Vote count as of 12/10/2016:
Use gem for immediate free stuff -2
Use gem to find job she likes -5
Use gem lightly to 'earn' money, -11

We used to work pretty damn hard pulling in negative energy, and orchestrating the events of The Battle wasn't a total cake-walk either. We scraped together every scrap of power we could, and got it ripped away from us by some lucky idiots who got everything handed to them at the last sec-...

Sigh.

Okay, maybe that isn't being totally fair, but it's at least mostly true! And, long before that, back home, we were supposed to be- but, even back then, it was all stolen from us! Just as recently as when we were in the city, we-... well, okay, Adagio did all the work in hypnotizing people and outlining their very specific (but ultimately not specific enough) orders, but we still spent hours and hours that ended up being pretty much for nothing!

Maybe I'm bitter, but hard work does not always pay off. That in mind, I'm not really crazy about finding an actual job, but just going out and musically mugging people is probably gonna bite me in the butt later. So, maybe I can get by singing with just enough juice to get paid. Sonata and Adagio don't raise any objections when I say that's what I wanna do.

"Heck," Sonata says with a little grin, "maybe I'm just lazy, but if doing that makes you happy, then I'm happy too."

"Just as long as you're-"

"Careful," I cut Adagio off with an amused grin, "yea, thanks, I got that."

She giggles. "Have to make sure. Do you have a plan for when you'll be starting this?"

"Some time this weekend." Today is Thursday, so I've got a little more time. "So, until then... You guys wanna do anything together?"

They share a look. Sonata shrugs. "Like what?"

"I don't know, just... we haven't really just hung out since you came back. I figure there's gotta be something we can do for fun."

"Just as long as we don't have to touch anything," Sonata says while looking at her hands, "which rules out card games." She beams wider than the time she discovered chocolate syrup. "Ooh, I bet you could play poker with us! Like, we'd float around telling you what everybody's cards were, and you'd make like a billion dollars!"

Adagio shakes her head. "Even if she could get by without signalling that she was listening to two disembodied voices, she probably shouldn't risk getting accused of cheating. That goes double if anyone there knows who she is."

Distantly, I'm hoping I have time to really think about any plans I make as 'leader,' because Adagio is surprisingly good at shooting down ideas. Even so, I test my luck a little. "Hey, Adagio, do you think that if you ghost-DM'd, we could play Sewers and Sphinxes?" She looks at me in confusion, but I seize the chance to defend myself when she doesn't assault the idea with more than a raised eyebrow. "I mean, if Sonata and I kept to the other side, I could put the DM stuff behind a screen or something and roll for you two whenever it-"

My eyes widen as a realization hits me like a refrigerator fired out of a cannon. I run to the shelf where we keep the S&S books, going straight for the monster manual as the other two float behind me, sounding a little worried.

"Aria?! What's wrong?!"

"Yea! Why the running?"

I turn to them with the book in my hands, looking for a particular creature. "This is gonna sound nuts, but like, you were talking about how the snake-lady book was practically a manual just like this one, but with magic, right? So, if it works like that, who's to say this one can't tell us about you guys? Right?" I look up when I reach the Ghosts page, finding my ghosts trading unsure looks. I'm particularly looking at Adagio, who scratches her head.

"That, makes some kind of sense, I think. What do you want to try?"

Internally giddy about this, I look down at the page. "Uh... Darkvision. Can you guys see in pitch blackness?"

Sonata glances at the nearest window. "The sun's not going down yet, think you can black out a room for us?"

I settle for shutting off the lights in the bathroom and closing the door. They float through the wall and come out a second later, smiling. Sonata especially.

"We can totally watch you while you sleep!"

I feel a shiver run through my skin, but they both giggle, so I don't take it too seriously.

"Really though," Adagio says with a pleased grin, "this means that if needed, we can help you find your way in the dark, so don't hesitate to rely on us if it comes to that."

Feeling a little like I've just been given a super power, I nod, looking back at the book. "We already know you can go through stuff... What about-" The thought scares me just before I say it, so I quickly skip to the next one. "-uh, Ethereal Vision?"

Sonata tilts her head. "Huh? We just told you we can see in the dark."

"It's not that," Adagio says while touching a thoughtful hand to her chin, visibly searching her memory, "it's... seeing into the Ethereal Plane, I think, something that never came up in our campaigns." She closes her eyes for a few seconds, looks around, and does it again, Sonata joining her as the two concentrate, but after a couple minutes, both shrug and shake their heads at me. "If it works, I don't see any filchers or phase spiders."

Comforting thought, I guess.

"What about possession?"

Dammit, Sonata!!

"Even if we can, we shouldn't," Adagio says sternly, "any meaningful use of such an ability would be noticeable, and as we're at the top of the Magic Watch-List, it may be traced back to us right away."

Sonata is still smiling as she looks at me, a mischievous glint in her eye. "I just wanna know if we can do it."

I take a step back. "Don'teventhi-"

"Ready or not!"

"Nononon-eek!"

She dives straight into my torso, immediately sending chills through my body as I feel her wriggling around in my guts. I try in vain to grab at her, but only get handfuls of myself.

"Ack, guh-ick, get, g-get out!!"

After what feels a lot longer than a minute, she flies out of me, pouting. "I couldn't take her over at all. Dagi, you try!"

I look at Adagio in horror, but she gives me a sympathetic look. Or, she tries to, covering her mouth with one hand in an effort to hide her snickering. I scowl at her a little, but her apologetic grin makes it hard to be mad at her in the minute she needs to pull herself together. "I don't think that'll be necessary. Whether it's possible to usurp a host or not, we now know that we can, for some value, be felt, at least when floating through someone to that intensity. It could just be that we can't possess Aria, the only one who can see us, so perhaps we can experiment with this later. How are you feeling?"

I shiver, brushing my hands over my arms in an effort to wipe off the Sonata-ness. "Violated."

Sonata sticks her tongue out at me, but gets me and Adagio laughing with her contagious giggles.

"So," Adagio picks up, "the book was at least partly right. That's something."

Sonata beams. "What are our hit points?"

"Probably lower than that of the Hebi No Onna, so our collective challenge rating has most likely gone down."

"Aww."

I roll my eyes even if I can't help smiling. Looking over the page again, it doesn't really give me much insight as to what actually made these two come back, nothing you wouldn't see in any of this world's other ghost-related fiction. The closest thing to a clue is the familiar line about "Unfinished Business," which, for these two, could be a number of things. Looks like some of it is on the money, sure, but I'm no closer to understanding the rules we're working with here.

Well, whatever. They said they'd stick with me, and until they say otherwise, that's what I'm gonna believe.

Flopping onto my bed, I sigh. We spent the rest of the day trying to play Sewers and Spinxes, but we ultimately agreed that I might as well go join the Rainbooms' game (Sonata still offered to peek at other peoples' character sheets and behind the DM's screen to help me, for whatever it was worth) if I really wanna play. I still have to talk to them, so I settle on doing it tomorrow, either at lunch or after school. Would it be better to get it out of the way ASAP now that it's been a few days, or make the most of lunch to-

I jump with a start as my phone rings, almost sure it's Sunset somehow calling to talk right now, but it turns out it's just Lemon.

"Hey. What's up?"

"That's what I wanna ask you," she giggles, "how've you been? Everything okay over there? Dagi and Nata behaving?"

I can't help the smile that comes from thinking of those two as something like kids I'm taking care of. "I think I'm doing fine, thanks. We're still adapting, but nothin' to worry about." I chuckle, which is weird when you feel a little lump in your throat. "They've been doing everything they can to help me out, we're getting along great."

"Sweet! And I mean that in both the 'that's awesome!' way and the 'aww, warm fuzzies!' way!"

I giggle. That's not a thing I normally do, but... I don't know, it just feels different talking on good terms to someone that isn't one of my sisters. "What about you? Everything goin' okay at the, uh... um-"

"Just callin' it the tea shop is fine, that's what I do when I'm not advertising it. And, not gonna lie, things are a little slower without 'Hebi-sama' around, but we're definitely still in the black. Not just 'cuz'a the guys who insist on buying more stuff since I took the tribute box down, either. Seriously, I told 'em she's never coming back, wasn't laughing or smiling at all when I said it, but it's like they don't believe me! Girl's got a following."

"That's sorta sad," I say with as much sincerity as I can manage through my giggles.

"Yea, but, I figure they'll get it sooner or later. Anyway, I'll call you again tomorrow, okay? Just until you get sick'a me checking in on you!"

I smile wider. "That might take a while."

"Haha, challenge accepted! Catch ya later, Ria!"

Beep!

It's a really weird feeling right now, but I think I sorta like it. Don't ask me what 'it' is, but thinking about getting the same thing with Trixie, Octavia, and Vinyl, it's the reason I fall asleep smiling.

Nothing really interesting happens the next morning all the way up to lunch, which, I guess, at least means I'm getting that 'normal life' rhythm back. Well, I said hi to Trixie in one of my morning classes and there was a tid-bit I pretended not to hear from those three guys that sit somewhere behind me in another class, but the look on Adagio's face at the time said it wasn't something I should totally ignore.

"-and they made one last post before marking the blog closed. Suspicious?"

"Pretty sure Aria didn't kill her and take her place to make a fake blog post."

"Well, okay, yea, that was sorta far-fetched, but did you see that post? It said she talked to her. Talked. Aria isn't a talker, she's a puncher!"

I had been wondering when the other guy was gonna say something stupid, and sure enough...

"I'd like to 'punch' her, if ya know what I-"

The second guy cut him off. "Man, shut up!" I think he turned to the first guy again. "And what do you know about her? Maybe losing her sisters changed things for her."

"Maybe that's what she wants us to think!"

"Pfft."

The impression I got was that some people are gonna be on your case no matter what you do. Damned if you do, damned if you don't and all that. Screw 'em.

So, when lunch time rolls around, Sonata floats in front of me as I'm walking down the hall.

"You should sit with Ditzy and the others today! Then you'd have twice as many friends!"

"Or," Adagio says as though explaining that fire is hot, "she could further build on what she started yesterday, rather than go around making flimsy, fleeting bonds with everyone she meets."

"But like, the Rainbooms can't touch her if she's surrounded by pals, right?"

This actually gives Adagio pause. "You mean, if they see her personally engaging in the 'magic of friendship' to such a degree that she seems to be making a wide variety of friends, whether they're more like acquaintances or not, they may not suspect her as much?"

"Uh, y-yea, that!"

"Hm..." She looks at me, uncertain. "Well, I suppose they couldn't fault you if you tried to get to know a whole lot of people, but things would almost certainly get hectic, and for all we know, the Rainbooms will be just as content if you get to know Vinyl and the others. The simplicity would be more manageable too, but I can't tell you what you're ready for anymore."

Walking into the cafeteria, I nod, taking a good look around.

I see Photo Finish, Ditzy Doo, and Ringo where they were before, talking about who-knows-what as Photo makes eerie motions with her fingers. Is quantity the same as quality with friends? It's not like Sunset herself only made one really close friend and ignored everyone else, right?

I see the Rainbooms, who, no matter what, I should talk to by the end of the day. It's been long enough and I've gotta deal with them sooner or later, if only to let 'em know I'm fine without them. If I don't talk to them here at lunch, I'll do it after school. Whether I end up arguing with them or mending fences a little, the question is whether or not I want that to be public, where the whole school can see.

Then there's Trixie, Octavia, and Vinyl. I could just do what I did yesterday, get to know them a little more, and forget about everyone else for now, but at the very least, I should swing by their table to let 'em know what I'm up to today. Don't want the three of them thinking I'm dropping them for no reason.

Author's Notes:

Been a while, huh? Sorry about that.

Choice! I hope this one isn't at all confusing, but it deals with just how social Aria wants to be, not overriding the extremely similar choice that came before.

1- Sit at Photo's table
2- Sit at Trixie's table
3- Sit at Sunset's table

**Next chapter started, voting closed! (sorry!)**