{ "submission_id": "3544370", "keywords": [ { "keyword_id": "1209", "keyword_name": "bdsm", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "24003" }, { "keyword_id": "9101", "keyword_name": "d/s", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "380" }, { "keyword_id": "123", "keyword_name": "female", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1102734" }, { "keyword_id": "420", "keyword_name": "mouse", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "54672" }, { "keyword_id": "157", "keyword_name": "red panda", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "15178" }, { "keyword_id": "4530", "keyword_name": "slice of life", "contributed": "f", "submissions_count": "1810" } ], "hidden": "f", "scraps": "f", "favorite": "f", "favorites_count": "6", "create_datetime": "2025-02-08 00:51:01.848703+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "08 Feb 2025 01:51 CET", "last_file_update_datetime": "2025-02-08 00:49:18.097326+00", "last_file_update_datetime_usertime": "08 Feb 2025 01:49 CET", "username": "TerraMGP", "user_id": "46355", "user_icon_file_name": "60251_TerraMGP_terramg.gif", "user_icon_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/60/60251_TerraMGP_terramg.gif", "user_icon_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/60/60251_TerraMGP_terramg.gif", "user_icon_url_small": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/60/60251_TerraMGP_terramg.gif", "file_name": "5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.doc", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.doc", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.doc", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.doc", "thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.jpg", "thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.jpg", "thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.jpg", "thumb_huge_x": "194", "thumb_huge_y": "300", "thumb_large_x": "129", "thumb_large_y": "200", "thumb_medium_x": "78", "thumb_medium_y": "120", "files": [ { "file_id": "5426701", "file_name": "5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.doc", "file_url_full": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/full/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.doc", "file_url_screen": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.doc", "file_url_preview": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.doc", "mimetype": "application/msword", "submission_id": "3544370", "user_id": "46355", "submission_file_order": "0", "full_size_x": null, "full_size_y": null, "screen_size_x": null, "screen_size_y": null, "preview_size_x": null, "preview_size_y": null, "initial_file_md5": "0cd665fd1571e9372c9a96c749f9c274", "full_file_md5": "0cd665fd1571e9372c9a96c749f9c274", "large_file_md5": "", "small_file_md5": "", "thumbnail_md5": "22eb1f7343fcdc560d52385234809aea", "deleted": "f", "create_datetime": "2025-02-08 00:49:18.097326+00", "create_datetime_usertime": "08 Feb 2025 01:49 CET", "thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.jpg", "thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.jpg", "thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5426/5426701_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_48_deadline.jpg", "thumb_huge_x": "194", "thumb_huge_y": "300", "thumb_large_x": "129", "thumb_large_y": "200", "thumb_medium_x": "78", "thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "pools": [ { "pool_id": "82354", "name": "Collared", "description": "A young woman seeks to find her way during her first year of College.", "count": "52", "submission_left_submission_id": "3537936", "submission_left_file_name": "5414747_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_47_simon_sez.doc", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/5414/5414747_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_47_simon_sez.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5414/5414747_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_47_simon_sez.jpg", "submission_left_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5414/5414747_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_47_simon_sez.jpg", "submission_left_thumb_huge_x": "194", "submission_left_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_left_thumb_large_x": "129", "submission_left_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_left_thumb_medium_x": "78", "submission_left_thumb_medium_y": "120", "submission_right_submission_id": "3548467", "submission_right_file_name": "5434356_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_49_friends.doc", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_huge": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/huge/5434/5434356_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_49_friends.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_large": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/large/5434/5434356_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_49_friends.jpg", "submission_right_thumbnail_url_medium": "https://nl1.ib.metapix.net/thumbnails/medium/5434/5434356_TerraMGP_collared_chapter_49_friends.jpg", "submission_right_thumb_huge_x": "194", "submission_right_thumb_huge_y": "300", "submission_right_thumb_large_x": "129", "submission_right_thumb_large_y": "200", "submission_right_thumb_medium_x": "78", "submission_right_thumb_medium_y": "120" } ], "description": "Hui's time with the class she longed for is almost up. Just how is she going to handle it, or her mom?", "description_bbcode_parsed": "Hui's time with the class she longed for is almost up. Just how is she going to handle it, or her mom?", "writing": "Collared Chapter 48: Deadline\nBy TerraMGP\n\n\tIt was a damnable ritual at this point. Hui sat at the Sang kitchen table with a thumb drive before her. Her mother had said she was fifteen minutes out. That had been twenty minutes ago, but the young woman didn’t dare leave. She also didn’t dare to pull out her phone, not that anyone was likely to be open for chatting at this hour. Master was working. Gretchen had one of her classes. Chen, well, they probably simply didn’t want to talk to her. Not that she had much to really say to her sibling in return. Becky and Esme were the only ones she could think of to pester about this, and she was going to be venting to them about it enough this weekend. She always did.\n\n\tLing Sang looked like a sopping wreck as she came in the door. A day of near 40 degree weather had turned the snowfall into rain and then sleet when the evening chilled things down. The end result was a ruined suit in desperate need of being laundered and fur that evoked the image of a slushy machine exploding in someone’s face.\n\n\tNo words were exchanged between mother and daughter. No time was taken to clean up. Ling hung her coat up on the hook by the door and marched her way over to the table. She took just long enough to slide her suit jacket from her shoulders and pull out the paper thin macbook she used primarily for work purposes.\n\n\t“Word count.” Ling muttered the words with an almost cruel apathy and detachment.\n\n\tHui recoiled a touch. “I’m trying to make sure the final fight isn’t”\n\n\t“Word count.” Her mother’s voice taking on a ting of anger.\n\n\t“75,694” The younger red panda repeated at almost rote.\n\n\t“14,306 words left at minimum, then” Ling sighed. “You can do that in a week?”\n\n\t“I could do it in a few good days of writing if I just-”\n\n\t“You have a week!” Her mother snapped.\n\n\tThe kitchen filled with the sound of heavy breathing bouncing off of the teal-white tiles adorning the lower half of its walls. Sopping wet strands of midnight black headfur hung limp and lazy in front of Ling’s face while she angrily mouse-wheeled her way though the document. “The assignment is due next Monday, correct?” Ling muttered.\n\n\tHui nodded and gripped two fingers in the opposite paw. She began to anxiously tug on them. Hoping against hope to drive the bad feelings away. Her paws starting to tremble a bit.\n\n\t“Finish” Her mother said sternly “Then run it though Grammarly and show me so I ‘know’ it is done. I’m assuming you’ve gotten all of your other assignments finished as well?”\n\n\tA small nod from Hui. It was all she could do. All her body would allow her to do, frankly. There was no nerdy allegory to save her. No fantasy escape or imagination trick that would free her from this. She watched her mother’s eyes scan the document with detached and cynical analysis. No interest. No passion. No real care. \n\n\t“I don’t think the teacher wants us using stuff like Grammarly..” Hui muttered sheepishly I’m going to give it a final edit as soon as” once again her mother interrupted, this time with a single digit held up to silence her. Hui sighed and slumped back into her seat.\n\n\t“If you wished to handle this yourself you should have been done with this a month ago. Especially if you can write that much in a week.”\n\n\t“It’s not just about filling word count, mom!” Hui yelped\n\n\tLing furrowed her brow. The two looked so much alike, most of the time. Only now with the freezing drench soaking the elder wah to the bone, with her clothing in need of dry-cleaning and her fur clinging to her body was the contrast really shown. The furrows in fur from her lined face. Years of stress and anxiety no longer hidden behind expensive fur jobs intended to help her look modest yet professional. Scraggly hair that evoked an Onryo. They weren’t even Japanese, but that was the only thing Hui’s fear addled mind could evoke with the dripping wet and grim thin blackness.\n\n\t“You are almost out of high school, Hui. It’s time to get serious about your future. We allowed you to take this class because you were excited about it and we assumed it would help diversify your portfolio. I did not wish to babysit you. I had assumed we were well past that point by now. However your slow progress has made it abundantly clear that you cannot be trusted with such things. You need a good, stable, respectable career which will ensure security for yourself and your family. You need to take things more seriously. You will not be some cartoon creator or make a living off of writing novels. Almost nobody can do that anymore and it is foolish to gamble on that for your future.”\n\n\tLing pulled the drive free and slid it back towards her daughter. “You will use the program to edit because that is what a ‘professional’ does. You will meet word count because that is what a ‘professional’ does. You are going to learn quickly that being an adult means meeting goals and deadlines. Once you are out from under this roof it will be harder for us to monitor those things, so I must make it clear now. You will get an acceptable grade in this class. Not fail it trying to follow some kind of artistic whimsy. We allow you plenty of hobbies already. They do not bleed into your school life, because they will not bleed into your professional life. Do you understand?”\n\n\t“Yes Ma’am.” Hui sighed. She didn’t, and it was clear she didn’t. But at this point Ling knew she’d be obeyed, and that was all that mattered.\n\n\t“I think perhaps you should speak to Chen. I’m sure he’s already realizing his insistence on going to some small school just to be near his friend and ‘see the city ‘was a mistake. Your father and I are both prepared to allow him to move here and work on getting drivers training over the summer if he’ll agree to go to Andrews University as he should have in the first place. But he never did anything like this, and so a little life lesson like being stranded near some city with nothing to do is a good lesson for him, and it can be done while he goes though less important general education credits.”\n\n\tNone of that was discussion. It was information. Something said for his own good. \n\n\tWith it said, Ling stood and made her way out of the kitchen. Hui simply took the thumb drive and began to make her way back downstairs. The sooner she got this done, the better.\n\n--------------------\n\n\tEverything swam in a haze. Smoke rose up and ash fell like snow. All the while assuredly toxic dust born of the shattered concrete and lesser materials of the skyscraper laid a field of toxic artificial mist over what had once been the boardroom.\n\n\tTristan felt fire in his arm when it tensed around the hilt of his sword. Healing magic was circulating though his body. Only that allowed him to close what had likely been a mangled shattered mass of a paw mere moments ago. A stray voice in the back of his head warned him that he‘d have long term problems with his hand if he moved it before the magic could fully fix the shattered bones. It was ignored. He didn‘t have time for that. Not now.\n\n\tDr. Chenard’s form began to stir from the opposite corner of the room. The lithe lizard‘s green scales looked positively translucent thanks to the domed magic barrier surrounding him. Dust and debris rolled off of the hemisphere or winked out of existence with bright little flashes as they met the relative strong force of the defensive magic. Even then, the projector medallion the good doctor wore on his chest was already beginning to spark and flicker as it strained to keep the field going. A bent steel beam from the ceiling lay behind the man. A sign of how much the tool had offset already. Unlike Tristan, though, he was unphased. Thin strands of blue-dyed hair falling about his normally well-groomed face and those grey irises all but vanished in the face of impossibly widened, maddened pupils.\n\n\t“Seems like that wasn’t quite enough.” Dr. Chenard laughed. His tail thudding on the ground as he struggled to keep balance. One hand gripping and fumbling in his still-pristine white lab coat.\n\n\tLightning danced from Tristan’s fingertips. The barrier sparked to life for a few moments then returned to its same soft glow. He began making his way forwards, mage blade dragged along the ground in his borderline broken right paw.\n\n\t“Not feeling up for talking? What a shame. Here I was hoping I could get some useful data from you.” The reptile’s smile spread ear to ear. A jarring, unhinged grin filled to the brim with a sort of mad innocence.\n\n\t“We have nothing more to say to each other!” Tristan spat. He held his free paw out and instantly one of the smaller mage blades held by the now crushed guards flew to it. He hurled it at the barrier, again to no avail. Slender steel and mithral bouncing off with a ting and flying end over end out of the massive hole blown in the side of the board room.\n\n\t“That’s the problem I have with your type.” The doctor sighed. “No curiosity. No appreciation for discovery.” With one quick motion the black-and-silver body of his machine pistol finally pulled free of his coat. Two sharp bursts of three rounds each popped from its fluted muzzle. Nearly half struck their target. They hammered against Tristan’s magically hardened form and fell limp to the floor.\n\n\tIt didn’t stop him, but it slowed him. Blue defensive magic and green healing magic both surged over the already overtaxed body. Every whipchord sinew in Tristan’s body tensed and he hauled his sword back in a wild upward swing. The silvery beam-blade leaping from the tip flickered the barrier. He then swung down with the same wild abandon, and another hit it. Then another, and another. Every shred of grace or refinement was bled from his form, now. Arcane energy danced over him light lighting as he struggled to keep the various spells all going at once.\n\n\t“Was it… was it ’discovery’ that had you turn Rene against me? That saw you rip apart my family? Is that why you have the Emperor’s forces lined up like tin soldiers ready to rip though our allies?”\n\n\tChenard chuckled and rolled his eyes at the question, his body swaying like a marionette on breaking strings. “Ohhh come now. You can’t possibly blame me for that. Our dear Emperor made his own decisions. His dreams of conquest had nothing at all to do with me.”\n\n\tThe young knight errant waved his sword in the direction of the Emperor’s now broken body, half buried under the rubble that Dr. Chenard’s monstrosity had made of the boardroom in its quest to escape its confines.\n\n\t“Oh well now that was just bad luck.” The doctor loosed another volley of shots. This time a beam-slash from Tristan devoured the slugs before they could even reach him. The magic again rippling over the barrier.\n\n\t“And what about Isolde?” It finally ripped form his chest in a shuddering sob of a scream. \n\n\tThe doctor’s maniacal grin grew at the question. Sharp needle teeth finally exposed. His normally beautiful face contorted into a mask of madness. “And there it is! That weak, futile, all too common bit of primitive animal-brain thinking! Isn’t it so much better to just admit it? No more games. No more pretense. No more of those silly little delusions of nobility and compassion for the masses.” Again the doctor’s pistol locked on target. This time its bark would not be silenced. Every single round popped and snapped at its target. The whole magazine rapidly emptying. “Sorry, boy! She was my test subject long before she was your plaything!”\n\n\tThe bullets hissed in the air as the met the edge of the mage blade. Some thudded as they met Tristan’s strengthening magic. Some squelched as they defeated it and bit into flesh. None slowed him as he closed in. Not until the gap was closed. Not until he stood before the reptile. The arcane dome shattered. The hedgehog pressed against his Nemesis, looking the mad man in the eyes. The cold barrel of the gun pushed into Tristan’s gut.\n\n\tNo noise came. No bang. Tristan looked into the eyes of the grinning man while heaving deep breaths. While every shred of mana he held left in his body all twinkled in the silvery edge of that mage blade. The sword going dark and dripping with thick heavy blood though the half that had pushed though the slender reptile’s body.\n\n\t“It’s over.” Tristan’s voice trembled.\n\n\t“No.” Chenard coughed. His laugh was twistedly triumphant even as the blood filling his lungs made it papery and drippy. “We both know it’s not, boy.”\n\n--------------------\n\n\tEster Herman Peterson marched her way along in front of her desk. She looked out at the small assemblage of students. The short, middle aged woman somehow made her low heeled dress shoes thud like jack-boots over the low pile carpet. Greying tawny-brown fur and sharp green eyes cutting their way from one side of the room to the other and back, drawing in the attention of all assembled students.\n\n\t“Who here is done with their novel?” She called out. A flurry of hands went up. Two or three people sheepishly kept theirs down.\n\n\tHui was thankfully not one of them. Her paw trembled when she held it up. It shook when she felt Mz Peterson’s eyes graze over it. But in the end she was not among those who had failed.\n\n\t“Alright, everyone.” The mouse woman muttered. The thin whip of a tail giving a tiny crack thanks to the pink ribbon tied around its tip-end. “I want you to take your novel, or what you have of it, and bring your thumb drives up to the front. If you emailed a final draft to me or threw it into the cloud you don’t have to worry about it. If you aren’t done, give me what you have.”\n\n\tAbout a third of the class stood. Hui among them. She was actually at the back of the line. She should be happy. An author she loved was going to read her work. Except, it wasn’t her work. Was it? The normally hyperactive little bundle of fur glanced at the little plastic nub in her palm. Her name carefully laid out on it with a label maker. Only her novel was inside. Her novel, truncated and mutilated by pressure and demands. Twisted with many hours of editing and ‘suggestions’ to a point of being near unrecognizable.\n\n\tSure the words were the same. Many changes grammatically improved it no doubt. It wasn’t ‘hers’ though. The soul of it was twisted and wrong. Each time the line moved up she found herself thumbing the drive nervously. Shuffling her feet or thwapping at the ground with her tail. Anything to distract from the growing sense of wrongness from the burden in her palm. A weight that made her think, for a moment, of Frodo from Tolkien. Not that hers was anything so grand.\n\n\t“Ms Sang?” The teacher’s voice was stern. Not the rusty knife of her mother’s lately. Just a small caress of a soft lash.\n\n\tHui made her way up to the desk and set the drive down. Mz Peterson looked at her for the longest of moments. Her eyes narrowed. A puzzled look on her brow. Hui watched that face and then watched as the mouse reached for the drive. In a flash she snatched up the drive. Or rather her paw knocked it down to the floor and she quickly scrambled to scoop it up. Knocking it around this way and that until finally grabbing hold with both paws.\n\n\t“W-wait, wait one second. Just one”\n\n\tHui scrambled to her computer. The drive went in, and she fumbled over herself to slip the file on to the drive. Once that was done she loped her way back to the front desk and set it down. The teacher was gazing at her in confusion. Everyone was confused, really. None of them doing more than snickering. It still hurt, though.\n\n\t“Sorry I, it’s just… My mom made me do some stuff. Like, like Grammarly and stuff. I know it’s probably better but… here. It’s the second file on there. It has the word ‘original’ in brackets.” She stood there stupidly and waited. Just waited. All the bluster and hyperactivity and aloofness was ripped away and the shy, meek, terrified core of Hui was laid painfully bare. Raw and exposed to her peers and one of her idols.\n\n\tThe mouse finally nodded, and with a wave of her paw sent Hui back to her seat.\n\n\t\t“I have just been handed over a dozen novels.” Mz Peterson said, slowly. “Naturally I cannot read them all. Nor will I. At least not before grading. Make no mistake, I will be skimming these. I will also be using programs to ensure there is no plagiarism. However I want you all to know that if you got something in, you got an A on your final assignment.”\n\n\tThere was a hushed murmur among the class. Many people incredulous. More than a few relieved. The rest largely confused.\n\n\tThe teacher allowed them to quiet down before resuming. “I’m going to let you all in on a secret about the ‘real world’. Grades are bullshit. The second you graduate they lose value like a new car right off of the lot, and it keeps going down. Your degree itself will have some more importance. But unless you’re a lawyer or something like that your going to be hired for school and degree. Sometimes not even the school.”\n\n\tShe paced around behind the desk again and flopped into the chair. There was a hint of sadism in her face as she watched the reactions. As she waited. Waited patiently until a few hands came up.\n\n\t“Wondering why you had to do this, then?” She snickered, and her shoes went up on the desk, feet crossing with the gusto of an 80s movie villain “Simple. You have now written a novel. Or almost written one. You have felt the pressure. You have had to experience the logistics. You have agonized about how hard it is to do a long form writing project! The hardest part of writing a novel is the fact that you are ‘writing a novel’. Once you’ve done that, the next one will be easier. Then the next. That’s the most important thing I think I could do for any of you. Break you though that first barrier.”\n\n\t“Ok, that’s bullshit” one of the voices room the class. Hui didn’t know who. To be frank she hadn’t paid much attention to anyone there. It was clear that the young wolf who’d said it wasn’t the only one, though. “Then what was the point of making us all pay for this, and then put in that much work if we could have just taken a pass/fail? This shit still costs money, you know.”\n\n\t“And if you kept up with your other assignments, you got an A. On top of that you now have a novel to shop around even if you don’t want to make it your career. If you don’t understand just how valuable this all was for you, then” She shrugged “Not my hecking problem.”\n\n\tShe then waved a paw and gestured towards the exit “Now unless anyone has questions for me, you’re free to go do other things. I’ll be emailing my thoughts on what I read for anyone who’s still curious.”\n\n\tThose who were angry were next. Hui was among them, but she also waited until last. Unable to really muster the courage to walk up to the teacher. Not after being laid bare mere moments before. Once they left, once she was alone with the teacher, she shuffled up to the desk and made a full two seconds of eye contact before gazing back down at her shoes. “Sorry about that, Ma’am.” She muttered “If I’d known it wasn’t that big a deal-”\n\n\t“It is” Ester corrected “It absolutely is. Ms. Sang, I don’t know what kind of things you mother said to you. I don’t know about all of the stresses. But if I could teach a second lesson in this class, you need to learn to stick to your guns. At least on the really important parts. A reader can tell when the writer isn’t in it.”\n\n\t“Does that mean you shouldn’t let anything though that you don’t love?” Hui whimpered\n\n\tEster simply laughed. It went on long enough that one might expect it to be a condescending bit of mockery if not for how genuine it was. “Oh, dear no. No no no no no. That’s not how this works at all. You will ‘hate’ most of what you make. But you will be invested. You will be attached. You will know when something is ‘right’ based on your instincts. That doesn’t mean you won’t end up dealing with editors who do in fact know better, or that publisher demands will simply vanish. But ultimately you need to make sure you know the core of your work. And I am guessing you do?”\n\n\tThe poor young wah nodded and bit her lip. “Sorry” She whined. “And I, I think I understand…”\n\n\t“You don’t.” Ester sighed “But you will. This was already a good step. Though…” The mouse woman’s’ grin turned a bit more cruel “I assume there won’t be anything too overtly racy in this? No strapping someone up and piercing them on stage, for example?”\n\n\t“H-how did” Hui gasped\n\n\tThe mouse woman curled her fingers before her and leaned in “My wife and I ‘do’ get out sometimes, you know. The show was an interesting distraction. Almost worth picking Susan up from my Mother’s house and enduring chants of ‘Asuka’s gonna kill you’ all the way home.”\n\n\tHui’s face buried deep into her paws and she squealed, tail curling around herself, struggling hard to hide. The idea that her teacher, that a woman she admired this much, had seen her like ‘that’? Had seen her Master taking her pet like ‘that’?\n\n\t“If you get into WMU” The teacher chimed in “I’ll be sure you get any of my classes you apply for. Don’t you worry. I find you quite interesting, Miss Sang. I hope you don’t disappoint.”\n", "writing_bbcode_parsed": "Collared Chapter 48: Deadline
By TerraMGP

\tIt was a damnable ritual at this point. Hui sat at the Sang kitchen table with a thumb drive before her. Her mother had said she was fifteen minutes out. That had been twenty minutes ago, but the young woman didn’t dare leave. She also didn’t dare to pull out her phone, not that anyone was likely to be open for chatting at this hour. Master was working. Gretchen had one of her classes. Chen, well, they probably simply didn’t want to talk to her. Not that she had much to really say to her sibling in return. Becky and Esme were the only ones she could think of to pester about this, and she was going to be venting to them about it enough this weekend. She always did.

\tLing Sang looked like a sopping wreck as she came in the door. A day of near 40 degree weather had turned the snowfall into rain and then sleet when the evening chilled things down. The end result was a ruined suit in desperate need of being laundered and fur that evoked the image of a slushy machine exploding in someone’s face.

\tNo words were exchanged between mother and daughter. No time was taken to clean up. Ling hung her coat up on the hook by the door and marched her way over to the table. She took just long enough to slide her suit jacket from her shoulders and pull out the paper thin macbook she used primarily for work purposes.

\t“Word count.” Ling muttered the words with an almost cruel apathy and detachment.

\tHui recoiled a touch. “I’m trying to make sure the final fight isn’t”

\t“Word count.” Her mother’s voice taking on a ting of anger.

\t“75,694” The younger red panda repeated at almost rote.

\t“14,306 words left at minimum, then” Ling sighed. “You can do that in a week?”

\t“I could do it in a few good days of writing if I just-”

\t“You have a week!” Her mother snapped.

\tThe kitchen filled with the sound of heavy breathing bouncing off of the teal-white tiles adorning the lower half of its walls. Sopping wet strands of midnight black headfur hung limp and lazy in front of Ling’s face while she angrily mouse-wheeled her way though the document. “The assignment is due next Monday, correct?” Ling muttered.

\tHui nodded and gripped two fingers in the opposite paw. She began to anxiously tug on them. Hoping against hope to drive the bad feelings away. Her paws starting to tremble a bit.

\t“Finish” Her mother said sternly “Then run it though Grammarly and show me so I ‘know’ it is done. I’m assuming you’ve gotten all of your other assignments finished as well?”

\tA small nod from Hui. It was all she could do. All her body would allow her to do, frankly. There was no nerdy allegory to save her. No fantasy escape or imagination trick that would free her from this. She watched her mother’s eyes scan the document with detached and cynical analysis. No interest. No passion. No real care.

\t“I don’t think the teacher wants us using stuff like Grammarly..” Hui muttered sheepishly I’m going to give it a final edit as soon as” once again her mother interrupted, this time with a single digit held up to silence her. Hui sighed and slumped back into her seat.

\t“If you wished to handle this yourself you should have been done with this a month ago. Especially if you can write that much in a week.”

\t“It’s not just about filling word count, mom!” Hui yelped

\tLing furrowed her brow. The two looked so much alike, most of the time. Only now with the freezing drench soaking the elder wah to the bone, with her clothing in need of dry-cleaning and her fur clinging to her body was the contrast really shown. The furrows in fur from her lined face. Years of stress and anxiety no longer hidden behind expensive fur jobs intended to help her look modest yet professional. Scraggly hair that evoked an Onryo. They weren’t even Japanese, but that was the only thing Hui’s fear addled mind could evoke with the dripping wet and grim thin blackness.

\t“You are almost out of high school, Hui. It’s time to get serious about your future. We allowed you to take this class because you were excited about it and we assumed it would help diversify your portfolio. I did not wish to babysit you. I had assumed we were well past that point by now. However your slow progress has made it abundantly clear that you cannot be trusted with such things. You need a good, stable, respectable career which will ensure security for yourself and your family. You need to take things more seriously. You will not be some cartoon creator or make a living off of writing novels. Almost nobody can do that anymore and it is foolish to gamble on that for your future.”

\tLing pulled the drive free and slid it back towards her daughter. “You will use the program to edit because that is what a ‘professional’ does. You will meet word count because that is what a ‘professional’ does. You are going to learn quickly that being an adult means meeting goals and deadlines. Once you are out from under this roof it will be harder for us to monitor those things, so I must make it clear now. You will get an acceptable grade in this class. Not fail it trying to follow some kind of artistic whimsy. We allow you plenty of hobbies already. They do not bleed into your school life, because they will not bleed into your professional life. Do you understand?”

\t“Yes Ma’am.” Hui sighed. She didn’t, and it was clear she didn’t. But at this point Ling knew she’d be obeyed, and that was all that mattered.

\t“I think perhaps you should speak to Chen. I’m sure he’s already realizing his insistence on going to some small school just to be near his friend and ‘see the city ‘was a mistake. Your father and I are both prepared to allow him to move here and work on getting drivers training over the summer if he’ll agree to go to Andrews University as he should have in the first place. But he never did anything like this, and so a little life lesson like being stranded near some city with nothing to do is a good lesson for him, and it can be done while he goes though less important general education credits.”

\tNone of that was discussion. It was information. Something said for his own good.

\tWith it said, Ling stood and made her way out of the kitchen. Hui simply took the thumb drive and began to make her way back downstairs. The sooner she got this done, the better.

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

\tEverything swam in a haze. Smoke rose up and ash fell like snow. All the while assuredly toxic dust born of the shattered concrete and lesser materials of the skyscraper laid a field of toxic artificial mist over what had once been the boardroom.

\tTristan felt fire in his arm when it tensed around the hilt of his sword. Healing magic was circulating though his body. Only that allowed him to close what had likely been a mangled shattered mass of a paw mere moments ago. A stray voice in the back of his head warned him that he‘d have long term problems with his hand if he moved it before the magic could fully fix the shattered bones. It was ignored. He didn‘t have time for that. Not now.

\tDr. Chenard’s form began to stir from the opposite corner of the room. The lithe lizard‘s green scales looked positively translucent thanks to the domed magic barrier surrounding him. Dust and debris rolled off of the hemisphere or winked out of existence with bright little flashes as they met the relative strong force of the defensive magic. Even then, the projector medallion the good doctor wore on his chest was already beginning to spark and flicker as it strained to keep the field going. A bent steel beam from the ceiling lay behind the man. A sign of how much the tool had offset already. Unlike Tristan, though, he was unphased. Thin strands of blue-dyed hair falling about his normally well-groomed face and those grey irises all but vanished in the face of impossibly widened, maddened pupils.

\t“Seems like that wasn’t quite enough.” Dr. Chenard laughed. His tail thudding on the ground as he struggled to keep balance. One hand gripping and fumbling in his still-pristine white lab coat.

\tLightning danced from Tristan’s fingertips. The barrier sparked to life for a few moments then returned to its same soft glow. He began making his way forwards, mage blade dragged along the ground in his borderline broken right paw.

\t“Not feeling up for talking? What a shame. Here I was hoping I could get some useful data from you.” The reptile’s smile spread ear to ear. A jarring, unhinged grin filled to the brim with a sort of mad innocence.

\t“We have nothing more to say to each other!” Tristan spat. He held his free paw out and instantly one of the smaller mage blades held by the now crushed guards flew to it. He hurled it at the barrier, again to no avail. Slender steel and mithral bouncing off with a ting and flying end over end out of the massive hole blown in the side of the board room.

\t“That’s the problem I have with your type.” The doctor sighed. “No curiosity. No appreciation for discovery.” With one quick motion the black-and-silver body of his machine pistol finally pulled free of his coat. Two sharp bursts of three rounds each popped from its fluted muzzle. Nearly half struck their target. They hammered against Tristan’s magically hardened form and fell limp to the floor.

\tIt didn’t stop him, but it slowed him. Blue defensive magic and green healing magic both surged over the already overtaxed body. Every whipchord sinew in Tristan’s body tensed and he hauled his sword back in a wild upward swing. The silvery beam-blade leaping from the tip flickered the barrier. He then swung down with the same wild abandon, and another hit it. Then another, and another. Every shred of grace or refinement was bled from his form, now. Arcane energy danced over him light lighting as he struggled to keep the various spells all going at once.

\t“Was it… was it ’discovery’ that had you turn Rene against me? That saw you rip apart my family? Is that why you have the Emperor’s forces lined up like tin soldiers ready to rip though our allies?”

\tChenard chuckled and rolled his eyes at the question, his body swaying like a marionette on breaking strings. “Ohhh come now. You can’t possibly blame me for that. Our dear Emperor made his own decisions. His dreams of conquest had nothing at all to do with me.”

\tThe young knight errant waved his sword in the direction of the Emperor’s now broken body, half buried under the rubble that Dr. Chenard’s monstrosity had made of the boardroom in its quest to escape its confines.

\t“Oh well now that was just bad luck.” The doctor loosed another volley of shots. This time a beam-slash from Tristan devoured the slugs before they could even reach him. The magic again rippling over the barrier.

\t“And what about Isolde?” It finally ripped form his chest in a shuddering sob of a scream.

\tThe doctor’s maniacal grin grew at the question. Sharp needle teeth finally exposed. His normally beautiful face contorted into a mask of madness. “And there it is! That weak, futile, all too common bit of primitive animal-brain thinking! Isn’t it so much better to just admit it? No more games. No more pretense. No more of those silly little delusions of nobility and compassion for the masses.” Again the doctor’s pistol locked on target. This time its bark would not be silenced. Every single round popped and snapped at its target. The whole magazine rapidly emptying. “Sorry, boy! She was my test subject long before she was your plaything!”

\tThe bullets hissed in the air as the met the edge of the mage blade. Some thudded as they met Tristan’s strengthening magic. Some squelched as they defeated it and bit into flesh. None slowed him as he closed in. Not until the gap was closed. Not until he stood before the reptile. The arcane dome shattered. The hedgehog pressed against his Nemesis, looking the mad man in the eyes. The cold barrel of the gun pushed into Tristan’s gut.

\tNo noise came. No bang. Tristan looked into the eyes of the grinning man while heaving deep breaths. While every shred of mana he held left in his body all twinkled in the silvery edge of that mage blade. The sword going dark and dripping with thick heavy blood though the half that had pushed though the slender reptile’s body.

\t“It’s over.” Tristan’s voice trembled.

\t“No.” Chenard coughed. His laugh was twistedly triumphant even as the blood filling his lungs made it papery and drippy. “We both know it’s not, boy.”

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

\tEster Herman Peterson marched her way along in front of her desk. She looked out at the small assemblage of students. The short, middle aged woman somehow made her low heeled dress shoes thud like jack-boots over the low pile carpet. Greying tawny-brown fur and sharp green eyes cutting their way from one side of the room to the other and back, drawing in the attention of all assembled students.

\t“Who here is done with their novel?” She called out. A flurry of hands went up. Two or three people sheepishly kept theirs down.

\tHui was thankfully not one of them. Her paw trembled when she held it up. It shook when she felt Mz Peterson’s eyes graze over it. But in the end she was not among those who had failed.

\t“Alright, everyone.” The mouse woman muttered. The thin whip of a tail giving a tiny crack thanks to the pink ribbon tied around its tip-end. “I want you to take your novel, or what you have of it, and bring your thumb drives up to the front. If you emailed a final draft to me or threw it into the cloud you don’t have to worry about it. If you aren’t done, give me what you have.”

\tAbout a third of the class stood. Hui among them. She was actually at the back of the line. She should be happy. An author she loved was going to read her work. Except, it wasn’t her work. Was it? The normally hyperactive little bundle of fur glanced at the little plastic nub in her palm. Her name carefully laid out on it with a label maker. Only her novel was inside. Her novel, truncated and mutilated by pressure and demands. Twisted with many hours of editing and ‘suggestions’ to a point of being near unrecognizable.

\tSure the words were the same. Many changes grammatically improved it no doubt. It wasn’t ‘hers’ though. The soul of it was twisted and wrong. Each time the line moved up she found herself thumbing the drive nervously. Shuffling her feet or thwapping at the ground with her tail. Anything to distract from the growing sense of wrongness from the burden in her palm. A weight that made her think, for a moment, of Frodo from Tolkien. Not that hers was anything so grand.

\t“Ms Sang?” The teacher’s voice was stern. Not the rusty knife of her mother’s lately. Just a small caress of a soft lash.

\tHui made her way up to the desk and set the drive down. Mz Peterson looked at her for the longest of moments. Her eyes narrowed. A puzzled look on her brow. Hui watched that face and then watched as the mouse reached for the drive. In a flash she snatched up the drive. Or rather her paw knocked it down to the floor and she quickly scrambled to scoop it up. Knocking it around this way and that until finally grabbing hold with both paws.

\t“W-wait, wait one second. Just one”

\tHui scrambled to her computer. The drive went in, and she fumbled over herself to slip the file on to the drive. Once that was done she loped her way back to the front desk and set it down. The teacher was gazing at her in confusion. Everyone was confused, really. None of them doing more than snickering. It still hurt, though.

\t“Sorry I, it’s just… My mom made me do some stuff. Like, like Grammarly and stuff. I know it’s probably better but… here. It’s the second file on there. It has the word ‘original’ in brackets.” She stood there stupidly and waited. Just waited. All the bluster and hyperactivity and aloofness was ripped away and the shy, meek, terrified core of Hui was laid painfully bare. Raw and exposed to her peers and one of her idols.

\tThe mouse finally nodded, and with a wave of her paw sent Hui back to her seat.

\t\t“I have just been handed over a dozen novels.” Mz Peterson said, slowly. “Naturally I cannot read them all. Nor will I. At least not before grading. Make no mistake, I will be skimming these. I will also be using programs to ensure there is no plagiarism. However I want you all to know that if you got something in, you got an A on your final assignment.”

\tThere was a hushed murmur among the class. Many people incredulous. More than a few relieved. The rest largely confused.

\tThe teacher allowed them to quiet down before resuming. “I’m going to let you all in on a secret about the ‘real world’. Grades are bullshit. The second you graduate they lose value like a new car right off of the lot, and it keeps going down. Your degree itself will have some more importance. But unless you’re a lawyer or something like that your going to be hired for school and degree. Sometimes not even the school.”

\tShe paced around behind the desk again and flopped into the chair. There was a hint of sadism in her face as she watched the reactions. As she waited. Waited patiently until a few hands came up.

\t“Wondering why you had to do this, then?” She snickered, and her shoes went up on the desk, feet crossing with the gusto of an 80s movie villain “Simple. You have now written a novel. Or almost written one. You have felt the pressure. You have had to experience the logistics. You have agonized about how hard it is to do a long form writing project! The hardest part of writing a novel is the fact that you are ‘writing a novel’. Once you’ve done that, the next one will be easier. Then the next. That’s the most important thing I think I could do for any of you. Break you though that first barrier.”

\t“Ok, that’s bullshit” one of the voices room the class. Hui didn’t know who. To be frank she hadn’t paid much attention to anyone there. It was clear that the young wolf who’d said it wasn’t the only one, though. “Then what was the point of making us all pay for this, and then put in that much work if we could have just taken a pass/fail? This shit still costs money, you know.”

\t“And if you kept up with your other assignments, you got an A. On top of that you now have a novel to shop around even if you don’t want to make it your career. If you don’t understand just how valuable this all was for you, then” She shrugged “Not my hecking problem.”

\tShe then waved a paw and gestured towards the exit “Now unless anyone has questions for me, you’re free to go do other things. I’ll be emailing my thoughts on what I read for anyone who’s still curious.”

\tThose who were angry were next. Hui was among them, but she also waited until last. Unable to really muster the courage to walk up to the teacher. Not after being laid bare mere moments before. Once they left, once she was alone with the teacher, she shuffled up to the desk and made a full two seconds of eye contact before gazing back down at her shoes. “Sorry about that, Ma’am.” She muttered “If I’d known it wasn’t that big a deal-”

\t“It is” Ester corrected “It absolutely is. Ms. Sang, I don’t know what kind of things you mother said to you. I don’t know about all of the stresses. But if I could teach a second lesson in this class, you need to learn to stick to your guns. At least on the really important parts. A reader can tell when the writer isn’t in it.”

\t“Does that mean you shouldn’t let anything though that you don’t love?” Hui whimpered

\tEster simply laughed. It went on long enough that one might expect it to be a condescending bit of mockery if not for how genuine it was. “Oh, dear no. No no no no no. That’s not how this works at all. You will ‘hate’ most of what you make. But you will be invested. You will be attached. You will know when something is ‘right’ based on your instincts. That doesn’t mean you won’t end up dealing with editors who do in fact know better, or that publisher demands will simply vanish. But ultimately you need to make sure you know the core of your work. And I am guessing you do?”

\tThe poor young wah nodded and bit her lip. “Sorry” She whined. “And I, I think I understand…”

\t“You don’t.” Ester sighed “But you will. This was already a good step. Though…” The mouse woman’s’ grin turned a bit more cruel “I assume there won’t be anything too overtly racy in this? No strapping someone up and piercing them on stage, for example?”

\t“H-how did” Hui gasped

\tThe mouse woman curled her fingers before her and leaned in “My wife and I ‘do’ get out sometimes, you know. The show was an interesting distraction. Almost worth picking Susan up from my Mother’s house and enduring chants of ‘Asuka’s gonna kill you’ all the way home.”

\tHui’s face buried deep into her paws and she squealed, tail curling around herself, struggling hard to hide. The idea that her teacher, that a woman she admired this much, had seen her like ‘that’? Had seen her Master taking her pet like ‘that’?

\t“If you get into WMU” The teacher chimed in “I’ll be sure you get any of my classes you apply for. Don’t you worry. I find you quite interesting, Miss Sang. I hope you don’t disappoint.”
", "pools_count": 1, "title": "Collared Chapter 48: Deadline", "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": "0", "views": "76" }