Worms for sale~!!!

[Whatevr89532]

Jenna continues to sing and jog along merrily, without anything new to distract her concentration...

Gigi turns out to be across from Dan, but seems to have some remarkable reflexes, diving under the table when some shake is fired her way. She peeks her head up juuust to the eyes to look around and then at him. "Vanilla's not a watermelon, silly~."
The woman behind the counter doesn't seem too bothered for having a restaurant currently surrounded by bees. Well, it's a pretty sturdy shield after all, so maybe that's confidence in her work showing. "Well, they're not actually with the CTC...they're the something-something-B...I forgot already and I'm too lazy to look it up. But you may be interested in the early-morning forecast before making a plan too far ahead." Whatevr produces a remote control and points it at a TV in an upper corner of the room...was that always there? It sure wasn't damaged by the kicked-in door earlier, as it turns on just fine to the weather channel.
The weather-girl continues: "--tha~at's right folks, we've got a heck of a downpour on the way. And it's mixed color rain, so umbrellas likely won't be enough. Unless you've got a really good shield spell ready, it's time to get off the streets and indoors. Honestly, it should be way past your bedtime by now anyways..."

[Abillioncats]

"Hmmm...well either way I'm gonna deal with them!" Cathy exclaimed as she started to pay attention to the weather report. "Ah boo, I don't like the rain."

[xGoggles]

And soon Jenna was back inside the quarantined zone along with the worm-girls following her inside. Some soldiers got a new message from HQ telling them about the weather forecast, so one of them announced, "Let's get this blockade along the way now. Don't worry out about the rain, our suits are good enough against it."
They activated the projector-like device and it started to project 3D-holograms of big stone blocks in the air, then moved them above the opening in the wall where the gate once was. The device began to zoom loudly and soon, the holograms began to solidify and materialize and dropped down, in place, to fully close off the cordon once again.

Did they forget the other soldiers that were already inside? Apparently yes... What mean jerks! HQ at least was kind enough to inform them to get someplace dry if they didn't want to bother standing in the rain, and of course to keep their suits on at all time.



He couldn't help but chuckle a bit at what Gigi said, "Yeah.. I know, heheh~" His laughter wasn't as fun as Whimsy though.
Somewhat eavesdropping on what the hostess and the cat-girl were chatting about, a group called something with a B? Was this that criminal organization the Brotherhood he was told about?
Then listening to what the weather-girl was saying on TV, it raised even more questions since his lack of common features of this world. Meekly he asked, "What is mixed color rain? Is that some kind of magical rain?.."

[Whatevr89532]

The elf-like girl pauses, seeing the holograms at work. She hums a bit of the Tetris theme to herself, and turns her head slightly upward to see some gathering stormclouds. "Ooh, rain~! Wormies like rain, don't they?" she inquires of the crowd of worm-girls following her.

Whatevr indicates the table the other three guests are at to Cathy. "You could wait it out in here if you want."
"Color rain is pretty~," says Ebb, "it usually makes the people under it prettier too." Gigi, meanwhile, climbs back up to her seat and starts playing with the gold ball again.
"I dunno how long you've been in Muffinville, kid, but we have a pretty bizarre pollution problem. Color rain is full of color energy, which...I guess you could call a kind of magic? Anyway, a lot of people don't like getting caught in it. Mixed just means there's more than one kind rather than something like pure blue rain or whatever."

[Abillioncats]

Cathy nodded. "Kay~ I guess I'll just stay here till the rain stops." She still wanted to violet those bees outside though, as soon as that tomapple smoothie was ready...

She took another sip of her fishy shake while she waited, she let out a happy purr.

[xGoggles]

And just like with Tetris, the blocks fell into place in proper order and the quarantined zone was closed again. With the mission complete most of the reinforcement soldiers outside went back home or to base; while those still inside the zone either looked for a public place, that was open at night, for cover; or were heading towards the next gate, quite some distance away, in hopes to get back out that way.

Lots of the worm-girls cheer loudly at the announcement of rain, they liked rain a lot~!
Though back at the market square, there were still the non-transformed worms, still squirming around in the uncovered barrels, at the unoccupied worm-sale-stand... Was anyone going to take care of these poor worms? Or would this so-called outbreak get a to the next level of worminess when the rain reaches them? A few thousand worm-girls already made quite a mess, what if that went up to the hundreds of millions~?!


Dan sighs, "Great.. and I already wasn't a big fan of regular rain anyway... Magical paint rain doesn't seem that fun either..." He takes an ordinary looking bracelet out of his back pocket, looking at it what in thought. This could help against the magical rain, yet he rather not get soaked going outside. Not that he had much choice will all those angry bees at the entrance.
Considering he might as well just stay here, for whatever reason he was 'summoned' here for, and drink his milkshake.
He notices Gigi playing around with a golden ball that looked rather familiar, "Huh? Where did you get that?"

[Whatevr89532]

To be fair, color rain is common enough, and animals still exist...maybe it was just the concentrated violet from eating a tomapple that resulted in an actual change for these worms? Who even knows. Jenna nod-nods to the worm-girls. "You have fun then~. I'm gonna find some shelter for me." She starts to wander off then.

The order-up bell dings just as Cathy thinks about that smoothie again, and the hostess brings it out to her, setting it on the counter next to the fish one.
"It's a prize for being the fastes'~," says the werewolf girl to Dan.
"I need to speak with you about that thing," says Whatevr, looking suddenly very, very serious. "Put it back in the bag, please; it's dangerous right now. As far as I can tell, it enforces on reality what you believe to be true, but it has the fatal fault that it first causes you to believe something other than what you normally would. It may be possible to fix that flaw, but only in some very controlled conditions."

[Abillioncats]

Cathy eagerly grabbed the tomapple smoothy and rushed towards the entrance, though for now she was still safely inside where the barrier would protect her. Good, it seemed the bees were still swarming around outside. She waved at them to get their attention. "Hey bees! I've got a treat just for you! It's my apology gift for swatting at you earlier~" With that she took the tomapple smoothie in both hands and stretched her arms out beyond the barrier so that the bees could access the smoothie, sure she risked possibly getting her hands stung, but it was worth the risk.

[xGoggles]

Who knows what will happen with the remaining worms, and what will happen to the little worm store? Maybe this mysterious tall figure near the stand will have a say into this~

As Jenna starts to wander off, the worm-girls follow her! Seems they made up their minds that Jenna was fun, so following her around could only mean more fun~


Dan was quite surprised that the wolf-lady actually knew about the bracelet, he slowly nods acknowledging her explanation. "Y-yeah... I kinda knew that already. I.. umm.. kind of use it as my anti-magic shield in case I get into trouble. It is weird though.. because every time it turns me into a schoolgirl...", he says while taking out of his bag, his trusty notepad. "But that is why I always write myself a note to take off the bracelet after a given time. I even experimented with it a bit; made it so that my notepad and content inside the bag are unaffected but it. But still, haven't found a way to prevent myself from changing... Also, it makes my head really woozy for a while after taking it off. It brings Many conflicting memories, heheh~", he ends with a small chuckle thinking of some of the strange beliefs he remembers in that form.

He lurks a bit at the ball Gigi is playing with, he was pretty sure it was one of his, but there was only one real way to find out. "Hmm... the golden ball in the hand of the girl, grow twice your size", and right after he said that the ball grew both in volume and mass to twice its size~


The bees react to Cathy's approach, but also accept her tasteful offering.
But as a few bees started drinking the smoothy, the swarm picked up on natures signals that it was about to rain.
So the swarm started to disperse and leave, returning back to their hive, as that was the smart thing to do... Though, the bees that already drank from the tomapple milkshake weren't that smart anymore. The bees' buzzing changed more to giggling, as they started to grow and grow, towards human size, all with rather feminine proportions of course. Their yellow and black changed to pink and white, and soon after, there were four bee-girls outside the store, looking very similar to one another, wonder if Cathy will be able to tell them apart~

[Abillioncats]

“Oh wow, quadruplets!” It was a bit unfortunate that she couldn’t get all the bees, but Cathy seemed satisfied with four. ”You all turned out so cute!” Cathy started to sip on the tomapple smoothie , she didn’t want it to go to waste.

[xGoggles]

"Yay~ Bzz-bzz, we are super cute, bzz~~", they giggled and buzzed, all cheerful and happy about their new looks. And by the bees natural instinct to follow an authority figure, Cathy shouldn't be that surprised she gained herself some very loyal minions.
The question now was though; where they able to pass through the barrier around the shop~??

[Whatevr89532]

For a minute or two, Jenna doesn't even notice she's being followed, remaining off in her own little world and continuing to hum some things. Eventually, with another visible spark from her plastic half-dome, she does notice them. "Oh, are you following me now? Hmn. Well, there's only one thing to do with persistent followers..." She starts shuffling around in her coat pockets for something.

The good news for the cat- and bee-girls outside is that the shield spell prioritizes letting in "humanoid/person/whatever" creatures over blocking "insects", so the new bee-girls should have no trouble getting through it.

Meanhile, Whatevr looks like she's going to say something but then Dan makes the gold ball grow, and, well...
The taller werewolf girl watches this with amazement and then gets a starry-eyed expression while making a sound vaguely similar to an approaching fire engine. "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE..."
While this is going on, her sister deliberately puts her hand on the base of Dan's milkshake and carefully pulls it away to one side, finishing this move just in time for Gigi to suddenly leap completely over the table at Dan, missing the just-moved shake glass by an inch or two, with more than enough force to knock him and his chair over on the ground underneath her. If the shot lands, it lands with her arms around him in a hug and her tail wagging rapidly behind her and her ecstatic face a few inches away from his. "YOU CAN MAKE GOLD BIGGER!? GOLD IS MONEY! MONEY IS FOOD!" In the wake of the rare over-the-table-tackle-hug attempt, of course, she drops the ball and it goes slowly rolling along the floor until Ebb carefully stops it with a foot.

[xGoggles]

The worm girls watch curiously, surrounding Jenna, all wanting to see what their 'guide' was looking for in her pockets.

Well with only Cathy's permission they'll skip their way inside. The way they skipped though was prolonged with their wings keeping them up in the air for half the time between each skip.

Dan certainly did not see that coming or had the reaction speed to dodge the leap. After the crash of the tackle-hug, he winces a bit, as the fall was what painful, though having a girl so close to his face made him uncomfortable for a while different set of reasons, and he gets quite flushed. "Uh, y-yeah... B-but..I can only m-make my gold.. b-bigger...", he says slowly, still partly in shock of the girl's energetic reaction.

[Abillioncats]

"You busy bees can come in if you want~" Cathy offered. "You don't wanna get stuck out there in the rain!"

[Whatevr89532]

"Form~a~baaaaaaaaaand!" Jenna pulls out of her pockets first a harmonica, then a clarinet, then a tenor saxophone, then an electric guitar and its amplifier, and finally an entire trap set, each thing winding up set up on the ground nearby her in quick fashion. "Just think--'Jenna and the Worms'! We could be as famous as Orphea and the Fates. Or that Natsuki girl I saw once!" she says excitedly. "Ohh, but um...whoopsie~. Shouldn't have gotten all this out in the open just when it's gonna rain, huh?'

Gigi rattles off several follow-up questions far too quickly to respond: "Where do you get Maigold?! Do you Maimine it? Do Maimais have it?!"
Ebb leans over and puts a hand on her shoulder. "Down, girl." Her sister obediently releases Dan and rolls over onto her back. "Sorry about that~. Gigi only really knows a few things: Gold and stuff can be money, money can be traded for food, and she really likes food."
"Mmhm!" She apparently agrees with this assessment.
"But that can't be yours 'cause Whimsy gave it to her. Right?" She looks at Whatevr for confirmation.
"Hmn. You wouldn't happen to have a fox-ear headband in that bag, would you?" The question seems unrelated, but something about the way it's asked suggests its answer might be evidence toward something else. The hostess also waves at Cathy and the new bee-girls as they come (slash come back) in.