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"submission_right_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "This one may get a bit cringe, but also hopefully makes sense.Things are creeping up on semester end in story, and if I didn't suck it would have only taken that long.\n\nBut yeah, enjoy.", "description_bbcode_parsed": "This one may get a bit cringe, but also hopefully makes sense.Things are creeping up on semester end in story, and if I didn't suck it would have only taken that long.

But yeah, enjoy.", "writing": "Collared Chapter 36: Study Break\nBy TerraMGP\n\n\tKer-thwap\n\n\tKer-thwap\n\n\tKer-thwap\n\n\tGretchen trundled her way down the creaking old hardwood stairs. The soft pads and fur of her palm gripped the wooden banister and only a crippling wash of effort allowed her to keep her digger claws from tearing at the ancient varnish protecting the material. She came down and rounded the staircase. Her sock-clad feet made walking hard. Worse, it made stopping harder, as she found when her Master fell backwards from and rolled with what one charitably might call a ‘dodge’ around and behind the dining room table.\n\n\tShe turned her head a split second later only to be met with a hail of at least half a dozen foam darts. A few bounced harmlessly past her. Most thudded off of her glasses and then her upraised arms. From behind her she cold hear the clatter of plastic and flailing limbs. Two heavy thuds followed by two streaking objects the girl could barely make out in front of her. \n\n\tThey were darts. Both of them sailing just past the mass of black fur and sun-saturated green tank top which had quickly darted into the relative safety of the nearest couch. That the couch itself creaked and groaned in protest didn’t seem to matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.\n\n\t“Oh, so close!” Ozzy’s voice oozed with playful sarcasm. A pair of large and very toy-ish pistols spun on his fingers. One metallic gold with black accents, the other matte black with metallic gold accents. More darts hammered past Gretchen on either side. Then another shot. A dart whizzed between her knocked knees and thudded against the couch just under Ozzy’s perch.\n\n\tThe mole maid felt a piercing scream split her throat and rend the air around them. Her paws and claws enveloped her face and she turned her bushy crop of brown headfur out almost like a helmet, soon curling up into a ball where she stood in the space between living room and dining room.\n\n\t“Oh god!” Justin yelped. His arms were around her in a flash. His arms held her tight even as something hard and plastic swung from his back and bounced into her causing a few fresh whines and whimpers.\n\n\t“Jesus” Ozzy yelped “You ok girl?”\n\n\t“C-can you turn it off? Please?” Gretchen whined.\n\n\tBoth boys paused for a moment. Then the music went off. Music she hadn’t even been aware of when she came down. But as things stood now every sound, every sudden jolt of stimuli made her feel like she was going to be crushed under some titanic bolder.\n\n\t“I’m sorry.” her Master cooed over and over again as he tried to rock her a bit. She tried to push away, then stopped when she realized it felt more nice than horrifying. For the moment at least. It took a while for her to fully calm down and brush her tears from her face. She then turned to look up at the two and shrugged her Master off. The stimulus was no longer comforting, and her shaky body acted mostly of its own accord.\n\n\t“What were you two doing down here?” She finally choked.\n\n\t“Uh… dart war?” Ozzy let the toy pistols slip from his hands and fall to the couch\n\n\t“Why?” red-brown eyes flashed from the goat to her Master and back.\n\n\t“I unno” Justin shrugged “Having a bit of fun?”\n\n\t“It‘s almost exam time!” the words came as a shrill chirp. “It‘s bad enough I have to hear you guys thudding around and yelling while I’m trying to study. But don‘t ‘you‘ have to study?”\n\n\t“Oh come on, Gretch.” Ozzy smirked “It‘s not like it‘s that big of a thing.”\n\n\t“It ‘is‘ a big thing!” She yipped back “Finals are next month. You guys already have to spend time doing work and stuff. And then you play in that band. The only one here who shouldn‘t be studying their ass off is Willa.”\n\n\t“Wait is Willa not a student?” Justin blinked\n\n\tOzzy looked back and shrugged\n\n\t“Will you guys take this seriously?” Gretchen‘s voice jumped a couple of octaves as she stamped her sneaker on the ground.\n\n\t\t“Ok, you know what? I’m out.” Ozzy tossed his hands up and let the twinned pistols hang from his fingers by the trigger guards. “I’mma go to my room before Willa wakes up and wants to talk my ear off. She’s your girl, you handle her dude.”\n\n\tThe defiance ebbed out of Gretchen’s eyes just a bit as the two watched him head upstairs. “I really upset him, huh?” Her soft mutter only hardening once he was out of sight from the top of the stairs, at which point she quickly twisted back to face Justin. “B-but that’s beside the point. You guys were being really noisy down here all the same. And you know the semester is going to end soon. You can’t just sit around having fun all the time. Don’t you have to study?”\n\n\tThe kindness in his expression soured. For the first time in a while Gretchen saw something she didn’t find comforting slip though the cracks. Anger. Not the kind she was used to. Nothing akin to her parents. This was hot anger held on a short leash. Some beast slipping though for just a moment and then barely pulled back before it could lash out at her. His paw gripped her shoulder to the point of biting pain, paused only by a few calm and calculated breaths as her Master stared down at her.\n\n\tThe grip eventually faded and a momentary smile returned. Though now the anger was simply mixed with worry and Gretchen could feel the chill rolling though her.\n\n\t“Pet, I’m working two jobs. Two. Even if half the classes I ended up having to take are basically ‘gimmies’ it’s still a pain in the ass. Not to mention the asshole drafting instructor not seeming to get that when I say I can’t draw with a physical pencil it means I cannot draw with a physical fucking pencil.” Cold hate flashed across his face. He turned it away quickly, but it was still only just restrained. “The one nice thing about being out of the house is that I didn’t have my parents yelling at me all the time about forgetting to turn assignments in or arguing with the teacher. I already fucked their lives up enough. Honestly, though? It’s nice not getting yelled at. And it’s nice not constantly feeling like they’ve given up on me any time they aren’t yelling.” \n\n\tShe fell silent for what felt like ages. Long enough for her Master to pull away and begin collecting the foam darts. “how do you not turn in homework, though? I mean, you just have to put it in your backpack and then hand it in when… This isn’t the time, is it?”\n\n\t“No, pet, it is not.” Justin muttered coldly. That chill seeped into the air. Suddenly everything came into a painful sharp focus. Gretchen didn’t dare to offer help. She didn’t dare to move. She just watched him load the darts back into the toy revolver and then make his way towards the stairs. He was about half way up the landing when her body decided to start following him. Her pace remained a sheepish crawl while she watched him in front of Ozzy’s door, handing off the gun and saying a few words. \n\n\tIt would have been easy to dash up to her own room. True there was the risk of Willa hearing and deciding to come chirp her ear off about this and that. With how raw Gretchen felt right now that mild threat held real menace. Yet the way her Master moved, the way his whole body suddenly shifted made her feel like it might be worth it.\n\n\tInstead she stood there at the top of the stairs. Transfixed and gripping the banister with her digger claws. She didn’t move. Couldn’t move. Even when Justin was marching his way back up to her. Even as he wrapped a hand around her wrist and pulled her off of the staircase.\n\n\t“You’re gonna fall down the stairs if you’re not careful.” His tone was still sheet ice. He pulled her a few steps further from both the stairs and banister to ensure she couldn’t possible fall down even if she fell\n\n\t“Sorry.” Gretchen sighed back\n\n\tHe nodded. Simply nodded. His shoulders slumped and he walked over to the door of his room.\n\n\t“M-master!” Gretchen whimpered “I mean, if you want I could, Like we could go to the library on campus. I mean, you know, my campus. I could probably help you find some books to…”\n\n\t“Do you need to go to the library, Girl?” Justin sighed\n\n\t“No, well, it wouldn’t hurt. But that’s not why I’m…”\n\n\t“I know.” he nodded “Give me a bit to unwind, and we’ll go.” With that he shut the door. Not slammed. No yelling. Just leaving her there in the cold quiet of the upstairs hallway.\n\n----------\n\n\t“Magnets”\n\n\tThe word caused Gretchen’s fur to stand on end. Rather, t was the volume of the word. She had offered to get her Master in to the WMU library to help him with some of his school work. It was about the only gesture of apology the poor girl could think of. \n\n\tShe glanced over at the book he was reading. A thick geology text she‘d picked out for her own research once he‘d found something suitable. At some point she had been the one to start looking around for different works on Celtic myth and as a result her Master had started going though her texts out of boredom.\n\n\t“Um, what about Magnetism, Sir?” Her ears folding down as she scooted her way back up to the long wooden table.\n\n\t“Ok, so. You know about Ice 9, right? You know, besides the fact that that it kills.”\n\n\t“It does?” She quirked a brow\n\n\t“Band reference.” He sighed “Your musical tastes are really all over the map aren‘t they?”\n\n\t“No, Sir“ The words both respectful and edged “I think you have that backwards. So, what was this about magnets? And I guess Ice 9?”\n\n\tJustin‘s smirk grew as he leaned back in his chair, deftly catching his knee on the lip of the table to keep it propped up on two back legs “Well, I was just thinking. High enough levels of compression change the molecular structure of an object. Right? Ice 9 is just water turning into cubes due to super high pressure.”\n\n\t“I… Technically?” The poor mole blinked\n\n\t“Right. And Diamond is just carbon material compressed to a high degree over a long period of time.”\n\n\t“Sorta? I-… what?”\n\n\t“So logically, if you can maintain a high degree of pressure on an object over a long period of time, logically that would allow you to create strong materials, right? Because they‘d get ‘stuck‘ in a molecular framework.”\n\n\t“This is… this is hecking Random. You know that, right?” She whimpered. “A-and what does that have to do with magnets, anyways?”\n\n\t“Well obviously if you ‘squish‘ an object that‘s taking up the kinetic forces pressing down on whatever you‘re trying to super-compress. So does heat, but that‘s its own thing.” He took some of the books and without warning began lining them up with their spines pointed up, he then plopped a book in the middle of this makeshift box and held another over it. “So I was thinking if you wanted to do something like that you‘d need to find ways to stop the normal escape mechanisms from happening. A box kinda works because then you can just hammer down with a hydraulic press“ Without skipping a beat from his breathless rant Justin let the book fall from his fingertips and thud loudly on the one under it “But you‘d need to re-enforce the hell out of whatever‘s holding it or it will still find ways to get out. Plus if we‘re talking about pistons there‘s always a chance they could break if you keep applying pressure. Obviously that‘s super unsafe.”\n\n\t“I am so lost.” Gretchen‘s booty slipped into the chair beside him and her face rammed down into her palms.\n\n\t“The thing is, you‘d probably want more even pressure anyways. Just having it on one plane seems kind of pointless. But if you were to modulate it correctly, you could still apply pressure with electromagnets. Like, if you take an iron ball and just push it from every side possible with an electro magnet and made sure all the magnets had the same exact output at all times…”\n\n\tGretchen’s face went from her paws on to the table. She flailed around until her paw came to rest on the stack of books she’d gathered. The plump little mole maid shoved the books into Justin’s makeshift ’box’ with all of the defeated contempt she could and loosed a muffled scream into the wood. “There. I found the books you wanted.” She sighed.\n\n\t“Ok, great. So this will have stuff about the Vinar and their possible connections to the Tuatha?”\n\n\t“I don’t know” Gretchen grunted back “… Sir… That’s why I brought them. You have to read them and find out.”\n\n\t“But I already know this stuff!” Justin’s sharp words were quickly dulled down by one of the other students passing him by giving him a glare. He slumped down and scooped up the top book.\n\n\tGretchen managed to pull her face up enough to shoot him a side-eye “Know it from where?” She muttered\n\n\t“I don’t know. Books. And like, the internet. I don’t know what they were called!” Justin’s thick blonde mane flew back as he shifted his weight, and nearly fell flat on his back with the chair. Only a fit of frantic grasping kept him upright and helped him to finally pull back on all four chair legs. Once there, he slumped down with a face in one paw and picked up the fist of the offered books the way a child might hold some broccoli.\n\n\t“I thought you loved this stuff” Gretchen whimpered\n\n\t“I like ‘new’ stuff. You’re telling me I have to wade though shit I already know when I’m not even in the mood for it? Just to prove to some teacher I know what I’m saying?”\n\n\t“YES!” The words snapped before Gretchen could stop herself. The few people around quickly glared at her, and the poor girl began to sink back into her seat, whimpering and squirming hard as she tried to vanish into a little ball. “I… sorry. Sorry”\n\n\t“Look.” Justin’s shoulders dipped and he leaned his chair onto its back legs once more “I get it. Documentation can be important. But I’m not doing a science degree. I’m not going to be writing any papers. Any documentation make is going to be of shit I did or made. I can write about a thing while doing that thing. I don’t get why an English class of all things is trying to make me site my sources.”\n\n\t“It doesn’t matter ‘why’. You just do the work.” Any reverence or respect Gretchen would normally have for her Master was now utterly overshadowed by a simmering pit of anger. “You’re sitting here asking all kinds of random questions about physics stuff when your problems are in English.”\n\n\t“With the teacher.” He corrected while slowly stacking up the books Gretchen had knocked over.\n\n\tGretchen bit down on one of her diggers and stifled a scream. She then collapsed face first on the table and huffed loudly until the breathing slowed to deep and dull rasps. Both paws gripped into the frizzy brown mop of headfur atop her head and for once the temptation to just yank as hard as she could was all too real.\n\n\tWhen she finally sat up, Justin was busy reading though a book. One that she’d brought for him to read this time. “Why did you put me though all that complaining if you were just going to look for the sources anyways?” She whimpered\n\n\tJustin blinked and looked up over the book, casting a sidelong glance at her “Huh? Oh, no. I just remembered the Tuatha De Danu have their chief goddess named after the Danube River. Well, that’s what some other books I read mentioned. I don’t think I’ve looked into those things for a connection before. It’s always been the Vikings and the Vinar. Well, ok ‘Norse’ and Vinar. I’m sure Xi would get all pedantic about how Viking is a job, not a culture.”\n\n\t“Read in what books?” Gretchen whimpered as a small shred of hope stirred in her voice.\n\t\n\t“Iunno” Her Master shrugged\n\n\tand the poor girl was left to slump once more and spin herself out of her chair with a dexterity that even shocked herself. \n\n\t“Where are you headed this time?” Justin chirped\n\n\t“I still have studying to do.” The mole maid didn’t even try to hide that it was a lie. She needed to get away for a while. She needed to avoid yelling at her owner. Or maybe she needed to get away before he ripped down every shred of respect she’d built for him over the past few months. She walked her way along the rows in a pantomime of someone looking for something interesting. Then, suddenly, she stopped. Her sneaker heels ground into the carpet and without warning the chubby mole jumped back behind the side of the shelf she‘d been walking past. “Frick!” Gretchen spat in a not-too-quiet whisper yell. “Frick frick frick!”\n\n\tThe little jaunt hadn’t gotten her too far from Justin. Her otter owner looked up from his book and quirked a brow. A digger to her lips indicating for him to stay quiet.\n\n\t“What is it?” He mouthed\n\n\tGretchen struggled to mouth a coherent reply while pointing her thumb back and gesturing down the row behind her. She quickly pushed herself back against the wall once more. Images of Nidonido’s Metal gear solidathon rushed though her head as she did her best Solid Snake and leaned herself out to look for the familiar feline figure once more.\n\n\t“What’s wrong?”\n\n\tJustin’s made her jump out of her skin before her nose had poked around the corner. She turned back and shushed her Master loudly. All the while still pressed against the cold metal of the bookshelf like idiot kids on a cyclotron.\n\n\t“I am whispering.” Justin muttered “And you’re acting all, oh, hi. Was I being too loud?”\n\n\tGretchen’s eyes turned from the familiar smirk of her Master to a rather less familiar face. A confused looking girl. A green eyed tabby with a blonde pixie cut holding a stack of medical books to her chest.\n\n\t“Oh, uh… Hi Janet.” Gretchen muttered meekly\n\n\t“Gretchen?” The girls former roommate quirked her brow “The hell is going on here?”\n\n\t“Isn’t it obvious?” Justin snickered “I’m practicing my kabedon on my girl here. Nothing too big.” Even as he said it the otter slammed his palm on to the shelf and shifted his weight on to one foot. This action caused Gretchen to instinctively curl up on herself and bury her face in her diggers while whimpering meekly.\n\n\tThis action drew a murr from her Master. One that told her she was going to be very busy later.\n\n\t“I uh, I donno what that is.” Janet sighed “Though after the way you left, Gretchen, I am kind of surprised to see you hanging out with someone else.” The tabby girl’s muzzle was already a bit short for her face, and the way her mouth contorted only seemed to accent this. She glanced between the two of them exuding a judgmental pressure that threatened to bowl the poor mole maid over on to her ass.\n\n\t“Well it’s not like she’s completely eusocial.” Justin shrugged “Just mostly. Poor little Gretchen here dragged me in to help me do some studying. Which is kind of in her best interest anyways. I mean it’d be a pretty big disappointment if she had to tell everyone in her Discord chats she’s hooked up with some loser college dropout, right?” \n\n\tJustin raised a pair of fingers in a greeting he always insisted he’d seen Vegita from Dragonball Z do in the past. Gretchen watched it, then turned to see the confused feline girl at her other flank growing that much more confused.\n\n\t“Uh, hey, I’m Janet. I uh, I used to be Gretchen’s roommate. Gretch, I thought you said you were dating some girl online.” The judgment was instant and sharp. There was some pain in her tone, too. Not that Gretchen imagined this girl she barely knew would be that hurt over some loser moving out and making way for someone else.\n\n\t“Oh, she is” Justin chuckled. Gretchen quickly looked up and shushed at him. It didn’t last long. His smile made her shrink back down and clutch against herself while her Master, perhaps rightly, did all the talking.\n\n\tJanet’s confusion only seemed to grow. She looked down at Gretchen as her face contorted from hurt confusion to something the mole girl didn’t recognize. “So wait, how does any of that work then? Does she know-”\n\n\t“Her Mistress is also my pet.” The confidence of the otter boy was almost shocking. No, it was shocking. Shocking to Gretchen that he’d just come out and say it, and seemingly shocking to Janet who just glared at him trying to process the words. \n\n\tEven without looking, or at least without more than a sidelong glance, Gretchen could feel the way Janet’s discomfort grew. The normie kitty was squirming and shifting from foot to foot while shuffling her feet. It was the kind of discomfort even someone like Gretchen could see in others. Hell, it was the kind of discomfort she felt almost every waking moment.\n\n\tGretchen’s Master didn’t miss a beat. He reached down and tenderly slid a knuckle under Gretchen’s lower jaw. Her head was gently tilted up. No matter how she tired to make her body look down or away his guidance ensured their eyes met. He then turned her to meet the girls gaze while still gently cupping her face. It was a confusing gesture. At least, it confused her until she felt his other paw resting at the base of her neck “I’m sure my poor pet didn’t want to creep her roomie out by talking about relationship dynamics. I know not everyone is down with them. But as you can see she is in quite a serious relationship.”\n\n\t“I, uh… is that what that means?” Janet was very clearly confused. Also Gretchen was quite sure she was creeped right the fuck out. Theoretically a great thing. So why was the pit of anxiety growing in her stomach.\n\n\t“It does.” Justin nodded “This pretty dweeb is a bi, poly-am submissive in a long term relationship with two furs. And one of those furs has to unfuck his high school bullshittery or else my girls will be supporting me in whatever shitty job I find. Can’t have that. Right?”\n\n\t“I, I guess not?” The tabby blinked. By now she was chewing on her lower lip so hard it looked as if she‘d put a hole in it. “So wait, is that why you moved out so suddenly, Gretch?”\n\n\t“Well it’s not like she’s going around the house in a maid outfit, yet.” Justin teased “But it is nice having her around. Speaking of, I should probably set up our dinner order so it’s ready when we head out. You have all the stuff you need, pet?”\n\n\tGretchen simply nodded dumbly. What else could she do? Suddenly she was trapped between her Master and a girl she… hated? Didn’t want to be around? Whatever it was Gretchen felt the fact that she couldn’t put her finger on it was somehow one of the worst parts of this maddening little game.\n\n\tA firm kiss forced on her lips caused the poor mole to whine and she struggled to stay standing as Master held her for the longest of moments. He then walked off, leaving her blushing and trembling. Her eyes cast up and glancing nervously at the still perplexed tabby at her other side.\n\n\t“Uh, listen, Janet. I kinda…”\n\n\tJanet pulled a slip of paper from one of the books she held and scribbled some digits on the back. “Look, I’m sorry but I really have to focus right now, ok? I gotta make this class work if I’m going to get my DNP.” Without another word she pushed the slip of paper against Gretchen’s shoulder and turned to walk off with the stack of books still clutched to her chest.\n\n\tAt that point Gretchen simply shoved the thing into her hoodie pocket and trundled back to her Master. Justin’s grin was a mile wide and his rudder slapped the floor. He watched his pet slump like a ball of jello into her seat beside him once more.\n\n\t“Wow.” He sighed “How is it I’m not the most socially inept one in this relationship?”", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Collared Chapter 36: Study Break
By TerraMGP

\tKer-thwap

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\tGretchen trundled her way down the creaking old hardwood stairs. The soft pads and fur of her palm gripped the wooden banister and only a crippling wash of effort allowed her to keep her digger claws from tearing at the ancient varnish protecting the material. She came down and rounded the staircase. Her sock-clad feet made walking hard. Worse, it made stopping harder, as she found when her Master fell backwards from and rolled with what one charitably might call a ‘dodge’ around and behind the dining room table.

\tShe turned her head a split second later only to be met with a hail of at least half a dozen foam darts. A few bounced harmlessly past her. Most thudded off of her glasses and then her upraised arms. From behind her she cold hear the clatter of plastic and flailing limbs. Two heavy thuds followed by two streaking objects the girl could barely make out in front of her.

\tThey were darts. Both of them sailing just past the mass of black fur and sun-saturated green tank top which had quickly darted into the relative safety of the nearest couch. That the couch itself creaked and groaned in protest didn’t seem to matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.

\t“Oh, so close!” Ozzy’s voice oozed with playful sarcasm. A pair of large and very toy-ish pistols spun on his fingers. One metallic gold with black accents, the other matte black with metallic gold accents. More darts hammered past Gretchen on either side. Then another shot. A dart whizzed between her knocked knees and thudded against the couch just under Ozzy’s perch.

\tThe mole maid felt a piercing scream split her throat and rend the air around them. Her paws and claws enveloped her face and she turned her bushy crop of brown headfur out almost like a helmet, soon curling up into a ball where she stood in the space between living room and dining room.

\t“Oh god!” Justin yelped. His arms were around her in a flash. His arms held her tight even as something hard and plastic swung from his back and bounced into her causing a few fresh whines and whimpers.

\t“Jesus” Ozzy yelped “You ok girl?”

\t“C-can you turn it off? Please?” Gretchen whined.

\tBoth boys paused for a moment. Then the music went off. Music she hadn’t even been aware of when she came down. But as things stood now every sound, every sudden jolt of stimuli made her feel like she was going to be crushed under some titanic bolder.

\t“I’m sorry.” her Master cooed over and over again as he tried to rock her a bit. She tried to push away, then stopped when she realized it felt more nice than horrifying. For the moment at least. It took a while for her to fully calm down and brush her tears from her face. She then turned to look up at the two and shrugged her Master off. The stimulus was no longer comforting, and her shaky body acted mostly of its own accord.

\t“What were you two doing down here?” She finally choked.

\t“Uh… dart war?” Ozzy let the toy pistols slip from his hands and fall to the couch

\t“Why?” red-brown eyes flashed from the goat to her Master and back.

\t“I unno” Justin shrugged “Having a bit of fun?”

\t“It‘s almost exam time!” the words came as a shrill chirp. “It‘s bad enough I have to hear you guys thudding around and yelling while I’m trying to study. But don‘t ‘you‘ have to study?”

\t“Oh come on, Gretch.” Ozzy smirked “It‘s not like it‘s that big of a thing.”

\t“It ‘is‘ a big thing!” She yipped back “Finals are next month. You guys already have to spend time doing work and stuff. And then you play in that band. The only one here who shouldn‘t be studying their ass off is Willa.”

\t“Wait is Willa not a student?” Justin blinked

\tOzzy looked back and shrugged

\t“Will you guys take this seriously?” Gretchen‘s voice jumped a couple of octaves as she stamped her sneaker on the ground.

\t\t“Ok, you know what? I’m out.” Ozzy tossed his hands up and let the twinned pistols hang from his fingers by the trigger guards. “I’mma go to my room before Willa wakes up and wants to talk my ear off. She’s your girl, you handle her dude.”

\tThe defiance ebbed out of Gretchen’s eyes just a bit as the two watched him head upstairs. “I really upset him, huh?” Her soft mutter only hardening once he was out of sight from the top of the stairs, at which point she quickly twisted back to face Justin. “B-but that’s beside the point. You guys were being really noisy down here all the same. And you know the semester is going to end soon. You can’t just sit around having fun all the time. Don’t you have to study?”

\tThe kindness in his expression soured. For the first time in a while Gretchen saw something she didn’t find comforting slip though the cracks. Anger. Not the kind she was used to. Nothing akin to her parents. This was hot anger held on a short leash. Some beast slipping though for just a moment and then barely pulled back before it could lash out at her. His paw gripped her shoulder to the point of biting pain, paused only by a few calm and calculated breaths as her Master stared down at her.

\tThe grip eventually faded and a momentary smile returned. Though now the anger was simply mixed with worry and Gretchen could feel the chill rolling though her.

\t“Pet, I’m working two jobs. Two. Even if half the classes I ended up having to take are basically ‘gimmies’ it’s still a pain in the ass. Not to mention the asshole drafting instructor not seeming to get that when I say I can’t draw with a physical pencil it means I cannot draw with a physical fucking pencil.” Cold hate flashed across his face. He turned it away quickly, but it was still only just restrained. “The one nice thing about being out of the house is that I didn’t have my parents yelling at me all the time about forgetting to turn assignments in or arguing with the teacher. I already fucked their lives up enough. Honestly, though? It’s nice not getting yelled at. And it’s nice not constantly feeling like they’ve given up on me any time they aren’t yelling.”

\tShe fell silent for what felt like ages. Long enough for her Master to pull away and begin collecting the foam darts. “how do you not turn in homework, though? I mean, you just have to put it in your backpack and then hand it in when… This isn’t the time, is it?”

\t“No, pet, it is not.” Justin muttered coldly. That chill seeped into the air. Suddenly everything came into a painful sharp focus. Gretchen didn’t dare to offer help. She didn’t dare to move. She just watched him load the darts back into the toy revolver and then make his way towards the stairs. He was about half way up the landing when her body decided to start following him. Her pace remained a sheepish crawl while she watched him in front of Ozzy’s door, handing off the gun and saying a few words.

\tIt would have been easy to dash up to her own room. True there was the risk of Willa hearing and deciding to come chirp her ear off about this and that. With how raw Gretchen felt right now that mild threat held real menace. Yet the way her Master moved, the way his whole body suddenly shifted made her feel like it might be worth it.

\tInstead she stood there at the top of the stairs. Transfixed and gripping the banister with her digger claws. She didn’t move. Couldn’t move. Even when Justin was marching his way back up to her. Even as he wrapped a hand around her wrist and pulled her off of the staircase.

\t“You’re gonna fall down the stairs if you’re not careful.” His tone was still sheet ice. He pulled her a few steps further from both the stairs and banister to ensure she couldn’t possible fall down even if she fell

\t“Sorry.” Gretchen sighed back

\tHe nodded. Simply nodded. His shoulders slumped and he walked over to the door of his room.

\t“M-master!” Gretchen whimpered “I mean, if you want I could, Like we could go to the library on campus. I mean, you know, my campus. I could probably help you find some books to…”

\t“Do you need to go to the library, Girl?” Justin sighed

\t“No, well, it wouldn’t hurt. But that’s not why I’m…”

\t“I know.” he nodded “Give me a bit to unwind, and we’ll go.” With that he shut the door. Not slammed. No yelling. Just leaving her there in the cold quiet of the upstairs hallway.

----------

\t“Magnets”

\tThe word caused Gretchen’s fur to stand on end. Rather, t was the volume of the word. She had offered to get her Master in to the WMU library to help him with some of his school work. It was about the only gesture of apology the poor girl could think of.

\tShe glanced over at the book he was reading. A thick geology text she‘d picked out for her own research once he‘d found something suitable. At some point she had been the one to start looking around for different works on Celtic myth and as a result her Master had started going though her texts out of boredom.

\t“Um, what about Magnetism, Sir?” Her ears folding down as she scooted her way back up to the long wooden table.

\t“Ok, so. You know about Ice 9, right? You know, besides the fact that that it kills.”

\t“It does?” She quirked a brow

\t“Band reference.” He sighed “Your musical tastes are really all over the map aren‘t they?”

\t“No, Sir“ The words both respectful and edged “I think you have that backwards. So, what was this about magnets? And I guess Ice 9?”

\tJustin‘s smirk grew as he leaned back in his chair, deftly catching his knee on the lip of the table to keep it propped up on two back legs “Well, I was just thinking. High enough levels of compression change the molecular structure of an object. Right? Ice 9 is just water turning into cubes due to super high pressure.”

\t“I… Technically?” The poor mole blinked

\t“Right. And Diamond is just carbon material compressed to a high degree over a long period of time.”

\t“Sorta? I-… what?”

\t“So logically, if you can maintain a high degree of pressure on an object over a long period of time, logically that would allow you to create strong materials, right? Because they‘d get ‘stuck‘ in a molecular framework.”

\t“This is… this is hecking Random. You know that, right?” She whimpered. “A-and what does that have to do with magnets, anyways?”

\t“Well obviously if you ‘squish‘ an object that‘s taking up the kinetic forces pressing down on whatever you‘re trying to super-compress. So does heat, but that‘s its own thing.” He took some of the books and without warning began lining them up with their spines pointed up, he then plopped a book in the middle of this makeshift box and held another over it. “So I was thinking if you wanted to do something like that you‘d need to find ways to stop the normal escape mechanisms from happening. A box kinda works because then you can just hammer down with a hydraulic press“ Without skipping a beat from his breathless rant Justin let the book fall from his fingertips and thud loudly on the one under it “But you‘d need to re-enforce the hell out of whatever‘s holding it or it will still find ways to get out. Plus if we‘re talking about pistons there‘s always a chance they could break if you keep applying pressure. Obviously that‘s super unsafe.”

\t“I am so lost.” Gretchen‘s booty slipped into the chair beside him and her face rammed down into her palms.

\t“The thing is, you‘d probably want more even pressure anyways. Just having it on one plane seems kind of pointless. But if you were to modulate it correctly, you could still apply pressure with electromagnets. Like, if you take an iron ball and just push it from every side possible with an electro magnet and made sure all the magnets had the same exact output at all times…”

\tGretchen’s face went from her paws on to the table. She flailed around until her paw came to rest on the stack of books she’d gathered. The plump little mole maid shoved the books into Justin’s makeshift ’box’ with all of the defeated contempt she could and loosed a muffled scream into the wood. “There. I found the books you wanted.” She sighed.

\t“Ok, great. So this will have stuff about the Vinar and their possible connections to the Tuatha?”

\t“I don’t know” Gretchen grunted back “… Sir… That’s why I brought them. You have to read them and find out.”

\t“But I already know this stuff!” Justin’s sharp words were quickly dulled down by one of the other students passing him by giving him a glare. He slumped down and scooped up the top book.

\tGretchen managed to pull her face up enough to shoot him a side-eye “Know it from where?” She muttered

\t“I don’t know. Books. And like, the internet. I don’t know what they were called!” Justin’s thick blonde mane flew back as he shifted his weight, and nearly fell flat on his back with the chair. Only a fit of frantic grasping kept him upright and helped him to finally pull back on all four chair legs. Once there, he slumped down with a face in one paw and picked up the fist of the offered books the way a child might hold some broccoli.

\t“I thought you loved this stuff” Gretchen whimpered

\t“I like ‘new’ stuff. You’re telling me I have to wade though shit I already know when I’m not even in the mood for it? Just to prove to some teacher I know what I’m saying?”

\t“YES!” The words snapped before Gretchen could stop herself. The few people around quickly glared at her, and the poor girl began to sink back into her seat, whimpering and squirming hard as she tried to vanish into a little ball. “I… sorry. Sorry”

\t“Look.” Justin’s shoulders dipped and he leaned his chair onto its back legs once more “I get it. Documentation can be important. But I’m not doing a science degree. I’m not going to be writing any papers. Any documentation  make is going to be of shit I did or made. I can write about a thing while doing that thing. I don’t get why an English class of all things is trying to make me site my sources.”

\t“It doesn’t matter ‘why’. You just do the work.” Any reverence or respect Gretchen would normally have for her Master was now utterly overshadowed by a simmering pit of anger. “You’re sitting here asking all kinds of random questions about physics stuff when your problems are in English.”

\t“With the teacher.” He corrected while slowly stacking up the books Gretchen had knocked over.

\tGretchen bit down on one of her diggers and stifled a scream. She then collapsed face first on the table and huffed loudly until the breathing slowed to deep and dull rasps. Both paws gripped into the frizzy brown mop of headfur atop her head and for once the temptation to just yank as hard as she could was all too real.

\tWhen she finally sat up, Justin was busy reading though a book. One that she’d brought for him to read this time. “Why did you put me though all that complaining if you were just going to look for the sources anyways?” She whimpered

\tJustin blinked and looked up over the book, casting a sidelong glance at her “Huh? Oh, no. I just remembered the Tuatha De Danu have their chief goddess named after the Danube River. Well, that’s what some other books I read mentioned. I don’t think I’ve looked into those things for a connection before. It’s always been the Vikings and the Vinar. Well, ok ‘Norse’ and Vinar. I’m sure Xi would get all pedantic about how Viking is a job, not a culture.”

\t“Read in what books?” Gretchen whimpered as a small shred of hope stirred in her voice.
\t
\t“Iunno” Her Master shrugged

\tand the poor girl was left to slump once more and spin herself out of her chair with a dexterity that even shocked herself.

\t“Where are you headed this time?” Justin chirped

\t“I still have studying to do.” The mole maid didn’t even try to hide that it was a lie. She needed to get away for a while. She needed to avoid yelling at her owner. Or maybe she needed to get away before he ripped down every shred of respect she’d built for him over the past few months. She walked her way along the rows in a pantomime of someone looking for something interesting. Then, suddenly, she stopped. Her sneaker heels ground into the carpet and without warning the chubby mole jumped back behind the side of the shelf she‘d been walking past. “Frick!” Gretchen spat in a not-too-quiet whisper yell. “Frick frick frick!”

\tThe little jaunt hadn’t gotten her too far from Justin. Her otter owner looked up from his book and quirked a brow. A digger to her lips indicating for him to stay quiet.

\t“What is it?” He mouthed

\tGretchen struggled to mouth a coherent reply while pointing her thumb back and gesturing down the row behind her. She quickly pushed herself back against the wall once more. Images of Nidonido’s Metal gear solidathon rushed though her head as she did her best Solid Snake and leaned herself out to look for the familiar feline figure once more.

\t“What’s wrong?”

\tJustin’s made her jump out of her skin before her nose had poked around the corner. She turned back and shushed her Master loudly. All the while still pressed against the cold metal of the bookshelf like idiot kids on a cyclotron.

\t“I am whispering.” Justin muttered “And you’re acting all, oh, hi. Was I being too loud?”

\tGretchen’s eyes turned from the familiar smirk of her Master to a rather less familiar face. A confused looking girl. A green eyed tabby with a blonde pixie cut holding a stack of medical books to her chest.

\t“Oh, uh… Hi Janet.” Gretchen muttered meekly

\t“Gretchen?” The girls former roommate quirked her brow “The hell is going on here?”

\t“Isn’t it obvious?” Justin snickered “I’m practicing my kabedon on my girl here. Nothing too big.” Even as he said it the otter slammed his palm on to the shelf and shifted his weight on to one foot. This action caused Gretchen to instinctively curl up on herself and bury her face in her diggers while whimpering meekly.

\tThis action drew a murr from her Master. One that told her she was going to be very busy later.

\t“I uh, I donno what that is.” Janet sighed “Though after the way you left, Gretchen, I am kind of surprised to see you hanging out with someone else.” The tabby girl’s muzzle was already a bit short for her face, and the way her mouth contorted only seemed to accent this. She glanced between the two of them exuding a judgmental pressure that threatened to bowl the poor mole maid over on to her ass.

\t“Well it’s not like she’s completely eusocial.” Justin shrugged “Just mostly. Poor little Gretchen here dragged me in to help me do some studying. Which is kind of in her best interest anyways. I mean it’d be a pretty big disappointment if she had to tell everyone in her Discord chats she’s hooked up with some loser college dropout, right?”

\tJustin raised a pair of fingers in a greeting he always insisted he’d seen Vegita from Dragonball Z do in the past. Gretchen watched it, then turned to see the confused feline girl at her other flank growing that much more confused.

\t“Uh, hey, I’m Janet. I uh, I used to be Gretchen’s roommate. Gretch, I thought you said you were dating some girl online.” The judgment was instant and sharp. There was some pain in her tone, too. Not that Gretchen imagined this girl she barely knew would be that hurt over some loser moving out and making way for someone else.

\t“Oh, she is” Justin chuckled. Gretchen quickly looked up and shushed at him. It didn’t last long. His smile made her shrink back down and clutch against herself while her Master, perhaps rightly, did all the talking.

\tJanet’s confusion only seemed to grow. She looked down at Gretchen as her face contorted from hurt confusion to something the mole girl didn’t recognize. “So wait, how does any of that work then? Does she know-”

\t“Her Mistress is also my pet.” The confidence of the otter boy was almost shocking. No, it was shocking. Shocking to Gretchen that he’d just come out and say it, and seemingly shocking to Janet who just glared at him trying to process the words.

\tEven without looking, or at least without more than a sidelong glance, Gretchen could feel the way Janet’s discomfort grew. The normie kitty was squirming and shifting from foot to foot while shuffling her feet. It was the kind of discomfort even someone like Gretchen could see in others. Hell, it was the kind of discomfort she felt almost every waking moment.

\tGretchen’s Master didn’t miss a beat. He reached down and tenderly slid a knuckle under Gretchen’s lower jaw. Her head was gently tilted up. No matter how she tired to make her body look down or away his guidance ensured their eyes met. He then turned her to meet the girls gaze while still gently cupping her face. It was a confusing gesture. At least, it confused her until she felt his other paw resting at the base of her neck “I’m sure my poor pet didn’t want to creep her roomie out by talking about relationship dynamics. I know not everyone is down with them. But as you can see she is in quite a serious relationship.”

\t“I, uh… is that what that means?” Janet was very clearly confused. Also Gretchen was quite sure she was creeped right the fuck out. Theoretically a great thing. So why was the pit of anxiety growing in her stomach.

\t“It does.” Justin nodded “This pretty dweeb is a bi, poly-am submissive in a long term relationship with two furs. And one of those furs has to unfuck his high school bullshittery or else my girls will be supporting me in whatever shitty job I find. Can’t have that. Right?”

\t“I, I guess not?” The tabby blinked. By now she was chewing on her lower lip so hard it looked as if she‘d put a hole in it. “So wait, is that why you moved out so suddenly, Gretch?”

\t“Well it’s not like she’s going around the house in a maid outfit, yet.” Justin teased “But it is nice having her around. Speaking of, I should probably set up our dinner order so it’s ready when we head out. You have all the stuff you need, pet?”

\tGretchen simply nodded dumbly. What else could she do? Suddenly she was trapped between her Master and a girl she… hated? Didn’t want to be around? Whatever it was Gretchen felt the fact that she couldn’t put her finger on it was somehow one of the worst parts of this maddening little game.

\tA firm kiss forced on her lips caused the poor mole to whine and she struggled to stay standing as Master held her for the longest of moments. He then walked off, leaving her blushing and trembling. Her eyes cast up and glancing nervously at the still perplexed tabby at her other side.

\t“Uh, listen, Janet. I kinda…”

\tJanet pulled a slip of paper from one of the books she held and scribbled some digits on the back. “Look, I’m sorry but I really have to focus right now, ok? I gotta make this class work if I’m going to get my DNP.” Without another word she pushed the slip of paper against Gretchen’s shoulder and turned to walk off with the stack of books still clutched to her chest.

\tAt that point Gretchen simply shoved the thing into her hoodie pocket and trundled back to her Master. Justin’s grin was a mile wide and his rudder slapped the floor. He watched his pet slump like a ball of jello into her seat beside him once more.

\t“Wow.” He sighed “How is it I’m not the most socially inept one in this relationship?”", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Collared Chapter 36: Study Break", "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": "2", "views": "63" }