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"120" } ], "description": "Sorry this one is so late. I mainly blame RL depression. Also sorry if it sucks. May be a bit of a confusing read but I hope people enjoy", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Sorry this one is so late. I mainly blame RL depression. Also sorry if it sucks. May be a bit of a confusing read but I hope people enjoy", "writing": "Collared Chapter 21: Head Games\nBy TerraMGP\n\n\t“Akira-sama!” \n\n\tHitomi barely managed to keep from falling over as she burst out of the door and on to the school rooftop. Only her tenuous grasp on the doorknob kept her steady. She cast her eyes up to the fence. There it was. GT-11. A four-story mechanical monster. Black and red hull plates which served as the mech’s armor had opened wide. Shimmering energy crackled within and the air snapped of ozone as it smoldered .\n\n\tThe metal demon seemed to be looking at her. Its single photoreceptor ‘eye’ glowing the same odd blue as the energy emerging from the now opened armor plating. And there, standing before it, was Akira. The third-year boy in his neatly pressed uniform stood on the edge of the mech’s cockpit hatch which had opened as a ramp. It had crushed the roof fence in doing so, and in doing so looked almost like some demon lord ushering the boy into the gates of hell.\n\n\t“Go back in, Hitomi.” Akira rumbled coldly. “Get somewhere safe and hide. Don’t come out no matter what you hear.”\n\n\t“I can help you. Whatever it is Hina did, Please let me do that too. I know. I know she was the one who helped you control the GT-11. Even if I’m not as good as her, if I could just-”\n\n\t“The GT-88 has taken over Hina. If she even can be saved, only Gunblaze and I can do it. I don’t need you in my way” Akira’s hand swept back and his slender frame was wreathed in the glow of blue plasma-fire. It was as if the GT-11 itself were answering to his whim.\n\n\tUp in the sky, massive angel wings and the burn of golden thrusters indicated the giant metal angel that was the GT-88. Its wings had been scorched and now looked almost black in most places. Missile salvos and blasts of pulse laser fire raked down from it randomly on the city below.\n\n\tThen Hitomi looked back, just in time to see the hatch closing in over Akira. Her senpai now one with the metal monster as its own demonic wings spread and thrusters pushed it up into the sky.\n\n\tHitomi raised a paw towards the sky and watched, her heart ached knowing there was nothing she could do to help.\n\n\tOr was there?\n\n--------------------\n\n\t“No, that’s stupid.” Gretchen sighed. The pudgy mole glancing over the BESM character sheet once more. “Ok, this anime game is absolutely not it. They’ll just get mad at me for picking something where I can sit most of it out.”\n\n\tGretchen shot up when the door opened. Then she slumped back down into the couch. It was simply Ozzy. The black furred goat boy stumbling in with his guitar slung over his back in its sticker- covered case. His whole body slumped down once more and sighed loudly enough for him to hear.\n\n\t“Oh, wow, someone wait up for me?” Ozzy clearly couldn’t help but tease her. He looked over, one ear twitching up playfully for a moment.\n\n\t“I thought you were Doordash.” Gretchen made no effort to hide the defeat in her tone. She glanced back at her computer and sighed loudly once more. A sigh loud enough to let the goat know just how upset she was.\n\n\tIt bounced off of Ozzy, as it always did. He smirked at her, set his guitar down by the recliner and slipped himself into the chair. “Well I’m sorry I’m not food.” He scoffed.\n\n\t“You should be.” Gretchen snapped.\n\n\tHe snickered once more and rolled himself back on to the couch. As was his ritual he opened the small drawer at the base of the stand sitting between the couch and the recliner. From it Ozzy pulled a simple wooden plank covered in residue and littered with some bits of paper and a small repurposed mint tin. \n\n\t“I, um…” Gretchen looked up from her laptop and glanced over at him. “Would you mind not?” It was something she often asked. Yet for the first time her tone wasn’t one of haughty annoyance. It was small and tired. It matched the way she looked.\n\n\tOzzy nodded and offered her a warm smile in return. “Would it be ok if I just roll some? I won’t smoke em around you.”\n\n\tThe slumped mole girl nodded and smiled in spite of herself. She felt grateful. Not nearly as angry or standoffish as usual. It felt nice, and uncomfortable. Honestly she didn’t know how to deal with it. But there it was.\n\n\tBoth furs sat in silence for the longest time. The only noises to break it were the small rustles of Ozzy coaxing leaves into rolling papers and the whine of the their old window AC unit as it shifted between blowing in semi-cold air and deciding everything was simply fine. It wasn’t. But the thirty year old thermostat built into the cheap unit clearly didn’t know that.\n\n\tEventually there was a knock at the door. Ozzy was kind enough to get the Doordash order left there and only steal a couple of fries in return. He stood there for a long moment after, looking down at the largely unmoving girl. The concern on his face wasn’t lost on Gretchen. She actually responded with a soft little smile, for whatever little it was worth to him.\n\n\t“Look.” Ozzy sighed “I know it’s not my place. But I am at least gonna ask what’s wrong. This isn’t your usual every day utter crushing despair. This is advanced crushing despair.”\n\n\t“Is it that obvious?” It was. Gretchen knew it was even more than he did. She wasn’t ‘that’ socially blind. Probably. Maybe.\n\n\tThe girl gripped her thighs to her chest as best she could and rolled over on to her side. She stared blankly at the TV for a long moment. Not that it really made any sense to and indeed she felt stupid for gazing at a blank screen. But it was what her brain demanded. “I’m trying to figure out what kind of tabletop game I want to play.” The words came with a small, bitter laugh. She dared a glance up at her roommate and then back in front of her hoping to find something to fix her attention on that might bleed the growing anxiety away. “I know it’s stupid. You can go ahead and laugh. Master” She huffed a bit. Justin wasn’t there so enforced casualness be damned “Said whatever I picked he’d run for me and Mistress. Anything at all. I’ve been looking over all the PDFs they gave me. All I have to do is pick one. Find the one that actually, genuinely interests me.”\n\n\t“And none of them interest you?” Ozzy sighed. With Gretchen curled up as she was he had plenty of room to sit down on the end of the couch without crowding her considerable bubble of personal space.\n\n\t“Kinda” once again Gretchen’s words were hollow. “I don’t know why. It’s just hard for me to pick something on my own. There are so many choices and none of them even make sense to me. Plus what if I pick something they don’t like?”\n\n\t“Well if you’re worried about finding something they like, I at least have one idea.” Ozzy’s ears perked a bit “I assume you’ve got Vampire in with all those books, right?”\n\n\t“Vampire?” Gretchen shifted up in her seat with a glacial lethargy. The laptop eventually wound up in her lap again, and she began to scroll and click as quickly as her digger claw would allow with the touch pad. “Masquerade or Requiem? I have two of them.”\n\n\t“Masquerade.” Ozzy’s paws shot into his baggy pants while a look of barely contained pride crossed his face. “Just so happens I know Justin really wants to get into the local VtM larp. In fact, that’s the one I came from. Me and Xiulan both do it. I know he wants in too. In fact he was going to join in when he moved up here before finding out just how much rent and everything costs.”\n\n\t“I still can’t imagine it costs that much. And it’s not like school is that hard.” Deflections. Gretchen knew what she was doing even as she uttered the words. “Sorry. You’re just trying to help. Plus it’s not as if I have any real clues on what to do myself.”\n\n\tOzzy shifted a bit and gestured towards the laptop. “Well then let’s give it a try. But Imma be stealing a few more fries.”\n\n--------------------\n\n\tViolet couldn’t remember her life before. She hoped, in some odd little part of her heart, that the ‘her’ she had been would hate the her she was now. True, she always hated herself. It was the nature of being a Gargoyle. A creation of her Tremere betters for the sake of their own happiness. She was a creature. A ‘thing’. Made simply to make their hopefully eternal nights more relaxed and enjoyable. A shriveled little servant stuck in the basement of their small rural manor performing the endless computer tasks her betters were too old and too important to learn.\n\n\tThat was what she focused on. Sitting there in the semi finished little room humming with servers and awash in junk. Mostly packaging from things she’d ordered. The characteristic piles of actual junk were at the very least not needed for a creature such as her. \n\n\tIt was still embarrassing. Small shards of fear crept up and down her spine when she heard the telltale thud-clack of high heels moving down the stairs. Violet’s now elongated bat ears twitched. Her nose huffed in a familiar scent. The smell of wilted roses and moonlight.\n\n\t“Working hard, my pet?” That teasing sing-song. The lovingly hateful coo of the elegant Mistress who had helped create her. Violet felt a silky glove curling around and under her muzzle, titling it up. She looked to see her owner, pale white-brown fur shimmering under the florescent light and computer monitor glow. The woman sipped deeply from a wine glass full of thick, viscous liquid. A liquid that smelled like pennies and sent violet’s nerves blissfully on end.\n\n\t“Yes, Mistress” Even her voice felt wrong to Violet. Not the elegant purr of her owner. Simply a half choked chirp of dumb recognition\n\n\tThe woman nodded and leaned over. She took in the monitors. Stock portfolios. News articles. Massive, well organized folders filled to the brim with information on all manner of power players in town. Both the mundane and the supernatural. “I see you are keeping yourself quite busy, aren’t you?” The Lady Vanessa poked the gargoyle bat on her nose and then tapped one of the monitors. A spaceship HUD floating before an asteroid. \n\n\tViolet yelped and tried to cover the monitor with her hands “Sorry Mistress, I was just.” She cursed herself and blushed with shame. The lure of Elite Dangerous was strong, but should be nothing compared to her owners.\n\n\tThe Lady simple snickered and kissed the creature on her forehead. She then downed the rest of her wine glass and set it down on the desk “Nonsense, I only tease. So long as your duties come first, that is.”\n\n\t“Always, My lady.” Violet nodded vigorously.\n\n\tLady Vanessa tussed her pet’s hair the way one would some misunderstood teenager. “Good girl. Your Lord and I are going out to hunt tonight. Perhaps we will bring you back a small something to sate yourself as well.”\n\n\t“T-thank you, My Lady” Violet nodded frantically. Just like that, the contact of her owner was gone. She was once again alone. Another cog in their machine. Condescended to and made to be useful. She hoped the ‘her’ before this would hate herself for it. Because now that was the one thing she actually liked about herself.\n\n--------------------\n\n\tOnce upon a time, homework was easy. Well, more easy than now. It wasn’t due to College somehow being harder. If anything Gretchen was finding her class load easier without the constant pressure of both parents hovering over her and their veiled jabs about the quality of her work. By contrast, she also didn’t have anything else to worry about besides porn and whatever shows she was watching at the time. \n\n\tGrind out the assignments, grab the dopamine hit, repeat.\n\n\tTechnically that was still true. Only now when she was done with the same kind of Calc she was doing last year or the boring yet nonsensical hell of organic chemistry she had to worry about ‘relationship’ things. It made her think the whole thing would be a lot easier if there were no organic chemistry. Everyone could be gems like in that Stephen Universe cartoon and they’d all have a hierarchal D/s inspired social structure. Plus everything would look pretty!\n\n\tBut that was fantasy, and this was reality. A reality where she wasn’t currently able to get on her knees and beg her Master to skullfuck her for being a bad girl. Not that she ever had, but that was just a matter of her working up the courage.\n\n\tInstead she was there on her bed. Laptop sprawled out, watching as her beloved Vtube idol Nidonido leading her ‘intrepid band of dumbasses’ though their custom 7 days to die map.\n\n\t“Nido’s got the Nurglish rot! Quick, Shiny, get me the flamer!” A shrill voice barked the words out of the laptop speakers. A Vtube model of a bobcat femboy battle maid bounced around between Nidonido’s current ‘goblin core’ Nidorina avi and a busty moose girl avi wearing a stereotypical teacher outfit.\n\n\tShineon, the one with the moose girl, stood by while the two others ran around in a circle though a ruined book store with all the gravity of a bad Benny Hill sketch\n\n\t“Haru! Stop!” Nidonido’s soft, sweet voice with its gentle Scottish borough rolled in a laugh while she jumped and dodged her way though the shelves. Shotgun blasts roaring behind her.\n\n\t“Purge the heretic!” Haru, the maid catboy shrieked while his character continued to unload “I got two barrels and hundreds of rounds, Nido! You’re responsible for this. I know you are. You were praying to Grandfather Nurgle again!”\n\n\tAll three laughed while the crazed feline chased his friend though the piles of zombie bodies. Gretchen laughed, too. Once again she didn’t know what was going on. But that was why Haru the Maidboy was such a fun inclusion in these streams. Chaotic Random was kind of his brand.\n\n\t“Who the fuck is Nurgle” Shiny finally managed after her own laughing fit. All three players had stopped moving their characters, instead standing there to recover from the outburst. That recover was cut short as Haru turned, and with deadpan quiet shot down Nidonido again. This time it took the poor girl out, and evoked her trademark high pitched ‘what the heck’!? yelp\n\n\t“So anyways, as I was saying.” Haru still keeping his comedic casual deadpan “He’s the plague god in 40K. Basically a big greasy neckbeard who likes to make everyone sick. I’m a maid so logically I can’t be the one who summoned him. You’re a teacher so ‘you’ can’t be the one who summoned him. Logically, that means it’s all Nido’s fault.”\n\n\t“See, this is why nobody invites you for Among us anymore, Haru.” Nidonido huffed. The poor girl now on the base’s spare bike and peddling her way back though the post apoc wasteland towards her body and her dropped gear. “I knew I should have just kept digging out the bottom of our base.”\n\n\t“Oh sure, that’s what you want us to think. See, this is why I need to be an Inquisitor. Someone go call the Emperor. I bet I’d even get my own bolter bitch armor if I purred in his lap long enough.”\n\n\tOnce again all three of them began laughing, and Gretchen murred feeling the vicarious friendship wash over her. She basked in it for a few minutes longer than she perhaps should have, then looked up to the mostly being-painted 40K model her owners had gotten her to experiment with. It was a setting they both seemed to like. Plus one of the folders she’d been given in her gaming folder did contain some books labeled as ’40K Dark Heresy’. Perhaps this called for a wiki dive.\n\n--------------------\n\n\tThe Talon skyhook may have once been something impressive. In the days of Furkind’s surge to the stars this little orbital platform could have been part of some vast sprawling network. One of countless jewels shimmering in the night sky of Des Moinesia. None of the people milling about it now realized this. None of them seemed to care. The run down old pseudo-station was little more than a thick metal disc crammed full of repurposed spaces. Shops and cheap living quarters occupied by the kind of hive scum or ship faring malcontents who wished for more yet knew they could never get it from the societies of their birth.\n\n\tAgatha was nothing in the face of this. A shrew girl of twenty standard at most, though it was hard to keep track given the life she’d led. Fiery red hair puffed out in all directions, tamed only by the dirt and grime of mistreatment and neglect. Old magcuffs held her arms tight behind her. A rather undignified set of braces kept her kneeling at an uncomfortable angle. Her own malnourished body was on full display. Light-starved fur giving way at points to smooth and refined mechanical implantations. Crystals and machinery that seemed much like those of a typical Mechanicus and yet were more pleasing in an aesthetic sense to the sensibilities of the sane.\n\n\tThe girl was forced to think about those implants, think about how people viewed them and viewed her. Even as they moved on along though the corridors without a care in the world. Once upon a time she would have called out to them. Begged them. Pleaded even. But what fire burned in her heart had gone out long ago. At this point the poor girl could only make herself look around out of sheer boredom and tedium. That was, until she saw them.\n\n\t“S-sir!” Agatha’s voice was shrill and quiet at the same time. It choked hard from disuse. She croaked and squeaked as her eyes raised up to look at them. \n\n\tTwo figures. The first a lovely tanuki woman with her hair tied back in a war bun with a silver band. A tight black suit hugged her body. Stiff and utilitarian with various points of armor covering vital spots while allowing a free range of movement. There was something regal and not quite military about her. But also an intellect missing from the few imperial guard members or ship defensive crews Agatha had seen.\n\n\tThat woman followed behind another figure, and it was that figure Agatha struggled to call out for. A freckled marmot with a mane of metallic silver hair. He wore armor, sword and shield all with the ease of one who had spent at least some time in them. There was also a gun slung into a carrier across his back. When the man turned his sapphire eyes flashed. He seemed to make a point of unconsciously displaying the Heraldry adorning his shield. Cuffs and chains as a border, with blue and white as the main colors and a black raven sat resplendent atop them. A book, or perhaps a data slate, was in relief behind the bird. Agatha knew little of heraldry, but she knew at the very least this wasn’t some simple gang sign. \n\n\tShe gazed at the pair for a long moment. They gazed back. Both seemed to be at least a bit confused by the sudden cry for attention. The man in particular gave her a wary look while pacing towards the slave stall selling the girl. His heavy armored hand resting firmly on the jeweled pommel of his sword.\n\n\t“F-forgive this one, for speaking out of turn Sire.” The girl’s voice trembled She did her best to offer up her augmented body. A mesh of polymer, metal and crystal that even a lay-person could tell was not sanctioned by the cult mechanicus. One which gave her form an eerie allure if not actual beauty. The girl thrust her chest out and heaved a deep breath. The blush of her cheeks only grew under that soft downy fur. “I would… I beg you, buy me. I know I am not much to look at. I realize I am asking much. But I could be pleasing! I would gladly allow you and your Lady to do whatever you wished to me without a hint of resistance. U-unless you preferred such.”\n\n\tThe slave girl leaned forwards until the thick collar around her neck choked her. The chain holding her in place tinkled as a reminder to keep herself where she belonged. The woman in the body suit snorted and spat something in high gothic. Her hand instantly went to the whip on her hip.\n\n\t“Would you like me to deal with this creature, lord interrogator?” the look on the woman’s face was dour and oddly angry. She grinned maliciously at every little involuntary tremor from the slave as the promise of using that whip was put on the table. A hunter with prey trapped in its den, ready to savor the killing blow.\n\n\tThat blow never came. The man placed a hand on her shoulder and eased her back. His tongue clicked in rebuke. “I do wish you’d stop calling me that, Hannah. Or should I start calling you Sister Lumin?”\n\n\tThe point was taken and the acolyte sister stepped aside. Soon the silver-haired man and his power armor had taken up the whole of the girls view. His hand reached out and gripped her muzzle roughly. Be it a show of force or simply the nature of the power armor it was hard to tell.\n\n\t“So tell me, girl.” He growled in a silken tone. “Why is a member of the Mechanicum being sold off like this? Offering herself up like some common bed warmer on a backwater station?”\n\n\t“I am not one of them.” The girl spat back. Hate having shattered her otherwise calm and desperate visage. “They called me a Heretek, whatever that means. Those robed curs were looking to make me into some kind of horrible abomination simply because they felt the implants I had infringed on them in some way.” A few tears darkened her cheeks now. She rolled her shoulders and looked off to the side. “I only survived because some slaver thought I’d be exotic and snuck me away from the rows of prisoners with a bribe. If I am not sold, I fear he will hand me back to them in hopes of some small reward.”\n\n\tThe man cracked a smile. “You don’t know what a heretek is? Or servitors it would seem. And yet you have those implants? Interesting… Tell me girl, do you know anything of technology yourself?”\n\n\tThe slave twisted nervously. She eyed him up and down for the longest time, yet was hesitant to actually say anything. The man in the power armor smiled and offered a small nod of assurance.\n\n\t“Well, my lord. I mean no disrespect, but” She heaved a heavy sigh “It’s quite obvious your current armor is most charitably old and ill cared for, not to mention it has not been properly fitted to you. I can see you struggling with the motive sensors just to make it heed you. The flaws are deep and the fresh paint which was applied cannot hide them. Also I am presuming your companion’s armor was in an even worse state as she is forced to simply wear the affixing body glove. Your power sword is also unstable and I can see flickering from the base of the scabbard. If not tended to soon it may activate at inopportune moments and possibly even injure you. Then there’s the shield which I presume contains some form of field projector. However-”\n\n\t“Alright, alright.” He gripped her shoulder and looked back at his companion a moment before turning to the slave. “It would seem you may have some use after all. But I warn you, with what we face you may well wish you’d been kept by the Techpriests.” He nodded to his companion who stormed her way off towards the man running the slave stalls. The lordling then stood and offered a paw. The modeled green of his armor contrasted by a much newer addition. A black and gold stylized icon of the letter I complete with an eye in the middle. He simply stood there and smiled, waiting for her to take his paw.\n\n--------------------\n\n\t“Remind me why you’re here again?” Gretchen probably should have been more personable. She looked into the rear view mirror, gazing at the spunky red panda girl in the plaid skirt and midriff top. Maybe it was how closely Xiulan resembled Gretchen’s beloved Hui. Maybe it was the occasional, deliberate feeling knee bumps against the back of her seat. Maybe it was just her usual hate of everyone. But watching the girl there fiddling with her phone made Gretchen bristle.\n\n\tSmugness oozed from the red panda girl as she looked up and grinned at the reflection in the mirror. Her eyes twinkling a bit with impish mischief. “I’m here because I need a ride to therapy and I didn’t want to take the bus. Bigger question is why are ‘you’ here, hmm?”\n\n\tA triumphant huff and artificially smug smile was returned at the intruder. It was not at all natural-looking on the firzzy haired young woman. “Master happens to be taking me to the library. I need some research materials.” \n\n\t“What, you couldn’t just go online and nab a copy of your textbooks?” Another snipping retort, and another knee into her seat. This time the pressure persisted and Gretchen looked back to see the smug and scrawny girl now slumping down surprisingly far with her knees actually braced on the back of Gretchen’s seat.\n\n\t“You know this little truck isn’t really big enough for you to do that.” The words declared in Gretchen’s best schoolmarm tone. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no. It’s not textbooks I need. Besides I just… I wanna hang out at the library while he’s at work. Ok?”\n\n\t“Awww, is da widdle mole girl all lonely?” Xi rolled her eyes and snorted. The game she was playing chirping and bleeping from out of her phone while her big, bushy, fluffy tail took up an inordinate amount of the overall back seat.\n\n\tThe car fell silent after that. Gretchen looked up at the strip mall in front of them. She could see Justin tapping his foot impatiently while someone rattled though dry cleaning items on one of those mechanized hooks. She found her eyes wandering. The gameshop. Coldstone. A hair place. She smiled a bit from that. Considering how long he was taking it was tempting to consider going in and seeing if someone could finally tame the Danny Sexbang mane she’d always sported. Then again, that wasn’t something she’d ever do without express permission. Plus it would probably hurt like hell.\n\n\t“So, why are you really here?” Xi’s words were softer now. Still aloof, still superior, but much softer.\n\n\t“I just… I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m getting a double major. I thought it’d be harder, I guess. So far it just feels like every other day of my life, only without the fear of my parents yelling every day. You know, just the weekends.” She snorted and winced at her digger claws rubbing nervously along the top of her muzzle. “Not that it’s any of your business mind you. I’m only bringing it up because this is so boring.”\n\n\t“You could put on that streamer you like.” Xi offered. “I mean she’s not my thing but I won’t complain.”\n\n\t“I don’t just mean now. I mean just overall, I guess. I donno. I don’t really feel like it.” Gretchen curled her stubby legs up on to her seat and took a few deep breaths. Instinct caused her to reach for her rescue inhaler. Her breathing was fine. It was always fine. Still it felt reassuring to have the thing in paw in case. “Look I’m not here trying to whine or anything, ok? Just forget I said anything. I’m just not in the mood to listen to Nidonido right now. I’ve got way too much on my mind.”\n\n\t“Like what?” Xiulan’s quip didn’t miss a beat. It wasn’t threatening. Wasn’t even condescending. \n\n\t“I’m trying to make a D&D character.” She winced as soon as she said it. Suddenly Gretchen’s gut dropped as she was forced to realize she’d given some ground to this… person. The realization pulled her into a tighter ball while she rocked back and forth just a bit in the car’s tiny, uncomfortable old seats.\n\n\t“I thought you had one already.” Xi noted “Your artificer girl?” \n\n\n\t“Not kind of D&D character! I mean for like, other games. Those ‘kind’ of games. You know what I mean. She darted up quickly when a speck of movement caught the corner of her eye. Gretchen’s whole body lurched forwards, paw grabbing the door handle and seatbelt clicking as it dug into her chest though the layers of clothing. The shock of the sudden stop sent her back into the seat. Frustrating, but made worse when she realized the movement was not Justin returning but instead some stupid random person hauling their laundry in to do a few loads.\n\n\t“Uggh, This is unbearable.” Ill fitting and utterly decayed sneakers rammed with frustrated force into the equally decrepit footwell. Gretchen kicked and stomped her heels into the dirty old carpet before finally slumping back again. It was there. That horrible knot in her gut. That unmistakable yet indescribable feeling which always hit her hardest at the right times.\n\n\t“Tabletop games.” once again Xiulan’s tone was flat and mostly natural. Somehow that stung even more than the condescension had before. \n\n\t“Makes sense.” Gretchen sighed.\n\n\tXi smiled a tiny bit to herself and looked up into the mirror for a half second. Those eyes locked with Gretchen. So much like Hui, so much like the mole’s beloved Mistress, only darker. Filled not with the innocent love of her beloved owner but with the same intellect and wit. “So you’re trying to make Tabletop game characters. What’s the problem? You’re getting a STEM degree, right? Most of that stuff is just math.”\n\n\t“Yeah I know it’s just math.” Gretchen spat “The math part isn’t the problem. They want me to pick which game we’re going to do. I have all of these books for different settings and systems. I already looked over some wikis to help me get immersed in some of the background stuff.”\n\n\t“But…” Something about the way Xi acted so casually, so blasé. At least if she were more of a bitch Gretchen would feel ok about hitting her.\n\n\t“But I don’t know what I want. God. Are you happy? I’m looking over all of this stuff and I don’t know what I want to play, or what they will like to play most. Plus it’s not like I can go ask them about it now can I? They told ‘me’ to pick. I’m a freaking slave. I shouldn’t even get the choice to pick.”\n\n\tThis all felt very rehashed. It was all the things she’d talked to Ozzy about, or close enough that it didn’t matter. Hell she’d even tried asking Willa. Then again getting their other female roommate to shut up was a feat in and of itself. Once the rant got into something about ‘Mother Gaia’ she’d utterly tuned Willa out.\n\n\tAnd yet here she was, rehashing things again. Digging into the same old frustrations. The same old wounds The same old-\n\n\t“What exactly has you scared?”\n\n\tThe question made Gretchen pause. Her train of thought had utterly and promptly derailed and now sat in a smoldering hunk somewhere near the front center of her cerebrum.\n\n\t“I never said I was scared.” The mole noted all too quickly\n\n\t“No, but it’s pretty clear something has you all worked up. Right?” Xi snorted and shifted herself again, this time actually splaying out to take up most of the back seat while her tail rested in what passed for a footwell in the small pseudo-truck.\n\n\tIt would have been easy not to answer. She didn’t have to give this girl the satisfaction. Gretchen glanced down at her phone and tried to stop her own fidgeting. She tried to feel normal. Tried to ‘be’ normal. All the while she could feel her joints popping and her heel bouncing against the hard rubber floor mat. Long moments of tension growing into minutes, and threatening to grow further still. Justin still stuck in the stupid Laundromat with no sign that the inept normie behind the counter had what he needed. All the while the silence grew ever more deafening.\n\n\t“Look, it’s nothing huge, ok?” The words finally spat with bitter vinegar. “I just need to figure out which game is the best one for us to play.”\n\n\t“Why?”\n\n\tOnce again Gretchen was stunned by Xi’s question. Once again she had to shake off her momentary shock before hauling herself around to glare at the other girl. “What do you mean ‘why’? They put it on me to pick a game ‘I’ want. So I have to pick the right game.”\n\n\t“and if you don’t?” Once again Xi asked. Once again the words twisted like a dagger in Gretchen’s brain.\n\n\t“They told me to pick something I like. Something I want to play. I don’t know that I ‘want’ to play anything. But I want to spend more time with them, and I want to do what will make them happy. Why are you asking me all of these obvious questions?”\n\n\tGretchen‘s ire did nothing to phase Xiulan. If anything she somehow looked even more disaffected and uninterested than before. It wasn’t even the kind of disaffected that was intended to clearly offend, which somehow made it all the more infuriating. “So, what’s the big deal? You afraid you’re going to pick something wrong?” \n\n\t“Yes, obviously! I’m supposed to pick a game. That’s the task, so that’s the thing I can get wrong. So, obviously, I don’t want to pick the wrong game and fuck everything up! If you’re going to just do this childish crap and repeat stuff back at me you could at least be snotty about it! Gahhh!”\n\n\tFinally, Gretchen’s body decided to sit mostly still. It was just a shame she was both too numb and too angry to enjoy the vented pressure. Looking up yet again she could see Justin finally getting the gothy dress handed back to him from the cleaner. A look of supreme annoyance on her Master’s face. It was enough to make her chuckle. Well, almost.\n\n\t“All I’m saying” Xiulan’s voice hit Gretchen like a spice rasp between the legs. Not even in a particularly good way, either. “Go ahead and pick something. What’s the worst that could happen?”\n\n\tGretchen shot back and gave the other girl a nasty look. Unfortunately it was more nasty due to her own clear exhaustion than any hate she could still muster.\n\n\tXi did look up finally. When she did her grin was somehow even more grating “I’m being serious. What’s the worst that could happen?”\n\n\t“Like I said, I could fuck up. Now will you stop teasing me? Please?” Gretchen sobbed\n\n\tThe wah girl only rolled her eyes and snickered to herself. “Right, that’s just called Iteration. Isn’t that, like, ninety percent of what your Master’s degree is about?”\n\n\t “No, I’m getting a degree in… oh.” That one final insult to Gretchen’s already frayed pride was cut short as the door opened and Justin hopped in. He paused just long enough to toss his dress in the back seat, heedless of the lounging red panda it now contained.\n\n\t“Sorry about that.” Justin smirked with all the guile and grace of a bad Han Solo cosplayer “Apparently the lady refused to understand what I was picking up and kept skipping over the dress. I think I freaked her out. So, you two ok?”\n\n\t“I will be when you get me to my appointment.” Xiulan huffed.\n\n\tGretchen, meanwhile, just looked down at the floor and let out an exhausted sigh.\n\n--------------------\n\n\tNightfall in the Grand Rapids metroplex. Long summer shadows finally dipping away though the smog-filled skies while a wave of wage-slaves dashed into buildings like insects seeking refuge at the flick of a lightswitch.\n\n\tTwo figures skulked in a deep alleyway. The boy leaned up against a busted old motorcycle that had seen far better days. A brown otter, slender and sleek, wearing a frayed denim jacket, leather and a black tee shirt. His companion, a panda gnome in a bubblegum neo-goth outfit, sat across from him on one of the dumpsters. She tapped the heels of her shoes rhythmically against the metal while fiddling with an AR terminal only she could see.\n\n\t“She’s late.” The boy grumbled.\n\n\t“She’ll be here.” The girl assured him.\n\n\t“Yeah, but she’s late.” The boy did little to mask his anger at the situation. He had been busying himself polishing and tending to his weapon. A gleaming metal sword with a blade nearly three inches wide. The word ‘Caliburn’ etched deeply into its broad and shallow fuller. Only those truly paying attention would be likely to notice the barrel which ran up one edge of the sword, or the elements of the weapon’s grip which marked it as a heavily modified and stylized Nemesis Praetorian. \n\n\t“You’re letting ’it’ get the better of you again, Galahad.” His panda companion chided as she waggled a finger towards the brooding figure. “Relax. I already sent some Sprites to check. I’m sure we’ll see her soon.” \n\n\t The denim-clad runner grunted his disapproval, then smiled. His rage passed just as quickly as it had come, something Spr1te was used to by this point. Outside of her sister, Galahad was the only runner she actually genuinely trusted not to sell her out some day. If that wasn’t love in the shadows then she didn’t know what was.\n\n\tSoon enough the gnome technomancer looked up towards the far end of the alleyway. A moment later a large sleek capsule of black rolled itself out of the shadows on three powered wheels. The tinted glass covering its front was only barely distinguishable from the sleek paint covering the like-new plastic body panels of the little personal transport vehicle.\n\n\tGalahad rolled his shield off of his back and snagged it up while putting his sword at the ready. Spr1te darted in front of him and tossed up an arm, holding it there while the vessel rolled its way up and the glass popped open.\n\n\tThe woman who emerged wasn’t that much taller than Spr1te. A rather unmuscular porcupine girl, either a dwarf or a gnome it was hard to tell. She also lacked the general aesthetic senses of most runners. Instead she wore little more than a tattered, hole ridden moss green shirt that was far too big. The phrase ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’ written in kanji down it with black marker. If one really looked they may notice the black jean shorts, though they were far too short to really notice with the shirt nearly going to her knees.\n\n\t“This our rigger?” Galahad snorted. A few moments later he sheathed his blade though his shield was kept at the ready.\n\n\t“That’s our rigger.” Spr1te could barely contain her squeal. She ran up to the girl and took her paws, giving them a nice hard shake. The other girl clearly wasn’t comfortable with this. She whined and whimpered and looked away from the pair while half heartedly trying to pull her hands free. Spr1te didn’t seem to care. Instead tugging the newly arrived runner up along with her. “Galahad, this is DollMistress. She’s our key to getting though that EVO warehouse.”\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Collared Chapter 21: Head Games
By TerraMGP

\t“Akira-sama!”

\tHitomi barely managed to keep from falling over as she burst out of the door and on to the school rooftop. Only her tenuous grasp on the doorknob kept her steady. She cast her eyes up to the fence. There it was. GT-11. A four-story mechanical monster. Black and red hull plates which served as the mech’s armor had opened wide. Shimmering energy crackled within and the air snapped of ozone as it smoldered .

\tThe metal demon seemed to be looking at her. Its single photoreceptor ‘eye’ glowing the same odd blue as the energy emerging from the now opened armor plating. And there, standing before it, was Akira. The third-year boy in his neatly pressed uniform stood on the edge of the mech’s cockpit hatch which had opened as a ramp. It had crushed the roof fence in doing so, and in doing so looked almost like some demon lord ushering the boy into the gates of hell.

\t“Go back in, Hitomi.” Akira rumbled coldly. “Get somewhere safe and hide. Don’t come out no matter what you hear.”

\t“I can help you. Whatever it is Hina did, Please let me do that too. I know. I know she was the one who helped you control the GT-11. Even if I’m not as good as her, if I could just-”

\t“The GT-88 has taken over Hina. If she even can be saved, only Gunblaze and I can do it. I don’t need you in my way” Akira’s hand swept back and his slender frame was wreathed in the glow of blue plasma-fire. It was as if the GT-11 itself were answering to his whim.

\tUp in the sky, massive angel wings and the burn of golden thrusters indicated the giant metal angel that was the GT-88. Its wings had been scorched and now looked almost black in most places. Missile salvos and blasts of pulse laser fire raked down from it randomly on the city below.

\tThen Hitomi looked back, just in time to see the hatch closing in over Akira. Her senpai now one with the metal monster as its own demonic wings spread and thrusters pushed it up into the sky.

\tHitomi raised a paw towards the sky and watched, her heart ached knowing there was nothing she could do to help.

\tOr was there?

--------------------

\t“No, that’s stupid.” Gretchen sighed. The pudgy mole glancing over the BESM character sheet once more. “Ok, this anime game is absolutely not it. They’ll just get mad at me for picking something where I can sit most of it out.”

\tGretchen shot up when the door opened. Then she slumped back down into the couch. It was simply Ozzy. The black furred goat boy stumbling in with his guitar slung over his back in its sticker- covered case. His whole body slumped down once more and sighed loudly enough for him to hear.

\t“Oh, wow, someone wait up for me?” Ozzy clearly couldn’t help but tease her. He looked over, one ear twitching up playfully for a moment.

\t“I thought you were Doordash.” Gretchen made no effort to hide the defeat in her tone. She glanced back at her computer and sighed loudly once more. A sigh loud enough to let the goat know just how upset she was.

\tIt bounced off of Ozzy, as it always did. He smirked at her, set his guitar down by the recliner and slipped himself into the chair. “Well I’m sorry I’m not food.” He scoffed.

\t“You should be.” Gretchen snapped.

\tHe snickered once more and rolled himself back on to the couch. As was his ritual he opened the small drawer at the base of the stand sitting between the couch and the recliner. From it Ozzy pulled a simple wooden plank covered in residue and littered with some bits of paper and a small repurposed mint tin.

\t“I, um…” Gretchen looked up from her laptop and glanced over at him. “Would you mind not?” It was something she often asked. Yet for the first time her tone wasn’t one of haughty annoyance. It was small and tired. It matched the way she looked.

\tOzzy nodded and offered her a warm smile in return. “Would it be ok if I just roll some? I won’t smoke em around you.”

\tThe slumped mole girl nodded and smiled in spite of herself. She felt grateful. Not nearly as angry or standoffish as usual. It felt nice, and uncomfortable. Honestly she didn’t know how to deal with it. But there it was.

\tBoth furs sat in silence for the longest time. The only noises to break it were the small rustles of Ozzy coaxing leaves into rolling papers and the whine of the their old window AC unit as it shifted between blowing in semi-cold air and deciding everything was simply fine. It wasn’t. But the thirty year old thermostat built into the cheap unit clearly didn’t know that.

\tEventually there was a knock at the door. Ozzy was kind enough to get the Doordash order left there and only steal a couple of fries in return. He stood there for a long moment after, looking down at the largely unmoving girl. The concern on his face wasn’t lost on Gretchen. She actually responded with a soft little smile, for whatever little it was worth to him.

\t“Look.” Ozzy sighed “I know it’s not my place. But I am at least gonna ask what’s wrong. This isn’t your usual every day utter crushing despair. This is advanced crushing despair.”

\t“Is it that obvious?” It was. Gretchen knew it was even more than he did. She wasn’t ‘that’ socially blind. Probably. Maybe.

\tThe girl gripped her thighs to her chest as best she could and rolled over on to her side. She stared blankly at the TV for a long moment. Not that it really made any sense to and indeed she felt stupid for gazing at a blank screen. But it was what her brain demanded. “I’m trying to figure out what kind of tabletop game I want to play.” The words came with a small, bitter laugh. She dared a glance up at her roommate and then back in front of her hoping to find something to fix her attention on that might bleed the growing anxiety away. “I know it’s stupid. You can go ahead and laugh. Master” She huffed a bit. Justin wasn’t there so enforced casualness be damned “Said whatever I picked he’d run for me and Mistress. Anything at all. I’ve been looking over all the PDFs they gave me. All I have to do is pick one. Find the one that actually, genuinely interests me.”

\t“And none of them interest you?” Ozzy sighed. With Gretchen curled up as she was he had plenty of room to sit down on the end of the couch without crowding her considerable bubble of personal space.

\t“Kinda” once again Gretchen’s words were hollow. “I don’t know why. It’s just hard for me to pick something on my own. There are so many choices and none of them even make sense to me. Plus what if I pick something they don’t like?”

\t“Well if you’re worried about finding something they like, I at least have one idea.” Ozzy’s ears perked a bit “I assume you’ve got Vampire in with all those books, right?”

\t“Vampire?” Gretchen shifted up in her seat with a glacial lethargy. The laptop eventually wound up in her lap again, and she began to scroll and click as quickly as her digger claw would allow with the touch pad. “Masquerade or Requiem? I have two of them.”

\t“Masquerade.” Ozzy’s paws shot into his baggy pants while a look of barely contained pride crossed his face. “Just so happens I know Justin really wants to get into the local VtM larp. In fact, that’s the one I came from. Me and Xiulan both do it. I know he wants in too. In fact he was going to join in when he moved up here before finding out just how much rent and everything costs.”

\t“I still can’t imagine it costs that much. And it’s not like school is that hard.” Deflections. Gretchen knew what she was doing even as she uttered the words. “Sorry. You’re just trying to help. Plus it’s not as if I have any real clues on what to do myself.”

\tOzzy shifted a bit and gestured towards the laptop. “Well then let’s give it a try. But Imma be stealing a few more fries.”

--------------------

\tViolet couldn’t remember her life before. She hoped, in some odd little part of her heart, that the ‘her’ she had been would hate the her she was now. True, she always hated herself. It was the nature of being a Gargoyle. A creation of her Tremere betters for the sake of their own happiness. She was a creature. A ‘thing’. Made simply to make their hopefully eternal nights more relaxed and enjoyable. A shriveled little servant stuck in the basement of their small rural manor performing the endless computer tasks her betters were too old and too important to learn.

\tThat was what she focused on. Sitting there in the semi finished little room humming with servers and awash in junk. Mostly packaging from things she’d ordered. The characteristic piles of actual junk were at the very least not needed for a creature such as her.

\tIt was still embarrassing. Small shards of fear crept up and down her spine when she heard the telltale thud-clack of high heels moving down the stairs. Violet’s now elongated bat ears twitched. Her nose huffed in a familiar scent. The smell of wilted roses and moonlight.

\t“Working hard, my pet?” That teasing sing-song. The lovingly hateful coo of the elegant Mistress who had helped create her. Violet felt a silky glove curling around and under her muzzle, titling it up. She looked to see her owner, pale white-brown fur shimmering under the florescent light and computer monitor glow. The woman sipped deeply from a wine glass full of thick, viscous liquid. A liquid that smelled like pennies and sent violet’s nerves blissfully on end.

\t“Yes, Mistress” Even her voice felt wrong to Violet. Not the elegant purr of her owner. Simply a half choked chirp of dumb recognition

\tThe woman nodded and leaned over. She took in the monitors. Stock portfolios. News articles. Massive, well organized folders filled to the brim with information on all manner of power players in town. Both the mundane and the supernatural. “I see you are keeping yourself quite busy, aren’t you?” The Lady Vanessa poked the gargoyle bat on her nose and then tapped one of the monitors. A spaceship HUD floating before an asteroid.

\tViolet yelped and tried to cover the monitor with her hands “Sorry Mistress, I was just.” She cursed herself and blushed with shame. The lure of Elite Dangerous was strong, but should be nothing compared to her owners.

\tThe Lady simple snickered and kissed the creature on her forehead. She then downed the rest of her wine glass and set it down on the desk “Nonsense, I only tease. So long as your duties come first, that is.”

\t“Always, My lady.” Violet nodded vigorously.

\tLady Vanessa tussed her pet’s hair the way one would some misunderstood teenager. “Good girl. Your Lord and I are going out to hunt tonight. Perhaps we will bring you back a small something to sate yourself as well.”

\t“T-thank you, My Lady” Violet nodded frantically. Just like that, the contact of her owner was gone. She was once again alone. Another cog in their machine. Condescended to and made to be useful. She hoped the ‘her’ before this would hate herself for it. Because now that was the one thing she actually liked about herself.

--------------------

\tOnce upon a time, homework was easy. Well, more easy than now. It wasn’t due to College somehow being harder. If anything Gretchen was finding her class load easier without the constant pressure of both parents hovering over her and their veiled jabs about the quality of her work. By contrast, she also didn’t have anything else to worry about besides porn and whatever shows she was watching at the time.

\tGrind out the assignments, grab the dopamine hit, repeat.

\tTechnically that was still true. Only now when she was done with the same kind of Calc she was doing last year or the boring yet nonsensical hell of organic chemistry she had to worry about ‘relationship’ things. It made her think the whole thing would be a lot easier if there were no organic chemistry. Everyone could be gems like in that Stephen Universe cartoon and they’d all have a hierarchal D/s inspired social structure. Plus everything would look pretty!

\tBut that was fantasy, and this was reality. A reality where she wasn’t currently able to get on her knees and beg her Master to skullfuck her for being a bad girl. Not that she ever had, but that was just a matter of her working up the courage.

\tInstead she was there on her bed. Laptop sprawled out, watching as her beloved Vtube idol Nidonido leading her ‘intrepid band of dumbasses’ though their custom 7 days to die map.

\t“Nido’s got the Nurglish rot! Quick, Shiny, get me the flamer!” A shrill voice barked the words out of the laptop speakers. A Vtube model of a bobcat femboy battle maid bounced around between Nidonido’s current ‘goblin core’ Nidorina avi and a busty moose girl avi wearing a stereotypical teacher outfit.

\tShineon, the one with the moose girl, stood by while the two others ran around in a circle though a ruined book store with all the gravity of a bad Benny Hill sketch

\t“Haru! Stop!” Nidonido’s soft, sweet voice with its gentle Scottish borough rolled in a laugh while she jumped and dodged her way though the shelves. Shotgun blasts roaring behind her.

\t“Purge the heretic!” Haru, the maid catboy shrieked while his character continued to unload “I got two barrels and hundreds of rounds, Nido! You’re responsible for this. I know you are. You were praying to Grandfather Nurgle again!”

\tAll three laughed while the crazed feline chased his friend though the piles of zombie bodies. Gretchen laughed, too. Once again she didn’t know what was going on. But that was why Haru the Maidboy was such a fun inclusion in these streams. Chaotic Random was kind of his brand.

\t“Who the fuck is Nurgle” Shiny finally managed after her own laughing fit. All three players had stopped moving their characters, instead standing there to recover from the outburst. That recover was cut short as Haru turned, and with deadpan quiet shot down Nidonido again. This time it took the poor girl out, and evoked her trademark high pitched ‘what the heck’!? yelp

\t“So anyways, as I was saying.” Haru still keeping his comedic casual deadpan “He’s the plague god in 40K. Basically a big greasy neckbeard who likes to make everyone sick. I’m a maid so logically I can’t be the one who summoned him. You’re a teacher so ‘you’ can’t be the one who summoned him. Logically, that means it’s all Nido’s fault.”

\t“See, this is why nobody invites you for Among us anymore, Haru.” Nidonido huffed. The poor girl now on the base’s spare bike and peddling her way back though the post apoc wasteland towards her body and her dropped gear. “I knew I should have just kept digging out the bottom of our base.”

\t“Oh sure, that’s what you want us to think. See, this is why I need to be an Inquisitor. Someone go call the Emperor. I bet I’d even get my own bolter bitch armor if I purred in his lap long enough.”

\tOnce again all three of them began laughing, and Gretchen murred feeling the vicarious friendship wash over her. She basked in it for a few minutes longer than she perhaps should have, then looked up to the mostly being-painted 40K model her owners had gotten her to experiment with. It was a setting they both seemed to like. Plus one of the folders she’d been given in her gaming folder did contain some books labeled as ’40K Dark Heresy’.  Perhaps this called for a wiki dive.

--------------------

\tThe Talon skyhook may have once been something impressive. In the days of Furkind’s surge to the stars this little orbital platform could have been part of some vast sprawling network. One of countless jewels shimmering in the night sky of Des Moinesia. None of the people milling about it now realized this. None of them seemed to care. The run down old pseudo-station was little more than a thick metal disc crammed full of repurposed spaces. Shops and cheap living quarters occupied by the kind of hive scum or ship faring malcontents who wished for more yet knew they could never get it from the societies of their birth.

\tAgatha was nothing in the face of this. A shrew girl of twenty standard at most, though it was hard to keep track given the life she’d led. Fiery red hair puffed out in all directions, tamed only by the dirt and grime of mistreatment and neglect. Old magcuffs held her arms tight behind her. A rather undignified set of braces kept her kneeling at an uncomfortable angle. Her own malnourished body was on full display. Light-starved fur giving way at points to smooth and refined mechanical implantations. Crystals and machinery that seemed much like those of a typical Mechanicus and yet were more pleasing in an aesthetic sense to the sensibilities of the sane.

\tThe girl was forced to think about those implants, think about how people viewed them and viewed her. Even as they moved on along though the corridors without a care in the world. Once upon a time she would have called out to them. Begged them. Pleaded even. But what fire burned in her heart had gone out long ago. At this point the poor girl could only make herself look around out of sheer boredom and tedium. That was, until she saw them.

\t“S-sir!” Agatha’s voice was shrill and quiet at the same time. It choked hard from disuse. She croaked and squeaked as her eyes raised up to look at them.

\tTwo figures. The first a lovely tanuki woman with her hair tied back in a war bun with a silver band. A tight black suit hugged her body. Stiff and utilitarian with various points of armor covering vital spots while allowing a free range of movement. There was something regal and not quite military about her. But also an intellect missing from the few imperial guard members or ship defensive crews Agatha had seen.

\tThat woman followed behind another figure, and it was that figure Agatha struggled to call out for. A freckled marmot with a mane of metallic silver hair. He wore armor, sword and shield all with the ease of one who had spent at least some time in them. There was also a gun slung into a carrier across his back. When the man turned his sapphire eyes flashed. He seemed to make a point of unconsciously displaying the Heraldry adorning his shield. Cuffs and chains as a border, with blue and white as the main colors and a black raven sat resplendent atop them. A book, or perhaps a data slate, was in relief behind the bird. Agatha knew little of heraldry, but she knew at the very least this wasn’t some simple gang sign.

\tShe gazed at the pair for a long moment. They gazed back. Both seemed to be at least a bit confused by the sudden cry for attention. The man in particular gave her a wary look while pacing towards the slave stall selling the girl. His heavy armored hand resting firmly on the jeweled pommel of his sword.

\t“F-forgive this one, for speaking out of turn Sire.” The girl’s voice trembled She did her best to offer up her augmented body. A mesh of polymer, metal and crystal that even a lay-person could tell was not sanctioned by the cult mechanicus. One which gave her form an eerie allure if not actual beauty. The girl thrust her chest out and heaved a deep breath. The blush of her cheeks only grew under that soft downy fur. “I would… I beg you, buy me. I know I am not much to look at. I realize I am asking much. But I could be pleasing! I would gladly allow you and your Lady to do whatever you wished to me without a hint of resistance. U-unless you preferred such.”

\tThe slave girl leaned forwards until the thick collar around her neck choked her. The chain holding her in place tinkled as a reminder to keep herself where she belonged. The woman in the body suit snorted and spat something in high gothic. Her hand instantly went to the whip on her hip.

\t“Would you like me to deal with this creature, lord interrogator?” the look on the woman’s face was dour and oddly angry. She grinned maliciously at every little involuntary tremor from the slave as the promise of using that whip was put on the table. A hunter with prey trapped in its den, ready to savor the killing blow.

\tThat blow never came. The man placed a hand on her shoulder and eased her back. His tongue clicked in rebuke. “I do wish you’d stop calling me that, Hannah. Or should I start calling you Sister Lumin?”

\tThe point was taken and the acolyte sister stepped aside. Soon the silver-haired man and his power armor had taken up the whole of the girls view. His hand reached out and gripped her muzzle roughly. Be it a show of force or simply the nature of the power armor it was hard to tell.

\t“So tell me, girl.” He growled in a silken tone. “Why is a member of the Mechanicum being sold off like this? Offering herself up like some common bed warmer on a backwater station?”

\t“I am not one of them.” The girl spat back. Hate having shattered her otherwise calm and desperate visage. “They called me a Heretek, whatever that means. Those robed curs were looking to make me into some kind of horrible abomination simply because they felt the implants I had infringed on them in some way.” A few tears darkened her cheeks now. She rolled her shoulders and looked off to the side. “I only survived because some slaver thought I’d be exotic and snuck me away from the rows of prisoners with a bribe. If I am not sold, I fear he will hand me back to them in hopes of some small reward.”

\tThe man cracked a smile. “You don’t know what a heretek is? Or servitors it would seem. And yet you have those implants? Interesting… Tell me girl, do you know anything of technology yourself?”

\tThe slave twisted nervously. She eyed him up and down for the longest time, yet was hesitant to actually say anything. The man in the power armor smiled and offered a small nod of assurance.

\t“Well, my lord. I mean no disrespect, but” She heaved a heavy sigh “It’s quite obvious your current armor is most charitably old and ill cared for, not to mention it has not been properly fitted to you. I can see you struggling with the motive sensors just to make it heed you. The flaws are deep and the fresh paint which was applied cannot hide them. Also I am presuming your companion’s armor was in an even worse state as she is forced to simply wear the affixing body glove. Your power sword is also unstable and I can see flickering from the base of the scabbard. If not tended to soon it may activate at inopportune moments and possibly even injure you. Then there’s the shield which I presume contains some form of field projector. However-”

\t“Alright, alright.” He gripped her shoulder and looked back at his companion a moment before turning to the slave. “It would seem you may have some use after all. But I warn you, with what we face you may well wish you’d been kept by the Techpriests.”  He nodded to his companion who stormed her way off towards the man running the slave stalls. The lordling then stood and offered a paw. The modeled green of his armor contrasted by a much newer addition. A black and gold stylized icon of the letter I complete with an eye in the middle. He simply stood there and smiled, waiting for her to take his paw.

--------------------

\t“Remind me why you’re here again?” Gretchen probably should have been more personable. She looked into the rear view mirror, gazing at the spunky red panda girl in the plaid skirt and midriff top. Maybe it was how closely Xiulan resembled Gretchen’s beloved Hui. Maybe it was the occasional, deliberate feeling knee bumps against the back of her seat. Maybe it was just her usual hate of everyone. But watching the girl there fiddling with her phone made Gretchen bristle.

\tSmugness oozed from the red panda girl as she looked up and grinned at the reflection in the mirror. Her eyes twinkling a bit with impish mischief. “I’m here because I need a ride to therapy and I didn’t want to take the bus. Bigger question is why are ‘you’ here, hmm?”

\tA triumphant huff and artificially smug smile was returned at the intruder. It was not at all natural-looking on the firzzy haired young woman. “Master happens to be taking me to the library. I need some research materials.”

\t“What, you couldn’t just go online and nab a copy of your textbooks?” Another snipping retort, and another knee into her seat. This time the pressure persisted and Gretchen looked back to see the smug and scrawny girl now slumping down surprisingly far with her knees actually braced on the back of Gretchen’s seat.

\t“You know this little truck isn’t really big enough for you to do that.” The words declared in Gretchen’s best schoolmarm tone. “Not that it’s any of your business, but no. It’s not textbooks I need.  Besides I just… I wanna hang out at the library while he’s at work. Ok?”

\t“Awww, is da widdle mole girl all lonely?” Xi rolled her eyes and snorted. The game she was playing chirping and bleeping from out of her phone while her big, bushy, fluffy tail took up an inordinate amount of the overall back seat.

\tThe car fell silent after that. Gretchen looked up at the strip mall in front of them. She could see Justin tapping his foot impatiently while someone rattled though dry cleaning items on one of those mechanized hooks. She found her eyes wandering. The gameshop. Coldstone. A hair place. She smiled a bit from that. Considering how long he was taking it was tempting to consider going in and seeing if someone could finally tame the Danny Sexbang mane she’d always sported. Then again, that wasn’t something she’d ever do without express permission. Plus it would probably hurt like hell.

\t“So, why are you really here?” Xi’s words were softer now. Still aloof, still superior, but much softer.

\t“I just… I don’t know what to do with myself. I’m getting a double major. I thought it’d be harder, I guess. So far it just feels like every other day of my life, only without the fear of my parents yelling every day. You know, just the weekends.” She snorted and winced at her digger claws rubbing nervously along the top of her muzzle. “Not that it’s any of your business mind you. I’m only bringing it up because this is so boring.”

\t“You could put on that streamer you like.” Xi offered. “I mean she’s not my thing but I won’t complain.”

\t“I don’t just mean now. I mean just overall, I guess. I donno. I don’t really feel like it.” Gretchen curled her stubby legs up on to her seat and took a few deep breaths. Instinct caused her to reach for her rescue inhaler. Her breathing was fine. It was always fine. Still it felt reassuring to have the thing in paw in case. “Look I’m not here trying to whine or anything, ok? Just forget I said anything. I’m just not in the mood to listen to Nidonido right now. I’ve got way too much on my mind.”

\t“Like what?” Xiulan’s quip didn’t miss a beat. It wasn’t threatening. Wasn’t even condescending.

\t“I’m trying to make a D&D character.” She winced as soon as she said it. Suddenly Gretchen’s gut dropped as she was forced to realize she’d given some ground to this… person. The realization pulled her into a tighter ball while she rocked back and forth just a bit in the car’s tiny, uncomfortable old seats.

\t“I thought you had one already.” Xi noted “Your artificer girl?”


\t“Not kind of D&D character! I mean for like, other games. Those ‘kind’ of games. You know what I mean. She darted up quickly when a speck of movement caught the corner of her eye. Gretchen’s whole body lurched forwards, paw grabbing the door handle and seatbelt clicking as it dug into her chest though the layers of clothing. The shock of the sudden stop sent her back into the seat. Frustrating, but made worse when she realized the movement was not Justin returning but instead some stupid random person hauling their laundry in to do a few loads.

\t“Uggh, This is unbearable.” Ill fitting and utterly decayed sneakers rammed with frustrated force into the equally decrepit footwell. Gretchen kicked and stomped her heels into the dirty old carpet before finally slumping back again. It was there. That horrible knot in her gut. That unmistakable yet indescribable feeling which always hit her hardest at the right times.

\t“Tabletop games.” once again Xiulan’s tone was flat and mostly natural. Somehow that stung even more than the condescension had before.

\t“Makes sense.” Gretchen sighed.

\tXi smiled a tiny bit to herself and looked up into the mirror for a half second. Those eyes locked with Gretchen. So much like Hui, so much like the mole’s beloved Mistress, only darker. Filled not with the innocent love of her beloved owner but with the same intellect and wit. “So you’re trying to make Tabletop game characters. What’s the problem? You’re getting a STEM degree, right? Most of that stuff is just math.”

\t“Yeah I know it’s just math.” Gretchen spat “The math part isn’t the problem. They want me to pick which game we’re going to do. I have all of these books for different settings and systems. I already looked over some wikis to help me get immersed in some of the background stuff.”

\t“But…” Something about the way Xi acted so casually, so blasé. At least if she were more of a bitch Gretchen would feel ok about hitting her.

\t“But I don’t know what I want. God. Are you happy? I’m looking over all of this stuff and I don’t know what I want to play, or what they will like to play most. Plus it’s not like I can go ask them about it now can I? They told ‘me’ to pick. I’m a freaking slave. I shouldn’t even get the choice to pick.”

\tThis all felt very rehashed. It was all the things she’d talked to Ozzy about, or close enough that it didn’t matter. Hell she’d even tried asking Willa. Then again getting their other female roommate to shut up was a feat in and of itself. Once the rant got into something about ‘Mother Gaia’ she’d utterly tuned Willa out.

\tAnd yet here she was, rehashing things again. Digging into the same old frustrations. The same old wounds The same old-

\t“What exactly has you scared?”

\tThe question made Gretchen pause. Her train of thought had utterly and promptly derailed and now sat in a smoldering hunk somewhere near the front center of her cerebrum.

\t“I never said I was scared.” The mole noted all too quickly

\t“No, but it’s pretty clear something has you all worked up. Right?” Xi snorted and shifted herself again, this time actually splaying out to take up most of the back seat while her tail rested in what passed for a footwell in the small pseudo-truck.

\tIt would have been easy not to answer. She didn’t have to give this girl the satisfaction. Gretchen glanced down at her phone and tried to stop her own fidgeting. She tried to feel normal. Tried to ‘be’ normal. All the while she could feel her joints popping and her heel bouncing against the hard rubber floor mat. Long moments of tension growing into minutes, and threatening to grow further still. Justin still stuck in the stupid Laundromat with no sign that the inept normie behind the counter had what he needed. All the while the silence grew ever more deafening.

\t“Look, it’s nothing huge, ok?” The words finally spat with bitter vinegar. “I just need to figure out which game is the best one for us to play.”

\t“Why?”

\tOnce again Gretchen was stunned by Xi’s question. Once again she had to shake off her momentary shock before hauling herself around to glare at the other girl. “What do you mean ‘why’? They put it on me to pick a game ‘I’ want. So I have to pick the right game.”

\t“and if you don’t?” Once again Xi asked. Once again the words twisted like a dagger in Gretchen’s brain.

\t“They told me to pick something I like. Something I want to play. I don’t know that I ‘want’ to play anything. But I want to spend more time with them, and I want to do what will make them happy. Why are you asking me all of these obvious questions?”

\tGretchen‘s ire did nothing to phase Xiulan. If anything she somehow looked even more disaffected and uninterested than before. It wasn’t even the kind of disaffected that was intended to clearly offend, which somehow made it all the more infuriating. “So, what’s the big deal? You afraid you’re going to pick something wrong?”

\t“Yes, obviously! I’m supposed to pick a game. That’s the task, so that’s the thing I can get wrong. So, obviously, I don’t want to pick the wrong game and fuck everything up! If you’re going to just do this childish crap and repeat stuff back at me you could at least be snotty about it! Gahhh!”

\tFinally, Gretchen’s body decided to sit mostly still. It was just a shame she was both too numb and too angry to enjoy the vented pressure. Looking up yet again she could see Justin finally getting the gothy dress handed back to him from the cleaner. A look of supreme annoyance on her Master’s face. It was enough to make her chuckle. Well, almost.

\t“All I’m saying” Xiulan’s voice hit Gretchen like a spice rasp between the legs. Not even in a particularly good way, either. “Go ahead and pick something. What’s the worst that could happen?”

\tGretchen shot back and gave the other girl a nasty look. Unfortunately it was more nasty due to her own clear exhaustion than any hate she could still muster.

\tXi did look up finally. When she did her grin was somehow even more grating “I’m being serious. What’s the worst that could happen?”

\t“Like I said, I could fuck up. Now will you stop teasing me? Please?” Gretchen sobbed

\tThe wah girl only rolled her eyes and  snickered to herself. “Right, that’s just called Iteration. Isn’t that, like, ninety percent of what your Master’s degree is about?”

\t “No, I’m getting a degree in… oh.” That one final insult to Gretchen’s already frayed pride was cut short as the door opened and Justin hopped in. He paused just long enough to toss his dress in the back seat, heedless of the lounging red panda it now contained.

\t“Sorry about that.” Justin smirked with all the guile and grace of a bad Han Solo cosplayer “Apparently the lady refused to understand what I was picking up and kept skipping over the dress. I think I freaked her out. So, you two ok?”

\t“I will be when you get me to my appointment.” Xiulan huffed.

\tGretchen, meanwhile, just looked down at the floor and let out an exhausted sigh.

--------------------

\tNightfall in the Grand Rapids metroplex. Long summer shadows finally dipping away though the smog-filled skies while a wave of wage-slaves dashed into buildings like insects seeking refuge at the flick of a lightswitch.

\tTwo figures skulked in a deep alleyway. The boy leaned up against a busted old motorcycle that had seen far better days. A brown otter, slender and sleek, wearing a frayed denim jacket, leather and a black tee shirt. His companion, a panda gnome in a bubblegum neo-goth outfit, sat across from him on one of the dumpsters. She tapped the heels of her shoes rhythmically against the metal while fiddling with an AR terminal only she could see.

\t“She’s late.” The boy grumbled.

\t“She’ll be here.” The girl assured him.

\t“Yeah, but she’s late.” The boy did little to mask his anger at the situation. He had been busying himself polishing and tending to his weapon. A gleaming metal sword with a blade nearly three inches wide. The word ‘Caliburn’ etched deeply into its broad and shallow fuller. Only those truly paying attention would be likely to notice the barrel which ran up one edge of the sword, or the elements of the weapon’s grip which marked it as a heavily modified and stylized Nemesis Praetorian.

\t“You’re letting ’it’ get the better of you again, Galahad.” His panda companion chided as she waggled a finger towards the brooding figure. “Relax. I already sent some Sprites to check. I’m sure we’ll see her soon.”

\t The denim-clad runner grunted his disapproval, then smiled. His rage passed just as quickly as it had come, something Spr1te was used to by this point. Outside of her sister, Galahad was the only runner she actually genuinely trusted not to sell her out some day. If that wasn’t love in the shadows then she didn’t know what was.

\tSoon enough the gnome technomancer looked up towards the far end of the alleyway. A moment later a large sleek capsule of black rolled itself out of the shadows on three powered wheels. The tinted glass covering its front was only barely distinguishable from the sleek paint covering the like-new plastic body panels of the little personal transport vehicle.

\tGalahad rolled his shield off of his back and snagged it up while putting his sword at the ready. Spr1te darted in front of him and tossed up an arm, holding it there while the vessel rolled its way up and the glass popped open.

\tThe woman who emerged wasn’t that much taller than Spr1te. A rather unmuscular porcupine girl, either a dwarf or a gnome it was hard to tell. She also lacked the general aesthetic senses of most runners. Instead she wore little more than a tattered, hole ridden moss green shirt that was far too big. The phrase ‘Welcome to the Dollhouse’ written in kanji down it with black marker. If one really looked they may notice the black jean shorts, though they were far too short to really notice with the shirt nearly going to her knees.

\t“This our rigger?” Galahad snorted. A few moments later he sheathed his blade though his shield was kept at the ready.

\t“That’s our rigger.” Spr1te could barely contain her squeal. She ran up to the girl and took her paws, giving them a nice hard shake. The other girl clearly wasn’t comfortable with this. She whined and whimpered and looked away from the pair while half heartedly trying to pull her hands free. Spr1te didn’t seem to care. Instead tugging the newly arrived runner up along with her. “Galahad, this is DollMistress. She’s our key to getting though that EVO warehouse.”
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