#jade branch

[lead-to-light]

Jade Lanolin suddenly appears in front of a crying Lanolin with a loud groan.

"Is there no version of me that's actually happy?" she asks herself before giving her younger, interdimensional self a look that her own version of the diamond cutters knew all too well. "So, what's up? Boy troubles? Girl troubles? Overwhelmed by paperwork? Did Surge get stuck in the printer again?"

Not at all caring if this older Lanolin was really from another dimension or hallucination, LTL-Lanolin began explaining.

"Tangle and Whisper," she spat, her sorrow boiling back to rage.

Jade Lanolin’s eyebrows shot up, not at all expecting this answer, "Uh-"

But it was too late as her younger alternate self was now full steam ahead, "Ever since they got together they've been flaking on me more and more! Leaving me with all the goddamn paperwork! Always coming up with some sort of excuse to get out of it saying stuff like they're doing something important when in reality they're sucking each other's lungs out!"

Grimacing at that particular image, Jade Lanolin tried to get in another word, "Woah okay let's just calm down-"

But to no avail, "Even before they got together they were doing nonsense like this! Like when they went to the beach with Jewel they sent me a text telling me where they were going! Not even an invite! And guess who had to do their fucking paperwork? ME!"

Realizing she was never getting a word in while she was like this, the older sheep decided to let her vent.

"And then today happened. I finally got them to help me with the paperwork and all they do is just bitch and moan! They even insinuated that I must love doing paperwork because I'm doing it all the time when the reason I'm doing all the time is because they're never fucking helping me!"

Holy shit you two what the hell are you doing! Jade Lanolin thought.

She was pacing now, "Then the chaotix showed up, some shenanigans happened and then I found out that they were hired by Tangle and Whisper to figure out who I had a crush on!"

"They did what!?" The older Lanolin shouted, completely appalled.

"And when I found out when they revealed that I had a crush on Surge, Whisper had the goddamn gall judge me and to try make it about her-"

"Hold up! Surge? You have a crush on her?!"Jade-Lanolin shouted.

Before she knew it, her younger self was all up in her face, "YEAH I DO! YOU GOTTA PROBLEM WITH THAT TOO!?"

Jade Lanolin put her hands up and backed away, "Nope! None at all I was just suprised!" Good God am I really that scary?

But her younger selfs shout seemed to expel all the explosive anger she had, now speaking quietly, "And then I just saw red. I yelled at them about the absolute desecration of privacy and trust they committed by hiring detectives to look into my private life. I screamed at Whisper how she just couldn't let me be selfish for once and let me love the person who's been there for me way more than them."

Jade Lanolin smothered a gasp, Shit it's flat out love!

"I yelled how they never helped me with the mundane stuff. It's just…..I don't know when exactly they turned into such fair weather friends," she muttered.

Fair weather is really the right word here honestly. She hid it well but the older Lanolin was one boiling in anger on her alternate selfs behalf.

"But the worst part was when I started yelling at them how I was the only one who was trying to figure out when the next big threat was, Tangle asked why I was so paranoid and I….I," LTL-Lanolin started choking up suddenly, prompting the older sheep to get closer and put a steady hand on her shoulder. Giving her all the time she needed. "And I told her it's because I didn't want to lose another parent," she whimpered and began to cry once again.

Just like that an age old wound was opened up within Jade-Lanolin. But as badly as the wound burned, these strange circumstances allowed her the opportunity to do the one thing she always wanted to do.

She gave her younger self a deep consoling hug. It took everything she had not to weep alongside her. She didn't know how long they had to hold each other, but she wasn't letting go first. After a while, the younger sheep let go but still looked lost.

"Is there anyone you can talk to?" Jade-Lanolin asked gently.

Sniffing wetly,, LTL-Lanolin said, "Well, Surge is out of the question for obvious reasons and Dad and I aren't on speaking terms."

DAD?! Okay a number of things are different in this universe!

"Oh wait, there is someone I can call!" LTL-Lanolin said, turning around to pick up her phone. But as she did this a portal opened up beneath her older self dropping her back into her own universe.

Now sitting on the floor of her office room, she pounded a fist into the ground, "Dammit there is a time limit! I need to start marking down how long each of these incidents take…….I really hope things turn out well for her." Picking herself up she strolled over to her desk and sat down. Turning her gaze to her paperwork stacked on her desk made her bid a hasty retreat out the door, presently unable to handle the sight of it. While walking out the door and to her favorite coffee store, a thought drifted into her mind

Tangle and Whisper never lied to me to get out of doing paperwork like that…..right?

[askror]

Jade Lanolin once more found herself in a strangely familiar room, finding a younger version of herself. This time it was a version of herself that she recognised.

The one who'd lost the tenrec she loved.

The younger sheep sat in front of the TV, idly watching what looked like some kind of documentary while a young fox snoozed away while resting his head against her arm.

Their eyes met and Jadolin couldn't help but smile at the scene in front of her.

"You're doing great." she said while gesturing to the little kit. "She'd be so proud of you."

"Scientists for generations have argued about the meaning of the ruin to little avail. Built like a temple but with no clear entrance or exit, the general consensus is some kind of monument to a goddess of the sun."

The clinical, elderly human with the bushy eyebrows droned along on television, only occasionally breaking away from his monologue to ramble about cucumber sandwiches. Lanolin, truthfully, had been wearing close to sleep herself as well. Tonight had been a good night; everyone had come together and aired out their concerns, and rather than the result being anything and everything falling to pieces beneath dissent between the Diamond Cutters, they'd done nothing but strengthen themselves.

Kit, all bundled up in a blanket like a fennec burrito, would probably have been mortified at ending up in such a position with his cheek resting on the sheep's bicep. She'd planned to tote him off to bed, but now her eyelids were growing heavier and heavier and-

"You're doing great. She'd be so proud of you."

The sheep flinched, dark-ringed eyes getting wide. It's clear that since Jade Lanolin last met this version of herself, her sleeping problems hadn't improved. Nor other things; the older Lanolin can also see this room in an unfortunately regressive state in general. Nothing adoring the white walls, simple and perfunctory furniture filling it.

Lanolin was spooked at first; and why wouldn't she be? Someone was suddenly in her living room! But her recognition slowly eases that out of her as she settled back to her previous state, speaking in a whisper: "I honestly thought you were a dream last time we met."

"Probably better to think of it that way." Jade Lanolin stopped behind the couch, reaching a gentle hand over the back and stroking the sleeping fennec's hair. He mumbled something about green wolves and poison. Video game dream, as usual. "But... It seems like you're pulling things together."

"As well as I can," Lanolin nodded, looking back at the television as it swung over a giant, mossy structure with seemingly uncountable stairs on its side. "...But the real test is seeing if that 'together' can last under pressure."

"The first step is always the hardest. Getting started, I mean. After that, it's just upkeep and clerical work. And I'm good at both of those, so..." She winked. Lanolin barely stifled an exhausted laugh.

"Yeah. This is definitely a dream." She shut her eyes. Meeting yourself was weird, but... Not unpleasant. "Thank you. For last time. The words of encouragement."

"Thank you for listening." Jade Lanolin decided it was probably best to leave these to to sleep. She bowed her head very slightly, giving one last look to the sleeping fennec and her younger self before leaving the door and whisking herself back where she belonged. She could only hope what they put together as a foundation was strong enough to last... But she had a good feeling about it. And that was definitely a strong start.

[lovenikkiclothes]

Based around the coat ‘Orchid Nectar’.

[lead-to-light]

Jade Surge sees LTL Surge fiddle with her power inhibitors.

"Hey, I know it sucks right now but it's temporary. Been there, done that. You'll get through it. I know it."

"Thanks but I gotta say it's not all bad. With these on I've stopped hallucinating Starline," LTL-Surge said.

Jade Surge’s eyes widened, "Oh shit well that's good to hear." A thought occurred to her, "What about when you eventually get the take them off and you start seeing him again?"

She shrugged and said, "The docs are workshopping some stuff and Amy's trying to get ahold of somebody who's good at keeping cool in a fight so they can teach me to keep my anger under control, some guy named Marty or something."

[askror]

*A wormhole open up in the sky above the ship and before you know it, Sang-mi crashes face first onto the deck.*

"How did...?" The unfortunately deposited tenrec peeled herself off of the boards she'd faceplanted on with a groan, a little blood dribbling from one nostril. Bleary eyes take in a star-dotted sky overhead that seems to go for miles and miles, and the sound of the living breathing awe-inspiring existence of the ocean filled her ears to boot. And then the raccoon. The raccoon, who is looking at her from behind a ship wheel twice her size. A long, wordless staring contest began... Or at least it felt eternally long to the rattled and bewildered Sang-mi, before Marine cupped her hands around her mouth: "Oi, Surge! A bigger, prettier version of you just fell outta the sky!"

"Surge..?! Wait, what's-"

"The hell d'you mean bigger and prettier?! Lemme get a look at this friggin' beanpole and I'll-" A hand went to Sang-mi's shoulder and promptly spun her around on her heel, and she abruptly found herself staring down at another tenrec who hand her hands on her hips, linen muffler cloak fluttering behind her in the sea breeze dramatically. The tied up quills. The dagger-teeth currently displayed in a perplexed frown. Okay, the big billowy cape was a little crazy, but-

"M-Min-Ji?! I mean, Surge?!"

"Woah. Uh. You... kinda do look like me." Surge looked her up and down, wisely not contesting either of the two qualifiers Marine gave her anymore. "Not that I'd ever wear something so damn lacy. A sundress? Gimme a break."

"Min-ji, What's going on?! Who's that raccoon? Where's Jewel? Where-" The questions came in an outpour before she managed to stop herself, stiffen, and ask: "Why are we on an old-timey pirate ship?"

"What's Mingee? Is that an Earth swear? Am I gonna get in trouble if I say it? Am I in trouble right now?" Marine asked loudly from her perch behind the wheel. The tenrecs ignored her.

"So, to answer your questions..." Surge began to count each of them off on her fingers as she spoke, "Dunno know who Min-ji is, the raccoon's a little scumbag who drives boats, dunno who Jewel is, and you fell from a magical hole in the sky onto a boat in the middle of the ocean in another dimension where I'm sailing with the Princess of a magical empire to try to find a legendary sword and some enchanted talking rocks so that I can get home and make out with a sheep."

Silence. Sangi-mi, though, eventually sat down calmly with her hands on knees folded against her chest. Surge frowned. "Uh... What the hell are you doing?"

"Clearly I'm dreaming, and this is the part of the dream where everything just stops making sense and your brain starts throwing nonsense at you. So I'm, um... Going to just sit and wait to wake up?"

"Aw, c'mon, was any of that really that weird?" Surge felt strangely insulted somehow. "Oh, well. I'm sure the Princess can figure somethin' out for you. Until then, whatever floats your boat, sister."

"At least you remember that part," Sang-mi pouted. "...W-wait, did you say sheep?" The taller of the two tenrec's face immediately turned a deep red.

Surge had a feeling this was going to be a long night.

[lead-to-light]

Sang-mi has somehow gained control over a tumblr wormhole and is using it to pat the different Lanolins on the head.

*pat pat*

Still on the phone with her uncle, Lanolin gave a shout of alarm at the unexpected contact and looked up to see a green tenrec that sort of looked like Surge give a cheery wave and leave through a wormhole.

"Everything alright lass?"

Turning back to her phone she said, "Uncle Philip do you know anything about the rise wormhole activity?

"This'll sound daft but I wouldn't worry about it."

"It really feels like something I should be worrying about," Lanolin countered. "A strange woman appeared through a wormhole, patted my head and then left!"

"And? Is that a bad thing?"

Lanolin faltered, "Well no but-"

"Lass, the universe just gave you a random act of kindness. Take heart in the fact that there are people who care about you so much that they're willing to break the laws of space-time provide any kind of comfort."

Taking in his words, a smile spread across her face, "You're right, and maybe one day I'll get the chance to thank them."

[lead-to-light]

Sang-mi by the way of personal tumblr wormhole goes around to the offices of the different Jewels of the Surgeverse, leaving boxes of homemade Holangi food with a note that says.

"Keep up the good work."

Jewel stared at the note and the accompanied food. She knew she shouldn't eat food that came out of nowhere. But she just had a very uncomfortable conversation with Lanolin, the kind that confirmed that things were not going back to normal anytime soon, so she threw caution to the wind and dug into the delicious food to ease her mind.

[askror]

Jade Lanolin opens the door to her office only to find herself to a more or less identical office, except it's clearly not hers...and behind the desk sits a younger Lanolin with a small fennec fox off to the side.

"Oh...it's one of these again." Jadolin sighed as she caught a look at the literal mountain of paperwork the younger sheep was dealing with. "And Maggie thought I was bad...she'd have a hissy fit if she saw this. You need some help?"

In that featureless, blank-walled little office, a beleaguered Lanolin looked up to see...

"Kit, I think it's finally happening," she rumbled dully, "I need you to-"

"Y-You're not having a caffeine stroke. I see her too." Kit said, looking at the... very different Lanolin ahead of her. The pair just gawked at her in disbelief. Jadolin sighed, scratching the side of her head just below one wooly poof as she realized this wasn't going to get anywhere without her assistance. The older sheep settled on letting herself in and nestling herself between Lanolin and Kit.

"Let's see..." She pulled a bundle of paper closer to her and plucked a pen from the cup in the center of the desk with impressive precision, speeding over the block letter forms and reports. Yes, she'd been talked out of being a complete office work addict in her world, but no one could truly banish the sheer clerical power of a Lanolin from her entirely, regardless of the world. "Expenditure reports... Replacing a vending machine that Knuckles punched in half... 'Priestess Consortium targets train'? That's a new name."

Her eyes flicked to the side, and she realized that the smaller version of herself was currently alternating between looking at one of her muscular biceps in awe and then flexing her own, with results that paled in comparison. She blushed awkwardly: "Look, it's not that wild. I used to work on a farm."

"So did I," the younger Lanolin quirked an eyebrow, "But I was driving the tractor, not pulling the plow with my shoulders."

"It also helps to get out instead of sitting in a chair doing paperwork half of every day," Jadolin said, giving her a slightly sharper glance.

"Yes, well..." That wasn't happening anytime soon, of course. So the younger Lan decided to change the subject, "Are you going to ever actually tell us where you're from?" She tried to quash her own blush of embarrassment over being noticed in comparing physiques by grabing a bundle for herself to start crossing t's and dotting i's.

"Another dimension," Jadolin shrugged casually. "Sometimes the veil thins, and things push through where they shouldn't be. It's usually a very temporary thing, so I'm assuming when I walk back out the door, I'll end up back where I'm supposed to ."

"Wait, that's real?" Kit said, gasping. "Then... The extradimensional UFO theory is true? Ultraterrestrials are real?"

Both sheep stared at him dumbly.

It was his turn to blush, entirely over his nerdout being met with confusion: "...T-The idea that 'alien sightings' are actually just beings from another dimension temporarily crossing into ours?"

"Um, no. Aliens are real," Jadolin said with a frown.

"Yeah. They attacked the whole world a few years back before Shadow drove them off." Lanolin confirmed.

"Oh." Kit slumped. Boring.

The paperwork train continued at full speed for awhile, the uniform white stack slowly but surely thinning between the three of them. Jadolin had to admit... It was kind of fun. Not only working with someone of similar talent, but being allowed this vice without Maggie around to lecture her. The little alien had been right; she absolutely had a problem with carrying all of this work on her back. But dipping into good, hard paperwork in isolation like this felt a little like slipping into a warm bath. Eventually, she was the one who broke the silence out of curiosity: "So... Another dimension, like I mentioned, but why do you bring Kit along to do this here? I don't think I could pay him to sit still for this long in my world. Wouldn't you rather be with Surge?"

It had been an honest question; mainly because Kit seemed fairly unenthused at what they were doing. It was nothing compared to the shadow that passed over both of their faces after she spoke, however. Lanolin reacted as though she'd been struck, shutting one eye and frowning deeply. Kit, meanwhile, seemed to almost instantly recede into shadow, going very still with his head down.

"...She's no longer with us," was what Lanolin finally said. The older sheep winced at realizing she had put a foot in her mouth, but also received a similar dose of sadness that began to clutch at her heart. She was a different Lanolin. She knew a different Surge and Kit. And yet all the same, imagining that loud boisterous tenrec who had come so far from her darkest moments being gone. No, more than that; imagining a different outcome to that story, where they had to explain that to Sang-mi. Imagining that tall girl just... Wilt.

"I'm sorry," she finally offered softly. Lanolin gave a grim nod. Kit, however, very slowly looked up at her. The expression on his face was a strange and twisted thing. Not happy. Not sad. She didn't know how to describe it other than slightly unhinged.

"Is she still there? In your world?" The stare could have burnt a hole through her. She hadn't seen Kit in this sort of state for a very long time; even when "the doctor was loud," he didn't turn into this strange creature anymore. A construct. Mechanical hope crashing into organic hopelessness to create a very mild sort of madness.

"She is. She's very different now." She knew exactly what he was going to ask next; if he could come with her. The younger Lanolin seemed to be able to guess this too, her eyes looking as though she had not been losing sleep so much as never having it. She had to fix this. "And so are you. You're there too."

Kit changed, on a dime; that intense programming-born need for his singular objective seeming to drain from him as he realized it would only make sense that if there was a tenrec, so too was there a fennec. Jadolin continued, "It was a long and hard road, but you made it work. And you're a lot happier now, even if you have some off days now and then."

A long stretch of silence. And then, finally, the fennec looked down at the paper he had been working on: "I see." And that was that, just as she knew it would be. No matter what the world, Kit was a good boy at his heart. And a smart one, too; he knew he couldn't just leave this world and supplant another version of himself. Not one who had seen so many of the same struggles he had.

The paperwork continued until the "IN" basket had been utterly cleared, the "OUT" basket now a veritable tower of pen-scrawled paper. Jadolin let out a little sigh, Lanolin doing the same, both of them falling back into the exact same routine of leaning back in their chair and looking up at the ceiling in satisfaction in supernatural union.

"Thank you for all your help, um... Buff me," Lanolin said. The older version of herself regarded her with a polite nod and a smile brighter than this version of herself could ever hope to achieve. At least at the moment.

"No problem. You two take the day off and go... Have fun or something. I better get back to my own... Well, everything." She pushed herself out of the chair, stretching an arm over her head, her shirt riding up and giving a glimpse of those washboard abs. Both Lanolin and Kit looked down at their own stomachs in disbelief; how the hell did she manage that?

Jadolin made her way to the door, hand going down to the knob, but she paused for a moment; Maggie would kill her if she just left at this point. So, one last time, she looked over her shoulder: "I know this probably sounds weird coming out of a mouth that looks so much like yours, but... Getting lost in work? It's not really self-care. It's just a distraction. And when the distraction's gone, the bad stuff will always be there. And if this world's anything like mine? There's a lot of people who will be able to help you."

She opened the door and headed through. And then, she was gone.