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It was actually two separate stories that wound up getting combined into one. Originally the tournament was going to be a single story called 'Fighting Fangirls' while Alice and Nessa's introduction was going to be a sidestory called 'Not How You're Supposed to Be', but they worked too well together so I put them together into a single one.\n\nIts also worth noting that Fighting Fangirls was really just going to be goofy. A big fighting tournament where Arja could go nuts infront of a live audience and all. Hence the Pandaren. That was actually Jaie, my pandaren monk from World of Warcraft. The 'Xhu' she was referring to is my writing friend's monk, though that one is a mistweaver while mine is a brewmaster.\n\nAnyways, Stephy is a crossdresser, he was when he met Trixie, but he had to get his start somewhere and Alice was that start. Originally her bits were a bit more risque but, again, I tidied it up. DEAL WITH IT.\n\nShe and Nessa make an interesting double act, kind of like Dawn and Nelen do... especially given that both pairs have a blood mage in them. It was also nice to include Simoni as she was before she became Simoni, even if it was only briefly. I've been bothered for a while in that the earlier bits of the chronicle are sparse as all hell... but we had no idea the story was going to wind up this big when we did those so I didn't bother keeping logs back then.\n\nI'll have profiles up for these two girls soon, and there's one more story coming before the group leaves Japan, but that one is all the other guy so I couldn't give any hints even if I wanted to!\n\nEDIT: Also, holy shit this almost broke 100 pages. o_o;","description_bbcode_parsed":"<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>This one took a while to sort out. It was actually two separate stories that wound up getting combined into one. Originally the tournament was going to be a single story called &#039;Fighting Fangirls&#039; while Alice and Nessa&#039;s introduction was going to be a sidestory called &#039;Not How You&#039;re Supposed to Be&#039;, but they worked too well together so I put them together into a single one.<br /><br />Its also worth noting that Fighting Fangirls was really just going to be goofy. A big fighting tournament where Arja could go nuts infront of a live audience and all. Hence the Pandaren. That was actually Jaie, my pandaren monk from World of Warcraft. The &#039;Xhu&#039; she was referring to is my writing friend&#039;s monk, though that one is a mistweaver while mine is a brewmaster.<br /><br />Anyways, Stephy is a crossdresser, he was when he met Trixie, but he had to get his start somewhere and Alice was that start. Originally her bits were a bit more risque but, again, I tidied it up. DEAL WITH IT.<br /><br />She and Nessa make an interesting double act, kind of like Dawn and Nelen do... especially given that both pairs have a blood mage in them. It was also nice to include Simoni as she was before she became Simoni, even if it was only briefly. I&#039;ve been bothered for a while in that the earlier bits of the chronicle are sparse as all hell... but we had no idea the story was going to wind up this big when we did those so I didn&#039;t bother keeping logs back then.<br /><br />I&#039;ll have profiles up for these two girls soon, and there&#039;s one more story coming before the group leaves Japan, but that one is all the other guy so I couldn&#039;t give any hints even if I wanted to!<br /><br />EDIT: Also, holy shit this almost broke 100 pages. o_o;</span>","writing":"Its been about four days since the girl's encounter with Paale, now partnered with an as-of-yet unknown Sin Eater. While his reappearance was a shock indeed he thankfully seems to be laying low at the moment, giving the group time to recover. As of right now they're all at Ivari's house, Simoni trying (and failing) to read one of the manga she bought at a local bookstore (the cover was pretty... but she forgot she couldn't read Japanese). Lupe is dozing on Natasha's coffin (current time: 3:30 PM), Stephy is cuddling with Trixie on the couch, and the TV is on in the room showing one of Japan's newest gameshows 'Super Funtime Happiness Okama Yes Desu!' or something like that. Basically guys getting made over to look like girls because Japan.\n\n\"Why don't they have shows like this in America?\" frowns Stephy.\n\nArja smirks softly, patting Stephy's head \"You wouldn't be allowed to enter anyway, you're basically a ringer.\" she teases, Trixie giggling as she squeezes Stephy's waist. \"Any progress on that manga babe?\" Arja asks, flopping down next to her as Sammi walks back into the house, whistling a happy tune. \"Yaoi fan girls are so easy, I just got like ten contracts....\"\n\nSimoni tilts her head, turning it this way and that as she tries to decode it. On her lap is a large leatherbound book with 'kanji for beginners' on the cover. \"I... um... I think so...\" she replies, \"I think... this guy loves this girl... but she loves... his dog?\" she mutters as Dawn looks over her shoulder and smirks, \"Thats Nana to Kaoru, its a manga about two high school students who do S&M play and stuff.\" she smirks, one of the perks of her being a Wonderlander is being hyper-linguistic... basically born knowing how to speak any language, though Nelen did have to teach her to read. Once she learned how to do it in one language though her magic took care of the others.\n\nIt turns out that's how Nelen found them in the first place way back on that day when Arja and Simoni found out that her plan to send a fetch back to Castle Fullmoon had failed. He couldn't speak or read hardly any Hindi when he first arrived in India, so she'd sit on his shoulders in her animal form and read signposts to him like a furry version of babelfish.\n\nArja smirks \"Is the art good at least?\" she teases, sitting behind Simoni, wrapping her legs around the other girl and holding her close, feeling extra protective after that Paale encounter. \"Nice to have a few days to do normal tourist stuff, huh?\" Trixie grins, huffing a bit as Sammi sits himself down between her and Stephy, cuddling into them both, \"Yea, this place is fun when you're not hiding from undead monsters... no offence to the sleeping vampire...\"\n\nA faint 's'alright' comes from inside the coffin as a commercial break starts. The screen shows a fighting ring as the announcer talks at top speed in Japanese. Something something something desu something something Toryama-san something something BANZAIIIIIII something something dark side. Dawn just rolls her eyes at it as Simoni scoots back into Arja, Nelen glancing up at it from across the room before going back to his tablet, still trying to get it to connect to Japan's stubborn internet.\n\nArja perks up, looking over \"I heard Toryama...\" she says eagerly, looking to Dawn for translation as Trixie sighs, \"Of course that's what you hone in on. Lemmie guess anime con in town soon or something?\" she says cooly.\n\nDawn looks up at the screen, her eyes running over the display, \"Hum... nope. Looks like some sort of martial arts tournament, open to all comers, and Akira Toryama is going to be there to study fighting styles for this new series he's working on oh balls thats right you're a massive Dragonball fangirl aren't you?\" she replies, looking at Arja out of the corner of her eye as Nelen's eye twitches, the bearded mage sitting up in his chair now.\n\nArja was grinning wide, almost shaking as she tightens her grip on Simoni \"WHERE AND WHEN?!\" she demands, squealing excitedly. If there’s one thing Arja has a massive weakness for it’s the works of famous anime creator Akira Toryama, especially (to no-one’s surprise) the story of Son Goku that is Dragonball and Dragonball Z, which was based on Journey to the West, which stars the Monkey King of China, who may or may not actually be the same person as her own divine ancestor Hanuman.\n\nSimoni gasps, dropping the book as she flails, tugging on Arja's arms. \"Arja... can't breathe...\" she gasps as Dawn looks at her, then at the screen, then grins that oh-so-mischevious grin. \"Hmm, looks like today is the last day you can register, preliminaries start in about three hours...\"\n\nAt this, Nelen stands up. \"No, no way Arja. You're not doing this! This isn't some... fantasy story series or something. You'd be surrounded by mundanes and you're way too competitive to control your powers in a fight, even if it's not a real battle. There is no way in hell that you're-\"\n\n\"Dude, she's already gone.\" says Dawn, pointing to the chair where Simoni is sitting, rubbing her throat and gasping for breath.\n\nArja was indeed already sprinting eagerly down the pathway out of the house to the location of the tournament, giggling like crazy. \"Ehehehehehehehehe!” she cackles, already in full fangirl mode as she runs off into the distance.\n\nMeanwhile, at the event center, the sign ups were getting pretty full. Lots of otaku types thinking this was just a play thing, they'd be weeded out fast, but of the crop of 'real' fighters there actually were quite a few. There was one that was causing a little bit of a stir. A young woman from America, the organizers asking her yet again if she was sure she wanted to sign up, the woman just giggling happily and nodding, replying in Japanese that she did indeed want to, holding her red and white cane firmly in her hand as her free one signs where the attendant guides her to... It was kind of necessary given the opaque black glasses covering her milky white eyes. The woman was completely blind!\n\nA bit over from her is another young woman, a shorter pudgy type who seems to be from China if her clothes are anything to go by. She's dressed in a black silk martial artist’s uniform with a rope-belt around her waist and balancing a fighting staff over her shoulders. She has long dark hair and a bead bracelet around one wrist. Despite her nationality she seemed perfectly capable of talking in Japanese, signing up and then taking her place with the other fighters.\n\nArja giggles happily as she makes it to the sign up area, nearly tackling into the table set up, stumbling her way through the sign up process, needing a bit of help from the people around who spoke English...\n\nThe American woman raises her brow, looking over at Arja, her milky white eyes hidden behind her round black lenses \"Hrm...\"\n\nThe Chinese girl notices her too, though she pretends not to, looking back into the group of fighters with an uncomfortable look on her face. As Arja stands there she hears a faint chuckle behind her, Dawn standing nearby in one of her human disguise outfits (as usual; sock hat for her ears, sunglasses for her eyes, and baggy pants for her tail). \"Nelen is gonna murder you yanno. He's gonna go apeshit when he gets here.\"\n\nArja just grins, \"Already signed up, can't back out now!\" she giggles, licking her lips as she cracks her knuckles, \"Come on, it'll be fast…\" she teases.\n\nDawn smirks, \"Oh I know... but I also know that this is going to cause a lot of chaos and that's going to be fun as hell to watch.\" she smirks, going to take her place in the stands as the first fight begins. Dawn can be responsible when it’s a life or death situation like with Paale the other day, but a fighting tournament full of hyperactive fanboys and fangirls? Yeah, that’s some shit she loves to stir up.\n\nOut in the city Nelen is trying frantically to figure out where Arja ran off to but, well, he really did rely on Dawn to read street signs in languages he wasn't fluent in and when it came to Japanese he knew a couple basic words at most. \"When I get my hands on that girl...\" he growls, his eyes flashing red for a moment as he tries to keep himself calm.\n\nArja giggles, \"Well get a good seat, I'm gonna knock a few nerds out and win this fast.\" she giggles, stretching out as the announcer begins to call the contestants to the ready room.\n\nThe first few bouts do indeed go stupidly easy. Most of the fighters are just kids who either learned from watching 'teach yourself karate' videos or actually think its possible to fight like they do in the anime and get taught a quick lesson by the opponents who know better. The Chinese girl seems to be one of these, barely even having to use any strength at all to fight off her opponents, and the blind girl as well seems to fight better than even some of the more professional looking contestants despite, well, being blind.\n\nThat is, until Arja notices one more in the fight... Its almost hard to recognize him without his usual baggy black jacket, but Nelen is in another ring nearby and he does not look happy. He knows it's too late for Arja to back out so it seems he's decided to teach her a lesson, personally. He makes eye contact with her across the arena after sending his opponent to dreamland with one good smack to the throat, his eyes looking awfully red-rimmed around the edges. His specialty isn’t hand-to-hand combat, but with Merihim’s ability to enhance different parts of his body individually and his own Fullmoon heritage giving him more than natural strength it’s not exceptionally difficult to beat up some sugar-buzzed otakus and the occasional karate trained kid.\n\nArja blinks, ducking between the legs of her opponent and jumping up, kicking him in the back of the head to bring him down, still staring at Nelen, \"Eep...\" she mumbles. In her own ring Alice was doing quite well as well, despite being blind she's ducking and dodging anything sent her way, spinning around her opponent rather gracefully before wrapping her arm around his neck, squeezing hard and quickly causing him to black out, dropping him and stepping back quickly with a grin. Soon enough the herd would get thinned down to just a few skilled fighter...\nFinally it's down to eight, and then just as quickly it's down to four. Arja against that chinese girl and Nelen against the blind woman. By now Simoni, Stephy, Trixie, and Lupe have all found where Dawn is sitting and are watching in the stands, Dawn munching away on some fish sausages she got from a vendor as Lupe tries to work out what pocky is before Simoni takes it away from her. \"No, no chocolate for you. Not after last time. I swear I still smell that when we go past the tree...\" she mutters.\n\nStephy however leans in curiously, looking closely at the blind fighter. \"... wait... is that...\" he mutters, adjusting his glasses. Simoni tilts her head too, a blind girl who can fight that well… it’s not too much of a stretch that she isn’t ‘normal’, but this woman… “Alice?” she mutters.\n\n‘Alice’ smirks a bit as she stands in front of Nelen, the blind girl slowly getting more and more cocky as she drove through the competition. \"Make you a deal, go down fast and I won't be too hard on you\" she teases, circling him, studying any sounds that came from him, nostrils flaring as she locks on to his scent.\n\nArja, meanwhile, was looking over to Nelen's ring every so often too \"Sooo…\" she says to her opponent \"What's your deal?\"\n\nHer opponent just remains silent, as if speaking would give her away somehow. Since it's down to four fighters they're going to do each fight separately. The first one being Nelen and his opponent.\n\nNelen looks at her and tilts his head, \"Another American in a Japanese fighting tournament? That's pretty long odds...\" he comments, then cracks his knuckles. \"Thanks for the offer, but by the time we're done you'll be the one on the ground.\" he replies, flexing a bit. To anyone else it'd just look like he's flexing his arms anyways, but in truth he was pushing more of his 'blood' or rather Merihim into his upper limbs to make them stronger. He knew better than to judge by appearances after all, and someone who was blind but could still fight through to the final four of any fighting tournament was clearly not what they seemed.\n\nShe just grins, \"American by way of France, if it helps you still feel unique.\" she teases, raising her hands up. Her brows furrow, though, when that blood strains against those muscles... She heard the heartbeat, the muscles push, she had no idea what was going on but something sounded ominous.\n\nNelen notices the change in her expression... she can tell when he's doing that? He frowns, thinking ‘change in plans’, then suddenly charges forward and slams out with his elbow, aiming for her stomach. If she's able to recognize when he's using Merihim he should finish this quickly, even if it does mean he'd have to publicly beat a blind person.\n\nAlice weaves as soon as she hears those feet coming, slipping behind him and going for a leg sweep, hoping to bring him down fast. She didn't know what was going on but she figured the guy making his muscles strain and charging at her like that was probably dangerous up close.\n\nShe's right, but Nelen is fast enough to force Merihim down into his legs and reinforce them. He's spent most of his adult life on the run from Clan Fullmoon and he's worked as a mercenary before teaming up with Arja and her friends. For him life or death fights are an every day thing. When her leg hits his it's like hitting an iron bar.\n\nAlice yelps as her foot connects, only to bounce off painfully! \"Shit, what are you?!\" she mumbles, circling him again, trying to get a lock on him better before she goes for a high strike after a moment, charging at him and springing her foot up, aimed right at his head!\n\nNelen isn't fast enough to block that though, the kick sending him across the mat and knocking his hat flying. For a moment he seems down... the referee even beginning to count... and then...\n\nIn the stands Dawn's fur prickles, \"Oh crap...\"\n\nNelen gets back to his feet, letting out a low growl. His eyes are almost completely red now. He was angry that Arja ran off and got into this tournament, he's angry that it took him so long to find the place and he almost missed signing up so he could beat her and drag her back to Iravi's place, he's angry that he just got kicked off his feet by a blind woman... angry angry angry angry... WRATHFUL… \"Dammit... keep it together Fullmoon...\" he snarls to himself, getting to his feet as he pops his neck, circling slowly around his opponent.\n\nAlice frowns a bit, \"What's in you…\" she says, circling him slowly \"Didn't take the Fullmoons to be making pacts like that...\" she adds, her hands up defensively, but not striking out at him yet, trying to assess the issue.\n\nNelen flinches, she heard him!? She heard him say that and she recognized what's going on?! STUPID STUPID STUPID GODDAMN STU-\n\nThe mundanes even feel it, a sudden subtle shift in the arena as Nelen's grimace changes to a grin, the kind of grin one might see on that one manga antagonist who always seems to show up. Kimblee from Fullmetal Alchemist, Tommyrodd from Gourmet Hunter Toriko, the kind of lunatic sadist who not only gets into constant fights, but loves every single moment of it. \"Oopsie... someone woke me uuuuuuup…\" he sneers.\n\nAlice frowns more, \"Crap.\" she mutters, shaking her head, \"This isn't good, whatever you are you need to go back in your host before something bad happens.\"\n\n‘Nelen’ smirks, \"Hmm... big fight, lots of guys in the audience...\" he smirks, then crouches down, \"Don't wanna!\" he cackles, charging at her so fast that she almost misses it. Nelen is strong and fast, but Merihim can make full use of all his demonic powers when he's in control. It’s all she can do to raise her guard before he smashes into her, landing a straight arm punch with enough force to leave a dent in a steel plated wall.\n\nAlice gasps, raising her arms up in a guard to at least endure the blow as her foot flies out, kicking rapidly into Nelen's gut a few times before she breaks her own guard, hoping her blows left him distracted enough for her to bring her fists harshly into the sides of Nelen's head, wanting to knock him out quickly...\n\nHer fists hit, but they may as well have hit a metal post as Merihim reflexively moved his mass into the side of Nelen's head to absorb the blow. \"HAH! Not bad Misses Magoo, But not good ENOUGH!\" he snarls, focusing his bloodflow into his forehead, neck, and hands, grabbing her shoulders in a vise-like grip, and then smashing his forehead into her's loud enough for a resounding crack to be heard all through the arena.\n\n... fortunately, the crack was mostly her glasses, but the damage is done, her brain is sloshing around in her skull after that and it's the easiest thing in the world for him to just shove her off the platform and out of bounds.\n\nAlice groans as she hits the ground, panting heavily as she tries to get her senses, the ones she had anyways, back \"Damn... this is really bad... that thing being loose in a place like this could really do some damage.\" she mumbles as the ref declares her out.\n\nIn the stands Dawn has the same thought. A little chaos is fun, but Arja would still show some self control and Nelen wouldn’t let his blood magic out unless something forced him to. If Merihim went really wild... \"Guys, I think we might need to be ready to run interference here...\" she says as she looks over at Lupe, Simoni, Trixie, and... Stephy? She blinks, \"Hey, where'd fairyboy go?\" she asks as, out in the floor, the blind woman is suddenly aware of a new presence next to her.\n\n\"I thought you looked familiar!\" he grins, \"Alice! Do you remember me? Its been two years now!\" he giggles up at her.\n\nAlice blinks softly, \"Stephen?\" she asks, so shocked that she almost forgets about the demon-possessed fighter and looking to the source of the voice, \"Hey sweetie!\" she smiles, slipping into her normally friendly voice quickly, not wanting to worry the boy... \"What are you doing here?\"\n\nArja, meanwhile, frowns at the demon, looking to the stands and nodding to the girls already taking action \"Alright, gotta win this quick...\"\n\nStephy giggles, \"I'm here with my friends... um, you actually just fought one of them. That was my cousin, Nelen... He didn't hurt you did he?\" he asks, \"Normally he can control that guy a lot better, but he's been pretty stressed out lately and... well... yeah.\" he nods.\n\nArja's opponent looks troubled though, looking towards Nelen/Merihim as she mutters, \"A friggin' demon? Dangit this is gettin' crazy...\" she sighs, then turns to face Arja as the bell rings for their match, the girl slipping into a defensive stance.\n\nAlice raises a brow, \"That's Nelen?\" she says, shaking her head, \"Can he get control back soon? It's dangerous for his opponents...\"\n\nArja blinks when the other girl knows what Nelen is \"Wha? You know?\" she says, watching the girl oddly\n\nThe girl rolls her eyes, then shrugs and focuses on Arja before suddenly darting forward. Despite her pudgy body she proves to be quite agile, striking out with a palm strike aimed at Arja's chest before spinning and putting her weight into a backwards kick, aiming her heel at her head. It seems she wants to end this fight quickly too. Someone may well need to finish this quickly.\n\nStephy winces, \"Um, I hope so. I've only seen this happen a couple times... dunno how long it 'usually' takes him.\" he replies.\n\nArja oofs as the palm hits her, but reaches up to grab the girl's ankle, digging her sharp nails into the skin and giving her a HARD throw to the edge of the ring!\n\nAlice sighs, standing up and rubbing Stephy's head, \"I have a tool for if he's getting too out of control but... I'd rather not use it unless I have to, knowing it's your cousin now...\" she mumbles before blinking \"You grew your hair?\"\n\nStephy blinks, \"Um... a lots happened since we last saw each other...\" he replies, blushing a bit.\n\nMeanwhile, in the ring the girl manages to catch herself, rolling back towards Arja as she lands a sudden hard thrust on her chin, then scythes her legs out from under her before moving to bring her heel down on Arja's belly when she lies prone. \"Nothin' personal kid, but ah dunno if ya'll can handle that thing...\" she frowns.\n\nAlice chuckles, \"I can tell…\" she says, taking Stephy's hand, \"You ok though?\"\n\nArja just laughs, hopping back up, shoving her opponent off her with a grin, \"You have no idea what we can handle!\" she teases, lunging at the other girl, spiraling like a wheel as her foot slams downwards at her... for a moment someone could almost see traces of flames around it...\nStephy nods, \"Yeah...\" then looks behind him as the rest of the group comes up, \"Oh hey, here. I'll introduce you.\" he says, \"This is Simoni, that's her girlfriend Arja fighting up there right now. Thats my girlfriend Trixie. This is our friend Dawn, and another friend Lupe.\" he says, guiding her hand onto the shoulder of each one in turn.\n\nShe blocks with her arm, then her eyes widen as she realizes it's the arm with her bracelet on it. \"Oh no no no no no!\" she yelps as it suddenly catches fire, the string holding them together snapping suddenly as it falls away, a small quartz charm among the beads shaped like a pair of human eyes.\n\nThere's a sudden sound of confusion and shock from the crowd as the girl's form shimmers like heat on the pavement and, instead of a human girl, there's now what looks like nothing more than an anthromorphic panda bear, \"Great... ya know how much that cost me?\" she frowns at Arja, slipping into a fighting pose as Dawn's ears twitch under her sock hat. \"... the hell?\" she mutters.\n\nArja blinks, \"Wait wha...\" she pauses, caught off guard by that reveal... \"What the shit is going on in this thing?\"\n\nAlice, meanwhile, smiles as she rubs the kids' faces \"Hey there\" she says, Trixie shooting Stephy a little look as her face gets rubbed (its how blind people ‘see’ someone’s face), \"Who's this?\"\n\nStephy giggles nervously, \"Oh jeez, long story... Um... ever wonder how I got into, well...\" he gestures to the outfit he's wearing, a white silk top and a long flowing blue satin skirt. Pretty mundane for a fae but hey, he's on vacation!\n\nThe panda girl however just sighs, \"Well great, ya'll had ta go and blow mah cover... Xhu is gonna be so pissed...\" she grumbles, then looks at Arja, \"Yer not 'zactly normal either are ya girl? Well, the mundanes are gonna be flippin' out soon 'nuff anyhoo...\" she grins as a sudden roll of thunder crackles across the sky.\n\nMerihim, over at the consession stand messily devouring a bit of everything, looks up and raises his eyebrow, \"Hel-lo...\"\n\nThe panda grins, slipping into a different stance, \"What'ya say we stop holdin' back?\" she smirks.\n\nAlice smiles, \"D'aw, I'm so happy you have so many friends…\" she says happily before blinking at the thunder \"Rain wasn't supposed to be today...\" she looks around as Trixie looks at the ring, \"Shit, guys we have multiple problems now...\"\n\nArja was grinning wickedly, crouching down into her own monkey like stance \"Alright, you asked for it!\" she says, eyes turning bright yellow as her body erupts in her red fur, claws and fangs jutting out as her tail swishes free, \"Not gonna take it easy on you now...\"\n\nThat's about all it takes. A blind girl fight like a real life Dare Devil was nuts, Mr. Split Personality was more nuts, a sudden appearance by a freaking Pandaren was really nuts, but now this... There's a sudden rush of footsteps as the crowd stampedes to the doors, deciding to nope right out of there.\n\nOn the platform the pandaren grins, \"Oooh, some kinda hozen-girl? Interestin'!\" she smirks, \"Right then, lets see how ya'll do with THIS!\" she suddenly lunges, her body crackling with electricity... and something hits Arja hard from BEHIND. The pandaren rolls and straightens up next to... well... another pandaren, an identical one. \"Storm... 'n earth.\" she smirks.\n\nArja yelps as she's hit from behind, managing to leap away after the blow at least, \"Splitting up, huh?\" she grins, recovering quickly, \"Lotsa people where I come from do that...never works well. I'd rather be one me than two weaker me!\" she teases, opening her mouth and firing a gout of flame at the two, deciding since the gloves were off she'd go full out as well...\n\nAlice sighs, shaking her head \"Shit, ok, it sounds like those two are distracting eachother, which one is Arja the monkey or the bear?\" she asks, able to recognize different animals by smell, as she gropes around, \"Stephy sweetie get my cane, we should work on the demon while the animals fight, do you guys have a plan or am I using plan b?\" Stephy would know what 'plan b' was from his time with her. Her cane was sturdy metal... mainly because it was a case. Rather than folding up, she could unscrew it and reveal a hidden blade. It was her 'all purposes backup plan', a blade of cold iron, tipped in a wicked point with silver, and covered in an assortment of blessings. If it was a creature not of this world chances are she could hurt it very badly with that weapon...\n\nStephy winces, remembering exactly what Plan-B was and how badly it had failed last time, but nodding to her, “I’m sure we can think of so-“ he starts, but pauses as he hears footsteps coming towards them.\n\n\"Eh, don't bother.\" Mutters the demon-possessed mage in an irritated sort of way, walking up to the group, \"Freaking furries had to go scare away the crowds. Wouldn't be as fun now without a bunch of mundanes to scare the shit out of.\" he sighs, tossing an empty plate that had several eggrolls on it over his shoulder and letting out a loud belch.\n\nMeanwhile, up in the ring, the pandaren just  grins and lets the blast hit her... except it doesn't seem to do anything. \"Surprised?\" she smirks, \"Didn't notice yer shiny new tattoo huh?\" she grins as Arja suddenly becomes aware of a strange burning sensation where the copy had hit her... right before it bursts into a cold fire that sears her just as bad as the flames would have hurt her opponent. In response the pandaren pulls herself back together, ducks forward and flips, doing a harsh straight-upwards kick that knocks Arja into the air, then pulling her arms back and landing a flurry of blows before the ape-girl can touch down.\n\nArja yells out as she feels the burn, getting past her own immunity to flame thanks to the magic nature of the attack. The panda is able to get a good bit of blows in, one of Arja's eyes even starting to swell as she extends her tail, wrapping around the panda's wrist tightly and yanking the girl around, trying to angle it so she was going to hit the ground first, her own feet primed to slam down to the girl's gut and cushion her own fall.\n\nAlice raises a brow at the demon \"Going back in your closet then? I'd frankly rather not stab my little Stephy's family, despite my last encounter with the Fullmoons, so if you're going to not be a colossal prick about this that'd be loved.\"\n\nMerihim shrugs, \"Eh, I have my own reasons for behaving. Ya notice I didn't actually do anything overtly supernatural when we fought right chicky-boo?\" he asks, smirking as he flexes his hands and his bloody tendrils sprout out of his palms, then go back in. \"Now hush, I wanna see what happens here.\"\n\nIn the ring the pandaren yelps at the sudden grip from the tail, landing with a thud on the mat as she sees Arja coming and tightens up her gut muscles, bracing to absorb as much of the impact as she can. Outside the thunder gives another growl in the air, sounding less like weather and almost like some huge beast now... As the group watchs however, Dawn simply can't help herself, elbowing Trixie and whispering, \"Her little Stephy?\"\n\nArja brings her fist down as soon as they're on the ground, aimed right at the panda's head to hope to daze the girl, not knowing if she can handle fighting her at 100% concentration... \"Wait what\" she says as she looks up at the sky, \"What is this?\"\n\nTrixie huffs, grabbing Stephy's arm and yanking him into a hug \"Mine.\" she pouts defensively, Alice raising her brow \"Oh?\"\n\nStephy blushes, \"Well I did say she was my girlfrie-\" he says before there's a sudden flash of lighting.\n\nThe pandaren manages to dodge the blow at the last second, throws Arja off her, and shouts, \"Xuen! White tiger of the north! I call you!\" loudly into the growing storm. There's a sudden flash, so bright that the group is momentarily blinded (well, except for Alice), as the lightning strikes the ring. When the glow clears the pandaren is standing there, but her entire body is crackling with electricity and an aura seems to surround her, like the illusion of a gigantic bipedal tiger superimposed over her own body. \"Right, lets finish this girlie.\" she snarls, then shoots forward with a sudden crash of thunder, slamming into Arja and landing a flurry of blows, each one causing a discharge of electricity.\n\nOut in the small crowd Dawn glances over at Simoni, looks her over, then blinks, \"... are you getting-\" she starts, Simoni immediately replying with, \"NO!\" as her face turns red.\n\nArja lets out a series of pained gasps, shuddering as she's shocked, eyes crossing before she unleashes a blast of fire right into the panda's face, claws springing out to slash at her back as she tries to yank her harshly off her, panting heavily as she gives all she can to stop the assault that she's pretty sure can break her down...\n\nThe pandaren ducks away from the flames, though a good chunk of her face fur gets singed even then, before landing another sweeping blow to her legs and bringing her heel down forcefully on Arja's belly with another flash of lighting, sending tens of thousands of volts through her entire body in a single blow.\n\nDawn looks over at Simoni, \"Your nose is bleeding...\" she says to which Simoni immediately replies, \"NO IT ISN'T!\"\n\nStill, the damage is done, it's not enough to kill Arja, but its equivalent to a strong cattle prod and it'll take her at least several minutes to regain feeling in her limbs. Long enough for the pandaren to simply roll her to the edge of the mat and push her off. \"Ring out, ah win.\" she nods, hopping down and going up to the judge's counter as the electricity around her disspiates back into the atmosphere. \"Oi, how 'bout th' prize money?\" she says to the man cowering behind the overturned table who sheepishly nods, hands her a large stack of 5,000 yen notes, and then runs into the men's room to have a good cry.\n\nArja lets out a pained groan as she stands up, shaking the soreness out of her rather bruised up body, still feeling the trembles of electricity in her body, \"What the fuck are you?\" she asks, not really sounding angry, just confused.\n\nShe smirks, \"Ah'm th' pandaren that just won ah ton ah money, thats what.\" she grins, heading out into the street. There were a few conventions in town right now, she'd just tell anyone who asks that she's a really dedicated cosplayer. People will often take the easiest explanation over something like 'I'm a bipedal intelligent panda bear'.\n\nMerihim whistles, \"Not bad... alright, he can have the body back now. Like I said, no fun if there's no crowd. I already forefited.\" he shrugs, then his eyes roll back as the blood drains out and Nelen looks around, \"... well fuck.\" he sighs.\n\nAs Arja regains feeling in her legs an older Asian man taps Dawn's shoulder and hands her a rolled up piece of paper. She speaks to him in Japanese for a moment, then nods and waves as he walks out as well. \"So, that got pretty nuts, but alls well that ends well... or something. At least nobody died this time!\" she grins.\n\nAlice grins softly \"So these are your friends huh Stephy?\"\n\nArja rubs her head, \"My ears are still ringing, but yea, that was fun...\" she grins, looking over to Dawn \"Hey, what's that?\"\n\nDawn blinks, \"Oh yeah, guy said he had to leave to catch a train, but apparently this is the runner up prize.\" she says, handing it to Arja. On the inside of the paper is a hand drawn image of Son Goku, standing next to what looks like a young Indian girl with spiky hair and a tail, both wearing turtle Gis, signed in the bottom corner in Japanese. \"He said he liked the fight and it gave him some good ideas for the new show, but maybe tone it down next time so you don't set fire to anything.\"\n\nArja grins wide, letting out a high pitched squeal as she looks at the picture. Alice winces at the sound, rubbing her head, \"Well, she sounds happy at least...\"\n\nStephy giggles a bit, \"Yeah, these are some of my friends...\" he replies, \"It gets weirder though, I mean you haven't even met the zombie yet, or the cyclops. You might like her, she murdered my dad.\" he nods, \"But yeah, we have a lot of catching up to do...\"\n\nAlice blinks \"Really now...\" she says, raising her brow \"Well then, after my meeting we'll have to catch up. I'd love to go now but I'm kinda behind already... this little fighting thing was kinda a diversion, I'm supposed to meet another hunter here at her house but I'm kinda lost.\" she reaches into her pocket, pulling out a small white card with raised dots on it, a way for people to 'write' for the blind, it had rows and rows of little spots to push up, making Braille as needed. \"Her last name's Barjar?\"\n\nDawn blinks as Simoni looks over at Arja, \"Huh, funny thing. Thats our last names too.\" replies Simoni as Nelen rubs his eyes, \"This kinda stuff keeps happening...\" he mutters... then jumps as there's a sudden loud growl echoing through the arena. Nelen reflexively draws out his blood tendrils as Simoni gets ready to whistle, then they all pause again as another growl echoes and Lupe pipes up, \"... Lupe hungry.\"\n\nAs the group leaves Dawn looks over at Stephy, “So, care to explain how you and the Dare Devil here know each other?” she asks. “Oh man…” he replies, “Yeah, that’s an… interesting story.” he blushes, “It all started two years ago…”\n\n=========================================\nStephen walks back home through the park one day, the boy currently about nine years old. His mother passed away about three years ago and his father certainly wasn't going to win any parent-of-the-year awards, so he preferred to be out of the house as often as he could. He'd heard rumors that his cousin Nelen was passing through town (and by rumors I mean a late night call from his grandfather, Franklin Fullmoon, telling his father to 'kill the little shit'), but apparently he'd managed to evade an entire group of Franklin's finest and escaped the city before they could catch up with him (they don't know about Dawn yet).\n\nHe sighs as he walks along. He didn't really remember Nelen (his exile began when Stephen was just two), just hearing about his flight from Clan Fullmoon following his exile, but given his father's constant tormenting due to his own lack of physical strength and stamina that the men of the clan were known for he often longed to follow his older cousin's lead and run off in the night... but he doubts that he'd be able to make it on his own.\n\nAlice smiles softly as she walks along the pathway coming the other direction. She couldn't see the nice sunny day around her, but she felt it, and smelled the fresh cut grass, and heard the kids playing in the play area, it was still a nice outing for her. Stephen would hear her before he saw her, that red and white stick clacking lightly on the ground ahead of her, bouncing off the gravel path. She spent most of her day inside, as made clear by her rather pale looking skin, but these occasional outings were a nice treat despite being able to hear the occasional whisper or comment...\n\nShe was dressed in a snug pair of black pants and a purple top, covered by a light and open black jacket, each of the clothes had a small plastic tag on the hems, just a tiny white circle with some raised Braille that helped her identify clothing in her closet without groping and wrinkling it. Her eyes were covered by a pair of dark round shades, if not for the cane she'd look like any other teenaged young woman out for a walk on a sunny day...\n\nStephen looks up as she draws close, stepping to the side so that he doesn't walk into her. He feels an odd sort of sympathy towards the woman in that, like her, he's lacking something most of the people he knows take for granted... though it'd be hard to explain to someone that you get picked on by your father because you're not strong enough to bench press a fully grown bull. She looks nice though, seems like she's handling her disability rather well. He lets out a soft sigh, he wishes he could say the same...\n\nAlice kept walking, her cane swishing in front of her... and hitting Stephen, right in the ankle! It wasn't HARD of course, she wasn't flailing it around wildly, but that thing was sturdy, and she didn't hear the rather 'light footed' boy shift away from her! \"Oh!\" She says, pausing as she hears an all too familiar sound of her cane striking a body party \"Sorry about that!\"\n\n\"OW!\" he yelps, his eyes watering as he bends down to rub at his ankle. His voice sounds pretty high pitched too. Could be a girl, or a really young boy... \"Jeez.. ow... i-its okay, I mean, its not like you could see me...\" he replies, massaging feeling back into his leg.\n\nAlice blushes a bit as she hears a young girl's voice, she assumes...\"I'm so sorry, sweetie!\" she says, turning to face Stephen better, squatting down and reaching her hand to gently rub 'her' leg. Alice was good at putting pieces together in her head, just a few touches and she can figure out a general body type, a brush over the face put that in clearer context for her. She couldn't always tell if she's right, of course, but she got by pretty well...\n\nHe squirms a bit, letting her 'see' him. He knows enough about blind people to understand that they can be a lot more touchy-feely out of necessity so he doesn't shoo her away. What she feels is small, petite, slender, with soft hairless legs and no facial or body hair, no Adam's apple, and hair down past it's shoulders... certainly doesn't seem very boyish.\n\nAlice holds back a little giggle... oh what a cute little girl! \"I'm so sorry again, sweetie…\" she coos \"Is there anything I can do to make it up for you? Want me to buy you an ice cream or something?\"\n\nHe thinks, \"Um, thats okay...\" he replies, not sure how else to respond. It wasn't like it was her fault and he'd feel kinda weird taking money from a girl who probably needed it a lot more than he did given, well, blind and all. That and, honestly, he wasn't huge on cold treats yet. Spicy things were his favorites.\n\nAlice still smiles, \"How about this, I can give you a little work, my helper called in sick today and I really could use a set of hands around the house... or a set of eyes?\" she giggles softly, \"Unless you're in a rush to get home?\"\n\nHe thinks on that, then thinks on his father, and thinks on how angry he'll be that Nelen slipped under his radar... \"Um, yeah, okay. Sounds good.\" he nods, getting to his feet (a bit shakily. She didn't hit him that hard, but he's not very strong). \"Just, like, help you out around the house and stuffs?\" he asks.\n\nAlice nods, \"Mhm. I can handle it myself of course but it's just easier when someone can see what can of soup they're getting from the pantry is around\" she giggles, offering her empty hand to him, \"I live right close by.\"\n\nHe nods, then takes her hand, \"Okay then.\" he nods. Doesn't sound too hard and, hey, there is that game he was wanting. Maybe she'll pay him enough that he can afford it.\n\nAlice nods, leading him along to the nearby housing area. Upscale, not quite 'rich' but pretty nice regardless, the kind of people the city would want to live right near one of its parks... \"Oh I should warn you…\" she says, letting go of the boy to reach into her pocket for her key, \"I do have a little uniform for you to wear while working. Silly I know but, ya know, I was raised kinda old school...\" \n\nHe blinks at that, \"Um... alright.\" he shrugs. Weird, but... well... why not? She seemed nice enough, it probably wouldn't be anything too far out... right?\n\nAlice nods, ushering him into the house at that, it was rather tidy, obviously her assistant did a good job helping her handle that. \"Come on I keep it in my room.\" she says, leading him to the stairs and moving surprisingly fast up them, after years of practice on them she knows them quite well!\n\nHer bedroom is quite large, lots of room for her to navigate, a nice sized TV mounted on the wall in front of her bed, as well as a computer on a nearby desk, hooked up with a microphone and rather elaborate sound system. In fact on the way up Stephen would see the whole house seemed to have speakers and microphones. Alice gives a rather sharp whistle when she walks in, the computer lighting up out of sleep mode. \"Closet.\" she says in a loud, even, tone, \"Work clothes.\" she adds in after a pause, the sound of whirring coming from behind the closet door.\n\nHe looks around, noticing the voice activated stuff, \"Huh, neat. I always kinda wondered how you guys managed this sorta thing without being able to see.\" he comments, looking at the computer and the other decorations as well as the sound system and such.\n\nAlice smiles and nods. The room was a little spartan decorations wise, kinda a waste on her, but there wind chimes and bells in a few areas that made soft tinkling noises, as well as an automatic room deodorizer that had an assortment of smells loaded in to cycle between. Obviously she found her own way to 'decorate'. \"Yea, the tech is still kinda 'first generation' so you have to talk to it like it's slow, but helps a lot. I can have it lock doors, cycle clothes racks, even rotate my pantry shelves.\" she says, opening the closet to reveal a rack of maid uniforms in all sizes, all the exact same style. Typical french maid really, black and white soft lace, white stockings and gloves, even shiny black leather high heels. \"You felt a bit small\" she says with a smile, not meaning that as an insult it seemed \"Luckily I think I have one just your size!\" she really didn't sound like she was playing a mean prank, she genuinely thought she was talking to a little girl!\n\nHe blinks, then blushes as he realizes what she's suggesting. \"Woah woah wait!\" he stammers out, \"Um... geez... I knew it happened over the phone sometimes but... um... I'm a boy.\" he protests. He would admit, if pressed, that he'd sometimes wondered about girl's clothes... but no more than any other boy might have at his age really. The thought hadn't honestly occurred to him in between getting bullied at school and dodging his father at home.\n\nAlice pauses at that, blinking as she turns to face him \"You are?\" she says in a confused tone, walking back over and running her hand over his face \"I mean... it's ok if you're like... closeted or something\" she adds \"I don't judge really... you really are a guy?\"\n\nHe blinks, squirming a bit as she feels over his face, \"Yeah! I dunno about any closets... but my name is Stephen. I'm a BEE. OH. WHY.\" he nods firmly. folding his arms over his chest. His cheeks are burning at this, every other day this seemed to happen to some degree. Either a shopkeeper or someone would comment on how cute 'she' looked or ask why such an 'adorable young lady' was dressed up like some sort of tomboy...\n\naLICE cocks her head \"Huh, weird, I'm usually better at this... well, boy or not like I said, you need a uniform, and there's no other rack hidden away.\" she says, not seeming to be deterred at all! Alice was a little impulsive like that. Once she sets her mind to something, there’s little that can be done to dissuade her.\n\nHe stumbles back a bit, \"Hey! C'mon! This is getting weird!\" he protests, glancing towards the door before he starts to carefully shuffle towards it, trying to make as little noise as possible...\nAlice giggles lightly, \"Bedroom door, lock!\" she says firmly as the door quickly responds, slamming shut and locking with a firm 'click'! \"That's rather rude to say dear, I'm not WEIRD for expecting a little class in my helpers, am I?\"\n\nHe winces as he hears the door suddenly lock itself. \"Well, class yeah... but I'm a boy! Boys don't wear dresses!\" he protests. It does look like a nice dress. An actual, handmade, maid's uniform and not some K-Mart Halloween one... but... HE'S A BOY! Boys can't wear girl's clothing, its just... wrong somehow. Like it breaks some fundamental rule of reality. Its just something young boys know...\n\n\nAlice smirks softly, \"Oh, I'm sorry, will wearing a dress cause you to explode? Will my house burn down if there's a boy in a maid outfit in it?\" she teases. \"Come on, off with your clothes dear…\" she says, pulling out the maid outfit sized for a young girl... it would probably fit Stephy quite well.\n\nHe hesitates, but... well... he couldn't fight her off. Yes she's blind but, well, she's blind. That's just wrong... also, the door lock was probably programmed to only recognize her voice. Well, he could always just put it on, then sneak back in later, change, and run for the door before she realizes he's gone... \"Alright alright...\" he sighs, slipping out of his shoes and unzipping his jeans as he starts to undress.\n\nAlice nods approvingly \"I assume you need underwear too, can't exactly wear boxers in a maid skirt can you?\" she smiles, laying the outfit on the bed before grabbing a small pair of soft pink lacy panties...\n\nHe winces at that, though if you want to be specific he's wearing briefs... but its moot. He undresses, then takes the panties from her and feels over them with a disdainful look on his face before hesitantly stepping into them. \"A-alright, they're on.\" he mutters in a very embarrassed tone. She can't see it, but his face is the same shade of pink as those panties now.\n\nAlice just giggles, reaching her hand out to slide over the boy's hips, \"Oooh they seem to fit well…\" she winks, not saying anything else as she moves her hand away.\n\nHe squirms as she checks his hip, then blushes as he moves to her bed and sits down, looking over the stockings as he puzzles out how to put them on. The material was a lot more sheer than his socks after all... He works them out after a few minutes, then takes the dress and looks it over. Its soft... very soft and sensual... of course a blind girl would love more sensual fabrics wouldn't she? Its not like she can enjoy the color or look. He hesitates, then steps into it and carefully pulls it on, biting his lip as he does before reaching around and fumbling for the zipper. \"Um... I can't reach...\" he mutters, his face having gone up two shades to pale red.\n\nAlice nods, \"No problem!\" she says, walking around him to help with the zipper, soon trapping Stephen in his soft, lacy, uniform, the material rubbing against his skin faintly with every step he took. \"Now let's see, well, you see, I hear how you walk in heels…\" she giggles, grabbing those from the closet and setting them down.\n\nHe looks at them. They're at least small heels, after all a young girl probably wouldn't wear heels very often... He steps into them, blushing as he hears the petticoat built into his dress rustle and feels the soft material pull on him when he moves, then closes the buckles over his feet and, after a bit of wobbling, manages to remain upright. \"Mn... it feels really weird... all soft and girly...\" he pouts.\n\nAlice giggles, \"Not BAD though, right?\" she teases, patting his cheek lightly. The heels would kill any plan he had to sneak off, even in the carpet of her room they made noises...\n\nHe looks down at it and... well... okay maybe not bad. It felt nice... nice and soft and something else he couldn’t quite put his finger on… but he's a boy. Boys don't wear dresses. Thats how it works. \"Mn... w-whatever, so what do you want me to do then?\" he asks. The sooner he plays maid for her the sooner he can change back into his stuff, go home, and try to work out what the heck happened.\n\nAlice frowns, \"Hey now, no one likes pouty maids, keep that up and that cute rump of yours is gonna be VERY sore.\" she says before looking to the computer, \"Bedroom door, unlock.\" she says, the lock loudly opening back up \"Now, let's start easy, I missed breakfast so I'd like a nice early lunch.\"\n\nHe nods, \"Alright...\" he replies. That at least he can do. He had to learn how to feed himself a long time ago because his father sure wasn't going to teach him. He headed downstairs, having to take his time on the steps due to the heels, and by the time he reached the kitchen he was feeling rather frustrated by the silky teasing all over his body and the constant rustle of his petticoats and click of his heels. Once in the kitchen he looked around, trying to work out what he had to cook with.\n\nAlice smiles, following him down to sit in the living room and wait, at least sparing him a trip up stairs in heels with food. The kitchen proper was quite well stocked, the pantry refitted with all rotating shelves organized by type of product (canned goods, dry food, cereal, etc) and the fridge was stocked with plenty of fresh veggies and such. Even some left over meals tucked in if Stephen wanted to be lazy...\n\nHe thinks for a bit. He's half tempted to do something mean like spit in the food or something... but, well, he does want to at least get paid for this and, while he wouldn't admit it, he was pretty good at cooking and did like to show off. It took a while (he had trouble reaching the knobs on the stove), but after about twenty minutes he sets down a plate of hot stir fry veggies and rice infront of Alice along with a glass of mineral water (he found several bottles in the fridge).\n\nAlice smiles as she sniffs the air, \"Oooh! Smells lovely…\" she coos \"Seems you're quite the little chef, stir-fry?\" She offers as she feels around for the fork, happily spearing herself a nice big bite and bringing it to her mouth. \"Mmm!\"\n\nHe blushes, \"Well, my dad doesn't really like to cook for anyone but himself so I kinda had to learn...\" he admits, fidgiting a bit... though he does smile when she complements his cooking. Why not? Not like she can tell.\n\nAlice nods, \"How about you sit with me while I eat? I like company…\" she smiles, pulling her sunglasses off and setting them down to reveal her milky white eyes before she starts to tuck into the food.\n\nHe blinks a bit, then glances away. Cataracts aren't fun to look at after all... but he does as she requests and sits down next to her. He sits like a boy though, legs apart and without smoothing his skirts under him. Its not really his fault, he just doesn't know how to sit when he's wearing a skirt. \"Alright...\"\n\nAlice smirks lightly \"Careful dear, if there's anyone sitting across from you, you just flashed them…\" she teases as she eats, \"… or are you trying to be a little showoff...\"\n\nHe blinks, not knowing what she means at first... then eeps and quickly pulls his legs together... though a moment later he wonders why he did. There's only one other person here and she can't see anything, whether he's showing off or not. \"Mn... stupid skirt...\" he grumbles in embarrassment.\n\nAlice smirks, \"You seem to enjoy it for something so stupid\" she coos \"Come on, you don't like the softness?\"\n\nHe squirms, \"Not supposed to wear dresses...\" he grumbles, but it sounds a bit halfhearted... in truth the softness of the outfit reminds him of some of the things his late mother used to wear before she died. He was always really close to her, despite being a boy... and a Fullmoon boy at that. By his age his father was supposed to be teaching him to wrestle wild dogs, but of course that wouldn't happen.\n\nAlice shrugs dismissively at that \"Says who?\"\n\nHe blinks, \"... Well... everyone!\" he replies. He'd heard stuff like that most of his life after all, especially from his male relatives. Man up, don't be a sissy, etc etc. He'd never really questioned any of it, after all why would he? Having heard it over and over from his youngest days he'd just assumed it was how the world worked.\n\nAlice smirks, \"Mhm, bet you hear a lot then…\" she teases, \"Bet you get told a lot that girly stuff isn't for guys, because guys are supposed to be tough and strong and all that?\"\n\nHe frowns, \"Well... we are.\" he replies, but he sounds a bit confused. It isn't just a sort of random thought or cultural thing with his family, in Clan Fullmoon the men really are supposed to be strong and tough and such. Its how they're born! As far as he knows he's the only member of Clan Fullmoon to ever be born a runt.\n\nAlice giggles \"Oh you are?\" she teases, \"Alright…\" she says, setting her now empty plate aside, \"Take your heels off and get up.\" she says, standing as well, \"Push the table out of the way.”\n\nHe blinks, then shrugs and slips out of his shoes. The table however proves to be tricky and it takes a full five minutes of grunting and pushing before he's able to move it where you indicate. \"Alright... now what?\" he asks, sounding perplexed.\n\nAlice grins, holding a joke back about how very strong he already sounded, \"Now, show me you're strong.\" she teases, her feet shifting under her as she grabs her cane, the wrist strap around her wrist to hold it in place.\n\nHe blinks, then looks at her picking up the cane. \"Wait huh?\" he gasps, stumbling backwards just a bit. She may be blind but that cane was good solid wood with a metal tip to it. He only needed to get smacked in the ankle to know it hurt.\n\nAlice giggles, \"You're strong, right? Stronger than us weak and feeble girls, so come on and show me how tough you are and you can put your boy clothes back on.\"\n\nHe hesitates, he doesn't want to hurt her... but still, he frowns, then suddenly lunges forward and tries to shove her off her feet onto the couch, reasoning that he could at least try to make sure her landing was soft.\n\nAlice smirks, as soon as she hears his feet lunging she rapidly slides to the side, cane springing out to strike the boy's rear end, thankfully a mild blow, enough to hurt, and likely leave a red mark, but that cane was hard enough to draw blood if it really swung!\n\nHe yelps and stumbles forward, landing on the couch as she suddenly feels something catch at her ankles and knock her off balance, landing her right next to him. She didn't hear anything or smell anything, just a sudden invisible force catching her legs... \"OW! Ow ow ow OW!\" he yelps, clutching at his rear, \"Jerk...\" he sniffles, his eyes watering a bit.\n\nAlice oofs as she stumbles forward as well, having to thrust her cane down to keep from falling, \"Hey how'd you do that...\" she says, looking to him curiously.\n\nHe sits up a bit, rubbing at his eyes with one hand as his other clutches his rear, \"Do what? Get knocked on the couch by a blind girl?\" he pouts, frowning up at her. He sounds pretty humiliated by this... but also totally unaware of what happened...\n\nAlice blinks, \"You didn't...\" she shakes her head, not wanting to press too hard there. \"So then, wanna try again to show you're stronger than girls?\"\n\nHe frowns, then huffs and folds his arms over his chest, plopping down on the couch... then yelping as his sore rear protests before plopping down much more carefully on the couch. \"I didn't say I was! I said I was SUPPOSED to be!\" he retorts, almost yelling. \"All the guys in my family are, like, stupidly strong, like they could wrestle bears and stuff... but I get born and I'm all scrawny and weak and I get beat up all the time and my dad treats me like I'm worthless and...\" he trails off, going silent as he glares at the table, his face flushed and his breathing fast.\n\nAlice frowns, sitting down next to the boy, \"Sorry…\" she says, reaching a hand out to rub his cheek, \"Well, people aren't always how they're supposed to be, right? You're a sweet kid, who's good at cooking, and willing to go home with a random blind girl who said she needs help, that's worth a few points too...\"\n\nHe sighs, calming down a bit, \"Yeah, but not in my family...\" he grumbles. It seems he's got a lot of resentment towards them. \"We're supposed to be big and strong and tough and good at fighting and... I'm not...\" he sighs.\n\nAlice smiles, \"Well, so what? Big and strong is dumb and overrated\" she giggles, rubbing the boy's head.\n\nHe huffs and pushes her arm away, \"You wouldn't understand. Its how my family works! If I don't have that then I'm just some worthless little runt to them.\" he sighs, leaning back on the couch, \"Heck, the reason I agreed to come in the first place was to avoid having to go home and be around my dad... he was supposed to... well... he had a job to do and he blew it, and when he does he takes it out on me.\"\n\nAlice frowns at that, \"Sounds like he wouldn't care if you told him you were staying with a friend then...\"\n\nHe hesitates, \"Well... probably not... but...\" he sighs, \"Dressing up like a girl and all...\" he mutters, though it sounds halfhearted. If the options are 'spend a day in drag' or 'go home and be around his abusive dad' then he already knows what he's going to pick... he'd just be a lot less eager about it than he would be in the future.\n\nAlice smirks \"You don't seem too uncomfortable in it now.\" she teases, then pauses, looking the boy over \"What family?\"\n\nHe blinks, \"Oh yeah... um... my full name is Stephen Fullmoon...\" he replies, though that wouldn't mean too much to most mundanes unless one had been attacked by something definitely not human, then saved by a large irishman. Most mundanes don't know about them outside of Ireland and then most of the people in Ireland just think of them as some old rich family that's kinda nutty.\n\nAlice nods \"Sounds familiar, lemmie guess, big celtic warrior bloodline nonsense?\" she says casually as she stands up.\n\nHe nods, then feels a bit silly as he remembers she can't actually see him nodding, \"Yeah, good guess actually.\" he replies, standing up himself, though wincing a bit as he moves because of the sore spot on his backside. Despite her teasing he actually is feeling a bit more comfortable in the dress... though he's still not ready to admit that yet. \"The old 'we protected Ireland since the old days' thing and any man who isn't a man isn't worth being in the family.\" he sighs.\n\nAlice nods \"My name is Alice Roche, do you know where the name Roche comes from?\"\n\nHe thinks for a bit, \"Its... french isn't it? Like... red, or blood, or rogue or something?\" he replies. He remembers hearing it before but he hasn't taken any foreign language classes in school yet so he doesn't sound too sure...\n\nAlice smirks, \"Half right, it is French but it means rock, specifically a large mass of them. It's a name given to those who lived far from the city in the wilds, warriors against...well...you know don't you Fullmoon?” she giggles at him.\n\nHe blinks, then looks at her, \"Wait... you mean your family is...\" he tilts his head, \"Huh... well, okay then. Didn't expect that.\" he mutters, idly toying with his hair a bit. That was unusual. Most of the old monster hunting families tended to stay where they started out, though some of Clan Fullmoon's boys had moved out across the world the majority of the family was still in Ireland and then in their ancestral castle. It does explain how she can fight so well despite being blind though…\n\nAlice nods, \"We fight, but not with brawn.\" she licks her lips faintly, taking a step back, raising her cane up like a sword, \"The French were, in the old days, a nation of farmers and such, we were proud, but weak, and we had enemies at all sides. So, we used weapons such as the rapier, the main gauche, weapons of speed and precise blows. I can't see you but I got a nice good feel. You're not strong, there's no changing that, but I bet you're the fastest kid in class.\" She giggles softly \"Come at me again, I'll be light with you I promise.\"\n\nHe blushes, then shakes his head, \"No... I don't wanna.\" he replies, \"I... I don't like fighting. Yeah I'm fast, but only because I have to outrun bullies and stuff.\" he replies, turning around, \"Besides, my dad is really really big on... well... only fighting the proper way. If he found out I'd started taking any kind of lessons for stuff like that... well...\" he shudders, \"Yeah, I can't outrun him.\"\n\nAlice frowns softly, but nods, not wanting to push the boy too hard, \"Well, if you ever need a place to lay low, my house is always open for you.\" She then smirks softly, cane extending to playfully lift the back of the boy's skirt, \"I'll be sure to buy a few more outfits your size if you are going to come by more...\"\n\nHe squirms, stepping forward a bit as his skirts rustle from the movement of being lifted and then lowered as he moves out of your cane's reach. \"Hmph... notta girl...\" he frowns but... again, halfhearted... and after a moment he does say, \"... thanks though... he gets really scary when he's angry...\" he nods.\n\nAlice nods, \"The Celts and the Franks never were exactly close. All we had in common was we really hate the English.\" she giggles playfully, \"Like I said he probably won't care if you 'spend the night at a friend's house' a few times, and I could use a more reliable maid.\" she grins.\n\nHe sighs at the maid comment but, again, beats his dad. \"Alright alright... gimme a second...\" he sighs, going into the hallway in a rustle of skirts. After a few minutes she can hear his voice on the phone in the hall. \"Yeah, Dad? David invited me to stay over the weekend so, um, I'm just gonna do that okay?\" he says, then a bit quicker, \"No, um, you can't speak to his dad. They're not here now they… um… they went out to get pizza… um… for dinner. Yeah, I'll see you on Monday. Yeah.\" he finishes quickly, then hangs up and walks back in, blushing a bit at the rustling sound his dress makes when he moves. It was starting to grow on him…\n\nAlice giggles playfully, \"Oooh the whole weekend, getting greedy…\" she teases, \"You must really like that outfit!\"\n\nHe frowns, \"Mn... not that.\" he squirms, \"He always gets drunk after he botches a mission and, well... this one was kinda important so I probably shouldn't go home for a few days...\" he replies. Its not like he likes the outfit... even if it does feel nice and soft, and the rustling sound is kinda cute, and he might've caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror (came standard with the house) and almost thought he'd seen a girl in the house until he realized what he was looking at...\n\nAlice giggles, \"Well regardless, as cute as I'm sure you are, can't have you in just a maid's uniform all weekend, we'd look odd when we went shopping\" she winks, going to the phone \"What's your favorite color?\"\n\nHe hesitates, he does like pink. He really does... but its not a color boys are supposed to like. \"Um... purple, or blue.\" he replies. Those are usually fine, right?\n\nAlice nods, \"Now,\" she says cooly as she starts dialing the phone \"In case the french or the breasts aren't enough sign, I'm not your father, so while I agree those are lovely colors, if you enjoy any other colors you know you're free to indulge here...\" she asks. She can tell by his voice that he’s not being entirely honest…\n\nHe hesitates, but a small voice in the back of his head says 'hey, why not? She’s right, she isn't Dad...'. He squirms, then as she dials the last number he mutters, just barely audible to a normal person (though someone who relies on their ears more would probably hear it) \"... pink...\"\n\nAlice nods simply, speaking on the phone with a little smile on her face, \"Louise? It's Alice, before you come in tomorrow swing by the mall and get some new clothes. I have a new maid... yes well maybe if someone didn't take so many vacation days I wouldn't be plucking little maids off the street... Yes she's about Nessa's size, a little more willowy... Pink, and purple and blue, but mainly pink.\" she smirks playfully to Stephy, \"Right charge it to my account... alright see you tomorrow, try to be on time.\" She sighs softly as she hangs up, \"You're going to be more reliable, right? I can handle pouty and pretending you're not having fun but if I say come to my house after school you won't take that to mean three hours after?\"\n\nHe blushes, about ready to shout back that he never actually agreed to be her maid, but... somehow it just doesn't come out. \"Mn... beats dealing with my dad...\" he admits grudgingly, still trying to sound like he doesn't want to come here... but... the more he thinks about it the better it sounds to him. \"So, what am I gonna have to do besides cooking and stuff?\" he asks, figuring he may as well get an idea for whats going to happen in his future now.\n\nAlice smiles \"Oh the usual, cleaning, tending to my clothes, simple projects like that...\" she giggles softly, motioning him to come over, \"I may need some more intimate help than others though, bathing for example... are you comfortable with that?\"\n\nIts probably a good thing she can't see the expression he makes when she says that, \"B-bathing!?\" he stammers, \"Like, you'd be naked and stuff?\" he sounds a bit panicky... but then Irish Catholic, they were pretty much conditioned to treat sex and such as something sinful. \"I... um... er... I... W-well... I guess you'd probably need help making sure you used the right bottles and stuff...\" he says. He's squirming, she can tell. Rustle rustle rustle…\n\nAlice giggles, nodding, \"It's not like I'm gonna make you tongue bathe me or anything…\" she teases, pausing before extending her hand, playfully tickling under the boy's chin and rubbing his cheeks, \"Am I feeling relief or disappointment?\" she teases. \"But yes, sadly shampoo and body wash and such comes in such similar bottles and I've yet to find a braille version of them, so I need someone standing by to hand me what I need, it's just easier than groping around.\"\n\nStephen blushes, squirming and stepping away when she teases his chin and cheeks. He's still young and doesn't know about, well, anything like that… but he can guess she’s teasing him by implying something a bit more adult…\n\nAlice just smiles softly \"So, since we'll be spending more time with each other, how about we get to know each other better? Do you have anything you'd like to ask? This has been a busy day for you after all…\"\n\nHe thinks, then raises an eyebrow at her, \"Who's 'Nessa' and how is she my size?\" he asks. It had been bugging him for a bit as to why she'd have a maid's uniform, especially such a nice... soft... well made... cute... sensu- NO NO NO NO NO! He shakes his head frantically to clear that thought out of it, then gets his train of thought back on the rails.... but why she'd have a custom made dress like this in a kid's size.\n\nAlice smirks \"My little ‘cousin’, her mother sends her to me for training, and as I said the rule is strict that you must be in uniform\" she teases \"Besides, if she can fight in a maid uniform she can fight in anything, right?\"\n\nHe nods, \"I suppose...\" he mutters, then looks at her again, \"But... I dunno, I keep getting this feeling that stuff you're saying has some extra hidden thing to it... like that 'training'.\" he mutters. After all, a maid's dress is one thing, but that's pretty out there for any sort of martial training. He knew enough about that from watching his cousins.\n\nAlice smirks \"I assure you I take her training very seriously, it's part of my duty as a Roche to train the next generation in our ways... Of course we discuss other things, like women’s issues and sexual education, too…\" she says casually, reaching for her water and taking a sip \"But we do train in fighting a good deal too, I'm not a total hedonist.\"\n\nHe blushes at the mention of that, he's only nine after all, not even in middle school yet. \"Mn... o-oh...\" he mutters, \"I, um... dunno about that stuff...\" he nods. He really doesn't. Sex ed isn't a thing for another few years yet, his house doesn't have internet access, and his father isn't the type to give the kid 'the talk' (or really say anything beyond 'fetch me a beer or I'll smack ya').\n\nAlice giggles \"I'm sorry dear, that was a bit out there for someone so young I suppose, but come on you can't be totally shocked by that can you? You're of the age where you're starting to notice girls... or boys?\" she offers, not sounding judgemental, more genuinely curious \"You must have a crush on someone...\"\n\nHe shakes his head, but then this is well before Trixie would have moved to the city... \"Not really no. Most of the girls in school just think I'm weird and... um... yeah, not the boys.\" he mutters. He'd spent most his time trying to outrun the boys in his classes, and not in the fun 'catch me if you can' way.\n\nAlice nods, \"I see…\" she says as she pats her lap, \"Come sit here sweetie.\" she coos, \"I don't often get such little cute and innocent types.\" she teases, giggling at how shy he was acting.\n\nHe blushes. He hadn't sat in someone's lap since... well... since his mother died. He hesitates for a moment, but then she hears the rustle of his skirts as he walks over and feels his weight as he sits down on her lap. \"A-alright...\" he replies.\n\nAlice smiles, easily supporting the boy as she rubs his back \"Comfy?\"\n\nHe squirms, blushing as he feels her hand through the silky soft material of his dress, \"Y-yeah...\" he replies.\n\nAlice giggles softly, \"Poor sweetie... you're not used to being touched gently are you?\" she coos lightly.\n\nHe shakes his head, \"No... not really...\" he admits. Punches, kicks, the occasional backhand from his dad... yeah, his life wasn't really gentle.\n\nAlice leans in to kiss the boy's cheek, \"A sweet thing like you should have lots of soft, sweet, touches…\" she coos, pulling him into a hug, her soft breasts pushing against his head lightly.\n\nStephy blinks a few times, then slowly leans in and closes his eyes, thinking that maybe this won’t be so bad after all… even if he does have to wear a dress…\n\n\n=============================================\nA few weeks later Stephen is in Alice's bedroom with her, the young boy having just finished helping her pick out an outfit for today. He was still in his bathrobe himself and to say that he was nervous was an understatement... the truth was he was terrified of the chance that he might run into someone who'd recognize him... but at the same time he was eager to do this. He wanted to go out in public with Alice as a girl.\n\nThe boy had quite taken to dressing up like a girl, finding that it fit him a lot better than the masculine roles his father had kept trying to force on him all throughout his life. Transgenderism was suggested by Alice but Stephen said that while he did like being feminine, he didn't think he actually wanted to stop being male entirely. He might be curious enough to try being a girl temporarily if such a thing is possible (and given that magic exists, it probably is), but he wouldn't want to permanently change genders.\n\nAlice smiles as she adjusts her white top, sighing happily, \"Nice choices Stephy dear.\" she coos \"So, what will you be wearing?\" she adds, walking to her closet slowly, \"Something simple, don't want to call a ton of attention do we?\" She says as she looks through the closet, hand feeling the small tags attached to each article of clothing \"Hrm, so many choices\" she muses softly.\n\nHe blushes, \"I dunno... I mean, you still know more about this than I do...\" he replies, though he's pretty sure what he's wearing won't be what draws attention. After all a kid accompanying a blind woman will already get people wondering. Kid sister helping out the handicapped older sibling? Girl scout trying to earn a merit badge? Being handicapped always made people nose-y.\n\nAlice just smiles \"Maybe start simple? A nice snug pair of girls' jeans, a cute top, some makeup?\"\n\nHe thinks on that, then blushes, \"Um... maybe a skirt instead?\" he suggests. He has to admit, it was odd the first time but wearing skirts has really grown on him... He looks through the smaller outfits, thinking, then takes out a loose pink silk tunic and a blue denim ankle-length skirt. \"How about these?\" he asks, holding them so she can feel the tags.\n\nAlice giggles, nodding as she feels the tags, \"Good choices! Go on down to the maid's quarters to have whoever's on duty today get you made up.\" she smiles. Obviously someone had to remain at home to handle the chores and such while Stephy was on his little adventure, and the boy needed someone with working eyes to help him get his makeup on anyway.\n\nHe nods, blushing a bit as he slips out of the robe and steps into the skirt, then pulls on the tunic and straightens it. He puts on a pair of pink strappy sandals to match the top, then heads out into the maid's quarters and knocks on the door. \"Hello?\"\n\nThe door opens up, revealing a girl, looking to be about fourteen… maybe fifteen, dressed in the traditional maid uniform with long black hair and soft tanned skin. \"Hello!\" she says happily in a thick Central American accent, \"Oh! Stephy!\" she giggles, reaching a hand out to yank him in, \"You look great!\" Stephy would remember her, one of the regulars (Alice has a small handful of regular maids and the occasional temporary ones she simply drags back to have fun with...). Nessa, the girl whose clothes he wore on the first day. She was always pretty pleasant, though for some reason her hands were absolutely covered in scars, leading to her wearing gloves often like now, the snug little white lace gloves contrasting against her heavily... \"Almost didn't recognize you!\"\n\nStephy blushes at her and walks in, \"Heya Nessa...\" he smiles shyly, \"Um... Alice asked me to come down so you could put some makeup on me. I'm still learning that one and, well, its not like she can tell if I did it right or not.\" he nods. He always feels a bit disturbed by her scarred hands, all the markings making him wonder what on earth happened to her... its like she stuck them in some big mincing machine, or maybe she used to cut herself in a sacred rite to commune with blood drinking deities, or maybe she had a pet langolier or something when she was younger.\n\nNessa just giggles softly, nodding, \"Yep, she can have all the freaky sixth sense she wants, can't echo locate good eyeshadow use.\" she teases, \"You came to the right girl, I do her makeup all the time\" she says as she leads the boy to her vanity, \"So how much do we want? This is your big first time out, I want you to be comfy, want just a little dusting to accent how pretty you are normally?\"\n\nHe blushes even deeper when she calls him 'pretty', \"Um, just a little please... I mean, I'm nine and all... probably shouldn't wear too much.\" he replies, squirming a bit. He knew that makeup was for teenagers and such and, well, he wasn't yet. Some kids, or at least some girls would want to do it as early as possible, but he'd survived in life by going unnoticed whenever he could.\n\nShe nods, \"Smart plan there.\" she says, taking a small brush and jar of powder out. Funny enough none of her makeup was name-brand... or even generic, indeed it was all in what looks like home made cases, the makeup inside made herself. \"Let's start simple.\" she says, dunking the brush in the powder, tamping it off, and giving Stephy a light brushing of skin colored foundation.\n\nStephy takes off his glasses and sits down at the vanity, trying to hold still despite the brush tickling him. \"So, where do you get this stuff anyways?\" he asks. He doesn't know makeup very well, but he does recognize that the cases were made by hand and probably not bought at a department store or something.\n\nShe smiles \"Like em? My family makes them all, we use all natural stuff, real old school stuff, it's great. People swear our makeup makes them feel five years younger... maybe not good for you.\" she teases\n\nHe bites back a laugh, though his mouth goes all funny for a moment. \"Yeah... probably not...\" he giggles, forcing himself to hold still as Nessa continues to do his face up, \"So, um... I didn't get a chance to ask before, but how did you wind up one of Alice's maids?\" he asks, though of course the real question he wants to ask is why her hands look like someone tried to make hamburger out of them. Alice had called Nessa her ‘cousin’, but given that she was a frenchwoman and Nessa looked like she was from Mexico or further south, well, he was forced to question that unless adoption was involved.\n\nShe nods, switching to get a small thing of pale pink blush \"Oh she's a family friend, her mom helped my mom a way while back so we've always been kinda close. She's kinda like a sister almost, ya know?\" She smiles, applying just a faint coloring of blush to those cheeks.\n\nHe blushes, then gives a small nod, \"Yeah... I do.\" he admits. He really had started thinking of her as a sort of big sister. Maybe it's because she treated him like her own kid sibling (kiddie fiddling aside) or maybe it's because she's just one of the few people in his life who's actually shown him any genuine affection... but he found that he really did begin to think of her as the family he wished he'd had.\n\nShe nods, \"Mom works a lot, dad died a few years ago, so I stay here a bunch. My big sisters are usually too busy with school or whatever, or they just stay with friends too\" she says as she finishes her work \"Alright, one last thing, a little bit of eye liner, just enough to make those pretty things pop out.\"\n\nHe mutters something that sounds like 'lucky' when she mentions her dead father, then tries to hold still while she does the eyes. This part always freaks him out a bit. It’s one of the reasons why he doesn't wear contacts, he gets really uncomfortable with anything that close to his eyeball.\n\nShe smiles, \"It's ok…\" she murmurs, taking out what looks like a small, very blunt, wood stake more than a pencil, the tip covered in a black substance, \"This bit freaks me out too, just trust me and don't wiggle.\" she says, very lightly brushing the tip of the 'stake' along the outside of the boy's eyes, applying just enough liner to contrast against his soft skin and bright eyes.\n\nHe makes little involuntary whimpering noises, but manages to keep himself under control long enough for her to do his eyes, though he almost flinches a couple times. Once she finishes he puts his glasses back on and looks in the mirror curiously.\n\nShe giggles, stepping aside to let him take a good look. He really hadn't changed much, just enough faint makeup to accentuate his already soft, girlish, features, drawing out his own appearance rather than making a mask...\"Tah dah!\"\n\nHe blinks, \"Wow... I dunno how you know how you do all this stuff. I mean I see these and it's just...\" he shrugs, not sure what else to say. \"Hope we can get that eye makeup off before I gotta go home though... I think my dad might notice that...\" he adds nervously, rubbing his arm through his sleeve.\n\nShe nods, \"All easily washable don't worry.\" she then smiles softly, petting the boy's head softly, \"You're a good guy, Stephy.\"\n\nHe squirms a bit at that, then says, \"Um... probably shouldn't keep Alice waiting... Thanks Nessa.\" he nods, then heads out of the room and back up to where Alice is waiting for him. \"All set.\" he tells her when he enters, sounding more than a little nervous still.\n\nAlice smiles \"All ready? If you want to call it off it's fine, you know.\" she adds, hearing the nerves in his voice.\n\nHe squirms, he almost says yes... but then shakes his head. \"N-no... I'm good.\" he nods. He's afraid, yes... but he doesn't want to stay hidden forever. If he's lucky then it'll just be a quick shopping trip with no worrying encounters at all. Just in and out and gone again. No big deal at all...\n\nShe nods, holding her free arm out for him to take, \"Then let's go, we're just hitting the little Japanese place nearby, you know the one?\"\n\nHe thinks, \"Um... no, not really.\" he replies. He doesn't say why, but the reason is that his father isn't exactly... fond... of asian people… or hispanic, or French, or not-Irish (if it's not obvious yet, Robert is a horrible person). \"What's it called again?\" he asks, sliding his arms around her extended one.\n\nAlice smiles, \"Nippon Daido, just a couple blocks west of here, it's in a little strip mall with other Japanese stores.\"\n\nHe nods, \"Got it.\" he replies, then walks out of the house with her, trying his best to act natural. The constant contact with Alice makes it easier, her presence reassuring to the young boy... and it helps knowing that if anyone was mean that she was a Hunter. Someone who could fight a vampire or werewolf onto the ground wasn't going to be intimidated by bullies, blind or not. Eventually they get to the strip mall, having to walk all the way because... well, neither one of them was going to be driving now were they? He looks around, finds the correct store, and half-guides Alice over to it, holding the door open while she walks inside.\n\nAlice smiles, taking a breath through her nose and nodding \"Yep, this is it\" she says, the old man behind the counter greeting her in Japanese, and Alice returning the greeting. \"Just a quick little trip to get some supplies for the kitchen. If you see anything you'd like feel free, just tell me so I don't get surprised by the bill.\" she giggles\n\nStephy nods, looking around the store for a bit. Its basically a very Japanese convenience store, complete with a magazine rack which he immediately goes over to, flipping through one of the manga on display. As he's doing this the door opens again and a new pair of small footsteps echo through the building heading towards the rack. He's focused on his reading though and doesn't notice until...\n\n\"... Stephen?\" asks a young female voice, making the small boy almost jump right out of his skin.\n\nStanding next to him is a young girl a mere two months his senior with fiery red hair tied back into loose pigtails, bright emerald green eyes, pale skin with freckles across her nose and cheeks, and a very surprised look on her face. She's wearing a green silk top and a pair of girl's jeans with a shamrock embroidered onto one leg, along with green tennis shoes. Its none other than his cousin who share's the feminine form of his name because their mothers thought it'd be 'cute', Stephanie Fullmoon. Of course these days he thinks of her as Simoni, but this is before she met Arja and their adventures began.\n\n\"What the heck...\" she asks, keeping her voice low, \"Why are you dressed like that?! Are you nuts?! If Uncle Bob sees you like this he'll beat the snot out of you!\" she hisses, sounding very concerned, but oddly curious as well...\n\n\"S-stephanie!\" he eeps, \"I... um... l-look, it's a long story and I'll tell you later, its... oh jeez, are your parents here?! If Aunt Catherine or Uncle Gary see me...\" he whimpers to which she replies, \"No no, just me. Mom and Dad are at home... seriously calm down, Mom wouldn't tell Bob if she saw you like this. She hasn't trusted him since the Jack Daniels and Fireworks incident remember?\" she whispers back.\n\nAlice raises a brow as she hears panicked whispering coming from the boy at the magazines, making her way over slowly \"Everything ok?\" she asks in a calm voice, but there a was an undertone clear to Stephy that if he needed her to start swinging her cane to give a signal... Her cane slips out in front of her, lightly tapping Stephanie's shoes, quickly 'seeing' it's just a young girl... \"Oh, hey there.\" she says in a more friendly tone. \"Sorry, are you a friend of Stephy's?\"\n\nStephanie jumps a bit, then looks up at the blind woman, \"Oh... um, yeah. I'm hi- er, her cousin, Stephanie Fullmoon.\" she replies, nodding. \"Yeah, I know the names are similar. Our moms thought it'd be cute.\" she adds. Even now Stephanie was quick on the uptake, knowing better than to accidentally out her cousin in this sort of situation. \"Um, who're you?\" she asks.\n\nAlice smiles, \"Alice Roche, Stephy is working for me as a helper.\" she says in a friendly tone, \"You two are related then?\"\n\nShe nods, \"Yep, cousins like I said.\" she replies. \"Nice to meetcha too. So... helper...\" she replies, \"Thats interesting...\" she adds, not mentioning that it was really interesting that part of being a 'helper' apparently involved dressing in drag for a blind woman. Did she not know that 'Stephy' was a boy, even people who could see routinely mistook him for a girl after all...\n\nAlice nods \"She's a sweet little girl isn't she?\" She offers, playing into the assumption a bit, \"I bumped her pretty badly in the park and just happened to need some help so I offered her the work, and she just took to it perfectly.\"\n\nShe blinks, \"Huh... I don't think I've seen her wear that outfit before... did you help her get it? Her dad... um... is usually pretty stingy when he buys her new stuff.\" she replies, feeling this out. She could tell the blind woman was more than she seemed too. She didn't know a lot about her magical heritage, but she could sense magic in others and something about this woman was making her radar go 'ping'.\n\nAlice simply nods, \"I'm aware, don't worry I won't be sending her home in it, I don't want to insult the man by buying his daughter clothes.\" she says cooly, making it fairly clear she understood the situation \"Stephy knows my house is a safe place though, where she can dress however she wants.\"\n\nStephanie raises her eyebrow at that, smirking just a bit, \"Probably a good idea, her dad has a reaaaaaaally nasty temper... You should probably be careful if you ever bump into him. If he thinks he has a reason to, he'll try to start a fight with ya.\" she nods, putting an arm around her cousin, \"Glad to know she's got someone safe to go though.\"\n\nAlice just chuckles \"Oh don't worry for me, I can handle myself well…\" she says simply, licking her lips faintly, \"Would you like to come over as well, dear? I'm about to check out. Speaking of, if you wanna buy that comic toss it in now sweetie.\" she nods to Stephy, able to hear the rustling of pages next to where his breathing was coming from.\n\nStephy nods and pops it into the bag, his face bright pink after his much more confident cousin chatted it up about 'her' and the woman 'she' was helping... but follows along mutely behind them. After they leave Stephanie grins at the woman, \"Sooo... you're not a mundane either are ya?\" she giggles, \"S'okay, I'm a witch, so I can tell~\" she grins.\n\nAlice smirks, \"Nah, Hunter.\" she says casually as she takes her purchases, walking out the door with the two children.\n\nShe tilts her head, \"Huh, weird... usually that only goes off when I'm around someone who can do magic... or is magic... or something something...\" she shrugs, \"Ah well, maybe there was a Japanese goblin or something hiding in the store. I think I saw a few kappa in the lake behind here the other week...\" she nods... though most mundanes would only see turtles if the weren't quick enough.\n\nAlice smiles, \"Never said I didn't have a few tricks.\" she teases, reaching to tousle Stephanie's hair playfully before paying the man, \"Stephy, bags please?\"\n\nStephy giggles a bit, still blushing over all this... still, if he had to be found out it could be worse than his cousin. She was pretty open minded... a lot moreso lately after she'd gotten that laptop for her birthday actually. Stephy picks up the bags and follows her out of the store, Stephanie following behind because, hey why not? She had been invited and this looked like it'd be interesting... \"So you know a few tricks huh? Wish I could learn some... I mean I'm a Fullmoon witch and all but for some weird reason my mom is soooooooooo overprotective when it comes to magic. She won't even let me practice with my wind and I can forget about anything more complicated than that.\" she frowns, folding her arms, \"No idea why either... she just said I wasn't allowed and that was that.\"\n\nAlice raises a brow, \"Wait, the women of your clan use wind magic?\" she asks, eyes widening behind her glasses, remembering the first time she tried to 'spar' with Stephen, how despite knocking him over she found an unseen force tripping her up. \"Hrm…\" she says, keeping that thought to herself for now... no reason to stress the boy out.\n\nStephanie blinks, then nods, \"Yeah. All the men... well... most of the men...\" she corrects herself with an apologetic glance at Stephy, \"... are these big bruiser types, and all the women can use wind magic and turn into these half-raven harpy things.\" she replies, \"I try to practice in secret, but my mom always goes ballistic when I do... says she's afraid of me turning out like my big brother... Its not like I'll use my magic for...\" she blinks, then winces and finishes, \"... for... bad things... that he didn't do...\" she mutters, glancing away. She knew what Nelen had done with his blood magic… though she agreed those boys deserved it, it still didn’t change what had happened.\n\nAlice nods, knowing to leave topics like that be, \"Well, any good family of Stephy's is welcome at my house any time.\" she says with a smile, \"I'm no witch, but I can provide you a place to study if you like, and Nessa I'm sure would love someone to magically spar with...\"\n\nShe blushes, \"Sounds tempting, but my mom is a lot more overprotective... a LOT more... than... Stephy's... dad is... I can probably come and visit, but she can tell when I've been practicing my magic and, well, yeah...\" she admits, \"I wouldn't mind visiting though...\" she grins, \"So... whats really going on here? If you're a hunter then you don't need that much help? Are you trying to protect 'her' from 'her' dad, or is this some sort of secret romance thing?\" she giggles as Stephy almost stumbles, his face going bright pink when she says that.\n\nAlice giggles, \"Hunters are, at our core, protectors. Stephy needs a safe place to be himself, and he's wonderful company, it's like having a little brother around.\" she smiles happily, \"It works out nicely for both of us, and I really did clock his ankle pretty badly the first time we met, so I felt bad for the guy.\" she smiles.\n\nShe giggles, \"Yeah, 'him'self.\" she replies, Stephy pouting at her, \"Don't be a jerk...\" he frowns, to which Stephanie giggles and pats his head, \"Yeah, thats cute though... I swear sometimes I wish someone would just... I dunno... snatch me away from here so I could actually learn to use my magic properly instead of being stuck pretending to be mundane all the time.\" she frowns, not noticing a young arabian boy snoozing on a park bench nearby when she says 'I wish'.\n\nAlice grins faintly, \"Well, mundane is what you make of it.\" she says simply, stopping in front of her house's door and rapping on it a few times with her cane, and speaking firmly in French before the sound of the locks opening up comes from it, \"There we go.\"\n\nStephanie and Stephy walk inside, the former admiring the decor which was surprisingly well co-ordinated for someone who couldn't see, while the latter goes to the kitchen to put away the groceries. \"Huh, nice place.\" she comments.\n\nAlice smiles, \"Thank you.\" she replies, Nessa quickly moving to the kitchen to help Stephy unload. \"So, you live around here? Not a lot of little girls randomly go to the japanese market alone\" she teases\n\nStephanie blinks, then smacks her forehead. \"D'oh! I forgot! I was gonna buy some pocky!\" she frowns, then shrugs it off... its not like she can't go back after all, \"But yeah, I live about ten blocks away.\" she replies, \"Not too far from Stephen actually.\" she nods, \"Still, didn't know there were any others like us in town... I mean, guys who know about all this sorta stuff.\"\n\nAlice nods, \"Oh if that's what you want.\" she looks back to the kitchen, \"Nessa, can you bring some pocky for our guest?\" She calls out before turning back, \"Can't stand the stuff myself, Nessa told me I'd like it because I like those chocolate covered biscuits but just doesn't taste the same, take all you want\" she says with a smile before acknowledging the other thing Stephanie said. \"Yes, well subtly is my specialty.\" she teases, \"Most can't feel me at all, part of those 'tricks' I mentioned having\" she giggles \"You must be a gifted little witch...\"\n\nShe sighs, \"Heck if I know... I was born able to sense this sorta stuffs. I'd like to learn how to use my magic properly and all... but every time I try my mom stomps all over the idea and grounds me for a week. Its like she's almost terrified that something horrible could happen if I ever learn how to use it!\" she frowns, crossing her arms in frustration. \"She's a great mom otherwise but... ugh! I just want some way outta here, anywhere, so I can actually use magic, even if I had to... I dunno... get kidnapped or something!\"\n\nMeanwhile...\n\nIn a large mansion in India a ten year old Hindi girl suddenly pauses and rubs at her ears... then shrugs and dismisses the burning sensation as a bug bite or something before picking her favorite flogger from the rack and going to talk to the maid about what happens when her lunch arrives late.\n\n\"... I dunno. Its like... I have it, I want to use it, but gods help me if I do. Its like having to go through my whole life with one arm glued to my side. I can manage it but it just drives me nuts!\" she pouts.\n\nAlice nods, \"Well, the world of magic isn't all fun and freedom. There are very evil people, like in the mundane world, but sadly magic rewards power and will, not morals, and many dark souls have a great deal of both. I can understand a mother's fear, even if it can be stifling.\" she says, patting the girl's head as Nessa comes back in quickly, holding a few boxes of pocky in her gloved hands, \"Here you go! Glad to get these out of the pantry really.\" she giggles.\n\nStephanie pouts up at her, but immediately lights up at the pocky and grabs it, stuffing several into her mouth like some Spy TF2 meme. \"Nawm!\" she giggles as Stephy walks back in, rolling his eyes at her. \"Jeez Stephanie, you and your pocky...\" he smiles, taking one for himself as she blinks at him, \"Huh...\" she shrugs it off, \"So, what exactly does he do here besides... well...\" she gestures to his outfit.\n\nAlice smirks playfully, \"Whatever I tell him to.\" she teases, lightly swatting Stephy's rump with the cane, making Nessa giggle loudly, \"Really though, he is a very good helper, he's a sweet little guy.\" she smiles.\n\nStephanie raises her eyebrow at the sudden smack from the cane, but shrugs it off. \"Huh, okaaaaaaaay...\" she nods, \"Well, um... so long as it's not, um, bad.\" she replies, fidgeting a bit, \"I mean, jeez, I can't remember the last time I actually saw him smile about, well, anything.\" she nods, giving him a sympathetic pat on the hand.\n\nAlice smiles, \"Well I'm just glad to be able to help him have a place where he feels comfortable, he took a little probing but he's opening up finally\" she smiles, rubbing the boy's head\nStephy squirms at all this, but he does seem to be having a hard time not smiling. Stephanie giggles, then nods, \"Well, I should probably head home before my mom starts worrying that I'm off practicing witchcraft or something... 'cause, y'know, I actually could be and all.\" she smirks, hopping up and giving her cousin a quick hug before gathering up her pocky, \"Guess I'll just tell her they were having a sale or something....\" she nods at the armload of candy, \"Anyways, nice meeting ya. Keep an ey- watch out f- um... take care of him okay?\" she nods, that one sounds good, and then heads back out the front door and down the block.\n\nAlice smirks playfully, nodding, \"Will do.\" she replies as Nessa ushers Stephanie to the door, \"She seems sweet, glad you have at least some friendly family, family is important to have.\"\n\nHe nods, \"Yeah... wish we were brother 'n sister instead of cousins though...\" he squirms, pouting a bit. He seems to have a real issue with his parents, or at least with one of them. \"Her mom is pretty nuts about her learning how to use her magic though but... um... I kinda don't wanna tell her the real reason...\" he mutters.\n\nAlice raises a brow at that, \"What is that?\"\n\nHe sighs, \"Well... I overheard my father talking about it one night when he had some of our uncles over for drinks, see...\" he starts, telling them about how Clan Fullmoon is normally led by a Matriarch but, sometime before he and Stephanie were born, his grandfather usurped clan control and declared himself Patriarch of the Fullmoons. He's as traditionalist as they come and had decided that magic would be taboo among the clan and that any of their daughters who were found to have taught themselves magic or used their talents would be subject to punishment, possibly even banishment from the clan.\n\n\"... and to make matters worse, none of the witches are able to do anything about it. He's got something that blocks their magic and keeps them from hurting him... um, don't tell her though, okay? Aunt Cathy hasn't told her and, well, I don't want her mad at me...\" he nods sheepishly. \"But yeah, gramps says that all we need to fight monsters is steel and strength, no magic and no spells.\"\n\nAlice frowns at that, but nods, \"Your grandfather is a fool, you know.\" she says, shaking her head, \"There was a Hunter lineage in Rome that thought the same. They put magic users, family or not, to the sword, feeling all they needed was their courage and blades. They were powerful fighters, and had successes, but they fell when they tried to 'cleanse the barbarians'. We had had magic, the Goths and Gauls and Celts, we were foes normally, but when Rome marched to purge our magics from Europe we united, and our magics drove them into the ground. Strength may beat one magic user, but kill enough of them and they start making alliances and magic, all magic, is at its core sympathetic.\"\n\n\nStephen nods, \"Mm, he sure sounds nasty. My dad idolizes the guy but, well... I never met him. Saw him at a couple family things, but only from a distance. He's... he's really scary honestly...\" he shudders, \"Something about him... I dunno, its like I get really scared whenever I'd see him but I couldn't tell what was doing it.\"\n\nAlice nods, sighing softly before rubbing the boy's head, \"Hopefully the clan has more boys like you in it than like him.\"\n\nStephy frowns, glancing away, \"I doubt it... I know Stephanie's big brother, Nelen, had apparently learned some kinda magic and... um...\" he squirms, \"Actually, the day I met you I was trying to stay out of the house because my grandpa had told my dad to find him because he was apparently in town and... um... I heard him say that he had orders to kill him.\"\n\nAlcie sighs softly, shaking her head \"Pathetic. Well, if it helps, men like him usually get theirs...\"\n\nStephy nods, \"I hope so... I heard a bit about how the clan used to be under my great grandma Eliza and... well... it wasn't perfect, but it wasn't this.\" he sighs, shaking his head. \"I dunno... I just wonder if he'll ever actually wind up going against someone who really -could- stop him...\"\n\n======================================================\n\nStephy giggles, practically hanging off Alice's arm as the group exits the building where the fighting tournament was... moving rather quickly as they can hear police sirens in the distance. Arja may have that lovely diplomatic immunity, but Japanese cops were about some of the biggest hard asses that there were. The mysterious panda-girl has already vanished into the city, going off to gods know where, and Nelen is rubbing at his forehead as he can feel the beginnings of the usual headache he gets after Merihim decides it's his turn to drive.\n\n\"What are you doing in Japan?\" asks Stephy, still grinning ear to ear over his old friend's reappearance, \"I mean, last time I saw you was right after... um... y'know... my idiot dad found out about what we were doing and stuffs...\" he shrugs that thought off, not wanting to think about it any longer than he had to.\n\nAlice smiles, \"I'm here to do a little work with the local law enforcement on the more supernatural threats. Just teaching really, pretty boring, but it pays the bills.\" she teases \"That's why I wanted to meet with Barjar, get a heads up on what they already know and all.\" she says as she happily snuggles Stephy close, Trixie huffing softly as she sees that.\n\nStephy pouts at her, giving his girlfriend a quick kiss on her cheek to show he's still all her's but that this woman is still a close friend. \"Huh, neat. Guess we would've ran into you eventually anyways then, seeing as how we're staying at her house.\" he nods, \"Oh! That reminds me, you'll flip when you ‘see’ this. Simoni, c'mere.\" he grins as Simoni rolls her eyes, walking closer, \"Here, feel her, see if she feels familiar.\" he giggles, wondering if Alice can guess the true identity of the hindi girl.\n\nAlice blinks, rubbing Simoni's face a few times \"Hmmm\" she muses, pinching the girl's nose playfully \"Stephanie, right? Your cousin you wanted to be your sister?\" she says in a teasing voice \"Hrm\" she says \"Feels different though...same structure but some...tweaks...\"\n\nSimoni smirks, \"Oh he did did he?\" she grins, \"Well, yeah... its pretty different. For one... I'm an Indian now.\" she grins as Alice feels the tiny dot on her forhead. Sometimes, even when out of the country, she still liked to show her adopted heritage. As Alice explores she'd notice other things too, the skin actually felt a bit different from her original appearance (though thats partially due to the fact that she was outdoors a lot more these days), and her hair had gone from frizzy and a tiny bit coarse to smooth and straight as well. \"But yeah, I'm called 'Simoni' now, and I'm actually Arja... and funny enough Iravi's sister now too.\"\n\nAlice nods, \"I see…\" she says, giggling as she pets the girl's head, \"Hiding out, or just wanted to REALLY tell your granpda to piss off?\" she teases, patting Arja's head too \"You two look cute together.\" she smiles. She can’t see them, but she can tell that they stay close to each other by the sound of their footsteps.\n\nSimoni giggles as she glances at Arja, still doing her best impersonation of an air raid siren over the prize from the tournament. \"Bit of both, but it didn't work...\" she sighs, \"Found out why mom was really keeping me from learning magic too, turns out gramps has a policy of 'learn any magic and I'll kill you dead'.\" she rolls her eyes as Stephy lets out a nervous giggle, \"Did get one thing right though, it did take getting kidnapped to actually learn magic.\" she giggles, snuggling into Arja despite the constant 'EEEEEEEE' coming from the ape-girl's mouth.\n\nDawn smirks at the couple, \"Yeah, those two are pretty much inseparable, kinda like me and beardy over here... except unlike them we're not fuckbuddies.\" she grins as Nelen shudders, \"Dawn, don't say shit like that, I've got a damn headache...\" he sighs as Dawn grins wider and skips a bit, \"Fuck-buuuuuuuddies~\"\n\nAlice giggles, \"I'm glad to see you found such a fun group.\" Alice says to Stephy happily \"Looks like you really came into your own.\"\n\nStephy giggles, \"You have noooooooo idea~\" he replies, \"But I'll tell you about that one indoors.\" he grins mischeviously as the group gets back to Iravi's place. Nelen helps hold the gates open as Stephy quickly slips through, making sure that none of him touches the cold iron, then they head up past her Torii gate where Nelen's head gives another throb. As they get inside they see Ivari and Nelen waves for her. \"Hey Ivari, found a woman who said she wanted to meet with you... also, Arja got some kind of 'ultimate fangirl prize' or something and won't stop doing that, can you get her to knock it off? My head is killing me...\" he sighs, heading into the living room and fishing around in his bag for something.\n\nAlice giggles softly as Ivari swats Arja's head. \"Enough.\" she says in Hindi, the girl clamming up at that, just grinning wide as she holds her picture. \"Glad you made it.\" she says to Alice \"Your assistant looked like she was going to have a fit when she said you just bolted out of the car...\" after a bit there's a loud yell before a young woman in a black business suit angrily storms to the group, glaring at Alice, \"What kind of grown woman runs off, when we're SUPPOSED to be working, to go play martial artist? What if the police came by wanting to meet you, do I just say 'oh sorry, your expert you paid good money for decided she wanted to play Dragon Ball on the way here?” she demands! Stephy would recognize the black gloves jabbing the grinning Alice's chest, though, it was Nessa! Apparently she got a promotion.\n\nStephy just giggles, \"Hey Nessa, I like your new suit.\" he says, grinning all fae-like as he waits for her to notice who he is and what he just said. Dawn smirks at him, \"I have taught you well young one.\" she replies, then vanishes. A few minutes later Lupe audibly yelps as Dawn's voice comes from the living room saying 'I claim this couch for Wonderland!'.\n\nAlice smirks softly as Nessa blinks, looking at the boy, seeming to take a moment to register before breaking into a wide smile \"Stephy?\"\n\nStephy giggles, posing with his hands on his hips, \"New and improved~\" he replies, swishing his hips in his long fae-ish dress. The boy is wearing a longsleeved white silk blouse with long loose sleeves and a full length blue satin gypsy skirt, going more for fairytale girl than a modern look today, his hair tied back to uncover his slightly pointed fae eartips. \"Its great to see you little mayan girl!\" he giggles, glomping her around the shoulders.\n\nShe just grins, hugging back, \"Aztec, how many times do I have to tell you that?\" she giggles, Alice speaking up. \"This is Nochtli-Huehueteotl, or Nessa , my assistant. Blood mage extraordinaire and one of the few people who can handle making my schedules.\"\n\n\nSimoni giggles, \"We've met.\" she grins, nomming on some pocky she'd taken from one of the concession stands on the way out (the workers had fled with the others) as Stephy giggles, \"Aztec, Mayan, whichever. It's been a busy few years, I can't keep track of everything.\" he replies.\n\nAlice smiles, nodding as Ivari motions for her to come with her to a side room, \"Nessa be a dear and amuse Stephy and his friends? I do actually have to do some work it seems.\" she teases, Nessa nodding \"Sure, it'll be great to catch up, and it's so rare you actually work other than killing things I'd hate to interrupt.\" she says, sticking her tongue out as Alice walks off \"Saw that.\" she adds in as the door closes\n\nStephy grins and takes Nessa into the living room with him, introducing all the others. \"So yeah, this is Trixie, my girlfriend. No really, she's a girl.\" he grins, snuggling into the cowgirl, \"That's Nelen over there...\" he nods to the bearded warlock, currently holding a pain amulet against his forehead and trying not to move too much, \"Dawn is our catgirl there.\" he indicates her, laying on the couch and batting at Lupe's nose with her claws. \"Our resident cyclops there is Drusilla. You'll really like her. Remember my dad? Well she tore him limb from limb, literally! It was raining body parts! Oh don't look so embarrassed Drus, he deserved it.\" he giggles at her, \"The coffin over there is Natasha, but she won't be up for a bit yet, and that's her werewolf Lupe. Say hi puppy~\" he giggles as Lupe counters with her usual argument (‘Lupe not puppy! WOLF!’). \"The one fangirling it up there is Arja, she's Iravi's little sister... and Simoni... well if you think I changed a lot, she's my cousin Stephanie!\" he grins as Simoni smirks at her, \"Still got the gloves huh?\" she teases.\n\nNessa smiles, nodding to the group \"Nice to meet you guys.\" she says, whistling a bit at Simoni, \"Wow you really did huh?\" She giggles, nodding to the question \"The hands tend to freak people out…\" she sighs, pulling her gloves off to reveal her scarred up hands, many looking fresh on her. Despite the elaborate web of marks and scars around them she seems to have no trouble moving her fingers.\n\nStephy nods at the scars, \"Yeah, she uses some kind of Aztec blood magic stuff. Not like Nelen's, her's actually is blood magic.\" he replies as Nelen looks up a bit at that, his own hands still covered in their usual bandages and such.\n\nSimoni winces a bit at the sight too, \"Wow, yeah. Doesn't it hurt?\" she asks, gently taking one of Nessa's hands and examining it. As she gets closer Nessa can make out the minute spots where Simoni still looks like Stephanie to a degree. A bit of the bone structure, a tiny darker spot under one of her eyes that might have been a freckle at one point, and of course her eyes are still green.\n\nNessa shakes her head, \"To be honest not a ton of feeling left in general.\" she replies, \"They're not DEAD or anything but, yea, takes more than a cut to really hurt my hands these days. Blood magic is incredibly powerful, but, ya know, costs. There's a reason most blood magicians use sacrifices and all for most everything.\"\n\nThe rest of the group all looks at Nelen, who just pulls his hat down over his eyes and says, \"No comment.\" before focusing on letting his pain amulet do it's job. \"Yeah, Nelen's magic is kinda like that... just... not the same source.\" he replies as the bearded mage grumbles, \"Oh just tell her, that woman she's with already knows so she'll probably do it if you don't!\" he snaps.\n\nStephy frowns, \"Jeez, go lie down in bed if that headache is so bad.\" he mutters as Nelen decides to do just that, getting up and heading to the guest room that he, Drusilla, and Dawn share. Stephy sighs, \"Sorry about that, he's not usually so snappy... but, well, he's got a demon living inside him and that's how he gets his magic. He fought Alice at the tournament she ran off to and while they were fighting his demon managed to take him over for a bit.\"\n\nNessa nods \"Aaah, I see. That explains it. My people have a tradition like that, very rare, but sometimes blood mages will bond their souls with a resident of the realm of the dead, their blood changes to be much more potent. It's a big toll but they can do things like cause earthquakes with just a pin prick.\"\n\nStephy nods, \"Um, his is a bit different. He gets to push all the blood in his body into different parts to make it stronger, can make these blood whip things, and give people really nasty diseases 'n stuffs.\" he explains, \"... and yeah, his demon is... well, a demon. He's kinda insane. Alice lost to him, but he didn't go really wild. I think he was waiting for the finals but, well, Arja and her opponent kinda scared everyone off.\"\n\nNessa looks impressed, \"Well the realm of the dead often leaves its people mad, but yes I can see the difference.\" she says with a soft smile, \"He must be very strong to keep it in check at all…\"\n\n Strong he is, but it doesn't stop him from getting a migraine every time Merihim takes over. \"Yeah, he is... anyways... what have you two been up to since, um... the incident?\" he asks, dancing around the subject of what his father had done.\n\nNessa smiles to Stephy \"It's fine dear\" she whispers \"She doesn't blame you or anything\" she says before answering \"Oh the usual really, hunting things... a couple reprisal attacks on Fullmoon holdings in America...\" she smirks faintly \"Acting alone or not, a Hunter lineage attacking another is, technically an act of war, and you know how Alice loves her arcane laws.\" she teases, ruffling the boy's hair.\n\nSimoni giggles, \"So I guess we have you to thank for them staying off our backs while we were in Texas last year.\" she replies as Dawn tilts her head, \"I was wondering why the heck none of them showed up during all that... glad they didn't though... I mean between Coyote, that lunatic supervillain, and one of the seven princes we had enough to deal with.\"\n\nNessa grins at that, \"Oh? Sounds like you guys have been having some fun yourselves…\"\n\nStephy giggles, \"Oh jeez you have no idea, really. Here... sit, this'll take a while.\" he grins as he leads her over to the couch and, after a firm glare, Dawn frowns and moves up to the back of the couch. He lets Simoni tell the first part of their story with her getting 'kidnapped' by Arja and becoming her harem girl, though midway through she makes Arja give her the drawing and puts it away so she'll stop fangirling over it long enough to do the story, then goes on to describe meeting up with Nelen and Dawn, finding out about the Mundane Blade, meeting Natasha, Drusilla, Bethandi, Thea, Sadeh, Lupe, Lubanah, and of course Stephy and Trixie.\n\nStephy takes over from there, giving her the rundown of their trip to Texas and their fight against Coyote, Simoni and Trixie going into their trip into the Underworld and their meeting with the ghost of Eliza Fullmoon as well as their second encounter with Paale, the genie Fahad and his pranks, and their defeat of Henry McCall and encounter with Mammon.\n\nSimoni almost falters at their encounter with Franklin, letting Drusilla tell that bit of the story (with lots of emphasis on how she fought him of course), and then about the naga attack and how the girls got their powers back. Stephy jumps in at this point to tell her about Sammi, his trip to Arcadia, and his adoption into one of the Fae Houses and how it changed his powers (and that he had powers all along, just the other kind). Simoni tells her about their trip into the supernatural world's jungle and their encounter with the strange woman who was able to fight the giant serpent single-handedly and how they saved Akul from the Naga's venom, their trip to the Nightside where they met Aisha and encountered the dead sorcerer Merlin Satinspawn, the tomb in Morocco where they met Reshepia, and how they rescued the captives of Clan Fullmoon but accidentally freed the ancient evil goddess Carman and had to actually team up with Franklin temporarily to defeat her, resulting in the island's destruction (\"Yeah, that was us...\").\n\nThen, finally, their trip to Japan and their little adventure in ghostbusting when Paale returned as a sin eater before being driven off by Nelen and Iravi.\n\n\"So, yeah... busy year.\" giggles Stephy.\n\nNessa blinks, chuckling softly, \"Yeah, no kidding…\" she says as she looks at the group, \"Still incredibly strong, though, to be able to do all that.\" she chuckles as she looks the boy over, \"This is the kind of group you gravitate to now, huh?\" she teases.\n\nStephy giggles, \"Yep, my weird little extended family.\" he giggles flopping back and rubbing at Dawn's ear, the cat fussing and growling before batting his hand away and teleporting out of the room. \"Dunno if it'd have ever happened for me if you and Alice hadn't gotten me started though.\" he replies, smiling at her.\n\nNessa giggles, pinching the boy's cheek, \"Well hey, all we did was light the spark, all this is your doing, small fry.\" she teases.\n\nSimoni giggles as Dawn's voice can be heard from the hallway, \"Oh jeez, save me from the Hallmark moment...\" she groans. Lupe tilts her head a bit though, earflicking, \"Why fairy-boy no talk about blood girl and no-eye girl before?\" she asks.\n\nStephy winces, \"Um... well...\" he replies, shuddering a bit at the memory as Simoni leans in, \"Yeah... I know you stopped going there but, you never told me why.\" she says, sounding concerned.\n\nNessa sighs softly, rubbing Stephy's head softly, \"His dad followed him one day and we... had words.\" she says, looking down at the boy, \"But it wasn't his fault at all. Alice was stupid and cocky and thought she could handle 'that Celt ape' without trying, and she paid for that. You had nothing to do with that, and she understands that.\"\n\nStephy nods, \"Mrn... no, they need to hear the whole thing... I... I need to get that off my chest...\" he nods, taking a few breaths, then smiling sadly at her, \"Its really the only thing I haven't moved on from yet.\" he replies, \"Basically guys...\"\n\n=============================================\n\nIt had all started one day when Stephy had gone over. He was already changed out of his boy things and getting made up when there was a sudden loud pounding at the front door. The kind of blows that suggested that the person on the other side would damn well take the thing off its hinges if they had to.\n\nAlice frowns as she makes her way to the door, gripping her cane, ready to release the sheath from it and expose her 'plan b' \"You have one second to stop beating on my door before you regret it...\" she growls, Nessa frowning as she looks in the direction of the main room, \"What's going on down there...\"\n\nFrom outside a loud and angry voice calls back, \"Open this door right now! I know my son is in there with you and I want him outside IMMEDIATELY!\" it calls back. Upstairs Stephen freezes in place, his eyes going wide and terrified. \"Oh no... no no no no no no...\" he whimpers, shaking all over as he looks down at himself, then in the mirror, then starts frantically pulling his clothes off and reaching for the wipes, trying to get everything he can off as quickly as he can, \"Nessa! Help! If he sees me like this...\" he whimpers fearfully.\n\nAlice opens the door at that, standing to block the door \"This isn't your property, Fullmoon.\" she growls, having no patience for the man after what she's heard, \"Leave now before you regret it. There's a bar down the street that I think serves by the pitcher if you need SOMETHING to do...\" she sneers. Upstairs Nessa nods rapidly, helping the boy change as fast as she can.\n\nStephen pulls on his jeans and shirt again as she tries to get rid of all the makeup, hoping they can at least bullshit their way out of it.\n\nDownstairs however...\n\n\"Hmph... You're a Roche aren't ya?\" sneers Robert, \"Little frenchy fae chick? Whatcha been doing with my son fairy girl?\" he demands, pushing his way into the house by sheer weight. Robert is a good head and a half taller than Alice and about three times as wide. As for sheer brute strength, he could juggle Alice. \"He keeps coming here, I know that. Why? You trying to give my boy to yer damn fairy overlords or somethin?!\"\n\nAlice laughs loudly at that \"I'm pretty sure if I gave my 'overlords' a Fullmoon they'd spit in my face.\" she says, clearly not taking the man seriously as she grips her cane tighter, \"He's an assistant to me, is that a foreign concept to you? He helps me because, in case you couldn't tell…\" she says, pulling her sunglasses off at that, \"… I could use a pair of hands and eyes around the house.\"\n\nHe glares, \"Like hell, you Roche's always have some dirty fae tricks up yer sleeves.\" he retorts, \"If you're doing anything that'd make my boy shame the Fullmoon name I'll send you back to Arcadia in a bucket fairygirl!\" he replies, stomping forward as he looms over her.\n\nAs he raises his arm Stephen rushes into the room, \"DAD! STOP! I'm here! I'm right here! Don't hurt her!\" he yells.\n\nRobert glares down at him, \"Bout damn time boy...\" he growls, stomping over and grabbing him by the wrist harshly, making Stephen wince and hiss through his teeth, then pausing, \"... wait...\" he mutters, grabbing his chin and holding him still, \"The fuck is this on your eyes?\" he leans in as Stephen breaks out in a cold sweat. They eyeliner! They were in such a hurry they forgot to get it off! \"Is that... makeup?! What the fuck are you doing wearing makeup boy!?\" he demands.\n\nAlice frowns, looking between the Fullmoons before moving to stand between them, holding her cane up, \"You're seeing things, you old drunk.\" she growls, \"Get off my property! If I tell my family about this this will be seen as an act of war... you remember the last time our families fought each other right, Fullmoon? Wasn't it embarrassing to have to surrender all those lands up north in France, even when the fucking English still had them? I thought you Celts were the warriors from that island we were supposed to fear\" she taunts, wanting to provoke him into focusing on her...\n\nRobert looks between the two, then glares at Stephen. \"We'll talk about this later boy. Home. NOW.\" he snaps at him, dropping him on the ground before turning to her and, without a word, lands a harsh backhand across Alice's jaw! He's a Fullmoon warrior, strong enough to punch down a brick wall. Even with her own abilities it's still enough to make her feel like something got knocked loose. \"As for you Frenchy...\" he steps forward, cracking his knuckles...\n\nAlice gasps in pain as she feels herself slide back, nearly falling over just from that before she flicks her cane, the sheath end falling off to expose her hidden blade, \"You're gonna leave, Fullmoon…\" she growls, spitting some blood out of her mouth, \"Either on your feet or in a bag...\"\n\nHe sees the blade and counters it by picking up her entire coffee table and slamming it into her side, smashing her into the wall. Before she can react his hand is around her throat, his other hand grabbing her arm and smashing it into the wall as he tries to knock the sword from her fingers. Alice is vaguely aware, through the pain, of Stephen's voice begging his father to stop and saying that if he does he'll go home.\n\nAlice cries out as she's slammed around like a rag doll, not expecting this much focus from someone she expected to be a drunken oaf. \"That's enough!\" Nessa shouts from the stairs, pulling one of her gloves off and reaching into her apron pocket, pulling out a small knife made of obsidian, \"You have your boy, he's not harmed, get out now before you start something your whole family will have to finish!\" she snarls, sounding shockingly harsh compared to her normal chipper attitude. She brings the blade across her hand, wincing as the blood starts to pool in her hand. \"I said get OUT!\" She roars, thrusting her hand forward, rather than blood flying out, though, a burst of dark green fire comes flying straight at him!\n\nHe glares at her, but instead of moving he simply turns and holds out Alice infront of him like a shield! \"You think that'll stop me? I've fought monsters and spellslingers longer that you've been alive bitch!\" he taunts as the flames hit Alice in the back, Stephen letting out a shriek of horror at the sight and just barely rolling away in time to miss them himself.\n\nAlice yells as her back gets scorched by the fire, finally dropping the blade as her eyes roll back in her head in pain... \"And my people have been killing European brutes for far longer…\" Nessa barks back, jumping over the side of the stairs and moving her bleeding hand in a rapid pattern, mumbling in Nahuatl before her eyes go blood red. Instead of an attack from the front, though, a glowing red outline of a massive jungle cat appears behind the man, leaping at his back with its 'claws' going into his back, just trying to keep him from choking Alice to death right now...\n\nHe snarls in fury as the spectral panther attacks him, but ignores it and charges her himself, managing to get a hand around her throat as he body checks both girls into the stair railing, knocking the wind out of them. He drops them both to the ground and stomps back over to Stephen, \"Boy, I said to go home. LISTEN TO YOUR GODDAMN FATHER YOU LITTLE FAGGOT!\" he snarls, Nessa's vision going black as the impact all but knocked her out.  She's just aware enough to hear a loud SMACKing sound, a sound like glass breaking, some wet coughing, and faint crying.\n\nWhen she wakes up Stephen and Robert are gone, the door left open, and in the far corner of the room is a broken pair of glasses, a few splatters of blood, and a small tooth.\n\nAlice groans as she collects herself, standing weakly, \"I'm going to kill him…\" she snarls, \"I'm going to go to his house, set it on fire, and stab him in the eyes when he gets out...\" she says as Nessa just grabs her hand, shaking her head, \"You'll just piss him off more... and he'll just take it out on Stephy.\" she says sadly, Alice biting her lip at that, but stopping her angry rant.\n\nA few weeks pass, Alice is in the park one day, and she hears a faint voice from the bushes.\n\n\"A-alice? Hey... over here...\" it whispers, it's clearly Stephy, but it sounds like he's trying not to be noticed.\n\nAlice blinks, looking to the source of the voice, making her way over and 'accidentally' tossing her cane near the bush, pretending to crouch down and feel around for it, \"Stephy? Are you ok?\" she whispers.\n\nHe doesn't respond to that for a few moments, then whispers. \"I... um... I came to say goodbye. Dad's sending me off to the castle for the summer so they can...\" he squirms, \"... well, he says it'll make a 'man' outta me or something. I dunno...\" he replies, \"He was really angry when we got home... I...\" he falls silent, she can hear what sounds like sniffling.\n\nAlice frowns softly at that, \"I'm sorry Stephy, I should have never pushed you to play like that after you told me about him...\"\n\nHe sniffles a few times, then replies, \"... I wanted to. I wanted to really badly but... I can't do it again, not after that. I... I don't want to see you two get hurt like that again.\" he replies. She can smell salt, he's been crying a lot lately it seems.\n\nAlice pouts, \"No... that was my fault. I underestimated him and taunted him. That was stupid, you never did anything to cause that...\" she replies as she reaches to pet his cheek softly…\n\nShe doesn't get close enough, the boy jumping back before her hand can reach him. \"NO! I...\" he pauses, \"I... I don't want you to see what he did...\" he mutters, then shakes his head, \"I g-gotta go, before he n-notices I snuck out...\" he sniffs, sounding like he's going to start crying again, \"... bye...\" he chokes out, then turns and runs.\n\n===========================================\n\nBack in Japan Stephy is looking down at his lap as he finishes. He's not crying, but he's gone very quiet and is breathing slow and deep. Simoni is sitting next to him now, holding his hand tightly as Dawn reclines over the chair she was sitting in, letting out a low whistle. \"Jeez... no wonder you were jumping for joy after Blinky turned him inside out.\"\n\nAlice sighs softly, having finished with Iravi midway through the story, walking over to the sofa and pulling Stephy into a hug, \"You're such a strong little guy…\" she says softly, rubbing his back, \"Your dad had no idea what an idiot he was being trying to change you.\"\n\nStephy hugs her back and buries his head in her middle as Nelen walks back into the room, having caught the tail end of that, \"He probably didn't care. Robert was a total daddy's boy for Franklin, if it didn't fit the Fullmoon ideal then it was out.\" he frowns, \"Dawn and I would've tried to get him out of that ourselves but, well, we were having enough trouble keeping ourselves alive.\" he nods. He’d honestly considered it too, but a mercenaries lifestyle may have been even worse for him than being raised by Robert Fullmoon.\n\nAlice nods, petting the boy's head softly as she speaks, \"So, we're killing Franklin, right? That's the endgame in all this nonsense you've been through?\" she says calmly as she pets the boy, Nessa raising a brow \"We?\" she asks, sounding suspicious. \n\nAlice just giggle softly at that, \"What are we, dear?\" she asks.\n\n\"Hunters...\" replies Nessa slowly.\n\n\"And what do Hunters do?\" she asks.\n\n\"Stop dangerous monsters from hurting people who can't defend themselves...\" sighs Nessa. Hoo boy.\n\nSimoni blinks, \"We're gonna need a bigger plane at this rate...\" she mutters as Dawn swishes her tail, \"Although... Alice doesn't use any magics... so that makes three of us who can tangle with Franklin directly... her, Aisha, and Drus...\" she grins as Nelen sighs, shrugging his shoulders, \"Sure why not? At this rate we're going to have a bigger army than he will.\" he smirks.\n\nStephy just grins up at Alice, hugging her tighter as he nuzzles into her belly. Glad to be back with his first 'big sister'.","writing_bbcode_parsed":"<span style='word-wrap: break-word;'>Its been about four days since the girl&#039;s encounter with Paale, now partnered with an as-of-yet unknown Sin Eater. While his reappearance was a shock indeed he thankfully seems to be laying low at the moment, giving the group time to recover. As of right now they&#039;re all at Ivari&#039;s house, Simoni trying (and failing) to read one of the manga she bought at a local bookstore (the cover was pretty... but she forgot she couldn&#039;t read Japanese). Lupe is dozing on Natasha&#039;s coffin (current time: 3:30 PM), Stephy is cuddling with Trixie on the couch, and the TV is on in the room showing one of Japan&#039;s newest gameshows &#039;Super Funtime Happiness Okama Yes Desu!&#039; or something like that. Basically guys getting made over to look like girls because Japan.<br /><br />&quot;Why don&#039;t they have shows like this in America?&quot; frowns Stephy.<br /><br />Arja smirks softly, patting Stephy&#039;s head &quot;You wouldn&#039;t be allowed to enter anyway, you&#039;re basically a ringer.&quot; she teases, Trixie giggling as she squeezes Stephy&#039;s waist. &quot;Any progress on that manga babe?&quot; Arja asks, flopping down next to her as Sammi walks back into the house, whistling a happy tune. &quot;Yaoi fan girls are so easy, I just got like ten contracts....&quot;<br /><br />Simoni tilts her head, turning it this way and that as she tries to decode it. On her lap is a large leatherbound book with &#039;kanji for beginners&#039; on the cover. &quot;I... um... I think so...&quot; she replies, &quot;I think... this guy loves this girl... but she loves... his dog?&quot; she mutters as Dawn looks over her shoulder and smirks, &quot;Thats Nana to Kaoru, its a manga about two high school students who do S&amp;M play and stuff.&quot; she smirks, one of the perks of her being a Wonderlander is being hyper-linguistic... basically born knowing how to speak any language, though Nelen did have to teach her to read. Once she learned how to do it in one language though her magic took care of the others.<br /><br />It turns out that&#039;s how Nelen found them in the first place way back on that day when Arja and Simoni found out that her plan to send a fetch back to Castle Fullmoon had failed. He couldn&#039;t speak or read hardly any Hindi when he first arrived in India, so she&#039;d sit on his shoulders in her animal form and read signposts to him like a furry version of babelfish.<br /><br />Arja smirks &quot;Is the art good at least?&quot; she teases, sitting behind Simoni, wrapping her legs around the other girl and holding her close, feeling extra protective after that Paale encounter. &quot;Nice to have a few days to do normal tourist stuff, huh?&quot; Trixie grins, huffing a bit as Sammi sits himself down between her and Stephy, cuddling into them both, &quot;Yea, this place is fun when you&#039;re not hiding from undead monsters... no offence to the sleeping vampire...&quot;<br /><br />A faint &#039;s&#039;alright&#039; comes from inside the coffin as a commercial break starts. The screen shows a fighting ring as the announcer talks at top speed in Japanese. Something something something desu something something Toryama-san something something BANZAIIIIIII something something dark side. Dawn just rolls her eyes at it as Simoni scoots back into Arja, Nelen glancing up at it from across the room before going back to his tablet, still trying to get it to connect to Japan&#039;s stubborn internet.<br /><br />Arja perks up, looking over &quot;I heard Toryama...&quot; she says eagerly, looking to Dawn for translation as Trixie sighs, &quot;Of course that&#039;s what you hone in on. Lemmie guess anime con in town soon or something?&quot; she says cooly.<br /><br />Dawn looks up at the screen, her eyes running over the display, &quot;Hum... nope. Looks like some sort of martial arts tournament, open to all comers, and Akira Toryama is going to be there to study fighting styles for this new series he&#039;s working on oh balls thats right you&#039;re a massive Dragonball fangirl aren&#039;t you?&quot; she replies, looking at Arja out of the corner of her eye as Nelen&#039;s eye twitches, the bearded mage sitting up in his chair now.<br /><br />Arja was grinning wide, almost shaking as she tightens her grip on Simoni &quot;WHERE AND WHEN?!&quot; she demands, squealing excitedly. If there&rsquo;s one thing Arja has a massive weakness for it&rsquo;s the works of famous anime creator Akira Toryama, especially (to no-one&rsquo;s surprise) the story of Son Goku that is Dragonball and Dragonball Z, which was based on Journey to the West, which stars the Monkey King of China, who may or may not actually be the same person as her own divine ancestor Hanuman.<br /><br />Simoni gasps, dropping the book as she flails, tugging on Arja&#039;s arms. &quot;Arja... can&#039;t breathe...&quot; she gasps as Dawn looks at her, then at the screen, then grins that oh-so-mischevious grin. &quot;Hmm, looks like today is the last day you can register, preliminaries start in about three hours...&quot;<br /><br />At this, Nelen stands up. &quot;No, no way Arja. You&#039;re not doing this! This isn&#039;t some... fantasy story series or something. You&#039;d be surrounded by mundanes and you&#039;re way too competitive to control your powers in a fight, even if it&#039;s not a real battle. There is no way in hell that you&#039;re-&quot;<br /><br />&quot;Dude, she&#039;s already gone.&quot; says Dawn, pointing to the chair where Simoni is sitting, rubbing her throat and gasping for breath.<br /><br />Arja was indeed already sprinting eagerly down the pathway out of the house to the location of the tournament, giggling like crazy. &quot;Ehehehehehehehehe!&rdquo; she cackles, already in full fangirl mode as she runs off into the distance.<br /><br />Meanwhile, at the event center, the sign ups were getting pretty full. Lots of otaku types thinking this was just a play thing, they&#039;d be weeded out fast, but of the crop of &#039;real&#039; fighters there actually were quite a few. There was one that was causing a little bit of a stir. A young woman from America, the organizers asking her yet again if she was sure she wanted to sign up, the woman just giggling happily and nodding, replying in Japanese that she did indeed want to, holding her red and white cane firmly in her hand as her free one signs where the attendant guides her to... It was kind of necessary given the opaque black glasses covering her milky white eyes. The woman was completely blind!<br /><br />A bit over from her is another young woman, a shorter pudgy type who seems to be from China if her clothes are anything to go by. She&#039;s dressed in a black silk martial artist&rsquo;s uniform with a rope-belt around her waist and balancing a fighting staff over her shoulders. She has long dark hair and a bead bracelet around one wrist. Despite her nationality she seemed perfectly capable of talking in Japanese, signing up and then taking her place with the other fighters.<br /><br />Arja giggles happily as she makes it to the sign up area, nearly tackling into the table set up, stumbling her way through the sign up process, needing a bit of help from the people around who spoke English...<br /><br />The American woman raises her brow, looking over at Arja, her milky white eyes hidden behind her round black lenses &quot;Hrm...&quot;<br /><br />The Chinese girl notices her too, though she pretends not to, looking back into the group of fighters with an uncomfortable look on her face. As Arja stands there she hears a faint chuckle behind her, Dawn standing nearby in one of her human disguise outfits (as usual; sock hat for her ears, sunglasses for her eyes, and baggy pants for her tail). &quot;Nelen is gonna murder you yanno. He&#039;s gonna go apeshit when he gets here.&quot;<br /><br />Arja just grins, &quot;Already signed up, can&#039;t back out now!&quot; she giggles, licking her lips as she cracks her knuckles, &quot;Come on, it&#039;ll be fast&hellip;&quot; she teases.<br /><br />Dawn smirks, &quot;Oh I know... but I also know that this is going to cause a lot of chaos and that&#039;s going to be fun as hell to watch.&quot; she smirks, going to take her place in the stands as the first fight begins. Dawn can be responsible when it&rsquo;s a life or death situation like with Paale the other day, but a fighting tournament full of hyperactive fanboys and fangirls? Yeah, that&rsquo;s some shit she loves to stir up.<br /><br />Out in the city Nelen is trying frantically to figure out where Arja ran off to but, well, he really did rely on Dawn to read street signs in languages he wasn&#039;t fluent in and when it came to Japanese he knew a couple basic words at most. &quot;When I get my hands on that girl...&quot; he growls, his eyes flashing red for a moment as he tries to keep himself calm.<br /><br />Arja giggles, &quot;Well get a good seat, I&#039;m gonna knock a few nerds out and win this fast.&quot; she giggles, stretching out as the announcer begins to call the contestants to the ready room.<br /><br />The first few bouts do indeed go stupidly easy. Most of the fighters are just kids who either learned from watching &#039;teach yourself karate&#039; videos or actually think its possible to fight like they do in the anime and get taught a quick lesson by the opponents who know better. The Chinese girl seems to be one of these, barely even having to use any strength at all to fight off her opponents, and the blind girl as well seems to fight better than even some of the more professional looking contestants despite, well, being blind.<br /><br />That is, until Arja notices one more in the fight... Its almost hard to recognize him without his usual baggy black jacket, but Nelen is in another ring nearby and he does not look happy. He knows it&#039;s too late for Arja to back out so it seems he&#039;s decided to teach her a lesson, personally. He makes eye contact with her across the arena after sending his opponent to dreamland with one good smack to the throat, his eyes looking awfully red-rimmed around the edges. His specialty isn&rsquo;t hand-to-hand combat, but with Merihim&rsquo;s ability to enhance different parts of his body individually and his own Fullmoon heritage giving him more than natural strength it&rsquo;s not exceptionally difficult to beat up some sugar-buzzed otakus and the occasional karate trained kid.<br /><br />Arja blinks, ducking between the legs of her opponent and jumping up, kicking him in the back of the head to bring him down, still staring at Nelen, &quot;Eep...&quot; she mumbles. In her own ring Alice was doing quite well as well, despite being blind she&#039;s ducking and dodging anything sent her way, spinning around her opponent rather gracefully before wrapping her arm around his neck, squeezing hard and quickly causing him to black out, dropping him and stepping back quickly with a grin. Soon enough the herd would get thinned down to just a few skilled fighter...<br />Finally it&#039;s down to eight, and then just as quickly it&#039;s down to four. Arja against that chinese girl and Nelen against the blind woman. By now Simoni, Stephy, Trixie, and Lupe have all found where Dawn is sitting and are watching in the stands, Dawn munching away on some fish sausages she got from a vendor as Lupe tries to work out what pocky is before Simoni takes it away from her. &quot;No, no chocolate for you. Not after last time. I swear I still smell that when we go past the tree...&quot; she mutters.<br /><br />Stephy however leans in curiously, looking closely at the blind fighter. &quot;... wait... is that...&quot; he mutters, adjusting his glasses. Simoni tilts her head too, a blind girl who can fight that well&hellip; it&rsquo;s not too much of a stretch that she isn&rsquo;t &lsquo;normal&rsquo;, but this woman&hellip; &ldquo;Alice?&rdquo; she mutters.<br /><br />&lsquo;Alice&rsquo; smirks a bit as she stands in front of Nelen, the blind girl slowly getting more and more cocky as she drove through the competition. &quot;Make you a deal, go down fast and I won&#039;t be too hard on you&quot; she teases, circling him, studying any sounds that came from him, nostrils flaring as she locks on to his scent.<br /><br />Arja, meanwhile, was looking over to Nelen&#039;s ring every so often too &quot;Sooo&hellip;&quot; she says to her opponent &quot;What&#039;s your deal?&quot;<br /><br />Her opponent just remains silent, as if speaking would give her away somehow. Since it&#039;s down to four fighters they&#039;re going to do each fight separately. The first one being Nelen and his opponent.<br /><br />Nelen looks at her and tilts his head, &quot;Another American in a Japanese fighting tournament? That&#039;s pretty long odds...&quot; he comments, then cracks his knuckles. &quot;Thanks for the offer, but by the time we&#039;re done you&#039;ll be the one on the ground.&quot; he replies, flexing a bit. To anyone else it&#039;d just look like he&#039;s flexing his arms anyways, but in truth he was pushing more of his &#039;blood&#039; or rather Merihim into his upper limbs to make them stronger. He knew better than to judge by appearances after all, and someone who was blind but could still fight through to the final four of any fighting tournament was clearly not what they seemed.<br /><br />She just grins, &quot;American by way of France, if it helps you still feel unique.&quot; she teases, raising her hands up. Her brows furrow, though, when that blood strains against those muscles... She heard the heartbeat, the muscles push, she had no idea what was going on but something sounded ominous.<br /><br />Nelen notices the change in her expression... she can tell when he&#039;s doing that? He frowns, thinking &lsquo;change in plans&rsquo;, then suddenly charges forward and slams out with his elbow, aiming for her stomach. If she&#039;s able to recognize when he&#039;s using Merihim he should finish this quickly, even if it does mean he&#039;d have to publicly beat a blind person.<br /><br />Alice weaves as soon as she hears those feet coming, slipping behind him and going for a leg sweep, hoping to bring him down fast. She didn&#039;t know what was going on but she figured the guy making his muscles strain and charging at her like that was probably dangerous up close.<br /><br />She&#039;s right, but Nelen is fast enough to force Merihim down into his legs and reinforce them. He&#039;s spent most of his adult life on the run from Clan Fullmoon and he&#039;s worked as a mercenary before teaming up with Arja and her friends. For him life or death fights are an every day thing. When her leg hits his it&#039;s like hitting an iron bar.<br /><br />Alice yelps as her foot connects, only to bounce off painfully! &quot;Shit, what are you?!&quot; she mumbles, circling him again, trying to get a lock on him better before she goes for a high strike after a moment, charging at him and springing her foot up, aimed right at his head!<br /><br />Nelen isn&#039;t fast enough to block that though, the kick sending him across the mat and knocking his hat flying. For a moment he seems down... the referee even beginning to count... and then...<br /><br />In the stands Dawn&#039;s fur prickles, &quot;Oh crap...&quot;<br /><br />Nelen gets back to his feet, letting out a low growl. His eyes are almost completely red now. He was angry that Arja ran off and got into this tournament, he&#039;s angry that it took him so long to find the place and he almost missed signing up so he could beat her and drag her back to Iravi&#039;s place, he&#039;s angry that he just got kicked off his feet by a blind woman... angry angry angry angry... WRATHFUL&hellip; &quot;Dammit... keep it together Fullmoon...&quot; he snarls to himself, getting to his feet as he pops his neck, circling slowly around his opponent.<br /><br />Alice frowns a bit, &quot;What&#039;s in you&hellip;&quot; she says, circling him slowly &quot;Didn&#039;t take the Fullmoons to be making pacts like that...&quot; she adds, her hands up defensively, but not striking out at him yet, trying to assess the issue.<br /><br />Nelen flinches, she heard him!? She heard him say that and she recognized what&#039;s going on?! STUPID STUPID STUPID GODDAMN STU-<br /><br />The mundanes even feel it, a sudden subtle shift in the arena as Nelen&#039;s grimace changes to a grin, the kind of grin one might see on that one manga antagonist who always seems to show up. Kimblee from Fullmetal Alchemist, Tommyrodd from Gourmet Hunter Toriko, the kind of lunatic sadist who not only gets into constant fights, but loves every single moment of it. &quot;Oopsie... someone woke me uuuuuuup&hellip;&quot; he sneers.<br /><br />Alice frowns more, &quot;Crap.&quot; she mutters, shaking her head, &quot;This isn&#039;t good, whatever you are you need to go back in your host before something bad happens.&quot;<br /><br />&lsquo;Nelen&rsquo; smirks, &quot;Hmm... big fight, lots of guys in the audience...&quot; he smirks, then crouches down, &quot;Don&#039;t wanna!&quot; he cackles, charging at her so fast that she almost misses it. Nelen is strong and fast, but Merihim can make full use of all his demonic powers when he&#039;s in control. It&rsquo;s all she can do to raise her guard before he smashes into her, landing a straight arm punch with enough force to leave a dent in a steel plated wall.<br /><br />Alice gasps, raising her arms up in a guard to at least endure the blow as her foot flies out, kicking rapidly into Nelen&#039;s gut a few times before she breaks her own guard, hoping her blows left him distracted enough for her to bring her fists harshly into the sides of Nelen&#039;s head, wanting to knock him out quickly...<br /><br />Her fists hit, but they may as well have hit a metal post as Merihim reflexively moved his mass into the side of Nelen&#039;s head to absorb the blow. &quot;HAH! Not bad Misses Magoo, But not good ENOUGH!&quot; he snarls, focusing his bloodflow into his forehead, neck, and hands, grabbing her shoulders in a vise-like grip, and then smashing his forehead into her&#039;s loud enough for a resounding crack to be heard all through the arena.<br /><br />... fortunately, the crack was mostly her glasses, but the damage is done, her brain is sloshing around in her skull after that and it&#039;s the easiest thing in the world for him to just shove her off the platform and out of bounds.<br /><br />Alice groans as she hits the ground, panting heavily as she tries to get her senses, the ones she had anyways, back &quot;Damn... this is really bad... that thing being loose in a place like this could really do some damage.&quot; she mumbles as the ref declares her out.<br /><br />In the stands Dawn has the same thought. A little chaos is fun, but Arja would still show some self control and Nelen wouldn&rsquo;t let his blood magic out unless something forced him to. If Merihim went really wild... &quot;Guys, I think we might need to be ready to run interference here...&quot; she says as she looks over at Lupe, Simoni, Trixie, and... Stephy? She blinks, &quot;Hey, where&#039;d fairyboy go?&quot; she asks as, out in the floor, the blind woman is suddenly aware of a new presence next to her.<br /><br />&quot;I thought you looked familiar!&quot; he grins, &quot;Alice! Do you remember me? Its been two years now!&quot; he giggles up at her.<br /><br />Alice blinks softly, &quot;Stephen?&quot; she asks, so shocked that she almost forgets about the demon-possessed fighter and looking to the source of the voice, &quot;Hey sweetie!&quot; she smiles, slipping into her normally friendly voice quickly, not wanting to worry the boy... &quot;What are you doing here?&quot;<br /><br />Arja, meanwhile, frowns at the demon, looking to the stands and nodding to the girls already taking action &quot;Alright, gotta win this quick...&quot;<br /><br />Stephy giggles, &quot;I&#039;m here with my friends... um, you actually just fought one of them. That was my cousin, Nelen... He didn&#039;t hurt you did he?&quot; he asks, &quot;Normally he can control that guy a lot better, but he&#039;s been pretty stressed out lately and... well... yeah.&quot; he nods.<br /><br />Arja&#039;s opponent looks troubled though, looking towards Nelen/Merihim as she mutters, &quot;A friggin&#039; demon? Dangit this is gettin&#039; crazy...&quot; she sighs, then turns to face Arja as the bell rings for their match, the girl slipping into a defensive stance.<br /><br />Alice raises a brow, &quot;That&#039;s Nelen?&quot; she says, shaking her head, &quot;Can he get control back soon? It&#039;s dangerous for his opponents...&quot;<br /><br />Arja blinks when the other girl knows what Nelen is &quot;Wha? You know?&quot; she says, watching the girl oddly<br /><br />The girl rolls her eyes, then shrugs and focuses on Arja before suddenly darting forward. Despite her pudgy body she proves to be quite agile, striking out with a palm strike aimed at Arja&#039;s chest before spinning and putting her weight into a backwards kick, aiming her heel at her head. It seems she wants to end this fight quickly too. Someone may well need to finish this quickly.<br /><br />Stephy winces, &quot;Um, I hope so. I&#039;ve only seen this happen a couple times... dunno how long it &#039;usually&#039; takes him.&quot; he replies.<br /><br />Arja oofs as the palm hits her, but reaches up to grab the girl&#039;s ankle, digging her sharp nails into the skin and giving her a HARD throw to the edge of the ring!<br /><br />Alice sighs, standing up and rubbing Stephy&#039;s head, &quot;I have a tool for if he&#039;s getting too out of control but... I&#039;d rather not use it unless I have to, knowing it&#039;s your cousin now...&quot; she mumbles before blinking &quot;You grew your hair?&quot;<br /><br />Stephy blinks, &quot;Um... a lots happened since we last saw each other...&quot; he replies, blushing a bit.<br /><br />Meanwhile, in the ring the girl manages to catch herself, rolling back towards Arja as she lands a sudden hard thrust on her chin, then scythes her legs out from under her before moving to bring her heel down on Arja&#039;s belly when she lies prone. &quot;Nothin&#039; personal kid, but ah dunno if ya&#039;ll can handle that thing...&quot; she frowns.<br /><br />Alice chuckles, &quot;I can tell&hellip;&quot; she says, taking Stephy&#039;s hand, &quot;You ok though?&quot;<br /><br />Arja just laughs, hopping back up, shoving her opponent off her with a grin, &quot;You have no idea what we can handle!&quot; she teases, lunging at the other girl, spiraling like a wheel as her foot slams downwards at her... for a moment someone could almost see traces of flames around it...<br />Stephy nods, &quot;Yeah...&quot; then looks behind him as the rest of the group comes up, &quot;Oh hey, here. I&#039;ll introduce you.&quot; he says, &quot;This is Simoni, that&#039;s her girlfriend Arja fighting up there right now. Thats my girlfriend Trixie. This is our friend Dawn, and another friend Lupe.&quot; he says, guiding her hand onto the shoulder of each one in turn.<br /><br />She blocks with her arm, then her eyes widen as she realizes it&#039;s the arm with her bracelet on it. &quot;Oh no no no no no!&quot; she yelps as it suddenly catches fire, the string holding them together snapping suddenly as it falls away, a small quartz charm among the beads shaped like a pair of human eyes.<br /><br />There&#039;s a sudden sound of confusion and shock from the crowd as the girl&#039;s form shimmers like heat on the pavement and, instead of a human girl, there&#039;s now what looks like nothing more than an anthromorphic panda bear, &quot;Great... ya know how much that cost me?&quot; she frowns at Arja, slipping into a fighting pose as Dawn&#039;s ears twitch under her sock hat. &quot;... the hell?&quot; she mutters.<br /><br />Arja blinks, &quot;Wait wha...&quot; she pauses, caught off guard by that reveal... &quot;What the shit is going on in this thing?&quot;<br /><br />Alice, meanwhile, smiles as she rubs the kids&#039; faces &quot;Hey there&quot; she says, Trixie shooting Stephy a little look as her face gets rubbed (its how blind people &lsquo;see&rsquo; someone&rsquo;s face), &quot;Who&#039;s this?&quot;<br /><br />Stephy giggles nervously, &quot;Oh jeez, long story... Um... ever wonder how I got into, well...&quot; he gestures to the outfit he&#039;s wearing, a white silk top and a long flowing blue satin skirt. Pretty mundane for a fae but hey, he&#039;s on vacation!<br /><br />The panda girl however just sighs, &quot;Well great, ya&#039;ll had ta go and blow mah cover... Xhu is gonna be so pissed...&quot; she grumbles, then looks at Arja, &quot;Yer not &#039;zactly normal either are ya girl? Well, the mundanes are gonna be flippin&#039; out soon &#039;nuff anyhoo...&quot; she grins as a sudden roll of thunder crackles across the sky.<br /><br />Merihim, over at the consession stand messily devouring a bit of everything, looks up and raises his eyebrow, &quot;Hel-lo...&quot;<br /><br />The panda grins, slipping into a different stance, &quot;What&#039;ya say we stop holdin&#039; back?&quot; she smirks.<br /><br />Alice smiles, &quot;D&#039;aw, I&#039;m so happy you have so many friends&hellip;&quot; she says happily before blinking at the thunder &quot;Rain wasn&#039;t supposed to be today...&quot; she looks around as Trixie looks at the ring, &quot;Shit, guys we have multiple problems now...&quot;<br /><br />Arja was grinning wickedly, crouching down into her own monkey like stance &quot;Alright, you asked for it!&quot; she says, eyes turning bright yellow as her body erupts in her red fur, claws and fangs jutting out as her tail swishes free, &quot;Not gonna take it easy on you now...&quot;<br /><br />That&#039;s about all it takes. A blind girl fight like a real life Dare Devil was nuts, Mr. Split Personality was more nuts, a sudden appearance by a freaking Pandaren was really nuts, but now this... There&#039;s a sudden rush of footsteps as the crowd stampedes to the doors, deciding to nope right out of there.<br /><br />On the platform the pandaren grins, &quot;Oooh, some kinda hozen-girl? Interestin&#039;!&quot; she smirks, &quot;Right then, lets see how ya&#039;ll do with THIS!&quot; she suddenly lunges, her body crackling with electricity... and something hits Arja hard from BEHIND. The pandaren rolls and straightens up next to... well... another pandaren, an identical one. &quot;Storm... &#039;n earth.&quot; she smirks.<br /><br />Arja yelps as she&#039;s hit from behind, managing to leap away after the blow at least, &quot;Splitting up, huh?&quot; she grins, recovering quickly, &quot;Lotsa people where I come from do that...never works well. I&#039;d rather be one me than two weaker me!&quot; she teases, opening her mouth and firing a gout of flame at the two, deciding since the gloves were off she&#039;d go full out as well...<br /><br />Alice sighs, shaking her head &quot;Shit, ok, it sounds like those two are distracting eachother, which one is Arja the monkey or the bear?&quot; she asks, able to recognize different animals by smell, as she gropes around, &quot;Stephy sweetie get my cane, we should work on the demon while the animals fight, do you guys have a plan or am I using plan b?&quot; Stephy would know what &#039;plan b&#039; was from his time with her. Her cane was sturdy metal... mainly because it was a case. Rather than folding up, she could unscrew it and reveal a hidden blade. It was her &#039;all purposes backup plan&#039;, a blade of cold iron, tipped in a wicked point with silver, and covered in an assortment of blessings. If it was a creature not of this world chances are she could hurt it very badly with that weapon...<br /><br />Stephy winces, remembering exactly what Plan-B was and how badly it had failed last time, but nodding to her, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sure we can think of so-&ldquo; he starts, but pauses as he hears footsteps coming towards them.<br /><br />&quot;Eh, don&#039;t bother.&quot; Mutters the demon-possessed mage in an irritated sort of way, walking up to the group, &quot;Freaking furries had to go scare away the crowds. Wouldn&#039;t be as fun now without a bunch of mundanes to scare the shit out of.&quot; he sighs, tossing an empty plate that had several eggrolls on it over his shoulder and letting out a loud belch.<br /><br />Meanwhile, up in the ring, the pandaren just&nbsp;&nbsp;grins and lets the blast hit her... except it doesn&#039;t seem to do anything. &quot;Surprised?&quot; she smirks, &quot;Didn&#039;t notice yer shiny new tattoo huh?&quot; she grins as Arja suddenly becomes aware of a strange burning sensation where the copy had hit her... right before it bursts into a cold fire that sears her just as bad as the flames would have hurt her opponent. In response the pandaren pulls herself back together, ducks forward and flips, doing a harsh straight-upwards kick that knocks Arja into the air, then pulling her arms back and landing a flurry of blows before the ape-girl can touch down.<br /><br />Arja yells out as she feels the burn, getting past her own immunity to flame thanks to the magic nature of the attack. The panda is able to get a good bit of blows in, one of Arja&#039;s eyes even starting to swell as she extends her tail, wrapping around the panda&#039;s wrist tightly and yanking the girl around, trying to angle it so she was going to hit the ground first, her own feet primed to slam down to the girl&#039;s gut and cushion her own fall.<br /><br />Alice raises a brow at the demon &quot;Going back in your closet then? I&#039;d frankly rather not stab my little Stephy&#039;s family, despite my last encounter with the Fullmoons, so if you&#039;re going to not be a colossal prick about this that&#039;d be loved.&quot;<br /><br />Merihim shrugs, &quot;Eh, I have my own reasons for behaving. Ya notice I didn&#039;t actually do anything overtly supernatural when we fought right chicky-boo?&quot; he asks, smirking as he flexes his hands and his bloody tendrils sprout out of his palms, then go back in. &quot;Now hush, I wanna see what happens here.&quot;<br /><br />In the ring the pandaren yelps at the sudden grip from the tail, landing with a thud on the mat as she sees Arja coming and tightens up her gut muscles, bracing to absorb as much of the impact as she can. Outside the thunder gives another growl in the air, sounding less like weather and almost like some huge beast now... As the group watchs however, Dawn simply can&#039;t help herself, elbowing Trixie and whispering, &quot;Her little Stephy?&quot;<br /><br />Arja brings her fist down as soon as they&#039;re on the ground, aimed right at the panda&#039;s head to hope to daze the girl, not knowing if she can handle fighting her at 100% concentration... &quot;Wait what&quot; she says as she looks up at the sky, &quot;What is this?&quot;<br /><br />Trixie huffs, grabbing Stephy&#039;s arm and yanking him into a hug &quot;Mine.&quot; she pouts defensively, Alice raising her brow &quot;Oh?&quot;<br /><br />Stephy blushes, &quot;Well I did say she was my girlfrie-&quot; he says before there&#039;s a sudden flash of lighting.<br /><br />The pandaren manages to dodge the blow at the last second, throws Arja off her, and shouts, &quot;Xuen! White tiger of the north! I call you!&quot; loudly into the growing storm. There&#039;s a sudden flash, so bright that the group is momentarily blinded (well, except for Alice), as the lightning strikes the ring. When the glow clears the pandaren is standing there, but her entire body is crackling with electricity and an aura seems to surround her, like the illusion of a gigantic bipedal tiger superimposed over her own body. &quot;Right, lets finish this girlie.&quot; she snarls, then shoots forward with a sudden crash of thunder, slamming into Arja and landing a flurry of blows, each one causing a discharge of electricity.<br /><br />Out in the small crowd Dawn glances over at Simoni, looks her over, then blinks, &quot;... are you getting-&quot; she starts, Simoni immediately replying with, &quot;NO!&quot; as her face turns red.<br /><br />Arja lets out a series of pained gasps, shuddering as she&#039;s shocked, eyes crossing before she unleashes a blast of fire right into the panda&#039;s face, claws springing out to slash at her back as she tries to yank her harshly off her, panting heavily as she gives all she can to stop the assault that she&#039;s pretty sure can break her down...<br /><br />The pandaren ducks away from the flames, though a good chunk of her face fur gets singed even then, before landing another sweeping blow to her legs and bringing her heel down forcefully on Arja&#039;s belly with another flash of lighting, sending tens of thousands of volts through her entire body in a single blow.<br /><br />Dawn looks over at Simoni, &quot;Your nose is bleeding...&quot; she says to which Simoni immediately replies, &quot;NO IT ISN&#039;T!&quot;<br /><br />Still, the damage is done, it&#039;s not enough to kill Arja, but its equivalent to a strong cattle prod and it&#039;ll take her at least several minutes to regain feeling in her limbs. Long enough for the pandaren to simply roll her to the edge of the mat and push her off. &quot;Ring out, ah win.&quot; she nods, hopping down and going up to the judge&#039;s counter as the electricity around her disspiates back into the atmosphere. &quot;Oi, how &#039;bout th&#039; prize money?&quot; she says to the man cowering behind the overturned table who sheepishly nods, hands her a large stack of 5,000 yen notes, and then runs into the men&#039;s room to have a good cry.<br /><br />Arja lets out a pained groan as she stands up, shaking the soreness out of her rather bruised up body, still feeling the trembles of electricity in her body, &quot;What the fuck are you?&quot; she asks, not really sounding angry, just confused.<br /><br />She smirks, &quot;Ah&#039;m th&#039; pandaren that just won ah ton ah money, thats what.&quot; she grins, heading out into the street. There were a few conventions in town right now, she&#039;d just tell anyone who asks that she&#039;s a really dedicated cosplayer. People will often take the easiest explanation over something like &#039;I&#039;m a bipedal intelligent panda bear&#039;.<br /><br />Merihim whistles, &quot;Not bad... alright, he can have the body back now. Like I said, no fun if there&#039;s no crowd. I already forefited.&quot; he shrugs, then his eyes roll back as the blood drains out and Nelen looks around, &quot;... well fuck.&quot; he sighs.<br /><br />As Arja regains feeling in her legs an older Asian man taps Dawn&#039;s shoulder and hands her a rolled up piece of paper. She speaks to him in Japanese for a moment, then nods and waves as he walks out as well. &quot;So, that got pretty nuts, but alls well that ends well... or something. At least nobody died this time!&quot; she grins.<br /><br />Alice grins softly &quot;So these are your friends huh Stephy?&quot;<br /><br />Arja rubs her head, &quot;My ears are still ringing, but yea, that was fun...&quot; she grins, looking over to Dawn &quot;Hey, what&#039;s that?&quot;<br /><br />Dawn blinks, &quot;Oh yeah, guy said he had to leave to catch a train, but apparently this is the runner up prize.&quot; she says, handing it to Arja. On the inside of the paper is a hand drawn image of Son Goku, standing next to what looks like a young Indian girl with spiky hair and a tail, both wearing turtle Gis, signed in the bottom corner in Japanese. &quot;He said he liked the fight and it gave him some good ideas for the new show, but maybe tone it down next time so you don&#039;t set fire to anything.&quot;<br /><br />Arja grins wide, letting out a high pitched squeal as she looks at the picture. Alice winces at the sound, rubbing her head, &quot;Well, she sounds happy at least...&quot;<br /><br />Stephy giggles a bit, &quot;Yeah, these are some of my friends...&quot; he replies, &quot;It gets weirder though, I mean you haven&#039;t even met the zombie yet, or the cyclops. You might like her, she murdered my dad.&quot; he nods, &quot;But yeah, we have a lot of catching up to do...&quot;<br /><br />Alice blinks &quot;Really now...&quot; she says, raising her brow &quot;Well then, after my meeting we&#039;ll have to catch up. I&#039;d love to go now but I&#039;m kinda behind already... this little fighting thing was kinda a diversion, I&#039;m supposed to meet another hunter here at her house but I&#039;m kinda lost.&quot; she reaches into her pocket, pulling out a small white card with raised dots on it, a way for people to &#039;write&#039; for the blind, it had rows and rows of little spots to push up, making Braille as needed. &quot;Her last name&#039;s Barjar?&quot;<br /><br />Dawn blinks as Simoni looks over at Arja, &quot;Huh, funny thing. Thats our last names too.&quot; replies Simoni as Nelen rubs his eyes, &quot;This kinda stuff keeps happening...&quot; he mutters... then jumps as there&#039;s a sudden loud growl echoing through the arena. Nelen reflexively draws out his blood tendrils as Simoni gets ready to whistle, then they all pause again as another growl echoes and Lupe pipes up, &quot;... Lupe hungry.&quot;<br /><br />As the group leaves Dawn looks over at Stephy, &ldquo;So, care to explain how you and the Dare Devil here know each other?&rdquo; she asks. &ldquo;Oh man&hellip;&rdquo; he replies, &ldquo;Yeah, that&rsquo;s an&hellip; interesting story.&rdquo; he blushes, &ldquo;It all started two years ago&hellip;&rdquo;<br /><br />=========================================<br />Stephen walks back home through the park one day, the boy currently about nine years old. His mother passed away about three years ago and his father certainly wasn&#039;t going to win any parent-of-the-year awards, so he preferred to be out of the house as often as he could. He&#039;d heard rumors that his cousin Nelen was passing through town (and by rumors I mean a late night call from his grandfather, Franklin Fullmoon, telling his father to &#039;kill the little shit&#039;), but apparently he&#039;d managed to evade an entire group of Franklin&#039;s finest and escaped the city before they could catch up with him (they don&#039;t know about Dawn yet).<br /><br />He sighs as he walks along. He didn&#039;t really remember Nelen (his exile began when Stephen was just two), just hearing about his flight from Clan Fullmoon following his exile, but given his father&#039;s constant tormenting due to his own lack of physical strength and stamina that the men of the clan were known for he often longed to follow his older cousin&#039;s lead and run off in the night... but he doubts that he&#039;d be able to make it on his own.<br /><br />Alice smiles softly as she walks along the pathway coming the other direction. She couldn&#039;t see the nice sunny day around her, but she felt it, and smelled the fresh cut grass, and heard the kids playing in the play area, it was still a nice outing for her. Stephen would hear her before he saw her, that red and white stick clacking lightly on the ground ahead of her, bouncing off the gravel path. She spent most of her day inside, as made clear by her rather pale looking skin, but these occasional outings were a nice treat despite being able to hear the occasional whisper or comment...<br /><br />She was dressed in a snug pair of black pants and a purple top, covered by a light and open black jacket, each of the clothes had a small plastic tag on the hems, just a tiny white circle with some raised Braille that helped her identify clothing in her closet without groping and wrinkling it. Her eyes were covered by a pair of dark round shades, if not for the cane she&#039;d look like any other teenaged young woman out for a walk on a sunny day...<br /><br />Stephen looks up as she draws close, stepping to the side so that he doesn&#039;t walk into her. He feels an odd sort of sympathy towards the woman in that, like her, he&#039;s lacking something most of the people he knows take for granted... though it&#039;d be hard to explain to someone that you get picked on by your father because you&#039;re not strong enough to bench press a fully grown bull. She looks nice though, seems like she&#039;s handling her disability rather well. He lets out a soft sigh, he wishes he could say the same...<br /><br />Alice kept walking, her cane swishing in front of her... and hitting Stephen, right in the ankle! It wasn&#039;t HARD of course, she wasn&#039;t flailing it around wildly, but that thing was sturdy, and she didn&#039;t hear the rather &#039;light footed&#039; boy shift away from her! &quot;Oh!&quot; She says, pausing as she hears an all too familiar sound of her cane striking a body party &quot;Sorry about that!&quot;<br /><br />&quot;OW!&quot; he yelps, his eyes watering as he bends down to rub at his ankle. His voice sounds pretty high pitched too. Could be a girl, or a really young boy... &quot;Jeez.. ow... i-its okay, I mean, its not like you could see me...&quot; he replies, massaging feeling back into his leg.<br /><br />Alice blushes a bit as she hears a young girl&#039;s voice, she assumes...&quot;I&#039;m so sorry, sweetie!&quot; she says, turning to face Stephen better, squatting down and reaching her hand to gently rub &#039;her&#039; leg. Alice was good at putting pieces together in her head, just a few touches and she can figure out a general body type, a brush over the face put that in clearer context for her. She couldn&#039;t always tell if she&#039;s right, of course, but she got by pretty well...<br /><br />He squirms a bit, letting her &#039;see&#039; him. He knows enough about blind people to understand that they can be a lot more touchy-feely out of necessity so he doesn&#039;t shoo her away. What she feels is small, petite, slender, with soft hairless legs and no facial or body hair, no Adam&#039;s apple, and hair down past it&#039;s shoulders... certainly doesn&#039;t seem very boyish.<br /><br />Alice holds back a little giggle... oh what a cute little girl! &quot;I&#039;m so sorry again, sweetie&hellip;&quot; she coos &quot;Is there anything I can do to make it up for you? Want me to buy you an ice cream or something?&quot;<br /><br />He thinks, &quot;Um, thats okay...&quot; he replies, not sure how else to respond. It wasn&#039;t like it was her fault and he&#039;d feel kinda weird taking money from a girl who probably needed it a lot more than he did given, well, blind and all. That and, honestly, he wasn&#039;t huge on cold treats yet. Spicy things were his favorites.<br /><br />Alice still smiles, &quot;How about this, I can give you a little work, my helper called in sick today and I really could use a set of hands around the house... or a set of eyes?&quot; she giggles softly, &quot;Unless you&#039;re in a rush to get home?&quot;<br /><br />He thinks on that, then thinks on his father, and thinks on how angry he&#039;ll be that Nelen slipped under his radar... &quot;Um, yeah, okay. Sounds good.&quot; he nods, getting to his feet (a bit shakily. She didn&#039;t hit him that hard, but he&#039;s not very strong). &quot;Just, like, help you out around the house and stuffs?&quot; he asks.<br /><br />Alice nods, &quot;Mhm. I can handle it myself of course but it&#039;s just easier when someone can see what can of soup they&#039;re getting from the pantry is around&quot; she giggles, offering her empty hand to him, &quot;I live right close by.&quot;<br /><br />He nods, then takes her hand, &quot;Okay then.&quot; he nods. Doesn&#039;t sound too hard and, hey, there is that game he was wanting. Maybe she&#039;ll pay him enough that he can afford it.<br /><br />Alice nods, leading him along to the nearby housing area. Upscale, not quite &#039;rich&#039; but pretty nice regardless, the kind of people the city would want to live right near one of its parks... &quot;Oh I should warn you&hellip;&quot; she says, letting go of the boy to reach into her pocket for her key, &quot;I do have a little uniform for you to wear while working. Silly I know but, ya know, I was raised kinda old school...&quot; <br /><br />He blinks at that, &quot;Um... alright.&quot; he shrugs. Weird, but... well... why not? She seemed nice enough, it probably wouldn&#039;t be anything too far out... right?<br /><br />Alice nods, ushering him into the house at that, it was rather tidy, obviously her assistant did a good job helping her handle that. &quot;Come on I keep it in my room.&quot; she says, leading him to the stairs and moving surprisingly fast up them, after years of practice on them she knows them quite well!<br /><br />Her bedroom is quite large, lots of room for her to navigate, a nice sized TV mounted on the wall in front of her bed, as well as a computer on a nearby desk, hooked up with a microphone and rather elaborate sound system. In fact on the way up Stephen would see the whole house seemed to have speakers and microphones. Alice gives a rather sharp whistle when she walks in, the computer lighting up out of sleep mode. &quot;Closet.&quot; she says in a loud, even, tone, &quot;Work clothes.&quot; she adds in after a pause, the sound of whirring coming from behind the closet door.<br /><br />He looks around, noticing the voice activated stuff, &quot;Huh, neat. I always kinda wondered how you guys managed this sorta thing without being able to see.&quot; he comments, looking at the computer and the other decorations as well as the sound system and such.<br /><br />Alice smiles and nods. The room was a little spartan decorations wise, kinda a waste on her, but there wind chimes and bells in a few areas that made soft tinkling noises, as well as an automatic room deodorizer that had an assortment of smells loaded in to cycle between. Obviously she found her own way to &#039;decorate&#039;. &quot;Yea, the tech is still kinda &#039;first generation&#039; so you have to talk to it like it&#039;s slow, but helps a lot. I can have it lock doors, cycle clothes racks, even rotate my pantry shelves.&quot; she says, opening the closet to reveal a rack of maid uniforms in all sizes, all the exact same style. Typical french maid really, black and white soft lace, white stockings and gloves, even shiny black leather high heels. &quot;You felt a bit small&quot; she says with a smile, not meaning that as an insult it seemed &quot;Luckily I think I have one just your size!&quot; she really didn&#039;t sound like she was playing a mean prank, she genuinely thought she was talking to a little girl!<br /><br />He blinks, then blushes as he realizes what she&#039;s suggesting. &quot;Woah woah wait!&quot; he stammers out, &quot;Um... geez... I knew it happened over the phone sometimes but... um... I&#039;m a boy.&quot; he protests. He would admit, if pressed, that he&#039;d sometimes wondered about girl&#039;s clothes... but no more than any other boy might have at his age really. The thought hadn&#039;t honestly occurred to him in between getting bullied at school and dodging his father at home.<br /><br />Alice pauses at that, blinking as she turns to face him &quot;You are?&quot; she says in a confused tone, walking back over and running her hand over his face &quot;I mean... it&#039;s ok if you&#039;re like... closeted or something&quot; she adds &quot;I don&#039;t judge really... you really are a guy?&quot;<br /><br />He blinks, squirming a bit as she feels over his face, &quot;Yeah! I dunno about any closets... but my name is Stephen. I&#039;m a BEE. OH. WHY.&quot; he nods firmly. folding his arms over his chest. His cheeks are burning at this, every other day this seemed to happen to some degree. Either a shopkeeper or someone would comment on how cute &#039;she&#039; looked or ask why such an &#039;adorable young lady&#039; was dressed up like some sort of tomboy...<br /><br />aLICE cocks her head &quot;Huh, weird, I&#039;m usually better at this... well, boy or not like I said, you need a uniform, and there&#039;s no other rack hidden away.&quot; she says, not seeming to be deterred at all! Alice was a little impulsive like that. Once she sets her mind to something, there&rsquo;s little that can be done to dissuade her.<br /><br />He stumbles back a bit, &quot;Hey! C&#039;mon! This is getting weird!&quot; he protests, glancing towards the door before he starts to carefully shuffle towards it, trying to make as little noise as possible...<br />Alice giggles lightly, &quot;Bedroom door, lock!&quot; she says firmly as the door quickly responds, slamming shut and locking with a firm &#039;click&#039;! &quot;That&#039;s rather rude to say dear, I&#039;m not WEIRD for expecting a little class in my helpers, am I?&quot;<br /><br />He winces as he hears the door suddenly lock itself. &quot;Well, class yeah... but I&#039;m a boy! Boys don&#039;t wear dresses!&quot; he protests. It does look like a nice dress. An actual, handmade, maid&#039;s uniform and not some K-Mart Halloween one... but... HE&#039;S A BOY! Boys can&#039;t wear girl&#039;s clothing, its just... wrong somehow. Like it breaks some fundamental rule of reality. Its just something young boys know...<br /><br /><br />Alice smirks softly, &quot;Oh, I&#039;m sorry, will wearing a dress cause you to explode? Will my house burn down if there&#039;s a boy in a maid outfit in it?&quot; she teases. &quot;Come on, off with your clothes dear&hellip;&quot; she says, pulling out the maid outfit sized for a young girl... it would probably fit Stephy quite well.<br /><br />He hesitates, but... well... he couldn&#039;t fight her off. Yes she&#039;s blind but, well, she&#039;s blind. That&#039;s just wrong... also, the door lock was probably programmed to only recognize her voice. Well, he could always just put it on, then sneak back in later, change, and run for the door before she realizes he&#039;s gone... &quot;Alright alright...&quot; he sighs, slipping out of his shoes and unzipping his jeans as he starts to undress.<br /><br />Alice nods approvingly &quot;I assume you need underwear too, can&#039;t exactly wear boxers in a maid skirt can you?&quot; she smiles, laying the outfit on the bed before grabbing a small pair of soft pink lacy panties...<br /><br />He winces at that, though if you want to be specific he&#039;s wearing briefs... but its moot. He undresses, then takes the panties from her and feels over them with a disdainful look on his face before hesitantly stepping into them. &quot;A-alright, they&#039;re on.&quot; he mutters in a very embarrassed tone. She can&#039;t see it, but his face is the same shade of pink as those panties now.<br /><br />Alice just giggles, reaching her hand out to slide over the boy&#039;s hips, &quot;Oooh they seem to fit well&hellip;&quot; she winks, not saying anything else as she moves her hand away.<br /><br />He squirms as she checks his hip, then blushes as he moves to her bed and sits down, looking over the stockings as he puzzles out how to put them on. The material was a lot more sheer than his socks after all... He works them out after a few minutes, then takes the dress and looks it over. Its soft... very soft and sensual... of course a blind girl would love more sensual fabrics wouldn&#039;t she? Its not like she can enjoy the color or look. He hesitates, then steps into it and carefully pulls it on, biting his lip as he does before reaching around and fumbling for the zipper. &quot;Um... I can&#039;t reach...&quot; he mutters, his face having gone up two shades to pale red.<br /><br />Alice nods, &quot;No problem!&quot; she says, walking around him to help with the zipper, soon trapping Stephen in his soft, lacy, uniform, the material rubbing against his skin faintly with every step he took. &quot;Now let&#039;s see, well, you see, I hear how you walk in heels&hellip;&quot; she giggles, grabbing those from the closet and setting them down.<br /><br />He looks at them. They&#039;re at least small heels, after all a young girl probably wouldn&#039;t wear heels very often... He steps into them, blushing as he hears the petticoat built into his dress rustle and feels the soft material pull on him when he moves, then closes the buckles over his feet and, after a bit of wobbling, manages to remain upright. &quot;Mn... it feels really weird... all soft and girly...&quot; he pouts.<br /><br />Alice giggles, &quot;Not BAD though, right?&quot; she teases, patting his cheek lightly. The heels would kill any plan he had to sneak off, even in the carpet of her room they made noises...<br /><br />He looks down at it and... well... okay maybe not bad. It felt nice... nice and soft and something else he couldn&rsquo;t quite put his finger on&hellip; but he&#039;s a boy. Boys don&#039;t wear dresses. Thats how it works. &quot;Mn... w-whatever, so what do you want me to do then?&quot; he asks. The sooner he plays maid for her the sooner he can change back into his stuff, go home, and try to work out what the heck happened.<br /><br />Alice frowns, &quot;Hey now, no one likes pouty maids, keep that up and that cute rump of yours is gonna be VERY sore.&quot; she says before looking to the computer, &quot;Bedroom door, unlock.&quot; she says, the lock loudly opening back up &quot;Now, let&#039;s start easy, I missed breakfast so I&#039;d like a nice early lunch.&quot;<br /><br />He nods, &quot;Alright...&quot; he replies. That at least he can do. He had to learn how to feed himself a long time ago because his father sure wasn&#039;t going to teach him. He headed downstairs, having to take his time on the steps due to the heels, and by the time he reached the kitchen he was feeling rather frustrated by the silky teasing all over his body and the constant rustle of his petticoats and click of his heels. Once in the kitchen he looked around, trying to work out what he had to cook with.<br /><br />Alice smiles, following him down to sit in the living room and wait, at least sparing him a trip up stairs in heels with food. The kitchen proper was quite well stocked, the pantry refitted with all rotating shelves organized by type of product (canned goods, dry food, cereal, etc) and the fridge was stocked with plenty of fresh veggies and such. Even some left over meals tucked in if Stephen wanted to be lazy...<br /><br />He thinks for a bit. He&#039;s half tempted to do something mean like spit in the food or something... but, well, he does want to at least get paid for this and, while he wouldn&#039;t admit it, he was pretty good at cooking and did like to show off. It took a while (he had trouble reaching the knobs on the stove), but after about twenty minutes he sets down a plate of hot stir fry veggies and rice infront of Alice along with a glass of mineral water (he found several bottles in the fridge).<br /><br />Alice smiles as she sniffs the air, &quot;Oooh! Smells lovely&hellip;&quot; she coos &quot;Seems you&#039;re quite the little chef, stir-fry?&quot; She offers as she feels around for the fork, happily spearing herself a nice big bite and bringing it to her mouth. &quot;Mmm!&quot;<br /><br />He blushes, &quot;Well, my dad doesn&#039;t really like to cook for anyone but himself so I kinda had to learn...&quot; he admits, fidgiting a bit... though he does smile when she complements his cooking. Why not? Not like she can tell.<br /><br />Alice nods, &quot;How about you sit with me while I eat? I like company&hellip;&quot; she smiles, pulling her sunglasses off and setting them down to reveal her milky white eyes before she starts to tuck into the food.<br /><br />He blinks a bit, then glances away. Cataracts aren&#039;t fun to look at after all... but he does as she requests and sits down next to her. He sits like a boy though, legs apart and without smoothing his skirts under him. Its not really his fault, he just doesn&#039;t know how to sit when he&#039;s wearing a skirt. &quot;Alright...&quot;<br /><br />Alice smirks lightly &quot;Careful dear, if there&#039;s anyone sitting across from you, you just flashed them&hellip;&quot; she teases as she eats, &quot;&hellip; or are you trying to be a little showoff...&quot;<br /><br />He blinks, not knowing what she means at first... then eeps and quickly pulls his legs together... though a moment later he wonders why he did. There&#039;s only one other person here and she can&#039;t see anything, whether he&#039;s showing off or not. &quot;Mn... stupid skirt...&quot; he grumbles in embarrassment.<br /><br />Alice smirks, &quot;You seem to enjoy it for something so stupid&quot; she coos &quot;Come on, you don&#039;t like the softness?&quot;<br /><br />He squirms, &quot;Not supposed to wear dresses...&quot; he grumbles, but it sounds a bit halfhearted... in truth the softness of the outfit reminds him of some of the things his late mother used to wear before she died. He was always really close to her, despite being a boy... and a Fullmoon boy at that. By his age his father was supposed to be teaching him to wrestle wild dogs, but of course that wouldn&#039;t happen.<br /><br />Alice shrugs dismissively at that &quot;Says who?&quot;<br /><br />He blinks, &quot;... Well... everyone!&quot; he replies. He&#039;d heard stuff like that most of his life after all, especially from his male relatives. Man up, don&#039;t be a sissy, etc etc. He&#039;d never really questioned any of it, after all why would he? Having heard it over and over from his youngest days he&#039;d just assumed it was how the world worked.<br /><br />Alice smirks, &quot;Mhm, bet you hear a lot then&hellip;&quot; she teases, &quot;Bet you get told a lot that girly stuff isn&#039;t for guys, because guys are supposed to be tough and strong and all that?&quot;<br /><br />He frowns, &quot;Well... we are.&quot; he replies, but he sounds a bit confused. It isn&#039;t just a sort of random thought or cultural thing with his family, in Clan Fullmoon the men really are supposed to be strong and tough and such. Its how they&#039;re born! As far as he knows he&#039;s the only member of Clan Fullmoon to ever be born a runt.<br /><br />Alice giggles &quot;Oh you are?&quot; she teases, &quot;Alright&hellip;&quot; she says, setting her now empty plate aside, &quot;Take your heels off and get up.&quot; she says, standing as well, &quot;Push the table out of the way.&rdquo;<br /><br />He blinks, then shrugs and slips out of his shoes. The table however proves to be tricky and it takes a full five minutes of grunting and pushing before he&#039;s able to move it where you indicate. &quot;Alright... now what?&quot; he asks, sounding perplexed.<br /><br />Alice grins, holding a joke back about how very strong he already sounded, &quot;Now, show me you&#039;re strong.&quot; she teases, her feet shifting under her as she grabs her cane, the wrist strap around her wrist to hold it in place.<br /><br />He blinks, then looks at her picking up the cane. &quot;Wait huh?&quot; he gasps, stumbling backwards just a bit. She may be blind but that cane was good solid wood with a metal tip to it. He only needed to get smacked in the ankle to know it hurt.<br /><br />Alice giggles, &quot;You&#039;re strong, right? Stronger than us weak and feeble girls, so come on and show me how tough you are and you can put your boy clothes back on.&quot;<br /><br />He hesitates, he doesn&#039;t want to hurt her... but still, he frowns, then suddenly lunges forward and tries to shove her off her feet onto the couch, reasoning that he could at least try to make sure her landing was soft.<br /><br />Alice smirks, as soon as she hears his feet lunging she rapidly slides to the side, cane springing out to strike the boy&#039;s rear end, thankfully a mild blow, enough to hurt, and likely leave a red mark, but that cane was hard enough to draw blood if it really swung!<br /><br />He yelps and stumbles forward, landing on the couch as she suddenly feels something catch at her ankles and knock her off balance, landing her right next to him. She didn&#039;t hear anything or smell anything, just a sudden invisible force catching her legs... &quot;OW! Ow ow ow OW!&quot; he yelps, clutching at his rear, &quot;Jerk...&quot; he sniffles, his eyes watering a bit.<br /><br />Alice oofs as she stumbles forward as well, having to thrust her cane down to keep from falling, &quot;Hey how&#039;d you do that...&quot; she says, looking to him curiously.<br /><br />He sits up a bit, rubbing at his eyes with one hand as his other clutches his rear, &quot;Do what? Get knocked on the couch by a blind girl?&quot; he pouts, frowning up at her. He sounds pretty humiliated by this... but also totally unaware of what happened...<br /><br />Alice blinks, &quot;You didn&#039;t...&quot; she shakes her head, not wanting to press too hard there. &quot;So then, wanna try again to show you&#039;re stronger than girls?&quot;<br /><br />He frowns, then huffs and folds his arms over his chest, plopping down on the couch... then yelping as his sore rear protests before plopping down much more carefully on the couch. &quot;I didn&#039;t say I was! I said I was SUPPOSED to be!&quot; he retorts, almost yelling. &quot;All the guys in my family are, like, stupidly strong, like they could wrestle bears and stuff... but I get born and I&#039;m all scrawny and weak and I get beat up all the time and my dad treats me like I&#039;m worthless and...&quot; he trails off, going silent as he glares at the table, his face flushed and his breathing fast.<br /><br />Alice frowns, sitting down next to the boy, &quot;Sorry&hellip;&quot; she says, reaching a hand out to rub his cheek, &quot;Well, people aren&#039;t always how they&#039;re supposed to be, right? You&#039;re a sweet kid, who&#039;s good at cooking, and willing to go home with a random blind girl who said she needs help, that&#039;s worth a few points too...&quot;<br /><br />He sighs, calming down a bit, &quot;Yeah, but not in my family...&quot; he grumbles. It seems he&#039;s got a lot of resentment towards them. &quot;We&#039;re supposed to be big and strong and tough and good at fighting and... I&#039;m not...&quot; he sighs.<br /><br />Alice smiles, &quot;Well, so what? Big and strong is dumb and overrated&quot; she giggles, rubbing the boy&#039;s head.<br /><br />He huffs and pushes her arm away, &quot;You wouldn&#039;t understand. Its how my family works! If I don&#039;t have that then I&#039;m just some worthless little runt to them.&quot; he sighs, leaning back on the couch, &quot;Heck, the reason I agreed to come in the first place was to avoid having to go home and be around my dad... he was supposed to... well... he had a job to do and he blew it, and when he does he takes it out on me.&quot;<br /><br />Alice frowns at that, &quot;Sounds like he wouldn&#039;t care if you told him you were staying with a friend then...&quot;<br /><br />He hesitates, &quot;Well... probably not... but...&quot; he sighs, &quot;Dressing up like a girl and all...&quot; he mutters, though it sounds halfhearted. If the options are &#039;spend a day in drag&#039; or &#039;go home and be around his abusive dad&#039; then he already knows what he&#039;s going to pick... he&#039;d just be a lot less eager about it than he would be in the future.<br /><br />Alice smirks &quot;You don&#039;t seem too uncomfortable in it now.&quot; she teases, then pauses, looking the boy over &quot;What family?&quot;<br /><br />He blinks, &quot;Oh yeah... um... my full name is Stephen Fullmoon...&quot; he replies, though that wouldn&#039;t mean too much to most mundanes unless one had been attacked by something definitely not human, then saved by a large irishman. Most mundanes don&#039;t know about them outside of Ireland and then most of the people in Ireland just think of them as some old rich family that&#039;s kinda nutty.<br /><br />Alice nods &quot;Sounds familiar, lemmie guess, big celtic warrior bloodline nonsense?&quot; she says casually as she stands up.<br /><br />He nods, then feels a bit silly as he remembers she can&#039;t actually see him nodding, &quot;Yeah, good guess actually.&quot; he replies, standing up himself, though wincing a bit as he moves because of the sore spot on his backside. Despite her teasing he actually is feeling a bit more comfortable in the dress... though he&#039;s still not ready to admit that yet. &quot;The old &#039;we protected Ireland since the old days&#039; thing and any man who isn&#039;t a man isn&#039;t worth being in the family.&quot; he sighs.<br /><br />Alice nods &quot;My name is Alice Roche, do you know where the name Roche comes from?&quot;<br /><br />He thinks for a bit, &quot;Its... french isn&#039;t it? Like... red, or blood, or rogue or something?&quot; he replies. He remembers hearing it before but he hasn&#039;t taken any foreign language classes in school yet so he doesn&#039;t sound too sure...<br /><br />Alice smirks, &quot;Half right, it is French but it means rock, specifically a large mass of them. It&#039;s a name given to those who lived far from the city in the wilds, warriors against...well...you know don&#039;t you Fullmoon?&rdquo; she giggles at him.<br /><br />He blinks, then looks at her, &quot;Wait... you mean your family is...&quot; he tilts his head, &quot;Huh... well, okay then. Didn&#039;t expect that.&quot; he mutters, idly toying with his hair a bit. That was unusual. Most of the old monster hunting families tended to stay where they started out, though some of Clan Fullmoon&#039;s boys had moved out across the world the majority of the family was still in Ireland and then in their ancestral castle. It does explain how she can fight so well despite being blind though&hellip;<br /><br />Alice nods, &quot;We fight, but not with brawn.&quot; she licks her lips faintly, taking a step back, raising her cane up like a sword, &quot;The French were, in the old days, a nation of farmers and such, we were proud, but weak, and we had enemies at all sides. So, we used weapons such as the rapier, the main gauche, weapons of speed and precise blows. I can&#039;t see you but I got a nice good feel. You&#039;re not strong, there&#039;s no changing that, but I bet you&#039;re the fastest kid in class.&quot; She giggles softly &quot;Come at me again, I&#039;ll be light with you I promise.&quot;<br /><br />He blushes, then shakes his head, &quot;No... I don&#039;t wanna.&quot; he replies, &quot;I... I don&#039;t like fighting. Yeah I&#039;m fast, but only because I have to outrun bullies and stuff.&quot; he replies, turning around, &quot;Besides, my dad is really really big on... well... only fighting the proper way. If he found out I&#039;d started taking any kind of lessons for stuff like that... well...&quot; he shudders, &quot;Yeah, I can&#039;t outrun him.&quot;<br /><br />Alice frowns softly, but nods, not wanting to push the boy too hard, &quot;Well, if you ever need a place to lay low, my house is always open for you.&quot; She then smirks softly, cane extending to playfully lift the back of the boy&#039;s skirt, &quot;I&#039;ll be sure to buy a few more outfits your size if you are going to come by more...&quot;<br /><br />He squirms, stepping forward a bit as his skirts rustle from the movement of being lifted and then lowered as he moves out of your cane&#039;s reach. &quot;Hmph... notta girl...&quot; he frowns but... again, halfhearted... and after a moment he does say, &quot;... thanks though... he gets really scary when he&#039;s angry...&quot; he nods.<br /><br />Alice nods, &quot;The Celts and the Franks never were exactly close. All we had in common was we really hate the English.&quot; she giggles playfully, &quot;Like I said he probably won&#039;t care if you &#039;spend the night at a friend&#039;s house&#039; a few times, and I could use a more reliable maid.&quot; she grins.<br /><br />He sighs at the maid comment but, again, beats his dad. &quot;Alright alright... gimme a second...&quot; he sighs, going into the hallway in a rustle of skirts. After a few minutes she can hear his voice on the phone in the hall. &quot;Yeah, Dad? David invited me to stay over the weekend so, um, I&#039;m just gonna do that okay?&quot; he says, then a bit quicker, &quot;No, um, you can&#039;t speak to his dad. They&#039;re not here now they&hellip; um&hellip; they went out to get pizza&hellip; um&hellip; for dinner. Yeah, I&#039;ll see you on Monday. Yeah.&quot; he finishes quickly, then hangs up and walks back in, blushing a bit at the rustling sound his dress makes when he moves. It was starting to grow on him&hellip;<br /><br />Alice giggles playfully, &quot;Oooh the whole weekend, getting greedy&hellip;&quot; she teases, &quot;You must really like that outfit!&quot;<br /><br />He frowns, &quot;Mn... not that.&quot; he squirms, &quot;He always gets drunk after he botches a mission and, well... this one was kinda important so I probably shouldn&#039;t go home for a few days...&quot; he replies. Its not like he likes the outfit... even if it does feel nice and soft, and the rustling sound is kinda cute, and he might&#039;ve caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror (came standard with the house) and almost thought he&#039;d seen a girl in the house until he realized what he was looking at...<br /><br />Alice giggles, &quot;Well regardless, as cute as I&#039;m sure you are, can&#039;t have you in just a maid&#039;s uniform all weekend, we&#039;d look odd when we went shopping&quot; she winks, going to the phone &quot;What&#039;s your favorite color?&quot;<br /><br />He hesitates, he does like pink. He really does... but its not a color boys are supposed to like. &quot;Um... purple, or blue.&quot; he replies. Those are usually fine, right?<br /><br />Alice nods, &quot;Now,&quot; she says cooly as she starts dialing the phone &quot;In case the french or the breasts aren&#039;t enough sign, I&#039;m not your father, so while I agree those are lovely colors, if you enjoy any other colors you know you&#039;re free to indulge here...&quot; she asks. She can tell by his voice that he&rsquo;s not being entirely honest&hellip;<br /><br />He hesitates, but a small voice in the back of his head says &#039;hey, why not? She&rsquo;s right, she isn&#039;t Dad...&#039;. He squirms, then as she dials the last number he mutters, just barely audible to a normal person (though someone who relies on their ears more would probably hear it) &quot;... pink...&quot;<br /><br />Alice nods simply, speaking on the phone with a little smile on her face, &quot;Louise? It&#039;s Alice, before you come in tomorrow swing by the mall and get some new clothes. I have a new maid... yes well maybe if someone didn&#039;t take so many vacation days I wouldn&#039;t be plucking little maids off the street... Yes she&#039;s about Nessa&#039;s size, a little more willowy... Pink, and purple and blue, but mainly pink.&quot; she smirks playfully to Stephy, &quot;Right charge it to my account... alright see you tomorrow, try to be on time.&quot; She sighs softly as she hangs up, &quot;You&#039;re going to be more reliable, right? I can handle pouty and pretending you&#039;re not having fun but if I say come to my house after school you won&#039;t take that to mean three hours after?&quot;<br /><br />He blushes, about ready to shout back that he never actually agreed to be her maid, but... somehow it just doesn&#039;t come out. &quot;Mn... beats dealing with my dad...&quot; he admits grudgingly, still trying to sound like he doesn&#039;t want to come here... but... the more he thinks about it the better it sounds to him. &quot;So, what am I gonna have to do besides cooking and stuff?&quot; he asks, figuring he may as well get an idea for whats going to happen in his future now.<br /><br />Alice smiles &quot;Oh the usual, cleaning, tending to my clothes, simple projects like that...&quot; she giggles softly, motioning him to come over, &quot;I may need some more intimate help than others though, bathing for example... are you comfortable with that?&quot;<br /><br />Its probably a good thing she can&#039;t see the expression he makes when she says that, &quot;B-bathing!?&quot; he stammers, &quot;Like, you&#039;d be naked and stuff?&quot; he sounds a bit panicky... but then Irish Catholic, they were pretty much conditioned to treat sex and such as something sinful. &quot;I... um... er... I... W-well... I guess you&#039;d probably need help making sure you used the right bottles and stuff...&quot; he says. He&#039;s squirming, she can tell. Rustle rustle rustle&hellip;<br /><br />Alice giggles, nodding, &quot;It&#039;s not like I&#039;m gonna make you tongue bathe me or anything&hellip;&quot; she teases, pausing before extending her hand, playfully tickling under the boy&#039;s chin and rubbing his cheeks, &quot;Am I feeling relief or disappointment?&quot; she teases. &quot;But yes, sadly shampoo and body wash and such comes in such similar bottles and I&#039;ve yet to find a braille version of them, so I need someone standing by to hand me what I need, it&#039;s just easier than groping around.&quot;<br /><br />Stephen blushes, squirming and stepping away when she teases his chin and cheeks. He&#039;s still young and doesn&#039;t know about, well, anything like that&hellip; but he can guess she&rsquo;s teasing him by implying something a bit more adult&hellip;<br /><br />Alice just smiles softly &quot;So, since we&#039;ll be spending more time with each other, how about we get to know each other better? Do you have anything you&#039;d like to ask? This has been a busy day for you after all&hellip;&quot;<br /><br />He thinks, then raises an eyebrow at her, &quot;Who&#039;s &#039;Nessa&#039; and how is she my size?&quot; he asks. It had been bugging him for a bit as to why she&#039;d have a maid&#039;s uniform, especially such a nice... soft... well made... cute... sensu- NO NO NO NO NO! He shakes his head frantically to clear that thought out of it, then gets his train of thought back on the rails.... but why she&#039;d have a custom made dress like this in a kid&#039;s size.<br /><br />Alice smirks &quot;My little &lsquo;cousin&rsquo;, her mother sends her to me for training, and as I said the rule is strict that you must be in uniform&quot; she teases &quot;Besides, if she can fight in a maid uniform she can fight in anything, right?&quot;<br /><br />He nods, &quot;I suppose...&quot; he mutters, then looks at her again, &quot;But... I dunno, I keep getting this feeling that stuff you&#039;re saying has some extra hidden thing to it... like that &#039;training&#039;.&quot; he mutters. After all, a maid&#039;s dress is one thing, but that&#039;s pretty out there for any sort of martial training. He knew enough about that from watching his cousins.<br /><br />Alice smirks &quot;I assure you I take her training very seriously, it&#039;s part of my duty as a Roche to train the next generation in our ways... Of course we discuss other things, like women&rsquo;s issues and sexual education, too&hellip;&quot; she says casually, reaching for her water and taking a sip &quot;But we do train in fighting a good deal too, I&#039;m not a total hedonist.&quot;<br /><br />He blushes at the mention of that, he&#039;s only nine after all, not even in middle school yet. &quot;Mn... o-oh...&quot; he mutters, &quot;I, um... dunno about that stuff...&quot; he nods. He really doesn&#039;t. Sex ed isn&#039;t a thing for another few years yet, his house doesn&#039;t have internet access, and his father isn&#039;t the type to give the kid &#039;the talk&#039; (or really say anything beyond &#039;fetch me a beer or I&#039;ll smack ya&#039;).<br /><br />Alice giggles &quot;I&#039;m sorry dear, that was a bit out there for someone so young I suppose, but come on you can&#039;t be totally shocked by that can you? You&#039;re of the age where you&#039;re starting to notice girls... or boys?&quot; she offers, not sounding judgemental, more genuinely curious &quot;You must have a crush on someone...&quot;<br /><br />He shakes his head, but then this is well before Trixie would have moved to the city... &quot;Not really no. Most of the girls in school just think I&#039;m weird and... um... yeah, not the boys.&quot; he mutters. He&#039;d spent most his time trying to outrun the boys in his classes, and not in the fun &#039;catch me if you can&#039; way.<br /><br />Alice nods, &quot;I see&hellip;&quot; she says as she pats her lap, &quot;Come sit here sweetie.&quot; she coos, &quot;I don&#039;t often get such little cute and innocent types.&quot; she teases, giggling at how shy he was acting.<br /><br />He blushes. He hadn&#039;t sat in someone&#039;s lap since... well... since his mother died. He hesitates for a moment, but then she hears the rustle of his skirts as he walks over and feels his weight as he sits down on her lap. &quot;A-alright...&quot; he replies.<br /><br />Alice smiles, easily supporting the boy as she rubs his back &quot;Comfy?&quot;<br /><br />He squirms, blushing as he feels her hand through the silky soft material of his dress, &quot;Y-yeah...&quot; he replies.<br /><br />Alice giggles softly, &quot;Poor sweetie... you&#039;re not used to being touched gently are you?&quot; she coos lightly.<br /><br />He shakes his head, &quot;No... not really...&quot; he admits. Punches, kicks, the occasional backhand from his dad... yeah, his life wasn&#039;t really gentle.<br /><br />Alice leans in to kiss the boy&#039;s cheek, &quot;A sweet thing like you should have lots of soft, sweet, touches&hellip;&quot; she coos, pulling him into a hug, her soft breasts pushing against his head lightly.<br /><br />Stephy blinks a few times, then slowly leans in and closes his eyes, thinking that maybe this won&rsquo;t be so bad after all&hellip; even if he does have to wear a dress&hellip;<br /><br /><br />=============================================<br />A few weeks later Stephen is in Alice&#039;s bedroom with her, the young boy having just finished helping her pick out an outfit for today. He was still in his bathrobe himself and to say that he was nervous was an understatement... the truth was he was terrified of the chance that he might run into someone who&#039;d recognize him... but at the same time he was eager to do this. He wanted to go out in public with Alice as a girl.<br /><br />The boy had quite taken to dressing up like a girl, finding that it fit him a lot better than the masculine roles his father had kept trying to force on him all throughout his life. Transgenderism was suggested by Alice but Stephen said that while he did like being feminine, he didn&#039;t think he actually wanted to stop being male entirely. He might be curious enough to try being a girl temporarily if such a thing is possible (and given that magic exists, it probably is), but he wouldn&#039;t want to permanently change genders.<br /><br />Alice smiles as she adjusts her white top, sighing happily, &quot;Nice choices Stephy dear.&quot; she coos &quot;So, what will you be wearing?&quot; she adds, walking to her closet slowly, &quot;Something simple, don&#039;t want to call a ton of attention do we?&quot; She says as she looks through the closet, hand feeling the small tags attached to each article of clothing &quot;Hrm, so many choices&quot; she muses softly.<br /><br />He blushes, &quot;I dunno... I mean, you still know more about this than I do...&quot; he replies, though he&#039;s pretty sure what he&#039;s wearing won&#039;t be what draws attention. After all a kid accompanying a blind woman will already get people wondering. Kid sister helping out the handicapped older sibling? Girl scout trying to earn a merit badge? Being handicapped always made people nose-y.<br /><br />Alice just smiles &quot;Maybe start simple? A nice snug pair of girls&#039; jeans, a cute top, some makeup?&quot;<br /><br />He thinks on that, then blushes, &quot;Um... maybe a skirt instead?&quot; he suggests. He has to admit, it was odd the first time but wearing skirts has really grown on him... He looks through the smaller outfits, thinking, then takes out a loose pink silk tunic and a blue denim ankle-length skirt. &quot;How about these?&quot; he asks, holding them so she can feel the tags.<br /><br />Alice giggles, nodding as she feels the tags, &quot;Good choices! Go on down to the maid&#039;s quarters to have whoever&#039;s on duty today get you made up.&quot; she smiles. Obviously someone had to remain at home to handle the chores and such while Stephy was on his little adventure, and the boy needed someone with working eyes to help him get his makeup on anyway.<br /><br />He nods, blushing a bit as he slips out of the robe and steps into the skirt, then pulls on the tunic and straightens it. He puts on a pair of pink strappy sandals to match the top, then heads out into the maid&#039;s quarters and knocks on the door. &quot;Hello?&quot;<br /><br />The door opens up, revealing a girl, looking to be about fourteen&hellip; maybe fifteen, dressed in the traditional maid uniform with long black hair and soft tanned skin. &quot;Hello!&quot; she says happily in a thick Central American accent, &quot;Oh! Stephy!&quot; she giggles, reaching a hand out to yank him in, &quot;You look great!&quot; Stephy would remember her, one of the regulars (Alice has a small handful of regular maids and the occasional temporary ones she simply drags back to have fun with...). Nessa, the girl whose clothes he wore on the first day. She was always pretty pleasant, though for some reason her hands were absolutely covered in scars, leading to her wearing gloves often like now, the snug little white lace gloves contrasting against her heavily... &quot;Almost didn&#039;t recognize you!&quot;<br /><br />Stephy blushes at her and walks in, &quot;Heya Nessa...&quot; he smiles shyly, &quot;Um... Alice asked me to come down so you could put some makeup on me. I&#039;m still learning that one and, well, its not like she can tell if I did it right or not.&quot; he nods. He always feels a bit disturbed by her scarred hands, all the markings making him wonder what on earth happened to her... its like she stuck them in some big mincing machine, or maybe she used to cut herself in a sacred rite to commune with blood drinking deities, or maybe she had a pet langolier or something when she was younger.<br /><br />Nessa just giggles softly, nodding, &quot;Yep, she can have all the freaky sixth sense she wants, can&#039;t echo locate good eyeshadow use.&quot; she teases, &quot;You came to the right girl, I do her makeup all the time&quot; she says as she leads the boy to her vanity, &quot;So how much do we want? This is your big first time out, I want you to be comfy, want just a little dusting to accent how pretty you are normally?&quot;<br /><br />He blushes even deeper when she calls him &#039;pretty&#039;, &quot;Um, just a little please... I mean, I&#039;m nine and all... probably shouldn&#039;t wear too much.&quot; he replies, squirming a bit. He knew that makeup was for teenagers and such and, well, he wasn&#039;t yet. Some kids, or at least some girls would want to do it as early as possible, but he&#039;d survived in life by going unnoticed whenever he could.<br /><br />She nods, &quot;Smart plan there.&quot; she says, taking a small brush and jar of powder out. Funny enough none of her makeup was name-brand... or even generic, indeed it was all in what looks like home made cases, the makeup inside made herself. &quot;Let&#039;s start simple.&quot; she says, dunking the brush in the powder, tamping it off, and giving Stephy a light brushing of skin colored foundation.<br /><br />Stephy takes off his glasses and sits down at the vanity, trying to hold still despite the brush tickling him. &quot;So, where do you get this stuff anyways?&quot; he asks. He doesn&#039;t know makeup very well, but he does recognize that the cases were made by hand and probably not bought at a department store or something.<br /><br />She smiles &quot;Like em? My family makes them all, we use all natural stuff, real old school stuff, it&#039;s great. People swear our makeup makes them feel five years younger... maybe not good for you.&quot; she teases<br /><br />He bites back a laugh, though his mouth goes all funny for a moment. &quot;Yeah... probably not...&quot; he giggles, forcing himself to hold still as Nessa continues to do his face up, &quot;So, um... I didn&#039;t get a chance to ask before, but how did you wind up one of Alice&#039;s maids?&quot; he asks, though of course the real question he wants to ask is why her hands look like someone tried to make hamburger out of them. Alice had called Nessa her &lsquo;cousin&rsquo;, but given that she was a frenchwoman and Nessa looked like she was from Mexico or further south, well, he was forced to question that unless adoption was involved.<br /><br />She nods, switching to get a small thing of pale pink blush &quot;Oh she&#039;s a family friend, her mom helped my mom a way while back so we&#039;ve always been kinda close. She&#039;s kinda like a sister almost, ya know?&quot; She smiles, applying just a faint coloring of blush to those cheeks.<br /><br />He blushes, then gives a small nod, &quot;Yeah... I do.&quot; he admits. He really had started thinking of her as a sort of big sister. Maybe it&#039;s because she treated him like her own kid sibling (kiddie fiddling aside) or maybe it&#039;s because she&#039;s just one of the few people in his life who&#039;s actually shown him any genuine affection... but he found that he really did begin to think of her as the family he wished he&#039;d had.<br /><br />She nods, &quot;Mom works a lot, dad died a few years ago, so I stay here a bunch. My big sisters are usually too busy with school or whatever, or they just stay with friends too&quot; she says as she finishes her work &quot;Alright, one last thing, a little bit of eye liner, just enough to make those pretty things pop out.&quot;<br /><br />He mutters something that sounds like &#039;lucky&#039; when she mentions her dead father, then tries to hold still while she does the eyes. This part always freaks him out a bit. It&rsquo;s one of the reasons why he doesn&#039;t wear contacts, he gets really uncomfortable with anything that close to his eyeball.<br /><br />She smiles, &quot;It&#039;s ok&hellip;&quot; she murmurs, taking out what looks like a small, very blunt, wood stake more than a pencil, the tip covered in a black substance, &quot;This bit freaks me out too, just trust me and don&#039;t wiggle.&quot; she says, very lightly brushing the tip of the &#039;stake&#039; along the outside of the boy&#039;s eyes, applying just enough liner to contrast against his soft skin and bright eyes.<br /><br />He makes little involuntary whimpering noises, but manages to keep himself under control long enough for her to do his eyes, though he almost flinches a couple times. Once she finishes he puts his glasses back on and looks in the mirror curiously.<br /><br />She giggles, stepping aside to let him take a good look. He really hadn&#039;t changed much, just enough faint makeup to accentuate his already soft, girlish, features, drawing out his own appearance rather than making a mask...&quot;Tah dah!&quot;<br /><br />He blinks, &quot;Wow... I dunno how you know how you do all this stuff. I mean I see these and it&#039;s just...&quot; he shrugs, not sure what else to say. &quot;Hope we can get that eye makeup off before I gotta go home though... I think my dad might notice that...&quot; he adds nervously, rubbing his arm through his sleeve.<br /><br />She nods, &quot;All easily washable don&#039;t worry.&quot; she then smiles softly, petting the boy&#039;s head softly, &quot;You&#039;re a good guy, Stephy.&quot;<br /><br />He squirms a bit at that, then says, &quot;Um... probably shouldn&#039;t keep Alice waiting... Thanks Nessa.&quot; he nods, then heads out of the room and back up to where Alice is waiting for him. &quot;All set.&quot; he tells her when he enters, sounding more than a little nervous still.<br /><br />Alice smiles &quot;All ready? If you want to call it off it&#039;s fine, you know.&quot; she adds, hearing the nerves in his voice.<br /><br />He squirms, he almost says yes... but then shakes his head. &quot;N-no... I&#039;m good.&quot; he nods. He&#039;s afraid, yes... but he doesn&#039;t want to stay hidden forever. If he&#039;s lucky then it&#039;ll just be a quick shopping trip with no worrying encounters at all. Just in and out and gone again. No big deal at all...<br /><br />She nods, holding her free arm out for him to take, &quot;Then let&#039;s go, we&#039;re just hitting the little Japanese place nearby, you know the one?&quot;<br /><br />He thinks, &quot;Um... no, not really.&quot; he replies. He doesn&#039;t say why, but the reason is that his father isn&#039;t exactly... fond... of asian people&hellip; or hispanic, or French, or not-Irish (if it&#039;s not obvious yet, Robert is a horrible person). &quot;What&#039;s it called again?&quot; he asks, sliding his arms around her extended one.<br /><br />Alice smiles, &quot;Nippon Daido, just a couple blocks west of here, it&#039;s in a little strip mall with other Japanese stores.&quot;<br /><br />He nods, &quot;Got it.&quot; he replies, then walks out of the house with her, trying his best to act natural. The constant contact with Alice makes it easier, her presence reassuring to the young boy... and it helps knowing that if anyone was mean that she was a Hunter. Someone who could fight a vampire or werewolf onto the ground wasn&#039;t going to be intimidated by bullies, blind or not. Eventually they get to the strip mall, having to walk all the way because... well, neither one of them was going to be driving now were they? He looks around, finds the correct store, and half-guides Alice over to it, holding the door open while she walks inside.<br /><br />Alice smiles, taking a breath through her nose and nodding &quot;Yep, this is it&quot; she says, the old man behind the counter greeting her in Japanese, and Alice returning the greeting. &quot;Just a quick little trip to get some supplies for the kitchen. If you see anything you&#039;d like feel free, just tell me so I don&#039;t get surprised by the bill.&quot; she giggles<br /><br />Stephy nods, looking around the store for a bit. Its basically a very Japanese convenience store, complete with a magazine rack which he immediately goes over to, flipping through one of the manga on display. As he&#039;s doing this the door opens again and a new pair of small footsteps echo through the building heading towards the rack. He&#039;s focused on his reading though and doesn&#039;t notice until...<br /><br />&quot;... Stephen?&quot; asks a young female voice, making the small boy almost jump right out of his skin.<br /><br />Standing next to him is a young girl a mere two months his senior with fiery red hair tied back into loose pigtails, bright emerald green eyes, pale skin with freckles across her nose and cheeks, and a very surprised look on her face. She&#039;s wearing a green silk top and a pair of girl&#039;s jeans with a shamrock embroidered onto one leg, along with green tennis shoes. Its none other than his cousin who share&#039;s the feminine form of his name because their mothers thought it&#039;d be &#039;cute&#039;, Stephanie Fullmoon. Of course these days he thinks of her as Simoni, but this is before she met Arja and their adventures began.<br /><br />&quot;What the heck...&quot; she asks, keeping her voice low, &quot;Why are you dressed like that?! Are you nuts?! If Uncle Bob sees you like this he&#039;ll beat the snot out of you!&quot; she hisses, sounding very concerned, but oddly curious as well...<br /><br />&quot;S-stephanie!&quot; he eeps, &quot;I... um... l-look, it&#039;s a long story and I&#039;ll tell you later, its... oh jeez, are your parents here?! If Aunt Catherine or Uncle Gary see me...&quot; he whimpers to which she replies, &quot;No no, just me. Mom and Dad are at home... seriously calm down, Mom wouldn&#039;t tell Bob if she saw you like this. She hasn&#039;t trusted him since the Jack Daniels and Fireworks incident remember?&quot; she whispers back.<br /><br />Alice raises a brow as she hears panicked whispering coming from the boy at the magazines, making her way over slowly &quot;Everything ok?&quot; she asks in a calm voice, but there a was an undertone clear to Stephy that if he needed her to start swinging her cane to give a signal... Her cane slips out in front of her, lightly tapping Stephanie&#039;s shoes, quickly &#039;seeing&#039; it&#039;s just a young girl... &quot;Oh, hey there.&quot; she says in a more friendly tone. &quot;Sorry, are you a friend of Stephy&#039;s?&quot;<br /><br />Stephanie jumps a bit, then looks up at the blind woman, &quot;Oh... um, yeah. I&#039;m hi- er, her cousin, Stephanie Fullmoon.&quot; she replies, nodding. &quot;Yeah, I know the names are similar. Our moms thought it&#039;d be cute.&quot; she adds. Even now Stephanie was quick on the uptake, knowing better than to accidentally out her cousin in this sort of situation. &quot;Um, who&#039;re you?&quot; she asks.<br /><br />Alice smiles, &quot;Alice Roche, Stephy is working for me as a helper.&quot; she says in a friendly tone, &quot;You two are related then?&quot;<br /><br />She nods, &quot;Yep, cousins like I said.&quot; she replies. &quot;Nice to meetcha too. So... helper...&quot; she replies, &quot;Thats interesting...&quot; she adds, not mentioning that it was really interesting that part of being a &#039;helper&#039; apparently involved dressing in drag for a blind woman. Did she not know that &#039;Stephy&#039; was a boy, even people who could see routinely mistook him for a girl after all...<br /><br />Alice nods &quot;She&#039;s a sweet little girl isn&#039;t she?&quot; She offers, playing into the assumption a bit, &quot;I bumped her pretty badly in the park and just happened to need some help so I offered her the work, and she just took to it perfectly.&quot;<br /><br />She blinks, &quot;Huh... I don&#039;t think I&#039;ve seen her wear that outfit before... did you help her get it? Her dad... um... is usually pretty stingy when he buys her new stuff.&quot; she replies, feeling this out. She could tell the blind woman was more than she seemed too. She didn&#039;t know a lot about her magical heritage, but she could sense magic in others and something about this woman was making her radar go &#039;ping&#039;.<br /><br />Alice simply nods, &quot;I&#039;m aware, don&#039;t worry I won&#039;t be sending her home in it, I don&#039;t want to insult the man by buying his daughter clothes.&quot; she says cooly, making it fairly clear she understood the situation &quot;Stephy knows my house is a safe place though, where she can dress however she wants.&quot;<br /><br />Stephanie raises her eyebrow at that, smirking just a bit, &quot;Probably a good idea, her dad has a reaaaaaaally nasty temper... You should probably be careful if you ever bump into him. If he thinks he has a reason to, he&#039;ll try to start a fight with ya.&quot; she nods, putting an arm around her cousin, &quot;Glad to know she&#039;s got someone safe to go though.&quot;<br /><br />Alice just chuckles &quot;Oh don&#039;t worry for me, I can handle myself well&hellip;&quot; she says simply, licking her lips faintly, &quot;Would you like to come over as well, dear? I&#039;m about to check out. Speaking of, if you wanna buy that comic toss it in now sweetie.&quot; she nods to Stephy, able to hear the rustling of pages next to where his breathing was coming from.<br /><br />Stephy nods and pops it into the bag, his face bright pink after his much more confident cousin chatted it up about &#039;her&#039; and the woman &#039;she&#039; was helping... but follows along mutely behind them. After they leave Stephanie grins at the woman, &quot;Sooo... you&#039;re not a mundane either are ya?&quot; she giggles, &quot;S&#039;okay, I&#039;m a witch, so I can tell~&quot; she grins.<br /><br />Alice smirks, &quot;Nah, Hunter.&quot; she says casually as she takes her purchases, walking out the door with the two children.<br /><br />She tilts her head, &quot;Huh, weird... usually that only goes off when I&#039;m around someone who can do magic... or is magic... or something something...&quot; she shrugs, &quot;Ah well, maybe there was a Japanese goblin or something hiding in the store. I think I saw a few kappa in the lake behind here the other week...&quot; she nods... though most mundanes would only see turtles if the weren&#039;t quick enough.<br /><br />Alice smiles, &quot;Never said I didn&#039;t have a few tricks.&quot; she teases, reaching to tousle Stephanie&#039;s hair playfully before paying the man, &quot;Stephy, bags please?&quot;<br /><br />Stephy giggles a bit, still blushing over all this... still, if he had to be found out it could be worse than his cousin. She was pretty open minded... a lot moreso lately after she&#039;d gotten that laptop for her birthday actually. Stephy picks up the bags and follows her out of the store, Stephanie following behind because, hey why not? She had been invited and this looked like it&#039;d be interesting... &quot;So you know a few tricks huh? Wish I could learn some... I mean I&#039;m a Fullmoon witch and all but for some weird reason my mom is soooooooooo overprotective when it comes to magic. She won&#039;t even let me practice with my wind and I can forget about anything more complicated than that.&quot; she frowns, folding her arms, &quot;No idea why either... she just said I wasn&#039;t allowed and that was that.&quot;<br /><br />Alice raises a brow, &quot;Wait, the women of your clan use wind magic?&quot; she asks, eyes widening behind her glasses, remembering the first time she tried to &#039;spar&#039; with Stephen, how despite knocking him over she found an unseen force tripping her up. &quot;Hrm&hellip;&quot; she says, keeping that thought to herself for now... no reason to stress the boy out.<br /><br />Stephanie blinks, then nods, &quot;Yeah. All the men... well... most of the men...&quot; she corrects herself with an apologetic glance at Stephy, &quot;... are these big bruiser types, and all the women can use wind magic and turn into these half-raven harpy things.&quot; she replies, &quot;I try to practice in secret, but my mom always goes ballistic when I do... says she&#039;s afraid of me turning out like my big brother... Its not like I&#039;ll use my magic for...&quot; she blinks, then winces and finishes, &quot;... for... bad things... that he didn&#039;t do...&quot; she mutters, glancing away. She knew what Nelen had done with his blood magic&hellip; though she agreed those boys deserved it, it still didn&rsquo;t change what had happened.<br /><br />Alice nods, knowing to leave topics like that be, &quot;Well, any good family of Stephy&#039;s is welcome at my house any time.&quot; she says with a smile, &quot;I&#039;m no witch, but I can provide you a place to study if you like, and Nessa I&#039;m sure would love someone to magically spar with...&quot;<br /><br />She blushes, &quot;Sounds tempting, but my mom is a lot more overprotective... a LOT more... than... Stephy&#039;s... dad is... I can probably come and visit, but she can tell when I&#039;ve been practicing my magic and, well, yeah...&quot; she admits, &quot;I wouldn&#039;t mind visiting though...&quot; she grins, &quot;So... whats really going on here? If you&#039;re a hunter then you don&#039;t need that much help? Are you trying to protect &#039;her&#039; from &#039;her&#039; dad, or is this some sort of secret romance thing?&quot; she giggles as Stephy almost stumbles, his face going bright pink when she says that.<br /><br />Alice giggles, &quot;Hunters are, at our core, protectors. Stephy needs a safe place to be himself, and he&#039;s wonderful company, it&#039;s like having a little brother around.&quot; she smiles happily, &quot;It works out nicely for both of us, and I really did clock his ankle pretty badly the first time we met, so I felt bad for the guy.&quot; she smiles.<br /><br />She giggles, &quot;Yeah, &#039;him&#039;self.&quot; she replies, Stephy pouting at her, &quot;Don&#039;t be a jerk...&quot; he frowns, to which Stephanie giggles and pats his head, &quot;Yeah, thats cute though... I swear sometimes I wish someone would just... I dunno... snatch me away from here so I could actually learn to use my magic properly instead of being stuck pretending to be mundane all the time.&quot; she frowns, not noticing a young arabian boy snoozing on a park bench nearby when she says &#039;I wish&#039;.<br /><br />Alice grins faintly, &quot;Well, mundane is what you make of it.&quot; she says simply, stopping in front of her house&#039;s door and rapping on it a few times with her cane, and speaking firmly in French before the sound of the locks opening up comes from it, &quot;There we go.&quot;<br /><br />Stephanie and Stephy walk inside, the former admiring the decor which was surprisingly well co-ordinated for someone who couldn&#039;t see, while the latter goes to the kitchen to put away the groceries. &quot;Huh, nice place.&quot; she comments.<br /><br />Alice smiles, &quot;Thank you.&quot; she replies, Nessa quickly moving to the kitchen to help Stephy unload. &quot;So, you live around here? Not a lot of little girls randomly go to the japanese market alone&quot; she teases<br /><br />Stephanie blinks, then smacks her forehead. &quot;D&#039;oh! I forgot! I was gonna buy some pocky!&quot; she frowns, then shrugs it off... its not like she can&#039;t go back after all, &quot;But yeah, I live about ten blocks away.&quot; she replies, &quot;Not too far from Stephen actually.&quot; she nods, &quot;Still, didn&#039;t know there were any others like us in town... I mean, guys who know about all this sorta stuff.&quot;<br /><br />Alice nods, &quot;Oh if that&#039;s what you want.&quot; she looks back to the kitchen, &quot;Nessa, can you bring some pocky for our guest?&quot; She calls out before turning back, &quot;Can&#039;t stand the stuff myself, Nessa told me I&#039;d like it because I like those chocolate covered biscuits but just doesn&#039;t taste the same, take all you want&quot; she says with a smile before acknowledging the other thing Stephanie said. &quot;Yes, well subtly is my specialty.&quot; she teases, &quot;Most can&#039;t feel me at all, part of those &#039;tricks&#039; I mentioned having&quot; she giggles &quot;You must be a gifted little witch...&quot;<br /><br />She sighs, &quot;Heck if I know... I was born able to sense this sorta stuffs. I&#039;d like to learn how to use my magic properly and all... but every time I try my mom stomps all over the idea and grounds me for a week. Its like she&#039;s almost terrified that something horrible could happen if I ever learn how to use it!&quot; she frowns, crossing her arms in frustration. &quot;She&#039;s a great mom otherwise but... ugh! I just want some way outta here, anywhere, so I can actually use magic, even if I had to... I dunno... get kidnapped or something!&quot;<br /><br />Meanwhile...<br /><br />In a large mansion in India a ten year old Hindi girl suddenly pauses and rubs at her ears... then shrugs and dismisses the burning sensation as a bug bite or something before picking her favorite flogger from the rack and going to talk to the maid about what happens when her lunch arrives late.<br /><br />&quot;... I dunno. Its like... I have it, I want to use it, but gods help me if I do. Its like having to go through my whole life with one arm glued to my side. I can manage it but it just drives me nuts!&quot; she pouts.<br /><br />Alice nods, &quot;Well, the world of magic isn&#039;t all fun and freedom. There are very evil people, like in the mundane world, but sadly magic rewards power and will, not morals, and many dark souls have a great deal of both. I can understand a mother&#039;s fear, even if it can be stifling.&quot; she says, patting the girl&#039;s head as Nessa comes back in quickly, holding a few boxes of pocky in her gloved hands, &quot;Here you go! Glad to get these out of the pantry really.&quot; she giggles.<br /><br />Stephanie pouts up at her, but immediately lights up at the pocky and grabs it, stuffing several into her mouth like some Spy TF2 meme. &quot;Nawm!&quot; she giggles as Stephy walks back in, rolling his eyes at her. &quot;Jeez Stephanie, you and your pocky...&quot; he smiles, taking one for himself as she blinks at him, &quot;Huh...&quot; she shrugs it off, &quot;So, what exactly does he do here besides... well...&quot; she gestures to his outfit.<br /><br />Alice smirks playfully, &quot;Whatever I tell him to.&quot; she teases, lightly swatting Stephy&#039;s rump with the cane, making Nessa giggle loudly, &quot;Really though, he is a very good helper, he&#039;s a sweet little guy.&quot; she smiles.<br /><br />Stephanie raises her eyebrow at the sudden smack from the cane, but shrugs it off. &quot;Huh, okaaaaaaaay...&quot; she nods, &quot;Well, um... so long as it&#039;s not, um, bad.&quot; she replies, fidgeting a bit, &quot;I mean, jeez, I can&#039;t remember the last time I actually saw him smile about, well, anything.&quot; she nods, giving him a sympathetic pat on the hand.<br /><br />Alice smiles, &quot;Well I&#039;m just glad to be able to help him have a place where he feels comfortable, he took a little probing but he&#039;s opening up finally&quot; she smiles, rubbing the boy&#039;s head<br />Stephy squirms at all this, but he does seem to be having a hard time not smiling. Stephanie giggles, then nods, &quot;Well, I should probably head home before my mom starts worrying that I&#039;m off practicing witchcraft or something... &#039;cause, y&#039;know, I actually could be and all.&quot; she smirks, hopping up and giving her cousin a quick hug before gathering up her pocky, &quot;Guess I&#039;ll just tell her they were having a sale or something....&quot; she nods at the armload of candy, &quot;Anyways, nice meeting ya. Keep an ey- watch out f- um... take care of him okay?&quot; she nods, that one sounds good, and then heads back out the front door and down the block.<br /><br />Alice smirks playfully, nodding, &quot;Will do.&quot; she replies as Nessa ushers Stephanie to the door, &quot;She seems sweet, glad you have at least some friendly family, family is important to have.&quot;<br /><br />He nods, &quot;Yeah... wish we were brother &#039;n sister instead of cousins though...&quot; he squirms, pouting a bit. He seems to have a real issue with his parents, or at least with one of them. &quot;Her mom is pretty nuts about her learning how to use her magic though but... um... I kinda don&#039;t wanna tell her the real reason...&quot; he mutters.<br /><br />Alice raises a brow at that, &quot;What is that?&quot;<br /><br />He sighs, &quot;Well... I overheard my father talking about it one night when he had some of our uncles over for drinks, see...&quot; he starts, telling them about how Clan Fullmoon is normally led by a Matriarch but, sometime before he and Stephanie were born, his grandfather usurped clan control and declared himself Patriarch of the Fullmoons. He&#039;s as traditionalist as they come and had decided that magic would be taboo among the clan and that any of their daughters who were found to have taught themselves magic or used their talents would be subject to punishment, possibly even banishment from the clan.<br /><br />&quot;... and to make matters worse, none of the witches are able to do anything about it. He&#039;s got something that blocks their magic and keeps them from hurting him... um, don&#039;t tell her though, okay? Aunt Cathy hasn&#039;t told her and, well, I don&#039;t want her mad at me...&quot; he nods sheepishly. &quot;But yeah, gramps says that all we need to fight monsters is steel and strength, no magic and no spells.&quot;<br /><br />Alice frowns at that, but nods, &quot;Your grandfather is a fool, you know.&quot; she says, shaking her head, &quot;There was a Hunter lineage in Rome that thought the same. They put magic users, family or not, to the sword, feeling all they needed was their courage and blades. They were powerful fighters, and had successes, but they fell when they tried to &#039;cleanse the barbarians&#039;. We had had magic, the Goths and Gauls and Celts, we were foes normally, but when Rome marched to purge our magics from Europe we united, and our magics drove them into the ground. Strength may beat one magic user, but kill enough of them and they start making alliances and magic, all magic, is at its core sympathetic.&quot;<br /><br /><br />Stephen nods, &quot;Mm, he sure sounds nasty. My dad idolizes the guy but, well... I never met him. Saw him at a couple family things, but only from a distance. He&#039;s... he&#039;s really scary honestly...&quot; he shudders, &quot;Something about him... I dunno, its like I get really scared whenever I&#039;d see him but I couldn&#039;t tell what was doing it.&quot;<br /><br />Alice nods, sighing softly before rubbing the boy&#039;s head, &quot;Hopefully the clan has more boys like you in it than like him.&quot;<br /><br />Stephy frowns, glancing away, &quot;I doubt it... I know Stephanie&#039;s big brother, Nelen, had apparently learned some kinda magic and... um...&quot; he squirms, &quot;Actually, the day I met you I was trying to stay out of the house because my grandpa had told my dad to find him because he was apparently in town and... um... I heard him say that he had orders to kill him.&quot;<br /><br />Alcie sighs softly, shaking her head &quot;Pathetic. Well, if it helps, men like him usually get theirs...&quot;<br /><br />Stephy nods, &quot;I hope so... I heard a bit about how the clan used to be under my great grandma Eliza and... well... it wasn&#039;t perfect, but it wasn&#039;t this.&quot; he sighs, shaking his head. &quot;I dunno... I just wonder if he&#039;ll ever actually wind up going against someone who really -could- stop him...&quot;<br /><br />======================================================<br /><br />Stephy giggles, practically hanging off Alice&#039;s arm as the group exits the building where the fighting tournament was... moving rather quickly as they can hear police sirens in the distance. Arja may have that lovely diplomatic immunity, but Japanese cops were about some of the biggest hard asses that there were. The mysterious panda-girl has already vanished into the city, going off to gods know where, and Nelen is rubbing at his forehead as he can feel the beginnings of the usual headache he gets after Merihim decides it&#039;s his turn to drive.<br /><br />&quot;What are you doing in Japan?&quot; asks Stephy, still grinning ear to ear over his old friend&#039;s reappearance, &quot;I mean, last time I saw you was right after... um... y&#039;know... my idiot dad found out about what we were doing and stuffs...&quot; he shrugs that thought off, not wanting to think about it any longer than he had to.<br /><br />Alice smiles, &quot;I&#039;m here to do a little work with the local law enforcement on the more supernatural threats. Just teaching really, pretty boring, but it pays the bills.&quot; she teases &quot;That&#039;s why I wanted to meet with Barjar, get a heads up on what they already know and all.&quot; she says as she happily snuggles Stephy close, Trixie huffing softly as she sees that.<br /><br />Stephy pouts at her, giving his girlfriend a quick kiss on her cheek to show he&#039;s still all her&#039;s but that this woman is still a close friend. &quot;Huh, neat. Guess we would&#039;ve ran into you eventually anyways then, seeing as how we&#039;re staying at her house.&quot; he nods, &quot;Oh! That reminds me, you&#039;ll flip when you &lsquo;see&rsquo; this. Simoni, c&#039;mere.&quot; he grins as Simoni rolls her eyes, walking closer, &quot;Here, feel her, see if she feels familiar.&quot; he giggles, wondering if Alice can guess the true identity of the hindi girl.<br /><br />Alice blinks, rubbing Simoni&#039;s face a few times &quot;Hmmm&quot; she muses, pinching the girl&#039;s nose playfully &quot;Stephanie, right? Your cousin you wanted to be your sister?&quot; she says in a teasing voice &quot;Hrm&quot; she says &quot;Feels different though...same structure but some...tweaks...&quot;<br /><br />Simoni smirks, &quot;Oh he did did he?&quot; she grins, &quot;Well, yeah... its pretty different. For one... I&#039;m an Indian now.&quot; she grins as Alice feels the tiny dot on her forhead. Sometimes, even when out of the country, she still liked to show her adopted heritage. As Alice explores she&#039;d notice other things too, the skin actually felt a bit different from her original appearance (though thats partially due to the fact that she was outdoors a lot more these days), and her hair had gone from frizzy and a tiny bit coarse to smooth and straight as well. &quot;But yeah, I&#039;m called &#039;Simoni&#039; now, and I&#039;m actually Arja... and funny enough Iravi&#039;s sister now too.&quot;<br /><br />Alice nods, &quot;I see&hellip;&quot; she says, giggling as she pets the girl&#039;s head, &quot;Hiding out, or just wanted to REALLY tell your granpda to piss off?&quot; she teases, patting Arja&#039;s head too &quot;You two look cute together.&quot; she smiles. She can&rsquo;t see them, but she can tell that they stay close to each other by the sound of their footsteps.<br /><br />Simoni giggles as she glances at Arja, still doing her best impersonation of an air raid siren over the prize from the tournament. &quot;Bit of both, but it didn&#039;t work...&quot; she sighs, &quot;Found out why mom was really keeping me from learning magic too, turns out gramps has a policy of &#039;learn any magic and I&#039;ll kill you dead&#039;.&quot; she rolls her eyes as Stephy lets out a nervous giggle, &quot;Did get one thing right though, it did take getting kidnapped to actually learn magic.&quot; she giggles, snuggling into Arja despite the constant &#039;EEEEEEEE&#039; coming from the ape-girl&#039;s mouth.<br /><br />Dawn smirks at the couple, &quot;Yeah, those two are pretty much inseparable, kinda like me and beardy over here... except unlike them we&#039;re not fuckbuddies.&quot; she grins as Nelen shudders, &quot;Dawn, don&#039;t say shit like that, I&#039;ve got a damn headache...&quot; he sighs as Dawn grins wider and skips a bit, &quot;Fuck-buuuuuuuddies~&quot;<br /><br />Alice giggles, &quot;I&#039;m glad to see you found such a fun group.&quot; Alice says to Stephy happily &quot;Looks like you really came into your own.&quot;<br /><br />Stephy giggles, &quot;You have noooooooo idea~&quot; he replies, &quot;But I&#039;ll tell you about that one indoors.&quot; he grins mischeviously as the group gets back to Iravi&#039;s place. Nelen helps hold the gates open as Stephy quickly slips through, making sure that none of him touches the cold iron, then they head up past her Torii gate where Nelen&#039;s head gives another throb. As they get inside they see Ivari and Nelen waves for her. &quot;Hey Ivari, found a woman who said she wanted to meet with you... also, Arja got some kind of &#039;ultimate fangirl prize&#039; or something and won&#039;t stop doing that, can you get her to knock it off? My head is killing me...&quot; he sighs, heading into the living room and fishing around in his bag for something.<br /><br />Alice giggles softly as Ivari swats Arja&#039;s head. &quot;Enough.&quot; she says in Hindi, the girl clamming up at that, just grinning wide as she holds her picture. &quot;Glad you made it.&quot; she says to Alice &quot;Your assistant looked like she was going to have a fit when she said you just bolted out of the car...&quot; after a bit there&#039;s a loud yell before a young woman in a black business suit angrily storms to the group, glaring at Alice, &quot;What kind of grown woman runs off, when we&#039;re SUPPOSED to be working, to go play martial artist? What if the police came by wanting to meet you, do I just say &#039;oh sorry, your expert you paid good money for decided she wanted to play Dragon Ball on the way here?&rdquo; she demands! Stephy would recognize the black gloves jabbing the grinning Alice&#039;s chest, though, it was Nessa! Apparently she got a promotion.<br /><br />Stephy just giggles, &quot;Hey Nessa, I like your new suit.&quot; he says, grinning all fae-like as he waits for her to notice who he is and what he just said. Dawn smirks at him, &quot;I have taught you well young one.&quot; she replies, then vanishes. A few minutes later Lupe audibly yelps as Dawn&#039;s voice comes from the living room saying &#039;I claim this couch for Wonderland!&#039;.<br /><br />Alice smirks softly as Nessa blinks, looking at the boy, seeming to take a moment to register before breaking into a wide smile &quot;Stephy?&quot;<br /><br />Stephy giggles, posing with his hands on his hips, &quot;New and improved~&quot; he replies, swishing his hips in his long fae-ish dress. The boy is wearing a longsleeved white silk blouse with long loose sleeves and a full length blue satin gypsy skirt, going more for fairytale girl than a modern look today, his hair tied back to uncover his slightly pointed fae eartips. &quot;Its great to see you little mayan girl!&quot; he giggles, glomping her around the shoulders.<br /><br />She just grins, hugging back, &quot;Aztec, how many times do I have to tell you that?&quot; she giggles, Alice speaking up. &quot;This is Nochtli-Huehueteotl, or Nessa , my assistant. Blood mage extraordinaire and one of the few people who can handle making my schedules.&quot;<br /><br /><br />Simoni giggles, &quot;We&#039;ve met.&quot; she grins, nomming on some pocky she&#039;d taken from one of the concession stands on the way out (the workers had fled with the others) as Stephy giggles, &quot;Aztec, Mayan, whichever. It&#039;s been a busy few years, I can&#039;t keep track of everything.&quot; he replies.<br /><br />Alice smiles, nodding as Ivari motions for her to come with her to a side room, &quot;Nessa be a dear and amuse Stephy and his friends? I do actually have to do some work it seems.&quot; she teases, Nessa nodding &quot;Sure, it&#039;ll be great to catch up, and it&#039;s so rare you actually work other than killing things I&#039;d hate to interrupt.&quot; she says, sticking her tongue out as Alice walks off &quot;Saw that.&quot; she adds in as the door closes<br /><br />Stephy grins and takes Nessa into the living room with him, introducing all the others. &quot;So yeah, this is Trixie, my girlfriend. No really, she&#039;s a girl.&quot; he grins, snuggling into the cowgirl, &quot;That&#039;s Nelen over there...&quot; he nods to the bearded warlock, currently holding a pain amulet against his forehead and trying not to move too much, &quot;Dawn is our catgirl there.&quot; he indicates her, laying on the couch and batting at Lupe&#039;s nose with her claws. &quot;Our resident cyclops there is Drusilla. You&#039;ll really like her. Remember my dad? Well she tore him limb from limb, literally! It was raining body parts! Oh don&#039;t look so embarrassed Drus, he deserved it.&quot; he giggles at her, &quot;The coffin over there is Natasha, but she won&#039;t be up for a bit yet, and that&#039;s her werewolf Lupe. Say hi puppy~&quot; he giggles as Lupe counters with her usual argument (&lsquo;Lupe not puppy! WOLF!&rsquo;). &quot;The one fangirling it up there is Arja, she&#039;s Iravi&#039;s little sister... and Simoni... well if you think I changed a lot, she&#039;s my cousin Stephanie!&quot; he grins as Simoni smirks at her, &quot;Still got the gloves huh?&quot; she teases.<br /><br />Nessa smiles, nodding to the group &quot;Nice to meet you guys.&quot; she says, whistling a bit at Simoni, &quot;Wow you really did huh?&quot; She giggles, nodding to the question &quot;The hands tend to freak people out&hellip;&quot; she sighs, pulling her gloves off to reveal her scarred up hands, many looking fresh on her. Despite the elaborate web of marks and scars around them she seems to have no trouble moving her fingers.<br /><br />Stephy nods at the scars, &quot;Yeah, she uses some kind of Aztec blood magic stuff. Not like Nelen&#039;s, her&#039;s actually is blood magic.&quot; he replies as Nelen looks up a bit at that, his own hands still covered in their usual bandages and such.<br /><br />Simoni winces a bit at the sight too, &quot;Wow, yeah. Doesn&#039;t it hurt?&quot; she asks, gently taking one of Nessa&#039;s hands and examining it. As she gets closer Nessa can make out the minute spots where Simoni still looks like Stephanie to a degree. A bit of the bone structure, a tiny darker spot under one of her eyes that might have been a freckle at one point, and of course her eyes are still green.<br /><br />Nessa shakes her head, &quot;To be honest not a ton of feeling left in general.&quot; she replies, &quot;They&#039;re not DEAD or anything but, yea, takes more than a cut to really hurt my hands these days. Blood magic is incredibly powerful, but, ya know, costs. There&#039;s a reason most blood magicians use sacrifices and all for most everything.&quot;<br /><br />The rest of the group all looks at Nelen, who just pulls his hat down over his eyes and says, &quot;No comment.&quot; before focusing on letting his pain amulet do it&#039;s job. &quot;Yeah, Nelen&#039;s magic is kinda like that... just... not the same source.&quot; he replies as the bearded mage grumbles, &quot;Oh just tell her, that woman she&#039;s with already knows so she&#039;ll probably do it if you don&#039;t!&quot; he snaps.<br /><br />Stephy frowns, &quot;Jeez, go lie down in bed if that headache is so bad.&quot; he mutters as Nelen decides to do just that, getting up and heading to the guest room that he, Drusilla, and Dawn share. Stephy sighs, &quot;Sorry about that, he&#039;s not usually so snappy... but, well, he&#039;s got a demon living inside him and that&#039;s how he gets his magic. He fought Alice at the tournament she ran off to and while they were fighting his demon managed to take him over for a bit.&quot;<br /><br />Nessa nods &quot;Aaah, I see. That explains it. My people have a tradition like that, very rare, but sometimes blood mages will bond their souls with a resident of the realm of the dead, their blood changes to be much more potent. It&#039;s a big toll but they can do things like cause earthquakes with just a pin prick.&quot;<br /><br />Stephy nods, &quot;Um, his is a bit different. He gets to push all the blood in his body into different parts to make it stronger, can make these blood whip things, and give people really nasty diseases &#039;n stuffs.&quot; he explains, &quot;... and yeah, his demon is... well, a demon. He&#039;s kinda insane. Alice lost to him, but he didn&#039;t go really wild. I think he was waiting for the finals but, well, Arja and her opponent kinda scared everyone off.&quot;<br /><br />Nessa looks impressed, &quot;Well the realm of the dead often leaves its people mad, but yes I can see the difference.&quot; she says with a soft smile, &quot;He must be very strong to keep it in check at all&hellip;&quot;<br /><br />&nbsp;Strong he is, but it doesn&#039;t stop him from getting a migraine every time Merihim takes over. &quot;Yeah, he is... anyways... what have you two been up to since, um... the incident?&quot; he asks, dancing around the subject of what his father had done.<br /><br />Nessa smiles to Stephy &quot;It&#039;s fine dear&quot; she whispers &quot;She doesn&#039;t blame you or anything&quot; she says before answering &quot;Oh the usual really, hunting things... a couple reprisal attacks on Fullmoon holdings in America...&quot; she smirks faintly &quot;Acting alone or not, a Hunter lineage attacking another is, technically an act of war, and you know how Alice loves her arcane laws.&quot; she teases, ruffling the boy&#039;s hair.<br /><br />Simoni giggles, &quot;So I guess we have you to thank for them staying off our backs while we were in Texas last year.&quot; she replies as Dawn tilts her head, &quot;I was wondering why the heck none of them showed up during all that... glad they didn&#039;t though... I mean between Coyote, that lunatic supervillain, and one of the seven princes we had enough to deal with.&quot;<br /><br />Nessa grins at that, &quot;Oh? Sounds like you guys have been having some fun yourselves&hellip;&quot;<br /><br />Stephy giggles, &quot;Oh jeez you have no idea, really. Here... sit, this&#039;ll take a while.&quot; he grins as he leads her over to the couch and, after a firm glare, Dawn frowns and moves up to the back of the couch. He lets Simoni tell the first part of their story with her getting &#039;kidnapped&#039; by Arja and becoming her harem girl, though midway through she makes Arja give her the drawing and puts it away so she&#039;ll stop fangirling over it long enough to do the story, then goes on to describe meeting up with Nelen and Dawn, finding out about the Mundane Blade, meeting Natasha, Drusilla, Bethandi, Thea, Sadeh, Lupe, Lubanah, and of course Stephy and Trixie.<br /><br />Stephy takes over from there, giving her the rundown of their trip to Texas and their fight against Coyote, Simoni and Trixie going into their trip into the Underworld and their meeting with the ghost of Eliza Fullmoon as well as their second encounter with Paale, the genie Fahad and his pranks, and their defeat of Henry McCall and encounter with Mammon.<br /><br />Simoni almost falters at their encounter with Franklin, letting Drusilla tell that bit of the story (with lots of emphasis on how she fought him of course), and then about the naga attack and how the girls got their powers back. Stephy jumps in at this point to tell her about Sammi, his trip to Arcadia, and his adoption into one of the Fae Houses and how it changed his powers (and that he had powers all along, just the other kind). Simoni tells her about their trip into the supernatural world&#039;s jungle and their encounter with the strange woman who was able to fight the giant serpent single-handedly and how they saved Akul from the Naga&#039;s venom, their trip to the Nightside where they met Aisha and encountered the dead sorcerer Merlin Satinspawn, the tomb in Morocco where they met Reshepia, and how they rescued the captives of Clan Fullmoon but accidentally freed the ancient evil goddess Carman and had to actually team up with Franklin temporarily to defeat her, resulting in the island&#039;s destruction (&quot;Yeah, that was us...&quot;).<br /><br />Then, finally, their trip to Japan and their little adventure in ghostbusting when Paale returned as a sin eater before being driven off by Nelen and Iravi.<br /><br />&quot;So, yeah... busy year.&quot; giggles Stephy.<br /><br />Nessa blinks, chuckling softly, &quot;Yeah, no kidding&hellip;&quot; she says as she looks at the group, &quot;Still incredibly strong, though, to be able to do all that.&quot; she chuckles as she looks the boy over, &quot;This is the kind of group you gravitate to now, huh?&quot; she teases.<br /><br />Stephy giggles, &quot;Yep, my weird little extended family.&quot; he giggles flopping back and rubbing at Dawn&#039;s ear, the cat fussing and growling before batting his hand away and teleporting out of the room. &quot;Dunno if it&#039;d have ever happened for me if you and Alice hadn&#039;t gotten me started though.&quot; he replies, smiling at her.<br /><br />Nessa giggles, pinching the boy&#039;s cheek, &quot;Well hey, all we did was light the spark, all this is your doing, small fry.&quot; she teases.<br /><br />Simoni giggles as Dawn&#039;s voice can be heard from the hallway, &quot;Oh jeez, save me from the Hallmark moment...&quot; she groans. Lupe tilts her head a bit though, earflicking, &quot;Why fairy-boy no talk about blood girl and no-eye girl before?&quot; she asks.<br /><br />Stephy winces, &quot;Um... well...&quot; he replies, shuddering a bit at the memory as Simoni leans in, &quot;Yeah... I know you stopped going there but, you never told me why.&quot; she says, sounding concerned.<br /><br />Nessa sighs softly, rubbing Stephy&#039;s head softly, &quot;His dad followed him one day and we... had words.&quot; she says, looking down at the boy, &quot;But it wasn&#039;t his fault at all. Alice was stupid and cocky and thought she could handle &#039;that Celt ape&#039; without trying, and she paid for that. You had nothing to do with that, and she understands that.&quot;<br /><br />Stephy nods, &quot;Mrn... no, they need to hear the whole thing... I... I need to get that off my chest...&quot; he nods, taking a few breaths, then smiling sadly at her, &quot;Its really the only thing I haven&#039;t moved on from yet.&quot; he replies, &quot;Basically guys...&quot;<br /><br />=============================================<br /><br />It had all started one day when Stephy had gone over. He was already changed out of his boy things and getting made up when there was a sudden loud pounding at the front door. The kind of blows that suggested that the person on the other side would damn well take the thing off its hinges if they had to.<br /><br />Alice frowns as she makes her way to the door, gripping her cane, ready to release the sheath from it and expose her &#039;plan b&#039; &quot;You have one second to stop beating on my door before you regret it...&quot; she growls, Nessa frowning as she looks in the direction of the main room, &quot;What&#039;s going on down there...&quot;<br /><br />From outside a loud and angry voice calls back, &quot;Open this door right now! I know my son is in there with you and I want him outside IMMEDIATELY!&quot; it calls back. Upstairs Stephen freezes in place, his eyes going wide and terrified. &quot;Oh no... no no no no no no...&quot; he whimpers, shaking all over as he looks down at himself, then in the mirror, then starts frantically pulling his clothes off and reaching for the wipes, trying to get everything he can off as quickly as he can, &quot;Nessa! Help! If he sees me like this...&quot; he whimpers fearfully.<br /><br />Alice opens the door at that, standing to block the door &quot;This isn&#039;t your property, Fullmoon.&quot; she growls, having no patience for the man after what she&#039;s heard, &quot;Leave now before you regret it. There&#039;s a bar down the street that I think serves by the pitcher if you need SOMETHING to do...&quot; she sneers. Upstairs Nessa nods rapidly, helping the boy change as fast as she can.<br /><br />Stephen pulls on his jeans and shirt again as she tries to get rid of all the makeup, hoping they can at least bullshit their way out of it.<br /><br />Downstairs however...<br /><br />&quot;Hmph... You&#039;re a Roche aren&#039;t ya?&quot; sneers Robert, &quot;Little frenchy fae chick? Whatcha been doing with my son fairy girl?&quot; he demands, pushing his way into the house by sheer weight. Robert is a good head and a half taller than Alice and about three times as wide. As for sheer brute strength, he could juggle Alice. &quot;He keeps coming here, I know that. Why? You trying to give my boy to yer damn fairy overlords or somethin?!&quot;<br /><br />Alice laughs loudly at that &quot;I&#039;m pretty sure if I gave my &#039;overlords&#039; a Fullmoon they&#039;d spit in my face.&quot; she says, clearly not taking the man seriously as she grips her cane tighter, &quot;He&#039;s an assistant to me, is that a foreign concept to you? He helps me because, in case you couldn&#039;t tell&hellip;&quot; she says, pulling her sunglasses off at that, &quot;&hellip; I could use a pair of hands and eyes around the house.&quot;<br /><br />He glares, &quot;Like hell, you Roche&#039;s always have some dirty fae tricks up yer sleeves.&quot; he retorts, &quot;If you&#039;re doing anything that&#039;d make my boy shame the Fullmoon name I&#039;ll send you back to Arcadia in a bucket fairygirl!&quot; he replies, stomping forward as he looms over her.<br /><br />As he raises his arm Stephen rushes into the room, &quot;DAD! STOP! I&#039;m here! I&#039;m right here! Don&#039;t hurt her!&quot; he yells.<br /><br />Robert glares down at him, &quot;Bout damn time boy...&quot; he growls, stomping over and grabbing him by the wrist harshly, making Stephen wince and hiss through his teeth, then pausing, &quot;... wait...&quot; he mutters, grabbing his chin and holding him still, &quot;The fuck is this on your eyes?&quot; he leans in as Stephen breaks out in a cold sweat. They eyeliner! They were in such a hurry they forgot to get it off! &quot;Is that... makeup?! What the fuck are you doing wearing makeup boy!?&quot; he demands.<br /><br />Alice frowns, looking between the Fullmoons before moving to stand between them, holding her cane up, &quot;You&#039;re seeing things, you old drunk.&quot; she growls, &quot;Get off my property! If I tell my family about this this will be seen as an act of war... you remember the last time our families fought each other right, Fullmoon? Wasn&#039;t it embarrassing to have to surrender all those lands up north in France, even when the fucking English still had them? I thought you Celts were the warriors from that island we were supposed to fear&quot; she taunts, wanting to provoke him into focusing on her...<br /><br />Robert looks between the two, then glares at Stephen. &quot;We&#039;ll talk about this later boy. Home. NOW.&quot; he snaps at him, dropping him on the ground before turning to her and, without a word, lands a harsh backhand across Alice&#039;s jaw! He&#039;s a Fullmoon warrior, strong enough to punch down a brick wall. Even with her own abilities it&#039;s still enough to make her feel like something got knocked loose. &quot;As for you Frenchy...&quot; he steps forward, cracking his knuckles...<br /><br />Alice gasps in pain as she feels herself slide back, nearly falling over just from that before she flicks her cane, the sheath end falling off to expose her hidden blade, &quot;You&#039;re gonna leave, Fullmoon&hellip;&quot; she growls, spitting some blood out of her mouth, &quot;Either on your feet or in a bag...&quot;<br /><br />He sees the blade and counters it by picking up her entire coffee table and slamming it into her side, smashing her into the wall. Before she can react his hand is around her throat, his other hand grabbing her arm and smashing it into the wall as he tries to knock the sword from her fingers. Alice is vaguely aware, through the pain, of Stephen&#039;s voice begging his father to stop and saying that if he does he&#039;ll go home.<br /><br />Alice cries out as she&#039;s slammed around like a rag doll, not expecting this much focus from someone she expected to be a drunken oaf. &quot;That&#039;s enough!&quot; Nessa shouts from the stairs, pulling one of her gloves off and reaching into her apron pocket, pulling out a small knife made of obsidian, &quot;You have your boy, he&#039;s not harmed, get out now before you start something your whole family will have to finish!&quot; she snarls, sounding shockingly harsh compared to her normal chipper attitude. She brings the blade across her hand, wincing as the blood starts to pool in her hand. &quot;I said get OUT!&quot; She roars, thrusting her hand forward, rather than blood flying out, though, a burst of dark green fire comes flying straight at him!<br /><br />He glares at her, but instead of moving he simply turns and holds out Alice infront of him like a shield! &quot;You think that&#039;ll stop me? I&#039;ve fought monsters and spellslingers longer that you&#039;ve been alive bitch!&quot; he taunts as the flames hit Alice in the back, Stephen letting out a shriek of horror at the sight and just barely rolling away in time to miss them himself.<br /><br />Alice yells as her back gets scorched by the fire, finally dropping the blade as her eyes roll back in her head in pain... &quot;And my people have been killing European brutes for far longer&hellip;&quot; Nessa barks back, jumping over the side of the stairs and moving her bleeding hand in a rapid pattern, mumbling in Nahuatl before her eyes go blood red. Instead of an attack from the front, though, a glowing red outline of a massive jungle cat appears behind the man, leaping at his back with its &#039;claws&#039; going into his back, just trying to keep him from choking Alice to death right now...<br /><br />He snarls in fury as the spectral panther attacks him, but ignores it and charges her himself, managing to get a hand around her throat as he body checks both girls into the stair railing, knocking the wind out of them. He drops them both to the ground and stomps back over to Stephen, &quot;Boy, I said to go home. LISTEN TO YOUR GODDAMN FATHER YOU LITTLE FAGGOT!&quot; he snarls, Nessa&#039;s vision going black as the impact all but knocked her out.&nbsp;&nbsp;She&#039;s just aware enough to hear a loud SMACKing sound, a sound like glass breaking, some wet coughing, and faint crying.<br /><br />When she wakes up Stephen and Robert are gone, the door left open, and in the far corner of the room is a broken pair of glasses, a few splatters of blood, and a small tooth.<br /><br />Alice groans as she collects herself, standing weakly, &quot;I&#039;m going to kill him&hellip;&quot; she snarls, &quot;I&#039;m going to go to his house, set it on fire, and stab him in the eyes when he gets out...&quot; she says as Nessa just grabs her hand, shaking her head, &quot;You&#039;ll just piss him off more... and he&#039;ll just take it out on Stephy.&quot; she says sadly, Alice biting her lip at that, but stopping her angry rant.<br /><br />A few weeks pass, Alice is in the park one day, and she hears a faint voice from the bushes.<br /><br />&quot;A-alice? Hey... over here...&quot; it whispers, it&#039;s clearly Stephy, but it sounds like he&#039;s trying not to be noticed.<br /><br />Alice blinks, looking to the source of the voice, making her way over and &#039;accidentally&#039; tossing her cane near the bush, pretending to crouch down and feel around for it, &quot;Stephy? Are you ok?&quot; she whispers.<br /><br />He doesn&#039;t respond to that for a few moments, then whispers. &quot;I... um... I came to say goodbye. Dad&#039;s sending me off to the castle for the summer so they can...&quot; he squirms, &quot;... well, he says it&#039;ll make a &#039;man&#039; outta me or something. I dunno...&quot; he replies, &quot;He was really angry when we got home... I...&quot; he falls silent, she can hear what sounds like sniffling.<br /><br />Alice frowns softly at that, &quot;I&#039;m sorry Stephy, I should have never pushed you to play like that after you told me about him...&quot;<br /><br />He sniffles a few times, then replies, &quot;... I wanted to. I wanted to really badly but... I can&#039;t do it again, not after that. I... I don&#039;t want to see you two get hurt like that again.&quot; he replies. She can smell salt, he&#039;s been crying a lot lately it seems.<br /><br />Alice pouts, &quot;No... that was my fault. I underestimated him and taunted him. That was stupid, you never did anything to cause that...&quot; she replies as she reaches to pet his cheek softly&hellip;<br /><br />She doesn&#039;t get close enough, the boy jumping back before her hand can reach him. &quot;NO! I...&quot; he pauses, &quot;I... I don&#039;t want you to see what he did...&quot; he mutters, then shakes his head, &quot;I g-gotta go, before he n-notices I snuck out...&quot; he sniffs, sounding like he&#039;s going to start crying again, &quot;... bye...&quot; he chokes out, then turns and runs.<br /><br />===========================================<br /><br />Back in Japan Stephy is looking down at his lap as he finishes. He&#039;s not crying, but he&#039;s gone very quiet and is breathing slow and deep. Simoni is sitting next to him now, holding his hand tightly as Dawn reclines over the chair she was sitting in, letting out a low whistle. &quot;Jeez... no wonder you were jumping for joy after Blinky turned him inside out.&quot;<br /><br />Alice sighs softly, having finished with Iravi midway through the story, walking over to the sofa and pulling Stephy into a hug, &quot;You&#039;re such a strong little guy&hellip;&quot; she says softly, rubbing his back, &quot;Your dad had no idea what an idiot he was being trying to change you.&quot;<br /><br />Stephy hugs her back and buries his head in her middle as Nelen walks back into the room, having caught the tail end of that, &quot;He probably didn&#039;t care. Robert was a total daddy&#039;s boy for Franklin, if it didn&#039;t fit the Fullmoon ideal then it was out.&quot; he frowns, &quot;Dawn and I would&#039;ve tried to get him out of that ourselves but, well, we were having enough trouble keeping ourselves alive.&quot; he nods. He&rsquo;d honestly considered it too, but a mercenaries lifestyle may have been even worse for him than being raised by Robert Fullmoon.<br /><br />Alice nods, petting the boy&#039;s head softly as she speaks, &quot;So, we&#039;re killing Franklin, right? That&#039;s the endgame in all this nonsense you&#039;ve been through?&quot; she says calmly as she pets the boy, Nessa raising a brow &quot;We?&quot; she asks, sounding suspicious. <br /><br />Alice just giggle softly at that, &quot;What are we, dear?&quot; she asks.<br /><br />&quot;Hunters...&quot; replies Nessa slowly.<br /><br />&quot;And what do Hunters do?&quot; she asks.<br /><br />&quot;Stop dangerous monsters from hurting people who can&#039;t defend themselves...&quot; sighs Nessa. Hoo boy.<br /><br />Simoni blinks, &quot;We&#039;re gonna need a bigger plane at this rate...&quot; she mutters as Dawn swishes her tail, &quot;Although... Alice doesn&#039;t use any magics... so that makes three of us who can tangle with Franklin directly... her, Aisha, and Drus...&quot; she grins as Nelen sighs, shrugging his shoulders, &quot;Sure why not? At this rate we&#039;re going to have a bigger army than he will.&quot; he smirks.<br /><br />Stephy just grins up at Alice, hugging her tighter as he nuzzles into her belly. Glad to be back with his first &#039;big sister&#039;.</span>","pools_count":0,"title":"Part 1.23: Fighting Blind","deleted":"f","public":"t","mimetype":"application/msword","pagecount":"1","rating_id":"2","rating_name":"Adult","ratings":[{"content_tag_id":"5","name":"Strong Violence","description":"Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death","rating_id":"2"}],"submission_type_id":"12","type_name":"Writing - Document","guest_block":"t","friends_only":"f","comments_count":"0","views":"118","sales_description":null,"forsale":"f","digitalsales":"f","printsales":"f","digital_price":""}