#there is so much drama and arguments that occur later between felicity and he li hua and AHHH its so good the angst is crazy here

[masterofdemise]

Thank you @lady-lazagna for sending the ask!

Anyway, so I think it is absolutely NO surprise that when I say "mysterious unlikely helpers", if you follow my art enough, you'll know it's none other than Pluto and Johannes. Now, knowing me, this is a long one so sit tight.

"But Alexis? Pluto died, how did he come back?"

I RESURRECTED HIM WITH THE POWER OF COPIU-okay serious answer. I'm still finding the exact answer for it, but in some lucky twist of fate for Pluto, because he was not the Child of the Black Sun and therefore deemed "unworthy", he was in simple terms, "rejected" by Nemesis and after some time of sitting inside of it, he was sent back into the living realm. Yada yada yada, he encounters Dynamis and a whole bunch of drama occurs before eventually everyone knocks some sense into Pluto and Pluto decides he will not go on more troubling tasks to condemn the world. Wanting to right the many wrongs he did, he donates a good portion of his fortune away to aid people in need, and starts working at the WBBA to try and make up for what he did since just sitting in jail won't do much to help anyone.

In the meanwhile, during the six months he was missing, Johannes and the rest of the Nemesis gang were stuck in Metal Bey City and without any direction or idea on what to do with their lives, they wallowed around for a bit until Elysse knocked sense into the four and convinced them to start up a business (aka, Cafe Lynx). After establishing the cat cafe, since it was so close, Felicity decided to pay a visit and that is where she started talking with Johannes. Since the two were such cat fanatics, they became quick friends of sorts and engaged in gossip. Especially with Fifionne and He Li Hua not around as much due to Li Hua being busy and Fifionne doing AWOL, Felicity gets to at least relax at the new cat cafe. Even though she became aware of Johannes's involvement in the world destroying incident, knowing what she did with Fifionne, she let it slide and gave Johannes a chance.

After Pluto comes back, he takes up a position as manager of the cafe, as well as a worker with the WBBA. Since Felicity is such a frequent visitor, Pluto meets her and they become friends.

Here is the real important stuff, and a huge spoiler( but also not really since it's not like I'll have the energy to type this all out into a story). When He Li Hua calls Felicity about Fifionne being missing, Felicity says she has not heard from Fifionne since the Nemesis incident (which was by the time Li Hua called, eight months ago).

This is a lie.

Felicity not only saw her almost right after Nemesis was defeated to analyze Fifionne's new Divine Fox, but she also saw Fifionne one month ago. In truth, Felicity KNEW something was deeply wrong with Fifionne and panicked heavily after Fifionne threatened her to not interfere with her plans. With the way she was behaving, Felicity likened it to another Ryuga-like incident in the way that Fifionne was not only being influenced by a dark-force(Tamamo), but by how much Fifionne seemed to be motivated by revenge. Knowing the authorities probably would not be able to do much against her friend and even if they did it probably would not go well, she decided it would be easier to enlist the help of other people.

As a result, she turns over to both Pluto and Johannes two weeks before He Li Hua makes the call. Knowing the two have expertise in not only tracking people down, but because they have the experiences of being former evil-doers and schemers, she is willing to pay the both of them for the job. Pluto refuses the money since the two do not really need it, and Pluto is trying to do it out of kindness. With that, the two start their investigation without ever informing the WBBA. Pluto does go on to inform the WBBA about this later, but only after Li Hua shows up.

Fast forward to when Li Hua travels to Japan on impulse to look for clues on Fifionne, Felicity panics. Not only does she know that Li Hua will absolutely despise Pluto and Johannes for being a part of their search, but because Fifionne also threatened Felicity to not get Li Hua involved. Not wanting Li Hua to figure out the truth and trying to solve the Fifionne problem as quietly as possible, she keeps quiet and plays up the lie. Li Hua ends to the WBBA for information where they finally learn of her disappearance. With the assumption that Felicity knows as much as Li Hua (when she doesn't), Li Hua leaves for Kyoto for answers while Felicity has more time to try and wrap things up.

Unfortunately, Li Hua does manage to come back with information and continues bugging Felicity about the search. Knowing she won't be able to go on the search for herself, she gives up on keeping Pluto and Johannes's roles a secret and asks Li Hua to go to Cafe Lynx without her. It is there where Li Hua almost blows a fuse at Felicity when she realizes who exactly Felicity enlisted the help of. As mad as Li Hua is, this is all so they can find Fifionne and Li Hua has no choice but to let it slide.

I'll leave it at that since those are the main bits of information that need to be known for the setup. Essentially, Felicity has been working with Pluto and Johannes behind Li Hua's back because Felicity is not only worried about Li Hua and Fifionne encountering one another, but because she believes Pluto and Johannes will be the best for the job. He Li Hua is absolutely infuriated and feels betrayed that Felicity is so willing to work with people she sees as the "lowest scum of the Earth", but she sets her differences aside just for a bit because Li Hua cares more about Fifionne's safety. There is going to be a lot more drama that occurs soon after Li Hua talks more with the two, but that can be discussed another time when I feel like not shutting up.

[masterofdemise]

No one else better take my question or I'm gonna beat their ass-

So Li Hua is in the middle of some insane drama from both her old friends and her newer ones, and Fifionne is starting drama and merging with gods and not picking up my calls, so what about Felicity? How does she feel about her two besties self-destructing so spectacularly? Does she have issues of her own that she's putting aside to help the others out? And how does she feel about her friends' other friends/ex friends? Any specific gripes or connections with them?

Oh gosh this is such a good question, thank you so much for asking this Laz! I actually have a lot of thoughts for Felicity, but I probably haven’t elaborated on it much in public yet so I will do that now.

In the events of Vermillion Vows, He Li Hua is completely unaware of Fifionne being M.I.A until she gives Felicity a call and the Virgo blader accidentally reveals that Fifionne has been “missing” for months. Felicity says she hasn’t seen Fifionne since the Nemesis incident that occurred seven months ago. This is what sends Li Hua on the search for her best friend. We also know Felicity hired those two to help with the search, but why would Felicity ask for them to help instead of He Li Hua, who is actually Fifionne’s friend. Clearly, Felicity cares a lot about Fifionne and He Li Hua, but why is she acting so distant and hiding information from Li Hua then?

Felicity lied when she said she hadn’t seen Fifionne since the Nemesis incident. In fact, Felicity met up with Fifionne twice. The first time was Fifionne getting an analysis on Divine Fox, and the second time, unfortunately, was Fifionne threatening Felicity to not get in the way of her plans and warning the convenience store owner to not call help from He Li Hua. Felicity can already tell that something is very wrong with Fifionne and she knows she can’t just let it be, but how is she going to solve this situation? Felicity herself is not one for personal intervention and confrontation, so she requests the help of Cafe Lynx to do the searching in secret instead since they would do the work with no personal bias of their own. This way, Felicity wouldn’t have technically been the one to interfere. However, when He Li Hua finds out, Felicity’s plans get flipped on its head.

There are several reasons as to why Felicity did not want to inform Li Hua. Although Li Hua would mean well, her overbearing attitude and conflicting ideals compared to Fifionne, led Felicity to think inviting He Li Hua to help would be more trouble than help. Being the other member of the Vermillion Trio, she worries that by bringing in Li Hua, the problem would only become far worse. Felicity is a scaredy cat and in a panic, she chooses to lie to her friend instead of being truthful out of fear and cowardice. Her concerns come to life when Li Hua confronts Fifionne during her battle with Johannes, and they argue over the fox blader’s recent actions. It does not help that Fifionne tells He Li Hua that she has indeed met up with Felicity, unraveling Felicity’s lies. Felicity just wanted to protect the friendship the three of them had, but her actions only end up leading to a very heated argument with Li Hua later. Fortunately, the two make up and learn how to better support one another.

Another reason why Felicity hesitated to tell He Li Hua the truth was because of what she had heard about Wu Zhen Lin. If He Li Hua was that mad over Zhen Lin attacking Beylin Temple members in his own fit of rage, how would Li Hua react to Fifionne threatening Felicity and hurting several other bladers? Unfortunately for Felicity, she is not aware that Li Hua has at least somewhat forgiven Zhen Lin after reuniting with him during Yu Long’s funeral. Li Hua also has a particular bias towards Fifionne but that’s another can of worms for another day.

There is a happy ending to the Nasu incident, and that is Felicity finally growing the courage to get involved in the battle between He Li Hua and Tamamo-Fifionne. With her intervention, she stops He Li Hua from trying to put an end to Fifionne for her crimes against Nasu. Putting behind the lies she had told before and wanting to do more for her friends, she is the one that goes out of her way to bring the Vermillion Trio back together again.

There is still more things related to Vermillion Vows, but this is the general gist of it since I am still working on finer details at the moment.

Stepping away from Vermillion Vows drama, Felicity is completely fine with Huang Kai and Yu Long. She is not the kind to be jealous of a friend’s friend, especially since Felicity has plenty of her own buddies to hang out with. Felicity is completely unaware of Yu Long’s passing until after the Nasu incident. Although she never met her personally, Felicity still feels sadness for the death of one of Li Hua’s good friends. Felicity has also never met or encountered Wu Zhen Lin (as of Vermillion Vows). While Li Hua has complained about him plenty of times, Felicity has a neutral opinion on him. She waits on making any real judgements on him as she wants to meet him personally first before forming any opinions.