38.1 – Jeanne Summers
Diaspro flung her hand out to catch the railing of the staircase as she missed a step. Breathing deeply, she waved off the guards' concerns, sinking onto the carpet covered stairs, head falling into her hands.
"Princess?" One of the guards stepped forwards, kneeling beside her carefully.
"I'm alright," Diaspro answered, her head coming up so she could look him in the eyes, "I'm just... I just feel really tired all of a sudden. Like too little jam scraped over too much toast."
The kneeling guard looked to his coworkers, the expression on his face making it clear he was out of his depth.
Diaspro smiled wearily, patting him on the shoulder.
"It's alright," she said softly, gripping the railing tightly to pull herself up, "it's alright."
Patting him on the shoulder again, Diaspro finished her descent, leaving a small group of very confused and somewhat concerned guards behind her.
-
On a mountainside, somewhere in the Magical Dimension
Several days later
-
A rhythmic sound spilled over the mountainside, trickling down across the rocky terrain, the tinging clash of metal on stone, over and over and over. A breeze picked up, winding its way up the slope, taking small measures of fine, dry dust as it went.
In her small nook in the rocks, Diaspro stopped working, leaning out into the open air to enjoy the limited coolness the wind brought with it, a nice change from the overbearing sun overhead.
Drawing a breath deep into her lungs, Diaspro turned back to her work site with a smile on her face, chipping away at the stone with her pickax once more, closing in on the pocket of topaz beneath the surface.
It felt like it had been forever since she'd done something like this, something for herself.
With a happy hum, she swapped her tools.
She really had needed this.
-
"So Diaspro's really having a hermit loop?" Roxy frowned across the breakfast table, hoping Bloom was tell her otherwise, but the ginger fairy just nodded.
Stella flipped her hair over her shoulder and reached for the butter, "she sounded kinda down when she called."
"She did," Bloom agreed, "I think the whole 'mark of Valtor, possible retcon' thing is still wigging her out a bit. I know she talked about it with Cloud while she was there, and I know she said it doesn't matter, that she's moved way past it..."
"But she's probably still going to wonder," Flora finished for her.
"Yeah," Bloom said with a sigh, swing her legs free of the table, "well, whatever the case, we should get going if we want to make it to class on time."
The rest of the Winx made noises of agreement and left the table, Stella still munching on her final piece of toast. All around the room, the student body watched as the seven fairies walked away, lifting their legs awkwardly as they went so they wouldn't trip on the swimfins they were all inexplicably wearing, the flippers making loud smacking sounds with every step.
"It's a shame though," Roxy said, "I really wanted to see her complete a loop in flippers."
"Why?" Musa asked with a furrowed brow.
"Because," Roxy said, exasperated, "she always acts like she's allergic to being undignified, even when she's goofing off, and there is no possible way for her to save her dignity walking around in flippers."
Aisha gasped, "you don't think she called a mental health break loop just to avoid looking undignified in public do you?"
"I wouldn't put I past her," Tecna commented with a light hearted, affectionate tone.
Bloom shrugged and nodded sagely, "Diaspro is a sneaky, sneaky bitch who would do that."
"Don't worry Roxy," Flora said with a grin, "when she gets back from her break, we can begin operation: Death to Diaspro's Dignity."
The group giggled as they began coming up with the most outlandish things they could talk Diaspro into doing.
38.2 – Jeanne Summers
"You really don't celebrate Christmas?" Roxy frowned at the blonde.
"Not really," Diaspro confirmed, checking the labels of two different brands of pineapple slices, "I mean, I will if you or the others want to celebrate, but not under my own initiative."
"But the others do," Roxy picked up a jar of cherries to check the ingredients for preservatives. "Celebrate it, I mean."
"Yes, but that's a combination of Hub-Life, and you and Bloom celebrating it, and them getting into the habit." Diaspro put one of the tins back on the shelf, and added the other to their trolley. "Eraklyon doesn't have anything like Christmas, and unless Bloom invites me to celebrate, I just can't bring myself to care."
She wrinkled her nose as the eighteenth cover version of 'jingle bells' began playing over the store radio.
"And honestly, the further away I can get from carols? The better. Seriously! Playing twenty-three cover versions of each song, isn't going to disguise the fact there are only five songs on the play list."
"Well, since Bloom isn't Awake this loop, do you want to do something with me this Christmas?" Roxy smiled hopefully.
"What did you have in mind?"
The duo shrieked and giggled as they darted back and forth across the Antarctic snow fields, slipping now and then while the penguins give them a surprisingly good run around as the played with the fairies.
"Twenty-nine!" Diaspro called out as she place another Santa Hat on a penguin.
"Forty-seven!" Roxy countered.
"You'd better not be cheating!"
The Animal fairy only laughed in response.
38.3 – Jeanne Summers
Bloom frowned as she gaze towards the horizon.
Or... where the horizon should have been?
Because it was there, sort of, but there was definitely something wrong with it.
On autopilot, she sent a responding ping as she felt several go off.
A second later her Phone lit up with co-ordinates that made no sense, followed by a distance and direction from the tip of South Africa.
With her Speedix wings, Bloom made the trip in record time.
During the flight, she realised what had been wrong with the planet's horizon.
"Bloom!"
"Stella!"
"Oh my Fand Bloom, you will not believe what I've been doing!"
"HEY!" Looking around, the duo saw the rest of the Winx Club and the Trix standing on an Enormous Ice Wall which spread out in either direction as far as the eye could see, and seemed to start curving inwards.
As Stella and Bloom touched down, they heard a sharp whistle behind them. Turning, they spotted Daphne and Roxy flying rapidly their way. The group waited silently for their final two members to land before anyone spoke.
"Why is the Earth flat?"
"Is this Hub? Can Hub do this?"
"Trees are bushes!"
"I Helped fake a Solar Eclipse!"
"Okay but seriously, does this ice wall encircle the whole world?"
The various admissions and questions flew through the air for several minutes before finally subsiding. Looking around, Bloom spotted Diaspro sitting grumpily n the ice some metres away.
"Diaspro?"
The blonde looked up, frustrated tears in her eyes.
"Bloom... I'm a paid actor who works on an 'Australia set' pretending to be Australian because Australia Is. Not. Real. It's a hoax to cover up the mass murder of the convict populace allegedly sent to Australia."
Bloom opened her mouth to comfort her friend, but the blonde cut her off.
"And it gets worse!" The group waited to hear what could possibly be worse. "This. Is the Wrong. Ice Wall." It took the group a moment to realise what Diaspro was referring to.
"Diaspro," Bloom knelt preparing to console her friend – who still hadn't looped into Westeros – but Diaspro cut her off again.
"Oh, also-" she pointed to Icy.
"My sisters and I guard the wall so civilians don't climb it and fall off." Icy shook her head at the madness of the reality they'd found themselves in, "you all might want to look over the side."
The group darted to the edge.
"Huh, I was almost expecting a giant Turtle..." Techna eyed the empty space devoid of stars below.
"I say we leave," Musa said, steadying Daphne who'd developed a sudden bout of vertigo while looking over the edge.
"We could teleport out," Aisha said, "but what if our destination isn't there?"
"We could take a space ship," Flora suggested, then shuddered, "unless this reality has walls in space."
"Is space even real any more?" Roxy asked faintly.
"Crash the loop?" Darcy suggested.
"Seconded," Stormy said, putting up her hand to start a vote.
A moment later the vote was tallied.
"And let us never speak of this madness again," Flora decreed, before crashing the loop.
38.4 – Jeanne Summers
{Crossover: Dead By Daylight}
Diaspro let out a soft sigh of disgust as she fossilised another attacker, this world was getting boring. Not to mention the physical discomfort which came with using her powers was getting old. As was the constant attempted murders.
"Alright," she said quietly, then louder, "alright, I'm done. I've been behaving myself really well, I haven't crashed a loop in quite a long time, but I do not care for this world and I. Am. Done."
The Entity didn't understand, the survivor, it's prey was not acting like prey. No matter how strongly it layered on the pain when it used its strange powers, the survivor seemed unaffected. The blonde survivor had something in its hand, a newspaper. The Entity didn't know where it had come from or what it was for, but it decided a rubber duck would be more suited.
The newspaper didn't change.
The survivor focused on rolling the newspaper into a roll, and when it looked up, it looked directly at the Entity. The Entity could feel the survivors gaze on its entire existence.
It didn't understand how such a thing was possible.
The survivor was-
THWACK
...?
Diaspro could feel the confusion radiating from the evil non-corporeal being, she didn't wait for it to figure out how she'd managed to hit it, she just hit it again.
"NO!" and again, "NAUGHTY!"
Now this was much more fun.
For about half an hour.
Diaspro sighed again, tossing her newspaper (comprised of 20% Fairy Dust for maximum evil embarrassment) back into her Pocket. With a quick apology to Fand for crashing a Loop, Diaspro stretched her powers out.
The facsimile of a world around her had been slapped together by someone who didn't truly understand how the 'world' worked, and thus was riddled with faults and flaws. Diaspro pressed against the nearest error, and let the world collapse on itself.
38.5 – Awesomedude17
Diaspro Awoke before she was supposed to learn that Sky was dating Bloom, and did her morning routine, right before looking out the window. She kept a neutral look on her face.
After closing the curtains, she entered her Pocket, and went to her weapon storage, looking over the various blades, neutral look still intact. After picking two rather large cleavers, she went to her wardrobe to get a special set of clothes and set it aside with the cleavers.
After going to meet Bloom for the first time this Loop, she went back, reentered her Pocket, and emerged, decked out. She took a deep breath, and exhaled, right before bringing out a massive war cry.
It would be from this day henceforth, the day Diaspro of Eraklyon executed the Great Emu Massacre, all because her engagement was called off, at least that was the official story.
38.6 – Awesomedude17
{Crossover: Hellsing}
Alucard was pleasantly surprised to see one of the vampires he sired appearing before him after such a long disappearance from his perspective.
"Alucard,"
"Flora, it has been a long time. I heard of your... issues involving your former boyfriend."
"I'm a little better now but I'm still not exactly going to forgive him now."
"Understandable. Betrayal is... quite touchy."
"I couldn't agree more. Where's Seras?"
"Not Awake, but last I saw her, she was talking to herself."
"Why?"
"To tell you about your new sister."
Flora widened her eyes and instantly came face to face with Alucard.
"What?"
"Oops. I wasn't supposed to say that yet, wasn't I?"
"Who is she?"
"Some persistently macabre woman named Yuri."
"Yuri..." Flora trailed off, hoping to get extra info.
"The computer program from some horror game mascaraing as a dating simulator. I'm sure you'll appreciate her well."
"Right. Make sure that Seras knows you told me, because now, I'm worried about my newly discovered sister."
"Just one more turning needed, nature fae. Now, prepare for... interesting times."
"Nazi vampires and a squeaky voiced werewolf. I know the drill."
Alucard chuckled as Flora left.
38.6.5 – Awesomedude17
{Crossover: Doki Doki Literature Club}
"Okay everyone, we got a bit of news regarding Yuri. Yuri?" Monika started off.
"Thank you. Sayori, Natsuki, I am now a fully fledged vampire now, thanks to Alucard of the Hellsing Organization."
Polite clapping came from the occupants...
Including an unfamiliar fourth clapper.
All eyes turned to the Latina by the door, looking like she found exactly what she was looking for.
"Alucard told me he was siring a new vampire, but he was incredibly vague about it."
"Who are you?" Monika demanded.
"Sorry. Musa noticed that you were acting abnormally so I asked my wife to temporarily transfer my mind here. I'm Flora, Anchor to Alfea and the magical realms, and Yuri, was it?"
"Yes?"
"Say hello to your big sister." Flora then quickly pulled Yuri into a big hug, leaving the purple haired woman both incredibly confused and incredibly flustered.
"Wait, sister?"
"Well... yeah. Seras more or less said that we were basically sisters after I became Alucard's ward."
"You think that Alucard or Seras would have let us know about you before Yuri went through with this." Sayori pointed out the obvious.
"To be fair, we needed some time off, but now we can go forward and leave the bad thing behind."
Monika looked at Flora with concern but decided against figuring out what.
She was a vampire far longer than Yuri was and having someone like that in a bad mood was not a good idea.
"I-I have a-a... sister?" Yuri squeaked out.
"Let my girlfriend go. You're making her catatonic." Natsuki deadpanned.
Flora quickly let go, moved back and laughed nervously.
"Oh. Heh... sorry."
"Right. Well hopefully we'll have the time to meet with you for real, Flora. Thanks for joining us today." Monika said.
"If you say so, Monika. Bye Sayori. Keep your world stable." Flora made a motion and then disappeared.
"Did she seriously think Sayori was the Anchor?" Natsuki asked.
"That happens more often than you'd expect, Nats." Sayori admitted.
38.1: Hermit Diaspro avoids Flippers – Jeanne Summers
38.2 Xmas with Roxy and Diaspro – Jeanne Summers
38.3 Winx VS Flat Earth – Jeanne Summers
38.4 {Dead By Daylight XO} – Jeanne Summers [... JFC Jeanne let someone else have a turn!]
38.5 Emu Virus – Awesomedude17
38.6 Family Reunions Part 1 {Hellsing XO} – Awesomedude17
38.6.5 Family Reunions Part 2 {DDLC XO} – Awesomedude17