Be-Tokened's Reckoning

Characters in this scene: Chloe Savas, Pete, Duck, Bright's witch hunters, Be-Tokened, Glory

Chloe stands at the designated meeting spot (an unused grassy field next to the local airport) in her usual meeting-with-strange-practitioners garb: a long coat, a scarf around her face and a wide brimmed hat. What few weapons she has concealed about her person are metal detector safe: paper seals and hastily sharpened wooden dowels with only her most basic arrow enchantments upon them. She scans the area around her, looking equally anxious and excited for the outcome of the next few minutes. She had already prepared the scene, altering the road signs to match her description and given the crew of Witch Hunters she had hired specific instructions on when to make their move. It was simply a matter of waiting.

Innocents see a hunched-over person wearing a hooded coat, its former color dulled with age and wear. To the Sight, the coat is covered in feathers, and a hyperrealistic duck mask is clearly visible beneath the hood. The person is very short, but it's hard to tell if that's due to posture or a genuine lack of height. They carry a large wooden box, and stumble gracelessly along the road to the field where the meeting is due to take place.

Following twenty or so feet behind is a white rabbit. Other details are indiscernable at this distance.

Chloe nods her head once in acknowledgement, then frowns as she notices the rabbit. "Are you the one with whom I have business?" she inquires, tilting her head to the side. "If so, you will know the name that I have invited you under." She does not step forward to help the... Practitioner? before her with their burden. Better to leave them off balance, for now.

One long arm reaches out from beneath the coat in greeting, then retreats. The masked figure stumbles closer, still hunched over, and drops the box on the grass some ten or so feet from Chloe. They stagger back, unbalanced by the sudden absence of box. The white rabbit approaches.

Chloe's hand shoots out when the box clatters to the ground, index finger trained on the hunched figure. The word she needs to speak in order to attack is at the forefront of her mind, but she hesitates all the same. When it becomes clear that this wasn't an attack and only a stumble, she awkwardly lowers her hand. "Forgive my jumpiness there - I do not enjoy having to meet with business associates under these sorts of circumstances." She trails off, letting the silence linger.

The masked figure flinches at Chloe's gesture, the coat bulging. They relax as she lowers her hand, and the white rabbit comes to a stop near them.

The rabbit has two heads at the two ends of its body. Its rabbit head wears an anguished human mask, while the human head, replacing the rabbit's tail, wears a serene rabbit mask. The masks are latex and highly detailed.

The rabbit hops around, examining Chloe. It sits on the grass. Its human mask sniffs a paw. Neither of them say anything.

Chloe visibly makes a face through her scarf at the rabbit. In her head, she asks herself 'what the fuck, what the actual fuck, what...' several times in rapid succession. But somehow she forces her mouth to ask, "I don't suppose that you are able to speak, then?" with only a minor hitch as the thing's nose twitches.

The rabbit hops a little closer to Chloe. The human mask grimaces in agony. The rabbit mask perks up its ears.

"Well, actually," the rabbit mask finally says. "Actually, I can talk. It would be, uh, rather inconvenient otherwise. You may call me Pete."

Pete's voice is surprisingly deep. It's the kind of voice that would advertise shaving lotion to men. The effect is ruined, however, by the high-pitched squeak that ends every sentence.

"And this over here is, uh."

In the voice of a six-year old girl, the masked person says, "I'm a duck."

Pete sighs. "Call her Duck. You're, uh. You're here for a nice and friendly business transation? With, uh, Be-tokened?"

Chloe stares at Duck, somehow even more aghast than she already was at this parade of horrors. She was so young! Too young, for this to have been done to her. After shaking her head, she forces her eyes back down on the rabbit... thing... that seems to be handling this part of the negotiations. "I am the one known as 'grekhaus' on OMO and here to accept my delivery, yes." She pronounces it as if it were supposed to rhyme with 'Joe Schmoe'. "Am I to understand that neither of you are Be-tokened, then? I had agreed to meet with... I had been assuming 'her' but I am actually not sure which it ought to be."

"Well," Pete says. "For some reason, he didn't want to meet up in person. And, yeah, he. He's a dude. He's pretty nice when you really get to know him. Really."

Ten feet away, Duck screams, "I'm a duck! I'm a duck!"

Pete waves a paw at her and makes a frantic *shush* gesture. "So, uh. Duck's hearing isn't too good right now. She might just randomly interrupt us, while we're talking. She might do that. Hope it's not too much of an inconvenience when it comes to the, uh, business transaction."

"I suppose, then, that he is not interested in the grimoire of alchemical recipes that I have brought with me? It is such a shame, given that his recent post on the forum had indicated an interest in opening, what was it, a 'duck-themed bar'?" She taps her hand against her coat, indicating the solid journal located inside one of the larger pockets. "And here to think, I had not intended to ask a dollar more for its inclusion in our deal."

"A grimore? Free alchemical recipes? That could be a pretty great deal. If you want him to get it, you can give it to Duck and she can hand it off to him when this is over."

"I'm a duck!"

"Not free. I have certain conditions that I would ask Be-tokened to agree to in exchange for it. It need not be a physical meeting. A phone call would suffice in this case." Chloe looks over at the Duck. The same question she had been asking herself this whole meeting is still going through her head. "Perhaps the two of you have some understanding of what I am after."

"I'M A DUCK!"

"What are you after? I'm not really sure what you're talking about. As for Duck, uh, she can't really hear you right now. Unless you scream really, really loud. Then she'd hear it as a whisper, or something. But if you want a phone call, uh, I can do that. Or I can get Duck to do that." Pete waves his paw at Duck again, making a *come hither* gesture.

Duck walks over to Pete. The two of them are standing right next to Chloe now.

"So, phone call? That okay?"

Chloe takes a step back. "Do not come quite so close. If you do that again, the deal is *null*, understood?" A particular emphasis is placed upon the word *null*, one which corresponds to a sudden shifting of ink on an index card that she had previously entrusted to Alister. The block print 'NO' churns and coils in on itself, transforming to an equally bold 'GO'. "A phone call suffices. But I would not have both of you standing so close to me. I do not trust either of you not to try something."

The four witch hunters slip out of the car parked in a driveway a short distance away (two houses down on Meek Ave for anyone interested in technicalities) and start moving quickly towards the meeting point - while staying to the sides of the road, as out of sight as possible.

"Oh, you don't trust us? We come in peace. We won't hurt you unless you try something shifty. Are you planning anything shifty? An attack? During a nice and friendly business transaction?"

"No, I do not trust you. Two customers, when I expected one? Creeping closer to me, when I'm not looking? And the person I expected now showing up at all? I know a trap when I smell one." She takes another step back, holding up a seal. It reads: ```

SAFE

APIS

FIRE

ESEK```

"If you like, I shall promise to offer you no injury by my hand, if you will agree to be bound by the same. You may toss me the phone, if you agree."

"Uh, hold on there. Woah woah wait a second, uh, wait a minute. Excuse me. Look, he, he said some things about you but he's not exactly the sanest guy around, I think you're kind of reasonable and a reasonable person doesn't just, uh, start fights willy-nilly. Please don't try anything. He kinda needs our help and—"

"I am a duck."

"—don't know what he'd do without us, don't just bind us, you, you'd be making things worse for him and not in a good way, he needs help!"

Sensing Pete's agitation, Duck's coat ripples. Things move around underneath.

The witch hunters reach the end of the side-road and spread out. Four's holding a lyre, looking slightly embarrassed. The rest are carrying assault rifles. Alister has his rifle over his shoulder, holding a pistol in one hand and a scarred combat knife in the other. He looks between Grek, Duck and Pete while carefully walking forwards - paying attention to each step.

"Agree to assist me in finding your master, and I shall spare you both. Convince him to accept my offer, and I shall let him live as well. All that I desire from this encounter is that he swear to make no further use of human children in his work. Know that you are surrounded, and that I am protected. To fight against me would be a grave error for you both."

Pete looks frantically from Chloe to the witch hunters. His human mask shudders and screws its eyes shut. "He, I can't, I mean. I don't know if he'd agree. He's not, you're not, I can't just— I can't agree either, I promised him!"

The rabbit bolts across the grass.

A multitude of squirming limbs emerge from Duck's coat. Beneath the coat there is no human at all, just various arms, legs, and hands intertwined into a vaguely human-shaped mass. The mass runs after Pete, limbs churning to give it the speed it needs.

Alister gives a gesture and the witch hunters start jogging after Duck and Pete. He looks to Grek "Incapacitate or kill?"

"Incapacitate. They are his victims, after all." She starts jogging along after.

With another gesture the hunters start running after the escaping Others. Six takes out a grenade and throws it ahead of them.

Pete's two heads see the grenade long before it lands. He swerves immediately, changing course towards the deep grass in the field, and the bushes beyond that. Duck notices the grenade too late, and it lands near her.

Severed arms and legs fall into the grass. The rest of Duck runs past them with a scream, seemingly unaffected by the blast beyond the missing limbs and slight charring on one side.

Chloe falters as she sees the mess of gore in the grass before her. "I said to incapacitate! That doesn't- Why is it still moving?" She recovers her stride and marches forward, still holding out the paper seal in front of her and voice raised, hoping to be heard: "You are making things worse for yourself and for your master. Every step you take is a step toward his death. Do you understand, Duck?"

Six shouts back "that was a stun grenade. It should've been fine." Six and Four (having now hung the lyre over his back and taken out a rope) chasing after Duck while Alister and Two pursue Pete. Alister tosses another stun grenade in front of Pete, trying to slow him down.

Duck and Pete are heading in two different directions. Pete has dived into the tall grass, where he's now barely visible beyond a flash of white and a trail of rippling stalks. The grenade lands in his victinity with a bright flare and a plume of dense smoke. In the wake of the explosion, it's difficult to tell exactly where he is, but you can no longer see the pattern of waving grass that means he's still running.

Duck continues to charge forward, as if she hasn't heard Chloe's proclamation at all. One leg tosses something small and black skyward. It lands in the grass, but does nothing.

Six and Four move to avoid the something, continuing after Duck.

Alister and Two slow down near where Pete stopped and start searching for him, both of them holding telescopic batons that they use to knock the grass apart.

Chloe, for her part, uses her Sight to attempt to figure out where the rabbit had gone. She was good at picking out the conflicts between two viewpoints, it ought to serve her well enough here.

Chloe sees ripples of rabbit among the grass. They point to Pete's specific location. Dazed, he's hiding just outside of the batons' range, tending to his wounds.

More limbs emerge from Duck's body, and she quickens her pace. She's about to run into a tree.

Chloe gestures sharply at Two, directing her attention to where Pete is hiding without actually saying so where he might hear. "Damn, do you think we've lost him?"

Alister replies while Two quietly steps over towards Pete "I think so. Fuck. He's got to be here somewhere." He continues to search, heading slightly away from where Pete's hiding.

Four and Six head towards either side of Duck, to better catch her if she dodges or collides.

Duck hits the tree. On impact several limbs fall to the ground, shorn off her body. The tree shakes, releasing leaves and small twigs.

Duck, noticeably smaller, runs past the tree. She's slowed enough that the witch hunters could catch her just as she reaches the edge of the field.

Pete remains where he is, deaf to the approaching hunters. He startles as Two nears him, preparing to run, but not fast enough.

Six knocks Duck to the ground, Four taking their rope to try to tie her up a little before bringing them back.

Two leaps forwards to try to get her hands on Pete before he can run. Alister joins Two in trying to catch Pete.

Pete can't escape so many hands. He's grabbed by the neck and lifted out of the grass. His fur is singed, and one paw in particular has been burned.

Hanging by the scruff of his neck, he twists to look at the witch hunters. His rabbit mask is placid as ever, but he sounds clearly panicked. "I can't hear you, you know, and you half-blinded me with that grenade trick of yours! Stun grenades can kill people!"

As Duck is knocked to the ground, more arms and legs fall away from her. The main body falls limp. A small but surprisingly fast bundle of hands emerges from it and rolls away, heading towards the road.

Chloe approaches, looking grim. "My offer still stands, Pete. You are largely unharmed and none of it was by my hand. In truth, I have no desire to harm you, nor to kill your maker out of hand. What Be-tokened has been doing is wrong, but as far as I can tell, you are innocent of all of that. If he will promise not to hurt any more children else with his magic, he can go free and start a new life with you two." She pulls a cube of pool chalk from inside her coat and starts rubbing it against her Implement, a signet ring. "This doesn't need to end badly. You can still protect him this way. Yield and by this sign be bound."

She returns the chalk to her pocket and draws out a sheet of lined notebook paper. Everything she just said is, miraculously enough, written on it.

Four stares at the bundle of hands while Six laughs and chases after it, loosing it after a short chase and returning towards the rest of the group.

The rabbit mask reads the sign. "I can't win this," Pete says. "Not with all of you here. I've, uh. Ugh. I've made my attempt, kept my promise, he can't call me out on that now. So—"

The human mask opens its mouth wide. Its eyes bulge out as it prepares to scream.

"I yield, I agree!" Pete says, frantically.

The human mask chokes, and its scream is cut off on inception. No sound emerges.

"Are you alright, then Pete? And will Duck be alright, given what just happened to her?" Chloe turns the sheet over. Her questions are written there, in the exact same handwriting. The ink isn't even wet.

"I'm fine, uh, I guess. All things considered, could be worse. For Duck, uh, she has a lot of limbs. You didn't see her core? If you didn't see her core or hit it, she should be fine, uh, probably. I don't know what you people can do. What do you want from me?"

The witch hunters spread out around Pere and Grek, keeping watch but otherwise staying out of things.

"Do any of you ladies or gentlemen have a phone on you? Ideally one with a reasonably sized screen?" Chloe pulls a paper square and a pen out of her pocket and improvises the following seal:```

HEAR

EARS

ARID

RSDD

"If one of you could Wooble the Royal School for the Deaf, Derby and bring up their website, it would be quite helpful."

Two takes a phone from her pocket and follows Chloe's instructions. "Done."

Chloe attaches the Seal to the phone with a bit of tape, then hands it to Pete. "If you don't get that back for whatever reason, you may invoice me for the cost." Pete is able to hear the last few words of that, despite the damage to his ears.

"Uh, sure, sure. Sure. Oh god, I can hear. I can hear!" Pete scratches at his human head with a paw. "Nice. Very nice. You're, uh, very gracious. Wait, what's that about paying? Did you want to call him or something?"

"I was telling the lady over there that if you lose her phone, I will cover the costs of having it replaced. Please don't lose or damage it on purpose, though. But yes, I would like to call Be-tokened. Does he have a given name, incidentally?"

"BT. Almost everyone just calls him BT. His initials, you know, it's a thing that people do. You don't need to know his full name, right? His number's, uh. Uh. 515-5558-0127. You want to get him on speakerphone, then explain the situation to him?"

"I'd like to address him formally, as his parents would address him. I may not be his mother, but I am *a* mother, after all." Chloe gets her own phone out, an older model, and dials the number.

Meanwhile, a few minutes earlier...\*\*

"This way, this way!" Hoppie's voice directed Glory. Her vision was blurred and her walk was stumbled, so she was still relying Hoppie to direct where she was going. She pushed a shopping cart they found forward for all cool new stuff. Glory likes cool stuff! Glory likes new stuff! She was excited to have more new friends!

"This way, to the cool monsters!" Hoppie excitedly said. They were following Shatbraggart to the prescribed meeting place, off to the edges of Woodbury, under a nearby if isolated bridge, where he bought all those item from Be-tokened. A couple of the other goblins were also accompanying them to the meeting spot as well, having nothing else to do until the heist starts.

They made there way to under the bridge, where through Glory's blurred vision, she could see a figure waiting under it for them. She waved as she and the others slowly approached.

BT is wearing an oversized rabbit hoodie and a giant wooden duck mask. The mask is covered in yellow feathers, with just enough space for a colossal duck beak. Two blue eyes look out from the mask's eyeholes.

He's standing near his van, which has its doors open.

In the back of the van are one chicken and one yellow duck, both wearing seat belts, and several wooden crates. In the driver's seat is one fluffy white duck. Looking upon the fluffy duck, you feel a strong sense of vertigo. Your head clouds momentarily before you look away.

Glory blinks, and tries put her focus back to BT. "Aaaaaayyye! You beTokened-Be?" Glory hiccups and slurs, stumbling forward with her shopping cart.

The fluffy duck flies from the driver's seat to rest on BT's shoulder. "Uh, yeah. Yeah. I think that's me," he says. His voice is hoarse and not much clearer than Glory's, although that could just be the enormous mask. "You have the money? All my stuff, uh. It's here. I got Crimsy in the backseat, Duckie in the other backseat, Josie in this. This box. The other stuff in other boxes."

Glory nodded, a silly smile on her face as she chugged down a bottle of alcohol down her throat. "Yeah yeah, I got all the cash here," She said, taking out a plastic bag filled with cash out of the cart. "Counted it like, a number of times to make sure it's all there. And it is all there. You can count for yerself."

She stumbles again as she tries to hand it over to BT. Shatbraggart sighs, takes it out of her hand and passes it to him. "Yeah, it's all there. You can count yourself."

As Glory takes a moment to vomit on the side, Hoppie and a few of the goblins are looking curiously at their new companions in the van. "Ooh, you make all these yourself?" Hoppie asks, poking at Duckie.

BT reaches toward the bag, but the fluffy duck makes it first. It hooks the plastic bag on its beak and flies to the van, depositing the bag on a seat before it returns to sit on BT's head.

BT reaches up to scratch the duck's feathers. "Well, yeah, I made those myself, yeah. But then a bunch of fucking bastards killed my fucking rabbits! It was one of the worst things that ever happened to me! I fucking hate them. I want them to die. That's what I'm doing right now, yeah. I'm on a mission. You—wait, is that alcohol? I love alcohol. "

Glory momentarily shields her bottle away from him, before taking a moment to think, and then hesitantly holding it up for him. "Yeah, you can have some. A toast, to better relationships! My Familiar has all her friends and other connections, I should start making them as well! A toast!"

She vomits a bit again.

BT takes the bottle eagerly. The fluffy duck lifts up his mask so he can have a long gulp before handing it back to Glory. "Hey, dude...ette. Dudette, lady, m'am. You have some nice things going on. Think we should, uh, go out on the streets together? We could totally make a nice couple, the two of us, fellow alcohol lovers! We can have fucking drinking competitions! Go to wild rave parties in the night! We can—"

BT's phone rings.

He fumbles to answer, holding it above his colossal beak. "Ex fucking cuse me I was in the middle of something! What is it now?"

Glory raised her head from vomiting, still a bit disoriented from her drunken haze. "Eh? You say something?"

"BT. Pete is safe and healthy. I would like to keep it that way. I encourage you not to hang up until you've heard me out."

"Holy fuck it's you," BT practically screams into the phone. "Fuck you! You were interrupting me in the middle of my potentially romantic overture to these cool Others I found! You know who I hate? I hate fucking psychos and fucking psycho bitches who destroy my opportunities! We could get blackout drunk together and have the best party of all time but you just had to fucking ruin it? What the fuck do you want?"

"I find the use of children as alchemical reagents repugnant. I would like you to promise to abandon the practice. If you agree to this right now, I will release Pete unharmed and give him a tome of less reprehensible alchemical lore for you to make use of. You could go back to... seducing some Other or whatever it is you're doing in peace and once I have your promise, I won't bother you again. If you refuse, this will need to be the first of further steps."

"What? I knew you were fucking up to something so I sent people to deal with you and now you're calling, and interrupting me, and you want me to do something for you? You fucking serious?"

From the phone, Peter's voice faintly says, "BT, she's not that bad, you just have to—"

The fluffy duck squawks. BT jerks the phone away from his face. "Look, why the fuck am I supposed to care about Peter? Fuck Peter. I was gonna sell Peter. And Mallard, if they can't do shit properly they don't need my help. You got anything better to offer than Peter and some weird alchemy book? The only alchemy I care about right now is blood and alcohol. I'm starting a thriving alcohol business to fund my revenge. I'm going to. Do. Stuff! Are you trying to stop me?"

"...I acquired this book from an alchemist who prepared mixed drinks for the Faerie. A bartender alchemist, just as you suggested that you might enjoy becoming in the OMO thread where we agreed upon this meeting. Does that not suffice?"

Glory pipes up.

She has her goblin headphones on, listening on the conversation. "Hey, Hoppie here is great at goblin alchemy! And is great at making alcohol! She could give you good tips and tricks."

She gives a drunken smile and thumbs-up to BT, as does Hoppie.

The fluffy duck flaps its wings and quacks enthusiastically.

"Oh wait, it's an alcohol alchemy book? Never mind, I'd take that! Sure, sure. What did you want? Don't use a full kid in alchemy stuff? I can do that. This could be amazing."

"Nothing that harms a human child in a way that takes more than a year and a day for them to recover from. That includes both using them as reagents and creating anything that consumes or subsumes human children."

"Hey now, wait a minute. That's a fucking lot to ask, that. Fucking tall order. Do you even know how much useful stuff you can only get from a child, or how hard it is to get stuff that doesn't kill children or, or sometimes something good requires a bit of extra power and the best way to get it is—"

Peter says, "BT—"

The duck squawks again. BT holds the phone at arms' length. "FUCK YOU, PETER. I don't give a fuck about you, you hear that? If you got captured obviously something went wrong and you've been failing me for years, you couldn't even save Bathory from getting eaten by that fucking pig thing? Can you even do anything right? Why should I care what you think?"

Chloe winces, and sets a soothing hand on Pete's... well, he doesn't exactly have a shoulder. But a fluffy section toward the middle of the creature, at the very least. The kid did not deserve this. "I am asking that you make the effort. This alchemist's work was nothing to sneeze at: he worked with just off the top of my head, ontology, martyr's breaths, half-erased history, sonder and stigmata. I am uncertain as to whether you'll be able to match his abilities, but none of it requires children. And I'm not even saying *no* children, just no more *human* children. You can use Faerie fetches or goblins or whatever else you like as long as it isn't a human being under the age of eighteen."

The fluffy duck quacks several times. It flies over to BT's shoulder and puts its bill to his ear, speaking at a barely audible whisper.

"Ben. After this, it won't matter. That part of your life is over. You don't need them anymore. Just agree. I'll give you what I promised.\*"

"I agree," BT immediately says. "Yes. I agree to your terms. I'll do what you wanted me to do. Is that all, can I stop the fucking call now and go have fun with my new pals?"

Glory raises an eyebrow, hearing the duck's near-inaudible whispers through her eavesdropping headphones. She then just shrugs, and continues chugging down her bottle of alcohol by the side.

"Thank you and goodbye. I hope that we will never need to meet in person. I'm giving Pete the book now." She hangs up on the call, and then nods to the witch hunters. "He's sworn. Your job's done, with my full approval." Then, she kneels down in front of Pete and lays down the book in front of him before wiping the chalk off of the rabbit's forehead.

"I'm trusting you to take this to BT. It is his now. After that, it's up to you where you go. If you want to stay with him and look after him, so be it. But if what he said just now is making you reconsider, you can write my name on any scrap of paper and underline thrice it in red, in black and in blue. I will know when and if you do this, and send word to you. You did the right thing today and I am proud of you."

Both of Pete's heads nod solemnly. You catch the glimpse of a smile on his rabbit mask before it returns to its normal expression. "You know, I had my doubts about you, but, uh. You're pretty nice.

"Uh, guess that's it, then?" He looks toward the horizon. "I want to stick with him for now. He has helped me, it's true. And he wasn't in the best situation back then and—anyway. If I'm not there for him, things could get worse. But if it all really goes bottom up, uh, it's good, uh, it's good to know you could help. Thanks."

"So, what's going to happen now?" Glory asks, leaning against the wall under the bridge. Meanwhile, goblins were starting to pack up all the items that they've bought into the cart and under their arms.

BT makes a show of shoving the phone back into his hoodie pockets and dusting off his hands. "Well! Now we can get out on the streets and go to a fucking wild rave party and—"

The fluffy duck quacks.

"Oh," BT says. "Wait. I can't, uh. I shouldn't do that. I have, I have deliveries I'm supposed to make. I need to drive back to Iowa, and I, uh, what?"

The duck whispers to him, "Don't waste our time. Remember our vows. You need me.\*"

"Oh." He looks Glory up and down. "Unfortunately, uh, okay. Seems like I can't make it. Sorry."

Glory shrugs. "Nah, it's cool. I got my thing as well tonight. Crashing this big fancy party in Indianopolopolis. Planning for it all be a real shitshow."

She then gives him a drunk, wide smile. "But hey, you seem swell. And I could always use more friends right now. So how about we exchange numbers, and keep contact with each other. That sound good?"

"Nice, nice, hope it goes well then! Yeah, you can totally have my number. Uh, Fluffy, uh, you have a paper? Pencil? Something?"

The fluffy duck flies into the van. It returns with a ballpoint pen and a pad of paper labeled GoodValueHotel™.

BT scribbles on the topmost sheet, rips it off, and hands it to Glory. In extrodinarily messy handwriting, it reads: *BT ALCOHOL LOVER 515-5558-0127*.

"Give a parting gift,\*" the duck whispers.

"Oh yeah! Do you want, uh, a gift? Too? You can have a bottle of experimental white cocktail! Good alcohol! Won't hurt you at all, unless you drink it, maybe. Just give me a moment, I'll need to. Get it. Or have Fluffy get it, uh."

Fluffy flies into the van a third time and brings out an unlabeled glass flask, neck clenched in its beak. It's full of white liquid.

“Hah, thanks!” Glory takes the bottle of white liquid and places it in her shopping along with the rest. All the items have been packed up as well, either in the cart or strapped to the backs of the goblins.

“I should get going now, but first, I wanna ask y’all something. Just curious here,” She says, stretching her arms out. She gestures over to Fluffy. “What’s Fluffy here? Your Familiar?”

At the mention of Fluffy, BT straightens his back and stretches out a hand. Fluffy lands on his palm and preens its white feathers.

"Us alcohol lovers know a good old bottle of alcohol can be counted on to drown your problems, and Fluffy provides! Fluffy is the best thing that ever happened to me. Fluffy helps me with all my earthly sorrows. Fluffy will never leave me and he'll never betray me when I thought I could count on him. We shall be compatriots until the end, through thick and thin, through, uh, war and peace, day and night and all that. I'll never part from Fluffy, uh, not until the day I die. Oh, yeah, he's my Familiar too."

“Heh,” Glory says, momentarily looking down sadly. “Yeah, same for me and my Familiar, my partner. Made her my Familiar to save her, so that’s we’d be by each other’s side to the end of it all, through anything that comes our way.”

She then sighs. “Though lately, I felt we’ve been kind a defying from each other. Looking at others, and getting too caught up in our own kind of shit.”

"Isn't it nice to have a Familiar? I never want to go back to the time before, when I was all on my lonesome and oh so solitary and sad and everything. Fluffy, I love you. Come you, you beautiful. Fluffy!"

BT gives Fluffy a hug. Fluffy quacks. To the Sight, white liquid pools inside BT's head.

"You know, uh, you should be nice to your Familiar too. You're meant to stay together. Support each other, do good things for each other and all that, I'm sure you've heard it before. Okay now I should drive to Iowa enjoy the drink!" BT, with Fluffy still on his shoulder, heads for the driver's seat so he can steer the van back to more familiar territory.

“Hm, yeah, maybe,” Glory says to herself. She then looks over to him just as he opens the door to the driver’s seat and enter. “By the way, I’m... still wondering, what is Fluffy? Not as your Familiar, but as an Other. I’m assuming that they’re currently in their animal-Familiar form, but, what were they before they became your Familiar?”

"Oh? Well, he used to be—"

Fluffy quacks.

"Uh, to me, he was just. A duck. They said some very rude things about him and what he was doing to other people but I've been with him for this long and I haven't gone insane yet! Goodbye." BT slams the door and drives off.

“Hmm.” Glory said, her hands on her hips as he watched the alchemist and his duck drive off.

She then just shrugged, and started to push her shopping cart back to the van along with all her goblins.