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Fanfiction of Norithics's Partners:2541", "count": "16", "submission_left_submission_id": "1856414", "submission_left_file_name": "2667229_AzureDreamer_act_02.rtf", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/2667/2667229_AzureDreamer_act_02.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/2667/2667229_AzureDreamer_act_02.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/2667/2667229_AzureDreamer_act_02.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "120", "submission_right_submission_id": "1892831", "submission_right_file_name": "2722403_AzureDreamer_act_04.rtf", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/2722/2722403_AzureDreamer_act_04.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/2722/2722403_AzureDreamer_act_04.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/2722/2722403_AzureDreamer_act_04.jpg", "submission_right_thumb_huge_x": "300", "submission_right_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_right_thumb_large_x": "200", "submission_right_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_right_thumb_medium_x": "120", "submission_right_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "As Locksmouth descends into chaos, so to do its neighbours. With so many family members missing, their fate unknown, the people of Esterwood come together wherever they can. Viola's pack are no exception. Forced to coexist in such close proximity, tensions rise and conflict begins to take shape.\n\nBut, as always, there's much more to the situation than meets the eye. While petty arguments fester above, something is stirring below. Something that will change Viola's life forever.\n\n-\n\nBased off of Partners:2541 by [iconname]Norithics[/iconname], which can be read here;\n\n[smallpool]7049[/smallpool]\n\nThe real plot starts here.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "As Locksmouth descends into chaos, so to do its neighbours. With so many family members missing, their fate unknown, the people of Esterwood come together wherever they can. Viola's pack are no exception. Forced to coexist in such close proximity, tensions rise and conflict begins to take shape.

But, as always, there's much more to the situation than meets the eye. While petty arguments fester above, something is stirring below. Something that will change Viola's life forever.

-

Based off of Partners:2541 by \r\n\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNorithics\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNorithics\r\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
, which can be read here;

\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t
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\r\n\t\t\t\tPartners - 'Issue 1' by Norithics\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\tPartners - 'Issue 2' by Norithics\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t		\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\tPartners - 'Issue 3' by Norithics\r\n\t\t\t
\r\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpool: Partners, vol. 1\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby Norithics\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t

The real plot starts here.", "writing": "Vienna’s first instinct was to panic, which would have been counterproductive. So instead she went with her second instinct and attempted to call her father. Her attempts to remain calm were thwarted, though, when she immediately received an automated response – the PET she was attempting to contact was currently unavailable. “God dammit,” she muttered to herself as she made a second attempt and was met with the same result. “God [i]dammit![/i]” This time she shouted, though no one else in chemistry seemed to notice or care. Mrs. Rothschild had left the classroom almost immediately after the emergency alert came, and the other students were milling about in a blind panic. Fiddling with their own PETs, attempting to leave, or just trying to stay out of the way of students attempting to leave. [i]Vienna[/i] was trying not to panic, but it seemed she was mostly alone. “Fuck,” she hissed as she got her fourth automated response. “Okay, this clearly isn’t working. Need a new plan.”\n\nNothing came to mind. Or at least nothing that she didn’t immediately shoot down as impractical, unhelpful, or just dumb. Attempting to [i]go[/i] to Locksmouth was, of course, right out. Calling her mother was more reasonable but ultimately she decided against it – if [i]she[/i] was still attempting to get in contact with Vinnie, then it was almost certain that so was Clara. She couldn’t think of anyone else to call who might pick up, or any app that might be otherwise helpful in the current situation, so her PET was pretty much useless.\n\nShe felt like she should be doing [i]something[/i], but she couldn’t think of [i]what[/i] she should be doing so she ended up just sitting at her desk, staring off into space. Paralyzed with indecision, waiting for the other shoe to drop.\n\nShe hadn’t exactly expected the other shoe to be Erin bursting into her now mostly empty classroom, but she welcomed [i]anything[/i] to distract her from the mounting feeling of powerlessness. She was still dressed in her gym uniform, which clung tightly to her ample chest. “Have you-”\n\n“Yeah,” Vienna interrupted, knowing exactly what Erin was going to ask. “Can’t even get a ring. What about you?”\n\nErin sighed. “Shit. Same here, for both of them.”\n\n“I’d rather at least be able to [i]know[/i] if he’s picking up or not.”\n\n“[i]Shit[/i]. We need to do something.”\n\n“Okay, but [i]what[/i].”\n\n“I don’t know!” Erin threw her hands up in exasperation. “But we can’t just fucking sit here doing nothing!” Her words reflected Vienna’s own anxieties but the rabbit wasn’t really in the mood to admit that.\n\n“You’re supposed to be the smart one.”\n\n“Okay. Okay, you’re right. Give me a second.” Erin paced furiously, and Vienna decided now was probably a good time to stand up. “Okay. We should go find Viola and Ursula. Ursula’s got family in Locksmouth right now too, right?”\n\n“The general vicinity, yeah. I think they’re outside of the dome, though.”\n\n“That’s good! Maybe she’s managed to contact them and we can get a more firsthand account of what’s going on over there.”\n\n“Okay, that’s the beginnings of a plan. And then?”\n\n“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”\n\n“[i]Brilliant[/i].”\n\n“Well, let’s see [i]you[/i] do better, then.”\n\nVienna balked slightly. It was harsh, but she couldn’t really blame Erin. Her father was currently trapped in Locksmouth while some undefined emergency was going on, yes. But [i]both[/i] of Erin’s parents were trapped in Locksmouth. Proportionately, she probably had it the worst of the pack – Vienna and Viola still had each other and their mother, Ursula’s parents were likely outside of the lockdown and she still had three other parents in Esterwood. Erin had no one to fall back on. It was no [i]wonder[/i] she was stressed.\n\n“Sorry.”\n\n“Don’t apologize. Apologies won’t get our parents back.”\n\n“Yeah, but... Ugh.” Vienna grabbed her backpack and slapped it on her back, the smart fibres adhered it in place. “Let’s just go track down the others.” It was [i]something[/i] to do, which was better than nothing.\n\nErin nodded. “That’s... yes, that’s a good plan.” She didn’t bother mentioning that it was the exact same plan she had come up with not a few seconds earlier, which was unusually charitable. But, again, Vienna was surprised that Erin could keep her composure at all. If [i]her[/i] entire family, Vinnie and Clara and Viola all, were missing and she knew exactly nothing about it except that there was an explosion or more than one explosions, [i]she[/i] wouldn’t be keeping herself together nearly as well as Erin was. It probably didn’t help that she was coming directly off of gym class – she was probably [i]tired[/i], in addition to the shit going on in Locksmouth.\n\nThis was all just conjecture, of course, but frankly Vienna wasn’t in a position to think straight.\n\n“Where should we look first?”\n\n“They’ve got history this period, let’s start there.” Vienna turned and walked to the door. “If they’re not there, uh, I guess check the nearby bathrooms? Viola has a habit of hiding in the toilets when she’s stressed, and Ursula would [i]probably[/i] stick close to her.”\n\n“And if they’re not there?”\n\n“Then I guess we call ‘em up. And if they don’t answer I guess we check at home, see if they went there.”\n\n“Okay. Okay, yes. Let’s do that. Can we stop by the gym, first? I kind of left my stuff there.”\n\n“Yeah. Yeah, let’s not rush this. Just stay calm and collected. We should also stop by Dr. Baas’s office. I get the impression school’s cancelled for the day, but we [i]probably[/i] shouldn’t blow off our community service without asking.”\n\n“Okay. Good. We have a plan. Find Viola and Ursula, try and get in contact with Ursula’s parents, figure out where to go from there.” She made a fist with her right hand and gently punched the palm of her left.\n\n“Yeah. Knock on wood, nothing else is gonna go wrong today.”\n\nErin frowned. “Please, let’s try not to actively invoke bad luck, because I can imagine [i]numerous[/i] ways that this situation could get worse and I really don’t want to see any of them happen.”\n\n“Fair. Let’s get going.” With no further conversation to be had, the two turned and left the lab.\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nVicky had been one of the first students to leave history class. There hadn’t been an [i]official[/i] announcement that class was cancelled, but frankly if it [i]wasn’t[/i] then fuck it, she was playing hooky today and the administration could [i]bite her[/i]. She had higher priorities than school right now.\n\nShe charged her way through the relatively crowded hallways like a sheep on a mission, dodging and weaving around her panicked classmates. Her cheerleading skills proved advantageous in this particular situation. The crowd was sparse enough that it wasn’t completely impenetrable, but [i]dense[/i] enough that she still needed to rely on her agility to make it through at [i]all[/i].\n\nAnd she [i]still[/i] managed to smack headfirst into someone. In her defence, it was more like Lars collided with [i]her[/i], darting out into her path at the last possible second. Both sheep and lion were sent sprawling onto the hallway floor in opposite directions, and had to quickly scramble upright and out of the way of the stampeding masses. “Watch where you’re fucking going!” Vicky snapped, before registering how much bigger than her Lars was. There was a brief moment of hesitation, but that was quickly overpowered by sororal concern. She had to get to Sophie, as soon as possible. There wasn’t fucking [i]time[/i] to sit around being scared by a big weird nerd loser. “Out of my fucking [i]way[/i],” she shouted, shoving the larger boy out of her way.\n\nLars limply allowed Vicky to push him around. His mind was elsewhere at the moment. He resumed his slow, meandering journey to his locker, shaking slightly. He had never had the best relationship with his parents, but they were still his [i]parents[/i], dammit. And that was why he had to get to his locker. That was where he kept his cards during school. Somewhere safe, but also close at hand. Specifically for situations like this.\n\nThe cards would know what to do.\n\nHe pulled the deck out of the locker, not bothering to close it behind him (the cards were the only important thing in there anyway), before making his way to a nearby classroom. He needed a flat surface to make a reading. The other students in the room gave him a wide berth, especially when they saw the cards. Understandable, he supposed. They had power, and could be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands. But he wasn’t the wrong hands.\n\nHe carefully shuffled the deck – though he was loath to admit it, he didn’t have Viola’s level of manual dexterity, and his deck was slightly larger than hers. [i]Supposedly[/i] it was an exact replica of Houdini’s own deck, which made them significantly more powerful than Viola’s generic deck, but also meant he had sixty cards to deal with instead of fifty five. Satisfied that he had shuffled the cards enough, he closed his eyes and carefully drew six cards, placing them face-down on the desk.\n\nSlowly, anxiously, he reached down and flipped each card in sequence, his heart sinking further with each one. It was, quite possibly, the worst possible outcome. A left arm, a right arm, a left leg, a right leg, and the main body. The complete Forbidden One. In an upright position, it would have been an incredibly good omen, signifying impending victory. Mixed orientations meant a mixed result. But he had drawn every single one inverted, in perfect sequence. Unfathomable disaster loomed on the horizon.\n\nWhat caught him off guard was the sixth card. A Dark Rabbit, in an upright position. Given its position in the hand, its orientation, and the fact that it [i]was[/i] a Dark Rabbit, he could only think of one possible meaning it could have. But it was, frankly, [i]impossible[/i]. The cards [i]had[/i] to be wrong.\n\nThere was no [i]way[/i] that Viola Coniglio was going to be personally, directly responsible for averting an upcoming apocalypse, after all.\n\nVicky charged the rest of the way to the elementary school without incident, making as direct beeline to her sister’s classroom as was possible given the layout of the school. Nothing was going to stop her. Not other students, not teachers, nothing. She didn’t slow down until she actually [i]got[/i] to the elementary school. She knew exactly where Sophie’s classroom [i]was[/i], but she couldn’t guarantee that Sophie was still in there.\n\nStill, it was the first place she thought to check, and her gambit paid off. “Vicky!” Sophie barrelled forward, gut-checking her older sister with a forceful hug. This time, the older sheep saw it coming and wasn’t knocked over, but she [i]did[/i] get the wind knocked out over her. She gently stroked her younger sister’s curly hair as she cried and squeezed.\n\n“I was going to call you,” Sophie’s teacher said wearily. Diane Singh, a duck who had only graduated a few years ago. Vicky remembered her, dimly, though she mostly knew her as Sophie’s teacher. “Dr. Baas says that school is cancelled for the rest of the day, obviously. I’ve been trying to get in contact with as many parents as I can, but I’m not getting a lot of answers. Are you two going to be okay?”\n\n“I don’t know,” Vicky replied. “I’m technically supposed to be babysitting for another week or so, but I don’t think I can handle Sophie alone right now.”\n\nDiane nodded sombrely. “Well, you two can stay at my place, if you can’t find anywhere else. I could use the company, my husband is visiting family in Locksmouth and...” She trailed off, not needing to finish.\n\n“I guess there’s a lot of people who are gonna need company, huh,” Vicky muttered, her voice tinged with worry. “You know what, I’m gonna take you up on that offer.”\n\n“Thank you,” Diane said with relief. “I’ll try and look after as many of the children whose parents are in Locksmouth as I can, so I’ll need the help.”\n\n“Right, makes sense.” Vicky nervously ran a hand through her hair.\n\nIt was going to be a long day.\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nViola felt [i]sick[/i]. A deep, profound illness that sank heavily into the pit of her stomach. She very nearly threw up right there in the classroom, but managed to hold it in long enough to run to the bathroom. She hadn’t really had much of an appetite at lunch, and wasn’t entirely sure if that was a blessing or a curse. There wasn’t much lunch for her to lose, but she ended up dry heaving for several minutes as a result. She groaned weakly, trying not to let her hands slip into the bowl as she pulled herself upright. “Fuck,” she muttered. Not at anything in particular, but just because she felt like she should say [i]something[/i]. Just to confirm she could still speak after all that vomiting. Her throat hurt slightly, and she could feel the remnants of her illness slowly but inevitably turning into a crusty gross mess.\n\nFlushing the toilet, she wandered out of the stall in a slight daze. The sinks were, thankfully, not too far away. Her limbs felt week and rubbery, and she had a difficult time keeping steady on her feet. She wobbled her way over to the sink, turned it on, and began to wash her face. Hot water pooled in her hands, and once it started overflowing she splashed it on her face before repeated the process several times. A careful, exact routine. Simple. Repetitive. As much about cleaning her face as it was about calming down, breaking herself out of the panic she found herself mired in.\n\n“You okay?” Ursula asked, waiting near the entrance of the bathroom. Her voice was slightly shaky, betraying that she herself wasn’t okay.\n\n“No.”\n\n“Yeah fair.” Ursula shuffled restlessly. “You should get some water. Or something. I think I remember reading somewhere that you should drink water after throwing up to clear the stomach acid out of your throat.”\n\n“I think if I put anything else in my stomach I’d just throw up again.”\n\n“Yeah, okay, I’m talking out of my ass anyway.”\n\n“What are you going to do?”\n\n“I have no idea. I tried calling Leanne and Scarlet but neither of them picked up. Which I guess is a good sign because apparently a lot of people can’t even get through to Locksmouth at all.” Ursula sighed, slowly sliding down the wall until she was in a crouching position. “What about you?”\n\n“I don’t fucking know. I kind of just want to pick a direction and run in it until I can’t anymore.”\n\n“That sounds like a really bad idea.”\n\n“Yeah but I kinda don’t care right now.”\n\nUrsula sighed again. “Look, I’m not gonna stop you, but you should probably not if you’re not feeling great.”\n\nViola leaned over the sink, gripping the edge just slightly too tightly. “I-” She cut herself off as she looked up to find her reflection giving her a subtle dirty look. “Okay,” she said, against her better judgment. Her reflection nodded, just enough for her to see it, and then returned to mimicking her every movement. “I kind of just want to be alone, though.”\n\n“At least let Vienna know you’re okay. Okay?”\n\n“Fine.”\n\n“Okay.” Ursula pulled herself back upright and walked over to Viola. “I know you’re stressed, but we’re kind of all in the same boat, here. We need to stick together.”\n\n“Yeah.” Viola stared into the mirror, and her reflection stared back in the exact same manner. “You know what, maybe this is what we needed.”\n\n“You think so?” Ursula shrugged. “I guess I can see that, yeah. Kinda hard to justify fighting all the time when we don’t know if our family are even alive.” Ursula couldn’t help but laugh. “God, that’s kinda fucked up when I put it like that.”\n\nViola let out a small, choked laugh of her own. “Yeah, maybe we’re not cut out for optimism.”\n\n“C’mon, let’s go find the others.”\n\n“Yeah.”\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nThe pack met up very shortly after they set out to find each other. One of the advantages of having a twin was that each Coniglio sister knew roughly how the other thought, and the other two just had to stick close to them. “So, to be clear, we’re gonna be staying at my place for a while,” Ursula said, matter-of-factly. It had actually been Viola’s idea, and Ursula agreed with the reasoning – and, frankly, she didn’t find any better ideas coming to mind. Some fucking Alpha she was turning out to be. “It’s the biggest, so there’s room for all of us. We can stop by your houses to pick up your stuff and Mama Coniglio first, but I think we should probably try and go as quickly as possible.”\n\n“That makes sense,” Erin said wearily. Normally she would have had some kind of objection at the ready, but she found she didn’t have the energy to be catty. So instead she just settled on being mousey. “We decided it’d be a good idea to stop by Dr. Baas’s office first. I doubt she’ll be making us go through with the community service, but it would be an astoundingly terrible idea to assume.”\n\n“That works,” Ursula replied with a shrug. Like Erin, she also lacked the energy to do anything other than go with the flow.\n\n“We should also probably go ask your parents if they’re okay with it first,” Vienna added. “They probably will be? But they historically don’t exactly... [i]like[/i] us?”\n\n“Yeah,” Ursula replied tersely. She clearly didn’t really have anything else to say on the matter, so instead she turned and led the way to Dr. Baas’s office. The school wasn’t exactly large, and none of them were exactly in the mood to linger, so barely any time had passed once they reached their destination.\n\nDr. Baas was sitting at her desk, slumped over with her head buried in her hands. “Oh,” she said, looking up as they entered the room. “Sorry, give me a moment to collect myself.”\n\n“Are you okay?” Ursula said, instinctively. Authority figure or no, she was very obviously distraught.\n\n“I’ll be fine. I’m just... worried, that’s all.” She said nothing further on the matter. Presumably she [i]also[/i] had family or friends or both who were currently in Locksmouth, but none of them really knew much about her home life. Esterwood was a very tight-knit community, where most everyone knew most everyone else. But there were exceptions to that, and Viola and her pack were probably chief among them. Still, Dr Baas continued on as though they needed no further context than that. “School is going to be cancelled for a little bit. I expect you all to keep up with your studies independently. Also, obviously your community service will be put on hold as well. I can’t reasonably expect you to attend school-mandated punishment while school itself isn’t ongoing.”\n\n“Okay,” Ursula said, speaking for all four of them. No one, they found, really had the energy to say much of anything.\n\n“And listen, girls. I’m going to make a formal announcement about this soon, but I want you to stick together, okay? Avoid going anywhere alone and try not to stay out too late. This isn’t a formal curfew, but we don’t know what’s going on in Locksmouth or if it might spread to Esterwood. I don’t want any of you getting yourselves into a dangerous situation, understand?”\n\n“Yes, ma’am.”\n\nDr. Baas sighed with relief. “I’m glad we’re on the same page. Now please go home. And stay safe.”\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nEsterwood wasn’t a very large town. It didn’t have nearly as large a footprint as Locksmouth or Harbington, and beyond that there was a significant portion that was entirely undeveloped forest. Which made it all the more impressive that they didn’t encounter a single person between the school and Erin’s home. It also meant that the journey only took about fifteen minutes by foot. “You all go on without me for now,” Erin insisted. “I would rather pack everything I need [i]now[/i] than have to head back here later to pick up everything other than the bare minimum.”\n\n“We can help,” Vienna interjected. “It’ll go quicker that way. And anyway Dr. Baas said we should try and avoid being alone.”\n\nErin opened her mouth to object, but Ursula had already barged past her and into the empty home. “Well. Fine then, I guess that’s that decision made for me,” she muttered sullenly.\n\nPacking didn’t take very long with the four of them working together. Erin didn’t really have much [i]to[/i] pack, really. Clothing, toiletries, a few spare understickers, and a ratty looking stuffed toy bear. It was ragged and the colours had faded almost entirely. “I have slept with her for nearly every single night of my life and I do not intend to break that habit [i]now[/i], and if [i]any[/i] of you say [i]anything[/i] I will not fucking [i]hesitate[/i] to bite you.”\n\nNo one felt particularly motivated to make fun of Erin over her teddie bear. Vienna managed to brainstorm a few potential snide remarks, but ultimately decided against actually using any of them. Ursula didn’t even get that far, and Viola found her mind was currently elsewhere.\n\n“That should be everything,” Erin said wearily. She had managed to fit everything into her backpack except the bear, which she held tightly under one arm. “I told you that I didn’t really need help.”\n\n“Yes but we helped anyway,” Ursula said, accompanied with her best stern glare. It wasn’t a very good one, or Erin just had enough stamina that it didn’t effect her greatly, or perhaps a bit of both. The tall mouse just glared right back. “Whatever. Next stop is the Coniglios’.”\n\nThe Coniglio household was about as far away from the school as the Leroux home, but in a very slightly different direction. It was still nearby enough that it took only ten or so minutes to walk there. Upon opening the door, Viola found herself hit by a wall of aroma. It was a familiar sensation, but this time it felt [i]more[/i] than normal. A veritable cornucopia of scents. Tomato and olive oil and garlic dominated, punctuated by notes of shellfish and a sharp, salty kick of brine that cut through the other odours without overwhelming them.\n\n“We’re having spaghetti puttanesca with clams, shrimp, mussels, freshly baked garlic bread, and a [i]really nice[/i] red,” came a voice from the kitchen. “I’ve also got a Tiramisu ready for dessert. [i]No one[/i] leaves this house until all of this food is gone. There’s enough for everyone. Ursula, I’ve called your parents and they’ll be over shortly.”\n\nUrsula opened her mouth to argue, but found once again that she completely lacked the energy to do so, even disregarding the fact that Clara Coniglio was a massive hassle to argue with at the best of times. “I’m not supposed to have alcohol.”\n\n“It’s a [i]very[/i] nice red[i]. Very[/i] expensive.” Clara said, matter-of-factly, as if that was the end of the discussion. “Everyone has a glass and if Dan wants to object he can fuck off.”\n\n“Okay.” Ursula made the executive decision to just leave any arguing that particular point to her father.\n\nShe ended up having a glass, though Dan at least managed to convince Clara that she didn’t need a [i]lot[/i]. Dinner was [i]expansive[/i]. Clara had not, it turned out, been content with merely making enough for all eight people present to have a single serving of pasta – it felt more like she had made enough for the entire fucking town. Mounds of pasta, piled high with seafood, huge hunks of bread, and multiple generous pours of wine for everyone gathered – except for Ursula, who stuck to sparkling water after her first glass.\n\nIt seemed to take an eternity, with everyone going back for seconds and even thirds, but [i]eventually[/i] they ran out of spaghetti. Clara was willing to concede an hour or so for digestion, during which yet more wine was consumed, followed by dessert and cocktails. Azalea was [i]very insistent[/i] on a perfect gin martini with bitters and lemon peel regardless of how comically poorly it would pair with the tiramisu, Mindy had a mezcal paloma, Clara had an original dessert cocktail Dan made up on the spot featuring amaretto and coffee liqueur, and Dan himself had an old fashioned. The kids weren’t quite knowledgeable enough to request anything specific, so Dan gave them all Irish Coffees – he was at this point drunk enough that he was willing to give Ursula one as well, though he insisted that she would [i]absolutely not[/i] be having more than the one.\n\nThe tiramisu was, as with everything else about the meal, delicious. “Normally I would have prepared this a few days in advance, but I was operating on short notice.”\n\n“Wouldn’t that make the cookies get soggy?” Mindy asked, prompting a furious drunken tirade from Clara.\n\n“Pah, the cookies [i]should[/i] be soggy, that’s the whole fucking point of soaking them in coffee and booze! If you want crunchy ladyfingers then eat ladyfingers! Tiramisu should be soft and sweet and bitter and rich, it’s god damn dessert! If I don’t feel like I’m going to have a heart attack after eating it then it’s a shitty dessert!”\n\n“Point taken,” Mindy replied, bemused and bewildered. “It was very nice, regardless.”\n\n“Pah, I’ve made better.”\n\n“Hopefully we don’t have the time for you to make us a better one while we’re staying together,” Azalea said, languidly sipping her martini, which prompted an emphatic nod of agreement from the rabbit. “A toast! Here’s to us not having to have many meals together!”\n\n“I can get behind that,” Dan said, tapping his glass on the table before taking a sip of his own. “Speakin’ of bein’ together, though, what’re the sleeping arrangements?”\n\n“We can share a room,” Vienna interjected from across the dining table. The Coniglio dining room was the second largest room in the house after the kitchen, even though it rarely saw use, so there was [i]more[/i] than enough room for everyone. The girls had mostly gathered on one end of the table, while the adults had congregated together, and there had been very little overlap in the conversations over the course of dinner.\n\n“Us, too. We can sleep on the couch if we need to,” Azalea added.\n\n“That shouldn’t be necessary. If the girls double up and you three share the guest room, then that’ll be enough space for everyone with a bit of room to spare in case we need to open our doors to anyone.” Clara turned to face her daughters. “Girls, you pick a roommate. I’ll go prepare the guest room.”\n\n“Yes, mama,” the twins said in perfect unison before heading upstairs. It was getting late, and they’d all eaten a lot, and it had been a [i]staggeringly[/i] long day, so there was something of an unspoken agreement that it was bedtime.\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nThere had been minimal debate as to room assignments. Ursula had been the first to speak up, declaring her intent to share a room with Viola. None of them was particularly invested in any specific arrangement, and they were [i]certainly[/i] too tired to argue even if they were. So Erin paired with Vienna, while Ursula paired with Viola.\n\n“I can sleep on the floor,” Ursula said, looking over the bed. It was a twin, designed very specifically to hold one person only. Viola was petite, but Ursula made up for it by being decidedly not petite. They [i]could[/i] probably fit in it together, but it would be very cramped and Viola was, in Ursula’s experience, very reluctant when it came to physical contact. The girl tended to wince slightly at [i]holding hands[/i], so sharing such a tight space together was one hundred percent out of the question, as much as Ursula relished the thought of getting that close to Viola’s body.\n\n“It’s fine,” Viola replied quietly. Barely at all, really. She was soft-spoken at the best of times, and when she got properly nervous she often reached the point of inaudibility. Her gaze was mostly fixed to the floor, but every now and then her eyes darted back to look at Ursula. Every time they did, she quivered nervously, and she never quite managed to look her in the eyes.\n\n“Well, it’d be rude to make [i]you[/i] sleep on the floor.”\n\n“It’s [i]fine[/i],” Viola reiterated, a bit more loudly and emphatically. Still, the way she fiddled with the hem of her hoodie nervously was all that Ursula needed to see. She had let her romantic interest in the bun inform her choice in roommates rather than her [i]head[/i]. She’d never really been that good at using her head.\n\n“We don’t [i]have[/i] to share a room, I can sleep on the couch or-”\n\n“God dammit I said it’s [i]fine![/i]”\n\nThe sudden display of assertiveness took Ursula aback. “Uh?”\n\n“Sorry,” Viola muttered, immediately back to nervous mode. “It’s fine. You don’t need to sleep on the couch or the floor. We can make it work.”\n\n“Honey, that’s really clearly not an option,” Ursula said. “Look at you, you’re [i]terrified[/i].”\n\n“I’m- oh my [i]god[/i].” Abruptly, Viola yanked off her hoodie and tossed it in Ursula’s face. The doberman was caught entirely off guard and was as a result briefly tangled in top, made worse when Viola’s sweatpants quickly followed before she had a chance to get the hoodie off. It took her a moment to untangle herself, and by the time she did, Viola was no longer wearing anything aside from her understickers. “Oral code 8643. Sensitivity profile ‘Pigs Fly’.”\n\n“wha-”\n\n“Shut up and [i]fuck me[/i], god dammit!”\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\n“What on [i]earth[/i] is that noise?”\n\n“Maybe Ursula’s parents are fucking,” Viola replied.\n\n“Is now really the time for that kind of thing?”\n\nViola shrugged. “Dunno, I can imagine it’s a pretty good distraction.”\n\n“Well,” Erin replied, fiddling idly with her top. “When you put it like that, some OC actually sounds pretty nice right about now.”\n\n“[i]No[/i].”\n\n“Oh, come [i]on[/i], I didn’t even [i]ask[/i] yet.”\n\n“Yes but you were [i]gonna[/i] and the answer is [i]no[/i].”\n\n“Of course it is!” Erin threw her hands up in exasperation, flopping backwards onto the bed. “It [i]always[/i] is. Next you’re going to act like I’m some kind of [i]monster[/i] for even considering the possibility.”\n\n“What the [i]fuck[/i] is your problem? Am I not allowed to be uninterested in fucking you without getting it thrown back in my face?”\n\n“Annnnnd [i]there[/i] we go, right on schedule.” Erin pulled herself back upright and gave Vienna a death glare. “For the record, by the way, I [i]wasn’t[/i] going to ask for sex. I can do [i]far[/i] better than you if I want,” she lied. Erin had enough of a reputation in Esterwood that the only sex she could really manage was the occasional hatefuck with Ursula. “What I [i]was[/i] going to suggest was trading Viola and myself.”\n\n“You know what, that’s not a bad idea. I [i]really[/i] don’t look forward to having to spend the next however long sharing a room with you.”\n\n“The feeling is mutual, darling.” Erin crossed her arms petulantly beneath the shelf of her tits. “In the meantime, you’re going to just have to suck it up and deal because this bed is [i]hardly[/i] meant for two people and I [i]refuse[/i] to sleep on the floor.”\n\n“Couch is open.”\n\n“[i]Fuck[/i] you.”\n\n“Ugh. Whatever. I’ve got homework to do.”\n\n“Well, be quiet about it. I’m going to attempt to get some sleep.” Erin reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt, pulling it up and over her head before discarding it idly.\n\n“Wh- don’t just fucking strip out of nowhere!”\n\n“I typically sleep in the nude,” Erin replied with a shrug, moving her hands downwards to deal with her skirt. “I tend to be very sensitive to heat, and have difficulty getting to sleep otherwise. You’re just going to have to get used to my breasts, darling.”\n\n“No! [i]Absolutely[/i] unacceptable! I don’t fucking care if you’re a guest, you are [i]not[/i] going nude in my goddamn bedroom!”\n\nErin lurched into a standing position, and Vienna found herself abruptly reminded that in spite of being a mouse, Erin was significantly larger than her. Her body shook slightly as she spoke, voice quivering with anger. “I have attempted to be patient with you, but this is the final straw. It is [i]absolutely[/i] not unreasonable of me to sleep in the manner in which I am the most comfortable, and if you’re going to insist otherwise you will have to [i]force me[/i].”\n\n“[i]Out.[/i]”\n\n“Excuse me?”\n\nVienna violently pointed at the door. “[i]Out. Out of my room. Now.[/i]”\n\nErin took several deep breaths in a futile attempt to calm down, before pulling her hand back in clear setup for a slap directed at Vienna’s face. The smaller rabbit moved instinctively, raising a hand to deflect the blow, but her reflexes were clearly slightly too slow. Erin’s open palm [i]should[/i] have slid right past Vienna’s hand and collided with her cheek. And it [i]would[/i] have had it not come to an abrupt stop in midair, colliding with a glowing... [i]something[/i], floating in midair right in the path of her attempted strike. It was hard to actually see it, but now that she’d touched it Erin could just make out a pattern of white lines, like brickwork, in a gentle curve around Vienna’s body.\n\n“Oh. Oh no.” Vienna dropped her hand, and the force field vanished as she stumbled backwards. “I- oh god.”\n\nErin stared silently. All of her previous anger had evaporated, replaced by a feeling she couldn’t quite identify. “What on earth..?”\n\nVienna’s breath came quickly and shallowly as she descended into blind panic. “Oh god, you- don’t tell anyone. Please.”\n\nErin stared silently at her frozen palm, pulling it back slowly as she realized exactly what she had almost done. As an adult, she took some amount of pride in her intelligence, her rationality and levelheadedness – traits that she had consciously cultivated in herself. And all of that had come crashing down in one brief moment of anger. And against a [i]friend[/i], at that. She and Vienna fought almost constantly, yes, but she didn’t want to [i]hurt[/i] her. She felt a deep, hollow ache in the pit of her stomach, so overwhelming she barely even registered that Vienna had just summoned some sort of force field.\n\n“I- I won’t.”\n\n“[i]Promise[/i].”\n\n“I promise.” Erin let out a deep, weary sigh. “Listen, I’m- I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have attempted to strike you.”\n\n“You have to promise!”\n\n“I do,” Erin replied with as much patience as she was capable of mustering, which was really much more than she expected. “I won’t tell anyone, trust me.”\n\n“[i]Why the fuck should I trust you?![/i]” Vienna screamed in a blind panic, giving Erin brief pause. “I’ve spent [i]my entire life[/i] keeping this a secret and you’re just going to get mad at me and tell everyone, I just know it!”\n\nWhy [i]should[/i] Vienna trust her, really? Quite frankly, the more Erin thought about it, the more she was fairly certain that Vienna wasn’t wrong. Now, in this moment, she meant what she said. But, well, she couldn’t help but wonder if there might be a scenario in the future that would motivate her to change her mind. After all, she had already demonstrated that she had an impulsive streak, not moments earlier.\n\nThere was really only one thing she could imagine that would guarantee it, both to her and to Vienna. And that was if Vienna had blackmail material of similar magnitude on [i]her[/i].\n\nErin sighed again. “You’re not the only one with secrets,” she practically whispered.\n\n“What the [i]hell’s[/i] that supposed to mean?”\n\nErin didn’t reply. Instead, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.\n\nAnd then she let go.\n\nWhat happened next was, frankly, impossible. Vienna had a hard time believing that it was happening, in spite of seeing it with her own eyes. Erin [i]shrank[/i]. She could feel air rushing past her, a lightness in her chest as her breasts dwindled, and a deep [i]relief[/i]. Like a weight that she had been carrying on her shoulders had suddenly been lifted off and she could finally relax. Which, really, wasn’t too far from the truth. She had, over the years, built up her ability to maintain appearances. But it still took some amount of effort. Not enough that she noticed it, but enough that she [i]very much[/i] noticed its absence. When all was said and done, she stopped at her natural height of four feet and eleven inches tall, at which point she opened her eyes and looked Vienna directly in hers.\n\nVienna stared back down, lips pursed tightly as she tried to process exactly what had just happened. “... Okay,” is what she eventually settled on. “I won’t tell anyone.”\n\n“And neither will I.”\n\nThere was a brief moment of silence. “Look, I-”\n\n“Don’t apologize,” Erin interrupted. “I-”\n\n“I’ll apologize if I want to.”\n\n“[i]I almost slapped you over nothing[/i], Vienna.”\n\n“And I started it!” Vienna dropped into her chair, burying her head in her hands. “None of this would have happened if I hadn’t immediately jumped to the conclusion that you were gonna try and pressure me into sex. When have [i]any[/i] of you even [i]come close[/i] to doing that?!”\n\n“Let’s just talk about something else.”\n\n“... yeah. Yeah, let’s.” Vienna slumped into her chair limply, letting all the tension and panic wash away. “So. You shrink?”\n\n“The opposite, actually.”\n\n“Sure [i]looked[/i] like you shrank.”\n\n“More like... un-grew, if that makes sense. This is my natural height and I can’t get smaller than this. Believe me, I’ve tried.”\n\n“Okay. So, like, superhuman puberty powers?”\n\n“I can control what grows if I concentrate. Hence the, ah, [i]chest[/i].”\n\n“So you give yourself huge tits ‘cause you’re-” Vienna stopped herself. No, no she wouldn’t be starting any more fights. “Uh, I mean. Shit, if I could give myself bigger tits and be six feet tall I’d do it in a heartbeat.”\n\nErin smiled a bitter smile. “We can’t all be naturally gifted. Sometimes you have to take biology into your own hands. That’s why we have cosmetic surgery, after all. I’m just... taking advantage of a non-surgical solution.”\n\nVienna took a moment to respond. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I can understand where you’re coming from.”\n\n“With all due respect,” Erin said, pointedly looking at Vienna’s chest before looking at her own, much more svelte endowments. “I don’t think you have [i]quite[/i] the same room for anxiety about your appearance as I do.”\n\n“Yeah, well... let’s just leave it at that.” Vienna shrugged. “How big can you get?”\n\n“I’ve not really tried getting much larger than my... normal height. I’m fairly sure I could go much larger, though. It used to be it took an awful lot of effort to maintain my stature but as time went on it took less and less, so presumably I’ve been building whatever muscle it is that causes the growth by practicing.”\n\n“Any estimates for your current max, then?”\n\n“Hm. Posssssssibly around twenty feet, perhaps?”\n\nVienna whistled. “Nice.”\n\n“You seem [i]awfully[/i] interested in my size for someone who doesn’t like me,” Erin said with a raised eyebrow, prompting a blush from Vienna.\n\n“Look, imagine how your boobs are normally and then scale that up to twenty feet and then say that again.”\n\n“I thought you weren’t interested in sex?”\n\n“Let’s talk about something else.”\n\n“Okay then, how about you?”\n\n“Well, mine aren’t really as interesting as yours. I can make little force fields and move ‘em around and stuff with my hands.” She demonstrated, a simple gesture causing her pen to lift off of her desk and dance around in the air. Erin had to squint slightly to make out the same brickwork pattern wireframe around the pen, and even a slight brick red tint in between the lines. “Kinda useful at times? But not nearly as, uh, interesting.”\n\nErin raised an eyebrow again, but said nothing. “And how long have you had that ability?”\n\n“I don’t really remember exactly, now I think of it. I think maybe I first noticed it around when you first moved to Esterwood, actually, now I think about it?”\n\n“[i]Really[/i],” Erin replied. “Now that [i]I[/i] think about it, I first noticed my own, ah, [i]ability[/i] around when I first moved here as well.”\n\nThe pen stopped dancing in the air, and Vienna frowned slightly. “You don’t think that’s not a coincidence.”\n\n“I think that for now I’d rather not think of it,” she replied. “We’ve got other things to worry about at the moment.”\n\n“Yeah.”\n\n“I’m going to try and get some sleep.”\n\n“Okay,” Vienna replied. “Oh, uh. Feel free to take your clothes off. Or keep them off, I guess. Just make sure to leave your understickers on. Please?”\n\n“That seems like a reasonable compromise. Do you mind too terribly if I sleep in my, um. If I sleep bigger?”\n\n“I thought it took effort to, uh, be bigger. Wouldn’t it be easier to sleep smaller.”\n\n“Yes. I would prefer not to anyway.”\n\n“‘kay. I just won’t look, then,” Vienna replied with a noticeable blush.\n\nErin closed her eyes and took another deep breath, her body swelling back to its usual proportions like she was inflating herself larger. “Whatever you’re comfortable with, darling,” she said, moving to lie down. “Good night.”\n\n“Yeah, uh. Good night.” Vienna turned to focus on her desk and homework that she didn’t actually have and tried not to think about Erin’s boobs.\n\nWhatever was going down in Locksmouth couldn’t fucking fix itself soon enough.\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nErin had always been very good at remembering her dreams. Part of that was the fact that she very often had variations on the exact same dream. Another part of that was a concentrated effort to learn to lucid dream when she was younger. She had religiously kept a dream diary for almost a full year before giving up and accepting her mildly Freudian fate of being hit in the face by balls every night. She had never really gotten close to actually being able to influence her dreams, but she [i]had[/i] at least started more clearly remembering what non-forest dreams she had. There were still elements that were vague and foggy, of course, but she no longer needed to immediately write down the general outline of her dreams upon waking in order to remember them.\n\nNot that it particularly mattered. Her dreams weren’t exactly varied. Flying. Real life situations but slightly off. The occasional stress dream – the most recurring of which consisted of starting a new school year and having [i]no idea[/i] where the [i]fuck[/i] any of her classes were. Tonight, though, was new. [i]Different[/i]. It wasn’t immediately obvious at first, but she had a strange sort of gut feeling that this wasn’t just an ordinary dream.\n\nShe wasn’t in the forest, for starters. That wasn’t [i]unheard[/i] of, of course. It wasn’t like every dream she had was her recurring dream. But sylvan settings were a recurring motif. And even her dreams that didn’t take place in the forest were often overwhelmingly verdant, usually accented by soft rays of sunlight. Environments she was intimately familiar with would be mentally redecorated in green and gold. Which made the ruddy brick red colours stand out starkly in her mind immediately, even before she had really realized she was dreaming.\n\nShe was in school. She instinctively knew that, in that way that one only does when dreaming. And she was looking for her pack, though she wasn’t really entirely sure why. The actual [i]context[/i] was conspicuously absent, and were she awake she would likely have immediately noticed something was wrong. But she was dreaming, and so she just continued her reluctant searching. The building was larger than it was in real life, a vast [i]space[/i] that seemed both infinite and claustrophobically closed in by equally infinite expanses of lockers, twisted and deformed into a deranged parody of the hallways of her school.\n\nIt was also decidedly empty. Even taking into account how sparsely populated Esterwood was, Erin couldn’t recall a time she had been so deeply and profoundly alone in the real high school. “Hello? Viola? Ursula? Vienna?” She paused as she received exactly no response. “[i]Anyone?[/i]”\n\nNothing. Erin swallowed heavily as a profound sense of existential [i]fear[/i] settled in. In her experience, emotions in dreams often didn’t really match up with events. This wasn’t that. There was something [i]alien[/i] about the whole situation, even in the context of it being a dream – and by this point she was fairly certain it was a dream. The emotions and the setting and even the goddamn aesthetic felt [i]wrong[/i].\n\n“Well,” Erin muttered to herself. “If I know it’s a dream, then...” She had given up on attempting to lucid dream years ago after getting minimal results. So she didn’t really know where to [i]start[/i]. “Okay, uh. Vienna will materialize somewhere in front of me?” Nothing. “Fuck. Do I need to be more specific? Or maybe just commanding my dream to obey my whim isn’t going to do anything and I need to actually [i]think[/i] about what I want to happen. Right. That would make sense. Absolutely brilliant, Erin. Also, good job talking to yourself. Picture of mental stability. Ugh, whatever it’s a fucking dream it’s not like anyone’s going to see me talking to myself.”\n\nAnd then, just like that, there was Vienna, standing in the hallway, looking around dumbly. “Ah! There we go!” Erin wasn’t entirely sure why she was so determined to follow the narrative of the dream and find her pack. Perhaps it was just a desire for some kind of [i]anchor[/i] to normalcy. “Vienna!”\n\nThe rabbit turned, startled, her eyes widening as she caught sight of Erin. “Erin?” she said, voice tinged with dazed confusion. The mouse charged forward resolutely, only to be abruptly cut off as an enormous brick wall erupted from the ground.\n\n“[i]No.[/i]”\n\nErin didn’t really question that a fucking brick wall was talking to her. She’d had weirder dreams. Right now she only really cared that it was in the way. “Fuck off!” she snapped, giving the wall a good solid kick. “Ow!”\n\n“You really should have seen that comi- stop that!”\n\n“Not until you get out of my way!” Erin replied, continuing to impotently kick and punch at the obstacle. She had never been a particularly strong person, but this was a goddamn dream. It shouldn’t have [i]mattered[/i] that she had noodle arms.\n\n“Unacceptable,” the wall said tersely. “I cannot allow you to harm my host.”\n\n“What on [i]earth[/i] are you talking about?”\n\n“You are a [i]threat[/i]. I [i]will[/i] protect her.”\n\n“I’m her [i]friend[/i], you... stupid wall!” Erin briefly paused, taking a few steps back.\n\n“All of you do nothing but cause pain and misery. I cannot help her in the waking world but I will [i]not[/i] allow you to intrude he- What on [i]earth[/i] are you [i]doing!?[/i] Stop that before you [i]hurt yourself[/i] you idiot child!”\n\nErin didn’t stop that, shoulder charging the wall as hard as she could. “I’ll stop when you get [i]out of my goddamn way![/i]”\n\n“I’m not moving no matter what you do so- Oh, no, I’m not letting you get away with that again.” More wall erupted from the ground behind Erin, preventing her from getting far back enough to build up any kind of momentum. The two segments of wall joined and encircled her tightly, all but preventing any kind of movement on her part. “I won’t let you hurt my host, and I [i]certainly[/i] won’t let you hurt yourself.”\n\n“Well, you’re going to have to pick one or the other because I am [i]not[/i] stopping until I get through to see her.”\n\n“Try me. We’ve got [i]all night[/i].”\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\n“Erin? Erin?!” Vienna was very familiar with this particular dream narrative by this point, so she immediately noticed when Erin [i]immediately[/i] not only acknowledged her presence but [i]charged[/i] towards her. The wall had, likewise, never gone after her [i]friends[/i] instead of her. The rabbit acted quickly, taking a step forward in an attempt to rescue Erin from being walled in-\n\nOnly for the ground to disappear beneath her, sending her plummeting into nothingness.\n\nVienna had had the falling dream before. [i]Everyone[/i] had the falling dream at some point. That didn’t make it any less terrifying. She could see the school and the wall shrinking away into the distance above her, while below her was [i]nothing[/i] aside from what looked to be the infinite void of space. Landing was as abrupt as the initial loss of footing had been, to the point where Vienna wasn’t entirely sure when the transition happened. Surroundings seemed to coalesce around her from nothing, shapes outlined in deep burgundy forming from the starscape. It hurt to look at, but Vienna found herself completely lacking any kind of physical form and so her attempts to avert her eyes or close them or [i]anything[/i] were completely futile.\n\nSlowly the outlines took the form of the school. Not the strange, surreal approximation that her dreams normally created – aside from the colours she was hard-pressed to find any differences between it and reality.\n\n“Oh! An [i]exceptionally[/i] clear view of the past. Fascinating. Perhaps because this is only about five years ago instead of more than five hundred? Will have to investigate further.”\n\nThe voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, and at the same time nowhere at all. “Ursula?” she asked – it [i]sounded[/i] like Ursula’s voice, but something about the tone made it clear to Vienna that it [i]wasn’t[/i] Ursula’s voice.\n\n“Shhhhh, don’t interrupt. It’s about to begin.”\n\nFurther outlines formed, quickly taking on familiar shapes. Vienna’s heart sank – This wasn’t a dream, she realized. It was a memory. And not a particularly good one. There was Viola, and herself, at around thirteen years old.\n\n“Hey, freak. Why don’tcha show me one of your stupid magic tricks. I wanna see one.”\n\nAnd there was Maggie. Vienna winced, even as her younger self spoke up. “Put her down!”\n\nMaggie Corven responded by grabbing Vienna with her free hand, picking the much smaller rabbit up by her throat and slamming her into the locker beside her sister. “Hey, hey, no need to get shouty, kid. I just wanna see a magic trick.” She grinned, showing off sharp feline fangs. Maggie was a tiger, in spite of the name. She came from a very long line of crows and jays and ravens, and no one in her family had been [i]entirely[/i] sure how she’d ended up a tiger. There had always been rumours before she left Esterwood, later in this same year, that her home life hadn’t been particularly great as a result. It certainly wouldn’t surprise Vienna, considering her propensity for manhandling people smaller than her.\n\n“Let us go!” the younger Vienna snapped, weakly hitting the tiger’s arms.\n\n“Nope. Not until I get to see a trick. Might wanna get on that, by the way. I mean, the longer I keep you up here, the more likely it is one of you’ll get [i]hurt[/i]. Y’know. On accident.”\n\nVienna winced, both her past and present self. She wanted to do something. To stop this. Step in, somehow. But she couldn’t. It was like watching a movie.\n\nBut, knowing what happened next, she couldn’t help but struggle to do [i]something[/i].\n\n“Hey, asshole!” a younger Ursula interjected, storming over like a big damn hero with Erin in tow slightly behind. “Let them go!”\n\nMaggie turned and glared. “Well, well. If it ain’t the little brat. What, you think that ‘cos your daddy’s the coach that means you can tell me what to do? Think it makes you [i]better’n[/i] me?” she growled. “News flash, kid. I’m [i]bigger[/i] than you.”\n\n“Put my pack [i]down[/i], Maggie.” Ursula shook, but stood as firm as she was capable of. Maggie, at the time, had been Esterwood’s star boxer – a role that Ursula would eventually usurp. But at the time this had taken place, Ursula didn’t stand a chance in a fight against Maggie. Vienna knew, because she knew what happened next. Maggie would hurl the twins at Erin and Ursula, and then give all four of them a good solid [i]beating[/i]. She had already been on thin ice at the time, but that had been the last straw. Maggie had been kicked out of school within a few weeks and had left Esterwood entirely for god knows where, Vienna didn’t care beyond being glad to see the back of her.\n\n“Ah, I see. The host was present. Likely her memories are augmenting the vision and filling in the gaps. Disappointing.” The memory froze in place with the twins in midair. “I had hoped I had stumbled upon a way to examine the past without drawing directly from the host’s prana reserves. Which is, of course, out of the question. Completely immoral. Tch, this was a waste of time. Not even an [i]important[/i] moment.”\n\n“I- not important?! We ended up in the hospital for a fucking [i]week[/i] after this!”\n\n“Be [i]quiet[/i],” the voice snapped. “I have work to do. This town has so much [i]history[/i]. Some children getting bullied is inconsequential in comparison.”\n\n“It wasn’t inconsequential to [i]us![/i]”\n\n“Who even [i]are[/i] you? You certainly aren’t the host.”\n\n“I should be the one asking that question!” Vienna shouted indignantly.\n\nThe voice didn’t react, continuing with its own line of thought. “One of her allies, perhaps? But then what are you doing [i]here?[/i] Oh, well, it doesn’t matter. So long as you don’t interrupt my work I’ll allow you to stay here for now.”\n\nVienna sputtered, but before she could say anything there was a loud screech. A noise that she couldn’t identify, beyond that it was [i]loud[/i]. The tableau in front of her began moving again, in reverse, speeding up until it turned into a vague blur, slowly melting together and reshaping into something new.\n\n“Be quiet and watch, child. You might find yourself learning something.”\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nUrsula charged through the crowded streets. She didn’t recognize them at all – which meant she probably wasn’t in Esterwood. She had lived in the small town her whole life, and knew almost every inch of it like the back of her hand. Conversely, she had never really [i]left[/i] Esterwood aside from the occasional school trip and a brief stay in a hospital in Locksmouth when she was thirteen, which had rather obviously not been much of a sightseeing visit. Ursula didn’t really give a shit where she was, though. She staunchly ignored the strange sense of oppressive loneliness as she [i]revelled[/i] in having an actual fucking dream. No weird red outlines, no loud unearthly noises. Just a normal goddamn dream.\n\n“Ursula?!” she turned in the direction of the voice and saw Viola standing inside of a window. Inside a [i]reflection[/i], she corrected herself – everything surrounding Viola was very slightly transparent, and beyond it she could make out the actual contents of the building. She was surrounded by trees, like a forest existed entirely within the confines of the window, between Ursula and the coffee shop.\n\nIt was a suitably surreal image for Ursula’s first real dream in years. “Hey, Viola. ‘sup.”\n\n“What are you doing in my dream?”\n\n“Pretty sure this is my dream.”\n\nThe reflected Viola blinked incredulously. “No? I mean. Maybe? Normally I’m in a city like you, not a forest. And Aubrey’s supposed to be there, not you.” She frowned. “This is [i]weird[/i].”\n\nUrsula shrugged. “I mean, I’m not gonna question it. Dreams are supposed to be weird, right?”\n\n“Yes, but this dream’s [i]always[/i] the same,” Viola replied insistently.\n\n“It’s [i]my[/i] dream though. You’re not even real you’re just my imagination.” Ursula shrugged again. “Anyway, we’re kind of in an unusual situation right now, right? It makes sense to [i]me[/i] that it’d make our dreams do weird shit.” Still, Viola had a point. Something about this dream felt [i]weird[/i]. Uncanny. Almost like-\n\nWell, like it [i]wasn’t[/i] her dream after all. “Okay. So let’s agree this is your dream, then. Does that make [i]me[/i] a figment of [i]your[/i] imagination?”\n\n“I guess?”\n\n“I don’t really [i]feel[/i] imaginary.”\n\nViola frowned again. “Hold on. I have a theory, but I need to just-”\n\nThe reflection of the forest shimmered and faded, and Viola herself suddenly changed. Ursula couldn’t really think of a better way to put it – one moment, it was Viola and then the next it was some strange [i]thing[/i] in the rough outline of Viola. It reminded her of her normal dreams, though instead of red and black the creature was blue and green. “Oh,” it said with Viola’s voice. “Sorry. I... should really know what’s going on, but I don’t.”\n\n“Hi?” Even in her dream-addled state, Ursula realized that it was a stupid thing to say. But she couldn’t really think of anything [i]else[/i] to say. “You don’t need to apologize. I don’t even know who you are.”\n\n“Oh. I suppose I should introduce myself? I’m not really used to interacting with anyone other than Viola.” The thing took a moment to collect itself before waving. “Um, hello. I’m Aubrey Kadabra. Viola’s imaginary friend.”\n\nUrsula stared incredulously. “Wow. This dream is getting fucking [i]weird[/i].”\n\n“You’re telling me.”\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\n“Ursula? Ursula?!” Viola slammed her fists against where the window into the city had been just moments ago, replaced with a tree trunk. She wasn’t quite sure why she was panicking as much as she was. It was unusual, but it was still just a dream. Right?\n\nShe took a deep breath to calm herself down before taking in her surroundings. She was in a forest, though it was very clearly not a [i]normal[/i] forest. Viola was intimately familiar with the woods, but she didn’t need to be to tell that everything – every single tree from trunk to top, the ground, even the small creatures that were milling about in a clearing a short distance away – was solid green The bark wasn’t brown, the flesh wasn’t pink, everything was just minute variations of the same shade of emerald. The only other colour was the sunlight, a vibrant gold.\n\n“Oh! You’re new. What are you doing here, little one?”\n\nThe voice emanated from the forest itself, which began to undulate and melt together, the sunlight and trees coalescing into the shape of Erin, of all people. It wasn’t Erin, of course, Viola noted immediately, the same way Aubrey wasn’t [i]her[/i]. But she reminded her very much of Aubrey. It took the shape of Erin the way Aubrey took her own shape. Her body was the same emerald green of the forest, and it was accented by the sunlight. The gold formed her limited facial features and outlined her body, occasionally interrupting the green with lines of gold around her arms and legs and neck like jewellery.\n\n“Um. Sorry. I don’t really know.”\n\n“That’s fine. I don’t really know why I’m here, either. I don’t remember much of anything, except for some small details and obviously what my Host knows. Though I don’t really like to interact with her very much outside of dreams.” Her expression darkened slightly. “It’s... not right. I don’t know why, but it’s not right. Oh!” She immediately perked up. “I believe I know who you are, though. Viola, right? One of Erin’s friends? It’s nice to meet you, Viola.”\n\n“Uh, likewise.”\n\n“I should introduce myself, I suppose. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I’m [i]fairly[/i] certain my name is Titania.”\n\n“Uh. Hi, Titania.”\n\nTitania clasped her hands together, eagerly bouncing in a way that made Erin’s ample breasts [i]bounce[/i] tantalizingly. “Oh, it’s been a [i]very[/i] long time since I’ve made a friend. Actually, um.” She drooped slightly, frowning again. “Actually I don’t think I’ve ever really had a friend before. I know I’m not friends with Erin. I’m not supposed to interact with my host. I don’t remember why, but I [i]know[/i] that getting too close to her is... bad.” She perked up, reaching out to grab Viola’s hands and place them gently on her chest. “Oh, but I do try and help her as much as I can, you understand? I lend her my power so she can be more confident in herself. And I [i]try[/i] my best to give her tranquil dreams, but it doesn’t work very well I’m afraid.”\n\n“I’m sure she appreciates it, regardless,” Viola replied, bewildered and just a [i]little[/i] bit horny from the proximity of her hands to weird goo doppelganger boob.\n\nTitania smiled warmly. “Oh, I hope she does. I wish I could talk with her. Help her more directly. But I don’t want to hurt her, and-” She stopped, interrupted by a rubbery bouncing noise. Her eyes widening as she abruptly let go of Viola’s hands. “Oh no, it’s here! Watch out!”\n\n“Wha-” Viola said as she turned to look at whatever it was that had surprised Titania, and then abruptly jolted awake as a large blue rubber ball smacked her in the face.\n\n[center]~~~~~~[/center]\n\nViola didn’t really find herself in the best of moods. Her dreams had been strange and stressful, rather than just the normal routine of mild existential horror. Then she had been abruptly woken up after around three hours, and had found herself [i]completely[/i] unable to get [i]back[/i] to sleep.\n\nAnd her ass was still [i]sore[/i].\n\nShe’d managed to not wake up Ursula as she got dressed and left. She had tried to return to sleep, but hadn’t been particularly tired and had a difficult time getting comfortable given the limited space. Getting any more sleep wasn’t an option, then, and she didn’t want to risk waking Ursula up as well. So she grabbed her clothes, grabbed her deck, and snuck out of the house, curfew be damned. Now more than ever, she needed to unwind.\n\nHer destination was obvious. The Woods was, in her experience, the best place to go when you needed to think about things alone. And oh [i]man[/i] did she have some shit to think about. Like, for instance, that she and Ursula had [i]fucked[/i]. Did that make them partners now? And what about the other two packmates? She felt a deep, burning guilt over betraying Vienna. [i]Had[/i] she really betrayed Vienna in any way? It was entirely natural to have sex at their age. If anything [i]Vienna[/i] was the weird one. Viola didn’t [i]owe[/i] it to her sister to remain celibate, and certainly didn’t owe it to her not to have sex with Ursula or Erin. That had been her [i]own[/i] decision. So, really, in the end, the only person she had failed was herself.\n\nShe decided not to think about that, instead heading deeper into the Woods. Deeper than she’d ever gone. Even though she’d only gotten a few hours of sleep, she and Ursula had spent enough time... [i]enjoying[/i] themselves that the dim pre-sunrise light of early morning was [i]just[/i] weak enough still to not penetrate the dense canopy. So Vienna used her PET’s flashlight function to navigate. In retrospect, she probably shouldn’t have gone deep enough for that to be an issue, but it was too late for second guessing. She continued on, deeper and deeper. Eventually, if she kept as straight a line as possible, she’d come out the other side. And if she didn’t, well, it wasn’t like she didn’t have her PET with her for navigational purposes.\n\nOf course, all of that was assuming that she didn’t find anything other than more forest.\n\n“Oh, you’ve [i]gotta[/i] be fucking [i]kidding[/i] me.”\n\nThere, standing in front of her, was a run down old shack. Small. Clearly hadn’t been inhabited in [i]years[/i]. It had been partially reclaimed by the forest, vines crawling up its walls, the door almost entirely rotted away, and a small tree growing out of the roof. But it was undeniably manmade. Which was impossible. No one built [i]anything[/i] in the woods. The only shack anywhere near was the caretaker’s home near the outskirts, and it was a fairly nice if modest home.\n\nWhat Viola was seeing was impossible. Not real. A [i]myth[/i]. She pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t still dreaming, and winced from the pain.\n\n“Well, okay,” she said to herself as she walked closer. “Maybe the shack exists. The rumours had to come from [i]somewhere[/i]. But it’s [i]definitely[/i] not-”\n\nHer heart stopped briefly when her PET rang the instant she reached the shack’s doorway.\n\nIn retrospect, Viola wasn’t entirely sure why she answered the call. It wasn’t the first stupid decision she would make in the coming few days, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. It was, she supposed, a reasonable assumption to make that it was just her parents or pack calling her to make sure she was okay. But that wasn’t it, she knew. Maybe it was just morbid curiosity, or maybe it was reflex, or maybe she was just too damn tired to properly remember the way the myth went.\n\nRegardless of the reasoning, though, the Rubicon had been crossed, the die had been cast, and the call had been answered.\n\nAnd on the other end of the call was what sounded like an upbeat young girl. “Oh, hey, sweet, you answered. Usually people just fuckin’ run away, and the last time that happened was like two hundred years ago.”\n\nViola wasn’t entirely sure what she’d expected a ghost to sound like. But it sure as [i]fuck[/i] wasn’t that.", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Vienna’s first instinct was to panic, which would have been counterproductive. So instead she went with her second instinct and attempted to call her father. Her attempts to remain calm were thwarted, though, when she immediately received an automated response – the PET she was attempting to contact was currently unavailable. “God dammit,” she muttered to herself as she made a second attempt and was met with the same result. “God dammit!” This time she shouted, though no one else in chemistry seemed to notice or care. Mrs. Rothschild had left the classroom almost immediately after the emergency alert came, and the other students were milling about in a blind panic. Fiddling with their own PETs, attempting to leave, or just trying to stay out of the way of students attempting to leave. Vienna was trying not to panic, but it seemed she was mostly alone. “Fuck,” she hissed as she got her fourth automated response. “Okay, this clearly isn’t working. Need a new plan.”

Nothing came to mind. Or at least nothing that she didn’t immediately shoot down as impractical, unhelpful, or just dumb. Attempting to go to Locksmouth was, of course, right out. Calling her mother was more reasonable but ultimately she decided against it – if she was still attempting to get in contact with Vinnie, then it was almost certain that so was Clara. She couldn’t think of anyone else to call who might pick up, or any app that might be otherwise helpful in the current situation, so her PET was pretty much useless.

She felt like she should be doing something, but she couldn’t think of what she should be doing so she ended up just sitting at her desk, staring off into space. Paralyzed with indecision, waiting for the other shoe to drop.

She hadn’t exactly expected the other shoe to be Erin bursting into her now mostly empty classroom, but she welcomed anything to distract her from the mounting feeling of powerlessness. She was still dressed in her gym uniform, which clung tightly to her ample chest. “Have you-”

“Yeah,” Vienna interrupted, knowing exactly what Erin was going to ask. “Can’t even get a ring. What about you?”

Erin sighed. “Shit. Same here, for both of them.”

“I’d rather at least be able to know if he’s picking up or not.”

“Shit. We need to do something.”

“Okay, but what.”

“I don’t know!” Erin threw her hands up in exasperation. “But we can’t just fucking sit here doing nothing!” Her words reflected Vienna’s own anxieties but the rabbit wasn’t really in the mood to admit that.

“You’re supposed to be the smart one.”

“Okay. Okay, you’re right. Give me a second.” Erin paced furiously, and Vienna decided now was probably a good time to stand up. “Okay. We should go find Viola and Ursula. Ursula’s got family in Locksmouth right now too, right?”

“The general vicinity, yeah. I think they’re outside of the dome, though.”

“That’s good! Maybe she’s managed to contact them and we can get a more firsthand account of what’s going on over there.”

“Okay, that’s the beginnings of a plan. And then?”

“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.”

“Brilliant.”

“Well, let’s see you do better, then.”

Vienna balked slightly. It was harsh, but she couldn’t really blame Erin. Her father was currently trapped in Locksmouth while some undefined emergency was going on, yes. But both of Erin’s parents were trapped in Locksmouth. Proportionately, she probably had it the worst of the pack – Vienna and Viola still had each other and their mother, Ursula’s parents were likely outside of the lockdown and she still had three other parents in Esterwood. Erin had no one to fall back on. It was no wonder she was stressed.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. Apologies won’t get our parents back.”

“Yeah, but... Ugh.” Vienna grabbed her backpack and slapped it on her back, the smart fibres adhered it in place. “Let’s just go track down the others.” It was something to do, which was better than nothing.

Erin nodded. “That’s... yes, that’s a good plan.” She didn’t bother mentioning that it was the exact same plan she had come up with not a few seconds earlier, which was unusually charitable. But, again, Vienna was surprised that Erin could keep her composure at all. If her entire family, Vinnie and Clara and Viola all, were missing and she knew exactly nothing about it except that there was an explosion or more than one explosions, she wouldn’t be keeping herself together nearly as well as Erin was. It probably didn’t help that she was coming directly off of gym class – she was probably tired, in addition to the shit going on in Locksmouth.

This was all just conjecture, of course, but frankly Vienna wasn’t in a position to think straight.

“Where should we look first?”

“They’ve got history this period, let’s start there.” Vienna turned and walked to the door. “If they’re not there, uh, I guess check the nearby bathrooms? Viola has a habit of hiding in the toilets when she’s stressed, and Ursula would probably stick close to her.”

“And if they’re not there?”

“Then I guess we call ‘em up. And if they don’t answer I guess we check at home, see if they went there.”

“Okay. Okay, yes. Let’s do that. Can we stop by the gym, first? I kind of left my stuff there.”

“Yeah. Yeah, let’s not rush this. Just stay calm and collected. We should also stop by Dr. Baas’s office. I get the impression school’s cancelled for the day, but we probably shouldn’t blow off our community service without asking.”

“Okay. Good. We have a plan. Find Viola and Ursula, try and get in contact with Ursula’s parents, figure out where to go from there.” She made a fist with her right hand and gently punched the palm of her left.

“Yeah. Knock on wood, nothing else is gonna go wrong today.”

Erin frowned. “Please, let’s try not to actively invoke bad luck, because I can imagine numerous ways that this situation could get worse and I really don’t want to see any of them happen.”

“Fair. Let’s get going.” With no further conversation to be had, the two turned and left the lab.

~~~~~~


Vicky had been one of the first students to leave history class. There hadn’t been an official announcement that class was cancelled, but frankly if it wasn’t then fuck it, she was playing hooky today and the administration could bite her. She had higher priorities than school right now.

She charged her way through the relatively crowded hallways like a sheep on a mission, dodging and weaving around her panicked classmates. Her cheerleading skills proved advantageous in this particular situation. The crowd was sparse enough that it wasn’t completely impenetrable, but dense enough that she still needed to rely on her agility to make it through at all.

And she still managed to smack headfirst into someone. In her defence, it was more like Lars collided with her, darting out into her path at the last possible second. Both sheep and lion were sent sprawling onto the hallway floor in opposite directions, and had to quickly scramble upright and out of the way of the stampeding masses. “Watch where you’re fucking going!” Vicky snapped, before registering how much bigger than her Lars was. There was a brief moment of hesitation, but that was quickly overpowered by sororal concern. She had to get to Sophie, as soon as possible. There wasn’t fucking time to sit around being scared by a big weird nerd loser. “Out of my fucking way,” she shouted, shoving the larger boy out of her way.

Lars limply allowed Vicky to push him around. His mind was elsewhere at the moment. He resumed his slow, meandering journey to his locker, shaking slightly. He had never had the best relationship with his parents, but they were still his parents, dammit. And that was why he had to get to his locker. That was where he kept his cards during school. Somewhere safe, but also close at hand. Specifically for situations like this.

The cards would know what to do.

He pulled the deck out of the locker, not bothering to close it behind him (the cards were the only important thing in there anyway), before making his way to a nearby classroom. He needed a flat surface to make a reading. The other students in the room gave him a wide berth, especially when they saw the cards. Understandable, he supposed. They had power, and could be incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands. But he wasn’t the wrong hands.

He carefully shuffled the deck – though he was loath to admit it, he didn’t have Viola’s level of manual dexterity, and his deck was slightly larger than hers. Supposedly it was an exact replica of Houdini’s own deck, which made them significantly more powerful than Viola’s generic deck, but also meant he had sixty cards to deal with instead of fifty five. Satisfied that he had shuffled the cards enough, he closed his eyes and carefully drew six cards, placing them face-down on the desk.

Slowly, anxiously, he reached down and flipped each card in sequence, his heart sinking further with each one. It was, quite possibly, the worst possible outcome. A left arm, a right arm, a left leg, a right leg, and the main body. The complete Forbidden One. In an upright position, it would have been an incredibly good omen, signifying impending victory. Mixed orientations meant a mixed result. But he had drawn every single one inverted, in perfect sequence. Unfathomable disaster loomed on the horizon.

What caught him off guard was the sixth card. A Dark Rabbit, in an upright position. Given its position in the hand, its orientation, and the fact that it was a Dark Rabbit, he could only think of one possible meaning it could have. But it was, frankly, impossible. The cards had to be wrong.

There was no way that Viola Coniglio was going to be personally, directly responsible for averting an upcoming apocalypse, after all.

Vicky charged the rest of the way to the elementary school without incident, making as direct beeline to her sister’s classroom as was possible given the layout of the school. Nothing was going to stop her. Not other students, not teachers, nothing. She didn’t slow down until she actually got to the elementary school. She knew exactly where Sophie’s classroom was, but she couldn’t guarantee that Sophie was still in there.

Still, it was the first place she thought to check, and her gambit paid off. “Vicky!” Sophie barrelled forward, gut-checking her older sister with a forceful hug. This time, the older sheep saw it coming and wasn’t knocked over, but she did get the wind knocked out over her. She gently stroked her younger sister’s curly hair as she cried and squeezed.

“I was going to call you,” Sophie’s teacher said wearily. Diane Singh, a duck who had only graduated a few years ago. Vicky remembered her, dimly, though she mostly knew her as Sophie’s teacher. “Dr. Baas says that school is cancelled for the rest of the day, obviously. I’ve been trying to get in contact with as many parents as I can, but I’m not getting a lot of answers. Are you two going to be okay?”

“I don’t know,” Vicky replied. “I’m technically supposed to be babysitting for another week or so, but I don’t think I can handle Sophie alone right now.”

Diane nodded sombrely. “Well, you two can stay at my place, if you can’t find anywhere else. I could use the company, my husband is visiting family in Locksmouth and...” She trailed off, not needing to finish.

“I guess there’s a lot of people who are gonna need company, huh,” Vicky muttered, her voice tinged with worry. “You know what, I’m gonna take you up on that offer.”

“Thank you,” Diane said with relief. “I’ll try and look after as many of the children whose parents are in Locksmouth as I can, so I’ll need the help.”

“Right, makes sense.” Vicky nervously ran a hand through her hair.

It was going to be a long day.

~~~~~~


Viola felt sick. A deep, profound illness that sank heavily into the pit of her stomach. She very nearly threw up right there in the classroom, but managed to hold it in long enough to run to the bathroom. She hadn’t really had much of an appetite at lunch, and wasn’t entirely sure if that was a blessing or a curse. There wasn’t much lunch for her to lose, but she ended up dry heaving for several minutes as a result. She groaned weakly, trying not to let her hands slip into the bowl as she pulled herself upright. “Fuck,” she muttered. Not at anything in particular, but just because she felt like she should say something. Just to confirm she could still speak after all that vomiting. Her throat hurt slightly, and she could feel the remnants of her illness slowly but inevitably turning into a crusty gross mess.

Flushing the toilet, she wandered out of the stall in a slight daze. The sinks were, thankfully, not too far away. Her limbs felt week and rubbery, and she had a difficult time keeping steady on her feet. She wobbled her way over to the sink, turned it on, and began to wash her face. Hot water pooled in her hands, and once it started overflowing she splashed it on her face before repeated the process several times. A careful, exact routine. Simple. Repetitive. As much about cleaning her face as it was about calming down, breaking herself out of the panic she found herself mired in.

“You okay?” Ursula asked, waiting near the entrance of the bathroom. Her voice was slightly shaky, betraying that she herself wasn’t okay.

“No.”

“Yeah fair.” Ursula shuffled restlessly. “You should get some water. Or something. I think I remember reading somewhere that you should drink water after throwing up to clear the stomach acid out of your throat.”

“I think if I put anything else in my stomach I’d just throw up again.”

“Yeah, okay, I’m talking out of my ass anyway.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I have no idea. I tried calling Leanne and Scarlet but neither of them picked up. Which I guess is a good sign because apparently a lot of people can’t even get through to Locksmouth at all.” Ursula sighed, slowly sliding down the wall until she was in a crouching position. “What about you?”

“I don’t fucking know. I kind of just want to pick a direction and run in it until I can’t anymore.”

“That sounds like a really bad idea.”

“Yeah but I kinda don’t care right now.”

Ursula sighed again. “Look, I’m not gonna stop you, but you should probably not if you’re not feeling great.”

Viola leaned over the sink, gripping the edge just slightly too tightly. “I-” She cut herself off as she looked up to find her reflection giving her a subtle dirty look. “Okay,” she said, against her better judgment. Her reflection nodded, just enough for her to see it, and then returned to mimicking her every movement. “I kind of just want to be alone, though.”

“At least let Vienna know you’re okay. Okay?”

“Fine.”

“Okay.” Ursula pulled herself back upright and walked over to Viola. “I know you’re stressed, but we’re kind of all in the same boat, here. We need to stick together.”

“Yeah.” Viola stared into the mirror, and her reflection stared back in the exact same manner. “You know what, maybe this is what we needed.”

“You think so?” Ursula shrugged. “I guess I can see that, yeah. Kinda hard to justify fighting all the time when we don’t know if our family are even alive.” Ursula couldn’t help but laugh. “God, that’s kinda fucked up when I put it like that.”

Viola let out a small, choked laugh of her own. “Yeah, maybe we’re not cut out for optimism.”

“C’mon, let’s go find the others.”

“Yeah.”

~~~~~~


The pack met up very shortly after they set out to find each other. One of the advantages of having a twin was that each Coniglio sister knew roughly how the other thought, and the other two just had to stick close to them. “So, to be clear, we’re gonna be staying at my place for a while,” Ursula said, matter-of-factly. It had actually been Viola’s idea, and Ursula agreed with the reasoning – and, frankly, she didn’t find any better ideas coming to mind. Some fucking Alpha she was turning out to be. “It’s the biggest, so there’s room for all of us. We can stop by your houses to pick up your stuff and Mama Coniglio first, but I think we should probably try and go as quickly as possible.”

“That makes sense,” Erin said wearily. Normally she would have had some kind of objection at the ready, but she found she didn’t have the energy to be catty. So instead she just settled on being mousey. “We decided it’d be a good idea to stop by Dr. Baas’s office first. I doubt she’ll be making us go through with the community service, but it would be an astoundingly terrible idea to assume.”

“That works,” Ursula replied with a shrug. Like Erin, she also lacked the energy to do anything other than go with the flow.

“We should also probably go ask your parents if they’re okay with it first,” Vienna added. “They probably will be? But they historically don’t exactly... like us?”

“Yeah,” Ursula replied tersely. She clearly didn’t really have anything else to say on the matter, so instead she turned and led the way to Dr. Baas’s office. The school wasn’t exactly large, and none of them were exactly in the mood to linger, so barely any time had passed once they reached their destination.

Dr. Baas was sitting at her desk, slumped over with her head buried in her hands. “Oh,” she said, looking up as they entered the room. “Sorry, give me a moment to collect myself.”

“Are you okay?” Ursula said, instinctively. Authority figure or no, she was very obviously distraught.

“I’ll be fine. I’m just... worried, that’s all.” She said nothing further on the matter. Presumably she also had family or friends or both who were currently in Locksmouth, but none of them really knew much about her home life. Esterwood was a very tight-knit community, where most everyone knew most everyone else. But there were exceptions to that, and Viola and her pack were probably chief among them. Still, Dr Baas continued on as though they needed no further context than that. “School is going to be cancelled for a little bit. I expect you all to keep up with your studies independently. Also, obviously your community service will be put on hold as well. I can’t reasonably expect you to attend school-mandated punishment while school itself isn’t ongoing.”

“Okay,” Ursula said, speaking for all four of them. No one, they found, really had the energy to say much of anything.

“And listen, girls. I’m going to make a formal announcement about this soon, but I want you to stick together, okay? Avoid going anywhere alone and try not to stay out too late. This isn’t a formal curfew, but we don’t know what’s going on in Locksmouth or if it might spread to Esterwood. I don’t want any of you getting yourselves into a dangerous situation, understand?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Dr. Baas sighed with relief. “I’m glad we’re on the same page. Now please go home. And stay safe.”

~~~~~~


Esterwood wasn’t a very large town. It didn’t have nearly as large a footprint as Locksmouth or Harbington, and beyond that there was a significant portion that was entirely undeveloped forest. Which made it all the more impressive that they didn’t encounter a single person between the school and Erin’s home. It also meant that the journey only took about fifteen minutes by foot. “You all go on without me for now,” Erin insisted. “I would rather pack everything I need now than have to head back here later to pick up everything other than the bare minimum.”

“We can help,” Vienna interjected. “It’ll go quicker that way. And anyway Dr. Baas said we should try and avoid being alone.”

Erin opened her mouth to object, but Ursula had already barged past her and into the empty home. “Well. Fine then, I guess that’s that decision made for me,” she muttered sullenly.

Packing didn’t take very long with the four of them working together. Erin didn’t really have much to pack, really. Clothing, toiletries, a few spare understickers, and a ratty looking stuffed toy bear. It was ragged and the colours had faded almost entirely. “I have slept with her for nearly every single night of my life and I do not intend to break that habit now, and if any of you say anything I will not fucking hesitate to bite you.”

No one felt particularly motivated to make fun of Erin over her teddie bear. Vienna managed to brainstorm a few potential snide remarks, but ultimately decided against actually using any of them. Ursula didn’t even get that far, and Viola found her mind was currently elsewhere.

“That should be everything,” Erin said wearily. She had managed to fit everything into her backpack except the bear, which she held tightly under one arm. “I told you that I didn’t really need help.”

“Yes but we helped anyway,” Ursula said, accompanied with her best stern glare. It wasn’t a very good one, or Erin just had enough stamina that it didn’t effect her greatly, or perhaps a bit of both. The tall mouse just glared right back. “Whatever. Next stop is the Coniglios’.”

The Coniglio household was about as far away from the school as the Leroux home, but in a very slightly different direction. It was still nearby enough that it took only ten or so minutes to walk there. Upon opening the door, Viola found herself hit by a wall of aroma. It was a familiar sensation, but this time it felt more than normal. A veritable cornucopia of scents. Tomato and olive oil and garlic dominated, punctuated by notes of shellfish and a sharp, salty kick of brine that cut through the other odours without overwhelming them.

“We’re having spaghetti puttanesca with clams, shrimp, mussels, freshly baked garlic bread, and a really nice red,” came a voice from the kitchen. “I’ve also got a Tiramisu ready for dessert. No one leaves this house until all of this food is gone. There’s enough for everyone. Ursula, I’ve called your parents and they’ll be over shortly.”

Ursula opened her mouth to argue, but found once again that she completely lacked the energy to do so, even disregarding the fact that Clara Coniglio was a massive hassle to argue with at the best of times. “I’m not supposed to have alcohol.”

“It’s a very nice red. Very expensive.” Clara said, matter-of-factly, as if that was the end of the discussion. “Everyone has a glass and if Dan wants to object he can fuck off.”

“Okay.” Ursula made the executive decision to just leave any arguing that particular point to her father.

She ended up having a glass, though Dan at least managed to convince Clara that she didn’t need a lot. Dinner was expansive. Clara had not, it turned out, been content with merely making enough for all eight people present to have a single serving of pasta – it felt more like she had made enough for the entire fucking town. Mounds of pasta, piled high with seafood, huge hunks of bread, and multiple generous pours of wine for everyone gathered – except for Ursula, who stuck to sparkling water after her first glass.

It seemed to take an eternity, with everyone going back for seconds and even thirds, but eventually they ran out of spaghetti. Clara was willing to concede an hour or so for digestion, during which yet more wine was consumed, followed by dessert and cocktails. Azalea was very insistent on a perfect gin martini with bitters and lemon peel regardless of how comically poorly it would pair with the tiramisu, Mindy had a mezcal paloma, Clara had an original dessert cocktail Dan made up on the spot featuring amaretto and coffee liqueur, and Dan himself had an old fashioned. The kids weren’t quite knowledgeable enough to request anything specific, so Dan gave them all Irish Coffees – he was at this point drunk enough that he was willing to give Ursula one as well, though he insisted that she would absolutely not be having more than the one.

The tiramisu was, as with everything else about the meal, delicious. “Normally I would have prepared this a few days in advance, but I was operating on short notice.”

“Wouldn’t that make the cookies get soggy?” Mindy asked, prompting a furious drunken tirade from Clara.

“Pah, the cookies should be soggy, that’s the whole fucking point of soaking them in coffee and booze! If you want crunchy ladyfingers then eat ladyfingers! Tiramisu should be soft and sweet and bitter and rich, it’s god damn dessert! If I don’t feel like I’m going to have a heart attack after eating it then it’s a shitty dessert!”

“Point taken,” Mindy replied, bemused and bewildered. “It was very nice, regardless.”

“Pah, I’ve made better.”

“Hopefully we don’t have the time for you to make us a better one while we’re staying together,” Azalea said, languidly sipping her martini, which prompted an emphatic nod of agreement from the rabbit. “A toast! Here’s to us not having to have many meals together!”

“I can get behind that,” Dan said, tapping his glass on the table before taking a sip of his own. “Speakin’ of bein’ together, though, what’re the sleeping arrangements?”

“We can share a room,” Vienna interjected from across the dining table. The Coniglio dining room was the second largest room in the house after the kitchen, even though it rarely saw use, so there was more than enough room for everyone. The girls had mostly gathered on one end of the table, while the adults had congregated together, and there had been very little overlap in the conversations over the course of dinner.

“Us, too. We can sleep on the couch if we need to,” Azalea added.

“That shouldn’t be necessary. If the girls double up and you three share the guest room, then that’ll be enough space for everyone with a bit of room to spare in case we need to open our doors to anyone.” Clara turned to face her daughters. “Girls, you pick a roommate. I’ll go prepare the guest room.”

“Yes, mama,” the twins said in perfect unison before heading upstairs. It was getting late, and they’d all eaten a lot, and it had been a staggeringly long day, so there was something of an unspoken agreement that it was bedtime.

~~~~~~


There had been minimal debate as to room assignments. Ursula had been the first to speak up, declaring her intent to share a room with Viola. None of them was particularly invested in any specific arrangement, and they were certainly too tired to argue even if they were. So Erin paired with Vienna, while Ursula paired with Viola.

“I can sleep on the floor,” Ursula said, looking over the bed. It was a twin, designed very specifically to hold one person only. Viola was petite, but Ursula made up for it by being decidedly not petite. They could probably fit in it together, but it would be very cramped and Viola was, in Ursula’s experience, very reluctant when it came to physical contact. The girl tended to wince slightly at holding hands, so sharing such a tight space together was one hundred percent out of the question, as much as Ursula relished the thought of getting that close to Viola’s body.

“It’s fine,” Viola replied quietly. Barely at all, really. She was soft-spoken at the best of times, and when she got properly nervous she often reached the point of inaudibility. Her gaze was mostly fixed to the floor, but every now and then her eyes darted back to look at Ursula. Every time they did, she quivered nervously, and she never quite managed to look her in the eyes.

“Well, it’d be rude to make you sleep on the floor.”

“It’s fine,” Viola reiterated, a bit more loudly and emphatically. Still, the way she fiddled with the hem of her hoodie nervously was all that Ursula needed to see. She had let her romantic interest in the bun inform her choice in roommates rather than her head. She’d never really been that good at using her head.

“We don’t have to share a room, I can sleep on the couch or-”

“God dammit I said it’s fine!”

The sudden display of assertiveness took Ursula aback. “Uh?”

“Sorry,” Viola muttered, immediately back to nervous mode. “It’s fine. You don’t need to sleep on the couch or the floor. We can make it work.”

“Honey, that’s really clearly not an option,” Ursula said. “Look at you, you’re terrified.”

“I’m- oh my god.” Abruptly, Viola yanked off her hoodie and tossed it in Ursula’s face. The doberman was caught entirely off guard and was as a result briefly tangled in top, made worse when Viola’s sweatpants quickly followed before she had a chance to get the hoodie off. It took her a moment to untangle herself, and by the time she did, Viola was no longer wearing anything aside from her understickers. “Oral code 8643. Sensitivity profile ‘Pigs Fly’.”

“wha-”

“Shut up and fuck me, god dammit!”

~~~~~~


“What on earth is that noise?”

“Maybe Ursula’s parents are fucking,” Viola replied.

“Is now really the time for that kind of thing?”

Viola shrugged. “Dunno, I can imagine it’s a pretty good distraction.”

“Well,” Erin replied, fiddling idly with her top. “When you put it like that, some OC actually sounds pretty nice right about now.”

“No.”

“Oh, come on, I didn’t even ask yet.”

“Yes but you were gonna and the answer is no.”

“Of course it is!” Erin threw her hands up in exasperation, flopping backwards onto the bed. “It always is. Next you’re going to act like I’m some kind of monster for even considering the possibility.”

“What the fuck is your problem? Am I not allowed to be uninterested in fucking you without getting it thrown back in my face?”

“Annnnnd there we go, right on schedule.” Erin pulled herself back upright and gave Vienna a death glare. “For the record, by the way, I wasn’t going to ask for sex. I can do far better than you if I want,” she lied. Erin had enough of a reputation in Esterwood that the only sex she could really manage was the occasional hatefuck with Ursula. “What I was going to suggest was trading Viola and myself.”

“You know what, that’s not a bad idea. I really don’t look forward to having to spend the next however long sharing a room with you.”

“The feeling is mutual, darling.” Erin crossed her arms petulantly beneath the shelf of her tits. “In the meantime, you’re going to just have to suck it up and deal because this bed is hardly meant for two people and I refuse to sleep on the floor.”

“Couch is open.”

“Fuck you.”

“Ugh. Whatever. I’ve got homework to do.”

“Well, be quiet about it. I’m going to attempt to get some sleep.” Erin reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt, pulling it up and over her head before discarding it idly.

“Wh- don’t just fucking strip out of nowhere!”

“I typically sleep in the nude,” Erin replied with a shrug, moving her hands downwards to deal with her skirt. “I tend to be very sensitive to heat, and have difficulty getting to sleep otherwise. You’re just going to have to get used to my breasts, darling.”

“No! Absolutely unacceptable! I don’t fucking care if you’re a guest, you are not going nude in my goddamn bedroom!”

Erin lurched into a standing position, and Vienna found herself abruptly reminded that in spite of being a mouse, Erin was significantly larger than her. Her body shook slightly as she spoke, voice quivering with anger. “I have attempted to be patient with you, but this is the final straw. It is absolutely not unreasonable of me to sleep in the manner in which I am the most comfortable, and if you’re going to insist otherwise you will have to force me.”

“Out.”

“Excuse me?”

Vienna violently pointed at the door. “Out. Out of my room. Now.”

Erin took several deep breaths in a futile attempt to calm down, before pulling her hand back in clear setup for a slap directed at Vienna’s face. The smaller rabbit moved instinctively, raising a hand to deflect the blow, but her reflexes were clearly slightly too slow. Erin’s open palm should have slid right past Vienna’s hand and collided with her cheek. And it would have had it not come to an abrupt stop in midair, colliding with a glowing... something, floating in midair right in the path of her attempted strike. It was hard to actually see it, but now that she’d touched it Erin could just make out a pattern of white lines, like brickwork, in a gentle curve around Vienna’s body.

“Oh. Oh no.” Vienna dropped her hand, and the force field vanished as she stumbled backwards. “I- oh god.”

Erin stared silently. All of her previous anger had evaporated, replaced by a feeling she couldn’t quite identify. “What on earth..?”

Vienna’s breath came quickly and shallowly as she descended into blind panic. “Oh god, you- don’t tell anyone. Please.”

Erin stared silently at her frozen palm, pulling it back slowly as she realized exactly what she had almost done. As an adult, she took some amount of pride in her intelligence, her rationality and levelheadedness – traits that she had consciously cultivated in herself. And all of that had come crashing down in one brief moment of anger. And against a friend, at that. She and Vienna fought almost constantly, yes, but she didn’t want to hurt her. She felt a deep, hollow ache in the pit of her stomach, so overwhelming she barely even registered that Vienna had just summoned some sort of force field.

“I- I won’t.”

“Promise.”

“I promise.” Erin let out a deep, weary sigh. “Listen, I’m- I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have attempted to strike you.”

“You have to promise!”

“I do,” Erin replied with as much patience as she was capable of mustering, which was really much more than she expected. “I won’t tell anyone, trust me.”

“Why the fuck should I trust you?!” Vienna screamed in a blind panic, giving Erin brief pause. “I’ve spent my entire life keeping this a secret and you’re just going to get mad at me and tell everyone, I just know it!”

Why should Vienna trust her, really? Quite frankly, the more Erin thought about it, the more she was fairly certain that Vienna wasn’t wrong. Now, in this moment, she meant what she said. But, well, she couldn’t help but wonder if there might be a scenario in the future that would motivate her to change her mind. After all, she had already demonstrated that she had an impulsive streak, not moments earlier.

There was really only one thing she could imagine that would guarantee it, both to her and to Vienna. And that was if Vienna had blackmail material of similar magnitude on her.

Erin sighed again. “You’re not the only one with secrets,” she practically whispered.

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”

Erin didn’t reply. Instead, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

And then she let go.

What happened next was, frankly, impossible. Vienna had a hard time believing that it was happening, in spite of seeing it with her own eyes. Erin shrank. She could feel air rushing past her, a lightness in her chest as her breasts dwindled, and a deep relief. Like a weight that she had been carrying on her shoulders had suddenly been lifted off and she could finally relax. Which, really, wasn’t too far from the truth. She had, over the years, built up her ability to maintain appearances. But it still took some amount of effort. Not enough that she noticed it, but enough that she very much noticed its absence. When all was said and done, she stopped at her natural height of four feet and eleven inches tall, at which point she opened her eyes and looked Vienna directly in hers.

Vienna stared back down, lips pursed tightly as she tried to process exactly what had just happened. “... Okay,” is what she eventually settled on. “I won’t tell anyone.”

“And neither will I.”

There was a brief moment of silence. “Look, I-”

“Don’t apologize,” Erin interrupted. “I-”

“I’ll apologize if I want to.”

“I almost slapped you over nothing, Vienna.”

“And I started it!” Vienna dropped into her chair, burying her head in her hands. “None of this would have happened if I hadn’t immediately jumped to the conclusion that you were gonna try and pressure me into sex. When have any of you even come close to doing that?!”

“Let’s just talk about something else.”

“... yeah. Yeah, let’s.” Vienna slumped into her chair limply, letting all the tension and panic wash away. “So. You shrink?”

“The opposite, actually.”

“Sure looked like you shrank.”

“More like... un-grew, if that makes sense. This is my natural height and I can’t get smaller than this. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

“Okay. So, like, superhuman puberty powers?”

“I can control what grows if I concentrate. Hence the, ah, chest.”

“So you give yourself huge tits ‘cause you’re-” Vienna stopped herself. No, no she wouldn’t be starting any more fights. “Uh, I mean. Shit, if I could give myself bigger tits and be six feet tall I’d do it in a heartbeat.”

Erin smiled a bitter smile. “We can’t all be naturally gifted. Sometimes you have to take biology into your own hands. That’s why we have cosmetic surgery, after all. I’m just... taking advantage of a non-surgical solution.”

Vienna took a moment to respond. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I can understand where you’re coming from.”

“With all due respect,” Erin said, pointedly looking at Vienna’s chest before looking at her own, much more svelte endowments. “I don’t think you have quite the same room for anxiety about your appearance as I do.”

“Yeah, well... let’s just leave it at that.” Vienna shrugged. “How big can you get?”

“I’ve not really tried getting much larger than my... normal height. I’m fairly sure I could go much larger, though. It used to be it took an awful lot of effort to maintain my stature but as time went on it took less and less, so presumably I’ve been building whatever muscle it is that causes the growth by practicing.”

“Any estimates for your current max, then?”

“Hm. Posssssssibly around twenty feet, perhaps?”

Vienna whistled. “Nice.”

“You seem awfully interested in my size for someone who doesn’t like me,” Erin said with a raised eyebrow, prompting a blush from Vienna.

“Look, imagine how your boobs are normally and then scale that up to twenty feet and then say that again.”

“I thought you weren’t interested in sex?”

“Let’s talk about something else.”

“Okay then, how about you?”

“Well, mine aren’t really as interesting as yours. I can make little force fields and move ‘em around and stuff with my hands.” She demonstrated, a simple gesture causing her pen to lift off of her desk and dance around in the air. Erin had to squint slightly to make out the same brickwork pattern wireframe around the pen, and even a slight brick red tint in between the lines. “Kinda useful at times? But not nearly as, uh, interesting.”

Erin raised an eyebrow again, but said nothing. “And how long have you had that ability?”

“I don’t really remember exactly, now I think of it. I think maybe I first noticed it around when you first moved to Esterwood, actually, now I think about it?”

“Really,” Erin replied. “Now that I think about it, I first noticed my own, ah, ability around when I first moved here as well.”

The pen stopped dancing in the air, and Vienna frowned slightly. “You don’t think that’s not a coincidence.”

“I think that for now I’d rather not think of it,” she replied. “We’ve got other things to worry about at the moment.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m going to try and get some sleep.”

“Okay,” Vienna replied. “Oh, uh. Feel free to take your clothes off. Or keep them off, I guess. Just make sure to leave your understickers on. Please?”

“That seems like a reasonable compromise. Do you mind too terribly if I sleep in my, um. If I sleep bigger?”

“I thought it took effort to, uh, be bigger. Wouldn’t it be easier to sleep smaller.”

“Yes. I would prefer not to anyway.”

“‘kay. I just won’t look, then,” Vienna replied with a noticeable blush.

Erin closed her eyes and took another deep breath, her body swelling back to its usual proportions like she was inflating herself larger. “Whatever you’re comfortable with, darling,” she said, moving to lie down. “Good night.”

“Yeah, uh. Good night.” Vienna turned to focus on her desk and homework that she didn’t actually have and tried not to think about Erin’s boobs.

Whatever was going down in Locksmouth couldn’t fucking fix itself soon enough.

~~~~~~


Erin had always been very good at remembering her dreams. Part of that was the fact that she very often had variations on the exact same dream. Another part of that was a concentrated effort to learn to lucid dream when she was younger. She had religiously kept a dream diary for almost a full year before giving up and accepting her mildly Freudian fate of being hit in the face by balls every night. She had never really gotten close to actually being able to influence her dreams, but she had at least started more clearly remembering what non-forest dreams she had. There were still elements that were vague and foggy, of course, but she no longer needed to immediately write down the general outline of her dreams upon waking in order to remember them.

Not that it particularly mattered. Her dreams weren’t exactly varied. Flying. Real life situations but slightly off. The occasional stress dream – the most recurring of which consisted of starting a new school year and having no idea where the fuck any of her classes were. Tonight, though, was new. Different. It wasn’t immediately obvious at first, but she had a strange sort of gut feeling that this wasn’t just an ordinary dream.

She wasn’t in the forest, for starters. That wasn’t unheard of, of course. It wasn’t like every dream she had was her recurring dream. But sylvan settings were a recurring motif. And even her dreams that didn’t take place in the forest were often overwhelmingly verdant, usually accented by soft rays of sunlight. Environments she was intimately familiar with would be mentally redecorated in green and gold. Which made the ruddy brick red colours stand out starkly in her mind immediately, even before she had really realized she was dreaming.

She was in school. She instinctively knew that, in that way that one only does when dreaming. And she was looking for her pack, though she wasn’t really entirely sure why. The actual context was conspicuously absent, and were she awake she would likely have immediately noticed something was wrong. But she was dreaming, and so she just continued her reluctant searching. The building was larger than it was in real life, a vast space that seemed both infinite and claustrophobically closed in by equally infinite expanses of lockers, twisted and deformed into a deranged parody of the hallways of her school.

It was also decidedly empty. Even taking into account how sparsely populated Esterwood was, Erin couldn’t recall a time she had been so deeply and profoundly alone in the real high school. “Hello? Viola? Ursula? Vienna?” She paused as she received exactly no response. “Anyone?”

Nothing. Erin swallowed heavily as a profound sense of existential fear settled in. In her experience, emotions in dreams often didn’t really match up with events. This wasn’t that. There was something alien about the whole situation, even in the context of it being a dream – and by this point she was fairly certain it was a dream. The emotions and the setting and even the goddamn aesthetic felt wrong.

“Well,” Erin muttered to herself. “If I know it’s a dream, then...” She had given up on attempting to lucid dream years ago after getting minimal results. So she didn’t really know where to start. “Okay, uh. Vienna will materialize somewhere in front of me?” Nothing. “Fuck. Do I need to be more specific? Or maybe just commanding my dream to obey my whim isn’t going to do anything and I need to actually think about what I want to happen. Right. That would make sense. Absolutely brilliant, Erin. Also, good job talking to yourself. Picture of mental stability. Ugh, whatever it’s a fucking dream it’s not like anyone’s going to see me talking to myself.”

And then, just like that, there was Vienna, standing in the hallway, looking around dumbly. “Ah! There we go!” Erin wasn’t entirely sure why she was so determined to follow the narrative of the dream and find her pack. Perhaps it was just a desire for some kind of anchor to normalcy. “Vienna!”

The rabbit turned, startled, her eyes widening as she caught sight of Erin. “Erin?” she said, voice tinged with dazed confusion. The mouse charged forward resolutely, only to be abruptly cut off as an enormous brick wall erupted from the ground.

“No.”

Erin didn’t really question that a fucking brick wall was talking to her. She’d had weirder dreams. Right now she only really cared that it was in the way. “Fuck off!” she snapped, giving the wall a good solid kick. “Ow!”

“You really should have seen that comi- stop that!”

“Not until you get out of my way!” Erin replied, continuing to impotently kick and punch at the obstacle. She had never been a particularly strong person, but this was a goddamn dream. It shouldn’t have mattered that she had noodle arms.

“Unacceptable,” the wall said tersely. “I cannot allow you to harm my host.”

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“You are a threat. I will protect her.”

“I’m her friend, you... stupid wall!” Erin briefly paused, taking a few steps back.

“All of you do nothing but cause pain and misery. I cannot help her in the waking world but I will not allow you to intrude he- What on earth are you doing!? Stop that before you hurt yourself you idiot child!”

Erin didn’t stop that, shoulder charging the wall as hard as she could. “I’ll stop when you get out of my goddamn way!”

“I’m not moving no matter what you do so- Oh, no, I’m not letting you get away with that again.” More wall erupted from the ground behind Erin, preventing her from getting far back enough to build up any kind of momentum. The two segments of wall joined and encircled her tightly, all but preventing any kind of movement on her part. “I won’t let you hurt my host, and I certainly won’t let you hurt yourself.”

“Well, you’re going to have to pick one or the other because I am not stopping until I get through to see her.”

“Try me. We’ve got all night.”

~~~~~~


“Erin? Erin?!” Vienna was very familiar with this particular dream narrative by this point, so she immediately noticed when Erin immediately not only acknowledged her presence but charged towards her. The wall had, likewise, never gone after her friends instead of her. The rabbit acted quickly, taking a step forward in an attempt to rescue Erin from being walled in-

Only for the ground to disappear beneath her, sending her plummeting into nothingness.

Vienna had had the falling dream before. Everyone had the falling dream at some point. That didn’t make it any less terrifying. She could see the school and the wall shrinking away into the distance above her, while below her was nothing aside from what looked to be the infinite void of space. Landing was as abrupt as the initial loss of footing had been, to the point where Vienna wasn’t entirely sure when the transition happened. Surroundings seemed to coalesce around her from nothing, shapes outlined in deep burgundy forming from the starscape. It hurt to look at, but Vienna found herself completely lacking any kind of physical form and so her attempts to avert her eyes or close them or anything were completely futile.

Slowly the outlines took the form of the school. Not the strange, surreal approximation that her dreams normally created – aside from the colours she was hard-pressed to find any differences between it and reality.

“Oh! An exceptionally clear view of the past. Fascinating. Perhaps because this is only about five years ago instead of more than five hundred? Will have to investigate further.”

The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, and at the same time nowhere at all. “Ursula?” she asked – it sounded like Ursula’s voice, but something about the tone made it clear to Vienna that it wasn’t Ursula’s voice.

“Shhhhh, don’t interrupt. It’s about to begin.”

Further outlines formed, quickly taking on familiar shapes. Vienna’s heart sank – This wasn’t a dream, she realized. It was a memory. And not a particularly good one. There was Viola, and herself, at around thirteen years old.

“Hey, freak. Why don’tcha show me one of your stupid magic tricks. I wanna see one.”

And there was Maggie. Vienna winced, even as her younger self spoke up. “Put her down!”

Maggie Corven responded by grabbing Vienna with her free hand, picking the much smaller rabbit up by her throat and slamming her into the locker beside her sister. “Hey, hey, no need to get shouty, kid. I just wanna see a magic trick.” She grinned, showing off sharp feline fangs. Maggie was a tiger, in spite of the name. She came from a very long line of crows and jays and ravens, and no one in her family had been entirely sure how she’d ended up a tiger. There had always been rumours before she left Esterwood, later in this same year, that her home life hadn’t been particularly great as a result. It certainly wouldn’t surprise Vienna, considering her propensity for manhandling people smaller than her.

“Let us go!” the younger Vienna snapped, weakly hitting the tiger’s arms.

“Nope. Not until I get to see a trick. Might wanna get on that, by the way. I mean, the longer I keep you up here, the more likely it is one of you’ll get hurt. Y’know. On accident.”

Vienna winced, both her past and present self. She wanted to do something. To stop this. Step in, somehow. But she couldn’t. It was like watching a movie.

But, knowing what happened next, she couldn’t help but struggle to do something.

“Hey, asshole!” a younger Ursula interjected, storming over like a big damn hero with Erin in tow slightly behind. “Let them go!”

Maggie turned and glared. “Well, well. If it ain’t the little brat. What, you think that ‘cos your daddy’s the coach that means you can tell me what to do? Think it makes you better’n me?” she growled. “News flash, kid. I’m bigger than you.”

“Put my pack down, Maggie.” Ursula shook, but stood as firm as she was capable of. Maggie, at the time, had been Esterwood’s star boxer – a role that Ursula would eventually usurp. But at the time this had taken place, Ursula didn’t stand a chance in a fight against Maggie. Vienna knew, because she knew what happened next. Maggie would hurl the twins at Erin and Ursula, and then give all four of them a good solid beating. She had already been on thin ice at the time, but that had been the last straw. Maggie had been kicked out of school within a few weeks and had left Esterwood entirely for god knows where, Vienna didn’t care beyond being glad to see the back of her.

“Ah, I see. The host was present. Likely her memories are augmenting the vision and filling in the gaps. Disappointing.” The memory froze in place with the twins in midair. “I had hoped I had stumbled upon a way to examine the past without drawing directly from the host’s prana reserves. Which is, of course, out of the question. Completely immoral. Tch, this was a waste of time. Not even an important moment.”

“I- not important?! We ended up in the hospital for a fucking week after this!”

“Be quiet,” the voice snapped. “I have work to do. This town has so much history. Some children getting bullied is inconsequential in comparison.”

“It wasn’t inconsequential to us!”

“Who even are you? You certainly aren’t the host.”

“I should be the one asking that question!” Vienna shouted indignantly.

The voice didn’t react, continuing with its own line of thought. “One of her allies, perhaps? But then what are you doing here? Oh, well, it doesn’t matter. So long as you don’t interrupt my work I’ll allow you to stay here for now.”

Vienna sputtered, but before she could say anything there was a loud screech. A noise that she couldn’t identify, beyond that it was loud. The tableau in front of her began moving again, in reverse, speeding up until it turned into a vague blur, slowly melting together and reshaping into something new.

“Be quiet and watch, child. You might find yourself learning something.”

~~~~~~


Ursula charged through the crowded streets. She didn’t recognize them at all – which meant she probably wasn’t in Esterwood. She had lived in the small town her whole life, and knew almost every inch of it like the back of her hand. Conversely, she had never really left Esterwood aside from the occasional school trip and a brief stay in a hospital in Locksmouth when she was thirteen, which had rather obviously not been much of a sightseeing visit. Ursula didn’t really give a shit where she was, though. She staunchly ignored the strange sense of oppressive loneliness as she revelled in having an actual fucking dream. No weird red outlines, no loud unearthly noises. Just a normal goddamn dream.

“Ursula?!” she turned in the direction of the voice and saw Viola standing inside of a window. Inside a reflection, she corrected herself – everything surrounding Viola was very slightly transparent, and beyond it she could make out the actual contents of the building. She was surrounded by trees, like a forest existed entirely within the confines of the window, between Ursula and the coffee shop.

It was a suitably surreal image for Ursula’s first real dream in years. “Hey, Viola. ‘sup.”

“What are you doing in my dream?”

“Pretty sure this is my dream.”

The reflected Viola blinked incredulously. “No? I mean. Maybe? Normally I’m in a city like you, not a forest. And Aubrey’s supposed to be there, not you.” She frowned. “This is weird.”

Ursula shrugged. “I mean, I’m not gonna question it. Dreams are supposed to be weird, right?”

“Yes, but this dream’s always the same,” Viola replied insistently.

“It’s my dream though. You’re not even real you’re just my imagination.” Ursula shrugged again. “Anyway, we’re kind of in an unusual situation right now, right? It makes sense to me that it’d make our dreams do weird shit.” Still, Viola had a point. Something about this dream felt weird. Uncanny. Almost like-

Well, like it wasn’t her dream after all. “Okay. So let’s agree this is your dream, then. Does that make me a figment of your imagination?”

“I guess?”

“I don’t really feel imaginary.”

Viola frowned again. “Hold on. I have a theory, but I need to just-”

The reflection of the forest shimmered and faded, and Viola herself suddenly changed. Ursula couldn’t really think of a better way to put it – one moment, it was Viola and then the next it was some strange thing in the rough outline of Viola. It reminded her of her normal dreams, though instead of red and black the creature was blue and green. “Oh,” it said with Viola’s voice. “Sorry. I... should really know what’s going on, but I don’t.”

“Hi?” Even in her dream-addled state, Ursula realized that it was a stupid thing to say. But she couldn’t really think of anything else to say. “You don’t need to apologize. I don’t even know who you are.”

“Oh. I suppose I should introduce myself? I’m not really used to interacting with anyone other than Viola.” The thing took a moment to collect itself before waving. “Um, hello. I’m Aubrey Kadabra. Viola’s imaginary friend.”

Ursula stared incredulously. “Wow. This dream is getting fucking weird.”

“You’re telling me.”

~~~~~~


“Ursula? Ursula?!” Viola slammed her fists against where the window into the city had been just moments ago, replaced with a tree trunk. She wasn’t quite sure why she was panicking as much as she was. It was unusual, but it was still just a dream. Right?

She took a deep breath to calm herself down before taking in her surroundings. She was in a forest, though it was very clearly not a normal forest. Viola was intimately familiar with the woods, but she didn’t need to be to tell that everything – every single tree from trunk to top, the ground, even the small creatures that were milling about in a clearing a short distance away – was solid green The bark wasn’t brown, the flesh wasn’t pink, everything was just minute variations of the same shade of emerald. The only other colour was the sunlight, a vibrant gold.

“Oh! You’re new. What are you doing here, little one?”

The voice emanated from the forest itself, which began to undulate and melt together, the sunlight and trees coalescing into the shape of Erin, of all people. It wasn’t Erin, of course, Viola noted immediately, the same way Aubrey wasn’t her. But she reminded her very much of Aubrey. It took the shape of Erin the way Aubrey took her own shape. Her body was the same emerald green of the forest, and it was accented by the sunlight. The gold formed her limited facial features and outlined her body, occasionally interrupting the green with lines of gold around her arms and legs and neck like jewellery.

“Um. Sorry. I don’t really know.”

“That’s fine. I don’t really know why I’m here, either. I don’t remember much of anything, except for some small details and obviously what my Host knows. Though I don’t really like to interact with her very much outside of dreams.” Her expression darkened slightly. “It’s... not right. I don’t know why, but it’s not right. Oh!” She immediately perked up. “I believe I know who you are, though. Viola, right? One of Erin’s friends? It’s nice to meet you, Viola.”

“Uh, likewise.”

“I should introduce myself, I suppose. My memory is a bit fuzzy, but I’m fairly certain my name is Titania.”

“Uh. Hi, Titania.”

Titania clasped her hands together, eagerly bouncing in a way that made Erin’s ample breasts bounce tantalizingly. “Oh, it’s been a very long time since I’ve made a friend. Actually, um.” She drooped slightly, frowning again. “Actually I don’t think I’ve ever really had a friend before. I know I’m not friends with Erin. I’m not supposed to interact with my host. I don’t remember why, but I know that getting too close to her is... bad.” She perked up, reaching out to grab Viola’s hands and place them gently on her chest. “Oh, but I do try and help her as much as I can, you understand? I lend her my power so she can be more confident in herself. And I try my best to give her tranquil dreams, but it doesn’t work very well I’m afraid.”

“I’m sure she appreciates it, regardless,” Viola replied, bewildered and just a little bit horny from the proximity of her hands to weird goo doppelganger boob.

Titania smiled warmly. “Oh, I hope she does. I wish I could talk with her. Help her more directly. But I don’t want to hurt her, and-” She stopped, interrupted by a rubbery bouncing noise. Her eyes widening as she abruptly let go of Viola’s hands. “Oh no, it’s here! Watch out!”

“Wha-” Viola said as she turned to look at whatever it was that had surprised Titania, and then abruptly jolted awake as a large blue rubber ball smacked her in the face.

~~~~~~


Viola didn’t really find herself in the best of moods. Her dreams had been strange and stressful, rather than just the normal routine of mild existential horror. Then she had been abruptly woken up after around three hours, and had found herself completely unable to get back to sleep.

And her ass was still sore.

She’d managed to not wake up Ursula as she got dressed and left. She had tried to return to sleep, but hadn’t been particularly tired and had a difficult time getting comfortable given the limited space. Getting any more sleep wasn’t an option, then, and she didn’t want to risk waking Ursula up as well. So she grabbed her clothes, grabbed her deck, and snuck out of the house, curfew be damned. Now more than ever, she needed to unwind.

Her destination was obvious. The Woods was, in her experience, the best place to go when you needed to think about things alone. And oh man did she have some shit to think about. Like, for instance, that she and Ursula had fucked. Did that make them partners now? And what about the other two packmates? She felt a deep, burning guilt over betraying Vienna. Had she really betrayed Vienna in any way? It was entirely natural to have sex at their age. If anything Vienna was the weird one. Viola didn’t owe it to her sister to remain celibate, and certainly didn’t owe it to her not to have sex with Ursula or Erin. That had been her own decision. So, really, in the end, the only person she had failed was herself.

She decided not to think about that, instead heading deeper into the Woods. Deeper than she’d ever gone. Even though she’d only gotten a few hours of sleep, she and Ursula had spent enough time... enjoying themselves that the dim pre-sunrise light of early morning was just weak enough still to not penetrate the dense canopy. So Vienna used her PET’s flashlight function to navigate. In retrospect, she probably shouldn’t have gone deep enough for that to be an issue, but it was too late for second guessing. She continued on, deeper and deeper. Eventually, if she kept as straight a line as possible, she’d come out the other side. And if she didn’t, well, it wasn’t like she didn’t have her PET with her for navigational purposes.

Of course, all of that was assuming that she didn’t find anything other than more forest.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”

There, standing in front of her, was a run down old shack. Small. Clearly hadn’t been inhabited in years. It had been partially reclaimed by the forest, vines crawling up its walls, the door almost entirely rotted away, and a small tree growing out of the roof. But it was undeniably manmade. Which was impossible. No one built anything in the woods. The only shack anywhere near was the caretaker’s home near the outskirts, and it was a fairly nice if modest home.

What Viola was seeing was impossible. Not real. A myth. She pinched herself to make sure she wasn’t still dreaming, and winced from the pain.

“Well, okay,” she said to herself as she walked closer. “Maybe the shack exists. The rumours had to come from somewhere. But it’s definitely not-”

Her heart stopped briefly when her PET rang the instant she reached the shack’s doorway.

In retrospect, Viola wasn’t entirely sure why she answered the call. It wasn’t the first stupid decision she would make in the coming few days, and it certainly wouldn’t be the last. It was, she supposed, a reasonable assumption to make that it was just her parents or pack calling her to make sure she was okay. But that wasn’t it, she knew. Maybe it was just morbid curiosity, or maybe it was reflex, or maybe she was just too damn tired to properly remember the way the myth went.

Regardless of the reasoning, though, the Rubicon had been crossed, the die had been cast, and the call had been answered.

And on the other end of the call was what sounded like an upbeat young girl. “Oh, hey, sweet, you answered. Usually people just fuckin’ run away, and the last time that happened was like two hundred years ago.”

Viola wasn’t entirely sure what she’d expected a ghost to sound like. But it sure as fuck wasn’t that.", "pools_count": 1, "title": "This Knotted Maze - Act Three - Everything Comes Crashing Down", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "text/rtf", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "1", "rating_name": "Mature", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "2", "name": "Nudity", "description": "Nonsexual nudity exposing breasts or genitals (must not show arousal)", "rating_id": "1" }, { "content_tag_id": "3", "name": "Violence", "description": "Mild violence", "rating_id": "1" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "0", "views": "229" }