A Little Voodoo (Clover/Madeline)

Lil' Bliss hopped up on Madeline's back, taking her offer of escaping a mountain of stairs before her. "I want to live in a house with stairs so I can slide down them whenever I want. I'm not allowed to slide down the stairs because my mom says I might get hurt and my dad says I might break something." More stairs disappeared as the well toned demon god moved with an infernal grace. "Hey, you're good at this. Want to come slide down the stairs sometime?"

"God crap." Bliss looked out from her perch to see Madeline and Lil' Bliss move  towards the isolated bridge. "Oh sure laugh. Have a good ole time. Yep, just keep laughing. Okay, stop. Will you stop?" Out of all the bad things to happen to Bliss in the past five hours, she rated this seventh. The fact it should be one made it all the more worst, pushing the picture taking to eight. Bliss furrowed her brow as she began computing just what her brain tried to play out. "I'm going to hack your phone and delete that you know?"

Emerging from the side of the room, the towering turtle of tremendous tenacity stomped the ground. "Fool! You will not get the-"

"Will you shut up! I'm talking right now." Bliss shot a gaze to her captor. "I don't have anything to say right now. But, you can still shut up."

Pressing his foot behind his adjacent leg, the tyrant bashfully looked to Madeline. "Will you please take her? Kidnapping her was a mistake. And, I wear, we won't kidnap princesses anymore. This one has showed us the error of our-"

"Oh for fudge sake, Madeline, do your demon whatever and decapitate-"

A vibrant eruption of flame and universal darkness began to spiral from a vortex emerging from the lava pit beneath the bridge. Feeling his time was at an end, the tyrannical lizard ran to the nearest exit he could find, leaving behind any responsibility for this endeavor.

A face ablaze with fire, dripping lava from its reaches peaked from the lava. It soared through the air with shoulders cast in shadowy plate stretching out across a bulging chest. A hammer of shadow with a head of lava held together with nothing more than pure, unadulterated hate and malice. "This puny mortal is mine! I, Xanerthid the Maleficent, Destroyer of Worlds, Caster of Darkness, and holder of an Unheard of 850 Credit Score, claim Bliss as my slave to finish the rest of her days working as my personal assistant."

"Great Maddy. If you had untied me, we could have been running right now." The amount of princess clothes and lava made for a very uncomfortable situation for Bliss to dangle from. "Instead, you can remember me with all the- wait, you have an 850 Credit Score? Is that a FICO score?"

A mouth of pure darkness opened. The world trembled. "Of course, puny human."

"Maddy, you're out of your league on this one."

Bliss’ comment about hacking the demon queens phone and deleting the photo, prompted a bout of laughter from Madeline. “Not if I post it first” she said with a playful tone. She was well on her way to plastering the photos of Princess Bliss all over social media, when a low rumbling and slight quivering of the stone castle broke out.  Madeline’s amber eyes trailed away from the vibrant lcd screen of her phone and over to the pool of lava beneath the bridge. Her grip around lil Bliss tightened as she tried to push the little child behind her, in an attempt to shield her from any potential danger their new foe might had posed.

A wave of anger and frustration filled the demon queen when some no named demon tried to interject in the rescue of Bliss. His claims to take her away on fueled the demon goddess’ anger further. She quickly pocketed her phone and began to roll up her sleeves. “You listen here you overgrown piece of filth, I have had a very long day and I have been all over the place trying to rescue that one up there. If you think you’re walking out of here with her you are sorely mistaken.”

Madeline held her metal arm at her side and a large swordspear materialized in her grasp. “Allow me to demonstrate why they worshiped me as a goddess of war.” not giving the large creature a chance to retort, Madeline lifted herself into the air and launched herself at the demon. The massive hammer the creature wielded came crashing forward at the red blur that was now Madeline only to miss its target completely. Madeline had brought her body to a complete stop just mere inches away from the hammer, narrowly avoiding its blow altogether. She let out the roar of bloodlust as she arched her arm back and then hurled the swordspear through the air with all her fury.

Madeline’s unholy weapon streaked across the sky like a bolt of lightning, eventually embedding itself in the large demon’s torso. Xanerthid let out a roar of pain and swung his hammer once more at the demon queen out of frustration. Raising her right hand, Madeline summoned forth a large Spartan shield and used it to deflect the blow of the hammer. With the opposing demon now wide open, Madeline flew forward before delivering a devastating punch to the back end of her swordspear. The force of the punch forced the weapon clean through the demon’s body, leaving a nice opening for Madeline to reach her metal arm inside the beast. With a smirk on her face, Madeline looked up to the bewildered beast and smirked. “Perish” she muttered, before letting loose a massive torrent of black energy inside Xanerthid’s body. Within the blink of an eye the large imposing demon was vaporized from the inside out by the vicious demon goddess of war and ruler of Arcadia.

Madeline the slowly floated up to Bliss and stared at her for several second. She placed her hand on her chin as if she were in deep thought, wondering how long it would take her friend to get frustrated. The annoyed look on Bliss’ face said it all. “These chains and that dress totally don’t match, you should hire a better stylist.” she said as she began to fiddle with Bliss’ bindings.

When time began in the crucible of physics, Xanerthid was twelve. And angry. Countless aeons of untold calamity and desolation had not created a more loving nor benevolent Xanerthid. "You dare talk to me about-"

"Maddy, if you put those up on line, I'm going to have to unleash on you. " Bliss shook from the ceiling as the demon stood firm in the pit of lava.

"How dare you-"

"No taking it easy for friends, okay?" Even if Bliss could find a balance point it would not matter with the sheer magnitude of the creature mere meters from her.

"I am speaking now puny human! I am the one-"

"Boring. And before you die, is there any way I can get you to sign a business loan for me? I'd really-"

Madeline ruined everything with her Spartan shield, and deflection of attacks, followed up by saying 'Perish' and then the creature actually exploding. She just ruined everything.

"You ruined everything! That guy was going to help me get my interest rate back to where it needs to be!" While Bliss still hung in the air, Madeline rose up to examine her. None of the pictures went to Instagram yet; she could only assume the entire reason Madeline was stroking her chin came from the thought process in her mind about what she could blackmail Bliss into doing. "Maddy, you know if you were chained over a lava pit, I would do everything in my power to-JUST GET ME DOWN ALREADY!" At no time did Bliss think her thrashing could shake her loose and cause her to plummet to the lava. It is a good thing that never happened.

While Madeline began to roughly fiddle with the chains, it caused the more still Bliss to begin twirling around in a slow circle. "Oh, this is so much better. I'm loving this rescue so much."

Whether it was known to Bliss or not, Madeline hadn’t entirely been trying to undo the chains around her friend, but instead was subtly giving Bliss small pushes on the side to slowly spin her around and around. For being a goddess of war and queen of a hell-like realm, Madeline found this little interaction to be oddly amusing, especially since it was Bliss who was the one in trouble. After a couple of spins and more of Bliss’ complaining, Madeline brought her to a stop and just grinned like an idiot in the face of the defenseless princess Bliss.

“You know if you keep this up I could just leave you strung up here like some stupid sexy piñata right?” She quickly spun around and looked over her shoulder to the hanging Bliss. “I’m sure these turtle things would love to have you as their new tyrannical leader, seeing as how their last one made such a swift exit.” The demon goddess finished her sentence with a cheeky grin before spinning back around. Madeline went back to fiddling with Bliss’ bindings, being careful enough as to not send the ice queen plummeting to her death. Once Bliss was free of the chains, Madeline safely carried her down to the bridge next to lil Bliss.

Luckily in all the commotion the small child hadn’t wandered off or gotten kidnapped herself. Madeline let out a small sigh of relief knowing the two Bliss’ were safe and sound, though she couldn’t help but feel like the day was far from over, if previous experience had taught her anything. She turned her gave to the older of the two Bliss and let out a small chuckle. “Please tell me you’re not going to get kidnapped again. I think I’ve had enough adventures for one day. Plus I’m sure it’s past your bed time.” she said, eyes trailing from adult Bliss, down to lil Bliss. “By the way, you look ridiculous in that dress.” Madeline said with a small chuckle.

Madeline finally rescued Bliss from the third thing she needed to be rescued from, adding to the list of- "I'm talking now. You helped me escape, that's what we are telling people, and I do not look ridiculous in this dress; you just wouldn't know what class looks like because you always dress terribly. Also, shut up and make a portal." Bliss put her face forward with a row of angry teeth slowly fading back behind a flat nose. One day Bliss would rule Hell. She just knew it. "I should burn this place to the ground and kill everyone in the Mushroom Kingdom, they all deserve it." Definitely the frontrunner. Chelle should take notice and read this.

"This lava looks really hot." Lil' Bliss put her hand over the pit, letting the roll of heat brush over her hand.

"Why is she still here?" Bliss pointed. She liked pointing. It made her feel important. "You know what, nevermind. I'll just shove her in the lava myself. Apparently, I have to do everything around here."

Madeline took a few steps away from Bliss before letting out a sigh. Despite being rescued, Bliss insisted on being a pain in the ass…like always. The demon goddess let her eyes roll as Bliss made plans to tell everyone that she merely got assistance in escaping rather that the truth, which was she had been saved for the third or fourth time today. Honestly it was a long day and Madeline had lost track sometime around when here and lil Bliss had arrived on Mars. “Look, you can tell people what ever the hell you want. Hell you can say you rescued me for all I care. All I really want to know is if you’re done with the whole playing a damsel in distress act.”

Madeline let out a small groan of defeat. It was times like these that the demon goddess truly longed for the guilty pleasures of the human world. She longed to be able to rewind time and go back to the beginning of the night, where she was enjoying an unhealthy amount of alcohol and the occasional lap dance or two, or three. Her head snapped back up when Bliss started talking again. Madeline did her best to drown her out, figuring she was only talking at this point to make her self feel better and because she more than likely enjoyed the sound of her own voice.

Her amber colored eyes narrowed as Bliss mentioned something about pushing her younger self into the pool of bubbling lave below them. The demon goddess, despite all her pent up rage and lost for blood, found herself positioning herself between the small child and Bliss. “Say something like that again, and I’ll end up leaving you stranded on Mars again.” she let out an angry snort and turned so that both Bliss’ were on either side of her.

Her metal arm reached out and firmly took hold of lil Bliss’ hand. Her head then slowly turned to the older Bliss with a severely annoyed look on her face. “Alright, you know the deal, where do you want to go….Princess. The sooner we get out of wherever the hell this is, and back home, the better.”

A really strong chance Madeline would dismantle Bliss limb from limb began to show itself as a more clear option. "I see you Madeline. I see you." The princess dress saved Bliss of everything she wanted saved. "This dress is too fancy to fight. And, I'm probably late for dinner, so let's make it back to my place in Palo Alto and we can-"

"What's for dinner?" Lil' Bliss popped up next to Bliss.

"I don't know." Bliss took hold of Lil' Bliss' hand while grabbing Madeline's.

Lil' Bliss closed her eyes and hoped she did not go back to Hell again. "Is it mac and cheese?"

"I just said I don't know. Maddy, let's go!" Bliss thought happy thoughts and hoped she would wind up back in her home.

For the first time today Bliss was being helpful, albeit all she did was give Madeline a destination to warp to, but at least it was something. Once everyone was holding hands Madeline let out a sigh, half fearing that something would go horribly wrong and that she’d end up back at square one having to hunt down a kidnapped Bliss again. A quick snap of the fingers the trio vanished from the godforsaken mushroom kingdom and reappeared in the middle of a rather posh looking kitchen. Madeline’s head snapped around making sure everything was where it was supposed to be, namely Bliss and lil Bliss.

The demon goddess let out a sigh of relief. Knowing that the group was still together. Only she knew the kind of hell she’d raise if Bliss went missing again. Her eyes slowly drifted from the two Bliss’ as she began to circle around the kitchen. “So this is your house huh? Who’s your interior decorator, Ray Charles?” she asked with a slight chuckle. The queen of Arcadia glided through the kitchen moving from cupboard to cupboard in search of Bliss’ booze stash. She had to have some liquor around here right? That’s what Madeline was hoping for anyway.

After several minutes of rudely rummaging through Bliss’ cabinets, Madeline came to the conclusion that this house was bone dry. She let out a small groan before circling over to the island bar and leaned over it, looking Bliss dead in the eyes. “So…..I guess things are good now right? Some crazy looking dough creature from the land of gumdrops and ice cream isn't going to come busting out of your fridge and whisk you away right?” she asked both sarcastically and worryingly.

The wrapping up of so many life changing events all culminated with a splendid return to Bliss' kitchen. Or, more to the tune of Ashley's kitchen. The brunette continued stirring in a low calorie dressing, made using coconut oil, tomato juice and lime juice, and salt and pepper, into a salad. "Hey Madeline. Will you be staying for dinner?"

"Maddy said she needed to get back to Hell to do Hell things." Bliss walked over to the table to take a seat. A well deserved seat for that matter.

"Madeline doesn't live in Hell. She lives in Arcadia. Chelle's from Hell. How is Chelle?" Ashley never took her head away from her meal prep as she continued to bustle around the kitchen.

"This place is nice. Do I live here?" Lil' Bliss walked past Madeline to admire the sleek boredom of contemporary home design.

Once the salad contained all of the appropriate ingredients, Ashley finally made eye contact with the returning adventurers. "Bliss, is this your cousin?"

"No, she's me when I was eight from another dimension."

Ashley brought her head to bear with a stern look. "Bliss, do I need to ban sarcasm at dinner time again?"

"I'm not being sarcastic! She came from a weird thing and now she's here and I don't know how to get rid of her, but Maddy said she could go live in Hell." Bliss frantically tried to explain everything, but Bliss barely understood anything about the situation- and made up a good number of other details.

"Arcadia is no place for an eight year old- no offense Madeline, I'm sure you've done a great job of decorating and streamlined human resources." A few beams of light flickered in through the drapes as Ashley walked past the windows. The more light caught in front of her, the more put together the salad looked. "We can keep her here and tell people she is your cousin." Ashley took her seat, grabbing a leaf of lettuce and using it to pull out a sticky rice ball.

"This smells good. Why do you two live together?" Lil' Bliss sat down, mimicing the way Ashley took out a rice ball.

"Your cousin and I are going to get married. Does that sound alright to you?" Bliss kept her eyes cross as Ashley explained their modern life to the child.

"Dad says-"

"Doesn't matter. Maddy eat a rice ball." Bliss grabbed her own ball before biting in to see what flavor waited in the middle.

"Why are you dressed like a princess? Who kidnapped you?"

Madeline did a small hop as a soft voice called out to her. She quickly spun around to see Ashley, Bliss’ soon to be wife, hard at work putting together a rather quaint and delicious looking meal. One of Madeline’s crimson brows arched as she wondered just how in the name of Arcadia she managed to circle around the kitchen and completely ignore the fact that it was occupied. Before she could open her mouth and accept Ashley’s polite offer, Bliss rudely interjected. Her head snapped over towards Bliss’ direction. “Excuse you! I just traveled through you crummy memories, and traveled to both Mars and where ever the hell that last place was to save your ass. Dinner sounds lovely.”

Before Bliss could argue, Madeline plopped her behind down in one of the dining room chairs. Madeline let out an uncharacteristically innocent chuckle as lil Bliss asked why the two women lived together, before Ashley explained. Madeline leaned over the table slightly with a large grin on her face. Her amber colored eyes locked with lil Bliss’. “You’ll get used to it soon enough I’m sure.” she then leaned back and stared blankly at the food. She didn’t quite know how to go about eating it, until Ashley and Bliss both grabbed a leaf of lettuce and retrieved a rice ball each.

Madeline timidly reached out and mimicked exactly what the two women did. Her teeth sank into the soft and sticky ball and her eyes lit up. She was still getting used to all the different varieties of food Earth had to offer, and this meal that Ashley had whipped up was one of the best things Madeline had tasted in a long while. Her eyes looked up from the rice ball, and over to Bliss’ better half. “Well let’s see, first it was some shady fortune teller, then it was aliens I think? And the last time was a weird giant turtle lizard thing?” she said looking over to Bliss as though she was expecting some sort of confirmation.

Madeline shrugged before taking another bite out of her rice ball. "There was also another demon, but he was a pushover, so we don't count him." she said with a small snort before continuing her meal.