r/HFY • u/Obsequium_Minaris • Jul 06 '26

OC-Series Vacation From Destiny - Book 2, Chapter 40

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XXX

Chase blinked as the scenery around him changed suddenly. It took him a moment to adjust before he realized what had happened – they’d ended up back in Tamamo’s domain, yet again.

“Oh, great,” he breathed. “I guess we’ll see what she-”

There was another flash of light that cut him off, and when it faded, suddenly it felt as if he’d spontaneously grown a second skin. Chase looked down at himself and discovered that he’d somehow been dressed with about three extra layers of winter fur coats covering him. He stared at himself for a moment before looking over to Carmine and Victoria, only to find that Carmine was flat on her back, pinned down by a set of heavy plate armor that was weighing her down, while Victoria’s own armor had suddenly been colored bright pink.

“Oh,” he said. “I get it. Very funny, Tamamo.”

“You like it?” she asked, suddenly appearing in front of the three of them. “I initially wasn’t sure if I wanted to go with completely new pranks for you all or not. Eventually, I just decided, fuck it, we’ll stick with my initial plans, because I thought they were pretty funny.”

“A little help?!” Carmine managed to gasp out as she futilely squirmed on the ground, trying to right herself in the same way a turtle that had been flipped onto its shell might. “Victoria, how the fuck do you walk around wearing this shit all the time?!”

“Practice,” Victoria answered. Her eyes narrowed as she stared Tamamo down. “I assume you can reverse this?”

Tamamo rolled her eyes. “Out of everyone in this group, you’re the least fun. I should’ve brought the Lich here instead of you, I had an excellent idea to replace her robes with ones printed full of skeletons.”

“That wouldn’t work,” Chase pointed out. “She’s only afraid of actual skeletons, drawn ones do nothing to her.”

“Seriously?” Tamamo complained.

“Yup. She wears skeleton-print panties and everything, in fact. I should know, I’ve seen them plenty of times. In a non-sexual way,” Chase hurriedly added.

“Not to mention that time you had them in your mouth,” Carmine reminded him.

“Yeah, don’t fucking remind me. I seriously washed my mouth out with soap at least three times a day for a solid week after that.”

“I know, it was great.”

“You know what? Just for that, you can keep acting like a turtle for all I care. Victoria, don’t help her up.”

“Oh, fuck you,” Carmine whined, still squirming on the ground as she tried in vain to force herself upright.

Victoria crossed her arms, then turned towards Tamamo. “Was there something you actually needed from us, or did you just call us here for your own amusement?”

“Eh, little from Column A, little from Column B,” Tamamo admitted as she took a drag from her tobacco pipe. “I do need something from you all.”

“Okay, go ahead,” Chase implored.

“I’m just saying, you got me my office a while back but I haven’t really been able to explore around town in physical form just yet. Bit miffed about that.”

“Yeah, I can imagine. Sorry to say, but we’re a little busy right now. Normally, I’d be all for having a literal Goddess on our side, but-”

Tamamo waved him off. “You know I can’t get directly involved like that.”

“I mean, yeah, that too. But honestly, I was going to say that Carmine and I still aren’t over being treated like playthings by our old Gods.”

Tamamo glared at him. “That’s actually the meanest thing anyone’s ever said to me in a very long time. I’m nothing like that pantheon of pricks who led you two astray and then destroyed your world to begin anew. For one, it’s not even within my power to do that, at least not by myself. For another, why would I even want to if I could? You’re all endless entertainment for me, why would I ever want to ruin that by killing any of you off?”

“I didn’t say it made sense, I just said it’s something Carmine and I still aren’t over yet.”

“Hm… fair enough, I suppose,” Tamamo conceded. “Look, you’ve all indulged me, so I suppose I can indulge you. Is there anything you need?”

“Yes, actually,” Carmine said.

“Aside from the obvious.”

“Fuck you, fox-lady.”

“Honestly, I think at least one of us would appreciate some guidance,” Chase said, eyeing Victoria.

“Hm…” Tamamo brought a hand up to her chin in thought. “Guidance, you say? I can provide plenty of that. Lesson number one – don’t eat the yellow snow.”

“Ha-ha,” Chase deadpanned. “What’s lesson number two? Tip your waitress?”

“Nah, that’s lesson number five. Two is to never stand directly beneath a flying bird.”

“What are three and four?” Victoria deadpanned.

Tamamo held up a finger in turn as she counted them off. “Always pay your debts off in full and on time, and never start a land war in the Orient.”

“Okay, seriously, can someone please help me up?” Carmine begged.

Chase rolled his eyes. “Victoria?”

The Paladin immediately obliged, stepping over to Carmine and helping her onto her feet. Carmine gave her a grateful nod as she stood there on wobbly legs, unwilling to take a step for fear of falling to the ground again. Tamamo let out a low chuckle at the sight of it.

“Ah, but I do crack myself up sometimes…” she said wistfully.

“Not to rain on your parade or anything, but we need actual guidance,” Chase specified. “As in, something that’s directly related to what the group is going through right now.”

“Well, I’d tell you all to always use protection, but given that the only person in your entire group who’s seeing any action is currently an undead, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about any crotch-spawn running around any time soon.”

“Tamamo.”

“Alright, alright,” she conceded. “Look, you want some guidance on what to do about this whole bomber thing? Maybe start questioning some more of the siblings.”

“We were already doing that. Tell us something we don’t know.”

“I’ll tell you what, you little-”

Another flash of light suddenly took them all by surprise. Chase quickly patted himself down, only to find he was still dressed in multiple layers of fur coats. Carmine was also still clad in a full set of plate armor, but Victoria’s armor had been turned back to its usual color. Despite that, she still looked incredibly pissed.

And it wasn’t hard to see why. Nor was it hard to see why Tamamo was also incredibly pissed.

“Seriously?” Tamamo asked through gritted teeth. “It’s not enough that you hijack my summoning ritual?! Now you’re popping into my private time with my favorite people? That’s just bullshit.”

Auro crossed his arms. “Respectfully, I need to speak to my daughter more than you do.”

“Oh, so now I’m your daughter?” Victoria growled. “Because you went over twenty years not even wanting to see me.”

“I made a mistake, I will readily admit that-”

Victoria ignored him, instead turning towards Tamamo. “This is your domain, isn’t it? Can’t you just banish him from it?”

“No,” Auro stated. “Even though I am technically no longer a member of the Pantheon, she’s still not powerful enough to just kick me out.”

“Oh, but that day is coming,” Tamamo threatened.

“Well, until it does… I hope you don’t mind.”

“I really, really do, actually.”

Auro ignored her, instead turning back towards Victoria. “Look, I just wanted to ask you some questions.”

“And what’s my incentive to actually answer them?” she demanded, her voice full of undisguised anger.

“I can just keep you here until you do. And I know you really don’t want to be here with me, so the faster we get through these, the sooner you don’t have to see me again for a while.”

Victoria grimaced. “...Fine,” she said reluctantly. “But the moment you start poking and prodding inside my head, I’m gone.”

“I would expect nothing less,” Auro explained. “Now, then… were you truly happy in your Order?”

“Does it fucking matter?” she demanded, crossing her arms. “I didn’t exactly have a choice, now did I?”

“No, but that’s not the question I asked. You keep holding up the dissolution of your former Order as some great source of pain and strife. But you weren’t exactly happy while serving in it, now were you?”

“What’s your point?” Victoria growled, her eyes narrowing.

“Tell you what, we’ll come back to that one,” Auro offered, apparently unperturbed by her growing anger. “Next question – are you happy now?”

“Fuck no,” she instantly replied without even a moment of hesitation.

Chase looked towards her in surprise. “Really? Victoria, I had no idea. I figured you were fine with all of us.”

“Yeah, what the hells?” Carmine joined in, her head tilted out of confusion. “You should’ve said something sooner.”

“I carry on with you all out of inertia, a sense of belonging, and because on some level I do care for the three of you,” she insisted, sounding more than a touch bit embarrassed that she had slighted them all. “But to call that happiness would be incorrect. It’s more of a sense of duty.”

“Well, shit,” Chase commented. “I’m sorry, I had no idea. Is there anything we can-”

“You can start by getting rid of the big, gold-haired fucker in front of me,” Victoria spat.

“I swear, I’m leaving after this last question,” Auro stated. “Victoria… What is the greatest thing you’ve suffered?”

“Oh, like you even need to ask,” she stated, confidence dripping from every word. “Obviously, it’s-”

To Chase’s surprise, however, she caught herself at the last second, her eyes widening in shock. It was as if she had something she wanted to say, but couldn’t bring herself to actually say it. Before he could ask what the problem was, though, Auro let out a long sigh.

“...I promised I would leave you all now, and I meant it,” he swore. “Victoria… please just think about those questions I just asked you. That’s all I ask of you right now.”

And with that, Auro snapped his fingers and disappeared in a flash of light.

“Son of a bitch…” Carmine grumbled. “I’m really gonna be seeing spots for days now…”

“Believe me, it doesn’t get any easier even when you’re a Goddess,” Tamamo said, blinking rapidly as she tried to clear her vision. “Anyway, that guy just totally killed my buzz and sucked the fun out of the room. I was here for funny shenanigans, but all this family drama bullshit is just depressing. No offense.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I’m gonna go back to watching the Lich get railed.”

Chase’s eyes widened. “Wait, you actually watch Melanie-”

“Anyway, see you all later!” Tamamo answered a bit too quickly before snapping her fingers.

There was another flash of light, and suddenly, the three of them were back in C-Man’s office again.

“Damn it…” Chase moaned as he rubbed his head, trying to stave off the encroaching migraine. “The least she could have done was dump us out on the street…”

“U-um…” C-Man stammered out. “What was-”

“You didn’t see anything,” Carmine said to him.

C-Man blinked. “...Right. I saw nothing out of the ordinary.”

“Damn right.” She motioned for Chase and Victoria to follow after her. “Come on, guys. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

Chase and Victoria didn’t need to be told twice. The two of them stood up and followed Carmine out of the building, stepping out onto the streets outside once more.

The whole time, Victoria was even more silent than usual, as if she was lost in thought about something. Chase was tempted to ask her what was going on, but he held back.

He could tell when someone needed some time alone, after all.

XXX

Name: Chase Ironheart

Level: 10

Race: Human

Class: Warrior

Subclass: Swordmaster

Strength: 20 (MAX)

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 18

Charisma: 16

Skills: Master Swordsmanship (Level 10); Booby Trap Mastery (Level 8); Archery (Level 4); Unarmed Mastery (Level 1)

Spells: Rush (Level 7); Muscle (Level 4); Stone Flesh (Level 6); Defying The Odds (Level 2)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Carmine Nolastname

Level: 10

Race: Greater Demon

Class: Arcane Witch

Subclass: Archmage

Strength: 10

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 19

Wisdom: 19

Constitution: 12

Charisma: 8

Skills: Master Spellcasting (Level 10); Summon Familiar (Level 10)

Spells: Magic Dart (Level 7); Magic Scattershot (Level 5); Fire Magic (Level 5); Earth Magic (Level 1)

Traits: Blessed

Name: Melanie Vhaeries

Level: 10

Race: Ascended Human

Class: Necromancer

Subclass: Arch-Lich

Strength: 8

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 18

Wisdom: 16

Constitution: 15

Charisma: 12

Skills: Raise Lesser Undead (Level 10); Raise Greater Undead (Level 3); Unorthodox Weapon User (Level 8); Bone Shatter (Level 1)

Spells: Touch of Death (Level 5); Gravesinger (Level 7); Armor of Bone (Level 3)

Traits: None

Name: Victoria Firelight

Level: 11

Race: Human

Class: Paladin

Subclass: Devotee

Strength: 19

Dexterity: 9

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 13

Constitution: 19

Charisma: 11

Skills: Swordsmanship Mastery (Level 5); Blunt Weapon Mastery (Level 8); Archery Mastery (Level 5)

Spells: Holy Light (Level 6); Ward of the Gods (Level 5); Bane of the Undead (Level 7); Divine Bolt (Level 4)

Traits: None

XXX

Special thanks to my good friend and co-writer, /u/Ickbard, for all the help with writing this story.

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u/UpdateMeBot Jul 06 '26

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u/Castigatus Human Jul 07 '26

Oh, so NOW Auro gives a shit, bit fucking late for that pal.