The tension in Pete's body increased until he may as well have been fizzing like a shaken soda can.

The bulky man laid a hand on Pete's shoulder to still him and looked over to Marcy. "I hope you know what you're doing."

She scoffed, "Dante, you're such a worryguts. Tanya and I will—"

"You told them our names!" Pete roared. His eyes bulged, and he ran at her. Mrs Eceer raised her hands to shape a barrier as Olena crouched and lifted the cannon arm again. Boris backed away to Tanya's right, glancing towards Fifi and the bakery behind them in case he needed backup.

Before Tanya could decide whether to draw a weapon too, Dante grabbed Pete's shoulder to hold him back. "She can make her own decisions, and so can we."

Pete's bug-eyed horror turned to smugness, and he turned to continue down the street. "Yes. We will be leaving."

"No," Dante said.

Pete swung back round. "What?"

"I want to stay," Dante added, as if it needed no more explanation.

Pete's mouth opened and closed.

Behind the two men, Ishita was running over from her flat across the street. Fahad's shoulder was tight in her grip as she propelled him with her. Assistant floated above them. Fahad seemed to be moaning about something, but Ishita's eyes were set on the group.

"Ishita—" Tanya called. She could only watch as the timing lined up.

"Fine then, I'll go—" Pete turned to leave right as Ishita arrived, and he swung round to be face to face with Ishita and her tight, pallid skin and hollow eyes. He screamed, lifting the gun to her chest and shooting. It pinged away, whistling into one of the shops nearby.

At the first sound of gunfire, Boris sprinted to get Fifi out of the corner of Tanya's eye. Fahad teleported away, and Pete pointed his gun around wildly, as if expecting the boy to appear on him and kill him at any moment.

Tanya didn't see the sheen of Mrs Eceer's fastest barrier until it had already been redirected. Pete noticed the glow and stared down. "What the fuck is that!" He struggled against it, but its positioning led to some of his wrist being trapped in the arc. He pulled and pulled.

"Can we stop fightin'?!" Tanya yelled into the crowd. No one even turned.

"Get it off me!" Pete screamed. He aimed to shoot Ishita again, seeming to assume she had done it, but Ishita slammed the heel of her hand into his wrist, and he dropped the gun.

Mrs Eceer released the barrier. Tanya could tell trapping him in it had been accidental; she just hadn't had much time to aim. Mrs Eceer's voice joined the yelling, hands up to show she meant no harm. She tried to explain, but it was too late.

All hell broke loose.

Dante backed towards the Kebab shop rubble, holding the blade in his hand. Olena charged over to Pete, waving her cannon in his face and swearing at him. It was inaudible over Pete's threats and Ishita also yelling, trying to work out what was going on. Mrs Eceer was poised, ready with more barriers, and Boris was jogging back over with Fifi. The sight of the huge monster hound, now with six fully grown legs and metre-long antennae, only made everyone grip their weapons harder and yell louder.

"Guys, just calm the fuck down!" Tanya tried again, taking a couple of steps closer.

Pete's gun was pointed towards her, and she dived back.

The two shots hit Fifi's flank, and Fifi looked down with more anger and disdain than pain. She braced on her haunches. They bent backwards at the knees instead of forward, like some strange bird-mammal hybrid. Her fur had finally grown in enough to cover her newly grown body, and covering some of her many eyes was a mass of poodle curls, now the only lasting sign of her dog heritage. She growled, and it rumbled the earth.

Tanya looked over to Marcy just in time to see her march towards Pete, Olena, and Ishita with a steadfast expression. She wasn't sure if it was trying to defend Tanya's group or if Fifi's arrival had her switching sides.

Assistant swerved over the fray, stopping in front of Tanya with frantic pointing and hand gestures. Tanya clutched her head.

Drawing a weapon will just make everyone more tense. What the fuck do I do?

Assistant calmed down slightly, seeming to feel her energy. It calmly pointed towards the shop further down the street.

"The Wyrm and Needle?" Tanya asked, bewildered.

Assistant pointed again, then prodded her in the chest.

"My shop?" she asked. She thought about it again. "My shop."

Tanya reached down to her leg, pulling the spike trap out of her shin in a coil of black spikes. It cracked like a whip as she unfurled it, still pulling out of her skin with the twinge of a needle being pulled out. It slapped across the pavement, not near enough to anyone to actually hit.

The black gloss sparkled in the light, and Tanya tensed her jaw, focusing on the trap until it set itself off. The spikes extended a metre upwards, the sound of metal on metal as they expanded.

"This is our street and—" Tanya bellowed, using the moment of distraction.

"This place is trapped!" Pete yelled, backing towards the kebab shop.

Tanya was done with this. She used her last resort, throwing a rejected calm emotions summon into the middle of the group. This one was inspired by an essential oil diffuser, a small circular machine with a hole in the centre of the dish at the top. It hissed as it hit the floor, a small chute releasing a trail of liquid that turned into gas moments after it hit the air.

It was called Minor Delerium, and for good reason.

Tanya backed up as she yelled again. "This is our street. That is my shop. Anyone who's wantin' to start a fight can bloody well do it outside of these wards and away from my fuckin' business." She took a deep breath and grew quieter.

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The blank faces of the group looked at her with a drugged confusion.

Tanya winced slightly.

I really didn't wanna have to do that.

"Anyone who is gonna stop being stupid is welcome in my parlour." She saw that the hiss of the metal contraption had stopped and walked over to pick it up. It melded back into her thigh. "This effect will wear off quickly, so just come an' get some water while it passes, eh?"

And with one more wave of guilt, Tanya ushered the gormless group of her allies and new acquaintances inside.

Assistant and Tanya divided and conquered, leading the group with gentle nudges and helping them down. There was something more fragile and elderly about all of their movements in the daze. It ended up being more about the way people funnelled past the sofa than any specific allegiance, so the groups were scattered; Mrs Eceer beside Dante on one sofa, Ishita and Fahad still holding hands between Pete, Marcy, and Olena around the sofa and armchairs opposite.

She'd not known what to do with Boris, so she'd left him for last. His hand was clamped so tightly around Fifi's lead, she couldn't separate them. Assistant and her paced on opposite sides, struggling to find a way in. Fifi was on her haunches, fur puffed up more like a feline and circling Boris protectively.

Tanya took a step closer, and Fifi snapped towards Tanya, getting tugged back by the chain around her neck. Tanya's heart lurched, and she staggered back again.

Noted. I'll bring his water outside.

Tanya couldn't help but analyse them as she passed out their water. It felt like they would become aware as soon as someone entered their vision, following the movement with their eyes and continuing to walk if pushed, but otherwise not acting.

Tanya wondered what was happening in their heads.

Delirium eh?

She read the Tattoo Interface again.

• • •

Name: Minor Delirium

Wielder: Tanya Angelo

Type: Tool

Level: 1

Attributes

Impact: 12

Absorption: 4

Resilience: 6

Abilities

Diffuse Awareness

Can diffuse tension and emotion in a radius of activation through creating confused thinking and reduced awareness in humanoid targets. Effects end upon their independent realisation of impacted thinking or it naturally leaving their system.

Warning: all humanoids in radius have the potential to be be affected.

• • •

Tanya read through it to double-check there would be no lasting effects, nor anything else she could do to help them escape it. The extent and length of time of this could be useful in specific situations, but she still saw it as a flaw. Having people be aware, as it was de-escalated, would help it stay that way. If it was a lasting grudge, she bet it would continue as soon as they came to unless she retrained them, or otherwise put herself as a new target to people's anger.

Could I even sell this one?

She considered it carefully. She'd need to trust the person if she couldn't modify the design; otherwise, this could be used as a weird sleep spell concept where they would have time to do anything they wanted whilst the other person was powerless.

Lessenin' the impact sounds difficult, that's what I failed at with this design in the first place… Maybe I could find a way to reduce the duration—some way of making it a speedier stun that they can recover from quickly. If I could make it for monsters, that might fix the moral quandary too—

Behind the interface, Mrs Eceer awakened first, as if from a nap. Tanya closed the menu. She looked around the room as if comprehending and then assessing the decision that Tanya had made, then nodded at her and walked outside. Tanya assumed to go and check on the wards. She peeked just in time to see Mrs Eceer lead Boris with her.

There was an awkward lack of eye contact as everyone came to inside.

Ishita clutched Fahad tighter, responding to Pete's suspicious glances with wariness of their own.

Dante just looked down, sipping his water. It was the same action he'd been doing before, so Tanya wasn't certain how long ago he escaped it.

"Everyone is safe and not going to argue again?" Ishita ventured, not taking her eyes off of Pete.

No one responded.

"No, there won't be any more fightin'," Tanya said firmly. "You can head off, I can take it from here."

Ishita nodded and shuffled outside with Fahad in front of her, like a wall from Pete's wild eyes.

Then there were only two—Marcy and Olena side by side on the sofa.

Marcy came to second to last. "Woah, what even was that?"

Tanya racked her brain for any response that wasn't 'I drugged you.'

Marcy grinned, patting herself down. "It was awesome. Is that one of your tattoos?"

"Awesome is one word for it," Pete muttered.

Dante followed the conversation silently, still sipping his drink.

Marcy's arms became more and more animated. "Like one second we were there and I was going to bust Pete's kneecaps and the next I was just in here—it's like some crazy like—mind magic!"

Tanya was pulled back into remembering the pink fur coat of 'Mind Fucker', as he'd been so lovingly named by Adder.

I wonder how similar this is to his memory modification…

Neither of the others responded. Dante continued sipping, and Pete huddled further into the corner of the sofa, arms crossed protectively.

"No hard feelings, right guys?" Marcy pressed.

"No hard feelings," Dante affirmed. It sounded genuine.

Pete turned his nose up at the question.

Marcy huffed and rolled her eyes, looking over at Tanya like 'what can ya do?'

She noticed Olena beside her, still staring into space with a gormless expression. "Woah, did we look like that?" she asked.

The others turned to look too.

"Yeah, pretty much," Tanya replied.

They watched for a moment longer.

"Not totally sure what attributes it's using yet, but from Mrs Eceer's speed recoverin', maybe Concentration?" Tanya wondered aloud.

"Vitality is often part of effects like this also," Dante said.

Pete sank further into the sofa, looking more grumpy teen being pulled camping than scared maniac now.

Marcy spun on the sofa, hiking up one leg and leaning both arms over the back of it to face Tanya more. "By the way, I wasn't expecting a whole store setup—super smart idea. Kinda wish I'd thought of it. What do you take for payment? I'm guessing cash doesn't matter anymore, right? Doesn't seem like anyone's using it these days."

"You've met other people?" Tanya asked, latching onto that statement before she remembered to reply to the rest.

"Yeah, for sure. We've got a group set up over at the Tesco Express—there's probably, like, ten of us there now? I was around when everything first went down, but now they've got this whole test thing to see who can join. I'd say you should totally check it out—no way the Benowitzs wouldn't let you in—but sounds like you've already got a pretty solid setup here." Marcy marvelled at the interior of the shop.

Tanya processed all of the new information.

The Benowitz's sounded like a couple, perhaps. She could imagine the extra manpower of a couple getting Classes at the same time could make taking charge easier. She found the idea of a test very interesting. Hearing this had affirmed they were right to avoid the shop—she didn't doubt it had been nasty there before an order was established.

"Are these barricades you've made since?" Dante asked, indicating towards the metal shutters.

"Oh, uh, yeah, they are. This whole place was trashed, built it again from the ground up with the help of a… couple of the folks you met outside." She snorted at the at the sugar-coated summary she'd just delivered.

"Well, I think it's fantastic," Marcy declared.

Dante nodded politely.

Tanya took a deep breath and focused on reverting to her old customer service mode. These might be magic tattoos in the apocalypse, but they were still tattoos.

"So there are two main options for any of you guys lookin' for tattoos today. The first are customs, that's where I get to know ya and design something for ya. The second are flash tattoos. They're ones I already have on me ready and could transfer over."

The old terminology slipped out, and her peppy change in tone felt like putting on an old comfortable jumper.

Marcy squealed, leaning closer. "And prices?"

Pete rolled his eyes.

I have no fuckin' clue. Uh…

Tanya winked. "I'm always open to a good bargain. Let's see what you're interested in, and we can make it worth both our while."

Tanya glanced towards where her old flash design folder sat beneath the desk, remembering days of trawling through them on the sofa, hearing about people's lives and hopes for their new art. She smiled and turned towards the door instead. "How about I show ya my current wares? Best to be outside, it can get a little… explosive."

Even Pete was sitting up in his chair now, failing to feign the same boredom as before.

Olena suddenly jumped from her seat, holding up her fists and craning her neck to look all around. "Bwah! I'm awake." She looked at Pete's curious expression, Dante lounging in an armchair, and Marcy and Tanya's beaming smiles. "Woah. What I miss?"

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