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Two women walk out of an Econ classroom. One short, with blond hair, and a serious expression. The other taller, with brown hair, and a much more playful expression. The taller one while passing the notice board at the entrance of the building notices a particular flier, points at it, and says. “Major, look at this. I think this might be worth looking into.”
“Remember I am not your major anymore, just Tanya.” The shorter one says before looking up at the flier her companion has pointed out. It said, “ Otherworld adventurer support group. Have you ever traveled to another realm and would like to talk about it with fellow adventurers? If so, come to room 137 in the English building at 8 pm. Snacks provided :) .” Tanya then says. “Visha you can’t be serious. This is probably just a roleplaying club. It’s highly unlikely that one, other people have similar circumstances to us and two, that enough would be in this area for a group to form.”
“I know but it could be fun to check out. We have nothing planned tonight and it would be nice to do something other than studying for one night.”
“Studying is important. I wouldn’t have survived this long.”
“Yes, but we aren't in a war anymore, and even when you were the one who said we should take a break sometimes because it would make us work better.”
‘Sigh’ “Fine we can go, but I can leave at any time and you are buying me some of the good chocolate.”
“Deal.”
Outside an English class stands a grumpy Tanya and an excited Viktoriya. Viktoriya noticing her companion’s mood says. “Cheer up Major. It's not like I made you wear a dress and you’re going to get chocolate after this.”
“Not your major anymore and I don’t enjoy social activities with no reason behind them.”
“Then don’t think of it as a social activity, think about it as a recon mission to see if the enemy propaganda is true or are they just blowing smoke.”
“I think I can do that.” Tanya takes one breath out and it looks as if all emotion has left her, then she breathes in and adopts a very familiar demeanor at least to Viktoriya. It looks as if Tanya stepped right back into the war except instead of the military uniform she is wearing a simple button-down shirt and slacks. She then continues with. “Alright, lieutenant here is our mission. We are to find as much as we can about the target and limit the amount of information we leak. We are not approved for combat so if it turns hostile retreat and focus on defense. Got it.”
“Yes ma’am.” Responds Viktoriya while doing a salute.
“Alrighty then let's see what we’re up against,” Tanya says while she opens the door to the English classroom. This reveals three different people. An old woman in a simple blue dress that Tanya and Viktoriya recognize as Professor Liddell from the English elective Viktoriya chose for them. The other two are a pair of what looks like middle schoolers, though given how old Tanya’s current body looks that observation might not hold much value. However, one observation that Tanya does find interesting is how one of the pair looks. They, like Tanya, also have blonde hair and look a bit like a softer, more feminine version of herself. Tanya wonders if this group might be for real and being X just has a type. Though at this point this is all conjecture.
However, before Tanya could visually dissect the group any more Professor Liddell greeted them with. “Hello, it's nice for you two to finally show up!”
“Yes, it is quite nice to see new faces. I’m Dorothy and this,” The gingham-wearing girl points to the girl she is hanging off of. “Is my wife Ozma. Who are y’all?”
“I am Tanya Von Degurechaff.” Though Tanya doesn't have the title of Von in this life she feels as if she earned it enough over in her last life. “And this is my good friend.” Tanya signals Viktoriya to introduce herself.
Viktoriya takes a second to pick up the signal before starting her introduction. “Oh yes, I am Viktoriya Serebryakov, ma’am.” She then directs a question at Professor Liddell. “How did you know we were going to eventually come?”
“Because you’re like us of course.”
Ozma gives Professor Liddell a light teasing slap on the back of Alice’s head and says. “Stop being so cryptic Alice, they’re respectable guests, not those rude old men.” She then turns to Tanya and Viktoriya before continuing with. “Sorry about that, she just means you’ve traveled to other worlds like us.”
‘Wait’ Tanya thinks to herself. ‘Alice Liddell, like the storybook character. Should probably not bring it up. It could either make me sound foolish or it could be rude.’
However, Viktoriya did seemingly not have that same sense of decorum and blurted out. “Oh, like that little girl from Wunderland. I loved those stories.”
This was apparently the wrong thing to say as Professor Liddell disappeared from her sheet and reappeared right in front of Victoriya bearing some unusually sharp teeth and hissing out. “How do you know about Wonderland!?”
Viktoriya, like the trained soldier she was, started getting ready for some combat. However, Tanya then decides she should probably jump in, as having a fight in the middle of college is not a good idea. So she says. “Viktoriya doesn’t mean anything by it. It’s a book from the world where we’re from.” Deciding its fine giving away that information as these people have shown that they can cast some pretty impressive magic without a computation orb. These are clearly powerful people that one would at least want to consider you their friends. “I believe the title was Alice en ze Wunderland. It was quite a whimsical tale popular with children.”
Professor Liddell gains a pensive look, backs away from Victoriya, and in an apologetic tone says. “Sorry about that. I overreacted a bit.”
“Oh don’t worry I can take it. After all me and Tanya were aerial mages.”
“What exactly is an aerial mage?” Asks Ozma.
‘Of course, they would know what an aerial mage is. Though this could be a good chance to prove to these people how useful we can be so we can get deeper into this group.’ Tanya thinks, so she explains. “Aerial mages are a branch of the military that uses magic. We were a part of it and fought in a war similar to WW1 in this world.”
“Yeah, Tanya was the greatest commander someone could ask for. It was an honor to be her partner the entire time.” Tanya was glad that Victoriya decided to pipe up about her feats. After all, it doesn't look good to brag about your own feats. Though she did think she heard Dorothy whisper something to her companion about ‘Anne being right.’
“I’m sorry you two had to go through that. Are there any questions you have for our humble group?”
“So are us five all the people in this group or are there some absent members?”
“Oh yes, there are more than us and Alice. There is Anne and Luz but they are doing a group project, and Shiro who had to work tonight.”
“How did you three move between worlds? An entity calling themselves a god perhaps?” Tanya doesn’t mind bringing up being X in this crowd. After all, Viktoriya met them when they both got killed by Mary and wasn’t very fond of them either. Also bringing up a supernatural being in this context would not make her look crazy and if they happened to know about being x they probably would not like me either.
“A rabbit hole”
“Few different ways. First, it was a tornado, then a storm at sea, then a sudden sinkhole, and now we use the magic belt to go back and forth between Oz. However, Shiro mentioned that hers was done by an evil god called D. How did you?
‘Huh an evil god that could be being x under a different pseudonym, or perhaps another being of a similar amount of power thus disproving the all-powerfulness being x claims.’
“We died.”
“Do you want to talk about it?
“I’m fine.” Tanya answers which was quickly echoed by Viktoriya with a. “No.”
“So, then what are your two majors?” asked Dorothy in a slightly awkward tone. The rest of the meeting was just talking about academics. Not the conversation Tanya necessarily wanted but it was still informational enough. As it turns out Dorothy was an English major and Ozma was a civics major. Also somehow they are both hundreds of years old. Tanya is slightly impressed given that she has had three lives and she hasn’t managed to get that many years. Before Tanya and Victoriya left Victoriya wanted to ask Ozma and Dorothy a personal question and Tanya saw no point in stopping it.
As the pair was on their walk back to their dorm Tanya says. “It seems you were right, Visha. It was productive to go there. However, I still expect my chocolate.”
“Yeah, I’d say our recon mission was successful and I’ll get the chocolate tomorrow.”
I hate that D made me play maid for her dinner party. It was just one other person. D could do this by herself but no she had to be LAZY ! I want to eat snacks with my demon lord!
“Now white it's not nice to think like that. It's really quite rude.”
Crap I forgot she can hear my thoughts. I straighten myself up. D is great. I love her. There is nothing I’d rather be doing than helping her. She’s a great boss
“Now that's more like it. Keep it up and I might let you go early.”
“Ha, D you’ve really got your well behaved. Mine never listens to me.”
“Well X she wasn’t always like this. I just had to prove she could never get one over on me.”