Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Adversary woke up to the sound of her alarm blaring. She fumbles to reach it on her bedside table, nearly hanging halfway off her bed before managing to grasp it. "Shu-shut up. Stupid loud box." The demoness hit snooze before laying face down on her bed for a few moments. But being idle is not within her nature, within just 10 minutes she was already changing out of her sleepwear and into her morning outfit. A sweatband that sits just below her horns, a black sports bra, a black mesh top over it, dark blue biking shorts, and a pair of blue running shoes. She headed out of her assigned room and began jogging down the hallway. She passed several dorms, belonging to her fellow Vessels, in silence. Not wanting to get scolded for waking everyone else up "at the asscrack of dawn" as Witch so colorfully put it. Adversary still doesn't get it. Starting her morning after 6am just feels wrong.

She reaches the end of her hallway, approaching the double doors that lead to a large central room which connects all the other dorm hallways, the mess hall, and the recreational facilities to one another. She goes to the mess hall, expecting her usual early riser will be there. Adversary pauses, mentally, for a moment. Does it count as being early to rise if the person literally never sleeps? Questions for another day. She bursts through the doors, confident she is well out of earshot of the sleeping Vessels. "Hey Spooks! What spawned in the shelves this week?" The one known as Spooks to Adversary, and Spectre to all the rest, was lounging about in the mess hall. A room full of circular dining tables, cabinets, fridges & freezers, and every possible appliance needed to prepare a meal. Spectre flicks her wrist and a prepackaged granola bar flies off a nearby countertop towards Adversary. She catches it without looking away from Spectre.

"You're in luck. It's the kind with dried strawberries in it." Adversary's eyes sparkled in delight as she tucked the snack into her bra. "Sweet!" She then fistpumps the air for a moment. "Today is cardio day, so don't make the girls wait for me if I am late for breakfast." She begins jogging out the room, with Spectre following in her shadow. "Heading to that new mountain range?" The Vessels were still curious about why one night, Shifting Mound deemed to create a series of tall, thin, mountains to the east of the compound. They considered trying to contact her, but were...unsure if they wanted her to answer. "Yeah, gonna see if I can reach one of the summits and be back before lunch!" Spectre smiled, but also made a mental note to collect one of Adversary's used articles of clothing for Beast and Den to track her down. Just in case the Demoness managed to get herself wedged in a rocky crevice....again. Took them three days of searching to find her last time.

Spectre waved her away with a simple, "Have fun." Before breaking off, towards Adversary's room. Adversary was focused on heading out the eastern exit and reaching that mountain. Grin on her face, rising sun on her back, and granola between her tiddies.

Chapter Text

It was the hottest part of the day. And seemingly the single hottest day the Neo-Construct had ever seen. Even Adversary, excercise addict that she was, had decided it wasn't wise to do anything but try to cool off. Fortunately, Drowned Grey had requested a lake be made nearby the Compound for her to dwell within. Unfortunately she wasn't in a very sharing mood. The morose spirit wasn't actually capable of stopping them from enjoying the water, but after Nightmare was sent to....the core, after causing too much strife, and wasn't due back for another month. The rest of the Vessels agreed it was best to keep the peace, and not get *Her* involved unless 100% neccessary. So as a result, here Adversary stood, water floaties straining to contain her biceps. Watching as a council of Burned, Prisoner, and Spectre, all tried to get Drowned to be reasonable.

Adversary couldn't hear the conversation, she didn't feel the need to get that close. Not like she would have anything to contribute. So after several minutes her frustration building with the air temapture, she did the first thing that came to her mind. She fell. Forward. No attempt to catch herself was made. She left a light imprint of her front upon the soil, and then let out a long groan of petulant anger. "AAAAAUUUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!" This display turned a few heads, but once they caught on that nothing was wrong. Most resumed what they were doing...but not all. Adversary felt someone sit down on her broad back muscles, and a taunting voice followed, "Greetings, Tough Stuff. Enjoying the weather?" Of course. With Prisoner busy, and Thorn no where in sight, Witch has no one to keep her from being herself right now.

Adversary didn't even lift her head up from the dirt. "No. No, I am not. And leave the nicknaming to me, Bitch." She heard a scoff. "*Witch.*" Witch responded with a single word. And Adversary reaffirmed. "**Bitch.**" The exchange of verbal barbs came to a cold draw. With Witch glaring down at her living seat. Meanwhile.... "I understand this was meant to be just your own space, but are you certain that you are completely unwilling to share it with us fo-" Prisoner's monotone plea is cut off by an ethereal hiss. "Yes. I. Am. Certain." Spectre placed an ice cold hand on Prisoner's shoulder as a silent request to take over negotiations. "If you are worried about us causing a scene, I promise we won't. You can go to your cove at the bottom of the lake so you can ignore us." Drowned gave both of the younger Vessels a withering glare, before taking a deep breath and putting both hands up. Seemingly in defeat.

But before a word more could be said. The loud crack of elastic hitting skin could be heard, followed instantly by a scream of primal rage from Adversary. The demoness sprinted after the cackling Witch. "I AM GONNA RIP OFF YOUR TAIL AND FORCEFEED IT TO YOU!" The duo ran around, with Witch dipping and dodging around the other Vessels who had come to beat the heat in Drowned's lake. With most backing away from them, unwilling to get caught in the upcoming brawl. At least until Witch tried hiding behind the wrong Vessel. Both had failed to notice Wounded Wild's, in her newly gifted Dryad form, was who Witch tried running around. She realized her mistake too late to avoid having the older woman forcefully grip her by the ear. "Olha que não sou sua pareceira não." While most did not understand what was said by Wounded Wild, the maternal irritation was very clear. "Ow! Ow! Ow! I'm sorry Mami, please lemme go!"

Adversary was content to enjoy Witch's karma come to her, she gave Thorn a silent nod. "Hey, what did she do to get under your skin this time?" Adversary felt her face grow red, as she spoke. "That asshat snapped my bra!" Thorn snorted, then blinked twice. "You were about to go swimming in a sports bra?" Adversary shrugged, "I don't own any bikinis." Adversary turned back to Witch getting what she deserved....only to realize Thorn and Wounded Wild were both wearing swimwear, and are dripping wet. "Wait....where were you two before now?" The Vessel pointed a scar covered hand to the horizon. "The beach." In that moment, everyone stopped what they were doing. And in a unison usually only achieved by Strangers multiple facets asked, "We have a beach? WE HAVE AN OCEAN?"

Chapter Text

"73, 74, urgh, 75, 76..." Adversary was struggling to push the barbell up for a 77th time. Sweat dripping down the sides of her brow as her arms shook. She struggled to get her arms fully extended, her chest heaving as she refused to give up as she was so close. Her spotter, The Cage, leaned over her....well her body was the spotter. Head was resting on the ground next to Adversary's gym bag. The Cage began signing at her. Both hands, in the shape of fists, at shoulder height with the palms face down. She bent both wrists towards herself, then she put her dominant hand in the thumbs up, the flat of it resting in the palm of her open non-dominant hand. She raised her hands in this pose up and towards Adversary, then pointed at her. Adversary's voice was strained with effort as she responded. "Yeah, I could use a little help." Cage slung one of her chains over the gym room's rafters, the hook on the end diving down just perfectly to hook onto the middle of the barbell's pole.

Caged pulled on the makeshift pully to help Adversary lift the weight and set it back on it's rack. Adversary let her arms flop down in a display of exhaustion as soon as it was safe. "Whew...thanks, Cage. I would have sworn I could hit an even 80." Caged responded by extending one of her arms halfway to it's full length, her palm facing herself, and then moved that hand down to her waist in a half-circle motion. She then walked away to retrieve her head. Adversary looked over and saw it was still watching the video on her phone, that Caged set her up with. "Hey, Head! What ya watching for so long?" Head didn't respond until Caged paused the video to pick both the phone and her up. She pouted at the loss of her entertainment before answering. "A video breaking down common themes and trends in russian literature over time." Adversary blinked, she is entirely uneducated on that topic. So her mind scrambles to find something related...

"Ain't that the place on Earth, where their queen got killed by her own horse or something." Head has no change in facial expression as she replies, "That's a heavily debated topic." Adversary would have shrugged, but her shoulders felt like they were made of lead at the moment. She opened her hand to have her water bottle tossed to her. Caged obliged as soon as she secured Head in the makeshift baby carrier on her chest, that she crafted out of chains. The demoness chugged the chilled water like it would be her last. It rejuvinated her enough to hop off the gym equipment and slap Caged on her shoulder. "Thanks again for agreeing to be my spotter. Same time next week?" The headless vessel just gave her a thumbs up. While Head made a disgusted face. "Please don't get your sweat on me." Adversary gave a chuckle as she took a half step back. "Sorry, Head. It's easy to forget you're down there." She gave the other half of Caged a pat on it's dome. Which was met with an unimpressed stare.

Caged then tapped Adversary on the shoulder to get her attention. Then pinched her fingers together, held them up while pointing where Head would be, if they were attached, then made an L shape with her arms. Adversary nodded in agreement. "Lunch sounds great, do you know what we got leftover from Wild's garden harvest?" The trio left the gym, and headed towards the cafeteria.