Bear's Beauties: Existential Crisis 45 (Patreon)

[center]<<Kara Zor-El>>[/center]

“I wouldn’t call it dating,” I eventually said after smashing that morbidly curious thought about telling them Tonks was ‘dating’ Skitter. “But out of all of us, your daughter’s closest with Harley and Taylor.”

“How many are there in your extended family, as you put it?” the sole male Tonks asked.

Taking a moment to count them, I said, “Nine, including myself. Taylor’s the youngest, at sixteen. Harley’s the unofficial shrink of the group, making sure we’re all in a good headspace, and her girlfriend Pam just joined up. The only other serious couple in the group are Nikhol and Lana. The other two are Cameron, the closest thing we have to a techie, and Lisa, who befriended Taylor when she was in a bad space. Bear’s the only man in the family, and he’s been nothing but supportive to all of us.”

I didn’t feel the need to talk about the Coven right now, it was going to be complicated enough explaining it to them as it was. They clearly wanted more details, so I took a moment to think about how to answer, “Taylor is… intense. But reserved. When she wants to be, she’s humorous and sensual, but really the best way I can think to describe her is someone who’s walked through the fire.”

[center][Elsewhere][/center]

“I’ll take these, these, and… these,” Taylor mused aloud as she placed the trio of sealed glass habitats on the store counter.

“Are… are you sure? Those are Egyptian Tomb Scarabs, Amazon Nightshade Leeches, and Alaskan Bone Burrowers. Any one of them is lethal if not carefully managed, and all three are explosive breeders if you take your eyes off them,” the shopkeeper in Knockturn Alley warned.

“I’m sure,” Taylor assured, showing the grin that she’d been practicing from Harley. The kind that the psychiatrist had picked up from her ex. The shopkeeper, rather wisely, decided that he didn’t want to know and rang up her purchases.

“That’ll be two galleons, six sickles, and twenty knuts,” if a random muggleborn wanted to get herself killed with the sort of creatures that would make that Hagrid fellow hesitate, that wasn’t his business.

[center][Tonks Residence][/center]

“Harley is… eccentric would probably be the best word for it. But she’s a brilliant psychiatrist, and has taken a pseudo maternal role with the rest of us. Her girlfriend, Pam, is a gardener and horticulturist.”

[center][Elsewhere][/center]

“An’ that’s da Whompin’ Willow!” Harley said with a grin as she pointed to the tree on the Hogwarts grounds.

“So angry, who hurt you, baby?” Ivy cooed as she approached the unusually aggressive tree. Only to blink as she felt out the source of the willow’s need to attack. It wasn’t what she’d been expecting, instead of lashing out because of pain, it lashed out because that was what it did. Water was wet, and whomping willows hit things. Intrigued, Ivy couldn’t help but muse, “I wonder if I can get a cutting.”

“Fuzzy says there’s a knot at the base that makes it stahp whompin’.”

Ivy saw the knot, and easily picked up a convenient stick and pressed on the knot. The sensations and emotions coming from the tree as it stilled made the florakinetic woman chuckle, “It feels like a dog kicking its leg.”

“Well, ya did play with its knot. I knew ya were a ‘knotty’ girl,” Harley said with a grin as she walked up with a pot full of dirt.

The two women had a cutting taken and planted in the pot in a few short minutes, before taking it back to the others they’d taken from a selection of the more interesting plants they’d gotten from the school’s greenhouses.

[center][Tonks Residence][/center]

“Lisa is a people person, even if she’s a bit… rough around the edges, she means well. She’s fiercely protective of the people in the family, so she’ll be a sweetheart to your daughter.”

[center][Elsewhere][/center]

“…worthless piece of shit with your ‘woe is me’ attitude! You latched onto the first person to show you even a hint of kindness, convinced yourself that you loved her, and couldn’t take it when she didn’t return your ‘love’. You weren’t a victim, your need to get one over and hurt James Potter put you in the path of a transformed werewolf.

“But that wasn’t good enough, now was it? You just had to keep escalating. For fuck’s sake, you tried to kill him in that arguement where you called your supposed ‘beloved’ a mudblood. What did you think would happen if he hadn’t blocked that cutting curse you used? He would have, at absolute best, have his neck ruined to the point that he’d never talk again, and that’s assuming he had medical attention as soon as it connected.

“That’s all ignoring what you said when Lily’s daughter was nearly gangraped by her cousin! You’re a bitter, selfish, egotistical little man that when he didn’t get what he wanted, joined up with the people who hated her.”

[center][Tonks Residence][/center]

“Cameron is young, but she knows more about technology and the human body than anyone I’ve ever met.”

[center][Elsewhere][/center]

Cameron didn’t speak as she placed the scalpels in the sink and began to clean them. Rubbing alcohol was used to sterilize the sharpened blades, before the machine disguised as a young woman turned to face the restrained and gagged form of Robert Applewood.

“Dilated eyes. Increased perspiration. Trembling muscles. Elevated respiration. Elevated heart rate. You are terrified of me,” the Terminator said aloud as she approached. “You should be.”

Lana’s use of the Force had obtained all he knew about his operations hunting muggleborns like a modern day Jack the Ripper, but there were other things they needed to know. Cameron knew more about the human body, and how to manipulate it, than any doctor or medical expert alive. She knew ways to make people share things they wouldn’t share with even their closest friends or family. Such as, in Applewood’s case, who paid for his early release.

[center][Tonks Residence][/center]

“Lana spent time in military intelligence, and helps keep the rest of us in line. She’s easily the most calm and stable of us.”

[center][Elsewhere][/center]

“I am sure you have heard of the Cruciatus,” Lana mused as she examined the animal shown in the video. Even by her much wider experiences with the different paths evolution could take, it was odd. “Did you know that your planet has an animal whose venom produces similar effects? It lives in the continent known as Australia, the oceans around which are home to an octopus with a paralytic venom so potent that a single, often painless bite could kill up to twenty six adults. Most fascinating about them: not a single spark of magic to be found in either. Let’s see how difficult duplicating their venom with the Force will be, shall we?”

Robert Applewood didn’t answer, only suffered as the Sith Lord’s test subject.

[center][Tonks Residence][/center]

“Nikhol is the researcher and easily the strongest in terms of raw power. She has a love and drive for knowledge that can be… unsettling at times. So yes, if she’d gone to Hogwarts, she’d have been in Ravenclaw.”

[center][Elsewhere][/center]

“Your offering is greatly appreciated, rest assured that I will put your young to good use. Taylor will enjoy them once they hatch,” Nikhol said with a wide grin, walking away from the smoking, twitching corpses of the acromantula nest in the Forbidden Forest. She’d heard about them even before setting down on the planet, but had decided to wait before procuring eggs to enhance with Sith Alchemy.

Really though, the overgrown arachnids thought they were scary? They thought that mere numbers would be enough to overwhelm her? Well, one less thing for the other denizens of the forest to be concerned about. The giant man would be a blubbering mess, but it was better this way.

“Now, how should I enhance them? Perhaps I should take a look at that sword young Hyacinth mentioned, see if I can draw some insights from it to incorporate into Taylor’s present?”

[center][Tonks Residence][/center]

“Bear is… I guess you could say he’s the glue that holds us together. We all enjoy each other’s company, but I don’t think we’d stay together as a cohesive group without him. More than that, he does his best to support us in our goals. He’s our rock.”

[center][Elsewhere][/center]

“We know that Tom will be going after the prophecy, and unless something major has changed, he’s still liable to make an attempt on Christmas through Nagini. That’s going to be our best chance,” Bear mused with the other leaders of the Order. “I suggest having Nikhol guard the Prophecy Room, she’d sense Nagini coming, and even if Tom flees from possessing the snake, she can still remove the soul fragment from it. Lana and Cameron can wait in adjacent rooms to provide extra security, just in case.”

“After that, it is simply a matter of either finding Riddle or drawing him out into a public location,” Alastor Moody continued with an approving nod. “He’s an arrogant, prideful shit, shouldn’t be too hard to goad him into overplaying.”

“At which point, we hit him with everything at our disposal short of orbital bombardment,” Bear finished, before giving a joking smirk. “I rather like Earth, even if you British don’t know how to make food that has any flavor in it.”

“Sod off, ya bloody Yank,” came the equally joking retort from a smirking McGonagall.

[center][Tonks Residence][/center]

“So, that’s our extended pseudo-family,” I finished, with a shrug. “We’re awkward and fumble about at times, but what family doesn’t?”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Tonks’ mother muttered, her gaze briefly going distant.

“Still, you’ll look after our girl?” her husband asked, his gaze firm.

“To the best of our abilities, just as she will for us,” I returned, meeting his gaze with my own. We held gazes for a minute, before he nodded with a smile.

[center]<<Cameron>>[/center]

“So, what’s this about?” Rhonda asked as the Coven joined us. They’d introduced Bear to some of their friends, and the rest of the Family was in the Room of Requirements, along with the entirety of the Coven, Kara, and Tonks.

“We wished to make an offer, to all of you,” Nikhol said, her voice inflected to stir lust, before lifting her neck slightly and tapping on the choker around her neck. “These are more than mere decorative pieces, they symbolize our bond, and offer additional protections and… options during playtime.”

“Options?” Hyacinth asked, a blush dusting her cheeks. Slight dilation of pupils, eyes tracing the arch of Nikhol’s neck, minutely elevated respiration.

“There was a time that Nikhol, Bear and I played around with them,” Taylor began, blushing lightly as she, Lana, and Harley placed a number of additional chokers on a table in the middle of our grouping. “I still can’t believe you talked me into that, but they can manipulate our physical ages. However the biggest benefit is the fact that they can halt our menstrual cycle.”

With surprising speed, Hermione raced to the table and donned one of the chokers as fast as she could. Seeing the looks of surprise on multiple faces, the scholarly brunette snapped, “What? My periods are terrible and my next one is coming soon. If these can make it so I don’t have to deal with the pain again, I don’t care what the caveats are, it’s worth it.”

In short order, the rest of the Coven had followed Hermione’s lead, with Tonks and Kara joining shortly after. Once Kara’s closed with a quiet latch, Hermione eagerly asked, “So are my periods just gone? Or is there something else I’ll need to do first?”

Nikhol smiled, pulling Bear’s phone out of her cleavage. With a few swipes and taps, the Sith said, “All done. None of you need to worry about periods again.”

“Not that you ever needed to worry about them, Kara,” Lana half teased.

That got the new members of the Family to pause before sending curious looks the kryptonian woman’s way. The hovering blonde shrugged, “Much as we look alike, humans and kryptonians are different species. Part of that is how our bodies evolved to dispose of unfertilized eggs. Humans shed the womb lining, kryptonian wombs increase the acidity of the inner lining, breaking down the egg. During that period, the inside of my womb is basically coated with stomach acid.”

“Lucky bitch,” Hermione stage-whispered with an exaggerated pout.

“Umm…” Hyacinth began with a deep blush. “Can I put the phone back?”

Nikhol’s smile turned into a smirk some would describe as predatory, as she placed it in the young woman’s hand, before leaning over in front of her and using her arms to press her breasts tightly together. As the teen mother-to-be slid the phone between the older woman’s breasts with a shaking hand, Nikhol reached out, cupping the back of Hyacinth’s head, and pulled her into a fiery kiss. The rest of the day could only be described as, to quote Harley, orgiastic.