Page 9 of Nine Inch Nasty
Turtle points some stuff out as he leads me a few blocks away, but I'm too nervous to really pay attention. What if I can't find Delaney? What if I end up stuck here in a strange realm and they forget about me and move on and live their happily ever after without me? What if I never get to have another Adam cream pie? Sorry, TMI.
“This is his building, I think. You ready?”
“Even if he's not here, thank you for taking the time to help me. Kindness matters.”
He dips his head. “Absolutely. Like I said, there's a group of us trying to undo some of the damage the goddess has done. And maybe me helping you isn't completely altruistic.”
“I don't mean to be rude, but if I've given you any impression that I'm interested in—”
“No, nothing like that. I just wanted to talk to the goddess’ chosen one. We could use her help. Might have some things that would be helpful for her to know, as well.”
“Oh. Well in that case, let's venture forth, shall we?”
So, the stairs here are really stupid. They're clearly meant for bipedal unicorn figures, so I have to practically crawl and pull myself up them to get to Saladriel’s floor. Luckily, my companion walks in front of me, so I don't have to worry about flashing him any of my pretty under things. Those are for Delaney and Adam’s eyes only.
I definitely came at the wrong time. Or right, depending on how you look at it. All I know, is that we get to the door and I hear Saladriel sobbing about frosting and cum. I can hear at least one other voice in there beside Delaney’s, but it's too quiet for me to make out whose it is.
“Are you going to knock?” Turtle prompts me when I continue to just stand there staring at the door.
“Sorry, I was getting very invested in the story playing out in there.”
I have half a mind to just throw the door open and make a dramatic scene, but sometimes bad things happen when you surprise people. So I knock, like a stable human being would.
“No vegan pizza!” Our demon boy yells through the door. Oh, Rush is with her. That's... nice, I guess.
“Is that code for something?” Turtle asks me with an embarrassed flush to his cheeks.
“No, that is not code for something. I have no idea what he's talking about.” That's about the point that I decide to just be dramatic anyways. The respectable human thing rarely works out for me anyway.
So, I take a deep breath, I push open the door, and then I stride into the apartment with my arms out. “Darling, I've come to get you. Let's run away together, shall we? Just like we always talked about.”
Delaney squeals, freezes, strips off a kinky unicorn cosplay outfit I definitely want to borrow, and jumps over the world's tiniest coffee table that has nothing but sharp corners, throwing herself at me. I do another very stable human thing. I cry.
Delaney grabs my face and kisses me, making all my insecurities melt away. Then she pulls back to look at my face, grabbing me on both sides of my neck with her amazing hands. “How did you get here? My gods, it's so good to see you!” And then she kisses me again.
I feel the need at this point to look over her shoulder at Turtle, who clearly doubted our connection, and wag my eyebrows at him. He rolls his eyes. Which, fair.
I have to pull my mouth away from her with all the strength my momma gave me in order to answer her question. “This is... Turtle. He found my cloud and switched me.”
Saladriel is up in the next moment, covering up a wet crotch and trying to dry his eyes at the same time, which is kind of rough to do when you have hoof hands. But he holds one out for Turtle to semi-shake.
“Hey man, how's it going? Thank you for helping with Cory. They’re a valued member of Delaney’s group.”
“Turtle, is it?” Delaney asks, clearly unsure if she heard correctly. I shrug my shoulders, and she smiles at him while keeping her arm firmly wrapped around my waist. “Thank you, so much. Unsure what circumstances caused you to find him and bring him into his current form, but blessings on you.”
He holds out a hand for her to shake as well. “It was nothing. Actually, there's a group of us out there looking for your... people. Sort of a rebellion, I suppose.”
“Rebellion?” Delaney asks, intrigued.
Turtle nods. “Yes. There's a good number of us trying to help out people that have been on the wrong side of our goddess. We're grateful to her of course, but we also know that she doesn't always seem to act in the best interest of her people. We're trying to help in any way we can. It's nothing, really.”
He does something miraculous. He smiles wide at Delaney, and I compare him to the joyless unicorn beside us. There's something different about him and Salad.
“Pardon me if this is rude,” Saladriel jets in, “but what are you so happy about? It's kind of creepy the way your teeth gleamed just now.”
“What's not to be happy about? It's a beautiful day out there, is it not? There are beautiful people in our land, and I got to help reunite people that care about each other. Of course I'm smiling. You see the way they just kissed each other? That was beautiful.”
Saladriel gets more suspicious, squinting at the other unicorn. “You're notfromGlittertopia, are you? You're an alien.”
