I laugh, but the joke isn't funny. Oddly enough, neither of the other girls was laughing at the joke either. Her own face was dead serious as well. Why would she tell a joke that she doesn't think is funny?
Oh. Wait.
I crack up even more. "Are you telling me that has-been who thought he could steal me and force me to replace him is your dad? That's almost not even funny."
My vision inverts. Well, it does more than invert. The tables and chairs are dancing around all of a sudden while I can no longer even see the girls. The only thing I can see is the jiggy furniture.
My first thought goes to that odd drink the bartender gave me, but then my mind catches up to the scenario.
"Oh, piss off." I spit out at the girl.
"Say another word and I'll get my licks in too," I hear the one called Caeren say threateningly.
I get ready to say something else, but crash face-first into the floor instead.
'This is about right, she's the real deal for sure. This is that old buffoon's favorite trick: drunky-wunky eyes. Just thinking about the name makes me want to puke. The stupid jester laughs every time he says the name. But that's really his daughter... I heard that she was already at the rank of overseer. I thought she was out on the battlefield.'
I push off the ground and hop to my feet. The jester's adopted daughter, Seeque, if I recall correctly, hasn't let out even a peep of laughter. Which as drunk as she is is a testament to her strength. As a result of the laughing draught, I'm a bit low on juices. Thankfully, I don't need any power to take out a stupid group of girls.
Now that I have stopped laughing, there is nothing for these jokers to get their power from and these drunky-wunky eyes will go away soon enough. For now, I dash at the group of girls with my eyes closed.
"If you will, Mer." I hear Seeque say in a politely drunken way.
After the prompting from her friend, I hear a heavy step, followed by a swooshing sound that zeroes in on my head.
I duck and there is a loud pop above my head, creating a small shockwave that sent me tumbling. I sit on my butt and shake my head, trying to clear it. With a quick prayer that my vision is back to normal, I open my eyes. Thankfully, I can see as well as before, but I notice something that I almost made me wish my eyes were still closed.
This Mer character is a modder. She is someone who stored up unthinkable amounts of laughing power and went through excruciating pain so that she could make modifications to their body that are practically permanent.
There is what appears to be a steal spring coiled around her right arm, and her left seems to have an endless stream of dust falling off of it that disappears before it reaches the floor.
I really am going to need some laughing power here. Time to turn on the charm.
"You!" I point at Mer, "I can tell you love me, but there has to be better ways of showing it."
Caeren carelessly lets out a laugh, "Hah! Her? Love you? You are just a walking joke." Though, for some reason Mer blushes.
"Me, a walking joke? That's kinda the point, isn't it my love?" I direct my words at Mer once again whose blush deepens.
Even though I didn't get much of a laugh at all from Caeren, the stronger you are, the more power your laugh gives your opponents. It turns out Caeren is quite strong.
With Mer, who seems to be their only hand-to-hand combatant, distracted, I use the power I got from Caeren to make the epitome of funny: laughing gas. The light-colored mist emanates from my body, and people scream, running for the door. While playing with people that far outclass me, this is a stupid move or would be without my genius mind.
"You've been quiet, oh esteemed daughter of the old fartbag." I fan the gas toward her and she starts to laugh. My power skyrockets, but I break down in laughter as well. Before any of the girls has time to make a move I switch places with Caeren, making it so that we both trade places and end up upside down. Both of us tumble to the ground in a hilarious way and the very second we switch places, Seeque releases an attack on where Caeren now is. A giant rubber duck appears above Caeren and crushes her underneath with a "quack".
Seeque hurriedly moves to free her friend, laughing all the while. At this point, everyone remaining in the room is laughing, though we are the only four here.
I leap toward Mer and call out, "Catch me!" Her arms reflexively shoot out and catch me in a sort of princess carry.
I boop her nose, "You're beautiful and strong." Her laugh turns into a cute giggle as she blushes and then drops me to cover her face.
"You three are a real riot," I gasp in between laughs, "But her old man will be mad if I don't get back before too long. " I point at Seeque. "And I'm not the type of guy who enjoys being punished."
It just then that I notice that none of the girls are laughing anymore, even though the gas is still in the air and I am cracking up.
'This is not good.'
Before I can summon all of my power to get away from this place, every ounce of it is drained out of me. I try to scramble to my feet but realize that I no longer have feet. As a matter of fact, all of my limbs are gone.
I look down at me slimy pink body and realize that I have been turned into a worm. Above me, the three girls were laughing drunkenly. No power was being given to me, though. There was something that they did to cut me off from my power.
"Nice one, Seeque!" There was a round of sloppy high fives going around, and then Seeque barfed all over the ground in front of her.
"How you like hair now, worm." I now understand why Seeque hasn't been saying much. When the alcohol gets to her, she turns into a caveman.
In my current state, I can't do anything, much less talk, so I just stare up at the three lionesque girls, contemplating what my fate will be.