Are we Hunters or Partners??? I'm Confused! (Nana & Foster/Smith Partnership; So much chaos)

Amused by his initial reaction and then an attempt to regain his composure, Nana let out a quiet giggle. She really liked seeing him go through so many emotions in such a short amount of time - it was just adorable. Somehow, now that he knew about her feelings towards him, she felt strangely relaxed and light. It was as if a heavy boulder had been lifted off her shoulder allowing her to breathe and fully enjoy that life she had. "Of course!" Nunally said, then blushed a little. "Seeing you enjoy the things that you like feels so nice, you know? I... like seeing you happy... it makes me happy too..." She suddenly said, fully speaking her mind.

He shifted a bit, trying not to seem too giddy still, especially when she just kept getting sweeter and sweeter. "You're selfless, you know that?" Joseph asked, though he was sure that it wasn't the first time that he had ever done so. She really was though, selfless and caring, looking out for others before herself to the point that one could quickly become genuinely concerned of her giving too much of herself.

Nunally looked away feeling somewhat embarrassed. Joseph was right though, she easily put the needs of others above her own. "N-No it's just... I'm... I just..." Nana mumbled, unable to find any argument to deny his words. In the pure definition of that word, she was just that - selfless. Perhaps her friends had noticed it, but in some ways, she was more than willing to take it to the extreme - completely ignoring her own needs and desires to pursue what everyone else wanted. There was probably two recent notable exception from that in the form of her denial to say what Lily wanted to hear and the fact that she was the one to confess her feelings to Joseph. However, she felt like she was justified and in the end, she even gave Lily some confirmation in the form of a song. "I just enjoy seeing you all happy, okay..? I don't really need much from life..." Nana finally admitted

"And that's selfless." He reminded her, breaking his facade to lean down and tap her nose with the tip of his finger. "You care more about what others want and feel than yourself. People have to push you for you to be anywhere close to selfish."

With a bright blush on her cheeks, she looked at him and smiled. "W-Well, I guess..." Nana finally admitted. "I think you have that in you too... You know, you always let us pick what to do and you... take care of us." She said sincerely. In reality, no matter how bad Joseph's past was in terms of his behavior, she would always consider him a genuinely good person.

He shrugged, booping her nose again, "I show affection by buying things. I spend time with people by watching them be happy." He moved to sit on the next viable surface, which turned out to be another portion of his desk.

Nunally finally hid her nose with her hands as if to protect it from further hoops. It was embarrassing and her face was already red enough from the blush. "T-that still fits though... " Nana told him. "B-But I'd rather have you show m-m-me affection by just giving me hugs and holding my hand... It's better than buying things." Of course, there was also a matter of kisses, but talking about them was embarrassing, even though she really liked them - they were special though.

In the following days, there was only one issue to be solved - the issue of Lily's first ever soul. Nana wasn't really an expert on the monster souls, thus she could only ask Jasmine, Joseph and Lily herself about the regulations they should consider before allowing the weapon to consume the soul. In the end, she just told her partners that if they know anyone capable of making sure the consumption would be safe, they should just call them in to help.

Eventually, Jasmine and Lily had asked around to the point that they found out their little witch friend, Aurora, had experience in the matter. As it turned out, her and her weapon partner had come across a similar soul and it had turned Candy into what the girls had learned to be a "Hunter's Axe." In short, it was a more painful process, but it created a different type of weapon that was from then on locked into consuming only monster --- and then the witch --- souls. If Lily were to eat it, she would become a Hunter's Axe and remain that way until she was made into a Grimoire at her hundredth soul. Aurora and Candy still weren't quite sure how the power and ability scaling worked, as not every single soul would grant another ability, but they'd all increase the strength of them. Apparently, it became less painful with each new soul. Lily seemed adamant that she was still willing to try it, and Aurora thus offered to come by to help with her healing magic. Besides, she'd told them, witches were able to choose the ability that the Axe would get, so long as they could resonate.

The moment Nana heard the process was supposed to be painful for the weapon, she started objecting the idea. As Lily's meister and her brother's girlfriend, she couldn't in clear conscience allow that to happen. Even with healing magic, any possibility of seeing the youngest weapon suffer was not something her heart could handle. Little did she know that Aurora knew another Aurora who also had healing magic. More convenient was the fact that the other Aurora also had a special spell that could neutralize pain if necessary. After literal days of convincing the meister would finally agree, although hesitantly. Nana just felt responsible for the wellbeing of her partners, especially Lily and Joseph, for obvious reasons. Jasmine was the most mature one of their quartet, so she could handle herself.

Joseph was sat cross-legged on the floor, with Lily perched in her lap like a child; it was how he'd helped to teach her piano, back when he was still advanced compared to her. It was more than a little unorthodox now, given their ages, but she'd sought the comfort of her older brother like a baby with its binkie, and trying to object to her had ended in failure. Jazz had cast him a gaze that was meant to chide him for coddling, but they both knew that there was no sense in arguing with the girl, especially in this instance. Set mostly on the floor but cradled by her hands was the white, ethereal Monster soul.

Aurora arrived around noon on the agreed-upon date, having met up with the other Aurora at a local cafe beforehand. Sipping a blended fruity drink, she knocked gently on the door, where Jazz let both Aurora witches inside.

Aurora was quite surprised to receive an invitation from Aurora to come by and help Aurora's friends deal with a monster soul. Nevertheless, she was more than willing to give her friend a helping hand. Well, she technically had one. Not counting the magic tool one. Nevermind! With her mechanical arm hidden with a leather glove Aurora casually followed after Aurora without attempting to hide the prothesis in one of the pockets of her trousers.

Nunally sat herself down on the floor next to Joseph with a really worried look on her face. She kept glancing over at Joseph with a sort of defeated look on her face. She wasn't sure she wanted to see nor do that.

Joseph shared the look with her, but Lily was adamant about trying to become a Hunter's Axe, and while Jasmine wasn't too keen on it either, she wasn't very willing to just go over the girl's head about it. It was her body, her weapon form, and they'd fought for the soul. It didn't feel quite right to agree or to disagree. In the end, she wasn't taking no for an answer.

The feeling of nervousness was stuck in Nana's heart and she wasn't sure what to do about it. Instinctively she reached out for to seek Joseph's hand with a hope that holding it would put them both at ease. At least within possibility in a situation like that. Nevertheless, she was getting a feeling that nothing would calm her down.

"So... what the deal with this whole hunter's axe thingy. Auro?" Aurora Foster asked holding both of her hands behind her head. One of the eyebrows was raised in a questioning look she gave towards her surroundings.

Joseph took Nana's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, watching the witches to keep his mind somewhat preoccupied. It would only work so well, he knew, but at least it was something. Besides, Lily seemed to at least not be getting any more nervous than she already was. That was a good sign.

"Hunter's Axes eat Monster Souls," she said, kneeling down and studying the one that Lily held. It was unusual even for the ones that she had seen. Then again, it was a wraith and the Boyd girl had yet to deal with anything in the realm of ghosts. It wasn't all that surprising, all things considered. "Monster souls are extra unique in that they're normally white. Whatever the monster is themself changes the appearance. Color. Properties. Since they're more... unstable that most souls, they work really differently with weapons." She reached a hand up, pushing Lily's bangs back -- causing an initial flinch where she nearly pulled back before Lily settled --- and placing a hand to her forehead. Gold wrapped around the witch's head and spread towards the girl. "It's a painful process for a weapon. It gets better with each soul, but it's not exactly a pleasant process. Weapons are known to pass out from it." Her words were both a warning and a reminder for all of those present; if Aurora Foster could successfully mitigate the pain then it shouldn't be an issue, but she wasn't sure if it was a response solely to the pain or if the body actually grew tired and needed to recover, as well. "We're not supposed to talk about it, but apparently there's another school under the Academy for Hunter's Axes and their meisters, usually magic users. Something with us apparently makes it where we can choose the mutation they -- oops, I forgot to mention mutations." Her face flushed and she shifted a bit as she thought on her words. "The instability and whatnot comes from the fact that Monster Souls do more than just add to soul count; they also mutate the weapon, both in and out of transformation. I don't know the exact details on how many a weapon gets, but I know that they can't have any other souls after they start on the Axe path. Doing so will make them er.... purge all of the ones on their count, and the more that they had, the more likely it is to cause uhm..... irreversible side effects." She really, really, really didn't want to say death. Sure it was implied enough, and she had certainly been sure to remind Lily of this over and over again --- she hadn't specifically told Nunally, herself --- but Lily was stubborn. She was worried about the girl's motivations for such. Her and Candy had been a misunderstanding that they'd embraced. Lily walked into this with all the knowledge and still wanted to proceed. "...Anyway, each soul offers the possibility of at least two mutations. If I read things correctly, a mundane meister has no control of what their weapon partner ends up with. Witches and Sorcerers can sort of... view their soul world and select which one would best suit the weapon. It's almost like Hunter's Axes were made for magic users..."

ooc:
End part bold/italics so that you can use it for Foster in the future

The explanation only made things worse for Nunally. Her face got pale as she gradually started realizing what they'd gotten themselves into with that white soul. She started regretting ever agreeing to that idea. At that point her, for the very first time she allowed herself some selfish thoughts - if she knew all of that earlier, she would never ever approve of the ritual. What if Lily complained? Well, Nunally would outright refuse to be her meister anymore. It was too late to complain though, too late to go back. The worst was the thought that her negative thoughts about it all could still affect her ability to resonate her soul with Lily's, but she had to do her best to prevent that. Feeling more afraid than before, she shifted closer to Joseph. Her body was trembling.

Aurora listened to the explanation about the monsters, the mutations, the axes and that other academy. She didn't buy any of those. There was a frown on her face when her Aurora friend stopped talking. On top of that, she had that weird mix of two expressions on her face - annoyance and disgust. "Almost like Hunter's Axes were made for magic users? " Aurora repeated after the other Aurora. Her old habits suddenly wanted to make a return as she felt she wanted to have a smoke. Clicking her tongue she looked away. "As if regular demon weapons weren't made by magic users! I'm telling ya, this whole thing is a bunch of crap! And that 'other secret academy under academy' thing? That's fucking shady as hell! Who in their normal mind would even go there instead of enrolling the academy? Fuck that." Aurora muttered, feeling herself get more and more irritated. "And the risk of the axe career? You gotta be crazy." With a sigh, the witch took her soul protect off. "I've promised to help ya, and I'm gonna keep my word, but damn Aurora, this is just fucked up."

"I know it is." She said softly, feeling like her body was buzzing, looking down. Aurora could defend her partnership all day, could defend what she knew of the Institute for a while, but she knew how bad it all really was. The Boyd girl had refused to let Lily walk into this without knowing everything that the sugar glider witch could tell her. It reminded her that she wanted to know more. She was too afraid to look for more. The Institute was shady, she'd known this since they'd received the invitation. No one specifically ended up at the Institute by their own real choice --- well, no one but one, supposedly, but that was only a rumor. People ended up there because they or their weapon ate a monster and needed somewhere to go. For all that it could do, the DWMA couldn't handle Axes. "It's all I know... I've sensed someone there sometimes, someone that feels like.... that feels like he's almost on the same power level as Lord Death. I've done some research and the Death Scythe equivalent I..." She moved to stand beside the other Aurora, coaxing her down so she could whisper in her ear, "A Death Scythe Hunter's Axe is known as an Eibon's Grimoire." Growing up, at least initially, in a coven, she'd heard the name before, heard it almost revered and certainly feared. She'd be surprised if Aurora Foster didn't know of it. Still, she knelt again, looking to Lily. "You can still back out of this. No one will blame you if you let it disipate. It'll take a year, but no one has to eat it."

"I want it." Lily said, lip trembling but gaze unwavering; she'd nearly cut Aurora off to say it. "I'm only armor. I can't do anything unless someone gets close. If I can..." She cleared her throat; she sounded on the verge of tears but her eyes didn't hold any. "If I can keep them safer, if I can make us better this way, I want to do it. I can't do much as boots." Lily bit back the last statement. It would make them feel guiltier. She wanted to make them proud. She wanted to keep them safe.

At first, Foster got worried seeing how Boyd reacted to her irritation, she was even ready to apologize and try to soften the situation. Back then, she still wasn't over her rebellious phase, but the signs of her present self were already showing. The Institute seemed like a terrible place, a place she had nothing in common with. A place she would rather consider her enemy, rather than an ally, no matter what the DWMA stance on its existence was. She didn't care if Lord Death himself approved of it and if he did she knew she would have to reevaluate her respect for the god. Hearing Aurora speak again and then directly whisper into her ear made her absolutely furious. She gave her fellow Aurora something like a glare. Suddenly, her blonde hair started changing its color to red and it kept changing until it reached the same color her dear sister had - pure red. "What have you gotten yourself into, for fuck's sake?" Aurora asked, barely keeping herself from raising her voice. She trembled and squeezed her hands into fists so hard she heard the sound of metal bending. If Eibon was behind all that, then the situation was even more messed up than she'd originally assumed. She was only one witch though and a partially crippled one at that, who was also dealing with her PTSD.

Nunally couldn't help but get terrified at the exchange between both witches. It seemed like one of them was really uncomfortable with the topic of hunter's axes and the other was absolutely furious about it. That made Nana immediately realize it was a terrible idea. She felt a strange connection with the angry witch, it seemed to her like she also had Lily's wellbeing in mind. Maybe it was the reason she was so angry with her friend? Curiously Nana scanned them both using her Soul Perception and using her analytical programs started to figure out what she could get out of reading their souls. When she was done with that her eyes focused on Joseph - she had tears in her eyes and was all pale. She was more than uncomfortable with what was going to happen with Lily. Even the weapon's emotional speech wasn't convincing her. "Lily... your siblings are both ranged weapons... I need someone to protect me from up close..." Nana finally spoke. "What if this process will make me unable to wield you in the first place? Both of your siblings are regular weapons."

"You can wield me." She said plainly, looking over at her, that same burning determination in her eyes. She wouldn't let her get hurt, but a taser kick would only get them so far, especially in a real fight. Hell, what if she couldn't use her legs? What would they do then? Have her attach to Jazz while the woman fired from her hands or shot with Joseph? It could be done, she knew, but she didn't want to deal with that. "Even if one of us starts to get out of sync, you can bounce off of our connection with each other." Had she been studying them? Of course, courses at the DWMA went into as much detail as they could on weapon-meister relations, but most weapons only cared about what was specifically relevant to themselves. "Nunally, I want to do this. I can handle it. Even if they didn't help with the pain, I can handle it." Joseph's grip around her middle (whereas his other hand was weaved with Nana's) tightened at this, and he leaned his forehead against the back of her head. Whatever one does to me, I've been through worse. Whatever the next one does won't be as harsh. She knew this. She trusted this.

Aurora shirked back instantly, curling in on herself as sparks of yellow shot out of her uncontrollably. At least it was only healing, her wind magic still not fully instinctive for her, despite it being her only means of combat. "Aurora, I can't have this conversation and concentrate, and if I can't concentrate I might-" She didn't want to see what would happen if her instincts pulled from her other magic set, if they went wild, if she hurt something. That would make the situation all the worse and it would end up rendering her useless, as well.

Aurora's hair slowly started returning to its natural color. She clearly didn't approve of it all. She was clearly angry with it all. However, she wasn't going to do anything that would really hurt the feelings of her friend. With a sigh, Aurora pulled a lollipop out of the pocket of her trousers and after opening it, put it in her mouth. Then she patted Aurora Boyd on the shoulder. "Don't you worry about getting your magic out of control. I can dispel whatever you accidentally throw our way. Remember? I'm an anti-witch." Foster said to calm Boyd down a little, despite the somewhat disgusted look on her face. "We'll talk about it later... or never."

Of course, Nunally's last argument bounced off as unsuccessful. She knew the theory, of course, but they were talking about a completely different weapon type. What if there were different rules associated with it? Even all the knowledge she'd gathered using her computer just wasn't enough. Risk calculations, predictions, simulations. Nothing would convince her. The idea was wrong and unethical - going against what she stood for. Her love relationship with Joseph helped her a lot in terms of being able to act more mature though. With her eyes closed, Nana took a deep breath. "Fine. It's your decision." The meister said seemingly emotionless - it almost sounded like her A.I was speaking and not her.

She nearly jumped out of her skin for a moment when the other Aurora touched her shoulder. Her mother had given her some major, unresolved trust issues when it came to tempers. The caffeine-hyped fruit drink earlier probably wasn't doing her any favors, now. After taking a second to collect herself, she brought her attention to Lily, offering one final time to go back on it. Again, she was denied.

Without further ado, in fact, Lily tilted her head back --- forcing Joe to do the same --- and popped it down her throat. Aurora was instantly channeling healing magic to her, caught off guard by the suddenness. Lily's face scrunched up initially, at first like she was eating something bitter, then her face scewed in pain as it made its way down and hit her stomach, infusing with her.

While keeping her eyes shut Nunally decided that she didn't really want to participate in that. It was Lily's choice and she believed it to be a stupid choice. It wasn't certain whether it was her electronic brain speaking or just that rational part of her mind. To Nana, the whole ordeal wasn't worth it. In secret from everyone, she shut herself down, setting up a response trigger to words that would imply the process was over. Thus, she just let her computer take over, basically putting herself on autopilot.

Code:

Command accepted. Artificial Intelligence modules booting up. Starting Program in 3... 2... 1..

It was the last message before Nana quietly allowed herself to be taken over by the AI. It wouldn't change much, really as she was going to just sit still with her eyes closed.

Aurora Foster's reaction time was still quite good when it came to using her magic. Seeing Lily put the soul into her mouth immediately triggered the witch to mutter her mantra. Focusing on the magic, her hair quickly returned to its natural color. Reaching out with her normal hand and pointing it at the weapon she concentrated on casting the spell. "Morale boost." The fox witch chanted her spell. A pink-ish wave of magic went through the room and everyone inside could immediately feel the spell's effects - Their muscles relaxed, all signs of fatigue were gone. Most importantly, the pain Lily started experiencing started becoming numb and less noticeable.

The young weapon visibly relaxed, though her face was still skewed like she'd eaten something of poor taste. That wouldn't be a surprise to anyone who had ever fed a weapon; famously, only Soul had ever been so much as neutral to the flavor, at least as far as anyone knew. As the process went on, Aurora focused on attempting a lower resonance with the girl, passing her wavelength towards her and seeming noticeably relieved when she wasn't outright rejected. Lily passed the energy back more out of habit than from any real measure of actively participating, and soon Aurora had enough control of the resonance to be able to see the options laid out before her, flickering as they tried to align with the girl's DNA. Reaching a hand out, she paused to study first one, then the other. With a small smile, she selected one, which favored some form of invisibility. She wondered if that might also allow intangibility, as both would do wonders for the mobility of her weapon form. The other didn't sit quite right, something of a banshee scream that seemed like it would harm the other two weapons with how devastating it was.

During the whole process, Nunally wasn't even really moving, one would probably start wondering if she was even breathing. Her eyes were kept close and she wasn't really reacting to what was happening outside her personal space. She'd set her AI to just keep her body alive until the ritual was over and nothing else. At least she wouldn't have to experience it. It was very selfish of her, really, but she just couldn't stand the thought of seeing Lily mutate before her very own eyes. Besides, she was somewhat hurt that as a meister she'd lost any say in the matter, feeling like her initial approval was made without the full knowledge.

Aurora wasn't talking during the process and simply kept her metal hand in the pocket of her trousers and kept her hand pointed at Lily as if she was ready to cast her spell again. Sadly, her spell had something she named a "cooldown". It meant that the remainders of the original spell needed to dissipate before she could recast the spell. Luckily her "Morale boost" worked for a few moments, giving them a lot of time to deal with the process. Just in case, however, she also cast her healing spell on Lily, just in case.

As Aurora seemed to come back from what could only be described as an out-of-body experience, Lily's physical being appeared to flicker in and out of the visible light realms. The witch took a moment to recompose herself, shaking her head before opening her eyes, hands moving to Lily's before they could disappear. "Invisibility." She told them gently, to explain Lily's body trying to stabilize in such a way that meant that she wasn't staying fully seen. Still, she wasn't giving off anything that said that she was in pain. The magic must be working better than they could have dreamed. "The only other option I found was a banshee scream, and it would have affected Jazz and Joe- seeeeeeph." She had to correct herself; Jazz almost exclusively called him by the nickname, but she knew he didn't like it. Still, he didn't seem to react to it, merely trying to make sure that Lily wasn't intangible as well.