'All That's Old Is New Again'
1689 February
A tavern in Frostvile was currently occupied by the owner, his bar wrenches, and a very
large number of men with guns who fancied themselves militia men. These were not the
legendary Minutemen of nearly ninety years hence, nor were they the revolutionary quick
response trooper's ancestors or predecessors.
None of these men were from Glendale, and if they had been the puritans would have
thrown them out on their ears and likely sworn to give them a waste of their own medicine
if they came back.
The owner merely had his wrenches serve them drinks, as they asked for, as long as they
kept paying and as long as they didn't cause damage. To their credit, they didn't truly
misbehave around the wrenches anymore than any other bunch of semi-drunk men with
an overblown sense of purpose.
"So we're all agreed then?" Said the large, hairless leader of the so called militia.
"Yes Roy we are." Said one of the men with short brown hair and blue eyes.
"Just me be the first one to get a shot at'em!" Said a scarred blond man with blue eyes.
There had to be around twenty to thirty of them. Besides being male, over twenty, all
armed, all having had one or two drinks, and now having the same idea lingering in their
heads, there was nothing truly disciplined or organized about them. Their weapons were in
various state of upkeep or neglect, and were not the same models, and their clothes
likewise didn't bare the least to anything resembling a match uniform, and were also in
various states of being clean or dirty.
Roy said loudly, "Alright then! Then we're going to Glendale! We're going to those witches!
And we're gonna fix'em just like they do in Europe to witches!!"
The other men all cheered.
The bar owner said nothing, as long as they paid before they left, and left his waitresses be,
he wasn't about to say anything, it wasn't his concern what this gang of thugs with
weapons did with themselves to a bunch of other women in a town that wasn't even his
own.
Hardly as one, more like a blob of people that slowly congealed into one direction, the mob
slowly left the tavern, barely remembering to pay. People outside in Frostvile did their best
to ignore them or simply stay out of their way.
They moved with a parody of military precision, marching along in loose nit columns and
rows like blades of grass in the wind. They ultimately had to stop and rest for a short bit
before continuing onward... even if Frostvile was the closest town to Glendale... it sure was
in the bloody middle of nowhere!!! And Frostvile and Glendale themselves could be
considered to be in a LARGER bloody middle of nowhere until you hit Salem.
Glendale did however just happen to be in the middle of some major trade routs... thus
how the town was able to exist at all... if one didn't count the original local population of
natives of course.
The puritans, did not like the mob's presence. Even when Roy began demanding to know
where the witches were, the puritans acted with a sense of distain, not liking these thugs
anymore then they liked.... the nice woman who were taking care of their children for them
out of the kindness of their hearts.
The thugs barely noticed the way that the puritans eyes turned glassy whenever they spoke
of the witches for more than a second, and how their tone and attitude on the whole
subject completely changed after one second.
The grunts saw the rune in the middle of town, and instead of avoiding it, kicked,
scrapped, danced, and otherwise messed it up as badly as they could.
Alice, "DID the rune have any magic at all?"
Glass Marie said, "No. Not in the least. It was empty. A failure. Less than a ghost. A simple
scape-coat for some and nothing more."
They didn't notice how as they had gotten closer to Glendale some of the plants had started
to look a little strange, colors being different than they should have.
They also ignored the lupman pops and young teens who were the wrong colors (two of
their numbers was in fact a couple of lupman 'lone wolves'). They ignored their talks about
one mother's litter apparently having given birth to more oddly colored wolves. Yes, the
felman mating rumors were not about to die any time soon (in fact, for the felman, being
born with fur colors that were considered normal for mundane cats was the lowest of the
low marks of shame one could have and generally did not find mates).
The clear blue sky was wasted on that day.
"No strange storm clouds?" Lawrenced asked.
"That was far out at sea, from the 'things they would never again talk about,' rather than
anything the witches did. The storm clouds from Kurse only appeared because in spite of
the loss of Lilith, Gaal, and Solome, the curse was effectively at full power again from all
those who had multiplied the game. The storm clouds over Glendale wouldn't have
appeared until the start of December when the spell within Glendale was effectively
complete and was building up power to spread across the rest of the colony the next year
to repeat the process.
"The November stage would have had everyone else as fairies, satyrs, centaurs, dryads,
and any other fantasy creature the witch's whims wanted to create, and of course by then
everyone in Glendale would have seen the witches as their one true rescuers from the
bindings of sanity.
"Previously October would have everyone within increasing an radius of miles having a
slowly more irresistible urge to go to Glendale for some excuse or another and willing to
enact violence to anyone who tried to stop them.
But since it was the middle of February when the small army of thugs came their way, the
transition of Glendale into what Big Bad Island became was only more or less one tenth
complete. So only plant life had been or was being altered so far, and of course lupman
births who had already been touched by the witch's magic."
"How far did the witch's GET?" Samantha asked remember that island she had help
celebrate it's twisting.
Glass Marie, "Obviously since Glendale today isn't populated only by insane pixies, the
witches fell before November. But like I said, this was all slow transitions, not steps or
'stages' as I put it before for simplicity's sake. And it could be considered a slowly
expanding ball from the center of Glendale to it's city limit or what would be it's city limits.
It was chaos, it's progress is tricky to quantify."
"Qaunti-what?" Lilly asked.
Alice answered, "To make it work like a math problem."
"Ah." Lilly nodded.
"However, Marie and her group would spend some months recovering after their disastrous
first encounter with the witches that forced Marie to become a grave robber. Something
she was sure beyond all doubt she was sealing her fate in Hell for. In the meantime forced
to watch Glendale mutate around them as their bones reset and skin regrew."
"Whose bones were they?" Lawrence ask.
Maddex really, really REALLY didn't like his daughters hearing this part at all, and used his
form arms to cover their ears.
"You have to ask? The only thing that could reliably penetrate the witches defenses, was
something like the witches themselves... the bones of a witch. And there was only one
witch buried in Glendale. But we are getting, far, far, FAR ahead of ourselves."
The small army of thugs marched to where they were told the witches were.
A dark haired Jewish girl was picking flowers that were swirl rainbow colors in front of the
large but incomplete house.
A dozen or so other children were in the front yard playing, some wearing fancy clothes,
most wearing simple one piece clothing with a cloth and string but never the less looked
happy, and a few going around naked with none batting so much as an eye lash. They
thugs heard more such noises from inside.
One of the 'militia' who fancied himself a carpenter when on the job noted the impressive
add-ons to the original modest dwelling with multiple bedrooms added and more
apparently being built at the moment.
The dark haired Jewish took one look at the approaching army, gasped, dropped her
flowers, and ran inside shouting, "Mama-I mean, Goldwyn! Gita! Griselle!"
"Children come inside!" Shouted a scared woman with her hair in a series of curls wearing
a normal middle class dress, not something wild and strange like a witch would wear, or
bland like the puritans.
There were some words of "Yes Antie' Maggy'~!" But the men with guns weren't exactly
listening. The middle class woman retreated inside at once.
"They're all witches." Roy said simply.
"Right." Said the blond scarred man.
"We kill'em all." Said the dark haired man.
"The brats are all their familiars I'm sure," Said the lupman. Even a broken clock is right
twice a day. "They die too or they could bring them back to life."
"Best to kill anyone they're associated with afterwards too, just to be safe." Said the other
lone wolf. This would have of course included an elderly native American named Joseph
Running-Bear.
None of the mob protested, and many nodded their head grimly.
Three adult women emerged.
One was blond, and was wearing a 17th century century red dress with a black hooded
cape. Around one of her bare arms was a large bright red nearly bowa sized snake. "I am
Gaal."
A woman who in life wore an emerald dress and hood identical to Gaal's with long long
black hair that reached her ankles, a black cat at her side, half her face deformed since
birth that resembled a death's head. "I am Gogatha."
The youngest of the witches, with no familiar to call her own. Wearing a brown hooded
cape, and ruffled black dress with pearl jewelry her blond hair done in many different and
seemingly random braids like a mad child. "My name is Gomorrah."
A 'milita' missing half his original teeth from when a horse kicked in the face in his youth
said through wooden replacements, "Abomination? Place of the Skull? City of Sin?"
Gaal looked at the gatherings of twenty to thirty men, she didn't look the least bit
impressed. "We are being ready to face a pack of dogs. You," Gaal said simply, "Are LESS
than dogs! Nothing but curs!"
"Now you listen here beotch!" Snapped Roy. "You don't seem to realize what trouble your
in! Now! Are you the witches that have been causin' trouble for this here town-?!"
"We haven't been causing trouble," Said Gaal, "We have been liberating, saving, rescuing!
We don't expect shallow and pig headed ADULTS like you to understand!"
The men all actually looked at each other confused. These women were as adult they were,
some were even older. However, "You lot have been spreading DEMONS throughout this
here town! Bringing Satan himself here! And we're gonna send ya right to em!"
"That's a lie!" The jewish girl screamed running out putting herself between the witches and
the mob. She put her legs together and put her hands outward like a cross in a pathetic
attempt at a barrier.
"Joella get back!" Shouted Gomorrah shouted.
"They aren't spreading demons! They aren't bringing Satan here!" Joella said with absolute
truth. "They're HELPING PEOPLE!"
Roy raised his musket and cocked the hammer.
Joella felt her body freeze as her eyes widened. She was just a deer in his sights.
There was the sound of thunder.
The musket ball flew straight for between Joella's eyes.
In the split second it took for the bullet to fly it's path, it bounced off a solid wall of
invisible mana. The ball of lead hit the dirt harmlessly in a small cloud of dust.
Everyone, EVERYONE was dead silent, staring. Except Gogatha, glow in hers and Herodias
eyes very visible.
The children, those that were able to care, peaked from around corners or out windows,
some beholding the different directions the next few moments could take in a hundred
possible futures. Benjamin and Magdalena hugged their daughters, Benjamin thinking of
where he put his own hunting rifle in a futile hope of warding off this danger to his wife
and children.
Joella blinked as she realized she was still alive.
The 'militia' just stared dumbly at what happened. The logical conclusion of attacking those
armed with the powers of Hell now slowly trickling into their minds along with the tinkle
down some of their trousers.
Gogatha swore wind flaring up around her showing off the skeletal side of her face that
actually startled the men even more! "No one. No One! NO ONE! NO ONE HURTS JOELLA
YOU FILTH!"
Glass Marie spoke, "If the bullet had made contact, and Joella struck dead, Gogatha and the
combined power of her sisters and their charges and familiars would have turned all the
men's brains into feces and left their corpses for scavengers.
"But Joella lived, and so did what in the witches mind was a tiny sliver of mercy. Joella
looked at her foster mother, and ideal being that Joella was, did not as a normal human
would, and instead pleaded with her foster mother to spare them. And so in the witch's
minds, they did."
The witches' eyes glowed, the familiars' eyes glowed, and the eyes of the children save
Joella also glowed.
The first to notice what was happening was the two lupman whose precious custom made
rifles for their oversized and clumsy hands turned into solid wood and rust, sprouting
leaves. This caused all the other men to look at their weapons seeing them turn to
branches which they quickly dropped. Roy went straight for his bowie knife and charged. A
small bolt of lightning from Gomorrah's fingers made him drop it and nearly electrocuted
him.
The next thing the men noticed was their clothes aging a hundred years in under a minute,
decaying in dust before their very eyes! Some screamed and covered themselves. Some
turned to run away or charged for a desperate final attack but tripped over their own feet!
"You do not deserve this gift in the least," Gaal said, "But you're adults, you can't HELP but
the the way you are, so we'll free you all from this horrid version of you!"
And then, it was like time itself was rewinding for the horde of angry men now scared for
their lives. They got smaller, shorter, losing muscle tone, baby fat returning, features
becoming softer, rounder, hair becoming lighter shades. Many fell on their rears in shock
some just stared at themselves or others.. and began giggling at the sight of each other.
Even as they shrank they looked at each other, noticing the lengthening hair, the
packaging between their legs inverting on themselves and pulling backwards becoming a
vagina. It happened to four in five, or five in six, it wasn't like any of them were bothering
to count.
Over half of the girls and boys also saw their hair changing colors, and giggled at the sight
pointing at each other: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet, -Pink-! Their eyes
changing color to match! Their collection head of from above looking like a rainbow
almost.
The dark haired man looked at the scarred blond man. They began swatting each other
blaming one another, soon however, it became a clapping game.
The song 'Patty-Cake' wouldn't be written for about ten years, but they made due.
The dark haired man from before as 'he' continued to regress her still dark hair grew longer
and braided itself into a simple pony tail. The blond haired boy next to her continued to
play with her even if 'girls were icky' she was fun anyway.
The man with no teeth got them back, and got green hair and began prancing about.
Ones who tried to run away soon forgot what they were running away from exactly after a
few steps and instead began a game of hide and seek.
The two lupman also squabbled and then began to play with each other rough housing.
One of the lupman pup's features became less broad and more slim before they regressed
past the point of there being a difference in appearance between ages. The other lupman
pup also went from being 'bald' and grew dirty blond hair so long that she was almost a
lupman Rapunzel.
They kept getting smaller until all were a uniform year and a a day younger than Joella.
"Hiii." Said the girl who had been at the very front of the little cute horde with pink hair in
a bowl cut. She came up to Joella and the naked girl stuck out her hand, "I'm Rosalie. But
call me Rosy, I'm not very sure where I am right now, or what's going on, or where I came
from, but I really want to be your friend, wannabe?"
Joella stared for a moment then nodded and hugged her.
An hour later or so later Joella was wearing a 'captain's hat' from who knew were but was a
gift from her mothers. The still mostly naked horde of new children and two pups stood at
attention at best they could as they played the game.
"Who do you love? Who are your sisters? What's our goal?"
"We love aunt's Goldwyn, Gita, and Grissle. We are each other's sisters! Our goal is to bring
happiness and peace to the entire world!" They all cheered together and laughed!
"I am loath to say it," Maddex's heads said and one actually looked away, "BUt those men
are about the victims of the witches I feel the LEAST sorry for."
Betty, Lawrence, Alice, Abbey, Samantha, Lilly, Casandra, and glass Marie, or Marie-Eliza
(as was her middle name and that of her mother's), all nodded.