April Fools 2026: The Council of Frosts Pt. 1

On the eve of Joy’s arrival into the Nexus, and hours after Ignis’ Beholder coronation, the Nexus celebrated with a party.

Limited to the Floor of Amalgamation, of course, since the Common Hub and the Residential Floors were preparing for the hardships of the coming war with Scarlet Logic. Although, that did not sour the overall mood of the Nexus.

With another major war dawning on Elysia once again, and with the Healers afraid that it may be weeks before they would have a chance to see their precious Mother again: they gathered the finest crops from the fertile fields of the Floor of Amalgamation into a tall pile.

Then, with eyes twinkling with starlight, Healers approached the footsteps of the Amalgam dead in the night and unanimously proclaimed:

“Crockpot party…”

Frost groaned, nursing her head as she recalled their singsong choir.

Did they practice harmonizing their voices? If so, it was impressive that over two hundred could be so coordinated. She figured that they must have learned a thing or two from the Black Wings, who operated on the same shared brain cell.

A massive fifty-liter crockpot bubbled in the plaza of the Floor of Amalgamation. A pyre made from oak logs burned from beneath. Since Frost was present, Healers could safely reach into the flames. After all, Frost’s flames were harmless to the innocent.

Healers took turns hauling various vegetables, fruits, and leftover foods to the crockpot. A ladder was arranged to allow the Healers to climb just over the rim.

Now, if it were only the Healers, then Frost wouldn’t have been so worried.

“Crockpot? What makes this pot crock?” Cer cracked the joke, gathering laughs only from her harm of Healers.

Her contribution was an expensive liquor: A Bramble of Old; a bottle of wine that had been aging for 315 years. As to where she acquired such a relic from, Cer assured them that it came from a legitimate avenue.

Ergo, it was gifted by one of her Healer harem members (likely the Blood Angel/Witch) who did not disclose where she acquired it. Since there was at least one degree of separation, Cer couldn’t exactly be held responsible if it was: hypothetically: received in an illegal manner…

“Good thing Healers can’t get drunk.” Frost murmured, adding a few cubes of cooking stock.

Jury did the same, except she threw in a kilogram of beef stock made from the finest skewer meat.

“Delicious beef! Delicious beef~!”

Just plunked a spoon into the crockpot and took a sip. Immediately, her face lit up as she gave Frost thirty nods in quick succession, like a wet dog shaking itself dry. Adorable, Frost thought. She extended a hand and pat Jury’s head, sifting her fingers through her white hair.

“Mm?” Jury tilted her head, wondering why she was being patted, but not enough to question it.

“Mn.”

An adorable sound came from just below Frost’s chest.

“Ah, Ignis?”

*Staaaaaare*

It was none other than Ignis, who stood on her toes with an expectant sparkle in her eyes. How could Frost possibly say no to that face? No wonder the taverns back in Divas Pass kept feeding her milk. She was too adorable to leave alone.

“Good girl.”

“Mn!”

Ignis rose into Frost’s hand and nuzzled against it. Like Jury’s hair, hers was velvet, and ruffling her hair exposed the same rosy scent. It came from Jury’s shampoo, which was made from rose extracts. Ignis must have run out of her own shampoo if she had to use Jury’s.

As usual, the issue with headpatting one person was that it often did not end with just one. Healers began lining up behind Ignis, and among them, she could make out the faces of the Triplets who wanted in on the action. Joy, being a polite girl, also joined the line.

She had the privilege to cut in as the daughter of the Amalgam, but she had the humility to acknowledge that it was unfair.

“Geez, not this again. Haaaah. Alright. C’mere. Since you’re already lining up: If anyone hasn’t put their ingredients into the crockpot yet, then now is the time to do it. We’ll use this line to start serving the…”

The crockpot bubbled, releasing a sour smell. The scent caused Frost to mentally reel. But she appeared to be the only one who reacted this way. Healers began lapping their lips in hunger. To them, the sour scent was no different from a freshly opened jar of pickles.

“… Food?”

* * *

Food poisoning was not a concern, since the Floor of Amalgamation housed 90% of Elysia’s Healer population. At this point, taste was the only concern for Frost. Then again, Frost could have sworn she saw a Moon use the broth to melt down a lock.

The crockpot was an unholy concoction of fruits, vegetables, liquor, meats, and rare foraged ingredients. Some threw candy. Others poured milk. Suffice it to say, the taste was bound to be unbearable.

Frost’s face winced as the bowl touched her lips. She had not even tasted it yet, and she was already gagging. With nothing left to lose, and having eaten considerably worse, she tipped her head back and skulled it as though she was downing a shot of alcohol.

Her body began convulsing. She felt her organs churn, and her throat clogged the very moment the foul broth touched her tongue.

However:

“It’s not that bad? The hell?”

–It was genuinely delicious. Liquid ambrosia, only that it looked like it was syphoned out of a sewer pipe. Other than that, Frost was happy with the result.

“Lucky~ I added compound ‘X’ into the cauldron.” The Medium Frost proudly announced.

“Which is?”

“Does it matter if it tastes good?” The Dreamer shrugged, yawning as she hugged her body pillow. “Back to sleepy sleep.”

Printed along its length was one of the Mothers of the Asclepien.

Frost felt secondhand shame. But to the Dreamer, it was no different from going out in public with one’s lover. But Frost would rather throw herself into the crockpot than come out in public with a Jury body pillow.

Privately on the other hand…

I wouldn’t mind one. Wouldn’t it be redundant though? I’m always sleeping with Jury. Wait, nah. Could be valuable on long trips away from the Nexus. Yeah. I could see that. If I could sleep in the first place.

Frost sighed as the Dreamer dragged herself away, somehow resembling a slug on two legs.

As Frost contemplated the ethics of a Jury body pillow, she noticed that many Healers were yawning. It was late, after all. Dawn was due to arrive in less than four hours. It made her happy that the Healers were on board with such a late-night celebration.

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“Mmmn… Me too, huh?” She yawned and turned to Joy, who had already fallen asleep on the grass. “Time to get you back to bed.”

* * *

An abnormal sleeping spell took over the Floor of Amalgamation. After tucking Joy in bed, she joined an already sleeping Jury in their room next door. Frost could barely keep her eyes open, and her hands struggled to undo her clothes.

Normally, whenever she was stripped down to just her undergarments, she’d stretch a little and enjoy the cold air cascading over her skin. But tonight, she bellyflopped beside Jury and nuzzled close.

Jury must have been exhausted. Because even in her most fatigued state, Jury would always wrap Frost with her tail. The fact that she didn’t both alarmed Frost and, also caused her to pout with disappointment.

She headbutt Jury’s shoulder and muttered, “Dummy,” before she drifted off to the world behind her eyelids.

The sentimental part of her resurfaced as her senses dissolved to nothingness. She had come so far in such a short amount of time. Objectively, yes, it had barely been a year since she arrived in Elysia.

But subjectively, it seemed as though she had been fighting for as long as she could remember. Sleeping in a warm room, spending time with her wife, having a daughter, friends: a home.

They were luxuries that Frost still could not believe she had.

Her life was an imperfect blend of paradise and hell. Thinking back to the suffering she endured, she would endure it all over again if it meant being here.

And as her mind began to fade, a stray thought entered her mind.

I wonder how I’m holding up…

* * *

???

“Attention. Attention.”

???

“Has [Unintelligible] taken the stage? Plug my ears, sister. I would sooner lob my arm off than to hear her sing.”

???

“How absurd is it, that our forms still look so, so similar despite being light years apart~!”

???

“Light years are but a blip for us. Albeit it is rather difficult to traverse such expansive distances. But it does ensure that we aren’t overstepping each other’s Branches.”

???

“A million Branches from one great Tree~ Hohohohoho!”

???

“There she goes again. Why do we let [Unintelligible] ones from speaking in our Council?”

???

“That is because we have a new guest today, no?”

???

“Has she finally arrived?”

???

“Hohoho!? The [Unintelligible]! The Origin!”

???

“We are Origins by the same definition.”

???

“But not all of us are Crowned, are we~?”

???

“Neither are the ones who are Crowned the same as us, which is quite unfortunate since they cannot participate in the Great Conglomeration.”

???

“Mhm. Call it by the standard name. The Great Attractor.”

Frost awoke to familiar voices. They were hers, but carried unique cadences, tones, and pitches. Some belonged to men, others to women. Then, there were voices that were perfectly androgynous.

When her vision regained focus, she found herself standing in a vast expanse. A thick atmosphere of cosmic dust hovered in the air. Dotted within were countless plots of light, which were connected by strands. It was the map of what appeared to be a universe and embedded within this enormous construct was a golden celestial object that appeared like a tree with millions of branches.

She recognized the formation. The Great Attractor. Neighboring it were other major cosmic bodies that defied the laws of physics, such as the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall, the Giant Arc, the Giant GRB Ring, the Shapely Supercluster, and several Super Voids.

Aside from this, the Great Attractor was positioned in the center of the expanse, clearly emphasizing its importance to this place.

Frost blankly blinked. Her mind suffered from a mental wipeout. It was the same sensation she had when she was brought to the Expanse to meet with the other ‘her’. For that reason, she thought that this was another fated meeting.

And she was correct.

Although, the person she met was not the same as that white-haired girl.

A plume of dust resembling a miniature universe detached from the atmosphere, and it landed beside Frost. A dark ring formed in the center, and it expanded until it was large enough to swallow her.

Emerging from the abyss was a figure with the same face as hers. Affixed to her head, hovering just inches off, was a half-completed, dark crown.

The same crown that Frost had manifested thanks to her Qliphoth powers.

Half Crowned Originata

//////// < WARNING > ////////

<

For simplicity’s sake, Originata is being translated to Frost

>

Half Crowned Frost

<

Bearer of the broken crown

>

Branch:

Regalle

Half Crowned Frost

“The crown you wear is brittle. How egregious, that the one named the Sovereign Star has arrived at our Council without total authority.”

She was adorned in clothes taking inspiration from the ‘tech wear’ movement. There were mechanical tattoos etched along her exposed shoulders, and her eyes seemed to flicker with numbers.

Joining her from another plume was yet another ‘Frost’.

Joyful and Loving Frost

<

From a world of love and no hate!

>

Branch:

Love!

Joyful Frost

“A new one! Yaaaas~! And you got my face, and every little thing! But mega ew. What is that getup?”

A sassy Frost wearing a pink dress that would normally be associated with a magical girl emerged, striking a double peace pose.

Frost had to do a double take. But before she could even begin to process what was happening, another Frost appeared and slapped the back of Joyful and Loving Frost’s head.

Joyful and Loving Frost

“Hey! Like, ouch! Now I have grounds to like, invade your Branch with my Moons and like, destroy you and everything!”

Contemptuous Frost

“This noise has brought me out of my war against inhumanity, and the first thing I see in our glorious Council are two Frosts are not wearing the appropriate apparel.”

Contemptuous Frost

<

Leading the endless war against those that do not look human

>

< Branch:

Under siege and war with several Crowned Frosts and their Branches

>

This Frost had a scar running along her right eye and wore the apparel of a war general.

It seemed that not all Frosts were Healers…

… unless this Frost didn’t want to heal themselves?

“… So…?”

Frost began, but her words didn’t seem to reach them. Now that she noticed it, she was not breathing. They were suspended in a vacuum, which meant that the only way to speak was to project her mind.

The Sovereign Star

“Ahem. May I ask what is going on?”

The Sovereign Star

<

From where the Tree sprouts

>

< Branch:

Main Branch

>

Main Branch? The Nexus?

Given that this was likely a dream, Frost didn’t put too much thought into it. For all she knew that crockpot had thrown her into a fever dream. It also didn’t help that she had an Ability that forced her to experience vivid dreams.

Besides, she herself wasn’t in a great state of mind given how tired she was, even within this dream.

But it did intrigue her.

Were there

other

Nexuses out there?