Grace looks at Ne’veah with a raised eyebrow and immediately jumps in to support Shin. ”I think he's right; she can't help the way she look. Wouldn’t want people thinking you were judging people based on appearances would ya?”
Ne'veah looks sourly at Grace, evidently taking the double-teaming personally. "You're really going to go there with me? You know what? I'm tired of this." She stands up. "Y'all can have her sit with you if you like, but good luck with that." She gestures at the crowd around the succubus and leaves the table.
Grace looks back at her shocked, before taking her hand like a cat claw and making a cat growl.
Jaden glares at Shin. "Bruh. How would you even know? I haven't even seen you talk to her once!" He glances over to Grace. "Better watch him, know what I'm saying?" He leaves the table and heads over to the crowd around Max.
A tall, lanky upper classman edges his way through the throngs of students lingering around Max. "Hey, I'm Jaden. I was just thinking of how, you know, it might be cool if you wanted to sit over there with us. We're a fun group, mostly basketball and volleyball players, but you don't have to play to sit with us, of course!" He points out a long section of table with a mixed group of students including Shin.
What do you do?
During lunch, Conway confronts Femtite. His face is set and he appears upset. "What did you do in my room yesterday? You're the only one who asked about my... my collection. Did you go in my room? Were you looking at them?" He stands simmering in anger.
"...That could have gone better," Shin said, before looking at Grace. "I don't think of her in that way. Trust me," He says, hoping to smooth things over.
"Anyways, I didn't think Ne'veah would react like that - I'm just saying that she's a person, not some monster," He adds as he addresses Yasmine and Sophie. "I hope that all this attention she's getting isn't making things uncomfortable for her. I know what it's like to judged on your looks," Shin suggests.
And Jaden of course was pushing to invite her over to them. He hoped that he was keeping his expression normal and cool and that no one would realize that they already knew each other. He didn't want to slip up and have them asking the hard questions. And he also knew from Percy of her strange aura.
He looked at Max across the room, trying to get a read on her. If she was possibly doing this on purpose or if she had no control or just no idea that she was exerting her powers...
Max looks over where Jaden is pointing, noticing Shin among the other athletes at the table. She grimaces, knowing now is not the time or place to try to explain things to him.
”That’s very sweet of you, Jaden. But, uh, I’m almost done with my lunch already. Maybe we could meet up sometime later?”
During lunch, Conway confronts Femtite. His face is set and he appears upset. "What did you do in my room yesterday? You're the only one who asked about my... my collection. Did you go in my room? Were you looking at them?" He stands simmering in anger.
“Breaking and entering is a serious accusation. I have never entered the boys’ dormitory, never mind a boy’s room—or any room without permission.”
Femtite’s reply is not in anger. She looks concerned.
“What has upset you? Has something happened to your collection?”
Caio is more than annoyed by the amount of students around Max, not because he was jealous or anything like that, but mostly because he liked space, privacy, and not be even near the center of attentions. It would be easy for him to simply stay away from Max, but he also did not want to leave his friend to deal with whatever was happening to her on her own.
Right now, he is more than sure that regular people are also capable of noticing her new scent, and this worries him. When he has the chance, he waves to Max to get her attention.
It started off as genuine concern for his teammate. He was, after all, the appointed leader of the team. So he just wanted to see how she was doing. But Shin saw her. Saw her gloriously intoxicating beauty. Beauty that made him unworthy. She should be controlling him. It was so obvious.
For those at the table, they see Shin openly stare. And stare. It was obvious, and beginning to get uncomfortable. Grace gives Shin a look, then a double take that turns into a glare. She holds it a moment, and when Shin doesn’t look away, she coughs and asks "Something catch your eye?"
==============
Jaden blinks at the polite refusal. "Uh, okay. Yeah, sure! Later then! Whenever you like! What's good for you? I've got basketball practice tonight, but I can blow it off, you know?"
==============
Conway huffs, but backs down at her flat denial. "Well, yeah," he says. "Or, you think I throw out random accusations at glowing girls for fun?"
He deflates, suddenly noticing the concern in his eyes. "I'm sorry. I didn't, well, I thought... because it had to be someone with powers! And you're like, a new alien superhero going to school here, and... Oh! Do you have any villains? Anyone who would try to get at you by going after the ones you, well, talked to once?"
“Good Morning!
“I was thinking I should continue to wear the school uniform. Wearing real clothing is part of the human experience.”
She dangles a leg lazily as she basks in the tub.
"Yup! Clothes are great!" Connie squeaked, entirely caught off guard, but determined not to be weird.
At least this tub is too small to share...
If she could shrink me, I would be in Trouble.
"I think I'll skip the schoolgirl look today, myself. Skirts are cute and comfy, but not my favorite way to do battle and all." She was trying to fake eye contact, but Femms was so small that focusing on a point on her forehead meant Connie couldn't help seeing her glimmering eyes, her smug smile, the swell of her- "Well I should shower! Gotta get clean!" She said, too loud and too high, as she rushed around the room to grab her shower stuff.
***
Shin: Noted. Work on a ward together to try and prevent it from influencing you both, distribute to the team if possible. We have class tonight at 7pm at Unity Station so do what you can.
Connie: Oh geez. Do you think there might have been some unforeseen catalyzing event?
Connie: We should really try to figure out what might have happened and prevent it and similar things from being a problem for the whole team in the future, don't you think?
Connie: That might even be smarter than a ward.
Connie: A LOT smarter.
Connie: But yeah I'll make the ward.
Huh. Twofer.
As she looked up from her phone, about to ask "Hey Femms, what makes you unattracted to something? It's for a team assignment." she keyed back in on her surroundings and on Femtite's confrontation with Conway.
Eh. Not like she needs me to keep F$+#o here from hurting her. He is annoying though.
"Oh for sure. All the big super villains are big on breaking into the dorms to mess with incidental conversation partners'... I'm gonna say Gundams? It's really replaced throwing loved ones off of bridges. Hits a hero right where it hurts."
Femtite smiles at Connie. “Ohhhh, Connie, this is Conway. Conway, Connie. If you knew what upset him, you’d totally get it. It’s okay.”
Her demeanor with Conway is again one of concern. “Are you saying that someone who glows like me broke into your dorm? I do… ummm… know of a villain or two who might be miffed at me. And one sent an image of me… well, not me like I am normally. Ummm…”
Femtite magical-girls a barrette on her head with antennas, each tipped with a large Star with Tinklebrie’s image.
She points to a star. “I looked like her at the time my photo got sent to a bunch of criminals, villains and perverts. And then I met that villain’s boss.
“But I don’t know anyone who glows like me. I mean… what makes you think a glowing girl broke into your room? That is a very specific thief, and not a very good one. Glowing gets you caught. I’m honest, and even I know that.”
"What?" Shin snaps out of it, looking at Grace and immediately feeling guilty for having thoughts like that about a teammate. "Oh, I was just...lost in thought," He tells her quickly.
"You don't need to worry about me. I'm thinking about only three things tonight - how you're going to crush it at tonight's meet, how I'm going to try out and become a first baseman for the team, and how the Hierarchs are going to go all the way to World Series and win this year," He lays it all down on her as he pinches between the thumb and forefinger to try and shake off any lingering effects of Max's spell.
"Okay...right. So, if I want to be there cheering you on, I should finish up my homework now instead of later. We'll have to celebrate after as well," He adds, getting up from the table to head out. "Facetime you later!"
Conway takes a step back after Connie's caustic sarcasm hits him. He sticks his chin up. "Yeah, I get it sounds ridiculous. But should I think it's just coincidence?"
Femtite's barrage of questions has him shaking his head. "That's just the thing! I didn't see anyone! No one saw anyone going into my room." When she demonstrates what she looked like when her picture was taken, he goes pale. "Omigod, I didn't even check Tinklebrie."
================
Shin gets the side-eye from several of the volleyball players; the basketball players hardly notice. Grace huffs and gives him a dubious look at first when he explains his thoughts, especially when he mentions he was thinking about baseball. Her eyebrow-arch fades slightly, though, as he excuses himself from the table.
|
Percy does his best to pay attention during class when near Max and Caio. Figuring whatever this phenomenon was must be based on sight or proximity, he does his best not to linger about.
Shin: Noted. Work on a ward together to try and prevent it from influencing you both, distribute to the team if possible. We have class tonight at 7pm at Unity Station so do what you can.
Connie: Oh geez. Do you think there might have been some unforeseen catalyzing event?
Connie: We should really try to figure out what might have happened and prevent it and similar things from being a problem for the whole team in the future, don't you think?
Connie: That might even be smarter than a ward.
Connie: A LOT smarter.
Connie: But yeah I'll make the ward.
Percy: Ooookay, feel like something happened...
Percy: Connie if you can get a good base I'll see what I can fogure out about what's going on. I'm thinking either sight or Proximity.
Percy: lemme know if either of you start to feel weird and what happened just before.
Percy had been moving to sit near Connie and Fems, when Fems was approached by some guy. He hesitates with his tray in hand to continue over and instead scans the room. Shin was over woth the all-stars again, did he have a thing for one of them he didn't seem the athletic type. Meanwhile Max and Caio were once again at the center of a tiny horde clamoring for attention punctuated by Jaden's approach. He found it odd that they hadn't ascended outside like they were known to for lunch.
He makes his way over to Connie and Fem's table anyhow, setting his tray down with a bit more force than intended before rubbing at his arm. "Hey, everyone mind if I sit here. It's a bit crowded where I normally sit." He gestures under the table towards Connie.
”I’ll, uh, have to check my schedule,” Max tells Jaden. ”Does Shin have your number? I’ll get it from him and text you later, okay?” She smiles politely, hoping that’s enough to send the boy away.
She turns and meets Caio’s look. ”Don’t worry. I can handle this,” she tells him.
The demoness studies the werewolf as she deals with her admirers.
Caio nods and smiles, less guilty about letting Max on her own. He grabs his phone and starts to look at the spoilers of the next magic collection, making mental notes on which singles he might want before the prices spike.
From time to time, between bites of his lunch, he'd check on Max, just to be safe.
As Max looks at him, she'd not see anything different. Caio doesn't appear jealous at all, but instead seems happy, even if a bit worried... About what, would be too hard to tell just by looking.
Max continues to politely rebuff her admirers, but Caio catches her blushing and even giggling quietly every so often. For somebody who had been so shy and uncomfortable in her skin a few days ago, she certainly seems to be secretly enjoying all of the attention now.
Of course, there is a world of difference between negative attention and positive attention!
Pleased with what he sees, Caio notices Femtite, Connie and Percy on a more reserved table, so after he gets another sandwich, he sits with them. "So... have you felt it too?"
Femtite is a little puzzled about what the accusation is. “Okay… so, the girl who broke in isn’t necessarily a glowing girl. Or necessarily a girl.
“What exactly happened?”
Helping Conway solve his problem is a welcome distraction from last night’s failure. She glances at Connie and Percy exchanging whispers under the table. Maybe she’s seeing him at night.
Eyes back to Conway, “I mean… what I’m hearing is that there was a break in, and powers were involved. I need more information if you want help getting to the bottom of this.”
Conway starts and stops. "It's like-- I mean-- I can't really explain it all that well... maybe you could see what I'm talking about? After class?" He glances at Connie and appears somewhat uncomfortable.
Pleased with what he sees, Caio notices Femtite, Connie and Percy on a more reserved table, so after he gets another sandwich, he sits with them. "So... have you felt it too?"
Femtite tenses up from this question. Her head swivels to Caio. She snaps, “Felt what? Unappreciated? Different? Like a SAP?! Who gives a fornication how I feel! I just smile it off, all sunshine and rainbows!”
Looking in Caio’s direction, Femtite sees Max and half the school.
”Oh, lovely. No effort at all and she’s got a harem that rivals my mother’s. What do I get? Friend-zoned and…!” She’s about to say accused of a crime, but stifles herself.
“…after class. Yes, Conway. I can do that.”
Connie grumbled before admitting. "Okay, an official 'Tinkerbrie,' is a pretty impressive find. It was a typo that somehow made it into production way back in the 00's when Bratz was eating their lunch, and they were kinda rushing things, so a lot of knockoffs still use it 'cause Tinkerbrie isn't trademarked." Noticing how many more people there were at their table now she quickly added, "Or uh, so I heard."
Shaking her head and turning to Percy she thought "Okay, before we even figure out the antidote, I've gotta get her away from all those people. My anti-demon ward is a bit all-purpose for this, but it should at least blunt things. Oh, maybe start in the cafeteria? We'll use vinegar as the base. Ugh, Romeo's here. Gimme a sec I've gotta clown on him at least a little bit."
She greeted Caio with a very light smack upside the head and began to razz him for his terribly kept secret "You could have had cookies to-"
“Felt what? Unappreciated? Different? Like a SAP?! Who gives a fornication how I feel! I just smile it off, all sunshine and rainbows!”
Looking in Caio’s direction, Femtite sees Max and half the school.
”Oh, lovely. No effort at all and she’s got a harem that rivals my mother’s. What do I get? Friend-zoned and…!” She’s about to say accused of a crime, but stifles herself.
“…after class. Yes, Conway. I can do that.”
"...go with your, uh, nookie..."
I didn't know she felt like that.
"Hey Tinkerbrie-guy, I gotta run. Good taste and good talking, and keep me posted on the Great Doll Heist."
"Femms... I, uh, I really do have to go. Like, have to-have to. Could you, will you wait for me to come back? It'll just be a couple minutes."
***
She shouted once she was partway there, and had turned one of her rings upside down so that the stone was poking uncomfortably into her palm. "Can I steal you away real quick?"
|
|
Percy nodded slightly towards Connie, "Alright, gotta make it look not weird so I'm gonna hurry up and scarf this down while you get Max separated. Don't lose yourself to her whole thing, really not sure if I can do this on my own."
He looks to Caio, "You mean the throng of people following Max-"
“Felt what? Unappreciated? Different? Like a SAP?! Who gives a fornication how I feel! I just smile it off, all sunshine and rainbows! Oh, lovely. No effort at all and she’s got a harem that rivals my mother’s. What do I get? Friend-zoned and…!"
Percy looks on at the little outburst then glances over to connie with a wtf??? face and back to Caio. "yeaaaah... what uh... what do you Feel when your near her that's different?" He then starts taking way too big bites of the ham and turkey sandwich on his tray to attempt to avoid the awkward bonfire in the room.
Femtite feels like an absolute fool.
“Yes, Connie. I think I should just… sit here.”
She sits down and shuts up. Her golden aura reddens from embarrassment.
"Uuhh, okay," Conway backs off, happy to get the commitment but also well aware that something else is going on between the two of them and wisely wanting no part of it. He leaves to get a head start towards his afternoon classes.
Caio almost chokes as Femtite snaps. Something else was going on and for a change he believed it was not his fault. He tries to defend himself from Connie's smack with his sandwich, obviously failing and also dropping a mayo covered tomato slice inside his jacket's sleeve. He busies himself trying to retrieve it as Connie runs away towards Max. "Damn, I think I have mayo in my armpit..." He says as he looks for some napkins, though notices that Connie was like really apologetic at Femtite.
"It is not her fault..." He starts, figuring it actually is, but not really. "...well, perhaps it is, but I think she isn't aware of why." Turning to Percy, he adds. "Sorry, confused the words... they are the same in Portuguese. What I meant to ask is if you had smelled it." He explains, tapping his nose.
"I know this is weird and creepy..." He adds as he looks at the angry Femtite. "...but I can smell when a girl is... in her fertile period? It is an animal instinct, I guess." He thought about saying that he had never smelled it in Femtite, but decided it could be indelicate. He gestures with his head towards Max. "This is what I'm smelling, but like, intensified a lot. It is still very strong, and I believe even you with your normal noses can smell it too, even if you do not realize what it is."
Femtite sighs. She manages a smile. “My mother’s the same way.”
She shouted once she was partway there, and had turned one of her rings upside down so that the stone was poking uncomfortably into her palm. "Can I steal you away real quick?"
Max looks over as Conflux shouts her name. "Hmm? Oh, uh, yeah." The demoness quickly finishes the last few bites of her lunch and carries the tray over to the collection bin. Heads turn to follow her as she walks.
Max leads Connie out of the cafeteria and to a distant corner of the spillout area, far enough away from prying eyes and ears. "What's up, Connie?"
"Okay, so mainly I want to sit you down and not let you leave till I have every last detail about what's going on with Caio congrats bee-tee-dubs, but before then we gotta talk shop about the demon-y lust aura you're trailing through the whole school."
" 'Cause I'm glad it was a good first time, but your afterglow is a bit much. Unless it was a bad time, and this is some sort of frustrated poltergasm? I feel like that has a different remedy that I should not be part of. Either way, the adoring public? Definitely overdoring it. Indarius says the effects are going deeper than it looks like and do not tell him I said this he is way better at eyeballing that kind of thing than I am.
"Shin wanted charms to keep the team on an even keel, but he's probably just worried about disappointing his purity ring, and I figure this is something that merits going straight to the source."
"So: What do you know? Can you control it? Are you okay with me working out a damper for it? Indarius too."
Max blushes when Conflux mentions Caio, but she stays quiet and listens to the rest of what she has to say. Her tail wiggles behind her as she considers her apparent newfound abilities.
"I don't know. The whole story's kind of long, but I had this vision, or went into an alternate reality, or something. But ever since then, it seems like everybody is just, like, super into me. I'm not doing anything consciously. If I knew how to control it, I would.
"I guess it would be a good idea to get a handle on it. Until I can figure out how it works, I'm okay with you guys trying to keep it in check. I wouldn't want, uh, anything embarrassing to happen while we're trying to fight bad guys and stuff."
She **guesses** it would be a good idea to get a handle on it until she can control it?!?!
I wish it were easier to parse from the outside how much of this happiness is 'demons are real and also DEMON-DEMONS WHO CORRUPT EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH' and how much is a girl? feeling comfortable and attractive for the first time. Eh, plenty of people will assume demon-s$@#, she can have my benefit of the doubt.
"Okay. First of all - I'm like 90% sure that you would have gotten a not wildly dissimilar effect just by ditching the dysphoria-sweats and projecting some self-confidence, cause I have a ward up and Daaamn.
"Unless the ward's just not working? It's kinda theoretical and was originally configured to stop more prosaic Hell Things. Like, you know, claws, fire, pitchforks... Probably it's working.
"So - obviously, this wasn't what I prepared for this morning, but luckily this will a) test to make sure my ward is doing something and b) contain your demonic radiance, assuming the result of 'a' is positive."
Connie had been keeping one hand clenched tight and pressed against her side where her belly shirt left some skin exposed, but she presented the palm of her hand to Max. There were thin lines not quite carved into her palm where she'd been tightly clutching the ring on her middle finger, a silver band with an imperfect obsidian stone, the only one twisted to face inwards.
A blush began to simmer on Connie's cheeks as she inverted the ring back to its normal position. "Huh, so I guess the ward was definitely working, and focusing it inwards was the key. Love it when I guess right the first time."
"Okay, so I know you're tough, but try not to cut yourself on the obsidian. It's a little scratchy, but you do want to keep it pressed against your palm as much as you can."
Without much fanfare Connie pulled off the ring to hand over to Max, audibly gulping when their fingers touched. "Okay! Ummm... Okay! Turns out just wearing the ring was actually still doing a lot. Umm. A lot a lot. And now my finger is feeling very naked. Please put the ring on before I keep talking?! Middle finger! Middle finger!"
Connie let out a long breath of relief as she felt a bit more control return, but her face quickly twisted into a frown.
"That's a new rash, right? Are you allergic to cheap silver? Or maybe just anti-demonic artifacts? Probably that."
She began to empty her pockets with a little less organization than she'd had even a day earlier. "Had to go to my backups for a lot of things, but I should still have- Ha!"
Triumphantly she unballed a long velvet opera glove. "That should do it! Minimize direct contact, but still keep things thin and conductive enough for it to do its work."
"Okay. I'm just gonna close my eyes and you do the whole 'ditch-the-ring, don-the-glove, unditch-the-ring' thing."
After a few squirmy, eye-clenching moments, Connie cocked an eyebrow. "It's back on, right? Then that's two new things we learned! One: it's probably not a placebo effect since I didn't need to see that the ring was back on. And two: In a pheromone emergency, blindfolding me is probably counterproductive..."
Max is bemused by the effect she seems to be having on Connie, especially once her teammate removes the magical ring. She slips the ring onto the requested finger, but lets out a yelp and winces when it starts to leave a rash.
She takes off the ring, puts the offered glove on, then puts the ring back on over it. "Okay. Is that better?" she asks.
When Connie mentions pheromones, Max quirks an eyebrow. "Pheromones? Is that what it is? I guess that's why it hit Caio so hard last night. Wolf senses and all..." She can't help but replay the previous night's events in her mind. How much of that was Caio's conscious mind, and how much was just instincts taking over in reaction to her new pheromones?
Max frowns and looks down at the glove and the ring. "Alright, thanks, Connie. This will make getting through the day easier. See you at the team meeting tonight?"
The rest of the school day progresses with far more normalcy. Max still gets stares during the transitions from one class to the next, but it's back to the earlier gawking along with significant, what was going on with me?? confusion.
Classes finally end for the day and after-school activities begin.
Shin cannot find Grace, but since he cannot find any of the volleyball players he has to assume they're already in the locker rooms getting ready for their game.
Conway can be found in the cafeteria where he had confronted Femtite earlier.
|
|
"It is not her fault..." He starts, figuring it actually is, but not really. "...well, perhaps it is, but I think she isn't aware of why." Turning to Percy, he adds. "Sorry, confused the words... they are the same in Portuguese. What I meant to ask is if you had smelled it." He explains, tapping his nose."I know this is weird and creepy..." He adds as he looks at the angry Femtite. "...but I can smell when a girl is... in her fertile period? It is an animal instinct, I guess." He thought about saying that he had never smelled it in Femtite, but decided it could be indelicate. He gestures with his head towards Max. "This is what I'm smelling, but like, intensified a lot. It is still very strong, and I believe even you with your normal noses can smell it too, even if you do not realize what it is."
Percy nods between sandwich bites keeping a mental notepad, "Okay so definitely scent based... which lends to the pheromone idea. If that's the case then it would make sense as to why you're more affected by it than most or at least noticed it earlier." His brain starts to click together the pieces of the rumors of the racket in the dorms, the throng of people with her, the nookie comment, the fact that both him and Max were together alot, what usually happens when wolves go into- fuuuuuUUUH-.
He looked at his sandwich calmly placed it on his tray, gulped down what he had in his mouth and then looked over to Caio signing under the table again.
There was an obvious look of stern worry on his face as he thinks of some ancient Deviantart creations he's seen and the even vague possibility of that ever actually happening. He pulls out his phone and furiously starts typing.
Percy paces back and forth in his room switching between bouts of flipping through his book and writing down complex alchemical and arcane formulae in a notebook, several of which have been scribbled out, revisited scribbled out again, and revisited with the words next to them. "Come on Connie where are you we gotta jump on this fast."
Like usual, Caio would stop by Max's dorm to chat and hang out, even if this day there were more important things to do. "Hey Max, how was being the most popular girl in school?" He asks, genuinely interested, while sitting by the window, to avoid himself to get too distracted.
"I think I know mostly what is going on. Connie, Percy, and most likely Shin are worried about it, so perhaps they have even talked to you about it... do you want some help?" He offers. "Are you able to control it somehow?"
”It was surprisingly fun,” Max admits with a shy smile. ”But I’m a bit worn out having to let down everybody gently when they try to pick me up. If this keeps up, I’m going to be too exhausted to fight crime every night!”
The smile fades away though when Caio says the others are worried. ”Connie talked to me at lunch. She gave me this ring to dampen the power I’m exuding. It seems to be helping a little bit. I mean, the fact that you’re not immediately throwing yourself at me is evidence enough of that. But it’s only a stopgap solution. I need to learn how to control the power before it gets me into trouble.
“Connie said they were pheromones. That’s why it hit you so hard last night. I’m... I’m sorry, Caio. I almost took advantage of my power over you while you were the Wolf. If I had made you do something... something bad, I never would have been able to forgive myself.”
"Oh! Wait- you mean- Oh.
"The uh, pheromones and the spooky vision predated sexy times? 'Cause... I mean, look I was saying that you guys should make sure to get some steel-reinforced beds and such already. Obviously he was crazy about you and just hadn't gotten to the point where it clicked yet, but uh... I hope you don't take this the wrong way especially 'cause you have my best anti-demon ward, but you know that I have to talk to Caio about this, right?"
***
S%~%, that took longer than I thought...
Please be there, please still be there...
Femtite is there. She is trying (and failing) to hold her usual princessy posture.
She forces a smile to greet Connie. "Back from your… thing.” She starts, “I…”
And that’s as far as she gets.
"Yeah. Uh, wow." Connie blushes. "We will need to go over that in detail both the team-relevant demon stuff and the absolute tea of it all, but before that... Sorry that last night I just kinda cried it out, and then we didn't actually talk. Totally-kinda cried it out" She shrugs her shoulders as she pulls her jacket a little tighter, but stays standing out of reach, not trusting herself to get closer while she works herself up.
"I do still think I'm right. But um, if we were- if we did date, hypothetically, what would that look like?"
As Femtite's face lights up, Connie holds up a finger in semi-mock severity "Not the smooching and the snuggling and the lovey-dovey part! I can imagi- err, I can uh-manage to figure that part out. You're a princess and before you came here you were expecting to have a harem of other princesses and... What is dating for you? Hypothetical-dating"
***
"Hey Indy, developments I don't know about? I've got Deedee's demon stank mitigated for now, but we should definitely suss out a longer term solution 'cause my hand would absolutely be cramping up by now."
"I can only imagine. I can't think of a way my own curse would cause any sort of admiration like that."
As Max tells him about the ring, it all makes sense, since her perfume was indeed less concentrated to the point that he believed normal humans wouldn't even be really affected. "Could you remove the ring? Want to check something." As she does, Caio is suddenly hit by a wave of pheromones, as strong as he was hit when he first entered her room last night. His pupils dilate once more, his heart accelerates, and his eyes show nothing but desire. This time, however, Caio wasn't specially tired, so he keeps himself from pouncing at her and ripping of her clothes, even if he wanted that so badly. As the seconds passed, however, he can sense the intensity of the pheromones to diminish, until it was at the same level as earlier in school, which is still very strong for Caio, but not in a way that he can't stop thinking about that.
A bit sweaty and red, Caio recomposes his expression. "Yeah, I do not think this ring is a good solution at all... it is as if the pheromones were pent up while you were wearing it and then, when you removed it, it hit me like a truck. A hot sweet truck." He adds, trying to not make the thing scary for her. "I think learning to control this is the way to go." He is about to share with her something that happened to him a couple weeks later, but seeing how worried she was about the effects of her pheromones on him, he decided to tackle this issue first.
Walking up to Max, Caio holds her, making sure she is paying full attention to what he is about to say. "I know it is hard to ask this, but do not worry about last night, ok? You did not make me do anything bad, so thinking about what could have happened will do you no good." He pauses, before adding the most important think he felt to say. "I could have walked away last night once I had recovered control. I knew what was going to happen if I stayed, and I chose to stay. And I do not regret it."
Max grimaces and looks askance as Connie insists on talking to Caio about what happened last night. "Yeah, okay. Not so loud!"
***
Max's heart beats faster as she sees the look in Caio's eyes when she takes off the dampening ring. She swallows nervously and takes a step back, but luckily for her, her friend gets control of his desire.
She looks up at him as he puts his arms around her and tells her it was his choice to stay. "I know. I knew what I was doing, too, when I... when we..."
She trails off, looking down at the floor. "Why do feel the things you feel for me, Caio? Is it this body? If I were still a man, would you... Would we...?" She seems to be having trouble expressing what she wants to say.
Femtite’s aura shines a little brighter at Connie’s suggestion.
She replies, “I’ve never dated before. A harem is to be arranged two-weeks into my cycle, when I’m likely to become impregnated.
“My first harem will include princesses my age. But my mother believes in equality, so any additional harem might include pixites from all walks of life. And, if I choose, I might be on the fourth week of my cycle so I’m likely to impregnate another. I think Mel, who fixes Love Bug, The is the one who… would I say ‘fathered?’”
She winced a little, “Sorry. Boring topic really. Just sex, sex, sex. No… real connection. Everything is physical and purposeful.
“If dating would be undesirable to you because I… you know, might spontaneously combust. Plus I eat germs, which to me taste better than Thai mushrooms. I should keep my chin up and all that.”
Playing along, she says with a grin, “Hypothetically, I want the human experience. Dating’s part of it.
“Human relationships are messy and full of pain and regret. Of course it’s a terrible idea. But it’s beautiful, to me.
“It’s surely better than charting menstrual cycles to determine who joins the next group session with the princess.”
"Okay, adding a bunch of that to my increasing list of physiological things to circle back to..." Connie looks guilty for an instant, but then shakes it off. "Look, I just. Ugggh! We aren't even dating and I still have to ask the big Life-y questions. Would this maybe be long-term? Like, would you definitely be going home some day and rotating through different harems?"
Femtite smiles and shakes her head. “The concept of fidelity is intriguing to me. If there is an us, there is no harem.”
Femite is in a more cheerful mood than before.
“Okay! I got an after school training session. Y’know, hero stuff. I’m not really so experienced at investigations, but if I find anything I can’t figure out, maybe I can bring questions to the trusted-adult hero.”
Caio wanted to be sure of things, and confident for both of them that there was nothing wrong about what they were doing, but then Max asks one of the questions that he wasn't yet prepared to answer. "Is this really important?" He asks, trying to put his thoughts in order. He knew how he felt, but was worried he'd not be able to properly explain.
"There is a verse in a song that I really like that, when translated is something like: 'We need to love people as if there is no tomorrow/Because if we think about it, in truth there isn't'... the melody doesn't really work in English. Max, I was turned when I was five and I have only met a single old werewolf." He doesn't believe he had ever shared this with Max, since he usually tries to be optimistic of things. "I've never really thought about too much in the future, since the chance of me having one is slim at best."
"I love my friends as much as I love my family, and you are my best friend. Do your new body has changed how much I love you? No. I wasn't attracted to you before, but I also think you wasn't attracted to guys before... sorry if you were. I'm terrible of noticing this kind of stuff." He answers with his heart, since lies have no place in such matters.
"Another frightening question is what will happen to us if we go forward with this and you recover your body... I can't pretend to know what would happen." He says, anxious, before focusing himself back to the present. "Max, can't we live the Today? I can reach it, I know I have it... I don't think I have the Tomorrow."
Femite is in a more cheerful mood than before.
“Okay! I got an after school training session. Y’know, hero stuff. I’m not really so experienced at investigations, but if I find anything I can’t figure out, maybe I can bring questions to the trusted-adult hero.”
Conway seems both excited and a little nervous, but ultimately glad Femtite is there. "Okay. Good. Great. Um, my room is this way."
He leads the pixite princess to the boy's dorm and up the elevator to his room on the fourth floor. He uses his ID badge to unlock it, revealing a cramped single-occupant room. It is tidy for a boy's room, with a bed that's made but still wrinkly and several shelves filled with wood-and-glass display cases. Inside the cases are a wide array of dolls, still in their original packaging.
"This is only part of my collection," he says, as he steps aside to let Femtite explore. "But these are my favorites. You know, the ones I don't want to leave at home."
Every spare space is occupied by a doll of some kind. The collection is eclectic in a way -- there are classic brands like Disney and Barbie, later trends like Bratz and Monster High, fashion lines of current and past heroes, and others even less recognisable. The clothing styles are varied as well. Some in vintage clothing, some in modern designs.
"I first noticed it this morning." He points to one just above his desk, an Imagerie with a rave-style dress with holographic swirls. "This is MIB, limited edition, never opened." He pauses, letting her get a close look. "She's looking left. She's always looked right."
Connie's earnest expression became a mask of surprise as she barked out a laugh before fighting her way back to seriousness. "Oh - I don't mean the play-by-play, I mean, I do want the play-by-play, but like... Not meaning that you did anything wrong, but taking a big step forward in your relationship with someone while at least one of you was in a, uh, heightened state isn't... ideal? I just want to make sure he's okay. Singling him out because you seem okay. If you're not okay though you should tell me. Actually, you have to; I checked and that's in the bylaws for the team. There are bylaws by the way. Just take my word for it.
***
Connie twists her hips back and forth nervously, gnawing on her lip as though trying to keep something from spilling out. "...Okay this is maybe a harder conversation." Connie paces steadily around the table as she tries to find the right words. "It makes me feel kinda, um, s%$+ty? When you talk about being with me as part of a 'human experience' or as being 'intriguing'? Mainly because I know you mean human as an 'other,' but still? Like, I know you're here to learn about us, but, when you put it like that, it feels like when people say I look 'exotic.' Or if someone want to be with me because... you know, when someone is seeing me for what I am instead of who I am. And the whole 'friendzone' thing... I, uh, I don't owe you a romantic relationship, just 'cause I like you and you want one. I'm..." Helplessly she glanced back up at Femms and then away. Her voice dropped, nearly all emotion flattened out. "Look, obviously I'm considering 'hypotheticals.' And obviously I'm in a better place than last night."
She smiled. "And that's because of you."
"But you don't get to just make that kind of choice for both of us."
"This is gonna sound bad. Power disparities and other disparities can be, well, hot. Really hot, but uh, that doesn't mean I actually would want that kind of thing at the heart of our rel- our hypothetical relationship. Like... I know you're literally a princess, but to me, you'd be my girlfriend. " Her cheeks flushed. "Like not if we were somehow at some court function or whatever, then I could do the etiquette and junk. But just with people or in private, neither of us should be the boss. Unless maybe we're in very private, but that is a DIFFERENT conversation!"
Femtite shrinks, disappearing under her clothes. As her school uniform falls to the floor, a Barbie-sized Femtite (wearing a pinkish-purplish version of the school uniform) hovers close to a doll. As she checks out the other dolls, she adjusts her size to match—4½” when she flies by the Tinklebrie, 12” near Barbie, 18” near the 18-inch vintage doll… and finally, she settles near the MIB… Or, DOI. Doll of interest.
She looks Imagerie in the eyes. “So your eyes move? What about your lips? Can we talk?”
“I know you don’t owe me that… and I don’t mean I want to date to learn about humanity.
“I meant I prefer having a girlfriend…. not harems and, no matter what, I’m not the Princess of You.
“And I really feel awful I blew up like that publicly, or at all.”
Femtite’s posture sinks. She lowers her gaze.
“I had no right. Your friendship means the world to me. If you were neither attracted nor interested, I’d have come to terms that the Friend Zone is our happy place.
“It’s that you confirmed the feeling is mutual, and then…”
Now the molten gold starts to trickle.
“…I intended to be a better friend, give you time, not even bring up the topic. Accept.
“I wanted to sit with you at lunch and just enjoy your company—and I was accused of theft and Caio picked a really bad time to sneak up and ask about feelings.
“And I realize the question wasn’t directed at me, and contextually…”
She looks up. “And I saw you and Percy—I know you’re just friends—and I saw DD and everybody—that… I don’t know.
“I… was afraid. Afraid if I kept saying nothing you wouldn’t know I was giving you time, and you’d think I’d moved on, and that you’d move on thinking I’d moved on. And I’d be like Caio having to pretend like ‘it’s cool, and I’m cool,’ even though you don’t need a nose that smells ovulation to know he’s heartbroken.”
"Okay. Good to know that if we dated, we'd both want exclusivity. Also, and I say this with love, but me and Percy?! Within a week he would simply be dead. That is a boy I enjoy in very specific dosages, and with defined activities, and ideally not with him shoving his giant throbbing magic potential in my face.."
"And good news for Caio, I feel like he's more likely to get housebroken than heartbroken, and uh, you know you were doing pinup poses in a teacup for me this morning? I was ruined for my morning class. Femms, I'm still not there yet. I'm not sure if 'us' is something that I can handle without tipping over. But I'm never gonna just forget you, never gonna stop thinking about you. Just couldn't."
Femtite has a guilty grin on her face. It melts into a sentimental smile. Her amethyst eyes still sparkle with golden tears, but she’s moved by Connie’s words.
“I just wanted to be noticed… and give you ideas about what I could do. Warm your tea, warm your bath, warm your pillow, dress as your favorite Barbie… and I changed my pajamas when you were out of bed at night. I was just being playful.
“I hoped you might think I’m fun, for a girl who can’t kiss… yet.”
Connie grinned sardonically. "Oh yeah I've just hated our non-kissing time together. Just terrible. Completely unfun. But I get it, Tink. Gotta get the right amount of attention or you die, and honestly? Mood.
"...Hey, would you want to actually watch that movie sometime?"
“What movie? Yes!”
Grace: See you at the meet! I'll have a treat for the team as well, so good luck!
The team's comms will hum briefly, and when they activate it there will be a short voice message from Horizon for them. "Tonight, seven at Unity Station. Foray will be waiting for a lesson. Anyone needs to bow out, contact me as soon as you can."
The leader himself was currently using the home ec room and some quick ingredients he'd bought from the local convenience store to try and whip up some tasty sweet treats for the volleyball team. He was also trying his best to carefully make the frost pipe out so that it looked like little volleyballs on the top, practicing before the cupcakes finished baking so that they would look as good as possible.
When he finally showed up for the team meet, he had small white spots of flour still in his black hair, and two large platters of volleyball shaped cupcakes ready to eat. He sat down in the bleachers, waving to the team and hoping that his name wasn't yet Mudd.
”I’m okay. At the moment,” Max tells Connie. ”Caio and I have a lot to talk about, though...”
***
Max is quiet as Caio shares more about his past than he had ever mentioned before. She had only been transformed a few months ago. To be changed against one’s will at the age of five—she can’t even comprehend how terrible that must have been.
Caio gives voice to the fears that she could not. What would happen, indeed, should Max ever find a way back to her previous body, her previous sex. Would Caio still have feelings for her? Would Max even be able to look her best friend in the eye, having the memories of the intimate things they had done together?
Don't worry about tomorrow. Live for today.
Max reaches out to hold Caio’s hand. ”I’m sorry. I know this uncharted territory for both of us. But... I’ll try, Caio. I’ll try to just be present in the moment. Just promise me one thing?”
She meets the werewolf’s gaze, and her lip trembles. ”Please, don’t hurt me,” she whispers.
"I can't ask you more than that." He answers, hugging her. "And I'll never hurt you." Caio add as he gives her a gentle kiss.
Looking at the still destroyed room brings Caio back to the other present challenges. "So, how about we work on these pheromones? It would be nice if we have any idea of how they work before our hero class today."
Max closes her eyes and returns the kiss. She nods at Caio’s suggestion. ”Alright. I’ll give it a shot...”
Femtite shrinks, disappearing under her clothes. As her school uniform falls to the floor, a Barbie-sized Femtite (wearing a pinkish-purplish version of the school uniform) hovers close to a doll. As she checks out the other dolls, she adjusts her size to match—4½” when she flies by the Tinklebrie, 12” near Barbie, 18” near the 18-inch vintage doll… and finally, she settles near the MIB… Or, DOI. Doll of interest.
She looks Imagerie in the eyes. “So your eyes move? What about your lips? Can we talk?”
[dice=Assess]2d6+2
Small and up close like she is, Femtite sees that the Imagerie doll is made of a molded plastic, painted, and dressed in various synthetic fabrics. She has a smile permanently sculpted on her face and purple hair threaded into and through her plastic scalp. Bold letters on the packaging promise lots of playtime fun.
But she seems nothing more or less than a doll. Completely inanimate.
Femtite turns to Conway. “She doesn’t seem capable of moving on her own. Now… this is the first time I’ve been in here—and your collection is very beautiful, by the way! But it does so happen that someone with my power could enter the package.
“I wouldn’t be able to turn her head buuuuut… I can take a look. Have your comm ready. I won’t be able to understand your voice, but I’ll be able to read your screen if you type something.” She proudly notes, “My roommate discovered that. She’s so smart!”
Femtite shrinks to 0.9 millimeters tall. She flies close to the plastic near the doll’s face, becomes subatomic and flies through the molecular structure of the polymer. Once through, she is under half a centimeter tall—just large enough to examine the doll, but plenty small enough to fit in the case.
She examines the doll, flying around in the packaging, looking for evidence of tampering… or technology?
Conway is dumfounded and is in mute shock when Femtite shrinks down to doll size. She actually has to repeat herself before he actually seems to register the words. Finally, he nods. "Okay, yes... yes. Wait. Comm? Oh! My cell phone? Okay..."
Femtite then enters the package and gets small enough to flit amongst the polymers' molecular structure. She notes several points of articulation -- primarily at the doll's neck, shoulders, waist and hips -- but nothing that would indicate an ability to move on its own. There's some interesting color-shifting plastics used in the doll, but it appears to be part of the doll's design.
To be thorough, she shrinks enough to get between the headpiece and neck, and look inside the doll’s head. She explores the color-shifting plastic as well, flying through at subatomic size. (If the molecular density is that of a solid, (or liquid technically,) she will exit it the doll concluding it is ordinary.
After flying out and growing back to human size, she says, “There are probably powers that could make the doll’s head turn. But was that the only weird thing that happened?”
Conway stumbles back when Femtite grows back to full size (in his eyes). He nods. "Well, yeah. I know that telekinesis is a thing. But that doesn't explain why a telekinetic would come into my room and move a doll's head a quarter turn to the left.
"So I looked at the rest of my collection," he says as he digs into a steamer chest at the foot of his bed. "And then I found this." He holds up an enclosed Whippoorwill doll.
"This is the super rare, first edition, fully licensed Whippoorwill. Look." He points to the doll's waist. "There's six quills on her belt. But there's supposed to be eight!"