Serenity Sides: Oni of the Vales 1 (Patreon)

Hey folks!

October is no well underway! Spooky month is here! What sort of tales will we get in this time of spirits and devils? Well, I may have a few things...

Like today's offering, a small taste of a Serenity character's PoV that we don't often get to see, paired with a little (or maybe big) oni fun. Hope you enjoy!

In the dead of night, a shadow crept through the house…

-

Clara Vale was not an easy woman to please.

She knew that about herself. She’d always been quite particular about how things ‘should’ be done, and she’d only grown worse about it as she’d gotten older. Her husband was, quite frankly, a saint for putting up with her, and sometimes she wondered if he was the real Serenity in their family.

Sadly, he wasn’t here at the moment. She wasn’t sure where he was, actually. She’d learned that it was best not to ask that kind of question with his business. It would only worry her, even though he’d promised countless times that he didn’t do the ‘really dangerous’ stuff anymore.

Actually, thinking about what her husband would consider to be ‘really dangerous’ and what would qualify as ‘perfectly acceptable danger’ was enough to make her start worrying all over again, so she’d just put it all from her mind. She trusted the man. Mostly.

Besides, if a Serenity kept showing up whenever he was doing a job, people would start asking awkward questions.

Clara did wish he was here, though, because if he was, he might be able to answer a few questions. Questions like ‘Who is that creature in the mirror?’ or ‘Did I get sunburn last night, or is my skin just really red for some reason?’. Questions that felt rather important this morning.

(She probably wouldn’t have trusted him with ‘Dear, is it just me, or have my boobs gotten bigger?’ though.)

Because as the matriarch of the Vale household sat in her bedroom, her bed an unkempt mess behind her, sheets and clothes strewn all over the floor, she couldn’t help but feel something was wrong with her reflection in the mirrored wardrobe door. It was a mirror that had greeted her practically every morning for decades at this point, and it tended to tell her the truth when it did so. It told her when she’d had too many late nights, when work had followed her home a little too much, or when she needed to cut back on some of the heavier home cooking…

So now, when it was saying ‘You’re not feeling like yourself right now’, she had reason to listen. Which was important, because she thought she felt fine. Never better, in fact! Energy for days, which really made it even more unfortunate that her husband was away right now…

But yes, no, the red skin was definitely a warning sign. Or, redder skin. Hadn’t she always been red? That seemed… Hm.

Clara frowned. There it was again – that sense of something being wrong, even though she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. She’d been a Serenity far too long to ignore such things, but she also knew how twitchy they could be. For all she knew, the Seasons were out there fighting some Desire (and, from what she’d seen of them, screwing said fight up) which was setting her off. Still, best to be careful…

So she studied her reflection intently, trying to make a note of anything that didn’t fit. Anything that just… seemed out of place. Anything that bothered her. Just in case.

Of course, being a mature woman (rather more mature than she looked, infact, heh) there wasn’t much about her appearance that bothered her anymore. Middle age came with some benefits – and a deep wellspring of self-confidence was happily one of them. Or perhaps that was just what happened when you ran around as a Serenity for long enough. Some of those outfits required a core of steel…

Thus, it was no surprise that she was fine with her figure. Not that there was anything to complain about there anyway, honestly. Her hips were rather wide, but surely that was to be expected from a mother of two. Of course her ass was fine and fat – she worked out plenty, but all of those excess pounds had to go somewhere. As for her chest-

Well, her daughters could thank her for her genetics there. She’d always had large breasts! Nothing weird about that. Though she didn’t remember them being so large that they were hard to see over… But that was probably just morning fuzz. She did still feel like her brain was half asleep. Probably hadn’t slept well.

Mm. She squinted at her reflection some more, still not seeing the problem. Her hair was fine – smooth, blue, hanging just over her shoulders. Her horns were properly sharp, she could just barely see them poking through at the top of her head. Her fangs were white and shiny. What was the problem?

Rgh. It was there, it was right there in front of her, she was sure of it. She’d see it out of the corner of her eye, or whenever she focused on a detail, but it would slip out of her mind whenever she tried to take in a wider view. Something was definitely wrong, but right now she couldn’t work out what it was.

Very well. She’d have to report it to the Foundation, and let them work it out. If something had affected her badly enough to be screwing with her head, then it was a serious matter that needed dealing with by professionals, and she could no longer trust herself to handle it personally.

Now, where had she left her phone?

Ah, that was a problem. It wasn’t on her bedside cabinet. Tch, stupid thing. Back in her day- Oh god, she hadn’t just thought that. No, she wasn’t that old, thank you…

… What had she wanted her phone for again? It had slipped out of her head. Tch, that was going to be bugging her all day, wasn’t it?

Ugh! Stupid thing. Why she care ‘bout phone anyways? It were just sum dum brick ‘nyways-Nnn. Oh, she’d felt really fuzzy there for a moment…

Clara grumbled, a low, guttural sound, as she finally began rising from where she’d been sitting on the bed and stretching her big, muscular body out. She couldn’t dawdle all morning, she had things to get done. Time to get dressed and greet the day. Maybe she’d find her phone in the kitchen or something.

Her plan immediately ran into a problem, however, when she finally pulled open her wardrobe door, shoving the mirror aside, and grabbed for an outfit… which immediately tore on contact with her powerful claws. Hm. Clumsy of her.

Attempt number two went better, but not by much. The blunette managed to restrain her monstrous strength and wicked talons as she pulled out a blouse, but pulling the garment on around her shoulders resulted in a momentary struggle that quickly ended in another ripping sound – split cloth dangling from both of her shoulders, with not a stitch to join the pieces together left.

Had it shrunk in the wash or something…?

Sharp teeth grinding together, she’d tried again, and gotten a similar result. Going slower just meant the top she’d tried to pull on shredded itself around her bulky upper arm instead of around her shoulders. She had a bit more luck pulling on some pants, but only in the way that they’d rapidly turned into a skirt as her legs split them apart, and the matriarch had decided that was good enough.

She shut the wardrobe door and stared at her reflection once again. Red skin, big boobs, sharp horns, yellow eyes…

There! There was that feeling again! Right, that was it. Something had happened to her! She’d been changed somehow. It was subtle, definitely subtle… If she hadn’t been such an experienced Serenity she might not have noticed at all! But now that she had… Right. Phone. Foundation. Her plan was back in her head.

Shaking her head, she stomped out of her bedroom, her denim ‘skirt’ clinging tightly to her thighs and her chest covered by rags hanging over her shoulders – the picture of modesty, as far as she was concerned. At the door, she paused, then grabbed a red gourd from the bedside cabinet. Her red gourd. It reassured her to hear it sloshing with liquid inside. What was an oni without her booze, after all?

-

Nine months ago…

“Ohohoho~!” The blonde Serenity swept her long hair drills back over her shoulder, smirking as she stared down at the Desire from atop the tower she’d perched on. “My my. Did you really think you could threaten Emerald Cove with only one army of minions? That’s adorable. But you’ll never succeed as long as the Serenity Daylights are here!”

OverLady growled, a pair of long, thin blades held tightly in two of her six hands. The kimono-wrapped Desire would have glared at the other woman if she’d been able, but the bandana she wore around her head covered her eyes, and her long, flowing black hair would have obscured them as well even if it didn’t.

Around her, her army of creatures from the shadows and spirits from the other side numbered in what felt like countless legions, the world in her wake transformed into a battlefield from before the eras of machines and technology. They were trying to muster, but their forces had been seriously damaged in the opening exchange. To think Serenities could cause so much damage with just the one attack…!

“Mark my words…” the dark-haired Desire snarled, her blades shining. “One day, all of these lands will belong to me!”

“Mmm. I mean, could happen,” the blonde put a finger to her lips, still smirking. “You’re going to be around for a long, long time once we’ve sealed you. Maybe one day you’ll revive and come back, long, long after me and my friends are gone. But I’m pretty sure the Serenities of that day will kick your ass too, so nah~!”

Below, on the ground level where the Desire and her forces stood, directly between her and the edge of Emerald Cover, four other Serenities stood – and they all looked bored.

“She just cannot stop talking, can she?” the one on the furthest left, with red hair down past her shoulder blades, muttered.

“Dawn likes the sound of her own voice.” A long suffering Serenity with equally long black hair answered. She was second from the right. “You know this. We all know this.”

The brunette on the far right snorted. “Half tempted to let the Desire win just so I don’t have to know it for a bit.”

The redhead laughed. “I feel you there. Buuuut we’ve gotta protect the Cove, too.”

The four sighed. Sometimes it sucked to be a Serenity.

“Enough!” Across the battlefield, the Desire was still yelling at the blonde on the tower. “If you believe yourself so powerful, then face me in battle, one on one!”

“Oho, you want to face me alone? Dear oh dear.” The blonde’s smirk widened into a savage grin, white teeth glinting. “How brave~ Well, far be it from me to refuse…”

And as she jumped down, the rest of the team groaned. “And there she goes, hogging all the glory, again. I swear, I’m going to write a book about this shit someday…”

OverLady’s blades whistled. Dawn snorted as she closed in. The army roared. The world shook, flashes of light and towers of smoke rising up as the battle for Emerald Cove truly began.

It could only ever end one way.

“Serenity SEAL!”

With a crack and a peel of thunder, the army fell silent, their commander felled – a single, polished blade clattering to the ground was all that was left of her. And with her defeat, came the dissolution of the world of war she had brought with her, her warping of time and space undone with her.

It was a scene every one of the Daylights had seen a thousand times, and they paid it no real mind. Today, though, something would go wrong. For as reality flickered and reasserted itself, sometimes things fell through the cracks. Usually harmless things, though you could never be completely sure. That was why such care had to be taken with anything that survived the change back.

But sometimes, things got lost…

There were thousands of incense burners, lanterns that glowed with pink light, trailing thick white smoke that smelt deliciously sweet, dotted around OverLady’s forces. They were her main method of creating troops, the corruptive smoke turning anyone caught within it into her most powerful warriors, and then boosting their strength the longer they remained within the fog.

A single one endured the return of the normal world, falling from its holder and landing in a shipping crate as the warehouse that was supposed to be on this spot rematerialized.

Five days later, the crate was sealed, its new contents unnoticed.

Three weeks later, the crate was finally hauled out of the warehouse and placed onto a shipping barge.

Four months later, it arrived in its destination – Sapphire City.

-

Clara stopped again as soon as she set foot outside of her bedroom. Again, something was wrong here. That feeling that had haunted her since she’d woken up was back with a vengeance, even stronger than ever. Why?

She frowned, her sharp teeth biting into her upper lip as she looked around the cave. It was dark, obviously, but that meant nothing to her eyes. She could see every rock, pit, and spike just fine.

Was it something to do with the stala-stal… The pointy rocks hanging from the ceiling? Or the ones on the floor maybe? No, those all looked like you’d expect pointy rocks to look.

… Bah! No, she could work it out later. Right now she was letting herself get distracted. She needed her phone, now. Anything else could wait.

So, with slow, lumbering steps, the red oni thundered her way through the cavern, kicking her way through any trash or boulders that got in her way. Stupid rocks, thinkin’ they was dah boss o’ her…

Hm? She shook her head to clear it as she grew nearer to where she instinctively knew the kitchen to be. Her thoughts had sounded strange for a moment. Best keep an eye on that. She didn’t want to get distracted and-

- What the hell?

It was misty down here, the air taking a white, sweet-smelling haze, and her sight had been blocked for a moment as she’d entered the part of the cave that they used for storing food and supplies. When it had cleared, there had been a figure in front of her – one bent over the slab they usually used for a table.

They were a distinctive figure, too. Humanoid with powerful muscles, much like Clara – but unlike Clara, she had rich purple skin that glittered in the dim cave light. Also unlike Clara, she wasn’t even bothering to wear a scrap of clothing, leaving her fat ass and even fatter tits on full display. The only cover she was wearing was her long blue hair, and the blue drinking gourd she had hanging from her shoulder.

Long… blue…

Clara squinted, and then her eyes widened, illusions falling away. “Sophia?”

“Huh?” The blue haired oni spun around, staring at her in stupefied confusion. “Who- Oh! Boss!” Suddenly, she scrambled, looking nervous. “What’cha callin’ me ‘dat for? It Sof’ya. Sof’ya! Geddit rite!”

The red oni stared at the purple one in pure disbelief. Even if her simple words didn’t make it clear, seeing her face confirmed it instantly. That was her daughter, transformed into a monster.

Damnit. She always tried to keep her work away from home. Keeping her daughters safe from the madness she had to face every day was important to her – she’d gone above and beyond in safeguarding this house, warding the walls with the biggest protections she could…

… Until Holi had broken them all during Veilnight, of course. And powerful protections like those took time to restore.

Well it seemed something had taken advantage of this temporary lapse. Very well then. If they wanted to play with her family, she would simply have to obliterate them. Serenity Oblivion did not play games when it came to the safety of her loved ones. When she found the one responsible for this, they would not have the chance to regret their terrible decision.

But first, clearly, she’d have to do her best to keep Sophia safe.

“Wut- What happened?” Clara grunted, and then gritted her teeth, looking down at herself. Realising what had happened to her daughter had broken the obliviousness she’d been working under. She could see her body clearly now. It was embarrassing, really. Her transformation wasn’t subtle at all – she was supposed to be a human, not a hulking red demon woman. How had she missed this?

Probably something to do with that haze that kept trying to creep into her head, slowing her thoughts and befuddling her mind. But now that she knew about it, she could keep it at bay. Hopefully, anyway.

‘Sof’ya’ was pouting at her, acting just as she always did whenever she was caught doing something she wasn’t supposed to be doing. Oni or no, some things apparently never changed. “What’chu mean? Me no do nuthin’.”

Well that clearly wasn’t true, but it was hardly Clara’s concern at the moment. Actually, having seen Sophia, something else was worrying the Vale matriarch. “Where’s your sister?”

The purple oni stared at her blankly. “Wut’s a sist-ah?”

Oh for the love of…

“Katrina.”

“Oh, dat bitch? Feh.” The purple oni snorted. “She be in her nook or sumtin’. Me no no.”

“Don’t call her a bitch.” Automatic instinct cultivated from decades of putting a stop to sisterly squabbles surged up before she could stop herself.

“But she be a total bitch! Look, she dun bit me!” Sof’ya pointed to her arm – which did, indeed, have a faded bite mark on her wrist. Yep, some things never changed – but there were more important things to deal with right now.

“Never mind,” Clara groaned. “As long as she’s not causing trouble right now, that’s fine…”

Yes, if Sophia had been turned into this, doubtless Kat had too. Neither woman was a Serenity – something Clara was, by and large, truly grateful for, even if right now she would have appreciated the backup. They wouldn’t be able to resist corruption as easily as she could, and if even she was struggling, they didn’t have a chance.

Plus, if Sophia was anything to judge by, neither girl was going to be running on full brainpower, either. Tch, her girls were normally so smart – it was unpleasant to see them like this. But it would hopefully make corralling them that much easier, at least.

“Just sit down and stay where I can see you,” the matriarch grunted, looking around. She just needed to contact the Foundation and then…

“Wut? No way! Why should me-?” Of course the purple oni protested. The corruption was bad, clearly. Normally Sophia was the most obedient member of the household. Admittedly, that was something that worried Clara from time to time. She didn’t want her girl getting taken advantage of… But right now?

“SIT DOWN!” She roared, her voice echoing from the walls, eyes flashing bright, hot breath steaming around her fangs.

Then she winced. She hadn’t meant to do that. Screaming at her children was an absolute no-no. It worked, though. Sof’ya’s ass slammed into the ground, and her transformed daughter sat quietly, even if she was pouting about it. Not ideal, but she’d take it for the moment. Now where…

“Have you seen my phone?”

“Uh.” Again, the purple oni shifted uncomfortably. “Kat’ri had it?”

Of course she did. No matter how many times she told the girl not to touch her phone- Tch. Great. Well in that case she’d better find her other daughter before she caused more trouble.

“Fine. Then come with me,” Clara grunted, turning to march off towards where she somehow knew her eldest daughter would be. “We’ll go get it off her, then I can keep an eye on both of you.”

Sof’ya glared. “Thought me was sup’osed ta’ stay-”

“I SAID COME!”

“Tch.” Her youngest pouted, but obeyed, scampering after her on all fours. Oh dear. This was going to be such a headache…

-

The previous night…

All was quiet. Everyone was asleep. The Vale household was settled and at peace.

Then, a brief flare of light. Too dark to make out any real details, a match was struck between the cupped hands of a shadow. Then, with careful precision, that small, flickering light was placed inside of an ornate incense lantern…

It took. And, now lit, it wasn’t long before pink-white smoke began to pour from the lantern’s slats, swiftly covering the kitchen floor. Soon, it had built up enough to flow out into the corridors, and even upstairs, towards the bedrooms. And everywhere it went, the walls of the house began to take on a different tone. Wallpaper was replaced with uncarved stone. Carpet changed for gravel and moss.

All of the windows in the house were closed. The shadow had seen to that. There would be no escape. The might of OverLady would rise again. They would make sure of it.

-

Clara stomped through the cave, with her onifed daughter following along behind her. It was hard to ignore how the younger Vale moved. She was smaller than Clara, at least in physical size (save for her curves, which the matriarch absently noted weren’t too far behind her). Her muscles were developed, but not massive, and she didn’t seem to have grown any taller. As oni went, Sof’ya wasn’t very impressive.

Something deep inside the red woman said Weak, and she couldn’t really disagree. But that was to be expected – a Serenity was always going to be stronger than a civilian. Still, she couldn’t help the ring of disappointment that her daughter was so dum an’ unstrong…

Ugh. Her mind was getting hazy again. The fog was getting thicker, both inside and outside of her head. She couldn’t let it take control.

“Kat!” She stormed into her eldest daughter’s nook of the cave system, focusing on the job at hand. “Where are you?”

For a moment, there was just silence, with some scraping from Sof’ya’s clawed feet as she grumpily loitered around neat the entrance. Then there was a laugh from the shadows. “Why? Ya’ lost?”

Tch. Clara could already tell that Kat’s seeming delight in frustrating her had survived their transformation. Cowing one daughter into submission had been easy, but the second was, as always, going to be difficult. “I’m just here for my phone, dear. Hand it over, and I’ll leave you to… whatever it is you’re sulking about in here.”

“Hmph. Sulk? Me am no sulk. Me am planning.” The voice came from a different patch of shadows. “An’ what phone? Me no have.”

The red oni’s eyes narrowed, her hands planting on her fat hips. “I’m not playing games, young lady. Get out here where I can see you.”

“We should me listen to you?” Again, the voice had moved, now coming from just around those rocks over there.

Clara rolled her eyes, folding her arms over the tattered remains of her top. “Because I’m your mother.”

There was a confused silence. Even Sof’ya looked rather puzzled by that one.

“What a mother? You just Boss!” There was movement from deeper in the cave, and suddenly a new figure, familiar yet totally different, emerged into the dim misty light. “An’ me no think you should be Boss anymores!”

Much like her sister, Kat had neglected to put on any clothes, putting her incredibly enhanced curves on full display. Unlike her sister, though the elder sibling was strong and defiant. Kat was taller than she had been as a human, and she had the muscles to show for it, bound up in bright orange skin. Her horns were sharp, poking pointedly up from her short blue hair, and her fangs were glistening white. A gourd dripping with booze was hanging from her waist – she’d been drinking already. Her features were mostly still the same, but turned monstrous, eyes glowing as she smirked at Clara.

“You not so big,” she snorted. “Me think me should be the boss now!”

The matriarch just rolled her eyes. “Don’t be difficult, Kat. Just gimme my phone.”

She had maybe a moment to reflect that she might have picked a bad way to handle the more difficult of her two daughters, who was doubtlessly feeling much more aggressive and much less intelligent than usual right now. But only a moment, because after that the orange oni slammed into her, powerful arms wrapping around her middle and carrying her backwards – out of the entrance of her cave, past Sof’ya, and out over the edge of a pitch-black pit…

-

Outside the house, a figure was slowly creeping nearer. They’d made their way in towards the driveway, their back pressed against the neighbour’s fence, and now, as they were about to reach the building proper, they were considering whether to go for the front door, or enter through the garage-

“What are you doing?”

“Ah!” Rosa jumped, turning to find an unimpressed Lexi stood behind her, eyebrow raised and arms folded. “I’m just, uh. Y’know… Being careful.”

“Why?”

The brunette coughed. “Y’know. Reasons.”

The shorter blonde rolled her eyes, before walking past her teammate. “You don’t need to worry. Holi’s not going to show up for another three or four months.”

“Oh.” Rosa hesitated for a moment, before quickly following after her friend towards the Vale’s front door. “You’re sure? Because wow, I don’t want to fight that again. Uh, soon. S-someday, sure! I’ll kick her a-”

Lexi’s hand slapped over her mouth. “If you don’t want to fight her again ‘soon’, then don’t provoke her again. And if we’re lucky we won’t have to deal with her at all! She only got mad at us because you said… What you said last time.”

The brunette fought free, grumbling. “I didn’t know! Now I do. So I won’t say… that… again.”

“Good.” The blonde nodded. “Once was more than enough…”

The two trailed off together, not really wanting to discuss this subject further. HoliDaze was scary. So, Rosa changed the subject. “You got a text from Sophia too?”

“Maybe?” Lexi winced. “I dunno. It was her number, but…”

“But it didn’t sound like her?”

“Mm.” The blonde held up her phone. There on the screen was a message from Sophia. Cum oover, need halp. “I think even if Sophie was being held hostage, she’d use proper grammar, at least.”

“And she wouldn’t text us, she’d use the App.”

“Mm.” The Serenity App was how you knew things were serious. If she was just texting normally? Not serious. “She’s probably just sick or something. Either way, we should check before getting worried, right?”

“Right.” Rosa nodded, the two of them in complete sync as Lexi rapped her knuckles on the front door. Just a quick checkup on their teammate and her family. How bad could it be?

-

And watching it all, the shadow smiled…