want to know? Exactly how it happened I mean? If we know that maybe we can figure out a way to get rid of it. We saw that it was possible. I know that…everything leading up to that was…bad.” Tempesti’s voice quavered slightly as she spoke, entirely aware of the inadequacy of her words to describe whatever it was that had driven him into a state that landed him in the hospital. Whatever had chased her friend into uncharacteristic silence.

“I was there. I know what happened.” An exhausted rage burned in the hiss that carried his words. Not entirely at her, though she wasn’t spared the alien’s furious scowl as he spoke.


“You were there for your part of it. Other people would have seen things you didn’t. I know you know that.”


“So ******** what if I do? Is it going to make anyone there less dead? Is that what you think? Even you can’t be that naïve.” Bacchus’ nostrils flared as he glowered at her well-meaning nagging. The fact that it was well-meaning only made it more obnoxious as far as he was concerned. As though she was an aggravatingly gentle accomplice to the uncompromising glare of long dead eyes. At least they had it in them to call him an a*****e.

“I know it’s not.” The younger senshi kept her tone calm and measured. Asking about anything in this area was going to be painful, and she’d tried hard not to press too hard on the matter, but after seeing Chaos banished from Dagon she couldn’t imagine how her friend could resist the urge to try. “But don’t you at least want to kick it out? Even if it won’t bring them back, it could bring something back. I would have thought that you’d at least want to keep it from getting the last word.” She hoped this transparent appeal to the pettiness that he almost wore with pride would be at least a little bit effective.

“You could turn into an oozing flesh pile, you know that right?”


“If there was anything around you would have brought it back after your visits. Even if it didn’t get you sick, it would have stuck to you and infected things here. But it didn’t, so it should be safe.”

“You should get one of those big puffy outfits. The ones from that movie with the running dead people.”


“A hazmat suit? I don’t even know where I would get one of those. If it makes you feel better I could get a respirator mask, alright?

“A what?”

“It’s a mask you wear over your nose and mouth and it filters out diseases and smoke and stuff.”

Bacchus grumbled, brow furrowing as he contemplated her suggestion.


“Alright, but don’t breathe near anything that was alive at some point. And I’m not a ******** teacher so you’re figuring this out on your own.” He knew that this last ditch effort to deter her was unlikely to succeed, but it was worth the attempt. “We’re going to a temple. You can ******** around with their records while I refill my coin stash. I’m the only one who isn’t too dead to miss it anyway.”

With a dramatic, eye-rolling sigh, Bacchus pulled out his phone and pushed the button to bring them back to his homeworld.