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"submission_right_thumb_medium_x": "78", "submission_right_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "Yeah I am not quite back to 'one a week' yet. This and one other make it two a month from last month. So... progress? And yes it's been basically a month exactly. If I didn't have things to do RL it would have been to the day. But a few hours late isn't bad.\n\nAs for the story? Well, Esme has needed more focus anyways. I think those who are reading along can tell how this is all going.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Yeah I am not quite back to 'one a week' yet. This and one other make it two a month from last month. So... progress? And yes it's been basically a month exactly. If I didn't have things to do RL it would have been to the day. But a few hours late isn't bad.

As for the story? Well, Esme has needed more focus anyways. I think those who are reading along can tell how this is all going.", "writing": "Collared Chapter 34: Esme, Stage Left\nBy TerraMGP\n\n\t“Esme!” Sharp words and a sharper accent. Esme‘s mother was born and raised here in the states, but for some reason the Kuwaiti accent from her grandmother seemed to transpose itself over her mother any time she was agitated.\n\n\tEsme made her way into the train wreck of a living room. Her mother was already picking at the various items left out by her brothers and their friends from their sleepover. Smash brothers music blared while Fatima Hatimi tour though the cushions in search of the TV remote. \n\n\tFatima didn‘t look up at her daughter. She simply gestured one arm up while the other dug around in the couch. A thick two-toned hoodie with wires and cables on the inside dangled from her fingers. “Is this yours or does it belong to one of the boys?”\n\n\t“What the? How did that get out here?” She quickly snatched the item up and looked it over. Her thumb felt around the collar until she felt a small button. One click, and a slew of blue LEDs lit up inside of the hood.\n\n\t“So it‘s not trash, then?” Fatima sighed.\n\n\t“It‘s for the next play we‘re doing.” The gecko girl chirped excitedly “Jess in props was kinda stoked about his idea so he wanted me to wear it around for a few days an see what I thought of the prototype. I don‘t know how well the lighting is going to work when I‘m on stage but I guess it‘s more about making sure I can move around in it.”\n\n\tThe remote finally came free of its hiding spot and the TV was mercifully muted. Fatima turned to her daughter and then looked the article of clothing over. Black and grey with spray-paint and carefully calculated dirt stains. She sniffed at the air a bit and shook her head “So long as it does not interrupt your studies then that‘s fine, I suppose. Also I want you to start checking Ali‘s math homework for me. His teacher says he‘s been getting Cs and that is not acceptable.”\n\n\tThe comment caused Esme to pause for a moment. She looked out the large bay window of their home to the four boys running around the yard swinging sticks at each other. Ali and Cyrus, her younger brothers, had climbed a short ways up the Japanese redwood out in the front yard and were using it as high ground to swat down at their friends. Esme looked around at the living room. The half exploded bag‘s worth of Chicago style popcorn and bevy of Mountain Dew bottles around the room. The blow up mattress where all for boys had passed out gaming some time in the morning. Toys scattered around that her mother deftly dodged.\n\n\tArguments bubbled up then just as quickly died. All of it. What was the point?\n\n\t“Ok mom.” She nodded “I‘m not that great at math myself, though. But I‘ll do what I can.”\n\n\t“You‘ll do fine.” Her mother sighed “Besides it‘s not like your little play is happening any time soon, right?” If Fatima heard Esme sigh, she didn‘t respond to it. She was too busy scooping up the bottles and putting them in a bag to take back later. \n\n\t“I‘ll put this in my room“ The comment was sharp enough that hopefully her mother would understand. If someone got it out of her room, if it was out again, that meant the boys did it and it shouldn‘t be thrown away. There was, admittedly, a part of her. A deep, dark, shameful part, which was tempted to channel Collin, or Xiulan, or whatever he, whatever ’they’ were being called now. A part which looked at that bed and wanted to suggest that four young boys on an air mattress in a sleepover might be doing something shocking and deplorable in the eyes of her very traditional mother. Whole variants of the ’Aristocrats’ joke spun themselves up in her head and Esme couldn’t help but grin as she pondered her mother’s reaction. \n\n\tAs always, these thoughts stayed locked away where they belonged. “I have to go out with Becky in a bit, though. I‘m helping her get some things. She‘s shooting a stop motion film for her college admissions thing.”\n\n\t“Just try not to get home late” The older gecko woman chided “Your Gramma was hoping to spend time with everyone tonight”\n\n\t“Wait, why is she even here? It’s a pretty long trip from Dearborn. Did I forget Abba’s birthday again?”\n\n\tFatima sighed and did her best not to roll her eyes “I already told you. She’s coming here to visit before going up to Grand Rapids. She needs to see a specialist about some tests. I don’t know why she had to come all the way out here instead of seeing someone in Detroit, but while she’s here you can at least visit with her a little..”\n\n\t“She’s going to complain at me, though. She never likes how I dress.” Esme pouted\n\n\t“I don’t like how you dress, either. And I’ve seen you around town letting your hair out of your Hijab. Don’t think I haven’t.”\n\n\t“I’m still mostly covered, mom” the teen’s voice cracking a bit now “I mean ok yeah I guess most of it hangs out when I do that, but it gets really uncomfortable. As for how I dress, it’s still really modest. It’s not like I’m putting on E-girl makeup and making ahegao faces”\n\n\t“Making what faces?” Fatima’s tail twitched and slapped on the floor. The obvious confusion there tinged with a hint of pre-emptive anger\n\n\tThat look in her mother’s eyes was all it took for Esme to dart her way to the garage door and swing it wide open. “Nothing. The point is that I’m not doing it. Lots of girls my age are. A-and don’t look it up, ok? I’ll be back in a few hours. Promise!”\n\n\tThe door slammed before her mother could ask any more questions. \n\n--------------------\n\n\tGoing back to Hoardraider wasn’t something Esme had expected once Justin and Collin had left. What had she expected, though? Suddenly, magically, Hui would decide she wanted to go to J.C. Penny and try on something she didn’t sew for some anime cosplay? That Becky would want some fur dye treatments to look more feminine? \n\n\tNo, naturally not. So here she was, standing there behind Becky in the same old nerd den. Greasy 40 somethings standing around oozing essence of gas station nachos into the air and ranting about anime nobody else watched. Every once in a while the daughter of the shop owner would run by them with her stuffed Eevee held over hir head. Whinnie, or at least Esme was pretty sure that was the girls name. She’d run into the back for a while where her mother was doing paperwork then run back out interacting with the regulars as if these creeps didn’t all embody stranger danger.\n\n\t“You sure we couldn’t have just gone to Meijer or something?” Esme did her best to push and nudge at the bulged bundle of headfur in her Hijab without letting it loose. It shouldn’t matter either way. Only her parents cared. Hell, her dad probably didn’t give a shit. She had it on, she did her prayers, she wasn’t going around slutting it up with the boys at school. She was a good Muslim girl.\n\n\tWhich was why she was very quick to look away when Becky’s shorts slipped down a bit and some ratty cotton panties and a hint of crack exposed themselves.\n\n\t“I figured these things would be better.” The exposure grew a bit worse while Becky fumbled her paw back to pull out something that looked more like a robot girl than the random armored mechs with massive names that lined half the store’s left flank. “Ryan has some of these he built when he was in high school, but he said those were all older kits he got from some guy on Ebay. No articulation at all. All the action figures at Meijer just look cheap.”\n\n\t“I think there’s a reason for that.” The lanky gecko pulled down one of the boxes from the top shelf. A mess of red and white plastic on the art along with a shiny katana, because why wouldn’t a robot have a katana? “Holy… two hundred bucks? Those gold bits should be real gold for that price! Plus, don’t you have to actually build this thing yourself?”\n\n\t“I’m not getting one of the top shelf ones, doofus.” Becky scoffed “Though this other stuff isn’t a lot better. Thirty bucks a pop for most of these, and you gotta put em together yourself? What kind of freaking masochist has time for that? At least with those stupid 40K minis you can play a dumb game” Another few boxes shuffle around. Frustration grew, but Becky being Becky she stopped herself short of actually damaging anything. Instead she neatly ordered everything where it had been and pulled herself back up offering Esme the most reassuring smile she could.\n\n\tFor her own part the Gecko was quick to smile back. Not that she felt it. Much as she disliked those two boys around, their absence was felt. Or maybe it was something else. Something that had been rattling around in her head for weeks now. Something she couldn’t put a finger on.\n\n\tIf Becky noticed, she didn’t say anything. Instead moving along to the racks of collectables. Her eyes scanning over the action figures with utter disgust. “Oh come on. This stuff is just as pricy. Thirty bucks for Sora? Wait, why is that slime guy one hundred? Who would pay that much for a statue? It doesn’t even move?”\n\n\t“You could just have me and Hui do something you know.” Esme blurted “Just pick some scene like you usually do. Something that lets you show off a bit? You know, show your… directeryness?”\n\n\t“That’s not the point.” The badger blurted “Sorry. I mean, I know you guys are wiling to help. Hell, you’re here now. But if I want to get into a good school I have to show I can do more than just get a couple of decent actors on my side. Or one good actor and a voice actress from those old CD I games.”\n\n\t“Hui’s not that bad.” The lie almost sounding convincing “Besides it’s not like I want them to see that. Or even a director worth emulating like Wes Anderson. I just… I want to show ‘me’. That I know how to play with shots and frame a story. I don’t want people to think I‘m just coasting off of something else. Or someone else.”\n\n\tShe didn’t elaborate. With a grace belaying her size and shape Becky managed to dodge the dashing cub running though the store almost unsupervised and moved her way over to another stack of statues and figures set by the counter. “Don’t worry about it. Just thinking out loud.”\n\n--------------------\n\n\tEven as fall chill crept its way over the land, there were still a few kids out in the park, braving it for the sake of the big wooden ‘castle’ playground. The allure of rampaging over chain and plank bridges or jumping down into big piles of cedar chips.\n\n\tIt was always a treat to go here when the three of them were little. The other side of their small town had always seemed like such a long ride and an impossibly long way to walk back then. Becky and Hui had tried to drag Esme along a few times when they wanted to walk out there. It never worked out. Letting a bunch of nine year old girls traipse around in the woods was one thing. Walking though back roads was another. Never mind the odds of getting hit if they’d tried main street.\n\n\tMaybe that was why Esme felt the way she did now. Some tiny spark of electricity at the core of her brain. Reward? Excitement? Or maybe it was just that Becky was here with her\n\n\tThe two girls sat on the swings. Becky held the bag containing their haul of cheap figures and imported candy. Every once in a while she’d pass off another small packet of little panda-shaped cookie-things over to Esme for her to munch\n\n\t“You think it looks bad with us just sitting here?” Esme muttered\n\n\t“We’re not just ‘sitting here’. We’re waiting for the kids to finally fuck off.” The words came with a small note of restrained rage from Becky. The red headed girl shoved herself back on the swing and then let herself rock a few times. The bag in her paws swaying far more than the rest of her.\n\n\tA slightly dejected Esme leaned her lanky body up against one of the swing chains and clapped her maw down on another cookie-ish thing. “We’re sitting here with a bag full of transformers and candy watching kids, in a playground. You sure nobody is going to call the cops on us or anything?”\n\n\tBecky paused. Her bored look melting a bit as realization hit her. She quickly shook it off and sighed. “Be nice if they’d go away. Not sure how much longer we’re going to have the light out here.” She dug her boot heels into the swing and pushed back hard. A slow simmer of anger growing in those blue-green eyes. Striking orbs that just barely left Becky Parker skirting the edge of Ginger. It was still unclear if she qualified or not.\n\n\tThe conversation turned back to quiet small talk. All the while Esme would watch Becky watching the playground, and in particular the bridge she wanted to use. Her stubby legs continued their aggressive push and pull until suddenly something brown and furry hammered itself against them. Loud energetic sniffs and whining noises served to offer some clue as to what the furball was, even if the thing’s movements left both girls swimming in confusion.\n\n\tThis was followed by huffing and bounding and barking. The dog darted around Becky a few times, nipping at her stubby tail and forehead ramming into her thigh. Poor Becky found herself wrapping both paws hard around the plastic bags and pulling them up out of reach. “No, Shoo dog! There’s chocolate in here. You don’t need any of that!”\n\n\tEsme didn’t know if she should laugh, shriek or dive on the thing attacking her friend. Instinct pushed her into wrapping her long digits around the swing chain and railing back as if she were someone actually fit enough to climb up a swing chain in an emergency. “B-becky, are you ok?” She yelped. A few half hearted kicks in the doggo’s general direction about all she cold make herself muster in defense. \n\n\t“Buddy!” The word caused the dog to pause. He didn’t move. Or rather, he paused for a moment before looking back to Becky and stomping the ground with his forepaws this way and that. A few moments later the dog was enveloped by a heavy pair of arms. A coffee cup patchwork of browns, oranges and whites in his fur all showing more clearly now that the figure was holding him still. A metallic click and his presumed owner stood up tugging the mutt back by a harness around his upper body.\n\n\t“Sorry about that.” The errant dog’s owner panted “I was still kind of… oh….”\n\n\t“Oh…” Becky winced. The familiar bundle of grey fur in her thick biker jacket. Icy cold hate in her eyes. Her gaze burning white hot holes in the form standing before her.\n\n\t“Ms. Blake!” Esme yelped “Is uh, is that you? Hi. I haven’t seen you since last year.” She laughed, but she also shifted herself a bit while the dog butted and tugged on his leash. It seemed those were the magic words to turn his attention from Becky to Esme and he was eager to sniff at her next.\n\n\t“Uh, yeah. Hey.” She was so very different. The former gym teacher, the woman who had been last year. Physically she was the same, sure. A big hulking brute in a ratty white tee shirt and scuffed up jeans who looked like she should be in one of those video games about bikers. Her blonde hair pulled back in a tight pony tail which still somehow managed to catch some falling leaves. She reached up and brushed a few of them out of her headfur, though it looked to be more of a nervous reflex than anything.\n\n\t“Sorry about Buddy. He’s still getting used to everything. Especially people. I figured it was ok to let him off the leash since we were the only ones on the other side of the park.” The older woman glanced back towards the large fence separating the park from the nearest rows of houses. It was at least a good football field’s length away. Probably more.\n\n\tThe dog pulled hard on the leash while trying to nose up against Becky. He eventually slipped free enough to rest the bottom of his muzzle against her tummy while wagging his tail and wiggling his body. The aggressive affection was met with grumbles and snarls while Esme whimpered and pushed herself further away from the canine. \n\n\t“Buddy, come on, knock it off” Another firm leash yank followed by a loving but firm push on the feral’s hindquarters. Soon the mutt was sitting and wagging his tail eagerly. Still sniffing and snuffing towards the two girls on the swings, but at the very least staying put save for the occasional stamp of his paw into the dirt.\n\n\t“Your dog is… is very nice” Esme whimpered “He, uh. He doesn’t bite, does he?”\n\n\tTabs tugged the doggo’s leash a bit and snorted at the lizard girl. Memories of dodge ball nightmares returning as she did “Oh not unless I tell him to. Probably really good motivation to get some slackers running.” A few seconds passed, long enough for a look of abject horror to smear itself over Esme’s face. “Relax, I’m kidding. Worst he’d probably do is cuddle you to death. Besides. I’m not even a gym teacher anymore. I got no reason to let him loose at any slackers.”\n\n\t“So you really do have a dog?” Becky’s words had a sharp chill to them. It was enough to shock her friend. Enough to shock Tabs. The verbal gut-punch almost seemed to floor her.\n\n\t“I uh, I don’t quite think I know what you mean.” Big boots ground themselves into the dirt. For a moment it looked like she might genuinely run. She certainly fidgeted hard with Buddy’s leash.\n\n\t“Sure you don’t.” Becky sighed\n\n\t“He is a real sweetheart, though.” Tabs was almost too eager to shift the conversation “He’s a Lab beagle mix I think? Maybe something else in there too? I donno. He was a rescue.” She scratched him between his ears. It looked like she was struggling hard not to simply scoop the pup up into her arms and hold him like a child. “Whoever had him before kept him on a short leash in the back. Took a while to warm him up to people. It kinda ended up swinging the other way now.”\n\n\tSuddenly any pretense of this being a ‘conversation’ shattered. Esme looked on at the former beast of gym class. At the former monster who haunted the nightmares of so many in their high school. And she looked at Becky. Snippets of old books rushed back into her head. Of stories she’d read to her brothers a few years ago which often had fearsome badgers ruling some big mountain and coming down from it to raise hell against hoards of evil men.\n\n\tThat’s what this felt like. The look in Becky’s eyes. The way she was grinding her hands around the swing chains. The way her boot heels dug into the powdery dirt under the swingset. “I didn’t ask.” Pulling herself up, Becky gestured for Esme to follow her. Not that Esme knew exactly why. She barely had time to question, casting a single glance back to see Ms. Blake standing there with her dog looking oddly dejected.\n\n\t“Look” the former teacher yelled out. Not the typical yell she had when driving them along to run laps. A strained and cracked shout. One full of frustration and desperation. “Buddy’s already done. We can go somewhere else. Whatever it is you girls are up to you don’t have to leave on my account.”\n\n\tBecky paused in her tracks. In a flash she’d turned around and stormed her stubby legs up to the wolverine woman. Her red hair caught the waning fall light and burned like embers while she leaned forwards and glared daggers into her. “Listen. ‘You’ aren’t driving me out of anywhere. I just don’t want to be here, got it? But considering everything you did I’d think it’s better if you just don’t show up at this park anymore. Honestly I don’t’ even know why you haven’t moved yet!”\n\n\t“Wait just a damn minute!” Ms. Blake snapped “Why would I-”\n\n\tA finger shot up into the older woman’s face and Becky strained to stare her down. “You know damn well why. If shit worked the way it was supposed to you wouldn’t be anywhere near here by law anyways. Besides, you know your living here is just going to hurt her more.”\n\n\t“But he’s not-”\n\n\t“I don’t give a fuck.” Becky spat on the ground. Buddy actually growled and it was all his owner could do to keep both paws on her leash. That still didn’t seem to phase Becky one iota. “You are not driving me away. You’re not doing anything to me. You don’t have any fucking control over me. Got it? We’re not going to suddenly ‘play nice’ because you did the bare minimum to avoid getting in trouble. But you do not, ‘ever’, drive me away from anything. You have no power. None! You got that?”\n\n\tAll Esme could do was watch. Becky marched on past her and towards the parking lot. Ms. Blake strained to hold the leash while her previously calm and friendly dog now barked and snarled in Becky’s direction. Most of the kids who had been on the wooden castle had passed their play to look at the adults fighting.\n\n\tBecky said nothing. Not until they were n the car. Even then the grey furred girl simply thudded her head against the steering wheel and muttered angrily to herself.\n\n\t“Are you ok? Becky, what did she do to piss you off like that?” Esme yipped\n\n\t“She didn’t do anything.” Her friend’s tone was ice and fire at once “We lost the fucking light. Fuck it, I’ll just set it up in the stupid squash court. Who fucking cares. May as well get some use out of that stupid thing before it rots in on itself.”\n\n\tImages of that little white room Mr. Parker had built when they were little flashed into Esme’s head. She remembered how often Becky would get her and Hui to put on short plays or scenes for her to record when they were little. She also recalled how much Becky had complained as they got older. About the echo ruining her sound. About the blaring broad spectrum LEDs. About the lack of sound proofing ruining shots. They’d stopped using it years ago. At least stopped Becky didn’t’ make them use it as a studio anymore. \n\n\tNone of this added up. Yet asking questions now felt about as smart as shoving her hand on a hot stove. Instead Esme simply ran her slender fingers over the burning back of her bestie. In another situation sucking up all of that rage heat might even be enjoyable. A vulgar thought considering how bad things were.\n\n\tEventually Beck pulled herself p. She didn’t say anything. All of the external signs of her rage were buried. Esme could tell, though. Her breathing. The look in her eye. The way her paws gripped hard enough to strain the plastic coating her steering wheel.\n\n\t“This is probably a stupid fucking thing to do.” Becky Parker’s rage ran though her voice like ice flows in rapids. “But I think I need to tell you some things. If I do, you have to promise you won’t say a damn thing to anyone. Got it?”", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Collared Chapter 34: Esme, Stage Left
By TerraMGP

\t“Esme!” Sharp words and a sharper accent. Esme‘s mother was born and raised here in the states, but for some reason the Kuwaiti accent from her grandmother seemed to transpose itself over her mother any time she was agitated.

\tEsme made her way into the train wreck of a living room. Her mother was already picking at the various items left out by her brothers and their friends from their sleepover. Smash brothers music blared while Fatima Hatimi tour though the cushions in search of the TV remote.

\tFatima didn‘t look up at her daughter. She simply gestured one arm up while the other dug around in the couch. A thick two-toned hoodie with wires and cables on the inside dangled from her fingers. “Is this yours or does it belong to one of the boys?”

\t“What the? How did that get out here?” She quickly snatched the item up and looked it over. Her thumb felt around the collar until she felt a small button. One click, and a slew of blue LEDs lit up inside of the hood.

\t“So it‘s not trash, then?” Fatima sighed.

\t“It‘s for the next play we‘re doing.” The gecko girl chirped excitedly “Jess in props was kinda stoked about his idea so he wanted me to wear it around for a few days an see what I thought of the prototype. I don‘t know how well the lighting is going to work when I‘m on stage but I guess it‘s more about making sure I can move around in it.”

\tThe remote finally came free of its hiding spot and the TV was mercifully muted. Fatima turned to her daughter and then looked the article of clothing over. Black and grey with spray-paint and carefully calculated dirt stains. She sniffed at the air a bit and shook her head “So long as it does not interrupt your studies then that‘s fine, I suppose. Also I want you to start checking Ali‘s math homework for me. His teacher says he‘s been getting Cs and that is not acceptable.”

\tThe comment caused Esme to pause for a moment. She looked out the large bay window of their home to the four boys running around the yard swinging sticks at each other. Ali and Cyrus, her younger brothers, had climbed a short ways up the Japanese redwood out in the front yard and were using it as high ground to swat down at their friends. Esme looked around at the living room. The half exploded bag‘s worth of Chicago style popcorn and bevy of Mountain Dew bottles around the room. The blow up mattress where all for boys had passed out gaming some time in the morning. Toys scattered around that her mother deftly dodged.

\tArguments bubbled up then just as quickly died. All of it. What was the point?

\t“Ok mom.” She nodded “I‘m not that great at math myself, though. But I‘ll do what I can.”

\t“You‘ll do fine.” Her mother sighed “Besides it‘s not like your little play is happening any time soon, right?” If Fatima heard Esme sigh, she didn‘t respond to it. She was too busy scooping up the bottles and putting them in a bag to take back later.

\t“I‘ll put this in my room“ The comment was sharp enough that hopefully her mother would understand. If someone got it out of her room, if it was out again, that meant the boys did it and it shouldn‘t be thrown away. There was, admittedly, a part of her. A deep, dark, shameful part, which was tempted to channel Collin, or Xiulan, or whatever he, whatever ’they’ were being called now. A part which looked at that bed and wanted to suggest that four young boys on an air mattress in a sleepover might be doing something shocking and deplorable in the eyes of her very traditional mother. Whole variants of the ’Aristocrats’ joke spun themselves up in her head and Esme couldn’t help but grin as she pondered her mother’s reaction.

\tAs always, these thoughts stayed locked away where they belonged. “I have to go out with Becky in a bit, though. I‘m helping her get some things. She‘s shooting a stop motion film for her college admissions thing.”

\t“Just try not to get home late” The older gecko woman chided “Your Gramma was hoping to spend time with everyone tonight”

\t“Wait, why is she even here? It’s a pretty long trip from Dearborn. Did I forget Abba’s birthday again?”

\tFatima sighed and did her best not to roll her eyes “I already told you. She’s coming here to visit before going up to Grand Rapids. She needs to see a specialist about some tests. I don’t know why she had to come all the way out here instead of seeing someone in Detroit, but while she’s here you can at least visit with her a little..”

\t“She’s going to complain at me, though. She never likes how I dress.” Esme pouted

\t“I don’t like how you dress, either. And I’ve seen you around town letting your hair out of your Hijab. Don’t think I haven’t.”

\t“I’m still mostly covered, mom” the teen’s voice cracking a bit now “I mean ok yeah I guess most of it hangs out when I do that, but it gets really uncomfortable. As for how I dress, it’s still really modest. It’s not like I’m putting on E-girl makeup and making ahegao faces”

\t“Making what faces?” Fatima’s tail twitched and slapped on the floor. The obvious confusion there tinged with a hint of pre-emptive anger

\tThat look in her mother’s eyes was all it took for Esme to dart her way to the garage door and swing it wide open. “Nothing. The point is that I’m not doing it. Lots of girls my age are. A-and don’t look it up, ok? I’ll be back in a few hours. Promise!”

\tThe door slammed before her mother could ask any more questions.

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

\tGoing back to Hoardraider wasn’t something Esme had expected once Justin and Collin had left. What had she expected, though? Suddenly, magically, Hui would decide she wanted to go to J.C. Penny and try on something she didn’t sew for some anime cosplay? That Becky would want some fur dye treatments to look more feminine?

\tNo, naturally not. So here she was, standing there behind Becky in the same old nerd den. Greasy 40 somethings standing around oozing essence of gas station nachos into the air and ranting about anime nobody else watched. Every once in a while the daughter of the shop owner would run by them with her stuffed Eevee held over hir head. Whinnie, or at least Esme was pretty sure that was the girls name. She’d run into the back for a while where her mother was doing paperwork then run back out interacting with the regulars as if these creeps didn’t all embody stranger danger.

\t“You sure we couldn’t have just gone to Meijer or something?” Esme did her best to push and nudge at the bulged bundle of headfur in her Hijab without letting it loose. It shouldn’t matter either way. Only her parents cared. Hell, her dad probably didn’t give a shit. She had it on, she did her prayers, she wasn’t going around slutting it up with the boys at school. She was a good Muslim girl.

\tWhich was why she was very quick to look away when Becky’s shorts slipped down a bit and some ratty cotton panties and a hint of crack exposed themselves.

\t“I figured these things would be better.” The exposure grew a bit worse while Becky fumbled her paw back to pull out something that looked more like a robot girl than the random armored mechs with massive names that lined half the store’s left flank. “Ryan has some of these he built when he was in high school, but he said those were all older kits he got from some guy on Ebay. No articulation at all. All the action figures at Meijer just look cheap.”

\t“I think there’s a reason for that.” The lanky gecko pulled down one of the boxes from the top shelf. A mess of red and white plastic on the art along with a shiny katana, because why wouldn’t a robot have a katana? “Holy… two hundred bucks? Those gold bits should be real gold for that price! Plus, don’t you have to actually build this thing yourself?”

\t“I’m not getting one of the top shelf ones, doofus.” Becky scoffed “Though this other stuff isn’t a lot better. Thirty bucks a pop for most of these, and you gotta put em together yourself? What kind of freaking masochist has time for that? At least with those stupid 40K minis you can play a dumb game” Another few boxes shuffle around. Frustration grew, but Becky being Becky she stopped herself short of actually damaging anything. Instead she neatly ordered everything where it had been and pulled herself back up offering Esme the most reassuring smile she could.

\tFor her own part the Gecko was quick to smile back. Not that she felt it. Much as she disliked those two boys around, their absence was felt. Or maybe it was something else. Something that had been rattling around in her head for weeks now. Something she couldn’t put a finger on.

\tIf Becky noticed, she didn’t say anything. Instead moving along to the racks of collectables. Her eyes scanning over the action figures with utter disgust. “Oh come on. This stuff is just as pricy. Thirty bucks for Sora? Wait, why is that slime guy one hundred? Who would pay that much for a statue? It doesn’t even move?”

\t“You could just have me and Hui do something you know.” Esme blurted “Just pick some scene like you usually do. Something that lets you show off a bit? You know, show your… directeryness?”

\t“That’s not the point.” The badger blurted “Sorry. I mean, I know you guys are wiling to help. Hell, you’re here now. But if I want to get into a good school I have to show I can do more than just get a couple of decent actors on my side. Or one good actor and a voice actress from those old CD I games.”

\t“Hui’s not that bad.” The lie almost sounding convincing “Besides it’s not like I want them to see that. Or even a director worth emulating like Wes Anderson. I just… I want to show ‘me’. That I know how to play with shots and frame a story. I don’t want people to think I‘m just coasting off of something else. Or someone else.”

\tShe didn’t elaborate. With a grace belaying her size and shape Becky managed to dodge the dashing cub running though the store almost unsupervised and moved her way over to another stack of statues and figures set by the counter. “Don’t worry about it. Just thinking out loud.”

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

\tEven as fall chill crept its way over the land, there were still a few kids out in the park, braving it for the sake of the big wooden ‘castle’ playground. The allure of rampaging over chain and plank bridges or jumping down into big piles of cedar chips.

\tIt was always a treat to go here when the three of them were little. The other side of their small town had always seemed like such a long ride and an impossibly long way to walk back then. Becky and Hui had tried to drag Esme along a few times when they wanted to walk out there. It never worked out. Letting a bunch of nine year old girls traipse around in the woods was one thing. Walking though back roads was another. Never mind the odds of getting hit if they’d tried main street.

\tMaybe that was why Esme felt the way she did now. Some tiny spark of electricity at the core of her brain. Reward? Excitement? Or maybe it was just that Becky was here with her

\tThe two girls sat on the swings. Becky held the bag containing their haul of cheap figures and imported candy. Every once in a while she’d pass off another small packet of little panda-shaped cookie-things over to Esme for her to munch

\t“You think it looks bad with us just sitting here?” Esme muttered

\t“We’re not just ‘sitting here’. We’re waiting for the kids to finally fuck off.” The words came with a small note of restrained rage from Becky. The red headed girl shoved herself back on the swing and then let herself rock a few times. The bag in her paws swaying far more than the rest of her.

\tA slightly dejected Esme leaned her lanky body up against one of the swing chains and clapped her maw down on another cookie-ish thing. “We’re sitting here with a bag full of transformers and candy watching kids, in a playground. You sure nobody is going to call the cops on us or anything?”

\tBecky paused. Her bored look melting a bit as realization hit her. She quickly shook it off and sighed. “Be nice if they’d go away. Not sure how much longer we’re going to have the light out here.” She dug her boot heels into the swing and pushed back hard. A slow simmer of anger growing in those blue-green eyes. Striking orbs that just barely left Becky Parker skirting the edge of Ginger. It was still unclear if she qualified or not.

\tThe conversation turned back to quiet small talk. All the while Esme would watch Becky watching the playground, and in particular the bridge she wanted to use. Her stubby legs continued their aggressive push and pull until suddenly something brown and furry hammered itself against them. Loud energetic sniffs and whining noises served to offer some clue as to what the furball was, even if the thing’s movements left both girls swimming in confusion.

\tThis was followed by huffing and bounding and barking. The dog darted around Becky a few times, nipping at her stubby tail and forehead ramming into her thigh. Poor Becky found herself wrapping both paws hard around the plastic bags and pulling them up out of reach. “No, Shoo dog! There’s chocolate in here. You don’t need any of that!”

\tEsme didn’t know if she should laugh, shriek or dive on the thing attacking her friend. Instinct pushed her into wrapping her long digits around the swing chain and railing back as if she were someone actually fit enough to climb up a swing chain in an emergency. “B-becky, are you ok?” She yelped. A few half hearted kicks in the doggo’s general direction about all she cold make herself muster in defense.

\t“Buddy!” The word caused the dog to pause. He didn’t move. Or rather, he paused for a moment before looking back to Becky and stomping the ground with his forepaws this way and that. A few moments later the dog was enveloped by a heavy pair of arms. A coffee cup patchwork of browns, oranges and whites in his fur all showing more clearly now that the figure was holding him still. A metallic click and his presumed owner stood up tugging the mutt back by a harness around his upper body.

\t“Sorry about that.” The errant dog’s owner panted “I was still kind of… oh….”

\t“Oh…” Becky winced. The familiar bundle of grey fur in her thick biker jacket. Icy cold hate in her eyes. Her gaze burning white hot holes in the form standing before her.

\t“Ms. Blake!” Esme yelped “Is uh, is that you? Hi. I haven’t seen you since last year.” She laughed, but she also shifted herself a bit while the dog butted and tugged on his leash. It seemed those were the magic words to turn his attention from Becky to Esme and he was eager to sniff at her next.

\t“Uh, yeah. Hey.” She was so very different. The former gym teacher, the woman who had been last year. Physically she was the same, sure. A big hulking brute in a ratty white tee shirt and scuffed up jeans who looked like she should be in one of those video games about bikers. Her blonde hair pulled back in a tight pony tail which still somehow managed to catch some falling leaves. She reached up and brushed a few of them out of her headfur, though it looked to be more of a nervous reflex than anything.

\t“Sorry about Buddy. He’s still getting used to everything. Especially people. I figured it was ok to let him off the leash since we were the only ones on the other side of the park.” The older woman glanced back towards the large fence separating the park from the nearest rows of houses. It was at least a good football field’s length away. Probably more.

\tThe dog pulled hard on the leash while trying to nose up against Becky. He eventually slipped free enough to rest the bottom of his muzzle against her tummy while wagging  his tail and wiggling his body. The aggressive affection was met with grumbles and snarls while Esme whimpered and pushed herself further away from the canine.

\t“Buddy, come on, knock it off” Another firm leash yank followed by a loving but firm push on the feral’s hindquarters. Soon the mutt was sitting and wagging his tail eagerly. Still sniffing and snuffing towards the two girls on the swings, but at the very least staying put save for the occasional stamp of his paw into the dirt.

\t“Your dog is… is very nice” Esme whimpered “He, uh. He doesn’t bite, does he?”

\tTabs tugged the doggo’s leash a bit and snorted at the lizard girl. Memories of dodge ball nightmares returning as she did “Oh not unless I tell him to. Probably really good motivation to get some slackers running.” A few seconds passed, long enough for a look of abject horror to smear itself over Esme’s face. “Relax, I’m kidding. Worst he’d probably do is cuddle you to death. Besides. I’m not even a gym teacher anymore. I got no reason to let him loose at any slackers.”

\t“So you really do have a dog?” Becky’s words had a sharp chill to them. It was enough to shock her friend. Enough to shock Tabs. The verbal gut-punch almost seemed to floor her.

\t“I uh, I don’t quite think I know what you mean.” Big boots ground themselves into the dirt. For a moment it looked like she might genuinely run. She certainly fidgeted hard with Buddy’s leash.

\t“Sure you don’t.” Becky sighed

\t“He is a real sweetheart, though.” Tabs was almost too eager to shift the conversation “He’s a Lab beagle mix I think? Maybe something else in there too? I donno. He was a rescue.” She scratched him between his ears. It looked like she was struggling hard not to simply scoop the pup up into her arms and hold him like a child. “Whoever had him before kept him on a short leash in the back. Took a while to warm him up to people. It kinda ended up swinging the other way now.”

\tSuddenly any pretense of this being a ‘conversation’ shattered. Esme looked on at the former beast of gym class. At the former monster who haunted the nightmares of so many in their high school. And she looked at Becky. Snippets of old books rushed back into her head. Of stories she’d read to her brothers a few years ago which often had fearsome badgers ruling some big mountain and coming down from it to raise hell against hoards of evil men.

\tThat’s what this felt like. The look in Becky’s eyes. The way she was grinding her hands around the swing chains. The way her boot heels dug into the powdery dirt under the swingset. “I didn’t ask.” Pulling herself up, Becky gestured for Esme to follow her. Not that Esme knew exactly why. She barely had time to question, casting a single glance back to see Ms. Blake standing there with her dog looking oddly dejected.

\t“Look” the former teacher yelled out. Not the typical yell she had when driving them along to run laps. A strained and cracked shout. One full of frustration and desperation. “Buddy’s already done. We can go somewhere else. Whatever it is you girls are up to you don’t have to leave on my account.”

\tBecky paused in her tracks. In a flash she’d turned around and stormed her stubby legs up to the wolverine woman. Her red hair caught the waning fall light and burned like embers while she leaned forwards and glared daggers into her. “Listen. ‘You’ aren’t driving me out of anywhere. I just don’t want to be here, got it? But considering everything you did I’d think it’s better if you just don’t show up at this park anymore. Honestly I don’t’ even know why you haven’t moved yet!”

\t“Wait just a damn minute!” Ms. Blake snapped “Why would I-”

\tA finger shot up into the older woman’s face and Becky strained to stare her down. “You know damn well why. If shit worked the way it was supposed to you wouldn’t be anywhere near here by law anyways. Besides, you know your living here is just going to hurt her more.”

\t“But he’s not-”

\t“I don’t give a fuck.” Becky spat on the ground. Buddy actually growled and it was all his owner could do to keep both paws on her leash. That still didn’t seem to phase Becky one iota. “You are not driving me away. You’re not doing anything to me. You don’t have any fucking control over me. Got it? We’re not going to suddenly ‘play nice’ because you did the bare minimum to avoid getting in trouble. But you do not, ‘ever’, drive me away from anything. You have no power. None! You got that?”

\tAll Esme could do was watch. Becky marched on past her and towards the parking lot. Ms. Blake strained to hold the leash while her previously calm and friendly dog now barked and snarled in Becky’s direction. Most of the kids who had been on the wooden castle had passed their play to look at the adults fighting.

\tBecky said nothing. Not until they were n the car. Even then the grey furred girl simply thudded her head against the steering wheel and muttered angrily to herself.

\t“Are you ok? Becky, what did she do to piss you off like that?” Esme yipped

\t“She didn’t do anything.” Her friend’s tone was ice and fire at once “We lost the fucking light. Fuck it, I’ll just set it up in the stupid squash court. Who fucking cares. May as well get some use out of that stupid thing before it rots in on itself.”

\tImages of that little white room Mr. Parker had built when they were little flashed into Esme’s head. She remembered how often Becky would get her and Hui to put on short plays or scenes for her to record when they were little. She also recalled how much Becky had complained as they got older. About the echo ruining her sound. About the blaring broad spectrum LEDs. About the lack of sound proofing ruining shots. They’d stopped using it years ago. At least stopped Becky didn’t’ make them use it as a studio anymore.

\tNone of this added up. Yet asking questions now felt about as smart as shoving her hand on a hot stove. Instead Esme simply ran her slender fingers over the burning back of her bestie. In another situation sucking up all of that rage heat might even be enjoyable. A vulgar thought considering how bad things were.

\tEventually Beck pulled herself p. She didn’t say anything. All of the external signs of her rage were buried. Esme could tell, though. Her breathing. The look in her eye. The way her paws gripped hard enough to strain the plastic coating her steering wheel.

\t“This is probably a stupid fucking thing to do.” Becky Parker’s rage ran though her voice like ice flows in rapids. “But I think I need to tell you some things. If I do, you have to promise you won’t say a damn thing to anyone. Got it?”", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Collared Chapter 34: Esme, Stage Left", "deleted": "f", "public": "t", "mimetype": "application/msword", "pagecount": "1", "rating_id": "2", "rating_name": "Adult", "ratings": [ { "content_tag_id": "4", "name": "Sexual Themes", "description": "Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal", "rating_id": "2" } ], "submission_type_id": "12", "type_name": "Writing - Document", "guest_block": "t", "friends_only": "f", "comments_count": "3", "views": "86" }