>>6316850“I’d learned not to disturb him during those ‘episodes’, so I let him be!” Toppel shrugs as her tail thumps against the upholstery! “So I focused on my usual routines: studies, duels, saving Obber from the consequences of his constant, stupid actions…”
Her brother clicks in embarrassed assent.
“I’ll never forget when I heard the news: the academy still had names on the ranking boards at the time, and as I was returning from the Hyperlibrary I stumbled upon a <span class="mu-s">MASS</span> of students crowding the board!”
Let me guess, you interject as you send a chiding smirk Oti’s way, he took down a big Kahuna, huh?
“Yes… and no.” Toppel explains with awe slipping into her tone, “He’d… he’d sent an entire lecture into <span class="mu-r">BANUU OPTCKA…</span>” She pauses for a reaction, but gets none. “... A plane dominated by an evergrowing point of pure, unfiltered entropy.”
That… seems dangerous, you mutter as you join the Durher in gobstruck shock!
“<span class="mu-r">BANUU OPTCKA 84</span>, actually…” She mutters with a hint of embarrassment, “Every few centuries a handful of Elder Conjurers and Transmuters ferry it to another empty plane… and Oti had apparently heard about it from one of the lecturers in the PUB.”
You gotta hand it to him–Oti’s being remarkably silent for once! S-so, you continue in a measured voice, he, uh… probably rose a few ranks that day, didn’t he? Toppel nods as her eyes widen!
“And imagine how <span class="mu-s">MORTIFIED</span> I was! <span class="mu-s">FURIOUS!</span> <span class="mu-s">SICK WITH ANGER!</span>”
Yea, you nod, finding out your boytoy murdered all of those peopl-
“I bought out three alchemy shop’s-worth of <span class="mu-s">STAMINA POTIONS</span> that day!” She hisses through clenched teeth! “I even employed that useless brother of mine to help me carry them all back to my dorm! And yet who failed to show up, hmm!? Who up-and-vanished like those three alchemy shops I bought out!?”
Ah… s-so… so she’s <span class="mu-i">not</span> shocked by all the dead stu-
“Of course not! I’m a <span class="mu-i">MAGE!</span>” She scoffs as she waves away your meekness with a laugh! “<span class="mu-i">MY</span> Oti had nearly rocketed to the top of the ranks… and in such an imaginative way, too!” Her expression shifts back into, uh, <span class="mu-i">sultry</span> territory as she picks the Chytree apart with half-lidded eyes. “I was heartbroken… Oti had never run from anyone before, so there really was only one probable answer to the mystery of his disappearance:”
Her brow furrows. “He’d been <span class="mu-s">KILLED!</span>”
“As you’d probably already deduced,” Oti interjects, finally breaking his vow of silence, “The rumors of my death have been <span class="mu-i">greatly</span> exaggerated.”
“I’ll make them a <span class="mu-i">REALITY</span> if you keep acting so damned callous!” Toppel snarls as she sticks her tongue out at her bereaved beau! Look, you groan, mass-murder aside, you think it’s time for Oti to share! Care to elaborate?
>CONTD. 